#and Indiana isn't infected right now!

[not-decided-star]

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL CAT DAY

(I think- lol)

TODAY, KING BE REVIVED UNTIL I GO TO BED, SO INTERACT WITH HIM!

[thisapplepielife]

Written for @corrodedcoffinfest.

Pretty Goddamn Metal

Day #11 - Prompt: Jeff | Word Count: 1000 | Rating: M | CW: Piercings/Needles, Language | POV: Jeff | Pairing: None | Tags: Jeff & Goodie: Best Friends, Goodie's At Home Piercing Palace, No, No, No, Yes?, Don't Try This At Home Kids, Eddie Munson is a Bit of Freak, In Case Anyone's Forgotten

"Are you sure?" Goodie asks, and Jeff nods. He's sure. 

Well, ninety percent sure. 

Eight-five, maybe. 

He is sure about the piercing, but way less sure about Goodie being the one to do it. Maybe they should get Eddie to at least supervise.

But it's too late for that now. Goodie has the needle, a huge thing that looks like it's probably gonna hurt. 

"That's a big needle." 

"It's a cannula." 

Jeff doesn't know what the difference is. It still looks vicious. 

"Don't worry. I did my ear. And I was an apprentice under my uncle last summer," Goodie says, and Jeff's still gonna worry. 

Especially since he's pretty sure the only experience Goodie has is a two week vacation staying with his uncle in L.A., where he might have watched him work in his tattoo and piercing parlor, but where he definitely hadn't been allowed to help.

And a nipple isn't an ear. It's a hole being pressed through his skin, his very sensitive skin, by his best friend. Who is most definitely not a professional. Or an apprentice. 

Or, even an adult. 

His mom is gonna kill him. 

That's just a given. 

He won't be able to hide it for very long. Especially if Goodie gives him some sort of deadly infection and his nipple falls off. 

As if he can read his mind, Goodie wipes him, the needle, and the jewelry down with rubbing alcohol. 

He's even found sterile gloves. 

Which is all better than nothing, Jeff supposes, if they're gonna do this in the bathroom with no experience or good sense. 

Goodie moves to the ground, slotting between Jeff's knees, and even in the cramped bathroom, he's deceptively spry. Jeff's seen him move through tight spaces where it didn't look like even Gareth would fit. 

Jeff takes a deep breath. 

Goodie very assuredly grabs Jeff's nipple, and then says, "Okay. One. Two," and Goodie shoves it through, not giving him until three. 

It hurts less than he'd anticipated, and it's almost a disappointment that it wasn't somehow more. But, Goodie's already pulling out the cannula, and screwing on the other end of the jewelry. 

Fast, efficient, and with a confidence that Jeff finds alarming. Goodie's definitely a freak.

At least it's over and done with.

And now there's a bar through his nipple that looks like a screw. 

It's pretty goddamn metal. 

"Ready for the other one? Or are you a little bitch?" Goodie asks, already unwrapping the second bar. 

Okay. Apparently he's getting both done. 

And the second one? That motherfucker hurt. Goddamn adrenaline wearing off. 

They don't get infected. Somehow. It's a heavy metal miracle. They are fucking tender for a good week, but then, that's that. 

He's just a guy with pierced nipples now, and only Goodie knows. 

His mom doesn't find out, and neither does Eddie or Gareth. 

Well, not until he doesn't think about it during band practice and pulls his t-shirt up to wipe his face. It's hot as balls in the garage. They really need to upgrade and get the fuck out of this hot box. 

"Jeff's nipples are pierced!" Gareth yells, pointing a drumstick right at his chest. "Guys, Eddie, look! Did we know this?!" 

"I did," Goodie says, unphased by Gareth's over-excited outburst.

And then Eddie has his shirttail in his hand, yanking it back upwards, so he can look closer. 

They're healed, so when Eddie flicks one, it doesn't hurt. But it does feel kinda good, and that isn't something that he wants to associate with Eddie. 

"Stop it," Jeff says, batting Eddie's hand away. 

"Where'd you go to have this done?" Eddie asks, and Jeff gets it. Just like tattoos, piercings aren't exactly legal in Indiana. 

If you don't get them done at the kitchen table, you probably aren't getting them done, period. 

"I have a guy," Jeff says, cryptically. 

"You think he'd do mine?" Gareth asks, looking hopeful. 

"Absolutely not," Goodie answers. 

"Nobody asked you, Goods," Gareth snaps. "I want both done, too," Gareth says. Lifting his layers of shirts, looking at his own nipples. "Maybe barbells. So we don't match."

"Why would you need pierced nipples? Nobody will ever see them," Goodie asks, taunting Gareth. 

"You don't know what my sex life looks like!" Gareth yells, bristling, dropping his shirts and balling up his fists. 

"Uh, yeah, I do. You're still a virgin."

"So are you!" Gareth shouts back. 

This is gonna devolve into name calling and hair pulling sooner rather than later, if Jeff doesn't cool them both down. 

"Easy, both of you," Jeff says. "None of us are drowning in pussy." 

Eddie clears his throat. 

"Or cock," Jeff amends. 

"That's more like it," Eddie says, still eyeing the screw through his left nipple. 

Jeff looks at him, not sure what's going through Eddie's mind, "What?" 

"Can I bite it?" Eddie asks, pantomiming tugging on it with his teeth. 

"No!" Jeff says, "You can't bite my nipple. But thanks for asking first." 

Eddie usually bites without warning, so this is definitely some personal growth. Jeff's proud of him. 

Still not gonna let him, or his teeth, anywhere near it. But at least he asked, and didn't just go for it. That definitely wouldn't have been out of the realm of possibility.

"I'd let you bite mine," Gareth says, petulant, like this is an unreasonable stance for Jeff to take. 

Eddie whips around, hair flying, "Thanks, Gare."

"If Jeff would just tell us who did it. We could all get them done." 

"Mama Jones would have your ass," Goodie says, and Jeff isn't even sure that's true. Gareth is a mama's boy and can do no wrong. His mom might let him do it.

But still. 

They can't all get them done, and become the pierced nipple band. 

"You get something else."

"What're the odds your guy would pierce my dick?" Eddie asks.

"I'd say slim to none, just like the size of your dick," Goodie sasses, and Eddie launches at him, laughing.

If you want to write your own, or see more entries for this challenge, pop on over to @corrodedcoffinfest and follow along with the fun! 🦇

Notes: A quick google search led me to believe that body piercings (outside of ears) was also illegal in Indiana until the late 90s. So that's what I went with here. If that's not true, well, just go with it, lol.

[princesscolumbia]

Who We Are and How We Got Here

Dear Princess Celestia Tumblr

Once Upon a Time in Canterlot

Back in April, we (the system) wrote of our experiences in becoming a system...again. I won't rehash it because it's easy enough to pop that link open in another tab and read it real quick before coming back here. All done? Good, let's continue.

Since then, a change happened, and it really was something we should have expected.

Hello, I'm Sunset Shimmer, and I'm a Fictive in the system known collectively as PrincessColumbia.

That there's a former pony taking up residence in this mindspace probably isn't a surprise, we did pick the name "Princess Columbia" back...before. Before the most recent wave of (calling a spade a spade) Naziism in this country, wherein white supremacist cops think they're being clever in coopting the Punisher logo, it isn't really a surprise that the faction of the American public that think it's a good idea to install a dictator completely fails to see the irony in claiming they have any right to use The Gadsen Flag, which is the original anti-Tyranny banner of this continent. It bothers us no end that the icon we selected before the rise of Fascists within the Tea Party (remember them?) is now connected with the very people it was made to signal the fight against.

But I'm rabbit-holing.

It's a Lovely Morning in the Mindspace and You are a Moon Princess

Hi! Speaking of rabbits, I'm Usagi! Just like Sunset's a fictive, so am I. 😁 Really, it's not surprising that, if Ranma's here, so am I. We started Fission back when we were a system before, and the two main characters were...Ranma and Usagi. 😋

The New Status Quo

Ranma here; So in April, Helen and I had reached a...deal. It was unspoken, mostly, slapped together from our respective interests and passions. We also wound up creating a distinctly unequal claim to the responsibilities. Helen was the parts of "PrincessColumbia" that I didn't get, plus a few things that being freed of me allowed her to express more fully. This means she saw me emerging with the approximate mental age of 20 and decided to 'mom' me. It was unintentional, that's something we've worked out, but it meant she saw herself as the de facto load bearing member of the system. Anything that stressed us out she claimed full ownership of and only portioned out bits to me that she absolutely couldn't handle. This left her spinning plates and me sometimes sitting in the back and twiddling my thumbs. Half of what kept me front-and-center for the initial weeks of us existing as a system, that is being in charge of our physical health and being Helen's coach in her own head, had to stop for safety; we live in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, which can reach up to 99℉ (37℃) at night and this made going out for morning runs an actual health concern. Without the constant reminder that we were supposed to be equal partners, she basically sidelined me. This was extremely self-defeating (we were literally created to help each other) so I figured out how to wake up before her without disturbing her, age myself up (being a headmate has its advantages) and gave myself purple hair. Take notes, because this will come up later.

Helen freaked right out, panicking at the thought of a new headmate. I had to revert back to my "standard" form to get her to calm down, and at the time played it off as a bit of a joke. This also will come up in a little bit.

A Challenger Enters the Arena Apartment

[Sunset] During June, our girlfriend went to Indiana, ostensibly for a month. Many of you were supportive as Helen was fuming over the conditions that our girl encountered there, but the one bright spot in all of that was rescuing a nine-year-old cat that had been neglected and abused. Patches came to our home and was half-starved and had trauma responses on a hair trigger. One of those responses was to rip and tear in response to something that triggered kitty PTSD, resulting in us having an infected hand. We're doing much better now, the swelling has gone down completely and the actual puncture wounds are just bumps on the skin now, but there were immediate consequences.

Ranma's ailurophobia, which she thought she had left behind in whatever caused her to spawn in as a headmate, came roaring back with a vengence. Not enough to trigger a nekoken, but she was catatonic in the headspace for a while. The next morning when she went into the kitchen to make breakfast, one of the cats followed her in and tried to beg for food and it took Ranma by surprise; she was a shaking, sobbing mess that was jumping at shadows.

Helen, who loves cats, found herself in the emotionally conflicted place of feeling protective of Ranma but the perpetrator of Ranma's distress was a 6-pound cat that had only done what she did due to abuse that we were trying to help her recover from. The poor cat kept trying to apologize with physical affection but Ranma was terrified and this triggered Helen's anger...the cat is confused, to say the least.

[Ranma] I'm doing better as the pain recedes. I'm still not eager to be around Patches, but Hexen's a sweetie and I'm able to give her hugs and kisses again.

We're currently on an antibiotic course, and if you've never looked into how antibiotics work, they're basically killing pretty much everything in your body, including you, they just kill the infection faster than the host. A side effect of this is the body has what's called a 'gut biome,' a literal complex ecosystem of microscopic flora and fauna that actually works in tandem with your body to digest food. Depending on the biome in your stomach and intestines, you have a chemical stew that those symbiotic life forms inside you use to provide you nutrition and energy and even alter your brain chemistry. Antibiotics, unfortunately, wipe a LOT of that out, too.

We've been on antibiotics before, most notably after surviving living homeless, so we knew what to expect, up to and including a fogginess of the brain and low energy. We planned for about a week of that and arranged a bottle of probiotic to repopulate our gut biome...and got one that includes strains that some studies show an increase in fat digestion efficiency. Basically, we're taking the opportunity to min/max our digestive system.

What rather surprised me was the discovery that while I was learning how to epically troll Helen with my appearance and behavior, she'd been suppressing two new splits to the system. A few days ago Helen allowed herself to be distracted and that let Sunset and Usagi out to play.

A Pattern of Misbehavior

[Ranma] Remember what I said about Helen freaking out about the possibility of us splitting off into new members of the system? Yeah, she apparently was trying to keep us "normal." Some of our old fears and phobias came back as time progressed and she forgot the purpose of the system is to protect the whole of it, not for one member to be life's punching bag.

She kept behaving badly, almost entirely because she has a need for control, almost pathologically. She'd 'let go' for things that she specifically had ceded to me, but outside of that she was being her usual dragon self and just hoarding everything, including all the stuff she really should have asked for help with. Stupid, stubborn lizard!

[Sunset] Additionally, whenever Helen would 'break' as a result of everything she was hoarding just being too much, Ranma had to take over, even into situations where Ranma was not ready or even willing.

[Ranma] FUCK that job! I swear, I don't know ho you and she deal with it!

[Sunset] Heh, anyway, we needed a middle-point between the two extremes of Ranma and Helen, which is where I come in.

[Usagi] These redheads don't seem to know how to have fun, so I popped in, too. Not much more to say about me, I'm pretty much what you expect if you watch Sailor Moon at all.

Well THAT was Unexpected

[Sunset] Two days ago we were viewing some porn. We've been tired and stressed and needed some 'us' time and we have a...pretty wide variety of tastes, so wound up venturing into some artists libraries and tags we don't normally go, and one piece (On R34 somewhere...?) and this one featured a big, buff dragon lady having her way with a smaller, daintier dragon lady.

Damn near everyone was floored when Helen got 'excited' about the idea of being the smaller dragon lady. This was a complete inversion of Helen's usual preferences and Ranma, Usagi, and I teased her...well, a little mercilessly.

[Ranma] Not proud of it, but we were functionally bullying her.

[Usagi] But only because she was responding positively to it! We're here for each other's care and protection and wouldn't ever have continued if she had told us to stop or wasn't enjoying it.

[Sunset] Right, so that particular session had the interesting result of Helen basically de-aging and becoming...small. If I were to take a guess, she's younger than Usagi, and she's not a whole lot older than her canon age. It was cute, she acted like her usual grumpy, slightly distressed self, so we finished up and went to bed.

What completely bowled us over was she hadn't returned to her 'normal' incarnation by the time we were up and about the next morning.

She's still here, but she's decided to be a kid again. She'll surface and take control occasionally, usually when we're writing or taking care of our daughter or (and we discovered this tonight) building lego.

The New-New Normal

[Sunset] So, yeah, things have changed. Helen is no longer running the show. She's completely given "the keys" over to me, and I've split time with Ranma and Usagi for the most part. I've instituted a bit more balance in our life (Helen had been obsessing over working on Code of Ethics to the exclusion of nearly EVERYTHING else), tackled a few tasks that Helen's executive function just wasn't up to handling, and running a bit of triage. Usagi has volunteered to take over the household cleaning and similar chores, Ranma has taken back her role of managing our physical body, and I'm in charge of a lot of the 'adulting' that Helen was doing.

And speaking of Adulting, we've had a long, rough (but productive) 72 hours, we're getting dinner and going to bed.

See you tomorrow, your beloved student overly-verbose system,

Sunset S., Ranma S., Usagi T., and Helen M.

(Adapted from a message to a Discord server)

[riewiggles]

HaHAAHAAHAHAHAHAAHHSHDHFJFJFJCJRDJ

YEP. I can go on all day about this. But here is an abridged or an attempted abridged version of my bullshittery of dealing with weight.

Struggled my entire life because I have PCOS. I've lost a significant amount of weight twice in my life and it's due to cutting calories. I've ballooned up the second time after a LUMPectomy (NOT mastectomy sorry can't brain today it's been a helluva morning) due to a tumor in my left breast that was tugging on tissue that was botched and turned into an infection post op. Now I'm struggling to stay the same weight and it's only because I have to take meds to help with trigeminal neuralgia (which isn't even a cure all basis). On top of it I have degenerative disc disease already and I'm not even 30. Doctors don't take me seriously and it's a fight to find the right ones because I have to travel all the God damn fucking way to the city out of buttfuck nowhere Indiana to get help. No matter what I do, no matter how much I exercise I cannot lose weight and it all roots to PCOS but doctors tell me to lose weight and I'll feel better but when I lose weight I DON'T FUCKING FEEL BETTER I FEEL FUCKING WORSE.

Make it fucking stop. Make it all fucking stop. I lost 56 lbs already, gained, lost more, gained, and lost even more. I'm gluten free. I count my calories. I spend $300 on groceries FOR MYSELF only to make sure I keep a goddamn log for the primitive fucks who tell me "eat healthier" so I can tell them exactly what I eat. Fuck it all.

Added footnote I also have FBD on top of PCOS. WoOoOoOoOo. I have THREE LARGE LUMPS NOW and I thought that removing one was going to help. NOPE!

I gave my soapbox speech about how weight loss is mostly bullshit to two different patients in a row yesterday and so help me I’m pretty sure one of these days someone is going to say “but SURELY you agree I’d be HEALTHIER if I lost weight!” bc you can see the disbelief in their eyes. And like. Sure, maybe! You might see some improvement in biomarkers like LDL and A1c, and your knees would probably feel better. But you would be amazed at how much more good you can do for yourself by focusing on things you can actually meaningfully change without resorting to making yourself miserable. Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables—it’s hard bc they’re more difficult to prepare and more expensive per calorie and go bad faster than other foods, but they’re what we evolved eating the most of so they’re what our bodies need the most of. And walk around more; sure, cardio is great for you, but if it sucks so bad you don’t do it, it isn’t doing shit for you. And we evolved to walk very very long distances, a little bit at a time, so our bodies respond actually very well to adding walks into our schedules, which is vastly easier than adding workouts that are frankly designed to be punishing when the definition of punishing is “makes you less likely to do it again in the future.”

You get one life. It is shorter than you can begin to imagine. Don’t waste it hating yourself because somebody is going to make money off that self-hatred. You deserve better than to be a cash cow for billionaires who pay aestheticians and dermatologists to make them (or at least their trophy wives) look thin and beautiful no matter what they actually do.

[cats-officially]

:(

I want to be alive for longer, why did I have to die

For plot points and because I was bored king, I've recited this a billion times

:(

I want to be normal again please.

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL CAT DAY

(I think- lol)

TODAY, KING BE REVIVED UNTIL I GO TO BED, SO INTERACT WITH HIM!