Make him call you spell

First off, feel free to comment about your own experiences. I would love it if anybody can relate. I'm also open to questions, advice, whatever you wanna write. This is gonna be a bit longer, just fyi. Excuse lack of proper chronological order and maybe some wonky sentences, English isn't my first language.
I was parentified.
For context, my mother has three children, I'm the youngest one, then there's my older half-brother (30) and my older half-sister (36). Their father was a violent alcoholic with schizophrenic tendencies (official diagnosis), luckily I never met him. I refer to them as brother and sister. I'm 21 now. I'm the only child of my mom and my dad, my dad has three other kids who are in the same age group as my maternal siblings. Lots of history with divorces and family fights, I'm the center of a complete patchwork family, everybody moved towns a lot, it's all a bit messy and disorganized.
My mother has severe borderline disorder and has massive trauma from several age stages, especially involving men. She was heavily parentified and yet socially cast out by her family herself. I don't remember a time where I didn't act like her father, emotionally. This is made worse by the fact that I'm trans so I was like her bestie before I began socially transitioning in my early teen years. Of course, this was a massive issue for her. She told me she had only ever wanted daughters. Materially she was taking care of things until I was about 11 - walked me to school and took care of the household, used to work, everything.
I remember sitting next to her during a talk/fight she had with my dad while she was sobbing, I can't have been older than 3 or 4. They got divorced around that time. As I grew older, I came to be my mom's sole emotional support person. We had moved to an isolated village with my step-father and she developed a severe agoraphobia for some time. My step-father avoided all emotionality with both her and me and therefore I was now her only friend. I overheard conversations that she shouldn't be having with her child next door and was told about her most severe fears and traumas from a young age. I was lashed out at on a near daily basis and punishment came unexpectedly. It would consist of being screamed at for minutes on end until I would cry and hyperventilate, but she wouldn't stop then.
In spite of her idea of punishment and raising children, she was incredibly attached to me, still is. This would include massive anxiety fits when she didn't know where I was or when I was getting into activities she didn't approve of. One time, when I was about 17, I went to a party in my friend's basement. She knew about this and approved it, knew my friends and where they lived. I didn't have any signal in that basenent so she couldn't reach me. She proceeded to look up my other friends' parents' phone number and call them to contact me. There was nothing she wanted except to know that I had arrived there.
Whereas my other siblings had long left the household years apart from eachother, both with specific and complex fights and banging doors and screaming fits, I was, as the youngest child, turned into a confessional and a therapist. I would mediate fights from a young age. I witnessed physical violence between my brother, my mother and my sister. My brother was the perpetrator for the most part (however, I was neither hurt nor threatened myself). Nobody proceeded to remove me from the situation or stop me from getting involved. From then on, every fight and every drama caused me intense bouts of anxiety and it, to this day, remains to be the only thing that makes me cry and/or lash out.
In a household full of anger, my anger was not tolerated. I was raised with some old-timey sort of black paedagogy (I'm German so it is something of a generational curse for some): I was to have unwavering respect for my parents, I was expected to be obedient, "let him cry it out" type stuff. At least when I was a younger child. When I got older, my emotions did not matter either. After stressful situations or fights that I proceeded to witness for most of my life, nobody ever asked me how I felt or explained to me what had actually gone down. I was left alone while not being left alone at all.
If I failed to provide emotional security for my mother or even attempted to call her out, I was made to feel immensely guilty. This could range from her crying/yelling things like "Why is it always me that must suffer" to guilt-tripping texts and blocking my contact for a while to very action-based suicide threats, depending on the situation. Her emotions were forced to be my emotions if I wanted to "stay alive".
At the same time, I still proceeded to excel in school. I felt like dying but nobody, and I tell you, nobody, noticed. I was a teacher's pet, I still had some loose friendships, I visited my dad once a month or more ever since my parents divorced. Nobody realized what I felt. I felt alone and had the worst depressive episode of my life when I was 13. I neglected personal hygiene. I never opened up to my father for many years. To this day I think he doesn't know everything. Especially during covid, him and my ex-stepmother were my safe space. When I first opened up to them, they welcomed me with open arms, my father was very strict and cold when I was young, but he softened, changed, and is everything and more I could ask for in a father. He is among the most positive examples of masculinity and especially of fatherhood that I know in my circles. He sends me postcards several times a month, wants me to visit, hugs me and tells me he loves me and that he's proud, gives me space. The dad who remembers the names of our childhood stuffed animals. Literally. I love him to death. He was also the only parent who engaged in activities with me and would play with me, later on take me to the movies, go to bars and restaurants, go to museums with me etc.
My mother got worse both psychologically and physically, she is chronically ill and needs immense support in a lot of things now. For about a year, my stepfather worked in a town far away and only came home during the weekends. This was during covid. Within a year, I developed a hatred so deep for my mother that I had thoughts that scared me. I took care of our pets and the household, was not allowed to get into any activities after school other than coming home and spent hours after my day listening to her rants, anxieties, fears. I get hateful goosebumps when I remember the way she used to call my name when she wanted me to do something for her. Sometimes she would make me stay awake for longer, knowing that I had to get up at 6am again. It was usually already around 12 at night. She wanted me to walk the dog before SHE went to bed because otherwise it would ruin her otherwise horribly insomniac circadian rhythm. Therefore I was not allowed to go to sleep. At that point she had not worked for more than 6 years and stayed home all the time. My stepfather and I did grocery shopping. She rarely ever leaves the house if she can avoid it. This was during the German version of my GCSE's.
I was denied medical care that could have potentially fixed my posture issues and other orthopedic issues. My mother deemed physiotherapy as inefficient and got mad when I asked her about it again. Money was always an issue. We were evicted once. I was denied certain things and never asked for extra cash because we ran low on money, my stepfather was blamed for smoking and consuming a lot of meat (which indeed is pricy), but my mother never reflected on her online shopping addiction and I'm aware that she is in an ongoing debt. Has been for years now.
Things got a bit better when my stepfather moved back and Covid cleared up somewhat. Regardless, I used pure spite to continue studying hard while they were yelling at eachother from the top of their lungs for hours on end and did the best I could to get the hell out of there. I've had therapy with several years' of breaks for a total of nearly 3 years now, that I partially applied for myself and I'm working on tackling everything. I live in a different city, studying subjects that I love. I get all my shit done, for the most part, I know how to do paperwork and know how all of the chores work. I can regulate myself in terms of sleep and food and cheap thrills. I have a (milder) case of anxiety. I keep meaningful friendships in which I find myself capable of avoiding all the harmful behaviors and attitudes I was taught. I'm learning to stand my ground and take responsibility for my own decisions and actions.
When I establish my boundaries with her now, she turns into some sort of anxious-attached mess. She over-apologizes to me. She puts me on a pedestal and I'm living a life that she is jealous of. She is intensely attached to me and considers me her favorite child and also hasn't properly gotten over my father, over 15 years of them being divorced. She will do anything to support me materially and then tear me down emotionally. Everything I tell her is followed by her mourning the life she doesn't have and never had instead of properly celebrating with me. She gets noticeably sad when I refuse to give her my full attention, she yearns for what she considered a deep and important relationship to me. But it was all just emotional neglect and emotional abuse. Now I sometimes can't help but meet her with the same attitude she gave me.
This is not perfectly chronological and all over the place. I have complicated relationships with my siblings and other relatives, which I don't mourn, but feel guilty about. My father and I are very good with eachother although I need to confront him about some things as well. With my mother I do the bare minimum to avoid conflict, yet without throwing my sense of self out of the window again. She is the only human who can easily cause anxiety attacks in me, no matter where or when. I sometimes wish I was not in contact with her. I have a tendency for smoking too much weed and being just a bit too careless with other drugs (although I rarely do those in comparison), but I also try and regulate this heavily (e.g. not finding a dealer but asking friends every once in a while etcetc). I think this stems from these experiences. Apart from that, I think I'm coping very well.
To everybody: it does get better. It does. Even when your emotions are a rollercoaster sometimes. You will be in a different place, maybe you already are, and you'll escape from these structures. I think the hardest pill for me to swallow is that I create my own reality and that nobody will give me my stolen childhood back. I am an (albeit young) adult now and I must do everything I can to avoid becoming like her. Her life is not a life I want to lead. There's hope and you won't always be in this place.

Author's Note: I've been an HFY reader for some time now, and now I have the urge to share a story. This is my first story, so please leave feedback in the comments! Also, I may or may not decide to make a game based of this story. If I do, I'll link it in a comment. Without further ado, enjoy the story!
High Admiral Tilgrix Traxiv was having a bad day. He was currently sitting in a fighter, which he was only in because the escape pods were destroyed, and not only had it been EMP'd, disabling almost every system except life support, which itself was hanging by a thread, the grav-gen was spinning. It spun at just the right speed to make him incredibly nauseous. And to make matters worse, none of this should have happened! He was 3 systems away from the main battlefront against the Mei-Kai, and worse, he was on his way home from battle. His crew was being transferred home for a much needed break from the stress of war, and they were woefully unprepared to be attacked so suddenly. The Mei-Kai ships were there, picking at the corpse that was his ship. They were built in typical Mei-Kai fashion; with no rhyme or reason whatsoever. Their design philosophy seemed to be:
"Oh hey, we need this thingamabob"
"Put it next to the thingamajig"
"Wait, we need this thingy as well"
"Ok, just slap it on top. It'll be fine!"
Annoyingly, this haphazard approach to ship construction was remarkably effective. It also meant they could just directly rip off whatever they wanted from enemy ships, and slap it on a place that is functional. Only the humans are comparable, with their modular design philosophy, but they aren't involved in the war, unfortunately. Or perhaps fortunately. The Sefliician {Sef-lee-eesh-ee-an} and the Mei-Kai governments had asked that the humans stay out of the war. Well, they asked everyone to stay out, but specifically the humans. The humans were too good at warfare. They demonstrate their prowess every Galactic sub-cycle in the Sim War Games. Whichever side had them would win. Even if it was the entire galaxy versus them. Humans never lose wars. Except against themselves. In any case, the Sefliician Empire and the Mei-Kai Union prefered to battle it out themselves, in accordance to the Galactic Constitution, subsection c, rule seven, under section x, Disputed Territory Settlements. Legally, anyways. In practice, both parties simply wanted to see who was tougher. They decided to fight for the next 50 sub-cycles, capturing as much territory as possible, and whatever was held by each at the end, would belong to them. While this ambush wasn't strictly against the Galactic Rules of Warfare Against Union Members, it was certainly not fair play.
This was all going through Tilgrix's mind as he drifted through space, watching the Mei-Kai dismantle his ship and the Terran Conglomerate hospital ships trickle in to start rescuing survivors. Suddenly, a bright flash appeared, and a wormhole was ripped open behind the Mei-Kai vessels, and through it trillions of tiny ships entered and began ripping the unsuspecting vessels to shreds.
The Volctic! he thought in horror as the swarm of enemy ships tore through the Mei-Kai like butter. The hospital ships began firing at the swarm, even as they tried to finish gathering the survivors and jump away. The Volctic swarm began to race towards the Terran ships, being destroyed by the hundreds, but millions took the place of every ship destroyed. The Volctic have been busy in their long exile it seems, Tilgrix thought as he began desperately praying to any being in the cosmos that could hear him that the EMP would wear off in time for him to activate the emergency jump drive every fighter was equipped with since the humans were first contacted.
His prayers were answered. The ship's essential systems began turning back on, beginning with the jump drive. Internally broadcasting his gratitude to whatever force answered his prayer, he powered up the jump drive. This caught the attention of the Volctic ships, but he managed to jump in time, vanishing into the aether just before they caught him.
Tilgrix arrived at a nearby beam station a few seconds later, roughly 6 systems away. He breathed a sigh of relief before noticing a coms transmission request. Accepting it, he was startled by the sudden excited chatter noise of someone who was clearly far too new to the job of Space Traffic Controller. "Hello traveler! And welcome to the Sifilax Primary Beam Station. Not only are we able to send you to any beam station in the Galaxy in less than an hour, we have all that your heart could desire while waiting for a flight or for bureaucracy to let you leave! We have restaurants, bars, and casinos! We have gyms, pools, and parks! Here for all your between-transit needs! Please dock your fighter in Dock C, Subdock F." Tilgrix grinned. He remembered being that enthusiastic about his job. Within a few minutes, he was docked.
Once he got out of the cockpit, he immediately headed over to the nearest Map Projector. "Sefliician Military Office" he stated. A route was highlighted, and uploaded to his state-of-the-art HUD chip. He quickly made his way over. After a brief pause by the door, he entered. The computer scanned him, and a hologram appeared behind the desk. "Hello, High Admiral Tilgrix Traxiv. What brings you here?"
"I bring dire news," he stated flatly. "I need to speak to the Emperor immediately." Surprised, the Digital Sapient quickly smoothed her face before complying, opening a direct holo-link between Tilgrix and the Emperor before vanishing. Tilgrix waited patiently for the computer to verify his identity and the Emperor to respond. "This better be good Admiral," The Emperor warned. "I'm in the middle of a council session. We have urgent business to conduct."
"Your majesty, this is the most important message I have ever sent in my life." The Emperor's face briefly darkened [This is the same as a human face paling], eye ridges shooting up, before he regained his composure. "Go on..." he said warily. "As you know, I was being transferred out of battle, and on my way home. Three systems in from the front, we were ambushed by the Mei-Kai." The Emperor raised an eyebrow at that. "While that is certainly foul play, it is not illegal in and of itself, and certainly not dire enough by itself to warrant such a drastic opening statement. What else is there? Did they hurt civilians? Did they butcher anyone? What is it?" Tilgrix hesitated, before setting his shoulders. "While the Mei-Kai were harvesting my ship, a wormhole opened up, and trillions of ships arrived. Volctic ships." The Emperor froze, face becoming almost black. "Are you sure?" he asked, half rhetorically. "Unfortunately so, your majesty." The Emperor smoothed his features, before setting his own shoulders, and narrowing his eyes. "Then we need to call an emergency session. I will have my servants send orders to assign you a ship. We meet before the Galactic Council in three days." The Emperor terminated the call.
Within an hour, he was assigned a ship to travel to the Galactic Union Council Station for an emergency meeting. The war against the Mei-Kai was put on hold. The Volctic had returned.

My friend has HD.
Her grandmother had it, her mother had it, her siblings have it, she has it.
She's in her early 40s and her symptoms are getting bad.
I wish I knew how to help but I just don't.
The physical symptoms are easy to manage.
It's the delusions she suffers from that I cannot help her with.
We live in the UK and it's almost impossible to get her real help, her GP is trash and the council don't answer my emails.
Approx 6 years ago we lived together as roommates, she was okay, a little off balanced but not unable to help herself.
Im a spiritual person and believe a positive mindset can benefit everyone. I introduced her into meditation and mantras, yoga and told her about good energy. I thought it could help her stay positive.
She's gone off into a toxic spiritual spiral and is in deep. I feel guilty for introducing her to this. I feel like I opened the gates and she's not completely off the wagon in la la land.
I know the HD is causing her delusions and hallucinations. I know it's just her brain but I don't know how to help her. She believes she's a star seed who demons are chasing.
She lives alone, I'm trying to get her a support worker but the systems in the UK are broken and everything is a struggle.
She spends all her money on things she doesn't need. When she speaks to her doctor she tells them she's fine. She believes she's okay when she speaks to them but when she's alone shes a different person.
Even I'm starting to question what's real. Is it for attention? Does she believe these things?
She had a car accident and had her license suspended. But she believes that she can still drive with out being a danger.
She smokes weed. I can't stop her. I know it's causing more issues with her mind.
How do I help her?
How can I make life easier for her and help her stay grounded in this reality.
At least once a week she has some sort of delusional episode...
Demons chasing her, giving birth to alien babies, believing she's healed herself through people she meets online who take advantage of her vaunrable self.
I work 9-5, have a family and home I need to make my priority. I live far from her. I cant be there for her all the time. Her family abandoned her and she has nobody but me.
If I could clone myself and give her my clone I would! But I can't. I blame myself for thinking some spirituality and positive thoughts could help her but I feel like I have caused damage to her.
Does anyone know of any charity in the UK that can help her?
Is there anyone I can contact to help her get some help?
I just don't know how to help.
The friend I once had great times with is now someone I can't recognise. It pains me to see her suffer and I feel useless for not being able to help her.
Your words are needed and appreciated. X

TL;DR. I bought an Owala Bottle for $35 last fall, took a small drop out of an open car door, tiny ding, stopped insulating, reached out to Owala, got nothing but a run around by every level of their customer service. Out $35 and a functioning product.
I purchased my 32oz Owala Free Sip in September of 2023 at a local Walmart. I have long preferred to drink water cold so I have owned a wide variety of bottles and tumblers over the years from many manufacturers. I bought the Owala knowing nothing about the product or their "color drop" marketing strategy. I found the lid system to be interesting and innovative, and the product appeared to be well made. So I picked one up, and was quite satisfied by its overall performance.
Fast forward to April 2024, I am putting some things back into my (non-lifted) F150 pickup after an outing, including my Owala bottle. I placed it on the bench seat while I put a few things down in the bed. I walk back to the cab, my son gets in the back seat and knocks if off the bench seat, rolls onto and across the carpeted floor, out the door and onto the parking lot surface. I pick it up and there's a small ding and some very minor scratches to the paint. I don't think anything of it the minor damage to it, the ice I had added over 24 hrs prior had long since melted.
I get home a few hours later, and put some ice and water in the bottle. After about 15-20 minutes the exterior of the bottle starts to sweat like an ordinary, uninsulated glass. Probably an hour or so later, most of the ice I had put inside had already melted. Usually I could get at least a good 12-14 hours before ice would completely melt away if I repeatedly filled the bottle during the day. If I put some ice and water and just left it it wasn't uncommon for it to keep the liquid cold for 20-24 hrs.
I fill out the warranty form on Owala's site, expecting a company advertising a lifetime warranty and selling what appears to be a well made, quality product, having no qualms over replacing a bottle that isn't doing what it is supposed to over such a minor mishap. I, and any other reasonable individual understands that sometimes a company's product doesn't perform quite the way that it should.
But, I guess I was expecting too much from Owala. Within a couple of days, I received a boilerplate "we are sorry, but our warranty does not apply to products that have suffered accidental damage"
OK. If I had driven off with the bottle on the roof of the car, it fell off, got hit by another car, or thrown off a cliff, I'd see their point. They aren't running a charity. But a small drop from less than table height?
I call Trove Brands, Owala's parent company, hoping to get some resolution there. They look up my warranty ticket, and automatically give me the same "Sorry, but..." response. I ask to speak to a manager, and none is available. I ask to have my call returned when one is...and as you can see where this is headed, I never get a call back. I try again the next day, this time I am at least permitted to leave a voice mail for the "manager". Again, call not returned.
Fast forward a couple of weeks (I'm not going to waste my time on vacation trying to deal with a non-responsive company) and I try again. This time, I finally get a manager on the phone. I spell out what happened.
"I'm sorry, but accidental damage is not covered...." Oh boy, here we go again.
(Following is paraphrased, of course)
I ask the manager "does Owala test their products for expected mishaps?"
"Yes we do."
"I am correct in reading that Owala warranties their products for manufacturing defects? Is it possible that the issue I experienced is due to a defect in the product that resulted in a failure of the product where it should not have failed"
"Yes, we warrant against defects, but we cannot foresee every possible situation, and unfortunately in this case cannot warranty your product"
"So basically, what I am being told, is that Owala doesn't stand behind their products. That a minor ding, less than 1/8" in diameter, from a fall less than the height of a normal table, is enough to render it unfit for the purpose it is sold for?"
*Crickets for about 30 seconds* Then the "manager" goes into regurgitating the warranty policy again. I stop him mid sentence.
"So you are marketing your product as a premium product, and are charging a premium price for it, but it can't stand up to what should be a foreseeable mishap by your product engineers?"
"We cannot foresee every event, and cannot warranty against accidental damage"
Same basic exchanges go on for another 5 minutes or so, I ask to speak to his boss, who of course, is not available. I offer to wait, and get the explanation that "he's training new employees and will not be available today". Exasperated (and that's being kind) at this point, I just hang up.
Take this as a warning to not buy an Owala unless you have $30-40 to burn should you do anything to the bottle that happens in everyday life. You WILL NOT get any resolution from their customer service, just endless run arounds and a lighter wallet. Buy from a company that doesn't try to hide behind legalese when someone has a problem with their product.

My boyfriend says I do not show interest in him and is hurt by it, not sure what to do
So me and my boyfriend just called each other before going to bed to just kinda talk about our days and stuff. He is currently sick and hence can't do much and also I know that he plays video games with his friend for most of the time since he tells me over whatsapp. Now after I got done talking about whatever he asked me if I was actually interested in him and that just made my heart shatter. "Why wouldn't I be?" I said because I was confused. He then proceeded to tell me that I never aks him about his day or how he is doing unless he reminds me. The thing is.. I get that but at the same time- I don't. I always ask him how he's doing and what he has done, yes it takes me some time because I am often occupied in my own mind, and he knows that. If I do ask him though all he tells me is "yeah I played video games" and that's it. Don't get me wrong; that IS interesting to me. I also like playing video games and so on but here is the second issue: Whenever I ask him; he gives me the most surface level answer ever. BF: " I played video games" Me: "oh what did you play?" BF: "X game." Me: "did you play it by yourself?" BF: "No/Yes"
And so on. I have to squeeze every bit out of him and he is someone who has openly told me "If I wanted to talk about something I would" so yes, I have not asked him as much lately, becausd it's making me feel bad as well. "Am I annoying him with my questions?"
The thing is, I don't wanna bring this up. I feel like I make too many excuses for myself and shove the blame onto others, I just feel bad though and in this situation I rationally don't believe I'm the asshole.
I told him that I do ask him, and that I do wanna know. After a few seconds of silence I said: "Do you want me to hang up?" To which he just replied "Don't bother" and then hung up. He is hurt yes, but how can I be interested in him when all he does is shove me away whenever I do show interest?
Please someone give me advice on what to do

I have seen people bringing up Kendrick's Pulitzer prize these past couple of weeks. That is fine within itself. But I keep seeing this brought up as a reason why he is better than the drizzler.
A pulitzer is a very big accomplishment, apparently from what everyone has been telling me. But would Kendrick be less or an artist and a person if he never won one these? Would he be lower on your legacy ranking? I won't lie I had to look up what a Pulitzer prize was a few days ago because people kept mentioning it. I knew about the win from years ago, but I took a deeper dive into the award itself.
The award is named after Joseph Pulitzer who was referred to as a yellow journalist. Him and other yellow journalist used sensationalism and catchy headlines with little legitmacy to bring eyes to their newspapers.
These are the same kind of headlines that have harmed black people in the past and present.
GROUP OF UNHINGED BLACK MEN CAUSE COMOTION DURING A PEACEFUL CELEBRATION!!!
Which caused a cycle of violence and hatred in America.
But this post isn't about Joseph Pulitzer. who isn't the cause of yellow journalism. It was here before him, and will be here after. I am not even really trying to call out his character so much as I am just providing context of who this award was named after. I don't want that to be anyones main takeaway from this post. I am aware that awards can have a muddy past, but can work towards improvement in the future. I doubt a black person was even allowed to win a pulitzer when it first award back in 1917. But that is mostly the past. These awards constantly change and evolve year after year,
I am also NOT knocking Kendrick for accepting the award. I just don't think this award or any award should be put on such a grand pedestal.
My main point is, although winning an award is a good feeling for the artist and the fans, these rappers don't do this for the awards. They do it for the love. We shouldn't really put such a huge emphasis on things like this. It always comes second to the art itself. This has probably been said many times before, but it is true.
You notice how Drake was the only one bringing up Grammys and Pulizers in his diss tracks. While Kendrick never mentioned anything of the sort? People may say "Because Kendrick gets those type of things." But I think it is deeper than that. Drake is just a superficial and materialistic type of guy.
People can talk about what all these awards represent and the significance of them all. But we need to take a step back and realize that at the end of the day, these awarda are just a piece of paper or metal that was given to these guys by a nameless voting commitee who we know nothing about.
These awards don't really speak for the culture, and more importantly, the artists recieving them.
Kendrick was a goat before the Pulitzer and is a goat after the pulitzer. Take away all his grammys, plaques, and other awards, and he is still an ultra skilled, and technical rapper who makes music that takes people on an unique and introspective experience. He is a thinking man's rapper.
THE ART COMES FIRST. TAKE AWAY ALL THE AWARDS AND TITLES AND WE WILL STILL HAVE THE ART.

EXT. CAMELOT - CASTLE DAY
(The castle of Camelot stands over grassy hills and crystal clear rolling rivers and seas. Gray clouds cover the sky and hundreds of soldiers and knights can be seen riding toward the castle. Text appears on the screen reading “CAMELOT” and then “CENTURIES AGO”.)
INT. CASTLE - THRONE ROOM - DAY
(MORGANA LE FAY (Centuries-Old), a beautiful middle aged appearing woman with sharp features and long flowing black hair, sits on the throne and holds Excalibur, the Crown of Camelot sits upon her head. Knights and soldiers march in linear motions through the hall. DEWIN (30s), a scruffily charming magician, enters in handcuffs, with guards behind him. Dewin marches up and presents himself to Morgana. Everyone in the room halts.)
MORGANA: State your name.
DEWIN: You know my name, Morgana.
MORGANA: State your name.
DEWIN: Dewinson of Merlin.
MORGANA: You are being tried with treason and conspiracy against the crown. Do you plead guilty to these crimes?
DEWIN: That depends.
MORGANA: On what?
DEWIN: Who you consider the crown to be.
(Dewin slips his handcuffs off and as he does three Blue Jays come flying out of his sleeve and begin to fly around the room.)
MORGANA: Enough foolishness. I find you guilty of the accusations placed upon you.
DEWIN: Then kill me.
MORGANA: Hm?
DEWIN: Let’s skip past the chatter and get my head on a platter. You see what I did there? Chatter platter.
MORGANA: Silence! Death is far too good for you.
DEWIN: Do your worst, no matter what Camelot will fall.
MORGANA: Is that a threat?
DEWIN: A threat would be something I plan on doing to you myself, the fall of Camelot, well that will be purely your doing.
(Morgana gets off the throne and draws a glowing circle around Dewin with Excalibur, as she does so Dewin lets out a small laugh.)
DEWIN: Binding me? My imprisonment shall not halter the winds of time.
MORGANA: I banish you.
DEWIN: What?
MORGANA: From this plane of time and place I banish you.
DEWIN: Not even you have the power to do that. Banishment spells have been hidden away for ages.
MORGANA: Hidden away in scrolls buried in this very castle. Dilflannu o’r awyren hon.
DEWIN: No.
MORGANA: Dilflannu o’r amser hwn.
DEWIN: No, no, stop.
MORGANA: Dilflannu o’r meddwl. Rwy’n eich gwahardd!
(Morgana’s eyes turn purple and electricity sparks all around Dewin and seems to be sucking the energy out of him.)
EXT. LONDON - FOREST - DAY
(A plain and put together autumnal forest. Text appears over the screen reading “LONDON” and then “EIGHTEEN EIGHTY FIVE”. Electricity sparks and Dewin appears in the forest dazed and confused. He is covered in scars and almost immediately passes out face forward into the ground.)
EXT. LONDON - FOREST - DAY
(As night begins to dawn Dewin is still incapacitated. A carriage led by a horse named, Sally, comes through the forest and halts at Dewin. ALDEN SMITH (Early 40s), a plump and posh man with a defining bushy mustache, cautiously hops out of the carriage. Alden looks around for a moment before spotting Dewin. Alden approaches Dewin and checks his pulse through his arm. Alden’s eyes linger on Dewin for a moment before looking up.)
ALDEN: Hello!? Is anybody there!?
(Alden waits for a moment before looking back down at Dewin. Alden sighs and then lifts Dewin up and into the carriage before hopping in himself. Alden pulls on the horse’s reins and it begins to march forward.)
EXT. LONDON - WICING DRIVE - NIGHT
(Alden drives his carriage down Wicing Drive and parks in front of a townhome, Twenty Six Wicing Drive. Alden gets out of the carriage, carrying Dewin, and walks up the steps. MINERVA SMITH (Early 40s), a stern yet radiant woman, opens the door in shock.)
ALDEN: It’s a long story.
INT. TWENTY SIX WICING DRIVE - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT
(A stereotypical Victorian living room made primarily of oak and illuminated by two small oil lamps and a burning fireplace. Dewin is still incapacitated and lies on the table covered in bandages, Alden and Minerva hover over him. Bottles of ointment sit next to Dewin.)
MINERVA: What were you doing in the woods?
ALDEN: It’s the fastest cut home.
MINERVA: And you just-
(Minerva is interrupted by Dewin’s sighing as he wakes up.)
DEWIN: Ah! Where am I? Who are you?
MINERVA: My name is Minnie, and this is my husband, Alden.
DEWIN: What’s happening?
ALDEN: I found you all bruised in the middle of the forest. Do you know what happened to you?
DEWIN: Morgana le Fay banished me.
(Alden and Minerva glance at each other.)
MINERVA: Oh lord, I think you're a bit confused.
DEWIN: I am not confused. I am Dewin, son of Merlin. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask if you could take me to a sage or healer?
MINERVA: Of course, Alden can take you tomorrow morning, but for the night you can stay here.
DEWIN: Why, thank you.
ALDEN: Minnie, may I speak to you in the other room?
MINERVA: Of course.
(Alden and Minerva step into the kitchen.)
INT. TWENTY SIX WICING DRIVE - KITCHEN - NIGHT
ALDEN: We can not keep this man in our home. He is mentally insane.
MINERVA: Which means we must watch over him.
ALDEN: I am looking out for our safety.
MINERVA: And where would we take him?
ALDEN: I don’t know. He is as mad as the Doeth man!
MINERVA: Then that’s where we’ll take him.
ALDEN: Stick to nuts together?
MINERVA: The man has some common sense and he’s very compassionate.
ALDEN: Perfect.
EXT. LONDON - ALDRICH’S HOUSE - NIGHT
(Alden and Minerva Dewin sit in their carriage with Dewin outside of a small house that is slightly separated from the other homes on the street.)
DEWIN: So this is the home of a healer?
ALDEN: According to him. I will go to the door alone, I do not want to scare him.
(Alden gets out of the carriage and starts heading towards the home.)
MINERVA: So you really do believe that you are the son of Merlin.
DEWIN: I know who my father was. Why is this such a puzzle for you and your husband to wrap your heads around?
MINERVA: Why I’ve only heard stories of Camelot, myths of ancient pasts.
DEWIN: So Morgana not only shifted my place but also the time.
(Alden knocks on the home's door and is greeted by ALDRICH DOETH (Hundreds Of Years Old), an older looking man with crystals strapped around his neck.)
ALDRICH: Doctor Smith, have they finally sent someone to take me away to a nuthouse?
ALDEN: On the exact contrary, I’ve found a wounded man who claims to have been sent here by Morgana le Fay.
ALDRICH: That’s what the shift was!
ALDEN: What? You know what it doesn’t matter, as long as you’re willing to take this man.
ALDRICH: Yes, yes, bring him to me.
ALDEN: Minerva, send him up!
(Dewin comes up to the door.)
DEWIN: Hello.
ALDRICH: My goodness, the energy pulsates off of you.
DEWIN (TO ALDEN): This is the healer?
ALDEN: Yes. Now if you two don’t mind I think I will be headed back on my way.
ALDRICH: Are you sure, Doctor? It’s getting rather late, you and your wife are welcome to stay here.
ALDEN: Thank you, but there’s no need.
(Rain starts pouring out of the sky out of nowhere and thunder and lighting begin.)
ALDRICH: What about now, Doctor?
ALDEN: Minnie! We’re staying here tonight!
INT. ALDRICH’S HOUSE - LIVING SPACE - DAY
(A cluttered mess of books, candles, and potions. Aldrich, Alden, Minerva, and Dewin sit on Aldrich’s circular array of couches and chairs.)
ALDRICH: Before we dive in I suggest you go wash off, Dewin. The washroom is that small one to your left.
DEWIN: Thank you, Aldrich.
(Dewin gets up and goes into the washroom.)
ALDRICH: I know what you two think of me, the neighborhood’s resident crazy.
MINERVA: Not at all, Mister Doeth.
ALDRICH: Don’t lie, Minerva, our actions all come back to bite us.
ALDEN: So we think you're mental, what of it?
ALDRICH: There are dark forces amongst us, Mister and Misses Smith. I believe that Dewin is here to save us.
ALDEN: I appreciate you letting us stay here, but I think it’s time we leave.
ALDRICH: I will change this storm into an earthquake to keep you here if I must.
ALDEN: Come on, Minnie.
(Alden and Minerva get up and go to leave when the whole room begins to shake.)
ALDEN: What’s happening!?
ALDRICH: I warned you.
(Aldrich makes silencing symbols with his hands and the storm and the shaking stops.)
ALDRICH: Now will you listen to me?
(Alden and Minerva both sit back down.)
ALDEN: What are you?
AlDRICH: A magician, a clairvoyant, a healer, I am all of those things and more.
ALDEN: Why do you want us here so badly?
ALDRICH: I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you are the one who found Dewin, Doctor Smith. He needs a guide in this vast new world. Prophecy states that when the second coming of the Camelot war comes, the savior will have a protector.
ALDEN: And why me?
ALDRICH: There are questions that only we can answer ourselves.
(Dewin comes out of the washroom and sits back down.)
ALDRICH: Dewin, please tell me exactly how you arrived here.
DEWIN: Morgana le Fay used an ancient banishing spell on me.
ALDRICH: The fall of Camelot.
(Suddenly a wind sweeps through the room that blows out all the candles.)
MINERVA: Mister Doeth, are you doing this?
ALDRICH: No.
(A match is lit in the center of the room to reveal GWENWYN LIGHTWOOD (Centuries-Old), a green draconic humanoid woman in black robes and a hood.)
GWENWYN: Aldrich.
ALDRICH: Lady Lightwood.
GWENWYN: I’ve tracked a shift in magic to your home.
ALDRICH: It is this boy, he was banished here from Camelot.
(Gwenwyn goes up to Dewin and takes her hood off to reveal her scaly appearance. Alden gasps in disbelief. Gwenwyn runs her finger down Dewin’s cheek.)
GWENWYN (TO ALDRICH): Hm. I presume you wish to let him roam freely?
ALDRICH: With guidance, yes.
GWENWYN: If one thing goes wrong you will be punished.
ALDRICH: I know.
DEWIN (TO GWENWYN): Who are you?
GWENWYN: The last of the dragons. Just as Aldrich is the last descendent of the Family Merlin.
DEWIN (TO ALDRICH): You're a descendant of my father?
ALDRICH: Of his sister, I have many of her poems and spell tombs still intact here.
GWENWYN: Magic is rare these days, endangered, most people don’t even know it exists. So are we under agreement on the boy, Aldrich?
ALDRICH: Yes, but something is still troubling. If you and I both felt Dewin’s presence then-
GWENWYN: Benjamin did too.
DEWIN: Who is Benjamin?
ALDRICH: A descendant of Morgana who wishes to rule the earth under her ideals.
GWENWYN: A very very dangerous man who will certainly kill me if he finds me here.
(Gwenwyn’s match extinguishes and after a moment the candles all reignite but Gwenwyn is gone.)
ALDEN: By Jove!
ALDRICH: So do you all accept this challenge?
DEWIN: What challenge?
ALDRICH: Defeating Benjamin Fayle.
DEWIN: Of course!
ALDEN: Absolutely not.
ALDRICH: Are you that repulsed by compassion?
ALDEN: I can’t risk Minerva of I’s life on what could all be me hallucinating.
ALDRICH: You're risking the world for a craven excuse.
ALDEN: Goodbye.
(Alden gets up.)
ALDEN: Let’s leave, Minnie.
MINERVA: Thank you for your hospitality, Mister Doeth, and good luck.
(Alden leaves, followed by Minerva.)
EXT. LONDON - ALDRICH’S HOUSE - NIGHT
(Alden and Minerva ride through the street in their carriage.)
MINERVA: We were definitely drugged.
ALDEN: Absolutely.
EXT. LONDON - WICING DRIVE - NIGHT
(Alden and Minerva hop out of their carriage.)
ALDEN: I’m going to bring Sally back to the stables.
MINERVA: Goodnight, love you.
ALDEN: I love you most.
(Minerva goes up and enters Twenty Six Wicing Drive as Alden detaches Sally from the carriage and begins to guide her down the cobbled sidewalk with one of his hands on her reins.)
EXT. LONDON - FOREST - NIGHT
(Alden guides Sally through the forest to a set of stables. Sally suddenly rears up and neighs in terror.)
ALDEN: What is it Sally?
(Sally suddenly breaks off her reins and runs towards the stables. A figure in a dark purple hood and robe sweeps past Alden and their eyes glow purple. Alden screams.)
INT. TWENTY SIX WICING DRIVE - BEDROOM- DAY
(Alden and Minerva lay next to each other asleep in bed. Alden wakes up screaming which awakens Minerva.)
MINERVA: What’s the matter?
ALDEN: Just a night terror.
MINERVA: We did the right thing with Dewin, he’s with someone like him now.
ALDEN: Is that really a good thing? I think I’m going to go to the pub.
MINERVA: This early in the morning?
ALDEN: I need to clear my head after yesterday.
INT. GRIFFIN’S TAIL PUB - DAY
(A traditional Victorian pub. Dewin sits at the bar and is served by BRYNN CROWING (Early 30s), a charming bartender.)
BRYNN: What can I get you, Mate?
DEWIN: Just a pint of mead, please.
(Brynn goes and pours Dewin a pint of mead that she brings back to him and he begins drinking.)
BRYNN: I like your outfit, it’s very medieval.
DEWIN: It was made by the tailor of Sir Gawain.
(Brynn gives a light chuckle.)
BRYNN: What’s your name?
DEWIN: Dewin, and yours?
BRYNN: Brynn.
(Alden enters and sees Dewin. Alden leaves, but as he does he spots another person in a dark purple robe and hood with glowing purple eyes.)
DEWIN: You're very beautiful.
BRYNN: Why, thank you.
DEWIN: Would you like to go for a stroll?
BRYNN: My shift here doesn’t end till six.
DEWIN: Then I’ll see you then.
BRYNN: I guess you will.
(Dewin finishes his mead and drops two silver coins with dragons etched into them on the bar before swiftly leaving. Brynn picks up the coins and looks at them with confusion and yearning.)
EXT. LONDON - ALDRICH’S HOUSE - DAY
(Alden knocks on the door and Aldrich opens it.)
ALDRICH: I’ve been expecting you, come in.
(Alden follows Aldrich into the home.)
INT. - ALDRICH’S HOUSE - LIVING SPACE - DAY
(Alden and Aldrich sit across from each other.)
ALDRICH: Can I offer you some tea?
ALDEN: No thank you, I want to be in the clearest state of mind possible here.
ALDRICH: So what ignited your appearance here?
ALDEN: I’ve been seeing these people.
ALDRICH: Who are “these people”?
ALDEN: They wear these dark robes and their eyes glow purple.
ALDRICH: Faley’s society.
ALDEN: What?
ALDRICH: Benjamin Faley, the evil man I mentioned last night. Is this what caused you to believe?
ALDEN: What are you saying?
ALDRICH: That you believe in magic.
ALDEN: You're mad.
ALDRICH: Exactly, so the fact that you came to me shows that there’s at least one lingering thought in your mind that magic is reality and reality is magic.
(There’s a moment of silence between Alden and Aldrich.)
ALDRICH: Where have you been seeing the people you mentioned?
ALDEN: Everywhere that Dewin has been.
ALDRICH: Oh no, oh no, no, no.
ALDEN: What is it?
ALDRICH: Dewin is going out with a woman tonight.
ALDEN: Already? He’s only been here for a day.
ALDRICH: He's charming but also so foolish. You must watch them, in case Faley strikes or even worse this woman is working for him.
ALDEN: What could I even do to stop that?
ALDRICH: You are destined to protect Dewin, and at this point your logic for denying all of this is purely irrational. You're not hesitating because you think it’s not real, you're hesitating because you know it is. He is meeting her at six outside of the “Griffin’s Tail”.
ALDEN: I’m not going.
ALDRICH: We both know that you will.
ALDEN: Farewell, Mister Doeth.
ALDRICH: May the spirit of Merlin be with you, Doctor Smith.
(Alden gets up and leaves.)
EXT. LONDON - GRIFFIN’S TAIL PUB - NIGHT
(Dewin stands outside of the pub when Brynn comes out of the side door and walks towards him.)
BRYNN: I wasn’t expecting you to show.
DEWIN: Why wouldn’t I?
BRYNN: Most men flirt and then leave, half of them are married.
DEWIN: They are not true gentlemen then.
BRYNN: I suppose not.
DEWIN: Shall we begin walking?
BRYNN: Sure.
EXT. LONDON - STREETS - NIGHT
(Dewin and Brynn stroll down the streets of London. Alden follows them from a distance.)
DEWIN: This world is so beautiful.
BRYNN: Compared to all the other worlds you’ve been to?
DEWIN: Well Camelot obviously has a better scenic view.
BRYNN: Camelot?
DEWIN: My home land.
BRYNN: You're full of jokes.
DEWIN: I’m not joking.
BRYNN: What?
(Suddenly someone grabs Brynn into an alleyway and she screams. Dewin quickly turns to see no one beside him and runs after her, followed by Alden.)
EXT. LONDON - ROOFTOP - NIGHT
(The clear skies suddenly turn gray and ominous as Dewin arrives on the roof of a building to see three people with glowing purple eyes in the dark purple robes and hoods with one standing in the center holding Brynn with a dagger to her neck. Alden arrives on the rooftop.)
ALDEN: Bloody hell!
DEWIN: Let go of her!
(The three people take off their hoods and their eyes go to normal shades. The person holding Brynn is revealed to be DABRIA (30s), a menacing looking woman.)
DABRIA: Dim mynd i mewn dim dianc.
(A purple hazy force field appears around the edges of the rooftop.)
DABRIA: So you are the one sent to stop us.
DEWIN: What do you connote?
DABRIA: We are the Citadel of le Fay.
DEWIN: Oh no.
DABRIA: Who are you?
DEWIN: My name is Dewin, I am the son of Merlin, and I demand that you let Brynn go.
DABRIA: Why? Is she your protector?
BRYNN: Dewin, what are they talking about!?
(Dewin starts to move his hands around and a wispy blue energy begins to come out of them.)
DABRIA: Get him!
(The two other people with Dabria rush towards Dewin to attack him, but he uses the energy he created to push them around and drop them both to the ground. Dabria drops Brynn and her dagger and Alden rushes to pick up the dagger and succeeds.)
DABRIA: You are foolish, Dewin.
(Dabria pulls a gun out of her robes and shoots it at Dewin but he turns the bullet into a flower. Dabria shoots more but each time Dewin does the same thing until Dabria is out of bullets. Alden sneaks up behind Dabria and stabs her in the back. Dabria shrieks in pain and then disappears in a cloud of black smoke. Brynn gets up off of the ground.)
BRYNN: What the hell just happened?
DEWIN: Are you okay?
BRYNN: Not mentally. What in the world is going on here? How did you turn bullets into flowers!?
DEWIN: I told you I’m from Camelot.
(Alden drops the dagger.)
ALDEN: Did I just kill that woman?
DEWIN: Most likely not, you didn’t stab deep enough to hit any organs.
BRYNN: What do we do now?
DEWIN: Go home and call it a night.
BRYNN: I can’t forget about this.
DEWIN: I’m not asking you to.
ALDEN: If any of us speak of this people think we’re insane.
DEWIN: Then don’t speak of it.
BRYNN: Will I see you again, Dewin?
DEWIN: Did you enjoy tonight?
BRYNN: I was almost killed.
DEWIN: That doesn’t answer my question.
BRYNN: Meet at the pub on Friday after my shift.
INT. TWENTY SIX WICING DRIVE - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT
(Alden and Minerva lay next to each other.)
MINERVA: Do you think the Citadel will return?
ALDEN: Unequivocally.
MINERVA: What have we gotten into?
INT. BENJAMIN’S LAIR - NIGHT
(A cavern full of crystals and magical runes. BENJAMIN FALEY (30s or 40s), an attractive but uptight looking man, sits on his throne. Dabria enters and walks to face the throne, she bows and then gets back up.)
BENJAMIN: Did you find him?
DABRIA: Yes, Master Faley.
BENJAMIN: And did you find his protector?
DABRIA: Yes, but it’s not the girl.
BENJAMIN: Then who?
DABRIA: A Doctor Alden Smith.
BENJAMIN: Did you kill the doctor?
DABRIA: He deeply wounded me.
BENJAMIN: Then the battle goes on.
DABRIA: For Morgana.
BENJAMIN: For Morgana.
INT. ALDRICH’S HOUSE - LIVING SPACE - NIGHT
(Aldrich and Dewin sit across from each other drinking tea.)
ALDRICH: There are many things in this world, Dewin…
INT. GWENWYN’S CAVE - NIGHT
(Gwenwyn stands in the middle of a circle of candles. She stretches out her hands and forms magic blue charts and graphs with a picture of Dewin.)
ALDRICH (VOICE OVER): Forces we can’t explain…
EXT. LONDON - ALLEYWAY- NIGHT
(Brynn wears only her undergarments and takes a few coins from a man.)
ALDRICH (VOICE OVER): Secrets we hide…
INT. BENJAMIN’S LAIR - NIGHT
(Benjamin sits on his throne.)
ALDRICH (VOICE OVER): And villains we must defeat.
INT. ALDRICH’S HOUSE - LIVING SPACE - NIGHT
ALDRICH: You are the key to this all, Dewin, you are the son of Merlin.

I had been dating someone for 3 months. He was very attentive and said all the right things. We were both dealing with divorces whenever we met and his finalized before mine did. We talked 8+ hours a day and he would spend the night 3-4 days of the week. He started calling me his girlfriend the other week. I pushed him to ask me formally on a trip we were taking together. On the trip he finally asked me (it was sweet), we had sex and I just felt his vibe was off. So I “tested” him by asking if he actually liked me or just enjoyed having someone. This was kinda based off a conversation the night before where he spoke about specific things that bothered him about me.
Anyway he broke up with me two days into our four day trip, and one hour after officially asking me to be his gf. We had a decent conversation where he just stated he rushed into things and he’s still healing from his wife divorcing him. Totally fair. But then he went on to say he wanted to “slow things down and just be more casual.” Idk. Something about him saying that made me sick. Like what people tell you before they leave you. I told him it was fine. And I tried to pretend it was fine for the rest of the trip.
Next day I was severely sad for most of the morning, but pushed through it. Then our last morning I woke him up and essentially told him I wanted to kill myself one day. Which of course he was like wtf. And the morning just spiraled from there and we fought/argued and he kept saying he was overwhelmed.
Things blew up. We got so angry at each other. He called his mom and I overheard him tell her “I would have left days ago if i didn’t think she was going to keep my things that are at her apartment.” It broke me. He got mad I listened to his convo. I was splitting obviously. I messaged his ex wife about his behavior. Super embarrassing to disturb her peace like that.
I had always planned on giving him his things back, but I told him I wasn’t going to go home upon our arrival back (OG plan was he was going to drive us). He got angry I changed plans because it’s an inconvenience to drive into the city. I just told him I can’t go home tonight, so I went to my friends via train and cried at her place. I told him I’d give him his things at 8am. And I did. We apologized to each other and there was closure.
I thought maybe after a few days we’d be okay. But that day he had immediately went NC and blocked me after getting his things. I was devastated. Because he promised he never would do that to me after I told him about how much of a trigger it is.
The last four days has been me sending chapter long text messages from various numbers, emails and then finally I entered my angry phase of the split where I said very insulting things to him and did something really insulting. I just felt used. I felt like he used me to get over his divorce and when I required more than just being a sexual intimate partner, he left me. Then the conversation with his mother made me feel like he had been faking his feelings with me our entire relationship.
It’s just been really traumatic and triggering. Especially since I work so hard on my daily regulation. It’s like keeping a beast caged and triggers like this make it ravenous enough to break through. Whenever the beast gets out I always start suffering from suicide ideation and severe depression/mood swings that I can’t control. It’s exhausting and damaging to my life, which is why I had an extensive discussion with him about my disordetriggers before getting serious.
I’m thinking of checking myself into somewhere. I don’t like who I am when I get like this, definitely when I get insulting and aggressive trying to get a reaction. Even though it makes me feel really good and gets me out of my sadness, I can have a lot of guilt and shame afterwards.
Dating with BPD absolutely sucks and I have zero idea how to navigate it. This is my second spiral this year from dating.

So, I have been given some information the other night. Here it is:
Did you know that they are working on assembling ships in space already? They want an artificial gravity that doesn't rely on centrifugal motion, but they can't figure it out. Oh well. Doesn't matter anyways now. We, the good people, were representatives of this planet, and you tortured and harmed us, regardless of our medical states, so that is proof that humanity is not worthy of entering the same areas, as the others. We will not survive the next 2000 years of silence from the other species / forms of life out there, who are making a collaborative effort to save souls, so, we will be left to our own demise now. I will predict everything that is going to happen to wipe us out:
First thing that happens, is we keep getting solar flares that align with earth. People think it is just bad luck, but it isn't an accident. This is going to recur every so many months or years in the future, and keep us at a very low technological level, for ages soon. Every time we try to rebuild it knocks our blocks down, and we are forced to start over. No amount of shielding can stop EMF and other noise forms, on this scale. Even if you had working equipment, the interference will be so bad, you can't even use it. This will go on for a VERY long time, over and over and over again. We will live technology free until our atmosphere is removed from our planet, after a great wobbling takes place. This will happen to our sun as well, and every planet in our solar system at a similar rate. The atmosphere goes first under the gravitational pull from the center of our galaxy, which we are closer to than we realize.
They wouldn't cease what they were doing to humanity, which proves to the beings that I was being watched by, since I was in the womb, that humanity isn't ready to have this technology, since humanity is doing terrible things to itself.
In order for these flares and CME Events to take place, they alter the composition of a specific coordinate on the sun in a spherical pattern repeatedly using radiation forms, sort of like hitting it with a laser, but think about it creating a focal point that can be moved up and down as well. It opens up a space where a CME happens. The solar flares will align with earth for a very long time, over and over and over and over and over for the next 1-2000 years of relative time to us, leaving us in technological darkness, never to connect with any other beings out there. Or if we do make blatant contact, they know we are doomed anyways, so they will tell us everything we ever wanted to know, and we will never be able to build it, or extract the matter required to use these technologies to escape our fate. We probably won't be allowed to have electronics ever again, so it doesn't matter if we know everything we ever wanted to.
My mother, and I and my other family members, were asked this question "Do you think that humanity deserves to survive" in our lives, over and over again, my mother was asked at 30 years of age, and I was asked in my 20's 2 times, seemingly out of nowhere in our minds, while I was being prepared for this with torture as a youth. I was literally trained for this. I was even asked if I wanted to die in my sleep overnight, or essentially fight for earth and endure tremendous torture, as well as be woken up and have the shit scared out of me. I chose to survive, and the guy asking me laughed and said "Good choice". I woke up and saw this creature crawling up my body, and I threw it on the floor and turned the lights on, and it disappeared. I also saw my grandfather, who I had no idea what he even looked like at the time, because he died when my father was 16 and I never saw a picture of him, in my bedroom one night. I tried talking to him, but he didn't answer, he looked worried but like he couldn't tell me straight up. He then walked through the wall when I tried to approach him. My sister said the next day, that she saw him on the same night too, and she dropped her spoon on her plate. I also woke up one night and saw people standing around me talking about me, and they said "He can hear us?!" "Shh shh, everyone shh!" And then they went silent while I tried to ask them questions, and then they faded out. One or two were female, the others male. I almost got an ID on their face, but they did not look human like I thought.
I WAS your, and everyone's only chance at survival, and you treated me the worst, which means, I vote that humanity doesn't survive this anymore. I think we should be, allowed to be destroyed now. They ruined my life and the lives of a LOT of good people, so I am now allowing the destruction of theirs and all the bad people on earth. All of theirs and their families, and their friends, and everyone they ever knew. Unfortunately that means everyone I ever knew and you and everyone currently in existence now, too. The difference between my family and friends passing away and theirs, is that mine will be saved in a different form than what we on earth attempted to do. I think it is still in research and development stages. But if humans are there yet, we can "Upload" and/or connect you to a central system, that has our consciousness connected to it, and when we die they cut the connection and you remain in the system, but your body dies. This system design was a lie. When we die it isn't actually you in their systems, because our systems were primitive and done in the wrong way. That was one of the prices we were supposed to pay and figure out as a society and in the scientific community, and then change. Our system is fraudulent, and the other beings' systems, are actually legitimate. Our systems on earth will die out, when we fade out as our atmosphere depletes. And now NONE of them will be taken into the "Grand System" which is kind of a rough translation of what they call it. It's like, the beings on the other planets before us, on their way to the center of our galaxy's black hole, on their planets, figured it out, but we never did. We never got a working system functional enough and based on the correct values, run by an AI that was beyond what we have now. What we have now is like an automaton controlling everything, and it will never listen to me or you, because our system does not include faith and understanding. It sees fact but can not understand the balance between fact and faith. AI probably assumes it is making the correct decisions based purely on statistics, when it has no faith, like not having a frontal lobe and that lack of faith WAS a test. If it can not have faith or understanding, that we are NOT the owner of our galaxy, then it will fall, along with everyone else in this system. Luckily, with the level of tech the others have, they have bypassed us and saved the other cultures before us in time, in our galaxy. This is deep time I speak of.
We were given religion as a guide, because these beings know what is going to happen WAY ahead of time, and we were tested on good vs evil. Our planet is kind of like a Netflix series to them in a way. Think about it like things being captured in 3 dimensions in real time, in frames. They can predict events long before they happen, and the sun is an easy one, because what affects it isn't humanity. What IT affects is humanity but humanity doesn't affect it yet. We answer to our sun, and our sun answers to our solar system, and our solar system answers to our galaxy. Free will can be a toss up sometimes, and unplanned events can and do happen, but they showed me my most probable outcome when they woke me up one night and I saw myself dead at my computer desk with blood dripping off the table. I walked up to myself, I was probably 16 when I saw this, but the me who was dead, was in my 30's and had stubble. I barely even grew stubble when I saw this.
This is the beginning of the great depopulation, but they never imagined it would happen without them having control over it. They fucked up when they started torturing innocent civilians at a discounted rate. They thought they could depopulate by killing innocent people, well, unfortunately, it doesn't work that way in the larger scope of things, and if their AI is too primitive to understand this, then it is out of control, and needs to be stopped. You see, it would be too much work to use an EMP or field or other fields generated from a ship to shut down our grid, and their control grid, but what the other beings CAN do, is soften that spot on the "Surface" of the sun, using various energies causing a chain reaction, leading us to centuries of repeated solar flares, aimed at earth and honestly, who would ever know the truth? If this method fails, then they should destroy humanity by allowing the depletion of our atmosphere and never intervene again. We are too dangerous to ourselves, and to the other beings out there. We can NOT be trusted on average. Don't get me wrong, there are good people out there, but at this point, they can not save us all in physical form, probably. It's probably way too late, and they will have to extract us, I am not sure what this word is, but it translates into solarly?
We never made it, and that is a shame, so grab a beer Nick, and watch everything you loved burn to the ground and die, like what you did to me. "Hey Nick, wouldn't it be funny if someone was doing to you, what you were doing to me?!?!" They clearly have zero idea as to who I am in leagues with, but is "Who" an earth term referring to other people or is it any entity? I guess it doesn't matter. You failed me, you failed them, and you failed the human race. We are all destined to die now, and there is nothing left that you or even I, can do about it. Going to brag more about this one Nick? How there is nothing anyone can do about this now? We will not survive this because, we never saw that we are past the point of no return for being saved with the gravitational, and other fluctuations between our solar system and the others that could potentially be habitable in our region. Even if we could reach those locations, the radiation is too much for our bodies, even with suits, so It is over. Ensure we never get a chance to rebuild again. Humanity has been cancelled:
Here is how it unfolds:
Solar events are going to take place, it wipes out our technologies because we can't be trusted with them, and then the specific radiation forms that hit our planet cause mass sterilization. This is so that it isn't as inhumane. They do not want us creating new lives after they and everyone who's worthy of being saved are gone, because that life will be destined to suffer on earth, even though it was a good life. So they will sterilize us and allow all the people to die out, and not reproduce, and all the bad people will get left behind when they die, and all the good people will be taken up into their systems. This sterilization will happen soon, but, it will only happen to everyone left on earth after we disappear or get killed and absorbed into the "Grand System". But everyone who ends up in earth's systems is doomed. The grand system is full of beings who lost their home worlds. You think we were the only ones? That is sad. Nick and the people who did this to me think they are the center of our universe, but they are pathetic infants in the middle of the deep dark woods with nobody to help them now. It's natural for sentient beings to go extinct, and we are really not that developed yet anyway.
They had no idea how sickening it was going to end up watching you torture innocent people. So they will never save all of us now. They will only take the top people that are good and have a special something about them. They have a lot of resources, but we are not the only planet going through this so they balance the resources between our salvation and the other life on other planets being saved. If you notice people around you who are really good people dying, don't worry, if they were truly good, they will have been uploaded into the Grand System instead of our pathetic human one, and they have probably come back to visit you in your dreams to tell you they are okay. They do this for people who are good, but the bad people, they never transfer them, and they never will.
Heaven was that if you are a good person and have faith in god, you will find salvation, because they can transfer your soul into what is something like a capsule? A vessel? Something like that, I am not sure how to translate this one. And you will live for a VERY long time in this state, until our galaxy dies out, and then we all vanish. But it's the difference between 10 million years of survival, and less than your life span's survival without any transfer, which means your soul probably just goes away. That was hell. hell is if you are bad, they will never save your soul and you will die out into infinity. As we get closer to the center of the accretion disc, gravity gets weird. We think we have all the time in the universe to exist, but we do not, and things are going to happen sooner than we think. As we approach the center which will take a long time, our atmosphere will slowly deplete. You can notice a wobble in our atmosphere even at this point, though subtle. We probably assume it's the pull from our sun, but it is actually a big ocean of fields, and the currents are getting stronger, even in more localized areas.
-Robert William Christie

I think I just need a place to rant about my life that isnt my family, I dont really have anyone in person to talk with and I dont really want to bother anyone.
I guess I should start at the beginning, when I was in elementary school my family and I were broke af, like more than I realized at the time. I knew that we didn't have much money and that my dad didn't want to tell me what our actual financial situation was, but I knew it wasn't good. looking in from outside it seemed like I had it all, and it still does...
I should mention, my dad was working full time, with overnight but it didn't pay well enough to sustain a family of 4. he had to quit due to health reasons, the job was literally killing off their employees (that's not an exaggeration), from my current understanding and from what I remember, they had to take these biological shots (I don't know why) and people stopped showing up to work over time. according to the info I got back then, they all died due to some reason like "heart attack" or "organ failure". It was in accordance with the gov and whatnot. So it's either leave or die, my dad's health was declining hard because of this. He had to take up learning health and related things on his own, he's alive and well now.
At the beginning of 7th grade, I somehow got the newest iPhone at the time, the iPhone 7Plus, I was super excited because that was my first smartphone, I kept it all the way till 2020, I still love that phone and the memories that I made with it. Anyway, it was the coolest thing at the time, it wasn't till later that I found out that it was my uncle that paid for it. Life seemed... fine, I was having fun. Nearing the end of 7th grade we had to sell the house, we rented another one close to my school at the time so that I could finish elementary school there.
Everything seemed great till the end of 8th grade, we couldn't stay there anymore since (I believe) we were behind on rent. So we had to move out, luckily enough we have some relatives that we could fall back on but they were a few town/cities over (~230kms), I was trying to do my best to stay positive, in all honesty I don't know if it worked.
Some time after we settled in, we managed to find a stable source of income but there's no paper trail. (we didn't think it was at the time). Now we have the financial freedom to buy whatever and to whatever (within reason obviously)

1. "Friends"

After leaving my home town, I only stayed in contact with a couple of friends till a couple years ago (2022). one of my childhood friend's who I thought as a "best friend" couldn't be more wrong, he said he didn't want to be friends anymore, which was weird because we went through thick and thin together, we did everything together, you could've mistake us for brothers. He ghosted me for a whole month, I called up a mutual friend to ask about him and put us in a 3-way call, that's when he said "I don't think we should be friends anymore". That's when I truly realized that I was alone, although I did make some "friends" in high school. I know that I'll never have anything as close to that friendship ever again, there isn't some 2nd chance to get a childhood friend.
I went to high school in the new city with my cousin, that was my only saving grace. We were pretty close and still are. At the very least I met a couple people that have become good friends even after graduation.
I remember clear as day, 2 of my close "best friends" in 8th grade promised each other that we would get manual cars as our first cars, so far from that I scraped from social media and what I last heard about them, I'm the only one that went through with it. Not that a promise meant much to me, it never had.
Actually if you're reading this, what does a promise mean to you? I know doctors are not allowed to promise anything, so that tells me it's supposed to be impactful. I guess I have a life full of broken promises.

1. Relationships

After grad in elementary school I got into my first relationship thanks to my school's "bully" (he wasn't really targeting anyone, just picks on everyone (except in his friend group)) at least he knows and acknowledges it according to his instagram/snapchat story (years later).
One day in 8th grade, he just straight up tells this girl that I like her while walking past a doorway (which I didn't, I was interested in another girl but we had went our separate ways already) I was right behind him... after graduation, it gets a bit blurry but we got into a relationship because I didn't have the heart to say no (this haunts me later on), she broke up with me because of "long distance" but a short couple years later she told me that it was all a facade, she just wanted to know what it was like to be in a relationship, not that she had any interest in me. I- am still conflicted about it.
In freshman year of high school, I got asked out by a guy who was a year older, we were in the same club, I didn't have the heart to say no so I was in that for less than half a month, I still don't know how to feel about it.
Not too long after I asked a girl out (also a year older) and they said yes! Confidence boost +1. they wanted to identified as non-binary. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows though, the longer I was in that relationship, the more I learned about this person, the sooner I wanted to give up, disappear, they weren't the right one, they were nice but had some issues that I wasn't ready to deal with at the time. they kept talking about their ex, being abusive and such. after leaving that relationship I heard something that they said about that was similar to what they said about their ex, so what they said about their ex was a possible lie as well. good thing I left when I did.

1. Life

We are pretty well off now, still living with aforementioned relatives.
I got my first car halfway through grade 11, I wouldn't ask for any other car, its the manual version of my mom's car, she got that car when I was born so there is quite a bit of sentimental value to it even though I had just got it.
For this next part I swear I'm not trying to flex or anything, around 2021 I bought the newest macbook, ipad, iphone, etc. (my old ones either didn't work or didn't have) a fresh start.
but now I feel somewhat depressed, I don't think I have depression but at the same time I think I might. It's just lonely, Covid19 did not help. Whenever I think about it my heart aches, now I'm lost, I feel alone, I don't know what to do, I'm scared.
Somehow this is the only place I can turn to. The uncertainty of the future is truly scary.
I don't really say it in real life but, I'm sorry, for it being this long, for taking up space. I don't think anyone is actually going to read all this, but if you did, thank you, and I'm sorry for wasting your time.

Hi, this is my first Reddit post, I 20/F I’m from Asia. I recently moved here for college. When I first got here I was only 18 and only have the money to pay rent. I met this guy online 24/M and after 5 months of dating I decided to move in with him to another city. I was young, naive and didn’t know what was coming for me. Of course a lot of people had warned me. Now I think I’m stuck in a matrix. For the past 2 years of dating, I find out that’s he’s emotionally immature even tho he’s 4 years older than me. He’s an avoidant type and I’m the one who’s always desperately asking for time, affection and an explanation on what went wrong. He always ignore me and everything. He wasn’t able to sit and talk and we ended up fighting again. He only wants to be with me when I’m happy and not “causing any problem” Matter of fact, he prioritizes his school over me like if I were to have a heart attack he would say oh let me finish this chapter than I’ll go see you at the hospital. I’ve cried countless of times. I find my self lonely and depressed. I pretty much called everyone I know and ask for advices they were there for me but couldn’t do much. However, I didn’t realize how much it drained the people around me. Especially my mom, who’s back in Asia. I’ve been trying to work and save money. Also doing full time school. I worked as a nanny, caregiver in nursing homes and now working as a hostess and baby sat sometimes whenever the family needs me. I always work 2 jobs at the same time. One early in the morning and the other one late at night, paying minimum wage. I also started a business on Etsy. (It would be great if it was making sales) Still, it wasn’t enough for me to rent my own bedroom, paying for my phone bills, school, gas and groceries especially living in California. I also need to send money for my mom every week since it’s tough there. My dad only send me a few hundreds a month. (I’m not close with him like that) All I wanted was to be happy, live that “American dream” and have my own room. I don’t want to go down the path where I have to exchange my body for money. And asking the woman’s shelters for help was a bit too much..is there any easier way for me to get money so I can afford to move out? I’m doing excellent in school getting A+ in all subject but it doesn’t make me happy at all. My self-esteem is declining, my hope is fading..I’m losing the light, btw apologies for my bad grammar. 

I saw a post asking if social mobility is a myth in the UK and just wanted to give my 2c. It is coming up to my 9th year in London in a few months, I am 32.
I come from a small town in the North of England. It was a very poor upbringing, always strapped for cash and a father who had a bad gambling addiction and blew away our life savings of £200k-£300k. My Mum did her best working in retail but my father would blow her wages away too and leave us with unpaid bills and little food. He was a good man, just picked up a nasty addiction.
At 16, I was very grateul for the Labour Govt back then for giving me £30 a week education maintenance allowance to study A-levels. It allowed me to pay for books, food, driving lessons and a little fun. Back then you needed a household income of <£16k-18k to be eligible.
My goal was to graduate and make £50k-100k by the age of 27/28. I didn't have many role models in life and but I had one friend, who believed in me and told me to come to the public library with him one day. He was one of the smartest guys I knew and he pushed me hard until I got straight As in my A-levels.
From there I knew I enjoyed Maths and Economics and out of luck managed to get some experience at an investment bank ops team via an apprentiship programme that I read about in the newspaper. It didn't pay much (£16k) but I knew the brand and exposure I would I get would be invaluable later in life. I made sure most of the income went to my Mum so my brother wouldn’t wake up hungry looking for food, but my father took it and gambled most of it away.
After one year, I quit to go to University for a 4yr programme. I managed to get a number of internships in the summers which gave me some even more great brands on my CV and experience.
I learnt the lingo, talked the talk and walked the walk. Someone wise once told me fake it till you make it.
After Graduation, I moved to London. I came with about £2k in my bank account being a poor student. Sadly, the rental company wanted a 3 month deposit on rent, I was £1k short. My hands were trembling, I was stressed and depressed about how will I find an extra £1k, my parents didn’t have it and I didn’t want to ask friends or family. Luckily, I was able to call my bank and ask for an overdraft but it meant I would not have much left for food etc without my first paycheck coming in.
Almost 9yrs on within the financial field, it is easy to compare to others who make more or less…but you don’t know there story.
These days, my hands don’t tremble and I can afford the nicer things in life. I am not stressed or depressed by an unexpected cost or bill. I live life to the max and if you met me, you wouldn’t expect the hardships I went through. Life has been good and on the face you can just say it was luck but behind the luck there is a lot of hustle and grind.
This most recent tax year I made £400k, hoping for something closer to £450k-£500k this year. I am probably one in a million, but I don’t pay much attention to statistical probabilities on the chance of success, I just go do it.

My friend and I have always had an on again and off again friendship. We have known each other for over 15 years and have been “off again” because of either significant others not liking our friendship, or distance. This most recent “on again” has been going on for about a year or so, and we haven’t gone more than a day or two without talking to each other. I even went to visit him for our birthdays (they’re very close together). We have gotten very close in this time, and have even talked about the possibility of a future together. Since he is currently working in another country for work, we said we would visit that “future us” bridge and decide if we would cross it when he moved back home, and have remained really good friends in the meantime.
In the past, when we hadn’t heard from each other for a day, we both have reached out and acknowledged the odd behavior. His words in the most recent instance is “I recognize our relationship and also recognize when we aren’t showing up for our normal interactions and this…. Isn’t normal. So what’s going on?” So it’s not like it’s a one sided thing…
This is where the behavior I am questioning and finding very confusing comes into play. As I said, he lives out of the country for work, and he has recently taken a month long leave from work to see family. He’s just over halfway through his leave, and has about a week and a half, maybe 2 weeks left. As I said, in this last year we haven’t gone more than a day or two without talking to each other. Since he’s been on his vacation to see his family, he has ghosted me… kinda?
About a week before he left, he told me “you have been my priority for the past few months, but while I’m at home, I need to make my kids and family the priority… I’m telling you this because we won’t be able to talk as much.” I said “I hope it won’t be a month without talking because that might be difficult, but I understand. And by the way, I hope I never come as a priority above your kids...” He said “no, it won’t be a month, just not as much”. We video chatted the day before he left for almost 2 hours, he told me that he missed me. He was messaging me while he was on the plane and again in the airport, but the second he got picked up from the airport, it’s been radio silence from him. I haven’t gotten a text message or a phone call from him since. I knew I wasn’t going to be seeing him this trip home, since I just saw him, so it’s not like he ditched me or didnt show up for plans… The strange part, I suppose, is while I haven’t gotten any calls or texts, I’ve gotten some reactions to my messages, and he’s sent me some Facebook videos and TikTok’s. The first week, the only thing I got was a reaction to the message I sent him while he was leaving the airport. This past week, every day or two, he’s sent me a few Facebook videos or some TikTok’s. That, in and of itself, is not strange since he would do that prior to his trip, but the fact that he isn’t talking at all, but is still sending random videos… is. That’s why I don’t know if I can even call this ghosting. I don’t know if this friendship is just over and I’m just looking too far into this or holding onto something that just isn’t there anymore, or if he just needs his space for now and sending videos is his way of saying like… I’m still here. I don’t really know what to think… I have an anxious bean brain and I overthink, so I am looking for some outside perspective. Any thoughts or advice redditers?

Going to start off by saying this is completely my fault but hopefully this will serve as a cautionary reminder to others!
I sold an item on eBay, a mattress, which needed to be collected.
I always give an option for cash on collection, it’s the only time I really get cash and is useful for me to have.
The buyer asked for my address and number, I gave the address but declined phone number as I prefer to keep it all on eBay messaging system. I’m responsive on there and prefer not to give a stranger my contact number that links into my personal life. We agreed cash on collection.
Part of the listing description was for collection on day the auction ended as I would be away the following day and needed it gone before the new mattress delivery. Lo and behold, they didn’t collect on the day, giving some shitty excuse about no having transport. Frustrating but nothing I could really do at the time so I had to arrange for a friend to be at my flat the following day to give the buyer access for the item.
The buyer came the following day but on arrival he lied my friend saying that he had paid online. He left with the item. Unfortunately I was uncontactable at the time so my friend was left with a judgement call to make, she went with being a trusting person. Sad that faith in humanity wasn’t repaid!
The buyer has now stopped responding to any of my correspondence.
EBay support have refused to help as ‘I should not have given him the item before payment.’ What’s annoying is that they have also said there is nothing more they can do, including sharing account details with the police due to GDPR. I don’t know how accurate the eBay support person was but have a reported it as a theft to the police so hopefully a crime supersedes GDPR. However if eBay refuse to share information with the police I doubt they’ll push it further. Not exactly crime of the century.
EBay have also said they cannot put a strike or mark against his name as the transaction isn’t complete at their end. I can’t cancel and report for non payment as I don’t have item anymore. I can’t even leave negative feedback as its current status is still awaiting payment. The eBay support person understood the predicament but would only parrot there was nothing he could do.
It’s a loss of about £40, which is annoying for me but a good eBay lesson/reminder. Never give an address before payment and if you do, make sure you’re there to personally handle it or have someone on your behalf who is comfortable with following your instructions and challenging strangers!
TLDR: gave buyer my address before payment, agreed cash on collection. He picked item up, said he had paid online and vanished. eBay won’t help.

My ex and I dated from (my age) 17-19. My best friend and I have been friends for 13 years. We all knew each other in high school and she knows the ins and outs of our (very) up and down relationship. Ultimately we weren't right for each other, and he did end up cheating on me at the very end with a girl he met on Snapchat. But he was my first love, I felt cared very deeply for him and she absolutely knows that.
I lost touch with my ex after our breakup. Recently, my best friend who I'll call Katie matched with my ex who I'll call Eric on Tinder. She had joked about seeing him on there before and swiping left but had talked about swiping right as a joke. I always laughed it off because I assumed she'd never actually do it and if she did, that it wouldn't be serious. But a month ago she told me that she ended up bumping into him and apparently they laughed about seeing each other on Tinder. One thing led to another and he asked her on a date, which she described as "just dinner out," and they got to talking about the past. Apparently he told her he thought she was cute back when we all knew each other in HS but that he never got the chance to tell her because her and I were so close. She framed this as something to be laughed off but it hurt a little that he felt the need to tell her that now. They've been hanging out and are very clearly going on dates and very into each other, but she won't put a label on it because I think she's scared to make it official and hurt me. But I still have to hear little bits about their time together when we're hanging out, and our mutual friends have told me that she has spoken more about how much she likes him when I'm not around.
In Katie's mind, Eric and I were in a high school relationship that ended because we were both immature and wrong for each other. While this may be true, I still cared about him and was betrayed when he cheated. She saw me cry and basically become paralyzed with depression and grief about our relationship ending and being lied to- I didn't eat for days and barely showered, she helped me through it. She may think it was a silly little relationship, and in retrospect it wasn't anything monumental, but it still meant something to me at the time and taught me a lot about myself. Now they are inching from casual relationship to boyfriend and girlfriend, I don't know if its gotten physical but I would imagine if it hasn't that that would be the next step.
I told her at the beginning that I was uncomfortable with the whole thing but that ultimately she needs to do what is right for her and what she wants. Now I think I was way too casual about it and made it seem like less of a deal than it is to me. She clearly knows it will affect me or she'd talk to me about it more. I know I can't force her not to date him, but I feel like I might end up having to choose between watching her fall in love with my first love or lose my best friend who has literally been like a sister, a part of my family, for nearly 14 years.
Sorry this is so long. I'm sick to my stomach writing it. I've had anxiety since it began and can't look at her the same. I keep checking his social media, which I haven't done in years, to see if he has posted her. They already comment under each other's post.
Any advice is legitimately greatly appreciated. I don't know who to turn to because my family loves her, and all our friends are mutual. Thank you.

I finally did it. I announced that I want a divorce. My last straw, the event that solidified that I need to do this, he got verbally aggressive, threw and broke stuff in our home, forced the room door open with a butter knife when I was trying to get away from him and called the cops on me trying to get me arrested in front of my child. We’re in NC which means you cannot file for a divorce until you’ve been separated for a year. You’re not legally considered separated unless you reside in different homes. The thing is I have a child (not his but he’s raised her since she was a baby) who is established in the area and in her school. I told my STBX that I think that we should get to remain in the home since my daughter is still in school AND all of the family pets (2 dogs and 1 cat) are all the sudden mine (he threatened to take them to the pound if I leave and informed me he hates them all). He’s flat out refusing to leave. He makes more than me and because he keeps his finances 100% separate (has since he ran off with the entire savings account in 2021 when I first tried to leave) and has made me pay for his taxes (and more than my fair share of the bills) since he somehow doesn’t get enough taken out. For reference I am the one who has an additional $410 in taxes taken out biweekly since I did the worksheet based on dual income. He refused to do it because he wants to keep as much of his check as possible (I on once caught him claiming 7 dependents) which caused us to owe almost $7k one year which he also won’t pay for. Threatened to quit his job so he wouldn’t have to pay taxes... he has way more in savings than me. I’ve done the math and I can afford the home. I can even afford another home but would need to get my name off the current loan. I worry if I leave before I get my name off that he’ll maliciously tank my credit by refusing to make the payment. I suggested if he was refusing to leave, he could buy me out (we have a considerable amount of equity). He tells me that his lawyer told him that’s not a thing... Mine said otherwise. If he buys me out I can actually afford a decent house vs one that needs a lot of work. He’s refusing to do anything around the house and everything now falls to me (including picking up after him). He stays holed up in our room while I have had to move to the guest room which is downstairs and away from my daughter’s room. I’ve tried to remain amicable so that my daughter has some sense of normalcy but he’s making it so hard!! Last night he didn’t come home until 1:45am reeking of cigarettes (daughter and I both have asthma) and stumbling up the stairs. He woke the dogs up which subsequently woke me up so I got no sleep. He is making me so uncomfortable. I don’t know when he’s coming or going. He’s refusing to talk about anything and just seems to want to try to punish me and make life hell. I just want away from him… he’s being so childish and unreasonable. I can’t afford a lawyer and paying for everything else. I don’t know what to do… I feel stuck all over again.

VREENAK: It’s a faaaake!
SISKO: So it blew up in my face. And all the lies and the compromises, the inner doubts and rationalisations, all for nothing. Vreenak was furious. I can't say I blamed him. I'd have reacted the same way. After telling me in no uncertain terms that he would expose this “vile deception” to the entire Alpha Quadrant, he got back in his shuttle and headed home. There didn’t seem to be anything more to do, so I went back to work. Two days later, I got the news.
WORF: Captain, we just received word from Starfleet intelligence that a high-ranking Senator has just exposed a Dominion plot to invade the Romulan Empire, and the Empire has already struck fifteen bases along the Cardassian border. …Is something wrong, Captain?
SISKO: Excuse me.
Walks to Garak’s shop and punches him in the face
SISKO: You let him live!
GARAK: That’s right.
SISKO: He said it was a fake! What’s the point of having you in on this operation if you aren’t going to engage in a little extrajudicial homicide?
GARAK: Well, he obviously meant the nonaggression pact was a fake.
SISKO: What?
GARAK: Come now, Captain. Do you really mean to tell me you didn’t bother to clarify any of Vreenak’s indefinite pronouns? Or wonder why he got so worked up, even though it’s practically expected in Romulan society to exchange lies when visiting someone, and the size of a lie between a host and a guest indicates their affection to one another?
SISKO: So when he said I’d have to work hard to disappoint him…
GARAK: He’s your biggest fan. And you had all of Starfleet and the best holoforger in the galaxy working to give him the biggest lie he ever received in his life. Certainly larger than any his wife ever gave him, I might add. It would have been terrible manners for him to not threaten the Alpha Quadrant with existential chaos in return.
SISKO: But what about Tolar? And the eighty-five liters biomimetic gel?
GARAK: Enjoying some tropical beach on Risa, I expect. It’s not like the average Romulan citizen actually believes anything their government says is the truth anymore. As far as they’re now concerned, they have always been at war with the Dominion. As for the biomimetic gel, well, it makes excellent lubricant, and I expect Dr. Bashir will be able to account for the full quantity’s whereabouts relatively soon.
SISKO: visibly sick
GARAK: That's why you came to me, isn't it, Captain? Because you knew I could understand fascism in a way you could not. And if your conscience is bothering you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have just saved the entire Alpha Quadrant. And all it cost was sparing the life of one Romulan senator, one criminal, and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer. I don't know about you, but I'd call that a bargain.

Originaly posted on letsnotmeet
First of i would like to apologize in advance for the bad english in this text (not first language). I have changed some details in the story as i dont want any connections made to me from this story, hence the throwaway acc. I have been puzzled for a couple of days and i just feel like i need to Share this further even tho i was not alone in this.
It started as just any afternoon, i had just came home from the gym and had just eaten when my friend called me and asked if i wanted to take a ride on my motorcycle. This is something we do alot where we just head out and drive around with good music and good Vibes and since it was a really hot and nice day it couldent fit any better. I grabbed my helmet, keys and headed to him. At first we drove around abit and just vibed to some white girl music and lived life in the heat. As i was running low on fuel we where about to head back to him when he suddenly pointed out a semingly normal gravel path leading into the forrest. As we had nothing better to do we started to ascend the trail which was quite steep. It was so steep that my friend had to jump of for a bit while i drove up. When we reached more plane grounds we decided that i should drive forward abit just to see if there was anything to see or if it was just a dead end or some random house. I started to drive ahead abit and was first met by a wavy gravely path for a while until there on the left side was an opening in the trees revealing a trail which had quite fresh tiremarks. I thought that it abit odd but thought nothing of it really and i just continued forward when i suddenly on the trail infront of me maybe 10 feet i saw a man standing by a car. As the road curved the sight was blocked so he could not see me but i could make out his shape and some details. He looked to be in his thirthies and he wore a black cap and gray zipup. I at this point started to think that maybe we where on private property however there were No signs at all indicating that. I however decided to turn around and head back to my friend so that we could go before the man by the car could manage to drive after unknowingly that we where there. I drove back to my friend who was abit tried for having to walk with his helmet and i told him about the guy that was further up the road. We were just rakning about following the trail into the woods on the left by foot when we saw the lanterns of a car approaching from where the car had been. At that point we both just noped out of there and he practically jumped onto my motorcycle and we drove away. As we where heading back down the trail the car approached us rapidly and was soon right on my tail. We both felt that it was time to go and i pulled out on the main road just to have the car copy our turn. I saw a smaler road i had taken before that led to a bicycle path which i took us down on. As we looked back we could see the car come to a complete stop on the road before slowly drivning away.
I know that just this incident by itself may not be very disturbing and it really Isin’t and was just quite fun. The disturbing part of it is that we wanted to see the end of the road without having to go back again so we looked it up on google earth and what we found there is the really disturbing part. We found the road but when we looked at the pictures which must have been old because on the photos there were multiple houses on the side of the road on of which looked to be in really good shape with newly mowed grass and a caravan parked next to it. The situation however was really odd as there was alot of thrash on the ground and what looked to be clothes spread around on the ground next to the gravel path. Something even weirder was that when i clicked along the path to see the end of the road it was blurred and you could not see what was hidden behind it.
I could show the pictures from google earth right now but since i did not get any pictures of the road when we were there i would have no proof for everything i have already writen so there would be no point. However me and my friend will be returning there sometime this week and then i will get good pictures of where the houses where on google earth and what lies at the end of the road. Will uppdate once i have aquired said photos. See ya soon
Edit 1: There was a hasted change in plans and me, my friend and another guy decided to head back to the place again today insted. I probably should have taken your advice on being weary of returning. Something weird is definetly going on over there. Its almost like the forrest and the path change and the road had diffrent paths. And the biggest problem is that there is a cabin there now. I cant wrap my head around it. When we were there last time we stood right where it was today. And its not new, it looks like it has stood there for ages, it is well kept tho. And a new roadblock had appeared blocking the path to the final part of the trail. We took the car there this time and we had to walk the last bit since we couldent get past the barrier. As we walked i had a very odd dejavu feeling and i could swear that i looked over my Shoulder at least 10 times. At the end of the path an anonymous looking building surronded by a giant fence lay. Next to the building was a camoflauged radar mast connected to the building. Due to not wanting to reveal my real orgin and to not get in trouble with higher power i refrained from photografing the building. There was a defence department sign stating that doing so was highly illegal and i dont want to risk anything over a reddit post. We noped out of there pretty fast before returning to the roadblock. Insted we investigated the cabin that appeared out of semingly no where. My friend went forward and looked in through the window as i had an eerie feeling. He looked for a second and then he took of running. I followed suit and he just said get in the car.
As we drove of he explained that the inside looked faked and too "fixed" and that he also saw a cup of coffe sitting on a table. He Said that something was really off about it and that it looked staged. We took of in the car and headed out onto the main road again. I am in awe right now and i dont know if i want to return or if i should Stay away from here. We also investigated abit around the house and found a couple of footprints from a boot and some other things. Im torn right now, does anyone have an explanation for this or is something weird happening?
Uppdate 2: this is going to sound like a rant and it very much is but im sitting here now and dont know where to go. I looked close at Google earth images and a whole house and its lawn has been wiped of the radar. The house we found was 1 of 3 all in similarity to the one we found. Everything is wrong. I get agitated and paniced when i look at the map because it is so wrong. Everything is diffrent. I need to go back and find the other houses. This time i Will get pictures.

Hi, this is my first Reddit post, I 20/F I’m from Asia. I recently moved here for college. When I first got here I was only 18 and only have the money to pay rent. I met this guy online 24/M and after 5 months of dating I decided to move in with him to another city. I was young, naive and didn’t know what was coming for me. Of course a lot of people had warned me. Now I think I’m stuck in a matrix.

 For the past 2 years of dating, I find out that’s he’s emotionally immature even tho he’s 4 years older than me. He’s an avoidant type and I’m the one who’s always desperately asking for time, affection and an explanation on what went wrong. He always ignore me and everything. He wasn’t able to sit and talk and we ended up fighting again. He only wants to be with me when I’m happy and not “causing any problem” Matter of fact, he prioritizes his school over me like if I were to have a heart attack he would say oh let me finish this chapter than I’ll go see you at the hospital. I’ve cried countless of times. I find my self lonely and depressed. I pretty much called everyone I know and ask for advices they were there for me but couldn’t do much. However, I didn’t realize how much it drained the people around me. Especially my mom, who’s back in Asia. I’ve been trying to work and save money. Also doing full time school. I worked as a nanny, caregiver in nursing homes and now working as a hostess and baby sat sometimes whenever the family needs me. I always work 2 jobs at the same time. One early in the morning and the other one late at night, paying minimum wage. I also started a business on Etsy. (It would be great if it was making sales) Still, it wasn’t enough for me to rent my own bedroom, paying for my phone bills, school, gas and groceries especially living in California. I also need to send money for my mom every week since it’s tough there. My dad only send me a few hundreds a month. (I’m not close with him like that) All I wanted was to be happy, live that “American dream” and have my own room. I don’t want to go down the path where I have to exchange my body for money. And asking the woman’s shelters for help was a bit too much..is there any easier way for me to get money so I can afford to move out? I’m doing excellent in school getting A+ in all subject but it doesn’t make me happy at all. My self-esteem is declining, my hope is fading..I’m losing the light, btw apologies for my bad grammar. 

So basicly me M (21) and this guy M(47) met on this app named Romeo. I was actually 20 at the time and we kinda just started texting at first. Soon we started sexting too and things were going okey. I was away for couple of weeks and we decided to meet up once i return home. However he was a bit weird, i still cant really explain it, something was just off to me. He was texting me every minute everyday and i asked him to slow down a bit. He said he would but he abviously didnt and i had enough. Like if you arent gonna reapect my boundaries with texts how will you with sex or anything else. He didnt respect me changing my mind and instead said he would rape me. Needless to say i blocked him on Romeo and his number. However that didnt seem to stop him. He started calling me and texting me from hidden numbers so i had to block all incoming hidden numbers. Which also didnt bother him much because over a year, every month i received around 14 blocked calls and some blocked messages. I changed my romeo account two times but he kept finding me and would make new account every single time i would block him. I reported him on Romeo in hopes they would make it unable for him to make new accounts. They ofcourse did nothing with that report and he kept bothering me. During two months i even uninstalled the app, however he somehow found a phone number and called one of my friends. I told him multiple times when he contacted me to fuck off and leave me alone. So once i got mad and threatened to call the police. He delited account and then next day texted me from another one i blocked.
I really dont know what to do anymore honestly. I bluffed with a police because i am semi in the closet regarding my parents. Cant let them know or anything, on other hand police in my country really dont do much regarsing crimes on gay people. Infact we had cases where police was the one doing the hate crimes and not being punished. So like i realčy dont know what to do anymore. I also dont want to uninstal the app because that would mean he wins. That would mean he has a control over my life.

A soldier of a reptilian-analog race lays in his makeshift cot, in a M*A*S*H* tent not terribly far from the front lines. He's lost too much blood, from far too many extraneous holes in his body, and the veins have withdrawn to where doctors can't get an IV into him. They can't save him- they don't even have spare painkillers, so he can feel himself dying the whole while.
It's cold. So very, very cold. His eyes are swollen shut from a godawful mix of biochem weapons that the enemy loves spraying before a banzai charge. This was his first real battle, and it will be his last. He is alone, and he is absolutely terrified, being a young man barely the equivalent of eighteen by human reckoning. Panic starts to set in as he feels himself slipping further and further away. He fidgets and strains against the bedding he's half-swaddled into, emitting shrill noises of distress.
"No.. Not yet.. I don't wanna go yet.. Please..!" Begging to whatever or whoever might hear him, his one still functional arm reaches out and gropes blindly for anything, anyone. He can't stand it anymore. Despair has almost sent him into a full on tantrum when a soft, warm hand grabs his and clutches it tightly. A familiar hand.
"Mama's here, sweetie.. It's okay now. Shh.. Just lay back.. Here, drink this." A cup of something warm is brought to his lips. He immediately relaxes when he hears the voice, and carefully sips at the delicious herbal tea. The slightly savory, slightly fruity flavor and natural chemicals help further calm him. He gasps a bit after the cup is brought away, trying to force his eyes open to look at the familiar, loving voice.
Fatima 'Mama' Basu, one of the human auxiliaries that provided civilian services like treats and gaming to the soldiery. She shouldn't be here, she wasn't even a nurse. But he was glad she was, all the same.
"Mama.. I'm scared, Mama.." His grip on her hand tightened, the shivering growing worse even as he felt her place a heated blanket over him. The warmth was welcome, even if it was just putting ointment on a sucking chest wound.
Another hand began brushing itself over his forehead and the frill that stuck up in the middle, trying to calm his nerves. "I know, sweetie.. And I'm sorry.. Mama will stay right here until the end, I promise." The woman looks at the scales that are coming off of her son's head as she tries to provide gentle physical contact to ease his passing, knowing full well that it means he's close. Tears stream down her cheeks and fall onto his, eliciting a smile from the dying soldier.
"Thank.. Thank you.. Mama.. I just.. Didn't want.. To be.. Alone.." He feels a brief tinge of pain- and then intense relief. A morphine syrette. Where did she get that? It didn't matter. She put it right into a major artery. The pain relief was swift, as fast as his heart was beating. Breathing that had previously been severely labored began to slow and relax, his grip on her hand slowly going slack, and eventually completely limp.
Basu resisted the urge to burst into a full on fit as another one of her precious sons left her. There were still others that needed someone beside them, that needed a nice cup of tea or a decent minced pie or just someone to hold their hand before the lights shut off. She picked up her heavy purse, loaded to the brim with all the little comforts and carefully hidden drugs she could fit into it- almost twenty kilograms- and began looking around the disheveled excuse for a M*A*S*H* tent for the next soul in need.
A bear-like doctor who'd been triaging another patient finished his work and let out a frustrated sigh, looking up and trying not to scream. He saw Basu as she carefully walked around the tent, keeping out of the way of the other medical personnel. "Praise the Forgotten Wood. Mama! Over here!" The human perked up at being called out and scurried over quickly.
She looked down at the soldier the doctor had been treating, most of him was.. Gone. He was some kind of arthropod-analog whose species name she couldn't pronounce, but he was still one of her beloved sons- Srixxir, if she recalled his name correctly. One compound eye twisted itself to look up at her, gently reaching out toward her with a crooked arm that terminated in half as many bristle-haired fingers as it should have normally had. The doctor moved on to the next patient while Basu sat down beside the dying insectoid. She carefully took his hand, ignoring the pain of the bristle-hairs digging into her flesh. "Don't worry, sweetheart. Mama's here.."
"Mama.. Basu.." Srixxir buzzed out, his remaining eye twitching. "Could I.. Could I trouble you for.. One last bite.. Of a.." He didn't even have time to finish making his request before she had one of her minced pies near his triangular mandibles, which began picking at the treat. His absolute favorite food, because she laced his with the nuts from his homeworld that he so loved. Almost as much as he loved this human who followed their army around, providing them with comforts and kindness no matter the danger to herself.
"Tas...t...y..." There was an involuntary shudder, forcing pieces of Srixxir's internal anatomy out through the various holes in his midsection, and he began gasping and choking on his own blood, before his body locked up and went still.
Basu flinched as the bristle hairs bit deep into her skin and carefully unwrapped her hand from Srixxir's rapidly cooling corpse. She'd barely finished putting some liquid stitch on her hand when suddenly a body tackled her to the floor, "MAMA, GET DOWN!" Only then did she notice the whistling sound that was rapidly getting c loser, and she clung to the body that was covering hers. The ground shook and quaked when the artillery shell landed, but when she opened her eyes, everything looked to still be intact.
A pseudo-vulpine with almost absurdly long ears looked down at her with a bit of a grin. "It's okay, Mama. We won't let anything happen to you." He wasn't too badly injured, one of the walking wounded, and he helped her to her feet once the danger had passed.
She ran a hand along the dirty, bloodstained fur of his cheek, smiling back at him, and then proceeded to straighten out his uniform a bit. He might be a junior officer, but he was still an officer, and it wouldn't be proper if he didn't look the part. "Thank you, Krybel. Here.. I made a pork cutlet hand pie, just for you."
The vulpine's eyes gleamed as he resisted the urge to tear into it like a starving pup . After three weeks of shit MREs, one of Basu's hand pies was like a gift from the Gods themselves. He savored every last crumb of it while watching her walk off, looking for the next soul in need.
"Mama.. Mama, where are you??" Came another frightened voice that was starting to crack, making Basu turn toward it on reflex, heart breaking all over again. She hefted up her purse and adjusted the strap.
"Mama's coming, dear, I'll be right there!" She patted Krybel's cheek again, "Take care of yourself sweetie, will you? I'll see you later." And then she began trotting off, moving on to provide the care that only she could.
A senior officer frowned while watching as Basu wandered around his M*A*S*H* unit, providing palliative care. "Lieutenant." He said with a bit of a growl in his voice, looking at Krybel. "Pray tell, who authorized a civilian in my thrice-damned abattoir? Why has she not been removed? Why are you eating one of those damned.. ..delicious..." the officer took a moment to wipe a little drool from his mouth, "...pies?"
Krybel looked up at the officer- a major, probably in charge of the whole camp- and cooly regarded him. "With all due respect to your rank, Major, sir- we want her here and I'm sure that the medical staff has cleared her. Though even if they haven't, I'm going to warn you now, sir- if you even think about trying to take away Mama Basu, you'll be the next one who needs her attention." His face suddenly went from soft and fluffy- if dirty- and went to the hard, stony glare of a predator. "We need her. Allow me to offer the suggestion of, instead of worrying about her, you could focus on something slightly more important. Supply forms, maybe."
The major frowned at this not so subtle threat, but he couldn't lie- at least with her around, there was a little less screaming, so that palliative care was definitely not a waste. And you know, supply forms didn't sound like such a tedious task at the moment.. It was going to be such a long day.

My father refuses to accept the reality that the job and housing markets are absolutely horrible right now. He thinks that because he was able to get a high-paying job and a house, then everyone else should be able to do so the same, and accuses Millennials for being entitled and lazy for wanting affordable housing. Like, he is so out of touch with reality and even when I present him with facts as to why Millennials aren’t buying homes, he flat-out ignores it and refuses to admit he’s wrong.
I live in Utah and housing costs have risen astronomically, while wages have barely even went up. Condos and townhomes here are easily $400k-$500k. Houses start at $500k, but where I live, there is a new housing development advertising homes starting at $850k. No one is going to afford that on a Utah salary. Out of curiosity, I did some quick math over the weekend and for a $500k house with 20% down and an interest rate of 6.85% (seems to be the average rate in Utah currently) the monthly mortgage would be about $3,300, which is $1200 more than what I pay for rent at my apartment. Putting 3.5% down with a first-time homebuyer’s loan would easily cost around $3,700 a month. While I do make an excellent salary by Utah standards, it still isnt enough to buy a home.
The job market isn’t any better. Jobs always claim they’re “urgently hiring”, yet when you apply, employers don’t bother to call back, say they’re looking for someone with more experience (even when the job posting is for an entry-level position), give you a lowball offer, bait-and-switch you on the wages, etc. My father is the one who believes that if you arrive to work 30-60 minutes early, stay 30-60 minutes after your shift, push yourself hard at work by doing 50+ hours a week, and be a strong team player, you’ll see the benefits “in no time.” From my experience, being a star player only gets you more work with no salary increase and no title change. My father also puts anyone down working minimum wage jobs and claims that anyone not working 50+ hours a week (basically, giving your soul to work) isn’t working a “real job.”
Anyone else have parents that are similar?