I (20m) and my bunkmate (20m) currently stay together. On our floor there are 2 toilets at each end. At the end of the week we are tasked to clean the toilet closest to us, which is honestly tiring and disgusting work. What further infuriates us is the fact that there are people from the other end of the level coming over to our side just to use our toilet. When I confronted they had the nerve to tell me that they just did not want to dirty their own toilet which they had to clean at the end of the week also.
Now here comes the problem. I told my bunkmate, lets call him K, to confront anyone from the other side about using our toilet if he caught them there. K agreed with me. The next week, K then wrongfully scolds another level mate (20M), lets call him N, who lived near the middle of the floor but still clearly on our side of the building about using the toilet. He even went as far as to gather most of the NSFs that lived on the floor to really complain about the issue to them.
When I told him that he had made a mistake he initially felt embarassed and went to apologise to those he wronged. However, a few nights later he starts blaming me, saying that it was my fault that he had made a mistake because I planted the idea in his head, and that he was fine with cleaning up other people's waste in the toilet. He also blamed me for not being able to casually talk to the rest of our level mates anymore because of his mistake and the way he acted because he thought he was in the right. He claims that him confronting N was simply a gesture for our good and he stood nothing to gain from it.
At that point I called him out on his bullshit but I keep thinking that maybe I was in the wrong, so reddit, AITA?

Hey Reddit,
Seeking some advice after being made redundant this morning. Long story short my manager gave me a call and informed me the higher-ups at the company were looking to streamline the business and a few roles have been let go, mine included. He apparently was given the news last night.
I'm 26M, live in London, and was also given a Section 21 by my landlord last week lol, requesting to leave by May 25th.
The role was in Marketing.
With regard to finances, I burnt through my savings during covid, and since having gotten the role I've been living month to month, to be honest. The role was 30k annually including bonuses.
Regarding housing, I've been in touch with my local council, and have been told the process is still at an early stage. So I'm thinking I'll have to leave in 4-6 months.
The situation is quite shitty, but I've been through a lot worse. At the same time though, I'm aware I have very limited time to find a new role. So while I'm applying for another job, I'd like to get some advice on the best course of action to take in this situation.
Thanks in advance.

I met her through a mutual friend at the beginning of the pandemic. We hit it off instantly (or at least I liked her instantly— Ihope it was mutual). It’s been about three years now. We’re not best friends, but we’ve hung out a few times and always have a lot to talk about. We’re also in a group chat together.
I’m probably the most talkative member of the group chat— mostly just sending random stuff I think is funny or interesting, small things from my life, etc. She’s also somewhat active, mostly responding to my texts or sending her own stuff. IDK, pretty normal groupchat stuff, albeit a bit one-sided. Maybe I need to work on that, but it’s no big thing, I think. I try to give as much as I can when she sends stuff, I’m scared to ask her about herself because I don’t know how big a part of her life I am. Don’t know if the group chat is just a casual thing for her and if my trying to get more personal would scare her off. I’m autistic so this stuff is harder for me, but maybe I’m just using that as an excuse. Unrelated I guess.
Anyways, her birthday was a couple weeks ago, and I just now realized. I didn’t even know the day of. I feel awful! She hasn’t seemed upset that I didn’t say anything, but I probably wouldn’t act upset either because I wouldn’t want to guilt the other person. I’m pretty sure that if I texted now to apologize, it would be too little too late and just make it worse, but maybe not.
I think I have two other options, either to go on without saying anything or to say happy birthday on a different date. I know that second option sounds very shitty and just like an effort to save face, but I was thinking more that it might hurt her less if she just thought I got the date wrong. Which would also make me look better, but my main intention is to make her feel better. Doctrine of double effect and all that.
I guess my question is, what should I do? Would apologizing now really make it worse? Is it shittier not to acknowledge it, even knowing that I screwed up, or to pretend I got the date wrong, knowing that I didnt’t? Should I think about this in terms of her, because she’s the one who was primarily affected, or in terms of myself, because I have violated my own code of ethics? Both? Neither? Something else?
PS: Sorry this is so rambly. I’m not insane or on drugs, just a very sleepy, upset, egotistical teenager. It’s 1:00 AM where I am and I just realized I forgot her birthday and I want to do as much as I can as soon as I can. But I don’t know what to do, so here I am on Reddit. Yay.
Also sorry if this makes me sound like a horrible person. Maybe I am a horrible person. This is me trying not to be, though.
PPS: If you’re reading this and know who I am, I’m really sorry I forgot your birthday and then posted about it on Reddit and asked if I should lie about it.

I was recently approved for paratransit because I have cptsd and because of that I have severe agoraphobia. If I can't hardly take my own garbage out to the street, I sure as hell can't walk to a bus stop a mile away and back. Yesterday I was doing my usual, I got ready for college classes and prepared to take my bus. Routine bus, been on five rides so far. I have a bus pass through my college that pays my fare(rediculous to charge a disabled person with no income for bus fare, but thats the USA for you.) As normal, I got in and sat down. My pass should've been on the manifest.
However, people have no bounds to the level of bullshit they will go to to kick disabled people down when they think they're finally getting a leg up in the world. Presenting the worst morning in a long while;
Guy asks me for my fare or a ticket. I said I don't need it, I have an approved pass.
"Kay. Can I see fare or a ticket?" I show him on the back of my pass where it reads, 'unlimited paratransit eligable,' and he goes... wait for it, "Yeah I've never seen that before so uh, fare or ticket."
I tell him, I have been approved for this by a supervisor officially with the local bus, it should be there. "Yyyeah I don't see anything, fare or ticket."
I tell him to call dispatch and show him the email exchange where photo evidence of my pass was sent and approved, "Yeah sorry, I'm gonna need fare or ticket or you have to get off the bus."
I'm nearly in tears so I tell him I've been on five rides in the last week and nobody else had a problem with my pass, "Fare or ticket."
I tell him contact dispatch then, because they should know. They should have access to the information. He does, he calls dispatch, dispatch doesn't bother to check at all, "tell her she needs to have fare or ticket"
I just tell him to check again.
Dispatcher responds in not nearly enough time to have even glanced my account, "Yeah seeing nothing, fare or ticket."
I call the bus customer service and tell them that the driver is refusing me. I have it on speaker. Phone guy says, without checking, "The rules say fare or ticket." Didn't check my account.
I tell him I have an approval from (names the supervisor who approved my pass).He fights me on contacting a supervisor to clarify the problem, and I only got him to do it after asking five times in a row, "Oh, uh, yeah it looks like something's here actually, Please hold" Puts me on hold to finally contact the supervisor.
During the time I was on hold, the driver opens the bus door, and forces me to get off the bus or he would "have to do something about me"
I said, "FINE, get out of here then, I don't want to see it. I don't want to see your face. Good luck when this comes back around," which was Admittedly a bit rude, but honestly a million times less rude than either of them had been to me that morning. They had it coming, I'm not sorry.
Less than a minute later paratransit customer service comes back online, and it's the supervisor there to say, "Yes, I can see right here that you have been approved."
On the way out I hear him mumble something something "karen."
Too little too late. I then had to fight with them to replace the ride I was refused, because I was supposed to go to a college class, I couldn't afford a cab considering I cant afford a 3.25 bus pass without giving up toilet paper, and it was a lab class no less where attendance and participation are my entire grade for the day.
While doing that, I told them I wanted a written permission I can bring to make sure that this never happens again. Three. THREE people failed to look for an obvious note in a row, to even try. I had to fight them on that too, they eventually submitted the request in the form of a complaint and I guess I'll just have to wait until someone decides they care enough to trouble themselves with it, or not.
The new bus driver arrives 20 minutes later than projected. Parks on the opposite side of the street to pick up an agoraphobe. Oh. Mygod. Took another 10 minutes for him to realize he wasn't on the right side of the street.
I was late to class, big surprise. My professor proceeded to verbally make an example of my 'BAD BEHAVIOR' over not letting him know if you're going to be late to the entire room to which I interrupted him, "Uh, yeah. I sent you an email over an hour ago when it happened, did you read it?"
*y...you did? Ahm, uhm, yes well-" I kept talking, "Yeah, my bus pass was illegally refus-" starts talking over me about INTERRUPTING PRESENTSTIONS BLAH BLAH."
I didn't say anything, but I wanted to say, "do not make an example of me if you didnt even bother to look. I was sobbing all morning trying to get here, I didn't need to be publicly embarassed twice today."
I don't know if he docked me points today of if he permitted my tardiness because he grades non-traditionally and I won't see my next grade until the semester ends. I have no way of knowing if he docked me the points anyway. He knows I'm disabled and that I have struggled to get to my classes on time in the past because of my condition. He should have realized why it was inappropriate to say that.

Basically, I went through my partners phone (which I know isn’t a sign of a healthy relationship either lol) and I found my partner [23M] has been bragging to his friends about how he’s been hooking up with a girl, how he and his friends got cashier’s phone numbers, and how he matched with a SW on Tinder. I checked for any messages or contacts with these girls and I found nothing. The closest thing I found was he started following a local girl on IG and had liked her IG story. My first instinct was to completely end the relationship then and there but we had a similar argument before where he basically explained to me that it’s just “guy” talk and he was trying to brag in front of his friends. I’m not sure whether to just end it all or have a conversation/confront him about everything I had seen. We have been together for nearly 4 years and I just don’t know if I can wrap my head around the thought of us endingZ The worst part about it all is we were talking and starting to plan to move in together and now I’m just at a loss for words…

So i remember playing this on the internet on a flash game website. So you play on a top-down perspective like a shmup game but you can freely face 360 degree. I remember you can lock on to enemy and use Q and E to offset your shot left or right to compensate for your projectile speed. Theres alot of ships and weapons to upgrade and unlock, you earn gold from completing these stages. Each stage i remember i think they have different music. The ships are named after Nordic gods i think like Loki, Ragnarok, etc. While the weapon was named after Hindu mythology i think cause i remember one of the best weapon was called Arjuna Bow? I think the developer was indonesian but i can't recall. I remember the game was more like static wave defense kind of thing in which enemy spawns around you and you have to defeat them all to progress, instead of like a traditional shmup where your ship is constantly moving forward. There was a boss battle against one of our friend who becomes evil and he was using the Loki ship, and it was one of the best in game. You can also use special overdrive ability that slows time and unleash special attack. One thing that sticks out to me was the ost, which was all a banger. They sound very energetic and midi-esque sounding almost chiptune if you can call it that, but very catchy melody like alot of japanese shmups games.

Sorry in advance for any formatting issues or grammatical errors.
Hey everyone!
So there I was, casually losing to Unaware stall teams like there was no tomorrow. It was becoming really hard to sweep or break through a lot of these walls, and frankly is was devastating. So I thought to myself: “Hey, is there a way to possibly deal with these pokemon without wanting to throw my computer out a window?”, and so I sat there…thinking. And then it came to me: why don’t I just use Haxorus? I mean it looks cool, and it for sure hits like a truck. Sure, it probably gets outclassed by every Dragon-type in OU, but so what? It should be a blast!
So I give you: Haxorus Offense! (or Balance Offense? Not really sure)
{ https://pokepast.es/2c7d53f928a85bbb }
The goal of this build is to try and end games as quickly as possible with the help of Haxorus, which with it amazing 147 base attack and it’s 97 base speed makes it a rather fun pokemon to build around. This combined with Mold Breaker makes it a pretty big offensive threat since it can break through the likes of unaware mons such as Skeledirge and even Dondozo (if set up right).
So without further ado, I give you the team, starting with:
- Haxorus @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 136 HP / 136 Atk / 16 SpD / 220 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Dragon Dance
- Tera Blast
- Earthquake
This is the main show of the team, although to be honest it was really hard to try and make a set for this pokemon. I settled with tera fire since it would be nice to be immune to will-o-wisps from the likes of Cinderace, Rotom-Wash, and Skeledirge to get a possible dragon dances up and deal massive damage. Tera Blast is amazing at catching mons like Amoongus and Corviknight by surprise, either 2HKOing them unboosted or OHKOing at +1. I found that Sucker Punch from Kingambit was preventing a lot of sweeps, so I added substitute to possibly punish it, while also avoiding spores and other status conditions. It’s also nice that with tera fire and this EV spread, you can resist possible super effective moves such as Baxcalibur’s Icicle Crash/Ice Shard and Iron Valiant’s Moonblast. It’ also EV’d to outspeed base 80 scarfers and Dragapult, since it doesn’t outspeed much at +1 against faster scarfers.
- Hatterene @ Eject Button
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 248 HP / 116 Def / 144 Spe
Bold Nature
- Healing Wish
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Nuzzle
Just a standard Hattrene set, so there’s not much to say here. Magic Bounce is used to prevent hazard set up, while tera poison is used to both resist poison and absorb Toxic Spikes if necessary. Eject button allows for repositioning or safely getting a threat in.
- Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Spore
- Bullet Seed
- Mach Punch
- Bulldoze
Breloom synergizes well with Haxorus since it offensively checks mons like Great Tusk and Dondozo with its powerful Bullet Seed. Spore also provides amazing utility for letting set-up sweepers come in and Bulldoze is great coverage against Gholdengo. Focus Sash is great for late game options and better matchups against faster pokemon, such as Meowscarada and scarfers. Overall there’s not much to say about this little mushroom.
- Great Tusk @ Leftovers
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
- Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
It’s a standard Great Tusk Set, so again there’s not much to say. Tanks hits, electric immunity, rapid spinner with Knock Off. Best pokemon in the tier for a reason.
- Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 56 Def / 152 SpD / 52 Spe
Calm Nature IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp
A more specially defensive Rotom-Wash to better live hits from Dragapult, Iron Valiant, and Walking Wake, but otherwise it’s nothing different from the average set.
- Kingambit @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Supreme Overlord
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 104 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 148 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Kowtow Cleave
- Sucker Punch
Nothing special about this set either. Kingambit does a lot of things, it’s a ghost resist and a fantastic late-game sweeper. However, Covert Cloak in my opinion is an amazing item on Kingambit, since it allows it to set up in front of Garganacl’s that don’t have Body Press. It’s not often, but when it does happen your opponent better be ready for a world of hurt. So that’s the team I suppose. There are obviously some weaknesses to the team that are noticeable, and definitely some changes that could be made, so before getting out of your hair, here are some weaknesses to keep in mind and some possible changes I would recommend.
Threats:
- Meowscarada- It’s Flower Trick and overall grass STAB makes it a bit of a problem to deal with, especially with the unpredictability of the sets it can run. What I recommend doing it possibly getting rid of it as soon as possible in the beginning of the match with Breloom. If not that, then I find it’s not a bad idea to switch in with Haxorus and threaten it with Tera Blast.
- Volcarona- Not much to say here. A special sweeper with amazing STAB and Giga Drain. Definitely not a good matchup, but positioning yourself to OHKO it with a Sucker Punch from Kingambit can possibly do the trick.
- Dragonite- Probably the biggest offensive threat to this team. If you can burn or paralyze this mon before it sets up, you’ll be okay for the most part. If not, it’ll be hard to try and take that thing down before it 6-0’s your team.
Strong special attacks like Draco Meteor or Shadow Ball are also something to look out for, but Kingambit’s also really good at tanking those pretty well.
Changes:
- Haxorus- It’s biggest issue is that while it can be amazing if it’s positioned right, it doesn’t last very long. This isn’t mentioning how with a lack of a Dragon STAB it basically forces the player to terastalize once it sets up. To fix this, you can replace Substitute with either Dragon Claw or Outrage If this becomes a problem. It might also be a better idea to just run Baxcalibur instead for more consistency, since I just use Haxorus because I thought it’d be fun to run it.
- Hatterene- Hatterene is great, but if you want some more passive damage to make sweeps more effective late game I recommend replacing it with Garganacl. This can allow you to run stealth rocks, leaving open a move slot for Great Tusk to run Close Combat or Ice Spinner.
- Kingambit- I was too lazy to do this to be honest but putting more special defense investment would definitely make it better in matchups against Gholdengo and Hisuian Zoroark. This would allow it to take less chip damage from resisted moves over the course of a match.All of these changes are subjective of course. It’s not like I’m forcing you to leave the team the way it is. Find what you think makes this team better and work with it :) .
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So this marks the end of the post. I hope you enjoy the team, and I appreciate it if you made it this far. I'm only in the high 1400s early 1500s, but in the right hands I think it can go far. Of course, put some suggestions in the comments if you have any thoughts or ideas on how to make this team better! I might upload some more team ideas I have, maybe not. With so much more free time on my hands now I really want to get better both as a teambuilder and as a player. Again, thanks for reading. Who knows? Maybe you’ll see me again :)

I have no where else to vent about this. For years, I could never get myself to brush my teeth and I always figured it's because I'm lazy. But as time passes I realized even when I'm perfectly able to, and feeling somewhat energized, I just can't get myself to brush my teeth. I'm aware of the consequences but I'm so trapped in my mind and I can't even do this simple task. I feel so shitty. I hate talking or even opening my mouth because I'm self conscious. My depression makes it nearly impossible to do such a simple task and it's destroying my life. So much money wasted on my dental care only for me to have a panic attack when I have to go tp the dentist. The sense of dread gets heavier every day. Am I being dramatic? Is it just my laziness? Is this all in my head to convince myself I'm not a worthless piece of shit who is so unbelievably careless that they can't even walk to the bathroom and brush their teeth for two minutes? Gosh I'm so tired of this. All the anxiety from a problem so fixable. Fuck. Sorry for the rant.

I’m 21M. I take 20mg of Lexapro and 100mg of Lamictal and adding the Lamictal saved my life it’s the best medication ever. I have been good but I had zero sex drive at all. I felt nothing anymore in that way. I added 150mg of Wellbutrin XL today and within a few hours I’m feeling my depression coming back like before. Idk why. Also, I’m underweight almost so I’m afraid of Wellbutrin making me even skinnier. Share experiences please :)

I’m in a relationship for about 4y. We’re living together for 2y and everything goes well, he’s my best friend and I think we can really share our lives with each other. My boyfriend has always been there when I’m not doing so well - which is rather recurrent, I must admit.
The thing is, there’s some things in our relationship that are left unexplained and I just can’t get them out of my head - and every time we have an argument this comes up.
1 - we’ve know each other since middle school but lost touch until we met at a party during our college years. We reconnected and started texting on and off, flirting etc - he would never asked me out and eventually would stop responding to my messages. A couple of months would go by and then he would start to talk to me again out of the blue. This lasted for 2 years. The time that it really stuck was one month before he moved to another country, he texted me to say that he was going to move and asked me if I wanted to go on a date. I said yes and we kept the relationship going until today (he moved back home 4 months after being away, and he says that I’m part of the reason for him to come back). Every time I ask why he would stop replying while we were texting he just says that he couldn’t believe I was interested because “I was too good for him” so he would stop. I asked repeatedly, “did you have someone else at that time? It’s okay that you did, what matters it’s that we’re together now, but please just tell me the truth because I’m always wondering”. He doesn’t say anything else, just says that he couldn’t believe that I was into him, but I never acted otherwise. Seems that he doesn’t want me to know the real reason - maybe he was talking to other girls, maybe he thought that it wasn’t worth the trouble (I was studying in another city at that time)… All of this would be okay, what bothers me is this facade.
2 - this other issue has been a problem since the very beginning as well. When we started dating, the first weekend alone together we were doing it like rabbits. But after that, everytime I made a move to do something other than kiss, we would push my shoulders gently and say “not now because…” and made an excuse. This went on for a time until I confronted him about this, asked openly if it was anything wrong with the way we did stuff, if was anything that he wanted changed… But ended up with another excuse (“I don’t want to bother you when you’re studying”, “I just ate” etc etc). It got to the point that I was really frustated with this, and said that I would never ever take the initiative to start something if I kept being refused. Last year, and particularly the last 6 months were the worst so far. I’m currently on meds that decrease the sexual drive and I think maybe we had sex 2 times in the last 6 months. I don’t really know why, I asked him again and again, he says something different every time. To make matters worse, while using his computer with his permission, I found dick picks of him, just on the downloads foulder - he says that he just took them to see if he was able to feel sexy. I asked some guy friends and both came to the conclusion that maybe he masturbates too much (since he works from home he has plenty of opportunity) and doesn’t want to have sex afterwards. He doesn’t admit it. I don’t know what else I can do, I tried to talk to him but nothing changes.
I’m sorry for the long post but this is really wearing me down.

Just singing the Steam Deck’s praises again. I had the game running at a smooth 40/40 with medium/low settings, FSR2 balanced, 800p, high settings for all the physics + enemy options for that wonderful destructible and gory goodness; as well as resource intensive lighting on—oh and only 10 TDP.
Co-workers we’re honestly impressed with how smooth and clear it looked on the mobile screen and then one of them wanted to try plugging it right into the 60” TV with an HDMI adapter plug, and he was amazed that it was instantly just plug and play, and everyone started watching me as I nearly got crushed by a building and rabid monster dogs chased after me. We just had a good time playing for a solid 2 hrs before the battery started to get low so I called it, since I didn’t have an actual dock with me. So yep, loving this thing all over again and probably convinced a couple people to buy one as well.

Hey, as the title says, I'm looking for a roleplay partner. I'm okay with nearly every ship, if you'd like we can discuss further details. I'll send you my discord once you DM me. Looking forward to roleplaying with someone!

There is a certain aura, a cultural meme, regarding the United Nations Armed Forces. A very particular version of events that is peddled across the galaxy, generally the result of an interstellar game of telephone. This aura is that of an unflinching, uncaring war machine. One that starts with the goal of total destruction of its opponents, and works towards that by any means necessary.
It is easy to see how this came about. Even putting aside the pre-Contact War conflicts, there is plenty of brutality to be found. The exploits of Spearhead Platoon during the Second Hekatian War, fighting it's way from the Susquehanna to the palace of the Hekatian Emperor, has particularly dominated the popular consciousness for many, and it is difficult to argue they did not experience some of the worst the war had to offer. A still frame of Corporal Heppell, gas mask concealing all but his eyes, half a second away from plunging his plasma-enhanced bayonet into a Hekatian platoon commander, has become one of the most reproduced images of the whole Battle of New York.
While plasma bayonets were only issued to a small portion of British units during the Second Hekatian War, melee fighting still occupied a disturbingly high proportion of the wars with the Hekatians a modern war. The Battle of London (both 2021 and 2025) saw civilians armed with little more than axes and clubs achieving at least some success against mechanised Hekatian forces in the tight urban confines of the city, with their contributions in the Second Hekatian War forming a part of the critical force that halted the Hekatian offensive. Less well commemorated, but by no means less brave, was the near-complete annihilation of the 8th Battalion Rajputana Rifles in the opening phases of the Battle of New Delhi. Caught out-of-position by the surprise landing of Hekatian forces, the soldiers rushed into battle against a far-superior Hekatian force. By the day's end, only 3 soldiers survived from the entire ordeal, but their counterattacks, waged with everything from rifles to chunks of rubble used as clubs, successfully held up the better part of a division for some critical hours. Doubtless similar stories exist across every front of the war.
Infantry fought with all manner of weapons, with KPA forces famously utilising shovels and large quantities of grenades while fighting from trench to trench on the slopes of Mt. Paektu. During the later stages of the Battle of New York, Gurkha units roamed the irradiated rubble of the city, wielding plasma-enhanced kukris: this was so extraordinarily effective that Hekatian units in the Brooklyn area had a bounty set on the weapons, on the basis that each collected meant another of the feared soldiers had been eliminated, and that soldiers would be more watchful in hopes of collecting said bounty. The actual effect was that the number of losses credited to Gurkha units went up, as their soldiers (now aware of just how effective they were) delved deeper and deeper into psychological warfare. Meanwhile, Hekatian soldiers became so jumpy that they often exposed themselves to Human forces by firing away at nonexistent targets, and were so nervous as to lose all composure when engaged. When the United Nations counterattack successfully trapped a large quantity of supply-starved Hekatians in the radioactive ruins of New York, an intimidation campaign of such ferocity was launched that even a century later headless Hekatians are occasionally located within the New York area.
There are, of course, other ways to be brutal than a bayonet or bullet.
The Second Hekatian War, for example, saw the mass deployment of nerve gas against Hekatian forces landing in Southern England, with this considered to be the single deadliest event in the history of warfare (excluding attacks targeted at civilian populations). True numbers on the death toll are hard to come by, but it is estimated these attacks alone killed roughly 100,000 Hekatians, unprepared for the gas as they were exiting their ships, with an unknown number severely wounded. This is at present the only confirmed deployment of chemical weapons in either war: rumours persist of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea having used significant quantities during the fighting across the Korean Peninsula, and into Northeastern China. To this day, neither the People’s Republic of China, nor the Korean Federal Republic have confirmed these rumours, and all files regarding the status of the DPRK’s chemical arsenal have been sealed away until 2155.
Chemical weapons were not the only weapons of mass destruction brought out in desperate defence of Earth. Biological weapons were deployed, albeit in significantly less flashy ways. Though continuously denied by the United Nations to this day, all evidence indicates that a modified form of Tularemia was deployed against Hekatian forces in the United States. By all accounts, this was extraordinarily effective in shattering Hekatian morale, along with generally degrading their ability to resist United Nations counterattacks. This disease, relatively minor as far as biological weapons go, was generally non-lethal, and thus believed acceptable to be used against the Hekatians without causing further escalation if discovered.
Currently, there is significant reason to believe the Hekatians may have deployed biological weapons of their own, which may later have morphed into the infamous Cincinnati Flu, though this is highly controversial amongst war historians, and is believed to have occurred independently of the use of Tularemia. It is also worth noting that declassified British documents speak openly of a large stockpile of anthrax being distributed across the island at the start of the Second Hekatian War, with the intent being to release it en masse as a form of vengeance should Britain fall. Still uncertain is why, even a century after the war and the collapse of the Hekatian Stellar Imperium, several Hekatian-majority worlds (including, most infamously, Kulabaddos) semi-routinely see severe outbreaks of a disease worryingly similar to H1N1.
The most destructive WMDs in pure terms were the InterStellar Faster-than-light Missiles. Effectively the old idea of the Relativistic Kill Vehicle, except with a hyperdrive strapped to them, they saw very little use across the war, except for a few carefully calculated deployments by United Nations forces. Using stolen missiles, the Muaytrov and Hualkinov anchorages were utterly destroyed, followed by the military staging post of Traxio.
But these are not the weapons of mass destruction thought of when the Second Hekatian War springs to mind.
In the course of the Second Hekatian War, nukes were tossed around in large numbers. City after city across the United States of America fell victim to Hekatian nukes, while American strikes (generally tactical in nature, directed at concentrations of Hekatian forces and key command and control sites) usually invited yet more retaliation. Historians are unable to come to much of a conclusion on the effectiveness of this strategy by the American military, in no small part due to the difficulties of credibly predicting what would have happened without it. It is arguable that these attacks were responsible for the collapse of Hekatian morale and eventual widespread mutinies: this can also be attributed to any of hundreds of factors. It must be noted, though, that the Hekatians began the nuclear game with the destruction of Washington DC, and that ultimately all responsibility lies with them.
After the war, there was much debate on the morality of this action, rather than just the efficacy. It was declared by some that Humanity, now no longer in an existential fight for it's liberty and potentially survival, was in a "post-nuclear" age, where it could step away from these insanely destructive weapons. While this did hold for biological and chemical weapons, it simply could not for nuclear weapons, as the reality of maintaining an effective military on the interstellar scale quickly caught up. Nukes are fielded in what could be described as a liberal amount: fashioned into Nuclear Explosively Formed Projectiles or Casaba-Howitzers, they form the backbone of the Stellar Navy’s anti-ship missile arsenal. Special forces units have routinely made use of sub-kiloton devices in the Rigel Campaign, and conventional forces maintain large stockpiles for tactical usage. Even the famous SIM-94, defender of the skies, is more commonly than not fielded with a nuclear warhead of some sort.
These are carefully calculated tactical uses, yes. A Casaba-Howitzer melting a warship is a far different thing than the nuclear bombardment of Los Angeles, both in scale and morality. But most commanders do still hesitate when they order a nuclear strike in an exercise. Failsafes abound for all devices intended for anti-ship purposes to prevent their usage in other ways, while devices for use as bombs are subject to hyper-strict command-and-control procedures. ISFMs are subject to even stricter control, since their misuse could devastate an unshielded planet.
The cumulative effects of such a war have continued to be felt for decades afterwards. The Second Hekatian War is believed to be the war with the single highest rate of PTSD amongst veterans. Post-war advances in medical technology helped to at least lessen the effects of physical wounds, and the general improvement in living standards that followed the wars has significantly helped many veterans, but some things can't be solved by getting to take a holiday to space on the cheap. This is of course not to mention the refugee populations of the former United States, many of them surviving by flukes while losing their entire family. It is a horror no one seeks to experience again.
Yes, the plasma bayonet is still technically fielded by both the Territorial and Stellar Army (though, notably, not the Orbital Infantry, who solely fight in the cramped confines of space stations). But it has not been used in combat in decades, and is widely agreed to only exist because of tradition, and also as a somewhat risky means of cooking food. To the average soldier, the idea of a bayonet charge is unthinkable, not least because it means a lot has gone wrong.
When the Hekatians were at the gates in 2025, it was necessary to project a certain image. The unflinching warrior, remorseless and unplagued by questions of morality. Even at the time, this had serious problems. Now, in 2150, things are different. That image is back in the box as far as the United Nations is concerned, even as the myth continues to spread. But the thing about boxes is that you can always open them up again. The only hope is it never will be.
Some points: the Korean Federal Republic is supposed to be the unified state that now comprises the Korean peninsula. The Rigel Campaign thing is something I have been meaning to expand on for a while now, and has been mentioned before, though not by that name. Fingers crossed I can sort out the relevant stories for that some time soon.
Some may notice that there has been a slight retconning of ISFMs here. Originally they were intended to hit their target at FTL speeds: I have spent at least a year bothered by my earlier concepts of FTL. Firstly, the problem of where they got the energy to go FTL: this was covered by a "no one knows", which was eventually meant to be "no one knows but it's being siphoned from other dead universes and for some reason can't be harnessed by other uses", which was a cop-out to be honest. The second issue was that obviously any shield to protect against this would be absurdly powerful, so absurdly powerful as to render any planet basically invulnerable to everything. Thirdly, they had an interesting effect on space battles, in that they forced them to be more conducted in orbits of planets where collateral damage would prevent the usage of ISFMs. I really like this as a concept, especially since I think it's a kinda nice inversion of how anti-ship missiles work in reality (which force ships to get further and further away), but I realised that ISFMs were basically just too good at this. So I have decided to change it slightly, so that it's closer to a "slipspace" style. ISFMs are now just RKVs with the ability to go faster than light, then they drop out slightly before hitting the target. Still very powerful but less nakedly reality breaking. The point about forcing battles to be more in orbit still stands, but now those ships could better defend themselves or evade. Basically the difference between how hypersonic weapons are portrayed against modern carriers, and their current reality: still capable but not perfect. The same change applies broadly to regular hyperdrives, but they're not really that affected.
Anyway, if you enjoy my work, please consider buying me a coffee, it helps a ton, and allows me to keep writing this sort of stuff. Alternatively, you can just read more of it.

Note from roberestarkk

I am blatantly copy-pasting this from elsewhere to help test a text-to-speech issue

This girl basically ghosted me after a day of us drinking. She got pretty wild and I had to sober myself up to pretty much make sure she didn’t do anything she’d regret by the morning. We only had known each for about 2 months so I was pretty keen on making sure that I didn’t break any trust and showing her that despite the stigma men have in todays society there was at least one guy that wasn’t out to be a creep or do anything crazy. Especially since she was telling me these stories of her exes and male friends who were terrible to her throughout her life. The next morning after we both slept the liquor off she asked me about what had happened the night before and I told her exactly everything she did. She was surprised and told herself that she knew now she couldn’t/shouldn’t drink so much because from what I told her she was acting like she felt that was totally out of her character. I was honest with her about the things that occurred but she still seemed skeptical about rather or not more had happened. I tried to assure her as much as I possibly can that nothing outlandish happened and that I tried taking care of her as much as I possibly could. Throughout the whole drunken ordeal, I was forcing her to chug water and eat the food that we had ordered earlier in attempts to sober her up as quickly as possibly just because I had a feeling that the whole situation could have backfired on me because… we all know that liquor and being drunk doesn’t have the best reputation.
This was the day they I realized I no longer would have drinks with a girl I’m talking to because it’s just too much of hassle when YOU can handle your liquor and the other person can’t. Anyways after she questioned my about the night before and had her moment of skepticism, we proceed to have a normal conversation as if nothing happened and then she left. I messaged her to see if she had made it home and she replied that she did… about a day or two later I messaged her again and never got a response. Now this concerned me because I feel that this was a situation where I did the correct thing by leading with honesty and being a safe space and trying to show some decency as a man but still got ghosted but I can’t understand why. Can anyone give some advice or clarity because they way I see it I’m a little confused and discouraged at the whole situation.

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