I wish someone would have warned me that I'd be losing my friends like this. Slowly, painfully, excruciatingly. I don't really have anyone anymore, my only four friends have all moved away and don't have any time to even just talk now and then. Am I being selfish? Is it wrong for me to cling so desperately to the only people who truly ever cared about me (outside of immediate family)? I've tried to meet new people, make new friends, but without any sort of local groups based around any of my hobbies I haven't been able to meet anyone. Even if I could, would they want to be friends with someone like me? I thought I made a couple good friends at my last job, but I guess they were only friendships of convenience since in the three years I was there I never got invited to anything and no one seemed interested when I would suggest doing things.
I'm sorry, this post is probably really stupid and childish. I just miss my friends so badly, everyday it hurts deep down in my chest with how lonely I feel. I try to distract myself, but it just keeps creeping back up and engulfing me in depression.

my gf (mtf 18) and me 17f, last night were laying in bed like we usually do watching shows on a laptop, her mom knows we do this all he time. she complains that it's too bright and she's tired so I closed the laptop and five seconds into it being silent her mom comes in and says "OK I'm coming in" and when she stands in the doorway she says, "do your parents let you get away with this at your house?" and I said what and she went "you're not even watching anything and it's all dark in here" and I'm just confused and then I get it, immediately I tell her like no we just closed the laptop bc it was too bright I swear we weren't doing anything, and I even opened the laptop to show her where we left off and she just went "uh huh" sarcastically. I really don't want her thinking we were doing anything cause we really weren't 😭, she's my gfs mom for christ sake and I don't want to be on bad terms with her at all, and her thinking I'm doing this stuff and I have to see her almost every day is so embarrassing to me. idk it's just really stuck in my head, my gf assured me she doesn't really care and it isn't that serious but it was just so damn embarrassing that she thought we were doing something, we weren't even in a weird position, i was laying on my back and she was kinda like hugging me? she just flashbanged us with the hallway light and we both kinda looked up at her half asleep when she walked in

Hello Reddit, I came here for advice about my father. Also want to specify I don’t know if this is the right category. I(16f) I’ve never really had a good relationship with him and in all seriousness, there’s only very few times he has been a father figure to me. And that was only when I was really little but at this point, I’m getting kind of fed up. For context and a little back ground, I was mainly raised by my grandmother as a child, while my father worked, and my mother wasn’t really a mother figure to me, which isn’t her fault, she is physically and mentally disabled. Over the years, we’ve had a really rocky relationship. I want to say it all started to go downhill when I found out he was cheating on my mother with a friend from high school and they divorced over that reason she was an absolute nightmare she abused me and he just let it happen I remember crying to my grandmother and her not believing me till he finally admitted. And then eventually they broke up and she became a crazy ex. His next girlfriend was an oddball who cheated on him with a coworker. And now we’re stuck with his current wife and my step sister. I confidently can say that I was not OK with having her as a new mother, especially with their relationship also started out rocky. And adding to the fact he is a alcoholic. But that obviously didn’t stop them, they’ve been married since January. Moving on ever since she’s been in his life, me and him have argued a lot more. And even when we’re not arguing, it’s mainly him scolding me telling me to do better, and he’s clearly not giving me the opportunity to try to get better. In the past I have tried so hard to make him proud and I’ve given up on that anything I do is not going to make him happy. I’m also very aware I’m the daughter that he never wanted. He never wanted somebody like me. I’m starting to realize that more and more every day. I don’t have the best mental health and I never really have had the best mental health, but it’s slowly affecting me a lot more. In the past I have not had the best encounters at therapy but ever since February. I have decided that I want to try to get that it he doesn’t approve of the option whenever it comes to something I need whenever it comes to me, wanting to better myself, he doesn’t care. He never cares whenever I do something that I am in fact, proud of he never cares. He cares about his new family more than me. I always thought it was because I remind him too much of my mother he was tired of taking care of people. But at this point it’s getting outrageous I’m 16 I’m a drop out. He said he was planning on helping me get my GED. That’s going nowhere. He said he would take me to get my ID so I can have a job that’s going nowhere. And every time I confront him he immediately decides to point out my flaws as if that’s supposed to do shit. I don’t clean up the house enough that does it mean that I am too lazy to have a job. I want a job I want money I want to go ahead and start planning so I can move out. I want to cut all contact with him when I turn 18 I want to try to take care of my mother because her sister is doing a shit job all of the adults in my life other than my grandma I have done a shit job at Everything. I’ve always been pushed aside because I’m not that important because I don’t benefit to his happiness. I plan to send him a long message a few paragraphs in the morning before he’s up, but I honestly don’t even know how word any of it. I thought of things like obviously, mentioning how he does not give any care towards me how he only wants to care about my stepsister, and mil. Which pisses me off so much, and I can guarantee that he was going to try to make me have a conversation with him and my stepmom as soon as I even send them some thing which is ridiculous, because it has nothing to do with her or I would like to believe it has nothing to do with her because all the times in the past he has just brought up that I am trying to make him unhappy. I want to be happy too and I think I deserve that, I have no issue with my stepmom. She’s just a religious control freak and I have expressed that she clearly has no control over me. Which seems rude. I get it but I am so tired, so so very tired of dealing with all of the women in his life trying to be a mother to me I don’t even feel like my own father’s daughter I feel more like a distant sister, because of how his mother raised me. All I want right now is to get a job. I just want my ID. I want to go to therapy I don’t care that much about the GED if I’m being frank I can’t legally get it till I’m 17 so the least he could do is put my ID and therapy request to use. I am so sick of not being given the time of day. Also, another thing whenever I try to socialize with him, my stepsister and my mil over there at her house he seems very cold. anyways, I don’t know if I worded this right I apologize I’m having a little manic episode during all of this but I’m just so sick of how this and I’m open to any form of criticism in anything helpful .

Okay this break up is killing me due to the circumstances surrounding it and I desperately need some men to give me some guidance as my find is a mess even after 6 months.
I dated my ex for nearly 6 years. She is 10/10 attractive and I mean that literally. Beautiful face, goes to the gym 6 days per week. During our time dating she became a big gym influencer with 1 Million + followers but when we started dating she had none. She also got her degree and started her own clothing brand from scratch. During this time I also started my own business. This put a ton of financial stress on me. I had to take out loans etc. at one point I was 150k in debt (have since paid most off and the rest is just revolving credit I pull on for business expenses). Anyways this made me so stressed that I almost had some mental breakdowns and I got too emotional with her and I could see she lost interest thinking I was giving up. After a year of me trying to get back up she finally broke it off with me at my lowest point. She was an amazing girlfriend and I basically fucked up with becoming insanely insecure, needy, and weak. After the breakup we still hooked up for a few months but eventually she said she needed to be single. She was also going through huge stress with her business.
My problem is I know she can meet any number of ultra wealthy guys who are better looking and have access to a life even I couldn’t fault someone for passing up. But as a highly ambitious person myself this has crushed me. I really have zero attraction in anyone else and I’ve been on 6 dates in the last few months thinking I was getting over her but the paid always comes back. Also we had the most mind blowing sex life. Completely compatible and both loved to try new things. I’m completely broken with this breakup and honestly I did get some self harm thoughts and wished I wasn’t alive. She didn’t leave me for some rich guy but I know her next partner will be better than me in every way. I have been hitting the gym hard and trying to increase my income as quickly as possible as it’s the only things that keep me going and having hope for the future. Where I live it is insanely expensive.
I just want to know if any other men have gone through this with an incredible attractive and nice women. How do you recover and move on or find motivation to try when you really don’t think you can ever do better? I know some replies will say I should settle for less etc but I must not be alone in this kind of situation. How is it possible to cope. I feel emotionally dead inside to a point I’ve never felt before. A combination of absolute and total regret for not showing her how much she meant to me, insecurity, lack of hope and motivation. It’s on my mind 24/7 and I can’t believe I didn’t change after multiple times of her warning me I wasn’t doing enough. She didn’t even care about money but I didn’t treat her right.

“That’s Not Happening and It’s Good That It Is”

By Michael Anton February 26, 2021
Gaslighting getting you down? Feel like the regime has dialed the Megaphone up to, and past, eleven? You’re not crazy. It’s definitely happening and likely to get worse as our masters’ ability to cope with reality further worsens—or worse, they gain the complete and absolute control they seek. They’re both scornful and terrified of dissent, which explains why they incessantly shriek at us and lie to our faces.
So, to help you navigate the twitstorm, I present a guide to seven of the regime’s most common, oft-deployed lies. This is not meant to be comprehensive. I’m sure there are tactics they use that either I haven’t crystalized or that aren’t front-of-mind at the moment. I encourage others to expand the catalogue with their own observations. The better we can understand how they try to manipulate us, the better we can resist and counter it all.
Let’s start with the Unholy Trinity of ruling class horse manure. These first three are similar, but subtle differences determine the ways they’re used in differing circumstances.
The Law of Merited Impossibility
The coinage is Rod Dreher’s and goes back to the early debates on homosexual marriage. As Dreher formulates it, the Law of Merited Impossibility holds: “That will never happen, and when it does, boy will you [homophobes, transphobes, racists, sexists, whatever] deserve it.”
This Law is used, first, to disarm resistance to the latest leftist enthusiasm. Whatever the innovation is, it will have no adverse consequences. None! Puberty blockers and disfiguring surgeries have no downsides whatsoever. How dare you suggest they might!
Its second purpose is to dismiss out of hand “slippery slope” arguments—despite, or because of, the fact that every single such argument over the last twenty years at least has proved true. Worried that allowing people to “self-identify” as whatever sex they want will lead to pervy 50-year-old men exposing themselves to’ tween girls? Insist, loudly and indignantly, that that will NEVER happen and anyone who suggests it might is an alarmist bigot with a heart full of hate.
The third purpose is to enforce the new caste system. Those who get to impose fresh irrational indignities on the rest of us are the upper caste. Those who object, or even have reservations, are lower. The latter are not allowed to harbor, much less express, any doubts. Whatever humiliation the upper caste has planned for us, we deserve and must meekly accept. Hence when said pervy 50-year-old actually does start waving around “her” equipment in the girls’ locker room, if any parent dares object, let ’em have it with both barrels. That thing that ten seconds ago you said would “never” happen? Now it’s righteous punishment for the retrograde.
The Law of Merited Impossibility has done wonders for the Left in helping to ram through a wide variety of radical societal changes and cow into silence all opposition. It’s currently busy destroying girls’ and women’s sports, an outcome that we were assured would “never” happen. Though one wonders what the ladies did do to deserve it.
The Law is a bit passé, though, because our rulers rarely any longer feel the need to reassure normie Americans that everything will turn out OK, that the things we most fear won’t happen. Mostly, the holders of the Megaphone just skip to the second half, the angry insistence that we deserve it
The Celebration Parallax
A parallax is the apparent difference in position of the same object seen from different vantage points. For instance, an analogue speedometer that reads sixty miles per hour to the driver, but fifty to the passenger—even though the needle itself is only in one place.
The Celebration Parallax may be stated as: “the same fact pattern is either true and glorious or false and scurrilous depending on who states it.” In contemporary speech, on any “controversial” topic—or, to say better, regime priority—the decisive factor is the intent of the speaker. If she can be presumed to be celebrating the phenomenon under discussion, she may shout her approval from the rooftops. If not, he better shut up before someone comes along to shut him up.
Note also that the key distinction here is celebration versus non-celebration, not support versus opposition. One need not actually, clearly oppose the subject under discussion in order to be blameworthy. Declining or neglecting to celebrate it forcefully enough is enough. As in Stalin’s Russia, lack of enthusiastic clapping is regarded as opposition. The legitimacy of one’s right to state the same identical fact, in the same identical language, depends on who one is and what one thinks of it. Since the left presumes that all persons of color approve of the phenomena covered by the Celebration Parallax, the Parallax is really a test to distinguish allies from Deplorables.
To the best of my recollection, the origin of the Celebration Parallax arose from the need to defend “affirmative action,” a very unpopular policy since its inception. The party line therefore goes like this: People of color must be granted explicit preferences to overcome America’s “legacy of racism” so that we may “diversify” America’s power centers and end white male dominance, a move that—in addition to being necessary to address the country’s inherent racism—improves those institutions by infusing them with different and hitherto neglected points of view. Also, kids of color need “role models” who “look like themselves.”
But there is no such thing as “reverse discrimination,” which is itself a racist term, and there are no “quotas” (another racist term) whatsoever, but only “timetables,” “goals,” and measures to evaluate applicants and candidates “holistically.”
On no subject is the Parallax more prevalent than immigration. Depending on who’s doing the talking, the demographic transformation of the United States is either a glorious trend that portends a permanent Democratic majority and a more “vibrant” future, or else a “conspiracy theory” that is not happening in any way at all, no-how.
The Left insists that concerns from certain quarters that immigration policy in America (and Europe) amounts to a “great replacement” is a “dangerous,” “evil,” “racist,” “false” “conspiracy theory.” But a leftist New York Times columnist can write an article entitled “We Can Replace Them” and . . . nothing. [Redditor’s note: Michelle Goldberg calls for politically dispossessing white nationalists, not displacing white Americans from America.] Same fundamental point, except she’s all for it and her targets aren’t. A U.S. Senator can exult that demographic change will doom Republicans. [That is a link to a more or less openly white nationalist website.] Joe Biden himself can refer to an “unrelenting stream of immigration.” Except they’re celebrating it and calling for it. Anyone on the Right who uses the exact same words will not merely be denounced; the very fact pattern that is affirmed when Biden says it will be denied when the Rightist repeats it.
The Law of Salutary Contradiction
Which brings us to the Law of Salutary Contradiction, whose formulation is: “That’s not happening and it’s good that it is.” While the Law of Merited Impossibility applies to the future, this one is about the present. It’s what the ruling class immediately switches to after what they insisted would “never” happen is happening before everyone’s eyes.
Is the NSA spying on Tucker Carlson? That’s an insane conspiracy theory . . . which is also warranted by Tucker’s treasonous contacts with Russian officials as he seeks an interview with Putin.
Is the Biden Administration inviting in illegal immigrants, then putting them on military planes and shipping them to the heartland? Absolutely not . . . and these future Nobel Prize winners deserve their shot at the American Dream.
Once you learn to recognize this pattern, you see it everywhere. It is the cornerstone of ruling class rhetoric in the current year.
The Smails Exhortation
Turning from the Unholy Trinity, we see that the ruling class condemns all of us as entitled boors. In their eyes, we deserve nothing. We have no reasonable wants nor any just complaints. Our only role is to accept getting nothing and learning to like it.
Our masters bleat about “democracy” but have redefined the word to mean “getting exactly what we”—i.e., they—“want.” Any ostensibly “democratic” outcome that might result in us getting what we want is ipso facto illegitimate. Border wall? Fascist! Immigration enforcement? Racist and fascist! Law and order? Double racist and fascist! Better trade deals? Economically illiterate! An end to endless wars? Catastrophic! And also, somehow, “anti-Semitic.” Penis-free girls’ bathrooms? Transphobic!
No matter is too small, too local, too private, or too inconsequential to escape their gaze and slip their punishment. Bake the cake, bigot.
Mostly what they bleat, though, is anti-American, anti-white, anti-conservative, anti-Christian, anti-rural, anti-Southern, anti-Red-state, anti-redneck, anti-working-class hate. Every media organ and cultural citadel blares this message loudly and incessantly.
The purpose is hard to figure. On one hand, it’s demoralizing, which certainly serves ruling class ends, and it fires up their coalition. On the other hand, if you’re trying to boil a frog, it’s best not to tell him the plan, as he might try to jump out of the pot.
Which brings us to:
The Lie-Back Imperative
This tactic, and the next one, are related to what Steve Sailer has called “The War on Noticing.” [Steve Sailer is a white supremacist.]
The regime knows it’s in a difficult rhetorical position. The heart of its argument is that some people are inherently innocent and good while others are inherently guilty and bad and must be treated accordingly. To ears insufficiently attuned to this new understanding of justice, this can sound unjust. Tying moral worth to circumstances of birth? Nottreating people equally? Punishing the living for the sins of the dead?
Why all this is—contrary to appearances, logic, and common sense—“just” requires considerable explanation. To the extent that people “get it,” they will sharply divide between those who say that the “advantaged” have it coming and those who object “No, I don’t.”
The problem for the regime, therefore, is that while its message is very effective at egging on its own side, it can be equally effective at alarming and rousing its targets. The ideal solution would be to come up with a public message that rallies the regime’s base while lulling its targets, but this turns out to be very difficult, if not impossible.
Another option is to forbid the targets from speaking up—hence the Celebration Parallax.
But the regime’s preferred mode is not merely to allow its targets to speak, but to require it—so long as the targets deny the regime apparatchik said what she said. Hence the response to “You are evil and deserve what’s coming to you” must be “You don’t think ill of me and wish me no harm.” Every punch in the face must be publicly rationalized, by the victim, as a massage. The purpose is partly to bully the frog into staying in the pot and partly a matter of humiliation. In the oft-quoted words of Anthony Daniels, “a society of emasculated liars is easy to control.”
A great many “conservatives” are not merely willing but eager to play along. Indeed, whole institutions of the establishment “Right” do little else but reassure their ostensible constituency that the Left not only doesn’t mean its proto-genocidal rhetoric but isn’t even saying it.
It is an odd feature of the current year that calling an avowed enemy a liar—publicly insisting that her plain words could not possibly mean what they plainly say—not only fails to provoke an angry denial but is welcomed by the liar herself. Anything to keep the regime’s targets somnambulant for as long as possible. The more Americans who wake up and realize that contemporary leftism is a revenge plot with themselves as its targets, the more will object and try to stop it. This is what the regime, at present, most fears and is trying to prevent.
The Enmity Counteraccusation
This one is perhaps the most brazen. As I put it elsewhere, “the enemy calls you its enemy for recognizing its enmity.”
As regime hacks spew vile, borderline—and sometimes explicitly—violent rhetoric at you, they will immediately wheel and counterattack if you dare object. [Some guy on Twitter suggested Mr. Anton get the rope for predicting that George Soros would initiate a coup against the Trump administration ahead of the 2020 election.] Don’t appreciate being called evil because of your race? Then you are “divisive”! Dare put up your hands to block an incoming punch? That’s violence! You’re just supposed to take it.
They’re enemies who treat you like enemies while they insist that you treat them as friends. At least, though, unlike the housebroken “Right,” they stab you in the front.
A related point is that if you so much as speculate as to where their insane vitriol might lead the country, you will be accused of wishing for that outcome. It’s entirely possible that decades of anti-American, anti-white, anti-Christian animosity, coupled with nation-destroying trade, immigration and foreign policies, will not lead to civil war. Then again, it’s entirely possible that they might. If they do, the ruling class and the Left will bear the blame. Naturally, though, they will blame us.
Indeed, they already are. Attempts to head off such a conflict by warning about it are treated as provocations intended to produce said conflict. One can be forgiven for wondering if their plan is to start it and then say we started it, sort of like insisting Poland triggered the Second World War by shooting back.
“You’re worthless, baby; and if you even think of trying to leave me, I’ll kill you”
Which brings us to the last. Deplorable Americans are loudly and incessantly said to be the worst people in the history of the planet, pure unadulterated evil, with no legitimate concerns, interests or grievances.
Well, OK. Then why live with us? Why treat as anathema even the most moderate, banal, attempt to allow some measure of federalism and local control?
There can only be two answers: either our masters know (or intuit) deep down that we can live without them but they can’t live without us, or else they want to keep us around to administer what they view as deserved punishment.
Being neither a psychiatrist nor a theologian, I could not say whether the roots of this behavior are psychotic or demonic, but in this layman’s judgement, it exhibits key characteristics of both.
But understand this: they hate you and want you cancelled and ostracized, or at least utterly subservient and obedient. You owe them no consideration. Their every argument, every sentence, every word are proffered in bad faith. As Mary McCarthy said of Lilian Hellman, “Every word she writes is a lie—including ‘and’ and ‘the.’”
The regime is powerful, which means we must calibrate our resistance carefully. But to think clearly, our minds must be free. Which requires understanding its rhetoric and seeing through it. I hope this short guide is useful in that effort.

Look look look, I know. I know.
It's another guy constructing a cinematic universe. Trust me with this one, I've planned ahead rather than just going one movie at a time, there is an actual structure to it.
This story is going to be a closed one. Three arcs that each have three phases, so while it is huge (if you want to compare it to where the MCU is right now, we would be at the halfway point, right in the middle of the second arc/saga), it is not infinite. There will be a final event to ends everyone's arcs and stories, no loose threads.
Schedule

• X-Men: Regenesis
• Untitled Deadpool sequel
• The Sub-Mariner
• Captain America
• The Hellfire Club
• The Wolverine: Weapon X
• X-Men: Hellfire and Brimstone
• Black Panther: Enemy of the State
• The Astonishing Ant-Man
• Fantastic Four
• The Sub-Mariner: War of the Worlds
• X-Men: Schism

As you can see, phase one is mostly mutant-based as I want fresh ideas and characters to start the universe off. While this phase doesn't have one movie involving every single player, the last two have all the major factions except for one.

X-Men: Regenesis

This is an origin film for the X-Men set just before whatever present day would be in this timeline. We will be going with the classic six-man First Class which consists of Charles Xavier, Cyclops, Iceman, Jean Grey, Beast and Angel.
We will have William Stryker and Bolivar Trask as minor side characters who, while not prejudiced against mutants just yet, are distrustful of the new mutant gene that is beginning to show itself in humans.
Xavier is our protagonist for the film, we explore his psyche and issues with self-worth and thinking he's a failure because of his brother, who is the main villain in this film: Cain Marko a.k.a. the Juggernaut. He creates the team to stop the Juggernaut as he knows he can't do it alone, hence the formation of the team. Cyclops and Jean Grey don't get together in this film but there is some chemistry there. Cyclops' arc is learning to be a better communicator and leader, as he wants to lead the team but finds himself not being a good leader at times. Jean and Beast have doubts about their power - Beast's being more doubts about his form - and being mutant in general which Xavier helps him with. Iceman's arc is about accepting his difference from everyone else. It's key to point out that he doesn't have doubts about his power but rather the social aspect of it, knowing he isn't like everyone else (this is obviously foreshadowing for the inevitable outing, I don't like making a character's sexuality a big deal I think it should just be who they are but for Bobby it's a bit different). Finally, Angel is unlike the others. While the others are all getting to grips with their roles in a team and their mutant powers, Angel is slightly older than the others (minus Xavier of course) and is comfortable with his power, he just doesn't care much for being part of a team, having to be convinced by the fact that Juggernaut is a challenge for him rather than the team aspect of it. While he doesn't complete this arc in any way, it is clear he makes baby steps towards being more open with his teammates by the end.
No cameos, no references to other characters or anything. Just let it be a self-contained story.

Untitled Deadpool sequel

I have nothing to say about this movie. Let Deadpool do whatever he wants to, hopping from universe to universe, ending up in this continuity at some point. To be clear, this is Deadpool 3, sequel to the first two Deadpool movies that are real and exist in the real world. I would be willing to throw major money at this to get some cameos or even slightly larger roles from characters from the Fox universe as well as the MCU since both universes are basically irrelevant now. I would especially love to get interaction between characters who were unceremoniously recast such as the two Yukios and the two Sabretooths. Maybe Cable and the MCU Thanos share a scene? Do whatever you want guys, have fun.

The Sub-Mariner

This should be a direct horror adaptation of Peter Milligan's The Sub-Mariner: The Depths. That is it. The director may introduce side character such as Lady Dorma, Namora and Namorita if they want to but it's really up to them how they want Namor to be characterised, by his relationships or by the plot itself. If I could, I would get Guillermo Del Toro on this. For the unfamiliar, The Depths is a horror storyline that showcases Namor from the perspective of a fleet of ships on the surface, he is the monster rather than the hero.

Captain America

This too would be an almost direct adaptation of Rick Remender and John Romita Jr's Castaway in Dimension Z. No origin needed, general audiences know Captain America by now, no need to go over it again. Arnim Zola as your act one villain, get some quick period piece stuff in the first act, send him to Dimension Z and then have a three act structure there creating a four act film with Green Skull as your main villain, with Jet Zola and Ian Zola as supporting characters. When Cap eventually gets out of Dimension Z with Ian at his side, he is greeted by Sharon Carter revealing that he has come back to 70 years in the future. Cap is now in present day.

The Hellfire Club

Get Rian Johnson in, he can make a Knives Out style mystery thriller using the Hellfire Club characters. The characters I will be using are Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost, Donald Pierce, Mastermind, Harry Leland, Selene, Fredrich van Roehm (who is the victim) and Emmanuel Da Costa, as well as Tessa in a cameo
This is set just before present day too.

The Wolverine: Weapon X

Weapon X origin for Wolverine, re-treading properly after the shitshow that was the last Weapon X movie. This should be a pretty faithful adaptation of Weapon X vol. 1 #1-#4 however, not diverting from that story too much, mainly in the involvement of Dr. Abraham Cornelius rather than William Stryker. I would get Matthew Vaughn for this one to give it a bit of period aesthetic while also allowing the movie to have a distinct mix of subtly funny while not shying away from the fucked up nature of it all. I want every movie in the Wolverine story to have a unique directorial vision.

X-Men: Hellfire and Brimstone

This movie brings the elements of the last two films together with the X-Men to mark the phase as a connected universe before the second half of the phase which is a lot more disconnected and less mutant-focused.
This movie is basically the X-Men against the Hellfire Club, who are plotting to take over the government of Nigeria where there the population boom is also resulting in a mutation boom. Xavier's started the school for the gifted in between films, and we introduce Storm as a new recruit to the team. Xavier knows he's up against it and decides to recruit Wolverine too just before the midpoint of the film.
The big twist halfway through is that Angel is a double agent working for the Hellfire Club, revealing that he only joined the X-Men after Shaw asked him to keep tabs on powerful mutants. The final battle ends up killing a few Hellfire Club members (Pierce, Da Costa and Selene) and destroys property, which catches the attention of Stryker and Trask once again. Trask decides to begin developing countermeasures.

Black Panther: Enemy of the State

Another pretty faithful adaptation, Black Panther in a political struggle with the White Wolf (the actual White Wolf character who is T'Challa's brother, not Bucky Barnes). Storm is our main love interest, although Nakia is present as an ex which causes tension in the group somewhat. Achebe and White Wolf succeed in their coup, making Black Panther an actual 'enemy of the state', which is when Captain America and Everett Ross join the fray on behalf of the US government who find Achebe and the White Wolf to be dangerous to the larger political landscape, eventually discovering Wakanda's true nature after contact with T'Challa. When T'Challa's mother Queen Ramonda protests against the White Wolf in public, she is assassinated in cold blood. This begins the third act as it completely instabilises the country as people realise that the new power may not be better in the long-term, the final fight being essentially the Wakandan Civil War.

The Astonishing Ant-Man

The Ant-Man in question here is Hank Pym, but Janet van Dyne is not quite the Wasp yet. Our feature villain is Absorbing Man but we may have a minor antagonistic role from Titania (maybe have Titania played by a wrestler? Charlotte Flair would be the perfect one I think but Britt Baker or Rhea Ripley would do a job too). Finesse and Hazmat would probably make good side characters too, just get Edgar Wright on this and let him have free reign.

Doctor Strange: Sorceror Supreme

This is a tricky one because I like where Doctor Strange is right now in the MCU a lot. This is going to be more of a soft reboot, have the same actors and keep the first two films in memory without the mentions to the larger MCU. So while Strange hasn't fought the Scarlet Witch and doesn't have knowledge of the other multiverses, he is at that same point in his friendship with Wong and in his skills. We will however be recasting Nicodermus as a lower level sorceror salty at Strange for not helping him after his wife died, and have him tap into the dark dimension to try and steal Strange's power, causing Clea to come to Earth and warn Strange before the two along with Wong go and solve things. Mordo shows up too, helping Nicodermus as he believes Strange to be part of the problem about abusing magic.
Strange's arc in this film is learning to trust Clea and realising he should use his power whenever possible to help others rather than holding himself to the rules he sets for himself.
Cameo from Nightmare in a post-credit scene.

Fantastic Four

Introduce them in the modern day, put em together, boom
I know it sounds ridiculous considering the failures of previous films but Matt Shahman is someone I trust I'll let him on for this project. Mole Man is the villain, and Victor von Doom is present for a couple of scenes involving the Baxter foundation selling some sort of technology to the country of Latveria.
Reed and Sue are together from the beginning of the film and while their relationship's turbulence post-incident forms the core of the film, their bond is stronger than ever by the end of it. We should have Alicia Masters too with Ben, but the two's relationship is a lot more turbulent even before they get powers, and while the powers don't end their relationship it puts more strain on it than ever before. Johnny has his laundry list of non-committed relationships and how each of the four characters tackles love and differs from it is the starting point for how we will create the dynamics between them. While Mole Man doesn't directly challenge these dynamics as a character, he should try and poke holes in the team this way, giving a little more credence to the 'mole' part of his character.
Cameos from Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock out of costume as a lawyer defending a victim of some sort of dangerous tech that was stolen from the Baxter building, and a slightly more extended one from Tom Holland's Spider-Man who fights Mole Man at the very start of the film and the pair's fight unwittingly causes the accident that gives the F4 their powers.

The Sub-Mariner: War of the Worlds

Much like Captain America: Civil War, this is a movie that features two warring factions but as the title suggest is still part of the story of one primary character: Namor.
This is primarily a Namor movie, introduce side character if Guillermo didn't want to in the first film: namely Namora, Lady Dorma, Namorita, Llyra and Stingray. They are all on Namor's side during this, we will explore inter-Atlantean conflicts later I want there to be tension between members but no outright fights. The other side of the war is, of course, Black Panther. Our supporting characters are Shuri, Monica Lynne, Nakia, Storm and Okoye. Storm's stoic nature makes her absent from the conflict but she is still there during discussions.
Something about Atlanteans being killed in a Wakandan mining operation or something, it escalates, Atlantis declares war on Atlantis. Namor's side will of course have their own tensions as some disagree with a declaration of war while others push him to go to war. T'Challa resists at first and is purely defensive. In an Atlantean attack on Wakanda, the royal palace is put under siege and Nakia dies, turning the dynamic between the two countries on its head as T'Challa, wracked with guilt, decides to go on the offensive to a mixed response from his own camp.
The tensions between the two sides are prominent but we should find a way to separate them from their councils. Eventually Okoye and Shuri come to blows in the wreckage of Wakanda's capital while T'Challa is away, while Stingray disagrees with Namor's methods and decides to help Wakanda.
Okoye and Shuri get more and more tense and Okoye gets the upper hand and nearly stabs Shuri before she stops and all the trauma the nation has suffered comes back to the both of them. Okoye drops her spear and the two reconcile just in time for T'Challa and Namor to face off alone.
Our final battle is a personal one between the two rather than some big war. Pure fisticuffs. The two go toe to toe and are evenly matched, but the fight is broken up by Storm who finally puts an end to everything by intervening and forcing the two to come to a truce. I'm justifying that Storm can stop both of them as T'Challa obviously has a relationship with her and water conducts electricity so Storm should realistically be able to beat him.

X-Men: Schism

Professor X's philosophy of stopping evil after it becomes a problem and Cyclops' need to stop whoever could possibly be a threat causes tension between the two, and this combined with both characters wanting to lead the team results in a fracturing of the team while dealing with Bolivar Trask, who has finally finished his Sentinels after the end of the second X-Men film.
The Hellfire Club also features of course, being prosecuted by the Sentinels too, resulting in a shaky truce between the X-Men and the Club. Much like Civil War, the 'villain' is defeated by the end of the second act only for another act to appear as after the Sentinels are destroyed, the mutants continue to bicker and eventually come to blows. Emma Frost, having begun to see the righteousness in Xavier's ways, sides with him, as do Beast, Angel and Storm. Cyclops is joined by Jean Grey, Iceman, Wolverine and Kitty Pryde, whereas Colossus decides to leave the X-Men altogether and the rest of the Hellfire Club leave. However before they can leave, Cyclops accidentally burns Angel's wings and Emma and Xavier both try and paralyse Mastermind at the same time causing Mastermind's mind to fracture and him to go brain-dead. This is just too much for the group and they go their separate ways, Jean taking Cyclops and his guys away.
Just in case we're unclear on how the mutants are split:-

• Xavier's team: Professor X, Emma Frost, Beast, Storm
• Scott's team: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde
• MIA: Angel, Colossus

And that's how we end the phase. The X-Men are fractured, Wakanda and Atlantis are at an extremely shaky truce, Captain America just woke up in modern times, Doctor Strange is reaching his prime, and the Fantastic Four and Ant-Man are now established.
The next phase will focus on expanding the mutants further with smaller branched teams and assembling the Avengers.

I (20F) had my birthday party at my boyfriends apartment a few days ago. We had invited our friends, plus some friends of our friends, I began introducing myself to the people in the room that I didn’t know. They were all nice and wished me a happy birthday. One of my boyfriend’s friends had brought a girl, let’s call them Mike and Sarah. I had remembered my boyfriend telling me Mike and Sarah had a weird relationship, they both like each other but they’re just friends, which is fine. Mike wished me a happy birthday and gave me a hug. I noticed Sarah looking at me and kind of giving me a look. At first I didn’t really think too much about it and I went over and introduced myself to her. She told me her name was Sarah and that was it, then she joined Mike on the couch and continued talking with him. I thought it was weird she didn’t shake my hand or anything during the introduction but I brushed it off because I didn’t know this girl.
Anyway, people are drinking and having a good time. Mike and my boyfriend were joking about doing gay stuff and Mike giving him sarcastic responses, just normal guy things. Mike starts jokingly making fun of my boyfriend and Sarah chimes in calling my boyfriend a “stupid bitch” and the f slur. She starts laughing and we all gave each other looks. I turned to her and told her to be nice and that what she said wasn’t funny. She rolled her eyes at me.
She was a few drinks in and you could already tell. She was being really loud. Whenever we would tell her to quiet down she wouldn’t. Throughout the night, she was continuously flirting with one of Mike’s best friends, talking to him, touching him, playing with his hair, etc. He told Mike she was making him uncomfortable. The guys decided to all go into a different room and talk, while the girls stayed in the living room. Sarah had left the room and we immediately all looked at each other.
She came back trying to remember our names. We all went one by one telling her our names which she had to make a snide remark about all of them. She told me that I was very pretty but my name wasn’t, she had also told one of my friends that she was almost as pretty as her. She left again to go find Mike and that’s when we all started talking shit about her. Mike went to go find her and she was puking in the bathroom, he took care of her the whole time. Sarah and Mike came out of the bathroom and started to put their shoes on. Mike asked her if he could have a hug, to which she responded “I don’t think you really deserve it” after he had taken care of her for most of the night. He looked as if he was going to cry. They left.
My boyfriend and I began talking about her behavior. He told me Mike was really mad at us for talking shit about her. I told my boyfriend everything she had said about us. I do feel bad because I like Mike and I know he has feelings for this girl. Does that make me an asshole?

I'm in college (20M) and I'm on the school triathlon team. I've been talking to a girl 19F who is on the team as well. I've known her for about a year and I like her. She asked me to her sorority date event (she called it her "sorority event" when she asked me) at a bowling alley which didn't go all that well. The environment/situation was a little bit awkward. A few days later I asked her if she wanted to hangout just the two of us, so we went for a two hour walk and talked which went moderately well; she seemed a bit guarded/standoffish but we had plenty of good conversation and there were defiantly moments where things were going well.
I didn't really know what to make of that hangout/date and I didn't want to make the dynamic on the team weird or awkward if I played the situation wrong. So I just didn't talk to her about it/bring it up again (basically ghosted her) (facepalm).
I really couldn't read her. I couldn't tell if she liked me or was just waiting until she had an excuse to leave. I could feel the rift in our friendship at practice over the next few weeks. We had a race and we avoided each other, the few times we interacted, it felt very clinical/utilitarian (no joking or anything like normal). Then 3-4 weeks after that race and with one of our bigger races and national championship coming up where we travel 15+ hours together and spend a few days together we got back to having fun/joking interactions with a little light flirting. During the championship race where we (the whole team of 20ish people) spent a few days together out of state, she seemed to have opened back up, she tried watching a movie with me and didn't have any issues joking around with me/talking to me. When we got back to the city where we go to school around midnight we got a ride from a friend back to where we live. Her and I sat in the back seat together and it just felt a bit awkward. After the championship we kept having good/somewhat flirty interactions (end of year party, practices, other social events). I had her bike pump, so when I was moving out of my place, I dropped it off at her place and I really wanted to talk to her about everything before she went to her hometown for the summer, but I wimped out. A few weeks into not seeing her over this summer (3-4 weeks), I texted her to ask how her summer was going and we've been talking (texting) everyday for the last week. A few other things:
1) She comes from money (sorority girl, drives a jeep, the whole nine yards), I'm the son of a carpenter and corporate recruter, both my parents went to college. The only reason I'm in school is because I got a scholarship (my family isn't poor by any means $100-200K/year two income family in a bigger city where that money doesn't go super far, but we have a house and two cars). I always though my family was very well off (which I still think we are, I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunities I have) I've spent the last few years of my life working on an ambulance and the last eight years building houses with my dad (homeschooled and worked full-time) which has given me a real view into how lucky I am. But to be honest, her family's money intimidates me a bit; she's pretty well adjusted for the kid of a hedge fund manager (or some kind of finance job). But the whole sorority thing scares me a bit, when I went to the date event, I didn't really know how to fit in or talk to the other guys there; they were talking about their houses, the private schools they went to and their fancy vacations. A whole nother level of rich I didn't know existed, apart from the redneck rich construction company owners that I knew, I never really knew or interacted with many people who's family had real money (worth 10 or 20 million or more). But when I went to this sorority event you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting 5 BMW driving, private school kids. That environment just seems fake to me, and I can tell that she acted different/more reserved around her sorority friends.
2) When she's around her sorority friends, she's so proper, she doesn't talk as much, and she's more reserved. She seems like she's trying to fit in with them more instead of being herself. Same thing when we went on that walk, she seemed shy and more reserved than when we're together with the team. I get that it's a comfort thing; she's more comfortable around the team, so she's more relaxed and feels like she can be herself. I like her when she's who she is, so it makes me sad when she hides that.
3) She's never been in a relationship. That's totally ok with me and I can relate, I didn't start dating until the end of my senior year. She hasn't ever had a boyfriend, or had sex or really done much other than kiss a guy. Again, thats totally ok with me, but its a bit intimidating. I care about her, I don't want to go to kiss her if thats a really big step for her. Or, I don't want to touch her at the wrong time when she's not comfortable with it. I've had sex, kissed women, all that, and I don't want to make her feel uncomfortable. When we rode in the ride share together to the bowling alley, all the other guys sat next to their date and I left a seat between us (which I sort of regret), I didn't know if she meant for it to be a date or if she was just asking me as a friend so I left some space which later on seemed like a mistake. I just don't want to be creepy or make her fell uncomfortable. How do I approach this situation? I like her, and I want to ask her out again/talk to her more, but she's out of town until school starts back in mid August. Do I just keep texting her until we get closer to school starting or would it be good to talk to her about how I feel more immediately? I don't want her to loose interest if I'm just texting her everyday for three months without it going anywhere. I don't really know what to make of the situation.

Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/ReddXReads/comments/13lfqkw/vulturebeard_the_legbeard_that_ruined_roomies_fo
Hi everyone, bunny here. I’m having Ezekial post this for me because while I lurk on reddit, I’m on too many online communities and burn out quickly on all of them. I’m just here to tell this incredibly long tale. Pull up a chair, grab a snack, get comfy. This is a long ride.
The Cast List
Bunny (author): 33, female, a year or so out of a divorce that turned toxic and abusive and ultimately helped me realize I was gay. Recovering lifelong doormat slowly building a spine. Neuro spicy gym rat with major depressive disorder, general anxiety disorder, and most recently diagnosed with ADHD. Unfortunately very familiar with surviving trauma.
Z (poster): My partner. 31, nonbinary (they/them), also neuro spicy with depression, anxiety, OCD, BPD, autism, and also familiar with lifelong trauma.
One Liner Beard (OLB): 33, male, neuro spicy with ADHD and depression. He also suspects autism but isn’t pursuing a diagnosis. His nickname here comes from the fact that in messenger, he usually has one-word replies like “oof” or “mmm” as an acknowledgement he had seen the message but has nothing further to contribute.
VultureBeard (Vulture): 30, female, neuro spicy and disabled with multiple conditions. She has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, POTs (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), autism, depression, anxiety, chronic migraines, but also possibly a list of things that may or may not be real – that will all be explained. The star of this unfortunate circus. Her name will be explained in this part.
Kid: 3. Female. OLB and Vulture’s child. Likely neuro spicy like we all are, but she’s also only 3 years old. Slightly speech delayed and not potty trained yet.
Minor mentions:
Shit ass ex-husband (SA): name is self-explanatory. 32, male. Divorce was amicable to keep the peace. I immediately went no contact with him after.
J2: Friend of OLBs.
You ready? Deep breath. Now let’s dive into this mess.
​
Chapter Two: VultureBeard, or the Walking Diagnosis
With the backstory of how we wound up with a neckbeard, a legbeard, and their kid out of the way, I’ll start on VultureBeard properly now.
J2 was the one who introduced her to OLB. He ran into her at a local convention, and they talked and spent the day together. He ended up sleeping over at her house, on her couch, since she lived a few minutes away from the convention center, and he introduced her to his D&D group that OLB was a DM for. He said that at first, he wanted to smash just based on looks (before she stopped caring for herself, before the pregnancy), until she opened her mouth.
Oh boy.
I met her on Halloween 2018 or 2019 (trauma made my memory absolute garbage, ain’t it fun?), when OLB wanted to run a one-shot Curse of Strahd campaign for our D&D group. J2’s group was called Party A, we were Party B. Both of our campaigns existed in the same universe that OLB created. It was a fun one shot. I liked her. We integrated her into our D&D campaign as a side character who joined our party.
With her autism, she talks a lot, and can have a conversation with anyone, but she does naturally miss a lot of social cues. She says it’s okay to be direct with her and say things like, “I can’t talk right now, I’m busy.” But in the wild, she just enjoys people. That in itself isn’t a bad thing.
When we met, she was a Mormon with long brown hair, glasses, and modest clothes with long ankle-length jean skirts. I don’t know if that was a lifelong practice or just the people she had associated with. She didn’t curse at all, and still substitutes “fudge” for my favorite and most often-used curse word. Over time, she dropped religion, but she only curses in text, and very rarely at that, like when she’s pushed to her mental limit. She still dresses in a lot of the modest clothes from before, but it’s mostly because she doesn’t go clothes shopping a lot. I have passed down some clothes I have shrunk out of to her.
Her fashion sense is a bit of Walmart-meets-Goodwill. The tired mom “this is clean, so I’ll wear it” kind of aesthetic. She’s big on thrifting, but so am I. Most of my wardrobe is thrifted or passed on from a few gym friends these days, so it’s not like I’m poking fun at secondhand clothes. It’s just that there’s a lack of style or effort on her part, like she just puts clothes on and sometimes remembers to brush her hair out. I think there’s a part of her that doesn’t recognize she’s plus sized after pregnancy because she once bought clothes that are size medium, and they didn’t fit. She fit my old 2X leggings. I traded her leggings once, my bigger size for her smaller size.
She and OLB don’t fold laundry or put it away, so she will have laundry stuffed in their hamper that they keep in our shoe closet next to the laundry room, or boxes on her desk, or on her desk chair. They kind of live out of that clothes pile. If she needs to dress in something nice, it likely is wrinkly because it was in an unfolded pile.
The first run-in with realizing that something was a little “off” with her was when she tried cooking for us. We had other friends over to play D&D and Magic with us, and she wanted to cook some kind of chicken and noodle dish. With her POTs (post orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), she’s usually sodium deficient so she adds way too much salt to whatever she’s eating. Not being used to cooking for others, she served us completely inedible chicken that was too salty.
One of my former friends was there for that debacle. What she also noticed was that Kid seemed to be behind some childhood markers. At 2, Kid was still using a bottle and didn’t seem to talk much. She was worried that Kid would keep falling behind. It was a red flag that got tucked away. At the time, I was still thinking of Vulture as a burned-out first-time neuro spicy mom. That’s a lot for a disabled woman to handle. As a disabled person myself, I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. I gave her too much benefit of the doubt for way too long.
Vulture as a person focuses very much on herself. Because of the body aches and pains that come with both Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and POTs, yes, I understand that her body regularly fights itself. But why is it that every time her body expressed pain, she had to do a loud, “AH, OW” or other pain noises as loud as she could? Or she will complain about whatever is giving her trouble. Some days she will be using her computer quietly, then when I come out of my bedroom, she starts to complain about her daily aches and pains. This happens pretty much every day, for different reasons. Her sneezes are likewise as loud, to where I can hear her across the house, through a closed door and over the show Z and I are watching.
Most awkward is Vulture’s bathroom habits. In Apartment #2, I guess Vulture got used to using the bathroom with the door cracked because they lived in a house without roommates, and she needed to keep an ear on Kid. Even now in a shared space, she keeps the door cracked, sometimes with the light off so I don’t think anyone is in the bathroom because it’s more migraine friendly.
Until I hear the grunting.
THE GRUNTING.
THE POOP GRUNTING.
I have heard it through my closed bedroom door, because her bathroom is right next to my bedroom. Usually, it’s when my bedroom is quieter, like when Z and I are off to sleep. But I hear her grunting as she’s using the bathroom, either because the door is open, or she is just that loud. I’m terrified to know which one it is.
Her hygiene is questionable at best. I know personally that Depression™ makes hygiene and self-care extremely difficult. I myself do the best I can, especially while being constantly sweaty at the gym and a Big Sad (depression) fighter. So, I get mental illness and hygiene. With Vulture and her long hair, she would leave it in a bun for days until it matted. She asked for my help with detangling it and it took me around two hours to safely work the mats and tangles out. When she cut it in a homemade attempt to do the popular wolf cut on Tik Tok, it was much more manageable. When it’s shorter, it has tight curls. She constantly has a natural body odor smell to her. I think with her sensitive skin, she has to wear a specific unscented deodorant, but I don’t think she applies it unless she’s leaving the house. The sink in her and OLB’s bathroom is used as mostly a storage space with things piled on top of it, so I don’t think it’s used for much. The bathtub needs a deep scrubbing, and she gives Kid a bath more than she herself showers.
Having heard the poop grunting, I’m afraid to look at their toilet.
In general, Vulture isn’t active, but to say that she’s sedentary is a vast understatement. The average sedentary person looks like an Olympic athlete next to her. She occupies two spots in the house: Her bed, or the couch in the living room. For most of the day. She will just have her laptop either on the table next to her or in her lap, and that’s where she spends most of the day, gaming.
With me being a gym rat, I am incredibly proud of how I went from a couch potato to a weightlifter. When I think about what would happen if I suddenly dropped to her levels of activity, I know my body would fall apart. I often wonder if her lying in bed or on the couch contributes to more of her body pains because her muscles are deteriorating from disuse. I mean what do I know, I’m not a doctor. That body pain cycles to her being even more inactive because she hurts. It’s a big cycle of negativity.
When the weather changes drastically, she will be hit with migraines or allergy attacks, to where she has to lay down all day as well. She takes OTC pain medicine frequently, as well as allergy meds. One of her desk cabinets is a well-stocked mini pharmacy of OTC medication and some prescription medication she has collected over time that expired over a year ago. When I’m hit with a rare migraine, I know she will have something in stock for it.
Her doctor says she needs to eat more frequently because she’s always shaky. She will hold up her hand to show me how much it’s shaking, and it always looks as though she’s making it shake from the wrist, instead of it being an actual hand movement. She always tells me, “Look at this,” and holds up her shaking hand, like she’s trying to show me how bad she’s doing, but it’s for different reasons every time. She didn’t eat, she’s too tired, she has a migraine, she has sinus pain – everything gives her shaky hands, which I joked about once.
If she has a new symptom, she goes to Doctor Google to look up what’s wrong with her, and then talk in our house chat on discord that she thinks she might have “so and so” wrong with her because the symptoms match. Or she will post screenshots of whatever her symptoms are. As far as I know in the time living with her, she’s never had close medical calls or anything that needed further treatment, except for a heart study where she wore a device to monitor her heart rate. Doctor Google gave her all sorts of things she could have, though.
Within the time I started writing this saga, I had this encounter with her in the house group chat on discord that she, OLB, and I are in, about how she thinks she’s allergic to mosquito bites because the bites swelled up and got inflamed:
Vulture: Just figured out something I’m most likely allergic to: mosquito’s saliva reaction is increased inflammation around the bite site and the condition is skeeter syndrome.
Me: You should get that confirmed by a doctor. It’s mosquito season.
(it sounds like she copy/pasted that bit about mosquito’s saliva from Google)
Mind you, my former in-laws thought I was allergic to mosquito bites because the same thing happened to me. My mosquito bites swelled up beyond what they should look like, and mosquitos have a good nose at finding me in particular compared to other people. I tried to empathize with her, even though it just seemed like she wanted to identify with a syndrome she found on the internet.
She said that she had the same symptoms her friend’s dad had for GERD because her acid reflux was acting up. The GERD saga is a fun one as well, which I’ll fully share later.
Funny enough, if I also have something similar to what her current issue is, she doesn’t play Oppression Olympics and say hers is worse. I’ve been dealing with vertigo on and off for the past month and I don’t have the ability to see a doctor for it at the moment. So, when she says that she’s dizzy or the room is spinning, I express empathy or at least a little “oh, same here,” because I have to carefully move my body in ways that don’t make the room spin. It might be her autism, it might be because she doesn’t care, but she never expresses empathy my way. She just moves on.
I’ve told her multiple times she needs to see a doctor to check for each new symptom she has, but somehow there’s an excuse. The latest I’ve heard is, “I will once my phone is turned back on. It hasn’t been paid in a while.” Valid yes, but then please get off Google. Because she’s on government assistance and doesn’t have a car and doesn’t know how to drive, she’s ferried to her appointments by a medical bus that stops at the house. They do need to be able to call her. Just please get off Google in the meantime! I’ve even told her that Doctor Google and WebMD will say everything is cancer or fatal and it’s not good for you, and she just kind of brushed it off.
One of my friends calls her the Professional Victim. Z is convinced she has Factitious Disorder (formerly called Munchausen’s). She loves to hide behind her illnesses as to why she can’t get out of bed or can’t do chores. If you were to listen to her every day, you’d think she was falling apart at the seams because it was always something. Migraine, body pain, allergies, sinus problems or sinus infections, stomach problems, dizziness, shakiness. Repeat. Forever.
She will ask me if her forehead feels hot, and when I can’t tell, she checks with a thermometer. She says, “My natural body temperature is low so 99 degrees is a fever to me.”
This is also where I gave her a lot of benefit of the doubt at the beginning, because EDS and POTs will affect the entire body in different ways. One of my friends, in her casual dark humor, will have conversations with me about how she’s just not going to be able to walk properly that day, because her ankle joint slid out of place, but she still finished her work shift. I talk to my friend regularly about her struggles with her body, but somehow it doesn’t have the same self-pity that Vulture’s does. Every disability presents differently between people. As rare as EDS and POTs is, it’s pretty common in online communities because it’s where people tend to flock to. In my time in varying disabled online communities, I’ve never seen someone who complains or fishes for attention as much as Vulture does.
If she’s having a relatively good day, she will either be gaming, or maybe she will get to one of the chores that OLB tries to get her to do during the day, like doing the dishes or cleaning Kid’s room. When OLB had prescription Adderall (before the shortage made him switch to a different ADHD med), she took one of his pills and was zooming around actually being productive. She has symptoms of ADHD but doesn’t have a formal diagnosis, so OLB thought it might help her. It seemed to.
If she has a bad day, which is most of her days, she stays rooted on the couch or moves between her couch and her bed, moving her laptop with her. She spends all day building in Minecraft, completing her Pokedex, or playing other games.
Sometimes when I come out of my room to cook, she says something along the lines of, “I planned on cleaning today,” followed by vague hand gestures of how she’s feeling. I never asked her about her daily plans, but she needed to tell me. Is it self-awareness or guilt?
If she’s doing a load of dishes, she will loudly proclaim that she’s dizzy and shaky and in pain and have to go sit down after 10 minutes of that. I don’t know if she actually has the body strength to stay upright for longer than ten minutes at a time, and I don’t know if that’s her actual chronic illnesses, or the fact that she doesn’t do anything at all.
I’ve given her the same advice I use myself for low spoon (low energy) days when I need to get things done. I’ve told her it’s okay to take ten-minute breaks and then get started again. Or an hour break, if her body is giving her trouble. I’ve told her it’s okay to clean the house while sitting on the ground or in a chair, if that’s easier on her body. In managing my broken mental health, I’ve taught myself all sorts of life hacks, or as I call them, “brain hacks,” to work around how gross depression makes me feel. And I’ve told her that if it’s a really bad day, the dishes aren’t going anywhere and can wait until tomorrow.
That’s meant to be compassionate, not taken in the “if you give an inch, they’ll take a mile” sort of way, but it must be interpreted as permission to not do The Thing. It just won’t get done if she feels she has permission to skip over it.
If she does anything, she will want metaphorical ass pats for her good work. OLB jokes that it’s a praise kink, but some days it really seems that way without anyone consenting to participate in her kink. She asks if I noticed she cleaned the kitchen or did some kind of cleaning and if I’m proud of her. I used to play along with the praise because I wanted to give her positive reinforcement, like maybe if I emphasized that it was a good thing, she’d be more encouraged to do it more. I’ve got jokes, apparently. Optimism was so strong early in the friendship.
If she cooks, usually it’s something frozen that she can heat up like pizza. Most of the time, she exists on boxed macaroni and cheese or sandwiches. Or what fast food OLB brings home. Most of her diet is processed, instant, or frozen. Or she eats odds and ends like what cereal and junk food is brought home from the food bank or when OLB goes shopping.
Since SA left the house, I took up cooking for myself and exploring what I like to cook, as SA was the main cook for the house. My gym regimen helped me meal prep and confront a lot of my bad eating habits, so I started prepping healthier foods. I am the stereotypical lifter that eats a lot of chicken, rice, and vegetables. Z also likes to cook, and it became a way for us to bond by cooking together or one of us watching the other cook and just vibe in each other’s company.
VultureBeard gets her name because, one, she is a legbeard. But two, every time I made something early on with her living with us, she always said something along the lines of, “Ooh, that smells so good! It’s making me hungry!”
Me, in my doormat stage, took the cue that she dangled and offered her some of my food. Back then, I always tried to cook enough for the whole house. It became a pattern. If I cooked something, she always popped up, hungry and unable to make actual food for herself or somehow her illnesses were acting up and preventing her from cooking for herself. If I said I was popping over to the store, sometimes she would ask if I could pick up a soda for her and occasionally, she would be able to pay me, always in loose change because her disability payments went right to the bills that she and OLB had. I always took the bait because yeah, doormats will doormat and vultures will vulture.
She does reciprocate in small ways, sharing some occasional treats with me or saying I can have some of her mac n cheese or Oreo cookies or French fries or whatever food she has some days. But for the most point, a lot of her behavior feels like fishing – fishing for attention, for food, for confirmations of her medical issues.
Her general attitude towards housework also contributes to her main other issue that makes me want to scream. She hoards. Empty salsa jars, Nesquik containers, pizza boxes, mac n cheese boxes. She holds onto things that Z and I see as garbage, because she has dozens of DIY projects in mind. She would be the person that followed 5 Minute Crafts for useful projects. To her credit, she did make a nifty sock organizer out of spare cardboard. But she has dozens of empty frozen pizza boxes and macaroni boxes piled up on her desk and ideas in her head, but no actual execution of them. I have pictures on my phone of her desk hoard, and while the desk itself is tall, the pile on the topmost part of the desk reaches the ceiling. That’s at least two feet of buildup.
It drives Z batty. With their OCD, Z can’t stand seeing the general mess in the house, but her desk makes them want to throw things. There was an empty Pizza Hut box that spent a week on the floor under the table in the living room before she finally picked it up and moved it to her desk. She scolded my cat for jumping on it.
Vulture: I want to save it for a project, I just don’t know what I want to use it for yet.
Me: Why not just throw it away? Isn’t it garbage?
She only gave a vague shrug, and the pizza box stayed on her desk for another few days until while cleaning the kitchen, Z got tired of looking at it and finally took it out to the outside garbage bin.
This is a constant pattern for her. She hoards things that she sees as something that could be useful in the future, but in the meantime it all stacks up and takes up space. She and OLB both are pack rats, which I think enables it further. OLB said that she also hoards food when she thinks there’s a food shortage in the house, but that also includes things that shouldn’t be eaten or are close to being spoiled. She freezes produce and even bread dough she made because she would start projects and then not have the energy to finish them or deal with them properly. I think if Z and I weren’t in the house, it would just be a rat’s nest of garbage.
That was why Z and I took on the majority of housework. We have a current setup to deep clean the common areas of the house monthly, and anything she doesn’t pick up that we read as trash will get thrown out. It’s barely making a change in the house, but it’s better for our mental health. It’s unfortunate that the house barely stays clean for two days after we clean it.
OLB usually has an excuse for not contributing towards the housework. His ADHD makes him forgetful, plus he hates dishes and purposefully avoids them until he knows he has to deal with it. He’s mostly just exhausted from work. With Vulture? Ten thousand excuses.
With OLB working an exhausting but consistent tech repair job, that leaves Vulture in charge of Kid during the day. If she exists entirely in her bed and the couch, how is she able to keep up with a toddler?
Oh, that’s going to be a huge tale on its own. Fuckle the buck up. We’ve got a long way to go. And yes, it will make you angry.

As a newer player to the game, it has been tough to work out what might be the best positioning for my units vs. enemy units. I'm sure most players who've spent more than a few hours have noticed the vertical behind your tower crawler positioning to split them, but what does horizontal vs. vertical accomplish for crawlers and other units? Lets find out.
​
To preface, I started playing about a week ago and hit 6k combat power yesterday, i'm not the best player in the game by far, but I hope this testing results & thoughts can be helpful for newer and intermediate players alike. All tests done in practice tool, if you test things yourself and find my results misleading please let me know and i'll edit the post! As well, I only tested things that I thought would be interesting/useful, if there's any other obvious ones please let me know :)
​
To start, lets look at the most obvious use case of horizontal vs. vertical - Arclight vs. Crawler
Arclight vs. Crawler
Horizontal Crawlers - 4 shots to kill
Vertical Crawlers (not split behind tower) - 5 shots to kill
Vertical Crawlers (split behind tower) - 8(!) shots to kill
More units on the field can and will cause both formations to take more than this number to kill due to crawlers splitting to different targets, however it is clear that you can get 2x as much value from your crawlers vs. arclights relative to default positioning simply by putting them behind your tower to automatically split them. Do note however that as a melee unit , crawlers benefit a lot damage output wise from horizontal positioning, so if you expect your crawlers to not die before reaching their target (e.g. no arclights) then horizontal positioning may be preferred.
​
As well, we can split crawlers behind sledges
Horizontal Crawler - 6 shots to kill
Vertical Crawler - 7 shots to kill
​
Or Stormcallers
Horizontal Crawler - 5 Shots to kill
Vertical Crawler - 6 shots to kill
​
In both of these use cases, the crawlers actually regroup significantly the longer they have to walk towards the arclight, so your distance vs. target matters a lot here. This testing was done with all units very close to the towers.
​
Next, lets look at Sledgehammers positioned Vertical vs. Horizontal. We'll begin with again, a 2x time to kill difference
Sledge vs. 1 unit of Steel balls (Horizontal)
Vertical sledge - 2x as much time to die vs. horizontal, kills 1 steel ball almost immediately
Horizontal sledge - dies twice as fast, kills 0 steel balls
​
Just like with Crawlers, huge difference! Except here the positioning even results in -1 steel ball immediately. Lets look at it again with a common pairing, Sledge Fang
​
Sledge + 1 Fang directly in front vs. 1 Steel ball (both horizontal)
Vertical Seldge - 4 Sledges remaining
Horizontal Sledge - ~0.8 Sledges of hp remaining (2 Sledges total)
Again, vertical wins as expected, but with a big unit/hp advantage as well.
​
In general, I think vertical sledge may be the most effective strategy simply because sledges have a habit of overkilling things they shoot at when placed horizontally. Vertical may do slightly less dps against things that outrange them (particularly because the AI is very stupid and doesn't path well around the sledges already shooting) but it offers a significant improvement on time to kill for other targets. Even against stormcallers, I think this positioning may be preferred/the same unless you have mechanical rage and/or speed specialist to avoid the missiles entirely.
​
I'm sure you've seen or played against the recommended positioning for steel ball crawler with them all at the top/front edge of the board, lets look at that:
Sledge + 1 Fang directly in front vs. 1 Steel ball (both horizontal) + 2 units of Crawlers (Horizontal, 3 spaces in front, 1 to the sides)
Vertical Sledge - ~2.5 Steel Balls remaining
Horizontal Sledge - 4 Steel balls Remaining
​
In this case the sledge/fangs get overwhelmed due to number of crawlers (also they're at a 100 supply of unit disadvantage but this felt fair to test given the unbalanced positioning the steel ball/crawler positioning does), we still see a clear advantage from the vertical positioning and could make the difference depending on board state next round.
​
This next one isn't necessarily horizontal/vertical but is again, critically important positioning early game: Arclight/Mustang Centered or guarding the flank vs. Horizontal Fang.To clarify, what I mean by guarding the flank is the common recommended positioning for mustangs where they are in the rear and in range to address enemy flanks. For arclights in this case we need to place them further forward to avoid fangs getting to the tower first, but the proximity to the flank still applies.
​
Horizontal Mustang vs. 3 units of fangs (all horizontal, 2 spaces apart)
Centered Mustang - ~1.25 units of fangs left
Off-centeside Mustang - ~6 mustangs left
Same test w/ Arclight instead of mustang had very similar results (Note that arclight costs 100 vs. 200 for mustang, however and is of course 1 unit instead of 12 so it retains full firepower)
Note that this is pretty much only useful round 1 as an argument for using the standard flank guard position for mustanges as your default vs. fangs, after that something else is likely going to tank the fangs for the mustangs, making the centered position relative to the fangs have lower time to kill since the mustangs don't have to move as much, off center arclight is easily countered by off center marksman/phoenix so feels a bit more unreliable to me, as well.
If you're wondering about the same test vs. Crawlers, Mustangs get absolutely rolled beyond 1 unit of crawlers, Arclight gets rolled beyond 2. The more off center you go the better the results, but also much more likely for the crawlers to ignore you and run at your tower
​
Some other relevant unit testing info, not necessarily positional:
Wasp (lvl 2) vs. Mustang (lvl 1)
4 wasps remaining
Common if you have an unanswered wasp flank in the following round, 1 unit of mustangs will not stop the flank from succeeding
​
Mustang vs. Crawlers
Relatively similar results horizontal vs. vertical, clean win vs. 1 unit, clean loss vs. 2 Trying to count the number of crawlers remaining was pretty annoying since theres no way to pause so I didn't bother
​
Fangs vs. Crawlers
Clean loss w/ no techs, you might think that techs would make the difference here and surprisingly it does not except in the case of mechanical rage. Shield loses the hardest, Range loses the least hard, and mechanical rage is the only one that results in a win but is also worse against mustangs than Range is. Range definitely feels like its the winner here even though it doesn't win the straight up 1v1 unless you're against a lot of stormcallers where movespeed from rage is relevant.
​
In general horizontal vs. vertical positioning thoughts
In most of these tests, vertical was a lot better. However, don't go placing all your units vertical, its not good as a blanket strategy. In any scenario where your units are outranged by their opponent, vertical positioning causes you to take more damage and deal less relative to horizontal. If you're familiar with starcraft terminology, horizontal positioning causes your units to form a 'concave' faster than vertical positioning, thus dealing more damage. This is especially relevant when your unit outranges whatever its firing at. As well, vertical positioning is substantially worse vs. stormcallers for most (all?) units because of their targeting shooting at the front unit and then hitting the back/middle where it otherwise wouldn't with horizontal positioning.
​
This was all the testing I could think of that I wanted to do, theres obviously tons more you could do but this is what I thought of that felt at least somewhat generally applicable, things definitely vary substantially based on a variety of factors and some of this isn't generally applicable but I did the testing anyways so figured i'd include it.
If you read all that then I hope it helps inform your decision making in some way and feel free to let me know your thoughts about any of these scenarios. Good luck in your games!

Having shopped in various H Marts for probably the last 15 years, I was near the location at 32nd Street in New York City, and decided to stop in. Besides various Korean products, I have always went into H Marts when I am nearby to see what organic produce is available (until now-never again). After posting an online review, I looked at the one star reviews on a popular review site, and saw that there were plenty, plenty of essentially similar reviews, indicating that this is standard H Mart practice. I'll just post the review I posted here instead of writing out what happened again:
Take your business elsewhere. They have a antagonistic, arrogant security guard to (verbally) attack customers. I bought cherries from the fruit cart person on the corner (loose in a bag, not wrapped with a price label like what H Mart sells. I walked in to the H Mart down the street on 32th Street in Manhattan to see what organic produce they have. Unlike locations out of the city where there is some variety of organic produce, I saw one organic produce item, so went to leave the store. The security guard blocked me from leaving , and, in a arrogant and belligerent manner demanded to know where I got the cherries. After I told him I bought them on the corner, he said 'bullshit' He then grabbed them from me and took the to the cashier who told them they don't sell that item. And, H mart would have produce like cherries prewrapped with a price label, not loose in a bag. He then thrust the back to me. I asked an employee for the manager, and was told he leaves at 4. It was over 4 hours later than that, there were plenty of people in the unpleasantly crowded store, and the store has no manager that anyone can talk to after 4. I went to H Mart's website to make a complaint, and was required to choose the location I was writing about from the provided options. This location was not listed as an option to do so. H Mart treats customers like shit, and people should not be facilitating their existence by patronizing them. the shelf stable items they sell can now be bought online from others. And, this location in particular is highly inferior, with a much more limited selection of items, and more expensive prices that I had paid (not anymore) at other locations. When a store puts a person at the enterence to drive away (long term when I have been near other locations) customers, they don't want or don't care about your business, and you shouldn't give it to them.

I gave up on MP because of all the tryhards and genuinely enjoy the BR as a casual player. However as of this season it is getting such crap to play. Anytime a bot runs up on me the game works just like normal. When a human player get near me, the game immediately freezes, lags and just gets janky.
As soon as the game starts freezing up I go prone and just wait for the game to catch up again then bam, a player is right there. I’ll shoot and it’s about 50/50 I’ll win the shoot out but it’s always a human name that I’m killed by or killing. Not sure why this happens but it’d be real nice if the game wouldn’t go full lag mode when players are close to each other.
That’s it, rant over.

Company Name	Title	City
Nurse 2 Nurse Staffing	Travel RN	Alexandria
CSI Pharmacy	RN	Baton Rouge
Borgen Project	Writer and Author	Baton Rouge
Park Advertising	Graduate of Industrial Engineering Studies	Baton Rouge
Delaware North	F&B Supervisor	Kenner
Delta Companies	MD Family Physician	Kenner
Delta Companies	Family Physician	Kenner
O'Reilly Auto Parts	LTL Driver	Lake Charles
O'Reilly Auto Parts	Parts Delivery	Lake Charles
Lumen Inc	Director of Sales	Monroe
Oculus Search Partners	Site Service Engineer	New Orleans
Stability Healthcare	Travel RN	New Orleans
Delta Companies	MD Family Physician	New Orleans
Jobot	Conveyor Operator	Reserve
LabCorp	Venipuncturist	Slidell
DaVita Kidney Care	Registered Nurse - RN	Baton Rouge
The Capital City Anesthesia Group	Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist	Baton Rouge
Beacon Behavioral Hospital	Chief Nursing Officer	Baton Rouge
Act One Health	Family Nurse Practitioner	Covington
Nursing Specialties Inc	Registered Nurse	Lafayette
Imperial Calcasieu Surgical Center	Registered Nurse	Lake Charles
Forefront Telecare	PMHNP for Louisiana	Lake Charles
Act One Health	Nurse Practitioner	New Orleans
Sekeena Johnson Inc	Float RN	New Orleans
Jobot	Registered Nurse	New Orleans

Hey guys, here are some recent job openings in la. Feel free to comment here or send me a private message if you have any questions, I'm at the community's disposal! If you encounter any problems with any of these job openings please let me know that I will modify the table accordingly. Thanks!

So,I’ve been holding this for a long time in me because it sounds totally ridiculous but came across this sub and I’m wondering if it makes sense to any of the people here. I’d like to say right away that I don’t do drugs, I don’t drink either.I’m a social worker so those are no-no and my experience happened around 10:30pm both times after I put kids were taking care of to sleep. I usually go out on a deck to meditate around that time in peace and quiet and I stand there after and enjoy my vape before heading to bed.
I had in total 2 sightings and those were different in a way that they happened right after meditation that was somewhat strange compared to other meditating sessions. During meditation my mind would “spin” and I would see outlines of pretty big eyes looking at my eyes.No matter what I try to visualize, those eyes would be there, not moving left or right but would occasionally blink. They resemble eyes of popularly depicted gray aliens. In all other meditative sessions before sleep I could visualize what usually relaxes me but these two were different in a way that I could not shake those eyes out of my mind.It’s like those eyes were in my eyes and no matter what I’d do they wouldn’t get out of my head.Our place of work is near military airfield so I see tons of aircraft going in and out so I know what are helicopters and I know what are planes. Helicopters are usually pretty damn loud even in a pretty far distance. First weird meditation was followed by two crafts that were flashing lights but I could not hear any sound at all so it looked really odd and caught my attention.They were moving the way helicopter would move, slow and steady but again.. no sound. Second one was actually pretty dramatic week after, I saw a black triangular craft with three white light underneath flying directly above me and as it flew over me it I felt pressure in my head followed by the tunnel vision, then headache after. Did anyone have any similar experience? Are those eyes in my head just my imagination or it’s more than that considering those are the only times I saw them and the only times I had sightings.

This post is part of a series looking at the massive amount of 'rhyming' (and occasionally rhyming) recursivity I believe exists between (a) the homecoming of Petyr Baelish to the Fingers and (b) the homecoming of Theon Greyjoy to Pyke.
While this series/post can be read simply as a study 'for its own sake' of the curious recursion between these storylines, it is my belief that the 'rhyming' explored here between the stories of Petyr and Theon exists (at least in part) to foreshadow that, like Theon, Petyr Littlefinger, is (among other things) a scion of ironborn kings, because Petyr is Hoare-ish: I.e. because Petyr's blood is (in some part) the blood of the ironborn kings of House Hoare of Orkmont and, later, Harrenhal.
You can find an index of every post I've made on the topic of a Hoare-ish Littlefinger (including every post in this sub-series) [HERE].
Even if I'm wrong about Littlefinger's lineage, the 'rhyming' recursivity between the homecomings of Theon and Petyr detailed in this series remains, and certainly merits discussion.
NOTE: In what follows, all uncited quotes are from ASOS Sansa VI, which describes Petyr's homecoming to his "Drearfort" tower of the 'Smallest Finger', or ACOK Theon I, which describes Theon's homecoming to "drear" Pyke.
As in past posts, I sometimes use "→" as shorthand for "'prefigures' and/or 'informs' and/or 'is reworked by' and/or 'finds a recursive rhyme in'.
As in: ACOK Theon I → ASOS Sansa VI.
This post picks up straight-away from where Part 5 left off. You can read Part 5 [HERE].
If you want to begin at the beginning, Part 1 is [HERE].

Wallowing Tubs

Let's jump back to the beginning of Theon's homecoming and consider that Theon's thoughts and actions vis-a-vis the Myraham, its captain, and the captain's daughter can be read as prefiguring the story of Petyr taking over the Vale, such that we can read Theon as Petyr, the captain's daughter and the Myraham as both Lysa and the Vale, and the captain as the Lords Declarant unhappy with Petyr's ascendency.
(As ever, this 'rhyme' makes literary sense if Littlefinger has a connection to the Iron Islands, i.e. if he's Hoare-ish.)
After Theon's takes in the "stirring sight" of Pyke with its Sansa-esque banner overhead and 'his' comet "in the sky behind" it, we read how he got there:

A longship would have made the crossing in half the time as well. The Myraham was a wallowing tub, if truth be told, and he would not care to be aboard her in a storm.

Lysa is likewise a "wallowing tub":

[H]er body sagged and bulged. Her face was pink and painted, her breasts heavy, her limbs thick. She was taller than Littlefinger, and heavier; nor did she show any grace in the clumsy way she climbed down off her horse.

Like the Myraham, she's awful to deal with "in a storm" (i.e. in her anger and/or madness), as Catelyn—

Lysa's rage had been frightening to behold. (AGOT Catelyn VIII)

—and Sansa (near-fatally) discover.
It's plain that "storm" is an appropriate metaphor for Lysa's rage after Petyr gets Lysa to unhand Sansa, just a few paragraphs before he decides he would not care to be aboard her any longer, so to speak, and shoves her out the Moon Door:

"Lysa," Petyr sighed, "after all the storms we've suffered, you should trust me better. I swear, I shall never leave your side again, for as long as we both shall live." (ASOS Sansa VII)

And where "a longship would have made the crossing in half the time" the wallowing tub Myraham takes, the wallowing tub Lysa, too, takes seemingly forever to get where she's going:

It was eight long days until Lysa Arryn arrived.

Finding Amusement Where They Can

Having spent most of the voyage fucking the captain's daughter, Theon gets one final "amusement" in the form of a blowjob:

Still, Theon could not be too unhappy. He was here, undrowned, and the voyage had offered certain other amusements. He put an arm around the captain's daughter. "Summon me when we make Lordsport," he told her father. "We'll be below, in my cabin."

Like Theon vis-a-vis the captain's daughter, Petyr isn't actually interested in Lysa romantically, but all the same he beds her and finds "amusements" in the process, both in the bedding ceremony—

Lord Petyr… submitted with good grace and a wicked tongue, giving as good as he got. By the time they had gotten him into the tower and out of his clothes, the other women were flushed, with laces unlaced, kirtles crooked, and skirts in disarray.

—and seemingly in his marriage bed:

"Petyr," her aunt moaned. "Oh, Petyr, Petyr, sweet Petyr, oh oh oh. There, Petyr, there. That's where you belong." … "Make me a baby, Petyr," she screamed, "make me another sweet little baby. Oh, Petyr, my precious, my precious, PEEEEEETYR!"

Turning Over The Captain's Cabin

Back to Theon:

The cabin was the captain's, in truth, but it had been turned over to Theon's use when they sailed from Seagard.

This prefigures the Vale — House Arryn's Vale — being 'turned over to Littlefinger's rule when he commenced to sail the wallowing tub Lysa', so to speak, wedding her and becoming Lord Protector (i.e. de facto Lord) of the Vale:

"Petyr will soon set all that to rights, though. I shall make him Lord Protector of the Vale." -Lysa to Sansa in Littlefinger's bedchamber, the morning after their wedding

Willing Bed Companions & Wine

The captain's daughter comes "willingly" to Theon—

The captain's daughter had not been turned over to his use, but she had come to his bed willingly enough all the same.

—as Lysa had come willingly to Petyr back at Riverrun—

"You enticed him, just as your mother did that night in Riverrun…. You think I could forget? That was the night I stole up to his bed to give him comfort. I bled, but it was the sweetest hurt." (ASOS Sansa VII)

—and as Lysa comes to him at the Drearfort:

"I am the Lady of the Eyrie, and I command you to wed me this very moment!"

Theon beds the captain's daughter with the help of wine:

A cup of wine, a few whispers, and there she was.

This prefigures both the way Lysa bedded Petyr the first time—

"[Petyr] drank until he passed out at the table. Uncle Brynden carried him up to bed before my father could find him like that." (ASOS Sansa VII)

—as well as Lysa's 'current' fondness for wine that's likely Petyr's:

Among the loads [Oswell] brought ashore were several casks of wine.
Her aunt's breath smelled of wine. (ASOS Sansa VII)
"That's past and done, Lysa. …" Littlefinger moved closer. Have you been at the wine again?" (ibid.)

Booby Maidens

Where the captain's daughter (whose "plump", large-breasted physique is akin to Lysa's) "had been a maiden the first time [Theon] took her"—

The girl was a shade plump for his taste, with skin as splotchy as oatmeal, but her breasts filled his hands nicely and she had been a maiden the first time he took her. That was surprising at her age, but Theon found it diverting.

—Lysa, too, 'had been a maiden the first time Petyr took her', so to speak, long ago at Riverrun.

Resentful, Paid-For 'Captains'

Just as Hoster Tully was not happy about Petyr bedding his daughter under his own roof, so is the Myraham captain unhappy with Theon availing himself of his daughter, and in his own cabin, no less:

[Theon] led the girl away aft, while her father watched them go in sullen silence.

The captain's resentment prefigures the Vale lords "resent[ing]" Petyr's marriage to Lysa and his appointment as Lord Protector:

Sansa knew that Jon Arryn's bannermen resented Lysa's marriage and begrudged Petyr his authority as Lord Protector of the Vale. (ASOS Sansa VII)

Theon isn't concerned about the captain's feelings, though, because he's been bought and paid for:

He did not think the captain approved, and that was amusing as well, watching the man struggle to swallow his outrage while performing his courtesies to the high lord, the rich purse of gold he'd been promised never far from his thoughts.
The promise of gold had turned the Oldtowner into a shameless lickspittle.

This prefigures Littlefinger's strategy after he disposes of Lysa. Belying the beliefs of e.g. Randyll Tarly—

"Lady Lysa is dead. … Littlefinger holds the Eyrie now . . . though not for long. The lords of the Vale are not the sort to bend their knees to some upjumped jackanapes whose only skill is counting coppers." (AFFC Brienne III)

—Littlefinger maintains his position in the 'captain's cabin' of the Eyrie because, just as Theon buys the Myraham's captain, so does Littlefinger buy many of the Lords Declarant:

"Belmore is corrupt and can be bought. …Bronze Yohn Royce will continue to be hostile, I fear, but so long as he stands alone he is not so much a threat." (AFFC Alayne I)
"The Waynwoods are very old and very proud, but not as rich as one might think, as I discovered when I began buying up their debt. Not that Lady Anya would ever sell a son for gold. A ward, however . . . young Harry's only a cousin, and the dower that I offered her ladyship was even larger than the one that Lyonel Corbray just collected. It had to be, for her to risk Bronze Yohn's wroth. (AFFC Alayne II)

The line foregrounding the notion of Anya Waynwood "sell[ing] a son for gold" reads like it could be a wink at the captain of the Myraham essentially selling his daughter to Theon for gold. Note that the Waynwood sigil is a broken wheel, a la the captain's wheel of an olde tyme sailing vessel. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship%27s_wheel) Thus it's an almost perfect metaphorical representation of the captain being 'broken' by Theon's gold into "swallow[ing] his outrage".

'Rhyming' Rejections

Finally, at the end of Theon's voyage, when he is done with the "wallowing tub" Myraham, he disposes of the captain's daughter:

"Milord." Her eyes were red. When he took the pack, she made as if to embrace him, there in front of her own father and his priestly uncle and half the island.
Theon turned deftly aside. "You have my thanks."
"Please," she said, "I do love you well, milord."
"I must go." He hurried after his uncle, who was already well down the pier. Theon caught him with a dozen long strides.

Theon's parting with the daughter of the captain of the wallowing tub Myraham is kaleidoscopically reworked when Petyr disposes of his wallowing tub, Lysa. The recursion includes the crying and hugging motifs, a declaration of love, pithy final words ("I must go" → "Only Cat"), and a parallel post-parting urgency (Theon "hurried" → "run… quick now"). And note how "deftly" Petyr deflects Lysa (to her doom):

Lysa threw herself into Littlefinger's arms, sobbing. As they hugged, Sansa… crawled from the Moon Door on hands and knees and wrapped her arms around the nearest pillar. …She shuddered, and hugged the pillar tighter.
Littlefinger let Lysa sob against his chest for a moment, then put his hands on her arms and kissed her lightly. "My sweet silly jealous wife," he said, chuckling. "I've only loved one woman, I promise you."
Lysa Arryn smiled tremulously. "Only one? Oh, Petyr, do you swear it? Only one?"
"Only Cat." He gave her a short, sharp shove.
Lysa stumbled backward, her feet slipping on the wet marble. And then she was gone. She never screamed. For the longest time there was no sound but the wind.
…Lord Petyr pulled Sansa to her feet. …"Run let my guards in, then. Quick now, there's no time to lose. This singer's killed my lady wife."

"Deftly" done, indeed.
Petyr giving Lysa "a short, sharp shove" feels like a physical manifestation of Theon figuratively shoving the captain's daughter away and 'out the door'.

Silver Clasps

I'd be remiss not to point out that when Theon leaves the girl, his cloak is pointedly pinned "with a silver clasp":

Theon swept his cloak off its peg and over his shoulders. "Fathers are like that," he admitted as he pinned the folds with a silver clasp.

Who else pins his cloaks like that?

They went well with the silver mockingbird that fastened his cloak. (AGOT Catelyn IV)
The man wore a heavy cloak with a fur collar, fastened with a silver mockingbird…. (AGOT Sansa II)

Petyr.

The Captain's Daughter & Bryen's Toothless Licking Dog

All that said, Petyr's relationship with Lysa isn't the only thing about ASOS Sansa VI (and VII) prefigured by Theon's relationship with Myraham's captain's daughter.
Consider also the old dog we're shown hanging out with Sansa immediately after we read that Lysa takes "eight long days" to arrive, a la the "wallowing" Myraham taking way too long to get to Pyke, and immediately before we read about Lysa's arrival, when she looks every inch a wallowing tub:

It was eight long days until Lysa Arryn arrived. On five of them it rained, while Sansa sat bored and restless by the fire, beside the old blind dog. He was too sick and toothless to walk guard with Bryen anymore, and mostly all he did was sleep, but when she patted him he whined and licked her hand, and after that they were fast friends.

Where Theon rides out his long voyage at sea with the the oral sex-giving captain's daughter, Sansa rides out most of her long, rainy wait for Lysa with the friendly, toothless, licking dog.
All the dog does is "sleep… beside" — i.e. literally sleep with — Sansa. That reworks the captain's daughter spending the long voyage figuratively 'sleeping with' (i.e. boning) Theon. To this point:

Bryen's old blind dog in her little alcove beneath the steps, and lay down next to him. He woke and licked her face. "You sad old hound," she said, ruffling his fur.

That the dog "whine[s]" and is "sad" recalls the captain's daughter "beg[ging]" Theon to come ashore and later calling to him in a "plaintive" voice while walking "forlornly" adeck when he visits Lordsport. (ACOK Theon II)
The devotion the captain's daughter thereby demonstrates — refusing to give up on Theon, long after he's gone — is reworked by the dog being called Sansa's "fast friend" (i.e. loyal friend), which also works as double entendre referring back to the captain's daughter, as "fast" is a euphemism for a girl who is fast to engage in sexual activity. (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fast)
Note that the dog is never named: It's simply "Bryen's old blind dog", just as the captain's daughter is just "the captain's daughter".
Of course, Sansa does get one small break from the monotony of her time with the dog: her sight-seeing 'field trip' with Petyr:

It was eight long days until Lysa Arryn arrived. On five of them it rained, while Sansa sat bored and restless by the fire, beside the old blind dog. [Dog stuff.] When the rains let up, Petyr walked with her around his holdings, which took less than half a day. [Description of the sight-seeing 'field trip' of Petyr's lands, including all manner of things that 'rhyme' with Theon's description of Pyke, all of which I discuss in detail elsewhere.]

The sight-seeing 'field trip' as a whole reworks the opening paragraphs of ACOK Theon I, in which Theon is likewise taking a break from his usual routine (sex with the captain's daughter) to do a little sight-seeing: Where Theon soaks in the "stirring sight" of castle Pyke on its wave-carved stacks of rock with its banner overhead and the fiery comet high "in the sky" behind it, which he takes to be a (verbatim) "sign", Sansa's sight-seeing tour of Petyr's holdings include a rock carved with the (verbatim) "sign" of the Seven next to a tidal blowhole shooting water high "into the air", as well as "a hermit's cave" where a hermit "groped" Petyr as Theon gropes the captain's daughter just after gazing at castle Pyke and the comet.
It's only when Theon is done gazing at Pyke that the captain's daughter appears on the page and we read about the "certain other amusements" he's enjoyed during his voyage. This gets flipped around with Sansa and her dog: Where Theon found "amusement" in the sex he was constantly having, Sansa is "bored and restless" during her time with the dog; it's only the brief excursion that breaks the monotony of her time (literally) sleeping with the old toothless dog.
The story of how Sansa spent her time waiting for Lysa (with the dog) is thus a 'rhyme' for Theon's time on the Myraham with the captain's daughter. That we read about Sansa's time with the dog (a) immediately after we read that Lysa was, like the Myraham, slow to arrive and (b) immediately before Lysa's arrival, when she seems every inch the wallowing tub herself, further convinces me that Theon's treatment of the captain and captain's daughter do indeed prefigure Petyr's treatment of Lysa and the Lords Declarant, while also by dint of association suggesting that Petyr is trying to groom Sansa as surely as Theon did the captain's daughter.

Sansa & The Captain's Daughter

Regarding Petyr grooming Sansa, when Sansa first comes before Lysa, it seems very much like an echo of what happens when Theon and the captain's daughter go below deck. Consider:

Littlefinger beckoned Sansa forward with a hand. "My lady, allow me to present you Alayne Stone."
Sansa did a deep curtsy, her head bowed. "A bastard?" she heard her aunt say. "Petyr, have you been wicked? Who was her mother?"

Notice the curtsy and bowed head, the bastard motif, and the way Lysa treats Sansa as if she isn't there. This seems a recursion of this:

[Theon] drew the captain's daughter close and kissed her on her ear. "Take off your cloak."
She dropped her eyes, suddenly shy, but did as he bid her. When the heavy garment, sodden with spray, fell from her shoulders to the deck, she gave him a little bow and smiled anxiously.

• "[Theon] drew the captain's daughter close" → "Littlefinger beckoned Sansa forward with a hand"
  
• "she gave him a little bow" + "she dropped her eyes" → "Sansa did a deep curtsy, her head bowed"
  

A few lines later, we read:

The stupid girl did not seem to be listening.

Coupled with Theon telling the captain's daughter she's likely pregnant with "a king's bastard" — i.e. his bastard — that prefigures Lysa's talking about Sansa being "a bastard" as if she's not there, i.e. as if she isn't 'listening':

"A bastard?" she heard her aunt say. "Petyr, have you been wicked? Who was her mother?"

(The 'rhyme' is even tighter if Littlefinger aspires to be king, like Theon. Which I believe he does.)
Shortly after Theon thinks the captain's daughter doesn't "seem to be listening", we read that…

She was timid at first, but learned quickly for such a stupid girl….

As stated in earlier posts in this series, if we remove the sexual context, that's a bald-faced preview of Sansa in her Littlefinger era: initially trepidatious, but quickly warming to Littlefinger and learning to use lies and arbor gold in the service of his schemes, such that he calls the once hopelessly naive girl "clever" — i.e. the same word Theon uses when remarking of the captain's daughter:

She looked rather stupid when she smiled, but he had never required a woman to be clever.

Theon forces the captain's daughter to swallow his 'seed' just before he tells her she's probably pregnant with his "bastard", thus (also) prefiguring Littlefinger's [surreptitiously making Sansa swallow moon tea to ensure she is not pregnant with Tyrion's child], i.e. to cleanse herself of any spawn of Tyrion's "seed".
As I've said before, I have to think this little 'rhyme' between Sansa and the captain's daughter is there to further the suggestion that Littlefinger is per se grooming Sansa.

The Myraham and Mia Hamm

That the Myraham's story has so much to do with its captain's daughter makes sense given that the name Myraham is almost certainly a nod to Mia Hamm, who at the time A Clash of Kings was being written was widely recognized as the best women's soccer player in the world and newly famous in the United States, having been hyped to the moon before she famously played through injury during the United States' victory in the gold medal game of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, to much media ballyhoo. (see e.g. https://vault.si.com/vault/1996/08/12/uswnt-1996-olympics-gold-medal-china-atlanta)
The thing, is, despite being the most popular and celebrated player on the US team, Mia Hamm wasn't the team captain. That was the older Carla Overbeck, a comparatively uncelebrated central defender. So it's fitting that the story of the Myraham is in large part the story not of its captain, but of its captain's daughter.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 7: Sights-Seen While Sight-Seeing

On a recent Breakthrough experience I had, the world I was being shown looked nearly identical to how a western world city suburb would look - I was being moved around this community and introduced to many families of entities belonging to specific homes that were humanoid in nature apart from their heads, often literally walking right up to me to greet me.
I felt as though this world was borrowing heavy from my daily life, as I work in lawn care and service anywhere from 25-30 residential homes a day and often times meet a lot of families.
I was mostly just wondering if others have experienced trips that strongly resembled our world as opposed to the more classically depicted psychedelic realm in artwork and animations.

This post is part of a series looking at the massive amount of 'rhyming' (and occasionally rhyming) recursivity I believe exists between (a) the homecoming of Petyr Baelish to the Fingers and (b) the homecoming of Theon Greyjoy to Pyke.
While this series/post can be read simply as a study 'for its own sake' of the curious recursion between these storylines, it is my belief that the 'rhyming' explored here between the stories of Petyr and Theon exists (at least in part) to foreshadow that, like Theon, Petyr Littlefinger, is (among other things) a scion of ironborn kings, because Petyr is Hoare-ish: I.e. because Petyr's blood is (in some part) the blood of the ironborn kings of House Hoare of Orkmont and, later, Harrenhal.
You can find an index of every post I've made on the topic of a Hoare-ish Littlefinger (including every post in this sub-series) [HERE].
Even if I'm wrong about Littlefinger's lineage, the 'rhyming' recursivity between the homecomings of Theon and Petyr detailed in this series remains, and certainly merits discussion.
NOTE: In what follows, all uncited quotes are from ASOS Sansa VI, which describes Petyr's homecoming to his "Drearfort" tower of the 'Smallest Finger', or ACOK Theon I, which describes Theon's homecoming to "drear" Pyke.
As in past posts, I sometimes use "→" as shorthand for "'prefigures' and/or 'informs' and/or 'is reworked by' and/or 'finds a recursive rhyme in'.
As in: ACOK Theon I → ASOS Sansa VI.
This post picks up straight-away from where Part 5 left off. You can read Part 5 [HERE].
If you want to begin at the beginning, Part 1 is [HERE].

Wallowing Tubs

Let's jump back to the beginning of Theon's homecoming and consider that Theon's thoughts and actions vis-a-vis the Myraham, its captain, and the captain's daughter can be read as prefiguring the story of Petyr taking over the Vale, such that we can read Theon as Petyr, the captain's daughter and the Myraham as both Lysa and the Vale, and the captain as the Lords Declarant unhappy with Petyr's ascendency.
(As ever, this 'rhyme' makes literary sense if Littlefinger has a connection to the Iron Islands, i.e. if he's Hoare-ish.)
After Theon's takes in the "stirring sight" of Pyke with its Sansa-esque banner overhead and 'his' comet "in the sky behind" it, we read how he got there:

A longship would have made the crossing in half the time as well. The Myraham was a wallowing tub, if truth be told, and he would not care to be aboard her in a storm.

Lysa is likewise a "wallowing tub":

[H]er body sagged and bulged. Her face was pink and painted, her breasts heavy, her limbs thick. She was taller than Littlefinger, and heavier; nor did she show any grace in the clumsy way she climbed down off her horse.

Like the Myraham, she's awful to deal with "in a storm" (i.e. in her anger and/or madness), as Catelyn—

Lysa's rage had been frightening to behold. (AGOT Catelyn VIII)

—and Sansa (near-fatally) discover.
It's plain that "storm" is an appropriate metaphor for Lysa's rage after Petyr gets Lysa to unhand Sansa, just a few paragraphs before he decides he would not care to be aboard her any longer, so to speak, and shoves her out the Moon Door:

"Lysa," Petyr sighed, "after all the storms we've suffered, you should trust me better. I swear, I shall never leave your side again, for as long as we both shall live." (ASOS Sansa VII)

And where "a longship would have made the crossing in half the time" the wallowing tub Myraham takes, the wallowing tub Lysa, too, takes seemingly forever to get where she's going:

It was eight long days until Lysa Arryn arrived.

Finding Amusement Where They Can

Having spent most of the voyage fucking the captain's daughter, Theon gets one final "amusement" in the form of a blowjob:

Still, Theon could not be too unhappy. He was here, undrowned, and the voyage had offered certain other amusements. He put an arm around the captain's daughter. "Summon me when we make Lordsport," he told her father. "We'll be below, in my cabin."

Like Theon vis-a-vis the captain's daughter, Petyr isn't actually interested in Lysa romantically, but all the same he beds her and finds "amusements" in the process, both in the bedding ceremony—

Lord Petyr… submitted with good grace and a wicked tongue, giving as good as he got. By the time they had gotten him into the tower and out of his clothes, the other women were flushed, with laces unlaced, kirtles crooked, and skirts in disarray.

—and seemingly in his marriage bed:

"Petyr," her aunt moaned. "Oh, Petyr, Petyr, sweet Petyr, oh oh oh. There, Petyr, there. That's where you belong." … "Make me a baby, Petyr," she screamed, "make me another sweet little baby. Oh, Petyr, my precious, my precious, PEEEEEETYR!"

Turning Over The Captain's Cabin

Back to Theon:

The cabin was the captain's, in truth, but it had been turned over to Theon's use when they sailed from Seagard.

This prefigures the Vale — House Arryn's Vale — being 'turned over to Littlefinger's rule when he commenced to sail the wallowing tub Lysa', so to speak, wedding her and becoming Lord Protector (i.e. de facto Lord) of the Vale:

"Petyr will soon set all that to rights, though. I shall make him Lord Protector of the Vale." -Lysa to Sansa in Littlefinger's bedchamber, the morning after their wedding

Willing Bed Companions & Wine

The captain's daughter comes "willingly" to Theon—

The captain's daughter had not been turned over to his use, but she had come to his bed willingly enough all the same.

—as Lysa had come willingly to Petyr back at Riverrun—

"You enticed him, just as your mother did that night in Riverrun…. You think I could forget? That was the night I stole up to his bed to give him comfort. I bled, but it was the sweetest hurt." (ASOS Sansa VII)

—and as Lysa comes to him at the Drearfort:

"I am the Lady of the Eyrie, and I command you to wed me this very moment!"

Theon beds the captain's daughter with the help of wine:

A cup of wine, a few whispers, and there she was.

This prefigures both the way Lysa bedded Petyr the first time—

"[Petyr] drank until he passed out at the table. Uncle Brynden carried him up to bed before my father could find him like that." (ASOS Sansa VII)

—as well as Lysa's 'current' fondness for wine that's likely Petyr's:

Among the loads [Oswell] brought ashore were several casks of wine.
Her aunt's breath smelled of wine. (ASOS Sansa VII)
"That's past and done, Lysa. …" Littlefinger moved closer. Have you been at the wine again?" (ibid.)

Booby Maidens

Where the captain's daughter (whose "plump", large-breasted physique is akin to Lysa's) "had been a maiden the first time [Theon] took her"—

The girl was a shade plump for his taste, with skin as splotchy as oatmeal, but her breasts filled his hands nicely and she had been a maiden the first time he took her. That was surprising at her age, but Theon found it diverting.

—Lysa, too, 'had been a maiden the first time Petyr took her', so to speak, long ago at Riverrun.

Resentful, Paid-For 'Captains'

Just as Hoster Tully was not happy about Petyr bedding his daughter under his own roof, so is the Myraham captain unhappy with Theon availing himself of his daughter, and in his own cabin, no less:

[Theon] led the girl away aft, while her father watched them go in sullen silence.

The captain's resentment prefigures the Vale lords "resent[ing]" Petyr's marriage to Lysa and his appointment as Lord Protector:

Sansa knew that Jon Arryn's bannermen resented Lysa's marriage and begrudged Petyr his authority as Lord Protector of the Vale. (ASOS Sansa VII)

Theon isn't concerned about the captain's feelings, though, because he's been bought and paid for:

He did not think the captain approved, and that was amusing as well, watching the man struggle to swallow his outrage while performing his courtesies to the high lord, the rich purse of gold he'd been promised never far from his thoughts.
The promise of gold had turned the Oldtowner into a shameless lickspittle.

This prefigures Littlefinger's strategy after he disposes of Lysa. Belying the beliefs of e.g. Randyll Tarly—

"Lady Lysa is dead. … Littlefinger holds the Eyrie now . . . though not for long. The lords of the Vale are not the sort to bend their knees to some upjumped jackanapes whose only skill is counting coppers." (AFFC Brienne III)

—Littlefinger maintains his position in the 'captain's cabin' of the Eyrie because, just as Theon buys the Myraham's captain, so does Littlefinger buy many of the Lords Declarant:

"Belmore is corrupt and can be bought. …Bronze Yohn Royce will continue to be hostile, I fear, but so long as he stands alone he is not so much a threat." (AFFC Alayne I)
"The Waynwoods are very old and very proud, but not as rich as one might think, as I discovered when I began buying up their debt. Not that Lady Anya would ever sell a son for gold. A ward, however . . . young Harry's only a cousin, and the dower that I offered her ladyship was even larger than the one that Lyonel Corbray just collected. It had to be, for her to risk Bronze Yohn's wroth. (AFFC Alayne II)

The line foregrounding the notion of Anya Waynwood "sell[ing] a son for gold" reads like it could be a wink at the captain of the Myraham essentially selling his daughter to Theon for gold. Note that the Waynwood sigil is a broken wheel, a la the captain's wheel of an olde tyme sailing vessel. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship%27s_wheel) Thus it's an almost perfect metaphorical representation of the captain being 'broken' by Theon's gold into "swallow[ing] his outrage".

'Rhyming' Rejections

Finally, at the end of Theon's voyage, when he is done with the "wallowing tub" Myraham, he disposes of the captain's daughter:

"Milord." Her eyes were red. When he took the pack, she made as if to embrace him, there in front of her own father and his priestly uncle and half the island.
Theon turned deftly aside. "You have my thanks."
"Please," she said, "I do love you well, milord."
"I must go." He hurried after his uncle, who was already well down the pier. Theon caught him with a dozen long strides.

Theon's parting with the daughter of the captain of the wallowing tub Myraham is kaleidoscopically reworked when Petyr disposes of his wallowing tub, Lysa. The recursion includes the crying and hugging motifs, a declaration of love, pithy final words ("I must go" → "Only Cat"), and a parallel post-parting urgency (Theon "hurried" → "run… quick now"). And note how "deftly" Petyr deflects Lysa (to her doom):

Lysa threw herself into Littlefinger's arms, sobbing. As they hugged, Sansa… crawled from the Moon Door on hands and knees and wrapped her arms around the nearest pillar. …She shuddered, and hugged the pillar tighter.
Littlefinger let Lysa sob against his chest for a moment, then put his hands on her arms and kissed her lightly. "My sweet silly jealous wife," he said, chuckling. "I've only loved one woman, I promise you."
Lysa Arryn smiled tremulously. "Only one? Oh, Petyr, do you swear it? Only one?"
"Only Cat." He gave her a short, sharp shove.
Lysa stumbled backward, her feet slipping on the wet marble. And then she was gone. She never screamed. For the longest time there was no sound but the wind.
…Lord Petyr pulled Sansa to her feet. …"Run let my guards in, then. Quick now, there's no time to lose. This singer's killed my lady wife."

"Deftly" done, indeed.
Petyr giving Lysa "a short, sharp shove" feels like a physical manifestation of Theon figuratively shoving the captain's daughter away and 'out the door'.

Silver Clasps

I'd be remiss not to point out that when Theon leaves the girl, his cloak is pointedly pinned "with a silver clasp":

Theon swept his cloak off its peg and over his shoulders. "Fathers are like that," he admitted as he pinned the folds with a silver clasp.

Who else pins his cloaks like that?

They went well with the silver mockingbird that fastened his cloak. (AGOT Catelyn IV)
The man wore a heavy cloak with a fur collar, fastened with a silver mockingbird…. (AGOT Sansa II)

Petyr.

The Captain's Daughter & Bryen's Toothless Licking Dog

All that said, Petyr's relationship with Lysa isn't the only thing about ASOS Sansa VI (and VII) prefigured by Theon's relationship with Myraham's captain's daughter.
Consider also the old dog we're shown hanging out with Sansa immediately after we read that Lysa takes "eight long days" to arrive, a la the "wallowing" Myraham taking way too long to get to Pyke, and immediately before we read about Lysa's arrival, when she looks every inch a wallowing tub:

It was eight long days until Lysa Arryn arrived. On five of them it rained, while Sansa sat bored and restless by the fire, beside the old blind dog. He was too sick and toothless to walk guard with Bryen anymore, and mostly all he did was sleep, but when she patted him he whined and licked her hand, and after that they were fast friends.

Where Theon rides out his long voyage at sea with the the oral sex-giving captain's daughter, Sansa rides out most of her long, rainy wait for Lysa with the friendly, toothless, licking dog.
All the dog does is "sleep… beside" — i.e. literally sleep with — Sansa. That reworks the captain's daughter spending the long voyage figuratively 'sleeping with' (i.e. boning) Theon. To this point:

Bryen's old blind dog in her little alcove beneath the steps, and lay down next to him. He woke and licked her face. "You sad old hound," she said, ruffling his fur.

That the dog "whine[s]" and is "sad" recalls the captain's daughter "beg[ging]" Theon to come ashore and later calling to him in a "plaintive" voice while walking "forlornly" adeck when he visits Lordsport. (ACOK Theon II)
The devotion the captain's daughter thereby demonstrates — refusing to give up on Theon, long after he's gone — is reworked by the dog being called Sansa's "fast friend" (i.e. loyal friend), which also works as double entendre referring back to the captain's daughter, as "fast" is a euphemism for a girl who is fast to engage in sexual activity. (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fast)
Note that the dog is never named: It's simply "Bryen's old blind dog", just as the captain's daughter is just "the captain's daughter".
Of course, Sansa does get one small break from the monotony of her time with the dog: her sight-seeing 'field trip' with Petyr:

It was eight long days until Lysa Arryn arrived. On five of them it rained, while Sansa sat bored and restless by the fire, beside the old blind dog. [Dog stuff.] When the rains let up, Petyr walked with her around his holdings, which took less than half a day. [Description of the sight-seeing 'field trip' of Petyr's lands, including all manner of things that 'rhyme' with Theon's description of Pyke, all of which I discuss in detail elsewhere.]

The sight-seeing 'field trip' as a whole reworks the opening paragraphs of ACOK Theon I, in which Theon is likewise taking a break from his usual routine (sex with the captain's daughter) to do a little sight-seeing: Where Theon soaks in the "stirring sight" of castle Pyke on its wave-carved stacks of rock with its banner overhead and the fiery comet high "in the sky" behind it, which he takes to be a (verbatim) "sign", Sansa's sight-seeing tour of Petyr's holdings include a rock carved with the (verbatim) "sign" of the Seven next to a tidal blowhole shooting water high "into the air", as well as "a hermit's cave" where a hermit "groped" Petyr as Theon gropes the captain's daughter just after gazing at castle Pyke and the comet.
It's only when Theon is done gazing at Pyke that the captain's daughter appears on the page and we read about the "certain other amusements" he's enjoyed during his voyage. This gets flipped around with Sansa and her dog: Where Theon found "amusement" in the sex he was constantly having, Sansa is "bored and restless" during her time with the dog; it's only the brief excursion that breaks the monotony of her time (literally) sleeping with the old toothless dog.
The story of how Sansa spent her time waiting for Lysa (with the dog) is thus a 'rhyme' for Theon's time on the Myraham with the captain's daughter. That we read about Sansa's time with the dog (a) immediately after we read that Lysa was, like the Myraham, slow to arrive and (b) immediately before Lysa's arrival, when she seems every inch the wallowing tub herself, further convinces me that Theon's treatment of the captain and captain's daughter do indeed prefigure Petyr's treatment of Lysa and the Lords Declarant, while also by dint of association suggesting that Petyr is trying to groom Sansa as surely as Theon did the captain's daughter.

Sansa & The Captain's Daughter

Regarding Petyr grooming Sansa, when Sansa first comes before Lysa, it seems very much like an echo of what happens when Theon and the captain's daughter go below deck. Consider:

Littlefinger beckoned Sansa forward with a hand. "My lady, allow me to present you Alayne Stone."
Sansa did a deep curtsy, her head bowed. "A bastard?" she heard her aunt say. "Petyr, have you been wicked? Who was her mother?"

Notice the curtsy and bowed head, the bastard motif, and the way Lysa treats Sansa as if she isn't there. This seems a recursion of this:

[Theon] drew the captain's daughter close and kissed her on her ear. "Take off your cloak."
She dropped her eyes, suddenly shy, but did as he bid her. When the heavy garment, sodden with spray, fell from her shoulders to the deck, she gave him a little bow and smiled anxiously.

• "[Theon] drew the captain's daughter close" → "Littlefinger beckoned Sansa forward with a hand"
  
• "she gave him a little bow" + "she dropped her eyes" → "Sansa did a deep curtsy, her head bowed"
  

A few lines later, we read:

The stupid girl did not seem to be listening.

Coupled with Theon telling the captain's daughter she's likely pregnant with "a king's bastard" — i.e. his bastard — that prefigures Lysa's talking about Sansa being "a bastard" as if she's not there, i.e. as if she isn't 'listening':

"A bastard?" she heard her aunt say. "Petyr, have you been wicked? Who was her mother?"

(The 'rhyme' is even tighter if Littlefinger aspires to be king, like Theon. Which I believe he does.)
Shortly after Theon thinks the captain's daughter doesn't "seem to be listening", we read that…

She was timid at first, but learned quickly for such a stupid girl….

As stated in earlier posts in this series, if we remove the sexual context, that's a bald-faced preview of Sansa in her Littlefinger era: initially trepidatious, but quickly warming to Littlefinger and learning to use lies and arbor gold in the service of his schemes, such that he calls the once hopelessly naive girl "clever" — i.e. the same word Theon uses when remarking of the captain's daughter:

She looked rather stupid when she smiled, but he had never required a woman to be clever.

Theon forces the captain's daughter to swallow his 'seed' just before he tells her she's probably pregnant with his "bastard", thus (also) prefiguring Littlefinger's [surreptitiously making Sansa swallow moon tea to ensure she is not pregnant with Tyrion's child], i.e. to cleanse herself of any spawn of Tyrion's "seed".
As I've said before, I have to think the whole 'rhyme' between Sansa and the captain's daughter is there to further the suggestion that Littlefinger is per se grooming Sansa.

The Myraham and Mia Hamm

That the Myraham's story has so much to do with its captain's daughter makes sense given that the name Myraham is almost certainly a nod to Mia Hamm, who at the time A Clash of Kings was being written was widely recognized as the best women's soccer player in the world and newly famous in the United States, having been hyped to the moon before she famously played through injury during the United States' victory in the gold medal game of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, to much media ballyhoo. (see e.g. https://vault.si.com/vault/1996/08/12/uswnt-1996-olympics-gold-medal-china-atlanta)
The thing, is, despite being the most popular and celebrated player on the US team, Mia Hamm wasn't the team captain. That was the older Carla Overbeck, a comparatively uncelebrated central defender. So it's fitting that the story of the Myraham is in large part the story not of its captain, but of its captain's daughter.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 7: Sights-Seen While Sight-Seeing

I had a lot of delay getting into uni, but we got there eventually at 22 yo. Admittedly I had some insecurity about being older than 18, something the internet was quick to reassure me was a non-issue. Something nobody would care about and I would have a great university experience the same as everyone else.
As far as people noticing I'm older straight away, it's a mixed bag. I look pretty young, most people take for granted that I'm 18/19 and don't even ask. Some people have better judgement and immediately say "you're in year 1? You look older." At which point I tell them my real age, they (far too often) suddenly treat me massively different. I get asked "how does it feel to be this much older?" As if I'm an 18 year old hanging out with 14 year olds, when we literally had an hour conversation where you didn't even know I was older until I told you, and it was exactly the same as anyone else. The other day I got asked if I had any kids. Like WTF? Sure, some 22 year olds have children , but so do some 16 year olds, but you don't just ask people for no reason. They're treating me like I'm in my late thirties or something
I don't see myself as different to them. I see myself as an 18 year old who is slightly smarter with a few more stories and that's it. Its really demotivating when they just decide in their heads suddenly I'm hugely different to them, especially when in real terms we're not that different.
The internet told me this wouldn't happen. Anyone else get what I mean?

It's been a few weeks since a discussion I've had with some pals. And it keeps coming back to me, so this schizo post is my trying to find closure.
Essentially, after a few drinks, the topic of trans people came into the picture. But two things were said by a particular person that really did bother me and I can't shake them off.

• Essentially unprompted, this person says: "Do you really think there would be a female brain in a male's body?"

What bothered me about this... This person has high functioning autism (unironically). Like they make really good money have a nice productive career, etc. But nobody will deny this is a difficult person... a person who sometimes can be an asshole and only cares about being technically true. So they will call you out on a technicality, ridicule you and then be condescending, give zero respect to your points, etc. So you need serious patience, be understanding of their autism, or never disagree with them, otherwise somebody will get hurt for sure. So the delivery of this line with so much assertion and toxic dominance calling me retard etc. Just had me peeved. Besides the way it was mentioned felt like a clear bait into a factoid own.
After talking a bit I just drop the soc-libertarian perspective that I subscribe to: "How do things that other people do with their lives hurt you? Why would you care so much about other's daily life blah blah"
And they answer:

• "The same way being next to a piece of shit on the floor affects me. I don't want to be near it, it disgusts me"

I couldn't answer because I felt so shocked. I'm honestly still speechless. Kinda sad and disappointed, it's not easy finding new friends in your 30s. And I hate it that somebody's political views can break a friend group... This is a person who can show great generosity or intense hatred and I don't even know if I'm wrong for judging him because of their Autism.
note Please don't take the narrator's bias, I know how bad this sounds but this is a functioning adult capable of empathy for humans and animals alike, and (for the most part) not a deranged neet...

I really hope I did the TW right :c i am new to reddit, I am 17 and I really really need help. I’m in counselling right now for struggling with different themes of HIGHLY suspected ocd, but I THINK I may be having this one right now, at the time I was 16 when this happened, I have been talking with my boyfriend for about 10 months now, we started talking on discord and got very close and romantic very very quickly, we discussed not having an “exclusive serious relationship” until we both agreed to have one in real life, in the first few months we got extremely close online, I love him so much and felt extreme love for him then too, about 6 months into talking with him romantically, i had met a friend on discord who would be very flirty towards me when I tried telling him it made me uncomfortable he told me it was just his “humour” towards friends, so I tried to not take it so seriously, me and this friend only talked for a few days he called me “bestie” and I made some very very small flirting “jokes” nothing sexual or very romantic at all very stupid jokes, after talking to this friend in total for a few days about two days of him being a bit too much I decided to block him, even tho I did joke back, I genuinely was uncomfy with stuff this friend would say, that was in November and I have already blocked him after telling him that our friendship made me uncomfortable and him saying about himself “That was my fault” and that was it. I haven’t thought about this situation in a long time until these past two months i believe, me and my boyfriend have the best relationship it’s so healthy and caring and loving we never argue and we are always understanding to eachother and having fun with eachother, he’s the best boy and I TRULY love him so so much. But the guilt I feel over this one situation after ruminating and researching over and over, reading articles of cheating and stories of “my gf/bf cheated on me!” I have began to purposely “not be nice to myself physically”. Two months after the friendship with that guy completely ended I told my boyfriend everything and he told me it was okay and that i did nothing wrong but I don’t believe him at all. I believe I am a disgusting horrible cheater no matter what. I have gotten jealous over him flirting in the past so what makes it EVER okay that I would? I’ve been obsessing so much over this I stopped eating and continued further “not being nice to myself physically”. We talked recently about becoming exclusive and more serious even tho we have not met in real life yet which was supposed to be what happened but we want to be exclusive and the conversation was good and we both agreed, we talked about our boundaries and it was a very healthy discussion, so even after everything i’ve done after blocking the guy really fast after “confessing” to my boyfriend, I can’t stop. I wake up having panic attacks and cry every single night, at the time when I was joking with this friend I truly had no bad intention at all the idea of “I am cheating” didn’t cross my mind because I didn’t believe I was. I only started experiencing what I believe to be Reocd these past few months, it’s frustrating because everything with my boyfriend since then has genuinely been perfect nothing wrong at all. When I see online about emotional cheating and flirting IS cheating I throw up. And I punish myself physically. I hate myself so much and I cannot stop looking up about cheating, what it is, have I cheated, emotional cheating, micro cheating everything, I cannot stop going through old messages and checking time stamps checking when things happened what I said, what he said, It has overtaken every day so far. My family has expressed serious concern over it and talked about bringing me to a hospital, which I feel guilty for, I have told family and very close friends about the situation and they all say it’s not a big thing that i didn’t cheat and i have to let go of it but i feel so so so so guilty. I don’t believe i even deserve to let go of it because i feel so bad. Since then I have been completely obsessed with “not” cheating on my now very exclusive very serious boyfriend, if a girl in my class says “oh look that guy is cute” I will literally close my eyes or look at the floor and say nothing. If there’s any sort of photo of any guys or anything I avoid them at all costs, I avoid talking irl to guys and if they say anything I IMMEDIATELY say things like “I have a boyfriend who would think that cat is so cute” or “My boyfriend would love this cake” things like that. When I started to talk to my incredible, perfect angel of a boyfriend in the first few months when we were just “best friends” or “not exclusive/official” my mom would tell me all the time “talk to whoever u want stop worrying so much don’t take this so seriously” because i was out of a 3 year relationship already and didn’t want to get serious so quickly, and I genuinely did have a very carefree spirit about it all not taking things so seriously and because “i’m young” and now i’m looking back on this situation and literally crying my eyes out and panicking and hurting myself. I would do anything to go back and never EVER talk to that guy at all. I know this is a place not to look for reassurance, I don’t even believe I deserve it, I’ve been even going to church and confessing these things there and the guilt is so heavy it physically is hurting my body. The amount of love I have for this boy I haven’t gotten to even hold hands with is insane. I truly hate myself and i’ve been considering death but it won’t make up for the horrible thing I did.

Company Name	Title	City
Nurse 2 Nurse Staffing	Travel RN	Alexandria
CSI Pharmacy	RN	Baton Rouge
Borgen Project	Writer and Author	Baton Rouge
Park Advertising	Graduate of Industrial Engineering Studies	Baton Rouge
Delaware North	F&B Supervisor	Kenner
Delta Companies	MD Family Physician	Kenner
Delta Companies	Family Physician	Kenner
O'Reilly Auto Parts	LTL Driver	Lake Charles
O'Reilly Auto Parts	Parts Delivery	Lake Charles
Lumen Inc	Director of Sales	Monroe
Oculus Search Partners	Site Service Engineer	New Orleans
Stability Healthcare	Travel RN	New Orleans
Delta Companies	MD Family Physician	New Orleans
Jobot	Conveyor Operator	Reserve
LabCorp	Venipuncturist	Slidell
DaVita Kidney Care	Registered Nurse - RN	Baton Rouge
The Capital City Anesthesia Group	Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist	Baton Rouge
Beacon Behavioral Hospital	Chief Nursing Officer	Baton Rouge
Act One Health	Family Nurse Practitioner	Covington
Nursing Specialties Inc	Registered Nurse	Lafayette
Imperial Calcasieu Surgical Center	Registered Nurse	Lake Charles
Forefront Telecare	PMHNP for Louisiana	Lake Charles
Act One Health	Nurse Practitioner	New Orleans
Sekeena Johnson Inc	Float RN	New Orleans
Jobot	Registered Nurse	New Orleans

Hey guys, here are some recent job openings in la. Feel free to comment here or send me a private message if you have any questions, I'm at the community's disposal! If you encounter any problems with any of these job openings please let me know that I will modify the table accordingly. Thanks!