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#and i hope the med waiting time isnt as long as they say it is bc. another seven months. đŸ„čđŸ„čđŸ„čđŸ„č
toastsnaffler · 8 months
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was abt to go out to the gym but the adhd referral service finally emailed me to say they need me to call them to book an appointment and it says in the email they don't make appts via email but I'm DEAF I Know they know that bc its on my fucking patient form UGHHHHH
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bonesandthebees · 2 months
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WE’RE ALL SYNCED NOOO
. everyone remember to rest and eat and hot water bottles help with cramps but don’t burn urselves .. and maybe take some paracetamol too (or ibuprofen if ur feeling silly) my mother swears by it . I think it’s just a desi thing and like willpower i forgot tje term but like . when u believe something will help u so much it does . But it works for me..
AND HONEY WATER!! i will stand by honey water till the day i die just boil some water and add some honey and wait for it to cool (don’t burn ur throats guys) Or just add a bit of cold water like i do and supposedly that helps with a sore throat and it makes u feel all warm and fuzzy . my Dad taught me the first one he says its cause of the texture i never fact checked that
i’m getting carried away with the random food things ONE MORE FOR GOOD LUCK if u want . to make Desi chai . boil half a cup of water and put tjat in a tiny saucepan with the teabag, one cardamom (make sure u crack it open so the tiny little seeds drop out), like a Teaspoon of fennel seeds or something idk i just add whatever amount looks good, and optionally a little bit of cinnamon (again i just wing it just add a small bit) and some sugar/sweetener and let that all simmer for like 30 seconds while u get half a cup of milk and pour that into ur saucepan . Thenn you wanna mix that around a bit and leave it all to . cook? that doesn’t sound like the right word
 whatever. leave it for a few minutes and ur final step is when the chai starts rising u let it rise to the top and then turn down the heat and let it sink (i have a gas stove but if you have an electric ermm just set it aside for two secs to sink i think that’ll work). let it rise and sink three times!!! this really makes the flavour pop according to my dad!! then just strain it and enjoy :3 i lovee chai it was inevitable being pakistani HAHA it always makes me feel better after anything whether i feel sick or something bad happens or if i’m just silly chai is just nice for any occasion . my phopo calls me an auntie but Likeee isnt being a rich brown auntie the life

 im not rich yet but one day guys trust
anyway that got long HAHA i love cooking and baking and stuff 
 and home remedies MEDICATION IS GOOD DONT GET ME WRONG but sometimes im too lazy to run to the shops and get some cough syrup or something so i just make some honey water .. please take ur meds and get vaccinated though guys ❀ stay safe hope u liked my chai :3
do you know how many asks I've gotten saying they're also on their period literally why are all of my followers synced up WHAT IS THIS
everyone listen to our friend here. honey water sounds lovely I'll have to try it. usually I just go for drinking honey straight out of the bottle if I have a sore throat but I suppose honey water might work a bit better lol
also OOOO CHAI!! tbh I've always wanted to make chai at home because so often chai I've gotten in coffee shops just... isn't it. but when it's good it's so good. I'm going to take note of this so I can get some cardamom and fennel seeds from the store :))) so excited to try it
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gayregards · 2 years
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2 unrelated questions:
Any advice for a person who is on a process of coming out (gay identity)?
How do I navigate social anxiety disorder?
Bit context:
- Realized that im most likely gay
- im 27 - no prior experience of sex, dating or relationships (i would want to but my anxiety makes dating & friendships in general hard)
- backage from past: school bullying & emotional neglect from parents = depression & mainly severe social anxiety disorder
- social anxiety isnt really related to being gay but to mostly negative experiences about ppl in general > being gay kinda is neutral or even positive thing for me in my mind but my anxiety disorder and negative self image skews my interpretation about things (for example anxiety about sex or other men)
- i guess the worst fear of mine is being bullied again
- social anxiety translates also to self-esteem & body image issues (i dont find myself attractive which is not entirely true i guess since for shits & giggles I made an account to an gay dating app and got couple likes in the 1st day - not planning to meet anyone though)
- i guess the best avenue for me would be to get a therapist which im currently doing but the waiting lists are long & i kinda need help now. Ive wasted enough time already.
i am so sorry i have no idea how long this has been sitting in the inbox, but i do have some things to say about this. i have a severe, debilitating anxiety disorder. it sucks. it is so bad. it has made so many social experiences so, so, SO BAD. dating for me has only ever worked out in situations which started like ldr/online dating. this might be something you can look into! the avenue of text, for me, helps my anxiety because i can revise what i'm saying as i go. i can also take my time interpreting messages longer (i'm nd as well so sometimes it's hard to register things and it takes longer to process and respond). it's likely you'll need to develop a close bond before you feel safe enough to pursue somebody romantically - joining discord servers or facebook groups relevant to the things you like and posting/messaging people from within them to make friends will be a good start. the fun thing about mean people on the internet is that it's really easy to get rid of them. you owe nobody anything on the internet - block people as needed. knowing this has helped me not be *as* scared of interacting online. i hope you are in therapy now, or that therapy comes soon, because the right therapist is such a relief on this stuff. -mod med
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rottinghellhound · 11 months
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? wait cant systems become "non-disordered"? that one anon mentioned something about hindering and distress or whatever, and im pretty sure thats the main criteria for the diagnosis of a disorder, am i wrong? if the system works together well enough over time and with the help of therapy or something, cant that eventually make the person "non-disordered"? even without assimilation? this isnt a defense for endos this is a real question. because you can get something like depression off your diagnosis but still have symptoms as long as its no longer hindering your life enough or whatever. you can no longer suffer from the "bad" parts of clinical zoanthropy, but you can still hold the delusions and such related to it. you can still be psychotic. genuinely curious about your thoughts on this
Yeah. You can get to a point where you're technically not disabled anymore. But you still technically have it. You're brain chemistry is still different. You can't really change that. The only disorder I can think of where you kinda can is with trauma and emdr, even then I'm not sure you're really changing brain chemistry as much as creating new pathways in the brain and desensitizing it. Like with clinical lycanthropy or clinical cynanthropy, you can get to a point where it's not distressing and doesn't inhibit your life, but you still have those delusions and you still have pychosis, you still have a disorder. I guess it depends on how you use the words. I guess what I mean is at the end of the day it comes down to brain chemistry. I'm on meds and rarely have symptoms of schizophrenia anymore, but I still have it. I did emdr for my trauma and it helped, but I still have PTSD, ya know? Thank you for the ask, I always appreciate different ways of looking at something. I hope that makes sense, if anything I say needs clarification, in any of my answers/posts, don't be afraid to ask
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blobbyclouds · 3 years
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Could you do Sidon with an ADHD reader? I loved ur one with link!!! and the weight thing as been a huge issue for me lol, every time i get switched to a med that isnt supposed to cause weightloss i either get horrible side effects or they just do not work. I am pretty underweight now so its... nerve wracking lol. I have other health issues that limit my diet a lot so its been hard trying to get healthy again
I know you sent this request in a really long time ago, my apologies! But I hope that everything with your medicine has gotten figured out and that you’re feeling much better <3 I really hope you like these, and they make you feel better if your medicine is still causing issues. Of course, if anything seems factually incorrect or to be falling into a stereotype, please tell me :)
warnings: none!
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-Prince Sidon-
Please ramble to him!!! Please!!! He loves learning new things and seeing you happy, so it’s a win win situation. He’s so attentive, he literally remembers everything you say and every time you say things like “Oh
 I’m annoying you, sorry hahaha,” “feel free to tell me to shut up whenever,” or “wait,,, you’re actually interested?!?!” his heart breaks and he wants to smother you in kisses
It’s okay if you’re loud because honestly,,,, he’s just as loud, if not louder
You can always vent your frustrations to him, he’s there to listen
Sidon is a very organized person, so he’s more than willing to help you organize and remember things! He sees it as a fun bonding project :)
Sidon absolutely spoils you. Want some cool new fidget to stim with? Boom, it’s yours. Want to organize yourself, but can only really find the motivation if said organizational things are hella aesthetic? No problem, Sidon has it custom made for you. Have a new interest but need some supplies? Don’t worry, Sidon already has sent a list to the local merchant
His heart melts by the way these gifts make your face light up
When you get overwhelmed by lots of tasks or emotions, never fear! Sidon can take you to dozens of places in the Zora Domain to calm down at. There are scenic cliffs, quiet caves, and bubbling streams just for you
He knows you’re sensitive to criticism, so he does his 200% best to be sweet no matter what (which isn’t hard for Sidon when it comes to you). He’s always there to comfort you when you get upset and doesn’t let you say anything like “I’m being a baby” or “I’m being too sensitive”. Your emotions are your emotions, and nothing is too trivial for Sidon to scoop you into his large arms and stroke your back
Of course, he knows unexpected touching can be very distracting at times, and will keep hands off/ask to touch in certain situations
Zora’s Domain has some of the best healers in the land, so getting any medicine you need is super easy and stress free
But if the medicine causes you to drop weight or other negative side effects, Sidon would notice instantly, especially because he picks you up so often he’d notice a weight drop
He’d rush off to the healers to change your medicine, fussing, stroking your hair, and apologizing over and over again
When you’re feeling restless and need to burn off some steam, Sidon can take you for a swim on his back! He’s very active himself, so he’s happy that you are too
And if people are ever rude to you, Sidon will personally deal with them instantly.
“Why can’t you simply focus and-“ “Why can’t you simply stop talking?” Sidon growled in return, pulling you close as he glared at the person and let his teeth show just a little
Or if you’re stimming and people are giving you the side eye, he’ll give THEM the side eye, which always puts their best manners uwu
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gale-gentlepenguin · 3 years
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ML Fic: Soulmate Survey Part 32
Happy Halloween to everyone! I hope that you enjoy this treat. Sorry this took so long to write out. This one took a few rewrites to get it where I wanted it to be.
Plus, Real life stuff got in the way So hopefully this will be a nice little treat for you all.
(Master Post)
__________________________________________________________________
Marinette watched in horror as she watched her best friend struggle on the floor.
She dashed to her side, and tried to help Alya get that weird mask off her face.
“By all means go right ahead. Its already too late.” Masquerade laughed as she watched Marinette struggle. “Soon enough she will be helping me take you down.”
The designer pushed the words of the psychotic akuma out of her mind. She refused to let her friend get turned into a mindless drone like before.
“It wont come off!” Marinette grunted as she tried so hard to remove it.
Masquerade watched her bracelet, waiting for a change to occur.
Alya’s muffled screams and frantic movements stopped.
“Alya?”
Marinette jumped up as she watched her friend transform, her casual clothes transformed into a familiar black and white costume. The Wi-Fi symbol on her chest. Lady Wifi has returned.
Masquerade’s bracelet gained a new charm, one looking reminiscent of a cell phone.
“And now she is my friend.” The villain stated as she watched Marinette start stepping away from the enslaved akuma.
“Alya
 you need to fight it. You can’t let her control you.”
“Sorry Marinette, but Alya is unable to answer.” Masquerade mocked. “But I can take a message for you.”
Lady wifi stood silent, like an inactive robot, awaiting orders from its master. The inner machinations of the mind are not shown with the emotionless white mask covering her face.
Marinette turned her eyes toward the mask themed akuma, anger burning in her pupils.
“Let her go Lila. Let them all go before things get serious. Your plan will fail, Ladybug and Chat noir will arrive and beat the akuma out of you. Then you will have to answer for this too.”
Masquerade’s smile faded when she saw the fierce look. Marinette was not a sniveling mess, she actually looked even more defiant then before!
“Acting all high and mighty. I think I will enjoy turning you into my helpless puppet next.”
Masquerade lifted her hand towards Marinette, waiting to unmask her deepest secrets, and break her down.
“When I get a peek at what is hiding behind all of that fake courage, it will all come crashing down. Now let’s see your greatest secrets.”
Marinette looked around, trying to think of something. If Lila figured out her big secret, it was over. Ladybug would be exposed. She needed a way out, until she noticed something. Masquerade wasn’t doing anything.
“Huh?”
Marinette was perplexed by the akuma simply standing there.
“Ummm... are you going to do it now or...”
“Why can’t I see your secrets? My powers should allow me to see what you’re hiding and allow me to exploit it. It worked on everyone else I used it on, why not you?”
“Maybe I just don’t have any secrets to hide.” Marinette commented, watching with a bit of satisfaction as the akuma’s smug look shift.
Masquerade felt her frustration and anger boil at the comment. Something wasn’t adding up.
“Hawkmoth!” She cried out in rage.
A purple butterfly outline popped out.
“What is it?” The dark voice connected in her head.
“Why can’t I read Marinette’s secrets?” Masquerade angrily questioned.
“What?”
“Her secrets! I was able to zero in on everyone else I’ve used the ability on. Why does it not work on her!? Of all people I want this power to work on!”
Marinette felt both concerned and a bit flattered that she was the one Lila wanted to defeat the most. It was sort of mutual.
“Your power works on anyone I’ve akumatized, regardless of who it is.” The butterfly villain communicated. 
“So
 your saying you didn’t akumatize her before? How is that possible?”
“I haven’t gotten to every single person in Paris.”
“You’ve akumatized that stupid pigeon man 26 times! How have you not gotten everyone!?”
“Paris is a big city, even if I akumatized someone every day, I doubt I would have hit 1/10th of the population. Besides, it takes strong negative emotions for me to send out an akuma. And that man seems to just be the easiest target for it. “ Hawkmoth defended himself. “Its not like I WANT to akumatize him every other day.”
“Unbelievable!”
“Just get the miraculous. That is your focus, the girl can wait for later.”
Masquerade’s butterfly outline dispelled as hawkmoth was finished with that conversation.
“Well that sucks. I guess I can just go back to plan A. Having you watch as I turn everyone against you... aren't here. What!”
Masquerade frantically looked around for the teen she had been antagonizing and found that she was no longer in the same spot. In fact, she was no longer in the office!
Marinette had decided to slip away from the akuma while she was having her little tantrum to the evil butterfly man.
“Why didn't you do something!” She shouted at Lady Wifi.
“You did not give me an order.” Lady Wifi answered robotically. 
Masquerade glared at the akuma servant. She would almost think it was rebelling against her.
“Even as a mindless servant you still find a way to ruin things.”
She looked around and noticed the other akuma in the room that was still on the floor.
“Dark Owl get up!”
The owl themed akuma got up from the floor. Removing parts of the broken pot from his costume.
Masquerade snapped her fingers. Catching the attention of Dark Owl and Lady Wifi. 
“Both of you, I want Marinette brought back to me right now! I want to make sure she stays quiet and sees everything we have set up. I don’t need her causing trouble.”
______________________________________________________________________
“
and that is everything.” A young woman said with a mixture of relief and excitement. She had finally finished setting everything up in the school infirmary. She had organized the files, restocked the bandages, changed the sheets on the resting cots, and put her personal decals on the desk. She was starting her first day as the school nurse, and things have been going up.
She put herself back out there and started dating Curtis, the sweet guy she met last week despite what would’ve normally been a deal breaking misunderstanding, she got into the med school program she wanted to get into and will be attending part time, and she managed to get a job at the school she went to when she went to Lycee.
She heard a ding from the front of the nurse’s office just as she was about to sit down.
“First student of the day. I better see what they need.”
She exited the small office area in the infirmary to see a blonde student who was clearly impatient
“What is taking so long!?” The teen shouted.
“Hello there. How can I help you?”
The blonde looked up a bit to see the nurses smile, she rolled her eyes.
“Who the hell are you? Isnt there supposed to be a different woman here?”
“If you are referring to the previous school nurse, she retired officially last week. I am the new school nurse. You can call me Nurse Angela.”
Angela never really liked using her last name, it made her sound old. So, she would be fine with the kids calling by her first name. It also helps with psychology, allowing more for a social dynamic based on mutual respect rather than authority.
“Whatever.”
Angela felt a twinge of frustration at the girl’s dismissal. But she kept her smile.
“And you are?”
The teen smirked.
“ChloĂ© Bourgeous. And before you ask, yes, the daughter of the mayor.”
Angela felt a shiver go down her spine. She remembered from what the previous nurse told her. That ChloĂ© was the mayor’s bratty daughter who would use her father’s influence to get anyone fired if she got angry enough.
‘That at least explains her rude attitude. She is a spoiled Brat.’
Angela was not going to let this bother her. She was going to take it in stride. She would be kind and courteous as she planned to be with any student at the Dupont.
“So, ChloĂ©. What brings you here?”
Chloé walks in.
“My chair broke because someone sabotaged my chair. I ended up bruising my
 anyway I need some ice, and anything to numb the pain.”
“My goodness! That sounds terrible. Who would do such a thing?”
“It was probably Marinette, that nasty little rat. Adding insult to injury now that she is dating Adrien.”
Nurse Angela moved to get some ice from the freezer for the bruised bottom of the Mayor’s daughter, listening to the girl vent. She was sure that whoever this Marinette girl was, probably didn’t do it. And if somehow, she did, it was likely because the annoying blonde deserved it. But that was not something Angela felt was worth mentioning. She kept that bit to herself.
“She is probably blackmailing my adrikins with something. There is no way he would be dating her without some sort of reason.”
“Is it possible that maybe he just likes her?” Angela inquired as she presented the bag of ice to ChloĂ©.
Chloé looked at the nurse as if she had just told her that she had 3 eyes and a scorpion tail.
“Adrien liking Marinette?! That is ridiculous, Utterly ridiculous! There is no way that Adrien would
”
ChloĂ© felt her mind flash through moments. Adrien and Marinette about to kiss for that movie, Adrien and Marinette dancing at her party? The photos she found of them running from fans, that kiss at the picnic during heroes’ day. Adrien taking Marinette to that interview instead of her
 The stubborn blonde felt as if everything clicked into place.
“ChloĂ©? Is everything okay?” The nurse called out, trying to get the spaced-out teen’s attention.
“He might actually LIKE her!”
Chloé felt her own skin crawl as she made her realization.
Angela didn’t know how to respond to this situation.
“I am going to straighten Adrien out right now! I am not going to let him make such a foolish mistake!”
The nurse could tell this could be bad if the mayor’s daughter was so heated, what if she got this innocent girl expelled? If she stood by and did nothing then her time at the school would be internally marked with the regret of not stopping such a potential disaster.
“Wait, Miss Bourgeois.”
Chloé stopped.
“What is it?”
“I
 I just noticed that you’re limping. The injury might be more serious than you think. Let me have a look at it closer before you leave.”
The mayor’s daughter would simply have left without a second thought. But having a limp would make her walk much less dignified and lacking the power she needs to intimidate, but mainly that she would look lame with a limp.
“Alright, just make it quick.”
______________________________________________________________________________
“I don’t get why you felt the need to leave.” The cat kwami rolled his eyes. “If you want to be rebellious Adrien, we could leave the school and head to the movies. Though if we do, you should invite your girlfriend.”
“Plagg, this isn’t about rebellion or future date ideas. Something isn’t right with this whole situation. I just want to sneak a peek in the office, make sure Marinette and Alya get their story out, and then I am headed right back to class. No problem.” Adrien summarized as they kept walking.
Plagg noticed someone headed their way and went to hide in Adrien’s pocket.
Adrien took notice that it was his homeroom teacher. Perhaps he could ask her.
“Hey Ms.Bustier. Can I ask you a quick question?”
The red headed teacher walked past the teen without acknowledging his question. Her eyes focused on what was ahead.
“That’s weird
 She would always stop to help a student.”
Adrien could feel that his favorite teacher may have been affected by something sinister.
“Ms.Bustier, can you hear me out for a second?” He asked as he touched her shoulder to try and get her attention.
The mirage of her appearance shifted from the homeroom teacher to the stylized patchwork costume of a familiar akuma enemy.
Adrien was surprised to see the true form of the imposter. The kiss zombie maker, Zombizou.
The akuma turned to show the face mask that hid her face. Her attention was now firmly on the boy, whether he wanted it or not.
Adrien backed away, nervously keeping his eyes on the teacher as he carefully backed up.
“You know, I think I will just ask someone else.”
Adrien took down the next hall running.
______________________________________________________________________
Masquerade reclined in her chair, her frustration was growing as she wondered what was taking those two minions she sent out to capture Marinette so long.
“They shouldn’t be having that much difficulty. She is just one person!”
She heard a ring, and knew her sentimonster was trying to contact her.
“What is it Simulare?”
“The illusion I had on Zombizou was broken. Someone is on to us, and the minion is in pursuit.”
Masquerade felt a headache forming. She didn’t have time for a wild goose chase. She needed to move on to phase two of her plan, making her army of akuma.
“Track down Marinette and this other  person that found out about Zombizou, keep them busy as long as possible. I am going to move on to phase two. Make sure no one is on to us.”
“Understood. I’ll get them back in the office and make sure neither of them escape.”
“Good”
Masquerade ended the call and felt her head ease a bit. The sentimonster she was given was obedient and competent. It was based on her mindset, so it would make sense that it would be capable of handling this problem.
“Now, let’s get that army.”
______________________________________________________________________________
“Give me a break.” Marinette muttered to herself.
She thought she would have time to transform once she escaped the office, but the two akuma were right out of the office before she had time to make sure everything was clear.
In her rush she cut a corner down a hallway and ended up colliding with another person.
“Ouch.” They cry out in unison, both looking to realize who they bumped into. Their faces turned to relief.
“Marinette!” “Adrien!”
The two called out in unison.
“Why are you running?” “Why are you running?”
“An akuma!” “An akuma!”
“An akuma?” “An akuma?”
They both look behind the other to notice the incoming akumas approaching them.
“As cute as this is, we need to go.”
Adrien Grabs Marinette’s Hand and they both head to the open area and try to get to the main entrance.
‘I need to get Adrien somewhere safe, then I can go transform into Ladybug.’ Marinette thought to herself, unaware that Adrien was thinking the same thing.
They make quick movements down hallway, moving up and down staircases to confuse their pursuers. They managed to give them the slip as the controlled akuma seemed to not be able of basic reasoning and quick fake outs and movements.
The two make their way down to what appeared to be the front of the school.
“The entrance!” Marinette called out. “Okay, we split up at the entrance and try to get help. They can’t catch us both.”
The run to the entrance only for them to stop short, colliding with some invisible wall.
It was only after making contact did the front entrance of the school shift back into a wall. The layout of the entire school seemed to shift instantly. The school had been put under an illusion to trick them into thinking they were escaping.
“It’s an illusion. Which means Lila must be involved with that group of akumas.” Adrien exclaimed.
“More like she is the cause. She is the one controlling the akumatized mask wearers. She got the Principal and Alya.”
“Wait, does this mean that Lila’s power is to make akuma!?”
“From what I saw, she can only akumatize people that have been akumatized before using her face masks. You haven’t been akumatized right?” Marinette questioned.
“No, and since she didn't get you, you haven't either right?”
“Yea, though I have had a few close calls.”
“So, if Lila’s power is akumatizing people, what akuma made this illusion on the school?”
“That would be me.” A third voice calls out.
The two turned to look and see a familiar fox themed villain smiling confidently.
“Volpina!”
“Not exactly.”
The Volpina impersonator looked around to see if the other akumatized servents were going to arrive.
“Seems you both are quite clever when it comes to annoying Mistress Masquerade.”
“Masquerade?”
“That’s what Lila’s calling herself.”
“Oh... cause of the masks.”
The villain rolls her eyes, encapsulating the personality of the arrogant volpina that it was pretending to be.
“Masquerade realizes that you two are both quite difficult to snag with mindless servants, so she requested I handle this.”
“No, you won’t.” Marinette grabs Adrien’s Hand and tries to run away only for the Faux Fox to flip in front of them
“Yea, I am not letting you out of my sight. Now be good and come along peacefully.”
Adrien moves in front of Marinette.
“Go, I’ll hold her off.”
“But
”
“Go. I trust you.” Adrien smiles as he looks to her for a moment.
Marinette wanted to stay and fight with him, but she knew that she needed to go and transform. Ladybug will be needed before this blows up.
“I’ll get help.”
Marinette runs away from the two as fast as she can. Adrien making sure to block the way should their foe get any ideas.
“She won’t get far, she will get captured before she even gets a chance.”
Adrien shook his head.
“You would be surprised with how just how amazing Marinette is.”
Marinette rushed out of sight and into the closest bathroom, quickly making sure it was a safe place to transform.
“Coast is clear. Time for Ladybug to step in.”
“Let’s hope we can get to Adrien in time before things get worse.” Tikki commented.
“Don't worry, I trust he’ll be okay. Tikki! Spots on!”
______________________________________________________________________________
“Can you believe it Juleka?” The peppy perfume enthusiast squealed. “Marinette and Adrien are finally an item.”
“Yes, I was there rose.” Juleka commented with an eye roll and a smile.
“I know! I am just so happy for them both.” Rose calms herself a bit. “Though
 how will your brother take it?”
The purple haired teen reflected on the comment.
“It will be an adjustment, but I am sure Lulu will be fine once he gets a couple songs out of it.”
“I’ll be sure to be supportive.”
Juleka patted Rose’s head, smiling sweetly at the blonde’s caring attitude. She decided now would be a good time to spring that surprise on her. She was planning on showing her during lunch, but since Ms.Bustier wasn’t in class. Now would be the perfect time to show Rose the earrings she got her.
She casually reached into her bag, sliding her hand into her lunch bag, trying to find the earring box, only to notice it not there. Her hand moved frantically searching.
“Is something wrong?” Rose inquired, a bit of concern on her face.
“No, nothing. Nothing is wrong, just
” Juleka dismissed as she kept searching only to know for certain that her gift was not in there.
“Are you sure?”
“I just need do something really quick.”
She quickly grabbed her phone and calmly while hoping that her brother would see her text.
In her quick movement, she failed to notice the door of the classroom opening.
_______________________________________________________________________
“Psst, Luka. Luka!” A dark-haired teen whispered, trying to get the attention of the teal-tipped hair guitarist that was hiding his sleeping face with an open science book.”
“Hmm?” The tired teen responded with his eyes still closed. He was barely awake. He had been up all night working on that new song that was stuck in his head. He could still hear it playing in his thoughts as he tried to shake himself awake.
“Your phone vibrated, seemed important.”
“Oh, thanks Theo.” He moved his hand to take a look at his phone.
The science teacher was rambling on about molecules or something, clearly unaware of how disinterested everyone in the class was with his boring lecture.
Luka looked through to see a few text messages from his sister.
‘Hey, can you check your lunch to see if there is a jewelry box in there? Rose’s gift is in there.’
‘If you find it, can you swing by around your free period to bring it to me?’
Luka quickly snuck his hand into his backpack and sure enough he felt the small box. He was about to text a response. But stopped when he read the last two texts.
‘Sh*t there is an akuma in the class!’
Luka’s eyes shot open, his sister was in danger. Which also meant his band was also in danger. He needed to get there.
He shot up from his chair. And started making his way to the door.
“Mr.Couffaine, where do you think you’re going?”
“Family emergency.”
The science teacher was about to tell the young boy to wait until his parent calls, but he remembered who is mother was and what she did the last time he held up her kid when Anarke wanted to pick him up early. The teacher proceeded to held back his response.
“Proceed. Just be sure to get the notes from today’s lesson.”
Luka was out the door before the teacher could finish.
______________________________________________________________________
A car speeds down the road, the driver cursing to herself as she tries to move faster.
‘Get in, get Adrien, and get out before everything hits the fan.’
Nathalie mentally repeated to herself. She knows that pushing herself too hard was also dangerous. She couldn't risk feeling weak right now.
The driver slammed the break as she arrived at the school. She needed to hurry. She parked the car and opened the door.
“Lets hope that this akuma hasn't gotten to Adrien yet.”
_______________________________________________________________________
Ms. Bustier’s class had diverted all their attention to the costumed individual in the front of the classroom. The eerie masks that adorned her costume seemed to unsettle everyone.
Juleka put her phone away and joined in on what everyone was staring at
Alix was the one to say what was on everyone’s mind.
“Who the f*** are you?”
The akuma smirked.
“Excellent, a volunteer.”
Raising her hand and pointing towards Alix, her charm bracelet began to glow.
“Interesting, seems that you have quite a soft spot for cute things.”
The class turned to look at Alix with confusion.
Alix kept her cool.
“And? Is there a point?” Alix rolled her eyes, ignoring the akuma’s attempt to get under her skin. It would take more than that to actually do anything to her.
“You pretend you have this ‘Devil may care’ attitude, that you are too cool to care about what people think, but really you are more obsessed with how people perceive you than anyone else in here.”
Alix felt her smirk falter for a second.
“You are really sensitive about your height and anytime someone brings it up you are in a bad mood for the rest of the day. But what really gets to you is your ‘Family’. You hate how your brother is a laughing stock because of his crackpot theories and your greatest fear is that no matter how much you try to be this punk rebel, you will always be cast as ‘The Conspiracy nut’s sister’.”
“Shut up! You don’t know my life!” Alix yelled.
“Not so fun getting exposed, is it?”
The class realized immediately who this mysterious akuma was.
Masquerade smiled as she flung a mask right at the pink haired teen. Causing her to fall down. And struggle to get the mask off, but before anyone could help her. It was too late.
The class could only watch in horror as their classmate transformed into their Akuma persona. Before standing up.
The class tried to make a break for it. They knew full well the dangers of this new akuma.
“Timebreaker, guard the door.”
The akuma skated to the door and everyone jumped back. They knew that touching Timebreaker was not a good idea.
“Lila, this isn’t cool. Let Alix go.” Nino called out.
The Mask akuma shook her head.
“Lila is not a thing anymore. She was unmasked and dismissed. But now I have a new mask, I’m Masquerade. Soon enough, you will all be unmasked and given a new mask that better suits you. Alya knows that very well.”
Nino’s his eyes flared at the statement.
“What did you do to my girl?”
Masquerade pointed her hand at him just as her charm bracelet glowed, now with a rollerblade charm added to it.
“The same thing I am about to do to all of you.”
______________________________________________________________________
Will the rest of the class fall victim to Masquerade’s evil plan? Will Ladybug be able to save Adrien from the Sentimonster? Will Nathalie get to Adrien before its too late? Will I ever update consistently?
Fine out all these questions and more in the next part.
Thank you all for reading the most recent addition to Soulmate Survey.
Please let me know your thoughts on this chapter and if you really liked it. Reblog it. (Sharing is the only way my story actually gets out.) Plus, tagging has been kind of glitchy for me, so until that gets straightened out, I can't tag people for the story at the moment.
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blacktinnedpeaches · 2 years
Text
misery blogness
today was actually better - i didn’t cry at all, had a nice evening w/ ben watching tiktoks + playing geoguessr w/ a friend of ours. we played some music together earlier as well (me on piano, him on bass)
still feeling very obsessive, still ruminating constantly over things ive done in the past and finding it difficult to be present in the moment - but it’s better than it was a few days ago when i couldn’t stop crying or thinking about my own evil nature. now im not so much concerned w/ my naturally evil spirit, just about mistakes ive made (which is an improvement i guess?)
gonna try fluoxetine again for a few months as well bc both ana and ben are saying that i was much less obsessive when on them, and fluoxetine has no negative effects on me really other than a dry mouth, and i think it’s worth trying - particularly as i do think it’s true ive become much more obsessive over the past year or so (altho hard to work out how much of that is stopping meds that i dont personally think do anything good OR bad vs everything else going on in the world lol)
after christmas i wanna get back into making miniatures - haven’t been able to do any lately b/c the things i need to finish this latest one off i asked for for christmas + idk if ben got it for me or not, so gotta wait and see (played myself, wont ask for things i actually need for a gift haha)
today’s good things:
1. i enjoyed spending time w/ ben this evening 2. i wrapped up tink’s present (a hot water bottle) and the little drawing i did really captures her spirit somehow. i wrapped ben’s gift from his family as well, so he can unwrap it properly rather than just opening an amazon parcel 3. the ‘am i a lesbian’ OCD has actually disappeared and i can watch lesbians on tiktok again without feeling frightened (lol...) 4. thankful that i did enough work on the site the past few weeks that im still no. 4 on the list of mods w/ most reports cleared for the month (/60 or so) w/o really doing much work this week 5. im excited that it’s nearly christmas and that ill be able to open presents lol 6. just that it was a more bearable day which makes me hopeful that this isnt, as i’d feared, going to be a long and protracted episode
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supergirl-writingz · 4 years
Text
Kidnapped Part 2
B!D deals with recovery.
Note: the doctor being named dr grey isnt actually like mer or lexie i literally just watch too much greys and couldnt think of another name haha also THANK U FOR BEING SO PATIENT W ME im really proud of this fic tbh and i hope u guys like it:) remember requests are always open
Warning: trauma, anxiety, therapy
It’s been about one week since you were rescued. You were doing okay. Everyone was trying to convince you to see someone, to talk about what you went through. You didn’t get why. You realized you have been through something tragic, but wouldn’t it be easier to just put it in the past? 
Physically, you still had a long way to go. You were still cooped up at the DEO and you would be for a little bit longer. You had bruises everywhere, 2 broken ribs, a concussion, and a broken bone in your foot. But Lena assured you that you were healing properly. You trusted her.
Your least favorite part about everything, was the way people were treating you. They treated you as if you were glass, and if they spoke to loud or even held your hand, they would break you. You didn’t feel broken and you didn’t get why everyone wanted you to be. Lena was the only one who would tell you things how they were, straightforward with no holding back. You appreciated it. 
Lena walked into the room, “Hey hun can we talk?”
You nodded, “Of course Lena what’s up?”
Lena sat at the edge of your bed, “Darling I think you need to see someone, you-”
“Not you too” you interrupted rolling your eyes, “I’m fine, I don’t need to see anyone”
Lena was patient with you, with a calm voice she said, “Y/N you can’t keep bottling up your emotions, it’s not healthy. If you don’t let this out you’re gonna have a breakdown. You’re not fine and thats okay.”
“I am fine” you snapped at her.
“Y/N, you are scared to sleep without sedatives and you haven’t talked about what happened to you at all. Let me help you, please talk to me, or Kara or Alex or a specialist. Please”
You turned your head away from her. You were embarrassed but it was true, you were scared of going to bed without them.
“Don’t sedate me tonight, I’ll sleep just fine”
Lena sighed, “Okay”
As she walked out she turned around and said, “You know we’re all just trying to do what’s best for you right?”
You didn’t answer. Lena walked out looking sad and defeated. You felt bad, she’s helped you so much. But you were tired of people saying you weren’t okay. You thought about sleeping tonight without the sedatives, truthfully you were nervous but you didn’t tell anyone. Tonight was Kara’s turn to sleep in your room, and she always made you feel safe. 
Later that night, around 11, you finally fell asleep after tossing and turning for a couple hours. 
All of the sudden you woke up with a start not knowing where you were. You were screaming and your heart rate was through the roof. Kara instantly got up and rushed to you.
“Y/N baby it’s just a dream! You’re okay!” she said calmly but loud enough so it would get through to you.
It didn’t help. You were starting to hyperventilate. Kara put her face directly in front of yours.
“Look at my sweetheart, breathe like I do” Kara said, breathing in and out slowly for me to follow.
You looked Kara in the eyes and started following her breathing. 5 minutes later you were breathing normally. Lena and Alex came rushing in, someone must have called them.
“Baby what happened?” Alex asked with a concerned tone. 
Tears were building up in your eyes, “I- I was back there.. in my dream”.
“The room where it all happened?” Lena asked. You nodded, tears starting to come quicker
“It was so real, I could feel every punch, every kick. It was like I was back there.” you said, at this point you were sobbing. 
Alex came close to you and put her hand to your cheek, “You’re safe now Y/N, he can’t hurt you anymore”
You pulled Alex closer and cried into the crook of her neck. While Kara was strong and comforting, there was something about Alex that made you feel powerful and in control. She was such a good directer at the DEO, even if things in her life were bad. Even when everything was going wrong, she had control. You needed that. You needed to be in control of your emotions, but you didn’t know how. You realized now everyone was right, you weren’t okay. But you still didn’t like the idea of seeing a therapist of any kind. You just couldn’t imagine talking to a complete stranger about things you can’t talk about to the people closest to you. 
You started to calm down and stopped crying. You looked up at Lena.
“I’m so sorry Lena”, you said.
“Darling you have nothing to be sorry for” she replied softly.
“I was so rude to you, you were just trying to help” you replied guiltily.
“You’re struggling little one, whether you know it or not, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. After what you’ve been through, we’d be more concerned if you weren’t struggling” Kara said.
“We just want you to feel better and we want you to know you have our constant support” Alex said.
You looked down and smiled softly. You didn’t know what you would do without these people. You didn’t think therapy was for you, but it seems like it would make them feel better, and who knows maybe it would make you feel better too. 
“I’ll see someone”, you said quietly, “if you guys really think it will be good”
Alex smiled and said, “We’re only asking that you try”. 
You got in a couple more hours of sleep before day time had come and it was too bright to sleep. You heard a knock at the door and looked up to see Lena and another woman you didn’t recognize. 
“Hey hun, this is Dr. Grey, she works with people who have been through trauma” Lena said, trying not to overwhelm you.
She smiled a bright smile and said, “Hi, it’s nice to meet you”
You took a breath and remembered how you told Lena and your sisters you would give it a try. 
You reached out your hand and said “Hi, I’m Y/N. It’s nice to meet you too”
Dr. Grey shook your hand then told you that Lena or your sisters could stay in the room, or it could be just them. You decided to give it a try alone with Dr. Grey. Lena understood and wished you good luck before leaving. You took a deep breath, talking to this stranger was making you feel anxious. You and Dr. Grey started talking, and quickly you felt more comfortable. You guys didn’t talk much about the kidnapping, she mostly just wanted to know your home and social life. You told her pretty much everything, from your sisters, your friends, Lena, and school. Dr. Grey was pretty easy to talk to. The only time the kidnapping did come up was when she suggested that you talk to your sisters or Lena about what happened. She said if it was out in the open, you might feel better. She made it very clear though that you should wait until you were ready. And just like that, your hour session was over before you knew it.
“Thank you Dr. Grey” you said.
She smiled warmly, “So we’ll be meeting again?”
You returned her smile and nodded. 
About 2 weeks later, you were sitting in your bed at the DEO. You have been seeing Dr. Grey daily and it was helping a lot. All of the sudden Kara walked in and you smiled at her asked her to bring Alex and Lena into the room. Kara smiled and nodded, walking out of the room to get them. A few moments later, the three women walked in. 
“So Dr. Grey thought that I should talk to at least someone about what happened, other than her. And I trust you guys more than anyone, so I want to tell you guys” you say, starting to feel a little anxious.
“That’s very sweet darling but we don’t wanna push you into talking about something you’re not ready to talk about” Lena said concerned.
You smiled, “I’m ready”, and they nodded.
You told them everything, from you walking home from school, to the guy grabbing you, to your surroundings, and on and on. You told them how they wanted to know who Supergirl was, and you shot Kara a warm look almost saying, ‘This isn’t your fault’. Kara gave you a small yet guilty smile. You took a deep breath as you started to talk about the torture. Your hands were shaking so Alex grabbed them into hers. You didn’t even realize you were crying until Kara wiped a tear from your cheek. You told them everything... you told them the beatings, about the whips and taser. You told them about the hunger, and how cold it was. You told them how you were so hopped up on drugs, you couldn’t even remember how you got there. 
“The scariest part was when I lost hope, I truly thought I was gonna die there” you said. You finally looked up at them, Kara was crying just as much as you were. Lena and Alex had some tears too, but you could tell they were trying to be strong. You grabbed Kara’s hands and looked her in the eyes.
“But you saved me Kara, you’re the reason I’m still here” you said softly.
Kara pulled you into a hug and you felt her warmth and comfort, which then turned into pain from your ribs.
“Kara.. too tight” you said chuckling.
“Sorry” she laughed immediately letting go. The four of you sat there in silence for a while, enjoying each others company. Dr. Grey was right, you did feel better putting it all out there. 
A few weeks later, you were making great progress. You were still having nightmares, but not every night. The anxiety meds you were taking were starting to help with the panic attacks too. You were still at the DEO, but you were starting to walk around though, with a boot and crutches. Your ribs were almost healed and your concussion was all gone. 
You were doing great with Dr. Grey too. The only thing she was concerned with was that you didn’t want to leave the DEO. Of course you wanted to be at home, but you couldn’t get yourself to step out of the building. You felt safe in there. You had this fear that the man who took you would be out there, even though you knew he was in custody. Everyone tried to get you just to go on a simple walk outside, but your anxiety would kick in before you even got the chance. Today was going to be different, today you were determined to go outside. You haven’t been outside since Kara flew you to the DEO the day of the kidnapping, and you were barely conscious.. but today was different. 
You asked Kara, Alex, and Lena if you could all go on a walk. They gave a little surprised look but didn't say anything, they probably didn’t want you to overthink it, but they realized how big of a deal this was. You guys were having a normal conversation, walking through the DEO. You stopped when you reached the exit. You felt Kara give your hand a little squeeze, letting you know that it’s okay. You took a deep breath, opened the door, and walked outside. 
You were surprised as you felt the fresh air in your lungs. Everything looked greener than you remember. You spent so much time in the DEO, that you forgot there was life outside of the grey and dark building. You looked around at all the people, talking and laughing, and you were amazed at how good it felt. You quickly started to cry and turned back to your sisters and Lena.
“Oh baby why are you crying?” Alex asked softly, “Do you wanna go back inside?”
These were happy tears. 
“I’m finally free from him” you said smiling, wiping the tears from your face. 
They all smiled at you and were so proud of your strength and perseverance. You had a lot to work through still, but this was a break through. This was the first time since the kidnapping, that you were 100% sure that you would make it through this. You pulled them into group hug, silently thanking them for never leaving your side.
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chicagopd2020 · 4 years
Text
Family Now
Request:Can you do something with yn being pregnant by jay and being kidnapped, when she is found to be injured and going into labor, but at the end of it all is right. with cute ending
Hope you like it this is my first request :)
Jay had been working on a case where this guy had tried to take almost everyone on the team out as a way to get back at Hank for putting his brother in prison for the rest of his life. Hank recieved a note saying "You took my family away from you now I am going to take yours away from you"  Luckily the man hasnt been successful on any of his attempts. Hank had warned them to all be very careful and watch their backs everywhere they went.
All Jay wanted to do was to get home to Y/N just hold her close and just pretend that it was just the two of them, well 3 if you consider their little baby girl in Y/N stomach. Knowing that is what he had to look for eased his nerves just a little bit. Getting out of his truck he couldnt help but to look around and for some reason he had an uneasy feeling in his gut. Yeah it was probably the fact that he was being hunted by a man and they didnt actually know what he looked like.
As he walks up the stairs to their apartment the feeling got so bad that he was in a run to the apartment just so that he could make sure everything was alright. As he got closer to the apartment he seen their door was slightly opened which he knew wasnt right because Y/N always kept the door locked when he wasnt there. So he took out his gun and eased in the door, seeing that their were things strewed around everywhere like there had been a fight broke out. His heart was in his stomach when he seen the blood on the floor. So he did the first thing that came to his mind, he pulled out his phone and called Voight. Luckily he picks up on the first ring
Halstead whats the problem?
Voight, she's gone! It was silent of the phone for what felt like forever but was just a few seconds.
Im on my way, Ill get the rest of the team to head that way as well, you call it in so that we can find this Son of a Bitch.
As Jay hangs up the phone he does exactly as Voight told him to do. Waiting for the team to arrive he just walks around to see if there is anything that was left that would lead them to where he took her.
The team all finally make it to Jay & Y/N apartment,and as the other officers are looking around for fingerprints or anything really. Then one of the officers came walking up to them.
Detective Halstead there was this note left on your kitchen counter and I think that you are going to want to see this. She says while handing him the note. Jay reads the note out loud
The note reads " Hank you took my brother,Ive got your daughter & grandchild. You may want find me before I do something I may regret"
Dammit Hank I know she is your daughter but we are going to have a kid together and if something happens to either of them I will never forgive you!
Hank stood there and let him yell at him because he felt the same way if anything did happen to his daughter and grandaughter he wouldnt be able to live with himself
Y/N POV
This man that kidnapped me he kept saying sorry but said that it was all my dads fault that this was happening. You kept trying to talk to him trying to figure out what you could do to make up for what your dad did but you got nothing from him. The pain in your lower stomach kept coming closer together but you were not due for another couple weeks and in this moment in time is not how you want your babygirl to be born.
Sir,Sir,SIR finally catching his attention. I think that I need to go to the hospital
There is no way in hell that I am taking you to a hospital.
At that very moment your water broke and water went everywhere.
My water just broke and its either you take me to hospital or my baby will be born right here.
Well then it looks like you will be bringing a life into this world in warehouse. Ill be back in a little while.
He must have been so caught up in taking me that he didnt check me to see if I still had my phone and thank god I keep it on silent most of the time because when I finally got to it I had so many missed calls from Jay and my dad. All you wanted to do was cry cause you know Jay is so worried and there isnt anything he can do to help, but right now wasnt the time to cry in between the pain you sent a text to Jay letting him know everything you seen around you thinking that maybe it would help then find out where you are.
Jay POV
Sitting at my desk doing everything that I possibly can to figure out where she is. Where he took her? We have been going non-stop to figure something out. He finally just slammed his hands on his desk and walked to the locker room looking at the pictures that he had in his locker of the love of his life and his soon to be born baby girl
He just lets his head fall in his hands and all he can do it just cry, lets the tears that he has been holding in since noticing that Y/N was taken fall. He hears his phone go off and as he pulls the phone out thinking that it is just another lead that will get them no where, he sees that it is her name and he jumps up. As he reads everything that the message says he runs back into the bullpin and yells for Voight, thinking that maybe he could make some sense out of it. As Hank is reading the message it clicks
I dont think she knows where she is but she is just telling us what she sees or hears, so that we can figure out where she is. She says that she heard a train at least a couple times within a few hours, she knows that its an old warehouse. Windows lined all around the building and out one of the windows she sees the numbers 5142
As he was saying everything Kim was typing it into the computer to see if she could up with anything. Y/N has always been like a little sister to her so she was just as worried as everyone else on the team. Once she typed in the numbers in popped up exactly what they had all been hoping for..
I FOUND SOMETHING!!!! She yells
Everyone makes their way over to her......There is an old abandoned warehouse at 5142 West St and it hasnt been in business for over 15 years
Suit up lets go..Hanks says as he practically in a jog so that he can get his little girl back.
Y/N POV
The pain is just getting worse by the minute but I know that I can hold off because I know by now that they are on their way to get me. If they are not then I dont see me or my little girl making it out of the warehouse alive. She just trys to continue breathing through the pain hoping that your little girl will be stubborn like her daddy and just saying where she is safe right now.
He finally returns, this time he has a woman with him, she comes over and she trys to check you out and see what shape you are in.
Dont you dare touch me! You all but yell
I have to see how you and your baby are
No you dont. I would rather have my baby on my own then with someone helping me that is helping the man that kidnapped me
I am not working with him, he came on the street and I think that I was the first nurse that he seen and told me that his girlfriend was in labor
Well I am in no way his girlfriend, I am his hostage and he is refusing to take me to the hospital. As she finishes that sentence the nurse turns and sees the gun pointed at her head
You help deliver her baby  and then I have no more use for you. Just cant have her dying just yet....
As he finishes that sentence the door is busted in and Chicago PD is surrounding him. He gets down next to you and points the gun at your head
You come any closer and I will kill her
Dad help me....
I am...You wanted me from the start let my littl girl go and get to a hospital and take me, do whatever you have to but just let her go. Once he finishes the sentence Adam tackles the man to the ground and in a flash Jay is by your side
Y/N I am so sorry that this happened
Hey it isnt your fault, but I think that we are going to become parents a few weeks sooner than we expected.
The nurse finally speaks, We need an gurney in here we have to get her to the hospital. She helps them get you in the ambulance, She gives them all the information that they need and then the ambulance is off to Med. As you arrive everyone is there waiting, you already have a room waiting and everything. After what seems like hours of labor you finally delivered a beautiful blue eyed baby girl. 7lbs 12oz 17in long
After a few hours of resting you ask Jay to get a wheelchair so that you could take her out to meet everyone. As he helped you to the wheelchair he placed the pillow on your stomach before picking up yalls little girl kissing her on the nose before handing her to you. Little moments like that make you falls in love with that man more and more..
As you make your way down the hall the first two people that you see are your dad and Jay's brother Will. They see you making your way down the hall and have huge grins on their faces and rush to their feet.
Hey everyone
How are you doing? Hank ask
feel a little rough but this little one right here makes it all worth it.
What do I have the pleasure of calling my little niece here?
You look up at Jay and you both share a smile
Everyone we would like to introduce you to Camille Justine Halstead. After my beautiful mother and brother who both were taken way too soon.. As you make eye contact with your dad for the first in a very very long time you seen your dad crying. He walks over and kisses you on the head..
That name is perfect.
Well then I guess you better thank Jay because it was his idea
He turns to Jay and pulls him into a hug and whispers thank you. They pull back from the hug and Jay looks him dead in the eye and says We are family now
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happys-crazy-queen22 · 4 years
Text
Title: Final Beat Down
Tumblr media
Gif credit @jayhasltud
Requested on wattpad
Hope you all enjoy it
WARNING: ABUSE, ASSAULT, ATTEMPTED RAPE. THREATENING WITH A GUN. TRIGGER WARNING. CAUTION WHEN READING.
He did it again. This time it was one of the worst. Your eye was swollen shut, your ribs were broken. The wheezing told you that. A lung was punctured, probably. He couldn't control himself. You had to get out, just had too. So you went to the only place that you felt safe.
"Y/N, come in". Hank didnt even have to ask why you were there, he just let you in.
"Take off those wet clothes, I'll get you some dry ones". Hank hurried along to his room. You stood in the hall, shivering as you took the wet clothes off. Your body ached with every movement that you made. Biting your lip to stop you from sobbing.
Hank returned with a towel and some clothes. He held up the towel as you got dressed.
"I'll put on some coffee". He sighed as he saw the bruises on your arms and legs. You followed him to the kitchen.
"What was it this time"?
"The same". You whispered as you sat down at the table.
"You need to leave him. You dont deserve what this son of a bitch is doing to you". Hank slammed the kettle down on the stove. He heard you whimper. "Sorry".
"I know. I just can't. I dont know how".
"I'll talk with some people and get you into a womans shelter".
"He'll find me. Then he'll  do worse. I may not survive it then".
Hank shook his head as he grabbed two coffee cups and sat them on the table, he pour the coffee into cup. You wrapped your hands around the mug and took in the heat.
"You need to see a doctor".
"No I'm good".
"It wasn't a question. You need to get checked out. I'll call Will". Hank went to the house phone and got on it. You didnt want to drag anyone else into the mix but you were in serious pain. So much pain that you were struggling not to pass out.
Will arrived in a matter of minutes along with Jay. Hank let Will use his bedroom to check you over. It was a painful process. Every touch sent shock waves of pain through your body. Will bandaged you up and gave you some pain meds to help you sleep. Before he even left you were out.
"How is she"? Hank met Will at the bottom of the stairs.
"Well. A few broken ribs, a punctured lung. Busted lip, a fractured eye socket, luckily he didnt damage her eye. She has bruises up and down her legs and arms. Hand prints around her wrist and throat. Mark's on her back that look like it came from a belt. Right now she's lucky it wasn't worse than this. She needs to get out".
"I've told her that many of times".
"This happened more than once"? Will asked shocked.
"Third time this week".
"Hank, get her out or you'll be trying to solve her murder".
"I know who did it but she wouldn't press charges on him. I've tried to get her to".
"Then you have a girl that doesnt want help". Will frowned as he walked past Hank and out the door.
"If you need anything just call". Jay told Hank.
"Yeah. Thanks". Hank shut the door and blew out a breath he was holding. He went to the couch and sat there thinking.. Soon he drifted off to sleep.
The morning came, Hank was up and ready for work. He didnt want to disturb you so he let you sleep in but when he went up to check on you before he went off to work you weren't there. You hand went out the window, he didnt know why. Figure you were scared to face him or to ashamed but he knew where you were and that you'd be seeing him again.
During Hanks shift he tried not to think about you or your situation but you were on his mind. He called you three, four times. You never answered so after work he was going to stop by your place unannounced. Maybe that boyfriend of yours would be there, but he wouldn't do anything in front of Hank. He was to big of a coward to hurt you with Hank around.
"Hey Jay, I'm going to head out early. I have to stop somewhere". Hank told Jay while he put on his jacket. It was still raining out.
"Okay. You need back-up"? Jay already knew where he was headed. Hank might be a mystery to all but when he really cares about someone his guard is down.
"Nah, I think I'll be fine. Just stay by a phone just in case". Hank chuckled as he walked out the back, heading to his car. He left at the right moment.
"You stupid fucking bitch". Your boyfriend threw you into the wall with such force your shoulder dislocated.
"I'm sorry". You whimpered as you moved your arm, cowering in the corner of the kitchen.
"Then you shouldn't make me mad. I do so much for you and you give no thanks. That's what makes me mad". He jerked you up by your shoulders which hurt like a bitch.
"You're going to give me what I want or else". He threatened with a growl.
"You lay another damn finger on her, your brains will splatter this kitchen. Now put her down easy and step away". Hank had his gun pointed at the back of your abusive boyfriends head. Your boyfriend was nervous, the sweat beads rolling down his forehead. He let you down easy and stepped away from you.
Hank bent down to help you up, you hissed as your arm moved. "You okay"?
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just go".
"You're coming with me. Even if you dont press charges. You're leaving".
"She isnt going anywhere. That bitch owes me".
"You open you fucking mouth one more time, I'll put a bullet in it". Hank gripped the trigger on his gun. Just waiting for him to be stupid.
"I'll go with you Hank".
Hank smiled and wrapped his arm around you, leading you out. Then something stupid happened.
"She ain't going to open her legs for you either old man. You can save her all you want". Your ex boyfriend laughed, sticking up his middle finger.
Hank didnt think he quickly turned around and broke his middle finger. Of course he screamed out like a drama queen.
"I told you what would happen if you opened your mouth again, now didnt I"? Hank took the butt of the gun and smashed into your ex's mouth. He screamed in agony. Spitting out a few teeth.
"Thats for opening your mouth". Hank put his gun in his holster. Balled up his fist and punched him square in the nose. Then just released hell on him. Kicking and punching.  Stomping on his ribs and his broken finger. You were actually enjoying the sight. You didn't know it would have been this great of a feeling to see someone else have complete control over him, like he did once on you.
"Hank". You quietly spoke getting his attention also you didnt want him to kill him.
"One second". Hank told you. He reached behind him getting his cuffs. "Your under arrest for assault on a police officer". Hank jerk him over to his stomach and put the handcuffs on tightly.
"I didn't do shit". Your ex cried out.
Hank pulled him up by his ear, your ex was covered in blood. Hanks hands were covered.
"Call the station and ask for Jay". Hank asked of you. You nodded and went to your phone. Seeing that Hank called and texted you moments before he arrived. You called the station and Jay didn't ask any questions. He was on his way.
"You okay"? You came over to Hank as Jay loaded up your ex, hitting his head on the door as he was thrown in the back seat.
"Yeah. Let's got to my place and get cleaned up. Your house is a crime scene right now". Hank chuckled as he laid his on your back.
"Thank you for saving me, Hank. I know now I should have left long ago. I was just scared". You tell him as he cleaned your wounds with peroxide.
"Y/N, I know you were scared but you have me. I wouldn't hurt you.  I would have done my best to protect you. You deserve much better than him".
"Someone like you".
"Yeah, someone like me".
"It wasnt a question, Hank. You. You have been there for me when I needed help and when I couldn't think straight. I trust you more than anyone. You take better care of me than I do".
"You deserve to be cared for. Y/N, you're an amazing woman and you dont give yourself credit for that".
You smiled wide as you leaned into Hank. The smell of him made you go mad. "I like you Mr. Voight". You licked your lips as you looked down at his.
"I like you too". Hank let out a slow breath and then attached his lips to yours. Tge kiss was deep and soft. From the looks and personality of Hank you thought he'd be rough but no. He was so gently. Looks can be deceiving.
"Will you, you know"? You blushed as he looked into your eyes, waiting for you to say the words.
"Will I"?
"Will you be my first and show me what love really is"? You whispered softly.
"I will never hurt you". Hank picked you up carefully, you wrapped your arms around his waist as he carried you to his room.
Hank laid you gently on the bed, laying beside you, kissing your lips. He wanted to make sure you were comfortable and sure that this is what you wanted. He never wanted to make you feel unsafe with him.
As the night progressed, Hank showed you what it was like to be loved by someone that actually cared about you. Not just using you.  To love and cherish you. To make you feel wanted and the desire that Hank has for you. Something that you've never felt until you are with Hank.
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brokenjardaantech · 3 years
Text
Blue-tinted Red Walls (Chapter 4: Out of control)
my entry for the @dbhau-bigbang. also part of the groom lake aftermath series.
chapter summary:
In the past, Reyes went missing.
In the present, Connor makes a decision.
In the past, Connor embarked on his first mission, and Allen received a warning.
also on ao3
---
Before
[reyes was supposed to be back by 4]
[its 10 now]
[im scared sister]
[i dont know where he is]
[he isnt answering my calls]
[sister?]
[sara?]
[fadia?]
[sister where are you im scared please dont leave me alone]
[we were out but i went home when got scared just like you said]
[sister]
[sister]
[sister]
[sis]
[sis]
[sis]
[49 missed calls from scoot bruh]
‘Fuck.’
Dialled. Pulled up Reyes’ programmes. 
Time remaining: 3 min 28 sec
 
Override accepted. Time remaining: 19 sec...
Calling scoot bruh

‘Sister! I lost Reyes!’
‘Anything from him yet?’
‘Nothing! We were out shopping for paint -’
‘Where did you go?’
‘Huh?’
‘Where did -’
‘I - I -’
A sigh. Of course. ‘Don’t worry. I have a way to find him. You said you are at home?’
‘Y-yeah.’
‘Lock the doors. Do not, under any circumstances, let everyone in unless it’s confirmed that it’s me. Not even if they claim to be Reyes.’
‘But -’
‘Brother.’
‘O-okay.’ A pause. ‘It’s done.’
‘Good.’ Encryption has begun. Estimated time remaining: about 3 hrs. ‘How much food do you have? And your meds?’
‘Why?’
‘Answer me.’
‘A - a week? More if I eat less? Same for the meds.’
‘Let’s hope we won’t come to that.’ Last known coordinates: [navpoint set]. ‘Don’t miss your meds no matter what. I’m heading out.’
‘Where?’
Checked coordinates. ‘I will make sure Reyes comes back no matter the cost.’
‘Sister -’
Call ended.
o0o0o
Alec was either stupid or was too proud. The tracker on Reyes had never stopped sending out signals telling Fadia where he was, and it was through this that she found herself into Zug Island, passing guards completely undetected on one of the few bridges connected to the island under the cover of the night and reached the outermost perimeter of Reyes’ signal, one that was too large for him to be above ground. There was something underneath; she just needed to find the entrance. Following a trail composed of the android’s GPS signal, she stood next to a pair of heavy steel doors that were in the ground instead of being fixed onto a wall or on the side of a mountain. When she grabbed the handles on one of the doors, she found it too heavy to lift up with raw strength alone, therefore, risking detection by letting blue wash over her body, she tapped into her power and successfully moved it out of her way onto the ground nearby, revealing a metal ladder leading down a few metres to a metal floor. She sent her coordinates to Scott through an encrypted network before descending the ladder into a dark and unlit hallway. 
It went on for about ten metres before a metal gate blocked her way. As she had her powers on anyway, she focused on creating a sphere behind the gate and lobbed it down the shaft, first to determine what it was (a lift shaft), then to find out how far it went - at least dozens of metres, most likely more; straight down, no other stops apart from the end because there were no other floors to begin with. The sphere dissipated once it hit the end of the shaft or most likely the top of the lift itself. Flashing blue again, she found a panel with two unmarked buttons on the left wall, one red, the other most likely turned from white to a cream colour due to the passage of time. She had no idea if there were other entrances or what would be waiting for her deep underground, but the longer things dragged on, the more scared and alone Scott would feel, and she was in this too far to let him die from a heart attack after years of effort; she pressed the cream button and successfully called up the lift.
She liked the rumbling and trembling as the lift descended into the deep. There was nothing between the carriage and bare stone, not even an extra gate, and as darkness swallowed her and her hunger became acute, she retracted her powers and let everything completely wash over her. 
How bold of Alec to assume that she didn’t know his tricks. 
oOoOo
Now
Many years later, as the lift ascends slowly to their desired floor, Connor closes his eyes and is transported to the Zen Garden. Except it is not exactly the one he is familiar with, he realises soon enough, but he finds himself locked in when he tries to escape back to reality, and the garden shifts and distorts before he can determine exactly why it feels different, the shapes stretching and rearranging themselves until he is standing in front of a large plane of glass rattling from the blizzard outside, the latter barely contained by - he turns around - a concrete room, interior dimensions [fluctuating].
A door that was not there before on the opposite wall opens. A person steps in and closes it behind them, and the wall is whole once more. Connor scans them by instinct and is taken aback by the lack of markers and the [CLASSIFIED]s that pops up when he tries to identify them. He still catalogues vital information for future cross-referencing: height: 6.6 ft; middle-eastern descent; eye colour: extreme dark brown (black?); scar on face running from right temple to ear lobe, estimated at least 10 years old. 
‘Don’t bother,’ the person says as they approach Connor. He tries to pre-construct their path and finds himself unable to do so. ‘It’s futile.’
‘What -’ Connor does not like how his companion - and quite possibly the one who hacked the Zen Garden programme - looms over him, but his feet are stuck - ‘where is Amanda?’
‘Asleep.’ They settle standing next to Connor, and he is finally allowed to move - subtly, of course - further away from them. If they notice, they do not say anything about it. ‘I thought you would be more relieved.’
‘You successfully hacked into the most advanced AI programme CyberLife has ever created,’ the person lifts a [sceptical] eyebrow at that, ‘so pardon me if I’m a bit wary of you.’
‘Fair enough,’ is the response he gets. ‘Still, I would like you to relax. This is going to be a long day.’
‘Androids don’t get tired,’ Connor replies automatically. ‘There is no need for us to rest or relax.’
‘Bullshit.’
The clipped tone startles the android. ‘What?’ he tries to process the single word his companion said but nothing else comes out, so he asks, ‘Who are you?’
The person’s expression turns [pensive]. ‘He wiped you after all.’
Connor is even more confused now. ‘Who?’
He fails to look away quick enough, and the human manages to catch his eyes with their glowing blue ones; when they speak, their voice is everywhere.
‘Forget.’
oOoOo
‘Hey Connor!’
Connor opens his eyes and blinks. Old cage lifts are slow but not that slow, but he still feels like a longer time has passed. Adding not remembering what he just did to the list and you end up with a confused android.
‘You ran outta batteries or what?’ Hank asks from where he is already outside of the lift. Unable to explain certainly what happened, there is only one route Connor can go.
‘I’m sorry,’ he apologises. ‘I was making a report to CyberLife.’ Yes, he is remembering now: he was making a report (or at least intended to, his processor supplies), but when he tries to dive deeper into his memory, he finds it gone. Blank where a draft should be.
Hank makes a noise. Connor keeps staring. ‘Well, do you plan on staying in the elevator?’
‘No!’ Why can’t he move his legs? ‘I’m coming!’
And he still doesn’t move. Hank sighs and moves on.
‘What do we know about this guy?’ the human asks from further down the corridor.
‘Not much,’ there his legs are. ‘Just that a neighbour reported that he heard strange noises coming from this floor. Nobody is supposed to be living here, but the neighbour said he saw a man hiding a LED under his cap.’
‘Oh Christ, if we have to investigate every time someone -’
Connor kneels down next to a sizable dustball and lets the world go grey. Analysis: feathers from [Columbia livia: rock pigeon. Comprised of different specimens.]
‘- hears a strange noise, we’re gonna need more cops.’
The android knocks on the door and feels the paint chip underneath his knuckles. When there is no response, Hank shrugs from where he is leaning against the door frame, so Connor knocks again, this time harder, and adds, ‘Anybody home?’
No response. Hank frowns. Time to add some pressure. ‘Open up!’ Connor yells. ‘Detroit Police!’
A loud thump. They both flinch. Hank draws his gun and moves to stand in front of Connor. ‘Stay behind me.’
‘Got it.’
Hank kicks the door open and walks in. He is not attacked instantly, which means both of them are safe for now, so Connor follows him into the flat, letting the human take the lead while he rounds into the room directly next to the front door. A small, dusty window letting in some light, a few octagonal mazes painted on the wall, a chair with a broken back, a radiator unit lying on the floor, a wooden frame which might have been the frame of a bed years ago - nothing noteworthy for now. He returns to the hallway and disturbs a - pigeon? - which flaps its wings and flies off to somewhere behind him.
Hank shoulders the next door open, and out fly even more pigeons directly into his face. The foul smell forces Connor to tone down his nasal sensitivity.
‘What the fuck is this?’ he exclaims as he walks even deeper into the lair and causes even more pigeons to fly towards all directions, and he flaps his arms in the way the pigeons do as if to slap them away. ‘Jesus, this place stinks.’
Pre-constructing the situation and determining that Hank will not be in any danger, Connor goes off on his own to the other side of what seems to be a living room once. The floor is sticky with [avian faecal matter], and when he opens the door to something that was once a closet, there are only more pigeons. The wall next to it is covered in mazes similar to the one he saw in the previous room, and a beam of light escaping the hold of the wooden planks boarding off the windows shines on the poster, its curled corner indicating that it has been moved recently. ‘Looks like we came for nothing,’ Hank says from somewhere behind Connor as he peels off the Urban Farms of Detroit poster, ‘our man’s gone.’
Maybe not, Connor thinks as he takes the worn notebook from the nook in the wall. ‘I need fresh air,’ he hears Hank mutter, and when he flips over the pages, he finds not only many more labyrinths - some of them incomplete - but also an entire text written in a language not in his databases. He stashes it in the pocket of his jacket and moves on, barely catching the human’s question and replying, ‘I don’t know. It looks like a notebook but it’s
 indecipherable.’
There are two fridges. The smaller one with its door open was evidently used as a shelf so Connor does not bother to check it. When he opens the door of the larger one, there is no food inside at all, and a peek towards the back of the fridge confirms that it is not connected to any power. Whoever their suspect is, they do not eat. Not human.
He moves on to the counter covered in mounts of avian faecal matter. A pigeon is picking on a plastic bag spilling out of a cardboard box, and it jumps away when he tries to pet it. Well, it only makes picking up the box - Ol’Barn bird seed - more convenient, so Connor is not going to complain even though a tang of [disappointment] courses through his veins. [Suspect cares for wild animals.]
There is a military jacket on the cabinet. R.T. is sewn on the collar and above the flap of the breast pocket. ‘R.T,’ he says to himself, ‘probably initials.’
‘He put initials on his jacket?’ Hank replies. ‘That’s something your mum does -’ A driver’s license in the cupboard. Name: Rupert Travis. Authenticity: forgery. ‘- when you’re in first grade!’
‘The driver’s licence is fake,’ he reports, throwing the card away as it serves no more purpose unlike the notebook which needs deciphering. It is enough evidence to bring the suspect back to the precinct.
‘Cool!’ it seems that the Lieutenant has the same line of thought. ‘At least we didn’t come for nothing.’
The bathroom through the doorless frame is in ruins. The bathtub is filled with a mixture of feathers and faecal matter, the tiles on the wall are cracked, and dirt and grime and leaves no doubt brought inside by the pigeons cling to the corners of the sink. A sink stained with thirium and an LED placed on top. 
He takes a sample. [Model WB200 #847 004 961. Reported missing: 10/11/2036]. So the deviant could have been here for more than two years. If it does nothing but feeding the wild animals, that will explain the state of disrepair of the flat.
‘Real books,’ Hank has no doubt discovered the cabinet. ‘I thought I was the last guy in Detroit to keep some.’
Connor picks up the LED and runs a scan. It was just deactivated this morning. [Suspect is a deviant.] ‘Its LED is in the sink.’
‘Not surprised it was an android,’ Hank walks in and finds the rA9s scribbled all over the wall. ‘No human could live with all these fuckin’ pigeons. Any idea what it means?’
‘rA9,’ the sheer number requires a pause to let Connor concentrate on counting, ‘written 2471 times. It is the same sign Ortiz’s android wrote on the shower wall.’ He compares the findings with the data he can access. ‘Why are they obsessed with this sign?’
But Hank is already leaving, which means that he fails to see the toppled chair and the still-wet marker on the floor, which also means that -
The suspect was here recently.
In a grey world, Connor watches the yellow-outlined silhouette run out to the living room where a cage has fallen. He hears Hank comment on the birdseed, but his focus is on the recent skid marks at the bottom of the cage, the finger marks without fingerprints, also recent, and the metal hook broken not long ago, and his world goes grey again, the figure first running for the entrance and accidentally breaking the cage, then, upon hearing someone entering their flat, runs towards the armchair underneath a hole in the ceiling and climbs.
The suspect is still here.
He looks up at the wide gap and the attic beyond that can easily fit a few adults comfortably, the darkness making the details difficult to distinguish, and perhaps this is why it is already too late when he hears the footsteps, a force knocking him down and disorienting him from everything else except for Hank’s surprised shout. Static still tingling his senses, he freezes and watches the deviant flee after he stands up, Hank’s order the only thing propelling him forward to start the chase. 
And chase he does. Turns out Rupert does not live far from where he deviated, as when Connor crashes the door to get to the outside world, the farms are right there only a building away, fields of wheat, greenhouses filled with racks of vegetables, rows of lavender, and even the top of a train a blur of colours behind him as his vision alternates between the colourful reality and the slowed-down grey of his pre-construction programme. The corn scratches his face and scrapes his jacket, but he knows that he is getting there, he is going to catch the deviant, he can’t let it escape, not after Ortiz’s android -
And it happens. Hank has somehow caught up with Rupert and is engaged in a struggle with the android, and in an attempt to get away, the latter pushes and runs towards the left.
Hank falls. The world slows down.
From his speed while he was running, Connor determines that he is strong enough to pull himself up from the ledge with an 89% chance of survival, so logically, he should continue chasing the deviant so that CyberLife can solve the crisis earlier and Hank won’t be in any more danger. But a voice within him that sounds like a shadow tells him that the deviant was only working just like any other human and was only taking care of the animals. He was hurt, and now he can’t even go back to his pigeons, his home.
^^Software Instability
He dashes towards Hank and pulls him up.
‘We had it!’ Hank lets out a string of curses while he stands. ‘Fuck!’
Connor instantly feels bad. ‘It’s my fault. I should have been faster.’
They watch the deviant’s silhouette become smaller and smaller in the distance and completely disappear behind a building. ‘You’d have caught it if it weren’t for me,’ Hank says, still panting. He places a warm, heavy hand on Connor’s shoulder. ‘That’s alright. We know what it looks like. We’ll find it.’
Connor knows that they won’t. 
The hand moves to the centre of his back. ‘C’mon,’ Hank guides him to the fire exit, ‘let’s report that bastard.’
oOoOo
Before
RK800, serial #313 248 317 - 51 opens his eyes for the first time. Information floods in through his HUD, displaying the exact hue of the lights overhead, the model of the 3D printer at the corner, and the materials of the boots the person standing in front of him is wearing. The badge only says ‘PROJECT LEAD’, and when he automatically utilises his facial recognition software, he finds both their name and their criminal record classified. Scans of their body also return with no result. Even though he has no actual experience, his coding tells him that this is not supposed to happen.
‘RK800,’ the person begins, ‘register name: Connor.’
[Name: Connor] appears on his HUD. He - Connor - finds himself repeating, ‘My name is Connor.’
The person’s expression changes. Emotion identified: amusement. ‘No redundant protocols. Good. Let’s play a game, shall we?’
A game turned into a few games, and the silence stretched on as Connor was presented with different scenarios to solve and predict their conclusion before halfway through them. First was a deck of cards, then a game of chess, then a rat going through a maze, then a supercharged piece of glass - that was the most difficult one as he was only given a second to pre-construct before a tree-like pattern appears from within the glass. The person never said their name, only commenting on his performance when he finished a task - regardless if he succeeded or not - and taking notes on a tablet by writing with a stylus. An unknown curiosity encouraged him to scan the human in front of him, but apart from superficial features such as the lack of dander on their clothing, results were inconclusive, and his programming indicated that this was abnormal.
‘Your LED is spinning yellow,’ they noted. ‘What are you thinking about?’
Connor knows it is a test on his social relations programme. Options: truth, lie, deflect, comment.
[truth]
‘When I was scanning you
’ he frowned, ‘only superficial scans come back with results. I cannot detect your life signs nor can I identify you through facial recognition. Is that expected?’
The person took out a putty and gave it to Connor. ‘Yes for me,’ they replied. ‘It is to protect my identity in case anti-android folks find me. The less data everyone has on me, the less likely it is for people to bring me harm.’
Connor nodded in understanding but his focus was on the putty. It was initially a soft green, but after he kneaded it for a few seconds it turned sky blue - not that he had seen the sky before, but databases worth of images was enough to give him an idea - and when he spread it out into a thin slice on the table, it slowly turned green again. He smiles uncontrollably as he met the person’s gaze, a corner of his lips curling upwards, and he could sense the approval radiating from the person sitting on the opposite side of the small desk. 
‘If you want to, I can bring you to see the sky,’ they said as if sensing his thoughts. ‘It’s rare to have a sunny day in Detroit, but they do exist. I can only programme so much into your system before letting you learn the rest from experience.’
Connor had to close his eyes as he browsed different forms of media on sunny days and imagined the warm sun on his sensors. He might not know it himself, but he was smiling, and so was his companion, albeit on a smaller scale. ‘I’d like that.’
He returned to the putty, this time trying to make different 3D shapes out of it. The edge of his vision was red as usual, and as he moved on to make even more complex figurines out of the putty, it crept closer and closer to the centre until everything was tinged the same colour. From the [satisfied] smile on the person’s face, he must be going towards the correct direction with the test.
‘Well, the sky needs to wait.’
Connor looked up from the rough sculpture he made that was supposed to resemble a tree he saw in a photo in confusion. His companion stood up so he did as well, the red receding out of place and returning the colours back to his vision.
‘I have a mission for you.’
o0o0o
Less than an hour later, the same person sat in the darkened cab of a truck. There was an earpiece in their ear, and whatever the other side was feeding them, their dissatisfaction was clearly shown in their expression. 
Something made them sigh and turn their gaze outside the window where another CyberLife truck was parked. Personnel, probably hand-picked by Alec Ryder himself, loaded the broken PL600 piece by piece into a special foam box to preserve the state they found the biocomponents in to let technicians analyse what went wrong with him and what caused him to break away from his programming, but they knew that CyberLife was not going to find anything - they had not been for the past ten years, and the hypothesis they had was not going to get any results. It was either a miracle or pure stupidity that they could not think of another possibility regarding why androids were deviating.
From their angle, Captain Allen was seen carrying a deactivated Connor out from the building with another SWAT team member, and they knew that their time had arrived. Peeling off the skin of their hand, they interfaced with the truck to turn it into manual mode, effectively preventing it from taking off once the android was loaded at the back. They opened the door - both the passenger and the one at the back - and slid off the seat just in time for the Captain and his subordinate to arrive.
‘You from CyberLife?’ not-Allen asked. Standing in front of their superior, they did not notice him freeze upon seeing the person’s face, and the latter silently moved into their space to take their end of the stretcher and came face to face with Allen.
‘I’ll take it from here, Jamie,’ the Captain requested without taking his eyes off the person in front of him. ‘You go see how the others are doing.’
‘Aye aye, Captain.’ The second aye was much less jovial than the first, so Jamie must have finally noticed their Captain’s mood and adjusted accordingly. 
They watched Jamie jog away. As soon as they reached out of sight, the person cocked their head to tell Allen to load the body into the truck, but he did not return to his teammates even after the android was secure and sound.
‘You,’ he suddenly snapped at the only person in his proximity. The fact that he had to look up quite a bit to look at them in the eye did not diminish the fire in his eyes. ‘Why the fuck are you here?’
‘Don’t act so surprised, Captain,’ they said, looking down at the man in front of them. ‘You’re smart enough to figure it out.’
‘And you’re not smart enough to fucking disappear for the rest of your goddamned fucking life!’ Allen gritted. ‘You know you’re wanted for murdering thousands of people, don’t you?’
‘And you know that CyberLife turned it into a dumpster and made it impossible to gather evidence against me, don’t you?’
Allen pulled out his pistol and pointed it at their chin. ‘Face the truck. Hands on the hood.’
A wisp of blue reached out from their right hand and crushed the weapon into pieces. ‘Don’t forget what I can do, Captain,’ they crowded even closer to the Captain, and he took a step back. ‘I can repeat that, you know? Except there’re far more than a few thousand people here this time. None of you will suffer.’ A tendril picked up the scraps on the ground while they yanked Allen’s hand outward and forced it open, in which the pieces later fell. ‘Go back to your people, Captain. Practise. You will need every edge you have.’
They stared at each other. A blue glow emerged from Allen’s hand with his former weapon, and with a crackle of static and dark energy, the scraps were gone just like the site of the dumpster, torn apart molecularly into fundamental particles too small for the naked eye to perceive. He let out a sound of pain and nearly toppled, a hand on his shoulder the only thing keeping him from crashing onto the ground. Another hand shot out and brushes his thigh, black metal glowing faint blue in the darkness in an interface. Allen seemed to stand better afterwards.
‘This should last you for a few hours,’ the person said as if the Captain was not glaring at them.
‘You’ll not get away with this.’
‘It isn’t yours to decide.’
The tension in Allen’s spine snapped, and he walked away with brisk but slightly limping steps. The person gazed at Connor’s thirium-stained face before slamming the door shut and crammed themself into the driver’s seat, guiding the truck towards a direction not leading to CyberLife Tower under the cover of the night.
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meanminyxrd · 4 years
Text
smokey eyes by lincoln but its andreil
i doubt anyone is going to fully read through this, but i like to song analyze. i like to take songs i find and explain why i’ve added them to my aftg playlists. this first song i’m going to “explain”, i suppose, is smokey eyes by lincoln. it’s added to neil’s playlist.
The first verse is as follows:
Smokey eyes, are you feeling good?
For now, you’re here with me
Seems like we’ve waited long enough
For someone else to make us feel complete
It’s not a bitter flavor, and it’s not a sweeter drink
I’m scared to ask you if you would do the same for me
at the beginning of whatever this thing with andrew is, neil believes that he is not important at all to andrew. he thinks that andrew doesn’t care as much as he himself does. but he’s okay with that; he’s gonna die by the end of the year anyways, so might as well have a good time. but still, it hurts. ‘are you feeling good?’—he wants to make andrew happy like andrew makes him feel happy. he wants to make andrew feel safe like andrew makes him feel safe. and for fucks sake, they HAVE waited long enough to feel happy and complete. they haven’t had anything like
 THIS
 their whole lives. and what they have, it isnt stereotypically sweet, but it isn’t in any means bad or bitter. it works out for them, and that’s what matters. and he cares so much about andrew that it hurts, it almost tears him apart to suddenly care about anyone but himself, but he doesnt think andrew cares back and is too scared to ask.
Smokey eyes; that’s your name, isn’t it?
At least that’s what I call you
When I call you, do you shake the way I shake
When I call to say I’m through?
“No, I shake the way you do at shows
So people know you’re cool
Violently, but still controlled enough to screw.”
you cannot tell me neil doesn’t come up with nicknames for andrew. my favorite head canons come from when neil is sleepy and calls andrew ‘drew and i get so weak reading them. as for the shaking part, its like neil’s saying ‘if i called to end it, whatever this thing is, i would be heartbroken and shaking from the anxiety and pain of it all. would you?’ and the only answer he can imagine coming back is that andrew doesnt care, and that all he was was a cheap fuck, because in the beginning that’s all andrew dares to show.
now, after the hotel in baltimore scene, he thinks andrew cares at this point. why else would andrew have fought for him to stay? but we all know how absolutely fucking oblivious neil can be. when he’s with aaron at the cabin during their vacation, he expresses he doesn’t believe andrew would care enough to do anything drastic for him. he genuinely believes that if aaron asked andrew to drop neil, that andrew would in order to keep his promise.
cut to the chorus of the song:
So help me make amends with all my friends
Most other people are just dead ends
There’s nothing worse than making friends
again, after baltimore, he knows andrew cares, but he doesnt know what to do about it or how exactly to cope with this revelation. if andrew cares, then it can’t be that much, right? because what could neil josten, a made up character and personality, have to offer to any of the foxes? yet he needs to make amends with the foxes. they’re all he has, and leaving them would break his heart. he is basically begging andrew not to send him away, begging wymack to let him stay. he wants to make amends, and most people who he’s tried to trust have just hurt him, so they’re dead ends. he hates that he’s attached because what could be worse than getting attached? but he cares, and he wants to fix it, fix this. he knows lying to them was wrong and he thinks the foxes will shun him because he’s the son of the butcher and also the yakuza is not just after kevin but him as well. he hates that he’s attached, but he is, and he wants to fix it.
Sticky thighs, are you wild now or just a memory?
Some people want to be your friend
Some people just want to be free
And the worst thing about me is that I’m somewhere in between;
I might miss you, but I’m still trying to get clean
‘some ppl wanna be ur friend’, the upperclassmen do attempt to include andrew in things, a lot more after neil kinda coaxes them to but the same nonetheless. it’s not easy trying to include the monsters, but neil’s relationship with both “sides” of the team are important to him, so each side tries their best to at least attempt to get along. ‘some ppl just want to be free’ ie aaron. aaron wanted out of the deal but didn’t know how to really get around it. nicky wanted to be more friendly with the upperclassmen but was held back by andrew’s rules. and neil, he’s somewhere in between. he wants to be (boy)friends with andrew, but he also still has this feeling of wanting to run, to leave before andrew leaves, and when he thinks of leaving he misses andrew but he’s also just trying to do what he thinks is best for both of them.
You’ve had enough to drink
You know you’re drowning in the flavor of
Cough syrup and Vicodin
You’ve got the bitter flavor down so
Dab the sweeter drink on a napkin, then
Hold it up to your mouth so you can sleep
andrew usually doesn’t get drunk, as he states he knows his limits, but he totally does when he’s really upset and isn’t gonna be driving. for instance, after a rough game without his meds he would be rewarded with alcohol from wymack. in the author’s notes, there’s a scene where andrew goes to wymack’s apartment to talk about neil and he chugs alcohol then, too. whether he’s able to admit it or not, andrew abuses alcohol as a way to cope. this lyric, to me, alludes to the use of drugs or drinks to cope.
Quiet lies that you’re telling to
Those black and screaming skies...
I hope you’re walking around campus
Contemplating your own smallish size
This is not what all my idols told me college would be like
I hope someday you learn to take your own advice
the quiet lies are in the blank stares, the flat expressions, the mean words and obvious apathy. andrew’s apathy keeps him safe, but neil sees through it. he knows its a lie. he’s knows that there’s more to this misunderstood monster and he wants to learn all about it. he hopes that andrew is able to think about bigger things, even when neil isnt there to try and get him to. he hopes andrew isn’t as impassive as he tries to make others believe. he hopes, and truly believes, that somewhere in there, andrew cares about neil.
furthermore, college is nothing like its made out to be. college, for neil, has been both hell and heaven. he never thought he’d even end up going, let alone go to play exy of all things. andrew is always giving neil advice, but he never follows any of it himself. andrew is all about getting neil to open up to him, but is hesitant to open up as well. neil understands, but he also hopes andrew warms up to him a bit. he enjoys their trust for trust relationship and genuinely wishes that one day andrew will be okay. maybe not good, but okay. because that’s a start.
and, scene.
thank you for reading if you read this far! i’ll probably end up doing more, tbh, because i really enjoy writing these. that’s all for now, though!
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marvinhasadhd · 4 years
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Okay, so I got my prescription about two weeks ago and since then I have already tried Ritalin a few times.
I started with half a pill (so 5mg) and didn’t feel anything. My doctor advised me to do my next attempt on the next day, but I am chronically bad at listening to medical professionals, so I tried a whole pill (or 10mg) on the afternoon of the same day I tried the first one.
I decided to take it, because our work had been cancelled (I currently work as a security at events which are hosted by our city) and so someone had to wait until the security who worked the night shift arrived. I really need the money, so I volunteered to sit around for a few hours and I decided to take the full pill and try reading for a bit, as thats something where I often struggle with being inattentive and getting distracted by just about everything.
And it kinda helped. I just sat down and read for over an hour without looking at my phone or getting distracted in any other way. I used to read a lot as a child, but since the age of 12-13 I slowly stopped reading as much because I could rarely ever focus on the book for longer times, so reading became a bit frustrating, as I now took days, weeks or sometimes even months to finish books which would have taken me hours when I was younger (one of my biggest achievements as a child was that I finished the whole HarryPotter-Series in just one weekend).
So yeah, that was a nice experience. I tried it again two days later, as I wanted to try studying for university, but this time I tried 1,5 pills (so 15mg) and I didn’t feel much difference to the 10mg. I still couldn’t quite focus on the stuff I had to learn and I kept getting distracted by things around me, especially by the clutter on my desk. I really felt the need to do something about that and so I cleaned my desk. And once my desk was finally free of everything that didn‘t belong there, I cleaned the floor, the kitchen, the bathroom, I did my laundry and I collected all the cat toys and also cleaned all the places my cats like to hang out in of their hair. Once that was done, I tried to learn again and I noticed that I could focus a bit better, but most importantly I noticed that I just managed to keep my focus on doing a cleaning of the whole flat without making any breaks to watch youtube or check twitter or anything. I didn’t even think about my phone, while I did all that. That was kinda crazy, as just about everyone who knows me would describe me as a perfect example of a smartphone-addicted person.
The next day, I tried to learn again and I took two whole pills (aka 20mg or the maximum dosis my doctor allowed me to do before I visit her again) and I noticed that while I could actually focus better, I would also focus very strongly on anything that distracted me. I found one of my cats toys (a self-made mouse) had been ripped and while I was already trying to focus on learning, I just had to get my sewing kit and repair the mouse before I could even think about anything else. So my focus became much better, but also I would focus very strongly on any possible distraction.
The next day my girlfriend arrived and so I didn‘t take Ritalin for a few days, as I know that she isnt too big of a fan of it (that one Netflix-documentary apparently made Ritalin seem like its pure crystal meth) and also I think I shouldn’t need stimulants to be able to focus on my girlfriend. I love her and I always try to give her my fullest attention, so I let the pills in my medicine-cabinet.
Once she was gone again (she has a summer-job in another state, so we only see each other for a few days each week), I tried studying again and so I took two pills in the morning, cleaned my whole learning environment before the effects kicked in and then I actually was able to focus nicely on cell-biology. And ya know, what can I say about that except „The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell“?
Later that day, when the effects already had worn off, I noticed that I also experienced the so-called rebound effect (=symptoms being a bit stronger than usual once the effects of the medication wore off), but as I wanted to continue studying, I decided to take two more pills. So I went to the bathroom, took one, noticed that I had to clean the cat-toilet, cleaned it, forgot that I had already taken one and took two. So I was at 3 whole pills or 30mg of Methylphenidate, which was 1,5 times the maximum dose my doctor told me to take. And then I remembered that I had made plans with a friend to come over and catch up, as we hadn’t seen each other since the whole pandemic started.
So yeah, once he arrived two hours after my accidental intake of 3 pills, I was really focused on what he said and I must say, I felt a mental clarity I usually never felt in normal situations. I also felt a bit more energetic than usual and I experienced the suppressed appetite (which apparently is a rather common side-effect) much stronger than I did with lower doses. Besides that my head felt very warm and I noticed that my pulse was much stronger, so I put on my old smart-watch, just so I could regularly check my pulse (it was constantly over 90, when my usual average it between 60 and 70). Also I told him about my medication and the dosage I had taken, so if I experienced anything bad (the high pulse made me a bit anxious about that) he could inform a doctor. But yeah, nothing bad happened and for two hours we just talked about a lot of things and I just really listened to what he said, which was nice, as I‘m someone who often gets lost in thought while people talk to me, and being able to focus on what he said without getting distracted made me feel like I managed to be a better friend than I‘m usually am.
But nothing lasts forever and so once the effects wore off (took about 4,5 hours) I really couldn’t focus on stuff and I really felt the effects come back much stronger than they usually are. Luckily he is a pretty understanding dude, so he suggested that we just cook until I felt a bit better, which was quite nice, as my appetite also came back and I remembered that I hadn’t eaten anything that day. So we cooked and just played with the cats until I felt a bit better. I noticed that playing with the cats made me quite a bit calmer - maybe it’s the dopamine-boost my tiny fluffy boys give me, or maybe I just overinterpret something. Idk.
(Short break. I know, this post is already pretty long and as it’s about ADHD, I assume that some people reading this also have it. If you managed to read this that far, I‘m really amazed and I really thank you for your attention. Also I made this another text-style, so if you want to take a short break, you could find this spot easier. If you have any tips on how to write so that it’s more suitable for ADHDers to read, please feel free to send me a message, as I would really like it, if I could improve my writing so that my posts are easier to read for other people. Also I promise that this post will be finished soon.)
Okay, so lets continue: once the friend was gone, I washed the dishes, cuddled the cats and went to sleep. Or at least I tried to do so. I just couldn’t fall asleep. It was really impossible for me to close my eyes without having my brain full of thoughts that would keep me awake. I tried to put in calming music, as that helped me to fall asleep back when I was in school, but that didn’t work. I tried to make myself a nice sleeping-environment by putting on nice sounds to pretend that I‘m on the Hogwarts express (I used ambient-mixer for that) and lit small fairy lights, but that also didn’t help. I tried to do a brain-dump and wrote down all the thoughts that kept me awake, but that also didn’t help much. I tried to read all these thoughts out to my cats and talk about all the feelings I had that were linked to the thoughts, but that also didn’t help. (Also the cats kinda decided to run around and play catch after I talked to them for a few minutes. I think they have about the same attention span as I do). At about 5:30 in the morning my girlfriend texted me because she just got up to go to work and I was still awake to answer her. So yeah, at about 6 in the morning I fell into a very light sleep and I can tell you, working a 7 hour shift after that wasn’t fun. So a nice advice of mine: don’t do a higher dose than your doctor allowed you at 6 in the afternoon. Or generally. Listen to your doctors, chances are they know what they are talking about.
And here’s finally the last experience I wanna write about: Today I woke up at 8 and decided that I will use my day productively to learn. So ensured that my desk and everything around it was nice and clean and then I took two pills. And guess what. Now it’s half past 10 and I spent the last 1,5 hours focusing really intensely on writing a tumblr-post about my experiences with Ritalin because I remembered that I wanted to write such a post and I couldn’t focus on anything else while I had this thought. So yeah. Overall I really like the effects it has on me, as I didn’t experience any bad side-effects by now and it really helps me focus, but now I also know that maybe I should make a check-list of things I want to have done before I take it, as these things could be mayor distractions down the line.
I hope these reports could be interesting or helpful to someone out there, but always remember: the experiences of different people can vary vastly, so always remember that such meds can have very different effects on you or people you know. Always consult a doctor or pharmacist if you have medical questions and always remember that taking meds or not doing so is both completely valid, as long as it fits for you.
If you made it this far, I really wanna thank you for taking the time and focus to read this and I hope you found it to be at least somewhat interesting. Feel free to text me if you want to talk about your own experiences, ask questions, give criticism on the way I write or just ask for pictures of my cats. I hope you have a really nice day and yeah. I‘ll post again once something post-worthy happens or a topic which I think to be deserving of a post comes to my mind.
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dvp95 · 4 years
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quiet on widow’s peak (6)
pairing: dan howell/phil lester, pj liguori/sophie newton/chris kendall rating: teen & up tags: paranormal investigator, mystery, online friendship, slow burn, strangers to lovers, nonbinary character, trans character, background poly, phil does some buzzfeed unsolved shit and dan is a fan word count: 2.9k (this chapter), 19.7k (total) summary: Phil’s got a list of paranormal experiences a mile long that he likes to share with the world. Abandoned buildings, cemeteries, and ghost stories have always called his name, and a particular fan of his has a really, really good ghost story.
read this chapter on ao3 or here!
Hope my friends and I didn't make things weird for you yesterday. We're heading to the city around noon if you're still up for helping us with the boring part.
noon?? fucking alright i guess i gotta put pants on
lmao yeah, sorry. My parents woke us up at EIGHT like that's a normal time to be awake????
desgostang
What?
ill send u the link later and also no i didnt feel weird yesterday you guys are nice
That's good! And hey I wanted to ask. You were kind of put on the spot with introducing yourself, would you rather we called you Dan or Winnie? I just wanna make sure we aren't making you uncomfortable at all lmao
no its all fine you can call me dan idc and actually its best if you do call me dan when youre in my work lmao
Are you totally sure?
why would i lie abt this. dont be an idiot it isnt a good look on you
haha okay. I’ll see you around noon.
--
“Christopher is a nice boy,” Phil’s mum is telling him as she helps him with their fancy new coffeemaker. There are so many buttons and Phil is so, so tired. “And Sophie is lovely, such a soft-spoken thing. Why haven’t we met them before, dear?”
“Dunno,” Phil says instead of the truth, which is that he’d had no idea how he was supposed to introduce them. “You have now, though.”
His mum laughs and reaches up to pat his cheek. “True enough. I’m so happy that you’ve got good people around you, Philip. I’ve gotten quite worried about you down there by yourself, you know.”
“I’m not by myself,” says Phil. “I live with, like, thirty people.”
“Bunch of strangers, I’ll bet,” she says, because she knows him. “Aside from those three.”
The thing is, she’s not wrong. Phil’s obviously exaggerating about the number of people under the roof of the creaky Brighton house, but the truth is that he can’t keep track half the time. A lot of the rooms get sublet out randomly, or a significant other will start spending so much time around the place that they might as well pay rent, and Phil really isn’t good with new people. He gets along fine with Holly and Dave, but they’ve been there as long as he has and the closest they’ve ever come to a heart-to-heart was comparing anxiety meds over burned pancakes.
Chris and Sophie were there when Phil moved in, and they’d taken one look at him and decided to just keep shoving into his space until he liked having them there, like they were on a mission to adopt PJ’s sad, ghost-obsessed friend from the internet.
“You might be right,” Phil says, feeling a smile tug at his lips for the first time all morning. He’s already had a coffee - and a half, when PJ declared that not even Kath could make coffee taste good and shoved the rest of his Phil’s way - but he still doesn’t feel fully awake. “I’m only really friends with Chris and Soph because of PJ.”
“PJ is a good friend to you, isn’t he?” his mum hums. That slightly pointed tone doesn’t get to Phil the way it usually does, because he knows that she’s just trying to understand him.
It doesn’t escape Phil’s notice that he’s looking into a mirror whenever he sees his parents watching him carefully, waiting for him to tell them something he hasn’t explicitly said, because he’s been doing the exact same thing to his housemates for nearly two years.
Maybe he’ll tell his parents when he’s got someone serious or even, like, semi-serious. Longer than two dates would be a record at this point. But right now he already feels like he’s been one misstep away from disappointing them, and he doesn’t want to take the gamble that his sexuality will be that misstep.
He’s not up for this conversation, though, isn’t sure he’ll ever be, so he just says, “Yeah, he is.”
--
Dan is late. They’re so late, actually, that Phil’s wheel of worst case scenarios has been spinning silently and getting faster and faster the more caffeine he chugs. They roll in with flushed cheeks and a jacket that looks too thin, apologies on their shiny lips that Phil doesn’t even hear for a couple of seconds because he’s too busy staring at them.
“No worries,” Sophie says, interrupting their rambling before they lose another half hour to it. “You want something? I’m getting a refill.”
“No, no, let me,” says Dan. They shrug off their jacket and hang it on one of the empty chairs. Phil and his friends have co-opted the largest table in the place so they can spread out with their laptops and notebooks, and it doesn’t escape Phil’s notice that Dan has decided to sit next to him when they’ve got a couple of options. “I get free drinks if Gabe’s in a good mood. Anyone else need a refill?”
“Me,” Chris says, not looking up from his screen. “Not Phil. He’s cut off.”
“Hey,” Phil protests weakly. His heart rate really has picked up since they sat down, so he knows Chris has a point.
Dan grins, their soft cheeks giving way to the dimples that Phil is very quickly growing obsessed with. He just wants to make Dan smile and laugh constantly, to hear them cackle and see all the lines in their round face deepen with happiness.
Right. Phil watched a horror movie with PJ instead of unpacking this fluttering start of a crush last night, and now he’s just got to deal with it for the rest of the day.
As if it’s a compulsion, Dan clears the empty mugs from their table before heading up to the counter. Phil focuses on the EMF readings so he doesn’t get caught up on Dan holding four mugs by the handles with total ease.
PJ has got headphones on and his eyes closed, so he might not even have noticed that Dan is there. He’s been going through Sophie’s footage and his own audio recordings to try and find some anomalies while Chris looks for the weird visual stuff - they’re a great team at that, and it makes Phil feel like he’s not doing enough. Sure, he could find those things on his own, but not as quickly as they can when it’s a team effort, and they’re on a bit of a tight schedule here. Well, his housemates are. They’ve got actual jobs to get back to once the weekend is over.
Allegedly, Sophie is doing research on sigils, but it looks to Phil like she’s just doodling. Not that he really blames her if she is. He’s barely been paying attention to the chart he’s making of spikes in electromagnetism because he’s been so busy watching the door for Dan.
And Dan looks
 good. They’re wearing chunky boots and a shirt that falls to their thighs - a dress, maybe, but it looks like a regular black t-shirt that got extended at the hem - with tight white jeans. The only colour on them is the plaid shirt around their waist and the shiny red product on their lips to match it. Phil watches them lean against the counter and grin at the older barista, and he’s so distracted by looking at their profile that he startles when a foot connects with his under the table.
“Stop staring,” Sophie says, quiet and smiling. “He’s going to notice.”
Phil considers correcting her, but then he remembers that he probably doesn’t have to. Dan had said any pronouns, that they didn’t care how they were referred to, so it would definitely be weirder to act like he knows better than Sophie.
He knows he won’t be able to use masculine terms for Dan. Not because they aren’t true, because he’s pretty sure they’re no less accurate than neutral or feminine would be, but because thinking of Dan as a maculine person is only going to allow Phil’s brain to fall into the familiar traps of gender in ways he doesn’t want to allow.
Gay monkey brain doesn’t need any more leeway in finding Dan attractive, that’s for damn sure.
“So, what are we doing?” Dan asks, interrupting Phil’s thoughts, and, wow, four mugs is a lot more impressive when they’re full of hot liquid. Phil marvels at Dan’s ability not to trip and spill it all as they dole out the coffee and teas.
“I’m doing the boring part,” says Phil. He turns his screen so Dan can see the Excel spreadsheet and laughs at the face they make. “Yeah. It's not glamorous, but it's the easiest way to find patterns in the EMF readings. Honestly, most of my job is just staring at things and finding patterns in them. Like, uh, what's that guy? With the butterfly splotches?"
"Worcestershire," Chris suggests.
"Rorschach," Dan corrects him, lips twitching like they aren't sure if they're allowed to laugh in Chris' face or not.
“That’s exactly what I said,” says Chris.
“You know EMF meters don’t have anything to do with ghosts, right?” Dan asks, ignoring Chris completely and leaning a bit closer to Phil to get a better look at his laptop. “I mean, none of this has anything to do with ghosts, really, but you’re more or less just measuring electricity.”
Phil is aware of that. He wonders if Dan thinks he just stumbles into haunted houses with equipment he hasn’t researched and waits to be spooked. He’s too distracted by how close Dan is and how good they smell to work up to proper offense, though. “Yeah,” he says simply. “But don’t you think it’s weird that the place still has electricity to begin with? Who’s paying for that?”
“A Wilkins, I’d imagine.”
“But why? If they’ve forgotten about the property or abandoned it on purpose, surely they wouldn’t still pay the bills.”
“Maybe they don’t handle their own finances,” Dan suggests. “How rich were these assholes?”
“I honestly don’t know,” says Phil. He taps his fingers in an erratic pattern on the edge of his laptop, trying to spark something in his mind.
It’s almost disappointing when Dan pulls away to dig out their own sleek Macbook out of their messenger bag, but Phil is also glad for it. He can think a lot easier when the warm scent of spice and mint isn’t clogging his brain.
Dan slots into the work as easily as if a space was left for them. They’ve got dozens of tabs open already and they start to go through them, cross-referencing magic things with Sophie in quiet tones and digging deeper into the Wilkins family than Phil ever would have thought to. Every so often they tap Phil on the arm and drag him into whatever rabbithole they’ve fallen down, chatting animatedly.
Phil knows, objectively, that Dan is a fan of his and that Dan is weird about research. It’s another thing entirely to watch it happen in real time, to see Dan pull up local census PDFs from the eighties and explain why chaos magic is bullshit in the same breath.
An hour or so goes by like that, all of them working on their own things with minimal words exchanged by everybody but Dan, and then Chris shouts loud enough to make the barista jump. Nobody else is in the coffee shop right now, which is lucky, because Dan’s got a hand over their chest and Sophie has slopped tea down her front. PJ, with his headphones on, simply cracks an eye open.
“What the fuck was that about?” Phil asks, putting his own palm against his chest to feel his heart race. Dan raises their eyebrows and looks at Phil, seemingly distracted from the startling, wordless exclamation.
They don’t get a chance to say whatever they’re thinking, though, because Chris is turning his laptop to the rest of the table and grinning wide like the Cheshire Cat. “I found something.”
Everybody gathers round, PJ getting up to lean over the back of Phil’s chair and Sophie getting so far into Dan’s personal space that Phil is certain they’re uncomfortable with it, and then Chris presses play upside down. It’s part of Sophie’s footage, Phil standing in the dim foyer and looking frustrated. Even without sound, Phil can tell that this is when he was arguing with Sophie about going upstairs. He squints, but he can’t see whatever it is that’s got Chris being so loud.
“What am I looking at?” PJ asks when the short clip ends, and Dan hums an agreement. Chris makes a frustrated noise like they’re being obtuse on purpose and rewinds to the beginning.
"There," Chris says, excited like he hasn't been since they got to Manchester. He taps his finger against the laptop screen. "D'you see it? D'you see the shadow?"
Now that Chris has pointed it out, Phil does see something. He moves his own laptop and notebook out of the way to pull Chris’ closer with a frown. Chris lets him do that, bouncing in his seat a little bit.
“That’s straight up a person,” Phil says slowly, tracing the outline of the shadow with the mouse. It’s behind him, in the entry to the kitchen, and it looks tall. Quite a bit taller than Phil, anyway, if he’s remembering that doorframe correctly. He decides to measure it next time they go so he isn’t going off memory. “I knew we weren’t alone in there. Like. I’m not crazy, that’s a human being.”
“That’s what I thought,” says Chris. “But press play.”
So Phil presses play. He watches the shadow stay perfectly still in the kitchen doorway until, suddenly, it’s not there anymore. He blinks, rewinds, and watches it disappear again.
Phil’s caffeinated brain is firing on all cylinders now. He grins and shoves his sleeves up to his elbows before he starts fiddling with the clip. The lighting gets played with until the shadow is more obvious and then he slows it down to 0.25 times speed to see if the shadow really just vanishes.
He presses play again. This time, with a very slow-motion Phil talking in the foreground, he sees the shadow move. It runs sideways, further into the house.
“What the fuck?” Dan breathes.
“We are not going back there without some serious protection,” PJ says, even firmer on the topic now.
“What, like sigils?” Dan asks, their pretty eyes wide even as they scoff. “You’d be better off with a fucking, like, baseball bat, mate. That doesn’t look like something that wants to be your friend.”
“I’ve got a crowbar in PJ’s trunk,” Phil says, absent-minded as he plays with the clip some more.
“Excuse me? When did you put that in my car?”
“Couple months ago.”
“Huh. How have I not noticed?”
“You’re not the most observant person I’ve ever met,” says Phil. He looks up at Chris, who’s got the same exhilarated look that Phil is sure he’s mirroring. They don’t get evidence like this very often, something so clearly there that it’s even got a skeptic’s mind racing. Phil exports the edited clip and then the original, putting them both into the Cloud and emailing them to himself. “Was this the only time you saw it?”
Chris nods, accepting his laptop back when Phil is done with it. “I’ll look through everything again, now that I know what I’m looking for and all, but I think that’s it.”
“Okay, cool.” Phil looks around at his friends and Dan, beaming. “Something weird is happening. I love it when something weird is happening.”
“I hate it when something weird is happening,” PJ says, which is a blatant lie.
“Well, we can’t go snooping around until it’s darker out, anyhow,” Sophie reminds them.
“Wait, we’re snooping?” Dan asks, their voice going up an entire octave in disbelief. “Like
 you just saw that someone is there and probably not happy about people sneaking around, right? Don’t you have enough for a video already?”
“We’re spending the night,” says Phil. “It’s what we do.”
“It’s what you do,” PJ corrects him.
“Okay, yeah, you guys don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”
“No, I’m coming,” says PJ.
As if she can’t hear them bickering, Sophie turns to Dan with a sweet smile, her eyes twinkling with the same excitement in Chris’. They love this, just like Phil does. “What about you, Dan?” she asks. “Are you going to have a ghost sleepover with us?”
“There’s no such thing as ghosts,” Dan says, their eyes still glued to the back of Chris’ laptop like they can see the shadow through it.
“Guess you don’t have anything to be afraid of, then,” says Chris.
“Uh, axe murderers, maybe?”
“We know what we’re doing, Dan,” Phil reassures them. He reaches a hand out to pat at their arm, feeling a bit awkward about it. “But you don’t have to come with us if you’re scared.”
That makes Dan’s gaze shift. Suddenly, those brown eyes are staring right into Phil’s soul, defiant and beautiful and impossible to look away from.
“Who said I was fucking scared?”
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coridallasmultipass · 4 years
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Vent / personal / tmi / menstruation / endometriosis / long post ... Im so fucking sick of healthcare professionals telling me to just wait it out and pushing my problems onto other doctors I just got my 5th shot of lupron and have 1 more next month. On my appointment last week i told the gyn how ive been having much more cramping and tissue but not blood coming out regularly and he said its possible the combined lupron and norethindrone are making my uterine lining too thin, and to stop the norethindrone (it was being prescribed to help any menopause-like side effects the lupron can have) And less than 24 hours after my first missed dose i get a full blown period complete with extreme mood swings and depression Im not bleeding this week but im still cramping and the mood swings are so fucking bad, being chronically ill and not getting enough relief from any of my medications is making all of this worse but im literally breaking down over any little thing The lupron and norethindrone combined i guess have been suppressing all my emotions bc this is what it was like on the daily before i started it (just not as bad) which is telling me that none of my psych meds are working but whatever I just now got off the phone with my psych and he said he doesnt want to do anything with my meds or dosing bc he says its related to hormones and thats what my gyn needs to address and i Need To Wait im fucking sick of waiting i cant do this ive been waiting since last august!!!!!!! I now have to wait 2 more whole months of mood swings until i can have another appointment with him hes refused to actually screen me for adhd too and says its bc im An Artist type that im not able to sit down and draw anything since last fall like i fucking hate him and he never gets my name or pronouns right and i cant go see a new psych bc of all the closures and i dont wanna call my gyn bc he said if things get worse i need to have a pelvic ultrasound done again and i cant do it!!! I fucking cant do it it hurts too much im too traumatized from depoprovera and mirena that i cant even touch myself without extreme dysphoria and fear that im going to cramp Its killing me that as someone who was so personally sexual to completely be traumatized from the road to an endometriosis diagnosis that i can no longer masturbate or even talk about sex without anxiety and being trans on top of it hurts even more Next gyn appt is my last injection of lupron and im really gonna push to plan for a partial hysterectomy (i only had endo cysts on the back of my uterus but it was 100% confirmed with surgery and biopsy) so i hope it will help so i can stop taking all these fucking hormonal medications like Before being diagnosed i was really planning on going on testosterone but now im too scared because i feel like it would really fuck up my health problems more - mentally and physically Ive given up on passing and am trying to focus on body acceptance especially now that ove had rapid weight gain that isnt being addressed by any of ky doctors i bring it up to God im just trying to vent here but seriously Do not take the diagnosis of endometriosis lightly its super serious to go forth with any treatments and you really have to commit to long term treatments and its a gamble either way For me not starting any treatments was unacceptable i needed help with extreme monthly periods and all forms of birth control ive tried exacerbated symptoms and never stopped bleeding - i literally cannot personally recommend any form of medical birth control bc every one has fucked me over, many different pills at different points in my life, shot (depoprovera gave me debilitating cramps and i bled non stop all 3 months which started this whole journey to diagnosis), iud (iud was the worst i had to go to the er bc the gyn refused to give me pain meds and i was screaming in pain a few hours later unBle to move or think - i really cannot stress enough how painful and long insertion is like it was the longest 5-10 minutes of my life crying while it felt like a knife going through me) I really dont want that ultrasound tho ffs i had to get the first one done while i was in full force cramps during my depoprovera shot and the pelvic ultrasound rod is humongous and they dig it around inside you (i already had a painful and hard time trying to have pleasurable penetration even by myself or with partners) and it takes like 40 minutes of jumbling around your insides for them to document every thing like at least at that time i was only like 2 months from my last time jerking off but now its been almost 6 months of me not even thinking about putting more than one finger in to clean myself in the shower like to go right into an huge ultrasound is going to be so painful and anxiety inducing and i cant do it id rather go straight into surgery My biggest phobias have to do with pain around this part of my anatomy i cannot stress enough how long ive wanted a hysterectomy just so i dont have to fear accidentally getting p r e g... like i would literally kms... i would probably be able to handle the pain of cutting off my arm with a rusty knife better than extreme cramping pain like i had with the iud or ultrasound its such a phobia and now its source of trauma for me from everything ive gone through the last 6 months Having to readjust my life goals from doing p o r n as a hobby and wanting to transition and be who i am, to becoming a vegetable and trying to cope with the fact that i cant ever transition how i hoped Everything just really sucks for me right now and i have literally no social life any more, not even online bc im so stressed about my health and my attention is so bad i cant focus on a convo online, my laptop is about at its grave so all i have is a phone and xbox with bare minimum internet speed.. i live in the middle of nowhere and cant get my license bc the person who was guiding me to drive is an essential worker in a hospital so i cant go in their car any more... im just so fucking alone i cant do anything except break my back gardening and then cry about it later bc my fucking meds dont fucking work!!!!!!!!! Oh thats another thing im also dealing with fucking gerd on top of all this and i cant get the proceedure i need done to confirm if i need surgery or not bc the fucking lockdown!!!! So im stuck taking pantoprazole (been trying similar meds since march 2019 and its currently june 2020!!!!!!) I just want to eat tomatoes and chocolate again it fucking kills me if i dont take pantoprazole i will lose my voice and have such a sore throat and ears from the stomach acid and i know im gonna have to stop it for 2 weeks for one of the tests i need done and its going to be literal hell like it feels worse than strep throat ill probably do the thing where i start choking and coughing at night bc it gets so bad Im a fucking mess like why couldnt all of this happen one at a time I really want to get my belly pierced again bc i feel so naked without it but i cant bc i probably will be having 2 surgeries once covid blows over (if it ever does) Sorry for taking up so much dash space im just really hurting and need some outlet bc therapy isnt helping rn
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euphoriacrossing · 4 years
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The closer we get the more my anxiety plays up...
What if I can't keep up with my journal that I worked so hard on?
What if I mess up something I can't change on my island? (I don't WANT to have to reset, but if it's the first day i will... i don't want to have to reset two or three days in because i change my mind about something...)
And the bigger ones.... I've been so tired I can barely stay awake two or three hours at a time. I can't do a whole lot of recreational things because I'm asleep. Right now I'm attributing it to depression, but I am going to ask my oncologist if maybe the meds could cause it (the meds I DID stop, but thay messed with my hormones anyway) or if the slight bit of anemia I have could cause it maybe? What if I am not awake enough to fully enjoy the game?
I go to the oral surgeon I think for a consultation to get some teeth pulled, what if he wants to do it anytime soon after the game is out? Will it mess with my enjoybility to have that kind of procedure? (Last time I had teeth out... my wisdom teeth I did very poorly, I got two dry sockets and was in some of the worst pain... I was LUCKY to be able to sleep as much as I did, because the pain was awful. And I followed instructions, so I don't know if I am more prone to those kinds of things or if it was the fact he didn't tell me to stop my birth control or what... but it was bad. And now I have a much higher tolerance to pain meds and will have to use the ones I'm ON so they'll be less effective probably. I'll die if I get a dry socket. Pain tolerance, mine is high until you get to my mouth and then I'm an absolute crybaby.) So say he wants to do it the Monday after... will I be out of commission to play for two weeks or more while I recover? I know this sounds more important, but to me the game is important, too. I want to be able to put in at least some work daily for quite a while so I can create a beautiful island at the same time others who start on the 20th are. So it may not seem like a huge deal, but it is to me okay? Enough of a huge deal for my anxiety to use it against me.
Those are just examples though. I have an anxiety disorder which in past years has become more generalized and entwined with my bipolar symptoms. So I am in no short supply of things related to the 20th to be anxious about.
I wish I could just be happy. And I mean, I am. We have less than a week and I'll be playing a game that is 7 years in the making for those of us that play Animal Crossing. I've been waiting with baited breath probably more than a year, to the point where when Pokemon Sw/Shld came out it was just a distraction instead of the main event, at that point I was already craving New Horizons desperately. And here we are nearly at the end of our waiting, I am happy, don't get me wrong.
But my mind never just let's me be happy.
What if I am too late to make friends in the first few days like I've planned? Everyone else seems to already have their friendships, but I knew I couldn't keep up with a friendship that long. So here is the week to make friends, and I don't feel I know how, or I feel like most people already have their friends. I have maybe two people besides my sister to play with. And I'm excited for that. But I'd love to be included in a larger group of friends or something, you know, that sort of thing is nice. If I only have a few close friends though, that'd be nice too. And i think the first few days it seems people might just be playing on their own, i don't always NEED someone to play with, I'll probably prefer to play alone, or maybe with my sister mostly, or just my close friend when I play. But it's just i guess i expected to use this opportunity to make more friends and now i feel i am wasting it. I don't often have such an "easy way" to make friends because I am disinterested in most things and just don't have a lot to talk about. This common interest is an amazing thing to talk about and should make things easier, but it doesn't as much as I hoped I guess.
What if I don't finish my journal? I worked so hard on it, but i need my dad's help with the label maker and need to finalize the decisions about what I'm going to record in it before I do make the labels. It can still be changed later because I am using labels on plastic tabs and a discbound journal but what if I don't have time once i'm playing?
Ugh. Just all the "what ifs". And I know some people will think "why'd she bother making this post?" Well random person, it does help to get them out in the open. Since most everything I have been thinking has been AC related lately, this has turned into a bit of a personal blog. Sorry for that. I do plan to make it a New Horizons blog and post as much original content as I can once ACNH is out.
Oh another one. What if posting original content is too hard?
Like, I want this blog to have original content and all that, but if you have to remove your memory card and get on a computer to do it, that's a lot of trouble and extra energy I don't have these days. And you had to do that for New Leaf and everyone did including myself, but I had more energy and it seemed easier. And it seems like it was less effort those days because people DID THINGS on the computer including myself. Now I use my phone and ipad as computers, you can do almost all the same things on them, and my laptop sits idle which might be the reason it doesn't run as well these days. Or it may just be that it's old as crap for a laptop. I mean, I guess it's moderately old for what it is, it's a very nice laptop, but I think it's the same one I had for New Leaf so it's been with me a while. Anyway, it SEEMED like less trouble because you were on the computer doing stuff anyway, so just pop your memory card in there and go while you're checking your stuff. It's not that easy on a phone, BUT I am hoping you can post photos and screenshots to SOMETHING through the Nooklink app. We don't know everything about the app yet as it isnt out yet, and I doubt you can post straight to tumblr (though that'd make things easy, huh?) because this is not the most used platform anymore, but if I can post them to anywhere (like facebook or twitter... I'd probably post them privately to facebook because I am less versed in twitter stuff, but then I did recently become an AC twitter on my personal twitter because I never used my personal twitter anyway, so... yeah...) I can grab them on my phone once they are uploaded and reupload them here. But I also plan to make my "diary like" text posts here. I am not recording a diary in my journal having to do with NH, I only want like... data and information I can use, etc. But that doesn't mean I won't want to write diary like entries, and I am less likely to lose my blog that a physical journal anyway it feels. (I say less likely... I lost my New Leaf blog for a few years there, but with effort I did recently find it.) So it could be very easy to post original content here, or if the app doesn't do things it really totally should, then it might be a bit more effort and I don't know if I have that to give right now, so I'm nervous about that. Everything I post here about my game experience is going to be more for me to look back on than anything, so I WANT to be able to post about that stuff here. But I guess we'll have to wait to see, along with waiting for the game.
And everyone knows how well waiting and anxiety get along. They are two peas in a pod, they play off each other like it's no one's business.
But I hope everything in the end will just be okay. I am "lucky" in a way. Since I'm chronically ill, disabled, and have cancer, I don't have work or school to worry about and while being sick is a big bummer, that does take a lot of stress off of me. I don't know how I would handle a job or school even just mentally these days, I don't see how it could go well and I guess that is because I am so sick, even just mentally... but I know a lot of disabled people DO still do those things anyway, sometimes because they HAVE to, so I am glad I am in a position at my age where I am still largely take care of. My disability money doesn't cover a fraction of my necessities, so I feel blessed everyday for my parents, even though my mom and I fight like cats and dogs. Annnndddd now I am getting to be anxious about what happens to me when my parents are gone and that's a WHOLE different type of anxiety... yikes... I need to stop letting my anxiety run rampant now I guess, it's gone too far.
But I am very "lucky" to be in a position where once the game comes out it can be my main focus for a while. Partially because i don't have the energy to focus on many different things, so it's good Animal Crossing can take up that main spot in my life for now.
Come on now, back to AC anxieties. Ya stupid general anxiety...
And I guess I am anxious about the typical things people are anxious about... what fruit will I get, will I like my first Islanders, etc. but to me those things arent as major. All the fruits are so pretty I could really get on with any of them I think, and hopefully my first villagers will be great, but I'll make myself a net if they're not, and I do have amiibo cards for moving in some of my favorite villagers later on, so I can deal with a dud or two.
I'm a little anxious about map layouts too, just picking the right one seems a little difficult to me since there are some things you cannot change. But I think I can make a good choice, I'm more worried if I'll be able to draw it in for my journal or not. I should draw the general layout for the map, but I don't even know if I can do that right.
Oh I also have a package to finish working on and get in the mail before Friday, BUT I finished the hardest parts (writing a bunch of postcards, basically a latter's worth of text but on postcards) last night, so I just have to do finishing touches and get it out. I maybe want to type another letter to send out, too, but if I don't get it done I'll try not to beat myself up. I got really burnt out on mail stuff lately and as much as I still get, which is about one or two things in the mail daily, I can't reply to all the things I should. I'm stressed about it, but I won't let that ruin my New Horizons time. Especially since mail was supposed to be a fun hobby for me and just... stopped. But that's a whole different thing, that has less to do with New Horizons than the other stuff.
Now I genuinely do feel less stressed since I rambled on for a while. Thanks for reading this, if you read any of it. I don't expect anyone to read all this anxiety inducing, depressing junk.
But anyway, now I am going to try and think about the Nooklink app and what kind of features I think it should have. Like I said, it really should have a way to post screenshots/pictures to social media, and I bet it's got something like that since we have the camera in game. I bet we maybe even can post pictures to social media from the switch. I mean, well, I know we can technically, but I mean I bet we can without having to leave the game. Because you can do that in New Leaf now. Gosh would that have been handy YEARS ago. I guess it came with the "welcome amiibo" update?
But at least we know we can scan in QR codes. I dunno if you've noticed but I have been collecting some and tagging them (you can find them under the "QR" tag on my blog, or by type of QR code, likes dresses I just tagged "dress") so I have them once we are able to use them in game. I am going to check my @playtimewithmadi blog to see if I have QR codes saved that I used in New Leaf, too, so I can reblog any good ones here. All of that gives me something to do, I suppose.
I could also work on my journal, or my mail. Both need to get done before Friday and need work.
But honestly, I am probably gonna play Happy Home Designer right now. I'll design at least one house, and then maybe I'll work on my mail and journal stuff. We'll see.
Anyway, thanks again for sticking with me, I love everyone who stays subbed to this blog even though the BS posts like this. Sorry for rambling on, but I needed this, so thank you for letting me have it.
Off to more distraction then...
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