#(such as it is)

[thewatercolours]

Podfic: Chapter 7 of "Lost & Found" by GerbilofTriumph

Another shabby narration of a lovely King's Quest fanfiction, this time an excerpt from one of @gerbiloftriumph's lovely longfics, Lost and Found.

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

[stastrodome]

You got nothing to lose.

[inconsistentlywrittensoul]

I want to talk about Buffy and Angel's relationship in Ted (and, I guess, Bad Eggs as well, a little). And I think it's a good time to look at them together - for one thing, at this point, post-What's My Line, I think they are definitely in a relationship, rather than the weird murky situation they were in for most of the early season. And in two episodes time, Angel's going to lose his soul - this is basically the peak of their Season 2 relationship, and also of what I see as Angel's pre-'Surprise' arc, of him gradually becoming less of a complete fucking disaster.

So now in Ted, we see them together as boyfriend and girlfriend, and... well, the scene starts with her talking his ear off complaining about Ted and him clearly bored. It's not as bad as it sounds - he's pretty good in this scene, and gives Buffy some sensible advice. (Ignoring the fact that Ted turns out to be abusive and also a robot, which isn't a factor yet.) This might be the first time in the series that Angel actually seems more emotionally mature than Buffy, and he uses that maturity to be a good, supportive boyfriend helping her through her issues...

But...

This is also a scene where Buffy is very much a teenager and Angel very much isn't. (This is also in an episode partly about Buffy's parental issues, which seems relevant to their relationship but I'd like to ignore for ick reasons.) His maturity is an advantage here, but there's also a clear disconnect between them, and that becomes more apparent as Angel gradually works his way towards being a functional person.

Bad Eggs is similar. Again, we see the positive side of their relationship, in the form of fun makeouts, but we also see the shadow of deeper problems in their relationship from a long-term perspective - the fact Angel can't have kids, Buffy's immaturity and inability to think about the future (for both normal teenager and doomed slayer reasons).

I am glad we get this period of them being mostly happy together, of their relationship mostly working - it's not just all-angsty- melodrama-all-the-time, a common failure state for their relationship and for Buffy as a whole. But even at the best of times, the issues in their relationship are always present - not the grand, dramatic problems that are the focus of Season 2, but the mundane issues that are the reason they ultimately break up in Season 3.

[myrandomscribbling]

Random doodles for fun and profit!

[delivish]

more woofs

i'm so sorry about being a little quiet on here lately, but i'm fighting a terrible, horrible, No Good, Very Bad writer's block right now (and. the seasonal depression, tbh). have a snippet

[elljwalker]

These two losers show up to your inn and say they'll provide the evening's entertainment for 2 gold sticks, wyd?

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

[stastrodome]

When I was young, I played it over and over.

[tllgrrl]

Apparently the reward for finally letting a chapter go, was to punish myself for holding onto it and picking at it by installing wee tassels onto the bottom border of a shawl I knitted, while I was editing and nitpicking the aforementioned chapter.

And yes, that’s a little quilting needle.

[fursasaida]

it has only taken me 5 phone calls to three different entities to get someone to agree to send me an email that will allow me to ask someone for help with my health insurance problem! what a tuesday

[myrandomscribbling]

Hands are just as hard as I was told

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

[kwistowee]

Heh, a variation of my new mobile header. LOVE this trilogy.

[aquitainequeen]

Okay, I'm done for the present with WGA strike and AI regulation posts. Back to writing.

[fursasaida]

fucking hell. turns out ozempic/wegovy/etc is giving people gastroparesis. they are saying "extreme cases" are rare so far. who knows what the definition of "extreme" is. and at this point in my life I am automatically skeptical of declarations that medical conditions are rare. to wit:

In clinical trials, nearly half of people, 44%, who took Wegovy reported nausea, and almost 1 in 4 reported vomiting; both are common symptoms of gastroparesis. In the clinical trials for Ozempic, which is the same medication as Wegovy but given at a lower dose, 1 in 5 people reported nausea and 1 in 10 reported vomiting.

there would be a kind of folkloric poetic justice about this, it's very just-so story, especially regarding those who clear out stocks buying from shady "pharmacies" purely for weight loss. but in the end what we have here is mostly people who did what society and their doctors told them and are now suffering tremendously for it. people losing their jobs because they throw up too much every day to work. fucking horrific.

even better, diabetes is a risk factor for gastroparesis. diabetes. the thing other than weight loss for which these drugs are usually prescribed.

moreover. slowing the stomach is a known side effect for this medication class, but these particular, new drugs seem to have an exciting twist:

What seems to be unusual about cases like Wright’s and Knight’s, Nguyen said, is that they didn’t improve after they stopped taking the medication.

“In my experience, when you stop the GLP-1 agonist, the gastric emptying improves, and it gets better,” said Nguyen, who is also a spokesperson for the American Gastroenterological Association.

so, in at least some cases, the damage seems to be longer lasting if not permanent. who knows!!! this is medically induced dysautonomia, so of course nobody has a fucking clue.

speaking of which, here's the grimly familiar part:

Gastroparesis can have many causes, including diabetes, which is a reason many people are on these drugs in the first place. Women are known to be at higher risk for the condition, too. In more than half of cases of gastroparesis, doctors are unable to find a cause.

“They may just be really unlucky,” said Dr. Michael Camilleri, a gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic, said of the people who shared their cases with CNN.

On the other hand, this is how the drugs work, although not many doctors or patients understand this or the problems that may follow, he said.

same bat time, same bat channel.

there's a whole section on surgery risk, too. the reason you're supposed to fast before a surgery involving anaesthesia is to empty the stomach and minimize digestive acids, which can otherwise affect your lungs during surgery in really dangerous ways. if you're on these meds, you can follow your prep instructions perfectly and still have a full stomach when you show up. and patients often don't think to mention this med to the surgical team, because they're not aware of the connection - or even actively hide it, because being on a weight loss drug is embarrassing. anaesthesiologists are Worried.

anyway, since this sadly has to be said in the context of suffering for thinness qua beauty and patients being way too willing to accept awful side effects due to warped relationships with the medical system:

Nguyen, the Stanford doctor, said patients need to pay attention to the side effects. If you vomit once or twice, that might be normal, but persistent vomiting is not.

“They should be evaluated. Consider reducing the dose or stopping the medication,” she said.

“If your vomiting is affecting your hydration or you are having to take other medications to treat the side effects of this medication, then I think it’s time to reconsider.”