My froggy stuff printables

Hey what’s up!? I’m a 21m living in Tennessee and the boredom of being lonely has finally gotten to me so I’m giving this a try. My interests are mainly reading manga (finally reading Spy x Family rn) and traveling. I’ve been trying to finally get back into studying languages and stuff again and I’m planning on traveling out of the US next year. Now onto what I’m looking for, just please be over 20, that’s it. It’d also be cool if we share interests but I’m always down to hear about something new. Also I’m going to Houston, Texas in August so it’d be cool if I can find someone down there to hang with. So if any of that interest ya just slide me a dm

This is my first post here, and English is my second language, so bear with me. This is going to be a bit long.
I met this girl almost a year ago, and we really hit it off. I'm an introvert, and she's the chatty type, so I would always enjoy listening to her, and conversely, I always felt like I could be myself around her and confide even my deepest secrets to her.
There was a time when we both both fell in love with each other, and she even tried to kiss me, but she already had a boyfriend at the time, who she said was thinking of leaving for me, but I rejected her and said I wanted to do things right. In the end, she went back with her boyfriend, and while her road with him has been rocky, to say the least, she is still trying to make things work with him.
Since then, she has grown a lot and realised how stupid it would be to just jump from one guy to another, and she also said she wanted me to remain in her life no matter what, a sentiment that I reciprocated. While it was hard to see the woman I love, go away with another man, she truly is one of the only people that I can call a friend. Leaving her side has never really been a choice for me. I still enjoy very dearly talking with her, going out to eat, playing board games, and tons of other stuff. I always have a great time when I'm with her, and I always lend her an ear and a shoulder to cry on when she has difficulties. Of course, she also worries a lot about my well-being and checks on me when I'm not fine.
Now, in comes another friend of mine. A guy I've known since middle school. Both of them are the only people in the world I consider true friends. There was a time when I thought all three of us could be great friends, but if that was the case, I wouldn't be writing this right now. My male friend went through a nasty breakup last year, and even though he is much better right now, he still has some resentment left towards women and can't seem to fully trust them. This doesn’t mean he can't have any female friends. On the contrary, some of the people who are the closest to him are women, but he is obsessed with the idea that women manipulate men, or will eventually change at some point in their life and leave him. The clearest example I can think of this is the time I was talking about a manga where an obese female character met a thug at school who cooked healthy meals for her. Eventually, she lost weight, and they became a couple. Cute story, right? Well, apparently, according to my friend, if he dated an obsese girl, he would leave her if she lost weight and became hot because a woman who becomes hot would obviously change and leave him for someone better, so he prefers to break up with her before she has the chance of doing it. While I know there's a lot of real-life examples of this, I still think this really shows how insecure he feels.
Well, for starters, even though both my male and female friends really got along from the start, my male friend told her very early on that he couldn't fully trust a woman. She completely understood and still decided to remain friends with him. Everything seemed to be fine, but that was at first.
Lately, my male friend almost exclusively talks pests about her. He says she manipulates me, so I keep doing favours for her, that she only does the bare minimum to be with me and throws me aside when she doesn't need me. Why, you ask? Because she always says, "Let's play this game", or "Let’s go to that place", or even "Let’s do this activity" and I usually accept because I like to just go with the flow and have a great time regardless. I must admit that I do sometimes go overboard with her, since I offered to take her to school twice a week (we are in the same class and she lives 10 minutes away) so she doesn't have to take a bus in a dangerous area, when we go out, I usually pay, when she feels sick and doesn't go to school, I bring her food, I help her out when she has trouble at any class, when she has a problem, I do everything I can to help her. While I do admit this is a bit much, I think it is just in my nature to try to help people out as much as I can, and maybe I exaggerated a bit because of my feelings for her. Also, I can’t really blame him for thinking she is distant since they don't see each other a lot because she is usually very busy and their schedules never really match, or something comes up when we three had something planned.
I must also mention that, while she has stopped almost entirely with any insinuation of love towards me, she sometimes lets out some comment that may exceed the limit of friendship.
Well, my male friend thinks she is just comfortable accepting all of these things from me. He says I've been acting like a simp and that she just doesn't seem to do as much for me as I do for her. I partially agreed with him and said that it's time I completely forget about any romance in the future with her. I said partially because she is always checking up on me. She is always thinking of different activities to do together, and she has even reserved two days a week in her busy schedule just to hang out with me in one of our places to just play something, watch a movie or whatever we want to do.
While I did plan to act on my word, I never had any intention of leaving her. She was a dear friend, regardless of everything. Yesterday, I had a talk with her, I said she needed to fully stop any kind of romantic insinuation and that I've been going overboard with her. She completely understood the part about the insinuations and promised to stop, but rearding all of my gestures, said she thought that was my way of showing love. There are tons of ways people show love. Some do it through words, some do it through actions, and some do it through gestures, like me. That was never something I really thought about. I just accepted my friend's words that I was doing a lot and she wasn't showing me the same kind of treatment, but I do tend to do gestures for all the people I love, so maybe she has a point. Still, she said she completely understood if this bothered me, and we promised we would figure something out together.
That's when I left to work, but shortly after, I received a call from her. Apparently, she called my male friend just to tell him about what we had discussed. I don’t know how the conversation went, but he ended up going out at her, telling her she is childish, manipulative, that she is just taking advantage from me, that I'm too good to recognize the evil in people and everything she proposed we do together is just an attemp to manipulate me further, he also added that a friend of his agrees with him. She started crying and said she never realised the things we did together were manipulation. I reassured her it was not and that I enjoyed everything we did together, but she still insisted he was right and that she's bad for me. She said that she didn’t want to be my friend anymore and that she didn't want to be a part of my life. I tried talking with her, but she just hung up on me. I called her repeatedly but she didn't answer, and then left work to go to her house, but she refused to talk to me. Her aunt, who opened the door for me, reassured me that I just had to give her some space, and all would be fine. I tried to calm down, after all, she had a appointment with her psychologist scheduled in a few hours, so she just needed to calm down, talk about it in therapy, and everything would be all right.
Well, today I finally saw her at school, but she acted as if I wasn't there. I tried to talk to her, but she said she wasn't in an emotionally stable place to talk with me. That hurt me deeply. I've lost the count of how many times I've cried since yesterday, and yet she refused to talk things out with me. We were super close, even family, so all of this must be very emotionally taxing for her, but seeing the person I considered an integral part of my life suddenly say she doesn't want to be a part of it and then refuse to talk to me feels like a stab wound in my chest. Every second, I feel I'm about to crumble and there's nothing I can do about it.
I can’t stop thinking whether my male friend was right or if he crossed the line, and I just need to give her space to figure things out. I haven't talked with him since then and I have mixed feelings about him. I understand he did it because he appreciates me and doesn't want someone to take advantage of me, but on the other hand, I really think he is still consumed by the pain from his previous relationship and what he said to her was completely uncalled for.
I just can't understand why she is acting this way with me over something he said. Maybe there's more to it than what she said, but I have no way of knowing because she refuses to talk, and I honestly don't want to face my male friend right now, I know that, regardless of what I say, he just won't change his mind and accept that what he did was wrong.
Sorry if my writing was messy. My mind is just a chaos right now, but I really need to her other people's opinions on who is in the right and what should I do about it. The possibility of her actually leaving me is scary.
I'll be more than happy to provide further context should anyone require it.

I literally never post on this site, but I wanted to share one of my favorite moments I’ve ever experienced at a live show.
So for the first time in my life, I attended this festival which is the most famous festival in Slovakia, called Pohoda festival (2022). I decided to attend it since it had the craziest line-up ever. Just to name a few, Nick Cave, Slowthai, Yves Tumor, Black Midi, Squid and a bunch of great stuff, even some amazing slovak bands as well. (I can definitely recommend Berlin Manson f.e.)
But the band I was most excited About was BCNR.
I forgot my phone in the tent when I went to see Wolf Alice at the main stage, so I decided to go retrieve it. Whilst working my way through the crowd, my friend points out to me, that we just passed through the whole BCNR band.
I decided to go small talk to them, however, since I didn’t want to disturb them from watching the show, I only managed to quickly shake Lewis’ hand. He was very kind, but I was extremely stressed out. I mean, my favorite band was standing in front of me, what do I tell them, right? Haha. The conversation went something like this: Me: “Hi, can I just shake your hand real quick?” Lewis: “Of course man.” Me: “I love you guys, Ants From Up There is absolutely incredible.” Lewis: “Thank you, are you enjoying Wolf Alice? Me: “Yeah but you’re better.” (What a stupid thing to say xd but as I was saying, I was really stressed out)
Then I kinda went my way and just told Lewis I was excited to see the show they would have later that afternoon.
During the show, I was crying many times, it was so beautiful. I remember every single moment, I never heard their live set without Isaac before, so it was my first time hearing it.
However, my favourite moment happened during Turbines.
The whole band sat down during the first part, it was just May playing the piano and singing. A really beautiful moment, I was crying like a baby, and at one moment, my crying eyes crossed Lewis’.
He looked at me (it was not like he only looked at the crowd, I was pretty close to the stage so I’m pretty sure our eyes met for a couple of seconds) and just smiled like if he was happy I was enjoying the show. I don’t know whether he remembered me at that point, but nevertheless, I cherish that moment ever since.
The show was absolutely incredible, everyone stayed after the band left the stage and applauded for 5 minutes more. I was emotionally unstable and right after, my friends dragged me to a crazy slowthai moshpit, I didn’t even manage to stay for the whole set, tho I think I am pretty good with moshpits xd.
Bcnr was most definitely my favourite show I’ve ever been to. I hoped I would be seeing them in Prague this Autumn, I won’t be able to make it tho! Hope I get to see them again asap.
Sorry to have such a long boring story here, but I thought I’d share. Thanks guys, xx

I used to be part of darkness 5ish years ago before they got destroyed. I've been thinking about moving back to null but can't find good info on the alliances there. Most of my stuff is around jita so the north would be easiest null for me. I was considering Northern Coalition but I've been told that they're mostly Chinese? I am USTZ so would prefer a place with a decent amount of US people. Only other alliance I know of is pandemic horde but I don't know much about what's going on with them either.

I want to start by saying I'm playing the free version for now, with the full intent to pay for the subscription once I feel like I have an actual place in the game, because right now I really am just running around sheering sheep and baking bread lol, which is fun! But I know it's not the whole game.
I have a list of questions I'll just compile here for ease, and sincere apologies if they're getting tired at this point.
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Currencies
This is what usually keeps me from F2P games in the first place, is just the sheer amount of unmanageable, usually purposefully confusing currencies, but I think these ones are fairly understandable. Are Runecoins explcitly for cosmetics only, and can they only be bought with real cash or, like bonds, can they be obtained through in game means?
And on bonds, which I know can be bought with enough earned-in-game coin, can they only be bought from other people who have already bought them with their real money or is there a way to obtain them in game otherwise?
Treasure keys - save them or use them instantly? Can treasure keys you recieve during one event be saved up and used in a future one you'd potentially be more interested in?
Yak-Trak - Seeing a lot of hate for this, is it worth investing time and energy in?
MTX - yes, this notorious question. Seeing a looot of mixed opinions on how bad they are. I don't mind paying subscriptions, or that 80% of the game is locked behind membership, but how much control do microtranscations have over quality of life stuff, even after paying for membership?
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Crafting and finding your place in the game
I wanted a game with an interesting crafting system that's going to make a long-term time dedication worth it. Like I said, right now I'm just raising my basic crafting levels like smithing and mining to make myself some basic weapons to be able to hold my own in a fight, which is cool that you can make all your own gear from scratch (mining -> smelting -> smithing), I really like that (it's why I chose to give RS a try over other MMO's) so that's fine for taking care of myself, but as far as selling gear goes, is there actually a market for it? Kinda seems to me like everyone would just be making their own gear rather than buying it, since nobody is locked into a few set crafting skills.
In addition, is the gear you can eventually work up and make for yourself better than gear you'd find from drops? Like is there any point, late game, in having spent all that time learning how to make the higher end, craftable weapons if something you get off a boss is infinitely better?
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And more on "finding one's place..."
What is the social aspect like? I know I'm early days, and this is a fairly old game with veternans who have been around since the very beginning, but I'm not interested in playing by myself all the way to end game. It'd be really cool to team up with a small group and have some sort of social group going on for the long-term.
And speaking of - end game. What's it like? Other than the list of in-game quests, what's going on in this game that has you invested in/attached to your characters and the time spent on them? Is there a continuing story that's really lore driven? Are new quest-lines and story plots always being added?
And to finalise, and this is more of an opinion based question - but what are your thoughts on the future of the game? It doesn't seem like it's going anywhere anytime soon, another reason I chose it over some other MMO because I want something that's going to keep sticking around for a while to invest in, with other people. But I am afraid of the potential, full reliance on MTX, and what that means for online gaming in general.
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Thanks in advance for listening to all this!

hello friends, i have a pretty big question that i need to ask because idk what to do
so basically i've been best friends with this girl for a really long time now, almost a year and we trusted each other a lot to the point where i gave her my passwords to my social media and she did so too, not really to stalk on eachother or anything just incase something bad happened to us and she used to put stuff in her drafts and said that i can check it from time to time so i was still logged into her account because of this
but yesterday when i was checking her drafts if she had uploaded anything knew i clicked on the messages too and i saw my name mentioned, now probably wasnt a good idea but i decided to check the chat and i found that that she's been talking smack about me behind my back for quite some time now (we gave our passwords to eachother like 5 months ago so maybe she i forgot i could see?)
now idk if i am in the wrong for accidentally opening her chat because i know i shouldnt have but be honest probably almost everyone would be curious if they saw their name mentioned, or if shes in the wrong for lying to me all this time and possibly even using me for something (like homework? which i always used to send her)
so my question is who did the wrong thing and what i should do

I[F25] haven’t really felt a passionate love for my boyfriend[M30] for a long time now. We’ve been together 5 years, and it was present in the beginning. I would categorize my love for him as consummate(intimacy & commitment) and I’m content with that. I was feeling frustrated with the lack of movement in our relationship today/uncertainty about our future, & spoke to him about it. After having the discussion with my boyfriend, he revealed he also doesn’t feel passionate about me anymore & this seems to be a big deal for him. He categorized his love for me as consummate, as well.
He said it’s the reason holding him back from making life decisions such as moving in together, forming a future. He’s just been hoping that the passion will come back & hit him. From the few psychology classes I’ve taken, it seems normal for most relationships to lose passion(excitement) as the years go on. My boyfriend & I have the advantage of not having too many memories together, such as going on vacations & doing stuff together, but he says he doesn’t want to do it just in case it confirms there’s no longer ANY passion to be found in the relationship. A big issue for me is that our relationship is lacking excitement, it would be nice to go to dinner or away on vacations. This is ultimately the biggest issue for me, and it would seem that at least trying that would maybe work on gaining passion again.
Passion isn’t linked to sex, because we have a healthy sex life. However, he told me he doesn’t completely love me because there’s just a lacking of romantic feelings for me on his end. He also doesn’t want to break up. I really don’t know how to make of all of this, he’s AWFUL when it comes to expressing his feelings. He asked me to take a day to think about it before breaking up with him. I’m kind of hurt at these revelations and feel my trust has been broken because he’s told me recently he completely loves me(he said that he says those things because he wants to feel them). Any insight, input would be greatly appreciated.
Is passion the reason behind why he doesn’t need to see me often(we sometimes go weeks without seeing each other) or is that an issue with commitment. From the outside does this relationship seem salvageable. He said he lost the passion two years into the relationship. I’ve still yet to meet his family, and he won’t meet mine.

One of my friends showed me it and I just think it is super cool and want more people to see it. It is about a guy named Andrew exploring an old Minecraft world he made with a now offline friend named Chris and seeing some odd stuff.
Here is the channel: https://www.youtube.com/@andrewgaming6751
And here is a small google doc I made for it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15EThk0q-fZWYY9HRLBZZK3mz73ghKtyiENNjRoTP3Uw/edit?usp=sharing

uber eats deliveries while my w2 job lacks hours. supposed to be asleep in the 1pm-10pm range. but the busiest hours are from 5-9pm. amongst already bein sleep deprived cuz when i loop closer to midnight my sleep does whacky stuff, i have to decide whether to stay up late or wake up early in order to make some deliveries during busy hours.
when sleep deprived, usually wakin up at my circadian wake up time allows me to feel much better than if i were to wake up early but go to sleep at my circadian sleep time.
it's way easier for my body to start up naturally than for it to be jolted into the realm of circadian misadventure. however, stayin up late sucks, & im already tired & im like "if i just take a nap i can get a few hours in" but yesterday i tried that but when my alarm went at 445 i went right back to sleep, my body wasn't gonna get up or out.
& now today i am tryna stay up at this point, gonna eat a burrito & go walk klyde warren park. the grub is idk if i can make it past like 6 or 7pm before i get too tired to drive, so i might lose a couple hours of the peak hours, compared to if i try to catch some sleep now in my rhythm.
the financials of non24 are a huge issue we have to navigate with thru life, if we wanna freerun. my body doesn't like anything other than freerunning. my health goes to shit, entrainment ain't work for me either way but when i try in the past it just made my body break down. so these aspects i will hopefully figure out one day, the ability to be financially secure with non24 and be able to freerun.

Where I work we are currently trying to get union recognition. The senior management have recently come out with the line that if the union is recognised then they won't be allowed to have an employee forum, suggestions from employees, or basically do anything direct with the employees. They say literally everything will have to go through the union. One of the big bosses actually told me this to my face, when I challenged him on it he claimed that that's what the company's lawyers had informed them.
I don't think this is true at all. Obviously pay negotiations will go through the union - but I think they're lying, or massively massively exaggerating. Does anyone who is versed in employment law or union stuff know what the rules really are?

Hi! I'm from the UK and I'm applying to both UK and US universities. In the UK, I'm applying to the typical top unis in the UK: Cambridge, Imperial, LSE, etc. I think I have a good chance of getting into Imperial/LSE as my grades are well above their minimum.
Basically, I need to ask my teachers for rec letters soon since the UK uni application cycle is kicking off during summer so we do the US stuff early and they ask for a list of schools you plan on applying to. At the moment I've got Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, UPenn, Stanford, and Caltech as options as I doubt I would realistically go for a uni ranked worse than imperial/lse, but at the same time I'm aware these will be extremely difficult to get into for an international seeking financial aid.
I'm looking for advice on how state unis work, if it's worth applying to them, and how good they are relative to top UK unis. Another thing that influenced my list was financial aid, I would like to apply to UCs but people have said the aid isn't great so idk if it's worth applying.
for reference i'm on track for 4 A*s/A or 5 A*s and i'm taking the sat in may but I have a 1580 on the practice on bluebook

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As I thought about where to go next, a familiar voice called out to me.
"Hey!" they shouted. "What happened there? You were missing for a day and a half."
I looked over. The woman in the suit stepped into the open bushy area.
"I was taken back," I said. "I had to find my way back here. What happened to you?"
"I'm struggling to remember," she said. "It's… a blur. I got caught off guard by… something… I looked at the time and 1 hour had passed."
"Can you help me with the three murderers?" I asked.
"What I can do is investigate you, and while doing so, you'd be protected from interference. If anything actually happens, we'll just get the police on the phone." she said. "But come on. You need to come with me."
She walked me through the forest. I was glad to be in better hands. I didn't know which agency she was from, so I asked her.
"I'm affiliated with the Directorate of Science and Technology," she said. "CIA."
The CIA? I could only think of the worst things they've done. MK Ultra, enhanced interrogation… hopefully they've toned it down by now.
We walked onto a parking lot with a single black car. She unlocked the doors and told me to get in the passenger seat. I climbed in, buckled up, and hoped for the best. I decided to ask her some questions, as my curiosity was piqued.
"Is it okay if I ask you questions?" I asked.
"Depends on your intention," she said.
"Curiosity… about how much the government knows about my situation," I said.
"Well, yes, but don't push too hard or it'll be suspicious," she said, starting the car.
"The CIA… is investigating anomalies…?"
"Yes," she said. "We are studying natural scientific anomalies. Our goal is to go on a deep dive and discover everything about the physics of our reality. In this case, alternate realities and teleportation."
"How many people like me have been investigated?"
"Not too many to count," she said. "There's incomplete to no evidence for most of them."
"Was the Man from Taured real?"
"Man from Taured?" she asked.
I explained the story to her.
"Oh, no, that's an urban myth," she said.
"Any similar stories?" I asked.
"There was a man who mysteriously appeared at an airport in Virginia," she said. "That's all I can tell you at your level."
"Is NASA involved in this?"
"That's a bit above what I can tell you," she said.
"How long has the investigation into anomalies been going on for?" I asked.
"The 90s," she said.
"This is so interesting," I said.
"I'll give you a non-disclosure form to sign," she said. "Until then, I'm going to put the radio on."
"Am I asking too much?"
"No, not at all," she said. "It's just that it's going to take six more hours to get to where you live, so we're definitely going to need some music."
She turned the radio on. A Pop music station was playing The Weeknd and 21 Savage. Seemed normal enough. Nothing was off about the instrumentation or vocals. I relaxed myself, bracing for the rest of the long ride.
I caved in and asked her if I could receive full time protection from my alternate self, despite what she already told me.
"A helicopter is going to circle the area and scan for anomalous signals while 15 agents watch the area," she said. "They're just part of the investigation though. I'll need evidence of danger in order to act against said danger."
Luckily, all those agents were going to be around, so if my claims were proven true, I would be defended. It was nice to hear. I could rest assured, but I wasn't feeling right about the timing. What if my alternate self got tired of chasing me around, then shot me with something he pulled from some alternate reality I've never been to before? I could try to predict what those realities may be, but we didn't have the exact same things happen to us over the past six years, so there was no certainty.
As we drove through rural Pennsylvania, I asked her some things about me.
"How much do you guys know about alternate realities?"
"What I can tell you is we have always speculated about parallel realities. We didn't have much evidence until the 2000s when there was a sudden uptick in anomalous events that pointed to the existence of realities parallel to our own. Again, most of the time, we'd have little to no evidence of the alleged travels, but also little to no evidence disproving those travels. We have images and videos of stuff anomalous people took that we have hidden in our databases that we're… unsure of. The footage we've gotten from you is stuff I've never seen before. But anyway, we've run test after test after test. It's not safe for us to go in ourselves, so we only have what's alleged."
"So no teams came into our reality to talk to us?" I asked.
"We've witnessed anomalies in which people who looked like agents followed… well… other anomalous stuff into this reality, then, brought them back into a portal. We have no idea who they are. They've never spoken to us. Do you know who they are?"
"No," I said. "I've never seen or heard of them before. They must be chasing chaotic things."
"Sometimes they bring people here," she said. "We investigate those people, it turns out they're from here, and they start talking about… terrible places."
"How long has that been going on?" I asked.
"Late 2018," she said. "Even we feel like stuff is being kept hidden from us. We have agents in blue, but they're only one level above mine."
"I mean, I've been to 485 realities… or… well… 490 realities now, and I've never been contacted by them," I said.
"490?" She asked. "Are there any you don't mind talking about?"
"Oh boy," I said. "I've been to realities where the sun was half its size, the Earth had two moons, zombie apocalypses, zombie endemics, a reality where the dinosaurs were still around, where Mu was a real continent… it might sound like I'm ripping stuff from YouTube alternate history videos, but those are some of the ones I was curious about going to."
"Do you have any evidence of you being in these realities?" she asked.
"Well… I've taken some pictures," I said. "But not a lot. As I told you before though, I would like to go back and film all the interesting stuff."
She nodded her head.
"Are these pictures on your phone?"
"Yes, you'll find some on there," I said. "Just look for ones of pink sunsets, very realistic dinosaurs, dilapidated cities, and advanced technology. Smart homes and such. Oh, and I have some pictures I took in personally interesting realities too, so there's those ones, but it'll look like I just edited some webpages or found deleted scenes."
She nodded her head.
"Can you tell me about these personally interesting realities?" she asked.
"They're not very serious, but… I guess if it's important because… alternative realities…" I said, unsure of how much of the lesser serious stuff I was able to explain.
"You're under investigation," she said. "You need to tell me everything you know."
"I've been to realities where certain hyped up video games had been announced and released, where certain singers were much more popular, where one of my favourite shows went on as normal despite the pandemic. It was pretty interesting…"
"Try not to bring any personal opinions into this," she said. "This is just an investigation. We need unbiased information."
"Yes, of course," I said.
"Can you tell me of a specific one of those realities?" she asked.
"There was one where video of the Austin J. Tobin plaza on 9/11 was never lost," I said. "Whoever decided to call it LOL SUPERMAN back in 2006 was a piece of shit. I just wanted to see a rare historical angle."
She nodded her head.
"So, lost footage of historical events?" she asked.
"Not just lost footage," I said. "Unknown information. What if certain things were easy to figure out and had been figured out?"
"Anymore examples?" she asked.
"Well, I found out what happened to that Malaysian flight that went missing," I said. "I'm not sure I want to go there though, in case it turned out to actually be different from this reality."
"Anything else then?"
"I found out who shot JFK by going to a reality in which the shooter was identified," I said. "That sounds like it would be important to you."
"If you're sure of any details potentially being the same as those in our reality, you can tell us," she said. "But remember, we won't just believe everything you say. We'd need to travel to the realities in question for proper evidence."
I told her who the shooter was, then I got in over my head telling her everything else about my travels. I gave her every last detail of most of the other realities I have traveled to. I guess I never opened up about them. It helped me escape the anxiety I had about my alternate self. I was actually having some fun above the fear. I knew it was going to end soon, but with traveling to about 500 different realities, I learned to just live in the moment.
As we drove into Aurora, I was fidgeting with my hands. It was half an hour away. I asked the agent one last thing.
"Is there any advice you can give me?" I asked.
"Lure your alternate self into your room and get him to use the alleged device," she said. "As you've implied, we may have a small window of opportunity here. As I've said, we will be watching you. We have five plans for this scenario. Each one of them is committed to ethics and morality."
Well, it assured me once again. But not completely. With the unpredictability of this, it seemed just as likely things were going to get messy as it was for everything to turn out to be fine.
As we pulled into the driveway, I was frozen. This was it. It was time to face my alternate self. I climbed out of the car, expecting to be shot at any second. I gently opened the door. Once I could peek my head in, I did so gently. Nobody was around.
"Hello?" I shouted.
Nobody answered. I climbed the stairs and checked the living room. No one was there. The silence was killing me. The doors to the other rooms were closed, but I wasn't going to check them anyway. I needed to be in my room. When I walked into my room, nobody was in there. Thank god. I looked out my window. A black helicopter flew in the distance, probably just posing as a training exercise helicopter. I looked at the driveway. The agent was sitting in her car, talking into a radio.
My guts were tight. It was only a matter of time before my alternate self arrived. As I looked at the agent's car, I wondered if there was an alternative to having me face my alternate self. As I thought to myself, I heard three familiar voices. I looked in the direction they were coming from. When the three walked into my view, my stomach clenched harder. I sat beneath the window and listened in on what they were saying.
"It was so satisfying when she stepped on those nails," Billy said.
"Yeah and she was like oh my god! No!" Alternate me said.
The three chuckled in unison.
"And that was the 200th alternate Nicole we killed too," Billy said.
"Yeah… wait," alternate me said. "Who's car is that?"
"The light's on up there," Ian said. "Someone's home."
Well… I hope this ends well.
The front door creaked open. I felt like sinking as I heard their footsteps come in.
"Hello?" Billy shouted as she, along with the others, stepped in. The thumps of footsteps came up the stairs. What was going to be their first reaction? The footsteps got closer and closer, then Billy stepped into view. She looked into the room and stopped. Her eyes widened up.
"Nicole?" she asked. "How?"
I explained to her the whole government agent situation. How I explained every reality I visited. Then I told her if she tries anything, government agents are watching and they will intervene. There was a look of frustration on her face as I gave the warning. She opened her mouth, but then alternate me walked up behind her. She expressed the same amount of surprise.
"What's going on here?" Alternate me asked.
Billy repeated to my alternate self what I had just said. After hearing about what was happening, my alternate self had a confused look on her face.
"How aren't you dead?"
"I guess that place wasn't dangerous enough," I taunted.
Alternate me took out her device and pressed the big button, opening the portal. Her look of confusion turned into a look of determination.
"Step back in," she said. "Right now."
"I'm going to do what makes me comfortable," I said. I stood still, worrying she'd get aggressive, but remembering she wasn't strong enough to pound me.
The front door creaked open again. Multiple footsteps rushed up the stairs. Billy walked up to me, with the deepest look of frustration on her face, and grabbed my hands. I pulled my hands away, but Nicole and Ian walked up to me and grabbed me tight. While I was acting confident, I still felt as if I was about to throw up. I didn't want to go back to that reality. Come to think of it, I no longer wanted to go to any unfamiliar horrific reality for another year. Flashbacks of me watching people hit the ground and explode, seeing the tentacle creatures eat people, and the specks of death flying around all kept popping into my head and triggering anxiety attacks. I needed a break for the sake of my mental health.
I slowly attempted to move, but the three grabbed me tighter in response. I begged for them to let me go, even though I knew it wouldn't work. The dread was only getting deeper. The three brought me over to the portal, and with an overbearing strength, they pushed me back in.
I fell and landed on my back. I stared up at the ceiling, letting myself lay on the soft carpeted floor, wondering why I was still alive.
Well… hopefully I live, right?
I got back up, then I looked out the window. A distant trail of black smoke outlined the horizon. What made it worse was the dead silence. It was pretty surreal.
A light began to reflect in the window. I looked behind me. The portal was open again. A man in tactical gear walked out, stepping onto the floor. He asked me to come with him. As I took a step towards him, something pushed him forwards, straight into me. I fell backwards into the wall with a thud. The man stumbled over to the wall on my right and regained his posture as the Billy, Ian, and alternate me marched out of the portal. Alternate me closed the portal, then walked up to me. Looking me dead in the eyes, she spoke with deep frustration.
"Please understand that I just want you to feel bad for me."
"Um… you want to torture me," I said, still seriously not understanding her logic. "And I want to be comfortable and not scared because I'm about to die."
"You're so stupid," she replied.
"What is going on here?" asked the man in the gear.
Alternate me pointed her device at the man and pressed the button. A portal opened up under the man's feet, causing him to fall. I watched as the portal closed, hoping he wasn't sent to a different gruesome reality.
Two men in suits carrying handguns ran out of the portal. They asked us to freeze and pay attention to them. As they explained they needed us to follow some instructions for research purposes, the front door creaked open. Who could that even be at this point?
"Who's in here?" a male voice shouted.
"I think that's my dad," I said. "But an alternate one of course."
One of the agents walked out into the hallway. He told the man there was a classified investigation happening so he had to stay out of the bedroom. What he responded with chilled me.
"Alright, I see. I guess it has to do with my daughter's death? I know you can't tell me much but I'm looking for someone to talk to after she and her mother were… killed in Richmond Hill."
It was about time I thought more about my parallel self from the reality of the Giant Attacks. It was like speculating on what the fictionalized version of you would be doing in movies like the 2005 remake of War of the Worlds or 2012. Except this was a reality. Another parallel version of me died.
I felt a pain on my neck again. I glanced at my alternate self. She was smiling, Ian was giving me an evil glare, and Billy was giving me a look of disgust while resting her hands on her hips. That was the last thing I saw before I woke up sitting up against a wall in what looked like a bank. There were five others, all looking to be in different age groups, sitting across the room, in the corner to my left. Billy was standing in the middle of the room, speaking to them.
"No one is going to spoil this for me," she said. "I'm going to take the reality hopping stuff further. You know there's realities where advanced weapons exist in easy to use ways. You know there are realities where stuff that's unknown to us has been learned and is very well known. I could learn so much about the universe."
"Please… can I call somebody?" asked one of the older men. "It's not the police, I swear."
She walked into a room on my right. About a minute later, she walked out with a plastic box. She set the box on the ground, then she looked at the group.
"Give your phones to me," she said. "Put them in this box."
The hostages pulled out their phones, stood up, walked over to the box, and dropped their phones in. Then they went back to their spots.
She walked into the room again, this time returning with a water bottle. She twisted the cap off, then she threw it in my direction. She poured water into the bin. The five had distraught faces. The girl kept dumping water into the bin until the bottle was empty. She then threw the bottle at me. She carried the bin over to the five, then she set it down in front of the woman who talked.
"You can take your phones back now."
Alternate me and Ian walked in through the front doors. They raised their eyebrows, looking at Billy as she looked back at them.
"What are you doing?" Ian asked.
"I drowned their phones," Billy said. "Is it time to make them watch?"
"Yes, let's cut to the chase," Alternate me said. She glared at me, staring into my eyes with her usual look of entitled anger. "Nicole, we're tired of chasing you. I'm going to make sure you die here, and I'm going to make sure those people watch it happen."
She pulled out a chrome blue handgun with a design I had never seen before. She walked past Billy, then stopped a couple meters away from me. She pointed the gun at my forehead. There was no higher level of dread I could feel. It was time. In the back of my mind, I knew something like this was going to happen. My alternate self was going to get me somehow, somewhere. Part of me doubted it, as I didn't know what I would've done if I were psychotic and angry. I felt like time was slowing down.
"What k-kind of gun is that?" I asked, expecting little to no explanation.
"It's a brand that gives you the illusion of slowed time while pumping your nerves and organs with sharp pinching robots until you bleed out," she said. "It's from a reality where pain is always ensured as anybody dies."
I shook. Of course she'd explain it with that much detail. I was going out in pain, because of course I was. My alternate self knows all the personal events that have built up to my fear of dying in pain. There was nothing I could say, nothing I could do.
"No," Billy said.
"I need this," Ian said.
A gunshot rang out, striking Ian in the head. He fell to the tiled floor. The people in the corner twitched. The older ones covered their mouths while the younger ones looked more distraught. Alternate me turned around.
"What the hell are you doing?!" she shouted.
"It's best if I do this alone," Billy said.
"Well… I… okay… it doesn't matter," alternate me said. "Don't shoot me."
"As long as you don't interfere, I'll leave you alone," Billy said.
Alternate me pulled the trigger. My stomach was struck an excruciating pain. A painful tingling ran up to my face and down my legs. Alternate me lowered the gun and stared into my eyes with her look of determination. The tingling grew stronger. The excruciating painful bites started on my intestines, making me twitch. I laid on my side, almost jumping at every bite. My stomach and kidneys were the next to be bitten. I wailed. The tingling had grown strong enough to make me lightheaded.
"When will this fucking end?!" I screamed.
The pain was too excruciating for me to talk anymore, so I accepted those as my final words.
Screams echoed from somewhere outside. Billy stepped outside and looked to her left. As the screams continued, she walked towards their source, out of my view.
"Billy!" alternate me shouted. She walked up to the front doors. "Stay there or each of you get what Nicole has," she said, looking at the five hostages. As she pushed the doors open, a white light illuminated everything in the room. Alternate me stopped and looked back at the source of the light. A dark haired woman stepped out. She looked the room over, which included her making eye contact with me. I didn't see a way out of what was happening to my organs, so I didn't bother to scream for help.
The portal woman looked at my alternate self.
"Can you explain to me what's happening here?" the portal woman asked.
"I'm defending myself against my fake alternate self," alternate me said. "Who are you?"
"Agent Arilyn Campbell," the portal woman said.
Arilyn held her gun up at my alternate self's forehead and pulled the trigger. A silver dart struck her. She opened her mouth, but froze before she could speak. Arilyn walked up to her, then she pulled out a handheld device. She held the device up to my alternate self's face. From my angle, I could see a brain was going on. Different parts of my alternate self's brain were lit up. A minute into the scanning, POV videos of walking down side walks, riding in advanced cars, and using advanced phones played.
"So you're the one who's from reality 57470.1 in relation to this reality," Arilyn said. "Let's look at your wrongdoings."
The cool POVs switched to POVs of planting bombs, running people over, throwing people in front of trains, shooting people speaking to an audience, shooting people in various government buildings, drowning people, pushing somebody into a portal, shooting somebody with a glowing blue gun… it wasn't until I watched the repeated portal shoves that I realized the ones in the videos before all had the same oval head shape and facial feature orchestration as me. I had watched my death a couple dozen times over.
Arilyn slid the scanner into her vest.
"I'm taking you in," she said. She put my alternate self's hands in cuffs. This was amazing! I guess there is a team or two out there! Arilyn sprinted up to me. She took a smaller handheld scanner out of her vest and held it up to my face.
"Fuck," she said under her breath. "I'll be right back. Stay here while I get you something."
She took her device out of her vest and opened a portal. She ran into it, leaving me with my frozen alternate self and the shocked looking hostages. My shirt was soaked in tears. My nose, my hands… were red. I threw up on the floor. The portal reopened, then Arilyn sprinted out with a glowing red handgun. She knelt down in front of me, pointed the gun at my stomach, then pulled the trigger. A force hit my stomach. As I squirmed some more, the biting stopped. The tingling began to decrease. The tingling was going back down to the wound. Yes! Arilyn put the gun in her vest, then she pulled out some eye drops she put into both of my eyes. Within a minute, I was in a state of euphoric calmness I hadn't felt in years. Arilyn finished up by putting a bandage over my stomach.
"I'm going to get you to a surgeon for some repairs," she said.
"You're awesome," I said, slipping further into a euphoric high.
Arilyn stood up and walked up to my alternate self. I was glad this was ending, and that I was going to get to stay alive. Arilyn's equipment looked quite advanced. Maybe she was from my alternate self's home reality. That would be quite the narrow-minded assumption, however, considering all the advanced realities there has to be.
Arilyn opened another portal, beside my alternate self. She then grabbed my alternate self by the hands and dragged her into the light.
Three minutes after having left, the portal opened back up. Arilyn stepped out with a look of relief. I made eye contact with her. She looked into my eyes with a look of concern. She closed the portal, then she opened a new one to my left. I noticed right then the hostages in the corner were staring in my direction… likely at the portal, with looks of determination on their faces. Concern accompanied the determination when a certain growling noise echoed in from outside. From the sound of it, it wasn't too far away.
Two paramedics came out of the portal with a stretcher. I was carried onto the stretcher, laid down in a direction giving me a view of the front doors. The growl got louder and louder. A tentacle creature ran in front of the doors, stopping as it saw me. Chills ran down my spine, even despite the medical drug I was put on. It's appearance was still so uncanny. As the paramedics looked me over, there was a bang at the doors, followed by a clicking sound. The hostages' eyes widened. There was another growl, and with that, the hostages got up and ran towards the portal. The paramedics moved to either side of the stretcher and wheeled me through the portal.
"We don't have room for them," said the medic behind me.
On the other side, the portal closed right behind the medic pushing me, revealing a concrete wall. It was over. Well, sort of. I was wheeled down a concrete hallway with windowless steel doors. I was taken into one of the rooms. A surgery room, where I was asked a couple questions about medication, then I was given an anesthesia pill.
"Where am I?" I asked.
"It's best if we let Agent Campbell choose whether to give you that information," the medic said as he put an oxygen mask on my face.
Some time later, I woke up near a waiting room. A flat TV hung off the ceiling above me. A news channel was on. A female reporter talked about released footage of a cyberterrorist's terrifying memories of shooting hostages in the head. Apparently the footage was released via the Freedom of Information Act, and that they captured the terrorist's memories using a brain scanner called HICS.
Am I in some future reality or something?
The date was on the top of the screen, but only the month and day. June 18th.
What year is it?
In the midst of my confusion, Arilyn stepped into the room.
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Better," I said. "A little bit drowsy too, of course."
"Well once the anesthesia wears off, I'll take you back to your reality," Arilyn said.
Great! I was finally going back to the comfort of my home reality. All I needed to do was start the discussion about multiverse journalism. I'm going to hold off on going to the darkest realities for about a year, so until then, I plan on going to the tamer realities.
"I just have one question," I told Arilyn.
"Yes?" Arilyn asked.
"I want to become a journalist," I said. "But I want to record the events of different realities. Is there an extra reality hopping device I can have?"
"Well, I could work something out," I said. "But only because when you were asleep, I scanned your memories and saw many of the realities you have gone to. You have much more experience than I do, and it seems you have learned from your reality hopping mistakes. I know I've learned from mine. Hold on a second."
Arilyn stepped out of the room. Once she was gone, I remembered Billy. She said some things, then she left the building. Hopefully she was caught as well. If Arilyn caught my alternate self, she had to have caught Billy too, right?
Anyway, I have a lot of work to do. I'm posting this from an alternate reality on a computer that's able to send signals to different realities. It's pretty cool. I might not give any updates for a while, if I ever do. If I never update again, don't worry. I'm just busy.

So I’m doing a coop/internship and originally I wasn’t going to have to do a presentation because it’s a coop, so it’s a bit different than a typical summer internship (mainly just the fact that I’m the only intern on the team), but that’s changed so now I’m doing a presentation in a week or two.
I’m really curious on what your guys tips would be as far as how to structure it. Typically interns work on some meaningless project, but I worked on doing testing related stuff that plenty of full time engineers also spend some of their time doing. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be like me explaining this testing process or what? It just feels weird to explain stuff to people much more experienced than me
And FWIW I plan on asking my supervisor at our next 1 on 1

i was recently told that i had an irritating voice; by the same people i've with for over a year now; that explains the sudden mania carta ghosting. didn't realize my voice alone was enough for people to hate me/ not want anything to do with
when mental illness becomes mental agony, its time to go.
This is a you're definition of getting better, in a world of illness and pain you're oblivious too? no matter who nice you get treated like a slug for by just your voice; even i never thought it could get that low, but in this world, anything's possible.
why should i live in a world that condemns mental illness, specifically ruts like myself the exceptionally terrible one
if I told you half the stuff my doctors/psychologists/psychotherapists have told over the course of 10 years; its easy to assume from an outside perspective that of not severity and just say throw/keep him in the ward then.
The longest I've been in ward was 3 years, through court order, for a plethora of pains but the root is chronically suicidal ideation, and it was fucking hell. Think adults like this are treated with decency? think again. This isn't the children/teens ward.
Psych abuse is real, but no one ever knows or believes it because I don't have a voice, we don't have a voice to speak out, because the lot will just summarize it as crazy talk from the crazy.
This the the reality that'll never change. Because as long as a patient like myself is in there filling their pockets by ~1000 per day per patient, nothing'll change.
Then it gets so bad o the point where i have to lie just to get the fuck out of there, but by then damage is already done . A remember one guy there said; these places don't stop it, it just prolongs it." couldn't be more true. I attest wholeheartedly.
here i am to the point where no community not even online wants me. i was so desperate for belonginess at a point i even found myself on unsavory sites like reddit and k
They insist should be social/socialize part of communities
be the same ones to ostracize; if I'm different in anyway. then I change try to fit in, then your different and even worse rinse and repeat. Change so much to the point where I mine as well call all these changes alters.
At least most are honest and just tell me kill myself and be better off.
Doesn't matter online, offline irl
I turn around only to be shoved a thousand more pills in attempt to normalize me by doctors only to realize no one is here to stay for a slug, only to them be desperate enough to pay someone either out of pocket or thorough "insurance" just to be talked one. paid of course, and only 30 min out of 2 weeks; until eventually they get sick of me too and start disappearing behind "fully booked" appointments cant fit you in, and the one and blue moon appointment become dead silent.
Then get the point where I just want to leave but can't ever find a peaceful enough method.
i'm a slug that should be avoided being sick like one. final kismet was my only outlet, hence why so much of me came out through that; and why its literally my life support, not anymore. can't be disabled poor and think to make a game, its all the money.
no one can see that i'm trying everyday i hadn't killed myself, despite having well-nigh methods like sodium nitrite.
trying to put yourself in my shoes is not near enough to comprehend the pain in actuality. And worse to look at something like final kismet and have to realize that it'll never be despite a completed event. all the pain was channeled into that story, but that's all it can do.
there is not a single person who genuinely gives a damn about me— my story or this (non-existence) game. i get worn out, i collapse from exhaustion, mental exhaustion. waking up living for myself with nothing to live for except be a pawn tool for someone else's gain, in my main case, that's money for the doctors. this this also heavily reflected through final kismet's story.
and yes doctors can not know what else to do either, i stressed out 2 in my past 2019— 2022 at this over prescribing becomes the result, and over prescribing comes with unintentional overdosing, because there's so many meds be taken in a single day in attempt through desperation; giving into placebos for anything for the pain, which only causes more pain elsewhere on my body. then more meds and painkillers are taken to try and ease that pain and repeat. couldn't imagine living with this. in cases like mine it's a slow deteriorating process, all this does is prolong it. its not cancer but it feels lie it and sometimes may can depending on other new complications that arise, but a lot don't want to wait until the metaphoric cancer takes them, we seek a peaceful method because its the least we deserve.
I wish i never created final kismet i could've killed myself long before now. something i wish everyday. better than living in delusion otherwise, which is something not uncommon to me.

This is a bit of an off-topic post. Yes, I'm STILL in a DB, nothing much has changed there, but this post isn't specifically about the DB. (Though, you could say it's tangentially related, as some of the anxiety issues present here show up in the DB as well)
My wife and I haven't gone on a proper couple's vacation for years now. Pre-COVID, I'd planned two trips for us, both of which were cancelled at the last minute.
Vacation 1 was supposed to a 3-day weekend in wine-country. We had a nice inn lined up, and were schedule for a dog-friendly wine tour. In the week leading up to the trip, my wife was getting anxious, saying she had so much stuff going on at work. A couple of days before, she told me she was too stressed out to be able to enjoy the trip so we cancelled it.
Vacation 2 was supposed to be in Mexico. We were going to stay four nights at an all-inclusive resort. In the month or two leading up to the trip, I periodically asked my wife if she's settled the details of getting the dogs places to stay. I had planned the entire rest of the trip, and she took the responsibility of arranging things with her parents, sister, and aunt to split the dogs. The week of the trip became closer and closer, and she kept forgetting to set things up with the dogs. And she got more and more stressed out about things being unsettled until finally she was just too much in a panic about things and we cancelled another trip.
Intermission: COVID happened, and we didn't plan any trips for over two years.
Trip 3 happened last Fall. We actually DID go on this trip, but I think it only happened because we had friends counting on us to be there. (It wasn't a couple's trip for ourselves, we were going to our friend's birthday) Much like the previous times, in the weeks leading up to the trip, my wife started getting more and more anxious. Things were getting crazy at work, this was bad timing, she kept asking me "Do we really have to go to this?" or "Why did we agree do this?". Finally I just said "Look, it seems like it's not good timing for you with work, so how about you stay home with the dogs, and I'll just go on my own?" She ended up getting upset at this, and later said "Well, it seems like you don't want me to go on this trip with you.", which was kinda frustrating. In any case, after all the drama, we both ended up going, and it was a fun time.
Which brings us to Trip 4. Earlier this year, I proposed that we do a nice trip to Hawaii, and she was on board, excited even. So I did some research, picked a week, booked the flights, and picked out the hotels. And then, she started having second thoughts. The hotels we booked were too expensive, so I figured out an option that was more affordable, though still a good amount of money. She seemed okay with that. But then recently our dog hasn't been feeling well, and she has started expressing reservations about spending money on a trip when we might have a dog medical expenses coming up. The trip is still 6 months ago, but I'm really getting the feeling that the same thing is going to happen, and we're going to end up cancelled at the last minute.
I know that she has her anxieties that she deals with, but man! I feel like it shouldn't be THIS hard just to go on a trip. Vacation is supposed to be fun and relaxing, not this stress-filled ordeal! Not really asking for advice, mostly just wanted to vent.
How you all are doing okay.

I am getting a stuck white light on my pc after trying to reset bios after trying to oc for the first time. I got the pc to boot after resetting but I messed with the bios again and no boot so I reset again but when i took the cmos battery out it fell into a whole in my case, which then led me to having to unplug all my stuff and take the back off and get the battery from the bottom. I put it back on with everything else and then I got the VGA white light. I've tried everything I know and looked stuff up but nothing is working. Please help. Btw I have a gtx 1060 6gb on a b450 f gaming mobo with a r5 3600 with 32gb of ram.

Quite some time ago, I had a bad experience with a used car warranty. I bought one from a used car dealer for $500. It seemed to "cover everything," except obvious stuff like hoses and windshield wiper blades. The dealer said, "No need to get a pre-purchase inspection from your own mechanic. If anything goes wrong, you're covered!"
Not long after, the car blew a hose and by the time I could get off the freeway the engine had melted down. Turns out, the engine melted because the hose blew, hoses are not covered, so no repairs were covered. Around that time, I learned that dealers at that time buy these warranties for a very small price and sell them for whatever the customer is willing to pay. Ever since then, I've been skeptical about used car warranties. I took the dealer to small claims court, and won, but that's another story.
These days, if I buy a used car, I try to buy one that has a manufacturer's warranty that will cover me, the second owner, for at least 10,000 miles or so. That way, if I unwittingly buy a car that already has some serious problem, I won't get financially ruined. I always try to get my mechanic to do a pre-purchase inspection, too, but that is not always feasible.
Now, one of my kids is shopping for a used car. I'm going to encourage him to get a pre-purchase inspection from an independent mechanic. Beyond that, what should I tell him about used car warranties?

Vent time! Good day everyone, hope you're doing great, in this post i'd like to talk about how we are represented in tv series. Before we start i want to specify that with "tv series" i don't mean like Stranger Things, Game of Thrones or Rings of power, but instead the series you can find on cable tv. Specifically, but not limited to, crime channels. I'm taking those in considerations because that's what my parents like to watch and because horrocrime stuff triggers me as much as mistreatment of our community does.
Now, with that out of the way, let's talk about how in every episode a member of our community is seen they're always, ALWAYS represented as the "weird" ones: looked down on from every other character in a "i'm better that thee" kind of way; being one of the first to be seen as a suspect; sometimes even painted in a really gross and even disrespectful light.
Some examples: A character having a secret gay relationship saw as something gross and to be ashamed about; the "good guys" completely disregarding a trans person's journey and, sometimes, even questioning their transition (I particularly hate when, the first time they meet them they DEAD NAME them from the start or do the "Good evening... Sir? Ma'am?" like wtf). I'm sure there are many more examples but these are the one that still haunt me.
Even when the lgbt character is not the "punching bag" they just cannot get a break almost as if they don't deserve a happily ever after.
That's it tho, thanks for reading through this vent. Please let me know your thoughts and be kind, we want to create a constructive and peaceful environement. Thanks again and good day! <3

Hi!
Since I was 4 I've been in education up until December 2022. I graduated in July from Uni, dropped out my masters in December. All I know is being stressed with studying, deadlines, lingering pressure and constant striving to be the best, to achieve validation and marks from teachers and professors and my self worth was always based on my academic performance basically. If I wasn't achieving high in my academic work, it felt like I wasn't enough and it felt personal.
Fast forward to today, I've been in full time employment since January and have found it strange to adjust. I've found I'm almost seeking perfectionism in WORK that doesn't even NEED perfectionism - it just needs to be done. I work in customer services in an office so as long as shit gets done - that's all that matters. But it's like I'm purposely trying to be perfectionist, the way I would when I would do my uni work and essays, because that's the only way I feel like I'm being productive. It's like if I don't feel stressed out about work I'm doing it's as if I'm not doing a good job or doing it properly. I think this has come from years of institutionalisation and years of being assessed on marks and needing validation so desperately. Has anyone else found this at all? I feel like I'm slowly adjusting to calm myself down and stop putting so much pressure on myself to perform perfectly and stuff, but it's still there a lot.
Its as if my brain just can't accept that working is just this easy, and can't accept that I'm not being constantly scrutinised for my performance. I feel constantly on edge as if any mistake I make could get me judged or fired!! I know it sounds ridiculous - but it's almost like academic PTSD lmao, as if my brain is on such high alert from academia it still hasn't adjusted to just normal life.
Can anyone else relate to this? Please let me know. I just don't wanna feel alone in this and if you can offer me some tips that'd be great.