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I'm a graduate student in my mid-20s, so I don't make a ton of money but I definitely have a consistent income. I only have 1 card that I regularly use at the moment (the Discover It Student Chrome) and am looking to upgrade, though I will still keep that card open for a while; my credit history is much longer, though. I will probably start traveling more for research conferences/conventions in the near future, so I strongly would prefer a Visa/Mastercard (especially one with no/limited international fees, since I might be traveling internationally during the summer). Otherwise I don't travel internationally or domestically very much, maybe once/twice a year at most, and I don't make/spend very much either, so for me, high cashback rewards + $0 (or low) yearly fee > no international fees.

• Current cards: (list cards, limits, opening date)
  • Discover it Student (Chrome), $3600 limit, opened July 2018. Only card that I use regularly; pretty much only keep it for the good grade reward.
  • BPme Visa Gas Card - no idea on the limit, I was added to this card when I was ~16 as an authorized user by my parents for gas money/various college expenses when I was still an undergraduate. Opened in 2014 or earlier (by my parents), but I don't use this now unless I have to, even though I believe I'm still on it as an authorized user, so it may influence my credit score.
  • CareCredit - no idea what the limit is (haven't used this card in years), I think ~$10,000? Opened in ~2016 for one non-insured surgery and have never used it since. My oldest personal card.
  • I believe I had a TD Bank Visa card that was converted from an (old) Ally Bank credit card, but it expired last year and I haven't renewed it/never got a new card in the mail for it, so....no idea on any information about that one.
• FICO Score: about 780
• Oldest account age: 6 years, 9 months
• Chase 5/24 status: N/A
• Income (pre-tax): currently ~$28,000 / year, will be ~$34,000 / year starting on October 1st
• Average monthly spend and categories:
  • rent + utilities: ~$900 / month [don't currently put this on my card due to a 2.75% fee for using credit cards, but I would if my cashback was 3% or higher, since this is my biggest expense]
  • dining: usually $0, ~$25/month at most
  • groceries: ~$250-300 / month
  • gas: $0 (I don't have a car at the moment), but in ~3-4 years I expect this to change)
  • travel: usually $0 for flights/hotel outside of the holidays, $0 - $100 for local travel/Zipcar rentals. May increase slightly but not significantly for the next few years.
  • other: up to ~$150 / month at Amazon, ~$50 - 200 on misc items at Target/Ikea/Joann (craft store) or concert tickets
    • I don't typically spend more than ~$250-350 per month outside of groceries and rent, but exactly what/where I spend it on is quite variable.
• Open to Business Cards: probably not, I don't really need one lol
• What's the purpose of your next card?: Mostly for high % cashback, primarily on groceries - other categories like Amazon/Paypal usage (or anything >2.75% for paying rent/utilities) would be nice, but not necessary. (I am planning on traveling a bit more in the next year domestically, but not more than 3x a year, so it shouldn't be a priority.)
• Do you have any cards you've been looking at?: A few:
  • SavorOne Rewards from Capital One - not sure if this is Visa or Mastercard, but the 3% on groceries + 8% on entertainment + no foreign transaction fees is really nice
  • Chase Freedom Unlimited for the intro 5% grocery offer + travel rewards
  • Chase Freedom Flex, for the same reasons as the Unlimited plus the flex categories
    • I also want to get in on the Chase ecosystem if possible, so that I can potentially be approved for their other cards in the future
  • Discover it Balance Transfer: not really for international use, since it isn't accepted most places outside of the U.S., but 5% on local groceries/Amazon is nice. Would replace my Chrome card for daily use if I went with this.
• Are you OK with category spending or do you want a general spending card?: Category spending for groceries/Amazon/Paypal/Zipcar is ideal, otherwise general spending is best since I don't buy things anywhere consistently. General spending is better if the cashback rewards are 3% or more for any category but I have no idea if those even exist.

I'm open to a multi-card setup as well, especially if there's anything that has a 2.75% or more cashback that would let me earn cashback on rent. Anything is better than the 1% I get most of the time right now with my Discover, and I don't spend enough monthly to really worry about limits for certain categories.

Hey, everyone! Long time reader, first time poster. To the point, I've got a good lineup currently and am accumulating decent points across both AmEx (~265K MR points) and Chase (~291K UR points), but I'm not sure which direction to go in now. I didn't get interested in leveraging credit cards until Q3 last year, but have made decent progress so far. Trying to figure out my next few moves! See below:
CREDIT PROFILE
​

• * Current credit cards you are the primary account holder of: (list cards, limits, opening date):
  • American Express Gold, $98K spending power, 26-Aug-22
  • American Express EveryDay Preferred, $35K limit, 26-Aug-22 (no longer fits in the lineup. Planning on opening another credit card to transfer this limit to, and then close after the 12-month mark, or PC to EveryDay)
  • American Express Blue Business Cash, $10K limit, 18-Jan-23 (won't be used long term. Used for a cash-flowing asset purchase to take advantage of 12-month 0% period)
  • American Express Blue Business Plus, $10K limit, 23-Feb-23
  • Chase Ink Business Unlimited, $27K limit, 28-Dec-22
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred, $21.9K, 19-Jan-23
  • Chase Freedom Flex, $23.4K, 9-Feb-23
  • Chase Ink Business Unlimited, $15K limit, 20-Mar-23
  • Capital One Quicksilver, $19K limit, 15-Dec-15 (first credit card. Use once a month to keep active)
• * FICO Scores with source: Experian 784 (5 hard pulls), Equifax 799 (2 hard pulls), TransUnion 797 (1 hard pull), all FICO 8
• * Oldest credit card account age with you as primary name on the account: 7 years, 3 months
• * Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 6 months: 2
• * Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 12 months: 4
• * Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 24 months: 4
• * Annual income $: $273,000

CATEGORIES
​

• * OK with category-specific cards?: Yes.
• * OK with rotating category cards?: Yes.
• * Estimate average monthly spend in the categories below. Only include what you can pay by credit card.
  • * Dining $: $400
  • * Groceries $: $500
  • * Gas $: $200
  • * Travel $: $200-$1,000, depending on work needs.
  • * Do you plan on using this card abroad for a significant length of time (study abroad, digital nomad, expat, extended travel)?: No.
  • * Any other categories (examples: phone/internet, insurance) or stores (example: Amazon) with significant, regular credit card spend (the more you specify, the better): $300 at Lowe's or Home Depot.
  • * Any other significant, regular credit card spend you didn't include above?: $2,000 on car parts/services related purchases
  • * Can you pay rent by credit card? If yes, list rent amount and if there's a fee for paying by credit card: I have a mortgage.

MEMBERSHIPS & SUBSCRIPTIONS (delete lines that don't apply)
​

• * Current member of Amazon Prime?: Yes.
• * Current member of Costco or Sam's Club? Yes, Costco.
• * Currently paying $13.99/month or more for Disney Bundle (Disney+ / Hulu / EPSN+) or other Hulu services? Yes.
• * Current member of Chase, US Bank or any other big bank?: Chase, Wells Fargo, Truist, and my brokerage is with Schwab.
• * Are you open to Business Cards?: Yes.

PURPOSE
​

• * What's the purpose of your next card (choose ONE)?: Travel rewards. My wife and I want to start traveling more, so we're accumulating points. We're planning an anniversary trip for September, and are kicking around Iceland, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, etc. I'm 6'6", so flying business/first class for international is preferred. I don't have a preferred airline or hotel. My local airport is ILM which serves American Airlines (66%), United (30%), and Delta (4%), in order of volume. RDU is only a 2hr drive away, which opens things up a bit more. I'm open to Marriott Bonvoy, Hyatt, Hilton, and IHG. I stay at each without issue.
• * Do you have any cards you've been looking at? Pre-approved for any AmEx card, so Platinum will be added to the list once I get through this most recent Ink SUB. Venture X, but I doubt I'd be approved given my current velocity. Other than that, I've looked at all popular hotel and airlines cards, but am having a hard time deciding which I want to use for my last 5/24 slot.

Henry checked his texts again, ignoring the soft brush of the wind against his hair. He glanced around and put his phone back into his pocket.
It wasn’t the first time he had seen a beautiful forest like this one, untouched by human hands. Hell, a month ago he had been wandering through a section of natural wetland in the Southern US. The natives of that area had prided themselves on the protection of the many species, especially some toads.
That supermarket would be finished by next year. Henry himself had signed the order, even with all the protestors.
He looked again for any messages from his boss, before checking the area. It was honestly quite pretty, the green of the trees perfectly contrasting with the cloudless blue sky. Quite a contrast from when his team had arrived at the place. There was this horrible idiot with some sort of knife-
A loud growl echoed from behind him, causing Henry to whip around. Staring him down was a full sized African Lion. Henry didn’t bother to panic. “Come here, big guy.” He whispered, holding out his hand. The huge beast stalked up to him and…laid down with a huge purr. It acted exactly like a docile house cat.
Henry rubbed the huge beast on the stomach while he pulled out his phone. “Found another one, gentlemen.” He said into the mic. There was static on the other end. “Big cat or wolf?” Henry glanced again at the very content lion. “Lion. He’s nicer than my nasty furball.”
There was laughter on the phone. “That’s all these animals, man. Except for that flaming thing near the entrance. Took like thirty guys just to get it under control.” Henry laughed with the team, and walked a short distance to a clearing, as the lion scampered after him. His team was already there, cleaning up the debris from the chainsaws. “Good work, boys!” He shouted, paying no heed to the two stumps in the center of the clearing. A man yelled his name, and threw him an apple from the remnants of the left tree. “Hungry, boss?” Henry had a good laugh and bit into the juicy fruit, just as he got a message from his partner.
The text contained the plans for the site, an expansive mega-mall and amusement complex featuring over 500 retail shops and eateries, but what Henry cared about the most was the fact that the mall would bring enough entertainment options to feed his bank account for years to come. It almost brought a tear to Henry’s eye.
“Isn’t this amazing?” He showed the happy, purring lion. “Of course your home will have to be destroyed, but I’m sure we can find a nice zoo for you.”
Another text from the boss, this time featuring the name of the future complex. It almost made Henry laugh. “Oh, that's ironic. But I guess it works.”
“Honestly, Eden Mall, the Garden of the Future is a pretty good name.”

Our pup is coming up on 10 months old, and we love her. A while back we planned a 5 night trip (4 hours away by plane) because we hadn’t taken a vacation in a while, and we had the intention of seeing if a relative could watch her or we would board her.
Due to some family circumstances and the fact that she is hitting peak adolescence and is extra hyper throughout the day, we decided to board her instead of burden our relatives. Plus we figure it might be good for her. She loves other dogs and loves to play, and I know from some friends that use a dog hotel near us plus some reviews that they’re a good reputable daycare and boarding option.
My biggest regret is not doing a boarding test run sooner to get her used to it. We dropped her off for a 2 hour trial run last week and understandably she was a bit nervous. We’re trying to get her more familiarized before we leave for our trip Friday, so we’ll be taking her to daycare a few more days this week but with some longer stays.
My wife is a wreck, but I’ve been staying strong. In my mind, worse case scenario is puppy is a little sad for a few days but ultimately will be happy to see us. But as it’s getting closer I’m getting more sad. Our pup sleeps with us every night. She loves to cuddle. I just picture her having to sleep alone for 5 nights wondering where we are and it makes me so sad. Having major trip regret, does anyone have anything that can help ease my mind?

So over a month ago, I started writing a book based off my fan clans and I got a decent way through but I stopped but after a month, I decided to return to it and finish it off! Please give me some feeback if you can and I hope you enjoy! TW FOR GORE AND ABUSE
​
Oakclan
Leader:
Frost’Star – fluffy solid white tom.
Deputy:
Flail’Stripe - long-haired golden brown tom with dark hazel eyes.
Medicine Cat:
Scorch’Mist - spiky-furred pale-grey she-cat with leaf green eyes.
Warriors:
Red’Fall- long-haired ginger-and-white tom with dark yellow eyes.
Night’Wing- solid black she-cat with ice-blue eyes. Apple’Fall - thin light-coloured tom. Shimmer’Pelt - long-haired white she-cat. Juniper’Berry - spiky-furred calico she-cat with a scar on their right ear. Wind’Whisker – battle-scarred brown tom with blue eyes. Fire’Spark - long-haired flame-coloured tom. Amber’Watcher - very small reddish she-cat with a sliced ear. Drift’Claw - long-legged colourpoint tom with darker splotches. Ember’Fang - long-haired colourpoint she-cat with deep amber eyes.
Queens:
Golden’Thorn - short-tailed golden tabby she-cat. (mother of Dawn’Kit, a golden, patterned she-kit, River’kit, a grey and blue tom- both 3 moons old)
Slate’River – solid grey tabby she-cat. (mother of Snake’Kit, a spiky-furred grey tabby tom, Briar’Kit, a grey and brown tabby she-kit - both 3 moons old)
Elders:
Quail’Whisper - three-legged calico tom with yellow eyes Vixen’Fur – visually impaired small red she-cat
Chapter 1
The oak trees swayed gently in the breeze, casting dappled shadows on the dusty camp floor. Playing with his sister, was a small kit. His spikey grey fur shone in the sunlight that shone weakly through the trees. His sister had brown and grey fur, a combination of their parents, her name was Briar’Kit. The tom-kit didn’t have a name. Despite being two moons old, his mother, Slate’River, always said that she couldn’t think of one. It was disappointing yes, not even the older cats in the clan would help. Not even his father could think of anything! Yet, Flail’Stripe never spent time with his kits anyway. He was too busy being the deputy. Sometimes at night, the little kit thought of what his name would be. Maybe… Pebble- no pebble is too soft! What about Stone or Rock. They sound cool! Yet, no matter how much he dreamed, his name would never come. Most cats, including his mother, refer to him as ‘kit’ but his sister calls him ‘brother’. It was boring and basic but there was nothing he could do.
The two kits were playing a game together, they called it ‘Light and Dark’ It was where one cat could only step in the shadow and the other could only step in the light, The aim was for the cat in the light to catch the cat in the dark. Briar’Kit was in the dark meaning that the grey kit was in the light. His sister hopped through the shadows, so he followed, leaping from light to light. Struggling to catch up, the small tom mustered up all the strength he could to take the biggest jump to the next patch of light. Leaping through the air, he almost made it to the light but he misjudged the amount of shadow between the sunlight, He came tumbling down to the ground and fell on his side.
“Ugh- brother! You ruined the game!” Briar’Kit hissed as she saw her brother lying on the floor.
“Wha- How?” The grey kit replied, staggering to his paws after the fall.
“You fell! You absolute mouse-brain! I’m going to go and play with River’Kit and Dawn’Kit, They can play games better than you!” Briar’Kit began to stalk away. “Can’t even play a game right!” She muttered under her breath.
Staring after his sister, the grey kit sighed. His sister was right, he couldn’t do anything right. Emerging from the nursery, Slate’River padded over.
“What did you do now, kit?” She growled.
“N-nothing I fell over playing a game.”
His mother scoffed, “Pathetic”
“N-no it’s not pathetic! I fell! Briar’Kit is being dramatic” He replied, flicking his tail.
“Don’t say that about your sister. Be quiet and go sit on the naughty rock” Slate`River sighed.
Hanging his head low, the kit got up and padded over to the naughty rock. He sat there a lot when his mother was mad at him. One time he sat there for a whole day because he called his sister a mouse-brain and took a swipe at her ear.
“Oh, uh- also, kit. I have name for you.” Slate’River called. The kit turned his head around to his mother, hope bussing in his chest. “One if the elders thought of it for you. Quail’Whisper said your fangs reminded him of a snake so your name is now Snake’Kit.”
“Wait, really!” Snake’Kit bounced around in delight. His name! He finally got his name! It wasn’t even a boring name like ‘Grey’Kit’ He was named after a deadly reptile.
“Yes, now shut up and sit on the rock until you have learned your lesson.”
The stillness of night swept over camp as cats started to pad into their dens to go the sleep. Snake’Kit curled up in his nest and watched his mother. She was lying with Briar’Kit, her tail wrapped around the small body. He watched in envy as he tried to get more comfy in his nest. Slate`River didn’t like it when Snake’Kit slept with her. She rarely gave him milk either. I’m not hungry anyway! He said, trying to ignore the occasional growling of his belly. He never understood why his mother didn’t care about him, it wasn’t like he got into trouble on purpose. Briar’Kit was always to bossy and dramatic. Even the slightest thing would put her into a strop.
Letting out a soft hiss of annoyance, Snake’Kit buried his nose deeper into his tail and closed his eyes trying to go to sleep. He hoped to dream about something cool tonight. Maybe about becoming leader or winning in a battle. Whatever it was, he wanted it to be cool.
“Snake’Kit, come forward” Frost’Star called from Dapple Rock.
Three moons had passed since Snake’Kit got his name and now it was time for him to become an apprentice. Briar’Paw had been given the mentor of Juniper’Berry. He hoped his mentor would be someone cool like Wind’Whisker or Frost’Star himself. Confidently, he padded forward.
“I call upon our warrior ancestors to look down on this young kit. He has reached the age of six moons old and his now ready to become an apprentice. Fire’Spark, You shall be his mentor, I hope you pass down your excellent skills and wisdom to him. From this moment on, Snake’Kit, until you receive your warrior name, you shall be known as Snake’Paw!”
Fire’Spark is okay I suppose. Snake’Paw shrugged. He walked over and touched noses with his new mentor and listened out to the clan call his name.
“Briar’Paw, Snake’Paw. Briar’Paw, Snake’Paw!”
He glanced around the clearing. He glanced at his mother. Slate’River was yowling as loud as she could. Yet, she wasn’t calling her son’s name. All he could hear was ‘Briar’Paw’ leaving her mouth. Snake’Paw scowled and glared at his mother. He wasn’t a dumb kit anymore. He didn’t have to live in fear of her. He was going to show that dumb she-cat that he was not weak. He was going to become the most feared warrior ever seen in the forest. He was going to make OakClan proud. Then he could show his fox-hearted mother and arrogant sister who is weak now. Just you wait…
Chapter 2
Fire’Spark and Juniper’Berry lead the two new apprentices out of camp. The crisp dawn air flowed through the trees. Snake’Paw stared in awe at the sheer size of the huge oak trees. It’s bigger than I thought it would be! He let out a small squeak of excitement and padded alongside his mentor. Snake’Paw didn’t want to walk near Briar’Paw. It was clear that he didn’t need her now he was an apprentice. I don’t have time for my dumb sister. I have training to do. The four cats walked further into the woods and as the trees slowly began to thin out and Snake’Paw heard the gushing water of the river.
“This is our border with BirchClan. As you can see their territory is birch trees.” Fire’Spark stated as the apprentices looked beyond the river.
“BirchClan cats have sleek curly fur and long muscular legs. They tend to swim in their lakes to hunt. Those cats are also prone to showing off. Every gathering all I hear from Dusty`Whisker is how pretty the fields are or how much prey they caught.” Juniper`Berry added, rolling his eyes at the last part. “Let’s keep going and you can ask questions on the way”
The training patrol kept quiet on their journey along the river. Snake’Paw kept behind the group. Why do we have to bother about showing the borders so much? I know our territory stops at the river so why do I have to care so much about what it looks like? Snake’Paw lashed his tail. Eventually, they made it to a pretty shore covered in cream, brown, grey and black pebbles. The gentle lapping of the lake somewhat soothed Snake’Paw. Sitting in the middle of the large mass of pebbles was a huge rock. It stood so high, it looked as though it almost touched the sky. Smaller, more flat stones surrounded it.
“Woah! Is this that Pebble Shore for the gatherings?” Brair’Paw asked. Gazing up at the rock.
“Yep, and that’s the Great Rock that the leaders sit on. The medicine cats and deputies sit on the smaller rocks below it too.” Juniper’Berry informed,
“How do the other clans get to the shore?” Snake’Paw asked, confused.
“They usually cross the rivers. Each one has some stones thrown in it by the first settlers here so we could cross the rivers to go to gatherings.” Fire’Spark replied.
“Shall we continue?” Juniper’Berry looked at Fire’Spark who nodded in reply. The sun was slowly slipping down the sky as the mentors and their apprentices continued along their tour of the borders. They slowly reached the river that bordered PineClan where the mentors explained everything to know about the strange cats that lived in the heavily dense pine forest across the border. Briar’Paw began to pad beside her brother.
“What do you want?” Snake’Paw snapped at the brown and grey she-cat.
“Oh nothing…” She replied looking around as if nothing happened.
“Sure.” He growled and began to walk along the river with PineClan. Without warning, Snake’Paw felt a shove in his side. He lost his balance and began to roll down the river bank and into the icy water below, letting out a started yowl. He began to sway around in the water, his arms flaying helplessly around, trying to get himself out of the water. The muffled yowls of his clanmates echoed around him as his head dipped underwater. I don’t want to die! StarClan no! His chest began to scream for air as the current pulled him deeper underwater and further along the river. Slowly, Snake’Paw began to loose strength, his muscles strained with each flail of a paw or kick of a leg. His vison went dark and he succumbed to the fierce waters around him.
The strong scent of herbs wafted into Snake’Paw’s nostrils. His head pounded with severe urge for water. Groggily, he moved his head, let out a soft groan and opened his eyes. He blinked a few times to get rid of the blurry vision that encased his eyes and looked around. Scorch’Mist has her back to Snake’Paw, busily working away, arranging herbs and making various remedies. The rest of the den was silent. No other cats shared the company of the medicine cat and the apprentice. Scorch’Mist turned around,
“Oh, you’re awake! Thank StarClan!” She exclaimed.
“W-what happened?” Snake’Paw mumbled
“You fell into the lake. Luckily, a PineClan patrol saw you and one of their cats dived in to save you, Poppy’Eye I think. Thankfully you survived, unconscious though, so Poppy’Eye, Fire’Spark and Juniper’Berry brought you back to camp. They thought you were dead!” Scorch’Mist explained.
“Oh… I remember now.” Briar’Paw! She pushed me into the river. That fox-hearted, nasty piece of work! Snake’Paw let out a quiet growl. “How long will it take until I can leave?”
Scorch’Mist shook her head, “Oh… not for a while yet. You still need to recover. There was more water in your lungs than sand in the hollow! You need to regain your strength.”
Ugh!
Three days had passed since Snake’Paw had woken up, he sat in his next as Scorch’Mist checked him over.
“Yep, I’d say you’re looking much better now! Off you go now, you can return back to your training.” She claimed, looking cheerfully at the young apprentice.
“Great!” Snake’Paw leaped to his paws, his tail shooting straight up into the air.
“Off you go then,” Scorch’Wind chuckled. Snake’Paw shot out of the den and bounded into the clearing, expecting the welcoming purrs of his clanmates, only to find them uninterested. Shimmer’Pelt was sharing a rabbit with Drift’Claw while Wind’Whisker and Red’Fall lay in the sun discussing something. It seemed as though no cat was bothered about Snake’Paw’s return. Spotting his mentor, he ran over to Fire’Spark who was speaking to Juniper’Berry about training techniques.
“I’m able to start training again!” He exclaimed.
“Oh that’s great Snake’Paw!” He replied and swiftly turned his head back around.
Does anybody actually care that I’m better? He lashed his tail in annoyance and stalked away to grab a mouse from the fresh-kill pile. As he bent down to grab a shrew, he noticed Briar’Paw talking to Dawn’Kit. Forgetting his light hunger, he charged towards his sister and stopped straight in front of her and snarled,
“Why did you push me into the river?”
“Whaaa? No I didn’t.” Brair’Paw replied, an aimless expression on her face.
“Yes you did you lying coward!” He hissed, pushing his face closer to his sisters.
“Woahhh- Get out of my face!” She spat back, slowly backing away. Snake’Paw took a deep breath and clamed himself.
“You won’t get away with this Brair’Paw! I’ll get my own back one day.” He warned, backing away, his eyes as sharp as knives.
Chapter 3
Snake’Paw as training in the hollow with his sister Briar’Paw. Dawn’Paw had Amber’Watcher as a mentor and River’Paw had Apple’Fall since they were now apprentices and were training with the other siblings. Two moons had passed since Snake’Paw became an apprentice. He had learned a decent amount of stuff but it wasn’t good enough. He didn’t care about checking the elders for ticks or changing their bedding. He wanted to fight. He wanted to learn all the coolest battle moves so he could beat PineClan in any battle! Right now he was preforming mock battles so that he could practice his skills all at once.
“Don’t forget your claws must be sheathed!” Fire’Spark warned. Dawn’Paw and River’Paw were working together leaving Snake’Paw to work with his sister. Great. I just love working with this brat of a sister. He rolled his eyes and faced the grey-brown tabby she-cat. Letting out a battle cry, Briar’Paw leaped into the air to land on her brother but Snake’Paw was too fast. He rolled out of the way and let his sister fall to the ground. Briar’Paw growled and Snake’Paw jumped onto his sister’s back while she was down on the floor. Pinning her to the ground he bared his teeth as the dumb she-cat’s face. Brair’Paw let out an outraged hiss and began to batter Snake’Paw’s belly with her hind paws. Her claws were unsheathed. Yowling in surprise Snake’Paw rolled jumped off his sister and spun to face her. Have it your way Briar’Paw. I guess we will have to fight tooth and claw now.
He charged back at his sister and began to swipe at her face. Blood splattered her muzzle and Snake’Paw gave a heavy blow to her face, knocking her to the ground. He wrapped his paws around her stopping her from escaping as he began to claw her pelt. Suddenly, to Snake’Paw, this no longer felt like a mock battle. All the moons of rage and hate that built up inside of him were spilling out like a flooding river. The anger of his sister nearly drowning him was let out and Snake’Paw felt like whole patrol against a weak kittypet. His gaze was blinded by anger and he felt joy in the tearing of his sisters flesh beneath his claws.
“Snake’Paw! Stop this now!” Fire’Spark’s cry jerked his focus back to his actions. He stepped away from his sister to see her lying on the floor, shaking in pain. Blood stained the sandy floor and Briar’Paw’s pelt. Wounds decorated her pelt like stripes on a tabby.
“What in Starclan’s name have you done?” Juniper’Berry cried. Dawn’Paw and River’Paw looked at him in horror. Panting, Snake’Paw looked down at his paws. They were stained with his sister’s blood, aswell as his muzzle. Apple’Fall looked at his apprentice.
“Go fetch Scorch’Mist” He yelled as he began to run over to the wounded apprentices side. Fire’Spark walked up to him, her eyes burning with rage.
“What did I tell you Snake’Paw? What did I say? I said ‘don’t forget your claws must be sheathed’ and what do you do? You attack your sister until her pelt is soaked with blood. What is wrong with you?” His mentor sounded mortified.
“I lost it. I forgot it was a mock battle and I pictured I was fighting an actual Pineclan warrior.” Snake’Paw lied. “It was all because she used her claws first. Look,” He showed Fire’Spark the wounds on his belly.
“I don’t care what damage she did to you. Maybe she actually forgot. I understand cats can get carried away in mock battles but that is not an excuse for what you have done. Words cannot describe how horrified I am. Briar’Paw might not even live. You could have killed your own sister.”
The words ‘killed your sister’ didn’t bother Snake’Paw. He wanted her dead. Maybe with her dead his mother might love him. You shouldn’t have stopped me fox-heart. That pathetic scrap of fur deserves to die! Moons of torment clawing at my pelt. Snake’Paw felt no regret with what he had done. He only felt joy. Briar’Paw deserved this. I hope she dies!
The apprentices and their mentors returned to camp, Juniper’Berry and Amber’Watcher were carrying the body of Briar’Paw on their shoulders with Scorch’Mist close by. Snake’Paw hid at the back of the group. Briar’Paw was not dead. Unfortunately she was breathing, but she was weak. There is still a chance of her dying. As they broke through the barrier of bushes the cats in the camp stared at the body of Briar’Paw. Slate’River’s ears pricked up at their return and raced over to greet her kits. As she approached, her eyes widened as she saw her daughter.
“My kit! Oh my precious kit!” She wailed and collapsed to the floor. Her mate, and Snake’Paw’s father, Flail’Stripe ran over to Slate’River’s side. He began to comfort the she-cat, murmuring soothing words to her.
“Who did this?” Slate’River growled. The others from the training session moved out the way to reveal Snake’Paw stood at the back. He met his mother’s gaze with a laid-back expression. “You. You disgusting excuse of a kit!” The grey she-cat broke away from her mate and charged at her son. Letting out a yowl of surprise, Snake’Paw fell to the ground as his mother knocked into him and pinned his to the ground.
“Watch it” He said, smoothly.
“’Watch it? You want me to watch it? How dare you. How could you. You attack your sister. You cause her to look like that. I’m surprised she has any fur left. Why would you do this? I hate you! You are a disgrace. I wish you were never born. I never wanted a tom. I always dreamed of a she-kit. Why do you think I never cared about you? Why do you think I didn’t name you until you were three moons old? It was because I never loved you. I never wanted you in the first place! You are just an inconvenience to my life!” Slate’River screeched. Her eyes glowed with malice and she bared her teeth at her son. Snake’Paw looked up at his mother with hurt and spite. You evil, horrible, wicked she-cat. How dare I call you my mother!
Flail’Stripe ran over and pulled Slate’River off Snake’Paw. Snake’Paw rose to his paws as glared at his mother.
“You don’t mean that do you?” His father asked.
“Of course I do. I don’t even want to call him my son. Ever.” Slate’Fur growled. Frost’Star ran over and looked at Snake’Paw as Slate’River and Flail’Stripe walked off.
“So, I suppose I need to hear what has happened. Come with me and talk in my den.” Frost’Star said, looking at the apprentice.
“Yes, Frost’Star” Snake’Paw replied as he followed the OakClan leader to his den. They sat down inside the follow oak tree of the leader’s nest.
“Tell me then. What happened.” The white tom said, sitting down to hear Snake’Paw’s story. Snake’Paw began to tell his story to the leader, adding a few lies here and there. In summary his story goes that he began to attack Briar’Paw like he did because she unsheathed her claws first and he thought it was a real battle.
“What you did was irresponsible. It was complete mouse-brained.” Frost’Star growled. “Every cat must deal with his consequences though. You shall be sentenced to looking after the elders for the next moon as punishment. I hope you learn your lesson. Now go and get yourself treated in the medicine den.”
Ugh the elders! Just what I need. Exile would have been better than that. Nodding to his leader. Snake’Paw walked out of the hollow tree and stalked over to the medicine den. He felt the gaze of the clan burn into his pelt but he didn’t care. Briar’Paw deserved it after all.
“Snake’Paw!” Snake’Paw looked up to see River’Paw running over. “Are you okay? Why did you attack Briar’Paw?”
The grey tom told the grey and blue she-cat his story.
“Oh right. I get that Briar’Paw can be very bossy and rude at times. I suppose she deserved it a bit.” River’Paw purred.
“Thanks. I’m glad someone isn’t gossiping about me.” Snake’Paw looked at the she-cat, a warm glow tinted his eyes. I might not have my mother but at least I have River’Paw.
Chapter 4
It had been a quarter moon since Snake’Paw attacked his sister. The grey and brown she-cat was recovering well despite her condition she was left in. Briar’Paw still wasn’t out of the medicine den yet, Scorch’Mist insisted that the she stayed in her den until every wound had healed properly. Snake’Paw was still looking after the elders, he hated listening to Vixen’Fur’s stories on the days when she fought in forgotten battles from moons ago. He could never understand how Quail’Whiper coped with it. The three-legged tom sat and listened to the old she-cat’s half-true tales with pure interest. Quail’Whisper wasn’t very old but he had to retire to the elders den earlier than most warriors. The calico tom never seemed to mind it, he got to serve his clan and that was what mattered.
“At the end of the day, at least I have my warrior name.” He would always say. Snake’Paw wondered why he didn’t become a medicine cat. It would make sense because then he could still server his clan. Scorch’Mist was his sister meaning that the two cats would have been medicine-cat apprentices at the same time, making it awkward for the former medicine cat, Sage’Stem. Still, Quail’Whisper could always change paths tomorrow if he wanted to. Waste of fresh-kill that lazy tom. He just sits there doing nothing all day!
Snake’Paw scowled. Since the fight at the training hollow, Slate’River stayed away fom Snake’Paw like he had greencough. She wouldn’t even dare to look at him. Flail’Stripe wasn’t any better either. He was too busy being the deputy to care. Occasionally he would glance at his son but never say ‘hi’ to him. It didn’t bother Snake’Paw. It never even felt like I had a father half of the time so what difference did it make. Other cats in the clan had gotten over his fight too. They started to be polite to him now and the gossip had died down as though everything had been forgotten and forgiven. It was surprising how fast it took for the clan to tolerate him again. Snake’Paw though it would take moons. River’Paw was kind to him too. The grey and blue she-cat would always walk but and stop to say hello. She even moved her nest next to his in the apprentices den. River’Paw was a fun cat. She was sympathetic and always listened to Snake’Paw and stood up for him when other cats were mad at him.
Taking a large stretch, Snake’Paw got up and walked out of the elders den to gather some moss. He walked over to a fallen tree at the edge of the camp and began to claw off a decent pile of it. Just as he was about to pick it up, he looked up towards the top of the hollow, into the trees ahead. Snake’Paw wasn’t allowed to leave camp until Frost’Star said so. His paws itched with the urge to run through the trees once more, leaping over bushes, climbing trees and catching mice that hid in the undergrowth. He shook his head and took himself back off to the elder’s den
“One second and your nest will be ready.” Snake’Paw hissed as Vixen’Fur complained about having to get up out of her nest. Making it as comfy as possible before she could complain, again, Snake’Paw stepped back.
“Is it ready then?” The red elder asked.
“Yes.” Snake’Paw sighed. Impatient furball!
“Snake’Paw?” Quail’Whisper called from his nest. “I think I have a tick of my back somewhere can you get rid of it please?”
“Let me check.” The grey tom padded over to the calico elder and scanned his back. He saw a huge black bead on his back. “I see it. I’ll be back in a second.”
Snake’Paw walked over to the medicine den. The tangy scent of herbs washed over his tongue as he entered the hollowed out cave, surrounded by small bushes. In a nest of the far right was Briar’Paw. She lay with her chin resting on her paws, eyes closed, her chest slowly rising up and down.
“Hi Snake’Paw, what can I do for you?” Scorch’Mist called from the other side of the den.
“Uh- hi. I was wondering if you had some mouse bile? Quail’Whisper has a huge tick on his back.”
“Oh sure I do. I’ll be back in a second.” The pale-grey she-cat padded into the herb storage. Looking around, Snake’Paw saw that Briar’Paw was awake and glaring at him. This was their first encounter since the fight.
“How are your wounds?” He asked slyly.
“None of your business flea-pelt.” She growled back.
“Someone is a little angry this morning.” Snake’Paw said, rolling his eyes as he turned his head back around.
“Don’t push it.” Briar’Paw hissed.
“Ha- just remember who’s the weak one recovering in the medicine den. I was the one who put you there and I can do it again.” Snake’Paw sneered.
Briar’Paw let out a low growl as though she was about to spring at him when Scorch’Mist returned with a stick, dripping with moss soaked in mouse-bile.
“You two again…” She rolled her eyes. “This shall do the trick. Tell Quail’Whisper I’ll visit him later, please”
Snake’Paw nodded and he took the stick from the medicine cat. As he left the den, he glared once more at Briar’Paw and stepped into the clearing. He walked into the dug-out pit of the elders den, sheltered by some bushes, and began to get rid of the tick on Quail’Whisper’s back.
“All done for you.” He said, though his words were muffled by the stick in his mouth.
“Thanks Snake’Paw!” The three-legged tom cried as Snake’Paw went to go wash his paws in a small stream that ran through the edge of the camp. I hate this job. He thought, rolling his eyes. Only three quarters of a moon to go!
“Snake’Paw, come and see me in my den please, when you can of course!” Frost’Star called from the other side of the camp while Snake’Paw bit into a mouse. I wonder what this is going to be about. He wondered. Finishing his mouse, he walked over to the hollow tree trunk.
“What is it Frost’Star?” He asked as he stepped into the den.
“You have worked well Snake’Paw. I can see you have redeemed yourself this past moon, I’m sure our elders enjoyed this extra care for them. Therefore, you can now return back to regular apprentice duties. I have spoken to Fire’Spark and he also agreed that you are ready.” Frost’Star gazed at Snake’Paw as his words echoed around his mind. Back to normal apprentice duties! He let out a small squeal of delight as though he was still a kit.
“You begin training tomorrow. Be careful this time” He warned as Snake’Paw walked out of Frost’Star’s den and into the clearing.
“You look cheerful!” River’Paw called inviting him to sit next to her, not far from the fresh-kill pile. Racing over he began to tell the wonderful news. “That’s great Snake’Paw! We can start training together again!”
As the two apprentices began to talk Briar’Paw walked by with Dawn’Paw close by her side gossiping. The brown and grey she-cat had fully healed now and was back on apprentice duties like normal, although her scars still showed, cutting through her pelt like when a cats eyes were slits. The friends walked over to the fresh-kill pile to grab some prey. Briar’Paw must have been listening in to their conversation as when she heard the news, her eyes widened with shock. Satisfaction rippled through Snake’Paw like the waves on the lake. She is scared of me after all then!
Chapter 5
Snake’Paw settled into his nest as a chilling night breeze swirled across the camp. He gently stretched out, laying his chin on his paws. Taking one last glare at Briar’Paw, he closed his eyes.
Snake’Paw opened his eyes and found himself in a dimly lit clearing. Dark, rotting trees surrounded him with strangely glowing fungi drooping from their branches. An ominous mist swirled across the forest floor, covering the rotting corpses of dead cats. Snake’Paw looked up, he saw how the trees towered so high, blocking out any trace of moonlight. A twig snapped behind him. Snake’Paw leaped to his paws and stared into the trees, his tail bushed out to twice its size.
“Easy kid.” A shadow emerged from between some dead bushes. The light from the fungi revealed a golden she-cat with darker flecks and her eyes were a shade of green that shone like starlight. She had a long scar across her face and muzzle. Her body was decorated with wounds but not as significant as the deadly wound on her neck.
“Who are you?” Snake’Paw growled, ignoring the strange she-cat’s words.
“My name is Morning’Shine,” she dipped her head in greeting.
“Morning’Shine…” He echoed her words. “Oh yeah, I used to hear nursery stories about you. What am I doing here though, with you?”
The golden she-cat chuckled, “Ah, I suppose they weren’t so positive stories about me. Well you see, Snake’Paw, not every cat goes to StarClan. Some end up here, The Place of No Stars.”
“But that doesn’t explain what I’m doing here!” Snake’Paw pressed Morning’Shine for an answer.
“Oh yeah, well I see great potential in you. You have been neglected and unloved by those around you. You have an ocean of rage bubbling inside of you, ready to burst. It makes you a good fighter, but I can make you a great fighter. A powerful, noble tom with the ability to defeat a whole patrol of BirchClan warriors!” The golden she-cat cried out the words of promised victories that echoed around Snake’Paw’s mind. All he ever wanted was to be loved by his peers and feared by his enemies.
“So, what do you think? Are you willing to train with me and my adopted clanmates here in the Dark Forest?” Morning’Shine questioned, her green gaze stabbing into his fur like tiny claws.
“Uhm, I’m not sure…” Snale’Paw closed his eyes. The offer was tempting. All his wishes granted at once by the simple nod of a head. But the Dark Forest is full of cats who are evil and cruel. Morning’Shine was a wicked she-cat who killed others for being half-clan. Do I really want to be training alongside her? Snake’Paw hissed at himself yet no sound crept from him. What are you thinking mosue-brain! This is it, you need this! He looked at Morning’Shine, she was gently grooming her grotesque, matted fur, Snake’Paw took a deep breath and replied, “Yes.”
“Excellent! You made the right choice. This won’t be easy, you won’t be strong within the flick of a tail. This could take long, gruelling moons.” Morning’Shine purred, looking up at the young apprentice.
“I’m prepared for that, don’t worry.” Snake’Paw puffed out his chest, confidently.
“Are you?” The golden she-cat looked at Snake’Paw, her eyes were glowing with challenge. “There’s one more thing, you have to prove yourself worthy of my time. By showing your strength.”
“How?”
“You will see in a second.” Morning’Shine turned around and looked into the shadows once more. “Come out from your hiding!” She hissed. A familiar grey and brown pelt stepped into the clearing. The cats body was wounded and bloody, and their eyes were dull and weak.
“Briar’Paw?” Snake’Paw gasped. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh Snake’Paw! Thank StarClan you’re here! Quick, we have to get out of here fast! Let’s go, come on!” Briar’Paw began to run over to the grey tom but Morning’Shine pounced on her, pinning her down.
“What did we agree with, huh?” She snarled, her slaver dripping onto Briar’Paws muzzle. “We weren’t going to run away and we were going to stay silent.”
“Y-yes Morning’Shine!” The brown and grey she-cat whimpered, shrivelling into her fur.
“Good,” The golden she-cat jumped off Brair’Paw and the apprentice scrambled to her paws. “Snake’Paw, to prove yourself worthy of becoming my apprentice, I want you to kill Brair’Paw.”
“What?” Snake’Paw gasped.
“You heard me. Kill her. You don’t like her, correct? Then do yourself a favour and get rid of this flea ridden mange-pelt.” Morning’Shine pushed the apprentice towards him.
Do I want to do this? Briar’Paw didn’t ask for this- wait yes she did! She nearly drowned me! And she is a spoiled brat! It would break Slate’River’s heart to see her dead too! It’s just one small price to pay for all the glory I could want. Snake’Paw nodded “Okay.”
“What- No!” Brair’Paw yowled but Snake’Paw dived for her and knocked her down, pinning her to the floor. She feebly tried to push him off but her former wounds weakened her and she couldn’t get rid of Snake’Paw’s great weight. “Brother! You don’t have to do this! We are siblings, right? Look at the times we used to play Light and Dark together, or the time we both became apprentices?” Briar’Paw cried.
“You liar! You don’t like me, those memories of us ‘playing’ together is a load of mouse-dung! You are just an entitled brat who flourishes on the suffering of her brother! You deserve this!” Snake’Paw growled, his claws dug into Briar’Paw’s shoulders. The she-cat’s eyes were full of pleading as she gazed at her brother.
“You don’t have to do this!” She repeated in a feeble yowl. Snake’Paw ignored her and dived his head towards her neck, preforming the killing bite. Briar’Paw yowled and her body twisted and convulsed in pain underneath Snake’Paw as he stepped off her. He stared at her body as it let out a final shudder and fell still. Blood splattered and poured onto the muddy floor and her body, staining her sleek fur.
“Good job Snake’Paw” Morning’Shine let out and approving nod and drew her tail over Snake’Paw’s shoulder. “I shall see you tomorrow night for our first training session.” The forest and Briar’Paw’s body began to face and swirl into a black void and Snake’Paw was back in his nest. He opened his eyes as dawn-light filtered through the entrance to the den. Snake’Paw looked around. He noticed that Briar’Paw was missing out of her nest. At first, he was confused why until he remembered that he had killed her. Where is her body? That’s odd. Wait, I need to look shocked to see her gone! Snake’Paw let out a fake startled yowl and ran into the clearing. Few cats were awake and looked at him confused.
“Briar’Paw! She is missing!” He cried.

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I have read about this story and thought it might suit the sub. The story is interesting, but I have never heard of it before finding an article about Lillian Alling on Wikipedia. I have jumped into the rabbit hole and did some research. So, let me tell you about a woman, who decided to go from the US to Siberia by foot and travelled successfully for years, before vanishing into thin air.
Some of the sources I have used:
Canada's History
Mental Floss
A Woman Who Walked to Russia by Cassandra Pybus
Pioneer Days in British Columbia Vol 2 by Art Downs, found on Google Books
UTNE Reader
The historical background:
Not much is known about Lillian Alling, and some reports made without the knowledge of European history make her background look even more confusing. According to what Alling herself claimed, she was born in 1896 in Poland - most sources, however, state that she was Russian. To clear up the confusion, I need to explain that from 1795 to 1918 the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned, its parts claimed by Russia, Austria and Prussia. Therefore, we can assume Lillian was born in the area of Poland that was governed by Russia. However, when asked where was the homeland she was headed to, she answered "Siberia". This would not make sense, as Siberia is far from Poland - unless her family was among those who were exiled to Siberia as a "punishment" (often due to their opposition to Russian governance or even things like secretly teaching Polish language). Lillian Alling might have been born in Poland, and grew up somewhere in Siberia - but that is just my assumption based on political circumstances of the era and of what she herself claimed.
According to an unconfirmed 1949 article, Alling was sent to the United States in the 1920s by her family to see if they might find safe refuge there following the Russian Revolution.
The journey:
Lillian arrived to New York around 1925 and, like many Eastern European immigrants, worked low-level jobs. She did speak some English and often visited the local library.
Apparently, she did not like her life in the US and wanted to go back to her homeland - sadly, she was unable to save enough money for a steamer ship ticket back to Europe. It did not stop her, though. One day in the late 1926 or early 1927, she mapped out a route across North America, then took her modest belongings, her dog, and just started walking. The trek was supposed to be over 5000 miles (over 8000 kilometres).
The mysterious hiker
Over the next few years, she has been spotted in many different places - first, she walked to Buffalo and then continued her journey to Canada, most likely through Chicago and Minneapolis. Around early 1927, she crossed the border into British Columbia. By September 10, 1927, records show that she has arrived to the area of Hazelton, BC, having walked about 30 miles (48 kilometres) per day.
People that met her thought she might have been an eccentric artist, or a criminal. While at first she was reported to be dressed in a regular brown skirt and shirt, wearing stout walking boots, later on her trek she was apparently wearing two mismatched men's shoes and a small bag or a pocketbook. She also had a wrench, which she claimed was a "protection from men".
By mid-1927, she was spotted on the Yukon Telegraph Trail. She sometimes came across cabins occupied by the men responsible for maintaining the telegraph lines. One of them remembered her to be thin, likely malnourished, dressed in torn clothing. She collapsed, exhausted from her walk, and a telegraph worker called the authorities, concerned about her health. In effect, on September 21 1927 Lillian was arrested for vagrancy; she spent two months at the Oakhalla Prison Farm in Vancouver, with the local constables and judges apparently more concerned about her safety than the vagrancy charges. She was also offered shelter and food there - however, she was not interested in staying in the area. She stayed in Vancouver until spring of 1928 to work and save some money for her further hike. The judge that sentenced her earlier asked her to check in with the telegraph linesmen occasionally, so they would know she was safe. Lillian did so, reportedly staying in the linesmen's shelters at times, and was even presented a dog by one of the workers she met.
By the summer of 1928, she was well-known in the area, and local newspapers reported on her next steps as soon as she appeared in subsequent cities. In Dawson City she was offered a ride and help, but she declined. She acquired a work as a domestic servant at St. Paul's, a church-run hostel for orphaned and mixed-race youngsters, though. In 2002, a 95-year-old nun that worked there with her said that "she was always stealing sugar from the pantry" and that Lillian was a "troubled soul". Once the weather grew warmer, she left to paddle - or sail, as some sources say - to Nome), Alaska.
The plan was to pay the Alaskan Natives to take her through the Bering Strait and into Siberia, although no sources say whether she got their help or not. In 1929, a Yupik man claimed that he saw a white woman with a two-wheeled cart (supposedly, with a stuffed taxidermied dog on it) on a beach near Wales, an Alaskan village on the Bering Strait. This sighting could not be confirmed, though.
Then, the trail went cold. For decades, no one has heard from or about Lillian Alling.
In 1975, a retired Mountie wrote to a local newspaper that he remembered her arriving to Hazelton from North Dakota in pursue of her Polish boyfriend, who had promised to marry her but disappeared before the ceremony. This story could not be confirmed. The same year, an author by the name of Francis Dickie republished his article about Alling's journey - this time with a new postscript, apparently based on a letter he received from a reader. The letter claimed that in fall of 1930, a group of three Inuit men and a white woman in dirty, torn clothing have been interrogated by the local officials in the town of Provideniya in Russia, just on the shore of the Bering Strait. The woman apparently claimed to be an "outsider in America" that "walked a great distance". It is not known if the woman was Lillian Alling, nor if the interrogation really took place.
The end:
Not much else is known about her journey. Did she finally reach her destination, or did she die on her way there? Or maybe she finally resigned and settled down somewhere else? For obvious reasons, if she reached Russia, it would be difficult for her to contact anyone in the US - besides, she was not close to anyone there. No one has heard from her ever again, and her story slowly faded into oblivion.
The questions:
- Did Lillian Alling reach Siberia? If so, why are there no confirmed sightings of her after 1929 and no information about her ever being in Russia?
- Were the reports made by the Yupik man and the retired Mountie true? Why were there no other reported sightings of her in 1929 or 1930, when her hike was already a known, sensational story in the area?
- If the interrogation did take place, could Lillian have been arrested? The political situation in Russia was very unstable at the time, and those who have migrated to the US weren't necessarily perceived positively by the communist officials.
- Lillian had successfully trekked for 5000 miles, indicating that she was a good hiker who could survive in the wilderness. Could she have died somewhere in the Bering Strait in the end? Did she succumb to the weather, or did she meet with some foul play?
- Did she arrive in USSR safely, only to maybe disappear, like many did during the Stalinist regime? Or did she reach her homeland safely and settled down there?
- Did she succumb to the elements? No body matching her description was ever found, but it was the far northern wilderness, after all. She could have drowned while trying to cross the Bering Strait, but there were also no reports of any boat trying to cross it.
Please share your opinions and theories! It seems like the most probable is, of course, Lillian either drowning, freezing or starving, but what if what the Yupik man and the Mountie said was true?

Bank Accounts:
Chime Receive $100 when you open a Chime account and make a direct deposit of $200 or more. You can use Venmo or cash app for the direct deposit requirement.
Chase Receive $200 when you open a Chase account and make direct deposits totally $500.
SoFi Receive $25 when you open a SoFi account and make a deposit of $10.
Albert Receive $100 when you open a Albert account and make a direct deposit of $500 every 30 days for 90 days, and spend $200 using your debit card.
Revolut Receive $40 when you open a Revolut account and make three separate transactions of $5 or more with your virtual or physical card. (Once completed I will send you $40)
Varo Receive $30 when you open a Varo account and spend $20 within 30 days of opening the account.
Strike Receive $5 when you open a Strike account and deposit $10.
Yotta Receive 500 bonus tickets when you open a Yotta account and deposit $25. Each ticket enters you for a chance to win up to $1,000,000
Stocks:
M1 Finance Receive $50 when you open an account and deposit $100.
Public Receive a free stock worth $1 - $300 when you open an account and deposit $20.
Webull Receive two free stocks when you open an account. Receive four to 10 free stocks when you deposit $100.
Groundfloor Receive $20 when you open an account and make a $10 deposit.
Credit Cards:
Capital One Receive $200 when you open an account and spend $500 within the first 3 months.
Hilton Honors Receive 80,000 Hilton points when you open an account and spend $1,000 in the first 3 months. Worth about 2 free nights at a hotel or $200 for Amazon purchases.
PM me for any details you’d like to know. These offers are a great way to make some extra cash. I have additional offers if interested as well.

Bank Accounts:
Chime Receive $100 when you open a Chime account and make a direct deposit of $200 or more. You can use Venmo or cash app for the direct deposit requirement.
Chase Receive $200 when you open a Chase account and make direct deposits totally $500.
SoFi Receive $25 when you open a SoFi account and make a deposit of $10.
Albert Receive $100 when you open a Albert account and make a direct deposit of $500 every 30 days for 90 days, and spend $200 using your debit card.
Revolut Receive $40 when you open a Revolut account and make three separate transactions of $5 or more with your virtual or physical card. (Once completed I will send you $40)
Varo Receive $30 when you open a Varo account and spend $20 within 30 days of opening the account.
Strike Receive $5 when you open a Strike account and deposit $10.
Yotta Receive 500 bonus tickets when you open a Yotta account and deposit $25. Each ticket enters you for a chance to win up to $1,000,000
Stocks:
M1 Finance Receive $50 when you open an account and deposit $100.
Public Receive a free stock worth $1 - $300 when you open an account and deposit $20.
Webull Receive two free stocks when you open an account. Receive four to 10 free stocks when you deposit $100.
Groundfloor Receive $20 when you open an account and make a $10 deposit.
Credit Cards:
Capital One Receive $200 when you open an account and spend $500 within the first 3 months.
Hilton Honors Receive 80,000 Hilton points when you open an account and spend $1,000 in the first 3 months. Worth about 2 free nights at a hotel or $200 for Amazon purchases.
PM me for any details you’d like to know. These offers are a great way to make some extra cash. I have additional offers if interested as well.

Bank Accounts:
Chime Receive $100 when you open a Chime account and make a direct deposit of $200 or more. You can use Venmo or cash app for the direct deposit requirement.
Chase Receive $200 when you open a Chase account and make direct deposits totally $500.
SoFi Receive $25 when you open a SoFi account and make a deposit of $10.
Albert Receive $100 when you open a Albert account and make a direct deposit of $500 every 30 days for 90 days, and spend $200 using your debit card.
Revolut Receive $40 when you open a Revolut account and make three separate transactions of $5 or more with your virtual or physical card. (Once completed I will send you $40)
Varo Receive $30 when you open a Varo account and spend $20 within 30 days of opening the account.
Strike Receive $5 when you open a Strike account and deposit $10.
Yotta Receive 500 bonus tickets when you open a Yotta account and deposit $25. Each ticket enters you for a chance to win up to $1,000,000
Stocks:
M1 Finance Receive $50 when you open an account and deposit $100.
Public Receive a free stock worth $1 - $300 when you open an account and deposit $20.
Webull Receive two free stocks when you open an account. Receive four to 10 free stocks when you deposit $100.
Groundfloor Receive $20 when you open an account and make a $10 deposit.
Credit Cards:
Capital One Receive $200 when you open an account and spend $500 within the first 3 months.
Hilton Honors Receive 80,000 Hilton points when you open an account and spend $1,000 in the first 3 months. Worth about 2 free nights at a hotel or $200 for Amazon purchases.
PM me for any details you’d like to know. These offers are a great way to make some extra cash. I have additional offers if interested as well.

Bank Accounts:
Chime Receive $100 when you open a Chime account and make a direct deposit of $200 or more. You can use Venmo or cash app for the direct deposit requirement.
Chase Receive $200 when you open a Chase account and make direct deposits totally $500.
SoFi Receive $25 when you open a SoFi account and make a deposit of $10.
Albert Receive $100 when you open a Albert account and make a direct deposit of $500 every 30 days for 90 days, and spend $200 using your debit card.
Revolut Receive $40 when you open a Revolut account and make three separate transactions of $5 or more with your virtual or physical card. (Once completed I will send you $40)
Varo Receive $30 when you open a Varo account and spend $20 within 30 days of opening the account.
Strike Receive $5 when you open a Strike account and deposit $10.
Yotta Receive 500 bonus tickets when you open a Yotta account and deposit $25. Each ticket enters you for a chance to win up to $1,000,000
Stocks:
M1 Finance Receive $50 when you open an account and deposit $100.
Public Receive a free stock worth $1 - $300 when you open an account and deposit $20.
Webull Receive two free stocks when you open an account. Receive four to 10 free stocks when you deposit $100.
Groundfloor Receive $20 when you open an account and make a $10 deposit.
Credit Cards:
Capital One Receive $200 when you open an account and spend $500 within the first 3 months.
Hilton Honors Receive 80,000 Hilton points when you open an account and spend $1,000 in the first 3 months. Worth about 2 free nights at a hotel or $200 for Amazon purchases.
PM me for any details you’d like to know. These offers are a great way to make some extra cash. I have additional offers if interested as well.

Bank Accounts:
Chime Receive $100 when you open a Chime account and make a direct deposit of $200 or more. You can use Venmo or cash app for the direct deposit requirement.
Chase Receive $200 when you open a Chase account and make direct deposits totally $500.
SoFi Receive $25 when you open a SoFi account and make a deposit of $10.
Albert Receive $100 when you open a Albert account and make a direct deposit of $500 every 30 days for 90 days, and spend $200 using your debit card.
Revolut Receive $40 when you open a Revolut account and make three separate transactions of $5 or more with your virtual or physical card. (Once completed I will send you $40)
Varo Receive $30 when you open a Varo account and spend $20 within 30 days of opening the account.
Strike Receive $5 when you open a Strike account and deposit $10.
Yotta Receive 500 bonus tickets when you open a Yotta account and deposit $25. Each ticket enters you for a chance to win up to $1,000,000
Stocks:
M1 Finance Receive $50 when you open an account and deposit $100.
Public Receive a free stock worth $1 - $300 when you open an account and deposit $20.
Webull Receive two free stocks when you open an account. Receive four to 10 free stocks when you deposit $100.
Groundfloor Receive $20 when you open an account and make a $10 deposit.
Credit Cards:
Capital One Receive $200 when you open an account and spend $500 within the first 3 months.
Hilton Honors Receive 80,000 Hilton points when you open an account and spend $1,000 in the first 3 months. Worth about 2 free nights at a hotel or $200 for Amazon purchases.
PM me for any details you’d like to know. These offers are a great way to make some extra cash. I have additional offers if interested as well.

Bank Accounts:
Chime Receive $100 when you open a Chime account and make a direct deposit of $200 or more. You can use Venmo or cash app for the direct deposit requirement.
Chase Receive $200 when you open a Chase account and make direct deposits totally $500.
SoFi Receive $25 when you open a SoFi account and make a deposit of $10.
Albert Receive $100 when you open a Albert account and make a direct deposit of $500 every 30 days for 90 days, and spend $200 using your debit card.
Revolut Receive $40 when you open a Revolut account and make three separate transactions of $5 or more with your virtual or physical card. (Once completed I will send you $40)
Varo Receive $30 when you open a Varo account and spend $20 within 30 days of opening the account.
Strike Receive $5 when you open a Strike account and deposit $10.
Yotta Receive 500 bonus tickets when you open a Yotta account and deposit $25. Each ticket enters you for a chance to win up to $1,000,000
Stocks:
M1 Finance Receive $50 when you open an account and deposit $100.
Public Receive a free stock worth $1 - $300 when you open an account and deposit $20.
Webull Receive two free stocks when you open an account. Receive four to 10 free stocks when you deposit $100.
Groundfloor Receive $20 when you open an account and make a $10 deposit.
Credit Cards:
Capital One Receive $200 when you open an account and spend $500 within the first 3 months.
Hilton Honors Receive 80,000 Hilton points when you open an account and spend $1,000 in the first 3 months. Worth about 2 free nights at a hotel or $200 for Amazon purchases.
PM me for any details you’d like to know. These offers are a great way to make some extra cash. I have additional offers if interested as well.

Hey travelers!
We’re going to Japan for 2 weeks in May and seeing if anyone with more experience could give us a quick itinerary check! Want to make sure I’m not over-filling or under-filling any days or trying anything impossible :)
This is a simplified version (our longer one has all of the transit details between places, opening hours, etc).
I’m a fashion and jazz person, boyfriend’s a history, beer and baseball person, but we’re both biiiiiig food people, so I would love any recommendations for restaurants along the way!
​
Tuesday: Tokyo - Arrive

• Flight
• Dinner near hotel in Shinjuku

Wednesday: Tokyo - Harajuku & Shibuya

• Meiji Shrine & Yoyogi Park
• Explore Harajuku: Takeshita Street, Omotesando Street, various vintage clothing & knick-knack stores for my boyfriend to suffer through
• Travel to Shibuya: Shibuya Scramble, Center Gai, Tokyu Plaza, Shibuya 109, more shopping
• Dinner in Shibuya (Shinjuku Kappo Nakajima)
• Back to Shinjuku for Shinjuku Pit Inn, a jazz bar near our hotel

Thursday: Tokyo - Shinjuku

• Shinjuku Gyoen Garden
• Shinjuku Shopping (Isetan, Takashimaya, RAGTAG)
• Kabukicho Entertainment District
• Samurai Museum
• Food tour of Golden Gai (incl. dinner) for 3 hours

Friday: Hakone

• Travel to Hakone, drop luggage at hotel
• Lake Ashi, Hakone Shrine
• Pirate ship to Togendai Port
• Ropeway to Owakudani for lunch
• Ropeway to Sounzan, cablecar to Hakone Open Air Museum
• Hotel for dinner (included)
• Onsen tiiiiiiiime

Saturday: Kyoto - Philosopher’s Path, Pontocho, Gion

• Train from Hakone to Kyoto, drop bags at hotel, lunch
• Bus to Silver Pavilion
• Philosopher’s Walk: Honen-In, Otayo-jinja, Eikan-do, Nanzen-ji Temple
• If time: Kyoto Handicraft Center
• Food tour of Gion (incl. dinner) for 3 hours

Sunday: Kyoto - Arashiyama & Golden Pavilion

• Train to Arashiyama Bamboo Forest
• Walk to Tenryu-ji Temple
• Walk to Iwatayama Monkey Park
• Taxi to Golden Pavilion
• Afternoon tea ceremony - 90 mins
• Dinner near hotel (Kobe Beef Steak Mouriya Gion)

Monday: Kyoto - Higashiyama

• Early train to Fushimi Inari
• We’re going to be here during the Aoi Matsuri historical parade! Starts at Imperial Palace
• Train to Nishiki Market after
• Looking for dinner or a cooking class for this night

Tuesday: Nara

• Train to Nara
• Kofuku-ji Temple, Isuien Garden, Todai-ji Temple
• Nara Deer Park, Kasuga-Taisha, Higashimuki Shopping Street and Mochiidone Shopping Arcade
• Lunch
• Train back to Kyoto for dinner (still exploring options)
• Hello Dolly jazz bar

Wednesday: Osaka

• Train from Kyoto to Osaka
• Osaka Castle
• Train to Shinsekai for lunch
• Tenshiba, Tennoji Park, Keitakuen Garden
• Train to Minami/Dotonbori Areas
• Explore area: Ebisubashi-suhi, Shinsaibashi-suji, America Mura, Hozen-ji Temple
• Train to Minami/Dotonbori
• Dinner in Dotonbori Area (Zauo Fishing Restaurant seems cheesy but fun)
• Return to Kyoto

Thursday: Koyasan

• Train, subway, cable car, etc to Koyasan Temple (approx 3-4 hrs)
• Day is set by the temple, thank goodness: meditation class, dinner, cemetery tour, ryokans

Friday: Kanazawa

• Rituals and religious services at temple in morning
• Cable car, subway, train and a lot more to Kanazawa (approx 2-3 hrs)
• Arrive in Kanazawa by afternoon
• Explore Higashi Chaya and Kazuemachi districts
• Dinner near hotel

Saturday: Kanazawa

• Watch boyfriend lose his mind over Nagamachi Samurai District, Nomura-ke Samurai Residence, Myoryuji Temple
• Walk/cab to Omicho Market for lunch
• Kenroku-en Garden, Kanazawa Castle, Castle Park
• If time, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art
• Dinner (still looking for options)
• Oriental Brewing Higashiyama Brew Pub

Sunday: Tokyo - Ueno Park, Asakusa

• Train to Tokyo (2-3 hrs) then hotel in Asakusa
• Lunch near hotel
• Train to Tokyo Dome
• 2 PM Tokyo Giants Baseball Game (tickets purchased!)
• Ueno Gardens, Toshogu Shrine
• Back to hotel, find dinner nearby
• Asahi Brewery

Monday: Tokyo - Tsukiji, Akihabara, Ginza

• Early morning tour of Tsukiji Fish Market
• Train to Imperial Palace East Gardens, Edo Castle Ruins, Taira no Masakado’s grave
• Train to Akihabara, explore Electric Avenue, get lunch
• Dinner near Asakusa (Asakusa Imahan)

Tuesday: Travel

• Sleep for 2 weeks

​
Thank you!!

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/magazine/how-much-can-restitution-help-victims-of-child-pornography.html
When Nicole was a child, her father took pornographic pictures of her that still circulate on the internet.
Victims of child pornography can now collect damages directly from those convicted of possessing their images. But how much can restitution help them repair their lives?
By Emily Bazelon Jan. 24, 2013
The detective spread out the photographs on the kitchen table, in front of Nicole, on a December morning in 2006. She was 17, but in the pictures, she saw the face of her 10-year-old self, a half-grown girl wearing make-up. The bodies in the images were broken up by pixelation, but Nicole could see the outline of her father, forcing himself on her. Her mother, sitting next to her, burst into sobs.
The detective spoke gently, but he had brutal news: the pictures had been downloaded onto thousands of computers via file-sharing services around the world. They were among the most widely circulated child pornography on the Internet. Also online were video clips, similarly notorious, in which Nicole spoke words her father had scripted for her, sometimes at the behest of other men. For years, investigators in the United States, Canada and Europe had been trying to identify the girl in the images.
Nicole's parents split up when she was a toddler, and she grew up living with her mother and stepfather and visiting her father, a former policeman, every other weekend at his apartment in a suburban town in the Pacific Northwest. He started showing her child pornography when she was about 9, telling her that it was normal for fathers and daughters to "play games" like in the pictures. Soon after, he started forcing her to perform oral sex and raping her, dressing her in tight clothes and sometimes binding her with ropes. When she turned 12, she told him to stop, but he used threats and intimidation to continue the abuse for about a year. He said that if she told anyone what he'd done, everyone would hate her for letting him. He said that her mother would no longer love her.
Nicole (who asked me to use her middle name to protect her privacy) knew her father had a tripod set up in his bedroom. She asked if he'd ever shown the pictures to anyone. He said no, and she believed him. "It was all so hidden," she told me. "And he knew how to lie. He taught me to do it. He said: 'You look them straight in the eye. You make your shoulders square. You breathe normally.'"
When she was 16, Nicole told her mother, in a burst of tears, what had been going on at her father's house. Her father was arrested for child rape. The police asked Nicole whether he took pictures. She said yes, but that she didn't think he showed them to anyone. A few months later, while her father was out on bail, Nicole was using a computer he gave her to work on a presentation for Spanish class when she came across a file with a vulgar name that she couldn't open. She showed it to her mother and stepfather, and they brought the computer to the police.
A search detected five deleted video files of child pornography, two of them showing Nicole and her father. In the spring of 2006, he was charged with a new crime—producing the videos—and he fled the country. At this point, the police didn't realize that Nicole's father had also distributed the images.
Months later, the police said they had no leads on her father, so Nicole went on television to ask the public for any tips that might help them find him. A police officer in Toronto involved in tracking child pornography around the world saw the broadcast and recognized Nicole as an older version of the girl in the notorious videos. The Toronto officer set off an alert that reached the police in Nicole's hometown, informing them that she was the victim in a major pornography-distribution case.
The alert brought the local detective to Nicole's house on that December day, to confirm that she was in fact the girl in the pictures that circulated around the globe. "It was the worst moment of my life," Nicole said of seeing the pictures of herself. "In a way, I didn't remember it being that bad with my father—and then I saw that it was. Knowing that other people, all over, had seen me like that, I just froze. I could hear my mother crying, but I couldn't cry."
Nicole's appearance on TV produced a tip that eventually led the police to arrest her father in Hong Kong. But by going public, she had inadvertently exposed her identity to thousands of men who for years had collected her images. On one Web site with an American flag design, on a thread that continued for four years, commenters described in detail the acts of rape and bondage Nicole had experienced. One called the videos "legendary." Another called her "an eager participant" because her father instructed her to smile and talk in the videos. "The fact remains that she is the most searched for, sought after and downloaded ever," a third commenter wrote. "There are hours of video out there. It's just too bad there are not more willing like her."
For Nicole, knowing that so many men have witnessed and taken pleasure from her abuse has been excruciating. "You have an image of yourself as a person, but here is this other image," she told me. "You know it's not true, but all those other people will believe that it's you—that this is who you really are."
Until the 1970s, magazines with titles like Lolita were rife with sexual images of minors and routinely sold alongside adult pornography at red-light bookstores. In 1978, Congress made child pornography illegal, and four years later, the Supreme Court upheld a state law banning its sale. The court's decision changed the market along with the law. "The commercial distributors started to go out of business," said Kenneth Lanning, a retired F.B.I. agent who consulted on child pornography cases for decades. For a time, distribution and production plummeted. But then came the Internet. By the mid- to late 1990s, Lanning said, "there was a way for people seeking it to find each other and send images."
A decade later, the Justice Department interviewed veteran experts like Lanning for a 2010 report, and concluded that "the market—in terms of numbers of offenders, images and victims"—was growing to a degree described as "overwhelming" and "exponential." In the early-Web year of 1994, only 61 defendants were sentenced in federal court for child-pornography offenses; in 2011, 1,880 were, a 30-fold increase. The federal definition of child pornography extends to young people up to age 18, but the 2010 report noted that it had become more common for images to involve young children, as well as violence and sadism.
Precise numbers of child-pornography viewers are hard to come by. Unicef estimates that there are at least hundreds of thousands of Web sites with child pornography worldwide. Child-pornography consumers are even more likely to swap with one another via hidden networks. Using a tool developed at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 2009, police have logged close to 22 million public I.P. addresses offering child-pornography pictures or videos via peer-to-peer file sharing, which allows users to download content from one computer to another; almost 10 million of the I.P. addresses were located in the United States. Many of the users shared only a single illegal image, perhaps downloaded inadvertently, but others offered collections of hundreds or thousands of pictures.
To gain access to a group of downloaders, a recent arrival may have to prove himself by delivering new material. Often this involves digitally altering an existing image, but in some cases, it can also mean seducing children to create new pictures to trade. The most desired series zoom around the Internet. "A lot of these guys have a collector's mentality," Lanning said. The pictures Nicole's father took became must-haves and went viral.
For Nicole, knowing that her photos were circulating was an unrelenting burden. It was hard to concentrate at school and hard to forge new friendships. She stayed close to just a few friends from her church. Her family is deeply Christian—"I've found comfort in my faith," she says—and she was home-schooled for a few years as a younger child. Her friends from church were the only ones she told about her father. "Everyone else I held at arm's length," she told me when we met this summer at her lawyer's office. Nicole speaks deliberately and carefully, and on that day she was wearing an outfit that matched her coral nail polish and perfectly applied makeup. "But other kids found out after my father was charged. I remember walking down the hallways and thinking I could hear people saying, 'There's the girl who was raped by her dad.'"
In her junior year, Nicole transferred to a community college with a program for students who wanted to earn an associate's degree while finishing high school. "At the time I'd have said I went for academic reasons, but looking back, it was also to isolate myself," she said.
Late that spring, Nicole got a series of messages on Myspace from a man who said he had been looking for her for five years. He asked, "Want me to come visit u?" When Nicole blocked him, he wrote to one of her friends on Myspace, telling her that Nicole was a "porn star"—and sending two images. "That's when I fully realized what it meant for these pictures to be out there," Nicole said. "I couldn't get away from it, not really. I started getting paranoid and having nightmares."
The man was arrested and went to prison, but Nicole couldn't avoid the knowledge that other men were still looking at the sexual photos of her young self. Later that year, she got a letter from the Victim Notification System at the Justice Department. Congress had passed a law in 2004 mandating that crime victims receive notice every time a suspect is arrested or has a court appearance. The letter was addressed to Nicole's mother and stepfather because she hadn't yet turned 18; it informed them that a man in California had been arrested for possessing a pornographic photo of her. "It just sat there on the counter for days," Nicole remembered. "We didn't really know where to put it." More arrests followed and more letters—piles of them. "We stacked them in a laundry basket in a walk-in closet so I wouldn't have to see them," Nicole said. "Then there were more baskets, and we had to move them to the garage. It was really hard for me. I was still scared of my father, but I knew him. These other people, they were strangers, and there were so many of them."
The piles of letters would eventually connect Nicole with another young woman who had also been abused and then lead them both to court. Back in April 1998, in one of the first investigations into Internet trafficking of child pornography, the F.B.I. started tracking an AOL user, with the handle HAZMAT029, who was posting on an AOL bulletin board service. HAZMAT029 sent 80 illegal pictures to another user, BMR169, along with e-mails that included the message: "do me a favor. get a peice [sic] of paper and wright HI HAZ on it and take a pic of her in nothing but stockings pulled down below her [genitals]." BMR169 e-mailed back pictures of a young girl, her shorts and underwear pulled to the side, sitting on a gray carpet in front of a wooden dresser. Next to her, a note read, "HI HAZ."
The F.B.I. traced BMR's AOL account to a suburban house in a small town, and in October of that year, a team of agents arrived with a search warrant. In a basement bedroom, they found the gray carpet and the dresser. They also seized a computer full of illegal images, including pictures that showed the same girl being forced to give oral sex and being raped. The man the F.B.I. suspected was BMR wasn't home, so the agents showed the face of the child in the photos to his wife and his adult son. Did they recognize the girl?
They did. As they spoke, one of the agents looked out the window of the house and saw the girl playing in the yard across the street. "It's something I'll never forget," he told me.
Amy, as she's called in the court documents, was BMR's 9-year-old niece. Shown sanitized versions of the pictures, Amy denied that her uncle had abused her. She said he told her she was special and took her to buy treats like beef jerky, and she didn't want anything bad to happen to him. "How is he?" she asked her parents in the weeks after his arrest. "Is he going to be mad at me?"
Over months of therapy, Amy began to talk about the abuse. "My mind has everything in it," she told her therapist, according to court records I read with her permission. She remembered her uncle trying to have sex with her—it hurt, and she pulled away. And she remembered, at his direction, chatting with men over the Internet about the photos he sent them.
Amy's uncle pleaded guilty to one count of rape and two counts of child sexual abuse in state court and was sentenced to the minimum for each one, adding up to 12½ years in prison. In federal court, he pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography and received a 12-year sentence. Amy's current lawyer, James Marsh, says her parents were told the state and federal penalties would run consecutively, but instead, her uncle was allowed to serve the two at the same time.
Amy was given a diagnosis of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder the year her uncle was sentenced, but she also asked to stop going to therapy—she told her parents that she didn't want to talk about the abuse anymore. Her mother, who worked in health care, and her father, a tradesman, blamed themselves for trusting Amy's uncle with her. For years Amy's mother barely spoke to Amy's aunt, who remained married to her husband, even though the sisters continued to live across the street from each other.
As Amy grew up, she tried to push aside what had happened to her. Every few months, in middle school and high school, her parents would ask if she wanted to talk about it, and each time she would say no. "I was always thinking about it, but I wasn't ready to deal with how I felt," she says now. Amy threw herself into her social life, going out and drinking in the hills behind her house. Even to the friends who knew, it almost seemed as if the abuse hadn't happened.
When she was 17, Amy received her first crime-victim notice from the Justice Department. "My mom said it was a mistake, because I was still a minor—the letter should have been addressed to her and my dad," she said. "But it had my name on it, and I never got mail, so I wanted to open it. My parents took me into their room and said we needed to have a talk." Amy's parents had never told her that her uncle had distributed images of her to other men. "It had been so long by then, eight years," she said. "They didn't know how to tell me."
Amy's parents took her to see Marsh, who had started the public-interest Children's Law Center in Washington. At their first meeting, he explained to Amy that the letters meant her pictures had been traded countless times online. "I just felt so full of shame," Amy said. "I started wondering, Has he looked at them? He said he hadn't, and that made me feel better. But then I thought, Who has?"
Marsh researched legal remedies for Amy. Combing through his casebooks, he found a provision in the Violence Against Women Act that he had never heard of before: it gave the victims of sex crimes, including child pornography, the right to restitution or compensation for the "full amount" of their losses. Enumerating what those losses could be, Congress listed psychiatric care, lost income and legal costs and concluded, "The issuance of a restitution order under this section is mandatory."
The provision for restitution, enacted in 1994, had yet to be invoked in a case of child-pornography possession. The basis for such a claim wasn't necessarily self-evident: how could Amy prove that her ongoing trauma was the fault of any one man who looked at her pictures, instead of her uncle, who abused her and made the pornography?
Marsh suggested that Amy see a forensic psychologist, Joyanna Silberg, who evaluated Amy and said she would need therapy throughout her life and could expect to work sporadically because of the likelihood of periodic setbacks. Silberg attributed these costs—Amy's damages—to her awareness of the ongoing downloading and viewing. "Usually, we try to help survivors of child sexual abuse make a very strong distinction between the past and the present," Silberg, who has given testimony on Amy's behalf for restitution hearings, told me. "The idea is to contain the harm: it happened then, and it's not happening anymore. But how do you do that when these images are still out there? The past is still the present, which turns the hallmarks of treatment on their head."
Marsh put together a lifetime claim for Amy totaling almost $3.4 million. With the crime notices arriving in the mail, Marsh started tracking men charged with possession of her pictures. He looked, in particular, for wealthy defendants. He planned to use the concept of joint and several liability to argue that each defendant should be on the hook for the full amount of his client's damages—that is, for millions of dollars. Joint and several liability is often used in pollution cases: when several companies dump toxic waste in a lake over time, a plaintiff can go after the company with the deepest pockets, and a judge can hold that single company responsible for the entire cost of the cleanup—with the understanding that it's up to that polluter to sue the others to pay their share.
In July 2008, Marsh learned about the arrest of Alan Hesketh, a former vice-president of Pfizer, who was charged with trading nearly 2,000 child-pornography photos online—among them four pictures of Amy. Marsh filed one of his first requests for restitution with the prosecution. Hesketh pleaded guilty, and his sentencing was scheduled for later that year.
At the time of the Hesketh case, Amy was struggling. She was 19 and living with her boyfriend. She had enrolled at a local community college, but she drank too much to concentrate on studying. The crime-victim notices had stirred up the past for her, and she wasn't in regular therapy. "The last class I went to, there was this PowerPoint slide, something about child sexual abuse, and I thought, I can't do this," she told me as she sat in her kitchen smoking a cigarette. "It just brought everything back." Amy dropped out after that, without telling her parents. "I told myself I would just take a year off," she continued. "But you know, statisticwise, once you leave school, the chances you'll finish go down about 80 percent."
Amy has a quick intelligence—she's a college dropout who can rattle off her own odds of going back—and asks lots of questions. She has focused her curiosity on the legal strategy that Marsh has pursued for her. When Hesketh was sentenced, Amy decided she would be there. "I kind of wanted to face my fear," she told me. She also wanted to prove a point: Hesketh was arguing, through his lawyer, that he had committed a victimless crime—a common defense in cases of child-pornography possession. "I thought, I want him to look at me and know that I'm not a picture; I'm a person," she said.
In a federal courthouse in Bridgeport, Conn., in October 2008, Amy sat on the opposite side of the courtroom from Hesketh's family. The judge opened the proceedings by acknowledging that there was a victim in the courtroom. Amy listened as Hesketh's grown children asked the judge for mercy for their father. "His kids kept saying he was the best grandfather ever," she said. "And I was like: 'But you know. You know what he did.'"
Then Hesketh took the stand. As Amy remembers it, he said, "I'm so sorry." Earlier, he said that "he hadn't hurt anyone," Amy told me. "Now he totally flipped around. I felt like I'd made an impact. It was like, 'He knows now.'"
Hesketh was sentenced to 6½ years. Four months later, in an unprecedented move, the judge advised Hesketh to settle the restitution claim and he agreed to pay $130,000.
Not long after, Amy found out she was pregnant. She wasn't sorry—at the time she had faith in her boyfriend, whom she had told about the abuse and the photos. But he was a heroin user and dealer, and he went to jail two months after their son was born. Amy started seeing another man who she says had a jealous streak and broke her nose, twice. He also broke her infant son's leg, she told me. She took the blame when he threatened her, and she had to give up custody to her mother for six months.
As she recalled this time in her life, she took out her phone and scrolled through her photos until she found a close-up of her beaten face: lip split, one eye half-closed, nose swollen and cheek yellow with bruises. The young woman next to me had clear skin and bright eyes, and I had just watched her charm a police officer into calling us a cab. The girl in the photo was expressionless.
Amy stared at the picture on her phone. "That was my normal," she said.
Six months after Hesketh's sentencing, Marsh went after another child-pornography defendant, Arthur Staples, a 65-year-old sheriff's deputy in Virginia, who had chatted online with an undercover detective and expressed an interest in young children. Staples sent one image of a young girl (not Amy), and he was caught with more than 600 pictures on his computer, including hers. Staples agreed not to appeal any sentence or restitution judgment. The judge sentenced him to 17½ years, and made the unusual move of ordering him to pay all of Amy's claim. To Marsh's surprise, Staples turned out to have $2 million in assets. He has since paid $1.2 million to Amy. (Marsh says the government let Staples's wife keep part of the estate.) While Amy has been turned down for restitution by some courts, which have stated that there was not enough proof that any one man who viewed her pictures was responsible for the harm she has suffered, she has won more than 150 cases, totaling $1.6 million. Most of the amounts aren't large: $1,000 or even $100, paid out in checks as small as $7.33.
Nicole has also been pursuing restitution. Her lawyer, Carol Hepburn, did her own research and got in touch with Marsh when she learned about the claims he was bringing for Amy. The two lawyers now collaborate on ideas and strategy, though they represent their clients separately. Since receiving her first check for $10,000, Nicole has collected more than $550,000, mostly in small amounts from 204 different men. So far only a few other child-pornography victims have gone to court for restitution. Many may not know there is a legal remedy; others don't know their images have circulated.
The restitution checks gave Nicole a lift when they started to trickle in, but, like Amy, she had trouble with the transition into adulthood. In the fall of 2008, Nicole was attending a one-year bible college and working at an ice-cream shop. At work she felt increasingly self-conscious around male customers. Had they seen her pictures? Were they like the man who stalked her on Myspace—were any of them coming to the store because they knew? That spring, Nicole testified at her father's sentencing. She asked the judge to give him a long punishment, and her father was sent to prison for 50 years. Her roommates, one of whom was a friend from her childhood church, supported her. "But I didn't have a counselor there, and that was tough," she said. "I called my parents and said: 'I have to quit my job, and I need to come home. I feel like I'm going crazy.'"
During her first few weeks at home, Nicole slept all day in her childhood bedroom and stayed up late watching sitcoms like Sabrina and The Nanny. Finally, she started counseling and was able to get a job doing administrative work at a nuclear-waste site. That June, she testified at the sentencing hearing of four child-pornography defendants caught with her images, hoping to gather strength from speaking out. Instead, the experience made her feel exposed.
More than a year later, in the fall of 2010, she left for a four-year college away from home. She was worried about being on her own, but she wanted to try. "I push myself," she told me. "I don't like to say something is too much for me." Like Amy, however, she took a psychology course, about child development, that brought up unbearable memories. During lectures, she began going blank. "All of a sudden class would be over, and I would be like, 'What happened?'" she said. She started skipping class for fear of continuing to disassociate.
Nicole, who wasn't in counseling at the time, failed all but two of her courses that spring. "I just totally broke down," she said. "I'd come home and sit in the same position and stare into space, and then I'd look at the clock, and it was six hours later." Nicole talked about this period of her life with Hepburn and me over dinner one night last summer. She showed us a tattoo on her right wrist: a heart sheltered by wings that she got after her father's sentencing. She also learned to make tattoos, and she took out her phone to show us a picture of the first one she created, an anchor with a rope curled around it. "My cousin is a tattoo artist, and he taught me," she said. "We grew up together, and he was a very easy person to hang out with during that bad time. I'd go over to his place, and he'd be drawing, and he said, 'You're into design, you could do this.' When I tried I felt this release of emotions. We started drawing for hours to music—Tom Petty, Cake, everything. You have to learn how to go smoothly and keep the same pressure on the line the whole time. I drew anchors over and over again on grapefruit. I'd been numb for months, and now I could feel again. I actually felt joy."
In the fall of 2011, Nicole transferred to a campus closer to her family. She made her way through her course work by avoiding subject matter that upset her and by allowing for her own limitations. "I had to accept that, because I have this extra stressor, I get overwhelmed by things that other people can do," she said.
Nicole decided to spare herself going to court, so she wasn't in El Paso, in September 2011, for the sentencing of Luis Enriquez-Alonso, a student at the University of Texas. He agreed to plead guilty after being caught with thousands of illegal videos and images, including Nicole's, on his computer. At the hearing, Enriquez-Alonso and his parents listened while the prosecutor read into the record a statement Nicole wrote about what it is like to know men are looking at her pictures: "After all these years and going to different counselors, I still haven't learned the trick to let my mind rest," Nicole wrote. "When I do sleep, my dreams are vivid and I remember them for weeks. A common theme is finding myself naked in front of a crowd of people or in an enclosed space and I can't escape or run away fast enough."
That day, without a court order, Enriquez-Alonso's family handed over a check for $150,000, along with an expression of remorse. "That really touched me," Nicole said, "that his family wanted to make sure that I was taken care of, that I could get all the counseling I need. Most of the time when I get restitution, there's no story behind it. I feel like they're forced to give the money. In this case, they wanted to do it, and there were words behind it, kind words." Enriquez-Alonso, who faced a maximum of 10 years in prison, is serving 5.
Study after study links child sexual abuse to psychological trauma, addiction and violent relationships in adulthood. There is almost no research, however, that deals with the specifics of Amy and Nicole's experiences: What additional harm comes from knowing that pictures of your childhood exploitation are circulating widely?
The Supreme Court actually addressed this question in its 1982 decision upholding child-pornography bans. "Pornography poses an even greater threat to the child victim than does sexual abuse or prostitution," Justice Byron White wrote, quoting from a book about abused children. "Because the child's actions are reduced to a recording, the pornography may haunt him in future years, long after the original misdeed took place."
David Finkelhor, a sociologist who directs the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, sees the moral weight of the Supreme Court's proclamation, but not the empirical proof. "The evidence doesn't yet tell us to what extent the experience of being a pornography victim aggravates the experience of the sexual abuse itself," he told me. "How do you separate it out?"
Courts have disagreed on this question. In at least a dozen cases, defendants have appealed restitution decisions and mostly won. In five of those cases, federal appeals courts have expressed skepticism that Amy and Nicole should receive more than nominal restitution. Two other appeals courts have allowed the young women to recover from individual defendants as members of the group of viewers but, so far, only for amounts of $10,000 or less. (Amy collected a far greater sum from Arthur Staples because he waived his right to appeal.)
Last spring, the legal battle was focused on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which covers Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. One panel of three judges upheld full restitution to Amy of millions of dollars from a Texas man. Based on that decision, a second three-judge panel affirmed a separate $529,000 restitution order for Amy against a New Orleans defendant, but voiced its fundamental disagreement with the original ruling. To address the dispute, 15 Fifth Circuit judges gathered last May for a hearing in New Orleans. James Marsh and Carol Hepburn were there along with Amy; Nicole chose not to go. Amy knew this was the most significant hearing to date, and she wanted to show the judges that she was real, just as she had shown Alan Hesketh.
At the lectern to argue her side was Paul G. Cassell, a former federal judge who teaches law at the University of Utah. Cassell is a staunch conservative (he challenged the right to a Miranda warning before the Supreme Court), and Marsh and Hepburn, both Democrats, were surprised at first to be allied with him. But as a leading advocate for victims' rights, Cassell sees in Amy's claims a chance to lay the groundwork for broader change.
For 30 years, the victims'-rights movement has fought for a larger role for victims in criminal prosecutions. Victims have gained the right to make statements in court about the impact a crime has had on them, which judges can take into account in determining punishment. Restitution remains an ambitious next step. The standard context is crime involving financial loss—a bank robber ordered to return stolen money to the bank or an embezzler who must repay the employer he defrauded. Cassell sees Amy and Nicole's cases as a route to expand the idea. "I'd like to pursue the concept of total restitution for all victims, for whatever crimes and losses a defendant has caused," Cassell told me. "This is a good opportunity to show how it can work."
In the courtroom, Cassell linked the defendants to the network for child-pornography distribution. "What the defendants have done is collect images of an 8-year-old girl being bound, raped and sodomized," he said. "If you participate in a market, you become responsible for that market." The lawyer for the New Orleans defendant disagreed. She argued that there was no proof that her client, in particular, had harmed Amy—no way to show that his viewing of her images caused damage. She also called the restitution order for $529,000 "grossly disproportionate to his culpability relative to other people who have abused Amy."
Michael Rotker, the lawyer for the department, told the court that the problem with the restitution awards was that there was no statutory authority for joint and several liability—nothing in the law, as Congress wrote it, which allowed a victim to recover a large award from one defendant who could then seek to recoup those losses by suing other defendants. Instead, Rotker argued, each defendant could be held responsible only for a small and roughly equal fraction of the whole. He offered this hypothetical example: if 200 men were convicted of possessing Amy's images, and her claim for damages totaled $3 million, then a judge would have discretion to order a defendant to pay restitution of $15,000 to $30,000.
As the lawyers spoke, Amy's eyes filled with tears. "Some of it was hard to listen to," she told me later. "But my therapist said to think of it as a store, with different compartments you can take out and put back. She said, 'When you were a little girl, you had to compartmentalize to deal with everything you went through.' So I can still do that now, and sometimes it's good, I guess."
At one point in the proceedings, Judge Emilio Garza stopped Cassell, not to challenge him, but to pick up on his theme. "It seems to me that we're in this brave new world, where not only was there an actual rape, but I'm going to suggest to you there is a continuing digitized rape," the judge said. "Possession of the digitized recording of the rape contributes to the system, contributes to the economic benefit of those who produced this thing."
The judges would not announce their decision for several months, but at the end of the hearing, Amy focused on what Garza said that day. "To hear that from a judge—I couldn't believe it," she told me. "It was so relieving. It was like he really got it. He understood."
Just six weeks after Amy got home from New Orleans, her uncle was released from prison after completing his concurrent 12-year sentences. Amy says she was greatly relieved when her aunt told her that she wouldn't allow him in the house. Instead, he was paroled nearby. When Marsh texted to give her the address, Amy happened to be only a few blocks from it. "I almost dropped the phone," she said. "Oh, my God, it was just so weird. I thought, He's got binoculars, he's looking for me. I thought the worst." Marsh reminded her that if her uncle contacted her, he would go back to prison. And also that she was an adult now and safe from her uncle's [abusiveness toward children].
Last month, while standing in line at Wal-Mart with her brother and a friend, Amy saw a man who she thought was her uncle looking at her. "I wasn't positive because I haven't seen him for so long," she said. "But as soon as I made eye contact, I didn't breathe." Was she being paranoid? She couldn't tell. The man seemed to follow them out of the store. As they got into her car, the man stopped to light a cigarette, and she thought he was staring at them. "It was very, very scary," she said.
Today, a sentence like the one Amy's uncle received—with no additional prison time for a federal conviction for pornography production and distribution—is extremely rare. The penalties for distributing or receiving pornography have become harsher. Receiving one illegal photo carries a mandatory minimum penalty of five years. The number of images a defendant downloads increases the punishment, as does his use of a computer. Now that large volumes of data stream with a click, the average recommended prison term for possession has jumped to 10 years, even if a defendant has no criminal record and there is no evidence that he produced or distributed porn. Because some child sexual abuse cases still end in relatively low penalties in state court, there's a paradox: defendants who look at sexual pictures of children can spend more years in prison than people who abuse children but don't have pornography of them.
The United States Sentencing Commission held hearings last February to discuss whether the punishment for child-pornography offenders has become both disproportionate and unfair—with people who committed similar crimes receiving vastly different penalties, based on the subjective decisions of judges. Restitution was discussed even though the prevailing view is that technically it isn't considered part of punishment. Its purpose is to "make the victim whole," as the legal phrase goes. "Simply put, an innocent victim should not suffer financial losses from a crime—the defendant should make good on those losses," Cassell said.
But Douglas Berman, an Ohio State University law professor who writes a frequently cited blog about sentencing, argues that the commission could rethink the role of restitution. In some cases, restitution could be considered commensurate to prison time—and courts could recommend shorter sentences for child-pornography collectors who agree to compensate victims based on their ability to pay. Berman thinks the key to making this leap is adopting the point of view of the victim. "Victims are shrewder than most prosecutors about the diminishing returns of long incarceration," he said. "They want perpetrators to serve some time. They want these men's lives disrupted, and they want the deterrence that helps protect other people. But they're often wise enough to realize that there's not much gain in deterrence from a 5 or 10 year sentence to 15 years. If victims are saying that restitution is as, or more, important to them than five extra years, I very much think the sentencing commission and Congress should listen."
When I asked Amy about such a trade-off, she supported it. Nicole had mixed feelings: she liked the idea of greater incentives for restitution, but she wasn't sure about giving up longer punishments, given how easy it would be for someone to leave prison and go back to downloading child pornography. Cassell says that using restitution in this way could have value. "If it makes the perpetrators internalize how they've hurt the victims—if it makes them see there are real victims—then you deter them from doing this again when they get out," he said.
Berman also favors a proposal that has been discussed at the Justice Department: a general compensation fund that would systematically collect restitution from child-pornography offenders and pay it out to victims like Amy and Nicole based on the harm they suffered and the costs they've incurred because of it. A compensation fund could give more victims the financial means to put their lives back together. And it could force more defendants to reckon with the children in the pictures and with their own role in supporting a market that depends on abuse.
Restitution has allowed Amy and Nicole to get the counseling they need, but receiving large sums can be complicated. When Amy received her $130,000 check from Alan Hesketh, she went on shopping sprees at the mall, splurging at stores like Abercrombie & Fitch. She had never been able to earn a steady paycheck, and the money was a sudden windfall. By the time the $1.2 million check came last spring, she was more considered. She didn't want to stand out in her small town. Last summer, she bought a modest three-bedroom house a few miles from her childhood home, where her mother and brothers still live.
Amy has also discovered that she likes giving money away—to her mother for a new deck, to a close friend who wanted kitchen cabinets she couldn't otherwise afford. It's her way of dealing with the discomfort of having resources that people around her don't and repaying those who helped her along the way.
1/

I am not the OP. Original post is by u/throwalllthewayawayy in TrueOffMyChest
TW: Mentions of past abuse, grooming, very creepy behavior towards a child
Mood Spoiler: Extremely concerning, but hopeful for OOP and her son
~~~
Original (Recovered with Unddit) - Mar. 14, 2023
I think my sister’s boyfriend (M44) is infatuated with my son (M13).
Throwaway since my sister's boyfriend is an avid Reddit user. This might be a long one, so bear with me.
I (F38) am a single mother living on a waitress salary. Times are tough right now, and due to unforeseen circumstances, I’ve had to move in with my sister for the past couple months. It’s not an ideal situation, but I’m doing my best.
I have an ex husband (M40) who is emotionally abusive, hence the divorce. We share custody of my incredible son (let’s call him Roman, 13) who has been so understanding of our financial situation, even at his age. I love him more than I love myself. He is kind and intelligent. He stole my ex-husband’s face (unfortunately), so he’s beautiful. Every mama will say their son is beautiful, but my kid really is stunningly gorgeous. The amount of adults my age and older who have given him the creepy and unwarranted “He’s going to be a heartbreaker in a few years” comments would alarm you. He has ADHD, but maintains decent grades. He plays a sport and is good at it. He’s got lots of friends who he visits often, and vice versa. Despite the changes in our living situation, he is thriving, and I’d do anything to keep that up.
My sister (let’s call her Sarah, 42) and her boyfriend (let’s call him David, 44) are well off and live in a massive house. My sister was happy to take me in, but her boyfriend David…not so much — which I completely understand. I offered to pay rent, but my sister won’t have any of it, so I do chores around the house and cook as often as my work schedule will let me. I never saw much of David anyway — he was often at the bar with his friends, or working, or locked in his room playing video games. When we did see each other, he acted like I didn't exist.
My son Roman was staying with his dad for a while as I was figuring things out, and I was worried about David’s attitude once my son moved in with us. I talked to David and promised him that Roman would be respectful and well-behaved, but he was weird about it and shrugged me off.
Then David met Roman.
David is absolutely fascinated with my kid. His disposition changed so quickly that it gave me whiplash. Suddenly, he stopped locking himself in his room and has decided to spend time with us…well, mostly my son. He helps Roman with his homework. He watches all of Roman’s favorite shows so that they can talk about them together. He buys him food and gifts. My sister Sarah is over-the-moon; she’s been telling me about how us moving in has been the best thing for their relationship, because David is happier now.
I thought it was sweet at first. But in the back of my head, I think something more nefarious could be going on.
To paint a clearer picture, I’ve noted some other changes I’ve noticed that I can’t decide whether they’re innocent or not.

1. David texts my son often, which wouldn’t be weird, except he does it while he’s at school. The texts themselves aren’t weird at all, but David lightly scolds him for not replying sometimes.
2. Before my son moved in, David was rarely ever home during the afternoon/evenings. He’d stay out after work and go drinking with his buddies until late in the night, a habit he’s had for years, according to my sister. Now, he’s home ALL THE TIME. He gets home before Roman gets off the bus (around 3:15pm if he's not at practice) and stays home all day, even offering to “babysit” while I’m working through the evening. He still drinks, just in the house.
3. Last Wednesday, I woke up to use the bathroom during the middle of the night. To get to the bathroom, you have to pass by my son’s room. I was surprised to see that the door was closed all the way, since Roman always likes it open because his room gets hot at night. Also, he has been staying up late texting his friends lately, which has caused him to sleep through his alarm and miss the bus some days. So that night, I opened the door to let the air in and make sure he was asleep, and there was David. Standing by Roman’s bed. In the dark. He stated that he was looking for his cellphone, but I saw him jump with anxiety when I opened the door. He left quickly, muttering something about how it might be in the kitchen. Why would his phone be in my son’s room? And why was the door closed?
4. David offers to drive my son everywhere he needs to go. Only him. School (if he misses the bus), practice, his friends’ houses. This is the same man who wouldn’t lift a finger for me until my son moved in. It’s been incredibly helpful since I’m not home often, but a part of me wonders if he’s doing it for the wrong reasons.
5. I caught David doing Roman’s laundry, resulting in a few articles of clothing going missing. This one irritated me because I make my son do his own laundry. I asked him not do this, but his excuse is that he is trying to save water. I don’t know how to fight him on this, since it’s his house.

I am terrified to bring this up to my sister. Am I reading into things too much? Am I silly for worrying that he might have ulterior motives? If I tell my sister and she gets angry and there’s nothing going on, she’ll kick us out and we’ll be homeless…
~~~
First Update - Mar. 15, 2023
Update: I think my sister’s boyfriend (M44) is infatuated with my son (M13).
Hi all. First, i want to thank you all for your responses and suggestions. I am so overwhelmed by the replies and was unable to read them all, but I'm glad (and terrified) to see that I'm not going crazy, that there is something wrong. I also want to thank those who shared their experiences with being groomed/sexually assaulted, as it opened my eyes to a lot of things.
Second, I'd like to clarify a few things. I did not let my child in David's car after the bedroom incident. I would never do that. After this occurrence, tied with the laundry situation, I began to take note of David's behavior, which was when I started putting the pieces together. I came to Reddit shortly after…and here we are, unfortunately.
Third, I'd like to address a couple questions I've seen.

1. David is not on any sex offender registry.
2. By "saving water", David meant that he combines loads of laundry, meaning that he'll do his laundry AND Roman's laundry in the same load. The laundry that I've seen go missing are mostly socks, which is typical, even when Roman was doing his own laundry. But then, Roman told me that he was missing a couple shirts and a pair of underwear. That alarmed me, since this only happened once David started doing his laundry. Massive red flag.
3. The texts between really are innocent — David asking him what he wants for dinner, what time he should pick him up, discussing shows they've been watching. But based on his other behavior, it's clearly a grooming tactic and I’ll be sure that it stops immediately. No way in hell should he be texting my kid at school.
4. The bedroom situation, in clearer detail. I peeked in to make sure that Roman was asleep, and David was at the foot of his bed. The room was of course pitch black, and I was groggy as hell, so I didn't even register that it was him until he pushed past me to leave. I checked on my son afterwards. He was still asleep, and the blankets were fully over him. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but maybe I'd just intervened at the right moment. I made sure his door was open, and I left my door open as well so I could listen for any footsteps. I could not sleep after that happened. It wasn’t sitting right with me.

None of these are excuses. Like I said, eyes are wide open now.
Fourth, I'll discuss everything with my son tonight once I get off work. A lot of you said it was a good idea, and I was already planning on doing it. He has not been acting strange in any way and is his usual happy self, but that doesn't mean that David hasn't done anything yet. That reality is terrifying to me and I pray that's not the case. I pretty much have a clear idea on what to say to him, but I am not sure if I should explicitly tell him that I found David in his room, or that he might be stealing his clothing. Any suggestions on how to go about this conversation are welcome.
Fifth, I fully plan to confront David and talk to my sister Sarah about this. I am not a doormat, and I will do anything to keep my son safe. David is on a church retreat and thankfully has not been home for a few days. I've decided to speak with my sister first, in case David twists my words or manipulates her into believing that nothing is wrong. And once he returns, I'll confront him based on how my sister reacts. Any other suggestions on how to go about it are welcome as well.
Sixth, I've read your suggestions about setting up cameras, checking for cameras, drug testing my son, and finding his missing articles of clothing. I plan on buying cameras and drug testing him once we have a conversation. I did look for cameras and found nothing, but I’ll look again. I am terrified of what I might see if I end up finding Roman’s missing clothing, but I know it’s just a reality that I have to face…that people can be so disgustingly vile to a child.
Lastly, I know I need to get out of this house. I know that. I'm working on it. If I could pack everything up tonight and do it, I would. I’d send him to live with my ex husband, but he’s abusive toward my son and me (more so toward me, but still). I’ve considered your suggestions about looking into homeless shelters, and I’m leaning toward making arrangements for that after I confront David. I'm a good mom, but I know I'm not the best mom. This past week has been hell. I should've intervened earlier. I regret that.
Thank you for listening. I'll update once I follow through with my plans.
~~~
Second Update - Mar. 19, 2023
Update 2: I think my sister's boyfriend (M44) is infatuated with my son (M13).
Hi all, this is my second update. My first post got removed, but you can find it. Apparently, it made its way to TikTok and Instagram, which I’m not sure how to feel about, but it’s too late to take back now.
In the past four days, I spoke with my sister Sarah, her boyfriend David, and my son Roman, all separately. One went well, two didn’t. I have a lot to get off my chest, so this might be long. There’s a TLDR at the bottom.
My first conversation was with my son, which occurred the night I posted my first update. In fear of this post getting removed like my first one, I’ll have to censor myself, but I think you’ll understand what I’m referring to when I say that I asked my son the serious and explicit questions. Roman adamantly denied that David ever did anything to him. He seemed surprised that I asked. He said he would’ve told me if he had. I believe him. I know he could be lying, but I’m trying to take his word for it. My son and I have a very open and transparent relationship. The first time my ex husband ever verbally abused him, he came straight to me and told me about it. My guard is up, but I have to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Like you all advised me, I didn’t bring up the bedroom or laundry situation. But I was honest with him and told him that David’s behavior toward him was inappropriate. We had a talk about boundaries, saying no, consent, etc. I drilled into him that David is not to drive him anywhere, text him anymore, and be around him alone under any circumstances. I also explained what grooming is, and that it’s what David has been doing to him. He said he knew about it through a school assembly. Then, he said something that broke my heart. He apologized for letting David treat him that way, that he “shouldn’t have fell for it” (his exact words). I assured him that none of it was his fault. I want to make it clear that David is not preying on him because of how he looks or how he acts, he is doing it because he is a predator and they prey on the vulnerable.
Honestly, I could tell that the conversation had left him a little shell-shocked. To know that the person you liked and trusted isn’t who you thought he was would leave any kid rattled. For the entire rest of the night, he followed me around like a lost puppy. It did break my heart a little, to see him like that, but I don’t want him to feel a false sense of security around David, so I have no regrets about it.
Sarah was next. I knew it would turn into an argument before the conversation even began. It’s always been that way with her. My sister is nice, but not kind. She’ll take you in off the street, but then throw it back in your face if you cross her. So I knew what I was getting into, but I had to do it not only for my kid’s sake, but for hers. This is not a man I want her to be with, have children with, nor do I want him in our family.
I told her that I was uncomfortable with the way David acts around Roman, and that I think it’s a lot deeper than what he portrays it to be. I mentioned that I didn’t like the gift giving and the constant texting, and I brought up the bedroom and laundry incidents. Like I predicted, she was more offended that I was accusing her boyfriend of grooming my son. She didn’t see how that was proof of anything. “Do you know how many socks and pairs of underwear I’ve lost while doing laundry? It’s probably stuck somewhere in the dryer.”
The more I expressed my concerns, the more defensive she got. She thinks I’m…manic, essentially. She said that as soon as things get good for me (roof over my head, food in the fridge, a steady job) I intentionally screw it up because deep down I don’t think I deserve happiness. That she tries to help me every time, but I end up stabbing her in the back, like I am right now.
So, she doesn’t believe me. That’s her prerogative, fine. I told her that I won’t be staying at her house much longer, and that I don’t want David around my kid anymore, that we’ll be keeping to ourselves for the rest of my short time here. She’s letting me stay, surprisingly, but she said she’s glad to see me go. She swore up and down that David would never hurt Roman, and that she was sad to see their relationship ruined over an accusation with no real basis. That I shouldn’t let my self destructive behavior and my “bipolar paranoia” get in the way of other people’s happiness. And that I better not accuse her boyfriend of being a predator anymore. Essentially, she kept shifting the blame onto me, so I ended it there.
Oh, and she told me that she wants reimbursement for things like clothing and grocery shopping, because apparently we are draining her wallet with buying so much food (Yes, an eighth grader going through a growth spurt eats a lot. Shocker!). But I apologized and said I’d buy his and my groceries from now on.
David came back from his church retreat Friday morning, which is when I confronted him. I was very upset, so I didn’t go easy on him. He was thrown off by my hostility, but once he understood what I was implying, his demeanor shifted. “Sit down, sit down, let’s talk about it,” he kept saying, except he was the one who was nervous and looked like he was on the brink of a panic attack.
I kept my composure. I asked him why he was in my son’s room in the middle of the night with the door shut. He gave me the same excuse, that he was looking for his cellphone. I asked him why he couldn’t have gone for it in the morning. He said that he set the alarm to 5am for work, and that he didn’t want it to go off with my son in the room and wake him up. I asked him why he was standing over my son’s bed. He admitted that he was trying to wake him up and ask him if he’d seen his phone. Did he not just say that he didn’t want the alarm to wake him up? I asked him what on Earth would compel him to think it is okay to wake up my child in the middle of the night to help him look for a cellphone. He said he wasn’t thinking straight, and that he was sorry.
I asked him about the missing laundry as well. He adamantly denied what I was implying. He said that his and my sister’s clothing get lost in the laundry all the time. That he would help me find my son’s missing clothing. All while apologizing profusely.
I’ll admit, I was thrown off by how apologetic he was, and it made me a little soft. I thanked him for letting us stay in his house, and I apologized for not setting boundaries earlier, but I told him that from now on, I didn’t feel comfortable with him being around my son. No more driving him places, buying him gifts, texting him, helping him with homework, doing his laundry, etc. I essentially told him that he is no longer allowed to be alone with my son or touch his things under any circumstances.
He broke down in tears. He was hysterical. The thought of me believing that he is preying on my son made him miserable. That he’d never do that. He said, “I love him like a father loves a son.” When reading my original post, a lot of you believed the same thing at first. So did I. But I just…don’t like the way David looks at him. Yes, I see the kindness in his eyes toward my son as he helps him with homework or watches a show with him, but there is a nuance of something covetous and sinister that I can’t shake off.
Anyway, I told him that it’s unhealthy for him to be so fixated on a child, and that he cannot depend on my kid for happiness. I told him that we’d be leaving very soon (more on that later). I didn’t tell him where or when it was happening. He asked if there was anything he could do to rectify the situation. He suggested that the four of us sit down and talk about it. I declined. I reiterated that he is not allowed near my kid anymore and left it at that.
A small part of me feels like I was too harsh on him overall. Maybe he was just looking for his phone. Maybe it’s a coincidence that articles of clothing are missing. But he was on his knees, sobbing, like I had just pulled the rug out from underneath him. For a child he hasn’t known for that long. I don’t think he was devastated that I’d accused him of being a predator, he was devastated that I revoked his access to my child. I’m not stupid. I once witnessed this man argue with my sister — brutal, verbal assaults from both sides, which ended in my sister crying. He didn’t shed a tear.
For my peace of mind (and yours), I have been watching Roman like a hawk. When I’m home, he’s with me. When I’m not home, he’s at a trusted friend’s house, or again, with me. I actually took him to work with me this morning, which he wasn’t thrilled about, but whatever. I made him block David’s number, of course. We haven’t been in the house since Friday, but as some of you suggested, I will sleep in his room at night instead of making him sleep in my room. I’ll be honest, I decided to hold off on drug testing him, because I really do not think David has been drugging him. My son is naturally a heavy sleeper and has always had issues waking up for school, even before we moved into my sister’s house. I checked his text messages, and from what I’ve seen, he’s never texted David at night. He’s usually up texting his friends in a group chat.
Like you all suggested, I purchased a nanny cam, specifically the one where you can watch the footage on your smartphone. I wasn’t expecting it to be so pricy…I ordered them on Wednesday, and they are due to arrive tonight or Monday morning. I’ll put it in my son’s room and review it every day. I’m really nervous because there’s a possibility that I’ll see something odious and I don’t know if I can handle that.
Lots of you have voiced your concerns for my kid. From what I’ve seen and from what he’s told me, he’s doing fine! We have been staying at a motel for the weekend, now that David has returned from his church retreat. I wasn’t taking any chances. $56 a night, and a little sketchy, but I don’t want to complain. Again, despite the situation, his mood has been a lot better than mine has. He thinks a motel is the same as a hotel, so to him, it’s like we’re on a mini vacation. It’s mind-blowing how kids can be so resilient, even in the most unnerving situations.
The majority of you have told me to go to a women’s shelter. I looked into this, and while it’s an option, the closest one to where I live is more than an hour away. I don’t have a car. I can take the bus — my usual mode of transportation — but that disrupts his commute to school, and my commute to work. It’s still winter and freezing cold where I live, so I’d rather watch him like a hawk than live on the street and subject him to the cold weather. And I am not taking him back to my ex husband’s house. There’s a reason why he left, and why I divorced him.
Which brings me to some good news. I applied for public housing a loooong while back and I am in the process of getting approved! They contacted me for documentation (which I submitted) and I got "verified” so I think that’s a good sign? I’m very fortunate, since I know waitlists can be long sometimes.
I can’t believe I’m holding it together so well, but I’m proud of myself. I think I’m doing everything I can. Thank you for listening. I’ll update again shortly with hopefully better news.
TLDR; currently at motel after confronting sister and her boyfriend. Reactions were brutal. Son is safe and nothing bad has happened to him. Camera has been purchased and will be set up and reviewed daily once I return, and a deep search of David’s room will be conducted once I get the opportunity. Currently getting approved for public housing, which will be my ticket out.
Edit: This goes without saying, but I will of course talk to my son before putting a camera in his room.
~~~
EDIT: OOP posted a new update within the last hour, which you can see on her profile. It is disturbing.
Reminder - I am NOT the original poster. Don't forget that commenting on the original posts is not allowed.

This is my first post to worldbuilding, so constructive criticism is welcome.
The world is modern Earth, but every human can teleport. I've considered how this would impact various aspects of society, and will add more as I write them. My main reason for posting is that I would like to write a novel, but don't have the patience, so I expressly give anybody permission to use my work to create something bigger (novel, RPG, etc) - I'd love to read it!
Basic summary
Everybody can teleport freely. This has been the case for all of human history.
How teleportation works
Teleportation applies only to the person - nothing they're touching. During teleport a person finds a region of low density - air - to swap places with. Teleporting takes energy proportional to the mass at the destination. This isn't generally a problem, but it makes it nigh impossible to teleport into solid or liquid objects. Rain is barely more dense than dry air, with no noticeable increase in difficulty. A typical healthy adult can teleport 20-30 times a day without becoming overly tired.
Teleporting does not produce cool Hollywood-style effects. There is no sound, and a person simply appears or disappears. If they teleport into an area with something in the air, such as rain or dust, this will be transported to where they were, and teleporting into wind can leave a brief gust in your absence. It is generally assumed that travel by teleportation occurs at the speed of light, and modern high-framerate cameras have confirmed this to within 0.01%, but only for distances up to about 8 kilometres (after that, the horizon becomes a problem). This, however, is just the time between disappearing and reappearing elsewhere; in practice it takes several seconds of preparation time.
Travel companies
Travel companies are nothing like what they are today. Transport is essentially for freight only, and the equivalent of commercial airlines or train lines are for luggage to be sent on ahead of a planned teleport, and collected or delivered at the other end. Holiday homes as such are rare, but wealthy people may have small rooms, wardrobes essentially, dotted around the world. Every major town and city has a few designated teleport pads, large open spaces with a soft-play surface and absolutely no structures, even temporary ones.
Clothing and accessories
Since clothes don't teleport, clothing is a status symbol. To wear fancy clothes means you don't need to travel far, you have private transport, or you have access to high-quality clothing at your destination; therefore quality clothing is worn by the wealthy to show off their status, and many people do not wear clothes as a matter of course; this means human population density is much higher in warmer regions, with colder regions having wealthy people and those who need to work there (e.g. scientists and miners). Less wealthy people who wear clothes are typically very near where they live, including those who have chosen not to interact with the world (e.g. shut-ins). Travel companies offer clothing for rent (and disposable underwear) at destination hubs; most would rent bog-standard clothing, often only for a few hours. Millions of parents tire of telling their children to put their clothes neatly away, instead of just teleporting out of them. Like clothing, jewelery and make-up are rare, and tattoos almost unheard of, but scarification and branding are common (though far from universal). These are often used to aid identification of individuals or group membership, both voluntarily and as a criminal punishment. Plastic surgery is difficult, and injuries that require stitches or casts make teleporting problematic; people often take a week or two off work to recover from relatively minor wounds. On the other hand, wounds don't often get infected, as before an infection takes hold, a teleport a few metres away can clean the wound very effectively.
Crime
Prisons don't exist. Physical security to prevent theft boils down to preventing people from retrieving items; a locked door won't stop somebody getting in, but a lockbox too small for a human to fit in might. Physical security that prevents people getting out is more common. Some secure rooms contain noxious gases, either continuously or triggered by movement sensors. But why do people steal? To make use of an item. A furniture shop, with sofas and beds, will be significantly different.
These days, physical theft is less of a problem than information theft. Patents are really the only aspect of our intellectual property laws that took off here; anybody can teleport into your office and read your notes, but they can't legally use them if they're subject to patents. Patent law is far stronger here than in our world.
Murder is at once easier and more difficult than in our world. If a person wants another dead, they can teleport into their bedroom while they sleep and catch them unawares; but they cannot bring a weapon, and will have to rely on their wits. Guns can't be brought in; strangulation is possible, but the victim will almost always wake up and teleport away. Attempted murder, on the other hand, is a lot more common, and you can't replicate what they do on cop shows, asking neighbours if they saw somebody approaching the house. With evidence harder to come by, the deterrent is extreme: if convicted of either murder or attempted murder, the penalty is death. Official and private bounty hunters track convicts down and carry out the punishment themselves, and the hardest part is often taking the body to a law enforcement station to claim their prize.
Teleportation education
Everybody needs to learn to teleport. Babies cannot, and so new parents are quite restricted, especially without the consumer-level travel networks our world has. Toddlers can be very annoying if they start teleporting before learning how to control it. An understanding of the destination is required for accurate teleportation; geography lessons are typically compulsory up to school leaving age, and teleportation lessons include:
Basic instruction:

• How to teleport
• Avoiding hazards (high places, dangerous places)
• Quickly teleporting to a known place (home) in an emergency
• Not ejecting your lunch on arrival

Mid-level instruction:

• Energy conservation
• Etiquette
• Planning ahead

Advanced instruction:

• Teleporting to unknown places (research and exploration)
• Rapid-fire teleportation

Technical details of teleporting
Only humans can teleport. Scientists and priests have pondered this for centuries. Many religious people and organisations believe this is a unique gift from God; but scientists have been trying for years to break it down and figure out exactly what it is that provides this ability. If it can be understood, and then replicated, it may be possible to create teleporters for inanimate objects, truly ushering in a post-scarcity future. But while many theories have been proposed, none have stood up to scrutiny for very long. That said, teleportation research is still a potentially lucrative career path, given the reward to humanity if the problem is solved, and billions are poured into this every year.
Teleportation takes energy, which comes from the individual's personal reserves of chemical energy. Most scientists currently believe each cell provides the energy to teleport itself, although given that not all of a human body is made of cells with energy reserves, this is clearly an incomplete theory and research is ongoing.
Some energy is required simply to teleport, around 100 J per kilogram of body mass. A change in height adds further energy on top of the base, equal to the change in gravitational potential energy: 1 J per metre change per kilogram. Curiously this amount is paid whether moving up or down, and scientists are still unclear where the energy goes when moving downward. For a 70 kg person, this works out to 7,000 J plus 700 J per vertical metre. Teleporting three floors up or down is about 14,000 J, or 3.3 kcal. The additional cost is zero when teleporting elsewhere on the same geodesic, even to the other side of the planet. This means it is easier to teleport to the same height on the other side of the world than it is to teleport upstairs in your own house, and most children understand geodesics by about age 13.
A large height change at once is very taxing. 100 metres is 18 kcal, 1 kilometre is 168 kcal, and the formal edge of the atmosphere, 100 kilometres, is almost 17,000 kcal - one week's recommended caloric intake. While teleporting is banned in most sports, athletics competitions include teleportation events in speed, accuracy and height. The best telethletes can teleport in just under a second (a typical person takes about five seconds), hit a target within 1 centimetre (typical 0.5-1 metre), and travel 1.5 kilometres vertically (typical 50 metres), though post-event recuperation can take a week or so. Recovering from one teleport and preparing for the next takes most people a few minutes, but some practised people can be much faster; the world record from sea-level to the top of Everest is 18 seconds in 6 jumps.
To teleport somewhere, it is critical to know the area. Telethletes' 1 cm accuracy is only achieved with line of sight, and they will study the area before the event. Ordinary people can achieve an accuracy better than 5 cm with somewhere they know very well, like their home or workplace. Major teleport pads are very large, and incoming travellers are cleared off of them immediately. Fortunately, teleporting into solid objects is essentially impossible due to the energy required. People "feel" the area before teleporting, and adjust their aim; schools (and parents) teach children to try teleporting into the ground, and aim gradually higher until they can do it. Aim too high however, and you'll teleport into mid-air. Serious teleport injuries are uncommon, but "teleport knee" is a frequent medical complaint, despite PSA campaigns like "Travelling? Relax!" and "Going on vacation? Bend your knees before you put your feet up!" Another complication is that a person's orientation doesn't change during teleportation, meaning that long-distance travel can leave you lying sideways. Experienced travellers can estimate the destination of others by looking at the angle they tilt their body to before travelling, and compasses and latitude/longitude/elevation markings are as common in public places as clocks.
Travel companies take pains to make their location as clear as possible, and expect (but can't enforce) travellers to book in advance. Since many people opt to go to a teleport hub before travelling long-distance, hubs have large waiting/meeting rooms, and scale models of people at different angles with their city on a sign above them. On the other hand, secure locations like bank vaults are often built at a different elevation and/or angle from the rest of the floor. Rumours that the floors are made of fragile glass with a substantial fall below remain unconfirmed.
Children learn early on that while teleporting can change your location, it can't change your velocity. A person who falls from a large height must teleport to the ground immediately, before their speed becomes too great. Some people set up a crash mat in their home, and practise teleporting onto it with precision, "just in case".
Health problems affect the ability to teleport. Mechanical implants, such as pacemakers or artificial legs, don't go with you; biological implants do, and research is ongoing into producing biological implants for all disabilities. Wheelchairs don't go with you, but can be hired from travel companies. These are not a problem for the ultra-rich who can take private transport; and indeed, being able to spend hours or days travelling is a sign of wealth.
Trade and commerce
This is not a post-scarcity world. For one, there are still limited resources, and they can't be teleported, so logistics problems still exist. And for another, post-scarcity implies that things that are not scarce now were in the past. To the extent that it could be called post-scarcity by us, these people have always lived like this; teleportation has been common throughout human history.
Important infrastructure facilities are guarded much more heavily than they are in our world. A power station will have hundreds of guards, armed with lethal and non-lethal weaponry. The kind of alarm that James Bond might set off is useless if intruders can just teleport away, so instant response is called for. Many such facilities have no front door, though of course they have loading doors for cargo.
Rail is the dominant means of overland transport, and cargo ships over the sea. Private land and sea vehicles are luxury or enthusiast goods, and road infrastructure is primarily pedestrian and cycle paths in major cities, with private taxis from local teleport hubs. People don't commute to work; if they wear clothes at work, they teleport into the changing rooms.
Money exists, and operates much as it does for us. But notes and coins are almost unheard of today. Valuable goods have to be transported physically, but few use precious metals and gems as cash. Money is controlled by centralised banks, and accessed via password.
Historically this came with various problems, and meant trade was almost as limited as it was in our world until recently. In the past, local trade typically used local city-state currency, but trading beyond walking range was as difficult with teleportation as it was in our world without it.
With the advent of global computer systems, people could memorise their usernames and passwords. Of course this meant people would have far fewer unique passwords than we do, and scams were common. Most people now use fingerprints or iris scanners, and recovery of a lost bank account is an arduous process.
Warfare
Resources being in fixed locations, and transport being needed for them, means wars are still a thing. These are curious affairs for residents of our world. Military intelligence is everything. Location on the battlefield is still important, but far less so; a soldier can dodge a bullet as long as they see - or hear - it coming. If you don't take out the enemy with the first bullet, they'll be gone by the time you fire the second. Standard infantry with weapons can be outflanked without warning. A common sight on the battlefield, today and for thousands of years, is a squad of armed soldiers advancing on the enemy, suddenly being beaten and strangled by naked assassins. Point-to-point unarmed strikers are the equivalent of today's marines or yesteryear's ninjas or assassins, and can teleport with a precision of a couple of centimetres. Given the inability to take communications devices with them, strikers rely heavily on intelligence: distance and aerial reconnaissance outdoors, and spotters for enemy bases, who will teleport into a location, quickly memorise their surroundings, and return and relay the information to their comrades. If strikers are the elite, then spotters are the elite of the elite; the skills and training that go into a good spotter mean they rarely risk joining the active assault, and few striker teams have more than one spotter. Other strikers can take on the role if needed but will usually be less effective.
Since there are effectively no nation-states, nation-states don't go to war. Wars are usually carried out between different factions, such as Communities of Interest (see "Political structures" below). Standing armies as described above do exist, but are only a small part of war. Perhaps the most important part is political assassinations. A person designated at-risk by the Assemblies (see below), or a paranoid person with lots of money, will always have armed bodyguards ready to shoot to kill, even watching over them while they sleep.
Political structures
Countries don't exist, or at least not in the way we're used to. Borders can control property, but not people, and it makes little sense for a person to obey a specific set of laws just because they tend to sleep in a specific geographical region. Government is closer to a one-world affair. Rather than communities of geography, people are grouped into Communities of Interest. Each person declares themself to one Community (almost nobody chooses not to); they can change Community at any time, except during the year before the five-yearly election. Communities can be created by anybody, and organise themselves however they like, but they only have any real global power if they have membership of at least 100,000. The election is a simple count of the membership of each Community; for every 100,000 people in a Community, that Community gets one representative in the Junior Assembly (currently 110,000 representatives). Likewise, Junior Representatives form themselves into Coalitions, and for every 100 Junior Representatives in a Coalition, they send one representative to the Senior Assembly (currently numbering 800). Roughly 50 from the Senior Assembly form the Executive Committee to formulate policy, but a majority vote in the Senior Assembly is required to enact legislation. This system has existed in something resembling its present form for thousands of years, and its origins are lost to time.
An exact count of Communities of Interest is not possible due to their fluidity, but political journalists commonly quote half a million. These can include major blocks of tens of millions of people based on religion or broad political principles, special interest communities and single-issue groups with hundreds of thousands of members, minor subcultures with a few hundred people who consider their subculture more important personally than their broader political beliefs, all the way down to families, friendship groups, or even "communities" of one. Only about 12,000 Communities of Interest currently have representation in the Junior Assembly, and while this includes 85% of people, a so-called "direct rep" - a member of the Senior Assembly who is from your Community (rather than just your Community's Coalition) - is the privilege of just 12% of the global population.
There are always some "non-participatory" Communities - those who, due to political indifference, political hostility, or downright apathy, join a Community with the explicit goal of not participating. There are usually a fairly large number of such Communities, each with very small membership; but occasionally one of these can grow to the level of Junior Representation. This most recently happened in 1959, when anger over economic inequality gained the "Just Piss Off" Community 25,000 Junior and 25 Senior Representatives. They dwindled to two Seniors by the next election, and zero thereafter, but their influence is still hotly debated by journalists and political scientists.
There is no single individual at the top. The Senior Assembly forms committees with a specific purpose, and each committee elects a president from their number, but they have little specific power and their position is dissolved when the committee's work concludes. A committee president will generally be the public face of the committee, appearing in public to explain their work, but they have just their own vote during committee meetings. Committees may be a small number of Senior Representatives, but may also invite Junior Representatives and non-Representative experts and members of the public; such people have the same amount of formal power within the committee as the Senior Representatives.
Food and other essentials
Many industries are nationalised. This is not the correct word in a world without nations; the word they use is "Assembled", much to the chagrin of linguists. In particular, food and water are Assembled. These are the only goods which can be taken by a teleporter (provided they consume them first), and it is simply not possible to carry out food production for profit, nor to not carry out food production. Workers in the food and drink industries are paid by the Assembly, and very little food is distributed; people come and take what they want. Food distribution is reserved for restaurants, pubs, and special occasions, and here, payment is primarily for delivery.
The type of food produced is dictated by a standing Committee, based on voting by the Junior Assembly. This gives everybody with a Junior Representative the opportunity to lobby for an increase in production of their preferred food, and many food companies - and in particular, alcoholic drinks companies - have their own Community of Interest with substantial Junior Representation.
Language
I mentioned linguists earlier. Language is a lot easier here. Humans, it is thought, have been able to teleport at least as long as they've had spoken language, and certainly longer than written language. As such there is effectively just one language, although people still tend to live in a particular region, and distinct dialects exist. Still, just about everybody on the planet can understand everybody else. Language evolves over time, and it is unlikely a time traveller from a thousand years ago would get on so easily. That said, they'd have a better time with written communication. Writing is pictographic; broadly, each concept has a glyph to represent it, and diacritics to add nuance. Liberal use of diacritics is commonly seen as a sign of a good education, and a complete lack of diacritics is perceived as crude and vulgar. Other written forms do exist from ancient times, and the written language of today is assumed to have developed as the human population rose, and relatively isolated cultures encountered each other more frequently.
Separate written languages have emerged in recent centuries to express mathematics and science. This was particularly important in early chemistry, as a single distinct glyph for each chemical name quickly become unwieldy. Modern mathematicians and scientists are essentially bilingual, and have developed their own form of non-scientific written communication using scientific symbols. These symbols number only about 200, many originating as chemical elements, and scientific writing is not only unintelligible to the untrained, but also significantly longer; a page of normal writing using glyphs and diacritics, translated into scientific notation, could easily run to twenty pages. Schoolchildren learn the basics of scientific notation, but only those who take advanced scientific study will become fluent.
Religion
A BRIEF NOTE: I am not a bigot. Or at least, I think I'm not; I try not to be. Many people believe in a god, and many people don't, and what I'm describing here is one version of my imagined historical revision based on a world with teleportation. I'm not an expert in any faith, even my own, and there are surely many errors in my historical understanding. The increased or decreased prevalence of a religion in this fictional world is in no way an indication that I think this SHOULD happen; I do not. If you don't like what you read, don't use it. I don't mean to cause any offense, and I apologise if I do.
Religions, as mentioned, exist. There is little difference from our own world in the desire for faith, although there are differences in how religions came about. Monotheism is less common, with many monotheists believing in a divine spirit of the universe rather than a specific individual God. Eastern Dharmic beliefs and Western esotericism have been more popular, and many modern people follow a fusion of the two, called The Path. A minority of Pathists take the name literally, and do not teleport; members of this offshoot are called Walkers.
Buddha existed, and his teachings are more or less unchanged from our world. Buddhists are relatively common.
Judaism does exist, but as the primordial monotheistic faith, rather than a distinct lineage of people. Major events in the real-world history of Judaism include the enslavement of the Israelites and their forty years wandering the desert; this did not happen, and so Jews did not become a tight-knit community, and there is no modern Israel. Today there are a few enclaves around the world, with a third of Jews living in such small groups, and the rest spread among the general population.
Islam is also founded in part on the holding of lands by Muslims and non-Muslims. These events did not happen, and if Mohammad existed, his teachings have been lost to time.
Jesus did exist, and Christianity is very similar. During Jesus' life there were autocratic religious leaders who strictly controlled what the people were allowed to say and do, under penalty of death; although food-poverty never really existed, these leaders lived in luxury at great cost to others. It was this that Jesus preached was sinful. Jesus is particularly noted for surrendering himself to the authorities, in a world where anybody can evade capture if they see it coming. Crucifixion was invented specifically for him. Christianity spread, but not as much, and there is no such thing as Catholic or Protestant; just different flavours of belief.
Atheists are less common. The simple fact that humans are unique in their ability to teleport leads most to believe in something that makes humans special, even after developing an understanding of evolution.
Technology
Technology followed a similar path to our world, with the notable exception of mobile phones. People have cabled computers in their homes and offices, but mobile devices are both less useful and less useable, since you can't teleport with a phone, but you can just teleport back home if you need to use a computer. The internet is just as widespread, and personal cloud computing is even more common; most people have an account with a hosting service, and most computers allow remote logins to access your desktop and files. Internet cafés are very common as meeting places where people can work together on whatever they want to do. Since portable devices never really took off, fixed computers tend to be larger and more powerful.

(Edit: Formatting) I'm looking to get another credit card to add because I have a thin file (1 Card). I'm not too enthusiastic about a card with fees but I'd be open for sure. I've been great with payments but currently only get 1% cash back. So if like to get one with better rewards if possible. I don't travel a lot besides a road trip each year when we either camp or asleep in the car. Let me know if more info is needed thanks so much!
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Current credit cards you are the primary account holder of: Wells Fargo Platinum Card $4,000 limit
FICO Scores with source: Experian 791
Oldest credit card account age with you as primary name on the account: 7 years 7 Months
Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 6 months:0 Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 12 months:0 Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 24 months:0
Annual income $: 47K
CATEGORIES
OK with category-specific cards?: Yes, but I think I'm leaning toward a higher flat rate
OK with rotating category cards?: Possibly, see credit cards I have been looking at
Estimate average monthly spend in the categories below.
Dining $: Bars $400 Dining $100
Groceries $: $150 Kroger
Gas $: $50
Travel $: Usually only spend on gas wasn't sure if I should include it here or above ($166 Broken down monthly $ doesn't include gas for commuting) Hotel $45
Any other categories: Internet $60
Any other significant, regular credit card spend you didn't include above?:
AliExpress $300
MEMBERSHIPS & SUBSCRIPTIONS
Current member of Chase, US Bank or any other big bank?: Wells Fargo
PURPOSE What's the purpose of your next card?: Saving Money via Rewards
Do you have any cards you've been looking at?
Citi® Double Cash Card or Discover it Cash Back (usually road trip in May so if the calendar stays the same it might be worth it for the gas station category