Bathroom Mirror With Lights Installation

... Zone Management Supports arbitrary polygons with flexible editing, making zone management... TV” or “Person enters bathroom area adjusts lights.” 4. 3D Spatial Correction...]_presence_target_count Example: sensor.rd_ld2450_presence_target_count Installation Method 1: HACS Automatic Installation (Recommended) Open HACS... Mount” and “Ceiling Mount”. Mirror Mode: Check Mirror to invert the radar’s X-axis...

... Zone Management Supports arbitrary polygons with flexible editing, making zone management... TV” or “Person enters bathroom area adjusts lights.” 4. 3D Spatial Correction...]_presence_target_count Example: sensor.rd_ld2450_presence_target_count Installation Method 1: HACS Automatic Installation (Recommended) Open HACS... Mount” and “Ceiling Mount”. Mirror Mode: Check Mirror to invert the radar’s X-axis...

... Zone Management Supports arbitrary polygons with flexible editing, making zone management... TV” or “Person enters bathroom area adjusts lights.” 4. 3D Spatial Correction...]_presence_target_count Example: sensor.rd_ld2450_presence_target_count Installation Method 1: HACS Automatic Installation (Recommended) Open HACS... Mount” and “Ceiling Mount”. Mirror Mode: Check Mirror to invert the radar’s X-axis...

Hi all! I have Home Assistant and zigbee2mqtt running for my Reolink camera. An upcoming bathroom renovation made me want to start with smart lightning! Since I'm a newbie I'm trying to understand if I get my setup right: I'm putting smart (mirror) bulbs that can dim ("Hue" or similar, any advice welcome) When we enter the bathroom in the nighttime I want a sensor to activate the lights dimmed and stop the lights after a few minutes > "Hue Motion sensor" with Home Assistant to activate 20% of the lights after dark when motion is detected. - I want to still be able to push the existing dumb switch during night or day to have the 100% brightness of the mirror lights > install smart switch like "shelly" so the button can be pushed to "on", so "off" still gives power to the lights for home assistant to take over when motion is detected. I want everything childproof, so no phones or voice command. Am i forgetting something or am I making it too difficult? Any advice for a newbie is welcome, I'm in Europe so not all hardware seems availlable here! Thanks! submitted by /u/stijnley to r/homeassistant [link] [comments]

I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/throwra_bumprint Originally posted to r/WhatShouldIDo My (35f) friend slapped my bum on a night out leaving a handprint. My husband (30m) doesn’t believe it was her. How to convince him? Thanks to u/soayherder for suggesting this BoRU Triggers Warnings: body injuries, emotional abuse, destruction of property Original Post: March 9, 2026 Went out for a friends birthday on Friday night and had a few drinks. Early on in the night I tripped over (before I’d even had a drink) and I ended up on all fours and one of my friends ran and slapped my bum. We all laughed and the night carried on and I thought nothing more of it. When I got home around 1am my husband was still awake in bed. I undressed to get in to bed and that’s when he noticed I had a hand mark on my bum. He instantly jumped out of bed and started demanding to know what it was and who did it. I stuttered a bit because I couldn’t even remember then it dawned on me so I told him what happened, but he didn’t believe me. He asked for my phone and obviously found nothing too serious but just said I’d deleted everything to cover my tracks. I went to the bathroom to have a look in the mirror and there was a definite handprint on there. He followed me and we stood there arguing for over half an hour and every time I tried to leave as I was cold and naked he’d stop me and accuse me of trying to run away. He said this doesn’t sound like my friend at all, which is true as she’s a very timid quiet person. He also said the handprint is too big for a woman but my friend is tall, she’s around 6 foot and does have big hands. I even ended up ringing my friend to corroborate my story and she even offered to come round and prove the handprint is hers by putting her hand on the print. He said we’d made up the story between us all and used the tall friend as the culprit as she’d have the biggest handprint. I asked the group chat if any of them had a video, but they don’t. All weekend we’ve been having this discussion and he doesn’t believe me. The handprint has gone now but he can’t let it go and keeps constantly asking me. It’s 4:45am here and he woke me up at 4 to ask about it. How can I make him believe me? I don’t know what to do. TLDR: friend slapped my bum and left a handprint. Husband doesn’t believe me and thinks it’s a man. Some of Relevant Comments Downvoted Commenter: Sue her for sexual assault, and file a police report. Legitimize it. OOP: No chance Commenter 1: I know this isn't what you want to hear, but he either trusts you or he doesn't. You can't make him trust you. OOP: This is what I don’t get. I’ve never given him a reason not to. Commenter 1: Has he been cheated on before? I can see it striking a chord if that's the case. If not, it sounds like projection...or red pill shit on social media OOP: Not that I know of. I said to him yesterday he’s projecting. Commenter 2: Is this a new behaviour or has he always accused you of cheating? OOP: First time he’s ever accused me of Commenter 3: What you should do is ring the bar, explain the situation & ask for the CCTV footage. If they say yes, make a bet with him of something that’ll hurt. “If it’s my friend you x if it’s a man I y. Do you want to take the bet or do you believe me?” You need to find something he’ll regret that’ll make him think twice about pulling this kind of bullying shit again but give him the opportunity to stop on his own. Then go look at the footage & hold him to it. Knock him back into his place. OOP: It was outside walking down the road. I tripped over a drain cover. Commenter 4: Sounds like your husband has some issues to begin with. You're allowed to go out and have fun with friends, it seems odd he just didn't believe you AND thinks all of your friends are in on it. Is there a history of cheating here? OOP: Yeah it’s starting to feel like projection to me. No nothing at all. I’ve never so much as looked at another man. Commenter 5: Ok so logically the facts, you couldn’t remember it happening even though you were sober , it would have to really hard to leave a full handprint , through clothing to have it still there fully 5/6/7 hours later . Slap your own bare thigh and it’s gone in an hour or so … He’s got every right to question it and the right to not believe you because it honestly sounds sketchy . Generally to have a full handprint , not bruised ( as you said it went away ) would have to be hard on bare skin . Is this post to make the story believable ? OOP: No because he won’t see this post. I was wearing a thin dress and a thong (an outfit he chose out for me I might add) and I was on my hands and knees so the skin was tight and I’m on blood thinners, so I do mark and bruise easily. All facts he knew. Commenter 6: Your timid friend just put you on the path to a divorce which I think is really ironic. I think it's also possible that your husband has been harboring resentment for late night girls nights out for a while, and this was the final straw. I do also think that his behavior and reaction is over the top and abusive. OOP: I go out 3 or 4 times a year. He goes out every weekend.   Update #1: March 15, 2026 (six days later) UPDATE My (35f) friend slapped my bum on a night out leaving a handprint. My husband (30m) doesn’t believe she did it. How do I convince him. To start with I’ll clear a few things up from my last post. My husband chose my outfit for me that night and it was a very thin dress with a thong underneath so there was very little protection of my derrière. I was also on all fours laughing so my bum was sticking up and then I heard footsteps running towards me and got absolutely thunder clapped on my arse. The sound echoed around the housing estate, and you know a slap is good when both the slapper and the slappee are in agony. All night that cheek was warmer than the other. I’m also on blood thinners which means I mark and bruise very easily. Second thing is my stammering when I told him. Might be TMI but I was doing a strip tease for him while he was in bed and as I let my dress drop I stuck my bum out so it was right near him and he screamed at the top of his voice “what the fuck is that!?” And then jumped out of bed and got in my face making me fall on to the bed and screamed “who the fuck did that!?” It took me a couple of seconds to realise what he meant. If he asked normally I’d have said “Emily slapped my arse”. Also I wasn’t drunk like so many people said. I had three glasses of wine over 6 hours. All the men who said a married woman shouldn’t be out without her husband, and there was at least five of you, are gross. My husband goes out every weekend but I do it three times a year and I’m “for the streets”. People asked about our sex life. We used to have sex or I’d give him oral nearly every day but the last few months it’s dried up to once a week. I have brought this up with him as I need it more. Also the not so serious thing he found on my phone, which a lot of men took to mean I’d been messaging someone else, was a porn video I’d favourited because I like it. Right on to the update. It’s been over a week, he still doesn’t believe me and I’ve told him I want to split up with him. Emily offered to come round on the night and he said no. I’ve told him to speak to all my friends and he’s said no. When I said look at the rip in my dress from where i fell and my bloody knees he said that’s from me giving head. How aggressively does he think I dropped to my knees? He’s looked through my phone and found nothing. When I asked to look through his he said “no I’m not the one on trial here”. He’s woke me up three times in the night to berate me. He’s burnt all my going out clothes. He’s threatened to post photos and videos of me to show the world what a slag I am. He’s also grabbed me twice and pushed me on to the sofa once which I will be informing my brother about later when I see him for Mother’s Day. So all in all a shit week and I’ve told him to get the fuck out of my house and I’ll be divorcing him. He’s not worked for six months and has no savings and the house was mine before I met him and he’s never paid towards the mortgage or any repair or upkeep work so he’s getting fuck all. Relevant Comments Commenter 1: Can't work without trust. And he actively does NOT want to trust you. So... Bub-byyy! PS, I hope everything from here on out works out for you. OOP: That’s pretty much what ive said. I’ve never been treated as untrustworthy in any aspect of my life and I don’t like it Commenter 2: Girl get security cameras and for sure talk to your brother. If anyone shoved or laid hands on my family I wouldn’t even care about the jail time id face. OOP: I’ve already got them around my house and got dog watching cameras inside. Downvoted Commenter: I will never understand why women waste their time and life with men like this. He can't even afford to get upset. Make better choices OOP: He’s never acted like this before. This is the first time. Am I supposed to see in to the future? Commenter 3: He chose your outfit, he sent you out in the most provocative outfit he could. He's not been having sex with you as much as you'd like lately, and he jumps straight to you cheating. I reckon he's been cheating on you and wanted to set you up so he could claim you cheated on him. Then he can leave the relationship to be with his mistress. OOP: I think you’re right. Commenter 4: He's accusing you because he has something to hide for sure. He's messaging girls, watches OF, something. He's definitely thought about cheating. Good for you taking out the trash. OOP: I genuinely don’t care if he’s watching porn or subscribing to OF but there’s something going off if he won’t let me see his phone. Commenter 5: He refuses to accept the truth because it damages his ego. He is doubling down and refuses to be proven wrong. OOP: I said that’s why he won’t talk to my friends because he’s too proud to be wrong. Commenter 6: Sounds like he’s been cheating. Also weird that he hasn’t worked or put anything towards the house… no savings? Good riddance, the trash took itself out. What a bum. OOP: He was at uni when we met and since has floated around jobs and that’s it Commenter 7: good for you. You have to divorce him. How long were you married for? How did he take it? Imagine him having to explain why he's getting divorced--he threw a fit about the dumbest thing ever. OOP: Been together ten years married for four. He didn’t seem to care. Commenter 8: I bet your bottom dollar, he will walk away and (through divorce proceedings) you will end up having to pay him in lieu of equity for the house. OOP: I won’t pay him anything. It’s different here in England. The house predates him and any payments towards it have come from my bank account.   Update #2: April 1, 2026 (2.5 weeks later) UPDATE 2 my (35f) friend slapped my bum on a night out leaving a handprint. My husband (30f) doesn’t believe she did it. How to convince him? I’ve had a lot of messages from people asking for an update so here it is. It’s a pretty uneventful one as nothing has happened but I’ll try and clear things up. In my first update I mentioned kicking him out and he’s still out and I haven’t heard from him at all. My brother did go to see him and his brothers after Mother’s Day so maybe that’s why I haven’t heard from him. I did take some advice then and had new security cameras installed and lighting all around my house and changed every lock. I know it’s a bit paranoid but I’ve also screwed my letter box shut and got a postbox outside so he can’t pour anything nasty through there. I also change my company car every couple of days in case he’s put a tracker on it. I’m really overthinking it but just being sure. I also was a bit petty and posted a picture on my Instagram of me on all fours and Emily with her hand on my bum lol. I’m not sticking up for my ex here, but I do want to clear up the issue of him choosing my outfits. That’s always been my idea. I saw it on a film when I was younger and always thought it seemed sexy my partner choosing an outfit that they find me attractive in and it makes me excited to get home in it so he can see me in it again. I’ve also had a lot of messages from both men and women, sadly, insulting me for being out at that time and saying it’s embarrassing a woman of my age behaving in such a way. I’ve also had a few women message me and tell me that I’m a whore for doing a striptease for my husband and I’m degrading myself. No it’s not degrading to try and turn my husband on so he’ll bang me until the sun comes up. Women enjoy sex too. Anyway thank you everyone for caring it really means a lot ❤️. Relevant Comments Commenter 1: I hope you put in a police report about him pushing you around, destroying your clothes and threatening to post videos of you. You need it on record in case it escalates. OOP:It won’t escalate as I’m not with him anymore. Commenter 2: Has your man always been ok with you going out like that without him? I’m just curious OOP: Yeah never an issue before. In fact he’d encourage it. He goes out every weekend and it was never a problem on the odd occasion when I did. Commenter 3: What do you mean “your” house? You mean HIS house, that HE is payimg for? OOP: No MY house that I bought before I was with him and that he has never paid towards the mortgage or repairs on. How misogynistic that you assume because he’s the man he’s paying for it. He hasn’t worked for six months and when he did he earned minimum wage. Commenter 4: Take a vacation. Just leave for a while. Don't tell anyone who speaks to this man where you are going. Absolute silence will help cool the situation hopefully. Also install a camera outside that looks onto your front doors. This guy sounds like a real loser. Stay safe and don't let him a second of your time. If he has stuff at your place dump it at someone else's house and let that person say they have his stuff . Check your phone for tracking software to. Stay safe OOP: I’m already booked to go to Karakow next week anyway. OOP responds to multiple downvoted comments about Mother's Day isn't until May OOP: Not everywhere is America.   DO NOT COMMENT IN LINKED POSTS OR MESSAGE OOPs – BoRU Rule #7 THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT OOP submitted by /u/Choice_Evidence1983 to r/BestofRedditorUpdates [link] [comments]

This is a repost sub. I’m not the Original OP (OOP) OOP: u/throwra_bumprint Published on: r/WhatShouldIDo Previous BORU: BORU-1 Story is: ONGOING Story timeline Main Post: March 09, 2026 Update 1: March 15, 2026 Update 2: March 31, 2026 [NEW UPDATE] Main Post March 09, 2026 My (35f) friend slapped my bum on a night out leaving a handprint. My husband (30m) doesn’t believe it was her. How to convince him? Went out for a friends birthday on Friday night and had a few drinks. Early on in the night I tripped over (before I’d even had a drink) and I ended up on all fours and one of my friends ran and slapped my bum. We all laughed and the night carried on and I thought nothing more of it. When I got home around 1am my husband was still awake in bed. I undressed to get in to bed and that’s when he noticed I had a hand mark on my bum. He instantly jumped out of bed and started demanding to know what it was and who did it. I stuttered a bit because I couldn’t even remember then it dawned on me so I told him wha happened but he didn’t believe me. He asked for my phone and obviously found nothing too serious but just said I’d deleted everything to cover my tracks. I went to the bathroom to have a look in the mirror and there was a definite handprint on there. He followed me and we stood there arguing for over half an hour and every time I tried to leave as I was cold and naked he’d stop me and accuse me of trying to run away. He said this doesn’t sound like my friend at all, which is true as she’s a very timid quiet person. He also said the handprint is too big for a woman but my friend is tall, she’s around 6 foot and does have big hands. I even ended up ringing my friend to corroborate my story and she even offered to come round and prove the handprint is hers by putting her hand on the print. He said we’d made up the story between us all and used the tall friend as the culprit as she’d have the biggest handprint. I asked the group chat if any of them had a video but they don’t. All weekend we’ve been having this discussion and he doesn’t believe me. The handprint has gone now but he can’t let it go and keeps constantly asking me. It’s 4:45am here and he woke me up at 4 to ask about it. How can I make him believe me? I don’t know what to do. TLDR: friend slapped my bum and left a handprint. Husband doesn’t believe me and thinks it’s a man.   COMMENTS CumishaJones Ok so logically the facts , you couldn’t remember it happening even though you were sober , it would have to really hard to leave a full handprint , through clothing to have it still there fully 5/6/7 hours later . Slap your own bare thigh and it’s gone in an hour or so … He’s got every right to question it and the right to not believe you because it honestly sounds sketchy . Generally to have a full handprint , not bruised ( as you said it went away ) would have to be hard on bare skin . Is this post to make the story believable ? OOP No because he won’t see this post. I was wearing a thin dress and a thong (an outfit he chose out for me I might add) and I was on my hands and knees so the skin was tight and I’m on blood thinners so I do mark and bruise easily. All facts he knew. Long_Hall1967 Ill come to OP's defense as I also am on blood thinners. My ex-husband "spanked" me, while clothed, and it was abusively hard. I had a blue hand print for 2 months. OP's story is very much possible. OOP I’ve got bruises on my legs from a table that I haven’t owned since Christmas lol revengeaura Your husband is insecure, untrusting and by the sounds of it quite happy to make you feel scared, cold, vulnerable and verbally abused. He has made his mind up on what happened and too emotionally volatile to he reasoned with. You in danger girl. OOP I said keeping me naked and cold was to make me feel weak but he said he just didn’t want me running off to give me time to make up a story. gpatoall Could you show him any scrape marks or sbtuises on your knees from tripping over the grate when you fell? OOP Yeah I’ve got a bruise on one knee and a tear in my dress. SpaldingPenrodthe3rd Check his phone, because he's really overacting over this. Because everything you told is believable and why would you cheat and then have evidence like that ??? You don't need to convince him, you need to start questioning him on why he is reacting like this. OOP And why would I strip to have sex with him and drop my dress with my bum pointed out and at him about a foot away from his face if I was cheating and trying to hide it!? NoPhilosopher6111 If my girlfriend came home at 1am wasted and had a man sized hand print on her ass I would also assume she had cheated. Spoiler: I’m not cheating on my girlfriend and I’ve never been cheated on or have trust issues. I don’t get how you can’t all see his perspective. Reddit is fucking wild. If a guy came home with lipstick on his shirt but was saying it was from his mate who was messing around with some lipstick and got it on him everyone would be like ‘nope he’s a cheater’. I think you cheated on him 🤷🏼‍♂️ And your excuse is terrible. If I was him. You’d be out the door. OOP Who said I was wasted? I had three glasses of wine over six hours. Update - after 6 days March 15, 2026 UPDATE My (35f) friend slapped my bum on a night out leaving a handprint. My husband (30m) doesn’t believe she did it. How do I convince him. To start with I’ll clear a few things up from my last post. My husband chose my outfit for me that night and it was a very thin dress with a thong underneath so there was very little protection of my derrière. I was also on all fours laughing so my bum was sticking up and then I heard footsteps running towards me and got absolutely thunder clapped on my arse. The sound echoed around the housing estate and you know a slap is good when both the slapper and the slappee are in agony. All night that cheek was warmer than the other. I’m also on blood thinners which means I mark and bruise very easily. Second thing is my stammering when I told him. Might be TMI but I was doing a strip tease for him while he was in bed and as I let my dress drop I stuck my bum out so it was right near him and he screamed at the top of his voice “what the fuck is that!?” And then jumped out of bed and got in my face making me fall on to the bed and screamed “who the fuck did that!?” It took me a couple of seconds to realise what he meant. If he asked normally I’d have said “Emily slapped my arse”. Also I wasn’t drunk like so many people said. I had three glasses of wine over 6 hours. All the men who said a married woman shouldn’t be out without her husband, and there was at least five of you, are gross. My husband goes out every weekend but I do it three times a year and I’m “for the streets”. People asked about our sex life. We used to have sex or I’d give him oral nearly every day but the last few months it’s dried up to once a week. I have brought this up with him as I need it more. Also the not so serious thing he found on my phone, which a lot of men took to mean I’d been messaging someone else, was a porn video I’d favourited because I like it. Right on to the update. It’s been over a week, he still doesn’t believe me and I’ve told him I want to split up with him. Emily offered to come round on the night and he said no. I’ve told him to speak to all my friends and he’s said no. When I said look at the rip in my dress from where i fell and my bloody knees he said that’s from me giving head. How aggressively does he think I dropped to my knees? He’s looked through my phone and found nothing. When I asked to look through his he said “no I’m not the one on trial here”. He’s woke me up three times in the night to berate me. He’s burnt all my going out clothes. He’s threatened to post photos and videos of me to show the world what a slag I am. He’s also grabbed me twice and pushed me on to the sofa once which I will be informing my brother about later when I see him for Mother’s Day. So all in all a shit week and I’ve told him to get the fuck out of my house and I’ll be divorcing him. He’s not worked for six months and has no savings and the house was mine before I met him and he’s never paid towards the mortgage or any repair or upkeep work so he’s getting fuck all.   COMMENTS Babblingbutcher420 Girl get security cameras and for sure talk to your brother. If anyone shoved or laid hands on my family I wouldn’t even care about the jail time id face. OOP I’ve already got them around my house and got dog watching cameras inside. rocketmn69_ Call your brother now, don't wait. Someone needs to know OOP I’ve just seen him this afternoon for Mother’s Day. I told him everthing . princesszeldarnpl He's accusing you because he has something to hide for sure. He's messaging girls, watches OF, something. He's definitely thought about cheating. Good for you taking out the trash. OOP I genuinely don’t care if he’s watching porn or subscribing to OF but there’s something going off if he won’t let me see his phone. Every-Square-8994 Sounds like he’s been cheating. Also weird that he hasn’t worked or put anything towards the house… no savings? Good riddance, the trash took itself out. What a bum. OOP He was at uni when we met and since has floated around jobs and that’s it Mackan36 Has he left the house after you told him to? Just so you're safe and not having to deal with him. OOP Yeah he’s at his mums humble-meercat Absolutely kick him out. If I had a mark on my rear like that MY husband would laugh his arse off and never let me live it down. And the friend who did it would forever afterward be named “Slappy” or something. Point being he would believe me and never assume if I had scraped up knees that I suddenly had a total personality shift to giving random stranger head… I mean… what the what?!! He sounds like a total violent petty loser anyway and you’re better off without him. Plus people he go straight into paranoid cheating delusions are usually that way because they’re cheating themselves. Have you wondered if he getting sex elsewhere and thats why your sex life dried up…? Throw him out and burn all his stuff in return. OOP I thought he’d find it funny. But no. This is a man who has a video on his phone of him having a piss at the urinal and one of his friends pulling his trousers down and then reaching between his legs and dragging him around the toilet by his balls. But a friend slapping my arse is unbelievable. NEW UPDATE Update 2 - after 22 days (after 15 days from last update) March 31, 2026 UPDATE 2 my (35f) friend slapped my bum on a night out leaving a handprint. My husband (30f) doesn’t believe she did it. How to convince him? I’ve had a lot of messages from people asking for an update so here it is. It’s a pretty uneventful one as nothing has happened but I’ll try and clear things up. In my first update I mentioned kicking him out and he’s still out and I haven’t heard from him at all. My brother did go to see him and his brothers after Mother’s Day so maybe that’s why I haven’t heard from him. I did take some advice then and had new security cameras installed and lighting all around my house and changed every lock. I know it’s a bit paranoid but I’ve also screwed my letter box shut and got a postbox outside so he can’t pour anything nasty through there. I also change my company car every couple of days in case he’s put a tracker on it. I’m really overthinking it but just being sure. I also was a bit petty and posted a picture on my Instagram of me on all fours and Emily with her hand on my bum lol. I’m not sticking up for my ex here but I do want to clear up the issue of him choosing my outfits. That’s always been my idea. I saw it on a film when I was younger and always thought it seemed sexy my partner choosing an outfit that they find me attractive in and it makes me excited to get home in it so he can see me in it again. I’ve also had a lot of messages from both men and women, sadly, insulting me for being out at that time and saying it’s embarrassing a woman of my age behaving in such a way. I’ve also had a few women message me and tell me that I’m a whore for doing a striptease for my husband and I’m degrading myself. No it’s not degrading to try and turn my husband on so he’ll bang me until the sun comes up. Women enjoy sex too. Anyway thank you everyone for caring it really means a lot ❤️   COMMENTS Attentions_Bright12 How to convince him? Reenactment. OOP Tried that in my original post. He wasn’t interested. Apo11onia first time reading about this, but good riddance!! He's so unhinged. When you asked to look through his phone and he said no bc he's not on trial, it seems very clear that he's the one being unfaithful. can't prove it, but it screams infidelity to me. even if he wasn't cheating and projecting, the eay he treated you was absolutely not ok and I'm really glad you kicked him out and taking precautionary measures. Godspeed getting the divorce. It doesn't sound like you have kids, or else you probably would've mentioned it. hopefully it won't be so bad since you don't have to worry about custody agreements. just go your separate ways and forget about him. maybe talk to a therapist if you can afford it tho bc this sounds super traumatic and you might find it useful to unpack with a professional. best of luck, sister. OOP Thank you. I too think he was cheating but now I don’t even care. Hopefully I never have to speak to him again. IsisRed Have the friend tell him she did it and the story of how it came about. Clear the air with truth. If he doesn't believe that, there's likely very little you can do outside of finding other outside witnesses. If he then continues to think you're covering up a lie, then it's going to cause a personal rift nothing can fix. Sorry this is happening to you. OOP Already tried all that and now I don’t care if I never speak to him again. FreddiesNightmare65 I hope you put in a police report about him pushing you around, destroying your clothes and threatening to post videos of you. You need it on record in case it escalates. OOP It won’t escalate as I’m not with him anymore. SwatchSlayer Damn this is wild. Is he projecting? Sounds like he’s upset he hadn’t found anything, sex had tapered off even though you wanted more, and he refused to show you his phone because “he’s not on trial”. But either way, stay safe. Maybe take some self-defense classes if you haven’t already. OOP I definitely think he was projecting.   This is a repost sub. I’m not the Original OP (OOP) Please remember to follow the subreddit rules, especially the ones about brigading. Let’s aim for a respectful and friendly discussion for everyone involved. submitted by /u/BigONerd to r/BORUpdates [link] [comments]

Hello! We moved in with this bathroom mirror already installed. My husband and I are unsure how to replace the light for this mirror that is out (right side). Does anyone know of the brand or how to even open this mirror fixture? I have no other info, ive tried looking up similar pictures on google with no luck. submitted by /u/zmelia to r/fixit [link] [comments]

If you have ever stood in your bathroom and felt that something was “off” while shaving, doing makeup, or checking your skin, there is a good chance the issue is not the mirror itself, but the way it is lit. LED mirrors are often presented as a modern, stylish upgrade, but the real value is in how they handle light. Understanding a few basics will help you choose one that actually improves visibility and comfort instead of just looking interesting on the wall. The first thing to think about is where the light is coming from. Traditional bathroom mirrors usually rely on a ceiling light, or a fixture above the mirror. This creates strong shadows under the eyes, nose and chin, which can make grooming tasks harder and less accurate. LED mirrors place light much closer to your face and often around the perimeter of the glass. This reduces shadows and provides more even illumination. However, not all LED mirror lighting is equal. Pay attention to the direction of the light. Front-facing illumination, where LEDs shine through or around the mirror’s surface toward your face, is usually the most practical for grooming. Edge-lit designs that send most of the light backward onto the wall can look attractive but may provide less direct light where you need it most. Next is colour temperature, measured in kelvin (K). This is one of the most misunderstood parts of bathroom lighting. Warm white light (around 2700K–3000K) feels cosy and flattering but can distort colour slightly, especially when applying makeup. Cool white light (around 4000K–5000K) is closer to daylight and reveals details more accurately, which is helpful for precision tasks. Extremely cool light above this range can feel clinical and harsh. For most bathrooms, a neutral to cool white range, roughly 3500K–4500K, offers a good balance between comfort and accuracy. Some LED mirrors let you switch between different colour temperatures. This can be useful if you want a softer, warmer look for relaxing baths and a cooler setting for tasks like shaving or makeup. The team at Future Light often suggests considering what you do most often in the bathroom and choosing your main colour temperature around that. Brightness is the next factor. People often assume that “brighter is better,” but glare is a real issue in a small room with reflective surfaces. Look for a mirror that provides enough light to clearly see fine details without causing discomfort when you look directly at it. A dimming option can help you adjust the light level based on time of day or existing room lighting. If you already have a strong ceiling light, your mirror might not need to be extremely bright; it just needs to fill in the shadows on your face. If your bathroom is quite dim, the mirror may need to play a more central role in overall lighting. In that case, consider how it will work with any wall or ceiling fixtures, rather than relying on it as the only light source. Another important but often overlooked specification is colour rendering index (CRI). This indicates how accurately colours appear under a light source compared to natural daylight. A higher CRI (80 and above, ideally 90+) means your skin tone, hair colour and makeup shades will look more true to life. For grooming, this can make a noticeable difference. If the CRI is not specified, it can be difficult to compare products meaningfully. Practical features also matter. Many LED mirrors include built-in demisters to prevent fogging after a hot shower. This can be useful in smaller bathrooms with limited ventilation. Touch controls, memory functions for brightness or colour temperature, and integrated clocks or displays are optional conveniences. None of these fundamentally change the quality of the light, but they can change how easy the mirror is to live with. Installation and safety should not be an afterthought. Bathrooms are wet environments, so check that any LED mirror you are considering is rated appropriately for bathroom use, especially if it will be close to a basin or shower. An experienced electrician should handle the wiring, particularly if the mirror needs a concealed power connection in the wall. The Future Light team often reminds people that even a high-quality mirror will perform poorly if positioned badly or installed incorrectly. Placement is just as important as the product. Ideally, the centre of the mirror should be close to eye level for the primary users of the bathroom. Avoid placing the mirror where strong daylight from a window is directly behind you when you stand in front of it, as this can create silhouetting and reduce the perceived brightness of the mirror’s LEDs. Finally, it helps to think about your bathroom as a layered lighting environment. The LED mirror should be one layer, focused on task lighting for your face. Ceiling lights or downlights serve as general ambient lighting. Accent lighting, if you use it, can highlight features like niches or artwork. When these layers are planned together, the space feels more comfortable and functional. Future Light has worked with many homeowners who initially chose mirrors based only on looks, then went back to reconsider brightness, colour temperature and CRI once they lived with them for a while. Taking a few minutes to understand these concepts upfront can save you that second step and give you a bathroom that simply works better day to day. https://www.futurelight.co.za/blogs/news/illuminate-your-polokwane-bathroom-with-the-perfect-led-mirror-selection submitted by /u/peterpancrypto to r/futurelight [link] [comments]

I have never used Reddit before, so bare with me. I’m genuinely baffled by this situation and everyone around us has taken it as a joke. I’m 40m, my wife is 27F. Last Thursday night I had a few business partners/friends come over for a drink. My wife made us some snacks, she was completely fine. She was then baking some cookies and i went in the kitchen to check on her and see if she wanted me to try to start getting them to leave because it was getting late and she said no. She took her cookies upstairs and was watching a movie, again checked on her about 30 minutes later and she was fine. I went back up a little while later and she was asleep so I turned everything off. There’s two closets and a bathroom in our bedroom, all of these doors were open when I turned stuff off. She has a light up mirror at the back of her closet so I walked through her closet to turn it off.. it was 100% empty. We also have a balcony and I looked over to make sure it was locked out of habit. Our bedroom door is visible from where we were hanging out, the room we were in has a full view of the upstairs hallway and two sets of stairs on either side. No possible way for anyone to get to her without me seeing them I would say an hour after this my wife started screaming my name, and it was an ear piercing scream. I immediately jumped up and ran upstairs, one of my firm partners is a close friend of ours and he also immediately ran up. We got in the room and she was shaking and crying like I’ve never seen before saying she thought I was scratching her back but when she rolled over it wasn’t me. She said she thought they came from her closet, because she heard the door slide, like I said I had just been in there. We did look all over the room, but there was nobody in that room and I’m 100% sure it was a nightmare. It’s weird though she still doesn’t think it was a dream and is sure someone was in there. She actually refused to sleep there that night, we went and stayed in my friend’s spare bedroom because he lives in the same gated community so it was easy. Him and I laughed about it that night thinking she’d be fine in the morning. On Friday she showed up at my company, still scared and said she couldn’t go home. She wouldn’t even go in to grab clothes or anything.. she showed up in my friends wife’s clothes lol, his wife also told me she was really acting weird and was worried. I thought again she would get over it She’s a housewife so she’s usually home alone all day and hasn’t stayed home once this week. She has been leaving at the exact same time as me and I leave at 5am.. she sits in the cafe across from my business until other stuff opens. She booked a bunch of appointments and her hairdresser actually sent me a text asking about what happened. She absolutely refuses the idea of it being a nightmare and is convinced someone was in there, or that the house is haunted. I told her it might have been a night terror or sleep paralysis and we should go see someone, which thankfully she agreed to but says it won’t do anything because it was real. I don’t believe in the paranormal and if someone was in my house I would have found them. I’ve also lived in this house for 8 years and have a very good security system. We also have quite a few cameras, Im wishing I had some over our bed at the time. I installed a few in case it happens again. It’s just so odd to me, she was completely fine, and other than that she’s still fine. As long as she’s not in the house she’s normal, then she steps inside and holds my arm for 15 hours straight Everyone including our family thinks it’s funny, but I don’t understand how a nightmare would get to someone like this. I remember having night terrors when I was younger and I always knew it wasn’t real afterwards submitted by /u/Least_Air_8767 to r/TrueOffMyChest [link] [comments]

When it comes to choosing the right bathroom mirror light, it's all about balancing function and style. A good mirror light does more than just illuminate your reflection—it sets the tone for your bathroom and makes daily tasks easier. First and foremost, brightness matters. Look for a light that gives off enough glow to light your face evenly, especially when applying makeup or shaving. Aim for a color temperature between 3000K and 4000K for a soft, natural light that’s flattering yet functional. Next, think about the humidity in your bathroom. Mirrors fog up fast, so an anti-fog feature is a game-changer. With this, you won’t have to constantly wipe down your mirror after a hot shower—it stays clear, every time. Energy efficiency is another must. LED lights are the way to go—long-lasting, energy-efficient, and environmentally friendly. They save on electricity without compromising on brightness, making them a win for both your wallet and the planet. But here's the thing: glass and mirrors are relatively cheap, but LED mirror lights can get pricey. Given the humid conditions in a bathroom, longevity is key. It's important to pay attention to the warranty and after-sales service—unless you’re okay with replacing the light sooner than expected. Of course, you’ll want the light to complement the rest of your bathroom. Whether your space has a sleek, modern vibe or a more classic style, the right mirror light should blend effortlessly with your design, adding a touch of elegance while enhancing the atmosphere. Lastly, installation should be simple. Some mirror lights are built right into the mirror, while others are mounted on the wall. Whichever you choose, make sure it works with your bathroom layout and is easy to install. The right bathroom mirror light does more than just light up the space—it elevates your whole bathroom experience. submitted by /u/AdSmall3419 to r/BathroomRemodeling [link] [comments]

Hey everyone, I’ve helped with quite a few bathroom remodels and LED mirror installs over the years, and I wanted to share some personal observations that might help someone planning a project. These are just my own experiences, so please feel free to correct me in the comments if I get anything wrong — I’m always happy to learn from others too. 1. Calling an electrician for an hour is often cheaper than fixing mistakes later I’ve noticed bathrooms are one of those places where small wiring errors can turn into bigger headaches. If you're unsure about: where the existing circuit comes from how the switch loop is wired whether the mirror can be safely switch-controlled whether a new junction box is needed or how the mirror behaves when power is cut …it might be worth having a pro look at it. A quick visit can save a lot of patching, troubleshooting, or reinstalling. Bathroom wiring isn’t quite like wiring a bedroom or hallway In most places in the U.S., bathrooms follow stricter guidelines — GFCI protection, proper junction boxes, damp-rated fixtures, and making sure everything is tied into the lighting circuit rather than random nearby wiring. I’ve seen a lot of people tie a mirror into whatever wire is convenient, and it can cause issues. 3. Hardwired vs plug-in (my personal take) Hardwired ✔ Cleaner look ✔ Works with a wall switch ✔ Better for mirrors with defoggers or LEDs ✘ Usually requires opening the wall or adjusting the box Plug-in ✔ Very DIY-friendly ✔ No wall cutting ✘ Visible cord ✘ Usually can’t be switch-controlled Both options work — it really depends on your comfort level and the bathroom layout. 4. Sharing a switch with the vanity light In many cases, a mirror and a vanity light can share the same wall switch, as long as they’re on the lighting circuit and the wiring is done inside a proper junction box. The one thing I personally avoid is tying anything into the load side of a GFCI unless the setup is clearly understood — I’ve seen that cause confusion or tripping. 5. Mounting and wall structure matter more than people expect Some of the trickiest issues aren't electrical at all: LED mirrors tend to be heavier Studs are rarely perfectly centered Sometimes a support board behind the drywall is necessary Always check behind the wall before drilling And no matter what — avoid leaving loose splices behind a mirror without a proper box Just things I’ve learned the hard way. 6. DIY or hire out? My simple rule DIY: Replacing an existing hardwired fixture in the same spot. Happy to answer questions If anyone has wiring questions, switch logic questions, mirror placement issues, stud alignment problems, GFCI confusion, or anything related — feel free to ask. Always glad to help people avoid the mistakes I see every week on job sites. Stay safe and good luck with your projects! submitted by /u/ExBrite to r/BathroomRemodeling [link] [comments]

Thinking about upgrading your home lighting in Pretoria with LED mirrors but have some questions? As leaders in providing top-notch lighting solutions, we’ve got you covered. Here are the top three frequently asked questions we receive about LED mirrors: What are the benefits of using LED mirrors? LED mirrors offer multiple benefits that enhance both style and functionality in any home. They provide bright, even lighting, which is perfect for grooming, shaving, and makeup application. Additionally, LED mirrors are energy efficient, helping you save on electricity bills. Their long lifespan means you won’t have to worry about frequent replacements. The sleek design of LED mirrors also adds a modern touch to any bathroom or living space. Are LED mirrors easy to install in my home? Absolutely! LED mirrors are designed with user-friendly installation in mind. Most LED mirrors come with clear instructions and all the necessary mounting hardware, making it straightforward for DIY enthusiasts to install them at home. However, if you’re unsure or want a flawless finish, professional installation services are recommended. Our team can guide you through every step of the process to ensure a seamless setup. Can LED mirrors be customized to fit my specific home decor needs? Yes, LED mirrors can be customized to fit your unique style and decor requirements. They come in various shapes, sizes, and frame options to match different personal tastes and home aesthetics. Whether you prefer a minimalist, frameless look or a bold framed statement piece, there's an LED mirror option available. Our selection at Future Light offers plenty of customization options to fit your home's decor perfectly. For more information on transforming your home with LED mirrors, check out our blog post here: Read More. submitted by /u/peterpancrypto to r/futurelight [link] [comments]

Finally finished this and wanted to share with others who might appreciate. We have a tiny half-bathroom that needed fixed and reno’d. Inspired by Flight of the Navigator’s silvery spaceship, and Yayoi Kusama’s infinity mirrors, I wanted to make it feel as big as possible in there, with a vibe that suggested a big, starry future, perhaps with a multiverse. Not an artist, just a handyman w/ random skills. Thought this was gonna be easy. It wasn’t. But except for painting the door, it’s finally done! Key features: - all mirrors were hand-cut. Cutting mirrors is hard. I broke a lot learning. - floor tiles are not rated for walking. To make that work I cast the floor as solid epoxy ~1/4” thick. This ensured the floor was perfectly level and flat, to reduce risk of tiles having point loads that could crack them. - countertop is mirrored stainless, set over a thick coat of wood-filled epoxy with black to bond and level. It was previously cut glass pieces, but moisture quickly got to the wood butcherblock under and the swelling and warping caused all pieces to shatter. - LED lights are eclectic arrangement, because when I tried installing them in a more tidy professional manner the lighting didn’t look balanced. A motion activated sensor turns them and toilet seat on. - Toilet seat is cast epoxy with lights and wiring. People seem to either love it or hate it! submitted by /u/TheSolarJetMan to r/DIY [link] [comments]

I'm renovating my basement bathroom. I have a light on the ceiling and a vanity light over the mirror both operated by the same light switch. I have a ceiling light installed and everything works as it should (light turns on when switch is on). However, when I add the vanity light to the mix the ceiling light now glows softly when the light switch is off but still turns on when the light switch is on. The vanity light however does not work at all (light switch on or off). Troubleshooting: - I've tried a different vanity light and the same thing happens. - I've uninstalled the ceiling light and installed just the vanity light and it works like normal. As this is a renovation, the bathroom had a ceiling light and vanity light before and both worked fine. I didn't mess with any of the wiring, just the lights themselves. Thanks in advance. submitted by /u/alphasss to r/AskElectricians [link] [comments]

Large Round LED Bathroom Mirror with RGB Color Changing and Anti-Fog Function Transform Your Bathroom with a Modern LED Mirror Elevate your bathroom experience with our Large Round LED Bathroom Mirror. This contemporary mirror isn’t just a functional necessity; it’s a stylish statement. Featuring RGB color-changing LED lights, it’s designed to create the perfect ambiance for any mood. With over 10 years of expertise and products in over 130 countries, our mirrors are crafted with precision and quality. Large Round LED Bathroom Mirror with RGB Color Changing and Anti-Fog Function Key Features Our LED Bathroom Mirror is packed with advanced features that make it a must-have for any modern bathroom: RGB Backlit Light: Enjoy vibrant RGB backlighting with 7 single colors and 1 mix color for a customizable look. Energy-Efficient Illumination: LED light source provides bright, efficient lighting that saves on energy costs. Touch Control: Easily adjust brightness levels and lighting colors with a simple touch. Anti-Fog Function: Keep your mirror clear even in the steamiest showers. Memory Function: Mirror remembers your last settings for convenience. IP65 Waterproof Rating: Designed to withstand moisture and ensure durability. Easy Installation: With reinforced glass and an aluminum alloy shell, it’s simple to hang and secure to your wall. Multi-Room Use: Ideal for bathrooms, powder rooms, and makeup rooms. Large Round LED Bathroom Mirror with RGB Color Changing and Anti-Fog Function Benefits of Our LED Bathroom Mirror Why choose our LED Bathroom Mirror? Here are the key benefits: Enhanced Ambiance: The RGB lighting adds a colorful, modern touch to any space. Perfect for Makeup and Grooming: Bright, even lighting helps you see clearly for flawless application. Convenience: Touch control and memory function make it easy to use. Clear View: Anti-fog feature ensures you always have a clear reflection. Durable and Reliable: Built to last with high-quality materials and waterproof design. Large Round LED Bathroom Mirror with RGB Color Changing and Anti-Fog Function submitted by /u/ThisOlive5010 to r/GoCurrent [link] [comments]

Round Smart LED Bathroom Mirror with 3-Color Adjustable Backlight & Defogging Feature Elevate Your Space with Elegance and Functionality Introducing our 80CM Round Smart LED Bathroom Mirror, a perfect blend of style and practicality for any modern bathroom or bedroom. This elegant, frameless mirror enhances your space with its sleek design and smart features, making it an ideal choice for those who value both aesthetics and functionality. Round Smart LED Bathroom Mirror with 3-Color Adjustable Backlight & Defogging Feature Key Features Adjustable 3-Color Backlight: Tailor the ambiance of your room with a simple touch, choosing between three different light settings to suit your mood or decor. Smart Defogging Technology: Enjoy a clear reflection at all times, thanks to the built-in defogging feature that keeps your mirror mist-free. High-Quality Silver Lenses: Experience crystal-clear reflections with our high-grade silver lens material, ensuring durability and clarity. Modern Frameless Design: The round, frameless look of this mirror brings a touch of contemporary elegance to any space. Energy-Efficient LED Lighting: Illuminate your space with energy-efficient LED lights, designed to create the perfect lighting for makeup application or grooming. Round Smart LED Bathroom Mirror with 3-Color Adjustable Backlight & Defogging Feature Perfect for Every Occasion Whether you’re getting ready for a day at work, preparing for a night out, or simply seeking a stylish addition to your decor, this mirror meets all your needs. Its versatile design and features make it suitable for use in bathrooms, bedrooms, or any space that needs a touch of sophistication. What Makes Our Mirror Special? Apart from its stunning design and practical features, our mirror is crafted with safety and convenience in mind. The LED light is designed to stay on for up to 2 hours, ensuring circuit safety. The standard 110~220V, 2-pin round plug (EU plug) makes it easy to install in various settings, and alternative plug options are available upon request. Round Smart LED Bathroom Mirror with 3-Color Adjustable Backlight & Defogging Feature submitted by /u/ThisOlive5010 to r/GoCurrent [link] [comments]

Whilst not technically a DIY post, this may be of interest to DIYers, it’s essentially my experience of turning DIY into a career which I’m sure many consider. I promised to write this last year and got positive responses to the suggestion so here it is. A word of warning, there’s a lot of reading involved and way too much detail and I’m not wearing rose tinted glasses (like some aging pervert rocker), so it’s not going to be what you want to read if you’re considering the same move. Anyway, for over 20 years I was a website developer, never made fortunes but had a good work/life balance, but then I started feeling fatigued, lots of muscle ache, back pains, deteriorating eyesight, poor posture etc, and realised sitting in a chair, wiggling a mouse, slouched, staring at a bright screen 10 hours a day for 2 decades was likely the culprit. Then came the plague, during which time we bought our first house, and whilst I did some basic work on it during lockdown, when the restrictions lifted I paid trades to do the work and was constantly disappointed and frustrated with the standard of work and service. For example, a plasterer, who I, unsurprisingly, paid to plaster, didn’t plaster at all, he dot and dabbed plasterboard over sodden existing plasterboard in our bathroom, then a plumber fitted a bath and forgot to plumb in the waste pipe, a sparky fitted a posh light switch about 10 degrees out of plumb, a shower screen went up with shit screws which very quickly corroded and left rust stains on our grout, the plumbers butchered pristine victorian floorboards with a shit multi-tool and a blunt blade to get at pipes. Nothing major, but regular “FFS” moments. Every time it was a real effort to get someone out to do the work, when they did turn up it was purely about pace and getting the job done so they could invoice and move on to the next project. Never any pride or commitment, just: “get the bastard job finished Gaz, I don’t care if the screws are stainless you’re not popping to screwfix, get it on the wall and f*ck off”. Anyway, I ended up putting lots of stuff right and eventually made the call to do everything myself. I enjoyed it, I was praised for it (by 3 or 4 people) and I was asked to do bits at friends houses. It felt glorious. Then I decided it made perfect sense to have a career change, though on reflection I now realise this was 32% midlife crisis, 21% mental breakdown, 47% logical career change. My plan was simply this; do good quality work without bodging or cutting corners, use premium materials, be clean, tidy, respectful and punctual, be contactable and reliable. I knew how tricky it was to get trades in as they were always booked up for months, so there was definitely room in the local market. If I priced competitively and improved on everything else how could I fail? Fast forward 3 years, and my work quality is dog shit, I regularly cut corners and bodge, I clean up only occasionally, I never, ever, finish a project on time and I’m impossible to get hold of. A side note; I also feel like I’m on the verge of completely losing the plot Michael Douglas style in Falling Down, rocket launcher at road works, that sort of thing. What the f*ck went wrong? I hear you ask. I’ll start at the beginning. I spent time trying to see if I could find a way of funding the initial set-up, but hit a brick wall, repeatedly with my head. I expected start-up grants, business loans, perhaps some coaching or free training, I even imagined a decent period of grace for taxation or just a bit of friendly support but could not find anything. In the end I used credit cards and wracked up a good few grand buying my kit. One of my frustrations with trades was always; “why are they making that noise and mess here when it could’ve be done off-site, they don’t need to be in my house using a big saw with their anus cracks on show”. To spare my future customers this disruption I decided a workshop made sense. I spent a long time looking and eventually found the perfect unit, beyond what I ideally wanted to spend, but the location, size and facilities were brilliant and the landlord seemed great. But then as soon as I started to show enthusiasm it turned very formal, a 10 year lease needed signing, the landlord expected me to pay the solicitors £3K bill plus he started adding on multiple monthly costs, until the rent went up by a further 20%. I realised it just wasn’t going to work so I backed out before signing on the dotted line. A week later I received a demand for the £3K solicitors bill because they apparently did all the paperwork in advance, I didn’t pay, but that’s another story. Not long after I got a call back off a local chap who had a converted pigsty. Not even kidding. It was a reasonable size, low ceiling but lots of storage areas, leaky, vague smell of old pork, but well priced and the landlord was very chilled out; “just pay me a month up front and give me a months notice if you want to move out”. A much better, less stressy arrangement but I now needed to spend time and money getting the place straight. Another few grand on credit cards and a month’s delay whilst I did the work. But now I was SET. I chased up on some word of mouth enquiries and began by refurbing some doors and re-hanging, then there was a stud wall with sliding pocket door, after that a fitted wardrobe. On every single job I went the extra mile, customers were delighted, but I worked late into the night, through weekends and lost money on every single job. But profit comes with time and initial losses were surely to be expected, I would get better at pricing up jobs, quicker at working and treated these early jobs as portfolio builders, loss leaders if you will. But the loss leaders continued, I couldn’t sustain 12+ hour days and needed time out at weekends, so all the stuff surrounding the jobs, design, admin, materials ordering, planning, quoting, marketing and the rest had to be done through the working day, which meant less billable time. Then I encountered my first difficult client, I’d secured a decent project converting a garage into an office, nice enough couple, but bad past experiences with builders meant I could only use the toilet when they were at home. So I had to plan things very carefully and inevitably the project went beyond the time stipulated, which they were not happy about and nor was my next client whose project started late as a result. Probably should’ve just shat myself and trucked on with a load in my crotch. Next job was hanging ten shit hollow doors in a house so hot satan himself would’ve needed a Solero. I was in the bathroom, doing my best not to go beyond the trimmable area of rails on the cheap moulded doors whilst a cat took a shit in the litter tray behind me and I started to think about the time I’d spent, the price quoted and realised I was working at below minimum wage. So once the current jobs were done, I paused for a week, I sat down and reflected on the work I’d done and how I could improve things, I looked at time logs and overheads and worked out what I needed to be charging to make a salary that would allow me to cover bills, essentials and perhaps have a week off a year. By now it was 18 months in, I had commercial experience, the work was still top quality, but I was getting quicker and had a much better idea of how long jobs took. My pricing was pretty damn accurate. The only problem was, I wasn’t securing the work. I’d either get blanked or “we asked for 3 quotes and you were the most expensive” or “we can’t afford it at the moment, we’ll have to save” etc. This went on for a while and with panic imminent, I revisited my pricing and rejigged things, I’d work all day Saturday, three evenings a week and forgo annual holidays. I started getting work again but I had to embellish on the pace of things and the quality started to become ‘okay’ instead of exceptional, I had to return to a couple of jobs for bits I’d missed. I also took on another couple of loss-leaders for social content and to try and move into wealthier client circles, one of these was making a stable style door from scratch which was a joy to make, but problematic in that after install the whole thing grew by about 10mm, I had to return at least 6 times to trim. Turns out there was a leak directly above the door they’d known about, but never fixed or mentioned. Jobs started overlapping, sometimes three at a time, customers were unhappy so once again I pressed pause, I didn’t take on anymore work, then, once I’d finished the last job any new work I took on was going into a realistic schedule. First job in to my new schedule, a study in a posh house, “we’re away next week”, “that’s not a problem, as long as I can have access”, “we’re not comfortable with that I’m afraid, can you move things back a week”. Couldn’t bring the next job forward as I was awaiting the materials delivery. The first job had given me a sizeable deposit that I’d used to buy materials and pay a credit card bill so I couldn’t cancel so I was immediately back to having 2 concurrent jobs… then 3. I think this was around the time I first started driving out to isolated spots, not to go dogging, just to shout expletives as loud as I could until my throat hurt. But the first job, the study, was a goodun, a great portfolio piece, I went to town, hardwood doors with mortice and tenons, dovetailed oak drawers, solid wood cabinets, scribed oak desk top etc. painting by hand, I even repaired walls and door frames in other areas of the rooms. But then I received a call, bear in mind this is the couple that decided to go away for a week and not grant me access, “this is going on too long, we just want it done now, we don’t share your enthusiasm for wood types and what not”. And I think this is when a switch got flicked in my grey matter. I finished that job quickly, very quickly, nail gun and CT1 quickly, two coats on noticeable areas only quickly, no sanding or vacuuming quickly. They paid me and I never heard from them again. I realised I could’ve made the doors out of rectangles of MDF stuck to another 9mm sheet of MDF, I could’ve used veneer and chipboard and shit hinges, I could’ve made sure the door reveals were 4mm bigger than they should be just in case. They didn’t give a shit. Back to the isolated spot to shout expletives, I think I kicked my wing mirror off too. So I’m now here. Scratching my head, wondering where to go? Absolute sympathy for those working in this bastard industry. There’s regret, exhaustion, disbelief and yet I can’t give up. I love woodwork, I love doing things properly, with care and pride, I love learning and developing, but it’s just not viable in this form, people can’t afford to pay or aren’t prepared to wait for a thorough job. They want cheap and quick, quality is at the bottom of the list even when they scream: “WE WANT GOOD QUALITY YOU SCRUFFY WOOD BASTARD”. Which brings me to another area that perhaps I’m positioned to comment on. The prejudice. People look down their noses at you. Never happened when I was programmer despite having no specific qualifications. But there’s an assumption you’re uneducated, that you’re a carpenter because you couldn’t do anything else. I see it regularly, people lose their minds when I explain I have a degree and developed websites for 20 years. The fact is proper cabinetry is infinitely more difficult than writing a bit of PHP. I have many thoughts on this but I risk getting serious, so lets park that one. It’s a tough industry, there's a good community spirit and an abundance of committed hard working people but as you know there are unscrupulous types who will quote low and then add to their bill at the end, or start a job, then return to it a month later. You’ve got young kids with no overheads, still living at home who have more energy and a drive purely to earn money to pay for trainers or ketamine, you’ve got old boys who are charming and cheap because they’ve paid off their mortgage, workshop and van and are constantly busy despite their work being average. Then you’ve got the bigger operations who are, well, utter shit, but they’re a brand and trusted by the masses for no good reason. So despite it appearing easy, without barriers to entry, it’s a jungle out there. If this hasn’t put you off, here are the lessons I learnt. Don’t bother with a workshop, if you’re not on-site the customer assumes you are skiving, you’re better off just making noise and mess in their house and save the monthly overhead. Don’t schedule work, explain that you operate a queue system, once a job is complete, you’ll move on to the next project. Find a decent independent bookkeeper who will give you impartial advice and actually do book-keeping, not just resell you Quickbooks with a mark-up and charge you thousands for very little. Yes I’m bitter. Start buying good tools now before leaving your current job and I don’t mean Ryobi or Screwfix (fine for the odd spot of DIY), buy proper commercial tools that will take a kicking and last. Buy things like track saws, mitre saws, routers, sanders etc. stuff you currently think you’re unlikely to use often, but will actually use all the time. Side note: The only tool I never use is an electric plane, track saw killed it. Regularly replace bits and blades, about a month before you think, “why is this on fire?” Cordless is overrated. Dust extractor. Ear defenders. Two part wood filler Order materials in advance to be delivered. Find other decent trades to work with and share tools, space and orders. This should be top of the list, I have a fella in the workshop across from me who has saved my sanity many times and I’d like to think I’ve helped him out of tight spots a few times too. Get a pack of adult nappies, just in case. Ear defenders Go belt and braces in bathrooms, tile backer board, tanking, stainless screws, decent adhesive. White plasterboard does not belong in a humid room. Blue if you have to. Rapid/fast set anything is not worth the stress. Jigs. You can’t organise the tools to take on the spot, work it out the night before, make a list based on thinking through the tasks. You’ll still forget something but hopefully nothing critical. And finally, maybe don’t bother? I’d really prefer not to receive abuse, I’ve made mistakes I know and can't be arsed driving to the isolated spot in my slippers. This is just opinion and all a bit jovial on purpose. But happy to receive helpful advice and suggestions and obviously funny comments. UPDATE - August 2025 Another user has asked about turning DIY it into a career which has re-stimulated what was a flaccid post, so I thought I'd use the opportunity to say thank you! Whilst my faith in humanity is not what it was, it is much improved since I posted this, I received so many positive, kind and genuinely helpful comments, I'm really grateful. I'm still skint though I've not given up entirely, I'm now sharing a workshop which eases my monthly overhead and gives me access to some proper big fella tools that will likely take my fingers at some point. I'm currently doing a project for a lovely lady whose priority is good quality work and she is no rush, so she's getting some proper neat joinery. I just need many more clients like her. Thanks again and big awkward hugs. x submitted by /u/bitofsomething to r/DIYUK [link] [comments]

I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/could-be_worse Originally posted to r/legaladvicecanada Neighbor has camera pointing into my yard/driveway Thanks to u/soayherder & u/queenlegolas for suggesting this BoRU Trigger Warnings: harassment, invasion of privacy, mental illness struggles Original Post: March 5, 2025 Having a bit of a land dispute with my neighbor, where she claims a fence (that the previous owner of my property built) is hers. She claims she had a land survey done, but refuses to show anyone. So I still believe its mine. Her only "real" claim is that her plumbing runs under it... I dont give much of a shit about the fence, so I have been pretty laid back about it and haven't made it a huge problem. Well, cut to yesterday, and she put up 5 signs saying its her fence, to keep off it, and of we touch it, its trespassing. She also installed 4 cameras around her house, 2 of them point directly into my yard and driveway. She had previously put a camera up, which I called bylaw about, and they told her she cant have any cameras pointing into anyone elses yard. Now she has done it again, but this one also swivels and has a light on it. I talked to the cops and they said "we will talk with her". They talked with her and surprise! Its still there... Is there anything I can legally do about this? I have had enough of her games, its been 2 months. Relevant Comments Commenter 1: Go look to see if the survey stakes are there. This will tell you where the property line is. If the stakes aren't there get a survey done and stakes put in. If you are confident it is your fence and there are signs on it go take them off. Cops are not going to get involved as it is a civil dispute. If she wants to do trespassing she would need to prove to the cops it is her property. They would then warn you and leave. Call bylaw again. Repeat until cameras are gone. It may take multiple tries. If she starts yelling at you or threatening you start talking to the police about harassment. OOP: No stakes unfortunately. And the survey costs 3k so I have been holding off. Might take the signs off just to force her to prove that she has a land survey done at this point. Commenter 2: There's little to no expectation of privacy for a driveway or front yard. A closed off backyard, maybe a bit more. That is all to say this is likely just a bylaw issue for the moment and you should probably call them back. Unfortunately I have seen almost this exact scenario play out elsewhere. Your neighbour is, in all likelihood, operating from the basis of a mental illness. If she fits the pattern for other cases I've seen, and there isn't a guarantee of that, her reaction to any and all actions you take will be to escalate. Engaging personally is unlikely to help, though you could offer to split the cost of a survey to settle the debate if you want. I doubt she will agree. Your best bet is simply to contact relevant authorities as appropriate. Don't confront her personally. Consult bylaw about appropriate placement of cameras and put your own up. OOP: I had the displeasure of speaking with her at the start of all this... Definitely mentally ill. Shes extremely hostile, wont be speaking to her alone again. Will give bylaw another call, thank you. Commenter 3: Your property is quite likely to have iron survey pins, even if the white posts used to mark their location are gone. You can rent a pin detector to find them, and use can use marking paint (on your side and the City side only) to mark their location. Even if you can only find the ones away from your neighbour, or even the one on the other side or a few doors down, a tape measure will then allow you to approximate the corner of your lot. Most houses will have a survey plot plan - this is a drawing that shows the location of your foundations relative to property lines. Often this is on file with the City if you don’t have it, and again it can be used to measure property line locations.   Update #1: March 7, 2025 (two days later) Update to: neighbor has camera pointing into driveway: Now she has one pointing directly into 2 bathroom windows and my bedroom. Yeah im done. I went to the police and they told me she could have the cameras up and the sign pointing into our yard saying "no trespassing cunt". Also talked to the city and the fence is ON MY PROPERTY. 3 of her cameras and lights ARE ON MY FENCE. yet bylaw says "there is nothing we can do". Is the camera something I can sue over? I don't feel safe in my own home and I can no longer open my windows without her seeing DIRECTLY into my bathrooms and bedroom. Bylaw is useless, the RCMP is useless. I need to escalate this. Im pretty pissed off, and since the police aren't willing to do anything, im considering doing something myself. When I talked to bylaw, they told me I couldn't face a flood light at her cameras, yet she has 3 lights facing into my yard and now 6 cameras pointed at my house, make it make sense. Edit: I have posted another update. I blocked some of the cameras. Relevant Comments Commenter 1: If the fence is indeed on your property and the cameras have been installed on the fence, can you not simply remove them and dispose of them as you see fit? OOP: RCMP told me I can't touch her property, even if it is installed on mine. Google says I can do whatever I want to them, since it's my property. But I want to be 100% certain before I take them down. The cameras on the fence also aren't the ones pointing into my bathroom and bedroom, those are in her property. Commenter 2: The best way to infuriate your neighbor is to carry on like nothing is happening. Just ignore them. They want to get a reaction from you. The best reaction you can give is no reaction. Set up your own cameras and document any hostilities towards you while you are just living a peaceful life. OOP: That was the plan until she pointed cameras in my bathroom window. Now I'm escalating. Commenter 3: "She claims she had a land survey done, but refuses to show anyone. So I still believe its mine. Her only "real" claim is that her plumbing runs under it..." She doesn't have to show you a land survey(if she has one) and if you cant provide one either showing its your property, police won't do anything about a he said she said situation. "She had previously put a camera up, which I called bylaw about, and they told her she cant have any cameras pointing into anyone elses yard. Now she has done it again, but this one also swivels and has a light on it." So your first post said that bylaw said she cant have it pointing at your yard, but now your saying bylaw said she's allowed? Your story is changing quite frequently that I'm not sure i believe what she saying is accurate. OOP: Yep, she wasn't allowed the first camera pointing just at the driveway. But the other (new) cameras pointing directly into my bathroom and bedroom are somehow allowed and "there is nothing we can do about it" -RCMP My story hasn't changed, RCMP and bylaws answers have. Trust me I was in the police station for over an hour trying to understand how anything they were saying made any sense. It was constant contradictions. They were somehow blaming me while also saying "yeah we have met with her a few times for other issues, shes mentally ill and crazy". This is the same RCMP that refused to drive down a road and check on someone that crashed a week ago though... He ended up freezing to death and there is currently a lawsuit against the city due to it. They. Are. Useless.   Final update (hopefully): March 8, 2025 (next day) If I could post a photo I would. However, I did what the comments said and I put up a 2x4 with plywood, with 2 lights and wind chimes, to block her camera. I got 3 other neighbors that have had issues with her and we all hung out in my yard and built it (ill be going to their place to help build one there too). She came running out, screaming, while on the phone with the RCMP. She told them I was drilling into "her retaining wall" (which was never brought up that it could even be hers, its clearly in my property) and 4 officers came over within 5 minutes. She yelled at the officers the entire time while 1 officer came and talked to me and the guy ther neighbours. They stated that they can't do anything about the sign or cameras, but that I can/should go to the city and take it to court, so I will be. The officer was incredibly polite and thoroughly explained what I can and can't do. So if you are in BC and dealing with something similar, here is what the officers told me is allowed: you can have cameras pointing into your neighbors yard, but any cameras pointing into windows is considered voyeurism, and you can be taken to court over it. You are allowed flood lights, and you can block cameras all you like. For the cameras on my fence: she has been told to take them down, and if she doesn't, I can go ahead and take them down, without damaging them, and place them on her doorstep. As for the damage to the fence, that is up to the court to decide. Laser pointer, or anything else that can potentially damage the cameras, are not allowed. I will be placing cameras all around my property, with some looking directly into her back yard (was given the green light by RCMP). If you have any other legal suggestions for what I should do, please comment them. 5 neighbours are starting a petition to shut down her vrbo, which she NEEDS to afford to live there. Fuck bullies. Edit: reposting to another sub as this one has locked the comments. Relevant Comments Commenter 1: Glad to hear you stood up to her. She sounds like a lunatic, so if/when you finally do get to court, any judge is going to have a fun time with her. I must have missed in your first post that she was harassing other neighbors, too. That definitely is going to help your case. OOP: She has tried to fight a few of our neighbours so far. All smaller women than her, of course. Not even an hour before she called the cops on me because I was "drilling a hole into her retaining wall", she had the cops called on her for trespassing and trying to fight one of the neighbours I had over. I wish I had recorded everything when she called the cops on me, it was comical. She told (yelled) one of the officers that I don't have permission to drill into the wall... And then the officer told her its my wall and I can do whatever I want to it, so she responded with "well then what if I go over an drill a hole in his house!?!" The officer looked so done with her shit. It was like watching a 10 year old throw a tantrum. Shes mid 40s. Commenter 2: A report to the CRA about her VRBO might produce results in the long term, if she's being sloppy with her bookkeeping. IR lights will dazzle cheaper cameras without being visible (and annoying). Aim one at each camera. Commenter 3: Glad the blocking worked. I also have a nosey neighbor, and I put mirror tint on my windows. i also blocked another camera with a sign.   DO NOT COMMENT IN LINKED POSTS OR MESSAGE OOPs – BoRU Rule #7 THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT OOP submitted by /u/Choice_Evidence1983 to r/BestofRedditorUpdates [link] [comments]

Thanks to everyone here who advised on this bathroom. I took your advice and replaced the frameless mirror for a chunky framed one (before pic #7). I painted the door, ceiling, and vent covers with a dark chocolate that I pulled from the background of the wallpaper. Finally, I got bigger and bolder decor that doesn’t get swallowed by the wallpaper pattern. I’m still planning to switch out the shower fixtures to black ones, and I’m thinking of getting a rolled towel rack (last pic) to replace the basket. I am also considering a simple cove crown molding around the top of the wallpaper. This was mostly DIY, with the exception of the electrical and installing the shower door. New toilet, bidet, vanity, mirror, lights, fan, wallpaper, paint, outlet covers, tp holder. I learned a lot during this process and I’m really happy with how it turned out! submitted by /u/bug_muffin to r/HomeDecorating [link] [comments]

First | Prev | Next Star Crossed [Multiple Free Sample Chapters] | Patreon | Subreddit | Discord | Paperback | NOP2 Species Lore It was unspeakably cold throughout every nerve. I could feel the power leaving the breaths from my lungs, and the life leaking out onto the floor below. It was slipping away so quickly, a rapid drain from my insides. Multiple wounds had perforated my abdomen—life was so fragile. I tried to claw my way up, to find something to say, but shock was taking over. I was hanging onto consciousness by a thread. The governor had to know. What would become of the galaxy and humanity in my stead? There had to be something better than this: a sudden eruption of violence and outrage. I had so many regrets, not the least of which was what happened to Earth. I begged her to reach out, and find peace with the Arxur. I could feel her touch on the back of my head, but it was distant. Fading fast. Spend the final strength to make eye contact, to see what she sees. The Venlil’s own blood was mixing with mine; there was a glaze in her eyes, almost masking the concern with remoteness. She had been a good friend to us, and I hated that she’d been hurt for it. I wondered if Tarva, like all the rest of her kind, thought we were animals now. My fear of what came next warred with my desire to fight for a cause. I could feel my blood pressure dropping, and the shallowness of my lungs trying to draw air. Was there life after death, or just eternal nothing? How would it feel? Death was inevitable, of course, but I always assumed that I had more time. I didn’t want my person, my self, to be gone into the wind. Everything that I was and perceived would be nothing for all eternity. The only solace I could find was the thin hope that the future would be better—that something would change. Darkness. A prison. Eyes sealed, never opening again. Irresistible to just rest—so unspeakably tired. So weary of my burdens and this world. It’s as if I’m leaving my body, stepping out of it. Peaceful, and frigid as ice. There is no sensation. There was a crack of light in my visual field, illuminating the darkness of unconsciousness. It batted away the gloom, as an unspeakable calm washed over me. Memories and faces of people long gone rapid-fired past me. I saw my grandmother knitting on the porch, smiling at me with a face I thought I’d forgotten. The moment that I’d been elected to the United Nations’ highest office, full of youth and fervor. The ideas and fire for peace all rushing back in an instant; I would’ve teared up if I had any connection to my body. My parents stood side-by-side in the effervescent glow, pride in their pupils. There was a warmth in their gaze, and I could feel that it was all going to be okay. My concerns for the world slipped away; it was a place I no longer belonged to. It was time to heed the Reaper’s call, to join the sea of faces in the Great Beyond. I would be safe and at rest here. A final moment of acceptance, of triumphant euphoria. The grand finale, the last gasps of consciousness. Then, there’s emptiness. The lights are dimmed, as it all slips into a place where nothing exists, and nothing ever will. My will, and ability to process, snatched from my fingers. I was no more. A cold, dark, absence of personhood was all left behind when the embers settled. Time was a concept for a living; there were no thoughts abuzz in the mind, or cognizance of the experience at all. This was the end of everything. Memory Transcription Subject: Elias Meier, Former UN Secretary-General Date [standardized human time]: July 6, 2160 The sensation was as if the lights had been turned back on in a cobwebbed attic, after decades of disuse. The fog was choking, when the spark poked through a dormancy that couldn’t be described. I only had words to express the ever-after once the gears were back in motion. To say that I felt startled and disoriented was an understatement. Nothing seemed right either: sensation was an uncanny mess. I willed my fingers to move, but they felt alien, rather than anything like being my own. I died. I…it’s hard to remember. The doctors must’ve resuscitated me or something, but the peek behind the curtain felt so real. Why was I even afraid of dying? The serenity was unmatched. It took a moment for the world to come into focus, but there was a strangeness to processing the digital input. It felt as though visuals were being beamed to my mind, while my eyes were a mere decoy—even while they tried to mimic the real thing. The touch felt more like a vibration underneath saying something was connecting with my skin. Additionally, there was so much that I couldn’t pick up: saliva in my mouth, thirst or hunger, the temperature of the room, any aspect of breathing, or the normally-unnoticed sensation of blinking. Where was the pain too? Even with drugs, I had sustained a severe injury. Perhaps this was the afterlife, and I was in fact dead. There was no feeling of being a real, flesh-and-blood human being. “Hi, Elias.” The feeling of the translator’s mind-warping was familiar at least, suggesting that I wasn’t in the afterlife—unless there was a shared eternal paradise. I commanded my pupils to turn toward the voice, despite how forced and unnatural it felt. Fear signals knocked at my skull, as I spotted a talking ant-spider standing inches from my face; reflex almost took over to swing at him. “My name is Virnt. How are you feeling?” I shied away from him, trying to swallow—nothing. “I can’t swallow. What the fuck? Where am I? What have you done to me? What are you?” “I told you not to get right up in his face, Virnt,” a human voice said, hovering beside some holographic screen. Recognizing my own species calmed me a bit, since I was well aware how brutal aliens could be to predators. “I’ve known you since you were a child, and Tilfish still give me the heebie-jeebies sometimes.” He’s known Virnt since childhood? How fast do these Tilfish grow up? “I’m sorry. I was just extremely excited about the project, and the implications; I wanted to know how he’d react and handle it. I can give you a moment, Elias, or let you speak to someone else,” Virnt rambled. My eyes darted around, wariness and unease settling in. “No, it’s okay. Just please, tell me what happened—what is going on, and…where we are. I am…almost certain I died.” “You did. However, post-mortem, the Venlil did a scan on you—thoroughly imaging your brain. This is a Terra Technologies research lab. We replicated everything that made you yourself, down to an exact science. You have a new lease on life, with true synthetic immortality! I’m sure this feels strange, but I assure you, this version of you possesses all of your attributes, memories, and neural connections—we wanted you to be the same.” That revelation was like a gutpunch, hearing that I was some…photocopy of Elias Meier, and that the genuine human being had passed away on the streets of Venlil Prime. I threw my legs over the bed in a blinding panic, trying to figure out what the hell I was. My brain—thought processor, I supposed—refused to accept that what I was feeling wasn’t real. The Tilfish scuttled after me as I sprinted toward a bathroom, on legs that worked, yet felt like unfinished emulations. My gaze locked on the mirror, and I stared at the familiar face. The visage was impressively lifelike: an accurate image of my true self, not some metal husk or a phony thing. Maybe I should cut the skin, and see what’s underneath it—it’s just wires. I don’t like this one bit. Nope, nope, nope. “Please don’t harm yourself!” Virnt blurted, somehow reading my mind. That I liked even less, and I was beginning to feel like a caged animal, or better yet, an amoeba under a microscope. I wanted to make this stop; it was a nightmare I desperately wanted to end. “Breathe…er, I mean, relax. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.” I tried to draw in a breath, but some emulator of my voice was all that responded. “Get out of my head!” “I’m sorry about that. We’re trying to monitor your experiences for quality assurance, and to make corrections so this is less jarring for you. We can read any person’s mind live now; we’re just skipping the extra steps with your program.” “What year is it? We didn’t have anything like this. And why have you done this to me?” “It’s 2160. It’s been 24 years since you passed on, which is a long time, but…not as distant as it could have been! This technology could change everything. Our lives are so short, but they don’t have to be. Whether you want this or not, you know that many people do.” 24 years. I thought it’d be longer, but that’s something. I’m amazed that humanity is alive too; they’re tampering with dangerous realms. Fields that should’ve been left untouched. Beset by a mismatch of emotions, I returned back to a chair, cradling my head in my hands. The last time I remembered crying was when the first bombs struck Earth; not that those even were my memories. This was overwhelming enough that I wanted to break down, but there were no tears in my unblinking eyes. God, I’d really have a predator stare now. I wished I could seal my cursed gaze shut, and fade unaware back into the dark. Thanks to the utter lack of breathing, there were also the faint cues that I was suffocating; the more time progressed, the more strongly it felt like I was constantly holding my breath while diving underwater. In the surreality of my present form, it was all I could do not to scream and succumb to mania. You want to read my mind, Virnt? I never asked for, or agreed to this. I think you should’ve let me rest in peace. The Tilfish’s antennae scrunched in a display of concern. “We’re planning to make adjustments so you’ll be more comfortable: it’s a learning process, for all those who’ll come next! If you really don’t want to be involved…we can shut off your program, Elias. I only wanted to give a hero of humanity a new lease on life.” “Is that why you chose me?” Damn self-preservation. This is horrid, yet I don’t want to die again: to return to non-existence. I tried not to focus on what was missing from the current stimuli, and to train my thoughts on what he was saying. Through the blame, in my addled faculties, I felt a flicker of sympathy. “Because you think I…deserve better?” “I have a lot of reasons, but that’s one of them. Look, now that this technology is out there, people are going to use it. I want it to be done right—humanely. You’re the right person to speak to the galactic community, and lobby for ethical standards and civil liberties. Where digital minds can be installed, minimum standards for comfort, and citizenship privileges.” I cast a cold stare at them. “Can you turn me off at will? Control this body remotely?” “I assure you, we won’t do that. It’d be the same thing as the murder or coercion of any other sapient—and I hope you believe I wouldn’t do that.” The human from earlier spoke in a raspy voice that sounded a bit wild, yet distinctly familiar. He sported a welding mask, obscuring his features. “You’re free of so many of the burdens of being human: ones that I dream of escaping. You can change your face if it disgusts you, and you can’t feel pain. Your brain, your body, won’t break…and we never have to lose anyone again. Don’t you see the chance you’ve been given?” My facial cues seemed responsive, down to the most minuscule muscles; I slanted my eyebrows inward. “I know you. Your voice.” “No, you don’t. It’s understandable with all this that you’re latching onto anything familiar. Chalk it up as a technical glitch and move on.” “It’s not that, Marcel Fraser. It might have been decades to you, but it's been two weeks since I remember speaking to you and your friend.” “You’re delusional! That person died years ago,” he hissed. His hands flew upward, before he stormed out of the room with an exasperated huff. I turned toward Virnt, frowning. “With everything going on, I don’t appreciate the attempt to gaslight me. I know that was him. What happened?” “A single-minded focus on bringing back that friend,” the Tilfish sighed. “It’s a long story. I apologize for his behavior. I assure you, I have no intentions of violating your autonomy, or doing anything other than helping you acclimate.” “I feel half-human at best,” I groaned. “You’ve got to make some changes.” “We can make improvements. Give it a few days to see what you adjust to, and what’s vital to enter in; the only features missing are things that don’t add much to the human experience. You can choose to end this at any time, but what’s the harm in giving it a shot? What do you say?” I mulled it over, circling back to how it’d felt when my brain gave out; I was the only being that could describe what it was like on the other side. After a short duration of having returned to the physical world, being shut down was a frightening prospect. It wasn’t like I’d expected to wake back up, but this was a second chance that could also be given to many others. Why would I waste a chance to help humanity, and to see what the world had become? Others would suffer as I was now, if I wasn’t the one willing to stick it out and iron out the rough edges. This might be opening Pandora’s Box, but as Virnt pointed out, it wasn’t like it could be sealed shut again. Someone will have to be the guinea pig, but maybe I can steer this technology toward being a force for positive change. It is remarkable how far we’ve come in such a short time. “Well, I would like to hear what’s become of humanity, and frankly, how the hell we managed to survive. Things looked pretty bleak in my last days,” I responded aloud. “I’d also like to hear all of your reasons for reviving me. That implied there were quite a few, and I want all your cards on the table.” “Not getting anything by you, am I?” The Tilfish’s mandibles clacked, apparently a laughing gesture. His compound eyes focused on me. “One thing at a time. There was a lot that happened, or was discovered, after your…untimely demise. For starters, we learned you humans were hardly the only omnivores.” That got my unyielding attention, as I couldn’t believe what I heard. “What?!” “…yeah. The Federation ‘cured’ any meat-eaters, which means they genetically installed allergies to animal flesh, and then overhauled their culture to fit their ideology. My species is one of the former omnivores, and I chose to go back to it since I moved to Earth as soon as I reached adulthood. I sort of have an obsession with humans and how you work.” “Um, noted.” I took a moment to digest what he just said; somehow, being talked about like nothing more than machinery wasn’t the most shocking element. I’d have to get used to that, at any rate, since I was a literal machine now. “They hated omnivores. They…wanted us dead for being predators. Oh God, did they cure humanity?!” “What? No! It was more that it proved your buddy Isif’s side of things. Their starvation attempts went far beyond you and the Arxur—you were just the failures. I mean, they did try to cure some abducted humans in the mid-twentieth century—” “I beg your pardon?!” “Don’t worry, the Farsul failed for centuries because they couldn’t figure out B12 deficiency. Oh, and to be clear, they targeted real herbivores too. You should see what the Venlil look like now that humanity uncrippled them. They’re quite the opposite of the skittish species you knew! Would you like to see a picture of Tarva’s unmodded daughter?” The gears in my head were grinding to a halt, as the information overload was beating me down. “Yeah. Sure. Why the fuck not?” Virnt handed me a holopad, revealing an image of a much older Governor Tarva; her snout fur was turning white. The human she was with made me do a double take, as I recognized a graying Ambassador Noah Williams cozied up next to her*.* That made me re-evaluate exactly why Tarva had requested the astronaut who made first contact as our ambassador, despite how nervous she’d been around him in the initial stages. I didn’t know if robots could get whiplash, but I was definitely feeling it. My focus shifted to two fully grown children, one human and one…Venlil? The young female had a nose on her snout, and was wearing running shoes at the end of perfectly straight legs. “Ah, send the Governor and the Ambassador my regards,” I managed. “If it wouldn’t weird them out too much. I…I would love to get in touch.” Virnt took his holopad back, compound eyes gleaming. “You’ll be able to contact anyone you like. Sorry for giving you ‘robot whiplash,’ Elias; just trying to fill you in. Long story, we found out that, that the Feds were hiding their true power to appear weak, and were colluding with the Arxur to keep the war going forever. Humanity fought to get an alliance, and with lots of help, took the conspiracy down. The end!” “Right…so we won. We took down the Federation. Then what?” “The Federation splintered into many groups. Humanity leads a group of eighty-odd species called the Sapient Coalition, trying to plant the seeds of peace and equality. However, we…we presently need help from the other parties, to stand with us. Not to alarm you, but there seems to be a malevolent entity just outside our space, and our clashes with them don’t bode well.” A sense of dread festered within my mind, an all too familiar sensation. “Who exactly is this malevolent entity?” “We don’t know; they shoot everything that moves, and we think they perpetrated a genocide against another predator species’ homeworld. I’ll get you briefed on specifics, but it’s bad news. So we need everyone, from the neutral Shield, the maligned-but-reformed Arxur, and the predator-hating Federation-lite to team up. That's the main reason the UN wants you back in the game.” I pointed a finger at my chest, scoffing. “What on Earth does that have to do with me?” “You have goodwill with just about everyone, including the Arxur, you’re used to assuaging predator fears, and you’re practiced at getting help in impossible circumstances. Elias, you were a diplomat that wanted peace, but made the hard decisions.” “I am a cyborg replica of myself, and you think anyone would want to parlay with me, in this state?” “It’ll be tough for the Fed loyalists to worry about your instincts, when you don’t eat and can’t feel hunger.” “The Federation thinks hunting is hardwired into our brains, Virnt. This is all too much. I…I want to be alone. Please.” The Tilfish patted my hand with a grasper, before moving away. “Of course. Take all the time you need; think it through. Let yourself get accustomed to everything I threw at you. I’ll be a short scuttle away.” As soon as the insectoid departed from the room, I searched for anything to cover my eyes, ensuring that I could see only shadows. The changes since my timeframe of reference were drastic, though there were a few things I could take solace in. Humanity finding friends and a place in the galaxy, as well as vanquishing the immediate threats of bigotry, were positives. The fact that Chief Hunter Isif had let Earth return to full autonomy, and succeeded in his ideals of reforming the Arxur, meant that my deathbed wish had come true. It was peace between the Dominion and preyfolk, but it was understandable that there wasn’t acceptance or immediate forgiveness. The dagger to my heart was hearing of a new war, the anti-predator madness starting all over again. I hadn’t been able to fully spare Earth, despite my best efforts to make us palatable to the Federation maniacs. If this was a do-over at keeping my people safe, before this war spilled onto our doorstep, I would give it my best. However, with how strained my sanity was right now, I hoped that I could hold onto my sense of self. With no wild claims to distract me, I fell into taking inventory of everything that was missing. There was no feeling from where my tongue rested against the roof of my mouth, no scents in the air, and an absolute stillness where my stomach should be rising or falling. Like Virnt so aptly mentioned, I had no feelings of hunger or fullness at all, because the only insides I had now were metal rods and wires. My hands snatched the pillow with the last semblance of control, and I screamed—perhaps hoping to run my voice ragged, like a human would, but that was ineffectual as well. With attempts to regain any sense of normalcy or being alive rebuffed, I fell into a defeated, tormented silence. First | Prev | Next Star Crossed [Multiple Free Sample Chapters] | Patreon | Subreddit | Discord | Paperback | NOP2 Species Lore submitted by /u/SpacePaladin15 to r/HFY [link] [comments]

After 3 years of dating, my girlfriend and I finally moved in together. This is great and all, but for any of you out there considering a similar move, please try to set any ground rules before you make the decision. I thought Lizzy & I were on the same page, but she threw me a curveball on day one. "Now we can finally get rid of that creepy deadbolt on your closet!" She said I know you're probably jumping to a bunch of conclusions about me right now, but there's a good reason for it- and beside that, she knew about the deadbolt beforehand. This hadn't been brought up when we discussed the move. Hell, she hadn't even complained about the lock for years! Before you start jumping to conclusions, let me give you the background- which I pretty much have to give any time someone sees my closet the first time. When I was a kid, I was terrified of my closet- typical kid stuff like "there's a man/monster in there!" I used to wake up my dad multiple times a night saying the closet door opened itself and I saw or heard something in there. He would come check, reassure me, and close the door. A few hours later, the same would repeat. Finally, my dad got sick of waking up 3 times a night and decided to put a lock on my closet, convinced I was either opening the door in my sleep or intentionally to get attention. A normal lock didn't work, but he was still convinced I was somehow picking the lock and opening the door. He installed one of those chain locks they have at hotels at a height I couldn't reach. I would still wake him up saying the door was cracked open. One night, my dad was up late and heard slamming coming from my room. He checked, and I was standing by my closet just opening and slamming the door in my sleep. The next day he installed a deadbolt, and he has slept soundly ever since. I am taking my parents' word for a lot of this, because I was only around 4 or 5 at the time- I remember running screaming to my parents' room a few times, but that's pretty much it. Anyway, bolting my closet became a nightly routine that I grew up with, and the few times I tried to stop, I would have awful nightmares and wake up to an open closet. I pretty much just resigned myself to bolting the door. When I moved out of my parents'house, I decided to give up the habit. My friends gave me crap about it since I was young, and the last thing I was going to do was bring a girl back to a room with a deadbolted closet- serious ac murderer vibes. I had the familiar nightmares I associated with the other times I had tried to quit, but I decided to push through it. I woke up to the closet door open so many times, that I stopped closing it at all. I started waking up in the middle of the night and seeing things in my closet. This shook me, but I would turn on the lights and see something to explain it away. For example, I would think I see a person and it would be my golf bag. I would hear scratching on the door and find a branch outside my window. I would hear "Warren" whispered and think it was just the AC kicking on. This pattern continued, but the "plausible explanations" became less plausible. I would see an unnaturally tall man in a bowler hat with twinkling eyes, and when I turned the light on, there would be a bowler hat with some Christmas ornaments...in July- and I've never bought a bowler hat. I looked for that hat in the daytime many times without finding it. I would hear whispers of "Warren, come join us. Join us" that would build up into yells, then mix in with the sound of my fan. One night, I woke to the bowler hat man. He let out a deep chuckle and then lunged from the door, bounding at me on all fours, limbs twisting at alarming angles. I turned on my lamp, and a bowler hat sat in the middle of my room. I went to a 24 hr Walmart, bought a deadbolt, and installed it the same night. I slept like a baby. Explanations be damned, I kept that lock on my closet in every apartment. Lizzy knows this and knows how terrified I am of the closet, but she won't let me put a deadbolt on. She says "it's time you get over this phobia". It has been a month since we moved in. The nightmares are back. The closet door is always open. I hear them whispering to me. "Come, come, join. We will dance together. We will shower in the red." I dreamt last night that I awoke wet, smelling metal. I walked to the bathroom and in the mirror I found myself drenched in blood. The bowler hat man stood behind me- smiling, pleased- and patted my shoulder. He rolled down and whispered in my ear, "yes, join us" This morning I woke up and the closet door was closed, but I was inside. I felt a peculiar feeling on my head and reached up to find I was wearing a bowler cap. I begged Lizzy today to let me put on my lock. She is insistent that this is all a fantasy of mine. I don't know what is happening, or what will happen next. I have to put the lock on. I can't last another night. submitted by /u/ForwardCrow9291 to r/nosleep [link] [comments]

First of all I want to thank everyone for taking the time to read my first debunk post, for upvoting it, commenting on it, sharing it, gifting me awards and sending me private messages showing your support, appreciation and providing me with additional information. I’m very happy to tell you that Reddit stats show that the post already got 1.4 million views (as of today) and there are many people dm’ing me that they changed their views after reading it. This is very encouraging to me! I’m not just writing it for Amber, but for all abuse victims everywhere. Not only do I try to educate people on this particular case, it is of utter importance that people understand abuse better. This case has shown how many people have wrong ideas about what abuse entails and how abuse victims/perpetrators should look/behave/act. Your loved ones might be experiencing abuse behind closed doors and you aren’t able to recognise it, or you yourself might not realise you’re being abused and think it’s just a bad relationship (that’s what I thought during my relationship). After posting, I continued editing and adding new debunks in that post, but Reddit has a limit of characters for a post, so I had to make a new post (this one!). If you hadn’t read the previous one, go read it (it is updated with some new information/sources), these are the myths I discussed there: “Amber has a history of abusing her past partners” “Johnny never showed any violent behaviour before” “Johnny’s previous partners never experienced any abuse from him” “Amber stole lines from the movie ‘Talented Mr. Ripley’ during trial” “If Amber was truly abused, she could have left him at any time” “Amber being able to recall every incident in perfect detail is suspicious” “Amber is overacting with the faces she makes while testifying, she can’t possibly be assaulted” “Amber is manipulative for constantly looking at the jury instead of the lawyer asking the questions” “Johnny did not get a fair trial for the UK libel case” “Amber recording him is proof that she already deviously planned to accuse him” “Cosmetic brand proved that Amber lied about using makeup to cover bruises” "Amber defecated on their marital bed" ​ Part 2 starts here: “Johnny can’t be an abuser, people have come forward saying he is a warm, loving, caring man” People are not believed because society has a template of what an abuser looks and acts like. We tend to categorize abuse as something that could not be done by kind, thoughtful, charming, well-liked people. In reality, most abusers are not easy to spot and sometimes they are the people we love. Your own individual experience with someone doesn’t mean you know about what goes on in that person’s relationships with others behind closed doors, especially if the nature of your relation with that person isn’t the same (i.e. you aren’t in a marriage with Johnny recently). Being loving towards you doesn’t prove that someone can’t be abusive towards another person. An abuser isn’t abusive 24/7 all the time towards everyone. They definitely has their tender loving moments and can be charismatic, charming and generous. This is also how Amber has described Johnny when she first met him and fell in love with him. He gifted her a horse among other lavish gifts and did many acts that made her feel loved. It is because of these loving moments that Amber had a hard time leaving him when the abuse started. Multiple witnesses that testified for Amber, including iO Tillet Wright (their common friend/neighbour), all described Johnny as a likeable, charming person when they got to know him, which confirms this warm, loving side of him. However, these same witnesses also testified that alcohol and drugs would bring out a very ugly side of him. This matches Amber’s testimony that under influence the inner “monster” within Johnny would come out. The term monster is actually a term Johnny himself used to describe his state when he was using drugs or alcohol, as can be seen in text messages he sent to a security guard: “We've been perfect. All I had to do was send the monster away and lock him up, we've been happier than ever” and to one of his doctors: “Amber and I have been absolutely perfect ... I have locked my monster child away in a cage deep within and it has fucking worked”. Like what I’ve written in the debunk of another myth, Amber sought to distance herself from the relationship multiple times, but she was drawn back whenever Johnny achieved brief periods sobriety and when the “monster” was subdued. “He said he was embarrassed and sorry, and I believed him, so I got back with him on the condition that he would do the full clean up, the detox, and never go back.” She thought she could help him get completely sober and would accompany him on detox journeys. There are text messages where Johnny says that Amber saved his life and that he wouldn’t made it through detox without her. But he never got completely clean and the abuse continued. “Johnny is a southern gentleman who has a lot of respect for women” That is how Johnny described himself. However, if you look at the texts he writes, who he surrounds himself with and what life choices he made, there is a deep misogyny that lay at the root of his anger, the anger that translates into violence. Let’s take a look at the way he talks about women in texts, which he may or may not have written while under influence: In January 2013, he wrote about Amber: “I'll smack the ugly cunt around before I let her in, don't worry... Did that worthless hooker arrive???” It was during their first year of dating and there was no reason during that time for him to be angry with her, as he testified himself that the first 18 months dating were perfect. According to his testimony, during these 18 months, when he came home, Amber would sit him down, bring him a glass of wine, take his boots off, and bring him dinner. In June 2013, he wrote to his friend Paul Bettany: "Let's drown her before we burn her!!! I will fuck her her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she is dead." Bettany replied, "My thoughts entirely! Lets be CERTAIN before we pronounce her a witch." When asked about these texts, Bettany said he felt embarrassed and tried to distance himself from Johnny. Depp stans have tried to explain it away by saying that everyone would get angry after being abused and sending such texts is just a way to vent yourself. However, in his own testimony, Johnny claimed the first time she assaulted him was after they got married, during their honeymoon. At the time he wrote those texts, Amber was just his girlfriend and they weren’t married yet, so according to Johnny's testimony "Amber's abuse" couldn't have started back then. The texts weren't sent in response to any abuse he supposedly suffered, but simply because Amber was nagging him for doing drugs (she tried to stop him taking drugs to prevent him to become violent when under influence). Furthermore, even if you want to vent, there is no justification under any circumstances for you to talk about killing your girlfriend, no matter what she said that made you angry. He called his previous partner, Vanessa Paradis, the mother of his children, “French extortionist ex-cunt” in an e-mail to Elton John. He also called her “withering cunt” in other e-mails. He sent a text to Christian Carino, a talent agent who represented both Johnny and Amber, in which he called Amber a “low level, dime a dozen, mushy, pointless dangling overused flappy fish market” and wrote: “I cannot wait to have this waste of a cum guzzler out of my life!!! I met a fucking sublime little Russian here... Which made me realize the time I blew on that 50 cent stripper... I wouldn't touch her with a goddamn glove. I can only hope that karma kicks in and takes the gift of breath from her…”. This was sent in August 2016, after she filed for divorce and got a restraining order against him. After their split, he texted in October 2016 to his longtime friend and neighbour Isaach Baruch: “Is the slippery whore that I donated my jizz to for awhile staying there”, “Hopefully that cunt’s rotting corpse is decomposing in the fucking trunk of a Honda Civic”. This text was read aloud in court and both Johnny and Isaach confirmed the existence of this text exchange. He wrote to his assistant Stephen Deuters: “Molly’s pussy is RIGHTFULLY MINE!!! Should I not just bust in and remove its hinges tonight??? I want to change her understanding of what it is like to be thrashed about like a pleading Mackrel… I NEED. I WANT. I TAKE”. This text was read aloud in court and when confronted with it, Johnny said he didn’t write it and made up an excuse “someone probably took my phone and sent it”. Amber testified: "He started saying things like 'well I'm going to have to watch you get raped' and 'I hope you get railed by a bunch of fking fellas.' "Sometimes he used racial epithets about the men I would be – or deserved to be – assaulted by, saying things like 'a slimy Mexican' or 'a fucking gang of big black mother fkers are going to fk you and get their big ck in you.'" She also said that Johnny would insult her looks: “His verbal abuse was often sexualised, but it was also about my looks and related to my work, saying things like 'no one will hire you when your t*ts and ass sag' or calling me 'fat ass'. In audio recordings we can hear him call her “fat ass” and “cunt” iO Tilette Wright, their common friend, testified that Johnny said to him: "All she's got is her looks and she has no talent, and when her tits start to sag and her face gets wrinkly, nobody is going to be interested in her for anything, so she better figure out another way to survive." Johnny’s frequent usage of the terms “hookers” and “whores” in texts is not the only indicative of his misogyny, if you look at his past relationships, he always seem to prey on girls much younger than him: Winona Ryder was still a minor, 17 years old, when he started dating her at age 26 Kate Moss was 20 and he 31 Vanessa Paradis was 25 and he 35 Amber was 22 and he 44 Polina Glen, a Russian “go-go dancer”, who was just 22 and he was 54 Misogynists use women’s bodies to bond with other men. Patriarchy is homoerotic and Johnny's entire group of friends are all old creepy men like himself. These types usually use the women they are with for "status". Hence his repulsive texts with his "friends" talking about Heard's body. Other than the corpse rape text above, Bettany also wrote to Johnny in 2014: “We buy Amber a toy beaver and we could picture you shaving the beaver and we could set up a website called Amber Heard’s beaver and make a f**k ton of money. Sell advertising space. Clearly there are many spinoffs, you could coke, toke, punch..." Johnny’s other friends include Marilyn Manson (accused by multiple women for abuse) and Roman Polanski (convicted child rapist). His hero is Hunter S Thompson, who was charged with violent sexual assault and accused of emotional abuse by family members. Besides misogyny, Johnny also seems to be homophobic and transphobic. He had used abusive language towards Amber for her sexuality and her past relationship with women, calling her a “lesbian camp counsellor”. He was also jealous of Amber’s female ex, Tasya van Ree, calling her “Van Pee”, he also tried to set fire to one of Tasya’s paintings. He attacked their common friend, iO Tillet Wright, by misgendering him and mocking his transition, calling him a “dike bitch” and “wanting to be a man now”. "Amber is the abuser, she is caught on tape admitting to hitting Johnny" An edited audio clip, recorded by Johnny, Amber is heard saying “I didn’t punch you. I was hitting you, it was not punching you”. This clip is used widely as proof that Amber is the abuser. Let’s take a look at the context of this recording. The recording is made in September 2015, which means they have been together for more than 3 years at the time. According to Amber the abuse started around end of 2012 or early 2013, at that point she would have been suffering from abuse for years already. Over the years abuse victims often change the way they react while trying to survive in a chaotic and dangerous environment. In the beginning, after every assault he committed under influence, Johnny would profusely apologise afterwards when sober and Amber would forgive him. There are text messages supporting this, Johnny writes: "Once again I find myself in a place of shame and regret. Of course, I am sorry. I really don't know why, or what happened. But I will never do it again … My illness somehow crept up and grabbed me … I must get better. And I will. For us both. Starting today. I love you. Again, I am so sorry. So sorry." Amber explained that she tried many ways to diffuse the arguments, but the cycle of outbursts then apologies then more outbursts continued no matter what she did. "In these fights, I would try to stand up for myself. By December 2014, I was pushing back, I'd push him off me, I tried to hit his hands away. I tried to always get back up, which would almost always made it worse, always seemed to provoke him. But I tried. I would yell at him, scream at him. I'd call him ugly names. So ashamed of the names we'd call each other. It was awful. And we both got into that pattern. I felt so angry that this was happening to me, and it just felt so unfair. Nothing I did made him stop hitting me. Nothing. I tried for over a year, maybe two, of just not responding physically, not responding verbally, just staring at him. I tried to freeze, I tried going to a different place. I would try then lashing out verbally. I would try to threaten that if he hit me again that I would call the police. I tried to do everything. I even threatened to leave him — tried to leave him. Nothing was working. And I think by this point in our relationship, we're both saying awful things to each other, screaming at each other and, unfortunately, when Johnny would start hitting me, he'd just win.” This struggle Amber had with dealing with his violence matches with what their marriage counsellor, Dr. Lauren Anderson, said. Anderson testified that Amber told her “she felt she had to hit him back if he hit her so she always did.” In the recording Amber is making the distinction between a “punch” and a “hit.” She testified about the disparity between Johnny and her in their physical fights. “He would proactively punch me, and I would have to resort to reactively hitting him. I am talking about the difference between a punch, which Johnny did often, and having to hit him in my defence.” Why she tries to make a point about the disparity is because we can’t ignore the power dynamics at play. The fact of the matter is that Amber is weaker than Johnny physically (and also socially, financially). While it’s easy to reduce the equation of their relationship to ‘equal blows’, Johnny has always stood to gain a great deal more over Amber than she’s stood to gain over him by enacting abuse in the relationship. Let’s examine the likely outcome of the same act of abuse when enacted by both parties. It is true that Amber raising a hand against Johnny could be abuse, but the power dynamics between them (Johnny’s greater physical size and strength, as well as his greater social influence over those around them at the time) meant that Johnny raising his hand against Amber would have resulted in a greater threat against her physical safety when compared to his. His acts of abuse will have, by nature of their power imbalance, been more dangerous. The same goes when examining physical violence between caregivers and children. Children are not only smaller physically and weaker in strength than their caregivers but they sit at a significant disadvantage when it comes to their social influence and cognitive abilities as well. It is for this reason that a child raising a hand against their caregiver is simply not as dangerous as a caregiver raising a hand against a child. Ultimately, it is the power imbalance between two parties which ultimately makes one more vulnerable and the other a greater threat within the relationship. As explained hitting back doesn’t make one an abuser. You need to have the power to be able to abuse it. An abusive relationship depends upon a pre-existing structural power imbalance that puts one partner in a superior position over the other and gives him/her the power to abuse. In other words, you abuse your partner by abusing the power you have over the partner. Amber never had the power in the relationship to be the abuser. The power imbalance is not only physically, back then she was just a young (22 years old) relatively unknown actress, while Johnny was twice her age (44 years old) with a long well-established career and greater influence/wealth/fame/fanbase. It is impossible for her to be the one in control in a relationship with someone clearly so much more powerful. Johnny had surrounded Amber with people who are on his payroll, this includes his multiple security guards, nurses and doctors. Even if she wanted, Amber could never truly physically harm Johnny without his guards intervening. On the other hand, his guards never intervened when Johnny abused her. Their friend/neighbor Josh Drew testified that Jerry Judge, one of the security guard, asked him ‘Is she OK?’ and he responded with 'Are you fucking kidding me? He beat the shit out of her again and you guys stood by and watched.” Johnny also used his medical staff to keep her her sedated to "keep her under control." It is also notable that in these recordings in which she admits to hitting him, she owns up to her acts and apologises to him, while he continues to call her names and gaslights her. Her admitting to resorting to violence in self-defense, about having screaming fights and saying horrible things, shows her honesty and makes her sound more credible and trustworthy. In contrast, Johnny claims to be a perfect person who never ever hit any women, not once, not even in self-defense. This is actually one of the characteristics of DARVO, namely “denying abuse completely”. Someone who uses DARVO often also go on to say that their victim was the “real abuser” and they were the “real victim”. The acts of self-defense by their victims is used by abusers to make the abused look like the abuser. Johnny released these edited audio tapes through his minion Adam Waldman to the media and used a bot network to create the narrative that Amber is the abuser. Experts have expressed concerns that this trial is offering abusers a way to exert their power over victims. "Amber is the abuser, she is caught on tape mocking Johnny that because he is a man no one would believe him to be a victim of violence" In an edited audio tape that is recorded by Johnny and had been shared widely on social media, it sounded like Amber was mocking Johnny that no one would believe him because he is a man, and many people consider it to be a strong evidence of Amber being the abuser. But if you go listen to the actual full audio recording, here is the transcript, it is obvious the whole quote is taken out of context and the ‘because you're a man' line doesn't exist at all. Let's take a look at the context of this recording first. Throughout their relationship Amber never called the cops, never said anything to the press or anyone else about the abuse to protect Johnny. She kept silent despite suffering all those abuse. It only went public, because of the last accident (in May 2016) when he grabbed her phone from her, while she was on a call with iO Tillet Wright, and threw the phone at her face. iO heard her scream and called the cops. He testified about this. Multiple witnesses, including Raquel Pennington, Josh Drew, Elizabeth Marz all testified seeing bruises on her face right after this incident. Around a week later, iO wrote this story why he called 911 (he never mentioned any names). When the cops arrived, she didn't collaborate and didn't give them any statements for them to arrest Johnny, because she was still protecting him. In this recording they are talking about that incident and you can hear that Johnny is angry that she involved the police. She tried to explain that she had to do that, because in a prior incident (the one in December 2015) it went so far that she feared for her life, she was scared he would kill her by accident. As you can hear in the recording, Johnny doesn't deny that it happened nor feel sorry about it. Instead he counters by saying he lost a finger and had things thrown at him as if that compensates it, makes it equal, makes it comparable, makes it a fair fight, makes him an abuse victim as well. That's why Amber responded with the infamous words "You can please tell people that it was a fair fight, and see what the jury and judge thinks. Tell the world, Johnny, tell them Johnny Depp, I Johnny Depp, I’m a victim too of domestic violence, and see how many people believe or side with you." It was never a fair fight for Amber, he was stronger and bigger than her, and when he assaulted her, she could never defend herself physically on equal grounds, only by throwing things at him to try to stop him from hitting her. That's why she continued with: "Exactly because you’re big, you’re bigger and you’re stronger. So when I say that I thought you would kill me that doesn’t mean you can counter with you also lost your own finger. I'm just trying to point out the fact of why I said 'call 911'. Because you had your hands on me after you threw a phone at my face. And it's got crazy in the past, and I truly thought I had to stop this madness before I got hurt." “Amber did not donate her divorce settlement money as promised“ After suffering abuse and staying silent about it for many years, in 2016 Amber finally managed to leave him, filed for divorce and fearing for her safety she applied for a restraining order against him. She never wanted to expose the abuse to protect him, but in order to get a TRO, she had to give testimony and provide evidence/witnesses. That is how the abuse claims came into light. He then accused her of claiming abuse for financial gain. She disputed this claim by vowing to donate all the money she received from the divorce: ”As described in the restraining order and divorce settlement, money played no role for me personally and never has, except to the extent that I could donate it to charity and, in doing so, hopefully help those less able to defend themselves. As reported in the media, the amount received in the divorce was $7 million and $7 million is being donated. This is over and above any funds that I have given away in the past and will continue to give away in the future.” She decided to donate to 2 organisations, with $3.5 million for each: “The donation will be divided equally between the ACLU, with a particular focus to stop violence against women, and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, where I have worked as a volunteer for the past 10 years alongside organizations like the Art of Elysium. Over the years, I have seen firsthand how more funding for staffing, better equipment and better medication can make the difference between life or death for a child." ACLU: testified that the pledge agreement calls for Amber to donate the $3.5 million to their organisation through instalments over a period of ten years, not in one lump sum. ACLU testified they have already received $1.3 million from Amber or on her behalf. They also said they have no indication that Amber does not intend to pay the rest of her pledged donation: “I’m not aware of any indication that Ms. Heard has decided to no longer pay additional amounts.” They also issued a post where they show their support for Amber. CHLA: testified that she paid $250k as of today, and they listed her in the Honor Roll of Donors for the hospital. CHLA also said that her currently not having donated the full amount isn't a problem at all and that they would welcome her future instalments. The reason she paid her pledge in instalments is because she was receiving her divorce settlement in instalments. In the pledge, the ten year period would start in August 2016, meaning she still has the time till 2026 to complete her full donation. Her lawyer said: “Amber has already been responsible for seven figures in donations to charitable causes and intends to continue to contribute and eventually fulfill her pledge. However, Amber has been delayed in that goal because Mr. Depp filed a lawsuit against her, and consequently, she has been forced to spend millions of dollars defending Mr. Depp’s false accusations against her.” In the trial it is revealed that Amber already had to pay $6 million in legal fees. Multiple people, including this person, who have long-time experience in fundraising have come forward to explain that it is actually standard practice for all donations above millions to be paid in instalments over a 10 years period. As explained here, a pledge can be used as a synonym for “donation” and these terms are interchangeable to fundraisers. If someone pledges 25 million over 10 years, all 25 million would be acknowledged and record it it as 25 million in new money before receiving the full amount. That's why Amber is listed in CHLA's Honor Roll of Donors for donations between $1-5 million range, even though she hasn't completed the full amount yet. "Amber severed Johnny's finger tip" When Johnny and Amber were staying in Australia in March 2015, the tip of Johnny’s right middle finger was severed. Johnny claims that Amber threw a vodka bottle at him that caused the injury, Amber denies this. Johnny doesn't provide any evidence to back up his claim. On the other hand, there are many evidences that points towards Johnny being the one who cut his own finger when under heavy influence of drugs and alcohol: In an audio recording he admits to cutting his own finger: “I’m talking about Australia. The day I chopped my finger off”. In multiple private text messages to three separate people, including Dr. Kipper (his doctor), Stephen Deuters (his assistant), Raquel Pennington (Amber’s friend and their penthouse neighbour) he writes that he cut off his own finger. For example in this message to Dr. Kipper, he is heavily swearing at Amber, accusing her of all kind of things (being venomous, demeaning, belittling towards him, using him for success and fame etc.) and doesn't sound like he is protecting her from getting into troubles for hurting him, yet he still maintain that he himself cut off his own finger. The emergency room staff that attended him at the emergency room, Dr Grant noted: ‘He sustained an injury to his right middle finger tonight after accidentally cutting it with a kitchen knife.” The doctor noted: “the injury is more proximately suggestive [of] a crushing mechanism.” The doctor also noted that patient was under influence and not coherent. In emails after the incident, Dr. Michael Kalamaras (May 4, 2015) and from Dr. David Kulber (June 27, 2015), it is referenced that he sustained a “crushing injury”. Never did the story about a bottle ever come into play Dr Richard Moore, an Orthopedic Hand Surgeon, who analysed the clinical photographs and doctor notes confirmed his injuries don’t match with his story. There was no damage to the fingernail that would be expected from an injury when the finger was struck by a bottle. There are also no glass found in the wound, which is not possible if hit by a bottle. The doctor testified that the injury was more consistent with the finger being squeezed between two hard surfaces. Amber, who weighed around 100lbs during the relationship, would never have been able to throw a bottle with the speed, force or accuracy to dismember a finger. When you sustain such an injury, any sane person would grab the piece of fingertip that was broken off and go seek medical help in the hospital immediately. In Johnny’s case, he was in such unhinged, intoxicated state that he didn’t care about medical care (according to Dr. Kipper’s notes he delayed his trip to the hospital for many hours) and wasn't even sure where his finger tip was (Dr. Kipper, nurse Debbie Lloyd testified they had to search the entire house for it, and it was eventually found in the kitchen by house manager Ben King, who also testified about it). Instead he spent his time writing messages on the bathroom mirror to Amber with his blood and when that wasn’t enough he dipped in paint and continued writing (he admitted to writing these messages). submitted by /u/ghjkl6789 to r/Fauxmoi [link] [comments]

This is a series of posts made by u/jasoninhell . The post that started it all recovered via Rareddit Title: I'm [30/m] having a hard time coping with my wife [29/f] having cheated on me with our neighbor [51/m] So to go back to the beginning I had just taken on a new project and new responsibilities at work. I was working a lot of hours (60+ per week) and was noticeably stressed. It was in May of 2015 that I noticed that she had added a password to her phone. When confronted about it she told me it was because she was planning my Father's Day present and didn't want me to ruin the surprise. About a week later she came to me and told me that she felt guilty keeping a big secret from me and told me that she was having our neighbor, a contractor, build a home office for me as my present. It struck me as odd as in our 6 years together she has never said she felt guilty about anything and always insists that she never regrets anything in her life. Time goes on, her phone is still password protected, and things don't feel right. I see her using her phone and smiling to herself more and more often. But when I ask her what she is doing she says nothing and puts her phone away. So one morning I wait for her to get in the shower and I grab her phone before it requires the password. I go through her messages and find that she is texting the neighbor, "I am all covered in frosting, you wanna lick it off?". There were no other messages to the neighbor but I found out later that was because she had setup her phone to delete messages after a certain amount of time. I felt uncomfortable with it but I knew she had a perverted sense of humor and I thought she would never do anything to hurt me. More time goes by and the neighbor is spending more and more time at our house but the office is being completed slower and slower. I can't help but worry that something isn't right so I start checking her location using Google Timeline. It was at this point that I realize that there are large gaps in her GPS history because she was turning off her phone's GPS. Fast forward to July and at this point the paranoia is driving me nuts so I tell her that I need to install new anti-virus on her phone. While she has it unlocked for me I install Anti-theft software so I can remotely turn the GPS back on and set up At&t Message Backup and Restore so I can read all of her text messages from that point on my computer. The next day my mother asks to spend time with my two kids so my wife drops them off with her and has the day to herself. I watch my wife's activity from work as she spends the day trying to meet up with the neighbor but is unsuccessful because he is busy with another job site. That night we get the kids back from my mom's house and we go out to dinner with the neighbor, his girlfriend, and his son. My wife and his girlfriend are having a good time drinking, laughing, and just joking around. His girlfriend mentions that should would like to see Magic Mike XXL, I say it's a good idea I'll watch the kids so my wife and her can go. So my wife and her go and the neighbor and I go back to my house so the kids can play video games together. The kids are back in my son's room playing games and the neighbor is sitting across from me on the other couch. It is at this point that my wife starts texting him. She is describing sex acts she would like to perform with him and he is reciprocating. She tells him to check his snapchat and at the same time I get a snapchat from her too and it is her fingering herself in a bathroom stall. They keep talking, trying to figure out when they can meet up and have sex. They decide on Monday morning after I go to work. So in my head I had already planned to pretend to leave and circle back to catch them. But then they tell each other that they love each other and it is all I can do to not leap off the couch and knock him out. But I contain myself and continue reading the conversation unfolding in front of me. Then he tells her, "You're my girl now", to which she replies, "Always have been", ending with him writing, "And always will be". My wife and the neighbor's girlfriend return from the movie and I ask them, politely, to sit down. I then ask the kids to stay in my son's room and shut the door. I return to the living room and confront my wife and the neighbor. I say, "So you two love each other huh?". My wife goes in to full blown denial mode and the neighbor's girlfriend starts smacking him. I ask my wife if she has been texting him, she says no. So I show her the text messages, she admits to it but says it was the first time it had gone that far. I ask my wife if she has sent him pictures, she says no. So I show her the picture, she admits it but says it was the first time. I ask her if she is having sex with him and she says no. Because I didn't wait to catch them having sex together I didn't have evidence to prove her wrong so that one stayed unresolved. I tell her that I am leaving her, she tells me that she will make sure I never see my kids again if I do. She planned on using the fact that I had attempted suicide in high school to prove me unfit to have the children. She continues to say that it was my fault for being so busy with work and stressed out, that she just wanted someone she could talk to. Then she gives me an ultimatum to decide what I'm going to do or she will decide for me. The neighbor's girlfriend starts defending the two of them saying that it couldn't have been serious if they weren't having sex and that my wife and I are too perfect together to let this break us up. The neighbors go home and my wife and I argue for the rest of the night about what we are going to do. We go to bed separately having not resolved anything. We keep going back and forth on the subject all weekend and finally settle on we were going to separate temporarily while we figure out what we want. I was going to stay in the house and she was going to take the kids and go to her mom's house. That Monday I go to work and I get text from her in the middle of a meeting with my bosses stating that she had explained things to our kids, but that they were upset and I need to explain it to them also. I get home from work to find my kids crying. She had told them that mommy had to move out because dad was mad at her. When my son wanted to stay with me she told him that he can't. My son put it together that if mommy has to move out because I'm mad at her and he must move out then I must have been mad at him too. My daughter was crying because my son was, I don't think she was old enough to understand what was happening. It was at that moment I realized she was going to drag the kids through hell if I left her so I swallowed my feelings and begged her to stay. She agreed and insisted that I apologize to our neighbor since we were still going to need to hang out with them because our sons are good friends. I hate it but I do it anyway, we still hang out with them from time to time and they come to our various birthday and holiday parties. But I'd do anything for my kids and I behave civil every time. Things die down for awhile, I still think about it constantly. I worry how can I keep from making her so unhappy that she cheats on me again. Then almost a year from the original incident, around Father's Day again, she send him pictures again. She claims it was an accident that she meant to send them to me instead. I don't fully believe her but I move on anyway. Things have been quiet on that front for about 4 months now but I still think about it constantly. This is going to sound stupid but I feel like I have a part of my brain that I can't shut off, that is always thinking. I used to use that to solve programming problems and it made me very good at my job. But ever since this incident, the only thing it thinks about is her and him and if I did the right thing. My job performance has suffered and I feel like I haven't gotten sleep in months. I'm afraid that after this much time, and the fact that I begged her back, that to say that I want a divorce now would only make her more vindictive towards my children and I. I just feel like I have put myself so deep in a hole that I can never get back out. I haven't really talked to anyone about this. I didn't want to talk to my mom about it because I felt she would treat my wife differently and I didn't need the two fighting anymore than they already do. I tried talking to one friend about it but his advice was to put my trust in God but that was not much solace for me as I am an atheist. So I have no clue what to do with my feelings or how to move on from this. ​ Redditors at this point, understandably so gave the advice to divorce her. He seems to have taken their advice as shown in their next post. ​ [Update] I'm taking your advice recovered via Rareddit Instead of trying to fix something she doesn't want to fix, she has refused counseling several times in the past before this even happened, I am going to get myself and my kids out. I meet with an attorney next week. Thank you everyone for helping me see how far I had my head up my ass. ​ It is at this moment that disaster struck. I have taken and compiled the timelines of what happened from the mirror and ajc news articles. Brandi Worley killed her seven-year-old son, Tyler, and three-year-old daughter, Charlee, just a day after her spouse, Jason, filed for divorce, police say. Here's the written transcript of the 911 call. You can listen to it here The murders came to light when Brandi Worley called Montgomery County 911 early in the morning on the day of the attack. When the dispatcher answered her call, she calmly told him what she did. "I just stabbed myself and I killed my two children," Worley says in the audio of the call, which was made public shortly after the murders. “You stabbed yourself and killed your two children?” the male dispatcher repeats incredulously. “Mmm-hmm,” Worley responds. “Okay, and what’s your name?” “Brandi Worley.” The dispatcher asks where the children are, and Worley, whose speech is somewhat slurred, responds that they are on the floor in her daughter’s room. The dispatcher continues asking questions between moments of silence, at one point asking Worley why she killed her children. “My husband wanted a divorce and wanted to take my kids,” she responds. “I don’t want him to have my kids.” Asked about her husband, she says he is downstairs in the basement. The dispatcher asks about Jason Worley’s condition. “I don’t know, I haven’t talked to him,” she responds. The dispatcher asks Brandi Worley what she feels, and she says she’s tired. “I took a lot of Benadryl,” she says. She tells the dispatcher that, prior to calling him, she called her mother, who told her to call 911. Montgomery County prosecutors said that it was Jason Worley’s mother-in-law’s screams of horror that woke him that morning. He ran upstairs and found her in the kitchen, and his wife in the living room. "That's when I heard (Brandi) say, 'Now you can't take my children from me," Jason Worley said, according to the Journal Review. Here's the timeline of what happened before the murders: That afternoon, Jason Worley, a software engineer, returned from work and the family went to Charlee’s dance practice, Buser said. After dinner at home, Brandi Worley went to Walmart, telling her husband that she needed pipe cleaners for a school project Tyler was working on. Instead of pipe cleaners, she bought a knife, the Journal Review reported. When she returned home, she hid the knife in Tyler’s bedroom before going into the living room, where she and her husband played with their children together before Jason Worley put them to bed for the last time, the newspaper said. Buser said that early the following morning, Brandi Worley woke Tyler up for a "sleepover" in his little sister's room, the Journal Review reported. In Charlee's bedroom, she straddled her son and stabbed him repeatedly. Charlee awoke at one point and asked what her mother was doing, the prosecutor said. When Brandi Worley told her “nothing,” Charlee went back to sleep. Once Tyler was dead, Brandi Worley stabbed Charlee to death. Their autopsies showed both children were stabbed multiple times, the Journal Review said. Worley then stabbed herself more than once in the neck, but survived. “She was more adept killing her small, sleeping children than killing herself,” Buser said. About where was Jason when the murders were happening In a post a day earlier, he had claimed that his wife had suggested that he sleep on the sofa instead of an air mattress in the basement. He wrote: "I just can't help but wonder that if I had slept on the couch like she had suggested instead of an air mattress in the basement then maybe I could have saved my children or at the very least died with them. "A father has one job in this world, to protect his children, and I failed to do that." The sentence his wife received Brandi Worley’s individual sentences were 55 years for her son’s murder and 65 years for killing her young daughter. The sentences are to run consecutively, or one after another. She is now housed in the Rockville Correctional Facility, according to state prison records. ​ [Update] Thank you recovered via Rareddit I would like to give a heartfelt and sincere thank you for the advice and support I have received here. No one could have foreseen the tragedy that resulted from me filing for divorce. You guys perform a wonderful service to those in need and I hope you continue to do so in the future. www.theindychannel.com/news/crime/police-investigating-double-homicide-in-mongomery-county Edit: I would never ask for donations, I think it is incredibly tacky. I've worked very hard for everything I have in life. But because there has been a gofundme created by her family and I can't guarantee that they won't turn around and use it to support her in some way, I just ask that you help spread the gofundme that my employer created for me: https://www.gofundme.com/tyler-charlee-worley-fund Indiana, USA: I need GoFundMe advice recovered via Rareddit If anyone has any experience with GoFundMe that could give me advice it would be greatly appreciated. My former mother-in-law has created a GoFundMe using my last name and pictures of the children to raise funds for the mother who murdered them. She intends to use them for her daughter's medical and legal expenses. What can/should be done about this? ​ MODS of relationshipadvice post regarding this incident All, This is a mod-authored update on the request for advice titled "I'm [30/m] having a hard time coping with my wife [29/f] having cheated on me with our neighbor [51/m]"" It came to us via /u/mistermorteau that the request for advice by /u/jasoninhell has taken the worst possible turn. For jasoninhell's sake, we won't repost the details here, though the news update can be found linked here. We're using this post to draw attention to two things: jasoninhell came to us seeking support, so we encourage anyone who can offer him support (especially local to him!) to reach out. Alternatively, there's also a gofundme page in memory of his children. The intent behind much of the tough-love advice in the original thread was obvious to all of us reading the thread and upvoting comments as well as to jasoninhell himself. However, the tone used for quite a number of comments was unnecessarily harsh and may have failed to consider the reality of the situation (as best as we could've known—hindsight is 20/20). Ultimately, this speaks to the fact that everyone participating here is doing so with limited information and should be open to the possibility that there's more than meets the eye whenever providing guidance and advice. Going forward, all we ask is to please observe tone when providing advice and realize the potential for complications which might make any advice difficult to follow. Something which seems obvious to any one of us is rarely ever obvious to someone in the weeds of the relationship itself. That said, thank you for supporting jasoninhell the way all of you did, especially in following up after his first update. Let's see if we can extend that support further. -r/relationship_advice Final Update which is verified by mods. The first thing you may notice is this is being posted from a different account, I deleted the /u/jasoninhell account in a knee jerk reaction to seeing my reddit posts in the news. I guess the first question to answer is how am I doing, and to that I would say I am doing well. I have bad days but I would think that is to be expected. It is just important that I, or anyone going through something, continue to use the support of friends and family as well as good coping skills to not let myself be completely defeated on those bad days. I won't lie, I struggled to get back to where I am. For some time I refused to sleep because of combination of fear of what I would wake up to and nightmares about that night. For a time I used alcohol to sleep but my family loved me enough to take it from me before it became a damaging and permanent habit. I was hospitalized because I did have thoughts of ending my life because I missed my children so much. From that I learned that you should never be ashamed of your mental health and not seeking treatment will only make it worse, not better. We have all heard it but if you or a loved one is struggling seek immediate assistance, your life is too important to throw away in a moment of weakness. By putting off treatment I only caused everything else in my life to suffer. I lost my job and became reclusive to the house. But don't worry I have been back to work since December and I have nearly regained my former position and salary, so I am good and require no assistance. The second question would be how do I feel about the sentencing. That is something that is harder to answer, because no matter what the sentence nothing will bring back my beloved children. Do I think she should have gotten the death penalty (which Indiana has), no I do not. She wanted to die and after 9 years of giving her what she wanted when she wanted it I was not going to give her another thing. Do I think the life sentence will have any appreciable effect on her? I don't know, one thing she always stressed for the entire time that I knew her was that she lived her life without any regrets. Even after I caught her cheating on me she continued to say she had no regrets. As for the ex-in-laws, they continue to be a problem to this day. Shortly after everything happened they changed the locks on the home I was renting from them with my property still inside. After trying to civilly negotiate the return of the property it was required that I involve law enforcement. That is an ongoing legal battle. A member of the family accused me of stealing property I had purchased from them prior to the death of the children and threatened to take action against me unless I paid double what I had already paid them. I alerted the authorities and as far as I know that is resolved. They continue to make visiting my children's grave difficult, during the one year anniversary they sat in their truck and just watched me the whole time I was visiting the grave. Because of that I don't visit the grave as often as I would like to. If I can impart on you something I have learned through all of this it is that you should always take the time to be with the ones you love. It doesn't matter if they are asking you to read The Poky Little Puppy for the millionth time or asking you to play Smash Bros even though you both know they will wipe the floor with you every time, just do it because you never know what time will be the last time. Always make sure they know how much you love them, I had the fortune that the last thing my children ever heard me say was, "I love you, good night. I will see you in the morning" submitted by /u/QualityProof to r/MuseumOfReddit [link] [comments]

My name is Sam Wilkinson. These will be my last words on Earth. I recently got a strange email at work and before I leave for good I would like to tell you all about that email and what it led to. I don't care if you believe me or not, I just want to leave something behind. A confession, if you will. I’ll try to keep it brief, but I guess I should start from the beginning nonetheless. ​ I’ve hated my life for as long as I can remember. It started on my first day of school. That was when the bullying began. I don’t know what I did to deserve it or why it continued no matter how many times I changed schools. My only crime, it seems, was that I was fat. It was a vicious circle. The more they teased me the more I ate to comfort myself and the more I ate the more they teased me. I became depressed and more and more socially awkward. As I got older and entered high school I began to despise people in general. Basically everyone except my mom. My misanthropic world view didn’t exactly help me, I suppose. Let’s just say my personality became less than lovable. ​ I never moved away from home and I spent most of my days in my mom’s basement playing old video games. Such was my life. I’m already talking about it in past tense… My god. That’s still my life. My biggest shame – my biggest guilt – is that my miserable condition made my poor mom unhappy. I’ve seen pictures from right after my birth. My mom looked at me with so much joy in her, then young, eyes. At that time she couldn’t imagine what a worthless shadow of a person I would become. She imagined something different. She thought that little boy would grow up to become a man who eventually would give her grandchildren; she didn’t think it would grow up to be me. ​ I never learned any skills other than playing video games, so for the longest time I couldn’t get a job. But that was how I liked it. I didn’t want to be around people. However, about three years ago, my mom forced me to educate myself so that I could find work and help out with the rent that kept on getting higher and higher. Reluctantly I agreed and pretty much chose a subject at random at a vocational school as close to home as possible. I didn’t have a driver's license so I couldn’t travel too far from home. I didn’t mind that though, I wanted to be as close to home as possible anyway. ​ The subject I chose wasn’t fun. It was business administration, which pretty much just meant I would spend my time staring at spreadsheets in Excel all day. I never thought it would lead to anything, not because I didn’t learn what I was taught but because I didn’t think anyone would be crazy enough to hire someone looking like me. However, after my internship at a large tech company – I won’t mention its name here but you’ve probably heard of it – I miraculously got hired. Although I had suffered all my life, it wasn’t until this period of my life – which I’m living in right now – that I started considering ending my life. ​ The stress was unbearable from the start. Every day when I took the bus to work I had to see how people actively chose not to sit next to me. The workplace had an open office space, so I couldn’t get away from people however much I tried and they couldn’t get away from me. For some reason, I had to sit together with the people from HR, the loudest and most social people in the entire building. I had to listen to their small talk all the time while I stared at my horribly boring spreadsheets. And, not surprisingly, they didn’t like me. Mostly, they pretended I didn’t exist but as soon as I had to talk to them – or as soon as I accidentally met their eyes – I could see the revulsion in their eyes. ​ Jennifer, the young woman next to me, hated me the most. She always greeted me with an expression of disgust and I often saw her roll her eyes when I sat down next to her. She was visually annoyed as soon as I spoke to her. From time to time I heard them talk about me behind my back. Jennifer didn’t even care to lower her voice. I couldn’t really go to the HR department with my issues, this was the HR department. ​ This is what my life has been like for three years now. Recently, my boss called me to her office. Apparently, a complaint had been made against me. She said the person who made the complaint wanted to be anonymous, but I’m pretty sure it was Jennifer. My boss told me, with pity in her voice, that it concerned my hygiene. ​ “Why don’t you take a shower in the morning?” she said. ​ I already did that, but after walking the few hundred meters to the bus station and after sitting on the bus more or less crippled with anxiety I was sweaty again. I couldn’t help it. Hearing this made me hate myself so much. My suicidal thoughts skyrocketed. The only thing that prevented me from actually killing myself was how much it would have hurt my mom. I couldn’t do that to her. But guess what? A week ago, my mom died. ​ When I came home from work, I found her on the floor of the living room. I could tell she had been lying there since early morning because she still had her dressing gown on. She was still alive, but she couldn’t speak anymore. She gurgled with a confused look on her once so beautiful face. I called the ambulance immediately. She died at the hospital later that night. The doctor told me she had suffered a massive stroke. Of course, this would have been devastating for anyone, but for me it pretty much meant the end of my life. From my perspective, this world didn’t have any decent people in it anymore. ​ My boss didn’t let me off work, not even to grieve my own mom. That was the kind of asshole she was, but it was just as well. Staying home would just have reminded me of my mom. Everyone knew what had happened when I came to the office. I could tell from the atmosphere. No one gave me their condolences. I imagined shooting myself in the head, blowing my brains out right in front of everybody. But I didn’t own a gun. Instead, my actual plan was to jump out of the window. After all, we sat fifty floors up. There was no way I could survive a fall like that. I had never felt so sure about it before. I had made my decision. It was at that moment that I received the strange email. As I said, this was a week ago now. ​ The email began: ​ ”Here's your access to The Forest." ​ A username and password followed and at the button, it said: “Regards, Leif.” ​ Leif was using a company email so I assumed he was from IT and that they had started using a new software or system. I did find it odd that he didn't explain what it was though. I didn't put too much thought into it though and just assumed it had already been explained at some meeting where I hadn’t paid any attention. I asked Jennifer if she knew what it was. She shook her head with her typical attitude and said no with the kind of tone you use when a creep asks you out on a date. As always I pretended like nothing, but inside I couldn't help but feel as worthless as she thought I was. I took a quick look at the window and told myself to just do it. However, I wanted to wait until after my mom’s funeral. Soon, I thought and tried to picture Jennifer’s reaction to seeing me jump. ​ When I closed Excel a few hours later, just before lunch, I noticed a new shortcut on the desktop. The icon depicted a few pixelated trees. The Forest, it was called. I thought it was kind of strange that it had just appeared out of nowhere. Usually, I had to bring the computer down to the IT department to install new software. With nothing else to do, I clicked on the file. ​ A program that reminded me of how software used to look in the 90s opened up in front of me. It didn't have that much content. There was a window that streamed what looked like a live video of a forest. I was able to use the mouse to look around 360 degrees, but other than that there wasn't much I could interact with. The video quality was pretty low, but it didn't look computer animated. However, I soon got the impression that it must have been a computer game because under the stream there was a bar that let you set the speed of time. You could view the feed in real time, which was set as default, or increase the speed of time all the way up to a hundred years per second. Beneath the speed settings, there were only two buttons. Import and Export. That was all. In the menu, there weren't that many options. Just About and Quit. I clicked on About. It just said: ”Made by Leif.” ​ I played around with the program and pressed Import. ​ Surprisingly, a catalog with all the employees of my company popped up. I figured it was connected to Outlook where a similar catalog was accessible. There was a search bar to make it easier to find who you were looking for. I looked up and saw my boss walk by. I closed the program immediately. ​ I went home that day without opening the program again, afraid that my boss would ask me back to her office again. At home, I didn’t think that much of The Forest. I had more pressing things on my mind, to say the least. I was going to inherit my mom’s house, but not that much money. I knew I would never be able to pay the rent and the other expenses by myself, and I didn’t have any motivation to do anything about it. Thinking about this I lay down on the sofa in the living room, looking at the spot on the floor where I had found my mom reduced to a confused shell of her former self. From now on I wasn’t just falling apart mentally but physically as well. Soon I would lose the house and, most likely, end up on the street. ​ I didn’t plan on doing that though. I fell asleep and saw the window at work in my dreams. It wasn’t a nightmare. The nightmare would start as soon as I woke up. Next day I came to work one hour earlier than everybody else. Usually, I avoided coming in that early but now I didn’t really want to spend too much time at home. Seeing the shortcut to The Forest on my desktop made me curious again. I opened it. Everything looked the same, except it was night time in the forest now. The moon – more orange than our own moon – shone a sandy yellow on the leafs of the trees. I increased the speed of time to a few minutes per second. Nothing changed, but I soon realized that the clouds passing in front of the moon moved faster than before. Neat, I thought without any actual emotion attached to it. After that, I tried to press the export button. The same kind of window opened up as when I’d pressed Import but with no names in it. I went to the import window, looked at the list of names, and pondered what this was all about. Eventually, I decided to humor myself and searched for Jennifer. I selected her name and pressed Import. A dialog box showed up. “Are you sure you want to import Jennifer Norman into The Forest?” I pressed Yes. ​ Jennifers name disappeared from the list. I chuckled to myself, although I couldn’t muster any actual joy, thinking that this program must’ve been some pretty funny inside joke down at the IT department. I went to the export window again. As I expected, Jennifer’s name could be seen there now. Suddenly, my boss entered the office together with one of our colleagues. I quickly shut down The Forest, opened Excel and pretended to work. ​ More and more of my colleagues arrived, but not Jennifer. First I thought she was late for work, which wasn’t unusual for her, and when she hadn’t shown up before lunch I assumed she was sick. I had a burger for lunch down the street. They didn’t serve the best food, far from it, but it was the only place where I knew no one from work would eat. In the Year 2525 played from the ceiling. I sat there, eating my burger and drinking my soda, while I listened to the song and thought about jumping out of the window. I thought I would do it at the end of the week, maybe on Friday, one day after the funeral. ​ Back at work my boss came to the HR department and asked if anyone had seen Jennifer. Apparently, she hadn’t called in sick after all. It wasn’t until now my brain went to that impossible place. Did this had something to do with what I had done in the program? Obviously not, but just in case – in some superstitious carefulness – I opened The Forest and exported her. “Are you sure you want to export Jennifer Norman from The Forest?” Yes. She disappeared from the list and appeared among the names in the import window again. ​ One hour later, Jennifer stepped into the office. I figured she had just been late after all, just unusually so. As she got closer, something seemed off about her though. One of my colleagues, a friend of hers, stood up and ran toward her. ​ “Jennifer!” she exclaimed. “What happened to you?!” ​ I looked up to see the interaction. ​ “I-I don’t know, Bella, I overslept – j-just woke up – and… and I got here as quickly as I could but I don’t think I’m well. I think I have to talk to the boss about…” ​ “What happened to your face?!” Bella continued without listening. “Is that real? And your clothes, have you seen yourself in the mirror today? My god.” ​ I looked at Jennifer’s face. It was crossed by a pretty nasty scar. Her clothes looked old and torn, almost as if she had had them on forever. ​ “What do you mean?” Jennifer said and brought her hand up to her face. “What?!” She ran into the bathroom, presumably to look herself in the mirror, and a few seconds later she screamed and came running out crying. Everyone stood up, even me, and watched her leave the office in a panic. ​ At that moment it dawned on me… The time. It was set to several hours per second in The Forest. I did some quick calculations in my head. If this had anything to do with me importing her she would have been inside the forest for more than three years. While I sat and ate my burger down the street, listening to In the Year 2525 she had spent years inside… But it couldn’t be real. That would have been ridiculous. ​ Jennifer didn’t come back to the office the next day. Her husband, I soon understood from the inevitable gossip, had called in and said she wouldn’t be able to come back to work for a while. ​ I arrived at the office even earlier this day. I opened The Forest. It was still set to a few hours per second. I pulled it back to real time. Some birds, larger than any birds I’ve ever seen, flew in formation in the sky. I sped up time again, this time to a few days per second. The birds quickly disappeared from the sky and the moon replaced the sun and vice versa in close succession. The trees moved as if seen on a video being fast-forwarded. This couldn’t be a real forest, I thought, it just couldn’t. Again, I slowed down time to normal. ​ Thomas, a guy from the economy department that had always made silly jokes at my expense, came to the office. I looked at him as he walked toward his office space with his leather briefcase in his hand and his expensive watch around his wrist. He looked at me. I nodded, but he ignored me. ​ I couldn’t see his office space from where I was sitting, but as soon as he had passed by I heard him placing his briefcase on his desk and opening it. I made sure the time was set to default and pressed Import. “Thomas Wachtmeister”, I typed in the search bar and then I imported him. “Are you sure you want to import Thomas Wachtmeister into The Forest?” I was. As soon as his name disappeared from the list I carefully walked around the corner. His briefcase was lying on his desk, but he was nowhere to be seen. I went back to my computer. I looked at the video stream of the forest. It was in the middle of the day there now. I slowly moved the camera 360 degrees to try and see if I could see Thomas somewhere. It made me feel like an idiot even trying this, given how impossible it was. I didn’t see him anywhere, but I did see some weird animals – two bluish giraffes – walking by. The low resolution made it near impossible to tell if they were real or animated, but given that they were blue giraffes I just had to assume the latter. Thomas had probably just gone to the bathroom. Nonetheless, I made sure to export him. As soon as I did that, I heard something from his office space. I sneaked there to take a look. ​ Thomas was standing up, seemingly confused. His usually water-combed hair was scruffy, as if he had just woken up. “Hey, Thomas,” I said. ​ He looked at me, surprised he wasn’t alone. ​ “I-I think I fainted,” he said, blushing a little. ​ “What do you mean?” I said. “Are you okay?” ​ “Well… I was just about to turn on my computer when suddenly I was lying on the floor.” ​ “Really?” I looked down, trying to come up with something to say. “Do you remember anything from the last couple of minutes?” ​ He looked at his watch. ​ “Uh… No, I blacked out!” ​ I excused myself, telling him it probably wasn’t anything to worry about, and went back to my computer. I felt a bit excited, although I still didn’t dare to believe. ​ My colleagues started dropping in and I couldn’t open The Forest again for the rest of that day without anyone seeing it. During the day, there was some more talk about Jennifer. Most of what I heard seemed to be rumors. No one talked to me about it, of course, but it was difficult not to hear the whispers around me. One of Jennifer’s closest friends at the office said she had called her and that it had been difficult to understand her. She had been obsessed with a certain nightmare that had returned to her as soon as she fell asleep. Something about being hunted by monsters deep inside a forest. It all started to seem too strange to be a coincidence. Was I responsible for Jennifer’s condition? It made me feel weird. On the one hand, I never imagined myself doing something to harm anyone – I’ve never been a violent guy – but on the other hand, thinking that one of my tormentors had been forced to spend three years alone inside of a monstrous forest gave me some kind of satisfaction. ​ I didn’t dare to import anyone else the next day. I continued to contemplate my suicide, but more often than not those thoughts were interrupted by my thoughts about the forest. I spent two days looking at it, playing with the speed of time. I increased it to the max and saw the seasons flicker in and out. The trees grew, died and were replaced by new trees. At one point, there was a flash of light and all the trees were suddenly gone. I slowed down the speed. There had been a huge fire, it seemed. I sped up time again and after maybe a minute the trees grew up again and soon it was as if nothing had happened at all. The animals didn’t return as quickly though, but eventually, they came back as well. ​ Most of the creatures I saw reminded me more of monsters than of animals. I saw an enormous white centipede with hundreds of red eyes, I saw some kind of snail – or blob – devouring a creature that reminded me of a huge stick insect. At one point one of the blue giraffes came close enough to the camera for me to see that it didn’t have a head, just randomly placed mouths along its neck all filled with vicious teeth. Sitting in the safety of my office watching these horrific creatures hunting each other on my screen gave me an odd feeling of coziness, like being inside during a storm. And there were a lot of storms inside of the forest. Sometimes they raged for years and I had to speed up time to see the end of them. When turning the camera upward during these storms, I could see a purple nuance within the heavy clouds. All of this mesmerized me to such an extent that I didn’t think much of the window, but I still knew that my life was over and that I didn’t really have a choice. ​ During Thursday – yesterday – I continued to observe the forest. Again, I pressed About. “Made by Leif.” Who was he? I spent the better part of the day trying to figure that out. I opened his email to me again, copied his email address and tried to find him in the list of employees. However, he didn’t show up. Even though he had one of the company's email addresses he didn’t seem to be registered as an employee. I checked documents going several years back, but without any luck. The name Leif never came up. I thought he might have resigned, but he should still have been seen in some of the records I checked. Eventually, I gave up trying to find him and went home without getting any significant work done that day at all. ​ Today, I was supposed to attend my mom’s funeral. It would’ve been an important day for me, a day that could’ve given me some kind of closure. However, my boss wouldn’t give me the day off. She said I hadn’t sent in my application for taking the day off in time, and perhaps she was right but, I mean… it was my mom’s funeral for crying out loud. Of course, I planned on just calling in sick and going anyway, but something in me just snapped when she did this. I couldn’t take it anymore. It had to stop. My boss, my colleagues and the company at large was a cancer not just in my life but on society as well. All the hate I had built up over the years suddenly surfaced in a way I didn’t think possible. Before this day I had no idea how it felt to be one of those guys who come into the office one day with a machine gun, but now I did. Of course, I didn’t own a machine gun, but I had something else: The Forest. ​ I arrived early at the office. I knew that most of my colleagues were still asleep. Today, they would wake up to a new surrounding. For some reason, my boss was in her office though. She couldn’t see me from where she was, but I could hear her on the phone. It seemed to be an important call and it was probably the reason she had come to work so early today. ​ I opened The Forest. A storm poured its purple rain over the trees. For a few seconds, I hesitated. My plan was simple. I would import the people I hated – which was pretty much everyone – into the nightmare on my screen and then I would open the window and end my own life, knowing that all of the despicable people in my life would be consumed by monsters one by one. In a way, it was symbolic to do it on the day of my mom’s funeral. My hesitation didn’t last long. I pressed Import and typed in the name of my boss in the search bar. The program asked if I was sure. I listened to her voice while she was talking to the phone, and clicked Yes. ​ “Yes, I know about the recession but we still have to…” ​ She suddenly went silent. It gave me goosebumps. I walked to her office. The phone was lying on her desk. I could hear a man on the other end of it. “Hello? Where did you go?” I hung up the phone and returned to my own desk. I looked around in the forest, but I didn’t see my boss anywhere. After this I started to import the rest of my colleagues, Jennifer included. It gave me the kind of enjoyment I suppose anyone would feel finally getting back at their enemies. Since I was going to kill myself I didn’t really consider the consequences of my actions. I just let my destructive impulses guide me completely. After I had imported the entire HR department, I couldn’t stop myself. Instead, I continued to import people at the company. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, I said to myself while I imported people I didn’t even know. It was enough for me that they worked at the company. My hate had consumed me at this point. After a while, people started showing up on the screen. Jennifer was walking around in front of the camera. She stepped up to it and screamed something, but since there wasn't any sound I couldn’t tell what she was saying. And then something came down from the sky and grabbed her. She fell down a few meters away, seemingly still alive. After that, I saw three men – still in their pajamas – running past the camera, hunted by what looked like a spider but that was really just eight legs coming out of the back of a corpse belonging to one of the blue giraffes. ​ I don’t know why – perhaps the severity of the situation became more obvious now when I could actually see the people in the forest – but I started to cry. It was a cry mixed with so many different emotions, but mostly with sorrow and hate. But I kept importing people. After a while, I realized that I could select more than one person at a time. I selected a random amount out of the thousands of employees on the list. “Are you sure you want to import 167 subjects into The Forest?” Fucking yes! I felt empty inside after I clicked yes, like nothing mattered to me anymore. My last sliver of humanity had finally been lost. With a cold heart – watching my confused colleagues seeking safety from the storm in the forest – I increased the speed of time to a few days per second. It went too fast for me to see anyone. Suddenly, a dialog box popped up. ​ “James O. Nilsson is about to expire. Do you wish to export?” ​ I pressed No. Now I knew I had killed. This happened a few more times until I just put the speed at maximum. Immediately a new dialog box appeared. “210 subjects are about to expire. Do you wish to export?” ​ Again, I pressed No. I went to the export list and saw that it was empty. I considered importing even more people, but decided my deed was done now. There was only one thing left to do for me. I looked at the window. My decision to jump didn’t have that much to do with what I’d done. It wasn’t a coward’s escape from the police or anything. I knew that no one would be able to figure out where all those people went anyway. I would never get caught. My suicide was supposed to be the end of my suffering and that was why I still planned on going through with it. And now was the time. Before I walked up to the window that I had fantasized about jumping out of for so long, I dragged the speed back to normal in the program. ​ It was a sunny day in the forest. To my surprise, I could see a stream of smoke coming from the ground a few hundred meters away. I couldn’t tell what its source was but after a few minutes, I realized that it was people sitting around a fire. Later, one of them walked up to the camera. It was a man. He was wearing an animal skin and carrying a spear. A woman walked up next to him. They looked pre-historic. They kneeled in front of the camera and placed what looked like a piece of meat on the ground in front of it. Was it an offering? My first thought was that these people had always lived in The Forest, but then it dawned on me that they must’ve been the descendants of the people I imported. Somehow they must have survived long enough to have children. ​ I decided to prolong my suicide a bit so that I could watch these people. They didn’t do much more though. After they had placed the meat they walked back to their camp and then they disappeared. So I sped up time again, a few years per second. After about fifty years I slowed down again. This time, there was some kind of altar around the camera – made by rocks and flowers – and I could see more campfires burning in the distance. I was fascinated by the fact that these people lived so primitive lives given that their forefathers were modern people. I then realized that everyone I had imported into The Forest had been office workers. Their knowledge of Excel wouldn’t have been very useful in the wild. With a burning curiosity, I sped up time once again. This time I allowed for a few hundred years to pass. When I put the speed back to default, the first thing I noticed was that the altar had been changed. This time, it looked more like a structure. Stones placed upon each other, but still in a primitive way. ​ The people looked about the same, still wearing animal skins as clothes and wielding spears. This time, however, I noticed a woman carrying what looked like a bow and arrows. They were still in the stone age, though. So I sped up time yet again and this time I let approximately three thousand years pass before I returned the settings to normal again. This only took half a minute on my end with the speed setting put at maximum. ​ To my surprise, the inhabitants still hadn’t surpassed the stone age. The altar was a bit more advanced though. It now resembled Stonehenge. A bit disappointed at their slow development an idea formed in my head. Now driven by curiosity more than hate, I pressed Import again. I knew I was about to change someone's life with my actions, and do so without their consent, but it somehow didn’t feel like a big deal anymore. I suppose I had gotten used to it by now. I looked up the smartest people I knew among the employees. There was only three of them (depressing, I know): A medical doctor who had changed her career midlife, an engineer who had worked on some of the company's more experimental projects such as the development of more sustainable energy sources, and a cleaner who had worked as a dentist in her home country. I imported them and sped up time for a few minutes, letting half a century pass in the forest while I barely had time to scratch my head. ​ This time, things had changed dramatically. The people didn’t seem to live like nomads anymore, but in villages. At least, there was a village built around the camera so I assumed there must have been more of them. Finally, it looked like the inhabitants had become farmers. They were using carts with wheels and I even saw them riding the blue giraffes like horses. The small guilt I had felt when importing the three more knowledgable individuals quickly disappeared when I saw what they had contributed to during their stay inside The Forest. I spent about an hour watching the people in the village until I sped up time again. I took my time since I knew my colleagues wouldn’t come in for work today. ​ When I set the speed back to normal the people were living in what could only be regarded as a town. It still looked like the village, but it was bigger and had objects made of metal in it, such as weapons and tools. Perhaps this was the bronze age? About twenty people, dressed in white robes, were praying around the camera. They reminded me of a mixture of Hindus and Muslims. ​ Their religious devotion to the camera made me feel important in a way I’ve never felt before. After all, these people wouldn’t have been born without me. In a way, I truly was their god. And a part of me felt like it. I sped up time and once again I noticed that nothing much happened. Development was slow. ​ At one time, the camera was trapped within a set of walls. I couldn’t see anything, but – since I was watching The Forest at a speed of one year per second – the walls quickly disappeared. Why had they been there? Had there been some kind of change in their religion? Houses went up and down, storms came and went. After a while, I witnessed the first war. I slowed down time, but the war went by so fast that it ended before I could see any of it in real time. The town was burning and people – women and children – lay dead on the ground while people with paint on their faces walked around with spears longer than the ones I had seen before. Blue giraffes with empty saddles were feasting on the corpses with their long terrifying necks. ​ I decided to increase the speed of time to a hundred years per second again. It wasn’t possible to see any individual actions, but the town grew, then it was seemingly destroyed for a fraction of a second and then it reappeared even bigger than before. This was repeated several times and after about a minute on my end – six thousand years in The Forest – I slowed down the speed of time again. The town was an ancient city now, looking like what I imagined Athens must have looked like back in the day. I noticed the flag of this civilization. It was black with a golden tower in the center. Perhaps it depicted the camera, I thought. After all, I had never seen the camera and didn’t know what it looked like. As I let time speed up again, this city was destroyed and rebuilt a few times as well. ​ “Where is everybody?” ​ It was the janitor, a guy that always “joked” about my weight. ​ “Um,” I said out of surprise. “I’ve no idea.” ​ I tabbed down The Forest. ​ “Hey, what was that?” he said. “Some kind of game?” ​ “N-no…” ​ “Come on, let me see it.” ​ I nervously brought the program up on the screen again. ​ “The Forest?” ​ “Uh, yeah, it kind of just appeared on my computer”, I said. ​ I panicked and didn’t know what else to say but the truth. ​ “So what do you do? Is it like Age of Empires or something?” ​ “Yeah,” I said hesitantly, “no, not really. I don’t really know what it is.” I felt a drop of sweat running down my cheek. “You aren’t supposed to play games at work, you know? That’s why you’re so fat, you need to stop playing all these computer games all day and hit the gym, man!” ​ He laughed. ​ “It isn’t really a game,” I said, ignoring his insult. “Look, there are only two options. Import and Export. And hey, look, if I press Import I get this list of everyone that works here.” ​ I opened the list. ​ “Really?” he said. “That’s weird.” ​ “Yeah, everyone is on the list. Look.” I typed in his name. “Here’s you. You’re on the list.” ​ “Well, what happens if you press Import?” ​ “I-I don’t know. Let’s try it.” ​ I selected his name and pressed Import. The usual dialog box appeared: “Are you sure you want import Ignacio Gonzalez into The Forest?” ​ Ignacio laughed. “This is some strange shit, man, I…” ​ I clicked Yes. I never saw him disappear. Even though he stood right next to me, I didn’t see him vanish. He was just gone. It almost felt like he had never been there at all. ​ I quickly sped up time again. ​ “Ignacio Gonzalez is about to expire, do you wish to export?” ​ I absently clicked no and let time flow by in The Forest at full speed. Given what I knew about history on Earth, I assumed that the civilization inside The Forest would soon mimic my own civilization. A minute later, I saw that I was right. The city had gone from ancient to modern in only sixty seconds. I didn’t see any skyscrapers or anything, though. The camera was inside what looked like a huge military facility. ​ People that looked like scientists walked around it doing different kinds of measurements. For a few minutes, I watched them work. On one of the walls, there was a huge world map. It didn’t depict any continents on Earth. I could see borders and dots marking different cities. On some primitive level, I felt kind of offended that the people had stopped worshipping the camera. ​ The scientists worked meticulously, but even though it fascinated me a great deal, they weren’t that fun to watch. So I sped up time again, this time to a year per second. Everything started moving quickly in front of the camera. Suddenly – in a flash of light – the military facility was gone and revealed a city that was completely destroyed. ​ I slowed down the time. I had no idea what had happened, but it looked like the city had been bombed. I could see skeletons of skyscrapers in the distance and there was smoking rubble everywhere. Then, I saw a bright light in the distant followed by a mushroom cloud climbing towards the sky. ​ A sadness came over me. Over the timespan of a few hours, I had accidentally created a civilization, seen it grow and then destroy itself. I couldn’t see any signs of life. I set the speed at maximum. It only took a second for everything to turn green. The forest was back, just as pristine at it had been from the beginning. Now, I figured, it was time to end my own life. Not as a failed man, but as a failed god. ​ I left The Forest running on my computer and walked towards the window. My steps felt heavy. As I opened the window, letting the summer air in, I realized I had forgotten my phone at my desk. I didn’t want anyone to enter it after my death so I went back to get it. ​ Something had changed on the screen. Somehow, mankind had survived in The Forest. It had taken them a thousands of years to rebuild it – just as if they had had to start from scratch again – but the city was back. When I slowed down time – letting a few more hundred years pass in the forest – I noticed that the city was larger than before. The skyscrapers reached further up into the sky and, to my amazement, I could see thousands of vehicles flying through the air. I used the camera to look around and when I looked up towards the sky I could see lights on the surface of the orange moon. People were living there now. As I watched this world, now completely transformed from a horrific wilderness to what looked like a technological paradise far surpassing anything on Earth, I cried tears of a happiness I’ve never felt before in my entire life. ​ I looked at the window in my office and at the boring, primitive city stretching out into the horizon on the other side of it and then at the city glittering on my computer screen. I thought about my beloved mom. She would’ve wanted me to live. This was before I started writing this, my last words on Earth. I just clicked on Import. ​ “Are you sure you want to import Sam Wilkinson into The Forest?” ​ Before I press yes I just want to say one more thing: If you ever get an email from a man named Leif with a login to The Forest. Say thank you from me. submitted by /u/Odd_directions to r/nosleep [link] [comments]

Game Information Game Title: Final Fantasy XV Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One Media: Final Fantasy Versus XIII - First Trailer (2006) | Final Fantasy Versus XIII - All Trailers E3 2013 Trailer (Name change from Versus XIII to XV) | TGS 2014 Trailer 'Dawn' Trailer | Driving Gameplay 'Dawn 2.0' Trailer | 'Reclaim Your Throne' Trailer Uncovered Final Fantasy XV Full Recap | E3 2016 Trailer feat. Afrojack Altissia Walkthrough | Live at Abbey Road Studios TGS 2016 Trailer | PAX West 2016 Gameplay 'Omen' Trailer | 'Judgement' Trailer 101 Trailer Extended Cut | 'Stand Together' (Official Live-Action) Developer: Square Enix Business Division 2 More Info Publisher: Square Enix Review Aggregator: OpenCritic - 83 [Cross-Platform] MetaCritic - 84 [PS4] MetaCritic - 84 [XB1] CAUTION - As per usual, be careful reading reviews when trying to avoid spoilers. Even glossing through some of the review pages, there are screenshots of things that seem kinda spoiler-y, maybe moreso to Final Fantasy veterans who'll immediately identify familiar looking FF tropes. So keep that in mind Reviews Destructoid - Chris Carter - 9 / 10 (PS4) As I'm typing this up now, I'm seeing a future where people buy Final Fantasy XV due to some of the more positive assessments (like this one), and walk away disappointed. Because if you loathe JRPGs, XV is not going to make you a believer. In a way it's silly that Square spent 10 years making this, and it feels like a really shiny version of something it would have actually made 10 years ago. While a complete overhaul of the genre would certainly suit someone's needs, XV suits mine just fine. Eurogamer - Aoife Wilson - Unscored (PS4) Final Fantasy 15 rediscovers the series' epic scale and love of intimate moments, but its scrappiness can sully the bigger picture. Game Informer - Andrew Reiner - 8.5 / 10 (PS4) Final Fantasy XV struggles mightily with open-world navigation, but succeeds in storytelling, combat, and in empowering the player. Even fishing is good fun GameSpot - Peter Brown - 8 / 10 (PS4) Final Fantasy XV's world is filled with natural splendor and harrowing dungeons that far outlive the shallow story about a prince and his cliched bodyguards. GamesRadar+ - David Roberts - 4.5 / 5 stars (PS4) Even when it stumbles, Final Fantasy 15's ambitious open-world, fast-paced combat, and the humanity of its four leads make it a fascinating adventure to behold. GearNuke - Khurram Imtiaz - 9 / 10 (PS4) Final Fantasy XV is a breath of fresh air for the series which was starting to lose its significance after the release of Final Fantasy XIII. It is one of the best open world game on the current generation consoles and a return to the form for the franchise. IGN - Vince Ingenito - 8.2 / 10 (PS4) When I’m riding chocobos across the beach at dusk with my three friends and hunting iconic Final Fantasy monsters in a huge, picturesque open world, Final Fantasy XV feels like nearly everything I could want from a modern Final Fantasy. But when it funnels me into linear scenarios and drab, constricted spaces that plunge the simplistic combat into chaos, my blood boils a bit. There is so much good here, so much heart - especially in the relationships between Noctis and his sworn brothers. It just comes with some changes and compromises that were, at times, difficult for this long-time Final Fantasy fan to come to grips with. TheSixthAxis - Dominic Leighton - 8 / 10 Final Fantasy XV is a unique offering, both for the franchise and RPGs in general. Placing the onus on the relationships of your party, rather than the narrative, has meant that this is a game that strikes not just an emotional chord, but a personal one. While Final Fantasy stalwarts will likely balk at the action-heavy combat, the spirit of the franchise remains, and is better served here than it has been in many years. ThisGenGaming - Charlie Oakley - 7 / 10 (XB1) Final Fantasy XV wasn’t a bad game, but after all that hype, and being a first time player, I was disappointed with what was offered. There’s many features about the game that I can praise like the combat and dialogue, but there’s those negatives that makes it a disappointing first experience. I feel this is going to be a game with very mixed opinions, and I’m sure there’s many playing it early who think it’s a great game, but for me personally, this was a good yet disappointing game. USgamer - Kat Bailey - 4 / 5 stars (PS4) I was really skeptical that Final Fantasy XV could ever be successful; but despite some real flaws, it ultimately won me over. I warmed to the characters over the course of many camping trips, found more than I was expecting in the open world, and even enjoyed the bombastic setpieces. I have no doubt that it will be harshly criticized in some circles, but it also has some real merit. Stick with it even if you find yourself rolling your eyes at the opening hours: You may be surprised by how much you end up enjoying yourself. Xbox Achievements - Dom Peppiatt - 90% (PS4, XB1) As an RPG, Final Fantasy XV has everything you’d expect: a compelling, emotional story; a tapestry of complimentary mechanics; a significant lifespan; a cast of relatable and well-written characters and a world that’s dense enough to be a character in and of itself. As a Final Fantasy game, it lives up to all the tropes, despite the variations it’s taken from the more ‘classic’ games. Final Fantasy XV is a title that's aimed super high, and although maybe it hasn’t quite hit the targets it set for itself, it certainly doesn’t disappoint, and is a strong enough RPG experience to stand aside The Witcher as one of the best open-world role-playing games of this generation. Kotaku - Jason Schreier - Unscored (PS4) It’s got everything I want from a Final Fantasy game. I know that it’ll be yet another snapshot in a life filled with Final Fantasy. Another grand adventure, another gang of worthy heroes; another tale of crystals and magic and betrayal and love, all beautiful melodies and lush scenery and the finely honed complexity of carefully choreographed combat. Onward to secrets beyond the horizon, and don’t forget the Phoenix Down. If that’s not Final Fantasy, I don’t know what is. GamingBolt - Pramath - 9 / 10 (PS4) Final Fantasy 15 makes a case for being one of the best, most progressive Final Fantasy games ever released, and a hell of a return to form for the franchise. VideoGamer - Alice Bell - 8 / 10 | Written Review Final Fantasy XV is about adventure and excitement. There are oddities, and it's not the FF you're used to, but it's a good time with some good boys, and has an unexpected emotional resonance to it. Sometimes it seems like it shouldn't work, but it does. Daily Dot - Miguel Concepcion - 4 / 5 stars (PS4) Final Fantasy XV overcomes its narrative lows with gameplay highs that consume the player's time with engrossing optional quests and frenetic battles. As a whole, it does not represent the best in the series, but it delivers just enough to deserve a place in the mainline series, which is an achievement for a game that originated as a Final Fantasy XIII spin-off. Twinfinite - 4.5 / 5 (PS4) Final Fantasy XV was quite different from everything I had ever expected an entry to be, but it turned out to be exactly what I had been looking for. Time - Matt Peckham - 4.5 / 5 (PS4) Something wonderful and improbable must have happened towards the end of the topsy-turvy decade it’s taken Square Enix to finally produce a Final Fantasy worth crowing about. Thank director Hajime Tabata for somehow righting the ship. How he did so could presumably fill a book. How many games get 10 years to simmer? Change captains mid-journey? Have lord knows how many investment dollars (to say nothing of franchise esteem) on the line? And how often does vaporware materialize, after years of elliptical studio messaging, this lively and focused and fully realized? RPG Site - Alex Donaldson - 8 / 10 (PS4, XB1) Bold and brave, Final Fantasy XV brings back some of what made FF special to begin with. It's rough around the edges, but that's okay: where it counts, it's got heart. Post Arcade (National Post) - Chad Sapieha - 8.5 / 10 | Part 2 | Part 3 (PS4) I’m less than 10 hours in, and I’m starting to think Final Fantasy XV might have been worth the wait. Metro GameCentral - 6 / 10 (PS4) All these provisos and caveats mean that Final Fantasy XV is one game where the score is almost completely irrelevant. But that hints at the game’s greatest failing: that it is not going to surprise either its fans or its critics. If this seems like your type of thing then you’re almost certainly going to enjoy it. But if you usually turn your nose up at Japanese role-players then this is not the game to convince you otherwise. Because despite its achievements, and genuine attempts to move the genre forward, this does not feel like the last word in Final Fantasy. Shacknews - Jason Faulkner - 9 / 10 I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my journey with Noctis and the gang so far. I’m going to continue through the world of Lucis and give you all a full review as soon as I’ve experienced everything Final Fantasy XV has to offer. So far though I have to say that this is one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I’ve had in this decade, though I must admit a little bias because I love the Final Fantasy series. We Got This Covered - Jowi Meli - 4.5 / 5 stars Final Fantasy XV might continue the series’ divisive streak thanks to a number of drastic changes to the tried-and-true formula, but I personally welcomed all of these with open arms. A beautiful world, exciting real time combat and a fascinating blend of open world and linear gameplay add up to a can’t-miss experience for JRPG fans. Though the remains of a long and troubled development cycle are evident in some of its rougher patches, this new entry in the legendary RPG series comes out on top for never losing sight of its theme — a road trip that both the game’s characters and the players who go along with them won’t soon forget. Easy Allies - Ben Moore - 4.5 / 5 stars | Written Review (PS4) Final Fantasy XV has been a long time coming. Some have waited ever since they got their first glimpse of Noctis in 2006. Others wanted redemption after the divisive Final Fantasy XIII. The burden of expectation weighs heavy and in that sense Final Fantasy XV is not a cure-all that will please everyone. At the same time, the game feels like a leap in the right direction. At its end, we aren’t thinking about story inconsistencies or derivative side quests. We’ve found ourselves attached to a group of four friends and we’re thankful for the adventure. Paste Magazine - Eric Van Allen - 8.5 / 10 (PS4) There is no doubt Final Fantasy XV will be divisive, but in not playing it safe, the game earns a bit of my heart back with each errant monster hunt or one-off gameplay section. It’s messy, but earnestly so, like that high-school mirror selfie. Recalling all the good and bad, the moments that make you cringe and a warmth that makes you smile, you know not everything was perfect. You can only say you’re glad you chose to make the journey. Stevivor - Matt Gosper - 8.5 / 10 (PS4) While I may not think of this personally as a true Final Fantasy title, that doesn’t make it any less of a good game. Despite all my above quibbles, I still haven’t been able to put the controller down for any longer than it takes to visit the bathroom or refuel my needy human body. It’s understandable why this was set as a side title to the franchise initially, given how much it plays with the formula, but fresh input is what is needed to keep this franchise alive. Final Fantasy XV welcomes new players with open arms, and challenges long-time fans to try something new. It’s worth your time, and worth the wait. Cheat Code Central - Becky Cunningham - 4 / 5 (PS4) Final Fantasy XV is imperfect, but the high points of this journey outweigh the messy bits. I recommend you learn to go with the flow, spend some time with your bros, and really get lost in the game. Don't try too hard to be a completionist, but don't forsake the open-world adventures and cling too much to the main storyline. It's in the balance between the two that this tale is at its absolute best. AngryCentaurGaming - Jeremy Penter - Buy (PS4, XB1) If you're a fan of Final Fantasy, this is a 'Buy'. Listen, if you're not a fan of Final Fantasy, some stuff here may actually get you interested. I enjoy the combat system and of course these worlds are never really that connected, so you can always jump in without feeling too lost. But, if you are a fan, it's an instant buy. It offers an enjoyable trip through a new land, a unique twist on combat and some of the best locations in an RPG in a long damn time. Now it's not a classic and not up to the fine form some of the prior games have shown, but it's a solid contender and offers enough enjoyable playtime that as long as you know what you're getting into, whether you're an old fan or a new fan, you will probably walk away satisfied. Speaking of walking away, there's probably a good chance you'll walk away wondering just how much you would have enjoyed this though, had some of those technical issues not been there. PlayStation LifeStyle - Keri Honea - 8.5 / 10 (PS4) Square Enix has taken quite a few risks with Final Fantasy XV to make it different from past installments or even JRPGs overall. Despite some graphical issues, they have pulled off an amazing experience, and it’s one that veterans and newcomers alike can immensely enjoy. This road trip has been well worth the wait. Hardcore Gamer - Adam Beck - 3.5 / 5 (PS4) After ten long years of development, Final Fantasy XV ends up being more style than substance. It’s apparent that a lot of content wasn’t able to make the final cut as there are characters who are killed off or removed from the plot off-screen with little to no explanation, despite their important appearance and stature. The story is also poorly paced, with the core open world being utilized within the first eight chapters and the remaining seven ending up as a linear slog. It’s apparent that the story isn’t going to win any awards, but the final four chapters wind up ruining what would’ve been a decent adventure thanks to the poor plot devices. With that said, the gameplay helps make up for some of these wrongdoings. Easily the best part of Final Fantasy XV is the world Square Enix has created, as while the populated side quests lack inspiration, it ends up being an absolutely beautiful and vast playground to explore. The charming character chemistry among the four protagonists is also properly developed and the fluid combat mechanics aid the overall enjoyment. There are moments of brilliance spread across the campaign, but with it comes a frustratingly disheartening story. TrustedReviews - Stuart Andrews - 4 / 5 stars (PS4) Final Fantasy 15 is the best single-player Final Fantasy in a decade. The new combat system is more action-oriented, but still surprisingly tactical, while the new focus on open-world exploration brings the game and its world to life. Crammed with character, choice and interest, it’s an RPG where the good times keep on rolling down the road. Digitally Downloaded - Matt Sainsbury - 5 / 5 stars (PS4) This game alone catapults Square Enix's most important franchise right back into the circle of most elite properties in gaming, proves that AAA games can be intelligent and meaningful, and deserves every plaudit and accolade out there. Parallax Live - Parallax Live - 85% (PS4) Nevertheless, we're happy to recommend this to newbies or veterans of the series alike. If you're looking for a meaty game that can keep you satisfied until Christmas, Final Fantasy XV ticks almost every box. Game Revolution - Jonathan Leack - 4 / 5 stars (PS4, XB1) What Final Fantasy XV succeeds at more than anything is providing an unpredictable and memorable adventure. Captivating story and characters were sacrificed along the way, but more than anything this game needed to prove that Final Fantasy can still execute greatness while taking risks. Its combat system and world design carry most of the weight, supported by attractive secondary activities and a great progression system. The result is something that doesn't necessarily feel like any Final Fantasy before it, although its high production values certainly make it deserving of the name. Attack of the Fanboy - Dean James - 4.5 / 5 stars (XB1) Final Fantasy XV had quite a lot to live up to after so many years, and while it may have taken a decade to get here, the journey was worth the wait with this phenomenal entry in the series. Impulsegamer - Andrew Bistak - 4.5 / 5 (PS4) Final Fantasy XV is a fantastic new direction for the series that positively creates an interactive and detailed world for players to explore with a fun bromance in the background. As highlighted by the developers, it’s both a game for fans and first-timers and although the traditional mechanics have been tweaked, especially when it comes to combat, it still feels like a Final Fantasy game but more importantly a Final Fantasy game for next-gen consoles. COGconnected - Michael Chow - 90 / 100 (PS4) Some great character depth as well as an overhaul to both the Final Fantasy formula and battle system makes Final Fantasy XV a delight for existing fans and new players. Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus - 8 / 10 (PS4) It's difficult to judge Final Fantasy XV. It bears all the scars of troubled development, and it has a list of nagging issues a mile long, but it's more than the sum of its parts. It's fun to play and has plenty of charming and likeable moments that balance out the frustrating time-wasting elements and weak plot. FF15 is a solid entry into the franchise and is as accessible to newcomers as it is to longtime fans. It might have some rough patches, but FF15 shows that it cares about the most important thing of all: fun. Ars Technica - Simon Parkin - Unscored (PS4) Final Fantasy XV takes the series in a new direction, but despite some memorable moments, it remains remains a confused, uneven package. GameZone - Tom Caswell - Unscored (XB1) A totally competent entry in the franchise that fans and newcomers will enjoy, even if that means they won't necessarily be floored by it. GBAtemp - Tom Bond - 6.5 / 10 (PS4) Final Fantasy XV is an ok game for the most part. My biggest complaints are with the lackluster story, the lack of that “Final Fantasy” feel thanks to the modernized world, and the occasional technical issues. Is it truly a Final Fantasy game for fans and first timers? I don’t think so. All the changes they made to the standard Final Fantasy formula don’t necessarily sit well with previous games. Would I still recommend FFXV? If you’re a true JRPG fan looking for a change, absolutely. Game Rant - Denny Connolly - 4.5 / 5 (PS4) Final Fantasy 15 attempts to deliver an action-oriented RPG road trip that can please both old school fans and draw in fresh blood. The bro-themed road trip pulls it off. DualShockers - Giuseppe Nelva - 9 / 10 (PS4) It’s also a monument to the determination and dedication of a team that quite obviously poured an inordinate amount of love and passion into creating a fantastic world that is worth exploring and living, and a lovely quartet of boys that are exceptional in their normality and humanity. I couldn’t ask for better virtual friends than Ignis, Gladio and Prompto. I laughed with them, cried with them, and I really love them. PlayStation Universe - Neil Bolt - 8.5 / 10 (PS4) A strong-willed effort to update the series, Final Fantasy XV rises above its myriad flaws to deliver an odd, beautiful adventure that harnesses the power of friendship to maximum effect. A pleasing return to form for a much beloved series. GameSpew - Richard Seagrave - 8 / 10 (PS4) When it’s at its best, generally during the latter third of the game, the results are often phenomenal. At its worst, you’ll wonder how it can pass as a Final Fantasy game. On the whole though, the good far outweighs the bad, making Final Fantasy XV a flawed but essential title for fans of the long-running series. Reno Gazette-Journal - Jason Hidalgo - 4.25 / 5 (XB1) Final Fantasy XV represents a coming of age, not just for its protagonist but a series that was met with a polarized response from Final Fantasy XIII. It shows some courageous risk-taking that breathes new life into the series’ aging formula while also encouraging the kind of exploration that was lacking in FF13. Admittedly, the modern settings and new magic system dilute some of the fantasy elements the series is known for, and the hybrid turn-based and real-time combat system can feel like a compromise to fans of the two differing styles. At the same time, this is a worthy addition to the Final Fantasy franchise that looks to the future while also honoring its past. TheSixthAxis - Dominic Leighton - 8 / 10 (PS4) Final Fantasy XV is a unique offering, both for the franchise and RPGs in general. Placing the onus on the relationships of your party, rather than the narrative, has meant that this is a game that strikes not just an emotional chord, but a personal one. While Final Fantasy stalwarts will likely balk at the action-heavy combat, the spirit of the franchise remains, and is better served here than it has been in many years. RPG Fan - Nicholas Ransbottom - 88% (PS4) With a fresh combat system and a lovable cast, Final Fantasy XV excels at its goal of being a title for both fans and newcomers alike. EGM - Mollie L. Patterson - 7.5 / 10 (PS4) Final Fantasy XV is nowhere close to the game that we should have received after 10 years of waiting—but it also isn’t anywhere close to the trainwreck that it easily could have been. While the storytelling is a mess and the game feels incomplete far too often, there’s enough to love here—from combat, to exploration, to the four Japanese pretty boys that make up your main party—to make FFXV a road trip worth going on. GamesBeat - Mike Minotti - 90 /100 (PS4) Final Fantasy XV has its problems, but it’s filled with enough special moments that you can forgive the issues. The combat is fluid, thoughtful, and cinematic while the open world gives you a ton to do. Rocket Chainsaw - Adam Ghiggino - 4 / 5 stars (PS4) Let’s get the obvious question out of the way – was Final Fantasy XV worth the wait? Honestly, from the jumbled storyline it seems the project has to have been changed, re-jigged, and re-thought so many times that I doubt whether the final product resembles the original concept fans were waiting for all this time. What the game is ultimately, is Square-Enix’s response to more modern open-world RPG’s and bringing Final Fantasy up to speed to play in that space. And despite poor storytelling and a dodgy linear back half, the majority of the game delivers on a satisfying open-world experience, with tons to do, deep combat and some fantastical visuals. Luckily, you’ll spend far more time in the open-world than you will in the main quest (I spent 40 hours in-game, probably 25 of which were in side content), and it’s easy to recommend for that aspect alone. Final Fantasy XV feels like a true progression for the series, and I can only hope XVI isn’t another 10 years away. Do You Even Game Bro? - Kieran Stockton - 7.9 / 10 (PS4) Lacklustre side missions and difficulty balance issues can't fully tarnish this beautiful adventure in a grand setting. Final Fantasy XV is a game that fought hard to exist, and does the series proud Pause Resume - Casey Wilkerson - 3 / 5 (PS4) Final Fantasy 15 is a wonderful title, and a hell of a lot of fun to have played. It’s easily one of the best JRPG’s I’ve ever seen, and I wanted so badly to give it a four out of five, but when I realized that I finished reading an entire novel waiting to get from place to place in the Regalia, I knew I couldn’t. It’s a fine game, and it deserves a chance, but I hope everyone has a bit more patience than I do. SA Gamer - Garth Holden - 9.5 / 10 (PS4) This might be the darkest game in the series, but it is also, I feel, the best one so far. This is Final Fantasy, right down to the heart of it: four warriors of light looking for a crystal. Next-Gen Gaming Blog - Adam Neaves - 10 / 10 (PS4) Final Fantasy XV is not only my favourite game of 2016, it is up there as one of my favourite games of all time. I could of easily used another 2 or 3 thousand words to describe this game, but if you are reading this, get out and buy this game now! With 100 hours easy of gameplay packed in, including hundreds of sidequests, fishing, chocobo racing and more, Final Fantasy XV will keep you very busy this Christmas period. Square Enix put at the start of the game, Final Fantasy XV is a Final Fantasy for newcomers and veterans of the series, and they are right. Perfection is hard to get, but this comes as near as you're ever going to get. Gamerheadquarters - Jason Stettner - 8.2 / 10 (XB1) Final Fantasy XV is an intriguing tale that follows the adventures of these close friends in an incredible world. The music is absolutely fantastic as well providing extra life to the story. I did find some aspects of the story to be a bit off, this being mainly in the tone considering the gravity of what was happening in the world. While smooth I also found the combat to be repetitive after awhile and the game could have used some better checkpoints. It was annoying to restart a dungeon at times and instead of battling through it again, I'd resort to just running by everything. That aside, the story was at its best during smaller interactions and the more intimate scenes with the group were great. Gadgets 360 - Rishi Alwani - 8 / 10 (PS4) Is Final Fantasy XV everything it ought to be? For fans, yes. Without question, this is the Final Fantasy game you’ve been waiting for. That's actually surprising given how tumultuous its decade-long development as been. For first-timers, it depends how tolerant you are of narrative failings. Look past that, and you’re treated to fantastic moment to moment gameplay, and an intricate set of systems that will have you coming back for more. Niche Gamer - Michael Jordan - 7 / 10 (PS4) Everything outside the story missions is a lot of fun, but the story missions themselves are a massive disappointment. It almost seems like there were two games being developed at the same time. The first is an amazingly interesting world-exploration game filled with great characters, interesting concepts, with the potential to expand; or a nonsensical, linear story game that feels it does not need to explain major portions of itself and leaves the player asking themselves “Why?” constantly. The world exploration, side quests, hunts, and clever travel banter is worth the purchase but the main story is not. Pure Playstation - Kyle Durant - 6.5 / 10 (PS4) The story and writing really let Final Fantasy XV down. Even the least favorite entries of the series have a coherent narrative albeit some unlikable ones. Characters are either here for no reason or haven't been developed in any way and certain actions/lack of knowledge between our main heroes really deprive this experience. I'm just glad the gameplay, combat, and interesting open world to explore redeemed Final Fantasy XV from obscurity. I take no pleasure in feeling this way about the highly anticipated title and I literally fell into a small depression after I beat the story. There are good ideas to like here but none of it comes together better than a high school literature project. If gameplay and exploration isn't enough to sate you (ala No Man's Sky) then this title may well be one to avoid. Goomba Stomp - Mike Worby - 8.8 / 10 (PS4) Final Fantasy XV somehow transcends its many flaws in order to become a classic in its own right. Though any reviewer worth their salt would be hesitant to rate it too highly, due to its many faults, by any stretch of the gaming medium, Final Fantasy XV has clear and obvious merit, and, as such, cannot be dismissed or derided completely, even with its problems. ZTGD - Jae Lee - 8 / 10 (PS4) With such a lengthy and troubled development cycle, it was really anyone’s guess how FFXV would turn out in the end. Even though I’m relatively pleased with the outcome as the four friends carry the moment to moment gameplay with grace, the disjointed and lackluster storyline leaves an indelible mark on what is otherwise an incredibly well crafted RPG well worth experiencing. PCMag - Gabriel Zamora - 3.5 / 5 stars (PS4) Final fantasy XV has solid open-world exploration, enjoyable action, and plenty of content, but it's packaged together with awkward gameplay decisions and a mess of a story. Arcade Sushi - Jason Fanelli - 8.5 / 10 (PS4) Final Fantasy XV is an ideal experience for a new age of the franchise, and I’m looking forward to diving back in to see what I missed the first time. MMORPG.com - Robert Lashley - 9 / 10 Final Fantasy XV is by no means a perfect game. There is a lot of potential and some of it does feel squandered but even with it’s shortcomings I truly enjoyed the adventure. The developers took risks and some of them paid off while others feel a little flat. I look forward to all of the upcoming free updates as well as the DLC and experiencing how the world evolves. The magic of the franchise is still there and I emotionally connected with this game the same now as I did with some of the other great entries at different points through my life. I may have ended up skipping a few along the way but XV definitely brought the allure and luster back. This really is a Final Fantasy for both new and old hats to the franchise alike. NZGamer - Mark MacAulay - 9.2 / 10 (PS4) Ten years is a long time, but Final Fantasy XV is well worth the wait. Wccftech - Chris Wray - 8.5 / 10 (PS4) Final Fantasy XV is a true return to form for the series. The main story of the game is passable, but surpassed by the fantastic tale of Noctis and his three friends, Gladiolus, Prompto and Ignis. The world they live in, the interconnectivity and just how alive it feels makes for a great game, warts and all. TrueAchievements - Kevin Tavore - 3.5 / 5 stars (XB1) Final Fantasy XV is a game about a journey between friends and for a journey, it's a fine one. The game has got issues ranging from poor character development to dull combat and generic side quests, but it's also something special thanks to memorable friends and amazing music. The developer wanted to make a game for fans and newcomers alike and they made many changes to the typical Final Fantasy formula. The result is a game that is not like what you would expect, but for those who want to find something to love here, there's something to find. High-Def Digest - Sophia Edwards - 4.5 / 5 stars (PS4) While it occasionally buckles under its own ambition and the game falters somewhat as the plot ramps up, overall 'Final Fantasy XV' is a beautiful, exciting game that I dearly loved. It may not be the best game I've played this year, but it is almost certainly my favorite, and Square Enix has built an incredible, extremely unique open-world. While I'm not sure I want 'FFXVI' to follow suit and be an open-world like this one, I'd absolutely love to see them expand upon some of the ideas presented here in future. A remarkable return to form for a franchise that many felt had lost its way. The Jimquisition - Jim Sterling - 8 / 10 (PS4) Final Fantasy XV, despite significant and glaring problems, is still a lovely time that managed to make me like Final Fantasy again. It’s a character piece, and the characters we spend our time with are fully realized and play off each other so well. It’s a lighter journey that nonetheless knows when to get serious, spurred by a charismatic nemesis and a quartet of lovable, beautiful boys. Thanks OpenCritic for the review formatting help! submitted by /u/ninjyte to r/Games [link] [comments]