I need advice 9-1-1 I (f45) and my partner (m43) met 19 yrs ago through a mutual friend. It was love at first sight and we started talking and we both fell head over hills and decided to move in together since we couldn’t be apart for more than a week. We finally made the move and moved in together. He had a descent job and I was on the hunt for any kind of job. Since I had 2 daughters 9 and 5 at the time. He had 3 children m7 f5 and m of literally months. At the beginning it was bumpy but any new relationship is. It took about 10 yrs for our family to finally cope in between his family his ex and me with my daughters. A month into me moving with him 3 hrs away from my family he was laid off his job I had been looking for a job since day one so finally one day I found a job as a waitress working graveyard at a restaurant at a not safe area. I struggled since the biological father of my daughters cut ties after I moved he came to visit once or twice and then he vanished. We struggled financially for a long time. I was new on the online job search thing but I suggested he posted on Craigslist his painting since he’s a magnificent painter. It was a hit it. It went too good I left my job to help with the driving since it was mostly out of town. I got too bored that I asked to help him so it wouldn’t take too long. Our days were 10 hr days we did the murals for about 8 or 9 yrs. We argued constantly over simple things. So I told him I love him but I couldn’t do it any more. I started working from home doing clothing alterations it didn’t pay a lot but it helped. He then open a business selling and repairing video games and consoles it did good for a few yrs and he started an apprenticeship at a tattoo shop. He is very creating smart and extremely talented. I then started helping a friends mom doing alterations at her bridal shop that was next to an embroidery place that actually shared a room and the stomps of the machines hypnotized. As soon as there was a chance I got the opportunity to work there as well. I’ve been jumping from job to job to help with the expenses of the house and the shop my partner still owned. At his apprenticeship he had a slip and was fooling around with this other female it ended. He finally decided to close ip his shop bc it just wasn’t working. When he finished his apprenticeship he went on and decided to open his own shop. He got his keys December 2019. Most expenses fell on me since he had no income at the time. He was working very hard to get the place standing it was a mess he demolished painted installed plumbing electric the whole 9 yards. He opened his doors June 2020. We couldn’t be any happier. He is also a musician so he would get gigs all the time. I have to mention I was doing the house work the kids rides the cooking and when he needed me I was there all while I had 2 jobs I would take the kids to and from school and drop off my step kids too (I hate the word step kids) they’re my children too. Any how September 2020 he got this new gig job and by October same yr he didn’t want me to go see him play when he was blocks from home. He started acting weird like dressing differently and caring about his looks I had my suspicions but he would always tell me it was just in my head. I could see his call logs and I found out who he was talking to it was the lead singer of this new band. I confronted him and he said I was crazy. Ok. I kept seeing weird behaviors and talked to him about it since we are not legally married I offered to open a relationship since it would be months at a time w/o intimacy he said no cause nothing was happening. There were times he would take my car on a Sunday nights and act mad so he won’t come home. He ever told me once he couldn’t remember where he parked my car so he left it 2 hrs out of town which caused me to call off work many times. I was loosing my mind I knew something was wrong and I did everything to fix the situation. I decided to place a tracker in my car so he won’t have to strand it again. Next weened he took my car again and left it by the airport all night. I confronted him with pics of my car where he had left it and he admitted he carpooled with this other female that is married should I add. FF to may 17 2022 I got a hold of all his ig user names and passwords, he was talking to at least 6 females but I didn’t confronted him this time that day I had a terrible migraine and was feeling aweful I needed to rest my head and be calm so I went home he rejected me as if I was a piece of trash I sat up and told him it felt like he didn’t want to be with me so I asked him to leave he got up and he left. Right away he started dating this scumbag not the singer but this other person. He had a dinner date may 18th with a 26 yo and on and on. All in a span of 2 months after he left my home. We started talking again and we were fine I told him everything I felt and how much he had hurt me he told me I didn’t deserved that and no I don’t. When he moved out and finished fooling around he got this god and I loved her she was the sweetest dog. After my second job I would go to his place and puppy sat for him he would help me financially when I needed and things were working out it was like we were dating. September 2023 we got into a huge argument and things were bad I went zero contact for a month and it was bad. Until. He had one of his panic attacks and called me to take him to the er so did I saw the dog again and things were calm for over a month. By December same yr he gave me a check I couldn’t cash, on the 23rd I went to his place to return the check and give him his Xmas gift it was a large print of his dog on a makeup trip we did in march it wasn’t much but it was with so much love. He didn’t let me in to see the dog he said I was not welcomed he opened his door about an inch and the dog came out running to me. He called the cops on me I explained the situation and they talked ti us individually. I left and had Xmas eve with my children. I forgot to mention that my youngest f22 and his daughter f21 are currently living with me. Xmas day I was home alone and he calls me I pick up and it was him he was stressed he said that his dog was acting weird since Saturday she couldn’t bark she tried but was just wizzing we rushed her to a hospital 2 hrs away we came back without her she didn’t make it on our way back he told me that the day he called the cops on me she ran to his room sat in a corner and just looked down. He spend the rest of the week in my place I didn’t know what to do but be by him and help him. He decided to get another dog he just turned a yr I love that dog too. I’ve spent the night at his house every other night to help with the puppy while he works. I still had 2 jobs and his place is about 20 mins from mine. About 3 months ago he asked me to lend him some cash so he can get a car to play with so I did. 2 weeks ago my sister invited me to celebrate my nieces graduation and I asked him if our youngest had a date for his and he said no so I told my sister I was attending. Last Wednesday my kid told me he had a ceremony ticket for him and another one for me I arranged as crazy as it sounds to ask for Thursday off to drop off my daughter to my sisters which is 3 hrs away saw my mother for 20 or 25 mins and started my drive back because on Thursdays we take his dog to the street fair so by 1 pm I was back in town I took a quick nap and started getting ready for the fair. He calls me at 7 pm to ask if everything was ready I said yes I’m just getting his cooler ready we take ahi’s bowl a portion of kibble ice packs snacks and a spray bottle. I couldn’t find the spray bottle. I went to my car to check if it was there and I saw him pulling up in his truck I asked if he could come over and kept looking I check again and he walks right inside so I closed up and went in with him I told him I can’t find the spray bottle and he lost it he was cussing out the spray bottle and I was in shock I mean dollar tree has them we can replace it but he was mad at the bottle. He had been doing this same thing for 3 weeks he looses it and he goes into his bedroom extremely upset last time he was like that I let him know I can’t do these kinds of arguments they’re ridiculous. I told him I needed to go home with my dogs and I left. We have a mutual friend that has a dog like ours and that night he posted a pic of both dogs and the lost spray bottle was hanging from the side pocket of the wagon. I texted him Sunday so I could go see the dog and he said ok I spent an hr with I walked him and ate snacks then I left I called him yesterday and he said he had 2 walk ins so I visited the dog for 2 hrs walked him played with him and ate snacks. We both as an agreement we talked about me quitting my second job and puppy sit and he’d pay me what my second job did and so he can get hands on on his shop it’d be a win win it’s been very slow like scary slow and he needs to build his portfolio so we all happy. I talked to him about a bill I owe is 1200 and he said we’ll figure it out well it’s due today since things aren’t smooth I texted him and asked him to please call me he said about what I said about the dog and other things he asked is something wrong with the dog I said not really but we need to talk and he said there’s nothing to talk about I send him a pic of the bill and it’s due date which is today and he said not my problem ask for a loan or something. He owes me 2k I was trying to figure out how we can still help each other and he told me I was harassing him and that I can’t come see the dog and he will get a restraining order. I know his financial situation isn’t good but neither is mine he blocked me again. I know he’s a narcissist and very self centered. His actions don’t have an affect on me but the dog does I’m afraid something would happen to the dog like it did to the other one. I can’t say I don’t care about the money but I barely make ends meet for myself nor can I say I hate him I want him to be ok and succeed like I should too. I know it’s toxic that is why I left. I sent that payment today on time but now I will be behind on all my bills including my rent and car payment. I don’t want to go to his house I don’t know what I did wrong. All I’ve done is is be by his side when no one is he has literally no true friends and he’s not close to his children on his son graduation I was there there was his grandma his stepdad his biological mom me sitting next to her my stepdaughter her boyfriend and then him who got there 30 min late and on the phone for most of the ceremony.

[prev] [next]
Memory Transcript: Kinet, Venlil Surveyor Captain [Standardized Human Time July 5th, 2114]:
We had arrived in-system [four days] ago, and while I was expecting to see a world ravaged by nuclear exchange, the damage to the planet was beyond what I could have ever imagined. The surface was scorched, and the air filled with ash and soot from massive continent spanning fires that must have been burning for cycles. Despite all the destruction, our scans showed some signs of life trying to take hold on the surface, but not nearly as much as there should have been.
The humans had wiped themselves out over [150 years ] in the past; it shouldn’t look like it only happened only a herd of claws ago.
Fiir was of no use. When the first glimpses of the planet came in on the viewscreen, the scruffy researcher just stared with his jaw hanging loose before stammering about something being wrong. He stormed off to his quarters, and I haven’t seen him since then.
I sighed and walked onto the bridge with my waking claw cup of tea but was immediately assaulted by the chittering of an excited sivkit, our primary communications officer.
“Captain, captain, captain!”
“Hephy, yes, I’m right here. What is it?” I looked down towards her. She barely came up to my waist in her typical quadrupedal stance, and even doing her best to stand up, she wouldn’t be able to look me in the eye. Despite her stature, her excitement demanded attention as her eyes flicked between myself and whatever data she had scrolling across her display visor.
“Right Right. Anyway, Captain, I have to show you something, it’s big.” Most people don’t pay sivkits much mind, but Hephy was a prodigy. The excitable woman could look at a waterfall plot and pick out every signal present, and even read some of them without any computer assistance. I motioned for her to follow me to the ready room and started off toward it while sipping my tea. She trotted behind me on all fours, as sivkits are wont to do, and when I sat in my chair, she hopped side to side in excitement. “The signals, when we arrived from the jump, I saw something fascinating!” “Hephy, stop bouncing and sit.” I gestured to the chair in front of my desk. She looked at me for a moment as if I had grown a set of ears at the end of my snout. After a moment, her trance broke, and she hopped into the chair. She sat on her haunches and pulled out her tablet.
“Ok so, when we jumped in, we got a ping of the area, right? Send a signal out, listen for the reply, and we see what’s out there that our eyes can’t. Standard stuff, sure, but look.” She tapped at her tablet and expanded a multidimensional spectrum plot. “The bright spots are reports, and it’s all around. Debris right? That’s what I thought but look closer!” I leaned in and looked at the impressionistic splotches of color shown on the holographic display. The blues, yellows, and oranges spattered amongst the dark gray and black of night and other known objects was appealing to the eye, but ultimately gave me little idea what Hephy was trying to communicate with me. She must have picked up on my lack of insight, because she sighed and tapped the display again. “Normally, you see the pulse pattern return and that’s pretty distinct, but this is different. Odd. I thought it was just micro-debris but if you spread it out over time there’s a pattern to it, a structure in the phase relationships that doesn’t match reflections or our interrogation pulses.” “Hephy, you know I rarely ever understand you at this level.” “Right sorry right. Captain, this isn’t the return pulse, they’re data transmissions. Multiple data transmissions all at once.”
My ears perked up, and I tilted my head to the side a bit. “How can you be sure? What would even be out there to send them?”
“I wasn’t sure myself until I looked later on in the data buffers. Almost a claw later there was another longer burst. The automated systems ignored it due to interpreting it as just more micro-debris, but it had that structure-but-not-structure, perfectly shaped noise. I also had nav and sensors run another few active pings at different frequencies, trying to rule out silly patterns seeking brain nonsense. Nothing returned. The debris cloud doesn’t exist!”
“So what does this mean for us?”
“I don’t know, but it's fascinating! They must be satellites of some kind, either too small to reflect much or made to absorb radio waves.”
“That’s worrisome. There’s only one reason you’d build something like that.”
“Weaponry?” She chirped with surprising insight I had not expected to come from her. She had never been in the space force like I, and many others, had.
“Defense platforms, yes.” I took a sip of my rapidly cooling tea to try and soothe the anxious pit growing in my stomach.
“That’s…concerning.” Her excitement waned for a moment but quickly slipped back.
“Very, thank you for bringing this to my attention, Hephy.”
“As if I could keep quiet about something like this!” She snorted with a chittering laugh. “Oh! Wait there’s one more thing. There was another signal in a higher band that sounded off around the same time as the other burst, this time from a different orbit, way further out. I traced it to an artificial satellite.”
Suddenly, a thought hit me. These things were actively communicating with something. Was there something still left on the surface?
“Hephy, do you know where those signals were going?”
“Normally the antenna is too directional for anyone but the recipient to see it or it’s hard to get a read on directionality, but I know where everything is communicating to. The middle of the smaller main ocean.”
“Hephy, that’s an incredibly important bit of information!”
“It is? Oh yeah right, that makes sense!” She wiggles her tail in an amused flicking motion.
I stood up and patted her on the shoulder. “Get us close to that artificial satellite and see what it is. I’d like to get a better idea of what we’ve just stumbled into. Report back when you have some answers and we will go from there.”
Hephy bobbed her ears and hopped off the seat. “On it, sir. Where are you going?” “I’m going to talk to Fiir. This is beyond the original mission, and he needs to know.” “Ay captain. Good luck. Guy’s a weirdo.” I simply grunted and strolled down to the auxiliary quarters where I knew the researcher to be.
>Advance record: [10 Minutes]:
Fiir had brought an entire team of researchers with him. I was told they’re all colleagues of his from the research academy that are interested in this personal project of his. This many people on board with his project did explain how he was able to offer the exorbitant sum of credits to hire me and my crew. They had been allocated a section of the ship near the front, just past the shuttle bay and under the bridge area. This let them have their privacy and set up whatever gear they brought with them.
It also meant that there was a door between them and the rest of the ship. A door that they did not hesitate to keep closed after pre-launch inspections had concluded. The researchers didn’t have anything I didn’t expect from the manifest, but I still found it rather suspicious. Were they hiding something? Perhaps it had to do with that odd power hungry computer they insisted upon. Mara had her ears tied in a knot trying to accommodate it, and still they were coy about why exactly they needed it. It didn’t do me any good to speculate, though. What mattered most was the problem of the satellites.
I finally reached the door and, being the polite man I am, I scratched at the sounding plate before grabbing the handle and trying to open it. To my surprise, it didn’t budge. I could understand locking doors to the personal quarters, but this was a main corridor in my own ship! Just as I reached over to key in the unlock code, the door made a thunk as the latch disengaged and slid open part of the way. A familiar gray fringed brown muzzle stuck out from the gap. “This is a restrict- Oh. Captain.” Fiir opened the door a little more and stood up facing me. “What is it?”
I blinked at his rather blunt question. “I just came to inform you that we’ve discovered some worrying details about the nature of the-” “The artificial satellites are not of any concern to us.” He cut me off before I could finish.
“We think they might be-”
He glanced back behind the door for a moment, his tail thrashed in agitation. “It doesn’t matter. Have you prepared the landing party yet?” My jaw tightened as my frustration with his rudeness grew. I couldn’t get much of a word in, but I needed any answers. “They’re set to depart in two claws, but with those unknown satellites, I can’t be sure of their safety! I saw you on the bridge when we arrived, you were expecting something different. As the captain of this ship, I need to know if there’s a threat to-”
“Captain.” Fiir’s gaze grew intense as he leaned in. I may have had almost a head of height on the wizened farsul, but in that moment, he felt as if he was towering over me. “I suggest you stick to the responsibilities I hired you for, Captain Kinet. There are things that you are not privy to, nor will you be made privy to in the foreseeable future. Continue with the survey as per our agreement, and you’ll get your credits. Do not bother me until the away team is en route. Good paw, Captain.” He closed and locked the door without even waiting for my response.
I just stood at the door for a long while, a feeling of anger and indignation boiling in my chest. I had only ever had cordial contact with the researcher up until now; this abrupt shift in his demeanor was unsettling, to say the least. How dare he talk down to me like that on my own ship! I sighed and took a deep breath, holding it for a moment before letting it out. Slow and controlled. Letting the tension and anger flow out with my breath.
Inhale. Hold. Release.
Inhale. Hold. Release.
After a few cycles, the burning anger was reduced to a smoldering cinder. As much as I had wanted to headbutt Fiir, it wasn’t worth risking the contract for. I turned and walked back to the bridge to prepare for the away mission. Without Fiir’s info, I needed to make sure contingencies were in place for any possible threat to the away team. The lives of my crew are paramount, even if the contract was very, very lucrative. All that aside, the planning would keep my mind away from thoughts of my rude client.
>Advance record: [Standardized Human Time July 6th, 2114]:
I woke up after my rest paw feeling groggy and unrested. The confrontation with Fiir kept playing in my mind all night, despite the claws of planning for the away mission. To say his standoffish behavior left knots in my wool would be an understatement. I wiped my snout with my paws, flicking the crust from my eyes before getting up out of bed.
I grabbed my favorite mug and fixed myself my morning cup of tea. Pulling the dried leaves and stems from the canister, I could feel my mouth water in anticipation. I had been told by many who possessed the strange appendage called a nose that the tea leaves had a strong earthy and floral scent. I often wondered what that meant. Venlil didn’t have noses, but we did have a sense of taste, which is apparently quite similar. I often wondered what it might be like to smell. Do we really miss out on so much without being able to smell?
We had to soak our foods and tea in water before we could taste it with our tongues, and even then, it’s not nearly as sensitive, which is probably why other species consider venlil cuisine to be overseasoned and overpowering.
Another reason why the stereotype of venlil being weak is nonsense, in my opinion. How strong can you be if you can’t handle a little spice?
The timer went off, chirping to tell me my tea was ready. I sifted out the leaves and brought the invigorating elixir to my lips. The hot fluid warmed me to my core and burned away the waking lyasi silk from my groggy mind.
I needed to catch up with Hephy and Mara; they should have brought in that satellite-
My thoughts were interrupted by the chiming of my pad. I picked it up and answered the call to see Hephy’s face almost filling the screen, with Mara looking over her shoulder.
“Oh good you’re awake! Captain, you must see this! It’s amazing! The satellite, it’s full of brains!”
What the speh!?
Been a hot minute, I hadn't forgotten about this. As always, comments are coveted and appreciated. What do you all think about Fiir's behavior? What do y'all think of Hephy?
Thanks to for creating this setting and fostering such a delightfully passionate community! Thanks again to , Novalux, and the Foxmates for editing and helping me get this done!
Soma belongs to Frictional Games.

It happened. He didn't deny that. Not like he was a suspect or anything—not yet—but he never denied it to himself. At the same time, this all happened over a decade ago—twelve years to be exact.
He didn't think of it every day; in fact, sometimes an entire month would go by where it barely crossed his mind.
In a way, that whole experience—he thought of all the abductions and murders as a singular event—now felt as if it belonged to somebody else.
It was a time in his life when he was confused, mixed-up, searching; a dark time, you know, like a phase. Who didn't have one of those in their past?
Plus, he was married now. His wife, Dee, obviously didn't know about it and he felt no obligation to tell her. Did he ask about her former lovers?
Sometimes there are things in the past and you just let them be. Whether it was Dee losing her virginity to the quarterback of the football team in the backseat at a drive-in or him using multiple black garbage bags and masking tape on that thing he didn't have time to bury in rural Tennessee, everyone has things they would rather forget about. Sometimes you just leave things where they lie.
So that's what Ned Doyle did.
Until that Sunday morning, November 6th, 1988.
He was a having a glass of Dee's pulpy homemade orange juice, waiting for his coffee to percolate, when he opened his heavy weekend edition of the New York Times (probably Ned's greatest extravagance—he liked its heft; and how the Arts & Leisure section made him feel culturally superior to his Ohio townsfolk, “the Philistines of Findlay,” he called them) when he saw the article buried in the back.
The country was two days from heading to the polls for the General Election—Bush v. Dukakis—so most everything else that week had been relegated to the back.
He read the article twice before he could even begin to make sense of it. It seemed to be a story about something called "DNA fingerprinting" and a 27-year-old baker in Great Britain named Colin Pitchfork who had confessed to raping and murdering two 15-year-old girls, in separate incidents a few years apart, after a new scientific process had been used to extract information from semen which he, Colin Pitchfork, had left at the crime scenes (likely inside the victims) some five years earlier.
Now if they could do all that after five years, why not ten years—or maybe even… twelve?
"Interesting story here," he said to Dee. It wasn't uncommon for Ned to read a news story twice—once for himself and a second time aloud to Dee while she brewed his coffee and burnt her toast. But this was his third reading and Ned acted as if it were his first.
"What do you make of that?" he asked. It somehow got worse each time he read it. After the third time, he felt as if he had been sucker punched in the stomach.
"Science Fiction is what it sounds like," Dee said matter-of-factly, pouring Ned his coffee in a mug that bore the Marathon Oil insignia. Findlay, Ohio was Marathon’s headquarters although there had been rumors circulating about a move to Texas.
"And unconstitutional," he said. "Cops running a dragnet like that, taking blood samples from 5,000 townspeople. Thankfully, that would never pass the muster here."
"They did catch the killer so maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea," she said, buttering her burnt toast. "Otherwise, who knows? They could have convicted the wrong man.”
Ned had already gotten lucky once – astonishingly so. Griffin Gerald Jones, the famed “I-75 Corridor Child Killer,” had claimed responsibility for all but one of Ned’s victims before dying in Florida’s electric chair.
"You can't have police in this country running around, sticking everyone with needles, drawing blood for some sort of science experiment,” he said. “Nevermind the Constitution, what about AIDS?”
“What about it?” she asked.
“There's been hundreds, thousands of cases now where people have been infected by giving blood,” he said. “That's a medical fact. Get accused of a crime and AIDS too?"
"It doesn't sound like any of the townspeople there in England got AIDS, darling. Unless there's more to the story, besides what you read to me."
He watched her spread orange marmalade over her burnt toast and take a bite. She had a dead tooth and he saw it every time she opened her mouth. He loved Dee but had never been sexually attracted to her. Not in the way he had been attracted to others.
"It really is just a matter of time before that stuff makes it over here," she said with her mouth full. "To this side of the pond, as they say." She took a sip of his orange juice. "Isn’t that how it always works? Things start over there in England, or in California, and then phht, before you know it, it makes its way to Findlay."
He held his hand over his stomach. She saw him wince.
"Was it my orange juice again? Was it still pulpy? I squeezed it by hand and even strained it twice this time."
"It’s not your fault,” he said. “I think it’s me. Orange juice is getting too… acidic for me." He looked at the clock on the coffee maker. "I'm going to be late."
He turned the page.
He played the 8 o'clock Mass by rote as he had many a bleary-eyed Sunday morning. It was pure muscle memory at this point. He made a few mistakes here and there, missed a key or two, but it was nothing the organ's sustain pedal couldn't mask – not that anyone would complain (not at the 8 o'clock anyway).
On Sundays Ned had four Masses: the 8, the 9:30, the big one at 11, and the 12:30 for the dilettantes who couldn't get their acts together for the 11.
He turned the page.
Today he was using Glory and Praise, AKA "the blue hymnal" for songs he knew by heart.
Turning the pages of his sheet music, reading each note, he was able to keep his mind off it.
Ned abhorred cliches (especially those involving sports) but he made an exception for “Out of sight, out of mind.” For Ned, that wasn’t a cliché; it was a way of life. He was a man who preferred to be heard, not seen, which made St. Bartholomew (or St. Bart’s) the perfect home for him.
In a spectacular architectural oversight, the church's pipe organ was situated so the organist's back was to the altar and pews. The organist of course needs to see what's going on in the Mass to read certain non-verbal cues but the arrangement suited Ned just fine. The congregation was comprised of many young families who had many young children—boys in particular—and it wasn't so much that he couldn't control himself because he was now firmly in control of all that; it was more that he didn't need any reminders of that time when he couldn't.
Especially during church.
So to see the altar behind him, Ned had installed an actual rearview mirror, the type you'd find on an old Buick, and he used a special type of putty to affix it to the mantle of the pipe organ. Having been the church organist at St. Bart's for nine years, he seldom needed it anymore—he could do it in his sleep—but it came in handy today as he found his attention drifting and he nearly missed the oratory refrain at the 9:30 Mass.
His real problems didn't start until the 35-minute break between the 8 and 9:30.
He was reorganizing his sheet music after the first wave of churchgoers had cleared out, when he began thinking about Colin Pitchfork again. The article said he was a baker in England somewhere—did it say he baked cakes or was that Ned's invention?
Even though no picture was provided in the Times article, Ned spent the balance of the 9:30 service picturing the 27- year-old ex-rapist/murderer working in his small English bakery, quietly going about his business, baking his cakes, when the police (Bobbies?) came.
Was he expecting them?
He played the offertory hymn, "On Eagle's Wings," as the ushers began taking up the collections and a family of parishioners he’d never seen before brought the gifts up.
And what was going through Pitchfork's head when he saw the Bobbies there? When they began asking him about rapes and murders that happened almost five years ago? The article said that he had initially given investigators someone else's blood when “the enquiry” began. Had he somehow caught wind of this “DNA Fingerprinting?”
There was a new usher, Ned noticed, in his makeshift rearview mirror.
The Times article said that one of Pitchfork's co-workers at the bakery had taken the blood test masquerading as Pitchfork because Pitchfork had told the co-worker that ‘he could not give blood under his own name because he had already given blood while pretending to be a friend of his who had wanted to avoid being harassed by police because of a youthful conviction for burglary.’ This story was later overheard by a woman in a pub who immediately went to the police.
Ned realized he had missed the homily twice now. Not that it mattered. Heard one you've heard them all and Ned was pretty sure there would be no surprises. Plus, he'd have two more chances to catch it. He knew he would have to really focus for the 11 o'clock. That was always the main event. He was going to play "I Will Raise Him Up," a complex hymn, which required his full attention. He would scratch that one now if he hadn’t read that article and if the Sunday programs hadn't already been printed. People liked that one –it was a real barn burner, as they say—and if he skipped it, there might be questions.
The last thing Ned needed right now were fucking questions.
Who was this new usher, by the way?

By the start of the 11 o'clock Mass, Ned wondered whether anyone would even show for the 12:30, seeing that it was already standing room only. The 11 was always the most popular Mass, but today felt different; it was packed like Christmas Eve. What was the occasion? Was the predominantly conservative town that afraid of Dukakis winning the presidency? Ohio was a swing state after all and that image of the little Greek man in the tank was unnerving, sure, but was it enough to warrant this sort of turnout for the 11 AM Mass at St. Bart's in Findlay?
Or was something else going on?
Ned didn’t believe they had come to hear his rendition of "I Will Raise Him Up."
Or could there be another reason? Maybe they had all read the same Times article. Maybe there had long been simmering suspicion of Ned in the community and maybe the article finally prompted the townspeople to join together and take arms. With pitchforks.
On March 31, 1892, the only known lynching in the history of Hancock County occurred when a mob of 1,000 men, many "respectable citizens," broke into the county jail in Findlay. They lynched Mr. Lytle, a man who had killed his wife and two daughters with a hatchet the day before. The townsfolk hanged the man twice (first from the bridge, then a telegraph pole) and then, in a classic case of overkill, shot his body over a dozen times. The authorities had intended to transfer the prisoner out of town at 1 o'clock in secret, where a train was scheduled to transport him to Lima, but someone talked.
Ned had only confessed what he had done to one person – a priest eight years prior. The priest was set to retire as he was dying of pancreatic cancer and visiting from a nearby parish. For years Ned had heard this priest was “of the old school” – i.e., your word to God’s ear, and it went no further. He was as safe as they come. Still, even then, Ned used the screened side of the Confessional, lowered his voice a full octave, and spoke of what he had done obliquely and in generalities. They were mortal sins. His penance severe: to repent and refrain from repeating the act again. The priest was now long dead. There’s no way he could have tracked Ned down and told anyone. Was there?
The last one was named Derek. That was the only one left unsolved.
He would play "I Will Raise Him Up" during Communion. Because of the crowds, he knew the communion lines would be longer and would thus require him to stretch the already difficult song a few minutes longer. If he was going to supply the masses, he was going to need a bigger yield. In a way it was like baking a cake, wasn't it?
He met Derek at a Dairy Queen in Paducah, Kentucky. It was Labor Day 1976. It must have been 100 degrees out, but it felt even hotter with the humidity. It was a real scorcher.
Derek had a bicycle with an American flag banana seat. It was the summer of Bicentennial Fever. The Dairy Queen was in an area known as Noble Park. It had a tin canopy that kept cars cool in the shade.
Ned missed a note as he turned the page. He stepped on the sustain pedal and his mistake sounded deliberate and beautiful even.
It was early evening; fireflies were out in full force and Ned was blotto. He had been drinking beer—cans of Schlitz—all day at the picnic of a friend (technically, the friend of an acquaintance so basically a stranger). A born introvert who still lived alone (this was pre-Dee), Ned was very drunk and primed for small talk. You must also remember this was a very different time. This was back when you still opened cans with an opener; drunk driving was frowned upon but not the cardinal sin it is today; and a grown man could still park outside a Dairy Queen and strike up an innocent conversation with a prepubescent boy on a bike.
"What da ya' got there?" Ned asked.
"Butterscotch Sundae," the boy said. The boy was blonde with brown eyes.
"Butterscotch, eh?"
The boy licked his plastic spoon and stared somewhere beyond the pea-green 1974 Buick Riviera Ned had inherited from his old man after he had kicked the bucket.
"For the life of me, I can't remember if I like butterscotch or not," Ned said. "That probably sounds pretty screwy, I bet."
"Get a free sample at the window,” the kid said. “They're free."
"Looks awfully busy over there. Mind if I have a taste of yours? I don't have any cooties, I promise."
The kid dragged his spoon over his ice cream as he mulled it over. Maybe seeing that he was almost done with it anyway, he figured what's the harm. He handed Ned the Styrofoam cup.
Ned looked at the boy as he stirred it a little and then placed the curved side of the spoon on his tongue and kept it there.
"I do like butterscotch," Ned said, giving it back. "Thank you for sharing that with me, that was awfully kind of you—say, what is your name?"
"Derek," the boy said.
"Derek. What a nice boy you are. Do you like dogs, Derek?"
"Sure," Derek said.
"Do you have a dog?"
"Not anymore. Used to. We had a beagle named Eleanor but she went blind and then lame and then..."
"What kind of dog was she?" Ned asked.
"A beagle," the boy said.
"A beagle, yes you said that. You like Golden Retrievers?"
"Sure," the boy said.
"Cause I have a Golden Retriever. It's a girl too. A bitch."
Derek smiled.
"She's pregnant. I mean she was. But… she just gave birth."
"To puppies?"
"You betcha. It was just a few weeks ago. She had a whole litter of 'em. Boys, girls. Cutest little pups you've ever seen. The thing is, Derek, I don't know what to do with them all. You're a nice boy. You just shared your Butterscotch Sundae with me and I'd care to return the favor. Would you… like a puppy?"
"How much?"
"For nothing,” Ned said. “For free.”
"You'll give me a puppy for nothing? And I can pick the one I want?"
"Sure can. They're at my place just down the road. Thing is, it's probably too far to bike there. And you're going to need both hands to hold on to the puppy. Hop in, I’ll give you a lift."
"What about my bike?"
"We could put it in the trunk but we're not going to be long. We'll be right back. It'll be safe here. People don't take things that aren’t theirs around here – especially when there's a lot of people around."
He remembered waking up on the floor of his apartment disoriented. He was late for work. He was still working as a salesman at the piano store. There was a big Labor Day sale still going on. Labor Day was always a big day for retail. The owner was a nice man and Ned wanted to call him and apologize but he wasn't sure what to say yet.
He hadn't planned on sleeping in. Forgetting work on Labor Day. The irony.
He saw the boy's underwear on his floor. They were tighty-whities from Fruit of the Loom. He thought of that every time he saw an ad for that company afterward.
They weren’t bloody but they were torn.
He remembered the sound of the filter on the aquarium he used to keep in his apartment. It was noisy but sometimes that was a good thing. He was very into Japanese Fighting Fish for a while until it became too expensive as they always killed each other.
There were no puppies obviously.
His apartment did not allow dogs.
His sense of disorientation and the ensuing panic prevented him from experiencing any of the usual remorse he felt afterward.
There would be plenty of time for that later.
The boy's body was in the bathroom just off the bedroom and he needed to get rid of it. He needed to get out of town. Out of Paducah. Out of Kentucky.
He placed the boy in a hardshell Samsonite suitcase, carried it out of his apartment, walked down the one flight of steps. He saw no one and he was confident no one had seen him. The suitcase was lighter than it should have been—a detail he never forgot—and he walked out to the carport where he saw his Riviera parked sloppily between the lines. He felt a wave of nausea come over him but he suppressed it. He opened his trunk, placed the suitcase in the back, and then looked around the apartment complex before walking back inside. He cleaned up with bleach. Showered. Hit the road.
There were no police gathered outside the Dairy Queen. It wasn’t a crime scene. He didn't look to see if the boy’s bike was still there; he didn’t want to appear suspicious.
He needed to get out of Paducah so he headed toward the freeway.
For a moment he briefly considered the Shawnee National Forest, which was to the north, but he stuck to his gut and took the newly-constructed Interstate 24 East toward Tennessee. Aside from getting out of Kentucky, he didn't have a plan. The asphalt was brand new and at times he felt as though he were floating across the highway. It took about two hours to get to the state line and once he was over, he filled up at a 76 Station in Clarksville, Tennessee. Only when he was filling his tank and had a moment to reflect, did he think about what was in the trunk. He imagined he had Superman's X-Ray vision and pictured the suitcase in the back, the boy's tiny body folded like a pretzel inside.
He missed both the readings, the Gospel, and the homily again. Then came the Consecration which was over before he knew it. It was time. He began to play "I Will Raise Him Up." In his rearview, he saw the communion lines forming and he thought he caught a glimpse of the new usher staring at him, but he couldn't be sure. He needed to concentrate on the song. People knew this one; people wanted to hear it exactly as they remembered it, and it was a full house, so the sustain pedal wouldn't save him this time.
Once he made it through the chorus, he knew he could relax a little.
The "DNA fingerprinting" in Pitchfork's case came from semen that was left inside of the victims.
Ned had made it to the outskirts of Nashville faster than he expected. He still hadn't checked in with Mr. Cory, the owner of the piano store. He desperately needed an alibi. Old Mr. Cory could probably send Ned to the electric chair if he wasn't careful.
He got on Highway 386 and headed north. After 20 minutes, he exited in Gallatin and drove around until he found an area he thought was remote. There was a road called Cages Bend.
He liked the sound of that.
It sounded hopeful.
He took that until he came to a gravel road, which looked as if it led to an even more secluded wooded area.
In the rearview, he remembered the cloud of dust kicked up by the tires of the Riviera he had inherited from his father, the drunk, who had done to him what he had gone on to do to others.
In the rearview, the communion lines were still going strong. No sign of that new usher.
He came upon a bend in the road that looked totally secluded, as if no one had been there in years. He cut the engine and listened for a moment. The invisible cicadas high up in the trees made it sound as if a giant rattle snake was slithering around him, preparing to strike. He got out of the car.
He didn't know if it was the trees or the fields of tall grass, but something smelled like semen.
He opened the trunk with his keys and pulled out the hardshell suitcase. When he closed the trunk there was a rustling in the tall grass but when he looked, he saw only a herd of white tail deer scattering.
Initially he had planned on dumping the body and taking the suitcase home with him. He didn't think to bring a shovel. Then he heard the sound of a bush hog—a piece of farm equipment with spinning blades that cut vegetation and cleared the land. He couldn't tell which direction it was coming from. He checked to make sure his suitcase didn't have any labels on it or name tags. He then two black trash bags in his back seat and wrapped the suitcase – one bag around the top, the other on the bottom, and secured it with masking tape. Then he carried it into the woods and set it down in some brush. He began snapping tree branches off to make cover but as the bush hog got louder and closer he panicked, leaving it only partially covered.
The communion lines had dissipated. Everyone was sitting now, even the priest.
Everyone always knelt until the priest sat and Ned should never be playing if the priest was sitting but somehow, Ned had missed his cue.
He concluded "I Will Raise Him Up" softly, using the sustain to ease himself out.
He looked in the rearview and saw the priest staring at him.
As was the rest of the congregation.
They would all be coming for him soon enough.
Unless he could make it back down to Tennessee and get rid of that thing once and for all – assuming it hadn’t been found yet.
Somehow, deep down, Ned always knew it was going to happen.
He was raised up, alright.
Now it was just a matter of time.

Demographics: male, South Asian, public high school, in-state for NC, upper middle class, currently a junior
Intended Major(s): Mechanical or Electrical Engineering at NC State
ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1550 (780 math and 770 EBRW)
UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.0UW; 4.55W; 7/630
Coursework: Lots of AP, Honors and Dual Enrollment
Awards:
HOSA SLC Top 10 in my event
Bronze PVSA for 50 hrs of community service at YMCA
3rd in a financial literacy competition
Honor Roll
Random AP Scholar awards
Extracurriculars:
Red Cross Club Volunteer (3 yrs) - over 80 hrs of volunteering
Local teen volunteer org (3 yrs) - over 60 hrs of volunteering
YMCA Volunteer (3 yrs) - over 80 hrs of volunteering
Key Club Volunteer (2 yrs) - about 100 hrs of volunteering
VP of Biotechnology Club (1 yrs) - help organize bi-weekly meetings, organized a small competition for the club, hosted an art supply drive to donate to hospitals where over 60 items were donated
Finance VP and Chief of Staff for a nonprofit (1 yrs) - attend weekly meetings to coordinate fundraising projects and high-impact projects, worked on outreach and currently assisting in the creation of an economic competition fundraiser; interviewed and recruited staff for the finance department; originally started as Finance Coordinator, then promoted to Finance VP, then offered Chief of Staff role for commitment to the org, closed down after goal was reached
HOSA (3 yrs) - volunteer at some community events and competed once
Will be attending the North Carolina Governor's School for mathematics this summer (one of about 800 out of 2000)
Gym (3 yrs) - I do home workouts
Essays/LORs/Other: Essays will probably be like 7 or 8/10, recs will be from Calculus teacher (7.5/10) and Physics teacher (8/10) or Psychology teacher (9.5/10)
Schools:
Chance me for NCSU Mechanical or Electrical Engineering

TLDR -
Our relationship began last summer, although we initially met in grad school during a Zoom class and later in person during our internships. I had an immediate crush but was too nervous to approach her. Fast forward to last April, we matched on Tinder, hit it off quickly, and went on our first date almost exactly a year ago. Despite my nerves, it was the best date I could have hoped for, and we connected deeply. Over the summer, we continued seeing each other, often spending late nights watching movies. Even though she initially said she wasn’t ready for a relationship, we spent a lot of time together, and eventually, we became a couple before I moved away for an artist residency.
The long-distance relationship was challenging but manageable, as we talked all the time, and became very ingrained into each other's lives. I often drove long hours to see her, and we communicated regularly. We had started talking about moving in together when I returned, as well as the possibility of marriage. However when I moved back, my workload increased, particularly with a ceramics, and our relationship began to strain, without me noticing. The stress from my work and the disappointment from a failed kiln firing led me to shut down emotionally, affecting our communication. She felt neglected, especially since I didn’t discuss my struggles in fear of worrying her about my health. As I feared I was borderline depressed, from the lack of motivation and burn out. I also applied to a different residency assuming we were on the same page about the situation, which would affect our plans of moving in together. Despite our deep connection and mutual support, my preoccupation with work and lack of communication caused her to feel pushed away. Now, she's unsure about her feelings for me, overwhelmed by her own challenges she needs to face within the next month, and needs time to think about our future. I’ve been trying to show her she is my priority, but I’m unsure what else to do and desperately seeking advice on how to assure her of my commitment and rebuild our relationship.
Things had been fine for 7-8 months until I started shutting off emotionally from the constant failure and disappointment of work outcomes. When I realized to make an effort to see each other more, it was too late as she felt too pushed away at that point. We talked yesterday and came to the conclusion that we're not breaking up, but she needs some time and space to herself while she decides how she feels about the relationship.
The long explanation
I guess I should start off with how the relationship started and how it's been for first 7-8 months.
We started seeing each other last Summer after her graduation. We had originally met in grad school, we had a Zoom class together and we met in person for the first time during our internships. I immediately got a crush on her, and tried to just say Hi to her whenever I got the chance. I saw her as someone way out of my league, and was nervous to talk to her.
Flash forward to last April, we match on Tinder and we really hit it off quite fast. I was still nervous about the whole thing, thinking she wouldn't be into me. I eventually got the guts to ask her out, and we finally went out almost exactly a year ago. I was worried the date would be awkward and she wouldn't like me, at this time I also hadn't been out with anyone else in years, I had gotten out of a very long term relationship previously and hadn't met anyone new yet.
It was honestly the best first date I could have hoped for, better than I could have hoped for. Since the moment of picking her up to dropping her back off, we were talking non stop. We got to know so much about each other that night and I fell for her almost immediately. We almost kept the workers at the restaurant late, we didn't realize an hour had gone by after we finished eating. We just sat there talking. Then we went to karaoke night at a bar, we didn't do karaoke as we're both very shy in front of crowds. Overall it was literally the best night I had in a very long time.
After our 3rd time going out, I thought I would ask her out properly, and see if she would like to be a couple. I did, but she said it was too early for her to start a relationship as she had gotten out of one 2 months prior. But that she enjoys our time together and just needed some time before going into a new relationship. Which was fine, I wanted to respect her space and gave her the time she needed. We still saw each other multiple times throughout the Summer. I went over to her place late at night quite often to watch movies until 3 or 4am.
During this time, I of course still had huge crush on her. I also drove by her work when I got the chance to drop off coffee. If she texted to ask if I wanted to watch a movie, I would drop everything I was doing. I just wanted to spend as much time as I could with her. Because I also knew that she was moving away, just two hours away from where we both were, but that was still pretty far and I thought the distance would ruin any chance. It also didn't help that I was also moving out of state, 10 hours away from her. I was willing to do anything to make long distance work. I just needed to ask her again.
Before I actually asked her if she wanted to be in a relationship together, we finally had our first kiss while watching a movie, and that whole week we basically acted like a couple, but hadn't made it official yet. I told her my feelings, and she told me hers. Turns out she was very into me as well. I asked her if she was sure, since we were both moving far apart. We agreed that we could make it work. We had gotten along so well over the last 2 months. We like all the same stuff, music, tv, movies, games, etc. It felt like she was the person I was missing in my life for so long. Literally my second half.
She moved before I did, but I drove to her every weekend before I moved. And I always stayed from Friday to Monday. I helped her explore her new city, and move all of her stuff over. I fell for her more and more every day. After I made my move, we agreed to call each other every other night, to play games together or to watch a show or movie. It was hard, but we managed to do it. The roughest parts were having to deal with no phone service up there, or very little access to internet. But we made it, and she even drove all the way up to see me for one weekend. Which meant so much to me.
Over the next few months, I had started to struggle at my new place and in the position I was in in my career. I also managed to make time to see her once, sometimes twice a month. My drives would last 10-12 hours depending on traffic, but it was always worth it just to be able to see her.
I eventually left my position, due to very poor management, and for it being a nearly abusive situation. So in December I packed everything up and moved back home. Here's another important detail. My position was to be just for a year, which is one of the reasons we worked so hard to make long distance work. As we knew eventually we'd be close again. Our original plan was this. I'd move and work for a year, and when I come back we would look for a place together and hopefully move in. A this point, marriage had been brought up. We both knew we love each other so much, and that marriage was in our future.
I guess I should clear up what I do. I'm an artist, and the last few years have been spent with me participating in artist residencies. These vary in length, but the one I moved for was a year. I had hoped that I could gain experience in my field, in a proper studio setting, and develop my work further with the studio access I would have. It's specifically in ceramics. This was my first residency that was long term. In the past the max was 2 weeks. As a ceramic artist, woodfired ceramics is my thing.
Anyways, I moved back. Everything went back to the way it was before I moved. We alternated who drives to who on the weekends. We spent the entire week of Christmas/new years together. Before that on my visits, she was able to meet my family and friends. Everyone points out how well she and I get along, and that we're such a great match.
Starting in January, I was back in the mood to work on ceramics related projects. I had managed to get into some woodfirings, which for those unfamiliar, they're not very common. It's also a very demanding type of firing as we're stoking the kiln with wood constantly. These can be anywhere from 12 hours, to 100 hours straight. during this time I had also started working for my family's business again.
During January and February I was in my home studio constantly making work, often well into the night. Some deadlines started coming up, and as they got closer I was rushing as much as I could, and making as much work as I could. But it hadn't affected my life much, yet. Everything had still went well, and we were still calling each other at least twice a week, and seeing each other every weekend. Every other Sunday was D&D night with my friends, which she joined into as well. Everything was still going great.
March is when I think everything started going downhill. Besides the fact that I had a ceramics conference coming up, and that was a ton of pressure. I also had the biggest firing of the year happening 2 weeks after the conference, and I was one of the key leaders necessary to make the firing happen. There was tons and tons of pressure on me in March/April. I had to rush work for the conference AND the firings. And the previous firings I had earlier in the year turned out to not be very great, and left me very disappointed. But the biggest firing of the year was happening, and I need work. Because I had also been considering applying to another residency, I was so screwed over by the last place, that I wanted one more shot. It also didn't help that I also started up a Minecraft community my friends and I ran, but one that I mostly ran. I didn't realize how much time that took up either.
The conference went well, she went with me and she got to meet all of my ceramic friends, and we had our first road trip. the conference was a 12 hour drive for us. As soon as I got back from the conference, I knew I had to rush a lot of work and start prepping out at the kiln. I still set aside the weekends to see her, but I was just so busy during the week not just with the kiln, but also working for my family. I shifted my free time to playing Minecraft, as it's always been a comfort game for me since I was in high school. Some days I'd be so exhausted I didn't want to do anything else but just place blocks mindlessly for a few hours. At the conference, I met lots of people, and the hype from it all made me want to reapply to a residency. I had brought up that I was thinking about reapplying, and it felt like she was supportive of that decision. She was very aware of everything that happened at the last place.
the week of the firing I needed to be there as much as I could, I did 12 - 16 hour shifts on the kiln at a time, and I did overnight shifts. This meant for the whole week, she would work all day while I slept, and then I went and worked all night while she slept. I didn't realize how much this would affect her. I don't even think we saw each other that weekend, we waited until the next so she could come unload the kiln. That was the first time we spend more than a week without each other since I moved back.
I wanted to try another residency, and the deadline for the only place I was interested in was a few days after we finished firing. So I took that weekend to write out my application and send it in.
When we finally unloaded the kiln, it really really, really, disappointed me. So much time in the studio, so much time making work and starting over, so much time spent working on firing the kiln. Everything went wrong, and 90% of work I made was ruined. It really hit me hard, but I didn't want to show it. It affected me mentally and emotionally more than I thought it could. I kind of shut down for a bit. I went back to work, and when I came home in the afternoons I didn't do much, I just stayed in bed. On my off days during the week, I'd spent most of the day in bed. Barely talking to anyone. It just really sucked. So much. It sucked because I had hyped this up to everyone. I hyped myself up. I posted about it every day promising to update my followers on social media. I put in SO MANY hours into this. Just for almost all of my hard work to be ruined.
I didn't talk about how I felt. I didn't talk much.
I don't want anyone to think I'm trying to make excuses. I just shut down for a bit, and I didn't realize how much that would affect her. I had noticed since march, and especially in April we hadn't talked much during the week anymore. Maybe once a week we called to play something, or watch something. I was busy, and she was busy and going through her own struggles. She's a middle school teacher, and she's really been struggling the whole year in her position. I was always there to comfort her, and to be someone to listen to her about everything that's been going on. But all of that time just focusing on my work put a lot of strain on our relationship. You'd think that after the firing was over, I'd be free again and have time. But I was so disappointed I spent the whole week after making work again and rushing again, since I had a market to do, and I needed work to sell. the sale also wasn't great, and all of that just really hurt me. I didn't want her to worry about me. So I kept a lot of my thoughts to myself, of how I was feeling about the firing, and in general the career I've been trying to build in ceramics.
Me focusing on my work, and only my work, really really affected our relationship more than I ever though it would. And it was never intentional. And the rest of April/beginning of May was just rough. We saw each other maybe one day a week, or not at all, one day it was just for a few hours, since we had other things to do on the weekends. The market was out of state, and she wasn't able to go with me due to her work. I also realized I wouldn't get the residency, which was honestly kind of a relief.
Two weeks ago, I felt as everything finally cleared and I was starting to feel better. I went to see her on a Sunday, and I had taken a few days off so I could stay at her place until Wednesday. We hadn't had time together for more than a day in a really long time. So this was time to make up for some of it. Something had felt off that day though. I wasn't sure what it was, but I started to get worried. We would often tell each other "I love you" followed by "you promise, you swear?" It was always playful, while also being a little bit of a reassurance. I asked her that day, and it felt mostly normal. Later that nigh while getting ready for bed, she was just looking at me, and I asked "What's wrong"
This is when everything came out. She said she was afraid that we wouldn't make it. And then said that over the last 2 months, she felt pushed away and like she wasn't a priority to me. That it hurt that I applied to a residency without talking to her about it first, especially since our original plan was to move in together. I thought, we were on the same page on that. She seemed supportive, but we never had a real conversation about it. It was, "hey I applied for this thing" and "I hope you get it, you really deserve another chance!" She even looked for teaching jobs in the area I would move to, if I did get the residency.
Since that firing I wasn't there for her. I didn't tell her about my days where I just wanted to rot in bed. Some days I didn't now what to talk about. I felt borderline depressed. And I didn't talk, or talk about it, or talk to her much. I kept looking forward to the days when we would see each other on the weekends, but other things got in the way most times, and we didn't have the regular amount of time we had gotten used to. In person when we did see each other, things felt normal. I guess the weekdays after work are when she needed me the most, while I either stayed in bed all day, or got on Minecraft to mindlessly place blocks. Sometimes I didn't even do anything productive in game, I just ran around. I was sad. I just didn't want her to see me like that.
It sucks that I noticed too late. I knew we hadn't been able to have a lot of time together. I had planned to finally dedicate a few days together like before, and I brought over some board games so we could have stuff to do together. I knew that we would have to talk about moving in and planning out the rest of the summer.
The time apart, and the time of me not talking much really hurt her so much. I feel so terrible about it. Like I said it was never intentional. She said that her days for the last month were just going to work and coming home, hoping she would get a chance to talk to me. She said that night, that she doesn't know if she feels the same way about me anymore. She felt pushed away so much, and felt like she's already mourned the relationship. And she said it wasn't just that, that's made her afraid about our relationship. She's having trouble finding a new job, and her lease is up at the end of June, and she can't look for a new place, until she gets a new job. She's been applying for a lot of jobs closer to my area. But she also doesn't know if she needs to move back to her parents to take care of them, as they're not doing well either. And they live on the opposite side of the state. She has a lot of pressure on her right now and is very overwhelmed by everything going on, and all the decisions she's having to make in such short notice.
That night I, possibly stupidly, asked her if she wanted me to leave, after she said maybe she just needs some time and space. I say stupidly, because after I got home I felt like leaving wasn't the right decision. Before I left though, I told her everything. About how I had been feeling, and how I don't even know if I want to do a residency anymore. But she told me not to say that because of her. Of course not doing it would mean I get to stay with her, but I assured her this is something that's been on my mind. I told her that maybe we're just having a rough patch in the relationship and we should work together on it, and apologized for not being there for her. She said that with everything else going on with her, her parents, her work, her lease, everything, she needs some time to think about our relationship.
Since that night, I've been doing everything to assure her that she IS my priority and trying to prove to her that I do care and love her very much. I've been trying so hard to put myself back together, and just been reflecting on everything that's happened since we met. And thinking about the future, and trying to plan things out.
I wrote her a 6 page letter explaining all my feelings and how I felt about her, and reminding her of all the absolutely great times we had together. As well as highlighting my mistakes, and promising to never make her feel pushed away again.
She came over last weekend, I assume originally to return my stuff and call it off. It was different, there was a big elephant in the room, and I finally asked her how she's felt. And she says she still doesn't know. She had some time to think about everything, but doesn't know what she wants to do. We agreed that she would need some more time. We ended up going out for food and a movie, and she stayed the night. Though, opposite sides of the bed, and no kind of intimacy. Which is fine, she needs the space. She read the letter, and said it was very sweet and wished I put that much effort over the last two months. and I just said "I do too"
She came back this weekend, and stayed again. It almost felt back to normal. We spent Saturday and Sunday together, we went out, went shopping, went to one of our favorite restaurants, and another movie. I didn't bring anything up because I didn't want to ruin what felt like a regular weekend with her again. But before she left I just felt like I need to ask how she had been feeling. She said that she came over because she was wanting to feel it out, see how we would do together. And that she had fun with me.
She just still doesn't know if she feels the same way anymore. But that there's something keeping her from saying she wants to break up. She said that she still likes me a lot, and doesn't want to lose contact with me, and that she doesn't want to never see me again. That maybe, she just needs to settle down with her job, parents, and moving. I asked a question, I said "This might be a dumb question, but did we break up?" She said she doesn't know. We kept talking about stuff, and we came down to we didn't break up, but she still needs some time to get everything sorted out. Because, like I said, she's very overwhelmed with a ton of stuff. She still doesn't know where she's gonna move to, if she's gonna be able to move. But she said that she and I make a really good match, that we're best friends.
She's coming back over on Friday, and Saturday we're gonna spend the day looking at some apartments, in the general area where she's looking for a job.
I just don't know what else I can do. And I'm desperate for any advice anyone has to offer.
Here are my thoughts on from my side.
I know I can say she's my priority all I want, but I really need to show it. I've been more active in showing her that. Everything else aside, the last two weeks we've been talking more than we have been in a while. We still call to watch shows. We've been on Survivor, 90 Day Fiance, and Sopranos. I haven't suggested 90 Day lately though given the situation. She's gonna get Stardew soon, and we'll start playing together hopefully this week. Yesterday we started Shogun. I know that the last two weeks isn't going to magically fix all of our problems. I'm very aware of that. But I'm trying to show her she IS my priority.
Career wise, I've reflected a lot on this. I need to use my teaching degree, and get a job as a teacher. It's still my plan to be an artist/teacher. Part of the reason I wanted so badly to do a residency, besides having a studio, I thought it would help a lot on a resume. Plus more actual studio experience, felt like it would be great for my future students. It's always been my plan to teach. If I don't use my teaching certification for 3 years, I have to renew, which I've heard is a pain and expensive. this was my last year before I have to renew, so I felt I could get a residency out of the way before going into teaching full time.
But I'm 100% okay with not getting to do that. Like I said previously, I was honestly a little relieved when I realized it wasn't happening. I'm starting to look for job openings in the area, and I have an interview to be an instructor at a local studio tomorrow. Besides that I have no set in stone plans for a job and where I'm living. Since leaving the residency in December, I've had to move into my parents for the time being. I think no matter what I need to start looking for a new place soon. I hadn't looked before, because I was thinking I'd either move out of state again or move in with her.
If she were up for it after all of this, assuming it goes well, I'd move in with her anywhere she ends up moving to. I half jokingly said that if she has to stay in her current job, and city, that I looked into it and there's a place there I could potentially teach at as well. But she said she doesn't want to feel like she's making me uproot my life for her. But I would have anyways if things went well this whole time. And that if she moves back in with her parents, there's another place up there I could work out of.
Again, I know stuff like that isn't going to magically fix everything. If I said hey let's move in, I know that's not the solution. But I'm not saying let's move in, in hopes that it fixes everything.
She feels like I would be giving things up to be with her. I just don't know how to assure her that it's not me "giving things up" If we were to be together for sure, I would be more than happy to do what it takes to be with her. How to I assure her that "giving things up" isn't a bad thing. I feel like she feels that me staying with her, is the bad option. I also feel like she's afraid that I'd make her feel pushed away again. She asked what happens during the firing next year, and I gonna ignore her again? I assured her I wouldn't, and that I'm over woodfiring a bit. This year was just really rough in terms of my work being woodfired. Just disappointment after disappointment. I've also learned that my professor, who runs the firing, has been cutting off a lot of our regular shift leaders lately. He kept saying that they really needed me this year. I felt bad about our key people missing out, and felt pressure to work as much as I can do make it happen. Which is why I did up to 16 hours a night on the kiln, and spent so much time prepping it the week before, as well as all the pressure of having to rush work. After hearing everything that's going on, I feel almost taken advantage on with this whole situation. Since the firing I've learned about all the people he cut off, and accusations he's made about people.
Also, sorry about such a long post. I wanted to be as detailed as I can, so people don't get the wrong idea about things. I've tried to keep everything clear, while still leaving very personal details to a minimum.
I really thought she was the one, since day one we've gotten along so well. We quickly became each other's best friends. She's my best friend and my favorite person. It's really scary, the thought of losing her. But I hurt her so much, and I didn't even realize it until it was too late, and I feel so terrible about it. There's a part of me that's cautiously optimistic. If we break up what if we never talk again? She's become so ingrained into my life, it's scary to think one day I'll go a whole day without talking to her. I know she's really thinking about it, and taking her time. Instead of jut saying that. I'm very aware of my mistakes, and that I should have done things differently. I'm trying my hardest to make up for it. I know that it'll take some time, it's not something that'll be instantly fixed.
I just don't know what else to do, if I should just keep going the way things are right now, who to talk to about all of this. I just need any kind of advice and/or reassurance. She said that in the worst case scenario, we're just best friends, and she doesn't want us to stop hanging out at all or lose contact. Because we make such a good match.

My partner goes away for work constantly & lies frequently. He is abusive and in the last few days I finally got the courage to end things.
We share a house that we own together and he is currently away on a work trip. On Sunday I was sat on my sofa in the middle of the day, reading a book when I hear a key in the door. It was frantic like someone was trying to get in quickly but couldn’t figure out how to open it. I could tell straight away it wasn’t my ex-partner and ran to the door completely panicked.
The door opened slowly like in a horror film and my ex MIL (who I haven’t seen for over a year and don’t speak to because she’s a narcissistic bully) walked in grinning at me with mad eyes, telling me she had come to stay. For context, she lives a 10 hour drive away and has never been in the house with me in the 1.5 years we’ve lived here, so this is absolutely not a normal occurrence & to my knowledge she didn’t have a key.
I told her absolutely not and asked her to leave, but she refused and walked into the spare room and sat down. Rather than wasting effort arguing with her I phoned a friend who came around within 5 minutes to be a witness. I then asked her again to leave and she refused. I told her in that case I would have to phone the police and she said ‘OK that’s fine.’
So I called the police and my friend and I did our best to pretend everything was normal - walked around the house, made ourselves a cup of tea while we waited for the police. The fact we were so calm and rational freaked my ex MIL completely and she scurried out of the spare room completely flustered saying she was leaving and had only come to do the garden and to ‘talk to me’ about the house.
It was SO satisfying to reply ‘it’s a shame you couldn’t have stayed longer to meet the police 🙂’ and then watch her practically run out of the house and down the street.
I think she believed that she would come to the house and I would run like a scared child. The police later told me (via info from my ex) that she had come because she was worried I was going to change the locks! The thought hadn’t even occurred to me until she broke into my house. Ironically the police then advised me to change them that day so she couldn’t get back in 😂
Of course I’m concerned about what horrible thing she’s now going to try to do for revenge, but we have to celebrate the wins when they happen!

My truck just makes a single click when I turn the key. I tried to jump it and my lights got brighter but still didn't try to start. Last time it ran it I could jump it but it would turn off if I sat idle. I think it's either the battery or alternator but not sure how to tell.

I went in late mornng/noon-ish. I was undertaken by a crazy faint/dizzness when paying at the till. I sat down, staff asked how they could help, gave me water, asked if I wanted them to call anyone. I said I should be okay, and thanked them.
Then I realized I lost my keys (home, car, the works), I struggled to look through all my bags, but staff again helped. Then I went to Customer Service and some kind soul had turned them in!!
Thank you! People like you all are why Calgary is great!

"Vraylar, Unrelenting Force, Fell Specter, Decimator of History" wow someone was going full titles outside my door, that hadn't happened in, hmm I think it's been about three centuries, hell I thought the world had forgotten me, clearly I didn't live up to that last one properly.
"We of the united world alliance beseech an audience with you."
I could always just ignore them, maybe they'd go away. I could check on them with some form of magic but that'd take time. Honestly it was hilarious no one ever figured out how weak I really was. Just because you can decimate an army it doesn't really mean much if it takes days of preparation, or it wouldn't if they weren't all so damned afraid of me. I honestly couldn't do many of the minor quick spells because they tended to be unreliable.
I looked at the door to my peaceful little home out in the country. I had specifically chosen to live way out here to avoid attention. A momentary bit of nostalgia for when I lived in a fortress that intimidated everyone and kept them from even approaching. Oh well nothing to be done about it now. I stepped outside and was surprised, six people, a vampire hiding under an umbrella, two humans, no upon closer inspection a human and one of the fair folk in human guise, a shifter in his mid form black fur bristling, claws jutting from his hands and only standing partially upright as if ready to drop to all fours at a moment, a merfolk in their human guise, gills and scales still apparent but at least capable of walking on land, and one of my own kind a pureblood mage his veins glowing with the mana that infused his very being.
I gave a slight bow and a smile. "Now, what can I do for" a pause as I tried to recall what they'd said. "the united world alliance. I don't suppose you simply came to say hello, if you did it'd surely have been preferable to one of your party to wait until at least dusk."
The vampire stepped forward, his pale skin much more clearly visible, the umbrella twirling as he bared his fangs in what I assumed was a smile. "Vraylar, if I may call you that, you are correct this is not a simple meet and greet."
I shrugged "It is my name and titles stopped having meaning a few, was it decades ago that you united?"
That got a raised eyebrow and a chuckle from the fae who shifted for a moment revealing her wings as she whispered "You owe me."
I couldn't place which of them she was talking to but it wasn't particularly relevant. The mage stepped forward glaring at me and begginning to shift his fingers subtlely. Nope can't have that, I reached out and grabbed his hands in a death grip.
"If you want these unbroken you will keep them still." He glared at me but nodded his acquiesence. I could see the other's muscles were tensed, they still feared me, good that'd keep things a bit more civil. I let go of his hands and looked around at the party assembled for a moment and stepped back from my doorway waving my hand towards the interior.
"Uncivilized of me to keep you all on my doorstep, I apologize please enter freely and know that the rules of hospitality are strictly adhered to in this household." A smirk from me and most were hesitant to enter but the vampire seemed to be more then pleased to be invited in and out of the sun. His unflinching entry apparently brought the rest of them tagging along.
I led them through the foyer to the living room and asked if any would like anything. I saw the merfolk glancing towards the kitchen and nodded before walking off into the kitchen, I decided I'd play it up a bit tonight as soon as I was out of sight I collected a glass of salt water, made a bloody mary with a couple drops of my blood for extra kick and flavor, some milk with just a touch of honey in it, a glass of wine that I'd been saving for a few, well a while anyhow, I hadn't been able to peg the shifter so I poured a second glass of wine, and finally a vial of undiluted mana. Satisfied that each guest would have something worthy of a dignitary I brought all out and set each in front of them.
The vampire and shifter immediately grinned at their glasses, the merfolk was already downing his. The fae simply picked hers up and stirred it with a finger while the human and mage glared suspiciously. As I finished serving I realized I had brought nothing out to drink myself. Oh well, a good host prioritizes their guests. I sat in my favorite chair looking at the motley crew assembled before me allowing them time to decide on their words.
A sigh of contentment from the vampire. "A deliciously made drink, I'd swear you've entertained my kind before. Apologies I realize now none of us have properly introduced ourselves. I am Solemn, Triad of the" I grinned and finished his sentence "of the court of vipers." He looked a bit shocked then nodded "Just so, I suppose you aren't as much a hermit as we thought if you know me."
I shrugged then "I keep apprised." pointed at each in turn "Mab of the Fae 3rd of her name." a slight gasp from the queen who was often thought eternal. "Ferrithir of Tribe Noctis." The shifter simply gave a stoic nod. "Sal" The human shrugged. "Apologies on my poor pronunciation, Qqurnr of the 4th Sea" The merfolk gave a dismissive wave. "and unfortunately your sixth is actually unknown to me, perhaps his skills outstrip mine."
The mage nodded, he still hadn't touched the mana I'd offered. "I am Vraylar of the Arbitration Council." I had to choke back a laugh at that, unfortunately it quickly became a coughing fit that doubled me over. Normally I wouldn't comment on someones name but I couldn't help myself in this case.
"Ok is that your given or chosen name, I just have to know whether your parents were some random groupies or what the hell led to that?"
His eyes narrowed to slits "It is the name I was granted on my ascendancy to the council, they felt it had been long enough since it was used and were certain you were dead."
I nodded, of course bunch of stuffed shirts who oversaw the 'appropriate use of magic' wanted me further forgotten then I had already tried to make myself so wanted someone to take my name and turn it into something new. Once I was collected I nodded.
"Well as your claim is more proper then mine and I'd rather avoid confusion, I shall refer to you as Vraylar, and this assemblage may refer to me as Vray if that is not too objectionable."
The human who had just begun to sip his wine seemed to breathe it in as he began coughing for a few moments. Mab looked over at him and sighed. "If I am not mistaken one is supposed to drink wine, not inhale it."
Vraylar nodded "Just so, Sal please do be careful, I wouldn't want any of us unconcious on our hosts floor." He then turned towards me. "Now with proper introductions and niceties out of the way perhaps we could turn to our actual business. You Vray," his mouth twisted as if he were speaking a foreign language he had just learned at the name "are a threat to the peace of this world, your very existance is an intolerable danger that can not be abided. That said, all here have been briefed on your previous actions and abilities, despite your best efforts some memories and records did survive."
My shoulders slumped and I slid my hands behind my back to hide my fingers twitching. "I suppose by those words this august assemblage is not a dimplomatic party then and is instead the assasination squad sent to 'handle' me."
A unified shout of "NO!" from all but the mage had me leaning back, then forward with an eyebrow raised. "Alright I'll bite, what does this group then do with 'an intolerable danger that can not be abided.' As I know in my halcion days there was only one correct answer to such."
Solemn stood then and spoke seeming to choose his words extremely carefully, his glass now only a quarter full but cradled lovingly in his hands. "What my fine compatriot is Attempting, albeit poorly to communicate, is we can not leave you unchecked and unobserved. However I doubt we could force you to move if we tried." I simply grinned and gave a sharp nod. "As our goal is to maintain peace, invoking the ire of the Fell Specter is clearly a foolish thing to do. Instead we have come up with a proposal, one we hope you will find sufficiently beneficial to all parties." He sat down then and Ferrithir leaned forward some and bared his teeth a bit.
"My tribe remembers your cruelty, your destruction. They remember the menace who threatened to destroy the world." Oh god the destroy the world shit again. I raised my hand and he paused.
"Alright, I need to clarify I was Never going to destroy the world, I live on it and all my stuff is stored here, I Might have tried to take it over once or twice, but was never going to destroy it." well not intentionally anyways but they didn't need to know that.
Ferrithir shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Regardless what my people remember most is your Power, such displays are highly valued by the tribes and had you been born one of us you would likely have been Shaman Chief. We still see value in that to this day." As he sat back and closed his eyes Mab stood up, setting her now empty glass upon the table.
"The fair folk do not respect power alone, nor power for powers sake. We however do recognize finesse, strategy, and forethought as virtues often lacking in the other species." A hiss from the vamp and a growl from the shifter ignored as she continued. "During your time in the spotlight of history you displayed these to great effect, our younglings idolize other species and see the old ways as foolish we can not reach them through normal means."
Ok this was getting Very weird, I thought I saw where this was going and simply hoped I was wrong.
As Mab sat down Sal set his still largely full wine glass down on the coffee table in front of him and leaned forward. "Humans are short lived, we have done what we can to extend that, we have trusted our allies to protect us, but recently things have changed. Once mana was the purview exclusive to your kind." I nodded "However intermingling of species has altered the world significantly, there are those who can draw mana amongst all species now. Humans are impulsive and quick to act, likely due to that shorter life span."
He then nodded to Qqurnr who shook his head as he looked to me. "As my compatriot has said the tides of life are changing, even my people are seeing a shift, our young are taught to embrace all that they are, to flow as the tides do and not to question why or how to simply do. In the past this was fine for we were isolated by the waters, protected by the storms, and peace amongst ourselves was easy to maintain. The changes now though are beyond such and require a new way of thinking."
Vraylar then stood and began moving his fingers once more, in the blink of an eye Solemn was holding one hand and Ferrithir the other. "He warned you about this" Ferrithir growled.
Solemn nodded "If you wish to show him something through your craft you had best explain your intent First."
Vraylar sighed "Of course, it is force of habit." He then turns to me, "Vray, if you would grant me permission I would show you the future the council seers have foreseen, through a few simple illusions."
I considered for a moment and then folded my hands over each other while flexing my middle fingers in the gestures I was taught to prep a counterspell before nodding. He looked over and I saw a slight tightening of his lips. Once my approval was met his hands were released though the two stayed within arms reach.
I watched the familiar gestures, he was definitely crafting an illusion, but of what kind only a true master of mindshift could know. As he finished the gestures his words not even spoken simply mouthed a swirl in the air looking like a heat shimmer at first then solidifying into a proper image, but split in half oddly enough, myself staring out from the center, the split showing a half of me smiling as I watched various children of different races contort their hands, speaking loud words that seemed truly unnatural to many of them. The me on the other half though stood in my old armor, god I hadn't donned that thing in forever, I'm not even sure where I stored it. Overseeing a chain gang worth of slaves toiling at gathering rocks and laughing cruelly. I watched these images for a few minutes, then the cruel me waved at the image and rather then fading normally it burst and knocked all the furniture and the guests over. I rolled to my feet, as I heard Vraylar scream, "How the fuck do you do that you utter Asshole?!" his hands begin twitching even as he was lying on the floor, this time in a spell that was definitely a threat. "Move another finger and I kill Everyone in this Room!" He froze and his compatriots took the hesitant moment to fully dogpile onto him and pin him completely, hands arms, even his legs held down.
I looked around my room and lifted a single chair and sat back down. "Alright first of all, I didn't do that A future me did, nothing I can do about what myself in one possible future does, he probably had his reasons. Secondly assuming I got the gist of your speeches and that little glimpse, you have all lost your damn minds. You want ME, Vraylar, Unrelenting Force, Fell Specter, Decimator of History, Cruelest of Tyrants, Asshole Extraordinaire, Bane of all that is Good, Most hated of Mages." Yeah they'd cut off the insulting titles, but they seemed appropriate reminders now. "To TEACH CHILDREN?!"
Everyone stayed frozen for a few minutes and after a bit I waved at them. "I do believe Vraylar has calmed enough to not do anything foolish, correct?" I gave him an icy glare.
They slowly let him go and then tipped furniture back upright for themselves to sit back down, sadly those with drink left had them wasted, aside from the vial of mana which I'd made sure was insanely durable and my guest hadn't even uncapped. Once everyone was settled though Vraylar remained standing they looked at me, I could see the fear in their eyes.
This time Sal was the first to speak. "Well yes, despite your past you are known as one of the best mages to ever walk the earth, some might balk and it wouldn't be large groups. Likely only one from each race, those showing an abundance of talent, skill, or power selected specifically to train under you. They would be under your care, you would have full authority, within reason over their education and oversight. You would act as both teacher and guardian with pre set times for their parents or legal guardians to visit. An occassional surprise inspection from one of us to check in and ask how they feel things are going. In exchange you would largely be allowed to continue your life as it has been. You would also be given a larger home to accomodate this, placed in any area you felt appropriate so long as it was far enough from a populated area. All expenses for you and the children would be directly covered, requests to be passed along as needed."
I wanted to tell them they were all deranged, I wanted to ignore the request, hell I wanted to spend the next week working on a time warp to get me back so I could ignore the call at the door. However most of all, I wanted the version of me from that brighter future. I have many titles, I have many descriptions, but none of them have Ever, not even in my own mind referred to me as "happy". That version, with the genuine smile, the caring and pride in his eyes. As I thought about it I realized his hand had been twitching too, was he holding back the other's counterspell, could that even be possible. I knew the gestures and the spells, but my power was raw and excessive. A river can be dammed and controlled, the ocean can not.
I looked at each of them in turn. "I will need one last caveat. I have full discretion to refuse a student and ask for a replacement. I also will maintain some of my key secrets, none of them will ever know Everything I know. If you all find that acceptable, then I accept this plan and position."
They took a few minutes of discussion not bothering to hide any of it from me. There were concerns of favoritism towards a race but the fact I had included a replacement seemed to address that. There was some talk about how if they didn't know all I did then it'd be a waste of time, cooler heads pointed out that even a fraction of my knowledge and power was above what many could teach.
Vraylar stepped away as they finished. "We are all agreed, the contract is set, of course you can't expect anyone here to be simply taken at their word, you towards us or we towards you." I nodded and started the gestures, he then looked down at my hands. "If you don't object I'd prefer to be the one binding this." I shrugged "suit yourself" and let my hands lie still. After a few moments all hands glowed and were placed on the coffee table, threads of light each a different color snaking out from them and meeting in the center, tying into first a knot, then a tangle, then another knot, until it formed into such a mess of colors that you likely couldn't even pick one out from another.
I grinned, none of us could break this word now, our contract was bound to our souls and the one who broke it would die a rather horrible death. I'd seen it once, it turns out that you Can turn someone inside out and keep them alive long enough to show them their heart.
"I shall have plans drawn up and a place picked out within the month, hopefully that will give you all time to select some candidates."

If You're struggling to handle your Online Exams, Assignments or any other coursework, get help from Hiraedu and pay after the exam. Contact details for Hiraedu is: WhatsApp: +1 (213) 594-5657 OR Call: +1 727 456 9641
ASSESSMENTS I CAN COMPLETE:

• Online Courses (1 - 20 Weeks Long)
• Homework Assignments
• Exams Quizzes Tests
• Excel Projects
• Discussion Forum Posts
• Research Papers Term Papers Essays
• Employment Assessments

MY MATH SUBJECTS OF EXPERTISE:
I am very knowledgeable and proficient in assisting students in a wide range of mathematics classes. I can help students complete their homework assignments and other projects get an A on quizzes, tests, and exams (including proctored assessments) answer online discussion posts write essays & papers in MLA APA Chicago format and provide general overall academic help in each math course listed below:

• Advanced Placement Honors High School Level Math
• AP Calculus AB A.P. Calculus BC
• AP Statistics
• Biostatistics Bio-Statistics
• College Algebra Intermediate Algebra
• Business Calculus
• Business Statistics
• Business Math
• Calculus I Calculus II Calculus III (Calc)
• Geometry
• International Baccalaureate (IB) Maths
• Liberal Arts Math
• Logic & Reasoning
• Multivariable Calculus Multi variable Calculus
• Precalculus Pre-calculus
• Probability & Statistics
• Psychology Statistics Psych Stats
• Quantitative Reasoning Quantitative Methods Quantitative Literacy (Quant)
• Statistics (Stats)
• Statistics for Social Sciences
• Trigonometry (Trig)

STATISTICS HELP (MY BEST SUBJECT):

• I have a master's degree in Applied Statistics from a university in New Jersey, USA. As a result, I am very proficient in helping students with various types of Statistics courses including Biostatistics Business Statistics Elementary Statistics Probability & Statistics Psychology Statistics.
• I have extensive knowledge and skill with helping students get through various statistical concepts including all of the following in alphabetical order:
• ANOVA Bar Graph, Boxplot, Dot Plot, Histogram, Pie Chart Bias Binomial, Exponential, Poisson, Gamma, Uniform Distribution Central Limit Theorem Chi-Square Test Coefficient of Determination (R^2) Conditional & Relative Probability Confidence Interval Correlation Coefficient (r) Critical Region Critical Value Descriptive & Inferential Statistics Effect Size Expected Value Experiment vs Observation Goodness of Fit Test Hypothesis Testing Interpolation & Extrapolation Interquartile Range (IQR) Kurtosis Left, Negative, Right, Positive Skewed Distribution Logistic Regression Mean, Median, Mode, Midrange Multiple Regression Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, Ratio I Population Parameter Normal, Symmetric & Bell Shaped Distribution Null & Alternate Hypothesis One & Two Sample T-Test One & Two Sample Z-Test Ordinary Least Squares Outliers P-Value Pooled Variance (Equal Variances) Proportion R^2 Range Regression Regression Line Reject & Fail to Reject Ho Relative & Cumulative Frequency Distributions Relativity & Reliability Right, Left, One, Two Tailed Tailed Hypothesis Test Sample Statistics Sampling Methods (Convenience, Stratified, Simple, Cluster, Systematic) Significance Level (1%, 5%, 10%) Skewness Standard Deviation& Variance T-Score Test Statistic Time Series Type I & Type II Errors Unbiased Estimators Z-Score

ALGEBRA HELP:

• I am well-versed in helping students do well in Algebra 1 & 2 College Algebra Intermediate Algebra Pre-Algebra and I am very knowledgeable and proficient in the following algebra topics in alphabetical order:
• Absolute Values Circle Equation Domain Exponents Graphing Horizontal & Vertical Asymptotes Inequalities, Equations & Functions Inverse Functions Linear, Exponential, Logarithmic, Quadratic Equations Logarithms Maximum & Minimum Values of a Graph Number Lines One-to-One Functions Parallel & Perpendicular Lines Plotting Points & Ordered Pairs Point-Slope Form Polynomial Division Polynomials Radicals Range Rational & Irrational Expressions Rational Functions Real Roots Real Zeros Relations & Functions Slope Slope-Intercept Form Square Roots Standard Form of a Line System of Equations System of Inequalities Variables X and Y Intercepts

CALCULUS HELP:

• I am well-versed in helping students do well in Calculus I, II & III, Calculus 1, 2 & 3, Business Calculus, Multivariable Calculus, Vector Calculus and I am very knowledgeable and proficient in the following calculus topics in alphabetical order:
• Absolute & Local Maximum and Minimum Antiderivative Area & Volume Chain Rule Concavity Continuity Convergence Test Critical Points Curvature Curve of Rotation Curve Sketching Derivatives Divergence Test First & Second Derivative Test Fourier Series Implicit Differentiation Increasing / Decreasing Functions Infinite Series Integrals Integration by Parts Jacobian Matrix Limits L’Hopital’s Rule Maclaurin Series Mean Value Theorem Partial Derivative Product & Quotient Rule Reiman Sum Related Rates Simpson’s Rule Solid of Revolution Substitution Rule Taylor Series

Paid Help from Hiraedu: If You're struggling to handle your Online Exams, Assignments or any other coursework, get help from Hiraedu and pay after the exam. Contact details for Hiraedu is: WhatsApp: +1 (213) 594-5657 OR Call: +1 727 456 9641
ATTRIBUTES THAT SET ME APART FROM OTHER TUTORS:

• I firmly believe that I have many attributes and skills that set me apart from other tutors. Below is a list of qualities that makes me an ideal fit to help you master your coursework:

I CAN AID STUDENTS TAKING PROCTORED ASSESSMENTS:

• Proficient in CollegeBoard AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC & AP Statistics exams.
• Skilled with International Baccalaureate Math Exams: IB Maths HL & IB Maths SL
• Can intentionally answer a few problems incorrectly at the student's request.
• Can text solutions to the student while they are taking a proctored exam.
• Upon request, can purposely obtain grades below an A (ex: B+, B, C+, C-).
• I can stretch out the time to a plausible length for timed exams and assignments before submitting them.
• Have reliable software that can change my IP address to match the closest major city near the student.
• I have exceptional multiple-choice exam-taking skills. I have mastered the various techniques to make calculated guesses for the correct option in standardized exams such as the SAT & GRE.

I CAN VERIFY MY ACADEMIC KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS:

• I have no problem with requests to solve sample problems upfront to prove my knowledge & proficiency of the course concepts.
• I can provide glowing references & strong examples of work done for past clients to verify my academic skills.
• I can also provide, upon request, complete detailed calculations with explanations for solutions to the problems worked on.
• I am quite skilled and adept in using multiple modernized educational platforms and software, including but not limited to: Brightspace MyStatLab D2L WebAssign Canvas MyMathLab Blackboard ALEKS
• Can format term papers and discussion posts in APA MLA Harvard Chicago Vancouver OSCOLA IEEE format.

I HAVE PAID ACCESS TO OVER 15 STUDY-HELP WEBSITES AND MATHEMATICAL SOFTWARE:

• I have multiple paid subscriptions to a wide range of academic tutoring resources, including Chegg, Quizlet, CourseHero, Brainly, Grammarly, Study. com, Bartleby, Slader, Transtutors, Slideshare, StudocU, Turnitin, Academia, SymboLab, WolframAlpha, and Scribd to help guide to solve exam & homework questions that I may not immediately know.
• However, I am smart enough not to blatantly plagiarize solutions online but instead write them in my own unique words, formatting, & mathematical terminology.
• I have access to a very sophisticated graphing calculator and various mathematical software that provides step-by-step solutions to complex mathematical problems within seconds, allowing me to provide exact solutions to the student in a timely manner.
• I have impeccable handwriting and a high-quality mobile scanner app that allows me to scan written solutions in very legible high-definition JPG, PNG, or PDF formats.

MY AVAILABILITY & RELIABILITY:

• Depending on my availability, I can accommodate immediate tutoring requests, 1-24 hour, and 1-30-day deadlines.
• I can schedule live real-time online sessions and meet deadlines in an impressively timely fashion.
• I can provide quick notifications and updates of progress made in the student's class via email text phone calls.
• I can also be available to tutor students for Fall 2021 Spring 2022 Summer 2022 semesters.

MY EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE OF EXPERTISE:

• I am very knowledgeable and well-versed in a wide range of educational software to tutor students in including but not limited to: Acellus ALEKS APEX Learning Aplia Blackboard Brightspace Canvas Cengage CengageNow Connect ConnectMath Connexus CPM D2L Discord Edmentum Eviews Examity Excel Hawkes Learning Honorlock Khan Academy Knewton LimeSpring Lumen Maple MasteringChemistry MasteringPhysics MathXL (XL) MATLAB McGraw-Hill Microsoft Word Minitab Moodle MyAccountingLab MyEconLab MyITLab MyLab My Lab MyMathLab My Math Lab MyOpenMath MyPsychLab MySocLab MyStatLab My Stat Lab NCSS Open Source Software Pearson PERT PlatoWeb PowerPoint Prezi R Respondus Lockdown Browser with Webcam Sapling SPSS Stata StraighterLine Straighter Line WebAssign Web Assign Webex (Cisco) WebWork Wiley WileyPlus Wonderlic Zoom

SCHOOLS FROM WHICH I'VE HELPED STUDENTS IN :
As of 2021, I have tutored and helped students enrolled at the following U.S. universities community colleges county & city colleges schools for-profit institutions listed below in alphabetical order:

• A - C: American Public University System (APUS) Arizona State Ashford Brigham Young Brown Broward California State (Fullerton) Capella Chamberlain (Illinois) Colorado Technical Columbia Columbia Southern Cornell
• D - K: Dallas College Dartmouth DeVry Excelsior College Florida International Florida State Full Sail Georgia State Grand Canyon Harvard Houston Community College Ivy Tech Community College Kaplan Kennesaw State Kent State
• L - T: Liberty Lone Star College System Kaplan Miami Dade Michigan State CUNY State University of New York (SUNY) Northern Virginia Ohio State University of Phoenix (UOP) Penn State Princeton Purdue (Davenport) San Diego State San Francisco State San Jose State Southern New Hampshire Southern Nevada Stanford St. Petersburg Strayer Texas Tech
• UNIVERSITY OF: Alabama Arizona California (UC) Central Florida Chicago Cincinnati Florida Houston Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) Iowa Maryland Minnesota Michigan North Texas Pennsylvania Southern Florida Texas Toronto
• U - Z: UCLA Extension Utah State Utah Valley Valencia Walden U Wake Technical Western Governors Wilmington Yale

Paid Help from Hiraedu: If You're struggling to handle your Online Exams, Assignments or any other coursework, get help from Hiraedu and pay after the exam. Contact details for Hiraedu is: WhatsApp: +1 (213) 594-5657 OR Call: +1 727 456 9641
I OFFER FLEXIBLE PAYMENT PLANS:

• I offer several unique payment plans, including a weekly plan, a discounted monthly plan, a discounted half-now / half-later plan, and highly discounted up-front rates.
• I can accept the following payment methods for my services: PayPal Debit Cards Square Cash Credit Cards Cash App Venmo.
• Only people located in North America have access to Venmo Cash App Zelle.
• This is an excellent way to determine if the person you're dealing with is from the United States.
• Within reason, I offer a partial or full money-Back guarantee if the student is very unsatisfied with my academic services.

TUTORING AVAILABLE FOR OTHER SUBJECTS:

• For other subjects, you can reach out to me, and I can connect you with one of my tutoring partners who can provide general academic assistance for the following subjects:
• Art & Design: Art History Design Film Studies
• Business: Accounting (Acc) Biz Courses Business Administration (Biz Admn) Business Calculus Business Law Business Statistics Corporate Finance Economics (Econ) Finance (Fin) Financial Accounting Intermediate Accounting Intermediate Microeconomics (Micro) Macroeconomics (Macro) Management (Mgmt) Managerial Accounting Marketing MBA
• Computer Science: C C++ Computer Programming (Comp) Java Python R (Introduction & Intermediate Level Only)
• Humanities: Communications (Comm) English Literature Essay & Term Paper Writing, Editing, Proofreading Essays History Papers Philosophy (Phil) Religious Studies Theology (Theo)
• Mathematics: A.P. Calculus AB & BC Psychology Statistics AP Statistics Bio statistics Calculus I (1) Calculus II (2) Calculus III (3) College Algebra Differential Equations Discrete Math Finite Math Functions General Math Geometry Liberal Arts Math Linear Algebra Multi-variable Calculus Partial Differential Equations Precalculus Probability Quantitative Reasoning Real Analysis Statistics Trigonometry (Trig) Vector Calculus
• Science & Medicine: Anatomy & Physiology (A & P) Biochemistry Biology (Bio) Biostatistics Earth Science Environmental Science General Chemistry (Chem) Healthcare Medicine Nursing Nutrition Organic Chemistry Physics (Phys)
• Social Sciences: Anthropology Economics (Econ) Geology Law & Justice Liberal Arts Liberal Studies Political Science Psychology Sociology

THE OBLIGATORY "IS THIS A SCAM?" QUESTION:
Considering the fact that you found my contact information online, it’s understandable to be skeptical regarding the legitimacy of my services. Therefore, I’m willing to do all of the following to help you feel more secure in trusting me with your academic needs:

• 1) Speak with you on the phone and answer any questions you may have so that you have the opportunity to assess and analyze my tone, articulation, accent, diction, dialect, regionalisms, pitch, vocabulary, word choice, intonations, and inflections.
• NOTE: I’m a New Jersey-born Irish/Italian-American, but I have been told that I speak in an erudite & articulate suburban American accent with a “professor style” voice somewhat resembling the voice of actor: Ben Stein.
• 2) Agree to do some homework questions of yours upfront with the work fully shown in real-time to prove my mastery of the course content.
• 3) Send you screenshots of at least five past scores I attained from completing exams & homework assignments for other students in the same type of class you need help with.
• 4) Send you full screenshots of written exam solutions I wrote up by hand for students in the past in the same course that you need help with so that you can see my neat handwriting.
• 5) Provide you with the contact information of students who have utilized my services in the past who would be more than willing to vouch for my skills.

MY REBUTTAL TO THE OBLIGATORY “IS THIS A SCAM?” QUESTION:
At the risk of sounding arrogant, I consider myself to be at least marginally more intelligent (both academically & socially) than the average person. Therefore, if I ever decided to suddenly risk prison time, risk my reputation, and risk enduring the wrath of modern-day “cancel culture” by scamming people out of their money:

• I certainly wouldn’t do it for such paltry amounts of money. (i.e., anything less than $1,000 per victim.)
• I certainly wouldn’t choose high school & college students as my “target audience” to scam, considering that most people without college degrees have abysmally low annual incomes. Why choose low-income victims when it would be much more profitable to target high-income, high-net-worth individuals earning at least six figures a year? I have knowledge in business consulting, and I promise you that a business owner would be a MUCH more lucrative mark than a low-income college student.
• I wouldn’t choose such a time & energy-draining method of scamming people. Also, communicating back and forth with potential clients is an absurdly long time sink since only less than 10% of all potential clients who reach out to me actually become paying clients of mine. This means that 90% of my time communicating with potential clients ultimately proves to be a colossal waste of my irretrievable time & energy.
• If you pay me to provide academic services and I don’t deliver, you can always dispute the payment with the payment app and easily get your money refunded. If I were in the habit of swindling money from people, then all of my payment accounts would have been investigated and be completely shut down by now. And I would have been permanently banned from opening new accounts. Therefore, the fact that all my payment apps have been fully active for years should be sufficient proof that I haven’t had people consistently disputing payments sent to me.

HOW TO CONTACT ME:
Paid Help from Hiraedu: If You're struggling to handle your Online Exams, Assignments or any other coursework, get help from Hiraedu and pay after the exam. Contact details for Hiraedu is: WhatsApp: +1 (213) 594-5657 OR Call: +1 727 456 9641

• I take my work as a tutor very seriously, and I always aim to do my best to help my students excel in school. I have a solid and sincere passion for academic achievement, and with my help, I am positive that I can help students obtain very high grades with minimal stress and effort.
• Please feel free to contact me if you're interested in my services and would like to learn more. I'm available 24/7 via phone call, email, and text. Again, thank you for taking the time to read my Reddit tutoring ad, and I hope to hear from you soon!

My contact details:
WhatsApp: +1 (213) 594-5657
Call: +1 727 456 9641
Website: hiraedu. com
Email: [info@hiraedu](mailto:info@hiraedu). com
TAGS:
^{Accounting Exam Help Reddit, Best Online Test Takers Reddit, Best Ways to Cheat on a Test Reddit, Best Website to Pay for Homework Reddit, Bypass Respondus Lockdown Browser Reddit, Calculus Test Taker Reddit, Canvas Cheating Reddit, Cheating in Online Exam Reddit, Cheating on Pearson Mymathlab Reddit, Cheating on Proctortrack Reddit, Cheating on Zoom Proctored Exams Reddit, Cheating on a Test Reddit, College Algebra Mymathlab Reddit, Do Homework for Money Reddit, Do My Assignment Reddit, Do My Exam for Me Reddit, Do My Homework for Me Reddit, Do My Math Homework Reddit, Do My Math Homework for Me Reddit, Do My Test for Me Reddit, Doing Homework Reddit, Domyhomework Reddit, Exam Cheating Reddit, Exam Help Online Reddit, Examity Reddit, Finance Homework Help Reddit, Fiverr Exam Cheating Reddit, Gradeseekers Reddit, Hire Someone to Take My Online Exam Reddit, Hire Test Taker Reddit, Homework Help Reddit, Homework Sites Reddit, Reddit, Homeworkhelp Reddit, Honorlock Reddit, How Much Should I Pay Someone to Take My Exam Reddit, How to Beat Honorlock Reddit, How to Beat Lockdown Browser Reddit, How to Cheat Examity Reddit 2022, How to Cheat Honorlock Reddit, How to Cheat and Not Get Caught Reddit, How to Cheat in School Reddit, How to Cheat on Canvas Tests Reddit, How to Cheat on Examity Reddit, How to Cheat on Honorlock Reddit, How to Cheat on Math Test Reddit, How to Cheat on Mymathlab Reddit, How to Cheat on Online Exams Reddit, How to Cheat on Online Proctored Exams Reddit, How to Cheat on Zoom Exam Reddit, How to Cheat on Zoom Exams Reddit, How to Cheat on a Proctored Exam Reddit, How to Cheat with Proctorio 2020 Reddit, How to Cheat with Proctorio Reddit, How to Cheat with Respondus Monitor Reddit, How to Get Past Lockdown Browser Reddit, Hwforcash Discord, I Paid Someone to Write My Essay Reddit, Is Hwforcash Legit, Lockdown Browser Hack Reddit, Lockdown Browser How to Cheat Reddit, Math Homework Reddit, Monitoredu Reddit, Mymathlab Answer Key Reddit, Mymathlab Answers Reddit, Mymathlab Cheat Reddit, Mymathlab Proctored Test Reddit, Online Exam Help Reddit, Online Exam Proctor Reddit, Online Proctored Exam Reddit, Organic Chemistry Exam Help Reddit, Organic Chemistry Test Taker Reddit, Paper Writers Reddit, Pay Me to Do Your Homework Reddit, Pay Me to Do Your Homework Reviews Reddit, Pay Someone to Do Homework Reddit, Pay Someone to Do My Assignment Reddit, Pay Someone to Do My College Homework Reddit, Pay Someone to Do My Homework Reddit, Pay Someone to Do My Math Homework Reddit, Pay Someone to Do My Online Class Reddit, Pay Someone to Do My Online Math Class Reddit, Pay Someone to Do My Programming Homework Reddit, Pay Someone to Do Statistics Homework Reddit, Pay Someone to Take Exam Reddit, Pay Someone to Take Exam for Me Reddit, Pay Someone to Take My Calculus Exam Reddit, Pay Someone to Take My Chemistry Exam Reddit, Pay Someone to Take My Exam Reddit, Pay Someone to Take My Online Class Reddit, Pay Someone to Take My Online Exam Reddit, Pay Someone to Take My Proctored Exam Reddit, Pay Someone to Take My Test in Person Reddit, Pay Someone to Take Online Class for Me Reddit, Pay Someone to Take Online Test Reddit, Pay Someone to Take Your Online Class Reddit, Pay Someone to Write My Paper Reddit, Pay for Homework Reddit, Pay to Do Homework Reddit, Paying Someone to Do Your Homework Reddit, Paying Someone to Take My Online Class Reddit, Paying Someone to Take Online Class Reddit, Paysomeonetodo Reddit, Physics Test Taker Reddit, Proctored Exam Reddit, Reddit Do My Homework for Me, Reddit Domyhomework, Reddit Homework Cheat, Reddit Homework Help, Reddit Homework for Money, Reddit Honorlock Cheating, Reddit Mymathlab Hack, Reddit Mymathlab Homework Answers, Reddit Paid Homework, Reddit Pay Someone to Do Your Homework, Reddit Pay Someone to Take Online Test, Reddit Pay for Homework, Reddit Pay to Do Homework, Reddit Test Takers for Hire, Reddit Tutors, Should I Pay Someone to Take My Exam Reddit, Statistics Test Taker Reddit, Take My Calculus Exam Reddit, Take My Class Pro Reddit, Take My Class Pro Reviews Reddit, Take My Exam for Me Reddit, Take My Math Test for Me Reddit, Take My Online Class Reddit, Take My Online Class for Me Reddit, Take My Online Exam for Me Reddit, Take My Online Exams Reddit, Take My Online Exams Review Reddit, Take My Online Exams Reviews Reddit, Take My Online Test Reddit, Take My Online Test for Me Reddit, Take My Physics Exam for Me Reddit, Take My Proctored Exam for Me Reddit, Take My Statistics Exam for Me Reddit, Take My Test for Me Reddit, Takemyonlineexams Reddit, Test Taker Reddit, We Take Classes Reddit, Write My Exam for Me Reddit}
What are your Thoughts! Write in comments and ask for help if needed
Suggest more topic Ideas
Join this subreddit to help us grow!

Demographics: Female, First-Gen Middle Eastern, Residing in New England, Low-Income
Intended Major(s): Arts and Humanities/ CS (Thinking about applying with Arts and Humanities and then changing; my awards fit art but ECs are CS which is competitive)
ACT/SAT/SAT II: DSAT 1520+ (Will be retaking until I get that)
UW/W GPA and Rank:
Transferred recently, current school has yet to determine my rank or GPA. I tried to do it manually and got a 5.2-3/5.5 which would put me above the current Valedictorian.
Coursework: 3 Dual enrollment, 8 Honors, APUSH, AP CSP, AP Physics, AP Pre-Calculus . Taking 4 more AP’s next year (As a senior).
Awards:
([x] indicates completion)

• [x]Honorable Mention: Senator’s Art Competition Each school submitted up to three works of art from three different students; Among one of those chosen from my school. Among few students who received an Honorable Mention and certificate in Senators statewide annual art contest. Submitted work displayed at local mall and the Virtual High School Art Exhibit
  
• [x] Honorable Mention: Congressional Art Competition Received an Honorable Mention and certificate in 2024 Congressional Art Competition Submitted work displayed at state Office.
  
• [x] Honorable Mention: Roger Williams Zoo Art Competition Received an Honorable Mention and certificate among 500 entries for the RWPZoo's 7th annual Endangered Species Youth Art Contest. Featured on RWPZoo’s website and WILD Magazine summer issue.
  
• [x] Excellence Awards: Honors Anatomy. Honors Intro to Computers. Art.
  
• [x] State Advisory Council Nominee
  
• [x] National Honors Society
  

Yet to recieve placement but confirmed publishing of artwork in the book Celebrating Art.
Will probably get AP scholar (?)
Extracurriculars:

• [x] Non-Profit: Junior Board Played a key role in orchestrating and executing a successful fundraising campaign for an annual tournament; contributing to a total of $10,000 raised for childhood cancer awareness (Will hopefully make more contributions)
  
• [x] Non-Profit: Excecutive Director Gained over 500,000 views on social media promoting mental health awareness for an international non-profit organization (Will hopefully make more contributions)
  
• [This summer] Internship: ML/CS Working on using AI/ML to make a program that can process portraits and use the relative positions of facial features and align a 3D head model accordingly, mapping the detected features to the corresponding points on the model to provide a starting point for portrait artists to trace over and build upon.
  
• [This summer] MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute: SGAI Application focus is on tactical routing for self-driving ambulances. I will build an analysis framework in Python to explore the technical, moral, and strategic opportunities that new technologies present to this application. Additionally, I will emphasize learning practical tools and skills for working on a professional software development team.
  
• [This summer] Girls Who Code: SIP Focuses on an introduction to Game Design, which includes beginner to intermediate CS concepts, fundamentals of user experience design, rapid prototyping, playtesting, and beyond utilizing p5.js, a JavaScript library.
  
• [x] Sports: Track, XC, Tennis
  
• [x] Clubs: Ethics Bowl, Robotics, Hopefully Art Club if the school lets me make one
  

Sooo I’m sorry for the lengthy post but it wouldn’t make sense without the back story. I’m newly diagnosed with lupus, fibromyalgia, long covid, POTS and hypothyroidism (I know, it’s a lot. Ugh). To say I’ve been in pain is an understatement. Head to toe symptoms, extreme swelling that makes movement even harder, fatigue, depression/anxiety, you name it I have it all right now. it’s been trial and error with medications so far. I’m still suffering from my first major flare in January.
Anyways, I (27F) was engaged to my boyfriend (29M) of 3 and a half years who I’ve known since I was 14. We are best friends and the love he gives me is like no other. Almost like something out of a movie..We both had shitty upbringings but not to belittle his situation, I definitely had it worse. I get anxious around big groups of people and I unfortunately care about what other’s think too much and my reputation. No one meeting me would ever know. That being said, there’s been numerous times he’s humiliated me in front of his friends and family. Even his own step mom told me a year and a half in when she saw I was frustrated over how he handled something that he used to manipulate and play both his mom and dad to get what he wants. They’re all unstable honestly but mostly the father. I’ve always felt uncomfortable around the family, they’re just not my kind of people and I feel like I can’t be myself around them. A year before my diagnoses we went to his best friend’s wedding. The wife is super mean to others and has started drama with a lot of the friend group especially the other girlfriend’s and wives and even her own husband’s family. My boyfriend has always said “these girls are just jealous because you’re stunning”. I grew up kind of ugly and didn’t get hot until senior year of high school so I was bullied really badly and it didn’t even stop when I got “hot”. A lot of girls were still mean to me just in different ways. I was already not excited to go to this wedding due to that and my boyfriend being in the wedding party. I made friends with this really nice girl who just started dating one of his friends. We went to the bathroom together and on our walk back to the tables we walked past my boyfriend who was standing in the mix of a big group of people and he was talking to one of his friend’s girlfriends. Really nice, cute girl. I didn’t even see him cause there were so many people by him so I walked right past him. He apparently called my name when he saw me but with the music it was so loud I didn’t hear nor see him. Him assuming the worst of me says to this girl “what the fuck is her problem” then this other girl walks up to me asking if I’m mad at him.. I was so confused and said what?! Why would I be mad at him? I pulled him aside and said what’s going on? I was so upset he involved other people over an issue I had no idea about. He’s obviously drunk but to me that’s even worse cause I believe drunk words are sober thoughts so he gives me the nastiest look and says you’re that insecure I can’t even talk to my friend’s girlfriend? I was so angry and said well you must be telling on yourself because I didn’t even hear or see you so he takes my words and twists them saying I said I was mad he was talking to her. I swear I could’ve given two shits less. I sat in the bathroom the entire wedding crying because I was so humiliated everyone was involved and they had heard his twisted version of what happened. Shame on me for thinking we were at a good place. I have no problem admitting I’m wrong but I literally did NOTHING for him to do this. I have had insecurity issues due to my upbringing and being cheated on and I finally got comfortable in our relationship where I stopped needing constant reassurance so for me to just finally feel safe and happy and then to have it all ripped away was like grieving a death for me because who is this person and why would they turn on me like that? he made me Uber with other people back from the venue cause he told them he didn’t want to be by me. No one really knows me so they clearly believe him and I’m absolutely shocked and embarrassed. It was rocky for months but he’d make it up to me then something else similar would happen and he’d involve other people in our business. His friend group is also so immature for their age and the girlfriends as well, so I always felt out of place and wondered why my boyfriend was friends with them. Obviously then it clicked.
Another wedding halfway across the country, he said he didn’t want to go out with the guys the night before the wedding because he didn’t want to leave me alone. I kept trying to talk him into going, especially with the fear that his friends would be blaming me for him not going. Finally after we all convinced him to go, I wanted to watch the football game so I took a Lyft by myself to a local bar that had the game on. Why should I have to sit in the room by myself all night waiting? I love traveling and was in a new city so I figured I’d make the most of it. He was annoyed and all his friends and one of the girls apparently said I was weird for going out to a bar alone. I’m also a loner and used to live out of my home state alone with just my dog and I so it’s literally what I’m used to. I can take care of myself. I dropped everything and sent him a spicy picture when I got back from the hotel bathroom. Him and his best friend came back not too long after to our room to hang out. I was asking them how it was and was telling them about my night and how a girl approached me and I actually made a friend. He was acting drunk which was totally fine cause that’s what most people do when they’re celebrating so I was like oh, you drunk?! Literally in a fun tone, not judgmental at all cause I had a fun night too.. his entire demeanor changed and he gets nasty with me in front of his friend saying that he’s not drunk and didn’t even drink at all. I was like huh? It’s not a problem, we’re literally hanging out having a conversation. He went to the bathroom and even his friend shrugged his shoulders. They were going to party in one of the other guys’ rooms and I didn’t even want to go. I realized he had the room key when I left at the same time to grab water bottles so I followed him up real quick to get it and he was talking shit about me to his friend. I said “hey I can hear you”. every single time something like this happens he takes AT LEAST a day or usually longer to realize how wrong he is. He throws out the excuses “all my friends and their spouses fight no one even cares and no one even remembers it.”
Well, fast forward to Thanksgiving.. his step mom has always been overly kind where it’s suspect because she literally talks crap about everyone including family so I’m obviously the subject when I leave the room. My boyfriend was on the deck petting the dog and I was packing our bags because we were all visiting his family in another state. His grandma goes “where did A(my boyfriend) go? His dad replies “he’s outside petting the dog. The step mom goes “no B(me) is right here. Literally calling me a dog. I went outside to the car and my boyfriend saw me and asked what’s wrong? I told him and he started yelling at ME saying that I made it up and she never said that. He goes in to ask them. All of a sudden his dad, step mom and him all come running out bombarding me it was so overwhelming. She’s trying to tell me she didn’t mean it that way and she thinks I’m gorgeous and loves me and she even started tearing up.. mind you, I’ve already sat out many gatherings the last year due to some of her comments. This ultimately led to a huge fight cause I was crying and explained how he’s never once defended me and I don’t think I can be with someone who acts like this in these situations. He always misses the point or tries to reverse the blame. I grew up walking on eggshells and have also been diagnosed with complex PTSD which I forgot to mention earlier so I really try my hardest to communicate healthy because I hate yelling. I will admit, I’ve fed into and once he started yelling at me I did start yelling back which I know wasn’t good but I truly couldn’t take being so misunderstood this bad like he was always trying to make me a bad guy for no reason. I had booked a mini vacation after Thanksgiving so we were driving to the hotel even though he had already ruined the excitement for me. We get there and everything escalated again. He left the room and said he was leaving me here. He came back in all angry and I said you need to get out of the room but he wouldn’t stop being nasty and I said if you don’t get out I’m literally going to call the cops, I’m not sitting here listening to this all night. I know that was a little far fetched but I actually ended up calling the cops because he kept daring me to and making threats refusing to leave, laughing in my face and taunting me (he was hammered). I literally went to book him another room first and he refused to give me space so I exhausted all options. Looking back, I wish I didn’t call the cops but I was so sick of this shit I pretty much just wanted a reason for us to be done and not have a reason to get back together.. I told the cops to just take him to another room and I didn’t want any trouble at all. He acted like I was trying to get him arrested when I literally stressed to them that I didn’t want that and just needed space but he wasn’t listening. I had called one of my best friends and her boyfriend to come get me over 4 hours from home.
He financed my car for me knowing my ex has ruined my credit when we split but I had cash saved so I paid him $1,000 a month on top of the down payment just to pay off the car super quick. He took the engagement ring from me and left me stranded without a vehicle not even letting me have a day or two to get a different car. We didn’t talk for a week, I refused his texts and calls which were blowing up my phone until I finally caved. He agreed to therapy. I made him apologize to his friends and family and explain that I wasn’t crazy or out of line like he made me seem the last few years. I wasn’t happy with how he did it and think he still defends his case around them as he knows I have no interest in going around any of them except his mother and step father who were the nicest out of everyone but they still were not my cup of tea..
Come January, we split again for a week. This time peacefully because I told him any little slip up and I’m gone, I have to look out for myself. This is when my first flare happened that progressively got worse to where after a month I could barely get out of bed. My heart rate had gone up to a high of 180 at one point while just standing. There’s too many symptoms to write out here as it’s not completely relevant but I have a very poor quality of life right now and I’m trying my best to be positive because I was super active and loved being outdoors before this. My boyfriend has gotten better for the most part but still doesn’t know how to communicate issues without blowing up most of the time and it has caused my pain to get worse each time this happened. One time I told him to stop because it’s making it worse and he says “I don’t give a fuck about your symptoms”. I kicked him out and he apologized tremendously and hasn’t done anything that bad since but still will argue with me over dumb things after I’ve repeatedly begged him to just stop and think first before reacting, especially now with how sick I am..
I’m only explaining the bad here because just envision Prince Charming aside from these scenarios.. he is literally amazing and has taken care of me through all of this, giving up time where he could be having fun to just sit inside with me and cater to my every need which I’m so grateful for. I haven’t been able to go back to work since this happened so he has helped me with a few bills and takes me to some specialist appointments when my grandmother can’t. He cooks often for me on my really bad days and even for my younger brothers. They all love him because he spends time with them but they don’t really know the side that I do. It’s like I’m with two different people and with my heart issue right now I’m scared to lose him because I already feel like I’m having a heart attack on the daily. Should I suggest he goes to a psychiatrist and tries medication or just find the strength to leave him? I don’t look at him the same and all the good seems fake cause I’m just waiting for his next outburst where he holds it over my head or something.

Oh first time even being here? Well welcome on in! Ah yes, you’ve come around these parts for the special cafes, have you? Yeah they’re really great, lots of amazing choices around here!
My recommendations? Well sure!
Just remember now! Each cafe has two minor effects and the first special effect. When you visit a cafe for the first time. You get the special effect and minor effects permanently. When you visit a second cafe you get two minor effects permanently. After that only while being in the other cafes will the minor effects come into play.

~Pick one Primary Cafe and One Secondary Cafe~

Bookshelf Blend - Now this place is a favourite of mine! A large place with so many places to sit around, it’s also usually very quiet. It’s filled with books of all kinds, we don’t discriminate. Usually has the best tea as well. This is actually where I sat for the first time.
It changes you in a rather strange way. Physically, you take on traits from your favourite media character in general, however it’s much smaller, you’re still human, but someone could point at you and be “Hey, they look like that one guy!”. Mentally, your mind becomes that much more active, instead of reading a book and it appears faintly in your head? It’s instead like it’s on the big screen at all times.
First Time Visitor: When you first sit down, with your favourite drink, a good book, maybe some headphones on. You’ll feel at peace, it won’t be long until you realise you’ve let all the worry and stress melt away for a bit. Any rest you take will actually give you regular benefits, no matter what situation you're in, no matter what ails you at the time, you can and will feel peace. This peace will benefit and help any mental health issues in the process, but it is still up to you to take charge still.
Servant’s Silverskin - You know Maid Cafes? Yeah that! Except it’s got Maids, Butlers, Servants etc etc! Here you never have to do anything… okay, well thats a lie, however, instinctively the wait staff here will immediately know what you want, your order, how much communication you want to have, any extras you’d find in a regular maid cafe. And the waitstaff are genuinely happy to do this, sure they’re here to get paid but they do love their job. Lots of comfy personalised foods here!
It changes you in a lighter way compared to others. Physically, if anyone you care for greatly needs help and you know you’re gonna stay in contact with them for a long time, your body slowly changes to keep up with their day. Need a running buddy? More toned for greater endurance! Need a shoulder to cry on? Yours will be the most comfortable! So on and so forth. Mentally, you’ll be more of an empath, understanding others emotions better, from body language or tone of voice or anything that makes the most sense to you.
First Time Visitor: When you sit in those cosy seats. When the nicest person comes up to you. When you're delivered one of the most delicious meals! Pure happiness, pure peace. You look around to the rest of the customers and you can see words floating above their heads, almost transparent. You are now able to sense what people want and need to make them relax more. This doesn’t guarantee you’ll be able to do that task, but most people have lots of little ones and if you can help with that, they’ll know who did it and they’ll be grateful, guaranteed.
Musical Mochas - Now this place is huge! Like a big studio filled with lots of rooms. Think like a big underground Karaoke place! Both instruments and drinks are delivered over a phone! Places for one person to enjoy themselves or big groups to come have fun. They even have a game where people can anonymously sing or play their hearts out and win fun rewards! Good times for everyone!
This one is much more inside the person than anything else. Physically, you will be in a lot more control of your body, mostly vocal cords, fingers etc, it’ll feel like you’ve been learning for years. Mentally, any instrument in your hands you’ll know how to play it, not well, but not badly. You want to get better? Come back and practice, it’ll feel that much more satisfying.
First Time Visitor: You book your room. Call over the phone for a drink to warm your vocal cords up. Pick up the tablet and choose a song. And let it all out. And your brain will shock as words come to your head effortlessly, the notes, everything. That feeling in your head, heart and soul, it's a gorgeous song. You will be able to make up so many interesting ideas within your head, you’ll have the motivation to learn how to play and create these songs.
Organic Office - Dead Silent, the only noise going on is that of the taps of laptop keys, the click of pens, the scratch of pencils. A much more modern cafe, with quality, but basic drinks, at the perfect temperatures. Absolutely recommend the coffee here.
This is one where it actually does not give a physical trait, but makes up for it with two mental ones. The first is where you become keenly aware of how your body is doing and how its state is affecting both productivity and general well-being. You need to make sure you take care of yourself. The second is that, when in flow state, you will only be interrupted by yourself, tv-shows, podcast, background noise, it can all be absorbed or ignored, it will never break that flow.
First Time Visitor: You take your task into the building. Ask for a simple drink. And sit on a table. You take a sip. Look at your task and you're off. Your fingers glide like the wind, your head is in the game, your eyes steady. You can now enter the flow state on a whim, however you can still absolutely burn yourself out so be careful and take care of yourself.
Animal Americano Aroma - A Cafe with a dark Jungle sort of vibe! When walking in you’re given an order and immediately an animal comes to sit nearby. All quite small in size, but lovely and cosy nonetheless. They could curl up on your lap, want to play with you, all the nice things. An added bonus is that all these animals are rescues! Also by far the best juice.
This one changes your affinity with nature itself. Physically, pets will quickly imprint on you in order to establish a bond faster. Mentally, you’ll be more in tune with animals, it’ll be much easier to work with them and understand their personalities.
First Time Visitor: When you first sit down, the intoxicating smell of flowers in the air. A nice drink on your table and a little critter in your lap. A nice time, something sort of clicked in your mind. You can now take one or two traits from an animal and add it yourself cosmetically! Want porcupine-like hair? Be spiky! You want a wagging tail? Wag away! And as a bonus whatever cosmetic you choose, the closer you get to that animal.
Pastry Pour-Over - A lovely little pastry shop with a small amount of space to sit, they’re more used to asking for deliveries but they absolutely adore having customers sit inside and watch them make their food. And of course they absolutely have the best pastries
This one affects the amount of energy in your body. Physically, every meal you make, tastes like twice the quality and gives twice the nutrients. Mentally, learning the ins and outs of cooking and baking will be much easier, measurements, recipes and all.
First Time Visitor: The welcoming atmosphere, the sound of a fire crackling, the smell of the sugar. It all hits at once when you enter here. A nice sweet on your plate is all you need when you're here and everything feels perfect. Any B.O you emit now smells like a pastry/sweet of your choice! When people smell they’re put at ease, expect a lot of people to feel comfortable around you.

Demographics: nonbinary, indian, virginia(NOVA), 2 schools(health science school + large and competitive) public school. Hooks: gay as hell and bullied bc of it! also if u know me no u fucking don't
Intended Major(s): music education, environmental science, public health
ACT/SAT/SAT II: 31 ACT planning on getting up to 35(2 more tests!)
UW/W GPA and Rank: shit. um. 1 B in accelerated precalc freshman, 1 B+ in online chem class soph year, erm junior year i was sick for a lot of it due to being diagnosed with autoimmune condition + Depression, im gonna end with a B in chem, prob apush, and prob my specialized class. i also got a D+ in online english... yeah im kinda fucked. GPA bad for people on this subreddit.... ill calcuate and edit the post later
Coursework: 10th: BC, Bio, World, stats(self study) choir, then speicalized health classes at other school(dual enrolled). 11th: Chem, APES, APUSH, choir, specialized health class(dual enrolled). ap scores are literally all 3s i didn't study for them bc i got covid the week before my exams...
Awards:

1. HOSA Community Awareness(1st Regionals, 1st SLC 22-23 and 23-24, Top 20 ILC 22-23 and 23-24 internationals qualifier(wish us luck for top 10))
2. CDC Public Health Academy(22-23) + Bethel Summer institute(this summer)
3. Talaria summer institute(2 years)
4. ACDA National Honor Choir 2023, All State Honor Choir 1st chair(23-24), All district Honor Choir all 4 years
5. Virginia Governors School for the Performing Arts(low acceptance rate and most competitive singing opportunity for students in my state)
6. 3rd place in county-environmental initiative competition and one money for my 1st extracurricular

Extracurriculars: im super passionate about the environmental education outreach and choisinging

1. Community Organization(fundraised, cleanups, and raised awareness about the affect of microplastics on human health, connections to most schools around county as we do a lot of activities inside schools as well such as advisory lessons and presentations: over 20K interactions and plan on writing a book this summer towards this cause!)
2. Started an environmental Competition in middle schools around the county with over 300+ participants, had several school competitions and a regional level competition
3. School HOSA Officer(a lot of commitment) and on Virginia HOSA exec board(very competitive position and took me a while to secure, I do a lot for HOSA)
4. Co-President of School Choir and TenoBass Section Leader
5. Student founder of community youth choir over 120 students ranging from 6th-12th grade. TenoBass Section leader and do a lot of teaching stuff here
6. Founder and President of Diversity in Medicine Club(brought minority speakers in, introduced research opportunities for FGLI and minorities to apply)
7. Key Club President
8. Executive Board Member of a nonprofit that hosts wellness events for elderly nursing home patients around the county
9. Environmental Education Outreach Research through prof in India
10. Theater Head of Set Painting and Supporting Role in Musicals
11. Carnatic Music Singer(performed in temples around the state and India, TA for classes with younger students)

Essays/LORs/Other: LOR from choir teacher(s) and music influences in my life and my speicalized health class teacher from last year
Schools: all schools music ed and if no music ed program than environmental science/public health. Not sure which school I should ED too(thinking UVA or William and Mary which i prob won't get into...).
UF, FSU, UVA, William and Mary, VCU(prob will end up going here...), VT, UNC, UCLA, NYU(is it a bad idea to ED?), Univeristy of Minnesota, Wiconsin-madison, CWRU, UMD, IU-Bloomington, Udeleware, give suggestions for other schools! if the school isn't better than VCU than i won't apply...
Additonal Info: I have been dealing with being gay my whole life and am a part of a super religious and strict household that shuns it. Parents are super homophobic, and it has significantly made my mental health worse. I know there is a downward trend in my grades but any tips or suggestions about the college application process will help. i feel like everything ive done has been a complete waste and im just gonna end up going to vcu but ive accepted my failure. anyway... thank u for reading!
PLS be blunt and truthful. provide me some feedback please

Welcome to all GMs and AGMs to this year's edition of the /hockey annual offseason sim!

Spreadsheets

I will be personally editing all the spreadsheets, keeping them updated throughout the sim and they can all be found on the sidebar and the chat channel.

• Rosters
  
• General (Draft, RFA/UFA Lists, Trades, Depth Charts)
  

Please message sandman730 if anything is incorrect or if you wish to change your roster sheet.

Tentative Sim Schedule

• Mon. June 10th - Sim Discord Invites
• Thu. June 13th - Sim Begins and Rosters Frozen (2pm ET)
• Sun. June 16th - Deadline for GMs to Submit Plans (2pm ET)
• Mon. June 17th - Trade Period Begins (2pm ET) (Provided GMs have an Approved Plan)
• Mon. June 17th - Buyout Period Begins (2pm ET)
• Thu. June 20th - Deadline to Submit Trades Involving Players/Prospects and 2024 NHL Draft Picks (8pm ET)
• Fri. June 21st - NHL Draft Rounds 1-3 (8pm ET)
• Sat. June 22nd - NHL Draft Rounds 4-7 (2pm ET) (No Trades Allowed)
• Sat. June 22nd - Last Chance to Place Players on Waivers for a Buyout (2pm ET)
• Sun. June 23rd - Deadline for Qualifying Offers (5pm ET)
• Sun. June 23rd - Buyout Period Ends (5pm ET)
• Sun. June 23rd - Last Chance for Clubs to Sign UFAs to an 8 Year SPC (11:59pm ET)
• Mon. June 24th - Free Agency Roster Freeze (12pm ET) (Discussion allowed, but no moves finalized)
• Thu. June 27th - Free Agency Begins (12pm ET)
• Wed. July 10th - Qualifying Offers Expire (5pm ET)
• Thu. July 25th - Waiver Window Opens (2pm ET)
• Fri. August 2nd - Last Chance to Place Players on Waivers (2pm ET)
• Sat. August 3rd - Rosters Due (5pm ET)
• Sun. August 4th - End of Sim (Reviewing Rosters/Making Recaps/Etc.)

CBA

For information about the cap and CBA, read this post and feel free to ask sandman730 any questions.

IRL Moves

Since we are in sim mode, IRL moves do not apply to the sim, except for five key exceptions:

1. Players retiring (if they retire IRL, they're out of the sim and cannot be signed),
   
2. Player suspensions (ex: Slava Voynov),
   
3. Transactions involving a foreign professional entering the NHL,
   
4. An NHL player signing in another league (ex: Liiga),
   
5. Players being placed on long-term injured reserve.
   

Regarding the 3rd point, if the player announces he is officially returning to the NHL or signs IRL with an NHL team, then he is available to sign. Until then, he cannot be signed.
Coach hirings/firings, AHL contracts, relocation, etc. are not part of this sim.

Keep it Realistic

You can't be perfect since plenty of teams could go many ways. If your team is rebuilding, you should continue to rebuild and help the process.
Try not to acquire guys to flip them later. We're not outright banning it since it happens IRL sometimes, but it's uncommon, especially for bigger names. Rebuilding teams rarely take cap dumps to help out other teams in exchange for late-round picks. If it is a fair trade, it can still be accepted. There will need to be incentives for teams to acquire cap dumps. Don't include unnecessary pieces or trade picks too far out (trading picks after 2025 will require a compelling reason). Don't trade the rights to retired players.
We are asking each GM for an initial offseason plan. This plan includes basic things like which direction the team is headed this summer, but with slightly more detail such as whether they will hope to pursue more options via trades or free agency, how they will deal with their cap space (or lack thereof), etc. You will not be able to sign or trade anyone until your plans are submitted and approved. If you wish to amend your plan, submit it via mod mail, including your reasoning for the amendment.
[GM Plan Form]()
Throughout free agency, the mod team will reach out to GMs to see if they are changing their plans due to transactions that have taken place in the sim (i.e. missing out on free agents, changes in the trade market, etc.).
THIS IS NOT FANTASY HOCKEY, DO NOT TREAT THIS AS FANTASY HOCKEY OR NHL 24 BE A GM

Trades

We realize GMs want to be more active than their real-life counterparts but we will be pretty strict on allowing trades in the sim. When you submit a trade or signing, both parties must send the trade to the office of the commissioner (via mod mail). You also must justify why the trade makes sense for your party including how it will affect the cap, lineup, and future roster decisions. Please use the below template. All players, picks, additional terms, rights to players, and salary retention amounts must be specified and identical in both parties' submissions.
Before making a trade, we encourage you to find multiple comparable trades to convince us that the trade is realistic. Please do not compare each trade to the Matt Duchene to Ottawa trade and say "Well, it's more realistic than that one".
We will do our best to announce the trades as they come in. Do not post pending trades in other threads until they are posted. Please allow us at least 24 hours to approve trades and prepare graphics.
Try not to blow your load, especially on the first day. Be patient, especially with trades. Just try. You'll thank us later. Those who follow this advice usually will find incredible bargains and can take advantage of other GM's mistakes.

Trade Submission Template

We would like teams to use the following template when submitting trades to ensure all relevant information is included.
Team A receives:
Team B receives:
Corresponding moves: (players sent down, called up, or put on waivers; answer "none" if not applicable)
Cap/salary implications:
Goal:
Justification:
Comparables:
Other options pursued:
Long-term implications:
I certify that I own the assets I am trading away; my team remains roster & cap compliant; I have complied with any no-trade lists; etc.

Example

NYR receives: Tyler Motte
WPG receives: 2023 4th Round Pick (WPG)
Corresponding moves: None
Cap/salary implications: The Rangers can take the remainder of Motte's $1,225,000 cap hit.
Goal: The Rangers are looking to add depth for a playoff push. The Canucks are looking to acquire future assets for a player on an expiring contract.
Justification: The Rangers are solidly in a playoff position and are looking to buy at the deadline. Motte can fill a 4th line role.
Comparables: SEA traded Mason Appleton to WPG for a 2023 4th before the 2022 TDL. MTL traded Nick Cousins to VGK for a 2021 4th before the 2020 TDL.
Other options pursued: The Rangers also tried to acquire Derick Brassard and Vladislav Namestnikov but were unable to make a deal work.
Long-term implications: The Rangers are willing to give up a mid-round pick to add depth now.
I certify that I own the assets I am trading away; my team remains roster & cap compliant; I have complied with any no-trade lists; etc.

No-Trade/No-Movement Clauses

These will be handled by sandman730, randompunkt, and sarcastic__. If you wish to trade a player with a No-Trade or No-Movement Clause, you must message them, requesting a list of teams a player can or cannot be traded to, or if a player would be willing to waive his No-Movement Clause. Please give them at least 24 hours to fulfill such requests.
Please request No-Trade clauses via mod mail.

Trading UFA Rights

We have tried this in the past and some agents felt obligated to have the UFA sign in the city that acquired the players' rights. We feel it would be best if every team gets a fair chance so this year we will NOT be allowing trading for UFA rights. This will also hopefully lead to fewer trades and more UFA signings.
Additionally, we will not allow you to sign and trade UFAs or pending UFAs.

Conditional Picks

You cannot trade picks with conditions, with some exceptions:

• Lottery protection
• Higheloweetc. of multiple picks in a given round
• Settling scenarios based on previous trade conditions

We realize it happens in real life, but it is hard to track from experience and hopefully, it will cut down on the amount of unnecessary trade conditions.

Unfair Value

To avoid exploitation and chaos in the trade market, we sometimes need to step in to preserve the sim's integrity. This may be subjective so the trade committee will discuss and vote on most trades. Your trade will go through more smoothly if you provide ample justification and can offer comparable trades. Some common issues include:

• Undervaluing cap space or salary - Since no real money is involved in this simulation and no accountability to owners or future cap issues, people can undervalue these assets. Please provide examples of comparable trades.
• Undervaluing future draft picks - Similarly, since there is no accountability within the sim for these assets, unnecessarily adding late draft picks or using too high draft picks can be problematic. Again, provide examples of comparable trades.
• Differing opinions on the value of players or prospects - These usually will go through but may require further explanation.

Vetoes

sandman730, randompunkt, and sarcastic__ will be the “veto panel” and we will take it very seriously. If the vote is unanimous 3-0 either way, then we will accept/reject the trade or signing. If it is 2-1 either way, then we will ask others for their opinions and votes. We will then decide with the majority. There are several reasons why a trade or signing may be vetoed by the trade committee:

• Violates the CBA (ex: puts a team over the contract limit)
• Involves NTCs (i.e., the player would block the trade)
• Puts a team over the cap or roster limit (or under the floor), without them having a clear plan for how to get back under (or over)
• Violates other house rules (ex: trading UFAs)
• Unrealistic (see above)
• Unfair value (see above)
• Goes against their plan (or goes too far all-in on either the present or future)

meatb4ll will communicate veto decisions and discussions.

Entry Draft

Rounds 1-3 of the draft will take place in the chat channel on Fri. June 21st at 8pm ET. We kindly ask that everyone attends this in the chat since it will go a lot smoother not having to wait for GMs and it is one of the most exciting parts of the sim in terms of trades and activity. This is the one day we hope to have all GMs and AGMs alike participate since we require your cooperation. Draft day trades involving players/prospects must be submitted 24 hours before the start of the draft (Thu. June 20th at 8pm ET). Trades made during the draft (involving draft picks) must be submitted via DM to the commissioners.
On Sat. June 22nd at 2pm ET, we will host Rounds 4-7 for those who would like to participate. It is not mandatory, you will just be auto-picked if you don’t show up. There will not be any trading allowed for this portion of the draft.
If a GM cannot make it either night, you are welcome to appoint an AGM to draft for the team, submit a custom auto-draft list, or respect our auto-draft list (Bob McKenzie, then Future Considerations). Please confirm this via mod mail or (if mid-draft) via DM to the commissioners.
Please make your selections as promptly as possible to ensure the draft runs smoothly for everyone. Do not delay your selection to make a meme/image (you are welcome to post them afterward). We will allow 2 min per selection for Rounds 1-3 and 1 min for Rounds 4-7. Each team will be allowed a 2-minute timeout (one per team). We also will take a brief intermission (~10 min) between rounds.
If you wish to draft players not listed on the Elite Prospects Draft Board, you must petition the commissioners via mod mail before the start of the draft.

Qualifying Offers

GMs will need to submit a list of who they are sending Qualifying Offers to, among RFAs, and who they are letting test free agency (becoming UFAs). We will have a thread for this and they will be due by Sun. June 23rd at 5pm ET (don’t pull a Dale Tallon). If you have further questions about this process, read about it in the CBA post and message a commissioner or leave a comment.

Free Agency

We will have 3 RFA agents and 4 UFA agents who have chosen the clients they will represent. Not every RFA/UFA will need an agent and you can find the lists on the spreadsheet, but generally, if the player played 20+ NHL games last season, he will require an agent. For the rest of the RFAs (those marked "Commissioners"), if they were qualified both in the sim and IRL, we will wait until they get an IRL contract and match it in the sim; if they were only qualified in the sim, they will sign for their qualifying offers. For the rest of the UFAs, message the commissioners (via mod mail) with a contract offer. Please justify why the signing makes sense for your party including, for GMs, how it will affect the cap, lineup, and future roster decisions. Please use the below template.
When both a GM and agent have come to a finalized deal, both sides need to submit the contract offer to the mods (via mod mail).
This contract offer must include the cap hit, term, no-trade clauses, and performance bonuses. Please keep it realistic as it could cause a domino effect when using comparables.
There will be the possibility for offer sheets, however, right now we are not sure of the best way to determine who the player would pick. Ideas are encouraged. That being said, it’s more likely a player would choose a contender, hometown, long contract, good place in the lineup, or high salary rather than just picking at random. We also want to mention how rare offer sheets are in real life.
Agents have been sworn under the Oath of Bettman that they will be honest, realistic, and fun.
NHL CBA contract rules apply (more information here). Signing a player in free agency and then trading the player is prohibited.

Signing Submission Template

We would like teams to use the following template when submitting signing to ensure all relevant information is included.
Team:
Player:
Year(s):
AAV:
Other clauses: (NTC/NMC, performance bonuses, etc.; answer "none" if not applicable)
Corresponding moves: (players sent down, called up, or put on waivers; answer "none" if not applicable)
Cap/salary implications:
Goal:
Justification:
Comparables:
Other options pursued:
Long-term implications:
I certify that my team remains roster & cap compliant.

Example

Team: Columbus Blue Jackets
Player: Jack Roslovic
Year(s): 2
AAV: $4,000,000
Other clauses: None
Corresponding moves: None
Cap/salary implications: The Blue Jackets still have ~$22.8M in cap space for 2022-23, which should be sufficient for our needs.
Goal: The Blue Jackets are looking to keep a local player who has played well for the team.
Justification: While Roslovic had an excellent 2020-21 season, he regressed in 2021-22. A short-term deal allows him to demonstrate that he can continue to be a valuable player without hamstringing us with a burdensome contract should he underperform.
Comparables: Ryan Spooner signed with NYR for 2yr x $4M in the 2018 offseason. Chris Tierney signed with OTT for 2yr x $3.5M in the 2020 offseason. Ryan Strome signed with NYR for 2yr x $4.5M in the 2020 offseason.
Other options pursued: None, Roslovic was an RFA that we wished to keep.
Long-term implications: While this contract will walk Roslovic to UFA status, we hope that he continues to perform well and that we can sign a more long-term extension with him once Voracek's contract is off our books.
I certify that my team remains roster & cap compliant.

Extensions

Players with one year remaining on a multi-year contract are also eligible for extensions. We will allow each team to extend one such player, provided the AAV is over $6M. Message the Commissioners (via mod mail) with a competitive offer, and an explanation for why you want to extend the player.

GM vs Assistant GM

The GM is the one who makes the final decisions and who other GMs should message. You are encouraged to speak to anyone including Assistants, but for trades and updates on where they stand, please contact the GMs. The assistants are here to serve as a second opinion, fill in on things the GM might have made unclear, and ultimately serve as backups in case the GM needs to be replaced, for example on draft day.

Respect

PLAY NICE. If people act like dicks in trade/FA negotiations, particularly in agreeing to something and then going back on their word, PM the admins and we'll take care of it. Repeat offenders will get removed from the sim. Racism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry will not be tolerated. No politics.
If you have any questions, feel free to comment below or DM any commissioner. If we need to clarify some things, we will do so.

First...Previous
Colonist Booker Smith
UNS Lightbringer
Of all the skills I’d picked up throughout my short lifetime spent back on Earth, I never would have guessed that the ability to mix up homemade hairspray would prove to be so useful. Looking over myself in the captain’s bathroom mirror, however, I could hardly deny the results. Though our faces looked rather different, if one were to judge purely based upon hairstyle, Theruf and I would be indistinguishable.
Adjusting the newly-shortened cuff of Theruf’s uniform sleeve, I exited the lavatory and at a brisk clip took off back toward our ship’s medbay. Stepping inside the room, I watched as Emma and a newly-thawed evolutionary biologist with thinning hair carefully carved into one of the corpses produced during our recent confrontations with the Phylix. Meanwhile, against the room’s far wall, a tall, lanky electrocranial engineer formerly employed by Cogitolink could be seen hooking up various wires to a sedated Theruf whilst John kept watch.
“What all do we know?” I asked, stepping over to the dissection table and taking in its scent akin to that of rotten vegetation mixed with maple syrup. If we were to successfully blend in with Phylix civilization, adequate biological knowledge would be every bit as important as cultural.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like this!” Replied Em, her tone absolutely giddy as she looked up from the microscope under which rested a clump of Phylix ‘flesh’. “Sure, they might look Human on the outside, but internally the differences between us are staggering. For example, while they do obtain a vast majority of their energy from the consumption of organic matter, Phylix also appear to be capable of sophisticated photosynthesis.”
While surely for someone more well-versed in life sciences all this would be incredibly fascinating, I as a hairdresser was far more interested in things that would aid me directly. “And how do they match up in comparison to us?” I asked, hoping to more fully understand what we were up against here.
Experienced as Emma no doubt was in dealing with plants, comparing and contrasting different organisms was far more in the evolutionary biologist’s domain, and as such it was him who next spoke up. “Their bodies appear to prioritize energy efficiency above all else, with some concessions being made for reflex speed,” he began, carefully analyzing an extracted strand of alien sinew as he spoke. “They require fewer than half the calories we do in order to function at optimal capacity, and a small portion of that is covered for by their photosynthetic skin.“
“So we need to eat more than they do. What else do the Phylix have over on us?”
“Let’s see… Phylix skin is tougher than ours, and they appear to possess powerful regenerative abilities almost like those of bamboo. We have them beat at just about everything else, however…” The biologist half-smirked, glancing over at a computer screen loaded with variables beyond my understanding and typing in yet another set of data. “Their reflexes, while rather fast given the gravity of this planet, are nevertheless inferior to our own. We also far outclass them in terms of strength, speed, and endurance.”
“Their central nervous system is different too,” murmured the electrocranial engineer, looking over a three dimensional model presumably of Theruf’s brain—its central mass sequestered inside his skull with roots extending outward from it to form what we Humans had at first mistaken for hair. “I’m seeing signs of both repaired and newly-created neurons within this one’s brain: Humans can’t do that. Phylix neuroplasticity is also off the charts, indicating an enhanced capacity for learning and the ability to adapt to whatever brain damage can’t be healed.”
That was good news for Theruf, at least, given what we had done to him when first obtaining a root sample. If there was one thing I knew about evolution, however, it was that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. “What’s the trade off?” I asked, hoping for something else that we might be able to leverage against the Phylix.
“I’ll need more specimens to say for sure, but looking at this one, my current hypothesis is that they traded away much of their pattern recognition.”
This insight, while much appreciated, was not why we thawed out a Cogitolink employee. “Will you be able to download his memories?” I asked, tapping repeatedly upon my forehead for emphasis. Initially, I had planned to simply interrogate Theruf for information on how to blend in, but threatening a fanatic with martyrdom was about as effective as threatening an alcoholic with a second gin and tonic. Having all the soldier’s knowledge loaded into my GRIM would allow me to blend in seamlessly with his kind, eliminating much of the involved guesswork.
“That depends…” Replied the engineer, his tone unnervingly somber as he navigated to yet another screen. “Their neural structure is too different from ours for a direct transcription, meaning I likely won’t be able to get anything more than basic information… Unless…”
“Unless what?” John growled, looking down upon our unconscious prisoner with icy disregard.
Following a long moment’s hesitation, the engineer eventually relented and with a heavy sigh imparted upon us our second option. “If we run a high-power charge through his brain, the computer will be able to map almost the entire thing. We’ll be able to blend in with his kind perfectly…”
“Lemme guess: there a big fuckin’ catch, isn’t there?” John half-groaned, staring down the former Cogitolink employee as he awaited the inevitable affirmation and elaboration.
“If turning his brain into a heap of organic mush is what you’d consider a drawback, then yes.”
Silence fell over the room as we all contemplated the weight of such a decision. Killing in self-defense was one thing, but the borderline execution of a sapient being, no matter how vile, was another matter entirely. All it took to shatter this quiet, however, were two words from the commodore’s mouth. “Do it.”
Again, the engineer hesitated. “Are you sure?” He asked, his fingers remaining at rest in spite of the order. The rest of us, meanwhile, were too stunned to speak out.
“Don’t you lot forget the contract we signed!” Barked John, his tone booming with power and authority befitting a military man. “Humanity’s survival is our top priority. At all costs.”
At last regaining her voice after several long moments of speechlessness, Em stepped past the commodore to stand in solidarity at the engineer’s side. “Theruf is a brainwashed victim of his own society—we can’t just murder him for following orders!”
“Let’s not be overdramatic here!” Cautioned the biologist, his expression utterly unfazed by the notion of putting down our prisoner. “He’s a fascist soldier who’d kill every last one of us given half a chance. At least this way he’ll die for a good cause.”
Indecision immobilized me amidst my fellow’s colonists’ arguing. Back when I first pressed Theruf’s own gun to the back of his head, the urge to end him on the spot had been palpable. Now, however, given the chance to put things into perspective, I wasn’t sure what we should do with the captive. So I remained silent as the lot of them continued their impromptu trial of the unconscious Phylix.
“I’m not so sure I’m comfortable doing this…” The engineer winced, his hands falling away from the keyboard as he cast down his gaze from the waiting commodore’s glare.
“Fine…” John growled, taking a step towards the surgery bay computer and placing his own hand upon it. “Just tell me what commands to type in and I’ll do it. No blood on your hands, right? Just mine.”
Evidently dissatisfied with this rationalization, Em rounded the dissection table and began to approach the commodore as though to stop him manually. Her efforts, however, were thwarted when the biologist moved to intercept her. “We can’t take any risks here!” He sighed, outstretching an arm toward me for emphasis. “If Booker’s disguise fails, it’s game over for us, for the colony—maybe for humanity for all we know!”
“Listen to your fellow scientist,” sighed John, regarding Emma with a confusing concoction of warm understanding and cold, ruthless utilitarianism. “If you think I get some kind of sick kick out of this, then you’re dead wrong; but I swore an oath to keep Humanity safe, and if I have to kill a million of these bastards to do it, then I will not hesitate.”
“Wait!” Stammered the engineer, grabbing John’s arm as though to prevent him from pressing any of the keys. “There might be another way. If you guys can obtain a few more living samples for me, I might be able to calibrate a non-lethal mapping charge.”
“And how many ‘samples’ is that going to take?” Asked the biologist, his tone dripping with skepticism.
For a moment, the former Cogitolink employee hesitated to provide us with an answer to this fairly straightforward inquiry. Eventually, however, he relented in his secrecy. “Forty… Maybe fifty?”
“Getting that many captives would take time that we don't have, Manley!" John barked, offhandedly referencing the engineer's surname amidst his admonishment of the idea.
This argument continued for what must have been half an hour, devolving at times into a shouting match between Emma and the commodore before then cooling off yet again into cold, yet relatively-peaceful periods of debate. This rhythm of argument was disrupted, however, when Em jabbed her finger towards me. "Booker is the one whose going to be wearing Theruf's appearance: it should be his choice whether or not to sacrifice him."
Whereas before the group had been divided into two sides, on this matter Manley and the biologist seemed to agree with Em, deriving a somewhat frustrated sigh from the commodore as he suddenly found himself outnumbered. "Fine..." John conceded, searching my expression for any indication of what route I might take here. Unfortunately for him, even I had not a clue at the moment what to do. "Booker: you've heard our cases for and against this plan, so what do you think we should do?"
If I'm honest, I would have been perfectly happy to let this debate play out entirely without my input. If I agreed to this plan, then the sap of our prisoner would be on my hands; yet if I declined and we wound up failing, then it would be my bloody signature upon the colony's death warrant. The decision was by no means an easy one. Perhaps from an outside perspective, John might seem to be overly callous, but to those of us in that room it was abundantly clear that his actions stemmed from a genuine desire to protect the colony.
Before the lot of them dragged me into this debate, I'd have been perfectly fine with either decision, but now that it was my finger on the trigger, I simply couldn't bring myself to pull it. "We can work with the basics," I confirmed, prompting from the engineer a sigh of relief as he began calibrating a weak mapping charge that would only penetrate the most well-trodden of our prisoner's neural pathways. "We're going to need more identities to infiltrate the camp with anyways. Theruf's people should come looking for him soon: I'll play the part and draw whoever shows up back here so we can capture them."
"And what do you propose we do with them once they're in our hands?" Growled John, still evidently not quite sold on this idea. "We don't have the resources to keep them locked up for long."
"We could use the cryopods!" Replied the botanist in my stead—Fortunately so given my lack of a workable answer. "Judging by Phylix cell structure, they appear to be capable of hibernating to a certain degree, much like certain plants on Earth. So long as we keep the cryopod temperatures in the correct range and thaw out any prisoners once in a while to ensure they don't break down, it should be enough to keep them sedated or at least docile." Em concluded, her expression hardened by newfound acceptance of our circumstances.
Completing his setup of the charge to no fanfare from the rest of us, Manley typed in one final chunk of commands before pressing down upon the terminal's 'enter' key, causing Theruf's body to twitch slightly as a loading bar appeared on screen showing the download progress. When at last the final pixel of white was overtaken by green, my GRIM was quick to notify me of the database's new addition.
Gently pulling Theruf's gun from its holster at my side and turning it over in my grasp, my brain tingled in response to the artificial neuron stimulation of Theruf's implanted memories. Gesturing for the others to follow me, I once again traversed our ship's hallways until the night sky's glittering canvas shone overhead.
Back when I had first held Theruf's weapon in my hands, it had felt completely foreign to me. The mechanisms on it made nary a lick of sense, and in all honesty I probably couldn't have fired it if I tried. Standing amongst the skin trees with our prisoner's memories in my mind, however, I was able to draw the gun and flick off it's safety in a single fluid motion. Behind me, the other colonists watched as I put three shots into one of the trees in front of us, aiming for a large central scab eerily reminiscent of an eye. Trails of crimson dripping from tree's flesh marked where my shots had landed., and though none of them actually hit their mark, the fact that all three bullets even hit the tree at all despite my never firing a gun in my life was in itself evidence of the download's success.
"Not bad..." John chuckled briefly, stepping up beside me and drawing his own gun before planting three shots square in the scab's center, causing it to burst like a blood-filled balloon. "Your aim still needs work, though."
Studying for a moment the bullet holes left behind by my demonstration, Manley hummed in contemplation. "Muscle memory transcriptions are never perfect," he explained, looking curiously upon the weapon as I returned it to its holster. "They can't override more powerful neural connections for example, which is why John's aim is still superior. That being said, Booker, I'm more concerned about what you know than what you can do. The chip should provide you with context when you encounter situations common to Theruf, but it's unlikely you'll be able to recall complex details. You know how to use that gun, sure, but I'd wager to guess you still haven't a clue how it works."
He was right, of course. I knew that I had to hold down the weapon's trigger for at least one second in order for it to fire properly, but I still hadn't a clue why that was the case. Closing my eyes and concentrating upon the information newly nestled within me, I cleared my throat and assuming a rough approximation of our prisoner's voice spoke out. "I am he known as Theruf..." I began, mentally exploring every available aspect of this newfound role dictated to me by the GRIM. "I was raised in the small town of Dzidra. My father works as a mechanic and I have two siblings: Mathul and Zekari... John: get everyone inside the ship and prepare your men for an ambush. I'll go back to the ridge where me and Boris first saw the Phylix and wait for more soldiers to show up, then I'll lure them back here to be captured alive. Can you work with that?"
"Are you seriously asking if I can prep a simple ambush?" Began the commodore, sounding almost offended by the notion of such a thing being in question. "Don't worry about us, 'Theruf': just bring some guests and I'll throw the damn party!"
Satisfied with our plan, John gave me a pat on the back for good luck as I set off once more into the night, weaving between skin trees until our ship’s lights faded from view altogether. At last arriving once more at the overlook, I sat down a few feet from the ledge and there awaited the arrival of Theruf’s fellow soldiers.
Glimmers of new dawn peered out from under the distant horizon amidst my watch, casting shadows upon Theruf's wicked workplace as though to hide its atrocities from the judgmental light of day. Only just had this planet's parent star crested into view when at last were the forest's rhythmic respirations interrupted by a distant grinding of tires against dirt.
Rising to my feet and making my way toward the noise's source, I soon enough found myself stood at the edge of a hitherto-unseen clearing. Hiding myself from sight behind a nearby skin tree, I watched as a bulky military vehicle trundled uphill to then find rest upon the relatively-level forest floor. No sooner had this vehicle come to a stop than did three soldiers clad in uniforms not unlike Theruf's step out. "This is where our brothers in arms were last known to have been," began one of the men. "We should fan out and search the area."
Sounds like that's my cue... Taking a deep breath to steel my nerves, I dramatically limped out into the clearing, waving frantically to my supposed comrades. Though at first they had raised their guns to the noise of my stumbling out, these soldiers were quick to lower their weapons as they got a good look at me.
"Theruf?" One of the soldiers called out, stepping toward me without hesitation. "Good to see you well, man: where are the others?"
"They need help, Fhasda!" I sputtered out in a tone of faux-panic as Theruf's memories filled in the gap of this one's name. "We were investigating a strange object crashing into these forests... And we found something!"
"What exactly did you find?" Asked one of the other soldiers, looking upon me with newfound skepticism.
Staggering back into the forest with a gesture commanding these three soldiers to follow, I turned back around to conceal a grin as they did so without hesitation. "Let me show you: they're this way!" I exclaimed to the unwitting Phylixm, deliberately remaining vague with my explanation so as to keep their curiosity piqued. When at last the ship's lights came into view, I slowed down to allow for Fhasda and the others to catch up as the four of us continued on toward the now vacant entrance ramp. "They're in here!" I told them, pointing toward the open entryway.
Gasps resounded out from the trio of guards as they looked upon the Lightbringer in total disbelief. "What is that thing?" One of them asked, prompting from Fhasda an unsure shrug as he recklessly approached the main ramp.
"We don't know!" I lied, leaning back against a skin tree to signal my exhaustion. "I know they were brought here by whatever attacked us. I think it's gone for now, but I'll keep watch out here in case it comes back!"
"Good idea," Fhasda affirmed, gesturing for his men to take formation around him as without another moment's hesitation they walked up the ship's entrance ramp and entered into the jaws of a waiting ambush...

I'm currently a tenth-grade student, and we have just begun our two-month and ten-day vacation. During this break, I will be preparing for an official test (SAT) and also dedicating time to learning coding. I have a background in HTML and a bit of CSS, although it's been a while since I last practiced them.
I would appreciate guidance on the following key points:
1) Is web development the best choice, or are there better options in terms of convenience for a student who will be somewhat busy preparing for the SAT?
2) Should I focus on another skill besides coding, or is coding still highly valuable given the rapid advancements in AI technology?
3) Could someone provide me with a roadmap or an overview plan detailing what to learn over the next two months and also how to refresh on what i learnt on HTML without wasting a lot of time and how to effectively learn and retain all the information I'll be assimilating?
Thank you for any assistance you can provide!

I'm currently a tenth-grade student, and we have just begun our two-month and ten-day vacation. During this break, I will be preparing for an official test (SAT) and also dedicating time to learning coding. I have a background in HTML and a bit of CSS, although it's been a while since I last practiced them.
I would appreciate guidance on the following key points:
1) Is web development the best choice, or are there better options in terms of convenience for a student who will be somewhat busy preparing for the SAT?
2) Should I focus on another skill besides coding, or is coding still highly valuable given the rapid advancements in AI technology?
3) Could someone provide me with a roadmap or an overview plan detailing what to learn over the next two months and also how to refresh on what i learnt on HTML without wasting a lot of time and how to effectively learn and retain all the information I'll be assimilating?
Thank you for any assistance you can provide!

I'm currently a tenth-grade student, and we have just begun our two-month and ten-day vacation. During this break, I will be preparing for an official test (SAT) and also dedicating time to learning coding. I have a background in HTML and a bit of CSS, although it's been a while since I last practiced them.
I would appreciate guidance on the following key points:
1) Is web development the best choice, or are there better options in terms of convenience for a student who will be somewhat busy preparing for the SAT?
2) Should I focus on another skill besides coding, or is coding still highly valuable given the rapid advancements in AI technology?
3) Could someone provide me with a roadmap or an overview plan detailing what to learn over the next two months and also how to refresh on what i learnt on HTML without wasting a lot of time and how to effectively learn and retain all the information I'll be assimilating?
Thank you for any assistance you can provide!

Four years ago, I decided to launch a startup and began creating my own mobile apps. On September 20 last year, they started bringing in over $3,000 a day (90% of which was on iOS). The very next day, Apple removed all my apps from the App Store and blocked my account.
I sent appeals, showed evidence, screenshots, and even sent a pre-trial claim, but was mostly ignored. Now I've filed a lawsuit against Apple, and for now, the iOS market is a no-go fpr me.
I want to speak out, but I don’t want to complain. Instead, I can share how simple ideas brought me good profits. Maybe someone will be interested and avoid making my mistakes.
First idea
The first app was super simple - you upload two before/after images and get a short video with a slide effect.
First version of the app
My wife, who was a nail tech at the time, suggested the idea because she wanted to create content to attract clients. She couldn't find any apps for creating before/after videos in the App Store. I didn’t believe her, we almost ended up arguing, and I went searching to prove her wrong. Turns out, she was right (as always).
I persuaded a friend to help develop the app. It was 2019, we spent a couple of months developing it, and within a year, it was bringing in $100-200 a month. My friend thought the idea was unworkable, so I bought out his share for a token amount.
This happened on February 26, 2020, right at my 30th birthday party. I sold a stake in a common startup and used part of the money to buy out my partner’s share in the before/after app. I had about $10k in my pocket.
The next day after the party, I sat down to redesign the app and think through new functionality.
First takeoff
I was lucky to quickly find a talented and affordable freelancer. We rebuilt the app almost from scratch in 1.5 months, costing me $2,000.
What we did:

• Redesign
• New transitions, like diagonal ones
• Ability to customize animation speed
• Added effects settings: transition thickness, color, neon, etc.
• Ability to add music
• Ability to add text
• Added support for stickers
• Updated the store page: description, screenshots, icon
• Localized the app for all available languages in the App Store

After update
Before this update, the app gained a couple of hundred montly downloads in its first year. But a week after the new version was released, there was a surge in organics.
Around the same time, I hired a marketing specialist for $400/month who launched the first ad. And boy, did it take off. We spent $200-300 on the first campaign, and within a month, I was maxing out my credit card to buy ads. All campaigns paid off. We used only one source, Apple Search Ads.
Search Ads doesn't have extensive targeting options, so we didn't fully understand who our target users were. Then we were contacted by an influencer saying “let’s launch a dog grooming contest.” It wasn’t very clear who would be interested in that, but no problem, let’s do it.
As a prize, we gave away premium access to our app, just three promo codes. The return from the contest was phenomenal. It brought in $2,000 net, and I discovered a whole new world. A huge number of people are willing to invest any amount in their beloved doggos to brag about the results through our app. I was shocked that a simple idea like this one worked SO well.
After the contest, we doubled for three more months in a row, and then reached a stable growth of 20-30% per month.
Screenshot from App Store Connect
I still remember the moment I woke up, picked up my phone, and the app had earned a thousand dollars overnight for the first time. I was psyched, thanking the universe, the users, Apple, and the iPhone itself.
Six months after the redesign, the app was bringing in about 200 times more than the original mark, $34k instead of $100-200 a month. $25k on iOS and $9k on Android (the Android version was made three months after the redesign).
As a result, I started receiving offers to purchase the app. I refused until I heard, “name the price.” I don’t know why, but I said $410k and after five days, I received that amount into my account.
It seemed like an unimaginable amount of money to me; I couldn’t believe what was happening. Only two years later did I realize the real value of the app at that time was at least $1 million. You know how it goes, do as I say, not as I do.
To tell you more, the app’s still alive and it’s making good money without any updates. It paid for itself in 8 months and has been deep in the green ever since.
I planned to continue making apps with this money, thinking I could expand. It’s going to be smooth sailing from here on out, right? Absolutely not.
Landing
In 2021, my family and I moved to Chile, where we still live. We like it here, it's a beautiful country, pur children are growing up here, our daughter was born here, and we want to get Chilean passports. I sold everything back home - a car, an apartment, a plot of land, all my stuff.
I started chasing my dream of making a serious video editing app. I thought, now I have money, I'll start figuring out a "real" app. Life is beautiful and amazing.
I hired new devs and went to work for a year and a half. The first release turned out to be a failure: organic users never came, and the cost of attracting one user never fell below $10. Competing with the free CapCut was impossible.
There were also parallel attempts to make other things. For example, an app for designing your Instagram feed. The first version of the app was growing great, but I thought with new features like collaboration and delayed auto-publishing, I'd find the key to success.
However, reality was harsh. I spent six months just communicating with Facebook to gain access to the API methods I needed, only to find that Facebook kept changing things on the inside, making the app’s features unusable.
In the end, I didn’t even earn $1,000. I spent almost all my money working tirelessly, but nothing ever took off.
Insights and the crash
Crisis makes you think. I realized my strength was in niche apps and decided to return to where I started: small apps covering specific needs without any unnecessary noise.
I made the Boomerang app, regardless of the fact that Instagram already had this feature. But I made a separate app, and it started to grow.
There was also an app filled with beautiful fonts for designing social media posts. An app for creating Reels. Once I realized my strengths, things started to look up again. I returned to the idea of collages. Every app began to make money. Whew!
Screenshot from my company website
Overall, the account had six apps with an above 4.5 stars average App Store rating. On August 21, 2023, I received a notification from Apple that they had removed my app from the App Store and were going to shut down my account if I did not correct the violations within 30 days. Not any specific violations, just “violations.”
I sent Apple evidence, screenshots, and offered access to the source files, but I was either ignored completely pr got an auto-reply. I was sure this was just some kind of mistake and waited for an answer. We continued to make updates and worked on new features. On September 20, the apps earned more than $3,000 in 24 hours for the first time and were removed by Apple the next day.
Payments were suspended, and I had $110,000 left in my account.
I was stunned.
The first appeal was rejected, the reasons for the blocking were unknown, and it was unclear what to do. I immediately submitted a second appeal. Eight weeks of silence and again a refusal.
I lost everything I worked for in a single day..
I started a petition on Change.org and shared my story in a tweet that gained significant traction. Someone from Twitter published my story on Hacker News; it became #1, collecting more than 400 comments. I received hundreds of support messages in my dms, and only then did Apple finally send an explanation.
According to them, my account was frozen “for association with a previously closed fraudulent account.” Of course, I had no connection with fraudulent accounts, otherwise I wouldn’t even be sharing the story in the first place. The only positive reaction to the hype was the return of $110,000.
I started my little investigation. The “fraudulent” account may have turned out to be my old account, which once contained the first app for creating before/after videos. The very same thing that started it all. I continued to pay $99 for this account because it is dear to me, it’s nostalgic and a part of my life.
Just before it was closed, I tried to publish a card game based on the popular game Never Have I Ever on this account. This concept seemed ideal for me to master interface solutions when moving from Swift UIKit to Swift UI.
But recently, other things have come to light. We found a company of former partners with an identical name to mine. Apparently, Apple connected me with this company that I didn't even know existed. But I can’t know for sure because there is no feedback from the corporation. Any letters with any arguments and documents are ignored.
I had to sue, but that’s a whole other big story. Communication with Apple is gfar from being related to development; maybe I’ll tell you about it someday.
What's next and what about other stores
90% of our profits came through Apple. We're now fully focused on Android and have grown 4x in 8 months, but it's still not enough to cover all development costs. I don’t make enough money to continue supporting the team. We're holding out for now because finding developers who understand graphics and video is difficult (by the way, a good niche for devs who are not sure what to try next).
The growth on Android is also related to the market's quirks: the Android audience is many times larger than the number of iPhone users, but not every Android can render a new video from 12 frames.
Back to my story. Next will be a trial, petitions, and pleas. I hope my experience will be useful to someone because I am not the first and, most likely, not the last to find myself in this situation. Corporations don't care about individual developers. Even if they are left with nothing.
It might sound trivial, but don’t put all your eggs in one basket. The larger the corporation, the less attention it will pay to you. With Apple, after blocking, you lose the opportunity to even talk to support on the phone. Text appeals only.
In fact, I communicated with the answering machine for a whole month until I was blocked. At any moment, you can lose everything you have - your account, apps, users. With the snap of a finger, what you thought belonged to you will disappear.
The only thing I realized is that only public discussion of the problem and the courts can somehow induce them to change their policy towards developers.
In the meantime, I’ll go get ready for the next update.

It was a Monday like every other. I was at the office entering expenses accounts into a spreadsheet. This week was different, I thought to myself as I looked at my calendar, Wednesday circled with the word "vacation" written within the box. As I daydreamed of spending time in my hometown with old friends and family, some of them, I hadn't seen since the accident. I was snapped out of my mind wandering when I heard the sound of my smartwatch alarm. A reminder to take my medicine. I opened my messenger bag and reached in to grab my bottle. I gave it a shake and heard the deafening sound of an empty bottle. I'm supposed to take two a day. I popped open the bottle and inside was a note, I unfolded the paper and it read: "remember to order meds."
When break time came around, I called my doctor's office to order more medicine: "Hello, good afternoon. Yes, my name is Brian Weber. Yes, I need to get a refill on my medication." I looked down at my empty bottle and read the label to the nurse. "Aripiprazole?" I answered. "Yes... Wednesday night? No, I won't be in town. Send it to 101 N. Carrie King Lane, Portland, Maine... Thank you, have a great day." I figured I could handle a couple of days without my medicine. I spent the rest of my lunch break watching videos about one of my favorite subjects, cryptids and mythology.
Tuesday came and went as normal aside from a terrible migraine I couldn't shake, I went to bed as soon as I got home. When Wednesday had finally come, I woke up to the smell of coffee brewing. I walked downstairs to see my wife, Laura, cooking breakfast. "Good morning, my love." She said, turning away from the stove. I stood there confused for a moment, and then I finally responded, "Good morning, bags already packed?" I asked as I walked to her and gave her a kiss. "Packed and in the car already." She answered as she scraped eggs from the pan onto a plate. I walked over to our six-month-old son, Nathan, who was sitting in his high chair and gave him a kiss on his head. "Morning, buddy." I said, and then I sat down to eat breakfast. We conversed about the route we were going to take, and I checked the weather and saw there was going to be snowfall at the halfway point. We packed up the car and headed out on our eight and a half hour journey to my hometown.
The start of the road trip was filled with eating some snacks, singing along to some music and just general chatting. We watched as the busy city highway turned to forest roads as Nathan babbled to himself and played with some toys. At the halfway point, the road began to disappear under the patches of snow and ice as Laura pointed out the snowy trees to Nathan. "Look at the snow in the trees, Nate." She said as he looked out the window and gave a giggle. He'd seen snow in the city, but this was his first time seeing a snowy forest. As we were driving down the forest road, I realized the car began to slow down. I tried pumping the gas pedal, but there was no increase in speed. Then the car came to a stop. "What's wrong, Brian? " Laura asked, concerned. "I'm not sure." I said as I turned off the car. I grabbed my gloves and zipped my jacket up to my throat. The cold air bit at my face and ears as I stepped around the front of the car. I lifted the hood of the car and I looked at the steam come off of the engine and components. I tried various cables and hoses, but nothing seemed loose. I shut the hood and stepped back into the car. "What's wrong? " Laura asked. "I think the engine might have overheated. Maybe we can let it cool off for thirty minutes and try again?" I said, trying to remain confident in front of my family. I didn't know anything about cars. I tried looking up what might be going on with my vehicle, but I had no signal. Nathan began crying, Laura unbuckled him from his car seat and checked on him. He didn't need a new diaper, so he must have been hungry. Laura unzipped her jacket and attempted to breast-feed him. "Sorry, Nate, but mommy doesn't have much milk for you." She said as she pulled him away and zipped her jacket back up.
Thirty minutes passed by, and I decided enough time had passed for the engine to cool. I turned the key, but it didn't start. I waited a few minutes and I tried again... nothing. I looked at Laura, who looked at me panicked. "This is a normal route to take, someone should drive by soon, and we should be able to get help." I reassured her. We had only packed a few snacks for the trip, but not enough food and water to last us a long time. No help came, no cars came, and no calls could be made out or received. As day turned to night, the car became colder and colder as the cold winter air crept its way into our vehicle. I looked out into the dark forest and I could see glowing eyes in the woods and I could hear the sound of wolves nearby barking and howling. Three days had passed, Laura and I were weak from not eating. We occasionally would open the car door to gather snow off the ground to eat it, to attempt to stay hydrated. Eventually, Nathan's constant cries shrank to a dull whine and eventual silence. I reached back to the baby seat where he sat under some blankets and felt for him. He was cold to the touch, Nathan had died. I'm not sure whether it was due to starvation or exposure, but he was gone. I leaned back forward, putting my head against the steering wheel and sobbed uncomfortably. The tears stung as they ran down my frozen face. As if fate couldn't be cruel enough, Laura tapped me on the shoulder and weakly pointed. Outside the car were those same wolves, now circling the car as if death itself had informed them of my son's passing. They couldn't get to us as long as we stayed in the car, but one thing was for sure, we weren't going to be able to gather any more ice. I had never felt so much despair in my life. I almost didn't want to be rescued at that point, I felt I just wanted to die and join my son in the afterlife. I laid my head down on the steering wheel and fell asleep.
I woke up the next morning to find Laura and Nathan's body gone from the car. I had noticed the wolves were gone as well. Perhaps she went to bury Nathan, though I'm not sure how she had the strength to do so. I dragged myself out of the car and grabbed the knife I kept under my seat for defense. I could see in the woods the flickers of light from a fire and I began to walk towards it. As I approached I could smell the intoxicating aroma of cooking meat, I could see Laura crouched at the fire ravenously eating away. She turned and looked at me and smiled as if to beckon me to join her. My mouth watering and my stomach in pain from not eating for three days I approached. I had stopped halfway when I stepped on some sort of soft cloth in the snow. I looked down and what I saw to my horror could only be confirmed when I looked at the shape of the meat that Laura had over the fire. It was the familiar shape of my son, my baby boy. I felt a menagerie of emotions wash over me, from disgust to horror, but the one that stood out to me at that moment was rage. I don't know where this strength came from, but in that moment of blind hatred, I plunged the knife into Laura's neck. She fell over gasping to scream in pain as her warm blood melted the snow by her. It only took seconds, but it felt like minutes as I stood there and watched her die. I walked back to my car and sat in the driver's seat. I grabbed a blanket from the back seat and just passed out. I don't know how many hours had passed but,
I had awoken to the sound of a scream. I stepped out of the car and tried to pinpoint where the screams were coming from. Was Laura somehow still alive? I thought to myself. Guilt filled my heart as I began to run into the woods towards Laura. I came to a clearing, but Laura was nowhere to be found. I heard some footsteps in the snow nearby, and I decided to pursue it. What I found behind those trees was not my wife, but a creature. It was tall and emaciated with gray skin and yellow eyes. It had a wide mouth filled with jagged teeth and no hair. It turned to me and let out a loud inhuman scream. Its breath was hot and smelled of both rot and death. I didn't bring my knife with me to defend myself, not that it would do me any good. I knew what this thing was and who it used to be. I turned and ran as fast as I could back to the car. I could feel its pursuit on my heels and then the feeling of hot iron piercing my side. I was lucky I had left my car door open, I leaped in and closed the door behind me as the creature slammed into the side of my car nearly shattering the window. I grabbed my side and it felt wet, my hand now covered red with my own blood. The creature looked at me through the cracked window, just accusing me with its accursed stare. I knew my time was coming to an end soon. The creature looked at me and opened its mouth and said with a deep monstrous voice, "Sir, are you okay?"
I looked up at a man in a forest ranger's uniform shining his flashlight into my eyes. I looked around and didn't see any monster. I looked at my hand, there was no blood. I looked in the back, there was no baby seat. "Sir, are you okay?" He asked again. I looked at the time on my dashboard, it had only been a few hours since I came to a stop. "Sir, are you traveling with company or alone?" He asked, his voice slightly muffled through the glass. I paused for a moment and looked back at the officer and rolled down my window. "Alone." I said. "Is there something wrong with your vehicle?" The ranger asked. I reached down to turn the key to my vehicle. It turned over without an issue. "Doesn't seem to be." I answered. The ranger looked me up and down and then said, "Be on your way then, you have a safe journey, sir." I nodded and rolled up my window and began to drive away.

It’s not always easy to find a guild that is the right fit, especially if you are a busy adult! Nevermore understands that real life should come first, but that our members want a community that they can be part of in their down time to relax while gaming, make lasting friendships, and just have an online home.
Nevermore is a heroic AoTC focused raid guild, but we also understand that there is more to the game than just raiding. We aim to provide a home to all types of gamers and just want to provide a place for everyone to belong and feel welcomed. From leveling, M+ runs, open world fun, casual players, mount/transmog/achievement hunting, all types of players are welcome in Nevermore.
Nevermore is a Cross Faction Guild on Proudmoore.
Nevermore Raiding Progress:
Awakened Vault of Incarnates: 8/8N 8/8H
Awakened Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible: 9/9N 9/9H
Awakened Amirdrassil: 9/9N 9/9H
Events
Normal/Heroic Raid: We currently run 2 different sets of raid days that our members are free to pick which works best for them. Raiders are expected to meet the minimum ilvl and tier set requirements and to be prepared for progression raiding with appropriate enchants/food/flasks/etc. Exact requirements can be found on our Discord!
Tuesday/Friday/Saturday: 6-8 pm PST with an optional hour Fri/Sat
Wednesday/Thursday: 6-8 pm PST
Open Raid: A more casual friendly raid open to all of our members. This is great for people that can’t commit to our other raid schedules and want to see the content on normal or just a fun event for your favorite alt!
Sunday: 6-8 pm PST
Mythic+ Mingle Night: We offer a night of more "organized" M+ fun. The goal of these is to NOT push high keys, but to just group up and have fun!
Mondays: 6-8 pm PST
Fun Run: Once we have heroic on farm, Saturdays are for fun! Join us for tmog, achievements, alt heroics, and various other shenanigans.
Saturday: 6-8 pm PST
If this sounds like a good fit to you or if you have questions, feel free to reach out to any of the following:
Star: BNet: Starlight200#154 Discord: stariela
Zara: BNet: italiaa#1694 Discord: zara1643
Laur: BNet: redcow#1320 Discord: lauroftheblings#9523
You are also welcome to check out our Discord: https://discord.gg/nevermoreguild
Join Nevermore and become part of a friendly, welcoming community of adults. And of course we have the added benefit of a fun name and many raven pictures/logos throughout our Discord.
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore."