Victoria secret sexy little things perfume

So this week makes the fourth month that I have moved away and outs of the living situation that I was in with my ex boyfriend. The first two months saw me going up to visit him weekly as we were still trying to work out our relationship while taking space apart from each other to better ourselves. Then around the ending of the second month of me having moved away we had a very big argument, and I decided that I needed to break up with him until he made the changes that I needed him to make... little did I know at the time that this would be a blessing for him. Since we broke up, I went up to visit him twice. even as friends we still said our I love yous. We’ve been together for so long, that he did truly become my best friend, and as most of us know when we enter a relationship, we tend to isolate ourselves from our friends groups, and our boyfriends become our main concern.. Also Covid hit and that just further exasperated that.. So slowly, but surely he started to drift apart the second time that I went to visit, and we haven’t even bigger fight.. So fast forward to two or three years ago When my ex-boyfriend overdosed on heroin in my bathroom of the apartment that we lived in together.., this saw me saving his life, CPR, mouth to mouth and calling 911 all while being traumatized, handling my ex-boyfriend’s now blue body… OK back to the second time I was up there, visiting him after we broke up: I said something like oh well I don’t like my roommates and you hate living with your parents, so why don’t we consider living together again after my lease ends. He looks at me while you were in a retail store and says to me “ oh, I would never live with you again.“ I got super offended because I’ve never really done anything like that to him, if anything, I’ve stood by him and supported him like no one has ever done for him in his life. I was almost playing a housewife’s role while working a full-time job, for this man. Thinking in the back of my head “ motherfucker I saved you and have permanent PTSD because of something you put me through, (which, by the way, I have never dared speak of as my experience, whenever we did briefly speak about it because he is the person that saw the lights and almost died and so I try to keep my experience of that day to my) still wanted to live with you, so what is it that I could’ve done that was so much worse than that you never wanna live with me again.. the only things that I ever did was hold him accountable and try to better him. Even though he cheated on me after he said to me that he wanted to close our originally open relationship so that we can work on each other and our relationship. This was a year ago when he said that to me not even a day later, he says to me that he thinks that it would be a good idea for us to have a threesome together. he obviously wanted more than just me. so he got online on Grindr and he started to look at the man on the grid and he said this one seems cute and pressed on his current boyfriend’s profile. I considered it because I loved him so much. I wanted to make him happy. I started also speaking to him on my Grindr, and we seem to be hitting it off. Even though he was cautious because he said that he was afraid to get involved with us in fear of causing drama. which now looking back is total fucking bullshit because that’s exactly what he did, and he manipulated his way into being a permanent fixture in my ex-boyfriend’s life. So after he said that he was probably not going to get involved with us because of drama him and my ex-boyfriend secretly slept together the very next night. I found out about this and had a full mental breakdown. as I laid crying on the kitchen floor. My ex-boyfriend lifted me by the shoulders, looked me in the eyes and said that he would never speak to him again if that’s what it would take for me to forgive him. he promised me hugged me told me everything would be OK that he was sorry. I decided to forgive him, even though it took a while. after that point, he had me under the impression that he was not speaking to this person at all. A few months later, or in the car on our way out of town when his caller ID on his car popped up this guys name. I immediately fell silent as he quickly fumbled to hang up his phone. He then had the goal in the audacity to ask me why I was silent the rest of the ride, shaking my thigh, asking me what’s wrong what’s wrong over and over again? I didn’t say anything our lease at our apartment was ending soon after which I had plans to move away and leave his manipulation lies gaslighting never owning up to anything behind me. Sadly, I was not in the financial position to do that so after our lease ended, I moved in with his parents with him and we were doing slightly better. then the fighting started again, and I made the decision that I was going to move, and I self like a room in a four bedroom apartment about 45 miles away, and I got it and I moved away. all it took was a few dozen miles.… Unfortunately I came to find out that they never stop speaking. they fooled me. I feel so much for trail from my ex-boyfriend, whom I never thought was capable of doing something like this. I believe that they both planned what ways would get me to break up with my ex-boyfriend fastest and they executed that plan together. in April, which was after me and my ex-boyfriend had that huge fight in the retail store. The last time I visited him ever I got a request from the guy on Facebook to message me. He said something towards the fact of him being really sorry that he ever got involved between me and my ex-boyfriend and that he wished that he could have stayed out of it so that he didn’t have to deal with my ex-boyfriend’s bullshit... I didn’t reply, but I did inform my ex-boyfriend to which he was screaming, yelling, threatening to go, beat him up and all of that.…. Little did I know that was the first indicator that they had a much deeper relationship then I knew of. I thought my ex-boyfriend wanted to go beat him up to stand up for me because of how much I’m contacting me or even hearing his name hurts me.…. But obviously I know now that that’s not true and the reason he was mad at him was because they had formed a real close relationship or they both were in on it... either way fast forward to two days ago when I got a call from my ex-boyfriend telling me that he was now dating this guy. and don’t be proud of him for doing the right thing as if he called me to inform me to be a standup guy he did it because not even three hours later they made it official on Facebook and put each other in their Instagram bios.. The man that refused to give me a monogamous relationship has the words “taken by @insertguysnmae and only him” in his bio….
How would you feel? Would you feel betrayed ?

Hello everyone,
We’ve received multiple messages asking about this, so here’s the details. TL;DR: Rainmeter and RainmeterRequests will be participating in the larger reddit blackout, going dark from June 12th to the 14th.
As you guys may or may not know, reddit announced multiple changes to their API at the end of last month that will take effect on July 1st. These changes include, but are not limited to, moving from a free to an exorbitantly priced tiered payment system and limiting access to NSFW content. As you can imagine, this announcement caused a massive uproar across the platform since, among other things (see below), it will effectively kill many 3rd party apps, bots, tools, and services.
Due to these changes, the reddit community has decided to stage a blackout. On June 12th, thousands of subreddits (it was nearing 5,000 last I saw), including Rainmeter and RainmeterRequests, will go dark in protest. Some will return on the 14th, while others will stay dark indefinitely unless the issues are adequately addressed. Many users will also be leaving the site once/if the changes take effect while they and others are also wiping their account history to prevent reddit from continuing to capitalize off of it - even in this sub, we’ve already seen tons of posts spanning the entirety of its existence pop up in the mod log because of the latter (several being changed to ‘fuck u/ spez’ (reddit’s ceo), making it clear what the reasoning is).
Along with that, mods from across the platform have stated that they'll have to quit their modding positions as reddit’s changes will make it impossible for them to manage things and/or because this is seen as a direct slap in the face to the developers and moderators who spend multiple hours of unpaid time day in and day out to keep the site running smoothly and to offer usability and quality-of-life that reddit will never deliver on. You can read through the comments on the posts linked below to see just how shit reddit’s track record really is, but it's been said before and remains accurate now: reddit uses its mod's desires to help their communities as slave labor and makes no secret of how little they care.
So, clearly, this isn’t just some small issue and the coming changes to the platform, whatever they may be, are going to have a severe ripple effect. A situation we as a community know the frustration of all too well in dealing with things like weather services, spotify, google, etc. It’s times like this that really make people like HWiNFO’s author Martin Malik, who worked with us to keep his product free and usable with rainmeter, really stand out. So, as a reminder, please be sure to always thank the developers and the creators of the skins and plugins that keep rainmeter going!
Speaking to how this might affect skins specifically though, while most of the discussion right now is surrounding mobile apps and bots, I did find some information on how this might affect rss feeds and it wasn’t good. According to this comment, rss does fall under the API. Of course, that's just one person’s comment and I have not been able to find the original source from reddit just yet, but there is a possibility that use of reddit in feed skins could be rendered impossible in the future. How the rainmeter community may or may not be affected by these changes in other ways, we just don’t know yet.
And, despite the length of all of the above, it still just covers the basics - and, even then, it's more so about what people have planned/how it will affect this community rather than all the reasons why the changes suck. We highly recommend everyone do some reading via the links provided below to see how this will affect them and the subs they frequent. Aside from that, we’ll all just have to wait and see what the future holds. Unfortunately, no one is very optimistic.
Posts and subs with more details:

• Main subs: Save3rdPartyApps, ModCoord, and RedditAPIAdvocacy
  
• Don't Let Reddit Kill 3rd Party Apps! - the main post being shared around subs
  
• Posts from the pcgaming and wow subs which detail more of the issues and explain why the NSFW changes are a horrifically bad idea
  
• reddit is killing 3rd-party Apps and API Access: What that means for you [infographic; text in post]
  
• Reddit to the Visually Impaired: "You no longer have a voice on this site." - Blind has also crafted a letter template for people to use that further details this issue
  
• An open letter on the state of affairs regarding the API pricing and third party apps and how that will impact moderators and communities.
  
• CEO spez AMA Overview - includes a link to the AMA itself
  
• Today's AMA With Spez Did Nothing to Alleviate Concerns: An Open Response
  
• The developer of Apollo announces the app will shut down, discusses why the pricing is unfair, and reveals some of reddit’s disgusting behavior behind the scenes
  
• [Announcement] RES & Reddit's upcoming API changes - "TL;DR: We think we should be fine, but we aren't 100% sure."
  
• A couple reddit alternatives I've seen people sharing around, just in case anyone's interested: Lemmy, Tildes. I also just found this post with more.
  

I saw on Trevons live this morning that the other snark page is taking credit for getting Jacob’s account banned because they mass reported etc. A little advice from someone who has had a friend with 2.3 million followers - DO NOT take credit for that, or admit that you repeatedly reported the account to purposely get it banned. My friend took 100’s of screen shots from his lives, comment section, and his snark page - which included “hate comments” and people saying they’re reporting it to purposely get it banned and sent them all to tiktok.. To the point tiktok, within a month, sent an apology message to him, and said they will be from now on keeping an eye on the reports made about his account. This was a year ago, and he is now at 3.8 million followers, and hasn’t had his account banned since or any community guideline violations. This isn’t a secret that many creators are doing this, and it’s working to their advantage.
SO IF you do want his account gone, don’t post about it publicly, as he can use that for proof to send to tiktok. Trevon said the same thing happened to Shit, and she did the same thing as my friend - and that’s why her account has gone no where, even though there’s plenty on there that should get her banned. Keep that shit on the DL. No need to brag about helping take it down, as it’ll help him and others get it back in the long run.

Looking for thriller or romance recommendations. I’ve read all of the popular ones that you’re probably thinking of… looking for some that have just been discovered or recently gaining popularity.
Thanks in advance!
Books I’ve loved for reference:
The Housemaid
Love and Other Words
Unhoneymooners
Ugly Love
November 9
Verity
Reminders of Him
Heart Bones
Regretting You
Without Merit
All Your Perfects
Too Late
Layla
Confess
Behind Closed Doors
Archer’s Voice
Things We Never Got Over The Woman in the Window The Girl on the Train Where the Crawdads Sing Little Fires Everywhere Gone Girl The Silent Patient The Family Upstairs The Turn of the Key The Woman in Cabin 10 All the Ugly and Wonderful Things Invisible Girl Nine Perfect Strangers Big Little Lies A Spark of Light Small Great Things Then She Was Gone Sharp Objects The Kind Worth Killing Nine Lives Everything I Never Told You Before She Knew Him Every Summer After Something Wilder The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Maybe In Another Life The Mother-in-Law After I Do The Wife Upstairs The People We Keep The Housemaid’s Secret The Inmate The Perfect Son The Locked Door

So this is gonna be a long one and I will try not to give out too much details. I (M 24) talking to 2 girls. Let's call the first one X and the second Y.
X is a somewhat a toxic person but I loved her deeply I used to cry when she said something bad to me, that's how much I loved her and she always ignores me while talking to other ppl, strangers but she says she loves me and I do love her... The thing is she's severely depressed and suicidal and whenever I tell her something she doesn't like, she threatens that she'll harm herself because of me. She knows that this hurts me when she hurts herself so she does it hurting us both. She makes me feel like shit all the time, not a single time I talked to her and came out happy. She doesn't pay attention to whatever I say, she doesn't listen to my advice, she doesn't trust me with majority of things despite being there for her every fucking day. I don't want to talk about her anymore. That's enough. At a point in time I was ready to die for her but I don't think she deserves shit now. She used me and is abusing my kindness towards her.
Now there comes girl Y... I met her a while after girl X. Y is depressed too and has suicidal thoughts but she's an angel. She's my angel. My lovely angel. I would die for her, she treats me very well she cares about me, she listens to me, she makes me happy everytime I talk to her, she elevates me to the fuckin skies, I earned her trust and she has opened up to me which makes me so happy I feel trusted and I feel cared for I feel important and I feel existent with her. She checks on me and she waits for me, she sees my dark side and she accepts it.. She shares with me the little stuff that makes her happy and that makes me happy. I feel happy when she's happy. The strange feeling is... Whenever I think of her I get a hard on lol (I'm not talking about thinking sexual thoughts lol no just thinking of her makes me hard most of the times) what is this called?
Anyway... The thing is I wanted to let go of girl X coz obviously she's a red flag. But how tf am I supposed to do that? There's something that happened to her recently... Something bad and I would be deserting her if I let her go. I won't forgive myself if she hurts herself coz of me, I really do love her and I wished she was a better person to me but now I can't just let go of her because I know she ain't bluffing, SHE WILL HURT HERSELF. Now I'm talking to both but I'm afraid that girl Y is gonna find out especially when I don't keep secrets from her, I don't wanna keep this from her either, I don't want to lose her, idk what to do.

Ok, so I got into Deltarune REALLY late. Like literally...just this past year XD (Shame on me I know XD) and when I played, I had NO IDEA there were secret bosses until my sis told me about Spamton. Now, I FREAKIN LOVE SPAMTON! He is such the sad boi and I would hug him forever. That being said, I did find out about Jevil a little before I actually played the game, but didn't realize he was a boss. I just thought he was an NPC of some kind.
Finding out he was a boss, I decided to go back and restart my game so I could pacifist him since I plan on redoing chapter 2 so I can pacifist good old Spamton, and I am going to be kind to EVERYONE. I just beat Jevil this past Thursday. Took me like 5 or 6 tries. Woo what a battle! It was so fun! And hard LOL. Being a pacifist and never having done the genocide route, because I just CAN'T, I was woefully unprepared for him lol.
So here comes the weird feelings lol. Up until now I have been rather indifferent to Jevil. I liked his design immensely, but I didn't really know him as a character and had only recently read up on his backstory. I actually ended up looking his backstory up because I recently read a comparison someone did online of Jevil vs Spamton, and they felt that Spamton was an insanely relatable character who hits you in the feels (which is SO TRUE), but Jevil is just sort of a Clown thing that shouts about Chaos. And for some reason that hit me pretty hard. I felt bad for poor Jevil. So naturally that made me sympathetic to him and like him a little more because I am a soft-hearted sap.
And then when I battled him, something kinda weird happened to me. I'm listening to his music, enjoying his battle and really appreciating the voice (it just FIT him so well!) when I REALLY started listening to his music. Like REALLY listening. Up until that point I had been too focused on his battle to pay close attention. His music is so...melancholy to me. It sounds like someone who is forcing themselves to be super happy and jumpy and bouncy, but there is a total undercurrent of pain and sorrow underneath. And it made me wanna just start sobbing. I have literally had his theme pounding in my head for the past two days, and I keep wanting to listen to it. Plus, I'm watching his sprite move around, and I just felt so sad and hurt for him. He says he's free and that everyone else is trapped, but all I could think is how lonely he is, even as he's throwing that Devilsknife at me lol.
Just like I agree that Spamton really represents Kris, I kinda feel like Jevil represents us as the Player. And his theme song is our theme song. We're free. We can do ANYTHING in this game. Except at the same time we can't. And our we really as free as we think we are? I dunno. I listen to his music and think "..this is me. This is my sound." and it makes me wanna dance but cry at the same time. Doggone it Toby Fox, making me feel my weird feels with your incredible games, dude.
I'm probably just reflecting myself onto Jevil, and of course having depression, I get in these weird thoughtful moods, but that song just hits me hard. But in a really odd combination of ouch and yay. Lol. I've grown to really love Jevil a lot just by battling him lol. Anyone else feel this way or am I just an oddball? LOL.

I may be a lost Redditor by talking about prayer in adultery, but this is usually thought of as a place where people are honest about secrets.
My secret is that I pray to God to look after an old lover and her family, like a little church kid.
The person who I used to call “AP” was one of the most special friends. I lost them during a time when The Universe indicated, “Time is up.” Pandemic, job loss, health issues, and more piled up until I was barely available. I fell apart along with that life, and was in no position to have a LDAP.
The last thing she said to me, an avowed agnostic-atheist, was, “I will pray for you.”
Fast forward a few years. My SO and I are getting along, and I have been heavily investing myself into this relationship. No more adultery.
I don’t fantasize about the hot things that happened with exAP, at least not often. I don’t try to find out how she’s doing. Those are dead ends. “Bridge out.”
All I have left of them are the little prayers I say on their behalf sometimes. I wish and hope prosperity, health, and happy relationships at their home (and presumably with new APs).
This is a prayer that I can’t tell anyone about, the cheater’s prayer. Sometimes I wonder if even this would be considered a sin.

My mom purposely humiliated me in front of a girl. Now I don’t think I stand a chance with her.
This is a shock but my mom don’t “allow” me to date even though I am old enough.
There’s a girl i like and she knows how strict my parents are. She’s not my girlfriend or anything, but she said she’s open to it. I haven’t asked her out yet, mostly because I’m new to this.
We agreed that if I bring her over to my house she will just be a friend if my parents happen to come home early. Well they came home early and it started off good, I was shocked because my mom treated it just like when my guy friends are over. A little invasive, but trying to come off as friendly. But that only lasted for a couple minutes.
My mom offered us some snacks and i wanted to say no but my friend was hungry so we went to the kitchen and ate. My mom ask my friend if she likes me, just out of no where. My friend was clearly shocked but then she said “yeah as a friend” my mom then went on a rant about how my friend is very pretty and she needs to be careful when thinking about boys and told her that school should be her main focus. My friend agreed and said that school and cheer was all she focused on. My mom then decided to use me an an example of why my friend shouldn’t trust boys my age. She started telling her about some of the rules she has for me and how she’s caught me breaking some. And then she told my friend about something really personal that she caught me doing one time. (A private thing that people do that my mom happened to walk in on) so of course I begged her to stop talking about that because it was super embarrassing. She said that it just shows how boys my age will lie, break rules, and keep bad secrets.

It’s not really important to detail everything of the next few weeks, word did spread that the Walkers were leaving again, of course, there was no way to keep that secret. Packing had to be done, after all, and arrangements for the house had to be made.
There was simply no way to keep our going ‘completely quiet’. So the neighbors started to come by asking questions.
“Should we leave too?”
“Am I going to end up with more bits of shrapnel in my kitchen?”
“Do I need to get more stuff to patch bullet holes?”
“I assume we go to the same hotel as last time, or will it be a different one?”
It was frequent enough that we held another ‘neighborhood barbecue’ where William explained over sizzling meat and a mix of real beer and that abomination to all civilized species ‘non-alcoholic beer’ that, “You are in no danger. We are leaving for a government assignment, but it is not one that puts any of you at anymore risk than yesterday or the day before. I promise, there won’t be any crazy masked gunmen showing up and disturbing the peace.”
William’s reputation was one of truthfulness, and it probably didn’t hurt that making sure the neighbors were safe had been a priority last time.
‘Last time… for the sake of the void… how many shenanigans are we supposed to get involved in?’ I asked myself that question while sipping on a very large ‘wood bottle’. This was a wonderful innovation in alcoholic beverages. Instead of ‘glass’ this ‘wood’ actually added a wonderful earthiness to the beer, making it smoother and far more full bodied than the glass counterpart.
It had its drawbacks, of course, if you didn’t want that added flavor, you had to use glass, but I found it to be positively delectable, if a little ‘thicker’ than my usual preferences.
I had a great fondness for ales, particularly the more ‘aggressive’ ones with an immediate sort of bite to them. They weren’t to be ‘chugged’ like the bland and fizzy ones that had all the kick of a sleeping toddler. No, no, these powerful ones were meant to be ‘swigged’. You take one big swig at a time, savor the richness, the full flavor, the taste, and the feel of it going down.
It’s about here I should mention that ‘beer clubs’ and ‘bourbon buddies’ were starting to gain popularity among dlamisa.
It began with the Ballyball League of Earth and Dlamias. As part of their training for the sport, teams ‘ran’ a great deal, and they learned of an ancient Earth organization that survived through the centuries called the Hash House Harriers, ‘drinkers with a running problem’ as they are popularly known.
These organizations around the world would lay out trails and follow them in search of alcohol at various stopping points. They would drink together and have a grand old time, and be rather intoxicated by the end of it all. From this my people innovated various ‘fan clubs’ for certain alcohol organizations that would sponsor their runs in exchange for filming their gatherings.
Naturally I set up a few gambling options for people to bet on my players during training, but out of these grew specific off-field rivalries which were now starting to spread to my home world, usually run out of coffee establishments.
This might be the thing that made someone decide to put me at risk. I will probably never know the answer to that one.
It didn’t matter. Not really.
I was standing there among my friends, family, neighbors, with warmth and welcome, with the smell of good food cooking and people wishing me well on my ‘business trip’ and I knew I was doing the right thing.
This was the reason, this was the point of it all, to bring ‘this’ not just to me, but to everybody.
Every drop of blood that spread in my arena, every credit that flowed into my exponentially growing cooperative organization… all of it was serving this single purpose. ‘I will see my will done. I will bring it all down.’ I vowed and took another swig from my bottle. Latunde was telling a joke, and I huffed politely.
A good man, a good neighbor. And a surprisingly good actor considering he ran a feed store, his pretend police situation when we were making our evacuation a few years ago was really well done.
But I couldn’t pay attention to jokes right then.
I went back into the house and up to Fauve’s room. I knocked, “Come in.” She answered.
I expected this, she was never particularly social, and didn’t care for large gatherings of people. I still wasn’t the biggest fan of those, but…alcohol makes everything much easier.
“Hi.” I said, poking my head in without entering. “How are you?”
She was seated at her terminal, pounding away at ‘nothing’. But she had a virtual headset on so there was ‘something’ to her.
“Fine. I’m just taking care of some things. Writing out some notes, researching the Praeda species that we’re going to meet, writing my will, breaking up with my girlfriend, the usual sort of thing that happens every…single…time I think life is going to finally come out of warp and let us relax.” She said it with such deadpan humor that I almost missed it.
“I’m sorry.” I said and slipped into the room, closing the door behind me, I went and sat down on her bed.
“For what? You didn’t do anything wrong.” Fauve answered, though she didn’t take her attention off her work. “This is just more of the usual, and if anybody is to blame, it’s me. I could have faded into the background. I could have just let everything go back to normal. I could have just shut my mouth after everything was over the first time… but no. I didn’t. I didn’t and now I can’t have a moment’s peace or normalcy. I had to be media personality, a speaker, a filmmaker a….” She trailed off and slapped her palms down on the desk. “I did this to myself. Now I’m going to be alone again because I just can’t say no. Michael is going to lose years with his friends. You’re being thrown back into god knows what, mom and dad are… no, they’re fine, to them this will be a vacation, if anything.” She sighed.
“My point is, Bailey, you don’t have anything to apologize for. I’m just, I’m stressed out a little.” Fauve said to me and I swallowed hard and nodded.
“I know what you mean.” I said, I chose not to mention the pseudo-attempt on my life, but added, “This is a disruption to my life too, and… a lot of things are going to change, even if things go well, maybe ‘especially’ if they do.” I got up and went to put my hand on her shoulder.
Fauve leaned back, rocking her chair so that it hit my waist, her head was against my fur, “And I don’t think I did anything wrong here but… I’m sorry that things aren’t as easy for you as you deserve. I mean that.” I promised.
She cracked a smile beneath her headset.
“Yeah, yeah, well it’s not like space is boring. No human has ever been out that far before, so we get to be a first… but even so? I’m tired of having to end relationships over work. It happened with Halbert, it happened with… wait… has it ever not happened that way?” Fauve stopped and thought that over.
I wasn’t surprised she referenced her first romantic interest. Humans tend to template all later relationships on the basis of their earlier ones, and Fauve tended to be hyperfocusd on what she was engaged in at any given moment, so I wasn’t surprised that she would never have really looked at how something over ‘played out’ in the end. Not until she had a reason to.
“Wow… yeah… everything always ended because of something work related… if not mine, then theirs. Damn.” She sighed as that understanding hit home.
Humans have in my observations, a tendency to blind themselves to what is happening, they don’t always see underlying causes for what goes awry in their lives, and as such they may miss patterns that will not be missed by other species. It makes them interesting to be around, at least.
“I’m taking a long vacation when I get back.” She promised herself and slumped. “Maybe I should sell the rights to that game series and turn my attention to something new… I…” Fauve shook her head, “Bailey, do you think it’s possible to be too career focused?”
I squeezed my hand on her shoulder a little nad cocked my head. “You’re asking me that question? Fauve, I came here on a fifty year doctoral program, I’m the last person you should ask that question.”
She was quiet for a moment before she quipped, “Alright, that’s fair. But after this is over, I’m definitely taking a break. Maybe I’ll just rewrite this breakup note and explain that because of work that we need to ‘go on a break’ no questions asked after I get back.”
It was of course possible that the other person would ‘move on’ and there was nothing to come back to when Fauve did return, however this did leave the possibility open at least. “I think that’s wise.” I said with a gentle voice.
“You should invite them to Waterland Park with everybody else.” I suggested, but Fauve shook her head.
“No. No. I have to face this one on my own. If I can walk in there and walk past that place without a problem, on my own, I can finally put the last bit of that bastard behind me.” She said it with such iron resolve that it was hard for me to imagine she wouldn’t be able to do it.
“You won’t be alone, you know that.” I reminded her.
She smiled again.
“That’s not quite what I mean, Bailey… but thank you. I still have some work to do here, but, would you be a friend and bring me a beer while I finish this up… and maybe a hamburger?” She asked.
“Sure thing, Fauve.” I said, and left her room again.

Hey ladies! My name is Kevin, and I’m a big nerdy goofball, and by big I mean both tall and chunky as well as well, just nerdy. Any love for the dad-bod physique? I am also a huge animal lover, and I’m here looking to find a regular (Discord) chat partner. I’m open to any race/ethnicity, but would prefer someone around my age and within a few time zones of GMT-5.
I’m very left leaning, child-free and non-religious. I love board games, television and film, history, animal care and food of all kinds. I am a big proponent for being active in local community support organizations as well as being an upstanding ally. I have recently become much more active in the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights. Counter-protest date? I’m far from perfect, but making other people laugh or smile is what makes my day!
I do some freelance work here or there, but mostly I’m focusing on myself (physically and mentally!), my community, and more recently, fostering cats! Helping socialize semi-feral cats has become a passion of mine and something that I find incredibly rewarding. My first foster was just adopted! Yay Paddington!
I’d love to meet another animal lover, as my eventual dream would be to open up an animal sanctuary that doubles as a therapy center for humans. I have an unbreakable love for animals, and faith in their ability to help us heal. I think seeing a battered, scarred or withdrawn animal come out of their shell, seeking love, attention and comfort is one of the most rewarding things on the planet.
I’m a sucker for a cute giggle or laugh, freckles, curly hair and genuine passion about what interests you. Intelligence and emotional maturity are big things for me, but I’d also love someone to watch trashy reality TV with! Tell me about your pets, your D&D campaign, your favorite movie, or your dirty little secret! Let’s get to know each other. Please give me more than ‘hey’ or ‘how are you’ to work with!

Hey ladies! My name is Kevin, and I’m a big nerdy goofball, and by big I mean both tall and chunky as well as well, just nerdy. Any love for the dad-bod physique? I am also a huge animal lover, and I’m here looking to find a regular (Discord) chat partner. I’m open to any race/ethnicity, but would prefer someone around my age and within a few time zones of GMT-5.
I’m very left leaning, child-free and non-religious. I love board games, television and film, history, animal care and food of all kinds. I am a big proponent for being active in local community support organizations as well as being an upstanding ally. I have recently become much more active in the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights. Counter-protest date? I’m far from perfect, but making other people laugh or smile is what makes my day!
I do some freelance work here or there, but mostly I’m focusing on myself (physically and mentally!), my community, and more recently, fostering cats! Helping socialize semi-feral cats has become a passion of mine and something that I find incredibly rewarding. My first foster was just adopted! Yay Paddington!
I’d love to meet another animal lover, as my eventual dream would be to open up an animal sanctuary that doubles as a therapy center for humans. I have an unbreakable love for animals, and faith in their ability to help us heal. I think seeing a battered, scarred or withdrawn animal come out of their shell, seeking love, attention and comfort is one of the most rewarding things on the planet.
I’m a sucker for a cute giggle or laugh, freckles, curly hair and genuine passion about what interests you. Intelligence and emotional maturity are big things for me, but I’d also love someone to watch trashy reality TV with! Tell me about your pets, your D&D campaign, your favorite movie, or your dirty little secret! Let’s get to know each other. Please give me more than ‘hey’ or ‘how are you’ to work with!

Hey ladies! My name is Kevin, and I’m a big nerdy goofball, and by big I mean both tall and chunky as well as well, just nerdy. Any love for the dad-bod physique? I am also a huge animal lover, and I’m here looking to find a regular (Discord) chat partner. I’m open to any race/ethnicity, but would prefer someone around my age and within a few time zones of GMT-5.
I’m very left leaning, child-free and non-religious. I love board games, television and film, history, animal care and food of all kinds. I am a big proponent for being active in local community support organizations as well as being an upstanding ally. I have recently become much more active in the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights. Counter-protest date? I’m far from perfect, but making other people laugh or smile is what makes my day!
I do some freelance work here or there, but mostly I’m focusing on myself (physically and mentally!), my community, and more recently, fostering cats! Helping socialize semi-feral cats has become a passion of mine and something that I find incredibly rewarding. My first foster was just adopted! Yay Paddington!
I’d love to meet another animal lover, as my eventual dream would be to open up an animal sanctuary that doubles as a therapy center for humans. I have an unbreakable love for animals, and faith in their ability to help us heal. I think seeing a battered, scarred or withdrawn animal come out of their shell, seeking love, attention and comfort is one of the most rewarding things on the planet.
I’m a sucker for a cute giggle or laugh, freckles, curly hair and genuine passion about what interests you. Intelligence and emotional maturity are big things for me, but I’d also love someone to watch trashy reality TV with! Tell me about your pets, your D&D campaign, your favorite movie, or your dirty little secret! Let’s get to know each other. Please give me more than ‘hey’ or ‘how are you’ to work with!

I'm 53 now, and have been an LPN for 20 years. Covid basically not only exposed some dirty little healthcare secrets, but essentially decimated nursing. I'm always committed to my residents, but the constant non-support from management and lack of respect from management on down has wearied me. So I've decided that at 62, I will bite the bullet and take early retirement. I may be forgoing some things, but I've discovered my health and sanity must come first. This decision has actually reinvigorated my passion again, so I believe it's the right choice for me.

Backstory: This might come off as strange, but my parents (mostly mom) don’t “allow” me to date even though I am old enough. I’m not allowed to watch any type of mature tv around them, I’m not supposed to play certain games. I’m not supposed to even be on websites like this.
There’s a girl i like and she knows how strict my parents are. She’s not my girlfriend or anything, but she said she’s open to it. I haven’t asked her out yet, mostly because I’m new to this. We agreed that if I bring her over to my house she will just be a friend if my parents happen to come home early. Well they came home early and it started off good, I was shocked because my mom treated it just like when my guy friends are over. A little invasive, but trying to come off as friendly. But that only lasted for a couple minutes.
My mom offered us some snacks and i wanted to say no but my friend was hungry so we went to the kitchen and ate. My mom ask my friend if she likes me, just out of no where. My friend was clearly shocked but then she said “yeah as a friend” my mom then went on a rant about how my friend is very pretty and she needs to be careful when thinking about boys and told her that school should be her main focus. My friend agreed and said that school and cheer was all she focused on. My mom then decided to use me an an example of why my friend shouldn’t trust boys my age. She started telling her about some of the rules she has for me and how she’s caught me breaking some. And then she told my friend about something really personal that she caught me doing one time. (A private thing that people do that my mom happened to walk in on) so of course I begged her to stop talking about that because it was super embarrassing. She said that it just shows how boys my age will lie, break rules, and keep bad secrets.

I’ve been lurking here for a long time. It helps to read about different stories and experiences.
Mine goes back over 15 years. I started smoking in college, and have ever since, with a few long quits in between.
The thing is, I never wanted anyone to know I smoked, so outside of a few close friends, I was constantly hiding it. Sneaking around, which built a huge well of shame inside me over the years. I loved working out, I ate right, this was like a dirty little secret I had.
About three years ago, I found out I was pregnant. I quit instantly. My husband was super supportive, and since I had an extreme “reason” not to smoke, it was a bit easier.
I stopped for over two years.
About 7 months ago I started again on a rare night away for my husband and I while my wonderful parents had our son, and I’ve been smoking ever since. I made up excuse after excuse to buy another pack, and I still do.
I deeply want to stop. Ever cigarette I have is filled with guilt because of my son. We do everything to give him a good life, but what good is any of that when I’m slowly killing myself?
I have a quit date set in the near future. I’ve got gum etc., someone I can talk to when I need help, but would love to read this post and any comments when I need tips and encouragement.
Thank you in advance. Truly.

The Window of Opportunities
Time has really moved at a break-neck speed, it's already been 2.5 years since I was made the Assistant Branch Manager of the SBI branch, Ambattur. I am probably two quarters away from becoming the Branch manager. I did an exceptional performance last quarter and had the best loan management throughput in southern India. I donned the youngest employee of the branch, but my older colleagues, who usually are my sub-ordinates, respected me and maintain a good rapport. All though everything seems great, the monotony was slowly creeping in. Sometimes I feel nothing new or interesting ever happens here.
***
It was such a usual boring Monday when something changed forever. Hema, a new clerk had joined our branch. I don’t hold the youngest employee tag anymore but happy to pass it to her. She was allocated a table facing my cabin entrance window. She seems a bit nervous, as it was her first day at this office. The peon and later the cashier had given her the office tour, and after meeting the BM, she entered my cabin. She wore a cotton yellow chudithaar with an umbrella cut, a simple black sandal, silvery earrings, and neatly braided hair with few strands floating over her forehead. She was really tense and her voice was feeble when she introduced herself. Hemamalini Manimaaran, that was her name. Maybe I will ask her out for a coffee someday.
***
It's been 4 months since Hema joined the branch. I haven’t asked her out for a coffee yet, but I have made steady progress toward asking her out. In these months, I haven’t had any chance to talk something other than office work. We do exchange occasional Hi-byes and daily greetings. Today, she is wearing a cool-blue cotton chudithar, with a white shawl. Her hair was neatly braided with a red rose pinned tightly by a small metal hair clip. Still, a few strands of hair defied the bun and floated in the air, caressing her tiny black spade-shaped bindi. I had assigned her to clear monthly balance sheets and finish up some data entry work as well. She looks pretty settled and comfortable in the office these days, often listening to music in her thin white earphones when not attending to the customer's queries. She wears her watch on her right hand, and her handwriting is super-legible even on challans written at high speed. I had turned punctual these days, taking care of my appearance, bathing daily, dressing formally, polishing my shoes and combing my hair. I spend most of my days in my cabin, releasing cheques, issuing drafts, processing loans and watching her work through my window. She is a slow poison to my soul. I have delayed it too much already, today there isn’t much work, and the climate also seems to be good, I will be taking her, sorry I mean asking her out for a coffee later this evening. I am a bit nervous though.
***
It has been 2 years since Hema stepped into my branch for the first time. I haven’t been promoted to Branch manager yet, but my Bosses from HQ have promised me a promotion coming quarter. It doesn’t matter though. Hema, my love, she is turning beautiful for every account opened, cheque passed, loan cleared and query resolved. Nowadays I feel that I am coming to my office just to see her work. She is not the nervous new girl anymore, she has gotten steadier, sincere and more responsible in her work. Today she is wearing a neatly ironed maroon cotton saree, nothing fancy except for the beautiful peacock embroidery at the border. Yes, She had started wearing sarees to the office these days. Some things have changed in these two years, she had changed her sandals twice and mobile phone once, but still owns the same earphones, uses the same perfume and wears the same watch but with a different strap. Something nice happened 3 months ago, the cashier had once invited me to have lunch in the common break room with everyone. yes, I was pathetically eating my lunch all alone in my cabin all these years. He just invited me once but I somehow made it into a routine. Hema checked her watch and turned off her PC, Yes! Lunchtime. This twenty minutes of having lunch at the same table along with Hema is the best thing that could happen today. She is silently eating lemon rice and beetroot poriyal that she bought in her green Tupperware lunch box. By the way, I haven't asked her out for a coffee yet, but we did have a couple of coffees and a few teas in these 2 years in our office paper cups that had been shrunken in size as a part of budgeting last fiscal year, but who cares. I may have not asked for a date yet, but I have come to the conclusion that she is the one for me and after my promotion next quarter, I will propose to her for hand in marriage. I think that kind of gesture would suit both of our personalities. Anyhoo…tell me how does anyone describe the feeling when you see your future wife eating Lemon rice silently in a corner. God, I love her so much. She occasionally brings curd rice, pulao, sambar, podi-idly, and chapathi for her lunch, but I often noticed her eating lemon rice for lunch. I think she is the one who cooks and packs her own lunch. I always wanted to share her lemon rice with me. Maybe after marriage, I will daily cook her something more nicer than lemon rice, if lemon rice is not her favourite lunch.
***
It was my eighth year at Ambattur Branch SBI. I had turned into branch manager a few weeks ago. It's a Monday, and sadly Hema will not be coming to the office today, I approved her maternity leave last Friday. She won’t be coming for the next 6 months. Yeah, she got married to a nice-looking gentleman. She seems happy and she literally glowed beautifully when I signed her approval. I redistributed her work to the rest of the employees. I don’t know where to eat lunch today. Last Friday she said, she was due in 3 months. Hope she has a safe delivery. The past year has been a little hard for me, both on the professional and personal front. Hema got engaged and then got married. I attended the marriage reception with other branch colleagues. Our overall branch performances dropped, and targets were falling short. My previous branch manager retired. I was eventually made BM, but I didn’t change my cabin though. I gained some weight, my hairline receded, don’t talk much. I am turning 33, tomorrow.
***
I am retiring this month, as BM of the Ambattur SBI branch. Hema entered my cabin with her lunch bag and two small paper cups of office coffee. I cleared my table for her to place the cutleries. We had taken an early lunch today. She is my best friend here. She and my wife are good friends too. She sat facing me, her grey hair strands still floating gracefully over her wrinkly forehead. She had brought Lemon Rice today. We shared it. Though my wife’s veg biriyani outclasses the lemon rice by a huge margin, I have a soft spot for the Lemon rice. Hema talks a lot, she loves to talk, and I love to listen to her. The conversation glided smoothly over a wide spectrum of topics, ranging from naming her grandchild, my son’s college, the rapidly changing banking sector, retirement plans, office hot goss, last quarter’s audit, SEBI regulations, and real estate. After 90 minutes of memorable lunch, we winded up and she walked back to her table. When I retire this month, she would be the oldest employee of the branch. She still has 3 years of service. I am sure she can manage on her own. I sat in my cabin and looked at her through my cabin window, She is wearing a beige-coloured cotton saree with simple floral patterns, I still remember her first day at the branch, in her yellow Chudithar. Lots have changed in these 35 years, our hair greyed, skin wrinkled as we worked, smiled, cried and grew in this small office space. Lots of opportunities have passed by. I have missed all of them. Regretted for a few years for missing them, but now looking back at all these years, I have witnessed all my love for this woman, beautifully transform into respect and friendship. She was skimming through some files at her desk, she paused and turned to see me through the window, and our eyes met. I smiled. She smiled.
***

DISCLAIMER
I almost didn’t post this. Not because I think it’s too wild or doesn’t make any sense. In fact, quite the opposite. The information I present here, which is the result of countless hours spent re-watching videos, listening to audio, and cross-referencing official information, is something that now seems to me to be far too viable not to be correct. I have actually tried to prove this theory wrong and… well basically I can’t. So, please bear this in mind as you read. This could end up being one of those rare occasions when we’re actually onto something. Either way, I hope you enjoy the post.
First point; this is going to be a long post. Given the subject matter, it needs to be. Second point; I have not added any images or videos directly into the post but have instead included a great many links embedded within the text itself. This should ensure that the post is no longer than it needs to be but should still allow you sufficient opportunity to fully scrutinize every part of my theory, so that you can determine for yourself whether or not you think it holds weight.
I have organised all of the information under specific headings designed to make everything more accessible. Each section focuses on a particular aspect of the main theory. Even if you think that some of what you are reading may not be relevant, I can assure you that everything written here has been included as an important part of a much larger puzzle, and so I would advise that you patiently make your way through the entirety of the post. In an effort to ensure that your time invested here is appropriately rewarded, and in the spirit of preserving the scientific method, I have tried to keep flavor text and blind speculation down to an absolute minimum.
Note that I will be listing various aspects of this post as being confirmed correct or incorrect as and when we have official information to verify such facts. So here we are, after five long years of waiting, the inevitable release of Starfield, like the event horizon of some nearby black hole, is almost upon us. With the Showcase now a mere 24 hours away, it is time for us to take a look at what makes this particular game so special, as well as discovering just how we will be given the means to fly among the stars.
And so, without further ado, let us begin.
Hitchhiker's Guide
From watching gameplay footage, and also listening to various devs talk about Starfield, we know that at some along the early part of the story, we will find ourselves on board a Constellation Starship, which is appropriately named Frontier. With us on the ship is VASCO, an adorable robot assistant who will eventually become one of our possible companions. But how did we even end up on this ship? Well firstly, I do not believe that Frontier is our ship, or at least not at first. And so, we’re probably here in the capacity of a ‘guest’ of some kind, or more likely, a hitchhiker.
If we take a look at this scene, we first hear a male shouting “that’s the Crimson Fleet!” and then a female saying “Everybody get ready!” After this, we can see that the group we are with is attacked. We already know that we uncover some kind of unknown artifact whilst mining for ore near the beginning of the Main Quest, and that the aforementioned Crimson Fleet is essentially an organised collective of space pirates. But what we don’t know is why they attacked us. This is not something I will be diving into in this particular post, although I do have some theories about this. But the relevance of the series of events here described cannot be understated, as they seem to be the launching point for our entry into Constellation and the adventures that follow.
Next, if we look a little further, we can see that this seemingly-important member of Constellation is not with us when we arrive at their Headquarters on Jemison, which suggests that he may have been killed during the above mentioned attack. Also note that, in-spite of not having a voiced protagonist this time round, we can clearly hear somebody talking over Frontier’s comms system, which means that there must be a designated pilot. Given the fact that we don’t see anyone who is confirmed as being the pilot (although it may actually be this person), it is safe to assume that this designated individual was with us during the flight but was first injured in the attack on the planet’s surface and was then taken to Medical Bay after we successfully land on Jemison.
It is my belief that, after perhaps being exposed to some kind of energy pulse from a grenade or something similar, the first member of Constellation we see was outright killed (hence why we are then asked to join up ourselves, perhaps to take over his role). The pilot, however, clearly survived as we can hear him talking to Control over the comms system during what is actually an extended two-way conversation, but I think that his vision was somehow compromised so that, even though he is able to speak, he is temporarily unable to see. The good news about this most unfortunate situation is that it opens the door for us to quickly step into the hot seat and, with the pilot acting as our guide, we will experience our very first Starfield flight tutorial.
Radio Chatter
If you listen to the beginning of both the Official Teaser Trailer and Official Gameplay Reveal for Starfield, you will hear both halves of the radio conversation I have referenced above, or at least the parts of it that Bethesda have given us so far. The first of these is spoken by somebody being referred to as Control, and the second by Frontier’s pilot. I previously posted a link to an audio I made and put up on Soundcloud, which gives us all of the confirmed parts of this conversation carefully spliced together and enhanced for clarity. Note that some of the audio, despite these enhancements, is a little hard to make out.
The final, in-game conversation is going to be a fair bit longer than what we have here and will be based on the specific processes that are required before attempting a Grav Jump. I don’t think we will hear this conversation every time we perform a Jump (especially given that our protagonist does not speak), but the first time we experience this early step-out moment, a detailed and appropriate pre-launch conversation will only serve to enhance what I’m sure will be an awe-inspiring experience.
Note that, at the end of this post, I have provided a link to a written transcript detailing what I think is being said in the full version of the above conversation. In the meantime, here is a breakdown of the confirmed parts of this audio. This is slightly different from the version I previously posted, due to new evidence clarifying exactly what is being said here. I have left line-spaces to help show where the missing parts of the audio will eventually go:
PILOT: "Control this is Constellation Starship Frontier."
CONTROL: "Constellation Starship Frontier, we have you on scanners."
PILOT: "We're ready to start on your signal."
CONTROL: "Performing Road Systems check. Helium-3 tanks, check. Seals are intact."
PILOT: "Maintaining Exit Vector course, Steady 'till Ready."
CONTROL: "We are still go."
PILOT: "Coordinates input, plotting Jump course."
CONTROL: "We read you Constellation."
PILOT: "Sky-Bus is converged, we're looking good."
CONTROL: "Jemison route looks good."
PILOT: "Allocating Auxiliary Reactor Power."
CONTROL: "Prepare for departure. Graviton Loop Array Spool, check."
PILOT: "System checks are green across the board."
CONTROL: "Your space Lane is clear."
PILOT: "Grav Jump commencing in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."
Road-Trip
At first, this seems like a typical, albeit futuristic version of an Air Traffic Control conversation. After all, much of what is being said does sound very familiar, and the rest seems appropriate to Starfield’s apparent Hard Science Fiction theme. But it’s only when you start digging a little deeper that you realize that something else is going on here as well.
Note the following terms taken from the above transcript: Road, Exit, Course, Coordinates, Bus, Route, Departure and Lane. All these words share a very noticeable common theme. They are all in some way related to Road Networks. Note also the phrase “green across the board," which sounds like it could also be a reference to Traffic Lights.
Zooming Along
Next, let’s look at this map, which features the home of a certain Software Development Company you may have heard of. If you zoom out a fair bit, you will see two large Cities, namely Washington and Baltimore. Zoom out a little more, and you can now see the cities of Richmond to the South and Pittsburgh to the North-West. Zoom back in over any of these four major cities, and you will see that there are many more smaller locations within each of the city limits.
Now scroll the map over to any of the areas outside of these cities, and you will find a multitude of other important locations. These include residential areas, airports, medical facilities, sports and leisure facilities, research facilities, manufacturing facilities, tech companies, supermarkets), hotels, places of worship, and many others. All the above locations are important in one way of another to the continued functioning of our society, and all can be placed within two distinct categories. These are Population Centers and Infrastructure.
You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat
Now imagine that there has been some kind of catastrophic flood in this area, and all these locations, although somehow miraculously intact, are now separated from each other as a series of individual islands in the middle of a newly formed ‘ocean’. Suddenly, the existing Road Network, along with any cars, busses, and other road vehicles, would become useless. You would need to use a completely different system, one designed to properly accommodate these changes, which would of course have to incorporate such elements as harbors, shipping routes, and vehicles capable of travelling along a waterway.
Now let’s zoom out again, this time further. Much, much, further. Each location has now been transformed into either a planet or a moon, spread across various star systems covering a vast region of space. Each one of these planets and moons will have its own individual features, resources, possible inhabitants, and infrastructure requirements. With such a quantum leap in terms of scale, if we now wanted to travel between these locations, which could in many cases end up being several light years apart, we are going to need something far bigger in terms of scale, complexity, and technology.
Shown In 60 Seconds
During the first ever 60 seconds of Starfield footage we all saw, shown in the form of the Official Announcement Teaser at the end of BE3 on June 11th 2018 (which redditor InToddWeTrust2023 has very nicely referenced here), we were given some surprisingly important clues which now form the cornerstone of this theory. Not only have these clues stacked up with every consecutive trailer released, as well as many of the other official videos and various other snippets of information, but their sheer level of consistency places them well outside the realm of possible coincidence.
Some of these additional clues were given to us in the two videos referenced above which contain the comms audio. The second of these two videos, namely the Official Gameplay Reveal, dropped, as would be expected, at the end of last year’s Showcase on June 12th 2022. Some of the most crucial information we have been given to date regarding my theory is actually contained in the 70 seconds shown before Todd even begins to speak. We will discuss the relevance of all of this a little further on in the post.
Lo-go/no go
First, some Space related terminology. In Mission Control speak, a Launch Status Check, also known as a go/no go poll, is part of a very carefully designed system implemented by US Space Agencies to ensure maximum safety and the best possible survival chance of both the ship and its crew prior to launch. This, or something similar, will undoubtedly form an integral part of the pre-launch, or rather, pre-Jump procedures incorporated into Starfield, especially given what we know in relation to its specific influences, attention to detail, and focus on realism.
But let's look for a moment at a different type of launch. Let's look at the process of carefully managing the flow of information when you are launching a long-awaited, multi-million-dollar triple-A video game and you happen to be a major player. With the combined might of Bethesda, Zenimax, and now Microsoft, there is clearly a great deal of scope in terms of how they were able to execute all of the steps involved in this process. One critically important factor, and one that has been masterfully implemented in the promotion of Starfield, is the use of familiar iconography.
If we look at the iconography seen during the promotion of Starfield, we can see that there are two main elements. These are the circular Starfield logo, first unveiled in 2018, and of course the recently updated Bethesda Games Studios logo, which has existed in various iterations since around 2006. Both of these share a common, simplistic yet effective design, and the BGS logo in particular is now light years ahead of its original design as seen on box art and in promotional materials for The Elder Scrolls VI Oblivion. At the time of Oblivion’s release, the long-term use of this particular logo, which incorporates the now familiar Fallout Vault Door, was a little uncertain due to restrictions with the associated licence (more on this below). But once this matter had been resolved, it would make a lot of sense that they would then develop this logo into the much sharper, more modern version we see today.
Licenced to Fly
Way back in April of 2007, Bethesda realized one of their biggest long-term business goals by finally securing the full rights to the highly acclaimed Fallout series. Prior to this, in 2004, they had been granted limited rights which would allow them to develop Fallout 3 and then two additional games, but they clearly wanted full and unrestricted access to the franchise and all of its assets. Since this time, in addition to Fallout 3, we have seen the release of Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76, as well as a number of smaller projects, including Fallout Shelter. This is all the proof you need to confirm the fact that, in-spite of some initial setbacks, Bethesda’s insistence on going the extra mile with regards to securing the full franchise, was most definitely worth it, and was seen by many as a landmark achievement.
Looking at the most recent entry to this ever-expanding series, namely Fallout 76, I would like to draw your attention to two of this particular game’s trailers. First, we have the Fallout 76 Official Trailer from 2018, and then The Pitt Story Trailer from 2022. In the first of these two trailers, at around the 35 second mark, we see the new BGS logo once again, and then near the end of the video we see a smaller version, neatly tucked away over on the left-hand side of the usual copyright notice. If we then look at the second trailer, at around… Hold on a second, let me rewind that a bit… wait, what?
This is where things start to get really interesting.
One Small Step
Okay, going back to the Fallout 76 trailers, although the smaller version of the BGS logo can be seen at or near the end of each of these, only the first incorporates the larger, ‘splash-screen’ version. “But why is this even important?” you may ask. “They may have simply forgotten to include this detail in the second trailer.” I can assure you that this is most certainly not the case. In fact, I am one-hundred-percent confident that this was quite intentional. I would even go as far as saying that this one, seemingly insignificant detail, actually brings us a step closer to unlocking the secrets of Starfield. Essentially, Bethesda have taken full advantage of how we all think we remember certain details, and as such, this is an example of truly expert-level hidden marketing on their part. I also believe it will form the basis of at least one of the big reveals during the showcase.
One Giant Leap
Let’s go back one more time to the Announcement Teaser and the Gameplay Reveal for Starfield. Look at how drastically different the BGS logo is in both of these videos compared to any of those used in promoting Fallout 76. What will really blow your mind here is the fact that all four of the trailers mentioned above were first shown to us during the same two Showcases we have just been discussing! In other words, the first of these videos for both Fallout 76 and Starfield were both unveiled at the 2018 Showcase, and the second of each at the 2022 Showcase. And yet each respective pair make use of drastically different versions of what we all thought was the exact same logo. This means that Starfield has been designed, from the ground up, to be viewed and experienced in a totally different way than, and completely separate from, any of Bethesda’s previous titles.
To clarify this point, after extensive research, I can confirm that this new, animated BGS logo, with the vault door rolling off to the left and then ‘opening up’ just before the text appears, has never been featured anywhere in an official capacity that is not directly related to Starfield. It is completely unique to this specific IP. This fact ties together everything we have looked at in the post so far. It also lets us see things from a completely different ‘orbital’ perspective. For example, I believe that this information gives us the real reason why Bethesda worked so hard to secure the full rights to the Fallout franchise in the way that they did. Not only did they wish to create awesome games set within the Fallout universe, but they also needed total freedom to make use of a specific part of this franchise that so that they could then incorporate it into their next, very very big, space related IP.
For Mankind
Okay. This is the part you’ve all been waiting so patiently for. This is the big reveal. For months now, perhaps even years, we have all been drip-fed the idea that Starfield is essentially “Skyrim in Space.” The reason I think that we have been told this is to misdirect us away from an intrinsic, interwoven connection between Starfield and Bethesda’s other major franchise, which is of course Fallout. But just to put your mind at rest, I do not for a nanosecond believe that the reveal will be, “We fooled you all, it’s actually Fallout in space!” no matter how cool that might at first sound.
What I do believe is that Starfield will be so different and so unique when viewed alongside anything else that Bethesda have published, that it will quite literally take your breath away. This game, the spark of which was first ignited 25 years ago, is Todd Howard’s true passion project. Everything else was simply the path he took to finally get here. This is the story he has always wanted to tell, the story of Mankind’s true legacy. And it all starts, just as it did when Interplay released the original Fallout) game back in 1997, with a familiar, but staggeringly different Vault Door.
The Vault
There is a very special and completely unique hidden Vault in Starfield. Not only is this particular Vault unlike anything you have previously seen anywhere within the Fallout universe, but it is also unlike anything you have seen in any game. Period.
This hidden Vault is actually the key to both interstellar and interplanetary travel. And it also happens to be the single biggest construction project in human history, extending across a span of almost one-hundred light years. And it is not even close to being completed, even after more than two-hundred years of construction.
This Vault is, by its very nature, completely invisible and shielded away from view. It is quite literally hidden in plain sight, and it can only be accessed through one of its specially crafted Vault Doors. But what does all of this mean for gameplay, and how does something like this even work? I’m glad you asked! Let’s strap in and prepare for launch, because we’re all in for an incredible ride.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen... to The Starfield
Entering The Starfield
The following is my own interpretation, based on scientific reasoning and a huge amount of detailed analysis, of exactly how I think this system works. It is, as ever, backed up with several links throughout, as well as additional evidence for which I shall provide a separate link at end of the post. I am expecting perhaps some differences in terms of specific details once we get hold of the final release of Starfield, but I am confident that I am at the very least well within the ballpark with all of this. Okay, here goes.
The Science Behind the Magic
Starfield is the name given to a vast network of interconnecting tunnels, spanning the entirety of the Settled Systems, providing us with a very fast and highly practical means of travelling between different planets, and even different star systems. These tunnels exist within a localized, folded state, known as Tunnel-Space. The construction of the Starfield is made possible thanks to a technological breakthrough which allows gravitational waves (or Gravitons) to be woven together to form something known as a Gravity-Tunnel, which is then stretched out and connected between any two existing stellar objects, such as two planets in a given system, of even two stars from different systems.
In order to maintain the integrity of each tunnel, it is wrapped in a special type of Exotic Matter known as Superfluid Helium. This has a number of highly unusual properties, including negative energy density and negative energy pressure. This essentially makes it the physical-space equivalent of time going in reverse, meaning that it is capable of counteracting the effects of any conventional physical force, including the gravitational pull of a black hole. As such, it will hold the structure of the Gravity-Tunnel together for an indefinite period of time over a potentially infinite distance through space.
Within the Starfield are a large number of Nodes and Junction Points. Nodes are used to connect together all of the planets in any one Star System, and Junction Points then connect different Star Systems together, making use of much larger Gravity-Tunnels that are the equivalent of Interstate Highways. Note that all flight between any given planet and any or all of its moons is handled locally, outside of the Starfield.
Because all of the stars, planets, and moons in the Settled Systems are in a constant state of flux, by which I mean their relative distance and positions) are constantly changing in respect to each other, the tunnels within the Starfield have been designed to be able to expand and contract almost infinitely so that they can accommodate any changes in these two factors depending on when, where, and how you travel.
Although the main tunnels are designed to transport people, resources, waste, and other items directly relating to either Population Centers or Infrastructure, I believe there is also a sub-system) that will allow much smaller objects, such as probes, to carry data-packets that can be upload at one location and then downloaded at another, effectively solving the problem of inoperable delays in communication between remote locations.
Inside of each Gravity-Tunnel is a bi-directional singularity, which can be switched between two opposite polarities whenever required with the help of the surrounding Exotic Matter, allowing for two-way traffic inside what is essentially a one-way system. This means that, as long as you are able to ensure the correct polarity of all connecting Nodes and Junction Points along your route (as in “Sky-Bus is converged” and “Jemison route looks good”), you will be able to travel, in theory at least, from any point A to any point B, as long as all of the required interconnections exist within the system.
When travelling through the Starfield, you will set a specific route, known as a Sky-Bus, which is a specified pathway that runs from your staring location to your destination. You will then, with the help of Starfield Control, access the tunnels using a Gating System which I will explain below. Incidentally, I believe that the accepted in-universe name for the actual transit network that we are making use of within the Starfield is the Sky-Bus Tunnel System.
Each tunnel in this system actually has two separate ‘Lanes’, one on the left for outbound traffic, and one on the right for incoming traffic. As I have explained above, each of these tunnels can only accommodate a single direction of traffic flow at any given time. And so, a safety measure had to be incorporated to prevent any accidental attempts to travel the wrong way down a tunnel and destroying yourself and your ship.
At each end of any given Node or Junction Point is a Gate. These are the ‘Vault Doors’ I have been referring to. The Gate comprises of a gigantic metal outer-ring connecting to an inner Vault Door. This Vault Door will either be at the center (closed position), or the left (open position) of the outer ring. The open/left position will allow outbound traffic to leave the orbit of the current planet they are in proximity to. To allow inbound traffic, the entire outer ring, with the Vault Door locked in place, will rotate clockwise through 180 degrees to the open/right position to allow access to the inbound Lane. When the outbound Lane is then once again required, the structure then continues to rotate in a clockwise motion until it reaches the open/left position once again. When required, the Vault Door will return to the neutral position at the center of the ring, and the tunnel will be locked.
Regarding Grav Jumps: Whenever you wish to perform a Grav-Jump, you must first request permission from Starfield Control, who will guide you through the process. Once the route is set and your Exit Gate is locked in place, by activating your ship’s Grav-Drive, along with it’s incorporated spooling system, you will first lock on to the front of the tunnel entrance.
Next, using a system similar to an Aircraft Catapult, you will be pulled into the tunnel at great speed, where the Graviton Loop Array will hold your ship in-place inside the tunnel, and will also ensure you don’t accidentally go down the wrong path. At the other end, the spooling system described above then acts as an Arresting Cable, slowing you down over a very short distance.
If all of the above is actually correct, especially the last part, then I think I will be having this on repeat in the background before Grav-Jumps!
Finally, here is the link to my additional supporting evidence and other materials, including some stuff I haven’t had a chance to really go into yet. Feel free to throw any questions at me, and I’ll do my best to answer them. In the meantime, Showcase will commence in 24 Hours…

I had the pleasure of playing MGS1-3 completely blind for the very first time in 2022 (you may have seen some of my art in this sub!) In anticipation of beginning my MGS4 playthrough (and because I’ve had a couple of people ask my thoughts on the series), I thought I’d write up something of a retrospective. (Warning: Contains spoilers for MGS1-3 and MGR:R!)
For some context: I went into this game franchise completely blind. I could count on one hand the things I knew about Metal Gear Solid; I knew there was a boss at some stage who required you to switch controllers; I knew of ‘Snake’ from smash bros; and I’d heard the ‘ashamed of your words and deeds’ discourse regarding Quiet. While I was sick and recovering from a major surgery, I decided to finally jump into a game recommended to me over and over by a dear friend:
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
MGR:R
The first thing I noticed about MGR:R was that its protagonist Raiden was super cool! He also was very obviously not Snake. I found myself thoroughly enjoying the gameplay and the overarching themes of terrorism, extremism, nationalism and the military industrial complex. The music made its way onto my Spotify; I began to realise several memes with which I was familiar (including several memes about memes) had originated in this strange game. I could go into more depth about MGR:R, but the most important thing is that it convinced me to give the mainline MGS games a shot. Even though I knew the gameplay of those would differ considerably, the politically charged storyline intrigued me-and I was promised this would remain a theme throughout all Metal Gear entries.
...And I figured since that cool cyborg ninja I just played as for 9 hours must be a side character from one of the MGS games, I’d better learn his backstory.
Highlights:

• The first time Rules of Nature’s lyrics kicked in.
• Senator Armstrong’s monologues (nanomachines, etc!)
• Jetstream Sam.

MGS1
I am terrible at stealth games. When I played through Death Stranding, I did not know you could stealth through the BTs. I simply took a run-and-gun approach to every instance in that game. MGS1’s gameplay would have turned me off, but its constant exposition and evolving narrative compelled me forth despite my hesitance. I found myself quickly endeared to the cast: both good and evil. The mystery of what happened on Shadow Moses and the legacy left by Big Boss intrigued me. There were several instances in the game that caught me completely off guard, and I was thoroughly impressed by the narrative.
Highlights:

• Psycho mantis! The whole fight. What a cool dude. And quite tragic!
• After being captured and tortured by Ocelot, I retrieved my bag and found a strange new bomb inside. Oh well, I thought. I must not have noticed that I picked this up at some point. I wonder how to use it. When Major Campbell alerted me that Ocelot had planted the explosive in my bag to KILL me, I was reminded of a similar experience I had in Death Stranding… in which I similarly noticed the addition of a strange nuclear device in my inventory and promptly thought “oh this is just another normal delivery!”
• At some point during my playthrough I couldn’t help but pause and wonder where I had heard Liquid’s voice before. I did as many have done in my position and googled it, whereupon I found my answer: his voice actor was the male blood elf voice from WOW! It seemed his voice actor also voiced Master Miller in MGS1. “That makes sense,” I remember thinking. “They must have gotten the actor to do multiple voices while he was in the studio”. Pretty standard stuff. Suffice to say, Liquid’s reveal caught me embarrassingly off-guard.

Final thoughts: MGS. What a game!
MGS2
My first thought upon starting MGS2 was “Hey! Quinton Flynn is in the credits! Raiden must be in this one! How exciting.”
I played through the opening, excited by the prospect that Otacon would be functioning as my Save Girl this time. When the game switched characters, I was OVERJOYED to see the return of my favourite cyborg ninja! Although he seemed neither cyborg nor ninja. Oh well! I already know Raiden is cool. I did not realise he was the protagonist of an entire Metal Gear game! I later learned that this game was intentionally marketed to disguise this fact. I also foolishly assumed that everyone else was as overjoyed as me to see Raiden again after playing MGR:R…
Moving on.
This game changed my life. I don’t say that lightly. I’ve spent the past 5 years studying a discipline directly linked to the themes of this game. I have written papers on the relationship between terrorism and the media. For a game like this to have been released in 2001 blew my mind. There is little else I can say. Out of the 3 mainline MGS entries I have played, MGS2 is (just barely) the game I would rank in the number 1 spot.
Highlights:

• All the stealth segments! MGS1 had trained me well to actually play through MGS2 with some degree of care. I took much greater care to avoid killing people in MGS2. I'm not sure why. It just felt like something rookie Raiden would do.
• Vamp. I’m bisexual and playing this game made me realise that this is the first (and possibly only time) I have heard a character in a video game be explicitly described by other characters as Bisexual (and not just hinted to or ‘confirmed’ as such through social media). Also he was very cool and sexy. Go Vamp!
• The scary ai scene. I need scissors 61. Could not have said it better myself!
• Raiden getting a sword. Hooray! That’s the Raiden I know and love.

Final thoughts: After I finished this game I had to sit down for 24 hours and reflect on my life. I was sure this series had peaked for me and that MGS3 could not possibly be able to live up to the standards set.
MGS3
I mentioned before that I am bisexual. After playing MGS3 I believe I am even more bisexual. MGS3’s cast endeared me like no other. It has been 6 months since I have finished this game and my phone wallpaper is still an image of The Boss. Overall, this game by far had the most enjoyable mechanics and boss fights. I mistakenly left my game for about a week to do assessment shortly after beginning to fight The End and returned to find he had DIED in my absence. I was also very confused at first about who I was playing.
“Wait a minute, this isn’t Solid Snake”. This is the man I now know will come to be known as Big Boss. And of what little I knew of him from MGS1, I believed Big Boss to have been a detestable war criminal.
As such, I decided early on in my playthrough to play him quite violently! I seldom left survivors and did not bother to use non-lethal force. I also announced this loudly and offhandedly to my friend who was very familiar with the games. He would inform me later that he had to mute himself in discord to laugh at me.
Highlights:

• The boss. She’s a real historical figure to me. I will never forget her. It would not be controversial to suggest that video games (especially of this era) seldom provided complex female characters. She is a standout amongst all characters, female or otherwise. Throughout this game, I regularly referred to The Boss as my wife.
• Ocelot! Hey Ocelot is in this and he’s a baby! What a weird guy. I guess this means he is the only character to have appeared in all 3 of the mainline games I have played! Cool! I have come to affectionately refer to Ocelot as my weird gay son.
• More bisexuality! Always a delight! Even when it's coming from a freak.
• The Sorrow. I have mentioned that I decided to play this game violently. I do not know if the Sorrow boss fight has a cap on how many soldiers can spawn, but I am certain I hit it. I do not remember exactly how long that segment took, but it was at least 20 minutes of walking. I have decided that henceforth I will play all future entries as a pacifist. Lesson learned.
• Raikov? That’s not Raiden.
• “The Boss” fight. I had to attempt this fight more than five times, as I could barely see the screen through my tears. When the game held me hostage until I pulled the trigger to kill, I became permanently scarred.

Final Thoughts: After completing MGS3 I cried on and off for about 3 days. I occasionally still think of The Boss and tear up. As I write this, I come unbearably close to doing so again.
In Summary
I have not yet played MGS4 but I have installed the disc into my PS3 and just barely opened the game. The game’s menu depicts a man standing in a graveyard filled with white flowers; the very same flowers which symbolise The Boss. The menu screen then pans away as the man shoots himself.
That wasn’t even the game! That’s just the menu screen!! I don’t know what MGS4 is about. I don’t know what Peacewalker is about either, nor MGS5. I am looking forward to (and am also terrified of) continuing my journey through these games. I look forward to seeing Raiden’s return (as I’m sure everyone did) and eventually experiencing a MGS game with modern day controls.
Thank you for reading my Metal Gear Solid retrospective.

On my newest throwaway again because my partner knows my main and my first throwaway and I’m going through a lot, this account has basically become my main lol. This is long and rambly like all my posts because I feel like I’m spiralling and I just need to get it out. I’m 28 f he’s 30 m. There’s no question that my relationship is going through a rough time (we’ve been together just shy of 7 years). You can look at my post history for a bit more depth if you want, but basically we’re dealing with porn addiction and post abortion resentment (from me) and a hell of a lot of curveballs and shit that life has thrown at us that I haven’t even gotten into. About a year, maybe a bit longer, ago my partner told me he wasn’t attracted to me anymore (I had asked, exactly this hurting my own feelings shit I can’t seem to stop doing). I had noticed that our sex life had dwindled down to nothing, he wasn’t kissing me, complementing me, initiating anything, or even grabbing my ass randomly like he always used to do so I confronted him about it and asked. There’s no denying it, I had definitely let myself go, I had been through 3 surgeries in 2 years and was really struggling with health issues to the point my dad basically had to stay at our house off and on for 2 years to help me take care of my child so that my partner could keep working. I gained 100 pounds because even walking around the house was exhausting and on top of that I was dealing with major depression with the reality of how much my new health issues were going to impact my future. I wasn’t styling my hair, I was in leggings and hoodies all day every day, I didn’t even touch make up, Etc. I’m finally doing a bit better, I’ve started being more active, I’m doing more around the house, managing life a bit better, I’ve lost 55 pounds and I’m continuing to work on it, I’m styling my hair everyday, I’m wearing makeup once and a while, I always shave and get my nails done, I’m really trying with my appearance. He has a porn problem, and what really hurts the most is the porn he watches is NOTHING like me, he’s an “ass guy” so his porn is all of the camera angled at asses while being rammed doggy or reverse cowboy style. I personally really like doggy style, and he just flat out refuses to do it with me, he says it’s “not comfortable because we don’t line up right”. Turns out it’s actually because he hates my ass. I’ve begged for counselling. Back to the original problem, I have this obsession with asking him to be honest with me when I KNOW the answer is going to hurt my feelings, but I just can’t stop. And then I get super hurt and bummed out and can get a little snappy with him which he then turns around and says “well maybe I just shouldn’t tell you the truth then”. But I want him to tell me the truth, that was one of the things that hurt me the most was that I could feel he wasnt attracted to me anymore and he never even told me until I begged him to be honest. I really struggle (have since I was a teenager) with body dysmorphia and this weight gain has made it 100000000x worse. I stupidly asked him out of all the neighbours wives, what order he would put them in (including me) based on physical appearance alone. I WAS SECOND TO LAST, ONLY “beating out” A 50 YEAR OLD. So I asked him, when he first met me, (he used to compliment me non stop, tell me I was “intoxicating” and so sexy, he literally made me feel like the most stunning person in the world, HE ONLY MOVED ME UP ONE SPOT. So basically even when we first got together he wasn’t even that into me?! WHAT THE FUCK. There’s absolutely no way in hell that out of the 6 neighbours I was including in this that are all a big friend group that 4 out of the 6 other women are top of the fucking pyramid for looks in this world. I’m bisexual and lean towards women so I KNOW an attractive female, and yes they’re all good looking but I WOULD NOT place myself in 5th when we first met?!?! SO IF I WASNT EVEN HIS TYPE WHEN WE FIRST MET AND I WAS HOT THEN WHAT DO I EVEN HAVE GOING FOR ME. I’m so heart broken over this, and it’s my own fault. But man it stings, and why can’t I just stop ducking doing this to myself by asking these questions where I know the answers will hurt my feelings. FUCK. What’s wrong with me! I’m trying so hard not to be bitchy with him right now but I’m so sad and angry and he can tell somethings wrong and I don’t want him to stop being honest with me to “save my feelings”, because I honestly want to know the truth, apparently I just have this sick need to destroy my self confidence and self worth.

My bf is cis, I'm trans, we're both bi/pan. His cousin's wedding is in a couple months, and yesterday his sister asked in front of the whole family if I was going, because her bf is. My bf seemed uncomfortable so I said I didn't know, I wasn't sure if I was invited.
We talked about it later and he said he's worried for my safety if he brought me. We live in a mildly conservative area, but the wedding is further south and will be in a very conservative area and full of very conservative relatives. He told me straight up that he's concerned about violence towards me and/or us if we were to be seen as a couple in that area. He unfortunately has to go because he's in the wedding, but he's been seriously dreading it all year.
I know it's irrational but I felt sad, maybe even a little hurt, to find out I wouldn't get to go with him and the rest of the family (I live with him, his dad, his sister and her bf, so I'll literally be home alone that whole weekend). I left my last relationship (partially) because after I transitioned I was basically made to stay home for any and all social events, hidden away like Quasimodo so I wouldn't embarrass my straight spouse.
I know there's a difference between that and this, but my emotions are having a hard time understanding that and I just feel like another dirty secret. Like I'll never get to be an equal human being who can go to parties with the person he loves because other people hate my existence so much. Part of my brain is saying my bf should do something to stand up for me or show support in some way, but that's not a reasonable thing to ask of him right now. We haven't even really been dating that long, it's not right of me to expect him to destroy familial relationships or risk his own safety just cuz I'm trans and we're a queer couple.
I dunno, I guess I wanted to hear some rational outside opinions about this to help me sort out my feelings. I feel bad about the fact I feel hurt and he feels bad about the fact I feel hurt, and I just really wish I didn't feel hurt.