Original post:
Ok here is the backstory: I am a convert to Catholicism from Islam, so I know a couple of things about the faith and he comes from a non-practicing protestant family. He likes the catholic faith A LOT and we have met a couple of times at a Marian pilgrimage site so he is literally 1 step away from converting. He wanted to talk to me specifically because well ... I am a convert and he felt more comfortable talking to me rather than to someone who was raised in the faith.
The only thing holding him back is that he wants to know EVERYTHING before converting because he is scared that he might find out about an idea he doesn't agree with after converting. He has an issue with the profession of faith (The priest asks the convert if they agree with/believe in all of the teachings of the catholic church if I remember from my baptism correctly), and he doesn't want to disrespect the sacrament by lying.
I honestly don't know how to react to such a statement because while we can go on and talk forever about everything, we just can never come to an end.
Can you guys help me out? How do I respond to this? I am also terrified of saying the wrong thing and just accidentally discouraging him from getting baptized. Please pray for me and him because while I am glad that he feels comfortable talking to me, I have only been catholic for only about a year so I am scared that I'll mess up.
​
Update:
I messed up. I accidentally overwhelmed him with information. I didn't want to do that but I didn't expect him to not know anything about biblical figures like King David or Abraham. I feel so bad for messing up. I am scared that he will reject the faith because of me.
While we did have an interesting conversation, he admitted that it was stressful and "hard to keep up with". I just assumed he knew the basics of Christianity to be honest and when he said that he wanted to be perfect and holy before getting baptized, I gave the example of Abraham, David, and Moses and how each of them messed up although they were specifically chosen by God and had even encountered him. Rather than getting my point across he just looked confused and it kept getting worse. I thought of giving examples from the new testament, but things didn't work out. I continued on with saints from the early church, from the middle ages, or even the recently canonized ones but nope. He felt bad because he said, he isn't as familiar with the history of the church like I am which made me look like I was showing off my knowledge. I wasn't. I feel horrible.
All he knows about Christianity comes from the US. That was made clear because he started quoting a lot of popular English Christian sayings like "love the sinner, not the sin" which is fine but he thought it came from the bible and even went as far as saying that it is one of his favorite biblical quotes from Paul. I am not judging him. I wish him the very best. It just makes me feel so sad to know that a person who was born and raised in a supposedly Christian-majority country is unaware of just the most basic things.
On the good side, I made it clear that I am not a missionary and that if anything that I say doesn't speak to him, it's just because my experience is foreign to him and nothing else. I told him that I am not a teacher and that if he wants to inform himself about catholic teachings regarding the sacraments without watching summarized and extremely simplified 3-min youtube videos or without getting lost in the sea of knowledge of all the saints who have ever written about baptism, then he should read the catechism of the catholic church. He took this advice to heart (I think) and I really hope that he gets to read it and not just disregard Catholicism because of me.
Please pray for him. I will never forgive myself if I was the reason for why he stopped thinking about converting! Thanks so much in advance

Hi! I am trying to purchase a small piece of land in Newfoundland, Canada, however the owner has lost the document that his brothers all signed giving him full ownership. This piece of property was left to four brothers, 3 of which lived away and did not want the land so they signed it over to the one brother who did want it. The letter has been lost and one brother has since passed. How can I proceed with the purchase of this land? Thanks for any advice in advance

Hi there , are you in need of a highly skilled and experienced system hacker? She helped me retrieve my deleted files, text messages and call logs. She can as well control devices remotely and lots more. What got me most was her offer of a total refund within 24 hours of any unsatisfactory services but i didn’t have to use that option because she got the job done! She is very affordable and charges way less, contact
Contact her legitimatehacker441 AT GMAIL DOT COM
Text +1 (240) 621-0422
Telegram +1 (240) 621-0422
Whatsapp +1 (602) 730-5295
Many services she can render include: Social Media Hack( Snapchat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook/Messenger, Twitter, Viber etc.), GPS Location Tracking, Recovering of lost bitcoin/ bitcoin account, Incoming calls Restriction, Intercepting and Retrieving Instant Messages, Grade Hacking, Credit Score Increase, USSD Control Commands, WhatsApp Spy, Viber Spy, Facebook/Messenger Spy, Skype Spy, Hacking into Databases of all kinds, Calendar Monitoring, Internet Usage Monitoring, Remotely Accessing SMS, Game Hacking and Cracking, Key Logging, Remote Email Spying, and more. Also Colleges/University upgrades, mobile phone hack and provider, Clearing criminal record, clear your bank debt and mortgage, retrieve deleted files, private investigator, crypto currency wallet hijack, erase leaked sex tape of all kinds. What made me had trust in her was her offer of total Refund of any displeasing services but i didn't have to use that Choice.
Contact her legitimatehacker441 AT GMAIL DOT COM
Text +1 (240) 621-0422
Telegram +1 (240) 621-0422
Whatsapp +1 (602) 730-5295

Let's swap tales of our funniest coding blunders. I'll go first:
While creating my code learning app Codehub, we lost a week to a bug. The cause? A simple typo. A 'bug' became a 'bugg' and had us scratching our heads for days. 😅
Your turn! What's your funniest coding confession? No judgment here, just some light-hearted fun.

The Bard Ascends
Amidst the chaos and clamor of the battle's raging storm, There stood a bard, undeterred, with melodies to transform. With lute in hand, he strummed and sang, his voice cutting through the fray, A beacon of respite and solace amidst the disarray.
The clash of swords and thunderous drums formed a discordant symphony, But the bard's enchanting verses wove a thread of harmony. His fingers danced upon the strings, a melody bold and true, Notes soaring high, like golden birds, cutting through the ensanguined hue.
Warriors paused, their swords held still, their hearts gripped by the sound, As the bard's dulcet tones whispered tales of valor all around. He sang of heroes long forgotten, of deeds that shook the land, Kindling the embers of courage, lending strength to every hand.
His voice, though tender, carried far, reaching both friend and foe, Telling tales of unity and hope, amid the ebb and flow. With each lyrical verse, the battle's fury seemed to pause, For the power of his music held both armies in its jaws.
The bard's ballads resonated, weaving tales of love and loss, A poignant reminder of the human toll beneath the battle's gloss. The wounded and weary found solace in his haunting refrain, Their pain and suffering momentarily eclipsed by the bard's sweet strain.
But as the battle raged on, the bard's voice grew ever strong, A clarion call for peace and understanding amidst the throng. His melodies echoed through the fields, carried by the wind's embrace, Uniting foes in shared appreciation, bridging the divides in space.
Through blood-soaked ground and trembling hearts, his music soared on high, Breathing life into souls wearied by the battle's cry. In that moment of respite, a glimmer of humanity shone through, For even in the midst of conflict, the power of art and empathy grew.
And so, the bard played on, his melodies like balm and fire, Embracing the cacophony, igniting hearts with their desire. For in the darkest hour, when chaos claimed its toll, The bard's music brought solace, rekindling hope within every soul.
When the battle's fervor ceased, and the clash of arms did wane, The echoes of the bard's songs lingered, memories that would remain. For he had woven a tapestry of peace amidst the strife, A testament to the power of music and its transformative life.
So, let us remember the bard who played amid the battle's roar, Whose lute and voice became a beacon, a refuge forevermore. In the crucible of war, his melodies rang true, Unifying hearts, healing wounds, and kindling a love anew.

About me: My name is Alex. Writing and literature have been key passions of mine for about as long as I can remember, and I've been doing roleplay in various forms since I was 12. Proper DND is something I have only recently gotten into, but it fascinates me immensely, and I figured it would be fun to spend more time on it and test my worldbuilding by hosting a campaign. This is my first time properly GMing, so feedback is welcome and I intend to actively communicate with the individual players to understand what they want from the campaign, particularly before it starts. Ultimately, there are a few things I seek with this campaign; an enjoyable community, an engaging story with interesting characters, and to put my creative ability to the test. As such, this campaign will include quite a lot of homebrew content.
It's worth noting that due to my limited experience as a GM and personal preferences, this will be roleplay-heavy. Combat will still be an element, of course, but the story and your characters will be the focus of the campaign.
Introduction to the setting: The Lonely Isles, are, as the name implies, a collection of large islands. The "Lonely" part of the name stems from the considerable distance between them, which has hampered travel for centuries. Consequently, there are significant contrasts between the cultures of each island, and though they seldom wage open war, their diplomatic relations are tense. Yet, cataclysm is on the horizon. The contemptible Horsemen have emerged, mockeries of true divinity who seek to twist the world to suit their cruel philosophies. Pestilence. Famine. War. Death. Should they continue unhindered, the world shall suffer for decades to come, only to meet a ruinous end. From the heart of the nation of Cheisle, an uncanny figure going by the title of "The Apostate" has sent out a request for adventurers and warriors to meet with him, promising grand rewards for the undertaking of a quest. One may doubt the veracity of such a claim, yet the royal seal of King Elsner accompanies every letter and poster...
Our campaign will begin in Bellinburg, capital of Cheisle and seat of its reigning King, Karl Elsner. While often considered the greatest of the Isles, Cheisle faces internal turmoil. It's a comparatively safe location for the early stages of the campaign, yet far from a paradise. How much time you spend here is largely up to you; I will not be railroading you, the players are free to choose their own paths, though I won't let player decisions screw over the plot completely. Religion and gods will feature prominently in this campaign; while you won't be fighting deities with any frequency, they are very much real in this world, and their influence is tangible.
Party information: As of right now, I have no players, this marks the start of recruitment. I'm looking for 4-6 players, though I might increase that to 8 at most if I get particularly good candidates. Whether you're a complete beginner or a seasoned veteran, you'll be welcome; My main expectations are good roleplay skills, decent availability, and that you're a pleasant person to hang out with. I'll be working closely with the individual players, as well as the party as a whole, ahead of session 1 to chart out some of the specifics of the campaign - While I have the world and plot finished, the overall tone of the campaign, general rules and expectations, boundaries, and the proper integration of your characters into the setting will be done collaboratively. I don't plan to have this be a super serious campaign, lighthearted elements will be allowed, but I don't want characters running around murdering everyone for fun.
Platforms: We'll be using Discord for the most part, with D&D beyond as a supplement for utility. Progression will be milestone-based, coins won't be weighed, and arrows won't be counted. It's worth noting that I don't currently have any purchased sources, though I'll get them as needed. There will be a dice bot integrated into the Discord server. Whether we use voice calls and do dedicated sessions for the campaign or use text for the added flexibility and roleplay potential is up to the players. The latter would permit for a more continuous format as well, and be useful for keeping track of things. Combining the two is also an option.
Schedule: To be determined, and largely hinges on whether we employ voice calls or just use text. I'm European with a pretty flexible sleep schedule, so the exact times for sessions (if we do them) will depend on player availability, though we won't adjust whatever we end up with by *too* much. As for the frequency of sessions, I'm willing to do 2 a week at most, though I'm aiming for 1 a week.
What this campaign has to offer: First and foremost, a wholly original and extensive setting. A custom world map, lore, accompanying art, it's a fully-fledged homebrew world. Common DnD elements such as base monsters and races will still be included, of course, but the story and setting are unique, and quite good according to preliminary feedback.
The players will also have a significant say in how the campaign progresses, and a great deal of liberty to choose their paths. You may end up a lowly wretch seeking only wealth and power, or a nearly divine hero protecting the world from catastrophe simply because they believe it to be the right choice. There will also be active communication with the individual players as necessary - I'll help you make sure your character fits into the world seamlessly, coordinate key events pertaining to them with you, and generally do my very best to ensure everyone is enjoying themselves.
And while I can't promise it'll bear fruit right now, I do hope bonds will be forged beyond the campaign. We may start out as strangers, but playing DnD with people you call friends is a desirable outcome.
Still here? Thank you for reading all of that. It doesn't cover everything, but we can get to the rest once a proper party has been formed. If this appeals to you, you may utilize this form to register your interest. You'll be contacted within a few days, you may reach out to me if you have questions. https://forms.gle/gmdj97Us87QvyViYA

I don’t know what to do. I never want to leave the house I’m tired and angry all the time. It hurts. Everything is so overwhelming. And I’m isolating myself but I’m upset at my friends for not reaching out more even tho most of them do invite me to places. I just don’t want to be around strangers. Or even my friends. I don’t want to feel the need to be engaged all the time. But it also hurts that I feel so alone and left out. I’m doing it all to myself. I don’t know how to deal with all my emotions and I don’t know how to let go of all I’ve lost.

I am pretty sure I should cut my losses and keep my mouth shut, but I wanted to ask you guys what you thought. Should I try to ask for my side back?
I lost my side account because they reset passwords. The email attached to it was deleted (due to inactivity) a month before TNT reset passwords. However, the user lookup on my side literally says my main account in the description, I have sent tons of NC items to that account, sent paintbrushes and other items to paint pets, and done pet transfers to it from my main. So, it's clear the account is mine. I feel like I might have enough to make a case for myself. I would even take the account back without getting my NC items or anything TNT might see as something a thief would want.
The issue: when I was a kid I really liked drawing and making characters. I ended up with something like 16 accounts. Some got frozen for rule breaking over the years, and when I was 18 or so I froze all the accounts except for 5. From there I was "straight and narrow" not operating off of the logic of a 10 to 15 year old lol.
If I put in a ticket would they decide to just freeze my current account for the rule breaking? My current account is linked to an email with some frozen accounts. I could change my email on my main, but I assume they would notice that, or am I overthinking? My current account is the only thing that really gives me proof + my side's user lookup says what main it belongs to. I guess I am wondering if I, at 29, must still stand trial for the sins of a 10+ year old that really just liked drawing and role playing on the neoboards. 😅

⬅️Blah blah blah blah mind chatter, typing typing, blah blah mind chatter, what is mind, energy moving, mild emotional energy, light flickers, blah blah mind, a tree moves in the wind, someone walks by changing the visual field, touch sensation, itchy back, where is ‘back’, what is ‘back’, sitting in a chair, why am I typing, whose voice is this, it’s the universe speaking, doubt, arsing to who, sounds rumble of a car engine, breath, breath, rush of blissful feelings, back to neutral ➡️

Hi reader!! Im new to Reddit so this post is mostly to just voice my insecurities anonymously and see what others have to say about it, if anyone has any advice I’m all ears. I’m 28 female and I don’t know what I want to do with my life, I know I’m not the only one I get a lot of people are in my boat, I’ve worked for about 13 years in retail/customer service and I’m just burnout but I don’t think I’d be good at anything else I get in my head about that a lot, I’ve tried branching out many times and my main thing is I’ll go through months of training or schooling just to get through the programs and want nothing to do with it once I’m given the certification. So far I was a Surgical Dental Assistant for a few months, a Windshield Technician (fixing the chips on windshields before they spidered off), and just recently I went through 3 months of training to be a black Jack dealer the money was AMAZING but took a toll on my mental health and I just couldn’t stand to be there any longer. I’ve also been in management I’ve managed a pizzeria and a halloween store, and currently I’m working in the cannabis industry as a Budtender and I like what I do now, but I don’t make enough to actually live comfortably it’s almost a check to check basis and I just don’t see it being the end game, I like to be creative I like to paint and color and build things but I don’t think my works good enough to do that for a living, plus I’m scared to make my hobby a job and then I end up hating it. It’s a never ending battle with me lol I’m not an over thinker but this is the subject has my brain in a chokehold. If anyone has any suggestions on something to check out or something I haven’t even thought of I would love to give it a shot Anyways ramble over thanks for reading!

Can anyone find the Fury Road mercy kill teaser trailer? It’s really short; I can’t find it anywhere. I saw it once back in the day around the time the movie came out.
Max is driving through a duster, comes across a body, starts frisking it. The guy moans and says kill me. Max looks at the guy through the empty barrel of his shotgun; he’s got his last shell in the other one and weighs its value against the cost of mercy. He lowers his gun and walks back to the car. The man drops his head in exhaustion, forlorn.
A moment later, an engine revs, tires screech and the man looks up to see Max’s bumper. Smash cut to title/date.
It’s the only appearance of the shotgun in Fury Road and I haven’t seen it since. They lost me with the Glocks in that one.

They're now on order at my pharmacy. Crossing fingers they can get it. If not within a week I'll be calling around again. :) I mean, this is working. 7 weeks in, 7 lbs lost overall. Very minimal side effects, pretty decent appetite suppression most of the week. I want to keep it up! I feel like this is the kick in the pants to keep up the 500-800 calorie deficit and exercise every day. When I was 'just' doing that before, I'd lose about a half lb every two weeks. Not very motivating. :( I'd give up and lose progress after a month. I have the compounded option in my back pocket, which I may need to do now that my insurance is changing and who knows if they'll cover any bit of it.
Just blabbering. Seems like a lot of us are in this same boat of waiting to see if we can get the next dose. So weird, there are 3 marijuana shops within 5 miles of my house, but I can't get Wegovy that easy. LOL.

Just found out about these paintings that hang on trees in the forests of Basel.
Noticed that there's little information about it on the internet so I thought I could share it here.
Many of the paintings have a red sun/circle so maybe it could mean something?
There is also a website with pictures of a lot of those paintings: Wesen im Wald- Eine Spurensuche - WIW wesenimwald Webseite!
The painting look interesting so I would recommend taking a look.

Hi everyone, it's been 2 weeks since my TFMR for HLHS. My husband and I live in North Carolina, and while I can't prove the law shenanigans were the cause, we wound up having to wait two long weeks after our decision and travel to Virginia. Everyone was so nice throughout (except the initial ob). I guess I have a lot of feelings and just want to see if they're normal or if any of you lovely people have advice or ways to get through it.
1- I have PCOS and really irregular cycles. The three before I conceived were 39, 78, and 48 days long (I think I conceived on day 46 or so of that cycle). We were lucky that it only took two actual cycles but that took 4 months. I'm afraid my cycles are going to continue to be irregular if not worse (I didn't ovulate at all from October 2020- October 2021). Can anyone with PCOS confirm that your cycle actually returned in a reasonable time frame?
2- we lost a daughter and I've had a strong preference for a girl my whole life. I feel like I will resent a possible boy child for not being the girl I wanted/was supposed to have. Anyone have similar feelings?
3- I think I need to change ob offices, scheduling was a nightmare, most of them were not scheduled with appropriate follow ups in time so had to be rescheduled. I really like my midwife but I don't like the us technician (I couldn't see anything during the regular ultrasound because of positioning (where the tv was). Ironically the only part I really got to see clearly was the heart, which I thought was spooky looking but didn't realize she was missing half of it at the time. The tech also only printed two pictures for us - baby's genitals and a foot. (We got a lot more pictures at the MFM ultrasound). Lastly, when the doctor told us the bad news, she didn't preface it with "I'm sorry" or anything, basically told us to make an appointment with the MLM in 1-2 weeks (thank goodness we got in the next day, that time frame would have possibly knocked us out of tfmr even in Virginia). She had a tone that made it feel like she couldn't answer any questions and like she hadn't just possibly delivered our baby a death sentence. But I also really like the MLM, maybe I can just fully transfer care over there? Has anyone else done that? Am I being too picky?
4- my thoughts are pretty fixated that the future is ruined and I hate the future. It's amplified by the fact that I don't really like my job, I was really looking forward to maternity leave and actually had planned to take about a year off to take care of baby and actually figure out what I want to do as a career. But that feels like it can't happen and now I'm trapped in this job until I magically get pregnant again so I can actually get paid leave because this country (US) tends to require people to work for a year before you can get paid leave and I can't wait to start trying until 3 months after I have a new job! That's compounded by the fact that I have pretty low self-esteem when it comes to jobs, I pressured a graduate degree because I thought nobody would hire me and then went into industry, where I was let go for l, as far as I can tell, being a woman and trying to negotiate a higher salary than my coworkers with fresh bachelor's degrees. Anyway lots of trauma around jobs and was unemployed for 9 months after they let me go, so I settled for academia, but I'm tired of the long work hours & general vibes that if you're not working 50+ hours per week, it's not enough.
Really sorry for the wall of text and I appreciate anyone listening to it. I know there are local support groups I could join but I also don't feel like dealing with meeting new people at the moment, so anonymous online support it is. Thanks to all of you and I'm so sorry we're in this shitty club together.

I have been steadily losing 1-2 lbs per week after a few weeks plateau, and an initial significant drop at the beginning. I am approaching 3 months on Ozempic, and haven't gotten over .5 (really struggle with side effects). I initially lost several inches from my waist very rapidly, however now I'm seeing the scale go down but no budge on my waist. I do resistance training (really don't want to lose muscle), some cardio, and eat healthily. Anyone have any insights into why I'm not losing inches of my waist even though I'm seeing the scale go down each week?

I just read an article about how hawking radiation happens all over the gravity well but not from the event horizon. And that it emits low black body radiation instead of shooting virtual particles.
​
That made me notice that I have no idea about the mechanism of how radiation leaches out actual mass. (well, I generally have no idea about hawking radiation.)
If I think about a sling shot maneuver of space probe, this probe accelerate by leaching kinetic energy through gravity and the planet will going to slow down. Very easy to understand.
But how does these virtual energized particles leach "mass" from the blackhole??
And why do they get energized when lost pair to simple gravity wall? I mean, Newton's 3rd law. But then why doesn't it get energized without gravity wall? Didn't they departed each other from the first place, which suggest that there was already a bump on energy state?
​
So confused!

1. The recently released open-source large language model Falcon LLM, by UAE’s Technology Innovation Institute, is now royalty-free for both commercial and research usage. Falcon 40B, the 40 billion parameters model trained on one trillion tokens, is ranked #1 on Open LLM Leaderboard by Hugging Face.
2. Neuralangel, a new AI model from Nvidia turns 2D video from any device - cell phone to drone capture - into 3D structures with intricate details using neural networks..
3. In three months, JPMorgan has advertised 3,651 AI jobs and sought a trademark for IndexGPT, a securities analysis AI product.
4. Google presents DIDACT (​​Dynamic Integrated Developer ACTivity), the first code LLM trained to model real software developers editing code, fixing builds, and doing code review. DIDACT uses the software development process as training data and not just the final code, leading to a more realistic understanding of the development task.
5. Japan's government won't enforce copyrights on data used for AI training regardless of whether it is for non-profit or commercial purposes.
6. ‘Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.’ - One sentence statement signed by leading AI Scientists as well as many industry experts including CEOs of OpenAI, DeepMind and Anthropic..
7. Nvidia launched ‘Nvidia Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE) for Games’ - a custom AI model foundry service to build non-playable characters (NPCs) that not only engage in dynamic and unscripted conversations, but also possess evolving, persistent personalities and have precise facial animations and expressions.
8. OpenAI has launched a trust/security portal for OpenAI’s compliance documentation, security practices etc..
9. Nvidia announced a new AI supercomputer, the DGX GH200, for giant models powering Generative AI, Recommender Systems and Data Processing. It has 500 times more memory than its predecessor, the DGX A100 from 2020.
10. Researchers from Nvidia presented Voyager, the first ‘LLM-powered embodied lifelong learning agent’ that can explore, learn new skills, and make new discoveries continually without human intervention in the game Minecraft.
11. The a16z-backed chatbot startup Character.AI launched its mobile AI chatbot app on May 23 for iOS and Android, and succeeded in gaining over 1.7 million new installs within a week.
12. Microsoft Research presents Gorilla, a fine-tuned LLaMA-based model that surpasses the performance of GPT-4 on writing API calls.
13. OpenAI has trained a model using process supervision - rewarding the thought process rather than the outcome - to improve mathematical reasoning. Also released the full dataset used.
14. WPP, the world's largest advertising agency, and Nvidia have teamed up to use generative AI for creating ads. The new platform allows WPP to tailor ads for different locations and digital channels, eliminating the need for costly on-site production.
15. PerplexityAI’s android app is available now, letting users search with voice input, learn with follow-up questions, and build a library of threads.
16. Researchers from Deepmind have presented ‘LLMs As Tool Makers (LATM)’ - a framework that allows Large Language Models (LLMs) to create and use their own tools, enhancing problem-solving abilities and cost efficiency. With this approach, a sophisticated model (like GPT-4) can make tools (where a tool is implemented as a Python utility function), while a less demanding one (like GPT-3.5) uses them.
17. Google’s Bard now provides relevant images in its chat responses.

My plug: If you want to stay updated on AI without the information overload, you might find my newsletter helpful - it's free to join, sent only once a week and covers learning resources, tools and bite-sized news.

Could Lili possibly be the first slave of the WG? She never returned to Arabasta and was never mentioned again in their History.
Imu seems like a Charakter who doesn't seem to forgive mistakes.
Like Who's Who. He was enslaved for making the mistake of loosing the Gomu Gomu no mi (hito hito No mi: Nika). There he learned of Nika and him freeing slaves.
Lili "lost" something as important (more important) than the fruit. It didn't matter for imu if it was a mistake or a plan. The damage was done and punishment was due.
Could the tale of Nika freeing slaves originated from Lili telling the other slaves that someday Nika will come again?

18 months ago I moved away from the city I grew up for a good job in a field I don’t care about.
My good job turned out to be a bad job, so I found a new offer for a lot more money. However, the new company is jerking me around. I’m on a visa and they told me I could give notice, then they screwed things up getting me a new visa so that I may be in a totally screwed position and have to leave the country. This is a large, well known company. They have the resources to do this properly, they just don’t care or are disorganized.
As I’m running out the clock at my old job, I have to interact with a coworker who I have a shitty, toxic relationship with. We were friends for about a year and she started acting like she was really into me. I was unsure at first then reciprocated by asking her on a date when she was in town. She was happy and initially said yes, then changed her mind saying it would be too difficult because we work together and are long distance. I wanted to just go back to being work friends but she still will be flirty with me and it’s really confusing, using me for attention like sending me slightly inappropriate selfies and also always getting me to help her with her work.
I know it’s a toxic relationship but even though I know I need to cut her off and be direct, I feel pressured to keep being polite so I don’t cause trouble. Truthfully part of me hopes she changes her mind again but I know I just need to get away from her. It has made me feel miserable and lonely. I’m ashamed at myself that when she shows me a little bit of attention, I’ll start pining for her again, even when I know it’s because I help her get commissions on accounts and gas her up when she’s feeling insecure, not because she gives a shit about me. I want out, but work creates so many unavoidable points of contact.
Meanwhile, my bosses are trying to milk me for as much work as possible, I’m just so burnt out, tired and stressed all over a random career in big tech that I never wanted and basically fell up into. I feel guilty for feeling shitty about my job because I know my salary is way better than most even though all I can afford is an ok 1 bedroom apartment that costs extra because it’s month to month and furnished in case I lost my visa. I am always afraid of losing my visa and having to uproot again.
Now I am back in my hometown for a series of weddings. Me being here is partly what’s holding up the visa processes for my new job. I’m the best man in one of them and there have been several comments and incidents where I don’t feel remotely appreciated (or even liked by his fiancee) to the point that I resent putting myself out for this.
Then in addition to all that, at all these events I need to see my former best friend that I had a huge falling out with. Similar to the girl at work, he was emotionally manipulative and a bit of a bully for years. I put up with it before finally cutting him off last year. All our mutuals tell me they are on “my side” and will shit on him for being essentially a covert narcissist. Despite this, he’s the one who still hangs out with all of them as I drift away from them.
So I’m back in town and life has just moved on without me. Everyone is getting married. When I see people, there are inside jokes I’m not in on and references to times I wasn’t there for. I think I’m seen as impressive and cool because I seem like I have more money than I do and a big job in an international city but I am just lonely. I wish the girl from work was the person I thought she was when it seemed like she was a friend who liked me so much she was pursuing me despite long distance. I wish I had more friends in my new city or that I wasn’t drifting from my old ones.
It feels like at this point where I’m supposed to feel more established, everything is up in the air and I have no sense of direction. I feel like nowhere is home and the only people I really have are my parents who are getting older, yet I’m not around them anymore since I moved.
Important: I couldn’t get a renewal on my ADHD med prescription before travelling (they said it was too soon) so the withdrawal is absolutely contributing to these feelings.