Female heavy musicals for high school

Huge Star Wars Fan as that's one of my fondest memories of my late Grandfather. That and Godzilla. We never missed a showing of any of the films. I wish he were here to watch the new trilogy with me but given how disjointed and incoherent the new films turned out to be, I'm glad he's happy in heaven. Anyhoo. Honestly, I don't think we need to even rewrite these movies too much because they had all the ingredients to begin with. However, here's my painstakingly thought out Re-Write. This took a good part of two hours to write folks. Off the top of my head on a Friday midnight with bare minimum effort. I cannot fathom how a billion dollar studio couldn't afford writers who did not even understand basic setup and payoff, consequences to actions and building suspense and grand setpieces. What an incredibly wasted opportunity. Let me know what you think of my re-write of the plot. Aight. I'm a go cool off my aching fingers in some ice now while you peruse my rambling poorly structured sentences. 😂
PART ONE: This remains largely the same. But Rey and Finn fall hard for each other eventually. Kylo is split between the dark and light and genuinely believes the Jedi were the ones in the wrong and wants to bring about balance by destroying both the Jedi and the Sith. Snoke is a major influence. Let him be present and not just a shadow. Good vs Evil yada yada. Kylo hesitates on the bridge scene with Han but something flashes in his mind and makes him grasp a Ruby bracelet on his wrist. Memories of a past he had suppressed. Han notices the turmoil in his son and says "Ben. . ". As he reaches out to embrace his son, the turbulent memories trigger the saber to ignite, killing Han Solo. Kylo accepts his journey to the darkness and gets shot by Chewie. Rey and Kylo stand-off near the end. Except Rey doesn't nearly win. Finn loses a leg or arm in his blinded rage for Kylo killing Han Solo. Kylo is freakishly strong. Rey and Finn are saved by the skin of their teeth as Poe saves their asses instead of some natural calamity. This cements their friendship further. Luke's history is detailed. How he retired. Blah blah. Rey then goes and finds Luke. The end. Oh and btw, Finn has a better relationship with Poe and deeper bond with Han Solo while Rey gravitates intensely towards Leia and is good friends with Poe (but only after Poe's skepticism that she can be a Jedi fades near the end of the plot) This will have a solid pay off later.
PART TWO: Luke begrudgingly allows Rey into his personal space. He also doesn't chuck the light saber but takes it back to his hut and begins to dismantle it. Rey fights him and in the tussle he breaks down and confesses about why he quit. The Jedi had to make a terrible choice in the past. To save younglings and mother's in a distant home base or protect the few hundred fighters they had remaining. The Jedi are left in this tough spot when facing the tyranny of the new order - something they presumed was a remnant of the Emperor's reign but in reality, was a slowly rising menace new to this time in the galaxy. Stuck in between a rock and a hard place, they chose wisely not emotionally. Which is what the Jedi are. They're pragmatic. Not the heroes. Kylo was a Jedi master at this time and not a trainee. He couldn't stand by the orders of the Jedi as his friends and padawans were being mercilessly slaughtered. They saved the future but at the cost of the present. Cue heart wrenching scenes of Kylo disobeying the Jedi, breaking off to save the kids etc., while the Jedi stand their ground defending the military locations. Luke chases after Kylo after feeling that the threat has been handled. He reaches the home base to find a Kylo kneeling in the ruins, ashen remains of younglings around and his padawan in his arms. Luke approaches Kylo as he's giving a monologue about how they had to make the tough choice and Kylo is seething in rage. He crushes the bones of the ashen body, his sadness turning to anger while the Ruby bracelet his padawan used to wear is left behind as the only memory of his closest friend in his hands. He blames the Jedi for this tragedy, calls them monsters and as Luke tries to stop him, a battle ensues between them with Luke almost killing him. This cements both of their positions. Luke, withdrawn and head held down, apologizes to Kylo and tells him that he hopes he understands someday. That great sacrifices are needed sometimes. And that you cannot always save Everyone. In fact. It's only the sith that think along those lines. Luke retires. Realising that this time, they've gone too far. The Jedi have paid a price that cannot be justified in the name of the greater good. He quits and exiles himself while Kylo, seeking answers from the dark side is eventually led to Snoke. Po and Finn (with his new arm/leg) go on more buddy adventures replacing the whole Rose animal saving arc. Snoke wants Rey really bad so we keep that arc and Kylo boards Leia's ship instead of flying around to capture Rey and bring her in. Po and Finn aren't on board so it's free game for Kylo. A standoff ensues with a big fight which ends with Kylo raging about and losing control of his force powers. Blowing everyone in the room out into space. . the shields come on but not fully and Rey is stuck near the edge holding on to Leia with her dear life stopping her from flying off into space. Kylo is climbing up towards Rey and about to put the restraints to capture her. That's when he notices Leia and she looks him in the eyes. She let's go to Rey's horror and as Kylo strikes down in anguish, Rey dodges but he's too fast and slaps on the restraints. Kylo immediately jumps through into space after his mom while calling in ships to rescue them and bring Rey in. Cue scene like the Guardians of the Galaxy Part Two where Quill fails to save Yondu at the end. Leia uses her hidden force powers: NOT to shield herself and Marry Poppins her way into the ship. But to save her beloved son, despite everything. Kylo sheds tears breaking down as he holds his mother, feeling her last breaths through the force. He mutters "Not you. . Not you too". . She whispers "There's still some good in you. . And I see it in her too. . Ben. . Save her, she's . ... .." . . Silence. . as Leia's hand freezes while caressing Kylo's face and she dies. Kylo gets saved by the troopers and they depart to Snoke's lair, letting Leia's body float away into the deep dark nothingness of space. Entombed forever. Rey is tortured by a Kylo who is slowly losing his cool but she resists and puts up a force fight against his mind. Both end up in Snoke's room and the SAME shenanigans ensue. Snoke senses the confusion in Kylo and goes about treating him like a child. Snoke CHIDING Kylo and punishing him now makes more sense. While Rey tries her best to be the good guy and take on Snoke to only be mocked and thrown about. Snoke starts killing the resistance ships in space one by one. His minions have also captured a few of the rebels and brings them to knee in front of them - shock and awe as part of the folks kneeling are Finn and Poe. Here comes a major change and I feel Oscar Isaac would personally love this one. Poe gets a brutal ass fucking death with limb dismemberment etc. while everyone else tries to stop it but gets fucked up by Snoke and his incredible powers. Similar to that Negan scene from The Walking Dead and also makes more sense here as Poe's death in Part One as per Disney's initial plans would've been pointless (insufficient character growth to justify a meaningful death) Even Kylo is not cool with this and tries to intervene because this is too violent and too much but gets ragdolled like a bitch. Snoke even claims that HE was the one who put that distractiom in Kylo's memory, making him pull the trigger on the saber that killed Han. He gave Kylo the perfect memory at the perfect time to give him that one push over the edge. He influenced Kylo's rage, blinding him and making him take his own father's life. Snoke jeers and Kylo and Rey, claiming they're far more pathetic than he thought and they're unworthy of his teachings and presence. Poe is almost done for but being the badass that he is, musters what little strength he has to wink to Rey as she force pushes the blaster into his hands. Born out of pure fucking desperation to save his friends, Poe focuses his last ounce of strength and shoots Snoke straight in the face, blinding him in one eye. Buying just enough time for both Kylo and Rey to reach for the sabers, however, Rey gets hers first and absolutely wrecks Snoke as Finn rushes to Poe Dameron, holding him as he breathes his last. Kylo fends off an entire room of the Red guys 1v6. Rey vs Snoke is going on. Rey taps into the dark side. Juices up. Chops up Snoke and blows him up and as he's dying she still keeps going apeshit on him while Kylo has to step in and restrain her. Even he has a difficult time but manages to reign her in. Snoke dies. So does Poe. Kylo apologizes, saying this isn't how he envisioned things. As he's about to walk off, a sinister voice rises from the darkness beyond Snoke's corpse. Laughter echoing in the chambers as Snoke's remains, a lifelesss mangled corpse floats into the air with electricity arcing from his fingers and eyes. . And the ICONIC DIALOGUE is whispered in a booming growl "Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the dark side". . It's fucking Palpatine as a floaty ghosty mother frocker, grinning from ear to ear while Snoke's corpse collapses to the floor and this OMINOUS DEATH looking bastard rises into full frame. . movie ends. . Cut to black 🙄 Palpatine was the one controlling Snoke all along and he somehow survived the atomization and explosions. However, at least here, he is in Ethereal form and not Corporeal so it's easier to digest the fact that a Sith so fricking hungry with immortality and power would manage to continue his existence. . somehow. It's palatable. It's also palpable. It's also. . Wait for it. . Palpa-TINE. . Badum Dish. . Drumroll please. . I got puns for days 🤣
PART THREE: Movie starts off like The Two Towers. Zooming shots throughout Snoke's Palace while the sound bytes of the Part Two's climax play through with camera panning into the Throne room as the final moments of Part two play out all over again. Sheer panic and dread has set in. Poe is gone. Snoke is but a puppet in the true sense. Emperor looms over Rey, Finn and a befuddled Kylo who's now questioning everything he ever fought for. Emperor plays with them like they're little ants, frying them, flinging them and ripping off Finn's fake (arm/leg). He's toying with them and torturing them. And just as he's about to do finish them, the massive ass heavy doors to the throne room are flung apart like paper. Standing in the corridor backlit by green is a cloaked figure that whispers "I thought I threw you into the abyss". . As the lightsaber ignites in Glorious Green and the green light cascades onto an incredibly PISSSED OFF Luke Skywalker. "It can't be. You were in exile!" mutters a grumpy Emperor. A ridiculously immense "feat of strength" battle ensues similar to that of Dumbledore vs Voldemort. Both parties pulling out force powers out of their ass in magnitudes that are ripping the ships internals to shreds and endangering everyone else. It becomes a stalemate and they escape with their lives. And now, the "Somehow Palpatine returned" dialogue makes sense, especially when it comes from LUKE's mouth and not frickin Meriadoc Brandybuck. Luke explains to everyone else how Palpatine was an ancient evil he once fought and destroyed with his father Anakin. Everyone's shitting bricks because the Emperor clearly never died in the true sense of the word and has remained busy in the shadows as Snoke, rebuilding his empire, pulling all the strings. That's also WHY EVERYTHING LOOKS AND FEELS THE SAME WITH THE VILLAINS. MOTIFS, VEHICLES, DEATH STARS. BECAUSE ITS THE SAME BAD GUY ALL ALONG. 😅 Cue a final desperate adventure where Kylo comes to terms with his failures and how he was being misled all along. Sombre scene between him and Luke. He tells Luke "I don't know what to do. I cannot seek forgiveness. I allowed all this to happen. So many lives. I thought I was doing this for the greater good. For the balance. I knew there would be no coming back from this for me. But others could thrive in a new world". . Luke replies.."The greater good. Some of the worst things in the world were started with the best intentions. The Jedi were noble but they were also human. .and flawed.".... ... "All those lives I've taken .. " says an absolutely shattered Kylo Ren.. ..Luke replies. . "Lives that can never be brought back. But you can pay for theirs with the life you own now..We can put an end to it. It's not too late to see it through to the end. .".. ..Luke locks eyes with Kylo "Your mother and father loved you more than anything Ben. As do I". . Luke also tells Ben about how his grandfather, Darth Vader chose to be a father in the end and helped destroy the Emperor, eventually dying as Anakin Skywalker instead. This can lead to the scene where Ben breaks the Darth Vader helmet memento to bits and sheds his own helmet too. Tearjerker scene can follow where Ben Solo has a Skype call with mom and dad force ghosts who also give a cryptic message that he should talk to Luke because Luke has something incredibly important to tell him) - instead of the dumb scene with Han where he's a "memory"?. . Self forgiveness FTW? 😅 Rey comes to terms with Luke's warning about giving in to the dark side and TRAINS HARDER while Finn baby takes over Poe's mantle and fills in the Ace Pilot spot, wearing Poe Dameron's jacket and colors. Macguffin adventure with Luke Skywalker ensues.
THE GRAND FINALE. Finn leads the way to fight in space and stop the death destroyers. Rey, Ben and Luke go to the ground game to finish the emperor, once and for all. While enroute, Luke sits the kids down and tells them why The Emperor wanted both of them and their powers. They're brother and sister, born as a dyad, a strong bond in the force that was so United, it posed a threat to the fabric of the force itself. This happens once every few generations and they had to separate them during childhood once they figured out that Snoke had sent assassins to capture them. This also makes INCREDIBLE SENSE as to why Han and Leia could not be seen together and why Rey had been hidden away on a desert planet somewhere. Rey's parent is a LITERAL SKYWALKER. Someone she's been talking to all this time and only now finds out that it's her actual mom. Fuck me in the heartstrings. They both break down, mend their differences and get ready for the final fight. The Emperor has grown way stronger. The battle does not go easy. Ben's own soldiers, the Knights of Ren are a menace and nearly bring both Rey and Kylo to their knees. Except. Kylo calms himself down and in a moment of PURE CHEER WORTHY AWESOMENESS, he focuses himself to the point where his SPUTTERING LIGHT SABER BECOMES SOLID STATE LIGHT. A true saber but in all of its red glory. The brother sister duo tap into the force and start fighting together, blending their styles instead of doing their own thing while Luke faces off against the Emperor again. The knights are finished eventually but Luke is not winning at all. The Emperor uses some cheap tricks and tries to one shot Kylo and Rey but Luke gets in front of them taking the full brunt of the hit. As Luke is unable to stop the massive force lighting and starts to disintegrate, he looks back at his niece and nephew, smiles and tells them to look into the force, "You will always find us there". . Luke disappears, the Emperor falters, and his force lightning fades for a brief second. And that's all the siblings needed to make full use of Luke Skywalker's noble sacrifice. They attack with everything they have, exchange banter in between and just as the Emperor launches another Salvo of Force Lightning saying "I am ALL the Sith", Ben and Rey cross their sabers together and block the lightning. While they struggle to keep the lightning at bay, all of the force ghosts appear together as a result of the Dyad fusion, supporting them from behind. The force ghosts light sabers materialise into reality and the duo join them to their own sabers and reflect the lightning back to the Emperor, while saying this quote in return "And we are ALL THE JEDI". Emperor destroyed for good now 😤 . . SOMEHOW. . NO. NO SOMEHOW. HE'S DEAD FOR GOOD.
No awkward, out of the blue cringe fucking kiss scene like between Ron & Hermione after killing the Basilisk. All those ReyLo fans can weep in a dustbin. And the Dyad now makes sense. Every legacy character's death makes sense and has meaning. Each death also is in sequence. Han goes first. Leia follows. And Luke is the last to kick the bucket. Emperor's comeback also makes sense. Somewhat. The ending makes even more sense. Kylo (Ben). Rey. Finn. Reunited. They re-build the Resistance. And also teach a new philosophy of Balanced approach. Neither giving in to the dark side. Nor being blinded only by the light side. A new way forward. Led by the Skywalker genes through the combination of an Organa and a Solo in a new temple. Finn and Rey profess love for one another. And the last scene is her burying the force ghost's sabers in the ground until they're needed.
Years pass. Dry af desert planet. Rey and Finn are building their home. Random ass desert camel lady passes by asking "I've not seen you around here". . Rey replies "We're new here", as she looks down at her pregnant tummy and Finn working on their home in the distance. "What's your name, my dear?" asks the dry as a stick camel lady. . "Rey. . " comes a quick reply . . "Rey who?" Asks the annoying dust bag old lady. . "Rey Organa" . . Says Rey in a contemplative low voice. . Taking a look back at Finn, she smiles and says with a slight tremble . . "and that's my husband, Finn Solo".. "Rey Organa and Finn Solo, from the Skywalker Clan" . . Says Rey with Utmost confidence now in her voice.. The screen fades to black on a sunkissed Rey's face as she is now looking into the future, sure of the legacy she wants to carry ahead.
ORCHESTRAL MUSIC GETS LOUDER.
FADE TO BLACK on the Two Suns of Tattooine.

Life is a journey with it's ups and downs. Sometimes there are more downs than ups. I am looking for someone to accompany me on this journey through life.
I am on a journey every day of self improvement and growth. I am continually working on my communication skills, bringing down walls, and trusting people again. It is a bitter pill when you are desperately lonely and at the same time have a hard time opening up to people.
Please read the whole post before responding. Please include your name, age, and location in your response.
A few things about me:
I'm a homebody. I crochet, play video games, read, enjoy cooking, road trips, listening to music, hanging out with my two dogs. Simple things, really. I don't really watch TV or movies, YouTube, or use streaming services.
Video games: Dragon Age, Skyrim, Diablo III, and the Persona series. Sometimes Stardew Valley.
Books: murder mysteries in the vein of Agatha Christie, high fantasy
Music: Nightwish, Kamelot, Cain's Offering, Cyhra
I'm a liberal. I believe in protecting women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, BLM, things like that. I am political enough to vote for what I believe in, but that's about it. I'm on the fence about having kids. I'm agnostic. I have tattoos and a few piercings. I'm an INFJ, if that matters. I am monogamous. I will not be 'the other woman'. I do not want to be an affair partner.
I am 5'9" and curvy. I am looking to get in better physical shape as well as mental.
What I am looking for:
Respect, honesty, trustworthiness, loyalty, compassion, empathy, kindness, ambition, good communication skills, empathy and patience. I want someone I can come home to eventually. Someone I can love and loves me. Someone that will support me and I can support. I'm talking about emotional support here.
Please be 27 to 37 years old
Please be open to sharing pictures, voice, and video calls in the future.
I want a friendship first that will blossom into something more. Relationships require more than love, they require effort. Please be willing to put in the effort.

Ok so this is a kind of dumb thing to ask advice on but I want an outside opinion. I’m a college student interning in the city I go to school in. And my hometown is the city over about a hour away. I have to go home this weekend to get a couple things from my parents house and I was planning to go out bar hopping with my high school friends while I’m home. However I starting to think I don’t want to do that because the plans are getting changed and my friends are inviting people I don’t know so I’m worried it won’t be enjoyable for me, and I have a rocky relationship with my parents so I generally try to avoid being home. The alternative is after going home I could drive back to the city I go to school in where some of the other interns I work and are friends with from school are going out and having a party. What should I do? Stay home and go out with my high school friends or go out with the other interns and college friends

I live with my boyfriend in a four unit town house. We both get to work from home since COVID, which is great because we save a ton of money here while we pay off debts.Across the way (maybe 100 ft) is a two unit apartment. One of the tenants (whom we nicknamed Spontaneous Buttay from South Park) is the most annoying of all the neighbors. She will sit outside on her front stoop and yell at her kids at the top of her lungs kind of yelling. She’ll then call her mother and very loudly tell her mother why she’s yelling at her kids. Of course, she has the call on speaker phone and we can hear everything. This all is inconvenient. But the worst thing she does is sit in her car for hours on end blaring music. Not even good music, just really crappy music with a heavy base. She’ll do this at any time. I’ll be dead asleep and that shit will wake me up at 4 in the morning. She doesn’t work. She’s not going anywhere. She just sits in her car for hours and blares music. We’ve asked her to turn it down, but of course she started yelling about that on the phone and telling everyone in the neighborhood that we threatened her (we absolutely did not. My boyfriend stuck his head out our front door, yelled across the way “hey, can you turn that down?” And then went back inside).She then proceeded to get on the phone and we over hear her talk about how she was going to put a brick through my boyfriend’s new car. We set up cameras in our front windows after that incident. Other neighbors have made noise complaints to the cops. I’ve only called the cops on her twice. Once when she and her ex husband got into a huge argument at 12:30 am and he chased her down with a tire iron. And again about a year later when he was swinging a hatchet around the kids while they were arguing. But that was pre-cameras. The ex husband is rarely around anymore, so those fights have stopped, but she still yells at the kids all the time. The cops come every so often because of the noise. Is there anything I can do to legally make her stop blaring music?

This problem is a very unusual one. I have an ethical choice to make.
I either ruin myself, endanger my family and do the right thing or don't do anything and feel insane guilt until the end of my days, but my company survives and likely becomes successful within a year.
I am sitting on max 2 months runway, this is nothing special for me as I've never had any substantial runway, the best my startup ever had was $100k from a small angel, otherwise it was me working full-time putting into it everything I could scrap for 4+ years, 12h+ work everyday incl weekends. I am an autist so with my speech disorders I could forget any VC would listen to me, the few small investors I got were all autist-friendlies or inside connections.
I know I can still fix it, I was multiple times in a situation like that and always found a way out but...
I've accidentally uncovered a person who has all the traits of a violent antisocial psychopath, and I am 100% sure she is hurting children inside of a school for war refugees, where she works.
No one realizes except me and my wife because the person is manipulating everyone very effectively and masks but with my abundant testimony the school would instantly start a process to check it. The facts I collected with my wife make it an obvious decision for the school. The children don't speak the language and she is one of the only speakers in the building that speak the same language the children speak (Ukrainian) so it'd take years until she is detected otherwise.
I wanted to report this to authorities but the problem is that the person is aware of me knowing (one of the people I was collecting testimony from exposed me) and I am the first person she will suspect revealing. I was also stupid enough to tell too much to the person that exposed us, so the psychopath knows exactly what I know and can work on removing evidence and improving the mask.
For now she is afraid of me so she doesn't do anything to me or my wife. Once the police gets involved, it will take months to collect the evidence and hell will unleash while she stays free, with the police reviewing records/interviewing children. I am sure she will harass me and my company, I already noticed her monitoring my social accounts with fake profiles (she has multiple), collecting information she can use against me. I won't be able to challenge her and save my business. I won't be able to find some new investors or get clients if suddenly all review sites have fake reviews about my product for example, and she is very creative with the evil she does, so that's really the smallest thing she is capable of doing (I am literally sleeping with a baseball bat at the moment).
My wife, the few investors I have, friends, family, after listening to the details, everyone agree that what I uncovered is insane darkness but also say I should just focus on the company because it's not my interest, that it should be the school, the system to make sure things like that not to occur.. My head is heavy like hell. I tried contacting some people from Ukrainian side but they all ignore me.
I could sacrafice my work to do the right thing but I don't want to endanger my family. I don't want to lose my company, I love it but I can do it to do the right thing.. but not endanger my family..
This decision is going to haunt me until death. What would you do in my situation?

Hi there, I'm 17 years old male from Poland, turning 18 in few months and I need to ask you something. So few years ago I was very religious person, when my parents divorces while I was like circa 11, my faith started decreasing. The worst part of my life was in my rebellion phase when I was about 13/14, I get into not so good company of people and started openly calling "satanist", honestly now I know i was not a satanist, just an idiot. Unfortunately I started realizing how bad it was too late. I committed many sins, the worst ones being public denial of God, depravation of holy symbols etc and the one I regret the most is when spitted out wafer (I don't know how this is called in english but also common name is body of Christ) and trampled it. Honestly I didn't reaize how bad it was until I started growing up more, at the beginnig of high school I told my mom that I am an atheist and stopped going to church anymore. Many things changed since then and few months ago I was a witness of my sister during confirmation sacrament and I couldn't even bring myself to go to confession because I was an I am so ashamed of my sins, I started to feel like I am no longer worth the mercy and love of God because of what I did. By the time I began to study Bible more and came to conclusion how stupid I was, and how everyone around is lost in their faith. Thank for reading if you're still there, I wanted to ask you for advice, how should I go back to the right path and end this conflict inside of me, because I feel like I missed my opportunity in serving God and will never be able to fix this. I appreciate any kind of advise and thank you for listening to me (btw my english is not the best so I'm sorry for any mistakes) God bless you all.

I have been diagnosed last year and im on medication. I dont know if it's a personal issue, but I've spent all my years at school surviving tests and passing without studying because I have a relatively high IQ. I just got to high-school, and we are on finals of the first semester (I'm brazillian). Since we have a Holliday this Thursday and Friday, I had four days to study for the rest of the tests (9 subjects). Yesterday I didn't even try. Today, I've been sitting the whole afternoon in front of the computer trying to do anything, but I can't focus. It's just so frustrating, and even if I try a huge weight comes and I can't even read my notes. It is now Friday and I have today, Saturday and Sunday to study 9 subjects, and I can't just not study because it's a huge amount of content. I just wish it wasn't so hard. I just wish I was able.

I’ll (24f) start from the beginning. So I have questioned my sexuality a few times (first time in high school). Growing up I only ever had crushes on guys. I honestly don’t think I have ever had a crush on a girl- there definitely were some that made me insecure and some that were good friends I enjoyed hanging out with but I really don’t think I had crushes on them. I was also never a very sexual person and I was always super nervous around guys. I went through one phase of watching “porn” on twitter (lol cringe) in eighth grade that aroused me. But beforehand and after that very short experience I never had a sex drive (libido) and I don’t think I experience sexual attraction. I never had the desire to watch porn anything either, and sex scenes in shows/movies made me feel uncomfortable (but this may be just because I was questioning)
I think the part that is most confusing to me is that I think I have very strong aesthetic attraction to women. I definitely see women I think are pretty all the time, especially in media, but I don’t think I ever had the thought or feeling like I wanted to touch them sexually. I have also been aroused by women’s bodies before, not a lot but a few times. I don’t have this same strong attraction to men, but it grows a lot with romantic attraction. I don’t get repulsed by the idea of sex with a women but I don’t particularly desire it either and I don’t think about it unless I’m anxious or stressed about me questioning my sexuality, like the idea only comes to my head during those times.
Since being sexually actively with past boyfriends, the idea does stress me out, since I’ve had issues with pain for most of my time being active and having to stop sex in the middle of it leaves me feeling guilty and I hate that feeling. So many people say to experiment, but I genuinely have no desire to. If I never had sex again, I’d be fine with that. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy pleasing my partners and sex is fine with me as long as it doesn’t hurt, but it’s not something I particularly crave. I’ve been horny once in my entire life (idk of it was triggered by something), but my bf at the time was who I wanted to have sex with and I was fulfilled so idk. Idk i feel like I’m asexual and that identity gave me peace for a while but then sometimes anxiety kicks in and I feel like I’m lying to myself and I can’t pick a side bc romantically I fall for men, but in the past I definitely notice women’s bodies more. I’m also single so the idea of not knowing what to tell future partners stresses me out

Steve being a Podiatrist on Fuller House came out of nowhere. And they make it out like he's so big into feet, like when the basketball player comes over and puts his bare feet on the coffee table, and Steve has a hard time containing himself. He never cared about feet on Full House. Would've made more sense if he became the Wrestling Coach for the high school. Or since he was such a foodie, if he became a food blogger or chef.

My wife has a son (just turned 11) and a daughter (she's "basically 13" if your listen to her) from a previous marriage. I'll call the son Nick for this. He has some sight, but is legally blind. My wife and I married in January and moved in together at that time. Everything was good until mid April. Nick started having panic attacks whenever there was a bug in the house (he's always had an issue with bugs, something about not being able to see them makes him uncomfortable, but this was extreme). He got much more clingy with my wife, even though he's at that age where most boys start to distance themselves more from their moms. Then a couple weeks ago, he started having attacks right before bed, he shakes and can't fall asleep. He says he thinks he hears noises, despite the fact that we're in a very quiet neighborhood and their previous neighborhood had tons of traffic noise and weekly gunshot noises. He feels like someone is watching him, so we put a light in his room so he can see no one is in the room and we've been putting the dog in his room who will bark if anyone comes in, but he still feels too triggered to sleep. He basically stays awake until exhaustion makes him pass out. He otherwise can't point to anything specific, just bad feelings. We've tried doing what we can, reassuring him that he's safe, that nothing bad has happened to him in the house, using logic about the kinds of noises he might think he's hearing, calming music/stream noises, and more.
My wife had anxiety for years any time her ex communicated with her, which was a lot for about 8 years, apparently. She still gets PTSD symptoms when he messages her about something that isn't scheduled, like pickups for the kids. So she understands some of what he's going through (I don't, my life has been very blessed so I'm completely out of my depth here) and she has tried to explain everything to him and use that knowledge to reassure him.
We're trying to get him into therapy. He sees a speech therapist weekly to help with communication skills (there is so much to raising a blind child that you don't even think about, and communication issues are a big one) and part of that involves communicating emotions and describing your feelings. So my wife asked the speech therapist to go over some of that with him. After a couple sessions focusing on the anxiety, she decided he needed a dedicated therapist for that. So she put in a referral and the insurance company approved it. All that's left is for my wife's ex to sign the consent form, but he won't do it. He's a narcissist and was abusive towards my wife and he's always been against the kids going to therapy, partly because he still likes to exercise control over my wife whenever he can and partly because he's worried what the kids might say as child therapists are mandatory reporters in my state. My wife is currently talking with her lawyer to possibly file a motion with the court to force the matter, but that takes time. So, in the mean time, is there anything we can do for him?
Some things that might add useful context for his anxiety:
Because of a combination of my wife living in a small apartment and his infirmity, Nick slept in my wife's room until a couple years ago. My wife had a bunk bed for the kids that she found out after the purchase she couldn't assemble on her own, so I assembled it for her after we started dating. After that, he would sleep occasionally in his sister's room. I would usually visit on weekends when they're with their dad, so it wasn't a priority to move him permanently until we moved in together. But, despite him at first being worried about having to sleep in his own room regularly in a new house, he was doing fine until April.
My wife was rear-ended with both kids in the car in March of 2022. He was hurt fairly badly (some muscle bruising, no broken bones, but hit his head on the back of the driver seat), had to go to PT, and had low-grade anxiety about riding in the car for several months after. But he was doing well since about August/September, and he was never this bad while he was going through all that.
The first time he was unable to sleep, he had come back from his dad's house (they go there Friday morning to Monday night). I'm convinced something happened there, but that he doesn't have the context or vocabulary to understand what that might be.
He's nervous about going into middle school next year. He's been in a special class for blind children for the past 3 years and had a blind teacher and only like 7 kids in the class. His sister has been telling him about middle school and how hard the classes are and how many kids are in each class and how there's all these fights (she went to a pretty bad school, but they're both going to a much better middle school next year) and how he will have to go to a bunch of different classrooms throughout the day. So he's concerned about all that.
He's a, frankly, pretty weak kid. Physically, mentally, emotionally. He's always overreacted to teasing from his sister. Whenever you give him any amount of criticism, he shuts down. Whenever he encounters anything that is the least bit difficult due to his blindness, he just gives up (rather than cut his chicken or whatever, he'll take like two bites and then ask if he can be done with dinner). If you tell him that he can't have dessert or seconds or candy or whatever (he's overweight and eats like shit at his dad's house so my wife is trying to help him lose weight), he shuts down and looks like you just kicked his dog. He has trouble lifting things that an 11 year old should have no problem with (he takes swimming lessons and can't pull himself out of the pool).
His dad and stepmother basically ignore him. He sits in his room at their house and just watches/plays stuff on a tablet. Nick says he puts on YouTube on his projector in his room there until he falls asleep from exhaustion. The dad claims that he hasn't noticed any anxiety, but Nick and his sister say their dad hardly pays him any mind over there. They almost never go out and do any sort of activities, and half the times their dad did decide to go out, Nick gets left behind.

I apologize if any of this comes off as rude. But I’m a bit ticked by the new trend here of people calling themselves ‘an Average student’, then proceeding to showcase their 3.8-4.0 GPA, internships at multiple companies, first place awards in national competitions, and other accolades. The average high school GPA is a 3.0, the average GPA for a college student is a 3.1. You are not average, you are perfectly above average and no, it doesn’t matter if you go to a prep school with other cracked kids, you are still not average. Stop letting these subreddits distort your view of reality.
Secondly, just put the red flags down. Are there things that can hurt you in admissions? Yes. But being from the Bay Area is not something admissions officers view as a ‘red flag’, a red flag would be you committing a crime in high school, or having an insanely low GPA (assuming you’re applying to a t20), or having a really shady EC. I’m not going yo have ‘the argument’, and as I’ve pointed out, yes, some things can hurt you unfairly, but while that is true it’s not a death sentence.
Obviously people might make those posts for other reasons, but I’m also just tired of seeing them, it’s like clickbait.

**I posted this yesterday but only got one response and this is a big decision for me
TW: blackmail, s*icide
When I was about 15 I was preyed on by my best friends (let’s call her F), then boyfriend.
All 4 of us (me, F, her bf and her bfs friend) would always hangout inside and hookup outside of school; so I always considered him a friend and never looked at him in a romantic way. One day after school he asked to come over and use the computer (I didn’t mind because as I said we hang out and he’s been over before with her. He came over logged into his socials and then turned on porn (which I thought was weird) after a bit he ended up pressuring me into sex. I really didn’t want to but I ended up giving in after the constant nagging, this act then became blackmail fuel for him, unbeknownst to me at the time. *PSA, I believe they had JUST broken up, I can’t remember the timeline. I called up my other best friend, J and told her what happened. (I didn’t truly see the weight of the situation after it happened because like I said I was a teen and just started having sex a few months prior to this (bfs friend).
Fast forward a few months, F and her bf are broken up indefinitely and J somehow started having sex with her now ex-bf, which caused a HUGE blowout (F ended up finding out). So now I’m looked at as the friend who did it too but wasn’t caught (by J) and the patron saint of friends (by F), and that always ate at me. Both of our relationships with J were strained and I hated it. So now, ex-bf is asking me for sexual favors and if I deny he begins to threaten to ruin mine and my F’s friendship, so I do what he asks. Until one day he asks for this insane favor, I tell him no and he threatens but this time I tell him I’ll tell F myself. I tell her and she implies s*icide so I tell her it was a lie. Do you know the extreme pressure I was under as a 15 year old?
These favors went on for months until it finally ended after we moved on to the next grade. Time goes on but this weight is still heavy in the back of my mind: his threats and the potential for threats from J. F and I end up making a new friend, N who we take with us into adulthood.
We are now in our early/mid 20s and I’m still plagued by this, so much that I’m having nightmares. I confide in N and tell her about this entire situation. (stupid me right!!) Now, N is kind of a strange person but we’ve loved her nevertheless. With this, when N and I have not so good times she brings up this situation. She’s subtly done it around F and has randomly brought it up in passing as if it’s just casual conversation.
Now that brings me to you guys, I’m debating on just telling F, after 10+ years I can’t take it anymore. I’ve had different people hold this over me and I can’t do it. Should I just tell F and risk our almost lifelong friendship or leave it until N gets upset and eventually blurts it out?

So, I’m a femme lesbian and 21 y/o. I came out to my friends and family when I was 19, back in 2021. And before that, I basically knew for sure that I was lesbian when I was around 14/15, but stayed in the closet throughout high school and most of my time in college.
And recently, I’ve started to become really depressed whenever I think of all the things I wanted to do back when I was a teenager, but never did specifically because I wasn’t out yet…
Like, I would’ve absolutely loved to become a cheerleader in high school, as a kid, it was my biggest dream to be a cheerleader. But I was afraid that the girls in our cheer-team would find out I was a lesbian and would out me, or feel uncomfortable around me in the changing rooms - which I obviously think is ridiculous now, but back then, that fear was very real.
It’s stuff like that that makes me all sad to think about now… It really feels like I’m “mourning” the things I never experienced during my teen years, because I was still in the closet.
Has anybody else experienced this feeling or am I going crazy?

Throw away account as this is the only time I have told the entire truth about myself.
I, 27F, know I have something fundamentally wrong with me. And I always have. Even as a toddler. My father is diagnosed NPD and to say the least I did not grow up in a happy home. I grew up as my mothers protector. I would wait outside their bedroom door until odd hours in the morning if I heard them fighting just to make sure nothing ever got physical. At the same time my mother was embarrassed of me and shamed me growing up because I was a tomboy. I'm thinking this is what turned me into a little sociopath.
My tendencies started early. I started pathologically lying as a toddler. About weird things too. I also jump at the opportunity to gossip and to manipulate the relationships around me anyway I can. It sucks being so aware of something but not being able to help yourself.
Lets fast forward to middle school. Jaded perception of myself has already started and I think I am way more important than I am. I am not, internally I know this. I created a series of catfish profiles that lasted from grade 6 - grade 11. The people I was "falling in love with" were not random strangers they were some of my closest friends at the time. And I did not feel remorse. It did however get me in a lot of trouble and I did get sent off to a boarding school for high school.
Fast forward to high school - I was away from my friends in a school where I knew no one. Not to mention my family was broke and this school was filled with some of the wealthiest in our city. So I lied. A lot. Also had a heightened sense of self importance there even though there was absolutely nothing significant about me. Did not get good grades. Did not have the most money. Just a mopey kid getting into trouble.
Fast forward to today. Everything has escalated. It's worse because I have years of therapy under my belt so it's almost like I know how to be shitty better. How to seem sincere when I want to. How to make people feel special. Make people feel seen. Make people feel safe. However, quite frankly, I am none of those things. Don't get me wrong, the people I do love I love passionately and would do anything for. But that is a very, very small circle.
No one in my life knows what actual education I have because I have lied about that. No one in my life knows what I actually do for work because I have lied about that. The life I have painted for myself makes me look pretty great, and it's mostly fool proof in regards to being able to fact check.
Most of my friends I don't even actually like. Some of the people who think they are the closest to me I don't even care about. But I play the part that I do. Spending time with other people is exhausting even though I do get lonely.
My therapist thinks I am a good person but even they don't know that most of what I tell them isn't even true.
Like I said in the subject, fundamentally, something is wrong with my brain. Pretty sure I am some type of aware sociopath. My interactions with people are like moves on a chessboard. I wont ever be able to get help for this because I am too ashamed that this is how I exist.
At least I look great on the outside.

I (23M) met a girl (22F) at university a few months ago. From the start, we became close friends and she asked if we can start studying together for exams and working on assignments. She's also messaged me a few times for help, even if the concept was relatively simple. After a month of knowing her, I starting seeing her more than a friend and thought she felt the same way.
I didn't want to progress things too soon because I wasn't 100% sure she was interested and didn't want to make things awkward if she declines asking her out on a date (we have a lot of mutual friends and will see each other quite often at school).
She's asked me about my culture, what my relationship is like with my family, when I think I'll get married, if it's common for people from my culture to get married young, what age my parents got married etc. I felt like these were more personal types of questions that you wouldn't necessarily ask someone if you just see them as a friend. She's also made an effort to find me in the library and come sit next to me even though she was previously sitting with a group of her friends at a nearby table.
Everything was going great and I had genuine interest for her, slowly building up the courage to ask her out. That was until one day in our friend group, she acted like she didn't know me and pretended as if we weren't really that close. She was visibly annoyed and irriated when I tried to talk to her, as if I was wasting her time. She rolled her eyes when I asked her a question and looked at me with disbelief that I didn't know the answer to that. I thought she was just having a bad day until she started talking about her type of guys she's interested in with a mutual (female) friend saying she likes tall and big/muscular guys (for context I'm 5'9 and have a slim/lean build). She also said she constantly attracts guys she's not interested in. But, was approached by a guy she was attracted to a few days prior but declined because she said she had a headache and wasn't feeling good at the time he approached, sounding as if she regretted her decision of not giving him her number.
That left me confused and honestly took a toll on my self-esteem. Why would she show interest in me, if she was attracted to an opposite type of guy this whole time? I thought maybe she was trying to make me jealous, but it sounded like the tone of her voice talking about that random guy was genuine.
Did I do something wrong? When I bumped into her 1 week after that, she was completely different, bubbly and happy to see me as if that initial encounter didn't even happen. She also seemed confused when I wasn't too engaged in our conversation. A few days later, same thing, stone faced and giving me the cold shoulder. Not even cracking a smile even though I usally made her laugh. This happens on and off the past couple of weeks. Is she playing games or is she trying to make it clear to me that I'm not her type so I shouldn't try?

Idk if this is the right place might sound a little quora-esque.
TLDR: I want to pursue power electronics as a career in India, however, the salary on the internet looks low for a mid-career salary compared to software roles. It would be nice if someone could tell me about the salary progression of a power electronics engineer with experience. (With numbers would be nice) And in case the salaries are low should I shift to software or MBA for the sake of money and give up my interest? (I don’t mind staying in power electronics if the mid-career salaries is, for example, 30L-45L).
Whole story if you are interested:
So, a little bit about me I did my B.Tech from NIT-K in EEE (2022), in my B. Tech I developed an interest in power electronics and my eventual plan was to get a master’s from abroad mostly in the USA but I was open to other countries. Due to uncertainties in 2022, I thought it would be better if I work for a year and two and then go for a master’s in a year or two. The place I work pay is pretty bad (I work in start-up and do research interns on the side), but I don’t have to support anyone, so I manage. Also, I gave GATE in 2023 (due to my family kept on asking me to try to get into PSUs) I did study hard, and my rank was pretty good, but my mind set to do a master’s outside, and I didn’t think much about GATE after the test.
Eventually, things changed right now I prefer if I settle in India for now. I was looking into IISc, I was told by my friends about IISc, and it seems like the I place I’d want to study. I happen to be friends with one of the profs (he was my school senior) and how he described compared to IITs and NITs (he spoke from experiences in these institutions) it was a perfect place for higher studies. So, I started to look into it and I did make the cut-off for M.Tech (EE), I saw noticed that some other depts also allowed GATE-EE students like their computer science dept. (CSA), ECE…

1. Basically, it comes down to the money factor, I wanted to know what’s salary progression of a power electronics engineer with experience (I’d prefer if someone could give me numbers). I did check out Glassdoor, but I think the numbers aren’t up to date. Moreover, as a power electronics engineer in India their chances of moving aboard or internal transfer within the company (if so how are the chances).
2. Initially, I did it for passion and money was never in the picture as I knew after my master’s abroad, I will be paid well. Now, if I want to continue in India money does matter to me if not at starting but I do want a high mid-career salary (30L or above) i.e., 5-6 years of experience. Should I switch to software, and pursue an M.Tech at some tier-1 college or go for an MBA? Or Should I stay with power electronics and get an M.Tech from IISc (provided the pay gets better at mid-level tbh idm doing it with slightly lesser money because there's nothing better than designing circuits for me)?

Thanks!!!

I just started my omnipod today. And they made me set a max bolus... it was set for 10u well..... going about my day. My son and I stop at McDonald's well..... my meal alone was over 90carbs cause it's fast food..... well I had to up my max bolus. Cause it wouldn't accept my dosage. My sugar was a bit high as well.....
I see this as a problem as when I am able to eat I eat a heavy amount of carbs due to me being able to sit for maybe one meal. And snack through the day.

Iam pissed because i failed my license today, i mean i can retry it a few times more it was my fist attempt but it sucks. The reason why is the most infuriating to me. I wont deny that i did a few mistakes but i think they werent too bad to be overlooked and could have been avoided if the system wasnt so idiotic/ the guy testing me would be a bit more chill.
I live in germany and im doing my a2 license so 48hp with a weight power ratio of like 0,2 max i think it was. So i met at my drivint school wirh my teacher and the tester and i instangly recognized him from my B(car) license and remembered he was a bitch about every little thing and almost didndt give me the license because i drove like 10 under the speed limit when it started pouring down. So anyway i drove to the practice place for the maneouvers like stop and go (coming down on both both feet after another twice), emergency breaking, slalom and stuff. I drove there without any issues he told me that himself, only once did i shift a bit bad apparently.
So anyways after deiving there for like 20minutes theough the city, i was told to do the stop and go exercise first and did start it but kinda fucked up because i was putting both feet down at a time because i panicked(im a bit small and the mt-07 is kinda too high for me almost) but yeah was my fault, so second try and i had my visor open i dod the first start and then stopen and wanted to close it and only for a fracture of a second i oppened my left hand leading to the bike to shut of and that in turn made me fail the whole test, because out of 6 maneouvers i fucked up twice on one of those. And drove there and back without any issues. Im confident that i woulda done the other things without any issues if he let me do them but he didnt because i already failed because he choose to stay true to protocoll and not give me a 3rd try wich i think is kinda a dick move in that situation.
The best thing about is is that while driving there i had to of course do stop and go while in trafic wich is even better proof that iam capable of it than doing it in a straight line. He saw that when i want to turn right at an intersection i put my right foot down, he saw that when i want to go forward or left i put the left foot down like i was told to do in driving school. So therefore he knew iam capable but due to his protocoll and his in my eyes dick behaviour by staying true to that he just let me fail it, because i didnt do it in a straight line without signals or intersections where its a completely stupid "simulation" and unrealistic circumstances almost.
A friend of mine who works at a driving school told me that i acctually habe 3 tries so ima research into it and if it is true i might atleast be able to get my money back and if i have to sue for that but ima look into that first. But even then i wont get my free day back that i purposely took off from work to do this driving test.
Also i now have the issue that i propably cant get another friday of work in the next few weeks wich means i might have to wait about 6 weeks before i can retry the test.
Tldr: I fucked up and made my mistakes but i failed because i fucked up twice on the "test course" doing something i did perfectly minutes before in traffic and the guy testing me had a huge fucking tree up his ass. Now i might have to wait for around 6 weeks to retry due to my company not really letting me take a day off work on fridays

{THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING: Existential dread, emotional moments, romance, and a singular phrase which could be seen as suggestive depending on how dirty your mind is. ;) }
(Any sentences or phrases wrapped with brackets "[ ]" are designated as inner monologue!)
Thank you to u/SpacePaladin15 for creating this wonderful literary universe!
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Memory transcription subject: James Willik, Human Historian
Date [standardized human time]: July 15, 2165
“Umm. Sooo, isn’t the universe only around 14 billion years old?”
“You would be correct.” The scientist’s expression showed that he was as dumbfounded as I was. “I should add that the highest number that any of our new dating devices can go is to around 20 billion, it is entirely possible that the artifact could be even older than we can detect.”
[What the fuck.]
A shrill voice from my left shook me out of my stupor. I looked to my side to see Lemva standing out of her seat, her tail lashing angrily. “Is this some elaborate joke? That isn’t possible. What you’re saying isn’t possible.” President Zhao began to speak. “I am fully aware how frankly nonsensical this is sounding, but this is serious and we need to approach this with an open mind. The Federation rated this item as a danger to the entire galaxy for a reason. We have no idea what we’re dealing with here and with something that could pose this much danger that is not acceptable.” Lemva suddenly spat with a ferocity I haven’t heard in a long time. Her anger frightened me not just because of her abnormal behavior and proximity, but also because of the recipient of her anger.
“You are aware that what you’re saying undermines everything we know about existence, right? Are you aware of that? Do you have any idea how INSANE this is sounding? You’re telling us, US, a couple of unqualified nobody misfit historians, that we’re somehow prophesied by this magical indestructible artifact that existed before time to do… something? AND YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT SOMETHING IS?! You just expect us to take this sitting down? Uh-uh, no, I’m not accepting this.” I tapped the table gently to get her attention, she snapped one of her orange eyes at me in response, I could barely get out what I was going to say in fear of her. “Maybe we shouldn’t yell at President Zhao?” I squeaked my suggestion at her. She just smoldered at me.
Lemva quickly pushed her chair backward and power-walked through the doors of the conference room, the force from her slamming the door rattled its hinges. I sometimes forget how strong she is, perks of evolving on such a high gravity planet I suppose. I glance at my remaining two partners and they are just as shaken as me. We all slowly look back at Zhao in fear of his response to Lemva’s attitude. Zhao still looked calm, so that’s good, but his posture indicated exhaustion.
“You three can leave for now, I’ll schedule another meeting for tomorrow once she’s settled down. If you could talk to her, that would be greatly appreciated.” Zhao started to rise from his seat but paused momentarily. “Oh I forgot to mention, you’ve been granted access to the guest residence wing. Lars, hand them their cards please.” A large man walked around and passed us our cards, handing me a second one presumably for Lemva. “The suite’s code on the tram is S29. You’re dismissed.”
Cayek, Tassak, and I quickly hurried out of the room to catch up with the furious venlil. Thankfully she hadn’t gone far, and was just waiting at the tram. We approached her quietly, none of us having the courage to start a conversation. She barely acknowledged us as we drew closer. I steeled myself to initiate contact but to my surprise she decided to do it first. “We’re leaving. Fuck this, they expect us to just accept that everything we know is wrong? They can take their invitations and shove them up their asses.” I gathered the courage to respond to her.
“I’ve never seen you this angry before. Talk to me.” She sighed, seeming to deflate as she did. Most of her anger melted off of her and left defeat in its place. “I need some time, I don’t have the energy right now.” “Alright, that’s ok. Before we left the conference room, we were handed keycards to the suite. Zhao said that we could stay there for a while.
Lemva looked up at my face with an eye. The happy glint she usually carried in her eyes was replaced with a dull feeling of hopelessness. “Okay.” I gently placed a hand on her shoulder. She answered my request to hug her before I had even asked. She buried the side of her head into my chest. We sat there for a few seconds, and it felt good, but all good things had to come to an end eventually. I silently guided her into the tram, Cayek and Tassak following close behind. The doors closed and I typed in the code for our suite, S29. The tram took off and winded through a maze of hidden tunnels before arriving at our destination.
Exiting the tram, we came to a closed set of heavy fake wooden doors with a keycard reader to the side. I swiped my card and the hidden locks on the doors clicked several times, before the doors swung open. [Wow. This is a really nice room.]
I guided Lemva onto a nearby sofa and marched into the gargantuan kitchen provided to us in order to prepare some coffee for her. As I waited for the coffee machine to finish, I saw Cayek and Tassak exploring their new surroundings. Cayek walked around and admired the luxurious artistry that permeated the space, while Tassak… Tassak poked at various objects as if she had never seen them before. She reminded me of a curious child. She accidentally tore a hole in a chair with her claw before hastily trying to hide the damage with a very obviously out of place pillow.
The coffee machine sputtered the last few drops of liquid ambrosia into Lemva’s mug and I hurried over to where she was sitting. I placed the warm cup into her paws and sat beside her. For several minutes we watched some TV on the large screen across from us. Lemva leaned more into my shoulder the longer we sat there. Tassak and Cayek had gone to their rooms by now. After watching 8 episodes of the ninety-seventh season of The Simpsons, she had calmed down.
I looked down at her. “Are you ready to talk now?” She nodded. “Mhm.” “Ok, do you wanna tell me why you got so angry during the conference?” She frowned slightly. “Everything they were saying… the artifact, I just…” She stopped for a moment to gather her words. “If what they said was true, and the artifact is from before the universe, and it depicts us… that implies so much. If what they said is true, then whoever made the artifact could see the future. If they could see the future, that means fate exists. If fate exists, then that means that everything I’ve ever done, everything that we’ve ever done, was meaningless. I mean, all my struggles, all my successes, for no reason.” She looked up at me and I could tell she could see my confusion.
“If you were playing a game, and every action you took did absolutely nothing to change the end result, but the whole time you thought that they did, wouldn’t it hurt to realize in the middle of a round that your input is entirely meaningless and changes nothing? But then, if you look at it another way, there’s the idea that you’re not even really alive, that you’re just a machine going through the motions. The idea that everything you were, are, and will be, every action you take, every thought you think, every emotion you feel is just a set of directions and ideas set to play out for the rest of eternity, that you’re just a couple words on a page to be read…”
I had no idea how to respond to that. I was never all too good at imagining such high-brow philosophical concepts, and I’ve always been even worse at handling the emotions of others, so wrap the two up into a depressing little veggie wrap and you’ve got me stumped. I did the only thing I could think to do at that moment. I wrapped my arms around her and placed my chin on her forehead. She snuggled into my body. I hadn’t felt this much comfort for a long, long time.
“Y’know… after I dropped contact those few years ago, I always wanted to send you a message, tell you I miss you, tell you why I stopped contacting, those sorts of things. But I never did. Because I was afraid.” I lifted my chin off Lemva’s head and she looked up at my face. I stared down back at her. “What were you afraid of?” She asked me in a soft voice. “Lots of things. I was afraid of explaining what happened, the “incident” was too recent to talk about. I was afraid that you’d hate me for disappearing, and the fear only got worse the longer time went. But mostly…” I inhaled sharply as I prepared myself. “I was afraid you’d betray me.” Lemva’s eyes held a puzzled and pained expression.
“I didn’t tell you who killed my parents, only that someone did. Soon after I was born, my father went into the venlil exchange program and met a venlil named Draton. They became friends almost immediately, or at least, Draton pretended to become friends.” Malice filled my voice as I talked about the scum who murdered my family. “I loved him growing up, almost as much as my parents, for a while he was like, my third favorite person in the world. He was like an uncle to me and a sibling to my parents.” I gulped and looked away. “Hopefully it should be obvious what I’m saying he did.” I took a shuddering breath and looked deep into Lemva’s eyes. “I was terrified that another loved one would turn out to be a monster. I was terrified that you would turn out to be a monster.”
I closed my eyes and mustered all the courage I could manage and called upon every deity from every religion I could remember or had even heard of in passing. I opened my eyes and placed my hands gently on the sides of Lemva’s head. She didn’t resist. “Alright… this is my greatest secret yet. I’ve been so scared to tell you but I can’t keep holding it in anymore, I need you to know.” Lemva held her breath.
“I love you Lemva, I’ve loved you since we first hung out in history club, I loved you when you cheered and hopped around at our graduation, I loved you when you talked so enthusiastically about your job. I always have, and I always will, love you.” I could feel my face burning as blood rushed through my cheeks. Lemva had it even worse though, her face was more orange than the fruit the color was named after. Her eyes were so wide I could barely see her irises anymore.
Tears formed in her eyes, but I could tell right away that these weren’t tears of sadness. The goofiest and cutest smile I had ever seen in my life quickly formed on her little face. She squeaked at me in delight. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to hear you say that.” She reached up, grabbed my hands, and squeezed them tight. I could feel her tail wrap around my back, a gentle force guided me closer to her. “You sure you wanna do this?”
“I’ve been around humans all my life, I know what a kiss is, dummy.” She whispered amusedly. We closed our eyes and embraced for the first time. All my worries, fears, and doubts melted away and drained off of my mind like meltwater off a cliff as we sat there basking in each other’s warmth.
We separated our faces and stared at each other. The happy glint in her beautiful orange eyes had returned brighter than I had ever seen it before. We sat staring for what seemed like forever, I had forgotten that a world existed beyond this sofa. I looked up at an antique clock mounted on the wall and waited a moment as my implant translated the extraterrestrial time-keeping system into a familiar 12-hour format. 8PM. Almost as if in response to my realization of the time, a wave of exhaustion crashed into me like a rogue space freighter. I wanted so desperately to stay here cuddled with Lemva for the rest of my life, but alas, sleep deprivation is a cruel mistress.
“Lem, it’s 8pm, we gotta get some sleep if we’re gonna attend the conference tomorrow.” “Awww, a couple more minutes? Pleeeeeeeease?” “I know this is really comfy and I know you don’t wanna think about ‘the object’ but we’ve got to do it.” I could tell she was still uncomfortable thinking about the implication that even the mention of the artifact carried with it, and we still would need to talk that through, but for now at least, she wasn’t having an existential crisis.
We untangled ourselves, rose off the sofa, and headed toward our rooms. But Lemva suddenly halted in the middle of the hallway. I spun around to see why she stopped. She looked down at the ground and rubbed her paws together like she does when she’s nervous, her face was an almost neon orange, miraculously managing to be even more vibrant than before. She wore a bashful smile on her face. “Is something wrong?” “no… I was just wondering, could I sleep in your room for tonight?” “Sure. Why, is there something wrong?”
“No… there’s just… something I’ve been wanting to try…”
“Wha- oh.”
“Oh.”
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(I think I've got a hang of the reddit formatting now. However, advice and critiques of the way the story is told are still very welcome.)

Hey all! I'm getting comfortable with my content loops and, while not every piece of content I have in mind for shorts has high production value (for instance, a bulk would be music clips of my live streams while others are edited versions of longform videos that I work on), I want to increase my digital footprint and ramp up my views.
In other words, rather than getting 300-1000 views a day on one short, I aim to meet or beat those view counts with multiple shorts.
Does anyone have experience with this? That once a baseline level of quality is achieved, that you look towards quantity rather than quality?