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#but i only started taking it seriously while working in the pharmacy because working in a healthcare job with 90% of the staff being moms
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I'm a teen aspiring author. I live in a house with three children and my walls and door are not very soundproof. Do you have any tips to get focused not by reducing distractions but getting focused while still being in the middle of chaos?
Focusing Despite the Chaos
Even if you can't eliminate distractions, it's still worth trying to minimize them, so I want to start there... then I'll get to what to do if you can't. Here are some things you might be able to try...
1 - Minimizing Noise - In a perfect world we could all afford a nice pair of noise cancelling headphones, but there are other ways to minimize the noise that reaches your ears. For example, many convenience stores and stores with pharmacy areas sell packets of disposable ear plugs for just a few dollars. These can reduce noise enough to make it less distracting, so definitely worth a try.
2 - Utilize Continuous Sound/"Noise Colors" - Continuous sound, like the deep rumble of a waterfall or the gentle roar of heavy rain, falls on a spectrum called noise colors. White Noise covers all frequencies equally, so it provides a soothing background hum that can help to minimize other sounds. You can find white noise generators via different apps and places like YouTube or web sites like A Soft Murmur. Or, you can put on a loud fan, air purifier, air conditioner, etc. Pink Noise is a little softer, like the fall of gentle rain, so this might be something like a fan on a lower setting. Brown noise is a step lower than that, like the ambient noise you get from having the window open on a quiet but breezy day. White, pink, or brown noise can be a great way to reduce the impact of chaos coming from the rest of the house.
3 - Put on a YouTube Ambience Room - YouTube is absolutely bursting with "ambience rooms" and channels dedicated to study music, sleep music, relaxation music, etc. These can be a fantastic way to promote focus, not only because they give you something steady to listen to, you can often find things that gel thematically with whatever you're writing, which can help you block out other distractions.
4 - Try a ZenWare Writing Program - OmmWriter, ZenWriter, Focus Writer, and others provide features that help you focus on your writing, such as simple interfaces, special typing sounds, white noise and sound generators, and word counters. These are not typically free but are usually reasonably priced.
5 - Shift Your Writing Time - Even a chaotic house has its quiet times. It could be early in the morning before everyone else is awake, late at night after everyone else is in bed, during mealtime, or when everyone is away. Pay attention to when the chaos is at its lowest each day and try to utilize those times for writing if you can.
When you can't minimize the chaos...
Any combination of the above tactics can still be great ways to help you focus a little more, even if it doesn't really reduce the noise or chaos. Just having things like a special screen or special audio to focus on can help you mentally block out distractions. To some degree, it's something that takes some trial and error--to see which tactics work for you--and practice. I know writers who can write on plans, trains, buses, car rides, in the middle of busy places... it's just something they did out of necessity and got good at with time. You will, too. ♥
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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!
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authornina · 11 months
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"Dr. Kat"
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***THIS HAS NOT BEEN THROUGH A TYPICAL EDITING PROCESS; ALL SHORTS ARE ROUGH DRAFTS***
“Mia make sure you stop at the pharmacy and get your prescriptions before class. I don’t want you flaring up again,” Katrina instructed her daughter. 
“I know, mother…” Mia sighed. “I’m not a baby.” 
“You will always be my baby,” she responded, pinching her pride and joy’s chocolate cheek.
Katrina had been raising her eighteen-year-old daughter Mia by herself since her husband died shortly after she’d given birth. It was hard for them in the beginning, but she did what she had to do to give her baby a decent life. 
Mitchell whom everyone called “Mitch,” was born and raised in Pepper. He met Katrina on a night out at the scope, where people just had their cars booming and girls walked around trying to get chosen. When his eyes laid on Katrina, he couldn’t get over the square beauty. He knew immediately that she didn’t belong out there with all their hoodlum asses and he was right. One of her friends had dragged her along. 
Mitch approached her and Katrina was so shy. He tried to get her number, but she told him her parents didn’t like boys calling the house, so he gave her his. Sometimes she called and sometimes she didn’t. For a while, she ducked and dodged him until she gave in and let him take her out. 
One date turned into twenty and they were inseparable. 
Mitch loved that she was a good girl and green to his way of life. 
The first time he brought her to Pepper, Katrina held onto his arm tightly while he introduced her to several people. He knew it was overwhelming. The loud music, kids out after dark, weed smoke, and foul language but she wanted to know him and Pepper…Pepper was him. 
It wasn’t her usual environment but for Mitch, Katrina adjusted. After a while, she didn’t mind hanging around his friends. She even drank and smoked sometimes. 
Their love was special and Katrina, although fighting it in the beginning, knew Mitch was her one. So, when she turned eighteen, he married her and gave her his child. His one and only. 
Katrina’s family didn’t support the union and like many other girls from the other sides of the tracks who’d found their way to Pepper, she was disowned but he promised to always be there for her and their child. 
Mia’s birth changed Mitch for the better. He couldn’t believe he had a daughter and would spend hours simply staring at her. She was a replica of him but in girl form. 
When Mitch died, it shattered her world.
Not even two weeks after their baby girl was born, he was sadly gunned down.
It nearly broke Katrina in half because he was all she had.
But for Mia, she forced herself to push through the pain. Her baby girl was the strength she needed to keep going.
Katrina not wanting to start over even though the neighborhood wasn’t all that great, decided to stay and thug it out. It was the best decision she made because eventually they were given renovations and Pepper had been elevating ever since. 
Raising Mia alone wasn’t easy while trying to finish her advanced training as a registered nurse and working during the week to keep a roof over their head and food in their stomachs. 
Katrina usually kept to herself not socializing much, but everyone knew her and little Mia as she was friends with many children in the neighborhood and because of her late husband who was pretty popular. She used to hang out and such before they had their daughter but after, Katrina took her role as a mother pretty seriously and gave up the wildlife. 
One day, Karina found herself in a bind. She’d gotten her days mixed up and didn’t realize she had to work so when her boss who was already tired of her lateness and call-outs called asking if everything was okay and would she be coming in, she nearly had a conniption because she needed her job. 
Not being able to find a babysitter at the last minute, Katrina went to the only person most people in the neighborhood trusted with their children. Sunny. 
On the way up the street, she could see a bunch of kids in front of her door, while Sunny, her sister, and Tori sat on the porch smoking. Her baby daddy and his friends were playing loud music from their cars which she hated because it was unnecessarily loud. Little Oak sat on the step with headphones on, and a drawing pad in his lap tuning the world around him out. 
“Hey Sunny,” Katrina spoke, adjusting the bag on her shoulder while holding six-year-old Mia’s hand. 
“Hey, girl—ah!” she, Tori, and Trixie screamed while ducking for cover. “Travis don’t make me whoop your ass!” Sunny shouted at him after they were almost taken out by water balloons. “Senior get your son before I hurt him!” she yelled to her boyfriend who sat in his car unbothered with the door open, smoking a spliff and bobbing his head to the music. 
“I’m just playin’ momma dang!” 
“Leave your mother alone nigga,” Senior told his son. “All y’all go up the street with that shit,” he instructed, Travis, his nephew Player, his second oldest Daun, and godson Frederick. 
“Anyway,” Sunny rolled her eyes. “Wassup girl? Hey pretty Mimi…” 
“Hi,” Mia waved shyly. 
“I know this is last minute, but I was wondering if you could keep Mia for me…just for a few hours, I forgot I had to work today and—” 
“Katrina, girl,” Sunny cut her off. “You know I will keep her for you, I told you that shit back when Mitchell passed that you wasn’t alone out here.” 
“Facts,” Senior agreed. “You good and shit?” he asked. Mitch was a good friend of his and his death was felt around Pepper. 
“Yea,” Katrina nodded. “I’m okay…but thank you, Sunny, so much.” 
“Come on up here Mia.”
“Hi Oak,” she spoke passing him along the way, but he couldn’t hear a thing. 
“I’ll be back around eight o’clock to—” 
“Go do what you gotta do, this baby will be fine,” Sunny said, rubbing Mia’s cute little pigtails.
That was the start of a friendship Katrina never knew she needed. “If I’m not here when you get back, she’ll be with big momma and you know she don’t play that shit, so Mia in good hands.” 
Katrina believed that because Ms. Pepper wasn’t the one or the two to try. She ran her household with an iron fist and even banned Sunny from her own children when she thought her daughter was messing up. 
Although Sunny was much wilder and engaged in things she couldn’t see herself doing, she respected her and appreciated how she would help her with Mia and treat her baby as if she were one of her own. 
When she got an official job working as a registered nurse, Sunny and Senior threw her a party and everything to celebrate her accomplishments and not giving up after Mitch passed. It was the first time since he died that Katrina felt free again. She had friends and they were supportive. 
Every day even on school days, she’d drop her baby off and Sunny or her mother would get Mia together with the other children for school or keep her on the weekends. 
Katrina would be forever grateful to the Allens for all they’d done for her and Mia. 
Now at eighteen and in college, Katrina couldn’t thank anyone but God and her community for seeing them through. Mia was beautiful, smart, and had a good head on her shoulders. Although she was now rumored to be dating Truck, one of Sunny’s boys much to her dismay, her baby girl was perfect. 
“Have a good day at work ma,” Mia said, kissing her mother’s cheek. She usually kept the car while Katrina worked a twelve-hour shift especially when she had class. 
“You too baby, call me, beep me—” 
“I know Mom…” Mia laughed. “I’ll be fine,” she said with the most beautiful smile. Her mother was a worrier and always stayed on top of Mia because she was her only baby. A lot of violence and nonsense had been going on lately and Katrina just wanted to know her baby was safe at all times. 
“I love you,” Katrina gathered her things, getting out of the car. “More than anything in the world.” 
“I love you too mommy, I’ll text you when I make it to class.” 
“Okay, baby…”
Katrina shut the door and watched as her daughter turned the corner. She sighed and mentally prepared herself for a long night. 
Being a nurse wasn’t easy, but it paid the bills and kept them comfortable. She owned her home and car while being able to put Mia through school with little to no help from federal aid. 
After four hours on her aching feet, Katrina sat down at the nurse’s station for the first time since she arrived. She was working the emergency department tonight and it had been non-stop. 
“Hey girl,” her co-worker, Neil spoke. “It’s busy as hell tonight.” 
“I know and mostly everything was major.” 
“Somethin’ in the air tonight,” he pursed his lips, rubbing hand sanitizer on. 
“We got another one!” an EMT alerted as they pushed an unrecognizable victim through the doors. 
“Damn,” Neil fussed, putting on gloves. “I just sat my ass down.” 
Katrina was trying to get in where she fit in as everyone crowded the victim while trying to get her into the back. 
“What happened?” Dr. Troy asked, stepping into the room to assess. 
As everything was being explained and Katrina was following the doctor's orders, something fell from the victim’s hand onto the floor. 
Slowly, with a shaky hand, she picked up the gold necklace with Mia on it. 
It was the necklace Mitch had gotten for their daughter when she was born. 
Katrina slowly looked up at the bloody hand as the flatline played loudly
“We need a crash cart!” 
“Mia…” Katrina whispered, somehow finding her footing to stand. “Mia?” 
“Katrina, what’s wrong?” Neil noticed the tears streaming down her face.
“MIA!” she screamed. “This is my baby!” she pushed people out of the way to try and see her daughter, but her face was bloody, and her nose looked to be detached from her face. “MY BABY!” 
“Get her out of here,” Dr. Troy instructed. “Mia stay with me.” 
“NO!” Katrina screamed as Neil and another nurse tried their best to remove her. “That is my baby!” she yelled with her hand out. “Please God, not my baby!” 
“Katrina,” Neil held her tightly finding himself emotional. “I am so sorry…” 
“My Mia…” she sobbed. “That’s my baby…” 
Everything stopped when her daughter was declared dead at 10:07 PM. 
No one knew what to say or do. 
Katrina wouldn’t move from the spot she sat inside the on-call room. 
“Is there anyone we can call?” Dr. Troy asked, wanting to personally handle his nurse. He’d been working with Katrina since she started and couldn’t imagine the pain she felt at the moment.
“Mia…” 
“Katrina…” he sympathetically replied. “I am so sorry.” 
“Mia…” 
Hours later, Sunny appeared at the hospital. Neil had taken it upon himself to go to her home and figure out someone that could care for her at this time. When he arrived, his unknown presence definitely alerted the residents until he began explaining himself. 
“Katrina…” Sunny sat her bag down, slowly approaching her friend. “I’m here…” 
“Mia…”
“Yea,” Sunny sniffled. “Mia…she’s…she’s gone.” 
“NOOOO!” Katrina shouted dropping to her knees. 
“I’m so sorry,” Sunny held her in her arms, rocking her from side to side. She couldn’t imagine the pain her friend was feeling. Losing a child was something she never wanted to experience in her life. All of her children had better go after her because Lord she didn’t want to ever feel what Katrina was right now. “It’s gonna be okay, I got you…I got you…” 
“My Mia…” 
“I know baby, I know…”  
When Mitch died, she still had Mia.
Now that Mia was gone, Katrina had no one. 
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tommykinard6 · 1 month
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Hello everyone and welcome to my notes and analysis on Tommy Kinard in the Season 2 episode of 9-1-1, “Chimney Begins”. My notes that I took while watching the episode will be first, then my analysis. If you want to skip straight to the analysis, it’ll be marked by three 🚨🚨🚨 emojis.
The areas where I see glaring signs of Tommy’s queer ass hiding in a closet? Marked by 🧯.
Let’s get to it!
And if you want to follow along my analysis of Tommy Kinard and his appearances, check out the tag these will be filed under: “Tommy Begins”
***
Tommy is the first one to notice Chimey’s arrival. He seems comfortable and at ease around the other firefighters and teases Eli about forgetting to tip the delivery guy when he sees Chimney.
Next time we see him, it’s after the crew is rolling back from what seems to have been a fire, where he says “you still here?” To Howie. It’s hard to make out what tone he’s using, tbh. Then it’s another time where he comes back from a call and says “what about that burger place?” To which Captain Gerrard says “Tommy, I hate that place”. This might be the first time Tommy’s name is mentioned, in fact I’m pretty sure it is.
THEN THIS GEM.
🧯Gerrard: hey wasn’t your girlfriend supposed to come and cook us dinner?”
Tommy: uh, next Tuesday
Gerrard: promise?
Tommy: uh, uh yes. Yeah I will promise… *stuttering a lot* 🧯
It’s also obviously an all white, all male firehouse. Seriously, it’s whiter than the Arctic in there and has more testosterone than a pharmacy. There’s one possible female firefighter that shows up in the floor collapse scene, but unsure if she’s 118. But I digress.
When Tommy enters the locker room and Chimney tries to start a friendship, he’s skittish. Looking away, not making eye contact, keeping busy. As Chim keeps talking, he’s slowly shaking his head and looking a bit annoyed. But when he turns around to reply to Chim, he doesn’t seem angry. He’s skittish, he’s nervous. He looks like he’s about to bolt. He’s got the look of someone who has too much on his mind, not just someone who’s mad. He says, “if I thought about you at all, honestly, I probably wouldn’t” in response to whether he likes Chim. I’ve got a lot of curiosity about this scene, but let’s move on.
We see Tommy being friendly with other firefighters throughout the episode.
Eli says that the crew is protecting themselves because in the job, friends die. That they “don’t want to name a puppy until they know it’s going to pull through”.
During the drive to the fire, Chimney is breathing heavily through the switching scenes. Tommy looks over at him several times. To me it looks almost like he’s keeping an eye on him.
During Kevin’s funeral, we open up on Eli and Tommy first. Tommy is standing outside of the line, but I’m not sure if that has a particular meaning. It’s very interesting because Tommy is just off to the side or behind Chim in most shots. We also see him glancing over at Chim several times. For someone who doesn’t seem to care much (or doesn’t want to seem that way), he’s certainly empathetic.
At the floor collapse, we see Tommy going in with a saw. We get a shot of O’Connor and Kinard entering the building. This is the last we see of Tommy before the explosion. Gerrard tries raising Tommy on the radio to tell him it’s all clear, but can’t reach him. I find it interesting that O’Connor never noticed Tommy didn’t follow him out, as he wasn’t actively moving so he’d probably been standing there at least a minute. Considering the time it takes for Chim to find Tommy though, he probably only collapsed shortly before the exit. Chimney carries out an unconscious Tommy just before the building explodes and we get a fade to black scene of them working on him.
All we really hear about him in the hospital scene is that he’s resting and according to Eli, “for a guy who huffed gas and got dragged out of a burning building, he looks better than [Chimney]”
Back at the station, Tommy slowly enters the locker room where Chimney is to say, “Love Actually, monster trucks, craft beer”, finally responding to Chimney’s earlier friendship attempt. He’s very earnest in his expression and in his words.
Chimney: “How’s that head of yours?”
Tommy: “Still fat, but clearer.” *slight pause before taking a step forward* “You saved my life. Thank you.” Lou’s delivery of this was amazing, very heartfelt and genuine for a macho character.
Chimney looks down to see Tommy offering him a handshake and he accepts it, then Tommy pulls him into a tight hug. Even after they pull away, their hands are still clasped for a moment, still shaking. Chimney says, “Thanks Tommy” and this man has the goofiest smile on his face.
When Chimney is talking to the new mom Kevin saved, Tommy asks Eli, “Paramedic?” And Eli replies with, “Damn good one”
And there we reach the end of Chimney Begins.
🚨🚨🚨
First of all, let’s do a round of applause for Lou Ferrigno Jr. The man took a minor character and acted his ass off. Thank you for your service.
Tommy goes through a whole arc and it’s not even an episode he’s centric to. I find it interesting. He’s in an all white, probably all male station. He’s comfortable and relaxed in the beginning of the episode. Then things are shaken up a bit by the arrival of Chim, another man but Asian, which changes the dynamic a bit. I think the focus of race is more closely examined in Hen Begins, but I think it’s worth mentioning here too. He was an outlier in more than being a probie. Tommy isn’t necessarily hostile, but he’s not friendly.
Then we have Gerrard, pressing Tommy about his “girlfriend”. Refer back to the 🧯 section. Hmm. Tommy is very elusive, clearly lying through his teeth, and nervous. This scene sorta made me wonder if Gerrard knew, the way he was pressing Tommy about it. I might be reading too much into it, but I wonder.
From there, Tommy is more nervous and skittish. He’s very weird towards Chimney, but honestly I’m not sure it was about Chim. To use an analogy that I just made up, it seemed like he was swatting at a fly that was distracting him from finding the hornet in his room. I just feel like if it was directed towards Chim as a person, he would’ve been more assertive about it. But the man looks ready to bolt. I feel like any ill treatment of Chim was in reaction to what ever is happening up in that brain.
Then Tommy almost dies and Chimney runs in to save him. The scene where they become friends is everything to me. Of course Tommy likes monster trucks and craft beer, but he also loves Love Actually. He pulls Chim in for a tight hug. He looks happier than he has for most of the episode.
This man had a whole arc.
I won’t stand here and say he didn’t act like an ass during a few moments (first locker room scene more notably). But upon examination, I think it was less so than I remembered from first watching the episodes. I also seriously wonder what was happening in the 118 that we didn’t see. Sal wasn’t even in this one, but Gerrard was and he certainly was…something.
I think Tommy has a lot of backstory I’d love to know. At this point in time, we still know very little about him. But my conclusion on Chimney Begins is that Tommy grew and I think in this episode only, he becomes at least a likeable character.
I have so many headcanons, but I tried to stick largely to what canon gave us to work with in this post. Should I do a post on headcanons?
Next up! Hen Begins! That’ll be a separate post and you can find it once it’s up under a shared tag of this: the “Tommy begins” tag.
@min-kit @thegunslingerletmedrop @thewriterscall tagging you guys because you expressed interest!
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1moreoffkeyanthem · 1 month
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WELCOME BACK!!! That’s right fellow humans, it’s the second episode of
Bedtime Stories With PCE
And man did I enjoy writing this one, my sweet boys, Stan with the broken ribs and struggling with being hurt for the first time since running dry, his super awesome sponsor, Kyle w the solutions, Moose being the best lil cat ever, just!!!!! And this one is really important to me, because it is SMACK DAB in the middle of Broken Bottles From Apartment 2 after our beloved vet tech Stan gets kicked by a scared horse at work, setting the ball rolling for the rest of that story. Essentially I wanted to address more of his mentality following that incident, and to have y’all meet his AA sponsor! Iconic. Here’s
•coconut yogurt•
“Jesus, dude, that looks bad.”
“I’m-“ Stan cut off with a sharp *schh* as Kyle helped him the rest of the way out of his scrub shirt. “Fuck, I’m okay.”
Breathing fucking hurt. More than that, he was seriously bummed that not only was he on bed rest for two weeks (something that his partner would no doubt enforce with an iron fist), but he was gonna be stuck to paperwork once he could finally go back to work. And it wasn’t like he could quell the boredom by slipping away to the clinic for a few hours while Kyle was at his own job, because Wendy ran the front office and would not hesitate to rat him out.
“Baby, they’re only a little cracked.”
Kyle rolled his eyes and carefully helped him ease to a more comfortable laying position on the couch, gently resting one of the big ice packs they always kept on hand over his side. “Where’s your discharge shit?”
“Front pocket,” he muttered.
Kyle grabbed the papers and scanned them quickly. “Hairline fractures… bone bruising, sweetheart, how on earth are you breathing?”
“Carefully?” His partner didn’t seem to like that response. “Ky, I’m okay. You know how much worse it could’ve been?”
“YES! Yes, I do, Stan! Don’t fucking-“ his face softened. “Don’t smile like that about broken ribs, dude.”
“I’m not smiling about that; I’m smiling about you.”
“You’re hopeless,” Kyle laughed. “The hell am I supposed to do with your hopeless romantic ass when you say sappy bullshit?”
Stan might’ve been a little foggy from the pain. Maybe. “Aww, babe, C’mere,” he struggled to open his arms, which was annoying, yeah, but he wanted to hold Kyle.
“Dude, I am SO not laying on you.”
“Just a little?”
“No.”
Kyle went to read the paperwork again, fully ignoring Stan’s efforts to get cuddled. “Babe…”
“Your prescription should be ready, dude.” Kyle knelt down to kiss him. “Gonna be good if I’m gone for a few?”
Stan pouted, knowing damn well he was being dramatic, but not caring. “I don’t want it.”
“We went over this, sweetheart. You had a problem with alcohol, not pills. Is it just because you don’t like taking stuff anyway?”
“…yeah.”
“Okay.” Kyle kissed him again. “You’re sure?”
Honestly, he wasn’t. There were a lot of feelings coming up right now. Kyle noticed, because of course he did. “Stan, I know that face.”
Against his will, tears started trailing from the corners of his eyes.
“Oh, dude, I know.” Kyle took Stan’s face in his hands. “Look, I really don’t want you to hurt, okay? I know you’re emotional right now. I’ll give you your meds when you need them, and you don’t need to think about it. I can ask the pharmacy about the info too. Hon, we’re gonna know exactly what you’re taking, and you’ll be just fine.”
“I- I always heal fast.”
“You do,” Kyle assured him. “And there’s nothing wrong with needing a little help, okay?”
“Uh huh.” Yeah, he would call his sponsor. He needed to talk this out, with someone who got it. Kyle understood for the most part; he literally had a degree in psychology and had been firsthand through an eating disorder, which was its own form of addiction, but, well, specifics. “I’m- *hic*- gonna text Mark, maybe zoom into tonight’s meeting.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Kyle rose and ran his hand through Stan’s hair. “Ten minutes, hopefully.” He glanced at the corner and laughed. “Oh, poor thing doesn’t know what to do! It’s okay, Moose, c’mere, keep your dad company.”
Their cat slowly crept up to the couch, perching on the arm like a sentinel and making a cute little “mrrmm”.
“Good boy.” Kyle spun his keys once around his finger, and put on a serious face, staring down at Stan with one eyebrow raised. “Now, don’t you move.”
“Just stay where I can see you douse the lights.”
Kyle laughed. “You’re incredibly lame. I’ll be right back.”
That laughter seriously helped so much. “Okay, dude, you know where to find me.”
Moose had started purring, asleep next to him by the time Stan worked up the motivation to get his phone and send Mark a “yo I got the fuck kicked out of me by a horse I won’t be there tonight”. The old man immediately called him.
“Hey,” Stan answered, trying not to laugh at how fast that call was, because he knew that would feel awful.
“The hell do you mean, “hey”, Superman? How’d you get kicked by a damn horse?”
“Oh, you know.” Just hearing his sponsor’s voice helped. Some of the older crowd at AA had taken to calling him “Superman” too, which was objectively funny, and also comforting to hear, especially right now, when he was feeling vulnerable. “Went to give him an antibiotic shot, he got scared and bucked around, broke my ribs.”
“Christ.” He could practically hear Mark rolling his eyes through the phone. “Leave it to you. How ya doin’ with all of that? Gonna be able to come chair tomorrow?”
Judging by how much he was hurting, definitely not, even if Kyle would let him leave the apartment. “I was thinking I’d Zoom in. Will you, uh, do you think that’d work?”
Mark chuckled. “Well, I don’t know much about the video callin’ you young folks do, but I’ll figure it out. Might need ta get Laura to help me. She’s good with technology.”
Laura was a woman even older than Mark, who was not good with technology. Oh yeah, this was gonna be fun.
“Seriously though, kid, are you okay?”
Stan sighed. “It’s- I’m nervous,” he admitted. “About the feelings this is gonna bring up. We’ve talked about my coping mechanisms before, like how I like to move, when I start feeling down, instead of drinking? But I…”
“You can’t go for a hike or work out with busted ribs,” Mark finished. “I know being injured, havin’ to stay put, that’s a trigger for you. Like the bender you told me about in high school, after you broke your arm.”
“Yeah…” Not even Kyle knew how bad he had spiraled that time. He knew it had been bad, but not to the extent that it had gotten to. Getting hurt because of something he loved, combined with the timing and completely changing his career path senior year, all of that had led to a full depressive episode, complete with binge drinking and attempting to cut his cast off with bolt cutters. “I still could’ve been scouted in the spring,” he muttered dejectedly.
“But you chose to quit football,” Mark reminded him. “You’ve said you don’t regret that. You remember why you don’t regret it?”
Reaching up to pet his cat, the little creature who had been the driving force to him actually applying his degree, Stan was reminded that he really did like how his life was turning out.
“Yeah. I’m where I’m supposed to be, right?”
“Not for me to say, Superman,” Mark said. “You’re a damn good vet, and gettin’ hurt because of your job happens.” The smile was clear in his voice. “You’re more worried about the horse, ain’t ya?”
Stan once again had to force himself not to laugh. “Dude, he was scared. I was literally coming at him with a needle.”
“And what would you do if you were in his horseshoes?”
“Mark, dude, please don’t make jokes, laughing hurts like a bitch.” He checked the time. Kyle would be back home any minute. “Same thing, though. Ky’s gonna be on my ass about painkillers. That’s… uh, kinda why I needed to talk.”
“Hmm. I gotcha. You’re worried about the addiction potential? Combined with being home alone until you go back to work?”
Hit the nail on the head. Stan nodded, then remembered that Mark couldn’t see him. “Pretty much. I’m just… I haven’t been hurt this bad, since running dry. I’m not sure what to do to distract myself, honestly.”
“Alright.” Mark could be pretty straightforward, when it came to a course of action, a lot like Kyle. “You like them video games, right? And reading your fantasy books? Bet you got one downloaded on your phone right now.”
As a matter of fact, he did. “Uh, yeah, Atherton, I think”
“I don’t know what the hell that is, but you catch my drift?”
Moose had moved down to drape over him like a scarf, warm and little and soft. Sweet little guy; he always took care of his dads. And Stan had a support system. He’d be okay. “I’m picking up what you’re putting down, dude,” he said into the phone. “Distractions that aren’t physical, but keep me engaged, right?”
“And bingo was his name-o,” Mark confirmed. “Good to think of some that you can do when you’re my age, anyway. You ain’t gonna be Superman forever, right?”
“Dude-“ Stan heard the security door open, finally. Kyle.
Mark interrupted. “I know you got that whole thing about age, kid, sorry. I know you’re strugglin’ so how’s about we just focus on today. That boyfriend of yours taking care of ya?”
“Mhm. I’m pretty sure he just got home.” Yeah, definitely, because Stan could hear the voice of Sheila Broflovski through the door, and Kyle probably didn’t even have her on speaker. “Yeah, he’s home, and on the phone with his mom.”
“Uh oh,” Mark laughed. He had heard many a tale. “She’s gonna give you an earful. I’ll let ya go, then. You can call me anytime, okay? It works if you work it.”
“It works if you work it,” Stan repeated. “Thanks, dude. I’ll probably skip tonight, but I’ll call into the meeting tomorrow, okay?”
“Gotcha. Tell Kyle and y’all’s critter I say hi.”
“Will do.”
Right as he ended the call, Kyle burst in, arms full of Walgreens bags and his phone sandwiched between his ear and shoulder, looking hilariously frazzled. “Oh my GOD, Ma, look okay, he is literally right here just- OKAY, Jesus, yes I’m putting him on-“ he gave Stan an expression that clearly was asking if he was up for this. Stan nodded and grabbed the phone so Kyle could get everything set down.
“I’m here.”
“STANLEY!!! Are you okay?! Oh my GOODNESS I can absolutely drive up- do you need anything?! Have you told Sharon?”
Kyle mouthed “don’t blame me”. Stan shifted a little. He’d been talking a lot for the past half hour and he was actually starting to have trouble catching his breath. “No ma’am, I- wait, how did you find out?”
“Your friend Bebe’s gossip list! She posted to Facebook and said “a certain vet got kicked by a horse” and I just KNEW IT WAS YOU! Kyle said he was picking up your medication?”
“Fuckin-“ Kyle took the phone back. “Ma, okay, I’ve got him. I’m going to take care of him and- Ma. I’m not putting Stan back on the phone. It hurts him to talk. Yes, I’ll tell his mom. No, he’s on bed rest. Do you seriously think I’m letting him out of my- okay, okay, sorry, no- oh my God, I’m not making chicken noodle soup, he’s been vegetarian for twenty years, Ma. Alright. We love you too. Christ, yes, I’m eating. Please don’t start right now. Alright. Yes. We got it. Okay. I’ll keep you updated. Yeah, love you. Bye.”
Kyle slumped over the kitchen island, groaning. “If you say anything about me being exactly like my mother, I’m gonna be super annoying and not run interference next time she calls.”
“Pretty sure you’re not beating the Sheila allegations, baby.”
“Ughhhhh.”
Stan reached his hand backwards, eyes closed, waiting for his partner to take it. “Talked to Mark.”
Kyle took his hand, kneeling by the couch and kissing his forehead. “Good, sweetheart. Do you think you’re okay to get some medicine in you? I know it hurts.”
He was always so thoughtful, so gentle with him, and not in a condescending way, either. No wonder Kyle was so good at his job. He could handle a grown ass man emotional over broken bones; angsty preteens were probably a cakewalk to him.
Stan bypassed the cat across his chest, lifting the ice pack from his lower torso. “How’s it looking?”
“Oh, honey.” Kyle sounded genuinely distressed, and Stan opened his eyes to see his partner actually genuinely distressed. “Stan, I can see the hoof print!”
“…damn.”
“Jesus, dude, you poor thing. ” He stood back up and grabbed the prescription bag from the counter, along with a snack sized yogurt from one of the bags. “Solution time.”
“I’m listening.” He’d take just about any idea. It hurt.
“Here’s what I’m thinking. I got a few things of that coconut yogurt you like. I checked with the pharmacist and she said we can crush up your painkillers into it if you want, if you’re not feeling the swallowing pills. I can keep up with your dosage schedule so you don’t need to think about it.” He tilted Stan’s face up to make sure they were seeing eye to eye. “But if you want to take them less often and stick to ice and over the counters, that’s okay. I’ll handle the thinking about shit, and you handle the taking it easy.”
Stan eyed the bottle. “Are they gonna make me sleepy?” The thought scared him.
“Oh, dude.” Kyle could strategize incredibly, though. “We can start with half, okay? It isn’t likely that they’ll knock you out, sweetheart. You’re not a small guy, and I asked. Dosage isn’t high. And you say the word; we work something else out. First priority is keeping you comfortable so you can heal, okay? Does that help?”
“I’m gonna be okay.”
“Yeah, you are,” Kyle assured him. “I’m right here, you know how to deal with this, and you’ll be better before you know it. Now, some meds and I’ll help you upstairs? We can take a nap? I’ll be right there, dude. Keep you from moving around too much.”
He knew damn well Kyle wouldn’t be sleeping a wink. But he nodded. “You’re for real gonna feed me my painkillers in yogurt like I’m a puppy?”
Kyle grinned. “Whatever works.” He reached over to pet Moose. “Whatcha think, young nastyman? Do I have good plans or what?”
Stan slowly sat up, an arm around his midsection and definitely not comfortable, but that was alright. Pretty soon he’d be able to breathe a little better. “What would I do without you, Ky?”
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American healthcare did a fuckery
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My fellow Americans, I regret to inform you that our beloved health insurance industry has done a major fuckery. I know this is hard to believe, given the probity and honor we associate with our fine insurance companies, but the evidence is incontrovertible.
Back in 2019, the Trump administration ordered insurers and hospitals to start disclosing their prices, despite tens of thousands of comments filed by employers, insurers and hospitals objecting to the proposal.
This is one of those pox-on-all-your-houses/you-can’t-get-there-from-here situations. The Trump admin wanted to continue the fiction that the blame for America’s worst-in-class health care was the result of bad market dynamics. Without transparency on pricing and service, employers can’t shop for plans, hospitals can’t know if they’re getting a bad deal from insurers, and sick people are denied information needed for effective bargaining.
That’s all true, as far as it goes. The stubborn, remarkable opacity of American health-care pricing is an enormous source of mischief. Two patients receiving the same procedure, medicine or service might see bills that are thousands of dollars apart, at the same hospital, delivered by the same personnel.
Without price transparency, patients can’t know if they’re getting ripped off. But if you know that the hospital charged the person in the next bed $3 for the Tylenol tablet that you got charged $300 for, you can go to the hospital billing department and say, basically, “Oh, come the fuck on — seriously?” and maybe get $297 knocked off your bill.
That’s why insurers and hospitals don’t want price transparency. Hospitals don’t want insurers to know that they’re getting gouged, and insurers don’t want their competitors to know that they’ve cut sweetheart deals that are being subsidized by eye-popping profits extracted from their rivals.
Ending those practices will make marginal improvements to US healthcare, but only marginal ones. The problem with health-care isn’t that it’s an imperfect market — it’s that we treat it as a market at all. Markets may help organize and allocate discretionary goods and services, but the core of healthcare is not discretionary.
Fundamentally, an unconscious person in cardiac arrest being loaded into the back of an ambulance cannot send a price-signal by shopping for a hospital emergency room and directing the driver to take them there. Even less extreme examples — cancer treatment, insulin, a sick child, a broken bone — do not lend themselves to market dynamics.
Health care always turns into a planned economy. The only question is: who plans it? Right now, we have a monopolized health-care supply-chain, with a handful of companies controlling insurance, hospitals, pharma, pharmacy benefit managers, hospital beds, powered wheelchairs, etc. Each of these sectors is locked in a death-battle with the others, fighting to shift profits from one balance-sheet to the other — but no matter which one wins, the rest of us lose.
There’s a reason that Americans pay more for worse health outcomes, and why American medical professionals get paid less for worse working conditions, than their counterparts abroad. A hospital chain and an insurance company might be well-matched for negotiating power and thus able to arrive at an equilibrium that lets both of them thrive — but workers and patients are disorganized and atomized, and we’re easy pickings for both insurers and hospitals.
Sure, hospitals and insurers fight over us, but the prize they’re seeking is the right to drain our wallets — not the right to win our business through excellence. They are not our champions, they are our tormentors, and whichever one wins, we lose.
Back to transparency. Despite the tsunami of bad-faith objections to publishing prices, the Trump admin enacted the rule, because the rule was key to the pretense that the market for health-care could be fixed — while the alternative was that it should be abolished and subsumed into a single-payer system, like the ones that every other rich country with successful healthcare use.
The insurers and hospitals switched tactics: they simply ignored the rule. Months went by. Deadlines passed. The prices remained a secret, or were publishing in incomplete form, or in obscure formats that couldn’t be readily understood or compared. The Biden admin threatened the sector with fines and public draggings, with increasing severity as the stalemate continued.
Then the insurers switched tactics. Over the summer, the nation’s mammoth insurance companies began dumping enormous amounts of price-data — and I do mean enormous. Humana dropped 400 billion prices in 500,000 CSV files totaling 600TB.
https://developers.humana.com/Resource/PCTFilesList?fileType=innetwork
That pales in comparison to the dumps from Unitedhealthcare — a private-equity backed behemoth that scooped up dozens of smaller companies — whose 250TB dump of 100,000,000,000 prices:
https://transparency-in-coverage.uhc.com/
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[Image ID: Alec Stein’s chart showing the scale of the insurance pricing dump.]
All told, the industry has produced more than a trillion prices. Writing on Dolthub, Alec Stein contextualizes this unimaginably large dump: larger than English Wikipedia, the Library of Congress, Libgen, and all of Netflix — combined:
https://www.dolthub.com/blog/2022-09-02-a-trillion-prices/
Where did all this data come from? The insurers are breaking out prices by “who’s paying, who’s getting paid, what they’re getting paid for, plus some extra fluff to keep track of versioning,” combining all of these to produce generally meaningless distinctions that only serve to chaff the data so it can’t be readily parsed.
This is pure malicious compliance, a monopolist’s version of work-to-rule whereby they follow the letter of the law in a way that is clearly designed to frustrate the spirit of the law. Stein — who works for Dolthub, and wants to highlight the power of its database product — has thinks we can still wrangle all that data.
He proposes reducing the amount of data by 99% by eliminating extraneous metadata, as well as data on rare procedures at the margins of health care. Then, he wants to parse the remaining data through “data bounties” that pay data scientists to perform specific tasks — Dolthub already did this for a smaller set of hospital data, and it worked:
https://www.dolthub.com/blog/2022-07-01-hospitals-compliance/
Then, Stein says, we can further whittle the data down by zeroing in on the 70 codes required by Medicare, and break those out by hospitals by using Medicare’s “national provider identity” codes.
All of this will be useful work. Assigning precise dollar-figures to the dysfunction of a commercialized healthcare sector is a necessary-but-insufficient precursor to creating a sensible universal system. Likewise, this data will be useful for the the DoJ and FTC when they block future mergers and unwind existing ones.
You can help! Stein wrote custom scrapers for each insurer’s dumps and posted them to Github, and you can scrape the data yourself:
https://github.com/alecstein/dolt_datascience/tree/master/transparency_in_coverage_filesizes
As useful as all of this will be, don’t take your eyes off the prize. America has the worst-performing, most expensive healthcare in the rich world. Fixing it means more than tinkering in the margins with price transparency. Health is not a market — it’s a human right.
[Image ID: Ticker-tape parade for presidential candidate Richard Nixon in New York in 1960.]
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astridellejo · 1 month
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A couple of people in my dance class are taking some time to learn a little bit of ASL so that they can understand me when I'm signing, which is so cool! I feel like I've actually become more chatty now that my primary mode of communication is ASL. But I'm still very new at this, and very far away from anything resembling fluency. My signing may seem fast to the average speaking/hearing person, but I'm well aware that it's slower than molasses in the arctic to a fluent signer.
I did eventually figure out how to make my iPad talk so I can use it as a makeshift AAC device. But that's slow and the volume on the tablet often isn't loud enough for people to hear. Plus it takes time to type out my thoughts. I know enough ASL now that it's often much faster and easier for me to sign instead of use text-to-speech. Unless I have to discuss something complex using sign vocabulary I don't know yet. It seems my reality of no longer having a functioning voice is finally starting to sink in. It only took seven months.
What throws the speaking/hearing folk off is that my hearing still works. Mostly. It's about 75% of what it used to be. I can't hear my dance instructor in the gym, and a lot of people sound like Charlie Brown's teacher sometimes in busy environments. What can I say? I'm old now and I've listened to a lot of loud music. But when I start signing around speaking/hearing people, they immediately conclude that I'm deaf and stop talking completely. I mean it makes sense. Sign language is by d/Deaf people for d/Deaf people. Why the hell would someone who can hear use sign language? Right? (Well, I mean there are reasons, but do I want to get into that with the uni student working at the pharmacy while I'm trying to get my prescription refilled? Not really.) Should I bother trying to explain to speaking/hearing folk that I can still hear them? Would it even matter? Because they still wouldn't be able to understand what I'm signing.
I feel like I'm in this weird in-between space with ASL. I mean here's this incredibly useful and helpful visual language I can use in place of communicating orally (since I can't anymore because thanks spasmodic dysphonia), But technically it's not for me. Ya know? There's this whole culture and history attached to it that I'm learning about (and it's fascinating and gives me a whole new reason to hate the telephone), but it's a culture I'm not a part of and can't be a part of because my earholes still function enough to comprehend oral communication.
Is not being able to talk even a disability? Oh no! Can't talk! What a bummer! This is an absurd disability! But it is a disability because it hinders my ability to do basic things like, I don't know, chat with the cute check-out girl at the grocery store or whatever. I can't make or receive phone calls (oh no so tragic [sarcastic sadface emoji]). I can't tell my friends about the cool show I just watched unless I have my tablet with me for assisted communication. I can't narrate my YouTube videos. (That one is kinda frustrating.) I can't hum to my favorite music. Ugh!
Okay, this post kind of got away from me. I guess I have thoughts I still need to work through about losing my ability to speak and where that puts me socially. While it is indeed a disability, I don't really consider it a loss. More of an inconvenience. Because now I'm the one who has to bend over backward to make myself comprehensible to the world at large. And that's a little annoying.
So I'm grateful that there are people out there who are willing to meet me halfway by taking the time to learn sign language. Seriously. Go learn sign language. It's the best! I love it!
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ciaossu-imagines · 4 months
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Omg hiii lovely! Hearing about your dream wedding with Skull just warmed my heart so much omg 🥹 I would be bawling with happiness seeing y’all get matching wedding bands tattooed together 😭🤍 your unconscious mind was onto something with that one :’)
I just thought I’d drop in to share that my villain origin story was ~10 years ago I had this wild dream that I rigged a beauty pageant and stole the crown just to go rob a giant department store after 💀 and.. Squalo was there, he was my husband? and he asked me to steal pick him up a new coat while I was at the shops and then basically went “k congrats on the trophy b see ya later”
he’s revisited me a few times in my dreams since, but my favourite had to be this one dream where he was wearing the new fur coat and we were attending a ball 😅 and it was fine until the whole building started kabooming (I could go into detail about how but it would be like a poorly described director’s cut inception-esque shitty action movie)
My dreams tend to be really entertaining and ridiculous whenever I remember them, and I love when my brain just sprinkles in the squalo husband subplot 🤤 another really cute moment was when he was sooo annoyed about me taking my hoodie off to check the tag, because I only had a sports bra or something underneath and he was so grumbly and standing in front of me to cover my shameless ass from the view of the public 🧍🏻‍♂️ SO CLEARLY my subconscious mind is not letting me cease my simping for this fictional character I hope my husband visits me again soon🫡
Aaanyway, thank you for opening up a space for me to blab, please take care of yourself amidst the busy work schedule! All my best wishes xoxo🫀🖤🩸🤍
Admin Says: Okay, first off, noooo thank you for coming into the space and sharing this because it is wild, hilarious, amazing, and cute all at the same time and I loved it so, so much! And thank you for the well wishes for work. It's hectic - the walk-in clinic operates out of the same building our pharmacy does and they just extended their hours, and where it's nearly impossible to get a family doctor around here, a lot of people use it and then come get their scripts filled with us and of course nobody wants to come back to pick up and they won't understand why we can't just do their prescriptions right away…anyway, nope, no venting about work! Not when we can talk about this submission because oh my god. I thought my dreams were crazy and vivid and wonderful at times!
I have just so many questions on this and I feel it could legit be made into a movie and audiences would flock to watch it. Though this…this is a villain origin story I could get behind. One, beauty pageant crowns deserve to be stolen and that whole system is already rigged beyond belief so I fully support dream you in getting in there and making mischief! Was the crown necessary to rob the bank? Or was it just a case of…well, I committed this crime, let's see what other ones I can pull off? I love husband Squalo just being chill about it too and just being like 'need a new coat, can you grab me one with all that stolen cash, oh and your crown is fucking minty and you look good, babe'. Also, totally agree with your mind on the fact that Squalo definitely seems like the fur coat kind of person.
Also….I love the dream about the ball and you and Squalo attending it when shit just starts to blow up. Begs the question why everything started to go kaboom? Was it random or were you guys behind it? Did the pagentry theivery and robbing a bank kick off a grand run of you and Squalo going Bonnie and Clyde on everyone?? The world needs to know hahaha!!!
But seriously, you and Squalo are so cute in all your dreams and I love it so much. Fun fact, but your dream husband is my fictional found family in KHR and the one who walks me down the aisle in anything wedding related in my mind so like…I just support that man having an amazing spouse like you!!
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thessalian · 11 months
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Thess vs Mild Curses
Today was a cursed day. Well, mostly cursed evening. I had to take out some trash, and also pick up a few things. Like, the recipe I wanted to try today required red onions and I had used up the last of my red onions so I needed more, and also some broccoli and chestnut mushrooms for my chicken broccoli pasta bake, and more chicken and some squash for this chicken and squash tray bake I want to do. Also antihistamines, and some mallet meds since I was already going to be out (so I don’t have to do an extra trip when I actively run out).
Now, the original plan was to stop at a pharmacy on the way to the big Sainsbury’s, pick up mallet meds, and then finish the trip to the big Sainsbury’s and do my shopping there. Except the bus that takes me in that direction was being an asshole - one of those times when you check the app to find out when it’s coming and it keeps moving the goalposts in that regard. Something about a water main problem way at the other end of the line, apparently. Not to mention traffic. Anyway, point is I got fed up and went to Peckham instead.
Picked up mallet-meds, but that took awhile because the one person working the register spent five minutes chatting to a friend before she decided to actually do her job. Found out that a different pharmacy (one without a pharmacy counter, if that’s not a contradiction) was having a sale on antihistamines so now I’m stocked up for the whole of the summer ... also picked up one of those pill containers where there’s a compartment for every day of the week and you just put your meds in there and that makes it easier to keep track of whether you’ve taken them or not. It wasn’t expensive, so I got it; now all I have to really remember to do is the antihistamine in the morning and since I start the morning with paracetamol anyway, it’s an easy enough one to remember. I maybe should have got one of the ones that divides up morning and afternoon but it was more expensive and it’s not really needed because I only need the antihistamines in the summer.
Then to the supermarket. Peaches were on sale, and that was something. Except when I went to go to the self-service checkout ... well, okay, first thing you need to know is that there are two self-serve checkouts in this store - one for people with baskets and not a lot of stuff, and one for people with trolleys. There are obviously fewer self-service checkouts in the trolley area, because the loading area’s bigger in each. Point is that when I went to the basket-only self-service checkout ... they’d closed it down. All of it. Every single one. So they sent us all to the far fewer self-checkouts in the trolley area. I obviously had a quick glance to see if actually being checked out by a human being might be faster ... but there was only one person working the till. So there I am with a fairly heavy basket, waiting in a massive queue.
Best part? The basket-only self-service checkout opened again right as I got to a self-checkout on the trolley side. Seriously, fuck everything.
All the running around ate a lot of my evening and made me rather tired and sore. Of course, I was kind of struggling already. The other day, I tripped and while I didn’t fall, I caught my right forearm pretty hard on the doorframe. There’s no visible bruise, but there’s pain and a bit of swelling, so that’s nice. Also a mosquito bit the back of my left hand, just beneath the first knuckle, and I probably scratched it in my sleep because now not only does it itch when I move it (which is ALL THE TIME), but if I do give in and scratch it, it hurts. I got some witch hazel ointment to see if that would help. It does a bit, but requires pretty regular application.
So, yeah, a lot of nonsense today, though there were a couple of good bits too, I guess. Not sure what the rest of the week looks like work-wise, though. Apparently the other site is having a staffing problem right now (illness on top of a lot of people taking annual leave) so he’s going to be doing some work there for the next couple of days. Thankfully this has not had him call me intothe office. However, there is that “when the cat’s away, the mice will play” issue with the girls in the office, so we might end up with the work we’ve done to finally whittle down the typing queue getting undone. Clearly the company has given up its “sensibly one or two people overstaffed” bit of common sense that was the norm when I first started working for them on a permanent basis. Oh well. As long as I don’t have to commute with the weather being like it’s been lately, I’ll cope.
Now, I have a Cooking With Spoons entry to write, and then back to at least a little bit of video game. Managed to get to the epilogue of Wylde Flowers and ... yeah, you don’t find many farming sims that get that deep or that dark, but this one went there. But now I’m in epilogue and happy to just poke at it until I get my barn and chicken coop upgrades. Plot’s good, but sometimes you just want to raise chickens in peace.
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nsk96 · 2 years
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This mf really waited for my mom to prepare dinner for him yesterday.
Long-story short, my dad had shoulder surgery a couple months ago and so can’t use his right arm. He has shown that he can use his other arm really well and is capable of holding things with his right hand.
As expected, my mom came back home late from her dentist appointment, and so had to make up hours, so instead of working until 5pm, she worked until 8pm. I’m in my room studying and the only things I came out for was to do my laundry (which takes forever because it was my school clothes which I put in special laundry bags to wash, and hang to dry instead of putting in the dryer) and grab a snack. I did not eat dinner
My dad literally waited until my mom finished work, for her to get him dinner…from the fridge. He’s more than capable of getting his own food from the fridge (which he has done many times already for breakfast and lunch while my mom is at work). He’d rather sit on his ass and watch tv or porn on his phone, and then pester my mom who’s had a long-ass day and is in pain from her teeth, to get him food. And my mom has to do it or he’ll complain to his family and talk shit about her (he does that anyway so idk why she cares except for in the case of a divorce)
And you should have heard how rude he got with my mom a few days ago when she asked him to help upkeep the toilet, because the toilet was in a mess. All she asked is that he pour a little bleach into the toilet bowl, once in a while. He got angry and said “how am I supposed to do that with one arm?” (When it’s literally just a small squirt bottle. My mom made this shit so easy and he still can’t even do that?). Then he said “tell [Nadi] that too”. That shit pissed me off so much because I’m the one that’s been doing it. I only didn’t get the chance to do it that week because I had exams and started my clinical rotation at the community pharmacy. Like he seriously doesn’t know how the chores are getting done and he doesn’t care as long as he’s not the one that has to do them right?
It’s f**king hilarious how much he claims he can’t do, when all this time he’s been saying he’s going to make pancakes. So you can make pancakes, an activity that takes two hands, but you can’t take out your own food from the fridge nor pour bleach into the toilet, both being one-handed activities?
His weaponized incompetence never fails to make me feel even more disgusted by him. When the time comes to leave his ass, I hope my mom is actually ready to leave…because I sure am. Sometimes I still catch her making excuses for him when I say something harsh about him, even though she’s said over and over that she’s tired of his shit…I’m sorry mom, but he’s not the man you married. He hasn’t been the man you married for the past 32 years. He’s never gonna be. Stop thinking he’ll change.
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miekasa · 3 years
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speaking of college boys, what do the college au aot babies study??
Okay, okay, I think I’ve talked about this in an ask before but I can’t find it 😭😭 but it’s okay, I love college aus, so I’ll talk about it again! Plus, now I’ve got more thoughts for more characters, so here we go
Levi — neuroscience and psychology of human behavior
He started out on track to do a bachelor of arts in psychology, but when they touched on the anatomy and biological parts of it during his first year lecture, he switched to a bachelor of science.
The focus is still psychology, but through a more clinical lens. Essentially, he gets the best of both worlds this way. He’s intuitive and analytical, so clinical and mental diagnosis is easy to dissect for him. He’s also canonically good at math, so the calculus and stats parts aren’t too bad, either.
This major also leaves him with a few options post-grad, which is a nice bonus for him. He’s likely going to medical school, but that’s not the only route open to him: law school, therapy, lab work, medicine and pharmacy, even teaching are all viable options without going to grad school.
Do not talk to him about Freud unless you wanna get punted off a building.
Be careful with him, because with a single glance he’s already got scarily accurate predictions about your parental and emotional attachment styles, your behavior in social settings, and the onset (or seemingly lack thereof) of your frontal lobe development.
He thinks he’s so smart making comments like, “I see those synaptic connections aren’t working so well for you today,” like mf come here let me lobotomize you and see how well your synaptic connects are working after that🙄
Eren — general health sciences
He’s interested in science and the discovery aspects of it, but picking a specific field of focus right now feels too final. He likes it this way, because his schedule and requirements are less restrictive, and he has more room to find out what really interests him.
He does best when he’s doing something he loves, so picking a major with a bunch of reqs that he couldn’t care less about would have sucked big time for him. It also would have affected his grades. There are still some classes he has to take that he’s not fond of (see: chemistry), but that’s to be expected. Science in general is cool to him and he hopes to make his own discovery some day, even if it’s microscopic.
He also plays a lot of sports, keeping his schedule flexible is important. The sports end up helping him excel academically, which is a nice bonus. Honestly, Eren uses his time at university to learn more about himself than anything, so having control and freedom to do what he likes the majority of the time was important to him. 
He uses his elective credits to take philosophy or history courses of his interest, or maybe even a course that you’re in just to spend time with you. He also uses you as a live model for his homework bye, congrats on being patient number one to him.
Armin — astronomy and physics
He’s still interested in marine biology, but unless he attended a school near a coast, or with a specialized integrated program for that, it’s unlikely he’d major in it during undergrad.
Space and ocean exploration aren’t all that different. Both are vast, largely unexplored domains that reel-in Armin’s interest for discovery. So, while studying astronomy, he still gets to study evolution and make his own predictions about what could be out there because there’s so much to know.
Physics comes with the territory of learning about planetary science, and he’s mathematically inclined, so it works out for him. Learning about the different physical properties of other planets and space masses is honestly pretty sick to him. Because math isn’t a struggle, he actually considered aeronautical engineering, but he didn’t want to be a part of the college to military pipeline; that is, he didn’t want any potential design of his to be weaponized. 
He still gets to study animal biology through his elective courses, and might even find a few focused on marine animals to satiate him. Plant and cell biology are also of interest to him, and are just further applications of his primary study anyway, so he’s got plenty of room to work with.
This boy is interning at NASA and still, with his whole chest out is like, “I don’t need to discover a new planet, you’re my whole world.” Armin, go check on the Mars rover or something please.
Mikasa — anthropology + minor in japanese language studies
Anthropology is virtually interdisciplinary in nature, and Mikasa is a pretty well rounded student, so she’s able to excel in a program like this. She gets to study history, science, cultural studies, and even a bit of art all at once.
She’s still debating between going to law school vs med school, so anthro this is a good in-betweener. She gets a taste of science through her anatomy and kin courses; and lots of practice with reading and dissecting texts through the historical and cultural lectures. So, when the time comes to decide, she’ll have some experience with both.
Don’t know whether it’s confirmed that she’s (part) Japanese or not, but either way I headcanon that she speaks/spoke some second language at home. She wanted to delve more into it, and courses were offered at the university so why not?
Cultural studies courses end up being her favorite. She likes learning about the history of people and their cultures, and it encourages her to learn more about her own family history and culture. It also propels her to apply for a study abroad opportunity, so she spends at least one semester doing an exchange program and absolutely loves it.
She would also encourage you to apply and go, too. You guys might not be in the same program, but if there’s an applicable program in the same country she’s going to, then she’d definitely want you to apply. Spending the semester away with you would be a dream come true.
Hange — bioengineering + minor in political philosophy and law
It’s almost self-sabotage to be in an engineering program and have a minor; the coursework for engineering alone is backbreaking, and bioengineering has the added weight of human intricacies, but of course Hange makes it possible. 
They’re nothing short of a genius, so of course they have time to work a completely unrelated minor into their schedule. It doesn’t surprise anyone that they go on to complete an MD-PhD after undergrad. Insane. 
Bioengineering is essentially the synthesis of chemical engineering and health sciences; Hange spends their time exploring biological sciences and applies the engineering aspects of their coursework to their understanding of (and interest in creating) medicine. Truly a one of a kind mind. 
They also have an interest in philosophy and justice, so when they found out they only needed a measly nine or ten courses to minor in, they went for it, of course. In honesty, they don’t find the studies all that opposing: both law making and medicine making both have some kind of philosophy or method to them in their eyes. 
Hange has... little to no free time pls. They don’t mind it, because they love their coursework, but this means you are essentially ducking into their labs or scrambling to find them in-between their classes during your time in undergrad. They appreciate every second spent with you tho, and will gladly rope you into long discussions about their work. 
Jean — biochemistry + minor in art sustainability
He was undeclared his first year, and took a little bit of everything: art, science, history, anthropology, english. Basically, anything that fit into his schedule. It was hard for him to pick one thing—he liked the science and lab applications of STEM courses, but not the math; and the obvious painting and creativity of art, but hated the pretentious air about art history.
What he wants to do is make a difference, which is how he ends up knowing that he wants to go to med school after, so he picks a science-heavy major, but uses his elective spaces to take art courses. When he mixes the two, he ends up on sustainability—and the complexities about it that are applicable to both science and art are what really reels him in.
Interdisciplinary studies end up being his forte. He can approach sustainability from a science perspective which impacts his art style and materials; and tuning into his creative side allows him to think about science not just from a purely clinical perspective, but from a human one, too—patients are people after all.
He believes that everything is connected somehow, even things as seemingly opposite as art and biochemistry. And he works towards finding the unique intersection where everything overlaps. His studies are pretty cool, and he’s very passionate about them, so ask him about it 😌
The art he makes is pretty sick, too, and often commentary about science; he’s proving they’re not so opposite. You also heavily influence his studies in both areas: caring about you so much inspires him to take the healthcare focus seriously, and your very nature is inspiration to his art. 
Sasha — nursing
She’s friendly and good at working with people, so nursing was an easy choice for her. She accredits most of her motivation to being around her younger family members, and learns that she finds a simple kind of joy in helping to take care of others.
She struggles a bit her first year when it’s mostly all grades and standardized testing, but when she starts getting clinical experience and working in the hospital on campus, things round out for her.
Patient care is her strongest point. A lot of people often forget that knowing everything isn’t everything; if you don’t know how to calm or even just talk to your patient, you’re not that great of a healthcare professional.
Pretty certain that she wants to work with kids in the future, but she’s open to public health and even being a travel nurse if she finds opportunity there!
Of course, she’s pretty doting when it comes to you and all her friends. She might want to go into pediatrics, but the basics of nursing and health care extend to everyone, so you’re guaranteed to be well taken care of with Sasha around. You might even have to switch roles and take care of her sometimes, because her coursework can get pretty out of hand.
Connie — computer engineering with a focus on game design
He might not look it, but Connie has a brain under that shaved head of his. Computer engineering is cool to him because he basically learns about how simple things he uses every day (ie: phone, computer, microwave) works.
Systems and coding are actually the easy part for him, especially when they get into the application of it and aren’t just stuck looking at examples. That’s how he gets into game design.
The part about math and electricity and magnetic fields… well let’s just say he needed to make friends with someone who likes math and hardware his first year to get through it. But the struggle was worth it, because by his junior year he’s found a professor willing to mentor/supervise him as he works on his game and other projects, so life is good.
His school work is definitely hard, which is why the lives by the mantra of “work hard, party harder.” It’s only fair. 
He makes you a little avatar so you can test out his games for him <33 best boyfriend things <33 He’d also… build a game about your relationship. Every level is a different date you guys went on, and he definitely includes something cheesy, like “There are unlimited lives because I love you forever babe <3”
Porco — kinesiology + maybe mechanical engineering
He’s pretty into athletics and working out, but didn’t wanna go down the sports psychology route; he wanted something that left him with a few more options, so he ended up in kinesiology.
He was surprisingly pretty good at biology in high school, so something stem-oriented works out in his favor, and it turns out he’s pretty damn good at anatomy, too. He’ll probably end up in physical therapy after graduation.
He’s also got a knack for cars, which is where the engineering comes in, but he doesn’t care so much for the math part of it (he doesn’t care for it at all actually, fuck that); he just wants the hands on experience of building/fixing things and working with his hands. So, if he can get a minor in it and not struggle through 4 years of math, then he’d do that. If not, he’d take a few workshop-like classes.
Because he wants to go into physical therapy, you are essentially his practice patient. Your back hurts? Not a problem, he’s basically a professional masseuse. Muscle aches? He’s got a remedy and understanding of why it’s happening. Don’t let him catch you hunting over your desk grinding away at your homework, because he will poke your neck and correct your posture (he’ll also massage your shoulders, but after the scolding).
Pieck — classics + minor in philosophy
Ancient studies interest her, but more than that, the language of ancient Greek and Roman culture fascinates her, so classics is the way to go.
Because her focus within Classics ends up being Greek and Latin language studies, she is essentially learning both languages at the same time. She gets farther with Latin that she does with Greek. For whatever reason, the former comes almost naturally to her, so her written and translated work is more complex in Latin.
However, she finds cultural studies relation to Greece more interesting than that of Rome, so it’s a give and take with both; better at languages for Roman studies, better at culture and history for Greek studies.
Her minor is a natural evolution from her primary coursework. Ancient Romans and Greeks set the foundation for a lot of modern day philosophy, so it comes up in her major classes, but she wanted to delve further into the philosophy, and not just look at it historically, so she takes more courses to fulfill the minor.
Can be found laying on a blanket in the quad on a hot day, with her books spread out all around her, highlighter in hand as she works through her reading. You’re always invited to sit with her, and more often than not, it ends up with Pieck’s head in your lap, a book in her hands, and your own schoolwork in yours as you both read in each other’s company.
Bertholdt — computer science and coding
He’s level headed, good at planning, and above all, patient, so he’s cut out for this. He doesn’t consider himself to be particularly creative, which is why he doesn’t pick a speciality with lots of design; but he’s good at streamlining and ideas to life.
The patience really comes in when his code doesn’t run. It’s frustrating to scroll for two hours just to find out that the issue is a missing semi-colon in line 273 that he overlooked, but Berty will sit there until he finds it.
He’s also good at fixing issues. That’s not limited to issues in the code itself; it can mean finding shorter ways to produce the same function or loop, or integrating new aspects into existing code.
Also, he’d just be so cute, coding away on his computer. Just imagine: Berty working on his homework in the library, he’s got his signature crewneck + collared shirt look going for him, his blue-light glasses, a cup of coffee nearly as tall as him sitting at the corner of his desk. Adorable.
He’d make little codes/programs for you, too, even if it’s silly. A simple code that helps you decide what to eat for dinner or where to go on a date, one that shuffles different reminders for you, hell he’ll even forgo the torture of design engineering just to build you a little robot that says “I love you” to you.
Reiner — english + minor in justice & political philosophy
Everyone expects Reiner, star quarterback of the university’s rugby team, to be a business student or communications student; but no, he’s an English major, and he loves it.
Just imagine a guy as huge as Reiner absolutely manhandling someone on the field, just to show up in his lectures with a tiny paperback of The Great Gatsby tucked between his fingers with his reading glasses on. It’s so precious.
He’s always running a bit late to class—either coming from the gym, or practice, or oversleeping from exhaustion—but he’s so sweet to his professors and genuinely interested in the literature that they don’t give him a hard time about it. They can tell that balancing school and sports is difficult, and they just appreciate that he takes his studies seriously.
Yeah he’s in a book club and he dog-ears his books. What about it. They’re doing poetry this month and Reiner actually likes Edgar Allen Poe. Who said jocks can’t be sentimental.
He also reads a lot outside of his classes, and has a soft spot for coming of age stories. He usually empathizes with the main character somehow. His ideal weekend plans after a week of grueling games and essays is taking a long, relaxing shower at your place, while you both share a bottle of wine, and maybe even get you to read a chapter or two of his current book out loud to him.
Annie — clinical psychology/neuroscience
Almost scarily analytical and methodic, so this major was calling her name. Localizing brain legions is… insanely intuitive to her it’s incredible. She’ll be an insanely impressive doctor someday, even if she doesn’t end up working with patients directly. 
She doesn’t care too much for the more philosophical/reading heavy parts of psychology. Even experiments and research closer to the social end of the spectrum aren’t all that interesting to her; but the brain science behind it it.
Nobody should be good at cellular biology. Nobody should be able to ace cell bio and neuro and calc and work towards their thesis proposal in the same semester, but Annie proves it’s possible.
Ends up working in one of her professor’s labs by her junior year. She was offered three TA positions working with first year students, but she swiftly turned them down. Teaching isn’t her thing.
She doesn’t bring up her studies to you unprompted, but if you ask her about them she’ll explain it to you. Her notes are color coded and it’s super neat, and very cute; coloring them is somewhat relaxing for her. She usually saves the coloring part for when you guys study together; there’s extra comfort in doing it with you around.
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xoxo-teddybear · 3 years
Text
Viagra Prank - Bakugou Katsuki
Bakugou x f!reader
Warnings: smut, f!receiving, male masterbation, needy Bakugou, sexual touching
BAKUGOU’S MASTERLIST
Summary: After a dumb argument, Y/N decides to punish Bakugou by avoiding him while he’s superrrrrr horny
A/N: NOT SPELL CHECKED
Bakugou and Y/N had been arguing for an hour already. They have been talking about Y/N cheating on him.....IN A FUCKING DREAM. Yes it really scared Bakugou and he did wanna talk to Y/N about it, but he just went about it in the wrong way and so, this led to the arguing and yelling. Bakugou knew he was in the wrong, but he was too stubborn to apologize, at least verbally. Usually, that was okay for Y/N, because at least he showed when he was sorry. But this time, all she wanted was a soft and genuine “I’m sorry.”
Instead of apologizing verbally, Bakugou attempted to make up for it through his actions. He bought Y/N another teddy bear to go along with the others he got her, bought her a bouquet of roses and gourmet chocolates, and spent the entire day with her. At night, he held you close and filled your ears with sweet nothings like “I’m so lucky I have you,” “I don’t know how you deal with me, Teddy Bear, but thank you,” and “I’ll forever love you, Y/N.”
After seeing he put a little extra effort into this very “Bakugou” apology, Y/N forgave him, but she still wasn’t letting him off the hook. She wanted to punish him at least a little, but the question was “how?” She discussed it with Bakugou’s closest friends to give her ideas.
“You could ignore him all day.” The red head said, “he has a free day tomorrow, so I can imagine he plans on spending every second of it with you.”
“Nah, since he has a free day, I would love to spend time with him too. I don’t wanna ignore him, just mess with him a little to get back at him.” You said.
“What about one of those kinky couples do? A sexual punishment. Orgasm denial, overstimula-“
“NEXXTTTTT” you, Kirishima, and Kaminari said, cutting off Sero’s nasty thoughts. Besides, you and Bakugou were that kinky couple. And you knew he enjoyed all that stuff. The freaky bastard. You were getting nowhere until Kaminari said something unexpectedly smart.
“What about viagra?” He recommended.
“What?” You questioned.
“Viagra. You can buy it at any pharmacy and just crush up the pill into a powder and give it to Bakugou in a drink. It’s gonna make this man insanely horny, and to punish him, just deny him every time.” He said sipping his drink.
“I-.....that’s perfect!” You said
“Wow Kaminari, nice plan.” Mina said.
“Thank you.......hey can I get some more boneless ice?” Annddddd dunce face is back. Someone get this boy his water.
Doesn’t matter though, now all you have to do is buy the viagra and you’re set. That night, you and Mina went to the pharmacy together and bought the pills. When you went to sleep, you saw Bakugou waiting for you in the room.
“Jeez babe, what took so long? I was waiting here for like 2 hours!” Bakugou pouted. You laughed and kissed him.
“I’m sorry Suki, but not everyone goes to bed at 8 on a Friday night.” You said taking off your jacket and changing into your pjs. You climbed into bed as Bakugou defended himself.
“Well neither do I, but I woke up mad early today.” He said wrapping his arms around you. You pecked his forehead and tried to get some sleep, excited for the next day.
“Yeah, yeah you big baby. Just get some sleep.” As you both cuddled up, you layed with a devious smirk as an unknowing Pomeranian slept peacefully above you.
——————————————————————————
That morning, you woke up early with Bakugou to work out together. As Bakugou got ready, you prepped his drinks. You placed 3 bottles of water in Bakugou’s gym bag and opened up one of them. Taking the viagra pill out, you placed it in a bowl and used the bottle cap to crush the pill to a powder. You poured the dust into the water, put the cap back on and shook the bottle. After seeing the bottle still looked normal, you subtly marked it and placed it back in his bag. When he came, ready to go you gave him the bag and you guys made your way to the gym.
After working out for a few minutes, Bakugou took a huge gulp of water. You noticed it was the bottle you marked and smiled. After a few minutes, Bakugou was starting to feel...something. He didn’t know what it was, but now he was staring at you...more than usual. Your body covered glistened in your sweat and the image of you like that was burned into Bakugou’s mind. The heavy breathing you did only accentuated his need for you and the way your body looked everytime you stretched or moved. God, he knew you were hot, but something about you today just hit different.
Bakugou walked up to you and held your waist.
“Suki?” You looked up at him with an innocent face that made him bite his lips.
“Do you wanna get outta here? I think we’re set on workouts for today, Princess.” He said while staring at your body and chest.
“Oh, sure! Let me just get my stuff and-“ you were cut off when Bakugou gripped your ass with both hands and tongued you down, he pushed you up against the wall and began grinding into you. You felt his growing erection press up against your sensitive heat which made you moaned into the kiss. This made Bakugou even needier. Unfortunately, you weren’t giving in so easily today.
“Hah...S-Suki..” you breathed out while pushing him off you slightly. “C’mon..can we at least get out of here and wash up.”
“Why? We can do that after I completely ravish you,” Bakugou smirked as he attempted to kiss you once more but you pushed him back smiling.
“Sorry Suki, but we need to get back. Okay?” You said and walked away as Bakugou rolled his eyes taking another sip of water. You both walked out but with Bakugou being a lot more handsier. You walked and he would jog up behind you and grab your ass, he would walk with his arms wrapped around your waist while standing behind you, and once you reached your dorm room, he shut the door and slammed you against it grabbing your chest and kissing you again with fervor and tongue. Sadly, once again, you pushed him off.
“Shower first Suki.” You said and walked to get some clothes out of your closet. Bakugou just sighed and banged his head against the door. He looked down and saw his friend creating a tent in his sweatpants and he let out a breath a horny frustration. Then an idea hit him.
“Shower sex?” He said hopefully like a happy puppy, and if he had a tail, please believe it’d be wagging.
“No.” Bakugou just growled and flopped onto the bed and face planted down on the cushion.
“Fineeeeee!!!!!” He complained while his voice muffled by the mattress. While you showered, you left a needy Bakugou on the mattress. He could only imagine what you looked like. Curvaceous body, covered in droplets of water, steam all around you making your cheeks red. Bakugou rubbed at his face. Why the fuck was he this horny?
When you walked out, you were wearing a small towel as you seemed to have used your wind quirk to dry your hair. Bakugou licked his lips as he walked up to your almost naked body and felt you up. He kissed up on your neck as you tilted your head to give him more access. You pressed your ass into his crotch as he grinded into you. You could hear his soft moans. His hand traveled to grope your chest and the other hand went to your clit.
“You want me to feel up on this sweet little cunt?” He asked as he pressed two fingers into you and you gasped.
“A-ah...” you moaned out as your tongue rolled out of your mouth and eyes rolled to the back of your head. You almost gave in to his desires until your phone rang, snapping you out of your trance. You pulled his hand away from you and walked to your phone but not before Bakugou tried pulling you back.
“Hey..where do you think you’re going? I’m not done with you.” He said pulling you towards him.
“Katsuki..”
“Please, Princess. I need you..now.” He said as he grabbed your ass.
“Baby, seriously. Get washed up and let’s continue our day. Please?” You pouted and Bakugou sighed and gave in. He grabbed some clothes he kept in your closet and went to wash up. You sighed in relief and checked your phone only to see it was spam, but still glad it snapped you out. As you got dressed, you cursed yourself for falling so easily for Katsuki.
‘That damn Katsuki. Knowing my body, using it against me. Who the hell does he think he is being built like a Greek god like that?’ You thought as you dressed yourself.
While Bakugou was in the shower, he realized he needed to calm down. Yes he has an amazingly hot girlfriend he could fuck to settle him down, but it was clear she wasn’t down for morning sex today so he had to solve it himself.
He let his head rest under the hot water as his hand went to grab at his length and move vigorously. He imagined the way Y/N would look with her pretty mouth wrapped around his cock, swallowing all of him. How she would take his entire length in her tight little cunt, squeezing him perfectly.
“Y-Y/N...fuck..faster..” he moaned out with a breathy voice as he moved his hips, fucking his hand. He groaned and threw his head back.
“C-C’mon baby...s-shit, c’mon. Oh fuck..I’m cumming! ....a-ah!” He said as his hips stuttered and his release covered the shower floor. He sighed as he tried to regain his breath from his orgasm. It wasn’t as good as it would’ve been if it was actually you, but nonethe less, he came. Sadly, he still wasn’t satisfied.
As Bakugou walked out in nothing but a towel, he tried to get dressed but the second he saw you, his hard on returned. Oh, this was gonna be a long day.
——————————————————————————
All throughout the day Bakugou tried his best to get you in bed, and when his advances always failed, he resorted to feeling up on you or running to the bathroom for release.
You had to admit, rejecting Bakugou’s attempts had gotten harder and harder. For each time he touched you, you basically had to leave yourself hanging. You felt yourself grow wetter each time to a point where even you almost went to hide away in your room and please yourself. Thankfully, it was almost midnight, meaning the day would be over and your punishment for Bakugou would be done. Then, you both can explore your desires.
It was late LATE into the night when Bakugou busted into your room as you were watching a movie. You paused the screen and spoke to him.
“Suki! You can’t just barge in like that, you’re gonna break my do-“
“Shut up” he said as he made his strides over to you and shut you up by tonguing you down. You fell into the kiss and returned it, kissing him with just as much passion. You peaked open your eyes and looked at the time. 11:47. ‘So close,’ you thought to yourself. You reluctantly pushed him away again.
“Suki..no,”
“Suki, yes.” He whined back as he attempted to kiss you again but you stopped him once more. He was getting fed up. He lifted you by your hips, tossed you flat on your back on the bed, and used his arms to cage you in. His hands pinned your wrists to the sides of your head and his knees were pressed into the mattress at the side of your hips. He got close in your face before speaking.
“You owe me an explanation, princess. I get not wanting to fuck on busy days or during a certain time but all day? I’ve tried to get you right here where Ive wanted you and you rejected me each time. Tell. Me. Why.” He said each word with poison on his tongue. You cringed at what you thought his reaction would be, but soon came to the conclusion that you’d have to tell him at some point.
“...Punishment” you said with a hopeful smile, praying that your boyfriend won’t fling you out the window. Bakugou looked at you with wide eyes.
“What?” He squinted his eyes at you and asked.
“You were acting like an idiot the other day and it pissed me off. I accepted your apology and forgave you but you weren’t completely off the hook. So I put viagra in your drink to turn you on and deny you as a punishment.” You cringed at how easy it was for you to tell him the truth. Bakugou looked at you with a confused look, then a smirk.
“So...you drugged my drink to get me riled up so I could fuck you? Didn’t know my teddy bear was so freaky,” he said licking your neck.
“What?! No! It’s not like tha- ah!” You were interrupted as Bakugou gripped into your chest.
“Then whats it like, teddy bear? Rejection? Well you’re not denying me now. Why not?” He asked you. But you had no answer for him anyway, so as far as he knew, he was right.
“That’s what I thought,” he said while continuing the attack on your neck. “I’ve been so neglected all day, I think as an apology gift, you should let me have my way with you. Doesnt that sound fun, princess?” He said the last sentence while letting his finger press against your clothed clit. You moaned at the feeling and felt yourself growing wet.
“K-Katsuki!” You moaned.
“Please, Princess?” He asked..practically begged.
You bit your lip and closed your eyes. Enjoying the feeling of his pads rubbing into you. You arched your back and gave in, spreading you legs for him. Bakugou smirked and was quick to remove your shorts and panties. Excited, he went to feast right away. No teasing, no waiting. He’s right into it, enjoying his meal. Sucking and kissing your bud, his eyes shut as he enjoys hearing your moans and tasting your sweet nectar.
The sudden feeling of his tongue hitting you and eating you out had you shivering. The massive amount of pleasure was so sudden, you could’ve cum right then.
“S-Suki! ...m-more!” You said as your hands went to grab at his hair. Bakugou groaned as you tugged and sent his tongue right into your hole. You cried out in such ecstasy that you legs began to shake.
“Cum on my tongue, Princess. Let me taste you,” Bakugou said before he went right back in. When you came, Bakugou lapped up every drop of you, savoring your flavor. He went up to kiss you and allowed you to taste yourself.
“God I want you so bad princess..” Bakugou breathed out as he released himself from his pants and lined up with your cunt. He rubbed his tip up and down your opening and you moaned in excitement.
“Let me have my way with you, Y/N.” He said in your ear as he pressed in. You wanted and needed him now. You looked at the time and saw, 11:56. Screw it.
“Please Katsuki! Use me! Please fuck me!” You begged. Smirking at your neediness, Bakugou slammed into you. Not giving you any time to adjust, Bakugou kept to his word and had his way with you. His pace was going so fast it had you seeing stars.
“Y-yes Katsuki! F-uck.....Mm,” you cried out. Bakugou lifted your hips to hold onto you and fuck you in a deeper angle.
“Shit....like that, Princess?” He said said with a smile as he kissed your neck.
“M-more Katsuki!” You begged again. Bakugou held onto your hips and kept his steady pace for awhile. He smacked your ass and kissed you deeply, exploring every inch of your wet cavern.
“You thought it was okay to fuck around with me like this? Huh princess?” He said smacking you again. You moaned at the contact and he gripped your ass. He grabbed your legs and put you in a mating press. The new angle reached deep inside you and hit the most sensitive spots. You screamed his name as he continued to fuck you with his head thrown back.
“Gotta keep quiet now...can’t let the whole class know what’s happening in here,” he huffed out “or maybe you want them to know. Yeah? You want them to know how much of a slut you are just for me?” He teased.
“Ohhh..yesss Katsuki.” You moaned. His cock was sliding into you perfectly, making you dizzy and drunk on euphoria.
“Yeah, but you’re my slut. Right? My dirty little slut. All for me, and me only.” He said as he placed his arms next to your head.
“I’m yours Katsuki! Just yours...ah!” You clenched around him. You could feel the way his balls slapped your ass everytime he thrusted into you. The sounds of skin slapping and your wet cunt filled the air and made a melody you’d never forget. In the heat of the moment, you began to feel the familiar knot in your belly.
“F-fuck. Cum for me princess, I want you to spill in on me.” Bakugou said. He went deeper, harder, and faster. Whatever it took for your pleasure. As he went in, you felt the knot become loose as you came on Katsuki’s dick and your legs shook. You cried out in pleasure as Bakugou continued to chase his own release. After a few more deep strokes, Bakugou met his high and climaxed. He filled your womb with cum and layed there as he emptied his load. You both layed there in silence, catching your breaths as you both came down from the high.
Instead of pulling out, Bakugou stayed where he was and just leaned in closer to you.
“You done messing with me, Princess?” He asked you. You let out a breathy yes as he kissed your cheek and pulled out. He layed beside you and cuddled into you as he held you close.
“I don’t know. I’m kinda satisfied with how this turned out.” You teased. Bakugou only let out a quick laugh in disbelief at his wild girlfriend and just kissed her.
“You’re crazy.” He said while holding you closer.
“But you love me,” you said.
“Yeah..I do.” He said as he rested his head against you. While basking in the glow of the after sex peace, Bakugou realized something.
“Umm..Y/N?” He started.
“Hm?” You said in a sweet voice, with your eyes still closed and you still cuddled into his chest.
“I’m, uh...I’m sorry..for how I was acting.” He apologized. This made your eyes burst open. He was apologizing..verbally. You looked up at him and gave him a sweet, passionate kiss.
“Thank you Katsuki, but I already forgave you. Remember?” You giggled. A sound that Bakugou will forever remember. A sound he will forever enjoy hearing. He just sighed and leaned into you even more, trying to communicate all his love through the physical contact you were both having.
“I don’t deserve you, Princess” he said as his eyes began to fall heavy into a deep sleep.
“You deserve me and the whole world Katsuki.” You said with love dripping in your voice.
“You are my whole world,” he mumbled in embarrassment as a blush adorned his face as he attempted to hide away in your neck. You blushed and smiled at his little confession and allowed him to sleep. It was past his usual bedtime after all.
“Get some rest, Hero.” You said, pecking his forehead with a loving kiss. As he drifted off, you just smiled and rested your eyes as you thought about the next time you would drug his drink. This little viagra prank turned out amazing.
A/N: y’all this was so sloppy😭 it could’ve been so much better but it’s been sitting in my drafts mocking me. I just had to get it out here. I’m sorry it’s not spell checked but I hoped you enjoyed it none the less. (The smut was so bad😭😭) see you next time, Cubs💗🧸
2K notes · View notes
jiminrings · 3 years
Note
can we get a fratboy Jimin and good girl oc with pinning from both sides 👀 ahhhh thank u in advance love ur writing!!
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cherry king
drabble week: day four
drabble week masterlist
pairing: fratboy!jimin x goody two-shoes!reader
wordcount: 3k
glimpse: "y-you uhm, you-? y'know, you like... doing that? is that why it's your nickname?"
feedback + support mean the world to me!!
“next!”
great!! the line’s moving :D
that’s only like the 87th time jimin has heard the word next and it makes him wonder how much more would it take him to bring him to the front
(it’s actually only been 14 times and jimin might just be a self-admitted impatient bitch!!!)
he understands that yes, it’s ten in the evening!!! and reasonably-large stores/pharmacies like these can have less staff at the time compared to ten in the morning
sure, checkout machines and cashier lanes could be broken down!! or they could just not be open at all
jimin gets that alright, maybe the self-checkout machines are close at this time of the night because it is ten in the evening
what’s not clicking in his mind, however is that at the exact time that he comes here
as in the EXACT time that he’s here (!!!) — there happens to be dozens of people in a store at ten in the evening, and there happens to be a grand total of one (1) cashier lane
atleast random store music would be entertaining :((( all he hears are the beeps of a scanner and the chatter of groups of people who came here
jimin was eavesdropping on some guys in front of him and he wAS invested but lmao turns they were just discussing the plot of die hard or any testosterone-jacked movie like it
he’s also tried looking at the smaller middle-aged woman’s phone in front of him who’s scrolling through her facebook feed, but quickly decides against continuing it
because what if u could see his face and when she turns it off, she’d see a college guy deeply-invested in the baloney article she was reading about how subway sandwiches are the work of the devil
so uh yeah he’s just looking everywhere besides the front, back, and the sides of him and in all angles basically
he’s,,,,, aimlessly scrolling through his instagram feed he’s already scrolled through tHREE times and his explore’s page a little too dry
it’s a good thing that jimin’s entirely sure he’s the nosiest person out of this line and no one else is trying to figure him out
might be wrong though
“cherry king?”
hold the fuck on
jimin’s eyes widen, head snapping up and clueless to the fact that he doesn’t look discreet at all, and his head-cocking’s the most movement he’s done the whole time in this store
WHO’S SAYING HIS NICKNAME?????
it can’t be a coincidence either because as far as he’s concerned, there isn’t anything named cherry king that’s being sold here
there is literally NO other plausible scenario happening here besides the fact that someone who knows him is in the store!!!!
his gaze falls to the person behind him, brows knitted in confusion until it clicks
oh
that was you?
“jimin? huh, it really is you. i thought i was losing my mind for a second.”
“y/n?”
okay maybe hE’S the one who’s losing his mind here
he knows you!! you’re the smart girl in his year who’s known for being pristine and stuff!! you’re like the good-est girl he’s ever known and heard of
.... quick question lads is that weird to know someone by
“you could’ve just called me by my name, y’know,” jimin chuckles heartily, still a little dumbfounded to see you here but he’s grateful for the interaction nonetheless
you look casual today?? like you still look like yourself but everyone else would think it’s an out-of-body experience to see you out of your pretty dresses and monochromatic get-ups
it’s you..,.. in a hoodie three sizes larger than your size with your pristine shoes traded in for socked-feet wearing slides
jimin thinks that you look like grace under pressure
“i wasn’t sure,” you smile right back and it’s the first time he realizes that there’s glasses atop your nosebridge, softening your image more from the usual composed look you carried
“how were you sure enough to say my nickname out-loud though?”
jimin questions you, bringing light to how he’s wearing a plain white shirt and is looking as relaxed as ever with how he’s dressed — his hair long enough to be put into a messy sprout of a bun
you clear your throat, the amusement bubbling in your scratchy throat
“you have yourself as your lockscreen, jimin.”
oh my gOD
he winces when you say it, eyes screwing shut in embarrassment that he whines in pain with how direct you put it
“n-no way — fuck you respectfully, y/n. i-i’m not- i’m changing it right now!!”
does he look the vainest person alive rn
the way he has a mini freakout entertains you to your core, giggles unable to be suppressed as he finds the latest-taken picture he has of dogs that he comes across with
that’s 10/10 an experience he doesn’t want to repeat again
“it’s okay. i won’t tell anyone.”
he hears you reassure and he believes you, a flustered blush on his cheek still as he coughs to make up for a diversion topic he couldn’t think of
frankly, you’re getting bored too and jimin’s the only form of entertainment you have because using your phone atm would be too disorienting
“what are you doing here, by the way?”
your head tilts in query and he’s relieved that you address something else, not being relieved seconds later when he realizes his answer
“just a little supply run for our frat. we weren’t supposed to run out of things for three more days, so this is just a lil emergency haul for awhile.”
you nod in understanding, glancing down at his basket and uh
uhm 1/4 of the space is literally occupied by boxes of condoms
....
......
jimin’s confused to why you turn silent, thinking that he must’ve gotten boring to continue talking to until he follows your gaze to his basket
NO WAY?!]>|>]%%[%]%]
“i-it’s not l-like that!!!” he crouches and immediately gets the food and the bottles of shampoo and conditioner to bury the condoms in the bottom of the pile, attractively getting more attention from you who’s ready to let it go
“i-it’s not — it’s ours — n-no!! t-they just gave me a list and i just put it because it’s on the list b-but like it wasn’t my-...”
how many more times will the universe fuck jimin up in front of the person he has a lil happy crush on
you only smile meekly, tilting your head and he thinks this is the part where you tell him how much of a douche he is
"y-you uhm, you-? y'know, you like... doing that? is that why it's your nickname?"
:O
“t-that?” jimin clarified albeit confused, thinking back to his nickname as he tries to rapidly connect the dots to not look like a fool
cherry king? that?? what do you-
WAIT WHAT
“nO!! o-of course not!!”
he almost shrieks and his voice sounds ultimately defensive, shaking his head no
why does he look so frantic
“hey, hey, i believe you! — calm down, jimin. you don’t have to explain anything to me.”
whew
fuck
but he argues that it iS the truth though!!!
but why won’t you just ask him why he’s called cherry king though >:(
you’re already content with the silence after the conversation but he isn’t, still wanting more
is it so bad that he wants redemption D:
“how about you? what are you doing here?”
you don’t answer instantly and it’s because you’re nudging jimin to continually walk, the cashier looking much more visible now as he’s nearer in line
he takes a look at the handful of things that’s in your basket —
electrolytes, hot pockets, soup, cup noodles and fever patches...?
“oh. i think i’m running a fever.”
what???
what are you doing here aLONE if you think you’re running a fever???
he’s not gonna lie about the fact that you don’t look too good
what if you pass out and no one’s there for you and all the graveyard shift employees do is put a wet floor sign around your figure???
“y/n?? what are you doing here alone then?? are you oUT of your mind??”
the panic in jimin’s voice is clear as day and you’re a little startled, instead responding to tapping him on the shoulder to point that he’s already the one on the cashier
what he does is grab your basket before he is, putting it in front of the conveyor belt because he couldn’t even wait for it to roll out
“i said i think i’m running a fever.”
jimin stops from simultaneously rummaging for his rewards card and putting his items on the counter to unceremoniously drop the box of condoms down jUST to put his hand on your forehead
“you are.”
you surely don’t think low of jimin but you can’t help be surprised either at his concern for you when this is the only time you’ve had a conversation with him!!!
“you drove here?” he asks in seriousness, sending you a look while waiting for the total amount
“walked. the airconditioning makes me even more sick,” you answer with no fuss because even thinking about car fresheners while you’re sporting a fever makes you want to gag. “let me-...”
jimin already pays for both your items in cash, getting them bagged separately as he’s not gonna take no for an answer for what he’s gonna propose next
“then i’ll keep the windows down. i’ll drive you back to your dorm.”
he grabs both your bags in one hand and uses the other to beckon you over, holding you still because it’s dark out and a fever vision wouldn’t exactly help
it’s only when he straps you in and (true to his word) puts the windows down and starts his car that you start asking
“why are you doing this for me?”
why IS he doing this for you??
jimin thinks about his answer in a second
“would you do the same for me?”
well
if you were in front of him at a godforsaken line, had yourself as your lockscreen, realize that jimin’s behind you with a fever and is by himself in a store at 10 in the evening
“of course i would.”
jimin smiles, steering away from his parking spot
“then i would too.”
( ♡ )
maybe you’re thinking of jimin
no wait you’re dEFINITELY thinking of jimin
you’re much better now and your fever’s already subsided enough for you to go back to class!!!
the whole interaction with him was three days ago and maybe your head is just full of him at this point
“are you sure you’re okay to handle this by yourself??”
jimin worries when he drops your bag to your hands, briefly coming inside your dorm to set it down
“mhmm. i’ll just sleep it out.”
“i think if you’re missing a couple of steps.”
you snort as his paranoid features, waving him off. “i’ll eat. then go to the bathroom. and then sleep.”
okay good enough
“what if this just-“ jimin trails off, his expansive mind suddenly running as he points to your chest, “stops????”
cute
“i have a smart watch.”
“would you put me as one of the emergency contacts? please?”
he’s making you take down his number without malice because jeez he’s gENUINELY worried!!!!
it may not always be great sharing a house with his frat brothers, but he knows that if he has a fever, atleast half of them would dote over him and you have atleast one who would go into hysterics!!! it’e a full package!!
“i’ll be okay, jimin. i’ll call you when i need someone to hand me my puke bucket.”
“please do. i’m not even kidding. get better now because i miss your dresses.”
o_O
uhm
“n-no i meant your usual style!! wait, not that there’s anything wrong w-with your style right now. i-i was-...”
“yeah. i miss them too. now go home, jimin.”
“you sure?”
u never really had the impulse to invite a guy to go inside your place but maybe now you do
“mhmm. drive safe.”
okay
:-)
“good night, y/n. call me whenever.”
classes were a bit rough today because you’re still easing yourself on getting back to the groove of things, but it was tolerable!!!
you’re getting your key out of your backpack when a lock clicks open a couple doors away from you, the hinge noisily squeaking
it’s jimin who leaves it, with seri who’s the actual occupant of the dorm leaning on the doorframe
“y/n—!”
he squeaks the moment his eyes land on you
your hand automatically waves, the same meek smile for him to see
“jimin.”
( ♡ )
the last interaction you had with him is still on jimin’s mind, a whole week later
it’s been bothering him recently that you know what it looks like the last time around!!!! but he could swear up and down that it wasn’t
he just feels this great urge to explain even if you haven’t asked
“oh. so we have to move out for the time-being?”
jimin clarifies with namjoon, the head of the frat, and he’s met with a solemn nod
it makes sense!!!
the house got checked today and there were mULTIPLE fire hazards!!! and it needs to be fumigated anyway under new campus protocol so it indeed makes sense
practically everyone's going home because it’s a long weekend anyway because of a holiday
and he’s not sure if he wants to take the same route.
“hi.”
jimin squeaks the moment you open your door, surprise evident on your face but not shock to the point you’d close the door on him
“jimin?”
okay maybe he’s gonna go straight to explaining
“frat house needed to be closed because of some complications, and it wouldn’t be open to us for another three days. most of the guys are coming home,” jimin clears his throat, his head down while he shyly scratches the back of his ear, “i have one, but i’m not sure if i wanna.”
oh
it’s that problem
it takes one, two seconds before it all registers in your head, nodding surely
“you can take my bed. i’ll take the couch, it’s a pull-out anyways.”
you open the door for him widely and the only thing you ask if he’s had dinner and if he’d like some
god you’re really throwing him in a loop here
it’s after a batch of your cooking that jimin’s only ache is why you were the way that you were, half-dazed the whole time he’s met you properly
“why do you never ask me?”
“hmm?” you hum as you dry the dishes that you’ve used, wanting to get it done as soon as possible so your full attention would be on him
no, actually. jimin WANTS you to pry!!
he wants you to worm your way into his privacy and into the confines of his mind
but it seems like you’ve already did without even asking.
“ask me why i’m called the cherry king.”
you tilt your head in confusion, that time playing in your head of why jimin looked confused when you didn’t continue to ask further
maybe you’ll indulge him
“why are you called the cherry king?”
jimin smiles, leaning to your couch with his arms relaxed
“we did secret santa for christmas at our frat house. taehyung thought it would be nice if he pranked me by gifting me a jar full of cherries, but i thought that was his actual gift, and i liked it to the point that i finished it in one sitting.”
tHAT’S ACTUALLY PRETTY ENDEARING
cute, even
“ask me why i came out of seri’s apartment last week.”
oh that’s.,.,. that’s a bit higher in level compared to nicknames
“why did you come out of seri’s apartment last week?”
“because seri’s the ex-girlfriend of hoseok, my frat brother, and he wanted me to return all her stuff because he doesn’t want to be reminded of his cheating ex.”
well that was definitely weighted
jimin plays with the hem of his shirt, the words tumbling out of his mouth
“ask me why i love you.”
why do you wHAT
your mouth drops open, the new position you took on the other end of the couch taking an impact on him
“w-why do you love me?”
jimin’s a lot of things but he’s not drunk tonight
he doesn’t know why he’s letting his feelings slip either, but it’s the bottomless need that he feels when he’s around you
“i feel wanted. i feel needed.”
he smiles cheerfully even if he feels shy dropping this on you all of a sudden
“not sure if you want me nor need me, but i feel welcome with you if that makes sense.”
:)
“you just make me feel loved, i guess.”
jimin looks at you for the first time since he’s opened his mouth, an equally fond look on your face
you said no words but what jimin receives is a gentle tug, your hand on the side of his face until he’s leaning on your shoulder
“i wanna know what's up there.”
he points a finger to your temple, an amused lilt to his tone, “surprise me.”
it’s an unfolding of things that was weeks in the making but months in developing, the distant glances leading you to recognize jimin in the shop in the first place
“i feel the exact same with you,” you answer honestly and it makes his laugh from his chest, his cheeks warm and his heart content
and you just wanna suspend yourselves in this moment forever
“oh! and if i were to lose my virginity to anyone at the moment, it'd be you!!”
...
....
jimin swats at your shoulder to which you only giggle at, a toothy smile on display as this is the warmest he’s ever felt
“i wasn’t kidding!!!”
you yawn when you defend yourself, predicting that you’d fall asleep sooner or later on the couch, but for the time-being, you just stroke jimin’s hair to soothe the both of you
jimin is now the furthest thing from sleepy
"what? you told me to surprise you!!"
423 notes · View notes
rheawritessometimes · 3 years
Text
{ Childe x GN!Reader }
{ Summary } Childe gets an owie while sparing. Series Masterlist
{ Warnings } Violence, Swearing, Angry Reader, Injury, Physical Intimacy (Kissing).
{ Notes } Hurting Childe just a little because he refused to come home for me. Lost the 50/50. Reader is a sword user. Reader is suggested to be the Traveler. Self-indulgent again because all my writing is. This one is a real trainwreck but I didn't want to go too long without posting. Something better than nothing? Masterlist
{ Word Count } 2,404
Meeting Childe at the Golden House every week had been your routine for a while now. Right after you had defeated him the first time, he immediately begged you to train with him and you gave in, unable to bear those puppy-dog eyes. And the entire week he spent pestering you about it.
The whole fiasco with Osial had been put behind the both of you. It was probably true that you were too quick to forgive Childe, but he was just so charming. Not to mention he often paid for your meals, suggesting going out to eat after your sessions or if he saw you around the harbor. On a few occasions, you had been out eating with friends or on your own and found he had picked up your tab.
Since Liyue hadn't been destroyed and you got free food out of it, you really weren't all too upset about the situation. The Snezhnayan was actually pretty easy to get along with when Fatui matters weren't involved. He made you laugh too, so you supposed you could tolerate the once-weekly sparing sessions with him.
Childe called it sparing, but normal people didn't spar with actual weapons and fight like they were going to kill their partner. At first, you had tried to convince him it would be much better and safer for the both of you to use practice weapons instead of sharpened blades and arrows. He was quick to decline, saying something about both of you being competent enough not to get seriously hurt. You thought about refuting that on the basis that he had yet to beat you even once.
Even so, every week you found yourself pushing through the doors to the chamber Childe was always patiently waiting in. You'd never gotten there before him and wondered if he intentionally came early. You wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, he probably paced the room plotting his seemingly unobtainable victory.
The hydro vision paired with his combat experience and skill made him a difficult opponent, but he didn't seem terribly good at strategy. He might have been careless because it wasn't a real fight, but somehow you doubted that. He seemed the type to always give it his all. It could be that was his problem, since his loss usually came due to his exhaustion. Maybe if he didn't spend so much energy trying to show off he'd actually be a proper challenge.
"You're finally here," Childe proclaimed dramatically, voice echoing off the walls, "I thought you might have gotten lost on the way or something. Was starting to worry I'd need to go out and rescue you."
"I'm fifteen minutes early, Childe. How long have you been waiting?" you asked dryly, raising your eyebrow questioningly. You took a moment to shrug your adventuring pack off your shoulders and drop it near the door. You rolled your shoulders, relieved to be free of the weight.
"Ahah, anyways, we should get started. I have some business to attend to today," he responded, indiscreetly ignoring your question. It shouldn't have been very surprising that he didn't wait for your response before sending an arrow flying in your direction, but he'd always waited for you to signal you were ready before starting in the past.
Materializing your sword out of habit more than anything else, you raised it to block the arrow with the flat of the blade. The arrow bounced off the metal with a weak dink, clattering to the ground. If you'd reacted a moment later it would have pierced you.
You shot Childe a dirty look, irate from the cheap shot. He responded by grinning wider and taking aim again. You silently promised that he would face your wrath shortly.
Advancing towards him, you swatted the arrow flying your way with your sword. A bow would be less effective at close range, so you intended to close the distance. The redhead laughed, a hint of nervousness creeping into the sound at the pace of your advance. Or perhaps it was the building rage in your eyes.
The bow dematerialized, now Childe held dual hydro-blades in his hands in anticipation of close combat. Once in range, he immediately swiped at you with a blade. You stepped back out of the way, quickly bringing up your sword to parry the next slash coming from the opposite blade.
Childe seemed encouraged by you backing away, a smug look crossing his face. You furrowed your brows, he was so unthoughtful. He insists on using real weapons, shoots at you before you're ready, and now he has the audacity to get cocky.
You raise your blade to swing down at him and he catches your sword on crossed hydro-blades. He lets out a little huff of air, not expecting you to strike with such force, but his arms hold steady. You swiftly draw your blade back to slash at him again. Thorough training has you swiping at him with practiced ease while Childe is forced to switch to the defensive.
It gives you a sort of satisfaction to see his expression change to one of worry, it was your first time seeing such a look on him. You had no intention of actually hurting him, but it was nice to scare him a little. Maybe after this, he'd take the dangers of sparing with actual weapons a little more seriously. But probably not.
You're hardly thinking when his hydro-blades finally fail to parry your blows, the flat of your blade slamming into the side of his chest resulting in a soft crack barely loud enough to reach your ears. A look of surprise crosses your face when he lets out a pained grunt, what had happened finally being processed in your mind.
Immediately you drop your sword, ignoring it as it clatters to the ground before dematerializing. You were internally relieved to see his hydro-blades dissipate too, it would have been terribly unsportsmanly of him to stab you now. Stepping forward on instinct, you pause as you realize you're not exactly sure what to do.
Childe clutches his chest as he coughs a few times and a flood of panic washes over you. If you broke his ribs, his lungs could have been punctured. That would be bad.
"Fuck, that hurts," he huffed out before he attempted to gingerly sit down, right in the middle of the Golden House. Childe winced at the movement, but he managed to settle, leaning on his arms for support. His breathing was heavy from the strain of sparing and you felt extremely guilty, broken ribs had a tendency to hurt terribly and pain would flare up with every breath. At least he seemed to be breathing okay, so his lungs were probably intact.
"Let me get something to ease the pain," you said hastily, jogging towards the door to grab your bag. Your first thought was to numb him up before bringing him to Bubu Pharmacy to get some proper help.
"Aw, are you actually worried about me?" he cooed teasingly, maintaining that signature annoying grin despite the pain that followed him speaking. It was easy to ignore him as you rummaged through your bag for something useful.
It crossed your mind that it would be exceedingly difficult to get him all the way back to Liyue if you gave him anything strong. That limited your options rather greatly, adding that on to your lacking medical knowledge and limited variety of resources left you with fewer options than you would have liked. He probably could make it back without any anesthetic but it would be slow and you'd feel terrible for it.
Even with your lack of selection, you were thankful to have some knowledge and materials for this sort of thing, adventuring made you better at improvising and you learned a lot along the way. Taking everything into consideration, you decided it would be best to go with something topical. You could make a salve to numb up the area and then hopefully drag him to Bubu Pharmacy.
"I'm really sorry, Childe," you apologized, "I didn't mean to hurt you."
"Oh don't worry about it, this isn't the first time I've broken my ribs. Probably won't be the last, either," he replied with a laugh, which caused him to wince. You only frowned at him as you pulled out some plants to grind up. A rock would have worked, but you kept a mortar and pestle for this kind of thing after realizing you'd be doing it often.
You were soon mashing some leaves and a few petals into a paste, with some water Childe so graciously provided. Having a hydro user around was rather convenient when practicing field medicine.
"Whatcha makin'?" Childe asks after a short period of silence, leaning over to get a closer look. You wonder if he's actually curious or if he just can't tolerate the quiet. It seemed the two of you were always talking when you were together, save for when your sparing got too intense to spare the breath.
"A salve to numb you up so I can drag you to Bubu Pharmacy," you responded, still mostly focused on getting the paste to the right consistency.
"What? No, I can't go. I've got work to do," he argued, moving to stand up now.
You were quick to grab his wrist to prevent him from getting up, furrowing your brows. Childe paused, waiting for your explanation.
"You have at least one broken rib, whatever you need to do can wait," you told him sternly, maintaining eye contact. He turned his gaze away from you to hum in contemplation. He knew well enough that giving injuries time to heal was important, but so was his job.
"Fine, I guess what I was supposed to do today isn't that important," he relented, leaning back into a comfortable position once more. Childe had a feeling that if he had insisted on working you'd have found a way to stop him anyway.
"Can you take off your shirt?" you asked, trying to sound as casual and not awkward as possible once you were satisfied with the consistency of the paste. You would have offered to allow him to apply it himself but you figured it would be less painful this way, plus you'd need to bandage his chest afterward, so it didn't make much of a difference.
"Oh my, you're not usually this bold," he teased, reaching to begin undoing the clasps holding his jacket together. His remark made you decide against offering your assistance despite the awareness that even just wriggling out of the jacket probably hurt. It's okay to be a little petty sometimes. As a treat.
Once his torso was bare you shifted your position to be a bit closer and examined his side. There was already the beginning of bruising, but it would get much darker by tomorrow. You ignored the scars and other bruises that were present, very aware of the fact the redhead would tease you for staring if you looked any longer.
"I promise I'll be gentle," you assured, "But it'll probably hurt a little."
Childe just hummed, waving off your warning, so you gathered some of the salve on your fingers. You silently wished you'd had gloves that weren't absorbent with you so your hands wouldn't grow numb later.
It was a quick process of spreading the paste over his ribs, but his eyes remained on you the entire time. You couldn't be sure if he was just interested in what you were doing, but it surprised you that he remained entirely silent.
"It'll take a little while to numb up. I'm going to bandage your chest for support. This will hurt more," you informed him, dragging your pack towards you to dig out a roll of bandages.
"Don't worry, I'm a tough boy," he laughed in response, and you could only smile and shake your head at him. You had faith in his strength, but that didn't stop the guilt you felt over being responsible for his pain. It did make you feel better when he started reminiscing on past injuries he'd sustained in battle once you began bandaging him. How he could look back on them so fondly was a mystery to you.
At first, you were mindful to touch him as little as possible while you were wrapping the bandages. They needed to be a little tight to provide support but you tried to ensure they put as little pressure on his ribs as possible. Unfortunately, your fingers started to grow numb and you hadn't realized you'd been bandaging too tightly until Childe let out a soft grunt of pain.
"Fuck, sorry," you apologized, quickly unraveling the last section of bandaging to rewrap it more loosely.
"Don't worry about it," he said, thinking for a moment before adding, "But, if you want to make it up to me, a kiss would make me feel better."
Pausing in your ministrations, you looked up to see a cheeky grin on his face. You raised a brow, giving him an entirely unimpressed expression. It wasn't entirely uncommon for him to flirt like this, trying to get a reaction out of you. But as you reached one hand up to gently grab his chin, it was his turn to become flustered.
Leaning up, you pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek before moving away and releasing your hold on him. You patted his cheek twice, giving him an amused grin.
"You're welcome."
"Hey! That doesn't count!" Childe immediately whined, pouting at you. You could only laugh at his playful antics as you finally finished wrapping his chest.
"You're cruel, you know that?" the Snezhnayan grumbled, eyebrows still furrowed as he continued to pout. He really did seem like a spoiled kid at this moment and you laughed again, causing his frown to deepen.
You knew his demeanor was all theatrical, but as you stared at his expression you found yourself leaning towards him again. You gently pressed your lips to his, smiling into the kiss when his hands eagerly flew up to your face. You indulged in the kiss for a few moments, smirking when he followed you as you pulled away. Putting a hand on his shoulder, you halted his attempt to continue.
"You can have another kiss once you get checked out at Bubu Pharmacy."
-
If you read all that, I'm sorry lol. I wanted to spend more time on it but I don't want to take too long posting things. Anyways, if you have any better ideas for what I should write send them in. Please.
There's a part two now: Part 2
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love-archon · 3 years
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A Day With The Genshin Characters: Liyue Edition
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Today's going to be a busy day! Check your planner for who you'll be meeting with- as one of the esteemed members of the Liyue Qixing, you cannot afford to be late to any appointment. 
• 6:00, Ningguang: Morning Tea 
Although you say you love your job, waking up at un-archonly hours has to be the part you like the least. Even getting up at five in the morning, the hour when tigers prowl, is still not enough time to prepare for a meeting with the Tianquan. You rush around frantically choosing the best outfit, fragrance, and hair arrangement to present yourself to Lady Ningguang, and you're halfway out the door when it hits you- you forgot to bring a gift with you!
"Right on time," Ningguang says, pleased. You smile, hoping she won't hear your heart beating from anxiety. "And what a lovely present, too... is there any doubt you were appointed as one of the seven Qixing?" (You can't tell if it's her rare praise, or the sheer altitude you're at within the Jade Chamber, that's making your head spin).
• 7:00, Keqing: Business Meeting 
You barely have time to rest before Keqing whisks you away to Yuehai Pavilion. You're very close friends, and you admire the girl for her tenacity and diligence. The conversation flows easily as you walk to your destination under a cloudless sky. It's a wonderfully sunny moment, but the moment the doors lock, you mean business. In the next two hours, you conquer matters that would normally take days to resolve, and the two of you exchange grins. 
"There we go!" Keqing breathes a sigh of relief, pushing away the last stack of papers. She holds up her hand, and you high-five. "You know, I like how easily you keep up with me. You even caught mistakes I would have missed... things like this make me even more certain Liyue is better off in human hands."
• 9:00: Check In With Ganyu
With such a hectic schedule, Ganyu is your saving grace. It's always important to check in with her, just to make sure nothing you have planned catches you by surprise, and sometimes you wonder why others rarely do the same. She's quite lonely, and often mentions how nice it is that you speak with her every day and bring her gifts to help with work. It may be part of your job to be courteous, but... it does help her feel less lonely and conflicted with herself. 
"Qingxin flowers? Thank you so much." She accepts them gratefully, smiling at you with warm eyes. "I still have that new stationery you gave me, too. You're so kind for remembering the things I like!"
• 9:30: Talk to Beidou
The tea in the Jade Chamber was just a front for Ningguang to spring a request on you- meet with the captain of the Crux Fleet to discuss her... recent smuggling habits. But Beidou merely laughs heartily when you arrive. A crewmate tosses her a sack of Mora, and she slits it open, letting the payment shower over you in a spray of gold. And then, before you know what's happening, you're roped into helping them find a treasure rumored to be lost beneath the waves. 
"So, Ningguang though sending her star diplomat would get me to let up, huh!" You blush, wondering how you could be so easy to read under her ruby eye. "I was impressed by your words, and how well you fought by my side. But the annoyance of the Liyue Qixing is of no concern to me."
• 12:00, Tartaglia: TEACH HIM A LESSON!
As the member of the Qixing that oversees diplomacy and foreign relations, it's you that must meet with the Fatui Harbinger. He's quite good at playing pretend- all your underlings believed he was a naive, careless young man, and easily manipulated, too. And all of them ended up suppressing the urge to break something after they were done conversing with him. On your honor as one of Liyue's seven stars, you vow to not make their mistakes. 
"You're asking why I don't try to drive you mad?" he said, setting down his fork. You'd caved in and given him one after watching him struggle with chopsticks for far too long. "You're the only one who isn't a bore to talk to, that's all-" so this was on purpose?!- "and besides, I want to challenge you to a fight afterwards! Your vision's getting quite dusty from neglect, comrade. Let's fix that!"
• 2:00, Yanfei: Discussion of Legal Matters
Yanfei's counsel is an invaluable treasure. Especially when dealing with an opponent as vicious as Snezhnaya's Fatui, who deserve to have her wrath unleashed upon them. You walk to her office with a gleam in your eyes, and are delighted to see an equal fire already blazing in hers. For the next few hours, you two take the "suggestions" Tartaglia passed on from the Northland Bank and scheme on how to best tear them to shreds with the law.
"That man-childe's been giving you trouble again, huh," she giggles. "What did he come up with this time~? I've been waiting for an excuse to bring out the latest edition of my lawbook!" And with that, Yanfei slams it down, and the sheer weight of it nearly cracks her desk. "He won't know what hit him!"
• 4:00: Free Time
Of course, "free time" simply means that you have no meetings scheduled for this hour, which lets you adequately prepare for the next day's events. Tomorrow is your appointment with the Feiyun Commerce Guild, which you already know will require great patience and strength of mind. Because the head of the guild, and his eldest son, the future head, are- to put it mildly- not very bright... it's fortunate, then, that the second son Xingqiu has a good head on his shoulders.  
"Tomorrow, you should go straight to me instead," Xingqiu informs you cheerily, handing you a popsicle. Apparently, he keeps them around for his friend Chongyun, who's off to complete another exorcism. "I'll be sure to set everything in order." His eyes gleam. "And then, I can tell you the latest developments in 'A Legend of Sword'!"
• 5:00: Catch Xinyan's Concert!
Liyue's one and only rock musician isn't hard to find, thanks to the designated performance spots scattered around the city. You stop by at the raised platform where she's rocking out, where other people are listening as well. Xinyan strikes a peace sign in the air, and her vision glows with energy before the stage erupts with pillars of fire; her audience bursts into cheers and applause, and she's beaming as she leaps down to meet you. 
"Wait, seriously? You really changed up the rules a lil' so it'll be easier for me to hold concerts here?" Her eyes shine as they scan the papers- one of the many results of your work today in Yuehai. "Thank you so much! Wait-" she picks up her guitar again, giving it an experimental riff. "Let me think up a quick song for ya as thanks- I insist!"
• 6:00: Wangsheng Funeral Parlor 
Lately, you've been sent particularly determined requests from the other nations about allowing tourists to observe the ancient funeral rites. You already know the answer's gonna be a hard no, but the laws written by Rex Lapis state that you must check with the director anyway. She's not there when you arrive, so a consultant, Zhongli, brings you tea while you wait for her. You sit together in the fading sun, waiting for Hu Tao's familiar song to rise above the hill. 
Zhongli takes a quiet sip from his cup, closing his luminous eyes. "Although it was Rex Lapis who created the laws, they are not meant to be set in stone. Humans must revise the contract as they see fit, so that it will not erode with the passage of time." Something makes you feel as though it's more significant to him than you know. Then, he smiles slightly. "But, just looking at the people leading the way in his absence, like you... there's no need for me to worry."
• 8:00: Dinner; Request Chef Xiangling
The Wanmin Restaurant, run by Chef Mao and his daughter, is a breath of fresh air. While the rest of Liyue is divided between the "Li" and "Yue" styles of cooking, Xiangling pays the conflict no mind. Instead, she's not afraid to be daring and experiment, blazing ahead without worrying about what others think. You can see some similarities between her and Keqing, but it's best not to mention it after that disastrous banquet they organized together... 
"Had a rough day, didn't you?" Xiangling asks, her golden eyes twinkling as she hands you the steaming hot bowl. "Well, for you, I made sure to prepare your favorite dish! I hope you don't mind if I added a lizard or two this time- I'm kidding!" she adds quickly, upon seeing alarm flash across your face. 
• 9:00: Return Home
After everything that happened, you're eager to collect the reports from your subordinates and head home to draft new revisions for Tianquan Ningguang to look over (and then, hopefully, get some rest). But as you're walking on the path to your neighborhood, you spot a little girl sitting in the grass, clutching her head. Alarm rises in your chest as you rush over to see what's wrong, and why she's alone- only to realize with a start that she's the child that returned from the dead.  
"Thank you for taking Qiqi back to Bubu Pharmacy," she says, reading solemnly from her notebook (where the entire thank-you script is written). Even when you set her down, she's still reading the pieces of paper. "Will you tell Dr. Baizhu where I got lost? Please and thank you, again."
• 10:00: Sleep
In the end, you never did get to those revisions. You can hear your fellow Qixing scolding you in your head, but at least you got plenty of other things done; the well-oiled machine that is Liyue will still keep running on thanks to the tasks you accomplished today. Someday, even the adepti will have to acknowledge the ability of humans... you turn in your bed to feel the coolness of the other side. Speaking of adepti... the night air coming in... reminds you of... "Xiao..."
"I thought you were in danger," the adeptus huffs. The moment you said his name, you'd finally fallen asleep, but it still brought Xiao to you- balanced on the windowsill, hair waving in the breeze. "Still... I'm... glad that you're alright," he admits, glancing at you to make sure you're not awake to hear. "Rest well, bright star of Liyue." And then, with a sound like a sigh- or was it the wind?- he's gone.
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Parent/Mentor Swap AU
The swaps:
Aaarrrgghh – Bular
Blinky – Nomura
Barbara – Strickler
 Yeah so this was meant to just be a short explanation but it’s not so please enjoy my 2500ish word backstory for this AU. (Jim will still be the Trollhunter.)
Bular
Shortly before the Battle of Killahead Bridge Bular is talking with his father about their plans for their future kingdom. In the course of the discussion Gunmar reveals that he wants to eliminate all humans and bring about a literal Eternal Night. (Gunmar has talked about the Eternal Night before but Bular assumed it was a metaphor.)
Bular doesn’t like humans per say. He definitely agrees that their numbers need to be reduced. He certainly wants them to be cast down into the dust and subjected to the rule of trollkind…
But he doesn’t want them gone.
The thought has frankly never occurred to him.
Humans are pests but they are tasty and create useful things. The world will be worse off without them.
The second point is even worse. Bular may be rash at times but he is not a fool. Trolls may not survive under the sun but they won’t survive without it either. Bular has traveled far and wide recruiting trolls for Gunmar’s cause. He’s seen what the Northern Lands become during the winter when for a time the sun ceases to rise.
Based of off that he has a fairly good idea of what the surface will become like under the Eternal Night and it is not desirable. There is no point in taking over the surface only to decimate it.
He tries to argue these points but his father will not listen. Eventually shutting the conversation down entirely with a warning snarl.
Bular is left uneasy. He wonders if it is wise for Gunmar to be the ruler anymore. He wonders if there might be more substance to the rumors of his father’s madness then he thought.
As the War comes to a head and the Battle of Killahead Bridge draws near, Bular tries to convince his father to change his mind. He receives only growls, sneers and a couple beat downs for his trouble.
Eventually he decides that other measures must be taken.
He considers starting an uprising but he doesn’t want to kill his father. Eventually he learns of Deya’s plan to banish Gunmar into the Darklands and decides to assist her. He thinks that spending some time in a world without humans or the sun might bring Gunmar to his senses.
Unfortunately Gunmar learns of this.
Bular, not wanting to fight his father, flees. Gunmar can’t leave to pursue his son, so he sends a detachment of soldiers lead by his most trusted general Aaarrrgghh after him.
Centuries later he comes to Arcadia. He is not accepted by the local troll population for a very long time. They don’t believe he’s really changed sides. It also doesn’t help that unlike Cannon!Aaarrrgghh he is not a pacifist. (He has sworn off eating humans however.) He eventually wins them over by helping the Kanjigar protect Trollmarket. He’s brought into the market for the first time because his energy drops to dangerously low levels (he’s completely catatonic when Kanjigar finds him) because he hasn’t been near a heartstone for centuries and doesn’t eat humans anymore. (I headcannon that eating humans allows for trolls to live away from a heartstone because humans produce a similar energy but in very small amounts).
 Aaarrrgghh
Aaarrrgghh’s origin story is the same as in cannon: he was given to Gunmar by Usurna to be his champion.
In this story he doesn’t switch sides at the battle of Killahead. Seeing the destruction wrought by humans on uninvolved trolls leads him to believe that Gunmar is in the right about wiping them out. When the battle of Kilahead happens, he and his detachment of soldiers become the only Gum Gums outside of the Darklands (or rather the only known Gumm-Gumms) because they were hunting for Bular at the time.
Aaarrrgghh works rather loosely with the changelings as well as doing “recruiting” of more trolls to the Gumm-Gumm cause. (More like threatening into obedience).
Aaarrrgghh comes to Arcadia when he learns of the Trollmarket and Trollhunter’s presence there.
Aaarrrgghh’s presence combined with his small battalion results in more skirmishes with Trollmarket than in cannon. Bular and Draal work with Kanjigar to protect trolls that go out to scavenge against the Gumm-Gumms. The Janus Order has their hands full keeping the constant fighting secret.
Aaarrrgghh generally stays in Barbara’s basement which has a tunnel connecting it to the sewer system. (Disguised with magic so Trollmarket trolls and maintenance workers don’t find it.)
He often leaves the window open and tries to lure cats in for him to eat. This is how he meets Toby.
Toby happens to be looking for one of their missing cats. He finds paw prints leading to the open basement window. He attempts to get in the window but is shoved back by a pole. (Aaarrrgghh has been told repeatedly to not eat the neighbors since this will draw to much scrutiny and they will have to find him a new den if he does.) This distracts him from the cat as he is now more interested in learning about the strange something living in the basement of what he thought was an unoccupied house. He starts asking Aaarrrgghh (who he can’t see) questions about himself and Aaarrrgghh (who isn’t quite sure what to do in this situation) awkwardly responds.
Eventually Toby falls into the habit of visiting Aaarrrgghh’s basement window in the evening and jabbering to him about his day. He brings him little treats and will occasionally ask him questions.
Aaarrrgghh ends up growing fond of him and decides that while he doesn’t like humans in general this one is okay and he starts making plans to keep Toby alive after Gunmar returns.
  Blinky (Bartholomew Georgiou)
Blinky is given as a whelp to the Gum-Gumms by his brother Dictacious (who was working as a spy for Gunmar at the time) and made into a changeling. He’s slightly older than Barbara.
Blinky works at the Arcadia museum. He is in the habit of swapping out old, rare books with exact replicas so he can horde the originals in his secret library.
He has an incredible collection of books from many ages and places. He guards them zealously. Entering his library without permission is suicide and generally ends in the offender being blown to pieces by one of Blinky’s booby traps.
He has very few books of Trollish origin and would do just about anything for more.
 Nomura
Nomura was stolen by the Gumm-Gumm’s when she was a child but her parents survived the initial raid and several decades later they are able to rescue her. Her time with the Gumm-Gumm’s have left its mark, however, and she no longer fit the other trolls in her clan. Her family eventually moves to Dwoza Trollmarket.
She doesn’t really fit in with the younglings her age there either but she makes friends with the archivist. He eventually takes her on as his apprentice and when he passes she takes over as the Trollmarket librarian. She takes her job very seriously and does not tolerate loss or abuse of books.
She becomes friends with Draal (due to having similar temperaments) and later she becomes the first troll to truly accept Bular in the Arcadia Trollmarket.
 Barbara
Barbara is a 700(ish) year old changeling (equivalent of 40-50 human years) and the head of the Janus Order. She’s still a doctor and has the most knowledge of how troll and human bodies work of any one person on the planet. This is partially due to how long she’s been alive but also to the large number of often highly unethical experiments she’s carried out on both species.
Barbara meets James Sturges when she’s working on retrieving a piece of the Killahead Bridge in Maine (officially she’s just a nurse at the hospital named Janet). They hit it off and start dating. Barbara finds his expectations for how she’s supposed to act a little annoying but it suits the role she’s currently playing so she goes along with them.
Then James makes the mistake of breaking one of Barbara’s rules and goes through some of her off-limits stuff, so she kills him and disposes of the body.
She assumes that’s the end of that but about 4 months later when she tries to shift into troll form she can’t. Aside from a curse, there is one thing that will prevent a changeling from shifting back into a troll. A trip to the local pharmacy confirms it: she’s pregnant.
This is certainly a dilemma.
Until she’s done with the pregnancy (one way or another) she’s trapped in her human form.
In the past she would have had an abortion without a second thought, but with Gunmar’s release and the destruction of the human race drawing closer and closer this will probably be her last real opportunity to experience pregnancy. So out of pure scientific curiosity she decides to go through with it.
Quite a few arrangements have to be made but soon she’s on her way to her hidden cabin out in a remote area of Alaska.
The pregnancy and birth go well and soon she is the mother to a little boy. She names him James after his father, figuring that will keep her from getting attached. She plans to keep him for two or three years to observe his growth and see if any changeling traits manifest after which point she’ll drop him off at an orphanage or something. As far as the Janus Order can tell human-changeling unions produce completely human children, but one can never beat first hand observation and experience.
She initially chalks up the warm and mushy feelings she’s getting to hormones. It isn’t until Jim is about two and a half that she’s tucking him into bed one night and Jim gives her a sleepy smile and leans into her hand that she realizes that she really truly loves him.
This was not in the plan.
After Jim is asleep, Barbara calmly goes outside and devotes an hour to cursing. (One of the perks of living centuries is that she’s had ample opportunity to amass an extensive collection of swear words.) After that she feels a lot calmer and more ready to look at the situation in a rational manner.
The fact of the matter is that she genuinely cares about Jim. She’s developed feelings for people in the past but it’s always been something she’s been able to pass off as part of her cover. (She still misses her pirate crew sometimes). Jim however is not. Barbara has a lot of enemies. If Jim’s relationship to Barbara is discovered he will never know peace and if Barbara keeps Jim around it will be discovered.
So it’s with a strangely heavy heart that Barbara realizes that this changes nothing: the best thing for Jim is for her to give him up.
On his third birthday she gives him some tea that will make sure he stays soundly asleep. Barbara can’t go through the legal process of giving up a child because: A. Jim does not exist in any legal manner and B. As changelings are everywhere and Barbara is well known (infamous really) there is a very real possibility that someone would find out. So she leaves him on the doorstep of a foster family she has carefully vetted out as responsible and trustworthy and keeps watch from some hidden cameras until she knows he has been found and is going to be taken care of. With him are a note with his date of birth and first name and a necklace with a pendant carved from Barbara’s own stone (Barbara isn’t very good at magic but she was able to enchant it with a simple protection and luck spell.).
Once she’s satisfied that Jim will be cared for she goes on her way and forces herself to not look back.
Nine years later she moves to Arcadia and three years after that she is very shocked to find a found add describing the Amulet of Daylight of all things. She calls the number but is told that the amulet was already claimed. Further investigation reveals that the amulet has chosen its first human bearer (or so everyone thinks). Barbara feels a bit of a twinge in her heart when she learns that the new Trollhunter is about the same age her son would be and that his name is Jim but doesn’t think too much of it. There are a lot of Jims in the world after all and she left hers in Alaska.
She immediately arranges a very minor “accident” as an excuse to make contact with his father in order to keep an eye on him.
 Walter
Walter Strickler is a history teacher at University of Alaska Anchorage. He enjoys his life and his job but there’s one thing lacking: he’s always wanted a child.
He’s had a few relationships over the years but none have ever stuck. He’s also of the opinion that he shouldn’t go into a relationship specifically with the end goal of having a kid.
He weighs his options and decides that he’s financially very stable at the moment. His work hours are consistent and he can afford to cut back a little; especially since his stock investments have been doing well in the recent years. All things considered: he decides he’s in a place that he can be a single parent.
He begins looking into adoption.
Eventually he finds Jim. As Jim has no parents or relations on record, the adoption is relatively simple.
Jim is very shy at first (having spent his life so far out in the woods with only his Mom for company). Eventually he warms up to Walter and then becomes very clingy. Living with only one other person for his early years and then being left behind has left Jim with some attachment issues.
Walter ends up taking him to his classes where he sits in the back and doodles while Walter lectures. He’s a rather quiet kid (most of the time) so this works out well. Walter’s students adopt him as the class mascot.
When Jim is five, right before he’s ready to start Kindergarten, Walter’s mom falls ill. Walter is an only child, so after some debate he ends up moving back to his hometown of Arcadia, California to care for her.
He meets Nancy Domzalski through the chest club and through her Jim meets Toby. The two boys become fast friends.
When Walter’s mother passes away four years later, he decides to stay in Arcadia. Jim is well settled and Walter enjoys his job teaching history at Arcadia High School.
Things are going well.
Then his son finds a strange blue amulet in the canal. It looks fairly expensive so Walter puts a found add up and assumes the owner will give him a call. Then settles down to work on grading papers.
He is definitely not prepared when his son, sitting across the table from him, reads an incantation off the amulet and starts floating.
He is even less prepared when a large stony monster the size of a large grizzly barges into their house.
Bular attempts to explain the situation to the father-son duo but they both faint from terror.
Not quite sure what else to do he wraps them up in a tarp and takes them to Trollmarket. He figures Vendal can sort it out.
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pharmdup · 3 years
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so, alright, ive followed your blog for a while because it's really interesting! i'm two years into a general biology degree, and ive been trying to figure out what i want to do with it. turns out that almost all of my classes thus far would transfer to a degree in medicinal chemistry, and ive recently been really really eyeing pharmacy as an endgoal (Pharm.D, i always intended to get a phd or doctorate eventually so it's not that much different of an expectation). is there anything you'd want to tell someone before they get into pharmacy as a career path? i enjoy working in a lab but i also think that i could do a lot of good somewhere like a hospital or clinic, or something similar. sorry for the unsolicited request for advice, feel free to ignore it!
Thank you for the follow!
I’ve gotta say, I do love being a pharmacist, and I do a lot of good in my hospital and clinic, even though the powers that be and the system in general try to prevent me from doing that good a lot of the time.
I’m a bit tired just now, and tumblr feels casual, so I’m going to give you a bullet point list of advice to see if any of this helps. I might add more later, and encourage other pharmacists to chime in.
There are too many pharmacists. The pharmacy schools are graduating many many more pharmacists than the market can bear. Wages are dropping, and pharmacists are getting laid off since it’s cheaper to hire new grads.
A decade or two ago, there was a shortage of pharmacists, so a lot of people went into pharmacy thinking that in six years they’d get a doctorate and start earning six figures. These pharmacists often really don’t care that much about pharmacy, don’t care to remain clinically adept, and they’re your peers. It can drag you down.
I really hope the students who are entering school now are doing so because they love pharmacy, just like me.
Fewer people are applying to pharmacy school, which means that you should absolutely apply to top schools, no matter how bad you think your chances are. Expect good scholarships.
Go to a public university with a long, prestigious history, and don’t even apply to a school whose NAPLEX pass rates are less than 90%.
Avoid for-profit and/or three year programs. Avoid programs that expect the student to arrange their own rotations like the plague.
How easily you understand your biochemistry class will predict how well you do in pharmacy school.
In general, there’s a culture among healthcare professionals to bully pharmacists. Prescribers are often not inclined to welcome your help. Nurses think we’re idiots and will make fun of us to our faces as if we’re not human beings. You’ll be faced with a lot of ethical quandaries about protecting a patient when their doctor hangs up the phone on you. You’ll have to decide if you can be emotionally resilient in the face of that. I happen to enjoy subtly manipulating prescribers (many of whom are my friends now), and I like imagining I’m the underdog hero, saving the day for my patients despite the slings and arrows from the other health professions, so it works out.
Do everything that you can to avoid working in a retail chain pharmacy. Intern at a hospital. Work for an independent pharmacy. Do a residency. Pharmacy can shatter all of our souls, but retail chains do it quickly while putting patients at risk.
If you want to work in a hospital or clinic, or maybe even something unusual like a drug info service, poison control, etc, consider making board certification a goal, to maintain your competency and to show what you’ve worked toward. Residency is the easiest way to get this, but you don’t have to.
Right now, see if you can shadow pharmacists in different practice settings to make sure it’s something you really want to do.
Nobody in the healthcare team can dispense drugs as safely and accurately as the pharmacist (though, confusingly, other healthcare professionals act as though this is a useless skill). Don’t go into pharmacy if you see yourself as only a clinical pharmacist and don’t want to take the drug dispensing bit very, very seriously. Someday, after many years of training, you may have the privilege of signing your initials on a label. You should strive to have your initials mean absolute accuracy every single time. It should mean something to you every single time, no matter how many outside pressures will try to whisper that it’s easier if you let it slide just once.
You will be the very last line of defense for the patient, and you must remain aware of that, and not allow yourself to be intimidated by how the physicians will always know the patient better than you, and will often know the science better than you. You still have to speak up, even knowing that you may sound foolish every time.
If you read all of this and still want to do it, then I hope you do. We need more pharmacists who love it, who love and have pride in our humble role, who are willing to spend their evenings looking up a few more scientific articles in the evening to help that one patient’s difficult health problems the next day.
My final thought: patients make decisions about their healthcare that often aren’t what you would choose to do, or aren’t what science would encourage them to do. The ultimate authority on what is best for a patient is always that patient. Working in healthcare places you in a role of enormous power and privilege. Patients have the right to direct choices about their own bodies and you will need to always respect that. The very best of us never disrespect the sacred trust that our patients place in us, not even when they’re not around to see it.
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