#also waiting for the day they make Pharma

[cuppajj]

You own any TF models?

Check it out

[bullet-prooflove]

6500 Follower Bingo Card Celebration: The Shirt: John Shen x Reader (feat: Jack Abbot)

Tagging: @kmc1989 @miraclesabound @cannonindeez @fadeinsol @nommingonfood @yousigned-upforthis

Hitting The Bingo Squares: Wearing His Shirt

Companion piece to:

Dick Pics - You and John discuss your dating life in the ambulance bay during a rare shift break.

Brunch - John refuses to give up when you miss brunch with him.

Silly Little Boys (NSFW) - John's not like the other men you've been with.

In The Summer - You discover John's secret.

Tiger, Tiger - John reveals the truth between his engagement and his history.

Jack - John's mother opens up old wounds by giving John a copy of your DCFS file.

Bare (NSFW) - John and you commit to each other in a special way.

It’s the shirt that tips Jack off, that followed by the body language.

It’s royal blue with faded gold branding for the Pittsburgh food festival you went to last week. The thing is that shirt, it’s too big, not enough to swamp you but enough for him to know it’s a boyfriend shirt even if you are tucking it into the waistband of your jeans.

He doesn’t say anything about it when you hand back his keys after borrowing the car, he’s still putting the pieces together because you’ve not mentioned you’re seeing someone, that it might be getting serious.

The question is why?

It’s answered almost immediately when his gaze shifts to Shen, whose mouth twitches up into an subtle smile when he lays eyes on you.  You smile back and that’s when he realises that the breaks Shen takes in the ambulance bay, they’re not really about getting a couple minutes of fresh air.

You could do a lot worse, he supposes. He should know, it was him who let down the tires on Pharma Bro’s Audi after you found out he was also seeing Ivy. The dumbass had ended up calling AAA to get the thing towed.

It’s a couple of hours later he finds himself alone with the other man, the two of them are both standing in front of the intake board, surveying their options. The silence, it stretches between the two of them, thickening until it becomes uncomfortable and still neither moves, neither flinches, they just stand there waiting for the other to break.

“You know don’t you?” Shen says finally and Jack makes an affirmative noise.

“I do.” He states crossing his arms over his chest.

“Cici wants to tell you this weekend-.”

“I’ll work on my surprised face.”

“Look I get you’re pissed-”

Jack huffs out a laugh.

“You think I’m pissed?” Jack says turning his face towards Shen. “I’m not. I know you, I know you’re not one of those assholes that’s gonna run around behind her back but Cici is handle with care-”

“I know.” Shen says pointedly and that’s another surprise because Cici, she doesn’t talk about that time of her life, not to anyone.

“Huh.” Jack responds, his whiskey eyes meeting Shen’s with an intensity that leaves no room for misunderstanding. “Then you know if you fuck things up with her, you’re probably gonna have to transfer to another hospital right? Because I will make your life an absolute misery. I’m talking shit you couldn’t even imagine, real Psyops level, fuck with your head kinda stuff.”

“That’s fair.” Shen says before turning his attention back to the board. “So which one you want? Shitting through the eye of a needle, or vomiting up blood?”

“Vomit.” Jack says, snatching up a pair of latex gloves from the box on the counter. “I’ll take puke over anal seepage any day.”

Love John? Don’t miss any of his stories by joining the taglist here.

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Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

[darkmaga-returns]

Trump Ends Birthright Citizenship - I could cry reading this article. FINALLY someone of influence that truly understands the original intent of the Constitution and namely the 14th Amendment. I often refer to the US Senate Debate of 1866 and Mr. Wolverton refers to the same. He also refers the real definition of natural born citizen from the Law of Nations a document referred to by our founders while creating our founding documents. This was the definition understood by all people at the time of our founding and there has never been a law passed to change the definition. KUDDOS to Mr. Wolverton. He will be speaking in Johnson City, TN on February 4, 2025 and I cannot wait for this presentation entitled: MAKE AMERICA STATES AGAIN. The audience will get a good lesson in the states authority over the federal government. Most people think the federal government has power over the states. The federal government’s power comes from the states and the people of the states and is limited to Art. 1 Sec. 8 of the US Constitution and it is about time the lies spewed from the federal government are put to bed. The deliberate dumbing down of America has been all about Americans not knowing the truth of the power derived in the states and the people and the VERY LIMITED legislative power given to the federal government by the states and the people of the states. We here in TN have been fighting for almost 3 years now to restore our rightful authority. In this article Mr. Wolverton also explains the true definition of NBC (Natural Born Citizen) Place of birth has no bearing on NBC. The citizenship of the father is what determines the NBC of the children. ARTICLE

CALL YOUR US REP. AND SENATORS - Tell them to vote NO on this bill. It is dangerous and will do away with doctors diagnosing and caring for patients. If AI diagnosis a person with cancer and their diagnosis is wrong……how do you sue AI?? Watch this bill and if it gets passed be sure to organize and make sure your state does not allow AI to prescribe drugs to sick people - HB238

Bill Gates wants to reduce the population - VIDEO

6 Presidents worth before they became President and what they were worth when they left office. What is your answer to the question at the end of the video -Thanks to Brent B. - 1 min. VIDEO

Fear And Loathing In DC: Why Did Trump Push Larry Ellison's Deranged AI mRNA Cancer Shots, Days Before RFK Jr. Is To Be Confirmed As Head Of HHS? Not A Reason To Abandon Hope, But Very Odd by Celia Farber - ARTICLE/VIDEOS

URGENT: Mike Pence's Big-Pharma-Funded Advocacy Group Attacking RFK Jr. Has Ties To Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson - I have NEVER like Pence and was very disappointed when Trump chose him as his VP. Pence has always been a snake - ARTICLE

[foster-the-world]

Working on it

Been going (mostly) all in on cleaning up baby boys diet. Cutting vegetables has become a fulltime job. Luckily, I find it enjoyable. When he's with us we are cutting sugar, preservatives, and dairy. Not officially cutting gluten but we don't eat much bread anyway. Cutting back on tomatoes as I suspect some histamine issues and he used to eat literally 100-200 grape tomatoes a week. Just switched to cucumbers and peppers. Hoping this will help with at least eczema, asthma and some GI issues. Can't hurt behaviors, I figure. Not counting on a magic bullet.

So thankful he's an easy to please eater. Asked the school to cut out dairy. They made me get a doctor's note - which I thought was a bit much. We are not allowed to send in food as there are lots of kids with actual life threatening allergies. I would think a parent should be able to cut something from their kids diet without a doctor's permission. I guess it stops parents from making random request all of the time. Which is understandable. The school only serves whole foods so not going to worry about cutting anything else during the day.

Trying to say no to sugar/dairy outside of the house but not going to stress about it. Eating whole foods a vast majority of the time is going to have to be good enough.

I'm waiting on a stool test results. Will add in some tested prebiotic/probiotic supplements if its suggested. No thank you to the random "detox" therapies. I'm getting a lot of useful information from the natural based healing asthma/eczema groups. I still find it too extreme for me. People will be like "this will never go mainstream because Big Pharma can't make money from it." Then list thousands of dollars in unproven/untested supplements and tell you to eat only expensive grass fed, pastured raised meat, eggs, etc. $5 a month Ritalin prescription is infinitely cheaper. People will also be like "You have to keep going. Healing takes a long time. My nonverbal kid finally starting talking after three years of this strict elimination diet." Um, ma'am did it ever occur to you your nonverbal kid may have learned to speak because its been three years??? Some of it is scary. A women said her 2.5 has failure to thrive in general and stopped eating the the last three days since she started the elimination diet. She said he's lost 3 pounds in three days. The first comment was like stick with it. No ma'am. Your already too thin child needs to eat. Three pounds in three days for a failure to thrive three year old means an elimination diet is not okay.

Anyway, this change means we are all eating healthier. Bee has some constipation issues which the diet is helping. Trying to mix it up with seasonal things via a local farm box. We've got ramps, fiddlesticks and black radishes recently. All big hits. All of my kids love rainbow chard. We throw so much garlic on everything. I'm cutting out doordash deliveries to offset some of the extra cost spent on seasonal/expensive stuff.

[jerzwriter]

Thank you to @snoopdogcone for this ask. I'm not sure if Tobias x Casey were your pick, but this ask seemed perfect for them, so that's the way I went! 😊I also merged both of these prompts into one! I hope you like it!

Book: Open Heart Pairing: Tobias Carrick x F!MC (Casey MacTavish) Category: AU - Fluff Rating: Teen Words: 1,500 Summary: Good friends Tobias and Casey have spent many nights out together. It's old hat. But tonight... something else feels different, but are they on the same page?

Participating in @choicesficwriterscreations Valentine's Event

Didn't have much time to edit - be kind :)

Casey had her phone pressed against her ear as she kicked off her heels at her front door. She wasn’t waiting until she got settled in to let Tobias hear about tonight’s debacle. “Remind me again why I allow you to set me up with people?” She groaned.

His familiar chuckle came through the phone, and to her chagrin, she was already beginning to forgive him. "I don't know," he replied without missing a beat. “Why don't we go with... because you trust my judgment." She could hear the familiar sounds of him preparing dinner, his slippers scuffing across the Carrara marble floor, something sizzling in a cast iron pan, and after the night she had just experienced; she wished she would have been sitting there with him instead.

“Well, I may need to rethink that,” she laughed, and he knew he was off the hook. “Seriously, Tobias, how did you think we'd be a good match? The guy corrected my pronunciation of quinoa in front of the waiter while I was ordering—who does that?”

“An asshole,” Tobias confirmed.

“Exactly! And the clincher, I wasn’t even saying it wrong! He was!”

“Clearly, he didn’t realize he was on a date with someone who had to pronounce ‘glucocorticoid’ in front of a lecture hall two days ago.”

“Well,” she said, with a grin he could almost see through the phone. “Perhaps you should have informed him.” Slipping onto her sofa, she changed gears. “Enough about my horror story. Your turn! How was your date this afternoon?”

“You mean my shit show this afternoon?” He exhaled sharply. “She spent the first fifteen minutes scrolling through her phone. Then she tells me she doesn’t ‘believe’ in medicine but believes in energy healing, so you know it only went downhill from there.”

“Oh my god.” Casey cackled. “Didn’t she know you’re a doctor?”

“I thought so. Maybe her goal was to convince me I’m nothing but a puppet for big pharma and I should join her cult.”

“Is she really in a cult?” Casey asked, amused.

“She may as well have been.”

“I told you to stop using dating apps; I swear, everyone on them is deranged.”

“They’re deranged, but we're still single,” he said, finally sitting down to eat.

“Yep, we're pathetic,” she groaned.

“Hey, what are you doing tomorrow?” He asked, biting into his perfectly cooked steak. “Wanna grab dinner? My treat.”

 “Are you bribing me with food?” She grinned, rubbing her aching feet.

“Of course,” he smiled. “Because it works every time.”

“Shut up, it does not!”

“So, you’re not joining me then?”

Casey rolled her eyes. “Of course I am. And I hate you.”

“Nah, you love me,” he grinned.

Casey didn’t reply. She wasn’t about to bolster his already overfed ego.

“Where and when?”

“Yvonne’s? Six o’clock? I’ll make a reservation.”

“Yvonne’s,” she all but sang. “Oooh! Fancy!”

“Hey, being friends with me has its advantages,” he bragged, but Casey wasn’t having it.

“Well, you have to do something to make up for all the shitty blind dates you’ve sent me on. You owe me at least ten dinners for tonight's alone!"

“All right! Truce!” he laughed. And their plans were set for tomorrow.

~~~~~

Tobias checked his watch as he leaned against a car outside of Yvonne’s, a small, intimate restaurant he knew Casey considered a favorite. He chose it to make amends for her crappy experience last night; at least, that’s what he told himself.

It was cold outside, but the night felt almost magical. The light mist in the air softened the glow from the streetlights above; a Hollywood producer couldn’t have set a better scene. Then, Casey appeared, as if on cue. She was rushing, a little breathless, and her cheeks pink from the cold, but she looked as beautiful as ever.

“Sorry, I’m late,” she said. “The T was running behind schedule.”

“No worries,” he said, standing tall, his eyes effortlessly glancing over her. She’d pulled her hair up, little wisps framing her face, and the fitted sweater dress and boots she wore were perfectly her... simple, not overdone, but somehow, they still made his brain go static for a second, and Casey didn’t miss it.

“Are you ready?” she asked, her head tilted. That’s all it took to snap him out of it.

“Yeah,” he said, clearing his throat. “Let’s go.”

Yvonne’s was an elegant place, but it was... different... tonight. The lighting was softer, the air filled with delicate strumming from a string quartet in a distant corner, and everyone appeared better dressed than usual.

“Everything seems so... fancy tonight. Did we miss a memo?” Casey asked as they followed the hostess to their table.

“Maybe it’s a themed night,” Tobias chuckled, but neither thought much about it.

The hostess beamed while handing them their menus. “I think the two of you may be the most beautiful couple here tonight.”

Casey blinked, looking from the hostess to Tobias and back again. “Us? “Oh, we're not...”

“Thank you,” he crooned, giving the woman a disarming smile that left Casey befuddled. But she shrugged it off.

The weirdness didn’t end there. The waiter handed Casey a red, long-stemmed rose before even asking what they’d like to drink. Casey took it with a smile, raising it to her nose to take in its fragrant scent; then looked at Tobas.

“Is it just me? Or does everything seem a little... extra... tonight?”

“It's not just you,” he replied, equally confused.

They both put it out of their minds because their conversation was flowing as easily as it always did, filled with bubbling laughter and smiles that never left their faces. They never seemed to notice the effortless rhythm that existed between them, although it was pretty clear to all those around them. Toward the end of their meal, an elderly couple seated next to them stood up to leave. But not before the woman stopped to compliment them.  

“You two are simply adorable,” she beamed. “You remind me of myself and Sigfred here when we were younger.”

Casey opened her mouth to reply, but Tobias gently placed his hand over Casey’s, offering a polite smile in response. “Let them have their little fantasy,” he whispered, low enough that only she could hear.

With that, an inexplicable warmth rose inside of her, and she had no idea why. “Fine,” she blushed, choosing to ignore it. “I suppose there’s no harm in that.”

When their favorite dessert arrived, Casey all but squealed with delight. Yvonne’s crème brulée was to die for, and it had been ages since she had it. But tonight, the delicacy arrived in a heart-shaped dish with pink rose petals strewn all around it ... that’s when it hit them.

“Oh my god!” Casey laughed. “Tobias! It’s Valentine’s Day!”

“That just hit me, too,” he snickered. “God, we’re idiots.”

“Are we so pathetically single that we didn’t even register that it's today?” She said with a shake of her head. “No wonder everyone assumed we were a couple.”

"That must be why," he grinned, though he wasn’t laughing along.

~~~~~

The air was crisp as they walked back to Casey’s apartment. They walked side by side, still laughing about the night.

“On the upside, at least we can say we didn’t spend Valentine’s Day alone this year,” Casey said as they stopped in front of her building.

“Yeah, at least there’s that,” Tobias agreed, turning to her with his hands in his pockets. Then, after a moment that stretched longer than he wanted it to, he added, “Of course, if II had realized... I wouldn’t have minded if we had spent it together on purpose.”

Casey’s eyes opened wide, and he heard her breath hitch. She searched his face, looking for any sign of his usual sarcasm at work, but there was none to be found. Her usual instinct to laugh it off appeared but quickly faltered under the weight of the moment.

“What?” she asked so low, it was barely a whisper. “What are you saying?”

Tobias held her gaze, his hand slipping into hers. “I’m saying I would have loved to have spent it with you on purpose. But it will make for a better story when we tell people about our accidental first date - on Valentine’s Day, no less. Don’t you think?”

She swallowed, her hand beginning to quiver. “Are... are you being serious right now? You wanted this to be a real date... me... and you?”

“Yes,” he said, with much more confidence than his racing heart suggested. “And I hope that you would have liked that, too."

Casey bit her lip, blonde whisps of hair bobbing as she nodded. Finally, she was able to put words together. “Yeah, I’d...I'd love that, actually.”

His lip quirked into a tentative smile, and he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. “Good,” he whispered as his lips fell onto hers - kissing her softly at first, not wanting to push her. But when Casey pulled him closer, the passion between them ignited, and just like that, ‘just friends’ was no longer enough – in fact, it probably never had been.

When the kiss broke, their foreheads rested against each other, but he hadn't expected her next move as she broke into a fit of giggles.

“Hey. What’s so funny?” he asked with a nervous smile.  

“Nothing,” she said, her hands rubbing against his lapels. “I'm just wondering, did you set me up on all of those shitty dates just so this one would be even more incredible?"

“Do you really give me that much credit?" He laughed, taking her hands in his. "It was incredible, though... wasn't it?"

"It was," she smiled as he kissed her once more.

“And if things go as planned," he whispered. "Neither one of us will ever have to endure a blind date again.”  

@openheartfanfics Tagging others separately.

[ananxiousgenz]

okay okay okay wait i have just experienced A Thought

so it's been established that the title of the most recent juno steel eps comes from the coal miner song "sixteen tons", most notably covered by tennessee ernie ford. you can find it on youtube or spotify, but it's about the backbreaking labor and dangerous conditions these miners would go through for very little pay, and because of this, the most obvious reading is that this song title was chosen to be about nureyev working to keep slip alive for years only to discover that the dokana group was screwing him over.

but. what if the song title wasn't just in relation to nureyev but to slip as well?

stick with me for a minute here, because i've got some interesting thoughts about this.

the lyrics of the first verse focus on how the people in power think that the men working beneath them are just soulless lumps of dirt when in reality they are people made of "muscle and blood and skin and bones" who are purposefully under-educated ("a mind that's a-weak") so they can only do manual labor for a living ("and a back that's strong"). slip's intention with his drug formula was to give people an escape from reality. he wanted to help those people who could do nothing but work and wanted to flip off the pharma corps by making it easily affordable and non-addictive. the first verse is basically a summary of the motives that drove him to that game of rangian street poker with the executives that brought him where he is now.

the chorus is even more interesting.

yeah, you really could interpret this in relation to peter's quest for slip's resurrection, but it could also get connected to slip's dedication to creating this drug. peter flat out told us that slip put A LOT of work and testing into it and it wasn't just something that happened overnight. however, what specifically stands out to me here is the last two lines and the reference to st. peter. in sixteen tons part 2, slip basically gives peter permission to let him go (see this post from @smidgen-of-hotboy). if we're reading this from slip's pov, the song is just reiterating that message: peter can let slip go. he knew the risks he was taking by tangling with the executives and stealing from them so his soul is really the one that is owed "to the company store", which is why slip wouldn't want peter to "call him" (resurrect him) because he made the decisions and mistakes so he would want to be the one paying for them. every day that peter leaves him alive is just another day slip is getting older and not better. every day peter leaves slip alive is another day his debt is growing larger. for the sake of his own wellbeing, peter HAS to let slip go.

the rest of the verses are basically a summary of nureyev's story thus far (verse two being his new story being born as he starts working for the dokana group, verse three being his interactions with juno and leaving him at the end of season 4, and verse 4 being the absolute ass-kicking he's about to hand the dokana group) but with the chorus that is just chock-full of slip's voice getting repeated between those verses, it just almost feels like slip is begging to be let go but peter, being peter, won't listen. it's very interesting stuff.

[swan2swan]

I'm still a little confused about the profitability of the dinosaur trade...specifically, Brooklynn's trade.

Obviously, the business is pretty straightforward: the organization is funded by the government to keep civilians safe, or...more importantly...to make them feel safe. They don't care if the dinosaurs are here or there, they just care that someone can show up and deal with them. So it's a flat rate.

Now, Brooklynn was sent a bag with, as Arnold would say, "About two million" in cash. Maybe more. Obviousy, not all of that money needed to go to the Allosaurus purchase (and she was just there to film the drop, anyway, which was...probably not a perfect move? Unless she just wanted Darius to watch from the shadows?). And, also obviously, Cabrera was onto her, so no deal was about to take place, and the Allosaurus was either going to be successfully wrangled or scooped up a few days or weeks later, proving the necessity of the DPW.

But...what was the purchase supposed to be for?

Was it--okay, wait no never mind, a fossilized Allosaurus skeleton goes for millions. Evil!Brooklynn buys the Allosaurus for two million dollars (or one million, all under the table, tax-free, 250K to Jansen, 250K to Jared, 100K to ten supporting staff, and the other 500K to Cabrera), then Evil!Brooklynn has an Allosaurus and sells it to a billionaire for five million. Evil!Brooklynn makes five mil, and the billionaire unleashes the Allosaurus on his Alaskan wildlife reserve, with fifty millionaire/billionaire buddies all turned loose with rifles and helicopters with a 500K baseline package (two million gets you the penthouse suite). Whoever shoots the Allosaurus gets to have it taxidermied and gets to brag about how they saved Alaska. Or a private island. The billionaire gets to have a fun weekend flexing, and makes a 20M profit, baseline.

Or, maybe Evil!Brooklynn grinds the dinosaur's bones up and sends the blood off to pharma companies for 50K a gallon. The liver goes for 200K, the teeth go to jewelers, the claws are all black ivory.

So, yeah, I don't think I'm that confused anymore. That all makes sense.

[cariantha]

Favors

Book: Open Heart, Book 1 Pairing: Dr. Ethan Ramsey x F!MC (Dr. Sawyer Brooks) Rating: General Category: Angsty Fluff, Christmas Word count: 2.5K Summary: Sawyer is worried that her crush is getting the wrong impression and is later hurt when she thinks he has taken advantage of a situation. A/N: This takes place during intern year (pre-Miami) shortly before the events in Merry Christmas, Rookie.

Events/Prompts: • Photo prompt from @jerzwriter • Participating in CFWC Holidays 2023 • Participating in Choices Flashfics Holiday Prompts 🎄12: “The tree isn’t the only thing getting lit this year.” 🎅21: “It looks like Santa threw up in here.” 🎁67: “What’s wrong? Do you not like your gift?” • Participating in Choices Flashfics Week #64 Prompts 👨🏻‍⚕️2: “I’m not in the mood for a lecture.” • Participating in Choices Holidays Winter 2023

While waiting in the lunch rush lines in the cafeteria, Sienna reminded her roommates of their party assignments. “...I’ve got the treats covered, Elijah is handling the music, Jackie is making jingle juice-”

“Hell yeah!” Elijah exclaimed, giving Jackie a high-five. 

“The tree isn’t the only thing getting lit this year,” she said coolly.

“Oh, and don’t forget your white elephant gifts!” Sienna also reminded them.

“Shit, I forgot about that. What are the rules again?” Jackie asked.

“The only rule is you can’t buy anything,” Sienna answered. 

“I’ll go shop the lost and found when we’re done here.”

“Or, I saw some pharma reps in the atrium earlier. You could try to hit them up for some swag,” Sawyer chimed in. 

A heavy arm slipped around Sawyer's shoulders when the group reached the front of the line. “Thanks for saving my spot, Brooks,” Bryce winked, cutting in line.

“Do you meatheads have to cut into everything?” Jackie barked.

Bryce chomped into the apple he hadn’t yet paid for. “Yep,” he nodded with a big toothy grin. “I’m just trying to get on the naughty list. If you all want to join me, we could save Santa a trip this year,” he joked.

“You’re already looking at Santa’s favorite ho,” Jackie quipped.

“Brooksie, I actually am in a hurry. I need to scrub in for a lymphadenectomy. Do you mind?” he asked seriously.

Sawyer tilted her head to the register, gesturing for him to go ahead.

“Thanks.” When the cashier asked if they were together, Bryce said yes.

“Bryce, you don’t have to-”

He placed a hand on the small of her back. "I've got you, Ipo. I'll see you later," he promised before hurrying away.

“Girl, what are you holding out for? He's hot and totally into you,” Sienna teased once Bryce was out of earshot.

Sawyer lifted her tray and turned to her friend. She opened her mouth to say something but froze when she spotted a six-foot-four-inch, blue-eyed attending at the adjacent register. Not knowing how much he saw or heard, a blush of embarrassment colored her cheeks. Feeling like a shy teenager at a school dance, Sawyer hoped the interaction with Bryce hadn’t given her crush the wrong impression. 

As Ethan raised his eyes to her, he gave no indication. Pocketing his wallet, he stoically turned and exited the cafeteria. 

As their shift ended, Sawyer approached her roommates, who were walking in the opposite direction down the hall.

“Locker room is that way, Brooks,” Jackie pointed. 

“I know. I just need to run and check on one more patient before I clock out.”

“Do you want us to wait for you?” Sienna asked.

“No, don’t wait up. I’ll be right behind you.” 

After ensuring the coast was clear, Sawyer slipped behind the plastic curtain that sealed off the construction wing. Naveen spiked a fever earlier in the day, and she wanted to check on him before going home. She found him fast asleep, and after checking his monitors and medications, she quietly tidied the room. When she finished, she softly closed the door, whispering, “Goodnight, Dr. B.”

On her way to dispose of some trash, Sawyer’s phone buzzed in her pocket.

Bryce knocked and let himself in, making a beeline to the kitchen to find Sienna. “Help?” he asked, lifting a roll of wrapping paper and tape.

She looked at him, puzzled. “Where’s your gift?”

“You're looking at it.” He beckoned her to the living room, where he lay down on the floor. 

“You’re ridiculous, you know that?” she laughed, kneeling beside him.

A few minutes later, Sienna placed the last piece of tape, securing the wrapping around Bryce’s torso. Using all of her body weight, she rolled him to his back and slid him under the Christmas tree. 

“Si?” he called, his voice muffled. “Do me a favor and start the game sooner than later. I already have to pee.” 

In the locker room, Sawyer traded her white coat for her winter one. As she gathered her things, her phone buzzed with an incoming call.

“Hi,” she answered.

“Hi. “By any chance, are you still at the hospital?” Ethan asked.

“I am.”

“Could I ask you for a favor? I’ve had something come up at the last minute. Would you be able to stay with Naveen for a few hours?”

By now, Sawyer had come to know Ethan Ramsey well enough to know that he would not ask for help unless he was desperate. “Sure. Is everything okay?”

“Yes. I’m pressed for time right now, but I’ll explain later. I’ll relieve you as soon as I can.”

“No problem.”

“Thanks, Rookie.”

Sawyer was about to text Sienna when Danny entered the room.  

“Hey, Sawyer,” he waved. “I thought you’d be at home getting ready for the party. I’m heading there now if you want a ride.”

“Danny, I’m so glad you’re here! Could you take something to Sienna for me? I’m not going to make it home for a while.”

“How come?” 

She made sure they were alone and lowered her voice. “Dr. Ramsey got tied up with something and asked if I would look after Patient X for a few hours.”

“You should go and have fun with your roommates, Sawyer. I can stay,” he insisted, having been recruited by Ethan shortly after Naveen agreed to be treated.

“That’s really sweet of you, Danny, but I know you traded shifts so that you could be off tonight. Besides, Sienna baked a batch of peppermint chocolate chip cookies just for you.”

“She did?” he smiled.

“Yeah. Go. Have fun. I’ll be there as soon as Dr. R gets here.”

After Danny left with what appeared to be a wrapped bedpan, she updated her roommate.

Later, Sawyer was in Naveen’s room, scrolling through Pictagram, when her phone vibrated with a new text notification.

Several hours had passed when Sawyer felt a hand on her shoulder. 

“Rookie?” 

“Hiiiii,” she managed through a yawn. 

“I’m so sorry,” Ethan apologized.

“Huh? What time is it?” Sawyer reached for her phone and noticed several missed calls from Sienna and Bryce. 

“It’s almost four in the morning. I would have been here sooner, but I accidentally dozed off,” he explained, helping her to her feet.

“It’s okay. There's no doubt you probably needed it. And it’s been quiet here. His fever finally broke a little while ago.” 

“Good. Go home and get some sleep,” he instructed, “I’ll tell Ines that you’ll be in this afternoon.” 

“Okay.” Sawyer shouldered her bag and headed for the door. “Good night." 

“Sawyer?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Thank you.”

With a shake of the snow from her coat, Sawyer entered her apartment and found Landry eating breakfast at the kitchen table. “Oh boy. It looks like Santa threw up in here.”

“Smells like it, too,” he grumbled. 

“I’m surprised you’re still going in early after…,” she circled her hand in the air, “all of this.”

“Yeah, well, not all of us are lucky enough to get preferential treatment from Dr. Ramsey.” 

“Excuse me?” 

“What? This is the second time he’s personally assigned you a case. To my knowledge, he hasn’t assigned cases to other interns in the competition.”

“Wow. Well, maybe he will if you ever crack the top five.” She let him chew on that as she hung her coat and walked to her room.

Bryce turned from the surgical board and spotted Sawyer approaching. “Finally coming to collect your prize, Brooksie?”

Sawyer rolled her eyes.

“What’s wrong? Do you not like your gift?”

“You’re ridiculous,” she said with an amused smile.

“So I’ve been told. By the way, this gift comes with a night on the town.” 

Unbeknownst to her, Dr. Ramsey inconveniently emerged from a nearby patient’s room, catching the tail end of their conversation.

“Bryce-” 

But before she could protest, he backed his way down the hall. “I’ve gotta run. Check your schedule and let me know when I can pick you up. And you should know, I have a strict ‘no rejections’ policy.”

She sighed deeply once his back was to her, then turned to find Ethan standing a couple of feet away, his eyes focused on the tablet in his hand.

“Dr. Ramsey,” she acknowledged sheepishly.

Ethan glanced at her with a side-eye. “Brooks.”

“Rrrrr! Of course, he is here right now!” As they moved on to their next tasks, Sawyer told herself it was time for a heart-to-heart with Bryce. 

"Excuse me, would you please page Dr. Ramsey?"

A few minutes later, Ethan met an attractive woman at the nurses’ station and led her away from the busybodies seated at the circular desk. As they walked down the hall, she handed him a small box. “Thank you, Jen. I really appreciate this. I’ll send you the outcome report as soon as the trial period ends.”

Stepping in front of him, Jen pulled him to the side until their shoulders hugged the wall. "It was great to see you again, " she paused as a couple of nurses walked past. "We had a good time last night, didn’t we?"

“It was nice to catch up.”

She didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but when Sawyer heard the familiar voice, she wondered if her ears were deceiving her. 

“Listen, I would love to see you again tonight,” Jen continued, reaching for the end of his tie and running it through her fingers. I’m staying at The Langham. Come have drinks with me and...” she shrugged, "and we can see where things go from there.” 

“I-”

Sawyer stepped out of the vending machine alcove and turned her head toward them. 

Ethan’s surprised eyes met hers, finding only hurt. He moved Jen’s hand back to her side as Sawyer spun and walked briskly in the opposite direction. 

“Jen, you’ll have to excuse me. I need to go,” he apologized, watching the woman he longed for retreat and disappear. “I appreciate your assistance. I will speak with you later.” 

“Later tonight?”

“I’ll text you,” he said as he sidestepped her.

Ethan’s long strides carried him down the hall quickly. He nearly collided with a visitor as he rounded the corner. “I’m sorry. Excuse me.”

In the far corner of the cafeteria, Sawyer watched the snowfall in the empty courtyard. The sound of metal chair legs scraping against the tiled floor jarred her from her thoughts.

“I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Why? Need another favor?” she said, words laced with disdain.

“Rookie, that-”

“Dr. Ramsey, I haven’t been helping you to win favor or get a leg up in the competition. If you want an intern to run errands and cover for your ass, then let me suggest Dr. Olsen. He'd be more than happy to fill that role.”

She lowered her voice, hurt replacing anger. “I canceled plans with my roommates last night because I believed that it must have been important if you were asking for help. If I had known I was only covering so that you could go on a date and get…” She let the rest of the sentence die on her tongue. “Sorry. I know how you spend your free time is none of my business, but I won’t let you take advantage of mine.” 

Visibly disappointed, she avoided eye contact. Ethan keenly observed that her disappointment went beyond merely thinking he would take advantage of her kindness. If he had read the situation correctly, it would have been the same disappointment he had felt seeing her with the surgical intern.

“Sawyer, let me explain. Jen works for Phlaum Pharmaceuticals. They are currently conducting a trial on a new antibiotic for sepsis. I reached out to her when I heard about it. Her team is in the area promoting a new product this week. You may have noticed her reps in the lobby. She made herself available to meet with me last night. And after some convincing, she agreed to pull some strings to get Naveen into the trial. She was here this afternoon to drop off the treatment.” Ethan pulled a small vial from his pocket and placed it on the table.

“It sounded like you convinced her all right,” she muttered.

“Rookie. I know we haven’t known each other long, but do you honestly believe I’m the type of person who would trade sexual favors? I agreed to a testimonial and a couple of expo appearances. That’s all.”

“What? Can you blame me for going there? She said she had a ‘good time,’ and you told me you were late because you ‘accidentally dozed off,’ then she asked you to meet her again tonight. At. A. Hotel.”

He shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose at her teasing dramatization, failing to hide the crack of a smile.

“So, how’d you get out of it?” she wondered.

“I told her I would text her later.”

“You don’t text.”

“Exactly.” His knee touched hers, but neither one attempted to move away. “I need to get back upstairs. Can you meet me later to review the trial protocols?”

“I have a few patients to check on. I’ll page you after?” she answered.

Ethan scooted back in his chair, but before standing, he covered Sawyer’s hand with his own. 

“Sawyer, your contributions and the sacrifice of your time have not gone unnoticed. And as far as I’m concerned, you are my partner on this case. I should have filled you in on the drug trial. I just didn’t want either of us to get our hopes up.” 

“Thank you, Dr. Ramsey.” When he moved to stand, she followed. “I’m finished here. I’ll head back up with you.”

The elevator doors were halfway closed when a fellow intern squeezed through. 

“Hi, Brad,” Sawyer greeted.

“Sooo, who’s the lucky guy?” he quizzed, embarrassingly indiscreet.

“Pardon?”

“Come on, girl. Why else would you ditch us last night? Your roommates say you’re never home. You rarely come out for drinks anymore. And you’ve parked Bryce in the friend zone.” Brad nudged her shoulder with his. “Spill the tea.”

“Sorry to disappoint, TMZ, but I’m not dating anyone. I got stuck here with a last-minute case.” She made her eyes big and subtly tipped her head toward Dr. Ramsey as a warning. Luckily, Brad picked up on the cue, sparing her from having to tell any more white lies. 

Ethan hid a smile, pretending not to notice the act.

“Any chance you guys will host again for New Year’s? You’re the only ones with an apartment big enough,” Brad asked as they exited the elevator together. 

“Talk to Elijah. He’s the party planner of the group.” 

Once Brad was on his way, Ethan reached for Sawyer's elbow, drawing her back. “You skipped your own party?” 

She shrugged. “You needed my help, and our patient wasn’t in any condition to be left alone.”

“You should have told me. I would have figured something else out…” He looked into her eyes with a sense of wonder. “Thank you. I owe you one.”

She smiled up at him. “You’re welcome.”  

“So, what excuse did you give your roommates?” he asked as they walked side by side down the hall.

“About that…” she said with a tense grin, “I’m gonna need you to assign some of your cases to the other interns in the top five.”

“Come again?”

Tag List: @choicesficwriterscreations @openheartfanfics @peonierose @potionsprefect @trappedinfanfiction @jerzwriter @queencarb @coffeeheartaddict2 @quixoticdreamer16 @jamespotterthefirst @liaromancewriter @zealouscanonindeer @tveitertotwrites @tessa-liam @youlookappropriate @kyra75 @socalwriterbee @txemrn @choicesflashfics

[nonmaleficence]

@nickel-of-the-djd

Sitting in his office during a slower day at the hospital, Pharma had enough time to think about multiple changes that occurred during his presence at New Kaon. As he mused about it, chin resting on his servo, he recalled a few topics which came during the recent conversations with Tarn and his own observations, concerning the state of the general hospital.

There was no war. They were focusing on chronic patient care rather than dire situations, yet Pharma's coding was still redirecting him to make ER and Admission work flawlessly. But there were no mechs post-battle, requiring quick triage. Only occasional minor plating damage or joint dislocation here and there. Several dents. Overcharging on nightmare fuel. Beaten-up wings thanks to small accidents. No torn limbs, broken optics or crushed parts.

Pharma had to give in sooner or later. Calm down. Notice that he couldn't do everything himself. Times had changed and he was faced with a backlog in postop and simple, scheduled procedures. Surgeries were being postponed as the staff didn't wish to work overtime when there was peace. It all lead to delays.

He disliked delays. It meant that his patients had to wait longer than initially planned for their procedures, which resulted in outpatient happiness and performance drop. He hated to hear about performance drops.

Not to mention that he also disliked hearing Tarn speaking of the new policies concerning overcharged individuals and being right about it. Those mechs didn't need as much care as they were currently getting.

That's why he pinged the mech whose schedule required drastic rearranging. The glyph of urgency was there, at the beginning of his comm message.

::I need to speak to you concerning your current schedule, Nickel. It requires a few changes, which I'd like to revise with you. I'm expecting you at my office as soon as possible, unless there's an emergency.::

[bnsni]

Throwing this at you ikko, because I am obsessed with Pinks fairy’s in Archie’s Knightformers au, butttt, Pharma the freaky little man finding a fairy that can’t run or fly because their wings broken<3 and he uses old test subjects wings to fix theirs despite their disgust to it, partnered with him keeping them as his little pet/experiment.

(Also my friend sent me more pics to use as reaction <3 so I am blessing you with a cat)

compookie!!

rubs hand evilly ohohoh I've been plagued with knightformer pharma and his evil little smile. He's definitely getting his own little fae too.

Quick incomprehensive ramble about my husband, for a moment (sorry prowl) Knightformers / Faeformers are by :

@archie-sunshine and @pinkanonwrites (⁠｡⁠•̀⁠ᴗ⁠-⁠)⁠✧

(oofm gets a little bit violent at the end)

I'd say before Pharma went bonkers, his methods are a little less unethical. Like Prowl, he won't care much for these playful cretins. They're adorable, yes. Very soft, too. He can see why First Aid and Ambulon are always so keen on squishing their plush cheeks.

Unfortunately, as much as he tries to find them tolerable, one fae in particular switched his colorcoded books to different shelves can you believe that?

How utterly vulgar. He ought to put them in a Jar and send them to Nyon where Rodimus or whatever lives. That'll do the fine job of shutting them up.

Even more strange, this fae prefers to bother him, of all people. Always pottering along with their tiny feet. The wisp flutter of their wigs as they hover close, tugging on his hat, and cloak. Hiding behind pillars, peeking out then giggling when he notices them.

He'd imagine they go for humans like First Aid or Ambulon, since they are far more gentle with their words than he is to them

The annoyance to that particular fae, though, doesn't last too long.

It was a busy day at the hospital. Darkness veiled the night. He's working the night shift again and everyone had gone to their quarters. The halls are empty. It feels a little isolating but he'll have to make do.

After a small dreadful nap on his desk that left his throat sore and back.pained — Pharma wakes up with something warm over his back. He sits up straight and the something his back billows and pool to the ground. A — he pinches the material between his fingers, eyebrows cocked — blanket?

And the sprinkled dust of glitter on one end drew a smile to that face.

"Good, little cretin."

Pharma and fae aren't particularly close after, but he does acknowledge the fae and does, a little bit, grow more tolerant of them. In the gardens, where he'd go out for fresh air and a semblance for peace, fae would perch on his shoulder as he reads his book. Their tiny legs would swing aimlessly as their eyes peering over to read.

He's not sure the little thing understands but when he'd flip a page a little too early, he's halted by their itty hands and a trill. Pharma waits little, couldn't resist raising a finger and scratching the back of their ears, before turning the page after.

He couldnt retract his finger since fae is already nuzzling against it. So he keeps it there for as long as he remembers ( he couldn't perform surgery and had First Aid take over because of how sore his hand was).

Post-delphi Pharma, though. Yikes, okay. Everything is in shambles. Tarn comes and goes, and as he goes, chaos runs rampant and dances along every crook and cranny of Delphi like a forest fire.

Pharma isn't spared, either.

Fae, and the many others, find themselves scuttling away to a nearby forest. Their friend, a fae with green streaks to their wings, breedles to them about a new hideout in the caves.

Fae nods and follows along, before the group breaks off unceremoniously when a panther had caught on to their little group.

Fae persists to a different path. In doing so, unluckily encounters a bandit when they were trying to flee. It's not your usual, pillaging, loot lover bandit — these were the ones who snatch faeries and strip them of their magic dust.

A lot of fae's have been caught recently and the growing numbers are not one to mess with.

And, a quick scuffle between the two, led to fae hitting the floor hard. They squeak weakly, pawing the ground, trying and failing to flutter their wings. But it hurts. Thair back hurts. Their body hurts

Distraught, the shadow closes in on them, eyes of the bandit white half-moons of mirth as hands almost curl around fae's body—

And a sickening splat resounds after.

Fae opens their eyes and sees a different man looming. It's Pharma, eyes half lidded as he stares over the crook of his nose, down at the body in front of him — not the fae.

One side of his cheek had blood smeared across and over his hand, curls a crimson mottled axe. Fae doesn't want to see what's left of the body and looks away with a small shuddered trill, arms covering their faces.

This isn't the Pharma they knew..

Crass as he were — Pharma would never be so grotesquely vulgar as this.

The medic regards the little cretin for a moment, likely assessing the damage of their wings. He notices there's a stutter in the movements. Muscles, strained. Arms, limp.

Then, with another look to the body, silently, pharma grabs the fae with his free hand — blatantly ignoring their startled trills and their little kicks — and starts heading back to Delphi.

Everything was quiet. The hallways were quiet. The evening air was quiet. Even the gardens they so often mingle about — were dreadfully stale.

Pharma lays the fae down on the table, who scuttles to the edge in a fit of panic.

"I did tell the man to go after the least energetic ones." He murmered and pinches their ankle to stop their movements

Fae kicks at his fingers. He doesn't budge. Instead, he brings out wires from a drawer and starts coiling them into rings.

"Seems like he doesn't very much like listening to my orders." The wires were cold to their wrists then more cooler around ankles. "He's got what's coming, poor fellow. But that's done, now. I don't have to pay him, anymore. He's done enough—"

Fae let's out a squeal and thrashes around.

"Oh, don't give me that look, cretin. You'd think I'd spare your kind after the potential results you could give me?" He says lowly and clamps his entire hand on their body.

The table rattles..Fae shudders and weakly trills, pawing away at his palm. Tears sting their cheeks.

"But no worries." He leans closer. A small smile. "I'm fond of you, I'll give you that. That's only if the gift I'm planning to give you is of your taste. Look around, cretin. A new wing i've culled — just for you. You can choose as many as you like."

And fae swivels around, heart lurching in their chest. They've realized there were jars all around, perched in the shelves and were filled with faes...

Limp shadows. No longer bright. No longer breathing.

A particular jar caught their eye. They were wings. The miniscule body is a mere silhouette under the dim light. And, streaks of green dances across the glint of the wings.

[kitkat27]

I don't feel so good- Ch.2

Whumptober prompt no.30-2020

Chapter 2

Summary:

Avery is not having a great start to the day. She's tired, grumpy and the main annoyance to her day- the excruciating pain in her side... She just wants to make it through the day without either Max or Tristan knowing. Can she make it to bedtime with them unaware, or will hiding this pain lead to her fighting for her life and giving Max another grey hair?

(note: this is roughly based on episode 1x4- wellness week but the plot is altered for this story. Medical inaccuracies but it’s Doctor Odyssey where reality is thrown out the window. Also please ignore formatting whilst I get used to posting on tumble )

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 11 pm. He'd normally stay up for another couple of hours in his office, usually catching up on new research studies, but he wanted no more wellness debates from cruisers debating the efficiency of ‘big pharma’, and his room was a safe zone. 

They could only extract him from it if there was an emergency. First aiders were on hand overnight for minor bumps and scrapes that could wait to be seen till morning. 

He had planned to have a long, slow, relaxing bath, trying his new soap from their latest port stop, but his mind couldn't settle. Something was telling him that something wasn't right with Avery. The niggle had been growing throughout the day, not quite believing each reason that Avery gave, defending that she was fine and dandy, and it was just her period. 

The relaxing bath would have to wait, he needed to see Avery. Even if it meant just giving her things back and topping up her painkillers. He couldn't sleep knowing that he hadn't done anything. 

The way she had stormed off and had remained in radio silence since the Captain's dinner wasn't like her. Sure, Avery had a short temper some days, but she would often just retaliate with sarcasm, and the trio would carry on as normal. 

Yet tonight, the squabble about the food was not met with the usual sarcasm. The normal Spitfire of a nurse was deflated and didn't seem to have her usual energy to fight back. She had just left without a word of goodbye, mindlessly leaving the ballroom, not even realising she had left her jacket and bag. Which he had brought with him as an excuse to check in on her. 

Knock. Knock. 

‘Avery?’

….

‘Avery? I have your jacket and bag, you left them earlier’

…

‘Avery, are you ok? Can I come in?’

No response to any of his previous questions led him to immediately walk into the silent room. The lights were on, the bed unmade with her heels from the night at the bottom. But no Avery to be seen. 

Even though they'd slept together, he still felt like he was intruding, but he was no longer a concerned friend, instead turning into a doctor getting incredibly worried about his potential patient. The emptiness of the room led him to follow the hum of the bathroom light, working on overtime, and the sight that greets him threatens to force bile up his throat. 

Avery was lying on the floor of the bathroom on her side, with her head between the toilet and sink, with an alarming red smudge on the sink and a trickle flowing from the side of her head.

The slight pallor he had seen earlier was nothing to now; her skin was almost resembling glass, and even from afar, her breathing was dangerously slow.

Grabbing towels as he raced to her side, he immediately placed pressure on her head, trying to stem the flow of blood and checked her pulse with his other hand. A very weak but steady strum did not ease any of his increasing worry. 

It wasn't a check-up anymore.

Shit

He hadn't brought anything with him bar Avery’s things. The medical watch could only alert them to emergencies if they didn't have their phones on them, and his was still on his bedside table awaiting his return after the supposed quick trip. 

Avery's phone had to be somewhere in her room, but he needed to wait until the bleeding slowed before he could leave Avery alone to get help. Why didn't he call for help the second he saw her? It's one of the first things any medical person is trained to do. 

Changing to a fresh towel, mentally apologising to Corey, he ran through a quick differential diagnosis. Aside from the obvious head wound, she was running a high fever; the vomit still in the toilet confirmed her earlier comment of feeling nauseous at lunch. 

A gentle feel of her abdomen raised the possible diagnosis of appendicitis due to the subtle pained body language gave in reaction, with all her other symptoms matching. 

Shit 

He never swore this much day to day or when dealing with cases. But if he was right and this was appendicitis, this could have started last night when Avery had stayed up all night, and her discomfort throughout the day meant the infection could have been brewing for at least 24 hours. 

Avery hadn't roused since he'd gotten there, testing his ability to keep his doctor hat on and ignoring the fear telling him to scoop her up and run as fast as he could to the infirmary. 

The head wound bleeding had slowed; it was only a small cut, but most wounds in the head area always bled a lot, and could be dealt with later in the infirmary.

 He scrambled around her room desperately loading for either her radio or phone. Not thinking clearly, he checked any spot that may have held either device. He didn't even think to check her bag first. 

‘Aves, it's late, are you ok? Was your phone not in your bag? I thought Max had your b-..’

Max had to stop him, using the tone he used when they worked in emergencies,

‘Tristan, it's me. Avery is critically unwell. I think she might have appendicitis that may be close to rupturing. I need you to grab the medical bag and a stretcher asap. She's unconscious in her bathroom, so it'll take both of us to get her out’

He could hear Tristan already running through the halls, no doubt his own medical brain switched on, ‘ on it, Doc.’

There was nothing he could do until Tristan arrived. 

The Captain's voice could suddenly be heard from over the corridor tannoy, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, sorry to wake you, but I've been made aware that the storm we encountered earlier has grown into a hurricane and has come back into our path. We are currently entering the eye of the storm and will be experiencing another period of stillness before we exit the storm. I need you all to remain in your rooms and to lock any of your loose belongings until further notice’

He needed to alert the Captain about Avery, he knew of their close bond and how the older man would be cross if he didnt know what was going on till later. Using Avery's phone was going to be quicker than finding her radio, ‘Infirmary to bridge. Captain, are you there ?’

‘I've got you, Max, everything ok down there?’

‘Honestly, I need a miracle. It's Avery?’

‘What's happened?  Is she ok? She seemed off today”

‘I've just checked up on her since she left the dinner early. She's unconscious in her bathroom, I'm awaiting Tristan to help transport her. I suspect she has severe appendicitis that has been festering for over 24 hours. We may be taking her into surgery asap, what will the waters be like as if her appendix has ruptured, it's going to be a tricky surgery.’

‘I don't think we’ll get a lot of calm. My best guess is that we’ll have about 20 minutes before we exit the eye. Let me know what your next move is and if surgery is needed. She's in the best hands’

‘Thanks, Cap, understood, ’ a thundering noise along the corridor signalled Tristan's arrival. He was thankful it was a fancy ship, as the corridors were wide enough, even in the staff corridors, to help swing the stretcher straight into the room. 

Tritan looked towards Max for the next steps. He knew what should be done, but after seeing the love of their lives on the floor almost dead, you could forgive him for overthinking any of the simple steps in fear of endangering her further. 

‘It's safe to say she didn't fall from standing, so I'm confident that she hasn't got any spinal or neck injuries. I don't want to waste time loading her onto a spinal board. But as a precaution, I want  you to keep her head stable as I scoop her up’

Neither of the men talked as they ran through the halls with Avery upon the stretcher (screw disturbing the guests). The silence was only broken by Max beginning to list the treatments and tests needed as they got closer to the infirmary.

They had to peel the amazing gold dress off her, which had both men nearly needing a cold shower at the dinner earlier. The thin material was coaxed in a thick layer of sweat, making the task of trying not to resort to cutting it off her difficult for both men, knowing they would be murdered if she found out it had been destroyed.

Somehow, she still looked like the supermodel of the ship once she was sporting the medical gown. The thought was one Tristan was using to stop his hands from shaking as he began to administer an IV as Max was gathering the needed drugs to begin the anaesthesia once in the OR. 

Beginning to scrub in, Max rang the Captain, trying to ignore the increasing sway of the ship, signalling the impending hurricane. It would be Avery to need emergency surgery amid a tropical hurricane. 

‘Infirmary to bridge. Captain…’, a table could be heard rolling across the treatment room, sending tools everywhere, and he could argue there was a tiny ‘buggar’ following the crash, ‘Are you there?’

‘Got you, Max. We have approximately five minutes before we enter the hurricane. What is the update on Avery?’

‘Not gonna lie to you, it's bad. I have to do surgery, I think her appendix has ruptured. Ideally, I would love calm seas, but I'm gonna guess that's wishful thinking’

He couldn't stand waiting for a response; the longer the delay, the higher the risk to Avery, letting Tristan in at the sink whilst he headed for the OR, beginning the anasthesia process. ‘I'm afraid not, Max. What I am gonna do is break a few nautical laws, but it's for one of our own���..’

----------------------------------------------------------------------

It was no doubt the craziest surgery that either of them had performed. The Captain had managed to get them increments of calm, but his trick had led them scrambling multiple times to stop the equipment and Avery from rolling away.

Intubating Avery had been the easiest part of the whole thing. Once Max had opened her up, he and Tristan had realised the scale of what they were about to undertake. 

The contents of the infected appendix had coated her abdominal cavity. Cleaning it all out took both of them working in tandem, with the rough waves leading Max at one point to do a handstand halfway up the wall and Tristan rushing to stop the Doc's scalpel from puncturing Avery's intestines. 

The boy's trust was tested further when Avery began crashing, her BP dropping as a bleed from the burst appendix, which had been knocked from Max’s earlier gymnastics. Max worked blindly to stop the bleeding, accepting tools that were slid to him as Tristan rushed to begin a new bag of fluids and blood. Both only momentarily pausing to place the defib pads on her upper and side of her chest, ready if she threatened to leave them again. 

Removing the actual appendix should have been a breeze, with bleeding and leaking pus minimal, compared to the cleaning, but the stress Avery's body had been through the last 24 hrs took its toll with her vitals crashing again, with this time her heart stopping. 

Both men thanked the stars for the preplaced defib, allowing the machine to do its job to restore her heart from pvt*. Avery wasn't going down with a fight, only needing one shock before the reassuring beep of the cardiac monitor began its safe pattern. 

Nor Max or Tristan hid the tears that threatened to escape as they could safely begin to close their girl up, knowing that this night would haunt them for nights to come, the steady beep of the monitors keeping both safe in the knowledge that they had made it to the other side and Avery would be awake soon.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

They just needed her to wake up now. There was nothing else they could do. Tristan had taken over finishing her post op care, being the only nurse of the team, the small jobs were normally left to him after surgery. 

He slipped away from the recovery room, heading for the safety of his office. It was quiet, clean and pristine, something that had always provided the sanctuary he needed since beginning his medical career. Past ‘friends’ had mocked his need for quiet and cleanliness, saying he had no personality or life outside of work, and he must be a bore to live with. 

The irony of it. Here he was sitting on a couch that he and his nurse practitioner had a quickie on last week, only moments after a heartfelt conversation about the losses they had suffered that week. He doubted that it was dull. 

Though thinking about those few moments he had spent between her legs was a nice moment, it was fleeting, as the horrors of digging through her abdomen looking for any remaining infection were all he could think about. 

His mind was threatening to pull him in deeper, his surroundings fading away as his senses started disappearing. He was about to give in to the demons until a warmth surrounded him, attaching him to it. 

The weight of warmth wrapped around his chest and engulfed his face. The scent of a warm, earthy aftershave and the contrasting tropical scent of sunscreen attacked his nose. A light whisper of raspy Spanish travelled through his ears, battling the demons in his mind. 

‘Te tengo, está bien, regresa conmigo. Ella está a salvo. Te amo, necesito recuperar a mi Max’*

The words somehow worked in slowing his racing heart, bringing him back to his office and away from his mind. The hands holding his face brushed their thumbs along his cheekbones, his brow and jawline, eventually landing on either side of his lips. Brown eyes met his own, 

‘That's it, mi amor. Thought I almost lost you, too. The world would go awry if I were the only sane one left. Tough, that's debatable’.

There was no judgment or shame in the Brit's eyes, only patience as he waited for a response, ‘lo siento, I've never had to …’*

‘To operate on one of your own? Max, it’s normal not to feel ok after operating on one of your lovers. Even the most socially detached doctor in the world would still struggle. All we can focus on is getting Avery back to full health whilst not neglecting our health in the process. She'll be awake very soon, and I think we should move over there, sit by her side, play some of her musical playlist for her to wake up to and deal with the next steps together’ 

God, could he fall in love with his boy any more than he was? 

‘I’d like that’.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

The album of Camelot was playing in the background of the recovery room. Avery had forced the two of them to watch a recent Broadway recording of it on a streaming service one date night, impressing both men as she sang along quietly under her breath. 

They had debated the next morning, when she wasn't around, on how much Avery looked and sounded like the actress playing Guinevere and how much she would hate them if they volunteered her to sing on a Captain's dinner night. 

Neither Max nor Tristan felt like it, but both of them quickly devoured chips and water that Max kept as an emergency stash in his office since neither of them had stopped for 24 hrs and wanted to be strong enough to look after their girl. 

It wasn’t a surprise that Avery was taking her time to awaken. Surgery ended up taking a couple of hours instead of the usual one for an appendectomy, and her body had taken a beating during the surgery. 

During a particular upbeat tune playing out of the speakers, it was the only thing keeping the boys awake, the cardiac monitor began to increase in its rhythm, leading Max and Tristan to perk up with knowledge that Avery was to awake any minute. 

They each wheeled their stools as close as they could get to her, knowing how awful it was to come out of anaesthesia and how hard it was to fight the drugs still present in your system. Tristan spoke, knowing Max would want to ask her medical questions, ‘Hey Aves, you back with us?’

A very quiet groan was given, yet she remained asleep, the stronghold of the anaesthesia not making it easy for the NP to awake. He couldn't tell if her frown was confusion of how out of it you are when you first wake up or pain; he hoped it wasn't the latter, but it wasn't surprising considering they'd been digging around in her stomach . 

‘Aves, baby, you can do it. Can you open those lovely eyes for us?’

Her brown eyes finally met his own, glazed and unfocused, but they were open as she attempted to smile at both of them. Both men didn't hide their sighs of relief, their emotions had been all over the place since they had found her on the floor the previous night. 

A raspy whisper came from her, ‘What happened? Where am I? Did I have surgery ?’

Max had to stop himself from rolling his eyes as he answered, watching out of the corner of his eye as Tristan did. 

‘Yes, my wonderful Avery. The day's worth of excuses that you thought you were just getting your period turned out to be a ruptured appendix. The appendicitis looked like it had brewed for some time, and I think you had your suspicions and didn't want to admit you were ill. Tristan tells me you make a terrible patient.

The aforementioned nurse had brought over a cup of water and was guiding the straw into her mouth, as she avoided Max's gaze, her face answering for him instead. He could sense Tristan letting him know he'd not phrased the question correctly. 

Once she had finished drinking, he got her attention, he sent a hopefully reassuring smile that he was aware of his wrongdoing, ‘ I'm sorry that was harsh. You just got us very worried; that was the scariest surgery I've ever done. We nearly lost you, Avery. I don't think we'd cope if we had. Why didn't you just tell us during morning greetings how much pain you were in ?’

Tristan spoke before Avery could respond, knowing what she was thinking,‘ I know in the past you've not wanted to seem weak or not capable of your job as the only woman on the team. Alongside that, your family never looked after you when you were sick, but you don't need to put up the wall of independence now. Let us look after you. I don't want to ever have to bring a gurney to your room again. ‘

He could see Max filing his questions about Avery's home life for later, his medical hat coming on, ‘Avery, taking in what Tristan has just said, how's your pain?’

There was a flicker on Avery's face of her old facade threatening to rise before she seemed to loosen up, ‘I feel like you stabbed me through my stomach with a spear, hit my head with a hammer and dropped an anvil on my chest. I'm tempted to say I don't want anything, but I'd really like some of that gooooood’

Max had taken her momentary distraction to administer her next dose of morphine before she could put on her brave act, and she needed the rest, too. 

The drugs affect was almost instant  ‘....goood good stuff, Dr Max Bankman’. The smile reaching past her eyes, the lucidity of the woman before them decreasing. ‘I can see why that wellness lady was all over you…. I'd be too if I could get up. 

Tristan snickered as Avery attempted to look the Doc up and down seductively, attempting to focus on his groin, seemingly forgetting she was in a relationship with the two of them. Though the drug's stronghold was getting stronger, leading her to focus on her own feet instead of the intended anatomy. 

‘How about we discuss that when you’re rested. Get some sleep, babes, we’re docking and shall be back when done and can try to cuddle on this b….’. Avery had fallen asleep before he could finish, having grabbed both men's hands during her lower lucidity and wasn't letting go.

 The Captain would understand if they were a few minutes late. Everyone loved Avery.

-------------------------------------------

Notes/ Translation

*pulseless ventricular tachycardia

*‘I've got you, it's ok, come back to me. She's safe. I love you, I need my Max back.

*Im sorry

The full fic can be found on Ao3 alongside my other works- my username is Kit_Kat_27

[try-and-try-and-try-again]

This is really random but I feel like I want to get it out and I don’t know where/who to so I’m getting it out here.

I am quite upset by my dad at the moment. In many ways he is wonderful. He supports me so much, more than he should have to. I feel bad that soon after he retired he basically ended up dropping his retirement plans and becoming my almost full-time carer but he has never complained and in fact continues to say he is proud of me and does so much.

However some of his views really bother me.

1. On Palestine - every time anyone mentions the atrocities going on he says everyone’s oversimplifying things. That Israel are not acting unacceptably, they are retaliating and defending themselves from Hamas. That Palestine started it etc. As if it makes what they seem to be doing less atrocious. I never know how to respond to him. He just insists everyone else is wrong.

2. On Covid vaccines - he attributes almost every death that happens at the moment to complications of the Covid vaccines (and says this is being covered up on purpose). He says it must be the case because people have died from blood clots etc. following vaccination but I feel like he is cherry picking data. He says they should never have been rolled out, the pandemic was an exercise in controlling people and making the vaccine/pharmaceutical industry large profits. Yes, governments did act questionably and wealthy people made a disgusting amount of money from the situation but to say that’s what the pandemic was all about when so many people died of Covid, especially at the beginning and everyone was so terrified… I feel like he is missing something. (Also he joined a rather sketchy seeming website called ‘Lockdown Sceptics’ which seemed to be used by lots of questionable figures).

3. Climate change - he says climate scientists are spreading panic, also humans can’t possibly be expected to drastically change their lifestyles, it isn’t fair so we should carry on business as usual. When I looked round environmental science departments at universities he’d try to pick arguments with climate scientists (when he has a college qualification in horticulture). When he was younger he used to be in Friends of the Earth. Now this.

4. Trans issues - he says it’s good that waiting lists for GICs are stupidly stupidly long and it’s really hard to access them because gender affirming care is not to be taken lightly and people are just confused about themselves and should be forced to take time to make decisions (but 7+ years for an initial consultation to just discuss things? Really? And what about all the time before asking to go to a GIC?). He says the Cass report does have validity. He says the new rules about no gender neutral bathrooms in new buildings and segregating trans people in hospitals are not unreasonable. (He also recently changed his mind about accepting my coming out as non-binary which kind of hurts).

5. Science - he says science in general, and particularly the medical field, is not trustworthy. That it is all funded and influenced by the government and Big Pharma and other corrupt corporations even if no conflicting interests are declared so no research is reliable. And he says “science isn’t about facts, it’s about debate” and that no one is letting things be debated. He is not a scientist. Why is he so sure he can claim this? He preached the words of YouTube ‘experts’ who make claims about things in fields they are not qualified in and YouTube doctors who say mainstream medicine is completely wrong and give diet and lifestyle advice etc. that personally I find quite unsettling. He says ‘well x says the data actually shows this’ and I say ‘have you actually looked at this data yourself?’. He says ‘no’ - he just blindly trusts these YouTube ‘experts’ opinions.

He is 76. And spends entire days trawling through Google on his laptop. I don’t know if that is worth mentioning. I don’t know, so many of his views sit uncomfortably with me and I just don’t know what to do or what to say to him. And he upsets my sister too because of some of these things so maybe it’s not just me being overly sensitive and wrong.

[doyourequirefirstaid]

First Aid wasn't sure how many days it had been, only that every moment of them had been tumultuous to the point the neither he nor Ambulon had managed to recharge for more than a few minutes at a time, cuffed hands intertwined so that they couldn't be separated without being woken first. Aid had taken to sleeping mostly on top of Ambulon as well; not only because he was the smaller of the two, but also because it hid Ambulon from anyone looking too closely.

Neither of them were certain of what was going to happen, even now. It had been a small mercy that some other group besides the Justice Division had picked them up from Delphi and that they hadn't run into anyone who recognised Ambulon as the pair were bounced between cells and transports and encampments and then back to transports. First Aid knew their luck couldn't hold forever, though.

They were currently huddled in the South Garage with the rest of the able-bodied medical personnel. Someone had handed out tarps to everyone waiting, and First Aid was quick to wrap it around most of Ambulon without making it too obvious as to what he was doing. First Aid quickly scanned the crowd, trying to catch sight of Ratchet or maybe Pharma, the latter who was supposed to replace Cauter as Delphi's CMO before the entire world went to hell.

Neither of them were anywhere to be seen.

First Aid ducked back down and curled up around Ambulon, trying to minimize bringing attention to their corner. All they could do was wait and hope that mecha like Shockwave and Tarn decided the medics weren't worth their time and stayed out of the hangar.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Wrong-Headed Solutions

Day One back at work after a week off and I'm already fucking exhausted. Of course, the first things in the queue were Word Salad Guy and Breast Guy, left there to wait for me to deal with them because no one else wanted to. Went on like that for most of the day, along with two back-to-back Windows updates. I don't know why my work machine insists on updating Windows twice every time there's an update, but it does, and it's fucking ridiculous.

Of course, the news wasn't any better. Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has apparently given up on the Health and Social Care part of his remit. I mean, he's still running the NHS, more or less, but ... well, you might have seen a few posts ago that what he's actually doing, with the help of a £279m investment from Lilly Pharma, is arranging for the overweight and unemployed to get weight loss drugs. Not because he cares about people's health, exactly - oh, no. He wants them to be less of a burden on the NHS and, most of all, he wants them to get back to work for the sake of the economy.

Look, I have no idea how weight loss drugs work, but at the end of the day, a lot is down to lifestyle. If you're unemployed or underemployed, you're probably too depressed to exercise much (and a gym membership, plus getting there every day, is right out), and your diet is basically down to whatever you can get cheap and/or what's available at the local food bank. Also you're stressed right to hell, which is hell on the mental health. If you're employed or overemployed, you might still be at the mercy of whatever's cheap and food banks when it comes to what you can eat, and you probably don't have the time or the energy to exercise much. So weight loss drugs without the support structure to ensure a healthy lifestyle feels like the worst kind of wrong and an open invitation to eating disorders. Either way, it's unlikely that getting people to be skinny is going to make them that much healthier if they're not getting actual healthy food and other support in having a healthy lifestyle. And that's assuming that just the drugs alone can make them skinny, which ... I have doubts.

Plus, blaming obesity for every medical problem someone has is a shit-show, and has been a shit-show since day one. I didn't get treatment for my migraines or my carpal tunnel for ages because all I got from my then-GP was, "Lose weight". IT ISN'T GOING TO HELP, DIPSHIT. Losing weight did not help the migraines, or the carpal tunnel, and it sure as hell can't help the fibromyalgia. Honestly, I'm just grateful that my now-GP didn't blame the fibromyalgia on my weight. Because, like, I don't eat much. A meal a day is pretty average for me, plus some emergency calories, at least partly because I don't get that much exercise owing to the fact that even walking hurts.

I think the worst thing about it is how it goes hand-in-glove with that investment from Lilly that I mentioned above. It feels the worst kind of skeevy. Apparently they're stepping up to "real-world trials" in Greater Manchester, and it all just feels dystopian as shit. Also if someone tries to fling weight-loss drugs at me, I'm throwing them out the window. Drugs or healthcare professionals; I am not picky about what gets yeeted in that situation.

Only one day back at work and I'm already stressed, depressed, and in an intense amount of pain. I was hoping I'd be refreshed enough to play some more Silent Hill 2, but I have to admit, I've been holding off. Not so much because of what I've already encountered, but the bits of info I've received about what's to come. Apparently the main reason this game is longer than the original is that it has a lot more monsters. Now, yes, having them hide in corners and scuttle along the walls and not move so they don't set the radio off is terrifying. Just ... if it happens in almost every room, it's less terrifying and more stressful and annoying. Also, if you're me, painful. I've been toying with the idea of frankly modding the shit out of the game just so I might be able to play it without spending all my time painfully beating the shit out of monsters. No god-mode available, but there are mods for better weapons, better healing items, and one that gives you a health indicator worth a shit. I hate to do it - I wanted to play it the way it should be played, but anything that pads its run time with MOAR MONSTERS is just not all that accessible. Fuck the video game industry trends, frankly.

Well, if anyone needs me, I'll be over here, exploring Steam's Next Fest. Because at least that gives me demos and shows me what I might actually be able to play without killing myself.

[anyataylorjoys]

I still haven’t moved on from finding out today that there is a tiktok trend of people INGESTING BORAX.

I ended up going down this rabbit hole to find out where people are getting this information and immediately found this:

https://www.lybrate.com/topic/borax-benefits-and-side-effects

These are real doctors from India with masters who work in the states and such, I did a brief bg check on them. What the fuck? This is the only thing I could find that states borax has “health benefits”. But wait... in the fine print at the bottom:

I kept digging for more and found this article by the Jerusalem Post stating the possible origin of this trend. Dr. Rex E. Newnham has been cited by many tiktokers for having written several papers claiming that borax had health benefits but the research showing results is difficult to find. From these papers, a conspiracy has spawned and now people have become convinced Newnham was onto something and was blocked by big pharma so they could continue making billions.

Now here’s some information you mostly will find online when researching borax:

FUN FACT: Borax is actually banned in several countries because it has been suggested that it can cause cancer and multi-organ accumulation of poisoning. Kids have actually died playing with slime activated by borax. (src)

Studies conducted by NLM (National Library of Medicine) on people who consumed borax show “immune cell proliferation and sister chromatid exchange in human chromosomes”.. In other words: “Toxicity of borax may lead to cellular toxicity and genetic defect in human.” (src)

Here’s what I now know based on most research that can be pulled of borax:

-it is not boric acid, it is also NOT boron. boron is only one component of borax. -classified as a mild skin irritant and can even cause chemical burn -banned by FDA as a food additive. -can be used as a component in pesticides, flame retardant, enamel glazes, glass, ceramics, laundry detergent etc. -has potential to disrupt the reproductive system shown in studies of mice and hemorrhagic gastroenteritis in cattle. (src) -like anything else, bad for you in large quantities or in long-term use but this is actually classified as poisonous and there are more studies that show this than anything opposing. -just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it’s safe for consumption

Folks, if you have joint pain, look into MSM supplements or powder for more potency which is an anti-inflammatory agent that the FDA has recognized as generally safe for consumption under 4000 mg/day with little to no known side effects. You should consult with your doctor before taking any supplements realistically but for the love of god, do not consume borax.

[that-creature-thing]

Hi! Just rambling! I want to be more active on here!

I have finished pieces for an upcoming zine that I can't wait to share! With that obligation out of the way, I really want to focus on personal projects.

I am trying to be better about managing my schedule and setting aside time for house chores with my partner. I've really been wanting to get back into writing! I have sooooo many fic ideas and dammit I am going to push myself to get a move on!

So I am going to try and limit how much time spent playing games and use more of my free time to write/draw. I am a very slow writer, but maybe I could try a minimum word count per day kinda thing? Maybe 300? I have a preference for big chapters, preferably around 4k per chapter. So that could mean chapter updates every 2 weeks give or take...

I HAVE started on one of my fics, as of yesterday lol It's a Jazz/Prowl fic where Jazz is a new graduate from the enforcer academy. He gets to shadow Prowl. Prowl is... A guy. With issues. So many issues... Jazz will quickly find out the real reason he was selected for this precinct is to basically become Prowl's handler. Prowl is dangerous when the wrong buttons are pushed, but really fragging good at his job. He's extremely difficult to work with but Jazz's profile indicates he's really flexible and shows an ability to work with anyone. Jazz will over time, learn why Prowl is the way he is and gain Prowl's very hard-earned trust! Unbeknownst to Prowl, the source of his issues is still lurking in the dark. Frequent side characters will include Pharma, as the precinct's primary physician on staff (and close friend of Prowl), Smokescreen, the resident therapist, Ironhide, Ultra Magnus, Barricade, Ratchet, Idk who else yet lol

I am excited to make progress on this fic, as it's been something I have been brainstorming off and on for about a year lol

I am also planning on doing something for Kinktober lol I have a few self-indulgent ideas that would be perfect for one-shots :D