Ok so were gonna call this officer orphan and you see i tried to attempt suicide like 1 month ago ago and i already went to the hospital for the time being and i kept getting safe 2 telled (if you don’t know what that is it’s like anonymous reports to the school or police) and ive kept getting safe 2 telled by this girl well call tree and she doesn’t like me and we used to be besties but after a while it stopped for like 2 weeks and i thought it was over untill I was in my room at 11:31pm on a call with my friend turtle and we were just talking then it was 1 hour past my bedtime and my mom came in and I thought she was gonna yell but then she said “why the hell did i get a call from the ****** police department?!” And I who was just on call witr turtle was confused and so I said “what do you mean why what happened?” And apparently I got safe 2 telled again ✨for like the 8th time we don’t know who but I think it might be my ex girlfriend who doesn’t like me anymore. But I got safe 2 telled for something I said as a joke months ago and thankfully my mom lied out of it. So she was upset and just told me to stop making jokes and shit and I said okay even though it’s my main personality and me and turtle came to the conclusion, when I was 12 I was walking with my parents in the park and the guy he was around 24 and he was he was riding a bike and me being a around a teenager and I liked his outfit so I tried to wave for his attention and I had a broken middle finger and it was wrapped up so I looked like I flipped him off and he was very upset about it, so you see as a kid he was born in Hawaii and you see his parents were good to him and his dad was in the army and had to move to idaho (where I live) and the dad was stationed in idaho for 5 years and then the mom was cooking dinner for orphan and then got a phone call so she left the stove un attended then the house burnt down and the mom dying orphan still had his dad so they sent orphan to idaho then as he got dropped off in the morning there orphan decided to explore and was in the park and saw a bush so he went to the bush and saw this dead man and after it getting reported it was his dad who was in the army so he had to get foster parents and then nothing much happened after accept his dream of being a first responder officer and a time skip to 12 years later he’s now 24 after he got flipped off by me, accidentally the flamed his dream of being an officer and he spent years and years training to be a officer and finally at the age of 32 and me being a college student at 21 completely forgot about that years later but orphan didn’t. Orphan found my university and my name and address and to get back at me after he found out about my attempt he safe 2 telled me over and over to make my life miserable but soon it stopped. But later orphan got a promotion so he decided to go to the bar with the boys and they were drinking and orphan got drunk and as he was driving back he hit a power line and blew up his car. Killing 7 bystanders in the process.
(I just found out he’s actually still alive, just paralyzed from the waist down xoxo And alot more shit went down. Some is untrue most is real Part 2?)

Broken pinky/ injured nailbed?
F23 157lbs
Broken pinky & nail bed injury?
Nail pic
I broke my pinky (Minimal displaced distal phalanx fracture) & it has been about 2 months now. Is it normal that it’s still swollen & it still feels like it’s not healing all the way. I am only asking because I had surgery in November on my middle finger because it broke so bad and it felt way better in two months but this pinky still feels weird and like it’s not healing correctly? (No surgery on pinky). I had a splint on for almost 6 weeks. I was supposed to be cleared 04/29 for work but I can’t hold trays with my pinky feeling like that.
Also do I have a nail bed injury? Looks like the nail bed is swollen and there is new nail coming in so I can see where the swollen part ends.

At one point I was thinking about the timeline of FNaF, and decided to write out every concrete date we have. The dates we know for certain are:

• Game & Novel Events
  • 1983 - Freddy's Opens and the Bite of '83 (Confirmed in the Steel Wool games and the presence of Freddy's characters in the FNaF 4 minigames)
  • Monday, October 31st, 1983 - Charlie's death (Confirmed in the novels)
  • Wednesday, June 26th, 1985 - MCI (Confirmed in the FNaF 1 newspapers, novels and Fazbear Frights)
  • Sunday, November 8th, 1987, through Friday, November 13th, 1987 - FNaF 2 Nights and Phone Calls (Confirmed in the FNaF 2 Paychecks)
  • November 8th through November 14th - FNaF 1 Nights and Custom Night (Confirmed in the FNaF 1 Paychecks)
• Novel Only Events
  • July of 1985 - Henry Commits Die
  • June of 1995 - The Silver Eyes
  • October of 1996 - The Twisted Ones
  • Post-Easter Sunday of 1997 - The Fourth Closet

And doing this made me realize something. With the number of dates we have, a lot of people are just guessing instead of working around them. Most notably, the reuse of certain weekdays/months can help us understand dates that aren't confirmed. For example:

• Due to the Spring Bonnie costume being moved in the FNaF 3 Night 5 Phone Call (AKA Phone Guy's 4th call) and Spring Bonnie being used for at least the MCI, we can safely place Phone Guy's FNaF 3 calls from Sunday, June 23rd, 1985, through Thursday, June 27th, 1985. Since Phone Guy brings up the Springlock Failure on Tuesday, this means the Bite of '83 can't have been the springlock failure he mentions on Call 3.
• Since the newspaper clippings in FNaF 1 are after the MCI and appear to be the same front page, this means that not all of them happen on the same day. The "Kids vanish at local pizzeria – bodies not found." page is likely on Thursday, June 27th, 1985, after at least the first two MCI victims have been killed. The "Five children now reported missing. Suspect convicted." page is likely on Friday, June 28th, 1985, after the incident has been more thoroughly investigated. The "Local pizzeria threatened with shutdown over sanitation." page is likely on Saturday, June 29th, 1985, after the bodies have begun to decompose. Notably, the "Local pizzeria said to close by years end." page seems to be well after June of 1985 since the MCI is referred to as "many years ago", so it's unlikely it takes place at the same time as the other three.
• Since both FNaF 1 and FNaF 2 have inconsistencies with it being a "summer" job (FNaF 1 on the Steam Page and FNaF 2 in the Night 1 Phone Call), it's implied that the job listing hasn't been updated since the MCI.
• Phone Guy repeatedly mentions a "previous employee" who took the night shift before we did, who was likely William Afton using a fake name, which means that he had worked from Sunday, October 25th, 1987, through Friday, October 30th, 1987. After this he moves to the dayshift and begins tampering with the animatronics. Since the MCI in the 1985 location happened on a Wednesday, this implies that the DCI also happens on a Wednesday. This, combined with the investigation into Freddy's happening on Night 4 of FNaF 2, implies that the DCI happened on Wednesday, November 11th, 1987.
• Due to the "Freddy Fazbear's is Closing" page seen after Night 6 of FNaF 2 and the Night 7 Guard being a different person, it's likely the Bite of '87 happened on Saturday, November 14th, 1987.
• Since FNaF 2 shows Fazbear Entertainment pays its employees on Thursdays, this means FNaF 1 has to take place in a year where November 12th is a Thursday. As such, the possible dates it could be are 1992, 1998, 2009, and 2015. Since 2009 and 2015 are well after most depictions of the FNaF 1 location and 1998 is after the Security Guard Faz-Fact date of 1988-1993, we can conclude that FNaF 1 has to take place in 1992. To add onto this, a code in the Survival Logbook involving coupons further implies the year 1992 due to calculations involving pricing and inflation. Related to this, Phone Guy is stated to be finishing his last week during the FNaF 1 Phone Calls, and since Mike arrives to take his place immediately after, it's safe to say that the Phone Calls take place from Sunday, November 1st, 1992, through Thursday, November 5th, 1992.
• Due to Phone Guy's Night 1 Phone Call from FNaF 1 playing in the background during FNaF 4 and a number of other similarities, it's safe to say that FNaF 4 takes place during FNaF 1, with Nightmare Night being before just before FNaF 1 Custom Night. The reason for this is that, if Mike is working the Night Shift, he would need to be asleep during the day to make up for it and be ready for his workday.
• Sister Location is stated to take place after a Freddy's location has closed its doors, placing either post-MCI, post-FNaF 2, or post-FNaF 1. However, since HandUnit says the Freddy's that closed was a successful one, it can't be post-FNaF 2 as the location was only open for a few weeks. It also can't be before FNaF 3 because Mike would have no reason to go to Fazbear Frights. Lastly, Elizabeth in the novels dies after Charlie, so her death would have to be before 1987. This implies that the events of the game take place post-FNaF 1, while Elizabeth's death takes place post-MCI and pre-FNaF 2. Notice that earlier when talking about FNaF 2 that I said William didn't work on October 31st, 1987. That is because, given the previous evidence, he was implied to be at the opening of Circus Baby's Pizza World witnessing Elizabeth's death. This event is what leads him to perform the DCI to gain Remnant now that Circus Baby's is out of commission.
• The Immortal and the Restless cutscenes are pretty self-explanatory, taking place after each night of Sister Location. Similarly, the Sister Location cutscenes take place the week after Sister Location. Lastly, the Elizabeth voice lines after each night take place in the week leading up to her death.
• This is where things get a bit controversial. The Silver Eyes takes place over Five Nights (as in the title), and since Charlie is in town for the 10th anniversary of the MCI, this means the book takes place from Monday, June 26th, 1995, through Friday, June 30th, 1995. In the book, we see Charlie springlock William as revenge for his crimes while the other animatronics drag him to the Safe Room. While it isn't 1-1, a similar thing happens in the Follow Me minigames, where on Night 5 all the spirits lead William into the Safe Room and springlock him as revenge for his crimes. Phone Guy also states that "If I were forced to sing those same stupid songs for twenty years and I never got a bath, I’d probably be a bit irritable at night too", which could relate to the predicament William Afton found himself in after Follow Me. This implies that the events of The Silver Eyes happen at the same time as Follow Me in the game continuity, which is why they had to be separated in the first place.
• Relating to the above point, both The Silver Eyes and Sister Location take place over the course of 5 nights and both involve the older brother of one of the dead children being trapped in a Springlock Suit on Night 4. Similarly, both Follow Me and Sister Location end with a man identified by a purple sprite being killed by the victims of the MCI (or maybe DCI for Sister Location). This implies that Sister Location and Follow Me also happen at the same time, and the reason Mike couldn't find his father was because he was springlocked in the back room at Freddy's.
• Since FNaF 3 is stated to be 30 years after a Freddy's location closed its doors, this means that it is in either 2015, 2017, or 2022. Since the game is released in 2015 and the Survival Logbook's previous coupon code matches that date if adjusted for inflation, FNaF 3 takes place in 2015. Due to the date of the MCI already being mentioned and work weeks in the games usually starting on Sunday, this means FNaF 3 takes place from June 21st, 2015, through June 26th, 2015 (after which it burns down). On a related note, the last night of Pizzeria Simulator is stated to be a Saturday, and since the game has a lot of relation to the Afton and Emily families, it's likely that it takes place on the day Charlie and Elizabeth died (October 31st). This implies that the game takes place from Monday, October 25th, 2015, through Saturday, October 31st, 2015.
• You may have noticed that Sister Location is the only game that doesn't start its work week on Sunday, instead beginning on Monday. That is because FNaF World takes place during this day, as implied by the lack of Funtime and Scrap animatronics. After this, the minigames from FNaF 3 are set up and Mike goes to the Sister Location bunker at the behest of his father. Ultimate Custom Night, however, has no set date because it is seemingly a time loop, an endless cycle of suffering endured by whoever you believe the player to be. Happiest Day only occurs after Ultimate Custom Night ends, but just as the Vengeful Spirit says, they will never happen.
• Now that we've covered the major events, let's get to the main course: The minigames. Considering the above evidence, Take Cake to the Children and Security Puppet take place on Monday, October 31st, 1983, Fruity Maze takes place on Wednesday, June 26th, 1985, and Circus Baby's Minigame takes place on Saturday, October 31st, 1987. Foxy Go!Go!Go! and Give Gifts, Give Life likely take place either on the same day as Fruity Maze or the day after on Thursday, June 27th, 1985, though the more likely option is the latter due to cluttering the number of events. The main FNaF 3 minigames besides Happiest Day take place during the events of FNaF 3, since Mike is the one setting them up. That only leaves the FNaF 4 minigames and Midnight Motorist. Due to Midnight Motorist being labeled "later that night" in the code, the rain texture being the same as Security Puppet, and the player driving a purple car, it's likely the minigame takes place the night of Charlie's murder. Since Elizabeth's death, the Bite of '87, and Pizzeria Simulator put a lot of emphasis on "parties on Saturday", it's likely they are calling back to the Bite of '83. Since William "should" have a motive to kill Charlie, this places the FNaF 4 minigames from Monday, October 24th, 1983, through Sunday, October 30th, 1983. This places the Bite of '83 on a Saturday, just like the Bite of '87.
• One last thing of note: Though the year she describes is inconsistent due to Book Charlie being a replica and not the real Charlie, she is born on Tuesday, May 13th, 1980, and dies at the age of 4. Similarly, the date of Fredbear's opening has also been inconsistent, ranging from 1979 to 1982 depending on the media. This seems to imply (to me at least) that Charlie's birthday is the same day Fredbear's opens. Also, since Elizabeth dies four years later on the same day as Charlie, it's likely the same is true for Elizabeth's birthday and the founding of Freddy's. Lastly, to me at least, Michael's birthday being the same day as Bite Victim would give him a motive to bully him and cause the Bite. Considering both Charlie and Elizabeth were four when they died, it's likely that Bite Victim's birthday is Wednesday, October 29th, 1980, with Michael being born on the same day in 1970 to allow him to be old enough to work at the FNaF 2 location as Fritz Smith. gives an exact date for almost any remaining dates missing.

Now that we've covered every possible point from the Clickteam games, let's take this information and form a timeline. Please note that not all of the specifics will be agreed upon, but I believe the general dates are correct.

• Thursday, October 29th, 1970 - Michael Afton (Mike) is born, William Afton and Henry Emily found Fazbear Entertainment.
• Tuesday, May 13th, 1980 - Charlotte Emily (Charlie) is born. Henry and William open Fredbear's Family Diner. In the diner are two animatronics, Fredbear and Spring Bonnie, who can be used as animatronics or worn as suits through the use of springlocks.
• Wednesday, October 29th, 1980 - Bite Victim (CC) is born, and Fredbear's is a massive success. Fazbear Entertainment is large enough to have plushies, action figures, build-your-own-robot toys, a Spring Bonnie finger trap, and even a TV Show called Fredbear & Friends.
• Friday, May 13th, 1983 - Elizabeth Afton (Abby) is born, Henry opens Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. In the Pizzeria are four animatronics (Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy), who originated from Fredbear & Friends and don't feature the springlocks found in Fredbear and Spring Bonnie.
• Monday, October 24th, 1983, through Sunday, October 30th, 1983 - Mike torments his younger brother in the week leading up to their birthday while their father watches from afar using cameras and a Fredbear plush with a walkie talkie. The day of the party, Mike and his friends accidentally cause the Bite of '83 through a prank gone wrong, and he dies the following day with both Mike and William speaking to him on his deathbed. The Bite Victim possesses the Fredbear plush, but Mike locks it in a toy chest along with all his other toys so they don't have to think about him. While Mike and William are talking to CC, Fredbear's closes down, the suits are moved to Freddy's, and Fredbear is rebranded to Golden Freddy and given black accessories to replace the original purple accessories.
• Monday, October 31st, 1983 - William gets Henry to watch Mike so he can go to a nearby bar to drink his problems away. After being kicked out for getting too drunk, William drives to Freddy's in a drunken rage. William sees Charlie locked outside by a bunch of bullies and kills her, leaving her body outside by the dumpsters. The Security Puppet animatronic, designed to keep children safe after the accident at Fredbear's caused it to shut down, follows Charlie outside and deactivates while clutching her in its arms. This causes Charlie to possess the Security Puppet. When William gets home, Henry tells him to leave Mike be, but he refuses. He knocks on the locked door before checking the window outside. He remarks that he's run off to "that place", meaning where Mike buried the toy chest in the woods, and vows that Mike will be sorry when he returns.
• Sunday, June 23rd, 1985, through Saturday, June 29th, 1985 - Fazbear Entertainment hires Phone Guy to record safety tapes for the springlock suits used at Freddy's. On Tuesday, an incident involving multiple simultaneous springlock failures (the origins of Shadow Freddy and Shadow Bonnie) causes wearing the suits to be banned. On Wednesday, William dons Spring Bonnie out of spite and lures two children, Susie and Jeremy, to the back room of Freddy's where the springlock suits were being stored and kills them. On Thursday, William kidnaps three more children (Gabriel, Fritz, and Cassidy) and brings them to Freddy's to kill them. He kills the first two the same way as before but has a "special gift" for the third one. He stuffs them into the Golden Freddy suit, then allows their crying and screaming to trigger the springlocks, causing yet another springlock failure. Once he leaves, the Puppet (AKA Charlie), takes action and stuffs the bodies of the other four children into the suits in hopes of bringing them to life the same way she was. This leads to Susie possessing Chica, Jeremy possessing Bonnie, Gabriel possessing Freddy, and Fritz possessing Foxy. Cassidy, however, had already been strong enough to possess Golden Freddy herself due to the agony of the springlock failure. On Friday, the police investigate Freddy's and find the Golden Freddy suit laying in a pile of blood, leading Fazbear Entertainment to seal the room the suits were being kept in. William frames Henry for the incident, causing him to go to prison for a crime he didn't commit and giving sole ownership of Fazbear Entertainment to Afton Robotics. However, the dead bodies being kept inside the other four suits began to leak blood and emit a foul odor, eventually leading the restaurant to be shut down due to sanitation violations.
• Sunday, October 25th, 1987, through Saturday, October 31st, 1987 - Now with total control, William opens a new Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. The new restaurant used new models called the Toy animatronics, due to being based on various toys manufactured by Fazbear Entertainment. The initial plan was to reuse the original suits, but due to the bodies inside, William instead re-uses their parts for the new line of animatronics. This transfers the Remnant of the original animatronics to the new animatronics. While this was occurring, he also began work on opening a new location, Circus Baby's Pizza World, with more humanoid animatronics in the form of Baby & the Bidybabs, Ballora & the Minireenas, BB, and JJ. The location also had two additional animatronics, Funtime Freddy with his hand-puppet Bon Bon, and Funtime Foxy. The animatronics at Circus Baby's were built for the purpose of gaining more Remnant and were programmed to lure, capture, and kill children. Abby, however, developed an obsession with wanting to see Circus Baby. Starting on Tuesday, she begins begging her dad every day to play with Circus Baby. William, obviously not wanting one of his own kids to die again, refuses. On Saturday, however, Abby manages to escape William's view and see Circus Baby, leading to the animatronic doing as it was programmed: killing Abby and extracting her Remnant. William, distraught by the loss of yet another child, cancels the opening of Circus Baby's due to "gas leaks" and retires the animatronics to a storage facility underneath his house. However, BB, JJ, and Funtime Foxy were moved to Freddy's instead.
• Sunday, November 1st, 1987, through Saturday, November 14th, 1987 - William, now robbed of the location he had planned to use for testing, gets a job as a night guard at Freddy's under the fake name "Dave Miller" to obverse the location. At first things seem to be going smoothly, but the animatronics quickly recognize him and attempt to kill him repeatedly throughout his work week. By Saturday, November 7th, he contacts the restaurant as "Dave Miller" and reports the behavior of the animatronics, which leads to him being moved to the day shift and a new employee named Jeremy Fitzgerald (one of Mike's childhood friends) taking his place. During Jeremy's work week, Phone Guy calls him each night to update him on current events and guide him through his shift. William, still needing Remnant, uses his position as a day guard to kill five more unnamed children. This causes the animatronics to become even more aggressive and leads to "Dave Miller" being fired by the company. However, since William still owned the building, he closes the location publicly. However, he allows one family to have a birthday party on Saturday and sets up Jeremy as the day guard. The animatronics (likely Toy Chica), believing him to be William, cause the Bite of '87 and leave Jeremy without a frontal lobe. Following this, the location shuts down for good and William sends Mike under the fake name "Fritz Smith" to dismantle the animatronics and return them to him. He uses the parts he has to repair the original animatronics and re-open the original Freddy's location to very limited success. He also injects the Remnant from the Toy animatronics into the Funtimes and repairs Funtime Foxy (who had been torn apart by toddlers while he was there and become Mangle), making them more hostile than before.
• Sunday, November 1st, 1992, through Saturday, November 14th, 1992 - While the Phone Guy had managed to work as a night guard at the FNaF 1 location for a very long time, he eventually got old enough to retire on his last work week in November. As such, he begins to record a set of training tapes for the next in line for the job after him. Things go smoothly the first three nights, but on Wednesday the animatronics finally get the better of him. They kill him and stuff him in a Freddy suit in the back room. This gives William an idea. From November 7th to November 14th, he performs experiments on Mike by poisoning his room with fear gas during the day, leading him to have horrific nightmares of the Freddy's animatronics. During the night, he sends Mike to work at Freddy's again as a night guard under the last name "Schmidt". On Saturday, however, Mike listens to the tapes Phone Guy left and checks inside the animatronics, leading him to discover what his father had done. This leads to William "firing" Mike and to the experiments worsening over the next few years. After a while, Mike's fear of the experiments leads to him becoming completely subservient to William and wanting nothing more than to please him.
• Sunday, June 25th, 1995 - FNaF World...happens. It's hard to explain exactly WHAT happens since the game is built on metaphors and double meanings, but its events are important because they set up the events of FNaF 3, Pizzeria Simulator, and Ultimate Custom Night. All that we know for certain is that Mike opens the box (as seen in the game's files), he remembers everything that happened, and he is tasked with putting the pieces in place to help his younger brother. Could it be a dream, altered by the spirit of CC, the fear gas, or something else? Could it be an in-universe game he played that was kept in the box with the other toys, explaining the repeated use of Atari imagery in cutscenes and minigames? Or could it just be something silly Scott wanted to make used to represent Mike and CC's memories of the past? I have no clue, and I don't think anyone else truly does either, so I'll just say it happened and leave it at that. Although, something important to know for later is that Old Man Consequences in FNaF World is used to represent Henry, given their similar speech patterns and his cutscene in UCN.
• Monday, June 26th, 1995, through Friday, June 30th, 1995 - William, running low on Remnant after experimenting on the Funtimes, returns to Freddy's to extract more Remnant from the original animatronics now that the location has closed. He lures them into the same back room he killed the children in and dismantles them one-by-one. While he's there, he sends Mike to the underground storage facility, now named Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rentals, to "put his sister back together". On Thursday, the animatronics kidnap Mike and place him in a springlock suit, forcing him to watch Ballora be injected with the Remnant of the original animatronics before allowing him to leave. On Friday, however, both Mike and William run out of luck. The animatronics at Circus Baby's tear themselves apart and join together to form Ennard, who tricks Mike into following them into the Scooping Room. The Scooper tears out his insides and allows Ennard to use him as a skin suit. While this is occurring, the ghosts of the children from the MCI take form before William and frighten him. In response, he remembers how wearing an animatronic mask confused them, so he wears the Spring Bonnie suit in hopes it'll make them leave. However, the general lack of maintenance and the wet surroundings lead to him experiencing a springlock failure first-hand. He dies a karmic death, but the agony of the springlock failure leads to him possessing the suit and becoming Springtrap.
• Saturday, July 1st, 1995, through Saturday, July 8th, 1995 - In the week following Mike's death, Ennard uses his body for a while to attempt to fit in with the other people in town. However, they didn't account for Mike's body decomposing due to exposure to air and sunlight. By Friday, they decide to abandon ship and vomit themselves out of Mike's corpse, leading him to collapse. However, the Scooper also injected Mike with Remnant, allowing him to reanimate himself and regain consciousness. This leads to Saturday, July 8th, where Mike laments his life and vows to find his father and get revenge for all the damage he's caused. While this is happening, Ennard is beginning to fall apart. The majority (Funtime Freddy, Funtime Foxy, and Ballora) eject Circus Baby's parts from their body, leading to Circus Baby having to put herself back together in more ways than one and becoming Scrap Baby. However, this causes their Remnant to destabilize and become molten hot, leading to their form melting into an amorphous pile of Remnant and animatronic parts called Molten Freddy.
• Sunday, June 21st, 2015, through Friday, June 26th, 2015 - 30 years after the MCI at Fredy's and 20 years after the events at Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental, a horror attraction called Fazbear's Fright opens. Mike, seeing this as an opportunity to find his father, again applies for a job as a night guard and works there for 6 days. On Sunday, he has no luck and just sits in an empty office. He writes in the Logbook given to him by Phone Dude, the owner of the attraction, and notices two spirits communicating in the book. He remembers the events of FNaF World and uses this opportunity to pick up the pieces left for him and free the souls of the children. On Monday, however, Phone Dude has "great" news for him. He found Springtrap (AKA his father) in the backroom of Freddy's and is using him for the attraction. He also found the first set of training tapes Phone Guy recorded and plays them for the rest of Mike's work week. Over the course of the week, he communicates with the spirits in the Logbook, sets up their "Happiest Day", and defends against his father's attempts to kill him all while dealing with faulty equipment and Remnant-based hallucinations. On Friday, after he's certain the pieces are in place and has learned who the people communicating in the Logbook are (CC for certain, but the other could be either Cassidy or Charlie depending on how you look at it), he burns the attraction to the ground with both of them inside. However, William escapes, leading Mike to return once again and give chase. The Puppet, who had been at the location alongside Mike since it opened, also follows suit.
• Sunday, October 25th, 2015, through Saturday, October 31st, 2015 - Henry is released from prison on Sunday after the police in town investigate the animatronics roaming the streets and discover Circus Baby's, proving he was innocent all along. After leaving, he comes up with a plan. He reuses a bunch of older animatronics from before Fredbear's opened and repurposes one named Carnie into LEFTE, who he uses to capture the Puppet. He also builds a fake pizzeria above ground, with an elaborate labyrinth of vents with a large empty room in the middle below ground. He hires a new manager for the location, and tasks them with salvaging any animatronics found in the underground room. After the manager leaves, they will seal the room behind them. Afterwards, once all the animatronic menaces lurking around are inside, he will burn the location to the ground with no chance of escape for anyone but the manager (including himself). However, something unexpected happens. Instead of some rando getting the job, William's son Mike takes the position instead. He follows Henry's instructions perfectly until Saturday, when Henry's plan has come to fruition and the location begins to catch fire. However, Henry knew that Mike was exactly where he wanted to be, and that he wouldn't use the escape Henry left for him. He gives one final speech as they all burn together.
• Post-October 31st, 2015 - This one will also be a bit controversial. After the smoke clears, all the souls still present are freed from their animatronic prisons and allowed to move on. That is, all except for two. William was still undeterred and was attempting to possess another vessel, and Mike still wanted to make his father suffer how he had suffered. So, using the Remnant of the other spirits, he drags William into a coma. A dream he will never awaken from where he experiences what Mike went through and is taunted by the children he killed over, and over, and over. Henry (through Old Man Consequences) tries to reason with him, urging him to let William burn in Hell and allow Happiest Day to come to fruition. But Mike won't let that happen. He will hold him there. He will keep him there. No matter how many times they're burned.

And that's it. This post took me all day writing out and double-checking to make sure I didn't get anything incorrect, but I'm sure there are a few typos or inconsistencies and that there are pieces of information I've missed. After all, no one knows all the answers about FNaF except Scott himself, and even Scott makes mistakes. But I feel confident in this and hope that it leaves some sort of impact.

This has been spanning over almost 5 years., He(19M) has claimed that multiple almost 20+ people around him have passed away however when looking into it there there is no obituary or any social media linked to these individuals. Out of the 20+ cases (I(19F) have lost count) 2 of these people have turned out to be alive and well, one(let call him joe) just losing contact with my partner and one(let's call him W) just moved to Tennessee for college. However he claimed both these individuals had died at some point with tears in his eyes Claiming W died in a car crash in 2022 and Joe killed himself When confronted with the information that both these individuals were very much alive according to both there instagrams he said he was given false information about their deaths
And again out of the 20 cases only two have seemed legitimate but no having proof.
He has one confessed to one of the cases being a lie in which when he was 15 he proclaimed to stabbing a furry in the woods to protect his cousin however said last year he lied about it, didn't really know why lied about it.
This drives me too last year in August. We had gotten into a bit of a stupid squabble He picked up a lizard and put his finger in my mouth when I was yawning and without washing his hands and I was pretty pissed. In the middle of us fighting he got a phone-call from an out of state number and he sprinted out of the room, left. I thought it was wried. I called my friend and we just started gaming. However 30 minutes later I got a call. I picked up and my partner is balling his eyes out Unconceivable. This were I get some context on what the hell is going on. He claims that a police officer called him, for him too come to a house to attempt to Identify if body belonged to an individual named Ethan. Now I have never heard of this Ethan individual before this but apparently this Ethan individual Was my partner's brother's friend who my partner had met only 2-4 times at car meets in 2019-2020 who was also in the military. Apparently Ethan was at his dad's house in our city and uh took his life, apparently Ethan had written my partners phone number in his note, that why the cops called my partner? When he got back to my place. He called his brother or someone. To be honest, his phone is very transparent and you can kind of hear about every phone call he has. However Whenever I attempted to get close to comfort him and get more context cause what? he would just run away. To the point where he just went back into his car to finish the call. This felt very weird and after talking with my dad he agreed this felt hella off., I asked my partner For any information about ethan as well as the address he didnt Remember the address or the location and gave a vague it was a two story yellow house. Being hella suspicious and given his history I looked into finding Ethan and since we live in an open records state. I attempted to find an obituary or a Coroner report, only one Ethan had passed away in the last 28 days that sadly being a 17 hour old baby in a local hospital. This Ethan individual just didn't exist nothing and the iceing on the cake with my partner's brother saying he didn't know an Ethan ever. Eventually we moved on.
He hadn't done anything like this intill about 2 weeks ago he did again.He said an individual on a social platform took there own life and gave age and the local county However when I looked into it nothing No obliterary no report. Why is he doing this
However a consistent pattern Is when I ask about proof social media profiles he says he forgot or he deleted it as the memories haunt him or bring him pain,
I'm not saying that People dying on the internet aren't real deaths I've had people Who I've only known on the internet die. However for the 2 times it has happened to me and my friend group we can verify their etheir by obituaries or family members
This brings me to yesterday where I got genuinely pissed off., Just told him tell me that you lied or not Tell me the truth.And we'll never talk about it again, he dug his heels in and saying that I don't trust him and Why can't I just give him sympathy and support when he saids these people have died. Look if it was a family member or like we knew them or I knew of them beforehand then. Yes, I would give sympathy. But majority of these people. I have either never heard about or they just don't exist.
My question is why?Why would you lie about this shit Is he lying?Am I jumping to conclusions. Is this some sort of attempt to get sympathy points or a personality disorder ? Please give me so insight

This has been spanning over almost 5 years., He has claimed that multiple almost 20+ people around him have passed away however when looking into it there there is no obituary or any social media linked to these individuals. Out of the 20+ cases (I have lost count) 2 of these people have turned out to be alive and well, one(let call him joe) just losing contact with my partner and one(let's call him W) just moved to Tennessee for college. However he claimed both these individuals had died at some point with tears in his eyes Claiming W died in a car crash in 2022 and Joe killed himself When confronted with the information that both these individuals were very much alive according to both there instagrams he said he was given false information about their deaths
And again out of the 20 cases only two have seemed legitimate but no having proof.
He has one confessed to one of the cases being a lie in which when he was 15 he proclaimed to stabbing a furry in the woods to protect his cousin however said last year he lied about it, didn't really know why lied about it.
This drives me too last year in August. We had gotten into a bit of a stupid squabble He picked up a lizard and put his finger in my mouth when I was yawning and without washing his hands and I was pretty pissed. In the middle of us fighting he got a phone-call from an out of state number and he sprinted out of the room, left. I thought it was wried. I called my friend and we just started gaming. However 30 minutes later I got a call. I picked up and my partner is balling his eyes out Unconceivable. This were I get some context on what the hell is going on. He claims that a police officer called him, for him too come to a house to attempt to Identify if body belonged to an individual named Ethan. Now I have never heard of this Ethan individual before this but apparently this Ethan individual Was my partner's brother's friend who my partner had met only 2-4 times at car meets in 2019-2020 who was also in the military. Apparently Ethan was at his dad's house in our city and uh took his life, apparently Ethan had written my partners phone number in his note, that why the cops called my partner? When he got back to my place. He called his brother or someone. To be honest, his phone is very transparent and you can kind of hear about every phone call he has. However Whenever I attempted to get close to comfort him and get more context cause what? he would just run away. To the point where he just went back into his car to finish the call. This felt very weird and after talking with my dad he agreed this felt hella off., I asked my partner For any information about ethan as well as the address he didnt Remember the address or the location and gave a vague it was a two story yellow house. Being hella suspicious and given his history I looked into finding Ethan and since we live in an open records state. I attempted to find an obituary or a Coroner report, only one Ethan had passed away in the last 28 days that sadly being a 17 hour old baby in a local hospital. This Ethan individual just didn't exist nothing and the iceing on the cake with my partner's brother saying he didn't know an Ethan ever. Eventually we moved on.
He hadn't done anything like this intill about 2 weeks ago he did again.He said an individual on a social platform took there own life and gave age and the local county However when I looked into it nothing No obliterary no report. Why is he doing this
However a consistent pattern Is when I ask about proof social media profiles he says he forgot or he deleted it as the memories haunt him or bring him pain,
I'm not saying that People dying on the internet aren't real deaths I've had people Who I've only known on the internet die. However for the 2 times it has happened to me and my friend group we can verify their etheir by obituaries or family members
This brings me to yesterday where I got genuinely pissed off., Just told him tell me that you lied or not Tell me the truth.And we'll never talk about it again, he dug his heels in and saying that I don't trust him and Why can't I just give him sympathy and support when he saids these people have died. Look if it was a family member or like we knew them or I knew of them beforehand then. Yes, I would give sympathy. But majority of these people. I have either never heard about or they just don't exist.
My question is why?Why would you lie about this shit Is he lying?Am I jumping to conclusions. Is this some sort of attempt to get sympathy points or a personality disorder ? Please give me so insight

Hi idk how to approach this writing this makes me stomach hurt and I want to cry. Recently I been feeling really out and kinda in a depressed mood, I have an older brother who been secretly recording me for the longest time and I don’t know what for. For years my brother has been doing weird things to me, it started first when we were really young, I’d say I was in the fourth grade. One day I asked something from my brother and he said that he would only do it if I let him hump me. I didn’t even know what that was at the time and I let him and I felt so uncomfortable and traumatizing idky I didn’t tell my mother at that time. I remember scratching that part of myself really hard bcuz I could still remember how it went down. Another time was when me and my brothers (I have two) were sharing a bedroom, once I found him crawl on the floor right beside in the middle of the night. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was looking for something which IK he wasn’t bcuz it’s midnight, this incident also left a scar in my brain cuz I knew he still didn’t change. Other times I would wake up with my shirt all the way up with my entire chest exposed, and I even made sure it wasn’t me just tossing and turning. Once time I woke up to him pulling my pants down while I was sleeping, another time we were playing fighting and he would grab my boobs and put his fingers up my YK. I didn’t let that slide and I hit him back and screamed at him, I was in shock it was a blur what happened after. I left my bedroom door open on time and I was laying on my stomach went to go grab something turned around to seeing taking a picture of me. Then these sort of things would stop for I’d say a year or two and I thought that these sort of things would end until he started recording me. I first noticed it when he was on his phone and he always held it in a weird positions, other instances he would have his phone held weird and walk back and forth in the living and the camera pointed at me. This would keep happening for the years leading now. I asked if I could use his phone one time and I was able check his gallery to see if was suspicion was true. I found a photo of me sleeping and there were multiple more as well as videos of just my butt. Like it’s disgusting and I hate living here, I cry some nights because these memories sometimes comes back. I can’t even be calm when I see random men just pull out their phones behind me. I hate pretending like idk what he’s doing, and I’m scared to reach out to my parents cause what are they really going to do. I’ve spoken to one person who’s been through my experience but they were able to go away for university and I don’t have the luxury to move away. Idk I feel like Reddit is the only comfort spot for me to share this and hope that other girls who are also in the same shitty situation knows it’s not just them. I think I’ve built the confidence to be able to tell my mother if I catch him one more time IK my mother will be so sad when she hears abt it. I can’t wait to leave and I hope to truly never see him again. Ever.

My friend (18f) and I (16f) have gotten close around a few years ago. We were both part of a larger friend group and would often all hang out. Two of our friends (16m and 16f) had dated for two years but recently broke up. My friend has always claimed to have a big crush on the guy, even before our friends have gotten together. She would talk about it sometimes but never openly expressed it to him or anyone else. I knew she liked him, but not as much as she actually did (I believed it to be a puppy crush). This girl also dated around a lot, and had gone through literally every guy in our age range, basically leaving me and the rest of us with nothing (if you don’t want her seconds). She had not ever gotten a chance to get with this guy, but had dated all of his friends.
A few months ago, one of our friends had a get together with all of our friends. We were all there and the guy was also invited. I had not seen him in a very long time, and we sat to catch up. For context, we were sitting in the middle of the couch next to each other, while others were sitting on the couch as well. This was in the middle of the room and not in any private area whatsoever. Me and this guy were simply just talking and catching up, but when I looked up, I saw my friend staring at me from across the room with another friend of hers. She was giving me the nastiest looks and started giving me the finger. I was so confused as to what was going on as I hadn’t done anything. I looked at my phone and saw text messages from her saying “fuck you” and things of the sort. The guy also took notice and was also confused as to why this was happening.
Now my friend and her friend were storming in and out of the house making a scene. I confronted her and asked what the problem was and she didn’t give me a response, only a dirty look. My other friends stepped in and told them that they need to cut it out and that they are embarrassing themselves and making a scene. While my friends were dealing with them, me and the guy went outside to talk. He was upset, but I was even more upset. I didn’t know what to do or say until he just leaned in and kissed me. I immediately felt guilty but I liked it a lot. It was like a scene out of a movie. We went back in the house and I sorted it out with my friend, and that was that.
We continued to talk more often and I genuinely felt a connection with him. We would always sneak a kiss in every time we saw each other at events, but never more than that. That was until that friend who got mad at me for talking to him, grad party, where I went down on him for the first time. I can admit, this was not a good choice or the best thing for me to do, and I do feel guilty and really bad about it, even though no one knows. Since that, we kicked it up a notch and we would start sneaky linking, doing everything besides the deed. All of this went on for about a year until he ultimately “cheated” on me in front of my face at my own graduation party and everything just stopped. We aren’t really friends anymore and don’t see him ever.
Back to my friend. She had no idea about this and I have my reasons for not telling her. First off, I don’t think that I’m obligated to tell her about everyone I hook up with, things like that I feel are okay to keep private. The second and more important reason is I knew she would have reacted very badly. I remembered the way she acted towards me that one night at the hangout, before we ever did anything. Her reaction that night was enough to turn me off from ever telling her and sharing intimate details about my life. We had a terrible falling out for about two years about a separate matter not related to this. However she must have found out from an ex friend of mine that me and this guy were seeing each other, because I had heard through the grapevine that she was telling others I was sneaky, manipulative, and a good liar due to the situation.
We have moved past this and are now friends again, but I often think about it sometimes. Was I in the wrong for not telling her even though I didn’t know she liked him? Was I being a bad friend? Ultimately, AITA?
Edit: this happened 3 years ago, I also never wanted to date the guy and she also never had any intent of dating him, just crushed I guess? She also only brought up “crushing on him” once or twice our entire friendship and never acted out of the ordinary when we all hung out. She was often together with another guy as she was never single, that was just her personality. This was my beginning period of exploring and I just came out as a lesbian a year and a half ago

Basically, I was born with 8 fingers. My left hand is normal with 5 fingers but my right hand has 3 fingers and the middle one is a hook/curved shape (its less rounded then a hook tho) and it's stuck like that. I like being asked questions about my hand and sharing so go ahead and ask! I won't be offended at all!

Author's Note:
7700 words, broke Reddit's character limit, so you know the drill. Will be split into two parts, both posted today. Enjoy!
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"Stop! STOP!"
The terror in Kismet's voice rose higher as death drew nearer. He fled from Rob's grasping hand, but a Purge Divinity-infused fingernail managed to graze him, carving out a scoop of divine essence as if flaying a mortal's skin.
Kismet let out a screech as the Purging energy added to his growing collection of scars. A dozen small holes now dotted the surface of his mana-body, looking like he'd been pockmarked by wasting disease. Each wound represented a moment where the god had narrowly escaped with his life.
If those injuries had been inflicted by any other ability, then he could have rejuvenated himself in the time it took to blink. Purging energy was not so kind as that. It was purifying wrath in the shape of a Skill; their vengeance given form. Whatever divinity it touched, it extinguished.
As if cleansing the universe of a sickness that had infected it for far too long.
The BERSERKER continued his unrelenting advance. In response, Kismet threw up a frantic barrier of mana. It was strong enough to deflect one of Ragnavi's Annihilation beams–
And Rob blasted through it like paper mache. His charge sent broken shards of energy scattering across the divine realms. More mid-air rifts tore open, the HUMAN's aura strangling the surrounding area in a vice grip of power. Purge Divinity seemed to glow with light emanating straight from the pits of hell.
None of which was anywhere near as unnerving as the murder contained within his piercing gaze. When Kismet met Rob's eyes, he saw the end of eternity fast approaching.
The god's next barrier was just as frantic. However, this one was not comprised of mana, but of solid matter. Kismet summoned the hardest, most dense substance known to the mortal realms, then transmuted it into something that otherwise could only have been forged inside the heart of a dying star. It was many times more durable than the impossibly tough walls of an aberrant Dungeon.
So when Rob demolished it with a single punch, he actually had to put a bit of elbow grease into his windup.
Another wall materialized in front of him. He crushed it, then the one after, and the one after that, lashing out with bestial ferocity. The BERSERKER plowed through Kismet's hastily-built defenses like a bulldozer of fists and savagery. Rob was knocking them down as quickly as the god could make them, relishing the sensation of being able to vent his anger on targets that weren't fucking running away.
Then the twelfth wall fell – revealing a monstrous, spiky, fanged behemoth concealed behind.
Rob paused, momentarily taken aback at the sight of a mundane creature within the divine realms. 'Mundane' in relative terms, anyway. This monster was on par with a newborn Blight, radiating power that would have sent ordinary fighters sprinting for the hills.
It was also barely cognizant of its surroundings. The monster stared at him with unblinking, vacant eyes, just the tiniest glimmer of awareness present in its gaze. Rob noted that segments of its flesh were bubbling, as if the creature was fresh out of the oven and still needed to settle.
He couldn't help but feel a modicum of pity. This was yet another thoughtless creation, condemned to existence by an uncaring maker. Even monsters deserved better than that.
Rob caved the beast's head in before it could realize that it was alive. Pity was not the same as hesitation, and this was the only mercy he could afford to grant right now.
Didn't matter. Kismet's pawn served its purpose. In the brief instant that Rob spent getting over his initial surprise, the god had teleported to safety. He was already planning his next stunt that could buy him a few precious seconds of survival.
The HUMAN grimaced as he turned to give chase, unable to suppress the burgeoning sense of unease growing within his chest.
It almost didn't seem fair to feel that way. Rob knew he was winning – at least on the surface. Any outside observer would've bet their life savings on him, especially after the show of overwhelming superiority he'd just displayed. Kismet had been at a disadvantage before Never Forget Your Rage's recent upswing, and now it was no contest. Rob was confident that he would still be stronger even if the eight gods merged into one super-deity.
He also knew that he was living on borrowed time.
Whenever he moved, or activated a Skill, or even breathed...the sensation was there. Strength accompanied by incongruous frailty. Like background noise that kept getting louder with every action he took. His body felt close to pulling itself apart, as if his very molecules were a hairsbreadth away from coming undone.
It was different from Soul Instability. Whereas that threatened to collapse his soul, this frailty was an affliction of the flesh. The longer he fought, the more his physical form was at risk of popping like a balloon.
Such was the price of constraining godlike power within a mortal shell.
"Stay back!" Unaware of the turmoil fermenting in his assailant's mind, Kismet threw up his hands and...inverted...space? Rob didn't have a name for what he was seeing. Rather than stopping to puzzle out this latest brand of divine bullshit, he sent out a pulse of Purge Divinity, canceling whatever esoteric effect Kismet had been attempting to produce.
His Purging energy scraped against the divine realms like a cheese grater. Five rifts immediately tore open near both Rob and Kismet, with the god anxiously retreating from one that appeared just inches away from him. A low rumble echoed around them, and for a moment, they felt struck by an abrupt feeling of vertigo – until the realms gradually stabilized, righting once more.
For now.
Rob eyed the rifts with a detached, clinical gaze. An endless sea of mana resided behind them; the bedrock of the system itself. While he recognized that the rifts tearing open was bad news, he also couldn't really muster the energy to care. Between his overflowing rage, overtaxed body, and overburdened soul, minor details like the impending destruction of reality were hard to give much focus.
There was a way to fix all of that, of course. Rob couldn't outright deactivate Never Forget Your Rage – not without losing its bonus stats. But he could attempt to ease the storm of fury in his heart. By lessening his anger to more reasonable levels, Never Forget Your Rage would put less strain on both his body and the divine realms.
The notion forced a peal of hideous laughter to claw out of his throat. Lessen his anger? He'd have better luck trying to douse a volcano with a garden hose. No. For a wildfire that had grown this out of control, the only thing to do was stand aside and let it burn, burn, burn.
Until naught remained.
"I said stay back!" Kismet bellowed. He lifted his arms into the air. "Begone!" One moment later, Rob's vision was filled with scorching light. An apocalyptic geyser of mana burst forth from underfoot, intense and searing. It stripped the flesh from his bones in no time flat, powering through Almighty Resistance with pure, unmitigated violence.
And it still wasn't fast enough. Rob flickered a Purge Divinity shield for just an instant, allowing him to escape the geyser with his upper body – and most of his HP – intact. Lifesurge swiftly patched him up, leaving both combatants right back where they'd started.
Slowly, Kismet lowered his hands. They were shivering. "What are you?" he whispered. "Why are all my efforts in vain?"
To be honest, Rob was mildly impressed that Kismet had held on for this long. The god's combat efficacy was increasing as time passed, improving from panic-spamming teleports to more inventive maneuvers – as if he was learning how to fight on-the-job. He'd also stopped draining the other gods to supplement his power, having found an alternative source of fuel: mana seeping out from the sporadically-opening rifts.
It was the one silver lining to fighting an implacable BERSERKER so powerful that he fractured reality. Whenever Rob utilized Purge Divinity, more rifts opened up in the realms, and more mana leaked out from inside. The gods had invested that energy into the system millennia ago, and it typically would've been off-limits until they closed up shop and left Elatra. Kismet was making use of it now, absorbing the extra mana to strengthen himself, like a lifeline barely keeping him afloat.
The god's tenacity was...calling it 'admirable' would be going too far, but it did warrant a sort of begrudging respect. As someone who'd tangoed with multiple Blights, Rob knew what it was like to square off against a frenzied beast that could end him with a touch.
Being the scary one was a nice change of pace.
In exchange, Kismet had graciously donned the role of their battle's Combat Class user; fragile, outgunned, and pulling improvised maneuvers out of his ass for a chance at victory. The god could finally feel what it was like to be vulnerable. How exciting! Rob was more than happy to assist. Learning experiences such as these only came around once an eternity or so.
Flippancy aside – while Kismet still possessed room for improvement, this was the most that could be asked of a deity who hadn't seen combat in literal eons. His biggest fuckup had been taunting Rob in the wrong ways, but he couldn't have known about Never Forget Your Rage, that was an excusable oversight. By all other accounts, Kismet was performing adequately.
Even so...
"YoU aRE noTHinG."
The sound of Rob's voice caused two fresh rifts to open up. Kismet flinched, casting a teleportation spell out of pure reflex. Without pause, the HUMAN resumed his hunt.
Nothing. Perhaps that statement was hyperbole – yet it rang true nonetheless. While Kismet may have been a creature of supreme divinity, on the field of battle, his pedigree meant nothing. In the face of an implacable, unstoppable foe, his power was worth nothing. Very soon, he would be nothing, consigned to oblivion by Purging energy.
Rob couldn't help but unfavorably compare Kismet to the final Blight. Weren't these supposed to be two sides of the same coin? Each one-half of an original transcendent Will? Yet the Second Will had brought Rob to the edge of despair...and Kismet was fleeing like a cornered rodent. It was difficult to reconcile the two divinities as theoretical equals.
Although he knew that was an unfair comparison. Rob had fought the Blight before learning Limit Break and Never Forget Your Rage. Kismet wasn't weak.
The HUMAN was just far too strong.
If he rematched the Second Will today, he would beat it to death with his bare hands.
"Look at what you've wrought!" Kismet swept an arm out, gesturing towards some of the many rifts that Rob's presence was tearing open. "Do you understand what will transpire if you persist in this folly?! If the divine realms shatter, then so will all of Elatra! You are on the brink of destroying everything which you have striven to protect! Cease this–"
"CAN'T."
In a flash, Rob dashed forward and scooped out a chunk of the god's mana-body with Purge Divinity. Before he could do more, Kismet shrieked with pain and teleported away, leaving the BERSERKER to crush his prize between five clenched fingers.
"FoRCed mY HAnD." He located Kismet again. "NO GOING BACK."
Stopping wasn't an option. If the divine realms crumbled and Elatra imploded...well, that would be a faster end than what the gods had in store for its people. At least this way their deaths would be quick and hopefully painless – and his friends wouldn't be turned into Skills tortured for all eternity.
Still, Kismet did have a point. Destroying reality wasn't exactly the ideal outcome. There had to be a way to speed up the conclusion of their fight. Rob was certain he would win if given enough time, but he couldn't guarantee it would be before either his body or the divine realms collapsed.
{Ascend.}
Like a snake slithering through a minefield, Leveling High skirted past the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions raging within Rob's mind. He attempted to tune out its voice, yet Humanity's curse refused to be denied, the static loudening until he was compelled to respond. Quit distracting me, he snapped. In case you haven't noticed, I'm FUCKING. BUSY.
{You seek to ensure victory over those who rule above,} Leveling High continued, without missing a step. {As do I.}
Then sit back, shut up, and–
{Ignoring your deficiencies will not make them disappear. This body is...feeble. Incomplete. Unfit to wield the power contained therein. Like a polished sword attached to a brittle hilt, liable to snap in twain at any moment.}
Rob grit his teeth. He couldn't deny Leveling High's assertions. Normally he'd just tell it to piss off, but considering how much was at stake here...
With a feeling like he'd sat down to deal with the devil, Rob sighed. Then what do you propose? That we upgrade my body somehow? I don't think putting more points into Vitality would help, even if I had any to spare. Me being so juiced up on stats is half the problem.
It shook its head. {You have far surpassed the limitations of mortality. Strengthening your power further would be akin to pouring water into an overflowing cup.}
So we...what, increase the size of the cup?
Static akin to laughter echoed inside his head. {We do away with it entirely.}
An icy chill began creeping up Rob's spine, as if the cold hands of fate were working their way towards his neck. He recalled a system notification from days before – 'Your Race has morphed from Human (?) to: Ascending HUMAN'.
Not Ascended. Ascending.
Weeks-old memories came surging to the forefront. 'The Heartkiller is closer to our form of life than those you call friends,' the Blight-child of Elysium had once said. 'As long as you continue to live, eventually, you will become an existence with the power to crush the Others and free the Skills from their shackles. You are no longer one of the Ephemeral. Now, you are a cocoon, metamorphosing into something grander. When you emerge, you will be as the Eternal.'
The Blight-child had laughed at him, then. 'After joining us, preserving these worlds will no longer be your desire.'
Rob grimaced. Denied, he flatly told Leveling High. Whatever you're about to suggest isn't happening.
It scoffed at him. {Your prejudices blind you. Do you think the gods have need of physical bodies? Does it hinder them in any capacity? No – the opposite. By definition, infinity cannot be constrained. Discard this useless flesh, and your conquest of the divine realms is assured.}
Maybe you didn't hear me when I said–
{By all means. Spurn my counsel...and condemn your friends to death. Shall their lives be worth it, in the end?}
Rob sucked in air through clenched teeth.
{Ascend.} Leveling High purred with anticipation. {You are bound by a prison of meat, bone, and blood. Break free. Finish what has already begun. Gaze upon the tapestry of infinity in all its dreadful splendor. Seize victory not as a Human, but as a completed, transcendent HUMAN.}
With a scream to drown out the static, Rob chased after Kismet again and again. The god was in full-on panic mode, eschewing offensive attacks in favor of perpetual retreat, focused wholly on keeping the BERSERKER as far away as possible. He would teleport the instant that Rob laid eyes on him, frantically stalling for his life.
It was – quite unintentionally – providing evidence to Leveling High's claims. If Kismet was on the defensive, catching him would take time they might not have.
I... Rob narrowed his eyes. How would I finish Ascending, anyway? It isn't like I can just flip a switch and make it happen.
{Incorrect.}
He blinked. WHAT?
{You have long since achieved the qualifications for true godhood,} Leveling High explained, in a lecturing tone. {There is no milestone that remains necessary to achieve. Rather than needing to overcome some hurdle of strength or power, the obstacle barring your path is more...arbitrary. Self-imposed.}
Humanity's curse seemed to peer into his soul. When it spoke next, its voice was filled with disgust. {You remain mortal because you wish to do so – both consciously and subconsciously. The Ascension of a nascent deity has been obstructed by cheap sentimentality.}
Rob almost started an argument over its usage of 'cheap', but he exercised restraint, keenly aware that there was bigger fish to fry. Can't do anything about the subconscious. I am \not* activating Melancholy Resistance.*
{Nor should you,} Leveling High remarked, shuddering at the prospect. {A grand statement of intent will be sufficient to shift your mentality. I believe...yes.}
The static churned like a hive of buzzing wasps. {When you next tear off a piece of the leader god's mana...even if just a sliver...devour it. Gorge yourself on their essence.}
Bile threatened to rise to the top of Rob's throat. Seems excessive, he mused, trying and failing to keep his tone lighthearted. To become a god, I eat a god? Wouldn't that make me a divine cannibal?
{You ARE a cannibal.} Leveling High's voice wavered, its veneer of helpfulness slipping to reveal the madness that lay beneath. {What do you think you've been DOING for nearly a YEAR? You kill, ingest your prey's Experience, and MAKE THEIR POWER YOUR OWN. This world is one of consumption and parasitism – devouring a god's essence is merely a more HONEST variant of THE SAME actions.}
...You clearly weren't paying attention during Diplomacy's PR lessons. Rob pursued Kismet once again, pressing his fingernails into his palms when the god hurriedly teleported away. There is such a thing as being too straightforward. If you want people to listen to you, then maybe dress up your words so they don't sound so horrifying.
{BUT AM I WRONG?}
Rob had no answer to that.
Bolts of divine mana peppered his skin. Kismet had barely managed to squeeze an attack in-between his escapes. The bolts ricocheted off Rob's skin like ping-pong balls, leaving minor scrapes and nothing more. It wasn't anywhere close to bypassing Almighty Resistance and his massive HP pool.
Yet it also reminded him of the mana-spears that Kismet had sent towards the rest of Riardin's Rangers. His Party members only possessed a shared, diluted version of Almighty Resistance, and their HP was a fraction of his. If Kismet aimed another attack of that caliber at them...how many would perish, right then and there?
Was Leveling High correct? What point was there to sentimentality if it just got his friends killed?
In truth, Rob knew that it didn't really matter if he completed his Ascension. Based on what he had planned for himself after the gods were dead, little would change either way. Still...he also knew that Ascending would be a one-way trip. No take-backs. If he went through with it, a fundamental part of him would be irrevocably altered.
Something twinged in a corner of his mind. It wasn't Leveling High, or his rage, or any of the other emotions currently dominating his headspace. This was a familiar friend; perhaps Rob's #1 most trusted confidant since he'd first set foot in Elatra. One that had rarely ever steered him wrong.
Paranoia.
And at the moment, it was telling him to be very careful before jumping into the deep end.
Ten teleports.
{What?}
Give it ten more Kismet teleports, Rob said. If I haven't dealt him a serious injury by then....I'll do what I need to do. He grimaced as Kismet vanished before he'd even finished the thought. Ten starting now.
Leveling High's static quieted. It resembled a patron at a restaurant who'd ordered their meal, and was waiting patiently for the main course to arrive.
Rob didn't waste time being offended over its nonchalance. Free of distractions, he immediately swept his gaze across the divine realms, pinpointing his quarry in a micro-instant. The BERSERKER dashed forward, pushing his body as far as he could, layering Rampages on top of Dexterity that made the laws of physics want to curl up and weep.
Kismet was prepared. He'd drawn more mana from the fractured rifts, quickening his speed and reactions. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep his head above water, not yet outpaced by their continually escalating arms race.
The HUMAN struck, the god fled, and both were left in the same position as before.
{One.}
Rob turned on a dime, charging without needing to look. He'd heard the moment that Kismet's teleport ended. It afforded him a split-second head start.
A gravity well suddenly appeared below his feet, as if a miniaturized black hole was weighing him down. Apparently, Kismet had set it up ahead of time as a just-in-case trap. Rob pierced through the spell's area of effect before it could ramp up to something dangerous, but his pace was slowed by a hair in the process, and his prey escaped.
{Two.}
You know what? Screw this. Rob whirled away from Kismet's newest location and blasted straight towards one of the lesser deities that his Party members were fighting.
He'd been too hung up on getting even with a hated foe – when there were seven other juicy morsels for him to play with. This way, Kismet would either sit back and watch as his allies were massacred, or the god would be forced to act instead of running like a goddamn cowar–
Sense Mana alerted Rob to magic gathering behind.
Pivoting, he leapt into the air. Rob superimposed himself in front of Kismet, bodyblocking the rainstorm of destructive mana that was about to be unleashed upon Riardin's Rangers.
Due to his swift response, the attack was released early. A simple Purge Divinity shield prevented him from incurring any damage. Rob still felt no sense of triumph as the mana dissipated around him. He just wasn't fast enough to kill the lesser gods and protect his Party at the same time – or at least not fast enough that he should gamble their lives on it.
Kismet disappearing a moment later didn't help matters either.
{Three.}
Frontal assaults weren't guaranteed to succeed, and targeting the other gods was a no-go. Could he take Kismet by surprise? Increase his Dexterity?
Rob contemplated mining Never Forget Your Rage for more stats, but swiftly vetoed the idea. His body was already struggling to hold itself together. Putting additional strain on a shaky foundation seemed...unwise.
Plus – at the risk of eating crow in the near future – he didn't actually think it was possible to feel angrier at the gods than he was right now. Seriously, what was left?
He hated them for sending him to a fantasy deathworld. He hated them for tormenting his friends and family. He hated them for being partially responsible for the Blight. He hated them for what they'd done to Elatra and Earth. He hated them for all the lives they'd stolen. He hated them for being the living embodiments of indifference and cruelty. He hated that they fostered good PR among the people they oppressed. He hated how monsters of such craven hypocrisy were also immeasurably powerful. He hated the sensation of divine mana crawling on his skin. He hated the unsettling sound of their voices. He hated their bizarre formless appearances. He hated them for being pompous pricks. He hated whenever they tried to relate to him. He hated whenever they didn't.
Most of all, he hated that they were still alive.
Even if he found out that they'd personally antagonized him since birth or some petty nonsense like that, it wouldn't measure up to the litany of transgressions they'd committed thus far. The blazing inferno within his soul could burn no hotter. Should burn no hotter. For his sanity's sake, if nothing else.
Kismet teleported. It wasn't in response to anything. He'd merely anticipated some sort of action – and was then baffled afterwards when he noticed the rampaging BERSERKER standing quietly in deep thought.
{Four.}
Rob advanced. While he didn't have a plan yet, he'd also learned that if he gave Kismet the slightest amount of breathing room, bad things tended to happen.
Can any of my Skills give me an edge? Unfortunately, he didn't think so. As usual, his lack of ranged options was biting him in the ass when it mattered most. Almost everything he could use required getting in close – which was the whole freaking problem – and none would be more effective than Purge Divinity, regardless.
Maybe I could set up a Waymark point, then catch Kismet's teleport with one of mine...no, that won't work either. The odds of him popping in next to a random Waymark point are slim. Could fill the battlefield with lots of Marks, but even then I have to consider the Skill's activation time. With my current Dexterity, it'd honestly be faster just to run at him.
The vast majority of his abilities simply weren't up to par in a clash with divinity. Limit Break, Purge Divinity, and Never Forget Your Rage had been specifically designed by the Skills to facilitate deicide. Something like Power Slash couldn't possibly compare to jailbroken stats and a touch of death.
As an act of defiance against his own logic, he cast Enmity, the only ability that could feasibly hit Kismet at range. The god casually shrugged off its effect before promptly escaping.
{Five.}
Like a frustrated animal, Rob snarled and gave chase. Just need to keep trying. Kismet isn't perfect.
{Six.}
Sooner or later, he's going to mess up.
{Seven.}
He's going to mess up.
{Eight.}
HE HAS TO MESS UP.
Suddenly, Kismet transformed his right hand into a blade of mana. With one harsh motion, he sliced open his own left arm.
By now, Rob had conditioned himself to never stop moving forward, even if something shocked him – which this sight very much did. His mouth dropped open, and Leveling High paused in the middle of eating its metaphorical popcorn. They still kept advancing without an iota of hesitation.
And ran straight into the mana cloud leaking out from Kismet's wound.
Rob blinked, opening his eyes to a wonderful day. The twisting plains looked dazzlingly beautiful, with fauna and plantlife lit by rays of effervescent light from the twin stars shining above. People cheerfully went about their day, happily shaking their trunks in shows of greeting, or rattling their scales to initiate merry games.
All was at peace.
Until – in unison – everyone froze. The tumult of life went quiet in an instant, replaced with pensive silence.
As if they'd been struck by the creeping, pervasive sensation of being watched.
A sound rang out. Half of them immediately fell over dead, fluids gushing from their ruined bodies.
The survivors could only lay there, crippled and in pain, as more people slowly rose into the air. Invisible fingers seemed to pluck them from the ground – and then began ripping off their limbs, one at a time, like a child dissecting butterflies–
Rob dragged himself back to the present.
It had taken much less time than before to recognize what was happening. Now that he knew what to expect, experiencing the remnant souls' lives wasn't so different from the dreamlike quality of an Attunement vision. Although...realizing that he'd witnessed the end of a world preceding Elatra did cause his thoughts to hitch for a single moment.
Which was just enough for Kismet to forge a spear of mana, then send it plunging through Rob's eye, skull, and brain. Its tip was forged to shred anything it touched, no matter how durable or Resistant.
The god whooped with glee – only to wince as the HUMAN's sole reaction was a long, drawn-out sigh. With an air of exasperation, he reached up and yanked the divine spear free with a nauseating splorch.
His eye had been reduced to a seeping red mess. He closed its eyelid. When he opened it again, the orb within had already Regenerated, now sporting an unamused glare.
It was something of a unique moment. Mid-battle events didn't typically leave both combatants feeling disheartened. The all-powerful god was losing faith that he could ever hope to stop Rob's onslaught...
And the BERSERKER didn't know if he could justify continuing on like this. His body still felt like it was pulling itself apart; if anything, the sensation was growing more pronounced as their battle progressed. While Kismet would make a fatal mistake eventually, Rob couldn't guarantee that he would last long enough to capitalize on it.
Unless he followed Leveling High's advice and–
With a howl that shook the divine realms, Rob launched his stolen spear at Kismet. His aim was true, yet it sailed through empty air, the god's afterimage tauntingly fading away.
{Nine.}
Final chance.
​
--
​
Link to Part 2

I originally posted this with a throwaway but the automod ate it. So I'll just post it with my main account. Whatever. I'm kind of disgusted with reddit at the moment anyway.
This post is long so tl;dr you'll get masses of downvotes on reddit if you dare disagree with the line that sex is immutable. Even though it isn't. And it's not only rabid transphobes who will downvote you for it.
(Disclaimer: I'm writing from the perspective of a trans woman who has medically transitioned, mostly about trans women who medically transition. I suspect that most of the below applies to trans men who medically transition too if you flip some of the terms, but at this point I'm going to shift back into my lane, stop speaking about trans men, and let them speak for themselves.)
There was a post on atheism on Friday made by a trans person who had been hurt by something transphobic that Richard Dawkins had said. Cue tons of gaslighting in the comments claiming that what he said wasn't transphobic (it was) and mass downvoting of people criticizing Dawkins or supporting trans people. People pointing out that medical transition can change your sex were predictably also downvoted despite it being scientific reality. There were no counterarguments: just slurs, bigotry, and accusations of mental illness. For self-proclaimed atheists a lot of them sure like to cling to disproven transphobic dogma, and for supposed materialists they sure like to cling to metaphysical woo when it comes to biology.
"But chromosomes!" "But gametes!" They're both irrelevant in an adult human who has undergone gonadectomy. Brain/behavioral sex, hormonal sex, and genital sex are far, far more important (and they don't all need to line up in order to classify someone as male or female). But many people stubbornly cling to chromosomes and gametes. Why? Because we can't (yet) modify those in trans people to match their acquired sex. (We can make gametes and gonads N/A and that doesn't seem to be an issue for them with cis people but mysteriously it's not good enough when it comes to trans people. Actually it's not a mystery: it's just transphobia.) They're desperate to have some sort of defense no matter how ridiculous and flimsy for continuing to treat us badly and not treat us as our acquired sex.
(The next two paragraphs are about my experience personally and not all trans women.)
My chromosomes are probably XY. (You probably won't get done for speeding on I-95 but you'll still see someone who has been pulled over by police every twenty miles or so.) If I'd been able to click my fingers and change my chromosomes when I began transitioning then it would have achieved nothing for me. I'd still have needed HRT and SRS to treat my dysphoria. I'd still have undergone gonadectomy, rendering what my chromosomes are and what gametes I would have produced moot. Transphobes would have found some other justification for being shitty to me. If they claim otherwise then they're lying. Perhaps they'd latch onto my "socialization" ignoring the fact that trying to socialize a female brain as male doesn't produce a male brain: it produces a traumatized female brain. Perhaps they'd simply leap straight into spiritualist bullshit and insist that the magical sex fairy declared me male and that can never be changed. It doesn't matter because they're not arguing in good faith.
My brain/behavioral sex has always been female. I simply repressed it for a long time because I grew up in a hateful environment. Additionally, without going into gory details: pubertal testosterone didn't do everything it was supposed to in me. One more datum in support of the theory that some trans women have busted or wonky androgen receptors. To describe me as "male" now or even to say that I used to be "male" is incorrect and ignorant of biology. By the way: if someone would have described me as "male" before I transitioned despite my brain/behavioral sex being female but they wouldn't describe me as female now despite my chromosomes (probably) being XY then they're being intellectually dishonest. (They also almost certainly wouldn't describe the sex of a cis woman with naturally elevated testosterone as "male".) At this point most of the factors that go into determining my sex are female, one is N/A, and as previously discussed chromosomes don't matter because I'm not a fetus. Therefore I'm female now. End of discussion.
(End personal stuff.)
There was also a comment about how outing oneself as trans to every Tom, Dickhead, and Harry in the medical profession can lead to worse health outcomes for trans people because of bigotry, incompetence or ignorance leading to checking for the wrong things, trans broken arm syndrome, and incorrect reference ranges being used leading to false positives and false negatives. Of course it too was downvoted and lots of cis people bleated about how trans people supposedly need to come out to every medical person they meet. Hey dumbasses: I can't get testicular cancer any more and I'm effectively already taking treatment for prostate cancer, but I can get breast cancer and I need to watch for female heart attack symptoms. I don't have low testosterone: my testosterone is right in the middle of the female range. My medical risk profile is similar to that of a cis woman without ovaries or a uterus, and treating me like a cis man for medical purposes would be malpractice. But at least they got to be supercilious toward trans people while giving them bad advice that could result in them being maimed or killed. They can sleep well tonight. It must be nice not to have to be an amateur expert in your own healthcare in order to prevent the alleged real experts from fucking you up.
There was a post in AreTheStraightsOK yesterday about trans people, and one commenter stated that trans women can become female. It was downvoted. At this point I'm not even surprised that so-called allies want us to have some equality but not too much. They want us to be their token trans person to help them virtue signal in order to win online arguments and out-woke their frenemies. Oh aren't they so enlightened and tolerant referring to their trans woman friend as "AMAB" instead of "a man" and "they" instead of "he" as long as she behaves? They love the power of holding our identities over us, refusing to use the correct pronouns for us if we displease them, and misgendering us with AGAB terminology then crying "but it's just reality!" when called out on it. Yes I was "AMAB" and that has no relevance to almost everyone's interactions with me now. You (referring to these "allies") were a screaming little pissbaby when you came out of the womb. Are you still one? Should I bring it up whenever I talk about you?
And just to touch on the 'Queers for Palestine' idiocy and its members claiming they won't vote for 'Genocide Joe': those people would rather virtue signal for people who would execute them by throwing them off buildings than perform a real and meaningful action (vote Democrat) to help trans people in their own country avoid what would await them under a Trump presidency and a Republican-controlled congress. Who needs enemies when you have friends like those? (Of course they're silent about what's going on in Yemen, Sudan, and Myanmar.)
I won't be their good little trans token who will smile while they misgender and missex me in a politically correct way, tell lies and falsehoods about my biology, or condemn me to a Trump presidency so that they can stay in their handlers' good books and not feel slightly icky.
(I'm going to add a disclaimer before people who don't medically transition bite my head off. Here goes.)
I know not everybody wants to or can medically transition. I grew up in a poor household with bigoted parents. It sucked. But I needed to medically transition and I've made big compromises in my life in order to be able to transition: I left academia even though I would have liked to stay, I decided I wasn't going to have kids, I don't take vacations away from home, and I accepted a job with long hours, slightly dubious ethics, and a 24/7 on-call rota in order to afford medication and surgery. Medical transition ranked slightly after food and shelter in my personal hierarchy of needs. Not everybody has the same opportunities that I did. I hope I've demonstrated how important it was for me to medically transition, though.
If you want to medically transition and you can't then I feel for you. It is an extremely unenviable position and I know because I was in it for a long time. I hope you're able to medically transition soon. If you don't want to medically transition then that's great! Please don't try to hold back the people who do. Describe yourself as the sex you were assigned at birth if that works for you but don't demand that I do the same for myself.

I never thought I’d see myself writing on this forum or at least I hope I wouldn’t have to. My name is Miriam Jackson and I’m looking for a friend. Her name is Jocelyn Willard and I haven’t received anything from her for over a month.
Jocelyn went to Jonesborough, Tennessee for an investigative story on Reverend Somber.
I have only 6 files she sent me while on this trip, as I sometimes help her with editing and filing notes. Hopefully, they can help give the person who’s reading this the information necessary to help find her.
Jocelyn is a freelance journalist, who delved into journalism as she sees it as “the beacon of truth” Her newest fixation was televangelism. I know… I know in this day and age who's watching cable but that to Jocelyn is what made it more interesting.
Especially when she stumbled across Reverend Somber, unlike his name Reverend Sombers is charismatic ( as most in televangelism are) and speaks with such a feverish devotion you’d think you’re hearing the voice of God speak through him. He can often be found preaching on CTN at around 2 A.M. In his words `` Jesus had not come to talk to the righteous but to those who know they are sinners, and at this time sweetheart only sinners are watching.”
What caused Jocylen to want to investigate Somber’s I don’t know.

File#1: Gas Station _Towns People_Sombers Letter.Doc

I’m about a little less than a mile out on the outskirts of Jonesborough. I make a stop at the only gas station I’ve seen since leaving Route 321 about 30 minutes ago.
As I get out of my car I take in the sun something I don’t get enough of in Seattle. The gas station still has the reminiscence of different decades passed; with its paint chipped around the brick exposing its rustic hues and the sign tilted “Whitmens Gas Station Est.1910”.
I open the door causing a bell to ring,
“Hello, what can I help you with today darlin’,” said the lady behind the counter. She seemed about 60 years old her hair not yet fully gray and her face showing the emotions she’s worn over the years.
“ Hi, I just want to fill up my tank, I’m parked at pump 1,” I said.
“Well alright, what got you coming to these parts?”
“Oh, I’m writing on Reverend Sombers I’m supposed to go follow him as he goes live tonight for CTN”
“Ain’t that a treat, I swear when I hear him preach on Sundays it’s like the Lord is speaking through him,” she said in such a way you’d think she’d seen Heaven in that man's eyes.
“Well isn’t that something…How long has he been preaching for?” I ask as I pick at the hangnail on my finger. The admiration she had for the Reverend made me uneasy but I’d figured she’d know some background on him. Oddly she didn’t.
“Oh, He came around 3 years ago, it seemed like he just popped up at the church now that I think about it, The town was nothing like the peace it is now, Sombers brought this town into prosperity I tell ya.”Her brows furrowed as though she just realized something.
“I almost forgot to tell Earl to put the gas in ya car, go wait out there I’ll go tell him.”
Taking this as my queue that the interview is over I walk over to my car and wait inside for the man to arrive. A tap on my passenger-side window snaps me out of my daydreaming.
“I filled your gas up, Ruth told me you’ve been askin bout Reverend Sombers said you’d be writin on him.” Earl said.
“Yeah, do you have anything you’d like to share?” I shift in my seat as I take in Earl. He seems a bit younger than Ruth, his hands caked with oil stains and his shirt spotting the same look. A small towel lays on his shoulder. He leans into my passenger-side window before he answers
“I ain’t too fond of him don’t tell Ruth now she’d be madder than a wet hen I tell ya.” he coughs and laughs
“What are you not fond of?” Interested in figuring out what Earl knows that Ruth doesn’t
“I don’t speak too much on him don’t want him comin round here, you best be goin now ya tank is full. Have a good stay now ma’am” He smiled his teeth showing a testament to years of tobacco use.
I smile meekly back and wave bye as I head into town. Left with more questions I know I’ve not made a dumb decision by investigating Somber.
The town is picturesque many of it still having the structures from the 1800s it’s the oldest town in Tennessee after all. As I drive through town I take in the families walking and neighbors saying hi to each other. Almost too cookie-cutter.
I parked my car in front of Jonesborough Bed and Breakfast a quaint Victorian-era cottage. The overgrown bushes cover the majority of the white picket fence. A homey cottage and a hot meal sounds great right about now. I enter and am warmly greeted by the B&B owner.
“Hi, I’m Mary-Ann you must be Jocylen only person we have booked to stay for so long.”
“Yes, that would be me. I’m wondering if you could recommend a place for lunch. I'm quite hungry.” I put a hand to my stomach. I should've grabbed a snack at the gas station I thought.
“There’s the local diner just up the street, Your room is the first door on the right upstairs. It’s the Reverend's favorite. He thought you’d like it… that reminds me Reverend Somber will be having dinner with you today and said he’d want to speak with ya before you go follow him around. He left a lil welcome basket for ya upstairs,” she said
I thanked her then made my way to my room wondering what he’d left for me.
The room has a king-sized canopy bed in the middle with a white- Linen curtain draped on top. Stands out from the rest of the room, The canopy is supported by twisted columns and the back wall of the bed is structured architecturally containing a niche with a shell decoration and four more smaller twisted columns surrounded by leaf decorations. The deep walnut wood of the bed is a contrast to the faded yellow stained floral wallpaper and average closet in the corner of the room. The bed was foreign to this room, I just knew it.
I look at the welcome basket on the bed filled with fruit, wine, a letter, and oddly finger cots. The letter stated the following
Dear, Miss Willard
Thank you for your interest in my humble serving of the lord. I’d like to take ya to dinner at The Black Olive to better acquaint ourselves before you shadow me today. I hope the finger cots give you rest from your constant finger picking what a painful nervous tick to have for the past 20 years. Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ.
Sincerely,
Reverend Somber
I felt the sweat dripping from the back of my neck and my hands shaking as I folded the letter back up. All I can think is
who the fuck is Reverand Sombers.

I feel like writing this will help me get out of this rut I’m in right now so if you do read this thank you.

 I started watching porn as early as five to six years old maybe earlier. I was very curious of porn wants I saw it for the first time, I remember sneaking in to my aunts closet and pulling out porn dvd’s several times. always getting caught but never tried to stop, I didn’t know why I wanted to look at it so much. I probably didn’t know what was happening on the screen yet it fascinated me. Later on down the line me and a cousin started trying some of the stuff we saw on porn. I don’t remember doing anything to her almost as if that part of my life is just blacked out no matter how hard I try to remember. I just remember how we got caught and how my parents scolded me. I believe that’s how I figured out that watching porn wasn’t a good thing for me MAINLY because it would lead to me getting yelled at not noticing that I was falling deeper and deeper into an addiction. It followed me all the way through elementary school. But middle school was when I first found out about Nofap and what it was. I didn’t take it seriously because i thought i could stop at anytime in tell I tried. Then high school hit and I was still trying. Now I’m 20 and the brain fog I experience now hurts. I just want this to go away but I know that I’ll be fighting this in tell I die. My question for all of you who made it to the end. Is it really possible to not see females in a twisted way? reached 90 days? Can I really be happy or find any satisfaction if I withdraw. My chest gets uncomfortable and my fingers tips go numb when an urge hits me. Can I really beat this. 

Hi everyone, I've been recommended to do in person sessions with AlAnon but have not had the guts to do it. To make a long story short, my boyfriend has been struggling with alcohol for a very long time. However, I think the end of 2022 until present has been pretty bad. I don't know if I'm making the right decisions or not. Here's where it's getting iffy. Some context: I'm graduating college this June and starting my first government career (it's only part time, no benefits, etc.) It gets me into the door with my dream job so I took this one as a temp. so I can get all 10 certifications to get this job in the future. I don't start until June 10th and have racked up some debt not working for a couple months to finish college strong.
I'm expected to move out of my parent's house into his house (he's renting a room with 2 with a potential 3rd male roommate, so I'd be the only woman in the house and sharing the same bathroom fyi)
I'm not the best at explaining this, but it comes in big waves of him getting better but then hitting lows again. We've had so many conversations on how I'm the only one he's aggressive to and mean towards when he's drunk and no one else. He's called me names, yelled at me in front of his family, my friends, his friends, makes jokes about drinking and driving, practically forced me to give him the keys to his car before (he didn't get them but his eyes went completely black with anger until his family distracted him to come back inside), and he has also peed himself multiple times or pees on the walls/floobed.
I do not drink or smoke, I do not want to enable him.
The point of this post is that after I graduate in June, he wants me to move in but I do not want to because I have a big fear that I will end up feeling trapped. I'm the only person he gets aggressive with and the only advice I've been given is to, "leave when he's drunk or being aggressive"
But if I'm going to be living with him, I have to run away from the home I'm living in?? I don't want to do that.
Every weekend his friends and him get blacked out and I don't want that in my home. Recently, he's just been "better" at not getting drunk with me around but he started yelling at me over the phone when I said I wasn't ready to move in with him after graduation despite being together for 5 1/2 years. I do fear him at times when he is drunk because his eyes and demeanor changes. No he has not been physical with me.
Has someone been through this before and how should I go about this? He says that if I don't move in with him after 1 month from graduation of June 15th, he's not going to "wait for me anymore" (which I understand but I also don't get that I will probably only get 1 paycheck from the new job starting June 10th, which will not be enough to pay off my small amount of debt in time within a month)
When he's sober, he's still a very angry man and frustrated with life. Parts of me feel like when i'm making these posts, I'm just dancing around the fact that deep down I do want to leave but feel that it's just not possible.
He had a ring and was going to propose in March 2023 but I'm glad it didn't happen. The following october of that year, at a family event he got drunk and yelled and screamed in my face with both middle fingers in my face saying fuck marriage, I'll never marry you, You love me too much, etc. Obviously theres been more but that's too much.
Yet he says to never take what he says drunk seriously but when he calls me names, tells me to fuck off when I'm trying to clean the piss off of him, etc. I just feel trapped.
I do wish to move out of my parent's house and hope that these bad moments will pass but I keep seeing things that others thought the same that things will pass and as time goes on, it will get better but it only got worse.

First Previous Next
Mike marveled at the beauty of the inner city. He was familiar with Kael architecture and had even seen some up close at the university, but it was far grander here than on Earth, and it was far grander in person than in the videos and pictures he'd seen. The buildings were a hybrid of Gothic and expressionist architecture built with classical aesthetics.
Mosaics, statues, and murals were everywhere, but despite the grand buildings and beautiful decorations, Mike couldn’t keep his eyes off the ground. Even the streets are beautiful.
The ground he and Dreki walked was like a freshly cooled lava flow paved by slates of colored glass that softly glowed in the dimming light of the evening sun.
As they walked, Mike was woken from his trance by the scent of meat cooking.
Dreki smiled and said, “Smells good. You hungry?”
Mike nodded.
Dreki grinned and led Mike around the corner to a food cart. Mike salivated as the flames licked and sputtered at fat dripping from hunks of what looked like octopus turning on spits. The aroma of meat and spices was intoxicating. Dreki ordered them octopus skewers. As he handed Mike his skewer, Dreki said, “You’re never going to be able to eat earth octopus again.”
Mike chuckled. “I’ve never had it in the first place; I grew up in the mountains thousands of miles from the ocean.”
Dreki looked incredulous. “Did you not have rivers?”
Mike shrugged his shoulders, “Not with octopi.”
Dreki raised his free hand in exasperation. “Whatever. Either way, you’ll be disappointed by the rubbery trash humans call an octopus after eating this.”
Mike took a bite of the meat and groaned in pleasure. It tasted like a beefier version of bacon. Mike wolfed down his skewer in the blink of an eye and exclaimed, “That was fucking good!”
Dreki gave him a “Mhhhmh” with his still mouth full.
Dreki finished his food and led Mike off the main road onto a footpath flanked by wispy trees with dark blue leaves.
Eventually, the pair entered the back garden of a building that looked like a melted cathedral. Dreki led him through an open gate into a well-lit waiting room and held out his arm. “Hand me your bag; I’ll take it to your room. I’ll come get you after.”
Mike slipped his bag from his shoulders and handed it to Dreki. As the herculean Kael was leaving, he turned and said, “Try not to scream when they brand you; it’s an ill omen.”
Mike drummed his fingers on the armrests of the chair in the sea foam green waiting room, which was decorated with pictures of duels and exotic plants in white and blue ceramic pots. He was pretty sure that more than one of the photographs was of Dreki’s father.
Mike was anxious. Getting branded would suck, and getting an AR implant would involve someone sticking a drill through his skull. And without his gargantuan minder, Mike felt almost naked. He knew that he would probably be fine, but this was the home of the enemy. Without any weapons, he stood little chance against any Kael worth their salt in a fight.
Mike chided himself for the thought. Why does everything have to revolve around violence? Is there no world where you can just get along with them?
Mike frowned. No. I hate them. Despite his barely contained rage, Mike felt nauseous as blood-soaked memories bombarded his mind.
He doubted that he could kill again, even if it meant dying.
Dreki’s not so bad; maybe out here, more of them are like him than Ocidea.
Mike’s melancholy was interrupted when the tall door at the far end of the room opened. A short, for a Kaelman, nurse wearing pea green scrubs walked out, locked eyes with him, and shouted, “Mike Anderson!”
Mike followed the short Kael nurse into a cream-colored operating room. In the center an instrument table hovered next to an operating table. Besides the operating table stood a middle-aged Kael with tusks intricately inlaid with silver in triangular patterns. His white lab coat had Chief Surgeon Athocill emblazoned over the right breast pocket.
The Chief Surgeon stared off into space, engrossed in AR. The nurse who brought him in pointed to the operating table. Mike sat down.
A slender Kaelwoman in scrubs and a lab coat identifying her as the assistant surgeon walked in and started arranging the tools.
She glanced at Mike and said, “Take off your shirt.”
Mike pulled the black T-shirt he was wearing over his head and set it on the table next to him.
Without looking away from his work, the Chief Surgeon tossed Mike a leather strap and said, “Brand him.”
The short nurse pulled a heat stamp from its case and rolled the numbers to their correct positions. Mike put the leather strap in his mouth and grabbed onto the table.
Dreki’s warning rang through his head*.*
The Nurse carefully placed the print plate just below Mike’s collarbone and pushed it down. The heat stamp's coils flashed white. Mike bit down on the leather strap as hard as he could, and his knuckles popped as he gripped the edges of the operating table as hard as he could. Tendrils of smoke billowed off Mike’s chest as his flesh was seared, and the acrid smell of burnt hair and torched flesh wafted through the room.
Mike stifled a groan as the nurse peeled the superheated steel off his chest. The Nurse set the smoking stamp back in its case to cool and picked up a small jar of viscous blue fluid and a brush. The nurse opened the jar, dipped the brush in the blue goop, and painted it over Mike’s still-smoking burn. Mike jolted at the freezing touch of the brush. His ribs and abdomen rose and fell rapidly as he took short, shallow breaths as the freezing cold shocked his nervous system.
The nurse put the brush away and closed the jar. “Done”
Mike let the leather strap drop from his mouth and put on a straight face as he externally disguised the pain. Showing weakness was not an option, even if every fiber of his being commanded him to scream.
The assistant took hold of Mike’s arm and spoke. “Make a fist and squeeze.”
Mike did as she asked. It was a good distraction from the pain. His knuckles turned white, and the veins in his forearm bulged after a few seconds of pressure.
“You’ll feel a tiny pinch.”
The assistant jabbed the needle into the crook of his arm.
Mike’s head immediately felt heavy, and his whole body tingled. He tried to stay upright, to no avail. His vision grayed out as his head plopped onto the table with a thud.
The surgeon looked to his assistant and asked, “Is he out?”
“Yes.” She answered.
“Let us begin.”
The assistant used a small metal tool to pull Mike's right eyelid open. The chief surgeon plunged a gold needle into the depths of Mike’s right eye.
The surgeon carefully pulled the needle from the human’s eye and set the syringe back down on the floating instrument table.
“Targeting chip in place. Next stage.”
The nurse began rummaging around a drawer in the back of the room, and the chief surgeon plucked a gleaming silver drill from the instrument table.
The drill in the surgeon's hand whirred as he plunged it into Mike’s skull. After just a few seconds, the drill bored through Mike's skull. The surgeon pulled the drill out of the human's head and angled the bit down into a small metal dish that was in the extended arms of the assistant. The chief surgeon hit a button on the drill with his thumb.
A bloody, dime-sized piece of Mike’s skull dropped to the bottom of the metal dish with a clang.
He set the drill back down on the instrument table and held out his hand. “Drone.”
The nurse put an insect-like metal contraption that resembled a whip scorpion in the surgeon’s hand. The chief surgeon's eyes glazed as he entered his AR and took control of the drone. It popped out of his hand and burrowed itself into the hole in Mike's skull.
Inside his AR, he brought the drone to the occipital lobe of Mike’s brain.
“Deploying lattice.”
The arachnid-like drone injected small metal spikes with spools of minuscule wire attached—anchor points—into Mike’s brain. After just a minute's work, the surgeon had crafted a web of wires across Mike's brain. He brought the drone back to the center of Mike’s brain and planted one final anchor spike. A reel inside one of the claw-like appendages at the front of the drone spun, cinching the lattice of wires down to the last anchor point. The surgeon brought the drone around again, ensuring that the web of copper was completely taut against the human’s brain. He brought the drone back out and smiled ever so slightly as the blood and cerebrospinal fluid-soaked drone hopped back into his gloved hand.
Chief Surgeon Athocill smiled and jovially said, “Patch him up.” He was pleased with his performance today. This was the first human to get an advanced AR package, and the procedure went flawlessly. The assistant grabbed a quarter-sized piece of flesh-colored putty and carefully placed the small piece of skull onto it. She placed the putty over the hole in Mike’s head, and it took to life, bonding the fragment of bone back into place and sealing the surface wound.
The surgeon removed his gloves and began typing on a holoprojection. “All systems are operational. I’m linking him to the military network now.”
The assistant pulled the instrument table to her side and plucked a syringe filled with neon green fluid. She said, “I’m waking him up now,” as she plunged the needle into Mike’s arm.
Mike’s eyes flew open, and he grit his teeth against the pain. Tears seeped from his stinging and blood-filling right eye. Every heartbeat brought a jolt of crippling pain to his head. And worst of all was the searing pain from the brand on his chest and the aching cold that barely disguised it. Mike sat up with a grunt. Pain shot through his chest when he brought his hand to his head and felt the hardened disc of putty on his temple.
The surgeon addressed Mike with a soothing tone. “On the count of three, I’m going to activate your AR. It will feel like your head is on fire for a few seconds, but it will only last a few seconds. One… Two… Three!”
Mike nearly collapsed with the pain, but he managed to limit his response to a grunt. Light flashed before his eyes, and Kaelic text appeared in the center of his vision. The doctor asked, “What do you see.”
Mike answered, “AR active. And below that, it says setup wizard.” Despite his best efforts, pain was evident in his voice.
“Ok, Mike, I want you to think, ‘open setup wizard.’”
Mike blinked a few times. “Nothing happened.”
The surgeon said, “Think it in Kaelic.”
Mike’s brow furrowed in concentration. He was fluent in Kaelic, but not to the point where he could think in the language at will.
“Ok, I got it. It says setting menu at the top, and there are a ton of things here. Do you want me to read them off?”
“No. Can you scroll down?”
“Yes.”
“Good. You should be able to get the hang of this pretty quickly; it's very intuitive. You’ll see that there are a few HUD profiles that you can pick from. I’d recommend you start from profile two and then customize it as you see fit.”
Mike nodded as he selected profile two.
“OK, now think clear.”
Mike did as the surgeon asked. His vision was now cleared.
The surgeon smiled. “Feel free to fiddle with the settings, just think clear if it gets cluttered, and reset if you make a dog’s breakfast of it. You’ll have a headache for the next few days, and you may start having more vivid dreams, but other than that, you’ll barely notice the change. Just take it easy for the next few days, and don’t itch at your brand or your eye.”

Previous chapter
Fu Kong pulled a large kettle from her sleeve and began to throw in some aromatic herbs before she continued. “We'll need to do much before we can build your foundation. From there, you'll need to quickly advance through the first few stages, if you hope to withstand just the pressure of their presence.”
“What do you mean?” He finished washing himself and wrapped some of the loose spurs around his body. “How could I hope to stand against that divine power, especially when those who are thousands of times stronger than me didn't fare any better?”
Her laugh filled the cave. It wasn’t exaggerated. Just. Present.
“Define power?” She chuckled while hiding a toothy smile behind her sleeve. “Sweet child, they are like mere insects to me. Although I could handle them after learning where they crawled off to, I will not.”
Fu Kong finished off the last of her cup and set it down, with it a weight settled on the cave and her tone became much more serious.
“It's true that they disrespected me by acting freely within my territory, but this is not my justice to seek. Your village wasn’t even something in their sights. Those… children fought without concern for their surroundings, and you suffered because of it.” Her glare bore through him to emphasize her words. “I will teach you to reach a truly divine power so that you may bring them to justice with your own hands.”
A lump formed in Mareus’ throat. What was she talking about? Justice? How can somebody like him, someone so ordinary who can't even cultivate, be expected to take on not one but two god-like beings that can reshape the landscape as an afterthought?
The sudden shift in the conversation, left him thinking for a moment. On one hand, it was like she was spouting out dreams. On the other, it felt like she was offering the chance of several lifetimes. Either way, something felt off. Like she was raising a tool for matters that she couldn't get her hands dirty with.
Mareus didn't know anything about the customs of the outside world. He only knew about the stories that his elders would pass down of heroes from far away lands. Normally wouldn't a benefactor offer you the chance to right a wrong and gain some compensation from the offending party? This was more like she wanted him to completely destroy them and take everything that they have. At least, she made it seem that way.
Regardless of what he thought. If she was telling truth, this was the only chance he had at justice for his people. If she really could provide him the power, then he could always figure out what that justice looked like later on.
Steeling his nerves, Mareus stared into her eyes, heat rising up from his stomach. “What do I have to do?”
A brief flash of emotion akin to excitement flashed across her face for a brief moment before she said something inaudible to herself and turned back to him.
“First, you'll eat.” Fu Kong commanded.
She handed him a small bowl of a pale brown mush. It didn't have any sort of strong scent, but he could feel comfortable heat through the wooden dish. The bowl was exactly the same as every other meal she had brought him, but never touched. Only this time, the meal didn’t bring out a ravenous hunger from him.
Mareus took an experimental sip. He felt its warmth go down his throat and settled in his stomach, it radiated out and left a long overdue sensation of fullness. The food was just as bland as he was expecting.
It was so good.
He was about to dig his fingers into the mush and devour it right there when she knocked his bony knuckles with a spoon.
“Eat slowly, you haven’t eaten anything for two weeks.”
Mareus conceded that she was right. He once saw a villager, who was lost in the forest for a week without food, desperately stuff themself. If he did the same. His stomach wouldn’t have been able to handle the shock, and most likely would have made him sicker in the end.
“It’s a special congee I’ve prepared. The first few bowls I brought were normal, but as time went on I was forced to take special precautions into account.” She took a seat next to the desk and patted his stool.
Mareus briefly acknowledged the new chair and took his seat. It felt like his body was recovering with every bite. Each spoonful healing his aching heart rather than the bruises on his body. He suspected that was what the special bandages were for.
“Thank you for the food… Madam.” He quickly added. “I haven’t had anything this delicious in years.”
“You don’t need to flatter me, it’s just warm rice and simple herbs in water. It was the same as if I was preparing tea.”
Fu Kong placed her elbow on the desk and watched him eat. She didn’t seem like she was in a hurry for him to finish. So he took his time to blow on the spoon and savor the taste with every bite.
She broke the silence, “You don’t need to call me madam. I’m not from an influential family or something similar. Although,” Her eyes wandered to the ceiling. “I suppose there have been a few legends and cults created based on some of the things I did when I was younger.”
Mareus choked on his food. “I’m sorry if I’ve offended you.”
Her eyes returned to him. Those black eyes, drawing him in like they were beckoning him somewhere comfortable and quiet, somewhere final.
“You didn’t offend me. Maybe if the importance of ‘the proper way of things’ was taught to me before I stepped into the world. But once I did I ended up finding it bothersome. It interests me, how mortals limit themselves in their interactions and put on performances to cater favor with one another. How, regardless of power or position, they’re constantly jockeying amongst themselves for the smallest gains.”
Her gaze drifted to the opposite end of the cave and instead of stopping at the stone wall, it felt like she saw to the end of Idao. Possibly even further if Mareus believed all of the stories about immortals. He wanted to know what the world looked like through her eyes. If he would be able to see that world.
She continued as if her attention never left him. “You have my permission to call me whatever you’d like.”
He thought for a moment before asking, “You’re going to teach me how to get justice for my home?”
She nodded.
“And you’re my savior.”
“You could say that.”
Placing his bowl down, Mareus resisted against his bandages and gave the best martial salute he could. “May I call you ‘Mistress’ then?”
Although it could still only be called a half smile, this was the biggest smile she had openly shown him so far.
“I suppose that will be the most accurate for our coming relationship. You’ll need to finish your food though before it gets cold.”
Mareus was in the middle of scraping the bottom of the bowl for the last of the congee. He glanced at the empty bowl and then to her and back at his bowl again. But, when he looked at her again a pot the size of his head was sitting on the desk.
Fu Kong removed the lid to reveal the steaming porridge filled to the brim.
“Take your time, it’ll stay warm as long as it’s in this pot and we won’t be moving on until you’ve finished every last bite.”
He felt like she was getting back at him for all of the food he wasted over the last two weeks.
Over in the next few days, he assumed. Mareus’ life was a constant cycle of sleeping and eating. He would finish off a bowl and take a nap and when he woke up, he would do it all over again. More than a few times, he suspected her of refilling the plot since it looked big enough for a handful of meals at most.
Maybe it was because he had finally talked to the stranger or maybe she had done something to the pile furs he slept on. But he couldn't remember the last time he felt so rested. Now that his injuries were recovering, the bandages felt like they were getting looser and he could move around more freely.
Even when he washed himself, they didn't secrete any more of that foul black sludge.
It was about his twentieth meal when he was finally getting sick of the congee. Bathing in the victory, Mareus rubbed his distended stomach after finishing off the pot. Even though he felt full, possibly even over full, he didn’t feel the same way he did when he would normally over eat. Instead, he felt healthier and more full of energy than he remembered ever feeling.
What kinds of herbs did she use?