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cannabiscomrade · 10 months

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It's Gastroparesis Awareness Month

Hi! I have gastroparesis and I'm an insufferable know-it-all so let's talk about it!

Gastroparesis, or a paralyzed stomach, is a condition that causes delayed gastric emptying.

This can cause a range of symptoms and complications:

nausea

vomiting

early satiety/fullness

upper gastric pain

heartburn

malabsorption

dehydration

malnutrition

Gastroparesis can be treated by a gastroenterologist, but often needs to be managed by a motility specialist due to a lot of misconceptions about the condition. Providers, especially in the emergency department, will commonly misdiagnose gastroparesis as cannabis-hyperemesis syndome, cyclic vomiting syndrome, gastritis, food poisoning, etc.

There are several commonly known causes of gastroparesis like vagus nerve damage from diabetes, injury to the stomach, and stomach surgery like hernia repair or bariatric surgery. There are also idiopathic cases with no known cause. Other causes of gastroparesis are:

Connective tissue disorders like HSD and EDS (commonly hEDS and cEDS)

Post-viral (like COVID, viral gastritis, mononucleosis/Epstein-Barr)

Restrictive eating disorders

Autoimmune diseases like Systemic sclerosis (scleroderma), Lupus, Hashimoto's

Central nervous system disorders

Gastroparesis also has common comorbidities with conditions like:

POTS and other forms of dysautonomia (POTS, EDS, and gastroparesis are a common triad of diagnoses)

MCAS

SMAS (which can also present with similar symptoms to GP)

Intestinal dysmotility and esophageal dysmotility disorders (known as global dysmotility)

PCOS with insulin resistance

Endometriosis

SIBO/SIFO

Chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction

Migraines

Certain medications like Ozempic and other drugs in that class act on the digestive system to delay gastric emptying, which has caused people to be diagnosed with gastroparesis. Some people report that their cases have not gone away since stopping the medication, others report feeling better after stopping. Other drugs like opiates and narcotics can cause delayed gastric and intestinal motility as well, but these are commonly known side effects of those painkiller classes.

Gastroparesis is classed based on severity and graded based on how you respond to treatment.

Severity of delay ranges from mild to very severe, and this is based on your actual stomach retention calculated at 4 hours into a gastric emptying study.

The grading scale ranges from one to three, one being mild and three being gastric failure.

There is no consistent single treatment that is proven to work for gastroparesis, and there is no cure. Treatments can consist of:

Diet changes (3 Step Gastroparesis Diet, liquid diet, oral sole source nutrition)

Prokinetic (motility stimulating) drugs

Anti-nausea medications

Proton-pump inhibitors

Gastric stimulator/gastric pacemaker

Pyloric botox and dilation

G-POEM/pyloroplasty

Post-pyloric tube feeding

Gastric venting/draining

Parenteral nutrition

IV fluids

Other surgical interventions like gastrectomy or rarely, transplant

Gastroparesis is a terrible disease and I hope that if any of these symptoms resonate with you that you can get checked out. I was misdiagnosed for a long time before getting a proper gastroparesis diagnosis, and all it took was a gastric emptying study. This is ESPECIALLY true if you're having post-COVID gastrointestinal problems that are not improving. I almost died from starvation ketoacidosis because of how serious my GP got in a short period of time post-COVID (I had GP before COVID), and now I'm tube reliant for all my nutrition and hydration.

Stay safe friends!

#gastroparesis #disability tag

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copperbadge · 1 year

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I'm here! Well, I mean, I've been here for several hours at this point, but I've reached my lodgings and settled in. I hung up the next few days' worth of clothes, put my toiletries in the bathroom, took a shower, and am now running today's (which are also yesterday's) clothes through the small washer-dryer. We'll see if it actually dries them; if not at least I'm not doing this the hour before packing for Paris.

Went to Sainsbury's. You guys are not gonna believe the shit I found, but it's going to have to wait until my phone charges.

There have been a few hiccups on the road; the main one is that due to a complicated series of events, I have two USB ports I can charge all my gear from when I really could use four, and I'm not sure if I'll even have those two available once I leave London. I'm just going to have to be a little measured with my power use until I have more intel. In any case, most trains these days seem to have USB ports, so I'll just plug in whenever I can. As long as the phone stays charged I should be fine, and I can charge it like four times on my backup battery before the backup bites it.

Overall, despite Heathrow being a nightmare, it was a pleasant day -- I checked my luggage at the Tate Modern, did a loop of it, then went off to Pick & Cheese, the conveyor belt restaurant. I wanted one of everything but I know me, so I limited myself to three plates, which was enough to fill me up, although I imagine I'm going to have a snack before bed. (Hence Sainsbury's.) It was really, really good cheese and pairings, but I'm sure part of it was also that I hadn't had a real meal in roughly eighteen hours. The dinner they served on the flight was absolutely inedible; I had three or four protein/granola bars and a cup of Chobani, but that was pretty much it. It's fine -- Adderall is an appetite suppressant and normally it doesn't affect me because I'm home all day and like to eat, but actual hunger isn't an issue and as long as I make sure I get some calories in my face every few hours, blood sugar wasn't either. This is why I brought a literal dozen protein bars.

Still nice to sit somewhere and eat what amounted to a big plate of protein and sugar.

Everyone I've interacted with has been super nice, too -- people don't know how to walk on the sidewalk, which my midwestern-transplant soul found almost actively rude, but I chalked it up to tourists the same way we do back home. All the "staff" I've dealt with -- airport attendants, train officials, waitstaff, museum staff, the guy at Sainsbury's -- have been super nice. It reminds me that some cities actually want to be tourist cities, unlike Chicago, which begrudgingly admits we need tourists but really would rather they all die horribly. There's being a good customer service staffer and then there's actually being a nice person and I think most of the folks I dealt with are the latter.

Tomorrow I go to the British Museum, and I'm kind of glad that mudlarking fell through, because I feel like I definitely am going to need the morning to do a little recovering from all the walking. I'm going to ice my feet tonight and that should help.

So yes, here I am, in the new time zone, plotting a heist getting ready for tomorrow. I've successfully taken several different trains and a bus, and I know at least two of my payment cards work overseas plus my phone, so all of the major problems I anticipated are non-problems in the end.

I'm hoping tomorrow morning to go back over my posts and add anything that's needed and maybe post a few more photos from today, but we'll see. I have no idea what time I'll wake up tomorrow if I go to bed in the next half hour. Exciting to find out!

#sam travels #the cheese tour

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doctorbeth · 2 years

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Finch the Grinch: Intermission at the Fashion Show

So usually, it takes me a while to get posts up... mostly because I'm so busy working on patients, that taking time to write up their stories gets delayed. But today I got an email about a patient who went home on Tuesday, and I just couldn't wait to share it with you. This falls into the "What's making me happy" category, and I hope it helps all of you start off your weekends with a bit of happiness, or enjoy a bit of happiness and a smile whenever you get around to reading (and watching) it. Maybe it will even help your hearts grow a few sizes more. :-)

So... Finch is a Grinch, and his people like to make videos about him and his friends in Stuffed Animal City. As I said, he went home this week and his people just posted this video of his unfortunate wounding and his recovery. As I said, it made me smile and I hope it makes you all smile too!

And, if you'd like to see more details about his time in the hospital, read on. :-)

This was one of the diagnosis photos his family sent after the wounding. You can see his neck and hand injuries, his balding around his neck and head tuft from age, and his missing pupils (which weren't really discussed in the video):

And here he is in the primary hospital in Stuffed Animal City, before he got transferred:

Finch arrived safely at the hospital, and the first step was stabilization of his neck wound. Once stabilized, I set about searching for a good fur. That area was supposed to be fluffier than the rest... which is probably why it had worn before the attack as well, because fluffier long fur is rarely as tight or dense as shorter fur. I actually found two really good matches pretty quickly, and when they got to the hospital, they were nearly identical, so we were all set for fur transplants. For his hands, I stitched up smaller wounds, and then I had a really good skin match. It's slightly darker (as new scars sometimes are) but will fade to blend over time (just like human scars). The most complicated part of his surgery was actually his pupils. We went through a few iterations. First round pupils (and a stabilized neck):

But it turned out they were supposed to be u shaped, so here are the first u shaped ones (along with his neck fur transplant).

They needed to get a bit thinner, and the third time was the charm. Here he is, all better and ready to fly home:

And as you know if you watched the video, he made it home safe and sound and is quite happy with his spiffy (and healthy) look.

Oh, and in case you're curious, part of why our hospital felt comfortable to Finch was because we had our own Dr. Lorax who took time off from his planet care to oversee Finch's case.

#stuffed animal hospital #stuffed animal repair #stuffed animals #dr. seuss #grinch #the grinch #lorax #the lorax #video #toy grinch #toy lorax #happy

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thescreaminghat · 4 months

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so i watched suzume. . .

And it was good—the animators, vas, musicians, and other talented people who worked on this film deserve so much praise for their work.

On the other hand (and this is a purely personal exercise that isn't meant to detract from Makoto Shinkai's vision for the piece), I think the overall theme of the film might have been better served if the story centered on the ups and downs of Suzume's relationship with her aunt Tamaki, rather than Souta.

Suzume is very much a story about grief—set against the tragedy of the 2011 tohoku earthquake, Suzume's personal struggle with the loss of her mother is arguably our entryway into understanding how this tragedy continues to shape the relationship between Japan’s very geography, its history, and its people.

I believe that central to this narrative focus is Suzume’s complicated relationship with Tamaki, her mother’s sister, who raised Suzume for much of her life after the loss of Suzume's mother. For me, one of the most important moments of Suzume and Tamaki’s relationship is shown at the climax of their disagreements with each other. After being Suzume's sudden departure from their small town (partially out of that rebellious teenage desire to not be "suffocated" by Tamaki's presence; we'll get to Souta’s role in this later) and Tamaki's understandable worry about Suzume's wellbeing (which leads her to embark on a wild goose chase after Suzume, though we’re not shown much of Tamaki’s personal journey), Tamaki yells at Suzume while the two are at a rest stop with Souta’s friend Serizawa. Tamaki bitterly states that raising Suzume after her sister's death had been a suffocating burden on her as well, as she couldn't find love and live the life that she had wanted because of her responsibility. This leads Suzume to shrink back in disbelief, as she recalls a pivotal memory where, after wandering in a snowstorm in search of her mother (and encountering the Ever After), she is found by Tamaki, who cries and affirms that Suzume will always be her daughter. It's a heartbreaking scene. We can empathize with both characters—Suzume is closer in age to most viewers, and we know that she doesn’t really hate her aunt’s presence, as the stress of her chase after Daijin and Souta’s temporary “demise” has whittled away at her emotions. Similarly, we can imagine that Tamaki herself likely hasn't overcome her grief at losing her sister, and that her outburst wasn’t truly genuine—she does love Suzume, but she wants her adoptive daughter to understand the sacrifices she had made, because she had no one else to confide in or rely on. We anticipate that this is the emotional crux of the movie, showing the relationship of a surrogate mother to a child who has gone through deep, unresolved trauma, now burdened with the consequences arising from the "imbalances" of the spirit world, itself a metaphor for the turbulence of living and of losing.

. . .and then the movie doesn't do anything with this scene. It's suddenly cut short with the random appearance of the keystone Sadaijin, and any lingering tension from that scene is resolved offscreen, with Tamaki and Suzume regaining each other's trust in the next scene. It feels unearned and deeply unsatisfying, especially when the emotional core of the film then gets transplanted onto Suzume's emotional relationship with Souta, a college-aged man whom she has known for less than a week (Suzume, by the way, is in high school, and even if they don’t “get together” in the movie, it makes me a bit uncomfortable seeing someone who is implied to be in their twenties being the implied romantic interest for a seventeen-year-old).

So, I thought, what if the movie kept its cast of characters, and the general sequence of events, but instead of Souta being the one cursed by Daijin to be the keystone (an act that initiates the film's events), it was Tamaki? This is going to be broken up into a few reblogs since it's too long for one post, but here's how I would structure it. (Part 1 of 2, and with a lot of my own hc interactions)

The beginning of the film can stay the same, including Souta's appearance. however, the driving force for Suzume to go to the isolated spot where the first door is located is an argument with Tamaki, rather than her implied curiosity regarding Souta. Perhaps, in this fight, we see bits of Tamaki's personality that may come across as "suffocating" to a teenager, even if she meant well.

Suzume, bothered by Tamaki's presence and the dream that she had of wandering through the Ever After, goes to this isolated spot to get away from everything, which is where she encounters the door and Daijin. Perhaps she's sulking a bit, and makes some sarcastic remark about someone like Souta being able to travel (something that would show her interest in leaving the small town she currently lives in). She then opens the door, Daijin escapes, and she goes about her day as in the film, until the worm appears above the skyline.

She then runs back to the door, where she encounters Souta again. They close the door, and Souta explains what he does and what the door represents. She brings Souta back to their house for medical treatment (except without any of the weird romantic tension between them), and they begin talking about Suzume’s life (perhaps about her room, the chair, and her dreams, as Suzume imagines the kinds of dangers—and thrills—that come with Souta’s position as a Closer).

This is where Tamaki comes back into the story. Tamaki, returning early to check on Suzume and encountering Suzume and Souta together, thinks the worst and begins to berate Suzume. They get into another argument, with Souta trying to calm the two down. Suzume, already stressed from the day's events, wishes that she can be "free" of Tamaki.

This is when Daijin appears on the windowsill, shit-eating grin and all, and says something along the lines of "Ok, Suzume. I can do that—because you're just like me." And then Tamaki is suddenly turned into a chair.

The same chaos ensues, with Tamaki, Souta, and Suzume chasing after Daijin until they get on the ferry. This is where Souta can give some more exposition, saying that he's never encountered this before, while encouraging Tamaki and Suzume to try and come together as he figures the whole thing out. Perhaps this is also the time where we get more information about Souta's personal life (in this version, it is information about his desire to become a teacher, as well as info about his relationship with his own mother, who was killed during a dangerous mission she took on as a Closer.)

The trio continue chasing after Daijin, with the group splitting up by necessity (thus allowing Tamaki and Suzume to have more screentime together). Specifically, Souta finds out that another door is opening off the path of travel they are taking after Daijin, and he instructs Tamaki and Suzume to continue their journey while he takes care of the other door. Before he leaves, he gives Suzume another key he keeps in his possession, which he reveals belonged to his mother.

Suzume and Tamaki continue onwards and meet Chika, the girl on the motorcycle. Suzume and Tamaki then cooperate in closing the door opened by Daijin. In this version, I think it would be interesting if Daijin is actually actively opening doors, not simply leading the pair to doors that are about to open. This serves as a huge bonding moment for Suzume and Tamaki, as they previously couldn’t go a day without arguing over the best way to do things.

Suzume and Tamaki stay at Chika's place (and have the downtime with Chika that is shown in the movie), except Suzume's dialogue with Tamaki consists of her confessing that she is jealous of Chika's independence and the bustling atmosphere at Chika's home. Tamaki is initially angered by this, but gradually calms down in her “chair corner” as she sees Suzume and Chika having fun, perhaps even reminding Tamaki of her own childhood with her sister.

When Tamaki falls asleep, she sees visions of her sister, which both frightens and immobilizes her (i.e. literally her survivor’s guilt “anchoring” her in place). This is meant to replace how Souta gradually descends into his “death” when he sleeps.

Suzume and Tamaki head off and are picked up by Rumi, the mother who works at the hostess bar. Initially, Tamaki whispers to Suzume that she doesn’t want Suzume hitchhiking with a stranger, but Suzume tells her that sometimes they need to rely on others to get by. The same comedy shenanigans with Rumi’s children can be kept in—I think it’s more fitting that Tamaki plays the role of the “toy chair that can speak” in order to keep the children entertained, because she probably, after all, raised Suzume on similar silly stories.

Suzume and Tamaki run to the abandoned fairgrounds to close the other door when the worm appears. I think this scene becomes more impactful when Tamaki is the chair and not Souta, as her decision to save Suzume from falling from the Ferris wheel and letting Daijin go would highlight her parental worry for Suzume, though perhaps this isn’t fully realized by Suzume in the midst of her adrenaline rush. Suzume, however, does look upon the fairground as a place that she wants to go to with Tamaki, when all of this is over, though she keeps this to herself.

Suzume, watching Rumi work her shift as a hostess, comes to appreciate the struggles of being a mother more. Similarly, Tamaki wants to connect with Rumi as a peer, but is limited by her chair form. Seeing Suzume bond with Rumi makes Tamaki want to be there for Suzume, as she sees Suzume slowly maturing into her own person. However, neither Suzume nor Tamaki feel ready to fully open up about these nuanced feelings, as they fall instead into a comical back-and-forth when they’re alone.

Suzume and Tamaki manage to get to Tokyo, where they meet up with Souta. He tells them that he’s been doing whatever research he can to try and figure out how to break Tamaki’s curse. This is where he can explain the keystone lore to Suzume and Tamaki.

The giant worm starts appearing over the city. Tamaki insists that Suzume get out of Tokyo. Souta agrees, and tells Suzume and Tamaki to leave, stating that he can handle the worm himself. Suzume refuses, stating that she’s not going to let anyone else die—the “else” implying that she too still feels survivor’s guilt over her mother’s death.

Despite Souta’s attempts at reasoning with her, Suzume is adamant on staying—Daijin appears and mocks her, telling her that she only knows how to let her aunt dictate how she lives. Suzume rushes ahead without Souta and Tamaki. Tamaki and Souta chase after Suzume, with Tamaki yelling at Suzume again, calling her “rash”, "always making her worry and chase after her," and “thinking and behaving like a child”.

Perhaps Suzume covers her ears, as Tamaki’s words begin to blend into Daijin’s laughter as he scrambles towards the worm. Perhaps Suzume screams out loud, screaming that she felt as though Tamaki had never believed in her, that even when an entire city is threatened, Tamaki cares only about herself, and knows only how to chastise and suffocate Suzume. This shocks Tamaki, but before she can respond, the trio are shot up to the worm’s back, and Souta attempts to seal the worm. However, Daijin interferes and Souta is injured. Suzume then tries to grab Daijin, only for Daijin to purr contentedly and state that he understands what Suzume is feeling—that is why Tamaki will now be the keystone, and both of them can be free.

Suzume turns to Tamaki, only to find that she is unresponsive. Ice is forming around her, as Suzume’s words echo over and over in her mind. Perhaps Tamaki then screams in grief as she sinks deeper into her regret and memories of her sister—that is when we get her screams about how much she had sacrificed for Suzume, and how much happiness Suzume took from her (basically what she said during the rest stop confrontation).

(pt 1 end)

#suzume #suzume film #suzume no tojimari #tamaki #souta munakata #daijin #this movie was spectacular visually and in its theming but i think it really should have focused on suzume and tamaki #souta is fine as a standalone character but he really felt out of place in the movie #like an addition to what should have been a movie about suzume's growth

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dramatcha · 1 year

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No, the Netflix live action (adaptation) doesn't butcher Chishiya's backstory. The two different backstories are relevant in explaining apathy.

(And as a manga reader who respects the mangaka (edit: and the scriptwriters), I see Live Action Chishiya and Manga Chishiya as two separate yet equally cool characters).

Apathy is rooted from a damaging childhood and a traumatizing adulthood.

This apathy is the reason why both Manga Chishiya and Live Action Chishiya seemed "unbothered", when they were actually almost mentally numb.

For apathy to start (with no neurological causes), one must be either an abused kid, or a traumatized and burned out adult, or both.

The emotional abuse that Manga Chishiya had to endure was killing him on the inside. So much that he chose medicine out of spite (although he said otherwise), and deteriorated.

While we don't know what made Live Action Chishiya chose medicine, the fact remains that he didn't do anything to save his patients from being manslaughtered and let it slide as an everyday decision.

Aren't these two the cases of apathy? Aren't these two backstories enough to explain that both Chishiyas are morally complicated?

No? Then let me explain more.

The post-Borderland consequences of the two different backstories matter in different ways for Chishiya.

Manga Chishiya would have to heal his inner wounded child and make up for his immoral act against his dying patient (the letter throwing), and for disregarding life (his and others). Maybe he would quit medicine as he rediscovers himself. Maybe he would be a better med student and then doctor. Maybe he would cut ties with his family. I don't know.

Meanwhile, Live Action Chishiya would have to come to terms with the fact that he was a gaslit, powerless adult who conspired with criminals in a series of manslaughter. Maybe he'd be a whistleblower. Possibly jailed. Made an outcast. Hated by the public and the patients. Or, he could become an anonymous whistleblower while recovering. Again, I don't know.

And the point is they both matter.

Also, no, the live action doesn't try to "make Chishiya more palatable to the public" as accused by some fellow manga readers, imho.

Because even in real life, complicit whistleblowers are shunned. Let alone a criminal. And what Chishiya did in the live action, no matter how decent a doctor he might've seemed at the start, was immoral and criminal.

So how can you call Live Action Chishiya "more morally palatable", when he did worse things than Manga Chishiya?

Instead of chasing palatability, the live action inserts an ongoing social problem into the character. There's a current debate in the ethics, medical and social research circles (for example in Germany) whether manipulation of organ transplant waitlist is considered manslaughter or organizational deviance. People actually die while waiting for their organ transplants, so when the waitlist is manipulated, isn't that a crime? I'm thankful that the show attached this complicated real time issue to Chishiya.

Child abuse and its long-lasting effects on children (the case of Manga Chishiya) will always be relevant. But so will the moral weight of taking lives (the case of Live Action Chishiya).

Last but not least, at the end of the day, didn't both Manga Chishiya and Live Action Chishiya want to change? Didn't they both save an innocent life? Why must it matter how they started out as long as they both emerged in the light?

Thanking user @kinnsporsche for their post.

Edited for grammatical reasons, clarity and more arguments.

#alice in borderland #chishiya #shuntaro chishiya #shuntarou chishiya #chishiya shuntaro #chishiya shuntarou #imawa no kuni no arisu #meta #they both matter #manga #live action #alice in borderland s2

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raytorosaurus · 1 year

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I have seen maybe half a season of TUA and didn’t read the comics so let me tell you seeing those panels where Vanya is yelling “We belong on that stage” (and in reference to herself and her taller blonde bass-playing brother) drawn in profile with literally Gerard’s haircut and outfit was a big shock to the system. I never even considered that he’d inserted elements of himself and his bandmates into TUA except for a bunch of weird edits people made comparing how much Aiden Gallagher looks like Frank but now I feel like I really need to read it.

im really looking forward to rereading all of the comics after this semester's over because i haven't done that since volume 3's run ended and i'll definitely make more coherent posts about it then but like. it's really really interesting to compare to all of gerard's other art because he is just...so distinctively him, even across different mediums and genres. tua and mcr and hesitant alien and kjna and his visual art etc etc etc like his artistic fingerprint is stamped so boldly and unapologetically all over them and that's something i really love about him. like his art, love it or hate it, is sooooo genuine always. even when he's purposely imitating other artists, he's very consciously doing it in his own voice, putting his own spin on it.

when i say tua and mcr are completely separate projects i mean it - i don't think one should only ever be discussed in relation to/in the context of the other - and, above all, tua is certainly not like...autobiographical, or a direct representation of real people/events. it's led by gerard but it has a different creative team than mcr does and that really shows as well - i definitely wanna talk ant this when i have more time but part of the reason im not sold on conweap as an album is because it's too umbrella academy - it's really evident that gerard was working on both of them at the same time, and letting one influence the other too directly. mcr's a band, not a Gerard Project, and umbrella academy is largely a duo (w gabriel bá), so they can't just be transplanted onto each other yk.

anyway I'm rambling but all this to say - tua isn't meant to be "about" mcr any more than bullets is "about" 9/11. but gerard's life was changed and shaped by his experiences in the music scene throughout his life, by dropping everything and living as a penniless artist, by becoming suddenly (in)famous, and that really shines through in tua. he says he drew inspiration from touring band life to write a dysfunctional family, and the dehumanising effects of fame and attention, and of being categorised and scrutinised on a private or public level, are huge themes - as is addiction, mental health, complicated grief.

like...i actually got into mcr through the tua comics lmaooo. i read volume 1 because of wonderful @blackmoldmp3 talking about it and immediately said oh. i need more from this dude's brain right now. and i was soooo not disappointed haha. i really am obsessed with quite a lot of the things gerard is also obsessed with as an artist. the particular themes and imagery and scenarios he's fixated on are really very consistent throughout everything he does - only the way they're discussed or portrayed does change over time. i don't rly subscribe to the idea of gleaning specifics abt artists' personal lives from their works because, beside all else, it just does them a huge disservice (that's my number one gripe with the popular talking pounts around hes alien and frank's solo work in particular; however "confessional" you wanna read art as, it's still art that was created with skill and intent.)

anyway that's way off topic dkfnfj. what i do love about this kind of thing is looking at distinct creations in the context of the rest of an artist's body of work. like...yeah, gerard's said there's a lot of mikey in klaus. has dressed similarly to vanya and the kraken and the seance at times etc etc. has compared himself to the rumor, because she's the one he relates to most. puts a lot of his familiar ideology surrounding music and performance into vanya. puts angry teenage vanya in a shitty punk band with her disillusioned teenage brother on bass, and puts a classical music prodigy in a punk band as an excellent guitarist, writing songs about killing the president etc etc. i could go on! because these things are just scattered everywhere through the comic, just like all of gerard thematic and aesthetic and ideologic fingerprints.

so what's reallyyy interesting to me is looking at umbrella academy as something gerard wrote on the road with mcr across multiple years. volume one was released while the tbp world tour was ongoing, and volume two only a few months after. the progression of parade -> tua -> conweap -> danger days is SOOOO fascinating to me, especially because one of the things that really works about danger days imo is the way it kind of shakes off some of the tua-style gritty cynicism and returns to mcr's defiant, extravagant theatricality. if you go through tua with a fine-tooth comb you'll definitely find the most direct comparisons to conweap, in terms of mcr. the way dd approaches the themes it has in common with tua is just.....so different, and so so mcr. and then you can see the at times self-referential development on those things in hesitant alien - AND THEN VOLUME 3 COMES AROUND AND LIKE. AUUUGGGGHHHHH the change and growth there is SO apparent. btw i don't mean "growth" "progression" etc in this post to mean "improving" - i just mean change and development in a neutral sense, bc it's so interesting to see it laid out there in an artist's body of work. but like. man it makes me crazeeee actually the way gerard picked tua back up....almost certainly around the same time mcr started discussing a potential reunion. and the way that foundations revisits and reconceptualises mcr's existing catalogue is paralleled in the way vol 3 of tua is, like...........like there's so much life lived there, between those things. gerard's even said he's changed his plan for the ending (if we ever see it 🥲) because he has more compassion for his own characters now and doesn't want to see them broken down for good. he says he's gotten better at listening to other people - for starters, he's a lot more conscious of his own subconscious racism/whiteness that came through at times in the original run and has expressed regret for that (namely, the entire main cast being white, with a couple of side characters being uncomfortably stereotyped).

but just like. augh. im not gonna lie man i have no idea what i've just typed im sorry it's probably so rambly bc I'm so dizzy rn and definitely am not gonna proofread it or whatever skdjfj but. I LOVE ART! I LOVE ARTISTS! I LOVE DIVING DEEP INTO AN ARTIST'S BODY OF WORK AND WATCHING THEM REINVENT THEMSELF AND/OR DOUBLE DOWN ON THEMSELF (SOMETIMES FOR BETTER, SOMETIMES FOR WORSE). obvs this fandom genuinely does have a big issue with invasive/un-self-aware parasocial behaviour but there's a difference between that and like. getting obsessed with a particular artist. that's so normal and in fact necessary to life imo. i think every artist literally has to have ppl like that i can't imagine any other way to live it's just a specific type of human connection at a distance baby. don't get me wrong tho i also wanna chew on his thigh. anyway.

my god. how did i get here what even was your question. tua. yes it's crazy. it's not for everyone for sure but it has enough of the shit that makes me crazzzzyyyyy that it got me into mcr which made me crazierrrr so. yes i can recommend. especially if ur like me and lovvvve stories that are a little bit fractured by design. that dance around big parts of the story, where there's as much significance in an absence or in a tiny background detail than there is in any dialogue or action scene. most of the criticism i see of tua is about the pacing but like. to my tastes it's a really great use of the comic medium yk? lmk if you want content warnings or something there are plenty skdjfj.

#how was i completely braindead today and then too dizzy to read text. and then somehow type this shit on my phone with my eyes half-closed.#am i literally just lazy or is a hyperfixation strong enough to kvercome any illness lolz #sorry if this went in a billion circles but the room im in is also spinning a little so. skfndkfndjdjfjdj #umbrella academy #tua #mcr talk #*#answered

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lansplaining · 1 year

Note

I’m glad to be back lol

For the au prompt again:

What if Jiang Cheng died post Sunshot but pre Wen remnant labour camp break out due to complications from the core transplant?

oooh okay

So Jiang Cheng dies. Yanli’s wedding is off: she’s the leader of Yunmeng Jiang now. And Wei Wuxian… spirals. He wants to step up and help shijie, he’s desperate to. But he can’t. And maybe—yes, maybe he doesn’t have to. He disappears for days and weeks at a time, and Yanli is begging him for answers, and finally openly begging him for help, but he tells her not to worry. He has it in hand. She won’t need his help soon. She’s increasingly terrified of what that might mean—whether it’s real, or whether Wei Wuxian has fully slipped into some kind of delusion.

She has her answer the day Wei Wuxian returns to Lotus Pier with the fierce corpse of Jiang Cheng.

#ask answered #AU meme #there’s maybe a version where this forces WWX to pull himself together #but I know you like angst 😘

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lixenn · 25 days

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KHR timeline

For this project I'm going to use this wiki post as a basis:

I have no idea how accurate this is but I honestly can't be bothered to look for another one, so fuck it we ball.

I was in the process of overviewing the timeline when I realized: Some of these entries are pretty wild. So, I will once again do a commentary (like my KHR reread) but with this wiki page instead.

Disclaimer: This is just me poking fun and shitposting, I'm not mocking the person who made this post. I imagine they put a lot of work into this and I really appreciate it, so please nobody take this too serious okay.

I'm not going to do this in any particular order btw, this is going to be random af, as in when I see a funny thing I will screenshot and comment.

Let's get started!

The first thing I noticed and what inspired this post:

... just why???

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Love the addition of "while crying". This is important guys! Not only did they repair the costume, no they cried while doing it, which I imagine quite complicated the process.

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The girls of Namimori Middle know husband material when they see it and I'm delighted by this information (also: HUSBAND MENTION!!! Me shitposting wouldn't be complete without Kyoya thirst)

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for real?? (just realized I'm so kinda spoiling myself for the reread but I cannot be fucked to care)

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OMG THAT'S AMAZING!!! that cracked me up so hard!! Like not only does Adult Lambo get stuck in the past, no he also gets arrested after returing!! The dude doesn't catch a break does he?

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... alright then.

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Why does this wiki entry talk so much about bodily secretions? First poop now snot? What's next? Cum?

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Ex-FUCKING-cuse me!!!!! A group what???? That's fucking news to me!

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I want to find the original poster and shake their hand, this is so fucking funny. Like the contrast of these two sentence... it's fucking gold man 😂

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This keeps getting better and better, this isn't just gold. This is a gold mine! The urge to find this guy and dissect their brain to transplant their comedic genuis into my head is rising.

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Gonna make a cut here for now.

I don't now if there will be a part two, it fully depends on my energy level and if I find more funny entries, but I hope you enjoyed this one!

See you later~

#khr #katekyo hitman reborn #khr timeline project #Lix comments

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elithesia-autem-danguarde · 1 year

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Pokémon Warden Project

Day 15: Emmet

Why is he here?: For one of my many Submas AUs, I have Emmet and an OC of mine named Rellea fulfill the role of warden for what I call Wandering Pokémon. This is when the Pokémon in question is revered in Hisui but has no specific territory that it calls home consistently. So the warden travels around Hisui along with the Pokémon in their care, with the position often being difficult to fill. Emmet fulfills this role for the Diamond Clan in this AU, which I hope to share more of in the near future.

Team: Since Emmet being transplanted into Hisui has no canon basis, I’m able to do whatever I want in regards to giving him a team of Pokémon. His team consists of Luxray, Scizor, Yanmega, Pachirisu, Steelix, and Rampardos. I made a whole post in the past that contains more detailed reasoning for these team members, which you’re free to search for is you wish. But to sum it up the best I can, it’s meant to be similar to the team I give him in modern Unova, with a twist. Emmet is the Warden for the Wandering Pokémon Hisuian Zoroark, who keeps all unwanted parties away with its powerful illusions.

Personality: Despite being yeeted to Hisui, Emmet’s personality changes very little from canon. He loves battling, freaks people out just a little due to his constant smiling, and is charmingly weird. However, what mainly differentiates Emmet from his brother is the fact that he’s retained all of his memories of his life in Unova. However, this creates an internal conflict within him as he also feels a sense of belonging and acceptance with the Diamond Clan, which complicates things.

Disclaimer: Art of Diamond Clan Emmet was made by Xenon (@_XenonB_) on Twitter. Show them some love: https://twitter.com/_XenonB_?s=20

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bi-kisses · 1 year

Note

“Imagine thinking that "bone density" of a twelve year old boy vs girl is going to be significantly different enough for an unfair sporting advantage,”

It… literally is. The difference between male and female bones isn’t slight and 12 year olds are actually right at the point where that difference becomes even more pronounced. Beyond having much stronger bones, natal males also have more muscle mass (which HRT can only reduce by up to 5%), larger hearts, larger lungs, and more efficient oxygen transport during exercise—All of these are pretty relevant to athletic performance.

This transwomen-in-women’s-sports hill that so many of you are willing to die on is beyond unscientific and it comes across as both deluded and incredibly selfish to anyone with a functional understanding of sexual dimorphism. Women losing the right to relatively fair competition is not acceptable collateral for making trans people feel more affirmed.

I know exactly who is sending this and dude I'm embarrassed for you because you're so obsessed with this bullshit. Like it's children playing sports. For fuck's sake can YOU choose another hill to die on? Am I the one actually digging through blogs to cry about the slightly denser hip bones of prepubescent boys and how it's unfair to let them play soccer with the girls? I post on this blog, like, every other day. Usually just to reblog something I thought was interesting. I am of the opinion that sports as a whole shouldn't be such a big fucking deal and YOU deciding to read more into that isn't my problem.

Don't tell me, a woman, how you, a man who loves to shit on trans people, how women are "losing the right to (relatively*) fair competition". You had to add that little caveat because it's already a well known fact that sports aren't actually "fair" at all, hence the banning of (mostly black) women who have more testosterone than others through no fault of their own. Christ.

But forget all that! Since I genuinely wanted to learn more on the subject, mostly out of spite for you specifically, I decided to do some digging. Here are the actual facts about muscle mass and bone density between the sexes, as well as the effects of HRT.

Here's a quote from a Canadian study on bone density, which I hope you find particularly interesting: (source)

There was no gender difference in TB BMC until age 14 or in TB BMD until age 16, when male values were significantly greater. Females had significantly greater LS BMC at ages 12 and 13, but by age 17 the male values were significantly greater.

It's not a "boys strong girls weak" situation, actually, because bodies are complicated and full of moving bits. Girls have stronger spines in their preteens (on average) whereas boys have tougher hips. This shifts and changes. At age 12, specifically, it's not AT ALL significant enough to impact playing at a preteen-capacity sporting event, especially a team-based one. You think having one kid with slightly stronger bones on one of the teams is ruining the playing field??? K

In some countries, the disparities are different between sexes, and there's a growing issue with girls entering puberty far earlier than boys (probably microplastics, who knows). To try and paint it as this black-and-white "boys play with boys, girls play with girls" as if that actually makes things significantly fairer when I, a girl who stood a good half foot taller than my male classmates at age twelve and did martial arts since I was able to walk, was considered weaker competition than the two-heart-transplants boy who was at serious risk of death if someone came to school with a cough? No one ACTUALLY gives a single flying fuck about these sports being balanced.

Alright, muscle mass time.

Here's a Danish study (source) that actually bothered to distinguish between levels and variations in physical activity. And, unsurprisingly, from ages 10-12 there aren't significant differences muscle-wise between girls and boys who engage in the same sports.

For the specifics, check table 3 and the averages it gives for each sex, especially with the standard deviation being much higher than the difference between those averages.

That was all well and good, and again, you WILL find significant differences between different cultures because bones and muscles are heavily reliant on what you eat, your genetics BESIDES sex, and the activities you're participating in. So to reiterate, why is sex the thing we're using as a mark of "fairness" given the variables that ACTUALLY make a notable difference at these younger ages?

I think I've made my stance pretty fucking clear at this point, which is "this whole idea that sex is the arbiter of balanced competition is stupid". But we're not done with the original ask, which also claims that HRT can only reduce muscle mass by up to 5%.

God, okay, so this one was fucking annoying to look into because it's not as simple as a flat muscle-mass-change-percentage. There are different muscle groups that are affected differently by hormones and whatnot, but I couldn't find any evidence that it was a maximum of 5% change?? Here's a review of the last twenty years of studies in the area of trans women undergoing HRT (source). If you're trying to find a conclusive range of possible change in muscle mass, you're going to come up short, because that's not what people are studying here.

Let me explain a few things. The average reported change in muscle mass after about a year of HRT was ~3-6%. There's no accounting for how much of an actual change that was in relation to their lifestyles, because trans women don't actually tend to be professional athletes. These are just girlies who go about their lives.

What am I getting at here? Well, let's say, sure, that average muscle mass decrease was 5% ish. That's from that individual's initial muscle mass to their current. The difference between cis men and trans women, however, could be anywhere from 6% to 20%. The data you're comparing actually matters and the variables at play matter, too. Trans women who hadn't undergone ANY HRT still tended to have ~10% less muscle mass than cis men!

There are a lot of theories surrounding what makes someone trans to begin with, and several studies have confirmed androgen insensitivity to be prevalent in trans women, so you can imagine how that would change their physical development. Just food for thought.

I kinda rambled and got pissy here but honestly I'm so sick of the nitpicking bullshit because no one pretending to give a shit about trans women in sports actually cares about the numbers or the balance or whatever have you, they just obsess over this idea that "failed men" are stealing from "poor, weak women", which I shouldn't have to explain is a stupid and sexist position.

In conclusion: professional-level sports aren't fucking fair no matter how strictly sexed they are, this whole argument is meaningless because transphobic assholes don't actually care about any of these talking points, and general exercise is good for you.

#long post #source post #anonymous #trans sports

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neuromedical · 1 year

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It was the perfect weather for sleeping. I had a window open, it was raining all night. And I still kept tossing and turning, because my brain kept thinking about yesterday's shift. About ways I could've helped more. But I couldn't. It was a 30yo who rejected the transplanted heart after two years. When I got there, they were being massaged by LUCAS. We put them on ECMO. Then got a CT (the most complicated CT of my life so far - imagine trying to put a ventilated patient on ECMO, a monitor, and two IV pumps through a giant donut, it took us longer to move them from bed to bed than the angiography itself). Funnily enough, when we wanted to do a CT pulmoangiography we realised that the ECMO sucks all the blood from the right atrium and absolutely no contrast got further. Thankfully we got at least a brain scan. But at that point... We knew they had pulmonary oedema because the ET tube kept filling with pink foam, but after the CT it was red. Probably not pure blood, but a very bloody fluid. The ECMO kept them oxygenated and their blood gases were surprisingly normal, after all that. But later that night they passed away. I dreamed about it all night...

I started writing this in the morning before I got to work but never got around to posting it. So now I'm gonna add that today also started with resuscitation of a 90yo patient that we also saw last night (not in our ward) and tried to help. This morning they went into asystole and we couldn't help them. So... I watched three deaths in two weeks. I guess this is what intensive care is about. But ouch.

Got some wine on my way home today. I need it.

#personal #residency diaries

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rat-rosemary · 1 year

Note

"you can put down the pitchforks" i am raising them higher actually. why does quackity have a room in the manipulative grooming racist's house.

Hey did you know that Brasil is actually well-known for cloning? It's kind of funny because we have a few things that we're really good at but people don't really know. I think Brasil is the best place to get an organ transplant, or at least it was when I learned about it

Also even with some of it's flaws, our voting system is one of the best in the world, I mean do you remember the hell that was on the last US election? Also I really like the laws around the voting day and how it works and I think they're actually really smart. It's kind of sad that there's still some bad and unlawful practices even with them in place

《 Anyhow, first of all, check your sources. Dream didn't groom anyone, the girl who accused him disproved her own accusations with her own posts. Second of all, he has a room because he's best friends with Dream and Sapnap and George. He's one of their closest friends, enough that they don't just want to have a extra room where he can stay in their house, they want him to have a room that is his

Also im answering like this because im a huge pussy and i dont like conflict

And this is a trap so now you need to read about cloning》

Do you know how cloning works? It's actually really cool. So when you're forming you're made of these special cells right? Now I don't know their name because I'm not a native English speaker, but these cells can turn into different cells and thats how a living being forms. But when you're older you still have some of those cells, so you can take those cells and use them to create a copy of the being you took them from by injecting them into (the egg thing? I forgot the name for it) and then injecting that into someone/something that can host that being

(Human cloning is illegal in all countries, if you're worried about that) but the big problem is that those cells that were used to create the new being are old, and on a cell level, that thing is as old as the original

That means that the new being can have diseases and complications that only older things of that species can have. The first clone actually died because of that! You know that sheep that got cloned? Yeah the clone died young of a illness only old sheep could have

In a human that could mean that if you made a clone of yourself in your 50s for example, when that clone was 20 they could have dementia because their cells are 70 years old.

But in plants its very different. For example, all bananas are clones, because bananas do not have seeds (no the black thing inside of a banana are not seeds). Its actually a huge issue because if a banana tree (idk the english name for it) has an illness, like a fungus, it can spread very very fast trough all of the farm because it's just the same tree over and over and it could spread to even other farms and cause a massive extinction

There a type of banana that actually disappeared because of that and it's the banana we used to make banana flavoring in candy, so when you eat a banana flavored candy you're tasting an extinct banana

Also that does mean that all fruits that you can buy with no seeds, grapes, watermelon, whatever, are made with cloning

To clone a tree you just need to cut a branch off and plant it again (there are specific ways to do that with some plants but you can probably find a video on yt explaining how to cut the plant you want)

There's this really cool thing where you can reattach a branch (of for example, a lemon tree) to another tree (for example, a orange tree) with some moss and eventually it will become part of the tree and you'll have a orange tree with one branch that gives lemons

《 Anyway, please don't ever be mean to me I will cry and if anyone tries to make me feel bad for being weak I will trauma dump all over you

Go enjoy your silly block men 》

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thesakuragarnet · 7 months

Text

His Ocean Eyes (first chapter)

Disclaimer: This is just the first chapter! The full fic is ongoing and is posted to AO3! Link will be posted below.

FULL FIC IS 18+ ONLY!

Summary: Dusk is just another outcast. Just another child for Ujiko to exploit once she reaches her full potential. The only difference between her and the others is that she's been plotting her escape since children started disappearing one by one. When the mysterious boy who's been asleep for three years wakes up, allowing her to break free, how will her life change now that she finally has someone she can count on?

Tags: Dabi X Female OC, MHA CH350 spoilers, swearing, strangers to friends, friends to lovers, fluff, hurt/comfort, angst, smut (as of right now, there is no smut published in the fanfiction), canon-typical violence and Dabi-typical body horror, alternate canon, found family, slow burn until it isn't

Word Count: 2,048 words for the first chapter (full fic word count is unknown as it is ongoing)

AO3 link

Chapter 1: Runaways

“HE’S AWAKE! HE’S AWAKE!”

I can hear the children shrieking at the top of their lungs as they run by my room, and I jolt up in the small cot as the thin hospital gown clings to my lithe form. My name is Dusk Ryuuzaki, and I am fourteen years old with green eyes and pale skin. My dirty blonde hair hangs in my face, hiding my eyes like it has most of my life as I exhale upward, blowing the strands out of the way so I can see. My hair is long ; I’ve always been told to cut it, but I’ve never wanted to. I’ve been in this hospital for almost two years. I was twelve when Sensei “rescued” me and brought me here. I was living on the streets for only a day after my Quirkless parents threw me out. My Quirk is…complicated. I can painlessly transform myself into a dragon, yet the senses stay with me at all times. I have increased vision, sense of smell, sense of hearing, strength, and agility. Furthermore, I can breathe fire for about a full minute before it starts to hurt my throat. My Quirk times out in hour intervals, but they’ve gotten lengthier as I've gotten older. I’ve been practicing with the other children, honing our Quirks during our time at the hospital. Every now and then, one kid will disappear, never to be seen again. Sensei’s flower-faced friend assures us that they found a good home, but…I have to admit…things seem…suspicious. The one thing I’ve learned: don’t ask questions. Anyone who asks questions goes missing. Anyone who defies even the slightest order goes missing. Anyone who gets… too good at their abilities goes missing. So, I’ve swallowed my pride by deliberately messing up, taking careful note of every potential exit. I wanted to leave. I didn’t feel safe anymore. I decided to mask my curiosity. That is…except for my curiosity about the boy who just woke up.

He’d been in a coma for three years. Whenever we received breaks, the children would crowd around him, poking and prodding at him, wondering when he would wake up. They said the surgery took days; his skin was so badly burned that the doctor had to transplant practically all of it. Rumors circulated that he was some kind of Frankenstein's monster, but he didn't seem very monstrous to me. He seemed…peaceful…in an exhausted way. Oh, to be asleep for three years dreaming one’s life away. It sounds like a dream come true.

My bare feet hit the cold tile as I run down the hallway toward the large playroom. I stop dead in my tracks when I look through the open door to see the flower-faced friend speaking to him…and Sensei’s voice speaks through the computer screen in the playroom. I can’t see the boy…I can definitely hear him arguing with Sensei…no one ever argues with Sensei.

“No way…am I getting trained by anyone else.”

The voice is raspy and harsh, and the specific timbre chills my ears in a way that only particular sounds resonate.

“Well, you see. I’m afraid…we can’t let you do that,” Flower-faced ‘friend’ mutters, and, suddenly, his sunshine face contorts into an eldritch horror of a scowl.

‘This is what happens before the kids disappear.’

Flower-face lunges forward, and I watch as the kid dives beneath his legs, sliding and pushing himself to his feet as he breaks into a sprint, looking over his shoulder and not paying attention.

SLAM! THUD!

I cry out briefly as he runs right into me, knocking me over as we both fall to the ground. That’s when I see his eyes for the first time.

This boy has the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen; they're the most brilliant mix of sapphire and turquoise, like staring into the ocean itself. There’s no time to admire him; I can already hear Flower-face turning around.

“Get off me!” He shouts, shoving himself up as I jump to my feet, brushing off my gown.

“ You ran into me !” I retort before he starts running down the hall without a sideways glance.

“HEY!” I call after him; I know he’s running in the wrong direction. “COME BACK!”

I turn the corner and see him panicking at the dead end, staring up at the green and white checkered walls as if he’s about to have some sort of mental breakdown. He pulls at his hair, and, I swear his skin looks like it’s smoking.

“Hey, hey. This way! I know how to get out of here!” I call, waving him forward as I steal a glance over my shoulder. Flower-face slowly trudges down the hallway like a zombie; it’s like some kind of scene out of Stephen King.

“You’re just a stupid girl. What do you know?” he suddenly blurts, and my eyes narrow.

“Well, this stupid girl , is gonna get us both out of here. Are you in or do you wanna go to whatever fresh hell they have planned for us?” I snap, and he groans dramatically before dashing toward me. I run down the hall as I process the map I’d drawn in my head. Right as he catches up to me, I take a sharp left, using my draconic strength to break through the locked double doors as I force all of my body weight into the shove.

“Whoa,” the kid mutters under his breath as he follows me, and we burst into the courtyard. They only let us out here at night, but what I hadn’t considered was the enormous electric fence and barbed wire above the pillars.

“SHIT!” I hiss under my breath, and the boy raises his eyebrows.

“What do you mean shit ?! I thought you said you could get us out of here!” He screams, and a spark of anger flares in my chest.

“I CAN! LET ME THINK!” I shout back, and, suddenly, a sizzling sound creeps through the air; the boy’s tone shifts from rage to sheer terror.

“NO! NO! NO!” he stammers, and I realize that his skin is literally smoking.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” I stammer, registering the fear on his face.

“Get back! I don’t wanna hurt you!” he stutters, “Get away!”

Before I can blink, brilliant azure flames pour down his arms, leaping directly through the open double doors as they start to spread up the enormous compound. Within a few seconds, the flames only lick at his hands, and his eyes well with tears, only for them to evaporate within seconds. The blue flames remain in his palms as he thrashes his hands about.

‘He can’t control his Quirk.’

“HEY!” I shout, braving the heat and stepping closer as I shield my eyes from the blinding blue light.

“STAY BACK!” He screams; it’s a sound of pure anguish and confusion.

“HEY! I CAN HELP!” I snap, and, in a few steps, I’m right beside him. He looks at me like I’ve gone utterly insane. Another Quirk I inherited from my grandparents; my skin is fireproof.

I carefully take his hands in mine, pressing until our palms touch, and a faint hissing sound pierces the sky above the roaring flames in the hospital buildings. His eyes widen, staring into mine as if I’m some sort of alien life form.

“What…Who are you?” He stutters, a faint blush spreading across his cheeks as I stare up at him. He’s about half a foot taller than me, and his white hair is dusted with ash as the building continues to burn.

“Dusk Ryuuzaki. My Quirk is Fire Dragon; it’s three in one. That’s how. And…who are you ?” I smile, and he gulps as I release his hands, staring at his slightly singed palms.

“Touya. Touya Todoroki,” He stutters, and I nod.

‘Even his name sounds beautiful.’

“Nice to finally meet you. Now. If we’re going to get out of here-”

‘I CAN FLY US OUT! It’ll just be a little embarrassing…I need Support Gear clothes like that dragon hero.’

“How are we getting out? I’ve torched our only other exit?!” He exclaims, scratching his arm, and I slowly walk behind the lone tree in the courtyard.

“I said my Quirk is Fire Dragon. Do the math, Todoroki,” I snicker as I hide from him and, in one smooth motion, slip out of my gown. I ball it up and throw it around the tree straight for him.

“WHY ARE YOU GETTING NAKED?” He shouts, and I laugh.

“Oh, grow up. I don’t want to not have clothes whenever we get where we’re going. Can you hold onto that for me?” I call out as I begin to activate my Quirk. Painlessly, the change occurs; my skin turns over into dark purple scales, and my hair turns silver and forms a spiky ridge down my neck and two curved horns on my head, and a pair of silver wings sprout out of my back. As I’ve gotten older, my dragon form has gotten larger. I should be as big as Ryukyu when I’m an adult. Right now, I’m as big as a horse. I emerge from behind the tree, and Touya’s blinks, processing what just happened.

“Get on! We’re getting out of this place,” I growl, my voice coming out in a gravelly garble. He hesitates for a second, stealing one last glance at the blazing blue before hefting himself onto my back.

“Hold on to the spikes on my neck! It’s gonna be rough! I’ve never flown with anyone before,” I mutter.

“You wha- AHHHHH! SHIT!” He screams as I take to the air, flapping as hard as I can. He’s not too heavy, but it’s still like I have some cumbersome random weight on my back. He clings to my neck for dear life as I sail into the night sky.

“I’m gonna be sick,” He groans.

“If you puke, don’t get it on me,” I snort as I glide through the fog.

“Okay, I’m okay. I’m okay,” He slurs slowly, and I can feel his staggered breathing on the back of my neck.

“So…where…where should we go?” I ask as I steal a glance over my shoulder at him.

“I…I need to go home. I need to apologize to my family,” He murmurs quietly, and I cock my head.

“For what?” I pry, but he chews his bottom lip as he traces his hands over the lines on his face and neck from where they transplanted skin.

“I…don’t wanna talk about it,” He sighs.

“Well…where is home for you?” I yawn, and Touya sits up straighter.

“Suburban Musutafu. Do you know where that is?” He asks.

‘That’s where I used to live.’

“Yeah,” I mutter, and Touya pokes at the back of my neck. I look over my shoulder back at him once more; his cheeks glow a dull shade of pink in the moonlight.

“Hey, uh. Thanks…for…all that…back there. I know we just met but…I…I appreciate it,” He stutters, and I smile.

“Well…thanks for trusting me to get us out. I don’t know how much longer I would’ve let myself rot in there,” I remark as I return my attention to the horizon.

…

Touya’s been in the house for longer than he should’ve. He said he’d go inside, touch base with his family, and then they’d help me get home…I hadn’t told him that I didn’t even have one anymore. I'd already stopped using my Quirk and pulled the ratty hospital gown back on; I'm gonna need to find some real clothes to steal.

Wordlessly, Touya slips out of the back door, stalking back to me with his hands balled up into fists as tears stream down his face.

“Touya?”

“They thought I was dead. They thought I was dead…and nothing changed…,” He mutters to himself. I wouldn’t know anything about what he was referring to until later. He wipes away his tears.

“I guess, now, I’ll help get you home. Where is that for you?” He sniffs, staring at the ground.

“Nowhere,” I say without missing a beat. His eyes lift up to meet mine.

“Nowhere?” He echoes my words with a pitch at the end.

“Nowhere.”

His lips curl into a sad smile.

“Well…we both live nowhere now.”

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vierss-herondale · 2 days

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I saw this book recommendation on twitter that I started friday just to try and break my reader's block... imagine my surprise when I actually liked it so much I couldn't stop reading!

It felt so good to be able to read a whole book again! So I decided that I'm gonna post some of the books I read as recommendations (just like with the Clace fanfics) in case some of you are looking for new books to read! ☺️📚

I don't really like to rate books with stars but I can say I loved this book!!! I mean, it's not the best book I ever read but I really liked it. The female protagonist it’s amazing and strong and brave just like I like them 🫶🏻 And her male interest surprised me for the good after wanting to punch him in the face at the beginning lol They truly are an interesting match, I got so invested in their story that I want more 😭♥️

I cried like five times due to the protagonist going through some reaaaally hard times. I feel like maybe it can be a little tough read for some people but it’s totally worth the read, it leaves you with a different perspective in life. Specially if someone close to you has health problems.

Also, what a good best friend the protagonist has!! He rules and he also finds love with a very cute and nice guy 😭💕

If you are into slow burn romance with rivals to lovers, and found family, you’ll probably like it!

Only bad thing it’s the cover, I hate those kind of covers 😭🤷🏻‍♀️

Taken from Goodreads: 👇🏼

Could the man I hate be the perfect match I need?

I’m Jules Kelly, a certified bohemian boss babe, whose hip tech company just won subsidized office space in the coolest co-working space in town. From a distance I seem poised to take over the world (or at least the travel industry), and I would be if it weren’t for two big complications:

1. A rare and seriously inconvenient disease is tanking my health by the day, and my only hope for a cure—a transplant—is moving further from my grasp.

2. A soulless database company is sharing my new office space, and its coldly gorgeous, judgmental, CEO is on a path to world dominance (at least in his mind).

Tom Davenport represents the very worst of bro culture in the start-up world. Naturally, we despise each other.

The thing is, as much as Tom's antagonism annoys me, he has an uncanny ability to conjure up my fighting spirit and vitality at a time when my illness is robbing me of both. I'm drawn to him in ways I can't (or would really rather not) understand.

A mysterious angel investor forces our companies to compete for a life-changing amount of money just when my relationship with Tom becomes infinitely more complicated. To make matters worse, things get cutthroat just as my time starts to run out.

In order to survive, I must decide if I can truly trust my most unlikely ally of all.

Unlikely Match is a high-stakes and steamy workplace romance that will leave you feverishly turning pages.

For those of you who love wry (and sometimes a wee bit dark) humor, emotional intensity, loyal friendships, insane chemistry, and forced proximity in the context of high medical stakes, Unlikely Match is for you.

#book recommendations by Vierss #Unlikely Match #Laura Bradbury #Jules Kelly #Juliette Kelly #Tom Davenport #Thunder Dias #romance #slow burn #found family #rare disease #organ transplant

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canmom · 1 year

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seasonal animes: tengoku daimakyou 05-07

caught up on Tengoku Daimakyou (to S01E07) and Oshi no Ko (S01E05).

Tengoku Daimakyou continues to be great, in all the ways it was at the outset. It’s kind of crazy. Gorgeously animated, and full of life and character. Like, it wouldn’t look bad in a movie and they’re somehow pulling it off for a full cour of TV.

Not only have Production I.G. still got it, but it even feels like an advancement - there’s none of the very reserved stiffness that I kind of associate with TV shows like GitS:SAC or Seirei no Moribito, it’s constantly lively. The lively way it moves, and the slightly rounded character design, puts me in mind of Dennou Coil, but with a strong dash of the old realist movement mixed in.

In many ways I have the same things to say about these three episodes as I did the first four. It’s beautiful. The background paintings wonderfully depict an overgrown post-apocalypse. The action is well-choreographed and weighty. The individual episode scenarios are strong, and the unfolding mystery is intriguing. Weilin Zhang’s OP is a treat.

Sexuality is a huge theme of this series, and it’s worth spending a minute on how they play it. I spoke previously about the MC who at first glance seems to be a trans man but is actually a wacky sci-fi brain transplant patient. They’re continuing to play up the sexual tension between the two MCs hard, mostly for antics and escapades (episode 6 in particular); this is in turn used as a symbol of Kiruko struggling to decide who to be, caught between male and female behaviour codes.

Which ends up being interesting; it’s not a 1:1 map to like, the Specific Trans Experience but it is full of resonances. You could read it as a trans guy thing (he’s literally a guy with a body that everyone reads as female) but there’s also aspects of a trans girl thing (renegotiating the whole complicated mess we call ‘socialisation’). A good scifi device is a probe to give us a different angle on the world... and while I don’t want to oversell it, it does lead a fun dynamic between the MCs once you calibrate yourself to what it’s going for. (The level of horniness is broadly comparable to Chainsaw Man - jokes about boners and boob touching, a few almost-sex scenes.)

And the portrayal of awkward intimacy generally feels quite warm and genuine - it’s a far cry from whatever the hell was happening in that one nurse scene in GitS:SAC S2. The current generation of animators at I.G. are really onto something. In general it does a very good job of conveying emotion - take for example the scene where Kiruko returns to the house and finds Maru missing in Episode 5, you can really feel her sense of rising panic.

It’s also delivering very well on the horror front. Episode 7, in which our MCs walk into a conflict between a group of primmies and a transhumanist cult, seamlessly slips into a hallucination sequence where Kiruko is bitten apart by monsters. At first I was wondering if they were really going to inflict a permanent injury on the MC, especially since the buildup had a lot of talk of prosthetic limbs. They didn’t go there in the end, but it’s good that they’re finding ways to still make the monsters threatening. It’s also very good at shifting registers; in episode 6 the MCs fight a bear, and it does a fine job of telling a small story arc within the battle, advancing the MCs’ relationship, and dancing between action and comedy (when it turns out not to be a bear monster but a regular bear).

Of course, there’s also the creepy school for psychic children, who are also dealing with the struggles of puberty and first relationships etc. This is mainly a B plot in the most recent episodes, although I’m sure the focus will swing back there soon. One thing I like about the approach taken here is that the adults running the facility appear to genuinely care for the children, and they don’t seem to know everything that’s going on either. When one of the children dies they’re hit with grief (and guilt!) as much as the kids; when they find a weird nonflammable organ inside them after cremation, they’re shocked, not going ‘all according to keikaku’. It feels like a situation that’s out of control despite all the fancy technology.

Evil experiments on children is a familiar subject for anime of course, and the parent-figure who does horrible experiments on their wards while still performing affection a familiar figure within that. But while the adults here are definitely up to no good, their attitudes and motivations seem a bit less out there than your average evil science dad. Even so, the storyboarding effectively accentuates the prison-like aspect of the school; particularly effective is a sequence (screenshotted above) where the dead child is solemnly wheeled away from the other children, and taken behind the doors where they are not allowed to go; the only one who can pass through that door is dead.

Of recent anime, Mappa’s Chainsaw Man seems like a relevant point of comparison, which also went for a constantly moving sense of cinematic realism, leaning on young webgen animators for the flashy scenes. I had a great time with Chainsaw Man but it was uneven - sometimes truly great, other times it felt like it was trying a little too hard to show off with technical flexes, and not every beat landed. Tengoku Daimakyou wasn’t so hyped, so it doesn’t have as much to live up to, but its style feels a bit better integrated overall.

I also have to praise the compositing! The colours are generally really well chosen, the right level of saturation and contrast, the digital effects (typically a subtle bloom) aren’t overbearing the way they were so often in the 2010s. (Incidentally, there seems to be minimal 3DCG in this show). The ‘look’ of 2020s anime is extremely varied of course, but in some ways it feels like a return of a lot of things I really liked in 90s anime.

All in all, this is really living up to the promise set when I first thought “damn that was a cool trailer”. I hope they get to continue it for more, but either way I think I’ll pick up the manga once the series is done, it’s got its hooks in me hehe

#tengoku daimakyou #tengoku daimakyou spoilers #anime #heavenly delusion #heavenly delusion spoilers #animation

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