Let me apologize first since this is going to be a long story. Cut to a year back, I was dating this guy from our friend's group. I had to keep this thing a secret from the entire friend's group because he said so (I know, dumb move on my part). Gradually, I started realizing how he was always busy and blamed me for every bad thing happening in his life. He stopped taking my calls and I was so worried that I had to confide to my best friend and her boyfriend to contact him. Both of them supported me a lot during the entire time and helped me a lot after the breakup as well. Things started getting normal for me. They introduced me to one of their friends who apparently developed feelings for me. We became close friends and genuinely, I liked talking to him for hours. We started dating long-distance since he had to move to another place for work. The relationship did not last long because we could not communicate properly. I was devastated and even then my best friend tried her best to fix things between us and she supported me. He was too adamant to say that he does not want to see me or talk to me ever again. At this point, I started feeling like I am a burden to her because I am putting her through a lot. Plus, I have been neglecting my career a lot so I decided to stop hanging out with my best friend and our other friends every day and focus on my studies and work. I attended a few parties and dinner sessions and that somewhat made her feel betrayed. We had a lot of argument posts regarding my abandoning her. She did not like that I was distancing myself and it might make me more sad. I started hanging out with them again but she was not happy about the fact that I was talking to other people in the group as well. She wanted my full attention. That somewhat made me distant from her again. Every time I hung out with the group, people were making comments about my past and how I always get close to guys around me. I could notice a pattern here so I confronted my best friend. She was super rude to me and started telling me how I always give my attention to guys and ignore her (definitely not the case, I had been taking my downtime to deal with things at home). Recently, I was invited to a birthday party and she kept on asking me to come. It was my dad's death anniversary that week so I was not in the mood to enjoy but still due to her continuous persistence, I went to the party. Her friend was there as well and I was not aware of it. That night, I went back home and told her how it made me uncomfortable to see him suddenly at the party after 3 months. She told me that he is okay being around me now. I told her that at least she could have given me a heads-up that he is coming. She called me and started yelling at me, how I always react to things and that is why my ex broke up with me and she and her boyfriend told me over the call that I have some mental problem which is why I always seek attention from guys and I do not like being single. I am sure I have some problems myself but this seemed very toxic that she had been gossiping about my past with other people in the group. Do you think I should apologize and try to revive the friendship again?

I (25 M) have always taken girls and dating pretty seriously. When I was younger I thought “ I’m perfectly fine being with one person, and the earlier I take dating seriously the more likely it is that I don’t let ‘the one’ get away.” I also had some influence from my religion that guided me towards this way of dating.
I had my first gf the senior year of high school, it ended pretty shortly. Then I dated another girl first year of college (who cheated). Towards the end of college I met a girl I thought I would marry. She was kind, sweet, had a very similar philosophy on life. She was also very smart and ambitious. We moved out of state together for grad school. But we broke up after 4 years, when it became clear that marriage wasn’t likely (she wasn’t ready and other issues had popped up).
After this relationship I was single for a little while and started therapy. Then I dated another girl for about 6 months. At first I thought I had found a miracle. She was everything I was looking for and seemed very committed. But about 3 months in she settled into a groove that really didn’t include me. I had to really try to get time, attention, etc. In the end it became clear we weren’t really a match in how we treated each other. Through therapy I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve continually dated girls who “invested” less in the relationship than I have. We talked about ways to fix it, what signals to look for, etc. I thought I had figured things out.
But I’ve started to date again and I’m hopeless. I still seem to attract people that are not gonna invest evenly in a relationship. I’ve grown tired of dating and incredibly lonely. Recently I’ve been considering dating much more casually.
I’m still young, in shape, I can fairly confidently say I’m at least an above average looking guy. I’ve got a job that makes really good money now, and a dog that is helping with the loneliness. I’m moving to a big city. Although I feel the only thing really missing is a relationship, it also seems unachievable. So I’ve considered embracing hookup culture. I feel it’ll help fill the need for physical connection and just might be more fun. Specially if I am trying to stay casual. Can anyone talk me out of this?

Labor and biological process

Like several biological processes, the method of labor and delivery is split into stages. The goal of the labor method is biological process, or the physical expulsion of the foetus from the mother's womb.
This method is accomplished through the employment of contractions. Now, i do know you are all in all probability aware of the term contraction. You know, your muscles contract and relax as you progress, right? Well, did you recognize that the contractions talked concerning throughout labor area unit the same as the muscle contractions that occur whereas you're walking, running, or simply going concerning everyday actions?
​
Labor and biological process
But, there's one massive distinction. The muscles you utilize to maneuver your legs and arms area unit voluntary and, for the foremost half, beneath your management. But, the womb is formed of an explicit kind of muscle referred to as a sleek muscle. This muscle is involuntary, that means the mother cannot management the contractions of the womb.
During true labor, contractions of the graceful muscles begin at the highest of the womb and move downward, toward the cervix, in regular intervals. this can be to not be confused with one thing referred to as contraction, wherever the womb contracts, however these contractions area unit irregular and don't aid in biological process.

The Stages of Labor

Okay, thus currently that we all know the overall methodology the womb uses to accomplish biological process (that would be those contractions we have a tendency to simply talked about), let's point out the stages of the labor method. There area unit 3 of those stages:

The dilation stage:

This begins once true labor starts.

so i want an opinion on this, in 2021, i was around 11 or 12 years old, it was 2-3am at that time and i had an mad exam coming up but due to covid it was online right so my mom barges into my room and she is full on crying and i noticed a mark of her neck, and she is just blabbering stuff and i was just confused because i woke up at that moment, she runs to my dressing room and locks it and then i hear footsteps, due to fear i lay back in my place and put up my sheet and b4 laying i locked the door, i got the hint that my father was hitting her, he starts knocking on the door, his parents were sleeping next door so he didnt knock it that hard but it still freaked my out, i then heard nth for a good 2 mins and then suddenly i hear keys jingling, it was my dad opening my room with keys, me my older and my two younger brothers sleep in the same room, not because we didnt have enough rooms, but there were only 3 bedrooms on the first floor and we were all just "young", anyways then he opens the door and walks close to the dressing room, i guess my mom must've heard the noise of the keys, she quickly hid in the bathroom and locked the door, as my bathroom got renovated he didnt have the keys to the washroom door yet so my mom was safe but me, i was scared, i was scared to even breathe or make any noise, i thought i was gonna die, when my father stormed out of the room i wrote a note to my mom saying dont get out and passed it under the door, i was a mess and to this day i am still scared, my father has always been abusive but i cant hate him because he always buys me anything i want, literally anything but he emotionally neglects me and his anger sometimes scares me, this exact thing happened a year later but i think it was worst for me, in 2022 exactly in may and literally a day b4 my maths exam this all happened again but in the day light, i was scared, my mom wanted a divorce and what she did traumitized me, so my parents found out i do sh and they got really mad and stuff, what she did was that she broke a plate, infront of me and screamed (this happened much later when she found out) picked up the broken piece of glass and cut herself, at that time my father took my brothers out because "they were scared" and i just stared at my mom and what she said broke me "is this the peace u get from cutting urself?" and i just stared at her in shock and disgust that how could my own mother do this, anyways i was scared of having my parents divorced because i know i cant choose, they both r so manipulative that i would rather be an orphan than choosing a parent to stay with, now coming to this year, they r so lovey dovey with eachother, i kid you not i cant accept it, my innerchild doesnt wanna accept this, they look so happy with eachother and yk my father even bought my mom the new iphone which was surprising and they literally r so cuddly now and shit, what do i do, am i being a bitch for not accepting how much they r being clingy to eachother?

This might be more for the parents with older (school age) children.
We have 2 toddlers (2 and 3 yo). The 2 yo is in the process of stopping his naps but very often he will still fall asleep in the afternoon (e.g. when in car or in the buggy when picking up his older brother from kindergarten), and when that happens he isn't tired at night and won't sleep before, say 21-22 o'clock. The 3 yo is generally tired around 19-20 o'clock because he doesn't nap, but when he knows that the younger brother is not sleeping he doesn't want to either. I come home from work around 19.00 and I want to have dinner rather than spending an hour trying to get them to bed (also because then it would be so late that it's almost my bedtime!). So often, they both come down again in their pyjamas and we go to bed together at 20.30.-21.00. We have two bedrooms with double beds, suitable for double co-sleeping, and us parents need to get up at early anyway...
I think once the younger one drops his nap it's going to be easier to get them to sleep in their beds. Because no amount of sleep training will help with a child that's not tired.
So my question is: at what age did bedtime become easier? That the children are fine going to bed in their own bed and at a normal time and without fighting and screaming or spending an hour next to their bed. (For clarification, at this point I don't care about co-sleeping later at night like if they wake up at midnight. I just want a child-free evening.)
My parents say that when I starting going to school (must have been 6 years old, maybe 5 if preschool counts) I was so tired that I was "grateful" to go to bed at 20.00... Is that a typical age for children to sleep independently without sleep trainig?

Fifth Year Festival: Liverpool
March 3, 2007
Liverpool, England
The Liverpool Olympia
The main event, Nigel McGuinness versus Samoa Joe, was one of the few times in Nigel's career that he did not have an overwhelming home field advantage. Joe, in the midst of his ROH farewell tour, has support that equals if not surpasses Nigel's on this night. Nigel defeated Joe in a tag team match in Chicago, and the two men have had a couple of other run-ins on this tour. These two are capable of sleepwalking to a good match, but fortunately they put in the effort, probably motivated by the heavily-invested crowd. Joe got his shoulder smashed into the ring post, giving Nigel a target to focus on. Nigel went for the Tower of London on the outside, but Joe blocked it, and since Nigel wanted to play that game, he hits Nigel with a Muscle Buster on the ring apron. Referees begin helping NIgel to the back, but Joe questions Nigel's "intestinal fortitude" as JR would say, and Nigel returns to the match and slaps Joe in the face. Nigel kicks out of another Muscle Buster in the ring and a lariat. Joe finally puts things to bed with the Coquina Clutch.
In their first defense of their third reign with the ROH World Tag Team Championship, the tag teame aces, the Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark) faced off with the Dragon Gate duo of Naruki Doi and Shingo. Lots of emphasis made on the open challenge made by the Briscoes for the following night in Liverpool at Finale, a sign of overlooking their challengers on this evening. And it is easy to see why, as I can't recall Doi and Shingo teaming in ROH before. There's a certain pace to the Briscoes that makes their matches exciting. They're fast, but it never feels like they are rushing through spots. Shingo accidentally hits Doi with a clothesline, allowing the Briscoes to hit Doi with Total Elimination and an assisted neckbreaker, but no finish. In a shocker, Shingo finishes things a cradle shock on Mark to win. This is a second huge upset on this tour, following Morishima defeating Homicide in Philadelphia. ROH has had a few short title reigns before, but the top dogs of the tag team division losing their first defense? Unprecedented for the company. After the match, Jay got on the mic and questioned whether he and his brother were getting soft and challenges his brother to a match for the following night to get back on track.
For the first time, the Full Impact Pro Heavyweight Championship was defended outside the US, allowing it the designation of a world championship. I'm not sure how official all that is, but that's PWI's guidelines. Full Impact Pro was the Florida-based sister promotion of ROH. Roderick Strong, the champion, defended against a very young Pac. Physically, Pac has "local competitor" vibes, but by this point had already developed a popular reputation in his homeland. FIP World Heavyweight Championship matches had a 20-count on the outside and could be lost via disqualification or countout. Strong takes the young Englishman to school and beats the hell out of him for most of the match. Pac finally finds an opening and starts hitting a variety of high-flying moves, including what would become known as the Red Arrow to the outside. He goes to the well one too many times however, and Strong decides to put the young man away with a kick and tiger driver. Strong gets huge heat for locking Pac in the liontamer after the match, but is run off by Delirious.
In a two-out-of-three falls match, longtime rivals Matt Sydal and Delirous faced off. Finally free of the tag titles, Sydal can be more of a cocky heel, while Delirious is an energetic tornado. The first fall was a feeling out period. Delirious hit Sydal with a big punt, and while the referee was attending to Sydal, Sydal sneaked in a low blow that allowed him to craddle Delirious for the first fall. Sydal takes to more heel tactics in the second fall, with lots of choking and other illegal tactics. Delirious finally catches a break and hits Sydal with his back splash/cobra stretch combo finish to win the second fall. Things really picked up with the third fall as both guys used their experience with each other to hit spots seamlessly. Once again, Sydal uses the referee to his advantage, shoving the ref into the ropes to gain an advantage and hitting Delirious with a top-rope belly-to-belly suplex for the win. A great match demonstrating great chemistry.
I think this was a very good show and the best of the tour thus far.
Other matches on this show:

• Jimmy Jacobs & Jimmy Rave vs. Colt Cabana & BJ Whitmer
  
• Sara Del Rey vs. Allison Danger
  
• Homicide vs. Davey Richards
  

You can find the B-Show Stories archieve here.

I just woke up confused and like I ran a marathon. It started with me and my freind she slowly began to ignore my and only see a boyfriend I never met . I became all alone and then I was in a hospital room they told me to admit I was crazy. Then the nurse walks in and says " hmm no one's admit that there crazy before" but I didn't talk to them. They gave me pills and said I'll be fine but I wasn't crazy. After I took a pill I began to go in and out of hallucinations. One of the put me I my house where I did a scripted YouTube video. But ended up have worse hallucinations init and as I tride to hide it , it got worse. Part of my dream repeated where I was in my house and made a video but with small change. Then I repeated for the last time I walk into the video room and see all the actors piled up dead but there was one person who was not she looked mid 20s and had a 60s styled hair with a menacing smile and scary aura I ran and soon saw zombies I ran and got biten. The game like dream repeated I ran and saw three people who I couldn't tell where zombies or not I snapped the neck of one of the teen boys and felt shocked and guilty he looked normal like the illusion fell the other two boys ran. I had braces at this moment that where not there before fall out as well as some dimonds.. I saw the lady slowly chasing me through my house. I looked out side and saw snow like never before. I ran all the was to the other side of the house and before I could lock 4 doors like before she was there I looked at her and asked to leave this dream. she grew dark purple wings that where now apart of a dress on her she glew and and every thing slowly became what but a few would she said as she left where written on the glowing back ground don't forget I'm then I faded before I got her name and I popped up out of bed her name had a o or k in the beginning and two ll it was a short name 4 or 5 letters maybe. I felt like I just lived through a gods game I dont know to be mad at her or thankful for her waking me up. I have no idea what all of this means and if anyone knows please tell me. Ps. I didn't take any medication or substance before this.

The Challenge: 1/1/23 - 12/31/23
Murder Mystery 2 - Watched 4/8
My Tagline: A forgettable sequel to a forgettable original film
Synopsis from Letterboxd: After starting their own detective agency, Nick and Audrey Spitz land a career-making case when their billionaire pal is kidnapped from his wedding.
Thoughts: Adam Sandler, the king of Netlfix's dumb comedies, has come out with another one, this time a sequel. Say what you want about the Sandman, he does not often do sequels. When he makes a stinker comedy, it's an original stinker comedy. Murder Mystery was the highest rated and most watch of the Sandler Netflix comedies so of all the films I'm glad this was the sequel, but I wish he had made a sequel to one of his better comedies. But maybe we shouldn't tarnish his older films that actually hold up.
This film is forgettable. The orginal movie was superior, it was more about a murder mystery. And it had more heart between the leads, Aniston and Sandler. This one felt lazier. There are some funny parts, the best being Jillian Bell's character at the end. There is a meeting on a rooftop and suddenly Bell appears confessing a scheme of meeting her long lost lover after 10 years. It's random but that adds to the comedy of it. that scene added a half star to this rating alone. Overall I'd skip this one, like most of the Sandler Netflix comedies.
Rating: 2/5
​
Pixels - Watched 4/16
My Tagline: The film that killed Sandler's theater career.
Synopsis from Letterboxd: Video game experts are recruited by the military to fight 1980s-era video game characters who’ve attacked New York.
Thoughts: This film should have been amazing. Directed by Chris Columbus, from Home Alone and Harry Potter fame, the screenplay was on Hollywood's best available screenplay list for years, and Sony giving it a huge budget for special effects. Where could this go wrong? Starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James.... oof.
The Sandler style jokes are terrible in this film. He calls an old guy Gandalf.... get it? There is a ton of plot holes as well that I feel like could not have existed in the original script and it happened during the rewrite process. The characters are all one-note and most of the videogames mentioned just feel like references, not much else. Unless you are with a group of friends and you just want at a bad movie, skip this one.
Rating: 1.5/5
I rank every movie I watch throughout the year, you can see the full rankings on my Letterboxd including other rankings. One of those ranking is my Sandler ranking. Both of these did not do so hot, both falling to the bottom3rd of the list. I love Adam Sandler and I love to hate his films as well, and I hated Pixels so much it's being added to the bottom five list.
HeyImAJoe's 2023 Top and Bottom

1. Brokeback Mountain...........96. The Saints of Newark
   
2. Bullet Train............................97. Jexi
   
3. Monty Python Holy Grail.....98. Pixels
   
4. Tár..........................................99. Your Place or Mine
   
5. Manchurian Candidate.......100. You People
   

HeyImaJoe's Letterboxd

In my store, we don’t hold anything for customers (there’s a good reason for this). One day, this older woman came in to return a few items and then decided to shop. When she was about to check out, there was a line of 8-10 people ahead of her. I had about 2 employees ringing.
She eventually skips the line and asks to have us hold her items (belts and a hat) and she will come back later. I told her that we don’t do holds.
She looks at me and you can tell she’s trying to come up with an excuse. “Can’t you make an exception ? I have been shopping here for over 30 years…”
I told her that we need to be fair to other customers. She then said, “Well, ring me up now then!!!”
“You’ll have to fall back in line, ma’am.” I told her.
“Well I have to run to a meeting, if you’re not going to hold my items …. You’re losing good business here! You better hold these for me and I will pay for them when I return!”
There are about 10-12 customers in line now, all watching us. So I told the lady that I have to abide by policy. She starts the “who’s the manager, who do you report to, who does your supervisor report to” rant. I told her that I was the manager and my name was “Judy.” I also gave her the name of the company’s CEO and their email. She leaves and 2 minutes later, called my store asking for the manager.
Duh. Woman.
She eventually emails the company cc the CEO and this was her message, it was a voice recording sent through email:
“Hello, Mr. Thurderstrom, my name is Beth and I shop at Thrunderstrom all the time. I just wanted to let you know that today, I was shopping at your store at____ and the manager Judy told me they don’t do holds. I AM A PAYING CUSTOMER. She told me that she wants to treat everyone equally, but that’s not the Thunderstrom way. She has to treat each customer according to their needs. I had a few belts and a hat which I wanted to buy because I am going on a vacation. I did a few returns today and when I was ready to purchase, the line was long and I had to go to a meeting. THAT MANAGER SHOULD HAVE GIVEN ME AN EXCEPTION! I am a respectable woman. I am dressed well and ….. I’m 62 years old! I worked in Thunderstrom, Gloominghails and Stacys and I know she didn’t do the right thing. I would like for you to reach out to Judy and please have them hold my items for me. I may have time to come pick them up today, or if I don’t have time today, I will purchase them tomorrow. Please call me back. Good bye.”

Imagine having one of the nicest dates ever. Everything is just perfect, you vibe and bond over the most ridiculous stuff and have a blast while hanging out in this cute little gay bar that served the most delicious alcohol free cocktails you have ever had. And then all over sudden your ex shows up there as well, sees you and loses her shit, throws a tantrum and starts threatening you. What the hell is wrong with people?

Hey M 23 had a phone date with F26 . It was good to start but then she started posturing telling me how she knows all these successful people and has a good job and is extremely well connected. Worst thing was when she asked me what I do I said I'm looking to go into finance. She said she had a friend who's boss has over 35 million dollars in finance. It's like everything she said was to either bolster her feeling of social status or degrade mine, but with a light fun tone to it. So if you're not paying attention you wouldn't really notice. Any thoughts? Why do people act like this? I've had a friend act like this and it seems to stem from deep insecurities. Point is it ruined my friendship. I'm curious what do you think of this? I'm highly considering calling it quits with her because I know where it ends. It ain't worth it. I bet she is pissed because I'm not blowing up her phone with validation and I didn't really kiss her ass when she was bragging about all that.

Credit for the original story goes to u/spacepaladin15.
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Memory transcript subject: Trish, Venlil civilian
Date [Standardized Human Time]: February 30th, 2177
Location: Lower sprawl of City 23, Venlil Prime
The blankets haphazardly twisted around Trish felt like steel chains. The Terran grandfather clock on the wall dutifully marked each second of her prison sentence. Her eyes hurt from exhaustion, and it was all she could do to keep herself from lashing her tail hard enough to fracture it in frustration.
Several long, pointless hours had come and gone as she sat, self-immobilized with blankets in an attempt to sleep. But sleep did not come. There was a sick feeling of apprehension balled up in her stomach, a cold weight in her soul which silently sentenced her to sleeplessness.
Her instinct, that feeling of a frigid vice around her waist, could usually be counted on as a guiding star that commanded her to act decisively. Right now, it was commanding her to stay awake and alert even as the hours dragged by. Out of respect for its “wishes”, she had abstained from taking any sleep-inducing medication, but her meager patience was quickly waning. Simply sitting there in silence was nothing short of torturous.
The thought of how exactly they’d feed the Arxur still hung over her head like a guillotine, the evening’s furious debate having brought them little closer to a solution. Acquiring any organ-cloning tech would be a nightmare, not to mention the steep cost of life incurred from stealing rare medical equipment. There wasn’t exactly an abundance of wildlife for it to hunt. Maybe some DIY-biomedical tampering could expand its diet, but accidentally condemning it to an agonizing death was far more likely.
Perhaps their fixer had some advice to share. There were only a couple ways she could’ve gotten her hands on a fertilized Arxur egg, and her constant insistence on keeping hidden in every way pointed towards one obvious possibility. How exactly an Arxur had survived the fall of Wriss and stayed clear of the Federation’s all-seeing eye for so long, Trish couldn’t even begin to guess. But if it was possible for her, it would be possible for them, and she might have useful advice for keeping the hatchling fed that she garnered from personal experience.
That said, she couldn’t be blunt in her questioning. If their encryption was broken, they were most likely dead either way, but better to be cautious anyway. Most likely, this abundance of caution was how someone actively fleeing the Federation had to operate in all aspects of life.
Something in Trish’s chest protested. To hell with caution. She wanted to see their reptilian sponsor face-to-face, even digitally. Look her in the eye. If she was right, at least; if this was truly her own offspring she was entrusting them with. It would be hell to set up, and a completely pointless risk for both of them, but some things couldn’t be justified with—
A sudden crack of thunder tore through her thoughts, a rough noise which echoed from the bar above. She further entombed herself in blankets for comfort, letting the warm weight…
Not thunder. A gunshot. Someone had fired a gun upstairs.
Trish was out of bed and shaking someone else awake before her thoughts could catch up and form a plan of action. With her mind still reeling, instinct had taken hold, dragging her by the pit of her stomach to act. It issued clear, firm commands which she followed unthinkingly while her own conscious mind couldn’t keep pace.
Act quickly. Get everyone awake, and get them to the fire escape at the end of the hallway. It didn’t much matter if their assailants found the entrance to the Den or not; flames would start pouring down the stairs any second. They wouldn’t have time to gather belongings. Except her pad; if they found her pad, there’d be no escaping them even if they got away. Grab it. The fire would cleanse the rest of their tracks well enough to not be worth spending extra time.
Tressa was already up and alert, pistol drawn and taking aim at the door while crouched behind a couch in the living room as cover. Besides him sat the backpack, with the egg and incubator still inside. James stumbled out of his bedroom, being dragged out by a jet-black Venlil two thirds his size with such force that Trish was slightly worried she might hurt something in his arm.
When he saw the bag, he tore himself from her grasp and ran to the living room. After slinging the backpack over his shoulder, he rushed back to the hallway with Tressa in tow. Sasha was slipping her flame jacket over loose sleeping clothing, still blinking sleep out of her eyes. She didn’t see Burai anywhere; apparently, he’d slept straight through the noise. Trish was halfway to his room when she remembered that he hadn’t gone to sleep at all. He was upstairs, cleaning the bar.
​
He was upstairs, where the gunshot had echoed from.
Trish’s mind screamed in protest, but her body kept moving down the hall toward the fire escape. They were out of time. They needed to run. She tore open the fire escape hatch with force, praying that their assailants didn’t have the neighboring alley locked down too. The ladder swung down, missing her snout by a hair. Her limbs moved with a frantic, manic power, dragging her to the surface and forcing her down the street. Somewhere in the back of her head, she felt a pang of thankfulness that she didn’t feel fire on her back as she ran.
—
They stopped running by the time Trish was out of breath. She’d never been too fit even for a Venlil, and her endurance was meaningless compared to their human companions. However, in the dense decaying maze of the sprawl, even a few city blocks was plenty to lose anyone chasing. They gathered in the relative privacy of a burned supermarket, breathing heavily through cloth masks to block out the ash that poured from the walls in unrestored buildings.
Nobody spoke a word. There was nothing to say.
In better times, Trish might’ve broken down into tears, but right now adrenaline forced her into a sharp focus. They were still being hunted. Their options were slim, and growing slimmer every second of inaction.
“Tressa, did you bring your pistol?”
The words came out as choked and barely audible beneath the suffocating cloth that protected her lungs, but it was enough to break the silence. The rest of them jolted out of their stupor, minds visibly refocusing to tackle the problem at hand.
“...Yeah, but it won’t be enough to fight them off. I heard multiple sets of boots up there. If these are exterminators, it’s probably a squad of five. I can’t take that many with just a handgun.”
“It doesn’t matter either way. Kill them, and they’ll just send more. We need to run.”
“And run where, exactly?” James coughed a few times and readjusted his mask before continuing. “There’s nowhere the Federation doesn’t have eyes. Nowhere on Venlil Prime, at least, and we’d have better luck standing our ground than trying to board a ship offworld.”
“...a ship?”
“Yeah, walking into a spaceport is just asking to be— Trish?”
“...there’s a ship… there’s a wrecked UN ship on the dark side of Venlil Prime. It’s not too far from here, but far enough that nobody would ever bother checking out there. I’ve been inside it a couple times. There’s still working lights.”
Tressa muttered to himself, considering their prospects. “Working lights… imagine I could get heat working too. It probably has enough water onboard to last until we can dig a well. I… I could maybe even clone meat if they had Zurulian medical tech. You think we’d be safe there?”
“I don’t think there’s anywhere else to go.”
“And you never thought to tell us about this before now?”
“It never came up.”
James paced nervously, kicking up plumes of dust. It hung in the air for a brief moment, swirling dramatically in the cold light of a fluorescent lamp, before resettling as he leaned against the wall. “So you want to drag us to the dark side of Venlil Prime… Jesus, Trish. I thought there was a reason nobody bothered settling out there. Or at least a reason they didn’t scavenge those wrecks. Hell, even people like us avoid it.”
“There are settlements on the edge, and scavengers comb the darkness up to about a paw’s travel out. But no light means no farming, scarce power, and unyielding cold. Unless you just happened to find an abandoned ship with backup power still burning, it’s a death sentence. The Federation won’t look for us there.”
“...and you ’just happened’ to find one, huh?”
“A friend of mine— no, I’ll tell you about it later. We need to get moving now.”
Sasha sat up, brushing a layer of grime off her jacket. “We need to go back for Beast. No way we can make the journey out without her. Unless you think you can hotwire something, Tressa..?”
“Not a chance. Then again, our chances of retaking Beast seem pretty slim too. Do you have a plan for doing this, or is your ‘plan’ to throw me at them and hope I have more bullets than they have flamer fuel?”
“No. We’ll all go together, and try not to pick a fight we can’t win. Slip in, grab Beast, get out.”
“That’s not a plan, and you know it. That’s wishful thinking. If your best plan is ‘walk in and hope they don’t see us’, then we’re walking to our deaths.”
“If you have a better idea, let’s hear it. Until then, walk faster. The longer we’re gone, the more likely they’ll burn our escape to slag before we return.”
Tressa grumbled, but failed to make any coherent objection as he rose to his feet. He checked his pistol over, making sure ash hadn’t wormed its way into anything vital before slipping it back under his coat as the group stepped out into the street.
It was a common work claw, so the more ruined areas of the sprawl were near-empty. The only sign that people lived here in any capacity were the streetlights and a distant hum of life from more central streets and walkways. Not that their little entourage would draw much attention anyway; out here, ragtag herds of misfits were about as common as the burned-out buildings that permeated the land.
Their little ragtag herd of misfits wouldn’t hardly be missed if they went up in flames. Not by anyone important, that is; a few regulars at the Tipped Quill might be disappointed and some exterminator officer’s spreadsheet would need updating. The world would continue on without them. The world was going to continue on without them. Tressa was right; they were marching to their deaths.
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I , 16F have always been lonely in one way or another. Since kindergarten, I have been the odd one out. It has been good in some situations and has prevented toxic friendships, but at this point I’m so tired of it.
When I started highschool (not american but I’ll use highschool to make it simple) I was in two distinct friendgroups at the same time. The other one consisted of old friends and their friends, and it was okay but toxic, racist and very pushy at times. It wasn’t everyone, only a few people. The other one is the important one here. It consisted of four girls, me incl. and two guys. For the first two years everything went well. After last summer, everything changed. I fell in love, and got my first boyfriend. He was my everything, and even though we only dated for 3 months, i still consider him to have been my best friend and the only person that has seen every part of me and my personality.
During our relationship, I talked about him a lot. Maybe too much at times, but why wouldn’t i be allowed to be excited? Anyhow, all of my friends in the second friendgroup left. They started absolutely bashing me and talking so much shit about me behind my back. What made it all worse was the fact that my boyfriend also broke up with me in the midst of all this, but promised to stay in contact with me as friends because he knew how hard it was for me. He didn’t of course, they never do. We haven’t spoke since then because he refuses.
I also went through a very toxic situationship, where the guy was toxic and manipulative, and used my body and borderline SAd me. My closest friend at the time left me in april this year, because of a situation she caused, and now she calls me a whore and just talks shit about me to both strangers and my ex friends, which doesn’t make it easier.
I just don’t know what to do anymore, I’m so lonely. I think that there’s something wrong with me, since all the guys i try talking to just block me or find someone else. I don’t know what makes me so unlovable and hard to keep as a friend, and i keep getting betrayed.
Don’t get me wrong, I am happy for the few good friends i currently have, but none of them have time to socialize very much because of hobbies and living distance, so I am very lonely during the summertime especially.
I’m starting at a new school at the beginning of the school year, which I am excited for because I can maken new friends, but I don’t know what to do in the summertime.

Sorry if this has been asked before...
As the title says, I'm a new PTF Rural Carrier hire(I lucked out and was hired as a career). My question is how long does it take for health benefits to kick in? Do you get them from your start date? Or is there a waiting period? I know some jobs make you wait before you become eligible for health.