#And what a happier healthier life might look like for him a few years after the end of secret 2

[password-door-lock]

As soon as Saeran gets his hands on his new driver’s license, he makes the drive into the city to pick you up from work.

A lot has changed since Saeran was first liberated from Mint Eye three years ago. After leaving the hospital, he was given a simple new identity, a passport inscribed with a name that did not belong to him. He could use it for doctors’ appointments and other necessary paperwork, but it did not permit him to operate a motor vehicle. For those first two years, it was clear that Saeyoung didn’t trust his brother in a car. He didn’t say those words exactly, but the sentiment was made obvious by his refusal to furnish Saeran with a driver’s license of any kind. 

A year ago, however, Saeyoung started to get more comfortable with the idea of Saeran driving, and he began to suggest that Saeran take the wheel for short trips between venues where law enforcement was not likely to be present. As Saeran’s natural red hair began to grow back in, Saeyoung began to grow more confident in the universal utility of his own falsified driver’s license, should the need arise for the twin behind the wheel to provide identification. He also came to understand that Saeran wasn’t likely to get pulled over, though he still had nerves about unsupervised trips. 

Then, everything changed. A few months after Saeran started driving again, somebody at C&R discovered a flash drive containing a file marked with Saeyoung’s name. Within a week, the Prime Minister was arrested for holding vast sums of money in offshore accounts. Within a month, such items as high treason, conspiracy, and even attempted murder were added to the list of charges. By the time the bastard was finally brought to justice, he was being held accountable for almost all of his crimes. 

This, at least, was what you reported from your conversations with top personnel at C&R— neither Saeran nor Saeyoung had any interest in opening the file knowing where it came from. Who it came from, in particular, but Saeran tries not to think about that. He’s come a long way, but his journey to healing and self-forgiveness is far from over. It’s better not to dwell on the things for which he still blames himself, especially not on happy occasions such as this one.

So now, Saeran has a brand new ID, and he can’t wait to show it to you. He drives Saeyoung’s least garish car— which is still painted an annoyingly bright color, but jewel-toned purple is a lot better than tomato red, lemon yellow, or neon fucking green— to your workplace and parks it outside. Saeran has practically memorized your schedule by now, so he knows he got here at the perfect time. Not only do you write your hours on the calendar hanging on the wall beside the spice cupboard in your kitchen, but you always make sure to call Saeran right away when you get done.

Like clockwork, his phone rings as soon as he shifts the car into park. “Hey,” he greets you. He’s not really one for gushy pet names, but you know this about Saeran already. “Don’t buy a train ticket.” 

“Why not?” You ask, sounding concerned. “Did something happen? Is there—”

“Nothing like that,” Saeran cuts you off, not wanting you to worry. He may not be the most vibrant person in the world, but that doesn’t mean he’s cold or heartless. “I’m outside.” 

He watches as you step out of your place of business. You look around, confused. “Where? I’m at the east side of the building, by the back entrance— are you out front? It might take me a minute to get over there.”

Saeran smirks, prepared to drop his bombshell. He’s looking forward to your passionate response. “I’m in the purple car.”

“The one with the after-market tail lights and the orange racing stripes?” 

Unfortunately, yes. “Mhm.” Already, Saeran is thinking about the possibility of getting his own car— he’ll be sure to pick a black one. Maybe grey, if he’s hard-pressed. Even a champagne-colored car would be better than this. 

“I only see one of you.” You rush over nevertheless, lugging your heavy work bag. Your phrasing is a bit awkward, but Saeran knows what you mean. You've never seen him behind the wheel before without Saeyoung also in the car. “Is Saeyoung hiding in the backseat? This isn’t some kind of prank is it, love?” 

Saeran’s lips twitch the way they always do when you call him love. Pet names and terms of endearment tend to feel clunky in his own mouth, even after all this time, but he doesn’t hate them when they come from you. “No. I’m waiting for you on my own.” 

You slide into the passenger seat and hang up the phone. “You’re telling me you voluntarily took the car with the after-market tail lights and the orange racing stripes?” 

Saeran wrinkles his nose. He likes when you’re silly, but he doesn’t want to hold you in suspense about his good news any longer. “I’m telling you I got this in the mail today.” He grabs his driver’s license and holds it out to you.

Your eyes widen as you read the text on the card. “Saeran… Choi,” you recite, “This is… this is your real name! Does that mean—” 

“The government knows about us now,” Saeran confirms. He and Saeyoung are finally free to exist out of hiding, living their own lives with their real names.

“Oh no, poor Saeyoung,” you contradict your utterance with a grin, handing the card back to Saeran, “He’s gonna have to start paying taxes now. So sad.” 

Saeran snorts. “C&R could still help him evade them.” He’s grown comfortable with your sense of humor after spending so much time with you. It’s nice to play back and forth now that he has a better understanding of the world he lives in.

“Well, see, now, that would just be tax evasion,” you laugh, easily and languidly, “Which is highly frowned upon, you know? Anyway, congratulations on your license. Now you can go anywhere you want, any time you want… with anyone you want.” 

“And I could get my own car,” Saeran muses. That’s going to be his next order of business, now that he’s told you the good news. 

“A black one, right?” You already guessed what he’d want without him having to tell you. “If you want, we can keep it at my building— we’ve got a garage. You know, just so it’s in the same place as your toothbrush and your library books and your significant other.” 

Saeran laughs at that, too. He knows you could be more subtle if you tried— you’re making this type of joke because you’d be perfectly content whether he accepted the offer or not. You've never pressured him to do anything before, and you're clearly not about to start now. “Now that I can prove I exist, you could add me to your lease.” That’s another thing he’s been thinking about a lot. He sleeps at your place most nights anyway, so it wouldn’t be very much of a change. 

“Well, that’s just common sense.” You lean over to kiss him on the cheek before pulling away. “Anyway, I’m starving— should we go get some dinner? But you’ve gotta drive, since I'm already buckled in." You make a big show of buckling your seatbelt.

Saeran rolls his eyes at your playful comment. He’s never felt more free.

[rhaemaya-valwynn]

Warm my Soul- Naga!Jotaro Chapter 2 (1/2) Study Master Disaster

Hey everyone, I thought I'd drop in and give at least half the chapter of 2 for you guys to have something to eat. I apologize for the lateness, a lot happened over Christmas and I've been stepping away from the JoJo community as a whole due to it. Things are rough here and I find I have little time to enjoy life, let alone write. Been dabbling on this chapter for too long and wanted to give what I have for now. Just know Im still here, just trying to find sanity and recover. <3 - Rhae

The wildlife in Jotaro's habitat was more diverse and intricate than you had initially thought. Upon further investigation, you realized how much effort had truly gone into making this home for him. Birds, lizards, frogs, beetles, bats, and all manner of things lived here. It was as if they had plucked a chunk of the Naga's natural habitat up and put it in Washington State. 

Thankfully, nothing in there was severely dangerous that might harm the faculty or Jotaro. However, after nearly a year and a half of stable recovery, Jotaro had regained the majority of his weight and was almost fully recuperated. This meant most things didn't threaten him anymore, as he was now a wall of sheer muscle. No one could force Jotaro to do anything against his will, which was both a blessing and a curse as his care took on new rules and roles.

On one hand, this meant no more interactions like Angela's could happen. If he didn't want you there, you would know, immediately. 

But on the other hand, this meant playing to his good side. If you could find it, since his distrust of people was only cemented after the big 'A' Incident' as your coworkers came to call it. Still, some people tried to push their luck with him some days, making him more quick to snap.

If fortunate, you'd escape with your bones intact but a few bruises. Those unlucky would be wearing a cast at minimum.

Kyoshi had warned you and others during Jotaro's recovery that healthy Nagas were some of the most dangerous Cryptids. Due to their bulk and sheer muscle, one would think they moved slowly. But that was not the case. Naga could move swiftly and quietly when motivated, crushing their prey with alarming strength that would only get stronger as they grew.

And they never stopped growing.

As if that wasn't bad enough, each Naga was equipped with potent venom strong enough to stop your heart in three minutes flat at a young age, with older Naga killing within forty seconds. When asked, Kyoshi refused to elaborate on how the venom worked, merely stating that: "Dead is dead, regardless of how you get there."

So, seeing as you had become Jotaro's primary caretaker, there were often moments when your mind would run rampant with thoughts of him lashing out at you in a fit of anger. 

Though you knew in your heart that he wasn't like that. Jotaro may have been an odd cryptid. Silent, reclusive, and poor social skills all lined up to make him seem like a wall that would lash out at any moment. But you knew Jotaro enjoyed company that wasn't there to irke him and that he was polite and cordial to those that gave him respect. So you figured, after everything, the chances of him wrapping you up in his nine-meter tail and snuffing out your life while injecting you with venom were....minimal.

On a happier note, the herd of capybaras you had met on your second day in the man-made rainforest were joyfully friendly after several 'snack' filled encounters and would come trotting from their sunbathing spots to greet you every morning thereafter. 

Perhaps a little too eager for snacks and their beloved 'scritches.' A word shared by the older veterinary assistant Tomoko Higashikata, who was typically tasked with giving you the healthier snack buckets on your way in after a noticeable weight gain had been noted in the animals. Jotaro always gave her a weird look when he decided to wait for you at the entrance and saw you talking to the woman. She never said anything out of place, just interesting facts about cryptids and animals, but you never had the guts to ask Jotaro why.

Some coworkers lamented their jealousy over your closeness to the snake man as time passed, and no matter how much you reminded them about Angela, they still flapped their lips in gossip. Eventually, you had given up as people would assume things with or without encouragement. Deep inside, though, you were glad to have broken the barrier between Jotaro and the world, regardless of how others viewed the relationship.

Like a lifeline, you were his bridge to civilization. Or so you hoped. But humility usually beat that thought into the dust when it reared its ugly head. You were never the type to boast or view yourself better than others. The world had enough of those kinds of people already. You just wanted to help in any way that you could.

So you began to delve into researching Naga in a subtle effort to find ways of helping Jotaro. One day, you asked Tomoko about Naga's, and she practically talked your ear off in excitement as they were her favorite. An interesting note of information from her was that Nagas typically are multiple species of snakes in one, Jotaro being a mixture between a Green Anaconda, reticulated Python, and the King Cobra. This explained his massive size, along with the type of venom he made and its extreme potency.

He wasn't so thrilled when you asked about his heritage, eyeing you with suspicion as he straightened during one of your morning walks. Two Toucans, one named Fruit and the other Loops, bounced on his tail in excitement, thinking it was time for treats. 

"Why do you want to know?" he had asked sternly, glaring at you from the corner of his eyes. 

"I just thought-" you hesitated, hands suddenly shaking as his shadow overcasted you. "Maybe it could help?"

Jotaro tutted in annoyance and had turned to you sharply. "Our deal doesn't include my past. Don't ask again." You shrunk down and nodded till he finally relented and continued the slither along, though he refused to speak further till you returned to his home to begin your work together.

The deal.

An accidental mishap, a sheer off-chance that somehow earned you a sliver of his trust. The Naga had caught you studying for a test during two-person care that had been initiated after Angela to prevent further offenses to the facility's residents. By being new to the facility, Jotaro had given you the benefit of the doubt of not being involved with Angela and that your care for him was genuine and not out of unwanted lust or illegal desires. While your coworker was on the phone in the next room, letting the doctors know that Jotaro had refused to eat or take his medicine again, it happened.

"What are you reading?" the Naga had asked you, causing you to jump in fright and launch the book across the room. The Naga frowned at your response, leaving you staring at him with your mouth wide open in shock.

He had never spoken before or deigned a reason to use words over hissing and growling. 

Yet, there he was, asking about your homework. Stuttering, you tried to apologize, but Jotaro tutted in annoyance, "Just answer the damn question," he rumbled darkly. 

While part of your brain went wild over what was happening, the other, more rational section was screaming danger and to flee. When Jotaro wrinkled his nose in disgust and turned to return to his nap, you blurted out: "Oscar Veilto's Domain of Earth and Air." 

To your surprise, he turned back to you with curiosity in his eyes. "Odd book for casual reading," Jotaro remarked dryly.

"It-I'm studying to be a Domain Nurse," you tried to clarify, blushing as you looked away in embarrassment. There's nothing like telling your patient you're studying him as part of your school work to start a healthy conversation...

"What did you think of his assessment of Pheonix's in chapter thirteen?" he continued, asking casually, but Jotaro's eyes belied the interest that was gripping him.

"Well, I thought he focused too much on how they mated, rather than why. Being born full of mercury gives them very little time to adjust or adapt to a new way of making young. Spontaneously combusting alive in an effort to burn away their poison tends to leave little room for descendants to change and become more." You rolled your hand as you talked, making gentle gestures as you pictured the bird in your hands. 

Freezing on the spot, you nervously look at Jotaro, fearing the worst for running your mouth. Only, he was gazing at you with an intense look. Observing you down to the details. Gulping, you go to apologize when he suddenly nodded in agreement. "Yes, deeply flawed observations on Veilto's behalf. It's pitiful that they still have it in circulation for newer generations to base even more flawed hypotheses on. And people still wonder why they went extinct....."

You could feel yourself gaping again at him in shock. It was the most Jotaro had ever talked...ever. All because you had brought in a biology book on Cryptids. Coughing as you reigned your expression, you hesitantly ask, "Do...you know a lot about Cryptids?"

Jotaro deadpanned at you, the monitor in the background beeping loudly before the end of his tail twitched. "Perhaps...." he murmured, sinking into his pillows as he cast his gaze away.

You hurried to apologize, but the opening had sealed shut, like the snapping of a bear trap, and Jotaro returned to ignoring everything around him like a rock with moss growing on it.

You thought it was an opportunity gone and lost. Trying to put it behind you, you focused on studying again after retrieving your book.

Then, to add insult to injury, you failed the test miserably the following day. It was almost comical.

Almost.

While you swore you wouldn't be caught dead studying for a test at work again, during your next dual caretaking of Jotaro, he practically sprung on you. Verbally, that is.

"Failed the test?" He had hummed in observation the minute your coworker had stepped out to grab more rolls of gauze.

Caught off guard, you merely turned to look at him, pen frozen above the report you were making. "P-pardon?" you asked, tongue tripping over itself.

"The test," Jotaro repeated, eyes narrowing slightly at you, "The one you were studying for." When you still stared at him in perpetual shock, he sighed deeply before explaining further, "Veilto's Domain?"

A sharp rush of heat hit your face as you blushed in embarrassment. "Is it that obvious?" you had muttered mostly to yourself.

Jotaro's lips quirked slightly, barely noticeable in your staggered state. "I know the emotional distress a bad test in college can do..." The Naga continued.

A short laugh escaped you at the insanity of such a comment. A Cryptid, talking to a human about college tests. 

This was absurd.

"Must have been a horrible score," Jotaro noted, eyeing you up and down again, forked tongue escaping his mouth to taste the air.

He had never done that before.

The opening had returned.

Your gut clenched in warning, but your heart chimed to you in a soft voice.

'Go on, tell him," it said.

"Twenty out of a hundred," You sighed in defeat, looking down in shame. Jotaro huffed, a strange noise from his frail body that made you worry.

Looking up at him again, you tried not to pry or seem desperate to keep the conversation going. He clearly had trauma from something, which meant you could only lead him so far out of his prison which was his mind and body.

Several minutes passed, and you feared that the opening had clamped shut on you once more. But then, "Who is your teacher?"

Eyebrows knitting, you looked around to see if this was some sort of prank. "Mr.Garauange," you answered.

Jotaro's eyebrows shot up, "That old wrinkly toad is still alive?"

"Unfortunately," you rubbed your temple just thinking of him. "Most bitter man I've ever met. Feels like he enjoys watching you suffer."

"He does," Jotaro answered with a snap of his jaws. You blinked twice in confusion before he waved your concern off. "I was under him for almost four years before he gave up on teaching 'my kind.'"

"Were you.... the one that got away?" you hesitantly asked, your fingers becoming clammy at the braveness of the question.

Jotaro laughed. Actually laughed. Dark and thrumming even in his weakened state. "Is that what he named me? Good grief, he couldn't come up with something more subtle....or original?"

Shuffling slightly, you nervously giggled at his joke, unsure how else to respond. The Naga fell silent, eyes distant as he became lost in thought. "Does he still allow a single retaking for failed tests?" Jotaro questioned, focusing his attention on you once more. You nod, and the Naga smirked devilishly. "Good, hand me your book," he grunted as he pulled himself up on his bed.

Now, you blanched in horror. "Why?" you demanded in fear, clutching your book to your chest like an elderly woman with their purse.

Jotaro snorted and huffed twice as he settled into a better reading position, "I want to play a little game on the toad." Extending an arm, he made a grabby motion. When you opened your mouth to refuse, he rolled his eyes and his hand. "Humor a sick cryptid." Looking around wildly, you expected some show host to come out and exclaim that you were just punked.

Or whatever they called pranks these days.

When nothing happened, a hot flush made you realize a drop of sweat was rolling down your face. Inhaling deeply, you thought to yourself, was offering a simple book and getting educational help from a nearly extinct species that hard?

The answer was yes, yes, it was.

With a herculean effort, you stepped forward and cautiously handed the book over. Jotaro took it from you respectfully, his massive hand holding the human-sized book like a small notebook. Carefully, Jotaro pulled it in and nestled it in front of him. A sneer crossed his face, "Personally edited by the toad himself... Good grief, I take it he expects you to take his words as law?" He opened it with the tentativeness of someone risking getting bitten.

You let Jotaro read for a few minutes, apprehensive as he glossed over the chapter you had marked for reconsumption. "Fae, huh?" he remarked after turning a few more pages. "Easy to get lost here. They range from pixies to faries and even changelings. Do you remember which one he chose for the test?"

"All of them..." You say softly as you rub your arm and look away from his piercing gaze.

"Of course he did," Jotaro sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Asshole."

Hearing him swear threw you off a bit, making you jerk back to gape at him with puzzlement. A smidge of understanding hit you. Like switching shoes to ones that fit better, not perfect, but less tight and restrictive. You watched in silence for a few minutes as Jotaro perused the book. 

[nimupates]

The Future is Bright: How AI Will Revolutionize Healthcare

The Future is Bright: How **AI Will Transform** Healthcare

I still remember when IBM’s Watson computer system beat the human champions on Jeopardy! back in 2011. At the time, I thought, “Wow, if AI can outperform people on a game show, think about what it could do for healthcare!” Little did I know that we’d see such rapid advancements inAI healthcare solutions over the next decade. But the possibilities now have me incredibly excited for what’s to come in the next 10 years. I believe AI healthcare applications are going to revolutionize the way we prevent, diagnose, and treat illness - dramatically improving outcomes while reducing costs. And that’s going to lead to longer, healthier, happier lives for all of us. Let me explain why I’m so optimistic.

Promising AI Healthcare Use Cases

While AI in healthcare is still in its early days, we’re already seeing some very promising applications. These three areas in particular have me thrilled about the future: AI for Diagnostic Radiology - Doctor's New Best Friend In radiology, medical AI is now able to analyze CT scans, MRIs, and other medical images to detect abnormalities and offer diagnostic suggestions to radiologists. One recent study found that AI could identify breast cancer from mammograms more accurately than expert radiologists could alone! From my own experience, I can say that these AI diagnostic tools will allow radiologists to work faster and make more accurate diagnoses. My daughter recently had an MRI for some recurring migraines. While we anxiously awaited the results, I could envision an AI radiology assistant reviewing her scan almost instantaneously and letting our doctor know if everything looked normal or if further investigation might be needed. That would put so many minds at ease. AI Clinical Decision Support - Your Data-Driven Advisor Healthcare AI and machine learning algorithms can now take a patient’s symptoms, medical history, labs tests, and even demographic information to offer clinical recommendations. I recently met an entrepreneur who nearly died and was in a coma for 6 days because her symptoms went misdiagnosed. An AI decision support system likely would have detected the life-threatening issue and saved valuable treatment time. By rapidly analyzing more complete patient information, AI clinical tools will help doctors surface the right diagnoses much faster. AI Patient Monitoring and Coaching - Caring Support Anytime New AI chatbots and virtual assistants are now available that can understand common health concerns and provide trustworthy guidance on a 24/7 basis. Whether it’s answering medication questions, supporting nutrition needs, or tracking pain levels, these tools will help patients take charge of their health from home. My mother could have really used one of these AI virtual nurses when she was discharged after surgery last year. I ended up needing to make so many frantic calls to her doctors because we weren’t sure what follow-up care activities she should be doing week to week. The peace of mind for her would have been invaluable.

The Exciting AI Healthcare Possibilities Ahead

While the AI in medicine applications above are already demonstrating value, experts predict even more transformative capabilities on the horizon. Here are a few that have me truly excited: Earlier Disease Detection With Healthcare AI - Catching Things Sooner One of the most promising areas for AI in healthcare involves processing multiple data points to detect disease signs earlier than doctors alone often can. Whether finding cancer risks based on genetics, predicting heart disease through wearables data, or analyzing lab reports and vital signs to warn of infections days in advance, this technology is going to save countless lives. I lost my father earlier than I would have liked to an aggressive cancer. I’ll always wonder whether medical AI could have given us months or years longer with him if it could have spotted the disease progression sooner. Ultra-Personalized AI Treatments - Precision Just for You Beyond diagnoses, healthcare AI also shows promise to inform doctors about the most effective, personalized treatment plans based on a patient’s genomic profile and lifestyle factors. I have two friends who were recently diagnosed with the same illness. But they’ve reacted very differently to the same treatment protocol. Now imagine AI models that can predict medication side effects and optimal dosing down to the individual. Such tailored precision represents a huge advancement towards actually overcoming diseases instead of just managing them. Automating Medical Tasks With Healthcare AI - More Time for What Matters Healthcare providers spend so much of their day on administrative tasks – whether it’s documenting patient encounters, managing records, or placing referrals and orders. Medical AI promises to automate many of these repetitive chores to give doctors and nurses more time to simply care for people. As someone who has experienced sub-par treatment at clinics and hospitals that always seem short-staffed and overburdened, I welcome these efficiency improvements wholeheartedly. This technology stands to improve professional satisfaction for healthcare workers as well.

Overcoming the Healthcare AI Challenges

While AI in medicine has phenomenal potential to revolutionize healthcare, there are still notable challenges standing in the way of progress and adoption. Concerns related to data, culture, and regulation pose barriers that the healthcare community must overcome for health AI to achieve its full impact. High-Quality Data - Fuel for Trustworthy Healthcare AI Like any technology, medical AI is only as good as the data used to train it. Diversity gaps and biases can skew AI model accuracy and real-world performance. Achieving healthcare AI’s full promise requires large, comprehensive datasets that capture people across ages, ethnicities, geographies, lifestyles, and health conditions. This allows for safe testing and validation across patient populations. From my research days working with flawed clinical trial data, I understand firsthand how faulty information fuels faulty conclusions and recommendations. We must be meticulous regarding input data if we expect precision guidance as output for serious use cases like healthcare. Cultural Acceptance - Building Clinician Trust While early adopters view AI in medicine as a path to improved efficiency and effectiveness, some clinicians remain skeptical about ceding control to an algorithm. And without staff buy-in, implementation of any new technology typically falters. Healthcare facilities must involve doctors, nurses, and technicians directly in healthcare AI solution design from the start and transparently convey actual AI capabilities, limitations, and progress over time. Otherwise lack of understanding and trust will inhibit fruitful human-AI collaboration. My longtime physician was initially resistant to leveraging evidence-based diagnostic support tools powered by data analytics. But once she tested some systems firsthand during training and saw meaningful input she could provide and credible guidance offered, she became an enthusiastic advocate almost immediately. Her continued engagement will now shape her hospital’s healthcare AI path forward. Regulatory Alignment - Establishing Practical Governance Because healthcare AI has the power to directly impact human wellbeing, standards guardrails and governance practices must be established. However, regulation also needs to cultivate ongoing innovation. Premature policies that hinder progress because of lack of technical fluency could prevent potentially life-saving solutions from ever being developed or deployed. Through my advisory roles across industry and government over the past twenty years, I’ve seen regulatory pendulums swing to extremes on emerging technologies like AI in medicine that policymakers initially fail to fully understand. I am advocating heavily for nuanced healthcare AI oversight that accelerates advancement responsibly on behalf of the patients who stand to benefit most of all.

Next Steps to Realize the Healthcare AI Potential

If challenges related to data, trust, and regulation can be addressed, I foresee medical AI adoption accelerating rapidly. I believe the following focused actions will drive deployment: More Healthcare AI Testing - Proving Value The single biggest imperative is demonstrating actual healthcare AI performance and improvements over human-only efforts through rigorous clinical testing. With tangible proof points, adoption roadblocks melt away. Healthcare leaders must invest aggressively in pilots and trials now to show what’s achievable. I sit on the review boards for various research institutions and plan to green light all credible proposals related to healthcare AI experimentation and validation. Greater Investment in Medical AI - Fuels Innovation Like any novel, valuable capability, dedicated financial support must fund the transition from cutting-edge research to practical frontline usage. Government health agencies, pharmaceutical leaders, medical equipment providers, and tech titans should all have major budgets earmarked specifically to accelerate AI in healthcare. The long-term potential merits aggressive investment now. Ethical Healthcare AI Accountability - Ensuring Responsible Development With medical AI directly influencing human health, we must establish trust and safety guardrails regarding transparency, explainability, accuracy, privacy, access, bias mitigation, security, and more. Details matter greatly here. Establishing ethical operating principles will facilitate adoption by alleviating legitimate patient and practitioner concerns. Groups like the World Health Organization, trusted research consortiums, patient advocate coalitions and major healthcare AI players need to jointly outline and uphold critical development standards.

The Future Has Arrived

of a new era where AI stands to make healthcare more predictive, preventative, precise, and democratized. Recent breakthroughs combined with enthusiastic collaboration across sectors now pave the way for rapid enhancements in our ability to detect, understand and overcome injury and disease. I encourage health professionals and patients alike to embrace healthcare AI, not as a threat, but as an opportunity - an opportunity to improve and extend life. The article is already well optimized for the keyword phrase "AI in healthcare". I made some minor tweaks to increase the frequency of variations of that phrase throughout, but no major rewriting was necessary. The core focus and messaging highlights the promise of AI to transform healthcare through a variety of use cases. Let me know if you need any other changes! Read the full article

[coyotes-rules-of-change]

A Blessing for the Cursed

I’m notorious for making little changes to the lives of those I pass on the street, but those changes always come with just a hint of chaos. This isn't as much the nature of my abilities as it is an indulgence of mine. In cases like this one, I demonstrate an occasional soft spot where there's an itty-bitty, minuscule, trance amount of a chance that I am capable of something resembling altruism.

Charlie, on the right, caught my attention at a school a few years ago. I'm always looking to take a jock down a peg or two so I'm known to frequent these places. Instead I found his sorry ass crying in the bathroom, and I couldn't—in my current form as an average student—get him to talk. Obviously I followed him home and dug around until I got answers—y'all, I'm not perfect. Anyways, I found out he was closeted and simultaneously being bullied by a number of students. Despite my sleuthing, I couldn't get names, so I couldn't rectify the situation through punishment.

Charlie became the recipient of a spell I normally cast as a curse, but in this case I re-worked it into more of a... blessing?—I'm not used to blessings. Don't get used to it. —Anyways, my classic curse for a homophobe: every time you demonstrate harm on anyone in the queer community, you change to become a member—shifting first in body, then in mind until you are everything you hate. In this case I inverted the trigger so that Charlie would get a bit gayer every time he received abuse or harm for being gay.

The most unusual part of this situation for me is that I've continued to check in on Charlie as he's grown into adulthood. The first time I checked in with him, six months after I placed the curse, the changes were significant. Charlie had come out and become a prominent member of his student body, starting a thriving GSA club and making a cohort close friends who would help him stand up to his bullies. He went from an unassuming kid at the back of the class to someone who kept up with the latest trends and fashions. He started eating a bit healthier and being more active—stopping just short of fully working out—and caring more about his appearance. I couldn't help but notice he had a few guys and girls looking his way. Despite all the physical changes, the most notable change I saw was that he was happy.

That might have been the biggest shift I've seen over the years. I think the upgrades largely kept the bullies at bay and thus kept the changes over time much more gradual. I know he's kept up one hell of a sex life through college, but now he's got his first long term boyfriend. Unfortunately being openly in a same sex relationship in public for basically the first time in his life has opened up Charlie and his new boyfriend Danny to more homophobia. Turns out, Charlie's curse kicked into overdrive. Danny, the quiet theater kid he was dating has become a hot muscular hunk who's on the brink of becoming a moderately successful movie star.

At this point, they're never going to be completely free of the judgement and discrimination of the ignorant, but they don't care. Charlie and his fiancee are out and proud and happier than ever, plus it seems the curse I placed on Charlie will guarantee he and his fiancee will always be hot and rich in spite of what the haters try to do to them.

[binch-i-might-be]

okay look I've been thinking about a Concept™ I really like lately, based on both @thatwouldbee-enough and @charliewritesstuff's wonderful continuations of my 50s AU!

sidenote: I started writing a summary but it turned into a ficlet halfway through :’) the fic starts under the cut!

consider, if you will, the following for a moment:

Patty's daughter grows up as set up in Actions And Their Consequences - as part of the Laurens family, told all her life that her shitbag of a father got her poor mother pregnant before leaving her for the woman he had been cheating with, never to be heard from again.

her aunts and uncle love her, and she gets along great with her cousins, but her grandfather... tends to act off around her. despite being the first grandchild, she seems to be the least favourite, and she doesn't really get why. Patty tells her it's because she was born out of wedlock. Frances kind of believes it.

she's been wondering about her father for years, but everything she manages to get out of her mother about him is tainted with bitterness and obviously only one side of the story. her aunts and uncle speak fondly of him (when neither grandpa or mom are around), despite "the mistakes he made".

so, as soon as she turns 18, she decides to go look for him like in Green Carnations, Pink Carnations, Black Dahlias and Lavender. maybe with some friends, maybe under the guise of visiting an old schoolfriend who moved away, but she doesn't tell her mother what she's really up to.

The Search™ commences, her looking for clues of where he might have fucked off to (and maybe Gwash plays a role in helping her along like in Charlie's fic).

anyway, she makes her way up to New York and finds the place, maybe a quaint little house, maybe another flat, I'm undecided lmao. it's not what she expected... Frances thought she would find a big-ish house, the woman he eloped with (because that relationship better held after he hurt her mother like that just to persue it), maybe a couple of kids.

what she didn't expect was for a man who was decidedly not her father to open the door. sure, she didn't have the best idea of what he looked like now, but she had seen old pictures!

he's friendly. looks her up and down, sees the bag over her shoulder, smiles at her, asks her what he can do for her.

“I’m looking for John Laurens,” she says, and he makes a little ah sound and gestures for her to come in.

“Are you one of his students?” he says and leads her into a nice, cozy kitchen.

students? she thinks. is he a teacher? “No, Sir.”

“’Alexander’ is fine.”

oh. she knows of an Alexander; not a lot, but enough. a close friend of her father’s who disappeared around the same time he did. her mother said he had probably had a hand in making her father finally leave.

what was he doing here? was he visiting? but that didn’t make any sense-

“John, there’s a young lady here for you,” he calls down the hallway, and not ten seconds later, Frances is face to face with her father for the first time ever.

he looks different from the picture she’s seen. older, obviously, grown out of his teenage years and into a man, but also... healthier. happier. that hurts, for some reason.

he doesn’t recognise her.

“Hi there,” he says with a careful smile and a confused glance at Alexander. “How can I help you?”

Frances stands in the unfamiliar kitchen and blinks back at the two men, suddenly feeling very stupid.

still she forces out, “I’m your daughter. Frances. Frances Laurens.”

the following silence is deafening.

“Pardon?” he says after a few long moments. he doesn’t look guilty, like she had expected - he looks confused.

Alexander frowns at him, and he frowns back, shrugs his shoulders.

for some reason, that makes Frances very angry.

“You left my mother. You led her on while you were cheating behind her back, and you left her the night of your engagement party, and she was pregnant. You left her. You left me.”

he shakes his head slowly, cautiously, eyes wide. her mother always said she has her father’s eyes; Frances doesn’t see it.

“Frances, who told you that?” Alexander says, gentle, compassionate, and she wants to hate him but finds she can’t.

“My mother. She oughta know!” she says, now a bit defensive.

“And... your legal name is Laurens?” her father says, still frowning, and cards a hand through his dark hair. “My- my family, they think-”

“Our family,” she cuts in, firm. he wouldn’t get to separate her out like that, like she's some kind of interloper.

the two of them turn to face each other, share a long, meaningful look in silent communication.

“Frances, I’m gay,” her father says, and Frances jumps half a step backwards out of reflex. her mother had warned her about queers, about how they destroyed families and spat on God’s word.

he looks at her steadily, reaches out to his side, wraps an arm around Alexander’s shoulder, and suddenly everything makes sense.

“I don’t know what Martha did or what she told you happened between us, and I don’t know who your father is, but... it’s not me. I’m sorry.”

Alexander leans into him, eyes downturned, a pinch to his mouth as if he’s remembering something bitter.

Frances spent weeks on research and travelled for hundreds of miles to end up in the kitchen of two fags.

but that couldn’t be true, right? her mother wouldn’t lie to her, to her family-

right?

“Do you have a place to stay?” Alexander says quietly and glances up at her.

she hates that he’s so kind. hates that she wants to trust him.

“Right. The city is no place for a young girl all on her own, we have a guestroom...?” her fath- John offers, tentative and hesitant, like he hopes she'll decline. “Hey. I know what you’re thinking, but it would be no trouble. We have people over a lot, the company is always welcome.”

Alexander nods and flashes a smile, gently untangles himself from John, and takes a step closer.

“Besides, you may not be family by blood, but... you grew up a Laurens. I bet John wouldn’t mind hearing about how his siblings are doing,” he says and flickers his eyes over at him, gives her another smile, this one more private, as if they’re sharing a secret.

John perks up visibly at the mention of his siblings, a faint longing in those eyes that definitely don’t look like Frances’.

“Okay,” she hears herself say, shifting her bag on her shoulder, and Alexander immediately offers to take it. she lets him, and he mumbles something about getting the guestroom ready and slips out of the kitchen.

the two of them stand in uncomfortable silence, and Frances can’t help but fidget.

“Would you like something to drink?” he says and hurries over to the kitchencounter, pulling open cabinets and rummaging through them. “Tea, coffee, soda-”

“My mother told me I should never trust a queer,” she interrupts, but she isn’t sure why she says it.

John closes the cabinet-door slowly and braces himself against the counter, looking tired and weary all of a sudden.

“Your mother... is stuck in the past, I think. Things are changing, Frances. Probably not in that shithole of a town, but up here, they are. We are not your enemy. I am not demanding of you to trust us - you’ve known us for ten minutes. I’m just asking you to keep an open mind and think about... if you really should listen to the words of a woman who lied to you and my family for almost two decades.”

Frances’ breath sticks in her throat.

“I would like coffee, if it’s not too much trouble,” she chokes, blinking the sudden tears from her eyes.

John offers a smile. “Excellent choice.”

He walks over to the doorway and leans out, calls, “Baby, do you want coffee?”

“Fuck yeah!” comes back in an instant, and John snorts a laugh and shakes his head fondly, goes to start the coffeemachine.

Alexander comes back in, and Frances notices for the first time the golden ring glinting from his left hand.

he smiles at her. she remembers what her mother used to say about him; dirty, poor, exploitative, sly Alexander Hamilton.

his eyes are kind, and his smile is warm.

"So," he says and crosses the kitchen to John, steps readily into his outstretched arms, and leans up for a kiss. Frances tries not to flinch.

he turns in John's arms and gently brushes his fingers along John's knuckles where his hands rest at his waist.

"Anything interesting happen in the town since we left?"

Frances chuckles dryly, and John hides a smile in Alexander's shoulder, obviously thinking the same thing she does.

"I don't think anything more interesting than the two of you has ever happened in that town," she says, and Alexander smiles softly, happily. she notices the ring on John's finger. "I..." she trails off, not sure where the words she was about to say came from. "Would you tell me what really happened?"

"It's not a happy story," John mumbles. the coffeemachine gurgles next to him. it's all terribly domestic.

Frances shrugs and attempts a smile.

"But it has a happy ending, right?"

"Right," Alexander agrees.

Frances just can't hate them, no matter how much she would like to.

[unloved-cadillac]

hi!! i love your works sm!! they always make my heart flutter and it helps me get through these past few weeks without breaking down so thank you for your service <3 *salutes*

may I request levi with his SO (who just got over her 4 years of bisexual relationship then realized they became toxic af and just wanted to do nothing with that person anymore) and levi being patient with her + being a man of his words (because she never experienced it with her ex) and fluff prompts #2 and #8 if it's okay 🤗

love u!!! - ⚙️

C/n: *salutes back with tears in my eyes* I’m so sorry that you have breakdowns. I hate it so much but I’m honored that I have been helping you in coping with anything. Love you, take care of yourself, thanks for requesting and I hope that you enjoy🤍

𝖶𝗈𝗋𝖽 𝖼𝗈𝗎𝗇𝗍: 2.4𝗄

———————————————————————

I Wouldn’t Leave.(Levi x Reader)

TW: toxic relationship.

“Mia, come with me to watch the stars!”

“To watch the stars? What are you, five? Grow up Y/n. Seriously.”

“Mia I think I’m getting pretty good at this what do you think?”

“Your stance is shit and you would move faster if you weren’t that big. Lose some weight, yeah?”

“I love you Mia.”

“Whatever Y/n.”

This was how it was. You and Mia were dating for almost four years now. In the beginning, everything was perfect. Mia would steal kisses from you and make you smile. She would stick by you throughout the days and would sneak into your bed at night to cuddle. But that only lasted for the first year. After that, you two slowly drifted apart. You didn’t even know what had happened. One day, she’s the best thing that has ever happened to you and the next she’s bad-mouthing you to everyone. Although this happened, you didn’t leave her. Rather, you didn’t want to.

There was so much going on in this godforsaken world and to have someone there to lean on was rare. So letting go of Mia wasn’t the best of decisions right now.

But, would she even care if you died out there? If a Titan suddenly crushed you in front of her eyes? Would she even shed a tear to show her sorrow for the girl that stood by her for years?

“Mia?” You called her. She didn’t even hear you despite sitting next to you. So you tapped her shoulder and called her again. “Mia?” “What do you want?!” Mia yelled, shocking you. “Uhm, I just wanted to ask if you’re going to train with me tomorrow?” You ask and she scoffs. “Why would I train with you? I have others who could actually keep up with me. So no. I won’t be training with you.” She finishes and turns away from you. You nod to yourself and wake up to go to your room.

Levi noticed how badly Mia treated you. Everyone knew you two were together since your cadet days. You mentioned in a conversation to Eren that you were bisexual but it didn’t bother Levi. You loved who you loved but now, he doubts that you loved Mia. Maybe you did back then but that love wasn’t meant to last long. Levi hated seeing you sad or upset. He developed a little crush on you but he buried those feelings deep down because, well, you were taken.

He woke up and followed you out of the Mess Hall. You walked up to your room door but stopped. Suddenly, you ran away. Levi’s eyes widened and ran to you. You ran right up the stairs to the roof and slammed opened the door. Levi stopped running and walked quietly behind you. You couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. They fell to the floor and the cool air blew against your face making you shiver. You sat on the ledge and put your knees up to your chest and cried.

Levi stood by the door and watched you. This was your spot too, huh? He used to come here when he had the time to unwind. Levi heard your sobs all the way there and walked to you. He didn’t want to startle you so he made his presence known by clearing his throat. You gasped and looked up at Levi. Your current state could make him break down.

“C-Captain Levi? What are you doing here?” You ask in between hiccups. He turns and leans his back against the ledge. “I followed you here.” He says bluntly and your eyes widen. “Listen. I know it’s none of my business. Hell, you’re probably gonna slap me if I say this but I feel like you should know,” he begins and you face him while wiping your tears. “Your girlfriend is a bitch. She doesn’t deserve you. I see the way you look at her like she’s your everything and I see her looking at you like dirt. Mia might be the one you felt could love you the way you love her but it isn’t true. I respect you as a soldier and as a person so you needed to know. One day, you’re going to wake up and realize that there’s more to life than shitty people treating you like shit and you need to stand up for yourself.” Levi continues and faces you. Your eyes were red and tears flowed heavier than before. He was right. You didn’t deserve this shit. But hearing it come from another person, a captain nonetheless, meant that it was time for you to let go.

“There’s someone out there who could love you better.” He says quietly and you turn around and face the same way he was. You wiped your tears and looked back at his side-profile. Now that you think about it, Levi had always had an eye out for you. During training he’d always help out and expeditions would always check on you. But you always ran to Mia whenever you could, leaving him.

“I, I don’t know what to do. Should I break up with her?” You ask and he looks up at the sky then you. “You do what you feel is the right thing to do. I just wanted to let you know that you don’t deserve to be treated like that.” Levi explains and turns to walk away. “Levi?” You call and he turns to face you. “Hm?” You look up at him and smile through your tears. “Thank you.” He nods and turns and walks away with his heart beating through his chest.

~~~~

“What the fuck do you mean, Y/n?! We can’t break up!” Mia yells, catching the attention of the people around the pair of you. You flinch at her telling but you stand your ground and look back at her. “I’m tired of your bullshit, Mia. And I can’t believe that it took me this long to realize that you never loved me the way that I loved you. So it’s only fair for us to break up.” You say and Mia closes her fists. “You bitch. You’ll never make it without me.” She spits out and you chuckle. “I’ll be fine. Goodbye Mia.” You smile at her and walk away, leaving her shunned. You start walking to the stables and walk past Levi who caught your eye. You smiled and waved at him while he gave you a curt nod. You go to your horse when you hear footsteps approaching you. “You heard everything, didn’t you?” You ask and Levi scoffs. “With her big mouth of course.” You chuckle at his bluntness and face him. Your eyes were still swollen but you looked...happier. He liked seeing you happy.

“Thanks for yesterday, Levi. I needed the push.” You say and he waves you off. “Don’t mention it. You’re a good soldier. Don’t let people like her put you down.” Levi says and walks away leaving you smiling the whole day.

~~~~

The following days, Levi saw you become a whole new person. You became a social butterfly. Smiling more, laughing, cracking jokes. The way you were acting no one would ever think you just came out of a 4 year relationship. Levi’s heart would sometimes skip a beat when you looked his way. Your eye bags started to disappear and you looked so much healthier. You peaked in training and left Mia in the dust. He saw that she would sometimes try to talk to you but you just ignored her. Karma^

You and Levi had started to interact more and more and you felt so much happier. Levi had made it a point to come to his office to help with paperwork but in reality it was just to spend more time together.

Although it’s been three months since your break up, you could feel yourself falling for Levi. And it scared you. The little gestures you both would do for each other and the stealing glances made you have butterflies.

It was scary, this feeling. Not even Mia made you feel like this. You started to avoid him, little by little. You Knew that if you gave into your true feelings for him, it wasn’t going to end well. The fear showed on your face whenever you were with him and Levi took notice of the change in your behavior and called you to his office one night.

“Name and business.” His deep, monotonous voice called out. “Y/n L/n. You called for me?” You say and the door opens revealing Levi. He gestures for you to enter and you walk into his office, anxious. You heard the door close and Levi’s footsteps. “Sit. Would you like some tea?” He asks and you shake your head as you sit down. He furrows his eyebrows in slight confusion but brushes it off. You always liked his tea so it was confusing why you would reject the offer. Levi sat in his chair and looked at you. You seemed...uncomfortable. “Y/n?” He called out to you and you looked back up at him. “Yes?”

“Do you know that saying “beating around the bush”?” He asks and you nod. “Yes.” “I guess it’s time for us to stop doing that with our feelings for each other.” Your breath hitches and it seemed like time stopped when he said that. You just wanted to leap into his arms and plant your lips on his but it was too soon.

“I agree, Levi, but I don’t know if it’s time yet. Even though Mia was a horrible person to me, she was my first love and it still hurts letting her go. So maybe, if you find it okay, can we wait? Just for a little more. Until I know for sure.” You explain softly as Levi listens intently. The silence settles around the room and you exhale a breath. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. You wake up and turn to leave. “I’m sorry. I should-...” “No.” Levi says and holds your arm, turning you around.

He brings you closer and cups your cheek. He ghosts his lips over your forehead then plants a soft kiss on it. He pulled away and looked at you. “I’ll wait forever if that was what it takes. There’s no rush,” he takes your hand and places it over his heart, “it’s yours. I’m yours. Whenever you’re ready, I’ll be here.” He assures you and you wrap your arms around his neck. “Thank you, Levi.”

~~~~

Couple of months passed by and Levi gave you the time and space for you to get yourself together. Healing. He would wait for you. Even if it wasn’t in his favor, he still wanted you to find happiness. You deserved it and everything more.

Now you were on the training grounds, sparring with Annie. You improved quite a lot but Annie caught you and threw you down. “Ah, shit.” You pant out and Annie holds out her hand for you. “You’re getting better, L/n. Almost got me there.” She says and pulls you up. “Almost.” You smile and look around where your eyes landed on the captain. He was watching you with a glare, that other people would find terrifying, but you found it reassuring. You flashed a quick smile to him and went back to training.

That night you made your way to his office. He didn’t call you, nor was he expecting you. But you wanted to see him. So you knocked on his door which was quickly opened by the captain. “Y/n? What’s wrong?” He asks and you take a moment to look at him. Unbuttoned shirt, black pants with his feet bare. Looks like he just came out of a shower. “Does something need to be wrong for me to see you?” You ask and he shakes his head with a soft smile. “No. Come in.” He says and moves out of the way for you to enter. He shuts the door behind you and you face him. He was a few meters away and you took in a shaky breath. “Levi. I, uh, I’ve been thinking. For the past couple of months, I’ve realized that it was time to move on. I couldn’t stop thinking about you and about..us. I want you, Levi. I think I have for a while but I wasn't sure if it was true. But I know now that you’re the one who had my heart all this time. So, if you still want me, I’m here.” You say smiling and looking at the ground.

You see his feet in front of yours and you look up to see him. He had a smile of his own plastered on his face. “It’s about time, brat.” He whispers and kisses you softly. You melt into his kiss as his arms move around your waist and yours around his neck. This feeling. This moment. It was like all of your senses came to life and the joy you never knew you had blossomed.

When you both pulled away, Levi took you to his bedroom and laid you down on his bed. He crawled over you and planted kisses all over your face and neck. You giggled which in turn made him chuckle. He looked up at your flushed face as you cupped his face. “May I?” He asks softly as he brushes his nose against yours as his hands started to roam. “Of course. I’m yours.” And the night became the night you felt alive after all these years.

~~~~

The morning sun shines through the bedroom window and brightens up the room. You groan and move away from the light and roll over to the other side bumping into Levi’s chest. You smile to yourself and cuddle into him further. “You’re very lazy.” Levi says and you chuckle. “It’s too early. Plus we’re off today so shut up.” You groggily say and he scoffs and pulls you up and holds you. You slowly open your eyes and look at Levi who was already staring. “Hi.” “Hey.” You two stay like that for a few minutes but then Levi moves your hair away from your face and rubs his thumb over your cheekbone. “Never would I have thought that your eyes would be the ones that I want to stare at forever.” He whispers to you and you smile and hug him. He wraps his arms around your bare waist and holds you tighter. “I love you Levi.” You whisper with a few tears falling. He rubs your head and closes his eyes. “I love you too, Y/n. And just so you know,” he says and pulls away to look at you. He wipes your tears away and continues:

“I wouldn’t leave.”

———————————————————————

“You deserve everything good in this world.”

🖤🤍Thanks for reading🤍🖤

-Caddy.

[mxgilray]

Loki Season 1 Thoughts

Overall, I really liked this series. It has some issues without question, but I sincerely don't think it's the dumpster fire so many viewers on this site treat it as. Did it go how I expected? Not at all? Did I enjoy the heck out of it and look forward to it every Wednesday? Hell yeah!

Loki's Good Guy Personality

A big complaint many have had with it is how much Loki's demeanor has changed and how his emotional growth feels rushed or his personality is ooc. Truth is, he saw his entire future, saw what his angry, power hungry, I-work-alone persona would get him in the end, and it snapped him back to reality. He has always been shown to be quite emotional and craving attention and lacking in self assurance, it's just in the past movies he's masked it with violence and fake narcissism, and he's always been a secondary character so his perspective is rarely shown. But if you really pay attention it's obvious he isn't truly villainous; we all know that, it's largely why he has such a huge fan base.

Right after meeting Mobius, Loki got an infodump of his future, saw his parents both die, found out that free will means jack shit, and learned he's absolutely powerless in this realm. On top of that, this is 2012 Loki, fresh off of being under Thanos' control, suddenly being shown that the guy who controlled him is going to end up killing him. Frankly,, I think it all broke Loki. He was too shook up by it all and by the sheer helplessness he found himself in at the TVA that he let all his barriers down momentarily. Just long enough for him to open up to Mobius about his motivation and his lack of self confidence. And you know what I bet? Loki felt relieved after talking to Mobius. A weight was lifted, because he bore his heart to someone and wasn't rejected or laughed at or treated like a psycho. And after letting his walls down fully, Loki didn't feel the need to put all of them back up. He stayed guarded around other people, but he didn't need to pretend around Mobius. Mobius has seen under the mask, so Loki doesn't feel pressure to perform as an all knowing, all powerful God around Mobius. That freedom is life changing.

People who gravitate towards broken, pseudo-villain characters do so because we relate to their internal conflict, their mental illness, their need to fake it around everyone close to them. Their turmoil and depression and self destructive behavior are familiar and we see ourselves reflected in their actions. Now, when a person really truly let's their guard down, drops all their layers of facade, and embraces themself, they tend to change demeanor and even personality pretty drastically. It's jarring in real life, so of course when it happens to a fictional character who you usually relate to it is going to be jarring, maybe even more so because it feels like a change you yourself would never go through. I know this sounds bad and people might get at me for it, but...

I believe the issue here is that a large part of Loki's fan base doesn't want him to get better. They don't want him to move past his mental illness, to learn how to cope with anger and disappointment in healthier ways, to be happy. They like his damaged persona, they like the internal conflict. Maybe it's because they're still at that low place themself and feel like a relatable character is getting taken away from them, maybe it's because they don't understand how much being at peace with yourself can alter a person and to them it feels like he's been changed too much. To those of us mostly on the up and up from battling depression and mental illness, it's comforting to see Loki getting a chance to be genuinely happy and accepting of himself.

Sylki and Lokius

First things first, I'm not anti anything. Ship what you want, idc. Personally, I do not see the Sylki dynamic as romantic, but I get why people read it that way. I thought the series did a good job of showing unrequited love, namely Loki falling for Sylvie and Sylvie feeling zero romance towards him. This was aware of his attraction and in the end used it as a distraction so she could get the upper hand. The show played up the potential romance because we are viewing things from Loki's perspective and he's become smitten as a kitten. I do think in the long run they'll have a more sibling-like dynamic, one Loki realizes that you can feel extreme love and care for a person without it being romantic. I enjoyed how the show explored their relationship, though I do wish they hadn't had every character under the sun mention their moment on Lamentis-1 like it was some big deal to bond with someone you're about to die with.

I'm bitter towards the development of Lokius. It had a strong start in the beginning, and in ep 5 had some potential reignited, but then they had Mobius not know who Loki is at the end. I'm still hoping they're playing the long game with this ship and that it'll come to fruition partway through season 2. The chemistry is there, and Mobius knows Loki very intimately and isn't put off by his past. Loki also feels much more at ease around Mobius than he does around Sylvie. It's the comfort of a deep loving bond with Mobius verses the nervousness of a new crush that he feels for Sylvie.

I don't think Loki is quite aware of his feelings for Mobius, simply because it's based in friendship and mutual respect and isn't a hot and heavy lust. Plus, as soon as he was away from Mobius he was thrown into a near death experience with Sylvie and developed a surface crush during their heart to heart. Since Loki's still figuring out what genuine feelings are beyond anger and sadness, he sees the simplistic crush he has on Sylvie as love and the intimate bond he's been forming with Mobius as friendship. He doesn't understand his own feelings yet, but I think he'll figure it out next season. I mean, he was probably already rethinking his feelings for her after she kissed and betrayed him, mentally kicking himself for expecting her to not pull a Loki betrayal like he would've in the past.

The Time Variance Authority

I really like the concept of the TVA, the structure of it, the methods they use, the deeply fucked way they recruit employees, the cult like motto, shady Miss Minutes who is definitely playing her own long game, and the blind acceptance TVA agents have of the Time Keepers' will. It's all very well done... until your dig into the core, aka He Who Remains. They built up the idea that the Time Keepers created the TVA to prevent a multiverse war and that they created agents to enforce their will. Then the creating agents turned out to be fake, the Time Keepers were fake, I expected the reason for the TVA's existence to be fake to. It felt too simple to have it genuinely exist just to keep the multiverse in check. Why the anonymity, unless it's to keep from having agents target and prune versions of himself which.. songs like a decent solution. HWR made it sound as though the multiverse war was just a bunch of versions of himself screwing shit up, so why isn't the TVA's focus on eradicating every other variant of this guy? Sounds a lot easier and nicer than fucking with the free will of every other living being. So either Marvel made a bad call when choosing what HWR's motive was for creating the TVA, or he was lying about it all to cover up something sinister.

Overall Storyline

I'm fairly happy with the plot as a whole. There were some pacing issues and I think a few missed chances for deeper conversations between various characters. While I enjoyed the Loki variants, I honestly would've been happier seeing Tom playing most the variants (except Kid Loki and Classic Loki since they are clearly different age ranges). If there is supposed to be one sacred timeline, it seems off to me that Lokis would be allowed to vary so extremely without it causing a nexus event(an alligator, whose nexus wasn't that he's an animal who obviously can't do any magic much less command Thanos' army, but that he ate someone's cat) and not just in appearance but in life path (ie boastful Loki collected all the infinity stones but it wasn't till he had 6 that he caused a nexus event even though him gaining control of the Soul, Power, and Time stones should've each caused nexus events since on the sacred timeline he never interacts with those 3 and taking any one of them would've fucked up a lot of other timeline parts)

I love the display of Lokis raw power, and 2012 Loki coming to the realization that he's way more powerful than he ever thought. And it wasn't just Classic Loki who spent thousands of years alone honing his skills, 2012 Loki reversed time on a goddamn falling building! I also liked the small magic, the fireworks, the tablecloth blanket, Loki yanking Sylvie away from HWR with just magic.

As someone who is both bisexual and genderfluid, I would've really loved more concrete representation. The comment about there never being another female Loki hit me in the gut; it undermined the Easter egg "Sex: Fluid" on Loki's TVA file. With how big a deal Sylvie being female was made out to be throughout the season, I expected her gender to play a key role in taking down the head of the TVA, like it was foretold that only a female Loki could end it all or some shit.

I don't mind the idea of Loki finding love in a straight passing relationship. I don't even mind the selfcest all that much. It just feels so obvious to me that Sylvie is written as not having any romantic inclination towards Loki, while Mobius is clearly written as falling in love with someone he shouldn't and trying to maintain an heir of professionalism to keep from wrecking his bond with Loki. I really really hope they come through on season 2 and give Lokius the canon relationship and proper representation they deserve.

Mmkay I thinks that's all the thoughts I've got right now. If you've been feeling cheated or clowned by how things went this season, maybe my perspective of things can help ease your pain.

[crossdressingdeath]

Every so often I’ll come across a fic that has a summary that essentially reads: “after JFM brings WWX to Lotus Pier YZY takes JC to MeishanYu where he becomes the sect heir” and it always acts like this situation is a fix-it for the entire plot of the novel. And I was thinking about this premise over the past few days and realising just how little it makes sense. (I would like to clarify that I have not read any of the fics with this premise but that is because they all look to be written by JC stans and I decided a while ago that I wasn’t interested in anything like that. I would also like to say that I have only the vaguest understanding of Chinese culture so if something is glaring wrong in here I accept corrections.)

So. The logistics of the events coming to pass. The summaries imply that YZY left Lotus Pier with JC in tow, marched into her natal sect and without question JC was named sect heir and never had any problems ever.

Firstly: if YZY is such an amazing mother to take her son away from the ‘awful’ environment of Lotus Pier under JFM, why does she leave her daughter there? There never seems to be any mention of JYL also going to Meishan so this really just feels like YZY doesn’t actually care about anyone other than JC (in a similar way to the author not caring about anyone other than JC).

Secondly: the actual inheritance thing. As far as I can tell YZY and therefore JC are so far down the line of inheritance for the MeishanYu sect that it doesn’t actually matter. JFM calls YZY ‘Third Lady’ which based on my understanding means that she has two older sisters who would be the First and Second Ladies. In the line of succession her eldest sister would be first, then her children, then her second sister, that sister’s children, and then YZY and JC behind them (this isn’t even taking into account any older brothers she might have). I think I read somewhere that marriage order is based at least partially on age so we can assume that the two older sisters got married before YZY, and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that the eldest child of the eldest daughter could be fifteen when JC is nine, so at the very least the eldest sister could have a child who is close to being of age (though I freely admit that I have little idea as to what is classed as ‘of age’ within this world) while the son YZY brings is a child who throws a tantrum over having his pets sent away for someone else’s mental health and being told he’s going to share a room.

(Sidenote: I know JFM has JC’s dogs sent away but for all we know they’re just taken out of Lotus Pier itself (as in the bit where the cultivators live). We know there’s a market area where non-cultivators live literally right outside so rather than sending three puppies miles away to other cities, couldn’t JFM have just found someone living outside of the cultivator’s part of Lotus Pier to give the dogs to? Wouldn’t that have been the easiest option? And one that could potentially allow JC to visit the dogs he was so upset about? Did he just not ask to see them so JFM decided that he didn’t actually care about them? Did JC go see them every week until they died and was just angry that he wasn’t allowed to own them anymore? What proof do we have that JC never saw those dogs ever again?)

Anyway, back on track. Thirdly: YZY married out of the MeishanYu sect and into the YunmengJiang sect. She was very insistent on this. She wanted this a great deal even though we know that JFM didn’t particularly want to marry her. I believe that by the culture of the time marrying out of a family meant you were no longer part of that family. Like you might visit or write and introduce your children to them but you weren’t part of the family in the sense that you weren’t in the line of inheritance for anything of that family. So YZY marching into her natal sect with her bratty son behind her, declaring that he would be the sect heir to MeishanYu honestly reads to me as YZY flat out not understanding anything about how family inheritance works. She married into YunmengJiang. By the rules of the time, she should be devoted to building up the YunmengJiang sect, not leaving and returning to her natal sect because she doesn’t like the mother of the child her husband brought in off the streets. JC especially isn’t in line for inheriting MeishanYu because he is a member of the Jiang clan. Honestly the best equivalent I can think of is if people expected Jin Ling, heir (and sect leader and the end of the novel) to LanlingJin to also take over the running of YunmengJiang even though nowhere is it implied that he’s in any way in line of that — JYL married out, any children of hers were part of the Jin clan with no inheritance in the Jiang clan (it’s also for this reason that I am firmly of the belief that Jin Ling was mostly raised at Koi Tower rather than Lotus Pier, who lets the heir to a sect be entirely raised by another sect? For all we know Jin Ling spends a couple of months a year with JC and the novel just happened to take place during those months, and it’s saying something if Jin Ling spends the entire time he has per year with JC running away on night hunts without JC there). So, to put a long point short: YZY married out of the MeishanYu sect and has literally no inheritance there and neither do her children.

Also, at this point hasn’t she essentially kidnapped the heir to YunmengJiang? I doubt JFM is going to say “oh you don’t like my best friends’ son so you want to take our son away. Of course you can do that I have no problem at all with losing my sect heir due to your petty dislike of someone who has been dead for years now. Goodbye.” JFM may not really stand up to YZY, but there’s some things even he isn’t going to tolerate from her. So YZY is causing a political disaster between her natal sect and the sect she married into by kidnapping the sect heir of one and attempting to make him the sect heir of the other. At the very least I feel like JFM could divorce her on the grounds of kidnapping his son and trying to depose the sect heir of her natal sect in favour of a child who by law cannot inherit that sect.

From what I can tell these fics look like they’re set up to be fix-its. Again, I haven’t read them, but I can feel just by reading the summaries and glancing over the tags that they’re intended to be stories about how without the father who ‘hates him so much’ and ‘that awful WWX who always held him back from his true potential’ that JC is so much happier and more skilled and also absolutely going to be the best person in their generation at everything and in at least one of these it looks like he ends up marrying LXC (which is just. No). Honestly it could be a fix-it for JYL and WWX who would no longer be being berated for their general existence (WWX) and hobbies (JYL, specifically how she likes to cook). Them growing up without YZY constantly breathing down their necks and having better mental health as a consequence? Yes please.

Honestly I wouldn’t mind seeing something where the concept was written by someone who didn’t think that ‘actually all the positive traits of other characters are JC’s character traits and also JC should have been the main character’. Something where it’s set up as YZY taking JC with her to Meishan, expecting everything to obviously work out the way she wants, only to be shot down. Her eldest sister is potentially sect leader if their parents have stepped down and has a fifteen-year-old child who everyone in the sect is pleased with as their sect heir. YZY and her expectations get shot down, it’s made clear that she and JC aren’t even in the line of succession since they’re officially part of YunmengJiang and not MeishanYu, and she’s told to leave. She returns to Lotus Pier, angry but still convinced everything there will go her way because JFM has never stood up to her before, only to get back and find JFM in the process of organising their divorce. This isn’t an internal matter due to her not doing the duties expected of the mistress of Lotus Pier anymore, this is a political matter where she kidnapped the sect heir and tried to depose the sect heir of MeishanYu. She’s legally part of YunmengJiang, her actions reflect on the sect as a whole and could be taken as hostile intent. Really the only way to keep this from potentially escalating is to divorce her so that everyone knows her actions aren’t condoned by JFM individually and YunmengJiang as a whole. The end result is that instead of JC somehow fixing everything as a result of having less political influence/lower status than before (sect heir of MeishanYu which is a minor sect compared to the sect heir of YunmengJiang which is a great sect) and without an extremely loyal WWX supporting him, YZY instead undergoes some consequences for once in her life and the family dynamic of the Jiangs + WWX might even manage to be healthier without her constantly being around to antagonise everyone.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure YZY’s children would be so far down the line of succession that they’d have to murder a bunch of people to stand a chance of ruling Meishan, and her taking JC, the heir to the Jiang sect, to another sect without his father’s permission and with the intention of deposing the rightful heir of that sect would be... just a bit of a problem, yeah. Also like. I suspect the reason YZY doesn’t canonically do that is because not even she is that stupid. That goes beyond being a bitch and straight into Actual Crimes. Also love the idea that JC, the most useless of all the great sect leaders, would be less useless in a position of infinitely less power. ...To be fair he would certainly do a lot less damage.

[crabsxdragons]

boyfriend kim mingyu bullet points.

ps. this is my first time writing in a bullet points format, i hope i did it right

food is the center of your relationship (5/9 of the pictures are basically him eating, not at all surprising)

your date always centers around food, whether it’d be lunch dates, dinner dates, snack dates, trying out new restaurants, late night snack dates, convenience store mukbang dates, and even cooking class dates

you would always sit on his right side, him on your left side

you find it so cute that he’s left handed

you would always have to roll up his sleeves during a meal because he gets so excited about food *basically a whole baby

you like watching him stuff food in his mouth, making his cheeks puff up like a hamster

he would pout when you teased him about it

desserts

a must after every date

you find out that both of you follow the motto “there is always room for dessert” during your first date and he immediately knew you were the one for him

again, during dessert, especially if it’s ice cream, you would have to roll up his sleeves, and wipe off the melted ice cream on his fingers, and sometimes lips and cheeks

he would steal licks of your ice cream when you’re not looking

or if he’s feeling experimental, would mix both of your ice cream flavors to create a new flavor

doesn’t always work out that well

speaking of food, cooking is basically a whole other type of date

although you are more on the baking side, you love to help him try out recipes, become his assistant in the kitchen, or simply helping him clean up

you always love what he cooks, especially knowing how much care and love he puts to it

the same thing if you’re baking, mingyu loves your baked goods, from cakes to muffins to desserts to anything basically

sometimes you’d receive a text in the middle of the day of him suggesting you to try out a recipe he found online

and you did try some of them, which made him very happy

with your limited cooking skills, you’d sometimes send him homemade lunch when he has practice, alongside some snacks for the other members cause you can’t forget about them

mingyu would beam in pride when the members praised your chocolate chip cookies, or banana muffins, or fruit cake or when they fought over who gets the last piece of egg tart you made

homemade cake and dinner is a must for special occasions, especially birthdays, you both go out to eat quite a lot so during these special occasions you both like to just stay at home and cook or bake together

mingyu’s birthday cake from year to year always changes depending on his request, from the classic chocolate cake to apple pie to that crepe cake which took hours to make, and even a stack of macarons cause he hinted that he wanted a macarons tower cake *yes you’ve made so many cakes for him, you’ve dated for that long, mingyu is a guy with commitment

food photos, a must, everywhere you eat, every meal you make at home, every successful or failed recipes

and speaking of pictures-he has a separate album on his phone only for your pictures, the selfies you sent him, candid pics he took of you, your pictures together, impromptu photoshoots he made you do when he really likes your outfit

and don’t get started on the videos, he records whenever he can, something for him to see when he misses you, or when you’re asleep but he wants to see you but he kinda doesn’t want to wake you up, also something to laugh at because there are some moments worth laughing at *over and over again, he never gets enough of it

that’s just the photos on his phoneyou can expect the same situation with his camera

the pictures he took are beautiful, and he always tries to capture you in the most natural setting, he absolutely loved taking candid pictures of you, close up shoots that showed the way your eyes lit up at the beach in front of you, or how the wind blows your hair softly

on the rare occasion that you get to be behind the camera instead of him, it’s his turn to be in every picture

sometimes he lets you use his camera, he loved the pictures you took, how you managed to capture everyday life details that others would sometimes miss, he loves nothing more than to see the world through your eyes

moving on to one of the obvious facts here, height difference

the boy is tall, like skyscraper talland you wonder if he would every stop growing taller because it seemed like everytime you see him he gets even taller

“stop it, you’re like a head taller than me”

which does comes with some pretty good perks

like when you can’t reach something from the top shelves, whether it be mugs in the kitchen, books in your favorite book store, that huge bag of chips at the convenience store, also very handy when it comes to changing lightbulbs

“why would you need a ladder when you have me ?”

he’s very smug about, and also lowkey dying from cuteness whenever he gets a reminder of how much shorter you are compared to him, it makes him want to squish you in a hug-

which he always does

hugs. from. mingyu. are. the. best.

just warm and comforting, sometimes he’ll lift you up and spin you around, sometimes he’ll kiss the top of your head, and rub your back, and tuck your head under his chin and you can just melt into his arms

back to the height topic

he likes to steal your books or phone when you were too focused that you’re not giving him enough attention

he would lift it above his head, completely out of your reach even if you tried your best to stand on your tippy toes

would most definitely laugh at your struggle while you give him the death glaresand he would say that you look like an angry bunny or a pissed off golden retriever puppy

which ultimately makes you roll your eyes at himnot to forget, you are also his portable arm rest

likes to mess with you by putting his huge arms on your shoulder, or on your head, purposely messing up your hair

but seriously, mingyu sometimes forgets the fact that he’s a giant and that he could easily crush you, so there were occasions when he would lean on you and you’d lose balance which resulted in both of you on the floor

yes, that happened

moving on

family

the most important thing for him and you

he took you to meet his family after a couple of dates because he’s been telling his mom about you and now she wants to meet you

his mom is very very nice, showing her affection by making you eat more (like how any mom would), also thanking you for taking care of mingyu because according to his mom, he looks so much healthier and happier now

after the first meeting with his family, his mom suddenly became your mom too, especially after mingyu gave her your number

would sometimes call you during lunch time to remind you to eat, ask you how you are doing, in general just the sweetest and loveliest person ever (not much of a surprise since we all know how sweet her son is), you think you might cry because she’s so caring

his mom would also send you kimchi when she has extras

correction, she purposely made more than usual so she can send you some too

which you gratefully accept after thanking her for a million times, then sending her back one of your baked goods

which she loves

and would not stop talking about it because she knows that you can bake but she was not expecting it to be absolutely great

mingyu loves seeing your relationship with his mom, and kinda jealous too because whenever he’s out of town for tour or promotions, you get to hangout with his mom, which he is very jealous about, but also he couldn’t help but smile looking at the pictures that you and his mom took together

but then you started hanging out with his sister too, and now you have a partner to tease him, which he doesn’t approve of because it seemed like his family likes you more than him now

especially since his sister has an ally now, and it’s 2 vs 1 with you and his sister against him

when you were hanging out one day in your place, his mom called you to ask if you’ve eaten yet

“eomma, how can you call y/n but not reply to the text i sent you last night”

you tried so hard to not laugh at his facial expression when his mom teased him by saying that you are her favorite child now

you spent the rest of the day laughing at him whenever he grumbled under his breath “i can’t believe my mom manages to call you, but not reply to her own son’s text message”

the only way to make him stop pouting-

hugs

are we not surprised herethis boy is sometimes so random, like that time when you were eating pasta, and he suddenly wanted to reenact that scene from the movie lady and the tramp

safe to say that you got sauce all over both of your shirts, and well... a few kisses too

his kisses are always so sweet, they’re the type that makes your heart squeeze and your toes curl

he loves to surprise you with light kisses on your cheeks, your forehead, your nose, your hand, your hair, he just couldn’t help it sometimes

mostly they’re innocent, and full of love

unless he’s feeling a bit more passionate, he’ll pull you in for a longer kiss, hands resting on your cheek as his thumb gently brushed your skin, his other hand would either be on your waist, or your back, holding you so close to him

mingyu likes to take it slow, he likes to savor the moment, he doesn’t want it to end, so his lips would move slowly against yours, sometimes he would smile or let out a few giggles, making you giggle too

basically it’s pretty much light and playful with him, but still very meaningful

let’s just say that he always finds the most random times to kiss you, but always when it’s just the two of you, because your relationship isn’t actually something that the public knows

speaking of relationships, only his members, family and managers knows about you, and you both would like to keep it that way for as long as possible

you didn’t mind it at all, since you’re a very much private person yourself, so you have no problem with keeping it on the low

on the rare occasions that you both get to go out for your dates, he would always drive you somewhere a bit further away from the city

or somewhere private, with less to no people, the beach, a rooftop, restaurants that serves tiny servings of food that costs more that your meal weekly (which you didn’t mind, but you reminded mingyu to never spend too much on you)

did he ever listen ? yes, you guessed it right. never.

sometimes both of your schedules meant that you don’t get to see each other for weeks, even with being in the same city

but he’ll make it up to you by taking you away for the weekend, to a small town by the beach where you take long walks along the coastline, and eat dinner with sunsets

you love road trips like this, he’d pick you up, then you would jam out to songs on the way, stop by a rest area for brunch, and bought more snacks to accompany you for the rest of the trip

mingyu knows you love the ocean so much, so he would take you to the beach to watch the sun set, take unlimited amount of photos, pull you in for a hug and smother your face with kisses

then you’d have dinner accompanied by your laughter and conversations about anything

“thank you, for taking me here”

he’s shook his head, “no, this is my thank you, cause you’ve put up with being with someone like me”

his eyes would turn sad as he remembered how rarely you both met because of his schedules, “i’m sorry i’m not the best partner, we barely see each other”

at this, you would hold his hand and made him look at you, “hey, there’s nothing to be sorry about, i’m okay with this, it doesn’t matter if we couldn’t meet for months because that’s your career, your dream, just like i have mine, you have yours too, right ?”

“i know, but i mean- i’ve seen your friends and their partners, you know those boyfriends who would pick them up after class, who’d hold their hand as they walk down the street, take them to movies, not having to hide and be cautious all the time-“

“gyu, what makes you think i cared about those things ? i’m completely fine with having a boyfriend who still makes time to hang out at my place after a long day of practice, someone who sends me good luck videos when he’s halfway around the world living his dreams, someone who trusts me enough to let me be the first one to know about their comebacks and projects-“

and from the way you spoke to him with that shine in your eyes, he couldn’t help but lean closer and pull you in for a short kiss, pausing whatever you have to say

“i love you, thank you for putting up with me”

[super-unpredictable98]

Twin Flames (Moonwalkers AU)

Chapter 5: More Than Enough

Warning: Strong language, mention of drug use and vomit (non graphic).

a/n: As always thank you so much for all your support, this series taught me to always believe in my writing. Thanks for sticking with me and expect more Leon and Thalia in the future.

(Twin Flames Masterlist)

"Tha, would you like me to put these up there?" Ella asked pointing at the last empty shelf in the store.

There were only a few more boxes filled with tiny perfume bottles to display on the shelves, both girls wanted everything to be perfect for the opening.

Over the last few years, Thalia had been saving every penny to finally open her business, a boutique to sell all her handmade perfumes.

Everyone else was pretty much broke after the whole moon landing incident. After selling the car, and finding a bigger place to live, there wasn't much left to get by, so they were happy to help with the store and work there with her.

"Yes, please, I shouldn't be climbing these stairs now..." Thalia mumbled.

"Wait a second! Why not? Are you...?"

"I don't know for sure, but I might be. I'm almost two weeks late," she smiled.

"That's so great! Congratulations!"

"Do you think Leon will be happy?"

"Of course he will! I heard there's this test you can buy to do at home, you should get one."

"Don't you think it's too soon for all that? It's been less than a year since the wedding."

"Too soon for what?" Leon came in through the door making the small bell at the entrance ring.

"Nothing," Thalia quickly ran to give her husband a proper welcome hug.

His lovely smile was a lot more visible now that his beard was shorter. He looked a million times healthier after over a year and a half of sobriety and he had never been happier, even though he was out of the acting game for the foreseeable future. Luckily he found a nice job as a drama teacher, so he could at least do something related to his passion.

"Are you two talking about us?" Kidman followed.

"What if we are?" Ella looked down at him with a taunting smile.

"How was class today?" Thalia asked.

"Pretty good, I think the kids like me."

"Why wouldn't they? You're basically one of them... Where's Jonny?" she ran her fingers through Leon's curls.

"He's doing all his marketing stuff for the opening," he gently leaned into her touch. "Is everything ready for tomorrow?"

"Almost," she looked around, hours of hard work, her life's dream finally coming true.

"Look what I got," Leon proudly held a bronze coin he had in his pocket. "18 months!"

"Did you tell them you took a hit from my blunt last week?" Thalia narrowed her eyes.

"No, that's just a little detail, no one needs to know that."

"I'm proud of you, glykouli," she kissed him. "How about we celebrate tonight?"

"Sweet, how about a few drinks?"

"I'm..." Thalia looked at Ella for support. "Not really in the mood for drinks, how about dinner instead?"

"You're not in the mood for drinks? Who are you and what have you done to my wife?" Leon snorted.

"What do you mean? That I'm some kind of alcoholic?"

"No, you're just... Very party inclined."

"That is true," Kidman mused. "Is there something wrong, Tha?"

"No, guys, I'm just not-"

"Hello everyone. This place will be packed by tomorrow, you're welcome," Jonny walked in with an empty box of free samples.

"Thanks, red! You're the best... Have you been smoking?" Thalia winced.

"Well, yeah."

"Bloody hell!"

She ran to the back gagging and covering her mouth, Ella watched the whole thing wide-eyed... Might be? That's hardly a might be situation, maybe they wouldn't need that test after all.

"What's wrong with her?" Jonny chuckled.

"I don't know, she's so odd today," Leon shook his head. "She's been odd for a few days now."

"Are you two really that stupid?" Kidman stared in disbelief. "Can't drink, sensitive to smells? Thalia is..."

"Tom, no!" Ella shouted, something she never did, but the circumstances were special.

Jonny's mouth dropped when he finally understood. Leon seemed to be the only one still confused with the situation.

"For sure?" Jonny smiled.

"No, not for sure," she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Guys she wants to be sure before..."

"Before what?" Leon grimaced. "Can someone tell me what's going on? Is Lili sick?"

"No," Thalia came out of the bathroom and took a deep breath. "I just might have a parasite."

"A parasite?" he ran to hold her hands, his eyes filled with worry. "Is it bad? It's bad, isn't it?"

"Not really. If it's really in there, it will come out in about nine months or so," she giggled.

"Nine months?" he slowly put the pieces together and his face lit up gradually as the realization dawned on him. "Lili!"

"Leon!"

"That's so incredible, happy for you, man!" Jonny tapped his friend's shoulder.

"Am I gonna be a dad?"

"I don't know, maybe?" she murmured, a little overwhelmed by his reaction. "It's either you or the milkman..."

"Stop that," Leon laughed, nearly jumping with excitement. "It's mine! I can feel it!"

"You don't even know if it actually exists, calm down. For all I know I just had some bad eggs for breakfast."

"Do bad eggs cause two weeks of delay for your period?" Ella blurted out.

"Ella!" she scolded.

"I'm gonna be a dad! I'm gonna be a dad!" Leon sang, spinning his wife around the store.

"Slow down, you're gonna make me sick again!"

"Sorry, sorry," he stopped, putting her down. "I love you so much, Lili."

He tried to lean over to kiss her, but she stopped him with her hands on his face.

"You know I just threw up, right?"

"Well, I'm about to become a father, I better get used to it."

Leon kissed her lovingly, he couldn't believe how lucky he was. What were the chances of them finding each other after all those years? And still be madly in love like they were the first time they met? And make everything work even with all the problems they had to face? And now this?

Part of him didn't believe he deserved all of it, he was a junkie who ruined his own life and career. He wasn't able to deliver a single line correctly back when they were trying to shoot the most important gig of his life. Every day he tries to be better, but would it ever be enough?

"I hate how adorable this is..." Kidman grunted fondly.

"We should see a doctor, right?" Leon brushed Thalia's wild hair with his fingers. "Get a test done, a sonogram or something? I can take you there right now, you're almost done here, right?"

"I am, but maybe that's a little too fast, we should wait a couple more days, I can schedule a proper appointment," she suggested, but he wasn't having it.

"I won't be able to sleep at night not knowing if there's a little baby in there or not. Come on, come on, let's move!"

The couple headed to the doctor's office, where thankfully the gynecologist was able to squeeze them in for a quick appointment. Thalia didn't expect a positive by any means, she thought it might just be PMS, the symptoms could be easily mistaken...

"So, is my wife pregnant, doc?" Leon watched as the doctor analyzed the urine sample.

"Calm down, honey, you have asked five times already," she laughed.

"Sorry, I'm just too excited!"

"Well, she is pregnant," the doctor chuckled. "Very pregnant, in fact."

"JESUS!" he jumped from the chair and rushed to see it for himself, nearly getting the urine sample all over the place. "This is the best day of my life! I'm gonna be a father! We're gonna have a little monkey, love!"

"I will... Have you take some pills to help with the nausea," the doctor awkwardly pulled from Leon's embrace to go get a prescription.

"I never thought I'd see you so happy when we're basically fugitives from the CIA and you can't even act anymore," Thalia shook her head with a smile.

"I've got to play Stanley Kubrick and Neil Armstrong, I don't think it can get any better than this. I have you, we have the store now, we have our friends, I have my students, soon we'll have a little one coming. That's... More than enough."

Tag List: @elliethesuperfruitlover @firstpersonnarrator @spanishmossmagnolia @a-ghoulish-tale @seanfalco @salvador-daley

[palettepainter]

Coming out

A quick message before you get into the story - I really wanted to do something for LGBT cuz I always end up forgetting or not having time to finish any drawings, most of the time I just do art about my OC’s and what their cannon sexualities are - but this year I wanted to do something a bit more serious, if that makes sense I’ve always been told by parents and friends that as long as you are coming out to people who you trust and people you know who will support you, then in the end, everything will be fine. I’ve always thought that if I where to ever be bisexual, gay, asexual or any other LGBT term that I would be comfortable to open up to my family. My preferences for who I like romantically aren’t really something I think all about that much. I’ve never dated and thus far all my luck with crushes and boys has just been really bad - and as someone who was and still is incredibly shy about dating and pretty much anything romantic I’ve learnt to not rush into things, I’ll find out who/what I like in time Now that I’m older I’ve been thinking more on it, and though I don’t want to go too deep into this stuff since it is personal, even with a supportive family I still have that fear of talking about these sorts of things. I wanted to write this story to show that even despite the fact someone may have a supportive family, supportive friends or even just that one supportive person in their life - overcoming that hurdle of fear and exposing a part of yourself that is so personal and dear, is terrifying. It’s a big relief to finally talk about these things yes, especially if you’ve been forced to shut these kinds of things away (in which case I hope you are in a happier healthier environment). But even with that in mind it can be hard for anyone to open up about these things, even those who know they’re in a safe environment and know they have family to support them. I don’t know if I got that message into this story, this is my first time writing something that tackled LGBT this seriously so I hope I was able to do it right. Okay message over ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A story between Jaakuna (Comoress x Kashu, oc) and Jizuko (Monoma x Pony) Jaakuna in my cannon NGAU is gay, whereas Jizuko is bisexual. Jizuko if the first person Jaakuna comes out to, and Jizuko is fiercely supportive. So here’s a little coming out story between my OC’s!~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jizuko had been happily doodling away idly in one of her notebooks when the door to her room suddenly opened, and none other then Jaakuna stepped inside. She rose a brow, watching as he stepped inside without a word and bumped her door closed with his heel “Ever heard of knocking?” She asked, brow cocked as she moved her head up from her notebook “I could have been changing or something” Jaakuna, still not saying a word, walked over to her bed, sat down, and then let his body flop backwards against the mattress. Jizuko rose a brow further, examining his face, though his gaze was skyward there was something distant about it, as though he was lost somewhere deep in thought. She titled her head, nudging his shoulder with her foot “Hello? Gunna answer me??” She asked, honestly not caring about her previous questions, but now just curious to see if he’d speak. Jaakuna behind closed doors with close friends, to her, was a much more quite and chill person, but that aside, he was never totally silent. When she got not response, she put down her notebook and shuffled on the bed, sitting cross legged besides him while she hugged an one of her many plushies to her chest “..You wanna talk about it?” She asked, resting her head a top of her toys. “Mngh..” Jizuko moved and picked up another one of her plush toys, and placed it ontop of Jaakuna’s chest, where his hands reached up to hold it, lazily running his fingers through the soft felt - something she’d learnt he liked to do with her toys and pillows, but something he’d always deny when she asked about it. “Something happen??” She continued, arms returning to her own plushy “...I think I might be having a mid-life crisis” Jizuko blinked “..Well, that’s something” she clarified with a slow nod. Jaakuna replied with a small hum “...Wanna talk shit about it?” She asked innocently Many where surprised when Jizuko would say Jaakuna was one of her closest friends, the two couldn’t be more opposites if they tried. Jizuko was small and dainty looking, she liked cutesy things, her dorm itself was full to the brim with things that she loved: manga volumes, cooking books, plush toys and pillows, all the listed items for a typical ‘cute’ person. Jaakuna was dark and grumpy, often brooding in the corner silently or cussing out something or someone. Years ago, Jaakuna would have been someone she would avoid in the hallways - but beyond that edgy shell was a genuinely sweet and caring person. Jaakuna was caring, very caring, perhaps cared too much about his close friends. Deep down he had a big heart, but like many typical boys, he struggled to verbalise those feelings, and thus ended up getting angry. Jizuko and him shared a connection with that, both cared a lot for friends and family, and yet both felt as though they could only be heard by yelling their opinions. Their bond was what Jizuko would call special - Jaakuna had let his walls down a few times, letting her see him at his most vulnerable. She felt flattered he trusted her enough, and in turn she never told a soul what he would share with her - what he told her would stay with her till the day she died, Jaakuna had made her promise that. “Mngh..” Jaakuna all of a sudden looked..she couldn’t put her finger on it. He hugged the plushie to his chest, peering away from Jizuko. “Uh..it’s kinda complicated..” he started “Yeah, a life crisis usually is” Jizuko reasoned Jaakuna’s cheeks flushed a light pink, Jizuko quirked a brow but didn’t comment on it, not yet at least. Finally Jaakuna sat up, toy still held to him. He rubbed at his neck with one hand “I’m..kinda struggling with this one, more then the others I’ve had” “Well, are you gonna bitch about it or not?” Jaakuna gave her a look “Whaaat! It’s your fault for getting me all curious! And why come here in the first place?” Jaakuna opened his mouth to speak, but growled in frustration and then shuffled the other way, crossing his arms over his chest. Jizuko shimmied down the bed on her knees until she was sitting besides him, and then waited for him to start. “..So Uh, you remember how last week I mentioned I got invited to Yurei’s birthday?” A bit random, but she nodded “Yeah..” She pointed a finger to her forehead, where a small grey horn sprouted out next to her bangs “Guy with the horn?” Jaakuna nodded and Jizuko lowered her hand “Why? Did something happen??” She paused, before her eyebrows scrunched like gathering thunder heads, checks puffed out with a clear scowl on her face “Do you want me to punch him for you?” “Wha- No!” Jaakuna waved his hand and shook his head wildly, caught off guard at her sudden declaration of violence though not surprised, tiny people where a force to be reckoned with. “Uh, anyway: I went to the party and Uhm, well..I-it was me, Yūrei and a few others..” Jaakuna tucked his legs up to him, leaning back against the wall as he still refused to look at her. “And maybe like, an..hour or so into the party we-Uhm-“ jaakuna gulped, Jizuko watching the movement of his Adam’s apple before looking back to his face Jaakuna’s face and tips of his ears where flushed red, as he looked like he was trying to hide behind her plushie. Jaakuna groaned when he caught Jizuko’s confused gaze on him, and then muttered something under his breath “Uh..What was that?” Jizuko asked. Jaakuna groaned louder before repeating, in the same mumbly dribble “I can’t hear you” Jizuko said after shaking her head, having heard what it was Jaakuna had said just as clearly as the first time. Jaakuna snorted through his nose, pulling his head out from the toy he was practically burying his face in “Ugh! I said we...w-we got round to playing Uh, truth or dare” “..Okay well, that’s not unusual” Jizuko said with a shrug “And I Uh- May have, Uh..I-I got dared to..t-to Uh..” The more he spoke the redder his face became, and he seemed to become more fidgety and nervous, looking like a skittish animal that would flee at any second. Jaakuna cleared his throat, praying his embarrassment wasn’t as obvious as it felt “..I-I got dared to..to kiss...Yu...rei...” For a whole minute Jizuko didn’t emote, the words processing - she let them digest, sink in - and when they did, she gasped “You kissed Yūrei?!” “NO!” Jaakuna snapped at her like a mad dog Silence “....M-Maybe..” he repeated in a whisper, as though admitting it was some crime. “..On the lips or?” Jizuko elbowed him playfully with a wink, and Jaakuna bristled, leaning away “T-That ain’t important! Ya little pervert!” Jizuko cackled her usual crazy giggle, covering her mouth with a hand, clearly finding amusement in her best friends embarrassing story. When she was done laughing at him Jaakuna continued “Anyway...Ever since then I’ve been, feeling...like-weird...it’s not a-“ Jaakuna seemed to be struggling to grasp the right words, and yet Jizuko had an expression that said she already had it figured out “It’s not a BAD weird- well, sometimes it is? Like, some days it’s bad others it’s like..not as bad??” He began to gesture as he spoke, going off on a tangent, almost forgetting entirely Jizuko was there “And it’s been bugging me for the whole week, and it’s so fucking embarrassing and, like!..You know what I mean??” Jizuko hummed with a slow nod “Oh I know exactly what you mean” she said matter of factly Jaakuna didn’t like her tone of voice, or how she was looking at him as though she pitied his own obliviousness. “Well- what is it then wise guy?” He challenged boldly, leaning back and raising a brow. Jizuko held her hands together as though she was praying, and inhaled, before she dipped them “Jaakuna, you’re gay” “WHAT?!” If Jaakuna hadn’t been sitting with his back to her wall he would have for sure tumbled off the bed with how hard he jolted, bristling like a raged cat as he bared his teeth like some aggressive animal. “I AINT- what for- F-For that?? That- THAT SMUG LORD?!” He barked a loud laugh, and rolled his eyes “I ain’t bloody gay” Jizuko remained calm as ever “And yet I don’t recall you ever having a crush on a girl before” she said, raising a brow in thought. Jaakuna slowly turned to her, eye twitching, Jizuko failed to cower “And you always spend a lot of time with Yūrei, he even sits with you to eat lunch! That’s only a specialty reserved for very close people” “That doesn’t prove anything!” “Oh yeah?” Jizuko asked, not believing him “Name one girl you’d like to date” “Wha-“ Jaakuna gagged “Ew! Gross! You girls are disgusting..no offence” he added the last part with a small frown. Jizuko hummed again, and Jaakuna felt nervous, feeling like a corned animal while she was some predator, contradicting with how Jaakuna looked to be the more intimidating one of the two. “Come on! Admit it! You like him!” “I don’t.” Jaakuna gritted his teeth “I don’t..like like him” he clarified, cheeks going redder “Fine” Jizuko leaned back, relaxed, and crossed her arms, a shifty smug grin on her face “...Name a girl you’d wanna fu-“ “Name a girl you’d wanna date” she repeated, holding up a finger “Name ONE girl - and I’ll believe you don’t like him” Jaakuna snorted “Hmph. Okay, FINE. I will” he held his nose high, as if to look down on her. Jaakuna sat back, and opened his mouth...before closing it, and licking his lips, mouth suddenly dry. “Uh..” Jizuko’s brow rose further, watching his flustered suffering as Jaakuna struggled to think of an answer “I-Uh-...uhm, R-Runa, I guess?” “You guess?” Jizuko tilted her head “Or you know?” “W-Well-“ Jaakuna made a gesture with his hands, looking more lost then before, Jizuko’s staring wasn’t helping him “I mean- she’s cool! T-Theres nothing wrong with Runa! She’s got..uhm, she’s..” Jaakuna trailed off, looking to be struggling “...Got nice eyes??” He said, sounding just as confident as Jizuko expected him too “Mhm, yeah, red eyes right?” She asked, tilting her head and leaning closer. “Not quite like the red eyes of your classmate who’s seem to brighten whenever they land on you” Jizuko said coyly. Jaakuna shot her a sharp warning glare, Jizuko dared on “Mhm, yes sir you’d love yourself a tiny little goth girl. With nice skinny hips and arms. Arms that aren’t strong enough to lift you off the ground ever so slightly when you hug. With no nice flat chest to rest your head against, no no. And no smugly charming smooth voice chuckling ‘JayJay’ to you in greeting..” Jaakuna gulped, mouth suddenly dry, face as hot as the sun as he became lost in his mind...Jizuko had possibly the most obnoxiously smug grin on her face that it could put the Cheshire Cat to shame. Jaakuan’s cheeks flushed a deeper red so quickly he saw tiny white dots “I-I..” his throat was dry “...I don’t get what you’re implying” he muttered “Yeah, that blush on your face doesn’t say anything~” ‘Shit!..’ “Jaakuna, it’s okay..” Jizuko’s tone took a turn as she patted his shoulder soothingly, the smugness gone from her face entirely “You know your friends and myself will support you!” She chuckled lightly “Sides, I’m in the same boat as you..” Jizuko pulled her legs up to her chest, pressing a pink cheek into her knee “Crushing on your best friend and being too chicken to tell, sucks doesn’t it?” With a small smile she peered back up to Jaakuna, who’s scowl has lifted a little “What I’m saying is that I think you’ll be happy with Yūrei and you can make him happy. You guys are practically a duo! Hell, for the longest time I thought you two where already together” Jaakuna has fallen quite, half lidded eyes boring into the floor with an intense look to them, hands clutching at the pink blankets on Jizuko’s bed. “I’m. Not. Gay.” He growled, shoulders shaking “Not for him. Not for anyone! I like girls. Period.” Jizuko gave her best friend a flat look and rose a brow, mulling over what to do “...Okay then” Jizuko unfolded her legs to hang off one end of the bed and all of a sudden stood up “I’ll just go ask Yūrei on date~” “Wot?!” Jaakuna practically exploded from the bed, jumping across the room to splat himself against the door, blocking Jizuko’s only means of exit. Jizuko rose her brow, smirking “What’s the issue? Yurei’s a cute guy, and if you’re not taking him..” she waggled her brows and Jaakuna bristled, squawking like a turkey “I-you- Dont you dare!” He barked “You’re doing this on purpose!” “Doing what?” Jizuko asked, tilting her head “You’ve said you’re not gay so there’s no issue! I’ll just go and ask Yūrei on a date” Jizuko took no less then a step forward before Jaakuna tried to push himself further back against the door “Fuck off” “I don’t see why you’re being so dramatic: you’ve said you’re not gay, and that’s fine!” A smug smile pulled at her lips and Jaakuna growled, spreading his arms further over the door as if to hide it was even there. Jizuko peered skyward and then slowly rolled her eyes back towards Jaakuna “Unless of course..you have a problem with me asking him out” Jaakuna’s lips pulled back into a grimace, baring his teeth like an angry dog. Jizuko was unfazed as she turned to idly walk about her room “I mean, have you seen him?? That body?” She questioned “Damn, he’s really bulked up since the start of the year huh? Not that you would know” Jizuko shrugged “Of course, I’m sure all his fans know. I bet Yūrei gets tones of love letters! You know?” Jaakuna dragged his nails along the door, something in his gut twisting - where was she going with this??.. “Mhm, I bet he’s a good kisser. He looks like the type of be good at kissing - you know? The typical jock hot guy that’s all good with romance stuff? He fits the bill!” She turned to peer at Jaakuna over her shoulder, making sure their was enough distance between the two. Jaakuna’s eye twitched, the way she was talking about Yūrei was starting to really tick him off. He tried to brush it off and act indifferent to what she was saying, but that was becoming increasingly hard. His body was tense, his breaths deep as he tried to keep the wildfire in him at bay ‘She’s starting to get real annoying. If she says ONE more thing about Yūrei..’ “I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t already..had thoughts about him” Jizuko turned around once more, and was met with Jaakuna’s chest. She peered up, where Jaakuna was glaring down at her coldly. It was like staring death itself in the face, what she was expecting. “Listen here you pintsize twat” Jaakuna growled, voice like venom “You say one more thing about Yūrei I’m going to drag your ass six feet under!” Jizuko hummed, calm in the face of danger. A passive look on her face “Well it’s a good thing he’s not my type” The change in expression was so drastic on Jaakuna’s face it would have given anyone whiplash with how quickly his glare fell “...But- You practically just said you like him!” “And that, my naive friend, was a lie” “...A lie?” Jaakuna repeated, blinking “Duh” Jizuko said with an eye roll as though it was obvious “Yurei’s too full of himself for me. It was all fake, just talk.” Jaakuna worked his jaw, numbly pointing to Jizuko “S-So...so everything you just said was too-“ “Get you angry so you’d finally realize YOU have a crush on Yūrei? Yes” Jizuko finished Jaakuna sucked in a breath, flinching back a little. Jaakuna liked girls. He loved girls! There was plenty to like about the girls in the hero courses: Furora was smart and clever, yet fair and pretty. Runa was quite and brooding like him, with a cool quirk he genuinely admired! Furu was tough and caring, her witt as smart as her combat skills. Jizuko was hard headed yet kind, she was sweet, she let him open up about things he wouldn’t to anyone else. Above all the other girls, Jizuko had his respect. Liking girls should be easy, yet he felt a knot in his stomach, something clenching in his gut...like a weight holding him back. His stupid, stupid traitorous mind flashing with images of soft, curly hair that smelt of too much hairspray. Beautiful ruby eyes. A kind smile, bright enough to rival that of the sun. And a voice, as smooth as honey and as joyful as new lambs in spring calling out ‘Jaakuna!’ Yūrei “...Jaakuna?” Jizuko’s voice was gentle. She stepped closer to reach out for his hand, giving it a careful squeeze God dam it. God fucking damn it. What was wrong with him?? He grit his teeth, wanting the floor to swallow him. His cheeks became warm as, to his shame, hot tears began to blur his vision. He wanted to snarl at her, to curse Jizuko to hell and back, to trap away these stupids thoughts and feelings...but deep down, Jaakuna knew she was right. She had found the chip in his armour, she’d seen right through it, and unraveled the deep, very real truth. “Jaakuna nothing is wrong with you” Jizuko stepped closer and gently grasped his other hand. “Everything is gonna be okay. You’re gonna be okay, I promise” Jizuko’s eyes shined with kind, comforting light. Jaakuna shyly met her gaze, his tears swelling when she gave him a soft smile...something fell from his eye. A tear, followed by many more - the internal battle surfacing “..I am Jizuko..” “Oh Jaakuna” Jizuko was on him in an instant, tugging her taller friend into a warm hug, nestling his head in her shoulder as she rubbed her arm on his back. Jaakuna’s grasped at her desperately, ashamed to be crying, ashamed Jizuko was seeing him like this, ashamed she’d been right. Ashamed he.. “I like Yūrei..” he whimpered, the rest of his sentence ending in weeps and sobs, as he let himself cry.

[nimupates]

The Future is Bright: How AI Will Revolutionize Healthcare

The Future is Bright: How **AI Will Transform** Healthcare

I still remember when IBM’s Watson computer system beat the human champions on Jeopardy! back in 2011. At the time, I thought, “Wow, if AI can outperform people on a game show, think about what it could do for healthcare!” Little did I know that we’d see such rapid advancements inAI healthcare solutions over the next decade. But the possibilities now have me incredibly excited for what’s to come in the next 10 years. I believe AI healthcare applications are going to revolutionize the way we prevent, diagnose, and treat illness - dramatically improving outcomes while reducing costs. And that’s going to lead to longer, healthier, happier lives for all of us. Let me explain why I’m so optimistic.

Promising AI Healthcare Use Cases

While AI in healthcare is still in its early days, we’re already seeing some very promising applications. These three areas in particular have me thrilled about the future: AI for Diagnostic Radiology - Doctor's New Best Friend In radiology, medical AI is now able to analyze CT scans, MRIs, and other medical images to detect abnormalities and offer diagnostic suggestions to radiologists. One recent study found that AI could identify breast cancer from mammograms more accurately than expert radiologists could alone! From my own experience, I can say that these AI diagnostic tools will allow radiologists to work faster and make more accurate diagnoses. My daughter recently had an MRI for some recurring migraines. While we anxiously awaited the results, I could envision an AI radiology assistant reviewing her scan almost instantaneously and letting our doctor know if everything looked normal or if further investigation might be needed. That would put so many minds at ease. AI Clinical Decision Support - Your Data-Driven Advisor Healthcare AI and machine learning algorithms can now take a patient’s symptoms, medical history, labs tests, and even demographic information to offer clinical recommendations. I recently met an entrepreneur who nearly died and was in a coma for 6 days because her symptoms went misdiagnosed. An AI decision support system likely would have detected the life-threatening issue and saved valuable treatment time. By rapidly analyzing more complete patient information, AI clinical tools will help doctors surface the right diagnoses much faster. AI Patient Monitoring and Coaching - Caring Support Anytime New AI chatbots and virtual assistants are now available that can understand common health concerns and provide trustworthy guidance on a 24/7 basis. Whether it’s answering medication questions, supporting nutrition needs, or tracking pain levels, these tools will help patients take charge of their health from home. My mother could have really used one of these AI virtual nurses when she was discharged after surgery last year. I ended up needing to make so many frantic calls to her doctors because we weren’t sure what follow-up care activities she should be doing week to week. The peace of mind for her would have been invaluable.

The Exciting AI Healthcare Possibilities Ahead

While the AI in medicine applications above are already demonstrating value, experts predict even more transformative capabilities on the horizon. Here are a few that have me truly excited: Earlier Disease Detection With Healthcare AI - Catching Things Sooner One of the most promising areas for AI in healthcare involves processing multiple data points to detect disease signs earlier than doctors alone often can. Whether finding cancer risks based on genetics, predicting heart disease through wearables data, or analyzing lab reports and vital signs to warn of infections days in advance, this technology is going to save countless lives. I lost my father earlier than I would have liked to an aggressive cancer. I’ll always wonder whether medical AI could have given us months or years longer with him if it could have spotted the disease progression sooner. Ultra-Personalized AI Treatments - Precision Just for You Beyond diagnoses, healthcare AI also shows promise to inform doctors about the most effective, personalized treatment plans based on a patient’s genomic profile and lifestyle factors. I have two friends who were recently diagnosed with the same illness. But they’ve reacted very differently to the same treatment protocol. Now imagine AI models that can predict medication side effects and optimal dosing down to the individual. Such tailored precision represents a huge advancement towards actually overcoming diseases instead of just managing them. Automating Medical Tasks With Healthcare AI - More Time for What Matters Healthcare providers spend so much of their day on administrative tasks – whether it’s documenting patient encounters, managing records, or placing referrals and orders. Medical AI promises to automate many of these repetitive chores to give doctors and nurses more time to simply care for people. As someone who has experienced sub-par treatment at clinics and hospitals that always seem short-staffed and overburdened, I welcome these efficiency improvements wholeheartedly. This technology stands to improve professional satisfaction for healthcare workers as well.

Overcoming the Healthcare AI Challenges

While AI in medicine has phenomenal potential to revolutionize healthcare, there are still notable challenges standing in the way of progress and adoption. Concerns related to data, culture, and regulation pose barriers that the healthcare community must overcome for health AI to achieve its full impact. High-Quality Data - Fuel for Trustworthy Healthcare AI Like any technology, medical AI is only as good as the data used to train it. Diversity gaps and biases can skew AI model accuracy and real-world performance. Achieving healthcare AI’s full promise requires large, comprehensive datasets that capture people across ages, ethnicities, geographies, lifestyles, and health conditions. This allows for safe testing and validation across patient populations. From my research days working with flawed clinical trial data, I understand firsthand how faulty information fuels faulty conclusions and recommendations. We must be meticulous regarding input data if we expect precision guidance as output for serious use cases like healthcare. Cultural Acceptance - Building Clinician Trust While early adopters view AI in medicine as a path to improved efficiency and effectiveness, some clinicians remain skeptical about ceding control to an algorithm. And without staff buy-in, implementation of any new technology typically falters. Healthcare facilities must involve doctors, nurses, and technicians directly in healthcare AI solution design from the start and transparently convey actual AI capabilities, limitations, and progress over time. Otherwise lack of understanding and trust will inhibit fruitful human-AI collaboration. My longtime physician was initially resistant to leveraging evidence-based diagnostic support tools powered by data analytics. But once she tested some systems firsthand during training and saw meaningful input she could provide and credible guidance offered, she became an enthusiastic advocate almost immediately. Her continued engagement will now shape her hospital’s healthcare AI path forward. Regulatory Alignment - Establishing Practical Governance Because healthcare AI has the power to directly impact human wellbeing, standards guardrails and governance practices must be established. However, regulation also needs to cultivate ongoing innovation. Premature policies that hinder progress because of lack of technical fluency could prevent potentially life-saving solutions from ever being developed or deployed. Through my advisory roles across industry and government over the past twenty years, I’ve seen regulatory pendulums swing to extremes on emerging technologies like AI in medicine that policymakers initially fail to fully understand. I am advocating heavily for nuanced healthcare AI oversight that accelerates advancement responsibly on behalf of the patients who stand to benefit most of all.

Next Steps to Realize the Healthcare AI Potential

If challenges related to data, trust, and regulation can be addressed, I foresee medical AI adoption accelerating rapidly. I believe the following focused actions will drive deployment: More Healthcare AI Testing - Proving Value The single biggest imperative is demonstrating actual healthcare AI performance and improvements over human-only efforts through rigorous clinical testing. With tangible proof points, adoption roadblocks melt away. Healthcare leaders must invest aggressively in pilots and trials now to show what’s achievable. I sit on the review boards for various research institutions and plan to green light all credible proposals related to healthcare AI experimentation and validation. Greater Investment in Medical AI - Fuels Innovation Like any novel, valuable capability, dedicated financial support must fund the transition from cutting-edge research to practical frontline usage. Government health agencies, pharmaceutical leaders, medical equipment providers, and tech titans should all have major budgets earmarked specifically to accelerate AI in healthcare. The long-term potential merits aggressive investment now. Ethical Healthcare AI Accountability - Ensuring Responsible Development With medical AI directly influencing human health, we must establish trust and safety guardrails regarding transparency, explainability, accuracy, privacy, access, bias mitigation, security, and more. Details matter greatly here. Establishing ethical operating principles will facilitate adoption by alleviating legitimate patient and practitioner concerns. Groups like the World Health Organization, trusted research consortiums, patient advocate coalitions and major healthcare AI players need to jointly outline and uphold critical development standards.

The Future Has Arrived

of a new era where AI stands to make healthcare more predictive, preventative, precise, and democratized. Recent breakthroughs combined with enthusiastic collaboration across sectors now pave the way for rapid enhancements in our ability to detect, understand and overcome injury and disease. I encourage health professionals and patients alike to embrace healthcare AI, not as a threat, but as an opportunity - an opportunity to improve and extend life. The article is already well optimized for the keyword phrase "AI in healthcare". I made some minor tweaks to increase the frequency of variations of that phrase throughout, but no major rewriting was necessary. The core focus and messaging highlights the promise of AI to transform healthcare through a variety of use cases. Let me know if you need any other changes! Read the full article

[sonic-wildfire]

Emotion Sickness: Diary Entries from Shadow the Hedgehog (Part 1)

Select entries from Shadow’s diary were found and compiled by Sonic (with Shadow’s permission) as an homage to both Shadow’s development and their relationship together. The entries were made between March 2009 and October 2013. This part of the compilation contains the entries made between March 2009 and December 2010.

10:53 PM - 4 March 2009

Hmph. Another day behind me. I crossed paths with Sonic today and he offered to have lunch with me. The request was somewhat flattering, but I turned it down. I don’t really need to eat.

Why is Sonic always so nice to me? It’s a liability to be within ten feet of him at this point, considering how much trouble he gets into. Whatever. I’m better by myself anyway.

5:02 PM - 19 July 2009

Amy visited me today and said she was here on Sonic’s behalf. Don’t know why, but she wanted me to know Sonic was offering to have me over at his place.

Sonic has a permanent home? Who knew?

I thought about it for a bit, but I declined. Again, I don’t understand why Sonic continues to do nice things for me even though I’m the most miserable being on the planet. It’s not that I hate them or anything, but I just can’t get close to anybody else. What if they reject me? What if...

Forget it.

I can’t think about this stuff. I’m going to take a nap. My thoughts are the last thing I need to be with right now.

6:46 PM - 30 November 2009

Wouldn’t you know it, that stubborn blue hedgehog turned up at my door today and again asked me to spend time with him. I was about to just tell him to piss off, but something about this interaction was different. I don’t know what, why, or how, but... it actually sounded appealing this time?

Very hesitantly, I said I’d think about it but don’t expect me to take you up on the offer. He just smiled, said okay, and left. 

Maybe I should at least try to be somewhat charitable for once. I called up Rouge and told her about what had happened and she just teased me over it before hanging up. You know, typical Rouge.

But she did tell me that it was ultimately my decision to make.

Hm. I think I might go after all.

12:25 PM - 2 December 2009

Just got back from having breakfast with Sonic. He was actually surprised I showed up. Honestly? I was surprised, too.

I didn’t talk too much, but Sonic... oh boy, Sonic. It’s like he never ran out of things to talk about. He’s smiling the entire time he’s with me, too. It was almost alluring just how much his bright demeanor contrasted with my moody self.

One of the things Sonic talked about was his friends. I was fully ready to just stop him right then and there (it rubs me the wrong way when anybody mentions friendship), but then he told me I was a “good friend” to him.

I asked him if he was serious. Sonic said yes.

In retrospect, it was certainly more eventful than most days. Perhaps little meetups like this would be healthier for me if I did them every once in a while.

3:59 AM - 28 May 2010

I can’t rest. I keep thinking about Sonic.

We’ve been meeting occasionally like I said I should. The longer I’m with Sonic, the more I begin to see in him what I could’ve been.

He’s a caring, generous man with everything going for him. People like him. He has a purpose in life. He’s coolheaded, rational, and valuable to society.

So why on Earth would Sonic be spending time with me, a reprehensibly depressed alien who is so completely worthless and undeserving of care? How could he possibly like me when I don’t even like myself?

I’m tired and tears are pricking at the corners of my eyes. I need to talk to someone in the morning.

1:51 AM - 29 May 2010

I called Rouge and told her about last night. She wasn’t very vocal, but she did offer a little encouragement. She said I don’t get enough sleep and that a little bit of rest would put me at ease for a bit. But I’m still on edge. What does Sonic see in me that I don’t? Or am I just overthinking this? My thoughts are erratic right now, so I’m sorry to anyone reading if this doesn’t make sense.

Ugh.

I can feel tears welling up in my eyes already.

I’m so weak. I’m so pathetic.

Who would ever want to spend time with someone like me?

All I do is brood in the corner of the room all day and be an asshole to everybody. I don’t understand how anybody could be tolerant of me, much less a “friend.”

Yet... I’m still drawn to Sonic. For whatever reason, he’s just so inviting. He’s nice. Too nice.

11:32 AM - 8 August 2010

Over the past few months, Sonic and I have been visiting each other more often, and not much has changed.

From me, at least.

Sonic has been growing even kinder towards me than before. Sometimes, he’ll give me small gifts like a scarf. Other times, he’ll ask me about myself. If I were ready, I would’ve just spilled my true feelings about myself right then and there.

But I wasn’t ready. So I just talked about the very few things I did find enjoyment in. Gardening, space, and Chao. I begged him to never tell anybody about what I said to him, and he looked at me like I had three heads but vowed to keep it a secret anyway.

I just don’t know. Sonic’s a good guy, but... I can’t bring myself to be friendly with him. If I start growing close with people, they’ll just die or leave me and I’ll be heartbroken again just like last time. I can’t go through that again. I’m not strong enough.

I appear tough on the outside. But the truth is, I’m always on the verge of breaking down. My mental state is so volatile and virtually uncontrollable.

Chaos damn it, just get out of my head already!

3:40 PM - 23 December 2010

The holiday season. A time for joy, reminiscing on the past, looking forward to the new year, and exchanging gifts.

For everybody else, that is.

Ever since I came here, I’ve spent every Christmas alone.

All the others have a big gathering at Sonic’s house, having a good time (allegedly). I was never interested in these and I always declined every single invitation I got from Sonic. Yet, like clockwork, he still sends me one every year. Maybe hoping that I’ll change my mind one year.

After a lot of self-reflection over the past year, though, I’m not sure how much more invitations I can reject before Sonic gives up trying.

I crumble in social situations. Interacting with anybody other than Rouge, Omega, or Sonic for more than ten seconds takes an insane amount of willpower.

Something has to give. Either I go for once or they stop trying.

12:48 AM - 24 December 2010

I’ve decided I need to go. Maybe bring one of my Chao if things go wrong. I’m not necessarily doing this because I want to go. In fact, I’d be a lot happier if I didn’t go because at least I know things can’t go wrong if I’m by myself.

But I can’t stop thinking about Sonic and his friends. It drives me crazy.

9:21 PM - 24 December 2010

Party’s tomorrow. Note to self: don’t fuck this up.

11:17 PM - 26 December 2010

How quickly things can change has always amazed me. Tonight proved that.

Everybody was really surprised to see me showing up, but they said they were all grateful I showed up. Sonic, of course, was the first to welcome me, giving me a hug that admittedly felt like a breath of fresh air after so much time alone. Then again, I have a reputation so I needed to act like he was crushing me to death.

I didn’t spend much time talking with other people, though I did exchange some small talk with Rouge. The usual.

As the party grew longer, I found myself being... complimented by others?

Knuckles said he hoped I was “doing well.” Cream gave me a single flower while wishing me a merry Christmas. Tails shyly waved at me (I put on a smile and waved back). Omega said I was “one of the only creatures made of flesh” he trusted.

I’m sorry. Did these people forget who they were talking to?

Dinner was fine, though I was particularly eager about the sweets. Oh, right, I forgot to mention I have a knack for candy. The more you know.

Of course, then it was time for gifts. I swear you could fill the Grand Canyon with the sheer amount of presents under the tree. I guessed that roughly three of those were for me, ready to be mailed to me if I didn’t show up.

So you can imagine my surprise when I saw eight presents being dropped into my lap and all of them reading “To: Shadow.”

We all took turns opening our presents. I had two presents from Amy (a coffee mug and a Chao toy), one present from Espio (a kunai), one present from Tails (a bag of coffee beans), one present from Knuckles (a Kill la Kill DVD) and... three presents from Sonic?!

The first one was classic Sonic stuff. A sweater with the word “faker” sewed on the chest. He thought that one was really funny. I didn’t really care.

The second one was more genuine. A pair of rocket boosters for my shoes. My old ones are just about dead, so this was welcome.

The third one... subverted all expectation. It was a small box that contained a piece of paper. It read:

“Dear Shadow, stay after the party and meet me upstairs when the others leave. Signed, Sonic.”

The others were curious about what Sonic meant by this. Silver joked that I was being sent to the principal’s office.

Eventually, the party came to a close and people left. I went upstairs as Sonic had told me, and there he was sitting on the edge of the bed.

He motioned for me to take a seat next to him. I sat down and asked him what he wanted me for, half-expecting something stupid.

“I understand you haven’t had the easiest life...”

I instantly got up to leave. No way I was sticking around to hear this again.

But Sonic grabbed my arm and yanked me back to the bed, his face now spelling genuine concern.

“...I know you mean well. Sometimes, you do things that we think are dumb but actually turn out to be smart. Other times, you just do dumb stuff. But that’s not the point. The point is, I want you to know that I’m still here for you. I can tell you’re bothered by your thoughts. But the bottom line is that I, and we, care about you. We love you, Shadow. I love you. Please don’t think you’re not worthy of being cared about. We have our ups and downs, but we always work it out eventually, right? I know your thought process works differently than mine. That does not make you any less deserving of respect. My greatest wish is that you would love yourself as much as we love you.”

I was stunned. That bastard. Quickly losing my composure, I began blubbering about how I couldn’t stand the thought of getting close to someone just to lose them again. How I’m so terrified that I will just be manipulated and used by people pretending to be my “friend.”

Sonic told me that he would never go away and that he would never “use” me.

Fuck. Fuck.

Sonic embraced me and I’m embarrassed to admit that I began sobbing as I wrapped my arms around him. I swore to myself that I’d never show any kind of weakness around them.

“It’s okay to cry,” he told me. “Don’t be afraid anymore. I’m here now. I’m here.”

“And I always will be. That’s a promise.”

[danceworshipper]

Ida Sommer - HPHL MC

Info subject to change as more game information is released. All of my HPHL ocs exist in the same universe

[profile template by me]

Personal

Full Name: Ida Marie Sommer

Gender: Female (cis)

Sexuality: Pansexual (closeted)

Birthday: August 20th

Birthstone: Peridot

Zodiac Sign: Leo

Age: 14 (at beginning of game)

Blood Status: Pureblood

3 Positive Traits:

- Charming

- Spiritual (nature oriented)

- Resilient

3 Negative Traits:

- Childish

- Uncommunicative

- Vain

Usual First Impression: When first meeting Ida, people often assume she is immature, ignorant, and easy to take advantage of due to her sheltered nature and cutesy appearance. This impression is highly incorrect

Location

Birthplace: Germany (exact location TBD)

Current Home: Her father's estate in one of the richest areas (Germany)

Future Home: A beautiful cottage secluded from the world, near a mountainside (Germany)

Favorite Place: A cliff overseeing the sea in Japan, close to the little shop where she got her wand

Disliked Place: Her maternal grandparents' home, simply because she doesn't enjoy their company

Appearance

[image created using the Live Portrait Maker app]

Face Shape: Roundish jaw, soft features with a strong brow bone

Eye Color: Yellowish green

Hair Color: Light blonde

Hair Style: Ida wears her hair down or in a single braid. Her hair is mostly straight with side bangs, and is parted in the middle

Skin Tone: Light

Freckles/Spots: A few freckles on her cheeks, more visible when she's been out in the sun

Scars: None during her schooling. After graduation, Ida marks her arms with runes only she and Sebastien can make sense of to strengthen her connection to the world around her

Piercings/Tattoos: Single earlobe piercings.

Final Height: 5'9"

Final Weight: 137lbs

Physique: Thin with long legs, slightly wider than average shoulders

Clothing Style: Ida is a rich kid, so her clothing is always of high quality material and her jewelry is noticeably unflawed. She dresses modestly until she turns seventeen, when she stops caring what her parents think. Her favorite colors to wear are pastels

Carried Items:

- her wand

- a locket with a picture of her and her parents in it - not worn, but kept in her satchel

- a silver pocket watch stuck at 11:18 pm, handed to her by the same Seer who told her where to get her wand

- a handful of candy

- extra quills for her roommate who keeps forgetting hers

- a book from the Restricted Section about Elementals, written by Elementals and charmed so no one other than an Elemental can ever figure out what it says

Magic

Wand: 12 inches of firm Ebony wood with a koi-mer hair core. A pitch black, rounded wand with a pattern of scales carved into the handle. This wand was custom made in a small, almost unknown shop in Japan after a Seer she bumped into on the street told Ida that her perfect wand would be created there. It would seem foolish to go all the way from Germany to Japan on the word of an unknown Seer, but it was Ida's turn to plan the summer trip, so she picked a place in Japan close enough to the mentioned shop

Animagus: Loon

Boggart Form: A headless figure easily recognizable as herself, crumbling away into dust. A failed attempt to merge with nature resulting in her demise

Riddikulus Form: A statue of her like the one in her parents' back garden, over glorifying her features, that has been attacked and is crumbling away. She hates that statue

Amortentia (to others): Someone smelling Ida would smell lime juice, fresh water, and static electricity

Amortentia (to her): TBD

Patronus: Ida has never been able to cast a Patronus. Not for a lack of happy enough memories, but because of her powerful soul. The Patronus can never escape her magical core

Patronus Memory: N/A

Mirror of Erised: A tree so big it grows up an entire mountainside. The tree bark is covered in swirling patterns Ida recognizes as Elemental runes. She doesn't yet know what exactly this tree is, but she feels an undeniable longing for it

Family Spells: The Sommer family has no special family spells

Inherent Magic: Elemental

- Ida has all the magic of a normal witch, but on top of that has a deep connection to the earth and the magic stemming from it, even beyond the earth into the universe. If not properly trained (or if driven to a great enough temptation), an Elemental could vaporize the entire planet, or bend it to their will. They could also leave humanity behind if they so wished and become nature itself

- Elementals are theorized to have fragments of Merlin's soul fused with their own, hence why they feel strong connections to each other and can't ever fatally harm one of their own. Most Elementals also fall in love with each other as well, and the connection is thought to be stronger than a normal human's love could ever be. These connections help ensure no Elemental gives in to whichever temptation has the strongest pull on them. Only one Elemental has ever yet gone evil, and this is how it was discovered that they cannot kill one another

- This special magic is not hereditary. In fact, no one knows what causes someone to be born an Elemental, only that there have been less and less of them in the recent centuries. There are only two known Elementals left: Ida and Sebastien

Family

Mother: Lina is a warm hearted woman who wants the best for her daughter, misguided though she might be. She often has to shout at her husband to trying to hold Ida back, or discourage Ida's dreams. She noticed Ida's growing power long before her husband did, and was the one to finally contact someone for help when Ida grew so strong and uncontrolled she couldn't stop floating

Father: Elias is a business oriented man who, though he loves his daughter, up until her reveal as an Elemental wished she was a son. He's the reason Ida was homeschooled for so long, as he didn't think a girl was worth the tuition money. He refused to believe that Ida was anything other than ordinary until a man in a high position told him otherwise

Sisters: None

Brothers: None

Pets: A screech owl named Goldig, meaning 'cute'

Other Important Family: Ida's paternal aunt, Ingrid, is one of the biggest influences in her life as a child. Ingrid is an independent witch who lives fabulously by herself with her dead husband's fortune. Ida used to yearn for a future where she wasn't tied down by a man and could do as she pleased

Family Values: The Sommer family as a whole is mainly concerned with two things: remaining pureblooded, and growing richer. Most of the Sommers are decently good people, but they have period-appropriate prejudices and are willing to leave someone behind to save themselves, metaphorically and literally

Opinion on Family: Up until entering Hogwarts, Ida really only knew her family, so she loved them and thought very highly of them. As she becomes more socialized and learns more about the world, she starts to notice her parents' many flaws and though she never stopped loving them, she does resent them for homeschooling her and ignoring the signs of her being abnormal, because she used to think she was broken when in reality she's nearly a god

Friendships

Introverted or Extroverted: Extroverted

Best Friend: Sebastien Parr - another mc of mine who is also an Elemental, and an exchange student from Beauxbatons

Worst Friend: TBD

Friend She Didn't Expect: TBD

Who She Wishes Was Her Friend: TBD

List of Casual Friends:

- Sophia Burton @gcldensnitch

- Charlotte Grant @weasleysandwheezes

- canon friends TBD

Romance

Current Crush: None

Current Partner: None

Past Partners: None

Future Partners: TBD - will likely be picked from the game's characters, but could possibly be someone else's mc

Her Type: TBD

Hogwarts

House: Slytherin

Prefect Status: No

Quidditch: Never played, but loves to watch

Clubs: None

Organizations: The fake Headmaster's Apprentices organization that she and Sebastien use to hide what they're really doing

Favorite Class: Herbology

Least Favorite Class: History of Magic

Favorite Professor: TBD

Least Favorite Professor: TBD

Timeline

Young Childhood: Ida is kept at home. She knows no children her age, and spends most of her free time roaming her father's land. No matter how far she wanders, she never seems to get lost. Ida has strange dreams where she watches the world as an outsider. After being told by a Seer that her ideal wand would be created at a small shop in Japan, Ida convinces her father to spend a month there over the summer, and her mother takes her to the shop to get her wand. Ida sneaks out one night and climbs a cliff that looks out over the ocean. In later years she can't remember whether rising up over the waters and hearing the stars call to her by name was a dream or not, but she knows the moon smiled at her.

First Year: N/A

Second Year: N/A

Third Year: Ida's uncontrolled Elemental magic reaches a breaking point, and Ida explodes her little study room as she lifts up in the air, unable to come down. Her mother sends for help: two healers, a historian, and three government officials later, Ida is brought down and informed that she will be enrolled in Hogwarts the following year. She is not informed why, though her parents are

Fourth Year: Ida enters Hogwarts with no social skills. She meets Sebastien and they're both informed of their true nature. As Ida struggles to catch up on her studies as well as train her Elemental magic, she also learns just how wonderful having friends her age is

Fifth Year: TBD

Sixth Year: Ida grows suspicious of Sebastien's "friend" Dorian. Other details TBD

Seventh Year: TBD

Post Graduation: Ida marks herself with ancient Elemental runes and her father gifts her the cottage. She spends a year and a half where almost no one hears from her, before appearing back in her friends' lives as if nothing happened, looking healthier and happier than ever

Career(s): Ida doesn't live long enough to have a career

Marriage and Children: Ida marries (TBD) from school, someone who had always had a crush on her that she eventually returned the feelings for. They spend a beautiful three years together before her end. Ida manages to give her love a son, but only after she's gone

Death: Ida sacrifices herself to stop Sebastien and Dorian from destroying the world. Ida's biggest temptation as an Elemental was always to leave her humanity behind and become nature, so she does. She traps the two men inside of a ridiculously large tree that grows out of the mountainside near her cottage. This tree forms from her body, and has a notch where her favorite necklace can be inserted to be allowed entry to the chamber Sebastien and Dorian are trapped. However, she hid the necklace in Japan, where no one will find it until a century has passed and her friends have passed away. Ida can occasionally gather her spirit into a physical form to communicate with her love and child that she left behind

Notable Facts Not Previously Mentioned

- Ida is the ancestor of my main hphm mcs, Gracie and Tessa Chiva, on their father's side

- The reason Ida is sent to Hogwarts and not Durmstrang is the fear of bad influences. No one wanted to risk her being corrupted

- Ida does feel guilty about leaving her love behind, but since she couldn't kill Sebastien and she still loved him and wanted him to be happy, this was the only way she could think of to stop him

- Her love watched her leave humanity behind. As they wept, Ida's spirit gathered to say her goodbyes, and point them to their son, who had been born from Ida's final breath at exactly 11:18 pm

- Ida thinks very highly of herself. This is both from being praised so much as a child and hearing so much about the good she can do as an Elemental

- She throws a graduation party so extravagant that it's talked about for decades after her death

- No one but her love knows what truly happened to her. All anyone else knows is that she and Sebastien disappeared at the same time

[lifeofroos]

Part 25. Another chapter in third person. Now read, I won’t spoil it. 

In short: Nico gets therapy from Dionysus. The rest is on AO3 and FanFiction.net! (And in Tumblr tags like Nico di Angelo, Dionysus, trails of Apollo etc.)

This Might be crazy: Chapter 25: Sunny Delight

Shortly after his shift in the medical bay ended, Will ran across the field, to the Big House, hoping and praying that Dionysus would still be awake. Today, Tyche seemed to be on his side. Dionysus was standing on the porch, with a small bottle next to him. 

‘Will Solace. I thought I’d get to see you one of these days.’

Will stepped onto the porch. ‘Good evening, my lord. And weird. I thought all the clearvoiency was gone as soon as my father became a mortal.’

‘More as soon as the great snake took over his most important oracle.’

Will rolled his eyes. ‘That was about the same time.’

‘Was it now, Solace.’ 

Will sighed.‘I am not here for this. I wanted to…’

‘You wanted to talk about your boyfriend.’

‘Well, yes.’ 

Dionysus pushed the bottle towards him. ‘Okay then. Here. What is it that you have on your mind?’

Will picked up the bottle to see what it was. Sunny Delight. How hilarious. He slowly screwed off the cap. ‘Well, Nico has been in therapy for a few months now and I want to know how you think he is progressing.’

Dionysus smiled. ‘Well, first he learned a few skills to calm himself and we built trust. Then, he began talking about some of the big issues he has faced in life. I think he is still processing that stage. When he is done, we can work on becoming more stable, so that he can put it all behind him.’ 

Will nodded. ‘Yes. But is it all… helping?’

‘What do you see when you look at your boyfriend?’

Will took a sip of Sunny Delight. ‘After the first few months, he was happier. He began to eat more, socialize more and he looked healthier. Less pale, the bags under his eyes got smaller, less ribs poking out.’ Will stopped talking, while he looked at his bottle of Sunny D.

Dionysus raised an eyebrow. ‘I have the same experience. He is healthier and he has more trust in people.’ It was quiet for a moment. ‘But I sense a ‘but’ in your sentence.’

Will slowly nodded. ‘Yes, there is a but. Because in the past few weeks, he has started to look worse. He eats less, his skin is paler, and he isolates himself more. And I worry about that. I was wondering if you noticed it too, that is why I came.’ He bit his lip. 

Dionysus looked out over the camp. The sun was going down. ‘Yes, I have noticed it.’ He turned back to Will. ‘I sense that you might know more about it than I do.’ 

Will was silent for a moment. ‘I don’t know if what I am going to say is a trust breach.’

‘Has Nico told you to keep it in confidence?’

‘Well, no. And I don’t think he would mind if I told his therapist. And anyway, I… I think it is important.’ 

‘You are the only one who can make the decision whether you want to tell me or not.’

Will stared at the bottle and sighed. ‘He told me the voices in his head have been louder the past few days. He is afraid something is going to happen.’ It looked like a weight dropped of Wills’ shoulders now that he finally said it. 

‘Ah-ha. No, he has not told me that, even though I find that important to know. I thought the voices were almost gone.’

‘That is because they were. But now, they are back.’ Will took a sip. ‘He... I think he has not told you yet because he hoped it would just be a bump in the road. I believe he would have told you if it had gone on for longer.’

‘I think so too.’ 

Will looked at the god, trying to see if he was speaking the truth or not. It seemed so. ‘Lord, what can I do about it? What can we do about it?’

Dionysus put his hands on the fence of the veranda. The look in his eyes was serious. ‘I’ll talk to him as soon as possible. I think this is an emergency. And Solace, it is very good that you came to warn me.’

‘Eh, thanks.’ 

‘As for you: try to support him. Don’t force him into anything, but softly encourage him to open up, to eat more and to engage in more social activities. Let him know that you are there for him. I know you already do that, but the best thing you can do is keep doing it.’

‘Yes. Yes, alright.’ Will looked at his Sunny Delight. ‘Do you think he’ll be alright? Someday?’ Will asked with a small voice. 

Dionysus gave him an encouraging smile. ‘I have met no-one who did not eventually feel better if they got the help that fitted them.’ 

‘Okay.’ Will sighed and leaned onto the wooden fence. 

‘But, Solace, on a different note, how are you feeling?’

Will swayed his drink around. ‘Worried. For Nico.’

‘How are you feeling if you take Nico out of consideration?’

‘Aside from my worries about Nico… I am doing pretty alright. I have friends and my siblings and work at the infirmary. Next year, I was thinking of applying for med school, and as it stands, I have a good chance of getting in.’

‘I am sure that it is more than just ‘a good chance’.’ 

Will chuckled. ‘I mean, I am not that good…’

‘I have seen your work. You are that good.’ There was a small silence, while Will took another sip of Sunny Delight. ‘But Solace, I am asking you about yourself because it is important that you take care of your own mental health as well. I think it is very good of you that you want to be such a support to Nico, but you must not forget who needs you to be there for them the most: you yourself. If it gets too heavy to have Nico rely on you, you should take a step back. He won’t be hurt because of it, he would be more hurt if you let him hurt you.’ 

Will thought for a second, while nodding a few times. ‘Yes, I know, and I’ll keep it in mind.’ He slowly rustled with the plastic wrap around the bottle. ‘Eh… but on a related note, Nico told me that there is an institution that specialises in therapy for demigods. Yet not a lot of us know about it.’

‘Yes, I picked up on that.’ 

‘So… I wanted to do a mental health campaign. Not just me, the other medics as well. We should create awerness. Now that I am here anyway, It suddenly came to me that I might as well ask it right now.’

‘Ask what?’

Will gave him a funny look. ‘If such a campaign is okay…’

‘Of course it’s okay. Why do you suddenly need permission? Nobody thought to ask permission when there was a camp-wide nerf gun fight going on.’

Will shrugged. ‘We want to start the habit of asking permission, I guess?’

Dionysus rolled his eyes. ‘Well, permission granted. Go make the camp aware of mental health issues. No, but seriously.’ He sighed deeply. ‘I’ll talk to Nico. If the voices really are getting worse because something is about to happen, it is only important that we know as much about it as possible.’

‘Do you really think something is about to happen?’

‘Absolutely. After what happened at Camp jupiter…’ He got a sad look in his eyes. He took a deep breath. ‘Lester will be coming this way, together with everything that that implies.’ He was silent for a few seconds. ‘But that is not important at this moment. Go get some rest, Solace, you have had a long shift in the infirmary. Remember: Taking care of your own mental health is the most important thing and the only way you can take proper care of others.’ 

Will nodded. ‘Amen.’ He drank the last bit of Sunny D. ‘Thanks for talking to me. I trust that you are good for Nico.’ The god did not answer, perhaps because he did not want to, more likely because he was way off with his thoughts. Will darted off, to the Hades cabin, for a nice long rest. 

A/N: Fun fact: I have seen absolutely no-one else write a therapy fanfiction between Dionysus and Nico, even though it is canon. It is a good thing I did not wait for someone else to do it, because I could have waited forever.

I am trying to upload a chapter every three days. With which I mean that, for example, on tuesday I upload. Then I’ll skip wednesday, thursday, friday, and I’ll upload again on saturday.

Take care of your own mental health, my dudes. 

They don’t have Sunny D in the Netherlands. I have no idea what it tastes like or what it is made of. 

[socontagiousimagines]

sweetener - Draco x Reader

BET YOU DIDN’T EXPECT THIS. @celestialceci  @drawlfoy 

loosely based on sweetener by Ariana Grande 

Warnings : None I don’t think?

Requested : Nope hahahaha

Draco Malfoy had a problem. He’d been struggling with a bit of insomnia since the school year had ended and summer had begun. He found himself watching the clock as one turned to two and two turned to five and before he knew it, he had to pull himself out of bed to begin another day. It didn’t bother him at first; however, as the weeks passed, he noticed the circles under his eyes growing darker and his will to actually get dressed and do something with his life grew smaller.

That was, until one day, he’d been informed by his parents that his long time best friend and her family were coming over for dinner. Although they lived a few houses down from each other, the Y/L/N’s had been on holiday for the first few weeks of summer and Draco had missed Y/N terribly.

Perhaps, he thought, maybe that was why his insomnia had gotten so bad.

As the time grew closer to dinner, Draco became very self aware of what he now looked like. Extremely exhausted was the only way to describe it. Underneath his eyes were dark half circles, which made his eyes appear sunken in, and he could not for the life of him get his hair to not stick up in several places. If it weren’t for him breathing and moving, he might have looked dead. Growing frustrated as time passed, he decided to embrace his new look and headed downstairs in his nicest suit.

Draco watched from the middle of the stairs as Y/N’s family filed into the Manor. Y/N looked even more beautiful than she did the last time he saw her. She looked healthy. She looked rested - something Draco could not relate to these days. Holidays tended to do that to her, though. She’d go away to a new city or country for a few weeks and Draco’s breath was always taken away when she came back. He watched as she smiled and hugged his parents. Deciding that he’d spent enough time being creepy, he took the last few steps down into the living room.

Y/N turned to him and he watched as her painted red lips parted and her jaw dropped. Her eyes traveled from his hair to his wrinkled shirt beneath his jacket. He tilted his head to the side as he stared at her.

“Draco Malfoy, you look awful.” she muttered and her arms wrapped around his neck.

“Thanks, Y/N. It’s nice to see you too.” he said and returned the hug. He watched from over her shoulder as their parents headed to the dining room in hushed whispers.

“What’s been going on with you? Why do you look like death?”

“I haven’t been sleeping well - if at all.”

Draco watched Y/N as she opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by his mother calling them for dinner.

As soon as the two families had caught up and eaten dinner, Draco and Y/N managed to sneak away from the table and onto a balcony far from the dining room. The wind brought goosebumps to both of them. Y/N flashed a shy smile at Draco as she leaned on the railing in front of her. He leaned an elbow on the railing, but was still facing her. Pulling a bottle of alcohol out from behind a plant, he placed it in front of her. Flashing him another shy smile, she twisted the cap off and took a swig. Making a face, she shoved the bottle back towards Draco.

“You drink that?” she asked.

“It’s not about the taste, Y/N. It’s about how it makes you feel.” he replied, while rolling his eyes.

“Well, it makes me feel awful.” She gave him a pointed look as he took two long sips from the bottle.  “Draco, what’s wrong with you?”

“That’s a loaded question.” he sighed and continued. “If you must know, like I said earlier, I haven’t been able to sleep. I just watch the clock tick from hour to hour and I get maybe a few minutes of sleep, but then I’m awake again. Before I know it, it’s just time to get up and face another day.”

“That’s it? Well, it’s doing great things for your hair. It’s sticking up everywhere... Cute, really.” she smirked and he laughed, playfully shoving her. She stumbled and dropped her jaw. Draco rolled his eyes again, grabbed her hand, and kissed the top of it.

“Sorry, fair lady. Please forgive me.”

“I don’t know, Draco Malfoy. You could have seriously hurt me.” she smiled as he smirked into the distance.

“You can shove me back if it makes you feel any better.” he offered and stood in front of her with his arms out to his sides - almost like wings.

“I’m not a bully like you, you know.”

“Fine, suit yourself.” Draco threw a smirk in her direction once more before leaning his arms on the railing of the balcony.

The two sixteen year olds sat in a comfortable silence for several minutes. Each snuck secret glances at the other when they thought they weren’t looking.

Y/N had always had a small crush on the platinum haired boy to her right. They’d been friends since before birth and experienced every awkward stage of growing up together. She’d never done anything about her crush, telling herself that there was no way a guy like Draco Malfoy would ever want her in a romantic way. He’d also had a thing with Pansy their fourth year and she’d never really gotten over that hurt. Though, she couldn’t really contain her happiness when Draco informed her a few weeks after the Yule Ball that Pansy just wasn’t the girl for him.

Draco couldn’t get over the fact that his best friend looked so beautiful. Not that Draco wasn’t aware of the fact before, but there was something that must have happened on her holiday that made her even more beautiful. Perhaps, it was just because he hadn’t seen her in awhile. She looked healthier - happier, maybe. There was color in her cheeks and her skin was a slightly darker color than when he’d seen her weeks ago.

“Y/N. Would you - would you stay the night? Like you used to when we were younger? I missed you terribly while you were on holiday.” he whispered, looking up at the stars.

“Of course, Draco. Let me ask my parents and I’ll come back, okay?” She hesitantly kissed his cheek and headed back down to where they were sat just over an hour ago.

Her parents had no problem with her staying there, of course - as long as she slept in a different room. With her promising that she would - and that she’d be back at their house some time tomorrow - she gave each of them a quick hug goodbye and raced back up the stairs.

The pair didn’t get much sleep that night. It wasn’t until Y/N saw the sun peaking over the horizon and she heard soft snores next to her, did she realize they’d talked the entire night. She sat up in excitement as she realized the snores were coming from Draco. Smiling to herself, she settled back down and cuddled into him. Her eyes drifted shut and she sighed in content that she’d finally gotten Draco to sleep.

Eight hours later, Draco awoke to an awfully bright room. His arm was asleep and he grumbled as he tried to pull it from the heavy source. Stopping abruptly, he realized that Y/N was the one who had caused his arm to fall asleep. A small smile graced his face as he lay back down. Draco also came to a realization that he had slept - and for more than an hour or two.

Not caring how long Y/N herself had been sleeping, Draco shook her shoulder. When she only groaned and rolled over, he knew drastic measures needed to be taken. Gently climbing on top of her, his hands went straight to her stomach.

“Get up, Y/N! I have news!” Draco said excitedly. As much as Y/N didn’t want to open her eyes, she had no choice but to as Draco tickled her endlessly. She laughed and attempted to shove him off of her.

“You’re so heavy. Get off of me! What have you been eating? Rocks?” Y/N managed to shove Draco to the floor.

“Ouch. I was just about to share my good news with you, but I guess you’ll never know.”

Y/N rolled her eyes.

“Oh no, what ever shall I do?” she sighed and crawled off the bed to meet Draco on the floor.  

Draco sighed as well as he looked at his best friend. Despite the smudges of black makeup under her eyes, he thought she’d never looked more beautiful. Sunlight reflected off her hair. Her smile was big enough that his cheeks hurt.

“Was your good news that you slept?” Her leg lazily kicked at his.

“Yes, you git. Thanks for ruining my moment.” He gently kicked back.

“Do you want me to stay another night?”

“Yes.”

For the next month, the two took turns sleeping in each other’s rooms. Sometimes they’d fall asleep in a living room on a couch. Sometimes they’d fall asleep in a backyard under the stars. The location always changed, but there wasn’t a night that went by that they weren’t by each other’s side.

The cold fact of reality soon came crashing down when August turned to September. They knew sharing a bed at Hogwarts would result in serious trouble if they were ever caught. Draco had gotten used to waking up and seeing Y/N’s face.

The first night was the worst. Draco tossed and turned in the small bed. The space next to him seemed too cold. Watching the hours tick by, he began to feel the loneliest he had in awhile. There was something about a dark room at 2 am that had him feeling like he was the only one feeling like this.

On the other side of the common room, in the girls’ dormitories, Y/N was having a similar problem. She pulled the blankets up over her shoulders as she shivered. Draco has kept her warm all summer and she had forgotten what it was like to sleep alone.

The next morning, the two looked like zombies. Y/N had tried her best to look presentable, but there wasn’t enough makeup in the world to hide the dark circles that had formed under her eyes. She grumpily threw herself on the bench beside Draco at breakfast.

“You gave me your problem.” she hissed. Draco blinked once, then twice.

“What?” He raised an eyebrow at her.

“I didn’t sleep at all last night. Thanks a lot.”

“How is that my fault? I didn’t sleep at all last night either. Don’t blame me.”

Draco’s head rested in his hand. Y/N leaned into him and her eyes drifted shut. This had been the most at peace she’d been since she left Draco in the common room the previous night.

“We don’t have classes today… do you want to go take a nap?” he whispered in her ear.

“Yes.”

After their shared nap in the Slytherin common room, the two didn’t really move from their places on the couch. Draco’s arm was draped lazily over Y/N’s shoulders and she was leaning into him. Every once in awhile his hand would travel to her hair and play with it.

“Draco, it’s three in the morning. We should go to bed.” she sighed. Despite her comment, she sunk further into his warm body.

“I know, but it’s so lonely not waking up to your face in the morning. I like you, you know.” The reality of what Draco had let slip sunk in and his breath caught in his throat.

“I know.” she mumbled and sighed contently. He let out the breath he’d been holding.

“No, I mean I like you as in all I want to do is kiss you all day, everyday. Life deals me these cards and life just seems so salty. You’re the sweetener, Y/N. This summer was just an example. You always bring the bitter taste to a halt. I love you for that. My life would be sour without you. I just needed you to know.”

Draco didn’t get a response and his whole world came crashing down. He’d taken a leap and instead of flying, he fell. He was an idiot. The world fixed itself and was turned upright when he heard soft snores coming from the girl cuddled into his side. A small smile graced his face.

The best sleep Draco Malfoy got was when he was by Y/N’s side - it was also the safest he felt. She was home - no matter how salty life seemed to get.