Every school playground has seen how this goes. If a tyrannical, malevolent bully is constantly pushing his weight around there is only one sure way to face him down and make sure he STAYS down.
Children know the score and the script when there’s a bully around. You stay tight with your friends.
It’s not surprising then that China has issued its strongest statement yet making it clear that it will assist Russia in defending itself. But China is not the only friend Russia has that may be relied upon to stand up to the collective western bully… far from it.
Putin has been doing the rounds lately. First he checked in with Xi in Beijing. Then, in recent days he first visited Belarus, then other nations within the mutual defense group known as the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Putin was checking the members of the CSTO were ready for the fight clearly to come.
Wikipedia:
‘The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is an intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia consisting of six post-Soviet states: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan, formed in 2002. The Collective Security Treaty has its origins in the Soviet Armed Forces, which was replaced in 1992 by the United Armed Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and was then itself replaced by the successor armed forces of the respective independent states.
Similar to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty and the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, Article 4 of the Collective Security Treaty (CST) establishes that an aggression against one signatory would be perceived as an aggression against all. The 2002 CSTO charter reaffirmed the desire of all participating states to abstain from the use or threat of force. Signatories are prohibited from joining other military alliances.’
Why is any of this especially relevant now? Because, for one thing, it is clear that most NATO nations are poised to enter the conflict in Ukraine directly. For another, the green light has just been given by most of them to allow missile strikes on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Add one and one to get two here. For the first time officially NATO states, through their Ukrainian proxy will clearly demonstrate their aggression against Russia through acts of war against it. This triggers the agreement among the CSTO nations that aggression against one of their number will be perceived as ‘an aggression against all’.
Now you know the reason for Putin’s travels to Russia’s most powerful friendly nations in the last few days.
It is speculated that Russia is also seeking assistance from another state, Afghanistan. We may hear in the coming days that Russia has formally recognised the Taliban as the legal government of Afghanistan. At that point watch for the emergence of a mutual defense pact between Afghanistan and Russia. Shortly after there could well be a significant transfer of seasoned Afghan fighters to the territory of the Russian Federation.
Iran too is, as we know, a good friend of Russia’s and a member along with Russia of the BRICS group. Add the DPRK, North Korea, another friendly nation into the mix also. These are powerful allies who appear ready to join the fight.
As the saying goes, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If the western nations are going to act in unison against Russia in Ukraine then Russia will not by any means stand alone against them. Russia has a great many friends among the global majority who have for a long time now had it up to the back teeth with the interminable bullying of the western powers. They see their chance at last to shuck off the persistent threats of the bully by standing in unison with powerful others against it.
With the USA, UK and most EU nations apparently up for a fight it is only natural for Russia to band together as many others as possible to fight against them… a fight, quite possibly, to the death.

I'm starting to worry about my boyfriend [M22]. We've been together 2 years. I [F25] was pretty sick a few weeks ago and couldn't see him - usually we see each other every week but I asked to rest since I was ill.
He has this annoying habit where he will press to see me as much or as early as possible, even if I get less sleep because of it. So he kept pressing to look after me, etc, and I thought initially this was him being "nice" but clingy. But then the night before he had talked about what he wanted to do with me sexually and something clicked: Does he actually just want to see me for sex?
My boyfriend has a weird relationship with sex, kind of. He used to masturbate non-stop, which I put down to usual teenage horniness. When we first met he couldn't cum, which I didn't care about, but in hindsight this was probably due to death grip / masturbating too much because he has referenced that since. He now forces himself to masturbate less so he can cum more easily during sex and that's fine. He still looks at porn often and thinks about sex constantly, which I assumed was because he is naturally very horny. He has mentioned that he considers all this an "issue" and he wishes he could engage in it less.
So with context provided - I started wondering, is the reason he wants to see me so much while I'm sick is because he still wants to have sex? And I realised I felt pressured to fuck him even when I'm ill. I didn't want to see him because I was thinking, "God, if I see him, I'm gonna have to fuck and I feel exhausted."
We have had issues in the past with this, where my vagina has literally been physically painful from overuse and he would still ask for more sex. I always found it weird that I had to repeatedly explain why I couldn't. We have sex multiple times a day and it seems he only wants to stop when his dick physically stops working or he's too tired. He's asked for sex even when he isn't horny enough to cum.
He's woken me up when I'm half asleep for sex too, which always seemed inappropriate to me. He's made comments before like "as long as we are always having sex, I don't care about anything else." Oh, also we met through a random hook up. I sometimes wonder if he would have ever fallen in love with me had I not given him a constant supply of sex, but I don't know if that's insecurity on my part.
My question is, where is the line? Between being naturally very horny as a young man and addiction? Have I somehow enabled this by not having strong boundaries? Is he just clingy and genuinely wants to spend time with me non-stop and I have just made this into a weird paranoia about it all being just about sex?
I don't know, I feel lost. I'm just looking for opinions. Thank you. I love him but I'm worried.
TLDR; boyfriend asks for sex even during inappropriate times (half-asleep, sick etc.) and wants to see me non-stop because he misses me (but with the expectation of sex). Also has previous issues with too much masturbation / porn use / not cumming from death grip. Is he a sex addict or just clingy?

So a group of friends of mine love playing games. A friend wanted to dumb down TTRPGs into more of a board game style of his own. He titled it Adventures in Anarchy. The premise was to have a board to play on that gave a dungeons and dragons feel with much more simple rule set than the actual game, and no long term commitment.
There have been tons of board games created with this premise already in mind, and so his twist was that players wouldn't be playing their characters very long. He created the playable characters mostly to be commoners with no special abilities or strengths when facing a monster. One or two rounds in, you are picking up a new character and starting over.
This was an interesting model to try and follow as a player. Grab a character, fight a monster, die and respawn as someone new with different commoner attributes. Has anyone done this type of style customization for a board game for their friends?

Edward Snowden has been blasted at us by the Media, News, TV, Movies, and probably over 100 interviews. But when was the last time you saw him photographed in Russian media? Well, I can tell you, 2014.
Since the end of the failed Russian Reset, and after invading Ukraine in 2014, Edward Snowden has NEVER been seen inside Russia.
You’ll hear about some stories you are fed to believe. The John Oliver interview is convincing, but you never see him outside. What you also likely didn’t know is HBO and nearly his entire crew (if not all) knew NOTHING about the Edward Snowden interview until John Oliver came back with the recordings. Souce
Tucker Carlson is the newest shill in the Edward Snowden coverup. He swears that he met with Edward Snowden, in a Moscow hotel, in 2024. But Edward Snowden was so shy, he didn’t want his picture taken. And wants privacy… But he has 0 issues doing talk shows every week. CIA probably gave him this so Tuck could crap on the deep state a little bit.
Here’s a quote Edward Snowden wrote before becoming a “whistleblower”.
“Years later, when characterizing his experience as a CIA TISO, Snowden would write that he was ‘specially selected by [CIA’s] Executive Leadership Team for [a] high-visibility assignment’ that ‘required exceptionally wide responsibility.’ Souce

• Edward Snowden was born on June 21, 1983, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. His family moved to Maryland, near the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade.
• Geneva Assignment: Snowden was posted to Geneva, Switzerland, in 2007 under diplomatic cover as a systems administrator at the U.S. Mission. Here, he gained insight into the inner workings of the CIA and U.S. intelligence operations.
• The Media, including television and film, have had a very heavy influence in the perception about Edward Snowden.
• He would claim he looked for Aliens in his book, but i believe that is just misdirection.
• The Guardian reporter, Glenn Greenwald, was the “Snowden leaker” but didn’t reveal any facts that resulted in any substantial change at the NSA or with American civil rights. Look into his resume, and tell me he doesn’t seem like a CIA asset. Souce Source Source

This started with Obama and the Russian Reset. In 2013, Russian and USA relations were not as strained as they are today. During that time, Russian media frequently posted pictures of Edward Snowden, like this one: . However, since 2014, these sightings have disappeared. It’s been a decade since Edward Snowden was seen outside in Russia.
Have you ever wondered how Edward Snowden is paying for living in Russia? Do you really think Russia would pay for some helpdesk employee to tweet for a decade and not be used by Russian Propaganda? He supposedly have to give back his $4m book advance, but we know that’s theater.
It has come to light recently that the CIA withheld information from Trump. Even Jack Smith presented the court with altered documents than what the defense provided. Here is a recent quote from a tweet from a undercover reporter: Source
Amjad Fseisi, is caught on undercover cameras implicating the highest levels of the intelligence agencies, including “The executive staff. We’re talking about the director and his subordinates,” former CIA Directors “Gina Haspel….And I believe Mike Pompeo did the same thing too,” “kept information from him [Trump] because we knew he’d fucking disclose it.” Amjad reasons “There are certain people that would…give him a high-level overview but never give him any details. You know why? Because he’ll leak those details…He’s a Russian asset. He’s owned by the fucking Russians.”
If the CIA is willing to lie about Edward Snowden, they likely provided Trump with fake intelligence that they know he would leak. I bet you the low detail intel briefs with lots of pictures and graphs was just a psyop against Trump to avoid him leaking material. And the stuff he did leak I bet was manipulated by our own government against a sitting president. But at least the CIA hasn't assassinated any more US presidents recently.
Have you ever seen a “whistleblower” do more talk shows than Edward Snowden? They even made a movie about him in a few years. The media is treating Edward Snowden very differently than any other whistleblower in the intelligence community.
I don’t believe we’ve had a real intelligence whistleblower in a long time. Edward Snowden is just trying to misdirect us. There might be aliens, but i would not take the word of an ex CIA agent about that.\
CIA did not expect Russia to go so off the rails so quickly, so you won’t see him in Russian media ever again until he decides he wants to answer questions in USA, like a real whistleblower would do like that hero in Australia exposing war crimes.
What are the true motives behind his tweets and interviews? Does the CIA want to secretly help make our private data more secure? /s

I’ve never written a question on this app before but this is eating at me. BUCKLE UP THIS IS LONG!
So my husband’s family have been abusive to him, he is the black sheep of his family he is the youngest and has a different father than his older siblings (8,6 years older).
Ever since I started dating him I was antagonized in some way. When I first met his family for Christmas his middle brother invited his ex-girlfriend to hang out, unbeknownst to my then bf which was awkward but she was fine with me. My boyfriend then was really sick and I took the train 2 hours to pick him up from his home (where his family was with their cars) and take him to a hospital in London. He was there for 6 days not one person visited him but me. They made fun of him and minimized his illness.
Then we moved to my home country the US and eloped. They came to visit a few years later his mom and eldest brother were okay. Middle brother again constantly throwing barbs and digs at me completely unprovoked. I get there may be a culture difference they are White English conservatives, I’m African American. Shortly after we married he dated a black girl, who left bc she was also treated poorly. Some examples of digs; I congratulated him on graduating and asked him when he finished he replied “same time you were supposed to” (I dropped out). Then I asked what the he loved most and what was challenging about being a PT and he replied “no offense, working with fat people.” Took them to multiple meals and covered everything which wasn’t cheap, he complained about the food being “reheated” and bitched when he was ID’d.
Things get progressively worse, middle brother has a precious baby. I want to spoil her and become close with the mother of the child (who is not with him due to his creepy behavior). We form a fast friendship and chat all the time about the baby. My brother in-law tortures this girl denies he is the dad but also goes out of his way to bully her (she’s not breast feeding right, she shouldn’t have pacifiers) all from the comfort of his home. He is also constantly complaining about having to pay $50 a week in child support nonstop saying he is going “bankrupt”. My hubby is part of a group chat and my mother-in-law talks ish about my friend and my hubby is telling me. I ask to see and his brother is actively trying to give his soon to be 1 year old daughter eggs and gluten that his ex told him she was allergic to and they are plotting to do this during her birthday and explicitly NOT tell my friend the mom of his baby. The reasoning was “I’m the father, I deserve to be respected, I can make choices to” but he is extremely sneaky. I show my friend/baby’s mom the messages and all hell breaks loose because of course he lies and gets caught. I would have told him off directly but he blocked me because he was mad at how close I was getting to his ex. I am called a “despicable woman” dragged in their chat, made to seem that I’m spying on my husband and accused of being jealous and sabotaging my niece’s birthday party. My husband says nothing in my defense just goes along like he didn’t send me the photos of their chat…
They don’t know I’m pregnant at this time and I chose not to tell any of my in-laws due to how awful they are. I also don’t believe in telling anyone that would wish ill on me and my baby (bad juju), but my bestie the baby mom knows. I give birth his mom has an absolute tantrum says incredibly awful things to my husband, reaches out to my mom to wish her congratulations on her grandchild and says “i guess I will learn to love him.”
Then my friend the mom gets diagnosed with cancer and wants to keep this secret and makes me promise, she kept my secret pregnancy it is the least I could do. She dies a few months later and my brother in law attacks her for not telling him and claims she is a horrible mother. He takes custody of his daughter.
Fast forward the eldest brother meets this hog woman. She is rotund and English, very ignorant and rude. The first interaction I had she thought she knew so much, decides to bash my dead friend’s parenting, call my dead father in law “weird”, tells me my niece eats everything now due to having a “good parent” and called my apt in NYC “embarrassing” bc it had scaffolding on google maps when she looked me up (like a creep). She then antagonizes me in a variety of slick ways including posting the eldest brother with my niece with the caption “uncle B’s favorite!” On my son’s birthday. Most recently I tell his family that we want to actually have a proper wedding and celebrate after 10 years of marriage, i give them 2 years notice. The hog says “ohhh me and the eldest are planning on getting married then.” I ask why she says “nice weather”. She then proceeds to have a fall wedding (orange, red, greens, pumpkins, barley, wheelbarrows etc.” in May. I try to be the bigger person and send a kind welcome and she leaves me on read.
I hate these people, I need to let this go. My husband says that we should just go on continuing our happy life and not “start problems”. But it feels like so much awfulness to have to swallow. I also feel like if/when I do speak up I’m the hysterical angry black woman and this hog is the “innocent”. The whole thing is so so frustrating but I need to let it go even though I want them to hurt emotionally as much as they have hurt us.
Any recommendations, would you want revenge? There is so much more but I have written a novel already. I feel alone like no one has my back or tries to understand my perspective. They are so sneaky and underhanded. I want to protect my family from these sick people. At the same time I want justice, justice for my husband, for my dead bestie, for me son and for me.

/collegebaseball General Discussion Thread - REGIONALS WEEK: Part III (2024)

— Rules

— Guidelines

— Get Team Flair

— Inline Flair List

— Line Score Template

Regionals Week Games

Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon
28th	29th	30th	31st	1st	2nd	3rd

StatBroadcast

2024 Postseason Top 25

Mean+Median 3-Poll Composite

Rank	Team	Conference	D1B	BWA	USAT	Prev.	Δ
1	Tennessee Volunteers	SEC	1	1	1	1	—
2	Kentucky Wildcats	SEC	2	2	2	2	—
3	Texas A&M Aggies	SEC	4	3	3	3	—
4	Arkansas Razorbacks	SEC	5	5	4	5	↑1
5	North Carolina Tar Heels	ACC	6	4	5	6	↑1
6	Clemson Tigers	ACC	3	6	6	4	↓2
7	Oregon State Beavers	Pac-12	7	8	7	7	—
8	Florida State Seminoles	ACC	9	7	8	8	—
9	Georgia Bulldogs	SEC	10	9	9	9	—
10	Duke Blue Devils	ACC	12	10	10	17	↑7
11	Oklahoma Sooners	Big 12	8	14	11	11	—
12	ECU Pirates	American	14	13	12	10	↓2
13	Virginia Cavaliers	ACC	18	11	13	12	↓1
14	Oklahoma State Cowboys	Big 12	16	12	14	18	↑4
15	NC State Wolfpack	ACC	11	15	15	14	↓1
16	UCSB Gauchos	Big West	13	16	16	15	↓1
17	Wake Forest Demon Deacons	ACC	19	18	17	19	↑2
18	UC Irvine Anteaters	Big West	21	17	18	13	↓5
19	Arizona Wildcats	Pac-12	15	19	20	21	↑2
20	Mississippi State Bulldogs	SEC	17	20	19	16	↓4
21	Indiana State Sycamores	MVC	20	22	21	20	↓1
22	Dallas Baptist Patriots	C-USA	25	21	22	25	↑3
23	Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns	Sun Belt	22	NR	23	22	↓1
24	Southern Miss Golden Eagles	Sun Belt	23	24	24	NR	↑2
25	LSU Tigers	SEC	24	23	NR	NR	↑
NR	Nebraska Cornhuskers	Big Ten	NR	NR	25	NR	↑
NR	San Diego Toreros	WCC	NR	25	NR	NR	↑

BA – Baseball America
D1B – D1Baseball
CBW – National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association
USAT – USA Today

2024 Division I League Champions

Conference	Regular Season	Tournament
ACC	North Carolina	Duke ᴀꞯ
America East	Bryant	Bryant ᴀꞯ
American	ECU	Tulane ᴀꞯ
A-10	Saint Louis	VCU ᴀꞯ
ASUN	Austin Peay, FGCU, & Stetson	Stetson ᴀꞯ
Big 12	Oklahoma	Oklahoma State ᴀꞯ
Big East	Connecticut	St. John's ᴀꞯ
Big South	Presbyterian	High Point ᴀꞯ
Big Ten	Illinois	Nebraska ᴀꞯ
Big West	USCB ᴀꞯ	ɴᴏɴᴇ
CAA	Charleston	UNCW ᴀꞯ
C-USA	Louisiana Tech	Dallas Baptist ᴀꞯ
Horizon	Wright State	Northern Kentucky ᴀꞯ
Ivy League	Columbia	Pennsylvania ᴀꞯ
MAAC	Fairfield & Niagara	Niagara ᴀꞯ
MAC	Bowling Green	Western Michigan ᴀꞯ
Missouri Valley	Indiana State	Evansville ᴀꞯ
Mountain West	Air Force	Fresno State ᴀꞯ
NEC	Sacred Heart	Long Island ᴀꞯ
Ohio Valley	Little Rock	Southeast Missouri ᴀꞯ
Pac-12	Arizona	Arizona ᴀꞯ
Patriot	Army	Army ᴀꞯ
SEC	Kentucky & Tennessee	Tennessee ᴀꞯ
SoCon	UNC Greensboro	Wofford ᴀꞯ
Southland	Lamar	Nicholls ᴀꞯ
Summit	St. Thomas	Oral Roberts ᴀꞯ
Sun Belt	Louisiana	Southern Miss ᴀꞯ
SWAC	Texas Southern	Grambling State ᴀꞯ
WAC	Grand Canyon ᴀꞯ	Tarleton State
West Coast	San Diego	San Diego ᴀꞯ

Welcome to /climbing's Daily Discussion Thread, a thread for questions and comments everyone wants to make but don't warrant their own thread.
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It's a dumb question to ask here I guess, but I like being addicted. I know the cons of porn addiction and at this point it doesn't matter to me. I only feel like quitting after I finish and the feeling doesn't even last long. Will I ever be able to quit? Or am Ijustj highly fucked up now?

It's a dumb question to ask here I guess, but I like being addicted. I know the cons of porn addiction and at this point it doesn't matter to me. I only feel like quitting after I finish and the feeling doesn't even last long. Will I ever be able to quit? Or am Ijustj highly fucked up now?

I’ve decided to move back to the States to further my education. However, I adopted 2 cats during the time I’ve been here, and air travel with cats is actually a lot more complicated than I expected it to be. I’m moving back in August, and I know air travel with pets is difficult in the summer, so I decided to come back during the winter or spring and bring them back (or 1, I’m figuring stuff out; my friend may bring the other one later if I can’t get both home with me). I got these 2 cats from my friend whose cats had babies, so they’re going to be back in the place of their birth for awhile after I move back home (they’ve had long stays over there as adults as well, so they’re relatively comfortable there). I’ve read several threads in this sub, several other subs, other websites, etc. and I’m wondering if pet policies on airlines, especially Japanese ones, have become stricter in the 3-5 years since most of those threads were posted. American Airlines is no go, only active military can bring pets. I heard United was good for pets, but when I included “traveling with pets” in the search on their website, I couldn’t find any flights. Japan Airlines may work, but since they are often combined with American Airlines, I wonder if they’ll allow pets after all. There doesn’t seem to be any information about pets when I look at booking a flight on the website, and the flights are majority non-refundable, so it’s a risk to book with them. ANA is also often merged with United, so I wonder if there are any actual flights that allow pets. Does anyone have any experience with this? I don’t mind putting my pets in the cargo, and if it means I can take both at the same time, I’d be happy to do it. I know it’s controversial, but I am willing to do it. I have gotten quotes from pet shipping companies and they are around $7000 to ship two cats, which is insane! I would have to save for over a year to afford that. If anyone can help, please comment or DM!

Going anon as my friends might know my main account: I (23F) have two friends from college, let's call them Alia (23F) and Ben (23M) who are also each other's best friend. Alia is French (we met through an international student group) and Ben is American, this will be important. Alia's family is rich and she sometimes acts kind of spoiled, always talking about all the places in the world she has visited without thinking about how that makes people who haven't had those opportunities feel, and using her money to take shortcuts like the rules don't apply to her. After graduating Alia wants to apply for a career pathway in the US that only takes US citizens and permanent residents. Even though there is no green card backlog for Europeans and US immigration openly favors them (compared to people from my country who they treat almost like a criminal/potential illegal immigrant from the get-go), so she could just work for a few years and get a green card then apply to this pathway, she does not want to wait that long so she convinced Ben to go into a courthouse green-card marriage with her so she could get it in 1-2 years instead. They openly tell their friends that it is a green-card marriage, even asked me to be a witness to their fraudulent marriage which I said I couldn't be part of and strongly recommended against going through with it (they ignored my advice).
This kind of behavior makes me really angry. People cutting in line just make the line longer for people like me working really hard to do it the right way. They talk a big game about "privilege" and "social justice" but then jump at a chance to use their privilege to get ahead at other people's expense. I didn't tell them but I filed a tip about their marriage to USCIS. I was also worried that if they get caught USCIS could potentially find out that I knew about and didn't report it which might endanger my own chances of getting a green card. AITA?

Classic WoW. New Seasons, 4 phase intervals. Every 6-8 months.
Never raise the level cap above 60
Never make new continent/islands/territories.
Keep the features you have in Discovery with minor tweaks, take inspiration from ascension, every player wants to be unique.
Every season needs new content, and content from the last season needs to be tossed out. Every player wants that "you just had to be there" type of experience. Plus nobody wants to go through 100 different stories when leveling alts.
Every season there should be minor changes to every zone. Nothing crazy or destructive. A new quest-line and NPCs moved around a bit. I want to feel like the world is changing, but nothing insane like a damn dragon destroying the world.
Lore needs to be included. Nothing crazy or world changing. In fact don't involve world leaders, just small banters between horde and alliance in certain zone.
I know your goal is to keep players online long as possible, right? Rather than have them grind non-stop.. make something fun for them. A Puzzle, a mystery, that spans throughout the 4 phases and the player-base has to come together to solve, maybe. Or even additions to professions to where players have the choice to grind for it.
Add more fun additions to capital cities. A newsletter to keep us updated on the world, random unique NPCs showing up for events, add a server leaderboard for guilds to compete and get their names on there.
Bottom line, Blizzard. The players don't mind changes, we just don't wanna be "the champions of azeroth" over and over and forced to discover a new continent where we gotta grind 10 more levels, figure out 10 new features, and grind 100 hours straight for a new currency that's gonna let us buy gear. While knowing in the back of our heads that we'll have to do this all over again in the next expansion.
Keep it small, keep it fresh, keep it fun, keep it meaningful.

I’ve read 40 or so books, including re-reading The Stand 3x, DT series twice, and IT twice. I often tell people he’s one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.
Unbelievably reading Night Shift for the first time right now. Never really read the short story collections - my kid got it for my birthday.
Anyway- this line I just read in Graveyard Shift is why I think he’s the goat. Exemplifies his skill as a story teller perfectly. It’s just a random line to end a scene, but anyway:
“And after a while the rats came out and sat atop the bags at the back of the long room watching him with their unblinking black eyes. They looked like a jury.”
I’m there. Just restarting the picker machine. I looked over my shoulder, and saw those beady eyes. I swear.

By all means am i okay to wait until marriage. I wanted to when i was younger but got pressured into sex and then was r*ped when i was 15 which afterwards i became super hypersexual. When i turned 18 i stopped until i met my ex bf when i was 20 and i ended up getting pregnant. I left him almost immediately due to him lying and manipulating me our whole relationship and then admitting he wanted to get me pregnant, he is currently in jail and i havent spoken to him since i was 6 weeks pregnant, my son is almost 7 months old. My current BF and i started dating a month and a half ago, ive known him for 10 years we basically grew up together and ive been insanely close with him and his family for ages, we have done sexual things but i recently found out he has struggled w a porn addiction for years and in the first week or so of our relationship he was flirting with other girls on social media, he hasnt since then that i know of (he told me he doesnt remember flirting which i feel is a lie) and weve talked about a lot of things since then to the point of both of us sobbing and him apologizing over and over and asking why im still with him. God put him in my life for a reason and i wholeheartedly believe its to be my husband, and im not giving up on him that easy my BF is worth so much more than he realizes, hes worth fighting for and worth someone standing by his side while he heals. He is such a good man and always has been. He’s deleted social media and is adamant that im the one he wants whole heartedly, he treats me like a princess which i feel i don’t deserve. Im a broken and insecure person due to the insane amount of trauma ive had, he is so understanding about all of it i don’t understand how, im working on myself like crazy to be better, im in therapy, parenting classes, etc. He recently brought up he wants to wait till marriage to do anything sexual again (which im totally down for, id always wanted to wait but feel like i cant or a man wont want me) but due to what has happened with him flirting with girls in the beginning of our relationship and his porn addiction im terrified hell search for sexual pleasure somewhere else even though he says he wont. i asked him if he ever has those desires to just come to me and we can sit down and talk, read the bible and whatever else he thinks will help. Im worried he wont. He is adamant about me being the one he wants to marry (yes i know weve been dating for a short time but weve been extremely close for 10 years) He is working so hard to heal himself and work on himself, i partially blame his father for getting him into porn and doing unspeakable things to him as a child but obviously my BF is his own person and makes his own choices so its also on him. I honestly dont know where this is going i just keep typing im so sorry this is so long. Basically im scared that my BF will search for sexual pleasure in porn and other girls even though he says he loves me and wants me and wants to wait till marriage and never wants me to feel like hes just with me for my body. I feel so loved and understood by him i know its my own insecurities and i should stop worrying. Im completely myself around him, ive never been able to be as weird and goofy in any past relationships as i am with him, im always hiding parts of myself but with him im completely and wholeheartedly myself. I am so happy with him and as a person who has had depression from a very young age it felt like i would never be this happy. His sister has even told me shes never seen him this happy and in love before and shes happy for us and doesn’t believe he would ever cheat or intentionally harm me (i trust her with my whole heart and soul, shes basically been my best friend since i was 12 and knows her brother better than anyone and wouldnt lie to me) I guess im just here for advice? and maybe validation? i dont know i just needed to get this out to people who may understand and can help me.
TL:DR - BF and i have done sexual things, he wants to stop and wait till marriage due to wanting me for more than just my body, his porn addiction and his beliefs. I am wholeheartedly open to it but am very broken and scared he will search for sexual pleasure in porn and other women though he is adamant he wont and would like to sit and talk and read the bible with me anytime he has impure thoughts
Ive never posted on reddit before sorry if ive done any of this wrong and its confusing. id just really like some advice/encouragement

Hi there! First post on reddit so please forgive me if i'm not using any fancy text.
I've been DM'ing now on and off for around near 5 years, originally I ran for 2 separate friend groups with Vastly different likes and dislikes. I had to stop one groups campaign due to work schedules and as the such (gotta love adult life ;-;)
So recently my current group consists of close friends so it is quite easy to get things across but it can also be very easy to lose control of the table if we start having jokes and a good laugh.
the above is not the issues I'm having as the DM however the stuff above i'm fine with as long as we are hanging out and having a good time. My issues span from multiple small issues which I will list below Beginning with myself as I know I make plenty of mistakes as I DM but I'm looking for advice to make sure i'm not going crazy and being a C**T with some of my table rules i've implemented
My Issues I need to work on: Note Taking - I lose track of my notes (this has been getting better moved to an app called obsidian which I have stuck with and this seems to be working wonders for me) but still needs work.
World lore - Kinda a addition to the note taking issue I have, I like to chop change some things but I still want it to make canonical sense to the worlds timeline which can be a little messy at times.
Pacing - Oh god I'm awful for pacing sometimes I'm too fast or i'm far too slow my players spend an entire 7 hour session on 1 street corner being my worst example.
Sometimes Retconning Small things - I Don't know if I think its okay to do this, I've only had to do it twice in total I Hate retconning stuff as I feel like if maybe a player that doesn't shine to often finally gets out their shell i'm worried if I retcon something It can really take away from that players motivation.
So above are my issues for sakes of time I'm going to copy paste a recent paragraph I sent to my players parts like player names will be edited of course. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So shappening dudes and dudets, DnD is going to be on the back burner for me for a Little bit cause personally feeling burnt out for a couple reasons that I'll get to in a little bit. So first things first the main thing I'm going to an induction day so I'm hoping I get this job (I got the Job whoop whoop) and DnD will be moved to every 2nd Saturday if thats gonna be a issue we can discuss that down the line. Now couple of mini Issues I want to get off my chest. So the Number 3 joke died ages ago for me and its just annoying so stopping that would be nice thank you, anyone that says it going forward you'll just take 3 damage. Unfortunately the interrupting and pacing is horrendous I'm gonna do my best to keep my focus on the game and I ask so do you. For the time being kinda a add on to the previous my max player count I can do is 6 no more, "Player Name" please let "His Partner" know I do not mind if she watches but I can't have her play not until I feel like the pacing is better and no ones shouting over each other. The Cards, They are fun but i'm gonna rejig them to be less annoying and alot less OP, (I'm removing that bag of holding card) personal thing - If I ask something to do with in the game could you please just acknowledge you have seen it, cause I've typed in plane text plenty of times before and it just doesn't get listened to it starts with one person then everyone else follows if you get me and it can make some little instructions that make things easier for me alot harder. As the DM I want a bit more control So one of the major ones that I ask is NO ONE calls "Roll a persuasion to persuade me" or anything along that lines, it is unnecessary and tbh I find it a bit rude. NO Rape or Rolling Cock size. (its just weird and its disgusting you'd think of it tbh)
There are a few more other things that personally bother me but those are the main ones, the minor ones just consist of 1. Don't Make up your own lore of my own creation and then treat it as cannon, I didn't ask and I don't care.

1. Don't ask for any more custom items, if I give you something be happy and let it be a surprise. 3."did we level up?" i know its a joke but tone it down before it gets worse.
2. If you create a backstory please give me the footnotes of the main points that I can work with, don't give me a lore book about how garfunkle the black white man slain a beast. I won't read it. (Edit - I don't mind if they give me a book to read I do like lore I just mean here that I'd prefer notes of the main points in their characters story)
3. I would prefer Game things are sent on discord concerning characters thats a personal thing, I created the discord for me to be organised and have it all in one place so if you please could just send me stuff on that even if its a dnd beyond link I would like it all in one place. I get this is gonna be alot to read but I hope I get my point across. I am the dungeon master and I want to create a game for you guys to enjoy but I have neglected my own joy for the game and have been more lazy with it because of this. I have alot of stuff to fix from last session especially and I'm gonna try to be more focused on the game and create a better experience and all I ask is please listen, pay attention and any question on the world so you can clarify things you may ask me, if there is any issues during the session call for a break if its that major so we may discuss at the table and if its a small issue we discuss it after the session. I may rule things wrong but i'll attempt to rule it in a way that makes sense and then I shall research and let you know afterwards, I'd rather not search rules in the middle of the game and taking half a hour per turn. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So context for some things the number 3 joke is from shrek "NUMBER 3 MY LORD" and I use magic the gathering cards for little 1 session boons they are a hell of a lot of fun and I'll post under this if anyone else play's DnD and MTG (I'd recommend using the Dungeons and dragons sets for Magic if you wish to try this out)
Revitalize x2 - Add a Medium Potion to Inventory
​
Treasure x3 - Add 100 Gold
​
Choose Your Weapon - Choose one for the Remainder of the Session
Archery - +2 to Range attacks
or
Two Weapon Fighting - +2 to Melee Attacks
​
Curse of Surveillance - You Grow an eyeball onto the palm of your hand, something or someone is watching you (The DM determines who) This curse is passed on
when someone else draws the card or removed with the "Remove curse Spell"
​
Improvised weaponry - You feel compelled to use the first random object as your weapon for the session.
​
Triumphant Adventurer - Roll a D20,
Even Numbers add 3 Platinum to your Inventory.
Odd Numbers Summons a Gold Plated Cocky knight to gloat how rich he is for 1 minute.
​
Hunters Mark - You Gain the Ability Hunters Mark for the Session it does not Require Concentration.
​
Contact Other Plane - You ask anything from the DM roll a d100 to discover the outcome.
​
Hoard Robber - The best robber in all the land has found you and took every bit of coin you have leaving a single fake gold piece.
​
Dawnbringer Cleric - You can Choose One to use throughout the session
Cure Wounds
Dispel Magic
Gentle Repose
​
Priest of Ancient lore - A old Dwarf appears in front of you radiating a holy light asking "Would you like to know the lore of this land?"
​
Boots of Speed - You Gain Extra 15ft Speed for the Session.
​
Silver Raven - A Unknown Vampires Raven Follows you.
​
Check for Traps - You becoming Increasingly paranoid of traps for the session the DM at Random will ask you to check for traps at your feet.
​
Blessed Defiance - You Summon A white Spirit, it says nothing, it is friendly to only you, it will follow and defend you for this session.
​
Chaos Channeler - A wild magic sorcerer Explodes from the multiverse, he looks excited as he transports himself again creating a Minor wild magic effect.

So this is a pretty large post But I am looking for advice on maybe rules I should consider going forward, how to keep proper control of a party of 6 and just anything I should improve as a DM and anything I can further communicate to my players at the table.

In a video posted by event co-organizer Palestinian Youth Movement on Instagram, an Amnesty booth could be seen in the vendor fair at the May 24-26 conference.

Human rights NGO Amnesty International had a booth at the Detroit People’s Conference for Palestine, which featured terrorist group members as speakers, honored and quoted terrorists, and promoted armed action against the State of Israel.
In a video posted by event co-organizer Palestinian Youth Movement on Instagram, an Amnesty booth could be seen in the vendor fair at the May 24-26 conference.
Amnesty USA confirmed that it had a table “to share our organization’s work around the world, especially in the ongoing conflict in Gaza,” and “offered participants the opportunity to join our petition calling for a ceasefire in Gaza,” but emphasized to The Jerusalem Post that it did not sponsor or help organize the conference.
“Participating at a conference such as this does not mean we support all the statements made during the conference, nor does it mean we support all participants,” said Amnesty USA Senior Campaign Manager Isra Chaker.
The event featured Wisam Rafeedie, who was noted in previous Amnesty reports as an activist for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – an organization listed by the US State Department as a foreign terrorist organization.
Rafeedie, who spoke remotely on Sunday because he was denied a visa, described Israel as a racist project and assured the crowd that there was “no place for the two-state solution for any Palestinian.”
He described Hamas as part of the “Palestinian people’s liberation movement, like all the resistance factions in Gaza, both Islamic and leftist.” He also encouraged participants to go on social media to dispute the events of the October 7 massacre, such as how the “resistance” engaged in “sexual assaults, killing children, and beheadings.”
Conference keynote speaker Sana’ Daqqah, wife of PFLP terrorist Walid Daqqah, spoke on Sunday in a hall named for the deceased terrorist. Daqqah died of bone marrow cancer in an Israeli prison on April 8. He was originally imprisoned for commanding the PFLP cell that abducted, tortured, and murdered Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984.

Event praises terrorist Walid Daqqah, endorses PFLP

The conference panel repeatedly referenced, praised, and quoted Daqqah and other terrorists, including Bassel al-Araj, Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, Udai Tamimi, former PFLP spokesperson Ghassan Kanafani, and convicted murderer Assata Shakur of the Black Liberation Army.
The event was endorsed by leading PFLP member Salah Salah in a May 20 Palestinian Youth Movement Instagram video.
The conference saw the frequent glorification and advocacy on behalf of the armed “resistance” as a means of achieving the ultimate objective: the destruction of the State of Israel.
“It’s very fortifying to be here with you all. This has been a marathon of eight months but for many of us, a lifelong struggle to dismantle Zionism in the State of Israel,” International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network co-founder Sara Kershnar said on a Saturday panel on Zionism and US Imperialism. “IJAN approaches the work first and foremost following the demands for the full liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, and we stand in our own history when we do that. We stand in our own history of resistance to genocide, including the right to resist and armed resistance as part of that history. In that way, we are unequivocally with the resistance in Palestine.”
At the opening speech on Friday, activist Yar Shoufnai explained that “eight months into this war against the most well-funded militaries of the Western world, the Palestinian resistance had demonstrated to our people, to our enemy, and to the entire world the meaning of dignity of honor or resilience and of glory.”
She continued, boasting that “the Zionist occupation continues to suffer deep humiliation, both on the battlefield in Gaza and on the world stage at the hands of the mass movement that we have built. Gaza has been transformed into the graveyard of the Merkava tank, the Namer troop carrier, the D9 bulldozer, and the occupation.”
Also on Friday, American Muslims for Palestine Outreach and Community Organizing Associate Director Taher Herzallah claimed that “the long tentacles of Zionism have always reached deep into the American heartland. Like no other place in the world, Zionism has penetrated the depths of American society – economics and politics for decades.”
“They’re losing a public narrative battle; they’re losing their ability to control us, and this means that now the gloves are off, and quite frankly, anything is possible,” Hezallah said on the War on Palestine panel. “I caution you of the days to come, because they will not be easy. There are people among us today who might not be with us next year at this conference, and this is a reality because the liberation struggle requires sacrifice, and I know everyone here is prepared to make that sacrifice.”
Palestinian Youth Movement Houston’s Mohammed Nabulsi, who served as conference MC throughout the three-day event, led the conference participants in chants calling for intifada and praising Hezbollah and Houthi maritime terrorism.
“Yemen, Yemen, make us proud, turn another ship around,” said Nabulsi, who opened the conference by honoring fighters in tunnels in Gaza.
Amnesty’s presence at the conference was not the only controversial attendance. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib also made a surprise Saturday speech at the event, and Dearborn Michigan Mayor Abdullah Hammoud delivered a video address.
Amnesty International features booth at Detroit Conference for Palestine - The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)

Just copy this, paste this into a sandbox, then make a thread in the Trope Repair Shop linking to it. The thread shall be titled "Needs Help: Inexplicable Language Fluency".
A wick check for InexplicableLanguageFluency.
'''Why?''': InexplicableLanguageFluency seems to lump in examples of characters demonstrating fluency in a language they've never learned with examples of characters merely understanding a language they never learned. For one, it doesn't make sense for the latter examples to be there since the title has the word "fluency" in it. Secondly, many of the latter examples can be moved to BilingualDialogue or AmplifiedAnimalAptitude.
'''Wicks checked''': 50/72
'''Wick totals''':
* 21/50 wicks, or 11.5%, were clear examples of a character demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned. * 24/50 wicks, or 12% were examples of a character understanding a language without demonstrating fluency. * 4/50 wicks, or 2%, were written in a way that made it unclear whether they were being used correctly. * 1/50 wicks, or 1.5%, was an aversion.
[[folder:Characters demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned (21/50)]] * Characters.AtlantisTheLostEmpire: The Atlanteans are able to fluently communicate with the explorers from the surface in English and French. This is handwaved as their own language being a precursor to all other languages. * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming finds himself immediately fluent in Japanese despite having never learned the language, and the Japan of his era was still a dwarf country that mostly only sent envoys to Shu's rival kingdom of Wei. Eiko points out the absurdity of how an ancient Chinese figure can suddenly speak Japanese, and Kongming himself is at a loss of how he can do this. * Characters.YellowjacketsCrashSurvivors: [[spoiler:She, and by extension others in the Antler Queen cult she forms, randomly speak French on occasion, which Lottie at least is ''not'' fluent in, indicating mental instability.]] '''If this is supposed to be an inversion, it's correct, but it should be rewritten to mention that it's an inversion.''' * ComicBook.Asterix: Gauls can speak to most foreign peoples without any difficulty. Either everyone can speak Gaulish, or the Gauls can speak other languages, but either way is downright impossible. * ComicBook.UltimateFantasticFour: ** Downplayed. Namor demonstrates this trope after spending nine thousand years of being sealed inside a sarcophagus prison. Being from an ancient civilization of Atlantis that predates the modern English language, he initially has no idea what his new captors are saying when they find him. However, thanks to his psionic powers he proves to be a frighteningly fast learner and is able to learn English within an hour to understand modern American English and casually deliver threats and demands. ** Happens again when the Four meets the Silver Surfer who is able to understand English perfectly the instant he arrives to Earth for the first time. He justifies this by stating can decipher electromagnetic signals in the air to learn alien tongues in seconds. * Friends.TropesFToJ: Zig-zagged. "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt" has her speaking with Joey's Italian grandmother, with Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey. But in an earlier episode, Rachel's former lover Paulo calls her "bellissima" and she doesn't understand. ->'''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Film.ExorcistTheBeginning: In-universe, the main characters note Cheche's sudden fluency in English after being brought to the hospital. Of course this is because it is Pazuzu speaking through him and not actually Cheche. '''This is DiscussedTrope, not InUniverse'''. * Film.{{Phenomenon}}: Downplayed. After a UFO encounter, George gains a form of superintelligence where he can learn complicated tasks and subjects quickly, to the point where he's able to fluently speak Portuguese after reading an English-to-Portuguese dictionary for twenty minutes. This was foreshadowed in an earlier scene where after usually fumbling to speak Spanish, he's suddenly able to speak it perfectly, to the point that his Hispanic coworker half-seriously declares that it's better than his. * Literature.ForgottenRuin: When Talker and Vandahar speak during the final stretch to the Hidden Cave, Vandahar speaks in what we would recognize as modern German, which of course makes communicating with him very easy for Talker but raises a few questions. * Literature.InCryptid: Of the GeneticMemory version. When Candice the Dragon Princess comes up against the LizardFolk wandering about the New York sewers, she's able to make them halt using a guttural language. She reveals to Verity that it's a inborn language all Princesses know and something the "Servitors" are meant to respond to. She's also never used it before as Servitors can only be created from a [[spoiler:living male dragon]]. * Literature.SeasonalFears: Aven is essentially in a coma all her life but, thanks to the alchemical knowledge tinctures of her father', she speaks perfect English even if there are some issues with definitions. * Literature.ShiversMDSpenser: Bubbie moves to France with her family and meets a new French kid, Jean-Luc, and can somehow converse with him without any language issues; at the end of the story she can hold a long conversation with a stranger in French, despite spending less than a week in the country. Previous books with an overseas setting will at least attempt justifying this trope (for instance, ''Terror on Troll Mountain'' has the protagonist's Italian family choosing to speak in English because they're anticipating American guests) but this one handwaves the issue until it's a borderline plot hole. * Recap.AsterixAndTheGoths: Getafix is able to speak fluent Gothic, despite being a Gaulish druid who has no logical reason to know it (especially considering how antagonistic the Goths are in this story). * Recap.FriendsS5E19TheOneWhereRossCantFlirt: Phoebe speaks with Joey's Italian grandmother, with [[InexplicableLanguageFluency Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey]]. '''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Recap.TalesFromTheDarksideS4E6TheGraveRobber: Aileen is surprised to hear Tapok speaking English when he wakes up, the mummy giving an offhand mention that he can speak the language of anyone who violates the tomb. * Roleplay.WanyaKingdomVSAwoofyUnity: Fragment has been shown to speak any language even if he has never heard it before. * Series.{{Llanargollen}}: In "Dirgelwch y Llyfr Coll", Prys and Barti speak to each other in Swahili. It seems incredibly unlikely that Prys would be fluent in that language, and Barti only speaks in unintelligible grunts with individual words thrown in. The other characters barely react to this. * VideoGame.EternalReturnBlackSurvival: The test subjects are able to work together with each other in spite of how one would presume that the vast majority of them would be completely unable to verbally communicate with most of the others. {{Averted}} by some of the achievement lore entries, which include statements observed from test subjects that some of which have a note underneath which states the words were translated by AI and will be reviewed and localized further in the future. '''Since this seems to be an implied example rather than a straight example, and it seems to be ambiguous InUniverse whether it's this or BilingualDialogue, I'll leave it here.''' * VideoGame.MegaManBattleNetwork2?: [=MegaMan=]'s translation system allows Lan to speak flawless Netopian after they arrive in Netopia. * WesternAnimation.{{Pocahontas}}: English explorer John Smith meets the alluring Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe. Smith doesn't know her language, nor she his. That is, until Pocahontas takes a breath of magic wind. Suddenly, her English is better than his. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Aversions (1/50)]] * DarthWiki.{{Aquilaverse}}: ''Averted'' Not inexplicable, since her spell "Xenographus" let's her read any language she encounters for a limited duration. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Unclear (4/50)]] * Characters.FrightKrewe: His power makes him this. He has the ability to communicate with anyone and understand anything they say, whether its a [[InexplicableLanguageFluency person]], an [[SpeaksFluentAnimal animal]], or an [[NatureSpirit 'elemental entity']]. '''The way the example is written, it's not clear whether it's this or BilingualDialogue.''' * Recap.CreepshowS1E3BadWolfDown: Doc is shown to speak French and understands the language quite fluently, allowing him to translate the explanation of the werewolf woman's plight. '''You can't "understand a language fluently". Does he ''speak'' it fluently, or at least speak it better than he should realistically be able to?''' * Series.AlloAllo: Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians can talk to each other. This is never explained. '''In their own languages, or...?''' * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps: The [[SpeaksFluentAnimal aliens]] and [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien chimps]] understand each other, despite that the chimps have just arrived on their planet. '''Does one of them speak the other's language, or do they just understand each other's languages?''' [[/folder]]
!!!'''Characters being able to understand a language without demonstrating fluency (24/50) 12%''' [[folder:Amplified Animal Aptitude (7/50) '''3.5%''']] * Literature.MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH: The animals can understand humans and each other, but can't talk to humans. This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic as to where exactly all these animals picked up English (justified for the rats, as they were taught it in the lab, but not for any of the others), and whether they can understand other human languages automatically as well. * Recap.TheSimpsonsS6E6TreehouseOfHorrorV: When Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." * TheSimpsons.TropesIToM: ** In "Treehouse of Horror V", when Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." '''Just checked and the sloth doesn’t say “I don’t know”, it just grunts with an intonation that indicates that that’s what it was saying. So, not fluent in English.''' * Tarzan.TropesGToZ ** Played straight when Jane talks to a baby baboon and he understands her. * TotalDrama.TropesHToP: Some wild animals--especially squirrels--can understand humans. * WesternAnimation.FindingNemo: Dory understands English. The fish in the tank understand English because they've been hearing humans all their life, but there's no reason for Dory to understand English. [[spoiler:Subverted in that ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' reveals she was raised in a marine life institute in California.]] '''Since it says “understand” and not “speak” I can only assume this is a case of TranslationConvention and AnimalTalk, which means they aren’t actually fluent in English.''' * WesternAnimation.SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron: Spirit, despite not having had any human contact before his capture, understands what the human characters are saying. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Bilingual Dialogue (11/50)]] * Characters.MashupWeekMegamixCompetitors: Despite the fact that all 3 members speak different languages (English for Scoop, French for Eric and Italian for Baba), they can be understood by each other and by others easily. * Film.NoTimeToDie: James Bond's 5-year-old daughter, Mathilde, understands English even though her mother Madelaine speaks to her in French and all the media she consumes is in French. * Film.Titanic1997: Jack and the Swedish men understand each other well enough that Olaf is able to bet his tickets for all Jack and Fabrizio's money. * FinalFantasyXIV.TropesGToI?: ** In ''Heavensward'', the Warrior and Alphinaud are startled by how they can understand the great wyrm Hraesvelgr, who only speaks the language of dragons. They learn that while other races may not speak the dragon's language, the inherent power and magic in a dragon's song essentially beams meaning directly into the hearer's mind. ** The Scions are shocked in ''Shadowbringers'' when they meet [[spoiler:Emet-Selch's recreation of the lost city of Amaurot, the home of the BenevolentPrecursor race. Although the ancient version of mankind spoke only in a StarfishLanguage of droning tones, the Scions born millennia after the world was sundered find that they're able to discern meaning from it.]] * Literature.CookingWithWildGame: Lampshaded. One of the few supernatural parts of the setting is that [[TrappedInAnotherWorld Asuta]] can understand its inhabitants' language (almost) perfectly. Nobody knows why, nor do they ever find out; it's essentially one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality needed to get the plot going. * Literature.{{Fablehaven}}: After receiving magic from fairies, Kendra gains the ability to interpret their language intuitively despite never actually learning it. * Manga.MiriyaAndMarie: Aside of occasional GratuitousFrench, Miriya can understand all French and animal characters and vice versa. Blackey also tries to charge Miriya for massage in yen despite being French. * VideoGame.KnightsOfTheOldRepublic: Yes, your character understands plenty of languages, but there isn't anyone who ''should'' understand the language of the AbusivePrecursors. [[spoiler: Subverted. Turns out you'd been there before and learned the language, but just forgotten the whole thing between Malak's backstab and whatever the Jedi did to "rebuild" you]]. '''When moving this to BilingualDialogue, I would rewrite it as “Your character understands plenty of languages, but can only speak one.''' * WebOriginal.MashupWeek: In both tournaments, Flat Eric speaks French, but everyone can understand him perfectly. Same with Gigi, who speaks Italian. * WesternAnimation.JosieAndThePussycats: ''[[RecycledWithAGimmick In Outer Space]]'' has Melody encounter an alien creature that looks like cotton candy with eyes and flippers. The critter speaks in a series of bleeps, and Melody names him Bleep. [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien She can also understand him perfectly, and acts as translator for everyone else]]. Also, Bleep seems to understand English just fine. '''I also think InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien should be limited to people actually speaking Alien instead of just understanding it, but that’s for another time.''' [[/folder]]
[[folder:Other (6/50)]] * Characters.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocusMultiverse: Upon looking at some files from the old phone Oscar picked up, he's somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Fanfic.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus: Kaito is somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming also demonstrates an ability to understand English, as he is able to tell that the English song Eiko sings to him is a love song, with enough comprehension to be moved by a vision of his old comrades due to the lyrics referencing being still alive and alone. Later, upon meeting Tsuyoshi Kondo after Eiko's performance at the Yoyogi Art Festival, Kongming easily translates his GratuitousEnglish for a confused Kobayashi, and he's even become friends with a foreigner in Roppongi, who speaks exclusively in English. He's capable of some GratuitousEnglish himself, to boot. * Recap/CreepshowS2E2PublicTelevisionOfTheDead: Goodman reveals to Ted, out of nowhere, that he can read Sumerian, allowing him to translate the Necronomicon's incantations and let Evil roam free once again. * Series.{{Carnivale}}: During the fireball show, Samson secretly passes an old Crusader fob up to the stage during Lodz's psychometry act. When Lodz touches it, he's struck by visions of a holy war and begins chanting ''"In hoc signo vinces!"'' Ben, an uneducated farmboy, surprises Samson by translating even though he doesn't even recognize the language is Latin: '''Ben Hawkins:''' By this sign we conquer... by this sign we conquer... * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps2ZartogStrikesBack: Zartog understands the humans, despite having just arrived on Earth. He even understands Spanish, Hindi, and Xhosa upon hearing them for the first time, making the humans' inability to understand him even more hilarious. [[/folder]]

Just copy this, paste this into a sandbox, then make a thread in the Trope Repair Shop linking to it. The thread shall be titled "Needs Help: Inexplicable Language Fluency".
A wick check for InexplicableLanguageFluency.
'''Why?''': InexplicableLanguageFluency seems to lump in examples of characters demonstrating fluency in a language they've never learned with examples of characters merely understanding a language they never learned. For one, it doesn't make sense for the latter examples to be there since the title has the word "fluency" in it. Secondly, many of the latter examples can be moved to BilingualDialogue or AmplifiedAnimalAptitude.
'''Wicks checked''': 50/72
'''Wick totals''':
* 21/50 wicks, or 11.5%, were clear examples of a character demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned. * 24/50 wicks, or 12% were examples of a character understanding a language without demonstrating fluency. * 4/50 wicks, or 2%, were written in a way that made it unclear whether they were being used correctly. * 1/50 wicks, or 1.5%, was an aversion.
[[folder:Characters demonstrating fluency in a language they never learned (21/50)]] * Characters.AtlantisTheLostEmpire: The Atlanteans are able to fluently communicate with the explorers from the surface in English and French. This is handwaved as their own language being a precursor to all other languages. * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming finds himself immediately fluent in Japanese despite having never learned the language, and the Japan of his era was still a dwarf country that mostly only sent envoys to Shu's rival kingdom of Wei. Eiko points out the absurdity of how an ancient Chinese figure can suddenly speak Japanese, and Kongming himself is at a loss of how he can do this. * Characters.YellowjacketsCrashSurvivors: [[spoiler:She, and by extension others in the Antler Queen cult she forms, randomly speak French on occasion, which Lottie at least is ''not'' fluent in, indicating mental instability.]] '''If this is supposed to be an inversion, it's correct, but it should be rewritten to mention that it's an inversion.''' * ComicBook.Asterix: Gauls can speak to most foreign peoples without any difficulty. Either everyone can speak Gaulish, or the Gauls can speak other languages, but either way is downright impossible. * ComicBook.UltimateFantasticFour: ** Downplayed. Namor demonstrates this trope after spending nine thousand years of being sealed inside a sarcophagus prison. Being from an ancient civilization of Atlantis that predates the modern English language, he initially has no idea what his new captors are saying when they find him. However, thanks to his psionic powers he proves to be a frighteningly fast learner and is able to learn English within an hour to understand modern American English and casually deliver threats and demands. ** Happens again when the Four meets the Silver Surfer who is able to understand English perfectly the instant he arrives to Earth for the first time. He justifies this by stating can decipher electromagnetic signals in the air to learn alien tongues in seconds. * Friends.TropesFToJ: Zig-zagged. "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt" has her speaking with Joey's Italian grandmother, with Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey. But in an earlier episode, Rachel's former lover Paulo calls her "bellissima" and she doesn't understand. ->'''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Film.ExorcistTheBeginning: In-universe, the main characters note Cheche's sudden fluency in English after being brought to the hospital. Of course this is because it is Pazuzu speaking through him and not actually Cheche. '''This is DiscussedTrope, not InUniverse'''. * Film.{{Phenomenon}}: Downplayed. After a UFO encounter, George gains a form of superintelligence where he can learn complicated tasks and subjects quickly, to the point where he's able to fluently speak Portuguese after reading an English-to-Portuguese dictionary for twenty minutes. This was foreshadowed in an earlier scene where after usually fumbling to speak Spanish, he's suddenly able to speak it perfectly, to the point that his Hispanic coworker half-seriously declares that it's better than his. * Literature.ForgottenRuin: When Talker and Vandahar speak during the final stretch to the Hidden Cave, Vandahar speaks in what we would recognize as modern German, which of course makes communicating with him very easy for Talker but raises a few questions. * Literature.InCryptid: Of the GeneticMemory version. When Candice the Dragon Princess comes up against the LizardFolk wandering about the New York sewers, she's able to make them halt using a guttural language. She reveals to Verity that it's a inborn language all Princesses know and something the "Servitors" are meant to respond to. She's also never used it before as Servitors can only be created from a [[spoiler:living male dragon]]. * Literature.SeasonalFears: Aven is essentially in a coma all her life but, thanks to the alchemical knowledge tinctures of her father', she speaks perfect English even if there are some issues with definitions. * Literature.ShiversMDSpenser: Bubbie moves to France with her family and meets a new French kid, Jean-Luc, and can somehow converse with him without any language issues; at the end of the story she can hold a long conversation with a stranger in French, despite spending less than a week in the country. Previous books with an overseas setting will at least attempt justifying this trope (for instance, ''Terror on Troll Mountain'' has the protagonist's Italian family choosing to speak in English because they're anticipating American guests) but this one handwaves the issue until it's a borderline plot hole. * Recap.AsterixAndTheGoths: Getafix is able to speak fluent Gothic, despite being a Gaulish druid who has no logical reason to know it (especially considering how antagonistic the Goths are in this story). * Recap.FriendsS5E19TheOneWhereRossCantFlirt: Phoebe speaks with Joey's Italian grandmother, with [[InexplicableLanguageFluency Phoebe seeming as surprised about this as Joey]]. '''Joey:''' Wow, Phoebs, you speak Italian?\\ '''Phoebe:''' Apparently. * Recap.TalesFromTheDarksideS4E6TheGraveRobber: Aileen is surprised to hear Tapok speaking English when he wakes up, the mummy giving an offhand mention that he can speak the language of anyone who violates the tomb. * Roleplay.WanyaKingdomVSAwoofyUnity: Fragment has been shown to speak any language even if he has never heard it before. * Series.{{Llanargollen}}: In "Dirgelwch y Llyfr Coll", Prys and Barti speak to each other in Swahili. It seems incredibly unlikely that Prys would be fluent in that language, and Barti only speaks in unintelligible grunts with individual words thrown in. The other characters barely react to this. * VideoGame.EternalReturnBlackSurvival: The test subjects are able to work together with each other in spite of how one would presume that the vast majority of them would be completely unable to verbally communicate with most of the others. {{Averted}} by some of the achievement lore entries, which include statements observed from test subjects that some of which have a note underneath which states the words were translated by AI and will be reviewed and localized further in the future. '''Since this seems to be an implied example rather than a straight example, and it seems to be ambiguous InUniverse whether it's this or BilingualDialogue, I'll leave it here.''' * VideoGame.MegaManBattleNetwork2?: [=MegaMan=]'s translation system allows Lan to speak flawless Netopian after they arrive in Netopia. * WesternAnimation.{{Pocahontas}}: English explorer John Smith meets the alluring Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe. Smith doesn't know her language, nor she his. That is, until Pocahontas takes a breath of magic wind. Suddenly, her English is better than his. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Aversions (1/50)]] * DarthWiki.{{Aquilaverse}}: ''Averted'' Not inexplicable, since her spell "Xenographus" let's her read any language she encounters for a limited duration. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Unclear (4/50)]] * Characters.FrightKrewe: His power makes him this. He has the ability to communicate with anyone and understand anything they say, whether its a [[InexplicableLanguageFluency person]], an [[SpeaksFluentAnimal animal]], or an [[NatureSpirit 'elemental entity']]. '''The way the example is written, it's not clear whether it's this or BilingualDialogue.''' * Recap.CreepshowS1E3BadWolfDown: Doc is shown to speak French and understands the language quite fluently, allowing him to translate the explanation of the werewolf woman's plight. '''You can't "understand a language fluently". Does he ''speak'' it fluently, or at least speak it better than he should realistically be able to?''' * Series.AlloAllo: Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians can talk to each other. This is never explained. '''In their own languages, or...?''' * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps: The [[SpeaksFluentAnimal aliens]] and [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien chimps]] understand each other, despite that the chimps have just arrived on their planet. '''Does one of them speak the other's language, or do they just understand each other's languages?''' [[/folder]]
!!!'''Characters being able to understand a language without demonstrating fluency (24/50) 12%''' [[folder:Amplified Animal Aptitude (7/50) '''3.5%''']] * Literature.MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH: The animals can understand humans and each other, but can't talk to humans. This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic as to where exactly all these animals picked up English (justified for the rats, as they were taught it in the lab, but not for any of the others), and whether they can understand other human languages automatically as well. * Recap.TheSimpsonsS6E6TreehouseOfHorrorV: When Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." * TheSimpsons.TropesIToM: ** In "Treehouse of Horror V", when Homer is sent back in time to a prehistoric era, and has to avoid stepping on anything to change the future, he ends up swatting a mosquito then asks for reassurance that it won't change the future. He is understood despite being in an era before English existed, since a sloth behind him shrugs and grunts as if to say "I don't know." '''Just checked and the sloth doesn’t say “I don’t know”, it just grunts with an intonation that indicates that that’s what it was saying. So, not fluent in English.''' * Tarzan.TropesGToZ ** Played straight when Jane talks to a baby baboon and he understands her. * TotalDrama.TropesHToP: Some wild animals--especially squirrels--can understand humans. * WesternAnimation.FindingNemo: Dory understands English. The fish in the tank understand English because they've been hearing humans all their life, but there's no reason for Dory to understand English. [[spoiler:Subverted in that ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'' reveals she was raised in a marine life institute in California.]] '''Since it says “understand” and not “speak” I can only assume this is a case of TranslationConvention and AnimalTalk, which means they aren’t actually fluent in English.''' * WesternAnimation.SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron: Spirit, despite not having had any human contact before his capture, understands what the human characters are saying. [[/folder]]
[[folder:Bilingual Dialogue (11/50)]] * Characters.MashupWeekMegamixCompetitors: Despite the fact that all 3 members speak different languages (English for Scoop, French for Eric and Italian for Baba), they can be understood by each other and by others easily. * Film.NoTimeToDie: James Bond's 5-year-old daughter, Mathilde, understands English even though her mother Madelaine speaks to her in French and all the media she consumes is in French. * Film.Titanic1997: Jack and the Swedish men understand each other well enough that Olaf is able to bet his tickets for all Jack and Fabrizio's money. * FinalFantasyXIV.TropesGToI?: ** In ''Heavensward'', the Warrior and Alphinaud are startled by how they can understand the great wyrm Hraesvelgr, who only speaks the language of dragons. They learn that while other races may not speak the dragon's language, the inherent power and magic in a dragon's song essentially beams meaning directly into the hearer's mind. ** The Scions are shocked in ''Shadowbringers'' when they meet [[spoiler:Emet-Selch's recreation of the lost city of Amaurot, the home of the BenevolentPrecursor race. Although the ancient version of mankind spoke only in a StarfishLanguage of droning tones, the Scions born millennia after the world was sundered find that they're able to discern meaning from it.]] * Literature.CookingWithWildGame: Lampshaded. One of the few supernatural parts of the setting is that [[TrappedInAnotherWorld Asuta]] can understand its inhabitants' language (almost) perfectly. Nobody knows why, nor do they ever find out; it's essentially one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality needed to get the plot going. * Literature.{{Fablehaven}}: After receiving magic from fairies, Kendra gains the ability to interpret their language intuitively despite never actually learning it. * Manga.MiriyaAndMarie: Aside of occasional GratuitousFrench, Miriya can understand all French and animal characters and vice versa. Blackey also tries to charge Miriya for massage in yen despite being French. * VideoGame.KnightsOfTheOldRepublic: Yes, your character understands plenty of languages, but there isn't anyone who ''should'' understand the language of the AbusivePrecursors. [[spoiler: Subverted. Turns out you'd been there before and learned the language, but just forgotten the whole thing between Malak's backstab and whatever the Jedi did to "rebuild" you]]. '''When moving this to BilingualDialogue, I would rewrite it as “Your character understands plenty of languages, but can only speak one.''' * WebOriginal.MashupWeek: In both tournaments, Flat Eric speaks French, but everyone can understand him perfectly. Same with Gigi, who speaks Italian. * WesternAnimation.JosieAndThePussycats: ''[[RecycledWithAGimmick In Outer Space]]'' has Melody encounter an alien creature that looks like cotton candy with eyes and flippers. The critter speaks in a series of bleeps, and Melody names him Bleep. [[InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien She can also understand him perfectly, and acts as translator for everyone else]]. Also, Bleep seems to understand English just fine. '''I also think InexplicablySpeaksFluentAlien should be limited to people actually speaking Alien instead of just understanding it, but that’s for another time.''' [[/folder]]
[[folder:Other (6/50)]] * Characters.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocusMultiverse: Upon looking at some files from the old phone Oscar picked up, he's somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Fanfic.InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus: Kaito is somehow able to read ''Aztec glyphs'' just by looking at it. [[spoiler:This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.]] * Characters.YaBoyKongming: ** Kongming also demonstrates an ability to understand English, as he is able to tell that the English song Eiko sings to him is a love song, with enough comprehension to be moved by a vision of his old comrades due to the lyrics referencing being still alive and alone. Later, upon meeting Tsuyoshi Kondo after Eiko's performance at the Yoyogi Art Festival, Kongming easily translates his GratuitousEnglish for a confused Kobayashi, and he's even become friends with a foreigner in Roppongi, who speaks exclusively in English. He's capable of some GratuitousEnglish himself, to boot. * Recap/CreepshowS2E2PublicTelevisionOfTheDead: Goodman reveals to Ted, out of nowhere, that he can read Sumerian, allowing him to translate the Necronomicon's incantations and let Evil roam free once again. * Series.{{Carnivale}}: During the fireball show, Samson secretly passes an old Crusader fob up to the stage during Lodz's psychometry act. When Lodz touches it, he's struck by visions of a holy war and begins chanting ''"In hoc signo vinces!"'' Ben, an uneducated farmboy, surprises Samson by translating even though he doesn't even recognize the language is Latin: '''Ben Hawkins:''' By this sign we conquer... by this sign we conquer... * WesternAnimation.SpaceChimps2ZartogStrikesBack: Zartog understands the humans, despite having just arrived on Earth. He even understands Spanish, Hindi, and Xhosa upon hearing them for the first time, making the humans' inability to understand him even more hilarious. [[/folder]]