Hanging picture reinforcement plate

📷
Construction Safety Signs
📷
A safety sign displays a clear illustration and a brief instruction to advise workers or working staff about a hazard and the preventives to take. A combination of pictographic icons or terse textbook can help cover the lives of numerous individuals. substantially the safety signs have simple instructions that serve the purpose to educate and spread necessary mindfulness.
Safety signs for construction spots are essential for having your design approved and moving forward. All construction systems need to have safety sign
Construction signs are a obligatory demand to insure your business abides with plant occupational health and safety requirements.They're used to address any hazard, peril, or other information workers and people entering the plant need to be apprehensive of.It's important to note that safety signs shouldn't be solely reckoned on and there's no cover for well trained workers. Signs have a purpose to serve as a memorial and be of use to those who are n’t familiar with your construction point or processes.
📷
For this reason, it's necessary that safety signs are easy to understand. Simple plates or words work far better than complex instruction in allowing a person to make an immediate decision. numerous are generally recognisable, similar as the red indirect prohibition sign, but others might need to be more specific depending on the situation.
Safety signs are just one part of your wider health and safety strategy, but they're maybe one of the most important. The success of safety enterprise in the plant will depend on the extent to which safety dispatches are communicated toemployees.However, they're less likely to follow the rules and regulations as they should, If the pool is ignorant of organizational health and safety policies.However, it's important to consider why safety signs are important and how they can be used to increase norms of health and safety in your organization, If you're responsible for plant health and safety. With this in mind, there are several reasons why safety signs are important on construction spots.
Danger Signs
📷
These signs are specific to advise of hazards or implicit hazards or dangerous goods that are likely to be life- hanging . Danger signs have black textbook and a red round on the top with the word ‘ DANGER ’ written in white.
Construction signs display everything from exigency warning signs, exits, fire cautions, and high- voltage warnings to showing direction and numerousothers.Construction signs show that you're serious about icing a safe and secure work terrain for your workers and callers. It also demonstrates that the company considers safety measures as a precedence and cares for its workers and callers.
Contact Us:-
Address : 59 Druces Road, Wiri, Auckland
Tel: 0800 175 571
EMAIL
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
Thank You, For More Service’s Please Visit Our Websites.
https://www.safetysignsdirect.co.nz/

I've posted one thing to this sub before on my main account but I'd rather separate the two being my other is more of a focus on just browsing and music. I have had several weird experiences in my life and some I believe to be connected and others I feel just happened to come across me for some reason. This experience is different than the others being I was not alone to witness this. I will post more in the past and maybe some of you will see more connections than I have seen. I am not going in order. Just as I think of them. Two friends and I decided to stay at my mom and stepdads one weekend and play video games and chill as teenagers. Around 10 or so years ago now in a house that I never felt any bad thoughts about other than the location which I don't mind saying was in Centerpoint, AL. I don't know of anything really haunting that area besides crime so ghost were never a concern. We were in the basement hanging out (not a creepy horror movie basement. Fully furnished) pool table, heater, tv, etc.... Sometime during the night we get on my friends phone and start looking at pictures and go to an image that was saved months back of a band logo for a band my friend loved. The image flickered kinda how a gif does but just 1 quick flicker. We scroll back then to the pic again and it flickers again, so the next time I tell my friend you scroll and I will hit the buttons to screenshot. We did. It was a blurry mess. After about 15 mins of trying to figure out the pic I turn the phone and the jumbled mess is more clear but still got a haze or almost like a distorted filter over it. It was a pic of my friend and I in the basement that night. No biggie at first we thought maybe we hit the camera but after looking we noticed what was wrong. The pic was taken from behind us for one... Which was impossible being there was a wall behind us. The other issue is even if there was no wall, the pic would have been impossible for us to take being how we were positioned. She looked like she was sitting near the end of me or maybe the start of my legs. I was on my back, like a back bend almost and you could make out my arm going behind my head. I tried recreating the pic and had no luck within the several attempts I tried. Which I am a very persistent person and tried and tried and tried until we went and got food. (FYI none of us are friends anymore. Ended on bad terms and I'm not even sure if my old friend has the phone or pic anymore but to anyone else seeing it, it wouldn't be too weird unless you knew the room and the wall placement. I guess the weirdest part would be you trying to figure out how to pose for that pic without dislocation your shoulder) so anyways, after food we play more games and honestly had forgotten about the pic. It is probably 11ish or so with what comes next. For some context the only people in the house are my two friends, my stepdad/mom, dog (in their room with them across the basement hall), my cat (upstairs), and me. My friends and I are doing our thing and all of a sudden a scream in which I've never heard anything like in my life comes from directly above us upstairs. My description I give some people is like if you put an alien inside of big foot or something and let it burst out. It sounded like a beast or 2 fighting and ripping something apart. I'm not too easy to scare and it had me shaking. We all just sat there. One of my friends started tearing up and honestly, never blamed them for a second. I went across the hall and asked my mom and stepdad who were asleep if they heard that sound which they brushed off thinking we were just being teens. I finally talked one of my friends into going upstairs with me. When I opened the door my cat was standing 5 feet away with its hair raised looking terrified. We all know cats can make ungodly sounds that can wake the dead but this was no cat. For one, my cat was beyond chill. Hardly made a sound besides it plopping over to sleep. 2, just no. It was no cat. I checked every room, lock, and even walked outside to see if anyone else possibly heard the commotion. Found nothing. About 6 years later I am talking to my stepsister who use to live there. We were talking about how much fun we use to have there with our friends and swimming. Then she says that the only thing she hated was whatever was in the attic. I remember as a teenager she would always complain about it but I never heard anything up there and honestly so cliche that I brushed it off. However, the attic was the only place I never checked, and I am glad I didn't. If anyone knows of anything in the Centerpoint area I don't know about that could explain, feel free to post. I've tried finding answers. I am not one to say it is paranormal.... but it wasn't normal.

I have gotten rid of every single thing that remotely reminds me of you. I don’t even have pictures to look back on if I wanted to. I have nothing to mourn you anymore, just the memory of you and the pain that you’re gone. I am doing everything it takes to move on from you. I kept going to therapy, I started journaling, hanging out with friends, talking to family. I quit my job to focus on school. I still think about you every single day, I just don’t talk about it as much anymore. I still miss you a lot, I’ve started to remember the good memories of us too. I’m doing everything I can to avoid the painfulness of you until I’m more ready. I deleted Instagram, even Facebook. I park across the street to avoid the parking space where we broke up. I turn at certain streets to avoid your apartment because it’s too painful. Sometimes even hanging out with certain friends that I associate you with hurts a lot. I miss you so much. I miss you every single day. I know I hurt you a lot. I know I’m not in your life anymore and I know I’m nowhere near your best friend now. I’m really sorry for everything. You have no clue how many times I’ve wanted to talk to you and reach out and tell you how sorry I am, and how much I am still stupidly in love with you. I know you want nothing to do with me, and I don’t blame you at all. I am still accepting that we will never talk again. I am still accepting that I will fall in love with someone else again oen day, when I’m ready, and that you were not forever, no matter how much I wanted you to be. No matter how much deep down in my heat in my deepest thoughts, I still sometimes want you to be the end. I can’t keep on thinking like this, so I won’t. I’ve done everything right to move on from you. It’s been 2 months. I will be ok. Everything will be ok. There was a before you and I’ll be fine after you. I am so sorry for hurting you in the process. We both deserved better. I need to move on from you. It’ll be ok.

This is this sub's official pet checkpoint. We want to see your pets! All of the pets. Every of the pets (I hope my Kevin Malone (Office) reference doesn't go unnoticed there).
This is your weekly feel-good post to show off your precious animals. Let us shower your pets with love and virtual boops. Be sure to tell us your pet's name so we can obsess over them. Are you having a rough week and need a pick-me-up? Come hang out with all these cute pets and feel your worries melt away.
Pictures of David Eason are not allowed, as he is a swamp goblin, not a cute pet.

I know what your thinking, he’s just young and sensitive, his relationship doesn’t matter they are just teens. What do they know. To certain point I agree very much with that. I know we are just young and dumb and don’t really know what love or anything is. But I wish I had friends I could turn to and talk and feel comfortable and trust but no, I have no one so I’m turing to the people of Reddit. Not to mention this is my very first time doing this so please bare with me.
So I (M14) started dating my boyfriend (M15) a few months ago. We have been friends for almost 2 years now. My boyfriend is gay and I am bisexual. Mostly gay.. we all know what that means. I’d like to add my boyfriend has been in a few past relationships and they were all very toxic and unhealthy, I was his first ever actually happy, healthy relationship. I have only ever dated one girl but I ended things about 9 months ago after I came out to her. Me and my boyfriend met through some mutual friends. Every sense we started dating I felt like the luckiest guy ever.
My boyfriend is really sweet and caring he is also fairly attractive. Everything has been great we have done most things you would expect a couple to do. My boyfriend posts pictures of himself on his instagram, it is not uncommon for people to slide into his dms. When people text him he always tells me about it and shows me. About early this month about March 5th 2023 a guy, let’s call him Kevin (M17) started following my boyfriend. He told me about Kevin and like I said it’s not uncommon so I wasn’t to surprised. Once or twice my boyfriend mentioned Kevin but nothing crazy. I had told him it was cool for them to be friends because I trusted him.
About 4 days go by me and my boyfriend are hanging out together with some friends of ours and whenever me and him hang out we always put our phones to the side and spend time together. But this time I noticed he was on his phone a lot more than normal. I asked him about it and he just said it was nothing. I believe him and don’t ask about it anymore. This goes on for about 40 minutes then I ask him about it again and try to look at his phone, He hides it from me sometimes he has never done. I asked him what that was about and we get into a little argument about it. I chose to walk away I didn’t wanna make a scene with all our friends watching.
I don’t remember what it was but something came up and my boyfriend got really emotional and ran outside and started cry. I had gone into another room to give him space. I didn’t see he ran outside crying. I had no clue this was going on he was outside for about 20 minutes and then came back inside. His friend went out to comfort him. Once again I had no clue this was happening. Going back to the friend Kevin, he texted when he was outside and told him about the situation. Kevin started to comfort my boyfriend once again I had no clue this was happening. By the time I back back into the room where everyone was they had all came back inside and I didn’t even know what happened. No one told me or said anything. We went back to hanging out. The following day my boyfriend brought it up and asked why I didn’t come to help and comfort him. I explained that I had no clue and I was sorry.
About 3 days go by him and Kevin kept texting I thought it was just friendly texting because that’s what he told me. My boyfriend is also very emotional snd sensitive. Kevin was a really nice guy. He was very friendly a little to friendly I wish I said something sooner. I didn’t know Kevin was gay either. After those 3 days I noticed they got really close and texted all the time. It started to bother me a little.
One night I asked my boyfriend about it. He seemed very off and you could almost tell he was lying when he said they were just friends. I found out the next day when he feel asleep on my legs when we were hanging out and I went to take a picture on his phone and post it on his stores because he likes all that cute couple stuff. When I unlock his phone and go to his instagram I see his Dm open. Normally I’m not a nosy person but I couldn’t help myself to look at him and Kevin’s Dm. This next killed me. I felt like someone had just punched me in the stomach.
They had been flirting with each other sending all sorts of cute messages and good night and good morning texts with hearts and stuff. I don’t know why but when Kevin said “I really love seeing your name pop up on my phone” and my boyfriend saying “same I love seeing your name too” just completely crushed me. My boyfriend woke up and I was in a lot of pain and anger I didn’t say anything.
The next day I asked him about it and he came clean and told the truth. He was genuinely sorry and genuinely felt bad. I know ima dumbass for doing this but I love him. I told him he needs to block Kevin and make some changes such as being more open and communicating and some other stuff or I wanted to break up. He decided he would block him. He genuinely did care. This was on March 13th 2023.
On March 20th I build up the courage to ask to see all there messages and he shows me. It wasn’t as bad as I thought but it still really hurt me. This next part was out of pure jealousy and anger I know what I did was wrong. I created a fake instagram account pretending to be my boyfriend and text Kevin to get back at him. My idea at first was to act like I wanted him and to apologize for blocking him the just leave him after he would have came back. But my guilt came in mid way through I told Kevin what was actually happening and I told him I was sorry. I then told my boyfriend what I did. He was mad at me at first then he understood me. But Kevin Dm my boyfriend asking about what happened and because my boyfriend showed me there messages earlier that’s day he was unblocked. Kevin snd my boyfriend talked. After all three of us came to a understanding Kevin asked “so can we all be friends”
My boyfriend said yes. I said yes at first but then 1 day goes by and I knew Kevin still liked him and it was eating me inside because I didn’t want to be a controlling boyfriend saying they can’t be friends. Yesterday I told my boyfriend how I feel about everything he agrees to stop talking to Kevin but you can tell my boyfriend did still care for him. He felt bad because Kevin was a victim when he was younger. Kevin opened up to my boyfriend about it and tried him and my boyfriend had to basically tell him he didn’t wanna talk to Kevin after he opened up about that part of his life.
My boyfriend still sided with me and cute Kevin out. I felt great until last night. Me and my boyfriend finally got on good terms came clean and wanted to start fresh. We really did like each other and wanted to be together. As we were opening up he told me he still had feelings for Kevin and ever since I made them stop talking they got stronger. He “thinks about Kevin a lot “. I guess out of all of this my question is what do I do. I can’t get mad at him that’s not cool he opened up about it to me I don’t want to negotiate him and make him regret opening up to me. I just don’t know what I should do. It bothers me a lot but what can I really do.
If you got this far thank you. I know this probably doesn’t make any sense at all but I just don’t know what to do. I know we are young but I feel like I really do care about him.

Monday 27.03.23: Mont Blanc
Hybrid workout.
Pods: 1
Laps: 2
Sets: 2
Stations: 9
Timing: 40” work 20” rest

1. YBELL SIDE LUNGE SINGLE ARM UNDER GRIP
2. AGILITY LADDER DIAGONAL QUICK SLALOM
3. DUMBBELL SINGLE RIGHT HAND EXPLOSIVE JUMP INTO RENEGADE ROW
4. DUMBBELL SINGLE ARM OVERHEAD SIT UP
5. AGILITY BOX LATERAL RUN WITH TAP
6. SINGLE DUMBBELL ALTERNATE HANG SNATCH + ALTERNATE REVERSE LUNGE
7. STEP TRAINER HIGH SEAT SQUAT JUMP + FOOT RELEASE
8. SKI ERG STAGGERD STANCE
9. SANDBAG DRAG FAST FEET SPRAWL

Tuesday 28.03.23: All Star
Resistance workout.
Pods: 4 (3 stations per POD)
Laps: 3
Sets: 1
Stations: 12
Timing: 40” work 20” rest

1. DUMBBELL TRICEP EXTENSION PRONATION
2. KETTLEBELL ALTERNATE FLOOR ROW NEUTRAL GRIP
3. SWISS BALL PLATE WEIGHT CRUNCH
4. REVO ALTERNATE STAGGERED GOODMORNING FRONT
5. SANDBAG 45 DEGREE LUNGE
6. SANDBAG SUMO SQUAT BICEP CURL PRESS
7. SUSPENSION TRAINER CLOSE GRIP ROW
8. DUMBBELL FLAT BENCH ALTERNATE CHEST PRESS
9. MEDICINE BALL STRAIGHT LEG HOLD
10. BARBELL SUMO SQUAT
11. REVO DOUBLE ROMANIAN DEADLIFT
12. YBELL DOUBLE HAMMER CURL + ALTERNATE REVERSE LUNGE CENTER GRIP

Wednesday 29.03.23: Foxtrot
Cardio workout.
Pods: 1
Laps: 1
Sets: 4
Stations: 12
Timing:
Set 1: 45” work 15” rest
Set 2: 20” work 10” rest
Set 3: 45” work 15” rest
Set 4: 20” work 10” rest

1. YBELL SINGLE ALTERNATE CLEAN + PRESS OUTER GRIP
2. 1 X INCHWORM + 2 X JUMPING JACK
3. MEDICINE BALL CRUNCH + BUTTERFLY
4. PLATE SUMO SQUAT + BICEP CURL
5. SKI ERG EXPLOSIVE
6. 3 X BENCH HOPS + BURPEE
7. AGILITY LADDER SCISSORS
8. SINGLE DUMBBELL FORWARD LUNGE + DIAGONAL CHOP
9. BALANCE TRAINER JUMP ON OFF + 4 X MOUNTAIN WIDE CLIMBERS
10. ROWING MACHINE
11. DYNAMIC SOFT BOX CROSS OVER
12. DEADBALL OVER SHOULDER THROW

Some studios will be doing Wellmania.
This is a one off workout.
The intel isn't out yet, but the format will look like:
Extended warmup:
The extended warmup will provide an opportunity for members to get warm and have fun doing it led by Celeste Barber and Morgan Mitchell.
The workout:
9 Stations
3 Sets per station
60" work 20" rest
1 lap of the room
60” hydration break after 5 stations
Guided meditation:
The end of the workout will be a guided meditation from Celeste barber and provide a perfect bookend to an amazing workout.
Thursday 30.03.23: Red Diamond
Pods: 3 (3 stations per POD)
Laps: 1
Sets: 4
Stations: 9
Timing:
Set 1: 45” work 15” rest
Set 2: 40” work 20” rest
Set 3: 35” work 25” rest
Set 4: 30” work 30” rest

1. DUMBBELL ALTERNATE FLOOR PRESS
2. BARBELL BICEP CURL TEMPO 4-0-1
3. YBELL TRICEP KICKBACKS
4. CHIN UP UNDERHAND GRIP
5. DUMBBELL BENCH PULL OVERS
6. REVO STANDING DOUBLE SHOULDER PRESS
7. POWER BAND SEATED WIDE GRIP ROW TEMPO 4-0-1
8. PUSH UP DIAMOND PAUSE
9. PLATE UPRIGHT ROW CUBIN PRESS

Friday 31.03.23: Loyals
Hybrid workout.
Pods: 6. 3 stations per POD (A, B & C).
Sets: 1
Laps: 4 per POD
Stations: 18.
Timing:
Lap 1: 30” work 20” rest
Lap 2, 3 & 4: 20” work 10” rest

1. YBELL SQUAT UNDER GRIP
2. YBELL SINGLE CRUNCH + PUNCH
3. YBELL SINGLE ALTERNATE TRICEP PUSH UP TOP GRIP
4. AGILITY BOX HURDLE U LINE BEAR CRAWLS
5. AGILITY BOX HURDLE HIGH PLANK HURDLE TAP
6. AGILITY BOX HURDLE U LINE SHUFFLE
7. DUMBBELL ALTERNATE SINGLE BENT OVER ROW 5X5
8. SINGLE DUMBBELL FORWARD LUNGE + DIAGONAL CHOP
9. DUMBBELL SINGLE ARM PUSH PRESS 5 EACH SIDE
10. FEET OFF CORE HOLD
11. FEET UP TWIST CRUNCHES
12. HIGH PLANK + SHOULDER TOUCH
13. SANDBAG KNEELING ARC PRESS
14. SANDBAG SNATCH
15. SANDBAG BENT OVER ROW WIDE GRIP PULSE
16. PUSH UP TEMPO
17. PULLUP SUPERMAN (LYING) 18, BURPEE

Saturday 01.04.23: Track: Partner workout
Hybrid workout.
Pods: 1
Laps: 2
Stations: 18
Timing:
Lap 1: 90” work 10” rest. Lap 2: 60” work 10” rest.
Members will work in a you go I go format, by alternating every 15” during the working sets or completing 5 reps each one partner at a time

1. SOFT BOX STEP UPS YGIG
2. SQUAT PULSE YGIG
3. YBELL PUSH-UP + BENT OVER ROW YGIG
4. PLATE GOODMORNING YGIG
5. DUMBBELL CURL PRESS YGIG
6. SKI ERG & HIGH KNEES COMBO
7. SUSPENSION TRAINER BICEP CURL YGIG
8. BICYCLE CRUNCH PARTNER HOLDS HOLLOW BODY POSITION YGIG
9. 4 X BENCH HOP + BURPEE YGIG
10. DUMBBELL ROMANIAN DEADLIFT YGIG
11. PLATE THRUSTER YGIG
12. BURPEE + JUMP ON PLATE YGIG
13. BIKE SPRINTS STANDING YGIG
14. SWIMMER PUSH UPS YGIG
15. YBELL SINGLE CLEAN AND LUNGE YGIG
16. COMBO RUSSIAN TWISTS + 10 X MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS YGIG
17. SKIPPING YGIG 18, SLED PUSH

Sunday 02.04.23: MKatz
Resistance workout.
Pods: 1
Laps: 2
Sets: 3
Stations: 9
Timing:
Set 1: 35” work 10” rest
Set 2: 20” work 10” rest
Set 3: 20” work 20” rest
With a little surprise at the end: a 2 minute plank (30” x 4 variations of plank).

1. BARBELL UPRIGHT ROW
2. DUMBBELL ALTERNATE REVERSE LUNGE
3. BARBELL PUSH PRESS
4. KETTLEBELL ROMANIAN DEADLIFT
5. DUMBBELL GOBLET SUMO SQUAT PAUSE
6. SANDBAG BENT OVER ROW OVERHAND GRIP PAUSE
7. DUMBBELL FLAT BENCH PRESS
8. REVO GOOD MORNING - BACK LOADED
9. YBELL DOUBLE BICEP CURL TWIST CENTRE GRIP

Kartho awoke at 9am the next morning. When he finally got dressed and went downstairs, he checked the job board and saw that three jobs had already been claimed by his younger companions.
“These kids waking up early,” he muttered snarkily. “Who are they trying to impress?”
After wolfing down a quick breakfast of eggs and some kind of mystery meat that appeared to have been from a reptilian animal of some sort, he walked back to the board and perused it for his first big solo job. A lot of them were typical “go here and slay this” sort of thing, but one near the bottom caught his interest. He leaned down and carefully read the job’s background:
Forest spirit sword stolen.
A tribe of forest spirits attempting to locate a ceremonial wooden sword used in their rites of passage have tracked it to a wealthy aristocrat right here in Port Jona. Archibald Falcon, CEO of the Falcon Merchant Guild, was recently featured in a photo in the Port Jona Times, showing the sword encased in glass in his mansion on the north side of the city.
Enclosed was the picture in question. Falcon was a tall, thin man with round glasses and slicked-back black hair. He had a smug look on his face as he stood in front of a series of shelves lined with treasure. On one of the shelves was the sword in question. It was smaller, like it was designed for one-handed use. Despite being wooden, it didn’t look like a child’s toy. It was intricately carved with many curves and curls. Set near the crossguard was a citrine gem.
“Time to rip off a rich fellow,” Kartho said, tearing the flyer off the board and signing his name on the blank sheet of paper behind it, signifying he had claimed a job.
After leaving the Meadowbirds’ headquarters, Kartho made a beeline for the district where Falcon’s mansion was. It was a residential district near several merchants’ districts, all of which sold high-end items. When he got there he was almost disgusted by how decadent the homes were. The houses were enormous. Each of them were made up of multiple wings and towers. The grounds for each home were wide and sprawling, each of them gated. Guest houses and servants’ quarters were also present. Many of the homes, though not all of them, had private guards stationed at the main gates. Falcon’s home was one that was guarded.
“Paranoid son of a gun,” Kartho said as he observed it from the opposite street corner. The guards briefly glanced at him, but he moved away before they could get suspicious. A block away, he paced, thinking of how he could get in. His grounds were somewhat lacking in thick vegetation, which meant less cover. He was also sure that all entrances and even most windows would be guarded.
“-think the event will be a smash hit.”
A voice spoke from around the corner. Kartho barely heard half the sentence before he turned his attention toward it. Two human men in fine clothing were walking together down the street.
“Ah yes,” said the other man. “Old Archibald hasn’t hosted a party of this caliber in several months. I hear everyone who’s anyone is going to be there.”
“Will Falenias have the gall to show his face?” asked the first man. “His business took a tanking recently. If he had any decency he’d stay away from this.”
“He is certainly not coming,” the second man replied. “I spoke to him yesterday when he came begging to me to help bail him out. He said something about sequestering himself in his office for the next week to find a solution to his financial problems.”
“As well he should,” said the first man. “If he has any desire to remain in high society-“
But Kartho was no longer listening. He dashed down the street and away from the two men. He had an in to Falcon’s house. He was going to impersonate Falenias and crash the party.
It didn’t take long to find out who Falenias was. Kartho visited the nearby merchant districts asking about him. He was the leader of a guild that was falling on hard times due to corrupt business practices. His face was featured in the Port Jona Times a handful of times in the last month alone. Kartho returned to his room at headquarters and stood in front of his mirror along with a photo of his mark. He spent the next hour or so applying illusion magic to himself. He grew his hair so it fell to his shoulders and changed it from black to bright flaming red. His skin reddened slightly, and his irises changed to bright amber. He pulled on his ears until they elongated and pointed, looking perfectly elven. He even managed to increase his height a few inches. He estimated Falenias at six feet, two inches. He then finalized his facial features and transformed his clothing into finery befitting the event. Once he was sure he was done, he twirled around once.
“Mr. Falenias, I presume?” he asked his reflection. He wasn’t sure what Falenias sounded like, so he hoped others wouldn’t notice. He also hoped that the elf’s status as a disgraced businessman would mean nobody would want to be seen with him, so nobody would approach him for a conversation.
When the time for the party had approached, Kartho wandered into the wealthy district and approached the main gate of Falcon’s mansion. Already a large crowd of partygoers was walking past the guards. When it was Kartho’s turn, one of the guards approached and put his hand up.
“Name?” he asked.
“Falenias,” Kartho uttered, trying to sound as self-important as possible.
The guard muttered and looked at a sheaf of parchment he was holding.
“Says here you declined your invitation.”
Kartho scoffed. “So I’m not allowed to change my mind?” he asked condescendingly. “Do you know who I am? I make more in a day than you do in a year. Now let me through!!”
He shouted the last part. The guard, taken aback, jumped a bit and gestured for Kartho to enter the grounds. He smugly turned his nose up at the guard and walked in.
The grounds were well-lit, with large electric streetlights dotting the landscape. As he saw from outside the gate, Falcon’s lawn was flat and featureless. There were several benches, walkways, and reflecting pools, but other than the odd shrub here and there, there was nothing in the way of cover. Partygoers mingled about, munching on tiny hors-d’oeuvres and drinking expensive drinks through tall thin flutes that looked like you couldn’t even get a buzz from one.
“This party sucks,” Kartho muttered under his breath. That didn’t stop him from grabbing three drinks and a handful of snacks when the servers came by him.
“Loading up on free stuff now so you don’t starve later?” asked one of the guests. Kartho just snorted and glared at him before chugging his drinks.
After a while, Kartho meandered into the mansion itself. The entryway was as obscenely huge as he imagined it would be. A grand staircase was in front of him. Below it was a massive bronze statue of a falcon, easily the size of a full-grown Amazonian. The floor and pillars in the room looked to be made of solid jade and marble, respectively. Above him was the most intricate chandelier he had ever seen. More guests were crammed in here with even more servers laden with countless items.
In the brighter light, many guests turned toward him and sneered. Kartho thought to himself that people really hated Falenias right now. After a few minutes the sneers subsided. It seems nobody wanted to even associate with him, as he predicted. Anyone he approached turned away or even walked away. This was good, he thought. Nobody would think to follow him or distract him.
Finally, he had thought it was time to slip away. He walked to the nearest server and cleared his throat.
“Excuse me,” he asked. “Where’s the little elf’s room? I do feel I’ve had a bit much to drink.”
“Right this way, sir,” said the server, gesturing for Kartho to accompany him.
The server led him away from the crowd and down an empty hallway to a closed door.
“This is the powder room, sir,” the server said. “I’ll wait out here to escort you back to the party when you’re finished.”
Kartho thanked him and entered the room, shutting the door. He waited about thirty seconds before knocking.
“Excuse me,” he said, “but I think this toilet might be broken.”
He opened the door for the server, who walked in. Kartho closed the door behind them and stood behind the server as he walked to the toilet.
“Looks fine to m-“ the server began. He couldn’t finish, as Kartho hit him over the head, knocking him out.
“Sorry, buddy,” he said, “but I need your face.”
Kartho muttered an incantation and the features of Falenias melted away, returning him to normal. He examined the server for a few seconds and applied another spell, transforming him into the server, clothing and all. After locking the door behind him, Kartho stepped out into the hallway. It was empty as before.
Kartho strode confidently down the hallway, looking around for the room in the newspaper photo. He opened a few random doors but couldn’t find the room in question. He read that Falcon was a bachelor, having only servants and guards in the house with him, so there was no risk of stumbling across a family member. He did encounter a few other people, but none of them paid him any heed, assuming he was just part of the staff.
He was going down a corridor on the second floor of the main wing when he could hear someone yelling behind him.
“Berriss!!” called the voice.
Kartho turned to see another server walking quickly towards him.
“Where the heck were you?” he asked. “I need you back outside serving drinks. You don’t get paid to take a stroll through the house.”
“Sorry,” Kartho replied. “Mr. Falcon just said he needed me to go get his, um, spyglass, from his treasure room. But I got lost.”
The other server shook his head. “A year here and still getting lost? You know I only hired you as a favor to your parents, right? Keep doing this and I’ll have no choice but to let you go. Third floor, east wing. Get it and get your sorry self back to the party. You’ve got five minutes.”
The server bounded away. Kartho went the opposite direction, back to the east wing and up the stairs.
Once he got there, the room was easy enough to find. It was bigger than he thought, with every wall covered in shelves stocked full of every item Falcon had collected over the years, save for one which had a giant set of glass double doors opening to a balcony. The items ranged from simple things like wooden figurines to solid gold magical contraptions. Sure enough, the sword was right where it was in the photo. Kartho opened the glass case and hid it away in a pocket in his clothes.
“What are you doing here?” yelled a voice.
Kartho turned around. Falcon was standing in the threshold of the doorway, a venomous look on his face.
“This,” Kartho said, pulling out a small pellet and slamming it to the ground.
The room was instantly filled with pitch black smoke. Having memorized the layout of the room beforehand, Kartho made a beeline for the double doors and slammed through them. He quickly bounded up the roof, running across it until he was away from the treasure room.
The guards must have seen the glass shatter, because all of a sudden they were scattering across the grounds like ants at a picnic. Kartho removed his disguise and crouched on the edge of the roof, looking at them, his vantablack clothing keeping him safer.
“Crap,” he spat. “Can’t do an unnoticeability spell either. Not while they’re actively looking for someone.”
He scanned the grounds looking for an opening, but the guards were too well-dispersed and it was too well-lit for him to get away without being seen.
“Guess we’re doing things the sloppy way tonight,” he said, and plummeted off the roof onto the ground. He sprinted full-on for the edge of the grounds, heading straight for the fence. He could already hear voices yelling behind him. He ducked as he heard a whistle, a crossbow bolt missing his head by less than an inch. When he got to the fence he pulled himself up and over in one motion. Quickly he bounded into the street, turning random corners and hoping the guards wouldn’t chase him beyond the grounds. He managed to make it back to the merchants’ districts without incident. Thanking his lucky stars, he took the long way back to headquarters in case he was being tailed.
Kartho entered the main doors of Meadowbirds HQ and slammed the sword down in front of the guild member in charge of job progress that day.
“Got the sword,” he said, doing a two-finger salute. “The spirits can rest easy.”
The guild member took the sword and handed Kartho his payment of fifty gold. He pocketed it and walked away. He joined his party, each of them enjoying a large mug of ale and a huge plate of food. They cheered and raised their mugs to him when they saw him.
“All successful jobs today then?” Kartho asked.
The rest of them nodded and smiled. Kartho recanted the events to them, and they stared, wide-eyed. They chuckled at a few of the parts.
“Sounds like a fun time,” Shade replied. “A bit less messy than my job.”
“Why?” asked Kartho. “What happened on your job?”
Previous Chapter: https://www.reddit.com/redditserials/comments/10pthew/len_in_the_outlands_port_jona_arc_chapter_16/
First Chapter: https://www.reddit.com/redditserials/comments/ukahtf/len_in_the_outlands_fledgling_arc_chapter_1/

Months after the founding of the Rebellion, Leia had a chance to lead the liberation of Lothal. She then came up with a plan to bring down the Imperial presence in one fell swoop.
Leia: Thanks to Ezra and the Ghost Crew, we have the perfect strategy to remove the Empire. When my ship lands, Kanan will disguise himself as a stormtrooper tasked with guarding me and…
While the plan was being discussed, Ahsoka received a transmission from one of her most trusted agents.
Ahsoka: What is it, Kallus?
Kallus: Thrawn is cracking down on sabotage. The new commander has a brutal way to keep citizens in line and has tanks roaming the wide streets. If I'm found out, he'll execute me.
Ahsoka: Thank you for the information. If you see a trooper and a scout or cadet, they are our agents. Intercept them if they finish their recon.
Kallus: Even though they won't trust me.
Ahsoka: Yes. Make sure that the Empire is held back while we complete our mission.
Kallus: I'll do my best, Fulcrum.
When Kanan arrived with Princess Leia, The Empire had escorted them both to the main base with Ezra posing as a scout trooper needing to test out some patrol bikes. When Ezra was watching the workers, he saw them get lined up by Thrawn and forced one of them to "inspect" their work. As the factory worker was pushing the bike to its limits, the bike exploded and the worker that was thrown off died on impact. Thrawn expected every detail of these bikes to be checked and double checked before sending them to the field. Kanan was then told by Leia to make sure the troops prepared a secure location in the city for her to reside. Kanan then continued to patrol around looking for more men to adhere to their guest's demands. Ezra then moved to the training ground before contacting Kanan about receiving the codes to remove the ship clamps.
Ezra: Spectre-1, I'm at the speeder garage making my way to your location. We need the Princess to make a distraction.
Kanan: I'll contact her and let her know that a rebel force is heading her way.
Kanan then switched channels to create a diversion that Leia will put the Empire on high alert for a supposed rebel attack.
Kanan: Princess, we have a situation. Rebels are coming in through the outskirts and sneaking through the slums. We need to move you to a secondary location.
Leia: Copy that, Spectre-1.
She then feigned fear when she ran to the nearest Imperial officer and told him about the Rebel attack.
Officer: Lock this location down after we evacuate and relocate to the secondary residence!
Stormtrooper 1: Yes sir! This way, Princess.
As Ezra blended in with the biker patrol group, he then made his way to the facility where Kallus oversaw the troop deployments. Kanan made his way with a squad of "stormtroopers" and reported the attack to the nearest officer when Agent Kallus stumbled upon the "frightened" trooper commander.
Kallus: What's the situation here?
Kanan: As I was telling the officer, a rebel attack is happening and they are sneaking through the slums.
Just as Kanan finishes his report, Ezra comes speeding towards the vehicle depot with Zeb in the Phantom chasing him down and seemingly shooting at him. When he got past the AT-DPs, the Phantom pulled out and Ezra ran to Kallus trying to report his view on the attack.
Ezra: Sir! Sir! The Rebels! They… they have air support and wiped out my entire squadron. I managed to escape and need-
Kallus: Calm down, Trooper. Both of you come with me. The rest of you, hold this depot.
Rex, Mech, Massiff Squadron: Yes, Sir!!!
When Kallus, Ezra, and Kanan were alone in a turbolift, Kallus revealed that he was Ahsoka's Fulcrum agent on the planet and was updated on everything they needed.
Back with the Ghost crew, an old friend of Ezra's parents, a former mayor of his hometown, snuck the rebels in through the sewer. Hera, Sabine, Ahsoka, and Zeb, as well as Chopper were brought to the surface and they saw a huge plethora of Imperial vehicles patrolling the wide streets from AT-DP walkers, TX-225 armored tanks, AT-AT walkers, and TX-130 fighter tanks.
When X1 oversaw the patrols, He began sensing that some of the troopers weren't who they said they were. He then found a group of Stormtroopers guarding the depot when it was predominantly abandoned due to all hands being needed to protect the rest of the base.
X1: What is your purpose here, trooper?
Mech: We're under orders to protect the depot in case the rebels try to destroy any means of patrolling the city or intercepting them.
X1: This depot isn't a target for these rebels. Who gave you these orders?
Rex: That would be Agent Kallus, Sir.
X1: Let me through. I have important information that Kallus needs to know so he can capture these rebels alive.
Howzer: Kallus ordered us that no one, not even other Imperials, enter the main offices due to the rebels possibly using disguises.
Back with the Ghost crew, Kanan and Ezra took the working Speeder and got it to the Ghost and went back to get the clones at the vehicle depot. X1 activated his lightsaber and threatened to cut down the next trooper that defied him. As X1 entered the turbolift, he saw a barely conscious Kallus on the ground with broken transparisteel panels.
X1: Agent? Agent! What happened here?
Kallus: The rebels broke in and I was thrown through these panels and-
X1: Listen, if the rebels have access to any information on any drives they may have taken, you will be replaced indefinitely.
Kallus: I can spy on their communications through one of the radios I confiscated and keep in a safe location.
X1: Outside of Imperial jurisdiction? What are you planning exactly, Kallus?
Kallus: If I can get to the comm channel through said device, I can affirm whether or not they have any stolen information.
X1: Alright. I'll put together an escort-
Kallus: No! I need to do this alone.
X1: Given your rank, you need one.
Kallus: Since we didn't expect their attack, they won't expect an Imperial Agent spying on them from outside the city.
X1: Fine. Get there and report your findings.
Kallus: Yes, commander.
X1 then hailed Grand Admiral Thrawn who was near the governor's building aware of the attack.
X1: Grand Admiral, I have troubling news.
Thrawn: I am aware of the rebel attack, Commander. Is it about Kallus?
X1: Yes, Sir. I have reason to believe that he is the mole for these rebels, and that a Jedi is part of the rebel assault.
Thrawn: Thank you for confirming our suspicions, Commander. I will handle Kallus myself. You take on the Jedi, and let the rest of the troops round up the rest of them.
When the rebels made it to the surface, Hera radioed to Chopper to fly the Ghost to pick up Kanan, Ezra, and the clones. What stopped the duo of Jedi was a cold presence exiting the offices with a lightsaber drawn.
Ezra: Is he-
Kanan: With as cold as we are feeling, I don't think so.
X1: Killing the Grand Inquisitor, bold move. Putting a target on your back, however; very, very stupid of you.
Kanan: If you think we should fear you, you've got another thing coming.
Ezra: Do you even know how to use a lightsaber? Looks to me like you're only playing Jedi.
X1: Allow me to show you, boy.
As the pair went against the JT clone, X1 delivered a flurry against both opponents using Form 1 with ferocious swing to Ezra's blade opening the boy up to a knee in the stomach and a clash with Kanan. This ended with X1 pushing his saber aside and headbutting Kanan to disorient him. X1 then tried to deliver a killing blow to Ezra but Kanan blocked it. Ezra tried getting up, but X1 used a massive Force push into the ground making the three of them bounce. Ezra was winded but quickly recovered and began an offensive flurry of his own with Kanan attempting to attack his sides. After X1 opened Ezra up he landed a kick to his gut which sent him flying until he was gripped with the Force and thrown behind X1. As X1 was about to cut Ezra in two, Kanan slashed at X1's right leg and brought him to a kneel, but X1 used his signature tactic of feigning defeat until Kanan got close enough to strike, then X1 turned on his downed leg and slashed Kanan's eyes, blinding him almost permanently. Ezra got up and used whatever saber attacks he could to break the Imperial officer. X1 dodged every single swing and dismantled the boy at every turn with a kick to the gut, a punch to the left shoulder, and a backhanded fist across the same cheek. Ezra then in his exhaustion landed a couple blows against X1's chest before getting thrown out of the Vehicle depot, Imperial disguise in shatters.
After the Ghost landed, Zeb hurried and grabbed Ezra, but Ezra was trying to lift Kanan and bring him in, but Hera took off on Kanan's orders to leave him. X1 had Kanan restrained and brought to the prison complex in the city. Ezra and the Ghost then had to make it to the landing pad where Leia’s ship was and release the clamps, When the clones got off, they pretended that they were holding off rebels when a TX-225 rolled to their position. An Imperial gunship had escorted Princess Leia to the ship and Leia had the information she needed sent by chopper into another code cylinder that she swiped from the officer she groveled to for help. Back where Kallus found the comm he had in Ezra's home, he began coordinating the rebels escape from the city and let them know about a starfighter program and contingencies for if Lothal wasn’t kept in line. Just as Kallus was about to explain the final contingency plan, Thrawn had shown up in an Imperial troop transport and went up to the single room building alone.
Thrawn: The Commander and I were right to be suspicious of you.
Kallus: You were killing workers needlessly! This is perpetuating the rebel attacks, not stopping them!
Thrawn: Perhaps you've forgotten that the Empire rules through fear, and which side you align with.
As the two engaged in hand-to-hand combat, Thrawn got the upper hand by landing a decisive blow to Kallus's right temple and landing a kick to Kallus's gut causing the traitorous agent to fall, only to be caught by X1 with a captured Kanan Jarrus in tow.
Back with the Alliance, they reported that they got the Intel, and that Kanan got captured. This prompted another strike on Lothal, but the target based on the intel given by Kallus meant that they were going to infiltrate the TIE Defender program.
Meanwhile, Thrawn had begun further reinforcing the Empire’s presence in the area. X1 then started getting a strange feeling that something was off in the Force.
Thrawn: Something the matter, Commander?
X1: Yes, Sir. Just got a migraine. A very troublesome migraine at that.
Thrawn: Don’t play it off as something minor, Commander. I know you have the abilities of Lord Vader. What was it you saw?
X1: THere’s a temple and other artifacts a few miles from there. A… a mural of sorts is inscribed there… AAAAAHH!
Thrawn: Lieutenant, get the Commander to the Medical Bay and contact Lord Vader. WE’ve found something that the Emperor may find Interesting.
Officer: Yes, Grand Admiral.
Back with Lord Vader, he was on Kamino tending to his secret project; cloning Starkiller. For months he had been attempting to find the perfect clone, but when it came to the final test, all of them had failed. He periodically checked on his clones to see how long they would survive isolation.
During one mission to Cato Neomoidia, which hadn't seen activity in decades, General Rahm Kota, Chirrut Îmwe, and a squad of rebels were sent to bring down the Imperial moffs, and gain Neomoidian support for the war effort. Bail Organa knew that he had a few operations going simultaneously and knew he only needed to call of Kenobi or Yoda in case of emergencies. Juno Eclipse was in command after Kota left for the mission, and she hoped that the mission was to be short.
Back on Atollon, Wolffe had pulled Mech aside and gave him a new long term assignment.
Wolffe: Mech! Can I see you for a moment?
Mech: Yes Sir! What do you need?
Wolffe: We have an AT-TE from the last War that would be beneficial to the defense of the rebel base on Yavin. Since you have the most training on piloting Walkers, we need you there to help train the rebels in case they overtake one of the Imperial's.
Mech: Yes, Sir! Right away, Sir! Men, I need a hand getting this AT-TE loaded…
As Wolffe ordered pilots to make a trip to Yavin 4, Many assets were being allocated to rescuing Kanan and liberating Lothal from Imperial rule. As Ezra regaled about who he and Kanan fought, a certain squad became interested in the mission.
Ezra: He was dressed like an Imperial Officer, but he wielded a blue lightsaber. He wasn’t a Jedi, or an Inquisitor. He was something else.
X2: Commander Bridger, did he look anything like me?
Ezra: Now that I examined your face, yeah, he did.
X2: You just met my twin brother, X1. HE and I served together in the Clone Wars from the Invasion of Tatooine to the Battle of Cato Neimoidia. What happened after Cato Neimoidia, I wholeheartedly regret until defecting before the Empire attacked Dantooine.
X2 looked shaken, pale, and began to sweat over all the Jedi he killed, and rewound all the way back to Ferroda. Ezra and the rest of the Alliance were shocked about X2’s actions in the Empire, but Rex, Howzer, 78s, Ramm, and Vice remembered that day, the Jedi they fought alongside, and the brother they lost, Solar.
On Kamino, Vader had began a holocommunication to Crosshair about his next mission.
Crosshair: Yes, Lord Vader?
Vader: Report your progress for your mission on Ferrix.
Crosshair: A fugitive who is known by a recently deceased woman has escaped the system, but the ISB have a couple of tails on him throughout the galaxy.
Vader: Where are these tails following him to?
Crosshair: From what I overheard, he was headed to Jedha to meet with a rebel cell there.
Vader: Good. there is an Imperial Garrison that will hunt him down and hand them over to the ISB. Report to Kamino for your next mission.
Crosshair: Yes, my lord.
When Crosshair landed near Vader’s TIE Advanced X1 fighter, he exited and walked to meet the taller figure and kneeled in subservience and respect.
Vader: Rise. Your new orders are to go to dantooine, and place a beacon near where the rebels hold their prisoners. You may recognize the location. If any important Imperials are imprisoned there, activate the beacon, and a rescue team will be there to extract them, compile the list as the beacon is active.
Crosshair: What of the rebel presence there? If they are taken out, many would surely notice. If I use my signature reflecting pucks, some are going to recognize my work and hunt me down.
Vader: The clones will not be stationed on Dantooine. It has been a long time since they even saw you. You have the element of surprise on your side. Bury the beacon deep so that nothing can detect it.
Crosshair: I will leave at once, my lord.
Vader then saw the second of his most trusted agents leave for a mission as he returned to finding the right clone.
With the Alliance, Ezra then began to take a command role due to his knowledge of the planet and wanting to rescue Kanan. Ahsoka was the only other Jedi to lead an attack. He then explained his plan with a mix of real tactics he picked up from the last excursion and throughout his time with the Ghost Crew.
Ezra: Here's the plan: Now that we know that The Empire has tanks and walkers patrolling the larger areas, we're gonna need all the heavy firepower on the ground to take them out or use them against the other tanks and walkers. I'll lead a squad to rescue Kanan in the prison complex, Ahsoka, you lead the primary attack near the Governor's building. Thrawn should be there.
Hera: I know you want to save Kanan and drive Thrawn away, but there are times where we have to make a choice.
Ezra: We've pulled simultaneous attacks ever since we joined the Alliance. This is pretty much SOP at this point.
Sabine: We also have to take down the TIE Defender project. If we let them go, they will decimate our assault on the ground and any air support we try to bring in.
X2: If you need a good squad of pilots and soldiers, we can go with you, Sabine and pilot some of the Defenders. This could even teach us how they work.
Sabine: Alright, that part's covered.
Ahsoka: What about the rescue effort?
Wolffe: I'll help on the ground. I have to find some excuse to show these troops that I still got it.
Ezra: Alright, Wolffe, you, Rex, and Gregor will help lead the rescue on the ground. I'll sneak in using our old friend, and Hera, you join Sabine for the TIE Defender raid. Ahsoka, you go with the clones.
Hera: Where will you be?
Zeb: Alright, Someone's gonna have to look after this kid. I'll go with you and get you to the prison on the far side.
Ezra: Sounds fine to me. Everyone knows their places?
Sabine, Ahsoka, Rex, X2, and Hera affirm their parts of the plan and begin loading up into the Ghost, Republic shuttle, and X-wings.
Meanwhile with the Empire on Lothal, X1 is in the middle of torturing Kanan with 2 sapphire blades when a trooper gave him orders from the Emperor himself.
Stormtrooper: Sir, The Emperor wishes to make contact with you.
X1: Have someone take over his torture with a strong mind while I'm with the Emperor.
Stormtrooper: Yes, Sir.
When X1 made it to his war room, he activated the holocommunicator display and bowed to the projection of Palpatine.
X1: My Emperor, it's an honor to receive communications from you.
Emperor: Rise, Commander. I have been told that you found something that warranted my attention.
X1: Yes, my Emperor. There is a temple here, miles from the city with two symbols at the entrance to it.
Emperor: Has this been recorded in Imperial documents?
X1: No, my Emperor.
Emperor: Then how do you know?
X1: The method I had attained this knowledge from is, I had a piercing headache and suddenly, I saw it.
Emperor: You saw the temple without going near it?
X1: In short, yes, my Emperor.
Emperor: [Thinking] This could only mean… [Exit thought] How long has Vader been training you?
X1: Almost a year, my Emperor.
Emperor: Your newfound abilities have revealed a Jedi secret. I still have use for you, Commander. Lord Vader will continue to train you, and you will capture the jedi and force them to open it. During all of these events, you will only be an assassin, not his apprentice.
When X1 brought Kanan to the hidden temple, Vader's castle aide, Venee, arrived as a scholar of the Force, who also allocated Imperial resources to another location on Lothal which was more powerful than the temple, unbeknownst to the commander.
X1: Who might you be?
Venee: I've seen you tour and train at the castle from time to time. You were just too focused on training to notice me. No need to worry, Commander. Your secret with Lord Vader is safe with me and his castle walls.
X1: Thank you.
When the rebels launched their multi-pronged attack on the Empire, Ahsoka and the clones patrolled the city quarter for any heavy Imperial reinforcements, Sabine and X2 led grey Squadron to covertly recon and destroy the TIE Defender program, Ezra and Zeb went to scout out the prison before Ahsoka and the clones rendevouzed with them after eliminating the Imperial presence in the city and slums. FIxer, Boss, Wolffe, and Gregor joined Rex on the ground and each clone had an old PLX rocket launcher to take down the walkers and tanks. Ezra and Zeb made short work of the small Imperial patrols around the prison, but X1 had a plan of his own.
X1: What can you tell me about this temple that was in my visions?
Venee: The Temple has two sets of symbols each in their own circles, but it requires both a master and apprentice to open.
X1: I beat back a younger boy who was fighting alongside the Jedi I captured weeks ago. No doubt he’ll try to rescue his master.
Venee: Then you have your apprentice to open the temple. I will be at the mural if you need further guidance.
X1 then returned to his post in the prison, and received an communication from Admiral Thrawn.
Thrawn: Commander, We have tracked the rebels’ flight activity and tracked them to the Atollon system. We are going to send an Imperial garrison there if the Rebels escape. What is your status?
X1: Grand Admiral, We found the artifacts that the Emperor is looking for. Vader’s aide is at one of them and I am going to transport the Jedi prisoners to the temple.
Thrawn: You expect to take another Jedi captive, Commander? It must be a powerful artifact in the temple.
X1: Yes, Grand Admiral. The temple requires both a master and an apprentice to open it. These jedi will be the keys.
Thrawn: Quite a find and quite a puzzle to solve. The Jedi are a lot more protective of their secrets than we thought.
When Ezra and Zeb made it into the prison, he gave Chopper orders to fly overhead and do a recon flight for any incoming Imperial air support. When Ezra found Kanan in his cell, Zeb got a hold of him and attempted to escape, but X1 threw the Lasat against the wall with Kanan knocked out and Ezra to fight the brutal Imperial commander. After Ahsoka left the main square and the surrounding areas with vehicles behind repair, Ahsoka activated her blades and joined Ezra in his duel wil the Imperial commander. X1 had a chill run up his spine as he activated his sapphire blade and blocked strikes from both Jedi but after a large force repulse, Ahsoka and Ezra were thrown back and the clones and Stormtroopers fought over Kanan. Ezra ordered Zeb to retreat and fight back to the Ghost, and when Zeb exited the prison, Chopper used the Phantom to pick him up and get Zeb to the pilot seat of the Ghost.
Meanwhile with Sabine, Hera, and Grey Squadron, X2 took two of his men and sent the rest in the air awaiting a signal for support. Sabine disguised herself as an Imperial Ace and learned how to fly the hexa-winged craft. Hera did the best she could, slicing into a stowed fighter, giving the Empire a diversion. One of the other pilots in the program was a young Wedge Antilles who had doubts about the Empire, but knew he had to stay below the Empire's radar. X2 and his squadmates had to disguise themselves as stormtroopers, despite the discomfort of the armor plating.
X2: Greys 5, 2, and 4, commence flyover.
Greys: On our way, Commander.
Hera: I sliced into a stowed Defender, Spectre-5, are you in the air?
Sabine had to switch channels temporarily since she was also communicating with the controllers on the ground.
Controller: Cadet, Cadet! What's wrong?
Sabine: Nothing, Ground Control. I'm alright. Had to find the right channel, and accidentally hit something on my helmet.
Controller: We just saw rebel fighters fly overhead! Take them down!
Sabine: Yes, Sir!
Back with Hera, the Twi’lek finally got a stowed ship in the air and she ordered X2 and the squad on the ground to fire on her as she was taking off to give Sabine two "problems" to worry about.
Officer: What happened, trooper?!
Grey 3: A rebel stole one of the fighters! We tried to stop them but they took off!
Grey 6: We have to warn the test flight.
Officer: Alright, you three. Come with me!
X2: Yes, sir!
As the officer and 3 "stormtroopers" made it to the testing ground, Sabine had to shoot down 3 X-wings and another TIE Defender to sell the deception. Hera then ordered everyone in the air to stall their engines for a brief moment and begin the assault.
Officer: She got them!
Ground Control: Go investigate the crash sites and kill any survivors!
Grey 6: Yes, Sir!
Just as the order was given, Sabine and Hera destroyed the stowed fighters in the hangar and the X-wings destroyed the landing platforms. As the fighters made their getaway, the "stormtroopers" feigned being killed and when the Officer's made their way away from the destroyed test field, X2 and the others made their escape.
Before the test flight team evacuated the area, the ground control hit a control that deactivated the engines and made the fighters crash land inbthe hills below. Among the pursuing Imperial forces was the pilot Wedge who had a decision to make. Something that he remembered Sabine saying before her flight stuck with him and what he had been thinking to himself ever since he got to the Academy. He then stole the officer's pistol and killed the other Imperials. After Hera got the tactical computer off of her ship, the Imperial transport that Wedge rode in was being used by the rebels and defector to head over to the prison.
Back with Venee at the Mural, he began organizing patrols around it in case the temple was opened and other forces were about to converge. X1 had captured both Ezra and Kanan, and Ahsoka and the Clones evacuated the Ghost. Hera tried to get a hold of Ezra, but had no response.
Hera: Spectre-6? Spectre-6, do you copy?! Blast it! Wedge, regroup with the rest of our group. Chopper, Bring the Phantom in case we need an extraction!
Chopper boarded the phantom and sped his way to his mistress's location and what awaited her were two death troopers and the familiar Chiss who had taken over her family home.
Hera: Not this slimo again.
Thrawn: Syndulla. Pleasure to see you again. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
Hera remembered the psychological torture she endured at his hands on her home planet and knew she had to prove she was not the scared child she was.
Back at the Temple, X1 threw both Kanan and Ezra to the temple entrance and ordered them to open it.
X1: Don't even think of standing up before that temple is opened. The first to refuse, the other loses their head!
Kanan and Ezra remained calm and did their best to open the temple, but Ezra's anger kept making the temple close again. X1 had both of their lightsabers in his hands and was about to slice them both until Ahsoka blasted X1 with a Force push. As the two clashed, Kanan and Ezra made their escape, but X1 pursued them in Imperial transport gunships and Kanan was knocked off due to a blast on the rear passenger wing into the power station. Kanan made sure to grab the sabers before escaping and hid amongst the generators.
X1: How noble of your friends to save you both, but you and I both know that the galaxy is better off without the Jedi. No wonder you had to hide who you were for so many years.
When Kanan hid behind one stack of generators, X1 had his blade to light the way until Kanan heard a voice or two that was familiar. The other two jedi that had been blinded by the dark side communed with Kanan from Cato Neimoidia Jedha guiding his actions as the two blind masters meditated. The duel was going smoothly for Kanan until X1 began planting explosives around the generators in an effort to kill the Jedi. As Kanan landed a kick to X1's chest, making him lose balance as the two dueled on top of the power generators. X1 had used his lightsaber to assist in climbing back up, but Kanan held back the explosions and X1 used the Force to jump away from the station and evacuate the erupting power station.
When Ezra, Wedge, and Sabine broke Hera free, Ezra and Hera boarded the stolen gunship and made their way to Kanan. As the blind Jedi teacher stood on top of the generator, holding back the flames and energy, the voices told him to surrender to the Force and much to the dismay of the Ghost crew, just as Kanan's eyes were allowed to see his friends, and his love for the last time, he refocused all the energy that he had keeping both the flames and his friends at bay, he moved his friends and love to safety as he let the flames and energy engulf him as his essence became one with the Force.
Ezra: No! I had so many questions! Who will continue my training now?!
Sabine: He was the best of all of us! Why did the Empire have to take him?
Hera couldn't make out any words other than a sob because the last time she was close with Kanan, she allowed herself to be physically vulnerable, and it was the only time she would get to feel that way with him.
Back with the Empire, X1 reported that the Jedi died in the blast. Venee was about to protest that it was a bad move, but then remembered that only one was needed to interact with the mural.
X1: Admiral, The jedi is dead. We can't open the temple anymore.
Thrawn: How unfortunate. We might as well destroy it then.
Venee: Admiral, Commander, may I interrupt?
Thrawn: Proceed, Aide.
Venee: The temple may be closed off, but the mural is not, but only requires one jedi to interact with it.
Thrawn: If we can manage to reclaim one Jedi, we can see what the mural can do.
X1: I will make sure that task becomes no problem.
Thrawn: Excellent, Commander. You will be in charge of Lothal in my absence. Governor Pryce will be en route to the municipal building in a few hours. Prepare for her arrival.
X1: Yes, Grand Admiral.
Back on Atollon, the clones, Jedi, and rebels began to mourn the loss of another Jedi. Ezra, Hera, and Sabine were the ones who were hit the hardest, while Zeb and Chopper set aside their differences for a good while. As the funeral proceeded, Thrawn was watching from probe droids he sent to survey the rebel cell and waited for the moment to strike.
Officer: Why do we wait to attack when we can strike now at their weakest?
Thrawn: An enemy in mourning is an enemy driven by passion, emotion, and clouded judgment. When the enemy has a clear head, they are easier to read and take down.
Officer: We should just attack while they are defenseless.
Thrawn: Then we would be no different than them. We must show that we are a civilized entity that respects the dead whether friend or foe.
Elsewhere in the galaxy, Vader returns to Kamino after another clone of Starkiller had survived the cloning process. When he landed his TIE Advanced X1 fighter, he made his way to the training chamber for the clone. Vader had a small glimmer of hope that this clone would prove efficient for his purposes of ending the rebels and assisting him in usurping the Emperor.
Vader: You still live.
StarkillerC: How long?
Vader: One month in isolation. Astonishing.
Starkiller: Everything I need, I have in the Force.
Vader: Rise.
The Starkiller clone then stood on his feet and Vader began instructing the clone on what he needed like he did all the others before him. As he watched the test that the clone had partaken in, the clone was about to strike down the image of Juno Eclipse, but he hesitated. Vader began to hang his head in shame until he heard another saber ignite through the image’s chest.
Vader saw the image fall as the clone’s eyes turned a sith yellow and his skin slowly begin to pale. This was the clone he needed, but Vader knew that in order to surprise the rebellion, he had to capitalize on a clone escaping and bringing the rebels to them on a silver platter.
StarkillerC: What is thy bidding, my master?
Vader: Remain in these facilities until the Rebels come here. If the clone brings the rebels here and attempts to execute me, you will do what it can not.
StarkillerC: Yes, master.
Meanwhile on Dantooine, Crosshair found the rebel prison and planted the beacon. All that needed to be done was return to Kamino and make sure that Vader's plan, or at least one of them, unbeknownst to the loyal Imperial clone, succeeded.
Back with the Ghost Crew, Ezra had continued to grieve and make his way to the one who had been teaching Kanan whenever they were on base. This being was the Bendu and the young Jedi knew that in order to put an end to Thrawn, his emotions needed to be put to the wayside. As he continued talking to The Bendu, he meditated to find Kanan in the Force.
Captain Eclipse was worried about Kota, but knew that she ordered him to stay and he refused.
Bail Organa had checked on his forces and saw that the clones became combat instructors for the rebel forces.
Back over Atollon, Juno had met Commander Wolffe and the two began discussing different operations.
Wolffe: Captain Eclipse.
Juno: You must be Commander Wolffe. It's a pleasure to meet you.
Wolffe: Likewise. I see you're planning a mission to Cato Neimoidia.
Juno: Yes, my general had gone against orders again and began attacking an Imperial target there, but was captured and the squad was killed.
Wolffe: I once knew of a pair of Jedi that went against orders.
Juno: Were you a veteran of the Clone Wars?
Wolffe: I was. From the battle of Abregado to the Invasion of Cato Neimoidia.
Juno: I remember reading about the Outer Rim Sieges at the Imperial Academy. What was your role in the battle?
Wolffe had given her the story of his involvement and his regretful actions due to the chip in his head.
After X1 ended the Jedi he made his way to his quarters where a holocall from Lord Vader was waiting.
Vader: Venee tells me that a Jedi is dead.
X1: Yes, my master, but at the cost of the city power station. This can be spun into a relief effort, I know it.
Vader: I am not worried about the Imperial logistics, Commander. Your new orders are to meet me on Kamino. Your skills need further tuning.
X1: Yes, my master. I will be there in two rotations.
When X1 arrived in Timira city, he was greeted by Vader and led to a secret training room where X1 began to feel something was off about the room. He then felt the presence of another Force user in the room and Vader stood aside and watched his clone take on his apprentice. When X1 began to use foresight, he blocked the incoming strike. After blocking 5 more, he was disarmed.
Vader: Your form is slow, rigid, and blunt. Meet Starkiller, or the closest thing. This is the boy I had trained unbeknownst to the Emperor.
X1 then realized what he had to do. Defeat this clone and Vader would award him his own Destroyer.
The clone had begun his barrage of attacks that made X1's look like a grown adult beating up a child. As the duel slowly began to favor X1, he saw the clone attempt Force lightning and X1 used his anger and attempted to do the same with surprising success. After X1 won the lightning clash, he began to take to Form VII and Form IV to beat down the clone. When X1 was about to stab the clone he suspended both of them with the Force.
Vader: Well done, Commander. Your destroyer has been ordered to arrive within hours. As for you, you must train harder against enemies with sabers and blasters alike.
As the three separated, a shuttle landed on the platform at the end of the walkway. X1 thanked Vader with a kneel and boarded the shuttle.
Back with the Rebels near Atollon, They see a couple light cruisers nearing the base. Thrawn then sees two Jedi defending the entrance but as the Stormtroopers fail to penetrate the Base's defenses, Kallus, who happened to be on the vessel, escapes his restraints and continues leaking plans to the rebels at their war room. When Ezra retreated, he was found by some death troopers and he took them down. The death troopers surrounded Ahsoka and began trying to stun her. She had remembered the training Anakin put her through, as well as her and Rex defending against the clones aboard the venator above Lubang Minor. In the near constant array of stun blasts, Thrawn threw an arc detonator and knocked out Ahsoka with the electric shock.
The Empire then dragged Ahsoka's body aboard the light cruiser and Thrawn began to try breaking down Ahsoka to make her open the mural for Vader's aide.
Kallus then added the details he's learned to the rebel cell and Ezra used these details to update his plan. As Ezra adjusted his plan to include rescuing Ahsoka from Thrawn’s grasp and moving different troops to each task. Ezra had put his emotions away due to the tragedies the alliance had experienced. As the final preparations were made to go back to Lothal, Ezra stopped by the Bendu for guidance and counsel in the Force. After a few guiding words from the entity who is neutral in the Force, Ezra had a resolve like no other.
Back with the Empire, Ahsoka was placed in front of the mural examining the three figures that she remembered interacting with on a distant planet called Mortis. As she examined the mural she then took a look at another owl-like creature flying to one perch on the rock face. She had been referring to the bird as Morrai, which for Ahsoka, who she thought was the embodiment of The Daughter. What the Force had concealed from the Togruta was that it was actually Ahsoka herself that was The Daughter. The memories of her time on Mortis came rushing back to her as she was being forced to open the mural.
When Ezra and the Rebels landed, Rex and Wolffe then took Grey Squadron along with Kallus to sneak past the Imperial patrols. Ezra ordered Sabine, Hera, Zeb, Chopper, and X2 to follow him through the slums and look for a ship to get to the rural landscapes where the mural had been located while disguising himself as a scout trooper with Sabine joining him in this endeavor. When the transport was secured, Hera took the controls, Zeb helped X2 with a supposed prisoner transfer, but they were infiltrating the municipal grid.
Before the assault began, Sabine had a few unresolved feelings she felt Ezra needed to be made aware of. As the two shared their first loving embrace, it calmed both the Jedi padawan, and the mandalorian outcast and helped them compose themselves. As Rex, Wolffe, Gregor, and X2 began conducting the guerilla warfare in the streets, Ezra and Sabine took disguises as Scout troopers stationed at the Mural, Hera provided transport for the clones, Zeb had been flying the Phantom for additional air support.
When Ezra and Sabine began to interact with the Mural, the pictures there began to move as Ahsoka began to mimic applying the Force to it as she saw two Imperial Scouts touch it. As the pictures on the mural turned black, X1 and Venee forced Ahsoka to touch the moving artwork only to see her hands go inside it like it was a body of water, discovering that it was a portal to a different location, possibly a different realm.
Venee: This… is a… portal?! The Emperor will be very pleased with this discovery.
Ezra: Where does it lead?
Venee: From what I have researched, it is to a realm where history is spectated as if it were windows to shops in an urban district.
When Sabine began to inquire about it, since she was the only non-force sensitive of the three, she embedded a code word for Ahsoka to hear and pull them into the portal and the rest of the team to come and assist them.
Sabine: If this is a portal where you could see other moments in time, would it be possible to change some of the events of the past?
Before Venee could answer the question, Ahsoka had pulled her sabers to her and she threw both Ezra and Sabine into the portal and followed suit as the Empire tried firing into the realm before they were ordered to focus on the threat behind them. Ezra began to meditate and before the rest of the combatants knew it, Loth-wolves had joined the fray, pouncing and ripping the stormtroopers to shreds.
As the three examined the realm they were now in, they had heard multiple voices, through multiple different portals, some familiar from events of the past, and others that were strange from events of the future. One of these portals had recently opened and revealed an ominous figure standing near a cauldron of blue flames.
Emperor: You three have interfered in matters you know nothing of. Now you will experience the full power of the Dark side!
The Emperor then began to use the flames to engulf the 3 in sith magic as he began an incantation in the ancient Sith dialect and the three ran in search for the portal they entered from.

I posted this long multi-comment thread on the megathread last Sunday, and several people suggested that I make it its own post, so here goes. Note this post is lightly edited from the original comment to improve readability and preserve some arguments made by another commenter in that thread without me having to do the hard work of editing the whole post to reflect their well-taken counterpoints. For those who read the original, it hasn't changed in any significant way except that one link. This post is largely my own analysis supported by links to a variety of credible sources.
Dr. Sovietlove; or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Bakhmut
Many people on the daily megathread or on Twitter have been arguing that holding out in Bakhmut has caused enormous and unsustainable Ukrainian losses which will compromise their future offensive potential, and/or that Soviet-style leadership is the only reason the Ukrainians have held on to Bakhmut for so long. Much like during the Battle of Severodonetsk, I think a lot of people are overreacting to events in the Donbas and that the Ukrainians might have a perfectly reasonable strategic justification for continuing to defend Bakhmut. I have a few hypotheses about the situation and put together some analysis and sources to support those conclusions below.
My hypotheses in brief:

1. Ukraine effectively has two armies, one post-Soviet and one NATO. UAF high commmand has recognized that they have to fight the Russians with an only partially modernized military which includes significant numbers of officers, soldiers, and equipment not suitable for NATO-style warfare. They recognize that you can't "beat a large Soviet army with a small one." They have therefore formulated a strategy to use the post-Soviet and NATO-style units where their particular strengths are most relevant, and are largely resourcing and employing them separately as a result.
2. The UAF is aggressively applying economy of force principles, which dictate that an army should devote the maximum amount of resources to their primary effort, while allocating the smallest amount possible to any secondary efforts. Thus, the Ukrainians are committing the fewest possible resources to holding the line of contact in the Donbas while reserving as much as possible for their primary effort, which is the coming counteroffensive.
3. Ukraine along with their allies and soft power proxies such as friendly journalists, whether knowingly or not, have been engaged in a disinformation campaign designed to lure Putin into committing the last of his mobilized reserves to an assault on Bakhmut in the last days of the mud season before the Ukrainian spring counteroffensive.

I'd like to emphasize that these are assessments backed by analysis and facts which you can check yourself below, but are definitely not by any means 100% certain.
Two Armies
The post-Soviet army can be characterized by its leadership, organization, and resources.

• Leaders tend to be older senior officers trained under Soviet regime pre-2014, although the culture also pervades lower ranks (although that is unsurprising given leadership influence). These officers are often difficult to retrain in the field, tend to punish rather than encourage junior officer initiative, and prefer top-down command-and-control style.
• These units include many irregular formations, e.g. TDF and National Guard. Of the regular army units in this mold, they tend to be those low on the priority list for upgrades, e.g. motorized brigades that haven't been uparmored to mech brigades yet, and/or ones with the largest proportion of Soviet-derived equipment.
• Many such units are organized as light infantry, typically either motorized or TD brigades, sometimes airmobile. So not much armor or IFVs, unlike what is seen with the regular army mech brigades. Instead they largely rely on many of the thousands of IMVs and APCs donated by western allies for some amount of armored mobility.
• Much less training than regular army in some cases. In the first few days of the war, many of these units were literally just the volunteers that showed up and were handed rifles with no questions asked.
• More conscripts and fewer volunteers being used to provide replacements for these units.
• Fewer professional military officers. Hence reports like this one about an officer seeing 100% turnover in his battalion until he was the only professional officer left.

These units are generally not going to be as useful for offensives, but are certainly capable of holding a fortified defensive line, albeit likely at dreadfully high cost in some cases. Light infantry are surprisingly resilient to artillery fire when dug in properly, and so are an effective check against the (apparently declining) Russian artillery advantage. ATGMs and mines also make it possible for them to resist all but the most carefully coordinated combined arms assaults, which are a vanishingly rare occurence coming from the RuAF. And these units were relatively cheap to equip and quick to train. So they are well-suited for countering the three primary Russian numerical advantages in artillery, armor, and raw manpower, at least while fighting defensively in prepared positions.
On the other hand, their NATO-style forces are better suited for combined arms maneuver warfare and thus offensives. They emphasize distributed decision making, tactical flexibility, and robust communications between different units and levels of the command. That enables flexible coordination of multiple capabilities on the attack, such that defending against one capability makes defending against the others harder. e.g. suppressing entrenched infantry with artillery while mechanized units traverse open killing ground during an assault in order to bring their tank and IFV guns to bear on those infantry to suppress them after the artillery lets up. Ukraine is in the process of building out or deploying around 20-28 new brigades of this type. I feel a little bad sourcing to a comment from this megathread rather than a credible third-party source, but offogredux puts together truly excellent summaries of the current structure of Ukrainian forces, so why reinvent the wheel? Plus their information matches what I've seen elsewhere, including the less consolidated information available here on militaryland. Notably, some units are being built around smaller veteran battalion- or regiment-sized separate units that are upsized to brigades, while others are entirely new formations, but likely include substantial numbers of veteran leaders at all levels.
Ok, so where is this "NATO" army?
There are reports of extreme deficits of NATO-trained personnel at the front, which are typically presented as a sign of Ukrainian weakness (n.b., see below for more on why to treat any Ukrainian-sourced reports of Ukrainian weakness with a healthy dose of skepticism). Often sources attribute the deficit to high casualty rates among those personnel during the earlier stages of the war. Best estimates are that the Ukrainians have lost around 120k soldiers. They started the war with around 250k personnel, of whom perhaps 20k were US-trained veterans.
Since then, the UK, EU, and US have trained something like an additional 20k+ soldiers (possibly with some overlap with the other 20k, but likely insignificant numbers if so), with plans to expand training for tens of thousands of additional troops over the next year. So even if every single one of the pre-war NATO-trained personnel are casualties, the total number of NATO-trained personnel in the UAF has at worst remained constant, at best it has doubled, and in any case it will only continue to grow as the western training programs ramp up and the Ukrainians disseminate those skills by assigning NATO-trained personnel to their own training centers. (Note: when I first posted this, VigorousElk made an excellent counter-argument to this point here which is worth considering and I didn't want to cut out of the conversation by moving this to a text post. I don't think it undermines the overall thrust of the argument, though.)
However, the overall proportion of NATO-trained personnel in the UAF has almost certainly declined because mobilization has likely increased the total size of their forces by more than a factor of two, so the overall proprtion declined even if the total number of NATO-trained soldiers actually did double (which is very, very doubtful and the 40k number should be treated as an extremely loose upper bound). That proportion is probably even lower on the front lines if the UAF have allocated those soldiers to new unit formation and units held in reserve for the upcoming offensive. So even if the Ukrainians haven't experienced particularly high casualty rates among such soldiers, we should expect to see far fewer of them on the lines right now. Meaning we can't infer the execess casualty rate from the composition of front line units, as many commentators have, nor do we need a particularly high casualty rate to explain why there are so few of them at the front. Just the formation of so many new brigades must have sucked up all of the available experienced junior officers and NCOs, especially if the UAF are trying to concentrate NATO-trained personnel into specific units. Again that doesn't mean they haven't experienced high casualties, just that the issue probably isn't as bad as some of these articles have made out.
I suspect some of the authors of these articles have taken that position because of selection bias, e.g., Franz-Stefan Gad, who visited the front near Bakhmut with Michael Kofman recently. If you are only visiting the units that are intentionally being staffed with fewer NATO-trained personnel, you shouldn't be surprised to see fewer NATO-trained personnel. Their absence doesn't indicate permanent backsliding across the entire UAF, demonstrate the incompetence of the Ukrainians, nor prove that the Ukrainians have suffered anything near 100% casualties among their NATO-trained NCOs. Instead, it just reflects the relative prioritization of scarce resources by UAF command. In a recent War on the Rocks podcast episode, Kofman specifically pointed out that his visit (and by extension his companions' visits) did not involve any kind of general or systematic survey of the Ukrainian forces, and so any conclusions based on his observations should not be taken to be totally representative of what is happening across the entire UAF right now.
Cool. Where are the "Soviet" units then?
It helps to put yourself in Zaluzhny's shoes here. You have two big chunks of your armed forces that operate in very different ways and which are suitable for very different tasks. You are finding it difficult to encourage the newly mobilized senior officers to let go of their Soviet habits, but you also need them because there is no one else who is immediately prepared to lead newly mobilized formations. So you make the obvious, logical decision to use the Soviet-style mobilized commanders how and where you can best make use of them, while hopefully keeping their habits contained and isolated from your more professional units. The best place for those commanders in this war is probably on the defensive in the trenches, where rapid decision-making around complex maneuvers is less often necessary, light infantry can be effective at attriting enemy armored and maneuver forces, individual soldiers don't need as much training to be effective, combined arms operations are less frequent and more easily choreographed, the risk of catastrophic failure is less, and logistics are dramatically simpler than for an offensive force on the move with many vehicles requiring ammo, fuel, and maintenance.
The allocation of armored assets supports this conclusion. Per Oryx, Ukraine has received almost exactly the same number of Soviet-derived tanks from their western partners as they have lost so far in this war (488+ donated Soviet-variant tanks versus around 477 lost). Plus captured Russian equipment, they almost certainly have more armor available now than they did at the beginning of the war, not even taking into account the impending introduction of western tanks. Yet there are reports from the front lines that armor is relatively scarce and lightly used. It seems the UAF have combined multiple brigades into ad hoc corps or divisions along stretches of the line of contact (what Jomini calls a "defensive grouping") to fill in the gap left by the absence of real formations above brigade size in the Ukrainian ground forces TOE.
That grouping often consists of several lighter brigades holding the front line backed by a smaller number of more professionalized and/or heavily armored mech or armor brigades as the reserve. e.g., the UAF defensive grouping around Bakhmut in February, which consisted of two mech brigades backing two TDF brigades, one airmobile brigade, and one marine brigade, all equipped exclusively with Soviet-derived armor and IFVs, along with limited quantities of older western IMVs and APCs like the M113. So light infantry in the trenches, with armor in the rear to plug holes or provide indirect fire support. This approach allows the UAF to allocate the fewest number of regular mechanized and armored army units to the front, freeing up capacity for re-equiping and training for an offensive. It also puts the least amount of strain on their tank and IFV supplies, by making heaviest use of their soon-to-be legacy vehicles, which are also conveniently the ones more Soviet-minded commanders are most familiar with. Hence the relative dearth of armor at the front, even though we should expect more tanks and IFVs than were available at the beginning of the war. The reduced armor commitment comes at the expense of the light infantry in the trenches, who absorb Russian attacks without the benefit of enough tank or IFV support. Further evidence for the idea that lighter forces reliant more on IMVs/APCs form the bulk of forces around Bakhmut includes the UAF charging Russian lines riding M113s in the vicinty of Bakhmut literally yesterday. Which feels a bit like the modern equivalent to the apocryphal story about Polish cavalry charging tanks during WW2, but I guess they have to make do with the tools available.
Does the presence of Soviet-influenced commanders at the front indicate that the decision to hold Bakhmut was made by such officers blindly applying Soviet doctrine? I would argue probably not. Syrsky and Zaluzhny have long-established reputations as very much not that sort of officer, and both have reviewed and approved the decision to hold in Bakhmut. More importantly, and without relying on an appeal to their authority, there are sufficient strategic and operational justifications to continue the defense there, even if it is on less favorable terms than other defensive efforts across the front. Specifically, attriting Russian reserves to reduce their resistance to an offensive, much like what happened in Kharkiv last August.
If attriting Russian reserves is the goal, how can these conscript-heavy formations with Soviet-style leadership best do so?
Right now, Russia only has a single division held in reserve. That would be the 2nd Motorized Rifle Division, elements of which have likely been committed to combat already. This reserve exists to exploit any breakthroughs achieved by assaults on the Ukrainian defenses and to plug any holes in the Russian lines resulting from UAF attacks. If the reserve is depleted before the Ukrainian counter-offensive, the UAF will be able to achieve much more progress much more quickly. Once they breach the Russian lines, there is nothing to stop a penetration into operational depths. Even though the Russians have fortified extensive fallback positions on secondary lines throughout occupied Ukraine, they need reserves to hold those lines if the front lines are penetrated and the Russian units there are unable to withdraw to secondary positions in good order. Withdrawal under fire is a challenging task and one for which only the VDV has demonstrated any capacity on the Russian side. There is also no new wave of Russian mobilization yet to provide any further reserves any time in the near future. Thus, the more Russian reserves the UAF can burn through now, the better their chances on the offensive will be.
There's been a lot of talk about the loss ratio between the belligerents and how that ratio makes a retreat from Bakhmut likely necessary, but ultimately the loss ratio matters less than absolute numbers of Russian reserves attrited. Because the Russians are nearly out of reserves, a UAF attrition strategy may tip them into a full-on rout. If the Ukrainian leaders knew objectively they needed to inflict 1000 more casualties on the Russians to achieve victory, it would be worth losing many times as many Ukrainian soldiers to inflict those casualties. Achieving victory is often worth accepting unfavorable loss ratios, otherwise no one would ever go on the offensive. In any case, the friendly-to-enemy casualty ratios are still almost certainly in Ukraine's favor simply because they are defending, and there have been no serious reports at all that suggest any departure from that norm. So we aren't even talking about the Ukrainians suffering an unfavorable loss ratio at all, just a slightly less favorable one when compared to real ratios from different areas of the front or when compared to hypothesized loss ratios at proposed fallback defensive positions. Rob Lee and DefMon thus both make variations of the same error. They failed to compare the loss ratios around Bakhmut to the expected loss ratios for the offensive, because ultimately the Ukrainians face a choice between attriting the Russian reserves around Bakhmut now, or when they are on the offensive.
Why don't the Ukrainians retreat and get an even more favorable ratio in a better position?
First, because the Russian offensive will culminate in Bakhmut (or it already has) and the RuAF will likely enter an operational pause because of depleted offensive power. That pause will likely last longer than the Ukrainians plan to wait for their counterattack. Basically, only the possibility of victory in Bakhmut can induce the Russians to continue wasting their soldiers lives so recklessly before the spring. Second, because the current loss ratios are pretty well understood and relatively predictable, which is not necessarily true if they retreat. Retreating under fire is challenging even for elite units, and results are naturally unpredictable. Assessing the hypothetical defensibility of any fallback positions is also challenging, especially with sufficient accuracy to be able to meaningfully predict what kind of loss ratio improvements you might gain from repositioning. Third--and this reason is entirely hypothetical--it is possible that the Ukrainians have sufficient intelligence about Russian reserves to know exactly how long they need to hold out, and so perceive the hopefully quite proximate end to a battle that appears to us as outsiders as a limitless meatgrinder that will continue to waste Ukrainian lives indefinitely into the far future. Essentially, they know the price they are paying and what they are getting for it more precisely than we do.
In contrast, on the offensive, the UAF will likely experience a loss ratio that favors the Russians, even if the offensive is generally successful. The exchange in Bakhmut will be particularly favorable if they are able to trade less well-trained conscript formations for the few remaining high quality Russian formations such as Wagner's assault units and the remnants of the VDV. Notably the VDV played a critical role in holding the line in Kherson and delaying the UAF's offensive there until the successful Russian withdrawal across the Dnipro, and it seems reasonable that the Ukrainians don't want to see a repeat delay that may buy time for subsequent waves of Russian force generation. Bottom line, the Ukrainians need to fight these Russian reserves no matter what, and it will nearly always be more favorable to fight them on the defensive than offensive. The challenge with fighting them on the defensive is that the Russians need to agree to go on the offensive first, which means the Ukrainians need to fool the Russians into thinking an attack benefits their strategic objectives. Blessedly, the "we are lucky they are so fucking stupid" guy continues to be the reigning champ of summarizing this war in a single laconic sentence and the Russians have been willing to oblige the Ukrainians with attacks all throughout the mud season.
But by "fool the Russians", I really mean fool Putin. He is micromanaging the war, even dictating decisions at the level of colonels or brigadiers such as when to commit reserves, and that likely includes the much more momentous decision to commit the very last of their available combat reserves. He has repeatedly pushed the RuAF to make objectively poor military decisions for political purposes, and he does not receive reliable information, because he has reduced his circle of confidants to only a couple of advisors who largely tell him what he wants to hear and he does little to gather his own independent information.
Putin is also a classic bully in the distinctive style of the KGB, as Yale professor of history Timothy Snyder describes in an interview here. Their method is always to look for an opponent's weaknesses, and then to ruthlessly expand and exploit those weaknesses. Probably worth mentioning that Timothy Snyder has met with and advised Zelensky directly, so his views aren't just an academic theory, they reflect and influence the views of the actual Ukrainian decisionmakers. Those decisionmakers clearly understand that Putin's instinct is to attack weakness with maximum force, and therefore carefully shape perceptions of Ukrainian weakness to mislead Putin into attacking the wrong targets. I mean, it's pretty widely accepted that the Ukrainains signal weakness intentionally when trying to attract western support, so why should it be surprising that they apply the same techniques to deceiving Putin?
And that is also another reason why the Ukrainians can't just throw their best troops into the battle. If there were no weakness around Bakhmut, the Russians would simply stop attacking with those critically valuable remaining high quality VDV formations.
What weaknesses should the Ukrainians use to mislead Putin?
Putin is not an idiot, so the UAF can't simply invent weaknesses out of thin air. Instead, they have to find ways to exaggerate some real weaknesses while downplaying others. In this case, I think they are combining their very real Soviet-hangover leadership weakness with their related difficulties around conscription to lure the Russians into attacking Bakhmut under unfavorable conditions. Specifically, I am referring to the stories around conscription problems which imply manpower deficits across the board for the UAF and stories suggesting the defense of Bakhmut will compromise future UAF counteroffensives. Playing up those particular weaknesses presents an ideal picture to appeal to Putin's prejudices and his desperation for a politically palatable conclusion to the hostilities. If you blame Soviet-style leadership, it makes the Ukrainians look dumb and incompetent for not retreating, and suggests they remain saddled by the same legacy that has so limited Russian military capabilities during this war, which plays to Putin's belief in Russian superiority. It also suggests to Putin that not only can he achieve the minimally viable political victory he so desperately needs by taking Bakhmut, he can also compromise the Ukrainian ability to conduct future counteroffensives with the very same blow, opening the way for a negotiated settlement that freezes the current lines (plus/minus changes around Bakhmut). It's really the best remaining even theoretically conceivable outcome for Putin, and many of the recent stories and leaks from Ukrainian-aligned media seem perfectly crafted to suggest continuing to attack Bakhmut could very well achieve that outcome. Suspiciously perfect, I would argue.
There have been few reports of widespread difficulty around draft dodging in Ukraine until quite recently, well into the battle for Bakhmut, when suddenly a flood of stories appeared in the media about people avoiding conscription and Ukrainian officials aggressively conscripting people against their will, e.g. from the Economist and Newsweek. Which struck me as odd, considering that the Ukrainians have more than a million reservists and earlier in the war had far more volunteers than capacity to train them for at least the first six months of the war. Even as recently as December, Zaluzhny said that the UAF does not have manpower issues so much as a need for armor and munitions. So where are the volunteers, why are the units around Bakhmut being reinforced with untrained conscripts, and why all the news stories about aggressive conscription? My hypothesis is that the volunteers are funneled into the more NATO-style units, most of which are currently in reserve or training behind the lines, while the Soviet-influenced commanders are given conscripts (at least as a preference if not as a hard rule) and are burning through them faster than other units, mostly in the Donbas meat grinders around Avdiivka and Bakhmut. The prioritization of allocating volunteers to the more NATO-oriented units makes a lot of sense in that context. Mission command requires motivation and self-direction, which you are more likely to find in volunteers. Conscripts can perform at wildly varying levels, and generally can't be relied on as much to take initiative, and so are a better fit for the top-down Soviet command style. This preference or bias could also come about naturally because of self-sorting, as more Soviet-style commanders may be more willing to take on reluctant conscripts than more NATO-oriented leaders, and older officers steeped in Soviet doctrine will have more relevant experience for leading formations with older Soviet kit.
If that's how recruits are being allocated, it explains some of the resistance to conscription, because conscripts are disproportionately funneled straight into the meat grinder by default. For example, the story that has made the rounds of a soldier who received only five days of training before being deployed to Bakhmut. That soldier's experience doesn't mean the regular army volunteer units are having difficulty filling out their TOE or training their soldiers, just that some of the units most reliant on conscripts are. Notably his formation was the 101st Brigade for the Protection of the General Staff, which may be just about the most irregular unit in the entire UAF command structure, outside whatever chaos-demon worship seems to be happening over in the Ministry of Interior. The 101st is actually directly part of the General Staff, rather than assigned to an operational command, unlike every single other combat unit in the regular army.
So I don't know that his experience can be considered particularly representative, although it very well might be for conscripts with the bad luck of ending up in a Soviet-style unit that also happens to be committed to intense combat operations. But that's not all the units by a long shot. It's likely that for every soldier like that around Bakhmut, there are multiple comparable conscripts assigned to relatively quiet or less intense AOs where they are given the opportunity to learn some basic military skills on the job from the more senior members of their unit. So this would actually be a good way to increase their training pipeline, if somehow they could both predict where attacks would come with 100% certainty to avoid allocating untrained conscripts there and yet still somehow need to maintain high force density throughout the front, which seem like mutually contradictory propositions. It's a morally questionable but potentially effective technique for growing the training pipeline if they allocate excess untrained conscripts evenly across the front without regard to the risk that they will be thrown into combat unprepared, which this story seems to suggest may be their practice. It would also be an excellent way to make use of excess conscripts who were recruited primarily to mislead Russia about the level of manpower issues the UAF are experiencing, too.
This strategy of allocating resources across units suggests losses around Bakhmut won't compromise any offensive, because the offensive units are drawing on entirely different recruitment streams, training resources, and equipment types than the defensive units are. The conscript-heavy formations on the frontline at this very moment are serving to absorb Russian attacks and burn through Russian reserves while the more professional units prepare for an offensive that has the potential to be decisive. If it seems unfair to give worse equipment to the people doing the harder fighting right now, just remember economy of force. Bakhmut is secondary to the offensive. In the longer term, the recruitment challenges won't matter as much once the current Russian reserves are exhausted because the meat grinder will be over, and the UAF will no longer need to feed it. By the time Russia can generate any further forces for their own offensives, the Ukrainians will be over the hump in terms of adopting western tanks, IFVs, and combined arms doctrine and will have slack to retrain the units currently holding the lines to meet the same standards.
But what about the spring offensive?
The only contrary evidence to that assessment are reports, usually sourced from anonymous US or NATO defense officials, that western officials are telling the UAF that defending Bakhmut may compromise their ability to conduct a spring counteroffensive. Which really makes no sense at all to me, based on what formations and equipment types are allocated to Bakhmut. The reports are anonymous and lack any supporting detail beyond the basic claim. As I described above, the units around Bakhmut aren't the kinds of units the Ukrainians are likely to use on an offensive in the near future. I therefore tend to dismiss those anonymous reports as leaks intended to spread disinformation, and in particular to invite the Russians to feel confident in committing their reserves to an attack on Bakhmut.
The Russians (and more to the point Putin) may conclude that it's worth burning through their reserves if doing so compromises the Ukrainian ability to counterattack, and these leaks seem suspiciously well designed to invite that conclusion. If the leaked reports about compromising the offensive were true, they probably would not have been leaked at all, because they reveal an actual Ukrainian weakness in a manner which does nothing to protect that weakness. Contrast that scenario to leaks about the dire need for more long range artillery from about a year ago. Russia could absolutely figure out that the Ukrainians needed better long range fires on its own, so the leaks didn't risk revealing new information, yet did actively invite a solution in the form of western donations. Whereas the leak about Bakhmut (if true) just airs Ukrainian dirty laundry, with no real hope of changing the Ukrainian decision or bringing in additional western support. Meaning, it would be a disloyal leak, of which we have not seen many if any from the US/NATO side during this war (potentially not including the general jockeying between the allies for position around major weapons contributions like tanks). Basically the leak was like saying, "Oh no, Putin, whatever you do please don't attack Bakhmut, anywhere but there!" Something tells me the Ukrainians aren't inclined to give Putin good advice about how to hurt them.
Playing the conscription issues up in the media only serves to draw Russian attention to that weakness, too. So why are the Ukrainians permitting these stories to leak, or at least not taking any measures to limit their impact on the information space? One such story was about a man with no hands being denied an exemption from conscription, despite having been classified officially as permanently disabled for his entire life. It is an insane and ridiculous story of bureaucratic incompetence, which if true I would have expected the Ukrainians to suppress during war time because it makes them look so incompetent (again, note how the whiff of corruption and incompetence appeals to Putin's preconceived notions about Ukrainians) and because it was limited enough in scope that it could have been kept away from western reporters (unlike something as pervasive as widespread resistance to conscription). Instead the story was almost actively promoted by UAF-friendly sources like the Economist, which I believe broke the story originally. The Economist is quite explicitly pro-Ukrainian and is also cozy enough with the Ukrainian leadership to have gotten exclusive in-depth interviews with Zelensky, Zaluzhny, Budanov, Syrsky, and others, some of which I even linked as sources above. So it is out of character for them to publish such a lurid anecdote of Ukrainian incompetence.
On the other hand, if the Ukrainians wanted to convince the Russians that they are having manpower issues, one of the easiest ways to do so would be to send out their recruiters and encourage them to employ excessive aggression. Then to leak, plant, falsify, or simply permit publication of stories about the absurd lengths those officials are going to conscript new troops. The Russians would then pick up on the stories and possibly inaccurately infer manpower deficits. Even if the Russian intelligence agencies interpret the stories differently, Putin is more likely to disregard them and rely on media reports than he would have been in past years, before the FSB's incredibly inaccurate pre-war assessments of Ukraine contributed to his decision to invade. It would not surprise me at all to learn that Putin regularly reviews Russia-related press clippings from the Economist to understand how critical issues are being presented in the western media, even if only as part of a larger security or political briefing packet. In fact it would surprise me if he doesn't review at least a sampling of stories from western media, likely heavily biased toward traditional print media with wide influence like the Economist. Which makes it a viable channel for shaping Putin's perceptions, and the man without hands seems like the perfect attention grabbing detail to make sure he sees that particular story.
So basically, propaganda cuts both ways. We are operating in an information space that is quite intentionally shaped by Ukraine, and so should be careful in our conclusions about what is happening beneath the fog of war. Although, I would suggest that it's probably a good starting assumption that the Ukrainian leaders have not become suddenly much less intelligent or less capable than they have been over the last year of this war. Which isn't to say they are perfect, or that we won't see them lose their edge over time. Just that a sudden, rapid, simultaneous decline in Zaluzhny's, Zelensky's, Syrsky's, Budanov's, and the rest of the Ukrainian leadership's intelligence, judgment, and ability would be extremely unlikely. Especially if that decline persisted for a long time, as the decision to hold Bakhmut has, with ample opportunity for correction based on the widespread alarm about UAF losses.

TimeStamp and Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/27Si5z5

• Zoom65 EE Wild Green / PVD Mirror Gold (SS)
  • Built once but the board is in perfect condition.
  • It will come with PC Plate, hotswap PCB, all foams, and the knob (gold stainless steel), stabilizers, WS switch puller, coiled USB cable, battery for Bluetooth, and a storage bag.
  • does not include keycaps
  • $250 including shipping
• Year of the Tiger
  • Typed for 10 minutes
  • Comes with the sticker and cards
  • will take $80 including shipping

Please comment before PM!
Shipping only in the US.

Quiet person seeking quiet person. Loner seeking loner. I take pride in living a quaint life. Ive done the crazy party life in hs/college but im over it now. im not some adventurous, thrill-seeking, go-out-every-weekend type (all power to those who are tho). I dont have any friends (just naturally lost touch in college) Literally all i do is go to work, come home, read, play with my dog, listen to taylor swift, watch New Girl on netflix, and hang out with my family. And i wouldnt have it any other way. Hoping that you are the same.
https://imgur.com/a/TjiPxkV
I dont ask for much. Please just be kind with basic human morals. Just dont lie dawg and Im more than okay with ldr
If youre reading this but dont feel attracted to me thats more than okay and thank you have a great day. If youre a woman reading this also thank you have a great day
Pictures are lowkey required in intro chat sorry

Road rage incident
I was returning from my daily gym commute as I’ve done a million times every afternoon. While making a right turn at the intersection , i was yielding for a while when a car started slowing down . I was hesitant at first but the guy seemed like he wanted to make a right turn and was slowing down to make it safely. As i drove into the lane, the guy sped up his car and almost crashed into me. Even though i was able to manoeuver the car and avoid any collision. I rolled to window down at the red light and exchanged some heated words with the guy . He claimed that it was his lane and he can drive at whatever speed he chooses ( even though slowing down like that is considered obstructing traffic) after our exchange he drove right infront of me and stopped the car . He acted as if he was looking for damage but he was looking at the wrong side of the car. He took a picture of my license plate and drove off. Now my friends are telling me that he might kick or wreck his own car and claim damage . Should i be worried even though our cars didn’t even make contact nor either of us got in an accident . Was this just an intimidation tactic?

I have posted before so sorry if I rehash.
I found out recently that my husband continues to hangout alone with an old female coworker who no longer works in the building he rents his office in. I had met her previously and she is married, tried to be my friend but didn't get the best vibes. Super needy and clingy. So I told my husband and he stopped bringing her around. Through a series of events seeing text messages on his Bluetooth in his car from her and asked him point blank if they still hangout. Crickets, no response. This continued and he still has not told me their relationship. I have brought it up multiple times that I'm not comfortable with him hanging out alone with her. She is pretty, older, and has fake boobs fyi. So i saw them together getting out of my husband's car in his office parking lot in the middle of the day. He didn't see me.
He also cheated on me via tinder profile, with a fake name and pictures in 2021. I just recently found out in Dec. 2022 from a woman who'd dated him and he'd pursued.
I tried to talk to him about what happened, was very hurt and devastated. He didn't apologize and after a week of me being depressed told me to get over it and use my coping skills. I offered therapy and he didn't want to go. I brought it up last week that I want to connect with him but am unable to trust and move forward without some transparency and understanding of what happened. He told me if I want connection to connct with myself and that i need to shut up about it.
Thing is he has been really nice to me otherwise... he puts up with me being distant and cold, talks to me like everything is normal, calls me pet names and talks about our future together. Then I feel guilty for wanting to leave.

Does anyone know where the thunder got the picture of jdub throwing it down and hanging on the rim? It was on the pregame broadcast but I could not find it. It was taken from the opposite baseline.

Previous part
Hello again, I know it's been a long time since my last post and I'm sorry for the lack of update. I thought my story wasn't that interesting enough so I decided not to continue updating you with this, but recently y found out about one of those videos on youtube that narrates these stories with a robotic voice, the comments had a lot of people wanting to know more about what's happening to me with the house.
I was fixing some grammar issues before hitting the "Post" button when the book fell from the shelf, and then I wrote that sentence before standing up and reading the book. The cover was made of very worn-out leather, lots of hands may have passed through it several times to feel the texture. I opened it and read the title on the first page: "Around the world in eighty days" by Jules Verne.
Nothing happened during the first five minutes, and then the floor started trembling for a few seconds. Just when I thought that was it, it started again louder and harder with a whistle that almost broke my eardrums.
The book closed on my hands and silence returned to the room. After that, I had to sit down for a minute because I felt my heart was stopping.
The house didn't let that night slide either, I heard steps coming from the hall all night. They were lightweight and pointy, like the ones a woman with high heels would make walking down a wooden floor. It stopped after 1 am.
Now you know how that day ended.
I would lie to you if I say that I have been living in the house all this time along, but also if I say otherwise. Truth is, I took rule 9 and reach its limit most of the time staying most of the days of the month outside and spending no more than 2 days here. The first couple of months were easy, I slept in my best friend's house creating excuses for not being here: fumigations, paintings, repairs... You named it.
The rest of the time I took advantage of my work, some new clients were those elderly businessmen who prefer seeing someone face-to-face rather than a screen. Sadly, that contract ended and I couldn't come up with more excuses to not be here.
I kept writing about everything that happened to me since. You will find below an edition of the most interesting things that happened.
December 2nd / 2022
You know that feeling when you are returning back home or school after a long vacation. That moment when you are just turning the key of the door, knowing that time is over and your life must return to its normal course... But still, you can feel some sort of joy.
This is not my case. This is supposed to be my home, the opportunity to start my life in the best way possible... And there was me, a couple of minutes ago, standing, thinking about my options and creating ideas while getting closer to the door.
When I entered the house everything was exactly how I left it, with a little bit of dust. This time I came with some groceries, I had to eat during the week and think about what I was going to do with the house. Also bought some food for Brook, he saved my laptop and I never rewarded him.
I put my fingers in my mouth and let out a big whistle. For the first 10 seconds nothing happened, the sound echoed through the walls of the first floor and I was standing again in silence. Then I saw the big ball of hair, waving its tail, running towards me from the living room.

• I'm sorry it took me so long to bring you something, Brook. -Said I while trying to stop him from licking my face.

I walked to the kitchen and poured the bag of food into the named bowl. I had a weird mix of feeling while watching him eat.
A normal dog would have died without food or water, the most probable thing is that he was feeding up from moss creatures or the guests. I felt the same looking at the silver bell for the butler. Getting caught by them must be worse than any other creature here... at least they are on my side.
I left Brook to eat and started cooking myself some food. It was 4:33pm, and cooking and cleaning would take me at least 35 minutes, but the kitchen has a window that leads to the backyard.
Let me tell you, that thing outside has some sort of pressure on your curiosity. It knows that once you see it and recognize it you are done, the effort I had to make to not look at it last time was huge and I was only passing through for some instants. So I took the tablecloth and cover the window, it was an opaque white so I couldn't see through.
That worked very well. I didn't feel any curiosity about what was on the other side of the cloth while cooking, looks like the rule never contemplated blocking the view to the backyard. My day ended without any issues, I went upstairs and slept after some hours.
I wish I could end this entry here, saying that my arrival at the house was good and didn't have any problem at all. I must be crazy to think that this place would have some sort of patience... or that the entities would give me a day of grace.
The next morning I went downstairs around 8 am to make myself some coffee, and that's when I saw it. The floor in the kitchen was a mess, a giant puddle of that black substance coming from the insides of the lady when the Butler mashed her head on the bookshelf. The puddle had a trace leading to the backdoor of the house, on the way I saw some irregular scratches on the floor and the doorframe had these... handmarks. Whatever it was, it didn't want to go to the backyard.
The cloth was still hanging, and when I read what was on it the message was clear.
"Bach won't come"
January 1st / 2023
I hope you had a good new year's eve.
Normally, people use this date as an excuse to throw a big party, either with friends or family, creating the best environment to close a lap and begin a new one.
Yesterday, I spent all day at my friend's house. Everyone cheered when the bells rang, and his family hugged me and wished me a good year. After that I had to get home on foot, there weren't any drivers in that zone.
Turning the key front door key led me to the worst scenario I have ever been in. It's impossible to quantify the number of people that were inside the house, but more than 50 would be a good guess. Everywhere you looked at would see people dressed as aristocrats, everyone cheered and clapped after seeing me. A tall man, dressed in a red suit full of sequins and another of those ridiculous wigs came to me.

• Arthur, mon ami! -Cheered before hugging me-. Where have you been? Let me guess, you were with that belle femme you talked to me about the other day... What was her name... Madelyn? Come on, tell me abut her charmes et capacités.
• I...
• ¡Monsieur Gérard! -Screemed a woman while running towards us-. What kind of questions are those? Excuse us, Arthur. We are very thankful to spend the beginning of the new year with you.

Then, the woman grabbed the man by the forearm and pulled him away.
I knew it was a matter of time before this turned into a disaster, but also didn't know what would happen if I left the house with so many guests inside.
During December I had lots of encounters with these guests, I was able to persuade them to leave the house 90% of the time, but the other 10% left... Well, I left it hands of the Buttler.
Nevertheless, I started hiding objects to use as weapons to defend myself in case I lost the bell or if Mr Bach decided not to help me anymore.
I slowly began to walk towards the large sofa in the living room, between the cushions was an axe I bought at a local hardware store, even asked the guy to sharpen the edge as much as he could.
The voices started to fade away and the eyes of the guest started to focus on me. I grab my backpack and pulled out the bell, the sound vibrated throughout the whole house, making the echoes the last noise I heard before complete silence.

• Good night, master Samuel. How is your night going? -Asked Mr Bach, who appeared to be behind me all this time.
• Hi Mr Bach, it was good until now. -Answered I while pulling the axe between the cushions.- It's time for the guests to leave.

The Buttler looked around the whole house, the guests were now standing still with their eyes fixed on me.

• Such a pity to end this beautiful celebration.

One of them ran towards me, screaming with that unhuman voice, but was intercepted by Mr Bach's glove, grabbing his face and throwing it against the chimney. All of the other creatures started screaming and contorting, the sound of bones breaking and appendages ripping away the skin almost drowned my whistle. Their mouths opened until the jaw was broken, showing now a set of endless sharp teeth.
Brook charged against one that was bout to get me on my back. After biting it, he shook his head breaking the tissues and spreading that black substance over the floor and walls.
I tried to maintain my position, Mr. Bach and Brook got my back so if I need to worry only to keep my front safe. But none of us expected one of those things to crawl through the ceiling, it grabbed me with those claws but I managed to hit it with the handle of the axe on the head. It threw me over the creatures, landing on the other side of the house near the kitchen.
A group of teeth and claws was keeping me away from my only chance to survive the night, and the only way to escape was through the stairs. I ran upstairs, the space was narrow so the creatures could only go one at a time.
I managed to get to the second floor after 50 steps, and without losing time I went through the hall as fast as I could. But one of the things managed to get me on my feet. I fell to the ground and dropped the axe, and then something happened. The door of the bathroom opened, hitting the creature and leaving it stunned for a few seconds. That allowed me to grab the axe and cut the arm that was grabbing me.
Now back on my feet I reached the window and jumped through the crystal. This time I fell on the couch immediately, where a white glove pulled me by the arm making me stand again.

• Pardon my daring, master Samuel. -Said Mr Bach calmly, he neither sweat nor dishevelled.- But the current situation requires your immediate attention, you shall rest afterwards.

I stood strong this time, taking care not only of my front but the things above me, grabbing my axe so hard that my hands started to burn.
I don't know how much we were there. An axe wasn't the best object to use as a weapon, but one good blow was enough to get rid of those things. However, two of them managed to wound me with their claws on the left shoulder and leg. But thanks to Brook and Mr Bach I had no serious wounds.
A beam of light went through the main frame, and the last howl was shut by a swing of the axe, beginning the first dawn of the year.
The first floor was filled with that black substance, the bodies were on top of each other making it almost impossible to walk through the living room. I collapsed on the couch, dropping the axe, which now can be used more as a hammer.

• I'm sorry that your celebration finished this way, master Samuel. -Said the Buttler while sweeping away some rests of his suit.

I wanted to cry, but my fatigue allowed me to only catch my breath while looking dead at the ceiling. Mr Bach approached with some bandages, helping me with my wounds.

• I believe that after this night you shall consider not being outside your room after hours. -Said him while staring with some abetment and an ironic smile.- I will clean the first floor, please go upstairs and have a rest, after that you shall give something to the canine.

Brook barked and waved its tail, he was also covered in that dirty stuff. I stood up and walked to the stairs, with hatred in my eyes as I was approaching a voice interrupted my thoughts.

• I almost forgot... Happy new year, master Samuel.

January 12th / 2023
After almost two weeks new year's incident, things went pretty normal. I only had two encounters with the guests and both of them were easy to persuade. Whatever lies in the backyard have been more active after the incident with the curtain, before that It only appeared to be a person standing at the back but now moves through the place taking different forms.
This creature is the one I fear the most, it's the only one I don't have any plan for if it decides to become hostile. Following the rule should keep me safe from it, but I'm not so sure knowing that it's capable of entering the house whenever it wants.
I always prepare my dinner before 5pm and leave it inside the fridge, so when the time comes I only have to spend the necessary in the kitchen. I was getting used to its behaviour... and It noticed.
A couple of minutes ago I went downstairs to grab my food. On my periphery saw how it was moving in the backyard, I don't know if I focused on him more than necessary or if it decided to remind me of something... But without any warning, it ran up towards the window, I turned away and covered my eyes to avoid any curiosity.

• S...aaaa...muuu...eeeeeel. -Babbled. I could hear it crawling on the window, it was like something wet was savouring behind the crystal. D...o youuuu... thiiiinnnnk... yoooou arreeee....a....maaaaan....noow? -Asked starting to sound like my father, it was like a radio tuning the correct frequency... slowly getting it right.

I had to crawl to the stair. The curses weren't that creative, but I lost my appetite when that thing started to tell private things and secrets about me with my father's voice.
February 1st - 2th / 2023
Edit: These were two entries I wrote when my best friend came to visit me. Since I bought it, Johnny wanted to come and take a look around the house. As I mentioned before, I made lots of excuses to avoid it, but by that time I ran out of "good reasons" to say no.
February 1st / 2023
After showing him the first floor Johnny approached the stairs.
I supposed this was going to happen, I read rule No. 9 the day before and pondered about it and concluded that was more like a suggestion... But I rang the bell just to be sure.

• Good morning, master Samuel. How can I help you today?
• Good morning, Mr Bach. Do you think is a good idea to bring some guests to the second floor?
• If I recall right, which I always do, you had a lady here in the studio. Sadly, the discussion did not end very well.
• ...an expected guess.
• Oh, pardon me... Well, master Samuel, in that case... if your guest does not have any handicaps you could bring them here without any inconvenience.

That confirmed my doubts regarding the knowledge of Mr Bach about the rules and its entities.

• Do you want me to prepare something for you and your guest? -Asked him.
• Coffee would be great.
• Very well. By the way, I was wondering where did you get the jacket you were wearing two days ago, that wine-coloured leather looks very good.

He left the room without saying any more words.
I was counting Johnny's steps. I trusted his speed, so I didn't have to worry about that. After 17 steps we reached the second floor, he just said that the house looked smaller from the outside.
We entered the studio and he was amazed by the great library. Both of us started working on our laptops, talking from time to time to rest from the work.
10 minutes after entering, Mr Bach came. Holding a tray with cups and a plate with butter cookies.

• Are you kidding me? -Asked Johnny-. A butler? How much are you earning?
• Well... Several things happened in the company and I had a raise, this house is big so I use it to hire Mr Bach to help me keep it clean. He only works halftime.

Although I indeed had a raise it was not enough to pay for a Buttler, thank god Johnny did not ask any more questions about it during the day. I thought that would be a peaceful day, but suddenly a book fell from the shelf.

• Ugh, I need to fix that shelf. -Said I while walking towards the book.
• What are you reading?
• Uhm... The Canterville Ghost. -Answered I while reading the first page.
• Alright.

I was worried while reading the book, if Johnny decided to engage in talking it would have been impossible for me to keep focusing on the book. Some murmuring started to fill the room, like a main whispering about its suffering.

• Did you hear that? -Asked him.
• What? -Asked me without looking away from the book.
• I don't know, I sounded like a man.
• Oh, sometimes the pipes make that sound, the house is old and I'm already used to it.

Johnny was looking around for some time and I prayed that he didn't want to ask any more about it, thankfully he didn't give it more importance and went back to his work. After some minutes the book closed and I returned it to its shelf.
The day ended without any incidents.
February 2nd / 2023
Throughout our life is normal to be disappointed by our friends. Everyone makes mistakes and sometimes we expect too much from the people around us, even more, when they are close to us. But... How can you blame them when they're victims of paranormal things?
Johnny came again to my house, he told me on the phone that they were going to paint his room today and he enjoyed working on my study. He always helped me when I need it, so I couldn't say no... Now I think I should have.
It is said that the most dangerous road a driver can face is the one he frequents the most. Confidence plays against them, he gets cocky and causes an accident. All of this was happening as I was pushing Johnny upstairs.

• What's going on? -He asked, but the rotten and twisted hall answered for me.

While we were running I warned him to not look into the rooms, but he did it anyway. I jumped first through the window, but Johnny doubted for a second.
Then, we both fell on the couches of the living room. Johnny was in shock, he couldn't stop screaming and asking questions, but when turned around I saw what happens when you doubt even for a second.
He couldn't feel it because of the adrenaline, but his back was all shredded. One second was enough for what lured in the stairs to lacerate through his clothes and flesh. It was a matter of time before he start feeling the pain... or bleeding out, so I rang the bell.
Mr Bach was ordered to treat Johnny's wounds, and so he complied. He told me Johnny was lucky, the cuts were almost irregular enough to be impossible to treat.
After some minutes Johnny was calmed, maybe because of the blood loss, so we could talk normally. I told him everything about the house, the strange rules that Alex gave me and the reason for all the excuses. For the first time I didn't feel alone, I was free of this burden and broke into tears.

• Damn... Why don't sell it?
• I tried after almost a hundred guests killed me in the new year. -Answered I while cleaning my tears-. They decide to "look for other options" after looking at the house's history.
• What if you sell the terrain to the bank?
• The house must have an owner, a person... The last time I tried to outsmart the rules didn't end quite well.

Night came and I told Johnny he needed to leave. The last thing I wanted was him overnight here. After gathering his thing we went to the door, suddenly he hugged me and told me that everything will be alright.
That made me feel better, knowing that I wasn't alone anymore. I went upstairs relieved, I have been struggling with this burden all alone and I had my friend right there the whole time. That wasn't going to solve my problems but at least it will drop some of the weights off my shoulders.
Rule No. 9 states that people will forget about the existence of the Buttler and the dog... But there is something I must add tomorrow. The true danger of the house doesn't lie in the uninvited guests, the thing in the backyard or what lurks on the staircase...
1 New Message
Johnny: Jesus dude, It's still awesome that you have your own house. I love the study on the sec0ond floor, I feel more productive on it. Do you mind if I go tomorrow again?
March 23th/2023
I never thought I would say this... but I got used to the house.
Running upstairs has become very common, even though it only happens every other day and I even started to enjoy some of the conversations with the guests before... taking them out.
My last entrances to this diary have been two or three sentences, so there is no point in writing them here... but today something happened:
I was working on the study when a book fell. As I said, all of these things have become very normal to me, and in this particular case, I see this as a pause to relieve my mind. "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", I took it and sat down starting from the beginning.
I usually put my phone on "do not disturb" mode while I'm at the study, this prevents me from distracting either by work or the reading sessions... And I think I will start leaving it outside of the room.
I may have looked away for two seconds, but that was enough to piss off that thing. A deafening roar filled the room, the wall behind me was destroyed by a wind rush and I was thrown out.
I landed far away, rolled through some fields and finally stopped near a tree. The sky was pitch black, barely illuminated by some flashes of lightning each second. Behind me was a giant tornado, heading towards my direction.
The room was up on a hill, it was like a surrealistic painting of a study built in the middle of a field. I ran towards it as fast as I could.
I felt the tornado's force pulling me while running uphill, and as I was about to reach the room I tripped with something and fell to the ground.
Some branches grabbed my shoes and a rotten hay face was emerging from the ground and looked back at me.

• Comeeee with us Dorothy -Whispered.

The tornado was getting closer, so I just untied my shoe and ran away. I jumped over the desk, grabbed the phone and the laptop and headed towards the door, hearing the room getting ripped as I was passing through.
I sat down on the floor, taking a moment to get my breath.
It was there when I read the message that almost cost my life.
[Unknown number]: Hey Samuel, it's Alex... We need to talk.

My son just turned 9yo. It's not until recently that I realized that he's different compared to other boys in his class and I'm not sure if it's a problem. Interested in other parent's thoughts and also next steps. Here are things we've noticed:
*Is social with other kids but prefers alone time *Is uncomfortable in situations where he has to meet new people- particularly other kids *Would rather sit with us at kid social events rather than hanging out with other kids *Hates playing sports, despite being good at them *Never smiles in pictures *Conversations aren't fluid- still a bit choppy with his thought process compared to other kids his age *Does weird movements with his tongue or lips- usually when he's bored or focusing *Despite being nice and respectful- doesn't have many friends and doesn't engage with other kids unless they engage with him first *Never shows anger or throws tantrums, but cries easily *Severe confidence issues. Calls himself stupid or gets frustrated with failure. When he was 5-6 he used to say he wishes he was dead. *Acts more child-like with play than other kids his age, despite having normal intelligence *Easily distracted. Struggles to focus.
We are wondering if he's on the spectrum but don't know what's next. Or is he just a kid and we need to wait?

I'm currently learning Korean because I want to work abroad, I'll probably also do Australia because I have family there, but I also want a second language and a challenge... (and English teachers are in very high demand there so you can make really good money lol.) So my choice was made!
I've made a few Korean friends who are visiting my city to improve their English and we've really hit it off and have been hanging out quite a bit. I noticed that whenever they post pictures with me on their story they get a lot of their friends in Korea messaging them commenting about my looks, even asking if and when I'll come to Korea so they can get an introduction, and following me etc.
They warned me I'd get a lot of people hitting on me if I went there but I just thought they were being nice tbh. I think I'm definitely above average in general but here in Canada I just don't get the same level of attention because I don't fit the dominant beauty standard here whatsoever.
I'm not curvy at all, I don't have a mature "snatched" face, I'm not tall, I'm not tan, and I can't pull off the more sexy/sultry look because I have a major baby-face.
But in Korea the standard is different and I fit it a lot easier. I lean much more towards neotenous features, I'm skinny, I'm average height, and I'm pale most of the year. I'm actually curious and nervous to see how things are different for me when I go to Korea versus here in Canada. Because here I'm more of a niche preference only some people have. But my friends said they'll have to run a lot of interference once I go to Korea lol. (I'm glad I have protective friends because I know a lot of fuckboys target foreigners there :/ )
TL/DR: Has anyone experienced moving from a country where you did not fit the dominant beauty standard to one where you did? What was it like??

Hi!
I (29F) am agnostic and was raised in mixed marriage between Catholic and Muslim, neither one of them was really religious. My bf (30M) is Catholic, was raised in Catholic family, not really so religious (rarely attending Church, but they have Catholic pictures and Crucifix on wall).
We are in relationship for over 8 years, and have lived together for 7. When we met he wasn’t religious, but now he is a bit more. He isn’t really attending Church often, but does read a lot.
Anyways I personally respect religions and find them interesting, but am not partaking in them. I always had my own beliefs. When he started showing interest I was there for him. Together, when we visit other countries, we go and check out Cathedrals (I deeply respect old architectures) and I even helped him with picking out Crucifix (the necklance one). He doesn’t wear it, but it is hanging on one shelf on our wall.
Today he came home and all happy showed me what he bought. Really big picture of Jesus in Greek style. I was shocked. That might come little off, but I really was. He saw it on my face and first wanted to protest me, and said something in lines “oh, but we share apartment”. I told him I never imagined I will have an icon in our home, or anything such as. When he asked me why I don’t want to have it, I told him I feel some kind of aversion to it. And I really do, I don’t know how to describe it differently. Then he told me he will put it in his drawe.
I went to my study, and he was telling me oh how I was happy all day and shouldn’t be so serious. But I was so shocked and needed space to think, so I took the dog out and went for a walk.
During the walk I thought of it, and I feel like I am denying him something, even though he was cool with my reaction. But I feel like a bad person. At the same time I really don’t want something like that in my home, it’s like I am feeling it in my stomach. Just on the thought of having such picture displayed my stomach is turning upside down.
It’s only a picture, up until today I didn’t even know I have such strong feelings regarding something like that.
Later we talked and he told me the religion is most important for him. The next 40-50 years that we are going to live are short, and he wants us to go to Heaven. I asked him how will I go, since I am agnostic, but then he told me that Christian man can take his wife to Heaven with him, if he earns it. Something like free pass I believe.
I really don’t mind his religiousness, but what if those items are really important to him? Still I will never be comfortable with such items “looking upon me” in my own home.

Something about this picture is incomplete for me, and it's been nagging at me. Setting aside the very explicit New Capenna, Theros, and New Phyrexia, let's look at everything Elspeth glimpses in the space between worlds.

What did she mean by . . . ? Ah. A cabin, an old friend in tears outside it; a woman in a ship swaying uneasily through the sky; a young man at war with something that was once a dragon. The fragments come together in her mind like a blasphemous sheet of stained glass.

The first one is so specific, but I can't seem to pull it from my memory. An old friend of Elspeth's... The second is remarkably vague, I can think of three women and skyships it could be talking about. The third is worst of all; plenty of planes have dragons, but we haven't seen any compleated yet, and "young man" is not very descriptive at all.

A thundering sound. The walls fly out again, becoming as flat as paintings before fading into the black. The longer she falls the more of them she sees. Students slinking down corridors, away from their changed professors; a woman in a black bridal dress singing above a horde of zombies; kor flying on mantas toward a great white structure.

Now this, in contrast, is plain as day. Two of these we've seen ourselves, recently (Strixhaven and Innistrad). The third is obviously some kind of fight for a Zendikari skyclave we've yet to see.

She falls into a landscape where a lizard the size of a mountain fights its quilled silver counterpart. The oil and blood from their wounds form rivers along the lush green earth.

Ixalan, of course.

She falls into a castle, once shining, now reduced to rubble. A young man rifles through the broken remains of an armory. The plate covering him is cobbled together from these remains, and already pitted with black. When he finds a sigil among the dreck, he exclaims happily. Now, he thinks, he will be able to defend his family.

Alara, Bant.

Through ranks of horsemen beating war drums, their hounds on the hunt for Phyrexian enemies; through a neon city protected by towering mechanical guardians; through strange swamps and twisted hills, she falls and falls.

Lastly, this. The middle one is so clearly and specifically Kamigawa that the vagueness of the two bookeneds throws me.
I'm sure this doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but it's something I've been thinking about, I guess. Any of you have a clearer picture than me?

Up until the age of 16, I was relatively cute or at least average looking, here are some of the experiences I had back then.
I was unpopular, had zero social skills and a diagnosis of autism, yet people treated me far better than they do now, despite now having better social skills and not being affected by the stigma of disability.
A Few Examples (including explicit signs of interest and being treated well or given social opportunities based on appearance)
Before Age 5: My parents claim they entered me in a cute baby competition though I didn't win. Also, that strangers gave me a lot of attention, remark on my cuteness and touched me a lot.
Age 5: I was a cute kid, had a female friend who I hung out in school. She was also an outcast that didn't fit in and wasn't very good with English. She was nice to me, I think she considered me attractive and even remembered me considering some other girl mentioned her talking about me in high school, never saw her after kindergarten. Teacher fawned over my baby pics where I was cute when I presented the scrapbook my parents made of me.
Age 7: Remember going to some party and rubbing up against some girl, she just let me. I have no memory of how it happened.
Age 10: Had a sister of my friend kept sitting on my lap even when I got aroused by it. My friend was annoyed and tried to get her away from me.
Age 11: Had some girl I didn't even know keep asking me out to a dance. Not sure who she was, but she can't have known me, since I didn't recognize her, it's likely she wasn't even my grade since she was taller than me and I was tall for my age.
Age 12: A girl I knew who was helpful to me in class with notes and stuff complained to me some guy was harassing her and asked to sit next to me, probably my chance to play white-knight which I didn't take. She also often greeted me in the hallways and one time I think she called me cute while with another class-mate of mine , not 100% sure if she was referring to me and I was about to ask her since this was in front of me and within earshot but didn't get the chance to.
Age 12: Had a girl in my class ask me out, I was unpopular and there's a small chance it could have been a prank but over a period of months she kept trying to get trying to talk to me and she was upset when I declined.
Age 12: Two girls (seperate incidents) , both in my age group, I didn't even know kept looking at me with interest and then they told me they wanted to tell me something in private, and kept trying to get me to go alone with them. I regret not going.
Age 13: Girl who was reasonably attractive first time I met her when I was hanging around her and other guys, actually laughed at something I said which wasn't even that funny. Afterwards she talked to me a few times after seeing me on her own . We talked a few times in class, once she asked me if I liked her and rejected me, yet she talked to me or greeted me in the hallway quite a few times. We had to dance in PE and I wasn't very good at it, but sometimes she was nice to me and we'd talk quite a bit. Over-time she started ignoring me as my social status further tanked but that stopped mattering after I dressed up really nice and got a good haircut for the graduation party. During that time, I went into the gym multiple times and she kept staring at me each time while standing alone, basically giving me the signal to approach yet I never approached her. Afterwards in a summer program she kept looking at me, one time she also greeted me but I ignored her out of anxiety.
Age 13: Was dress nicely for a presentation, actually had a bully of mine, who occasionally let me hang around with me compliment me on my appearance. The same guy was nice to me and didn't pick on me once because I looked good. Also, noticed numerous times that when I looked better people who normally picked on me and looked down on me treated me in a respectful manner and included me in their groups. Girls were also more willing to make conversation and were friendlier.
Age 13 One girl who was a year younger than me was quite nice to me and liked talking to me. It's likely she was interested in me, one time we were together in a small room for part of a class activity. I was standing pretty close to her and we were making deep eye contact, this could have been my chance to kiss her but I didn't.
Age 13 One time I went to the temple with my parents, while I was praying and everyone's eyes were supposed to be closed, I accidentally opened my eyes. There was this girl in my age-group who was staring at my face and smiling while everyone was supposed to be praying. This was a very strange experience for me and I was kind of annoyed at her for being blasphemous.
Age 13 Talked to some guy in tennis class, we were joking around and having a good time. The same guy even gave me his number afterward but I never called him.
Age 13: There was a guy I used to hang out with, who actually ended up having somewhat of an improvement in appearance during puberty. Back then he was ugly with extreme acne, one time a girl asked me why I hang out with an ugly guy like him in a negative tone.
Age 14 These girls in a group, a year younger, were pointing at me, laughing, they kept asking me to sit with them. I declined mainly because I was unsure if they were making fun of me but also because I wasn't sure how to behave . One of the girls from the group who was quite attractive wanted me to play a game with her, which I also refused.
Age 14 One time I was getting a ton of looks from people while walking around, but it seemed like they were smiling and it was positive. A guy I had talked to a few times in art class but didn't really know, asked me if I wanted to cut class and hang out with him.
Age 14 Some girl approached me smiling and called me cute, we played with a ball in group together and she was friendly. I should have talked more with her or tried to get her number but was too focused on the game.
Age 14: One time we were playing tennis, I was partnered with some guy against two girls, both of talked to me, even introduced themselves while completely ignoring my partner. I played tennis quite well that day.
Age 14: This one girl I had never seen in my life, but claimed she knew me from a volunteer thing I did, came up to me and started talking to me. I was a little creeped out at first but accepted it. We talked a few times in PE with her almost always initiating. Over time she lost interest though, but one time she talked to me in biology class, based on her tone she was likely flirting with me, but I ended up saying something autistic and nerdy, she never talked to me again.
Age 15: I was hanging out with a friend in the park, a girl approached and said you are cute . The same day I noticed a number of girls were checking me out when I went to the youth center with him.
Age 15: I was alone in the library on a computer this girl with severe acne approached me and said I was cute. She kept checking me out and even said she wanted to kiss me. Probably the closest I ever came to getting any action.
Age 15: Girl was twerking on a bunch of guys who were standing around. She noticed me standing there a little further but didn't twerk on me.
Age 15: There were a few girls I talked to in Spanish class. We were kind of acquaintances, one time I complained about having a bad day and feeling sad and this girl offered to hug me outside of class.
Age 15: One time I was looking for books in the library. There was this girl who was quite attractive, I looked at her a number of times and she actually approached me and started talking to me. For some reason I pretended to be mute and she was still super nice to me and said she appreciated me listening to her. I am unsure if she was attracted to me, but something like this would not happen to ugly guys.
After the age of 16 my face turned hideously ugly and this is how I was treated
Age 16: I started receiving negative looks from people, service staff like cashiers were noticeably colder and more unfriendly and impatient with me.
Age 16: One time I was doing a math test and getting most of the answers, the girls in my group needed my help. Yet when I helped them out there was no thankfulness, just a cold and negative tone and disgust.
Age 16: Highlight of this period was the time I had to go for some event promoting acceptance because I got in trouble for something. I did end up interacting with and talking to some guy, who interacted with me a few times afterwards but the best part was when everyone was required to go around hugging people. This one girl who claimed to know me, didn't remember who she was, and said I was nice, hugged me a few times.
Age 16: Friends began to bully me more and most of them eventually ditched me, we already had some tension before but they were more willing to accept me back then.
Age 16: This time a friend of mine was talking to another friend and he wasn't really willing to introduce me , normally I could go in and talk to people through mutual friends and people were generally wanting to get to know me , but when I talked to him he looked at me negatively and was disinterested me.
Age 16: One time there was this girl who I was paired with for the class and she would only talk to me about the work, when I asked her something about herself she gave me negative looks. It was clear from her body language, she hated being around me.
Age 16-18: This one girl who was in one of my classes talked to me. I wasn't sure who she was and asked for her name and stuff, she had the same name as a childhood friend who I had hugged a few times and my parents were friends with. Afterwards I heard her pointing at me and making fun of me with friends indicating she was leading me on. I started ignoring her, but she kept looking at me in class. One time someone insulted me in class and she stood up for me. Also, one time she said she wanted to talk to me alone, but I completley ignored her and walked away. After that she kept looking at me like she was betrayed and hurt and I kept ignoring her. Not sure if she might have actually been into me or not.
Age 17: One time a girl was rubbing up against some guy and she saw me standing near and she explicitly said no to me coldly.
Age 17: Girls treated me like I was a creep. Like if I was walking behind them at similar pace, they would speed up and sometimes even run away from me, despite me not chasing them. They would get nervous even if I was walking in their direction, despite me not saying a word to them or following them. This never happened to me before.
I became fat and even uglier by the age of 18-19 with brief periods of being thin, muscular at 22 and this is how I was treated
Age 18: Got looks of disgust or coldness from girls, they often avoided looking at me , only a few times girls made eye contact with me only one time a very ugly girl smiled, most likely this could have been pity as I was looking at other girls and they were avoiding looking at me. Before this guy I got normal looks or a few IOIs.
Age 18: Only two girls I interacted with mostly in class or near class and this was mainly though a class friend I had, they talked to me normally a few times but eventually started to avoid interacting with me and ignored me. Though my behavior played a small role in this as well.
Age 18: Girl I was checking out reacted with disgust, also avoided talking to me and tried to point out that I was creepy to another guy for looking at her.
Age 18: People looked at me with disgust, fear, and discomfort, even caught a few guys staring at me negatively or avoiding looking at me.
Age 19: One time I was repeatedly looking at myself on the phone screen in disgust and sadness and this girl who was working there trying to make a selling lied to me and said I was handsome but going through puberty and had acne, another time some girl talked to me asking me if I was of a certain race, her expression seemed friendly but it meant nothing.
Age 19: One time I had a group project and this girl I was checking out reacted with disgust, also she gave me a low status role in the project while fawning over some attractive guy in the class.
Age 19: Guys who I tried to interact with and befriend acted uncomfortable around me, when I was talking to them normally and tried to avoid interacting with me outside of class. Bullied online when I showed pictures of myself.
Age 20-21: No friends in college, negative treatment severe depression. Only a few girls looked at me without a negative expression but no explicit signs of interest.
Age 21: Lost weight bulked up and got the same treatment, one time I was walking past a security who enthusiastically greeted a group of attractive guys and girls but ignored me.
From Age 19: Cashiers are generally cold to me, avoided greeting me, would bark out the price, won't say bye, treat other customers in a much more friendly manner. One time some older female cashier called me cute and complimented my body, this happened a few times and was a little weird but I was treated poorly by everyone else.
I underwent cosmetic surgery and it made nearly no difference, then I underwent accutane and got filler, very slight improvement here's how I was treated
Age 22-23: Still mostly negative treatment, got looks of disgust a few times. But there were a few times where older unattractive ladies were willing to chat with me at the doctor's office or a lab I went to. Also, had two cases where it seemed girls were giving me close eye contact and positive expression but most girls reacted with disgust or indifference. One girl literally ran away from me when I was asking her for directions and another one also walked away when I asked her questions related to a job.
Age 23-24: Got hired in a few interviews, but these places were desperate, and I was forced to quit for various reasons.
my acne came back, my thick nose skin came back, I gained a bunch of weight, got even uglier due to aging, here's how I am treated now
Age 24-25: Encountered many cases of looks discrimination in job interviews with female interviewers looking at me in disgust and being rude or cold to me for no reason. Never got call backs from these places despite speaking well in some of them.
Age 25: Treated poorly in a job I had and fired due to looks. Some women of the same ethnicity in my age group was super rude to me from the beginning even giving me condescending looks and ended up refusing to work with me. I was obese at the time. I was fired due to my looks while my coworkers never received any reprimand for their poor treatment and I was blamed for being rude despite never acting that way and them being unable to provide a single concrete example.
Age 25: Treated even worse at another job, this time I didn't even bother trying to interact with the people there and they were still rude to me, this was including a trainer who let me take the blame for something she did, but it was just with a coworker and not management.
Age 25: Further bullied for my looks online, nobody who saw my pics wanted to be friends with me or decide to avoid me.