Hello everyone. Today is day one again. I feel horrible. I was sober for 7 weeks from December 26th until Feb 24th. Started slowly backsliding. I had quit cigarettes on May 27th last year and again started up buying packs last week. I drank a half big half gallon of whiskey last night and smoked 5 cigarettes and drove to get them drunk at the gas station. I feel super bad today. I have an amazing career, I just bought a new house and a new car. I want to go back to being sober when I look great and my life is amazing. I will start today. Any words of encouragement are appreciated. Going back to my meetings today as well. Thank you all. It’s good to be back.

This is the beginning chapter of a long, space-opera sci-fi writing project I have been working on for several months now. I’m currently almost 60k words into it at the time of writing, and am planning on publishing it in full as a novel when I’m done, but I haven’t really shared it with anyone outside my immediate family and a couple friends.
…Normally, I’d post this type of thing on HFY, but in all honesty it doesn’t really paint humans in a very good light most of the time and focuses on the other species involved a for a majority of the time, so it wouldn’t really fit there.
Additionally, while the HASO-ness isn’t too obvious for a few chapters, I promise, we will get there in time.
I don’t know how often I’ll be uploading these, especially given that I’m still not done with it, and have little free time to spend on writing these days; all the same, you can expect plenty of entries over the next few weeks.
In the meantime, feel free to leave your thoughts, any constructive criticisms, etc in the comments. And as always, I hope you enjoy :)
——

CHAPTER 1

Her arm hurt.
She was so, so tired...
Her arm hurt.
She was numb to the cold at this point, but kept shivering anyway.
Her arm hurt.
The only thing close to heat that she felt was the inflammation that was serving to add more throbbing pain to her arm.
…Which hurt, in case that wasn’t clear.
She turned her head to look at it, wincing from the pain the movement caused. It was ugly to behold, with a ragged stab wound in the muscles of her forearm near the elbow that was still slowly trickling blood, but that wasn’t even the worst part of it. She knew from experience that the needle-sharp pain she felt with every slight movement meant that some bone in there- probably the radius or ulna- was also either hairline-fractured or broken entirely.
…And just in case you weren’t aware, fun fact:
It hurt.
A lot.
The pain was only exacerbated by the swollen tissues and irritation around the stab wound that she knew meant it was definitely infected- with what, she could only guess. Whatever it was, she could feel the fever it was causing having a desperate tug-of-war with the cold autumn air to determine her body temperature.
When she couldn’t stand to look at it any longer, she leaned her head back, resting it against the dew-filled grass of the ditch she was lying in and looking up at the star-filled night sky that was slowly lightening to that hue of dark indigo that meant dawn was close, but not quite there.
She used to think the stars were beautiful. But as she lay there, the dreadful memories of what had led to this moment playing over and over in her head… Suffice to say, nothing in this world or outside of it seemed beautiful anymore.
She put the aesthetics of the sky aside and instead struggled to focus her thoughts through the haze of fatigue and pain.
Dawn approaching… That has to mean I’ve been laying here… Jeez, it must be almost an entire day at this point. …I think. It hasn’t been multiple days, surely… Or maybe it’s been-
…Oh, to hell with it. I don’t even care at this point…
She was too tired to sleep, but in too much pain to move. Her brain was fogged from fatigue, and even more so from the constant screaming coming from her nerve endings, desperately trying to let her know that yes, something was very wrong with her arm, she got it, thanks for the message, you can stop now-
…But mostly, the fog stemmed from that draining emotional and mental exhaustion that came with periods of grief. A single tear ran down her face from her already overworked tear ducts, nearly reaching the bruises on her neck before it was wiped away by the shaky fingers of her good arm.
The sky would be there for her to look at later. She needed to try (yet again) to rest, just one more time.
“You know what they say,” she murmured to herself. “76th time’s the charm.”
Delirious with exhaustion and the fever as she was, she couldn’t help herself from chuckling at the thought. Her eyes, bloodshot and burning from the strain she had endured, lazily looked around at what few constellations she could recognize for one last time, and spotted the pattern of Orion in the night sky.
Hey big O, close the door on your way out, eh? I’m gonna try and take a snooze.
She snorted, wincing as she did.
…Finding my own jokes funny. Jesus, I am delirious…
She turned her head to the side and closed her eyes, willing herself to please, please just go to sleep already, because sleep meant being unconscious, and being unconscious meant she could ignore the pain from her arm for a while. And to her surprise, she finally started drifting off. Her breath slowed, the fog visible in the cold air in front of her mouth coming less and less often as she drifted closer to the edge of unconsciousness.
As a result, she barely even heard the soft humming noise approaching, and almost didn’t feel herself being gently, almost imperceptibly lifted off the ground. When she noticed it, what parts of her mind that were still semi-conscious brushed it off as either a dream or hallucination, and slipped behind the wall of sleep…
…For all of two minutes. She wasn’t getting off that easy.
She was jolted awake by a sudden feeling of what could only be described as compression across her whole body, though “compression” hardly did it justice; It was as though she were being squeezed through a drinking straw. …Yet before she could react, the feeling was over.
Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing a dimly-lit room, alive with that same strange humming noise from before. She crinkled her nose at the smell that assailed her nostrils. It was strange, like a combination of various industrial cleaners, engine grease, and ozone. She rubbed her eyelids before she groggily looked around, confused. Where was she? She turned her head and saw a very strange-looking machine that was seemingly floating in midair. She craned her neck, looking past it, and her eyes widened at what she saw glowing through a small, circular viewing window in the nearby wall.
Was that- …Earth?
She slowly, gingerly sat up, wincing from the protests her arm gave at her daring to do such a thing. It took everything in her, but she slowly dragged herself closer to the window, peering out at the planet slowly circling in the void below her. There was no doubt about it, that was Earth. She recognized North and South America, Greenland, even a portion of the northern Arctic. She could even see all the wildfires burning as a result of-
…Well, everything collectively hitting the fan in the past week.
Tilting her head, she could see the exterior of the… building? Satellite? Space station? …Whatever it was she was apparently on, that was outside the window. Gun-metal gray and covered in strange symbols in a language she didn’t recognize, it was unlike anything she’d seen before- and it wasn’t alone.
She saw several other similar… things, floating nearby. They ranged in size from the relatively small, around the size of a house, to absolutely massive ones that she estimated must be miles across. She shook her head in disbelief and laid her head back down on the cold metal floor.
Ok, scratch that, she was obviously still asleep; after all, this had to be the weirdest dream she’d ever had…
Suddenly, a scraping, screeching noise rang through the room, startling her. She looked around and saw a tall, lanky, shadowy figure entering the room they were in as it finished sliding open the metal door that was the source of the noise. Without warning, the room was aglow with a bright light from overhead, causing her to wince and close her eyes. She rubbed her eyelids again, trying to ignore the irritation the action caused, and looked back at the figure, eyes widening as they adjusted to the light- and then even wider, as she froze in place with a gasp at what she saw.
The… creature standing over her was like some horrific combination of a reptile and insect. Its frame was slim and bipedal, with limbs proportioned far longer than any normal human. It towered over her, easily seven feet tall or more. Its head was like that of a praying mantis minus the antennae, with three chameleon-like eyes. The first eye was symmetrically centered in the forehead, the other the two mirrored on the sides of its head where the temples on a human head would be, and all three were very intently focused on her. On its face was a glowing, bioluminescent set of growths all down the front, forming a v-shaped, curving pattern that almost looked like a deranged smile, but its real mouth hid behind a pair of razor-sharp mandibles on its jawline that clicked together a few times as she watched.
Its hide was dark gray and shiny, almost metallic, somewhere between reptilian scales and an insectoid carapace, and generally looked like it would be at home in an H.R. Giger painting. The bioluminescent growths on its face continued down to its torso in three vertical, parallel lines, growing larger as they went further down. Each gangly arm ended in four chitin-covered fingers, tipped with razor-sharp claws.
The only thing even remotely resembling clothing it was wearing was something that looked like a long skirt or kilt, which would probably almost look funny if it weren’t for the fact that the material it was made of almost looked like human skin. From what she saw of the legs underneath it, they were digitrade and almost like those of a bird, with three toes in front and one facing backwards, all with very long claws on them, but no feathers could be seen- just more of that sickly-gray chitinous carapace.
It stood there for a second, silently watching her as she sat there trembling, now more from fear than cold or fever, before all its glowing growths suddenly began to gleam blood-red, and it reached out towards her with one of its clawed arms whilst making a terrifying noise- like the hiss of a cat mixed with the warning signal of a rattlesnake.
Her adrenaline spiked, and the various subdivisions of her brain responsible for survival instincts went into overdrive.
Each presented their findings for peer review: THING. BIG. DEADLY. SCARY.
They rapidly formed a committee and held a brief conference as to the good and proper response to this interesting new development. The vote was both swift and unanimous:
RUN.
The adrenaline surge gave her the endurance she needed to ignore the pain and scramble backwards before finally getting enough traction on the metal floor to get to her feet, turn, and run screaming through the opposite doorway, getting away from the monster as fast as she could.
Y’ggdrasog flinched at the sudden movement of the human scrambling awkwardly to her feet with the help of her unbroken arm before sprinting away from him whilst emitting a high-pitched noise he was unfamiliar with, presumably of distress. For a moment, he just stood there, puzzled. What was she doing, and why? All he had done was say “Hello.” Then he remembered himself, and figured he should probably resolve the situation before she bumbled her way out of the airlock or something. He called after her:
<”Wait- please, stop! I mean you no harm! …Why in the name of the spirits above are you running away from-”>
His eyes widened, his bioluminescence rapidly shifting to a bright white as he realized.

He tapped the side of his head to bring up his cranial implant’s heads-up-display interface and quickly went through a few drop-down menus. Finally finding the setting he was looking for, he turned the software back on and then started to run after her. He shook his head as he went, irritated at himself as his bioluminescence changed to an annoyed green to match.

He let out a frustrated sigh and just kept following the loud, high-pitched noises, wincing as he did so.
His ears hurt.

I [M,21] have been in a relationship with my girlfriend [20] and she has been extremely difficult to be with recently.
It’s things such as creating fights out of thin air, will complain about her life almost constantly, will complain that the time we spend together isn’t “quality time”, will be really warm and loving one moment then super cold and distant the next, and the one that gets me the most… won’t listen to or even pretend to care about the things I have say and will complain that I’m lecturing her or ‘not involving her in the conversation’
It feels like everything I do is a problem
And I feel like I’m to blame for her acting like this
You see I’m focused on a big goal and dream that I’ve had since middle school and I try to spend as much of my free time as I can trying to accomplish this goal. In doing so I’ve made myself financially literate, built up a wide range of skills that I’m improving on constantly, building my business, on top of working a day job and going to the gym
I try my best to spend quality time with her, I’ll make dinners for us when we get home, we’ll talk and watch our favorite shows,we go to the gym together and we also sleep in the same bed so we can talk and do naughty stuff before we go to sleep. On top of that once a week we go out and have a nice dinner as a date night
I’ve tried talking to her about how her acting difficult makes me feel, but every time I do it turns into a big argument about how I’m wrong and how her actions are justified because of ‘x’
I’m not sure if I’m to blame for her being difficult or if she’s just a difficult person
Reddit was the last place I thought I would be posting. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Hey everyone. I have been riding bikes and scooter for past few years, starting from aviator, upgrading to pulsar 150, my current bike Dominar 250 and in few months, hopefully Versys 1000.
There are three questions I had.
First is regarding engine braking. I have a habit of using engine braking instead of brakes, esp. at higher rpms. I tried researching but was unable to find any proper answer regarding it. Does engine braking harm the clutch plates or engine? Because I already had to change my clutch plates in Dominar at 12000 kms, although the svc guy said it might be due to use of another engine oil (motul) or that it was a showroom display bike with 120kms on odo when I bought it.
Second is that, I am planning to gift my father a new bike. He is a big fan of touring, and has done half quite a lot of touring in 1990's with older bikes. Since then he has mostly used hero honda bikes, with minimum care, which keep on going for months, and was now thinking about getting something more suited for road trips. I have shorted down to four options, Bajaj Avenger 220. Hornet 2.0, extreme 160r, TVS Ronin, Hunter 350 and Honda H'ness. The last two are something I am not sure as they are much higher cc and a little out of budget, but I could go for them.
The last question is that in city and low speed, is it better to ride on higher rpm's at lower gear or lower rpm's at higher gear. This is keeping in mind the fuel efficiency and long term care of bike.

Salam everyone I am a 28f engaged and soon to be married in June inshallah. My fiancé lives out of state. I never saw myself having a big wedding but I always knew I wanted to have some sort of celebration when I do get married. The problem is all my planning seems to be falling apart. My mother had already planned to travel back to her home country before we announced the engagement. Her plans were not rearranged so she's gone and won't be back til the end of May. My fiancé is out of state he helps whatever way he can but it's mostly me just going to venues alone and dealing with vendors. The problem is my mother really doesn't want me to do any planning without her. I tried respectfully telling her that two weeks before a wedding isn't sufficient time to plan anything. I want my mothers blessings but it seems she doesn't want me to move forward with any planning until she is back and I just can't find reasoning in that. With all this stress I am heavily considering just a nikkah but I know deep down inside I wanted to celebrate this day.

Hi guys, just got back from a great vacation in Costa Rica with my wife & son. Based on advice from this subreddit, I decided to go with Vamos for renting a car.
First off, just generally, we had a good experience from the beginning. They were waiting for us at the airport, and shuttled us over to the office, which is only a couple of minutes away. They were friendly and professional, everything was as expected and went smoothly. A key thing, that turned out later to be a wise decision for us, was to pay for the full insurance up front.
So, we left SJO and drove up to La Fortuna the day of arrival. The next morning, we were heading out to breakfast, and unfortunately, I got into a collision. It was my fault, I got distracted or something, not sure exactly, but I turned left in front of an oncoming taxi without enough space between us, so the taxi hit us in the right front of my vehicle.
FYI, the way things work in Costa Rica (as explained beforehand by Vamos) is:

• you don't move your vehicle from the roadway initially
• you call 911 - this will send out a traffic police crew, who will make a policy report. When they say it's OK, you can then move the car off the road.
• you call the insurance company - they will send out an insurance representative who will do their own report
• you call Vamos

I also took some pictures with my phone and sent them to vamos via email.
So, at first I thought the car might be driveable... it had some dents in the front quarter panel and front passenger door, but the headlights weren't damaged. But when I tried driving it back to where were staying, I found out that the steering was quite affected. I could drive it slowly and fight it a bit to go in a straight line, but it wasn't safe beyond limping slowly about 1 km back to our place.
So then I called Vamos again and explained that I would need a replacement vehicle. Since the one I had wasn't driveable, they needed to put the replacement vehicle on a flatbed tow truck in San Jose, drive that up to me, swap it for the damaged vehicle, and drive that one back on the truck. As you know it's a 3+ hour trip from San Jose to La Fortuna, but they got right on the ball and brought it to me that same evening. I gave the tow truck driver the paper police report and my copy of the insurance report.
The rest of the trip went smooth, and of course I was extra extra careful with the 2nd vehicle. Honestly I was paranoid, I couldn't imagine having to call them up and tell them something happened to the 2nd one!
So, at the end of the trip, upon returning the vehicle to Vamos, everything when smooth and easy again. No hassles, no extra paperwork, no attitude, still super friendly.
So... big points to Vamos for being a great company to rent from. And, I recommend getting the full insurance if you can manage it -- really it took a lot of stress off me by not having to deal with any of that.

It is three decades back. I'm a small boy in lower primary growing up in the countryside. A time when family unit bond was stronger than ever.
My father was polygamous. This meant an angelic world for kids; what about with two mums, both sets of grandparents and many uncles and cousins to boot. But for the co-wives, it was envy and jealous of devilish magnitude, hitherto unknown to me.
I remember the day like yesterday. I was outside our semi-permanent house playing. My step-mum appeared out of nowhere carrying a kiondo and gave me keys to deliver to a neighbor's home. She claimed that a visitor there had forgotten those keys.
Innocently, I run to the neighbours home and presented the keys. They were stunned since they hadn't hosted any. While they quizzed me, we heard a screams coming from home and on checking saw a huge cloud of smoke bellowing to the skies.
We all rushed home to find my parent's house aflame. Everything on it including my childhood memories, photographs, certificates, furniture, clothings etc were reduced into ashes. Only a motorcycle on the verandah, a sofa set and a Kikuyu bible were rescued. Awesomely and divinely, the Bible overcame the fierce flames with only it's covers and margins burnt.
I was traumatized to see my dad attempting to throw himself into the ranging inferno, but he was restrained. My mother who was summoned from church where she was practicing for choir was in tears at she stared at the ruins.
Aftermath My step mothers arson reduced our family into nothing and turmoil. A very difficult childhood followed.
All evidence showed she touched the house. I recall how scared I was as police questioned on activities of that day.My dad divorced her. She resorted to selling illicit liqour while her children dropped out of primary school. She would later get born again.
30 years later I'm an adult with own family. All my siblings and half siblings are adults now. The step mum is now elderly and ailing. Currently hospitalized with efforts to raise money for her treatment underway. We have been in good terms with my half brothers and sisters. Sadly when they request for financial assistance to their mother (my stepmother) it rekindles sad memories. Would you help such a woman?
My thoughts on polygamy I would never advocate for it. She was father's first wife. They separated for some years during which period, my father married another woman (my mum). Later on after intervention,my father reunited with the first wife. She found my father had already built and furnizhed a nice house for my mum. My father even bought building materials in readiness to build a house for her. Unfortunately, he was a drunkard and lost his job out of hitting the bottle too hard. He could not manage to build her the house. So she continued living in a two bedroomed mud house with skeleton furniture while my mum had the best. This continued until the arson incident which downgraded our life to sharing a tiny mud house and sleeping on a hard bed with barely any clothes to cover us.
I feel in the polygamous union she had the shorter end of the stick, but still her actions 'spoiled' my childhood. I thank God that she didn't resort to 'finishing' me and my brother on finding us playing outside the house.
Once again how would you go about assisting such a person?

Yea I know, I don't have any real experience, so i can't really give any good advice, butt still, there's a few things I do wish to say, ofc if someone would to like to correct me and feel like my advice isn't appropriate feel free to do so.
I could wrtie a huge ass eassy on it, but let's be honest no would read it then, so I'll just write them in bullets, and in consice manner

1. Enjoy these few next few years to the fullest, embrace the good and the bad experiences and learn from them, don't shy away from trying new things.
   
2. Make good friends, who would influence you in a good way. Yes and try to be more social, try to make friends, it will be hard, but you gotta try atleast.
   
3. Try not to induge in harmful substances and activities, but if you still wish to then, I would like you to do it responsibly and safely, as in get the better quality brands, try not to get yourself dependent on them etc. etc.
   

(I don't promote indulging in such substances, but at this point we are all very much aware of the ill consequences and effects they have on the human body, so if you still want to do it, then not much can really stop you)

1. Do something, yup, just something, anything could be small or big, just get your ass up and try something new, and do something.

Lemme tell you a bit of a story, i know of this guy, who if wanted to develop a app and try something, and so he got on like minded people on the team and rn they seem to be doing pretty good. I even saw thier add on Instagram, so good for them.
This is why I say do something, anything even if it's small, it'll help you grow to be a better person and also help you gain experiences

1. Join clubs, study well, and use whatever your colleges has to offer, talk to your professors, ask them for help whenever needed, like let's say you want to try doing this personal project, take their help, they'll have tons of knowledge that would be valuable to you.
   
2. Cgpa is important, but don't run after it that you forget other things, compines also would like you to, have other experiences, that's why I say do something.
   
3. Work on yourself, this goes to all people irrespective of whether you are in college or not, try new things, don't be afraid, try to make good friends, basically socialize karo, and don't run after the I want a bf,gf/getting a gf, bf is cool and related things, once you start working on yourself, people themselves will start to find you interesting and get attracted to you.
   
4. Finally, have a good balance, find that balance yourself. A balance between your academic and personal life.
   

I'm a fragrance newcomer and have recently bought Chanel Allure Homme Sport Eau Extreme as my first serious fragrance. This morning I applied 3 sprays (one on each shoulder, one on the back of the neck) and went to work (office).
Similarly to many other posts about AHSEE, I didn't smell much of the fragrance after one hour or so, so I thought the most potent phase was over. It wasn't until a whopping 7 hours later that my co-worker (who just came into the room) asked me if I'm wearing a new perfume. I confirmed it, and he said it smells good but it's a bit strong and less sprays would probably be better. As we spoke, another co-worker came in and joined the discussion. He also confirmed that he could smell the fragrance quite a bit, and didn't think of it as bad but as strong. So here's my takeaway and advice for other newcomers:

• Just because you can't smell the fragrance anymore, it does not mean that others can't smell it either. Noseblindness is a real thing, and it doesn't just occur if you apply the fragrance close to the nose.
  
• Just because nobody asks about your fragrance, it does not mean that they haven't noticed. Despite some people telling you about how much of a compliment getter some fragrances are, the vast majority of people do not just mention your smell. Body odor is a sensitive topic so most people don't want to offend you, and especially in an office setting it can be seen as unprofessional to give compliments about looks/smell etc. It's sad, but that's the world we're living in.
  
• Less is more. AHSEE is not known to be a beast mode fragrance, and its longevity is mediocre when compared to other fragrances. And yet, 3 sprays were enough to be perceived as "strong" (translation: "too strong") after 7 hours. Whenever someone tells you that you have to spray 20-30 times, do not listen to them. You don't do others a favor, and you don't do yourself a favor (also you don't do your wallet a favor).
  
• Noses are different. It's pretty common knowledge that different people have different eye sight. Some see crystal clear, most have some sort of myopia to varying degree. It's the same with the nose. What you perceive as average intensity of smell might be way too much for others.
  

I hope that my experience will be helpful for others wondering what amount of sprays is appropriate. I'll probably try 2 or 1 spray next and see how it turns out. 3 was definitely too much.

Hi everyone! I am about 7 months away from my wedding and we are almost finished locking in our caterers. However, I got the contract and noticed something fishy, and I really need some sort of insight on whether this is a red flag or I’m overthinking it.
Since we have been in conversation with these vendors, I have told them that our anticipated guest count is 80 people. However, on every contract they have sent me, they keep marking our guest count as 100. We will finalize the guest count 10 days before the wedding.
I’ve asked them to update this number from 100 to 80 twice previously, and today when I received the contract, again we are marked as having 100 guests. As I’m reading the fine print, I notice this detail: “If your initial guest count falls below 75% of the final reported guest count, the price per guest may rise [an undisclosed amount].”
So, if they keep marking us as having a 100 person guest count, but we invite 80 and only 70 can make it, we’ll be charged some kind of fee! I really feel like they’re trying to pull one over on me and it’s making me uncomfortable working with them. But I also don’t want to start from 0–catering is my last big task to check off the list and has been a huge pain to deal with over all, I just want to get it wrapped up.
Thoughts?

April 14, 2012. Jon Fishman set out to create the worlds largest cowbell ensemble on the streets of Burlington, VT.
Mike Gordon was also in town to meet and greet with phans at the nearby Ben & Jerry's.
Following the cowbell extravaganza, and enjoying some ice cream against the B&J's window, a photographer buddy of mine shouted out, "Don't move". Little did I know, those two words would begin a journey of connecting with Mike, other phans, create opportunity for various memes, and lead to a continuous inside joke between Gordo and I for years.
Two years later, Mike played a small show at Newbury Comics in Boston, and was holding another opportunity to meet fans and get things signed. This was the first time I was able to show him the original picture that was taken that day against the Ben & Jerry's. I had no idea whether or not he would know what I was talking about.
His response was quite a surprise. "OMG, this was YOU? Let's recreate it right now... but like roles reversed". So we did. I was pretty elated to know he had already seen and heard about this photo that was making it's way around the interwebs.
Five years after that, Mike and his band were performing a 4-night run at the Sinclair in Cambridge, MA. As this would be the next time I saw Mike in person, I wanted to try and bring up the original photo again. The best way to do this was to print out two hard copies of it - one for me to sign in order to give him, and one for him to sign for me.
When I ran into Mike after the show, he could not believe what I had brought, and the smile and laugh that came from him (which is rare when he's in signature mode) was perfect. We each signed the photo and gave it to one another.
The next morning, I had found out that a friend actually took a photo of us signing the original picture for each other. Of course, in order to keep going down the rabbit hole, this new photo needed to be signed, and that's exactly what happened the next night.
I brought two copies of the picture of Mike and I signing the original picture of us from 2012... in order to be signed again. And that is what happened.
Can't wait to continue the layered photo/autograph series the next time I run into him.
TLDR: Buddy took a pic of me leaning against a glass window with Gordo on the other side. Future run-ins with Mike led to recreations of the original photo, as well as a rabbit hole of signatures and even more photos of photos.

On March 9 I got a surgical abortion at 5 weeks 3 days along at PP. I had brown spotting the day of the procedure and haven’t bled since. I don’t feel pregnant anymore: my breasts have deflated (although it took awhile for the pain to go away), my stomach doesn’t feel bloated anymore, my appetite seems normal and I’m not experiencing any other pregnancy symptoms. However, now I have a pinkish discharge when I go to the bathroom. I haven’t had sex since the abortion. Could this just be “ovulation discharge” or something or my uterus shedding what was left after the abortion or something??Anyone else experience this? What is the cervical mucus cycle like after an abortion before the next period?

I try to make it short but it's complicated.
I (26F) will be breaking up with my Bf (M34) soon.
We got to meet last year around August/September and hit off quite well. Within that time we flirted and eventually had a conversation about deal breakers in relationships.
My deal-breaker are Septum/Nose ring piercings (and Smoking).I just don't find it attractive in any shape of form but I don't make people feel bad about having them. I'm happy they like them but they are simply not for me. Idk why.
During our early months of our relationship we discussed piercings as he wanted to get more, talking about what we thought would suit him etc. We also discussed Septums again and agreed that he won't get one.
Another two ish months later I show up to a game night with mutual friends and notice something in his nose. I thought nothing of it until I saw his other profile and noticed the same thing in his nose and asked him if that was a septum.
He exclaimed quite proudly that yes it is and that he just got it on a whim. I reminded him about the conversation and got a "Well, I gotta like it, no?" back.
Confronted all out of the blue by a deal-breaker I thought about a compromise which would be no rings when we spend time together. (Lil studs would have been fine to me)
He agreed to it and actually held true to it the next time we been hanging out with the same group of friends. (It's a semi long distance relationship.)
I noticed he was super distant and not interacting with me at all so I asked him what was wrong and he replied with "Nothing."
Later on I get a voicemail of him needing a call in which he was confessing that he is not comfortable with hiding the piercing for me as it is part of himself.
So after some thinking I came to the conclusion that a breakup is the only option I have left.
Either he agrees to the compromise and is unhappy, which I don't want... Or he keeps this piercing "out there" and I would end the relationship due to lack of attraction...
He wouldn't be able to be his happiest with me as girlfriend no matter the decision and he knowingly broke a fundamental boundary of mine.
AITA for ending it because of this? I would appreciate a friendship but that decision is up to him.
(There's some other smaller factors that affected the relationship but the entire situation around the piercing is breaking the camels back for me)
. . . TLDR . . .
-F(26) M(34)
-relationship for about 6 months
-talked about deal-breaker before relationship and during relationship (septum piercing. 'nose ring')
-he got one without warning me basically throwing me under the bus at a mutual friends game night.
-i offered a compromise of him wearing studs instead of a ring when we spend time (i find them deadly unattractive).
-he does it for the next meeting but is distant.
-confesses later that upkeeping that compromisenmakes him unhappy and self conscious.
-I plan on breaking up because of this (breaking a fundamental boundary knowingly; keeping it secret; not agreeing on the compromise I can offer.
-i also don't want him to be unhappy which he would be when keeping the compromise. (He said the compromise makes him unhappy)
-breakup seems to be the only option

trigger warning: SH
these last months i've been relapsing in self harm, it's not as bad as it used to be but i still find myself banging my head on walls or cutting both my arms and thighs. I feel like i crave the pain, but when the episodes are over i always feel extremely guilty about self-harming, and seeing all the scarring and bruising makes me feel even worse. I know that ideally i should just stop any kind of sh, but as i said before there are times when i really crave the pain and i can only go for these two options because nothing else comes to my mind. Is there something i can do rather than these two specific "methods" that doesn't result in scarring or seriously compromising my health? Let me know if i chose the wrong subreddit as well

This is going to be a long post so beware.
Xenoblade quickly became one of my favorite RPGs of all time. Fell in love with 1 and own all of them since. To prepare for XC3 I decided to replay DE, Torna, and 2 all over again to be fresh.
I will be making comparisons to the previous games often so spoilers there if you never played them.
I got every hero, did every hero quest and just about every single sidequest.
STORY:
XB3 I felt had the weakest story of the series. I feel they hyped up the game to be the final chapter that brings XB1 and 2 together finally but 90% of the game has nods here and there to the previous game but is largely its own self contained story. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but when the cover art shows the Mechonis Sword and Uraya and neither is barely mentioned for what they are, it seems like a missed opportunity.
Where XB1 and 2 had definitive villains in the megalomaniac Zanza and sympathetic Jin. Malos was simply a blade of a vengeful man whose evil rubbed off on him. Z or Moebius felt so generic. The idea of fallen comrades or loved ones coming back as antagonist has already been done with MumkaFiora in XB1.
The idea that Z is the culmination of the worlds desire to stay in the "forever now" is.....kind of a lame concept. He really isnt even introduced to the party until the very end and he lacks the impact of Zanza or Malos. He seems like generic evil guy who thinks hes doing good.
The ending I hopes gets expanded on because it was pretty bad. The entire game essentially is one big dream sequence. Like imagine at the end of the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, Frodo wakes up in bed and it turns out the entire 3 books were all just a dream. Thats how bad the ending is.
The game also doesn't answer a lot of the questions I had.
How far in the future is the series from the original games?
If the characters are all clones grown from the DNA of actual living individuals, why do they not exhibit those traits?
Why is Eunie not sensitive to ether due to her being High Entia?
Lanz is Mechon yet he eats food? I thought a big part of the original game was how Fiora no longer ate because she had the body of a mechon.
How do Blades exist without drivers? I feel they just said the generic "Well Origin allows them change the world blah blah" without giving many real answers.
I feel the City should have been more antagonistic towards the group after learning that resetting the word would basically make them cease to exist. I highly doubt they would just be ok with that after fighting for so long for their survival.
Where XB1 and 2 had interesting stories throughout, I feel XB3 has a strong beginning, less memorable middle, Chapter 5 explosive reveal, and then fizzles into....wat by the end.
Gameplay:
Without a doubt the best gameplay a XC game has had. They have perfected the system and the new chain attack system alone makes battles an incredibly fun experience.
In XB1 I would avoid fighting at points because it honestly wasn't that fun after awhile.
In XB2 the addition of blades definitely expanded the combat, but trying to make a cool team with so many options and locking blades to a character reduced my will to play around with it more.
XB3 has an awesome class system where each class definitely feels like each class is unique. Most of them are pretty fun to play as and since every character can switch to any class at any time, it gives you a lot of gameplay options.
It was easily the most fun gameplay wise out of all the XC games and often tried to battle as much as I could.
World Building/Sidequests
This is where I feel XC3 shines. Where the main story is a hit lackluster, the side quests and world building through those and the hero quest are amazing.
Zeon's Hero Ascension quest was a highlight. Seeing him realize his flaws as commander while also trying to inspire his troops through agriculture was fun. Seeing the different commanders work together to make a harvest really made the colonies feel unique. Then seeing another quest where you get to choose a colony to help grow potatoes as well is just neat.
With each side quest you do, you see how NPC's interact and talk differently. There gamelong nods and quests that can be easy to miss if you don't do all the sidequests. I liked how the one Nopon in Valdi's colony is portrayed as a spy for Alexandria's for several quests, only to find out he just has a crush on her.
Taking the time to actually complete the sidequests and ascension quests was easily the highlight of the game for me and made exploring even more fun.
Characters:
I love the party in this game. Nearly all of them felt easy to connect with and were all memorable (except Sena but more on that later)
Noah was a great protagonist. He almost tops Shulk for me but he is a close second. Shulk I felt was a perfect protagonist. He was flawed, but he was also intelligent and strong.
Rex was...ok. He had a lot of heart but thats all that was really going for him. I thought Lora was a much better XC2 protagonist. Less childish and more levelheaded.
Noah seems a bit boring at first but I love that he isn't your typical firey, hot headed, dumb hero. He isnt the smartest in the group, he isn't the strongest but hes a good leader because he is well balanced. His/N's past and split show how much different of a person he could have been. He isn't overly serious and even likes to joke sometime and shows good ranges of emotion when the time calls for it.
Lanz is a solid Reyn replacement. Both play the defense/big brothelovable dumb guy archtype and play it well. His story arc with Joran is one of the better ones. Lanz may act like he is a badass but he is deeply disturbed by Joran's death and its what shapes him the way he is. He shows real regret and emotion during those arcs and he is just a fun goofball.
Eunie is probably my favorite character in the game. Her looks, her personality and her phrases never get old. She isn't the smartest or strongest, and suffers from some PTSD from remembering her previous death but she is never afraid to speak her mind and act as a voice of reason. Her and Taion are similar in that regard but Taion does it a bit more professionally.
Mio is a pretty good character overall. She acts pretty cool headed most of the time but her defining trait is her compassion. After losing Myabi, her gentleness shines through with Sena and others around her. She feels like the mother of the group.
Taion was a character I thought would become annoying quickly but he quickly became one of my favorite characters. He is the stereotypical glasses nerd but I like how the team relies on his strategies and goes to him for his reasoning ability. I like that he isn't overly cocky about it. Sure he berates Lanz, but he still gives Noah leadership, and doesn't like being in the spotlight. His reactions in some of the more humorous scenes are great especially his during the baby scene.
Sena....oh poor Sena. Sena is the only character that I didn't really like because she doesn't really add anything to the party. She basically reminds me of Nora from RWBY but without an interesting personality. Shes bubbly and kind but she never really has any kind of arc. Her arc is "stop trying to copy people" Her ascension quest is basically just a mini quest more for Ghondor and Shania than it is for her. Her one and only use in most cutscenes is either to ask a dumb question or be the muscle and slam someone with her hammer.
For hero characters, I liked most of them. My stand outs were Teach, Isurd, Ethel, Monica, Ghondor and Tritan. Ghondor in particular because she is such a brat due to the circumstances of her upbringing but is also a badass.
The worst was probably Fiona. She felt super tacked on I barely remember even using her much outside of when I had to.
World/Exploration
I loved exploring this world. It was huge, there was so much to discover, but I did feel like each area was much less memorable than the previous games.
The colonies can't hold a candle to the cities of previous games. They are neat but you can't even explore most of the Feronises and the design layouts feel less interesting than other games. Colony 9 was an awesome starting area for XC1 because it was a big city, with a huge pool to explore, plus caves, etc.
The only main memorable locations to me were Colony Lambda, Kevesi Castle floating reefs, and Candensia region.
I wish there was more explorable from the previous XC games. Only experience 2 small areas of the Sword and some barely recognizable areas of Uraya.
Music:
Xenoblade 2 wins in the music department. XC1 has some real bangers and XC3 does as well, but neither compare to the music of 2/Torna.
That being said XC3 is pretty good. I like the town music for both factions, the overall battle music was good as well.
The highlights for me were the desert area music. I was hoping this would play more often because its so peaceful.
The consul battle music just felt so epic and menacing at the same time.
CHAIN ATTACK MUSIC. No single music gets me so hyped. It really changes like a true shift in the battle when this starts and once you figure out the system and get super long chains and level 3 Oroborus chains, its like a different game. Its still stuck in my head pretty often because its one of the best pieces of XC music to ever be created.
OVERALL:
I loved the game and was pretty happy with the experience. I do feel like it should have been marketed as its own game similar to Xenoblade Chronicles X because they do a poor job of tying it in with the other games. The story and world would have been more interesting as stand alone projects because all the game did was wishing they had fleshed out the connections a bit. This even comes after an expansion called Future Connected that really doesn't connect anything.
There is little explanation of why anyone looks different. They mention it in a single canteen cutscene but never again.
It would have been great to interlink with other characters instead of just one character. I would love to see what like Noah and Taion would look like or Eunie and Mio.
My working theory for expanded story pass is one of 2 things:
Either a prequel where we see Alvis fighting Rex and Shulk and winning with Alvis eventually becoming Z since they are both computerish.
OR
Takes place after the worlds go back to their original state. Noah grows older as we can see in one of the cutscenes and helps them out after Alvis comes back trying to correct the world which was split in 2.

I (25f) matched with this guy (29m) on hinge maybe a year or so ago. I was in an on and off again relationship and didn't really get to talk to him as much at first. We followed each other on Instagram and said a few things and the convo ended - but we stayed following each other.
Fast forward to December 2022. He posts a pic of him on vacation via Instagram. I'm single and thought it would be a good time to comment heart eyes on his photo. He rather quickly DM'd me and i wasn't super interactive in the convo (I had a lot going on with holidays and also ended up getting covid for 2 weeks). No worries!! Valentine's week comes around and he messages me again. This time I was excited because i was finally freeing up some time to give him more attention.
This time we chatted every day until I got his phone number. We would text and chat and I would call him every now and then. I was happy getting to know him. What was shitty is that 5 months before we started chatting, he moved 3 hours away to another city. It felt like we almost missed our shot.. but we still talked. We both wore our hearts on our sleeves a bit and I thought I was finding a guy i could really emotionally invest in. He seemed mature, put together, and self-confident (and really into me). The only issue I would say is that all of his friends were settling down except him and I would often say "yea sounds like what would happen nearing your 30s". He wasn't sure about settling down either and often spoke about how his relationships didn't last more than 2 months. But he didn't sound opposed to a relationship - just didn't find the right one.
We both are in the same career field and although I'm younger - I had a lot of experience he didn't have and he was even impressed when I would discuss work. He often would compliment anything I did and spoke about me as if he thought highly of me. I felt appreciated and respected. I literally never met someone so good.
We continue talking every day until he mentions he was coming back to the city in March to visit his parents. I was ECSTATIC! The only issue was that the one day he invited me to his work party, I would be out of town for a concert. He planned to stay a week though and we planned around his schedule and daily dinners with his family. He was really busy the whole trip but we made some time to work and i was more than happy to finally meet him IRL.
The Monday of the concert Im driving back into town asking if i could stop by and visit since i was coming earlier than expected. He was extremely drunk and at first was flirting but when i said I would actually come thru he swiftly changed his mind. i left him on read because (thoughts going awry) had the idea he might've been going with someone he drunkenly met that night. Instead he later calls me multiple times extremely drunk to tell me he was back at the hotel and he's okay and not to worry about him. I thought it was sweet how he thought of me and stopped being upset with him. However, he proceeded to be extremely self-deprecating. This was a complete 180 from the person I've been talking to for a little more than a month now. He talked about how he was a shitty person and was extremely depressed and that i deserved more or better. I told him that he's been an absolute doll ever since chatting and I wasn't worried about any of that stuff. He proceeded to tell me he's terrible and that I'm perfect. I have everything a man would want and that i could have anyone I wanted. I was put on a pedestal.
This was a red flag for me and made me feel unsafe about the amount of time he was going to stay in my life. I only just met this man, he was absolutely perfect and now he's looking like hes about to run. We hadn't even gone on our first date yet and my hopes of meeting him were dwindling. He was super sweet to me during the call and we let each other go to sleep. the next morning, he remembers nothing. Hes apologetic for bothering me and i reassure him that everything is okay - but I'm worried about some of the things he said.
He assures me we will go on our date. and on the date hes back to "normal". a little embarrassed about the calls but I'm super into him and reassure him that as long as we communicate everything is okay. He knows he can be a lot when he drinks that much and has lost a lot of friendships because of it. The past is the past and he said he hadn't been so self-deprecating in years. We're chatting and cozy and everything feels great. I really like him. We go back to my place and things get really intimate. We're almost done (I'm on top) and i look at him and his face is full of panic. I quickly jump off of him and apologize and ask him what happened. I turn my focus 100% onto him and forget everything we were doing in the moment. He begins to express his anxiety about sex and finishing inside and I immediately apologize thinking i might have forced him or something (sorry I'm so bad at explaining this). We have a conversation and things calm down and I'm understanding of his feelings and he tells me I didn't do anything wrong. Were cozy but he has to leave back to his Parents.
The next day were chatting and he thanks me for being so understanding and that it means a lot to him. I said of course - we've only just met so there's a lot to learn and I'm happy. BUT HERES WHERE THINGS GO SOUTH. were chatting about the night and he mentions me taking the pill. I said 'oh wait.. did u finish?" I was so overwhelmed by the situation I completely thought i shut things down before it happened. But i misinterpreted our convo and apparently, he felt that way after. I immediately apologized and took the pill when things were cleared up. However, things got weird. He made kind of a big deal about me not understanding or even feeling that he did. and I just said in the heat of the moment i mean I simply thought we stopped. We stop talking for the rest of the day because hes very put off by the situation and i take a break because i have really bad anxious attachment style and some abandonment issues so i needed to take a moment to myself to not take his reaction to heart.
I message the next day but hes being weird. hes not replying as much and kinda telling me hes going to give me a call when he gets back home. Im having anxiety like wtf just happened. a few days go and I message him "can we talk, things have been really weird" he said he can talk when hes free and we later call that evening. He begins to explain that he doesn't understand how i didn't realize he finished after the conversation and doesn't feel like he can continue a romantic relationship with me. This really disappoints me but i try not to fight it. I personally felt like this was something we can communicate and work through but apparently its a non negotiable on his end. He proceeds to talk about how his life is also going to change for the next 5 years due to some family stuff and hes just also down about that and put what happened with me on top - he just cant do it all.
we agree to just end it there. I didn't fight or argue with him - I was just confused. how did someone so kind and understanding and communicative just turn cold the moment we had an actual miscommunication?
TL/DR: I spent a month talking and getting close to a guy who was extremely kind, communicative, and a great listener. But when we finally met irl and had our first date, some miscommunication happened and he dropped me (even tho we both said it was no ones fault). I am so confused someone please help me understand this man loollol.

So I was on a submarine that was in shipyard when this happened. I am still in and this didn’t happen too long ago so I won’t be sharing any specific details to identify anyone involved or the boat that this happened on.
Context: There are nuclear trained (“nukes”) and non nuclear trained personnel on a submarine. Nukes work in the engine room and non nuclear trained personnel or “coners” work in the front half of the boat (with some exceptions). For those who don’t know, a tag is a piece of paper that is attached to equipment that is either in a degraded/out of commission status (either for maintenance or repair). It prevents someone from operating said equipment the tag is placed on.
So here’s a story: coner was hanging a tag on an engine room switchboard to tag out a component that they had opcon of. Turns out there was already another tag on this switch. only switches is a small hole to run the string that holds the tag up through. It’s not big enough to hold two strings for two tags. once he realizes this, he goes to the wardroom and asks what to do (this is where our on duty chain of command tends to hang out). Also, in the wardroom at this time was a shipyard representative. The shipyard representative pulls out a paper clip, unfolded and hands it to this person, and says “use this to push the string through the hole”. The coner takes this paper clip and goes to do just that. Unfortunately, in the mist of doing this, he manages to drop the paper clip into the switchboard and contacts 440 V. this causes an arc blast.
Now and arc blast is what happens when metal contacts high voltage, and is vaporized. When metal vapor rises, it expands 67,000 times at 700 miles an hour with a peak temperature of three times hotter than the surface of the sun.
This explosion shears, 12 bolts holding on a 30 pound metal cover on the switchboard and blows the cover off, this sins the worker flying backwards about 6 feet and causes a fire. Fires on a submarine is a situation that we train for rigorously.
We fight the fire and get this dude to the hospital (he miraculously survived) and an incident report was filed.
Dude never went to mast based on the fact that he had “learned his lesson”. I’ll say this, there is no electrical safety training that will ever put the fear of god in you like witnessing an actual arc ballast will. There was melted metal, blackened bulkheads, and tags that were straight up incinerated.

Yesterday I had surgery on my knee, when i was about to leave they took my obs and said that i had to stay longer and have an ECG - this is what is says
Abnormal ECG - unconfirmed diagnosis
Sinus tachycardia
Probable left atrial enlargement
RSR in V1 or V2
Borderline T abnormalities, anterior leads.
The doctor and anaesthetist said i must go to my GP for an appointment, however I am 2 hours away from the doctors and i will be unable to get there in the next 6 weeks due to not being able to walk.

Physically I feel great, but the big difference is my mental health. I feel like I don’t need the crutch anymore. Working from home it was easy to just check out and masturbate daily, and honestly it was tough to abstain for the first week but now I feel like I’m Master Of My Domain. I have anxiety and a lot of it stems from PE. I feel like the next time I have sex with my GF I’ll cum in a minute but hey I’ve done that 100 times before. And even if I do again, I still feel so mentally clear. I just feel good. It’s only been a week but looking forward to the journey ahead. One week from now you could be in the exact same spot you’re in today or you could be one week into feeling like you’re in control.
The no smoking thing is specific to spliffs as I would smoke like 3-4 of those a night. For probably 5 years straight. Had always wanted to quit, but just never did before. Idk where the motivation came from, I do know a lot of it came from comments and posts in this subreddit and from stopsmoking.
You can do it.

My husband and I are both in the market for new skis. I currently ski Blizzard Phoenix 7.7 at 146 length and my husband skis a pair of Nordicas (not sure what type, but I know they are 74mm and 168 length).
My husband has been skiing for 40 years and he’s now looking to do more cruising these days rather than super challenging terrain, which works for me and my current interest level. This is only my second season of skiing - I’m decent on groomed blacks and double blacks. We both have a lot of hate for moguls.
We currently ski in the Poconos 90% of the time, but next year we will likely be skiing 90% of the time within 2-3 hours of Boston instead - so hopefully a little more pow than what we experience now at Blue.
Also regarding next year and in the future, I’ve asked my husband if we could engage in terrain parks (not for the tricks, but more for the ability to build my fine motor skills on the jumps) and practice easy glades. I really want to seek out variable terrain in a controlled environment so that I have the skills in the event I find myself in trouble on the slopes one day. Hope that makes sense.
With that said, my biggest concern is feeling like I have the stability in my ski when trying out new skills. I was born of ice, so recent pow days have actually been a fun (yet panic-inducing) learning experience when I cannot feel/hear my edges. I want to find a ski that will accentuate my learning rather than fight me on every new skill I try to learn. This same ski also still needs to produce on groomed blacks, especially on our lovely icy trails of the northeast.
I’m 5’3’’ 140lbs and my husband is 5’9” 175lbs.
With that said, I worked with Curated and was recommended three skis. I’m leaning toward the Ripsticks because of the Amphibio tech, but I’m worried that I’m buying into a marketing gimmick:
Blizzard Black Pearl 88 Elan Ripsticks 88 Nordica Santa Ana 88
My husband is debating between the Blizzard Brahmas 88 and the Elan Ripsticks 88.
I don’t think we will have a chance to demo all these skis before we buy at an end of season sale.
What pair of skis would you recommend?