New jailbait males

I'm a married woman. The only male body parts I've ever seen are the ones on my husband's body.
I went into Target today and used the bathroom. While I was washing my hands, a person with male body parts walked in. I admit I immediately looked at this person because I was caught off guard. This person walked in, took out the male parts, and then walked into a stall. This person didn't close the door all the way and peed standing up. I just ran out of the room. I was alone because my husband is out of town for work. I didn't tell anyone other than this post. I feel awful, dirty, and guilty. How do I tell my husband? Do I need to confess this?
I'm sorry if this is off topic or not allowed. I'm new to the catholic church but I'm trying my best. I feel like I just ruined everything because I didn't look away

We adapted a 3 mo. old fawn type chihuahua Chief. This new baby is in addition to my 3 yr old fawn type Pancho. It has taken about a month for Pancho to accept Chief but still has a problem sharing myself and my son. The problem: I am slowly able to house break Chief and have to say it's been relatively fairly easy. The new problem is that my Pancho is now urinating everywhere. My son thinks that Pancho is marking since the new male is living with us now. I have tile and hardwood only so it has made a mess. The urine runs through the grout channels and has caused a huge problem. I spend 1-2 hours daily cleaning. The smell still lingers. Has anyone had this problem and if so how do I end these bad habits?

If God and angels use the pronoun he, and they don't have any biological characteristics, there's clearly something about gender or use of pronouns that's beyond just biological male and female. What are the arguments against this? God is literally almighty according to islam, he could've used any other pronoun, or he could've used a new one that didn't exist before, yet he chose 'he' despite not having the biological characteristics that conservatives argue are necessary determinants.

I (25F) recently moved in with two new flatmates, Sandra (34F) and Nina(32F). Sandra is a painter, and Nina is a Russian immigrant with a pedagogy degree who works as a cleaning lady. I'm a first-year PhD student.
Initially, both Sandra and Nina were very welcoming. Nina, however, quickly started wanting to hang out frequently. She opened up to me about her personal life, including a failed relationship, almost immediately. I’m quite reserved, so I kept my own sharing to a minimum.
Nina began asking intrusive questions about my whereabouts, vacation plans, and more. It felt like living with a nosy parent. To create some distance, I started giving her generic answers, which seemed to work for a while.
Last month, Sandra went on vacation, leaving me alone with Nina. I agreed to go out for pizza with her one night, and it was pleasant. I even shared more about my life, and she seemed genuinely interested. However, she started asking me to hang out almost daily, even during my work hours, not understanding my busy schedule as a PhD student working from home.
One night, I went out and noticed Nina dressed up to go out as well. I forgot my wallet and came back to find her changing into a similar outfit to mine. I brushed it off as a compliment. Then, she started imitating other aspects of my life: copying my food choices, buying things from Etsy after I mentioned it, rearranging the furniture in her room after me, and even getting the same shampoo I had just bought.
The last straw was when I told her about a bad experience with a male colleague who used to hit on me and led me to quit my previous job. The day after that, she came back home telling me about how some stranger kept hitting on her on her way home. Yesterday, she tried on my ring without permission and later, when Sandra was also there, asked about my exact sleeping hours out of the blue. Sandra and I laughed it off to let her know how creepy that was.
What scares me is that she talks about taking revenge on her ex by breaking his window and seems serious about it, so this tells me she has no control over her emotions. Her behavior feels like childish copying, especially weird from someone in their 30s. Sandra does none of these things.
Am I exaggerating in this situation or am I right to distance myself from Nina?

In a fascinating study, evidenced for a possible landing sight for Lehi in America has been discovered within easy travel distance to Palmyra, NY. If substantiated, it could add weight to an Atlantic migration, the controversial Solutrean Hypothesis, in addition to the traditional Siberian route. https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2024/05/19/first-americans-chesapeake-parsons-island/
The link is behind a pay wall. Here’s the article
PARSONS ISLAND, Md. — With the Chesapeake Bay sloshing at his knee-high boots, Darrin Lowery stood back and squinted at a 10-foot-tall bluff rising above a narrow strip of beach. To the untrained eye, this wall of sandy sediment is the unremarkable edge of a modest island southeast of the Bay Bridge. To Lowery, a coastal geologist, its crumbling layers put the island at the center of one of the most contentious battles in archaeology: when and how humans first made their way into the Americas. The story of the first Americans has long been a matter of public and scientific fascination, undergirded at times by vicious disagreements. The timeline of when people arrived has shifted earlier in grudging steps over the past century, and scientists today mostly agree people were in the Americas at least 15,000 years ago. Story continues below advertisement
Lowery’s site and others like it could revise the story again, pushing back the timeline earlier than most experts thought possible. In total, Lowery and a motley crew of collaborators have discovered 286 artifacts from the site on the island’s southwestern edge. The oldest, they reported, was embedded with charcoal dated to more than 22,000 years ago, a time when much of the continent would have been covered in ice sheets. If Lowery is right, Parsons Island could rewrite American prehistory, opening up a host of new puzzles: How did those people get here? How many waves of early migration were there? And are these mysterious people the ancestors of Native Americans?
Casts of tools found at Parsons Island are seen on display. Lowery and his team have unearthed 286 artifacts from the site so far. (Michael Robinson Chávez/The Washington Post) New claims of sites dated this far back face a wall of skepticism, rooted in legitimate scientific scrutiny and in the threat they pose to long-entrenched views. To complicate matters, Lowery — who has been affiliated with the Smithsonian but does much of his work independently — presented the results of his study of Parsons Island in a 260-page manuscript posted online rather than in a traditional peer-reviewed journal. The peer-review process is designed to help validate scientific claims, but Lowery argues that in archaeology it often leads to a circle-the-wagon mentality, allowing scientists to wave away evidence that doesn’t support the dominant paradigm. He says he isn’t seeking formal publishing routes because “life’s too short,” comparing this aspect of academic science to “the dumbest game I’ve ever played.”
The island is also a challenging site to study for a variety of reasons — most poignantly because it is rapidly eroding as the land subsides and sea level rises. The spot where the artifacts were found is now covered by the choppy waters of the bay. “The visit reinforced my will to invest my time into this time period, because it’s a very fragile record,” said Sebastien Lacombe, an archaeologist at Binghamton University, who visited the island in 2017. “It’s at risk of disappearing, and we’re at risk of [allowing] these sites and artifacts to lose their meaning forever.” ‘A weirdo kid’
Darrin Lowery walks a beach on Parsons Island. Most of the artifacts were excavated by erosion, discovered on the beach after they had already fallen out of the bluff. (Michael Robinson Chávez/The Washington Post) Lowery began exploring the Chesapeake shoreline as a child, wandering his backyard on Tilghman Island, about 15 miles southwest from Parsons Island. In 1977, 9-year-old Lowery picked up a distinctive fluted stone projectile point. A few years later, he saw something similar on a documentary on public television, in which a Smithsonian archaeologist explained it was a Clovis point, a relic of what most people then believed were the first Americans. For the last half of the 20th century, the peopling of the Americas followed a tidy narrative. Humans traveled from Siberia across a land bridge that connected Asia and North America during the last Ice Age, when sea levels dropped. They then migrated southward around 13,000 years ago, when the ice sheets covering the continent retreated and exposed a previously impassable inland route. These people — named after a site in Clovis, N.M. — left behind distinctive, fluted stone points that have since been found scattered across North America. Story continues below advertisement
Lowery turned to his dad and said, “I found one of those.” He found more by walking the shoreline every day. Lowery made discoveries as he meandered, and he began to understand how seasonal patterns, sediment movement, wind and waves could unearth ancient treasures. “I was a weirdo kid,” he recalled. He trained as a geologist, and it was geology that initially attracted Lowery to study Parsons Island. In 2010, he published an article in Quaternary Science Reviews describing layers of windblown silt deposited between 13,000 and 41,000 years ago at Miles Point in eastern Maryland. But the geological record is like reading the CliffsNotes version of a book, and he was frustrated by an “unconformity” in the sediment layers where thousands of years were missing, like someone had ripped out those chapters.
Parsons Island is rapidly eroding. The archaeological site is now covered by the Chesapeake Bay. (Michael Robinson Chávez/The Washington Post) Lowery and a colleague were prowling around in a whaler, looking for a spot that might fill in the blanks, when they spotted a black streak of sediment rising up out of the bay. They pulled up to Parsons Island and thought they had found “the Rosetta stone” to decode the geology. Parsons is a 78-acre island less than a mile offshore that is privately owned by the Corckran family, which uses it as a family retreat. With the Corckrans’ permission, Lowery and colleagues began to visit regularly. The bluff layers preserved a remarkably intact geologic timeline going back more than 40,000 years. Then, one morning in August 2013, the team discovered a leaf-shaped prehistoric stone tool jutting out of this crumbling wall. They knew from the work they’d already done that it was probably quite old. Story continues below advertisement
On a recent visit to the island, geoarchaeologist Daniel Wagner demonstrated why. He stepped back to scan the cliff, then tapped a narrow spade into a light tan sediment layer just above his head. That, he said, is the geologic “chapter” where they’d expect to find Clovis artifacts. Lower layers were set down before Clovis. The palm-size tool Lowery and his colleague found came out of the dark sediment layer near their knees. The scientists used two methods to date the sediment around the artifact, both showing it was more than 20,000 years old. They scoured the beach on 93 visits and conducted a formal, top-down excavation, collecting the 286 artifacts. They sent out sediment to labs that specialize in studying ancient pollen and microfossils called phytoliths to help reconstruct the ecosystem at the time. Back then, this region wouldn’t have been a coastline. The sediment the tools are embedded in dates to the “last glacial maximum” — the scientific term for the most recent coldest period of the Ice Age. In the final analysis, Lowery thinks the artifacts may have been transported downslope before they were buried, making them between 15,000 and 20,500 years old. “This was a swale, where water was collecting,” Lowery said, envisioning the ancient landscape. “You’ve got a dune. It’s got sedges and small trees on it that are windblown and all contorted, and then behind it you’ve got a little pond.” That pond may have attracted prehistoric bison, musk ox and llamas, whose fossilized molars he’s found scattered on the island shore. And it may have been what attracted the mysterious people who left behind a cache of stone tools. A story in flux
Parsons Island is seen from nearby Kent Island in the Chesapeake Bay. (Michael Robinson Chávez/The Washington Post) Parsons Island is the latest addition to a growing list of what are called pre-Clovis sites. But while the long-held “Clovis First” theory has crumbled over the past three decades, that has only deepened the debate about how much earlier the first Americans arrived. Claims of early sites present a challenge on two fronts. The first is technical: Dating a site convincingly can be difficult, depending on the context. Sediments can shift or be disturbed. What at first look like artifacts can turn out to be “geofacts,” created not by humans but by natural processes or animals. As a result, many pre-Clovis sites “enjoy a Warhol-esque 15 minutes of fame, and then they disappear” because of real problems with the geology or the methods, said archaeologist James Adovasio. In 1973, he began excavating Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania, which dated back 16,000 years. It was instantly mired in controversy, and the site still has its critics today. The second challenge reflects the culture of science. For a long time, people who claimed to find pre-Clovis sites were swimming upstream against deeply entrenched thinking. Tom Dillehay, an archaeologist at Vanderbilt University, began working on a site in southern Chile called Monte Verde in 1977, which was dated to 14,500 years ago. He recalled a group of researchers he calls the “Clovis police,” scientific gatekeepers who summarily rejected any pre-Clovis sites, sometimes for valid reasons and sometimes as a knee-jerk reaction. Monte Verde began to change that. In 1997, a group of respected archaeologists visited the site and declared it authentic. “It took about 25 to 30 years for Monte Verde to be accepted,” Dillehay said. “We went through hell.”
Holly, a German shorthaired pointer, runs across a bluff top on Parsons Island. (Michael Robinson Chávez/The Washington Post) Lowery says he isn’t interested in running that gantlet. He noted that he drew on multiple labs and methods for dating the Parsons Island artifacts in an effort to ensure that any one extremely old date isn’t a fluke. He’s also invited other researchers in to visit and study the site. That approach irritates some scientists. David Meltzer, an archaeologist at Southern Methodist University, said in an email that he would not discuss Lowery’s claims “until they go through the wringer of peer review and get published.” Others like Stuart Fiedel, an independent archaeologist based in western Massachusetts who has been skeptical of other sites, say the site should not fly under the radar just because of Lowery’s unconventional process. Story continues below advertisement
“There are people I know in the field who will not pay any attention to it, because it has not been peer-reviewed, which I think is kind of sticking your head in the sand,” Fiedel said. “It’s there. We can’t act as [if] nothing’s been found there.” Share this article Share
A bigger issue may be the site’s rapid erosion. Most of the artifacts were found after they’d fallen out of the bluff, which means their place in the geologic timeline is obscured. Nine artifacts were found in place, and only three were able to be dated using charcoal flecks found next to them. Steven Forman, a geoscientist at Baylor University, helped date the sediment layers at Parsons Island, corroborating findings from another lab. He said that it’s hard to find the artifacts in the kind of bulletproof geological context needed to support extraordinary claims. “The case is not as tight as we like to see it with other sites,” Forman said. Michael Waters, an archaeologist at Texas A&M University who has worked on pre-Clovis sites and excavated at Parsons Island, thinks he probably got there too late, when most of the artifacts had already been eroded out. Still, he pays someone to monitor the bank profile on a regular basis, because he’s ready to jump on a plane if they see something in place. “Too bad we didn’t get there four to five years sooner,” Waters said. Enter ancient DNA
An ancient bovine tooth is among the fossils found so far on Parsons Island. (Michael Robinson Chávez/The Washington Post) Parsons Island isn’t the only site that could dramatically push back human arrival in the Americas. Last fall, a study published in the journal Science described fossilized human footprints discovered at White Sands National Park in New Mexico that have been dated to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago. That stunning finding suggests people were here during the Ice Age — much earlier than most experts thought possible if the first humans arrived via the Bering land bridge and inland corridor. The dates at White Sands are still being disputed because of questions about the methods. But the timeline collides head-on with another exciting line of evidence: studies of ancient DNA. By examining genetic material preserved in bones and teeth and comparing those samples to modern populations, scientists have been able to track when populations mingled and became isolated from one another, offering a new window into patterns of human migration. Story continues below advertisement
In broad strokes, they’ve found that the ancestors of Native Americans split from ancient Siberian populations no earlier than 23,000 years ago. The studies can’t say where such splits took place, but many scientists interpret genetic evidence to mean that the ancestors of modern people weren’t in the Americas until much later. Genetic studies suggest that Native American ancestors traveled into what is now the United States between 17,500 and 14,600 years ago. Joe Watkins, a senior consultant for Archaeological and Cultural Education Consultants in Tucson and a Choctaw tribal member, said that he sees a few problems with using the still-evolving DNA evidence to decide how ancient sites are related to modern-day people. “The reality is genetics does not equal culture,” Watkins said. He also argued that there are still too few samples of ancient DNA in the Americas to be sure they capture the whole story. “Trying to create population histories based on 10 people, if you will, is a little bit of a scientific conundrum,” Watkins said. It could be that additional ancient genomes will one day help fill in the blanks. Another possibility is that earlier sites could represent small, isolated groups of people who didn’t contribute to the ancestry of living Native Americans.
A tree-lined path leads to a beach on Parsons Island. (Michael Robinson Chávez/The Washington Post) “Let’s suppose you have a successful population colonizing an area, and then one day, 15 males go out and get eaten by a short-faced bear,” Lowery said. “You reduce the genetic diversity, and bada boom, bada bing, game over.” All this explodes the neat picture of one population migrating into the Americas as ice sheets retreated, hunting big animals like mammoths and giant sloths, driving them into extinction as they went. If there were small groups making their way into the New World, with different stone tool technologies, and far earlier than previously believed, how did they get here? People could have migrated along the coast by boat, following a “kelp highway.” It’s also possible the ice sheet was not as impenetrable as experts have long thought. Lowery’s longtime collaborator, Dennis Stanford, proposed that people crossed the Atlantic Ocean in what is known as the Solutrean Hypothesis, though that idea has been rejected by many archaeologists. To resolve the question, scientists need to keep looking for more evidence. Archaeology is a historical science, and unlike chemistry or biomedicine, where researchers can perform the same experiment over and over again to see if they get the same results, consensus is built by argument, counterargument and new evidence. To a certain extent, older ideas and prejudices also fall away as new people enter the field, said James Feathers, who performed dating on samples from Parsons Island before he retired from the University of Washington. “Sometimes you have to wait for people to die off,” Feathers said.
Alex Corckran, whose family owns Parsons Island, stands on a beach on the southern side of the island. (Michael Robinson Chávez/The Washington Post) Lowery is determined to keep motoring around the Chesapeake, researching the ephemeral landscape that he loves and that may contain clues about human prehistory. He acknowledges that the sites, perhaps a little bit like him, are “persnickety” but that shouldn’t deter interest in them. Instead, it should spur more. He noted that if a pod of silverfish was found gnawing on documents in the National Archives, people would be galvanized to act. “I view it as my swan song,” Lowery said, “to say you can learn a lot from [an] eroding site if you do a little bit of effort and look at it systematically.”
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So where do I start, I (female, 34) have wanted to have children since I was about 26, tried with my first boyfriend and had no chance, and with the second for about 3 years. Then I went to a doctor and it was discovered that I had too high prolactin, it was resolved with medication but still nothing for 2 years. I'm at my wits' end. The only thing that gives me hope would be treatment in the clinic, which I can't afford. So now I met someone new, male 42, very nice, loyal, good job and he would like to have a child. I have no idea how to explain this to him or whether. If I don't say anything I might be wasting his time, he's already 42, if I tell him he'll probably be gone and anyway I can ask him if he would accept treatment , and how do I explain to him that I tried to have a child with my ex friends without hurting him? Overall, I'm completely at my wits end, nothing is fun anymore, I can't plan anything towards a relationship because I don't see a happy ending. What should I do, thanks in advance for opinions.

Me(male 43) was dating this woman (female 48) for 3 weeks. Everything was amazing. The sex, the conversations and the exchanges of things like, I can't get you out of my head. We have had sex at this point. I've been told time and time again I'm a solid 8.5. Well 4 or 5 days before this weekend, mid May, I tried to make plans on a Friday night with her. She said, I'm heading to California that weekend and didn't elaborate. So I left it alone. I had suspicions at that point and fel some trepidation, but tried to ignore it. I got bed on a work night around 530pm west coast time. I made plans to go and play some disc golf with her the Thursday before she leaves for California. She's into CrossFit and teaches morning classes online. While she's on the plane she tells me playfully she can't me out of her head and can't wait until she gets back so she can see me and all that blah blah. While texting she says,
"I want to be transparent. Not sure how much info you want. I’m an all out person"
She's been divorced a year now after a life long relationship/marriage. I then say, well you've ommitted knowledge up to this point and I can infer why your going down there and if your involved with another man, it kinda hurts.
She says, it's not my intentions to hurt anyone and I'm new to this.
Should I feel betrayed and like I've been lied to?
No she doesn't owe me anything, but I would think it's common courtesy to let someone know your having sex with other people not just YOU. There were alot of other details that she would ommit and become sterile with her speech when talking about other events.
I dumped her, she then said:
"It’s been three weeks. 6 times meeting in person. I don’t know you as a person yet. I’ve never seen your living quarters even. I made these plans before I met you. I didn’t promise you anything. We are just getting to know each other. I’m sorry you are so upset."
I think she's just making up for lost time. She was in a sexless marriage and this woman has a libido like I've never seen, boardering on unhealthy almost.

So where do I start, I (female, 34) have wanted to have children since I was about 26, tried with my first boyfriend and had no chance, and with the second for about 3 years. Then I went to a doctor and it was discovered that I had too high prolactin, it was resolved with medication but still nothing for 2 years. I'm at my wits' end. The only thing that gives me hope would be treatment in the clinic, which I can't afford. So now I met someone new, male 42, very nice, loyal, good job and he would like to have a child. I have no idea how to explain this to him or whether. If I don't say anything I might be wasting his time, he's already 42, if I tell him he'll probably be gone and anyway I can ask him if he would accept treatment , and how do I explain to him that I tried to have a child with my ex friends without hurting him? Overall, I'm completely at my wits end, nothing is fun anymore, I can't plan anything towards a relationship because I don't see a happy ending. What should I do, thanks in advance for opinions?

57 year old male nudist at home and at Gunnison as much as possible looking for new friends to go check out Sunny Rest this summer.

If we fast forward GPTs capabilities, pretty soon it should be able to make some things very accurately that take humans a long time to do, by compounding a lot of academic knowledge, for example.
One case I am thinking of is constitutive modeling. I have done some of this myself, for doing vibration analyses, stress and strain, static failure, etc. It's hard and you kind of need to be an expert (as an example, a top professoresearcher in the field might reasonably spend a lot of research time on detailed constitutive modeling of human thorax, or etc).
Sooner or later I should be able to ask GPT, "Please make me an accurate, detailed Constitutive model of the entire human body, with all mechanical and chemical processes handled in every system. I need it to be flexible as male or female, from infants to late old age (with stochastics on various infirmities of the older subjects) I will be using this to test car safety." Basically you're asking GPT for a grail-perfect all encompassing model. And sooner or later, I guess GPT can do it.
Now several things show up:
(1) Who checks this model? Of course GPT could make mistakes. It seems the thing I have asked for should include some very complex factors such as aging and aging with diseases (common and uncommon), perhaps different dynamics of infants. These would all need very knowledgeable experts to check them. Like a whole team of people who are potentially both specialist doctors and mechanical (or specialized PhD biomed) engineers at the same time, also chemists, etc. It's a lot!
And even after vetting, you would need to validate results were within expected parameters.
This project is so immensely big, I don't know where you would get the people to verify and validate your model. And it's only really one domain I'm talking about.
(2) Lets expand this. Sooner or later, let's say GPT-9 is VERY GOOD and we believe in every way it's better than 200 PhDs on problems like this. Cool, so you ask for your constitutive model. Well, why did you even need the domain knowledge to say "constitutive model?" Just say "I need a simulated human for crash-testing." But then, why be even that domain specific? Why not say "I need a car that is safe for humans?"
Let's assume there aren't errors in GPT's output, and it makes a perfectly safe car, implicitly doing all the simulations on God-level perfect constitutive models of humans.
Don't we soon lose the ability to be good engineers and just become dependent slaves to the AI?
(3) I have given the extreme end in (2) above. Lets dial it back and say that GPT works in tandem with humans as a time-saving framework. Lets say as an engineer, I need not focus on smaller-level numerical models and multiphysics to get my constitutive model right. Let's say GPT can handle all this in the background while I design a tool, and it's "mostly good" at it.
This is great, right? It multiplies my efforts as an engineer, and saves me from having to hire as many people to get the job done or spend my precious time doing it.
Still though, while I am becoming an expert in using the abstraction, lower level expertise, below the level of the abstraction is less necessary and less used. Like how people programming on game engines aren't typically working up from an 8086, and don't usually know the kinds of at-the-metal stuff that a whole generation of people knew, which contributed much to making those game engines... Who will make the new engines? (All-knowing GPT, I guess?, and that leads back to point (2), if indirectly)
Also, what else does that deep unabstracted knowledge contribute to? We're kind of past ICs and into microcontrollers. If no one had had to work from z80s and 6502s, and the whole generation of programmers had all been on high-level abstractions such as powerful game engines, then who would have kicked off that revolution?
TL;DR: I'm not saying working at the levels of abstraction or trained neural-network assistant is """bad""" -- obviously you can do a lot more with Bethesda's engine than you can with Forth. And I think a good engineer will be able to solve a lot of problems with GPT-9. Just, there is likely some cost to losing a culture of people holding the very deep, decades-acquired knowledge of the other stuff that we "don't need to worry about" either.

Hello all. I am moving to a new apartment in 2 months. I am getting 2 new cats within a week of each other that did not grow up together.
The first is a female Maine Coon, 8 years old. Very sweet, social, slightly playful, and friendly with other cats but seems to want to be the main focus of the household. She has not lived in the same space with other cats before but she is also from a rescue and was surrendered by her owner. I am getting her first.
The other is a one-year-old male ragdoll/siamese mix from Craigslist. He is playful and energetic but is not a lap cat at all. He is independent, does not like being pet or picked up, and is not very social with humans but is lovely and experienced with other cats. He is also being surrendered by his owner.
I have had 2 cats previously with the same dynamic and it worked out wonderfully, 1 independent elderly cat, and 1 curious and playful kitten. I am just wondering— is this a bad idea? I would hate to stress the cats out more but I live alone and work about 10 hours a day and would hate if one or the other was left alone for that long. I have met them both prior to adopting and feel very connected to both and would have a hard time choosing between the two. Do you think they’d get along? Any advice for getting two cats at the same time or introducing them?
Thank you!

I’m 38, male, straight, I’d say I’m fairly attractive, tall, have a good job, good friends, but also typically don’t mesh well with a lot of other men in my life. In therapy. I spent 11 of the last 13 years in 2 relationships. The first, 3 1/2 years, I was immature, she probably was as well to relationships, and ended naturally. The second was 7 years, firey and big at the start, as it was falling apart we pandemic bonded and it became a mess where we grew apart and by the time the world opened up again we felt like different people who fought a lot. She was diagnosed with a number of things she ignored and was physically violent, and I’d say emotionally violent as well. I feel grateful to have broken off from that time in my life, it ended last August.
Been single about 9 months and feel ready to date again. I like having that close relationship and intimacy and my friends even before those two relationships would refer to me as a “relationship guy”. I want to be married and have someone to travel the world with, as well as our own neighborhood. It’s important to me. Again, I’m happy with where I live, what I do for work, what my friend circle is, for the most part, and my financial security. I’ve gone out with friends and met new people but they are so often coupled already or there is no spark when talking about dating.
So I’ve joined Hinge. Out the gate I’ve matched with a variety of women and maybe it’s a paradox of choice, maybe it’s me, but I feel so hesitant to spark something up. I matched with one woman who is attractive, my type, has a good job in a cool industry, but I feel like I can’t get out the words to progress it. The obvious answer is “well I’m not ready”, but I feel ready to date again outside the staring at an empty Hinge chat window. I’m trying to separate the emotions of Loneliness, which I have on that personal level, sex drive, which I’m not the type to casually sleep around, and a drive for companionship on a deeper level.
I feel burnt by my last relationship pretty bad. I feel maybe afraid to make the same mistakes again. To pour another long stretch of years into something I shouldn’t. I’ve got friends who have been with partners who are amazing for years and I feel like an immature fuck up, and that I’m not prioritizing the right things in relationships. I feel like maybe I don’t even know HOW to date correctly. I feel lost on the big picture. But again, I want it. My friends want me to date again. My therapist has been encouraging me to date again. But I’m choking at the thought.
Half of this I know was me finding space to write these thoughts out. I appreciate it. But if you have thoughts, a kind word, anything, I’d love to hear it.

First of all I would just like to say that I love her to death, and can't see myself with another person. With that said I feel as if I am at an impasse. We have been dating since we were 17 and we are about to get out of high school. We have talked about the idea of marriage and what we are going to do after we get out of high school.
The first and major problem is the idea of children. Since I've known her she has said that she absolutely does not want children, and not even adoption would be feasible. Up until recently I had thought that I was ok with that sentiment, and didn't really want children myself. A while ago I had talked to her and brough up the conversation, and one of the questions she asked was would that be a complete deal breaker if she was to say no. Not knowing what to say I just said maybe and that I didn't know at the moment, but as it stands I feel that I would make it a deal breaker. She has recently said that she might be open to it, but it feels like she is just saying that to make me happy.
Second is the fact that I am non-binary. I go by he him pronouns as I was born male, but the issue of whether or not to change them has been a big maybe for me. I have brought up to her multiple time the question of if she would be comfortable with me if I changed my pronouns, and she has always steered clear of directly answering. She is also bisexual and thought that she would be understanding because of her standing on these kinds of things.
Lastly, but kind of least importantly is physical intimacy. For background she is the first person that I have done anything with, and I can say that for sure I have no idea what I am doing. That leads me to the main point being that I want to experiment to try to make both of our experiences better, but ever time that I try to ask to do something new or try something different it gets shut down. Mind you, these are like mundane things nothing crazy like using toys or anything like that.
I could really use some help as to what I should or could do in this situation.
TLDR; My girlfriend has differing views from me and I just want both of us to be happy. Would like advice as to what to do.

First of all I would just like to say that I love her to death, and can't see myself with another person. With that said I feel as if I am at an impasse. We have been dating since we were 17 and we are about to get out of high school. We have talked about the idea of marriage and what we are going to do after we get out of high school.
The first and major problem is the idea of children. Since I've known her she has said that she absolutely does not want children, and not even adoption would be feasible. Up until recently I had thought that I was ok with that sentiment, and didn't really want children myself. A while ago I had talked to her and brough up the conversation, and one of the questions she asked was would that be a complete deal breaker if she was to say no. Not knowing what to say I just said maybe and that I didn't know at the moment, but as it stands I feel that I would make it a deal breaker. She has recently said that she might be open to it, but it feels like she is just saying that to make me happy.
Second is the fact that I am non-binary. I go by he him pronouns as I was born male, but the issue of whether or not to change them has been a big maybe for me. I have brought up to her multiple time the question of if she would be comfortable with me if I changed my pronouns, and she has always steered clear of directly answering. She is also bisexual and thought that she would be understanding because of her standing on these kinds of things.
Lastly, but kind of least importantly is physical intimacy. For background she is the first person that I have done anything with, and I can say that for sure I have no idea what I am doing. That leads me to the main point being that I want to experiment to try to make both of our experiences better, but ever time that I try to ask to do something new or try something different it gets shut down. Mind you, these are like mundane things nothing crazy like using toys or anything like that.
I could really use some help as to what I should or could do in this situation.
TLDR; My girlfriend has differing views from me and I just want both of us to be happy. Would like advice as to what to do.

I apologize, the reason this is so long is because 1.) I suck at summarizing 2.) backstory of some sort is needed to understand this excuse of a man and/or human being. 3.) I’m not a good storyteller, but you are, Charlotte, and I know you can take this mess of info and turn it into a beautiful, long-time-coming, petty revenge story for your channel. Because what is more petty than an herbal, flowery Trojan horse no one knows about?
Cast: OP-me Swister- my older sister Mom - mine and my sister’s mom, grandmother to Trish/Patty BIL- exactly who it says, and a huge butthole. Patty/Trish - the same person, a four year old little girl, product of union between BIL and Swister.
Some (bit rambling to explain some stuff) backstory:
Last winter, to get out of the horrible, freezing, painfully striking sleet (it would not pass over our town, was just there, stuck in a vortex, for what seemed like eternity) of January in our hometown (we were always just a couple degrees away from it being snow, and quite a few times we got lots of hail, some as big as softballs, and could damage cars and punch through windshields, etc. I know this sounds like ‘The Long Winter’ by Laura Ingalls Wilder, but both me and my mom (I’m disabled and have to live with someone to help in every day life, I’m not a high school dropout living in mommy’s basement playing fortnight or assassin’s creed and have memorized cheat codes. The only video games I’ve ever played were duck hunt, which my grandpa actually got for himself bc he loved to hunt, so I only got to play it in turns with my five other cousins when we visited him); and N64’s Zelda:Ocarina of Time. I hope those titles illustrate for you the last time I played a video game. Oh! And the Oregon Trail, but I always died of some disease that doesn’t happen today or is curable with fluids, rest, and maybe some penicillin. But I digress.) but both me and my mom and my older sister (who was pregnant at the time) and BIL moved about 15 minutes down a little used two lane highway. And when my niece was born late 2019, we named her Patricia after my grandmother. (Patty or Trish for short).
My BIL claims he can smell everything ten times better than any other human, ‘probably because I’m an Alpha Male, and I need heightened senses to protect my pack, my family.’ Okay, I won’t deny he is sensitive to scent, but if his food doesn’t come out smelling right (almost always made special order bc of his ‘allergies’ (that’s what he tells the waitress; in reality, he just doesn’t want stuff he doesn’t like on his plate, and is too fucking lazy to just take the single pickle chip off the McDonald’s cheeseburger. If half of America can do it, why not him? ‘I might smell and taste it with my superhuman olfactory senses.’ He said with a very sincere, serious tone and face, like I was in special education and couldn’t understand it was 1,2,3, not 1,3,2. He is an arrogant misogynistic asshole. My sister could have done sooooooo much better. Idk y she chose him to marry (for a general idea of all what he looks like, speaks like, and sounds like (minus the slight lisp) is the video of the ‘dating coach’ who took the video in his car, opening it with ‘you do not have to accept her rejection, say things like I’m the best, why wouldn’t you want me, you should see my basement with ropes and pulleys and hooks, and do you know what a did with her that night? Well, it’s not appropriate to talk about on this platform”… yeah, that guy, except for the lisp, could be my BIL IDENTICAL twin. Anyway, now you know BIL is a creepy, asshole, bastard with no sense of boundaries or personal space, who think women are lesser than him. Moving on.
I also suffer from anxiety, insomnia, and a few other things that require me to take meds that can slow down your breathing, so if I can take care of my pain, anxiety, and insomnia without having to take a narcotic or benzo, and it works, I choose that path first. Some of these ways are ice packs, heating pads, a special herbal tea, aromatherapy, yoga, sleeping surrounded by pillows like I were in a nest, making sure to do a little bit of some exercise and always taking my daily walks (I don’t want the pain to get so bad from being sedentary I will require a wheelchair before I absolutely have to) and don’t always want to be popping clonapen or oxy or morphine all day and falling asleep, especially around my niece. I don’t want her to ever believe pills fix problems.
So to escape the horrible winter in our new home environment, my mom decided to use her saved-up reward points and book us all a ten day trip to Disney Aulani Hawaii, specifically Disney bc of my niece. My mom and I had been there before, in 2020, right when resorts opened back up at much less than capacity because of COVID rules, and we had gone for a week, so I knew they had an awesome spa I could spend my saved vacation money on.
The minute we step into our two bedroom, two full bath (each with both a shower and separate tubs!), an ok sized but capable kitchen, and a nice, big, comfy furniture filled common room/living room. All of my stuff I put in the room I’d be sharing with my mom, then took my niece to go and get her first Shirley Temple (they are a virgin cocktail I have loved as a kid, still do, that are super easy to make the ghetto way - diet 7up (diet taste better in the cocktail, idk why, it just the way the Gods have decreed it so), grenadine, and maraschino cherries (as many as you want, but kids usually get two and adults one. I think this is unfair) and tada! You have a Shirley Temple.
So I’m walking back to the room, both of us holding our reusable drink cups for our stay (if you bring the cup with you, you get any non alcoholic drink for free during your stay. Coolcool.) And I open the door and hear my mom and sister begging BIL to just stop it, let it go, just enjoy the ten days here. BIL is in MY room, going through MY things, yelling at mom and sis to leave him alone, he has to find it, it reeks, etc. I’m like, GTFO of my stuff, this is extremely violating, sister, are you not concerned and pissed he is pawing through my bra and panties right now, ‘looking for hidden pockets’?
Finally, he grabs this 15 or 20 mL vial I have, a pain relieving roll on I use for my migraines and tension headaches, about $55 after tax, not including S&H. I had left my almost empty one at home, and this was a brand new vial, safety wrapping still on. He blames me, said I was trying to ruin ‘his hard earned vacation’ (he has no job, only looks after my niece enough to feed her (most of the time) and my sister had to find a high -enough paying job so she could work from home so she could do every job like she were a single mother. The only chore he does, and only like 65% of the time (they love to eat out and/or order in) is cooking, and as much as I hate him, sometimes his dishes are good. Not phenomenal, like he practically requires everyone to praise it as, even if he just added sage basil and oregano to a frozen pizza.
So I ask, “how the hell can you smell that? There is the outer plastic seal and the inner lid seal?” And he goes off on being an Alpha Males and olfactory nonsense. Then he takes the vial and runs out of the room with it. He takes it to a housekeeping services cart several doors down and spikes I into her trash can, which by the thunk sound the vial made told me not only was her trash nearly or almost nearly empty, and that he had broken and wasted a valuable medical tool because he is batshit crazy and doesn’t see me as a person outside of how I interact with his everyday life, like I’m a NPC who doesn’t exist or say anything until a real person player comes into my field of awareness. He pawed through every item I owned, including underwear and opening my tampons one to sniff (I especially bought no scented for this trip, and he went and ruined a whole box of them (I’m not putting a previously opened and practically stuck up my BIL’s nose tampons! It’s not just unsanitary, it’s gross on so many levels! I also save up what little money I have leftover from my SSDI monthly checks, so over several months, I had saved up to buy that, bc it worked where others just smelled good but didn’t take the tension headache or migraine away. He has never had to pay for things with his own money, so has no concept of it, of saving money, of worth.
I stewed and stewed and I knew I had to be as petty as possible and still not get caught. I was still thinking these thoughts on our third to last day while I got an unusual massage at the Aulani spa. First is usual deep tissue massage, but then they rub your back and skin with tingly oils and take what looks like the contents of a bag of tea (very heady and fragrant in that small room) and rub it all over you, wrap you up for 15 min, scrape it off you, also taking excess body oil and dead skin cells with it as it goes. And then, smelling all those wonderful scents, I had a genius thought. As she scraped the herbs and stuff off my skin into a bowl, I asked for a to go bag for the herbs, and pretended I wanted to put them in a foot bath I was giving myself tonight in my room. Shockingly, they agreed, and gave me all the scrapings, herbs, essential &body oils, and dead skin cells, in a linen drawstring bag they said I could just toss the whole bag into the hot water.
Now, when I travel, I always pack duct tape in my checked baggage. To make sure shampoo, conditioner, lotion, stuff like that, wet and messy? So it will stay in the bottle with the top duct taped both on shut and to the top of the bottle. Nobody was in the room; they were taking a hike my physical disabilities made very challenging (like an 7-8/10 for me, and a 3.4.5/10 for them) over broken terrain and off trail a bit to climb to a waterfall, so I had said ‘I’m going to the spa. Peace!’ So nobody was back from the hike yet, but I had no idea when they would be, so I acted fast. I grabbed my duct tape and went into sister and BIL’s room and squished and squiggled my way as far under the bed as I could, an duct taped the linen bag of herbs and scrapings right under where he would lay his head to rest at night (according to his ‘Alpha Wolf’ status, he was always on the side of the bed between the door and the rest of his collectables in his room.
We had that day, two more days, and three nights left. BIL did not sleep a wink during that entire time - he had housekeeping change the bedding (including duvets and their covers) several times in that small frame of time, and demanded of my mom to rent him (on my moms dime, not this 40 y o mans money, the mooching leach, but her carefully budgeted money and visa card points hoarded over years.) his own, just perfectly sanitized room, obviously something had been left here by a former guest that was rotting. Finally, FINALLY my mom and sister had HAD IT. He whined and moaned more than my four yo niece. They finally ripped him a new one, saying he had been acting like an entitled baby man with delusions he is more important than he is, that we as women should fawn over him, and that he had already ruined all of ours, but especially my vacation by tossing my personal property and screaming at me for wearing perfume when I didn't even pack any. At one point I even piped up, ‘I didn’t put up with my father treating me like this, what makes you think I’m gonna take it from you?’ (AN/OP: my father abused me and mom and sister our whole lives. Lots of verbal, emotional, psychological abuse. Sister had it pretty literally; mom had it worst. But when my dad had 100% custody of me at beginning of divorce, my sister went away to college and moved out within the following two weeks, and I was his sole remaining target. For three years straight. Other, even more horrible disgusting things he did to me I’ve only just started to talk about, and don’t want my whole life blasted online while I deal.
So i got my silent, sweet-smelling revenge. For those 3 days and 3 nights, he didn't sleep a wink, which meant he couldn't keep his 'good guy' image up, and everyone saw how he treats me, and I'm no longer a liaexaggerating. I hope some act of God, or him driving around while completely wasted, as he does every single freaking day. He a waste of space, a waste of oxygen.
Again, the reason this is so long is because 1.) I suck at summarizing 2.) backstory of some sort was needed 3.) I’m not a good storyteller, but you are, Charlotte, and I know you can take this mess of info and turn it into a beautiful, long-time-coming, petty revenge story for your channel. Because what is more petty than an herbal, flowery Trojan horse type thing?
PS: he never did repay me for the OVER $300 worth of MY STUFF he upped and just tossed, or first broke then tossed, because it either offended his nose or him, personally, even though he begrudgingly promised to do so, and my sister promised he would. I only had like a 10% belief he would, but he has no money of his own, how was he gonna do that? Yes, I admit, I keep a record of anything I hear about him doing something negative, so one day if my sister even starts to consider divorce, I can whip out journal/notebook and show her his patterns, and he has always been this way, and he won’t ever change.

Hi 👋
I bought my Nike’s back in September 2022 and it’s time to change I think 😂
1,800KM and there are one or two holes on the bottom of the soles that fill with small stones.
Quick Background: For years, I tried but ultimately failed at running (Male, 40yrs old, 89KG). Every time I got a few weeks under my belt, the bones in my legs would really hurt and I’d have to stop.
I put it down to probably trying to do too much too fast accompanied by wearing the incorrect shoes.
I had relegated running out of my life until I picked up the Invincible’s in 2022 and haven’t looked back since.
Starting slow with just 2KM runs, I slowly built it up and now run 16KM every second day.
No pain whatsoever.
I run on the road here in Spain, I don’t compete, just like lacing up and heading out to clock up some slow KM’s (16KM in 1hr 40mins) (it’s been amazing for both my fitness and mental health).
Now to my question: What alternatives to the Invincible’s should I look at? I’ve heard that later versions were not as good?
I’m not really keen on rocking the boat and choosing a new shoe that has less padding etc. Don’t want to jinx/upset what I’ve got going on.
Any/all recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers 🙏

This script is completely ok to monetized or modified, just credit me if you do. I hope everyone is doing alright and I hope you enjoy my writing here.
Male speaker “Police still have no viable leads on the thief who has created the largest crime wave in recorded history. They still don’t know who the thief is, just that someone has come forward with a potential pattern to their “attacks.” They have asked to remain anonymous, more on this story as it develops.”
(Pause)
“I'm not a thief, I didn’t steal anything, I’m just always wearing a mask and a jumpsuit.”
(Pause)
“Surprised? I’ve been looking for you since this began and you happen to live on the floor below me.”
(Pause)
“I'm no thief but you- stop backing up or you're going to hit- now that you’re against the wall you won’t be going anywhere dove.”
(Pause)
“I did say I was looking for you, I’m amazed you were able to say that, because it looks like there’s a lot you're struggling to do right now.”
(Pause)
“No no no don’t look away, or I’ll just force you to look me in my eyes. There we are, and maybe try to soften your gaze you could probably hurt someone with a glare that strong.”
(Pause)
“Oh no not me, even though you clearly want me dead with your eyes, your blushing so much it’s gone down your neck under your collar. I wonder where it stops.”
(Pause)
“Your squirming face is adorable but really I’d have thought you’d noticed by now that there’s no hope of you getting away from me.”
(Pause)
“Still on that? yeah I know who you are and I have known for a few years now, a police officer told me not willingly or easily. You dove have quite the resúme, for such an innocent looking little girl it’s the powerful ones that get you isn’t it.”
(Pause)
“Deny it all you want, your body’s giving it away that I’m not only right but have also hit a nerve.”
(Pause)
“You’re so cute when you’re scared that me, the big bad thief figured you out in seconds, and by your expression no one else has ever done anything like this to you.”
(Pause)
“Good, I’d be a little jealous if any other women had gotten to see you like this, I am enjoying this, you could say this is why I was looking for you. Though if you get like this before I’ve even touched you it makes what you’ll look like when being pleasured something I can’t resist for much longer.”
(Pause)
“That got your attention, don’t tell me you're new to this. I would’ve thought you’d be part of a love triangle with the way your co-workers look at you.”
(Pause)
“Still trying to break free? Dove even if you defy all odds and overpower me, you must know I’m smarter than I look. I slipped in here and you didn’t notice even though you’ve been after me for what it feels like forever.”
(Pause)
“Oh of course several people thought they knew where I’d appear next but they were always wrong. Except for you, you tracked me down and almost caught me.”
(Pause)
Speaker laughs “you think I’m here to take revenge? I am not a vengeful woman, just prideful and I don’t take kindly to almost getting caught.”
(Pause)
“Though if you were the one to do it, I don’t think I’d be as opposed to the straight jacket and handcuffs as I usually am.”
(Pause)
“You know I said I never stole anything, but I think you have something you shouldn’t.”
(Pause)
“You can stop squirming, I know your police friends are right outside preparing to kick the door down. Here's the thing, when they break in this apartment will be as empty as it usually is.”
(Pause)
“No I don’t think you get to go inside my apartment… yet… I won't tell you where we’re going, can't have you knowing where my hideout is I know how resourceful you can be. Almost caught me red handed several times. Though I can think of a few other things you might want my hands to be doing instead. Oh dove, your blush has reached your ears, try to relax while I…”
(Sound of a door being forced open)
(Pause)
“Oh dove, awake just on time. Welcome to my hideout, no one will interrupt us here.”
(Pause)
“I would never take advantage of an unconscious woman, I have pride to protect. Yeah it is probably bad for a thief like me to get stumbled on morals and pride like that. And even though you're still fully clothed, you weren't in my head.
(Pause)
“Have you been flirted with when they didn't mean it? Well dove I do, I hope you can keep up with me.”
(Pause)
“You're stammering now, even when I had you against a wall you could string a sentence together. Is having someone like me so close more than your mind can handle. (Speak whispers) “It's going to happen more now so get your tongue back in working order please.”
(Pause)
“Your right I do enjoy doing that to you, you tense up at the slightest brush of your hair, are you one of those girls who acts innocent and is secretly into some unholy things in the bedroom.”
(Pause)
“Wouldn't surprise me, you would have to be a little twisted somewhere to almost catch me, and no you're still not getting away from me.”
(Pause)
“Why would I tie you down, I know you'd get out the second I looked away. Or is that what you're into, or are you just trying to get me off of you?”
(Pause)
“Give me those hands, stop trying to hide your face when you blush, I know I said I am a woman of honor but if you try to hide something like that from me… well I'm sure your mind can fill in the blank.”
(Pause)
“Yep I’ve been looking for you, since the first time you Investigated a crime scene I caused. Culprit always returns to scene of the crime, I was disguised so you probably didn’t know something was happening.”
(Pause)
“I knew immediately you were on my trail more than any of the police officers or city authorized investigators. And I didn’t want to let you roam, you’d eventually catch me so I was going to just take you, still can’t believe you lived one floor below me.”
(Pause)
“No one knew it was me, a mask, remember? And even if someone knew I was the one behind it they couldn't connect me to you going missing, or even know that I have a second home so to speak.”
(Pause)
“”No one is going to find you, this place is hidden and no one else knows who I am. So I’m afrai- actually I’m not afraid or upset but your mine now dove and your not leaving anytime soon.”

I 22 female and husband 22 male have been together total for 5 years. He’s currently a linemen traveling in Wyoming. In the past we’ve had problems with trust not particularly just infidelity but also money, family and friends. Last night he went out to the bar with his new coworkers he met a week ago. I don’t ever care that he goes out with his friends or co workers because I believe he needs to prioritize his mental health by hanging out with his friends, making sure he keeps up on his personal maintenance and various other things. However, he holds himself to a different standard. If he doesn’t know people that well he won’t heavily drink around them. He’ll maybe have one or two. However, last night he got extremely intoxicated to the point he couldn’t talk, find an Uber and was throwing up everywhere. We are currently 900+ miles apart so this threw me into a huge panic. He would not talk to me throughout the night and along with that told me randomly that his coworker is going to stay the night at his hotel and won’t be able to talk to me. We typically have a good trust foundation as we have worked hard on building it back up over the years. We also have set clear boundaries for when he travels and getting this drunk was a boundary that he set because of the unlimited things that could and might happen to either of us. But with the no communication, getting so drunk that it now leaves open ended questions that he cant answer, and telling me someone random is staying the night. I have no trust right now for him. He woke up this morning yelling at me and since has been extremely distant. So AITAH?

When I was in junior high a transfer student arrived in the middle of the semester; a kid that was different from everyone else. Right away he had caught my eye, in fact he caught everyone's attention because he had a very unique disability; he couldn’t speak. I guess you could say he was deaf, though it was clear to me after getting to know him that he could in fact hear; every word spoken to him was understood with simple nods or gestures; facial expressions contorting into understood language; so I guess he was mute; yeah, that would describe him best. He was an oddity to most but to me he was a unicorn, something that sparkled in our dim monotonous lives and it wasn’t until he revealed who he was did I become terrified of him and his shine.
I was in 7th grade maneuvering my way through the jungle of middle school, avoiding trouble and premature violence. I was an undersized boy for my age, no more than 5ft tall; puberty had yet to visit me leaving me left out of the herd; the other students or the ‘sheep’ as I called them that infested my school. They were all the same, kids that were driven by hormones constantly talking about boys or girls, their deep voices riding on the coattails of the wind that breezed in and out of our hallways. I was a mere shadow, always walking a few paces behind the others not wanting to be seen or acknowledged; I saw what others that looked like me went through, they were tortured and abused for simply existing.
Once Bryce Ellis and his friends stuck Timmy Easton’s face in the shitter for over 10 flushes, I was in a stall over, hiding and waiting for the torment to be over. I slithered my feet up on to the stall caressing them to my chest as I sat in a fetal position horrified of how one human could treat another. Eventually the bullies had gotten bored, their short attention span driven minds directed them to another endeavor leaving Timmy to fester in his tears and possible filth.
He sobbed for minutes that felt like hours as I remained silent in the stall over, I placed my hand cautiously on the barrier wall trying to absorb a bit of his pain, my heart ached for him in that moment and I wanted to lend him a compassionate hand if only I had the courage to do so. So yeah, I did my best to stay hidden, unseen to all the dwellers that mindlessly walked in and out of our school on a daily basis, the boys that believed themselves to be men or the girls that pontificated to anyone that listened. I was lost into an enteral sea of vindictive young adults that searched for any reason to lash out at anyone that stood in their way.
So when ‘Tape boy’ — as they would eventually call him — came to my little middle school that stood still in the secluded hills of our small town I was enthralled almost immediately with his existence. He was introduced to my home room class, I sat in the back burying my head into my arms, occasionally lifting my head to listen on the days lecture. My day dreams entertaining me as the clock slowly ticked away at our lives and it wasn’t until my teacher promptly stopped talking did it trigger a primal emotion in me to sit up and pay attention. I postured myself up straight, pausing the internal movie that played in my mind to see what the interruption was about.
There he was, a new boy that no one had ever seen before, by middle school everyone knew each other; we had went to the same elementary school, the same holiday events and grocery stores. So getting a new student was like getting a new flavor at Baskin Robbins; a mystery taste simmering on the tip of your tongue as you digested every drop, his presence was intriguing. He wasn’t small like me, I would say average height for a 12 year old; about 5'4, slender body with unkempt dark black hair. He looked timid, his head tilted towards the ground not wanting to accidentally lock eyes with any of us as the teacher introduced him, my mind wandering with such intrigue because to all of our astonishment he was wearing a surgical face mask — mind you this was in the 90’s; eons before the Covid pandemic breached the windows of our thoughts.
Right away I could hear the murmurs, the questions erupting throughout the classroom as everyone pondered of why this boy sheltered his face. I stared on for what must of been minutes as the shy boy kept his gaze down, I could see him slightly squeezing the arm straps to his backpack nervously the longer he stood there on full display for all.
I had my fill and I relaxed my postured sinking back into my chair directing my stare out the window but then Billy Sherman asked the question we all had on our minds,
“Uhm, why is he wearing that mask?”.
Our teacher explained to us that it was because of some weaken immune system, something about how his ticker didn’t click like the rest of ours, she then also told us about him being mute. This drew my eyes right back to him, I think it did for all of us and for a moment the quiet kid raised his head and locked eyes with me. His dark black eyes glistened with despair, the deep purple bags that sagged under his eyes were more indicative of someone that hadn’t slept in days. I felt something for him in that moment, our third eye conversing in some cosmic dialogue and as quickly as he rose his head did it drop once again towards the ground. I could still hear all the the other kids snickering, questioning and some even giggling; it made me sick, if I was a braver boy I would of stood on top of my desk and verbally lashed out to all the sheep, instead I rose my hand asking something Mrs. Willis never said, what was the timid boys name?
“Oh I’m sorry, how rude of me, this is Gabriel”.
She sat Gabriel upfront next to her desk, wanting him close in case he needed to write or sign something to her and just like that everyone went back to their simple lives; including myself.
The next few weeks I saw little of Gabriel other than the back of his head during class, once the bell rang everyone that my eyes glimpsed at for the day disappeared or just maybe it was me who dissolved into the ambience of our school. Either way I saw little of the boy who wore a mask, the one that sheltered his true identity and my curiosity with the new flavor of the week gradually faded into the abyss of non-existence; well, that was until the day I saw the mask slip.
It was end of the day, I spent most of the time turning corners anytime Bryce Ellis approached; evading the wrath of him and his band of merry men who were the pinnacle of human torture; finding any opportunity to demean those who crossed their path. I remember leaving Chemistry class, my mind all to occupied with leaving the hell hole of every kids dread and that’s when I saw Gabriel walking down the hall towards the cafeteria; his head still tilted down; his gaze tracking every step he took; face mask still tightly fitted around his face.
This time I saw someone was following him, it was Tom Ingram one of Bryce’s guys, a kid that tried to be the “alpha male” of the group numerous times, doing his best to dethrone the reign of Bryce. He was a big boy for his age, probably about 5'9 and easily weighed 200 pounds, he was a wild card alright; he got caught pouring sugar down Mr. Whitakers old Pontiac gas tank for giving him a poor grade. So when I saw him berating poor Gabriel; taunting him as grotesque laughter followed every insult, I felt like I had to do something and my consistent stealth veneer of camouflage morphed into into a full on sprint towards the two. I saw Tom was closing in on him, other kids looking on with bewilderment on their faces — not knowing if they should laugh out of fear or grimace from disgust. For the first time in a long while did a burning sensation of courage ignite in my soul, I was tired of seeing monsters preying on the sheep and I was going to stop it somehow.
Finally Gabriel had stopped walking and stood still, his head hanging even lower than before, the strands of his long hair covered the remainder of his face. Tom began slapping the top side of the poor kids head, yelling out obscenities, angered that he didn’t stop sooner. I was close, I was gonna stop this since all anyone else could do is cower in fear while looking on and then it happened causing me to stop dead in my tracks, my eyes widening with befuddlement. Tom had torn away the mask from Gabriel's face, awes with groans came from everyone then silence blanketed the entire school and for those few seconds our existence had been swallowed up by the earth itself.
“What the hell” Tom yelped out breaking the still but heavy disquietude.
I wanted to say something, but no words could be manifested only gurgles as I choked on my own disbelief. The timid boy under the mask of intrigue had a strip of black duct tape covering his mouth, it stretching from the side of his face to the other almost resembling what would be some hideous smile. The timid boy then collapsed his hands over his face as faint muffles of sobbing protruded from him, he ran into the nearest restroom only for Tom to pursue. Finally my thoughts had been gathered while my body came back to life, I brushed off the bizarre occurrence of that grizzly smile and I reminded myself of what was about to happen. Tom was going to punish Gabriel for simply existing as he and his gang have been doing for years and like some old factory machine the cogs of my body set into motion as I ran towards the restroom.
Before I could open the door the most horrid scream exploded outwards into the hallway, the sound sending a cold shiver down my spine and Tom came running out of the restroom gripping at his face crying. He was hysterical running and bumping into the walls until finally crumbling onto the floor only to continue sobbing. My mind was clouded with a whirl wind of confusion, I no longer knew what to do, I mean I was going to run in there and stop the assault but now the assaulter was on the floor destroyed. Then Gabriel calmly came out of the restroom, his mask firmly back on and he turned to look at me, his dark eyes burning an image of anguish into my mind. I asked if he was okay of course he said nothing though, he didn’t need to I could just sense his response and it was one of gratitude. I almost could see him smiling at me from underneath the mask and I reminded myself of what was under it; that abysmal duct tape that looked like a sinister grin.
From that day on most of the kids were afraid of Gabriel, I could see the look of terror in their eyes anytime he passed by them even though his headed was still shifted downwards but that’s the day whenever someone mentioned him they referred to him as “Tape boy”. I had heard through the whispers of our school that Tom had suffered some mental breakdown, that the doctors couldn’t find anything psychically wrong with him, it was as if his mind had shattered. He remained in some mental hospital, memories of him gradually fading and the sheep went on with living their mundane lives. Bryce even slowed his bullying, I think he knew that their were now more eyes watching everyone after the altercation and he didn’t want to get caught in some bad situation, though I could see he was itching to get at Gabriel. I went back to being a shadow, avoiding all the others still not too confident that the days of torture were over.
Even though Gabriel was regarded as some magical or perhaps malevolent being by most; not sure which one; he still appeared to be sad; lonely, his head always dragging with despondency. I made an effort in getting to know him, I wasn’t afraid like the rest of them something about the day we locked eyes gave me the resolve to understand he wouldn’t hurt me. I approached him during lunch break, he was outside sitting underneath a tree, the shade showering him a gloom of haze. I think I surprised him or maybe it was just my stealth nature but I saw him jump when I sat next to him. I began talking about the origins of Darth Vader, of how he was originally a hero using his force power for good only to eventually turn to the dark side.
Gabriel just looked at me confounded of why I was even talking to him, his stare looking on with indifference. I told him that he was like a super hero, doing whatever he did to Tom was just like a super power, that I was thankful. His gazed then returned back to the floor almost out of shame, I guess whatever he did that day he didn’t see it as something special, or something to praise. I then told him that I still envied his ability to defend himself, that having such an ability was better than winning the school lottery — which was a week supply of free cafeteria food. I kept blabbering on for the remainder of the break while he still postured his stare towards the floor until the bell had finally rung. Before getting up I told him that if I could have a super power mine would be invisibility that’s when he turned to me pulling out a small spiral from his back pack writing something down, he then showed me.
“Why?” it read.
I told him that I didn’t like being seen, that if I could I would melt away into the noise, then life would be better he just stared at me with what I could assume was disbelief. He didn’t write anything back, he just remain seated while I stood to my feet. I asked if he was coming back to class but he ignored me and just stared out into space presumably lost in his own thoughts.
For the next several months I would catch Gabriel in the hallways, talk to him about the latest edition of whatever comic I was reading, Superman being my favorite and I would go on and on about how his true super power wasn’t strength but hope. I think he became more comfortable with me, pulling out his spiral notebook to write down his thoughts; his questions and answers — a new gateway of communication had formed between us. Most times I could tell what he was going to write by looking at his eyes, those dark haunting eyes, he was a mysterious book slowly being revealed to me and I was completely beguiled by his friendship. Bryce and his little posse slowly went back to bullying the sheep, though they kept their distance from Gabriel and me.
I guess I had a new protector one that wouldn’t be crossed and something about that protection left me feeling proud. I knew in my heart that the timid kid that now went by “Tape boy” wouldn’t hurt a fly that maybe the day of Tom going crazy was all by chance, perhaps his rage snapped his mind. I tried asking him about that day numerous times but he never explained what happened he would redirect the conversation back to super hero’s. I would walk home with him on certain days, well, more like he would walk me home I never got to see where he lived, he was too reserved to give up that kind of information but the days we would walk together was always fun. I finally felt like I belonged, the longing emotion of needing acceptance was found by his friendship.
One day when I was walking home by myself I decided to stop in at the gas station to pick up a drink and scour the latest edition of comic books in the small rack of magazines. Before entering the store I could hear arguing voices engaging in combative dialogue and it became vividly clear that it was more of a yelling match than conversation. It was coming from the side of the building, most times I would just ignore it but one of the voices sounded all too familiar and I crept slowly to the edge of the building poking my head out to get a glimpse of the disturbance. It was Bryce, his back was up against the wall while someone who I presumed was his father berated him with such a vicious snarl on his face. The angry man kept slapping Bryce across the face anytime he tried to say something and soon tears began drizzling off the face of the mighty bully only for the man to laugh.
I didn’t know why the older man was treating Bryce the way he was, information cut out of my understanding, for all I know it could of been because of something the bully did at school. I found it to be poetic justice that the boy that caused so much heart ache suffered the same amount only at home. It felt like a cliche, the angry kid was angry because of the angry father; a cruel loop of never ending proportions. Eventually the man or father walked away getting back into his car leaving the bully to brush away the tears from his face. I cautiously retreated my head away deciding to ditch the store completely when that same broken voice only minutes ago shouted out to me with a hefty dominance.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Bryce howled out.
I didn’t bother turning around, I just ran home, dodging into alley ways trying my best to not been seen. It didn’t appear as if he was following, but seeing him in such a vulnerable state was bemusing. We were a small town how could I not know who the man was, we all knew each other since we were small and then it hit me; Bryce’s dad had left when he was little. This man must of been his step dad or perhaps mom’s boyfriend, it didn’t matter I was going to mind my own business, I was going to slither back into the shadows; but my attempts would only fall on defeated shoulders.
I didn’t want to tell anyone of what I saw, I hoped that keeping my mouth shut would of been enough for the bully to leave me be. Unfortunately there is no reasoning when it comes to human beings, we base our actions on emotions, our anger and Bryce confronted me the next morning in front of Gabriel.
“Hey fairy, did you enjoy the show?” the angry kid spouted out at me.
I tried explaining to him that I wasn’t trying to intrude, that the arguing concerned me, that I didn’t like seeing him being mistreated and then he punched me right in the gut. I fell to the floor gripping at my stomach, the pain slicing through every fiber of my body. I tried catching my breath but inhaling was too painful and I sheltered my face expecting another punch but the bully walked off leaving me to sweat. Gabriel kneel down to me taking out his spiral notebook writing the obvious question, I gestured to him to give me a moment and I honestly felt like crying. I had spent years doing my best to blend into the background, the invisibility power I was so desperate to have amongst the sheep was now gone; I was on Bryce’s radar.
For the remainder of the school year I tried avoiding the bullies, the monsters that preyed on the sheep but their leader would actively search for me, he was no longer intimidated by Gabriel; his once menacing allure had dwindled and now we both were sitting ducks. Luckily there was only a few weeks left until summer break and I only had hoped that the time off would be enough for the monster of monsters to cool off.
Entering summer was a relief much needed for my sanity, I took a few thrashings but it was over, me and Gabriel had big plans on spending time together. He wasn’t an out door kind of kid, he usually would just come over my place and we would read my comic books. He quickly grew enchanted with the idea of super hero's, their powers restoring balance to the nature of our world. I enjoyed every minute of it, my parents on the other hand looked less jovial to our friendship, they didn’t like the mask; it worried them. They thought that whatever illness he had could be passed on to me, but they didn’t do anything to stop us from seeing each other, they only silently protested.
So after awhile we decided to meet somewhere outdoors, away from my parents judgmental stares, there was a creek close to my house, the trees giving us enough shade to stay cool on those long summer days. The small stream that flowed through the trenches of the creek enriched our view as we would find the perfect rock to perch on while reading our comics. We didn’t see much of any of the other classmates that summer, the sheep kept their distance or maybe it was just us, but the days seem to pass quickly and before we knew it summer was coming to an end. I couldn’t remember how many volumes we must of read but Gabriel was now a fan of almost every super hero. He tend to raise out his arms while walking, mimicking the premise of flying like Superman; his ponderous eyes cutting through the brush as we escaped our secluded summer spot.
It was on the final day of our summer break did I pressure the shy timid boy to explain to me what had happen that day, the day Tom lost his marbles, I needed to know. Gabriel as always tried redirecting the conversation, holding up a comic of Batman, pointing at some dialogue. I got upset, I raised my voice telling him that if we were friends then he should tell me, that there wasn’t secrets between us. His heavy eyes collapsing to the ground, shifting his posture on the rock that we both sat on.
“Look, I just need to know, you’re my best friend” I told him with genuine longing.
The school year was about to start up again and I could already envision a future of slithering through the hallways how I have always done, but with Gabriel maybe that could change. I needed to know and I was done guessing, fantasizing that he was some super hero or at least my hero; my protector. I stood up off the rock walking over to the stream, the sound of water colliding unto the small stones that infested the trench triggered something awful in my gut. I took a deep breath and made my final stand with my best friend.
“If you don’t want to tell me then I’m going home, see ya” I said with impatience dripping off of my words.
Gabriel ignored my warning and continued pointing at the comic book, that’s when I noticed what he was pointing at, it wasn’t dialogue it was one of Batman's villains — he was pointing at Clayface. This made me stop, my minding halting after speeding at 100 miles per hour; it crashing my thoughts.
“Yeah, what about Clayface?” I curiously asked with a withered and tired voice.
That’s when his pointer finger was no longer on the page but rather it was pointed towards his mouth; the mouth that was hidden behind his mask. He could see my face drop with sadness, whatever disfigurement he had underneath that horrid black duct tape must of been something like the villain from the comic and my heart broke for him. Gabriel’s eyes gleaming with absolute sorrow, the boy that only wanted to be left alone, the person all the others feared just wanted solitude and here I was badgering him to no end about something so insignificant. We stared at each other for several seconds, our eyes meeting in some altered state and I reached my hand up to his face tenderly taking off his mask. There it was, the black duct tape that resembled a grin, a nightmarish one that could only been seen in some horror movie. I then placed my fingers on the edge of the tape, my cold grip causing him to shiver and I slowly began to remove it.
“What the hell are you fairy’s doing?” a voice called out from the brush, one that sank my heart into my stomach.
I turned trying to locate the voice and sure enough there he was, the bully that had tortured so many for so many years — it was Bryce. His body slowly revealing itself from the brush like some despicable ooze frothing from the depths of hell. Though, something about him was different, his cold stare no longer fictitious but more intimidating and as his body fully emerged did I see the blood trickling down his soaked stain shirt. He was covered in the crimson fluid, there was even some on his cheeks almost as he had some open wound and smeared the remnants of it on his face. The devilish grin that bestowed his bruised and beaten face quickly led me to a conclusion; one that I wish I didn’t conclude. A purplish black infested the out layer of his left eye, it practically closed shut and his nose had been bent to a unsightly angle. I started to whimper as my lips trembled from fright because this Bryce was not the same one that had given us wedgies or swirlies this one was a true monster, a beast that devoured souls. His gaze was enough to display a vacancy of any humanity and my eyes crawled down his arm into his hand to see the black pistol that he firmly gripped.
“Uh, Bryce what happened? Are you okay?” I groaned out while sniffling.
He didn’t answer, he just kept grinning at me, the ghastly smile that stretched ear from ear plagued my vision and I knew that he had done it, that he had hurt someone badly. I was terrified and in the moment I had completely forgotten about Gabriel, my tunnel vision only focused on that firearm.
“Where the hell did the other one go?” the monster asked, I turned and realized Gabriel in fact had run away leaving me behind.
I wanted to run, I wanted to flee while screaming but horror kept me in place and I felt like some dear trapped in headlights contemplating my entire life in mere seconds.
“Everyone always messes with me!” Bryce yelled out with such ferociousness.
There was no talking my way out of this one, no pleading, I knew in that moment he was going to kill me; his rage over flowing to the point of lunacy. He quickly pounced dropping me to the floor, screaming with madness and he repeatedly hit me over the head with the but of the gun causing me to see stars. His words became incoherent sounding like muffled tones that slushed it’s way into my hearing, I shook my head trying to collect myself, just maybe I could figure a way out of this but as soon as my vision corrected itself Bryce would strike me another time causing it to blur once again. I fell into a darkness, my world collapsing into an eternal void of loneliness as my body began to float effortlessly but as soon as I thought this was my final moments flashes of Gabriel flooded into my mind awakening me out of whatever slumber I found myself in. That’s when I realized Bryce was no longer hitting me, instead he was talking to someone and as I grabbed at my head trying to steady my balance I saw it was Gabriel standing still head as always tilted downwards.
Bryce confronted him pointing his 9mm directly at his head yelling, screaming at the top of his lungs but my best friend remained unmoved, just quiet and then he slowly removed his mask. This caused Bryce to pause, his tone weaken and I think for the first time he digested if he should proceed doing what he was doing.
“What are you doing freak?” the bully yelped out.
Gabriel remained quiet, eyes still directed towards the floor, his breathing escalating; I could see his chest pump more vigorously with each passing second. With the mask off me and Bryce could see the bewildering black duct tape strapped to his face, Gabriel’s face began to tremble violently as if he was trying to yell through the bondage. He then finally began to peel of the thick layer of black duct tape and it came off with a wicked screech as I could see my friends eyes squint with pain.
Bryce was no longer pointing the gun at Gabriel, no longer was he even saying a word his arm lowered to his side and both him and I stared on with amazement. What was under the tape was layers of skin, twisting and binding to each other like some thriving organism living it’s own life on Gabriel's face. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t say anything I was in shock and my head still throb from pain. Then Gabriel's mouth — if you want to call it that — began to stretch open, he tilted his head backwards while the mountain of dead flesh started to drip down his face allowing some endless void to open up inside of him. I could hear the cracking of bones breaking, his jaw shifting to accommodate the massive hole that was now his mouth and then horrid dwindling fingers began to protrude from the darkness.
My mouth gaped open with trepidation and if I had the ability to adjust my head I would think Bryce had the same facial expression. Then a grotesque head forced it’s way out of my friends mouth revealing a face that could only exist in the realms of the dead, this new creature having two large almond shape eyes; eyes that looked very similar to the ones that were attached to my friend. This ‘thing’ then stared at Bryce, that’s all it did, no words were spoken no violence was created it just stared at him and soon the bully grasped at his face and began to yell. He ran frantically in different directions, his gun firing out into the tree line, I jumped for cover; falling to the floor sheltering my head with my arms. Bryce’s terrified screams caused my stomach to turn and soon those dire cries stopped along with the gunshots.
I must of stayed on the floor for what felt like hours, too scared to rise to my feet and through my peripheral did I see the sun begin to set plunging the small creak into darkness. I eventually mustered up enough courage to get up and I looked around, Bryce was mere feet away from me, he lay still on the floor blood spewing out of his head; it appeared as if had shot himself. I walked over to his body befuddled of what to do I then remembered Gabriel, I turned to look for him but he was gone it was only me and Bryce's dead corpse. I ran home telling my parents about everything, of the encounter I experienced, at first it seemed as if they didn’t believe me but they still phoned for the police.
I led them to the creek to the bullies dead body, I initially thought perhaps they would blame me, connect me to his death but the police believed me; well the believed me about Bryce but not about Gabriel. They told me that Bryce had killed his step father, apparently they had gotten into some altercation and afterwards he went into his mothers bedroom and shot her to death. They told me that the once bully was a disturbed individual, suffering abuse for many years; that I was lucky to escape from his wrath. I told them that they needed to find my friend I wanted to know if he was okay, but all the officers could do was pat my back with sympathy trying to relax me.
It has almost been 30 years since the event, I still have nightmares of what had happened, I see the dead stare Bryce had while pointing his pistol at me, I see him repeatedly hitting me over the head again and again. Though, what still haunts me more is Gabriel's mouth contorting into that horrid shape revealing the creature that lived inside of him. He was never found, I’m pretty sure he moved on to another city, another place where bullies like Bryce tormented their schools and I could only imagine Gabriel was there to balance the wrongs of the world. I am scared of my best friend, but I know at the same time he is my protector; my super hero, he is out there doing good, I can feel it and I hope he can sense my love for him. Maybe we will never meet again, perhaps it’s not written in the stars for us to reunite but one thing is for sure, I get comic books mailed to me randomly every month; most are of Superman and I know exactly who they are from.

Hey, my name is Cam, I am 26, male from the UK. Been a lurker here for a while and now diving in with a post of my own.
Looking for some new friends to chat and hang out with. Finding myself working from home a lot at the moment so feel as though I need to broaden my social circle and I've always loved talking to new people.
A bit about me, I love video games such as ff14, league of legends, Minecraft, dragon age and any RPG really. Also huge into tabletop games such as dungeons and dragons, also getting into Warhammer.
I'm a DM in my d&d game and love world building so if you wanna chat about anything fantasy or writing related I'm your guy.
I also love movies, TV shows and music, always up to try somthing new so if you got recommendations I'll always give somthing a chance.
If you fancy a chat give me a message, would love to hear from anyone, tell me what you like to nerd out on