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#extremely important actually
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hey ummmm jsyk the red cross is going through a severe blood shortage. if you are eligible, please donate—from the beginning of august to about mid-september 2023 alone, the red cross has lost about 25% of its blood supply, and has been sending blood to hospitals at a MUCH faster rate than it has been receiving donations.
giving ONE pint of blood can save THREE people’s lives. power red donations (which require certain conditions be met) can allow you to safely give TWICE AS MUCH blood. plasma can be given once every two weeks, making it more frequent, but again, you must meet certain conditions.
also, i’m not sure if this is a thing in just my state or nationally, but if you give blood before October 20th 2023, they give you a free $15 Amazon gift card. i believe we shouldn’t need incentives for things like this but in case that is a motivator for anyone, check what they’re doing in your state!
i cannot understate the importance of giving blood right now if you are eligible and have the means. you could help so many people by regularly giving. someone in the united states needs blood every two (2) seconds, and while three people doesn’t sound like a lot, many people together donating could save up to thousands.
please share this around. it’s something i’m insanely passionate about and i wish more people were.
source for shortage stats: https://www.redcross.org/about-us/news-and-events/press-release/2023/red-cross-announces-national-blood-shortage.html
schedule near you: https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/find-drive?cid=p-max-oct-23&med=cpc&source=google&scode=RSG00000E017&gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwsp6pBhCfARIsAD3GZuZNFjPI2X1wURQ0VQWnVxx-KYW2rV1ASBZWp6cvpehVLl4wHqmlRusaAuQLEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
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animalsandskyyy · 1 year
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chirpsythismorning · 11 months
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Mike Wheeler and Will Byers… Run.
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clansnaphance · 2 months
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I'm really not vibing with whatever staff is doing now. Not only does there seem to be a total internal communication breakdown, there also seems to be an absolute disregard for how the players are affected by this.
Like, ignoring the fact that the consistency argument doesn't even hold water, their takeaway from the Fern/Paisley thread seems to have been "oh we gotta change Breakup and Hypnotic too!!"
And then completely reversing Sandsurge Blend on top of that? A gene that's been out for over half a year and was only listed as having the gradient softened, not reversed? Just a total failure to communicate and an absolute bullheadedness in pushing the changes through despite the very reasonable player concerns?
To top it all off, none of these are bug changes, they are style changes. Someone saw these genes before they went live, greenlighted them, and put them in the game. And now, months upon months later, someone else (presumably) says "fuck that, I want the gene to look like this instead" and that complete change is just... pushed through??
Like. Did they learn nothing from the Butterfly debacle, from Obelisk Flair, hell, from the Eyepocalypse?
What the fuck is going on behind the scenes?
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nottspocket · 1 year
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Mermaid AUs are so lovely to see. Are they childhood friends in yours, too?
Maybe, i imagine Katsuki has kept gifts Izuku might have brought to him. Seashells, or nice looking rocks, probably with a few fossils inside them?
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Ohoho I’m so glad you see my vision (prev here)
Ramblings in the tags
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UUUGGGGHHHHH mina first instinctively reaching towards him and pulling away because she is horrified by herself after what has happened but then reaching out again because she can’t handle on top of everything right now the added fear for jonathan’s life + jonathan being quite understandably in full instant rage-fueled vampire hunting mode but instantly acquiescing because comforting mina is more important than killing dracula because this violent gory vampire book is a novel about love…. they’re perfect i love them 😭 😭 😭
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iamfuckingsorry · 1 month
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Thinking about that mural from DE
You know which one
TRUE LOVE IS POSSIBLE ONLY IN THE NEXT WORLD, FOR THE NEW PEOPLE. IT IS TOO LATE FOR US. WREAK HAVOC ON THE MIDDLE CLASS
The next world mural. In the game, you encounter this piece very early on if you interact with everything available, you probably see this mural before you've ever even heard of Dora or before you've started to get really serious about your commie tendencies, if that's how you choose to play. And the reaction is like, "wow, this is kinda profound actually". Or maybe it's like, "oh lol, this game really is commie af isn't it" (even though later on it turns out that the game is much more critical of communism than you'd think at first). And the story in the ledger provides some insight into Harry and Jean and how they work together too, so it feels like it makes sense, it fits in very well at that moment in the game and that's it.
But looking back at this mural after you've played through the entire game, knowing what you know of Harry's relationship with Dora...
It's Harry's own fucking love story in a way, isn't it?
Him and Dora came from very different backgrounds. He's genuinely poor, grew up checking the trash cans on the streets for tare and edible food, spent his teenage years running around with a bunch of kids who all OD'd or got themselves killed one way or another over the years. He had dreams of getting an education, getting a chance to use his creativity and curiosity and learn about all that that is worth exploring in this world (which is everything), but those dreams are long dead. She's solidly middle class, with access to all the education and art and music he's always dreamt of, with her family to always fall back on. She's everything Harry's ever dreamt of growing up. She might as well be living in another world.
They fall in love with each other and she moves to Jamrock to live with him. Jamrock, the biggest fucking ghetto in Revachol, full of tweakers and gangsters and just thousands upon thousands of poor people permanently down on their luck trying to get by, with no proper aid or government and a police station so understaffed and underfunded they never even stood a chance. And they can barely make ends meet even living in Jamrock, moving from shithole to shithole, never knowing when they'll have their electricity cut, when something will happen that gets them thrown out, desperately scrambling for a new place to stay. And Dora could never do that, not really - she never actually lived in Jamrock, she always had the possibility of leaving, of going to work across the river and visiting her parents whenever she felt like it or just escaping, packing her shit and getting on the tram and never going back. And as long as she knew she wasn't really, truly stuck in this miserable shithole forever, she wasn't ever really living in Jamrock. And it could never be enough for her.
And she wanted more - for herself, for Harry, for their family, who even knows. Maybe she saw Harry struggling trying and failing to make a difference as a gym teacher and thought he could do more good with the RCM. Maybe she was getting desperate, living in this fucking shithole, and thought they needed more money. Maybe it was something completely else - but what is certain is that Harry ended up joining the RCM, and the 41st, and everyone there is on speed, everyone is miserable and desperate and always running behind playing catch up with the case load, with the crimes, with the drug addicts and rapists and murderers, and Harry, who's always been like this close to a genuine mental breakdown, just fucking falls apart. He needs to help people, needs to make a difference, and working at the 41st, with the budget and case load and staffing situation and the pure fucking misery in the area. He goes out and meets a miserable person after a miserable person and he can't do anything else than be nice, make their day a little bit more manageable, do his best- but he knows that no matter what he does, his best won't be enough. He won't be able to make a dent in the pure fucking misery that is Jamrock. But he needs to, so he drinks, he smokes, he does drugs, he loses any semblance of control he ever had over the voices in his head, the dude telling him to hit shit and the dude telling him to forget everything and just get fucked up and Revachol herself screaming at him about her imminent death. And in the end Dora can't stand it anymore and she leaves (and, honestly, good for her. I'm happy for her. But this is about Harry, and Harry isn't, he isn't able to be happy for her at this point in time).
And like. I personally doubt that she'd have left just because of the money if everything else was good. I honestly even doubt that the money was that big of an issue for her to start with, it was all the other issues first and then the fact that they couldn't even rent a fucking VHS and play it at times became just one more thing on top of this already massive pile of shit that broke the proverbial camel's back. But in Harry's mind, he was never rich enough for her. She was always the middle class girl who settled for the poor fuck, and he was never gonna be good enough for her because he was just a broke dude from Jamrock. She was perfect and so so beautiful and at one point her love was the only thing keeping him going, and then she left because he couldn't even
And from what we can see in the game she was the only person he's ever really, truly loved.
But in his mind, they could never be together again. They could try as they might, but it was never gonna work out, because she was a rich girl and he was just a poor miserable fuck. He grew up looking for change on the streets, she took piano lessons in a fancy part of town. The difference was just too large to ever truly be bridged.
So for post-breakup Harry, prior to Martinaise and even during the events in Martinaise, true love was never actually possible. It is possible only for the new people, in the next world. It was too late for him - he had his chance, and it was an impossible thing, it could never have worked out and now he's wasted it. Because of the inherent differences between different social classes. It is too late for him. So yeah, fuck it, wreak havoc on the fucking middle class. Fuck those rich bastards who took Dora from him, and fuck Dora too.
On another note, this was also one of the most recent cases him and Jean worked on prior to Martinaise. I don't remember the date exactly, but it was in his last ledger, it must have been pretty recent. Do you think he saw the mural and thought about it the same way I did? Maybe this was the one that truly pushed him over the edge? The impossible love. It truly was too late for him. The only way to fix it is a new fucking start. And how do you get that?
After life - death. After death - life again.
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variksel · 29 days
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taking a DEEP BREATH yeah but have you considered that taylor broke the cycle in the exact way than his friends did, through love, and his character development might have been more subtle yeah but it was still extremely there and taylors ending was SUCH a good addition to the message at the core of season 2 because it says "hey your parents fucked up and YOU DONT HAVE TO FORGIVE THEM"
taylors character development was realizing that his dad FUCKED UP massively. and maybe he had justified reasons for it, even. just like the other dads, he had reasons for why he did what he did. but that doesnt erase the fact that it was fucked up, and that nicky hurt taylor, and that the damage is irreversible. and taylor doesnt have to forgive that, he doesnt have to put up with it.
i think its so good and important that linc and norm for example forgave their dads and love them at the end of all of s2. they chose their fucked up dads and they broke the cycle of fucking up, but its equally as important that taylor did that too by choosing to NOT forgive his dad. and at the end of the day he broke it by choosing love, by seeing who his dad really is and choosing to love his mom who was always there for him instead of the deadbeat with good intentions
"this is as good as it gets." and for taylor, that wasnt good enough
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designernishiki · 9 months
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it’s kinda funny to me how that dumb scene in kiwami 1 of majima getting shot and left for dead in the harbor was basically just added as a half-assed way to explain majima not being around for a bit of the plot, but they accidentally(?) just made it seem like start of a chain reaction where majima ended up feeling slighted and heartbroken after being abandoned like that and then lashed out about it via smashing a big truck into the building kiryu was in. and yeah that isn’t inherently a romantic thing as-is but then they go and add the part where majima grabs a hostess and performatively hits on her as in-kiryu’s-face as possible, she says she’s already in love with someone, and majima lets her go immediately, no questions asked, making a big fucking point of it just to say see THAT kiryu? I appreciate when people are HONEST about their FEELINGS. people who won’t just BACKSTAB someone who CARES about them to save themselves. is that so crazy kiryu?? huh??? anyway make it up to me get down here and fight me right fucking now
#I think on another level he was sorta saying like ‘hey kiryu. you’re making it extremely clear that you don’t trust me and my intentions#and I’ve been trying to show you- over and over again- that I’d do just about anything for you and your safety#but I can’t just let my mask fall off in front of everyone- I need to keep up the unpredictable morally grey wildcard act for both my sake#AND yours. because disguising my helping you as crazy random violent outbursts and weird stalker behavior#is the only way I CAN help you. do you think it would go over well with shimano or literally anyone else if I was outright helping you out#of the kindness of my heart and fondness for you? stop being so fucking dense and look past the crazy wacky nonsense for a second and#maybe you’ll realize that all I do at the end of the day- really- is help you and put my own life and reputation on the line for you.#I am an honest guy when it comes to my real values and when I told you I wouldn’t let anyone kill you unelss it was myself- I meant it.#I’ve taken a knife and a bullet for you now. can you REALLY not see through the act yet? am I REALLY that unpredictable when you think about#it?’#that was a longer explanation than i intended but. it was difficult to put into words#I basically feel like it could be read as him implying kiryu shouldn’t backstab the people who put themselves on the line to help him#and/or pointing out that he’s never actually done kiryu dirty and has stuck to his word protecting him in the ways he can#trying to say yeah all this is a crazy act and all but when it comes down to it you Can trust me#it really makes sense when you think about it that he’d have to help kiryu/show affection towards kiryu in unpredictable convoluted ways#at that point in time because. I mean. there’s a reason he was the only person who showed up to welcome kiryu when he got out of prison#and that’s because A) he sticks to his word and his loyalty to people he cares about and B) no one else had the balls or the batshit insane#mask to wear to ward off anyone asking real questions like majima did. because ANYONE associating themselves with the supposed#patriarch-killer was a HUGE NO-NO at the time. someone important showing up for kiryu and welcoming him back outright could’ve caused#all-out warfare probably. except majima. because majima was dedicated and smart enough to use his widely-feared wildcard persona#(that everyone tended to view as incapable of having any Real agenda to worry about) to his And kiryu’s advantage#does that make sense??? I feel like it makes a lot of sense if you get it to click in your head#kazumaji#majima#kiryu#yakuza#kiwami 1#yk1#rambling
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sinestrosmind · 1 month
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have a future Donnie
not entirely happy with the armor but this is an initial concept so it works lmao
Iron Turtle anyone???
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rushingheadlong · 3 months
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You know something I don't think I've ever seen people talk about is how Freddie changed the lyrics for Big Spender.
Because in case you don't know, all original versions of the song are sung by women - and it is made very clear that they are singing to men:
The minute you walked in the joint I could see you were a man of distinction A real big spender [....] So let me get right to the point: I don't pop my cork for every man I see Hey, big spender Spend a little time with me
Probably not too surprising, then, that when Queen performed this song in 1974 Freddie had to do a bit of a gender-switch on it:
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Though, it would probably be more accurate to say that Freddie made this song gender-neutral because he didn't change it to be about a woman. He eliminated the first use of "man" entirely and then sang "I don't pop my cork for everyone I see" (instead of "every man").
And honestly there's probably a whole dissertation you could write just about those changes alone, but what I really love is when Queen brought the song back in 1986 and Freddie changed the lyrics again:
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Because yes he still dropped the first "man" but the "everyone" is changed and Freddie instead sang "every guy" with just the barest hint of a "-rl" sound at the end to give him plausible deniability if anyone asked about it.
So much of Freddie's music speaks to his experiences as a queer man but, because of the nature of the times in which he lived, he couldn't always be directly open about that fact. Most of his love songs are intentionally vague, and he sang about "somebody" or "you" to avoid having to use gendered terms as much as possible.
Freddie singing "I don't pop my cork for every GUYrl I see" wasn't just an adjustment to the original lyrics, it was a specific change from how Freddie had sang it before in order to make it more gay in a way that he could rarely be with his own music, and that is what I adore about this. It's such a little thing, but it gives such a unique insight into how Freddie balanced his sexuality and his stardom, and how the relationship between those two changed over the nearly 12 years between these performances.
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festering-bacteria · 9 months
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jfkonfucius brainrot.,.they r so real and canon
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laundryandtaxes · 3 months
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I think it's interesting that, a decade ago, I saw a lot of mainstream pushback against the very concept of butch flight (loosely, the concept that what proponents claim is an alarmingly large portion of very gnc women were beginning to form new identities in which they no longer considered thenselves women) and especially against the concept that an alarmingly large portion of very gnc women were beginning testosterone use and surgical interventions to cope with their gendered discomfort. I saw with my own eyes many an indiginant person shout that they knew many, many such people, and almost none of them were either forming new identities and/or turning to medical interventions, and that this was proof those changes were only occurring in people who had some inherent need for them. When I spoke with a professor about a paper I was working on on butch identity formations in a particular time period, she gave me a few potential sources and added blithely and presumptuously, "And I'm assuming you don't want to read anything about butch flight or things like that." I took note of these things even as I have been very clear for years that I think there is, in fact, something to see here. Experiences and cultures vary. While I did not see many people who lived in places like myself- big or medium cities, or citylike pockets near universities such as college towns- take so much issue with the concept, but I could not factually know what portion of us was affected, and where, and how.
Over that same decade, I have seen group after group after group of women like myself be affected by what I think is a real phenomenon- the spread of one particular way of coping with gendered discomfort among a population of people riddled with gendered discomfort, for whom entering an Uber, or presenting a passport in another country, or showing up for an interview, or going to a women's spa or changing room, can be nerve wracking experiences loaded with the weight of the quick, often totally unintended but sometimes outright cruel assumptions of other people. I have known one by one by one by one women who've decided, for various reasons, to end their testosterone use, or that they don't have a gender identity in a meaningful sense, or that they do and that identity is "woman." And I've watched as the phenomenon has become so commonplace that I've seen queer spaces shift their language on detransition- from "exceedingly rare" it has become "uncommon" for someone to stop because they changed their mind on continuing, or one totally benign form of identity exploration that a person was simply "wrong" about, and I have not seen the famous 1% "statistic" floated out by them in large pushes, as I used to. I have never argued before and will not now that it inevitably ruins a person's life to decide to stop a medical intervention, or to choose a medical intervention they come to regret. I have never argued before and will not now that looking uncommon for one's sex is a bad thing, or that the scar of detransition lies in one's ability to be accurately sexed by strangers. To be clear, the uptick in detransition and reidentification is not the point of this or my point- it is simply an inevitable consequence. Even if the 1% stat were correct, 1% of 1000 is still more than 1% of 10. That is, it is simply one of many byproducts of the increased change in identity among this population to begin with.
Now, in 2024, I honestly don't think I know anyone in my own country, especially anyone who lives in the kinds of places in it previously mentioned, who will earnestly decry that there is simply nothing to see here, and that the experience I'm detailing here is totally unfamiliar to themself and to any of their friends at all, and they have absolutely no idea what I'm seeing. I know some people who will chalk it up to increased public acceptance of transition leading to increased internal acceptance of transition and trans identity among people who were actually trans the whole time, and who argue that no one's identity has been actually influenced by what they are seeing and experiencing every day. I know some people who will chalk it up to increased information and access to medical interventions, where applicable. I do not buy that such a massive portion of this group was simply truly trans the whole time, but at least this argument attempts to account for the uptick. But I don't know any people who know a large number of very gnc women in similar social situations to myself who claim, out loud, that this isn't happening at all.
And yet the number of people that I see openly discussing the topic is just about the same, and the general hushed tone on the topic is just about the same, among LGBT people now as it was a decade ago, despite the decade of new inormation and experience. I don't individually have the way out of this cultural moment for us, and I admit that there is a real (if minute) possibility that the arguments that account for this by saying this was functionally inevitable/just a matter of more of us accepting that we require these interventions could be correct, but I think it's important that I continue to name the reality that I think I am seeing with own eyes. Doing so does not deprive anyone of dignity, does not deprive anyone of choice, does not deprive anyone of the ability to self determine or make their own medical decisions. It simply means not lying by ommission.
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betty-bourgeoisie · 9 months
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I am so so over climate change being something that I'm supposed to worry about in the future.
I didn't have asthma until 2017 when we started having regular forest fire seasons.
One of my elderly relatives died during one of those forest fire seasons because he couldn't handle the smoke.
Climate change is not some future issue. It is happening Right Now. It is impacting me and my family and my friends and it has been for quite some time.
If you read this I hope you reblog and share how climate change has impacted you and your loved ones. It is worth sharing. It is worth saying out loud.
I never see anyone directly blaming climate change for their health issues, or for the death of their loved ones, or even for the fact that they couldn't go for a walk one day during an extreme weather event, but we need to. We need to name this shit! We need to call out the fact that corporate and government inaction on this issue is actively harming us. This is no longer some intangible issue.
Talk about climate change like it's effecting you personally because it fucking is
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unpretty · 1 year
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"Everyone I knew who said they were into Legolas turned out to be in denial about liking women."
ALKFJFJYWYGSHDHDJ OMFFFFG
As a former Legolas fangirl this felt targeted 😂
write what you know (friends who got really into legolas and later turned out to not be interested in men)
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Lucie is cold, and bleeding, and the monster is gone but there is nothing she can do. Adrenaline keeps her away but, as soon as it crashes, she knows she will succumb.
To the cold, to the blood loss, to the failure.
She is dying alone, and it is meaningless. Carol will throw Emi to the monster again, Benito will not care, Diego and Luis and Jeffery are too far away to save her… The monster… Oh, god, the monster - it is going to take them, too. She will die alone and for nothing and soon Diego and Emi and all of them will join her too.
"Lucie?"
She thinks, on the breeze, she might hear someone call her name. It is a dying hallucination - it must be.
"Lucie!"
Maybe whatever god exists has granted her mercy, letting her hallucinate Diego one last time. Even if Diego is crying… But of course he is, because he and everyone else is about to die.
"Meu Deus, Lucie…" she can almost smell him. "Wait. Jeffrey! Jeffrey, help, she's still alive!"
Not for long, though; she knows it will not be long. The adrenaline keeping her heart going is leaking out of her wounds and into the snow. The pain makes her delirious, makes her see things she does not.
Lets her feel a warm hand on her cheek and harsh ones on her chest, something tight against her leg. She is in pain, she is in agony, and her mind has tricked her into not being alone.
"Lucie, can you hear us? Lucie!"
But he's only a hallucination, and Lucie does not want to stay.
It hurts, it hurts, it hurts so much… She's already failed, why won't it just let the pain end? Why won't it leave her be?
/The ice/ says a voice that sounds suspiciously like Diego. /People bleed slower in the cold./
Lucie doesn't think she wants to bleed slower - she wants to bleed fast, so she can die, so she can finally put an end to the pain.
For a moment she thinks she gets it, but then there is another sharp pain that shakes her core. Reality comes in flashes, barely understood; a blue coat, lights, yelling- She tries to call to the voices, to ask for Emi. Someone terrified slams a hand over her mouth, and she forgets to breathe.
A crackling radio, hysteria, something heavy pressed against her. She doesn't understand, she hurts and she hurts and its no longer cold but why hasn't she died, why won't the world just let her die and for a while the world fades out, but then there's Emi screaming her name and Diego stroking hair from her face and Benito throwing a fit over the amount of blood on her coat as he pulls out a needle and thread, and Lucie almost wishes it was real.
It isn't real, it isn't, the monster took her - she's a dead woman… not walking, but lying.
There's arguing all around her. There's screaming and yelling and she grabs the nearest trouser leg to try get attention.
It's Diego - ways Diego - who answers.
"Lucie?" He drops to his knees beside her, voice caught in a sob. "Lucie, Lucie, you're okay, we've got you, you're okay, what do you need?"
The words blur and she doesn't quite understand, especially when they're not in her own French.
Its hard, its impossible, but she must - she shakily presses a finger to her lips and pretends she cannot taste the blood.
It takes Diego a moment, before he turns and does his best to yell "I'll do it just be quiet!"
Lucie doesn't want Diego to leave, but he does, and she thinks, maybe, that dying alone might be kinder than hallucinations who abandon her.
They don't, however; Jeffrey takes the radio and Luis watches Mikael, and Emi is still clinging to her hand. Benito's hand is also taken by the girl, and his free one pokes bandages around her chest.
Lucie screams, and the world is black, and she thinks - finally!
But then reality crashes back, and she's being carried in arms she doesn't understand, and the carry must be real for she screams as footsteps shake her, but perhaps it is the monster back again, here again, unsatisfied with his larder and so moving her instead.
The jolting, the pain, being passed to someone - more yelling. So much more yelling, and agony as things are pressed to her wounds and her face and perhaps the monster means to smother her, but at least it means it is not touching the others.
The others, the others, who should not be here - who need to run and run and run and never look back because they are being chased and chased and don't they know they're all dead, all dead, all so so dead, but they //need. To. Run.//
A prick on her arm, and another scream - even if she is a failure, maybe she can bait the monster away and -
And Diego is there, and Emi, and Luis, and Jeffrey, and Benito… No Carol, no Mikael, and Lucie isn't sure that she cares.
There's more yelling and more loud noises, and the haze that is Lucie understands none of it, and the longer it goes on the more the haze grows.
Lucie doesn't remember the rest of it, just Diego and Emi sobbing, and that, perhaps, is how it always should have ended anyway.
---
Lucie wakes in a bed, with beeping all around. Diego is right there, at her side, more bandage than man but grasping her hand none the less. It is bright, too bright, but the world is only what it is.
Diego seems asleep, clutching her hand. Looking… Jeffrey lies in the next bed, Luis passed out on the floor between them.
And Lucie…
Lucie is covered in wires, and pain, and a blur, but she knows where she must be. She's… not dead? And Diego is hurt, but right here! They're safe, they're safe, they're safe, but where's Emi?
The panic comes back as soon as the thought occurs, dulled by the painkillers but still impossible to ignore. She wants to wreathe, to run, to find the girl and they need to get away before it comes back and-!
The beeping gets louder.
A doctor - not Bonito, someone she has never seen before - appears. He asks her things and she thinks she answers, he adjusts wires and makes notes and she doesn't understand. Diego is woken up - he looks exhausted - and clings to her hands, making her promises she doesn't think he can keep, as she panics.
When the doctor leaves, he pulls her into a hug, and sobs into her hair.
"Where's little brat?" she asks, shaking in his hold. "Where are we? What- I was dead, what happened?"
Diego holds her tighter, tucking her close and it isn't /safe/ but its /safer/.
"Benito took her to get food," he says. "It's okay, you're okay, we found you - Jeffrey and I got the bleeding under control, and Luis carried you back. Its… Its bad, but its okay! You're going to be okay."
With a shaking hand she touches one of the bandages on Diego's face.
"There were more infected," he takes her hand from his face, and gently holds it in his own. "It's okay, we got away. Well… Mikael and Carol didn't, but…"
"Fuck them," she whispers. "Fuck them both, fuck all of them." "Yeah," Diego agrees. "Even Jeffrey agreed to shoot them by the end."
Lucie feels light, feels giddy. The laugh bubbles forth, first a giggle, then a shriek, as stress pours from her soul into the void. "I was dying," she laughs. "I- I- I was dying, and Carol was going to kill Emi, and- and-"
The laughter gives way to sobs, and a door slams open. In marches the little brat herself, eyes wide and shaken as she clutches Benito with one hand, and a milkshake in the other. Benito seems much more relaxed, but for the glasses that hide his eyes - there's a large bag of MacDonalds over his elbow, and he tosses it at Diego.
"Lucie!" he calls. "See, Diego, I told you she'd live."
Diego flips him off, and leans over to wake Luis up.
Lucie is quickly distracted by Emi throwing herself on the bed, the girl scrambling desperately until she's pressed against Lucie and gripping her tight. Lucie surpressed the yells, the pain it causes, and hugs her back.
"You okay, little brat?" Lucie tries to soften her voice. "Did the dumb dumb doctor look after you?"
"Don't you dare do that again!" Emi screeches. "You're not- Dad's- you're not allowed to do that again!"
"I wasn't going to let you die," Lucie holds her. "We look after you, ok?" "No!" Emi sobs. "No, not okay!"
"Eh, chill out, she woke up so she's fine," despite his dismissive words, Benito is soft as he pets the top of Emi's head. "Well she's missing a leg, and her spine is fucked so she's probably losing the other one too, but its not like she can't live without legs. Will probably be faster on wheels than trying to run. So she's fine."
"Benito!"
Lucie isn't sure which of Diego or Luis - or Jeffrey, newly awake but looking very out of it - the screech came from. She doesn't really care, the reality not crashing in yet. All she can do is laugh at the flippant tone Benito says it in, like telling someone their cat got hit by a truck - or, no, a normal person wouldn't sound like that then either, so like someone telling you there's a bug in your hair. It's not right, it's not how anyone should say it, but in the short time she's known him it is so /very/ Benito.
Some idiot doctor she barely knows but who has survived hell with her just flippantly has told her she'll never walk again, and all she can do is laugh and think, perhaps, not walking is a small price for being alive with her Emi and her boys.
Because they are /hers/ now, if the universe wants them from her they can tear them from her cold, undying hands.
It will hit her later, the mess of her situation, in the dark and the alone, but for now she laughs in defiance of a world that tried to kill her. She grasps it with her teeth, just like teeth bit into her, and may not be a hero, but she won't let it win.
---
It will be many, many months before Lucie will be okay, but she will. The flat she and Diego share will need to be sold, but Luis' Abuelita will open up her home to all six of them strays. Lucie will get her own room on the ground floor, Emi on the first, and the boys all share the basement. Most nights, however, everyone will end up in Lucie's room - and nobody will mind.
Diego will help her up, and Abuelita will make them all breakfast, and Lucie will wheel herself out to the garden. She will drink wine and laugh and watch her Emi and her boys. Jeffery will be helping with the flowerbeds, while Benito heckles him instead of reviewing his textbooks. Luis and Diego will drag Emi into a game of catch, and Lucie will cheer for her girl.
At least, until a throw will be missed; Lucie will catch it and return it, and will join them - one hand to the controls for her wheelchair, the other to catch the ball.
There will be nightmares and horror and days she can feel the glove on her wrist or pain in a leg no longer there or the break in her spine will be agony, but those are not the only days for her future.
There will also be family, and love, playing ball in the garden and teaching Emi French and late nights on the patio where she falls asleep beneath the stars and in the arms of her boys. Benito will train to be licensed in Mexico, Jeffrey will get a job at a new pizza place closer to their new home. Diego will research and use the hush money to find parts of the world she can still explore, and they will go together - and never out of signal range.
Luis will see his grandmother again, and Emi will have a new home. They all will have a home, in each other, in blood.
Lucie may not remember being saved, but she remembers how it felt to die afraid and cold and alone and believing you had failed everything in your life forwards.
Lucie will look at her future, then, and for the first time in many years see hope.
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