#--would be able to get up there to eat dying plant matter ?? ive seen some REAL wild set ups w water + verticality that never seem to--

[beeapocalypse]

considering doing a bentonite clay wall set up in the terrarium. its abt 14 inches tall so there will be a Bit of a concern over moisture balancing (enough that the clay wont dry out. not so much that the plants drown) but ive got the stuff for a real well draining soil on the way + LECA to act as a drainage layer. do still like the idea of a jewel orchid or two acting as the Central piece but auughhh idk what else to pair w them

[zintranslations]

Kaleidoscope of Death, Extra 4

Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu Link to Chinese / Novel Updates

Extra: Twin Lives, Twin Deaths (1)

The first time Cheng Yixie understood that he likely wouldn't live for long was on the day of his fifth birthday. While other five-year-olds were still bumbling about without much concept of life and death, he had understood something in his mother's tears and his father's frowns. His fifth birthday was spent in the hospital, alongside his foolish brother Cheng Qianli. With IV drips in their arms and eating horribly bitter medicine, they stuck five candles into a lovely cake to make a wish.

Cheng Yixie looked at the candles on their cake and quietly thought, he wished he could grow up quicker, because there were still placed he wanted to see in this world.

Cheng Qianli clearly didn’t think as much as Cheng Yixie. He wore a brilliant smile in sharp contrast with the impassive Cheng Yixie sitting next to him, and all of his attention was on the sweet and spongey cake before him. Fools had an easier time than geniuses. A single sweet candy could bring a genuine smile out of him.

Cheng Yixie and Cheng Qianli were twins, but everything about them beside their faces seemed completely different.

Cheng Yixie had realized long ago that they were different from other kids. He'd even heard a doctor discuss their condition with their parents. From that discussion, a single sentence had been imprinted in his brain. Their primary doctor had said that, at the current level of medical progress, he and Cheng Qianli would not live past sixteen.

Sixteen—sixteen. Life would only just be starting. Cheng Yixie went back to their hospital room and watched his brother sit in the hospital bed, giggling at the cartoon on TV. There wasn't a single shadow in Cheng Qianli's eyes; they were as bright as the blue skies outside their window.

Cheng Qianli was a lot skinnier than he was, and his body was weaker too. Though he was almost ten, he still looked like an undernourished bean sprout. For treatment, neither of them had any hair. All over their heads and wrists were green and purple puncture marks.

Cheng Yixie came into the hospital room and Cheng Qianli looked up at him, calling out Gege in a sweet voice. That pair of adorable cat eyes were overflowing with palpable joy; he'd never bothered hiding his affection for Cheng Yixie.

"Gege." The tiny Cheng Qianli looked right and left, before carefully waving Cheng Yixie over.

Cheng Yixie went to his bedside, and Cheng Qianli indicated he should bend down. Cheng Yixie thought that Cheng Qianli had something to say to him and obeyed. But the moment he bent, a tiny piece of candy was pushed between his lips.

"Sh," Cheng Qianli said. "Don't tell nurse-jiejie. Grandma gave it to me in secret. I gave it a lick, it's super yummy."

Because they were sick, their diets were under strict control; the amount of snacks they got to eat in a year could be counted on both hands. Cheng Yixie thought, how nice would it be if they were normal children? Then Cheng Yixie could eat all the food that he wanted, and they wouldn't have to be doing such a pitiful thing.

"You're feeding me something you already ate?" was how Cheng Yixie responded to Cheng Qianli's good will. "Gross."

"You're lying," Cheng Qianli harrumphed. "You like candy too, I know it. Mean gege."

Cheng Yixie said nothing. The candy's sweetness was dispersing through his mouth, but all he could see was their future. He couldn't imagine losing this foolish brother of his; he wanted so badly to see Cheng Qianli grow up and have a life of his own.

Cheng Yixie thought surviving was just wishful thinking, until he was chosen by the doors.

The terrifying world of the doors was perhaps an awful sort of torture for many, but for Cheng Yixie, it was a blessing of mercy from the heavens.

When he entered the first door he wasn't even sixteen, and looked completely out of place in the pack of adults.

His first door was very difficult. Cheng Yixie believed that he would die inside, but his fortune was good—he met a veteran who'd passed through many doors. That veteran opened the door, and Cheng Yixie successfully left that extra-dimensional world.

After coming out from the door, Cheng Yixie's physical condition began to swiftly get better.

The doctors called it a miracle. They were getting the same medicine and the same treatments, but Cheng Yixie's body was getting better and quickly approaching normalcy, while Cheng Qianli's was getting weaker.

Cheng Yixie knew why this was happening. He tried telling this absurd yet genuine truth to his parents, but both parents thought he was joking.

In everybody else's eyes, Cheng Yixie had only sat on his bed and spaced out for a bit. He hadn't gone anywhere. Everything he said was probably just a child's imagination. How could they take the imaginary as truth?

Cheng Yixie was smart enough to know that the adults would never understand. This matter had already gone beyond explicable bounds, and he had no evidence to prove the existence of the door.

Then what about Cheng Qianli? Cheng Yixie thought. What about his little fool of a brother?

Before Cheng Yixie had an answer, he entered his second door. And in his second door, he met Obsidian leader Ruan Nanzhu.

Ruan Nanzhu had been in a dress at the time, and called him kiddo with a smile.

Cheng Yixie only shot him a cold look, not bothering to respond. What good was any of this talk? In his first door he'd seen plenty of adults who acted all arrogant and coy one second end up dead the next.

Cheng Yixie figured the same would be true of Ruan Nanzhu. But then he discovered that Ruan Nanzhu didn't seem to be as he'd thought. Ruan Nanzhu was good. Cheng Yixie was keen enough to pick this up after observing Ruan Nanzhu's following actions.

As Ruan Nanzhu got ready to leave, he gave Cheng Yixie a way to contact him, telling Cheng Yixie that if he wanted to know more, he could get in touch.

Cheng Yixie looked at that contact point and memorized it silently.

After leaving the second door, Cheng Yixie got in touch with Ruan Nanzhu and learned about the existence of Obsidian.

"Do you want to come to Obsidian? Maybe you can live for a bit longer here," Ruan Nanzhu said.

Cheng Yixie agreed. He didn't even get his parents' permission before leaving the hospital. He flew to the city where Ruan Nanzhu lived that night.

This was actually quite the risky gamble, because Cheng Yixie couldn't be sure if Ruan Nanzhu actually had any good will toward him. He was just a helpless kid, and if Ruan Nanzhu really wanted to do something to him, he had no chance of even resisting.

But Cheng Yixie could only make the gamble, because Cheng Qianli didn't have much time left.

There was an obvious contrast now that Cheng Yixie was getting healthier. Cheng Qianli was like a plant approaching winter; life was flowing out of him at a rate visible to the naked eye.

After arriving at Obsidian, the first thing he asked upon meeting Ruan Nanzhu was, "can other people get the doors too?"

To his question, Ruan Nanzhu was silent for a while, before saying, "yes, but I'm not telling you how."

"Why not?" Cheng Yixie asked.

"Because you pay with somebody else's life," Ruan Nanzhu said. "Can you do such a thing?"

Cheng Yixie was silent.

Ruan Nanzhu didn't continue the topic, only gave him a simple introduction to the doors. He told him about the hints, about Obsidian, and about some other things. Of course, from start to finish, he never once told Cheng Yixie how to steal somebody else's door. He only warned Cheng Yixie to hide his identity inside the door, or else there would be danger.

Cheng Yixie paid close attention. As he listened, however, he kept thinking about Cheng Qianli. He was thinking that even if he did steal a door for Cheng Qianli, would Cheng Qianli be able to make it out?

The worlds inside the doors were so scary, and didn't suit the naive Cheng Qianli at all. Even if he stole the doors for Cheng Qianli like Ruan Nanzhu said, would it be just another form of torture for Cheng Qianli?

He was so small, and so scared of the dark. He was so completely different from Cheng Yixie. He was just a normal kid.

That night, Cheng Yixie sat in the garden by himself for a long, long time. It wasn't until dawn emerged over the horizon that he rubbed his dry eyes and went impassively back into the house.

What Cheng Yixie was thinking, nobody knew. Since that day on, he never once returned home, and he never once contacted Cheng Qianli.

Is it because your brother's too stupid? So you don't like him anymore? someone asked Cheng Yixie once. Cheng Yixie didn't say anything in return, just shot that person an icy look.

The reason he didn't go back and didn't contact Cheng Qianli was because he was scared. He was scared that he wouldn't be able to control himself, and he would do something out of bounds.

He didn't even dare try to think about Cheng Qianli dying. The moment he thought about it, many terrifying thoughts would surface in his mind.

Cheng Qianli was the calamity in Cheng Yixie's life that he could never escape; he knew that for this brother of his, he could cross even the lowest lines.

And when he became conscious of this, the only thing Cheng Yixie could do was reduce the influence Cheng Qianli had on him—even if the reduction process was tantamount to cutting out a part of himself by brute force.

They were twins. Twins linked by blood. A single glance, a single look, and they could understand what the other was thinking; even a thousand miles away, Cheng Yixie could feel Cheng Qianli growing gradually weaker.

Cheng Yixie thought everything would end like this. But one afternoon, he got a call from Cheng Qianli.

To this very day, Cheng Yixie could recall the weather then.

It was a drizzling spring day, and the shrubs in the yard were lush with greenery. Everything was filled with the breath of revival. And Cheng Qianli's voice came from the other end of the line, sniffling and a little bit weak. He cried, "Ge, Ge, I'm so scared—"

Cheng Yixie, "what's wrong?" He'd sensed something, and his voice couldn't help but tighten in alarm.

"I went into a door." Cheng Qianli spoke in frail stutters. "There were so many ghosts inside. I finally came out. Am I dreaming…When are you coming back…I miss you so much…" It seemed he was growing unconscious, slowly beginning to mumble nonsense.

As Cheng Yixie listened, however, he began to laugh quietly. He laughed until tears came out, and said, "don't be scared. Gege's here. Wait for Gege to come back."

Gege will protect you.

And so, Cheng Yixie understood that he'd never escape Cheng Qianli the calamity. He would use every single method at his disposal to protect Cheng Qianli's life. He would see him grow up, marry, have children. His children would have children and he would definitely live on and prosper.

Author's Note:

Here's the long-awaited twins extra!

[Extra: Shameless Couple(2)] | [Extra: Twin Lives, Twin Deaths(2)]

[cozyteez]

prince!yunho, IV.

"breakfast in 5 minutes your highness”

yunho groaned in response as he rolled over in bed. another day, another full schedule

he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up before stumbling for a moment and plopping right back down onto the bed

standing up slower this time, he trudged his way into his washroom with the thoughts of everything he had to do today weighing down his ankles

he quickly got presentable and went to the breakfast area where his parents were waiting for him, just like every morning

at breakfast he was given his daily schedule. today was pretty standard, meetings with his parents, the royal advisory board, and the other departments until lunch (today was botany then outreach), then he goes to the medical wing for training until dinner with his family, assuming he gets all his work done for that day. if not he works through dinner and eats it later by himself

he only almost fell asleep once this morning and it was during the meeting with botany. to his defense, the topic of the meeting was about which flower was to be planted at the front gates this spring, and it somehow lasted two hours

for lunch today he decided to meet with some friends in his training class at the dining hall

they were in the middle of sharing their most gruesome stories from their respective rotations from the past week when auve walked by yunho’s table and gave him a wave and a sweet look

"good afternoon, prince yunho"

yunho wasn't expecting to see auve as he'd never seen her in the dining hall at this time before, and the look on his face definitely broadcasted that thought to everybody around him

nonetheless, he responded "hello" with his mouth full of food, to which he quickly covered with his napkin when he realized what he did

she walked off and sat down with a group of girls at the table right behind yunho's, sitting in such a way that if he looked past his friend's shoulder just right he'd be looking directly at her

"damn, she looks really good"

another friend hit his chest as yunho snapped out of his trance

"ow! dude!"

"she's out or your league man, there's no point in drooling over her. besides, she seems pretty into prince charming over here"

yunho flushes red before pretending he didn't just hear that. he began to nervously shovel food into his mouth and keep his head low, desperately wanting to avoid the topic

"hey fancy pants, are you gonna ask her out? because if you don't i definitely will"

his friend receives another firm hit to the chest and yunho begins to ungracefully cough down his food

"i don’t know, should i?"

"yeah man! she’s looked over here like twice already and it’s been what, like 60 seconds since she sat down? besides, not only are you gonna be a doctor soon, you're also the fucking prince. she'd be insane to turn you down"

"are you sure you don't have a crush on him dude?"

"do you have a death wish?"

yunho was quick to tune out his friend's mild bickering as he began to think about auve

'i mean, she is quite beautiful, especially her smile. it’s so warm and inviting. i wonder what she specializes in? off topic, focus up yunho. let's see; pros: auve is beautiful, she's - wait. am i objectifying her by counting that as a 'pro'? what if - '

"dude. hey! twinkle toes!"

with a slight shake of his head yunho pulled himself out of his thoughts and back to his friends

"just ask her out man"

and as if on cue, auve and yunho looked right at each other, both causing the other to blush and become shy

“yeah... maybe i will....”

eventually it was time for yunho and his friends to head up to the medical wing for training. right before they walked through the doors though, auve walked by with a wave of people coming back to work from their lunch break

he paused and called out to her just before one of his friends pushed him towards her direction

“hi auve”

“your highness”

a deep blush was already making its way across his face and ears as he nervously rubbed the back of his neck

“you look really pretty today”

“oh, thank you”

auve blushed as well, looking down as she tucked some hair behind her ear

‘well, not that you don’t look pretty every day. oh my - not that it matters either..?”

yunho’s friends rolled their eyes and shook their heads as they watched him start to crash and burn 

“because i’m sure there’s more depth to you than your beauty, and if you think about it, physical beauty never matters because in the end, you know, people are attracted to what’s on the inside so, I mean - i know you’re more than a pretty face so I was just thinking that maybe-”

one of his friends spoke up, no longer able to tolerate the amount of second hand embarrassment this whole situation was causing him

“oh my god - DUDE! JUST ASK HER OUT WE’RE GONNA BE LATE!”

yunho covered his face before sheepishly looking at auve, who was trying not to giggle

“you know, i was planning on going to the east gardens for some wine after work if you wanted to join me? i wouldn’t mind the company, especially yours....”

the way she was looking at yunho caused butterflies to flutter in his stomach and a tingly feeling to spread across his chest

“that ... sounds really nice. maybe around 6:30?”

auve smiled and nodded

“perfect. see you then, yunho”

“yeah...”

she began to walk away, but before she got too far he called out to her

“wait! i’ve been dying to know, what’s your specialty?”

auve turned and continued to walk backwards as she answered him

“internal affairs, and you?”

he gestured back towards the glass doors of the medical wing

“medicine. see you tonight!”

and she smiled that sweet smile of hers before turning around to walk to work, leaving yunho awestruck as he watched her go

eventually he was pulled into the medical wing by his friends and they quickly went to the lockerooms to change into some scrubs and get to work

yunho spent his whole day with the usual smile on his lips a little bit wider than normal and his head just a little bit fuzzy, information and procedures slightly blurred by thoughts of auve and her warm smile and soft voice. he had it so bad for her that he almost felt tipsy

but just as he was heading off to go get ready for his date, two doctors burst through the doors with a man on a wheelchair who was keeled forward and holding an oxygen mask to his face

"woah. need any help?"

yunho was already following them. he knows its a bit morbid, but this month he was working in emergency medicine and he had yet to see anything really interesting

"sure kid, c'mon"

they get to the ER as quickly as possible and wheel him to the closest empty bed. yunho's heart was racing, ready to help out with anything he could

"okay guys listen up: we have a male, 58, collapsed after an intense coughing fit and has been in and out of consciousness ever since. his heart rate was alright at the scene but his oxygen levels are very low. i'm gonna need all hands on deck to figure out what the hell happened here"

the lead doctor began giving orders to the nurses before turning to yunho and the other doctor

"you two: get him on the bed and lay him back"

they nodded in unison as the doctor went to one side of the patient and yunho the other. on the doctor's count they lifted him out of the wheelchair and onto the bed, and that's when yunho's heart almost jumped out of his chest

he immediately wished he could take back all of his silent complaints for not seeing any interesting cases come through the ER, because as soon as he had set the patient down and laid his head back, he made eye contact with a vary familiar set of eyes before they fluttered closed as he became unconscious again

"i-i... i have to go. i have to leave, i'm sorry"

the lead doctor just rolled his eyes before he continued barking orders to the hospital staff about which vitals to read, medicines to push, and tests to run

meanwhile yunho ran down the hall, out of the doors, and straight to xenia's office, slowing down as he approached the door

"come in!"

he pushed through the door, but stood frozen as he realized he didn't know what to say, or rather how to say it

"yunho? well this is a surprise, you never come to visit me at work! not that i’m upset, just -"

"nia..."

"hey, why are you still in your scrubs?" she put her pen down and stood up from her desk "is everything alright?"

yunho cleared his throat and looked at the floor, still trying to find his words

"xenia can you follow me, please?"

he figured that would buy him some time, but she refused

"no. not until you tell me what's going on"

xenia stepped out from behind her desk to walk towards yunho, who looked up at her with a look she couldn't exactly describe, but had a bad feeling about. a really, really bad feeling

"can you just come with me? please"

"yunho, you're scaring me... just tell me what's going on and i'll go"

he sighed and looked at the floor one more time before looking back at her

"it's your father, nia. he collapsed today after a bad coughing fit in the kitchen. i just helped some doctors bring him into the ER"

"what? is he alright?"

yunho opened his mouth but decided not to answer, his silence speaking volumes to xenia

"i think you should go see him. somebody already went to get your mother, she should be there by now"

her face was emotionless and her eyes were glazed over as she walked out of her office towards the medical wing, swiftly and quietly with yunho right behind her

once inside the emergency care center, yunho placed his hand on her back and led her to her father's room. as soon as she opened the door her heart sunk. he looked awful

he was extremely pale, he was attached to at least 5 wires, and he looked like he hadn't slept in weeks

"oh, father...."

she rushed to his side, the side her mother wasn't already at, and immediately took his hand as she knelt down

"don't cry baby girl, i'll be alright. promise" he wiped a tear that had begun to roll down her cheek with his thumb "now, be honest. does this gown wash me out?"

everyone in the room laughed, even xenia. but the happiness was short lived as he began to cough and struggle to breathe

he forced a weak smile when it was over, squeezing the hands of his wife and daughter in reassurance. xenia placed her other hand over her father's and took a good look at him. his bright smile had been dimmed, and she could tell he was in a lot of pain

she looked up for yunho but he had snuck out of the room, probably just to let them spend some time together as a family, she thought. looking back at her father, she made a mental note to ask yunho about how long it'll take for him to get better later. for now, she was beginning to realize how much time she'd been spending on work lately and how little time she'd been spending with her family

she made another mental note to change that, starting today. she was going to hold her father's hand through this, no matter how many projects she had to delay or give up in order to do it. she was going to see to it herself that he got better, no matter how long or how much it took

meanwhile yunho was frantically changing out of his scrubs in the locker room, as he was running late for his date with auve. he forgot to take his sneakers off before he started to take off his scrub pants and fell onto his ass

after taking a deep breath and removing his sneakers, he stood up and quickly put the rest of his clothes on. for once he was grateful that he had to wear nice clothes this morning so he could go straight to the east gardens and not be too late

he fixed his hair a little bit in the mirror before he made his way over to where auve was waiting for him

-

once yunho arrived he was able to spot auve immediately. she at alone at one of the standing-area bar tops with a glass of wine already in her hands, peacefully looking out over the entirety of the gardens

"they're beautiful, right?"

"oh my! you scared me"

despite being startled, she was still smiling that never-ending smile of hers that yunho could look at all day

"looks like i should catch up, hm?"

she looked down at her half empty glass that yunho was gesturing towards and back at him

"looks like it"

"be right back"

auve watched as yunho walked over to the bar, he was so happy and bubbly and oh - he almost tripped over that woman's chair. maybe he was a bit clumsy too, she thought

he made his way back and began to ask her about her day. from there the conversation flowed naturally between sips and refills of wine. it was mostly light-hearted, when she had asked about his day he decided to leave out the part about xenia's father as to not kill the mood. besides, it wasn't really something he was willing to process at the moment

yunho felt more relaxed than he's felt in a while. it was nice to laugh with and get to know someone new. for a while he had felt stuck in a demanding and rigorous routine with the same work and the same people, so change was good. it was nice, he thought

after maybe their third glass of wine yunho made a joke that auve found particularly funny and had them both laughing until their stomachs hurt, leaning on the bar top for support

as their laughter died down, there was almost no other noise around them and they realized that it had gotten pretty late as they were some of the last people there

auve drank the last sip of her wine, sighed, and smiled at yunho, who was smiling right back at her with the same butterflies in his stomach fuzzy feeling in his head from before, although this time maybe it was all the wine that had him tipsy

either way, something gave him a wave of confidence as he set his empty glass down and leaned in closer to her

"you know, every spring the castle puts on this big ball..."

"ooh, really?"

"yeah, we decorate the grand ballroom with flowers and everybody dresses really pretty and there's dancing and food and games for the kids except sometimes i play too because - well, anyways..."

auve was giggling at yunho's rambling and he swore it was the cutest sound he'd ever heard

"if you'd like, i'd love it of you came with me. as, you know, my date. if you want to but you don't have to"

she stopped giggling, but her smile never faded. placing her hand on his arm, she answered him

"oh, i definitely want to. when is it again?"

yunho tried to act like he was unbothered by her touch but he doubts he got away with it based on how hot his cheeks felt

"it's in about two weeks"

she hummed and nodded, allowing a silence to fall between them that had a bit of tension to it

they both knew they should probably leave, but neither of them were doing anything, just staring at each other not wanting the night to end. especially yunho, who was realizing he was about to fall right back into the same lonely routine. at least now he had the ball to look forward to

finally, he broke the silence

"if you want, i can walk you back to your room?"

"sure"

she smiled as yunho took their glasses back to the bar and thanked the bar tender. they walked pretty much in silence the whole way there, both too shy to make any sort of move

"well, we're here"

they stopped walking and yunho turned to face auve

"i had a really great time tonight"

"me too"

yunho paused, trying to buy himself some more time to work up the courage to do what he's wanted to do all night

"i'm sorry for earlier, sometimes i get nervous and i ramble and i didn't mean to call you pretty and then not pretty, because you are pretty. like, really pretty. so i-"

"it's alright, yunho. it was actually kind of cute"

"really?"

"of course. i think you also blush when you get nervous, kind of like you are right now"

his hands flew to his cheeks in a vain attempt to cover what she'd already noticed and just made worse, causing both of them to giggle

"well, anyways ... can i ask you one more thing?"

"sure"

"can i kiss you?"

"please do"

and in what seemed like only a second, he took a step forward, pulled her by the waist close to him, tilted her chin up with his other hand, and had his lips on hers

auve was shocked at his sudden smoothness. he hadn't really given her any indication in the time she's known him that he would've kissed her the way he was kissing her now, but she didn't mind

actually, she really didn't mind. not one bit. in fact, she was starting to think she'd let him take her breath away over and over again and she still wouldn't mind because he wasn't just good, he was absolutely intoxicating

but then again, maybe it was all the wine

[lovelyladiesofoverwatchimagines]

Could I request a fantasy widowmaker x reader? Okay, so widow is a vampire that reader was meant to hunt, but before they could kill her, she fed from them and made them her property. At first highly resistant to all of her advances, reader starts to develop feelings for Widow, and falls in love? One day, another Hunter comes around and try’s to kill Widow, but before the new Hunter could land the killing blow, reader takes it instead. Could you have widow turn reader into a vamp to save them?

Ive been really sick, sorry it took so long

—————————–

“What did you do to me heathen?” You spat at the woman in front of you. You were the best hunter in France. And here you were, apprehended by the most feared creature in all of France

“I claimed you,” She said calmly

“You what?! Why?“ You shot back. The beast hesitated before answering

“No other hunter for the past 400 years has been able to even get close to my castle, or remotely past my traps. You interest me”

“Ok?” You looked confused

“So I’m keeping you here so you cant release a way to get to me” She explained

“You, the most powerful vampire in France, ”the Widowmaker” is scared of a Human?” You laughed out, practically sneering in her face

“Shut up”

———————–

“Eat” Widowmaker scolded from the other side of the cell wall

“No” You pushed the tray of food away

“You need sustenance”

“Yeah? What do you care? If I die you don’t have to worry about others finding you” You shot

“Despite what people think, I’m not a heartless monster. Starving is not pleasurable” Widowmaker shot back

“Fine ill eat, as long as it gets you to leave me alone” You mumbled, shoving a piece of bread into your mouth

————————

“What are you doing?” You stood as the cell door opened. As the weeks passed Widowmaker had become more friendly towards you. Suppose loss of human or beast contact will do that to you

“I’m letting you out. Providing you a room in my villa is the least I can do since you’ll never part” Widowmaker answered, holding her hand out to you. You took it

“Thank you” You mumbled as she led you up the stairs and to a new part of the villa

————————

“So then I said, that’s an Alibi, not a squid” You laughed covering your mouth. Amelie subtly laughed and smiled at you. The wine in her hand almost half empty

“You are very funny you know” She implied

“My ex thought so too,” You said shooting down the last of your wine

“You are not with anyone?” Amelie acknowledged. You shrugged and put the wineglass down

“Nah, once I started hunting, things changed. I pushed everyone away” YOu looked down and twiddled with your thumbs

“Why?”  She asked

“The reason I hunt is that one of your kind killed my daughter,” You said sternly. The mood of the room changed greatly in a matter of seconds

“I am sorry,” She said. You coughed and stood.

“I’m not so hungry anymore. Thanks for the dinner. Goodnight Widowmaker" You said, making your way out of the den

“Amelie,” She said quickly

“What?”

“My name…its Amelie,” She said hesitantly. You smiled and headed up the stairs to bed

————————-

“Good morning Amelie” You  greeted, sniffing the air and rubbed your eyes

“Good morning (Y/n), I was making eggs, would you like some?” Amelie said from the kitchen

“Si” You returned

“You know, I have told you about myself…But you’ve shared nothing about yourself with me. I think we should change that, Oui?” She set down the utilities and turned to look at you

“Sure” So that’s what happened. Amelie laid down in your lap and listened for hours to your story, your life, your family, parents, education, all of it.

“You came to France just to hunt me?” Amelie said, almost in a voice that said she was impressed

“Yeah and before that it was a coven of Demons called Los Muertos, run by their alpha known as Sombra. She was tricky. Promised me my daughter if I let her live” You said, taking a sip of your drink

“Did you?”

“First thing you learn as a hunter is never trusting a deal.” YOu laded, looked down at the woman. She smiled up at you. You shook your head and looked toward the ceiling

“Vampires destroyed my family and here I am fraternizing with one” You laughed and sighed at the same time

“We are fraternizing?” Amelie asked, raising an eyebrow

“Well… I mean..yes?” You stuttered out

“Then we should do it properly, Non?” SHe breathed, leaning up she connected her lips to your own. You smiled and kissed back eagerly

————————–The next night you read quietly in bed, only to look up to be greeted with one of the most beautiful sights you had ever seen. Your jaw dropped as Amelie spoke

“A countess gets lonely after a few hundred years mon cher” The lingerie held tightly to her body

“I bet she does” Was all you could get out

“Care to spend the night with me?” She suggested, holding her hand out. You stood and nodded. Following her to her room. She sat on her bed seductively. You gulped and blushed. Her eyes pierced your soul as she reached a lanky finger out and motioned towards her.  

That night you spent together was the first of many. A few weeks proceeding that night you woke up in each other’s arms as usual for the past weeks, every morning, evening and night you two fell in more love than you ever had. Her yellow eyes peered into you that morning, just like the one before

“Good morning darling” She whispered to you as your eyes fluttered open

“Good morning mi Amor,” You said with a smile. You graded your lips on hers. You placed your hand on her waist and kissed harder. You only pulled away when you heard a rap on wood

“That was the door?” You sat up, the blankets covering your bare waist. You slid out of bed and put on clothes. Amelie sat up and looked at you with concern

“Let me check it. ” You said sternly

“But-” She started

“Ame I have a feeling I know who it is,” You said sadly. You made your way down the two-story villa and to the large door. You opened it as you heard Amelie be decent down the stairs. You looked at the figures at the door. One wore a hood the other you immediately recognized

“Atlanta” You spoke

“(Y/n)… I thought you were dead” The woman said in shock

“No, I’ve just been, planning my next hunt..” You excused

“Without Cherin? I thought you two were partners?” She asked

“We were but there we some-” You looked Amelie in the eyes

“Complications”

“(Y/n) are you sure you’re alright, your never this open about, well anything” Atlanta being one of your closest friends, she would know

“Fine,” You said, looking at the stairs. Atlanta squinted, peering at your neck

“You’ve been claimed (Y/n), that’s a vampire mark..” Atlanta stated

“Yes I got in a scuffle” You lied

“I know she’s here (Y/n)” The figure removed his hood to reveal your partner.

“Cherin,” You said acknowledging him

“Move” He musked out

“You aren’t getting to her” You moved to cover the door, Amelie stepped down another step as Cherin delivered a knockout blow to your face. You sank to the floor. In a blurry image, you saw the larger hunter move towards Amelie who bared her fangs threateningly at him. He pulled a large cured stake out of his coat and thrust it at Amelie

“Amelie!” You yelled quickly standing up and running toward your lover, jumping in front of the stab. Your life flashed as you felt the excruciating pain fill your lung. You heard a scream and muffled words as you slumped to the floor. Almost immediately you heard the stake drop and Amelie rushed to your side. She screamed at the intruding hunters

“Leave! You’ve broken one of the most sacred hunting laws. Leave before I make you” Tears welled her eyes

“Let’s go, Cherin,” Atlanta said, pulling on the other hunter who just stared in horror. As they left Amelie’s focus went back to you

“Please, please breath you’ll be ok” Amelie begged to your unconscious body

—————————-

“Good morning my love” Amelie choked out. You weakly smiled and opened your mouth to speak, all that came out was a cough and trail of blood

“Don’t speak” Amelie said

“Save your strength darling” She tucked a stray hair behind your ear. You smiled and pressed her hand to your face

“You look sad amor” You wimpily whined out. Pain piercing everywhere in your midsection

“You are dying,” Amelie said with drops filling her eyes. You clenched your jaw

“Turn me,” You said hesitantly. Amelie’s eyes widened in shock

“I know you were thinking about it but wouldn’t without my concent..so do it”

“Cher it is no small choice..and even if I did you can’t leave the castle. Eventually, you will get tired of me. And there is no guarantee it will work” She explained

“I love you, Amelie. And I trust you” You leaned in and kissed her. She sniffed and kissed back. You leaned back and coughed. Amelie sighed

“Alright”

———————–

“I am also yet a girl, standing in front of my love, asking them to love her. But I guess if she is loved she should let her love move on. "Look at me she cries, come back to me, I love you and not another.” And its because she loves them that, she can’t be selfish. Yet when she says “I love you”, she expects it said back. The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more and that plants a fire in our hearts and minds. That’s what she had to give. As the girl waits for a reply she thinks of a story. “You’re waiting for a train, a train that’ll take you far away, and you know where you want this train to take you, but you can’t know for sure, but it doesn’t matter, but it doesn’t matter, because they’ll be together.’” You sighed finishing the book. You ran your tongue over your left fang and picked up your sleeping wife to take her to bed. Maybe being stuck with the countess wasn’t so bad

[talldarkandroguesome]

Dunmer wear a lot make up. Do kids wear it too? Is it common in all classes or just higher House mer?

I find it a little unfair to say that all Dunmer generally wear a lot of makeup. It would be impractical if nothing else.

Admittedly, makeup is very important culturally for us. It is used in many rituals and celebrations.

It is also used to denote wealth and status.

The cheapest type of makeup is derived from ash and charcoal. It is an older method of making makeup and typically used in eye and lip makeup. Some particularly light skinned Dunmer have also used it to appear darker, though the practice has seem to fallen back out of fashion.

Makeup of all other origins are very expensive. The cool toned pigments that are most popular in fashion are derived from the ground exoskeletons of scrib, shalk, or other chitinous animals. These take a large amount of exoskeleton to produce a small amount of color. For the average Dunmer, these makeups are reserved for special occasions only. Wealthy merchants and nobility, in contrast, use a small amount of these in their daily fashion.

These colors and placements are all derived from the ancient ceremonial makeup worn by our Chimer ancestors. The popular dot on the mouth, was once believed to protect the wearer from harm that might come through the mouth. This was used to bless the wearer from poisons or the old popular choke nuts, which have luckily been lost to time. I believe choke nuts were a Dwemer invention that was popular with Dunmer assassins. Children are still warned not to eat their food too quickly for fear of being killed by the choke nut.

I have seen choke nuts before, but only ancient ones that had already been set off. Nasty little contraptions that react with moisture. They take just enough time to work to be swallowed before the outside ruptures, and tens of little barbs protrude out of all sides. If it is in your throat, you choke, hence the name. If you manage to swallow it, they cause severe internal damage. Some particularly unlucky victims were unable to pass anything and ended up dying as a result, a most devious, slow, and excruciating death. That is not even to speak of the embarrassment.

It was thought that the makeup had components that would either set the choke but off early, or neutralize it so it would not go off. There are several stories of a mer scorned for their wasteful habit of using too much lipstick, then either having a choke nut to off in he mouth, of finding it after it had come out the other end without ever having opened. It certainly popularized the fashion of wearing the dot upon the lips and even today, most parents will put that dot upon their child’s lips to help protect them from poisons and choke nuts.

A full lip coloration was once thought to protect the wearer from speaking evil words or mistruths. It was first popularized by Tribunal Temple officials. There is a legend of the priest Drathas, who was sent a vision by Azura that he was going to be tested by each of the gods in turn. Azura told him that both Boethiah and Mephala were going to trick him into betraying someone close to him and then making him learn humility and to search for the truth before spreading information he had heard. She advised him to protect himself from being able to speak the wicked words by covering his mouth in a sacred combination of ash, kwama cuttle, and ground shalk shell. It is said that then there was a scandal among his order and everyone presented evidence. Since he was he highest ranking member present, he was charged with determining the final verdict. When he had come to his decision, he recalled Azura’s words and, with the makeup upon his lips, decided to give an overview of the facts. However, as he came to certain parts of what he had been told, he could not make him mouth speak the words. That was when he knew these parts were false. Using his cleverness and Azura’s guidance, he was able to make the correct decision and pass the test the gods had given him.

Today wealthy Dunmer use the full lip makeup to show that they are being honest. Those who do not wear it are seen as possibly having something to hide. Although it is obvious that most people wear it and still lie.

Occasionally you will find the full lip makeup on children if they are being punished for telling untruths. It is used to scare them into being more honest. Otherwise, children usually only wear the dot upon the lips.

Eye makeup is also popular with Dunmer. It was once believed that to put makeup around the eye was to give the wearer the ability to see what was hidden. The different colors had different meanings behind them.

Black is to protect against natural dangers. You can see the alit hidden just in the corner of your vision or the nix hound that blends in with the grasses.

Blue is to see the spiritual world. You can see not only those things which have passed on more clearly, but also you can see beyond enchantments and other magics.

Green is for intention. You can tell if someone is being honest with you and what their true feelings are.

Purple is for secrets. It is similar to blue in that you can uncover the hidden. But it focuses more on what is lost knowledge. You can find forgotten objects. You can find the feelings of the other person if they have not yet seen them.

And then there is red. Red is meant to give you the power of all of these together. It is the ultimate ability to see the truth.

Ive been so caught up I have neglected to mention that there are also makeups which are made from plant extracts. These tend to only be available in the Deshaan Plain region where the climate allows for a greater variety of flora and can better support larger lusher plants. Many of our perfume oils also come from the Deshaan area for this reason.

Some of the colors possess poisonous properties and were, though rarely in fashion these days, used to make complex poisonous lipstick to use in assassinations. There were many accidental deaths, so organizations developed a variety of methods to combat an agent having the possibility of poisoning themselves. The most popular method was to have your top and bottom lip utilize different chemical compounds that, while harmless in small quantities on their own, could create a lethal compound when pressed together. As long as your agent made sure to keep their lips slightly parted and to drink with their bottom lip pressed firmly on the outside of any drinking vessel, the dangers were minimal. Some organizations also utilized jeweled skins to cover the bottom lip. These were popular with entertainers of all sorts. A thin layer of butterfly wing, guar intestine, or human skin, would be adhered to the bottom lip and decorated with jewels and various colors. Then, whenever it was time to dispose of your target, you simply slid the decorative barrier away, pressed your lips, then delivered your target their final romance. In my youth such persons were expected to build up a high enough tolerance against whatever compounds they were using that it could not harm them.

Still, it became too obvious a method and many hired assistance who were able to tell apart the two colors, although the difference is very slight. I haven’t heard of an incident in quite some time now.

Plant extracted makeups are notoriously expensive. Perhaps that is really why using them for poisoning fell out of fashion. I couldn’t say.

Plant extracted makeups are only worn by nobility and he most exorbitantly rich merchants. Their cost is far less in Deshaan than outside of it and there are now a few entrepreneurs who will offer to take those from outside of Deshaan on special tours of the best and cheapest locations to purchase makeup in Deshaan. It doesn’t matter much to me, since my home is in Mournhold, but if the war continues to drive up cost of transporting goods, I can certainly see why such a tour might appeal.

The last bit about makeup I should probably speak about is the use of the color red. Red is rare in our makeup, which usually uses cool colors. It is mostly to do with how difficult it is to make. The red makeup is only thought to be effective if it is as bright as fire and as deep as blood. Getting pigments so crimson is no easy task. The makeup is made from a variety of hard to come by and difficult to extract ingredients. It requires the innermost young leaves of the scarlet bromeliad, the pigments of the amanita mushroom, which must be at least 33 years old, the exoskeleton of an albino shalk, and the oils of ancient growth mountain moss and nix hound tallow. Usually if a company is putting together such a refined makeup, they also use imported oils and pigments from Black Marsh to create a most vivid color and something which lasts longer and leaves your skin feeling smooth and moist. The cost of a decent red makeup is equivalent to the annual salary of an ash yam farmer. To wear such finery is to show the world just how important you are.

For a child’s ninth name day, the Temple places a single dot of red upon the child’s lips or at the inner corner of each eye as part of their blessing. For most Dunmer, it is the only time in their lives where they will wear it.

It is said that when the creator of the first red was laid to rest, the Tribunal mourned her passing and her skin turned vermilion as her makeup in reverence for the hard work she had strived for in life.

Makeup is also very important to the Ashlanders, who have their own sacred meanings and rituals to their makeup. I only know a little of their secret recipes and the meanings behind each dot or line they utilize. I think it best to ask Ashlanders personally about their makeup if you want to know more.

[newstfionline]

Turning the Tide Against Cholera

By Donald G. McNeil Jr., NY Times, Feb. 6, 2017

SUNDARBANS NATIONAL PARK, BANGLADESH--Two hundred years ago, the first cholera pandemic emerged from these tiger-infested mangrove swamps.

It began in 1817, after the British East India Company sent thousands of workers deep into the remote Sundarbans, part of the Ganges River Delta, to log the jungles and plant rice. These brackish waters are the cradle of Vibrio cholerae, a bacterium that clings to human intestines and emits a toxin so virulent that the body will pour all of its fluids into the gut to flush it out.

Water loss turns victims ashen; their eyes sink into their sockets, and their blood turns black and congeals in their capillaries. Robbed of electrolytes, their hearts lose their beat. Victims die of shock and organ failure, sometimes in as little as six hours after the first abdominal rumblings.

Cholera probably had festered here for eons. Since that first escape, it has circled the world in seven pandemic cycles that have killed tens of millions.

Artists of the 19th century often depicted it as a skeleton with a scythe and victims heaped at its feet. Outbreaks forced London, New York and other cities to create vast public water systems, transforming civic life.

Today cholera garners panicky headlines when it strikes unexpectedly in places like Ethiopia or Haiti. But it is a continuing threat in nearly 70 countries, where more than one billion people are at risk.

Now, thanks largely to efforts that began in cholera’s birthplace, a way to finally conquer the long-dreaded plague is in sight.

A treatment protocol so effective that it saves 99.9 percent of all victims was pioneered here. The World Health Organization estimates that it has saved about 50 million lives in the past four decades.

Just as important, after 35 years of work, researchers in Bangladesh and elsewhere have developed an effective cholera vaccine. It has been accepted by the W.H.O. and stockpiled for epidemics like the one that struck Haiti in 2010. Soon, there may be enough to begin routine vaccination in countries where the disease has a permanent foothold.

Merely creating that stockpile--even of a few million doses--profoundly improved the way the world fought cholera, Dr. Margaret Chan, secretary general of the W.H.O., said last year. Ready access to the vaccine has made countries less tempted to cover up outbreaks to protect tourism, she said.

That has sped up emergency responses and attracted more vaccine makers, lowering costs. “More cholera vaccines have been deployed over the last two years than in the previous 15 years combined,” Dr. Chan said.

The treatment advances relied heavily on research and testing done at the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, known as the ICDDR,B, in Dhaka.

Although Dhaka may not be the first place one might look to find a public health revolution, the center is famous among experts in gut diseases.

While its upper levels are quiet and scholarly, the center’s ground floor is the world’s largest diarrhea hospital. Its vast wards treat 220,000 patients a year, almost all of whom recover within 36 hours. Doctors there save hundreds of lives a day.

The ICDDR,B was originally the Cholera Research Laboratory, founded in 1960 by the United States as part of that era’s “soft diplomacy.” Research hospitals were built in friendly countries both to save lives locally and to act as sentinels for diseases that might threaten America.

The ICDDR,B wards contain long rows of “cholera cots.” Each has a plastic sheet with a hole in the middle. A bucket beneath the hole catches diarrhea and another is placed next to the cot for vomit. An IV pole completes the setup. Usually, the only patients who stay long in the hospital are malnourished infants.

Defying expectations, the ward smells only of the antiseptic that the floors are constantly mopped with.

Patients with severe watery diarrhea arrive around the clock, many of them carried in--limp, dehydrated and barely conscious--by friends or family. A nurse sees each one immediately, and those close to death get an IV line inserted within 30 seconds.

It contains a blend of glucose, electrolytes and water. Cholera spurs the intestines to violently flush themselves, but it does not actually damage the gut cells. If the fluid is replaced and the bacteria flushed out or killed by antibiotics, the patient is usually fine.

Within hours, patients start to revive. As soon as they can swallow, they get an antibiotic and start drinking a rehydration solution. Most walk out within a day. The techniques perfected here are so effective that the ICDDR,B has sent training teams to 17 cholera outbreaks in the past decade.

Usually, the only patients who stay long in the hospital are infants so malnourished that another bout of diarrhea would kill them. They live for up to a month in a separate ward with their mothers, who are taught how to cook nutritious porridges from the cheapest lentils, squash, onions, greens and oil.

Only about 20 percent of the patients at the center have cholera. The rest usually have rotavirus, salmonella or E. coli. The same therapy saves them all, but the cholera cases are more urgent because these patients plummet so precipitously toward death.

“I thought I was dying,” Mohammed Mubarak, a gaunt 26-year-old printing press worker, said one afternoon from his cot. His roommates had carried him in at 7 that morning, unconscious and with no detectable pulse.

Now, after six liters of intravenous solution, he was still weak but able to sit up and drink the rehydration solution and eat bits of bread and banana.

Mr. Mubarak had first fallen ill at about 2 a.m., a few hours after he drank tap water with his dinner. “Usually I drink safe water, filtered water,” he explained. “But I drank the city water last night. I think that is what did this.”

Cholera, born in the swamps, arrived long ago in Dhaka. The city is home to more than 15 million, and a third of the population lives in slums. In some places, water pipes made of rubbery plastic are pierced by illegal connections that suck in sewage from the gutters they traverse and carry pathogens down the line to new victims, like Mr. Mubarak.

Vibrio cholerae travels from person to person via fecal matter. In 1854, the epidemiologist John Snow famously traced cases to a single well dug near a cesspit in which a mother had washed the diaper of a baby who died of cholera and convinced officials to remove the well’s pump handle.

Because cholera is a constant threat to hundreds of millions of people lacking safe drinking water in China, India, Nigeria and many other countries, scientists have long sought a more powerful weapon: a cheap, effective vaccine.

Now they have one.

Injected cholera vaccines were first invented in the 1800s and were long required for entry into some countries. But many scientists suspected they did not work, and in the 1970s studies overseen by the ICDDR,B confirmed that.

In the 1980s, a Swedish scientist, Dr. Jan Holmgren, invented an oral vaccine that worked an impressive 85 percent of the time. But it was expensive to make and had to be drunk with a large glass of buffer solution to protect it from stomach acid.

Transporting tanks of buffer was impractical. Making matters worse, it was fizzy, and poor Bangladeshi children who had never tasted soft drinks would spit it out as soon as it tickled their noses.

In 1986, a Vietnamese scientist, Dr. Dang Duc Trach, asked for the formula, believing he could make a bufferless version. Dr. Holmgren and Dr. John D. Clemens, an American vaccine expert who at the time was a research scientist for the ICDDR,B, obliged.

“This isn’t an elegant vaccine--it’s just a bunch of killed cells, technology that’s been around since Louis Pasteur,” said Dr. Clemens, who is now the ICDDR,B’s executive director.

He and Dr. Holmgren lost touch with Dr. Dang, largely because of Vietnam’s isolation in those days. But seven years later, Dr. Dang notified them that he had made a new version of the vaccine. He had tested it on 70,000 residents of Hue, in central Vietnam, and had found it to be 60 percent effective.

Although his was not as effective as Dr. Holmgren’s, it cost only 25 cents a dose. If enough people in an area can be made immune through vaccination, outbreaks often stop spontaneously.

In 1997, Vietnam became the first--and thus far, only--country to provide cholera vaccine to its citizens routinely, not just in emergencies. Cases dropped sharply, according to a 2014 study, and in 2003 cholera vanished from Hue, where the campaign focused most heavily.

But Dr. Dang had not conducted a classic clinical trial, and Vietnam’s vaccine factory did not meet W.H.O. standards, so no United Nations agency was allowed to buy his vaccine.

Because no pharmaceutical company had an incentive to pay for trials or factories, his invention languished in “the valley of death”--the expensive gap between a product that works in a lab and a factory-made version safe for millions.

In 1999, Dr. Clemens approached what is now the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which was just getting organized.

“They were literally operating out of a basement then,” he said. “I got a letter from Bill Gates Sr. It was very relaxed, sort of, ‘Here’s $40 million. Would you mind sending me a report once in a while?’

“But without that,” Dr. Clemens continued, “this wouldn’t have seen the light of day.”

With that money, Dr. Clemens reformulated Dr. Dang’s vaccine, conducted a successful clinical trial in Calcutta and found an Indian company, Shantha Biotechnics, that could make it to W.H.O. standards.

Rolled out in 2009 under the name Shanchol, it came in a vial about the size of a chess rook, needed no buffer and cost less than $2 a dose. Even so, there was little interest, even from the W.H.O.

The vaccine lacked the publicity campaign that pharmaceutical companies throw behind commercial products, and “cholera ward care” was saving many lives--when it could be organized. The new vaccine was not used in a cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe in 2009, or initially in Haiti’s explosive outbreak in 2010.

The “valley of death” lengthened: Without customers, Shantha could not afford to build a bigger factory. The impasse was broken only when Dr. Paul Farmer, a founder of Partners in Health, which has worked in central Haiti since 1987, began publicly berating the W.H.O. for not moving faster.

The agency approved Shanchol in 2011, and since then, the vaccine has slowly gained acceptance. In 2013, an emergency stockpile was started, and the GAVI Alliance committed $115 million to raise it to six million doses.

The vaccine is now used in Haiti, and has been deployed in outbreaks in Iraq, South Sudan and elsewhere. A second version, Euvichol, from South Korea, was approved in 2015.

And later this year, Bangladesh--where it all began--hopes to begin wiping out its persistent cholera. A local company has begun making a domestic version of the vaccine, called Vaxchol. Dr. Firdausi Qadri, a leading ICDDR,B researcher, estimated last year that success there would require almost 200 million doses.

The world finally has a vaccine that, with routine administration, could end one of history’s great scourges. But what will happen is still hazy.

With 1.4 billion people at risk, the potential cost of vaccination in cholera-endemic countries is enormous. And the disease tends to move, surging and vanishing among the many causes of diarrhea.