My ex and I dated for a year. We have stayed connected off and on, seen each other over time. Fast forward, after planning to meet up last week but not making definitive plans, he suddenly blocked me the following evening (he’s never blocked me before) texting me he could no longer do this and to not reach out. He’s expressed to me recently how he “hates” how attracted he is to me, how I’m his weakness essentially that he can’t say no to… and I’m thinking maybe it’s for his own self control? I am not an excessive texter or caller- I don’t go blowing up his phone and make sure the texts are fairly reciprocal. I will typically only engage once he reaches out and rarely initiate. Initially I was shocked when he blocked me and I called him to see if he did block me, which he did. I understand that all things must come to a close, however, I am definitely saddened over this. Also the sudden manner in which he blocked me made me wonder if I had done something wrong. I respect his decision because I will never be where I am not wanted, however we were planning to meet in the upcoming day which is why it was shocking. I am respecting his boundaries, I have not attempted to reach him or go around the block- I did not block him on my end. Today I was thinking about him a bit as it is his birthday. I went to go pick up takeout from a restaurant and saw his car in the parking lot. There are a few other businesses and things there so I honestly wasn’t sure if he was inside, part of me prepared myself in case he was…I took a deep breath and went in, sure enough he was the only one in the restaurant and eating dinner with his parents. There wasn’t anyone at the front as it was empty and so I was just stood there, hoping the waitress would just come up without making much notice of my arrival- but then she called from the back of the restaurant —asking if I was dining in or here to pickup, I said “Hi, here for pickup,” he turned so quick and from the sound of my voice and we awkwardly made eye contact with his parents just sitting there, too. I didn’t know what to do with his parents there, I just awkwardly did a little wave, smiled, then grabbed my food and left. There was no hiding, the pickup area and restaurant have no divider between them- so I couldn’t have avoided it even if I had tried. If he was alone I probably wouldn’t have waved but I also didn’t want to be rude as his parents were at the table. Perhaps I am over thinking things now but I don’t want him to think that I followed him- it is not one of his usual restaurants. But he seemed shocked and somewhat glared at me without saying a word. Definitely awkward all the way around. I won’t attempt to contact him again. But would it be nice to hear if this has happened to anybody with running into an ex and what transpired…

This one right here... https://www.reddit.com/martialarts/comments/1cm05tl/what_do_you_think_of_the_statement_bad_people_are/
It was fun so here's the long follow up. That bad advice that random older dudes kept giving me was the least worrying thing in those three hours of analyzing that church's security measures. I hit up a friend of mine that has a whole lot more security-specific training than I do just to see if I was overthinking things. Bro has taught me a lot, and I still try to make the trip once or twice a year to train with him. Between emails and a phone call I think I did a pretty good job of compiling our conversation. Most of the convo is also here but I'm not a shameless self-promoter on Tuesdays.
This isn't so much about martial arts or fighting or self-defense, but it probably is helpful and good discussion because a lot of you would hopefully give a crap about these same issues.
DC (Me): When I arrived I drove around the building and no one was posted at any of the 3 front entrances, at least not outside and visible. There was always someone at either of the 2 back entrances and the 1 north end entrance.
TF (The Friend): If someone is truly invested in safety they would have all doors covered, including the main entrance(s). Now maybe their thinking is the main entrance is where people come and go and it might be “uncomfortable” for visitors however we are talking about KEEPING PEOPLE ALIVE. To me that is worth the slight discomfort. And one way they could accomplish it without having to make it an uncomfortable experience is put “greeters” at the main entrance dressed in their Sunday best but they are actually part of the security response team. Those greeters need training in profiling, body language, situational awareness and of course the surface level expected things (firearm, hand to hand, situation specific training such as an active threat). Also does this place have security cameras? Security cameras need to monitor the entire property. And keep in mind people stake out places, plant things at places, etc during off hours. Cameras are a must. Want to make some money? Offer to install a system for them. I’ll help you.
DC: There was no mention to me of where first aid kits and AEDs are located in the building. I know where one AED is on the lower floor but it’s a 4-story building. Considering that I was outside the most heavily-traveled door, it would seem prudent for me to know where those are if I see someone get hit by a car or grab their chest and fall down.
TF: An emergency doesn’t always mean a violent situation. It could be someone suffering a heart attack, a child getting run over by a car driven by an 80 yr blind church goer or just a simple amputation of a finger because they are making sandwiches in the church kitchen. Every single floor needs to have multiple AEDs and COMPLETE first aid kits (that’s a whole class in itself – how to stock a first aid kit). I say multiples because you want quick easy access to one of those item no matter where you are at in the building. I don’t know how big the place is but even starting just by putting a complete first aid kit and AED at the N and S ends of the building is a good start along with training the congregation on CPR. You don’t need the piece of paper from a class, just get someone who knows how to come teach.
DC: Along the same line, no emergency action plans were provided. What to do if part of the building has to be evacuated for a fire or smoke? In case of severe weather or tornado threats what parts of the building should be evacuated and what are the safest areas to move people to until the danger passes? They might have these plans somewhere, but what’s the point if you don’t share them with the ones who would have to execute them.
TF: This is a mistake. There has to be an evacuation plan to remove as many people as possible from the building should something occur (fire, active threat, etc). If there are tornado shelters obviously that’s the safe spot for that specific situation. Many times the evacuation plan put in place can be used for multiple threats (active threat, fire, chemical spill, etc) because it’s about removing the people AWAY from the danger. And YES you are 1000% right those plans/routes need to be shared with EVERYONE in the congregation. When people do not know what to do or where to go there will be chaos, always. The people in charge might THINK they are going to be the go to person to provide guidance and manage the crowd but I will tell you when shit hits the fan no one is listening to them. People will be stepping on their own just to get out. With that being said, any evacuation plans that are created need to be drilled by the entire congregation. It could be done 10m before church for the next 6 Sundays to make sure EVERYONE knows the plan.
DC: It gets worse. There actually is no active shooter plan in place. Apparently some Lt. with the local police department will be doing an active shooter training in the future. I'll be in attendance with the lowest hopes in the room.
TF: This should be interesting and disappointing. My first question to him would be “What are your qualifications/experience to teach this? Have you experienced it first hand?”. Or is everyone looking at him because of his “label” which really means nothing other than that is his occupation that allows him to pay his electric bill. I have yet to see (other than myself) anyone put on a close to reality active shooter training session. Most people (law enforcement included) do powerpoint presentations. Unfortunately many “experts” teaching how to survive an active shooter situation think 4 hour Powerpoint presentations, statistics and cute acronyms are properly training people to survive one of the worst experiences a person could face. Powerpoint presentations do not save lives… ACTION saves lives! You know that though.
DC: Same with an active stabber, no plans there. Or at least no one could show me a plan.
TF: Same as the active shooter.
DC: Here's one you'll love. In the event of a person being violent, the directions I was given were to stay away, make a call over the radio, and let someone else come deal with it. They're also bringing in another security consultant (a former Navy SEAL, just like those three guys who all claim they killed bin Laden) to do de-escalation training at some point. I'm skipping that shit.
TF: I’ve always said if you can remove yourself from a situation that is the best way to increase your odds of staying alive. HOWEVER – there are some situations where immediate action is needed NOW! Especially if you are responsible for the safety of others the goal is to not only eliminate the threat but also minimize damage (limit the casualties). The other night we worked full blown knife attacks. I asked someone to demo with me. I slaughtered him with 20+ stabs/slashes in about 5 seconds and that was before he hit the ground and I mounted and continued. My point – the longer an event goes on the more damage innocents will experience. If you have time to go make a phone call then you have time to take effective action that works towards eliminating the threat and minimizing damage. Their suggestion to call someone else is so typical of people who have no concept of how violence really works (let someone else handle your problem…lol). No one cares for your life more than you do. It’s your responsibility. And regardless of what someone’s propaganda says about their label it still takes time to make a phone call, it takes time for someone to arrive and even when they arrive there is no guarantee they will even engage the threat. The overall goal for ALL VIOLENT ENCOUNTERS is to make the even AS SHORT AS POSSIBLE. The longer a violent event continues the odds of you leaving lessen and the odds increased causalities goes through the roof.
Poster's note: When he and I say we're going to train someone in knife attacks rather than knife defenses. The partner (the attacker) is going to be training on how to freaking stab you just as hard as you're training to resist being stabbed.. Rubber knife, protective gear and 100% stabbing vs 100% resistance, for advanced students, is a fun time. If you're wearing the pads you're going to get your ass kicked. He wasn't actually training his class how to go on stabbing sprees.
DC: This was one that’s not even related to fight skills or ability to engage a threat. There was not even a quick introductory rant on recognizing suspicious people or behavior. The more I talked to other volunteers the more I realized none of them had a clue.
TF: This is touched on in my answer to your first question. People who are determined to execute violent activity do not walk around with signs or flashing lights. It’s not always obvious like in the movies. They blend in and lay low until the moment to take action. These church people have no clue what they are doing. It’s all what I call “surface level thinking” meaning the basic stuff your average person who is inexperienced in the subject thinks of – “Get a police officer officer in our group to teach us something.” Teach you what? How to hand out traffic citations? “We have retired military this or that and retired law enforcement and a former rodeo clown who are packing heat during church.” Ok have they ever dealt with using their weapon when there is mass chaos and people screaming/running everywhere? Bullets only travel in a straight line and do not go around innocents if they are in the way. But just because someone has a firearm doesn’t mean they have the mindset to use it.
DC: You’ll love this one. 5 minutes before the church service let out we were told to call it quits for the day, before everyone in the building started filing out to the parking lot at one time.
TF: Do you mean the response team was training, etc and the church had you guys leave 5 minutes before the congregation got out? That ties exactly into my comment in question #1 about appearance/comfort level. Why hide it? Is there anyone in the church (or the world for that matter) that would disagree the world is getting more violent? Everyone knows it is… they’ve either experienced it or seen/heard news stories so why not put it out there that the church takes the safety and well being of their members SERIOUSLY? I have a saying I came up with once when I was talking to a place about active shooter training and they said it couldn’t be hands ons and they were hoping more for like a speaking engagement because their policy doesn’t allow physical contact. My response – “Until you put people before your policies, your people will continue to die.” And that’s just plain truth. Everyone is so worried about policy/comfort level they are putting that before the actual goal of saving people’s lives. If you are getting ready for a championship basketball game what should you do in practice? Play some damn basketball. Well if you are wanting to learn how to save your life/others in a violent situation what should you practice? VIOLENCE. Why would you do ANYTHING ELSE in practice than what you are preparing for? It’s not logical. I think the congregation would approve and love the idea that “their church cares”.
DC: On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the building’s security measures? Is it fucked, or am I crazy and overthinking it because I am oddly OCD about details sometimes?
TF: I would give them a grade of 2 (at best) out of 10. You are 1000% on point on everything. You have training. You understand violent situations but you’ve been trained by someone and a group that has experienced it and knows how violence REALLY unfolds. The people who are in charge with this “security” policy at your church have ZERO experience and ZERO training. Imagine this - would you want a surgeon who has no education in operation and no experience to attempt to perform a life saving surgery on you? A question I would ask them is - "How SERIOUS are you about saving lives?"

I’m really trying not to be a downer because I am very excited for the game but I keep going back and forth in my head about pre-ordering the game because I would like to show my support for the 40k community but I’m actually a little shook about Saber Interactive developing this one.
The thing about Saber is they’ve virtually never produced a game that rates above 7/10 and it’s basically a coin flip that they produce games of that caliber at all. A good portion of their library has middling reviews. Well, I’ve played a few in the mid 2000s and 2010s and looking at their development library as a whole the first word that comes to mind is “derivative”. They make games similar to other games of their time but worse, somehow riding on the backs of giants and producing an inferior product with the advantageous foreknowledge of good game design. That’s not a great sign.
Their only real claim to fame is working on the Halo CE Anniversary and Master Chief Collection which definitely were not fan favorites on release but did eventually get much better. How much of that can be attributed to Saber’s involvement, I don’t know because they were part of a larger collective development team working with Microsoft Studios and 343 Industries. In general, they seem to be a company like Rebellion that specializes in porting games over but when it comes to making original/ licensed IPs they make lukewarm games or just kind of drop the ball.
I can tell they’re using some variant of the World War Z engine to pump out large hoardes of Tyranids on screen at one time and while that looks cool I have to wonder how intelligent the AI actually are because the AI in WWZ was not impressive and the enemy variety was sorely lacking. How much of that is lack of creativity versus engine limitations is kind of what I’m curious and worried about. I’ve also noticed in the 30 minute gameplay demo video they posted that a large portion of the game is combat-interrupting cutscenes/ setpieces. It seems like 5 minutes of fighting consistently gets interrupted by 3 more minutes of cutscene dialogue or forcefully panning the camera over to a point of interest. I felt like SM1 did a pretty good job of letting the levels run their course and maybe having a cutscene or 2. Don’t get me wrong, SM2 looks absolutely gorgeous but I almost think the devs feel that forcing the player to stop and gawk at the marvel they’ve created is somehow enriching the gameplay. It feels a lot more like dopamine edging by having these intense playable moments and completely turning off the adrenaline by having Titus gaze at some large structure or ship overhead collapsing, or having the crew stop to converse with some besieged Guardsman unit. Leave it up to the individual agency of the players to stop and gaze in wild wonder if that’s something they appreciate but otherwise keep your foot on the gas I’d say. What makes games intense is that they often don’t let up. The demo was just a bunch of tension and release in quick succession and I honestly was hoping more for a game with pacing like DOOM Eternal/ WH40K Boltgun. I know this game is not a boomer shooter but I’d like there to be good rhythm and pacing. I’d trade high octane co-op gameplay over visually/ technically impressive sightseeing any day.
I also noticed the game seems to feature the same linearity of SM1, which if I have one gripe about SM1, it is definitely that the game is practically an “on-rails” experience. There is very little in the way of freedom of exploration and almost all the “hidden” servitors and ammo caches were in painfully obvious places because they were often in the only other place the game would allow you to explore. It would be nice to be able to take divergent paths in levels or have larger arena style combat areas with rewards and secrets strewn about. Put a gun in a far-off artillery crater or stash a mounted gun up in bunkers that you can rip off the mount like in SM1. Also I would like secrets to be a little more thought out and rewarding. SM1 rarely utilized using melee weapons to break away barricades exposing secret areas and never utilized switches or levers to open secret pathways. Verticality was also sparsely used not only in general but definitely for the sake of hiding a secret way up top somewhere. I don’t know exactly what I expect from this I just mean to say I would want the levels opened up a little bit, and for rewards to be in places for players willing to take the time to find them. It would also be nice to have narrative setpieces that tell a story in secret areas like the Fallout Universe does. Let a secret path lead us to a scene of carnage or a tragedy or maybe even an ambush. So far we haven’t seen any of that.
I’m not writing off the game just yet but I would really like to be proven wrong about some of the things I noticed from the gameplay video. It’s hard to be excited in the age of modern gaming especially when we talk about preorders. I’d honestly like them to talk more about the beta key distribution date. I don’t even necessarily need to play the beta personally, but it would be nice to see a little more gameplay in the form of a single complete mission from start to finish.
What are your guys’ thoughts? Am I just being a pessimist? What concerns do you have? Are you guys excited? Am I worrying about nothing? I’d love to hear your feedback.

On another Korean subreddit:

• Parent Accusing Me of Sexual Misconduct
• School is asking me to hide from the parents and come to work in private

If you have your blackbelt in Hagwon Ju Jitsu, the first thing (and this is what I DM'd the user) is to be highly suspicious of the take-down move going for the legs of "A parent / student said" maneuver. In search bar: Hagwon: Phantom Complaints. How to Fight Back
My clairvoyant comment 4 years ago:

If they need to get you out in a hurry, expect the scare tactic, "You molested a kid! Quick! Run to the airport and leave us all your money before we call the police!" -Hmmm, funny the PARENTS didn't call the police instead of the money-grubbing Hagwon owner.

The first 🚩 red flag 🚩 is, most places on earth would not have the staff contact you about a serious misdeed. The first time you heard about it would be a knock on your door from the police, and be told not to return to work until the situation has been resolved. This is because you are a flight risk and informing you of a crime would be the stupidest thing they could do. A Hagwonite mulling over whether to have the police involved is a clear sign it's made up. If an accusation is serious enough to be made by anyone, then there would be an official complaint made to the authorities. They would quickly take it from there, no one would tip you off the wheels were in motion.

Also, I was told to move out of my apartment to make way for a new teacher, I am constantly being micromanaged, surveilled, and pulled into arguments, and now I'm receiving messages that a parent is accusing me of sexual misconduct.

🚩 Red flag #2 is that the relationship has been increasingly threatening, abusive, hostile etc. The foreigner hasn't taken the hint that they are not wanted and should pack up and head out, Midnight Run it. The Achilles heel of Hagwonites is to push the shame on to the target. They QUIT, couldn't handle it, were failures, left us high & dry without notice, broke the contract, have to stack classes on the other teachers, everyone is a victim because of their selfish actions! They don't want to fire people except as a last resort due to labor laws and looking like they abused a person that didn't do anything wrong. Search bar: Resign, or I will harass you until you do!

First, it was all the arguments, one of which included the director screaming at me and almost crying on the phone at 8 pm while driving because I taught the students to spell "Cabbage" instead of "Lettuce".

--Never underestimate the depths a Hagwonite will stoop, to make a mountain out of a molehill. They are not very smart to begin with, so they find the smallest turn-signal violation and exaggerate it into a 1st degree felony. That's happened to me, and I simply responded, "Yeah, so what?" I didn't allow them to drag me in to apologizing, groveling, get into the weeds about literally nothing, or any of that, the argument for the next 10 minutes was whether it was important or not, and if the subject was befitting someone in a management position who should be able to discern things that need attention and things that can be ignored. The intent is to harass and they won't leave until they have exhausted all of their energy and are happy with the victim's response to it. I concluded by saying it was not important and I'm not changing anything. They can teach the class themselves if they think they can go the entire day without making a single error.
🚩 Red flag #3, ridiculous reasons and excuses, -no evidence.

I eventually received a call from the director telling that one of the parents believes that her daughter saw my private area in the bathroom (I am a male teacher and this accusation or anything close to it never occurred)

1. Oh yeah? Which parent? What's the student's name, which classroom of mine is she in, what time did this occur, and why would she be in the men's bathroom? Let me see the CCTV footage?
2. It's so weak, it's obviously made up. The foreigner would certainly have seen a student of the opposite gender in his bathroom and told them to leave and would not have unzipped anything if that happened.
3. What is a student doing entering or peeping into the men's rest room in the first place? That sounds like student misconduct to me. Why isn't the parent being told to correct their child's behavior and none of this would be an issue?
4. It's not illegal to pull your junk out in the rest room and try to relieve yourself, that's what it's for, it's not the hallway or classroom.

In the follow-up: School is asking me to hide from the parents and come to work in private
is by-the-numbers attempt to continue to harass, but the director doesn't know what to do after a lawyer was called. So first it was a "major" problem of exposing himself to a student, then when a lawyer contacts the school, that was an even bigger error by the employee. Wow, no one can ever do anything right in that place.

Fast forward, the attorney contacted the school, the school says no police were coming to talk to me, but instead, the school talked to the police already on my behalf and I will not be talking to police, so I shouldn't worry.

--NONE OF THIS HAPPENED! Ask the attorney to call the precinct and ask for a copy of the POLICE REPORT. They have to fill out any interaction with the public so it's not all from memory, even if no action is taken. The next officer that fields a call about it, can pull up the report and get a summary of events, dates, names etc.
Yeah, "don't worry" I talk to the police about your felony charge, fine, deportation, and de-escalated the situation for you, you're welcome!

AND IT JUST GETS STUPIDER

Now, my school is asking me to no longer come to work at 9 am and greet the parents, but instead, come to work 30 minutes earlier, hide from the parents, not teach kindergarten anymore, and sit behind a computer on a different floor, alone, doing random administrative tasks.

--A blackbelt would NEVER come in to work 30 minutes earlier without pay. They would absolutely make their presence known to the parents and children so that the lies they were told, would visually be false. They are trying to hide the employee until they quit or get fired, or may have already told everyone a lie that they ran off w/o notice, because that's what they were expecting from the false sexual exposure claim.
Why cooperate? Come down from 2nd floor, walk around, enter the classroom, say hi to everyone when they show and leave.
Why would the other 4 foreigners cooperate? This is a serious accusation, they should all refuse work until the director is made to apologize and reinstate the teacher.
They are apparently bleeding student numbers, are in way over their heads, barely a year old, are over-staffed now, and need to shed labor costs. A foreigner strike would be the nail in the coffin. They would have to reverse themselves, or face foreclosure in about a week after parents yank their kids not having a NET teaching them.
A golden opportunity to bring them to their knees will undoubtedly be totally wasted. It's like the entire defense fell down, and the person with the ball is not sure whether they should go for a lay-up or not.....ridiculous.

Hi there, thanks for checking out my post. I hope that you're staying safe and well during these crazy times! I am hoping to find someone who I can chat on here a while and then maybe move on to a messaging app with the intention 0f hanging out in real life and explore the big apple with, which is why I'm mainly looking for someone in the NYC area or at the maximum withing the east coast. If you think we would really click, I'm open to anywhere too but please put some effort into your first message and can actually hold a conversation. Not looking to waste each other's time! Thanks!
About me:

• 31
• 5'8
• 160 lbs
• Average build
• Asian
• Foodie
• Majored in Computer Science
• Working as software developer
• Huge geography buff (love history too)
• Boxing fan (also watch MMA, NBA, and soccer from time to time)
• Horrothrillemystery movie fan, do watch mainstream movies & TV shows in general
• Love paranormal/creepy things
• Exploring new and unknown places
• Space, universe, aliens
• Enjoy deep conversations
• Collecting things (I'll keep it a mystery for now, message me to find out more)
• Swimming, running, hiking, working out
• Into science & tech in general
• Laid back, open-minded, and love to make inappropriate jokes even during tough times
• Dark humor
• 420 friendly (I smoke socially and have no problem with it as long as it doesn't revolve around your life 24/7)
• Random fun fact: Drifted around homes during childhood, moved more than 10 times before I left home for college (lost count at this point 🤔)

Looking for:

• 20+
• A cutie like myself :>
• Can hold a conversation
• Share some 0f my hobbies and interests, would love to hear your hobbies/interests too
• Willing to explore the city and go on a food hunt with me
• Enjoy traveling and trying out new things
• Will enjoy staying indoor as much as being outdoors
• Build a deep connection with me and open to the possibility 0f leading to a serious relationship
• To be honest, I don't have much expectation. So just send me a message and we can find out!

What I am hoping to see from your first DM/Chat:

• An intro about yourself, just something we can kick off with. Things like as age, height, weight, location, INTERESTS, etc. would be cool
• Perhaps a photo, will be sending one (or a few) in return

Hi there, thanks for checking out my post. I hope that you're staying safe and well during these crazy times! I am hoping to find someone who I can chat on here a while and then maybe move on to a messaging app with the intention 0f hanging out in real life and explore the big apple with, which is why I'm mainly looking for someone in the NYC area or at the maximum withing the east coast. If you think we would really click, I'm open to anywhere too but please put some effort into your first message and can actually hold a conversation. Not looking to waste each other's time! Thanks!
About me:

• 31
• 5'8
• 160 lbs
• Average build
• Asian
• Foodie
• Majored in Computer Science
• Working as software developer
• Huge geography buff (love history too)
• Boxing fan (also watch MMA, NBA, and soccer from time to time)
• Horrothrillemystery movie fan, do watch mainstream movies & TV shows in general
• Love paranormal/creepy things
• Exploring new and unknown places
• Space, universe, aliens
• Enjoy deep conversations
• Collecting things (I'll keep it a mystery for now, message me to find out more)
• Swimming, running, hiking, working out
• Into science & tech in general
• Laid back, open-minded, and love to make inappropriate jokes even during tough times
• Dark humor
• 420 friendly (I smoke socially and have no problem with it as long as it doesn't revolve around your life 24/7)
• Random fun fact: Drifted around homes during childhood, moved more than 10 times before I left home for college (lost count at this point 🤔)

Looking for:

• 20+
• A cutie like myself :>
• Can hold a conversation
• Share some 0f my hobbies and interests, would love to hear your hobbies/interests too
• Willing to explore the city and go on a food hunt with me
• Enjoy traveling and trying out new things
• Will enjoy staying indoor as much as being outdoors
• Build a deep connection with me and open to the possibility 0f leading to a serious relationship
• To be honest, I don't have much expectation. So just send me a message and we can find out!

What I am hoping to see from your first DM/Chat:

• An intro about yourself, just something we can kick off with. Things like as age, height, weight, location, INTERESTS, etc. would be cool
• Perhaps a photo, will be sending one (or a few) in return

This will be long, because need to show my side and why I did it. However, I'll try to keep it as short as possible.
I am 33, but in less then a month I'll be 34. This is important because this all happened in May and so I think about it ever year. To make it worse, I saw a post that made me really think about this.
At age 20 in May, I made a decision that lying to my girlfriend. So that she leave me, was in her best interest. Since I was 16 my body started failing me. Wasn't to bad at first. I could still do most things and live normal. However, I was a complete outdoor type before this. If I wasn't working on the farm, I was in the woods. Well, I had to stay inside. Which lead me to MySpace, and then mmorpgs and then anime. Anime lead me to Crunchyroll. A website that was social media basically but with anime to.
I met a girl on here. Was friends for 3 years and then turn into more. Spent almost my entire free time talking to her.
She had big dreams of being a architect and designing a building that would never be forgotten. I wanted this for her, I wanted her to do what she dream of.
Anyway, I had seen what disable and incompetent men have done to women. They drag them down. They just hurt them. My mother, my sister among others I knew. So even at a much younger age. I swore to never drag anyone down. I swore I would be strong enough for whoever I married.
Well by 20, I was much worse. Spent half my time in bed, hurting to much to do anything really.
The relationship wasn't a I ask her out or she ask me out. Was more of a, we both loved each other and so just happened.
When it really hit me, was in January of when I was 20. When I saw how I was just going to causes her pain. So I quickly made up bullshite saying I can't actually love her because I'm autistic(I know beyond stupid and she probably knew it)(i am autistic through). So she swept it under the rug and didn't care at all. Kept the relationship going. Tried a couple more stupid ways but she never took any of it seriously.
Until May, when I told her my life was more important then hers and she ain't good enough for me. (I never let her know about my physical condition) She finally saw me as a asshole and ended it.
Which I believed her hating me, would make it much easier for her to forget me and move on.
She before this was talking about taking time off and coming to visit me and other times living with me. I saw the future of her giving up her dreams or I weighing her down. I saw her future being hurt by me. Because I couldn't even make it through college from missing to much. I would not be able to get a job. I would only hurt her, I couldn't stand the thought of me doing to her. What I saw my father do to my mother.
So getting her to break up with me and always hiding my sickness from her. Never talking on phone or camera when I was doing bad.
Should I have just been honest and broken up with her.
Last thing, I wanted to marry her. My dream growing up, was to have a happy family.

Can someone please explain WHY we see a roach every now and again? Coming from behind the stove area on our counters , sometimes by the microwave and once we saw it in the bedroom. medium sized. We have also seen a few babies . I’m talking seeing them once or twice a month suddenly out of no where for the last 3 months. We have torn our place apart. Sprayed in the back of the stove, behind the fridge, put Advion drops everywhere imaginable in the cabinets, along random walls, etc cleaned counters etc etc.
I have lost so much sleep over this. No kidding. I hide out in the living room and spring into action turning the light on but never catch anything scurrying. One time it came out while I was cooking. One time I felt it watching me while I was chopping veggies and I turned around and it ran! I have powdered sugar and boric acid everywhere. The babies we have seen have only been one or two babies every now and again and they all move very slowly.
I have sticky traps everywhere and never catch anything . Are they coming from my neighbor every now and again???? I hear her place is disgusting and she’s moving soon so she’s been cleaning the last couple months this all started. Please how can I make sure to never see one again , I’m so scared 😭

I am FINALLY able to move my dragon to a large enclosure. 4x4x2. But I don't know what to put in it to fill the space and create safe climbing opportunities for my guy. I feel like I should set up the inside of the enclosure (i.e. climbing/hide etc.) before I deal with designing the heat situation since I think the heating will depend on how high the basking area is, etc. Does anyone have any ideas of what I can put in this 4 foot tall enclosure to create a proper climbing environment for my dude?

I (39F) will be spending much of the summer working outdoors in a very arid environment. I'm looking for advice on 2 things so I don't turn into Ol' Leatherface out here: lotion, and actives.
Lotion: This place is super dry. My skin gets greasy very easily. Does anyone in a similar situation have recommendations for a good hydrating lotion (or creme or whatever) that won't turn my face into an oil slick?
Actives: I typically alternate between using retinol and glycolic acid most nights. I know they leave your skin more susceptible to sun damage. This place is very sunny, and I'll often be working in exposed areas and at high elevations. I am white AF. Of course I'll be wearing sunscreen and hats, but some sun exposure is inevitable. Should I stop using actives altogether during the summer, or are they OK to continue using, perhaps less frequently? Is there anything else I can use to keep working on minimizing fine lines and smoothing out my skin tone? I do plan to still use Vitamin C serum, unless that's also a bad idea for some reason.
TIA for any help!

Here’s the basic info, with situation explanations below.
Cats name: Jasmine Species: Cat Age: about 11 Sex/Neuter status: Female, spayed Breed: possible Siberian forest cat mix Body weight: 12.1 (last weighed at vet about 1.5 months ago. History: Mild constipation about 1.5 months ago. Didn’t know at first. Was lethargic, hiding, barely eating or drinking. Went to vet after a couple days when I could get appointment. They gave fluids and pain meds. Vet said it didn’t “feel” like she had much of an obstruction. After a few days she was fine.
Now: came home from work yesterday, around 5:30. Noticed she was lethargic, shying away from pets. Not quite sitting, but not standing either. Seemed very uncomfortable. Wouldn’t eat dinner. (She ate breakfast) (wet food morning and night with dry food available, but doesn’t usually eat much dry food.)
I lost a friend recently, so I was maybe a bit paranoid when my cat wasn’t looking well, so I took her to the emergency vet in my area. They manually removed some of the blockage (can’t imagine kitty was too happy about that.) then did an enema, anti-nausea med injection, pain med injection, fluids, and stool softener. Got home and she was not in pain. High as a kite though. She ate some tuna (her favorite, it’s what saved her as a stray kitten.)
This morning I gave the instructed oral dose of the pain med and stool softener. She didn’t eat this morning. Checked on her during lunch. Hadn’t eaten from what I could tell. Came home from work today, and she was drooling. Gave the recommended dose of the anti-nausea pill, still waiting for it to take effect, then maybe do the pain med oral and stool softener once the anti nausea kicks in.
I do have an appointment with our vet in a couple of days, as recommended. I will ask them in person about what digestive enzyme supplements they recommend, but I wanted to also get other recommendations from other vets or anyone who has had personal experience with digestive enzyme supplements for their cats.
NOTE: I will wait to buy anything until after I’ve talked to our vet. I just want to know your experience, and what ones seemed to work for your animals, so I can bring them up.
TIA

Hi all! We need to replace our AC system and we received the following quotes. I would appreciate any input on the equipment or scope of work provided by these companies. It is worth noting that Quote #3 is eligible for 0% financing for up to $15k through our utility company. The other quotes are eligible for financing but not at 0%. The third vendor did also include an option to remove the fiberboard ducts.
Quote #1 - $12,500

• Replacement Overhead A/C Agreement.
• Remove & Dispose of existing Bryant 3.5 -ton AC equipment.
• Furnish and install new Trane condensers Mod# 4TTR5042N 15 SEER Rating
• Furnish and install new Trane 2 piece air handler Mod# TAMXB0C42V
• New line set, slim duct to cover line set
• new condenser pad.
• New systems will be installed and transitioned to existing air duct system.
• New emergency drain pan with automatic shut off switch,
• New outside disconnect with whip.
• All wiring installed to code.
• One-year warranty on all workmanship
• Ten-year manufactures warranty on A/C compressor and all other a/c components.
• Customer is aware that we need a clear access and all work areas to be clear of articles to ensure a proper safe installation.
• This Installation will be installed by a COMPANY #1 Licensed Contractor.
• Optional Additional cost to install Trane Clean Effects $1,500
• **Note: Cost of permits will be billed separate over & above the agreement.

Quote #2 - $14,500

• Replacement Overhead A/C Agreement with Heat Pump
• Remove & Dispose of existing Bryant 3.5 -ton AC equipment.
• Furnish and install new Trane Heat Pump condensers Mod# 4TWR5042N 15 SEER Rating
• Furnish and install new Trane 2 piece air handler Mod# TAMXB0C42V
• new line set, slim duct to cover line set
• new condenser pad.
• New systems will be installed and transitioned to existing air duct system.
• New emergency drain pan with automatic shut off switch,
• New outside disconnect with whip.
• All wiring installed to code.
• Square D breaker to be changed from 30 to 40 amp.
• New heat pump thermostat and new thermostat wire to be installed.
• One-year warranty on all workmanship,
• Ten-year manufactures warranty on A/C compressor and all other a/c components.
• Customer is aware that we need a clear access and all work areas to be clear of articles to ensure a proper safe installation.
• This Installation will be installed by a COMPANY #1 Energy Approved Licensed Contractor.
• Optional - Additional cost to install Trane Clean Effects $1,500
• **Note: Cost of permits will be billed separate over & above the agreement.

Quote #3 - $18,000 - $1,000 JCPL AC Rebate = $17,000

• Scope of Work: Remove and recycle existing air handler and condensing unit.
• Equipment to be installed:
  • BOSCH heat pump - BOVB-60HDN1-M20 - AHRI #: 207658523, 18.5 SEER2, 12.0 EER2, 9.5 HSPF2 One () BOSCH heat pump, up to 19 SEER, 5 ton, 208/230V, R410A
  • BOSCH air handler - BVA-48WN1-M20 - 4 ton, 208/230V, R410A
  • BOSCH electric heater - EHK-05B
• Install new air handler in the attic set in a new emergency drain pan.
• New drain pan will feature a float switch for worry free condensate drainage and vibration isolators for quiet system operation.
• Field fabricate transitional duct fittings to connect new equipment to existing duct system as needed.
• Alter and reconnect to existing condensate drain with new PVC trap and clean out.
• Alter and reconnect to existing line and low-voltage electric circuits
• Alter and reconnect existing refrigerant piping, low-voltage control wire, and emergency condensate drain as needed at new indoor equipment and new heat pump set in same location on a new vibration isolation/sow elevation pad.
• Install new main condensate drain from new air handler to exterior side of house new new heat pump.
• Install one new dedicated 220 volt, 30 amp circuit from existing electric panel to new electric strip heater in air handler in attic.
• Install one new HONEYWELL 8000 digital/programmable thermostat.
• Leak check, evacuate, and charge refrigerant system. Start up and test system operation.

Quote #3 optional

• Optional Ductwork replacement ($5,500)
• Remove and recycle all fiberboard main supply duct trunks in attic.
• Install new galvanized metal main supply air trunk in same location of attic.
• Galvanized metal main supply trunk will be wrapped in REFLECTIX R.8 non-fiberglass duct insulation.
• Alter and reconnect to existing flexible supply air duct branches with new branch take-offs featuring manually adjustable volume dampers for efficient system balancing.

Hi all! We need to replace our AC system and we received the following quotes. I would appreciate any input on the equipment or scope of work provided by these companies. It is worth noting that Quote #3 is eligible for 0% financing for up to $15k through our utility company. The other quotes are eligible for financing but not at 0%. The third vendor did also include an option to remove the fiberboard ducts.
Quote #1 - $12,500

• Replacement Overhead A/C Agreement.
• Remove & Dispose of existing Bryant 3.5 -ton AC equipment.
• Furnish and install new Trane condensers Mod# 4TTR5042N 15 SEER Rating
• Furnish and install new Trane 2 piece air handler Mod# TAMXB0C42V
• New line set, slim duct to cover line set
• new condenser pad.
• New systems will be installed and transitioned to existing air duct system.
• New emergency drain pan with automatic shut off switch,
• New outside disconnect with whip.
• All wiring installed to code.
• One-year warranty on all workmanship
• Ten-year manufactures warranty on A/C compressor and all other a/c components.
• Customer is aware that we need a clear access and all work areas to be clear of articles to ensure a proper safe installation.
• This Installation will be installed by a COMPANY #1 Licensed Contractor.
• Optional Additional cost to install Trane Clean Effects $1,500
• **Note: Cost of permits will be billed separate over & above the agreement.

Quote #2 - $14,500

• Replacement Overhead A/C Agreement with Heat Pump
• Remove & Dispose of existing Bryant 3.5 -ton AC equipment.
• Furnish and install new Trane Heat Pump condensers Mod# 4TWR5042N 15 SEER Rating
• Furnish and install new Trane 2 piece air handler Mod# TAMXB0C42V
• new line set, slim duct to cover line set
• new condenser pad.
• New systems will be installed and transitioned to existing air duct system.
• New emergency drain pan with automatic shut off switch,
• New outside disconnect with whip.
• All wiring installed to code.
• Square D breaker to be changed from 30 to 40 amp.
• New heat pump thermostat and new thermostat wire to be installed.
• One-year warranty on all workmanship,
• Ten-year manufactures warranty on A/C compressor and all other a/c components.
• Customer is aware that we need a clear access and all work areas to be clear of articles to ensure a proper safe installation.
• This Installation will be installed by a COMPANY #1 Energy Approved Licensed Contractor.
• Optional - Additional cost to install Trane Clean Effects $1,500
• **Note: Cost of permits will be billed separate over & above the agreement.

Quote #3 - $18,000 - $1,000 JCPL AC Rebate = $17,000

• Scope of Work: Remove and recycle existing air handler and condensing unit.
• Equipment to be installed:
  • BOSCH heat pump - BOVB-60HDN1-M20 - AHRI #: 207658523, 18.5 SEER2, 12.0 EER2, 9.5 HSPF2 One () BOSCH heat pump, up to 19 SEER, 5 ton, 208/230V, R410A
  • BOSCH air handler - BVA-48WN1-M20 - 4 ton, 208/230V, R410A
  • BOSCH electric heater - EHK-05B
• Install new air handler in the attic set in a new emergency drain pan.
• New drain pan will feature a float switch for worry free condensate drainage and vibration isolators for quiet system operation.
• Field fabricate transitional duct fittings to connect new equipment to existing duct system as needed.
• Alter and reconnect to existing condensate drain with new PVC trap and clean out.
• Alter and reconnect to existing line and low-voltage electric circuits
• Alter and reconnect existing refrigerant piping, low-voltage control wire, and emergency condensate drain as needed at new indoor equipment and new heat pump set in same location on a new vibration isolation/sow elevation pad.
• Install new main condensate drain from new air handler to exterior side of house new new heat pump.
• Install one new dedicated 220 volt, 30 amp circuit from existing electric panel to new electric strip heater in air handler in attic.
• Install one new HONEYWELL 8000 digital/programmable thermostat.
• Leak check, evacuate, and charge refrigerant system. Start up and test system operation.

Quote #3 optional

• Optional Ductwork replacement ($5,500)
• Remove and recycle all fiberboard main supply duct trunks in attic.
• Install new galvanized metal main supply air trunk in same location of attic.
• Galvanized metal main supply trunk will be wrapped in REFLECTIX R.8 non-fiberglass duct insulation.
• Alter and reconnect to existing flexible supply air duct branches with new branch take-offs featuring manually adjustable volume dampers for efficient system balancing.

Hi I'm a nudist from Phoenix, Arizona. I love being naked outdoors and like to hang out in nudist resorts on the weekends. Looking for other nudists in the area to make friends with. If you're in Phoenix, Tucson are send me a dm.

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