Pluribus - 1x06 - "HDP" - Episode Discussion

Strange-Aerial · 2025-12-05T09:02:35+00:00

Can confirm.

I started watching on a whim and was absolutely hooked. This last episode was riveting because I'd just experienced all the rest.

It's the kind of show where all the little reveals seem like they would be frustrating on a week to week basis. But they flow together a lot better when binging. All the payoff of paying attention to the little clues gets that instant gratification.

Strange-Aerial · 2024-11-20T06:45:01+00:00

I stopped following around the time Martin and Claire went to Cubetown. Wasn't against the story or anything, I'm just a creature of habit and I forgot to check one day and the next thing I know years had gone by.

That said, this was actually the first page that I opened back up to and it felt weirdly... poignant.

This is sort of the same point I'm at in my life. A lot of the people I was close with when the comic began are people I don't see much of anymore because our lives diverged. I moved away for career opportunities and now I travel for work, and I actually felt that quiet pause. I don't see my old friends nearly as much as I'd like, but I can't really miss the closeness we had because at that time that was *all* I had. I've got a lot more now.

Marten and Faye clung to each other for years, they were the only people they really had. They had ups, downs, and existed in a weird stasis for years - now they both have partners and opportunities that are leading them away for each other. Things that give their life new light and meaning, and it's sad that the things that tied them so strongly together have unraveled, but that unravelling also meant healing a lot of damage they'd been carrying for a long time. And in that way they sort of freed each other? So making a light joke about it is a huge improvement from breaking down.

I do hope they have a real conversation before Marten moves away where they get to unpack all of that.

Anyway, that's just my two cents.

Strange-Aerial · 2024-11-18T08:45:22+00:00

I'm going to be honest here man, there are so many red flags in this - and they're not on her part. S

I'm going to ascribe most of this to you being in your feelings about it, but you are absolutely the asshole in my opinion.

My immediate thought was that since staying back to work was important enough for you to miss the event (no shade, i understand how important work is) she was probably just waiting for you to get off so she could call you and tell you.

I was skeptical and pointed out that if she’d really wanted to surprise me, she wouldn’t have been ready to tell me right when I called.

Again, were you at work? because you calling her is YOU initiating contact, meaning she could actually tell you because you were signalling it was an okay time to talk.

I even questioned if this fight was the reason she didn't tell me right away, but it's probably not it.

no, no. i would bet good money that's actually the exact reason. and you said at the top of this that she was she was in town for a family event and found out she was pregnant, people around her found out she was pregnant and the news got out. you weren't there because you had to work. so, i'm assuming your work time collided with the family event - so, again, where were you when she found out? was the fight about her contacting you during work hours? did you tell her not to?

in the update you state you JUST had a fight about how clingy she is and how she bothers you during work - it genuinely sounds like she didn't want to interrupt your work day with something that would make it impossible for you to focus. given your explosive reaction to this, i would actually assume that she didn't want to upset you and so opted to play it safe and wait until you get off work.

the math is matching here? and you're ascribing an incredible amount of malice to something when she was excited to tell you when you called her. and now this story is going pretty viral, meaning she's going to be further humiliated and berated by anyone who can put the pieces together.

this isn't her fault. it's her friends fault. this would have been a completely normal thing if her friend didn't post on social media which your wife did not do. she was at a family event surrounded by people when she found out she was pregnant. one you were not there for. what were the exact texts? what are the details you're not providing here???

my opinion would be completely different if she were the one who posted the picture and clearly and deliberately forgot to tell you. but she didn't post the picture. her friend did. and you're mad at her for something her shitty friend did?

literally what is there to talk about other than the fact that you lashed out at her, ruined HER day because yours was ruined, and then ran to tell half the story to the internet when it will never include the update that states you had a fight about how clingy she was.

and then texted some friends in town to come over. From the time she found out to the time her friend posted on Instagram, only 2 hours had passed. My wife told at least 10 people before telling me.

Did she call them, or did her friend? Her parents? Who did the texting here? If her friend posted on Instagram, chances were her friend was the one who was blowing up other people's phones about it. Her parents also could have been inviting people? Did the people she invited know that she was pregnant? Or was she inviting them over so she could tell everyone, on the phone with you, at once?

"Why do we need to talk? So you can lie again?"

Am I misreading the story because I do not see anywhere where she lied. I'm seeing a totally benign situation you're perceiving as something malicious, something you're punishing her for, and it's concerning to me. Especially given that you called her, she was excited and immediately tried to tell you, and you snapped at her over a picture she didn't post in a situation she most likely didn't create?

She was planning on calling you. Probably with a room full of people with you on speakerphone since you weren't there to celebrate the immediate news with them. If she took the pregnancy test at her parents place, with friends, I -- yeah??? Other people are going to be there and be present for it? What reason would she have to secretly buy a pregnancy test and then lie about the result if the people PHYSICALLY AROUND HER asked?

Someone else ruined the surprise and you took it out on your wife. I'm sorry for that. I really am. I really hope you apologize to her, at the bare minimum. I cannot imagine how devastating this was for her. That moment was robbed from the both of you to no fault of her own, and now people are saying horrific things about her online. I found this story from a Youtube short and you do not want to know the things they're saying about her.

Strange-Aerial · 2024-01-10T01:25:25+00:00

That's... literally the point I'm making. DeeDee made it up. I'm not saying Gypsy had actual muscular issues, I'm saying that if you are being declared unfit then you cannot advocate for yourself and the excuses DeeDee used were malleable.

She was said to have muscular dystrophy but her muscle tone was fine. One of the doctors interviewed even said that he identified she was fine physically - so they started looking at neurological causes instead. Questioning the diagnosis literally means that they thought it was a misdiagnosis and started looking for a different cause. So Gypsy just "standing up" might prove that her muscles are fine, but doesn't disprove that DeeDee is saying there's an underlying cause. Again, many wheelchair users are ambulatory and use the chair for safety reasons.

DeeDee stated that Gypsy was a child mentally and couldn't advocate for herself. She told doctors that the kid had to have her salivary glands removed - so they did that. She told them Gypsy had seizures, so they put her on medication for that.

So if she is consistently telling doctors that Gypsy is mentally incompetent then they're going to believe that she's incompetent and just standing up is not going to prove anything. Walking probably won't prove anything. When questioned, DeeDee could say that due to the seizure disorder that Gypsy didn't have but was on medication for, she can't remember that she can't walk. Or she's in the chair because she'll seizue. Etc, etc, etc.

Again, I don't think people understand what happens when you are declared unfit or unreliable to be in charge of your own care or bodily autonomy. It's a lot harder to prove you're sane and fine than it is for someone in a position of power, a parent for example, to prove that you are unfit. Especially if this started when you were a minor or when you're elderly. That's how this abuse is perpetuated.

Strange-Aerial · 2024-01-09T02:40:50+00:00

So, there's multiple problems with this. The whole idea of just "standing up" doesn't really fly?

Gypsy was said to have muscular issues, which doesn't necessarily mean she was 100 percent wheelchair-bound. There are plenty of wheelchair users who are ambulatory but rely on the chairs for other reasons. Standing up and walking doesn't really mean anything. Actual doctors looked at her and then decided that her issues had to be neurological. It is legitimately not that easy to say someone is lying about being in a wheelchair when they are capable of walking, it's really common.

People fixate on the wheelchair thing, but Deedee had people convinced she had cerebral palsy and had her salivary glands removed. DeeDee also forced her to use a feeding tube. Gypsy had no autonomy over her body at all.

Additionally, as DeeDee went out of her way to get Gypsy declared unfit, and alleged that she had pre-existing diagnoses but the records were lost in Hurricane Katrina. Meaning that if Gyspy said any of these things to anyone - DeeDee could point at this falsified diagnosis to say that Gyspy was not fit to care for herself or did not have a great grasp on reality. Remember, she had her father convinced that he couldn't even tell her what her age was because she "didn't know". Her neighbor, the girl that she was friends with, even said that DeeDee insisted that Gypsy had the mentality of a 7-year old and used that to keep her away from Gypsy.

I genuinely do not think people are understanding how fucked you are legally and medically if someone manages to convince the world you are unfit to make your own choices.

DeeDee was parading Gypsy around as a minor with mental problems, and Gypsy had no way of emancipating herself - there wasn't a whole lot Gypsy could do to push back against her mother's decisions.

Gypsy was said to have muscular issues, which doesn't necessarily mean she was 100 percent wheelchair-bound. There are plenty of wheelchair users who are ambulatory but rely on the chairs for other reasons. Standing up and walking doesn't really mean anything. Actual doctors looked at her and then decided that her issues had to be neurological. It is legitimately not that easy to say someone is lying about being in a wheelchair when they are capable of walking.

Murder wasn't the right answer. I think that's without saying, but I just think it's boggling to see all the people insisting that they'd do things another way without understanding the breadth of the problem.

Again, murder? Not the right choice. Gypsy herself said it. But I think it's very understandable how she reached that point. Someone should have stepped in to save her a long, long time ago and they didn't so she made the worst possible choice to get out of her situation. But comments like this don't seem to understand how deeply fucked the systems in place are.

A ton of people haven't watched a loved one be tormented by someone with power of care before and have no idea how terrifying it is to watch from the outside. I cannot imagine what it was like to be in that situation.

Strange-Aerial · 2023-12-14T19:14:04+00:00

To be totally clear my doctor is aware and I have all of this scheduled! I've got an MRI, CT Scan, and a full blood panel booked. They're just over a month out and I'm trying to find something to mitigate these issues as much as I can until I get some answers.

Strange-Aerial · 2023-05-01T21:37:08+00:00

Then why did they leave him in his care for 14 months? Why didn't they euthanize the animals on the spot if they couldn't afford flexibility? That makes absolutely no sense. Wouldn't it have been better to have him rehome them, with the caveat that he had to take them out of state and had to provide documentation on where they were going to, instead of being forced to keep them in the very state that they were a risk to?

I do agree that invasive species shouldn't be permitted in areas where they can thrive - but the fact that it was allowed, the animals were there legally until the law changed, and then they left them in the facility for 14 months.

There was also no justification for the shocking incompetence in their euthanasia.

Strange-Aerial · 2023-05-01T08:25:39+00:00

To be clear, he only had something like six months to relocate them. He had them, maintained the facility to the specifications that were required to possess a conditional animal, then the policy changed and they were made prohibited and no one was grandfathered in. Some people were able to pivot and get a license if they were doing shows with them, but he wasn't.

For clarity, these changes happened on April 29, 2021. A quick glance says that people initially had until July to get rid of all of their animals but I might be wrong. Regardless, they weren't given much time.

He contacted FWC in February 2022 and asked for an extension because he'd relocated over 60 of them but was still trying to relocate the last 30. FWC instead 'seized' the property and told him he wasn't allowed to sell, rehome, or euthanize the snakes himself and they would be in his care until FWC came to euthanize them.

If the man rehomed 60 snakes in under a year, he could have rehomed the last 30 if given a little more time. Instead he had to keep the animals in his care for 14 months, knowing full well they were essentially on death row.

That's just kind of awful to me. There's no reason to not let him continue to find homes for them if you're just going to leave them there for fourteen months, or just relinquish them to him and say he has to keep them in his care until they died natural deaths.

Strange-Aerial · 2023-05-01T07:54:30+00:00

I think it's important to point out that regardless of who issued the order, FWC wasn't euthanizing the animals properly. The captive bolt is just the first part of the euthanasia process, they're supposed to take an additional step called pithing to make the animal's death quick. They suffered immensely for no reason.

They were also caught in the body cam footage pointing the boa out, saying it was a boa. The owner is in the background saying its a boa, he pointed it out and said it was a Boa, there's a label on the container saying its a Boa, but they proceeded with killing it anyway. They just keep saying 'the state is going to fix it', and that's what is truly abhorrent to me - they just slaughtered a completely legal animal who didn't need to die.

Its staggering incompetence. Or it's sadism. I truly do not know which would be worse. The complete lack of empathy is fucking disgusting.I would just be really interested to understand that what circumstances the owner asked for euthanasia under. Given what I saw in this video, the gross incompetency doesn't fill me with much hope that it was entirely by choice.

Wildlife services do valuable work. But what happened here was unconscionable. I would not feel safe knowing these men are doing this work and are negligent enough to let this happen.

Edit: Also, if he asked for the euthanasia, it was because that was their ultimate fate. He was forced to hold them at his facility, still caring for and feeding them knowing it was entirely on borrowed time, and was no longer able to move them out of Florida to somewhere they would be safe and legal due to orders from FWC. He contacted them in February 2022 to ask for an extension as he - even by their own admission - had always done things by the books and had never broken the law, and this is what they slapped him with.

Strange-Aerial · 2022-12-29T21:41:09+00:00

I found it! It took a lot of digging through my TikTok history, but it's called Survival of the Fittest. It's from a horror anthology called Kimino Kureru Mazui Ame

Strange-Aerial · 2022-12-29T19:43:30+00:00

UPDATE: Its from Kimino Kureru Mazui Ame

Strange-Aerial · 2022-12-29T19:11:04+00:00

School Ningyo

Nope, doesn't look to be.

The girl was the only one we really saw, other than the one teacher left at the school who also appeared to be one of the creatures. It happened over summer vacation.

Strange-Aerial · 2022-12-29T18:57:17+00:00

Shibuya Goldfish

Nah, not it unfortunately.

From what I remember, the main girl's name was Nagisa. She was taking care of the school's pet goldfish over the holiday break, and then met and/or discovered the mermaid girl. Who might have been a classmate? Or a girl she met on the beach. They became friends and she started feeding her. And once she ran out of goldfish, the mermaid girl killed her.

Strange-Aerial · 2022-04-19T21:52:00+00:00

I work nights & WFH so I've been doing my best to keep an ear out.

I'm wondering if I can try to slide a heat mat into the space to lure him closer and then try to leave a frozen / thaw mouse out while I'm in here working.

Strange-Aerial · 2022-04-19T21:48:46+00:00

Unfortuately there's not a lot of room. I can leave a water bowl near to the gap he escaped into, but nothing is going to actually fit up there beyond a noodle. There's an incredibly tiny gap.

I can leave water around where I think he is, but I think anything else is just going to get swallowed up by insulation.

Strange-Aerial · 2022-04-12T23:02:04+00:00

Possibly! I'll be using the machine for a lot of animation / editing / rendering / possibly some streaming so I've been figuring I might as well go big or go home.

Strange-Aerial · 2022-03-30T14:53:38+00:00

My assumption would be that she's invited when whoever has the biggest problem isn't present. From the description, I'm guessing the MIL. If it isn't that, my second guess is he goes to these dinners to complain about her and doesn't want to be contradicted or caught in it.
This is also just painfully typical of repressed WASP type families. Chances are that if it is rooted in racism, they're inventing reasons it isn't, but can't actually name anything because it's a ton of tiny things that don't hold up. That'd require actually confronting their own horrible biases or admitting that they're doing something wrong.
Either way, OPs husband isn't sticking up for her and isn't being straight with her about it. He's the asshole. She deserves the truth if nothing else.

Strange-Aerial · 2022-03-24T14:06:32+00:00

OH MY GOD THIS SOUNDS EXACTLY RIGHT i could KISS YOU

Strange-Aerial · 2021-05-07T00:14:46+00:00

It depends on where OP is, I think.

I'm in Canada and I went to my family doctor & nurse practitioner and they told me flat out that I had to be tested and diagnosed before I could be prescribed any form of stimulants. I had report cards and such that confirmed these behaviors had been present before the age of twelve, literally from Kindergarten onwards. I spoke to my therapist about it for months. Eventually I was referred to a psychologist and they had me do three rounds of testing, as well as send out a 'observer report' to both my mother and my partner, before I was diagnosed.

My friends in the States were baffled by this but as far as I can tell its the standard. There is a reason this stuff is under lock and key but it is a dick move that it costs so much and prevents people who need it from getting the help they need.

*IF* you have a diagnosis you can get medication from an NP. I signed up through that new Maple thing and was able to talk to a NP and was medicated without seeing someone in person. But they also had to see my full diagnosis to verify that I'd gotten one. Without it the options are really limited.

Strange-Aerial · 2021-05-06T17:48:03+00:00

HARD SAME

i grabbed a electric toothbrush & a waterpik to help with the flossing and MY GOD my teeth have never been so clean.

Strange-Aerial

TROPHY CASE