I am so unsure about my wife.

Dear Reddit. I come to you with my hat in my hand as I do not know what to do. I am split down the middle in terms of self respect, love, and fear.

I 36(M) have known my wife 35(F), since we were 18, and have been married since 2016

We have 2 kids M(8), F(9), a house, jobs, cars, dogs.

But things from the past have now come back to haunt me, and I am unsure about everything, about respect, love, pride, attractiveness, safe to say my mind is in the biggest turmoil it has ever been. I’m going to cut straight to the chase, with a little about me in order to get my point across as clear as I can.

We met young, and I found my soulmate with no prior experience with woman. She was my first everything, while I know that she has had a few sexual partners. This didn’t bother me at first, but years down the line I found out that while I was head over heels for this girl, she met with a random guy and had sex. (We were not a couple then, but became a few weeks later) She has not had many sexual partners; from what I’ve been told I am her 7th partner.

I must admit still to this day that, this episode doesn’t affect me much anymore, but with all that has/is happening right now its re-surfaces and stings like a needle.

Throughout our relationship she has done things that crosses my boundaries. Let me come with the examples here:

1) We were at a party with mutual friends, and one of our friends was hooking up with a guy, we went into their room and started teasing them as they were making out. Out of the blue, my wife, then girlfriend, grabbed his crotch and said “It’s not even hard” right in front of me, I obviously got furious, and we had a fight but made up over a few days.

2) During her school year, she had to travel to Germany with her class, and be with a German family as part of her education, sort of like an exchange student. While she was in Germany she went out with her entire class for drinks, and from what she says there was a few guys that was making moves on her, and since she got drunk and had no way to figure out how to get home safe to her exchange family, she decided to head home with one of her male classmates to his exchange family and went to sleep in his room. As she put it, he slept on the floor, and she slept in the bed. And he was a friend, not one of those making moves.

3) We were once again with mutual friends at a BBQ and was later heading out into the cityLife to hit up bars and discos. Me and my best friend were on the toilet, putting wax in our hair, putting on fresh cologne and all that jazz. She the suddenly burst in, saying she really needs to pee, proceeds to pull down her pants and thong, honestly from what I remember you could see everything. We had a big fight about this again.


4) This episode was last summer during two mutual friends that got married. She was the toastmaster, and after all was done, she needed to do a wardrobe change. We went to our hotel room; she got changed to another more comfortable dress. While walking back, we could see some of our mutual friends with their husbands, and she decided to lift up her entire dress up to the start of her bra and do a silly side-to-side dance. Everyone saw it no questions asked. I again got furious, and I told her calmly, that I will not tolerate this, and be disrespected like this, there is other men seeing what only I should be seeing. She apologized immediately, and I said, I don’t want to talk more about this now, as I don’t want to ruin the night. We didn’t talk about it afterwards.

5) This is a month ago. She was celebrating her 35 birthday and went out with all her girls. One of her girlfriends is addicted to social media, and she must post everything. I have a very strict rule when it comes to nights out, this goes both ways.
Example 1 to 3 was when we were from the ages of 19 - 25

1. Don’t dance with other men!
2. Don’t go away from the venue alone!
3. Don’t take a pirate taxi, or a normal taxi home, call me instead!
4. Don’t flirt (This is a grey area, you cannot define flirting so if she flirts a little it’s fine, but don’t overdo it kind of way)
At this party I saw a video from the social media addicted girlfriend of hers on her snapchat story of my wife dancing and having a blast, she looked so good, and so happy, and I smiled when I saw it, quickly my smile faded away as a guy approached holding out both his hands towards my wife, and she looked different then, I can’t put it as to why, it’s like her personality changed, she looked very keen on going with this guy, to the dance floor, the exit, the toilets I don’t know because I could not see much from the video. What happened next is one of her other girlfriends grabbed her hard and pulled her away from the guy and the video ended.

I was the designated driver that night, so when she would call me in the night, I would come pick up her, and girlfriends and drive them home safely. But I got a call from one of her girlfriends that they could not find my wife anywhere and that she has been gone for like 30 minutes, they asked if I could track her from “Find my iPhone” but I have not saved her location so I could not. I got scared that she broke rule nr. 2 and that something bad might have happened.

Also in my mind, I thought about the video I saw, and then all else mentioned above. All the instances where she crossed my boundaries came flooding in. I am not proud of it. My first thought was her safety, the second thought was, did she envelope with this guy, and is doing something a married woman should not. Her girlfriend that called me, called me back 10 minutes later, saying they found her, and that she was just escorting the social media addicted girlfriend to her car, as she was not drinking, she basically broke rule nr. 2. I got relieved she was ok. But the pit in my stomach was still there.

I later picked them all up, and on the whole drive my wife obviously drunk, kept talking about nothing than men/boys “And then there was this guy” “And this guy looked like name of a friend we know” “and this guy reminded me so much of our boy” on and on, I was upset at this point, not showing it, but in my head I wanted to scream. All these emotions, all these times my line was crossed, the sex she had with another guy while I was in love with her. I know this is some sort of PTSD.

We got home, I put her to bed. And a few days went by, where I was silent, hurt, and went to the gym as much as I could as I could not look at her without being sad, hurt, angry. After about a week when we were lying in bed, I told her not to say anything but just to listen. It went something like this (it was not smooth at all, but I needed to get it out)

“In all our time together, you have touched a man’s crotch in front of me, went with another man and slept in the same room, not that I think anything happened between you two. You have basically shown your lady part, and butt to one of my best friends with me being present, at the wedding you decided to flash nearly your entire body to your girlfriends and their husbands in front of me, and lately at your birthday party (I explained the video) and then you were gone for like 40 minutes with no one knowing where you were. I’m not saying you did anything, but can you see how all of this puts a boulder in my stomach?”

She cried and said we have talked about this before, and we have, many times. I let say her piece. But in my mind, it went something like this:

“Yes we have talked about it many times before, but you keep triggering everything by crossing my boundaries, and you know it, so don’t cry and play the victim, this is your fault, and just because we have talked about it 2-4 times doesn’t mean that my feelings just disappear, feelings takes times, and when you constantly say sorry but then do it again, how am I suppose to heal?” I know I should have said this out loud, but I just got so small in the moment, as I opened up about some deep feelings.

This brings me to now. Why I am reaching out for external inputs on how to proceed.

I feel emasculated as a man, I feel disrespected, I do not feel like the most important person for her, I’m angry, hurt, and all of this has led me down following options none of which I want to do, but I feel like I must in order to respect myself, and say enough is enough.
1) I have been thinking of divorce.
2) Swallow my pride and move on, maybe talk it over with a professional.
3) Continue as always.
4) Give her an ultimatum, that if she crosses any of these in the future, I am gone for good.
It’s all very hard, because I love her so much, I love my kids, I don’t want to destroy everything. But I can’t handle being disrespected and emasculated any longer, and have my boundaries crossed again.

I trust her fully when she says nothing has ever happened, she is not that kind of girl, but you can always be surprised down the road.
Am I controlling, is this all justified in your eyes, am I wrong?
Any help, tips, how to proceed, personal opinions is welcome.
TL;DR Wife keeps crossing boundaries in the relationship, should I leave or stay?

Hi! First time posting, so bear with me! My wonderful long term boyfriend volunteered to get a vasectomy after seeing how miserable I am on birth control. (He doesn’t want any biological kids of his own. I have very limited BC options, and tubes being tied would be complicated per multiple doctors) So he went ahead and scheduled it. Well it just came to my attention tonight watching them all play and horse around, that I’m going to have to tell my girls something. I need them to understand to be gentle with the poor sweet man while he heals. I can definitely tell my kiddos his butt and crotch hurts so no jumping on him. But ya, they are 7 and 9. 😆🤷‍♀️ They will have questions as to while their “fun silly” parent isn’t running around with them like normal for the next 2-3 weeks. Any ideas that do not involve going into detail about male anatomy would be great! They definitely understand what surgery is, as I’ve had a lot of abdominal surgery. As for the peeps worried I’m over sheltering my girls, if they ask a question I try my best to give an AGE appropriate answer. And yes, they know proper anatomy terms for male and female. I just don’t think their Stepdad (or I) will be comfortable yelling to stay off his testicle area while jumping on the couch to watch a movie or horse around. Any ideas would be great!

My boyfriend has some pus bumps on his crotch area (photo is between crotch and leg). He is 45 yo gay male. He had something similar 2 months ago on one side and was treated with anti fungal cream from visual exam by a general doc. It's now back on the other side. He felt a little burn and itching 2 days ago, and only saw the pus bumps today. He put Betamethasone Dipropionate 0.05% and it seems to make it worse.
Would appreciate ideas of what this could be, as well as course of action, types of exam (ie biopsy) that can identify exactly what this is and what triggered it, obviously how to treat it? Also, should he break the bumps and get the pus out?
Image: https://ibb.co/MsdfW9t
Notes:
1- He has HPV 16 anal HSIL, could this be related???
2- This is not from shaving, he only trimmed in order for me to take the photo.

Anxious about expanding family with rescue dog that has bite history with adult male humans
Hello everyone,
I am mostly writing to put down my thoughts and fears into one place and hoping to hear suggestions from internet strangers with experience in this matter.
We adopted a 2 year old rescue lab pit mix through a local organization 5 months ago, let's call him P.
General demeanor: Very sweet, loving in his home with his family (one male and one female household ). He has been introduced to our immediate family that are mostly women and has even stayed with them when we took a 3 day holiday with no issues. He is absolutely terrified of loud urban environments and doesn't even want to go on walks in our quiet neighborhood. He is fearful of garbage trucks, sudden noises, garbage bags, etc. He loves car rides, walking on trails. We go to trails when we can. We are currently enrolled in a 10 week obedience course from a balanced trainer that came recommended by our vet for behavioural issues. He is doing well and has learnt to walk with less pulling, knows sit, stay, down, roll over with 50-80% consistency and we are working on improving it. He is crate trained and we are working on him tolerating a muzzle.
History: When we were adopting him, his foster mentioned that he nipped a friend of his when they were all at the beach. The friend went to grab a backpack from a pile of things where P was sitting. His foster explained this as a guarding behavior, that he was protecting his belongings. He mentioned that it was only a nip and not a full bite. The foster also mentioned a nip towards his female partner related to food aggression that quickly went away after she hand fed P.
Recent Incidents since P coming home with us:

1. P was sitting on the couch, my partner was in the kitchen and his friend was in our living room. P was already introduced to this friend a few times prior. The friend was playing with P and he shoved his face near his. P bit his ear and broke skin, a little blood, no stitches needed. The friend was tended to immediately and he felt that it was partly his fault. If this was the only incident that P had, I would not be writing this post.
   
2. This one was more serious. By this point we know P's boundaries and let all visitors know to give P space. P along with his human (my partner) met a friend while on the sidewalk. Friend stayed outside to continue to chat with another neighbor. My partner left the front door unlocked for friend to walk into our home. 10-15 minutes later friend let himself him. P ran towards the door with his tail wagging. Then a few minutes later my partner who was a few feet away heard screaming and P running away with his tail tucked in. P approached the friend with his tail tucked in and bit his crotch area. Broke skin with scratches.
   

Now that we know of two very different incidents, we have a protocol of what we do when people come to our home.

1. Near miss Another male came to our home with a few other female guests. We decided to do our protocol that we came up with after discussion with his current trainer. We introduce everyone outside of our home first with lots of treats. Continue to treat as we enter home and keep P on a leash. As we are all standing in the living room, P very casually turns around to bite the male's crotch area again! Since he was on the leash, he wasn't successful at biting but made contact with his pants. He let out a slight growl as this male sat himself on the couch. I then brought a huge bowl of treats and let this male hand feed treats the whole time while I kept him on the leash. This incident was very minor as other people didn't even notice that P misbehaved.

Some good things and bad.

1. P has never showed any aggression towards males, strangers or not while outside of our home. Stopping on a trail, or in our neighborhood talking to someone etc. Mostly disinterested in pulling towards people or other dogs.
   
2. P's foster used to let him run around without a leash in a very busy urban park with many people and dogs walking around. He said that he did it everyday and I'm assuming with no incidents.
   
3. Trend of biting is towards males in our home. The worrisome bit is they come with little or no warning such growling, barking etc.
   
4. Our trainer seems to feel that he can be trained and both actual bite incidents were not that bad and were justified in P's mind. P was likely guarding himself and his home during both incidents and may feel threatened with males in his space.
   
5. The near miss nip did let me see a version of this where it can be managed, although I feel a lot of stress around it.
   
6. Here is the big question... We have a baby on the way and have several months to prep. I know it's right of me to worry but is it reasonable to say that we do not know if P will be aggressive towards a baby or a toddler? He is sweet with everyone at home and tolerates all kind of invasion of his space by his current too humans. I am not hoping for P and baby to be besties, in fact, we will have to keep them 100% separated at all times as P is unpredictable. A part of me feels it's unfair to P if I get too anxious about this even before baby arrives and haven't even given him a chance to see how he behaves in that environment. This is what my partner's thoughts are right now.
   

I am very anxious about this and wanted to write this as I won't have a chance to speak to our trainer until the end of this week.
Tldr: Dog has biting history with adult males, in different situations. How much should I worry about welcoming a newborn in a few months? Should I let the baby arrive and see how dog reacts before making big decisions that alter dogs life. Dog is sweet and loving with his both male and female humans.

Hello everyone,
I am mostly writing to put down my thoughts and fears into one place and hoping to hear suggestions from internet strangers with experience in this matter.
We adopted a 2 year old rescue lab pit mix through a local organization 5 months ago, let's call him P.
General demeanor: Very sweet, loving in his home with his family (one male and one female household ). He has been introduced to our immediate family that are mostly women and has even stayed with them when we took a 3 day holiday with no issues. He is absolutely terrified of loud urban environments and doesn't even want to go on walks in our quiet neighborhood. He is fearful of garbage trucks, sudden noises, garbage bags, etc. He loves car rides, walking on trails. We go to trails when we can. We are currently enrolled in a 10 week obedience course from a balanced trainer that came recommended by our vet for behavioural issues. He is doing well and has learnt to walk with less pulling, knows sit, stay, down, roll over with 50-80% consistency and we are working on improving it. He is crate trained and we are working on him tolerating a muzzle.
History: When we were adopting him, his foster mentioned that he nipped a friend of his when they were all at the beach. The friend went to grab a backpack from a pile of things where P was sitting. His foster explained this as a guarding behavior, that he was protecting his belongings. He mentioned that it was only a nip and not a full bite. The foster also mentioned a nip towards his female partner related to food aggression that quickly went away after she hand fed P.
Recent Incidents since P coming home with us:

1. P was sitting on the couch, my partner was in the kitchen and his friend was in our living room. P was already introduced to this friend a few times prior. The friend was playing with P and he shoved his face near his. P bit his ear and broke skin, a little blood, no stitches needed. The friend was tended to immediately and he felt that it was partly his fault. If this was the only incident that P had, I would not be writing this post.
   
2. This one was more serious. By this point we know P's boundaries and let all visitors know to give P space. P along with his human (my partner) met a friend while on the sidewalk. Friend stayed outside to continue to chat with another neighbor. My partner left the front door unlocked for friend to walk into our home. 10-15 minutes later friend let himself him. P ran towards the door with his tail wagging. Then a few minutes later my partner who was a few feet away heard screaming and P running away with his tail tucked in. P approached the friend with his tail tucked in and bit his crotch area. Broke skin with scratches.
   

Now that we know of two very different incidents, we have a protocol of what we do when people come to our home.

1. Near miss Another male came to our home with a few other female guests. We decided to do our protocol that we came up with after discussion with his current trainer. We introduce everyone outside of our home first with lots of treats. Continue to treat as we enter home and keep P on a leash. As we are all standing in the living room, P very casually turns around to bite the male's crotch area again! Since he was on the leash, he wasn't successful at biting but made contact with his pants. He let out a slight growl as this male sat himself on the couch. I then brought a huge bowl of treats and let this male hand feed treats the whole time while I kept him on the leash. This incident was very minor as other people didn't even notice that P misbehaved.

Some good things and bad.

1. P has never showed any aggression towards males, strangers or not while outside of our home. Stopping on a trail, or in our neighborhood talking to someone etc. Mostly disinterested in pulling towards people or other dogs.
   
2. P's foster used to let him run around without a leash in a very busy urban park with many people and dogs walking around. He said that he did it everyday and I'm assuming with no incidents.
   
3. Trend of biting is towards males in our home. The worrisome bit is they come with little or no warning such growling, barking etc.
   
4. Our trainer seems to feel that he can be trained and both actual bite incidents were not that bad and were justified in P's mind. P was likely guarding himself and his home during both incidents and may feel threatened with males in his space.
   
5. The near miss nip did let me see a version of this where it can be managed, although I feel a lot of stress around it.
   
6. Here is the big question... We have a baby on the way and have several months to prep. I know it's right of me to worry but is it reasonable to say that we do not know if P will be aggressive towards a baby or a toddler? He is sweet with everyone at home and tolerates all kind of invasion of his space by his current too humans. I am not hoping for P and baby to be besties, in fact, we will have to keep them 100% separated at all times as P is unpredictable. A part of me feels it's unfair to P if I get too anxious about this even before baby arrives and haven't even given him a chance to see how he behaves in that environment. This is what my partner's thoughts are right now.
   

I am very anxious about this and wanted to write this as I won't have a chance to speak to our trainer until the end of this week.
Tldr: Dog has biting history with adult males, in different situations. How much should I worry about welcoming a newborn in a few months? Should I let the baby arrive and see how dog reacts before making big decisions that alter dogs life. Dog is sweet and loving with his both male and female humans.

TLDR: Cleaning myself in the shower got paraphimosis which resulted in bloodflow restriction causing my foreskin getting necrotic and sloughing off and making myself from uncut to cut.
So this happened 2 weeks ago when i was showering on Sunday night to get ready for work. For background context I knew I had a mild issue of phimosis where my foreskin wouldn't fully retract during masturbation or sex and would sometimes be uncomfortable. In fact I was going to schedule an appointment to a urologist to hopefully get some medication to try and fix the problem but my GP said to try using lubricant first before she was going to make a referral.
I digress...So my usual Sunday evening post yard work, workout, excursions, etc comes with an evening shower. I also like to play with myself which means as an (former) uncut man includes cleaning my little soldier so that there is no smegma which as anyone who's familiar with it knows, smells and is gross. This process I do almost every time I take a shower and never in the past had issues retracting when flacid. Unfortunately this time, for reasons only a teen would know, I got an erection in the middle of the process. It took me a second of trying to fix it before I began to panic...Then when trying to fix it myself I ended up tearing my frenulum (this detail is important later). Panicking, and in immense pain I was frantically Googling what to do. The first result said it was a medical emergency so I quickly drove to my nearest ER. After getting checked in and getting a fast track to a bed the ER doc came in ready to perform surgery to repair my torn frenulum. At this point my giblets were staring to swell and everything hurt. After taking a look at everything he said the tear wasn't actually that bad and the swelling would go down if I put sugar on it this actually is a studied treatment. It also works for hemorrhoids apparently. So I asked him if this is an emergency, he said no, you should be fine but get to a urologist in the next 3-5 days, gave me some antibiotics and scrip for pain meds. The next day I tried calling the urologist that was listed on the referral but they wouldn't see me until June 19 (again this was 2 weeks ago). In the meantime I tried the sugar technique, it didn't work. Anyway I got on the waiting list and decided to call another hospital nearby who said they couldn't see me without a referral and even then that wouldn't be until July. OK I told myself, I need to call and get an appointment with my GP, see them, get a referral, and then maybe they can see me in the next few days as per the ER doc. So I was able to get an appointment with another doc in my GP's group that Wednesday afternoon. I did a bit a research on my own and came to the conclusion that I would probably get a slit cut which would allow whomever is working on me to put things back in the correct place. At worst a partial circumcision which I prepared myself for. After the new doc came in he gave me that bad news, they aren't able to perform these kind of procedures due to lack of instruments as well as risk of infection. Great. Then he asks me to drop trow to see what was going on. He was immediately concerned and said I have 24 hours to get this fixed before there is irreparable damage. My glans were swollen to almost an inch all the way around the head of my penis for reference. This doc immediately called the urology department of the hospital to get someone to see me. They refused, giving him the same answer they gave me. He. Was. Pissed... At this point he said I need to go to the ER and get looked at by the on call urologist because one way or another he was going to see me. He got me fast tracked to the ER so I only had to wait an hour to get a bed. The new ER doc saw me and was immediately concerned, took photos to send to the on call urologist and pumped me full of fent (25 micrograms). He and another higher level doc tried to manually pull my swollen dick and even with that IT. FUCKING. HURT. After 20 minutes I get moved to another room used for critical surgery because it was the only one available at the time to wait for the urologist on call to show up. Of course the room they don't have the control to call a nurse if there is a problem. In the meantime my pain meds start to stop working, because while it is nearly instantaneous in IV it only works for ~30 minutes. So as the meds start to wear off, the nurse who is supposed to be helping me leaves her station (I assume because she has another patient to help) and I'm starting to feel like shit. After what I think is 10-15 minutes she finally hears me calling for her help which then takes another 10 minutes to get the next round of pain meds because it's a controlled substance and locked until approval is granted. Another 30 minutes goes by and the urologist finally arrives and takes a look and I can tell by his reaction that it isn't good. The next 45-60 minutes includes getting pricked in the crotch by needles to numb the area, another round of fent, expressing the edema, cutting, and sewing. Also the iodine used to sterilize the area felt like someone poured a bottle of hand sanitizer on my dick and lit it on fire. At the end of it all i was given pain meds and a topical antibiotic to put over the open wounds. The doc told me that I was going to have to have a follow-up procedure and most likely be circumcised but he was trying to save my foreskin if possible. Fast forward 10 days of exposed dick, open wounds, and generally being uncomfortable I had my follow-up Friday. He sees me and immediately asks if he can call another urologist for a consult. I agree because fuck it, cant be any worse than what has already happened right? Turns out the foreskin was so tight it blocked the bloodflow causing the skin to become necrotic and sloughed off by the time of the original surgery. I just thought it was all being sutured to try to keep everything together if possible but nope it cut everything off at the head.
So now I have another check-up in 4 weeks. I still have a small edema below my glans but is slowly going down. Scabs are forming but keep reopening because as any healthy man, or woman who sleeps with their male SO knows, random erections in the middle of the night cause it to split. Yay....
To those who are uncut but fear they have phimosis, learn from me please. Get that shit checked out immediately.

I've been looking through various posts and seeing what some people had to say about the game. I had some of my own ideas about how to either make this current game better or improve a possible sequel. My ideas are as follows. Have a look and see if you'd like to see any of these, or if you have any to add!

CharactePublic Relations

First and foremost, what I think is in most desperate need of a revamp is how we interact with the world of Stellar Blade and its inhabitants. I think a future game would benefit from the following:

• More time with Lily and the new main male teammate (or whoever the third member of the team ends up being, but I’d prefer a male). I felt like I barely knew Lily and Adam by the end of the game and I’d like as the player to be able to interact with them more. I don’t fully understand how Lily grew to love Eve so much or how Adam came to trust Eve so fully with as little time as they had with each other.
• To the above point, I'd also like to be able to bring our friends with us and have them fight alongside us, if we want them to come along. Bringing them with us could be tied to our Affinity score with the character and/or unlock certain perks or side quests.
• It should be a little harder to level up Affinity than it was in this game (I made three purchases from Roxanne before we were “good friends,” for instance) and to have more in-depth quest lines for the citizens of Xion. I'd really like to get attached to the place and the people.
• Perhaps a real romance element to the game. “Adam and Eve…” Now, I’m not exactly committed to the idea, Eve doesn’t need a love interest… but it’d be nice to have the option to engage in that sort of thing, if we want to.
• For choices to matter! We have maybe two or three dialogue options in the game and only one of them is of any consequence. I’d like to have an affect on the larger world and have a sort of “reputation” system. People see us as an angel or a devil based on what we say and do… especially with how the Bad Ending and True Ending go.

Story

• For Mother Sphere to be more fleshed out. Yes, she’s the standard, run-of-the-mill rogue AI who took over the world and wiped out her creators. But, there can always be more to it. Nothing intelligent does something for no reason. I’d like to know more about her and her personality, not just about whether people are devoted to her or scornful of her based on whether or not they see her as their god.
• Perhaps a redemption arc or a coming-to-terms with her place in the world for Raven, or turning her into a true Big Bad. Her profile seems to indicate she’s in a living hell at the moment and Eve intends to forget about her and leave her in that broken state… but perhaps there’s something to be said for an “enemy of my enemy is my friend” or for Mother Sphere superimposing her will over Raven despite the Naytiba corruption.
• Eve came a long way and the way the True Ending plays out leads me to believe that we will see fewer Naytibas and more of Mother Sphere’s forces. The Naytiba don’t have to totally disappear as an enemy type, but the sequel should definitely focus on all knew enemy types.
• There should be a bit more lore about why Adam was so angelic and about how he came to be that way, because I don’t recall seeing anything about why Adam is quite literally an angel in his true form when everything else is a corrupted, vile, bodily-horrific monster. He seems to be fully integrated into Eve and has had a death pf personality with that… but perhaps in the sequel he doesn’t have to be quite gone and can continue to communicate with her on the Psychic/Astral Plane.
• How does Eve view herself and how does she feel about massacring the Angels who attacked in the True Ending? How does she feel about the citizens of Xion now that she’s no longer an Andro-Eidos? How has becoming a “real Human” affected her psyche? Lily was worried that Eve would become someone she didn’t know… maybe a sequel would be the perfect place to address that.
• More obvious lore told by completing the story events and quests, rather than digging through the documents and whatnot.
• Respectfully, ShiftUp could work on the story and think how they want events to playout all the way through, as there were a few glaring inconsistencies with regard to who (Adam/Raven, for instance) was doing what and why, as well as some other things that just didn’t make sense in the narrative or felt rushed.
• As a way to bring Eve down from being over-powered, Mother Sphere could create a sort of poison to suppress Eve’s powers that could be cured as we go, for standard gameplay progression.

Revamped Save System

Next up is no more important than any other thought, it’s just what I came up with next due to the reality being somewhat vexing.

• More than one save file. This would be useful for if multiple people want to play the game on the same console without their own dedicated account.
• Saving at camps can stay, but if it’s going to be a narrative-driven game with no option to explore the world afterward, a Chapter Select is essential so we can re-visit our favorite parts of the game without having to slog through the parts we don’t like (Space Center turrets, anyone?)

Costumes

We all like costumes… except those of you who played the entire game in Eve’s birthday suit and didn’t realize it took away your shields until after the game was over. But while the reward of clothes is enough for some people, here are some thoughts about how accessorization could be improved in the future:

• Being able to Favorite the outfit(s) we like the most so we don’t have to scroll through a long list to find them. At the same time, being able to Archive outfits we don’t like or never will use.
• A transmog system that we can have stats from one costume but wear another along with the accessories we chose.
• If certain kinds of costumes had dedicated special moves! Now, I’m not saying that there needs to be a unique special move for 74+ costumes… but I am saying it would be cool if each costume type did something cool in addition to the usual Beta or Burst moves. If we didn’t have the Tachy Mode, this feature would be in place of that. For instance: the normal Airborne Squad suits would have the standard Stellar Blade attacks, but the Biker suits could call a motorcycle out of nowhere and do damage to enemies, the Motivation suit could boost stats, the Ocean Maid suit could reel in a huge shark from out of nowhere to damage enemies… the list goes on. How cool would that be?!

Combat

The combat in this game is intricate and very enjoyable. It’s very Souls-like. However, there are some things that could possible make it better (to each their own):

• Different types of combat could be cool. We currently have sword and gunplay… but what about unarmed combat, too? Not necessarily extensive, but Eve and her counterparts seems pretty strong. I wouldn’t mind seeing her make use of those great legs and kick the crap out of enemies as more than just a cool finisher. Could be “equipped” or set, just like the Drone gun.
• Sections where Eve fights with someone of equal skill, but longer than she did with Tachy or Raven. Tachy’s boss fight didn’t live up to the potential it had, and it could have been just as challenging as what we wound up facing with Raven, even if she were corrupted into a Naytiba. If we’re going to be encountering more Angels in the sequel, they shouldn’t be easy to mow down, like in the Good/True Ending. They should be a real challenge.
• I would love combo finishers a QTE’s like in Spider Man/Force Unleashed. One simple button push doesn’t quite scratch that itch, does it?
• Better dodging or combat that can deal with mobs and ganks better than a Beta move that you might not have. The Perfect Dodge is fine, but the half-step dodge isn’t really useful when you’re being mobbed. Beta and Burst deal AOE damage, but the game’s primary fighting mechanic is 1v1. When they toss in mobs of spiders, walking turrets, and the like, it really shows how inefficient it is.

Enemies

• The enemies of the next game can't be just Naytiba. We’re taking the fight to Mother Sphere. She’s had hundreds if not thousands of years to work on her weapons of war, and they can be just as diverse as the array of Naytibas we dealt with in the first game.
• The majority of the enemy types should be Mother Sphere creations designed specifically to take down the new variant of species that Eve now is.
• If we do stay on Earth, I’d love to see new variations of the mutants and possible some more sentient Naytiba-human hybrid bosses.
• Some male Andro-Eidos bosses would be nice. I know that's a bit of a stretch to hope for, given the whole "Amazon Brigade" thing she's got going on, and how all of the people from the colony seem to be one gender only, but if Mother Sphere created the Andro-Eidos, she’s got a few templates for male warriors, I’m sure. It couldn’t hurt. I’d love to see what ShiftUp does with male fanservice characters, since there weren’t many good-looking men in Stellar Blade aside from Adam.

Gameplay/Quality of Life

• More mini games aside from chest puzzles and energy output puzzles. Things you might find in something like Final Fantasy. They don’t have to be extensive or anything, but something aside from fishing would be nice.
• More optional bosses. The world is vast, and the array of bosses could be equally large… but I understand for their first game why they didn’t. Not everything can be Dark Souls or Elden Ring.
• Better, more thought-out side quests. Something other than fetch quests or “go kill this” quests. Maybe quests that enhance your Affinity/relationship with a charactecharacters, or that give you a variety of rewards. Possibly even based on how well you do.
• When fishing, we actually see what kind of fish we’ve hooked before it pops out of the water. More fishing locations would be good… maybe somewhere that we could actually see fish if we go underwater.
• More biome variety other than Wasteland and Desert. I know why we were only seeing dystopian environments and badlands… but it’s about time the world started healing, isn’t it? I mean the space elevator region was more verdant.
• Additional traversal options, like flight or maybe some type of vehicle/mount, like Adam’s bike. A crotch-rocket sort of vehicle wouldn’t be out of place for Eve to use, would it (if she can’t use her wing). It would certainly help if we play as another Angel who can’t fly in the first place.
• Being able to play as more than one character would be nice, so long as their sections are interesting and make sense to play as. Lily could be attacked by Naytiba/Mother Sphere forces and need to hide, like Joker in Mass Effect 2, but could also make use of her skills. A character like Adam could make use of scavenging skills, etc.
• Post-game exploration is a must. Sometimes we don’t want to do all the tedious tasks before we complete the more exciting elements of the game.
• Maps in dungeons so you don’t get turned around or can at least find what it is you’re trying to get to.
• A jukebox feature! The soundtrack for this game is great, and I’m sure the one for the sequel will be, as well. Rather than listening to the calm, quite music at camp, maybe we could listen to our favorite songs from the game there. Or maybe Lily could create a mod for us that would enable us to listen to music on the go and there could be a little idle animation where Eve bobs/jiggles/wiggles as appropriate to the music.

Misc. Things

• A new protagonist would be acceptable to me. ShiftUp specializes in female characters, but I wouldn’t be opposed to a male protagonist.
• More customization over our player character and our friends could be cool. It’s absolutely not necessary, but I wouldn’t mind having the option to model the new male Adam-like character’s face after my own or after characters I think would look great next to Eve. Conversely, I’m sure that female players would love to make the new Lily or Eve character (should either not appear) however they wanted. Race, facial structure, hair, eyes, all of that; a character creator similar to that of Mass Effect Andromeda, or whatever other game does that well.
• A prequel starring Tachy or Raven. Tachy was taken from us too soon, and we need our girl back. Conversely, Raven’s descent into madness could be quite the tale, and we’d see the Naytibas we’re used to seeing.
• We could find a new Arisa model while exploring the world and we could recruit her. If we do, she’d take care of us and our Safehouse as our maid, and quite possibly get into arguments with Lily about keeping things tidy.
• For Raven to be our token evil, comic relief teammate. We must be allowed to fix her!

I’m 18 male. My girlfriend(18F) and I have been together for 2 years.
My girlfriends sister(24F) has always ‘liked’ me, but of course I just thought she was a normal, polite person.
Around a month ago I caught her staring at my crotch, I had grey shorts on. I thought I was just being weird and imagining it. Stuff like that kept happening. Until 5 days ago and she said “I find you really sexy in that outfit”. She then went on to say “I’ve been attracted to you since the day I met you”, and she also said “I always think about your cock and imagine what it would feel like inside me”.
I have purposely avoided her since that day. I really don’t know if I should tell my girlfriend about this? Or do I just carry on avoiding her sister and say nothing?

Disclaimer: I understand millions of people around the world have deep affection for dogs of all types. I have a strong phobia of all dogs, especially those that could tackle me to the ground. This is not at all a harp against anyone who loves a dog it is simply my opinion and my out look.
I feel that customers who have dogs outside their home, who have been trained to protect the family within that home, should consider the safety of delivery drivers when they choose to leave their dog outside and place orders.
Today was an average UE delivery day for me. In fact, a dead slow Saturday in comparison to previous Saturdays. But just as it was about to pick up around 11:30 a.m., I took a delivery to a home. The home had a gated entryway. A tall white wooden gate that hid behind it an unexpected surprise.
The delivery instructions were to enter the gate and place the food by the door on the stairs. I tried to do that. But then a giant dog appeared and ran straight for me.
My fight or fight reflex kicked in and I immediately froze. The dog roughly brushed against me, sniffing my legs and crotch. It sniffed the thermal bag that contains the customer's food and the bottom of the cup of Coca-Cola that I was holding.
I could not move. I was petrified. This dog was not making any direct threat to me, but I remembered the incident that caused my phobia of dogs and was triggered.
It was only when the dog started growling and moaning that my flight instincts kicked in and I carefully placed the food and drink on the concrete steps and slowly escaped.
I would advise anyone who has a dog even in a fenced-in outdoor area to keep it from approaching delivery people. Certainly, the majority of delivery people would be happy to see the dog and greet them. But if your dog is not trained properly to respect people who are calmly and slowly delivering something, please keep that dog inside.
Context:
When I was 16 years old, I had a job. My first real job at McDonald's. I was learning how to prepare and serve all of the freeze dried ingredients. The supervising manager of that McDonald's was an alpha male man's man. He was a chain smoking, beer chugging, gun wielding, monster truck driving son of a b**** who treated everyone like s*** and looked at any woman with anything more than a b cup as if she was his personal play thing. That's just context for who this person is.
On one of my days off, several months into my employment, I was heading to the library on my 18 speed bicycle. I noticed the manager walking down the street in plain clothes. He was also walking a massive Rottweiler. Having been intimidated and treated like s*** by him at work, I chose to ignore him and keep riding...
And then I heard... "SICK EM!!"
In less than 30 seconds, that giant Rottweiler had my left leg in its teeth clamped down to the bone. In shock and pain, I was ripped from my bicycle and thrown across the street by this giant beast. I was nearly run over by a car as this growling menace attacked me.
I somehow managed to get to my feet and run to my bike, avoiding the dog, and bleeding down my pant leg, I fled at the fastest possible speed I could pedal.
In the end, my mother pressed charges and had the Rottweiler put down and I was fired from McDonald's because I had been attacked and the dog was being walked without a leash and had been trained to kill.
So every time I see a dog, my initial instinct is that fight or flight and the memory of what happened. I completely understand not all dogs are like that. I completely understand that most dogs are gentle, loving creatures. But it still stands in my mind, when I see a dog, RUN!

Welp I’m a 21-year-old male, and I’ve been working overnight for almost a month now. My new manager, who’s been in training my whole time working, hasn't met me until 2 weeks ago, asked me, “You’re 100% straight, right?” I felt uncomfortable, but I told him yes, in the best professional way I could. I didn’t give him any signs; I rolled that way because right before he asked me that we were talking about a 34 year old lady who asked me for my number, I gave it to her. Idk why I guess to just be nice, and he asked me, “So you’re just giving your number out to anybody huh?” I knew what he was implying, I told him no. He’s been acting real weird like the day before. He told me I couldn’t wear sweats because it’s against the dress code. I jokingly asked him, “Damn, I can’t be comfortable.” He replies, “We can’t have all of that showing, just all out." He’s talking about my crotch area, then he leaves and comes back to me, saying, “If you have no other choice, it’s ok, you can wear it." I told him it’s cool; I’ll just wear jeans next time. I guess I’m just telling y’all about my experience so far here and how would you have handled the situation?

I am happily married with 3 wonderful kids. After our 3rd, my wife and I agreed, 3 was enough. We felt our family was complete, this was 6+ years ago.
When I got it done, I was smoking weed still as an adult, recreationally. This is important, I live where it is 100% legal.
It was a 1pm appointment on a Thursday. My wife drove me there, a 15 minute drive. I ate a very potent marijuana edible cookie before I left the house. She then left me there, I planned on taking an Uber home. She had to pick up the kids from school.
So I went in. One shocker, they had to shave my balls and surrounding area completely. I wish they told me!!! I would have done it myself the night before. Felt awkward having a female nurse and male doctor doing it with a cheap disposable razor.
Then a few needles to numb the area. Yeah, the needles hurt. Not a good time.
Then they went to work. I felt lots of tugging and pulling. I am wide awake during it.
The doctor and nurse were trying to have a conversation with me, asking me about my job, and sports, etc...
I just wanted them to shut up and get it done.
The weed edible kicked in and I was tripping out. That was a stupid decision!!!!
Finally it's over. I go outside, sit on a bench and waited for my uber. I had a weed vape pen and was smoking away.
Then the nurse walked past me, she was going home for the day. I felt so weird, she just saw my penis and balls and shaved me!!!
She high fived me and said "great job!"
Go away lady!!! Lol...
Uber came, I'm stoned as fuck.
Got home. Laid in bed until dinner time (my wife made a delicious meatloaf) and had ice pack on my crotch.
It was NFL playoffs that weekend. I took off that Friday and Monday after was MLK Day (work holiday for me). So I had 4 days on the couch with Netflix and NFL playoffs with ice packs and sneaking out to my back porch to puff my weed vape all weekend. I was sore for the whole weekend.
By the time Tuesday morning came around, I went back to work (office job, at a desk all day). I felt back to normal.
I did tell one joke during the snip visit. Doctor said "you need to come back after ejaculate 25 times and get tested". ( fill a cup with sperm, get it tested).
I said "25 times? Give me 2 days"
In the end, I am glad I did it. Being married and committed, condoms are just a thing of the past. Sex is such so much better this way. My wife likes it better.
Thanks for reading my rant.
Advice, don't get the vasectomy while stoned on weed.
Save the weed for recovery time.

struggling on how to get dress pants to fit. wearing fancy clothes causes massive dysphoria for me and i want to know how to fix it
how can you wear male dress pants on your hips without the crotch hanging super low? i always have to wear them high waisted and it hugs my body terribly like this. ive also lost weight recently and haven't worn dress pants since, idk if that would chance anything
any tips or advice would be greatly welcomed

The galaxy is likely teeming with life, even sapient life. Ever wonder why nobody drops by?
***
Geeltan scurried happily along one of the footpaths of the Grand Garden, his favorite place in all of creation. He paused to admire a ruglax, a lush blue-green shrub.
His antennae twitching excitedly, he quickly glanced about and took a sneaky little nibble, trilling happily as the complex, heady flavors washed over his palate.
Once again, he marveled at the fact that he could safely digest and thoroughly enjoy a plant from a planet thousands of light years from his humble little world. Only a few decades ago, most of the scientists, futurists, and science fiction authors back home firmly stated that such a thing was laughably improbable. But here he was doing just that.
Then again, those same people said they would likely never contact a sapient race from another star...
And now, he was here, at the very heart of a grand association of thousands of sapient species from all across the galaxy!
And it was all thanks to this...
He reached back with one of his antennae and stroked the small device attached to the back of his little chitinous head. It was the single greatest achievement of all time, greater than even FTL...
...The universal translator.
With it, all beings regardless of biology could freely exchange not only words, but thought itself. Somehow, it detected his brain waves and transmitted them directly to other translators in range, sci-fi telepathy!
It was, in a word, magic. While his kind could understand nearly everything else, its workings were a mystery, beyond their current grasp of science.
Then again, a hundred years ago, they were proud of the fact that they had harnessed electricity. Shortly thereafter, they used it to transmit messages along electric cables over incredible distances—hundreds of kilometers!
Little did they know that once they did that, they started leaking electromagnetic waves, the requirement the galaxy had set for first contact!
Those puny static-filled messages reached a little probe no bigger than he was which had been placed in their system a hundred thousand years earlier while his race was still building nests in trees.
They called out, and the galaxy answered.
Again, their futurists and sci-fi authors were wrong. What came wasn’t the steel-shod talons of conquest but a warm, fuzzy, loving hug. They couldn’t really be blamed, though. They had been warped by the unforgiving yoke of scarcity, something transcended by the galaxy long ago.
Resources of all kinds abounded in space. There was far more than could ever be used, and fusion technology provided each being their own personal sun, providing clean, limitless energy for all. Anything that the galaxy could take from his people could be had for free!
There were... adjustments... that their culture had to weather, but with the kind wisdom and guidance of the Galactic Community, they weathered them and now were taking their first tentative skitters into the galaxy as a whole.
He preened his antennae proudly. His was the first generation that was hatched fully integrated into this amazing new future of prosperity and wisdom. They might have been backward, but they were far from stupid. They learned the new tech and the new sciences as well as any! And now, his was the first generation to have the honor of fully joining the community to contribute to their wonderful future, to start to repay all of the kindness they were shown.
Heeding the urging of his parents, he had devoted his being, his very soul, to this. It paid off. He was the newest member of the Galactic Induction Committee, the very organization that had given his little people everything!
And now he was going to be the one who would give yet another race, shrouded in ignorance and scarcity, the same wonderful gift that his people received!
It was almost time for the meeting!
Taking another nibble, he rushed giddily to the Grand Chamber where his fellows had assembled at his behest!
He couldn’t wait!
It was going to be wonderful!
***
Ki-Van sent Geeltan a warm loving greeting as he approached.
“Greetings, Junior Associate,” he transmitted, bathing Geeltan with warmth and good humor.
“Senior,” Geeltan sent back with a happy chitter. “Good morning!”
“I congratulate you on your discovery,” Ki-Van transmitted, “Imagine, an overlooked species! How remarkable! Oh how I envy you, to make such a discovery!”
“I wish I could take full credit,” Geeltan replied with a humility that took just a little effort.
Ki-Van spread the eyes in his gelatinous anterior segment in a smile. Despite Geeltan’s best efforts, his undisciplined mind couldn’t help but leak the tremendous pride that he truly felt.
Such pride was a little impolite, but entirely justified. A “lost” race was a truly amazing find, indeed.
“It may be a little improper,” Ki-Van sent, “But indulge your beloved mentor with a spoiler ahead of the others. Tell me more of these beings and their world.”
“Oh, beloved mentor, I would be so very happy to do so!” Geeltan sent with excitement, “They reside in the X-32 system on their third...”
“Oh dear!” Ki-Van sent, interrupting him with a little alarm, “Geeltan, you are aware of what the ‘X’ in their system’s designation means?”
“Um...” Geeltan replied with an embarrassed twitch of his antennae.
“It means ‘proscribed.’ That system has been designated off limits.”
“But, Mentor, there is a class six civilization on that world, well beyond the requirements of first contact!”
“And they have been left alone for a reason, child. I am sorry, but I am cancelling the meeting on your behalf.”
“Senior! Those poor people need our help! They...”
“Those ‘poor people’ are beyond our help, Geeltan. They... They should be left to their fate.”
“But without us, they will never escape their system!”
“One can only hope.”
“But... But... The probes I sent...”
“You sent probes?!? Oh, Geeltan. You should not have done so, not without consulting me.”
“I didn’t want to bother you without more data. They were my personal probes. I built them with my resource allotments. I saw no harm.”
Ki-Van sighed. It happened with every new generation. At least one young, impetuous sophont took it upon themselves to “explore” rather than satisfy themselves with the provided data streams.
He looked at Geeltan fondly.
It wasn’t a bad thing and usually those individuals went on to be very accomplished members of the community. He couldn’t help but feel a little pride that it was “his” junior associate to be the one to claim the dubious “honor” of rediscovering the X-32’s this time.
The emotions of pride and amusement washed over Geeltan.
“The community is well aware of the X-32s,” he sent with a little flatulent chuckle, flooding the space with a spicy, floral scent. “You aren’t the first to ‘discover’ them. With every century, their noise spreads further. Last time, it was a freighter pilot. Before that, it was an astrographer. Before that, it was one of our own.”
“If they have been discovered that often, why have they not been contacted? They are well beyond the point of contact, hazardously so. They need to be inducted, for their own sake, before it is too late for them.”
“My dear friend and subordinate,” Ki-Van replied, “It was likely too late for them when they were still working stone into simple tools. It is a sad and hard truth that not all sophonts are suitable to join us.”
“But why?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Are they dangerous?”
“Very. They are far too dangerous to contact.”
“Are they too violent?”
“Not especially as compared to other pre-contact sophonts. There are certain... ‘solutions’... to the dilemma of scarcity and violence is one of the most obvious and most common. Your race was much like theirs in that regard, and mine... Oh... We were far worse, still are in fact,” Ki-Van said as he raised a stubby pseudopod to stroke a wide, discolored scar stretching nearly the length of his side, a “gift” from one of his beautiful wife’s many suitors...
...one that he brutally killed.
“Oh... Sorry,” he transmitted sheepishly as Geeltan shrank back. “I leaked a little there.”
“No apology needed,” Geeltan replied, “Customs vary as much as our biologies do. My people are far from blameless in that regard. My father’s mother still keeps a pistol in her quarters. She was in one of our last wars. It was a big one.”
“Most sophonts share a similar history. Thank the Creator that we were saved from ourselves. I doubt we would have survived another century before perishing at the points of our own fangs.”
“Are they a biohazard, like the Lavan?”
“They do have an aggressive microbiome and are riddled with parasites, some of which could be harmful, but not like the Lavan, creators no. Those things are death walking for the rest of us and we handle them just fine with the proper protocols.”
“Then... why? Why are we abandoning them and their world to almost certainly perish? What my probes saw...”
Geeltan shuddered, unsuccessfully suppressing his horror.
“It’s like something out of the galactic history books. Climate change, widespread pollution including ‘forever chemicals’ and microplastics and the sort of weapons that only a war-torn class six population can create. Do you know they have weaponized fusion?”
“So do we.”
“What?!?”
“We do have a military, Geeltan. It is only prudent. Just because we have never encountered another trans-stellar threat doesn’t mean that there won’t be one. Our collective histories show what happens to the unprepared. We have fusion weaponry and far, far worse at our disposal should the need arise, along with a small but very well-trained group that maintains readiness should the need arise. We don’t want to end up like the Andromedans.”
“The Andromedans?” Geeltan transmitted in surprise. “We have contact with other galaxies?”
“Just Andromeda thus far,” Ki-Van replied, “And not physically, of course. That is still just a little beyond us. However, we have detected and even exchanged messages from some races... or used to... It... It is not common knowledge because it is... distressing. It is truly unfortunate that their trans-stellar races do not share our values. When Andromeda touches us, we will be fully prepared to touch them back. Consider yourself fortunate that we will not be around when that day comes. However, when that day comes, our galaxy will prevail and endure. Our peace and prosperity gives us the advantage in both numbers and industrial capacity.”
Ki-Van couldn’t suppress his baser nature's darkness, causing Geeltan to pull back his antennae.
“Again, I apologize,” Ki-Van said, “Our race has such foulness bound to our very souls. It is so strong that not all of us are allowed translators.”
“No!”
“Another thing that is not common knowledge,” Ki-Van said, “And I would not share it now save for the fact that it is relevant. Such foulness is why X-32 shall be forever untouched and unnamed.”
“But you said they are not violent.”
“For the record, I said they were not especially violent. They are as nasty as the rest of us in that regard and far ‘nastier’ in others.”
“What is this nastiness you speak of.”
“In a word,” Ki-Van said, “They are horny. They are the most lascivious of any race encountered. It oozes off of them in waves.”
“Worse than the Kareel?” Ki-Van said, “I have learned to knock at any closed door around here for fear of what I will witness.”
“Smart move,” Ki-Van laughed. “Those things are irrepressible... But their depravity is limited to their own species. The X-32’s? Oh, dear creators in the void, they are impossible to deal with.”
“So we have contacted them?”
“Just as with your kind, samples were collected prior to official contact. Let’s just say that their madness is overpowering and dangerous. Every being that has tried communicating with their minds has been left worse for it. Even when the X-32’s tried to behave, they couldn’t help themselves. They call themselves humans, by the way.”
“They... They actually... um... I mean... What?”
“Any biped likely has a crotch,” Ki-Van replied. “Any being that nourishes their progeny directly likely has external glands. All of us have orifices.”
“You can’t be serious!”
“One of my kind was on one of the assessment teams,” Ki-Van replied. “Apparently, we resemble a tool that their males use to mate with themselves.”
“They... They mate with themselves?”
“Oh, yes. If a partner is not available, their lusts are so strong that they must mitigate them with self-stimulation to completion. Some other races do the same, but it’s not something that they advertise... obviously.”
“Does... Does your race...”
“No. Does yours?”
“Creators, no! It’s unthinkable!”
“Imagine having to think it, and you have what dealing with a human is like. My ancestor attacked and killed the human they were interviewing after the human looked at their mouth and imagined... um... ‘using’ it. They say that the human was unrecognizable when they finished with them. Of course, my ancestor was traumatized, both by what the humans transmitted and what they did as a result. They murdered an innocent pre-contact being who was not actually intending on doing anything amiss.”
Ki-Van clenched his mouth into a tight vertical slit.
“It was horrible. After they killed the human, they couldn’t reconcile what they did and returned to our homeworld, where they engaged in duel after duel until they fell, as is our way.”
Geeltan shuddered in horror, drawing his antennae close.
“And then there was poor Captain Vexel. He was the freighter pilot who took an ill-advised shortcut through their system against regulations. He discovered them, and while scanning the humans from his ship, planning to make a full report to us, he found that the human was suffering from a common ailment among developed races: uncontrolled cell replication. For us, this is not a major issue. Even a ship’s medical bay can fix it. Vexel couldn’t bear to let a fellow being suffer and die so he, against all reason, took the human aboard to extract the tumors. Unfortunately the tumors were in the human’s digestive tract, near the exit.”
Ki-Van took a moment to tightly control his thoughts.
“Vexel successfully was able to use a standard medical endoscope to eliminate the tumors, but it required inserting it...”
“Poor human, it must have been terrifying.”
“Terror wasn’t the feeling the human was consumed with,” Ki-Van replied.
“You can’t be serious!”
“And they blasted poor Vexel with their feelings. In essence, Vexel inadvertently engaged in an act that humans do to each other for pleasure even though the appropriate orifice is immediately adjacent. Vexel still lives, but in seclusion. They say he is doing much better.”
“And the human?”
“Vexel released it after saving its life. It spoke of its experiences, but the humans don’t believe it to be true, though Vexel’s species is now widely used by the humans as a ‘fictional’ depiction of trans-stellar life.”
“Oh, creators...” Geeltan gasped. “But without aid, the humans will perish and take their current biosphere along with them.”
“Tragic, but unavoidable. Based on our projections, there isn’t a single species that a human won’t find desirable in some way, even if most won’t, enough will. The Galactic Community decided long ago that humans cannot be allowed into our fold, even if this means extinction, even if it means mass extinction.”
Geelvan sagged and let out a soulful chirping, their version of weeping, as waves of inconsolable grief ravaged the area.
“Geeltan?” Ki-Van asked as he tried desperately to send soothing thoughts to his distressed fellow sophont.
“Sorry... Sorry...” Geelvan said as he struggled to restrain his emotions. “It’s just that humans aren’t the only sapient race on that world. They condemn another to share their fate.”
“What?!?” Ki-Van emoted, his shock drowning Geelvan’s grief.
“My probes detected advanced brainwaves, indicative of sapience, among another species on that world. Those poor innocents will die along with the humans! It’s... It’s too much! I... I can’t...”
“We didn’t know this!” Ki-Van mentally cried. “This changes everything! Tell me of them!”
“There is an aquatic being,” Geelvan replied, sending a visual image of a bottle-nosed dolphin.
“And they are sapient?!?”
“Without a doubt. They are class zero, but they are unquestionably sapient.”
“This changes everything!” Ki-Van exclaimed, quivering with excitement. “Oh, we are having that meeting! We must get samples of these beings and initiate contact immediately! While these humans may be foul beyond description, we must save these other sophonts!”
Ki-Van showered his beloved junior with praise and undiluted pride.
“You have done very well. This is the discovery of our generation!”
“Do you... Do you think I could be the one to reach out to them?”
“My dear friend and associate,” Ki-Van beamed, “We both will! I can't wait to find out what wonderful things these gentle, innocent beings will bring to our community!”
***
Author’s note:
Sorry for the long absence, but I’m getting back in the writing saddle. I am doing some freewrite “one shots” in a desperate attempt to get the juices flowing. Every now and then I kind of like the result and I decided to share it with you. Hope you found it amusing.
To those who adapt stories from here for TikTok and YouTube, as long as you give me credit for the work and supply a link to the original, feel free. Please let me know because I like enjoying the finished work!

Hello. Please I would like some advice!! Last period, literally just a few minutes ago, a male student started talking to me and while I didn’t mind talking to them, they even skipped lunch to talk to me and I started getting annoyed. I thought I caught glimpses of him looking down my shirt but thought I was imaging things.
He eventually pulled up a chair beside me and wanted to keep talking. I realized a little later that his zipper was down. I didn’t care to mention it. And just hope he would notice later and fix it…
Then he asked me if I would tell someone if there was something in their teeth. I told him that yeah it was a polite thing to do. Then he asked if I would tell someone if there was something wrong with their clothing … I said yeah.
Then… he asked if I would tell someone if there was something wrong with their zipper.
That’s when I realized he probably wanted me to look at his crotch. I kinda freaked out and tried to ignore him and the questions . He kept asking the question over and over. And I kept ignoring him by texting my bf what was happening.
I was just waiting for the time to run out in class. After class he asked if I gave students my number. I obviously said no.
My bf told me I should report it and I started crying after wards. Even now I’m fresked out but don’t know what to do. Im scared that I will be blamed. He also seemed to have a learning disability. Please help. Should I report? Please I will take any advice
Edit: this was a high school senior

Well, I’ve worked for this company for 10 years, I’ve worked my way from nothing to a leadership position. However, I am being bullied so bad that I feel I’m actually becoming mentally unwell from it. A little back story- I hired in 2014 as entry level… at that time I was sexually harassed and even molested by a male co worker at the time. I did report it. They pulled cameras and though couldn’t see him in the act, could see the location and corroboration of my story from it. The HR rep at the time made me feel the lowest I had ever felt.. she used the words “well, how do we actually know this happened”.. almost insinuating I was lying. This man in questioned grabbed my chest, butt and put my hand on his crotch which he was erect. I had no other options but to try to just ignore it. Fast forward 10 years later, I am considered a senior employee technically speaking and there’s almost an entirely new management team now. I’ve been bullied bad, gas lighted when I’d question it, talked down to, my raise affected by it, etc. today I had enough and decided to consult HR (who never helped me prior btw) I was made to feel it was my fault, got absolutely no support whatsoever and the bully continued to spew her nonsense and abuse openly to me and nothing was said. I feel so defeated and degraded. I have always been a very mentally stable person, no history of depression or anxiety. I wake up feeling hopeless, tired, depressed and anxious. I go into work and I feel overwhelmed just by walking in the door. I put in so much time to work my way up to where I’m at and I make more than I ever have before… it would be financially devastating to leave… plus I earned my place there. I don’t want to leave for something like this… but I am truly afraid that this depression will end up getting a hold on me and affect my quality of life. I have ADHD/autism and so I struggle with social ques already, but the mind games they play with me, the gaslighting, etc is becoming increasingly more difficult to manage. I’ve had so much on my plate recently and adding this makes life very miserable right now. To add I did file a corporate level HR complaint which they only interviewed the people who the complaint was against and not the witnesses nor the other people who would’ve been involved in the specific scenarios/instances. The corporate HR rep was also gaslighting me into believing it was my fault or that I just wasn’t good enough.. it actually gave me PTSD from the HR investigation because it was extraordinary one sided… I’m just so damn hurt, tired, sad, angry and downright depressed. I don’t know what to do. I consulted an attorney and he said in my state there isn’t any thing illegal about bullying unfortunately and since it’s been 10 years since the sexual harassment/molestation he doesn’t feel they’d be able to get much going on that. Especially since there’s a lack of evidence.

This is not going to be about whether or not Bayonetta is a sexist game series. This is, however, about a very specific argument used against criticism of sexism that the series faces. Namely, that because the character was designed by a woman, Mari Shimazaki, it means that all accusations of sexism and pandering to male gaze is invalid.
Firstly, Bayonetta's design is not exactly Shimazaki's idea. As Shimazaki herself stated, Hideki Kamiya, the director of the first three games, is the one who came up with the three defining traits of the character: she was a woman, she was a witch and she used four guns. Shimazaki designed Bayonetta according to these three specifications. She did not come up with the idea for the character herself.
Secondly, Bayonetta's design is not the source of criticism. Rather, it's the game mechanics of her clothes disappearing when she summons her demons and the camera's focus on her ass, breasts and crotch during cutscenes, which were all the result of the mostly male development team.
Fans keep using Mari Shimazaki as a shield against Bayonetta criticism despite her not being responsible for the things that make games particularly controversial. And again, whether or not you think Bayonetta is a sexist game is not the point but I feel it's important to at least understand why the game is considered sexist.

I’m 17 male. my friend(18F), we’ll call her Jess.
Me and Jess go way back, we’ve known each other for about 12 years. For about 5 years I’ve had a crush on Jess but I never acted on it as I didn’t want to ruin anything and I don’t think she’s really into me.
Anyway, a couple of days ago she came over to mine, we were studying. She started to touch my inner thigh and my crotch, we then both went to kiss each other at the same time. We had sex 3 times. After she got up, she got dressed and sort of awkwardly laughed, then left.
We haven’t spoken since, and I don’t really know how to speak to her now. I really like her but I don’t know if she actually likes me.
Might sound stupid but I need advice on what to say to her?
Advice?

The question may sound funny but seriously. Self defense techniques are almost always about women defending themselves against men. As a man i really don't know how i'd defend myself against a female attacker, a woman who really wanted to hurt me, and kept going for my crotch non-stop for example. Like what could i do? How can i stop her?
If i am in danger where should i hit the woman? Is it possible to bring a female attacker down with one hit, as most male attackers are down with one hit to the crotch? I think a knee or punch to her stomach could bring her down. Is it possible to one-shot a female attacker?

Bicurious Male- I have normal photos on my profile, and my last photo is quite out there. It’s hidden and only shows when someone matches with me, and is a very revealing artsy silhouette pic of my body.
In my bio I have normal casual info, nothing weird or strong, and have a section mentioning that my last photo is NSFW.
My penultimate pic is also a safe picture of my crotch in trousers, sorta preparing people for what’s to come.
99% of guys I match with have no issue and love the pic. The women I match with seem to unmatch quite fast after matching.
I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable, but I’m guessing it’s a bit much so I should maybe change it (or only keep it when there’s only guys in my pool).
I find feeld odd in that some people have full on wild bios, interest and photos, and others are as casual and mild as any other dating app. Idk what the right balance is but curious on your approach and perspectives.

possible tw for mention of SA
reposting this here because i didnt get any responses on ftm
so this summer, im going to spain on a class trip which im very excited for and have been waiting a long time for. the problem is i will have to share a hotel room with probably 3 other boys.
for some background information, im 16 years old (17 at the time of the trip), junior in highschool, 19 months on t, had top surgery 10 months ago, and i am passing 99.99% of the time.
my main concern is them finding out, i guess. both for my safety and because i dont want to be excluded because of it.
my worst fear is them making weird sexual jokes or even SAing me if they find out. probably unrealistic but just an irrational fear of mine.
i honestly dont know how they would react. i have had a surprisingly easy time socially transitioning at my highschool. no one has given me any trouble about it whatsoever; i havent even been misgendered at school since coming out. i live in a blue state in what i think is a blue area. still, i have heard of some people at my school being transphobic, and ive overheard students talking about how they support trump.
i dont know exactly how they would find out. i had to get double incision top surgery so theres the big pink scars on my chest, but i dont think they would have to see me shirtless, and even if they did, i dont know if theyd know what the scars mean. obviously i havent had bottom surgery. i havent worried about people looking at my crotch up until this point because i wear baggy clothes but i might need to change in front of them. should i get a packer? i also worry about my voice because even though it passes for the most part, it can be a bit high pitched in the morning.
it doesnt help that i dont have any friends at school, or any male friends at all. i really dont know how to interact with people my age, especially guys.
the teacher whos taking us on the trip offered to give me my own room but i decided i didnt want to be singled out or given special treatment. should i have taken the offer?
thankfully, i only have to be with these guys at night and in the morning. during the day, we’ll be exploring spain as one big group and ill get to hang out with my partner (who is genderfluid but mostly fem presenting so theyll be sleeping with the girls).
anyway sorry about my rambling i am very nervous as well as excited about this trip. if anyone can offer reassurance or advice or anecdotes about similar situations that would be great. thanks

possible tw for mention of SA
so this summer, im going to spain on a class trip which im very excited for and have been waiting a long time for. the problem is i will have to share a hotel room with probably 3 other boys.
for some background information, im 16 years old (17 at the time of the trip), junior in highschool, 19 months on t, had top surgery 10 months ago, and i am passing 99.99% of the time.
my main concern is them finding out, i guess. both for my safety and because i dont want to be excluded because of it.
my worst fear is them making weird sexual jokes or even SAing me if they find out. probably unrealistic but just an irrational fear of mine.
i honestly dont know how they would react. i have had a surprisingly easy time socially transitioning at my highschool. no one has given me any trouble about it whatsoever; i havent even been misgendered at school since coming out. i live in a blue state in what i think is a blue area. still, i have heard of some people at my school being transphobic, and ive overheard students talking about how they support trump.
i dont know exactly how they would find out. i had to get double incision top surgery so theres the big pink scars on my chest, but i dont think they would have to see me shirtless, and even if they did, i dont know if theyd know what the scars mean. obviously i havent had bottom surgery. i havent worried about people looking at my crotch up until this point because i wear baggy clothes but i might need to change in front of them. should i get a packer? i also worry about my voice because even though it passes for the most part, it can be a bit high pitched in the morning.
it doesnt help that i dont have any friends at school, or any male friends at all. i really dont know how to interact with people my age, especially guys.
the teacher whos taking us on the trip offered to give me my own room but i decided i didnt want to be singled out or given special treatment. should i have taken the offer?
thankfully, i only have to be with these guys at night and in the morning. during the day, we’ll be exploring spain as one big group and ill get to hang out with my partner (who is genderfluid but mostly fem presenting so theyll be sleeping with the girls).
anyway sorry about my rambling i am very nervous as well as excited about this trip. if anyone can offer reassurance or advice or anecdotes about similar situations that would be great. thanks

Alright, i imagine theres a lot of these posts on the subreddit, but i dont know where else to ask about this stuff.
TW: dysphoria, transphobia, homophobia
So for the past 5+ years i have been off an on questioning my gender (AMAB), and as of recent my 'dysphoria' has peaked, just little things will tip me over the edge mentally.
Ive hopped back and forth between the closet plenty of times during these past 5 years, on most occasions coming out as non-binary, however due to one reason or another i would go back to saying i was male.
I've always struggled socially, being the classic nerd stereotype, not also removed from my bisexuality (which is something i do take pride in) (pun intended) At this point in time however, with how i feel about my body and emotions over gender its difficult to keep up friendships, especially when the people i hang around constantly throw about slurs (a lot directed towards me, as they know i am Bi) and say some gross things about minorities in general, which makes my headspace around being trans alot worse. For example, they pretty consistently misgender (on purpose) laura les when im talking about 100 gecs with them, and however much i try to correct them they don't listen.
Without social situations complicated things, my own ideas around gender suffer due to immense internalised transphobia, even to the point where i neglected conditioning my hair until recently as i thought it was a "girly" thing to do. I really struggle with the whole internal conflict of "What if im faking it" or "what if its some defect in my head"
However what I can't deny is the emotions i get with practicing feminine things in private, like tucking, voice training and wearing the clothes that i like. The fact that my day is so numb, and something as simple as having a flat crotch makes me feel great i think speaks volumes. Ive also played about with Names and pronouns when playing RPG games (Shout-out Fallout 4) and theres a sense of ease and peace i get when hearing 'her' and 'she' when my character is spoken about.
So, really what im wondering is how do i get out of feeling like im faking my gender and building up the confidence to try and live as my true self.
TL:DR I really struggle with overcoming the fear of accepting feminity in myself and have peers that are extremely transphobic.