Posted this in another sub and thought maybe its useful to someone here too.
What we will do: Get a free subdomain for your network and add simple records to it, add a record to your own local DNS, configure NPM (Nginx Proxy Manager) to get trusted valid SSL certificates for your subdomain, and importantly sub-subdomains, set NPM to proxy to a service like Portainer.
The end result will be that you can use https://portainer.example.dedyn.io in your home network, and you will have proper SSL working, and also no need to remember port numbers for each link anymore.
The one part i will not cover here is installing NPM. It would be beyond this already looking huge post and it truely is not hard to do. Look up guides/videos about "installing nginx proxy manager". There are thousands in whatever format and language your prefer. And do yourself a favor, if you are not already, use docker compose for it instead of docker run, it makes things much easier for you and any good tutorial will use this too. It really is not hard to do. And if it is, then honestly, maybe you shouldnt be doing this at all, quite simple. Its okay to not be ready to do something. But fingers crossed, you managed to just install NPM. Good.
You will also need some form of simple local DNS. A lof people reading this might already be running something like Pihole or Adguard Home, thats perfect. If not, maybe your routegateway has basic local DNS features and you can add a custom entry there. If you dont have any of that, you can still continue but functionality will be limited, for now. Or if you are not in a rush with the SSL cert stuff here, you can take a break and first get Pihole for example going in your Docker setup, it doesnt need any SSL certs or things for itself.

get domain/subdomain

Get yourself a domain. Yes that is required. But it doesnt need to be a paid domain. And you dont have to run your services publicly over it later. You can do that all local only. But for a trusted SSL cert you need a domain. And it can be a subdomain too. Just make sure the provider is compatible with Lets Encrypt's DNS challenge and that they support wildcard subdomains. A lot of them dont. For simplicity i will stick to the excellent deSEC here.
So get a free subdomain from https://www.desec.io and it will be like example.dedyn.io Important: You dont need to make a new subdomain here for each of your services at home. You only create one "main" domain and later on we will locally add everything else. So dont make portainer.dedyn.io now, make something like myhomenetwork.dedyn.io and that will later become portainer.myhomenetwork.dedyn.io
Now you have a subdomain and deSEC is managing your DNS records for that domain. Perfect.

add records

In the deSEC interface, you add one A record that points to your home IP (you dont need to open anything there, no ports, nothing, just add the record). This could even be a fake IP, but im fairly certain a valid A record needs to exist (i might test and edit this later).
Then add a CNAME record that has just * as the subname and has example.dedyn.io. as the target hostname (note the dot at the end here).
That is all for the records now.

get token

Now go to Token Management on their site, click the + to Generate a new token, enter a useful name for the token like "nginx proxy" and click save to show the token. Now copy that token value into a textfile somewhere, you will need it later and it will not be shown again for security reasons. When you have done that, you are done with deSEC here.

make local DNS entry

Now as i mentioned earlier, maybe you already use a local DNS like Pihole. Perfect! In your Pihole add a new "Local DNS entry" and use for portainer.example.dedyn.io in that format and now the important bit, this entry should NOT point at your Portainer IP, but it needs to point at the IP wherever your Nginx Proxy Manager is running. Maybe that is the same IP as Portainer, maybe not. Just make sure its the one where NPM can be reached from your entire network. Save this and done. If youre using AdGuard or something else, the procedure is the same, just different menus and labels. I really cant provide info for every local DNS tool that exists.
Worst case, you dont have anything for local DNS. Then on your workstation (probably the computer youre sitting at right now), the computer where you will later try to access Portainer (as the example)... edit your local hosts file. Sounds scary, it isnt. If you are using a typical Linux, sudo nano /etc/hosts will do it. Add a new line in the format you can already see there, like 192.168.120.17 portainer.example.dedyn.io Replace the IP with the IP where your Nginx Proxy Manager is running on, NOT where Portainer might be running. Save the file and exit (with nano, press CTRL+X). Now you have a fake local DNS entry for portainer.example.dedyn.io but it only works on this one computer, not for your entire network like a phone etc. That is why a real local DNS is later required to make this all work perfectly. But for now you can continue like this. If you later do setup a local DNS, you can come back and remove this line from your hosts file.
Try ping portainer.example.dedyn.io and you should see it resolving to and probably replying from the IP of NPM. Good.

nginx proxy manager

So you have watched and followed a guide to simply install NPM (Nginx Proxy Manager) on your system, for simplicity that can be the same system where all your services are running in Docker for example but it doesnt need to be. This computer does not need to have any ports forwarded or open or anything to the public internet. NPM should be running on ports 80 and 443, but that means only those ports on that machine, not forwarding these ports to the internet. And you need access to NPMs webinterface which is at port 81 by default. So if youre using docker-compose for this, you must have mapped80:80and443:443` and the 81 can be mapped to whatever you want.
So enter NPM's webinterface, go to SSL certificates and select Add new, Lets Encrypt.
Now into the domains field you enter this: Type example.dedyn.io then click on add. Now still in the domains field, type *.example.dedyn.io and at the end, click add again. Now you should have two seperate entries there for two "domains".
Lower in that menu, enable Use a DNS Challenge and in the Provider list select deSEC.
In the field 'Credentials File Contentyou **ONLY replace the placeholder**YOUR_DESEC_API_TOKEN` with the token you have saved earlier from the deSEC web interface. So the field must then look like this:
dns_desec_token = edWQ1LXhjBG8wdYj4Ws5HFmE4mjs dns_desec_endpoint = https://desec.io/api/v1/
Then Agree to the terms and save this. You can wait a minute or two and then the entry in the list should have a green symbol and it will say a date when the cert will expire (90 days from now). Thats it, that is all done with your "fake" domain and your valid SSL certificate. Perfect!

add a proxy host

Now go to the Hosts/Proxy Hosts menu and click Add Proxy Host.
As domain you enter portainer.example.dedyn.io Yes thats correct, you just add the name of your service at the front, as another subdomain to the one you actually own. Thats what the * does as a wildcard when we added the DNS records and when we setup the SSL certificate.
Now as scheme its important to know that this DOES NOT refer to how you want to access Portainer. It refers to what Portainer as the target is currently offering. With a standard Portainer (or most other services like this) it will be plain HTTP. So leave this option at that.
The field Forward Hostname/IP that is where nginx should redirect to, the target. So that must be the IP of your Portainer in this example. Enter that. And into the Forward Port field you enter the port where you typically reach Portainer at.
Leave everything else at default for now. The additional options are sometimes required for some services, but you can always come back later to toggle them on/off and test more.
In the tab for SSL select the entry we have created earlier for your example.dedyn.io *.example.dedyn.io. Again, for now leave everything else at default. Click save.
Your proxy host will now be shown in the list of hosts. Give it a few seconds, then try to access https://portainer.example.dedyn.io
What is happening then is this:

• Your local DNS will resolve this domain to the IP for your NPM
  
• Because you used https to access it and you didnt add any custom port, your browser tries the default port 443 on that IP
  
• NPM sits on that IP and this port, and responds
  
• NPM recognizes that you are not trying to reach itself, but that you used portainer.example.dedyn.io
  
• NPM redirects you to the proxy host you have set up earlier, meaning the Forward Hostname/IP and Port and thats where Portainer actually is.
  
• You should now have the Portainer interface loading and your browser should show a happy symbol or whatever for a valid trusted SSL certificate, click on it and check the details, it will say something about Lets Encrypt.
  

Done.
NPM will also pay attention to when the SSL cert will expire, and automatically renew it for you, you dont have to do anything manually there. You also dont have to touch the public DNS records at deSEC anymore.
From now on, for a new local service that you want to use, all you need to do is: Add a local DNS entry for it in the form of service.example.dedyn.io and point it to your NPM IP. Then inside NPM, you add a new proxy host, and add the IP of the service as the Forward IP and select the existing SSL cert. Thats it. Nothing more.

Actually...six days to ATTEMPT to unlock an Iphone 11. Girlfriend bought her phone back in November at WalMart outright no payment plans etc. Used her sim card to keep her number and have used straight talk ever since.
We are cutting back on bills and she wants to go to Mint Mobile to cut her bill in third and we get the Mint kit in after paying up front...sim card not supported. We call Mint to double check, we have called Apple just in case...all know that Straight Talk has not unlocked it.
After literally twenty plus phone calls chats etc so far with customer "service" we have heard everything from it is already unlocked, it's not a straight talk phone, it is being unlocked and will be done by 4 am, there is currently a ticket and it will be unlocked when that resolves. (48 hour ticket expired last night at 11pm. Today they say it's 24-72 hours)...
We give every single support rep the right IMEI numbers phone numbers you name it and get ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE. Instead of keeping myself as a customer once her phone gets switched over I am now done paying them a cent as well.
She doesn't even care about retaining the number we just want it unlocked so her mint service can begin. We have already lost a week of that three months over Straight Talk apparently wanting to just aggregate customers until they cave and just buy another ST card and stay with their service.
If anyone has any suggestions for the love of every cute cat in the world send your advice.

I don't even know where to start, the past year I've been having this thought of breaking up for various reasons (I'll elaborate later). I kept going cause I really love her, and things are going well between us, just with occasional fights, more like arguments we don't really fight we just communicate a lot upon what happened, so I don't really actually know what I want to do yet..
Also I really want to go to Psychotherapy this summer.
My GF is more of an introvert, (I'm extrovert or maybe ambivert) she always loves hanging out at home, scared when we meet new people, kind of laid back doesn't talk a lot, only got confortable with my friends after some time.
There's 2 situations that I want to explain that bothered me/us in the past few months, and we have exchanged arguments on these topics:
S1: In th past years, I always talked a lot about a festival that is really in my heart, went there before pandemy few years in a row, like it's really special place for me to chillout, be with friends, we're camping like 5 days, listen to music etc. I mentioned her about this place few times and she told me at least once or twice, that she doesn't think she'd enjoy coming, as she doesn't like camping being outdoor, also the music isn't on her taste, no hot water,lots of people etc.
Okay, then when I bought a ticket for this festival, she got mad at me, that I didn't tell her before I bought it and ask her again if she'd like to come? now here's where I explained I don't like insisting on things which are being said to me clearly that you won't like to attend to, for lots of reasons more than once, she said I should've at least told her before buying it, I really thought that it wouldn't be an issue to buy and tell her afterwards, since she made it REALLY clear for me that she wouldn't enjoy coming there when I showed her photos/videos and she was uninterested about it while I kept talking how awesome it is to be in nature, camp etc. It was a spontaneous purchase, as it was the first tickets to be sold, a friend told me to get the first one cause they'll get more expensive. I thought it's no big deal if I told her after I bought it.
S2: few months ago I had my first gig abroad, I DJ occasionally as a side hobby/passion, when I told her that they're trying to book me a flight ticket and it's actually happening soon she said she'll like to come as well, but I explained to her that this first time I'd like to get there alone to actually be able to network, meet everyone focus on bonding with everyone, instead of focusing on her while we're there. I also said, that the 2nd time, we could 100% go there together, but for the first one there, I wanted to go alone , to actually be able to focus on my relationship with the organizers them and network as much as possible. Had some arguments before going, after I got back, she said she was sorry for not understanding and being unsupportive at first with my decision.
now here's another thing that happened while I was there for the gig, 2nd day there, we facetimed and she was kind of pissed, asked her what's wrong, why does she look mad etc? she was jealous/upset how a girl (a friend of the dude who was the main organizer) was holding me/hugged me in a pic and she posted on story and we were smiling. I mean all 3 (me the dude organizer and the one girl DJ who's also part of their group of residents, among more others) of us were having fun that night, drank some beers, bonded and made fun of lots of stuff in their city, nothing sexual at all. I have to mention, I DID NOTHING with that girl, apart from laughing, hugging in a friendly way out of respect I didn't even reposted her story, to upset my GF for seeing her on my reposts.. but she kind of stalked the people and then got to her IG, and saw the pic she posted by herself with me while we were in that bar.
> while we were on the phone, I told her that this really fucks up my day and she could've at least waited until I get home to speak about it, instead of looking so pissed/mad on videocall. I told her that I really don't enjoy when she's so jealous and insecure about things like this..I understood that she actually doesn't trust me at all, even though she says she does.
Worth to mention maybe: It's my first serious relationship, hers as well, I'm her first BF ever, I had few relationships in the past, not many tho. In december it would be 3 years together, I NEVER cheated on her, even though I was in many situations when girls tried doing smth with me, I denied saying I have a GF and that we can't do shit and moved on.
I'm willing to apologize to her 100% if I was wrong in both situations
Thank you! :)

Hi all,
I am not savvy with the law and don’t know how to go forward - or if I even need to?
My girlfriend earlier today was locked out the building for 2 hours as her key didn’t work on the lock. We have only been in the tenancy for 1 week and complained the first day via email and phone calls that the lock needs replacing. It took us 15minutes to get in the house first time.
(My key then stopped working on Monday as well)
Finally the lock broke and my girlfriend had to deal with the full force. I am with family around 3/4 hours away from the house. She had little phone battery. No friends in London or family to help.
She called the agency emergency out of hours line to see what she can do. Did everything that the agent told her to do and gave her the number for the locksmith they use.
Locksmith comes eventually and helps her out and in. Locksmith gave us an invoice of £700. She had to pay but before doing so the locksmith spoke to the agent and complained that my girlfriend had to pay as the agent/landlord are responsible and she isn’t culpable. That they must get the landlord to pay and answered all the questions stating it was no fault of ours. A spring in the lock snapped and no chance of opening or using the lock ever.
The agency are now trying to get out of paying the amount and says the landlord will not pay the full amount and do not expect money. Apparently this is because my girlfriend called the emergency help line for the locksmith.
Am I able to get my money back? I searched and this is a landlord fix and we gave them advanced warning too.
England, London.

I’ve reviewed a lot of resumes on here that asked to be roasted and have even helped a few people who DMed me their resume for private critiques. (No, I don’t charge, but I don’t always have the time to help when asked.) I also tend to do well on interviews: my last three face-to-face interviews resulted in three job offers. But I still get flustered, frustrated and impatient with the application to interview process. Should it be useful, and I hope it is, I’ve decided to share my reflections on my current campaign for better employment.
Mini bio. 2 years as an FA at F500 tech company, plus multiple stints in accounting at mid-sized companies. Total comp at an SFA level for my region, which is typical for tech. Bored, skills underutilized, and looking for an opportunity to add greater value.
Resume. I did multiple tests in April and May to see if my resume was effective. Each time, I applied to a dozen or so positions that I was qualified for and got 3-5 interview requests. All of them came within a week of applying, so I would assume more than two weeks without an interview request means the company isn’t interested.
Applications. LinkedIn is a garbage dump when it comes to their “Easy Apply” job postings. 95% of those postings are from external recruiters for jobs that may or may not exist. Their general listings for SFA have been light of late and I’ve had to page through pages of “related opportunities” that aren’t. Having said that, I have gotten almost as many interview requests from LinkedIn applied positions as from Indeed. Also, I have a couple thousand connections on LinkedIn, so odds are there’s a 1st connection at the company who I can inmail my resume and that I applied for the position: if you are a 1st connection with an HR director or manager, there’s a greater chance of getting an interview request within one day of your inmail.
Indeed’s “make your resume public” option got me one decent outreach from a company when I first did this, but since then it’s just been emails from recruiters pitching random crap. It’s a useful app and I appreciate that they show the estimated salary range for most positions: a lot of interesting opportunities if money wasn’t a concern, but it definitely is.
Company applications can cause me to pass on completing them. I got an email reminder this morning to complete a 45 minute assessment they give to all applicants, regardless of the position or whether you’ll even get a phone screen. Hard pass. It doesn’t have to be an Indeed easy apply application but ffs be reasonable.
Interviews. I started interviewing this week.
The first interview was for a Senior [Business Unit] Analyst and was heavy on preparing reports and effectively communicating data to drive business decisions over the business unit. I therefore used the “Tell me About Yourself” question to provide examples from each job of how I effectively used different communication approaches (emails, spreadsheets, visualizations) that resulted in better business decisions or needed action. It’s all about selling from the first minute. (They wanted to bring me in for an interview but when I found out that the pay for this “senior analyst” was equivalent to the high-end of an FA pay range, I passed.)
The second interview was with a software company. It was for an FA role, but it was tech and they reached out to me on LinkedIn, so I figured the comp might be acceptable. The incoming phone number said “Scam likely,” which wasn’t a promising sign. The HR recruiter said they’d already hired a half dozen FAs in the past month, which is never a good sign: either there was a mass exodus of staff or everyone’s new and it will be the blind leading the blind. The nail in the coffin was the extremely low salary range and only a 6% annual bonus.
Rejections. I’ve gotten some lovely rejection emails from some very fine companies. Not exactly sure why companies bother with this: it used to be extremely demotivating to receive these earlier in my career. Now I just file them and may search for them if I’m applying again to the company and want to know how long it’s been since my last application.

I'll try to keep this as succinct and unbiased as possible...

Setup at previous house:

We moved from a townhouse community into a house on May 25th. During our time at the townhouse, we got a really good deal on fibre 1gbps internet ($55/mo) so we switched from Shaw to a new 2-year contract which was set to expire in January 2024. We also signed up for a 2-year ADT home security contract like a week before they got bought and that contract was set to expire this October, so it's almost up.

Moving to the new house:

We set-up an internet/security install appointment two weeks in advance for the 26th, the day after our move date (because for some reason they don't do same-day installs). We had two different appointments (the 26th and then the 30th where the install technician didn't call or contact us in any way, just I guess told Telus they can't install fibre in our location...we later found out it was some issue with the city and the fibre box). We had to call Telus both times to reschedule the appointments and make sure that someone was ACTUALLY coming to install our internet. This is a problem for us because my wife and I both work from home and ate up our phone data hot-spotting for the week to work. Anyways, our third appointment was scheduled for 6/2, and I called to expedite our appointment since we seemed to be getting screwed on this, and spoke to an escalation supervisor who said they'd try to get us a technician dispatched on Wednesday or Thursday and said to be available all day on those days for install (and promises of some nebulous mystery compensation for our ordeal). Thursday afternoon rolls around we get a call saying the next available technician date would be Sunday (6/4)...so our escalation actually got deferred somehow. Thankfully, our internet actually got installed on Sunday and the technicians did a great job, but we're basically paying the same price now for copper 50mpbs.

We just got our first bill:

We received our first bill today and here is what Telus is trying to do:

1. They started a new 2-year contract for our internet with the copper pricing, which I believe goes up to $110/month after the promotion period. I can't even find this deal on the website, it doesn't even make sense since the 250mbps is $80/month. It also has a data cap on it of 450gb/month which we have to add as 'extra' to make it unlimited, which is pretty messed up since our previous contract had unlimited baked into it.
2. They cancelled our home security service without authorization (which ends in October) and want us to pay a $600 cancellation fee. Unmentioned in my above paragraph, the install appointments got separated for internet/home security and they've now missed two install appointments for home security install with no contact...I just haven't followed up on the second one yet. It may also be worth mentioning that I have all the equipment together for home security.

We haven't signed anything yet...There's no way I'll actually end up paying that...but I'm furious that they're even trying to do this. Has anyone else had an experience like this? Any advice? I plan on calling AGAIN (7th time by the way) this weekend to get this circus straightened out, but any input would be helpful.

Just received/started using the SugarPixel display and even during the day it's so nice to glance over and see my number rather than constantly checking my phone or watch. Will be great overnight to have this display up without scrambling for my phone and waking me up even more so. Highly recommend giving this a try if you're a Dexcom user.

A somewhat recent breakup has left me feeling vulnerable and i'm still healing. I'm starting to come around to the idea of dating again so i made an effort to interact with some people. The other day I bumped into a girl at a bookstore and we hit it off amazingly, spent the day, night and next morning together before she caught her flight. We're still in touch; i can't handle an LDR right now so that's out of the question. Something I notice when im messaging her is how often I take the chance to say something very sweet or flattering. It's all genuine but it wouldn't matter, she responds very well to it. I was behaving this way almost as soon as we had met; all it took was getting to know her just a bit.
This story is just an example, every other interaction I've had with a girl in the last few weeks has been similar. I take every chance to say the sweetest, complimenting remark I can think of and it gets me a conversation and phone number almost every time. It makes me feel great and when I see it's well received, it pushes me to keep doing it. The obvious advice I can get here is to tone it down and I can try. I just don't really know how to be any different and my last relationship went on for many years so I've never had to worry about dating for most of my adult life. It's all well and good if I sweep a girl off her feet and it works out but I don't want to get labeled and misunderstood.
My breakup might give further context; it was a relationship that became highly toxic between me and her parents. My girlfriend and I disagreed heavily on how to handle them; she would never stand up to them and it was a nightmare what was taking place. I had to make a decision to separate her family from my life; she wanted to stay together in secret and i let that last for 2 months before I realized how unhealthy it was for me so I went no contact. The melancholy of my breakup begins to lift anytime I start making the slightest connection with someone and I'm overwhelmed with how badly I want to make them feel good. The breakup was a bit traumatic so hopefully i'm not broken.

I just got a court document stating that I should have appeared in court, something about my veteran status being checked, and me needing to provide documentation stating that I'm not in active duty or something (been out 10 years)
long story short, I called the collection company May 1 of this year, paid ~290 the FULL amount, the lady on the phone said that it clears the debt completely, (I didn't even know I HAD this stupid debt, they never contacted me, and if they did t-mobile said the number was "spam likely" so of course I didn't answer it, no emails, no snail mail, no voicemails, just a lady at the door with a "you must appear in court no sooner than 10 days, and no later than 20 (something like that.))
That said, I paid, they told me it was complete, I didn't owe them anything, i made them repeat it saying "does this clear the entire debt?" they said "yes, would you like a receipt" I said "yes, it needs to state this clears the debt" I just looked at the receipt and it does NOT say that, just that they took the money that they said I owed them in full.
I know, short story long, but wtf do I do now? it seems like they are literally suing me for their legal fees and nothing else...can they really just lie to me and take my money then sue me for it anyway????
what should I do? do attorneys handle this stuff? I cannot afford one i'm sure....

I really hope our players get a good look at City lifting the UCL, Prem and FA Cup, and i hope that the reaction to it is bitterness and jealousy to an extent
I hope it flips a switch in the players to realise how far off we’ve fallen and how greatly we need to get back up there, day by day, year by year, our records are getting chipped away, i understand its ownership issues too but aside from that,
I want what has happened to be a turning point for the players, to create hunger inside of them, nowadays its too much of just congratulations and being happy for a mate of theirs.
I don’t expect us to miraculously just challenge Citeh or anything, but i just hope this sends a message to the board, staff, players and everyone involved with the club that change is now desperately needed
When those blue muppets were banging 100 points it was nothing to us, because we had double the number of prems, but the longer this crap goes on in our club, the closer they edge towards us, enough depending on others to stop them, we’ve got to build something to knock those twats off their perch
Onto next season lads, come on! GGMU

Im going to try to make this short, I meet my ex about 4 years ago we worked together for about a year before we started dating, (we dated for 3 years) right off the bat I felt something was not right about our relationship, like the vibe was off ? But i ignored it because i really liked him. I wasn't feeling like a girlfriend to him like I should have been, and when I would try to express my feelings he would get pissy about it, looking back very childish. Now I'm not saying he wasn't nice to me becausehe was for the most part, Or if I asked him for something that I absolutely needed he would have gotten it for me. But we also worked together and I'm aware that's a lot time together and for him that was "our time together" he didn't want to do anything after work, ever, absolutely nothing, just the weekends if his son was away for one of those days because he wanted laid, He didn't want to come over & watch a movie or come over for dinner because he always said he needed to go home to his son and help him with homework, but honestly half the time it was always done because his grandparents would him, or just be with his son in general or helping other people with lawns when it was nice out & I have 2 daughters so I'm well aware children come first, but there was absolutely no balance between his son or me when it came to my ex, we didn't even do anything on our anniversaries because we worked, or he would ALWAYS use the excuse of I was always working, even if I was working there was absolutely no creativity on his end when i got off work when he had his days off, like I did for him when I was off.
We lived separate for about a year and a half and we decided to move in together thinking that would have made a difference and I left my job to save our relationship and started a new one. But moving in did absolutely the opposite, I felt more like a roommate than anything else, we still didn't do anything together with kids or alone, once in while we would watch a movie because he wanted laid and honestly half the time I wouldn't give to him because I was beginning to be very unattracted to him because I was starting to feel like crap when I was around him. When we first moved in together i tried if I was off to clean the house (because it needed clean and honestly no one cared how they lived which was highly gross to me) cook dinner for him and the kids, but when I worked I didn't ever come home to anything but him and his son screaming at each other playing video games or my boyfriend in bed because he worked early shift, I usually worked 10am-6pm or sometimes morning shift, After awhile I started feeling things were REALLY off and my trust was starting to faid very quickly and yes i tried to talk to him like a adult and he said he had nothing to hide, I dropped it, even though my gut was saying otherwise because i wasn't being treated like a girlfriend that i deserved to be. Well about 2 months later his phone kept ringing and ringing and ringing and just kept going off so yes I picked up & the call was his mother off a new number I felt bad but then his notifications went off right before I put it down, emails for pornhub, and other porn sites, his search history was absolutely NOTHING but that, he had abulms in his gallery of our co workers in the facility that we both worked at, he had been following 100+ females on very social media page he had included those co-workers, and loving every females photos online (i didnt have to go threw his phone for that part, I seen that before) and even trying to hook up with a few, but none of them budged or really replied as I gathered, at that point I was completely done because that's beyond creepy to me and im well aware boys will be boys but thats extreme to me, I told him that i wanted to leave him and he made me feel bad for wanting to leave him, and he told me that it wasn't going to happen again and he would delete everything. I didn't believe him and sounds shitty but I also needed a place for my 2 daughters to live until I could find something else and (believe me i was trying to get out as fast as I could) so I lied & said "okay", I felt like I was being used because he just wanted to tile of having a girlfriend and absolutely not putting in any effort towards me and just wanting laid & I felt absolutely fucking stupid to let him and I feel for the words with no actions.
A couple months later I ended up putting in a offer to a house and got it. In that time of me getting my house and getting my ducks in row to leave him, and i didnt tell him yet that's when he really started to try to work things out and started to want to take me places, cook for me have alone time with me and even bought me a ring, I didn't except it because why would i ? And he didnt understand why i didn't want it, at this point I was with him for 3 years, I was completely over it, I was over everything. I wasn't asking him to give me the world I was just asking to be treated like a girlfriend! Having those images in my head told me everything about him, and me not feeling loved or cared for like I should have been i told I was moving and I told him I was done and explained why and that was more than a fight and he told me it was just an excuse to leave him and all I did was work, I moved out the next day while he was at work.
Two months later now, he's been sending me apologie letters to my house, texting & calling my phone from differnt numbers and even to my mom, he's even sent me 2 gifts to my house thinking thats going to get me back, but at the same time ive heard hes trying to move on & heard hes with someone but its a fake profile? I told him I would press charges if it doesn't stop, part of me in a way I feel bad for leaving him the way I did and kindof wanted to be acquaintances with him and then part of doesn't, I don't know if it's even worth feeling this way and if I did the right thing.

I (26M) dated a girl (30F let’s call her Jane) for about 9 months (sept 22). A few times early on she asked me what I was looking for and I’d always say I’m not really looking for anything. As time goes on we hang out a lot (3-5x a week) and we’re super comfortable and close. I never felt pressured or thought about establishing a relationship. I could sense jane like me a lot more than I liked her, she’d text me she misses me, try to plan dates, etc. I stopped seeing other people early March because I realized every time I was with someone I’d just think of Jane. I never told her that, because I was just going with the flow.
Around mid-late April Jane leaves her phone open in front of me with texts from a guy from tinder on it. I don’t say anything since we never talked exclusivity but it ate me alive the entire night and she asked me what is going on. I told her it hurt because I wasn’t seeing anyone and I just assumed after such a long time we were kind of on the same page and that she’s right we’re not exclusive so I can’t really say much about it.
We took a few days break, both felt really shitty and missed each other. She wanted me to be fully committed to her and monogamous, where I wanted to continue to date and be exclusive so I can allow my feelings to open up, I told her I can’t promise anything but that I want to see where it goes. She reluctantly agreed to be exclusive.. after about a week she told me she was unhappy because she compromised her values for me. We took another few day break because I didn’t want to continue seeing her if she was seeing other people.
We got back a few days later after we both really misssed each other again where we were dating freely again. (May 10ish)
Things were going well and I was allowing myself to open up and be more vulnerable and caring for her.
About 10 days later she leaves for a work trip for 5 days and is very distant with me the entire week and didn’t really want to see me when she’s back.
I was leaving Saturday before Memorial Day to visit home and told her I needed to see her before I left.
We had a discussion and she was overthinking our relationship and felt bad I was putting in more effort into seeing her in her neighborhood since she was so busy, rather than her equally visiting me. She was losing feelings and not sure if they were going to come back. She’s still seeing other people. We are both workaholics so we agreeed to put time aside from each other, I was looking to rent an apartment that would be an easier commute since I was apartment hunting anyway, we both wanted to make it work. She admitted she didn’t know if she even wanted a serious relationship with anyone right now, that she has a fear of committing and has self sabotaging behavior. She also admitted she missed having a honeymoon phase with heavy infatuation with me and it felt like we skipped it because we got so comfortable so quickly.
She felt super good after our talk we have super passionate make up sex, agreed to meet Monday on Memorial Day to explore the city and make date night plans for Friday night. Rest of the day and next day Jane texts me a lot and says she misses me and wish she could be with me in my hometown. We agreed on a time to hangout the next day.
Next day comes and Jane calls me that she doesn’t want to continue the relationship and that she lost feelings.
I sent her a long text and she responds she loves all our moments together, loves me as a human, wants me to be happy and loved.
A few days later I ask Jane to meet up and talk she agrees.. we tried to meet up Saturday, it doesn’t work for her any more. We make plans to meet Sunday… she texts me she woke up late, and will see how she feels after her workout class… tells me she needs a mental health day and “appreciates the flexibility”, we agree to meet Monday.
Later in the day I cancelled, because I felt like I didn’t really matter and was a chore, I told her I loved her (I never told her before), apologized for my fear of committing when she wanted me to, I wished things were different and her true colors are starting to show, I’m always open to talking but I won’t always be there like I am now. She responded “ok best of luck”
I went NC until I was drunk and texted her “I missed her in my life” She never responded and I can’t let go.
Any thoughts or advice?

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Lots of thanks to u/Killsode-slugcat for helping me work through this chapter with editing.
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Memory transcription subject: Tevri, Venlil Romanticist
Date [standardized human time]: August 11, 2137
With eyes still closed, I stretched my legs and arms, paws pushing up against the inside of my sleeping bag. A sigh of contentment escaped my mouth.
I let the world in—light falling down in shafts that struck my still-waking eyes. No trees were around to provide cover from the rising sun that hung low in the east. The sounds of life surrounded me, occasionally being broken up by particularly strong gusts as well as a hint of something else.
My head turned to that hint, who still slept somewhat soundly off to my side. Last night Jack had set up his own sleeping bag less than an arm’s length from my own, citing our lack of a fire as the reason to gather closer to each other.
He tossed and turned, occasionally, muttering incoherently. At least he’s found some rest. After carrying me for over half of yesterday, he had certainly earned it.
It was actually quite surprising how well he had managed it all. His slim build compared to other humans that I had seen was betrayed by a hidden strength and incredible endurance. I suppose millions of years of evolution tends to allow such a thing.
Some part of me still felt bitter about what he had done the night prior to our last, but it was clear to me that his apology was sincere. I gave a quiet snort. He probably wouldn’t have carried you on your shoulders if he wasn’t at least somewhat sorry.
The covers of my too-big bag were thrown off and I sat up, holding my knocked knees with my paws.
Rocky rolling hills with low-grown shoots of grass lightly waved towards me. The nearby mountain range looked down upon us with its well-kept snow despite the summer season. Even three days of standing beneath them didn’t eliminate their wondrously looming presence.
I reached over to my nearby pack and grabbed my pen and journal. I clung to every thought that passed its way through my mind, marking them down the old fashioned way. There was something special about writing my feelings down on something physical rather than some pad or computer. It felt real in comparison to the alternative.
It was incredible to me how one of, if not the most dangerous planet to be found within known space was simultaneously one of the most fantastically beautiful worlds I ever had the pleasure of setting foot on. What a travesty it would have been had the federation actually managed to glass the biosphere. Ironically it had been the Arxur that prevented such a disastrous outcome. Those same savages had…
“Gah!”
Jack shot upright from where he had lain. He heaved harsh breaths, chest rising and falling as though he had just sprinted up the incline of a hill. I looked on with alarm, but didn’t think to disrupt the startled man. His eyes stared down at the dirt in front of him as he hung his hands between his legs.
“You okay?” I asked. He whipped to look at me like he had forgotten I was there. Slowly, he turned back to face the dirt. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” He took a curt sniff and ran his hands across his face as he took a deep sigh.
He was lying.
The restless sleep, the violent rise into consciousness, the obvious distress within those wild eyes—all signs of nightmares. It had been years now since I last worried about such things, but I knew all too well how difficult they were to deal with.
A thought, as intrusive as it was unwelcome, pushed its way through the crowded thoughts of my mind, forcing my heart to skip a beat. What would be enough to scare a predator—human—to scare a human within their dreams? Instantly, I shoved it back from wherever it had come. He needs you right now, just like how you needed her.
I gently crawled over to the distraught man and set a paw on an arm while he leaned forward. At my touch, he turned his head towards me, staring with those forward-facing eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked.
A slight snarl of a smile crossed his face, but no answer came. Jack stood up and stretched his arms outward, leaning back and forth.
“C’mon, let's pack up and head out. S’always good to start out early.” He extended a hand down to me where I sat still. How could he just brush something so terrifying off so easily? My tail flicked absently I guess they always have been a rather resilient species. Why should they be any different mentally? I relented to his proposal, grabbing his hand and allowing him to pull me upright.
Breakfast—much like last night’s meal—consisted of dry pre-prepped rations. Without surrounding trees from which drywood could be scavenged, we were left fireless. The ‘breakfast bars’ as Jack called them were a sufficient substitute for warm food. Every meal with the human increased my interest in the cuisine of his species. I hadn’t imagined it would all be so wonderfully varied and delicious.
The bar itself was chewy, made of oats, filled with dried fruits and sweetened by sugar. Each bite gave a satisfying crunch as my taste buds reveled in the impeccably delightful taste.
After hydrating and filling ourselves with calories, we set off once more on the trail.
This time, I was actually able to walk properly, though less than an hour after we departed, I was left wishing that Jack could scare me sleepless again—that way I could guilt him into carrying me.
While we continued, I walked without thinking much about the placement of my paws. I worried for my human friend. His mind was clearly plagued by something terrible, but the answer of what continued to evade me. The only lead I had were my own experiences, and in chasing that lead, my mind wandered back to the past.
As I was dragged from our home without protest, Devra lambasted our parents. Velnik cowered to the side as he watched the ordeal, helpless with widened eyes. Dad practically had to peel my sister away from mom as I was shoved into our vehicle. The echo of her shouts faded away.
It was the first time my parents admitted me for predator disease screenings.
An iron grip held my hand and led me forward through the stark featureless halls of the facility. A glance over my shoulder revealed my parents walking along. They dared not to risk a look in my direction. Tears welled at the edge of my eyes as the echoes of distant screams shocked my ears and flooded my brain with fear-chemicals.
My tail wrapped around my body and my ears bent towards the ground. Why did they want to throw me in here with the monsters? All I did was explore.
The facility worker threw me in a chair within a purely white room other than the single large black wall. From the ceiling hung a projector that faced one of the three white surfaces. After the worker left, my eyes floated through the room, narrowing at a sight that practically screamed of its existence. Dark lines were scrawled into the furthest corner of the sterile chamber.
I didn’t have the time to think about its implications when the screen clicked on and the lights dimmed, enhancing the image before me.
The metal chair fell backward with me in it, creating a resounding clang that bounded back and forth across the walls.
My hands slipped and slid across the slick floor, carrying my body backwards. This scramble led the wall to smash against my back. Without a thought, my claws joined the countless other marks of those who had come before me.
A towering, onyx-shaded visage of the malevolent beast prowled beyond the edge of my vision, obscured by tears of terror that practically blinded me. The blood-orange eyes glowed greedily and its mouth was stuck in a perpetual snarl. Viscera of a horrifically familiar color dribbled down its chin from where the meat was in the Arxur’s razor-sharp teeth.
With a click, the sanguine show moved forward to yet another horrific display. Another click. Another. One more. Click. Click. Click. Silence.
My eyes were as raw as my bloodied paws. Their scraping and scrabbling joined me with the other souls who had faced this same experience. When the lights flicked on and the worker came back to collect me, I curled up trying and failing to back away. She stood me up, patting me down before pulling me from the room. Everything was a collective white blur, compressed into a single moment of unfocused voices until I heard the vehicle’s door slam.
The ride home was silent as I leaned my head against the padded surface of my seat. Shallow breaths rose and fell from my chest while Mom and Dad stared ahead. They hadn’t looked at me once since we left the facility—or even talked to me—since we left the facility.
Among the many questions I had, one clung to the surface of my mind before being swallowed by its sea of screams. Why?
When at last we arrived at home, I barely even noticed. Only when the door to the passenger cabin flung open did I somewhat rise from my stupor. A sudden surprise wrapped around me and pulled me from the car, dragging away from my supposed guardians.
In an instant, I was rushed to my room and placed upon the familiar comfort of my bed before being coated by two layers of warmth; one was the plush cloth of a blanket and the other the fluffy warmth of my sister’s fur. “It’s ok, Tev. You’re home. You’re safe.” My empty eyes had no tears left to give, so Devra lent me hers.
You’re home. You’re safe.
“Tev? Tevri?”
My repeated name yanked me from the memory. Ugh, I’ve got to stop wandering off like that.
“You in there sheep?”
With a grumble, I responded. “I told you to stop calling me that.”
Jack uttered a mischievous chuckle. “C’mon, let's get over this next hill then break for lunch. Sure seems you could use a rest.” Despite it going unnoticed moments prior, I now felt my heart pumping hard and each breath heaved just as harshly. A short break will probably do me some good.
Together, we crested the hilltop and sat down both our packs and ourselves. I greedily lapped up water from my bottle while the man beside me calmly took several swigs from his own canteen. The food he grabbed was a pair of packaged items that he called ‘pasta salad.’
The small noodles were coated in a layer of creamy sauce and mixed with a variety of colorful vegetables that I didn’t recognize, but just like everything else cooked up by these humans, it was delicious. The sweet, creamy sauce contrasted nicely with the savory taste of the noodles and the soft texture of the pasta paired with the lovely crunch of the vegetables made for a wonderful meal.
As I munched on my food, the wind lazily played with my tail. My heart drummed onward, steadying into an agreeable rhythm before finally, my breathing leveled out.
A field of purple flowers greeted us, climbing and falling with the rolling land. Down below us was the river we had loosely followed, bordered by nondescript bunches of shrubbery. Rapid white waters splashed up and against rocks, breaking the flow and sending up spray.
When together we finished our food, we sat there, enjoying the world around us. “So, Tevri,” as Jack spoke, I met his forward eyes, “we’ve been out here for two days now and I still know next to nothing about you. Why don’t you tell me a bit more ‘bout yourself.”
The sudden question caught me by surprise, but I tried my best to answer anyway. “There isn’t much to tell. I write stories and poetry about the nature of worlds I’ve visited.”
“Well, you must be one hell of a writer to throw around money like you do.”
At the compliment, I felt a rush of warmth to my face. “I—”
Jack’s calm demeanor became one of surprise in an instant. “Is your face ‘sposed to do that?” A pair of my paws clapped to my face, trying and failing to hide the spreading orange.
“Y-yes!” I squeaked. “It’s p-perfectly fine.”
“Huh, right.” He didn’t sound convinced in the slightest. “Well, uh, what about your family? You’ve met mine already, why don’t you tell me about yours?”
Just as the orange began to fade away, a shroud of mist met my eyes and my voice sunk with my ears. “I’d rather not.” The whiplash of jumping from a sense of contentment, to embarrassment, to sad longing was jarring to say the least.
“Ah.” He held his silence for a moment, allowing the blowing breeze and the distant rush of water to fill the space between.
“I’m sorry.”
“S-sorry? Sorry for what?”
Jack gave a huff. “You know it's funny really. You Venlil, us Humans. I never really saw it before, but even just a few days around you, it’s shown me just how similar our people really are.”
Again, wind and water.
“If it means anything, I’ve felt your loss.”
What?! How does he know? How could he possibly know?
He must have picked up my confusion before he responded. “After the battle of Earth I got used to hearing that answer of yours.”
Oh.
Jack rose, swinging his pack around his shoulders. “C’mon sheep, sun’s not getting any higher. Let's get going.”
“YOU—!” The dour mood was immediately washed away by my guide’s hearty laughter. Again with the emotional whiplash.
It was amazing how easily he managed to do that. Try as I might, I couldn’t stay mad at him. As I shook my head, I followed my guide’s motions and grabbed my bag to join him.
For a while we walked quietly, but once again, Jack tried to strike up a conversation. “So, you mentioned you’ve visited other worlds. What were they like?”
I gave the human equivalent of a shrug with my tail. “Some were better than others, but for the most part, they were quite beautiful.”
“You have any favorites?”
My ears perked up. “Oh yes! The sky cities of Nishtal were incredible. Dwelling among the clouds, it was a rather uplifting experience.” Jack groaned with a smile still on his face.
“That might be one of the worst puns I’ve ever heard.” In response, I simply chuckled.
“Nishtal, huh?” The smile on his face faded. “That’s the world of feathered sacks-of-shit, right?”
“What? The Krakotl? Don’t be dense now, they aren’t all that bad.”
Jack scoffed. “That’s easy for you to say. They didn’t try to wipe the Venlil from existence.”
“If they succeeded during the battle of earth, they very well could have. Not that it matters anymore. Nishtal’s skies are clouded by the ash of their once-lush swamps and their cities have been plucked from the skies. Their world died.”
Jack gave a gruff grunt. “What goes around comes around I guess.”
I was genuinely shocked at what I heard. The anger that began to bubble within me was not the same lighthearted stuff from earlier. “How can you say something like that?”
“They brought it upon themselves,” he barked.
“That bastard Kalsim was the one who brought destruction to his people and you know it. Billions of Krakotl were killed or captured by betterment. Can you honestly tell me, or even yourself, that any species deserves such a fate?”
Silence.
“No. No I guess I can’t” Mentally, I gave a sigh of relief.
With my tail, I gave him a gentle flick. “The Krakotl are functionally endangered now, you know? They may have killed a billion humans, but for each life taken, tens of their own were paid.”
My voice began to choke. “I had—have—friends among the Krakotl. If you think that the mourning you humans experienced was harsh, I just want you to think; how would you feel if less than a percent of your people survived death or capture”
These words of mine were followed by an air of silence. I wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but something I had said clearly struck a chord with the man. Unlike me, Jack seemed to ground himself in reality, but for the first time since I met him, his distant unfocused eyes made it clear enough that his mind was elsewhere.
The remainder of the day flew by beneath this same blanket of silence.
We passed from the wide grassy knolls into a sparse forest that was more brush than tree. The trail led beneath their branches and through the tall shrubbery, rarely veering one way or the other.
When we eventually stopped to make camp for the evening, the sun was still slightly above the horizon. The campsite was similar to the one we had stopped at on our first day. An old steel fire-pit was set in the middle and a steel food container lay to the side.
Even as we set up, the cold quiet remained.
Progress was slow. Jack usually did the majority of the work, but tonight, his movements were taken with less purpose than I was used to. More than once, his hands fumbled, dropping something only for him to robotically reach down and pick it up again.
Once he did finally unpack his belongings, he left to find wood for the fire. At least this time, I found myself less frightened than when he had last done so. The deafening silence of my thoughts was more disconcerting than the idea of any hunters prowling nearby.
Whatever I had said, it didn’t just strike a chord. No, this had shaken him. Not even those nightmares of his had affected him this deeply.
In much the same way that I hadn’t wanted to talk about my own family, it was clear that whatever this was, he had no desire to elaborate further. I did find it odd however that only after mentioning the near-annihilation of the Krakotl did he seem to change. Perhaps it had to do with whoever he had lost? If this was the case, then I couldn’t fully blame him for his hatred towards the Krakotl. Grief is a powerful accelerant for the fires of rage.
On the other paw, my poor heart broke for the poor avians. So many lost. So few left. When the news had arrived back on Venlil prime, I devoted every moment possible to comforting my grieving friends; to Dualo, Oqui, Icatl and Haiula.
For some though, the grief of their new reality was too strong. Several of my dear friends had been unable to overcome that grief. My ears fell and my head bowed. If nobody else would remember them, I would ensure I never forgot them. They deserved that much.
Despite the clouds looming over my mind, my ears perked up at the sound of footfalls and I turned to see a bundle beneath Jack’s arms. Minutes later, a brilliant blaze burned before us.
It felt good to have a fire again. The protective warmth felt like a familiar embrace. From my pack, I grabbed the same blanket my guide had lent me the day before and wrapped it across my body.
While I found myself shrouded in comfort, Jack prepared our food above the pit. It was yet another warm meal of packaged food. The smell of spice wafted up to the tips of my taste buds as he stirred it about with a metal ladle.
The clink of utensils against our metal bowls rose above the crackling flames. Their sun still peeked out from behind the trees, though soon enough, it fell and with it, came the night’s chill.
Countless stars that you simply didn’t get to see on Venlil Prime appeared in the night sky. A glance told me that I wasn’t the only one impressed by their appearance. My wide field of vision managed to capture nearly the entire sky. I wonder, which of those stars is home?
A gust of wind blew by sending shivers down my spine. The effect of the Wendigo’s story hadn’t been completely lost on me, but the terror it inspired had at least died down to a manageable amount. Staying near to Jack certainly helped.
Speaking of him, I’d had enough of this silence.
“Hey Jack, how would you like to hear a campfire story?” I asked, tossing aside the quiet that had covered.
“Hmph. A promise is a promise. Didn’t really have a fire last night to tell a story ‘round did we. Guess it’s only fair to give you a chance.”
My tail gave a flick of excitement at his agreeance. “I must warn you, this is a bit less of a story and more of a poem. It’s one of the last few that I wrote before my travels across the Federation ended. It isn’t quite as long of a tale as that Wendigo story you told me, but it means a lot to me.
Jack gave a thoughtful nod. “Very well, I call this poem ‘The Wandrer’s Curse.’”
“Across the stars we wandrers go, not caring much for threat or foes, The skies we see are not our own, But from them wonder’s always shown.
From Nishtal’s clear and crystal skies, To Fahl where golden deserts lie, And ‘cross the cradle’s fruitful lands, Our own horizons do expand.
It is amidst these very sights, That we the wandrers oft delight, For friends we seek and friends we find, Across the worlds of species kind.
Thru mountains, oceans and the woods, Where those long past once walked and stood, The wandrers seek to find the past; A simpler time, no clouds o’er cast.
Despite the friends which we have made, The clouds above us cast their shade, Upon the surface of our minds, And seek our hearts with chains to bind.
It is our lot to flee from pain, Brought on by smashing, lashing rains. Til weary broken and undone, We fall with legs which fail to run.
But such is life—that beautiful thing, That brings one joy and suff’ring. So with this final cloudless verse, Remember thee, the wandrer’s curse.”
At the end of my poem, the crackling fire picked up where my words left off. My eyes raised to the heavens once more and I realized just how wonderful this life was. There was something truly sublime about existing right here during this exact moment; under the stars, surrounded by trees the whistling, beside a warm fire that staved off the cold.
Sharing it with Jack made it that much better.
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https://pix4free.org/assets/library/2020-12-13/originals/alaska022.jpg (Cover Image)
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(posting this for a friend but i have similar experiences with this person). I (F12 at the time)(currently 15) had this "friend" (F13 at the time), from day one she rubbed me the wrong way, she was what you would consider a teachers pet, generally really attention seeking and you could tell she had some problems to work out. One day, when I was at home having lunch with my dad, she started calling me, at first i simply declined the call, the she kept calling so i told her to stop because at that point my dad was getting mad that i was on my phone at the table. After that I finish eating and get up from the table to go answer her, i pick up the call, she hangs up, and this went on for about ten minutes. At that point she sent me a text that said "we can't be friends anymore", it was very odd, because we had known each other for less than two weeks and we weren't exactly what I would call friends, i ask her why and she proceeded with that same statement. About five minutes later she calls me and i hear this almost satanic laughter, and her saying it was a prank. That was a very odd interaction but i gave her the benefit of the doubt not knowing her very well. Over the course of that year she acted very weird and was branded as the crazy wack job by the rest of our class, she would call me and my best friend "the only people who cared about her", and at that point i think that was true, i could see she had issues but i felt sympathy towards her. If you'd like me to go into better detail over what happened in that year let me know, but in particular this one episode scared me and convinced me on it's own to not talk to her again... We were in online school due to covid and on occasion we would all use private zoom chat to communicate during a class, so one day she started hurling insults at me, some of which were "the way you dress sucks","you're sit","you're nothing","i hate you" and "i will kill you, you need to die". My face turned flushed, i was honestly scared, for the purpose of the story let's call her Eva, her name also started with an E and that will be important later. I tell her to stop, obviously she doesn't. I ended up blocking her on WhatsApp. About twenty minutes later i got a text from an unknown number, it was her friend telling me to stop bullying Eva. I was shocked, at this point i had taken pictures, saved chat transcripts and made sure that you could tell i wasn't lying. I sent her friend a picture but she didn't believe me since we both didn't have a profile pic and both our names stared with an E, you couldn't tell who was who. I quickly changed it to name and last name so both the initials would show up, took another pic and the friend said Eva said it was a fake app. About an hour later the friend told me she believed me and i though that was the end. The next day, Eva's friend sent me a text saying, "i know i put you through hell the other day and told you not to talk to Eva for your own good, but you need to unblock her, she is ruining my life, unblock her now!". I told her no and so she kept on insisting until she said never mind. Literally not even a month later she was madly in love with a guy who just started dating one of my friends (a habit of hers was to start liking guys after someone claimed to like them), she even kissed him *assault and slapped his butt also assault and the teacher passed it off as "the heart wants what it wants", personally, i don't care how much of an asshole that guy was, that's just wrong, and if the situation was reversed, you would call him a r*pist... Anyway, after he rejected her, he and two of his friends all got woken up at 3 am by consecutive calls from the same girl who texted me (and a few others) who were trying to avenge her. Things got so bad that teachers had to bring in a psychologist to do a seminar in all of the classes at the school and some nasty stuff went down. Am I the asshole for cutting off communication with her? P.S.: she was adopted from a rough foreign country at four months old and her parents told the entire town so they could seem amazing basically making her a show pony, think that even though she doesn't remember the trama of her origin, the parents constantly bringing it up could have something to do with her possible mental issues. So Reddit, AITA?

The 3 basic parameters of hashtag #Valzubiriagenda:

1. We artists and everyone else can write and self-publish art- and artist-related books: memoirs, biographies, art books and art catalogs. Books are forever. Pamphlets and brochures are not books.
2. We announce a schedule of increasing prices of our art pieces, which includes quantities (scarcity numbers) per price point and overall (the total quantity of art pieces we might ever make). This helps art traders, art investors and art collectors speculate or even stop speculating and instead join a community of investors working together to hopefully skyrocket to the higher announced prices in a shorter span of time.
3. We can use the NFT world, because NFTs provide the tracking (who owns what) and trading.

We can also not be involved with NFTs. Stores and individuals can help sell art using online presence and our catalogs in the stores. If this trends, or once this trends, even expensive art can be sold by neighboring businesses, without exclusivity. Commission systems do not have to be standardized. Art investors can produce their own catalogs to leave at the cafés. Even the cafés can produce their own catalogs.
Valzubiriagenda NFTs
NFTs only came about a few years ago. But I had been working on this since the 1990s. I wrote a book, Valzubiriagenda, along with fellow artist Silverio Perez, and released it in 2018 (Amazon and elsewhere), tackling everything related to #1 & #2. We'll come up with #3 in a later book/ memoi marketing book.
Any artist, including tangible artists can release 10,000 NFTs if the artist chooses to do so. For tangible artists, the NFT first becomes an Art Commission Contract for sight unseen, yet-to-be made art. Once the art is made, the NFT becomes proof of ownership that the actual, tangible art is theirs.
Warehousing our tangible art
Another related idea is that the tangible art may be warehoused by the artist so that the NFT traders continue to trade. This means that even 10-ton 10-foot tall sculptures can be owned and traded by anyone without worrying about shipping, reshipping, scratches, smudges, parts breaking off, etc. The newness of the pieces remain because they are stored by the artist, source, gallery, etc. The art piece gets shipped to the art collector, the ultimate owner.
An artist who makes ceramic coffee mugs - smaller art pieces, can release 10,000 NFTs with a schedule of increasing prices so that NFT traders can trade immediately. The 10,000 coffee mugs can get damaged, so as they are made, they continue to be stored by the artist, until the time when art collectors decide to have the art pieces shipped to them.
Why only now?
I decided to write as many book-length memoirs as I can before I came out to promote this.
I'm an artist and an author. Both need time to "master." I would not even fully use "master" on myself, because there's always something new, even to my own art, my own writing and publishing.

I am now claiming that I'm the visual artist who has produced the most artist memoirs in the world. I have 5 on Amazon. I count Valzubiriagenda as both a marketing book and a memoir-of-sorts, because it has a lot of my own life lessons on writing and publishing. I would not care to contest my claim of having the most memoirs. I will release 5 more over the next 3 years.

BARTER! Get help to write, photograph art and publish your books!
Anyone can hire 11 ghostwriters for 11 memoirs. If you can make art, but you cannot write, then barter your forever art with those who can help you produce forever books.
I don't feel the pressure of writing and publishing because I feel my focus should be on art students and art experts who would study my art and my books 100 years from now. Don't expect relatives and friends to read your books.
I call myself the Dollman
For my NFTs, I am proposing to make dioramas - my original, costumed, bejeweled porcelain dolls in backdrops that will also have precious metals and gemstones. This way I can incorporate precious metals and gemstones in my work, to make sure that people perceive my art as expensive, just in case I myself don't become "famous" - there's no need to get world famous. We are artists and all we need to do is to satisfy the art niche.
Use your laptop now!
I will encourage you to start writing your book-length memoir. Write, Edit and then Self-publish it. Get help. Why wait a hundred years for someone to write about you when all you need is a laptop and a nearby coffee shop.
Don't start counting chickens before the eggs hatch. I have encountered a lot of would-be writers who immediately see themselves as bestselling. world famous assets to society. Two even wanted me to sign NDAs (Nondisclosure agreements), because they did not want me to steal their book ideas.
Here's a suggestion. I would not personally do it. From one manuscript can come 2 books: The Original Draft (unedited, with misspellings, considered to be an art piece, scanned pages(?) of your handwritten original effort), and The Final Edition (edited).
PROVENANCE!
Another way to enhance our investability, tradability and collectability is PROVENANCE - how art ownership proceeds through time. The way this can be done is also through publishing books. Everyone can write their memoirs, biographies, art books and art catalogs, including traders, investors and art collectors. In effect, we artists can continue to be included or mentioned in even more books, without any additional effort by us.
You as an investor, reseller, trader, art collector should be able to publish a catalog with 250 works by 250 different artists, but they need to agree to this right from the start - it's your money, you should require them to follow your version of the hashtag #valzubiriagenda parameters, which preferably should include permission for you to publish their art. Why would you track down 250 artists later?
No exclusive contracts
If you're a café, you can call for artists, and come up with a book with for example, 30 artists, with a chapter devoted to each artist's profile and images of the artist's art.
You can distribute your catalogs to businesses and individuals near and far and online.
The book Valzubiriagenda even cites that funeral homes and janitors closets can sell art, with or without exclusivity. Airline catalogs can include million dollar art pieces. Car manufacturers, showrooms and even car repair shops can sell art as well. Everyone should be able to do this, anywhere in the world, especially not just because of the pandemic, but right now, we are in really bad economies.
What's with the name #Valzubiriagenda
I was into conspiracy theories in 2018, and this term, "The Mandela Effect," was popular. I had read many times that an artist coined the term, but I had to research online, for her name, many times, before remembering it. I'm not good at remembering names. It took me a year and a half to finally tell you that Fiona Broome coined "The Mandela Effect."
I also thought I might have to research trademarks and copyrights just to come up with a generic name. So I decided on "Valzubiriagenda." I was not really sure at first, but I decided to use it as the title for my book (with co-authoartist Silverio Perez) so that there would be no turning back and I can move on.
Am I a FUTURIST?
Someone I recently met this May 2022 just called me a futurist.
In the 1990s, I proposed to a pension fund that they can raise billions of dollars, especially for emergencies, or as needed, or out of desperation, if the pension fund purchases a quantity of art from an artist who not only has a current, reasonable price, but an announced future price that the artist wants to reach.
That future price would obviously be higher than the current price. The art commission contract for multiple art pieces can be taken to the fund's financial lender for a loan. The higher future price can be used for financing purposes.
The pension fund's treasurer, a publicly elected official, said this idea might work, but we had to keep this a secret and discuss this some more, because other pension funds might copy and do this prematurely. This idea had to come from the two of us. The treasurer needed his votes and I needed credentials.
Added into the pot was my idea that I, as the artist, will also write one book-length artist memoir. This was and still is a strong factor, because the leadership and marketing books I had read then mentioned a strong tip. If you want to advance in your field, write a full-length book that is related to the field.
Unfortunately, the elected official, the treasurer of the pension fund, who was also a friend, passed away - he was old and had ailments. At that point in time, I cannot just approach another pension fund treasurer to share this idea with.
I realized I had to write a few memoirs. I needed to set an example for other artists, so I needed to write more than one memoir. Then I felt I should also make ready another book - the how-to of what I'm up to. I wrote Valzubiriagenda, which was a memoir of sorts. I knew how long it would take me to write a book, so I had to make sure I can also consider this book a memoir.
In 2008, I imagined that someone like Bernie Madoff, or a fund like Lehman Brothers, would be desperate enough to use this to save themselves and their companies. I was not ready. I had only written 1 manuscript for a memoir.
In 2012, I released Dollman the Musical, A Memoir of an Artist as a Dollmaker. Once again, I was not ready because writing it depressed me a little, and I knew I had to write more.
In 2014, I released 3 memoirs, and re-released Dollman the Musical. Besides releasing regular books, I released special editions of the 4 books, which had a "Special Secret Insert for Bankers," which explains my ideas of an announced schedule of exponentially increasing prices, to satisfy investors, and the publication of artist memoirs, to satisfy art collectors.
In 2014, I also issued out a press release. Google "Can Billion Dollar Artist Save Investors and World Economy Valentino Zubiri PRWeb August 19 2014" and you will see the press release.
What I did was stake a claim on my ideas. I did not promote my books and the press release. I just wanted them to stay online, like a sleeping giant or a dormant volcano. I even designed 3 of the book covers to look like indie books from the 1980s. I was planting the seeds, thinking they will eventually grow and bear fruit in the future.
In 2015, I was interviewed by Richard Syrett, about one of my memoirs, Hocus Pocus Lately. This book is my memoir with paranormal stories. I could have pursued promoting my paranormal stories, but I wanted to be known first as a visual artist and memoirist, so I allowed myself one interview related to Hocus Pocus Lately. Richard Syrett has(had?) his own syndicated radio show, The Conspiracy Show with Richard Syrett, about the paranormal. He also guest hosts on Coast to Coast AM, another internationally syndicated show about the paranormal.
In 2018, I released Valzubiriagenda (co-authored by artist Silverio Perez, a fellow artist). Finally, this book is "the how-to of what I'm to."
I'm going to end this with some strangeness. In 1986, a lady at a religious gathering went into a trance and left a good number of messages. Supposedly, anyone who got into a trance would have messages, but once the trance was over, the person would not remember what was said.
I was not part of the group, but the lady turned her head to face me. She "foretold" that whatever I would decide to do in the future, it will take time, but it will be the right thing. This is one of my stories in one of my memoirs, Hocus Pocus Lately.
The Tulipmania of 1634-37
I discovered that there was this incident of rare tulips becoming collectible during the Dutch Golden Age. There were tulips so rare and so well-desired that their prices equaled to that of a house. You can read more about this online (Wikipedia) or watch a few YouTube videos about it.
Here is the most useful idea that I gleaned from the Tulipmania. The tulip bulbs remained safe inside nurseries. The traders were carrying the deeds of ownership to the tulip bulbs.
Then NFTs came to the forefront
I started learning PHP, an HTML scripting language, and MySQL, the database that PHP can connect to in the background, in 1999, when there were only 3 books about PHP and MySQL at the bookstores.
By 2014, I was trying to figure out how to make the "ledger," or database that can be used to update ownership and who can be contacted. If we are trading art, then the art ownership should be updated.
Then NFTs came about. This can be used as our ledger. Everyone can immediately trade NFTs of future, yet-to-be made art pieces, especially because it takes time to make tangible art.
NFTs actually went a step ahead, by allowing digital art to be traded.
The only setback with NFTs, in my opinion, is that it still lacks a commission system for resellers and representatives.
For example, if a café wants to represent me, then they can promote me at their café and on their online pages. If I make one piece of art that will be exclusively represented by a gallery, then that commission will be different and more specific. As ownership is transferred, the subsequent owners should be able to reset the commission. We should also have the option of giving commissions to hundreds of representatives at one time with different percentages if need be.
The recent crypto crash
Lately, we have observed that NFTs and cryptocurrencies have been behaving like the stock market and other markets. They have been fluctuating.
I believe that it is time for a trend which discourages fluctuation of prices.
I have also seen YouTube videos where social influencers are encouraging us to be on the lookout for exponentially profitable ventures, because we have all seen this happen with the exponential increase of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Let's see if #Valzubiriagenda trends
We can announce present and future art prices. The galleries won't do this (yet?) because they follow a more traditional approach to the business of art.
We have a choice of using incrementally or exponentially increasing prices. We still reserve the right to change things in the future, so everyone should know to follow the latest update.
If this trends, if you as an artist simply announces that you will write an artist memoir, or that you will include the future works in future art books, you might have more art traders, investors and collectors approaching you.
Get your pen, paper and calculator
Imagine yourself as an artist, where you are right now. Let's just say you still do not have a book about yourself and your art yet. Imagine now that you have a memoir out there. Don't you think it makes sense to charge more than what you are charging now? Writing and publishing books is just the beginning. I'm just standardizing this approach. The books also say to do other related projects. In my case, getting Dollman the Musical onstage is one idea. You will have other related projects, but the publication of memoirs, biographies, art books and art catalogs will help all of us.
You can also imagine that a law firm that has meeting rooms, with someone who wants to form a local #valzubiriagenda group, can have meetings. A local café can do the same. Local photographers for your art, writers, editors, book designers, proofreaders and others can join in.
I suggest have printed books to share. 15 copies of your memoir or art books will be better than an e-reader or laptop or your phone to show. These gadgets can be stolen, sabotaged, broken, have coffee spilled on them, etc. 15 printed books means simultaneously showing to 15 people. You can even give them away to potential resellers, investors, traders and collectors.
When it rains, it pours, as in the days of Noah
There's a saying, "When it rains, it pours." There is a negative interpretation and a positive interpretation.
Negative: When trouble comes, they cascade to even more.
Positive: When opportunity comes knocking, more follow suit. We can assume that if one gets our art because of #valzubiriagenda, more want to do it now, because of the rising prices, and FOMO - fear of missing out. What will they lose if they miss the boat?
As I have said earlier, if the #valzubiriagenda trends, if you announce a future memoir or art catalog, you might have an increase of investors, traders and art collectors who would want to check you out. You might encourage more sales. Just remember to write and publish that memoir and art catalog.
There's this saying, "As in the days of Noah." Imagine Noah, building his ark, with members of his own family, putting all his time and effort into it. Noah was a nice guy. I'm sure every once in a while a neighbor offered him coffee, or chai latte, or whatever refreshing drink they might have back then.
Here's the lesson to be learned. Just because they offered him some type of bubble tea drink, or coca cola, they still didn't make it to the ark. Rubbing shoulders with actors does not make you an actor. I have told my artist friends to write their memoirs. They told me that once they see me succeed, after all these many years of seeing my seemingly useless efforts, then they will write their memoirs and follow the road that I had paved for them.
Good luck to them, but if I were you, act now, get my art or make art. Support the 5-year old artist whose parent promised to release a comprehensive art catalog. If you get that 5-year old's art, and mine, I would be honored to be in the same art catalog that you will produce. I'm already successful at that point. You have gotten the mission just right.
I have already claimed to have written the most book-length artist memoirs in the world. Dethrone that claim. Barter. Use ghostwriters. Success to me means facing God one day and saying, I wrote my memoirs and left the world a legacy of books and art. I will not tell God, smiling and proudly, that I encouraged a run for my art by announcing a schedule of exponentially increasing prices that reached 9 figures. I'm sure God knows we had fun.

JOIN THIS GROUP

If you want to try out #valzubiriagenda, in any capacity, join this group. Let others know about this group as well.
If you are an artist, you can let everyone know here that you will produce your memoir, art catalogs, etc. It's okay if you don't know how to go about publishing yet, I will discuss this. Please be honorable enough to produce what you promise to produce.
If you want to meet fellow artists, investors, resellers, etc., join us here.
If you are a book writer, editor, proofreader; if you can photograph art pieces; if you are a book designer, etc., join us here. Let us know if you charge, barter for art, or both.
If you have your own tips and knowledge to share, join us here.
If you have underaged artists you are managing (parents, etc.) join us here.
Join this group if you want to sell works. Post your works. You web links. I'm sure I will.
You can announce meetings in your area. You might have meeting rooms, a café, restaurant, etc. where people can meet. In the future, you can have the regular show and tell, where books can be shown and shared.
​
Thanks for reading. Please let me know if I need to edit some parts. Please share and join this group. - Valentino Zubiri, Dollman, Artist, Memoirist
Underaged artists are welcome here, so please be mindful of your language. We cannot post your adult-oriented art pieces, but you can direct us to a separate page or community. There will be limits to your posts, and there will be adult-oriented art that we cannot allow to be posted.
Thanks for reading. Please let me know if I need to edit some parts. Please share and join this group. - Valentino Zubiri, Dollman, artist & memoirist

In late-June 2021, I looked at this set of data for Alibaba, a company with $50B in net cash, and eye-popping growth numbers across the board in (1) the key cash flow generative division (customer management); and (2) the promise of the cloud. Please note that the e-commerce numbers are strictly customer rev mgt and *exclude* direct retail.

Period	E-Commerce Growth	Cloud Growth	Free Cash Flow
FY2019	27%	84%	15B
FY2020	20%	62%	18B
FY2021	24%	50%	26B

Back then, the big news cycle of the day was Jack Ma, Jack Ma, Jack Ma, and the antitrust fine that the CCP had levied on BABA. The bear argument was that Alibaba was in the CCP's doghouse and that this was basically going to be a shitshow for a long time.
I looked at the market cap ($620B), the net cash ($50B), and the FCF (26B) and the growth rates, and reached the judgment that in the next 3-4 years, there was a good chance those FCF numbers could easily fly past $40B, making a $620B Market cap look pretty absurd (MCap to FCF = 15)
How did I model that FCF go from $26B to $40B? Well, that's a CAGR of 15%. If their e-commerce (customer management) revenues rose by just 15% CAGR, then a FCF CAGR of 15% was achievable so long as margins held.
It seemed reasonable to assume that customer management revenue would grow at 15% CAGR for the next 3 years, given that this would represent a moderation from the previous three years CAGR, which was 23%. If it did hit $40B, this would easily be a $800B-900B company or a $300+ stock.
I bought the stock around $230.
Then this happened...

Period	E-Commerce Growth	Cloud Growth	Free Cash Flow
FY2021	3%	23%	15B
FY2022	-8%	4%	25B

What the fuck?
What fact in the public domain did I miss about Chinese society, Chinese business, etc., which could have helped me anticipate that a company whose "customer management revenues" were CAGR'ing 23% for the last 3 years would actually have a -2.5% CAGR over the next two?
Why would I have any reason to think that cloud, which had a 3-year CAGR of 64%, would slow down to 12% over the next two?
What in the actual fuck could I have done differently, or thought differently, or analyzed differently to anticipate these horrendous numbers in relation to the past three years?
Clearly, three things have happened:

1. The e-commerce industry has seen the rapid rise of PDD and JD. These two are taking market share away from Alibaba;
2. Chinese COVID lockdowns really threw a wrench in domestic spending. The Chinese economy is soft across the board, ranging from real estate issues to domestic growth.
3. The Western and global economies in general have slowed down dramatically with worldwide inflation (even though no inflation in China), which really fucks up the economy of the world's #1 exporter, i.e., China.

Some of these are life's ups and downs. Others are serious issues (in particular Pinduoduo, in my view).
But coming back to my main question, how the fuck do I look at a set of numbers for three years, assume a moderation, and still get fucked in the A in this way?
The CCP or Xi Jinping didn't go around telling Chinese shoppers to moderate their spending on taobao/tmall from 20%+ CAGR to -2% CAGR. What in the fuck is going on fellas?

He is a manager at a popular hot spring in my area, and most of the employees are teens, even the supervisors. They’re 15-18 usually. I worked there over 3 years ago, I was 17 when I started.
And since most of the employees were 15 year old girls, I kinda became an older sister of sorts for some of them. Eventually, several of them told me of the times that the manager was creepy towards them. I noticed this as well. He was very touchy feely with all of us girls, but I still didn’t know how to feel about it because it didn’t go beyond that in my case.. until I was vulnerable with him.
That’s the thing that kills me. After much convincing on his part, i finally told him that my younger step brother was in the hospital because he attempted suicide. I wasn’t sleeping because he was only 15 and I knew that I wasn’t a good sister to him. My manager said comforting words, but his hands were slowly inching down my back as he was talking. Like, very slowly. Eventually he was at the small of my back waiting to go down to my butt. Eventually he did, but we were sitting, so he couldn’t actually get that far down. I couldn’t find the words to say to make him stop, it wasn’t my first assault.
And even though I was 18 when this happened, there’s a lot worse stories from girls who were younger than me. And I think his behavior bred a lot of other situations in which employees sexually harassed fellow employees.
Eventually, I announced that I was quitting. He tried to convince me to stay but I wouldn’t budge. On my last day, he went on and on about how him and I should go out for dinner. And stupidly, I gave him my phone number so we could get in touch. He never did actually text me, but I know for a fact that he stayed in contact with at least one former employee because I accidentally saw him text her on his phone. I asked about it and he was pretty dodgy.
And I’ve been trying to come to grips with all of this because it seems much more clear cut as an adult. I feel guilty as well

I am writing this in hopes for some help and to guide others to not have the same fate as me. I think I have made the biggest mistake of my life. It has been 5 months since it happened and I haven't been able to fix it. This phone is the only connection to the realm of my birth. My original world. I probably cannot undo my mistake but I can guide future players.
My phone it's Android. It has an IR blaster, the only reason I bought it, and for some reason, this phone can hold its network through dimensional change. As if it's a loophole, a glitch in the broken matrix that i was facing. Not that i could actually make any use of it because I am still here.
The people here look like us. They all do. They are very sapient. They look just like us. But my bones know that they don't have the same origin as I do. They are good though. Have the same societal issues, the same intolerable governing body, protestors, and unrealistic agendas, the left wing and right wing at each other's throats. People who should touch some grass have podcasts. People who should have podcasts enjoy their lives. They are humans, just like us, but they are not us.
The rules stated by the urban legend still strike the same to this day if time and space follow the same routine, follow the floor number pattern, pay no heed to the lady that enters the elevator on the 5th floor, leave the building immediately if you return to floor 1, etc. I followed them all correctly, but the rules are no guarantee as to whether you will be safe or alive after your elevator journey is done, the rules only make sure the procedure is correct.
Hey you know what I will write down the rules in short, for your reference to my guidelines but the rules should always be memorized to your bones and spine, this is your SOS and your key. You will find the set of rules on any website. I suggest visiting multiple of them before you start your endeavor. Because each of them gives you different kinds of warnings, something the successful players learned from their own experience. And take this advice of reading through all of those points from this unsuccessful player.
One thing the rules on blog sites don't mention is the choice of which world you want to enter. Because most players enter an identical world with no electronics and no living thing around them. Only a red crossed window that's far stretched away from where ever you look and keeps on moving further away from you. My case was vaguely different.

1. So firstly all you do is enter a building with more than 10 stories.
   
2. Enter the lift via the first floor and only by pressing the "up" button
   
3. Follow a pattern of floors, press 4 then 2 then 6 then 10 then 5.
   
4. On 5 a lady shall or shall not enter your floor. Then press 1
   
5. When you press 1, you will either reach 1. or you will reach 10.
   
6. If you reach 1, get the f out of the building and don't come near it, not in 6-7 months i suggest.
   
7. If you do reach 10 congratulations. your first part of the journey is a success
   

now Something, about the lady. Do not interact with her at any cost because of course she is not a lady, no matter how pretty she looks, oh you looked at her? alas, that's also a grave mistake. don't look at her, don't talk to her. Just ignore her total existence. If you know of the elevator game you are already aware of how you should not interact with the lady and all. But one thing is often left blurry is that what you should do if she does not enter. This was my case.
So my advice here: If the lady on the 5th floor does not enter. Then just hope that you do return to the 1st floor after you press it. if you do no then, and start ascending. continuously press any and every floor button for it to stop, or maybe the emergency or call button so that the staff can stop the elevator. Because if you end up reaching the 10th floor, good chances are you get to meet me and we make a cute therapy consult group for people who can't return back. :)
I remember everything from that night so vividly. I did your usual pattern follow. I entered the lift when no one was using it. I entered 4. went up there, meh nothing happened. Then again I pressed 2. I felt a vague chill around me. As if the mechanism of the ritual was understanding my intention. I pressed 6, then after it reached 6, I pressed 2, then 10 then 5. Oh, 5. The elevator door opened. And there she was, standing with all her glory. I did not look at her. but of course, i could see her from waist to bottom. She was dressed in Russian traditional clothing. not something i was expecting from an urban legend that became popular in Korea and japan. I think her wardrobe is a good collection from all cultures. or maybe there's more like her? Who knows?
I could feel it in my spine she was looking at me. She stopped the elevator with her foot so that the doors don't close and asked, "Baby which floor are you going?"
I followed the rules, did not look at her, did not reply to her, and completely ignored her.
She said, "Not much of a speaker eh? no worries have your ride. I hope you have a better life."
I have no idea why she said that. Looking back I think she knew what was going to happen to me. She knew that I was not going to end up in the world most player venture into. "Better life," she said.
She did not enter the lift and I pressed 1. The ritual, now tainted because she did not enter, worked. I reached the 10th floor. And when the doors opened, it was like nothing changed. The building I entered was a hotel. The housekeeping staff was running around. I heard children crying. Some Karen was screaming at a worker because her coffee, which she made from their amenities tasted bland. It was very confusing for me. I think I assumed the ritual did not work. And the lady was just another lady who could have been high. I walked out of the elevator and I felt great.
"those silly online urban legends, such lies" I probably had muttered to myself.
I took the lift again, reached the ground floor, and walked out of the building. Everything was going well until my head started hurting and spinning. and i was slowly passing out. and that's the exact moment i remembered from one of the posts of an earlier player "Do not at any chance lose your consciousness. and if you do, no matter where you wake up, return to the building, re-follow the exit ritual pattern and return to your own world."
My head felt dizzy as I woke up. In my very room. I thought to myself, was it all a dream? Did I search so much about some damn urban legend that I had such a deeply engraving dream? For heaven's sake. I jerked myself up and got down from my bed. Even my clothing is same as the last evening. I didn't know what was more weird, that i was wearing the clothes from my dream or that i remember the dream so vividly that i can even recall the outfit i was wearing. Also my phone was in my pocket. This is something i just never do. No matter how sleepy i am. i keep my phone on the other end of my table, in case it might just blast if the lithium goes through a thermal runaway.
AND! That is when i noticed. My table. It was completely on the opposite side. No no, it is right beside my bed, just like every day but the bed, and the entire room, its opposite. As if it were mirroring the room i know. Also, It wasn't just a complete mirror. my room was smaller, just a bit in breadth. One wouldn't notice it even if they visit my room on a weekly basis. But it's my damn room of course i would know even if a fly moved differently. Lo and behold, that extra loss on my room, was added to my washroom. Again, one wouldn't just notice it right away.
In a nightmare-like urgency, I rushed down the stairs to call complain my mother, and that is when the realization hit me that I did, in fact, play the elevator game. My dad was there. In the kitchen. Alive and happily married. Figuratively much different from how I remember him. I stood there in shock with my mouth wide open. How could this be? I remember my father. The last time I lived with him was until I was 9. When my parents parted ways. The last time I saw him was when I was 11, when he died. Not that I cried, he was far from what a father is supposed to be. I am 25 now.
"Good morning Sweetie!" His voice sounded oddly different. I was utterly petrified by this moment. There was a quirky yet calming nature to his sound which creeped me out even more. I dashed out of the house while grabbing my backpack from the sofa. I could hear him call out my name in my concern. This is it. This is definitely it. I crossed the borders of the unknown realm. But why are people here? Isn't it supposed to be dark with no one in it? No electricity and all ? But there is everything. This is a whole other world, what went wrong?
I had to return to my world. I ran through the roads and traffic to the hotel. Hotel Sunset. As I crossed the roads I could see it all. Cars stopping at the orange light. People walking in blue. I mean they are still following basic physics by using orange, longer wavelength for stopping cars. but does Red not exist in this world? not it does, OH MY GOD, the road lines are red.
I hurried through the crowd to reach the hotel. I pulled out my phone, which was surprisingly working perfectly. Internet, gps everything. It said i reached my location. "Hotel sunset"
I looked up, it said "Hotel Moon shine". I am surprised it wasn't named "moon rise", it'd would have been the cherry on top then.
I walked in, the Interior looked the same. I waited and waited and waited for the evening to hit and the horde to lessen. I stood up and walked to the lift. I repeated the entire process.
The lift stopped at 5. Instead of the lady, someone else entered. I of course didn't look up, but they entered hurriedly, screaming my name and i had to look up, i was already freaked out at this point. It was me. I was looking at me. she, well me, or wait she? she held the lift by her foot. What's up with women in the elevator game to hold the elevator by the foot?
"what did you do!? " I - I mean she said, one that looked like me.
"what did i do?" i replied back. . Whoever this doppelganger was. sure i was petrified. but here i was.
"DID THE LADY ENTER YOUR LIFT ?" she screamed at me.
"wha?" i was trembling at her screeching was. the white portion of her eyes started to redden.
"OH MY GOD DID SHE OR NOT ENTER WHEN YOU DID THE RITUAL?" she again proclaimed.
"she didn't." i replied and slowly lost my leg strength and somewhat collapsed while sitting down.
"why? why did you complete the ritual then? did you not read before you did? you are supposed to be me, you are supposed to be smart. heck, aren't you supposed to be smarter? oh my god. is that my backpack or yours?"
I just shook my head and handed her the backpack, it was hers definitely. I never put on any anime pins on mine. Speaking of anime pins, naruto here has pink hair. Isn't that cool?
she took out her phone and said "If you want to go back home go to this tumblr account and download the app. The account is called buihotline.tumblr.com "
And she left.
Was that the me of this universe? do we have counterparts in every universe? How many universes are there? are these even universes the way our science teaches us universes?
The lift started to quake. the light started flickering and I could hear some noise. soft noises that slowly grew louder and louder until they became uncontrollable screams. my ear drums were hurting beyond control. until it all stopped and the lift door opened. I stepped outside. Yet I was still there at "Moon shine hotel".
I tried the ritual again. I ended up back here. To floor 1 and I went back "home" to my "dad" and "mom". For the next 7 days, I kept on going back to the elevator, trying the ritual continuously and failing. On my way, I noticed new and new things about their world. These people like to greet each other in a very weird way. They grab each other's throats and smile. Almost sadistic. Language is very similar, but there are a few words and phrases here and there that have changed with customs and traditions. Honey here tastes like metal. Cows don't Moo, and birds chirp, but the sounds are unfamiliar, dogs don't exist. cats are the only domestic animals here. I read similar things in some blogs, but never did I think I would get to experience them for real.
Either way. On every failed ritual, I reached floor 1 and went back home. and repeated the cycle Until the 7th day, I got so fed up, that I kept on trying multiple times. but all I did was end up on floor 1. But I saw the weirdest thing.
Well, I can fill in on what happens if you immediately don't leave the building after playing the elevator game and ending up on floor 1. You see, well better than seeing failing grades or not being able to return to your own world, ghosts. Yep pretty much. Deranged souls that roam around the building. That is exactly what you see. And once they notice your existence, god save you. If there is any.
Mine was rather sarcastic. They did infact noticed me. They all came running towards me, looked right at me, smelled me and then slowly moved away and kept on about roaming. My heart intensified so much, it felt like I just lost a marathon I almost won.
I saw a man, maybe a bit older than me, in his 20s, walk down the entrance come and sit beside me. "They won't attack someone who's like them. You are of no use to them. They used to belong here, but don't anymore. and you never did."
I looked at him with a frightening shock. I took my bag and ran back home. Only when i came back home i realized he could have had answers. But i was so terrified at the moment, the only thing I could think of was getting away from him. I needed answers. I need to enter the website the other me mentioned. I got a new phone from this world. they didn't have Google, but I tell you their search engine is much better, it has AI integrated within. The account never opened from the new phone. Tumblr did. but that account never did. Then I tried my own phone and voila! The page had nothing. A heading, a two-liner bio, and a link. Link to download the app. Tumblr happens to be one of the only few apps that do work in other dimensions. Apparently, it has something to do with the first person who jumped dimensions, not only did they jump, but they also jumped through time and made sure every world had Tumblr. It's kinda funny they could have chosen Reddit, it's much more effective.
I loaded the app. Its a 2010's forum-based app. There are discussion topics under which you make threads. You got a chat box to interact with other users. the main discussion had a guide. I searched through it and finally came to the part "how to enter and leave a mirror world" aaand its blank. well not totally. A couple of reasons saying why you should not enter it. A bullet point that said download this pdf to know how to return back to your own world. I hurriedly clicked on it and boom the file did not open. I have never been so disappointed in my life.
There are so many dimensions else than the one with red cross and mirror dimensions. it is almost like aliens exist because some "humans" look so different. some people probably might even have ended up on my world as well. I wonder how they are taking it.
Apparently, only devices of one world present in another world, or at least have been in a few can open the website and run the apk file. Only androids work across dimensions. There's a conspiracy theory that the creators of android have got something to do with the entire interdimensional rituals and breaking the laws of space and time.
Either way, hoping to get some results I posted on the site wishing for some advice on opening the file or someone just copy-pasting the rules I guess.
I received a DM saying, "Since you have successfully crossed a mirror dimension You are capable of much more than you can imagine. But you should know how to use them, you have to be responsible for every move you make"
Good lord, I am not Spider-Man. The user further said, " I do not know where you are from, but I am from dimension 17391, go to the universal map translator and put the location, "Kairo office main building, st. red 22209". It will automatically give you a few building locations of your world." But the interface is very slow. Because it's not a singular place that has a counterpart in every dimension, there is one in every 4 hours of journey. It's an arbitrary location. It will take some time. maybe days. But you will reach."
I asked the user a dozen questions, how do I find the translator map, how many universes are there, and what do I do when I reach there? Why does everyone speak English? But they never replied. But now I have something, hope. A twinge of hope.
I searched around the app and found the map feature, build within the forum. It was on the top layer, but a confused me couldn't find it right away.
Ever since I found the map It has been nothing but a dilemma. 5 months. 5 months of intense searching and nothing. The first time I entered the location and searched, it landed me at the coordinates of a graveyard. The Irony. The second time, a fish market, the third, 3-storey guest house with the most normal Karen.
I can't even venture out every day. I have a "life" here that I have to maintain. This me had a similar job. Marketing manager at a pretty good company. The pay is almost the same. A bit lower here, but hey cost of living is also lower here. Putting those two together I probably have the exact same pay. But they have more facilities. Better vacation leaves. That is exactly what i took right after i downloaded the app, to understand the world better, and the changes here and there.
Morning, I go to work. where I sort out the place I will visit. and after work, i leave. Some places were nearby, some were far. One was in the neighboring country, luckily, the passport here is strong. But none of them work. I think I have broken the "not your universe? not the place? click again" button. Sundays and Saturdays are for long-distance locations. Also every day i cannot afford to go, even though the pay is good. In my world I used to live alone with Mum visiting me now and then. She and I had a family business along with my job, so all was good. Here I don't have a place of my own. And I gotta pay the bills around the house and sometimes take care of the business as well. Things are so similar yet different. I feel likeIi live in a deja vu.
By now i have crossed out almost 75 locations within 5 months, all of them being complete failures. I have crossed out 60 universes that aren't this one. I have made multiple posts on that app, describing my condition, where i am, and which universe it might be. If i even know this universe number and input it, the map translator will work much much better. I describe my original universe in the posts expecting someone to understand me and maybe send me a picture of my mother and friends, but all i have received are words of sympathy and hopefulness.
A few more people have send me their "kairo" addresses but they all can send only one to two messages before the chatbox stops. One of them managed to message me that i have to enter my universe number in the settings for the interface to work better. I also haven't been able to find the man from the hotel on the app or at the hotel either.
what do I do? Any piece of advice?