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l1tw1ck · 1 year

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Professor Baizhu

Turns out the professor you have the hots for has been talking to you anonymously online

Pervert Virgin Reader (No Pronouns)

Bottom!FtM Baizhu x Top!Masc Reader

{Request} [Series] | AFAB Language Used

CW: Teacher-Student, Lingerie, Panty Kink, Frottage, Nipple Play, Biting, Creampie

📝 939 Words

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You're one of Baizhu's best students, you're always attentive in his class and you're rarely late. Why? Because he's attractive as all hell.

You met him on a hookup app and talked to him for a while, exchanging nude pictures and sexual messages. You didn't know it was him, you just thought he had a similar body to your professor, which is why you liked him.

On the other hand, Baizhu knows it's you he's talking to. He's the type to sleep around and block his students if they ever show up on the app, but you're different. You're attractive and if the first picture on your profile isn't enough proof, he doesn't know what is. He had to break that rule for you.

The idea of hooking up with his own student makes him nervous yet aroused, how would you treat him the day after? Would you act like nothing happened or would you subtly flirt with him, convincing him to get into your bed again. He was still worried about it though, so he made up excuses to not meet you.

It got increasingly harder to deny you the longer you talked to him, you'd share all your perverted thoughts with him and he'd spend the whole night thinking about you.

You told him about your thing for panties and he started masturbating with them on and wishing he could give them to you and see what you would do with them.

Baizhu does eventually agree to meet up with you and here you are, at his front door and face to face with your pharmacology professor.

"Pr- professor?!" Your eyes widen in shock, feeling a mix of emotions, none negative.

He smirks slightly, a little nervous but not showing it. "Getting cold feet?"

Your hands find their rightful place on Baizhu's waist as you pull him into a kiss. You move inside the house with your tongue still deep inside his mouth, taking your shoes off and closing the door behind you as you let your professor lead you to his bedroom.

You gently place him down on the bed, stripping him down and being greeted with a pretty green lace lingerie set. "Fuck, you're gorgeous..." You trace your finger along his bottom growth, making him whimper.

"You told me you like panties so...do what you want." He smiles. "I got these for you."

Your cheeks warm up. "Fuck, thank you.." You thank him as if he's an Archon as you pull off your clothes. You take Baizhu's thighs and lift his lower body up before slipping your length in between. You thrust back and forth, rubbing your cock against his clothed pussy. Baizhu moans from the feeling and starts to drench his lingerie with slick.

"I've wanted to do this for so fucking long, having you underneath me like this...fucking you in the lecture hall.." You groan, picking up the pace. "I've been imagining how you would feel when I finally fucked you.."

Baizhu squirms in pleasure from the way your shaft moves against his sensitive little dick, quickly being brought to an orgasm. "Ah- 'm gonna come-" Baizhu moans, gasping as his cunt tightens around nothing.

You slow down before pulling away. "Do...Do I have to wait?" You ask, wondering if he's too sensitive to continue.

Baizhu shakes his head. "I don't think I can wait." He moves his legs apart. "Come on, I've been fantasizing about having your huge cock inside me."

Your face is hotter than a lit stove and you're too nervous to say anything in response. Baizhu watches in amusement as you nervously push his underwear to the side. You pick up your pants and take a condom from the pocket.

"No need." Baizhu shakes his head. "You wanna feel me, don't you?"

You bite your lip. "You're sure?"

"Of course I'm sure." He moves his hand down and spread his wet folds. "It's better raw."

You can't argue with that.

As you're easing into him, your mouth and hand finds their home on Baizhu's nipples. You lick and pull on the hard buds through the fabric of his bra, moaning softly from how warm and soft he feels around you. You don't waste any more time to start fucking into him, thrusting at an erratic but pleasurable pace.

Baizhu wraps his arms and legs around your back tightly. "Yes- yes! Like that!"

You marvel in the way he feels, littering bites and hickeys all over his body and practically claiming him. His nipples are swollen and have bite marks around them while his neck is filled to the brim with hickeys.

Baizhu doesn't mind, loving the feeling of your teeth sinking into him. He'll have to apply some ointment later though.

"You feel so good, Baizhu-" You moan, teeth grazing against his neck while your thumbs rub his sore nipples. "Ah- you're squeezing me again-"

Baizhu shivers, moans increasing as he reaches his peak. "Kee- keep go- ah~ going~" He throws his head back and comes.

You bite into his neck, overwhelmed by how amazing he feels. Your teeth dig deeper into his neck as you start to feel yourself getting close.

"Don- don't pull out-" Baizhu says, keeping his arms and legs locked around you.

You bring him into a deep kiss, thrusts becoming sporadic as you approach your release.

With one last hard thrust, you come deep inside your professor. You part from the kiss and bury your head in his shoulder, taking time to process the feeling.

Baizhu chuckles at your reaction and releases his hold on your body. "Help me clean up."

#wicks🕯works #wicks🕯requests #male reader #top male reader #genshin smut #genshin impact smut #genshin x reader #genshin x male reader #genshin impact #top reader #baizhu x reader #baizhu x male reader #baizhu smut #sub baizhu #🕯️baizhu #🕯️Genshin

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mistydeyes · 10 months

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pharmacist! hcs

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summary: ik some people put themselves in the role of the pharmacist but here are some headcanons i have for her if you consider her more of an oc :)

pairing: 141 x pharmacist!reader

see her here counseling the 141

her story if she likes price

her story if she likes ghost

PS. Another part of her story is coming soon! Look out for next Wednesday :)

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joined the British Army as a pharmacy captain after a two year pharmacy residency in a London hospital

she realized that working at a local chemists and in a hospital weren’t for her so she decided on the career change

speaking of her life before being a pharmacy captain, she was a good student — not at the bottom but not at the top

she primarily struggled with anything related to pharmacology but excelled with therapeutics and counseling

her blood type is O- (a universal blood donor)

before becoming a pharmacist, she had aspirations of becoming a linguist or historian

was amazing at picking up languages and learning them after some time

but she was drawn to pharmacy after seeing how it helped a close family friend who had an MRSA resistant infection

knows 10 different languages and counting (with varying speaking and writing fluency) - English obvi, Spanish, Mandarin, Greek, Latin, Russian, Arabic, Swedish, German, French, and is currently learning Portuguese

loves taking walks and runs at the base gym (she has to get in her recommended 150min of exercise a week)

if you think she’s listening to music while exercising you’re wrong, she’s listening to podcasts and always loves the medicine focused ones

always will show up to military balls or formal events and talk to you about anything under the sun

loves interacting with people 1 on 1 rather than behind a pharmacy counter

also keep in mind she’s not flirting, she just loves chatting with people and knowing how to make their day better

one time, she met a linguist and after the initial awkwardness (she thought the pharmacist was hitting on her), they had a whole conversation about the nuances of languages

if you know her well, you’ll notice how she deflects the conversation onto you and talking abt yourself as she loves observing

Gaz and Ghost frustrate her at times as she finds herself revealing things she normally won’t tell patients

despite the health risk, she loves caffeine and always has an energy drink or cup of coffee during the day

her diet is completely different, she prefers to prepare things in her room or look for the best things in the mess hall (she needs a balanced diet)

her bookshelves in her room are filled with books in a variety of languages and are often history books or classics

she also is currently reading a book that details the history of women in medicine

she has pictures in her room which show her happiest times aka being in pharmacy school

carries a large water bottle with her at all times and her tech’s have to remind her to stay hydrated during a shift

her techs are basically her siblings and she likes to take them off base occasionally to chat about something different than drugs and immunizations

her drink of choice is a tequila sunrise because tequila is the only alcohol that isn’t a depressant and also orange juice is a great source of Vit C!

her second drink of choice is a penicillin

wants to be a professor when she retires and dreams of teaching about self-care recommendations and emergency medicine

has a small tattoo of a mortar and pestle on her forearm, she got it with some of her friends when they all graduated

her tech joked that she should get a notepad tattooed on her wrist because she always writes reminders on her arms

primarily lives on base and occasionally visits her parents who live in Brighton

she updates them weekly but they know their daughter is in one of the safest places in the UK

her favorite drug to administer are any antimalarials, eye drops, nasal spray, and inhalers (she loves that she just has to count the boxes)

her least favorite is Metformin and thyroid drugs as they often are in counts of 90 or 180

constantly uses pink pen and colorful sticky notes (peep her little notes in the medical files)

the reason she hates doctors is not because of anything significant but because of an ex that told her that her degree was irrelevant because she didn’t go to med school

hates the stigma against pharmacists, in the US they’re literally considered doctors so why is there such disrespect?

she’ll never admit it but her favorite patients are the 141, they all have such unique personalities that she constantly looks for their scripts every morning

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mindblowingscience · 6 months

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Researchers have found a correlation between flavonoids, a compound found in fruits and vegetables, and a reduction in the symptoms of endometriosis. In the study, published in the journal Endocrinology, the researchers outline how flavonoids may be able to help suppress the symptoms of inflammatory diseases like endometriosis. In endometriosis, cells similar to those in the lining of the uterus begin growing in other places in the body, causing inflammation. The painful condition affects millions of women, and there is no cure. Flavonoids have been associated with anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral medical benefits, but the details of how they work have remained a mystery. “Scientists have known for a while that people who eat more fruits and vegetables tend to live longer and have lower risk for many types of diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases,” says Stephen Safe, a professor in the veterinary physiology and pharmacology department at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M University.

#Health #Science #Biology #Endometriosis #Reproductive Health

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practicalsolarpunk · 1 year

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Do you know any herbology books that aren't. . .idk, mostly only theoretic?

I took a long time to answer this question for a couple reasons. First, I’m not fully sure what you mean by “theoretic,” but I’m assuming you mean you’re looking for herbology/herbalism books that are more practical and less “this herb heals depression because it elevates your kidney vibrations” type of stuff. Second, if that is what you’re looking for, there’s unfortunately not a ton of books that I’ve found like that.

The one herbalism book I keep on hand is Penelope Ody’s The Complete Medicinal Herbal. It does have a lot of the more “woo” stuff as well, but I like that it provides photos of the plants, lists the actual botanical and chemical compounds in each plant that does stuff, and points out when a plant might not be safe for certain people. The other book I keep on hand is Sharon M. Herr’s Herb-Drug Interaction Handbook, which tells you which herbs are safe and which are dangerous/deadly or could mess with dosages if you want to try herbal remedies while also taking other medications.

I have heard good things about Body Into Balance: An Herbal Guide to Holistic Self-Care by Maria Noel Groves, The Modern Herbal Dispensary: A Medicine-Making Guide by Thomas Easley and Steven Horne, and The Nature Cure: A Doctor’s Guide to the Science of Natural Medicine by Andreas Michalsen, MD. Since I haven’t personally read any of them, I can’t unreservedly recommend them, but they might be worth a look. I DO recommend “The Science of Integrative Medicine” from The Great Courses, which is a series of lectures from an MD with the Mayo Clinic discussing a variety of alternative medicine remedies (both herbal and other types) and the science behind them. It’s more from a patient perspective than from someone who actually wants to do some herbology, but I found it helpful. I listened to it for free through my local library.

Herbology/herbalism resources are pretty scattered and often in the realm of the less-than-scientific. Studying botany is a good foundation for herbology (and “pharmacology” is a good keyword for further information about a specific plant), and absolutely avoid anything that talks about “energetics.” An unfortunate fact of herbology is that a lot of these herbal remedies and cures just haven’t been studied. So it’s very possible that some of the remedies do actually work, but nobody has done the research to figure out how or why. It makes being interested in herbology but not interested in “clearing your liver energy” or whatnot very difficult.

I hope this helps! If I misinterpreted your question or you have additional questions, please feel free to send in another ask. (And followers, if you have any ideas/suggestions, please leave them in the notes!)

- Mod J

#asked and answered #herbology and herbal medicine

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yandere-daydreams · 7 months

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Now that I know you are a Vil enjoyer can we talk about the fact that he gave those 27 step skin care routine products FOR FREE, like skin care is not cheap. Not to mention that he made his own line of skin care, ofc based on heavy cosmetic/magic pharmacology research and experimentation, bc other products weren’t satisfying him so he really pulled the “fine, I’ll do it myself”. I’ll gladly take any type of insult from him al long as I’m getting free, top of the line skin care products that’ll have k-Beaty products quaking

i know this is mostly a joke but that's actually one of my favorite things about vil T-T he's very harsh and strict with underclassmen and his dorm members but every standard he sets for them, he's also holding himself to, if he's not setting the bar impossibly higher for himself. like, when he assigned epel extra lessons in chapter five, it came with the pretense that he'd be the one teaching those lessons (something that's confirmed and expanded on in the anthology comics). it doesn't exactly make his whole 'i am the embodiment of perfection' thing healthy, but it does make me love him that much more </3 </3 </3

#personal #anon ask

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studentbyday · 26 days

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oops! i did it again. lessons from this school year...

Hey, you remember that post I made about my winter term priorities? HAHAHAHAHahaha ha ha. That plan totally went to shit, but it's all part of the journey, right? 😅 (Tbh, it's quite difficult to make a conscious effort to change yourself when the default response to being and feeling busy is to go on autopilot -> all the unconscious habits, even if unhealthy, take control, and bc it's unconscious, you don't realize it until it gets quite bad! anyway! no more! my future plans make it so this will be impossible to do while still retaining some sense of sanity. so to prep, we're gonna slowly implement little changes so hopefully it's not so overwhelming that i give up)

🧘🏻‍♀️ comparing mindsets in fall and winter term

Fall term was not that bad bc I had 2 STEM subjects I really really loved and was interested in (biochem and mol bio 💕), and despite their difficulty, that love and interest and the feeling that "I am in the right field for me" kept me positive. There were times I thought I would feel burnout symptoms if I wasn't careful, but I really think that positivity protected me from the worst of it.

Winter term, however...I had one favorite subject: moral philosophy, which led to me wistfully dreaming about an AU in which I double majored in philosophy and piano performance, lol. After the highs of biochem and mol bio and the natural ease with which the bits of info flowed together in those subjects, I did not enjoy pharmacology or the 2nd half of psyc as much -> loss of interest -> negativity and feeling like I'm in the wrong field bc how dare I not like pharmacology (or psychology) as much as the other life science-y subjects when it's really so important for us to survive and thrive! 😅 I mean, there were times I could get that spark from pharmacology or psyc, but it wasn't often enough or intense enough to keep me consistently inspired throughout the semester. The feeling of "maybe I don't have what it takes and I'm in the wrong field" was compounded by the re-realization that there's sm to know of bioinformatics and I struggle to know any of it! Persevering is important, but it's harder to persevere with a negative mindset.

😤 what went wrong this school year and what i learned from it

I still struggle with perfectionism (and bc of it, procrastination). While it might not be as bad as it was in high school, I still spent too long on assignments that weren't worth much and during finals season, was so scared of getting less than 90% just to keep up my A+ streak. Like, I'm pretty sure no one who cares to know your GPA cares about whether you have an A+ streak or not. I have too high a threshold for what is a "disappointing" grade. I also struggle with deep regret about how I haven't mastered everything they throw at us in each course... definitely an unrealistic expectation, especially as the proportion of new info to absorb increases with each course. I did what I could using what I knew to do, so it is what it is. I may find ways to make improvements and learn more, but I won't beat myself up for not having known to do those things in the past.

Did not use effective study methods. Since first year, my problem has been keeping up with the readings and my solution has been to just use typed outline notes. It worked for the first few years when it was mostly review from previous courses with a few new concepts in between. But as I progress through my degree, the proportion of completely new info is increasing. This notetaking method won't work anymore bc it just causes cognitive overload, especially during exam season (when I've mostly forgotten the details of everything that isn't smth I've already known for years). E.g. for pharmacology, I got so bogged down by the details of all the drug classes that I didn't see the big picture and so didn't organize the info according to it. This made it hard to see patterns and better chunk the info. I was so stressed during finals season bc of this (and the sheer amount of notes that I had to read for psyc 😭). What makes it feel like even more of a problem is that the cognitive overload problem from my notetaking method has been a thing for all other uni courses thus far, it's just that pharmacology was the first time I needed to create a stronger connecting thread between the otherwise disparate pieces of info (drug classes). In all other courses, that thread was part of the nature of the topic being studied so I eventually understood it as I kept going and mentally re-organized it in my brain...but even then it was hodge-podge and so my depth of mastery was and is so flimsy, and every semester I leave feeling drained and like I wasted the opportunity to maximize my learning. (How dramatic I get about this is also probably tied to my perfectionism, but I still think it would greatly benefit future me to change my notetaking style.)

🎓 advice for future me

Look at the academic calendar, specifically the faculty course descriptions. Look at how many hours they say you should expect to spend on each activity in the course. Try to use those learning hours as a guide for your schedule so that you don't spend too long on an item that isn't worth much. If there isn't such a breakdown, assume one based on whatever they give you or other courses and adjust from there.

Be a more efficient reader by skimming the text first so you can map the flow of info in a way that best creates ease of understanding/synthesis/memory (e.g. via an outline, tree diagram, flowchart, mind map, or simple drawings - and noticing when a list/outline will NOT be helpful bc it'll just be too overwhelming and not easy to compare/contrast info and see patterns). I knowww you've survived thus far without doing it this way and done well, BUT with this many courses, the increasing complexity of each subject, and the overload of info in each, you WILL need to do this to make quicker work of the readings, save you sooo much stress during exam seasons, and improve how much you learn while in school which is the real goal you've wanted to achieve all this time. Don't repeat the mistake you made in pharmacology. And it really doesn't have to be aesthetic and you definitely should NOT get caught up with it if you really wanna learn. You could just use one color for everything and a highlighter and just basic shapes/lines - that alone can be way more effective than boring paragraphs/lists or a colorful, overly complex diagram that'll just distract you from the main point.

Create a realistic daily routine (wake-up and sleep times, start and end times for schoolwork) and be strict about following it. Set your non-negotiables for personal goals to keep up with alongside your schoolwork bc academics aren't everything. Remember how you regretted not devoting more time to extra-curriculars and other skills in high school which would've rounded you out as a person. You can try theming the parts of the day so that you don't have to think about what task you should do first after study breaks and keep up the momentum (e.g. mornings for readings and notes, afternoons for active recall/homework). Then you can live the rest of the day after school as structured or unstructured as you wish. If this strategy doesn't work for you, you don't have to use it.

Take advantage of interleaving so you don't get bored. Whether by following the theming strategy or just switching subjects every hour, idc if you aren't done yet, you better switch bc the second consecutive hour of the same thing is never as effective as the first.

#studyblr #studyspo #study motivation #becoming that girl #pink aesthetic #study tips #study advice #personal post #100dop #100 days of productivity #stemblr #stem academia #stem student #100 days of studying #100 days of self discipline #perfectionism #study strategies #mental health #chaotic academia

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chokingonunluckyclovers · 2 days

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More about Hyper pop Punk Wally

Wally's preference: (This is mostly for those who want to ship their OCs with Wally.) His type of romantic partners are the ones that can kick his ass or are just kickass baddies. It's one of the quickest ways to win his heart. beside sharing the same interests and food.

He has a big sweet tooth, so he eats a lot of sugary drinks and foods. Bro needs those calories because his metabolism is whack. He likes milkshakes, sugary coffee drinks, battery acid (the drink), cakes, donuts, and the like.

He typically likes hard candy because it dilutes in his mouth, and he hates chocolate. He doesn't really like how they taste. especially dislike chocolate by themselves. He isn't a fan of gummies, as he can't consume them properly (he can't really consume solids through his mouth). Btw, Wally can eat through his eye (like the og), but he has a habit of biting, sucking the flavor or juices, then leaning his head back and spitting it in the air. which hell then eat with his eyes to properly get the nutrients? Idk why I thought of this, but I want my wallys to share traits with the OG Wally.

He likes mint candies as they hide (or mask) his smoker's breath.

Now, he doesn't take any drugs of any kind, aside from the medications his home gives him. Also, yeah, Home acts as his caretaker, making sure Wally doesn't end up getting himself killed by getting injured badly (Wally can get very badly injured at some of his fights). He doesn't take drugs, mostly due to the fact that he was pumped full of drugs in his teen years, and any recreational drugs like weed will give him a bad trip and just a bad time in general. No pharmacological drugs work on him because his body practically grew resistant to them. He refuses to do coke or meth, cuz no.

Also, the meds home give him are kind of strange cuz, 1, they can't be bought from seeming anywhere. 2. Home just seems to have a huge supply of them (not sure if I want to have home be the one making them or something). and 3, the meds are kind of scary as they make the person feel no physical pain, and weirdly enough, they seem to help relieve it as well. But the meds come with a warning (somehow it has a warning, idk) that says they are very easy to overdose on and are highly addictive. Thankfully, at home, make sure to keep Wally in check for his medications.

He likes bright, guady, colors, and fashion. Also, like alt fashion, most things are similar to punk and scenekid. He doesn't like plain white or pastels, as they remind him of the insane asylum. And he just doesn't really like soft colors or plain fashion. He likes it extreme so that he is stimulated. also doesn't do well when he has nothing to do, especially when it's quiet and calm, because he then feels like he's going insane.

He has fears of needles, being restrained, and being alone (again because of his past). Unfortunately, despite not really being a mean person at heart, he does have some anger issues (understandable so) and will at times push some boundaries, but never intentionally. but he's not afraid to insult those who kind of deserve it.

He is very affectionate with his loved ones and will shower them with love once his feelings are reciprocated (this applies both romantically and plantonically). Sometimes he gets a bit too excited about love and gets into the habit of biting. but if he is told not to do that again, he won't bite again. He respects his partners or friends boundaries and won't cross them.

but he does have a bit of a possessive side to him (which is kind of feuled by his parionoa, need for affection, and care).

For one, he will keep an eye on them but never fully follow them around. Just whenever paths cross, he will definitely have his attention on them. He'll keep little tracks of information on them, and if ever he is invited to their place, even once, he will memorize the path. but only in case he needs to drag them back home after getting drunk or something. (He had too much experience with not knowing where to bring his drunk friends.) He will attempt to put a "tracker" (aka a little doodle of an eye or a swirl) and watch through it. So this way, he always has his eyes on them. This does come in handy when some of his friends get jumped, and he will then come running to help.

In terms of romantic relationships, he does have boundaries. Hes fine with a crazy and obessive partner, just not to the point where they try to hurt anyone who is close to Wally (does not like yanderes). But if he realizes he entered a relationship based on a lie, was used, abused, or is dating a friend's sibling (happened with Eddie's sibling Daisy), he will end the relationship.

#welcome home au #welcome home #wally darling #writing

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covidsafehotties · 25 days

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Published April 22, 2024

Abstract

The ongoing evolution of SARS-CoV-2 to evade vaccines and therapeutics underlines the need for innovative therapies with high genetic barriers to resistance. Therefore, there is pronounced interest in identifying new pharmacological targets in the SARS-CoV-2 viral life cycle. The small molecule PAV-104, identified through a cell-free protein synthesis and assembly screen, was recently shown to target host protein assembly machinery in a manner specific to viral assembly. In this study, we investigate the capacity of PAV-104 to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication in human airway epithelial cells (AECs). We show that PAV-104 inhibits >99% of infection with diverse SARS-CoV-2 variants in immortalized AECs, and in primary human AECs cultured at the air-liquid interface (ALI) to represent the lung microenvironment in vivo. Our data demonstrate that PAV-104 inhibits SARS-CoV-2 production without affecting viral entry, mRNA transcription, or protein synthesis. PAV-104 interacts with SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) and interferes with its oligomerization, blocking particle assembly. Transcriptomic analysis reveals that PAV-104 reverses SARS-CoV-2 induction of the type-I interferon response and the maturation of nucleoprotein signaling pathway known to support coronavirus replication. Our findings suggest that PAV-104 is a promising therapeutic candidate for COVID-19 with a mechanism of action that is distinct from existing clinical management approaches.

This is especially hopeful given how immune escape has rendered monoclonal antibodies ineffective and paxlovid/remdesovir being antivirals in the same way Sulfalidimides were an antibiotic

#mask up #covid #covid 19 #covid isn't over #pandemic #covid conscious #long covid #covid is airborne #wear a mask #coronavirus

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a-room-of-my-own · 1 year

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The FDA hasn’t approved them for gender dysphoria, and their effects are serious and permanent.

The fashion for transgenderism has brought with it a new euphemism: “gender-affirming care,” which means surgical and pharmacological interventions designed to make the body look and feel more like that of the opposite sex. Gender-affirming care for children involves the use of “puberty blockers”: one of five powerful synthetic drugs that block the natural production of sex hormones.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved those medications to treat prostate cancer, endometriosis, certain types of infertility and a rare childhood disease caused by a genetic mutation. But it has never approved them for gender dysphoria, the clinical term for the belief that one’s body is the wrong sex.

Thus the drugs, led by AbbVie’s Lupron, are prescribed to minors “off label.” (They are also used off-label for chemical castration of repeat sex offenders.) Off-label dispensing is legal; some half of all prescriptions in the U.S. are for off-label uses. But off-label use circumvents the FDA’s authority to examine drug safety and efficacy, especially when the patients are children. Some U.S. states have eliminated the need for parental consent for teens as young as 15 to start puberty blockers.

Proponents of puberty blockers contend there is little downside. The Department of Health and Human Services claims puberty blockers are “reversible.” It omits the evidence that “by impeding the usual process of sexual orientation and gender identity development,” these drugs “effectively ‘lock in’ children and young people to a treatment pathway,” according to a report by Britain’s National Health Service, which cites studies finding that 96% to 98% of minors prescribed puberty blockers proceed to cross-sex hormones.

Gender advocates also falsely contend that puberty blockers for children and teens have been “used safely since the late 1980s,” as a recent Scientific American article put it. That ignores substantial evidence of harmful long-term side effects.

The Center for Investigative Reporting revealed in 2017 that the FDA had received more than 10,000 adverse event reports from women who were given Lupron off-label as children to help them grow taller. They reported thinning and brittle bones, teeth that shed enamel or cracked, degenerative spinal disks, painful joints, radical mood swings, seizures, migraines and suicidal thoughts. Some developed fibromyalgia. There were reports of fertility problems and cognitive issues.

The FDA in 2016 ordered AbbVie to add a warning that children on Lupron might develop new or intensified psychiatric problems. Transgender children are at least three times as likely as the general population to have anxiety, depression and neurodevelopmental disorders. Last year, the FDA added another warning for children about the risk of brain swelling and vision loss.

The lack of research demonstrating that benefits outweigh the risks has resulted in some noteworthy pushback in the U.S. and abroad. Republican legislatures in a dozen states have curtailed or banned gender-affirming care for minors. Finland, citing concerns about side effects, in 2020 cut back puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors. Sweden followed suit in 2022 and Norway this year. Britain’s National Health Service shuttered the country’s largest youth gender clinic after 35 clinicians resigned over three years, complaining they were pressured to overdiagnose gay, mentally ill, and autistic teens and prescribe medications that made their conditions worse.

Still, the U.S. and most European countries embrace a standard of care that pushes youngsters toward “gender-affirming” treatments. It circumvents “watchful waiting” and talk therapy and diagnoses many children as gender dysphoric when they may simply be going through a phase.

Gender-affirming care for children is undoubtedly a flashpoint in America’s culture wars. It is also a human experiment on children and teens, the most vulnerable patients. Ignoring the long-term dangers posed by unrestricted off-label dispensing of powerful puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, combined with the large overdiagnosis of minors as gender dysphoric, borders on child abuse.

#gender critical #transgender #radfem please interact #radfem

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medstudentblues · 7 months

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hey, i'm a first year med student and i wanted to ask how you studied for cardio?

hi there! cardio is my favorite!! focus on the physiology and everything else will follow. understand the wigger’s diagram well because when you get to second year, you’ll be able to relate it to pharmacology (those that affect preload and afterload).

for ECG, know the leads, their placement, and the basic rhythms (first degree heart block, mobitz type 1 and 2, etc). use mnemonics and stories!! :-) at your level you don’t have to read a 12-lead ECG yet, so focus on the basics first.

goodluck!!! you can do this! i hope you enjoy cardio as much as i do! :-)

#asks #anonymous #nelastudies #medicineask

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disillusionedmonster · 2 years

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“Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality” Helene Joyce - Part 1

I finally finished reading my copy of “Trans” and wanted to compile some of the most informative parts of the book, as well as quotes that stood out to me. I actually cannot recommend it enough as essential reading for radfems and anyone who is gender critical. I found it very easy to read and understand, while also being evidenced based. It has expanded my understanding of how we got here. Plus it has some good reading recommendations at the end which I will be looking into. I have decided to split this up into parts (3 parts) because it will be easier to read and will give me time to work on it. (The brackets in the chapter headindings are my overview of the chapter).

Chapter 1 - The Danish Girls (Historical overview of transsexualism and transgenderism)

“In Hirschfeld’s phrase, all people were bisexual, not in the sense of being attracted to both sexes, but in the sense of being both sexes… His theory of bisexuality, which set the course for generations of later researchers and clinicians, encoded an understanding of women as naturally inferior and subordinate to men, and of the performance of sex stereotypes as part of what made someone a man or woman…”

“[Harry] Benjamin believed that sex was a spectrum and that people who wished to be members of the opposite sex might be moved along by pharmacological and surgical means. [John] Money believed that what made someone a man or woman was not their body at all, but which stereotypical sex roles they were reared in… In this way of thinking, girls and women were people who had been taught stereotypical femininity in early childhood and grown up to be decorative, domestic and subservient. Boys and men were those who had been taught stereotypical masculinity and grown up to be active, outgoing and domineering. But sometimes the socialisation may fail to take. A person might grow up highly atypical for their sex, perhaps even feeling like a member of the opposite sex and adopting that sex’s social role. In such cases, the wisest and kindest course of action would be to alter the body so that the person could be slotted back into the ‘natural order’ of things as a member of the opposite sex. Money’s contribution… the sterilisation and sex-reassignment of infants born with ambiguous genitalia…those with so-called intersex conditions.”

“As doctors, journalists and lawyers wrote and talked about [George] Jorgensen and other transsexuals, they spun into being a new way of thinking about what it means to be a woman. No longer was it possession of the type of body that can become pregnant; now it was the ability to have receptive heterosexual sex, twinned with an inner sense of being female, something like a subjective version of John Money’s gender roles.”

“A definition of biological sex as a reproductive capacity is a communal one. It is about the role that the individual plays in their species… Now the focus has narrowed. What mattered was whether an individual could provide sexual, not reproductive, services that a man expected of his wife - an individual rather than a social contract - and how she felt about herself. Thought it was not yet consistently name, ‘gender identity’ had arrived.”

Chapter 2: Sissy Boys and The Woman Inside (On dysphoria, homosexuality, and AGP - the fetish of wanting to be a woman)

“Paul Vasey[‘s]...ongoing research suggests strongly that whether highly effeminate boys grow up to identify as gay men, transwomen or something else is largely determined by culture… ‘traditional, non-Western frameworks for understanding masculine women or feminine men as “third genders” are often warped through a Western lens, which reinterprets them as transwomen or transmen. It’s a type of colonialism.’”

“...children who experienced distress with their sexed bodies often started out as merely gender-atypical, with the distress developing only as they learned that their feelings and behaviour were unacceptable to others.”

“Part of the ‘gender identity’ puzzle was now solved. Androphilic males [men attracted to other men] are often gender non-conforming in childhood, and may develop gender dysphoria and cross-sex identification as their culture is insufficiently accommodating.”

“[Ray] Blanchard… Women’s attire was not the object of such a man’s [AGP] affections, he concluded: rather, the clothes were the means whereby men gave life to that object, namely himself in the female form. Blanchard turned to Greek to name this sexual desire: ‘autogynephilia’, which means to love oneself as a woman.”

“Those who reject Blanchard’s theories…argue that the fantasies are perfectly natural because all women feel sexual about their femaleness… or alternatively, that those fantasies are mechanisms for being born in the wrong body… They [AGPs] report arousal at the simple act of putting on everyday women’s clothes. Natal women do not find getting dressed for work an orgasmic experience… Moreover, autogynephiles often eroticise aspects of womanhood that most women dislike, such as menstruation, undergoing intimate medical examinations, experiencing sexism or wearing uncomfortable clothes.”

“But the rise of left-wing identity politics and the determination to bury autogynephilia meant that, as trans people become more common and visible, this complex and nuanced picture of transness was simplified and erased.”

Chapter 3 - My Name is Neo (Using “The Matrix” as a trans analogy)

“The idea underlying all of this…dualism. This is the belief that the immaterial psyche and the vessel that houses it are separate and of different kinds… dualists conceive of a person: as a ‘ghost in the machine’. Gender identity ideology gives the ghost a sex - one that can differ from the machine. What feminists use to mean ‘gender’ was something external: a societal structure in which female people were inferior and subordinate to male ones. But within gender-identity ideology, it is an inner essence given public form by self-declaration.”

“And yet in the two-decades since the film’s [The Matrix] release, this very concept of transness has conquered medicine, law, public policy and the media. This surely could not have happened without the internet… because many people now spend more time in virtual worlds than the real one… if you spend a lot of time playing computer games, you will have become accustomed to identifying with avatars you can change on a whim.”

“This was of thinking about human existence sheds light on one of the many contradictions of gender-identity ideology. If identity is all, and a man or woman may have any type of body, then why bother with medical or surgical transition?”

“Mx Van Levy… [explains] ‘Why the term Transition is Transphobic’. The reason presented is that the word ‘transition’ is ‘based on the idea that gender looks a certain way and that people need to change from looking/sounding/acting/and more, a certain way for their identity to be respected.’... Altering the body is no part of attaining a new identity, but if the body is a mere meat puppet, why not alter it as you wish?”

“...many of those who feel driven to transition are anything but body-denialist: they are painfully aware that their bodies that their bodies cause them grief, and desperate to accommodate themselves to those bodies. They are among the people most ill-served by an ideology that pretends bodies are inconsequential and easily changed… The truth is that we are our bodies, and our bodies are our selves.”

“Within applied post-modernism, objectivity is essentially impossible. Logic and reason are not ideals to be striven for, but attempts to shore up privilege. Language is taken to shape reality, not describe it. Oppression is brought into existence by discourse. Equality is no longer achieved by replacing unjust laws and practices, but by individuals defining their own identities, and ‘troubling’ or ‘queering’ the definitions of oppressed groups.”

“Declaring pronouns can do only so much to reveal an inner self to everyone else. If you want everyone to accept gender-identity ideology, they must be persuaded that sexed bodies are not material, and that gender identities are.”

“The way they [claims] are deployed is often reminiscent of the ‘Gish gallop’ a debating technique names for creationist Duane Gish, who would fire out falsehoods, half-truths, irrelevancies and misrepresentations in quick succession to overwhelm his debating opponent. These points do not actually add up to an argument in favour of the proposition, but they waste an opponent’s time and distract them from making their own argument. The only way to counter a Gish gallop is to get your rebuttals in first.”

“...the very notion that binary sex is an artefact of Western colonialism… Never mind the racism inherent in claiming that the rest of the world needed Europeans to explain how reproduction worked; such third genders… are, rather, a testimony to the rigidity of their sex roles: a way to prevent effeminate males, same-sex attracted males from sullying the class of men.”

“ ‘Nemo’s Law’... is the gender identity equivalent of Godwin’s Law… if you mention sexual dimosphism, sooner or later someone will bring up clownfish… [they] then imply that since clownfish can change sex… there can be no objective distinction between male and female. But you need a definition of male or female to observe that clownfish can change sex… and then you will be able to see that sex in humans is indeed binary and immutable.”

“..is to claim that people with intersex conditions prove that sex is not binary… ‘Sexes’ are classes of organisms defined by the developmental pathways that evolved to produce gametes… reproductive organs may develop in anomalous ways… For there to be even three sexes, there would have to be a third gamete, and there is not.”

“...sex -not gender- is socially constructed. This is a claim of breathtaking proportions, given everything that is known about the mechanisms of reproduction and humanity’s shared evolutionary history with other sexually dimorphic species.”

“Understanding this is key to understanding the wide difference between what gender activists mean when they talk about transness, and what most ordinary people think they mean… the activists do not by any means speak for all trans people. But it is the activists’ version of the ideology that is in the ascendant, and that is being codified into laws.”

“Deconstruction is supposed to free the members of a subordinate class from subjugation within a binary… but it is freedom at a high price: denial that the subordinated class even exists in any clearly defined way… because of gender-identity ideology, the quest for liberation of people with female bodies has arrived at an extraordinary position: that they do not constitute a group that merits a name.”

Chapter 4 - Child, Interrupted (The impact of gender ideology on gender-dysphoric minors)

“The identity claims of gender-dysphoric children are taken at face value, and even the possibility of desistance is denied. Paradoxically, an ideology that holds that physiologically normal males can be every bit as much women as people born female, and vice versa, is used to justify children being put on a path to surgery and sterility.”

“...clinicians in Amsterdam decided to put puberty on pause… The idea was that any desisters would come off blockers when they realised that they no longer wanted to transition, suffer nothing worse than a slight delay to their development.”

“Of the seventy children enrolled in a study between 2000 and 2007, every single one progressed to cross-sex hormones… It beggars the belief that clinicians somehow learned to predict exactly which children would persist, exactly when they started using puberty blockers. Far more plausible is that puberty blockers, as well as blocking the physical changes that puberty brings, also blocked the developmental process whereby gender dysphoria often resolves.”

“Nobody knows how many children have received puberty blockers by now, since no one is counting.”

“And everywhere the same pattern is evident: almost every child who take puberty blockers progresses to cross-sex hormones… The notion that puberty blockers give time for dysphoria to resolve is simply untenable.”

“Both social transition and puberty blockers are presented to parents as easily reversible. But in reality, they are the early stages of what physicians call a ‘cascade of intervention’... parents who socially transition their children are fast-tracking them to medical and surgical transition, all the while believing that such decisions are many years away.”

“The lack of decent research and misrepresentation of findings mean gender affirmation cannot even be described as a risky experiment on children, since ‘experiment’ implies someone, somewhere, is tracking outcomes and comparing them with other options.”

“But a year or two is not a long follow up, and the mortality rate of over one percent for a treatment given to healthy children is sobering… But very surprisingly puberty blockers have never been put through clinical trials for use in gender medicine, they are not licensed by their manufactures for that purpose… Two studies that looked at what happened when they were used to delay puberty in animals suggested that this caused defects in spacial memory and increased behaviours thought to be analogous to depression in humans… The drugs stop calcium being laid down in bones and studies suggest a significant drop in IQ… These children may well be sacrificing their future sex life, too.”

“All in all, gender affirmation not only locks in persistence but creates trans adults who have lost fertility and sexual function, and exposed themselves to unknown health risks in return for passing better.”

“Why do parents go along with this? Many simply do not know that, without affirmation, most gender dysphoric children will desist… repeated claim that gender-dysphoric children face a choice of transition or suicide… some parents go beyond accepting their ‘trans child’ and actively encourage transition, perhaps to boost their social credentials… these parents seem to have collectively lost their minds. But they are following the approach recommended by medical experts and high-profile gender doctors… An under-acknowledged reason that some parents take the gender- affirmative approach is that they cannot bare gender non-conformity or homosexuality, and instinctively understand the link between the two.”

Chapter 5 - Miss Gendering (About teenage girls and why they are increasingly identifying out of being female.)

“Until the past decade, hardly any teenage girls sought treatment for gender dysphoria: now they predominate in clinics around the world… [with] many more girls identifying out of their sex without every coming to the attention of doctors… This story has three strands: female sexuality, modern feminism and finally, something this group is particularly prone to - social contagion.”

“Selina Todd… draws two broad points from the history of women who cross-dress, present as men or act in ‘mannish’ ways. The first is that their various motives - sexual and economic ones, as well as a desire for personal freedom - often intermingle. The second is that even a woman who has all these motives for identifying as a man may choose not to do so - is the state of feminism in her time gives her a good reason… Todd’s second illustration - of women who stay and fight for their sex - concerns a new type of ‘masculine woman’ who emerged as the Suffragettes gained momentum.”

“... I will merely observe that it is an indictment … that the first generation of girls to be taught that womanhood can be identified out of are doing so in large numbers.”

“[Lisa] Littman hypothesised that ‘social and peer contagion’ had played a role, and that adolescent cross-sex identification might sometimes be a distraction from emotional pain, like taking drugs, cutting, binging or starving.”

“...common in people with autistic traits is lack of insight in one’s feelings, in particular low self-esteem caused by perceived rejection of peers. Such children may latch onto a concrete explanation for their misery: that they were ‘born in the wrong body’.”

“‘It’s like if you took girls with eating disorders and gave them a belief system that validated their body hatred,’ says [Sasha] Ayad. ‘I’m not dealing with a child and their dysphoria; I’m dealing with a child, their dysphoria and their religion.’”

“Judging by the historical record, when a psychic epidemic hits, doctors often feel moved to centre interventions on the female reproductive system… When [Lisa] Machiano realised that the girls who said they felt like boys were being given drugs and surgeries that would leave them sterile, at first she thought there must be a misunderstanding. ‘And then I thought: n, Lisa, this happens all the time, and it’s happening again.’”

#radfem #radfems do touch #radfems do interact #radfems please interact #radfem safe #radical feminists please interact #radical feminism #gender critical #gender criticism #trans helene joyce #reading #reference #quotes #more to come

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acilykos · 5 months

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Hi. I see you're aroace and I'm too so I was wondering if I could ask you a question? Idk if this is something you do I found you through aroace senkuu post so absolutely feel free to ignore if you don't want to talk about it.

So basically I'm trying to figure out what exactly loveless means. BC a lot of people both arospec and not have told me that label might fit (as in I want 0 romance etc. But also no platonic equivalent). However. I am a very passionate person about my chosen career, music, art, my cat. Those are all things I feel so strongly about, I wouldn't know what to call it but "love". Similarly there are people I care about, just not in a way where I want romance with them or a platonic version of that kind of relationship.

(I've seen you call senkuu loveless too, and I'm a little confused BC he clearly does care deeply about some people and possibly even more so science. Why not call that love? Is it a terminology thing?)

I'm not trying to pick a fight, I really like your analysis of senkuu.

I'm genuinely trying to understand.

It's possible to reject the societal notion of what love is. I do so myself.

But there's no denying that the chemicals involved are something everyone experiences. Like. Everyone gets dopamine, vasopressin, oxytocin etc. It's just the context that's different. Much like oxytocin is experienced both in mother-infant bonding and in sexual contact, I get a dopamine rush listening to music but not making out with someone.

(granted romantic love hasn't been that well examined but there does seem to be a consensus on the general chemistry involved)

Same chemicals but different result/feeling, you know?

Not getting these chemicals at all is impossible I think, so that can't be what loveless means.

So what does it mean??? Is it just about society's perception of love??

I personally approached my lack of romantic attraction by Googling the brain chemistry BC clearly I wasn't getting anywhere with the emotional side. I'm not an expert. But the definitions of different aro orientations I see commonly, don't actually address this at all. It's like everyone decided on a different definition of "love" and nobody told me any of them.

Again, I know this sounds very passionate, but I always sound like that. I'm not trying to pick a fight, nor am I expecting you to solve my identity crisis. So really no need to reply if you don't want to. I can see how this would be. A lot to try and answer.

Hi, hi!!

First of all, I'm happy to meet a fellow AroAce!! I'm also calling myself loveless because it fits the most, I did research before and found it was the closest to describe myself.

Second of all, I think it depends on the definition of what loveless means for oneself because as always, sexuality at the end of the day is a fluid and personal thing.

Apologies if some of the thoughts seem jumbled or contradicting. I just woke up, was very happy about getting to ramble and I just don't know how to properly describe my "emotional thought processes" because I decided to illustrate my points with examples.

It's a long read too, I hope you don't mind.

Personally, I define it as a "lack of attraction" because oriented and angled AroAces experience other types of attraction (like platonic, aesthetic, etc.), but don't ask me to explain the difference between either, I really have no idea what it is (no offense to any angled or oriented AroAces). Personally, I find it ironic that the two most known "orientations" of AroAce people are still based on experiencing attraction despite AroAces being known for not experiencing it. So we had to create another word to say "Yeah, we actually don't experience any type of attraction”. It's also ironic to me that we call it "loveless" because it's not that we don't love, we just aren't attracted to people.

I'm an artist, I love art and drawing myself, as well as writing.

I'm also a scientist, I love chemistry, astronomy, pharmacology, psychology, really, I'm just always happy to talk about any subject. In fact, that's my current career, I'm a pharmaceutical technician.

I have favourite songs, favourite subjects, favourite seasons. Favourite shows, favourite characters, hell, I also have favourite ships.

I care about my family and friends too.

It's just that I'm not attracted to people. I don't want a romantic relationship because I don't experience romantic attraction. Same as I don't want a sexual one. I just don't see the need or appeal for another person if the goal is to just have a dinner date or a climax. Sure romance and sex can come hand in hand, but that depends on whether or not you experience either or if you're committed in a relationship. Anyways, I digress.

These two are the typical ones people talk about when it comes to attraction, but then there are the illusive platonic and aesthetic attractions, and many more I believe. One of them is explained later which causes AroAces in the first place to also use the labels oriented and angled.

Platonic attraction, or at least as I come to understand it, is seeing a person and just wanting to be their friend. You see someone and you think "wow, I really want to be their friend!!" also apparently called having a "squish".

I don't do that. I don't really feel something compelling me to talk to this person to become their friend.

Same as I don't feel attraction towards aesthetically pleasing people (which is also a highly individual definition). Or well, for a lack of a better term, the only "Wow, I really like how they look" I experience is in terms of gender envy. I don't want to be with them, I don't want to be them either. I just think "I'd like to express my gender like that". If that makes any sense.

I see people talk about "they're hot" and "they're so cute looking" and how they have this attraction towards them because of the way they look, but I just don't? I may appreciate the beauty by acknowledging that someone has nice features or a cool style, but it's the same as me looking at the weather and going "Ah, the sun is shining, isn't that nice." before continuing to do whatever I did, not spending more time on thinking about the weather.

For a real life example: My sister and I are going to a driving school. She has an aesthetic (and I call it on purpose an aesthetic attraction. She has not spoken once with the guy and she also said it's not exactly a crush) on one of the other people there, which to me makes no sense given his general character he revealed at least at the driving school. She even took his pen he forgot at school (just some company gifted pen from when we got a visit that day) in hopes of giving it back to him and struck up a conversation (She failed to. She was too embarrassed, in case you're curious).

I only acknowledge he has a nice jawline. That's it.

I don't feel any type of attraction towards people. I don't want or need to be their romantic partner. I don't want or need a sexual relationship. Just because someone has a personality that clicks with mine, I don't automatically feel the need to become their friend. If we become friends, great. If we don't it is what it is.

Obviously when I'm friends with someone, I care about them, but it's just... not the way friendships are usually portrayed. I don't feel the need to have many friends, or meet up with them constantly or go on trips or anything of the like. I like them a lot, I want them to be well. I just... don't really feel an attraction? I don't know how to properly explain it.

An attraction for me is either the need to be constantly with them, one way or another, because you physically and/or mentally/psychologically feel the need to be in their presence, whenever an opportunity arises OR that you spent a lot of time just thinking about them (daydreaming, fantasies, you get it). I just don't feel like that. I'm fine with not talking or seeing friends for multiple months or years. I'm also fine if we don't talk constantly too. If the friendship ended because we couldn't maintain it, it wouldn't destroy me.

It actually happened multiple times, I'm fine with it. Do I miss them or feel nostalgic when I think about past experiences with them? Of course, I care about them as people.

But I'd feel the same about it even if we had stayed friends, because I obviously feel nostalgic with things I did with my current friends.

I just really don't have the ""need"" to have friends in my life. I'm not "attracted" towards them, I care about them and I like them, but it's just not the type of attraction or even love that society usually attributes to what (best) friends are supposed to be or behave like.

(Same for my family. I haven't seen some of them in years, I don't need to. I like them, I care about their wellbeing.)

You may be wondering, if that's my attitude towards friendships, how do I even have friendships.

They talked to me one day and we happened to keep talking because we liked what each other had to say. It's been years later, so it's safe to say that we still like each other, but not once have I ever initiated a friendship, funnily enough. All I did was just... reply or talk once and we kept talking and meeting up, and eventually we became friends, and because they know a lot about me and I about them, I care about them.

And this is what I think Senkū is like too.

He cares about his friends deeply and he obviously cares about his family too. But he doesn't feel any attraction to people. He never once had an "I need to be their friend" moment. He accidentally sort of becomes friends with them because of the situation they're in and then develops a friendship with them because they've been through a lot of things for multiple years.

How did he meet Taiju? Because Taiju saved his machinery. Senkū didn't have any friends prior to that. But then they talked and spent their childhood together and became friends.

Taiju introduced him to Yuzuriha, they talked, she helped with his experiments as well, and they too became friends.

Senkū not once initiated a friendship.

He may have approached some of them first, but not because he wanted to be their friend/felt platonic attraction, he just needed them for a plan, then he used them for his plans, but they stuck around and they talked and time passed.

If it comes to his plans or science, he talks first. If it comes to any "emotional" conversational topic, someone else initiates it.

Senkū just doesn't feel the need to have emotional connections, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't care about his friends or won't develop friendships, if that makes sense. He doesn't seek them, but if friendships happen to develop, he accepts it. He doesn't portray it outwardly, but deep within his heart he still cares.

Everyone in his life started out as an ally, it eventually became friendship. Senkū didn't recruit people because he wanted friends, he recruited them because he had a need for allies to wage war against Tsukasa, then Ibara, then Whyman.

You can even apply it to Senkū's relationship with Xeno, who is according to the fanbook one of Senkū's "closest relationships" (the other one being Byakuya). Senkū respects Xeno as a scientist and as the only NASA employee who actually helped him build a rocket, but even then it's because Xeno talked first and their relationship was strictly mentor and mentee, it was hardly a friendship in what society defines it as anyway. I guess the closest equivalent would be Marty McFly and Doc Brown from Back to the Future (I know, Marty isn't Doc's mentee, but it's about the assisting in science projects part), if it comes to media, but even then Senkū's and Xeno's mentorship would not fit the definition of friendship the way Marty's and Doc's does.

I also call Senkū loveless, because he would never enter a queer platonic relationship (qpr). Entering one would mean you experience a type of connection that is more than friendship, but not romantic or sexual. Or at least that's how I came to understand it. Personally, I'm still confused on what they're actually like aside from them developing from a "tertiary form of attraction". This is where angled and oriented AroAces come in, and why some people call themselves "AroAce lesbians" for example. They experience a different type of attraction towards women that's not just friendship, but it's also not romantic or sexual (at least that's how I understand it, any tertiary attraction feeling AroAces correct or explain it to me, because it's been confusing me for years).

Now look at Senkū and tell me that he'd ever enter such a relationship, when he barely feels the need to make friends on his own. He says it himself "love causes only problems" because of the emotions involved in it. He also, as we established, doesn't feel the need to make friends. If that's already too much and Senkū doesn't have the need for friends, and a QPR is similar, except it lacks the romantic and sexual part and is supposedly "more than a mere friendship", then Senkū definitely wouldn't have that.

I think it's important to mention that, but I think at this point it is obvious, I don't define attraction and caring as the same things.

Why would I? It isn't the same thing, otherwise we wouldn't have different words for it.

Attraction means I myself feel the need to be close to whatever attracts me, maybe that I can't stop thinking about it because I need it in my life, but it can also be superficial.

Care is that it doesn't cross my mind every day, but maybe I happen to think about it once because it crossed my mind, or if I'm with friends or family who tell me about something that happened to them, I care about their wellbeing.

You may also have noticed that I barely even used the word "love" despite talking about being "loveless". As I mentioned in the beginning, I really don't think it's the right term. We love. We care. But it's just not the love people think of first (aka romantic). I love my hobbies, I love my friends and family, I love my favourite characters. But none of this is what society tells me that love is supposed to be or feel like. But it's the most direct way of saying "I don't experience any type of attraction", as misleading as it is, sadly.

And that's it, basically.

Again, it's just my own definition and experience, so how true it is for the majority of AroAces or how much you agree with me, is totally up to you and anyone else. Emotional matters are confusing, and a lot of the time don't make sense and are hard to put into words, but I gave it my best shot with all I know right now. If you're curious or think that loveless may not be the right term after all, you're welcome to do more research on the terms angled and oriented, I bet there are a lot of AroAces who identify with those labels ready to help you out, and who know much more about it than me.

I hope I was able to help you in any way to find some clarity! Thanks again for stopping by, feel free to do that again any time!!

#aromantic #asexual #aroace #loveless #loveless aroace #ask #anon #dr stone #ishigami senku #senku ishigami #ishigami senkū

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howtofightwrite · 2 years

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My character is a 50 something police officer that suddenly finds herself in a post-apocalyptic world (think similar to Fallout), how would her training help her?

There's a little more complexity here than you might expect. Fallout alternates between three different settings, and I don't mean this in the normal, nerdy, “oh, but Fallout: Tactics, isn't canon, except for the Midwestern Brotherhood...” I mean it rotates across three different post-apocalyptic sub-genres. So, I'll dig those out in a minute.

The biggest thing is probably combat training. Even if they never had a combat specialist role (like a SWAT officer), they would still have undergone training in hand to hand, use of their baton, their sidearm, and a shotgun. They may have also been trained with various types of rifles. While it's not likely to be their most commonly used skill, it does open their options up a lot. It will also help them avoid some very bad situations. Sometimes, having a combat background is more about knowing when not to walk into someplace.

The second big boon is going to be their medical training. Even if they were just a patrol officer, they would still have undergone first aid and CPR certification on a fairly regular basis. Depending on their experiences, this might also give them a passing understanding of pharmacology (especially if they worked vice or dealt with ODs on a regular basis), and they may even be able to perform some rudimentary field surgery if there's no other option. (Granted, they also have a pretty good chance of killing their patient, but that's still better odds than the certainty of dying without any medical attention.)

The third major skill is their grasp of human nature. This is something that most veteran cops will build up over time, simply as a result of their human interactions. Now, this can result in a very jaundiced view of people, due their experiences, but this will make it harder to pull one over on them. (Now, there is a blind spot here, because your character is now in an unfamiliar world, their baseline is going to be a little bit scrambled. But, in general, they're going to have a significant advantage in reading people's behavior, and intentions.)

Depending on their background, they may have a lot of more specialized skills that could be extremely useful. Someone who worked in SWAT will have an extremely robust combat toolkit to work with, someone with a motor pool background will have an advantage in vehicle repair and maintenance (and while only two Fallout games have featured working cars, they're certainly a part of the setting.) A pilot would know how to operate a chopper (or vertibird.) Specific to Fallout, an officer with a background dealing with maintaining robotics would be able to do that, and might also have some skill with working on power armor. A hostage negotiator would have an almost frightening number of social options. A vice detective would have, likely, have a robust knowledge of pharmacology (as mentioned earlier), both in their symptoms, but also, likely, in their creation, and potential uses. Finally, detectives would still have their investigation skills, which could be very useful in their field. This is the usual, determining what happened at a location, tracking people, and so on.

So, why did I make a point about there being multiple versions of Fallout earlier? Because it affects how useful some of these skills are. Fallout, from its first incarnation, was a pastiche of an entire literary genre, which took heavy inspiration from multiple, not completely compatible, visions of a post-apocalyptic world.

The original game is bleak and subdued. You could almost think of it as a low-fantasy post-nuclear wasteland. Very little of the old world survives into the original game. It's also a world without a lot of the more fanciful elements that have become synonymous with the brand. Deathclaws are a ghost story told to frighten green caravan hands, not a massive apex predator understood to be wandering the wasteland. The super mutants are staying in hiding, while they carefully enact their master's plan. Ghouls are rare enough that most mistakenly describe them as the risen dead.

Within this context, a lot of the survival skills are likely to be the most important. Notably, there are a few cases where towns are run by their police. This is something that a veteran cop might have experience with. If they took on a leadership role, then it's quite possible they have a good background for starting, and protecting, a new settlement. Though, as the first game shows, this is an approach that can backfire horribly.

Fallout 2 and New Vegas represent a different, and more unusual, post-apocalyptic setting. These are worlds where the survivors are so separated from the end of the world that they're effectively building new civilizations. In Fallout 2, this includes a number of new, post-war cities, that have built up in the decades between the games.

These games also reflect an era when a lot of the mysteries of the wasteland have been exposed. Things like the ghouls, super mutants, and deathclaws are all known to exist, and the latter are acknowledged as serious threats.

In situations like this, some of the survival skills are less important, and it's possible your character could actually go back to doing their job, if they're living in one of the larger cities. It may seem a little counterintuitive, but these are settings where, to some extent, life goes on like it did before. With some changes along the way.

Fallout 3, 4, and, 76 all kind of operate as, “immediate aftermath,” scenarios. In spite of the mainline games being set in the back half of the 23rdcentury, their worlds are ones that almost make more sense in first few decades after the nukes struck.

Hell, Nick's personal quest centers around settling a score with someone from before the war, and while there's in-universe justification for how this works, this really is a variant of a renegade cop's revenge story. It's explicitly the kind of story you'd normally set immediately after the apocalypse, before everyone had a chance to die off of old age. Granted, there's some extra existential elements at play, but in the end, this is a story that does suffer from spending 200 years at the back of a freezer.

I hate to say this, because I don't want to tell anyone they should play it, but 76 is worth considering, specifically for The Responders. These were a mix of police, firefighters, and paramedics who set about rebuilding immediately after the war. And, ironically, if Todd Howard's dictatorial fiat hadn't put an end to any living NPCs in Appalachia, along with his driving need to wedge the Brotherhood of Steel into places where it didn't belong, 76's concept of The Responders is a pretty good model for what a character could build.

The Desert Rangers get a few stray references in Fallout and New Vegas, but they're never fleshed out... because they're a reference to the player faction in Wasteland. The actual origin, much like the Brotherhood of Steel, is the pre-war US Military group. The Rangers were original a Nevada National Guard Engineering Battalion, and immediately after the war they commandeered a prison complex, repurposing it as their headquarters.

If you've never looked at Wasteland, the Rangers have (to some extent) a more law enforcement focused approach to their territory. This is complicated by the fact that things are still more than a little messed up. However, it may give you some more thoughts on what you could do with a cop in that environment, or how people would try to rebuild after the end.

It's probably worth remembering that Max Rokatansky (the protagonist of the Mad Max films) is a former cop, and his signature vehicle was a Police Interceptor before the end of the world. In fact, the first film, The Road Warrior(1979), isn't even post-apocalyptic. The events occur as the world is falling apart around them. While this has a lot to do with the budgetary constraints of a film that (literally) paid many of its extras in beer, it is a unique apocalypse as a result.

Ultimately, depending on what their job was as a cop, your character has a lot of potential skill sets, and nearly any of them could be extremely advantageous in a post-apocalyptic environment. It really is a question of what overlaps between who they are and the world they find themselves in.

-Starke

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