asking abt the sad wheeler sibling thing
i am in the business of ruining everyone's (especially nic's @messrsbyler) day with sad wheeler sibling ideas so here is my pitch for a book 4 scene
(on a side note. i need to like. probably explain this more in terms of my thoughts on themes in the books but that's another ask for later lol. in my brain this series goes something like
Book 1: Water
Book 2: Earth
Book 3: Fire
Book 4: Air)
so, we're to book 4 now, and we're near the beginning of the plot that occurs in this book. henry returns to hawkins, and long and short of it, somehow, el/will/mike end up fighting him, somewhere separated enough to where the others can't help (or the others are preoccupied by spirit attacks. don't ask me the how all this happened/what the set up is yet bc i have Not One Clue lol).
el is obviously the primary one fighting henry, while will and mike are there trying to help keep spirits from her, and one way or another, el gets up getting injured and knocked unconscious by henry. so now, will, who is still trying to figure out his own connection to the spirit world and the abilities that this connection gives him, is forced to fight henry. it becomes very, very clear though that henry is far too powerful since he manages to toss will aside—though not injuring him as badly as el gets injured, just knocking him out for a few moments.
and henry turns to mike and begins attacking him, which i talk about more here. will is partially conscious but unable to get up because he's still out of it, so he's watching in horror as henry does to mike what he did to max (and what he did to will, a couple years ago). with all three of them now rendered useless or close to dead, henry leaves, to do what? no clue, i'll figure it out later or maybe nic will!
after seeing mike fall back to the ground, will manages to crawl over to him, and he quickly realizes mike isn't breathing, so he desperately starts trying to save mike. i think about this scene as a parallel of sorts to the lucas trying to save max scene, except while lucas was only able to keep max's heart beating, will is only able to help mike breathe but not restart his heart. he's crying, begging mike to hold on, and screaming for anyone to come help him.
nancy's the first to find them, and will, panicked and breathless and crying, begs her to come help—because nancy can bend lightning. she can restart mike's heart and help save him. will needs her to help him save mike. he needs nancy.
but this is nancy, and god, i hope everyone knows that i love nancy wheeler with my whole heart and also that i love gray areas. because nancy sees that el is unconscious too, sees a pool of blood around the avatar, and it's her first instinct not to go to mike but to go to el.
and nancy quickly realizes el's heart has stopped, el isn't breathing, and they're about to lose el too. they're about to lose the avatar—the only person who can beat henry.
if they lose el, it's game over. henry will take over the world long before the next avatar comes along, and he'll always be one step ahead of them. his deep connection to the spirits will help him find the next avatar long before anyone else does. they cannot lose el.
and nancy knows this.
so even though her little brother is there, pale and lifeless and only breathing because of will's airbending, nancy makes the hard call. how is it always her being forced into these situations? how is nancy always having to choose between duty/the bigger picture/what will matter most in the long run and the people she loves and cares about? and sure. nancy has never been that close to mike. they've struggled their whole lives to get along, and their firebending has always been a point of contention—the unfortunate result of their parents' expectations and inability to show either of them genuine love.
but this is still her little brother. and nancy wants to scream, because this isn't fair, but there's no doubt in her mind what she needs to do. el comes first. restart el's heart. ignore will's screaming and begging for her to help mike. block out the sight of mike's body, limp in will's arms. just focus. do what has to be done.
nancy chooses el, but really, nancy chooses the avatar. nancy chooses the world.
(but will chooses mike.
every. single. time.)
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so one of the things that's so horrifying about birth control is that you have to, like, navigate this incredibly personal choice about your body and yet also face the epitome of misogyny. like, someone in the comments will say it wasn't that bad for me, and you'll be utterly silenced. like, everyone treats birth control like something that's super dirty. like, you have no fucking information or control over this thing because certain powerful people find it icky.
first it was the oral contraceptives. you went on those young, mostly for reasons unrelated to birth control - even your dermatologist suggested them to control your acne. the list of side effects was longer than your arm, and you just stared at it, horrified.
it made you so mentally ill, but you just heard that this was adulthood. that, yes, there are of course side effects, what did you expect. one day you looked up yasmin makes me depressed because surely this was far too intense, and you discovered that over 12,000 lawsuits had been successfully filed against the brand. it remains commonly prescribed on the open market. you switched brands a few times before oral contraceptives stopped being in any way effective. your doctor just, like, shrugged and said you could try a different brand again.
and the thing is that you're a feminist. you know from your own experience that birth control can be lifesaving, and that even when used for birth control - it is necessary healthcare. you have seen it save so many people from such bad situations, yourself included. it is critical that any person has access to birth control, and you would never suggest that we just get rid of all of it.
you were a little skeeved out by the implant (heard too many bad stories about it) and figured - okay, iud. it was some of the worst pain you've ever fucking experienced, and you did it with a small number of tylenol in your system (3), like you were getting your bikini line waxed instead of something practically sewn into your body.
and what's wild is that because sometimes it isn't a painful insertion process, it is vanishingly rare to find a doctor that will actually numb the area. while your doctor was talking to you about which brand to choose, you were thinking about the other ways you've been injured in your life. you thought about how you had a suspicious mole frozen off - something so small and easy - and how they'd numbed a huge area. you thought about when you broke your wrist and didn't actually notice, because you'd thought it was a sprain.
your understanding of pain is that how the human body responds to injury doesn't always relate to the actual pain tolerance of the person - it's more about how lucky that person is physically. maybe they broke it in a perfect way. maybe they happened to get hurt in a place without a lot of nerve endings. some people can handle a broken femur but crumble under a sore tooth. there's no true way to predict how "much" something actually hurts.
in no other situation would it be appropriate for doctors to ignore pain. just because someone can break their wrist and not feel it doesn't mean no one should receive pain meds for a broken wrist. it just means that particular person was lucky about it. it should not define treatment.
in the comments of videos about IUDs, literally thousands of people report agony. blinding, nauseating, soul-crushing agony. they say things like i had 2 kids and this was the worst thing i ever experienced or i literally have a tattoo on my ribs and it felt like a tickle. this thing almost killed me or would rather run into traffic than ever feel that again.
so it's either true that every single person who reports severe pain is exaggerating. or it's true that it's far more likely you will experience pain, rather than "just a pinch." and yet - there's nothing fucking been done about it. it kind of feels like a shrug is layered on top of everything - since technically it's elective, isn't it kind of your fault for agreeing to select it? stop being fearmongering. stop being defensive.
you fucking needed yours. you are almost weirdly protective of it. yours was so important for your physical and mental health. it helped you off hormonal birth control and even started helping some of your symptoms. it still fucking hurt for no fucking reason.
once while recovering from surgery, they offered you like 15 days of vicodin. you only took 2 of them. you've been offered oxy for tonsillitis. you turned down opioids while recovering from your wisdom tooth extraction. everything else has the option. you fucking drove yourself home after it, shocked and quietly weeping, feeling like something very bad had just happened. the nurse that held your hand during the experience looked down at you, tears in her eyes, and said - i know. this is cruelty in action.
and it's fucked up because the conversation is never just "hey, so the way we are doing this is fucking barbaric and doctors should be required to offer serious pain meds" - it's usually something around the lines of "well, it didn't kill you, did it?"
you just found out that removing that little bitch will hurt just as bad. a little pinch like how oral contraceptives have "some" serious symptoms. like your life and pain are expendable or not really important. like maybe we are all hysterical about it?
hysteria comes from the latin word for uterus, which is great!
you stand here at a crossroads. like - this thing is so important. did they really have to make it so fucking dangerous. and why is it that if you make a complaint, you're told - i didn't even want you to have this in the first place. we're told be careful what you wish for. we're told that it's our fault for wanting something so illict; we could simply choose not to need medication. that maybe if we don't like the scraps, we should get ready to starve.
we have been saying for so long - "i'm not asking you to remove the option, i'm asking you to reconsider the risk." this entire time we hear: well, this is what you wanted, isn't it?
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