Who won hoh on big brother
Big Brother Strategy
2017.08.01 01:09 EmptyChurches Big Brother Strategy
A subreddit for serious in-depth discussion about strategies used by the Big Brother houseguests.
2012.03.05 16:44 ts87654 for cosplayers, by cosplayers
This is a subreddit specifically for people who cosplay and people looking to cosplay. Want to share the outfit you just made? Share it here! Want some advice on a costume? Ask here! Want to show some cool pics you took at the last convention you went to? Post them here!
2012.06.17 19:07 hmwith Big Boob Problems
Vent in this judgment-free community that encourages discussion in a safe environment. Boobit exists for all people with big boob problems, whether women, men, non-binary, or any other gender.
2023.05.30 20:35 AutoModerator Here’s to Watch All the 'Spider-Man' Movies[2023] : Streaming, Digital, DVD, and Blu-ray Status Free Download For Online And Reddit
Here’s Where To WATCH Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Online For Free Reddit??in the below watch
Marvel Comics! Here are the links for downloading or viewing Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in its entirety for free on 123movies & Reddit, as well as information on how to watch the much awaited Pixar film at home. Is Lightyear 2023 a streaming movie? Is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse 2023 available on Amazon Prime, Netflix, HBO Max, or Disney Plus? Yes, we have located a trustworthy streaming choice or service.
📺
WATCH~FREE@! Spider-Man (2023)FULL MOVIE STREAMINGS 📺
WATCH here Spider-Man onLine reddiT Over 25 years ago, a little boy named Andy received a Buzz Lightyear action figure in the 1995 Pixar film Toy Story. Now, all these years later, audiences will finally see the movie that inspired that action figure in the Toy Story spin-off movie, Lightyear, which is soaring into theatres this weekend.
This is not the Buzz Lightyear you know and love—the one who is best friends with Woody and voiced by Tim Allen. This is the original Buzz Lightyear, a bonafide space ranger voiced by Chris Evans, who is stranded on a hostile planet that is 4.2 million light years from Earth, alongside his commander and crew. The Lightyear cast also includes the voices of Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn, James Brolin, Taika Waititi, Dale Soules, Uzo Aduba, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.
With this new Toy Story adventure coming to theatres, you may feel the urge to revisit the classics. The decider is here to help with that. Read on to find out what Toy Story movies to watch before Lightyear and how to stream the Toy Story.
Can I Stream Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse?
You can’t stream Lightyear yet — but you’ll be able to soon. As a Disney movie, you can expect Lightyear to drop on their streaming service, Disney Plus, in the coming weeks, but the exact date of when that might happen hasn’t been announced yet.
Generally, with their cinematic releases, Disney and Pixar tend to follow either a 30-day release window or a 45-day release window. We don’t know which one they’re going with yet for Lightyear, but this means that given the movie’s global release date is June 17, we can expect Lightyear to be on Disney Plus sometime between July 21 and August 3, 2022.
Where To Watch Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Online
With a new Lightyear coming out very soon, you may want to rewatch all the movies. Or, if you haven’t given the animated adventure films a shot, now is your chance.
To watch the entire movie, simply click the link below. Below are the specifics on how you may stream Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse COUGHING for free all year long. You won't want to miss this one if you're a comic book aficionado! Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Coughing is portrayed while he searches for his way home after becoming lost on a foreign planet. With amazing visuals and an action-packed storyline, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse COUGHING is unquestionably a movie you don't want to miss! Additionally, you can watch Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Coughing online right here on our website. Free online viewing alternatives for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse include 123movies, Reddit, and TV
Lightyear can all be streamed using an HBO Max or Hulu subscription. If you’d prefer to rent the movies, only the first two are on Prime Video. Otherwise, all three films can be rented on YouTube, Apple TV +, or Google Play Movies & TV.
The second film in the franchise, Lightyear, will be released on June 17, 2022. Right now, it’s not confirmed where the movie will be streamed after its big-screen release.
Is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on Netflix?
Lightyear is not available to watch on Netflix. Suppose you’re interested in other movies and shows. In that case, one can access the vast library of titles within Netflix under various subscription costs depending on the plan you choose: $9.99 per month for the basic plan, $15.99 monthly for the standard plan, and $19.99 a month for the premium plan.
Is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on Disney Plus?
No sign of Lightyear on Disney+, which is proof that the House of Mouse doesn’t have its hands on every franchise! Home to the likes of ‘Star Wars, ‘Marvel’, ‘Pixar’, National Geographic’, ESPN, STAR, and so much more, Disney+ is available at the annual membership fee of $79.99 or the monthly cost of $7.99. If you’re a fan of even one of these brands, then signing up to Disney+ is worth it, and there aren’t any ads, either.
Is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on HBO Max?
Sorry, Lightyear is not available on HBO Max. There is a lot of content from HBO Max for $14.99 a month, such a subscription is ad-free, and it allows you to access all the titles in the library of HBO Max. The streaming platform announced an ad-supported version that costs a lot less at $9.99 per month.
Is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on Hulu?
They’re not on Hulu, either! But prices for this streaming service currently start at $6.99 per month or $69.99 for the whole year. The ad-free version costs $12.99 per month, $64.99 per month for Hulu + Live TV, or $70.99 for the ad-free Hulu + Live TV.
Is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse 2022 on Amazon Video?
Unfortunately, Lightyear is not available to stream for free on Amazon Prime Video. However, you can choose other shows and movies to watch from there as it has a wide variety of shows and movies that you can choose from for $14.99 a month.
Is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on Peacock?
Lightyear is not available to watch on Peacock at the time of writing. Peacock offers a subscription costing $4.99 a month or $49.99 per year for a premium account. Like its namesake, the streaming platform is free with the content out in the open. However, limited.
Who Is in the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Cast?
The main Space Ranger in the movie will be voiced by Captain America himself, Chris Evans. In addition to Evans, other accomplished recruits at Star Command will have their voices provided by Keke Palmer (Scream Queens), Dale Soules (Orange Is the New Black), and Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit). Uzo Aduba, James Brolin, Mary McDonald-Lewis, Efren Ramirez, Peter Sohn, and Isiah Whitlock Jr. are among the voice actors. Bonus: Watch this special where the actors discuss what Buzz Lightyear means to them..
#Animation #Action #Adventure #movies #Reddit #OnlineFree #Download(2023)
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2023.05.30 20:35 GuyWith10Hands Confession - I want to go home.
I don't really know if I'm posting in the right subreddit. I haven't posted on this account since my Call Center days. I'm not really sure how things are handled here but, I'm sure my post will be taken down if I'm in the wrong place.
So, basically - I grew up in Manila. I've been here for the past 21 years. I had a bunch of trips going home to our province ever since I was a kid, but I've never felt this feeling up until I was around 20(?) years old. Manila has always been a jewel for me: The city lights, the night life, the amount of people you can meet, and the amount of memories you can make. I never saw myself growing tired of this place. I always saw my future in this place: A future in which I am enjoying everything Manila can offer, a future in which I am happy with my life, and a future in which I am happy with what I have in this place.
However, things really do change, right? I went home to the province last 2021 and I've never felt happier. That was the only time that I felt like I belonged, like I was loved, and that I was accepted for who I was. I'm not saying that I never had anyone to make me feel loved when I was in Manila; to be honest, I know a lot of people and I've been with them a lot: I'm a member of a Greek Letter Frat, I met a lot of close friends through community service, I have a lot of friends from High School who are still hanging out with me, and I have a bunch of friends from the time when I was working in the BPO industry. I never lost any of my friends.
But for some reason, the province is the only place where I felt like I belonged. I reading through reddit posts but they were all about people from the province who wanted to transition to Manila. It made me feel inferior as I don't feel like I was ever capable enough to handle what life really was in the big city. In the province, I always felt welcome, loved, and accepted for whoever I was. I never felt like I needed to fake my own identity and pretend to be someone who I was not.
I just wanted to get this off my chest, to be honest, I am HAMMERED right now and I just wanted to find a place where I can open up and tell people how I really feel. I do hope this does make it through and it gets posted as I really wanna see if there's anyone who has the same feelings as I do. Don't be afraid to tell me what you feel or ask me if there's anything I could answer for ya.
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2023.05.30 20:34 WhereAnywhere Laid Off After Maternity Leave
I'm just so upset about this and thought maybe some of you would have some advice or words of encouragement.
I was laid off from my white collar job at the beginning of the year, and I haven't been able to find a new position since. I'm in the States, and the job market has been horrible in my industry. This experience has been really upsetting because I've always considered myself the kind of woman who could have kids and a career easy, no problem--like a lot of non-moms, I didn't realize how difficult the balancing act is, or that people might treat me differently. Before I became a mother, I was all about "Lean In," and thought of myself as a Career Woman Climbing the Corporate Ladder, and I was positive that wouldn't change after having a child.
A big percentage of my company got laid off at the same time as me, so I wasn't specifically singled out because of my leave. But being out of the office for a few months was what got me on the chopping block. I didn't have much work because all of of my projects got reassigned while I was on leave, and they weren't given back to me. I kept asking my manager for more work and tried to get involved in different projects, but the team had grown and there wasn't enough work to go around. I also think I may have gotten "mommy tracked" because I'm relatively young and this was my first (probably only?) child. Before I left, my manager's manager and their manager kept asking my manager if she was sure I'd be coming back.
I'm also just so scared because the economy's really terrible and the competition for jobs is so tight. It feels really disheartening because even when though this wasn't blatant or intentional discrimination, my career definitely took a direct hit because I became a mother.
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2023.05.30 20:33 Various-Grass-9766 How Long Do You Think The U-20 World Cup Arc Will Last
We know that the U-20 Arc lasted 41 chapters (109-150) and so far the Neo Egoist League Arc started on chapter 153 in 2021 and after 67 chapters we are only on the 3rd game. In real life the U-20 World Cup winner will play 7 games, 3 group stage games and five bracket games. If Japan is to win then they will need to play 7 games. Based on this info how long do you think the U-20 World Cup arc will Last. In my personal indication if the Blue Lock vs Japan U-20 game was any indication of how the U-20 World Cup games will play out I’d say we are looking at least 3 years for the U-20 World Cup Arc to conclude. (To be fair that game had a lot of flashed back and had bad pacing so who knows.)
If this is accurate and the series won’t end without Japan winning a FIFA World Cup then 4 years in Blue Lock will have to pass. I could see this manga running for like another 10 years.
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2023.05.30 20:33 Affectionate_Air414 I know this topic has been discussed but if your God relies on Geographical locations how can he be universal.
one of the things I questionedi s God sent lots of his prophets to the middle east, like many were father and son or brother and etc, (Moses and Aaron, being brothers. David and Solomon, father and son, Zachariah and John also being father and son).but he didn't give a hoot of Native americans who have been on the americas for 30,000 years and there is absolutely no evidence of contact with the abrahamic God, Aztecs have been doing human sacrifice for thousands of years and God doesn't do anything and it stopped in 1520s. Almost like he's geographical it would be such profound proof for Allah if we found native people who haven't ever had contact from other countries regarding him and believe in him.
For 60,000 years Abroginal australians haven't had contact with humans and In many Aboriginal cultures, there is a belief in the existence of ancestral beings who shaped the land, plants, animals, and people. These ancestral beings are often depicted as spirits or deities and are associated with specific natural features or elements. They are considered the creators and custodians of the land and are believed to continue to influence the lives of Aboriginal people, even if you argue that their religions were getting corrupted strange how Allah didn't care much about other parts of the world but with the middle east it was his top priority again and again and sending a unnecessary amount of prophets all at the same time in the middle east.
I know some will qoute a certain verse if Quran claiming prophets were sent everywhere on earth but thats just a claim, no actual evidence unlike the documents in middleast parts of world in which people were claiming they are prophets.
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2023.05.30 20:33 feelinghomo To future me.
Hey big head. I’m writing this to you as I paused my cleaning session, to ask how are things? How have you been? I’m not sure at what age you’ll come back to this page but I hope you’re flourishing. I hope the universe has gifted you with everything you deserve and more. I hope you’re happy, successful, surrounded by genuine people that have the best intentions in their heart for you. I hope you’re taking care of yourself. 23 (now) has been THEE most stressful year yet, but anytime I think about just saying fuck it I give up, I think about my past hardships and it helps me realize if I got over that, I can get over this. 23 hasn’t been the sweetest to you in any way shape or form. Hell this is probably the worst year I’ve had to come, but I know I’m going to overcome it. But back to you, I hope you’ve found peace. I hope that you are where you’re meant to be. Don’t worry, I’m going to keep fighting the good fight because there will be better days and you are living proof of that. As the month comes to an end, I wanted to write this so that future me can read it all and laugh about it. Because it’s all a learning lesson right? I hope you have found your purpose in life. Be the grown up your 11yo needed. Be someone who inspires others but most importantly yourself. Whether you’re still in Houston or out of the country, be the best version of yourself. Live up to your own expectations and standards. Don’t let anyone run your life, you only get this shit once so make it fucking count. And PLEASE be rich😭😭🤣🤣🤣 no seriously, have at least 10M in your savings. I don’t want to ask but curiosity will eat me alive. How’s your love life? How are things? Are you happy? Are you married? Single? Dating? (Still thinking about him?🙇🏽♂️) Divorced (I HOPE NOT)? Are there kids? Omg are you a cat mom????? Please say yes😭 if you’re not sitting at home with your 2 cat babies right now you got some explaining to do. How’s your spirituality? Are you in touch with ur inner self? Are you aligned with the stars in the sky? WAIT, how’s your hair???? What style do you have in right now? What color? And PLEASE tell me you’ve let go on wearing air forces 1 💀💀💀 I know they’re comfortable but damn I’m on my 3rd or 4th pair right now. They just go so well with damn bear any outfit. Regardless of where you are I hope things are good. Not just okay but GOOD. With love, your 23yo self 🫶🏼
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2023.05.30 20:32 AngryGrungeCat Lupron is making me nuts, advice? ( for fiborids. ftm getting medically needed hysto)
I'm trans/FtM. I've been at this since 2011 so it isn't anything new. My PCP and I always decided to keep my reproductive organs for 'hormone insurance' in case things.. went well *gestures at Florida*
Long story short they found a mass the size of a baseball growing out of my uterus. It's a huge fibroid. gyno and I spoke about it all and we're just gonna go through with a full hysto because I'm pushing 40. But because the fiborid is so BIG they can't currently do the laparoscopic one. They need to shrink the fiborid and any others the MRI may have missed.
So I'm on lupron for 3 months until my surgery in July with hopes to shrink it.
I'm on shot two, about a few days in. This is misery. I have cried over stupid things (I am not a person who cries.) I have gotten rage fits where I just get mad about dumb things. Management has had to tell me to walk it off "it's not that deep". I just feel freaking awful and the night sweats are so bad, I'm soaking wet. I can't get cool. It's like emotionally I'm a 16 year old girl.. like I am just angsty and emo and woe about everything and just so sad. But I ache. The T injections don't seem to help I am on a good chunk of meds for my mental health already.
Is there any advice? I have 6 weeks where I have to act like a normal human being at work until I go out.
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2023.05.30 20:31 Equal-Thing-9217 Boyfriend (24M) and I (22F) have different values - How do I break up with him?
Okay, so for context, this is a post I made yesterday:
https://www.reddit.com/relationship_advice/comments/13vgk4g/boyfriend_25m_and_i_22f_have_different_values_can/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1 (TL;DR for the above: My boyfriend and I seem to have different values (primarily in the sense that he thinks it’s funny to make insensitive jokes and I don’t, he doesn’t value prioritizing the community over self and I do). Should I break up with him or try to make it work?)
As I expected, the overwhelming consensus is that I should break up with him because we are too incompatible. I definitely agree (and tbh I have known this for a very long time, and I have even tried to do it several times) but this has been really hard for me. I was hoping I could give a little more context about our relationship and hopefully get some advice about how best to go about this.
Okay, so first of all, I never really intended to be in a long term relationship in the first place. (Disclaimer: I am aware that all of these actions are very judgement-worthy. I know, I know.) It started out as a very casual friends with benefits situation, and neither of us had any intention of getting together. Tbh, I met him on Tinder, which I was on because I wanted to get the whole losing my virginity thing out of the way. And we really clicked both in terms of sex and just hanging out. But we were definitely not dating or anything like that. And tbh, we have been fighting ever since we first met. However, as he opened up to me over time, I definitely fell in love with them. (I realize now that some of this could possibly be owed to the fact that he was the first person I ever had sex with - and like… oxytocin and stuff.) This has also been my first serious, long-term relationship. But now I’m here, and I’m about 2 years into this, or 1 year of actually being in a relationship, and I can’t go back.
When I try to confront him about the things I discussed in my previous post, he makes me feel like I’m overly judgmental, condescending, and I’m treating him like a “bad person.” He makes statements like “You talk to me as if I’m going to go out and commit hate crimes and murder people.” I try to explain that I know that’s not the case, and that he’s not saying these things in public or to the people it will hurt most, or to anyone but me, but that still doesn’t make it okay. But it makes me feel like I’m being super judgmental or self-righteous, and I sort of shrink back because of that, as I don’t want to be unfair.
Another thing that makes it hard is that when I try to set boundaries or establish limits, I feel like I am being unfair because I have allowed things to go on for so long already. And he makes statements like this as well. Honestly, I know I’m a hypocrite, but I don’t know how to fix that without feeling like shit.
I am also scared to break up with him because I don’t want to hurt him or be the reason he doesn’t believe in love. He is already really insecure about so many things, and there are a lot of things about his family background and past relationships that have created a lot of abandonment and trust issues, disorganized attachment, and other issues with relationships. He also suffers from depression. He often says the he feels like I am the first person in his life to truly love him, and I am the first person that he has truly loved (at least romantically). I think one of the biggest reasons that I am scared to break up with him is that I’m scared to hurt him, and I’m scared of how he will be if I leave. Also again, I really do
love him, even though he can be really unattractive some times. And I also feel really bad about cutting things off because I know that I have allowed them to go on for so long, so it’s like how do I get to just change up now? He says I am being unfair by trying to potentially end or give up on our relationship now, without giving him the opportunity to do better (after talking last night about how I would appreciate him making efforts to educate himself and develop more empathy). He says I’ve never given him this chance before, although the way I see it, me talking about how I have a problem with this behavior and wishing he could empathize with others more should be all he needs to try to start changing. This applies to the disrespectful “jokes” thing, as well as a variety of other things that go on in our relationship. Again, I know I sound like such a hypocrite, and a horrible person for allowing things to go on for so long. And then there’s the thing you always hear about how it’s unfair to try to make someone “change” for you that’s always in the back of my mind.
I several times have tried to set boundaries or break up with him, and I will admit that I have often in the process said things that are really hurtful or just in generally poor form, or have made him feel more insecure. For example, during our last fight, I said something about how it would be it sucks to think about how there are people who share my values out there, and it would be nice to be able to be with someone who does. And he was really hurt by that.
There’s also the fact that our lives are so entangled now, because we have been in this so long. He’s met all of my family, I’ve met his. He’s making plans to move to my area, including a big career change that is dependent on that move. So I just feel so conflicted about ending it, even though I know I should.
I say all of this to say, how would you all go about breaking up with him? (How would you say it, when, etc.) In a way that is fair, and also tries to minimize the fall out? I’m really concerned about whether he will be okay if I leave.
TL;DR: How should I break up with my boyfriend (what words, when, other steps/considerations etc.) in a way that is fair but also tries to minimize the fall out of him giving up on love and getting depressed? Especially given that I haven’t always handled the situations in the best way.
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2023.05.30 20:30 Echo3073 We went On an Investigation, but Something came back with us.
My name is Evaline and my sister who is vital to this as well is named Vivian and we are twins aged twenty-three. Yesterday we went on a graveyard investigation, and I don't think we came back alone.
We pulled up to the graveyard In Vivians beat up red bug. She shut off the car and looked over to me.
“I have a weird feeling, Evaline, are you sure you want to do this?” asked Vivian.
“Oh yeah everyone keeps telling me about this place!” I exclaimed.
As we exited the car and walked up to the property Vivian turned on the ghost box (A tool used for communicating with ghosts by scanning through radio frequencies and white noise).
The ghost box said one word very abruptly “STOP.”
We looked at each other with puzzled faces.
“Do you not want us here?” asked Vivian.
“STOP.’ Came through the ghost box again.
“Uh color me crazy but I think we should still go in.” I said.
Vivian looked at me for a moment and then agreed we heard one final “STOP.” as we entered and then it was dead silent for 15 minutes.
We were walking around when my sister Vivian stopped and looked at a specific tree. This tree is twisted looking literally it has two parts to it that twist together to make sort of an arch way.
“A woman is over there.” Vivian whispered and pointed towards the tree (Vivian Is a medium by the way)
“Well let’s go check It out.” I enthusiastically said.
As we reached the tree the ghost box said the name “ANNIE.”
Vivian Greeted Annie and asked her why she was there.
But I was more Interested In trying to find Annie’s headstone.
“Hey, ask her for her last name!” I shouted over to Vivian who gave me a thumbs up.
I walked further away scanning all the different headstones with my flashlight. Some of these guys are really old, like 17th century old.
“Maybe that’s why it’s so haunted.” I thought to myself.
As I looked up to scan the next headstone, I saw a figure of a man standing by a headstone. “Holy shit where'd he come from?” I thought “Hey Vivian do you see hi-” I cut off because when I pointed back to where I saw him no one was there.
“Okaayyy.” I said in a hushed tone “I’m just going to go walk over there and see what the headstone says.” I made my way over to the headstone.
“Oh no way Vivian come over here, look who I found!” I shouted
“What’s up, what'd you find?” Vivian asked excitedly.
She looked down as I shined my flashlight on the fading stone the words “Annie Forester Beloved Mother and Wife” were shown.
“ME.” Said the ghost box We both looked at each other. We normally don’t get very intelligent responses so this was a big deal.
“What happened to you Annie?” I asked “HUNG.”
“Oh Jesus, that took a dark turn.” I said
“Evaline, stop it.” Vivan shouted, "Can you tell us why?” she asked,
“WITCH.”
“Oh she must have been a part of the old witch hunts that happened all through England and Ireland.” Vivian said
“Yeah but why are you still here Annie?” I asked Nothing happened for a good five minutes before the response
“TO PROTECT” came through.
“Protect what Annie?” I asked another few minutes pass by before the ghost box says “THE LAND”
“Huh that's awfully sweet of you do you make sure the living are safe?” Asked Vivian
“YES” the ghost box replied almost Immediately
“LEAVE” It says.
“Why do you want us to leave?” I asked
“Yeah what's wrong Annie?” Asked Vivian
“HIM”
“Who is him?” Asked Vivian
“PLEASE GO”
Those were the last words the ghost box said for another twenty minutes
“Maybe we should go, it's been a while and we haven't gotten anything else.” Said Vivian
I Looked around the graveyard I had a bad feeling
“Yeah lets get outta here this place is starting to creep me out.” I said as I stood and shook myself off trying to get rid of the odd energy.
We packed up all of our things and headed to the entrance. We said a prayer so nothing negative would follow us and threw our bags in the trunk. As I opened the door I slumped down In the passenger seat.
“Phew.” I breathed
“We got some pretty good stuff from Annie. I just wanna know who the mysterious him is.” Giggled Vivian
The drive home was uneventful but I couldn’t shake that odd energy from my body.
“Hey Viv do you feel weird or is that just a me thing?” I asked looking over at Vivian
“Mmm yeah ever since we left I felt odd, hopefully it's just our nerves.” Vivian said with a warm smile. But something was hidden behind the warmth of her smile : fear.
We pulled up to the house and unloaded our bags onto the kitchen table. It's become sort of a ritual at this point, every time we finish an investigation we unpack and load in all the recordings to listen to with high quality noise canceling headphones. We also order some kind of takeout tonight's meal of champions was Chinese food my favorite.
I stirred together my orange chicken and rice as I pawed through the recordings settling on the third one when Annie mentions “HIM”. The recording fills my ears as I intently listen.
“LEAVE.” Says the ghost box
“Why do you want us to leave?” you can hear us asking
“HIM” the ghost box says
“Who is him?” Vivian’s voice says
I listen closely as silence fills the space
“I'm Him.” A deep voice says not over the voice box but right next to the recorder.
I screamed and jumped out of my seat throwing the headphones on the ground.
“What what what!” Says Vivian
“Oh hell no, that sounded like satan.” I said laughing In disbelief
I rewinded the recording so Vivian could hear it. I saw her face turn into a huge grin.
“Now this is solid stuff we have to go back there!” Exclaimed Vivian
“Yeah I'm down but you're reviewing the tapes next time that voice is creepy.” I said with a smile
“Deal!” Said Vivian as she stuck her hand out for a hand shake. I took it and shook hands.
“I'm gonna get ready for bed Viv goodnight!” I yelled as I walked away
“Goodnight!” yelled Vivian
I stepped into the poorly lit bathroom and turned on the shower
“That voice is seriously creepy.” I muttered to myself as I took out my High ponytail and let my dark brown curls bounce down to my shoulders. My hair always did look nice with my pale skin
“Thanks to you mom.” I said looking up at the ceiling
I stepped into the shower and started washing my hair when I heard something fall.
I opened the shower curtain to see the culprit my cat Leo
“Oh Leo you're going to be the death of me.” I puffed out closing the shower curtain again
Another crash comes from outside the shower curtain
“Leo Get ou-” I ripped open the curtain to find the toilet paper holder in the sink
I stared dumbfounded as to how my small cat could have body builder lifted the toilet paper holder into the sink.
“VIIIIVIAN” I screamed
Heavy footsteps pound down the hallway but no Vivian
“Vivian?” I called
Pounding assaulted the walls to the point they were vibrating as the footsteps continued
“VIVIAN” I endlessly scream for what seems like hours until the door bursts open and the walls stop pounding immediately
“Are you okay, what's wrong, what's going on?” Exclaimed Vivian with a very worried look.
“You didn't hear me screaming for you?” I sobbed
“No, I just now heard you and came in. What happened?” asked Vivian
I told her all of the events that had just occurred she looked towards the sink and back to me with a confused face
“The toilet paper holder isn't in the sink Evaline.” She said pointing towards the sink which was in fact empty
“What no I swear it was!” I exclaimed
“I believe you Evaline you never cry it's just odd try and get some sleep okay maybe you're really tired? Cooed Vivian
“Yeah maybe” I said
I finished my shower without any problems and climbed into bed.Covering myself with the plushy blanket I let sleep take me over.
“Evaline wake up!” Vivian yell whispered as she shook me awake
“What's going on?” I groggily asked and then I heard it pounding on the walls but it was everywhere The walls were all slightly shaking
“Is this what happened in the bathroom?” Vivian asked me
“Yeah pretty much just not as loud.” I said standing up I'm gonna go check it out stay her Vivian
“You're that white girl that dies in the horror movie.” Vivian said with a smirk
I shook my head and stepped out into the hallway. Literally all of the walls seemed to be buzzing with the pounding. I made my way past the family portraits and got to the back door slowly putting my hand on the door knob and twisting it till I quickly pulled it open and the pounding stopped. I Looked around the dark backyard and I noticed something: the figure of a man standing by our fence. I looked closer trying to get a better look it was definitely a man.
I turned around to grab the bat sitting on our porch.
“Hey buddy you better beat it!” I yelled, turning back with bat in arm to see he was gone.
“Weird.” I thought and went back inside the house. I closed the back door and turned to walk back to Vivian when I saw the shadowy man standing right in front of me.
“AH-” I started to scream but the air seemed to be sucked from my lungs and the only thing that came out was a small peep.
“I don’t like you creatures.” The man said in a voice I can’t even begin to describe. It wasn't human.
“But still you exist to only displease me.” He went on
“Who are you?” I stammered
“You wouldn't know the word but you gave a soul hope tonight which made her free of me so now I need another soul in return for the one you greedily took.” The man like thing said
“Annie?” I asked shakily
He made an odd gurgling crunching noise reminiscent of a laugh but sounded more like a garbage disposal.
“Obviously” he replied
“Now you're going to replace that soul.” He said calmly
“Evaline?” Vivian placed her hand on my shoulder
“Evaline Are you there helloooo?” Vivan said snapping her fingers in front of my eyes
“Yeah sorry Viv I just was thinking.” I replied
Now i'm writing this to you hoping someone out there knows what this thing is and how to get rid of it before I become the next soul to be taken by HIM.
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2023.05.30 20:30 TronBoyxQ My gf (28F) of 7 years just told me (28F) that she will be converting to Muslim.
I (28M) atheist asked her (28F) why she believes in this stuff now, and she basically just said “it fits my beliefs”. You know, reading everything online, it appears that a Muslim woman dating a non-Muslim man is strictly forbidden. I guess I’m asking for perspective on if it could work, and what I should expect from people who were in the same position. It appears someone online is trying to get her to convert, and she is embracing it with open arms. Told me that she’ll be wearing a head scarf and that I’m not allowed to give her affection in public, and that we won’t be having as much sex…which doesn’t really add up as all sex should be forbidden. Do I give her an ultimatum? It’s just so hard thinking about losing what we have.
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2023.05.30 20:30 seriousbizinis Missing person in Vancouver
| Ukrainian community in Vancouver is looking for this young fella - Oleksandr Makhniuk - who’s gone missing on Friday, May 26, 2023 (file number VA2388621). He’s about 6’5”, big guy with blond hair and a bear. May be limping. He was inbetween a move to a new hotel, stepped outside off 838 Hamilton Street and disappeared. He was seen in the West End on the 29th, but police was not able to locate him. Police has checked all hospitals already, and search group is checking shelters, parks, and beaches. His phone is not in services and family received no communication. He just relocated from Ukraine and has no friends or family here. I’m hoping this community could help spot him and report to police asap! submitted by seriousbizinis to vancouver [link] [comments] |
2023.05.30 20:30 PotatonadoWasTaken Discussion: The (Possibly) Tragic Aspects of Oshi No Ko
This post is inspired by a recent analysis I saw on this subreddit earlier that challenges the idea that Oshi No Ko is a tragedy, which I have linked below. I find it a great read and would highly recommend everyone to check it out! Note that this post isn't meant to respond to the linked post below, but an independent analysis of why Oshi No Ko could be a tragedy.
https://www.reddit.com/OshiNoKo/comments/13u6ke8/an_analysis_of_oshi_no_ko_the_story_is_not_a/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 This analysis will be split into three parts:
- An analysis of the elements of tragedy and how Oshi No Ko aligns with it
- Certain points of foreshadowing specific to the story that points to certain characters' deaths
- Other miscellaneous reasons for why it would make sense for Aka to make it a tragedy (and maybe why it wouldn't)
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1) Elements of tragedy I'm still a bit of an amateur at literary analysis, so I would love for others to add more insight into this which I might have missed.
According to Aristotle, a tragedy has three main characteristics (hamartia, anagnorisis, and peripeteia) that align with 6 other elements in the story (plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle and music). I'll explain each element and how the manga connects to its tragic aspects (as well as tragic characteristics, where applicable).
Plot (The Uncontrollable) Quite intuitively, Aristotle says tragedies are supposed to end in tragedy. Tbh, there's not much to discuss here, since any protagonist dying would be disastrous to the other characters (as well as the entire fandom). What is more interesting to discuss though, is the claim Aristotle makes, which is the tragic events that happen in the plot should be out of the tragic hero's control.
I give you our very likely tragic hero: Aqua (this is not an assertion. The characteristics I describe later throughout the analysis also give reasons for why Aqua's character lines up with a tragic hero's).
Interestingly enough, Aqua has had a long track record of doing insanely reckless things that have earned him the ire of other characters and fate himself. Two main examples are his response to Akane's suicide attempt early on in the manga, as well as his decision to suddenly reveal his and Ruby's relationship with Ai to the public. Both times, Aqua was criticized for the averse impacts his actions have had (even though he later solves the Akane situation with the raw footage video), and honestly were highly dependent on a lucky response from the public. Even during his previous life, the mf ran after a stalker into the woods at night AND TOWARDS THE EDGE OF A CLIFF without any thought about his safety whatsoever. Especially in his currently emotionally-driven and irrational state, if Aqua keeps up this trend of doing reckless things, he could very well provoke a response entirely out of his control that might bring his downfall.
Character (Hamartia) According to Aristotle, a tragic hero must have hamartia: a tragic flaw that eventually leads to their downfall. In this case, Aqua's progression as a character seems to be driven by one very large motive: his unhealthy obsession with avenging Ai's death. Given the current point in the story (the 15-year lie movie arc) is completely based on his obsession with Ai, it gives the necessary buildup to have that character trait backfire on Aqua to kickstart the tragedy. There are also explicit criticisms of this flaw of his, such as Akane's active opposition to Aqua's self-destructive behaviour, as well as some implicit ones like the recent interaction between Aqua and the crow girl in chapter 118. In the chapter, the crow girl says that Ai didn't get reincarnated unlike Ruby and Aqua, and that maybe he should consider the reason he was reincarnated. To many (including myself), this could imply a suggestion that he should reconsider his current path and use this second life of his to the fullest. When he let go of his intent for revenge for Ai earlier (because he thought his father was dead), he started TRULY living like a normal person. It is more than possible that Aqua's obsession with revenge and Ai could be his hamartia.
Diction (Anagnorisis) Diction in tragedy is based on anagnorisis: the sudden realization the tragic hero has about their situation, and that eventually leads them to their downfall. I believe we've already seen this anagnorisis in the manga: When Aqua realizes that his father is alive, and who Hikaru is.
This is the point where Aqua begins his downward spiral, and we see him start to revert to his vengeful, self-destructive arc. Except for this time, we see it amplified tenfold since his motives previously were somewhat diverted from the story painting his rise and development as an actor. Now that that's done, this particular downward spiral is centred solely on its purpose: revenge. This realization is the turning point to turn him into the self-destructive, hateful mess of a person he is currently; which is what leads us to the next element:
Thought (Peripeteia/Catharsis) A tragedy isn't just a story of the protagonist suffering at the end of it. It is a rollercoaster that constantly builds up the disaster the more twisted the tragic hero becomes, until it drops; and there is a release of emotions within the audience. Pity, sadness, grief. Relief. It is not a sudden twist of events, not an unexpected ending. It is an outcome everyone saw coming and when it finally hits, it releases all that buildup in a burst of emotions. This is catharsis.
Catharsis is primarily built with three components. The character (as mentioned earlier) of the tragic hero must begin with a morally upstanding individual, who the audience grows to root for. Then the downward spiral of events as a result of the anagnorisis. Then the release of emotions in the eventual downfall/death of the character.
It's very easy to argue that Aqua resembles that morally upstanding person. Even in his previous life as Goro, he's had many feats that point to his strong moral foundation. The fact that he was a doctor signalled his desire to help others. That he cared about his patients (Sarina) so much to the point of even taking up their hobbies post their death in their honour. That he actively stuck to his obligations as a doctor rather than to his instincts as a fan when he was with Ai. Up to his life as Aqua, where he is portrayed as a great brother who truly cares for Ruby (quite intuitive, examples are sprinkled throughout the manga). Additionally, a very common trope in these tragedies is to have the morals of the tragic hero into their very own hamartia. Guess whose hamartia could also be seen as a product of his undying love for his mother as a good son? Aqua himself.
But at this stage of the manga, we no longer see that loving Aqua. We no longer see his compassion and start to see him become a more twisted and hateful person in the current arc. The majority of his appearances now feature him with a black star in his eyes, which is typically referred to as a symbol of lies and manipulation, often with killing intent (this would take a whole other analysis). But even without making these assumptions, we've already seen him do some terrible things, such as actively manipulating Kana by playing with her emotions, casting Akane aside despite her good intentions, exposing his and Ruby's relationship with Ai without Ruby's consent, etc. I'm sure all of us still love Aqua and truly want to see him come out of this alive, but for most people, it is undeniable that he is the same compassionate, empathetic individual he was at the start of the story. That is the second component of catharsis to a tick.
The part we haven't seen yet is the ACTUAL release of catharsis, the horrific events that happen to the tragic hero at the end of the story. We haven't gotten to that part at this point in the plot yet, but since the first two components are present, it is fair to assume that the final release is impending.
Spectacle (Realism) There's not much to discuss about spectacle here tbh, since this isn't a live play. However, Aristotle's view on tragedies is for them to work, they have to imitate reality to an extent to make them relatable to the viewer. We can see the manga adhere to this rule by not only using realistic settings but also tackling realistic issues related to the entertainment industry. This doesn't mean anything though, since it's a manga. Just wanted to point that out.
Music Yeah, nothing much to discuss here. This is a manga, there's no music. The anime music banging though!
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2) Foreshadowing "Yeah OP, you have a long essay about what a tragedy is and all, but what if I don't buy any of that?"
I wouldn't blame you. That's the whole point of starting this discussion with the analysis! But here are two more examples that I think foreshadow Aqua's tragic end.
Some might say this is a stretch, but I find it interesting why Aqua ended up playing the villain while filming the Sweet Today adaptation in the Entertainment World arc. He even explicitly mentions the irony of it all, playing the "stalker that killed Ai." But it is never brought up again throughout the manga. I can understand it being a lone tongue-in-cheek irony thing, but for a writer like Aka who is always so comprehensive with his motifs and symbolism even in this manga, it doesn't rule out the possibility that this was foreshadowing Aqua's eventual dark path. Also, the stalker ended up committing suicide after killing Ai. Which has also been expressed as Aqua's plan once he kills his father. Make of that what you will.
In addition, an enigmatic character who is showing some rising relevance in the story is the crow girl, who is not only a supernatural character, but also has some semblance of being a deity of death (crows are also a very widely-used symbol of death). We never truly see her before her appearance in the Private Arc, but when she interacted with Aqua and Ruby, both of them seemed familiar with her. They both may have met her somewhere off-screen during their reincarnations. The reason I bring her up is that the three appearances she makes, it often has to do with death in some way. Be it a discussion about Gorou's death or Ruby's discovery of Gorou's corpse. The one appearance that doesn't seem to have much immediate proximity to the theme of death is her latest one in chapter 118. Yes, this is during an arc that is about revenge for Ai's death, and Aqua's pursuit for Hikaru's death, but this interaction doesn't seem as linked to those as her other appearances. This interaction with Aqua was not about a previous death; hence, the logical conclusion is that it foreshadows an impending one. And while some might argue that the death might be Hikaru's, I believe this to be a bit too random, and Hikaru's character too insignificant (development-wise) to make this about his death. Consider that of all the appearances Crow Girl has made thus far, they have all been about one other character's death and one character only. Aqua, and his previous life as Gorou.
I want to note that it's been a while since I've read the earlier parts of the manga, and presently am writing this largely off my memory (I also really can't find the time to do a comprehensive re-read up to the current point in the story while taking notes). If there are any other possible moments of foreshadowing I've missed, please bring them up in the comments since I would love to know as well!
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3) Miscellaneous/Meta As we cross the 2k word mark, I would like to end with an additional comment about the series in itself, and why it might make sense to Aka to make this story end as a tragedy.
Unlikely his other massively popular series (an absolute masterpiece), Kaguya-sama, Oshi No Ko is a series dedicated to dark themes. It is a series that exposes the dark side of the entertainment industry, actively tackles potentially triggering themes about suicide and parental abandonment, and has shown no mercy to the prospect of making its readers squirm with shock, discomfort, and sadness. It is a series that began by killing off its protagonist and ending its FIRST arc with one of the hugest and most emotionally devastating twists in manga history. This sends a huge message to the audience: do not expect happy endings, this series is dedicated to making you cry. While it doesn't rule out the possibility of Aqua getting a happy ending, a tragic ending would absolutely be consistent with the narrative that the story has had so far.
That said, in a small point for devil's advocate, this is also a series that largely hinges on twists and moments that shock readers (in a very NON-comprehensive list, we have Ai's death, Akane's imitation of Ai, the discovery that Aqua's father is alive (at the time we thought he was dead), Ruby and Akane suddenly discovering Gorou's body, and Sarina's absent mother showing up as the distributor for the 15-year lie movie in the latest chapter). Aqua, who has long been saying he doesn't intend to live once he's enacted his revenge, kind of deviates from that trend. If HE were to die, that wouldn't exactly be a shock to the audience, since it's been a long time coming. In short, it is possible that all my previous analyses about the release of catharsis and the foreshadowing might've also worked as reasons AGAINST the story ending in Aqua's death since it counteracts the whole strategy of the manga getting its appeal from its twists.
Therefore, if this isn't about Aqua's death, then there's one other plausible way this could be turned into a tragedy. An event that would absolutely break Aqua and might turn him into an empty shell of the person he once was, POSSIBLY resulting in him taking his own life by proxy.
I'm talking about Akane Kurokawa's death.
I won't get into a whole other analysis about whether or not Akane's death is likely. But one thing the post I linked above and I agree upon is, if someone were to die, it might be Akane. This is also a thought that is shared by a lot of fans in the community and has been arguably foreshadowed through her flawless imitation of (a now dead) Ai, her strong resolve to oppose Aqua's plan and save him (which might result in her doing some things that might end in her death, potentially also making Aqua feel responsible), and even more explicitly, that damn bridge scene in chapter 97 that made most of us think she was going to die. There are a lot of reasons to expect a possible Akane death in the near future, since it would not only be consistent with said foreshadowing but would also arguably have the same if not stronger tragic impact on Aqua and the Oshi No Ko fandom if she were to die. I pray that I am wrong, but these are my speculations for now.
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Conclusion Long story short, this was an analysis that looked into the elements of a tragedy and how the Oshi No Ko storyline thus far has fit within it. Independently of that, there are some additional reasons to suggest Aqua's death in the future; and if not, it MIGHT be Akane's (I REALLY HOPE I AM WRONG).
If you've read all 2.5k+ words of this analysis, thanks! I want to note that I am not a literary expert, and there are simply too many unresolved nuances to form a definite prediction on the outcome of the story now. Therefore, I'd love to hear some more of your thoughts in the comments and am very open to further discussion or debate on this matter. Hopefully this has given some food for thought on the literary aspects of the series, and I can't wait to see where it goes!
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2023.05.30 20:30 TheDrungeonBlaster Gutterpunks Reloaded #7:100 Dead Nazis
-Red-
April 19th, 11:13 A.M., The Sprawl
I sparked a dilapidated Vita-Cig that I’d snagged from Trodes and peered out into the Sprawl; the careful equilibrium of a well-orchestrated black-market had returned; pushers and gangers lined the alleys, watching for signals from rooftop lookouts to avoid the single Peacewatch cruiser that had been stupid enough to enter the dockside. The poor bastard would be dead before the afternoon was over… not that I had much sympathy for his kind. Peacewatch made it a habit to stay out of the Sprawl: unless the Eggheads predictive crime system said something catastrophic was coming, they policed their kind and left us in the hands of the mob. I’d never iced an officer. Not yet at least.
“Your partner should be ready shortly, I think he’s just tying up a few loose ends,” Akari said, snatching the cigarette from my hand and taking a long drag.
“Remind me again why you think I should take the shrimp with me instead of Nico and Roman?”
“He’s smart… and the other two are working on something else. Besides-- you need brains on this one, Red, not muscle,” she giggled, passing the cigarette back.
“Whatever you say,” I paused, grabbing the smoke, “what do you have them up to?”
“There’s a shipment of Xeno-grade weapons coming down from the colonies. Nico and Roman will be liberating them from the Slicers. Or, their share, at least. It won’t be much, maybe a dozen guns, but it’ll be worth it: the force field tech alone will pay for the trip as soon as Fincetti’s goons start trying to take your heads off with plasma cannons and mono blades.”
“What do you mean, their share?”
“The job was too big for us to take on alone. I linked up with another enterprising group of Freelancers. If it goes well, maybe we can hire them on for the heist, we’re going to need more people if we want to walk out of there alive.”
We?
“What, are you planning on coming along now?” I asked, snuffing out the smoke.
“It only seems right; Trodes is coming along, and I’m a better shot than he’ll ever be. Besides, you have a dangerous habit of getting shot, and I can’t have you going down in the field,” she said, winking as if to punctuate the sentence.
“You sure? We can manage, you don’t have to come with us, you’ve done so much already.”
“I know I have, that’s why I have to protect my investment. If you go down out there, then the team is without a leader. A military scale operation like this will go south real fast without someone competent in command.”
“You’ve got me wrong, Akari: I’m no leader. I’m just someone who wants to live in a better city and doesn’t mind taking the trash out himself. Besides, why do we need a leader? We’re all competent adults acting in concert, of our own free will. We all know what we’re doing, if a situation arises and someone needs to take charge, it’ll happen.”
“You’ve got a lot of faith in a crew you just met,” Akari said with a sneer.
“You know why I asked you to put the team together, Akari?”
“Because there’s a bounty on your head that could finance twenty retirements, and you know you can trust me?”
“No, well yeah, but that’s beside the point—I asked you because you’re not a Fixer, you’re a part time street doc that works the front desk at the most popular Freelancer hotel in the Sprawl. If there’s anyone who knows who’s gonna get the job done, it’s you. See, a Fixer is going to be okay with whatever losses they deem acceptable beforehand, but they’re fine with keeping that to themselves. If you thought any of these mooks were going to crack under pressure, or do something stupid, you wouldn’t have set me up with them.”
Before she could respond, Trodes emerged from the stairs leading to the lab. He winced as the sunlight hit his eyes, shrugging on the hood of the oversized sweatshirt that blanketed his meek frame. Glimpses of pain showed through every tremor laden step he took. A cloak of wires enveloped his skull, feeding into an old-world cyber console.
“It’s insufferably hot out here,” Trodes sighed.
“Don’t worry, we’re not going far. Chances are that whatever hole we’re meeting BFU in will have air conditioning,” I responded, clicking my key fob, and signaling the bike to pull around.
Trodes face fell flat when the Supersonic rolled around the corner; apparently, the prestige of carving through the skyway on a state-of-the-art Taffington jet-bike was lost on him.
“Are we taking… that?” Trodes stammered.
“We are. Unless you’ve got a pair of wheels with two seats?” I asked, mounting the bike and revving the engine.
With an exasperated sigh, Trodes boarded the passenger seat. I could feel him behind me, vibrating as tremors gripped his body.
“You good, buddy?” I asked.
He nodded vigorously, clenching the handrails with white knuckles.
Akari shook her head and headed back to the lab.
I heard Trodes mumble something under his breath, but it was quickly drowned out by the jet-bike’s purr. I carved into the skyway. Driving in the Sprawl was pure freedom: almost nobody owned vehicles with aerial capabilities in this part of town. It didn’t take long to reach top speed.
Slummers and gutterpunks walked the streets like zombies in a drug addled haze. The scent of gunpowder, pollution and burning ozone coalesced into a putrid stench that reeked of poverty and violence. Patches of azure moved in militant formation below; the Vorrath had taken to the streets. On a different day, a better day, I would’ve helped them. Most slummers hated the Offworlder Coalition, but not me—at the end of the day I always figured that I had more in common with poor people from another planet than rich people from another district of the city. At least we shared the same struggle.
The bike slowed to crawl; the Neo-Confederates were about, backed by a platoon of Brown-Shirts that looked like a tide of sewer run off, crashing through the streets with reckless abandon. Civilians fled for their homes. Fuck.
The jet-bike careened through the air before finally landing atop a building a few blocks away from the impending conflict.
“Get off,” I said, turning back to Trodes.
“Why? You don’t intend to abandon me at this altitude, do you?”
“Not as long as I survive—I’ll be quick, I just need to ventilate some Nazi fucks, understood?”
He shook his head and muttered a string of curses.
I tore through the air, circling around the impending conflict. I chased a handful of cheap amphetamines with a poorly rolled joint and swooped low, behind the rolling tide of brown shirts. This wasn’t the first time I’d made myself an enemy of the city’s Neo-Nazi’s; I’d killed at least a dozen of them in my career as a courier, but those were isolated incidents, back-alley brawls away from the mob.
This was a whole new ball game.
I fell slack as my Teleoperations module synchronized with the bike. My consciousness faded, reemerging into the HALO-Net’s stylized rendition of the bike’s interior. I wasn’t just the pilot now—I was the bike. Bullets carved twin streaks of crimson into the brown tide. It didn’t take long to hit top speed, 3.7 seconds, to be exact.
The group turned in nearly perfect unison, launching volley upon volley as I passed overhead. The bike’s shields barely held together; I felt every round, like a flock of birds violently slamming into my side—not enough to cause any real damage, but more than enough to get the blood pumping. I slid into an alley a few blocks off and waited for the shield generator to recharge. Gunshots rang out from the streets, alongside the sizzle of plasma meeting flesh. Soon the din was drowned beneath the roar of dozens of Vorrath war cries. I took to the sky.
Trodes was exactly where I left him, nervously clutching a knock off version of a Locust flechette pistol.
“I was beginning to doubt your survival,” Trodes said shakily.
“Wrong again, little guy,” I paused, reigniting a half smoked joint, “it was just a quick hit and run, we don’t have the time or the numbers for a pitched battle. Now, hop on.”
It didn’t take long to find BFU’s base of operations. Black flags and Anarchist graffiti covered the walls of the abandoned warehouse they’d apparently taken up residence in. A field of repurposed Peacewatch turrets were installed atop the roof, complimented by a web of cameras that spread across a three-block radius. Anarchists of all species and creeds loitered outside. The guards ranged from Cyborgs and Vat-Grown, to Vorrath and Vorstihl, each wearing a variant of the black flag with colors corresponding to their ideologies.
As I hovered above the building, I saw a familiar face: the rookie from earlier. Alarmingly, his cruiser was nowhere to be seen. His face was wrought with horror, as a pair of cyborgs led him inside the warehouse.
“They’re certainly less than subtle,” Trodes said.
“They don’t have to be subtle, they’re the biggest citizens political organization in the Sprawl. Peacewatch avoids them if they have anything less than a full platoon on hand,” I explained.
“Red… before we enter negotiations with these hooligans, I must inquire as to what your motivation hitting the vault is? Surely you know there’s a strong likelihood that you won’t make it out, and from what I’d heard about you, I always understood you to be a man who knew how to keep himself out of the line of sight of dangerous people,” Trodes said, nervously.
“Fincetti is the most dangerous man in the city, short of O’Bannon. He controls the black market with an iron fist and is instrumental in all the things I hate about living here. The problem is, I have no way to do anything about it right now… but there’s something big in the safe—there must be—for fucks sake, he iced his family over it. I’m hoping there’s something in there that can give me a little leverage, so I can cross him out afterwards.”
Trodes was silent for a moment, simply reaching as if to ask me to pass the joint. I obliged.
“I have my reasons to want O’Bannon dead too, I’m in,” he paused as a coughing fit seized him, causing the joint to fall to the ground, “there’s something you should know though: I’m working with an entity of great power in the Net; I don’t know what precisely it is, but I know it saved my life more than once. As a matter of fact, it’s the only reason I was able to obtain the blueprint of Fincetti’s bunker, and his security plan.”
“Is it… is it an unshackled AI?”
“Unlikely: it seems to understand compassion and empathy on a uniquely organic level, something that rarely slips past Netwatch.”
“Alright, well whatever it is, you keep an eye on it and let me know if things get shady. I appreciate you telling me.”
Trodes nodded in silence.
The crowd parted expectantly as I landed along the streetside. Dozens of eyes were immediately glued to Trodes and I. A cyborg with a steel double mohawk emerged from a sea of leather, patches, and smoke. A sawed-off shotgun hung at his side.
“Red, I presume?” the Cyborg asked, extending a steel hand.
“That’s right, and who’re you?” I answered, clasping the borgs hand as firm as I could manage.
“They call me Diezel, and I’ll be your host today,” he released my hand and looked me up and down as if assessing whether I was a threat, “follow me, everyone’s here so we can get straight down to business.”
The warehouse’s interior had been renovated drastically; layers of open-faced lofts sat stacked upon each other, consuming the walls. Nearly every non-violent law in the city was being broken in the lofts, from cooking chems and explosives to studying banned literature and Doomguard martial arts. It was beautiful. We followed Diezel through a winding hallway of munitions manufacturing stations, before finally emerging into an immense circular room, with rows of seats climbing the walls. I couldn’t believe it—there must have been two hundred people present.
The lights dimmed as we entered the arena. Diezel led us to the rooms center, ushering Trodes and I onto a great circular platform; he fell into place on a platform across from us, beside a Vat-Grown woman bearing an orange and black flag on her arm, and augmentations that cost more than my bike. Behind the duo a bulbous Vorstihl lurked; tentacles draped down his back, carefully pulled away from his cyclopean eye. A red and black flag was displayed on his arm… it was only then that I noticed the blue and black flag on Diezel’s arm.
The platforms each rose roughly fifteen feet into the air, before microphone stands emerged from the center of each platform. Diezel stepped forward, past the microphone.
“Before we start, I’ll explain how this works: the three of us are representatives of our specific unions—but the people are free to interject. One union voting to aid in your endeavors does not guarantee the help of the other two, as each union demands a perfect consensus. Likewise, if a faction without one union decides to help you, it does not necessarily mean you have the support of the entire union. The only way you’ll end up with total support is cross union consensus. Do you understand?”
A consensus: of course, they needed a damned consensus.
“I do,” I answered, speaking away from the microphone.
“Then let’s get this show on the road,” Diezel stepped back, finding his microphone before continuing, “Red, Trodes, welcome to the Bouleuterion,” he paused a moment as the crowd erupted into cheers, “beside me are my comrades Aria and Korvirex, and we stand ready to hear your proposal.”
“As most of you probably know, Don Fincetti is the most powerful man in the underworld, hell—maybe even the city—what you likely don’t know is that he has a vault beneath the city, guarded by an army of Harvesters. I intend to break into the vault, slaughter the Harvesters and strike a blow to Fincetti that he won’t forget… and I intend to kill him shortly after. What I ask is simple: you help me in what’s to come, and when he’s finally dead, you can all split his turf among yourselves. All I care about is making sure he doesn’t live long enough to poison the Sprawl more than he already has.”
A murmur emerged from the stands. I gazed across the way to see the three representatives huddled together, whispering amongst themselves. Finally, Aria stepped towards her microphone.
“What you ask of us will likely mean the death of many of our people… we need something greater than what you offer—we need a guarantee of mutual aid—you have a reputation in the Sprawl, we would ask that you employ it in helping us when the time comes to resettle the Sprawl. Namely, we’d request your assistance against the gangs that may try to fill the power void you seek to create,” Aria explained.
“That seems reasonable,” I said.
Aria stepped back as Korvirex moved forward.
“Tell me, Red, are you familiar with the Offworlder Coalition?” Korvirex asked.
“I am—as a matter of fact, I aided them on the way here—they were marching against the Neo-Confederates and the Brown Shirts. I insured that they had the element of surprise.”
Korvirex stroked the beard-like tentacles that hung from his chin in contemplation.
“Good. What I ask is that you help us to secure their trust, we have offered solidarity where we could, but our forces are spread thin. The ideology of many of the exiled Vorrath rebels that found their way to Nova City—it matches that of our union. If our help was offered, would you agree to assist us in aiding the Coalition, so that they finally have an opportunity to get on their feet?”
Trodes leaned towards in, whispering in my ear.
“It would be prudent of you to make a counteroffer: proclaim that you’ll help with the Coalition, if they’ll spread the word to other groups whose goals may align with ours. There will likely be at least a couple hundred Harvesters in the Undercity when we strike… unless they’re occupied elsewhere.”
“I would happily help with the Coalition, on the condition that your faction spread the word about what we’re doing to like-minded organizations. As it stands, we could still use more numbers to match the Harvesters,” I said.
“These conditions may be satisfactory,” Korvirex said, before retreating into yet another group huddle.
The audience watched on in silence.
Finally, Diezel reapproached the microphone.
“The representatives have deemed this topic worthy of discussion: you’re free to leave, we’ll get ahold of Akari in a couple days, when all the details are ironed out.”
“A couple days?”
“Reaching a consensus can be a slow process at times—be prepared for a renegotiation of conditions, as there will likely be more stipulations made once the process is complete,” Diezel explained.
I nodded, and the platform beneath my feet began to descend towards the floor. The crowd erupted into cheers.
Hopefully Nico and Roman would beat us home.
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2023.05.30 20:30 redditthrowaway2020_ My Manager “hates managing people”
Long story short I’m a new employee at a business, been here for about 2 weeks. My department has 10 full time employees including myself. Since before I was even hired my now boss has been a pain in the ass to the point I’m ready to quit.
- First, my manager would not respond to emails promptly during the hiring process. I had to actually call other departments in order to get into contact with her to confirm time sensitive information and emails that had been sitting in her inbox for days. I had to just show up the morning of the tentative interview day I proposed because she didn’t respond to two emails and a phone call in a weeks time.
- I was told the position would hold a regular schedule of 9am to 5pm or 1pm to 9pm. I have only been scheduled for alternating time slots starting at 9am, 10am and 11am.
- I overheard my manager talking to another long term employee saying they, “hate managing people”. They knew I was in earshot and she didn’t try to clarify the statement or be discreet about it.
- I just got told I was in volition of an office dress code by someone in another department. The handbook says that it’s manager discretion as to what is appropriate and what isn’t. The COO said it wasn’t appropriate and when I told them my manger hadn’t said anything to me about it, they told me to “ask them about it”.
- My manager told me I need to do work related reading outside of work on my free time and I won’t be allocated time on the office to do it
- My manager scheduled me to work 48hrs this week despite company staffing not needing mandatory overtime
- Because there are no set weekends or days off I asked my manager to have one day a week off regularly each week to afford some semblance of a work-life balance to take care of personal things. I was told by my manager that probably won’t happen because I’m “new”
No idea who the HR person at the office is and the only person above the manager I’m aware of is the owner of the business. Really trying to stay positive and don’t want to burn bridges but I can’t stay here even 2 weeks notice in a toxic environment like this. Any advice appreciated!
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2023.05.30 20:30 Deadsharky Finally decided to post here
Created this account just to post in DB.
I’m a HLM39 married to LLF38 for over a decade. Sex likely happens less than monthly. When we do have it, there’s always a lecture beforehand about something I’m doing that’s upsetting her. I end up cold and distant. We just go through it because if not, there’s a secondary argument about me refusing after making such a big deal.
Did the vasectomy last year because she said it might help her interest as she had anxiety surrounding unwanted pregnancy. Well it fixed her anxiety, but our monthly sex still is a duty and not something she wants. There’s fairly even balance in the rest of our lives but it feels like we are highly compatible roommates. I always complain about lack of sex and it’s the same old argument. However, in the last few years I have been going through major changes myself (exercise, therapy, medication) which has given me space to self assess.
The recent feedback is that “there is no romance anymore”. I’m not sure how I feel about that since the scenarios to have romance with a kid at home are rare. She firmly separates romance and physical intimacy, which is difficult for me to understand.
I’m also initiating less and less because of constantly being turned down. Also, she’s put on significant weight over the years and I’m realizing now that frankly I’m not attracted to her at this weight.
Not sure what my point is here but damn this sucks. I find myself being drawn to pornography where it’s just a woman’s voice speaking to me in a loving way. I feel so gross about it because why should I need all of that? One foot in front of the other for now. Maybe I’ll work up the courage to start that fight about romance and physical attraction. Who knows.
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2023.05.30 20:29 Equal-Thing-9217 Boyfriend (24M) and I (22F) have different values - How do I break up with him?
Okay, so for context, this is a post I made yesterday:
https://www.reddit.com/relationship_advice/comments/13vgk4g/boyfriend_25m_and_i_22f_have_different_values_can/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1 (TL;DR for the above: My boyfriend and I seem to have different values (primarily in the sense that he thinks it’s funny to make insensitive jokes and I don’t, he doesn’t value prioritizing the community over self and I do). Should I break up with him or try to make it work?)
As I expected, the overwhelming consensus is that I should break up with him because we are too incompatible. I definitely agree (and tbh I have known this for a very long time, and I have even tried to do it several times) but this has been really hard for me. I was hoping I could give a little more context about our relationship and hopefully get some advice about how best to go about this.
Okay, so first of all, I never really intended to be in a long term relationship in the first place. (Disclaimer: I am aware that all of these actions are very judgement-worthy. I know, I know.) It started out as a very casual friends with benefits situation, and neither of us had any intention of getting together. Tbh, I met him on Tinder, which I was on because I wanted to get the whole losing my virginity thing out of the way. And we really clicked both in terms of sex and just hanging out. But we were definitely not dating or anything like that. And tbh, we have been fighting ever since we first met. However, as he opened up to me over time, I definitely fell in love with them. (I realize now that some of this could possibly be owed to the fact that he was the first person I ever had sex with - and like… oxytocin and stuff.) This has also been my first serious, long-term relationship. But now I’m here, and I’m about 2 years into this, or 1 year of actually being in a relationship, and I can’t go back.
When I try to confront him about the things I discussed in my previous post, he makes me feel like I’m overly judgmental, condescending, and I’m treating him like a “bad person.” He makes statements like “You talk to me as if I’m going to go out and commit hate crimes and murder people.” I try to explain that I know that’s not the case, and that he’s not saying these things in public or to the people it will hurt most, or to anyone but me, but that still doesn’t make it okay. But it makes me feel like I’m being super judgmental or self-righteous, and I sort of shrink back because of that, as I don’t want to be unfair.
Another thing that makes it hard is that when I try to set boundaries or establish limits, I feel like I am being unfair because I have allowed things to go on for so long already. And he makes statements like this as well. Honestly, I know I’m a hypocrite, but I don’t know how to fix that without feeling like shit.
I am also scared to break up with him because I don’t want to hurt him or be the reason he doesn’t believe in love. He is already really insecure about so many things, and there are a lot of things about his family background and past relationships that have created a lot of abandonment and trust issues, disorganized attachment, and other issues with relationships. He also suffers from depression. He often says the he feels like I am the first person in his life to truly love him, and I am the first person that he has truly loved (at least romantically). I think one of the biggest reasons that I am scared to break up with him is that I’m scared to hurt him, and I’m scared of how he will be if I leave. Also again, I really do
love him, even though he can be really unattractive some times. And I also feel really bad about cutting things off because I know that I have allowed them to go on for so long, so it’s like how do I get to just change up now? He says I am being unfair by trying to potentially end or give up on our relationship now, without giving him the opportunity to do better (after talking last night about how I would appreciate him making efforts to educate himself and develop more empathy). He says I’ve never given him this chance before, although the way I see it, me talking about how I have a problem with this behavior and wishing he could empathize with others more should be all he needs to try to start changing. This applies to the disrespectful “jokes” thing, as well as a variety of other things that go on in our relationship. Again, I know I sound like such a hypocrite, and a horrible person for allowing things to go on for so long. And then there’s the thing you always hear about how it’s unfair to try to make someone “change” for you that’s always in the back of my mind.
I several times have tried to set boundaries or break up with him, and I will admit that I have often in the process said things that are really hurtful or just in generally poor form, or have made him feel more insecure. For example, during our last fight, I said something about how it would be it sucks to think about how there are people who share my values out there, and it would be nice to be able to be with someone who does. And he was really hurt by that.
There’s also the fact that our lives are so entangled now, because we have been in this so long. He’s met all of my family, I’ve met his. He’s making plans to move to my area, including a big career change that is dependent on that move. So I just feel so conflicted about ending it, even though I know I should.
I say all of this to say, how would you all go about breaking up with him? (How would you say it, when, etc.) In a way that is fair, and also tries to minimize the fall out? I’m really concerned about whether he will be okay if I leave.
TL;DR: How should I break up with my boyfriend (what words, when, other steps/considerations etc.) in a way that is fair but also tries to minimize the fall out of him giving up on love and getting depressed? Especially given that I haven’t always handled the situations in the best way.
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2023.05.30 20:29 TheDrungeonBlaster [SF] Gutterpunks Reloaded #7: 100 Dead Nazis
-Red-
April 19th, 11:13 A.M., The Sprawl
I sparked a dilapidated Vita-Cig that I’d snagged from Trodes and peered out into the Sprawl; the careful equilibrium of a well-orchestrated black-market had returned; pushers and gangers lined the alleys, watching for signals from rooftop lookouts to avoid the single Peacewatch cruiser that had been stupid enough to enter the dockside. The poor bastard would be dead before the afternoon was over… not that I had much sympathy for his kind. Peacewatch made it a habit to stay out of the Sprawl: unless the Eggheads predictive crime system said something catastrophic was coming, they policed their kind and left us in the hands of the mob. I’d never iced an officer. Not yet at least.
“Your partner should be ready shortly, I think he’s just tying up a few loose ends,” Akari said, snatching the cigarette from my hand and taking a long drag.
“Remind me again why you think I should take the shrimp with me instead of Nico and Roman?”
“He’s smart… and the other two are working on something else. Besides-- you need brains on this one, Red, not muscle,” she giggled, passing the cigarette back.
“Whatever you say,” I paused, grabbing the smoke, “what do you have them up to?”
“There’s a shipment of Xeno-grade weapons coming down from the colonies. Nico and Roman will be liberating them from the Slicers. Or, their share, at least. It won’t be much, maybe a dozen guns, but it’ll be worth it: the force field tech alone will pay for the trip as soon as Fincetti’s goons start trying to take your heads off with plasma cannons and mono blades.”
“What do you mean, their share?”
“The job was too big for us to take on alone. I linked up with another enterprising group of Freelancers. If it goes well, maybe we can hire them on for the heist, we’re going to need more people if we want to walk out of there alive.”
We?
“What, are you planning on coming along now?” I asked, snuffing out the smoke.
“It only seems right; Trodes is coming along, and I’m a better shot than he’ll ever be. Besides, you have a dangerous habit of getting shot, and I can’t have you going down in the field,” she said, winking as if to punctuate the sentence.
“You sure? We can manage, you don’t have to come with us, you’ve done so much already.”
“I know I have, that’s why I have to protect my investment. If you go down out there, then the team is without a leader. A military scale operation like this will go south real fast without someone competent in command.”
“You’ve got me wrong, Akari: I’m no leader. I’m just someone who wants to live in a better city and doesn’t mind taking the trash out himself. Besides, why do we need a leader? We’re all competent adults acting in concert, of our own free will. We all know what we’re doing, if a situation arises and someone needs to take charge, it’ll happen.”
“You’ve got a lot of faith in a crew you just met,” Akari said with a sneer.
“You know why I asked you to put the team together, Akari?”
“Because there’s a bounty on your head that could finance twenty retirements, and you know you can trust me?”
“No, well yeah, but that’s beside the point—I asked you because you’re not a Fixer, you’re a part time street doc that works the front desk at the most popular Freelancer hotel in the Sprawl. If there’s anyone who knows who’s gonna get the job done, it’s you. See, a Fixer is going to be okay with whatever losses they deem acceptable beforehand, but they’re fine with keeping that to themselves. If you thought any of these mooks were going to crack under pressure, or do something stupid, you wouldn’t have set me up with them.”
Before she could respond, Trodes emerged from the stairs leading to the lab. He winced as the sunlight hit his eyes, shrugging on the hood of the oversized sweatshirt that blanketed his meek frame. Glimpses of pain showed through every tremor laden step he took. A cloak of wires enveloped his skull, feeding into an old-world cyber console.
“It’s insufferably hot out here,” Trodes sighed.
“Don’t worry, we’re not going far. Chances are that whatever hole we’re meeting BFU in will have air conditioning,” I responded, clicking my key fob, and signaling the bike to pull around.
Trodes face fell flat when the Supersonic rolled around the corner; apparently, the prestige of carving through the skyway on a state-of-the-art Taffington jet-bike was lost on him.
“Are we taking… that?” Trodes stammered.
“We are. Unless you’ve got a pair of wheels with two seats?” I asked, mounting the bike and revving the engine.
With an exasperated sigh, Trodes boarded the passenger seat. I could feel him behind me, vibrating as tremors gripped his body.
“You good, buddy?” I asked.
He nodded vigorously, clenching the handrails with white knuckles.
Akari shook her head and headed back to the lab.
I heard Trodes mumble something under his breath, but it was quickly drowned out by the jet-bike’s purr. I carved into the skyway. Driving in the Sprawl was pure freedom: almost nobody owned vehicles with aerial capabilities in this part of town. It didn’t take long to reach top speed.
Slummers and gutterpunks walked the streets like zombies in a drug addled haze. The scent of gunpowder, pollution and burning ozone coalesced into a putrid stench that reeked of poverty and violence. Patches of azure moved in militant formation below; the Vorrath had taken to the streets. On a different day, a better day, I would’ve helped them. Most slummers hated the Offworlder Coalition, but not me—at the end of the day I always figured that I had more in common with poor people from another planet than rich people from another district of the city. At least we shared the same struggle.
The bike slowed to crawl; the Neo-Confederates were about, backed by a platoon of Brown-Shirts that looked like a tide of sewer run off, crashing through the streets with reckless abandon. Civilians fled for their homes. Fuck.
The jet-bike careened through the air before finally landing atop a building a few blocks away from the impending conflict.
“Get off,” I said, turning back to Trodes.
“Why? You don’t intend to abandon me at this altitude, do you?”
“Not as long as I survive—I’ll be quick, I just need to ventilate some Nazi fucks, understood?”
He shook his head and muttered a string of curses.
I tore through the air, circling around the impending conflict. I chased a handful of cheap amphetamines with a poorly rolled joint and swooped low, behind the rolling tide of brown shirts. This wasn’t the first time I’d made myself an enemy of the city’s Neo-Nazi’s; I’d killed at least a dozen of them in my career as a courier, but those were isolated incidents, back-alley brawls away from the mob.
This was a whole new ball game.
I fell slack as my Teleoperations module synchronized with the bike. My consciousness faded, reemerging into the HALO-Net’s stylized rendition of the bike’s interior. I wasn’t just the pilot now—I was the bike. Bullets carved twin streaks of crimson into the brown tide. It didn’t take long to hit top speed, 3.7 seconds, to be exact.
The group turned in nearly perfect unison, launching volley upon volley as I passed overhead. The bike’s shields barely held together; I felt every round, like a flock of birds violently slamming into my side—not enough to cause any real damage, but more than enough to get the blood pumping. I slid into an alley a few blocks off and waited for the shield generator to recharge. Gunshots rang out from the streets, alongside the sizzle of plasma meeting flesh. Soon the din was drowned beneath the roar of dozens of Vorrath war cries. I took to the sky.
Trodes was exactly where I left him, nervously clutching a knock off version of a Locust flechette pistol.
“I was beginning to doubt your survival,” Trodes said shakily.
“Wrong again, little guy,” I paused, reigniting a half smoked joint, “it was just a quick hit and run, we don’t have the time or the numbers for a pitched battle. Now, hop on.”
It didn’t take long to find BFU’s base of operations. Black flags and Anarchist graffiti covered the walls of the abandoned warehouse they’d apparently taken up residence in. A field of repurposed Peacewatch turrets were installed atop the roof, complimented by a web of cameras that spread across a three-block radius. Anarchists of all species and creeds loitered outside. The guards ranged from Cyborgs and Vat-Grown, to Vorrath and Vorstihl, each wearing a variant of the black flag with colors corresponding to their ideologies.
As I hovered above the building, I saw a familiar face: the rookie from earlier. Alarmingly, his cruiser was nowhere to be seen. His face was wrought with horror, as a pair of cyborgs led him inside the warehouse.
“They’re certainly less than subtle,” Trodes said.
“They don’t have to be subtle, they’re the biggest citizens political organization in the Sprawl. Peacewatch avoids them if they have anything less than a full platoon on hand,” I explained.
“Red… before we enter negotiations with these hooligans, I must inquire as to what your motivation hitting the vault is? Surely you know there’s a strong likelihood that you won’t make it out, and from what I’d heard about you, I always understood you to be a man who knew how to keep himself out of the line of sight of dangerous people,” Trodes said, nervously.
“Fincetti is the most dangerous man in the city, short of O’Bannon. He controls the black market with an iron fist and is instrumental in all the things I hate about living here. The problem is, I have no way to do anything about it right now… but there’s something big in the safe—there must be—for fucks sake, he iced his family over it. I’m hoping there’s something in there that can give me a little leverage, so I can cross him out afterwards.”
Trodes was silent for a moment, simply reaching as if to ask me to pass the joint. I obliged.
“I have my reasons to want O’Bannon dead too, I’m in,” he paused as a coughing fit seized him, causing the joint to fall to the ground, “there’s something you should know though: I’m working with an entity of great power in the Net; I don’t know what precisely it is, but I know it saved my life more than once. As a matter of fact, it’s the only reason I was able to obtain the blueprint of Fincetti’s bunker, and his security plan.”
“Is it… is it an unshackled AI?”
“Unlikely: it seems to understand compassion and empathy on a uniquely organic level, something that rarely slips past Netwatch.”
“Alright, well whatever it is, you keep an eye on it and let me know if things get shady. I appreciate you telling me.”
Trodes nodded in silence.
The crowd parted expectantly as I landed along the streetside. Dozens of eyes were immediately glued to Trodes and I. A cyborg with a steel double mohawk emerged from a sea of leather, patches, and smoke. A sawed-off shotgun hung at his side.
“Red, I presume?” the Cyborg asked, extending a steel hand.
“That’s right, and who’re you?” I answered, clasping the borgs hand as firm as I could manage.
“They call me Diezel, and I’ll be your host today,” he released my hand and looked me up and down as if assessing whether I was a threat, “follow me, everyone’s here so we can get straight down to business.”
The warehouse’s interior had been renovated drastically; layers of open-faced lofts sat stacked upon each other, consuming the walls. Nearly every non-violent law in the city was being broken in the lofts, from cooking chems and explosives to studying banned literature and Doomguard martial arts. It was beautiful. We followed Diezel through a winding hallway of munitions manufacturing stations, before finally emerging into an immense circular room, with rows of seats climbing the walls. I couldn’t believe it—there must have been two hundred people present.
The lights dimmed as we entered the arena. Diezel led us to the rooms center, ushering Trodes and I onto a great circular platform; he fell into place on a platform across from us, beside a Vat-Grown woman bearing an orange and black flag on her arm, and augmentations that cost more than my bike. Behind the duo a bulbous Vorstihl lurked; tentacles draped down his back, carefully pulled away from his cyclopean eye. A red and black flag was displayed on his arm… it was only then that I noticed the blue and black flag on Diezel’s arm.
The platforms each rose roughly fifteen feet into the air, before microphone stands emerged from the center of each platform. Diezel stepped forward, past the microphone.
“Before we start, I’ll explain how this works: the three of us are representatives of our specific unions—but the people are free to interject. One union voting to aid in your endeavors does not guarantee the help of the other two, as each union demands a perfect consensus. Likewise, if a faction without one union decides to help you, it does not necessarily mean you have the support of the entire union. The only way you’ll end up with total support is cross union consensus. Do you understand?”
A consensus: of course, they needed a damned consensus.
“I do,” I answered, speaking away from the microphone.
“Then let’s get this show on the road,” Diezel stepped back, finding his microphone before continuing, “Red, Trodes, welcome to the Bouleuterion,” he paused a moment as the crowd erupted into cheers, “beside me are my comrades Aria and Korvirex, and we stand ready to hear your proposal.”
“As most of you probably know, Don Fincetti is the most powerful man in the underworld, hell—maybe even the city—what you likely don’t know is that he has a vault beneath the city, guarded by an army of Harvesters. I intend to break into the vault, slaughter the Harvesters and strike a blow to Fincetti that he won’t forget… and I intend to kill him shortly after. What I ask is simple: you help me in what’s to come, and when he’s finally dead, you can all split his turf among yourselves. All I care about is making sure he doesn’t live long enough to poison the Sprawl more than he already has.”
A murmur emerged from the stands. I gazed across the way to see the three representatives huddled together, whispering amongst themselves. Finally, Aria stepped towards her microphone.
“What you ask of us will likely mean the death of many of our people… we need something greater than what you offer—we need a guarantee of mutual aid—you have a reputation in the Sprawl, we would ask that you employ it in helping us when the time comes to resettle the Sprawl. Namely, we’d request your assistance against the gangs that may try to fill the power void you seek to create,” Aria explained.
“That seems reasonable,” I said.
Aria stepped back as Korvirex moved forward.
“Tell me, Red, are you familiar with the Offworlder Coalition?” Korvirex asked.
“I am—as a matter of fact, I aided them on the way here—they were marching against the Neo-Confederates and the Brown Shirts. I insured that they had the element of surprise.”
Korvirex stroked the beard-like tentacles that hung from his chin in contemplation.
“Good. What I ask is that you help us to secure their trust, we have offered solidarity where we could, but our forces are spread thin. The ideology of many of the exiled Vorrath rebels that found their way to Nova City—it matches that of our union. If our help was offered, would you agree to assist us in aiding the Coalition, so that they finally have an opportunity to get on their feet?”
Trodes leaned towards in, whispering in my ear.
“It would be prudent of you to make a counteroffer: proclaim that you’ll help with the Coalition, if they’ll spread the word to other groups whose goals may align with ours. There will likely be at least a couple hundred Harvesters in the Undercity when we strike… unless they’re occupied elsewhere.”
“I would happily help with the Coalition, on the condition that your faction spread the word about what we’re doing to like-minded organizations. As it stands, we could still use more numbers to match the Harvesters,” I said.
“These conditions may be satisfactory,” Korvirex said, before retreating into yet another group huddle.
The audience watched on in silence.
Finally, Diezel reapproached the microphone.
“The representatives have deemed this topic worthy of discussion: you’re free to leave, we’ll get ahold of Akari in a couple days, when all the details are ironed out.”
“A couple days?”
“Reaching a consensus can be a slow process at times—be prepared for a renegotiation of conditions, as there will likely be more stipulations made once the process is complete,” Diezel explained.
I nodded, and the platform beneath my feet began to descend towards the floor. The crowd erupted into cheers.
Hopefully Nico and Roman would beat us home
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2023.05.30 20:29 OkFlight5290 Chance an Asian Male who wants to leave his toxic life asap!!
Demographics: Indian/Pakistani/Persian Male (50% Indian, 25 - 25 others) Apparently this allows me to put MENA on my common app.
Applying to college as a junior because I hate my life and I want to run away. I have guaranteed admission to UCM and UCR which is my worst case scenario.
My family thinks I'm fucked because I got 2 Bs. Residency: SoCal
Top Public High School in California
Income: >350k Intended Major(s): Political Science ACT: 36 (All Sections) UW/W GPA and Rank: 3.92UW/4.27W Top 15% Coursework: AP Chem (5), AP Calc AB (5), APWH (5), AP HUG (5), Intro Poli Sci (community college), Calc 2 (community college) Senior Year APs: AP Lang, APUSH, AP Bio, AP Stats, AP Psych Awards:
- Congressional Gold Medal
- PVSA Lifetime
- Eagle Scout
- County Academic League Winner
- School Character Award (Given to 2 kids per grade)
- Quiz Bowl Team Nationals 13th place
- AP Scholar with Distinction
- Duke Of Edinburgh Silver Award
(lemme know which ones to put) Extracurriculars (Help Me Condense these) Trying to make a story about American Politics:
- Boy Scouts, Eagle Scouts, and ASPL. Have been in Scouting since first grade.
- Political Science Research at a T100 UC near me. Doing this for 2 years. My name is on publication.
- Political Science Research at Brown. Doing this for 3 months.
- Political Science Research at a State School Online. My name is on Publication.
- Internship with State Assemblymember.
- Founder Of a Nonprofit that teaches kids political literacy at three of the local elementary schools. Nonprofit since 7th grade.
- Vice President Of Quiz Bowl, Have been a part of since 7th grade. Served as Treasurer last year.
- Captain Of Junior Varsity Academic League
- President and Founder Of Model Congress Club. First Model Congress in the city.
- Secretary Of Model UN.
- Youth Fellow at National Democrat Organization
- Member Of a National Civics-Based Youth Board
- USA Head at a big global nonprofit.
- Wrote and self-published a book on civic engagement for children. Sold over 1000 copies (don't ask who though)
Help me make my story, please
Essays:
8.5/10, gonna write about my struggles with eating disorders and how I lost 150 pounds after my family bullied me for my weight.
LORs: Brown Professor / T100 UC Professor (Depends on which school), AP Chem Teacher 7/10, APWH Teacher (11/10) - Notorious for only writing letters for only 3 kids. She is the advisor of Model UN, Model Congress, Academic League, and Quiz Bowl. In her letter of rec for my youth board, she wrote that I am the hardest working student she has ever had.
Schools: Brown (ED), Bowdoin (ED2), Uchicago EA, UVA EA, NYU (Gallatin) RD, Cornell RD, Dartmouth RD, Amherst RD, UMich EA, Emory RD, Williams RD, USC EA, UCLA, UCB, Harvard RD, Duke RD,
Please let me know what I can do to make my application stronger. I AM DESPERATE TO START A NEW LIFE!!
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2023.05.30 20:29 HamstringHunter AITA for blaming my mother for my older brother's immature behaviour?
This is probably the most childish post you'll ever see today, so I'll (19M) keep it short.
In my stupid culture, parents tend to treat their eldest son/daughter like royalty. The amount of times I was told to watch my tone and maintain respect to my older brother (23M) "just because he's older than I am" was annoying. I fucking hate it.
Whenever there was an altercation, my mother would almost ALWAYS side with my older brother against my siblings and I, and would defend him like a lion. Whenever it came to housework, freedom, e.t.c, my older brother would always get the better side of the toast.
The treatment was very unfair. We've told her this many times, but my mother has too big of an ego to listen to her own kids (except her eldest son, that is). This went on for a good 4-5 years, until a year ago when my mother decided to stop.
As you could imagine, my brother became quite spoilt. With all this freedom he was gifted with, he felt like he could do whatever he wanted. To name a few things, he'd game 12-15 hours per day. Felt he was too good to contribute to any housework. He even once had a sleepover without letting anyone know and casually returned home the next morning at 9am.
This resulted in a ton of heated arguments between my mother and my older brother. My mother now resents him. She vented to us about his behaviour, and I replied that she was partially at fault for this.
While I mentioned that my older brother was being an immature clown, I told her that this is what happens when you bend your rules to suit your eldest son. Told her that this is the mess that she has taken part in and now she must suffer the consequences.
She was upset, and told me that she knew this and was trying her best to fix things. I was accused of "siding with my brother". Rest of my family told me that there's a time and place for some things to be said, and that this wasn't the time to kick a person when they're down.
Now that I think about it, did I do any wrong?
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2023.05.30 20:29 Nearby_Ad_793 Success Story
Hey all, I have posted on here quite few times regarding my progress of the breath holding technique and overcoming my paruresis. In case you haven’t read my previous posts, I am a 26 year old male and I have struggled with this since I was about 12 years old. It got so bad that I couldn’t even pee with anyone remotely close to me or listening to any sounds around me. I was so miserable, and I HAD to do SOMETHING. My success story ABSOLUTELY started with me being determined to beat this thing. Nothing was going to get in my way. I quickly learned about the breath hold technique. Let me share a couple points about this technique that I’ve learned (if you have a medical condition that won’t allow you to do it, disregard): - anyone who tells you the breath hold technique works for some people and not for others, are lying. It works for everyone. The only difference is the time it takes to master it. When I first was learning it, many of the things I read online told me it would take only a couple weeks to master it……..it took me about 3 months. It was incredibly difficult to master it…..but my determination was ALWAYS more than my fear of practicing. Here are the things I have accomplished in the last 3 months since practicing the breath hold:
I have peed in about 50 public restrooms (all in urinals) that varied in size, location, busy or not busy……….and I only had ONE misfire. This misfire was due to me being so tense from someone waiting behind me, that I forgot to allow my body to TRUST the breath hold. Minor setback. I also have peed in several sports arenas and stadiums which I NEVER could have done in the past.
I have completely allowed myself to not give a single shit what people think of me. I have trained my brain to think of “the choking for air” feeling as a sign of meditation and bliss. Not a sign of panic and fear. This took the longest to learn and train my brain on, but once I did, it was a game changer. This is the key. Change your mindset from thinking the gasping for air is a panic……instead view it as a sign of peace and that PEE IS COMING!
Bottom line: you can talk and talk and talk all you want about how much this disorder is running your life. There comes a time where you have to say “enough is enough”……once you get there, nothing will hold you back from beating this. I encourage EVERYONE to learn the breath hold technique and don’t allow the fear and uncomfortableness stop you from becoming FREE. Nothing worthwhile happens quickly…….obviously visiting 50 public restrooms in 3 months took dedication and motivation…..you MUST make yourself uncomfortable in order to beat this.
Don’t get stuck in feeling bad for yourself. Suck it up. Realize you alone have let this spiral into a crippling condition and that you are the only one who can pull yourself outta the hole.
NO ONE ELSE MATTERS BESIDES YOU AND YOUR FLOW! No one is coming to save you. The only thing you need to beat is yourself.
I cannot express the freedom and happiness I have felt these last few months. All I want is you all to experience it too.
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2023.05.30 20:29 saltbark WIBTA if I didn’t tell my parents about my wedding?
I have been with my fiancé for 4 years and we recently decided to get married. We’ve been engaged for 2 years, but we wanted to wait to have a ceremony until we had some money saved up.
The reason that we decided that now is a good time to get married is because I just joined the military and will have to move for my job training, but it would be a lot harder to pay the bills with my new salary as it stands. If we were married, however, I’ll get more money based on my zip code that would significantly help pay the bills and I won’t have to break my current lease.
The issue that I’m running into is whether I should tell my parents. They aren’t fond of my fiancé because he grew up very poor and they don’t like the way he is because of it. My family is fairly wealthy and they 100% look down on him. It even got to the point that 3 years ago I moved two states away to go to university and they canceled the two bills of mine that they had been paying because they thought he had followed me (which he didn’t), but that was right before COVID and we had mass student evictions. I got sent back to my home state and had to move in with him at that point because my parents wouldn’t help me pay to get all the way back to them and he had a truck and just enough money for gas.
I had cut my parents out of my life for a few months because I was incredibly hurt that they would react so harshly and for such a ridiculous reason that wasn’t even true. We later got back into contact and have been working on our relationship to improve our communication and things have been going decently well, but they still can’t stand him and he feels very uncomfortable around them.
My family and I have both moved quite a bit in the past few years, and my fiancé has put in an effort to get into contact with my family to bring me by to visit if we make a road trip anywhere near their house. Every time, without fail, my mom finds a way to tell me that I shouldn’t be with him. After bringing this up to her, she’s stopped saying it, but now my fiancé feels so uncomfortable around my family that he won’t go with me to any holidays or vacations. At this point I really don’t understand why they can’t even pretend to be nice, but they refuse.
They also blame him for me dropping out of school, but the truth is that I couldn’t afford my tuition because I couldn’t get approved for a loan, even with him as a co-signer, and the school basically kicked me out since I couldn’t pay. Now I’m joining the military so they can help me pay for school and my parents aren’t too happy about it.
They know at this point that we will get married eventually, but I know that my mom wants me to have a big wedding ceremony and I would rather just have a small outdoor gathering with some good friends and the love of my life! I personally don’t think that there is any room for people that will make either of us uncomfortable on such a special day, but what do you think?
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2023.05.30 20:29 TeamMagmaGrunt Loaned $4300 to a friend to escape an abusive situation without access to her bank accounts. Over three months later, I still haven’t been paid.
Location: Michigan.
TLDR: I [26M] loaned a total of $4,300 USD to a friend across seven Cashapp payments from mid-February through early March of 2023. All of these payments were made with the promise of being paid within a day or two, if not same-day. Over three months later, I’ve yet to be paid back, and at this point I’m wondering whether small claims court or pressing criminal charges is my best bet.
For background, my longtime friend [26F, we’ll call her Sam] messaged me explaining that, after she’d moved to Washington from Michigan a few months prior, she’d lost her wallet and basically all of her banking cards. Because her identity was still based in Michigan, it was next to impossible for her to regain access to her bank accounts.
Shortly after that, her abusive boyfriend kicked her out of their shared apartment in Washington, leaving her with no family out there and no place to go. Since she didn’t have access to her funds (though was in the process of getting them back) she didn’t have any immediate funds to purchase a plane ticket to get back home to Michigan. So, I loaned her a total of $1,750 across three Cashapp payments to get her the plane tickets needed to fly back home.
The reason I sent her multiple payments was because as she got bumped from one flight due to overbooking, she’d instead have to buy her way onto another flight lest she stay at the airport for the next available flight on the first airline.
All of this money was loaned to her with the understanding that it would be paid back within a few days. After she finally made it home to Michigan, she then contracted COVID and was hospitalized for a week plus (as she’s a cancer patient, she told me her case was rougher than normal and there was extra risk of further infection/complications). As a result, there was radio silence from her for about a week or two until I got back in contact with her.
So, in early March, we make arrangements for her to bring $1800 (she offered extra for the inconvenience) in cash to my house (which she has visited in the past) so that I can be fully paid off. At this point, it still sounds like some of her bank account access is restricted, though she has been able to do some banking in-person to withdraw the cash that she needs. Around this time, I receive a photo of her with the cash, with the proper timestamp in the metadata to show it was legitimate.
Before she stops at my house, she ends up having to get some work done on her car, which runs her about $900. I received proof of the cost estimate from the auto shop she went to and sent her this money. Once the work was done (replacing her brake lines), she then makes her way to my house…and gets in an accident on the way here. She says she pulls over into a parking lot where I can see a pretty gnarly gash in the side of her car, but based on where she said she stopped (roughly 15 minutes from my house) I can’t place her surroundings in the photo with where she says she stopped, one of many small red flags. So, the cash drop doesn’t happen that night.
The next day, she asks for more money as her dealership (or maybe insurance?) requires a deposit before they can repair her car. I send her the last of the money I’m able to send - another $950 - with the promise that she’d pay back all the money I’m owed in cash within one day, maximum. At this point, I am owed $3600.
Another mutual friend of ours - named Elliott, for the purposes of this post - also loaned Sam $1,200 in this situation, so between the two of us she owes $4,800.
Shortly after the situation with her car, she goes silent again. I get in contact with her mother, named Eleanor, and she informs me that Sam has been hospitalized in Ohio since that’s where her health insurance is based. I was later told that this was for a reproductive procedure that put her health at risk.
Inexplicably, Elliott receives a payment from Sam for $500 of the $1,200 she’s owed, with no explanation or warning. Sam tells both Elliott and me that the rest of Elliott’s payments would be coming in chunks throughout the day, which they never do.
While this is going on, Eleanor is making attempts to get me the money back herself. She sends me an email confirmation from her bank that money from her account was being sent to me via Zelle, but I never receive anything. Communication with Eleanor is scant, since she’s a traveling nurse and is often away from home, but I receive occasional texts saying the money was done being processed, that she checked with Chase and it should be arriving on X date, etc. and it never comes. It’s worth noting that in my Zelle app, I can search for Zelle-ready contacts based on who’s stored in my phone. Neither Eleanor or Sam show up under this search, indicating that they’re not set up with Zelle as they say.
Now we’re at early-April, and I finally hear back from Sam with a promise to get me the money back that I’m owed. At this point, I’ve fallen behind on bills because money that i loaned with the understanding it would be gone for no more than a few days has been gone for weeks. I tell her this and stress the urgency of the situation that I’m now in, so W\we make arrangements a few different times for me to either visit her in the hospital in Ohio, or for her to drive up once she’s discharged, but every time something comes up that requires her to push back by a day or two.
At one point, she pledges to drive up to me to drop off the money on a Monday evening. I’m getting video of her in the car, with the money. All is well. An hour before she’s due to arrive, she gets a call that she has to pick up a drunk relative from the bar, and that this was an emergency. I’ve met said relative and all of his behavior does match up with what she’s telling me, so I patiently wait for her to sort things out.
That night, she tells me this relative assaulted her and that she was at the hospital getting checked out. Strangely enough, the first photo she sends me of her at the hospital does NOT have metadata that matches with the current date and time, having been taken six weeks prior. I call her on this, and she apologizes and actually sends me a photo of her getting checked out, with metadata that matches. This is, as far as I can tell, the only time she knowingly sent a photo or other item of proof under false pretenses.
The next day, I receive a text message from her grandmother, Roberta. She informs me that Sam has been admitted to a psychiatric ward for suicidal ideation, and that she has left me a check in her mailbox for the $3,600 that I am owed while she drives down to Ohio to be with her granddaughter. I go over to their place to retrieve the check, and a day after I mobile deposit it, the funds appear in my account. I figure all is well, so I personally Cashapp $700 to Elliott to make sure he’s whole rather than wait for Roberta to get around to him, which Roberta is fine with.
Well, a few days later, I get a notification from my bank that the check has actually bounced, and the funds were removed from my account. I let Roberta know this, and she writes me a new check from a different account that I then pick up later that evening. A week later, this check also bounces.
Around this time, I finally hear from Sam again after roughly three weeks of silence. She asks to meet me at a restaurant to get another check from her - this time for $4,400, accounting for the money owed to Elliott that’s now going to me, and extra for gas, time, and the inconvenience. I see her for the first time in over a year during this exchange, which lasts about fifteen seconds before she runs back inside. She tells me during this time that in case this third check bounces, she will also bring me cash the next day, and that I can deposit that and return it to her via Cashapp in case something happens to the check.
We’re at mid-May now. Once the check bounces roughly a week later, she’s already pushed back the cash dropoff a couple of times. We resolve to stick solely to cash at this point, and on the day where she pledges - FINALLY, this time - to bring me the money, I get a call from Roberta again. Her husband (Sam’s grandfather) has a bunch of medical debt that has to be paid off before he can be cared for at the VA hospital, and asks if I can wait to be paid until June 2nd - a little over two weeks from when she was calling.
I don’t give her a definitive answer, and instead talk directly with Sam to try and get this sorted. She sends me a location pin to confirm that she is, in fact, at the VA hospital in question. So, since she’s now paying off this medical debt of her grandfather’s to avoid it going to collections, we’re now working with her brother Jackson to have him send me the money, since Roberta and him share an account due to power of attorney.
A few days go by of trying to get him to send me the money, and she/he keep pushing back, and then all contact drops a week before Memorial Day. At this point, I’ve had enough. I text Sam and Roberta and tell them that, if I am not paid in full by Tuesday June 6th (Exactly two weeks from that point), I would take Sam to small claims court. I tried to be as understanding and sympathetic of what was going on as I could, but at this point enough had been enough.
Neither of them respond. Three days after I send that message, I text Eleanor to see if she’s heard anything. Two days later (so, the day before Memorial Day) she responds and tells me that Sam has been admitted again for attempting to kill herself because of the already fraught case with her father (which she said she was pressing charges for, but I haven’t heard whether this has definitively happened). Both Sam and her grandmother Roberta were in Ohio making sure she was cared for. That’s where we’re at up to this point in time.
What are my options here? I’ve received enough proof that at least a good chunk of what has happened has, actually, happened, but there’s enough suspicion and unanswered questions that arise that make it obvious I’m being fleeced. Would small claims court be the best way to go? I already know that the amount I’m owed is under the max limit for small claims in Michigan.
Or, should I go to the police if there’s the potential for criminal charges? I’m not sure whether or not this constitutes as theft, but I just want to know what my best route is for a situation like this. Across four family members, three bounced checks, and dozens of "one more day" promises right before they actually get me the money that keep stretching out this situation, it feels like a giant game of carrot-and-stick that I feel like I cannot win.
Thanks in advance, and please let me know if you have any questions, as with how long and convoluted this is I’ve forgotten a detail here or there by mistake. I was never good at making a long story short.
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