Hi all- I need some advice/feedback/guidance on a matter. I work in a group private practice. Trying to keep details as vague as possible.
I am seeing a client who has had a past of safety concerns, but not while they’ve been seeing me. However, client asked if two of their adult children can have contact with me every so often to make sure their parent is compliant with treatment and to get brief updates regarding safety. One of these children has a close relationship with client and the other is a bit estranged (they have some contact and are working on their relationship). It’s obvious my client cares about their relationship with estranged child and says their child also cares about their relationship which is why they’d like updates every so often on their parent. Client fully consented and signed appropriate releases, and we had a lengthy discussion about what client is okay with me sharing vs. not sharing. My client also says they feel better having this bit of accountability in place. Basically the phone calls would just say frequency of sessions, whether they are compliant with attending sessions, and if there are any concerns with suicidality - that’s it. There have not been any safety/suicidality concerns since I started seeing them for past few months.
The issue is, my supervisor thinks I should not talk to the estranged child (EC), at least not alone. They feel the client needs to be present for that conversation and that I absolutely should not talk to EC alone. I’ve had a couple conversations with client about my supervisors concerns and my client says they don’t want to be pushed to do something they don’t want to do- I’ve voiced this to my supervisor but they are not budging and feel I need to do this phone call together with client and EC (but not with the other child) or not at all. My client explicitly expressed they do not want to be involved in either of these phone calls and don’t see why they should be- they said they fully trust me to follow the releases and HIPAA. I have discussed this with the client over two sessions now, and possibly a third one, and I just feel like I’m in a very uncomfortable position where I don’t agree with my supervisor and am trying to act in the best interest of my client. I am worried about the impacts this will have on my client.
Am I in the wrong here with advocating/defending my client? Is there something I am missing regarding ethics/well-being of my client? Is my supervisor right in that I shouldn’t do this without the client? I am unsure how to proceed and would appreciate any insight or feedback.

Name: Sameer Lakdawala
Grade: 1 (unofficially special grade)
Bio: A decendent of Dhruv Lakdawala, and part of the Lakdawala family, Sameer is one of the youngest Jujutsu Sorcerer in the family. Though a strong and strategic fighter Sameer has a cocky nature which often leads to trouble for him or so it was until he met Yuta, when he was traveling through India. Seeing Yuta and facing him off in 1v1 combat made Sameer realise, how strong Special Grade Sorcerers are in comparison to a Grade 1. This event while made him understand how much he still had to improve also it fascinated him even more about Japan's Sorcerers such as a Gojo and Hakari and Maki and Panda so many great Sorcerers from Yuta. This led him to take a break from his family and travel the world as a Mercenary hunting Cursed Spirits with Yuta and then eventually going solo, and then making a name for himself as the salyer of Special Grade Curse Spirit, Disaster Curse Dongwu.
Talent: Sameer's talent doesn't come from the fact that his cursed technique is extremely strong but the fact that his ability to read his opponents be it Sorcerers or other people, he says this is due to his love for the game of chess. Sameer while the only non shikigami user in his family decided to focus on increasing his combat powers rather than relying on others and as such he has mastered over 50 different hand to hand and weapons based combat styles allowing him to be a deadly close range fighter. While his pool of cursed Energy is pretty average he has extreme control oh his own Cursed Energy allowing him to battle for long hours without wasting Cursed Energy. This makes him jealous of Yuta who could sparingly spend Cursed Energy while he has to make sure not to waste a drop of it.
Cursed Techniques:
1) Tempo Shift
Explanation: This ability allows Sameer to either delayany event that is about to happen for a period of maximum 10 seconds. So if a ball is about to fall on Earth from a height, Sameer can Delay the fall so the ball will start falling after 10 seconds have passed, in this case Sameer is delaying the event of ball's vector of motion changing to move downwards, the ball can be moved by an outside force as well in this time as it only delays one event not multiple events, another example is if an opponent is throwing punch at Sameer, Sameer can delay the action of throwing the punch and such they would not be able to throw a punch for a period of maximum 10 seconds, though they can do any other attack they might even try to punch again but there orginal attack would not happen Until after the set period of time.
Sameer generally doesn't use the technique for full 10 seconds but instead for micro seconds so that every time he can cause extremely small delay to opponents attack which throws them off. This also works with him as he can't use the technique for the amount of time he has delayed an event so like if he delays something for 5 seconds he can't use the technique for 5 seconds so keeping the time delay short this allows him to essentially spam the technique, and also make it unpredictable for opponent to understand how much delay will occur to there attack.
Binding Vow: Must tell the opponent how the technique works.
2) Self Tempo Shift
Explanation: Self Tempo shift can only and only occur on his own body at only the condition of having an injury that would guarantee his death, as per a Binding vow and once used he can't use the technique again for as many hours as he delayed the event of his body loosing consciousness. He can essentially use this technique to contol his body even if his head is thrown away making him immortal for the maximum of 10 seconds.
Binding Vow: Can not use the technique unless in case of getting critically injured and after using the technique he can't use it for as many hours as he delayed his body loosing Consciousness.
Extra Binding Vows:
1) Black Flash Binding Vow: While Black Flash is something that can happen randomly and through practice it can be used subsequently. Sameer limits his potential to use Black Flash by making it so that he can only use his Black Flash after making 50 consecutive hits on an opponent and he can only use it once per opponent.
2) Death Delay: Sameer purposefully delays his cursed energy output by 20% and this output can only be unlocked after he has suffered critical injury and has used Self Tempo Shift. This combined with his Black Flash Binding Vow allows him to generate so much Cursed Energy that he can create an extremely powerful Black Flash and also use the residual amount of Cursed Energy to heal critical injuries.
Combat Technique: He primarily flights close combat to opponents using his martial arts and cursed Technique to confuse them and keep landing blows after blows after blows until they can't fight anymore, if opponent is strong he purposefully leaves an opening in his defence to bait an attack and trigger self tempo shift, obviously that is the last resort but he leaves that open to make sure that he can use that. Once all conditions are met he uses the right time to attack the opponent who has left there guard down after landing the hit to land his strongest Black Flash and use the residual Cursed Energy to heal himself using RCE, this however leaves Sameer with barely enough to stand much less fight the opponent and he can only heal critical injuries not all injuries.
Known Sorcerer techniques:
1) Black Flash
2) Reverse Cursed Technique
3) chakravyuh bhed: An Anti Domain Technique, similar to simple domain.
4) Simple Domain
Cursed Tools:
1) Tez: Slef created Cursed Tool
2) Takat: Self Created Cursed Tool
3) Ring of Energy: Self Created Cursed Tool
(Trivia: I read this after reading Tower Of God who had similar abilities as Sameer, hope you will all like it, I will add more details about the Special Grade Cursed Spirits and his cursed tools on a later post as this post is big enough)

I’m so nervous! I’ve been wanting to start pilates for about a year, but finally have the financial flexibility to afford the practice. I purchased a 3 class private pack for beginners at a local studio and I’m so nervous. I have taken about 3 yoga classes in the last 2 weeks and that’s it. I’m late 20s, 25lbs overweight, extremely inflexible, and out of shape. I know this is specific to the studio, but how beginner friendly is pilates? Did anyone start off in similar shape?

KP’s live was all telling. Melissa and DanI share a mutual hate for Ryker, as well as Tish. Prior to the fall out with Ryker, Melissa and Dani had very little to do with each other. It wasn’t until all of the creators had this fall out about the mod chat being released and who did it.
Melissa is clearly deeply bothered by Rykers betrayal so much so she made herself public enemy number one. At this point, Melissa is willing to do anything to expose Ryker for the calculated bully that she is.
Here are a couple takeaways from that live, and this whole situation that started yesterday with the fake KP account.

• [ ] Melissa could have dropped those insignificant text on her own Reddit account, but chose the KP account.
  
• [ ] Melissa immediately says, “it’s me, it’s Melissa. I’ve been using this account to troll you.” Then deletes all accounts.
  
• [ ] KP has had zero to do with any of the drama that has been going on over the last two weeks. What reason would Melissa have to bring her into it?
  
• [ ] Melissa’s behavior in that live does not match up any kind of behavior Melissa has shown in the past.
  
• [ ] Melissa lied stating that her private account and the KP account were banned at the same time. However, they were deleted.
  
• [ ] Melissa was generally shocked at the age and comments on the account. And when KP questioned her about the comments, Melissa responded with “hell no.”
  
• [ ] The timeline of Melissa’s reasoning and date of creation of the KP account do not add up.
  
• [ ] Melissa, immediately and aggressively went into pushing the narrative that Ryker is the bigger problem. Stating that multiple mods of Rykers have many Reddit accounts to troll people.
  
• [ ] Melissa’s instant reaction to the age and comments of the KP account were an immediate and involuntary reaction to shock that she tried to correct.
  
• [ ] The person commenting on the KP account use periods, followed by double spaces, and those were the most recent responses. The responses at 178 day mark were not written in the same way.
  

My theory is: Dani capitalized on Melissa’s hate for Ryker. So she shared the text and the KP account. And Melissa agreed to take the fall knowing she’s already a target, how could it be worse. Even though Dani can’t stand Ryker, Melissa‘s mental and emotional state has her doing shit way out of character, that’s why we’re all so shocked. Melissa has been pushing the narrative, that Ryker is a bully and the bigger problem, which she tried to push while in KP‘s box. Using the KP account, she could expose Ryker for directing the mods to create multiple fake Reddit accounts to attack people. Also pushing Tish’s belief the page is mostly RykerNation.
At this point, everyone knows that it’s almost impossible to go toe to toe with Ryker, because she’s calculated, well spoken, and calm under pressure. One of the only ways to “take down” Ryker would be to expose her as a liar, and a bully. This was also shown by bringing out Kimmie’s to tell the story of taking a dying boys insurance.
It’s clear the motive behind this is to take down Ryker. But who the players in the game are is the gray area.

<<< First part of the post
My post got cancelled the first time, so I’m trying again. Wish me luck! :)

August 26, 2010. The reconstruction

For the Court, “decisive and definitive proof of the correctness of [this] reconstruction” of the relationship between Sabrina and Ivano and between the former and the victim, comes from a “datum of extraordinary genuineness” – Sarah’s last diary entry:

• August 26: “Today had the sweet awakening with the drill, last night then I went out for a while with Sabrina and her friend Mariangela, we went to the brewery for a quick red bull, then we came home and Sabrina as usual got mad because she says that when Ivano is there I’m always with him, and I believe you at least he cuddles me unlike her, I could have 1 boyfriend like that! But whatever, I’m used to it anyway.....By Buffy Rock 95”

According to all the testimonial evidence, on both the morning and afternoon of August 26, Sarah (once she’d returned from San Pancrazio) went to Sabrina’s house; but why would she do so if the relationship had broken down? The Court considers this issue, advanced by the defense, and replies that

once her brother had left, hanging out with Sabrina represented, for young Sarah, hungry for life and leisure, the only opportunity to get out, to escape from a family environment that appeared to her to be rigid and, at that time, with her grandfather dying and her mother busy caring for him, certainly bleak and oppressive.

Anna Pisanò’s testimony sheds light on the underlying conflict between the cousins, although her account of the morning – as well as the other portions of her testimony – has been rejected by the defense, who argued that Pisanò’s role as a “super-witness” (more on this later) was the by-product of her resentment towards Sabrina, of “her willingness to create misunderstandings” and of the shared religious beliefs with Concetta. The Court rejected this argument reporting that Pisanò and Sabrina were quite intimate friends before the disappearance and the religious practices Pisanò participated to still don’t explain why she would have falsely accused Sabrina. In any case, Pisanò was a client of Sabrina; she said she was close with her, although the latter contradicted her in court.
7:55-9:30 am: Pisanò said to the investigators and later to the judges that, on the morning of August 26, she went to Sabrina’s for a session (she worked as a beautician off the books); after like an hour, Sarah arrived. Pisanò noticed that she looked unhappy and that she didn’t greet her as usual. The prosecution used this episode to argue the confrontation of the night before continued on August 26, but the defense replied that either a) Pisanò was disliked by Sarah because two years before she had said to Sarah that her father was a womanizer or b) the story narrated by Pisanò was false since the other witnesses who saw Sarah that morning don’t report anything unusual about her. Make of that what you will.
12-12:30 pm: Once she had returned to her own home, coming from the Misseris, Sarah informed her mother that she was “probably” going to the beach with Sabrina and that, in any case, she would have to wait for confirmation by her cousin. Immediately thereafter, Sarah had asked to accompany her father, who was headed for meat and fruit shopping.1:45-2 pm: Sarah left her house and headed for Sabrina’s without having received the confirmation message from Sabrina. This is corroborated by

• testimonial evidence (Sarah’s housekeeper Pantir, since the first time she was heard by the investigators, on September 1, 2010, but also later, on December 14, has always maintained that Sarah left the house to go to her cousin’s approximately shortly before 2 pm, after having quickly eaten a chicken cutlet; Antonio Petarra, an Avetrana resident and neighbor of Sarah, saw her walking down the street around 1:45 pm; likewise, a young couple;
• forensic-pathological evidence (medical examiner Strada calculated the ToD considering that Sarah had eaten precooked and homogenized food around 1:30 pm; this was contested by the defense for two reasons: a) the first, methodological, is based on the failure of the state’s forensic pathologist to analyze separately gastric content and b) the scientific questionability of the consequences of stress on the digestive phenomenon);
• cell tower evidence (the first worrying contact someone had with Sarah’s phone was Sabrina’s call at 2:42 pm – the call went to voicemail, apparently making Sabrina go in hyperventilation – and from the analysis of cell towers we know that, during this call, Sarah’s terminal pinged off the tower 40067-60241-TA-AVETRANA-Via Ludovico Ariosto-Sett.1, serving Michele’s garage, while, in the previous contacts from her schoolmate and Sabrina, the tower used was the one serving the Scazzis and the Misseris. This tells us that either Sarah was killed shortly before 2:42 pm by Michele in the garage or that Sarah’s corpse was moved in the garage by someone after she had been killed inside the house. If we hold forensic pathologist Strada’s conclusion that Sarah was strangled with a belt as true, the second hypothesis seems the more likely narration. If we additionally take into account that Sarah didn’t reply to her schoolmate messages and rings – and she was used to respond instantly according to the latter – we can conclude that Sarah was already dead at 2:25 pm and that moves the clock back also for Sarah’s departure from her house).

The Court stated that the reconstruction advanced by the defense – according to which Sarah waited for the 2:25 pm confirmation message in order to go to Sabrina’s – can’t be accepted also because it didn’t make sense for Sarah not to reply to her schoolmate Francesca’s messages if she was really waiting for the confirmation message and wasn’t engaged in any housework. The most plausible reasons why she left before receiving the message are to be identified with the fact that Sarah didn’t want to participate in the house renovations and was anxious to go to the beach.
The defense also attacked the testimony of Pantir indirectly arguing that the “young couple” – that’s the name media used to describe Giuseppina Nardelli and Fedele Giangrande – since a week after the disappearance have always said that they’d seen Sarah walking down the street after 2 pm. The Court countered that Sabrina had tried to influence the memories of the people involved in the case and that’s the distal cause of the young couple’s testimony:

[I]t is well understood how the imprimatur of a certain time indication that placed Sarah’s disappearance around 2:30 pm and, in any case, before 2:42 pm, the time when the search for her began, was provided precisely by Sabrina Misseri in the course of the interviews she gave, with the effect of conditioning not only, as already seen, the memories of Sarah’s family members, but also the information disseminated by the media.

That would explain why the missing person report compiled by Concetta mentioned 2:30 pm as the time of disappearance – Sarah’s mother had simply taken at face value Sabrina’s indication that she’d sent the confirmation message around that time. Moreover, in at least another occasion, Sabrina tried to influence directly a person informed about the facts surrounding the disappearance, namely Mariangela. This is an excerpt from an intercepted conversation between two on September 30, 2010 in the Carabinieri headquarters:

• S: “If… sitting under the porch I was, you know”
• M: “No, Sabri”
• S: “Look, you’re misremembering…”
• M: “No, Sabri”
• S: “That… that if I was sitting…”
• M: “No… you were sitting, last time you were sitting, when I came you were… And you had even closed the gate and I said, ‘what about Sarah?’”

It’s also a fact that the after-2-pm version was initially accredited because everyone thought the last movements of Sarah’s cell phone were genuine and not the result of post-mortem manipulation (more on this later), so it’s not illogical to think that the young couple could have “aligned” their memories with what they deemed to be true. Still, I think the defense raises a good point; ultimately, it’s likely that Giangrande and Nardelli misremembered or made a bad estimation because their original memory (in the later versions they admit it could have been also 2 pm) simply doesn’t fit with all the other evidence, especially Pantir’s testimony, who talked about 2 pm as the time of Sarah leaving the house when everyone else thought the correct time was another.
1:50-2:05 pm: Sarah arrived at Sabrina’s. Testifying to this there are Cosima’s intercepted words: “it would have been better if lightning had fallen on the house, electrocuting us all that day… electrocuting us all before the girl came”. It’s unlikely that she went to the garage as hypothesized by the defense since, even according to Sabrina, she wasn’t used to hang out alone there at all. Moreover,

It is utterly implausible that Sarah Scazzi – if previously molested, as the Defenses assume – could have decided, for no plausible reason, to voluntarily descend into the dark garage, into the clutches of her molesting uncle (as will be said shortly, just as the latter, enraged by the failure to start the tractor, was shouting and “swearing” like a possessed).

Sabrina testified in court that around this time (when, for example, she received her cousin Adamaria’s call and didn’t respond to it) she was resting in the double bed of her parents, though this is contradicted by Michele even when the latter was offering a completely self-accusatory version: he said that he’d talked to Sabrina in the house before Sarah arrived. On the other hand, Cosima – who according to Sabrina was lying next to her in the double bed – never mentioned the numerous calls, messages and rings her daughter had received in those minutes. Why would she lie about this, in any case?

There was, in fact, a need to defer the moment of her exit to the porch, in order to exclude the possibility of a meeting with Sarah at the moment when the latter – according to the defense version, which saw her leaving the house after receiving confirmation text messages from her cousin – was arriving at the Misseri house.

It’s difficult to understand, moreover, why Sabrina would send the message, “I’m trying [to poo] in the bathroom :)”, to Mariangela if, as she testified in court, the “attempt” lasted only a few seconds. But there are lots of contradictions in Sabrina’s accounts of the events. The shower that, according to previous statements, she had taken once she got out of bed, in the trial statements became a “rinse” of her private parts; regarding the message of 2:39:27 pm to Mariangela (“Ready”), Sabrina, in her statements of October 15, said she’d typed it when she was on the porch, but – faced with the contestation that she had stated that, 55 seconds earlier, when she had received the message from Angela Cimino, she was with certainty in the bathroom – she argued at trial that this message had been sent when she “was going out on the porch”. Concerning these details, the defense tried to deflect holding that Sabrina was in a state of “mental confusion” caused by her cousin’s – to whom she was very close – disappearance. The Court replied that

The detectable contradictions cannot be the result of mnemonic deficits, especially since, most of the time, this is not the explanation that was given by the defendant to justify the narrative inconsistencies.

At this point, though, we have to introduce a crucial witness who showed up quite late but was deemed genuine (at least in his first deposition) by the prosecution and then by the Court; his name is Giovanni Buccolieri and he was a florist in Avetrana.

The kidnapping: the dream of the florist and Cosima’s motive

The finding of kidnapping, contested in complicity to Cosima Serrano and Sabrina Misseri, in the reconstruction of the criminal facts constitutes the logical and factual antecedent of the murder of Sarah Scazzi: the young girl, shortly after entering the house, hastily left [Sabrina’s house], heading on foot toward her home; however, she was chased and immediately tracked down by Cosima Serrano who, together with Sabrina Misseri, forced her to board the Opel Astra car and, placing herself in the driver’s seat again, drove her back to her home in Via Deledda, where she was strangled.

The path by which the information about the kidnapping reached investigators was tortuous. On April 5, 2011, super-witness Anna Pisanò talked with the investigators to report that, in September 2010, she’d heard by her daughter Vanessa Cerra that “someone” she knew had seen Cosima grab Sarah by the hair, snatch her and throw her in the Misseri car on the afternoon of August 26, 2010. Pisanò had asked many times to Cerra who was this mysterious individual, but she decided to make his name only when she left for a job in Germany (saying that, if questioned, he would have said that it was only a dream). When Pisanò discovered the identity of the witness, she went to the investigators.
April 9, 2011 is the day Buccolieri appeared before prosecutors to offer information about Sarah’s disappearance. Only two days later, however, he requested another interview to retract what he’d already told, justifying himself by saying that he wasn’t sure it was real – it could have been a very vivid dream. The prosecutors immediately charged him with perjury, since either the first or the second interview contained false information. Then, in court, Buccolieri used his right to remain silent, although the content of the first interview was mentioned in the motivation report that sentenced Cosima (and Sabrina) to life in prison.
The florist’s dream is one of the most contested points of the sentence. The Supreme Court observed that Buccolieri retracting his testimony about having seen the kidnapping has to be explained in terms of an “attempt to evade the judicial responsibilities incumbent on him”. On the contrary, Cosima’s and especially Sabrina’s defenses argued that only Anna Pisanò reported the incident by talking about a real fact and not a dream, and that she cannot be trusted for the reasons described above.
Concerning the validity of the testimony, the Court considered firstly the discrepancy between Buccolieri’s preoccupation with the incident and it supposedly being just a vivid dream:

that Buccolieri continued, in the days and months that followed, to talk about the affair, albeit representing it as a “dream”, to relatives, relatives-in-law and friends while showing agitation and disturbance, however, makes it quite clear that he – aware of the seriousness of the episode and its significance as an essential junction in the reconstruction of the murder – could not help but think about it and, therefore, talk about it.

Mention has already been made of Pisanò’s credibility, which again becomes an important point here. The woman reported to investigators that her daughter had told her about the incident in terms of a real fact, while the daughter claimed that Buccolieri had only ever told her about a very vivid dream that made it difficult to understand whether it was real or not. Cerra said in court that, when she had asked again Buccolieri to go talk with the investigators, he replied, “If they call me, I deny everything”.
This is probably the strangest piece of evidence pertaining to this case, the only one directly implicating Cosima and it’s quite difficult to assess its validity. The Court considered the issue and tried to justify its reasoning in more than 100 pages. There are reasons both to believe and not to believe that it was a vivid dream.
Firstly, we know for a fact that Buccolieri did have a flower delivery to do on that day. Interestingly, his description of the abduction temporally preceded the discovery of Sarah’s body; this suggests that he may have been truthful insofar as he would have anticipated other evidence emerging from the trial. Another reasoning in favor of the theory that the kidnapping was real is that Cerra wouldn’t have asked Buccolieri to talk with the Carabinieri if his narrative had been really told in the terms of a dream; at the same time, Cerra wouldn’t have refused to tell her mother the name of the dreamer. It would also have been strange for Pisanò – if she had falsely said that the kidnapping was real – to have been able to predict that Buccolieri would speak in the terms of a real fact in his first interview. Finally, the Court considered that the fact Buccolieri said to Cerra that only she knew how things went proved that what he said to his wife and mother-in-law (namely, that it was all a dream) was false – in other words, only Cerra was able to listen to the “true” account of the events; Pisanò then managed to discover it and told about it to the investigators.
On the other hand, it would be dishonest not to acknowledge that Buccolieri to this day maintains that the prosecutors somehow convinced him that the episode was factual, when in reality, according to him, it was only a dream. Other bits of intercepted conversation suggest either that Buccolieri was truthful when he accredited the dream version or that he was trying to impose it to Cerra: “The two of us, when we talked, we talked about a dream and that’s all… we didn’t talk about anything else”. Others again seem to imply that there was a common preoccupation, between Buccolieri and Cerra, with not being involved in the case: “You have to say that… the right things, Va”, “But I said the right things”. In court, Buccolieri’s wife Giuseppina Scredo testified that her husband seemed worried about the “dream” because at the same time he told her about it circumstantial items against Cosima had emerged – but prosecutors replied that, in reality, Cosima became a suspect only in 2011, so it’d have been exaggerated for Buccolieri to be worried about the dream:

[Buccolieri], however, would have had no reason to feel such dismay if it was merely a dream going back in time or if he was in doubt between dream and reality, and even less so if [the story about the kidnapping] was the result of popular suggestion or a “collective dream” of the Avetranese who disliked Serrano. […] Unless we want to attribute to Buccolieri premonitory powers and divinatory abilities, it is not possible that, immediately after Michele Misseri’s arrest, he could have already had suspicions – based, it should be assumed, solely on the unjustifiable dislike he felt for a fellow citizen with a “strong” character whom he saw appearing on television – about Cosima Serrano, so much so that he became convinced of her guilt and “dreamed” of her involvement in the victim’s kidnapping.

It’s also important to ask what would be Cosima’s motive. The Court considered that

The attention that the entire family paid to the aspect of public consideration is further evidenced by Valentina Misseri’s statement at trial about the reasons underlying the reproaches that she and her sister Sabrina used to address to the young Sarah because of the young girl’s affectionate attitudes – which they considered excessive and out of place – to people of the opposite sex, or the makeup that was too “heavy” for her age, which could have, in the older cousins’ view, aroused the gossip of the Avetranese community (“people who talk and are gossipy”) by having the minor girl ‘labeled’ as a ‘no-good’.

Cosima was therefore greatly concerned about what might be said about her daughter if her failed intercourse and on-and-off relationship with Ivano were discovered and especially held Sarah responsible for the humiliation her daughter suffered. As for why she decided to follow Sarah back to her house like the florist had described, the Court considers that the news of the argument was not supposed to reach the Scazzi home – if it had happened, Sarah’s parents would’ve been outraged at Cosima and Sabrina for everything “improper” for a 15-year-old Sarah had discovered or participated to (especially in a rural, tight-knit community as Avetrana is): from knowing about the intercourse to being photographed in pajamas with Sabrina by a shirtless Ivano late one night in May 2010.

It is also shown that the defendant [Cosima] Serrano paid extreme attention to the profile of family respectability, opposing conduct of her daughter that appeared to her, in terms of mentality, age, and culture, to be excessively uninhibited – so much so that she regularly called Sabrina insulting epithets alluding to her sexual mores (“bitch”, “whore”). […] The affront suffered at the hands of the little girl, her rebellion against the authority of her aunt and the fear that she would reveal facts that would compromise the honorability of the Misseri family, generated a strong emotional reaction in the woman that induced her to commit the kidnapping and, once the little girl was brought back home, to commit the crime of murder.

The murder and the weapon

According to the Court that convicted the defendants, Sarah entered the Misseri’s house and stayed there for only a few minutes before leaving abruptly. The fight that broke out that afternoon had to be different from the typical altercations between the two girls, having required the intervention of Cosima.
Sarah, who was attacked and reprimanded, did not suffer supinely this time: she must have experienced those reprimands, those accusations as so undeserved, disproportionate and unjust that she reacted harshly toward her aunt in harsh tones, and with accusations, certainly serious and unexpected, that affected not only her cousin, but also her aunt because of the seriousness of them. […] The questioning of the authority of the two women, Serrano’s outrage at what must have seemed to her to be intolerable accusations made by Sarah and an inadmissible act of rebellion, as well as a show of ingratitude on the part of the little girl who had been welcomed and raised “like a daughter” in that home, the realization that Sarah had grown up and was no longer the shy and submissive child who could be “managed”, but a person capable of reacting, responding in kind, questioning the authority of the two “parental” figures, even rivaling her older cousin and revealing her habits and secrets, shaming her before her mother’s eyes, all these things triggered the reaction of Sabrina Misseri and Cosima Serrano.
After they had returned to the Misseri’s house on the Opel Astra, Sabrina and Cosima strangled Sarah with a belt, one holding her down and the other tightening her grip around the neck. This is also corroborated by the forensic-pathological evidence: according to prof. Strada’s autopsy, “a flat, ribbon-like furrow in the front of the neck is clearly visible [on Sarah’s neck], even to the layman”, while “excluding the mode of strangulation hypothesized by the defense [i.e. a kind of complete hanging] is the absence of signs of fracture of the hyoid bone and cricothyroid cartilages”. Strada concluded therefore that the murder weapon was a belt, the seams of which produced the furrow present on Sarah’s neck.
Against the objections of Sabrina's and Cosima’s defense – which argued that the indication of the murder weapon was intended to shift the blame towards the two defendants – there is the fact that the autopsy was filed on November 11, 2010, when Michele was still the only suspect: Strada could not have known that Sabrina and Cosima would be investigated shortly thereafter.

It is therefore clear that the indication of a belt, not a rope, as the murder weapon preceded the reconstruction that, only later, by virtue of an unambiguous circumstantial framework, came to identify the Misseri family home as the scene of the murder.

The Court noted that “the defense counsel ultimately failed to provide a plausible alternative explanation for the presence of the whitish furrow ‘averaging 2.6 cm wide’ found on the front of the victim’s neck, nor did he effectively explain the origin and nature of the repetitive segmented, in-line impressions present at the edges of said furrow”. In response to the argument that the weapon may have been a rope (such as the one indicated by Michele), the Court underlined that Strada argued extensively that the furrow couldn’t have been produced by such a constraining means.
In addition to that, the Court holds that – since on Sarah’s neck “a sharp, smudge-free pattern was detected” and “the victim did not put up any resistance, especially since it was found that there was no further injury to the ‘structures’ of the neck” – the perpetrators of the vicious attack must have been two, namely Sabrina and Cosima. It was also argued that, if Cosima should be held responsible for kidnapping Sarah and make her go back to the Misseri house, then it becomes quite hard to explain how she didn’t also participate to the actual murder. If the florist’s story is not a dream, Cosima is responsible for killing her niece.

Sources

Italy high court upholds life sentences in Scazzi case
L’omicidio di Sarah Scazzi: quando il male è in famiglia
Mother told live on Italian TV of daughter's murder
The Murder of Sarah Scazzi Apple TV (UK)

In the shadows of confidentiality and for the sake of my safety, I (<27yrs.) must keep certain details hidden, but I'll take you first through my background and will then keep going with details.
I live in a nice country with family and loyal friends. They knew of my apprenticeship in the governments work and provided unwavering support from the age of 17 to 19. Those years were filled with mundane lessons, equipping us with the necessary skills for our future roles as government officials. While our nation's history of power abuse and espionage had made my family naturally skeptical of the government, but they recognized that my work was a rather boring office job that had no connection to such matters and accepted it.
It was during the midst of my first apprenticeship that I stumbled upon a job opportunity that made my heart race with excitement. The mere thought of it sent shivers down my spine. I applied for a application process for an apprenticeship in our country's counterintelligence and state security. Tests assessing our knowledge, cognitive abilities, and even our health awaited me. To my suprise, I was among the select few, only about 30 individuals from all corners of the country, who were accepted.
That's when I faced a difficult choice: between my family's trust and this new job. My family had accepted my role within the authority I was originally associated with. But here's the catch: the authority I now applied to was infamous for its utmost secrecy. A shroud of mystery hung over those walls, breeding skepticism among the general populace. Thus, I lied about claiming to have completed my initial apprenticeship and assuming a new set of duties. My salary and stories involving nonexistent colleagues became part of this lie. Though they hate that I have no time for them to go on vacation or something and now think I'm a workaholic or something - probably for the best.
Our first days they taught us one fundamental rule: silence. We were forbidden from discussing any of our knowledge beyond the confines of the campus. Trust became a luxury we couldn't afford, and to protect ourselves and our families, we were assigned aliases when communicating with our colleagues. It's strange to reflect on the fact that I know nothing about the personal histories of my favorite colleagues, as everything remains a mystery.
Throughout my apprenticeship, I got assumed four aliases: one general alias within our campus and three additional aliases for the practical phase of our training, which exposed us to the real workings of state security.
Over time, I have taken on more than 15 identities, embracing the enigmatic nature of my job. Apart from the sheer adrenaline that courses through my veins, there are also the darker aspects to consider. Living in a constant state of distrust takes its toll on one's mental well-being. The awareness that I, too, am being surveilled by the government to ensure I pose no threat with the information i have is an eerie reality to grapple with.
I feel bad every time because I have collected so many exiting and funny storys that I can't share with anyone. Maybe my private mental health professional but of course i need to filter the informations. And thinking he may be giving away informations is giving me a weird feeling? Is there someone reading my chats, emails, reddit/social media? The people I talk to online, are they maybe working on the same campus as I?
Furthermore, it is important to acknowledge that the life expectancy in this profession is not particularly high. Due to the nature of our work, where we are not welcomed by terrorists, a single mistake could cost us our lives.
Have a great day or evening and thanks for listening. I'm open for questions about my personal life and maybe my job. Depending.

I received my first check of long term disability monthly benefits from a private insurer. However, around 2/3 was reduced for estimated social security disability. The insurer had asked me to apply for SSD, which I did. It’s denied the first time and it’s still in the reconsideration stage. Is it a common practice that a private insurer reduct SSD benefits even before its approval?

I reached out to my dentist requesting all of my dental records. They said they can send me the treatment plan, billing info, and x-rays, but they can’t share the complete record because of “private notes.” Do I have a right to have any notes and visit summaries as well?
I looked at some of the HHS FAQs but they don’t specify dental records and what types of records the practice legally has to send you, should you request it.

Hi! I'm beginning to seriously consider whether a service dog would be a good choice for me. I've been thinking about it for about four years, but now I'm actually starting to consider logistics. I'm not planning to run out and get a dog tomorrow, I'm just thinking about the very basics of what the process would be like for me logistically. I know that poodles, goldens, and labs are most commonly recommended as service dogs, and I know that's for good reason. If I go down this route, I would be owner training. I intend to find a professional trainer to work with. I have some experience with training dogs, but not as much as I'd like. I do have a lot of experience training horses, and I am currently looking for opportunities to work with dogs.
My first choice for service work would be a golden retriever, but I have some concerns. My first concern is the risk of cancer in goldens. Are certain lines of goldens less likely to get cancer? Any breeders successfully breeding away from it? Questions I should ask a prospective breeder? My second concern is my living space. I live in an apartment. It's not too too small, and I do have my own (very) small yard, but it's still not a lot of space. Besides that, I wouldn't be surprised if I move somewhere without a yard in the next few years, since I'm hoping to go to graduate school. Goldens are kind of big, and so are the other suggested breeds. That said, how would a golden handle apartment living? What additional needs would they have living in a small space? Realistically, what would I be looking at lifestyle-wise to manage a golden in an apartment?
Of course, there are smaller poodles, but I know very little about what poodles are like to handle in comparison to goldens. I've heard that they can be anxious, more temperamental, and more sensitive, especially the smaller ones. That doesn't sound good for my needs. Does anyone here have experience with smaller poodles? What are they like to work with? To live with? To train?
The tasks I'm interested in are: retrieving belongings (phone, wallet, keys), helping to initiate movement, detecting anxiety attacks, DPT, and guiding to a quiet/safe place.
I know that it's pretty likely that my first dog would wash. If that happened, I would still plan on keeping the dog, as I do think it would be beneficial for me to have a dog for reasons beyond service tasks. I really want to make sure that, if I go this route, I have a breed that can handle my lifestyle (which is reasonably active, but I'm probably going to live in apartments for a while).
Are there other breed options I should be considering? What input would you give me? I know other breeds aren't usually recommended, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to check if I'm missing something.
It is possible that, if I decide it isn't practical for me to start training a service dog at this point in my life, I might get a pet dog and train it as well as I can. If it ended up working out, great. If not, I would be better practiced for the future, and I'd still have the regular benefits of a pet dog. I know that a service dog would be beneficial for me, but I also have to be realistic. I'm trying to get a good picture of what I can handle right now, and what my life would look like with different dog breeds, including if one of the recommended breeds washed and it became a pet.

About Me
Hey there, my name is Shelbion and I've been an avid League of Legends player for over a decade. In Season 4, I reached Challenger for the first time and even considered pursuing a professional career. However, after much reflection, I decided to pursue other challenges within the game itself.
Some of my notable achievements as a player include:

• Reaching Challenger on multiple positions.
• Participating and winning in numerous SR and 1v1 tournaments.
• Playing for various teams(Amateur and Semi-Professional).

Community
In addition to my experience as a Player, I am also the Founder of Noxus Coaching - a rapidly growing, educational community on Discord. Our community is a great place to find new friends to play with, have a good time, and most importantly, improve your skills.
We hold various events on a weekly basis, including 1v1 & 5v5 tournaments, meme contests, and more. There are plenty of rewards to be won, including free coaching sessions with me. To join our community, visit https://discord.gg/TuTZAeRbx5 and message me upon joining to receive your role.
Coaching
As a coach with over 6.500 hours of experience, I have a passion for helping others improve and reach their goals. By studying the techniques of renowned coaches such as LS and MagiFelix, I have developed my own unique coaching approach that has helped countless individuals and over 20 teams advance their competitive play across 5 different continents, including members of various College and University E-Sports Teams.
Some of my notable achievements include:

• Assisting a Diamond 2 player reach Challenger in just five weeks.
• Helping a Silver 2 player climb to Platinum in three weeks.
• Guiding a Diamond 3 player to Grandmaster in six weeks.

I am dedicated to continuously honing my skills and providing the best coaching experience possible to all of my clients, regardless of their rank or location.
How Does it Work?
We will schedule an initial Interview during which we can discuss your goals and I can provide a more detailed explanation of my coaching services. This interview will typically last for 3-5 minutes.
The First Session is designed to assess your current level of gameplay and identify areas for improvement. After conducting an analysis, I will create a Personalized Coaching Plan tailored to your specific needs. This plan will outline a series of sessions designed to maximize your improvement.
The Coaching Plan may include various session types, such as:

• Theory sessions: These sessions will cover key concepts such as wave management, vision, decision making, and more.
• Practical sessions: These sessions will either be VOD reviews or live games, and will be used to put theoretical knowledge into practice and analyze gameplay.
• Reviews: These sessions will occur periodically and will be used as checkpoints to track your progress and identify any additional areas for improvement.

All sessions will be personalized and created specifically for each student's needs. By following this plan, you can feel confident that you are taking the most effective steps to achieve your goals.
Personalized Support (Available 24/7)
In addition to the structured coaching sessions, I offer personalized support to my clients on a 24/7 basis. Whether you have a specific question or just want to debrief after a tough game, I am always available to help. Simply message me and I will respond as quickly as possible.
AvailabilityPricesPayments
I am able to cover any server and any timezone! Rates for both Private and Team coaching are negotiable. We will easily get the sessions to fit your budget and your needs. Payments are usually done through PayPal, however other forms of Payment such as Direct Transfer can be discussed.
Contact?
Main form of contact is Discord on which you can find me at Shelbion#8832
Feel free to message me either on Discord or through a Direct Message on Reddit and I will come back to you as quickly as possible.

I M20 started dating my ex F20 who happens to be asexual. We had a solid relationship, but the entire time there were 2 major stressors for me. The first was obvious, no sex. The second was that I could tell she loved me more than I loved her. I was actually about to break up with her over the no sex part of the relationship at the 4 month mark (we ended up breaking after 8 months) however 1 week after that she told me she was thinking about it, the next week we started having sex and she found out she enjoyed it. Even though I knew that I didn’t love her as much as she loved me, I was an amazing boyfriend. I made her amazing gifts for the landmark dates, I took her out and payed for way over half everything (we are broke so sometimes if we wanted to do something out of budget she would chip in), she was bipolar, had self image issues, and horrible friends that I had to put up with, and I didn’t just put up with her mental illness, I fully took it on to the point that it felt like I was more of a therapist than a boyfriend. There were nights where she would message me horrible thoughts about her mental state, stop messaging and send my mind spiraling out of control. I helped her through her manic episodes where she would be absolutely crazy and bouncing off of every wall, getting both of us into trouble as well as her previously mentioned depression episodes. When I finally realized it’s not fair to her for me to date her without matching her feelings, and started to realize that I was falling out of love with her, I started to be more distant. I was not trying to mess with her, I just wasn’t ready to break the news because I had never really broken up with anyone before and I found it hard to reciprocate love to someone I had realized I didn’t love anymore. One night she told me she has started to notice that I’ve been distant and hands me a long note on her notes app saying that she notices that I’m distant and wants to know why, and if I want to break up with her (the abridged version). I tell her that I’m not feeling the way I used to, and before I’m able to break up with her, she starts hyperventilating and this was the beginning of a 3-6 hour MASSIVE panic attack. I decided that in order to not spring too much on her at once that I would say I just needed a break instead of going for the full breakup. I was at her side trying to calm her down and keep making sure she was ok. I called one of her a-hole friends who was good at helping out with this stuff, and they (I’ll call them V) came over and helped my ex get through her panic attack with me. One of the following days after she tries to be more physical with me than I am comfortable with, she asks me how long of a break I need and I ask to find somewhere private. We sit down and I start the breakup conversation. No arguments were had and I remember saying that even though I was ending the relationship that I had no regrets. I totally disagree with that now which is where the rest of the story comes. So the next day is the home opener for the local NFL team. I am drunk with my buddies, we order food from the cafeteria, and are walking through the colleges tunnels to pick up our food. We walk past the clubroom where my ex’s friends are and I decide to say hi. Before I can say more than a hi to everyone V comes out, closes the door, hugs me and says “this is for being my friend”, pulls back, and them proceeds to open palm slap me right across the face and say “this is for breaking up with (ex). I felt so many emotions at that point. I immediately step back enraged. I don’t hit back or do anything violent, all I say is “I’m drunk right now and removing myself from this situation!” V texts me minutes later and tries to explain themself and how it wasn’t planned to slap me (even though no one has that well prepared of a statement to set up a slap, and also made sure to close the door between us and their friends to make sure nobody saw it), and they blame it on their mental illness by saying stuff like “I couldn’t control what my brain was telling me to do”. We have a heated discussion where basically I tell them to F themselves repeatedly and that I hate them. My favorite line was “sober me is very forgiving, so drunk me says go f yourself” The following days I spent still talking with my ex (we had agreed to stay friends) and her friends, while totally avoiding V because I was still incredibly mad at them. All of a sudden I’m sitting with my friends at the dining hall, and my ex asks me over Snap where I am. I tell her and she says something along the lines of “great we will be right there” and immediately I know something is up. I figure that she will probably try to bring V in order to force a resolution onto me literally the day after getting slapped and I mention to someone I’m sitting with that if she brings V I am leaving. Sure enough she brings V, i shoot V a glare, V sits down at my table along with my ex and I leave to refill my drink just to avoid V. My ex follows me and I angrily ask why she brought V and she gets defensive about how she just wants us to be friends again. I respond back with something along the lines of “well it’s gonna take more time than a day, f them” and storm off. Weeks pass of me ignoring V until all of my ex”s friends finally break me down to accept V’s apology. I never do that, instead I walk into a room with them and other people and V tries to apologize and I cut them off saying something along the lines of “I’m a guy, I don’t talk through problems I just get over them”, which isn’t true for me I just knew that I didn’t wanna hear another bs fake apology where V blames their mental illness instead of taking accountability. Weeks go on of this dynamic where I hate hanging around everyone. I should mention that we all were in the theater club and we were in production of a show. All of this was slowly eating away at my mental health until the point where I couldn’t spend any time around them without breaking down into a depressive and anxious state. I discussed this 2 weeks before opening day (a 4 week production period) with the president of the club and how I wanted to quit the show but didn’t want to let people down and punish people who didn’t deserve to be by throwing a massive roadblock in the production, as I was one of the lead roles in the play. A week of this goes on until I finally quit out of the blue and everyone is surprised but no one tries to talk to me about it and everyone ignores me about it. To be fair my ex had just gotten back 2 or 3 days ago from a involuntary stay at the local psych ward from the college sent her. Weeks or months of me ignoring most of ex’s friend group except for the few who were actually there for me, and many awkward conversations with my ex (who wasn’t there for me) later, my ex messages me about how I’ve been distant as a friend lately and I finally had the courage to spell everything out to her. Essentially I say that I felt that I was incredibly supportive of her during and after our relationship, and that i felt betrayed that she was never there for me in my time of need, and that our relationship was not very healthy for me and that I didn’t want to maintain contact with her anymore

I had my g2 test today (in Ontario canada) and failed over a really stupid mistake. I was doing great until I absolutely tanked the parallel park. I've never had any issues with my parking and even practiced right before my test but idk if it was nerves or what but I really messed it up. Aside from the parking I did perfect for the rest of the test, no marks off.
Obviously I'm really bummed about this but I'm also super anxious. I'm worried about it happening again and this feels entirely out of my control. I have been practicing for ever with a private instructor and even went out of town for this test so it was easier. I dropped a ton of money into this and now I'm really stressed and disappointed. I tried to rebook but everything is full until next month which means I'll have to be anxious about this for a full month 😭

[Chapter 1] ;[Previous Chapter] ; [Discord + Wiki] ; [Patreon]
Chapter 118 – Black and white for once
Announcing that one was wearing something solely for the comfort and safety of others and then immediately taking said thing off was of course sending a quite clear message to everyone in the room. Clearer than maybe even words could’ve conveyed.
The gloves, or the breathfilter in this case, had literally come off.
It was of course a much more subtle way to send it than some others would’ve preferred, however it still had its intended effect. A certain, much saying silence fell momentarily over the room as the deathworlder’s predatory gaze wandered through it, now unrestricted by tinted polymer or pretty lights hiding away its nature.
Many of the present representatives surely had not quite forgotten James’ announcement that, much like myiat, humans too were quite proficient in hunting their fellow order members.
Of course, concerns like that were in reality absolutely ridiculous, and everyone definitely should have known that James was not here to hunt anyone. However, that didn’t mean that some of the more insistent instincts from generations past that still lingered in the backs of some of their minds didn’t poke their ugly heads out into the light now that the cold stare of the apex predator among the primate’s searched for any gaze that dared to challenge it.
Few of them dared to even try. Although they were all, in one way or another, important people that were used to having attention on themselves and opposition pushing against them, they were also, in no uncertain terms, a bunch of spoiled, cloistered, and unworldly brats who had hidden away in their marble halls and ivory towers for so long that they had forgotten what the world could even look like outside of them.
Klanneifer tried his best to return James’ challenging look. However, his discomfort could be clearly read on his face. His already squinting eyes narrowed even further and his eyelids trembled as all four of his ears turned in James’ direction to not let the predator out of their attention.
Uton also averted his gaze, though with him it was clear that he didn’t do so out of any sort of fear, but he instead simply did not wish to invite any more of the things James had to say to him out, seemingly not feeling like he could stand up to hearing most of them.
The one that most comfortably faced James’ searching eyes was Losaranarja. Not surprising really. A pixemerrier who sat at the head of a hotel on a station run by predatory deathworlders had surely seen a lot more frightening things than an ambassador that looked the slightest bit displeased at her.
“However,” James then continued his earlier point about what was and wasn’t one of his many mistakes after a long moment of silence he had allowed himself. “Whether you agree with me or not, it does not change the simple facts of the matter. Outer Orbital strikes are illegal. Period. People on Dunnima, including parts of its leadership and children, got injured during a thwarted attempt of such an illegal attack. End of story. Everything else is rationalization. It does not matter if they were not the main target of the attack. It does not matter who or what else may have been present. We are here to discuss the united reaction of the order of the primates to the attack on Dunnima. And the only reaction that there can be is the clear and unshakable condemnation and denunciation of this attack and any of its kind, be it the same method or any other outlawed means of attack. Whether I like it or not, the primates are seen as a galactic role model. Many people do look towards us for guidance. If we do not send a clear signal that such action cannot and will not be tolerated, then we will be putting the entirety of the Galaxy’s peace and order into jeopardy.”
There was a displeased rumble floating about in the room at his words, and many of the present representatives as well as their accompaniments stood up in an uproar.
“You still speak of Galactic peace and order?” Goloribal now fired back up after having gotten over his first bit of disheartenment at James’ earlier showmanship. “You, of all people? You who has singlehandedly threatened the peace of the people to a degree that has not been seen in centuries? You, who now speaks out in favor of one of the Galactic Community’s oldest and most sworn enemies? You want to preach to us about peace and order?”
James…felt oddly in his element, as a dark, conniving smile crept over his face.
“Singlehandedly? You shouldn’t undersell yourself like that, Representative,” he replied with his shoulders lifted into a slight, leisurely shrug. “You and your people, the Captain especially, but also the High-Matriarch of the Zodiatos and several Councilpeople, you have all been more than pulling your weight when it comes to destabilizing the galaxy. In fact, I would say that you did the main bulk of the work. Me? I was merely there.”
Shaking his head and sighing amusedly, James then let his arms sink, moments before his gaze then turned stone cold.
“But fine,” he then continued his rebuttal, now much more serious than before. “Let’s assume for a second that we aren’t all allies here. That this wasn’t a peaceful meeting of the different species of the order simply to discuss how we should act with the Galaxy’s best in mind. And that there really was some sort conflict happening right now that was much bigger than just caution and defense on humanity’s part…Even then, condemning this attack would be absolutely essential. For all of us.”
He wondered if he even needed to say any more than that. After all, it was quite obvious. However, some of the representatives around here had also proven to be rather dense…
Still, James remained quiet for a time, simply wishing to observe for how many of the present people it would click.
“The implication being…?” the Missicapriej representative was the first of those whose faces hadn’t immediately darkened in understanding who pulled together the nerve to ask.
This time, Klanneifer had seemingly understood it without problems.
“If this was a conflict,” he said, using the same conjunctive that James was to keep things to a pure hypothetical while two of his arms fiddled with each other as the two others rubbed along his neck. “Or if it could turn into one…then the Galaxy’s reaction to this ‘first attack’ if we want to call it that…”
He broke off his sentence, seemingly unwilling to speak it into existence.
“It would set the tone for the future conflict,” Losaranarja finished the sentence for him, quickly granting herself speaking privileges as the host. “If the very war crime committed by one side to start the conflict is not condemned, then what reason would there be to not return it in kind – apart from maybe a personal wish to be better.”
The Missicapriej’s face shot around to James and stared up at him with unblinking yellow eyes.
“Ambassador, you are not implying that…” he said in a burst of nervous energy that dissipated before he could even finish his sentence, causing his voice to slowly fade out as James still refused to say anything until he was granted the word, sticking to the event’s rules as if superglued to them.
“I am not implying anything,” James said with harsh emphasis on the word ‘implying’. “I am stating that, no matter what scenario you may believe is going on either behind the scenes or elsewhere, there is only one reasonable reaction to such an attack – like I have done from the very start, I might add. But I’m going to repeat it for the entire rest of the day, if I have to. We humas are quite tenacious, after all.”
Many of the representatives turned to mumble quietly with their company, and news reporters eagerly spoke into the cameras, surely all spinning their own story of what James’ words could’ve meant.
Did he want conflict? No. By no means in fact. It was the furthest thing from his mind to even allow the thought of it being a valid possibility here.
However…the idea that he might be willing to cause one was a useful tool by itself. Even though demonstrations had been rare, by now the galaxy had gotten the chance to get a taste of humanity’s weaponry.
Would it be enough to fight the entire rest of the Galaxy head on? Of course not. Numbers didn’t lie. No matter the advantage their weapon technology would buy them, they were so horribly outnumbered that any chance at victory was basically a rounding error.
However, sometimes the question that people in front of the many screens across the galaxy asked themselves when they heard about talks like that wasn’t ‘could they actually win’, but tended to be more along the lines of ‘who will be the one to take the hit if they try?’
Because, while it was absolutely true that the Community technically had more than enough bodies to throw at any given problem, the approach of trying to see if you had more men or the machine-gun above the trench had more bullets wasn’t exactly the prettiest.
Especially not if Outer Orbital Bombardments would become a valid option in the conflict. After all, even planets were far from indestructible if the very laws of nature were already being bent to one’s will.
“The Galaxy’s eyes are on us today,” James announced to the room while using his best narrator voice, doing his best to sound utterly impartial for a moment. “You know my stance on the matter, of course. You know that and how I would judge you given whatever views you may hold. That I would much rather be judged by my character – flawed as it might be – than by the place that I was born. That I would see the unwarranted violence against those who think and act differently from the accepted norm punished and ceased. Yes, that I stand against the proposed homogeny and grey sludge of a culture that oh so many seem to wish to promulgate across the community and instead wish to invite and celebrate the many different lives and ways that have led us all to the stars. Celebrate it as a true Community, not a homogeny. And that I wish to be open to the new and the unusual, hopefully allowing it to enrich our lives. You all already know this. And usually, I would gladly and fervently fight every single one of you for that simple goal.”
He closed his eyes for a second, releasing a breath, before he continued,
“However,” he said and immediately paused again to give the words its necessary weight after such a declaration. “Right now, I do not care what your views on the treatment of deathworlds may be.”
He reached his left hand out to gently hold Shida by the shoulder as she sat beside him.
“I don’t care what your opinions on augmentations and those who choose to accept them on their bodies might be,” he continued, raising his mechanical arm, making a wide ark with it to present it to the entire room, before finally ending with a brief gesture in Curi’s direction.
“I don’t care whether or not you think an amenable Artificial Sapient is something that could exist or not,” he added, lifting both arms to gesture more towards the entire, open room.
“And I especially do not care whatsoever what you may or may not think of me personally,” he finished, bringing both arms back down to his chest to point at himself. “All I care about right now is that right now there is, as is so rarely the case, a clear right. And a clear wrong. In more ways than one, the damage is already done. All we can hope to do now is mend as much as we can while we still can, lest we allow it to spread to a load-bearing structure. Some people here might see this event as a political instrument, by I do not.”
He not-so-subtly glanced over at the Captain and his representative.
“Hate me if you like. Hate those I associate with if you like. That is something that may concern us at another time. But, please, right now, don’t make the galaxy suffer for it,” James then addressed everyone again, and he even caught the gaze of some cameras pointed directly at him as he spoke. “No matter what you think who is fighting who or what ‘sides’ you may think there are and which of these sides you think yourself on: The rules of war. Must. Stand. Because, no matter who it is that topples them, as soon as they fall, the Galactic Community will eventually fall with them.”
Although the weight of the importance of all of this was still very much pressing down on him and James would honestly still much rather have been basically anywhere else instead of standing here in front of the Galaxy while giving important-yet-heavy-handed speeches, he did have to admit…Monologuing like that was actually kind of fun. No wonder politicians liked to hear themselves talk so much…
However, by now, he was actually starting to wonder just how many times he could reiterate what was basically the same point in different, fancy ways. Or how often he would have to before it would hopefully sink in with everyone that he was being serious here. It honestly wasn’t that hard, after all.
Not to mention that no one had actually even really tried to refute him yet. Not that there was much to refute here, but they could at least pull some bullshit reasoning out of their ass instead of just sticking to ‘James bad’ or ‘AI bad’ here.
After all, even if they didn’t belief that Avezillion was 100% harmless, much like James still didn’t think that, anyone at the very least had to admit that Dunnima was, in fact, not currently a smoldering pile of ashes OR in the process of purging all of its systems in a coordinated cyber attack against the Realized, meaning she had to at least be different from the others they knew somehow.
Pausing his heartful speech-giving for a while to give people time to process, James used the moment of respite to scan across the faces of his company. Well, those who were visible anyway. The breathfilters of his human accompaniment still only let through the basic projections of their professionally stern faces. Well, that was with the exception of Nia of course. After an early, very clear shock and disbelief at what James had presented here, she had eventually calmed down again, although an air of an underlying uncertainty that bordered on disapproval had still remained for a time. However, now that she had heard him talk and give his reasons for a while, the light-pixels on her mask had more and more mellowed out and were now stuck in an expression somewhere in between a ‘you got this’ and a ‘let’s see where this goes’.
Although Curi’s face was of course basically impossible to read, given that it didn’t emote at all, James noticed that the cyborg’s stance was remarkably confident considering the amount of people they had to present themselves in front of. The knees of their massive backward legs were less bend than usual, pushing their body up higher than they normally carried themselves in a way that James equated to pushing one’s chest out.
Moar seemed to be far from happy about the current turn of events, however James was truly relieved to see that the main bulk of that unhappiness seemed to stem mostly from stress and a general discomfort brought on by it, instead of any aversion to what James was saying. Of course, a bit of background noise of worry and slowly creeping dread remained on the old woman’s face as her head turned sideways so one of her eyes could fully focus on him while one of her clawed hands loudly clacked along one of her notched horns, however it didn’t seem like she was ready to turn heel and abandon James with his self-made problems yet.
And, well, Congloarch was…smiling? It was hard to tell with the reptile’s armored skin and stiff lips, however something about the way his mouth stood half-opened, presenting rows of sharp teeth to the world, was a bit different than usual. There was almost a sense of….triumph in it. Or at least James thought so. Tonamstrosite expressions weren’t exactly something he had a huge amount of expertise in reading.
The mumbling and general prattle in the room stayed quite intense for a while, but even so, James remained quiet, still unwilling to speak up and interrupt the proceedings, even if just while whispering to his friends. He would have to see what they thought at a later time. In private, where he could also apologize for having to have kept this from many of them for so long.
It was good that it was finally out. Maybe he would even introduce Avezillion to them, who knew? She could surely use a couple more friends…although Moar might not quite be ready for that yet. The old lady had gotten a whole lot more tolerating ever since he had met her of course, but a Realized wanting to have chit-chat might still cross a bit of a line for now. He would have to ease her into this.
Curi, on the other hand, would likely be completely on board. Or…at least James assumed that they would. Thinking of it, he had never really talked to them about artificial sapients before. He just kind of assumed it would be an enticing idea to them, since they enjoyed anything technological so much AND also generally fell out of line with what the Galaxy did and did not find acceptable. However, it was entirely possible that any experiences or stories that may be ingrained into them could’ve made them just as averse to the artificial lifeform as most other people were. James doubted it, but it was possible.
After all, Nia also wasn’t generally someone who judged others before getting the full picture, but even she had some very choice opinions about AIs, he knew that much. Not that the same wasn’t true for James before he had met Avezillion, of course. Basically every human had grown up with stories about Michael, after all. And with the rest of the Galaxy corroborating the idea that Realized were generally aggressive maniacs, nothing had ever quite challenged those stories.
Everyone else of course already knew Avezillion…well, except for Congloarch. However, he wasn’t the most ‘personable’ person at the best of times, so James couldn’t quite imagine how trying to introduce him to Avezillion as a potential friend would- James suddenly snapped up as a feline tail subtly bumped against his side with much more force than it usually exerted. Apparently, Shida had decided to be a bit more innocuous than an elbow to the side would have been.
Damn it! Had he zoned out? Well, yeah, he had. But what did he miss? Who was talking right now?
The sound of the surrounding world gradually returning to his ears in a wave of noise made it hard to focus on the main voice that was currently speaking to the room, and so James quickly had to follow everyone’s gazes to see where they were looking in order to find the speaker. However, there wasn’t really a ‘speaker’ right now. But there was definitely somebody everyone was looking at.
Admittedly, James probably should’ve noticed them immediately on his own, because they were entirely out of place.
With silverish-grey fur and dark, rust-red markings, the Lachaxet that had, from James’ perspective, popped up from thin air in the middle of the room, but who had in reality most likely simply entered while he had been distractedly wandered lost in his own mind, differentiated themselves quite a bit from their conspecifics that James had met so far.
They had a for the species rather broad head and their solid-green eyes had an almost olive color to them. Said eyes were locked firmly onto Losaranarja as the deathwolrder leaned in to the small primate and whispered something into her ear.
Next to him, James could see Shida’s own listening apparati interestedly twitch, however he doubted that even she would be able to pick up on what was whispered that far away from them.
However, although he had even less chance of hearing anything that was being said, James also leaned in the direction of the conversation suspiciously, wondering whatever could be discussed at a moment like this.
Eventually, Losaranarja nodded, whispered something back to the Lachaxet, and then turned to look up in James’ general direction.
“Ambassador Aldwin and Representative Goloribal, could I maybe bother the both of you and your company to step down to me for a second?” she loudly asked the leader of the two adjacently seated groups up on the top rungs.
Inadvertently, James and Goloribal looked over at each other, clearly trying to see if the other party had anything to do with this interruption. James obviously hadn’t. And, at least if he could believe that face he was making, it seemed that Goloribal didn’t either – although there was a fair chance that he was just acting.
Turning to his company with a movement of his head, James then indicated for everyone to get up while he pushed himself to his feet.
Quickly, a protective formation was formed around him and his civilian company by his guards, who covered every angle of their descend down to the lower level with unshaking vigilance.
Admittedly, for a moment, the urge to simply jump over the railing and thus be down with Losaranarja within a second was quite alluring to James. After all, he had almost made a habit of jumping and climbing around in lower gravities like this one at this point. However, keeping up appearances prevailed over convenience for the time being, and so he decided to not pull a stunt like that after such a serious request from his host.
Instead, the human procession quickly and orderly made their way down the stairs, closely followed by that of the Simmiareskis.
Seemingly bored by the previous proceedings and intrigued by what was now going on, Sky hurried a bit ahead of her group to catch up with her fellow deathworlders, quickly reaching Tuya, who was forming the anchor position in their current formation.
James gave the inquisitive deer an acknowledging nod for a second, however otherwise his eyes were curiously directed at the other out-of-place deathworlder that had interrupted their proceedings.
The Lachaxet was turning their entire head around like an owl to keep their eyes on the descending groups, and the expression on their face was serious.
As the approaching groups were only a couple of measures away anymore, Losaranarja hopped off her podium and quickly hurried into their direction on all sixes, coming to a stop barely in front of James before subtly indicating with her two lower arms that it might be best if someone would lift her up.
Not hesitating to do so, James leaned down and presented his organic arm to her, allowing her to hold on and climb up the limb while James lifted her up into the air. Then, even if slightly begrudgingly so, he took her closer to the other representative.
With the pixemerrier on James’ shoulder and the simmiareskis walking on all fours, all of the primates were more or less on the same level and could therefore stand with their faces closely together as Losaranarja began whispering to them.
“Apparently, active threats have started to reach the security of the station regarding the both of you,” she quickly said without wasting any time with preamble. “Investigations are ongoing, but apparently some of the threats were deemed substantial enough that it was determined by security that it would be irresponsible to let this conference go on as it does for any longer. We do not wish to exclude you from the proceedings, however, and therefore you will be escorted to a more secure location from where you may rejoin the conference remotely. Ristefarreaux here has his team waiting just outside and is ready to immediately escort you there.”
James furrowed his brow while Goloribal turned to whisper something to Uton behind a lifted hand, although the Captain could only shake his head with an unsure expression.
“And do we not get a say in the matter?” James then asked, crossing his arms. “Personally, I’ve not made the best experiences with being escorted or confined by station security.”
While that was true, a much larger concern of his was to be confined in close quarters with these people. And that concern wasn’t exactly for himself.
“Any other course of action would be highly inadvisable,” Ristefarreaux chimed into the conversation, his large ears twitching and turning at the room’s noise. “If you are not compliant with safety measures, we would sadly have to escort you off the station for your own safety. Nedstaniot-Station’s security will not be responsible for any harm that befalls the Ambassador of humanity.”
His gaze was firm, and his voice didn’t exactly sound like he would allow much room for argument there.
James sighed and massaged his brow with his mechanical hand, seeing as the other shoulder was currently occupied.
“Thoughts?” he then asked, turning towards his company, with a specific gaze at Shida, Andrej and Koko.
Andrej rubbed the back if his head in thought, moving some of his long hair around in the process.
“Personally, I wouldn’t mind leaving if we have to,” the Major explained honestly with a tone that told of him not liking this new situation at all. However, after adding a shrug, he ended his sentence with, “But we should probably stick around if we can.”
Koko nodded.
“As long as we tell Earth to send the biggest ship we have if we don’t show back up on that broadcast in the next ten minutes or so, we should be fine,” she suggested casually. “If they want to mess with that, it’s their own fault.”
James nodded at the assertions of his higher-ranking friends. However, then he once again turned towards Shida with an empathic look on his face.
“Treasure?” he asked softly, remembering her earlier demeanor, and how much worse those feelings could become if allowed to stir in close proximity and without a way out.
Shida looked around for a bit, studying his face at first, before turning to throw a clearly heavily held back look with an empty expression over at Uton.
“I’ll be fine,” she then said with a just as empty but definitely decided tone. “This is important.”
James wondered if it would be better to resist here, because although Shida seemed sure about it for the most part, he wasn’t exactly certain if she should. However, he didn’t want to go against her like that. If she felt that she could handle this, he should support her – while also keeping an eye open in case she had misjudged things. Assuming things wouldn’t immediately go to hell as soon as they had reached this ‘secure location’ that the local security had in mind, they would hopefully still be able to pull out and leave the station instead if things did turn too overwhelming for the feline.
Therefore, James grit his teeth before turning back to the Lachaxet.
“I’ll have to make a quick call, but we’ll come with you,” he announced, to which the vulpine firmly nodded.
“We will of course also come,” Goloribal announced not even a second after. “Lead the way.”
After James had quickly allowed Losaranarja to climb off his shoulder again, and then made a ‘prepare for anything’ call back to Earth, the now involuntarily combined human and Simmiareskis groups were ushered outside by Ristefarreaux, where, just as promised, a larger group of Lachaxet security was already waiting for them. The vulpine deathworlders’ green, stiff eyes eerily stared at the emerging primates as they walked out of the conference room.
Despite the added safety, the human soldiers still moved in their defensive formation to make completely sure that no harm would befall their ambassador. Although, at least to a degree, the Lachaxet appeared to be professionals, as they avoided taking the threatened dignitaries to the outside where they could possibly easily be picked off by a sufficiently equipped threat. Instead, they were led “underground” – meaning deeper into the hull of the station.
James was all too familiar with this sort of area in a station by now. After all he had used it to quite efficiently traverse the G.C.S. when he himself did not want to be found. In that sense, they offered a certain comfort.
It seemed that once again this path was quite effective with avoiding any sort of contact with unwanted people, and so their travel was rather undisturbed as they made their way towards whatever destination security had planned for them.
“What kind of threats are we talking about exactly?” Koko eventually asked, seemingly both out of sincere interest in an urge to prepare herself for eventualities, evenly mixed with the sheer desire to fill the tense, dead air that had formed as it seemed that neither party really wanted to talk all that much while the other was this close by.
“I’m sad to say, too many to concisely list,” Ristefarreaux replied with a resigned squeaking noise. “We will gladly brief you once we have reached our destination. For now, let’s focus on getting you there without incident.”
“Ominous,” Koko replied with an eyeroll and a grimace, the humor in her voice poorly hiding her annoyance.
“At least the big lugs will be nice bullet sponges when it comes to it,” Admir whispered in English as he leaned in towards James, inconspicuously nodding in the Simmiareskis’ direction.
James gave him the most tired hint of a smirk as an answer, making full use of the fact that his face was now freed from masking constraints.
Then, he suddenly noticed that Shida had suddenly disappeared out of his periphery. In a moment of shock, his eyes quickly shot over towards Uton, who was walking some measures in front of him and keeping his gaze turned forwards. Not there…luckily…
Beginning to search around in other places after the first skipped beats of his heart, James’ eyes then soon enough landed on the dark shape of his girlfriend again. In actuality, Shida had barely moved at all. She had just slowed her steps ever so slightly, allowing herself to fall back a measure or so, so that she now walked along with a much larger but just as dark from next to her.
“You’re loo’n good,” Sky commented as her doe-eyes looked down at the feline, her head turning in a way that stretched one of her antlers far into the air.
“And you’re still growing like a weed, I see,” Shida commented back, her voice restrained and cordial. “How are you holding up.”
Her ears twitched once, and the movement was mirrored by the many flaps of the Ketzhir’s in a wave-like motion.
“Been be’er,” she replied with a shrug, her dialect still on full display in many spoken words despite Reprig’s previous best efforts to ‘educate’ her. “But also been much worse. Food comes easy now.”
Shida nodded.
“I bet it does,” she said, still very clearly holding a lot back. “And…other stuff?” Sky released a raspberry-like sound.
“Wor’s fine. Bit bo’ing at times, tho. Dun hol’ a candle to the stuff you’re doin’, I bet,” the former thief explained with an enthusiastic nudge in Shida’s direction. “But beats the brick or ta’in’ alms.”
Shida exhaled slowly.
“Does it?” she asked in a raspy sound under her breath.
“Sure,” Sky said nonchalantly. “Cap’n’s nice ‘slong as he wants sumethin’. Wants sumethin’ most of the time. So ‘e’s not too bad.”
Shida visibly clenched her jaw and shut her eyes tightly, clearly doing her best to thoroughly prepare to reply something that was well thought out.
However, Sky was quite a bit faster.
“Don’t worry,” she said in a casual yet calming manner. “I know ‘e’s got a few screws loose. But I’m a diver. I can watch out for it. ‘Sides, somewun ‘as to keep an eye on ‘im.”
“That someone should be an armed guard in front of a door without a key,” Shida replied to that, however James only understood as much because he was watching her as she spoke and could follow the movements of her mouth, because she was speaking so quietly that it was barely in his audible range even while standing almost right next to the conversation.
“Long ‘s it pays for work, I can fill that part as well,” Sky replied jovially with a snicker. Then, her gaze slowly snuck downwards towards the holstered weapon on Shida’s hip. “Would need someone to ‘and me a gun, though.”
In a more genuinve movement of emotion, Shida gave a scoffing chuckle through her teeth.
“Keep dreaming,” she replied to the cheeky doe before her. James could already tell that this was going to be an oh so fun evening…

During the Viking Age, as raiders were routinely attacking religious houses, monastaries, and the like, would it have been even a rare practice for a monastary to employ any sort of armed guard? Reading in various places - specifically Women in the Middle Ages: The lives of real women in a vibrant age of transition, though I have seen it in passing in other places - I found that sometimes an abbacy, monastary, or convent, "as barons of the king ... summoned their own armed knights to war," so it seems the idea might have at least been in the mind of those who ran these institutions. Would they have called for any additional defense or did they just rely on their faith to defend them?

IMHO, animist practices in small groups of people become organized and formalized with names for spirits. The spirit of fire may have a group name when sharing with people who don't live near by and the spirit of fire may have a name only known to the individual. For example, there are a substantial number of people who believe that the only shamanic culture are the evenki of siberia from whom the word originated. There are other cultures with similar practices who have their word for a spirit whisperer, intervener or advocate. And small groups of people in these associations have their private words for these individuals. Animism is an experience that transcends outsider dogma. Descriptions are useful to become aware of practices that lead the individual into a deeper spirit communion. But these descriptions will never be more than descriptions without individual participation. What do your familiar spirits tell you? My spirits tell me that everything has the potential for informing voice. I learn which voice to listen to. How intent and devoted are my listening skills? Might my ignorance mislead me? Yep. Will I persist in ignorance? Not if I can help it. I offer the article as a view into how animist practices exist in a highly tech oriented society. How will we animists of the concrete prairie connected by the shimmering pixel threads of the web proceed into the twisted entangled situations of the now? https://folklorethursday.com/folklife/spirit-possession-and-shamanic-ritual-in-south-korea-business-is-booming/

I'm hoping to move to Portland in the next couple of months and build my private practice and am currently waiting for the BLSW to review my LCSW application. I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations on finding a custodian of records for when I'm ready to start building my caseload.

Many of you using reddit have stumbled with people giving obvious answers, commenting in an ironic way or just trying to make fun of your OP. In my time, those were called trolls.
But something changed.
What is happening? well, now if the OP decides to defend himself, he is the troll and the aggressive, ironic comments are just "normal users".
You cannot criticize anymore. You cannot say what you think even in a civil way.
Do this exercise: go into some brand's reddit page, and make a post about something you don't like from a product from that brand or even a software. Don't be violent, be objective. Wait a little and the first ironic, violent comments will arrive defending the brand/product.
Now, here is the thing: if for some reason you want to defend yourself with arguments from the attacks, you will be banned and treated like a troll. Why? because you will be going against the large mayority of conquered brains that support their beloved brands. A triumph of the capitalism, people now fight for products in their name. It sounds stupid?... its because it is. But as we all know, stupidity is part of the reality too.
We have these "brand knights" highjacking threads that criticize brands or products. Some are part of the staff with alternative accounts, some are real brain-washed people identifying themselves with... a brand... or a product of that brand.
I don't know when millennials/centennials started to become fanatics of objects or brands. I do know, however that they are being pushed to normalize trolling and that behaviour of fanatism, telling them to ignore people attacking them, its like a temperance test to become an "exceptionalist". Yes, they go to a point where no bullets can pass through, rationalizing with those is futile, they dropped any arguing skills. They just stay there, pretending everyone else will understand the trolls are well... the real trolls. They think they are above of all and don't argue while the real trolls keep having fun with them being so passive.
This sounded an alarm inside my brain.

What the fuck is happening?

Why are we normalizing this inaction?
Why are we letting others violently insult us?
Why cannot we speak freely anymore?
Why cannot we criticize a brand or product without having to fight with our fellow users?
Why are there people defending brands or objects so vehemently?
Aren´t americans preaching "freedom" everywhere after all?
How it works:
1- You want to criticize something you don't like from a product (again, no violence) so you post what you think.
2- Someone posts that its your problem because the product is good (or perfect, depending on the type of flatterer that came by)
3- You argue with real arguments.
4- Answers with irony or direct attacks.
5- More of them come by and start voting you down.
6- There comes a point where everyone gets confused because they are lazy to read the comment trail, so they do this: attack the guy with most downvotes.
7- Mods lock/delete/ban the thread.
The technique is simple, they start with an ironic attack and when you reply, they turn the table around and make you look like the troll putting themselves as the victim.
So, why does this happen?
My theory, I've already posted this, is that corpos, companies, bussinesses in general have gained total and complete control of the media which in turn has complete control over the minds of young people 9-30 years old in most cases. Yes, kids 9yo are growing up with this doctrine when exposed to internet.
They are not doing this without knowing very well what they are doing. They have guidelines to make this happen. They know how people behaves. This is mostly because the private data they have been gathering for years and now with AI they can easily know tendencies and behaviours of people. In other words, they know how to manipulate us.
It is really sad the state of the internet nowadays, its becoming horribly censored, and the worst part is that part of that censorship comes from the people themselves, attacking fellow people in exchange for NOTHING. Their only reward is to show themselves as "the smart guy" or showing other fellow trolls that they have the company shirt on.