#Get them some therapy stat

[gumdropgundham]

The main reason I stopped posting that milgram analysis is that I realized I just voted everyone( except for kotoro obviously) innocent. Like none of these people are evil. None of them deserve to die. They need Therapy and hugs

[silvantransthranduiltrash]

Finwe, Ingwe, Olwe, and Elwe (The -We’s) are all emotionally stunted and have untreated PTSD.

Seriously though, most of their subjects don’t realize it because they were born in valinor/the girdle, while the -we’s were born before the valar discovered the elves.

Let me tell you what indicates that the -we’s are emotionally stunted.

In the girdle/valinor, the elves were safe for the first time in existence. And this safety allowed them to focus on fostering positive and emotionally healthy relationships with one another because they no longer needed to fear death around every corner. For once, whole families could grow together with no chance of a member being killed due to the darkness. The elves even had time to foster skills and explore at their leisure, instead of being solely focused on “survive, survive, survive”.

All in all, this means that those who were born/grew up in valinor/the girdle were the first elves with the chance to grow up emotionally healthy, with proper communication and relationship skills. Because they actually have the time and energy needed to learn these skills.

The -we’s (finwe, ingwe, olwe, and elwe) however, were born and grew up during a time where they were in constant survive mode, fight or flight. Their priority was living to see another day, and they likely were surrounded by constant death/disappearances of their family members/people they cared about. AND while the elves may have spawned in cuvinan fully grown, they still have absolutely no life experience then, nor did they magically know how society and their fellow elves worked.

They essentially had the cognative function of an adult, yet were as dumb as babies, because they didn’t just immediatly know everything. They had to figure everything out. Like cave men, kinda. So yeah, these first elves are absolutely useless when it comes to being emotionally healthy and well developed. It wasn’t until they were safe (in the girdle/valinor) that they really started to develop society as a whole, with kings and queens and governments, etc. Before that, they had a loose-ish leadership going on. Heck, the -we’s only really became the leader bc they were the first to follow the valar.

Now, you’re probably wondering “well what about the other elves that went on the great journey? Are they emotionally stunted to?” Probably to some extent, but the -we’s are by far the worst. And the reason is because they are the kings (I guess Miriel probably also falls in this category).

No one’s going to go up to the leader of a nation and say “hey, you need therapy”. That and the pressure of being perfect leaders means that they never got the chance to really become emotionally healthy and be able to form healthy relationships with their family, because they couldn’t admit that they weren’t perfectly mentally healthy in the first place.

Now, why is it important that finwe, ingwe, olwe, and elwe are emotionally stunted? What affect does it have on the story/silmarillion? Well-

*points at Miriel breaking down and fading*

*points at finwe’s crap handling of his family*

*points at elwe’s crap handling of his family/people* *in all honesty, his refusal to make peace with the noldor might be a result of his pre-valar’s arrival all-or-nothing survival drive* (don’t get me wrong, I still think he was dumb for some acts, but somethings I understand)

*idk a lot about olwe or ingwe, but olwe’s fear of returning to the pre-great journey days would explain his refusal to allow feanor the boats*

So I guess what I’m saying is that finwe, ingwe, olwe, and elwe (and Miriel) are emotionally stunted and have untreated ptsd from the days before the valar arrived, and no one’s forcing them to go to therapy bc 1. They’re kings and 2. Most elves (especially those born in valinor/the girdle) probably don’t even realize they have it, and it resulted in a lot of problems.

Side note: this either means that the silvans/avari/cirdan’s people are either the most emotionally healthy as a whole OR the most emotionally stunted. For the sake of my feral silvan au, I’m going with stunted, yet acutely aware of other elves’ emotional needs.

[letbuckfuck]

.

[quietwingsinthesky]

oh my god even doesn’t know how to write

[drunktuesdays]

everyone is fucking but no one is horny

one of my twitter friends recently said that if she could order up a fic it would be a story written by someone who has only ever read the classics, 1.5 star trek novelizations, and their mother's romance novels from 1970, written about two people are so out of their minds horny for each other it causes them to make the absolute worst choices anyone's ever made.

and i almost lost my mind laughing because i do know exactly what she means. there is a weird vibe i can sometimes sense within the first few paragraphs a fic that really bums me out. it's almost like i can tell the author is thinking way too much about what i'm thinking about their id and it's suddenly like we're all suddenly wondering how riding a bicycle works when we're mid-ride. when you start worrying too much audience interpretation or how a fic is going to do or play or ugh marketability, it genuinely adds some weird self-conscious distance to whatever you're doing. and it's the pits from the reader side because it removes so much horniness from your story even if the idea you have is genuinely good! i know this is not a niche complaint--you find it literally everywhere as every sector of the creative internet gets #content-ed and people can't escape the stats of how any given creative outlet does.

but god there's literally nothing better than sitting down and reading some freaknasty person's art where they do not give a single shit if you like it. they had something to say and my god they were gonna say it. i've accidentally acquired so many kinks by clicking on a story where someone took me on the most insane ride of my life and i thrilled about it. i don't wanna read about polite normal regular love. i don't wanna read about people using therapy-speak on each other. i wanna read about two people feeling the biggest craziest feelings of their entire life and they cannot do anything about it except bang it out. what else are we doing here? if they're not fucking down an entire house, well jed i don't even wanna read it.

[phantasiiae]

When all of this is over, I will be surprised if I am still living.

Dion doesn't say that out loud, though, instead offering Joshua a small smile and giving his hand a squeeze. "I'm sure we will. Sanbreque is in need of an emperor now, and...while I don't see myself entirely worthy, I suppose I'll have to take my place eventually," he murmurs, his brow furrowing. It's easier to pretend that he intends on having some kind of future instead of acknowledging that he doesn't plan on returning.

"I would like you to remain in my life. We were apart for far too long, I think," he muses, laughing softly and then sighing. "It means everything to me, being your friend."

Joshua offers a small smile, though it faded beneath the heavy emotions that hung in the air between them. There was so much more he could have done for Dion, to save him from his Mother's awful schemes... He should have been quicker in Twinside. Eighteen years of recovery and hiding in the shadows and allowing thing to become this bad...

When Dion's hand came to rest on his, Joshua looked down and simply studied the shape of Dion's hand. "I am glad that I could be helpful to you. I hope I can continue to be so."

"When all of this is over, I'm sure we will remain close friends."

[schakira]

Here are some details. (Balance Patch 2, March 8th 2023)

Double Jump (Can be upgraded to gain additional jumps. Has no limit cap.)

Stamina wheel (Can be upgraded to last longer. Recharges quickly.)

3-slot Inventory (An invisible storage. Their total weight is added to you. Can be upgraded to gain just one more slot.)

No Fall Damage up to 10 times your height. Anything above that will still you damage like normal. (Edit 2: NERFED AGAIN.)

Actually Useful Tips from a side character that is with you 24/7. (Edit: Clarification — They will not be doing anything other than giving you really useful tips.)

5mn long Loading Screen when you travel around so it feels like you're instant travelling (You're not. You're zoning out until your destination. Your body remains in stasis during that period, i.e. you can't get old, hungry, or die.) (works for wait times)

QTE (time slows a bit whenever something critical happens. Gives you more time to think. upgrades will make you slightly faster in slowed-time. Only 2 upgrades available.) (EDIT: BUFFED. A Necessary buff.)

Multiple Dialogue Choices (gives you recommended replies during every interactions you have, with approval ratings in percentages next to them.)

View stats (View the stats of anyone and anything, including yourself. "Stats" include anything that can be measured, something quantifiable. INT and WIS for example do not exist. But the weird stats like the amount of neuron connections one has? yeah sure that shows up.)

Health potion (Instantly heal anything a doctor/surgeon/medicine/time can fix. You only get 4 potions.) (EDIT: Clarification — This does indeed include therapy. What else could be healed, I let you choose at your own discretion, so long as it's not death.)

Skip. (You can force people to skip their dialogues and immediately retain info. If upgraded, will work on practically anything that requires you to wait — as in you can force skip a red light to turn green. Or force skip a book to read it quickly. Does not work on the concept of time itself - That's the loading screen's job.)

Achievments (Ex. : Congrats, you've pooped 100 times in one month! Includes % of humanity having the same achievment. + You gain a plastic/bronze/silver/gold/platinum trophy based on the achievement's rarity.) (Edit: BUFFED — you can sell those trophies!)

[weebsinstash]

I keep thinking of some darker yandere Vox ideas themed around hacking and his hypnosis abilities just because, idk, his obsession developing into the desire to control or pry into your most intimate of parts has been hitting different lately

-I mean, just. Right off the bat could you even imagine dating Vox for a while but being too shy to sleep with him yet and one day he decides he's "helping you" by completely overriding your free will and you're trapped in your own head watching and feeling as you lie on your back as he does whatever he wants. He treats it all intimate and special and it makes you wanna throw up meanwhile he's talking about, how like, 'oh, he was just helping you because you're so anxious, you two shared an intimate moment, he's never been so close to anyone before--'

- sorry, I've just been on soulmate shit so hard lately, so: soulmate Vox with a computer/smartphone/tech Reader and he's just incredibly um "emboldened" by the fact that "you guys match", and the whole, "belonging together" thing. You're his soulmate, and you guys should be sharing everything, right? :) what's your social media? Let him see your friends lists. You don't mind if the hacking stuff also extends to technology stuff outside of your control like peeping at your private DMs right? Oh, do you have the ability to connect your phone with yourself, or other devices with yourself? Better be careful leaving your wifi signal open; he just might jump into it

-Vox installing a virus inside you that tracks your location and things like your heartbeat, oxygen levels, and the current overall state of your body and all its parts. He's basically constantly looking at your... your fucking Sims stats. Are you hungry, tired, horny?

-I mean. When you really consider the possibility of "Reader/Vox are tech and certain human attributes can now be physically altered or modified", that can be both cool and horrifying in of itself. It could really be taken to extremes. Vox doing something to upset you and forcing you to forget about it by hacking into and deleting your actual fucking memories. Deletes memories of friends he doesn't want you hanging out with. Deletes memories of anyone he doesn't like you liking or admiring. Vox trying to forcibly install programs inside of you that can control or influence your personality

-been thinking about how Vox is from the 50s and has electrical powers and how he could in theory personally give you electro shock therapy or could be in favor of having it done to you professionally. If you're a robot like him, he could basically, EMP you and knock you out if he thinks you're "getting hysterical". I just often have ideas about how him and Alastor are from time periods where they threw people into hospitals or medicated people to control them to some real extreme degrees and methods and how this environment might manifest in their behaviors, actions, and opinions

-like me the idea of, you're already in a consensual relationship with him but you're still a little shy but, like, you're happy with him, but, he's so, You Know, that he decides that he just HAS to know more about you and hacks into you or does horrible shit anyways. Plugs into you while you're sleeping to look at your memories or even thoughts if he's worried you're hiding something from him, or even kind of worse, he just. Wants to know everything about you and what's inside your head, including all sorts of menial questions and wanting to know any sorts of habits or preferences or favorite things you have. He's juat utmost violating your body in genuinely the worst possible way by getting inside your actual mind and looking at whatever he wants and it's ranging from, he wants to see why you've seemed kind of anxious lately, to, he wants to know the best way to propose to you, to, he wants to make sure you're not cheating on him (without even the slightest clue to hint you are, he's just genuinely possessive and paranoid), to... wanting to know your favorite foods, colors, what shows do you watch clothes you like: it either becomes a slippery slope of him escalating how invasive he is Or he's just immediately feeling entitled to know everything from the get go

-so I personally don't have any experience in this sort of thing but apparently it can be a pretty big thing between couples that some people REALLY Do Not Like their partners watching porn and I can't help but think of, Reader who is either a new consensual partner/soulmate of Vox or a reluctant one and he's, insulted to find out you've been jacking it to like other people rather than sleeping with him. I'm talking "he's going through your search history" levels of creeping on you about this. He won't stop until he knows Every Single Fetish You Have and he'll use that knowledge against you, either to seduce you or just kind of shame you for not coming to him. Maybe there's even kinks you have he doesn't agree with so now he's like, violating your privacy AND judging you for things you aren't even public about

-you don't even have to be a robot and he has his hypnosis powers so... I also think about... Vox who forces his darling to calm down because you're not "cooperating" aka letting him/whomever else touch you, whether it's him forcing you to also put up with Val, or you're with Vox and Alastor, just Vox being able to completely rob your control of any situation, even nonsexual ones, forcing you to cuddle or try on certain clothes or answer certain questions. He's a greedy insecure egomaniac who's convinced he can buy/force your love no matter what as long as he keeps trying and obsessively finding out every single thing about you. He's pathetic. He's the kinda guy where if he's spying through his drones and catches you with another guy it upsets him so bad he's crying and stalking the dude's entire social media, finding out his name, his address, vowing to ruin his life, sobbing as he screams 'why don't you love me' kind of shit, but, to your face he'll try and be the perfect businessman to sell the image of the ideal partner and eventually husband

[fairyhaos]

ෆ 2023 WITH FAIRYHAOS: A YEAR IN THANKS

hii there, and yes, this is one of those 'my 2023' year reviews, but make it a letter of thanks to everyone (literally everyone) who i'm thankful for this year—and get ready, because it's a long list.

but first, some stats!

the fairyhaos account was opened 239 days ago (as of new year's eve)

and yet somehow, we have a total of 2877 followers already

i've made 35 moots in this time,

written 143 works and made 13 gifsets,

with my most popular work having 3.7k notes (that's literally insane)

i've made 5.7k+ posts, screamed about joshua for over 500 of them,

and somehow, racked up a total of 106.8k notes! (you guys are crazy. thank you so much)

and so all in all, this has been a crazy year, statistics-wise, but it all truly wouldn't have been possible without all of you.

so... onto the thanks!

first of all, i have to thank the entirety of our moots server, because you guys are loveliest, funniest, most deranged and delusional souls i have ever met, and i'm endlessly grateful to have met you. thank you, everyone! @blue-jisungs @eternalgyu @etherealyoungk @haecien @hannieheartuu @hannyoontify @icyminghao @idubiluv @kyeomyun @mirxzii @rubywonu @slytherinshua @weird-bookworm @wheeboo <3

and then to my incredibly talented cc moots: you guys are literally all so amazing. every time i see your content, you can bet that my eyes are going wide and i'm whispering a small "wow" to myself bc what you all create is so so amazing. thank you for being moots, even if we don't create the same type of content! @ajusnice @fabulaee @goblinvern @h-ao @jeonsupershy @joshuas @seokmins @soonhoonsol @woozis @wonufied @y-ves <3

of course, moots who i unfortunately don't talk to often, i can't forget you! i talk to u guys with varying degrees of frequency, but i love you all so so much and i'm literally so so grateful that we're friends! @aravrs @boosari @gyuswhore @joonsytip @leejungchans @mesanthropi @odxrilove @reikaryu @trblsvt @the-therapist-needs-therapy @wonwoonlight <3

but there's no way i'm forgetting everyone else! to @amxlia-stars , @welcometomyoasis , @wonijinjin and @kittyhuii , thank you guys for having fed my (everlasting) joshua brainrot at one point or another! to @haowrld , @lvlystars , @thepoopdokyeomtouched , thank you for talking with me even if we're not moots! and @sweet-like-caramel , @minhui896 , thank you for being so sweet and supportive of my works <3

to my named anons: 🎐 anon, 🍒 anon, 🐾 anon, thank you so much for loving me enough to pop into my inbox with ur own cute emoji :) and to the named anons who revealed their names, thank you and thank you for feeling comfortable enough to tell me who you are as well <3

and to my unnamed anons, to the anons who came in and wrote one ask before leaving, and to the anons who come back but without any emoji: i see you! and i'm thankful for you interacting with me <3

also thank you to you—yes, you, lovely followers, because even if you and i don't talk, i'm endlessly grateful that you liked me and my work enough to follow!

to everyone who's interacted with my work in one way or another, thank you so much, and i hope to provide more content for you in the future!

2023 has been a crazy year, both for me personally and also the fairyhaos account, and i've only been able to get to this stage right now because of all of you, and for that i'm truly thankful.

happy new year everyone, and i hope you are all nothing but happy and healthy in 2024 💗

[redysetdare]

No you're so right I fucking hate the "aces have it so much better than aros" part of the community. Just because more people know the word asexual than aromantic doesn't mean aces are treated better than aros by the society?? More people know the word asexual yes, but they don't really understand what it means to be on the asexual spectrum, and they try to paint us in the worst light possible. That's like saying binary trans people have it much better than nonbinary people, or trans women have it much better than trans men due to more visibility. Some people in the aro community want there to be a hierarchy of non-aro aces > aroaces > non-ace aros so bad because they just want to be acephobic and get away with it. And they're barely even hiding that anymore nowadays.

Sorry for this angry rant, sometimes it just feels like everyone, even other aspec people absolutely despise aroaces.

I really need people to acknowledge that a group being more visible does not make them more accepted or better treated than a group that is invisible. You think we'd learn this after this argument has been used against so many identities but noooope. I guess not. The thing is that visibility can still be bad because being visible to your oppressors just makes you an easier target. the words homosexual, gay, and lesbian were all known way before asexual and you know what that visibility did? it mostly got them targeted and attacked - especially by laws and the medical field. Autism is a label that's been known for decades and people STILL treat Autism like a bad word and a terrible thing to be labeled.

People are just starting to figure out the word asexual and they are using that to actively target asexuals. The Ace discourse era around 2016 was AWFUL and it was because people learned the term asexual and decided we were just "Straight people trying to be special" or "incel freaks" or "Just sad virgins" It was considered cool and fun to mock and harass asexuals. it was common for people to create fake ace blogs to make us look bad. There are still dog whistles being posted around that mock and belittle asexuals that people treat as silly jokes. People still tell aces to shut up and not complain. People who harassed aces of tumblr act like their part in the ace discourse era was just a quirky little thing they did and not a genuine issue that they refuse to acknowledge and any ace who brings it up gets told to get the fuck over it.

It ignored the fact that asexuals have the highest stat in conversion therapy. it ignores the stat that corrective rape happens majority to asexuals. it ignored the fact that many asexuals end up getting broken up with or divorced for being asexual because so many people are unwilling to compromise in a relationship that isn't sexual. Many Aces feel forced to have sex with their partners because not doing so gets them labeled as abusive. Asexuality is still considered by most doctors to be a disorder that needs to be fixed and so it can be dangerous to bring it up lest your doctor actively try to focus on it as a main issue. Therapists assume your asexuality is a trauma response and may aces have to keep their asexuality under wraps lest their therapists start to focus only on that instead of their other issues. Yes, people know the term asexual. But that does not mean they Accept asexuals. some people use the knowledge of that term to target and attack asexuals.

No one has it better. we all just face different issues and to claim one group is some how more accepted than another is naive at best and outright malicious at worst and genuinely some of these people are getting way to close to repeating ace discourse era arguments and it's really getting to me because the call SHOULD NOT be coming from INSIDE THE FUCKING HOUSE.

[mascotheres]

Is there any fun facts about Piper, Opal, Miguel, and Lavie? :>

YES YEES YES :)

ahem. anyways

FUN FACTS ABOUT FOUR OF THESE.

Piper is the type of girl who would do picnics with people, and the one who would bake the cookies for stuff would be Sprout/Cosmo whom often helps her with the picnic!

Piper relationship with Opal are mutual/fear of since Opal often gets constantly cheered up by Piper, he does not know how to respond properly. Meaning Opal might fear Shelly too.

Piper hates writing since she often messes up the spelling which can make her tad irritated.

Opal's best friend is the worm called "Woomy" whom is living inside his head.

Opal speech is quite slurred. Since he's constantly feeling Woomg inside his head tingling, he oftens feel tingle which slurs his word.

Opal's personality is supposedly to be same as OWAKCX. But i scrapped it and make Opal less like OWAKCX. Still, he have some of his antic.

Opal last name is Bauble.

Miguel does not like Opal, he often thinks Opal needs a Therapy.

Miguel gets anxious when he made a mistake, Lavie often comforts him.

No, Miguel is not Cuphead or Mugman's brother. No relation to them or whatsoever.

Miguel often tell how he feels to Lavie since He is the only one whom he can trust.

Lavie often had to make himself as a side therapy to everyone, Making their feelings comforted and Valid.

Lavie design especially the bandage in his eyes are meant to be there. it has nothing to do with any injuries, It resembles that hearts can be healed with care since he is the type of a toon who tend to be taking care of their injury.

Lavie tend to constantly look after Opal and Boxten, Making themselves feel safe as possible

Now the Main and non Mains stats cause i never stated it!!

Non mains

Piper and Opal

Mains

Lavie and Miguel

[specialmedicalcentre]

Soon-Mi's ICU Visit

We loved doing this collab, many thanks to our partner for making it happen. Words by medical_ai_pics - show them some love over on IG! For those who don't know, we also have a previous collab with them in a character.ai medical chatbot. Check that out as well! Read on for Soon-Mi's story. =====

“You’re alright miss…. just keep breathing.” The muffled and masked voice of nurse Emily was calm, but stern. Soon-Mi sat in a reclined stretcher in a busy hospital ward, holding an oxygen mask to her face and gasping like her life depended on it. Probably because it did.

“Pneumonia’s not being shaken. SpO2 still at 92% even on a non-rebreather.” Nurse Emily says to a medical student, Hannah, nearby. Soon-Mi, her hand drenched in cold sweat, claws at the mask and pulls it down to her neck. “I… ack… I’m a bit.. scared.” She wheezes, her lips turning blue from the effort. Nurse Emily firmly pushes the mask back up. “Don’t remove that. Hannah, go grab a BP cuff and some electrodes. We need a clearer picture, not just some pulse oximeter on her finger.”

Hannah rushes off as Nurse Emily unties Soon-Mi’s drenched gown. “Alright honey… it’s all okay, just be calm”. Hannah soon comes back, her naive eyes eager. “Got them…”. Nurse Emily places the electrodes over Soon-Mi’s drenched breasts and neck, and Hannah puts the BP cuff on her arm and another on her thigh. They begin to inflate and tighten as tears prick Soon-Mi’s eyes.

Nurse Emily begins to read the readings as they come through. “It’s not good. BP is collapsing, and heart rate is dropping slowly in line with SpO2. Can we get some IV fluids?”. Nurses begin to rush about around Soon-Mi’s writhing and gasping body. The mask she’s wearing is soaked from her breath, and her gown from her sweat.

Hannah looks expectantly at Nurse Emily. “What now? She’s not getting any better…” Soon-Mi grasps at Hannah’s scrubs, groaning under her breath. “Call a doctor, tell them she’s close to respiratory arrest.” Nurse Emily replies. Soon-Mi murmurs, her hair sticking to her forehead; “Wh…what’s happening?”

“Just relax honey, the doctors coming..”. As if on cue, Dr. Alisha comes in, tying a surgical mask on. “What’s she like now?” she asks, checking Soon-Mi’s vitals. “I’m not sure she’s improving much. Antibiotics seem to have no effect.” Nurse Emily says, curtly, as she removes the painfully tight BP cuff. “She’s hardly breathing.” she adds, as Soon-Mi clenches her eyes shut, rocking back and forth with the mask.

“I think it’s time to consider the ICU. If she stays like this she won’t survive the night.” Dr. Alisha says, pulling on a pair of gloves and pulling the railings up on the bed.

“If you’re sure doctor…” Nurse Emily starts pushing the gurney down the corridor, as Hannah hurries along, pulling a bouffant cap over Soon-Mi’s hair and mask strap.

As the team arrive in an empty ICU bay, Dr. Alisha immediately pulls off the oxygen mask, replacing it with a nasal cannula. “They’re better for pre-oxygenation when we intubate.” She explains, after seeing Hannah’s puzzled look. Nurse Emily pulls off Soon-Mi’s soaked gown entirely, strapping on a makeshift diaper for discretion and as a precautionary measure. “Hannah, put a BP cuff on each limb.” Hannah obliges, tightening them all at once in a symphony of desperation. Soon-Mi’s gaze starts to drift, as the lowered oxygen therapy takes its toll.

“Get that intubation team in here, stat!” says Dr. Alisha, noting Soon-Mi’s deteriorating condition. “Quickly!”.

But at that point Soon-Mi’s dizziness and breathlessness had taken its toll, and she fell unconscious and unresponsive as the 3 staff members rush around the room.

=====

SMC's home is on DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/specialmedicalcentre

Connect to SMC on Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/special_medical

See us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/specialmedicalcentre/

[blushblushbear]

How the boys would react/console you after a PTSD nightmare? 🥹

from the heart of the bear; I hope you have a good night's sleep filled with pleasant dreams <3

NOW FOR BOYS

Nimh - is startled at first (mostly cause he wakes up with a start half the time he wakes up regardless), immediately filled with sympathy for you. makes you a nice mug of tea, wraps you in a quilt, holds you tight and whispers words of comfort until you are put at ease once more

Volks - he's not the best with words, so he just holds you. Tight and close and secure. He might not have words for you, but he's got you none the less. He's here. You're safe. He's with you. It's gonna be okay.

Kelby - He's very drowsy, but he leads you through breathing exercises. Might fall asleep as he's guiding you through them (they're very soothing), but he's still holding your hand tight even as he drifts off. Breath in, breath out, follow him into sleep.

Eli - He'll ask if you wanna grab ice scream and trauma dump or just be held and try to go back to sleep. Either way, he's here for you, whatever you need, for as long as you need it.

Anon - Rubs your back and plays soothing noises like rain as you lay on his chest. Breaths with you as you start to relax

Garret - scoops you up into his strong arms, holds you close, rocking you back and forth as he pets your hair. it's okay love, you always have Garret.

Dmitri - Takes your hands, gives them both a kiss. pulls you in and kisses your cheek. Wraps his arms around you and whispers sweet nothings in your ear. You are safe, you are wrapped in his love, it will be okay.

Ichiban - asks if you wanna talk about it. lays in bed next to you as you vent and then/or lays cuddled up with you as you watch cat videos on his phone.

William - holds you tight in his arms and low key plays therapist. Saying how this is a normal part of trauma (which is is) and how it's part of the healing (which it also is). very calming, very reassuring, let's you cry or vent your heart out

Myx - pulls you in close and sings you a gentle love song until you can breath normal again. rocks and lulls you back into sleep.

Stirling - pulls you in close, silent and contemplative. he rubs your back and pets your head. he's here, it's going to be alright.

Scale - rests his head on yours and holds your hand tight. vows that he will protect you from anything and be by your side come what may. the shadows are scary, but he is scarier.

Sven - finds the softest blanket he can and makes you into a burrito. brings you hot choc and asks if you want to talk about it. either way, you end up warm and snugly in his arms

Cole - holds you close and in a soft and quiet voice promises that you are alright, and nothing will ever get to you so long as he's around. and he will always be around...

Poe - holds your hand, quiet in the dark, runs his thumb along the back of your hand as he recites you a poem he wrote for you but has yet to share.

Cashew - wraps you in a blanket, snuggles up with you and reads you something sweet and soothing.

Seth - pulls you in close and rubs your back as he let's you let it all out. it'll be okay. you have him. and he'll be damned if anything will ever happen to you. (I mean he's damned either way but you get the idea)

Logan - pulls you into his big strong cuddly arms and calls in his foster therapy dog. it sounds like you need a cuddle puddle of love and support STAT

Reece - wraps his scarf around you, and pulls your head in close, kisses your forehead lovingly and holds you as he promises it will be alright, he's got you.

Aki - curls up around you trying to snuggle you as snuggly as he can be. asks if you want to hear about some awesome pranks he's pulled recently or a few good jokes he's heard. either way, you're gonna be support cuddled for the rest of the night.

Haru - pulls you in close, holds you tight, kisses your forehead and promises that nothing will ever touch you as long as he's around.

Fuyu - is a big shocked at first, pulls you in, drapes over you as he holds you close. swears upon all the stars in the sky that if anything rotten ever looks your way, he'll show them the true meaning of fear.

[xf-cases-solved]

S1E12: Fire

Case: An incel played by Mark Sheppard is lighting people (and things, but we're more concerned about the people) on fire, and they can't figure out how he's doing it. This case is brought to Mulder's attention by his toxic British ex, Phoebe (who, as far as Mulder's exes go, is way more charismatic than Fowley so -shrug emoji-), and the two of them go off to Massachusetts to stop some rich British people from being barbecued. Half the people in this episode are weirdly horny, especially the fire expert guy at the Bureau who sounds like he's in the process of getting off when he describes pictures of fire. Mark Sheppard kicks a dog. Mulder literally says the words, "That's one of the luxuries to hunting down aliens and genetic mutants—you rarely get to press charges," so at least they're self-aware. Also, he's terrified of fire and apparently "cursed" with a photographic memory—I'm pretty sure neither of these things ever come up again. Meanwhile, the only person doing any actual FBI work is Scully. Thank god for her.

Does someone die in the cold open: Ah, yeah. Death by psychic immolation. Not the nicest way to go.

Does Mulder present a slideshow: No, but he does get practical joked into thinking he's about to die in a car bombing. Take note, Youtube pranksters.

Does the evidence survive the investigation: The most damning evidence is Incel Mark Sheppard himself, and while he's definitely a little crispy, he makes it to the end.

Whodunit: Incel Mark Sheppard

Convictions: Incel Mark Sheppard will face prosecution once he's done applying aloe to his burns. They are kind of not sure how to do that given that he can light literally anything flammable on fire with his mind. If it was 2024 they'd just do a Zoom call, but alas.

Did they solve it: Yes!

[how do i determine if an episode is solved? check the scale here: x]

THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY: Forced exposure therapy.

Do you need to suffer from a convenient phobia that is relevant to your current situation in order to provide suspense to your plotline, but you also don't want to have to ever bring it up again in your general narrative arc as a whole? Get rid of it quick with forced exposure therapy!

Forced exposure therapy works by having you speedrun the entire therapy process by putting you in a life or death scenario where you have no choice but to face your fears. Tired of being afraid? Well throw yourself into that burning building and learn to become brave, once and for all!*

*Forced exposure therapy may worsen phobias in some individuals, potentially resulting in the development of moderate to severe post-traumatic stress disorder. Do not put yourself into life or death scenarios without first speaking to your doctor to see if forced exposure therapy is right for you.

***

General Total Stats:

(green means stat has changed since last ep; red means new stat added to list)

Total Cases *Definitively* Solved So Far: 5 (that's two in a row! new best streak!!)

Total Number of "Mulder/Scully, it's me" phone calls: 1 (oh man, we were so close two different times. first one Scully goes, "Mulder, it's Scully," and i was like, "damn," and then later she started calling him on her gigantic black box cell phone, and i was like, "ooh, here we go!" but then the call didn't go through :( )

Total Number of Times Scully Has Conveniently Not Seen Something Crucial: 4 (she was kind of the only person paying actual attention to anything this episode)

Total Number of Times Mulder Has Been in Mortal Danger: 5 (the amount of smoke inhalation he got both times he was in the fire probably should have killed him, tbh)

Total Number of Times Scully Has Been in Mortal Danger: 3

Total Number of Sexually Charged and/or Flirty Moments Between Friendly Coworkers: 6 (there's so much weird tension in this episode that i can't even count it all individually)

Total Number of Autopsies Scully Has Performed On Screen: 1

Total Number of Times Scully Plays Doctor: 1

Total Number of Times Mulder Talks to an Informant: 6

Total Number of Nosebleeds: 4

Total Number of Times Mulder Has Tasted/Sniffed/Touched Something Questionable Without Following Proper Safety Procedures: 1

Total Number of Times Someone Says "Trust No One": 1

Total Number of Cigarettes Cigarette Smoking Man Has Smoked: 2

Total Number of Alex Krycek Sightings: 0 :(

Total Number of Times I Had to Look Up What State the Episode Takes Place in Even Though I Literally Just Watched It: 3 ½ (giving myself half-credit bc I knew it happened in Cape Cod, but I didn't know where Cape Cod was lol)

Total Number of Times I Had to Look at an Episode's Wikipedia Page to Fill This Out Because It Was Fucking Confusing and/or Too Boring for Me to Pay Attention: 2 (not this episode, and i can also say with authority that this stat won't go up next episode either, bc next episode is mfing "Beyond the Sea" which is the topest of tiers of first season episodes. get hype!!!)

[mitigatedchaos]

Re: The 'Chillers' Discourse

(~1,200 words)

I've been asked to comment on the recent increase in the practice of parents placing their children into cryonic stasis in territories where this is legally allowed, which this emerging subculture are referring to as "pausing" the child.

The public-facing justification given is that this is essential when parents are suffering from severe physical or mental illness.

First, I'd like to address the health concerns. Cryonics as a field has advanced tremendously since the early 21st century. While opponents of this practice are horrified for moral reasons, they are blowing the potential health effects out of proportion. Several freeze-thaw cycles before age 18 is well within the acceptable limits laid out by most health authorities. Typical post-thawing symptoms are mostly nausea, dizziness, fatigue, and frequent urination, and clear within about two weeks. (This is assuming that it's a good-quality facility with competent staff. There are rumors of fly-by-night cryostorage facilities not rated for medical use engaged in the practice, but those are outside our jurisdiction.)

Second, I'm going to discuss why Orbital Operations & Planetary Security (OOPS!) are divesting our holdings of conventional murderers that were sent to lunar cryoprison by the pre-War government and shifting our focus primarily to a combination of wealthy patients and individuals convicted of crimes against humanity.

Placing someone in cryogenic suspension and then reviving them can cause acute and chronic psychological distress, as the period of time appears to pass 'instantly,' and while obviously they lose connection with current events, media, fashion trends, etc (and thus lose the context of society), they also lose connection with social contacts (who could help recontextualize). This condition, which we refer to informally as 'time shock,' is something we treat with an expensive reacclimatization period which covers the contents of the 'missing' time period and rebuilds social contacts with a pool of volunteers.

Without this therapy program, which is quite costly, a significant minority of subjects will request to go back into cryostasis, commit self-injury, or enter a prolonged period of depression. (It also accompanies a worsening of other mental health stats, including a risk of delusion. This is the 'cryo-psychosis' you've probably heard about.)

For children, this could seriously interfere with proper development. We therefore recommend that children are generally not placed into cryostasis, unless this is necessary for medical reasons, or the parent is also placed into cryostasis for some reason. (This is the official position of the OOPS cryonics branch.)

During the final phases of the war, our faction came into the possession of the previous government's unfilled mass cryoincarceration facilities. As part of strategic planning it was considered whether to use this capability to take a very large number of prisoners of war, and thus gain additional leverage during an ensuing occupation.

Due to both the practical and ethical ramifications, this decision was put to the central committee (composed of representatives of the biomechanoid officer corps) and guidance council (composed of representatives of the elders).

The real problem with cryoincarceration - and this also applies to 'chilling' children - is that it's cheap to keep prisoners on ice, but expensive to take them back out. This means that every year, the government (or parent) has the incentive to keep the prisoner on ice, and make paying to remove the prisoners the problem of the next government.

This was not a hypothetical at the time. This is how we came into the possession of so many conventional murderers and other prisoners to begin with. It was resolved to begin a 20-year drawdown, set to start at the end of the war.

Third, regarding the prisoners themselves...

There are a lot of theories on Earth about why we are getting rid of the prisoners. To go over some of these...

This is not a 'new form of warfare'. The prisoners are being delivered to prisons on Earth, not released into the general population.

If prisoners are being delivered to prisons in your territory, your government has agreed to take them. (Usually this means they were originally from your territory, unless they were previously from territory currently controlled by the World Union.)

In some cases, we may be paying your government to take the prisoners. In other cases, your government may be paying us.

None of the prisoners are from space. There is very little crime in space. (Due to the extremely contingent nature of life support, there is very little tolerance for crime in space.)

No prisoner released by this program has been deemed an "extreme escape risk."

Now, regarding the criminals we're either keeping or gathering (much smaller in number)...

Many of my colleagues have been happy to hint to outsiders that we are holding frozen criminals only until we can devise suitably awful punishments for their crimes. Many on Earth accept this without thinking about it due to our behavior during the war. While this might have some deterrent effect, this is not the reason.

Some on Earth believe we are keeping these prisoners to study them. They're apparently split on whether this is research to prevent future crimes, or to build even more terrifying human weapons. Some research is occurring, but I'm going to be honest with you - it's not very much. Most of these people are either so mundane that there's not much to learn, or so unique that nothing we learn about them usefully generalizes.

In this era, it's essentially impossible to entirely prevent a few people from going insane from ideology, or developing an ideological or psychological feedback loop with somatic capital, and exiting the normal human range of behavior (in a bad way).

However, having "defeated aging" (through somatic capital technology, even if deep rejuvenation inherently causes some pretty serious memory loss), people prefer the illusion of immortality.

When someone mounts their brain to a robotic scorpion and kills every woman in a sorority after dosing themselves with illegal neuroplasticity enhancers for over a decade, society demands that 'someone' "do something." (Even the biosocialists have this problem.)

So whenever the authorities manage to capture the perpetrator alive, they stick his brain in a rocket and blast it into outer space. "We're sending this terror to OOPS," they say, "the only group to ever successfully prosecute a sixth-generation war. Who knows what horrifying and incomprehensible things they will do to this horrible individual?"

It's about the best the non-religious ones can do.

The primary purpose of the cryoincarceration program is to preserve enough functional tissue samples of the cryoincarcerated for Earth-side governments to maintain their genomic ban on individuals convicted of crimes against humanity.

That's it. We don't plan on waking any of these people up.

Fourth, to bring it back to the 'chillers,' as their opponents have been calling them, I recently read a study out of Shanghai.

About 1,400 individuals with a child in cryonic storage for non-medical reasons were studied, and compared with 1,400 parents without children on ice as a comparison group. Hardship was only part of the study, but the researchers estimate that only about 20% of the individuals studied were experiencing hardships greater than the those typical in the comparison group.

I expect that over the next 10-20 years, laws will be changed to add more legal limits to the procedure in most (though not all) jurisdictions where it is currently legal.

[auschizm]

I know it's not necessarily auschizm(I hope I spelled that right) related, but you mentioned antidepressants and I just wanted to get on my soap box for a second about people's perception of mental health treatments.

Antidepressants are, statistically speaking, only 30-40% likely at actually treating/"fixing" the problem. Yet everyone acts like once you're on them, you're going to be magically cured and just Neurotypical and Okay and Healthy.

I don't know the statistics on other mental health medications BUT

For two years, I was on electric shock therapy because of just how bad my PTSD enduced depression was. It quite literally the only reason I am alive today. ECT has a statistical ~80% chance of "fixing" depression (and is used to treat psychosis, but I am unsure about the statistics on that.)

Any and every time I mention to people that I was on ECT they responded in abject HORROR that I received such treatment. Claiming it was torture and not a real, legitimate form of treatment. They were convinced it was only something that happened in the 1950s, and all advancements to it STOPPED in the 1950s.

No matter how many times I explained how the procedure was done, that i was in fact not conscious during it(thank you anesthesia), and given muscle relaxers to not actually under go a physical sezuire(though, disclaimer, you can still have one, and had one twice), they acted like I was subjecting myself to actual medieval torture and could not, for some reason no matter how I described how Bad I Was, wrap their head around how and why I came to the conclusion that ECT was something I needed.

All of this to say: people are just so entirely ignorant, and imo willingly so, to the actual realities of treating mental illnesses, especially outside of mild/situation depression and mild anxieties. And they are nor willing to actually educate themselves on things like therapies and coping skills and the different types of medications and the side effects of medications and what medication can and cannot do and what happens when medication just... Do Not Work For You.

I'm pretty sure the stats for antidepressants are far worse than that, actually. As far as I can recall, in most scientific studies of the effects of antidepressants, there hasn't actually been documented a difference between being on antidepressants and taking a placebo pill. And I'm critical of ECT too for various reasons, though I fully respect your decision to try it, and I'm really happy if it helped you