#almost no one uses a beta in universe of the main character

[mayrose713]

Beautifully Cruel World-The Pack

Series Master list | Next

ABO Non-Idol Stray Kids Universe Poly OT8 x Reader 18+ MDNI

Disclaimer: The names and faces used here are just that, names and faces, and in no way reflect the real people the characters are based after. The actions, views, personalities and characteristics of these characters do not in any way shape or form reflect the real Stray Kids. This story is all for fun so please keep it that way.

Background: This story takes place in an alternate universe where everyone presents as 1 of 3 sub-genders, Alpha, Beta, Omega. Omegas became a rarity after a disease almost wiped them out and the world has been slowly trying to repopulate them ever since. Omegas are normally sold to packs as possessions and are for the whole pack to use. Most packs only have one omega if any unless a pup is presented as one which they are groomed to be the perfect submissive omega for a pack to buy. But some rare omegas don't go through that, this is that story.

Let me know if you want to be added to the tag list for this series

Christopher Bang Chan- Alpha (Pack Alpha / Pack Leader) 27

Chan helps run his fathers business in the Korean Office with his fathers business partners son after deciding to move there from Australia. The 2 created their small pack named SKZ located a bit outside of Seoul and helps take care of a small town. Chan's a pack and family man, having become more understanding and protective of omega's after his younger brother presented as one and takes care of everyone even if it means neglecting his own needs.

Lee Minho- Alpha 26

Minho is hard to read. He can come off as cold and distant to outsiders but in the pack he's actually the caretaker type. He's the main cook for the pack and just seems to know how all of his pack mates are feeling and what they need. Before meeting the pack he was a backup dancer for a K-pop group called BTS and have since become a dance teacher at a big prestige dance studio in Seoul.

Seo Changbin- Alpha (Head alpha / 2nd in command) 25

Changbins father ran an office in Seoul with his business partner in Australia (Chan's dad). Changbins father stepped down and decided to let Changbin and Chan run the Korean office. Together with Chan they slowly formed their pack, becoming protective of his packmates. He's Chan's second in command and will do anything to protect his pack. Even though he's seen as the muscle and tough guy of the pack, he's actually one of the sweetest and the pack all collectively agree that he gives the best hugs and comfort.

Hwang Hyunjin- Beta (Head Beta) 24

Hyunjin is a hopeless romantic but has shielded his heart because of it having been hurt too many times. Because of this he's possessive of his fated mates and doesn't take too kindly to new people. He was even cautious with each of his pack mates having to take time to accept all of them. And it took him even longer when their pack was betrayed by one of their own. Because of this he's a great head beta and often time used as one of the mediators. He can be found teaching art classes in the towns community center once a week.

Han Jisung- Beta 24

Jisungs one of the most helpful and supportive of everyone, even if he doesn't even believe in himself. Even as a beta he still has some omega tendencies. He stives to please the people he loves. At first he can be shy and introverted but around is pack he's always talking and joking. He has some insecurities the pack helps with as well as mental health but he tries to not let that stop him, especially when his true mates remind him how amazing he is.

Lee Felix- Beta 24

Felix is the most omega like beta you will ever meet. His family was honestly surprised when he presented as a beta instead. They joke that his and and his sister (who did present as an omega even though she's more beta like) had somehow mixed up their sub-genders. The pack was always okay with not having a true omega as they felt they already had one with him around. No one can ever say no to him as he's just a ray of sunshine that brightens the packs lives. He will nest for not only himself but also for his pack and can be found in the kitchen along side Minho.

Kim Seungmin- Beta 24

Seungmin pays attention better than anyone in the pack. He's observant of everyone around to make sure his pack isn't in any type of danger. All though one of the youngest he knows how to assert his dominance when needed. Along with Hyunjin he's a great mediator for the pack. He has a passion for baseball and is the coach for the local towns little league team.

Yang Jeongin- Alpha 23

Jeongins the youngest member of the pack and a late presenter. It took time and a lot of help from his alpha hyungs to control his tendencies and he looks up to all of them because of it striving to be as great as they are. It also helped that one of his brothers presented as an omega allowing him to understand what it's like to protect one. Although he's the least experienced in the pack he's devoted.

Y/n- Omega 23

Information given as the story goes

[fkinkindagauche]

II Most Wanted - Chapter 1

Hi hello! It's finally here, the murder siblings fic I have been working on for the last month! It's complete, 7 chapters total, but I'll be posting chapter-by-chapter weekly on Wednesdays. First chapter is up on AO3.

divider by @/saradika-graphics

Rating: Mature (for graphic depictions of violence)

WC: Total is 38K, chapter 1 is 5K

Pairings: Platonic Stobin, Romantic Steddie, Romantic Ronance

Tags: Eddie Munson Lives, Attempted Murder, Completed Murder, Blood and Violence, Dismemberment, Slow Burn Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Fast Burn Robin Buckley/Nancy Wheeler, First Kiss, Partners in Crime, Disabled Eddie Munson, Blackmail, Recreational Drug Use, Police Being Useless, Mentions of Prostitution, Gun Violence, Everyone Is Gay, Homoerotic Physical Therapy, Hospitals, Major Character Injury, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Except Jason Carver

Summary:

Months after the defeat of Vecna, a still very much alive Eddie Munson is being targeted by Jason Carver. After a big scare, Robin and Steve decide they need to take things into their own hands. Hijinks of a criminal variety ensue.

Author's Notes:

This would not have been even remotely possible without my fantastic beta, @dame-zoom-a-lot. I started a much less unhinged version, and then I hated it so I gave it up. But then she encouraged me to kick the Hays code in my brain to the curb, and helped me brainstorm the current version, which I love. And then they were such a fantastic beta on top of all that! Please check out the Harringrove fic he's currently posting, Batteries Not Included, for body horror, a fascinating magical world, and enemies to lovers. Or if Steddie is more your flavor, check out its fantastic monster!Eddie fic Claw My Heart and Hope to Live.

A quick note on Robin's characterization - I pulled pretty heavily from Season 3 Robin, who is almost a different character from Season 4 Robin. So if she seems OOC, please hearken back to Season 3 and re-evaluate before yelling at me. This fic is a Platonic Stobin fic at its core, but there is also romantic Steddie and romantic Ronance. No sexual content in this main fic, though; the Mature rating is for violence. I will be adding two PWP epilogues (one for each romantic pairing) as separate works in this series eventually, but they won't contain any of the actual plot of the story, they're just lil fun bonuses for the pervs among us.

I'm also using this as a fill for my "Robin Buckley" prompt of my @steddiebingo Round 1 card.

Snippet below, full chapter on AO3.

"Robin, what are you doing?" Steve whisper-yelled into the darkness. "I need you to actually hold him up! Or there's gonna be a trail straight from the road to wherever we bury him."

"He's fucking heavy!" she whispered back as she completely dropped her hold on the bottom half of Jason Carver. "Not all of us lift weights."

He wasn't sure why they were whispering. They were in the woods in the middle of nowhere. But they were also carrying a plastic-wrapped headless and handless naked dead body between them, so an abundance of caution was warranted.

"We're on a schedule, Robs," Steve reminded her. "We've gotta get this done before your mom comes to pick you up from my place, or there goes our alibi."

Robin sighed, glaring at Steve, but leaned forward and picked the legs back up again. "We should have just burnt the whole body," she muttered. "Or done the lye thing."

Steve rolled his eyes. Robin had been the one who finally settled on burning the parts that would allow for identification and burying the rest of the body. She'd thought it was the perfect idea until they'd reached the manual labor part of things.

"It's not much further," Steve assured her. They were in a secluded part of the woods on the outskirts of Hawkins. Steve had come the day before to dig the grave, given the time constraints of maintaining their alibi. It had been a risk, but one they had to take if their plan was going to work.

Robin was puffing and sighing, barely maintaining her hold on Jason's legs, by the time they made it to the grave.

"You should just be grateful I didn't make you help with that," Steve said, nodding toward the grave. It had taken six hours of back-breaking labor to get that done. He wasn't sure he was ever going to stop being sore.

They tossed Jason's body into the grave. Robin bent over to catch her breath, hands on her knees.

"So grateful, dingus," Robin said with exaggerated sweetness. "You will forever have my gratitude. It's a beautiful grave you dug."

"Thank you," Steve replied, purposefully taking her compliment at face value and ignoring the sarcasm. He unstrapped one of the shovels from his back and threw it at her. "Now start shoveling dirt."

She looked at the shovel with a grimace, but joined Steve at the large dirt pile beside the grave. Jason's body was covered after just a few minutes, and the whole process only took about half an hour. Steve spread the remaining dirt into the surrounding forest, so they wouldn't leave a pile, then scattered leaves and other forest refuse over the disturbed earth.

As long as the rest of their plan went off without a hitch, no one would be looking for Jason here.

They walked back to where Steve's car was parked, hidden from the road behind a few trees. Steve pulled a garbage bag from the trunk. They both stripped off all of their clothes and stuffed them in the bag. They changed into the spares clothes they'd put in the back seat.

"Alright?" Steve asked, checking in with Robin.

She nodded. "Good. Phase two complete. Let's roll."

They got back to Steve's house half an hour before her mom was supposed to pick her up, giving Robin time to thoroughly wash the dirt off of her hands. Steve would be responsible for getting the bone fragments and teeth out of the yard waste incinerator and disposing of them.

"Do you think it's gonna work?" Steve asked, fidgeting nervously as they waited for Robin's mom.

"It's definitely going to work," Robin reassured him. "We got rid of that little shit. Eddie's safe now. And nobody will be able to trace it back to us."

Steve nodded, heartened by her confidence. He hadn't expected murder to be in his future, but he was glad that if he had to do it at all, he was at least doing it with Robin.

Continue on AO3.

[slasheru]

Whoaaaa that's right Act 2's Alpha/Early Access has a SEXY OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE! Come on down to bonertown (non-gender-specific) this Feburary 14th for Part 2 of America's Horniest Horror Movie University!

🔪 https://suiteddevil.itch.io/slasher-u-act-2 🔪

WHAT'S NEW IN ACT 2:

Main Quest: Continue solving the main murder mystery!

Dateables Storylines: Tons of reactive choices, scenarios, and quests abound as you continue each dateable's storyline! (Currently Implemented: Tate, Juno, Hex, Laila)

The Passage Of Time: Experience a whole gore-geous Fall world palette (and events!) when Football Season hits during Act 2!

Side Quests AND New Quests: Finally get around to managing and decorating that speakeasy - and more!

Pass Your Midterms with new major-specific questlines and bigger scenarios - like Paisleigh's timed Saw trap (with contextual differences based on who you're dating)!

Brand New Layered Outfit System & Wardrobe UI: Outfits are now layerable with separate parts - design your fit with tops, bottoms, jackets, facewear, and more!

Piercings and Tattoos: Enter the body mods shoppe for realistic piercings (get pierced and swap out jewelry!), or get a tattoo! Story events will trigger characters to possibly get tattoos, as well!

New (Huge) Zones: Explore a world beyond campus, from Juno's hometown of New Ontario, to the bustling cyberpunk town center Slasher U is nestled next to, to the elaborate Final Girl Ball at the mysterious Heatherington Mansion!

New Minigames: Explore the art of slushie-making, fight Mr. McGillicutty to the death, and more!

New Characters: Tons of new folks integrated reactively into the Slasher U campus ecosystem!

New Scenarios: Just like Sawyer's big party and Hex's Rapture blowout, there's tons of new adventures, inset scenarios, and puzzles with brand new mechanics within the world!

ROADMAP: COMING SOON IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS

Sawyer Main Quest - just like in Act 1, since Sawyer is a later addition, his content's just a little bit behind! Expect the full Sawyer suite to be up in the next few months.

New Repeatable Scene Content: New text messages, hookup scenes, dorm scenes, and more!

More Common Chats: Topics for each dateable to talk about, now that Act 2 is underway!

More Customization: Empty holes in those UI slots in your Wardrobe window are waitin' to be filled!

ROADMAP: COMING IN THE NEAR-ISH FUTURE

Steam Version: Once the game's out of beta and as un-buggy as I'd like it, it's off to Steam!

Headless Horsemike Hookup: You'll notice the START of a Horsemike flirtationship in there already, but the full thing's yet to come! (This was a reach goal from the Crowdfundr!)

This is an ALPHA / EARLY ACCESS game, so there'll be some chunks missing, things will ALWAYS been changing and be added, and bugs will feature aplenty - but as Just One Guy (tm) I could always use your help hunting them down so I can fix 'em! If you were here for Act 1's launch, it'll be almost entirely like that! (Although with more people here. Hi, people!!)

Thank you SO SO SO MUCH for all your support, love, playthroughs, and absolutely unhinged fanart throughout these last two years! May your campus always be horny and your goblet always full (of blood, maybe), Student Disembody!!

xoxoxooxoxoxoox Professor Plutonium

[vettelsvee]

CITY OF STARS UNIVERSE Q&A

⋆ Discover more about City of Stars F1 AU Universe! ⋆ Join City of Stars' as beta reader ⋆ Ask your questions about City of Stars Universe

Hi everyone! It's been two days since the beta reader form for my upcoming F1 AU Universe, City of Stars, was published, so I decided to answer here to the questions/messages you've sent me thought the form! ☺️

Before we get started, let me tell you a bit about City of Stars: ⋆ I've been working on this project in the shadows since March-April 2024, and after thinking about whether making this universe a reality once for all, I finally decided to move forward. I'm starting a new era in my life, and I think I needed a huge change when it comes to my writing as well, so I hope you like it as much as I do! ⋆ City of Stars is an Alternative Universe starring the following Formula 1 drivers: Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Mick Schumacher, Daniel Ricciardo, Oscar Piastri, Sebastian Vettel, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Alex Albon, Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso (with the possibility of more of them joining). ⋆ Fanfiction announcements, including plots, drivers and titles will be made on May 14th, 2025, and they'll start being released on July 31st, 2025, the day of my 23rd birthday. When City of Stars gets released, it will be my main focus of writing and, occasionally, I'll post individual one shots/fics. ⋆ As for the beta reading process, I thought it might be nice for some of you who might be interested in reading my works (specially before anyone else does it). Important information you'll find on the beta reading form (if you wanna join): -> Tumblr username/contact information -> Drivers fanfictions you'd like to be beta reader of (you can choose as much as you want, there's no limit!) -> What version would you like to read? (Please, choose as many as wanted between Driver x Reader or Driver x OC) -> Any questions you'd like to ask me before the project (or anything related to writing)? I'd happily answer them!

💬: QUESTION ASKED | 🐝: MY ANSWER

💬: do you plan on posting more danny ric fics? 🐝: Yes, I do! As I said, this project is a way to get out of my comfort zone (which is, mostly, writing Sebastian Vettel/Oscar Piastri content most of the times), which means I'll be writing about people I didn't dare to write until now. I've been thinking about a Daniel story for quite a long time after even plotting them for some people, so it's finally the time for him to debut in my writing :)

💬: Just one will all the beta reading be done through google docs? I use that app religiously for my own writing. 🐝: Yes! I write on Google Docs and have all my writing on Google Drive, so it'll be quite easy for me to share the link with all of you beta readers :) Also, I'm planning on doing something else so we all can keep in touch (beta readers or not), but you'll see by May (I'll try my best to not to spoil it even I'm in need to).

💬: love your work, so excited for COS 🐝: Thank you so much! I'm so excited as well for you to read all of them since all plots (or, at least, the vast majority) will be interconnected to each other, so you'll see characters from almost all POVs and fanfictions :)

💬: not a question but i genuinely love your writings, they bring a smile to my face every single time :)) you are literally my fav f1 writer out there HWHEJWHSDS keep it up! 🐝: The moment I read this I starts crying, I'm not going to lie. I have nothing to say except a huge thanks and sending you virtual hugs (if you like them). I'm struggling a lot lately with my writings and, inevitably, comparing myself to other authors from here, so it's been quite a wild ride during these past weeks 🫰🏻

[owkdisabilityexchange]

Hello and welcome to the second Obi-Wan Kenobi Disability Exchange!

Find the AO3 collection for this year here! Read the works from last year here!

This is a disability-positive fic and art exchange created to bring more disabled Obi-Wan content into the wonderful world of fandom. To participate, you will need a registered account on AO3. If you don't have one, send me a message here and I can get you an invitation to register. If you want to participate as a pinch-hitter or beta-reader, please fill out this google form.

A few ground rules:

-If you have questions about the exchange itself, check the AO3 Gift Exchange FAQ and the OWKDE FAQ first, and if they aren't answered there, send an ask. If you have questions about your specific fic or assignment please use DMs or email owkdisabilityexchange@gmail.com.

-As this is a disability-positive event, ableism will not be tolerated. Please be respectful and sensitive about the subject matter. Ableism will be allowed in the content of the fics provided it is not supported by the narrative and is treated appropriately (i.e. the character may face stigma or internalized ableism, but this is resolved in a positive way without the character being 'cured'). If you have concerns send a message here, and I will do my best to answer them.

-Disabilities include but are not limited to: chronic illness (e.g. epilepsy, diabetes, fibromyalgia), physical disability (e.g. mobility issues, blindness, deafness), and mental/intellectual disability (e.g. autism, adhd, schizophrenia). You could even do a Force-related or in-universe disability, although what this would look like is up to you.

-Obi-Wan must be disabled in some way, even if he is not the main character, but other characters are also welcome to have disabilities.

-The minimum word count for fanfics written for the exchange will be 500 words. Fanart must be fully rendered and complete (more polished than a sketch).

2024 Schedule

-Sign-ups begin on Sunday, June 16th and end on Sunday, June 23rd (6/16/24 - 6/23/24)

-Assignments are sent out Sunday, June 30th (6/30/24)

-Assignments are due Sunday, September 8th (9/8/24)

-Pinch-hits are due Saturday, September 14th (9/14/24)

-Works are revealed Sunday, September 15th (9/15/24)

[Image ID: A screencap from Revenge of the Sith. Obi-Wan stands in the "Soresu" stance, with his left arm stretched out in front of him, and his right arm holding his lightsaber next to his head, the blade almost parallel to the ground. His mouth is slightly open, and his expression is intensely focused on something off-screen. White text reads, "Obi-Wan Kenobi Disability Exchange". End ID]

[annotatedamblings]

annotatedAmblings's Homestuck Reread Liveblog: Act 1 (part 1, pages 1-125)

Although liveblog posts will contain analysis due to how we like to engage with media, liveblogs are primarily a collection of whatever thoughts came to mind during our reading. Liveblog posts are constructed with each mod drafting their own live reactions separately before combining them, so some sentiments may be repeated due to both mods noting it down. Any analysis within a liveblog post should not be assumed to be our complete thoughts on the subject, and we are not particularly experienced with analysis.

Blue = Mod Aluria Pink = Mod Jasper Arrows (>>>) are used to indicate commentary on each other's commentary.

Almost immediately, I'd like to take note of the usage of color (or lack thereof). The house is mostly white. I don't have any smart comments on this right now but it is an interesting stylistic choice. >Liveblog stitching! Aluria here, I think I was thinking about how it could relate to the feelings of isolation I touch on later in this post.

Page 9: It took way too long for any of this sylladex shit to be even remotely comprehensible to me the first time around. Am I stupid. >No, sylladex mechanics can be a bit tricky to get to, something which narration on multiple pages acknowledges.

Page 10: It's fun to see sylladex shenanigans :]

Page 16: A thing I always liked about the suggestion format is how subject the main character is to the player's dumb fucking whims. I like that about point and click adventures also. >Checked what page is page 16. F in chat for Zoosmell Pooplord and the unwanted desire to shit on his desk.

Page 18: It just occurred to me how the manner in which the sylladex mechanics are encountered via the reader prompts fucking around and finding out really is like a video game without much tutorial.

Page 19: "Films about impending apocalypse fascinate you. Plus, a black president??? Now you've seen everything!" 1. I like the funny foreshadowing 2. ah yes... a tongue-in-cheek ironic joke that feels a little distateful.

Page 22: I do find the Homestuck Beta to be an incredibly charming little gag.

Page 24: the names of his programming projects on his desktop are a fucking MOOD. "FUCK FUCK FUCK" indeed. John's desktop is just like mine fr. I believe I have an audacity file somewhere titled "fuck my life", and our screensavers are equally bad and weird. >Clearly experiencing emotions best conveyed with the word 'fuck' is a universal experience of creators.

Page 26: I think one of Homestuck's strengths is how it pulls off making the dialogue of teenagers feel like the dialogue of teenagers. >THIS. Always this. There are many times that I as a Real Teen (TM) have read a page of Homestuck and gone "yeah, I've had this conversation in real life."

Page 31: Genuinely deranged collection of games. John's bad taste knows no bounds. Also why do you have Bard Quest on DVD. Why would you put Bard Quest on a DVD. It's literally a browser game that's like 100 pages long. >Actually it's 47 pages. That makes it worse.

Page 34:

Infinitely amused by the mood settings in Pesterchum. "happy :) happy :) happy :) happy :) happy :) INCREDIBLY PISSED D:<"

Page 35: Dave is acting as a tutorial npc Me when I fucking lie. Dave honey no one wants you. I'm conflicted about Early Homestuck Dave because he very much fulfills the role he is meant to and sets up his later character arcs perfectly. But he does so by annoying the fuck out of me. >See you're right about that second sentence and it makes perfect sense in context but out of context that sounds so mean lmao.

Page 37:

I could look at the kind abstratus for hours. Also, the planning had to be insane for this. Literally every strife specibus used in Homestuck, no matter how out there, is on here (I think. I only did a quick scan). >Decided to attempt to verify this by looking for all the trolls' strife specibi and immediately failed with Aradia's whipkind. I am sending Jasper to Autism Hell for the crime of being wrong. >>I am being set on fire! Sad! (But hey, there IS still a lot of very specific canon strife specibi in there that I'm willing to bet were there on purpose. Canekind, for one). >>>If I had to hazard a guess, it's possible that some of them were either picked by looking at that page, or just that there are so many potential weapons on there that of course some made it on. In some cases planning ahead may have occurred, but I am not Andrew Hussie so idfk.

Page 39: "EB: yeah, that's fine i guess. i can't imagine it's going to be all that relevant." heh. the fact that Dave knows more about the minutiae of sylladex mechanics, in particular how strife specibi work, takes on a more depressing tone when you contrast his home environment with John's healthier parental situation.

Page 48: First Betty Crocker mention! fun fact once i infodumped about Homestuck to my dad and now the Batterwitch is a running joke we reference whenever we purchase Betty Crocker products. Genuinely surprised the Betty Crocker Wikipedia article isn't protected at this point. >It isn't, but if you go to the talk page it seems like it's been a point of contention before.

Page 50:

"It doesn't matter that it's April and not terribly chilly outside. In a home, a FIREPLACE needs a fire, because that's what FIREPLACE is for. A fire BELONGS in a FIREPLACE, dammit, cata(ptcha)gorically, at all times, without exception." fascinating quote in conjunction with Page 27's "In a kid's yard, a tree without a tire swing is like a proper gentleman without a monocle. That is to say, HE CAN HARDLY BE CONSIDERED A TERRIBLY PROPER GENTLEMAN AT ALL." certain things simply must be the way they are. So there's a lot to be said about the whole fireplace thing but I've had time to ruminate and I'm starting to notice that John seems to have a pretty rigid worldview, maybe? I'm collecting data on this and I don't wanna speak too soon, but a lot of these lines seem to have the underlying implication that he's very much of the opinion that the status quo is not to be questioned or challenged ever, and things are the way they are because that's how they're supposed to be. In perpetuity. Forever. Even if it hurts you. You can see it in the recurring gag on this page and the one with the tire swing; you can see it in the way he talks about his dad; hell, even his joke book is a kajillion years old and described at one point as being at times super racist because of its oldness, as well as being too big to carry around or navigate efficiently. This is an especially fitting trait for him to hold considering he's from the suburbs. Not only are suburbs considered the picture of the American Dream, that idyllic image has historically been upheld through forcible exclusion of anyone who didn't fit into it. No wonder it took her 16 years to transition. >More than 16. :( >>Oh yeah I'm sure it's like. Decades (I haven't read HS^2). But it's been 16-ish years since Homestuck came out.

Page 51: Burn fucker burn.

Page 56: not much comment other than the transition from 55 to 56 and the bit that comes with it got the first audible giggle of this reread!

Page 63: I genuinely believe Rose is a contender for funniest character in Homestuck (speaking only in terms of intentional funniness). >It hasn't had much chance to come up yet, but she is rather silly wrapped up in a dry exterior and I think this fact should be acknowledged more.

Page 68: kinda funny to see John unable to captchalogue the doll because it's 'too big'. Act 1 feels rather quaint on a reread. >Genuinely. By act 6 we're captchaloguing literally whatever the fuck. Planets and shit. >>The fucking Tumor. >>>The fucking Tumor. Gotta get that HTML right. >>>>Oh I'm sorry Formatting King Jasper lemme just format all over the place. Trans women are really cool. That sentence only looks correct if you're on dark mode. sad!

Page 71: Is that. Is that the fucking Cirque de Soleil.

Page 74:

a continuation of the bit regarding the tire swing and the fireplace. this combined with John's willingness to commit to the bit even when it is unpleasant is rather fascinating for his character.

Page 77: FIRST [S] PAGE! "Showtime (Piano Refrain)" is a great song that also hits really different on a reread. Ah, but that is a subject for... *checks notes* 7021 pages from now. >You and your music commentary making me straight up melancholic all the time.

Page 78:

"The peanut gallery over there sure is getting a kick out of it. You are allergic to their scorn." I am unusually fond of this joke. Page 72's mention of John's peanut allergy was a funny enough moment on its own, but the additional reference/pun? Delightful. The jorker.

Page 79: The usage of a Hi-C commercial also hits different on a reread.

Page 82:

"You have a feeling it's going to be a long day." Oh, if only you knew... Homestuck's title page! I love how desolate the audio is, and I think the prose on this page adds to the feeling of isolation. Isolation is a theme throughout Homestuck, and with John as the Heir of Breath in the incredibly isolated environment of suburbia... ah, I just really like this page! This page is also where Act 1 gets its name on the adventure map: "The Note Desolation Plays." There's literally nothing I can say about Windchime Foley that isn't abundantly obvious but GOD does it set a tone. It's the first real hint that this is more than just a silly little adventure comedy.

Page 89: "Your DAD sees right through your costume! You don't know what you were even thinking with this foolish ruse!!!" early example of a recurring pattern of John viewing himself as stupid, foolish, etc.

Page 90:

There isn't much to this Flash, but I do like the animation, and "Showtime (Original Mix)" is a banger. The vibe with John and Dad's strife is SO different from the next two strifes. For obvious reasons (Dad Egbert is a good father). >True! It's very unserious. John is aggressively rejecting his father's cake, for fuck's sake, meanwhile Rose pulls out the empty suicide threat against her mother parrying with alcohol and Dave is. Dave.

Page 110: "TG: im wearing them ironically TG: because theyre awesome TG: the fact that theyre ironic makes them awesome" ah yes the classic "i'm totally doing this ironically and not sincerely".

Page 111: I do enjoy the meta bullshit of the characters being MSPA fans in-universe. Tragically, Midnight Crew will never finish because of the world ending. Sad!

Page 112: I <3 Self-Referential Jokes

Page 122: I should go back at some point and do a cake count of just how many goddamn cakes John's dad made. >I checked. 4. 2 in the room, 1 downstairs, 1 he was actively baking. 4 cakes for 2 people. If June came out to him in a no-Sburb AU every pharmacy stocking HRT in the area would be in crisis mode.

Page 125: Sorry but I will literally never stop finding sylladex failure funny. PDA BANISHED.

[queer-omens-in-the-archives]

(No pressure but) tell me about your wiiiiipppss!!!

!! Hi thank you for the ask!! <3 TwT

Putting under a cut because it got suuuper long, I hope not TOO long dfjhsddsjfhhsd. Everything is Mello/Near unless otherwise stated.

I'm going to start with the WIPs we're not gonna have much to say about publicly. They're basically... two full AUs, each set in the same base universe and within similar conditions, except the Mello/Near dynamic plays out differently in each, because there's a couple major differences which butterfly-effect the characters and how their stories play out:

to escape an empire has a main fic (of seven chapters + an epilogue) and two sequels (one of which is so self-indulgent I don't know if it'll see the light of AO3) in the works. The main fic is almost fully drafted and already partially beta'd (which, I'm not @-ing our beta directly in this longass post but HEARTFELT THANK YOU FOR HELPING US MIDWIFE OUR FIC INTO THE WORLD SO SKILLFULLY)

and throw me into life (a lot less developed because we're keeping it on the backburner for after empire, for reasons of "the universe is similar but the characterisation is so different and we don't want to accidentally get mixed up").

We don't talk about either much in public -- because we're 100% sure nobody has written the concept before, but we write slowly and we'd be sad if someone else got to doing something with that idea before us sdhfjgsdhf. (That said, we did post a couple of excerpts from one of the sequels to empire: here and here!)

And then in our series sweet atonement (in which Near acquires an introject of Mello as a coping mechanism for the grief brought upon him by Mello's death, and then we make the two of them interact in various ways; it's self-indulgent plurality/multiplicity fiction as much as it is Death Note fanfic) -- we've already published six fics, but we have many ideas for more, including in no particular order:

at least one POV from (some of) the folks who work with Near, pre- and post-introject!Mello

exploring how Near and introject!Mello learn how to work together and/or sometimes clash (this spans several WIPs actually, one of which we expanded on a little here)

exploring Near's grief and depression and burnout and such (because the emotional injury he sustained when Mello died does NOT magically disappear just because he has (a) Mello back, and on top of that, being L on his own is incredibly taxing for him)

exploring introject!Mello's grief and assimilated emotions (non-exhaustive list: he remembers what dying was like; Matt is still dead; Near is really not doing well which affects Mello in multiple ways)

at least one other PWP

a conclusion-ish piece of what their cooperation looks like when it's fully established (like a decade or two after introject!Mello first shows up)

and possibly more that are just embryos of ideas in our Discord channels!!

Not bothering with the working titles here because when we work on WIPs in this universe, we often end up combining them or splitting the ideas into different works for pacing/focus reasons -- it's very fluid, we haven't planned anything ahead like we did with empire. It's just a collection of whichever moments we feel most like writing at the time.

Originally we'd planned on keeping this universe for after we'd finished empire, but it didn't turn out that way -- both because empire got so much longer than we expected it to be (we'd planned for about 10,000 words, it's at nearly 35,000 sequels included and will probably keep growing...) and the editing process is also taking longer than anticipated; and because sweet atonement keeps grabbing us by the throat at semi-random and we've learned to ride those waves when they happen.

We're also in the process of fleshing out some of the Matt/Mello/Near drabbles we wrote for DN Rarepair Week into longer pieces!! Toying with the Matt/Near of #2 - Absence currently :3

And then we have some tiny WIPs that are basically just... bits and pieces. Scenes that could maybe be reabsorbed into other works, single paragraphs or lines, concepts and ideas, bits we cut out of one fic but might reuse in another, etc.

So that's everything we've got cooking right now!! If you have read this far, I would like to award you this:

(seriously thank you)

[burningpironator]

things the sonic fandom will never accept

Thats it, i was seeing sonic fandom issues and im tired, i wanna be shrimpo today!

1. Differentiating between classic and modern Sonic does not make sense because in Sonic Adventure (specifically in one of the cinematic scenes in Amy's Adventure and Tails' Adventure) it was shown that the two Sonics were the same, and that the design change it was just aesthetic 2. shadow is overrated. 3. people only ship metal sonic with amy so they can ship shadow with sonic without amy being an obstacle 4. As much as we all hate Sonic 2006, it is practically Sonic Adventure 3. It plays similarly (only with more bugs xd), it has a complex story (although somewhat ridiculous) they created Silver in the same way they created Shadow (like a rival), has several campaigns and playable characters. 5. The only reason why silver was created was to recreate the popularity that shadow had (although at least they added different concepts such as time travel) 6. almost none of the ships that the fandom has will EVER come true, remember how Sega is 7. Sonic's chronology will never make sense because the Sonic team never planned Sonic with a story that was taken seriously, at no time did it occur to them that there were Sonic comics and series or that they would have to unite their stories with those of the games just because, with the sonic adventure they tried to make a better story and now they have the entire fandom to do more of that, thinking about it, that is the only reason why they decided to make the classic sonic games a separate universe, if you think about it, in a classic sonic game you don't have to worry about the story in any way, all the weight falls on the modern one lol

8. I really dont understand why sega likes to rush so much their games, is like, bro calm down, you dont wanna explode if you dont launch nothing this year lol, look at your workers sega, look at your fans trying to play a game with all those bugs, man look at that glitches!

9. Why the fanfom have the nescesity to critic absolute any thing, even if the game is just in beta and sega still working on it, they still calling it "the new forces" its like they got a trauma with 2006, hey, wait, elise dont do it elise... dont do it... he is a animal elise... WAIT, WATH ARE YOU DOING TO SONIC ELISE?! AAAAAAAAH!!!! 10. The worst Mario game in their main line of games according to fans (Mario Sunshine), has better reviews than the best of all Sonic games according to fans (Sonic Adventure 2), how it feels?.

Sorry for the bad english, i was using the traductor lol

[ao3feed-ateez]

Lilly Of the Valley

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/j6LpwxR by LolaKorinLee Kim Nari was stuck in an endless cycle of work, work and more work. As a female Alpha CEO in a male Alpha dominated world she worked hard and clawed her way to the top by being the icy, cunning, and dominating force that everyone admired and feared. However, she was also the main topic of conversation around the water cooler about her single status at the age of almost 30 and while normally she didn’t care about such trivial matters and focused on growing her company, she had been feeling like she was neglecting things in her home and life and having someone around her condo to remind her to eat something other than japchae or kimbap would be nice, maybe a little help during her rut. So one night during a meteor shower over Seoul, she made a wish on a star, Words: 7, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: ATEEZ (Band) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: F/M, M/M, Multi Characters: Kim Hongjoong, Park Seonghwa, Jeong Yunho (ATEEZ), Kang Yeosang, Choi San (ATEEZ), Song Mingi (ATEEZ), Jung Wooyoung (ATEEZ), Choi Jongho (ATEEZ), Original Female Character(s) Relationships: ATEEZ Ensemble/Reader, ATEEZ Ensemble/Everyone, Choi Jongho/Choi San/Jeong Yunho/Jung Wooyoung/Kang Yeosang/Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa/Song Mingi, Kim Hongjoong/Reader, Park Seonghwa/Reader, Jeong Yunho (ATEEZ)/Reader, Kang Yeosang/Reader, Choi San (ATEEZ)/Reader, Song Mingi (ATEEZ)/Reader, Jung Wooyoung (ATEEZ)/Reader, Choi Jongho (ATEEZ)/Reader Additional Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Harem, Reverse Harem, Light Angst, Switch Kim Hongjoong, Bottom Kang Yeosang, Power Bottom Park Seonghwa, Service Top Choi San (ATEEZ), Bottom Song Mingi (ATEEZ), Brat Jung Wooyoung (ATEEZ), Switch Choi Jongho (ATEEZ), Smut, Fluff, Slice of Life, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Omega Kim Hongjoong, Alpha Park Seonghwa, Alpha Jeong Yunho (ATEEZ), Alpha Choi San (ATEEZ), Service Top Jeong Yunho (ATEEZ), Beta Song Mingi (ATEEZ), Omega Kang Yeosang, Omega Jung Wooyoung (ATEEZ), Beta Choi Jongho (ATEEZ) read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/j6LpwxR

[dhr-ao3]

Numberland

Numberland https://ift.tt/JaXzpI4 by Axiomea It’s 2004. Seven years ago, the world almost ended. After he killed Harry Potter, Voldemort unleashed a deadly fog over the world, killing 73% of the population and forcing the survivors to seclude themselves underground. Now established at Hogwarts, the only fogless place left, his Empire is growing stronger and deadlier. Every year, the Death Eaters capture mudbloods and muggles to partake in a wandless and violent year-long tournament called Numberland to entertain the Purebloods that pledged their allegiance to the dark side. To ensure the players' performance is entertaining, they are ruthlessly trained, fed and harboured in the castle. Meanwhile, outside the Empire’s borders, the UK is stirring with the dangerous energy of a civil war. When Hermione is captured and assigned to Draco’s training, she realises three things. One, Draco, now paired with a dog that never leaves his side, is even more dangerous and broken than before. Second, the person she was before can no longer exist in Numberland. And lastly, her desire to win might not be greater than her desire to burn the Empire to the ground. Words: 17552, Chapters: 5/56, Language: English Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: F/M Characters: Theodore Nott, Narcissa Black Malfoy, Arthur Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Corban Yaxley, Antonin Dolohov, Original Characters Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Voldemort Wins, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Inspired by The Hunger Games, Inspired by Squid Game (TV 2021), Inspired by The Last of Us, Worldbuilding, Deadly Plague, Post-Hogwarts, Hogwarts Setting, Wartime, Civil War, Weird Plot Shit, Plot Driven, POV Alternating, Adult Main Characters, Death Eater Draco Malfoy, Draco Malfoy Has a Big Dog, John Wick Draco Malfoy, Protective Draco Malfoy, Draco Malfoy Needs a Hug, Morally Grey Hermione Granger, Resilient Hermione, dog character, protective dog, Animal Companionship, Muggle/Wizard Relations, physical training, Combat, tournament, Deadly Games, fight to the death, Don't get attached, Hunger Games-Typical Death/Violence, Near Death Experiences, Minor Character Death, Blood and Violence, Gun Violence, Gore, Torture, Panic Attacks, Flawed characters, Ideation of Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Slow Burn, Medium Burn, Emotional Intimacy, Rolled Sleeves Agenda, Height difference, Mystery, Action/Adventure, magical discoveries, Angst, Secrets, Potions, HEA Adjacent, Dystopian HEA, Unhealthy Use of Hyphens, Don't Examine This Too Closely, No Beta We Die Like Dobby via AO3 works tagged 'Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy' https://ift.tt/fI4Ypyg August 17, 2024 at 03:44PM

[adminbryantsaki]

Chapter One: Introductions pt.1

(This Au will follow the main events of the canon. In this AU, the tropes of fantasy and Omegaverse apply. The dynamics that can apply to people are Alpha, Luna, Beta, and Omega. The main ship is Erasermic x oc. I do not own the characters of My Hero Academia. Horikoshi Kōhei does. I also don’t own any of the fast-food franchises or any of the other references to other super hero movies or groups.  I own Bryant Saki. Here is her info Please do not steal.)

(These are the Headcanons. Please read these before the fic.) Prologue ~ Chapter Two

Wc: 1,950 Tw: Omegaverse Shenanigans, polygamy, PTSD, Breeding kink, Breeding, trauma, fear, ED (eating disorder).

Ch. 1 Introductions.

He led me to his apartment where he showed me the room where I would stay with him. The room was decently sized to fit a full-sized bed, a dresser, a desk, and a closet. I looked around the room and laid on the bed, giving the hero a smile of approval. “I’m glad you like it. We can go shopping for some clothes later, if you’d like.” He suggested. I nodded and sat up on the bed.

I turned my back to him to look out the window that was by the foot of the bed. I heard Fatgum audibly gasp. “What happened to your back? It looks like it was torn up by something.” He asked. I could hear his footsteps enter and walk across the room and I could almost feel his hand hover over my back but I pulled away and turned to face him. “Someone tore up my back. The wounds are from me successfully escaping a toxic Alpha. There was a Beta as well but the mark faded. The Alpha tore the marks out of my back before I ran and opened a portal to this universe.” I explained as I stared out the window looking down at the lively city below.

“I’m sorry that happened. Can I at least bandage you up? Or take you into the hospital and have one of the nurses wrap you up there?” He asked. “No hospitals. I already am foreign to this world. I don’t need the cops at your door because of me. As much as I appreciate your offer to bandage me up, I just need to soak in a bath for a while and I’ll be good.” I told him and looked up at him. “Alright. I’ll have one of my friends come over and drop off some clothes for you. I don’t think I have anything in your size. You just wait here and I’ll draw up a bath for you, okay?” He offered. “That sounds good. Also, some food might be good too if you don’t mind.” I asked. “I can do that. Anything sound good to you?” He asked. “May I have macaroni and cheese with chicken tenders? I haven’t had a good meal in a while.” I told him as my stomach growled. “Sure. You can make yourself at home. I’ll call my friend and get that bath running for you.” He spoke and left the room. I took a couple minutes to let out some emotions, knowing that I was now in a safe place, where no one could hurt me. I left the bedroom to go check out the rest of the house. There was a main room was built like an A-frame that connected the bedrooms and bathroom to the living area, kitchen, and office area all together. The area seemed to be bright, warm and inviting to the eye. Out in the middle of the main room was a sunken seating area where the entertainment system was, and where Fatgum was sitting, waiting for me to come out and he was on the phone with someone. “Alright, thank you. See you in a bit, Midnight.” He spoke and hung up. He looked over at me and stood up. “I’ll show you to the bathroom so you can clean up and get some fresh clothes on.” He told me and led me to the bathroom and showed me how to use the faucet and where the towels were and that a friend of his would be by in a bit to help me with some clothes and to dress my wounds as he thought I wouldn’t be comfortable with him seeing me without clothes on. I thanked him and waited until he was out of the bathroom before I locked the door and stripped down, hissing as the fabric brushed over the open wounds on my back and setting the scrapped clothes to the side before, I eased my wounded body into the tub, slowly sinking down until my body was covered with the warm water all the way up to my neck, so my head was above the water. The bathtub was quite large, i guessed it was specially made to accommodate for Fatgum’s size. But I pushed that thought to the side and let my mind clear of any thoughts or worries as I focused on my injuries, focusing the water to the injuries and letting them heal the wounds over so they wouldn’t be so sensitive when something would brush against them or air would flow over them. I held back my screams of pain as the flesh regrew itself over my shoulders until the pain was too much and I passed out. I only woke up when someone was knocking on the door and a woman’s voice sounded from the other side. “Bryant? Are you okay in there? I’ve come with some fresh clothes and bandages.” She spoke. I panicked and got out of the bath quickly, catching myself before I slipped and fell to the ground. “Sorry! I fell asleep in the bath. Before I let you in, I’d like to know your name.” I spoke. “Oh, my name is Nemuri Kayama. But you can call me Midnight or Nemuri, whichever you wish. Taishiro called me to come over and help you out, Sweetie.” She spoke. I guessed Taishiro was Fatgum’s real name but I let myself relax a little and I wrapped a towel around myself before I unlocked the door and let her in.

“My name is Bryant.” I spoke before taking in a good look her. The woman on the other side of the door was in her mid-thirties, wearing a purple turtleneck, dark blue jeans, and red cat-eye glasses. She held a first-aid kit and a pile of clothes in her hands. She had a comforting smile and warm feeling about her so I stepped aside and sat on the toilet after putting the lid down, facing away from her so she could tend to my back. She picked up the first aid kit and walked over to examine my injuries before gasping a little and beginning to tend my wounds. “If you don’t mind me asking, who did this to you?” Midnight asked. “Ex-Mates. I wanted to leave the world after I found out how toxic they are and what they wanted me to be. The Alpha tore out my marks and kicked me out of the house. I ran until I fell through a portal and onto a roof here in this world. Fatgum found me, took me to the police station to fill out some forms then brought me here. He called you and now you’re here tending to my wounds.” I told her and rested my arms on the back of the toilet then rested my head on top of my arms. “I’m glad you were able to get away from your ex-mates. You also said that you were from another world? How were you able to come here?” She asked as she cleaned the still sensitive skin over the divots where flesh was missing. “I don’t know. I thought of anywhere but where I was and a portal appeared, I jumped through it and never looked back.” I spoke, a little irritated. “I see. Maybe some friends of mine can help you assess what your quirk is.” She spoke and pulled away for a moment, looking at my scars again. “You must have some kind of regeneration quirk. Your wounds have healed quickly since I’ve been here.” She spoke. That’s when something clicked in my mind. “I know that I can manipulate water. I can use it to make portals or heal wounds to some extent. I only was able to regrow enough skin to cover the scars. I passed out in the bathtub because I used too much energy to heal my own body. I was embarrassed when you knocked because I was still asleep in the tub and I woke up. So, please, just wrap up my back and let me be to get changed.” I spoke, glaring at the wall.

Midnight fell silent and finished wrapping my back up before she silently left the room and closed the door behind her. I sighed and got off the toilet, knowing that I ruined any kind of friendship with her in the future. I was thankful for her help and assistance in bandaging up my wounds and providing the clothes for me as I slipped them on and left the bathroom. I was wearing a loose grey t-shirt, grey sweatpants, and some white socks. I left the bathroom and found Midnight talking with Fatgum in the living room. Fatgum looked over to me and smiled as I entered the room and sat down on the couch across from the two heroes. “I’m sorry for the way I spoke in the bathroom Nemuri, can you forgive me?” I asked. “Of course. I understand you had some nasty things happen to you and you’re still processing the events. I’m not offended at all, if that’s what you’re worried about, sweetie.” She spoke in a calm manner that seemed to ease my worries altogether. “Thank you.” I spoke and then looked back out the window to the still bustling city down below. “There’s a couple friends of mine that would also like to meet you. One of them can help with defining what your quirk is.” Midnight spoke. I frowned and looked up at her. “What’s a quirk?” I asked. “A quirk is a superpower that is unique to every individual. About 80% of this world’s population has some kind of unique quirk. There are three different categories, Emitter, Transformation, and Mutation style quirks. Since you said back in the bathroom that you could manipulate water to make a portal and use the water to partially heal the wounds on your back before I came. That would put you in either the transformation of emitter quirk category.” Midnight explained.   I nodded and went back to looking out the window. Soon I heard Midnight’s phone buzzing and she stepped out of the living room area to take the call.

“Who was that?” Fatgum asked. “That was Mic and Eraser. They want to come over and help out. They’ll be here in a little bit. They hopped on a train when you put out the call for help with Bryant.” She spoke. I looked at her when I heard my name said out loud. “Who’s Mic and Eraser?” I asked.

“They’re some friends of mine that can help you figure out your quirk. If you have a quirk, you need to register with our government as a person with a quirk.

Then if you want, you can train and get a hero license to use your quirk to help stop villains. But to do so, we need to find out what your quirk actually is.” Midnight explained. I listened and fiddled with my fingers, taking in all the information that she just told me. The idea for heroes to have a license is new to me as they didn’t need one before in the other universes that I’ve seen in all my years of hopping from one universe to the next.

“That’s new. I’ve never heard of a hero needing a license to use their power to stop criminals before. In the other worlds that I have seen, there aren’t as many people with a ‘quirk’ and they don’t need some license to save people.” I told her just as the door to Fatgum’s agency knocked, alerting us to the arrival of someone new.

[tokkiheart-writes]

I Wanna Teach You How Forever Feels

Summary

In a universe where Oh Seung Moo’s famous thriller webtoon W is also an omegaverse story, his main character Kang Cheol is a Beta who is hiding the fact that he is by using scent blockers so as to appear like an alpha to the general public.

When the author’s daughter, Oh Yeon Joo, is pulled into his webtoon by Kang Chul to save him, she discovers gradual changes occurring to her the more she interacts with Kang Cheol and becomes the lead female.

————

In other words: An AU re-imagining of the show with A/B/O elements which results in a massive overhaul (honestly, the story may end up almost unrecognizable, who’s to say?)

I only have 14 followers on AO3 and 3 here on Tumblr and I’m probably going to lose them all because of this lol

Anyway, sorry for bringing this into creation, my brain wanted to write my first A/B/O fic and wanted to make one for W: Two Worlds.

Not that it had a choice, this is the only fandom I write for lol

[ausetkmt]

New Alzheimer's drugs bring hope. But not equally for all patients.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/01/29/alzheimers-new-drugs-black-patients-leqembi/

ABINGTON, Pa. — Wrapped in a purple blanket, Robert Williford settles into a quiet corner of a bustling neurology clinic, an IV line delivering a colorless liquid into his left arm.

The 67-year-old, who has early Alzheimer’s disease, is getting his initial dose of Leqembi. The drug is the first to clearly slow the fatal neurodegenerative ailment that afflicts 6.7 million older Americans, though the benefits may be modest. The retired social worker, one of the first African Americans to receive the treatment, hopes it will ease his forgetfulness so “I drive my wife less crazy.”

But as Williford and his doctors embark on this treatment, they are doing so with scant scientific data about how the medication might work in people of color. In the pivotal clinical trial for the drug, Black patients globallyaccounted for only 47 of the 1,795 participants — about 2.6 percent. For U.S. trial sites, the percentage was 4.5 percent.

The proportion of Black enrollees was similarly low for Eli Lilly Alzheimer’sdrug, called donanemab, expected to be cleared by the Food and Drug Administration in coming months. Black people make up more than 13 percent of the U.S. population.

The paltry data for the new class of groundbreaking drugs, which strip a sticky substance called amyloid beta from the brain, has ignited an intense debate among researchers and clinicians. Will the medications — the first glimmer of hope after years of failure — be as beneficial for African Americans as for White patients?

“Are these drugs going to work in non-Whites? And particularly in Blacks? We just don’t have enough data, I don’t think,” said Suzanne E. Schindler, a clinical neurologist and dementia specialist at Washington University in St. Louis. “In general, the default is that they will work the same in everybody, but we don’t really know that for sure.”

The situation casts a spotlight yet again on the decades-long failure of researchers to reflect the increasingly diverse character of the patient population in the United States, and underscores the stark disparities in Alzheimer’s treatment and care. Black Americans develop the disease and related dementias at twice the rate of their White counterparts, but are less likely to receive specialized care and are diagnosed at later stages, studies show. That’s an urgent problem considering that the new drugs must be used early to have an effect.

In addition, a perplexing new issue appears to be contributing to low Black enrollment in trials and is fueling a debate among experts about the role of race, genetics and other factors. To qualify for the main trial for Leqembi — developed by the Japanese pharmaceutical giant Eisai and the biotechnology company Biogen of Cambridge, Mass. — participants were required to have elevated levels of brain amyloid, a defining characteristic of Alzheimer’s, and symptoms such as memory loss.

But brain scans showed that the African American volunteers were less likely to have excess amyloid than White patients and thus were excluded from the trial at higher rates. Almost half of Black applicants failed to meet the amyloid threshold, compared with 22 percent of White volunteers, according to Eisai. A similar pattern occurred with the Lilly drug and in some other studies, and sometimes involved other people of color, including Hispanics.

Experts are baffled by the findings. Why would amyloid levels — thought to be a key driver of Alzheimer’s — be different in people with similar cognitive problems?

“Is it the color of someone’s skin? Almost certainly not,” said Joshua D. Grill, an Alzheimer’s researcher at the University of California at Irvine. “Is it a difference in genetics? Or other health conditions, like cholesterol, blood pressure or vascular health? Or is it something else, that we haven’t measured?”

While the biology of Alzheimer’s is almost surely the same regardless of race, some researchers say the patients themselves might be different because of underlying health conditions. Some older Black patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, they say, might actually have vascular dementia stemming from heart disease, hypertension and diabetes — all conditions more prevalent among African American patients.

The risk of vascular damage also could be increased by a lack of access to health care and years of exposure to racism, as well as genetics, some experts say. And many patients could have a constellation of pathologies driven by other factors, they add.

Whatever the cause, experts say, the bottom line is the same: Patients who do not have excessive amounts of the sticky brain protein should not be treated with the amyloid-targeting drugs because the therapies are unlikely to work and pose substantial risks, including potentially deadly bleeding in the brain.

But that raises the specter of another disparity. If it turns out that a lower proportion of Black dementia patients and other people of color have excess amyloid, they could be left behind as the drug industry races to develop amyloid-reducing treatments. To counter that, experts are urging companies to accelerate work addressingother potential drivers of cognitive decline and to develop combination drugs with multiple targets.

“If we are just targeting amyloid, we can just miss a large potential population that might benefit from treatment,” said Lisa L. Barnes, a neuropsychologist at Rush University in Chicago.

‘A brain is a brain’

For now, the question remains: What should Black patients and their doctors think about the anti-amyloid drugs?

The answer, experts say, depends largely on the level of amyloid in their brains.

More than a year ago, Williford was diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s by David C. Weisman, a neurologist at Abington Neurological Associates, a large practice north of Philadelphia that treats patients and conducts clinical trials for drug companies. The clinic was one of the test sites for Leqembi.

After Leqembi receivedfull FDA approval last summer, Williford underwent tests to determine whether he was a good candidate for the drug. One test — a lumbar puncture, sometimes called a spinal tap — showed elevated amyloid in his brain. That means Williford and similar patients are likely to benefit from an anti-amyloid medication regardless of their race or ethnicity, Weisman and several other experts said.

“A brain is a brain is a brain, whether it is Asian, Hispanic, African American or White,” Weisman said. “A patient is either a good fit or a bad fit, and Robert is a good fit.”

Williford, who spent years working with troubled families in Philadelphia, began having memory problems a few years ago, said his wife, Cynthia Byron-Williford, 59.

“You could tell him almost anything, and he would almost immediately forget,” she said. “If I asked him to make a peanut butter sandwich for our grandson, he would come back three times and say, ‘What am I supposed to do?’”

With few treatment options, many physicians say they will offer anti-amyloid therapy to any patient who has elevated levels of the substance and passes safety tests.

Barry W. Rovner, a neurology professor at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said he would not hesitate to offer Leqembi to African American patients who tested positive for amyloid. But, he added, because of the low numbers of Black individuals in the Leqembi trial, “I would say, ‘Look, this has not been tried in many Black people, so we don’t know precisely how it is going to work. But you don’t know precisely how it will work in any person.’”

From a research perspective, “You could say, as a group we don’t know if Black individuals respond the same way to anti-amyloid drugs because we don’t have the data,” Washington University’s Schindler said. “But on an individual level, it is different. If I had a Black patient who was amyloid-positive, I would start him on these drugs.”

But some Black patients might not be comfortable with the medication.

Zaldy S. Tan, director of the memory disorders center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said when African American patients are informed about the risks and benefits of Leqembi, and about the sparse data available for Black individuals, some will “take a pause and question whether they are willing to accept the uncertainty” and challenges of receiving the every-other-week infusion and multiple follow-up tests.

A promise of diversity

The best way to know for sure how drugs for Alzheimer’s — and other diseases — affect different populations is to have more diversity in trials, experts agree. But research participation by Black Americans and other people of color has been held down for years for several reasons.

The 20th century’s infamous Tuskegee syphilis study created long-standing mistrust about trials within the African American community. Men were left untreated to suffer and die even after an effective treatment emerged for the bacterium.

Alzheimer’s research, meanwhile, has long been centered in memory clinics at elite academic institutions, which tend to attract well-heeled patients with health insurance and other resources. The clinics have served as effective recruiting grounds for trials that end up with a predominantly White enrollment.

“We have done a poor job of making African American Alzheimer’s research inclusive,” said John Morris, a neurologist at Washington University in St. Louis. More than two decades ago, he created an African American advisory board at the school’s Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center after realizing only 3 percent of trial participants were Black.

Others also are redoubling efforts to increase diversity. John Dwyer, president of the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation, a nonprofit that runs trials, said the organization has sharply increased participation by people of color by sending dedicated teams of African American and Latino professionals into communities to build relationships with physicians and personnel at health centers, senior centers and places of worship. They stress to the communities how much they can benefit from the studies, he said.

Stephanie Monroe, vice president and senior adviser of health equity and access at the advocacy group UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, noted that low Black enrollment is not limited to Alzheimer’s trials. If all the drugs that have not been tested on people of color were eliminated, the shelves of pharmacies would be nearly empty, she said.

“That doesn’t work when you are almost a 50-50 minority/majority population,” Monroe said.

The FDA has issued guidelines for industry designed to bolster diversity in studies, while the National Institute on Aging recently pledged toprioritize funding requests that are “appropriately inclusive.”

The low Black enrollment in studies is just the latest controversy involving the anti-amyloid drugs. For years, earlier versions of the drugs failed repeatedly in trials. By contrast, Leqembi, in an 18-month trial, showed unambiguous, if modest, benefits, slowing disease progression by about 27 percent, or roughlyfive months. The drug, administered every other week, carries a list price of $26,500 a year.

In July, Lilly reported that its anti-amyloid drug, donanemab, was even more effective at removing amyloid. But like Leqembi, it can cause serious side effects, including brain hemorrhages. Some doctors think the drugs will provide bigger benefits when taken for a longer period or earlier in the disease, but others say the medications, which require repeated MRIs to check for side effects, leave much to be desired.

Both Eisai and Lilly said they are working hard to increase diversity in clinical trials. In the meantime, they said, patients with elevated amyloid should benefit from the anti-amyloid drugs, regardless of race or ethnicity.

“We have no pathophysiological reason to expect different efficacy between races and ethnicities for Alzheimer’s treatments that remove amyloid,”Lillysaid in a statement.

Eisai acknowledged that the Leqembi trial was not designed to test the drug in individual racial and ethnic subgroups. But it said in a statement that the totality of the evidence indicated that “all patients, regardless of ethnicity, benefited from treatment” with the drug.

“We and the U.S. FDA — as evidenced by the agency’s approval of Leqembi — believe that the benefits and risks in these patient populations and races has been established,” the company added. Eisai said volunteers who did not pass the amyloid threshold did not have Alzheimer’s and should be assessed for other conditions.

In an interview, Teresa Buracchio, acting director of the FDA’s Office of Neuroscience, said the agency “did not see a notable difference by race” in safety and effectiveness in the limited data available on subgroups in the Leqembi trial.

But other experts were skeptical, saying the number of Black patients in the Leqembi trial was too low to know whether the medication is safe and effective for African Americans. “Without having a representative population, it is impossible to assess,” said Barnes, of Rush University.Some researchers suggested that patients in underrepresented populations should wait for future advances in treatment.

‘We just want to get going’

On a recent day, nurse Christine Besso bustled in and out of Williford’s infusion room at the neurology clinic, taking his vital signs and inserting an IV line. “Let’s get this party started,” she said.

Byron-Williford, watching the process from a nearby couch, said she was not concerned about the low numbers of African Americans in the Leqembi trial.

“I think it will work or not work based on the individual,” she said, adding with a laugh, “and if it doesn’t work for him, it is because he is ornery.”

Byron-Williford said her husband’s health problems accelerated a few years ago after his son, who was in his early 20s, died unexpectedly. Williford became depressed and lost his appetite. Last summer, when he went to pick up his wife at a nearby hair salon, he drove around, lost. She later confiscated his car keys.

In the clinic, shortly after Williford’s infusion began, Weisman stopped in to check on him and discuss possible side effects. When Williford asked him how long he would be on the drug, Weisman shrugged, saying it depended on how he did on the drug and on test results.

“We are getting on an airplane, and we don’t even have a destination airport yet,” Weisman said. “We just want to get going.”

[in-my-loki-feels]

7, 26, 29, and 30 for the writing asks!

Thank you for the questions! From this ask game.

7. Your favourite ao3 tag. In terms of reading tags, anything Alternate Universe. I can't pick one favorite sub-type but it's undoubtedly the family of tags I read the most of. In terms of silly tags: 'no beta we die like wwx', because it's a hilariously perfect twist on the 'no beta we die like men'. (The main character canonically dies at the start of the novel.) (I was tempted to also choose a NSFW tag but chickened out.🙈) 26. What would you describe as OOC? Behavior that deviates from expected norms without any reasonable justification. It'd look different from character to character but a general example would be if Superman showed up and just started murdering people, and we were never given a reason why, that's OOC to me. A lot of (rude) commenters use OOC as an insult, but if a character is going through a different set of circumstances, they may not be exactly like they are in canon. However, if the setup and setting is essentially canon but the character veers into wildly different behavior, I consider that OOC. 29. What's the hardest thing about writing? For me, it's dealing with the low points when my creative energy is nonexistent. It's probably natural that creativity will ebb and flow but when I have a period of no writing longer than a couple of weeks, I get pretty depressed (which of course just makes it harder to feel like creating🥲). 30. Describe a fic that almost happened, but then it didn't. I'm going to pick an example of something I almost got to the finish line and then...didn't, rather than an idea I had but never started.

It was a Charles/Erik X-Men: First Class werewolf AU set in the world of Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson novels. (My love for super niche AU strikes again!) The set up was similar to the movie in that Charles and Raven grow up together, Charles is gathering "misfits", and Erik goes through hell because of Shaw and becomes hell-bent on killing him. Everyone is a werewolf and wolves are split into alpha, beta or the very rare omega, completely unrelated to the alpha, beta and omega dynamics common in fanfic.

A wounded Erik stumbles onto the estate in Westchester, on the run from Shaw. Charles finds him, introducing him to the idea of a supportive pack (instead of what he had with Shaw) and their attraction grows as Erik recovers. Eventually Shaw finds them and Erik chooses to side with Charles and protect his new found family pack.

I put a lot of heart and soul into that one and I'm still pretty proud of the writing, but I just thought it would constantly be confused as an a/b/o fic and readers would be upset or disappointed that it didn't have any of those aspects, so eventually I gave up on making it happen.

[aliavarrin]

Chapters: 16/?

Fandom: ダイヤのA | Daiya no A | Ace of Diamond

Rating: Teens And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Relationships: Miyuki Kazuya/Sawamura Eijun

Characters: Sawamura Eijun, Miyuki Kazuya, Kuramochi Youichi, Kominato Haruichi, Furuya Satoru, Yuuki Tetsuya, Takigawa Chris Yuu, Kominato Ryousuke, Kawakami Norifumi, Isashiki Jun, Tanba Kouichirou, Fujiwara Takako, Kataoka Tesshin, Yoshikawa Haruno, Yui Kaoru

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Fantasy MMO-Like World, Magic, Swords, Raids, Dungeons, Japan Set in a Medieval-Fantasy World, Classes Decided By Baseball Positions, Gaming Lingo, Friendship, Didn’t plan on making this MiyuSawa, But that is where my brain is taking it, Light Miyuki Kazuya/Sawamura Eijun, WIP, Not Beta Read

"Okumura Koushuu?" Yuuki stated though his eyes remained locked onto the piece of parchment in front of him. 

"Yes."

"Class?" 

"Berserker." 

"Main role?"

"Tank." 

EIjun's eyes darted between Yuuki and Okumura as the interview progressed. Though the conversation itself wasn't very riveting. 

It just so happened that Eijun had been with Miyuki and Haruichi when Yuuki hunted Miyuki down to sit in for the interview. Out of boredom and curiosity, Eijun tagged along and no one said anything about it; maybe except for Okumura, though he hadn't vocally spoken his inquiries, instead, sent Eijun the occasional side-eye. It didn't help that Yuuki introduced himself as the captain and Miyuki as the main tank, yet here Eijun sat, currently nameless. 

They were settled in one of the smaller, unused conference rooms in Seido, with he, Yuuki, and Miyuki sitting on one side of the sole wooden table, while Okumura was on the other. Okumura was rigid in his chair, yet his eyes were narrowed into a glare; whether from anger, nerves or that was simply how his face was, Eijun couldn't be sure.

Being witness to the interview brought Eijun back to when he first arrived at Seido, which was a vastly different experience than what Okumura had to sit through. Befuddled, Eijun leaned closer to Miyuki, and with a hand shielding his mouth he whispered, "Why is this so different than when I joined?"

So far, Miyuki had been leaned back in his chair, arms folded across his chest the entire duration of the interview. Even now, his gaze was hyper-focused on Okumura, almost as if he were searching him for something. However, because of that, Miyuki didn't respond right away. In fact, he took so long that Eijun had to wonder if he even heard the question at all. Yet, just when Eijun began to debate asking again or waiting until after, Miyuki tilted his head toward Eijun, eyes still trained on Okumura, and mumbled, "You were recruited. He applied." 

Keep Reading

[ao3feed-crimeboys]

Calling anyone (I'm in an alley)

by FeathersofErebus

Tommy is being attacked by the city's main heroes for being a vigilante and finally manages to get away but he has no one to rely on to pick him up. The solution? Let's call a stranger!!

Tommy unlocked it and just. Stared. At the home screen. He swiped onto the contacts after a couple of seconds. But who to call. Tommy’s contacts felt almost empty. Is this what it’s like when no one gives a shit about you? He pulled up the calls. A missed call from Tubbo a couple of hours ago. Does he call 999? But how does he explain him looking like the wanted vigilante and left bleeding out by the docks? Fuck it. He just really needed to hear someone’s voice right now. Another tear slid down his cheek as it started raining. A once dreary night just had turned into a fucking dreadful night. He typed in 07 into the phone and stopped. Did it matter who he called? 07XXX-XXX-XXX he typed in. He pressed the call button. Buzz. Buzz. His vision was getting blurry again. Buzz. Buzz. The call picked up. A voice answered with a thick British accent, thank fuck it wasn’t an American. He didn’t need more of them. “Hello?”

 Warnings: Gore, violence

Words: 3051, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Minecraft (Video Game)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Characters: Wilbur Soot, TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF)

Relationships: Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit

Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Dream SMP Ensemble are Superheroes, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Avian TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), TommyInnit-centric (Video Blogging RPF), TommyInnit Needs a Hug (Video Blogging RPF), Protective Wilbur Soot, Vigilante TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Villain Wilbur Soot, no beta we die like philza minecraft in hardcore