Content Warning: Contains themes of drug trafficking, violence and profanity
Ain’t No Fun When The Rabbit Got The Gun
“Ay yo, Mo-Mo, maybe you should be careful what you wish for. Things is basically goin’ all right now but they can get worse for us real quick I think. We can prolly smooth this shit out. We should try and talk wit them, for starters at least. Shit.”
He just looked at me with something dark and dangerous swimming through the shallows behind his gray-green eyes.
Sure, it would have been easy to just go along with the rest’a them but my pops raised me to play chess, not checkers, from a young age and I learned a few things about thinking two or three steps ahead. I aint no dumb muthafucker. "Taking the long view", that’s what they call it. I never went to college and I don’t know my IQ score (I never even took the SAT) but I like to think I aint just some dumb nigga from down the block. I don’t know where you from but out here, where I stay, you best be at least a little bit smarter than these streets.
So when Big Mo said it was time to take out Nando and Nestor - N&N’s what everyone call them - and the rest of the crew all agreed, I was obligated to disagree. There was only 6 of us but I was still "The 10th Man", as they say, and I knew about the 10th Man Rule. (My pops taught me about that shit too.) I was Mo’s top lieutenant - we went to grade school together back at P.S. 157 in the Grove Hill section of the South Bronx - and we been together for a minute but things had gotten a little shaky between us just lately so I really didn’t want to speak out, but I had to.
“Ay yo, man. If you aksin’ me? I say we let em’ have that shit for now. We got like four more empty blocks going south that we can just stretch out into without bumpin’ up against no one and if we keep on putting out that good shit in the blue Comotosa bags these junkie muthafuckers are still gonna come to us, even if it’s a few extra blocks. Ay yo, I think you already know this, Papi. Let’s try to be smart about this shit for just a minute. Bullets is cheap but pay lawyers cost money, nigga. Big money for real.”
N&N sold coke and dope in our neighborhood of East Tremont way back before we did. Nestor’s dad was slinging out here before I was even born and his boy inherited the family business when pops got sent up to The Hill on an A-1 charge like, shit, at least 15 years back. I think that was his third. I was just a kid then but he still up there and I heard he killed a nigga and he aint comin’ back. Things was all good though until recently, when they started to push down onto the corners we been holdin’ down for years, them blocks between the Concourse and Jermone Ave just south of Tremont. Not even a courtesy convo. Those blocks always been ours but lately we’ve had beef, and now we got bodies.
When Berto got shot in the leg about a month back it set things off to start with but everyone was down with Tiny - that funny fat-ass muthafucker - and they was all heated up real good when he got smoked tryin’ to run off that corner in his baggy-ass pants. Tiny couldn’t run for shit and took three in the back. We just got home from the service with his family and all, everyone cryin’ and shit. Niggas was pissed off for real, out for blood. Six dudes, nine handguns and two cut-downs on the table, everyone ready to go out and buck.
“I done been smart for a long time, Primo. I think you know, else I wouldn’t be here now, right? But maybe this is a time for muscle tho’, not brains. What’choo think, man?” Mo raised his chin towards me. It was half a question and half a challenge. They all looked at me. I knew I was out on a real thin branch to begin with so I just backed the fuck off.
“Ay, obviously it aint my call. I’m just….tryin’ to give you sumthin’ else to think on, Mo-Mo, that’s all. Options, man. I’m wit you however it go, you already know this. Shit. Where I come from? Who my peoples?” I shrugged and lit a cigarette and then just looked down at the floor.
I knew he wasn’t gonna listen.
“All right, let’s mount up muthafuckers. We on the hunt and we aint comin’ back until we drop at least three of them bitches. We gonna start at that busy corner they got on 177th and roll on from there. I know where Nestor’s grandma live and that’s where he stay most of the time. Either there or his girl’s crib down Fordham. I know where she stay too. We gonna spill some blood. Straight up. Yo Willy-Boy, go pull the truck around and we’ll see you out front in like a minute.” He threw the keys to his Escalade to the youngest kid in the room. I had a real bad feeling about the whole thing. It was too quick. They would be waiting, ready.
We all piled into the truck and I took the passenger seat, snicked a round into the chamber of my pistol and clicked off the safety. Mo had one of the cut-down shotguns in his lap - a Benelli 12 gauge loaded with pumpkin balls - as he drove. He didn’t look at me. When we got down to 177th Street and circled the corner I was relieved to see there was almost no one out there. I just assumed the 5-0 came past and business would be back up and running in like ten or fifteen minutes. We started to circle the block.
“Yo, Mo-Mo, let me out up at the corner here. I need to grab a deck of smokes and something to drink. Y’all niggas want anything?” They were all tensed-up and no one wanted shit so I stepped out on the corner and told them I’d be right back, then I walked into the bodega.
I took my time. I stood in front of the cold case for a while and looked at my phone, even though I already knew what I wanted. Then I took a can of root beer up front and made some small talk with the counter man for a while, an old Dominican dude who had been running that place since I was just a kid. We was both Yankee fans. I bought a lottery ticket and then I bought a pack of Newports, opened it and lit one, and by the time I walked back out the store the Escalade was gone, as I knew it would be. This was a real narrow one-way street and there’s no way that Big Mo could just stay double-parked out there without blocking traffic for a minute or two. Like I said, my pops taught me to think a few moves ahead. Chess, not checkers.
I stood out there in front of the bodega for a minute, smoking my cigarette, and then I heard the pop…pop…pop of gunfire and the sound of a car crash, which is basically what I expected. Big Mo was always just a little too hot. A little too quick to get involved whenever shit was jumpin’ off.
I waited to see if the Escalade would come racing up the block towards me but when it didn’t I started to jog in that direction. I heard the police sirens right when I got close enough to see Mo’s Caddilac slammed up against a few parked cars with all the windows shot out and he was slumped over the wheel. The corner was empty by then. I turned around immediately and began walking back to my crib with my head down.
I laid low for a while, “going to ground” as they say, but I knew N&N’s hangouts better than Mo-Mo did. Shit, I knew the pizza place just off Fordham Ave where all them niggas like to eat. I just chilled at home for a minute and watched some movies on Netflix and waited til’ the time was right, about two weeks later.
“What up muthafucka, you aint get a slice for me? God damn, nigga! Who pay yo bills? You know I’m hungry like a Goddamn wolf, always. What’s up? I really gotta aks?” Nando hopped out of his Lexus with his phone in one hand and looked at his man Nestor with both palms raised in a gesture of insult and offense.
That’s when I came out of the alley behind the pizzeria with my hoodie tucked over my head and put down Nestor with three shots to his chest from my Springfield .45 from less than fifteen feet away. It’s a big gun and I knocked that muthafucker straight out his shoes, sent his pizza sailing into the gutter and the rest of them young‘uns just ran off towards the Concourse. Everyone but Nando. He was just too close, which is how I planned it, and he knew that runnin’ was pointless.
He tried to get all hard with me for a minute and I saw his eyebrows scrunchin’ up but as soon as he started talkin’ I just pistol-whipped that muthafucker in the mouth and knocked out a few of his teeth. He fell to the sidewalk and then pulled himself up against the wall.
“Sup’ Nando? Aint no fun when the rabbit got the gun, right?,” I said in a quiet, scratchy voice and then smiled and chuckled at him for a second or two while pointing the barrel of my pistol directly into the center of his face as he wiped away some of the blood running down his chin.
“Shit, I don’t think your boy Nestor’s gettin’ up over there. What’choo think, man? Looks like you fresh out of muscle.” I looked over at Nestor’s dead body lying half on the sidewalk and half in the street, his white NY Knicks jersey turned mostly red at that point and I smiled some more.
“Cuz yo, with y’all gone I think I’m taking over the rest of Tremont Ave, little man. We prolly could’a worked this shit out if you just came past to talk. But nah. Not you. You too big for talk, right? Too late for talk now though I think.”
I didn’t waste no time. I just looked around to make sure no one was witnessin’ up close and then I put two in his dome. I snatched up his pocket money, his rope chain, his rings and his Rolex (I mean, you gotta be stupid to just leave all that shit behind) but I left his Glock .40 on him and then I jogged off towards Fordham Ave with my head down and my hoodie up.
Yeah, Daddy. Fuck Nando. He got his. I paid some of the little shorties from around the way to go and shoot out them street lights the night before so I wasn’t trippin’ about no security cameras. It was dark and I ain't never heard nuthin’ about it afterwards. Nuthin’. I don’t think the police round here care about this shit really. Just one street nigga killin’ another. They prolly like it that way.
I wasn't worried. I had business to tend to anyways. I had new territory to run and I knew I might need to handle up for a minute; make sure no one got no problems with the new arrangements. It was all good though. I had peoples standing with me. I know how to muscle up, for real. Shit. People always need to get paid. It’s just a matter of money, like everything else. We can hold this down. Might be a few bodies but that’s just what they call “the cost of doing business.” Ain’t no thing.
And things was working out just fine, for a while. Only two bodies got dropped, neither of them on my team, when Spring turned to Summer and then it got real hot, real quick. Not the police, but the weather. It’s like that out here. All concrete, no trees.
I was out on East Tremont two blocks off the Concourse one day in late June, just tryin’ to stay cool in the shade and collecting some dollars and paying off some of my peoples when I seen this little kid coming down the block with a grape soda in one hand, minding his own business. I only noticed the little nigga because he looked at me for a second when he got closer. I didn’t really think shit about it. I run all these corners round here and the shorties all know whassup, so kids look at me all the time. Ain’t nothing unusual. They need work but I ain’t got enough to go round for every little nigga in the South Bronx. Shit.
I was just telling Red Light - we call him that cuz he ran a red light and hit an NYPD roller from the 48th a few years back and got his ass beat for real - that my boy Shiny would come past with a re-up package for him in about an hour or two, when all’a sudden this shorty drops his grape soda on the sidewalk and pulls a little deuce-deuce auto from his pants and before I know whassup I catch three in the gut and one skimmed the side of my neck. Little shorty motherfucker tried to put one in my head too but he was already running off at that point and he only took off the top of my left ear.
It didn’t matter. I coughed up some blood and I knew I wasn’t never gonna make it to the ER up at Misericordia. That’s the only Level-1 trauma unit round here and I seen enough niggas get dropped in these streets to know it’s your only chance when you catch a few. Shit. They take you to one of these other B-list hospitals round here they might as well just leave you where they found you.
I only ever done dope a few times back when I was just a kid but Red Light was leaning over me and aksin’ what to do, so I told him to just give me a couple of them blue bags. I didn’t have no works to shoot up with (I ain’t no dope fiend) and no time neither so I just dumped that shit out on a c-note and snorted it up. Then I told Red Light to give me two more. Shit, if I was going out slow I might as well try to kill the pain, right? I couldn’t get those next two bags down though. My throat was filling up with blood by then and I was choking on it.
I remember how everything just started to fade out around then. I seen Red Light take the bloody c-note from my hand along with the rest of the cash I spilled out onto the sidewalk. He started to hustle off down the block as the sirens got closer but then he ran back and grabbed my Patek Philippe wristwatch and my gold chain, that muthafucker. I was too weak to stop him or even to reach back for my Springfield.
I guess I forgot that Nando had a kid, or maybe I just didn’t think about it at all. I don’t know. I had other shit to worry about and I thought he was just a little nigga, and he was, but still big enough to pull a trigger though. It don’t take much.
When the EMTs came rushing up to me on the sidewalk they was aksin’ all sorts of questions but I remember the pretty white lady say, “What is your name?”
I spit out the blood in my mouth and my head was starting to feel real heavy. I just told her in a half-whisper, “Ain’t no fun when the rabbit got the gun…”
Then everything just went black.
THE END

Content Warning: This story contains themes of mental health issues, suicide and physical violence.
Prosopagnosia v. Cotard's Syndrome
My new doctor - a bright and friendly guy named Sarbjit - took the time to explain his diagnosis to me. He told me my condition was mental, not physical, but it was hard to pay attention to everything he said because my left arm was numb and rotting from the inside out. I smiled and nodded and then when I got home I looked up Cotard’s Syndrome online. Here is what Wikipedia had to say on it.
“Cotard's syndrome, also known as ‘Cotard's delusion’ or ‘Walking Corpse Syndrome’, is a rare mental disorder in which the affected person holds the delusional belief that they are dead, do not exist, are putrefying, or have lost their blood or internal organs.”
I don’t know. Sounded extremely strange to me. I just knew my left arm was dying. Maybe my liver too. I used my right arm, the good one, to open my mail. Most of it was just the normal stuff but when I saw the letter from the Supreme Court of the State of New York I got a little worried. I was here legally - a citizen for almost ten years now - and I knew my rights but being summoned to testify at this criminal trial was a bit unnerving. I didn’t like it. I just try to do my best in this life and mind my own business and not cause problems for others.
When my trial appearance date arrived two months later I took the subway downtown and left my assistant, Stavvy, in charge of the office that day. I sat there on a hard wooden bench in the courtroom all morning listening to the testimony of other witnesses but I wasn’t called to the stand until sometime after we returned from lunch. Eventually, the lawyer for the defense called my name.
She mispronounced it of course - people here always mispronounce Albanian names - so I wasn’t surprised when she called me Mister Shka-Rell-Eee. My surname is Shkreli, after the place where my family comes from, and the proper pronunciation contains only two syllables - Shkrell-Eee. I was trying to hold my left arm in place when she asked her opening question.
Where was I at the time of the murder?
“Well, Miss Anderson” - I pronounced it Ahnd-REE-Sawn, drawing out the first and last syllables while placing too much emphasis on the middle one, intentionally - “I am not entirely certain. That was over a year ago and I travel all around this city on a daily basis for my job. I work in computer repair and IT support and I have customers in all five boroughs.” (This wasn’t exactly true. I wasn’t really willing to travel to Staten Island.) We had spoken four months earlier when she informed me of the questions she intended to ask at trial but I was fairly oblique then and I intended to remain so now. I had bigger problems. Could these people not see that my left arm was rotting away?
She looked at me with a furrowed brow and briskly walked back to the defense table, picked up a leather-bound notepad and opened it.
“Mister Shkreli, when you and I spoke on June 18th you confirmed that you were just leaving a client’s office, TRG Commercial Realty, located at 223 Broome Street here in lower Manhattan at approximately 3:30pm that day, shortly before the incident at issue took place less than one block away. Is that not correct?”
I turned up my native eastern European accent a bit and repositioned my left arm in my lap. I could barely feel it at that point. What was wrong with these people?
“If you say so. Like I said, that was over a year ago and it was just another workday for me.”
She stared at me for a beat or two longer than necessary and then flashed a quick look towards the jurors before continuing.
“Well yes, Mister Shkreli” - again it was Shka-Rell-Eee - “You did tell me that and I do have a recording of our conversation, which you consented to before we began, if the court would like this to be entered into evidence?”
She looked at the judge and the judge looked at me.
“Mister Shkreli,” - he too pronounced it Shka-Rell-Eee - ‘Are you refuting the testimony that Miss Anderson is referencing during your preliminary deposition or can we just move on at this point? If counsel for the defense claims to have this recording I am fairly certain this is true. Will it be necessary to enter this recording into evidence at this time or are you willing to acknowledge Miss Anderson’s claim?”
I repositioned my left arm in my lap and nodded.
“That’s fine, Your Honor. As I said, it was just another workday for me but if Miss Anderson says that is what we discussed I am sure she is probably right.”
The judge nodded back at me. “Very good. Let’s proceed then.”
Miss Anderson walked back to the defense table and dropped the leather-bound notepad before continuing with her final question for me, looking annoyed.
“Picking up where we left off, Mister Shkreli, can you please describe for the court what happened immediately after you left the offices of TRG Commercial Realty at 223 Broome Street on the date in question, October 22nd of last year?”
I didn’t like the way that she was trying to fence me in but I wasn't particularly concerned. I had bigger problems.
“Well, like I said, I don’t really remember that day. There was nothing memorable about it. It was just another day.”
She stared at me for a few seconds then flashed a quick look at the jury box with her eyebrows raised before returning her attention to the judge. “No more questions, Your Honor.”
I was dismissed from the stand but asked to remain in the courtroom as she called her next witness; a small, frail woman from Queens about my same age named Maureen Stewart. She had an odd, twitchy nature about her. I wanted to get home. I wanted to relax.
“Miss Stewart, can you please tell the court where you were on October 22nd of last year at approximately 3:30 in the afternoon?”
The witness looked down for a moment and then glanced towards the judge before removing the slightly confused look from her face and responding in a semi-automated tone.
“Yes, Miss Anderson. At that time, I was just leaving my day shift at the FedEx Office Store (she pronounced it ‘Staw’ in her thick New York accent) on Broome Street and I was walking towards the station for the Six Train to begin my ride back home.”
The attorney for the defense took a momentary pause and then asked her next question.
“And can you please tell us what happened then?”
The witness looked down again and then looked back at the judge, then the jury and, finally, at me. I didn’t like the way she looked at me.
“Yes, as I was leaving my workplace I crossed the street and I remember walking past the entrance to a narrow alleyway where I heard a commotion taking place. It made me stop and look for a second or two but I didn’t want to get involved so I just kept on walking towards the subway and I didn’t think too much about the whole thing until the Homicide detectives contacted me a few days later after they pulled the security camera videos. I came down to the police station the day after that and gave my statement. That was just over a year ago.”
Miss Anderson took a moment to stare at me. I didn’t like that either. I adjusted my left arm in my lap. It was completely numb.
“Thank you, Miss Stewart. Can you please be a bit more specific about what you saw occurring in that alleyway?”
Again, the witness looked down at the floor and then her eyes shot all around the courtroom before she responded.
“Well,” she said, before taking a brief pause. “At first I thought it was just a little scuffle but when I saw the shorter man in the black jacket punch the tall man in the belly a few times I saw some blood starting to spread on the side of his white button-down shirt and I saw what looked like a small knife or something in the shorter man’s hand. The tall thin man looked like he was starting to fall. I remember looking around for a police officer but I certainly wasn’t gonna do anything about it by myself. I mean, what could I do? When I didn’t see no one who could help I just kept on walking towards the subway. I guess I should have done more but I was scared and I just wanted to get back to Forest Hills to pick up my daughter from daycare before five o’clock.”
I glanced at the defendant seated at the table on the left. He looked both hopeful and nervous at the same time, but in a subtle way, like he didn’t want to appear to be either. He kept his head down and never once glanced towards the jury box. Miss Anderson asked her final question.
“Thank you, Miss Stewart. And do you see the man in the black jacket who stabbed the victim, Mister Baronston, on that day last October here in the courtroom now?”
Again the witness looked down at the floor between her feet for a moment and then looked back up, right at me. I felt my blood stop flowing through my veins, or at least through my left arm and the top of my right leg, when she raised up her hand and pointed her index finger at me.
“It was that man, there,” she said.
Miss Anderson nodded and paused for a moment, satisfied, letting it sink in for the jury members. I was stunned. The stylish defense attorney in the toney, expensive clothing began walking back in my direction and she too pointed an accusatory finger.
“If it pleases the court, let the record show that Miss Stewart has identified Mister Jack Shkreli as the attacker who she witnessed in the-”
Just then the witness on the stand, Miss Stewart, pointed her finger at the judge without really looking at him and suddenly blurted out, “Or him. It might have been him too. I’m not 100% sure...”
Miss Anderson paused, clearly nonplussed, and just stared at her witness. The judge also looked baffled for a second or two and then leaned over and whispered something to his court assistant and the two of them shared a quiet smirk.
Then the witness pointed at one of the jurors, a man in the front row about my size.
“Or him. It could have been him. I’m just not sure...” Then she went silent, as did the rest of the courtroom for a few moments. The State’s Attorney, a heavy-set bald man, broke the silence pretty quickly as he rose to his feet.
“Your Honor, the State would like to move to dismiss this witness along with all previous testimony.” He paused briefly and took a deep breath, choosing his next words.
“While we appreciate Miss Stewart’s willingness to appear at trial today, I think it’s clear that her recollection of events is…uncertain at best.” He glared at the defense table for a moment, then added “I’d just like to remind the court that Mister Shkreli” - and God bless him, he pronounced my two-syllable surname correctly - “is not on trial here and if this witness cannot distinguish the man she saw that day from yourself or a random member of our jury panel I don’t think we can accept this testimony or any further testimony from this witness.”
He hung his head respectfully, with the tiniest little smile on his face. He already knew he had won this argument and the judge quickly agreed, telling the jury to disregard what they just heard. Miss Stewart was dismissed from the stand and the defense had no other witnesses left to call. Less than two hours later the jury returned a guilty verdict against the defendant on all counts and the courtroom was cleared. The sentencing hearing would take place at a later date and I was not required to be there. My right leg was starting to feel numb by then but I still managed to get back to the office in time for Stavvy to head home at the end of his shift to make dinner for his kids. His wife was killed in a car accident two years earlier. He was a hard worker and I really liked him.
That night, back at my apartment, I did some research online and learned about a rare mental disorder known as Prosopagnosia. Here is what Wikipedia had to say.
Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, is a cognitive disorder of face perception in which the ability to recognize familiar faces, including one's own face (self-recognition), is impaired, while other aspects of visual processing (e.g. object discrimination) and intellectual functioning remain intact.
It all sounded pretty strange to me but if the doctors say it’s real who am I to argue? Apparently it is well documented in the DSM-5. I don’t know if this is the reason why I was able to walk away from the courtroom without consequence at first but I think it is the most likely explanation. I only know that when I left my client’s offices at TRG Commercial Realty on that day just over a year ago and hailed a cab I was stunned and confused when Mister Baronston, a complete stranger with a hostile face, suddenly attacked me, claiming that it was his cab and not mine.
He was bigger than me, tall and thin but strong, and I would have just given up the cab and caught the next one but he was clearly already very angry about something. When he backed me towards the alley, shoving me and then punching me around my head and neck, my backpack tumbled open and I saw my wallet and phone and some other items come crashing out onto the pavement. It was just a stupid and unnecessary altercation, the kind of thing that probably happens on the streets of this city every day, sadly. Too many people, not enough space. I did my best to fight back and protect myself but he was a good deal bigger than me.
Then I was getting punched some more and thrown against the alley wall as people passed by, disinterested, and I just instinctively reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out the pen knife that has been attached to my keychain for years. Before I really knew what was happening it was open and then my right hand was growing warm and red and slick with his blood. Then I was moving again, not looking back.
What an odd thing. I remember seeing Miss Stewart stopping there on the sidewalk to look from the mouth of the alley that day. Of all the passers-by, she was the only one who paused to look at us, at me, right as I desperately punctured Mister Baronston’s rib cage for the fifth or sixth time with my little penknife and he began to drop, but she averted her gaze after a few seconds and moved on and then I was rapidly heading in the opposite direction. This is a huge city and I never expected to see her face again. Fortunately, she was apparently never really able to see mine.
Anyway, I have more important problems to worry about at this time. Stavvy received a letter from the Manhattan DA’s office yesterday ordering him to appear at a grand jury hearing next month related to my involvement in Mister Baronston’s death. He showed it to me. More importantly, my left arm is just about gone now, my right leg is quickly starting to feel the same way and in just the last day or two I have begun feeling that strange tingling sensation in the tips of the fingers on my right hand. I know my liver is failing. It won’t be long now.
I scheduled a meeting with my lawyer in the morning to legally put the business and the rest of my assets in Stavvy’s name in my will. I have no family here anyway and almost no relatives who I remain close with back in Albania or Montenegro anymore. Stavvy is a good man and he has kids to feed and I have already lived a full life.
So yes, I will just leave it all to him and after that’s done I think I will get the old Ford minivan that we sometimes still use for the business and drive it out to the George Washington Bridge while I am still able. I know that when I stop it and get out and leave it there on the center-span I will screw up traffic badly and inconvenience a lot of people but I can’t worry about that. I have to do what I have to do. There’s no point in waiting for this to get worse. I can barely feel the fingers on my right hand and I don’t have much time left.
Maybe I should have told the truth at the trial. I don’t know. I think I was just too distracted by all of my health problems. I didn’t really have any choice at the time. I don’t have any choice now. I’m actually surprised that I lasted this long. I was certain that I would already be gone a few months ago but I feel I have done my best with this life.
As my people back in Albania say, Mos pyet si vdiq, por si rrojti!
“Do not ask how he died, but how he lived!”
THE END

A group of Republican lawmakers have just denounced that Chinese battery companies CATL and Gotion High Tech, which are important partners of VinFast, should be placed on the import ban list immediately, by the supply chains of companies with evidence of using forced labor, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The article on Thursday, June 6, said lawmakers named CATL and Gotion, two companies that have partnerships with VinFast along with Ford and Volkswagen, that need to be included in the so-called real list. possible, under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. Entity list restricts imports of goods deemed by the U.S. government to be linked to what it says is a long-standing ongoing genocide against minority groups in China's Xinjiang region Beijing still denies all accusations of abuse.
Any allegation that Gotion 'uses or is involved in forced labor is baseless and completely false,' the company wrote in an emailed statement to Reuters, saying adding that Gotion's selection of partners is based on 'a review mechanism, and strict evaluation criteria.'”
A Volkswagen Group China spokesman told Reuters in an emailed statement on Friday that Volkswagen Group China has no evidence of human rights abuses related to its business activities in China, and “Volkswagen is also investigating these allegations immediately, as we have done in the past.”
Volkswagen also added that CATL denies all allegations that the company uses forced labor, or has any connection to forced labor.
Currently, VinFast's electric vehicles use battery cells from CATL, Gotion and Samsung SDI. Gotion is also a construction and technology transfer partner for the VinES battery factory in Ha Tinh.
Gotion battery company suffered a lot of damage because of VinFast's VFS shares. According to Nikkei Asia, Gotion had to record an investment loss of 187.3 million yuan ($26.4 million) due to the continuous decline of VinFast shares as of the end of last year when the company was able to buy 15 million VFS shares for price $10. This year, VinFast shares fell even deeper, at one point reaching $2.52. Calculations show that Gotion's paper losses have increased to $112 million.
Gotion said in its latest annual report Saturday that it classified VinFast shares as a “non-tradable strategic investment.” That means any accumulated losses or gains will only be reflected in the “other comprehensive income” section of the company's income statement. The total net loss after tax of other comprehensive income amounted to 314 million yuan in 2023.
VinFast's ambitions in the US are seriously threatened
New news says that VinFast is also being investigated by the US International Trade Commission (US ITC) against ArcelorMittal's complaint that Vietnamese car manufacturer VinFast infringes on patents related to high-strength aluminum. high and aluminum alloy-coated steel on imported vehicles.
Previously, ArcelorMittal also filed a lawsuit against VinFast in the US District Court in California for the same reason, and said that VinFast had not applied for a production license. ArcelorMittal asked the court to issue an order prohibiting VinFast from using patent-infringing steel on all Vinfast vehicles.
It is known that the partner supplying the sued steel to VinFast is China's Shanghai Bao Vu Steel Group, also known as Baosteel. Baosteel is also facing a lawsuit of up to 20 billion yen with Japan's leading steel company Nippon Steel (NSC) over similar patent infringement. Both ArcelorMittal, Nippon Steel and Baosteel were also Baosteel-NSC/Arcelor joint venture partners in the Chinese market.
If the ban on importing batteries from CATL and Gotion into the US takes effect, or the lawsuit against VinFast for steel copyright infringement is won by ArcelorMittal, it will be a fatal blow to its ambition to expand the US market. VinFast, because the company will not be able to continue selling cars in the US.
VinFast's factory construction situation is not any better as it continues to stall when it delays the $4 billion factory construction plan to 2025 for the reason of wanting to change the factory size, and waiting for government approval. North Carolina state authority to review. But according to some experts, the main reason is that VinFast no longer has enough money. In the first quarter of 2024, the company only has $123 million in cash left on the balance sheet, while accumulated losses have reached more than $8.55 billion.
VinFast has so far been officially sued by three US law firms for "falsely declaring" its production and financial capacity, leading to insufficient capacity to meet the target of selling 50,000 cars by 2023, causing "confusion". ” and losses to investors. These things have contributed to the higher Litigation Risk of VinFast, making institutional investors afraid and making it more difficult for Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong to sell VFS shares to raise money.
Source: https://www.nguoi-viet.com/sai-gon-nho/vinfast-co-the-bi-cam-nhap-khau-pin-theo-xe-vao-my/ (May need VPN if you try to access in VN)

I am NOT the Original Poster. That is u/Popular-Valuable-243. She posted in AmItheAsshole

Do NOT comment on Original Posts. See rule 7. The latest update is 7 days old due to the rules of this sub

Trigger Warnings: sudden parental death; controlling behavior
Mood Spoiler: just tough all around
Original Post: April 6, 2024
Throwaway Account
I (21f) Have an older sister "Eve" (29f) who had her first child, "Lori" (1f) and while this should be a time of joy an excitement there's actually a lot of tension and brewing resentment between her, our mom, and her husband "Jack" (29m). Despite it being unplanned Eve's pregnancy was wanted and Jack was an involved partner. He went to most of Eve's appointments, took the birthing classes, and supported Eve's decision to just have our mom in the room while he wanted outside when she gave birth.
The plan was for our mom to be by Eve's side in the room and to help stay for a week after Lori was born. Everyone was cool with this but unfortunately our aunt got into some drama with her husband in another state and our mom rushed over to be at her sister's side. Eve was already in her 3rd trimester so Jack didn't like the idea of our mom going and voiced it. Our mom tore Jack a new one and Eve even got on his case about it so he apologized. However, Eve ended up going into labor and Jack ultimately was the one in the room while our mom was away.
When she called, our mom expressed being sad over not being there for the birth of her first grandchild and she and Eve decided that no one else in the family would see Lori until she got back. Without discussing it with Jack. He was understandably not happy as his mom lived about 45 minutes away and was looking forward to meeting Lori too as she was the first grandchild on both sides. Eve pulled the "I just gave birth" card and Jack reluctantly allowed it. On the day that our mom was supposed to come back she missed her flight and couldn't get a new one until the following morning. Our mom could've just rented a car but she didn't want to spend the money since the airline wouldn't refund the money.
Jack was brought up allowing his mom to come again, but Eve refused citing that he already agreed. Unfortunately, Jack's mom was in a car accident and passed before ever getting to meet Lori since Eve wouldn't even allow a video chat. Jack was distraught, he moved to the guest bedroom, went to the funeral alone and refuses to engage with Eve at all.
Jack's side of the family keeps calling and messaging Eve to tell her what a selfish and awful person she is and Jack refuses to defend. Eventually, Eve got sick of it and packed up and left to our mom's house to "teach Jack a lesson" but he hasn't texted or called. Our mom thinks that he just needs some space and that he'll call soon but I just laughed at that. Didn't mean to though.
My mom and Eve asked me why I laughed and I tried to brush it off or even leave but they couldn't let me and pressed for answer. Eventually, I told her that while the accident wasn't her fault she did keep Lori away from Jack's mom meeting her for a week and now she never will. There's no way Jack is going to ever love you enough to forgive that and that you should prepare for the worst. Eve started to bawl her eyes out while mom berated me so I left. AITA?
Edit: Just to clarify because I keep seeing this when the accident first happened Eve has apologized three separate times (Jack has admitted to this) and Eve intended to go to the funeral with him but he drove off without her. Jack does interact with Lori it's Eve that he's icing out and my niece is the only thing he's willing to talk to Eve about. Jack had been living in the guest room for 5 months before Eve left. She's offered to go to couple's counseling but Jack has refused.
Relevant Comments:
What was up with your aunt?

OOP: To be fair it wasn't a small thing. My aunt's husband was revealed to be cheating and used her personal information to take out credit cards in her name to pay for his side piece. Plus the potential danger of her own health.

Commenter (downvoted): YTA
You are COMPLETELY right. But you were an AH to mention it. WHY rub it in, and cause drama. YOU should have kept silent, staying out of it would have been the reasonable option.
They needed someone to blame - why offer yourself up for that?

OOP: I tried to brush it off and walk away but they physically stood in front of my way and demanded an answer.

Commenter: If she's still bad mouthing him, she obviously didn't mean it [the apology] with an understanding of what exactly she did wrong. Hope Jake is well supported by his family and can see his daughter soon.

OOP: Eve hasn't bad mouthed him (at least to me) since his mom's accident. But she is frustrated that he's no longer affectionate and doesn't engage with her like before.

Commenter (downvoted): YTA. Sorry, but are you married? A parent? In love? In a relationship? No, then maybe put a cork in it.
Why would you say something like that? It was incredibly vindictive and nasty. She is a new mother going through ish, and you could have been compassionate. Even civil. You laughing at someone's misfortunes, much less your sister, says a lot about your character.
Her husband may never forgive her, but that's not on her. To be honest, it would be hard to forgive you for kicking her when she was down, so there's that.

OOP: Married? No. A parent? No. In love? Yes. In a relationship? Also, yes.
And please read the post again. Lori is now a year old and Jack's mom died when she was less than three weeks old. This has been an ongoing issue with months and I TRIED to not say anything and even walk away in order to be civil but my mom and sister kept pressing me for an answer.

Commenter (part of a longer comment): why didn't Jack just let his mother come anyway? I'm amazed he put up with that bullshit, he sounds like a treasure of a husband and Eve really screwed herself by treating him and his family like that.

OOP: Because it was just supposed to be one week. No one saw this accident coming and Jack didn't want to stress out my sister (who had just even birth). He was trying to respect her wishes and got screwed over because of it.

Commenter: The fact that your sister wouldn’t even allow a FaceTime? That’s some RIDICULOUS PETTY BULLSHIT. She deserves to be a struggling single mom for that choice alone. I wouldn’t blame jack for being the type of coparent who will only coparent thru a phone app. JFC

OOP: Yeah I think her being pregnant made her lose touch with reality and logic a little bit. She's usually understanding and reasonable.

Eve's apologies/Mom's apologies:

OOP: From what she told me it was a "I'm sorry I did x" the first time and then "I'm sorry but I didn't know that y would happen" and then "I'm sorry but we can..."
OOP: My mom did reach out to give her condolences for Jack's mom's passing but I don't know if she apologized for insisting on being the first grandparent to see the baby. Also I know that Eve apologized at least three separate times but it could've been more. I honestly don't know.

OOP is voted NTA
Update Post: June 2, 2024 (almost 2 months later)
Hey!
It's been a couple of weeks and due to people still occasionally asking I thought I'd give a people some quick updates to the situation. Here are the basic bullet points:

• My sister has now been officially diagnosed with Postpartum Depression and that is the trump card/Hail Mary of the situation.
• My sister and her husband are living together again and in couple's therapy.
• My sister is in individual counseling.
• My niece has now been officially introduced to a few members of her paternal size and they all love her.
• Jack's family have ceased their negative comments about my sister but she says that they're still pretty formal and distant towards her. I honestly don't know if she'll ever be in their good graces again and will only put up with her for my BIL and niece's sake.
• My niece's name first and middle is going to be legally changed to whatever Jack wants.
• For the next five years BIL's side of the family is getting priority when it comes to any and all holidays.
• My mom will be on a strict info diet when it comes to the baby. No pictures unless Jack approves.

This is all I know for right now and my mom is NOT happy with any of this and is calling Jack a controlling AH but my sister is holding firm in an effort to save her marriage. She claims that BIL and her are making progress in counseling and I hope for her sake that it's true. It's gonna suck not being able to see my niece as much as I wanted for the next possible few years but compared to never being able to see her at all (like Jack's mom) it is what it is. I know a lot of you may not be happy with this update but it is what it is for now.
Relevant Comments:
OOP's thoughts:

I won't deny that Jack is taking full advantage of Eve's willingness to do whatever it takes to save the marriage, but Jack has never come off as a controlling person in the past (I mean he didn't put up any opposition to Eve's requests/demands since finding out she was pregnant) but Eve has a support system if she feels like it's getting to be too much.
I'm not going to get involved until I suspect violence.
(to a different commenter): I won't deny that Jack is taking advantage of the situation. He's hurt and angry and very resentful. He laid out his terms and Eve is agreeing to them. Plus they're in counseling. It's not ideal but it is what it is.

Commenter: It doesn't read to me that OP is being restricted. OP is free to visit their niece. Jack's family just gets priority for holidays and it seems like OP's family assumed that they would get majority of them (hence "won't see kid as often as I'd like to").

OOP: Yes. It's just the holidays for our side of the family. Right now I could drive up to see my niece so long as a call first.

Commenter: What is the issue with the baby’s name? Was Jack railroaded over that as well?

OOP: From my understanding Eve got pick the first name and Jack got to pick the middle name (from a list of names that Eve had), and my niece took Jack's surname.
(to a different commenter): To appease Jack. He didn't really get much of a say over naming the baby. My sister really played the whole "I'm the one carrying the baby" card.

Commenter: I don't get why your contact with your niece have to be limited? I'm not sure the marriage will last anyway, with these conditions.

OOP: Right now it seems like Eve is just doing whatever she has to do to keep Jack from leaving her as well as getting back on Jack's family's good side.

Commenter: I don't how I feel about this. Changing the baby's name after a year to whatever the husband wants? Priority for holidays for five years? No pictures for your mom unless Jack approves of it? This seems like jumping from the frying pan directly into the fire. If these are the terms set up by Jack in order to "save" the marriage...one, I doubt the marriage counselor knows about these specific ones I mentioned and two, is it even worth saving? Your sister has no autonomy over their child, no autonomy over her schedule, no ability to share a photo with her mother. You have limited contact with your niece. Who really won here other than Jack and his family who might, someday, be nice to your sister?
Yes, your sister was wrong in the original post. Of course she was. But not ONE things on this list can change what happened. Not one. And this parts of this list sound like they could lead to some DV situations in the future on Jack's part. Isolation from support systems is one of those factors.

OOP: Jack's mom suddenly passed away, and she was a loving and sweet person. I wouldn't exactly call it a "win."
Also from what Eve has told me it's not "isolation" so much as strict boundaries. Eve said that these restrictions were only for the baby and that she's able to still have regular contact with whoever she chooses.

Commenter: yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikes. what a hard overcorrection.
i can't imagine them ever getting back on the right footing again after this. eve will lose herself with guilt and trying to keep the family together and jack will lose himself in trying to forgive but also punish eve for what he lost. at that point it's not two people in love, it's just two people filled with resentment and "trying to make it work".

OOP: They're going to couple's counseling is all I can respond with. We'll see what happens.

Commenter: OP sounds disgusting too, calling PPD a “card” sister will play. Shame on you, OP.

OOP: I referred to it as a card because of how my sister is using her diagnosis with Jack. She literally said "he can't be angry with me I have PPD."
(in response to someone asking if she really has it): No, it's real and I do believe her because her personality did change the further she got into her pregnancy. It's just the way my sister is using her diagnosis that made me word it the way that I did. She's very "he can't stay angry with me I have PPD" and "he has to forgive me I'm not mentally well."

Commenter: Is the postpartum diagnosis is what made him to be willing to work it out? Not sure how that was connected to what she did.

OOP: I mean, he wasn't open to couple's counseling BEFORE the official diagnosis.

​

I’m DESPERATE for help. I’ve posted to both the UK MH sub and the DV sub - and both have simply removed my posts. This is very long, very rambling, very surreal, and contains mentions of r*pe, so please be aware if you’ll find that triggering.
Both my parents are narcissists, but this concerns my mother (though I have no relationship with my father, either). My MINO (mother in name only) has sabotaged my life at every turn, whatever I’ve tried to do she’s destroyed. It didn’t help that I didn’t attend a conventional school (it had nuns - of the Irish Catholic ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’ variety). She absolutely HATED me me being good at anything; I could read and write before I started in reception - but the head put the idea into her head that I was dyslexic (she hated me for some reason, she called me ‘satanic’ and ‘the devil’s daughter’). I finished the school reading scheme, such as it was, before I’d been in Reception a half-term, my classmates always used to ask me how to spell words, etc., basically I found pre-prep incredibly boring, because I was so far ahead of my peers (that sounds really arrogant and conceited, doesn’t it…?), so I used to take myself off and do my own thing. MINO arranged for me to have extra lessons in literacy which, obviously, I never went to (because I didn’t need them). They were taught by Sister Mary Candida, who taught nursery (and once LOCKED me in a cupboard).
So determined was I to get out of her stupid lessons that I came up with a plan; I had a book I was reading at home (I forget what it was now, but that’s not really relevant). It had my name and an address label inside the front cover and I thought that, if I took it to school and showed it to her, she would demand I read to her from it and that would be that. Of course that didn’t happen.
So I took my book into school and I showed it to her. The resulting conversation went something like this:
SMC: “Did you find that…? Give it to me and I’ll find out who it belongs to:
Me: “No, Sister, it’s mine. I’m reading it at home”
SMC: “Don’t be silly, that’s a grown-up book” (it wasn’t really, but far more advanced than what your average 5-year-old would be reading) Me: “I’m not being silly, it’s my book - look it has my name in it”
She obviously decided that I’d written my name in someone else’s book, because she whacked my hands with her ruler (standard nun-issue weapon) and I was forced to write ‘little girls who tell lies will burn in hell’ 1,000 times (yes, really)
She gave the book to Sister Kevin (head) who called my mother; MINO denied ever seeing me with the book (she LIED to a nun). MINO then arranged for me to have lessons with s SaLT from the Dyslexia Institute - they obviously ‘loved’ me because they were spending all this extra money on me.
Again, I went twice and then stopped turning up. I took my book and went and hid behind the pre-prep where I thought nobody would find me. The deputy head did (she wasn’t a nun, but she might as well have been). My mother was obviously called into school again.
That night, they removed all the furniture from my room - including the carpet tiles (under which there was concrete) and as punishment for wasting their money, I was forced to sleep on the bare floor (if you were to ask MINO about this, she would deny it ever happened). I used to write a kind of diary/journal - she found it, and I was forced to watch as she ripped out the pages and BURNT them.
I spent my entire childhood being dragged round child shrinks - she even considered having me enrolled in a residential school.
I wanted to die aged 5. I tried to kill myself aged 6.
She sent me to Sunday school (they rarely attended church) where I was r*ped by the curate. I do remember one incident where she literally frogmarched me up to the altar to get her some flowers one Mothering Sunday. I also remember her taking me to WHSmith’s and choosing a mother’s day card, making me pay for it out of my pocket money, then dictating to me what I should write in it when we got home.
I left school at 16 with no GCSEs I desperately tried to leave, but my parents live in a small town with not much in the way of public transport (and, obviously, I had very little money).
She has ensured that I’m completely dysfunctional.
Because I was so desperate to get away, I made the mistake which has led to the situation I now find myself in. I moved in with someone I met on a forum; he seemed charming enough - but what really attracted me to him was the fact that he lived at the other end of the country. In his forum bio he said he was a “former alcoholic” and divorced. If I’d had my wits about me and wasn’t so desperate to get away from my PINO (parents in name only) that should’ve been a massive red flag but, obviously, I wasn’t thinking straight.
He lived in the middle of the arse-end of nowhere in County Durham (and I mean that, where he lived was just a row of houses surrounded by fields). It was okay for a while, then he became controlling. Then violent. Obviously the “former alcoholic” was a lie - he was drinking at least a bottle of gin a night. I wasn’t allowed to use the computer, unless he was there to supervise. He took my phone and chucked it over the wall into the adjacent field where it was promptly trampled to bits by cows. He worked for BT as an engineer, so it was trivially easy for him to bug the landline (he used to explain the delay in call connection by the fact we were so remote). He r*ped me. More than once. He controlled what I ate - and when. He changed the locks on the front and back doors, and refused to give me the keys. He forced me to pay my benefits into a joint account. I wasn’t allowed to leave the house unless he was with me.
I attempted to escape; he’d made the mistake of giving me a credit card and I thought that, if I could just get a bus into Darlington I’d be able to get a train - and I’d be free (of course I had no fucking idea where I was going to go). He got absolutely shit-faced one evening and passed out on the sofa. I found the front door key in his pocket, packed up what I could, and left. I had about 8 hours to wait out before the bus arrived. Thankfully, it was June so it was warm.
Unfortunately, he woke up and went looking for me; he found me and dragged me back. He then decided he’d had enough of me, downed most of a bottle of rum, forced me into his van and locked the doors. Once we got onto the A1(M) he floored it, I can’t remember where he decided to dump me - somewhere in the Midlands, I have a feeling it was either Stoke or Stafford. I do remember he was doing around 100 - I honestly thought he was going to kill me.
I didn’t know wherever-it-was, anyway. So there I was, with no phone, obviously I was a complete mess and, even though it was the last place I wanted to go, I had no choice but to return to my parents.
As you can imagine, I had a complete breakdown, which mutated into PTSD. I was trapped; obviously, they weren’t going to do anything to help me and there was nothing I could do to help myself - at least not while they were in the house (because, obviously, I couldn’t use their landline while they were there).
Eventually, they fucked off on holiday for a fortnight, so I took the opportunity to attempt to escape; because I’d escaped a violent relationship, I called Women’s Aid, thinking I’d be able to get myself into a refuge at least.
(This next bit won’t mean anything to anyone outside the UK/Ireland, and I’m really posting here because I need help from people in the UK)
What actually happened was they contacted social services and I had two social workers at the door. They made assumptions that, because I was basically living in a dump (for reasons I would hope were obvious) and that I was basically stuck in bed, that I didn’t understand the health risks of living in such a state - NOT because I’d escaped a violent relationship and had a complete breakdown.
I was sectioned. Spent almost 18 months in an ATU (assessment and treatment unit). From there, I was moved to a care home for people with learning disabilities and complex needs about 100 miles away. It was only when I was there - and quite by chance - that I learnt that I was now being held hostage by the Court of Protection under the Mental Capacity Act and DoLS (denial of liberty safeguarding).
My detention under both is unlawful because, in order for the court orders to be valid, the person to whom they’re being applied has to have undergone an assessment and, had I undergone assessment, I’d have known I was detained. I do not lack capacity.
I was there for another 18 months, where I had to contend with another resident constantly slamming his bedroom door (staff were meant to be posted outside his room to prevent him doing so, but he was extremely obese, prone to violent outbursts and they were scared of him, so there was rarely anyone there).
I was then moved to a poky little flat back in my parents’ home county; the flat was up a steep flight of stairs and I was struggling with my mobility. Due to the court orders, I am essentially gagged and nobody has to take a blind bit of notice of anything I say. When I bought food, I had to struggle with it up four flights of very steep stairs myself. Eventually the flat manager told staff to bring it up and I’d put it away. Then I had to contend with the flat manager binning it less than 2 days after I’d bought it, claiming it was all out of date. So, eventually, I just stopped eating. If I left the flat, she would ‘stalk’ me, following me about 10 paces behind.
I managed to escape from there early one morning, after lying to her manager that I needed to take my MBP to the Apple Store. I got on the first bus to the nearest station, and got on the first train and ended up in Birmingham. I then got the next train out of there and ended up where I am now. I spent 3 months in hospital (where I couldn’t get taken seriously so I am now severely chronically ill), where I saw 2 psychiatrists who stated that I was completely lucid, that I didn’t have any mental illness (how they couldn’t see how traumatised I was, I’ve no idea) and that I wasn’t suicidal. I was then dumped where I am now - and this is by far the worst place I’ve been - and this is what prompted this post because I need help, it’s not hyperbole to say my life is in danger.
I am trapped - both legally and physically. This is WORSE than being in a violent relationship because I can’t escape; if I was to do so, the police would simply bring me back here.
Staff control my food. Just like my ex
Staff have taken my phone. Just like my ex
Staff are physically abusive if I don’t do what they want, when they want. Just like my ex.
Staff have full control over my finances. Just like my ex.
Staff control who I see - and when. Just like my ex.
Staff won’t allow me to keep the flat front door locked, just as my ex changed the locks on the front door of his house - and refused me a key - so he always had access.
Staff control my internet access. Just like my ex (they have removed the router from the flat, so they can now cut me off whenever they feel like it, this is a connection that I am paying for, but they control my finances, so they can claim they are)
Staff open my post. Just like my ex
There is an alarm on the front door of the flat (100dB, which is well above the threshold which damages hearing), so I am literally trapped. I can’t leave. I have been informed by staff that they are legally allowed to enter the flat at any time and for any length of time. They have told me that this is “written down”, but that they “don’t have to show it” to me. I am now severely chronically ill, due to the abuse, the stress and the fact that I am being denied anything remotely resembling proper meals (a ‘meal’ often amounts to nothing more than cheap processed meat dumped on a - very often paper - plate).
The door alarm (cheap Chinese junk, you can buy a pack of 10 for around £12). I have severe tinnitus and hyperacusis (pathological hypersensitivity to noise).
Link to photo of the door alarm - I have removed several of these, but they keep replacing them

OP NOTE: This is part two of my little au series revolving around Himiko and a magical cape!!!!! Part one will be in the comments!!!
SCENE START
The next week couldn't have come sooner. In what felt like just the blink of an eye, it was already Friday.
Nyeh....one more day......then it's the big day....I have to set up and prepare at the auditorium....
I headed upstairs and waved to my mom before walking towards the door.
Elizabeth, dear? Where are you going?
Ah? Oh, I'm just heading out to set up for my special show for Saturday!
Will your friends be with you at least, honey?
I'll make sure one of them helps me set up, yes..!
O-Okay! Please, be careful!!!!!! And dinner will be ready at 7, try to come back by then!!
I will make sure to! Tell father I headed out, please!
Will do, sweetheart!!!
I head out the door, walking down the street. While walking, the pace and speed I went resembled the same feeling of last week. When I had failed at my magic again.....when I was embarrassed again....but this time will be different, I know it will...
Vmmmmm!!!! Vmmmmmm!!!!!!!
My phone rang while in my jacket pocket.
Nyeh? O-Oh...it's probably one of my friends...!
I reached towards my jacket pocket, but my hands glowed. In just a few moments, my phone flew out of my pocket and placed itself into my hand.
N-Nyeh?!!!! W-W-Woah....
I cleared my throat and answered the phone.
Nyeello? Hey, Tenko.
Heya, Himiko!!!!! How are you doing??
I'm doing good, I'm heading to the auditorium now. Are you there?
I am. I'm helping some others get the tables set up for tomorrow.
Hmhm, good....because tomorrow, things will be different! FAR different...
Huh? What does that mean, Himiko?
Heheheheheheh....hahahahahahahah.....tomorrow is the big day of my magic....! They'll be confused when they see that my magic is powerful!!!!!!
You're dang right, Himiko!!! I'll see you then, alright?
Mmmmhmmmm, Heheheheheheeheehee......!
My laughter was the last thing Tenko heard before the phone hung up by itself. My hands glowed as my phone went back into my pocket. It felt like a sharp pain went through my head for a short second before it went away.
Mmgg....hmmm.......Ah?
SKKKRRRRRRRRRTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!
I heard a haunting sound coming from afar, so I turned my head around towards the street and saw something unbelievable.
N-Nyeh?!!!!!
I saw a car veering off the street, speeding uncontrollably and about to crash into a building with people inside of it at a dangerous speed.
Nyegh! No!!!!
I held my arms out as my body started to glow. The speeding car was inches away from hitting the building, but it was swerved out of the way by a green gust of wind.
Nngghh!!! N-Nyehhh.....haahh....
The green glow continued to cover the speeding car as it slowed the speed of the car down, safely stopping it on the side of the street with nobody injured. I sighed to myself before... my head started to throb with pain.
N-Ngghh!! N-Nyehhh.....a-a....gain..?!
I slowly looked down, and the world started to warp a little bit. I didn't really know yet, but I was leaning against a wall and trying to get myself together as my eyes adjusted to my surroundings.
N-Nnngg......mmmgggg......haahh.......haah....haahh....
I started to get tired, but I couldn't let it stop me.
Tomorrow is too important.....nngg, I can't get...tired and lazy....!
I shook my head for a few seconds before that painful headache slowly went away.
N-Nyeeh....
I looked around a bit to see some people standing around, looking at me with concern in their eyes.
N-Nyeh? Nothing to see here, everyone...!!! J-Just ignore me!!!!
So many people looked at me....it made me a bit nervous when I wasn't on stage performing my magic. But regardless, I started to make my way down the street again. The auditorium was finally in sight, and I prepared to ready myself for the big day tomorrow. I took a deep breath and headed inside to meet Tenko.
SCENE END

What's up guys, its Big_Orchid here on my other reddit account. Here's my whole regimen and some notes to help you all out!
Organic Herbs (Everything taken in the morning and at night)

• Wild whole cloves, not dried
• Green Walnut Hull
• Prickly ash bark
• Slipper elm inner bark
• Greater Burdock Root
• Dandelion Root
• Cat's claw (twice a day)
• Plantain leaf
• Wormwood
• Mary Ruth’s Organic Mushroom Complex
• Olive Leaf Extract
• Colloidal Silver
• Oregano oil (rub 2 drops on your spine also) Since it is very potent, use it for 14 days, then take a break for 14 days to avoid damaging the liver.
• 3% Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide (used for cleaning fruits)
• Cilantro (yes it’s a vegetable but it is a natural chlorophyll building plant that pulls metals and toxins out of the body. Can just put some in your teas)

Organic Raw Fruits

• Pears
  
• Red/Purple grapes with seeds are most powerful, seedless or green grapes is acceptable
  
• Mangos
  
• Oranges (no orange juice unless squeezed yourself)
  
• Pineapple
  
• Berries
  
• Watermelon
  
• Raw/Unfiltered/unheated honey
  
• Raw Apple Cider Vinegar (has antifungal properties)
  
• No L-Arginine fruits, only L-Lysine fruits (only recommend the fruits above)
  
• Wash the fruits in a bowl of distilled water and some food-grade hydrogen peroxide
  

IGG Bloodwork

• Should get western blot test if you can
• Below 0.90 is negative
• If you are between a 2.0-10.1 then you need a 10+ week detox
• If you are 10.0+ then you need a 14+ week detox

Notes

• Once you come out negative, you must still stay on the protocol for at LEAST 1 more month to ensure you are healed, then get tested again for reassurance. Stay on the fruits and herbs!
• Use Food Grade hydrogen peroxide and distilled water to wash your fruits
• Herpes is not a virus. It is a parasitic that comes with a viral load. Always keep that in mind.
• Hydrogen water is beneficial, since it oxygenates the body. You can buy a nice one on Amazon for like $80 and you should only put spring water in it.
• Sea moss is actually bad for herpes, it does not help unless its purple sea moss but sea moss overall is not needed
• Greens slow down the herpes healing process, just stick to only l-lysine fruits. Only if the greens are juiced, then they are accepted.
• Hemp seeds and nuts slows down the healing process
• Yahki Awakened has a $400 parasite cleanse bundle with most of the herbs you need. Not sure if it's 2 months worth, but probably only 1 month's worth. Does not say on website
• Stay disciplined. The longer you stay on protocol, the shorter the amount of time it will take to cure yourself. No cheating. No caffeine, sugar, alcohol, processed foods, vegetables, no jacking off, nothing. Stay true to yourself.
• Everyday things are very important also…. For example the clothes you wear should be 100% organic cotton or linen (at least your underwear, socks, and shirts). Your toothpaste should be organic and no fluoride. Your soap/shampoo/lotion should be organic. Your toothbrush should be made out of bamboo. Your toilet paper should be bamboo and BPA free/Bleach free. Your everyday cleaning supplies should be organic oils. Laundry detergent should be organic. Drink out of glass not plastic. You should have a showerhead filter so you’re not showering in warm chemical tap water which your skin absorbs, believe it or not. You see how deep this goes? Everything nowadays is poison and affecting you and you don't even know it….
• If you live somewhere where you can do ozone therapy, by ALL MEANS do it. In general, ozone is introduced to the body either through intravenous infusion, ozone sauna, direct injection into specific body areas or via inhalation. It can also be delivered as a topical cream or gel applied directly to the skin. I think the ozone sauna is the best option.
• Do not drink store-bought fruit juices even if they’re organic. They are pasteurized and all it is is sugar and water now. You must juice the fruits yourself or find something that's “raw cold pressed juice.”
• Stay away from bleach, super super toxic. Just like I said too, make sure all your cleaning products are organic essential oils.
• Stay away from radiation as much as you can. Some examples would include not living near a 5G cell tower, not using your phone that much, putting your phone on airplane mode if it’s in your pocket, not sleeping near wifi routers, turning off your wifi routers during sleep even, don’t use your laptop on your lap, etc.
• Diseases are not real. All it is, is the body naturally healing itself by creating detoxification symptoms.
• Aqua Panna is the best spring water since it's in glass and contains no contaminants compared to other spring water. It is quite expensive though.
• A good organic all natural multi-purpose cleaner you can make yourself would be concentrated lemon juice, concentrated lime juice, 35% food grade hydrogen peroxide, and some spring water. Or you can do spring water, vinegar, and baking soda.
• A good organic natural deodorant would be just limes or lemons. Squeeze them and then rub them underneath your pits.
• Lymph Node massages are very good to clear you out. Could do them once a week, but it’s expensive, so 1-2 times a month is fine. But if you just go outside and jump up and down on a “rebounder” for 10-20 minutes you can get your lymph nodes moving.

Daily Health Routines

• Getting sunlight for at least 1 hour. Sunlight is very important, it is the source of all energy. Tan your whole body too if possible (meaning fully naked)
• Grounding for 1 hour to reduce inflammation (or just get organic cotton grounding bed sheets for $100)
• Utilize deep Breathing exercises to oxygenate the body
• Meditate each day/night for 15-30 minutes to calm the mind and body
• Say to the universe out loud, “I am cured of herpes” Speaking in the present tense is better than saying “I will” or “I can” because you are re-affirming to the universe that it’s already here, not in the future, because only the PRESENT exists. The past and future do not exist.
• If you are a man, semen retention is required. If you HAVE to ejaculate cause you're mentally weak, then do so once a week MAX.
• Sleep is very important. Should not be going to bed super late and getting at least 8-9 hours of good sleep a night. Optimally going to bed around 10pm-11pm and waking up around 7am-8am is optimal.
• Go on walks alone for 20-30 min. Let your thoughts flow. Listen to some synthwave and realize how blessed you are to be alive and breathing and outside.
• If you workout only go 2-3 times a week and do low weight high reps.

Hi, Let me start off by saying that I've never writen here before but need help in what to do. My story starts off with a father who has been my Rock and hero all my life. I was born to a mother and father who never married because my father's mother didn't think my mother was good enough for her son and did everything including threaten to disown him if he didn't marry the woman she wanted him to be with. My mother had to prove paternity thru the friends of the court in getting a DNa test done because she stated the he denied me being his at first and this was due to my fathers mother and his current wife and once paternity was established It was proven that he was indeed my biological father. He never denied me but his name was never put on my birth certificate. I'm 52 so back then if you were not married and getting help from the state the fathers name wasn't put on the birth certificate if the father didn't sign. Let's skip to today where I have a brother who is the only connection to my father and a (so-called stepsister- no relation) someone who my father helped raise but he never adopted her because her father was still alive. My father was going thru a health scare where he needed heart surgery but kept prolonging to get it done. During one of his stays at a rehabilitation center he told me he wanted to give me Power of Attorney. That's when I was told my Brothers son stole my Dad's credit cards and linked them yo a cashapp account and bought a car while stealing alot of money from my father. I was livid. I spoke to Sherry who told me that she had taken Dad to the police station to file a report then to his bank to make a fraud report. I spoke to her and told her my plans and she hurriedly ran down to Probate court and put in for gaurdianship over my father. It was until my father asked me to get him a lawyer I didn't find out until 3months later that she had gotten guardianship. She was very sneaky and slick about it. So I moved in going on a year with my father and took care of him making sure to keep him safe, fed and making sure he took his medicine, going to doctors appointments and just being his daughter who enjoyed spending time with him. I made it clear to my nephew who had stolen from my father the sum of $26,000, if he ever stole anything else from my father again I would make his life a living hell and he said it was all a misunderstanding. I told him there was no misunderstanding stealing from someone I love. The look on my face made him realize I was serious and wasn't dealing with his shit. It was bad enogh my brother had beat up on Dad because Dad wouldn't supply him money for his drug habit. My brother would stand over Dad with weapons and terriorizing him where he could sleep. All he would do is sit up on the side of the bed a sleep sitting up. My Dad was completely traumatized from all that abuse. See this didn't just start with my brother my older sister stayed in the house for 25years and didn't do anything to help but be verbally abusive to him and moving her out of the house was the best thing that he did. Well moving forward in July my father finally got his living will and Revocable Trust done which names me as the executor over his estate and she was listed a a patient advocate and to make sure that all of his bill were paid after he passed. She was not to recieve anything because she was not an heir. My father had children including myself which makes it 3 biological children and 2 step kids which were not adopted but thru marriage he claimed them. One passed away and that left (Let's use Sherry as her name) Well she didn't sign her part to the Living will until September 8th. Moving forward his wallet came up missing and his phone when she came over. Then she'd text me and ask if I'd seen his phone which he had just used talking to her that morning. I had reminded her of needing help because Dad was getting to the point he was using the bathroom on himself more and more. I was continuously cleaning up floors and clothes and bedding but I knew it was something that had to be done. I told her multiple times that I would need help with a caretaker fro 12am-8am she took her time getting someone. She kkept saying she was looking for someone. Now I guess your asking why didn't I get someone? Well she had stated enough times that she was his gaurdian and she would be taking care of anything dealing with him medically. But she continued to do things like trying to get him to sign over power of attorney so she could get inyo his bank account. Thanksgiving came around and Dad wanted to go over to his friends house which was his ex-wife's sisters house when his wallet came up missing gor a second time. He wasn't able to go yo the bank or do anything Little did she know my father was up on her games so he told me that he was signing over the car to me and did but I didn't file the trasfer until the begining of the next year. I had taken care of my father for the whole year with no help except when he fell a cpl of times and had to ask a co-worker to come by and help me get him up. Sherry would only come by maybe once out of each month oe twice if she was begging for money. So December came in thats when everything hit the fan it was late December when she came over to take him to his doctors appt. She told me 3 days before she was going to get her cousin to take him but then she asked me to use the car. I told her no because I had important things that needed to be taken care of and I couldn't not attend. She got upset and thats when the 1st threat in about she would be putting in for me to be put up out of my home. I asked her what made her think she could put me out of my home because of not using the car. I asked her was she sure making threats was what she wanted to do? She said yeh and I don't care how you take it. Then she made an even bigger threat by telling me just cause you have a gun I have one tok and I will use it on you. I said ok I want you to remember that you made these threats. Now picture someone just showing up to your house and all of a sudden your sleep and they've hired someone to come in and clean out a space that my Dad used as his bedroom which was full of valuables,clothes,important papers and things my father treasured. But also your stuff that you've stored in the space. Now this happened on New Years Eve. I called Sherry to find out why my stuff had been thrown out and she said I'll call my cousin and we'll be over on New Years day to get everything back in the house. I knew just from the conversation that wasn't going to happen so I had to hurry home from work to get all my stuff that was thrown out.. I was beyond pissed to say the least. But the next thing to happen was the human society was called on me to get my dog taken away from me. When they arrived they said they recieved a call that the aminal had been living in dangerous and abusive conditions. I laughed and invited them in so the could see the dog. They burst out laughing when they say the dog and said that my dog was spoiled and loved the heck outta me. Then while they were leaving said they'd write in their report that this was a false report. I thanked them. About a couple of days later my Dad ended back in the hospital because he refused to take his medicine and his body started swelling up and retaining water. So during this time Sherry and her crew were showing up knowing that I worked midnites and kept opening up doors and window and it was cold as heck outside also making alot of noise.They were trying to piss me off to say I would move. I just kept my door closed but then it came to a point in February that I had had enough and told the Since Dad wasn't here they didn't need to be here in the house. I had to change the locks also. I realized then just how things were going downhill fast with my Dad. When he did make it home for the last time Sherry had invited church and friends of my father over and decided to tell me that she was upset with me because I got Dad an attorney which he asked for to get his will done. She was yelling so loudly that everyone was stunned but when I asked her what she was really upset about she said that You shouldn't have gotten him a lawyer to do any estate planning cse she should have been the one doing it. I told her that Dad asked for an attorney and he didn't want anyone being a part of what he wanted in his will he gave her a part to play and she wasn't satisfied with that answer she she stated closing in on me into my personal space to yell in my face about her not getting anything. I told her you are not an heir Dad had 3 kids and he had every right to do his Will the way he wanted. Sherry had been calling the estate lawyer trying to get him to transfer everythong into her name. She just kept on harassing him and having Dad call him even though he was in full blown dementia. Dad had told me he didn't want her having access to his bank account and wanted me to follow everything to the letter. Right after having this talk Dad was right back in the hospital 5 days later. So I called Sherry the nite before because she said that there would be someone here to watch Dad so my thieving nephew showed up. I really didn't want him there in the house but I couldn't call off from work so I had to leave Dad in his care. So when I got off work my nephew who had stolen the money from Dad who was watching Dad said Dad was changed and good but hurried out the house. I walked into my Dad's room and my heart broke because my nephrw let him sit in Urine which had travel from the back of hos head down to the calf's of his legs and I mean the smell told me my nephew hadn't done anything he claimed. I just broke down crying and had my co-worker who came home with me to be a witness helped me get Dad cleaned up and helped me tak the bedding off the bed to was. I couldn't kerp it together. I cried my heart out. I was glad to have help that morning. Then Sherry's cousin and daughter came over to help out with Dad the Sherry showed up and while in my room I kept hearing whispers tgen I heard let me know if she comes out. I was on the phone speaking with a friend when I decided to look out my side window when I saw Sherry taking the license plate off my car. I went out to say something but she had jumped into her car and drove off very fast. Then Dad's nurse showed up and quickly told me to call the abulance to get him to the hospital because he wasn't getting better he was getting worse. I hurried up and called an abulance then called Sherry to let her know but she didn't pick up. She did however call back 10 minutes later. I was in the midst of me giving the emt's Dad's medicines Sherry arrived and gave the gaurdianship paperwork to get him to the hospital. After the abulance left I got in the car and went straight to the police station to report my license plate was stolen by Sherry. I walked in one day and Sherry had turned the electricity and heat off in the house. I had them turned back on. Then of course she did the same thing with the water. Dad never made it back home from Rehibiltation or the nursing home. She texted me and lied by saying that she was putting him in 2 different nursing homes the said he was going to the nephews house that had stolen the money but she wouldn't give me the address. I asked her for it and text my nephew both of them wouldn't answer me back. I put in to modify the guardianship but it was adjourned for a week when we got to court finally and the judge listened to her side and I never got a chance to say what has been going on. So Sherry lied so much on me during the zoom court meeting and then stated that I was a danger to my own father. I was so taken aback by this statement. She also said she went and got another will done 1-2 months before Dad passed which was May 1, 2024 the will stated that he wanted me to arrange his funeral. Sherry had obituaries printed with my Dad's name being incorrect and also as a last result to get me to act out at the funeral put in the obituary that I wasn't even his daughter but his God-Daughter. I knew it not to be true so it didn't bother me. Her family and Dad's friends walked up to me and kept apologizing for my lost and also apologizing for the way Sherry had treated me and what she put in the obituary. My Dad had a great send off because of his Lodge brother giving him a sword sulute but I couldn't stay because I knew I would say something. Then after that my oldest son started calling me asking about his aunty. I kept telling him she was no kin to him but because he's stuck on stupid and parked on dumb he believes anybody who will give him money. He called and told me that his kids mother and tge kids needed a place to stay and I told him no because he had stolen from me before and was disrespectful about it and ft nobody should say anything to him. Look when your child tells you after he has stolen from you that your just some B-_+# out in the street and he doesn't care if he stole from you. You tend to learn to separate yourself from tge turmoil of chaos in their life so you don't get caught up. So he thought calling Sherry was going to help his plight. He has been warned several times to not get close to her because she is a narcissist. If she can't get what she wants and control you, she will do and say anything to get you on her side so that you have no one to listen to you. Right now I'm in the process of trying to get the house turned over into my name since Dad said in his will the house goes to me. What would you do to handle someone who doesn't care about anything but money and anything that they can do to throw you in a bad light?

Hi, Let me start off by saying that I've never writen here before but need help in what to do. My story starts off with a father who has been my Rock and hero all my life. I was born to a mother and father who never married because my father's mother didn't think my mother was good enough for her son and did everything including threaten to disown him if he didn't marry the woman she wanted him to be with. My mother had to prove paternity thru the friends of the court in getting a DNa test done because she stated the he denied me being his at first and this was due to my fathers mother and his current wife and once paternity was established It was proven that he was indeed my biological father. He never denied me but his name was never put on my birth certificate. I'm 52 so back then if you were not married and getting help from the state the fathers name wasn't put on the birth certificate if the father didn't sign. Let's skip to today where I have a brother who is the only connection to my father and a (so-called stepsister- no relation) someone who my father helped raise but he never adopted her because her father was still alive. My father was going thru a health scare where he needed heart surgery but kept prolonging to get it done. During one of his stays at a rehabilitation center he told me he wanted to give me Power of Attorney. That's when I was told my Brothers son stole my Dad's credit cards and linked them yo a cashapp account and bought a car while stealing alot of money from my father. I was livid. I spoke to Sherry who told me that she had taken Dad to the police station to file a report then to his bank to make a fraud report. I spoke to her and told her my plans and she hurriedly ran down to Probate court and put in for gaurdianship over my father. It was until my father asked me to get him a lawyer I didn't find out until 3months later that she had gotten guardianship. She was very sneaky and slick about it. So I moved in going on a year with my father and took care of him making sure to keep him safe, fed and making sure he took his medicine, going to doctors appointments and just being his daughter who enjoyed spending time with him. I made it clear to my nephew who had stolen from my father the sum of $26,000, if he ever stole anything else from my father again I would make his life a living hell and he said it was all a misunderstanding. I told him there was no misunderstanding stealing from someone I love. The look on my face made him realize I was serious and wasn't dealing with his shit. It was bad enogh my brother had beat up on Dad because Dad wouldn't supply him money for his drug habit. My brother would stand over Dad with weapons and terriorizing him where he could sleep. All he would do is sit up on the side of the bed a sleep sitting up. My Dad was completely traumatized from all that abuse. See this didn't just start with my brother my older sister stayed in the house for 25years and didn't do anything to help but be verbally abusive to him and moving her out of the house was the best thing that he did. Well moving forward in July my father finally got his living will and Revocable Trust done which names me as the executor over his estate and she was listed a a patient advocate and to make sure that all of his bill were paid after he passed. She was not to recieve anything because she was not an heir. My father had children including myself which makes it 3 biological children and 2 step kids which were not adopted but thru marriage he claimed them. One passed away and that left (Let's use Sherry as her name) Well she didn't sign her part to the Living will until September 8th. Moving forward his wallet came up missing and his phone when she came over. Then she'd text me and ask if I'd seen his phone which he had just used talking to her that morning. I had reminded her of needing help because Dad was getting to the point he was using the bathroom on himself more and more. I was continuously cleaning up floors and clothes and bedding but I knew it was something that had to be done. I told her multiple times that I would need help with a caretaker fro 12am-8am she took her time getting someone. She kkept saying she was looking for someone. Now I guess your asking why didn't I get someone? Well she had stated enough times that she was his gaurdian and she would be taking care of anything dealing with him medically. But she continued to do things like trying to get him to sign over power of attorney so she could get inyo his bank account. Thanksgiving came around and Dad wanted to go over to his friends house which was his ex-wife's sisters house when his wallet came up missing gor a second time. He wasn't able to go yo the bank or do anything Little did she know my father was up on her games so he told me that he was signing over the car to me and did but I didn't file the trasfer until the begining of the next year. I had taken care of my father for the whole year with no help except when he fell a cpl of times and had to ask a co-worker to come by and help me get him up. Sherry would only come by maybe once out of each month oe twice if she was begging for money. So December came in thats when everything hit the fan it was late December when she came over to take him to his doctors appt. She told me 3 days before she was going to get her cousin to take him but then she asked me to use the car. I told her no because I had important things that needed to be taken care of and I couldn't not attend. She got upset and thats when the 1st threat in about she would be putting in for me to be put up out of my home. I asked her what made her think she could put me out of my home because of not using the car. I asked her was she sure making threats was what she wanted to do? She said yeh and I don't care how you take it. Then she made an even bigger threat by telling me just cause you have a gun I have one tok and I will use it on you. I said ok I want you to remember that you made these threats. Now picture someone just showing up to your house and all of a sudden your sleep and they've hired someone to come in and clean out a space that my Dad used as his bedroom which was full of valuables,clothes,important papers and things my father treasured. But also your stuff that you've stored in the space. Now this happened on New Years Eve. I called Sherry to find out why my stuff had been thrown out and she said I'll call my cousin and we'll be over on New Years day to get everything back in the house. I knew just from the conversation that wasn't going to happen so I had to hurry home from work to get all my stuff that was thrown out.. I was beyond pissed to say the least. But the next thing to happen was the human society was called on me to get my dog taken away from me. When they arrived they said they recieved a call that the aminal had been living in dangerous and abusive conditions. I laughed and invited them in so the could see the dog. They burst out laughing when they say the dog and said that my dog was spoiled and loved the heck outta me. Then while they were leaving said they'd write in their report that this was a false report. I thanked them. About a couple of days later my Dad ended back in the hospital because he refused to take his medicine and his body started swelling up and retaining water. So during this time Sherry and her crew were showing up knowing that I worked midnites and kept opening up doors and window and it was cold as heck outside also making alot of noise.They were trying to piss me off to say I would move. I just kept my door closed but then it came to a point in February that I had had enough and told the Since Dad wasn't here they didn't need to be here in the house. I had to change the locks also. I realized then just how things were going downhill fast with my Dad. When he did make it home for the last time Sherry had invited church and friends of my father over and decided to tell me that she was upset with me because I got Dad an attorney which he asked for to get his will done. She was yelling so loudly that everyone was stunned but when I asked her what she was really upset about she said that You shouldn't have gotten him a lawyer to do any estate planning cse she should have been the one doing it. I told her that Dad asked for an attorney and he didn't want anyone being a part of what he wanted in his will he gave her a part to play and she wasn't satisfied with that answer she she stated closing in on me into my personal space to yell in my face about her not getting anything. I told her you are not an heir Dad had 3 kids and he had every right to do his Will the way he wanted. Sherry had been calling the estate lawyer trying to get him to transfer everythong into her name. She just kept on harassing him and having Dad call him even though he was in full blown dementia. Dad had told me he didn't want her having access to his bank account and wanted me to follow everything to the letter. Right after having this talk Dad was right back in the hospital 5 days later. So I called Sherry the nite before because she said that there would be someone here to watch Dad so my thieving nephew showed up. I really didn't want him there in the house but I couldn't call off from work so I had to leave Dad in his care. So when I got off work my nephew who had stolen the money from Dad who was watching Dad said Dad was changed and good but hurried out the house. I walked into my Dad's room and my heart broke because my nephrw let him sit in Urine which had travel from the back of hos head down to the calf's of his legs and I mean the smell told me my nephew hadn't done anything he claimed. I just broke down crying and had my co-worker who came home with me to be a witness helped me get Dad cleaned up and helped me tak the bedding off the bed to was. I couldn't kerp it together. I cried my heart out. I was glad to have help that morning. Then Sherry's cousin and daughter came over to help out with Dad the Sherry showed up and while in my room I kept hearing whispers tgen I heard let me know if she comes out. I was on the phone speaking with a friend when I decided to look out my side window when I saw Sherry taking the license plate off my car. I went out to say something but she had jumped into her car and drove off very fast. Then Dad's nurse showed up and quickly told me to call the abulance to get him to the hospital because he wasn't getting better he was getting worse. I hurried up and called an abulance then called Sherry to let her know but she didn't pick up. She did however call back 10 minutes later. I was in the midst of me giving the emt's Dad's medicines Sherry arrived and gave the gaurdianship paperwork to get him to the hospital. After the abulance left I got in the car and went straight to the police station to report my license plate was stolen by Sherry. I walked in one day and Sherry had turned the electricity and heat off in the house. I had them turned back on. Then of course she did the same thing with the water. Dad never made it back home from Rehibiltation or the nursing home. She texted me and lied by saying that she was putting him in 2 different nursing homes the said he was going to the nephews house that had stolen the money but she wouldn't give me the address. I asked her for it and text my nephew both of them wouldn't answer me back. I put in to modify the guardianship but it was adjourned for a week when we got to court finally and the judge listened to her side and I never got a chance to say what has been going on. So Sherry lied so much on me during the zoom court meeting and then stated that I was a danger to my own father. I was so taken aback by this statement. She also said she went and got another will done 1-2 months before Dad passed which was May 1, 2024 the will stated that he wanted me to arrange his funeral. Sherry had obituaries printed with my Dad's name being incorrect and also as a last result to get me to act out at the funeral put in the obituary that I wasn't even his daughter but his God-Daughter. I knew it not to be true so it didn't bother me. Her family and Dad's friends walked up to me and kept apologizing for my lost and also apologizing for the way Sherry had treated me and what she put in the obituary. My Dad had a great send off because of his Lodge brother giving him a sword sulute but I couldn't stay because I knew I would say something. Then after that my oldest son started calling me asking about his aunty. I kept telling him she was no kin to him but because he's stuck on stupid and parked on dumb he believes anybody who will give him money. He called and told me that his kids mother and tge kids needed a place to stay and I told him no because he had stolen from me before and was disrespectful about it and ft nobody should say anything to him. Look when your child tells you after he has stolen from you that your just some B-_+# out in the street and he doesn't care if he stole from you. You tend to learn to separate yourself from tge turmoil of chaos in their life so you don't get caught up. So he thought calling Sherry was going to help his plight. He has been warned several times to not get close to her because she is a narcissist. If she can't get what she wants and control you, she will do and say anything to get you on her side so that you have no one to listen to you. Right now I'm in the process of trying to get the house turned over into my name since Dad said in his will the house goes to me. What would you do to handle someone who doesn't care about anything but money and anything that they can do to throw you in a bad light?

We are no contact with my in laws they didn't seem to care and have not reached out in months. Perfect. However recently my mil has been calling my husband's office even though she knows he's not in office most of the day (and has not tried to reach out through his cell phone or any other means) to repeatedly leave messages with the office receptionist about how she needs her son to call her back because his dad has cancer and how he won't return her calls and apparently crying on fb and to her friends and family about how awful we are for not reaching out at this difficult time. And we are not. 1. We are no contact for many very good reasons. 2. When he was diagnosed 3 years ago they said his best option was surgery and chemo/radiation (i don't recall which) but mil scoffed and told me and her kids that she married a man with a thick head of hair and she's not being married to him without it! She said it could fall out and possibly not return "and I'm absolutely not doing that! Nope! No way!" She laughed but meant it. I was shocked. My husband unfortunately said that fits with exactly who she so he wasn't shocked but disappointed. Fil agreed he couldn't possibly lose his hair and chose to only do surgery against med advice. This all played out exactly the same way when the cancer came back a second time and they urged him to hit it hard and again they she dramatically said she would NOT do that. So it's now the 3rd time. It's messed up and sad but while she paints us to be the bad kids not caring about her poor husband and this really hard time for them, they are choosing his head of hair over recommend treatment. I dunno, my friend said they'd break nc if their dad got cancer and gets why we look like assholes. Are we?

Project Africa, Meet: Project Eurasia
… Don’t settle for one continent, when you can run the length of two… or even The Three Americas.
What’s up, you extraordinary freaks of nature:
I hear Reddit is the place to make things happen.. A small task is afoot
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ultra marathoners: will no one best the King, Russ?
Or is he a generational talent?

• Russ Cook opens the international “eye” of human capability?✔️
• Runs all of Africa like a Tuesday fkn morning?✔️

This remarkable achievement left the world stunned and at least one person motivated to find those who are dedicated to match or exceed this accomplishment:
Shock the world: surmount these odds and rewrite the rulebook. I seek to ignite this pioneering spirit once more, to help contenders achieve the unthinkable…
I offer new stakes:
Shanghai to Lisbon (Yes, it is possible)

• 20-23 countries, 16,000km

Similar objective; entirely different story.

• Indeed it is the same distance to run the width from Asia to Europe.
• Yes, I understand it’s not ‘furthest east’, if it were, you’d probably die— I’m up for it— However, nobody has done our proposed distance yet.. Let's start there.
• Geographically speaking point to point is only 8,191km, almost exactly Africa’s 8,061km
• And wouldn’t you fkn know it, Shanghai is 861.2377km (535 miles) DUE south of Cabo’s true east along the latitudinal line, as in exactly in line with Shanghai as its furthest east point! These numbers are starting to come together..
• Europe’s entirety will be crossed.. Cabo Da Roca was made to look like a finish line anyway..

I certainly acknowledge that this mission has the potential to become a groundbreaking documentary. I am very excited to watch as it unfolds its powerful message to the world.
Diluted by our own self-imposed limits, we humans are a remarkably capable species.. We’ve been doing this for hundreds of years.
Though I consider myself to be in phenomenal condition & an extreme limit pusher— I’m in no way capable like Russ and these others to endure that run— however, that’s not why I am compelled to write my first post in 29(M) years.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Russ & co. have set the bar high for the rest of the under-funded and highly “un”qualified lunatics.
They’ve shown there’s always room to redefine what’s “possible”..
At this moment I am seeking to assemble a capable and committed team to donate 8 or more months of their lives towards the task at hand. ⏳ that’s all— what else have we to do anyway?? Maintain the image we’ve spent our whole lives masquerading?
Or must we prefer to wait in line through Americas underfunded and overcrowded/ever-expansing parking lot system, inching our way towards the “American Dream” and ultimately that final day...
Which was the dream again?
Take your life back.
We intend to honor the world through impossible stories, still remaining to be experienced & uncovered: showcasing the grit, resilience, and sheer audacity of those who dare to undertake this relentless pursuit of the extraordinary—a journey that will leave us all forever changed.
Separate yourself from the crowd.
I believe us to be underestimating our opportunities and the great potential of this story: The Life changing ones, forget the instant global recognition coming on day one..
Here’s an opportunity to embrace and spread cultures,
The potential to make a difference in your life and that of others,
To transcend border.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As executive producer and logistics manager: I volunteer my leadership services and resourceful intuition/travel instinct, including the assistance of planning and organizing this expedition and routes associated. I will help assure the success, safety and effectiveness of the expedition.
Passionately-skilled as an adventurist, photojournalist & travel videographer, they tell me I have “it”. The goal isn’t monetary compensation, but instead— a global impact. The type of shit you’d do for free
Though Russ’ crew were not “professionals” by the Hollywood definition of the word, you’ll soon remember the power of a great story and a lens!
Furthermore, I’d have no hesitations documenting this expedition: offering a pivotal perspective behind the camera as well as a pen. Similarly, I’ve no objections to acting as director in such cases. I’d just prefer to focus more on the logistical side: I will recruit people better than me.
Show me the runner and I will do all I can to help turn this into reality. I’ve no choice now..
I live for the journey and its story, You can send us in a Toyota Corolla, I will accompany the runner on a bike, I don’t give a single fuck. This has to get done.
What I have:

• All the above necessary qualifications
• Like you, A life worth living.
• Mavic 3 pro Drone (yessir!)
• Newest iPhone & iPad Pro
• Go pro
• Potential funding opportunities

What we need:

• Like-minded people equally as daring and motivated
• A confident runner that is experienced and knowledgeable
• A Vehicle (inconspicuous please)
• Additional talented film crew

After sleeping on Russ, sponsors are ready & eager to jump on that next opportunity. Show the commitment. Fortunately, in this limelight we’re gifted with little resistance attaining their attention. The market is proven and it is susceptible to our impression.
Redbull, I don’t even like your shitty drinks— but isn’t this like exactly the opportunities you search for? You basically sell “ideas” in a liquid form.
Go pro? Where did you go?
A team makes all the difference, which is why I stress to possess the same desire, commitment and determination towards this goal- just as the “goal achiever” would.
It’s a story waiting to be told.
I will promptly, and without hesitation, quit TFOO my job and drop it all to buy a flight to Shanghai when a determined team is assembled for this. I swear on ALL mothers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Proceeding forth:
Charitable causes provide the leverage. It seems to be the best course of action. (Y’all don’t understand how fuckin’ strong my wife is)
*It includes dangers beyond our preconception— tis not a death wish, but a once in a lifetime experience.
*Don't expect a cute vacation or comfort. A price to pay in order to break records and achieve the unthinkable. I for one do not wish to limit our possibilities on our search for the “impossible”.
*Burn the boats at shore, we’ve no choice but to succeed. 80% of the journey is adapting in the field, the other 20% is simply getting yourself there.
Eurasia carves its own path.
-Offering unique perspectives in new environments, with new culture, and new hurdles to overcome.
People love watching others achieve these goals; they feel they are right alongside you, similarly achieving theirs. After all, it is you who is in their pockets.

• “Day one of….” -Shut up, I am already completely invested.

Through this triumph, we garner worldly attention, shedding the illusion of “borders”, connected— all cheering one person: united as one team. Isn’t a “movement” simply when a goal is achieved simultaneously by the whole?
What is evident is that the opportunity of its expanse hasn’t been fully explored, recognized and realized.
(Thanks for paving the way, Russ!)
You see, Eurasia is primed to happen.. The hints began to amass since Russ’ completion of the goal just nearly a month ago.. One might infer it’s on its way to be somewhat of a trend, but at the very least: a statement.
Must we sit out again? Project Earth is upon us:
*Alexander_campbell- currently walking the world now.
*Liamtheimpaler- biking from Alaska to Argentina.
*France: entirety biked.
*Germany: In the midst of being run.
*Lambros running Australia.
*Several are traveling the width of the US; one biking Alaska to Chile, others running barefoot?
*Katherine Lowrie ran the totality of South America. Over 17,000km with her husband.
***Countless in Asia.. but no runners..
(Edit): the list keeps expanding..
Perhaps this is an opportunity to compete for the finish line involving two or more teams? Fuck it, bring in the sport of competition for the great world race.
Dream big.
This your call to action
Understand the TREMENDOUS amount of work put into planning and ensuring the arrival of the goal— the athlete will also have to be physically prepared as well as mentally. But when the right pieces of the puzzle are brought together, we could do this ASAP.
May this message not fall on deaf ears — Our dreams remain as dreams until first action is taken. There’s no limit to our possibilities as a species. Let’s step into that world.
because i think that’s the whole point of this..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this thread… offer your schemes, comments or productive critique:
If you aspire for something extraordinary and think you’re up for this task, come forth and tell us why you make a good fit. Hell, if you would even like to help fund or sponsor, I won’t stop you. Make your voice known.
Project_Eurasia is on Instagram, you can tell me I’m delusional there.
Let’s make it happen.
No "influencers".
No sellouts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This message unto the realm of universal possibility. Awaiting to unfold and materialize as it will
and all it takes is a single moment to change everything.
. . . -Andy

help me understand my feelings, a friend i had sex with got a boyfriend & usually im aromantic and but im somewhat hypersexual. our friendship has been an on and off type of thing for about a month and a half & i barely speak to her anymore. she tells me last minute(today 3 hours before) that she has a date at 6… i was just having oral sex with her about 2-3 days ago and it was very romantic in my opinion. i feel some type of way but then again am i allowed to? are my feelings tied through sex or are these feelings im feeling just jealousy. for context this has happened before when we were in highschool but the dude was a bad guy & she regretted it. what if she doesnt regret this new guy and hes actually good. i lose my friend forever. im not the mentally stable and i havent been for years. i dont know what to do. my life is crashing, my parents are threatening to kick me out & she gets a boyfriend. she even apologized for the lack of contact recently and made a half assed statement saying she will make it up. if anything i feel this new situation made it worse. i removed her off everything today & she keeps calling me off his phone number or a text now number. guys help what do i do.

US/EU dual citizen here. Ruined my credit in the US by going to school with no financial help from family (all dead) and Covid essentially ruined my shot at a masters and also my life lol. Moved back to Spain (yes we all know job market here is atrocious) with the idea I could teach English for a while. That dried up pretty quickly. Money was good in 2021-2022 then nothing. I got a full time position at a school that actually paid “decent” but you paid for that decency in blood. Minimum 15+ unpaid hours a week, no breaks and sometimes 10 hour work days. Violating all kinds of laws and the actual instruction was a joke we were a diploma mill. Out of 5 start of the year newbies, I was the last man standing by November. Principal and director quit too. Head of department… disappeared ? I jumped ship thinking I’d find something better, I was wrong. I work in real estate now. I was offered an agents job but I am a desk monkey that’s ocasionally asked to illegal things. The entire offer was a lie and I’m miserable, but I cannot find anything else.
I want to go back to the US but I’m too poor to start over again there and I’ve heard it’s just as bad. Most LinkedIn-esque jobs are fake there too right ? Or cleverly disguised MLMs. Out of the few interviews I’ve gotten, the conditions are so abysmally bad it doesn’t justify leaving where I am.
Job applications are HUMILIATING. Crazy long “skills tests” to work at the supermarket. I was asked to record a via of myself explaining why I was passionate about the job… lt was cold calling people offering cell phone service. Content writer positions don’t want your portfolio, they want you to write them free content. I used to be a paralegal in the US and I keep getting rejected here to work as a secretary in law offices bc they really “want me to be a practicing lawyer”. Why would I apply for a secretary job if I’m a literal lawyer ? Why isn’t 5 years law clerking experience with a BA enough? I straight up got rejected from Carl’s Junior for not having an AA in hospitality. My 4 year degree in Sociology isn’t enough to work the cash register at Carl’s junior, they want me to get another degree to take orders on their POS system.
Remote jobs in the US all seem to be scams or all seem to think I need a work visa even after explaining a million times that I don't bc I am a US citizen with a social security number I just don't live in the US and my driver's license is Spanish (they always ask about the license even for remote jobs and its always the nail in the coffin).
i feel like my life is over im 27 and I wanted to study law but its a bad idea rn in Spain and i cant afford to in the US. Im so terribly depressed about this I feel like I have no future.

Hey, this is my first time posting on this reddit page. I just wanted to introduce myself before giving a full on theory in relation to my thoughts and predictions for any rdr content. I have been thinking, what if rdr2 had a dlc? How would rockstar do it right? There probably won't be a dlc or anytime soon so I came up with a storyline for the dlc in my opinion. Thank you and let's get started
It should include Sadie Trelawny and Charles within a switch character feature like in gta5. Sadie is deep into bounty hunting now, she is more quiet, living in the wetlands of Brazil and bounty hunting is paying the bills. But she is still thinking of the loved people she left behind, anyway, Sadie meets a nice young teenage guy who is also a bounty hunter and they are working for the same sheriffs around, let's say he is 'Fred'. Fred reminds Sadie of Arthur or at least a younger but wiser version, and this interests Sadie more into Fred, but she doesn't know why, Sadie is more quiet and Unsocial so why does she care? From dialogue, we know what her and Fred and thinking, there is a gap that needs to be filled with trust. One of the biggest criminal outlaws in Brazil who is let's say 'pedro' has captured a series of hostages and is holding them in a bunker in Southern Brazil, one of those being Fred, but sadie is in northern Brazil and it would be a really long journey, Sadie is scrambling and confused on what to do , if I save him will he just end up like everybody else I ever loved? She doesn't Trust herself to keep him safe, she agrees with a sheriff that she is only doing detective work but deep inside she needs to help him. While questioning one gang member in particular, he sees clear through Sadie and tells her that he knows who she really wants to save and why she's afraid, exposing the idgaf persona Sadie had. Sadie is angry and brutally beats this guy till he tells her what she wants , but she doesn't want to hear what she needs, he is beaten to a pulp and finally states where the bunker might be, and adds that there may be multiple bunkers. Anyway, Sadie thinks alot about what he said and she questions why she's even so interested in Fred. She then remembers Arthur, which brings a side of weakness in Sadie, crying in her rented hotel rembering Arthur's kindness and sacrifice. She figures out why she's so interested and finally decides to go out and look for Fred and the hostages herself. She asks, what would Arthur do? I'm doing this for him, is what she is saying to stop the truth from coming any longer. The truth is Sadie needs another 'Arthur' in her life, she can't stop holding onto him cuz she scares at losing him again, but she can't try again at loving people so she hides behind heroic personas and excuses to escape while on her journey. But she runs into Pedro in a garden party at a palace and they talk for long, Pedro is a parallel of Sadie, They are both bloody and brutal but Pedro at least understands what he wants and what he needs, he's wealthy but not spoiled with greed, he moves smart and kind. Anyone in his way is killed immediately, ok this is bout to get a lil pg18 so keep touch. Sadie decides to trick Pedro into giving info on the plan, with ultimate guilt, she flirts with him and they end up in a private bedroom upstairs the palace. He finally admits while succumbed in Sadie's seduction, funny thing is, this is WAY out of character for Sadie right? Because she's scrambling with emotions and truthfully she would do anything to find Fred, but she says that she'll do anything for her job and stopping Pedro. In the admist of seduction, lawman and police break into the hotel room and arrest Pedro immediately. Of course, Sadie is put to interrogate Pedro, this is where we finally get a hint of Pedro and Sadie's dynamic. Sadie is disgusted by Pedro's accused actions but she is also deeply disgusted by what she had to do to get here. anyway, Pedro is seen externally as a mob and rider killer with dark thoughts , internally as a smart and thoughtful man with a secret and deceitful truth, hiding behind a persona he tries to believe in, just like Sadie. They are both fighting a battle. Sadie believes she is saving them for her honor, but truthfully she is really saving Fred. As Sadie gets closer to saving Fred the more difficult it gets to hide. Before the climatic battle, Sadie and a few other lawmen find the final bunker and see amber disguised as a hostage tied up. Sadie sees through it and just loses it, she takes one look at beats him to death while screaming why he is hiding behind his true self. This is Sadie talking to herself. The law men are mortified and traumatized and do not speak to Sadie for the rest of the search. When they find the hostages, Sadie scrambles looking for Fred but doesn't find him, one lawman suggests that he is in Pedro's main house. They find the main house and funnily enough he is right, Fred is held hostage by Pedro. Once they raid Pedro's room they capture Pedro but he reveals dynamite strapped on Fred's back which is lighting from the door handle in a long line. Saide freaks out and tears the dynamite just as it is about to blow and throws it away but accidentally throws it near the lawmen but sadie doesn't seem to care, only if Fred is safe, see Fred is like Arthur, but Arthur is HIM, so Fred can never be an 'Arthur' but he can be Arthur emotionally for Sadie to move forward. Sadie and Fred escape the mansion in the big climactic gunfight where they fight together and walk of into the distance with dead bodies all around them, such as like the red dead revolver ending. Sadie has come out, while not romantically, Sadie and Fred are great friends and Sadie gains faith in society and love again, not romantically lol.
Okay let's switch to Charles. Canada, btw it is spring season so it is really cold and snowy. Charles is more quiet and older but he still has a really close friend of his, his best friend, Victoria, a woman he met on the coast of Canada when he arrived. They have a really great friendship and fit together perfectly, they've been friends for a year and have bonded together really well. The opening scene should have Charles and Victoria chatting to show Charles character when he's with and without her. So basically, these guys for really well and the small town they live in, like Jackson in TLOU2 , knows that they could make a great couple. Suddenly, an agent pops up and tells Charles in a cafe that Victoria is a convincted felon and criminal of the country, but so far, Victoria's character is easily likeable by her importance to Charles, we mostly hate micah cuz what he is to Arthur. Same dynamic here, if Charles loves her, easily likeable, but she is also a genuinely good person, so just like Charles we are confused and refuse that fact because, this agent let's say is 'micheal' Mike seems very greedy and rude in their first encounter. But all of a sudden, Victoria disappears, and cannot be found near their town. So now both Charles and Mike are fighting the same goal, but their is internal conflict their, because mike represents everything Charles hate but Is also everything Charles would take a life for a decade back. He is like Dutch and Charles seeing that questions, if Dutch was that manipulative, then why isn't Mike? Because he didn't seem to be confident is saying that Victoria is a criminal in fact with very little research. This builds suspicion of motive in the antagonist which intrigues us into mike and his motive. As Charles searches for Victoria, he constantly thinks of Dutch and had encounters with Mike that even us the player cna see Dutch inside him, bringing up the plan meme and in one encounter, Mike and Charles fight, but Charles turns this guy into a pancake and flattens him. But Mike seems happy and just walks away. Okay lemme skip forward a bit, Charles keeps encoutering with Mike and keeps getting closer to Victoria until he finally finds Victoria in a jail cell in a sheriff's office in the middle of nowhere at night. He busts her out with his sheir strength and breaks the rusted bars, but Victoria seems to avoid Charles and is distancing herself from him. They talk and Charles asks why she is being distant on the horse ride back to the town and just as Victoria is about to say , a long line of trees beside the road begin to start falling and they ride forward dodging the falling trees in the snowy weather, like that scene in the opening fight of gow Ragnarok. They ride fast and eventually stop in an open snow field and looked behind at the fallen trees and even within the fog Charles spots a group of masked gunmen rushes and taking cover on the fallen trees. Charles immediately dismounts and fights of the gunmen while forcing Victoria to ride away into the distance. One last gunman is left and Charles asks why they are attacking him. He refuses but Charles beats him till his admits, turns out it's not just Mike. This is the wider government, spread out across all of north America, and we find out how agent Ross easily tracked down John and reveal that agent ross' glazer after Javier dies is part of this government organization, the Pinkertons remastered. They are all hunting for them and some undercover agents are killing them through love. This is where truth is revealed. We are given cuts to an agent slicing Reverend Swanson's neck in a hallway, a group of male agents grabbing Mary Beth in a restaurant, and one of Pedro's men, the one who sadie tried to interrogate in particular. This make sense as he was trying to get more out of Sadie but failed and was beaten, something that we thought held no purpose as a scene turned out to leave hints when we okay it back. This makes the organization very unlikable which gives a heavily hated antagonist as we see the characters we love get shamed and beaten. Charles and Victoria have a talk after in a rented motel, Victoria admits that Mike was telling her lies about Charles to tarnish his name but seemed very unconfident in saying it and showed evidence by bruises for their fight. So why is he constantly lying? Is he a bad liar? That is what they say. This talk shows the internal view from both sides, Charles wants to have a family with her and Victoria wants to know about his past. Charles is focusing of future while she is focusing on past, in order for them to move forward. Victoria has to love him, but in order to love him, he has to tell her about his past to form trust. They agree to work together to find out about this organization. This creates a fun gaming experience but also story wise it can transform the theme so quickly in game fashion, something only rdr could do. Throughout the search, they get closer and closer to finding out the truth, but also to each other. They form a dynamic with love, trust and teamwork. In the climax, Charles and Victoria meet Mike together for the first time and they are said to kill mike once and for all. Mike is fishing near the Atlantic ocean and they approach him in the fishing hut. They are supposed to find a gun owned by agent milton and hostages. This scene builds tension like the iconic one in Inglorious Bastards. Charles brings up wolves and ravens and their relationship. Which in subtext means Charles and Victoria's relationship, and how they find prey together, which means them finding Mike together. Charles brings up how the wolves and ravens see each other as equal but see prey as lesser, but prey can be whatever they like with teamwork. Charles finally asks if Mike is hiding hostages and Mike says yes. They find the gun and the hostages and as soon as they exit, they find a group of armed suited gunmen at the door and realize that this is a setup. We get a glimpse of a shotgun shell pressed against the door like the glimpse of the Jews in Inglorious Bastards. Charles duels the gunmen and he finally kills without thought, he kills without Mercy and hastily. Charles always says he kills when he needs to, to protect who he loves but he could have easily overpowered these guys, they had jammed guns and all so he could just beta them and run. But he doesn't, he kills them, he takes their lives. This shows he truly loves Victoria, breaking his one rule just to fully assure her safety. But maybe it was also for the hostages safety right? No, he looks at Victoria and just that one look was enough for him to get to killing. The final gunfight ensues and Charles and Victoria are keeping the hut away from the incoming gunmen which gives the player flashbacks to the final John mission in rdr1, building tension and suspicion on what could happen. In the end, Charles kills Mike in a standoff and gets his leg shoot in the process. He passes out and awakes in a warm bed, he looks to his right and sees Victoysnd immediately smiles, but he looks down and sees his leg is Missing. Victoria explains that they had to amputate his leg to avoid infection, Charles seems worried at first, but a simple gesture of putting her hand on his chest is enough to calm him down. The talk they have is admitting something. Finally, they hug and kiss and boomm that's the end
Okay with Trelawny we can move quick cuz this is getting good. Trelawny has always been distant on the gang and he has always despised the way the gang moved believing there is always a way with peace. In New York, the most violent side, Trelawny gets a first hand at what the gang had to do to survive. He bumps into a man in a bar and they entice s bar brawl which Trelawny walks away from. Trelawny is more quiet and intelligent now but still avoids violence. In the morning Trelawny find out he has sparked a war with a gang let's say is 'Jack Grinners'. These guys are the most dangerous gang in this side of the city, the other sides are the mafia and stuff. He is being hunted and isn't safe there so he moves to the more mafia motioned streets of NY but is still in trouble because he has a daughter and she may be killed. In sorrow, he bumps into another gang member, but a Mafia member instead , expecting a fight he immediately apologizes and the guy is super nice and kind, Trelawny kind of bonds with him and explains his situationb and he helps Trelawny, let's say he is 'Gary' (weak ahh name Ik). Gary is part of a heavily respected Mafia family and Trelawny with no other place to turn asks for advice on how to deal with the guys. Gary suggests he should build his own gang, Trelawny immediately disagrees stating his disgust in violence. Fast forward, Trelawny keeps getting pressured by this gang and they hold him to a state where he is homeless and his daughter is starving, he has no other choice. He visits a priest but the priest seems to only want money so that was hopeless. He even attempts to take his life, but finally he decides to start a gang, but a Mafia like gang. Mixing both parts of the town. At first, Trelawny starts a bar business with the little money he has left and hangs posters for the bar. He gains a lot of customers very fast due to the alcohol issues in NY. He one day takes all of these volunteers to a basement as begins his plan, they start with cattleman revolvers but ease up. At first they refuse but eventually Trelawny reveals why he needs them and they agree in the pitiful moment. They start weapon deals with the mafia and the Jack Grinners' rival gangs. This adds a new feature in the rdr franchise, leading a gang, similar to camp in rdr2 but ur the leader and you call shots and you can make your own parties and stuff. This liquor business slowly becomes a large gang association and Trelawny gets more and more money for the player's own grind. And eventually, Trelawny's name and gang is a public statement and he is now respected for his authenticity as a leader and as a man while other gang leaders rely on sales or henchmen to be authentic. This heavy respect makes Trelawny finally gain the respect of the Jack Grinners but he feels something missing, these guys took everything from him and he wants revenge. Even though his daughter pleaded he begins his rivalry.. okay fats forward, the rivalry is at an all time high, but also taking a toll on Trelawny's mental state, he is filled with pride and vengeance he's forgotten the people that built him up. Ignoring raising his daughter and even ignoring and power abusing his men. This slowly crumbles his personality and makes him more and more brutal and heartless. Even one night beating his daughter after she yelled at him for sleeping with multiple women and prostitutes. In the climactic ending, Trelawny enters a fancy and luxurious bar at night with intent to meet someone who has been seen taking his guns and oil. He sits down and has a tensing conversation with him with both bodyguards behind their seats. Things go hellwire and Trelawny reveals he has bombs planted all around the bar and will blow everyone up. He has officially lost it, in the beginning he had concern for every life, he was never loyal to the gang. Now, the gang is all his has left to be loyal to, and doesn't care about any human life including his own. He explodes the bar while exiting but he gets vision of his daughter and looks behind to see her crying on her knees just as he presses the button. He runs back in to save her but it is too late. She is dead. All of a sudden, Trelawny wakes up in his mansion with his guards beside him. His body is Corrupt Trelawny but his mind is Old Trelawny. He awakes in a mansion confused and walks around realizes what he has done. Pride had destroyed him and it ends with him trying to cross the road while limping and a wagon moving fast hits him and a fade to black just before we see it hit him.
These stories explore different topics about the characters and how they cope with the loss of the gang they once had, and how they chose to move forward, how they've changed. With Charles the only one knowing that John has died, he goes back to Beecher's hope in a post credit scene of the dlc credits. And he buries John with javk and a fade to black again.... Boom the end. These stories cover love, pride, corruption, Depravity, romance, sacrifice and reputation. These stories dive deep into the characters and give them what they didn't have enough time to give on screen in rdr2. These antagonists fit perfectly with the characters and their motives and philosophies. Sadie believes that she can never love a human again or care for one, Pedro challenges that by testing her belief to the fullest making a person that embodies her of the last man she ever cared about and seeing if she is speaking or hiding, by making her do some out of character things like seduction or brutally beating a man to death. Mike is the one thing that stops Charles from having a future but is only the one thing that makes Charles go back to the past, by Victoria. Charles wanted a family and future for himself and believed only to kill with meaning. Mike challenges that by forcing himself or be so unlikable and dangerous for Victoria that there is no other escape than by killing to save the person he loves, not the people. Because mike was an embodiment of Dutch and Charles was riding with Dutch but had that rule at the same time which caused Charles to question his past, but also Victoria by lying to both of them intentionally causing confusing and need for truth for both of them, using manipulation as a tool, just like Dutch. The real antagonist of Trelawny's story was pride and in the end pride won but story wise it was the Jack Grinners, Trelawny's one rule was to never use violence if someone just gets in your way, but by riding with Dutch he was told that they aren't getting in the way, they're stopping the way. A philosophy he refused and never inflicted violence on anyone, the Jack Grinners push that move to the furthest to see what would happen if Trelawny was given the burden of Arthur and the potential of Dutch, it made him prideful and spoiled his spirit and harmed the people around him, forcing a vision of only power and not leadership, there is a big difference. My personal favorite is Trelawny's story but what about you
Toodles!

I (18F) have an older brother (25M), who I will call Y. Throughout my entire childhood, Y relentlessly bullied me, and this wasn't average “sibling teasing” but got to the point where I would cry everyday and wish he was dead because of how much I hated him. He would constantly belittle me, shout at me, make me do things for him out of intimidation, throw things at me, makes jokes that were always at my expense and poke at the flaws in my appearance and personality. He would make fun of my weight as I was a very chubby girl and claim he was doing this out of love and that I would thank him in the future because this was supposed to be my motivation to lose weight. He shamed me constantly, asking what I had done in a day, what I had eaten, how much movement etc and if it was something he didn't approve of he would make me feel like shit for just existing. He eventually gave up on me and told me I'd be fat and ugly forever. This led to me developing an eating disorder at the age of 12 and destroying what little self esteem I had. I battled this ED all by myself at such a young age because I was desperate to be win Y's approval and make him proud. It got to a point where I became suicidal and years later had to attend therapy to deal with this. My dad and sister found out I had an ED when I couldn’t handle the stress anymore and had a mental breakdown and ended up telling them everything. For so long I thought I was just suffering in silence and none of my family cared enough to notice, but I overheard Y speaking to my parents about me. I remember it clearly as I was brushing my hair (which I was losing because of my eating habits) and heard my name from Y’s mouth as he was talking to my parents. “Haven’t you noticed? These past few months she’s hasn’t been eating anything. Poor girl.” His tone was anything but sympathetic. I just remember running to my room and breaking down in tears after this. He knew this entire time what I had been doing. And despite knowing it, he didn’t intervene or talk to me at all because it was “good for me” and finally helping me “lose weight”. I realised then my brother really didn't care about me.
When I was 13, I was diagnosed with a scalp condition which caused me to lose like half of my hair. My face and body were always my insecurities, but my hair? My hair was my passion and the only I thing I loved about myself, and I had lost that too. It was one of my lowest times, and being a highschool girl didn't help either. Y would make insensitive jokes about my hair, mocking me for having dandruff and call me disgusting and unhygienic. Of course, this made me cry and our sister had to sit Y down and tell him how much I was struggling with this. I guess that talk made Y realise how horrible he was being to me, because that night he came and sat on my bed and apologised, comforting me and eventually managing to make me laugh. That moment was 5 years ago, and he has never done anything else for me since. He holds that memory over my head constantly as evidence that he was an amazing big brother to me and that I need him.
When I was 15, my parents and sister went abroad for wedding shopping as my sister was getting married soon. It was me, Y, and my other brother (who I will call X and he was 16 at the time) home. I had my GCSEs at this point, and being the youngest daughter in an Asian household, it was my job to manage the house and cook for everyone. Now for quick context, Y has PTSD and severe depression because of some personal things he experienced, but at that time he was mentally stable and promised my parents that he would be responsible for X and I and that they had no reason to worry. He actually became extremely depressed just a few days after they left, and did nothing to help me around the house. He didn't drive me to the market for groceries (I had to take a backpack and the bus, all whilst being on my period too) and made a mess around the house everywhere. He was filthy and left dirty dishes in the sink and on the counter for hours, and even days if X didn't play the role of the mediator and clean the dishes for him. I would ask Y to clean them, because I needed to cook and wanted a clean kitchen. He would say okay, but never moved from the spot I left him in for the next few hours. This went on for days, and all the stress finally got to me. I exploded at Y, calling him lazy and useless, and that he's a horrible person and a few others things that basically were on the lines of him being manipulative and stuff. This didn't sit well with him. He chased me to my room as I locked myself inside, and starting to aggressively bang on it, trying to open it. He threatened to break my door down and do something bad to me, and that I "wouldn't want to find out what". He told me that no one's here to save me anymore, and that I need to open the door and apologise to his face for what I said. He said he would stay outside my door for as long as he needed to until he received his apology. I was crying in fear because a tall, physically superior 22 year old adult man was threatening to break my door down and potentially physically hurt me. I messaged my sister panicked, telling her that he was going to hurt me and that I'm going to die (obviously I wasn't, but I was just so scared). She called him and told him this would be dealt with when they're back in the country. When my family returned, Y justified it all by saying he was just trying to intimidate me and wouldn't have actually broken my door down or done anything. But in that moment, the aggressive thudding and low threatening voice told me a different story. After this incident, I didn't talk to Y for months and avoided staying in a room with him. We eventually made up on my sister's wedding day.
And finally, I am 18. I have been sitting my A Levels and this is obviously a very stressful time for me. Y had been mentally stable for the past three weeks or so and was doing so well. Everyone was on good terms with each other. However, Y then had a mental breakdown just last week. For context, he sent called my cousin retarded as a joke. She was not impressed and insulted him back, and Y couldn't handle that. He sent a string of horrible messages towards our cousin and her entire family (who weren't even involved) and when none of my siblings and I backed Y up he was outraged and threw a fit. He started violently throwing whatever was in his sight, screaming that we're shameless snakes and traitors, and that he doesn't need us and that he'll make us regret doing this to him. My mum managed to calm him down by siding with him of course and validating his completely unreasonable reaction. She yelled at us for being bad siblings and blamed us saying we can never keep the peace in the house. She's done this my entire life. She throws her other 3 children under the bus for just one. My mum has spent this past week trying to convince us to apologise to Y and just do what he wants to make him happy, because if Y isn't happy then nobody else can be happy.
After she had calmed him down, I assumed this situation was over and he'd get over it, but it infinitely got worse. My sister was visiting us when Y threw his fit, and he screamed at her to go back to her own house and never come back, basically disowning her as his sister. She left, and I could hear my mum and Y sat inside the living room. It was him basically telling her everything that happened and victimising himself in his story. I was in my room with the door locked, just chilling on my phone whilst they spoke. Then suddenly, I heard massive banging and thuds outside my door which scared the crap out of me. It was so loud I could hear it through my noise cancelling headphones with music blasting. It was Y. My mum told him to leave me alone but Y wouldn't stop, and kept acting crazy and screaming at my brother and I from outside my door. I won't go into full detail about what happened, but this lasted for an hour and it was Y having some kind of mental break.
He would bang on my door, insult and swear at me, and then he would do the same to my brother, X. Then, he started laughing outside my door, calling my name in a sing song manner telling me how much he loves me and that he wishes me good luck for my exams. He then laid down on the stairs for 10 minutes in total silence, suddenly getting up and banging on my door, trying the handle aggressively to try and open the door. Again, I was scared and caught off guard but I tried to ignore it and listened to my music. He left to go back to X, then after a few minutes he returned back to me. I heard loud muffled noises outside my door so took my headphones off and heard him scream that I'm going to fail my exams like the worthless piece of shit I am, and that I'm a little bitch before leaving again to harass X. The next 20 minutes he kept repeating this cycle of swearing, insults, banging on my door, then singing songs and saying he loves us. At this point, I was crying from pure fear and messaging my sister about what was happening and messaged my dad that I was scared and that Y is outside my door still. My dad made my mum get me from my room and take me to their room where I just cried in my dad's arms for what felt like forever. Y returned because he heard me crying. He sounded really happy, saying it was such a sweet and lovely sound. He then entered my parents' room and I saw a glimpse of him from the mirror but I was just terrified. His shoulder were crouched up, eyes wide and crazy, a gleeful smile on his face and he was really pale. My mum told him to leave whilst my dad just held me tight. Eventually he left but I still couldn't stop crying. My parents were also in shock and scared, saying he looked like a mental person who needed to be locked up. My sister messaged one of our cousins who Y trusts and is close to, and told him to call Y to make sure he's not completely lost it. My cousin did call, and he ended up messaging my sister that Y sounded completely normal and that he said he was going to go study. Now this gave me goosebumps because he was obviously very mentally unstable, but managed to make himself sound completely sane to other people.
That night, I slept in my parents' room with my mum whilst my dad slept in my room instead. I was so paranoid that Y would show up again that I begged my mum to let me lock the door. It has been a few days since this entire incident, and I have been trying to avoid Y but living under one roof makes it impossible. He has sworn to my parents that he will make X and I's lives pure hell and we can't escape him. He's sent threatening messages to my sister all ending with him saying he's excited for her next visit. Y has constantly been bullying me and X and we just tend to ignore him if we can. With my sister out of the house it leaves only my parents. My mum will do whatever she can to make Y happy, so she doesn't defend us. However, my dad and Y have an extremely strained relationship (Y also blames and resents me for this, because whenever he made me cry a lot as a kid my dad got angry and yelled at him). Ever since Y became depressed, my dad has had to bite his tongue down everytime and take the abuse from Y because if he speaks up Y threatens to kill himself. But two days ago, things became even worse. Y insulted me and X again, and then insulted my parents (as he always does) and called my dad an idiot. This is extremely disrespectful in general, however in my religion and culture it's completely unacceptable. My dad blew up on him and also remembered the anger he felt when Y made me cry so much the other night in his arms and just let him have it. They shouted the house down until my mum made my dad leave to diffuse the situation.
I leave for university in September, but with the way things are right now I don't know what to do. I don't think it's ever been this bad before, and Y is far too mentally unstable and dangerous. He has no money and isn't capable of living by himself, so he won't be moving out anytime soon. Only my mum speaks to him and she can't control him for long. My sister tried calling the crisis team, however due to the negative stigma of mental health in my culture, my sister had to downplay everything that happened. So now, they don't think it's bad enough to intervene. Y ruined my entire childhood, and I can never forgive him. I will always resent him, and he knows this. I actually cut him off in October 2023, and despite my mother crying and saying I've ruined this family and blaming me, I stayed strong and established my boundaries. My mum actually got angry with me because I tried to establish these boundaries, and she said parents have no boundaries. I threatened to cut her off too if she kept this behaviour up. She kept begging me to talk to Y again, but I was firm in saying no. But on my first A Level exam, Y made a really sweet gesture that just took me by surprise, and my sister also encouraged me to give him one last chance. Things were okay, and all four of us siblings were reunited after a long time. We were all on good terms and it felt like old times, and Y and I's relationship picked up one of the last good days we had. And that was okay, because he immediately started joking around and having banter with me and it was like those 8 months of silence never happened. But good things always come to an end, and I don't think I can ever look past this again. I think the reason I gave in is because the gesture he did caught the attention of the little sister in me that wanted her big brother's love and care. It's painful, but I also know what my brother is like. He is a narcisstic, manipulative, toxic and delusional person who will go to any lengths to get his way. He made lots of kind gestures to me when I ignored him, but he knew this one in particular would catch my attention. When I did end up giving him another chance, he was overly sweet to me and this immediately made me realise he was trying to trap me in his cycle again so I couldn't leave. He was being far too pushy with me, and I knew it was all building up to him trying to take advantage of our relationship again and having me by his side.
My parents, especially my mum, love Y. But the undeniable truth is no one likes him. If you asked my mum who she would save if Y and me or my siblings were drowning, she would refuse to answer and say she loves us all equally. But if you asked her who she would rather spend a day with, she would never pick Y. My mother slaves away for a child that verbally abuses her and doesn't appreciate anything she does. Y will drive her to an early death, and she has stated this many times herself. My mum had cancer, and the lasting effects of cancer interfere with her life daily. Y makes my mum cry all the time over the smallest things, for example if he wanted his food made by 6 but she had it made by 6:05 instead. He completely belittles her and talks to her like shes a child, but she still loves him endlessly. I don't understand this. She says when I have kids on my own I will understand, but I truly think I will never because I refuse to let my child turn out in any way even remotely similiar to Y. Anyway, he compared his depression to her cancer and said they were both on the same level as they were illnesses, and therefore she has no reason to be "lazy" and needs to get back in the kitchen to cook for him.
I've turned to Reddit because none of my friends would ever understand, nor am I able to confide in them because of the fact they wouldn't understand. I've always been the therapist friend in my group, so when I need a therapist friend, I don't really have anyone to talk to. I wish I had a normal big brother, like my friends do. One friend's brother recently had a baby and is getting married soon, and another friend's brother is going to a prestigious university to study medicine. My friends couldn't even begin to imagine what it's like to grow up with a brother like mine. I've always resented this about them, and I know it's not their fault and that you can't choose who your family is. I would really appreciate any advice on how to completely cut my brother out. It will be a difficult process again, especially with my mum refusing to acknowledge that I'm an adult who can make my own decisions. I suppose this was more of a vent really, because I have the choice of being heard. Thanks for making reading this anyway.
TL;DR My mentally unstable brother is ruining my life and I don't know what to do.

I've had bad luck dating men I meet in person so I decided to try Hinge and expand my location since the men in my area aren't exactly what I'm looking for. I match with this guy let's call him Jake. Hes 35 and has a stable job, his own house etc. We're both instantly attracted to each other and the conversation is what I find most attractive about him. Hes' curious about me and my life and interested in what I have to say. I give him the same attention and he makes plans with me to go out today at 4:30. The only issue is he is an 1.5 away from me and I told him we can meet half way. He insisted on coming to me and meet me in a town 40 minutes from where I live. I said ok and he called the restaurant to book a reservation. (That was this past week)
Move forward to today the day of the date. He texts me the following:
Jake: Good Morning I am so excited to see you!
Me: Good Morning I am too! What are you up to?
(Skip forward past casual conversation its about 2:30)
He texts me planning to leave ahead of time to meet me at the restaurant and says he will leave at 3pm to get there by 4:30pm. He says unless you need more time to get ready we can do 5pm. I say no we can do 4:30 I'll get ready. He texts later and says he is going to leave in 5 minutes. Im excited I step away from my phone and come back 10 minutes later and I have multiple texts from him.
This is what his texts said, "Actually I just had a weird case of my mind running as I got in the car. You're 90 minutes away and Im always going to have to make this drive up to you and I dont have a lot of free time. You're going back to school in the fall and won't have free time either. Im only in the area for a year for work and Im not sure tbh. Im very sorry. I just had this crazy mind rush as I got in my car. Im really sorry I hope you find someone great you definitely deserve it."
I reply, "wow ok" BLOCK him immediately and instead of crying and wasting my cute outfit and make up because I had already gotten ready I call up my gay bff to go out and tell him the situation. I block this Jake on hinge and on my cell phone and my bff knows I didnt eat dinner because I was waiting to eat with Jake so he takes me out to dinner to make me feel better. So here I am writing this post after we got home from pasta and I posted a picture of it to my IG totally forgetting Jake is on my following list and he has the nerve to DM me and say after viewing my pasta post of literally just the pasta saying "So glad I didnt make that trip." Like hes mad at me when he cancelled hours before our date! Moral of the story is do not trust men because why do they do this? Can no man think ahead and use their brain? Instead they act impulsively and get someone's hopes up for nothing. I didnt reply to Jake because Im still so hurt he would do this to me.

NADH testing and the Karen Read Blood Alcohol Mystery
u/Upper_Canada_Pango
June 8, 2024
TL; DR
The commonwealth’s estimate of Karen Read’s blood alcohol range is not forensically suitable and should be disregarded by the jury due to all sorts of reasonable doubt.
Introduction
I am not a lab tech, biologist or other sort of expert on human metabolism or toxicology. I do, however, have some education in organic chemistry and a practical understanding of some aspects of anatomy, physiology, biology and pharmacology. For those in the healthcare field that are offended by my deviations from APA formatting, please forgive me: for I absolutely hate APA, I am saddened when I am forced to use it, and I am just not going to follow a specific style guide for this post. In-text citations will not be used, references will be both disorganised and poorly formatted. I will indicate references in-text through the use of numbers in superscript. All times will be given in 24 hour format, not military format, I don’t know why the military is allergic to colons, but I like them, so they’re coming in! I did not proof read this, it’s already taken way too much of my life. I am also quite disappointed that my formatting won't paste properly into the post editor, the markdown editor is very clunky.
Testimony from the Karen Read trial involving the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ opinion of Karen Read’s blood alcohol level at the alleged time of the alleged vehicle strike on John O’Keefe piqued my interest. Particularly I was fascinated by the fact that no direct alcohol breath test or blood test was performed, nor were any tests performed to detect any alcohol metabolite, although I have yet to find a news source that has stated as much, in fact they either omit the test type or misrepresent the test as one to detect the presence of alcohol in blood serum^{2,3,4,5,6.8,etc ad nauseum}.. Instead Dr. Gary Faller, pathologist at Good Samaritan Medical Center, testified that a serum test was run to detect the presence of NADH¹. I know what you’re thinking: “Why did they perform a screening test using an ubiquitous endogenous redox agent with no forensic validity¹³ instead of for alcohol or an alcohol metabolite like acetaldehyde, ethyl glucuronide or ethyl sulphate⁷?” and yeah, that’s what I’m thinking, too! For forensically valid results there needs to be a confirmatory test done¹³, which clearly either didn’t happen or wasn’t useful - otherwise it would have been introduced by the prosecution. So I have put this together to show what NADH testing means, why it is used, how it works and what the limitations of this testing are.
The Basics
Testing for NADH is done to screen for the presence of alcohol. Screening tests are a fast-and-cheap way of getting an idea of what’s going on, and are used when precision and certainty are not necessary. For example if you are in a hospital and have someone on a psych hold, you might want to get an idea of whether their behaviour is in part driven by consumption of drugs. Their life doesn’t depend on the answer and neither does their freedom (beyond the short-term). Forensic lab testing for alcohol uses dual-column gas chromatography or gas chromatography/mass spectrometry¹³. These are large, expensive, delicate machines so you don’t just send everything to GC/MS analysis without a good reason, just like you’re not going to get a CT scan for a sprained thumb. If you are a hospital and the cops want a blood sample for forensic analysis you can just draw blood for them, put it in the freezer until they pick it up, and then it’s the cops’ problem. Hospitals are not in the business of forensics.
So why Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-H testing? Well that’s simple enough. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide is an essential, innate redox agent that exists in all your cellular fluids and is there to accept hydrogen atoms as other substances are oxidized¹⁴. It therefor exists in different redox states, the oxidised state NAD+ and the reduced state NADH. “nicotinamide adenine nucleotide (NAD) is required in more enzymatic reactions than perhaps any other small molecule^16.” These two forms are non-destructively converted back and forth in various biochemical reactions, but the nucleotide can be consumed in certain reactions so it has to be constantly manufactured by the body in order for us to continue living.. NAD is synthesised in the liver, nerve cells and immune cells, and salvaged for reuse in a wide variety of tissues.
The primary way alcohol is metabolised it interacts with a class of enzymes called alcohol dehydrogenases¹⁵ (confusingly abbreviated ADH, despite not being structurally similar to NADH). When a molecule of ethanol is oxidised two hydrogen atoms get knocked off, one off the -OH alcohol group, and one off the carbon atom the -OH group is attached to, so the -OH becomes an =O converting the ethanol to an aldehyde called ethanal or more commonly acetaldehyde. These hydrogen atoms are accepted by the NAD+, reducing it to NADH. You have a limited supply of NAD+. Drugs whether recreational or medical, or other substances that are metabolised by oxidation will compete for NAD+, raise NADH levels and slow the metabolism of alcohol. Other oxidation reactions will pump up the NADH levels too. These variables are huge! Worse still, NAD+ conversion to NADH is heavily effected by cellular metabolism, meaning that acute stress and exercise will convert NAD+ into NADH as well¹⁴. Finally multiple sclerosis, which Karen Read has, will approximately double the baseline serum NADH level.¹⁷ Karen Read undergoing acute stress. CPR is exercise. Was she on other medications that increase NADH levels?
Rates of alcohol metabolism can vary up to 4-fold, especially since it occurs primarily in the stomach and liver. Large amounts of ADH are released in the stomach, so when drinks are consumed on an empty stomach they are dumped into the intestines quickly and are absorbed into portal circulation without giving the stomach ADH a chance to mitigate the effects, but then alcohol will be metabolised more quickly after ingestion. Liver damage will slow the rate of metabolism as well.
The Testimony
Dr. Faller reports a time of blood draw around 09:08-09:13 , the blood was centrifuged and seperated, the plasma was put into a machine that tested for alcohol giving result of 93mg/dl serum alcohol level. This, if accurate, would be higher than the whole blood alcohol level. The doctor refused to even ballpark this to a percentage for either serum or whole blood. He did acknowledge that LDH and hemolysis and bilirubin levels can interfere but should be flagged. The defence did bring up abnormal muscle degeneration, and so on but the doctor wasn’t aware of this literature. I don’t know that the defence couldn’t proceed due to this, but I feel they may have missed a trick here. Hopefully they will call a more informed expert on NAD/NADH metabolism.
The forensic toxicologist estimated her peak whole blood alcohol percentage at between 0.135 and 0.292 assuming last drink at 00:45 but I don’t want to even get deeply into these estimates because they’re built on a foundation of sand: we don’t really know when Karen Read started drinking, how much she drank, when she stopped drinking, or how much the NADH test was thrown off by stress, activity, disease or medication. We didn’t also didn’t get into any description of the test process itself. We don’t know if the machine measured NADH once, or if it measured NADH before and after adding ADH, or if it measured NADH only after adding ADH. We don’t know enough to evaluate this information.
On either basis, the results should be discarded.
Armchair Forensics
Personally I think Karen was drunk, at some point, but “is this evidence good enough to secure a conviction for an OWI?” is a whole other question. So is “How much did she drink?”; “How impaired was she, and when?”; “when did she start and stop drinking?” and critically from a conviction standpoint “what was her BAC at the alleged time of the alleged incident, and how do we know?”
We can kind of armchair lab tech this, given some assumptions. I don’t have access to the actual bar receipts but it seems probable, based on what I can find in the news^9,10,11, that while at the two bars she had somewhere between 8 and 15 standard drinks depending on if any of those drinks were doubles. She was drinking these between 20:58 approximately 00:00. I do not have information at this point eliminate pre- and post-drinking, all these people seem like they drink quite a bit. I can’t even discount the possibility that she got up at 04:30 and slammed some back. If we assume that these are all the drinks she had before the alleged incident, and she didn’t have any after the alleged incident, and we accept a weight estimate at 60kg/132lbs¹² then we can use a simple web tools to estimate her BAC(Appendix A). The results are generally mortifying, with estimates essentially ranging from ‘maybe unable to walk without assistance’ to an acute medical emergency . Maybe Karen can hold her liquor quite well or maybe these calculators were all designed by and for lightweights since evidently my wife and basically any girlfriend I’ve ever had could evidently drink the average BAC calculator designer under the table.
Conclusion
Without access to receipts, and since “no one appeared drunk” and at no point did anyone testify to detecting the odour of alcohol from her: not the paramedics, not the cops, not the ER doctor, not her so-called friends so based on my armchair BAC results (appendix A) show either she was stinking drunk and somehow no one noticed or she didn’t actually consume 8+ standard alcoholic drinks in 3 hours. I lean towards the former, but without confirmatory, forensic testing I don’t see how this gets to the “beyond reasonable doubt” standard. I don’t understand why the first police on the scene didn’t perform a PBT on her based on their testimony that she was saying anything like “did I hit him?” or “I hit him.” It also doesn’t make any sense that no one applied for a blood draw warrant once the picture supposedly started getting more clear.
We have another estimated 3+ weeks of trial for things to develop, and clearly there’s information I have not and/or can not access, but I find it very striking that yet again we have supposed forensic evidence that is not up to snuff. In combination with all the other shenanigans and incompetence displayed during and after the investigation this entire process starts looking like it has more to do with tunnel-vision, conspiratorial afterthought, and/or prosecutorial sleight-of-hand.
If I were on the jury I would be fighting to acquit based on copious amounts of doubt regarding essentially every element of every charge.
References
1- Baker, Emily D.. (May 28, 2024). MA. v Karen Read Trial Day 18 - Afternoon Session. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVX-YZ1wkDc
2- Ramer, Holly. (May 28, 2024). Jurors hear about Karen Read's blood alcohol level as murder trial enters fifth week. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/jurors-hear-karen-reads-blood-alcohol-level-murder-110624411
3- Schooley, Matt (May 28, 2024). What was Karen Read's blood alcohol level on the night John O'Keefe died? Experts testify at trial. CBS News.
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/karen-read-live-stream-today-brian-higgins/
4- Ramer, Holly (May 29, 2024), What was Karen Read's blood alcohol level the day John O'Keefe died? Here's what we learned. NBC Boston.
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/what-was-karen-reads-blood-alcohol-level-on-the-day-john-okeefe-died-heres-what-we-learned-this-week/3382901/
5- Lavery, Tréa. (May 29, 2024). Karen Read trial live updates: Read may have had BAC more than three times limit. MassLive. https://www.masslive.com/news/2024/05/karen-read-trial-live-updates-for-tuesday-may-28.html
6- Reynolds, Lance. (May 28, 2024). Karen Read murder trial Day 18: Witnesses focus on O’Keefe’s injuries, Read’s blood alcohol level. Boston Herald. https://www.bostonherald.com/2024/05/28/karen-read-murder-trial-day-18-witnesses-focus-on-okeefes-injuries-reads-blood-alcohol-level/
7- Ferguson, Sian (May 1, 2023) How is Alcohol Detected in a Urine Test?. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/urine-test-alcohol
8- Benoit, Katie. (May 28, 2023). Expert testifies about Karen Read's blood alcohol content from morning O'Keefe found dead. WJAR. https://turnto10.com/news/local/karen-read-trial-resumes-tuesday-john-okeefe-murder-canton-dedham-boston-police
9- Lavery, Tréa. (June 5, 2024). Karen Read trial live updates: State police investigator recalls interview with Read. https://www.masslive.com/news/2024/06/karen-read-trial-live-updates-testimony-resumes-on-wednesday.html
10- Tenser, Phil (April 16, 2024). Karen Read murder case: Alleged timeline, according to the prosecution. WCVB. https://www.wcvb.com/article/karen-read-case-prosecution-alleged-timeline/60510196
11- Bienick, David. (May 10, 2024). Karen Read murder trial: Owners of home where O'Keefe was found testify. WCVB. https://www.wcvb.com/article/karen-read-trial-live-updates-may-10-2024/60755150
12- Ankit. (February 28, 2024) Karen Read Net Worth, Wiki, Parents, Ethnicity, Religion, Bio, Age, Family And More. SarkariExam.com
https://www.sarkariexam.com/karen-read-net-worth-wiki-parents-ethnicity-religion-bio-age-family-and-more/617729
13- Okorocha, Okorie. (April, 2021). Alcohol Toxicology For Civil Lawyers. Advocate Magazine. https://www.advocatemagazine.com/article/2021-april/alcohol-toxicology-for-civil-lawyers
14- Walzik, David et. al. (January 4, 2023) Tissue-specific effects of exercise as NAD+-boosting strategy: Current knowledge and future perspectives. Acta Physiologica. https://doi.org/10.1111/apha.13921
15- Cederbaum, Arthur. (November 1, 2013). Alcohol Metabolism. Clinical Liver Disease. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cld.2012.08.002
16- Penberthy, Todd & Tsunoda, Ikuo. (March 5, 2009). The Importance of NAD in Multiple Sclerosis. Current Pharmaceutical Design. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2651433/
17- Braidy, Nady et al. (November 6, 2013). Serum nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide levels through disease course in multiple sclerosis. Elsevier. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006899313011475
Appendix A: BAC Calculator results

• https://smartserve.ca/bac-chart/ has limited weight inputs, if we pick 125lb female and 8 drinks over 3 hours we get a peak BAC of 0.25, a shocking 3+ times the legal limit and physically dangerous, with risks including inadequate breathing pattern, incontinence, inability to walk without assistance and loss of consciousness. Smartserve ballparks an alcohol elimation rate of 1 standard drink per hour, so in the 8-drink scenario, on Jan 29 at 04:53 when she called Jen McCabe she should have had the equivalent of 0-3 drinks left in her system, and none whatsoever when her blood was drawn, but the NADH based estimate for her BAC at time of draw (09:08)was 0.093%1. Unfortunately this calculator goes to a maximum of 9 drinks, so it was clearly designed by and for lightweights but we don’t need to assume any of these drinks were doubles based on the mortifying results from this and other calculators.
• I next tried https://alcohol.org/bac-calculato set for female 132 pounds, 8 drinks with a time since first drink of 3 hours 15 minutes to give blood alcohol at 00:15. It gives 0.31% and states “You're probably not reading this because there's a good chance that you're unconscious. This BAC indicates alcohol poisoning, and there is a very serious risk of long-term damage or death. If you or someone you're with are at this BAC level, you should seek immediate medical assistance.” I played around with this calculator a bit and it turns out it is also designed by and for lightweights. Nevertheless, it suggested that BAC would be back to 0 in 21 hours, which would be around 21:15 on January 29th.
• https://www.drinkfox.com/tools/bac-calculatoca set to 43 year old female, 60kg, gives me a BAC of 0.2267% at 00:00 and says would be down to 0.08% at 09:15, down to zero at 13:35.
• https://globalrph.com/medcalcs/blood-alcohol-calculator-bac-metric-of-alcohol-intoxication/ assuming 12oz drink size average at 5% abv (so 8 standard drinks) female 60kg gives an average female 0.307 blood alcohol at 00:00, 0.222% at 05:00. Finally 0.154% at 09:00

Hello, everybody!
It has been a while since the Iida glitch got fixed, and since I’ve recently seen some posts that asked how to handle certain situations with Iida, alongside many different opinions on his current position in the meta, I thought that it might be a good idea to share some tips on how to use him, now that the threat of the infinite Gamma is completely gone.
For simplicity’s sake, I’ll divide this character analysis into two self-explanatory sections. Note that I will not mention any specific combos / crazy tricks with him, as I do not believe them to be the difference between a well-performing Iida player and a bad one, but rather a marginal upgrade, and I want to make it very clear that, if you’re struggling a lot with him, there’s many other things you should be focusing on first. The only “combo” you’ll need is the Alpha-Alpha-Beta one, which only requires you getting close to the enemy and then pressing the buttons, but don’t rely too much on that, because sometimes you’ll need some spare Alphas for other reasons. Also, just a general tip for every game you play: check if you need to remap any buttons. For example, if you can’t melee attack or dodge comfortably, then it would be best if you changed controls to help you out, since spamming dodges is essential with every character and you’ll often need melee attacks. Now, let’s begin.
(Sometimes I may use “melee attacks” to indicate skills that are melee, rather than the actual melee attack, though the context should help understanding what I’m referring to)
GENERAL TIPS
1) Iida has no ranged attack whatsoever. What follows is therefore obvious; if you need to fight someone, ALWAYS close the distance between you two if you’re out in the open, and if you cannot immediately do that, take cover first. A lot of top tier characters benefit from staying as far away as possible from you, which is why you need to do that.
2) Do not rush every enemy you see. Evaluate the matchup (I’ll elaborate on the second part of the analysis), learn how to understand if you’re facing a good player or not (basically look at them from afar and check how they move and aim), check if your teammates are ready to fight, think about whether your team has a chance to win, and if the answer is no, let another team fight who you want to eliminate and then third-party them. Also, do remember that your special action isn’t that good, and only use it if you can safely get your teammate somewhere else, and not when you’re amidst multiple people.
3) Your Alpha isn’t just for the Alpha – Alpha – Beta combo. I’ve seen so many Iidas go for that when they could’ve landed a Beta, and then miss because the Alpha doesn’t have a gigantic hitbox nor crazy tracking. Instead of brainlessly going for the combo, use your Alpha as a movement tool; for example, if you move northwest while you’re above your enemy, they probably won’t be able to follow where you went with their vision, which gives you time to press Beta and hit them, because they won’t be able to roll properly, since they likely won’t turn around fast enough to see your attack. Obviously this is a very basic example, and it won’t work consistently, but it’s meant to explain how you need to think about your Alpha and the importance of surprising your enemy.
4) PLEASE jump before using your Beta. If you use it while you’re on the ground, you’ll likely miss, because it will aim above the enemy, whereas jumping before the Beta makes it aim below. Just remember that if you’re midair you’re more likely to hit.
5) Use the melee attack midair. You can time it so that it hits the enemy after he’s recovered (it’s not consistent but it isn’t really punished), or simply when your skills are on cooldown, or even just to move a bit while midair.
6) Confuse the enemy. You don’t need to attack with the same rhythm every time; you can change timing, use an Alpha to attack from another direction, pretend you’re running away and then run back etc. While midair, move irregularly with your Alpha (i.e. go NW, NE, NW instead of straight north every time), never be straightforward and predictable, because a character that moves regularly is an easy snipe target.
7) Extremely important at high levels: USE THE RECIPRO. Personally, I’ve started levelling Beta to 4, Gamma to 4, Beta to 9, Gamma to 9, then Alpha. The Alpha damage loss isn’t that big of a deal, and the Recipro turbo buff is insanely good. Initially, you’re going to struggle with the Beta range while using it, and maybe the cooldown is going to get you, but learning to use it efficiently is essential for fighting. And when it’s running out, maybe when it’s at like 20%, just run away. What are they going to do, follow you? Position yourself somewhere near but safe, like a rooftop or something, then strike again before they can heal. Once your Gamma is ready, use it again. This is important for EVERY fight. And don’t forget, your Gamma also has a secret effect; you can press it again to make a flip. Are you above an enemy? Flip. It’s going to make it harder for them to hit you. Are you running away? Flip while midair (you can do it after every ability, even while you’re flying across the map). Are you next to an enemy? Flip. You’ll always know where you’re landing, since you’ll have experience with him, but your opponent won’t, and you can take advantage of that.
So, to summarize: close the distance, make good decisions, use your Alpha well, jump, use the melee midair attack, move irregularly, use Gamma a lot. This is unironically all you need to do well with Iida. In general, it’s all about timing; know when and where to press Beta, and the game will do the rest for you, no skill required. They won’t be able to roll you if you bait their dodges and move around a lot, as you always should. Now, onto some more specific advice; matchups.
CHARACTER MATCHUPS
IMPORTANT: A few character will have “C” next to them; that means “conditional”, which in this case means “this is true 95% of the time against this character, BUT there is a counterplay that a few Ace rank players will be able to pull off”.
I’ll divide all characters in the game into 3 tiers: easy, medium, hard (it refers to the matchup against them). If a character has a C next to them, that means they’ll appear again with the assumption that we’re dealing with a professional “x character” player. Note that “easy” just means that you should not have a hard time ON AVERAGE, and that you could still lose if you’re worse than your opponent. “Hard” means “it will take some skill to beat them”, not “they have character advantage”, because the second statement would imply that the opposing player should have an easy time with you, which is NEVER true as a good Idea player, except for maybe a very good Twice.
This list is made based on the knowledge of a PC player (me); technically, this should not be relevant for most characters, since moving around a lot should throw the aim assist off a little, but I’ll mention any exception if I encounter some (spoilers: Endeavor). And as I am human, if you believe I made a mistake, please address it with due respect and refrain from sending a pipe bomb in my mailbox.
Important assumption: every character is assumed to be played by a decently skilled player. This obviously means that I’ll take into account reasonable scenarios for them, like people using their Quirk skill properly and aiming well, but not absurd ones like “yeah just turn 180 degrees perfectly in an instant and don’t miss a shot ever on a moving target”.
EASY
Strike Shigaraki: his attacks can’t hit aereal targets, he can only Gamma as a form of “melee protection”, and you can chase him no problem. Do note, however, that he’s dangerous in a 2v1, because he can grab you if you attack someone else.
Ochako: no melee protection, Gamma is inconsistent, Alpha is necessary for movement. Her Beta is useless against yours, the best thing she can do is escape.
Aizawa (C): Does he hit literally every single Alpha while both of you are midair and moving properly? Most likely not, and if he’s not insanely good (we’re talking crazy good) he’s as good as dead, because he’s got nothing else. Beta leaves him open, Gamma too, and the last one is hard to make work against you.
Todoroki: Mostly a non-issue unless in a 2v1 because of the freeze, also for the love of God just use an Alpha to get behind him when he inevitably uses his Beta to create a shield, so that you don't get hit for a billion damage for no reason
All for One: unless he’s secretly got another Quirk, he’s mostly fodder. Avoid getting hit by his bullets, and when you’re close to him combo him like crazy. The best he can do is trying to get you off with his push, but it doesn’t push far enough, so just get close again and use his lack of melee protection against him. If you’re wondering how the matchup goes with another Quirk, just add projectiles to the matchup with the other character and draw your conclusions, and keep in mind that there’s no special action involved.
Assault Shigaraki (C): If he can’t land his Betas midair, he’s dead. Simple as that. Once again, no melee protection, his Gamma could help but he needs it to move, and even if he uses it on you, you just outdamage him if you’re close. Just stay midair with your billions of options and you’ll be fine.
MEDIUM
(Every projectile character is here or on hard except for AfO and Todoroki under the assumption they can aim well)
Bakugo (both variants): For the red one, only the grenades serve as mediocre melee protection, his mobility being locked into the special action also puts him in a situation where he either lands every projectile while midair against a speed demon or he dies. The rapid one is more tricky, he outspeeds you most times, but he also deals little damage, learn when he has to land and hit him back (to keep track of him you’ll need Recipro). Overall, the rapid version is harder to deal with, but none of them are exactly "hard".
Kirishima: Annoying, but if you don’t get baited into his Gamma (just go far from him after every attack you land) you’re fine, and if you take damage just run away, he ain’t chasing. Also remember that if he uses his armor you can just run around until it runs out.
Momo: Also annoying because of the Alpha, but also easy to outrun if necessary. Armor through the Alpha with the Beta, punish her if she tries a Beta or Gamma by just using Beta while she does it. DON’T try using the Alpha to approach her if you’re already close enough, if you get hit by her Alpha there goes a chunk of your health.
Denki: Honestly, he’s only here because of his overall potential to scam you. Your Beta cancels his Gamma, your Alpha also does it, although it leaves you paralyzed for a sec (he’s also stunned though), his Beta gets countered by your entire kit, the only danger is that if you mess something up or if he hits too many Alphas, you die, but if you just Beta at the right time and then run away and repeat, he’s basically a free kill.
Kendo (C): “WHAT. HOW. Her kit counters Iida’s, doesn’t it?” That’s because you’re unfamiliar with the legendary secret technique: Iida Flip™. When she’s got the shield up, run against her with the Recipro active and… press Gamma. It jumps over the shield, while also dodging the clap if she tries it. I’m not making that up. It’s THAT easy. Just press gamma, and attack while she doesn’t expect it. Then run away, and do it again, she still won’t react in time because it’s basically humanly impossible.
Ibara: Good Alpha and good grab, but not being able to move around means that she’s susceptible to sneak attacks, and hitting the grab on you is all but guaranteed.
Endeavor (C): He either hits EVERY beta or he’s dead, he’s not on easy just because on average hitting a few Betas is easy for him. On Console I’d say he’s always a hard matchup, instead. Turns out, hitting every Alpha also helps.
Dabi: Consistent damage through traps, sometimes he’s gonna scam you, most of the times you win. Just don’t Alpha on a trap like a child and use Beta instead.
Toga (C): “I fear not the Toga who has used Beta for 10000 hours, but I fear the toga who has used Gamma 10000 times.” Most Togas prefer Beta and aren’t as good as you’ll be with Iida, so you’re just going to take damage from Alpha and Gamma. You Beta negates hers with no damage taken, your Alpha also negates her Beta with minimal consequences, so most of the times you win.
Compress: Would’ve been on Easy before the Gamma armor buff, now you actually need to pay attention; he’s got no melee protection, but he can fly two times midair and can’t be interrupted, while also stalling your Recipro. Look up to see where he went, if he’s nowhere to be found then search for him and beat him, if he’s above you, you need to dodge his trucks and see where he lands and kill him as fast as possible.
HARD
Deku (both variants): projectile + melee protection, the yellow one with better projectiles and the red one with better protection. Move around fast, and try not to be in range of his melee abilities, the you can win. Remember to move around irregularly to not get sniped. Iida: I mean, it’s a mirror match, what did you expect? Though to be fair, most Iida players can’t count to 4, so in reality you’ll be fine.
Froppy: DANGER. BE CAREFUL. Her hitbox is hard as hell to hit, so you better pray she’s bad at the game or else you’re outmatched. Either you anticipate her Beta midair or you bait her Beta on the ground to then combo her when she’s vulnerable, though high level players won’t often fall for that. The best tip I have for her is: lure her near your party, then she’ll be much more vulnerable, since her movement is very predictable.
Kendo: If they know how to aim their Alpha, and if they are familiar with the legendary technique, things will be hard, though in all honesty I have never met a Kendo who was ready for the Flip™.
Mirio: Annoying, his Alpha is hard to deal with as Iida. Best plan is baiting his Beta, which has enormous endlag (he stands still midair) and then combo him. During the Gamma, if he holds it for too long, you can just walk and punch him with the ground melee attack, if he doesn’t you can time a Beta, which will always hit unless he uses his Beta (which you can then roll and attack while he’s vulnerable) or his Special Action, after which he'll probably Beta and you know the drill. The reason why he’s here is because it’s not super easy to get him and he can hit you from the distance with his Alpha, plus he’s one of the few characters who can chase you.
All Might: Projectiles + melee protection, and lots of it. And also movement, because why not. Oh, and the projectiles deal splash damage. Best tip: learn when his Gamma ends and turn around fast after his Beta, these are the two most vulnerable moments of his.
Aizawa: Assuming he lands his Alphas midair, he’s unstoppable. You can still beat him with sneak attacks, but be very careful. Also remember that this scenario is the most unlikely one; there’s a reason why I put him in Easy before.
Cementoss: Dangerous, because he can protect himself from melee attacks with his random, incomprehensible hitboxes. Try to always approach him from behind, especially when he’s on top of his tower or when he’s using his Gamma.
Endeavor: If he lands every Beta he’s far more dangerous. If you meet one of these specimen (more common on Console than PC) be wary of him. Try baiting the Betas, which luckily isn’t too hard, otherwise just pray for your life.
Mount Lady: Basically All Might 2, bait the stomps or she’s gonna stomp you in more ways than one, though I personally wouldn’t mind I mean uuuh
Toga: Is she Gamma spamming? Pray she stops, or push her in an attempt of baiting the Beta. If all fails, run. If she follows you with your blood, run faster.
Twice: Yeah, his Gamma’s good even on PC. Try always hitting the clone first, if you don’t want free 80 damage on your face. Your best course of action is attacking someone else in his team, in all honesty, and let someone else on yours deal with him. Overall, never use Alpha if you’re too close, because that’s full combo on you.
That’s all, folks. I hope any of this can be helpful to those who wish to learn the ways of the Class Rep.

Hospital entrance was flooded with journos and satellite trucks. On top of that two protest mobs from opposite spectrums ready to rip each other a new one. Black-on-white violence is a prime cut after all.
MSNBC Reporter: "As you can see, masses have already gathered at the Inova Fairfax Hospital to express their disdain for violence that-"
Some two hundred mouths yapping total.
Black Protester: "You will turn this into a race war! Like you always do!" White Hooligan: "Shut the fuck up you no way inside, cops walled off the entrance for everyone other than ambulance. Which kinda didn't make sense, and I probably could go around to one of the many other doors, but... lack of drugs really fucks you up. Seriously, if you really gotta start, just stick to it.
CNN Reporter: "... led to a demise in just over forty-eight hours. It is a tragedy that has shaken the local community." FOX Reporter: "Our insider source states that the cause of death was not the gunshot itself, but a blood transmitted disease coming from one of the assailants.
This raises a very serious and important question: has the organized crime weaponized STD's against us?"
Nicole: "Excuse me, excuse me... goddammit! An actual injured here! I gotta get through!"
Drug withdrawal, seven hours on asphalt, and a cold fucked me all over. Didn't get a chance to look in the mirror so I can't imagine how I looked like. My steps couldn't be longer than a foot and it felt any random shove would break me in half.
White Hooligan: "... you're talking mad shit to someone whose gramps owned your gramps, monkey boy!"
My first obstacle: 5.6 blonde manlet (think Kylar with the physique of Crispin) in a leather jacket hiding a White Pride shirt, and a "STAY ON YOUR YARD" protest banner with a wooden bat serving as a pole.
N: "Dude, could you get out of my way? I'm sick!"
WH: "Fuck do you want!?"
N: "Get through!? I'm in a fucking emergency!"
WH: "Oh, so you with 'em? Race traitor, eh? You're supporting the dirty n-"
N: "-ice talking with such a... proud... uhh... warrior of our people. You must be... Heeeyyy~ that's a nice looking shirt under there!"
The moment I pointed at his chest, he hid himself like a prude bitch after losing her bikini.
WH: "Oh. Thanks, um..."
N: "I always liked the cross symbolism~"
WH: "Yeah, me too..."
N: "Makes you feel empowered by... God, y'know, the noble cause, the... the crusade... fight for your tribe...
WH: "T-totally man..."
N: "Hm, I think my photography teacher had one just li-"
Wh: "... listen babe, they're supposed to be an, uh, surprise. For when the ghetto boys start trouble, so uh..."
N: "No problem, man! I just have to-"

Cough Khef Sneeze

WH: "Yo. Girl. You good?"
N: "No, not really. I'm sick, this..."
Fake it until you make it.
N: "... this man was my friend's dad. I was there in the area when it happened, saw those gangsters driving away! I am the one who called the cops after shooting!"
Another Hooligan: "Oh man. I'm so sorry. It's such a tragedy to our people!"
I mean, I'm not taking much credit for it. It was like lying to a kindergartner.
N: "T-totally man! I was trying to pull him out of the car, got smeared all over with blood! And now I'm sick, I-"
WH: "Did you say blood?"
N: "Yeah? The black one? The one from the live-"
WH: "No way! He got you too!?"
N: "... he did?"
AH: "Shit! These motherfucking ███████! Afros! Fucking gator bait!"
And my lies got them riled up pretty good.
WH: "He splashed you with his black blood! It's got HIV and shit!"
N: "... black blood? Yeah, it pours from the li- wait, HIV?"
AH: "Didn't you hear? White guy kicked it because of the blood infection he got from the little █████ nailing the bigger █████ first!
Also, please stay away from me."
N: "... ah, yeah! Yes he did! I know! H-he totally got me! Look how pale I am! Shaking! That's why I gotta get to the hospital!"
So, like I hadn't just went through that before, I followed up. Amped them up so much...
WH: "First they're killing us, then our women!"
AH: "We gotta tell this to the boss!"
N: "... o-okay? Tell him? Yeah! Just do it quick, I gotta get in quick before that stuff kills me!
... wait, is that the fucking Mr. Whi-"

"GET THEM! ██████! FUCK 'EM UP!" "FUCKING █████ █████!" "██████ PICKING ██████!" "███████ WATERMELON █████ ██████!"

... that I may have started a small race war.

THROW CRASH SWING C R U N C H "Jesus Christ!" TACKLE

In some five seconds there was an all-out riot of people beating each other to a pulp.

PUSH

N: "Ugh... !"
I got away with only a light shoulder that sent me down to the pavement...

"EAT SHIT! STONE THE ███████!" "CHARGE!" "Wait-" RUMBLE RUMBLE "Hng... Kof!" KICK "Uhk...!" STOMP STOMP STOMP

... and while on the ground, I was nearly stomped to death like during a club fire. I just couldn't catch a break.

"Stop! Order!" "Dispatch! Shit just went FUBAR at Inova Fairfax! We need backup!" "Get off him! I warned you!" "STOP RESISTING!" "Taser. Taser! TASER!" PHOM TKTKTKTKTKTK "AAAAAAGHHH!"

But with cops busy and paparazzi scrambling, I could limp my way over to the doors like a rapper after taking eight shots to the back.

• • •

Inside same shit as everyday, except for the doctors barricading themselves or leaving through the back. It made the hysteric blondie at the reception even more obnoxious.
Jecka's Mom: "HOW IS IT A DANGEROUS ACTIVITY!? IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE! WHAT PART OF THE POLICY IS THIS!?"
Like she hadn't looked terrible right when it happened two days ago, now she was sulking in a lobby corner two bad jokes away from throwing herself off the top floor.
N: "Jecka. Hey, I... heard the news."
Jecka: "Oh hi you look like shit.
You did? So did half of the US. Good job."
...
N: "Oh come on... I am trying here. So-"
J: "The 'news' is on all the cables and radios. Did you sleep under a rock or something?"
N: "What the fuck did you just say to me!?"

...

N: "I got kicked out of home three days after graduation and nearly froze to death IN JUNE!
The second thing I did after waking up on the asphalt is spend my last dollar to rush to some blondie cowtits to whom I have NO obligations for!"
J: "Bitch, you still owe me a nailjob and a bottle of Addie-"
N: "FUCK YOUR ADDIES! Me! The uncaring sociopath! Doing something out of nothing more than-"
J: "-you put such an emphasis on the 'I'm a good person' part that only a horny dude would fall for that. You can do better."
N: "And that's all you have to say!?"
J: "Okay, wow, participation reward. My dad died and you 'almost' did. You're special.
Unless you're still not out of the 'ki█ling yourself is cool' phase, because I sure as hell am back in it."
N: "To get in here I had to start a FUCKING RACE WAR and my brain was nearly CURBSTOMPED by a horde of charging skinheads!"
J: "The backdoor's open, duh? Like ten of them all over the hospital?"
...
Alright fine, I needed to take it out on someone and you're the second best thing that came up this morning."
N: "You know what? Eat a dick.
I hope that with him gone, your life's gonna get fucked all over."
...
...
...

creak s l i i i d e e e sit

...
N: "So what are you two up to now?"
...

sigh

J: "Mom's talking with our insurance company. They somehow found a way to withhold the money. She..."
N: "... amped up on something?"
J: "Heroin in the toilet. Got three hours of sleep for all I know."
N: "Nailed it."
J: "... she says we'll need a lawyer. Problem is, if this goes to court we'll take a setback on our mortgage."
N: "Oh I can feel that. But weren't you well off before?"
J: "Like what? Saving up? We spent everything we had to appear a class above than we actually are. All that was left they pumped into the house or my allowance."
N: "So what's your first fallback?"
J: "Sell dad's stuff I guess. Tons of tools in good shape. No one will buy his shot up Bronco either so it's getting scrapped.
Besides money, I think it'll make things... easier."
N: "Now that I think about it, I'm glad I didn't keep anything after mine."
J: "Not even some necklace, or... ?"
N: "For better or worse, it's best to not dwell on the past too much. Just pop pills daily, smoke, get shitfaced. It works at making you forget."

chuckle

J: "Says someone who's been clean for four days already. How's the experience?"
N: "Fucking awful. I considered dying under that lamp. Little NOVA Match Girl. Tried to make the news, y'know? Your pops beat me to it though."
J: "You're a horrible, desensitized, untactful sociopath, Nicole."
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
J: "That's... the nicest thing someone has ever done to me.
Thanks."
N: "Mhm. Praise me more."
J: "Ah get fucked, pff~"
...
... but what's your Plan B?"
N: "Yeah, about that-"

JUMP

N: "-what?"
J: "So you want something from me!?"
N: "Yeah?"
J: "I can't believe it! You're... ugh!"
N: "Relax, I only need a drive."
J: "I swear, you're a fucking snake-"
N: "You're the one who told me to keep it transactional? Nothing's free, duh?"

sit

J: "I can't even..."
N: "Listen, I'm the homeless one here. And you're getting, what, a five hundred grand? Wait no, that's for elderly... two hundred?"
J: "Just one. With a high-hazard workplace he was insured since 21, but now that he's gone just barely after 40..."
N: "I'm sure you'll get that payout in no time. If my hag kicks the bucket, which I'd love to see, I'll have to wait until I'm 35 for my trust fund."
J: "That's still better than getting screwed over by an army of lawyers when you can't get even one..."
...
...
...
N: "So we're going or not?"
J: "Bitch!? Did you forget I smashed my car while saving your sorry ass? Radiator, oil pump, everything's busted!"
N: "So take your mom's?"
J: "Fuck, she's gonna kill me..."
N: "You're doing her a favor. Not even I would risk the wheel on the hard stuff."
J: "You don't drive in the first place."
N: "Because I have you?"
...
...
...
J: "Ah fuck it.
I can't take this place anymore. She screams I have to sit here to help her but can't actually do anything. She's so cracked that after the kitchen incident I'm honestly... not trying. Made me a fucking Princess Peach.
...
Whatever, she'll burn that crackhead power on walking home."
N: "That's the spirit. Let's unwind you a little."
J: "Yeah. Where are we going?"
N: "Lake Royal."

• • •

J: "Just what exactly are you looking for?"
N: "A big ass tree with two coke cans nailed on a branch. I also took a photo but phone's dead, so.."
J: "Way to mark your treasure for some junkie, huh."
N: "Those are the cul-de-sacs, homeless are chased out harder than Mexicans crossing the border."
J: "And why the tire iron?"
N: "Because I need something to dig with and your mom doesn't have a shovel in her trunk like a normal person?"
J: "Why would an equivalent of a soccer mom need one anyway? Those tires never touched a gravel path, let alone gone off-road."
N: "Whatever... there! The cans are still up there!"

rustle rustle ... SWING chop chop crunch chop chop ... chop ... chop

N: "A little help here?"
J: "You do that shit. Clean it up like that flower pot."
N: "Now that's low. It was just some dirt, move on, like who cares-"
J: "Alright, unwinded, going back. Maybe mom won't even notice I took her wheels..."
N: "No wait! You at least gotta see this!"

crack chop stretch ... streeetch ... streeeeetch

N: "Payoff... is gonna be huge! Ngh!"
J: "Goddammit, not only are you flatter than me but you're also built like Jeffrey. Give me that."

STREEEEETCH "Nnnnnghh!" POP CRUNCH

N: "Oh yeah! I still don't know how I put it under that root. Box's still intact."

c r e a k

J: "So wa'cha got there? Retirement fund or-"
...
J: "You brought me here to dig up a COKE STASH!?!?"
N: "Shut it! Nobody has to hear this!"
J: "Yeah, no they shouldn't! We're in the middle of a 'white-moms-walking-dogs' park! There are people doing BBQ behind this treeline! This should be done in the middle of night in balaclavas or something!"
N: "If I brought you one and told what we're doing would you actually agree?"
J: "Fuck!"
N: "Shit got wet though, it's like a gooey dough... maybe I just need to run it with a hairdryer? Damn, can coke rot in the first place? "
J: "I don't care if coke can rot in the first place... fuck, fuck, FUCK! Haaa... aaah... !"
N: "Dude, you're hyperventilating. Chill out."
J: "How the FUCK am I supposed to chill out!? This is the same stuff you made me cook crack with!
Fuck, even the package is still the MS-13 one!"
N: "I know. Should've gotten it all into zip-bags but I was in a hurry... yeah it's a lost cause.
What a waste."
J: "This is LITERALLY our neighborhood! You don't shit where you eat! Even Breaking Bad got that part right!"
N: "That's for the actual deals. Hiding your rocks is like store robberies. Guys start out far away and then get bolder until the trail leads to their home. Flip it, and the cops lose their head.
J: "Where the fuck do you learn all of this stuff!?"
N: "I googled it? Like how to freebase in the first place?"
J: "... no, no, no, no... you are NOT getting me into another PG county drug deal! Ah shit!"
N: "There's nothing to make rocks on in the first place, so no... but there's this.
Cha-ching madafaka."

4100$

N: "Okay, let's bounce before anyone comes sniffing around."
J: "What about this then?"
...

grab step stepstepstepstepstepstep ... s w o o p ... ... ... S P L O O S H

J: "YOU THREW A POUND OF COKE INTO A FUCKING PARK LAKE!?"

N: "Louder! Call it by full name while you're at it!"

• • •

N: "It was like just a third anyway. Most was just moisture."

swipe swipe swipe swipe swipe swipe swipe swipe swipe swipe stack tap tap

J: "Two hundred for me and we're even."
N: "Oh come on, that's a terrorist level extortion!"
J: "Two. Hundred.
That or no car."
...
N: "Fine... so, two hundred... plus my wallet I got through bro, how unexpectedly kind of him."
J: "Except for that Dorito grease on his fingers.
I almost threw up."
N: "Mhm, plus whatever's on my account. Mom fucking cut the card in half and put it back in."
J: "That's bitchy."
N: "Minus...
... clonidine and methadone. Supply for two months."
J: "So you're going clean?"
...

sigh

N: "Like guys trying to stop jacking off, I'm lucky to get a four days streak. Might as well try to commit."
J: "So you get-"
N: "Forty hundred seventy two, and ninety two cents."
J: "Damn, you're broke as fuck."
N: "I can't imagine living on two grand with rent already paid and... aaagh, I'm fucked so bad.
... I should just sell myself on the internet."
J: "Listen, I'd be down for housing you. Like, a grand could do, but-"
N: "But... ?"
J: "Mom's still tripping on heroin! She sent me NINETEEN texts already and called SEVEN times before that!
Look at this shit!"

beep

...
N: "That is seriously fucked up."
J: "Yeah! And I don't think I'll survive picking her up and a ride back to the house!"
N: "I still need to come up with something for myself though..."
...
_ _ _ _ _
⚠️BRANCHING STORYLINE CHOICE ⚠️

1. Live in a gym full of steroid jocks.

2. Move to a black hood in PG county.

3. Wh*re yourself for a place to sleep.

• • •
Voting will happen in the following hours on a separate post and will be active for the next 48h. I will also take comments from both here and two (Official and Nicoleism) Discord servers into consideration.
edit: THE VOTE LINK
https://www.reddit.com/Classof09Game/comments/1dbf4bb/pipelined_nicole_goes_to_us_marines_story/

Purtle's Internet Lineup for June 8th, 2024 6:14pm
Pics:

• Archiving is a selfless act, often carried out by people who care too much, for people who care too little. I know this is a basic take but you have to do something because it makes you happy, not because you expect anything in return. Cool people do cool things because it's fun https://twitter.com/KennyLauderdal3/status/1798388039464677453
  
• I have been following this artist via personal ac since 2018. They make an art each time Makoto doesn't get in Street Fighter reveal. I do not even play this character, but I humbly request CAPCOM adds her in next Season just so this artist can be free https://twitter.com/FGC_Daily/status/1799239611706917035
  
• On STAR WARS: Rise of the Resistance at Disney there’s a section where you are taken prisoner. I checked my phone causing a First Order actor to yell “PUT THAT TRANSMITTER AWAY REBEL SCUM!” I said “ok, but https://twitter.com/JoshRJohns16/status/1798535144699040073
  
• Sonic news
  
  • Sonic X Shadow Generations - Summer Game Fest Trailer [1:16] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68T1SVhA47c&ab_channel=PlayStation
  • twitter version https://twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog/status/1799207048028295533
  • THIS IS AN INSANE DEEP CUT https://twitter.com/UltimaShadowX/status/1799203659651420312
  • BLACK DOOM IS THE MAIN VILLAIN? NEW BLACK ARMS POWERS? OPEN ZONE HUB? CHAO RESCUE MISSIONS? SHADOW HAS NEVER BEEN MORE BACK. https://twitter.com/UltimaShadowX/status/1799208128078131335
  • 10 minutes of Sonic X Shadow Generations gameplay from VGC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shcxMj79cck&t=1s&ab_channel=VGC
• Pokemon news
  
  • Pocket Monsters (1997) is scheduled to leave Hulu Japan on June 30th. The Hulu uploads are known for being less edited than the versions on other streaming sites. Pre-Porygon versions of 1-37, black Rougela, Ookido segments that're edited out of other sites' uploads, etc. https://twitter.com/DogasusBackpack/status/1799295750683390320

Clips:

• In Mario Party 2, a glitch can occur during the Sneak'n'Snore minigame where the Chain Chomp will attack the winning player out of nowhere after the winning animation when the player is seemingly safe, essentially "jumpscaring" that player. https://twitter.com/MarioBrothBlog/status/1799158759358603474
  
• mvc2 clip https://twitter.com/super_unk3800/status/1799090021737332927
  
• bugs bunny and wily coyote https://twitter.com/HannaBarberaCap/status/1799051869916180845
  
• you cannot be serious https://twitter.com/segasaturnhime/status/1799212670974939441
  
• At a special anniversary event in LA, Tetris heads Alexey Pajitnov and Henk Rogers just met Willis Gibson, the teenager who became an internet sensation after he was crowned the first known person to ‘beat’ the original Tetris game on the NES by reaching its true ‘kill screen’. https://twitter.com/Andy_VGC/status/1798906930624442455
  
• fighting games are a thing so great https://twitter.com/sasuraigestatus/1799112147559182779
  
• mvc3 being cheap https://twitter.com/beni_ssb/status/1799020300665065487
  
• More impeccable editing by Boston's video team https://old.reddit.com/nba/comments/1db3siv/more_impeccable_editing_by_bostons_video_team/
  

Videos

• Flashing Effects [Effects] Sakurai [4:12] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mmw39T_dBLI
  
• Street Fighter 6 - Year 2 Character Reveal Trailer [1:16] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVPqv7ZyfWo
  
  • twitter version https://twitter.com/StreetFightestatus/1799192243536072957
  • Street Fighter 6 - M. Bison Gameplay Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dgfrWteSW0
  • According to his bio in the official SFV CFN site, Bison’s ultimate goal isn’t necessarily world domination. Deep down, Bison wanted to fight someone who is worthy enough. Now that he doesn’t remember being the leader, I think his basic instincts is to have really good fights https://twitter.com/Remy2FANG/status/1799339447206760772
  • Bison's Japanese VA for a long time has been the legend Norio Wakamoto (Cell, Johnny from GG, Chiyo's Dad), but as he is approaching 80 years old, the role in SF6 is being taken over by Taiten Kasunoki. He actually has voiced Bison before... 12 years ago in Wreck-It-Ralph https://twitter.com/jiyunaJP/status/1799390043699818707
  • In the back alleys of Metro City, a man awakens with nothing but an unquenchable thirst for power. Even with no memories, he stumbles upon the Ruined Lab with one name echoing in its desolate halls: Bison. Gameplay Details https://twitter.com/StreetFightestatus/1799331985737040292
  • bison died, bison is back https://twitter.com/RelusionH/status/1799210086390219007
  • Brain blast: they had Dictator take over Boxer's body so that after 30+ years, everyone in the world could agree to call him M Bison without worrying about local naming conventions https://twitter.com/ultradavid/status/1799201762509000864

Articles/News/Other

• Summer Games Fest Wario 64 thread https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1799177006908633186
  
• Innersloth are here to reveal their new indie publishing label… Outersloth! https://twitter.com/summergamefest/status/1799203342713033021
  
  • victoria tran: FINALLY REVEALING WHAT WE'VE BEEN DREAMING OF FOR YEARS. Outersloth is our way of supporting indies, sharing our success, and dream for a more sustainable industry. A game fund with terms we wanted to see.
• Devolver Direct wario64 summary thread https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1799229610410049610
  
• Offbrand is now a worker co-op https://twitter.com/offbrand_studio/status/1799250052919210311
  
• ludwig and piratesoftware coming together to make a game publishing company - offbrand games https://twitter.com/LudwigAhgren/status/1799259951380209817
  
  • https://twitter.com/offbrand_games
• We are delighted to announce we have entered a three-year partnership with the ESWCgg, bringing our esteemed awards ceremony to the Esports World Cup, the world's largest gaming festival. The Esports Awards will come to you live from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on August 24th. https://twitter.com/esportsawards/status/1799065649098199508
  
  • after all the dust settles there will be a book written about the one person who somehow convinced saudi arabia to invest in esports, kinda like the jakarta method but way funnier https://twitter.com/slime_machine/status/1799216288591720745
  • Esports Awards Committee Members resign after Event Moves to Saudi Arabia https://www.twitter.com/INTERRO/status/1799136678461972892
  • thread https://old.reddit.com/LivestreamFail/comments/1dbb36w/esports_awards_committee_members_resign_afte
• A long-lost archive of the DOOM/SNES source code, levels and artwork has been found and preserved here: https://twitter.com/RandalLinden/status/1799488800399253821