Anyone that lives in Chicago willing to buy me a single of each night tour posters, please? I live in the city and have to miss for a wedding. 🧸 I’ll meet and Zelle/Venmo when I get back in town Sunday. DM me if you are willing.

So I've been thinking for a while if I should document some of the history I had with my ex who I was with for almost 10 years. Partially to shed a light on warning signs that I was too naive to notice and also to ask advice on how others got over their experiences and deal with any problems in new relationships that bring back those feelings.
For record I did go to my GP who referred me to counseling sessions. Unfortunately those were only 12 free sessions on the NHS and the therapist I was assigned just kept referring me books to read and "homework" such as saying out loud 3 things I'm happy about in my life before bed... Often she just talked about the lack of funding from the government and such.
So I finally left my ex in 2016 ish, I was on antidepressants, occasionally beta blockers for the panic attacks and birth control, all of which made my mood go up and down like a rollercoaster. I was absolutely miserable and one day it just kind of hit me that I have to leave, it's me or this forever?
We started dating when I was 20/21 and he was 5 years older than me. We met because of an online game and he worked with my older brother. My brother gave me his in game character name incase I needed help. I started chatting to him in the game and he came to see my character, he showed me around and it started like that. I was going away for a weekend to a youth group camping event and he joked wasn't I going to ask for his number to keep talking and so I did. During the weekend I met someone my age at some of the events and had a lot of fun with, we had similar jokes and I thought he was really attractive. We added eachothers emails to keep in touch and so I texted the game friend to say I was sorry but I met a really nice person I was interested in. He instantly replied some comments about how it was just a crush, did I even know if they liked me back. Was I just going to throw away what we had for a guy I met over 3 days. I thought about it and I felt so guilty. I decided to stick with him and have minimal contact with the other via email. Years later when Facebook became a thing he did add me there and I accepted thinking nothing of it. We still didn't message or anything. One year he wrote "Happy Birthday Hope you are well!" To which my guy wrote a very rude/sarcastic response something like "she's great I'll tell her you said hi", so he deleted his post didn't message again.
When I got back from camp we arranged to meet up in person for the first time ever and we went for food/coffee the usual. I will mention that I was pre warned by my brother and wasn't really supposed to be talking to this guy outside of the game, so for the first few months of our dating we kept it hidden until I was found out resulting at an angry brother waiting at the train station for me and telling off my guy in public saying he should know better and was told to stay away from me.
I told my mum about it later that day and honestly she didn't really care, and said it's normal for my age, and so we began to date properly not hidden. This guy was my first proper boyfriend and my first everything really.
In the beginning it was fine, we had good times. I did have to deal with his ex who was trying to become my best friend and go out shopping/partying with which I thought was too strange so obviously never did. I then found out she was calling him in the middle of the night crying asking him to take her back. So he ended up telling me that they used to be Engaged and how she cheated on him and so he broke everything off. Now the first red flag, he told me for his revenge everytime she would start dating a new guy he would get in contact with her, ask how she is, act really caring and charming. He would convince her to come over and then sleep with her so that she would feel so guilty she would tell/end her relationship. She thought they would get back together but instead he laughed in her face and tell her to get lost. Apparently this happened multiple times before we met.
Over time I came to realise because of this he could be very jealous, paranoid and had a bad temper, he would throw and smash plates, punch walls. Second red flag he "accidentally" locked me in his house while he went to work one day. I didn't really have anything to do or eat. In the past he did joke with me that if it was allowed he would lock me in his house and never let me leave. I never was sure if this was some sort of joke or a genuine accident.
His ex lived in the countryside and enjoyed the thrill of outdoor sex because no one was really around. Because of that he also enjoyed it. And so when we started getting a bit more serious he would force that on me. Once he met me early in the morning before I had work, it was a nice walk but then he got very handsy. It was ok as we were behind a lot of trees, but then he brought me to a bench and got me to sit on his lap with his hands down my trousers/pants, all while people were passing by. I kept my eyes closed the entire time and thought for sure someone would tell us off. A few times he would touch me on busy trains/buses, we went to an abandoned warehouse and a house. Sometimes there were kids hanging around spray painting or breaking things. In the house he told me to give him a blow job, I tried to laugh it off and say no thinking he must be joking. Instantly this made him angry, he didn't talk to me for a few minutes and then started to tell me things like "a good girlfriend would do this for her boyfriend" and so I ended up absolutely sobbing but doing what he wanted. A different time in the warehouse he wanted to do anal, and again I said I didn't want to, and again the guilt tripping and saying he would be really quick and no one would see, and feeling guilted I gave in. He finished inside and we left. I didn't realise till I had a shower later that day that because of being outside and not having access to lube I was very tender and sore in the area. This basically went on, and sometimes I would lie and say that I really needed to pee just to get out of having sex in public. Even at home he would often pressure me to doing things I didn't like, I have a bad gag reflex so honestly didn't enjoy going down on him, plus often I didn't like his smell or taste. If I asked him to wash it he got very angry at me and would say how it loses sensitivity and doesn't feel as good. Over time he withdrew going down on me because I wasn't "being a good girlfriend" and honestly I didn't mind.
Around 4 years or so into the relationship I made a new friend in work and she invited us to her birthday in a room booked in a night club. It was supposed to be couples and masquerade themed. My guy didn't want to go with me because it seemed boring and he had no interest in meeting my friends. He went out of his way to arrange our gay friend to go with me so I wouldn't be alone and would have a guy with me. On the night of the party the friend came over while I was getting ready and we had some drinks, my ex then changed his mind and decided to come. This wouldn't be a problem but he also said it was ok that his scummy brother comes along (that's another story) he had promised me that the brother wouldn't be in the booked room and he would stay downstairs in the main club with him. But in they came. I was annoyed because his brother was being really inappropriate with my friend, saying he would take her in the bathroom and show her a good time. He was taking photo's up girls dresses/skirts and asking for girls numbers everywhere (he had a gf and I was also warned by my ex not to be alone with him) my guy ended up not speaking to me for the night because I was annoyed that he wouldn't remove him. When we got back to his house he wouldn't let me go home and told me to shut up and go to bed. I sat on the bed sobbing that I just wanted to go home and he laughed and laughed in my face pointing at me. When I tried to leave he lifted me by my coat, breaking the buttons and my necklace and threw me against the wall. In anger I lifted a photo frame of us and smashed him over the head, in retaliation he punched the wardrobe right beside my head and broke his little finger, I ran out of the apartment. I sat on the curb outside crying because I didn't know how to get home. After maybe half an hour he came out and took me back inside. He told me to please go to sleep and just leave in the morning. After that event we broke up for maybe 5/6 months. I started to feel lonely and stupidly started talking to him again.
After this we moved in together. We rented a house where he was originally from but was much further for me. It resulted in me having to get a train and bus to work everyday or come home. His reasoning was there were no houses for rent where I lived. At this time I worked a pretty crap sales job, I made minimum wage and only worked 16 hours a week. So giving half of my money to him to cover rent/food etc and buying my train and bus ticket left me with £10 a week to my name. I was further away from my friends (who he didn't like me spending time with, they were bad influences) I had a male friend that I grew up with and I viewed him like a brother. He told me I had to cut contact with him as I wouldn't like it if the role was reversed (even though he had several close female friends) he spent his time trying to get me to be friends with his friends, and I didn't get them, they were all older and we had nothing in common. Once he asked one girl to spend the day with me shopping or just anything because I had no friend's. I was so embarrassed when he told me. The fact I couldn't go see my actual friends when I wanted and was alone already made me feel sensitive. It also didn't help that early in our relationship he told me he had only ever slept with his ex before me, I then found out he had actually slept with a few of these other female friends for various reasons. One had a fight with her bf and got into his bed wanting a hug and crying which apparently escalated. One apparently climbed ontop of him while he was sleeping when his house mate had a house party etc. One was single at the same time as he was and they thought why not see. That's what I was told anyway.
The town where he lived was dying and had very little going for it. Apart from the nice scenery walking my dog I had nothing to do. With this going on I began to fall into a slump. I worked, came home and slept. He began getting irritated if was sitting/sleeping on the sofa after work as his pc was in the living room and he said he felt like I was always watching him. I made the small room upstairs into my own little space with my computer to play games on and sometimes he would sneak really quietly into the room to try and see if/who I was talking to online. I ended up going to my GP to talk to someone and that turned to my first experience of antidepressants and beta blockers for my panic attacks. This cut down my sex drive immensely, and he would often argue that I "just lay there" or wouldn't do anything for him. I was applying for jobs with no luck. I went to speak to an advisor and they actually said "have you ever considered getting pregnant?" I ended up taking 2 weeks holiday in my job so I could adjust to the pills as I was feeling ill. I temporarily moved back home to learn to drive as maybe that would help me. I ended up getting a new job in a kitchen in the city centre, meaning I was getting my first full time job and would only have to get a train now. My ex told me to stop the driving lessons as I no longer needed them, and just move back as I had money now. And I did.
In my previous job all women worked in the store. In this new job it was a lot more mixed, I was the only female chef but I got a long with mostly everyone. I met my best friend here and we were in a small friend group of 4, our manager jokingly named us the breakfast club because we were all so different. My female best friend, our gay friend and a Romanian guy who was still learning English. We became really inseparable and would often plan day trips, cinema, dinner's and nights out. We had a group chat and constantly talked and sent memes. I felt happy having friends again. Over time my guy became extremely paranoid, he didn't want me working or spending time around other guys. He told me men are like hungry wolves and you can't trust them, and how he had worked in McDonald's when he was young and everyone slept with everyone etc. I finally had money and friends and he wanted me to quit. I loved the job and the people and often if anyone had to go home sick/hurt I always offered to stay to close. This also didn't help with the paranoia. It got to a point that I had to send him my new work schedule every week and had to have a "good reason" for doing overtime.
As time went on he started to accuse me of cheating on him. If I went out with my friends or even to visit my parents he would tell me (if you're fucking anyone tonight then don't bother coming home). This got more and more frequent and he began smoking and drinking a lot more. Often I would come home from work late at night and instantly be yelled at. There was another incident where he punched the wall again re breaking the finger, he couldn't play guitar anymore and said it was my fault. At this point he was roughly 31 in our relationship and began a friendship with a work colleague who was 18. I never met her once, and he would often go on nights out with her and her friends. The few times I woke up in the night and he wasn't home I rang him panicked thinking is he ok. He would answer "what?" When he came home that would be another argument that he's a grown ass man and can look after himself and I shouldn't be worried about his safety. This continued and some nights I began sleeping on the sofa because I couldn't stand the smell of the smoke and I was afraid to be yelled at while he was drunk. He came home once with every button on his shirt broken that I bought him for a birthday and said a guy did it for a joke and leave it at that. One night he blew up at me resulting in me having a panic attack and I actually felt like I would die. I couldn't breath and my face started to change colour. When he noticed he finally stopped yelling and started slapping my back and squeezing me. I sat on the floor and sobbed and said I was going back home. We didn't talk again properly for about a month, and then he sent a message saying he needed to talk/apologize. I went back to listen to what he had to say and somehow by the end he was saying he loved me and I need to come home. I didn't get a word in before it turned to him taking off my clothes to have "make up sex" and before I knew it I was back. We planned a holiday away for a week, to reconnect and try and have some dates again. It was mostly really great. We did have a minor argument because he was actively telling me how hot this very young looking Spanish girl was, and during one of the days he made me have sex by the glass doors leading out to the pool at our apartment. But when we returned home it was just as aweful. In our time together I learned he hated having his photo taken and put on social media. So I only took 3/4 photos, a few nice ones of him standing looking out at the beach etc. But that was suddenly an issue that I hadn't plastered his holiday pictures all over my Facebook etc. We went straight back to the old routine, being accused of cheating.
At this point we'd been together a long time. Constantly family members asking when we would marry and all my friends starting families. Maybe it was the fear of missing out but suddenly I wanted the same. I spoke to him about marriage and he was very clear it's something he doesn't ever want (you don't need a piece of paper with permission to be with someone) one night I got home from work and he had hand written and framed his own wedding certificate saying Mr and Mrs such and such and said "there you go!". The talk of a baby was also quickly shut down with the reason being "if you have a kid then you always have to be a part of that person's life if it doesn't work out".
At this point I don't even think it was entirely the antidepressants. I didn't even want to touch him. He made me uncomfortable, always walking on eggshells. He stank of cigarettes and beer. I constantly had to clean the house. Around his desk there would be piles of beer tins and used tissues... We were eating take out everyday apart from my 2 days off work. I started putting on weight and he was wanting more money towards rent and food etc. He was still going out with 18/19 year old girls to parties etc. This went on for another 5 months until one day it hit me that "this is it" and if I don't leave something bad will happen . My friend group at work generally noticed I wasn't ok. My best friend started to tell me that I'm being gas lit among other things. And that I needed out, and finally I was able to tell him it was over. We cried a lot and parted ways. It was hard because I had to go back to gather my stuff in multiple taxis or a van. Sometimes I needed his help as I had given the key back or items were heavy. On one occasion he asked how I was and then touched my belly saying I had lost a lot of weight...His eyes started watering and he went to the garden to smoke. About 20 minutes after this as I was gathering my stuff the younger work colleague came by (apparently they had plans to order pizza and watch a movie) this is also the first time I ever saw her and didn't even get a hello or anything, I guess it was an awkward first meeting.
He didn't tell his family I left him. Some months later his brother saw me at a club with my work friends and text him along the lines of he'd finally caught me cheating. He then told the family and his mother was apparently very disappointed. I doubt they know how everything went though. He did also message me to tell me this and asked me to tell him truthfully had I cheated/had I slept with any of the work guys since breaking up..
He moved to live in another country. Sold all of his items on gumtree etc, including some of mine. I had a large gas BBQ that my mum gifted for our house, when I asked for it back he tried to say I already had it, then said it must have been stolen.
He also messaged me a year afterwards trying to say he had made a huge mistake and would I be willing to move in and try again... Of course I said no. Again in 2020 ish he messaged saying he had a weird request. He wanted to become friends again as apparently no one knew him like I and he stupidly pushed me, his best friend away. He didn't want me to remain angry at how he treated me etc. Again I declined saying I don't know if that would ever be something I would feel comfortable with and also that I'm dating someone and that's not fair on him.
I haven't had any contact since then.
I'll never truly know but I honestly feel like he cheated on me because of how hellbent he was that I was doing so to him. The whole thing has left me with some bad trust issues. I don't want to be the paranoid girlfriend not allowing partners to go out or have female friends etc.
Apologies for the lengthy post and thank you to anyone who takes the time to read. I do feel like I've forgotten some things, or a bit too personal for here and I feel like this is so long already!

Big deal for Greece - Where will the new fuel cell production plant be built?
GIORGOS K. ANDRIS 08 Jun 2023
Advent Technologies and German giant BASF Environmental Catalyst have signed an agreement to create a complete supply chain for fuel cell components (with hydrogen) in Europe, which will be produced in Kozani.
The bilateral agreement stipulates that the new type of HT-PEM fuel cells will be manufactured in the factory planned by Advent in Kozani.
The president and CEO of Advent Technologies Dr. Vassilis Grigoriou emphasized that: "This collaboration will enable the combination of Advent 's expertise in fuel cell systems with BASF 's expertise in catalyst and membrane development, creating a powerful synergy that will lead to new innovative solutions in the fuel cell industry ."
BASF has been a leader in membrane and MEA technology for high temperature proton exchange membrane (HT-PEM) fuel cells for 20 years, while Advent is the largest manufacturer of HT-PEM fuel cell systems . Their collaboration aims to develop new catalysts and fuel membranes .
“We are committed to creating a complete supply chain for green hydrogen technologies , including precious metals , catalysts , components and recycling services . Extending our long-standing partnership with Advent enables us to grow in the HT-PEM fuel cell market and helps position Europe as a leading region for industrial hydrogen transformation ," said Tim Ingle , Senior Vice President, BASF Environmental Catalyst and Metal Solutions.
Meanwhile, the first major step by Advent Technologies for the implementation of the 780 million euro investment approved by the EU , seems to have been made after the company's announcement that it acquired a plot of land in Kozani, where the facilities of the Green project will be hosted HiPo .
According to the company, the final certificate of transfer of ownership is expected from the Kozani Land Office , while a coordination and planning office has already been created in the city , which, in combination with the recruitment of scientists, engineers and managers , will serve as a business hub for the implementation of the project in the city of Western Macedonia.
https://www-carandmotor-gr.translate.goog/nea/ergostasio-paragogis-kypselon-kaysimoy?_x_tr_sl=el&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

Come and Join the Infinity Engine. A Westmarches-style play-by-post (PBP) server which will be played via a vast arrangement of content. The majority of our content will be run through Discord though our campaigns can be run through VTTs if the Dungeon Master running it so desires.
The main hub of the game is called Mordrath, a City that rests within a place known only as the Realmscape, a place between realms where rifts and portals can be opened to any location. It is a vast and expansive city with many wonders and shops to explore, though it should be noted to be careful venturing outside of the city, for going too far will render you no longer protected by the field that anchors the great city in place within the ever-shifting landscape of the Realmscape.
We have Encounters, Campaigns, Personal Campaigns, and Seasons, more on those below: Encounters are one-off, usually combat-based though can also be narrative, puzzle, or otherwise and might lead into actual campaigns as well. They are, in effect, a one-shot in size or a simple combat encounter and nothing more, these are used to fill in time for content and also for general community spirit and EXP gain, etc.
Campaigns are scheduled and advertised with frequency, expected length, maximum party size, and other details at the Dungeon Master's discretion as well as a brief overview or premise for it. These might just be a burst of sessions over the span of a week, weekly, etc. Your character can participate in only one campaign at a time.
Personal Campaigns are storylines specifically pertaining to your character. We will open up forms for personal campaign ideas to be submitted and you can partake in these either solo or with friends. They are essentially campaigns that are tailored to a specific characteplayer.
Then of course we have Seasons, these are the grand campaigns of the Westmarches. Each season will have its own theme, items, enemies, and rewards and it will be an overarching campaign that will affect everyone within the server, leading up to massive boss fights and events throughout the lifespan of the server.
The first season is called The Infinity Engine and has to do with a group calling themselves The Realmscarred, which will be learned about throughout the course of the campaign.
​
Come and join us for the launch of the server! We'd love to have you! https://discord.gg/TJDxAG9h

Part 1 Part 2
Summary: It’s the day of your wedding to the Fae Prince. Your future husband seems certain that he has you trapped, with his threat against your brother’s life. Still, you’ll be damned if you let him seal either of your fates without a fight.
CW: kidnapped listener, possessive language, threats, fae trickery, extortion, forced marriage, Shakespearean English
Characters: Fae Prince (lines designated with "P"), Officiant (lines designated with "O").
Usage:

• OK to record & monetize, as long as you give me credit in the video/audio description as the scriptwriter! I would also love to listen to the recording when it’s done–please send me the link on Reddit! Paywalling is okay; however, if you paywall, you must make it possible for me to listen to the finished product.
• Gender-flipping and small tweaks are okay (e.g., changing pronouns, leaving out curse words), but no large edits are permitted.
• Feel free to use music or insert sound effects if you’d like. Any sound effects given are suggestions–use at your discretion. *Sound effects in bold, set apart by asterisks\*
• Any dialogue or reactions given by the Listener are purely for the benefit of the VA, to help them feel like they have something to respond to while they’re acting. Listener reactions in italics.
• Please let me know if you have any questions!

—————————————————————
SETTING: The Listener’s room, the morning of the wedding.
\Sound effect–knocking; door opening\**
P: Good day, my flower, my one and only rose.
The Listener is silent.
P: What, no words of welcome for your beloved? Not even a glance to spare for the one who, by day’s end, will be your husband?...
Pause. The Listener says nothing.
P: \chuckle** One might confuse you for one of the statues in my garden. (sarcastic) Come, now, my dear…you must restrain yourself. Such ardent displays should be saved for our wedding night, should they not?
At that, the Listener turns and glares at him.
P: \laughs** Ah, that February face…so full of frost. ‘Tis a good thing I am made of stronger stuff, for if I were a plant, such a look would make me wither where I stand! But, while I admire a flower that does not immediately bow to the wind…only a fool continues to fight a losing battle, my dear. 'Twas a brave final attempt, I admit, setting me a quest so long and arduous, that I might not return before our wedding day. But, despite your best efforts, my flower, I have returned, my brow bound with a victorious wreath. ’Tis time you accepted your fate.
“Isn’t it bad luck to see the bride before the ceremony?”
P: Hmm? True, ‘tis a break from tradition, to lay eyes upon you before the ceremony. However, any ill luck I might invite by doing so, I would experience a hundred times over, just for the chance to see your face. You are as radiant as the sun itself. You will be the envy of all at the ceremony...and I, for being able to call you my own.
“And what about my brother? Will you still set him free?”
P: You still doubt me, my flower? As I promised, once your brother’s debt is paid, he goes free. A plague o’er me and my house, should I not keep my word.
P: Now…’tis nearly time. I shall leave you, to allow you to make your final preparations. \kisses her hand\** Farewell, then, my beautiful rose. I shall see you beneath the arch.
-Timeskip to Ceremony-
\Sound effect—music\**
O: Welcome, dear friends. Today, we gather to celebrate the union between Prince [insert Author’s fae name here], head of our beloved Middlemist Court, and his chosen. Before they are made handfast, let them now, in accordance with tradition, present one another the results of their quests, as proof of their devotion to one another. (to the Prince) My Lord, let thee be first. What hast thou secured for your beloved?
P: As you requested, my one and only rose, I have brought for you an item of legend…one sought by many, but which few have ever laid eyes upon, be they Fae or mortal. I traversed realm after realm, through flood and fire, to obtain for you what you desired…
\Sound effect—rustling cloth; gasps and whispers from the audience\**
P: Behold—a mantle of invisibility. They say it graced the shoulders of the Once and Future King himself...and now, ‘tis yours, my flower. Take it, as proof of my love.
“Wait—will it really make me invisible?”
P: Well, why don't you see for yourself? Go on; try it.
\Sound effect—swishing cloak, more gasps\**
P: What did I tell you? I am glad to see you like it. *chuckle\* Or, not see, I suppose.
O: (to the Listener) And now, my Lady, let thee reciprocate. What hast thou secured for your beloved, in turn?
P: There was only one thing I desired from you, my flower. Do you remember?...That’s right. From you, I wish only for a smile. After all, your happiness is my own. Well?...
The Listener says they are smiling.
P: \chuckle** Perhaps you are smiling, but ‘tis useless if I cannot see it. Remove the cloak, my dear, and let me see your lovely face.
The Listener refuses.
P: …I beg your pardon?
The Listener refuses again.
P: Another of your little games, hmm? Come, now. As much as I enjoy your wit, ‘tis hardly the time. Our friends wait upon us. Remove the cloak, and let us continue the ceremony.
“No.”
P: No? (voice grows dangerous)…Ah. Of course. I see how it is. Leave it to you to find a final way to spite me...in front of all our guests, no less. Clever, my dear…very clever. However, I grow tired of your jests. Remove that cloak, at once, before you make me truly angry.
The Listener refuses.
P: You dare refuse your Prince? I shan’t tell you again—show your face!
The Listener says that they will never remove it.
P: What!? Nonsense! Do you intend to stay invisible forever!? What king ever had an invisible queen!?
“Think back to your words, my prince,” the Listener snarls.
P: Think back to my words!? What do you—(horrified realization) No…naught but empty air in the seat beside me…the whispers of the wind as my sole advisor!…
“Yes. From this day forward, you shall never see me, nor hear me. ‘Tis time to reap what you sow.”
P: NO! ‘Tis madness! You cannot stay under that cloak for eternity!
He reaches out, trying to grab her, but she steps back.
P: Graaah! Where are you!? Get over here, you saucy minion! You cannot deprive me of seeing you, nor hearing you! I won’t have it!
“If you want me, you shall take me as I am. Unless you are saying you do not wish to wed me after all?”
P: If I want you, I shall take you as you are!? (RAGE) You little viper! We had a bargain!
“I said I would give myself to you. You never specified which form I had to be in.”
P: …Oh, really!? I only said that you had to give yourself to me…I never specified anything further!? \laugh** So that’s it, is it!? Trying to give me a taste of my own medicine!? Or are you truly that desperate to get away from me!? But think carefully, my flower…think very carefully. Remember, it is not merely you that our bargain affects. If I should release you…you know what will happen to your brother. Do you still wish to tread that path?...
“Yes.”
P: \evil chuckle** Very well. If you want so badly to be free, my thorn-stemmed rose…then so be it. (to the crowd) Let all the friends gathered here bear witness: I hereby revoke the marriage contract between myself and my chosen! As of this moment, she is free. There will be no wedding today. But, do not think yourselves robbed of a spectacle! Instead of a marriage, we shall have an execution. Yes…bring the human prisoner here, and let him be executed at once!
\Sound effect—crowd gasping, murmuring\**
“WAIT!”
P: Silence, my flower! ‘Tis time to reap what you have sown. Without your hand as payment, your brother’s debt still stands. Now, he will pay for your selfishness with his life!
“No.”
P: Oh? What makes you think you have any right to object?
“I claim him!”
P: You claim him!? On what grounds!?
“I claim him as my reward for caring for your garden.”
P: Ha! We’ve been over this already, my dear. You cannot claim him as a reward for caring for my garden. You already said you didn’t want anything in return!
“I’m not demanding a thing. I’m demanding him.”
P: What? He’s not a thing, but a person? (horrified realization) \gasps** Wait...no. NO!
“Precisely. I don’t need any type of thing…but I do need him.”
P: No! This cannot be! You think a mere twist of my words will be enough to wrench yourselves from my grasp!? You cannot escape me that easily!
“Isn’t that what you did to me? Besides, Fae law says you can’t get something for nothing; isn’t that right?”
P: What!?...Damn our laws! Perhaps they do say you can’t get something for nothing, but I am the Prince. Who's to say I cannot break them if I choose? Who would dare to challenge me? What consequences could I possibly face?
The Listener reminds him of his words from earlier that day.
P: I said what?...(horrified, realizing he's trapped) A—A plague o’er me and my house, if I do not keep my word!? No...no, you can't...I...
Long pause, as everything sinks in. Finally, the Prince starts to laugh.
P: \laughs** Well played, my dear…very well played, indeed. It would seem, in this particular battle of wits, you are the victor. Then…let it be so. Take your fool of a brother, and begone from here. But, before you take your leave…pray, let me gaze upon you one last time. I would fain see the face of the one who has bested me.
\Sound effect—rustling fabric\**
P: Ah, my flower…you truly are like a rose. As deadly sharp as you are beautiful. I have been fortunate indeed, to be pierced by your thorns. Your face shall forever be noted in my book of memory. Now, take your brother, and get thee gone. Adieu, my dear…and be vigilant, I beseech you. For should we ever meet again, rest assured…it will not be you who is victorious.

Here are some meetups that are on the radar, both physical and virtual:

• Last Week, June 3

online

• Sunday, June 11, 9:00a MDT: Thrive, casual discussion on zoom verify
  
• Sunday, June 11, 11:00a MDT: "The Good Book Club," virtual meetup for Ex/Post/Nuanced mormons to read and discuss other good books. For details contact HoldOnLucy1. Upcoming book: "Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone" by Brene Brown.
  

California

• Sunday, June 11, noon PDT: Sacramento, casual meetup at Urban Roots at 1322 V Street.

Idaho

• Sunday, June 11, 11:00a MDT: Pocatello, casual meetup, location dependent on weather

Utah

• Saturday, June 10, 9:00a MDT: Salt Lake Valley, hike at Big Cottonwood Canyon. Meet at Park and Ride to decide which trail. Check link for notes.
  
• Sunday, June 11, 10:00a MDT: Davis County, casual meetup at Harmons at 200 Station Pkwy in Farmington. Meet in the cafe upstairs. verify
  
• Sunday, June 11, 10:00a MDT: North Utah County, casual meetup at Harmons at 1750 W Traverse Pkwy in Lehi. Combining AF/Saratoga Springs/Lehi meetups at new location; check link for notes.
  
• Sunday, June 11, 10:00a MDT: Provo, casual meetup near the Starbucks inside of the Marriott Hotel at 101 West 100 North verify
  
• Sunday, June 11, 10:00a MDT: Utah Valley, casual meetup at Vineyard Grove Park 350 N 100 E. in Vineyard. Check link for notes.
  
• Sunday, June 11, 12:40p MDT: Salt Lake Valley/Cottonwood Heights, a group meeting for discussing transitioning away from Mormonism at the Salt Lake City Unitarian Universalists church at 6876 South Highland Drive
  
• Sunday, June 11, 1:00p MDT: St. George, casual meetup of Southern Utah Post-Mormon Support Group at Switchpoint Community Resource Center located at 948 N. 1300 W. verify
  

Wyoming

• Saturday, June 10, 10:00a MDT: Rock Springs, casual meetup at Starbucks at 118 Westland Way verify

Upcoming week and Advance Notice:

• Idaho Falls ...first Sunday
  
• Las Vegas
  
• Salt Lake Valley Religious Transition Group
  
• Salt Lake Valley postmos
  
• Seattle
  

JUNE 2023

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
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4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	.

JULY 2023

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
.	.	.	.	.	.	1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31	.	.	.	.	.

Beginnings of a FAQ about meetups:

• rules for publicizing a meetup on reddit platform
• what happens at these meetups?
• solidified50 gave some general advice for starting a meetup and keeping it going.

To start I will say I remember very small details about this book but not the main character names. I believe the books were a trilogy.
Book is about a world at war with a northern realm of monsters led by a queen who I believe is also an ancient dragon. The queen develops gunpowder and cannons to destroy walls of human cities.
There are mages, one mage is essential to the story. I remember in one of the books the young mage character reveals the queen has been spying on them while shape shifted and he is cursed. He escapes the curse by using his fat and muscle as energy to power his magic to escape the curse.
I can't remember much about the main protagonist, other than I think it's the typical chosen young man.
Any ideas would be helpful, as well as cover images since my memory is often triggered by book covers.
I read this book when I was teen in the early 2000's. I think it was geared towards the 14-18 year old age range, as it may have had a bit of romance in it. I most likely bought it from the fantasy or young adult section of Barnes and Noble. I also remember having to wait for at least the last book to come out.
Edited to include information about myself when I read the book

I've been all over the place post my breakup and things my ex said to me on the last day really affected me alot. I was the dumper but cause of lots of reasons where my mental health and physical health was being affected.
I dealt with social anxiety my entire life and I've learnt to accept it and battle it. I was pretty open about it when I met her and told her all the things I've been trying to work on. She still used them against me and constantly told me I'm not a man cause I cannot plan anything. I generally get underconfident and nervous when it comes to picking places to eat, planning the weekends or small things like these. I've been working on it at therapy.
I recently went on a family trip to Japan and Los Angeles after that. The entire trip was planned by my father and me.
5 days in Tokyo and 3 days in Kyoto were interesting, all the way from food (we are vegetarian and my mother is gluten free so it's hard to find places) down to Sumo wrestling and teamsLab museum, I took care of it all. Learning my way around the metro, talking to new people using Google translate in Japanese and even organizing an entire Michelin star meal with authentic Japanese Zen meal was fun! By the end i was extremely confident and understood my way around both cities, from the shrines to the bamboo groves. There was even an issue with the hotel booking due to a system error, instead of panicking like usual I handled it on the spot and sorted it.
In LA I attended a wedding, Indian weddings are generally 3 days and with all the 300 people I ofcourse got nervous but I handled myself and had alot of fun. Reconnected with older mates and met new people. After the wedding I even connected with my ex boss whom I met for coffee and caught up with after 3.5 years!
As the trip is coming to an end and I'll be returning home in few days, I'm feeling satisfied that I'm not what she said to me and even if I am, the right person will accept it.
It's been 4.5 months since no contact and I'm feeling much better.

I've been all over the place post my breakup and things my ex said to me on the last day really affected me alot. I was the dumper but cause of lots of reasons where my mental health and physical health was being affected.
I dealt with social anxiety my entire life and I've learnt to accept it and battle it. I was pretty open about it when I met her and told her all the things I've been trying to work on. She still used them against me and constantly told me I'm not a man cause I cannot plan anything. I generally get underconfident and nervous when it comes to picking places to eat, planning the weekends or small things like these. I've been working on it at therapy.
I recently went on a family trip to Japan and Los Angeles after that. The entire trip was planned by my father and me.
5 days in Tokyo and 3 days in Kyoto were interesting, all the way from food (we are vegetarian and my mother is gluten free so it's hard to find places) down to Sumo wrestling and teamsLab museum, I took care of it all. Learning my way around the metro, talking to new people using Google translate in Japanese and even organizing an entire Michelin star meal with authentic Japanese Zen meal was fun! By the end i was extremely confident and understood my way around both cities, from the shrines to the bamboo groves. There was even an issue with the hotel booking due to a system error, instead of panicking like usual I handled it on the spot and sorted it.
In LA I attended a wedding, Indian weddings are generally 3 days and with all the 300 people I ofcourse got nervous but I handled myself and had alot of fun. Reconnected with older mates and met new people. After the wedding I even connected with my ex boss whom I met for coffee and caught up with after 3.5 years!
As the trip is coming to an end and I'll be returning home in few days, I'm feeling satisfied that I'm not what she said to me and even if I am, the right person will accept it.
It's been 4.5 months since no contact and I'm feeling much better.

So I had this dream last night. For context, I usually have pretty elaborate dreams, so it's not like I'm unused to this. They mostly have to do with stuff I'm going through, and I mostly only remember dreams when I'm having a paticularly rough time all over. I usually tell all about them to my mom, who's pretty interested in these sort of things, but this time all she said was that 'it's probably just stress'. I don't really think about my dreams all that much, but this one just keeps haunting me. I haven't been able to think about anything else this whole day.
So as I said, the dream itself is pretty elaborate. I'm not sure from where on it starts being relevant regarding the way it ended up, but it started with a shorter scene, where I had to pay for a very expensive family dinner, which we ended up having to eat on some stairs in front of the building of my old high school. I was feeling very anxious about how much it was already costing, and people kept ordering more. (this was probably because I've just recently been to a very expensive wedding, and it's still on my mind.) That feeling prevailed, but the scene itself changed to a beach. It was a pretty normal, retro-looking beach, and I was sitting by a small, floating building that was a bakery. I knew that the reason why I was there was because we were celebrating my birthday, and that there was supposed to be a jacht somewhere waiting for us with a lot of my friends on it. Then something happened, something important I can't recall, and me and a couple others were drowning in the sea. I remember seeing a very tall boy with dark hair in our group, and he looked almost helpless. we finally found shelter around what looked like a public phonebooth sticking out of the water, but we couldn't call for help, because the only thing you could use those for was to order cakes from the bakery. then the water became shallow, and we walked towards the shore. there were now lifeguards with whistles waving around for people not to go deeper, but I knew that I had to, since I had to find the jacht and my friends. so when the guy wasn't looking, I snuck around him. just before him, there was a class of middle aged asian women doing water gymnastics (I study chinese in my free time, so probably something from an educational vid stuck.) and I suddenly saw a rosary floating by me in the water. I picked it up, and saw that where the beads met and the cross was, there was a piece of porcelain decoration, about a quarter of a palm in size. it was shaped like a rounded triangle, and on one side, it had two snakes in the shape of an infinity sign, in gorgeous shades of green, and on the other, an almost black ouroboros. a couple of the women came walking towards me, but they never looked me in the eye. I gave it to them because I didn't know whose it was, and then walked around the guard. by then, the sea around us had changed into a big swimming pool, and there were dirtroads cornering it with a lot of green plants everywhere. I kept walking, and reached a small group of trees, behind which I could see water. there was a small set of stairs to the side, along a wrought iron gate leading to an old fashioned building (the sort with tube flats.). as I walked down, I saw a young girl sitting in the grass on the other side of the closed gate, looking at me and taking photos of me. she showed them to me, but all of them were blurry, and on the last one, the only one where my face was entirely visible, it looked as if a whirlpool was about to swallow me. we agreed that she'd take some more, and I turned my back to walk further to pose, but from the corner of my eye I saw her mouth widen, her smile too wide and too sharp, like in those movies, but not as cringe, and honestly just. scary enough, and I saw her nails sharpen (she had beautiful nails, whitish-see through, with vine patterns on them, and I saw that she was raising it, about to swipe at me or get me. and I looked at her in disappointment, and the grinned almost sheepishly, seeing that she couldn't get me. after that, I walked deeper into the water, and saw three or four other people, all middle aged. one of them was a fat, balding man, and another a curly, frizzy-haired woman with audible speech issues, who asked me if I "wanted some" of whatever she had in her coffee mug. all of them were completely dressed, even though they were sitting in the greenest water ever, submerged to the shoulders. I politely declined and she nodded at me, saying that maybe that was the right choice, since it had spiders in it anyway. she then spat something back into her mug. (once, I almost drank a spider that was drowning in a cup of milk. I still remember the wild movements of its legs in my mug.) she started walking alongside me, and we soon reached the other side of the small lake, no bigger than a block. we walked on asphalt now, and she was telling me about something important, but I was looking back at the girl's house,and wasn't paying attention. I could very dimly see through a window the vague outlines of a kitchen. it looked very sad, in a british way. I looked away. I asked the woman if she knew where the jachts were, and she pointed in a direction, where there really seemed to be water. I walked alone. I entered a building that was all too-dim lights and gilded furniture. I walked through empty halls and corridors. a relatively short corridor was filled with mirrors. they were hanging everywhere. everywhere. I looked in them as I walked by, and my own face looked back at me. it was horrifying. it was me, but my worst features were amplified. the way the dark circles look underneath my eyes, and the way one of my eyes is bigger than the other, the way one of my cheeks is softer than the other. I knew what I was seeing was It. the thing. I walked along, knowing that it was only a part of me, and that it couldn't hurt me. I walked into a salon, all dark wallpaper and ebony furniture, and a half-set-up funeral in the middle. where the urn was supposed to stand, there was a headless dummy dressed in black velvet and a white lace collar around its neck. the room had three doors both from the side I'd come from and the direction I was headed. going forward, all thre led to the same smaller hall. eventually, I made my way out, and I found the jacht, although from closer up it became a huge catamaran, with up to five boats passengers had to sit in in single rows, almost like on airplanes. by then I knew that I was looking for a particular friend, and there she was, in all her glory. a girl I knew from school was sitting in the boat closest to me, and she tried to explain that there was much more space inside than it seemed. we said goodbye, and left to go back. this sea seemed much bluer, much colder than both the previous ones. while on out way back towards the scwry building, I was starting to suspect that my friend wasn't my friend at all, but much rather an alternate version of 'It'. I didn't say anything, but I was getting more anxious, and I picked up my pace. I was in a hurry, and didn't pay attention to go back through the same doors that I initially came through. I missed a door when entering the funeral scene, which by then looked almost completed, and I knew that was when I fucked up. I felt as my body was posessed by 'it'. we walked back to the mirror hall, and I knew that it had been with me ever since I left there, clung to me, waiting for me to make a mistake. it looked into each of the mirrors, grimacing, and I grimaced back at it. it looked horrible, disfigured almost, and I knew all it was was the worst version of my subconscious. my own worst version. now its image was a constant in the reflections, not just resurfacing from time to time. I felt like I was drowning in my own head. I could feel that it was thinking of doing things I would never do, planning things - and then I realised, that I could also cling. I could also wait until 'it' made a mistake. and then I could--- before I could think it through, I felt like drowning. then darkness. for a long time. then I woke up.
what could this mean?

WEST­ERN FLAG

Thu 8 - Thu 22 June
4am-11:59pm
Western Flag (Dark Park)

TWIST

Fri 9 - Sun 11 June
10am-4pm
TMAG
Tue 13 - Sun 18 June
10am-4pm
TMAG
Tue 20 - Thu 22 June
10am-4pm
TMAG

SEX + DEATH DAYCLUB

Fri 9 - Mon 12 June
10am-4pm
Mona
Fri 16 - Mon 19 June
10am-4pm
Mona

OCEANS OF AIR

Fri 9 - Mon 12 June
10am-6pm
Mona
Fri 16 - Mon 19 June
10am-6pm
Mona

GREED/ RAKUS/ GIERIG: INSTALL­ATION

Thu 8 - Sun 11 June
12pm-5pm
Contemporary Art Tasmania
Wed 14 - Sun 18 June
12pm-5pm
Contemporary Art Tasmania
Collapse

TRANCE

Thu 8 - Sat 10 June
12pm-11:59pm
Doors 11:30am [18+]
MAC2
$49 + BF
Recurring (1)

MUSIC AT MONA

Fri 9 - Mon 12 June
12pm-4pm
Mona
Fri 16 - Mon 19 June
12pm-4pm
Mona
Collapse

CITY OF HOBART DARK MOFO WINTER FEAST

Fri 9 June
4pm-11pm
Princes Wharf 1
Recurring (7)

GIANT TEDDY

Fri 9 - Sun 11 June
4pm-8pm
Harrington Lane
Fri 16 - Sat 17 June
4pm-8pm
Harrington Lane

NGARNDA

Thu 8 - Sun 11 June
4pm-10pm
Detached
Wed 14 - Sun 18 June
4pm-10pm
Detached

INTER­FACIAL INTI­MACIES

Thu 8 June
4pm-10pm
Plimsoll Gallery
Fri 9 June
6pm-10pm
Plimsoll Gallery
Sat 10 - Sun 11 June
4pm-10pm
Plimsoll Gallery
Thu 15 - Sun 18 June
4pm-10pm
Plimsoll Gallery

SILENT SYM­PHONY

Thu 8 - Sun 11 June
4pm-10pm
City Hall
Wed 14 - Thu 15 June
4pm-10pm
City Hall

BOONG

Thu 8 - Sun 11 June
4pm-10pm
Detached
Wed 14 - Sun 18 June
4pm-10pm
Detached

WITH­OUT US YOU WOULD HAVE NEVER LEARNT ABOUT LOVE

Thu 8 - Sun 11 June
4pm-10pm
Baha'i Centre
Wed 14 - Sun 18 June
4pm-10pm
Baha'i Centre

WALLS OF SKIN

Thu 8 - Sun 11 June
4pm-10pm
Websters Warehouse
Wed 14 - Sun 18 June
4pm-10pm
Websters Warehouse
Collapse

KEELEY FOR­SYTH

Fri 9 June
4pm-5pm
Doors 3:30pm [18+]
Odeon
$49 + BF
Recurring (9)

HIST­ORIES

Thu 8 - Sun 11 June
4pm-10pm
Good Grief Studios
Wed 14 - Sun 18 June
4pm-10pm
Good Grief Studios

KIN PRESENTED BY YIRRAMBOI + DARK MOFO

Thu 8 - Sun 11 June
4pm-10pm
O'Briens
Wed 14 - Sun 18 June
4pm-10pm
O'Briens

DARK FRINGE

Thu 8 - Sun 25 June
Various

OGOH-OGOH: THE PURGING

Thu 8 - Sun 11 June
5pm-10pm
Ogoh‑Ogoh: The Purging (Dark Park)
Wed 14 - Sat 17 June
5pm-10pm
Ogoh‑Ogoh: The Purging (Dark Park)

DARK PARK

Thu 8 - Sun 11 June
5pm-10pm
Dark Park
Wed 14 - Sun 18 June
5pm-10pm
Dark Park

GREED/ RAKUS/ GIERIG: PERFOR­MANCE

Thu 8 - Sun 11 June
5pm-10pm
Greed/ Rakus/ Gierig: Performance (Dark Park)
Wed 14 - Sun 18 June
5pm-10pm
Greed/ Rakus/ Gierig: Performance (Dark Park)

THIS BITTER EARTH

Thu 8 - Sun 11 June
5pm-10pm
This Bitter Earth (Dark Park)
Wed 14 - Sun 18 June
5pm-10pm
This Bitter Earth (Dark Park)

SPECTRA

Thu 8 - Sun 11 June
5pm-10pm
spectra (Dark Park)
Wed 14 - Sun 18 June
5pm-10pm
spectra (Dark Park)

BLUE VELVET LOUNGE

Thu 8 - Sun 11 June
5pm-11pm
Blue Velvet Lounge (Dark Park)
Wed 14 - Sun 18 June
5pm-11pm
Blue Velvet Lounge (Dark Park)
Collapse

EARTH­EATER

Fri 9 June
6pm-7pm
Doors 5:30pm [18+]
In The Hanging Garden
$69 + BF

SLEA­FORD MODS

Fri 9 June
7pm-8:15pm
Doors 6:30pm
Odeon
$79 + BF
SOLD OUT

MAX RICHTER: VOICES AND RE­COMP­OS­ED

Fri 9 June
7pm-9:30pm
Doors 6pm
Federation Concert Hall
From $109 + BF
SOLD OUT

NIGHT MASS: EXSTASIA Ⅰ

Fri 9 June
10pm-4am
Doors 10pm [18+]
District X
$99 + BF

THUNDER­CAT

Fri 9 June
10:30pm-12am
Doors 10pm [18+]
Odeon
$99 + BF
SOLD OUT

Follow-up on original post here:
https://www.reddit.com/saskatchewan/comments/13rtv37/are_you_getting_help_for_your_mental_health_in/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Sorry if I'm doing this all backwards - but there is the original post - above. I started typing a response on this to update everyone, but it was really getting too big, and might become something slightly different. ;) So anyways. Hope you read the comment too. And maybe someone better at redditting will come along and tell me how to do this better, lol.
So... Got a call from an assistant of Vicki Mowat, NDP MLA and Critic for Health. I had sent him an email, along with links to this reddit discussion, and a couple others (see my posts) I had put up earlier regarding mental healthcare in SK. I told him a little bit about the "committee" I am a part of, about how we're not seeming to get anywhere and my views on our mandate.
His suggestion to get attention for our cause was to go through the media - which I think he might have mentioned they could support, but I have written down "won't necessarily need their support" (the NDP). He suggested planting something in the fall, as the Assembly isn't sitting right now and this would then come up during fall session in the media. I told him that as far as I myself speaking out on the media, it would have to be under complete anonymity - so if that won't do for some organizations, perhaps another person that has shared a story here would be willing to step up as a "representative" of themselves and of the many people in this discussion and all around the Province that are suffering. We can do something! We can try anyways. And because we're all "crazy" ;-) (so they all think), let's show them what "crazy" can do - wild creativity, ideas and actions they'd never see coming.
I mentioned an interest in finding real suicide statistics for Saskatchewan, mentioned a possible "attention getter" if only I had the... props. If only we knew the number and had an endless amount of crash-test dummies. I would like to dump one "body" on the Legislative steps to be found the next morning - after each suicide in Saskatchewan. That's the only proof that we're suffering - we die. So... "show" them the proof. Show them the bodies. We'd have to have a hell of a lot because I'm sure they would sweep them away every night, and I'd like to keep the total number there. Or maybe silhouettes cut out and planted like signs. Or gravestones. I'm up for ideas.
I have to work in the stealth myself :), but something big has to happen to make people who are ignoring it see. It's dark. That's the point. I want each MLA, cabinet minister, critic, etc who sees it to be reminded of the individual lives lost, whole social networks of family and friends - broken. For each ... person. They were a real person - just like an MLA or a premier. It doesn't matter what job they had or where they lived. Or the colour of their skin. They were a person, just like any of them. Just like any of the million and something individual citizens living here. Nobody should matter more than another, and yet that doesn't seem to be true. Let's make them something they can't ignore, they can't say they didn't see. Safely and with Safety!! No martyrs for the cause, we can be smarter than that... ;-)
And so, ideas? Better or more ideas? People interested? Maybe just a show of hands then we'll have to take this discussion to somewhere more quiet ;-) A War Room, per se.
Also, anybody willing to speak publicly at the right time for us as a group? Maybe share your horrific tale with the media, somewhere in the fall? If people don't know about what's happening, we can have a "well if you don't know, now you know.." moment that blows up in the media hopefully, passed around online, etc. Gets the conversation going, puts some pressure online.
Anyhow, Mr. NDP Assistant ended our conversation by saying "we'll talk later", which I hope is true. We can make change if there are enough of us, or enough allies that have seen enough.

My girlfriend of 5+ years is planning on moving into my apartment in a HCOL US city later this summer. We're both in our mid 20s, and chose to take our time before proceeding with a move to ensure we're both aligned and ready for what we view to be a significant decision. We get along well and have no significant relationship issues.
It's a 2 bed apartment that currently rents for $4k a month. I currently live with a roommate and pay $2k a month. My TC is ~$145k, I save the majority of my after tax income, have no debt, and live relatively frugally. I am working towards FIRE. My girlfriend's TC is ~$40k, but she receives financial support from her parents who fully fund her cost of living. Upon her moving in, we would split rent evenly and both pay $2k/month.
The main issue I'm facing is that building management refuses to approve her as an applicant due to her income. They also refuse to accept her father as a guarantor, despite meeting the guarantor income qualifications (yearly income greater than 80x rent), due to his retiree status (they won't budge on this, we've tried extensively - we'd have to find a new guarantor for her).
Management is willing to accept me as the sole tenant in the apartment as I meet their applicant criteria (income greater than 2x rent), and have my gf be an occupant in the apartment. However, I strongly dislike this option as it would leave me solely liable for the apartment should there be damages, our should our living arrangement not work out in future and we choose to part ways. My preference is to have both of us listed on this apartment lease so that we are both accountable in figuring out how best to proceed in the worst case scenario. As proper risk management, I do not want to be left stranded paying for a $4k apartment (beyond my means given FIRE ambitions) by myself should the worst happen, nor do I want to be solely responsible for finding a new roommate.
My girlfriend is understanding of my hesitation, but her father is pushing for me to be the sole tenant for convenience purposes so they don't have to involve other family members to be her guarantor. My gut feeling and intuition is telling me that should she move out in a breakup scenario, that her and her father would not continue to pay half of the rent in the apartment for the remainder of the lease - despite my girlfriend saying she would. I can understand this given it would not be exactly rational on their part to do so, especially if things go sour - as she wouldn't owe me any favors. I'd imagine they would anticipate that I should either find a new roommate, or pay for it in full myself given my TC would allow for it.
My rationale for expecting them to honor any rent payments in absence is because this is an apartment that I would only rent under the pretenses of my SO and I splitting the cost. Otherwise, I would never rent a $4k apartment by myself, and would instead reside in a 1bed or studio apartment in the ~$2k range.
We've floated ideas of her dad paying 6 months of her rent up front as reassurance of good faith, but I still don't think it's a wise decision to make as I would be putting all my faith in a handshake agreement. I also do not want to sign a contract with specific terms/contingencies with her and her dad, it feels slimy and I know that I wouldn't want to nor feel good about taking an ex to claims court. Would love input from others here to pressure test my thinking, and perhaps offer advice on what they would do in my situation. TIA.

I have everything, if I dont have what you want listed, I will get it for you, message me. I add things to my list every single day.
Last Edited 06/01/23
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• Jason Capital – High Status Summit 2019 Recordings
• Sean Anthony – 6-Figure Drop Servicing Business Method
• Nick Abraham – Outbound on Autopilot
• Ravi Abuvala – Scaling With Systems 3.0
• Zapier Mastery Course
• Ian Stanley – Exponential Income Skill
• Kelli Marie Connor /Alex Chalkley - Pre-Session Payment Plan Guide - Part 1
• Jack Butcher – Build Once Sell Twice
• Bram Kanstein – No Code MVP
• Robert Allen – 30 Days to $9K
• Michael Zipursky – Momentum (Consulting Success)
• FIG Combo Course
• Justin Welsh – The Operating System-Grow & Monetize
• Alex Berman – Agency Growth Masterclass
• SaaS Wiz – The SaaS MasterClass
• Stefan Georgi & Justin Goff – Copy Accelerator Virtual Mastermind
• Stefan Georgi – Freelance Freedom Course
• Eben Pagan – 7 Courses Bundle (Get Your First Coaching Clients, Virtual Coach Summit, How To Be An Entrepreneur, Presentations That Pay, Social Media Training with Bret Gregory, Traffic Intensive Training and Power of Persuasion)
• Eben Pagan – Turn Your Talent Into Income
• Eben Pagan – Traffic School
• ITPM – The Emergency Trading Room Portfolio Repair from Covid – 19
• Joshua Lisec – The Best Way To Market Research It
• Iman Gadzhi – Agency Navigator
• Josh Hall – Web Design Business Course
• Ben Settle – Brand Barbarian
• Ben Settle – elBenbo Press
• Ben Settle – Big Book of Business
• Ultimate NFT Playbook 2021
• NFT Tyrant – How To Make a Passive Income Trading NFTs
• NFT Exposed
• NFT Crypto Master Class – Buy, Sell and Create NFTs
• Daniel Throssell – Upwork in One Hour
• Biaheza’s – Full Dropshipping Course
• Ben Adkins – Digital Agency Insider
• Ran Segall – Web Design-Becoming a Professional
• Joe Kashurba – Agency Blueprint
• Michael Laurens – 7-Figure Agency Sales System
• Taylor Welch – Inbound Closer
• Nick Abraham – The Ultimate Zapier Swipe File
• Robert Neckelius – Utlimate Agency Package + Book
• Isaac Ruble – Unzuck My Agency
• Alex Glenn – How To Launch an Agency-Focused Partner Program
• Adam Enfroy – Blog Growth Engine
• Dee Deng (Foundr) – Ignite Your Digital Agency
• How To Start and Grow A Successful Clothing Brand Business
• Kelli Marie Connor – Upselling
• Andrew Tate – Only Fans Fortune
• Andrew Tate – Network Brilliance
• BROADCAST TATES MILLION DOLLAR SYSTEM (Webcam)
• Alex Chalkley – The Ultimate Black Friday Guide
• Shreva Pattar – Money Call$
• BowTied SalesGuy – The Chad Salesman Course
• Dan Vas – Shopify Freedom Course
• Chris Luck – Certified Brand Ambassador – AMBSDR
• Stephen Houraghan – Brand Masters Secrets
• Owen Cook – High Status Mentoring
• Chase Dimond – The Agency Acceleration
• Nathan – OnlyFans Agency Guide
• Jordan Belfort Straight Line Sales Cert 4.0
• Chase Reiner – Using AI Bots For Insane Profits
• Trends VC Pro
• Freelance Hustle – Hustle With Fiverr – Grow Your Fiverr Account To $1M+
• Jordan Platten – Affluent Academy 2022
• John McIntyre – Drop Dead Copy
• Mitch Harper (Foundr) – 60 Days Startup
• Jesse Elder - Pocket Video Mastery
• Eli Wilde – NLP For Sales
• Digital Marketer – Media Buyer Bootcamp
• Ason Jay Figueroa – High Ticket Elites
• William Souza – CPA Evolution 3.0
• Jeremy Miner – 7th Level Communications
• Jeremy Miner – The Ultimate Closers MASTERCLASS
• Charlie Morgan – Imperium Agency + Gym Growth Accelerator
• Hemmel Amrania – Automated Recurring Income System
• The Bulletproof Way To $5k/Months In 2022: Become A Lead Gen Cowboy
• Codie Sanchez – Contrarian Cashflow
• Dan Dasilva - Dropshipping Academy
• Pushman Mitch – Push Rental Car Academy
• Russell Brunson and Robert Kiyosaki - Expert Secrets - The Underground Playbook for Creating a Mass Movement of People Who Will Pay for Your Advice
• Paul Xavier – 30 Course Creator
• Michael Janda - Web Design Business Bootcamp
• Ian Stanley – Google Docs Sales Page Advanced
• David Schlais & Derek DeMike – The SMMA Blueprint 2.0
• Charlie Morgan – Easy Grow
• Codie Sanchez & Ryan Snow – How to Buy a Small Business
• David Snyder – Courses Bundle
• Financial Modeling of Solar Plant in OPEX Model(Open Access)

Marketing:

• 30 Day SMMA – Quenten Chad & Jovan Stojanovic
• Billy Willson – 6 Figure Facebook Ads Agency
• Freedom Junkies – Crushing Facebook Ads
• Istack Training – Facebook & Ecom Mastery Las Vegas Replay 2019
• Manuel Suarez & Ben Cummings – Facebook Masters Course
• Peng Joon – Facebook Secrets Mastery
• Peter Parks – Social Ads For FB Marketing
• Tai Lopez – SMMA 2.0
• Dave Rogenmoser – Facebook Ads Mastery
• Depesh Mandalia - 7-Figure Facebook Ads Playbook
• Rick Mulready - FB AD Manager
• Tom Glover - The Facebook ROI Master-Class
• The Entrepreneur Alliance - Facebook Ads Mastery
• Jon Loomer - Scaling FB Ads for Success
• Kevin David - Facebook Masterclass 2018
• LinkedIn Marketing Lead Generation for B2B Sales and Coaches
• Sean Longden – Conquer Cold Calling
• Gary Bencivenga – Retirement Legacy
• Alisa Rose – Marketing For Makers Academy 2.0
• Joel Kaplan – 7 Figures Agency 2.0
• Nick Kozmin – SalesProcess.io Accelerator
• Ben Settle – Infotainment Jackpot
• Conversion XL (CXL) – Bundle (49 courses)
• Sander Stage – SMMAcademy
• Kevin David – Marketing Agency Program
• Erika Kullberg – Mastering YouTube for the Busy Professional
• Perry Marshall – Google Ads Mastery 2021-22
• Joe Soto – Marketing Agency Academy
• Automarketer Club – Automarketer Blueprint
• Perry Belcher – VSL Story Selling System
• Deepak Kanakaraju – Lead Generation Mastery
• Craigslist Middleman – The Ultimate Craigslist Middleman Guide
• Russell Brunson – Funnel Stacking – 3 Core Funnels
• Russell Brunson – Two Comma Club- LIVE Virtual Conference
• Dotcom Secrets – Russell Brunson 2020 Edition
• Russell Brunson – Lead Funnels
• Russell Brunson – Funnel Hacking (Live) Notes 2019
• AdWorld Conference 2020
• AdWorld Conference 2021
• OGAds Youtube CPA Marketing Course
• Russel Brunson – The Secrets Trilogy
• xShot Email Method Course
• Frank Kern – Stefan Georgi – The Ads Madness Masterclass
• Sabri Suby – Quantum Growth
• Eric Worre - Go Pro: 7 Steps to Becoming a Network Marketing Professional
• Russell Brunson and Dan Kennedy - DotCom Secrets - The Underground Playbook for Growing Your Company Online
• Russell Brunson - The Funnel Hacker's Cookbook for use with ClickFunnels
• Traffic Conversion and Sales by Russell Brunson
• Russell Brunson - Underachiever Manual
• DigitalMarketer – Certifications & Mastery Courses All Courses Bundle

Social Media marketing:

• Jumpcut - Viral academy 3.0
• Nathan Chan – Instagram Domination 5.0
• SocialBee – SocialBee University
• Khalid M – Facebook Marketing School
• David Talas – Instagrizzle Masterclass
• Rachel – The TikTok Academy
• Jason Capital – Social Media Boss
• Matt Par – Tube Mastery and Monetization
• Jose Rosado -Twitter Money Mastery
• Kody White – YT Money Master
• Graham Stephan – The YouTube Creator Academy
• GREG DAVIS – FACEBOOK ADS DOMINATION
• Chase Chappell – Facebook Ads Mastery
• Ed Latimore & J.K. Molina – The Templates
• Joanna Wiebe – 10x Facebook Ads
• The Giver – Twitter Affiliate Mastery – Written by The Most Consistent Affiliate Marketer on Gumroad
• Mark William – 7-Figure Facebook Ad Copy Templates
• Daniel Vassallo – Everyone Can Build a Twitter Audience
• MEET KEVIN – Build Wealth Making Youtube Videos
• Mark William – Augmented Scaling System
• YouTube – CashCow MASTERY
• Shawpreneur – Linkedin Lead Gen Course
• DEPESH MANDALIA – 7-FIGURE FACEBOOK ADS PLAYBOOK
• Facebook Ad Agency Clients Acquisition Masterclass
• Alex Berman – LinkedInX
• Alex Berman – LinkedInbox
• Alex Berman – Twitter 10k
• Ben Settle’s – Copy Troll
• Aleric Heck – Profitable YouTube Channel Accelerator
• Tom Breeze – YouTube Ads Workshop
• Dan Henry – YouTube Ads For Selling Courses
• Nick Shackelford – How to Run Facebook Ads (FOUNDR)
• Tyler Narducci – The Done For You Agency
• Bow & Arrow (Core Version) – A Ghostwriter’s Thousand Dollar Tweets Rules
• Perry Marshall – Google Ads Mastery 2021-22
• Robert Allen – Become Ridiculously Good with Klaviyo in 5 days
• Depesh Mandalia – 7-Figure Meta Ads Playbook 2022
• TikTok Mastery – How to Use Tik Tok Ads to go from 0-$10k Profit Per Month
• Affiliate Marketing – Tik Tok Ads Hacks to Boost Your Sales
• Jimmy Farley – Organic Tiktok Academy
• Chase Chappell – TikTok Ads Mastery Course
• Tocked Live App – A Secret TikTok Algorithm Hack That Banks Us $228.90+ Daily
• $100-$500/day Easy With This New Youtube Method
• Keith Krance – TikTok Growth Training
• Savannah Sanchez – TikTok Ads
• GMB Verified Listings without Postcard + Google Business Profile Master Classes 2022 – GMB Master Classes
• Google Analytics, GA4, GTM. How to improve your marketing?
• Advanced Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
• Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Essential Training
• Mindvalley - Lifebook Lite
• Shelley Hutchinson – LinkedIn Quality Leads Formula
• [Step-by-Step Method] My TikTok Guide to Making $3000+ Monthly, Without EVER Showing your Face
• Jordan Platten – LearnAds – Facebook Ads Pro
• Jeremy Miner – Objections Masterclass FB
• Julius Fedorovicius – GA4 Course + Two Google Tag Manager Courses Bundle
• Ben Heath – Facebook Ads Insiders
• Robby Blanchard – Bulletproof Accounts
• Max Tornow – Freedom Business Mentoring – 30 Seconds A Day Viral Growth Masterclass
• Youri – YouTube Automation First Academy 2022
• Jon Corres – The YouTube Success System 2.0
• Depesh Mandalia – 7-Figure Meta Ads Playbook 2022

SEO:

• Perry Marshall – Slingshot Recovery
• David Hood – Operation SEO Agency Empire
• Matthew Woodward – 90 Day SEO
• Manuel Suarez – The Catapult Ranking System
• Chris M. Walker – Superstar SEO Academy
• Jason Wright – Local SEO Domination 2020
• Matthew Woodward – 90 Day SEO
• Charles Floate – SEO Side Hustle
• Charles Floate – Native NoFollow – Link Building
• Charles Floate – The Search Stack-Master SEO Package
• Charles Floate – Safe & Strong The Definitive Guide To Private Blog Networks
• Charles Floate – SEO Gems- Advanced Money Hat SEO 2021
• Charles Floate – Omniscient OnPage SEO 2021
• Nathan Gotch – Gotch SEO Academy 2020
• Chase Reiner – SEO Pro Courses Bundle 2020
• SEORockstars 2021 Recordings

Copywriting:

• Harmon Brothers – How To Make Your Ads Funny
• Jim Edwards – Copywriting Secrets
• Harmon Brothers – 14-Day Script Challenge
• Nate Schmidt – Brain Dead Simple Copy
• Jay Abraham – 94 Billion Dollarman
• Dan Henry – Modern Day Copy
• Tej Dosa – 6 Figure Promotions
• How to Use Keepa for Amazon FBA Wholesale
• Jason Capital – The Capital Copywriting Certification Program 2019
• Ben Settle – Email Players List Swell
• Joshua Lisec – The Best Way To Say It
• UX Writing: Creating A UX Writing Style Guide In 5 Easy Steps
• Introduction to UX Writing: How to Write Great Microcopy
• UX Writing Finding Your Voice & Tone in 4 Easy Steps
• Mindful UX Writing: Writing for a Diverse Audience
• The UX Portfolio Formula - A UX portfolio course created by Sarah Doody
• Copyhackers – Copy School 2020
• Chris Orzechowski – Email Copy Academy
• Chris Orzechowski – Quick And Dirty Sales Letter
• Adam Enfroy – Blog Growth Engine
• Adam Enfroy – Backlink Blueprint & Affiliate Advantage Bundle
• Daniel Throssell – Email Copywriting Compendium
• Daniel Throssell – Market Detective
• Van Vizovisek – Become a Jedi Copy Master
• Alex Cattoni – Write & Ignite Challenge
• Jeremy Moser – Landing Page Copywriting Mastery
• Dickie Bush – Ship 30 for 30
• Ian Stanley – 90 Days to Freedom Jumpstart
• Cardinal Mason and Chase Dimond – Copy MBA + The Freelancing Masterclass
• Alex Cattoni – Copy Posse Launch Files
• Dan Koe – The 2 Hour Writer

E-Commerce:

• John Yoon - Project Verum Ecom Foundations
• Oberlo 101
• Franklin Hatchett – Ecom Elites 2.0
• Sarah Chrisp – Ecomm ClubHouse
• David Zaleski – FBA Academy
• Jared Goetz – Ecom Hacks Academy 2020
• Adrian Morrison – eCom Success Academy
• Cold Email Wizard - Cold Email Mastery
• Alex Berman – Email 10k
• Kai Bax Quantum Leap Ecomm Agency
• Helium 10 Elite – Amazon FBA Mastermind
• Cold Email Wizard – The Vault
• Daniel Fazio – Video Sales Letter Mastery (Cold Email Wizard)
• Alex Berman – Cold Email University
• Chase Dimond – Email Marketing Course
• Chase Dimond – Master Campaign Calendar Guide
• Klaviyo Email Marketing Masterclass
• Dan Vas – Ecom Freedom FBA
• Dan Vas – Ecom Freedom X Course 2019
• Chase Dimond – 7-Figure Email Playbook
• Boyuan Zhao – Ecommerce Email Marketing School
• Daniel Throssell – Campaign Conqueror
• Alex Cattoni – Own The Inbox Challenge
• Tanner Henkel & Jerrod Harlan – 7-Figure Email Machine
• Soulja & Franky – The Blackhat Course
• Frank Kern – Evergreen Email Machine
• Ezra Firestone – Smart Email Marketing 2.0
• Ezra Firestone – Blue Ribbon Mastermind
• Parikchhit Basnet – Elite Email Marketing Course
• Foundr – Ecommerce Masters 2020
• Yengub & Jembourouh eCcom Incubator Inner Circle Mentorship Program
• Sebastian Esqueda – Ecom Revolution Training Program
• Ecom Gods Playbook

Traffic Generation:

• Todd Brown – MFA Internal Traffic Training
• Stephen Floyd – Traffic Engines
• Ed O’Keefe – Traffic Mastery Live Nashville

Affiliate marketing:

• Colin Dijs – ClickBank Mastermind 2020
• The Affiliate Marketing Virtual Summit
• Jacob Caris – Super Affiliate Accelerator
• Duston MacGroarty – Build A $1K/Day Challenge
• Gael Breton, Mark Webster – Authority Hacker Pro 2020
• Robby Blanchard – Commission Hero 2020
• Ben Settle – Affiliate Launch Copynomicon
• Income School – Project 24 (2020)
• Franklin Hatchett – Savage Affiliates 2.0
• John Crestani – Super Affiliate System 3.0
• GAEL BRETON & MARK WEBSTER – THE AUTHORITY SITE SYSTEM 2019
• MATT DIGGITY – AFFILIATE LAB
• PAOLO BERINGUEL – CLICKBANK FOR BEGINNERS
• Youngjoon Sun – Amazon FBA Mastermind
• Gael Breton, Mark Webster – Authority Hacker Pro 2021
• Bogdan – Affiliate Marketing Freedom Blueprint
• Weerk – Super Affiliate Guild
• Melisa Vong (Foundr) – Infinite Income on Amazon
• Sophie Howard - Amazon Jetstream Income

Dan Lok:

• 6 steps to 6 figures - Dan Lok
• Dan Lok - High Ticket Closer™ Certification
• Dan Lok – Perfect Closing Script
• Dan Lok – Tube Your Own Horn
• Dan Lok – Dan Lok – High-Income Copywriter
• Dan Lok – Unlock the Millionaire Within
• Dan Lok – Millionaire Productivity Secrets
• Dan Lok – Public Speaking Secrets
• Dan Lok – YouTube Secrets
• Dan Lok – Dan On Demand 2019
• Dan Lok – High-Income Copywriter
• The Futur - Typography 01
• CHRIS DO (THE FUTUR) – HOW TO FIND CLIENTS
• TheFutur - How To Negotiate
• TE NELSON – LEAD GENERATION AGENCY FOR AUTO DEALERSHIPS

I'M ONLY TALKING TO PEOPLE THROUGH TELEGRAM, SEND ME A MESSAGE THERE!
THIS IS MY USERNAME THERE: t. me/electronicdimension7 (Remove the space between "t." and "me" for the link to work properly or search directly for my telegram name electronicdimension7)
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NARRATOR: (Black screen with text; The sound of buzzing bees can be heard) According to all known laws of aviation, : there is no way a bee should be able to fly. : Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. : The bee, of course, flies anyway : because bees don't care what humans think is impossible. BARRY BENSON: (Barry is picking out a shirt) Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. : Ooh, black and yellow! Let's shake it up a little. JANET BENSON: Barry! Breakfast is ready! BARRY: Coming! : Hang on a second. (Barry uses his antenna like a phone) : Hello? ADAM FLAYMAN:
(Through phone) - Barry? BARRY: - Adam? ADAM: - Can you believe this is happening? BARRY: - I can't. I'll pick you up. (Barry flies down the stairs) : MARTIN BENSON: Looking sharp. JANET: Use the stairs. Your father paid good money for those. BARRY: Sorry. I'm excited. MARTIN: Here's the graduate. We're very proud of you, son. : A perfect report card, all B's. JANET: Very proud. (Rubs Barry's hair) BARRY= Ma! I got a thing going here. JANET: - You got lint on your fuzz. BARRY: - Ow! That's me!
JANET: - Wave to us! We'll be in row 118,000. - Bye! (Barry flies out the door) JANET: Barry, I told you, stop flying in the house! (Barry drives through the hive,and is waved at by Adam who is reading a newspaper) BARRY== - Hey, Adam. ADAM: - Hey, Barry. (Adam gets in Barry's car) : - Is that fuzz gel? BARRY: - A little. Special day, graduation. ADAM: Never thought I'd make it. (Barry pulls away from the house and continues driving) BARRY: Three days grade school, three days high school... ADAM: Those were awkward. BARRY: Three days college. I'm glad I took a day and hitchhiked around the hive. ADAM== You did come back different. (Barry and Adam pass by Artie, who is jogging) ARTIE: - Hi, Barry!
BARRY: - Artie, growing a mustache? Looks good. ADAM: - Hear about Frankie? BARRY: - Yeah. ADAM== - You going to the funeral? BARRY: - No, I'm not going to his funeral. : Everybody knows, sting someone, you die. : Don't waste it on a squirrel. Such a hothead. ADAM: I guess he could have just gotten out of the way. (The car does a barrel roll on the loop-shaped bridge and lands on the highway) : I love this incorporating an amusement park into our regular day. BARRY: I guess that's why they say we don't need vacations. (Barry parallel parks the car and together they fly over the graduating students) Boy, quite a bit of pomp... under the circumstances. (Barry and Adam sit down and put on their hats) : - Well, Adam, today we are men.
ADAM: - We are! BARRY= - Bee-men. =ADAM= - Amen! BARRY AND ADAM: Hallelujah! (Barry and Adam both have a happy spasm) ANNOUNCER: Students, faculty, distinguished bees, : please welcome Dean Buzzwell. DEAN BUZZWELL: Welcome, New Hive Oity graduating class of... : ...9: : That concludes our ceremonies. : And begins your career at Honex Industries! ADAM: Will we pick our job today? (Adam and Barry get into a tour bus) BARRY= I heard it's just orientation. (Tour buses rise out of the ground and the students are automatically loaded into the buses) TOUR GUIDE: Heads up! Here we go.
ANNOUNCER: Keep your hands and antennas inside the tram at all times. BARRY: - Wonder what it'll be like? ADAM: - A little scary. TOUR GUIDE== Welcome to Honex, a division of Honesco : and a part of the Hexagon Group. Barry: This is it! BARRY AND ADAM: Wow. BARRY: Wow. (The bus drives down a road an on either side are the Bee's massive complicated Honey-making machines) TOUR GUIDE: We know that you, as a bee, have worked your whole life : to get to the point where you can work for your whole life. : Honey begins when our valiant Pollen Jocks bring the nectar to the hive. : Our top-secret formula : is automatically color-corrected,
scent-adjusted and bubble-contoured : into this soothing sweet syrup : with its distinctive golden glow you know as... EVERYONE ON BUS: Honey! (The guide has been collecting honey into a bottle and she throws it into the crowd on the bus and it is caught by a girl in the back) ADAM: - That girl was hot. BARRY: - She's my cousin! ADAM== - She is? BARRY: - Yes, we're all cousins. ADAM: - Right. You're right. TOUR GUIDE: - At Honex, we constantly strive : to improve every aspect of bee existence. : These bees are stress-testing a new helmet technology. (The bus passes by a Bee wearing a helmet who is being smashed into the ground with fly-swatters, newspapers and boots. He lifts a thumbs up but you can hear him groan) : ADAM==

• What do you think he makes? BARRY:
• Not enough. TOUR GUIDE: Here we have our latest advancement, the Krelman. (They pass by a turning wheel with Bees standing on pegs, who are each wearing a finger-shaped hat) Barry:
• Wow, What does that do? TOUR GUIDE:
• Catches that little strand of honey : that hangs after you pour it. Saves us millions. ADAM: (Intrigued) Can anyone work on the Krelman? TOUR GUIDE: Of course. Most bee jobs are small ones. But bees know that every small job, if it's done well, means a lot. : But choose carefully : because you'll stay in the job you pick for the rest of your life. (Everyone claps except for Barry) BARRY: The same job the rest of your life? I didn't know that. ADAM:

What's the difference? TOUR GUIDE: You'll be happy to know that bees, as a species, haven't had one day off : in 27 million years. BARRY: (Upset) So you'll just work us to death? : We'll sure try. (Everyone on the bus laughs except Barry. Barry and Adam are walking back home together) ADAM: Wow! That blew my mind! BARRY: "What's the difference?" How can you say that? : One job forever? That's an insane choice to have to make. ADAM: I'm relieved. Now we only have to make one decision in life. BARRY: But, Adam, how could they never have told us that? ADAM: Why would you question anything? We're bees. : We're the most perfectly functioning society on Earth.
BARRY: You ever think maybe things work a little too well here? ADAM: Like what? Give me one example. (Barry and Adam stop walking and it is revealed to the audience that hundreds of cars are speeding by and narrowly missing them in perfect unison) BARRY: I don't know. But you know what I'm talking about. ANNOUNCER: Please clear the gate. Royal Nectar Force on approach. BARRY: Wait a second. Check it out. (The Pollen jocks fly in, circle around and landing in line) : - Hey, those are Pollen Jocks! ADAM: - Wow. : I've never seen them this close. BARRY: They know what it's like outside the hive. ADAM: Yeah, but some don't come back. GIRL BEES: - Hey, Jocks! - Hi, Jocks! (The Pollen Jocks hook up their backpacks to machines that pump the nectar to trucks, which drive away)
LOU LO DUVA: You guys did great! : You're monsters! You're sky freaks! I love it! (Punching the Pollen Jocks in joy) I love it! ADAM: - I wonder where they were. BARRY: - I don't know. : Their day's not planned. : Outside the hive, flying who knows where, doing who knows what. : You can't just decide to be a Pollen Jock. You have to be bred for that. ADAM== Right. (Barry and Adam are covered in some pollen that floated off of the Pollen Jocks) BARRY: Look at that. That's more pollen than you and I will see in a lifetime. ADAM: It's just a status symbol. Bees make too much of it. BARRY: Perhaps. Unless you're wearing it and the ladies see you wearing it. (Barry waves at 2 girls standing a little away from them)
ADAM== Those ladies? Aren't they our cousins too? BARRY: Distant. Distant. POLLEN JOCK #1: Look at these two. POLLEN JOCK #2: - Couple of Hive Harrys. POLLEN JOCK #1: - Let's have fun with them. GIRL BEE #1: It must be dangerous being a Pollen Jock. BARRY: Yeah. Once a bear pinned me against a mushroom! : He had a paw on my throat, and with the other, he was slapping me! (Slaps Adam with his hand to represent his scenario) GIRL BEE #2: - Oh, my! BARRY: - I never thought I'd knock him out. GIRL BEE #1: (Looking at Adam) What were you doing during this? ADAM: Obviously I was trying to alert the authorities. BARRY: I can autograph that.
(The pollen jocks walk up to Barry and Adam, they pretend that Barry and Adam really are pollen jocks.) POLLEN JOCK #1: A little gusty out there today, wasn't it, comrades? BARRY: Yeah. Gusty. POLLEN JOCK #1: We're hitting a sunflower patch six miles from here tomorrow. BARRY: - Six miles, huh? ADAM: - Barry! POLLEN JOCK #2: A puddle jump for us, but maybe you're not up for it. BARRY: - Maybe I am. ADAM: - You are not! POLLEN JOCK #1: We're going 0900 at J-Gate. : What do you think, buzzy-boy? Are you bee enough? BARRY: I might be. It all depends on what 0900 means. (The scene cuts to Barry looking out on the hive-city from his balcony at night) MARTIN:
Hey, Honex! BARRY: Dad, you surprised me. MARTIN: You decide what you're interested in? BARRY: - Well, there's a lot of choices. - But you only get one. : Do you ever get bored doing the same job every day? MARTIN: Son, let me tell you about stirring. : You grab that stick, and you just move it around, and you stir it around. : You get yourself into a rhythm. It's a beautiful thing. BARRY: You know, Dad, the more I think about it, : maybe the honey field just isn't right for me. MARTIN: You were thinking of what, making balloon animals? : That's a bad job for a guy with a stinger. :
Janet, your son's not sure he wants to go into honey! JANET: - Barry, you are so funny sometimes. BARRY: - I'm not trying to be funny. MARTIN: You're not funny! You're going into honey. Our son, the stirrer! JANET: - You're gonna be a stirrer? BARRY: - No one's listening to me! MARTIN: Wait till you see the sticks I have. BARRY: I could say anything right now. I'm gonna get an ant tattoo! (Barry's parents don't listen to him and continue to ramble on) MARTIN: Let's open some honey and celebrate! BARRY: Maybe I'll pierce my thorax. Shave my antennae. : Shack up with a grasshopper. Get a gold tooth and call everybody "dawg"! JANET: I'm so proud. (The scene cuts to Barry and Adam waiting in line to get a job) ADAM: - We're starting work today!
BARRY: - Today's the day. ADAM: Come on! All the good jobs will be gone. BARRY: Yeah, right. JOB LISTER: Pollen counting, stunt bee, pouring, stirrer, front desk, hair removal... BEE IN FRONT OF LINE: - Is it still available? JOB LISTER: - Hang on. Two left! : One of them's yours! Congratulations! Step to the side. ADAM: - What'd you get? BEE IN FRONT OF LINE: - Picking crud out. Stellar! (He walks away) ADAM: Wow! JOB LISTER: Couple of newbies? ADAM: Yes, sir! Our first day! We are ready! JOB LISTER: Make your choice. (Adam and Barry look up at the job board. There are hundreds of constantly changing panels that contain available or unavailable jobs. It looks very confusing)
ADAM: - You want to go first? BARRY: - No, you go. ADAM: Oh, my. What's available? JOB LISTER: Restroom attendant's open, not for the reason you think. ADAM: - Any chance of getting the Krelman? JOB LISTER: - Sure, you're on. (Puts the Krelman finger-hat on Adam's head) (Suddenly the sign for Krelman closes out) : I'm sorry, the Krelman just closed out. (Takes Adam's hat off) Wax monkey's always open. ADAM: The Krelman opened up again. : What happened? JOB LISTER: A bee died. Makes an opening. See? He's dead. Another dead one. : Deady. Deadified. Two more dead. : Dead from the neck up. Dead from the neck down. That's life!
ADAM: Oh, this is so hard! (Barry remembers what the Pollen Jock offered him and he flies off) Heating, cooling, stunt bee, pourer, stirrer, : humming, inspector number seven, lint coordinator, stripe supervisor, : mite wrangler. Barry, what do you think I should... Barry? (Adam turns around and sees Barry flying away) : Barry! POLLEN JOCK: All right, we've got the sunflower patch in quadrant nine... ADAM: (Through phone) What happened to you? Where are you? BARRY: - I'm going out. ADAM: - Out? Out where? BARRY: - Out there. ADAM: - Oh, no! BARRY: I have to, before I go to work for the rest of my life. ADAM:
You're gonna die! You're crazy! (Barry hangs up) Hello? POLLEN JOCK #2: Another call coming in. : If anyone's feeling brave, there's a Korean deli on 83rd : that gets their roses today. BARRY: Hey, guys. POLLEN JOCK #1 == - Look at that. POLLEN JOCK #2: - Isn't that the kid we saw yesterday? LOU LO DUVA: Hold it, son, flight deck's restricted. POLLEN JOCK #1: It's OK, Lou. We're gonna take him up. (Puts hand on Barry's shoulder) LOU LO DUVA: (To Barry) Really? Feeling lucky, are you? BEE WITH CLIPBOARD: (To Barry) Sign here, here. Just initial that. : - Thank you. LOU LO DUVA: - OK. : You got a rain advisory today, :
and as you all know, bees cannot fly in rain. : So be careful. As always, watch your brooms, : hockey sticks, dogs, birds, bears and bats. : Also, I got a couple of reports of root beer being poured on us. : Murphy's in a home because of it, babbling like a cicada! BARRY: - That's awful. LOU LO DUVA: (Still talking through megaphone) - And a reminder for you rookies, : bee law number one, absolutely no talking to humans! : All right, launch positions! POLLEN JOCKS: (The Pollen Jocks run into formation) : Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! LOU LU DUVA: Black and yellow! POLLEN JOCKS:
Hello! POLLEN JOCK #1: (To Barry)You ready for this, hot shot? BARRY: Yeah. Yeah, bring it on. POLLEN JOCK's: Wind, check. : - Antennae, check. - Nectar pack, check. : - Wings, check. - Stinger, check. BARRY: Scared out of my shorts, check. LOU LO DUVA: OK, ladies, : let's move it out! : Pound those petunias, you striped stem-suckers! : All of you, drain those flowers! (The pollen jocks fly out of the hive) BARRY: Wow! I'm out! : I can't believe I'm out! : So blue.
: I feel so fast and free! : Box kite! (Barry flies through the kite) : Wow! : Flowers! (A pollen jock puts on some high tech goggles that shows flowers similar to heat sink goggles.) POLLEN JOCK: This is Blue Leader. We have roses visual. : Bring it around 30 degrees and hold. : Roses! POLLEN JOCK #1: 30 degrees, roger. Bringing it around. : Stand to the side, kid. It's got a bit of a kick. (The pollen jock fires a high-tech gun at the flower, shooting tubes that suck up the nectar from the flower and collects it into a pouch on the gun) BARRY: That is one nectar collector! POLLEN JOCK #1== - Ever see pollination up close? BARRY: - No, sir. POLLEN JOCK #1:
(Barry and the Pollen jock fly over the field, the pollen jock sprinkles pollen as he goes) : I pick up some pollen here, sprinkle it over here. Maybe a dash over there, : a pinch on that one. See that? It's a little bit of magic. BARRY: That's amazing. Why do we do that? POLLEN JOCK #1: That's pollen power. More pollen, more flowers, more nectar, more honey for us. BARRY: Cool. POLLEN JOCK #1: I'm picking up a lot of bright yellow. could be daisies. Don't we need those? POLLEN JOCK #2: Copy that visual. : Wait. One of these flowers seems to be on the move. POLLEN JOCK #1: Say again? You're reporting a moving flower? POLLEN JOCK #2: Affirmative. (The Pollen jocks land near the "flowers" which, to the audience are obviously just tennis balls) KEN: (In the distance) That was on the line!
POLLEN JOCK #1: This is the coolest. What is it? POLLEN JOCK #2: I don't know, but I'm loving this color. : It smells good. Not like a flower, but I like it. POLLEN JOCK #1: Yeah, fuzzy. (Sticks his hand on the ball but it gets stuck) POLLEN JOCK #3== Chemical-y. (The pollen jock finally gets his hand free from the tennis ball) POLLEN JOCK #1: Careful, guys. It's a little grabby. (The pollen jocks turn around and see Barry lying his entire body on top of one of the tennis balls) POLLEN JOCK #2: My sweet lord of bees! POLLEN JOCK #3: Candy-brain, get off there! POLLEN JOCK #1: (Pointing upwards) Problem! (A human hand reaches down and grabs the tennis ball that Barry is stuck to) BARRY: - Guys! POLLEN JOCK #2: - This could be bad. POLLEN JOCK #3: Affirmative. (Vanessa Bloome starts bouncing the tennis ball, not knowing Barry is stick to it)
BARRY== Very close. : Gonna hurt. : Mama's little boy. (Barry is being hit back and forth by two humans playing tennis. He is still stuck to the ball) POLLEN JOCK #1: You are way out of position, rookie! KEN: Coming in at you like a MISSILE! (Barry flies past the pollen jocks, still stuck to the ball) BARRY: (In slow motion) Help me! POLLEN JOCK #2: I don't think these are flowers. POLLEN JOCK #3: - Should we tell him? POLLEN JOCK #1: - I think he knows. BARRY: What is this?! KEN: Match point! : You can start packing up, honey, because you're about to EAT IT! (A pollen jock coughs which confused Ken and he hits the ball the wrong way with Barry stuck to it and it goes flying into the city) BARRY:
Yowser! (Barry bounces around town and gets stuck in the engine of a car. He flies into the air conditioner and sees a bug that was frozen in there) BARRY: Ew, gross. (The man driving the car turns on the air conditioner which blows Barry into the car) GIRL IN CAR: There's a bee in the car! : - Do something! DAD DRIVING CAR: - I'm driving! BABY GIRL: (Waving at Barry) - Hi, bee. (Barry smiles and waves at the baby girl) GUY IN BACK OF CAR: - He's back here! : He's going to sting me! GIRL IN CAR: Nobody move. If you don't move, he won't sting you. Freeze! (Barry freezes as well, hovering in the middle of the car) : GRANDMA IN CAR== He blinked! (The grandma whips out some bee-spray and sprays everywhere in the car, climbing into the front seat, still trying to spray Barry) GIRL IN CAR: Spray him, Granny! DAD DRIVING THE CAR: What are you doing?! (Barry escapes the car through the air conditioner and is flying high above
the ground, safe.) BARRY: Wow... the tension level out here is unbelievable. (Barry sees that storm clouds are gathering and he can see rain clouds moving into this direction) : I gotta get home. : Can't fly in rain. : Can't fly in rain. (A rain drop hits Barry and one of his wings is damaged) : Can't fly in rain. (A second rain drop hits Barry again and he spirals downwards) Mayday! Mayday! Bee going down! (WW2 plane sound effects are played as he plummets, and he crash-lands on a plant inside an apartment near the window) VANESSA BLOOME: Ken, could you close the window please? KEN== Hey, check out my new resume. I made it into a fold-out brochure. : You see? (Folds brochure resume out) Folds out. (Ken closes the window, trapping Barry inside) BARRY: Oh, no. More humans. I don't need this. (Barry tries to fly away but smashes into the window and falls again) : What was that?
(Barry keeps trying to fly out the window but he keeps being knocked back because the window is closed) Maybe this time. This time. This time. This time! This time! This... : Drapes! (Barry taps the glass. He doesn't understand what it is) That is diabolical. KEN: It's fantastic. It's got all my special skills, even my top-ten favorite movies. ANDY: What's number one? Star Wars? KEN: Nah, I don't go for that... (Ken makes finger guns and makes "pew pew pew" sounds and then stops) : ...kind of stuff. BARRY: No wonder we shouldn't talk to them. They're out of their minds. KEN: When I leave a job interview, they're flabbergasted, can't believe what I say. BARRY: (Looking at the light on the ceiling) There's the sun. Maybe that's a way out. (Starts flying towards the lightbulb) : I don't remember the sun having a big 75 on it. (Barry hits the lightbulb and falls into the dip on the table that the humans are sitting at) KEN:
I predicted global warming. : I could feel it getting hotter. At first I thought it was just me. (Andy dips a chip into the bowl and scoops up some dip with Barry on it and is about to put it in his mouth) : Wait! Stop! Bee! (Andy drops the chip with Barry in fear and backs away. All the humans freak out) : Stand back. These are winter boots. (Ken has winter boots on his hands and he is about to smash the bee but Vanessa saves him last second) VANESSA: Wait! : Don't kill him! (Vanessa puts Barry in a glass to protect him) KEN: You know I'm allergic to them! This thing could kill me! VANESSA: Why does his life have less value than yours? KEN: Why does his life have any less value than mine? Is that your statement? VANESSA: I'm just saying all life has value. You don't know what he's capable of feeling. (Vanessa picks up Ken's brochure and puts it under the glass so she can carry Barry back to the window. Barry looks at Vanessa in amazement) KEN:
My brochure! VANESSA: There you go, little guy. (Vanessa opens the window and lets Barry out but Barry stays back and is still shocked that a human saved his life) KEN: I'm not scared of him. It's an allergic thing. VANESSA: Put that on your resume brochure. KEN: My whole face could puff up. ANDY: Make it one of your special skills. KEN: Knocking someone out is also a special skill. (Ken walks to the door) Right. Bye, Vanessa. Thanks. : - Vanessa, next week? Yogurt night? VANESSA: - Sure, Ken. You know, whatever. : (Vanessa tries to close door) KEN== - You could put carob chips on there. VANESSA: - Bye. (Closes door but Ken opens it again) KEN: - Supposed to be less calories.
VANESSA: - Bye. (Closes door) (Fast forward to the next day, Barry is still inside the house. He flies into the kitchen where Vanessa is doing dishes) BARRY== (Talking to himself) I gotta say something. : She saved my life. I gotta say something. : All right, here it goes. (Turns back) Nah. : What would I say? : I could really get in trouble. : It's a bee law. You're not supposed to talk to a human. : I can't believe I'm doing this. : I've got to. (Barry disguises himself as a character on a food can as Vanessa walks by again) : Oh, I can't do it. Come on! : No. Yes. No. : Do it. I can't.
: How should I start it? (Barry strikes a pose and wiggles his eyebrows) "You like jazz?" No, that's no good. (Vanessa is about to walk past Barry) Here she comes! Speak, you fool! : ...Hi! (Vanessa gasps and drops the dishes in fright and notices Barry on the counter) : I'm sorry. VANESSA: - You're talking. BARRY: - Yes, I know. VANESSA: (Pointing at Barry) You're talking! BARRY: I'm so sorry. VANESSA: No, it's OK. It's fine. I know I'm dreaming. : But I don't recall going to bed. BARRY: Well, I'm sure this is very disconcerting. VANESSA: This is a bit of a surprise to me. I mean, you're a bee!
BARRY: I am. And I'm not supposed to be doing this, (Pointing to the living room where Ken tried to kill him last night) but they were all trying to kill me. : And if it wasn't for you... : I had to thank you. It's just how I was raised. (Vanessa stabs her hand with a fork to test whether she's dreaming or not) : That was a little weird. VANESSA: - I'm talking with a bee. BARRY: - Yeah. VANESSA: I'm talking to a bee. And the bee is talking to me! BARRY: I just want to say I'm grateful. I'll leave now. (Barry turns to leave) VANESSA: - Wait! How did you learn to do that? BARRY: (Flying back) - What? VANESSA: The talking...thing. BARRY:
Same way you did, I guess. "Mama, Dada, honey." You pick it up. VANESSA: - That's very funny. BARRY: - Yeah. : Bees are funny. If we didn't laugh, we'd cry with what we have to deal with. : Anyway... VANESSA: Can I... : ...get you something? BARRY: - Like what? VANESSA: I don't know. I mean... I don't know. Coffee? BARRY: I don't want to put you out. VANESSA: It's no trouble. It takes two minutes. : - It's just coffee. BARRY: - I hate to impose. (Vanessa starts making coffee) VANESSA: - Don't be ridiculous!
BARRY: - Actually, I would love a cup. VANESSA: Hey, you want rum cake? BARRY: - I shouldn't. VANESSA: - Have some. BARRY: - No, I can't. VANESSA: - Come on! BARRY: I'm trying to lose a couple micrograms. VANESSA: - Where? BARRY: - These stripes don't help. VANESSA: You look great! BARRY: I don't know if you know anything about fashion. : Are you all right? VANESSA: (Pouring coffee on the floor and missing the cup completely) No. (Flash forward in time. Barry and Vanessa are sitting together at a table on top of the apartment building drinking coffee)
: BARRY== He's making the tie in the cab as they're flying up Madison. : He finally gets there. : He runs up the steps into the church. The wedding is on. : And he says, "Watermelon? I thought you said Guatemalan. : Why would I marry a watermelon?" (Barry laughs but Vanessa looks confused) VANESSA: Is that a bee joke? BARRY: That's the kind of stuff we do. VANESSA: Yeah, different. : So, what are you gonna do, Barry? (Barry stands on top of a sugar cube floating in his coffee and paddles it around with a straw like it's a gondola) BARRY: About work? I don't know. : I want to do my part for the hive, but I can't do it the way they want. VANESSA: I know how you feel.
BARRY: - You do? VANESSA: - Sure. : My parents wanted me to be a lawyer or a doctor, but I wanted to be a florist. BARRY: - Really? VANESSA: - My only interest is flowers. BARRY: Our new queen was just elected with that same campaign slogan. : Anyway, if you look... (Barry points to a tree in the middle of Central Park) : There's my hive right there. See it? VANESSA: You're in Sheep Meadow! BARRY: Yes! I'm right off the Turtle Pond! VANESSA: No way! I know that area. I lost a toe ring there once. BARRY: - Why do girls put rings on their toes? VANESSA: - Why not? BARRY:

• It's like putting a hat on your knee. VANESSA:
• Maybe I'll try that. (A custodian installing a lightbulb looks over at them but to his perspective it looks like Vanessa is talking to a cup of coffee on the table) CUSTODIAN:
• You all right, ma'am? VANESSA:
• Oh, yeah. Fine. : Just having two cups of coffee! BARRY: Anyway, this has been great. Thanks for the coffee. VANESSA== Yeah, it's no trouble. BARRY: Sorry I couldn't finish it. If I did, I'd be up the rest of my life. (Barry points towards the rum cake) : Can I take a piece of this with me? VANESSA: Sure! Here, have a crumb. (Vanessa hands Barry a crumb but it is still pretty big for Barry) BARRY:
• Thanks! VANESSA:
• Yeah. BARRY: All right. Well, then... I guess I'll see you around.
  : Or not. VANESSA: OK, Barry... BARRY: And thank you so much again... for before. VANESSA: Oh, that? That was nothing. BARRY: Well, not nothing, but... Anyway... (Vanessa and Barry hold hands, but Vanessa has to hold out a finger because her hands is to big and Barry holds that) (The custodian looks over again and it appears Vanessa is laughing at her coffee again. The lightbulb that he was screwing in sparks and he falls off the ladder) (Fast forward in time and we see two Bee Scientists testing out a parachute in a Honex wind tunnel) BEE SCIENTIST #1: This can't possibly work. BEE SCIENTIST #2: He's all set to go. We may as well try it. : OK, Dave, pull the chute. (Dave pulls the chute and the wind slams him against the wall and he falls on his face.The camera pans over and we see Barry and Adam walking together) ADAM:
  
• Sounds amazing. BARRY:
  
• It was amazing! : It was the scariest, happiest moment of my life.
  

ADAM: Humans! I can't believe you were with humans! : Giant, scary humans! What were they like? BARRY: Huge and crazy. They talk crazy. : They eat crazy giant things. They drive crazy. ADAM: - Do they try and kill you, like on TV? BARRY: - Some of them. But some of them don't. ADAM: - How'd you get back? BARRY: - Poodle. ADAM: You did it, and I'm glad. You saw whatever you wanted to see. : You had your "experience." Now you can pick out your job and be normal. BARRY: - Well... ADAM: - Well? BARRY: Well, I met someone.
ADAM: You did? Was she Bee-ish? : - A wasp?! Your parents will kill you! BARRY: - No, no, no, not a wasp. ADAM: - Spider? BARRY: - I'm not attracted to spiders. : I know, for everyone else, it's the hottest thing, with the eight legs and all. : I can't get by that face. ADAM: So who is she? BARRY: She's... human. ADAM: No, no. That's a bee law. You wouldn't break a bee law. BARRY: - Her name's Vanessa. (Adam puts his head in his hands) ADAM: - Oh, boy. BARRY== She's so nice. And she's a florist! ADAM: Oh, no! You're dating a human florist!
BARRY: We're not dating. ADAM: You're flying outside the hive, talking to humans that attack our homes : with power washers and M-80s! That's one-eighth a stick of dynamite! BARRY: She saved my life! And she understands me. ADAM: This is over! BARRY: Eat this. (Barry gives Adam a piece of the crumb that he got from Vanessa. Adam eats it) ADAM: (Adam's tone changes) This is not over! What was that? BARRY: - They call it a crumb. ADAM: - It was so stingin' stripey! BARRY: And that's not what they eat. That's what falls off what they eat! : - You know what a Cinnabon is? ADAM: - No. (Adam opens a door behind him and he pulls Barry in)
BARRY: It's bread and cinnamon and frosting. ADAM: Be quiet! BARRY: They heat it up... ADAM: Sit down! (Adam forces Barry to sit down) BARRY: (Still rambling about Cinnabons) ...really hot! (Adam grabs Barry by the shoulders) ADAM: - Listen to me! : We are not them! We're us. There's us and there's them! BARRY== Yes, but who can deny the heart that is yearning? ADAM: There's no yearning. Stop yearning. Listen to me! : You have got to start thinking bee, my friend. Thinking bee! BARRY: - Thinking bee. WORKER BEE: - Thinking bee. WORKER BEES AND ADAM: Thinking bee! Thinking bee!
Thinking bee! Thinking bee! (Flash forward in time; Barry is laying on a raft in a pool full of honey. He is wearing sunglasses) JANET: There he is. He's in the pool. MARTIN: You know what your problem is, Barry? (Barry pulls down his sunglasses and he looks annoyed) BARRY: (Sarcastic) I gotta start thinking bee? JANET: How much longer will this go on? MARTIN: It's been three days! Why aren't you working? (Puts sunglasses back on) BARRY: I've got a lot of big life decisions to think about. MARTIN: What life? You have no life! You have no job. You're barely a bee! JANET: Would it kill you to make a little honey? (Barry rolls off the raft and sinks into the honey pool) : Barry, come out. Your father's talking to you. : Martin, would you talk to him? MARTIN:
Barry, I'm talking to you! (Barry keeps sinking into the honey until he is suddenly in Central Park having a picnic with Vanessa) (Barry has a cup of honey and he clinks his glass with Vanessas. Suddenly a mosquito lands on Vanessa and she slaps it, killing it. They both gasp but then burst out laughing) VANESSA: You coming? (The camera pans over and Vanessa is climbing into a small yellow airplane) BARRY: Got everything? VANESSA: All set! BARRY: Go ahead. I'll catch up. (Vanessa lifts off and flies ahead) VANESSA: Don't be too long. (Barry catches up with Vanessa and he sticks out his arms like ana irplane. He rolls from side to side, and Vanessa copies him with the airplane) VANESSA: Watch this! (Barry stays back and watches as Vanessa draws a heart in the air using pink smoke from the plane, but on the last loop-the-loop she suddenly crashes into a mountain and the plane explodes. The destroyed plane falls into some rocks and explodes a second time) BARRY: Vanessa! (As Barry is yelling his mouth fills with honey and he wakes up, discovering that he was just day dreaming. He slowly sinks back into the honey pool) MARTIN: - We're still here.
JANET: - I told you not to yell at him. : He doesn't respond to yelling! MARTIN: - Then why yell at me? JANET: - Because you don't listen! MARTIN: I'm not listening to this. BARRY: Sorry, I've gotta go. MARTIN: - Where are you going? BARRY: - I'm meeting a friend. JANET: A girl? Is this why you can't decide? BARRY: Bye. (Barry flies out the door and Martin shakes his head) : JANET== I just hope she's Bee-ish. (Fast forward in time and Barry is sitting on Vanessa's shoulder and she is closing up her shop) BARRY: They have a huge parade of flowers every year in Pasadena? VANESSA: To be in the Tournament of Roses, that's every florist's dream!
: Up on a float, surrounded by flowers, crowds cheering. BARRY: A tournament. Do the roses compete in athletic events? VANESSA: No. All right, I've got one. How come you don't fly everywhere? BARRY: It's exhausting. Why don't you run everywhere? It's faster. VANESSA: Yeah, OK, I see, I see. All right, your turn. BARRY: TiVo. You can just freeze live TV? That's insane! VANESSA: You don't have that? BARRY: We have Hivo, but it's a disease. It's a horrible, horrible disease. VANESSA: Oh, my. (A human walks by and Barry narrowly avoids him) PASSERBY: Dumb bees! VANESSA: You must want to sting all those jerks. BARRY: We try not to sting.
It's usually fatal for us. VANESSA: So you have to watch your temper (They walk into a store) BARRY: Very carefully. You kick a wall, take a walk, : write an angry letter and throw it out. Work through it like any emotion: : Anger, jealousy, lust. (Suddenly an employee(Hector) hits Barry off of Vanessa's shoulder. Hector thinks he's saving Vanessa) VANESSA: (To Barry) Oh, my goodness! Are you OK? (Barry is getting up off the floor) BARRY: Yeah. VANESSA: (To Hector) - What is wrong with you?! HECTOR: (Confused) - It's a bug. VANESSA: He's not bothering anybody. Get out of here, you creep! (Vanessa hits Hector across the face with the magazine he had and then hits him in the head. Hector backs away covering his head) Barry: What was that? A Pic 'N' Save circular? (Vanessa sets Barry back on her shoulder)
VANESSA: Yeah, it was. How did you know? BARRY: It felt like about 10 pages. Seventy-five is pretty much our limit. VANESSA: You've really got that down to a science. BARRY: - Oh, we have to. I lost a cousin to Italian Vogue. VANESSA: - I'll bet. (Barry looks to his right and notices there is honey for sale in the aisle) BARRY: What in the name of Mighty Hercules is this? (Barry looks at all the brands of honey, shocked) How did this get here? Cute Bee, Golden Blossom, : Ray Liotta Private Select? (Barry puts his hands up and slowly turns around, a look of disgust on his face) VANESSA: - Is he that actor? BARRY: - I never heard of him. : - Why is this here? VANESSA: - For people. We eat it. BARRY:
You don't have enough food of your own?! (Hector looks back and notices that Vanessa is talking to Barry) VANESSA: - Well, yes. BARRY: - How do you get it? VANESSA: - Bees make it. BARRY: - I know who makes it! : And it's hard to make it! : There's heating, cooling, stirring. You need a whole Krelman thing! VANESSA: - It's organic. BARRY: - It's our-ganic! VANESSA: It's just honey, Barry. BARRY: Just what?! : Bees don't know about this! This is stealing! A lot of stealing! : You've taken our homes, schools, hospitals! This is all we have! :
And it's on sale?! I'm getting to the bottom of this. : I'm getting to the bottom of all of this! (Flash forward in time; Barry paints his face with black strikes like a soldier and sneaks into the storage section of the store) (Two men, including Hector, are loading boxes into some trucks) : SUPERMARKET EMPLOYEE== Hey, Hector. : - You almost done? HECTOR: - Almost. (Barry takes a step to peak around the corner) (Whispering) He is here. I sense it. : Well, I guess I'll go home now (Hector pretends to walk away by walking in place and speaking loudly) : and just leave this nice honey out, with no one around. BARRY: You're busted, box boy! HECTOR: I knew I heard something! So you can talk! BARRY: I can talk. And now you'll start talking! : Where you getting the sweet stuff?
Who's your supplier? HECTOR: I don't understand. I thought we were friends. : The last thing we want to do is upset bees! (Hector takes a thumbtack out of the board behind him and sword-fights Barry. Barry is using his stinger like a sword) : You're too late! It's ours now! BARRY: You, sir, have crossed the wrong sword! HECTOR: You, sir, will be lunch for my iguana, Ignacio! (Barry hits the thumbtack out of Hectors hand and Hector surrenders) Barry: Where is the honey coming from? : Tell me where! HECTOR: (Pointing to leaving truck) Honey Farms! It comes from Honey Farms! (Barry chases after the truck but it is getting away. He flies onto a bicyclists' backpack and he catches up to the truck) CAR DRIVER: (To bicyclist) Crazy person! (Barry flies off and lands on the windshield of the Honey farms truck. Barry looks around and sees dead bugs splattered everywhere) BARRY: What horrible thing has happened here?
: These faces, they never knew what hit them. And now : they're on the road to nowhere! (Barry hears a sudden whisper) (Barry looks up and sees Mooseblood, a mosquito playing dead) MOOSEBLOOD: Just keep still. BARRY: What? You're not dead? MOOSEBLOOD: Do I look dead? They will wipe anything that moves. Where you headed? BARRY: To Honey Farms. I am onto something huge here. MOOSEBLOOD: I'm going to Alaska. Moose blood, crazy stuff. Blows your head off! ANOTHER BUG PLAYING DEAD: I'm going to Tacoma. (Barry looks at another bug) BARRY: - And you? MOOSEBLOOD: - He really is dead. BARRY: All right. (Another bug hits the windshield and the drivers notice. They activate the windshield wipers) MOOSEBLOOD== Uh-oh! (The windshield wipers are slowly sliding over the dead bugs and wiping
them off) BARRY: - What is that?! MOOSEBLOOD: - Oh, no! : - A wiper! Triple blade! BARRY: - Triple blade? MOOSEBLOOD: Jump on! It's your only chance, bee! (Mooseblood and Barry grab onto the wiper and they hold on as it wipes the windshield) Why does everything have to be so doggone clean?! : How much do you people need to see?! (Bangs on windshield) : Open your eyes! Stick your head out the window! RADIO IN TRUCK: From NPR News in Washington, I'm Carl Kasell. MOOSEBLOOD: But don't kill no more bugs! (Mooseblood and Barry are washed off by the wipr fluid) MOOSEBLOOD: - Bee! BARRY: - Moose blood guy!! (Barry starts screaming as he hangs onto the antenna) (Suddenly it is revealed that a water bug is also hanging on the antenna.
There is a pause and then Barry and the water bug both start screaming) TRUCK DRIVER: - You hear something? GUY IN TRUCK: - Like what? TRUCK DRIVER: Like tiny screaming. GUY IN TRUCK: Turn off the radio. (The antenna starts to lower until it gets to low and sinks into the truck. The water bug flies off and Barry is forced to let go and he is blown away. He luckily lands inside a horn on top of the truck where he finds Mooseblood, who was blown into the same place) MOOSEBLOOD: Whassup, bee boy? BARRY: Hey, Blood. (Fast forward in time and we see that Barry is deep in conversation with Mooseblood. They have been sitting in this truck for a while) BARRY: ...Just a row of honey jars, as far as the eye could see. MOOSEBLOOD: Wow! BARRY: I assume wherever this truck goes is where they're getting it. : I mean, that honey's ours. MOOSEBLOOD: - Bees hang tight. BARRY:

• We're all jammed in. : It's a close community. MOOSEBLOOD: Not us, man. We on our own. Every mosquito on his own. BARRY:
• What if you get in trouble? MOOSEBLOOD:
• You a mosquito, you in trouble. : Nobody likes us. They just smack. See a mosquito, smack, smack! BARRY: At least you're out in the world. You must meet girls. MOOSEBLOOD: Mosquito girls try to trade up, get with a moth, dragonfly. : Mosquito girl don't want no mosquito. (An ambulance passes by and it has a blood donation sign on it) You got to be kidding me! : Mooseblood's about to leave the building! So long, bee! (Mooseblood leaves and flies onto the window of the ambulance where there are other mosquito's hanging out) :
• Hey, guys! OTHER MOSQUITO:
• Mooseblood!

MOOSEBLOOD: I knew I'd catch y'all down here. Did you bring your crazy straw? (The truck goes out of view and Barry notices that the truck he's on is pulling into a camp of some sort) TRUCK DRIVER: We throw it in jars, slap a label on it, and it's pretty much pure profit. (Barry flies out) BARRY: What is this place? BEEKEEPER 1#: A bee's got a brain the size of a pinhead. BEEKEEPER #2: They are pinheads! : Pinhead. : - Check out the new smoker. BEEKEEPER #1: - Oh, sweet. That's the one you want. : The Thomas 3000! BARRY: Smoker? BEEKEEPER #1: Ninety puffs a minute, semi-automatic. Twice the nicotine, all the tar. : A couple breaths of this knocks them right out.
BEEKEEPER #2: They make the honey, and we make the money. BARRY: "They make the honey, and we make the money"? (The Beekeeper sprays hundreds of cheap miniature apartments with the smoker. The bees are fainting or passing out) Oh, my! : What's going on? Are you OK? (Barry flies into one of the apartment and helps a Bee couple get off the ground. They are coughing and its hard for them to stand) BEE IN APARTMENT: Yeah. It doesn't last too long. BARRY: Do you know you're in a fake hive with fake walls? BEE IN APPARTMENT: Our queen was moved here. We had no choice. (The apartment room is completely empty except for a photo on the wall of the "queen" who is obviously a man in women's clothes) BARRY: This is your queen? That's a man in women's clothes! : That's a drag queen! : What is this? (Barry flies out and he discovers that there are hundreds of these structures, each housing thousands of Bees) Oh, no! : There's hundreds of them! (Barry takes out his camera and takes pictures of these Bee work camps. The beekeepers look very evil in these depictions)
Bee honey. : Our honey is being brazenly stolen on a massive scale! : This is worse than anything bears have done! I intend to do something. (Flash forward in time and Barry is showing these pictures to his parents) JANET: Oh, Barry, stop. MARTIN: Who told you humans are taking our honey? That's a rumor. BARRY: Do these look like rumors? (Holds up the pictures) UNCLE CARL: That's a conspiracy theory. These are obviously doctored photos. JANET: How did you get mixed up in this? ADAM: He's been talking to humans. JANET: - What? MARTIN: - Talking to humans?! ADAM: He has a human girlfriend. And they make out! JANET: Make out? Barry!
BARRY: We do not. ADAM: - You wish you could. MARTIN: - Whose side are you on? BARRY: The bees! UNCLE CARL: (He has been sitting in the back of the room this entire time) I dated a cricket once in San Antonio. Those crazy legs kept me up all night. JANET: Barry, this is what you want to do with your life? BARRY: I want to do it for all our lives. Nobody works harder than bees! : Dad, I remember you coming home so overworked : your hands were still stirring. You couldn't stop. JANET: I remember that. BARRY: What right do they have to our honey? : We live on two cups a year. They put it in lip balm for no reason whatsoever!
ADAM: Even if it's true, what can one bee do? BARRY: Sting them where it really hurts. MARTIN: In the face! The eye! : - That would hurt. BARRY: - No. MARTIN: Up the nose? That's a killer. BARRY: There's only one place you can sting the humans, one place where it matters. (Flash forward a bit in time and we are watching the Bee News) BEE NEWS NARRATOR: Hive at Five, the hive's only full-hour action news source. BEE PROTESTOR: No more bee beards! BEE NEWS NARRATOR: With Bob Bumble at the anchor desk. : Weather with Storm Stinger. : Sports with Buzz Larvi. : And Jeanette Chung. BOB BUMBLE: - Good evening. I'm Bob Bumble. JEANETTE CHUNG:

• And I'm Jeanette Chung. BOB BUMBLE: A tri-county bee, Barry Benson, : intends to sue the human race for stealing our honey, : packaging it and profiting from it illegally! JEANETTE CHUNG: Tomorrow night on Bee Larry King, : we'll have three former queens here in our studio, discussing their new book, : Classy Ladies, out this week on Hexagon. (The scene changes to an interview on the news with Bee version of Larry King and Barry) BEE LARRY KING: Tonight we're talking to Barry Benson. : Did you ever think, "I'm a kid from the hive. I can't do this"? BARRY: Bees have never been afraid to change the world. : What about Bee Columbus? Bee Gandhi? Bejesus? BEE LARRY KING: Where I'm from, we'd never sue humans.
  : We were thinking of stickball or candy stores. BARRY: How old are you? BEE LARRY KING: The bee community is supporting you in this case, : which will be the trial of the bee century. BARRY: You know, they have a Larry King in the human world too. BEE LARRY KING: It's a common name. Next week... BARRY: He looks like you and has a show and suspenders and colored dots... BEE LARRY KING: Next week... BARRY: Glasses, quotes on the bottom from the guest even though you just heard 'em. BEE LARRY KING: Bear Week next week! They're scary, hairy and here, live. (Bee Larry King gets annoyed and flies away offscreen) BARRY: Always leans forward, pointy shoulders, squinty eyes, very Jewish. (Flash forward in time. We see Vanessa enter and Ken enters behind her. They are arguing)
  

KEN: In tennis, you attack at the point of weakness! VANESSA: It was my grandmother, Ken. She's 81. KEN== Honey, her backhand's a joke! I'm not gonna take advantage of that? BARRY: (To Ken) Quiet, please. Actual work going on here. KEN: (Pointing at Barry) - Is that that same bee? VANESSA: - Yes, it is! : I'm helping him sue the human race. BARRY: - Hello. KEN: - Hello, bee. VANESSA: This is Ken. BARRY: (Recalling the "Winter Boots" incident earlier) Yeah, I remember you. Timberland, size ten and a half. Vibram sole, I believe. KEN: (To Vanessa) Why does he talk again? VANESSA:
Listen, you better go 'cause we're really busy working. KEN: But it's our yogurt night! VANESSA: (Holding door open for Ken) Bye-bye. KEN: (Yelling) Why is yogurt night so difficult?! (Ken leaves and Vanessa walks over to Barry. His workplace is a mess) VANESSA: You poor thing. You two have been at this for hours! BARRY: Yes, and Adam here has been a huge help. ADAM: - Frosting... - How many sugars? ==BARRY== Just one. I try not to use the competition. : So why are you helping me? VANESSA: Bees have good qualities. : And it takes my mind off the shop. : Instead of flowers, people are giving balloon bouquets now. BARRY:
Those are great, if you're three. VANESSA: And artificial flowers. BARRY: - Oh, those just get me psychotic! VANESSA: - Yeah, me too. : BARRY: Bent stingers, pointless pollination. ADAM: Bees must hate those fake things! : Nothing worse than a daffodil that's had work done. : Maybe this could make up for it a little bit. VANESSA: - This lawsuit's a pretty big deal. BARRY: - I guess. ADAM: You sure you want to go through with it? BARRY: Am I sure? When I'm done with the humans, they won't be able : to say, "Honey, I'm home," without paying a royalty! (Flash forward in time and we are watching the human news. The camera shows
a crowd outside a courthouse) NEWS REPORTER: It's an incredible scene here in downtown Manhattan, : where the world anxiously waits, because for the first time in history, : we will hear for ourselves if a honeybee can actually speak. (We are no longer watching through a news camera) ADAM: What have we gotten into here, Barry? BARRY: It's pretty big, isn't it? ADAM== (Looking at the hundreds of people around the courthouse) I can't believe how many humans don't work during the day. BARRY: You think billion-dollar multinational food companies have good lawyers? SECURITY GUARD: Everybody needs to stay behind the barricade. (A limousine drives up and a fat man,Layton Montgomery, a honey industry owner gets out and walks past Barry) ADAM: - What's the matter? BARRY: - I don't know, I just got a chill. (Fast forward in time and everyone is in the court) MONTGOMERY: Well, if it isn't the bee team.
(To Honey Industry lawyers) You boys work on this? MAN: All rise! The Honorable Judge Bumbleton presiding. JUDGE BUMBLETON: All right. Case number 4475, : Superior Court of New York, Barry Bee Benson v. the Honey Industry : is now in session. : Mr. Montgomery, you're representing the five food companies collectively? MONTGOMERY: A privilege. JUDGE BUMBLETON: Mr. Benson... you're representing all the bees of the world? (Everyone looks closely, they are waiting to see if a Bee can really talk) (Barry makes several buzzing sounds to sound like a Bee) BARRY: I'm kidding. Yes, Your Honor, we're ready to proceed. JUDGE BUMBLBETON: Mr. Montgomery, your opening statement, please. MONTGOMERY: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, : my grandmother was a simple woman. :
Born on a farm, she believed it was man's divine right : to benefit from the bounty of nature God put before us. : If we lived in the topsy-turvy world Mr. Benson imagines, : just think of what would it mean. : I would have to negotiate with the silkworm : for the elastic in my britches! : Talking bee! (Montgomery walks over and looks closely at Barry) : How do we know this isn't some sort of : holographic motion-picture-capture Hollywood wizardry? : They could be using laser beams! : Robotics! Ventriloquism! Cloning! For all we know, : he could be on steroids! JUDGE BUMBLETON: Mr. Benson?
BARRY: Ladies and gentlemen, there's no trickery here. : I'm just an ordinary bee. Honey's pretty important to me. : It's important to all bees. We invented it! : We make it. And we protect it with our lives. : Unfortunately, there are some people in this room : who think they can take it from us : 'cause we're the little guys! I'm hoping that, after this is all over, : you'll see how, by taking our honey, you not only take everything we have : but everything we are! JANET== (To Martin) I wish he'd dress like that all the time. So nice! JUDGE BUMBLETON: Call your first witness. BARRY: So, Mr. Klauss Vanderhayden
of Honey Farms, big company you have. KLAUSS VANDERHAYDEN: I suppose so. BARRY: I see you also own Honeyburton and Honron! KLAUSS: Yes, they provide beekeepers for our farms. BARRY: Beekeeper. I find that to be a very disturbing term. : I don't imagine you employ any bee-free-ers, do you? KLAUSS: (Quietly) - No. BARRY: - I couldn't hear you. KLAUSS: - No. BARRY: - No. : Because you don't free bees. You keep bees. Not only that, : it seems you thought a bear would be an appropriate image for a jar of honey. KLAUSS: They're very lovable creatures.
: Yogi Bear, Fozzie Bear, Build-A-Bear. BARRY: You mean like this? (The bear from Over The Hedge barges in through the back door and it is roaring and standing on its hind legs. It is thrashing its claws and people are screaming. It is being held back by a guard who has the bear on a chain) : (Pointing to the roaring bear) Bears kill bees! : How'd you like his head crashing through your living room?! : Biting into your couch! Spitting out your throw pillows! JUDGE BUMBLETON: OK, that's enough. Take him away. (The bear stops roaring and thrashing and walks out) BARRY: So, Mr. Sting, thank you for being here. Your name intrigues me. : - Where have I heard it before? MR. STING: - I was with a band called The Police. BARRY: But you've never been a police officer, have you? STING: No, I haven't. BARRY:
No, you haven't. And so here we have yet another example : of bee culture casually stolen by a human : for nothing more than a prance-about stage name. STING: Oh, please. BARRY: Have you ever been stung, Mr. Sting? : Because I'm feeling a little stung, Sting. : Or should I say... Mr. Gordon M. Sumner! MONTGOMERY: That's not his real name?! You idiots! BARRY: Mr. Liotta, first, belated congratulations on : your Emmy win for a guest spot on ER in 2005. RAY LIOTTA: Thank you. Thank you. BARRY: I see from your resume that you're devilishly handsome : with a churning inner turmoil
that's ready to blow. RAY LIOTTA: I enjoy what I do. Is that a crime? BARRY: Not yet it isn't. But is this what it's come to for you? : Exploiting tiny, helpless bees so you don't : have to rehearse your part and learn your lines, sir? RAY LIOTTA: Watch it, Benson! I could blow right now! BARRY: This isn't a goodfella. This is a badfella! (Ray Liotta looses it and tries to grab Barry) RAY LIOTTA: Why doesn't someone just step on this creep, and we can all go home?! JUDGE BUMBLETON: - Order in this court! RAY LIOTTA: - You're all thinking it! (Judge Bumbleton starts banging her gavel) JUDGE BUMBLETON: Order! Order, I say! RAY LIOTTA: - Say it! MAN:

• Mr. Liotta, please sit down! (We see a montage of magazines which feature the court case) (Flash forward in time and Barry is back home with Vanessa) BARRY: I think it was awfully nice of that bear to pitch in like that. VANESSA: I think the jury's on our side. BARRY: Are we doing everything right,you know, legally? VANESSA: I'm a florist. BARRY: Right. Well, here's to a great team. VANESSA: To a great team! (Ken walks in from work. He sees Barry and he looks upset when he sees Barry clinking his glass with Vanessa) KEN: Well, hello. VANESSA:
• Oh, Ken! BARRY:
• Hello! VANESSA: I didn't think you were coming. : No, I was just late. I tried to call, but... (Ken holds up his phone and flips it open. The phone has no charge) ...the battery... VANESSA:

I didn't want all this to go to waste, so I called Barry. Luckily, he was free. KEN: Oh, that was lucky. (Ken sits down at the table across from Barry and Vanessa leaves the room) VANESSA: There's a little left. I could heat it up. KEN: (Not taking his eyes off Barry) Yeah, heat it up, sure, whatever. BARRY: So I hear you're quite a tennis player. : I'm not much for the game myself. The ball's a little grabby. KEN: That's where I usually sit. Right... (Points to where Barry is sitting) there. VANESSA: (Calling from other room) Ken, Barry was looking at your resume, : and he agreed with me that eating with chopsticks isn't really a special skill. KEN: (To Barry) You think I don't see what you're doing? BARRY: I know how hard it is to find the right job. We have that in common.
KEN: Do we? BARRY: Bees have 100 percent employment, but we do jobs like taking the crud out. KEN: (Menacingly) That's just what I was thinking about doing. (Ken reaches for a fork on the table but knocks if on the floor. He goes to pick it up) VANESSA: Ken, I let Barry borrow your razor for his fuzz. I hope that was all right. (Ken quickly rises back up after hearing this but hits his head on the table and yells) BARRY: I'm going to drain the old stinger. KEN: Yeah, you do that. (Barry flies past Ken to get to the bathroom and Ken freaks out, splashing some of the wine he was using to cool his head in his eyes. He yells in anger) (Barry looks at the magazines featuring his victories in court) BARRY: Look at that. (Barry flies into the bathroom) (He puts his hand on his head but this makes hurts him and makes him even madder. He yells again) (Barry is washing his hands in the sink but then Ken walks in) KEN: You know, you know I've just about had it (Closes bathroom door behind him) with your little mind games. (Ken is menacingly rolling up a magazine) BARRY:
(Backing away) - What's that? KEN: - Italian Vogue. BARRY: Mamma mia, that's a lot of pages. KEN: It's a lot of ads. BARRY: Remember what Van said, why is your life more valuable than mine? KEN: That's funny, I just can't seem to recall that! (Ken smashes everything off the sink with the magazine and Barry narrowly escapes) (Ken follows Barry around and tries to hit him with the magazine but he keeps missing) (Ken gets a spray bottle) : I think something stinks in here! BARRY: (Enjoying the spray) I love the smell of flowers. (Ken holds a lighter in front of the spray bottle) KEN: How do you like the smell of flames?! BARRY: Not as much. (Ken fires his make-shift flamethrower but misses Barry, burning the bathroom. He torches the whole room but looses his footing and falls into the bathtub. After getting hit in the head by falling objects 3 times he picks up the shower head, revealing a Water bug hiding under it) WATER BUG: Water bug! Not taking sides!
(Barry gets up out of a pile of bathroom supplies and he is wearing a chapstick hat) BARRY: Ken, I'm wearing a Chapstick hat! This is pathetic! (Ken switches the shower head to lethal) KEN: I've got issues! (Ken sprays Barry with the shower head and he crash lands into the toilet) (Ken menacingly looks down into the toilet at Barry) Well, well, well, a royal flush! BARRY: - You're bluffing. KEN: - Am I? (flushes toilet) (Barry grabs a chapstick from the toilet seat and uses it to surf in the flushing toilet) BARRY: Surf's up, dude! (Barry flies out of the toilet on the chapstick and sprays Ken's face with the toilet water) : EW,Poo water! BARRY: That bowl is gnarly. KEN: (Aiming a toilet cleaner at Barry) Except for those dirty yellow rings! (Barry cowers and covers his head and Vanessa runs in and takes the toilet cleaner from Ken just before he hits Barry) VANESSA: Kenneth! What are you doing?! KEN== (Leaning towards Barry)
You know, I don't even like honey! I don't eat it! VANESSA: We need to talk! (Vanessa pulls Ken out of the bathroom) : He's just a little bee! : And he happens to be the nicest bee I've met in a long time! KEN: Long time? What are you talking about?! Are there other bugs in your life? VANESSA: No, but there are other things bugging me in life. And you're one of them! KEN: Fine! Talking bees, no yogurt night... : My nerves are fried from riding on this emotional roller coaster! VANESSA: Goodbye, Ken. (Ken huffs and walks out and slams the door. But suddenly he walks back in and stares at Barry) : And for your information, I prefer sugar-free, artificial sweeteners MADE BY MAN! (Ken leaves again and Vanessa leans in towards Barry) VANESSA: I'm sorry about all that. (Ken walks back in again)
KEN: I know it's got an aftertaste! I LIKE IT! (Ken leaves for the last time) VANESSA: I always felt there was some kind of barrier between Ken and me. : I couldn't overcome it. Oh, well. : Are you OK for the trial? BARRY: I believe Mr. Montgomery is about out of ideas. (Flash forward in time and Barry, Adam, and Vanessa are back in court) MONTGOMERY-- We would like to call Mr. Barry Benson Bee to the stand. ADAM: Good idea! You can really see why he's considered one of the best lawyers... (Barry stares at Adam) ...Yeah. LAWYER: Layton, you've gotta weave some magic with this jury, or it's gonna be all over. MONTGOMERY: Don't worry. The only thing I have to do to turn this jury around : is to remind them of what they don't like about bees. (To lawyer)

• You got the tweezers? LAWYER:
• Are you allergic? MONTGOMERY: Only to losing, son. Only to losing. : Mr. Benson Bee, I'll ask you what I think we'd all like to know. : What exactly is your relationship (Points to Vanessa) : to that woman? BARRY: We're friends. MONTGOMERY:
• Good friends? BARRY:
• Yes. MONTGOMERY: How good? Do you live together? ADAM: Wait a minute... : MONTGOMERY: Are you her little... : ...bedbug? (Adam's stinger starts vibrating. He is agitated) I've seen a bee documentary or two. From what I understand,
  : doesn't your queen give birth to all the bee children? BARRY:
  
• Yeah, but... MONTGOMERY: (Pointing at Janet and Martin)
  
• So those aren't your real parents! JANET:
  
• Oh, Barry... BARRY:
  
• Yes, they are! ADAM: Hold me back! (Vanessa tries to hold Adam back. He wants to sting Montgomery) MONTGOMERY: You're an illegitimate bee, aren't you, Benson? ADAM: He's denouncing bees! MONTGOMERY: Don't y'all date your cousins? (Montgomery leans over on the jury stand and stares at Adam) VANESSA:
  
• Objection! (Vanessa raises her hand to object but Adam gets free. He flies straight at Montgomery) =ADAM:
  
• I'm going to pincushion this guy! BARRY: Adam, don't! It's what he wants! (Adam stings Montgomery in the butt and he starts thrashing around)
  

MONTGOMERY: Oh, I'm hit!! : Oh, lordy, I am hit! JUDGE BUMBLETON: (Banging gavel) Order! Order! MONTGOMERY: (Overreacting) The venom! The venom is coursing through my veins! : I have been felled by a winged beast of destruction! : You see? You can't treat them like equals! They're striped savages! : Stinging's the only thing they know! It's their way! BARRY: - Adam, stay with me. ADAM: - I can't feel my legs. MONTGOMERY: (Overreacting and throwing his body around the room) What angel of mercy will come forward to suck the poison : from my heaving buttocks? JUDGE BUMLBETON: I will have order in this court. Order!
: Order, please! (Flash forward in time and we see a human news reporter) NEWS REPORTER: The case of the honeybees versus the human race : took a pointed turn against the bees : yesterday when one of their legal team stung Layton T. Montgomery. (Adam is laying in a hospital bed and Barry flies in to see him) BARRY: - Hey, buddy. ADAM: - Hey. BARRY: - Is there much pain? ADAM: - Yeah. : I... : I blew the whole case, didn't I? BARRY: It doesn't matter. What matters is you're alive. You could have died. ADAM: I'd be better off dead. Look at me. (A small plastic sword is replaced as Adam's stinger) They got it from the cafeteria downstairs, in a tuna sandwich.
: Look, there's a little celery still on it. (Flicks off the celery and sighs) BARRY: What was it like to sting someone? ADAM: I can't explain it. It was all... : All adrenaline and then... and then ecstasy! BARRY: ...All right. ADAM: You think it was all a trap? BARRY: Of course. I'm sorry. I flew us right into this. : What were we thinking? Look at us. We're just a couple of bugs in this world. ADAM: What will the humans do to us if they win? BARRY: I don't know. ADAM: I hear they put the roaches in motels. That doesn't sound so bad. BARRY: Adam, they check in, but they don't check out!
ADAM: Oh, my. (Coughs) Could you get a nurse to close that window? BARRY: - Why? ADAM: - The smoke. (We can see that two humans are smoking cigarettes outside) : Bees don't smoke. BARRY: Right. Bees don't smoke. : Bees don't smoke! But some bees are smoking. : That's it! That's our case! ADAM: It is? It's not over? BARRY: Get dressed. I've gotta go somewhere. : Get back to the court and stall. Stall any way you can. (Flash forward in time and Adam is making a paper boat in the courtroom) ADAM: And assuming you've done step 29 correctly, you're ready for the tub! (We see that the jury have each made their own paper boats after being taught how by Adam. They all look confused) JUDGE BUMBLETON:
Mr. Flayman. ADAM: Yes? Yes, Your Honor! JUDGE BUMBLETON: Where is the rest of your team? ADAM: (Continues stalling) Well, Your Honor, it's interesting. : Bees are trained to fly haphazardly, : and as a result, we don't make very good time. : I actually heard a funny story about... MONTGOMERY: Your Honor, haven't these ridiculous bugs : taken up enough of this court's valuable time? : How much longer will we allow these absurd shenanigans to go on? : They have presented no compelling evidence to support their charges : against my clients, who run legitimate businesses. : I move for a complete dismissal
of this entire case! JUDGE BUMBLETON: Mr. Flayman, I'm afraid I'm going : to have to consider Mr. Montgomery's motion. ADAM: But you can't! We have a terrific case. MONTGOMERY: Where is your proof? Where is the evidence? : Show me the smoking gun! BARRY: (Barry flies in through the door) Hold it, Your Honor! You want a smoking gun? : Here is your smoking gun. (Vanessa walks in holding a bee smoker. She sets it down on the Judge's podium) JUDGE BUMBLETON: What is that? BARRY: It's a bee smoker! MONTGOMERY: (Picks up smoker) What, this? This harmless little contraption? : This couldn't hurt a fly, let alone a bee. (Montgomery accidentally fires it at the bees in the crowd and they faint
and cough) (Dozens of reporters start taking pictures of the suffering bees) BARRY: Look at what has happened : to bees who have never been asked, "Smoking or non?" : Is this what nature intended for us? : To be forcibly addicted to smoke machines : and man-made wooden slat work camps? : Living out our lives as honey slaves to the white man? (Barry points to the honey industry owners. One of them is an African American so he awkwardly separates himself from the others) LAWYER: - What are we gonna do? - He's playing the species card. BARRY: Ladies and gentlemen, please, free these bees! ADAM AND VANESSA: Free the bees! Free the bees! BEES IN CROWD: Free the bees! HUMAN JURY: Free the bees! Free the bees! JUDGE BUMBLETON: The court finds in favor of the bees!
BARRY: Vanessa, we won! VANESSA: I knew you could do it! High-five! (Vanessa hits Barry hard because her hand is too big) : Sorry. BARRY: (Overjoyed) I'm OK! You know what this means? : All the honey will finally belong to the bees. : Now we won't have to work so hard all the time. MONTGOMERY: This is an unholy perversion of the balance of nature, Benson. : You'll regret this. (Montgomery leaves and Barry goes outside the courtroom. Several reporters start asking Barry questions) REPORTER 1#: Barry, how much honey is out there? BARRY: All right. One at a time. REPORTER 2#: Barry, who are you wearing? BARRY: My sweater is Ralph Lauren, and I have no pants.
(Barry flies outside with the paparazzi and Adam and Vanessa stay back) ADAM: (To Vanessa) - What if Montgomery's right? Vanessa: - What do you mean? ADAM: We've been living the bee way a long time, 27 million years. (Flash forward in time and Barry is talking to a man) BUSINESS MAN: Congratulations on your victory. What will you demand as a settlement? BARRY: First, we'll demand a complete shutdown of all bee work camps. (As Barry is talking we see a montage of men putting "closed" tape over the work camps and freeing the bees in the crappy apartments) Then we want back the honey that was ours to begin with, : every last drop. (Men in suits are pushing all the honey of the aisle and into carts) We demand an end to the glorification of the bear as anything more (We see a statue of a bear-shaped honey container being pulled down by bees) than a filthy, smelly, bad-breath stink machine. : We're all aware of what they do in the woods. (We see Winnie the Pooh sharing his honey with Piglet in the cross-hairs of a high-tech sniper rifle) BARRY: (Looking through binoculars)
Wait for my signal. : Take him out. (Winnie gets hit by a tranquilizer dart and dramatically falls off the log he was standing on, his tongue hanging out. Piglet looks at Pooh in fear and the Sniper takes the honey.) SNIPER: He'll have nausea for a few hours, then he'll be fine. (Flash forward in time) BARRY: And we will no longer tolerate bee-negative nicknames... (Mr. Sting is sitting at home until he is taken out of his house by the men in suits) STING: But it's just a prance-about stage name! BARRY: ...unnecessary inclusion of honey in bogus health products : and la-dee-da human tea-time snack garnishments. (An old lady is mixing honey into her tea but suddenly men in suits smash her face down on the table and take the honey) OLD LADY: Can't breathe. (A honey truck pulls up to Barry's hive) WORKER: Bring it in, boys! : Hold it right there! Good. : Tap it.
(Tons of honey is being pumped into the hive's storage) BEE WORKER 1#: (Honey overflows from the cup) Mr. Buzzwell, we just passed three cups, and there's gallons more coming! : - I think we need to shut down! =BEE WORKER #2= - Shut down? We've never shut down. : Shut down honey production! DEAN BUZZWELL: Stop making honey! (The bees all leave their stations. Two bees run into a room and they put the keys into a machine) Turn your key, sir! (Two worker bees dramatically turn their keys, which opens the button which they press, shutting down the honey-making machines. This is the first time this has ever happened) BEE: ...What do we do now? (Flash forward in time and a Bee is about to jump into a pool full of honey) Cannonball! (The bee gets stuck in the honey and we get a short montage of Bees leaving work) (We see the Pollen Jocks flying but one of them gets a call on his antenna) LOU LU DUVA: (Through "phone") We're shutting honey production! : Mission abort. POLLEN JOCK #1: Aborting pollination and nectar detail. Returning to base. (The Pollen Jocks fly back to the hive)
(We get a time lapse of Central Park slowly wilting away as the bees all relax) BARRY: Adam, you wouldn't believe how much honey was out there. ADAM: Oh, yeah? BARRY: What's going on? Where is everybody? (The entire street is deserted) : - Are they out celebrating? ADAM: - They're home. : They don't know what to do. Laying out, sleeping in. : I heard your Uncle Carl was on his way to San Antonio with a cricket. BARRY: At least we got our honey back. ADAM: Sometimes I think, so what if humans liked our honey? Who wouldn't? : It's the greatest thing in the world! I was excited to be part of making it. : This was my new desk. This was my new job. I wanted to do it really well. :
And now... : Now I can't. (Flash forward in time and Barry is talking to Vanessa) BARRY: I don't understand why they're not happy. : I thought their lives would be better! : They're doing nothing. It's amazing. Honey really changes people. VANESSA: You don't have any idea what's going on, do you? BARRY: - What did you want to show me? (Vanessa takes Barry to the rooftop where they first had coffee and points to her store) VANESSA: - This. (Points at her flowers. They are all grey and wilting) BARRY: What happened here? VANESSA: That is not the half of it. (Small flash forward in time and Vanessa and Barry are on the roof of her store and she points to Central Park) (We see that Central Park is no longer green and colorful, rather it is grey, brown, and dead-like. It is very depressing to look at) BARRY: Oh, no. Oh, my. :
They're all wilting. VANESSA: Doesn't look very good, does it? BARRY: No. VANESSA: And whose fault do you think that is? BARRY: You know, I'm gonna guess bees. VANESSA== (Staring at Barry) Bees? BARRY: Specifically, me. : I didn't think bees not needing to make honey would affect all these things. VANESSA: It's not just flowers. Fruits, vegetables, they all need bees. BARRY: That's our whole SAT test right there. VANESSA: Take away produce, that affects the entire animal kingdom. : And then, of course... BARRY: The human species? : So if there's no more pollination,
: it could all just go south here, couldn't it? VANESSA: I know this is also partly my fault. BARRY: How about a suicide pact? VANESSA: How do we do it? BARRY: - I'll sting you, you step on me. VANESSA: - That just kills you twice. BARRY: Right, right. VANESSA: Listen, Barry... sorry, but I gotta get going. (Vanessa leaves) BARRY: (To himself) I had to open my mouth and talk. : Vanessa? : Vanessa? Why are you leaving? Where are you going? (Vanessa is getting into a taxi) VANESSA: To the final Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena. :
They've moved it to this weekend because all the flowers are dying. : It's the last chance I'll ever have to see it. BARRY: Vanessa, I just wanna say I'm sorry. I never meant it to turn out like this. VANESSA: I know. Me neither. (The taxi starts to drive away) BARRY: Tournament of Roses. Roses can't do sports. : Wait a minute. Roses. Roses? : Roses! : Vanessa! (Barry flies after the Taxi) VANESSA: Roses?! : Barry? (Barry is flying outside the window of the taxi) BARRY: - Roses are flowers! VANESSA: - Yes, they are. BARRY: Flowers, bees, pollen!
VANESSA: I know. That's why this is the last parade. BARRY: Maybe not. Could you ask him to slow down? VANESSA: Could you slow down? (The taxi driver screeches to a stop and Barry keeps flying forward) : Barry! (Barry flies back to the window) BARRY: OK, I made a huge mistake. This is a total disaster, all my fault. VANESSA: Yes, it kind of is. BARRY: I've ruined the planet. I wanted to help you : with the flower shop. I've made it worse. VANESSA: Actually, it's completely closed down. BARRY: I thought maybe you were remodeling. : But I have another idea, and it's greater than my previous ideas combined. VANESSA: I don't want to hear it!
BARRY: All right, they have the roses, the roses have the pollen. : I know every bee, plant and flower bud in this park. : All we gotta do is get what they've got back here with what we've got. : - Bees. VANESSA: - Park. BARRY: - Pollen! VANESSA: - Flowers. BARRY: - Re-pollination! VANESSA: - Across the nation! : Tournament of Roses, Pasadena, California. : They've got nothing but flowers, floats and cotton candy. : Security will be tight. BARRY: I have an idea.
(Flash forward in time. Vanessa is about to board a plane which has all the Roses on board. VANESSA: Vanessa Bloome, FTD. (Holds out badge) : Official floral business. It's real. SECURITY GUARD: Sorry, ma'am. Nice brooch. =VANESSA== Thank you. It was a gift. (Barry is revealed to be hiding inside the brooch) (Flash back in time and Barry and Vanessa are discussing their plan) BARRY: Once inside, we just pick the right float. VANESSA: How about The Princess and the Pea? : I could be the princess, and you could be the pea! BARRY: Yes, I got it. : - Where should I sit? GUARD: - What are you? BARRY: - I believe I'm the pea. GUARD: - The pea? VANESSA:
It goes under the mattresses. GUARD: - Not in this fairy tale, sweetheart. - I'm getting the marshal. VANESSA: You do that! This whole parade is a fiasco! : Let's see what this baby'll do. (Vanessa drives the float through traffic) GUARD: Hey, what are you doing?! BARRY== Then all we do is blend in with traffic... : ...without arousing suspicion. : Once at the airport, there's no stopping us. (Flash forward in time and Barry and Vanessa are about to get on a plane) SECURITY GUARD: Stop! Security. : - You and your insect pack your float? VANESSA: - Yes. SECURITY GUARD: Has it been in your possession the entire time? VANESSA: - Yes.
SECURITY GUARD: Would you remove your shoes? (To Barry) - Remove your stinger. BARRY: - It's part of me. SECURITY GUARD: I know. Just having some fun. Enjoy your flight. (Barry plotting with Vanessa) BARRY: Then if we're lucky, we'll have just enough pollen to do the job. (Flash forward in time and Barry and Vanessa are flying on the plane) Can you believe how lucky we are? We have just enough pollen to do the job! VANESSA: I think this is gonna work. BARRY: It's got to work. CAPTAIN SCOTT: (On intercom) Attention, passengers, this is Captain Scott. : We have a bit of bad weather in New York. : It looks like we'll experience a couple hours delay. VANESSA: Barry, these are cut flowers with no water. They'll never make it. BARRY:
I gotta get up there and talk to them. VANESSA== Be careful. (Barry flies right outside the cockpit door) BARRY: Can I get help with the Sky Mall magazine? I'd like to order the talking inflatable nose and ear hair trimmer. (The flight attendant opens the door and walks out and Barry flies into the cockpit unseen) BARRY: Captain, I'm in a real situation. CAPTAIN SCOTT: - What'd you say, Hal? CO-PILOT HAL: - Nothing. (Scott notices Barry and freaks out) CAPTAIN SCOTT: Bee! BARRY: No,no,no, Don't freak out! My entire species... (Captain Scott gets out of his seat and tries to suck Barry into a handheld vacuum) HAL: (To Scott) What are you doing? (Barry lands on Hals hair but Scott sees him. He tries to suck up Barry but instead he sucks up Hals toupee) CAPTAIN SCOTT: Uh-oh. BARRY: - Wait a minute! I'm an attorney!
HAL: (Hal doesn't know Barry is on his head) - Who's an attorney? CAPTAIN SCOTT: Don't move. (Scott hits Hal in the face with the vacuum in an attempt to hit Barry. Hal is knocked out and he falls on the life raft button which launches an infalatable boat into Scott, who gets knocked out and falls to the floor. They are both uncounscious.) BARRY: (To himself) Oh, Barry. BARRY: (On intercom, with a Southern accent) Good afternoon, passengers. This is your captain. : Would a Miss Vanessa Bloome in 24B please report to the cockpit? (Vanessa looks confused) (Normal accent) ...And please hurry! (Vanessa opens the door and sees the life raft and the uncounscious pilots) VANESSA: What happened here? BARRY: I tried to talk to them, but then there was a DustBuster, a toupee, a life raft exploded. : Now one's bald, one's in a boat, and they're both unconscious! VANESSA: ...Is that another bee joke? BARRY:

• No! : No one's flying the plane! BUD DITCHWATER: (Through radio on plane) This is JFK control tower, Flight 356. What's your status? VANESSA: This is Vanessa Bloome. I'm a florist from New York. BUD: Where's the pilot? VANESSA: He's unconscious, and so is the copilot. BUD: Not good. Does anyone onboard have flight experience? BARRY: As a matter of fact, there is. BUD:
• Who's that? BARRY:
• Barry Benson. BUD: From the honey trial?! Oh, great. BARRY: Vanessa, this is nothing more than a big metal bee. : It's got giant wings, huge engines.

VANESSA: I can't fly a plane. BARRY: - Why not? Isn't John Travolta a pilot? VANESSA: - Yes. BARRY: How hard could it be? (Vanessa sits down and flies for a little bit but we see lightning clouds outside the window) VANESSA: Wait, Barry! We're headed into some lightning. (An ominous lightning storm looms in front of the plane) (We are now watching the Bee News) BOB BUMBLE: This is Bob Bumble. We have some late-breaking news from JFK Airport, : where a suspenseful scene is developing. : Barry Benson, fresh from his legal victory... ADAM: That's Barry! BOB BUMBLE: ...is attempting to land a plane, loaded with people, flowers : and an incapacitated flight crew. JANET, MARTIN, UNCLE CAR AND ADAM: Flowers?! (The scene switches to the human news)
REPORTER: (Talking with Bob Bumble) We have a storm in the area and two individuals at the controls : with absolutely no flight experience. BOB BUMBLE: Just a minute. There's a bee on that plane. BUD: I'm quite familiar with Mr. Benson and his no-account compadres. : They've done enough damage. REPORTER: But isn't he your only hope? BUD: Technically, a bee shouldn't be able to fly at all. : Their wings are too small... BARRY: (Through radio) Haven't we heard this a million times? : "The surface area of the wings and body mass make no sense."... BOB BUMBLE: - Get this on the air! BEE: - Got it.
BEE NEWS CREW: - Stand by. BEE NEWS CREW: - We're going live! BARRY: (Through radio on TV) ...The way we work may be a mystery to you. : Making honey takes a lot of bees doing a lot of small jobs. : But let me tell you about a small job. : If you do it well, it makes a big difference. : More than we realized. To us, to everyone. : That's why I want to get bees back to working together. : That's the bee way! We're not made of Jell-O. : We get behind a fellow. : - Black and yellow! BEES: - Hello! (The scene switches and Barry is teaching Vanessa how to fly) BARRY:
Left, right, down, hover. VANESSA: - Hover? BARRY: - Forget hover. VANESSA: This isn't so hard. (Pretending to honk the horn) Beep-beep! Beep-beep! (A Lightning bolt hits the plane and autopilot turns off) Barry, what happened?! BARRY: Wait, I think we were on autopilot the whole time. VANESSA: - That may have been helping me. BARRY: - And now we're not! VANESSA: So it turns out I cannot fly a plane. (The plane plummets but we see Lou Lu Duva and the Pollen Jocks, along with multiple other bees flying towards the plane) Lou Lu DUva: All of you, let's get behind this fellow! Move it out! : Move out! (The scene switches back to Vanessa and Barry in the plane) BARRY: Our only chance is if I do what I'd do, you copy me with the wings of the plane! (Barry sticks out his arms like an airplane and flys in front of Vanessa's face)
VANESSA: Don't have to yell. BARRY: I'm not yelling! We're in a lot of trouble. VANESSA: It's very hard to concentrate with that panicky tone in your voice! BARRY: It's not a tone. I'm panicking! VANESSA: I can't do this! (Barry slaps Vanessa) BARRY: Vanessa, pull yourself together. You have to snap out of it! VANESSA: (Slaps Barry) You snap out of it. BARRY: (Slaps Vanessa) : You snap out of it. VANESSA: - You snap out of it! BARRY: - You snap out of it! (We see that all the Pollen Jocks are flying under the plane) VANESSA: - You snap out of it! BARRY: - You snap out of it!
VANESSA: - You snap out of it! BARRY: - You snap out of it! VANESSA: - Hold it! BARRY: - Why? Come on, it's my turn. VANESSA: How is the plane flying? (The plane is now safely flying) VANESSA: I don't know. (Barry's antennae rings like a phone. Barry picks up) BARRY: Hello? LOU LU DUVA: (Through "phone") Benson, got any flowers for a happy occasion in there? (All of the Pollen Jocks are carrying the plane) BARRY: The Pollen Jocks! : They do get behind a fellow. LOU LU DUVA: - Black and yellow. POLLEN JOCKS: - Hello. LOU LU DUVA: All right, let's drop this tin can
on the blacktop. BARRY: Where? I can't see anything. Can you? VANESSA: No, nothing. It's all cloudy. : Come on. You got to think bee, Barry. BARRY: - Thinking bee. - Thinking bee. (On the runway there are millions of bees laying on their backs) BEES: Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! BARRY: Wait a minute. I think I'm feeling something. VANESSA: - What? BARRY: - I don't know. It's strong, pulling me. : Like a 27-million-year-old instinct. : Bring the nose down. BEES: Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! CONTROL TOWER OPERATOR: - What in the world is on the tarmac? BUD: - Get some lights on that!
(It is revealed that all the bees are organized into a giant pulsating flower formation) BEES: Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! BARRY: - Vanessa, aim for the flower. VANESSA: - OK. BARRY: Out the engines. We're going in on bee power. Ready, boys? LOU LU DUVA: Affirmative! BARRY: Good. Good. Easy, now. That's it. : Land on that flower! : Ready? Full reverse! : Spin it around! (The plane's nose is pointed at a flower painted on a nearby plane) - Not that flower! The other one! VANESSA: - Which one? BARRY: - That flower. (The plane is now pointed at a fat guy in a flowered shirt. He freaks out and tries to take a picture of the plane) VANESSA: - I'm aiming at the flower!
BARRY: That's a fat guy in a flowered shirt. I mean the giant pulsating flower made of millions of bees! (The plane hovers over the bee-flower) : Pull forward. Nose down. Tail up. : Rotate around it. VANESSA: - This is insane, Barry! BARRY: - This's the only way I know how to fly. BUD: Am I koo-koo-kachoo, or is this plane flying in an insect-like pattern? (The plane is unrealistically hovering and spinning over the bee-flower) BARRY: Get your nose in there. Don't be afraid. Smell it. Full reverse! : Just drop it. Be a part of it. : Aim for the center! : Now drop it in! Drop it in, woman! : Come on, already. (The bees scatter and the plane safely lands) VANESSA: Barry, we did it! You taught me how to fly!
BARRY: - Yes! (Vanessa is about to high-five Barry) No high-five! VANESSA: - Right. ADAM: Barry, it worked! Did you see the giant flower? BARRY: What giant flower? Where? Of course I saw the flower! That was genius! ADAM: - Thank you. BARRY: - But we're not done yet. : Listen, everyone! : This runway is covered with the last pollen : from the last flowers available anywhere on Earth. : That means this is our last chance. : We're the only ones who make honey, pollinate flowers and dress like this. : If we're gonna survive as a species, this is our moment! What do you say?
: Are we going to be bees, or just Museum of Natural History keychains? BEES: We're bees! BEE WHO LIKES KEYCHAINS: Keychain! BARRY: Then follow me! Except Keychain. POLLEN JOCK #1: Hold on, Barry. Here. : You've earned this. BARRY: Yeah! : I'm a Pollen Jock! And it's a perfect fit. All I gotta do are the sleeves. (The Pollen Jocks throw Barry a nectar-collecting gun. Barry catches it) Oh, yeah. JANET: That's our Barry. (Barry and the Pollen Jocks get pollen from the flowers on the plane) (Flash forward in time and the Pollen Jocks are flying over NYC) : (Barry pollinates the flowers in Vanessa's shop and then heads to Central Park) BOY IN PARK: Mom! The bees are back! ADAM: (Putting on his Krelman hat) If anybody needs
to make a call, now's the time. : I got a feeling we'll be working late tonight! (The bee honey factories are back up and running) (Meanwhile at Vanessa's shop) VANESSA: (To customer) Here's your change. Have a great afternoon! Can I help who's next? : Would you like some honey with that? It is bee-approved. Don't forget these. (There is a room in the shop where Barry does legal work for other animals. He is currently talking with a Cow) COW: Milk, cream, cheese, it's all me. And I don't see a nickel! : Sometimes I just feel like a piece of meat! BARRY: I had no idea. VANESSA: Barry, I'm sorry. Have you got a moment? BARRY: Would you excuse me? My mosquito associate will help you. MOOSEBLOOD: Sorry I'm late. COW: He's a lawyer too?
MOOSEBLOOD: Ma'am, I was already a blood-sucking parasite. All I needed was a briefcase. VANESSA: Have a great afternoon! : Barry, I just got this huge tulip order, and I can't get them anywhere. BARRY: No problem, Vannie. Just leave it to me. VANESSA: You're a lifesaver, Barry. Can I help who's next? BARRY: All right, scramble, jocks! It's time to fly. VANESSA: Thank you, Barry! (Ken walks by on the sidewalk and sees the "bee-approved honey" in Vanessa's shop) KEN: That bee is living my life!! ANDY: Let it go, Kenny. KEN: - When will this nightmare end?! ANDY: - Let it all go. BARRY: - Beautiful day to fly. POLLEN JOCK:

• Sure is. BARRY: Between you and me, I was dying to get out of that office. (Barry recreates the scene near the beginning of the movie where he flies through the box kite. The movie fades to black and the credits being) [--after credits; No scene can be seen but the characters can be heard talking over the credits--] You have got to start thinking bee, my friend! :
• Thinking bee!
• Me? BARRY: (Talking over singer) Hold it. Let's just stop for a second. Hold it. : I'm sorry. I'm sorry, everyone. Can we stop here? SINGER: Oh, BarryBARRY: I'm not making a major life decision during a production number! SINGER: All right. Take ten, everybody. Wrap it up, guys. BARRY: I had virtually no rehearsal for that.

TLDR: He never did anything sexual with me as a teenager or as an adult, but he did intend on something happening as an adult.
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He was 32 (m) and I was 15 (f) when we met. He was the assistant principal of my school. I had a crush on him as soon as I saw him. I already had a teacher fantasy (thanks pretty little liars) so I would day dream about him.
I chatted him up introduced myself and built an appropriate relationship. He was my confidant, my mentor, my friend. I never trusted an adult as much as I trusted him. I loved him in every way love can be. I would spend hours a day in his office skipping class to be with him and he'd let me. The only time I stopped flirting with him was when I was crying to him about my life and he was comforting me.
Eventually he started to playfully flirt back, not heavy but light. I could barely tell he was flirting with me. I knew he was, but I figured he would never flirt with a student. If he would have initiated anything with me as a teenager, I would have done it. I would have done anything he asked me to, no matter what it was.
A few weeks into my sophomore year I got taken into foster care because of my home life. He was at the school meeting where they came to get us. The whole time I could tell something was wrong with him, he was sad and withdrawn, but kept his eyes on me. He saw my heart break that day. I was sent to homes far from my high school, so I didn't see him for months. I was finally able to visit him, but security didn't want me on campus. We talked on the phone often.
Junior year I was enrolled in a new school in a different city. My first day was his first day too. As soon as we saw each other our faces lit up and we hugged, probably a little too long. He didn't want me in his office as much as he let me at the other school. He said it was because he didn't want to show me special treatment in front of everyone else. The other thing he said was that it would look weird if I was in there so much. If it wasn't anything more than a mentorship, why would it look weird? He would see me get into my adult boyfriends cars and never said anything to me about it. Is that because he didn't care if I dated men? Eventually I had to leave that school. He left the next school year and moved to a different school.
Throughout all of his different schools we always kept up. When I turned 18, he gave me his personal number. We would talk on the phone and text sporadically, nothing other than what friends would talk about. Every time we'd talk, he'd ask me if I was still with my bf.
A few years later (I'm 22, he's 41) I found him on IG and followed him, he followed me back and we started talking again. Much more often than before. We caught up on each other’s lives. Once there was no more catching up to do, we kept talking. Just talking about friend stuff still. Sometimes he would text me late at night. We made plans to hang out next time I was back home.
When I went back home, we decided to hang out. I wanted to get coffee or lunch. He said it would look weird if anyone saw us out together, and suggested I come over to his place. I was reluctant and red flags were going off in my head, but I ignored them and went over anyway. I could trust him. I told my sisters and I told them I would check in with them twenty minutes after I got there. I forgot to check in and they called, I should have texted her to make up an emergency. But I didn't.
We talked for hours. I was probably over there for 4-5 hours just talking. At some point he talked about how attractive I was and have always been. He told me that when me and my siblings got put into foster care, he tried to get my brother to live with him, but by time he decided to do it my aunt had got him. He told me he didn't try to get me because it might have looked weird. He asked questions about my relationship and somehow made it natural to ask about my sex life. I told him my problems in that department. Then he started to talk about his sex life and high sex drive. I was uncomfortable when he was talking about it but I let it slide. Like I said, I trusted him. He gave me a tour of his place; garage, kitchen, guest rooms, and ended the tour in his bedroom. I didn't think a single thing about that until years later, when I realized he groomed me. He was defiantly wanting something by showing me his bedroom, right? Hours later I left and we kept in touch often over text, again nothing nefarious. Looking back at it there might have been some light flirting on his side.
Next time I went back home we made plans to hang out. His place had flooded so he was living in a very nice hotel during renovations. The first time I went over everything was totally normal innocent even, until we hugged goodbye. It was a long hug.
I went over there to hang out the night after or the night after that I can't remember exactly. I hung out with him 3-4 times. Not realizing what was happening until the last time I went over there. The second time we hung out he moved to the couch I was on. We were opposite sides of the small couch. We talked for a while and then he put on TV in the background. I didn't think anything of it. I left and another long hug happened. Again, I thought nothing of it.
I went over to his hotel one more time and it was the last time I saw him. When I arrived the lights were low, a candle was burning, and there was music playing. That was the first time I really thought about the situation, but I buried that deep down... because I trusted him. Nothing happened other than us talking. After I left I texted him and asked if he was flirting with me, and he said he was but its innocent because that’s what you do with your adult friends. I knew that was bs when he said it. But of course, I buried that too.
Ever since I turned him down, he has hardly talked to me. Every time we talked, I was initiating it. We would send maybe 10-15 texts and then he would stop responding. He abandoned me, and it hurt. He was my rock during my teenage years.
I kept in contact with him for 4 years after the last time we saw each other. One day I finally realized that he had been grooming me. I started to question our entire relationship.
I messaged him innocently asking why he showed such an interest in me as a teen. He basically told me it was because my home life was shit and that I was vulnerable and special. I asked him why I was special. I don't remember his response though. I prodded more and then he stopped answering. I think he finally caught on to what I was really asking. A few days later and still no response. I decided to block him on all social media, and delete and block his number. I was so proud of myself. This was 4 months ago.
I thought of him a lot the first months or so. Then I forgot about him for a while. The other day I was putting a kitchen appliance away and it made me think of him. How he has literally nothing on his counter tops, everything is stored in the cabinets. Thinking about how weird that was turned my stomach. Then I started to think about everything he had done, good and bad. Both made me feel like I was going to throw up.
I started to think about the possibility that he never really thought I was special; that I was just easy prey. That I wasn't the only girl he had a close relationship with. Maybe he was doing this with other girls too. As a teenager all I wanted was to be special to an adult, and he gave that to me. But if I wasn't special and just another target that means that I wasn't special to anyone. I want him to have only done this to me for 2 reasons. 1) I don't want other girls going through this. 2) I want to have been special.
2) fucks me up. I shouldn't still want validation from this man. I crave the validation though. As a teenager I grew dependent on him. He built me up, gave me confidence and showed me love I'd never had before. But now after realizing everything he did to me I have no confidence. I am completely broken. I feel hopeless and confused. I feel sick to my stomach every moment of the day. I can't think of anything else but this. Regardless of all of the negative feelings he is causing me, I miss him. I miss our friendship and being able to lean on him when I'm going through a rough time. I could tell him literally anything and he wouldn't judge me. He had no involvement in my problems and was always in my corner. I still need someone like that, and I wish it could be him. I wish he never had any ulterior motives and that I could still lean on him.
I really hope that his affection for me when he started to get to know me wasn't just about taking advantage of me. I want it to be that he grew to have these feelings about me. It would mean I was special. Either way it's wrong and disgusting. But it would make me feel like he wasn't a total pos, just a confused man who made a huge mistake. It's still not acceptable.
I still can't accept that he groomed me. I know he did, but I keep telling myself that I'm over analyzing the situation. Nothing sexual ever happened, so it's not grooming. He always treated me with love and kindness. He was NEVER abusive, not even for a second. He didn't force me into anything. He just cared for me unconditionally, and he was the first person to care about me like that and actually give me the time and attention I needed. I also feel like this is all my fault because I had a crush on him before. Like I brought it upon myself.
I can't tell you all the number of times I've thought about unblocking him and messaging him. Or calling him and making up some excuse about needing a letter of recommendation. I tried to find the letter of recommendation he sent me a few years ago because I needed his validation, even if it was old.
I also want to reach out so I can call him out. Or accidently run into him when I'm back in my hometown so I can call him out. But I know he would gaslight me because that's what groomers do. He would never admit to it. I won't be able to make it through if he did that. I already gaslight myself enough. Hearing him deny or justify it would confirm my doubts. And if I didn't fall for his gaslighting I would be even more broken than I am now. If I did see him in public, I don't know what I'd do. I don't know if I'd run, ignore him, call him out, pretend everything is ok, or get sucked back in. At this moment I think I would get sucked back in. I would believe everything he would say. I would be the same teenage girl I was all those years ago, dotting on him.
I don't know what to do. I'm having extra sessions with my therapist and that’s helping in the moment. I don't want to miss him. I want to hate him and I want that hatred to eventually turn into indifference. I want to find peace. I don't want to love him anymore. (Just for clarification it's not a romantic love.)
It feels nice to share the full story with people other than my therapist and sisters.
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If you've made it this far I whole heartedly appreciate it. It means so much to me. Thank you!

I smoked since 16 years old, now 21. I wasn't a daily user except for when I was out tree planting, it was always easy to cut my use once I came back to the city. Usually 3-4 times a week, half a joint (or a small PAX bowl) after work.
Now that I've moved into an apartment with a policy against cannabis, I've stopped completely. I haven't really been craving it, but I'm starting to notice a downward trend in my mental state. Happiness is hard to come by even though I'm making positive changes in my life, and I'm worried I'll continue to get worse.
I don't want to make life miserable for my partner or the people around me, but it's almost like I was using it to make myself feel. Everything is dull now. I guess I'm just looking for reassurance that I'll feel normal again, but I don't really know what normal feels like.

hey there - my fiance lives in Mexico City where we met, and we're planning on having our big wedding/reception here in CDMX next fall 2024. We're interested in hiring a wedding planner but wondering how much that costs in Mexico City? I haven't had a lot of success finding average prices or rates -- has anyone else used someone that they liked? Was it a million dollars ??