Nail near me open

hello! i (f19) and my new friend (m20) have begun to start hanging out prior to meeting at a concert and i had found his socials through mutual friends. we got to chatting and he had asked me to hangout through social media, i said yes and we did. just chilled and got food and talked for quite some time (in the evening keep in mind). i felt ecstatic because 1 we had clicked so well & 2 i was somewhat catching feelings for this new guy. we ended up hanging out the next day too and throughout the next couple weeks quite often, then i heard that he had been talking to another girl and they were actually somewhat serious. we had talked about the girl a little bit and he explained in terms it was friends, because i knew her too and it sounded like they were just buddies in a same friend group, therefore i had thought nothing of it. i began to feel sick and distanced myself as i heard about the news because although i kept it platonic he had been lightly flirting and it felt wrong to continue seeing him. it felt tad weird as-well considering he initiated most the hangouts and would touch me in a friendly manner and would compliment me. a month or so goes by that we keep very little contact then in a rly stubborn/determined manner, asks me to hangout again one evening, i declined as i was unsure of where he stood. a couple days later he asks me again and i said yes, everything felt very normal and had a great time, i even brought up the girl and he explained they were practically dating (kept it very nonchalant) i was very happy and was supportive as i like him and the girl together very much. we end up getting food and watching the sunset, once again had a good time and talked about an assortment of things but he had been close to my face like he had before and grasped my inner thigh once or twice whilst laughing.
i am a firm believer that boys and girls can be just friends but the way that our friendship sparked and has continued to be a very private thing makes me uneasy. a lot of factors play in but i am making the assumption that his girlfriend doesn’t know of us hanging out, and he only is asking when he wants spare company and if she’s out of town. the girl is leaving soon for a job opportunity as she is (f22) and i’m unsure if they will manage to stay long distance. also the personality of this guy plays a role as he is incredibly friendly and loves talking to people, but i am his only girl friend, the friends that he has that are girls are friends of his girlfriend and they hangout in a group setting, never one on one. there is a lot more that goes into it but keeping it somewhat surface level; is this man just hanging out with me because of some feeling he has and by keeping the option open maybe down the line we have something more or is it just platonic?

[←Chapter 62] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 64→]
The students were quickly dismissed by the Mentor after Efrain declared a winner, who was desperate to do damage control.
“Okay, okay,” he said, brushing down his coat and coughing, “I see that we have failed to meet your standards. On behalf of the entire academy, I apologize immensely.”
Efrain, now that his temper had cooled, and upon realizing that he actually found the situation quite funny, put his hand on the man’s shoulder.
“No, no,” he laughed, “it was all merely an overreaction. Nicolo loved practical jokes. But, for all that, I doubt he would’ve continued teaching at this academy for years if he had no investment beyond it pranking me.”
And just like that, the man’s hope was restored.
“Yes, yes of course,” he said, “although I suggest you not tell what the inscription says to the other faculty. Some have spent… years on it.”
“No wonder, it’s a personal language we made up when we were youths. It’s a ramshackle, cobbled together thing, nigh-impossible to figure out, unless one was inflicted by the insight of drunken insanity.”
The man laughed, Efrain laughed, and he looked around at the academy’s towers and bridges.
“Well, he did fine for himself, clearly,” Efrain said, “even married an Eisen. Its good to know he spared some thought for me, even if it was to pull one over in death. Now I can’t even get revenge now. Clever bastard.”
“Yes, quite,” said the man, coughing, “now, I would be happy to show you to your office. It’s one of our finest.”
The whole situation wasn’t merely funny, he decided, it was hilarious. Unfortunately for Nicolo, Efrain still remembered some of his more embarrassing exploits. He wondered if the man had a biography that was taught - perhaps it needed some correction by a primary source.
“Well, lead on,” he said to the Mentor.
They proceeded from one of the lower bridges to the largest of the four connected towers. The panelled walls were both old and expensive, indicating that the school was indeed more than a joke Students of multiple ages and stripes went this way and that, some carrying books, others merely chatting among friends. Several more hallways and a staircase or two later, the mentor stood before a tall door.
“And here it is,” he said, puffing out his chest with pride, “one of our best.”
“That’s the second time,” Efrain noted, and the man self-consciously pushed open the door, revealing a narrow room.
It was comfortable, with a large desk taking up most of the space, a small bed and stove tucked into the corner. The wall behind the desk was mostly of modest bookshelves, stocked with tomes, some familiar, others not so much. A single, large window, open shutters flung outward, looked out toward the center of the city. The mentor looked around, and then at Efrain, clearly anxious to please.
“Wonderful,” Efrain said, “I hope I’m not depriving anyone of their space for my short stay.”
“No, no, not at all,” the mentor said, “in fact, your timing was fortuitous. One of the professors has elected to retire.”
“Ah,” Efrain said, sitting in the large chair behind the desk.
“You must be exhausted,” said the Mentor, hovering by the door, “I suppose I’ll just come and check on you in the morning. Supposedly your group is to attend the Festival as honoured guests.”
“News to me,” Efrain said, leaning back as he looked out the open window.
“Would you like a change of clothes, a meal, water to bathe in?” said the man.
“No, thank you,” Efrain said, “in fact, I wouldn’t mind a brief tour, actually.”
The man’s face lit up in response to the casual suggestion - clearly he took pride in the institution.
“Yes, yes, why of course, I would be happy to,” he said, “when would you like to begin?”
“Now,” Efrain said, getting up from his chair and moving past the man.
“Actually, now that I think of it, the last of the evening classes should be just starting,” said the Mentor, “would you like to sit in on one. It uses your books.”
A couple minutes, and Efrain was sitting in the back of a small room, dozens of fresh-faced students looking back between him and a professor at a lectern.
“So, as we discussed in the last class,” said the old man with a beard hanging over his considerable stomach, “actually, who would dare to tell me what is the ultimate goal of magic.”
Efrain was busy rifling through the provided textbook on the matter, his apprehension growing with every page that he passed. He’d forgotten just how bad some of his earliest work had been, and now was reliving his mistakes with vivid horror. Several hands rose, and a young girl who couldn’t be more than twelve was selected.
“Magic is a purest expression of the human,” she said, clearly reciting what she’d learned by heart, “it is an attempt to get away from the base naturalness of ourselves and transcend into something greater.”
Efrain stifled a groan as he heard his early and more poetic pondering on magics parroted back at him.
The class continued on until Efrain couldn’t stand it any longer. The professor was in the middle of explaining how magic could be derived from the environment, which was correct, but that was inferior in all cases to simply deriving it from oneself, which wasn’t. Efrain snapped the booklet shut as loud as he could, drawing the gaze of everyone in the class.
“Alright,” he said, getting up, “we need to stop. Stop. All of this is a mistake.”
The professor, quite confused, looked towards the mentor for any sign that he should intervene. The mentor merely shook his head as Efrain stalked towards the lectern.
“My good man, take a seat for a little while,” Efrain said, “there are some errors of mine I have to correct.”
He gripped the edges of the lectern, trying to decide how best to approach this, and begun by clearing his throat.
“Is knowledge truth?” he said, prompting a rash of confused stares.
He departed from the lectern, and walked in front of the students.
“Again, is knowledge truth? Is knowledge automatically, by definition, true?”
“Well, yes,” said a young man slowly.
“Ah,” Efrain said, rounding on him, “so, if I were to stumble on half a conversation a noblewoman has about some innocent meeting she had with a young man, mistook it for an affair, and reported it to her husband, would I be lying?”
“Well, yes, kind of?” said the boy, his brows furrowing. Several of the other students blushed at the impropriety of the statement.
“But that was using the knowledge I possessed, and if knowledge is truth, then where is the lie?” Efrain said, sitting on the edge of the table, “all I did was relay my knowledge, hence, relay the truth to my friend, her husband.”
“I- I-,” said the boy, “then you were misinformed.”
“Precisely,” Efrain said, taking the book from before him and walking back to the front of the class to raise it before the children.
“The truth cannot lie, by definition, but knowledge can, implying that it is a distinct entity from the truth,” Efrain said, as he rounded the lectern.
“Perhaps it is not a matter of relaying the truth,” called the mentor from the back, “but inferring the truth only from half-knowledge.”
Efrain pointed the booklet towards him.
“And that is why he is a mentor and you are still students,” Efrain said, “but what is the point I hear you asking?”
A few genuinely seemed to think he could hear their thoughts and shrank back from this strange, belligerent man.
“The point is this - the books you’re reading are nonsense. Inferences made from a tiny amount of knowledge, by an overconfident idiot.”
The professor started forward at this sacrilege of the texts, but the mentor held him back.
“Now, if you’re intelligent, which I’m sure all of you are, you should be asking about now, ‘how could he possibly know? Who is he to come into our class and start making such claims?’ That’s good,” Efrain paused, and pointed to the cover.
“Would someone care to read me the title of this particular text?” he said.
One of the students, another boy, looked down and began to say in a high, weedly voice.
“Basic Principles of Magic: A Treatise,” he said, looking up to see if he’d somehow passed whatever test Efrain was given him.
“Keep going young man,” Efrain said, nodding him on.
“W-written by Nicolo Eisen, Efrain Belacore, and Avidius Armsted, compiled by Nicolo Eisen and Avidius Armsted.”
“Which is to say, ‘principally written by Efrain Belacore and Avidius Armsted, with footnotes of historical nature by Nicolo Eisen.’ He was always more interested in the history anyways,” Efrain said, slapping the book on the lectern.
The children all looked back and forth between each other, trying to see if any had an understanding better than themselves.
“To answer your question,” Efrain said, “the reason I both possibly know and get to come into your class and make such claims is that I am the middle name on your textbook.”
The explosion of curiosity and confusion was a delight to Efrain, who held up the book to the ceiling, pointing to it.
“To be clear, my name, young ones, is Efrain Belacore, and I’m here to tell you why half of my book is wrong, and the other half is incomplete.”
The class sat in dumbfounded silence, trying to gauge what the appropriate response to such information could possibly be.
“Let’s start with something simple, though, young lady,” Efrain pointed to the young girl who’d given the first definition to start the class.
“Y-Yes, professor?”
“Restate your definition, if you’d be so kind,” he said, which she did word for word.
“I wrote that line when I was under the impression that magic was apart from the natural world,” Efrain said, “in the sense that it could be used to transform it, to add value to it, much like some artists will say that their paintings cut through to the soul of the subject, removing the mortal veil on top of it or some hogwash like that.”
Efrain walked in front of the class.
“We are all part of the natural world, even if we strive to rise above it, whatever that means,” Efrain said, “you get cut, you bleed, you do that enough you die, your body returns to the earth, and so on and so forth. Magic is an extension of all those natural processes, not something apart from it. So, young men and women, do not spurn the world in the pursuit of magic.”
Efrain spied a beautifully made pin, stuck in the hair of a young woman.
“Excuse me, could I borrow that for a moment?” he said, gesturing to the pin.
“Uh, y-yes, sure,” she said, hastily pulling out the pin and letting her hair fall around her shoulders as she presented it to him.
“Thank you very much,” he said, as he held up the pin.
“Right, do not spurn it in the pursuit of magic, rather, embrace it. Seek inspiration in it,” Efrain said, focusing on the butterfly motif.
Again, unbidden, the memories of exploding light and claps of sound.
Copies of the exact butterfly carven on the head of the pin streamed out, following trails of light to explode into pinwheels of light. The children shrieked, at first in fear than in delight as the show continued, and Efrain handed the pin back to its owner. She looked at the pin in what seemed like awe, checking it over for any alteration.
“The pin is intact,” Efrain said, “like I said - inspiration. I had no need to change it.”
The mentor was by his side, clapping at the show.
“I say, marvellously, marvellously done,” he said, “a finer display of magic I’ve never seen. You truly are a master.”
“If that passes for a ‘fine display’, mentor, you are easy to please,” Efrain chuckled, “now, I suggest we leave the poor professor to his work.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” the Mentor said, “after all, you’ve just ruined the integrity of the text he taught from! Students, you are dismissed from your studies for the day. Emilio, take a break for tonight, me and master Efrain have some discussions to have.”
It crossed Efrain’s mind that he might’ve just signed up for some extensive work in the near future. This however, was his academic integrity, and he wasn’t about to let those notes be his legacy, if he was going to have one. They took up the conversation in the hallway, leaving the students filing out behind them.
“That was simply incredible,” the mentor said, “I’m shocked that you were able to do it off the cuff. Just like that.”
“It was nothing,” Efrain said, “and that’s not self-praise, mentor. If you’re not able to do simple illusions of light like, then ‘my’ books have led you astray.”
Efrain stopped to look out through a window, seeing the central pyramid and its rooftop garden. “Though that’s not entirely fair to Nicolo and Armsted. I’ve been travelling and studying for nigh-on two centuries since I left. I’ve learned much more than what they were left to work with.”
When Efrain turned back to the man, he found that he was bowing low.
“What are you doing?”
“Oh please, master Efrain,” said the man, “please, led us back to greatness.”
“What?”
“You are truly, the most knowledgeable, the most revered, the most brilliant-”
“Stop that,” Efrain said, “I left my patience for flattery about a half-thousand miles west. Say what you mean, plainly.”
He tried to tell himself that was the truth, but he couldn’t deny it made his chest swell to hear such things, especially after so long on his own.
“We need you,” said the man, astonishing Efrain as he wiped tears from his eyes, “we are but children, stumbling around-”
“Do you do this with every guest?” Efrain said, trying to tamp down on the delight he felt.
“What? N-no. Be the mentor! I will gladly renounce it, if you are there to take the place. Lead our school, master Efrain!”
Efrain held his face as he considered what the man had just said.
“No,” he said, quashing the image of mentor Efrain squarely and firmly right there.
“B-but why?” the mentor blubbered, “anything you want, I’ll give it to you, anything! Name it and-”
“But I will rewrite those gods-damned books you have. Fill them with my current knowledge, which is far superior than that poetic dreck that I made back in the day,” Efrain said, “I would not be able to live with myself, if I left you with that swill.”
“Oh thank you! Thank you!” said the mentor, clasping his hands.
“Now, let’s get back to my office,” Efrain said, “I’m finding myself quite tired of this whole affair.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” said the man, straightening himself and gesturing the way.
“Tell me,” Efrain said, “your begging seems to indicate that the academy’s future is dire.”
“Oh, it’s bad,” sighed the man heavily, “we simply haven’t been able to produce things that are of much use. It is our shame, and as such, we’ve moved much of the studies to other, more practical subjects. Maths, history - magic is quickly becoming a pure pursuit of knowledge. The Eisen matriarch seems not to mind, but Poutash, and many of the established houses, well…”
Efrain nodded as he climbed the main stairs, shuffling by students. He tried to ignore the irrational guilt that plagued him. He’d just managed to put a lid on it as they reached the office, where within he sank into the chair. The mentor stood nervously by the door, almost like an attending student, not the director of a school. Efrain wondered how he got the position in the first place.
“Well, that was enlightening,” Efrain said, “I’ll retire now, I think.”
“Of course,” said Avencia, “yes, we shall leave you to it. I will have dinner sent up.”
“No need, we had some in the city,” Efrain said, “I don’t eat all that much anyways. Tell me, are there any particular teas you’d recommend? Local speciality or imported, I don’t care.”
The man thought for a few moments.
“I would have to ask someone else, but I will send up a set as soon as possible,” he said.
“Oh, and the books,” Efrain said, reclining back on the chair and looking out the window.
“Which books?” said the man excitedly.
“All of them. Any of them that bear my name,” Efrain said, “In fact, just send me all your core texts for magic. If I need any sort of historical references, I’ll make up a list while I’m reading them.”
The man practically stumbled over himself, thanking Efrain profusely and indicating that the entire curriculum would be sent up, as well as paper and ink. When the door shut, the quiet seemed almost unnatural to Efrain after the busy day he’d had. He picked up a book from the shelf, some piece of Karkosian history from a man he’d never heard of.
He sat back down in the chair, and curiously, he found his eyesight beginning to swim as he tried to parse the page. His body felt… heavy, exhausted even. He tried to resist it, tried to fight it as the book fell open on his lap, but his vision darkened, and soon Efrain had drifted off to sleep.
[←Chapter 62] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 64→]

Hello, fellow Redditors,
I have been a silent reader of this wonderful community for quite some time, and today, I finally decided to share my own story. As a single mother, I find solace in the absolute good advice that I've witnessed being given here, and I hope you can lend me your ears and offer some guidance.
I am the proud mother of a vibrant 6-year-old boy, and our journey has been far from easy. His father, a British national, chose not to be a part of his life, fearing that it would hinder his career in sports. Initially, he extended some help when our son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, as financial constraints tightened their grip on us, he stepped back four years ago claiming he couldn't assist us any longer.
To make ends meet, I worked tirelessly, juggling two jobs while trying to cover the cost of rent, therapy, and numerous hospital bills. Living paycheck to paycheck, we found ourselves without any savings, which only added to the weight of our struggles.
Recently, I lost one of my jobs, and in a desperate bid for a better future for my son, I borrowed some money from my cousin and applied for immigration to Canada. To my surprise, he offered us £2000, with an additional promise to contribute £250 per month starting in 2023. This took place because I took it upon myself to reach out to his sister via messenger, sharing our predicament. It was then that he decided to offer the financial assistance but requested my silence regarding his involvement, presumably due to his position as a sports coach.
However, our hopes were shattered when our visa applications were rejected due to my son's diagnoses of ASD and epilepsy. Devastated, I began exploring other options, one of which involved obtaining a paternity test from his father. With the necessary documentation, my son would be eligible for British citizenship, opening doors to an education system better equipped to support children with autism.
But his father remains unyielding, refusing to provide the paternity test or any financial support beyond the recent £2000. Feeling the weight of this injustice, I stand at this crossroads, questioning his intentions, I find myself torn. Am I in the wrong for desiring a bit of financial support and the necessary documents to secure a better future for my son's care and education? Should I accept his terms, keeping quiet about his involvement?
I turn to you, dear Redditors, AITA.
I sincerely thank you for taking the time to read my story, and I eagerly await your valuable insights and perspectives.

The slender and feminine frames of the four Star Sirens floated with an inhuman ease in the microgravity of their shuttle’s cabin, their prehensile feet and tails either dangling freely or clutching an opalescent perching rod. They stared with a novel curiosity out their window towards the small and relatively unsophisticated Earthly craft that had gradually been drifting its way towards their fleet.
“It’s still not answering hails, and I can’t find any sort of transponder or visual identification,” Akioneeda, the eldest of the group, sang in their musical and surgically precise language; the chevron-shaped slits over her trachea granting her a superhuman vocal range.
Using the glittering diodes embedded throughout her mauve skin, she fired jets of light to propel herself over to a crystalline computer terminal on the other side of the cabin.
“Why do they have to make their ships so ugly?” the magenta-skinned Pomoko asked; her large and bright cat-like irises constricting in their dark sclera as she squinted at the foreign craft in disdain.
Its design was a smoothly contoured rocket, with a rounded nose and a flaring aft that allowed it to hold both rear and forward-facing thrusters. Its dark hull was nearly invisible against the black of space, and coated in a radar-absorbent material that until recently had masked its approach. The Siren’s shuttle, in contrast, was a luminescent, bright-pink spiral seashell nestled in an array of gossamer-like radiators, sails, and solar panels that resembled blooming flower petals.
“I think the polite word is ‘spartan’,” the violet-skinned Kaliphimoa corrected her with an excited grin. The crystalline, oval exocortexes embedded on the sides of her elongated skull began flickering as she began reviewing any information that she thought might be pertinent. “Macrogravitals have a much harder time surviving in space than we do, so they have to be fairly pragmatic in the designs of their vessels. And remember that, unlike our ships, that rocket is meant to launch from and land on planets, so it has to be pretty rugged.”
“Kali, there can’t be any Macrogravitals on that thing; there’s no centrifuge,” the Cyan-skinned Vicillia pointed out. “Macrogravitals need macrogravity. It’s literally their defining characteristic.”
“They don’t die in microgravity, Vici,” Kali said with a roll of her eyes. “In olden times, baseline humans would spend months, sometimes even over a year living in space with no artificial gravity at all.”
“This isn’t the Apollo & Artemis Era, Kali. It’s virtually unheard of for Macrogravitals to leave cislunar space without a centrifuge,” Akioneeda said as she examined the telemetry on the intruding object. “That thing definitely has a habitat module, but Earth is on the other side of the sun right now. That’s weeks of travel, and that’s if its fusion rockets are functional. And it is a ship, not a habitat. Something like that is meant primarily for ground-to-orbit transport, and in a pinch travelling between the inner planets during optimal launch windows. It’s not intended to be lived in for prolonged periods of time. I don’t think it came here on purpose. It must have gotten knocked out of orbit and just found its way here. I wish I could tell for sure if there was someone inside, but its mini-magnetosphere is really scattering the sensor beams.”
“But doesn’t its magnetosphere mean there must be Macrogravitals inside?” Pomoko asked. “Even normal cosmic radiation is dangerous to humans without our enhanced DNA repair and chromamelanin, isn’t it?”
“They might have died before they had a chance to shut it off,” Kali suggested as tactfully as she could. “If there are bodies in there, we should recover them and send them back to Earth.”
“Wait a minute. It’s pretty suspicious that there’s no transponder or identifying markings on the craft, isn’t it?” Vici asked. “This could be a trap or terrorist attack of some kind.”
“An attack? Why would anyone want to attack us?” Pomoko asked in dismay.
“They wouldn’t. She’s being paranoid,” Kali said dismissively as she comfortingly slid her arm around her. “Vici, save your racist horror stories for when we’re not within visual distance of an Earth vessel, okay?”
“Reavers are real! Macrogravitals brains get cooked by cosmic radiation and they go crazy!” Vici insisted.
“Reavers are most definitively not real, Vicillia. Nonetheless, we probably shouldn’t rule out the possibility of an attack,” Akioneeda conceded. “Star Sirens now make up the majority of all humans permanently living off-world, and that’s not a lead we’re ever likely to lose. We’ve only been around a hundred years or so, and there are already over two million of us. We breed like rabbits.”
“That’s because we fuck like rabbits,” Vici said lasciviously, only to incur glares of confusion from the others. “Well, not directly, since we don’t reproduce naturally, but it’s good for our esprit de corps, right girls?”
“The point being, there are factions on Earth who view our current and forecasted success as a threat to their own potential expansion into space,” Akioneeda continued, failing to hide her annoyance at the younger Siren’s interruption.
“That’s backwards. Macrogravitals evolved to live on planets, and we were literally made to colonize space,” Pomoko objected. “Why shouldn’t we breed like rabbits? The solar system, the galaxy, the universe should be filled with as many Star Sirens as they can sustain!”
“And they will be – eventually. But if we prioritize our long-term survival over the near term, we might not have a future to prioritize,” Akioneeda gently reminded her. “Steady, safe, and sustainable growth is better than fast and risky growth. We don’t want to spook anyone down on Earth into doing something that might hurt us, which is why we have to abide by the Solaris Accords.”
“Exactly! We’re signatories of the Solaris and Orion Accords, which we’ve always been in complete compliance with,” Kali said. “We’ve already lowered our population growth to two percent per annum, and have agreed to lower it to point four percent when we hit two billion. Anyone attacking us over that would be in violation of the Accords and incur the wrath of every other signatory, including Olympeon, of which we are still a protectorate.”
“Ugh. Don’t remind me that we’re technically compatriots with Macrogravitals,” Vici said in disgust.
“Vicillia, a little respect please for our creators and allies,” Akioneeda reprimanded her.
“I gratefully respect them, Preceptress Akio, because no one able to launch this ship out to us would ever do something so suicidally foolish as commit an act of war against Olympeon,” Kali insisted.
“You make valid points, Kali, and I’m not saying it’s likely this is an attack, but we should still proceed with caution,” Akioneeda reiterated. “At the very least, the scanner still has enough resolution to rule out the possibility of there being any potential high-yield explosives on the vessel. I think it’s worth the risk to jet over and see what’s inside; if that’s something you girls would be interested in?”
“Yes, preceptress,” Kali and Vici said in unison, each immediately assuming an attentive posture with their hands behind their backs as they nodded politely, eager for the opportunity to explore a non-Siren spacecraft. Pomoko, however, joined in a little more reticently, and solely because she didn’t want to upset her companions.
Unlike Vici, she never told stories about Macrogravitals driven into mad savagery by the harshness of space, because she found them unbearably terrifying.
The four of them filed into the airlock and grabbed a lungful of air before depressurizing, the short siphons at the base of their necks cinching shut to hold it in. The only things they brought with them were a small bundle of additional air pods and a field kit, both of which were carried by Pomoko.
The enhanced proteins and nanofiber weaves in their bare skin rendered them impervious to vacuum exposure, and their eyes were protected by transparent graphene lenses. Hundreds of small jets of light from all over their bodies propelled them across the gap between their shuttle and the errant vessel, with Kali and Vici taking advantage of the vast open space to perform challenging acrobatic maneuvers.
Akio was the first to arrive at the foreign spacecraft, circling it several times for any signs that might give her some idea about what it was and what it was doing there, but found none. She even peered into a porthole, but could see nothing of note in the darkened interior.
When she reached the airlock, she gestured for Pomoko to hand her a small but rugged cyberdeck from the field kit. While her exocortexes possessed more computing power than she could ever need, the cyberdeck contained a compact suite of sensor arrays for environmental analysis, as well as antennas and ports for electronic interfaces. Syncing the device with her own exocortexes, a holographic AR display projected itself on her bionic lenses.
It didn’t take long for her to find a frequency to engage with the airlock control mechanism, and even less time to find a skeleton key that could best that woefully inadequate security system. As the outer door of the airlock dilated open, Akio signalled for Kali and Vici to rejoin them, and they all funnelled into the ship together. The outer door snapped behind them, sealing them in complete darkness that was staved off solely by their photonic diodes until some emergency lights began to flicker on and off at random intervals.
As the airlock slowly began to repressurize, the Sirens – who were accustomed to an atmosphere maintained at conditions optimal for them - shuddered slightly at the feeling of foreign air creeping up against their skin.
“The air’s acceptable. It’s a standard oxygen/nitrogen mix with no detectable toxins or pathogens present,” Akioneeda assured them as she opened her siphons and exhaled the breath she had been holding since they left their own shuttle. “CO2’s a little high, but not dangerous.”
“Doesn’t high CO2 mean there’s someone here?” Pomoko asked, nervously looking about in all directions as she clutched her supplies close to her.
“Not necessarily. I’m not detecting any human environmental DNA,” Akio replied confidently. “I am however sampling some environmental DNA that doesn’t match anything on file. It might take some time to analyze it enough to make any sense of it. The power system is failing, which is why the lights aren’t working right. The electrical surges are generating enough EM interference that the sensor beam is still pretty scattered, so I can’t see much through the bulkheads. Keep your diodes lit up bright and stay alert.”
The shadowy main corridor was hexagonal in shape, spanning several meters across and roughly twenty-five meters from end to end. It was broken into six segments, with every other segment containing a pair of hexagonal doorways across from one another, along with a door at each end of the corridor.
“The door next to us should be the engine module, and the one at the other end should be the command and communications center,” Akio said, opening the door to the engine room and sticking her cyberdeck inside. “I’m going to do a quick scan of each room before we start rummaging through everything, so don’t go sticking your tails anywhere they don’t belong until I’m done.”
The other three Sirens all nodded obediently, and limited their exploration of the ship to a solely visible inspection. None of them were used to being in low light conditions, and their pupils were dilated so much they were nearly round. Though their visual acuity was raptor-like in its detail and they could see into the ultra-violet spectrum, night vision had not been a priority when they had been designed. Nonetheless, their large eyes and vertical pupils still let them see better in the dark than any unmodified human.
“The writing is Cyrillic, but everything I can see is just basic labels. I can’t tell for certain which language it is,” Kali said. “That doesn’t mean much though. This thing is definitely second-hand, likely even stolen. That would explain the lack of identification. Maybe whoever stole it got spooked and just set it adrift.”
“So, it’s a pirate ship then?” Pomoko asked, sounding slightly relieved. “That’s better than terrorists, or Reavers.”
“It is not. We’re space mermaids. Space pirates are our natural enemies,” Vici claimed. “If they catch us, they’ll pry the exocortexes from our skulls and pluck out our photonic diodes one by one, then bind us to the front of the ship as figureheads.”
“Vicillia, that is enough!” Akio reprimanded her as she scanned the next room. “Stop trying to scare her! Kali’s right. This is an old ship that’s been stripped of nearly every non-essential piece of equipment. Someone stole it, and then abandoned it when the authorities started closing in. That’s it. There’s not a raiding party of pirates hiding behind one of these doors.”
“Famous last words,” Vici muttered, defensively folding her arms across her chest.
Kali once again put her arm around Pomoko in comfort and gave her a loving kiss on the head.
The glowing, sylph-like Sirens continued floating through the dim and unevenly lit corridor like ghosts, checking one room after another and finding nothing of note until they finally reached the end.
“Now that we’re done checking for pirates, we can focus on the command center,” Akio announced. “Assuming they haven’t been wiped, we’ll check the ship’s logs and records for evidence of its origin and how it got here. If it was stolen, we’ll send it to Pink Floyd Station and they can deal with it. Otherwise, we’ll be free to keep it as salvage.”
She raised her finger to tap the AR command to open the door, but suddenly hesitated.
“What is it?” Kali asked.
Akio squinted at her HUD display in alarm, but seemed reluctant to answer.
“There’s something on the other side,” she whispered.
Without warning, the door was manually thrown open with a physical force that shocked the gracile Sirens. From the impenetrable gloom beyond the door’s threshold, there emerged a grotesque figure the likes of which the Sirens had never seen before.
Its round torso was squat and bloated, vaguely resembling that of a frog’s. Its veiny, crimson hide was mottled in purple splotches from where those veins had broken. Four long limbs dangled down limply, each possessing five boney, claw-like digits. As with the Star Sirens, its pinky fingers had been repurposed into a second opposable thumb; but unlike them, its digits were arranged more radially so that its hands resembled starving sea stars. It possessed a prehensile tail as well, though closer in appearance to an opossum’s than the Siren’s simian tails.
It was the front of the creature that was most alien to them. It had no neck or even a head distinct from its bulging torso. It had two eyes on mobile stalks, each a bloodshot blue with a crescent-shaped pupil. There was a blowhole near the top of its vaguely defined head, and near the bottom hung a toothless proboscis, as prehensile as an elephant’s trunk.
All four Sirens broke out into screams at the sight of the deformed creature, jetting backward as quickly as they could. Wheezing, the creature lurched towards them, slowly raising its proboscis in the air as it did so.
Vici grabbed the bundle of air pods that Pomoko had released in her panic and began beating the creature over the top of the head with it. Though she possessed just barely enough physical strength to walk in nothing greater than Lunar gravity, her love for her sisters and her fear, disgust, and contempt for anything else drove her to assail the hideous being as hard as she could.
The creature groaned, though it seemed to be more of sorrow than of pain. Raising its arms up protectively while keeping its proboscis elevated, it slowly sunk down to the bottom of the corridor as Vici bashed away at it.
“Vici! Vici, stop!” Kali commanded, grabbing hold of her and pulling her back. “It’s not attacking us!”
She was right, of course. Despite its fearsomely unfamiliar form, it actually seemed rather pathetic as it lay quivering on the floor, making no sound aside from laboured and gasping breaths.
“Alien! It’s an alien!” Vici cried in dismay, scarcely believing her own eyes.
Though that improbable, if more palpable, explanation for the being’s origin may have seemed the most obvious, Kali felt a growing sense of horror well up inside her as the pieces started to click together. She glanced over at Akio who was rapidly reviewing the readings from her cyberdeck, and could tell from the revulsion on her face that she had reached the same conclusion.
“Preceptress; please say that it’s an alien,” she pleaded in a softly cracking voice.
Akio looked up at her with pity, and slowly shook her head.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “But that, save for the skill and wisdom of Olympeon and the Grace of Cosmothea, is us.”
“It… it’s human?” Pomoko asked, floating up behind Kali and Vici and just barely daring to peek over their shoulders at the horrid beast.
“It’s bred from a human base, yes,” Akio explained. “Heavily modified, of course. Much more than ourselves, though nowhere near as adroitly. It’s a genetic chimera; probably because its embryo was cobbled together from multiple lines of modified cells. Its hide and at least a few of its major organs appeared to have been grown separately and grafted on in vivo. It’s literally a Frankenstein Monster.”
“What’s that old saying? Knowledge is knowing Frankenstein was the Doctor, not the monster; wisdom is knowing that Doctor Frankenstein was the monster,” Kali quoted, pitying the poor wretch that wallowed before her.
“Yeah. I think… I think that whoever made this was trying to make a new species of space-adapted humans, probably in the hopes of eventually surpassing us,” Akio speculated. “But it’s a failed experiment. All of its genomes are highly degraded and riddled with off-target mutations and poorly thought-out on-target ones. Its cells are barely functional, and it’s undergoing mass organ failure at this very moment.”
“It… he’s dying?” Kali asked softly.
“It was probably dying before it even decanted; it’s been held together with prayers and twine,” Akio explained.
“Good! It’s an abomination! It never should’ve existed in the first place!” Pomoko declared.
“Pomoko, shush!” Kali yelled, hot tears beginning to pool in her eyes. “Can… can he hear us?”
“It can hear, I think. Its brain size and neuronal density are actually over the optimal limit, and its neurochemistry and connectome are a complete mess,” Akio replied. “It’s probably an idiot savant, at best. It likely has some linguistic capability, but I don’t think it would be able to understand Sirensong. It doesn’t have any kind of speech organs or comm implant, either. Its digestive and respiratory systems are separate, and that blowhole doesn’t have any kind of syrinx.”
“In other words, he has no mouth and he must scream,” Kali lamented. “Did he escape, do you think?”
“It must have,” Akio nodded. “Pomoko may have been a bit insensitive just now, but she’s right. This thing’s a violation of multiple transnational laws, treaties and conventions. Its creators wouldn’t want anyone to know about it. It… it must have known that escaping its creators and whatever convoluted life-support system they were using to keep it alive would have meant a slow and painful death, but it did it anyway. All it could have hoped for was that someone would find it and be able to hold its creators accountable. We don’t understand enough about its anatomy to offer any meaningful assistance. The most we could do is prolong its suffering. I think we should just let it pass in peace; it shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours at most now. We’ll return to our shuttle, tell the fleet what we found, and then have the carcass put in cryostasis as evidence. We’ll send it and this vessel to Olympeon, and they’ll deal with it. They’ll find who’s responsible and bring them to justice.”
“Yeah, we need to get back to the shuttle immediately for decontamination and med-screening. We could be infected by whatever microbes and nanites they stuffed into this bloated wretch,” Pomoko said with barely restrained panic, jetting back to the airlock as quickly as she could.
Akio and Vici followed closely behind, but Kali lingered in place as she gazed at the creature’s proboscis, which it still held upright. She recalled that elephants on Earth would raise their trunks when they were dying, and that the ancient Romans, despite being one of the cruellest cultures of humans to exist, had still recognized this as a plea for mercy. Though the gulf between the two species was significant, one self-aware being could still recognize the suffering of another, and be moved to pity by it.
“I’m staying with him,” she announced softly.
“What?” Pomoko shouted, she and the others all spinning around to look at her in bewilderment.
“Until he passes. Akio said it wouldn’t be long,” Kali replied.
“Why?” Vici asked.
“So he doesn’t die alone!” Kali screamed.
Pomoko started jetting back towards her friend, but Akio caught her and gently shook her head in refusal. She silently ushered the two of them back through the airlock and, with some reluctance, left Kali alone with the dying creature.
Kali tenderly took hold of the being’s trunk with her left hand, compassionately petting it with her right. He shuddered slightly, letting go of a noticeable amount of tension in his malformed body. Snorting from his blowhole, he focused his teetering eyestalks up at her, and she could see in those eyes a great, crushing sorrow, both from the suffering he had endured and the lost potential of the life he could have had if fate had been kinder.
A life like the one Kali had led as a privileged and well-bred daughter of Olympeon, and would most likely go on to live for many centuries more.
The tears in her eyes reached a critical mass now, budding off into tiny orbs and floating out into the air.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” she sobbed. It was all she could think to say, and she said it in English, hoping there was a better chance of him understanding it than her native language.
Remarkably, he reacted by raising the flat palm of his right hand up to the space beneath his trunk – a struggle for him even in the absence of gravity – and then lowered it with the palm facing up and out. Kali wasted no time in running the gesture through her exocortexes, frantic to decipher what the creature could be trying to tell her before it was too late.
It was sign language for ‘thank you’.

So I am a stupidvisor at a pet store. My cashier is on thr spectrum and talks very bluntly with a serious voice. This woman, 50's probably, starts repetitively tapping on the glass of the parakeet enclosure with her nail. My cashier told her "please don't tap on the glass." He then made his way to the front and was talking to me. The woman comes up and starts to trying to shame him. She tells him to be nicer and she's an adult and he spike to her like a child... blah... blah... blah. Then she asks him if he's thr manager. He tells her no and motions to me stating that I am.
I wear a face mask around customers. Mostly because I have a personal bubble that, as this community probably knows, customers rarely respect. This woman, was not happy, that I dared to still be wearing a mask. She first says she can't hear me talk to her because of the mask. I told her i don't take it off around customers. She demands to know why and I told her 'because customers get too close to me and I don't like it.' She demanded to know why and I told her it was personal. She retorts with "COVID won't kill you." I responded by once again telling her I wear it because people get too close to me. Then let her know that my dad had actually landed in the hospital with it, so she was talking to the wrong person. As she slinks away, I kid you not, she says the hospital drugged my dad. Now I don't care about anyone's feelings on this stuff, but don't go after someone's Dad.
Now AN HOUR LATER she comes back and starts fussing about how whether or not she is there to buy something or just see the animals, she's still a customer or something, I immediately told her I wasn't going to allow her into my store of she was going to talk to me or my coworkers in the manner she was. I then asked her to please leave. She refused, completely incensed. I asked her if I needed to call the cops, she tells me to do so and then she would sue. I basically followed her to the door as she rambled more insane things. (Cashier says she actually called me a witch, in the magical sense.) Of course the constant threat of calling corporate. I closed the store doors behind her but did not lock (it was only five minutes to close.) She sat in her car. At closing time, I locked the doors and went about doing closing duties. She sat in the parking lot till 20 after.

I've looooved every btbam album since Colors; every album was an epic sonic journey to me, and that every album was either as great or better than the previous, until Automata.
Man, this album was never anything I could get into, despite multiple listens ever since it released.
I would always lose interest a few songs into the album, and other times it would feel like such a chore to get through... i think this is because I had preconceived ideas of how the album should sound, and how it should be like previous albums.
BUT, the catalyst this time around where the album clicked for me, is that this album is unlike anything they've done before...
I gathered that they were going for a more grunge/alternative style infused into their sound... the opening track has that kind of riff early on after Tommy says "goodnight...",
and throughout the album, there is this distinct melancholic alternative sound throughout, much different than the wacky space-themed and dreamy sonic sounds from the past few albums...
the album artwork really reflects the tonal/sonic sounds perfectly, especially the "Automata 1" red cover...
and i always hated the closing track, since it wasn't this monumental epic like the past few albums, but lately have warmed up to it.
The only part of the album that loses me, is Voice of Trespass since I find it painfully repetitive with that opening guitar riff playing what feels like 100 times over the first 3 minutes or so... and i never listened to it more than any other track. I always listen to the album front to back, never one isolated song.
Hoping I can continue enjoying this album, since i seem to grasp the tone/sonic choices and themes they were going for throughout this album. There's some really great stuff in this album. BTBAM has such high standards for albums, and for any other band this would easily be their career defining work, it's that good.

Long story short, I found brothers to be especially creepy and arrogant towards single sisters. Here r a few examples:
1) When I was a teenager I asked a young looking elder how old was him, he heard me and didn’t say a word, just completely ignored me. Later a sister told me that he doesn’t tell ppl how old he is, becuz he’s afraid that sisters will fall in love with him. Lol, I was like 18, he was in his 30s, and I only asked the question as he recently moved in to the cong, I was just being friendly.
2) Many times I go to a “wholesome gathering” I meet some much older brothers who I have never seen before. All I need to do to find out if he is married is by simply saying: “hi.” Yea, I just need to be polite n not ignoring the average looking old brother his reply would be: “my wife is over there.”
3) Single brothers r really really weird about contacting sisters in any sorts. They think by texting a single word or talking to you directly for a few minutes you will wanna marry them. Although I don’t blame them as there r many crazy cases of single sisters desperately want to get married (who can blame them?), but they don’t need to act like they r the king of the world, after all they r just window cleaners with no stable income (no offence to window cleaners).
I have many guy friends from the world none of them make me feel the way the jw guys make me feel. For example, I texted a guy who went to another country to work the other day, his reply was very warm and friendly, such as “nice to hear from you!” “We have so much to catch up with!” and long conversations about each other’s life. His very open with his life to me and does not afraid that I will “fall in love” with him from a normal conversation between friends! In the end he said he wants to visit me one day, and we already went to trips before n he visited me before, nothing attached, we r just friends. Yes it’s normal to have friendship in the world but in the JW world they think u r going to get married just because you talked to them in 5 f*** minutes!

Ive been in a shitty mood lately. Im not sure why, i think my sleep has been poor so tonight im going to bed earlier. Work hasnt really been stressful its just the stress of getting older and just feeling like such a failure in so many regards. I feel like i let myself down from when i was bright eyed at like 18 ready for the world. I thought my life would be on track to being so much better than it is now. I feel like ive failed in a lot of the things ive tried to do. I feel like i am running out of life in general. I try to keep my chin up, but still, its hard most days.
Today i had a tree branch unexpectedly brush through my hair and down my neck, the branches were im guessing around the same thickness as a womans fingers could be, and it immediately gave me goose bumps. It made me go from ok, to immediately sad because although it felt good, i know what i am craving, the sadness from it i can feel most days in my finger tips, but i know i cant get it. I cant shut this wanting off. Ive started meditating more which just increased my willpower to shut off the sadness but not for long enough. Ive started to look around for alternative solutions to this problem that i cant ever seem to fix. As many of you know, its hard.

with my one girl i’ve been trying to get her used to being held and pet because she’s so curious of the outside and i thought she was making good progress until today after i gave her a blueberry decided to go in for the pet. for the rest of the day slowly but surely biting harder and harder. i even tried the high pitch screech thing so she knew it hurt. and i think she got the message but it only made her try harder. she snaps at me when i open the cage and follows my hand no matter what i’m doing.

Let me preface this by saying I am a big black midi fan. They were my top band on Spotify last year and had my top song (The Race is About to Begin). Naturally I was pumped to see them live. The opener, Cold Court, was solid, nice performance and kind of set the tone for the show. This was followed by 45mins of waiting for black midi to come on stage.
They begin with an off tempo performance of "Welcome to Hell" devoid of emotion (there may have been a sound issue or something). The rest of the show goes much better, including them ending on the Magician, which sounds fantastic, but the show was only about an hour long and I felt they missed a few of the big hits and songs that would've really energized the room if performed live. For some reason, the audience just shuffled out and went home (maybe because it's a Thursday?) without even a feeble attempt at trying to call for an encore. Overall I think it was a good, but not great, show and a bit below my higher expectations for them. What did everyone else who went think?

I am not the Original Poster. That is u/CuteUniversity1043. She posted in AmItheAsshole.
Trigger Warnings: verbal abuse
Mood Spoiler: Trash takes itself out
Original Post: June 1, 2023
For context, I am a 31F living with my boyfriend "Mike" who is 34. Mike has a friend "Victor" who comes over a lot. Yesterday, Victor came over to watch baseball with Mike. Victor asked me to pass him a beer so I passed one over but I dropped it. It didn't crack open or anything, but he said "Nice one, bitch." I was honestly shocked and said excuse me? He started laughing and Mike joined in. I was very uncomfortable and genuinely didn't know what to say. I told Victor that I didn't appreciate him calling me a bitch. He got super defensive and said he was saying it "jokingly". I said it doesn't matter how you were trying to say it, I am uncomfortable. He got very huffy and said I was just being "sensitive" and then he said "and you're probably going to accuse me of being a sexist now aren't you. Can't say anything these days." This was wild because A) I didn't say anything about sexism and B) What do you mean "can't say anything"? Can't call women "bitches" unsolicited anymore? What even was his point here?
Mike hadn't said anything during this interaction until I called him out. I asked why he wasn't defending me and he said "idk babe you're being a bit dramatic." At this point I'd had enough so I told them to leave and they went to Victor's to watch the game. Up until this point I thought I was in the right until Mike texted me angrily. He said I'd embarrassed him in front of a friend by being so melodramatic and SJW-y. He said Victor didn't mean any harm, and it was like how my friends call me bitch lovingly/jokingly. He also said it was uncalled for for me to kick him and Victor out of the house when Mike literally lives there. I said it's completely different because my friends make sure I'm okay with it and don't say it in a derogatory manner like Victor did. Plus, my friends are wonderful women who have supported me for years, not some friend of my boyfriend's who I barely know. And I was supposed to just let myself be disrespected in my own home? He called me annoying again and then turned notifications off.
He slept over last night (Victor lives alone) and hasn't come home yet. I think I might be the asshole because it's true that my friends call me bitch, and although it's different as I said above, it's possible that it confused Victor and made him think that was ok. I also didn't mean to make Victor uncomfortable/put him in the hot seat as a guest in my house. AITA?
Relevant Comments:
Can you stay anywhere else for the time being? Or break up with him and live elsewhere?
"I can move in with my sister and her girlfriend if needed. I'm seriously considering it after this. Thanks for your input xo"
It may have started as a joke, but as soon as you were uncomfortable they should have apologized:
"that's a good point, I was excusing him by thinking maybe he heard my friend calling me it and thought it was fine, but once I said it wasn't he should have just said "oh sorry i heard [friend] say it so i thought it was alright". Thanks for the help"
"Yeah if he had just said sorry, won't do it again I would have been ok with it and that would be the end but he got so unnecessarily defensive and weird."
EDIT: Accidentally referred to "Victor" as "Lucas" (these are fake names and I changed my mind halfway through making the post lol)
OOP is voted NTA
EDIT 2: Early next morning
oh my god. I was not expecting this to blow up like it did. I am so incredibly grateful for every single one of you who commented and I feel so supported. It’s impossible for me to respond to everyone but know that I’m reading your comments and I’m so thankful. I’m working things out right now, but I am safe, thank you so much for the concern. I’ll add a longer explanation and update later today when everything gets settled. A lot has happened since I made this post so I want to be able to update properly. Much love to you all, I am so overwhelmed with your kindness 💖
Update (Same Post): June 2, 2023 (Next day)
UPDATE: This will probably be my final update considering the thread is now locked (which is sad). Firstly, thank you all so, so much for all the support. It means so much to me. I'm so overwhelmed reading all the comments telling me that I deserve better, that I haven't wasted my time with Mike, that I'm worth more. It truly means the world. Also, thanks for all the lovely PMs I've been receiving. Reading these comments have made me realize that I'm still young and have my life ahead of me, and I am sure I don't want to spend it with a man like Mike especially after what happened today.
Today has been wild. To start, Mike didn't come home last night, meaning he has now spent two nights over there instead of confronting the issue like a mature adult. He didn't even text me to let me know that he was alive. So I texted him saying that I didn't appreciate at all what happened and that we should talk about it if there is any chance of saving this relationship. He sent me these wild paragraphs that basically said "fine, leave me. good luck finding someone else who will want to fuck you, you'll never find another man because you're just another annoying crazy bitch, victor was right, you're a c*nt, etc." He basically typed an entire essay, it was pretty funny but also disturbing. I couldn't believe a man I thought I loved was saying such nasty and disrespectful things to me. I texted back: "lol alright. have fun calling me whatever the fuck you want with victor, i won't be around to take it. we're done." His text truly was the last straw for me because he didn't apologize or even try to talk it out, he just immediately jumped to calling me names and saying really horrible things. I took my stuff (luckily it wasn't much to pack because all the furniture was Mike's) and drove to my sister's, where I'm currently living with her and her girlfriend. I hope I can find a permanent living arrangement soon.
Once again, thank you so much for all the support. I wouldn't have had the courage to end things without all the kind words and promises that things will get better, and that I deserve more than this. I was scared to leave because for some reason, people seem to think that women lose their "value" after turning 30. Looking back, Mike made this message clear to me as well during our relationship. I felt like I was undesirable because of my age and that I was lucky to even have a guy who could stand me. But reading your comments made me realize: I'm still young and there's plenty of time to find someone who will treat me right. Again, I am so incredibly grateful. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. 💜

Hello! Sorry for format, I’m on mobile. My gf and I rescued a 2yo mini-poodle (we think maybe a lil mutt in him too) about 2 months ago. He definitely has a problem with men, but he’s grown to trust me quite a bit. It’s certainly been a challenge, but I’m patient and he seems to like/trust me more as the days turn to weeks. For about a month, he’s adored my gf and is always trying to be near her. Our biggest issue is at night. She goes to bed between 10-11, I go to bed between 1230-130. If Paulie stays up w me, he anxiously circles our apartment and cries, occasionally going to the bathroom inside (almost rebelliously?). If he goes to bed with her, then the moment I turn my bedroom doorknob he barks at the top of his lungs for 10-15 seconds. We’d be happy with either option without the stressful outcomes for Paulie. Does anyone have advice around either of these issues besides giving him time?

I am not the Original Poster. That is u/CandyNinja900. She posted in offmychest
Trigger Warning: delusion; threat of kidnapping
Mood Spoiler: disturbing
Original Post: May 31, 2023
Title: My best friend thought that shoving her breast down my daughter's throat to calm her down was completely ok.
Basically what the title says. I have a daughter of 10 months. Me (30f) and my best friend (31f) have always been super close, and she helped a lot during my pregnancy and after childbirth. So it always came naturally to me to ask her for help, till she became some kind of nanny for my daughter when needed. She's always been very eager and happy to help, since she has no children of her own (she had a miscarriage in the past and stopped trying afterwards).
So we were at a mutual friend wedding yesterday, and I was holding my daughter for quite some time, since she hates strollers. My best friend came to me and offered to take her for a while, so that I could take a break and go chat with some friends. I agreed and wholeheartedly thanked her.
After twenty minutes or so, I come back to where we were, and she wasn't there. So I start looking for her in the garden, and she was literally nowhere to be found. Finally after another ten minutes I manage to find her, and I see her talking to some people while holding my baby with her boob shoved down my daughter's throat.
I literally tried my best to keep my composure and not to scream, so I went to her and said that we needed to talk. After reaching a quiet place, I yelled wtf was wrong with her and why was she nursing my daughter. She looked at me in disbelief, and she replied that she understood that it was the best way to calm my daughter, and that there's nothing wrong about it, adding that she could very well be her daughter. Wtf???? I was shocked, but we couldn't keep up the conversation because we needed to get back inside for the wedding cake. I told her that we would have continued the discussion later on.
We never did, but we agreed to meet today in a couple of hours. Honestly, I'm so f--kin mad. Wtf?????? Why did she had to do it?? I don't even f--kin know what to tell her without raging at her. It's been nearly a day and this thought never left my mind not even for a second. How could she say that "there's was nothing wrong with it"??? I feel like she violated my daughter, and she gave literally zero f- about it. I'm trying to arrange my thoughts before talking to her. I hope I don't end up hitting her. I'm nearly bursting out.
Edit: 5 hours later
So we met and we talked. I let her talk first. She explained that my daughter was restless while she was talking to a couple of women, and they said that maybe she was hungry and it was fine for them to keep talking while she was breastfeeding, so she just...did.wtf. I went straight to the point: what she did was completely f--ked up. No excuses. She told me that she didn't agree and that she did nothing wrong. She said that she tried everything in the past and nothing worked except for her breasts, which were the only things that calmed her down, so she just did what she always had done. I literally couldn't believe it. I asked her what was wrong with her for doing such a thing behind my back and why the f-ck among all things she thought that she could dry nurse my daughter. She replied back saying that she was just doing what she thought was best for the baby and doing what my daughter wanted, adding that she didn't think she needed to inform me of such thing, since she's quite a second mother to her. I was losing it, but she continued. She added that she wasn't dry nursing her, since a while ago after using pumps and dry nursing her she started to lactate a little, saying that the supply was still low but that in a while I could leave breastfeeding to her and stop doing it and worrying about it.
I was LIVID, but she didn't even realize, she was completely clueless like absorbed in her own world. Like not even realizing that what she did was wrong. So I stood up from the table, and told her that she was completely insane and that she was creeping me out. I told her that she wasn't allowed near my daughter anymore and to never contact me again, or I would report everything to the police.
She started crying saying that I couldn't cut her off from our daughter's life, so I lost it and shouted at her that it's not her goddamn baby but it was ME who popped her out, it was ME who was pregnant for 9 months and she was MY daughter, and not hers, and left.
I'm just completely shocked. I don't even think shocked can completely describe what I'm feeling now. I received a couple of texts from her begging to reconsider it and asking to see my daughter. I told her to stop contacting me, and blocked her. If I receive another message or call or anything like that I will report everything to the police. I'm just disgusted. She was my best friend. Why did she do something like this? I'm completely speechless.
I'm editing this post again if something happens, but I just hope nothing is going to happen honestly. I just want to puke.
Update Post 1: June 1, 2023 (Next Day)
After trying for most of the last evening to contact me on social medias, this morning she showed up at my front door. I told her that she needed to leave, because I didn't want to call the police on her. She started crying babbling why I was treating her this way and why I was keeping her away from my daughter, since she did nothing wrong. I told her that everything she did was wrong, because she did all of this behind my back. She can't be her mother, and she can't take over as the only one breastfeeding. It was delusional even just thinking something like this.
She responded saying that my daughter needed her breasts and that her milk will be surely by far better than mine for the baby. If this wasn't enough, she said that she was worried because my breasts are too small to feed her properly and to please stop being selfish and start thinking what's really better for my daughter, concluding saying that she was fine with me breastfeeding her until she reached a sufficient supply but then I should leave the responsibility to her if I wanted my daughter to grow healthy. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I wasn't even mad. I couldn't believe it was my best friend the one who was saying such bulls--t.
She was talking really loud and I guess my daughter heard that because she started crying. And she took it as a sign that my daughter was calling for HER. WTF.
She only left when I was dialing the police, saying that I shouldn't treat her like this and that she's only doing what's best for my daughter.
I'm done. I can't take this s--t anymore. I contacted a mutual friend and I told her everything, emphasizing that she needs help. She agreed to talk to her and see what's going on. In the meanwhile, I'll go to the police and try to file for a RO, and I will talk to a pediatrician as soon as possible. I can't live peacefully like this, and I'm starting to get worried for my daughter.
Many, many thanks to each one who showed support/offered advice, and I will update again if something comes up
Relevant Comments:
Can you contact her parents?
"Unfortunately I don't know her parents, and I don't know how to get in touch with her ex husband. I asked the mutual friend if she perhaps knows something more"
Is she even lactating or is that a delusion as well?
"I honestly don't know. Just the thought of her inducing lactation using my daughter makes me shiver. But my daughter gets very frustrated when she gets no milk immediately from sucking, at least with me, so I don't really know what to think. Edit: thinking about it I do think that her breasts have gotten bigger, since I saw her nearly everyday. I don't know if inducing lactation cause breasts to grow just like pregnancy, or if I just made a blunder"
The horrible smaller breasts comment:
"It was so uncalled for and just plain stupid. I couldn't believe she said something like that since she always has been very smart. Yes, she's embarrassingly busty but she never bragged about them not even once, and being busty has nothing to do with breastfeeding. I never had issues feeding my baby. I really have no idea where this thing came from. It doesn't seem like something she would say, like all the rest of it.. And for the record, I don't regard mine as small.. In fact I think they're too big.."
Plans:
"I'm indeed considering staying at a hotel for the time being, I'm trying to organize everything. She has a copy of the house keys and I don't think I can change the locks swiftly"
How much about you and your codes/info/locks does she know?
"She's been my best friend for more than 20 years and she's been with me nearly everyday before and after childbirth. If she doesn't know everything, she knows a good 99% of that everything.."
Why wouldn't you know how to contact her parents/ex-husband after knowing her 20 years?
"I never wrote about not knowing her ex husband. I don't know where you read that. I do know her ex husband but since the divorce I never spoke to him nor I have means to contact him. I asked the mutual friend if she knows something more perhaps his address or telephone number since I can't find him on social medias. Regarding her parents, I don't know them so welll, when we were younger she had a live-in nanny and she's the only person related to her that I knew personally, since she was the one who took her to school or to the playground were we met to play in the past. I only met her parents once, but we never spoke. From what she told me, she always had a strained relationship with her parents because they were always busy working. But it was a delicate topic so we never talked much about it. I could try contacting the nanny but I should try to find her on social medias"
Update Post 2: June 2, 2023 (next day, so two days after OG post)
So, I came back home this morning after spending the night at a nearby hotel. I didn't feel safe staying alone in my house, since she had a copy of the keys. Even if I have a surveillance system I didn't want to take the risk. The first thing I did when I came back was calling an emergency locksmith, explained the situation, and they arrived and did the job swiftly. I felt so much safer knowing that she can't get in anymore. I checked the house but I was exactly as I left it yesterday, and after checking the surveillance tapes I was sure she didn't pay me a visit. I informed my close neighbors about what happened, and they were very understanding and helpful. I then met up with the mutual friend, and she updated me on the talk she had with her.
She told me that she visited her at home this morning, because she wanted to talk to her face to face since she thought I was a little bit overreacting. Well, she went, my best friend greeted her and they started chatting a little before she invited her in. So far so good, until they sat down and my best friend asked her if they could keep talking while she pumped because she needed to get her supply running. Our mutual friend played dumb, saying that it wasn't a problem but she asked why she needed to pump if she doesn't have childrens. She replied back saying that she indeed has a daughter and that she was surprised that I didn't tell the mutual friend about it. She then pointed out that it was my daughter and that even if she didn't gave birth to her she still consider her as her baby too, and that she needed mama's (referring to her) milk to grow healthy. She kept going saying that she had no choice but pumping because I was being sassy and inconsiderate and I wasn't letting her breastfeed our baby, but that she couldn't be inconsiderate like I was and she needed to get her supply to a sufficient level, but that she was sure that I would change my mind in no time since I'm not stupid and I know that her breasts are better for our daughter.
She told me that she couldn't believe what she was hearing, and that she couldn't believe that all of this was true. But what it shocked her the most was the fact that she was indeed lactating, she wasn't producing much but she was indeed pumping breastmilk. She tried to talk to her but it wasn't no use, she just wasn't listening, and after a while trying she just said that there was nothing wrong in what she was doing and that she was just being a good mother, and after that she asked her to leave because she needed to relax while pumping. Unfortunately she forgot about asking for the keys of my house, but fortunately I was able to change the locks this morning.
I honestly wasn't surprised hearing all of that. But still, it was very, very depressing. She was completely shocked and she couldn't understand what happened, since apart from this she seemed completely normal.
I then asked her to accompany me to the police, and unfortunately there aren't no extremes yet to file for a RO, not even a temporary one. According to what they told me where I live solid proofs of harassment, stalking, etc need to be presented, and the surveillance tapes/texts (which are the only things I have) don't show no harassment or clear evidence that she's stalking me. So the only thing I could was file a formal complaint of what happened, and did that. They told me that they will keep an eye on the situation, and they will check my neighborhood more frequently to be sure nothing happens.
And that's it for now. The mutual friend will stay at my house for a couple of days to help me recover from what happened, also to wait for my parents to arrive.
Unfortunately she doesn't know her parents, but she found a way to contact her ex husband, and I will contact him tomorrow to ask for help. It's been a while and I hope he's willing to.
I also booked an appointment with the pediatrician, and I will get my daughter checked next week.
I will stop making updates for a while. I need to get my s--t together, plan what to do next, and take care of my daughter. Fortunately enough my parents are coming to help me, and I'm really really relieved. I don't think I can keep facing this situation alone.
People of reddit, thank you very much, really. You gave me wonderful advices and support, and it really helped. I will update you after the situation settles down a bit, and I really hope it does. Thanks again, and bye for now.

Is anyone else having problems finding a match? Ranked or Casual? It can take me 5-10 minutes to find one and I have pretty open settings to play 3-5 connections and all platforms.

Hello everyone, Have some items up for trade
All the buyouts for the selected items are just because of the rules.
I am open to discussing trades on Steam or Discord: Ab1r#1680 , feel free to add me there to discuss.
Some of the tradeable items are listed as follows:
TradeLink: https://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffenew/?partner=201510509&token=5HbDjuiH
-
Item Condition Float B/O
★ Stiletto Knife Damascus Steel MW 0.10 360$
★ Gut Knife Doppler Phase-2 FN 0.03 218$
★ Gut Knife Lore FT 0.27 210$
★ Ursus Knife Blue Steel MW 0.13 206$
★ Falchion Knife Autotronic FT 0.16 203$
★ Gut Knife Doppler Phase-3 FN 195$
★ Moto Gloves Blood Pressure FT 0.37 187$
★ Stiletto Knife Boreal Forest BS 0.67 185$
★ Survival Knife Night Stripe MW 0.13 170$
★ Ursus Knife Night Stripe FT 0.34 157$
★ Survival Knife Stained FT 0.33 154$
★ Falchion Knife Freehand BS 0.45 140$
★ Survival Knife Blue Steel WW 0.44 139$
★ Moto Gloves Cool Mint BS 0.75 136$
★ Bowie Knife Bright Water BS 0.47 127$
★ Ursus Knife Urban Masked BS 0.71 126$
★ Navaja Knife Crimson Web WW 0.39 113$
★ Gut Knife Ultraviolet FT 0.16 111$
★ Gut Knife Scorched FT 0.23 96$
★ Moto Gloves Smoke Out BS 0.66 85$
★ Driver Gloves Rezan the Red WW 0.38 78$
★ Hand Wraps Desert Shamagh BS 0.48 66$
★ Hand Wraps Duct Tape BS 0.65 65$
★ Hand Wraps Constrictor BS 0.45 64$
★ Hydra Gloves Emerald FT 0.30 63$
★ Hydra Gloves Mangrove FT 0.37 52$
AWP Wildfire FN 0.06 168$
M4A1-S Golden Coil MW 0.14 83$
UMP-45 Crime Scene FN 0.06 66$
USP-S Printstream FT 0.36 59$
AK-47 Asiimov MW 0.12 53$
AWP Chromatic Aberration FN 0.04 48$
M4A1-S Golden Coil FT 0.35 47$
ST AK-47 Redline FT 0.30 47$
M4A4 The Emperor MW 0.09 46$
ST M4A4 In Living Color MW 0.07 42$
M4A4 Neo-Noir FN 0.05 35$
AWP Hyper Beast FT 0.22 34$
Sir Bloody Darryl Royale The Professionals 21$
AK-47 Redline FT 0.27 19$
Glock-18 Bullet Queen MW 0.13 17$
P250 See Ya Later FN 0.06 12$
& more
Some prices might be outdated.
Note: I have new items coming and going daily and everything is not included in this list but everything is up for trade just send an offer!
TradeLink: https://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffenew/?partner=201510509&token=5HbDjuiH

I want to give them to you. Whether that's me near or far. Full-time, part-time... I know you'll always be my once in a lifetime.
Yours x

Hey y’all,
I’ve been at this job for some time now and tried to remain anonymous, invisible, and unknown to everyone as much as possible. I’m on the spectrum and I am traumatized.
I have severe ptsd from my last job. I was sexually harassed and discriminated against repeatedly for being openly trans in the office.
And let me tell you, going stealth has completely changed the game. No more being subjected to the peanut gallery of everyone having questions & opinions about my life. The transphobes can no longer take a more critical eye to all my work. No one has followed me to my car or cornered me in a conference room while rubbing their hard on…haven’t gained any stalkers in years.
I seriously wish I was exaggerating here.
I’m now being pushed into a leadership position at work where people want to know me. They also want to know why they haven’t known anything about me thus far despite the impressive work I’m doing. They notice I’m extremely guarded and vague about my life and my past. I’m going to have to go to happy hours and answer questions about my life. Being trans, autistic, poly, and pagan does not win me any points. In their eyes I’m probably a freak.
How do I explain to them why I’ve been trying to keep to myself?
How can I fend off questions politely without having to lie all the time or accidentally trauma dumping?

Noon. Of course it wasn’t packed. But people everywhere seemed to be in a good mood. People looked like they actually wanted to be at Dillard’s. The cops in uniform and those dressed in plain clothes with walkie talkies were doing their thing throughout the mall, but the only time I felt truly uncomfortable had nothing to do with shoppers, it was the desperate and aggressive kiosk people.
I wanted to get some cute pool flops from Old Navy, but just as I was walking past Sephora I spotted this kiosk woman shouting at a woman trying to slow her down, “Hey sexy lady I’ve got just what you want right here,” trying to jam a piece of paper into her hand. I turned right back around. And that’s what I remembered I hated so much about how Hanes started to change in the mid-90’s…those awful, aggressive kiosk people. Imagine being 13, awkward, trying not to draw too much attention to yourself, and here comes these people. From Abercrombie to Penney’s was just the worst back in the day. Like mall Jehovah’s Witnesses of sorts, just a sea of them trying to force themselves on you, what they’re selling. Cringe. Get rid of those people for another start at redemption.
As I was getting into my car, I noticed the woman in front of me walking around her rig looking in every window just to make sure nothing of valuable was visible. The “Hanes Once Around.” But hey, that was a thing in the 80’s too. The roads from the Belk area to Stratford were dangerously filled with potholes, especially near the railroad tracks.
Final thoughts: it looks like there’s some hope left. Shoppers and the shop workers I saw were lovely. I just wish we could find ways to resolve the big issues that remain, and make going to Hanes feel fun again. And for the love of god please doing something about the kiosk demons.

It was the start of a new grade and I got sat beside this girl (I’ve known her for at least 3 years at this point but we went really friends). After a while we started talking and I became a new part in her friend group. Being a guy in a girls friend group, I felt very lucky, because there was a very attractive girl(I’ll call her Bob). And I really liked Bob, but at the time, being a little geek I had no experience with women. But one day happens that drives me crazy. That girl that I got sat beside I’ll call her Jimmy. Me, Jimmy, and Bob always liked to call each other and talk about our feelings cause we had been so close. But one night Bob was busy and it was only me and Jimmy. She said that we should fall asleep on a call together. Of course I agree because why not. It was about 10:30 and we start getting into a deep conversation that ends up with her telling me that she liked me. Then I told her that I really like Bob and after that I could tell she was in defeat. But after talking for a while my brain just decided that I had to like her now. So we started dating. But the thing is, we didn’t want anybody to know because being young(very young, not even a teen) people would just kinda ruin it. So we kept a secret for almost a year. Bob and Jimmy just hanging out or something. And Bob decide to look through Jimmy’s phone. Then she finds out. I talked to Bob to promise to not tell anyone else. She agrees. Then tells everyone. Everybody was mocking me, the boys were disappointed in me, and we were very slowly falling apart, until we were nearly 1 year in and she says “were done”. After that I felt defeated. So I swerved away from all the drama and I thought I was fine. Little did I know that the drama was gonna come back to haunt me. It’s been almost 2 years since all that and something crazy happened there’s some 4th graders on my bus that I’ll call him. Him was something else. In grade 4 he was already trying to get with the women. And one of the women that wanted him was Jimmy. I found this out because about every month me and Jimmy do a little check up about every month. She told me that she liked Him and my head exploded. I really want to talk Him the she likes him but I feel me and Jimmy’s friends ship will just complete end. This has had me going crazy and I found the only thing that helps me is porn. I just can’t find help from anybody and none of the boys will care and they will just say I’m dumb for liking Jimmy. And when all this is going downs new problem just has to come around to fuck me and make me go insane. The girl I’ll call problem shows up one day at our school with goal to do anything and everything to screw me over. So first she gets in a relationship with one of the boys, but she’s a huge slut and immediately goes after his stepbrother cause he’s got a big dick. And for a while she goes crazy for this guy and just full on sends him nudes. But remember that she’s a slut and just dumps this guy for some other white boy. Then my bros step bro who I’ll call W just doesn’t give a shit and just send me her nudes. So as a normal human being I show literally everyone. Now she is super depressed and she making it my problem. It’s really fucking annoying. And with all this up my ass I just know the universe is gonna try to shove another one up there. I really just don’t know what to do anymore because outside I’m the class clown who always makes it funny, but inside I’m doing mentally insane. And I can’t ask anyone for help because as a man in 2023 you can’t show your feelings. So I think all hope is lost. If you read all of this I want to thank you very much because I just know almost if not everybody will say something like “oh he’s he’s just a little kid, he’s fine”. So really, thank you.