My wife (38F) and I (38M) are considering a move from San Francisco to NYC and could use some help figuring out if our plans are realistic, and potential neighborhoods to look at for renting.

• No plans for any kids in the future
• Both tech workers. Our household income is $575k per year (composed of $415k base salary and $160k in liquid RSUs).
• Currently living in SF, we spend around $95k annually. Our rent for a 2bd/2ba apartment is $4900.
• We're thinking about relocating to NYC, possibly Brooklyn. Walkability and urban living (restaurants, coffee shops, shopping) are pretty important to us. Don't really care for clubs/bars. Subway convenience (for trips to Manhattan) is highly valued, although this isn't crucial.
• Both of us work from home, so we'd ideally like a 3bd/2ba setup with a master bedroom and separate home offices for each of us
• Ideal rent budget: ~ $5000/month. Not looking to buy for at least a few years.

While our salaries can technically support a higher rent, we've always adhered to the principle of being able to survive on a single income and putting the rest into savings/investments. This proved invaluable when one of us was laid off and had to job hunt for four months last year. However, we're unsure if we might need to bend this rule to secure a desirable place in Brooklyn.
To be clear, we're not entirely set on Brooklyn and are open to exploring other NYC suburbs if our ideal setup isn't feasible within our budget.

1. Firstly is this budget even realistic?
   
2. Would love any advice or insights on neighborhoods in Brooklyn, other boroughs or even other NYC suburbs that fit our criteria and budget. Any tips on navigating the NYC rental market would also be helpful. I've done a bit of preliminary searching on streeteasy, but open to hearing better search venues.
   
3. Finally, we have some flexibility around when we might make the move. Is there generally a better time in the year re: availability of rental inventory?
   

So for context the commanders have to be Othelm, Sigardian Outcast & Wernog, Rider's Chaplain. (Part of a personal art/challenge I am working on) I originally wanted to go Abzan reanimator, but after realizing the two things the two different commanders have in common is death triggers. So I was thinking reanimated good targets is a subtheme, but make the deck death triggers tribal. I am not as well versed in this color combo and could use advice/recommendations if you guys have some?

Link to Article Here: Commander Mustard Boros Soldiers
Commander Mustard is an absolute bomb of a commander for the soldier creature type. Due to the limited release and a ton of great options for soldier-focused commanders, Commander Mustard does not get nearly enough love from the community, this has been a pet deck of mine for a long time and is just an absolute blast to play, it feels like classic Boros gameplay and with a ton of creature/token production we can easily amass a true army and hit our opponents hard. From extra combats to protecting and buffing our creatures, this deck is as Boros as they come. All of these elements combine to make a very fun and effective combat deck. We are pretty lower power level on the grand scale of things as we don’t feature any infinite combos or loops, but we make up for it with the theme and generally being great in combat. This deck is a ton of fun, and I am excited to showcase it today. Without further adieu, let’s get it!

FIrst off, I want to declare I am by no means a linux expert or tech savvy, but I do like to mess around with performance settings to get my games running smooth while balancing graphical fidelity.
So this journey with MangoHud started from the 3.6 preview update initally causing disk write errors with two of my games, Helldivers 2 and Elden Ring, that I used mangohud in launch commands. No other games were affected, and taking mangohud out of the launch commands 'fixed' the disk write errors.
After looking into it, I found my first mistake: installing the mangohud flatpak from the discovery store. MangoHud is actually pre-installed on SteamOS for the Steam Deck. You do not need to download anything at all. It is a gamescope toggle initially enabled with the --mangoapp command.
I tried messing around with global mangohud config files, but found it beyond my meager technical ability, so I instead have a text file with launch commands to copy paste into individual games, which leads me to the primary performance toggles MangoHud offers.
They, among all the other settings, can be found here: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/flightlessmango/MangoHud/mastedata/MangoHud.conf
I personally have set up the following command for helldivers:
MANGOHUD_CONFIG="retro,af=0,fps_limit=30,no_display" mangohud gamescope -F fsr -S fit -f --mangoapp %command%
I am sure some of the more experienced members of this sub have valuable input to add, and I personally would love to delve deeper into this not-all-talked-about subsection of Steam Deck performance tweaks.
Of course, the primary reason why I was interested in MangoHud was the input delay introduced by the Steam Overlay fps limiter. MangoHud has the same result with way, way less input delay. The best part is that it is preinstalled already there, no messing with terminal, no flatpaks, just awaiting toggles in launch commands. What is weird is how little information I found about this, and I kinda wanted to signal boost, in case there are no-no's I need to know, and all other tips and tricks.

Tarot Reader since 2017 who has fully mastered in depth readings to bring true insight to the energies and circumstances you are dealing with, with the use of Oracle and Astrology as well. Shaneka's Services And Contact Linktree
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So, we are doing Reno on a house that we bought to live in. The basement was half built originally and the previous owner finished the other half without permits (it's a raised bungalow).
Initiallly we planned on 1. Kitchen demo i.e. cabinets and countertops 2. Couple of wall knockdowns and room alterations 3. Removal of a un permitted addition and some deck replacement 4. Basement wet bar Reno.
That cost was estimated as 30k. And demo is half way through.
Now the house has poly B and I asked for a quote on the replacement of poly B.. and the contractor basically said double that estimate because of
Popcorn ceiling holes and repair in basement, running new lines and replacing all fixtures in bathroom (apparently they cannot be re used..
I am really not sure what to do with that as it's a f ton of money.. so asking if I am underestimating the costs or the contractor is hosing me.
Money isn't tight but I don't like spending and more importantly getting hosed.
Thank you.

For this supposedly real job on StaffMeUp, the company wants to pay Producers a maximum of $1,634.62 per week. Give me a break. #staffmeupisajoke
*Producer* Manage creative projects including photography and video shoots from concept to completion. Work with the creative team to determine assets that are needed to produce.
PRE PRODUCTION Coordinate brainstorming and scheduling with team Manage the concept deck with shot list, script, products needed Book freelance model, hair, makeup, camera, audio, editor and manage in office staff Manage shoot budgets and timelines Prep space with products and manage call sheets
SHOOTS Oversee schedule and shoot goals Manage the shoot Check off the shot list Clean up and close out shoot
POST Manage deliverables Package team all variations of the shoot Label and store on the server File model releases and paperwork Facilitate any payments
LIVE SELLING SOCIAL SHOWS Manage schedules of talent Provide all products needed for live Manage sets: lights, props, scripts, marketing deals Review analytics to see performance and deals Set up for talent and be there to oversee and monitor shows

I just wanted to clarify some things.
English isn’t my first language so please go easy on some of my word choices.
I am not terrified of dogs in a way that it affects my life. I tried to explain in my post, maybe poorly.. but despite my past with them, I love dogs. We want to get a dog too. Big off leash dogs however, make me really nervous. Specifically scenarios like the incident I described in the post (and there were other incidents too that I did not describe, but just said “it happened twice before”). I promise my fear is not irrational. It is valid. I am not the type of person who overreacts or wants to ever make waves or have issues with anyone. I actively try to avoid this. My fiancé isn’t a hotheaded person by any means either. I made my post because I initially felt uncomfortable about the course of action he took. But based on comments, it seems his was not an abnormal response.
Both dogs are the cane corso breed. They are huge.
The dogs seem friendly— but more than that they seem really unpredictable. They don’t follow through with commands and recall. They do bark and show aggression sometimes, because they are territorial. In a comment I shared my neighbor said they are used to wandering on our property because our property was unoccupied previously (it’s a new build). So maybe they see it as their territory?
They have barked at myself and my fiancé in the past. It’s like a threatening type bark.. their posture reflects a guarding mode or alertness. They also jump, including jumping on their owner. They have tried to jump on me once in the past because I was holding something.. I quickly knew to put my hand with the object down. So a close call has happened before. I’m fairly petite and I could definitely see myself getting knocked off balance if one of them jumped on me. I worry about this a lot as I get further along in my pregnancy.
The laws where we live state dogs must be leashed or confined to the owners property. Just because it’s a rural area doesn’t mean it’s lawless. Most people here are responsible dog owners with well trained dogs.
Not everyone in this area has full perimeter fences because there’s lots of distance and privacy with the natural landscaping. Still… people keep their dogs on their own properties. When they walk their dogs, it’s on leash. If by chance you run into an off leash dog.. when the owner sees someone approaching, the dog goes back to the owner or back on leash. This is how I see people on trails here doing it. Why does this neighbor feel so entitled? If his dogs can’t be recalled … he should never risk off leash.
My fiancé made every respectful attempt to communicate with the neighbor and outline all of our concerns clearly BEFORE the warning shot occurred.
The neighbor has never shown that same respect to us, and he made no changes in his attitude or behavior or attempts to keep his dogs from wandering. He even told me once that I don’t “look” pregnant.
My fiancé has always addressed him calmly and spoken to him professionally. This includes the day he fired the shot. He has never so much as swore at my neighbor or raised his voice at him but I can’t say the same for the neighbor, who I could hear swearing and shouting from indoors. All of his interactions with my partner have been overtly aggressive and angry. My partner is always calm. He is known amongst his colleagues for his calm demeanor.
That night.. he was again getting in my fiancé’s face so my fiancé firmly asked him to leave. He did let him know next time he will shoot his dogs. Neither me nor my partner want the dogs to be hurt and hope it never gets to that.
I have an officer from animal control now who I can call if they come into our property again. I would have even tried to make friends with his dogs on my own terms … but the neighbor didn’t let us have good introductions. It’s on him. Not me.. when I’m minding my own business on my deck and a dog comes at me out of nowhere.
Anyways now the bridge is totally burned. So I hope we can just peacefully coexist without talking to each other.
Finally.. someone sent me something called Reddit Cares or some kind of reporting happened. So I wanna emphasize my fiancé is NOT an abuser. He is also not someone who runs out haphazardly with a gun and shoots it carelessly or hates people or something. He is just a protective person and my pregnancy has heightened it. I have miscarried before. It's not to make excuses but I feel bad if my post gets misconstrued and people think my fiancé would ever hurt me. He’s not the threat I am experiencing.

We live in a really small town. Took my little girl Molli to the vet today ( yucky eyes ). Waiting to pick her up and a vet tech comes in with a silver lab. I instantly was loving on the silver ( thinking Molli you look pretty rough, I’m a little confused at this point). The vet tech says “This is not your dog”! You can understand my embarrassment. In my defense, my husband was supposed to pick her up at 3 and I couldn’t get a hold of him. He was in a meeting and it lasted longer than he thought. So I was in a hurry and frazzled. I just had never meet another silver in person. P/S Town of 1600 and the lab was a 8 year old male…. Laugh at me it ok! 😂😂

Need help figuring out a career
Hi everyone. I graduated with my bachelors in biology in 2023 I’m currently 22 years old, almost 23, and been out of school for the last year while trying to figure out my life post graduation. I originally went to school in the hopes of becoming a doctor and going to medical school, then switched to pre-PA from a combination of the intimidation of debt/4 years of more school and years of residency. But while getting my patient care experience after graduation (required to apply to PA school) I realized I hated the office setting and patient interaction. I’ve since been working in retail while trying to figure out life.
Recently I interviewed for a 1 year MRI tech program (because I don’t have to deal with patients as much and my interests in physics and imaging) and got accepted to start next fall. However I did have to register at my local community college this summer for some pre-requesite classes which start in a week. Today I was going through some of the things I need before starting the course and the same uncertainty I felt with going to medical school my senior year have started to set in now that I have to come to terms with reality again and deal with this. Looking over all the course material and syllabus was daunting and made me realize maybe I wasn’t as ready as I thought in making this decision — I still don’t even think I actually wanted to do the MRI program at all I just felt forced to do something with the degree I felt I wasted 4 years getting. But I have no motivation or interest to start these summer courses (similar to how I felt I had the potential to excel in med school but just lacked the motivation and true passion that would’ve made it a long 4 years) and I feel it’s a warning sign rather than what some may think is me being scared of a challenge (I’m definitely not I was in honors in college and graduated with a 3.96 GPA highest in my program). I also just had 2 more surgeries (for a total of 7 in my lifetime) and each has done the opposite for me opposed to others — instead of enforcing interest in medicine I’ve become so agitated by it.
At this point I don’t know if I should continue with the program and summer courses and see how i feel as it goes or back out now and take more time to figure out my life. I’m definitely an over thinker but if I can get the few grand I already paid in tuition back for a full refund it may be worth it to take the extra time to decide. Only reason I’m hesitant about it is I actually have been finding a real interest lately in going to pharmacy school where I would need these pre requisites also, but again I’m intimidated by that kind of toxic culture where students are overworked and abused and I’m burnt out of the idea having to study 12 hours a day (obviously the only careers I seem to have considered are science/healthcare because all I was good at in school and had some interest in was science and maybe that’s my problem trying to force my hand into a “respectable career” — also yes I have considered research and it’s not for me I didn’t enjoy the research process in college during my honors thesis).
All I know is I have the capability to succeed in anything I do it’s just figuring out what that is for me. All that matters to me at the end of the day is I would like to have a good work life balance and make a decent amount of money but not to live luxuries more because I’m very much a family man and would like to support my own one day to have a comfortable life and go on vacations and stuff I never was able to as a kid. I’m a bit of an introvert but can also be very social, but I don’t enjoy dealing with complex personalities that I’ve learned in my patient care and retail experiences so something like management and HR wouldn’t work for me. Another thing I’ve been thinking is even if I might enjoy something like accounting if I don’t want to go to 4 years more of med school I probably don’t want to spend 4 more years pursuing another bachelors and MBA… I’m not a very creative person either so I don’t think something like engineering architecture of entrepreneurship would benefit me. Something I was once considering bc it was suggested to me was becoming a chef but 1) even though I enjoy cooking I enjoy like making dinner for myself I don’t think I would enjoy the professional kitchen environment and 2) my cousin went to culinary school and basically for the same reasons ended up doing nothing with it and now has some social services government pension job. Speaking of pension jobs I considered teaching and police which is the career of choice for my aunts and uncles, but I couldn’t personally handle teaching because of the kids crazy parents and restricting curriculums and i can’t be a cop where I live because I’m colorblind and honestly think I wouldn’t be taken seriously as one. One thing I would’ve loved to do is commercial real estate I’ve talked about it a lot as a possibility one day with my best friend but the problem is I have no idea on getting started with that without needing the capital.
I know this is very long but thank you for reading all this and any help would be greatly appreciated. I’m physically exhausted and drained from feeling confused and a loser for having no direction.

I live in a 76 unit townhouse condo complex in Calgary with siding composed of vinyl and brick.
During the summers of 2022 and 2023, the decks were sanded on approximately 40 units, removing the old finish and repainting. The board has decided that, due to the accumulation of dust from these projects, all 7 buildings need to be cleaned with a high pressure hose.
I have a couple of questions.
Does vinyl need to be cleaned (one of the board members said it “was good for it”)
Would there be any dust accumulation from the last 2 summers that hasn’t already been taken care of by the snow, rain and Chinook winds unless it’s in a protected area?
The City of Calgary does not currently have water restrictions in place but is it sensible to be using this volume of water to hose off buildings that will have another coating of dust with the wind that will probably stir up next week?
Thanks in advance for any enlightenment!

Tier List: https://imgur.com/a/WcUX9AP
Good gravy, these visuals. This is the most visual flair they've ever had in a battle up until this point. More on the particulars later. Unfortunately the music is comparatively pretty weak and unmemorable, with the notable exception of the track that plays during Austin Powers' bits.
So, Daniel Craig Bond's first verse. "[insert Bond villains here] were not as crooked and rotten as your teeth are." that's a decent burn, but man, I always feel bad for Austin Powers when Bond says this. Powers looks genuinely hurt, quit bullying Powers, Craig Bond! "I'll go balls to the Walther on this wack twat in an ascot; Blast shots atcha like gas from the back slot of a fat Scot!" Intellectually I acknowledge that there is some somewhat clever wordplay going on here, but I can't say I particularly care for these lines. The "I'm licensed to kill; you couldn't get a learner's permit!" is an alright diss I guess. The lines comparing their filmography and tying in You Only Live Twice into the diss... I dunno, something feels so rote and lifeless about this burn. It's competent, but it's not doing much for me. The best part of this verse is easily the "B on D/beyond me" diss, fun wordsmithing there. The closer is competent, reference to Golden Gun, sure, that's fine, but I ain't writing home about it. I'll go into more detail about this towards the end, but I'm not a fan of this verse, I think Craig Bond as a rapper is a fairly bland character and that the background visuals are having to compensate hard for his lifelessness.
Austin Powers opens his verse by acknowledging that he has been catfished by Craig Bond, which I think is a ton of fun. The visual of Austin Powers splitting into rainbow versions of himself as his track with the horns starts blaring is just fantastic. "Basil Exposition told me this would be boring; but Jesus, man, even my mojo's snoring!" This isn't a particularly clever line or a powerful diss, mostly seems like an excuse to drop a couple references, but I'm in full agreement with Austin Powers here. Craig Bond's performance was boring. Austin Powers proceeds to mock Craig Bond for his hairless body, contrasting it with his own glorious chest bush. I love how much confidence Austin has in his sexiness despite not being the least bit conventionally attractive. I also love this set with Austin, his buddy, and these women all rocking out. The computer-generated visuals of Craig Bond's backgrounds are impressive, sure, but actually having this wacky set made for the battle really elevates it to a new level in terms of presentation. And all these close-ups of Austin's eyes, mouth, and ass getting slapped... much more flair than their usual fare. Austin Powers threatens to hypnotize Craig Bond with a strip tease and I just... look, I'm not saying these are great lines, on paper Austin does not have the strongest disses, but this verse is just so FUN. The dancing and choreography with Austin's visuals are top-notch, love him slapping his ass on the spinning bed. "You're defenseless, my rhymes can't be deflected, you're like all the sex I've ever had: unprotected!" is genuinely hilarious. "People want a hero with a little personality; no one wants to sit through your gritty reality" is definitely encapsulating the vibe I feel on the question of James Bond vs. Austin Powers. Powers then goes in for a nice blow with the line about them making Thunderball twice. "I'm one of a kind, you're always getting remade" goes hard, even harder nowadays than it did back when this was made. "You can't touch me, double oh behave" is a cute reference, but it's not anything more than that, same tier of verse closer as Craig Bond's.
Then we have the misfortune of returning to Craig Bond's gritty reality. "I can't believe I'm wasting my time with this clown, I should... be on an island with a fucking model by now" is really weak. It feels ad-libbed. You're not too cool for this rap battle Craig Bond, you're actually not nearly cool enough. Craig throws in a reference to the penis pumping joke from Austin Powers, we get a little failed interjection from Powers, and that's fun. Craig Bond does get a strong blow in with "but I'm the original model that your frilly ass mimics"; a powerful argument that you can't take away from Craig Bond.
Until Sean Bond comes in and takes that away from Craig Bond with a cheeky "I wouldn't exactly call you original". Good stuff. The BDSM joke is whatever. "Your performance doesn't stir me and I'm certainly not shaken" is an amusing reference to his famous quote, maybe a little obvious and corny, but what really helps sell it is the way it segueways into "if I wanted shitty acting in my action film, I'd go and watch Taken". Fun! "I don't need a Q to break your balls" is some good wordplay. I remember watching this with my family years ago, and my father groaned at Bond's closing Gold Bond joke and said "That's terrible." and... yeah, I kind of have to agree. It's a good jab and the wordplay isn't without its wit, but there's something so goddamned cheesy about it. Can't help but roll my eyes when he smugly looks at the camera and says 'Gold Bond'. It's the phrasing and line delivery, I think. This joke might have landed better if they refrained from trying to tie it into that famous quote.
Austin Powers makes a valiant effort to get back in the battle, but gets bitch slapped for his troubles.
There's something so... for lack of a better term... beta about the way Craig Bond comes in and touches Sean Bond's arm to get his attention. "The world has had quite enough rug-wearing misogynists" is accurate, albeit not the most clever.
Austin Powers shows Craig Bond up by carrying that line of argumentation further with an amusing bit about Sean Bond being a rapist. I love how uncomfortable Austin Powers seems.
"If they made a mini-me they'd have to cast Peter Dinklage"... that's so lame, guys. Come on.
"Or maybe they should cast a Bond who's actually English" winds up seeming like way stronger of a burn than it is for the fact that Sean Bond takes so much offense to it he feels the need to slap Craig Bond hard for it. Austin's awed reaction in the background is quite funny.
"Why, Pussy, aren't you the cunning linguist?" Har har har.
I like the way Craig Bond takes Sean Bond's wordplay and uses it to mount a counteroffensive, he delivers a couple real solid lines here.
Sean Bond's closer is pretty unremarkable. I guess I could charitably consider it to be of the same caliber as the closers for Craig Bond's and Powers' first verse closers, a cute little reference but nothing more. Austin Powers continues to be the best part of the battle as he rises up into the frame, enamored with his opponents.
Alright, so... I think Craig Bond gives one of the dullest and most unmemorable performances in ERB history. For one thing, his face is just not very expressive here; it's like he constantly has one facial expression. Even when his face is contorting a bit to try and express anger he still looks the same. I don't know to what extent that's just the actor's physical appearance, or if it's a deliberate choice as part of the Craig Bond persona, or what, but watching him perform feels like watching a flat line. It doesn't help that he just looks like some guy. Austin Powers and Sean Bond have very distinct and flashy appearances, but with Craig Bond it looks like they just brought in some random guy off the street and gave him a suit. Maybe that's accurate to Daniel Craig's Bond, but it's a problem for this rap battle regardless. This guy is so nondescript he's regularly getting upstaged by his backgrounds. Another issue I have with this battle is that it clearly does not respect the existence of Austin Powers as a rapper. I could be misremembering, but I believe I've heard that the creators said they didn't like the idea of a parody rapping against the character they're based on, and that this one ultimately got made because they could turn it into a Bond v. Bond battle. Personally I think the idea of having a parody go up against the original is vastly more interesting of a matchup and that Bond v. Bond is the thing that isn't really worth doing. I'd rather this have just been a battle between Austin Powers on one side with two verses and one or both of the Bonds on the other. I also want to say that this is one of the best and most un-NicePeter performances Peter has ever given; I had to go on the wiki and double-check to make sure Peter actually played him. I think Peter has an issue with a lot of his characters sounding same-y, but this sounds nothing like him. It doesn't look like him either; it's not just that the costuming is great, the dancing and mannerisms are real different from Peter's usual stuff. Just look at that pose he strikes on the right at 1:13. So good. One of Peter's best characters.
Anyhoo... I'd put this battle in B Tier, below Ghostbusters vs. Mythbusters but above Robocop vs. Terminator. The Craig and Sean Bonds have their moments, but their parts greatly pale in comparison to Austin Powers... but even then, Austin Powers' verse isn't that great, it's more supremely entertaining than expertly written. It shapes out to being a solid battle that still leaves a lot to be desired.
I don't care what anyone thinks, I'm saying Austin Powers>Sean Bond>Craig Bond. Austin Powers is the entire reason I revisit this battle.

American here. I’m currently in my second to last year of school (11th grade here, 10th grade in Russia) and I am most likely going to go study in Russia. I am fluent in English and in Russian and I also have a Russian passport (international). There is a quota system that I qualify for going on where basically you are allowed to apply your American high school diploma and basically get accepted to any top university except МГК and МГИМО without taking the ЕГЭ or any other exams. I was looking at a few including ВШЕ, Бауман, etc. (Tech schools) I want to go study cybersecurity or computer science. My question is, first of all, is it worth studying in Moscow at all? Should I go study in a different city? And is it safe? I mean I was raised in basically a russian speaking household however most people who I interact with will obviously suspect that I am a foreigner. Also, are there any good schools besides the ones I have listed that I should look at? And lastly, is there anything I should watch out for if I choose study there? Also I forgot to mention that I’m not exactly alone as most of my family lives there anyway.

Blachowicz here.
Kept yah’ waiting, huh? Heh, sorry about that one, but I can explain. As we all know… we lost a few good men the last few months.
That’s the brutal part of a hybrid war like ours: We’re fighting a foe unconventional, with half our arsenal tied down because those who grant us authorization are either in disbelief of the true facts, or scared… or already assimilated. That being said our momentum recently was a change not seen in years, and because of that… despite the losses we have garnered, we were close through a breakthrough. One last night Krol pulls myself and other two must trusted squad leads into the back of our COP. There is one of our equipment cages, surrounded by m-bitter radios, tripods, and several hundred thousand dollars of equipment he brought us around a simple worn table. Before us he laid a map of eastern poland… red markings indicating cells that seemed to dot the countryside like a pestilence, or used to… as deep gashes of advance from raids had trisected their lines, even if ones did pop up in the interior.
It was a back and forth; an outside virus infecting Polska at it’s heart, and we were the antibodies sent to drive them out. To which… Major Krol points to one of the largest symbol on the map: a dark red diamond, the NATO symbol for an enemy unit, deep inside of an untouched wooded area, adjacent to a mountain ridge. Several jagged lines indicated entrenchment, with red horizontal lines indicating possible enemy control… or our contested control, for over 20kms surrounding it. Letting us all look, the Major lit himself a cigarette.
“Sir, you sure it’s wise to smoke in here with the dive tanks just behind us” 1st Squad’s lead quipped. “Fuck off” Krol dryly said.
“Alright… this is it… this is the one we’ve been searching for for years, this is the nucleus my predecessor commander died trying to find” he says, pointing to it. Not far from Zamosc, it was almost touching the border with Belarus, the contested area indicating the Strigoi did operate over it… indicating one of the largest spill through points. “-It’s an old soviet bunker, made during their 1960s initiative it was designed to hold the munitions and manpower of several units in the event of a NATO first strike” Krol explained. “It’s gotta be massive then…” I said gazing at the map; “Didn’t the army demolish all of the old soviet hulks near Belarus to prevent any infiltrations?” 3rd Squad’s lead asked. “National Police took the effort over… and by extension, the Strigoi. It was halfway demo’ed before they burrowed into it and have been using it as a bridgehead ever since. This is it…” Krol said. He looked around at all of us, a sense of certainty I had never seen before as he blew smoke from his nostrils; “We’ve been fucking around in the dark for so long, it’s hard to believe we’ve made any progress, but this is it. With this gone, this will set them back over a decade and the momentum will finally shift into our favor… into Poland’s… -Europe’s”.
I swear there was almost a flash of joy, of pride in his eyes and a phantom of a smirk before reality set back in “That being said… we can’t leave this to chance, especially not something as important as this. We’re going to have to go there ourselves… clear through every inch of that place, and tear it all down, piece by piece. I will be straight with you all… when we go, there will be some of us that aren’t coming back. -but we are going… a whole generation is counting on us, and unborn billions rely on us to succeed”. We all nodded, a silent agreement washing over us as we took this upon ourselves. Echo-1 spoke up: “So… They’re authorizing a raid? How big?”. “We’re rolling in as a hard target, armor, explosives, and air support” Krol answered, taking a drag off his cigarette. “Aviation? How the hell did we get that approved, we’ve gotten attempts shot down four times due to those leeches” I said in disbelief. “There’s too much evidence here pointing to the human trafficking tied to their actions… We’ve finally got too much weight pinning them down, to keep the hammer from slamming into their necks” Krol chuckled. He looked around “Any questions?”. “When?” Echo-3 asked. “Three hours. We’re hitting them in the dead of night, only time we could get the birds authorized. Get your boys ready. We’re rolling out” Krol said, dying the cigarette bud out on the table. I can’t begin to tell you the euphoria we felt leaving that cage, as our men started arriving, they did so a lot quicker, and with their heads a lot higher than they had in weeks. As Second Squad’s lead we were going to be one of the main arms of attack into the bunker, thus I made sure we had a breacher loaded with enough thermite, charges, and tools to cut through anything. Our shield bearer we ready to go, as was our assaulters, grenadiers, and machine gunner. I double checked each and everyone of their weapons; ensuring the feeder paws of our squad’s belt fed were intact, making sure every breach charge we had was properly set and packed. There was going to be no mistakes, no slip ups. The margin of error needed to be the smallest it had ever been for us tonight if we were going to make the gore spilt worth it.
Finally… there on the outside of the building, the bright LED lights kept the darkness of the ensuing night at bay as the roar of our MRAPs could be heard. It was said once that war is 99% peace, and 1% chaos, they were right. The slow periods where the blood slowed and the doubt creeped in was the worst… yet we all kept it at bay. We needed to, there was going to be no backing down tonight. All three squads were up, all of us ready to go… we circled up… short stares and shaky nods telling us one things: We were in this together, till the end… the finish line so many before us had been searching for, we were being granted tonight.
A single set of footsteps could be heard as we turned, Major Krol stepping into the center. He took the last drag of a cigarette, throwing it down to the ground and stamping it out onto the damp concrete. He looked around… his chin strap blowing in the weak air as he met everyone of our gazes… then mine… then looked around. “I want you to remember every detail of tonight, as you have every other night… when you are situationally aware, scanning for the enemy, liberating the subjugated, I want you to remember the sting of anxiety, the shake of adrenaline, the chill of the bunker, the heat of your weapon as it cuts them down… because tonight we are going to write every fine detail of our victory, their defeat, in history…” Krol’s words echoed deep into our souls. He paused for a moment, staring around he looked down… a small pause before he said “When you are ruthless in combat, remember to be patient, and reserved in victory. This conflict is for our existence… a lot of innocents have bled due to the mistakes of those who failed to listen, a lot of our brothers are now laid under because we had to bridge the gap of uncertainty with their lives. We remember them now… but in an hour? We forget them… when we raise our barrels, when we cut into those foes, and we liberate Polska!! This does not end tonight, but history puts everything in it’s place, and patience is the companion of the victor… All of our hard work will be cemented, no matter the obstacles we face in that darkness… no matter the demons, the blood, no matter what incomprehensible horrors, we will make them comprehend that to invade our land, to bleed our people, the justice will be paid in full… Load up. It’s time*”*.
The purpose in our steps was heavy as we climbed the back ramps of the MRAPS; Four of the heavily armored vehicles, one for each squad with an additional for attached personnel including our JTAC, the term means Joint Terminal Attack Controllers. With air support requisitioned to us for this operations, there needs to be a definite liaison on the ground who can directly communicate to the birds, and coordinate their fire and progress. I’d worked with many of them in the past, resourceful guys, quick thinking though I guess that comes with the position they hold of needing to quickly figure out what bombs to drop, on which target, at what precise points, whilst taking contact. He loaded in the lead vehicle with Major Krol… and soon, our convoy kicked off.
The drive was several hours as myself and my squad sat in the back of that forty ton goliath, the rumbling of the engine keeping us awake as the crap heater fought to keep the cold from the outside frost from setting in. I looked around to each of them, some were catching some sleep because even with the circumstances… better to get all the energy you can, than to stay awake for nothing. Others were checking their weapons… My gunner locked eyes with me, the same one from the village extraction… many of these men I had trained with for a while now, fought with for months.
We may have met on unconventional circumstances but those in JW Grom thrive on austere chance and create opportunity from scratch. I was pulled from my thought by the sound of a transmission, my peltors were set up for dual comms so I could both receive information from the Major and other leads, whilst communicating with my team.
Krol himself sent out: [“Approximately 10 minutes from enemy AO…”]. As the rest of the squads acknowledged, I quickly sent out [“Echo-2 Copies”], before kicking the boots of any of them sleeping: “Look alive, we’re here”. Through the exterior net armor of the MRAPS, and the bars protecting the small reinforced windows, we could barely see jack shit. I reached up, turning off the overhead light as we all looked through our nods to scan the outside. A dark wall of dense trees was shown before us, making it difficult to see… in addition to night vision capabilities we had also requisitioned ourselves some thermals… when mounted onto rifles they were bulky, made it a pain to aim down quickly, but considering the supernatural capabilities of spotting our foes we needed every advantage necessary.
I flipped out one of my tubes… scanning the outside with my scope. I looked over to one of my assaulters who had been assigned to man the turret of the MRAP, seated near the view screen as he controlled the 50. Cal. Each of the vehicle turrets had been assigned a direction to cover… we took the 9 o’clock, the left flank. “See anything?” I asked. He shook his head; “Negative… wait… I’ve got two cold signatures, front left heading to our rear”.
I quickly scanned the far tree line, at approximately 60 meters off our left were two cold signatures… followed by a third heading to our front… then another. They were surrounding us, moving at speeds so fast I could barely keep my reticle on them. Is this what the National Police saw? What they faced at that lodge without the benefit of a foot of heavy armor protecting them on all sides. Then… suddenly. Something slammed into the side of our MRAP so hard, it caused it to shake. From over the leader comms, Echo-3 quickly shouted [“Contact right!! 4 hostiles!!”].
One of the Strigoi… so bold, had charged and slammed into the side of our MRAP. I quickly looked to see the figure, a dark blue mass of cold energy through my thermal, back away without so much as a stagger… as they tried to flee into the woods, the white hot justice of Echo-3’s gun fired at them, cutting them down. “Blachowicz I’ve got a few breaking for our vic” my man on the turret called out, I spun around, spotting out the window.
Just then, Major Krol announced [“weapons free, watch and shoot for targets of opportunity…”]. I turned to him… “take those fuckers out-”. Without hesitation my vic’s turret began to quickly target them, and through the darkness I saw a stream of outgoing fire bisect one of them, the ISR of the black blood freaking out the optic so badly it didn’t know what temperature to register it as… but it did register it. As another was cut down, one broke through the tree line and latched onto the side of our MRAP. The thing tore at one of the outer net armor panels, usually made to stop RPGs. It grabbed at the bars near the windows, tearing one off… I lowered my rifle as we locked eyes through the reinforced window.
The thing… the Strigoi looked at me, skin cracked as putrefied muscle fibers seemed to leak through dead flesh. It’s teeth were corroded and worn down to sharp fragments, alongside newly mutated fangs that messily protrude from the jaws. Even through the thick walls of the MRAP I could hear it’s roar, as it then tried to punch it’s way through… it cracked the outer coating of the vehicle… but it wasn’t getting anywhere near. My machine gunner, seated next to me, seemed to chuckle at the sight, quippily saying “Yeah… fuck you too”. It’s then our vehicle lurched upwards, as we began to climb the small incline of the bunker. I knew the layout, mapped it in our head, the main entrance was built into the rocky side of an old cliff meaning we could easily set up a defensive perimeter around it, a horseshoe. Krol’s vehicle was first, taking to the right as Echo-3’s MRAP followed. My vehicle, third, left the incline and took a left and… that’s where things got complicated.
We’re still trying to work out what happened but… from what Joakim says his drone captured. Right when the MRAP turned, several of the monsters quickly slammed into the side of the vehicle, as another more bulkier one, pushed at it’s undercarriage. The result.. Was the 40 ton armored vehicle tipped over. It wasn’t uncommon, hell in some cases a well placed IED, a good shot with a recoilless rifle, have been known to tip over Oshkoshs and Maxpros all the time. But this beast? Needless to say we barely had a second to comprehend it as it leaned to the left; “Grab on to something-” is all I had time to shout. A mess of gear and men spilled onto one side of the vehicle as it slammed into the old gravel and dirt.
Several of my assaulters, my grenadier planted right ontop of myself and the others as we came to a stop. Someone’s knee slammed directly into the side of my skull, causing me to dazily bob in and out of consciousness as my face was smushed against the glass of one of the windows.
Through my peltors, the other squads were erratic;
[“Echo-2’s vehicle is down!!”].
[“Echo-3 to Echo-2… Echo-3 to Echo-2…”].
Krol’s voice came through the comms;
[“Echo-Lead to Echo-2… Fuc-... Echo-1 secure Echo 2’s flank, Echo-3”].
[“Echo-3 to other units, they’re spilling through, I’ve got several enemy combatants converging on Echo-2’s vehicle”].
I pushed the legs of my grenadier off my head as I fought to my hands and knees, unfucking my nods as I looked around… “Fuck it… we’re going lights on, shield your eyes” I muttered as I reached for the overhead lights and flipped them on. The bright LEDs bathed the inside of the vehicle as we all gained our bearings, a mess of multicam, gear, and weapons as we quickly pushed each other off. My gunner caught as he fought to realign his promask, from what I gathered one of the assaulters had landed directly into his gun, pushing it directly into his jugular, as pulled back at the rubber and coughed, freeing up his esophagus. We didn’t have time to think however… the sound of bending metal caught our attention… as the back ramp door of the MRAP was ripped clean off. I could barely believe it but as the white light of the MRAP’s interior poured to the outside, a hulking mass leaned in, the dead flesh on it’s face nearly fallen off as the hideous Strigoi leaned inside.
Without hesitation I aimed took aim, yelling “Keep to the deck!!” to any of those inbetween myself and the invader as I opened fire. A burst of full auto fire tore through it’s collar and neck, my men quickly clung to either sides of the fallen MRAP as a few more fired out. As the thing backed up, a blast of .50 cal fire quickly tore it to shreds, along with several others as I realized they were fuckin swarming over the outside of our vehicle. Echo-3’s vehicle continued to carefully fire on the Strigoi on the outside, the sounds of .50 cal ricocheting off the outside of our armor was enough to make the pucker factor set in.
[“Echo-3 to Echo-2”].
[“This is Echo-2, we’re green on ammo, equipment, men”].
[“Roger, we’re shifting fire, exit the vehicle”].
“Hurry up let’s go!!” I barked to my men, leading the way as I staggered out. I turned on my peq, taking aim at silhouettes in the brush as I began to fire. The sounds of machine guns lighting up the brush, as a sea of growls, howls, and incomprehensible roars fired back at us was the ambient noise of the night. My men quickly exited, my gunner being the last as he and I pulled back to the rest of the defensive perimeter. I set in my men to take up the frontal security, as 3rd squad took the right flank, 1st squad to the left. Major Krol and the JTAC were bickering with each other; “How far out are the birds”. “They’re entering airspace now…” Joakim said, already scanning his smart book.
I asked “What’ve we got?”. He then flipped through… to the NATO combined arms segment, quippily saying; “Apaches…”. This caused me to pause as Echo-3 turned their head whilst directing their squad’s fire “The hell… where did we get apaches from?”. “The Americans… they volunteered” Krol said dismissively as he took aim at the darkness, firing off a controlled trio. “Volunteered? They’re aware of what’s going on?” I asked.
Krol seemed to stop, glancing back at me before returning his focus “There’s a lot more going on than you realize, Blachowicz… Prep the breach, you and 1st are going on”.
I quickly pulled my breacher off the line, securing some thermite as the reinforced bunker door wasn’t going to go as easily as a conventional door breach would. 1st Squad pulled back, stacking up and preparing themselves to be the first in. All the while… Joakim gave his firing solution; “Alpha Hotel Two Five Nine, This is Bravo-4…… Type 2….”.
I snapped to my right, watching as a Strigoi managed to dark across the clear gravel field, only to be cut down by my gunner, the peq’s laser marking the burst as it tore through the beasts’ hips, as it hit the ground and still continued to claw, another GROM operator took aim and fired into it’s skull. Joakim popped up to his feet…. “Marking laser, high power…”. He then pulled out a target marking laser… if you’ve watched night operations, you’ve probably seen them.
The green laser than as it says on the label, marks targets. The pattern of which can vary… if it’s a point target, it’ll usually lasso an area, or remain on target until the target is removed with extreme prejudice. If its close air support, then it’ll be a line of the general area… and Joakim damn near marked the entire perimeter around us. He quickly pocketed the tool, turning back to Krol; “Don’t go past 20 meters unless you want to be liquidated”.
With that… 2nd and 1st stacked up at the door as 3rd squad took up the perimeter security. As Major Krol went over to Echo-1… I saw them. A single blinking IR strobe from the beasts as they moved on the far off horizon, converging from several angles… and fired. The sound of the Apache’s main gun, the M230, truly sounds like the hammer of god… the 30mm cannon shot through the dark sky, lighting it up as we saw three incoming streams tear up the woods. Only then as the sound broke did we start to hear their rotors as they broke and began to circle, firing again… then… Joakim dipped his head and looked to Krol; [“Foxtrot Mike, hang onto your teeth…”]. One of the Apaches fired off a AGM-114… a Hellfire. I barely saw it out of the corner of my eye as the Apache from our right flank fired off at a target approximately 200 meters off. A fireball lit up the forest as the horrendous roar echoed throughout… then went silent.
Echo-3 scanned the horizon carefully;
[“Echo-3 to Echo-Lead, enemy contact is starting to die down”].
[“Maintain perimeter, Close Air is to maintain fire mission until we are boots up, Break…”].
[“Echo-Lead to Echo-1, condition white has been met. Proceeds”]. I saw Echo-1 and his men quickly stack up close to the wall and gesture to me; Breaching. I quickly pulled my stack back against the wall as his and mine breacher quickly hit their actuators. Now under normal circumstances, it doesn’t take much for thermite to melt the locks off of a metal surface, in fact it’s a more precise took as alternative means get real medieval like saws, pry bars… we weren’t in the mood for precision, we need to breach their little lair, and drag them out. The sound of several pounds of hellfire burning through the metal could be heard around the corner as a sea of white and red sparks flew out… after several seconds, two of our men tossed a fragmentation grenade and a nine-bang through the opening… a series of concussive blasts and a large explosion rang out.
Echo-1 and his men maneuvered. 1st Squad quickly converged as we followed them in.
Stepping through the black wall of smoke, the dark abyss of the interior was illuminated in a white light as entered barrels raised. Shots rang out as several of the beasts near the entrance were cut down, though not immediately, rounds disconnected the shoulder of one of them, leading to their arm hanging limply by a single tendon as they roared… another series of rounds putting them down. What greeted us was a messy concrete hell of rust and debris, fecal matter, trash, and all kinds of obstacles laid in our way, our boots sticking to the floor. I thank every god we had promasks that night. I called my shield bearer up, 2nd squad leapfrogging ahead to take the next corridor as 1st squad checked their weapons.
One of my men mule kicked the metal door ahead, twice, finally the latch gave away as we tossed in a grenade. A horrifying roar was cut off as an M67 shook the walls of the ancient soviet mausoleum, frag and spall kicked off the walls as I moved in right behind my shield man. The cramped russian design meant there was barely enough space for three people, and that’s three normal people, not in 50kgs of kit, moving slowly and maneuvering against creatures of the dark. Still… we moved forward, my shield bearer and I pushing the pace as two stacked of either squad formed on either wall.
As we passed doorways they flowed in… “Door Left!!”, “Door Right!!”. “Move!!”.
Two men entered each side, no gunshots, we moved up, a roar came.
“Door left!!-”. A series of gunshots came out as we continued to push forward.
“Two down!!”. “Confirm them” Krol commanded, as a series of gunshots run out in response. From one of the doorways, a Strigoi emerged… a female… clumps of hair had been ripped from her decaying skull, as her blooded eyes locked on myself and my shieldman. The skin on her hands had been tore down to the point where barely her bones and tendons remain… looking like huge talons as she roared and lunged at us. He fired off his pistol, though the rounds did little to stop her as she pushed against our stack.
“Fuck!!” he muttered, somehow her strength caused him to stagnate, holding up the advance… fuck that. I shoved the muzzle of my MK18 into her ribcage, flipping the weapon to auto as I fired of round after round. The 5.56 salvo disconnecting her spinal column, causing her to fall as I continued to fire, along with a man to our right and left as the stacks reformed as we pushed to the end of the hall. I fell back, dropping the magazine and loading a fresh one, like clockwork a GROM Operator from 1st squad took my place. Krol was beside me as we approached the end of the hall.
[“-Prep an entry”] I radioed to my breacher, a comrade handed him one of the charges from his back panel as he took to the door, quickly securing it. We all moved as far back as we could, look away, exhale. The blast knocked metal and wood in all directions, scrapping against our uniforms and kit as we made our way in and what laid before us was… it used to be the center atrium of one of these bunkers. Soviet’s loved their grandiose designs, the complex was supposed to be a circular room around a central planning table… instead. It had been turned into some sort of church. Runes and old eastern Romuva pagan symbols written in black ink and blood across the walls, old rotten filing cabinets, long receipt terminals. In the center… several of the Strigoi were kneeling before the table where someone had been tied down, flayed, and… shared amongst the group. They rose to their feet, we aimed our barrels…
The ladder amongst turned to us… his skin wasn’t cracked, or flayed, it was smooth… it still looked dead as the body on the table but it seemed more… accustomed to it. I don’t know… evolved? Under the surface however I could see it’s darkened veins pumping whatever cursed blood ran through them as it locked two blood red eyes onto each of us. It’s nose had long since been turn off, exposing boney nostrils to the open air as it seemed to smirk. All across it’s body were the same symbols on the walls, in every cell… markings of death, of rebirth, of assimilation… From behind this seemingly Alpha emerges another figure I had never seemed before… dressed in a white cloak with a deer head.
"So they've followed the trail... they're too late" the Deer headed individual spoke, definitely not from here, a dialect similar to an Americans but... aristocratic? Each word was drawn out, assurance as if they had everything mapped down to our actions. They didn’t sound like they were from Poland or the east.
“Doesn’t matter…” the Alpha growled… and then, it lunged at us. Quickly breaking from their ground it slammed into my shield man knocking both him and myself at the ground as it displayed an intense feat of strength. Around us I could see several of the Strigoi leap at our comrades… though to no fruitful endeavor as I could see one GROM operator cut two down, as another got into a hand to hand confrontation… my breacher, crafty as they were, reached back and slammed one of the prybars of his kit into the skull of the beast.
The Alpha however was not content as it threw away the 90lb shield, sending it flying across the room as it grabbed my comrade by the skull. I quickly kicked up at it, firing my MK18 into it’s body as the rounds pierced it’s gray and rune covered flesh. The thing simply seemed to chuckle… that was until Major Krol blasted away at the side of it’s head, the alpha turned… and it’s smirk turned to a scowl when face to face with the major. A knowing pause almost like they had done this dance before…
The creature lunged, locking up with Major Krol as it swung and slammed railing. Krol didn’t back down however as he pushed against the creature, hiptossing it to the ground even as it tore at his armor and gear. But the beast pulled, both of them rolled and the Major was on his back as the thing reached for his neck. I fought to a kneel, firing into the creature messily with my MK18, trying not to hit my commander… then…
Click. A sound sends a chill up the spine of every warfighter during a firefight.
My gun ran dry. I dropped the magazine, looking to load another, but the thing came up and with one of it’s claws, sliced deep into my cheek, through the pro mask. I could feel my own blood go flying through the air as I landed hard on my back plate, spitting out red iron as I quickly tried to adjust my mask. Through my fogged up, blood covered lense… I saw my shield man raise his pistol, firing into the skull of the thing staggering it with a roar. Krol came from behind, drawing his knife he sunk it deep into the neck of it…. I reached for my rifle, forcing a new magazine in and damn near punching the bold release. ““Sir, down!!” I shouted, Krol rolled away, back to his own rifle as I fired. So did my comrade as he continued to fire his pistol… so did the Major as he fired his rifle. All of us chewing through that apex predator of darkness, that beast… the leader that had been preying on our people for so long. Layer by layer, muscle group by bone… eventually… the alpha landed on whatever was left of his back.
The silence of the fight died down as all of us checked our surroundings, GROM Operators putting controlled pairs in the heads and nerve stems of any Strigoi laying around… I flicked my weapon onto safe, letting it hang as I pulled off my mask. I dared not touch the wound on my face… the pain nearly crippling me if it wasn’t sheer will pushing me through, and adrenaline doing all it could to subdue it. The sound of the apaches continuing to lay hate drew us from our moment of contemplation as the Major went back to work; [“Confiscate any info, burn the rest…”]. He turned back to me as I shoved my damaged M50 mask back into it’s bag, chuckling as he looked at the sight; “You need a medevac, Blachowicz?” he quipped.
I shook my head, barely able to speak as I muttered; “Negative sir…”. The two of us scanned the room as my shield bearer went to collect his defense implement turned 90lb projectile, we scanned the center of the room, checking and confirming bodies, until we got to the last one alive. His white gown was soaked in red crimson and black ooze, as his dear head was mangled from bullet fire and impact from falling on it. I swear… the way his blood poured out of it though made me wonder if it was a mask. I gave it no second thoughts as he looked to Krol; “You… you can’t stop this, they’ve already-”.
The Major was in no mood for communication as his rifle snapped up and fired off three rounds to the body, four the head. The violent yet quick salvo ending the cultists life, I looked down at it, then to him as he remarked; “Have your squad drag him out to the front, burn the rest”. I stood alongside him, looking down as the sight of it’s deer head was both captivating and horrifying… the curiosity in me wanting to look closer at it fighting the primal instinct I had to burn the thing to ash. “-Haven’t seen one of those before…” I muttered, thinking the Major had an answer.
He didn’t. Krol saying “Neither have I…” shortly before he walked away, was what truly shook my soul about that entire night. Victory stood firm in our hearts that night as we stood outside of the bunker. The night sky burning with fire and white phosphorus as we watched the ruin burn from the inside from the other side of the lot. In the distance, the Apaches continued to scan and circle the forests, no longer firing…. Which meant they had driven any or turned to glass any enemy combatants within a four miles, probably both, more than likely the latter. Echo-1 patted me on the shoulder as we stood there, soaking it all in, though Krol looked none to pleased. “In the time it took us to take this one down, they’ll be trying to set up three more cells… that being established…” he said, looking to either of us, then to Echo-3. “-Hell of a thing we did tonight, been waiting for this one for a decade, cleanly, maybe more… but no time to rest on our laurels… we’ll have another task for us as soon as we’re boots down back home” he said, to which his eyes followed mine, the body of whatever cultist that was zipped up in a black body bag beside the wheel of one of the MRAPs. The fire from the bunker casting an orange hue over it’s shiny jet black outside, something didn’t sit right with me… “That wasn’t a Strigoi…” I said to Krol.
“That’s very clear…” the Major said, shoving his mask under his arm and lighting a cigarette. “So… someone’s helping them?” I asked. The meer notion of it shook me to my core, sickened me. This parasite was already badly infecting Europa, Polska… if it was spread like this throughout the world. Krol settled my nerves: “We’ll be ready… It’s not just us anymore”. As he said that, I realized what he meant… my eyes looking to the Apaches as they started to form up, leaving the areas as their thunderous propellers melted into the night’s calm, unnerving ambience.
It’s been a couple of weeks since then, Echo Detachment has been busy. We’ve gained good ground against the enemy and honestly I think in a few years, we might see a much larger change. For now… we must keep going, that being said the Strigoi aren’t the only ones we’ve been combating. Recently we’ve made contact with of some sort of extermination coalition, they’ve known about the Strigoi, and others plaguing the world, the level of corruption and corrosion on society goes deep. Regardless a lot of the units we’ve been working with are apart of NATO, such as this “4th Special Forces Group” of the American Military. I don’t know where the road from here leads, but we’ve gotten momentum on our side, finally. Just remember… these things are out there, in every town, every city, every nation… preying and waiting for you to be alone, vulnerable, so they can take you and replace you.
Watch your back, and stay safe.
For now, Blachowicz signing out. Until next time

I wasn't entirely sure where to chronicle the wonderous tale of Clyde, because this spans multiple websites including reddit. Not enough drama localized here for it to be subredditdrama , and not enough on the Discord for it to be considered discordhorrorstories, and not enough TTRPG for rpghorrorstories.
Mods, feel free to direct me to the proper place if this isn't it. Anyway, on with the disaster.
Our tale begins on a subreddit in a semi-niche community of the RP side of Reddit, which I won't name because of Rule 9. It's a medieval-themed board where you can post memes if you want, but is mainly known for it's "encounter posts" and long, long chains of IC conversations between the regulars of the sub. I myself love the place, my Doctor Who OC (isn't relevant to the tale so I'll keep info on that brief) is one such regular, having decided to become that planet's Doctor stand-in. Long irrelevant story. Check my comment history, I'm all over that sub. Any references to that character are just to provide examples for how things work there.

Some background to understand the landscape:

Character creation is pretty lax there. One doesn't necessarily have to be a knight, (such as my character for example) but most people choose to be. It's gotten some controversies in the past concerning technology limitations to some extent, mainly asking folks to flavor things fantasy-style, such as my character being viewed as an eccentric artificer who lives in a box of miracles. A phrase I see commonly for when people ask questions about this is something like this:

"You can have an F-22 Raptor, but it cannot be an F-22 Raptor. Perhaps a Da-Vinci style flying machine propelled by magic to have comparable speed instead?"

Stuff like that. The community doesn't want to stifle creativity, but also don't want people to ruin the DnD-style universe with technology far outstripping the era (hence why my character must be secretive about his Tardis; Meta-perspective it's to avoid violating the tech rule more than it already does by nature). There's also a no-NSFW/ERP rule (unless its in DMs), which will come into play later.
Due to rulings like this, it has the obvious problem of how to settle things like duels, or how various people groups see each other IC. This caused a mutual agreement over on the discord to have the combatants agree on the terms of the duel beforehand, either in DMs or OOC somewhere. Stuff like, HP per character, highest D20 wins/best of 3, or first to Nat 20. Alternatively, self-hosted Encounter Posts can have their own rules, which must be outlined in the comment section by OP. Here's an example stat block from one such encounter:
https://preview.redd.it/xlo49rq4ih0d1.png?width=1122&format=png&auto=webp&s=dd7c9908af081c25953ebebcb1ed1a3a40c04eb6

Now, where does Clyde come into play?

Once upon a time, there was a user I'll call Clyde. Clyde is effectively the most anime character of all anime characters I've ever seen in my time in that community. To put it bluntly, he refuses to lose. I don't mean like he's very determined or super good at the combat, or a clever RP-er. I mean, his characters (of which the Tupperbox list on the Discord is FULL of, which will come up later), have miscellaneous excuses as to why they can literally never lose any engagement. Not one. Hence the nickname, "The Nuh-Uh King"
Here's a word for word excerpt from the Bio of one of his characters. Keep in mind, he's no troll. I've talked to him in VC before. This is completely, unironically, serious.

She was also born with several vampiric abilities yet none of the weaknesses.

I have plenty of more snippets just like this if not worse, including one that I couldn't relocate to post here that in summary said "can cast Wish as a Cantrip" (Clyde typically prefers to use DnD for organization of his very overpowered moveset.) or claiming to be level 50, despite DnD maxing at 20.
Note: Clyde insists on DnD-puritanism in his interactions, only to immediately violate his own rules.
By far the most cursed of his lineup is the Golden Half-Dragon. This character supposedly can predict the opponent's moves before they make them. Most Encounter Hosts try to make him roll for this, but he insists it's an innate ability that doesn't have to be rolled, and he has "+30 on every roll" (despite the Encounters not typically allowing modifiers) so he cannot fail anyway. Additionally, there is no Saving Throw for the opponent. Using the same justification, you cannot circumvent it. It's always a Critical hit, and he flaunts this totally fair ability to one-shot anyone and anything, including Lovecraftian Elder Gods (We have a Warlock or two who have dark pacts with Outer Beings)
Clyde seems to have no concept of fun for people other than himself. There's been several incidents of him joining other people's threads, of course one-shotting their instance of the Encounter and declaring himself the winner. People often just ignore him, but sometimes people will try to argue with him about it, and he gets very defensive and picks a fight with the person who won't just let him steamroll their combat. Not to mention, the hypocrisy can be smelled a MILE away.
Here's another lovely message in one such argument. TLDR-ed because there was a bunch of anime exposition that I'm not gonna make you read.

"I snap my fingers and the entire army falls dead, (TW: Violence) their heads severed from their bodies in a fraction of an instant with my blade."

The person protests about ruining the fun (Encounter involved liberating an occupied village by stealth or counter-raiding or assassination of the General, a boss. It was open ended, but they asked for creativity in the post. You were allowed to challenge the army, but you couldn't John Wick them, the Host asked that a Tactical victory be done through soldiers of the Commenter's own). They argued that it was overpowered to do that alone and not very fun to host. Posts a hypothetical of what if someone with the same unimaginably powerful level of a character was able to take down his character in one hit and received this as a response:

"If I ever meet a character that strong I won't consider them canon nor interact with them. My characters are too powerful and they can't lose so it wouldn't happen anyway."

Once more, this was without /s, this was without a hint of irony. I've seen trolls do something similar before, but no one has gone to a practically cartoonish level with it. Everyone is pretty tired of it, and he's been warned by the Mods of both the Subreddit and the Discord multiple times, which brings us to Part 3:

Clyde Joins the Discord

Oh, boy. THIS is a story. So the Discord has several separate sections, places where people can interact OOC and talk about games or other interests outside of Text RP. They also have threads for IC stuff if, say, your character wanted to rent a room at the local Tavern, or conduct business at the marketplace, or visit a shop run by someone else.
The moment he discovered that a Discord existed, the Tupperbox creation channel was absolutely flooded with his characters, and ALL of them are almost impressively overpowered in some form or fashion. I won't go into detail, but it's a long list.
Pretty quickly, a nasty habit of "ghost-pinging" or @ ing someone repeatedly and then deleting the messages developed. One of his warnings was due to this habit, and to his credit it happens less often now, but if you don't respond for more than a minute after he continues, the spam begins until you return. Now, I understand sending a reminder to be sure they remember the interaction/figure out if they're ghosting, but this is insane.
The other warning so far was his rampant violation of the No-ERP rule. I'm friends with one of the mods on the Discord, and they showed me a thread of him writing a lengthy scene between two of his Tuppers in the public channels, after being told he couldn't. I've seen a lot worse, but it wasn't pleasant to read over regardless.
This adventure is still ongoing, I'll be sure to post more Clyde Stories if you liked this one. Why he hasn't been banned from both yet, I have no idea, but it makes for amazing tales.

Feels like an invasion of privacy and the house is funded by the state and the owners have no idea what they are doing. From what I know is they are always listening and watching and it’s creepy. There are no cameras in bathrooms or bedrooms. Cameras record audio and video in living room, kitchen, hallways, outside deck, front porch. I’d be cool with it all if they didn’t record audio is all and I understand I sorta signed a contract but there’s nothing that involves this in it.

Like the title says. My wife and I decided to rewatch, rate, and in the process rank every TNG episode. As I was inspired in part by the TNG re:View episodes, it felt only right to share our results here, where no doubt you reasonable people will be very diplomatic about your opinions on these scores/rankings. Scores for two-parters were averaged into one.
1 S2E09 The Measure of a Man 9.77 2 S3E17 Sins of the Father 9.33 3 S3E26 The Best of Both Worlds 9.13 4 S4E12 The Wounded 8.97 5 S4E21 The Drumhead 8.92 6 S2E08 A Matter of Honor 8.85 7 S6E11 Chain of Command 8.78 8 S3E10 The Defector 8.57 9 S7E25 All Good Things... 8.54 10 S3E19 Captain's Holiday 8.54
11 S7E15 Lower Decks 8.54 12 S3E23 Sarek 8.49 13 S5E19 The First Duty 8.49 14 S3E15 Yesterday's Enterprise 8.49 15 S6E15 Tapestry 8.46 16 S4E26 Redemption 8.42 17 S3E16 The Offspring 8.41 18 S5E25 The Inner Light 8.38 19 S5E02 Darmok 8.31 20 S5E16 Ethics 8.28
21 S6E23 Rightful Heir 8.23 22 S5E23 I, Borg 8.2 23 S3E21 Hollow Pursuits 8.18 24 S4E02 Family 8.18 25 S5E03 Ensign Ro 8.18 26 S3E04 Who Watches the Watchers 8.16 27 S4E11 Data's Day 8.13 28 S6E14 Face of the Enemy 8.05 29 S7E24 Preemptive Strike 8.05 30 S4E14 Clues 8.05 31 S5E14 Conundrum 8 32 S3E07 The Enemy 7.97 33 S7E12 The Pegasus 7.95 34 S7E05 Gambit 7.92 35 S6E26 Descent 7.91 36 S02E16 Q-Who? 7.9 37 S4E24 The Mind's Eye 7.9 38 S2E03 Elementary, Dear Data 7.87 39 S6E20 The Chase 7.85 40 S4E07 Reunion 7.82 41 S4E19 The Nth Degree 7.82 42 S4E03 Brothers 7.64 43 S6E24 Second Chances 7.64 44 S5E10 New Ground 7.62 45 S5E07 Unification 7.62 46 S5E24 The Next Phase 7.59 47 S4E08 Future Imperfect 7.54 48 S5E18 Cause and Effect 7.54 49 S6E12 Ship in a Bottle 7.54 50 S7E21 Firstborn 7.49
51 S6E09 The Quality of Life 7.41 52 S6E13 Aquiel 7.38 53 S3E02 The Ensigns of Command 7.33 54 S3E22 The Most Toys 7.33 55 S5E09 A Matter of Time 7.33 56 S4E15 First Contact 7.31 57 S7E06 Phantasms 7.28 58 S6E22 Suspicions 7.26 59 S7E09 Force of Nature 7.26 60 S1E21 The Arsenal of Freedom 7.23 61 S6E17 Birthright 7.23 62 S1E19 Coming of Age 7.23 63 S7E10 Inheritance 7.12 64 S6E21 Frame of Mind 7.03 65 S2E20 The Emissary 7 66 S4E25 In Theory 7 67 S4E20 Qpid 7 68 S2E05 Loud as a Whisper 6.98 69 S4E05 Remember Me 6.98 70 S6E07 Rascals 6.97 71 S4E22 Half a Life 6.95 72 S6E25 Timescape 6.95 73 S2E21 Peak Performance 6.92 74 S4E23 The Host 6.9 75 S7E11 Parallels 6.9 76 S1E20 Heart of Glory 6.85 77 S2E07 Unnatural Selection 6.85 78 S3E01 Evolution 6.85 79 S6E18 Starship Mine 6.82 80 S7E03 Interface 6.82 81 S6E04 Relics 6.80 82 S6E05 Schisms 6.77 83 S2E13 Time Squared 6.72 84 S5E17 The Outcast 6.6 85 S2E02 Where Silence Has Lease 6.59 86 S4E06 Legacy 6.59 87 S3E06 Booby Trap 6.59 88 S3E14 A Matter of Perspective 6.56 89 S6E02 Realm of Fear 6.56 90 S7E13 Homeward 6.56 91 S4E10 The Loss 6.51 92 S2E14 The Icarus Factor 6.49 93 S6E08 A Fistful of Datas 6.49 94 S7E08 Attached 6.46 95 S4E16 Galaxy's Child 6.44 96 S3E09 The Vengeance Factor 6.41 97 S4E09 Final Mission 6.41 98 S6E19 Lessons 6.36 99 S3E08 The Price 6.36 100 S1E25 Conspiracy 6.33
101 S1E13 Datalore 6.31 102 S3E24 Menage a Troi 6.31 103 S5E06 The Game 6.31 104 S3E03 The Survivors 6.26 105 S2E11 Contagion 6.26 106 S4E18 Identity Crisis 6.26 107 S5E12 Violations 6.26 108 S3E13 Deja Q 6.23 109 S7E16 Thine Own Self 6.23 110 S5E21 The Perfect Mate 6.2 111 S3E05 The Bonding 6.2 112 S5E04 Silicon Avatar 6.2 113 S3E25 Transfigurations 6.15 114 S6E06 True Q 6.13 115 S3E18 Allegiance 6.13 116 S1E22 Symbiosis 6.1 117 S2E17 Samaritan Snare 6.08 118 S2E06 The Schizoid Man 6.05 119 S5E26 Time's Arrow 6 120 S3E11 The Hunted 5.98 121 S4E17 Night Terrors 5.95 122 S5E05 Disaster 5.92 123 S1E24 We'll Always Have Paris 5.87 124 S3E12 The High Ground 5.85 125 S2E01 The Child 5.82 126 S1E09 The Battle 5.82 127 S6E03 Man of the People 5.82 128 S5E11 Hero Worship 5.8 129 S7E22 Bloodlines 5.77 130 S2E15 Pen Pals 5.74 131 S4E04 Suddenly Human 5.74 132 S4E13 Devil's Due 5.74 133 S1E16 Too Short a Season 5.69 134 S3E20 Tin Man 5.69 135 S5E13 The Masterpiece Society 5.64 136 S5E20 Cost of Living 5.6 137 S7E07 Dark Page 5.59 138 S1E15 11001001 5.51 139 S1E10 Hide and "Q" 5.49 140 S1E18 Home Soil 5.49 141 S5E15 Power Play 5.49 142 S7E02 Liaisons 5.44 143 S7E23 Emergence 5.38 144 S1E08 Justice 5.23 145 S1E07 Lonely Among Us 5.2 146 S1E26 The Neutral Zone 5.1 147 S5E22 The Imaginary Friend 5 148 S2E12 The Royale 4.98 149 S7E19 Genesis 4.92 150 S7E17 Masks 4.87
151 S1E06 Where No One Has Gone Before 4.8 152 S1E23 Skin of Evil 4.74 153 S2E04 The Outrageous Okona 4.74 154 S1E12 The Big Goodbye 4.64 155 S7E20 Journey's End 4.62 156 S7E18 Eye of the Beholder 4.54 157 S1E17 When the Bough Breaks 4.51 158 S2E10 The Dauphin 4.51 159 S7E14 Sub Rosa 4.46 160 S1E11 Haven 4.36 161 S1E01-02 Encounter at Farpoint 4.28 162 S2E18 Up the Long Ladder 4.2 163 S1E05 The Last Outpost 4.1 164 S2E19 Manhunt 3.74 165 S1E14 Angel One 3.64 166 S1E04 Code of Honor 2.74 167 S1E03 The Naked Now 2.62 168 S2E22 Shades of Gray 2.54

Hello everyone, needing to plan for a move to wanting to downsize a bit before that happens and find new homes for some lightly used tech or parts for projects that never happened. Trying to be fair with the prices but if anyone finds a better price let me know and a deal can be worked out.
Thank you
Timestamps

Item	Description + Condition	Price + Shipping
Steam Deck (256GB Q3 2022 Version)	Lightly used and has less then 20 hours of play on it, includes 256 GB MicroSD card as well. Has case only, not shipping box.	Wanting $250 + $20 for shipping
Razer BlackShark V2 Gaming Headset	Didn't use these as much as I thought I would, still in like new condition and includes all accessories.	Would like $100 + $15 for shipping
Seasonic GX-1000W PSU	Basically brand new, just opened the box and checked the contents. Includes all cables and accessories.	Would like $120 + $20 in shipping
Logitech Craft Keyboard	Used a handful of times but couldn't give up my mechanical keyboard for it so still in a like new condition. Has charging cable and USB dongle.	Wanting $100 +$15 in shipping
LG 49" UltraWide Gaming Monitor	Have been using this display for about 2 months but won't fit in my new space so want to find a good home for it. 5120x1440 Curved Gaming Monitor, 240Hz. Comes with a monitor arm as well as factory stand. https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-49gr85dc-b-gaming-monitor	Listing for $450 + $75 for shipping

I live in a luxury 1-bedroom in San Fransisco and have nice clothes. I have dated a lot of men who work in finance/sales/tech, some of whom make 4x my salary, but many of whom live with roommates or in studios in order to be frugal. I live in, by far, the nicest apartment I've been inside in this city.
Since I've moved to this apartment, I've noticed that men are less generous on dates/ in general. For example, I needed to purchase Plan B after my night with a guy recently, and he said "Good idea thanks," instead of offering to get it for me. This really put me off - I later broke things off and he was heartbroken. But the damage was done - it was his mistake that caused my needing the Plan B, and the pill is already such a burden on women's bodies and hormones. The fact that he expected me to shoulder the $50 price of it really made me lose respect for him.
This is one such example where I will sadly have to break things off with a confused and heartbroken guy because I'll be put off from having paid more than I was comfortable with while dating them.
Ladies who are high earners, do you experience this? Also, I'm not even a high earner.
My parents subsidize my apartment, and I do actually prefer to date men who are generous during the courtship process. I don't have a ton of take-home pay, I work in finance but have the salary of like a barista. I'm embarrassed to admit that my parents help with rent, but should I be making this clearer so that men don't think I'm some high roller?

So where I live there is a common area outside where everyone can smoke or hangout. Usually people will go out to smoke pot, and it's legal where I am so no big deal.
When I first went out there I noticed there is a big puddle of what looked to be liquid I thought maybe dog pee or some rust leaking during rain not sure. It had discolored the floor.
One neighbor will go out there constantly and just smoke blunts all the time. Friendly and kind but I noticed something gross when I was out there at the same time. They sit in a chair, light their blunt. And the whole time they smoke they spit into one spot, so the brown/yellow liquid was their SPIT. It's just gross honestly I don't understand why someone would do that. Mind you this is on a second floor deck NOT in the grass or something.
Should I say something or ask the landlord about cleaning it? The space could be so nice but this guy is always out there spitting and smoking.

live in South Texas, so the hottest parts of the day are 90+ F. During these hours probably 11-5 pm. My Outdoor unit tries to turn on every 30 seconds for this period of time only working maybe once every hour, resulting in the house getting hot. After this time it works flawlessly and cools off the house quick. And feels great. Freon pressure is perfect According to techs.