#chat: cath

[fanboylevi]

“You keep staring at me instead of watching the film. What’s up?”

@sadlittlehcrmit

"Huh? Nothing." He smiled lazily, his gaze flicking back to the movie playing on the tablet. He was curled up behind Cath in her bed in her dorm, an arm around her waist, a couple of warm blankets tucked over both of them. Most of the campus's evening activities had been canceled due to the snow, and a glance out the window said tomorrow's probably would be too. It was coming down in thick, fluffy flakes, and he already didn't relish the thought of clearing off the windows of his truck for the drive home.

But that was a problem for future Levi. Neither wind nor rain nor snow could have pried him out of the warm coziness of Cath's bed right now. When she caught him at it again, he gave a quiet chuckle. "Sorry. I know this movie by heart. Your face is more interesting." He tucked his face into her hair, murmuring the next few lines in her ear. He wasn't a good reader, but his memory was excellent. Almost anything he heard, he remembered. He could have recited the Simon Snow movies almost verbatim, but watching her watch her favorite films never got old. He loved looking at her while she was absorbed in something, when she forgot to school her face to keep people at a distance.

[grimmusings]

@potentialbreakupscng

"I know. I love hearing my lines in your work. I like that I inspire you." His smile crinkled the corners of his eyes, nothing but utter delight in it. He might not recognize all of them--Levi wasn't as attentive to his own words as Cath probably was, or as he was to hers--but he remembered enough. It always did something funny to his heart to know he affected her that way, enough to influence her writing, which he knew from experience was closer to her heart than almost anything. God knew she affected him that way. He might not be able to put it into writing the way she did, but he loved her, like a song, like a sonnet, like a 10k slow burn about your OTP.

"Oh, am I distracting you? I'm sorry." Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, his smile widening into something like glee. Distracting Cath was one thing. Distracting Cath from Simon Snow was an entirely different thing. They should give him a medal and put his face on the wall of heroes. His arms curled tighter around her when she turned, tucking her close against him. She fit like a puzzle piece. He loved the shape of her, her warmth and her curves, something solid for him to cling to. "You could quote the books at me though. I bet you know the whole first chapter by heart. Go on, I want to hear it."

“You keep staring at me instead of watching the film. What’s up?”

"Huh? Nothing." He smiled lazily, his gaze flicking back to the movie playing on the tablet. He was curled up behind Cath in her bed in her dorm, an arm around her waist, a couple of warm blankets tucked over both of them. Most of the campus's evening activities had been canceled due to the snow, and a glance out the window said tomorrow's probably would be too. It was coming down in thick, fluffy flakes, and he already didn't relish the thought of clearing off the windows of his truck for the drive home.

But that was a problem for future Levi. Neither wind nor rain nor snow could have pried him out of the warm coziness of Cath's bed right now. When she caught him at it again, he gave a quiet chuckle. "Sorry. I know this movie by heart. Your face is more interesting." He tucked his face into her hair, murmuring the next few lines in her ear. He wasn't a good reader, but his memory was excellent. Almost anything he heard, he remembered. He could have recited the Simon Snow movies almost verbatim, but watching her watch her favorite films never got old. He loved looking at her while she was absorbed in something, when she forgot to school her face to keep people at a distance.

The first time it happened, she let it slide when he said nothing, settling easily back against his chest and curled under the blanket. Cath from years ago would have never believed this would be the situation she ended up in. In love. Cuddled under blankets in her dorm with a guy -- one that she still believed was completely and utterly out of her league. She was resting her cheek on a pillow, her eyes glued onto the screen of the tablet that was set up on a streaming service that had the Simon Snow movies on them -- she owned all of them, but who owned a DVD player anymore?

She felt his eyes on hers once more, and called him out on it once more, turning her head to look over her shoulder at him and raising an eyebrow. His words sent a flush to her cheeks, shaking her head and turning it back to focus on the screen. "I use so many of your lines in my writing now." Her eyebrows rose when he murmured lines into her ear, shivering at the way his breath felt against her ear and clearing her throat. "You're extremely distracting, Levi Stewart," she muttered, shaking her head as she reached over to pause the movie. She turned in his arms, her own wrapping around him to tuck her head under his chin. "I still don't understand how you can remember everything. I've watched these movies thousands of times, and I don't even know them that well." The books? She knew like the back of her hand.

[fanboylevi]

Did it count as long distance if they were still in the same state? Did it count more if that state was still as large as a mid-sized country? Did actual distance matter at all in affairs of the heart? Those were questions better answered by a fanfiction writer than a farm boy, but he'd had a lot of time to contemplate them while they were apart. It didn't matter if Cath was across the state or across the world if he couldn't see her.

He was new to it too, the distance, and he'd swiftly decided he didn't care for it. He missed the smell of her hair and the specific smile she had when she was trying not to smile at him, her layers and layers of sweaters and the rapid-fire sound of her keyboard when she disappeared into a story, the warmth of her body curled against his while they watched movies or Cath read him her newest chapter. He missed her. Talking on the phone couldn't come close to the living, breathing person he was falling for.

They'd set their plans for him to visit before the semester ever ended, but Levi had never had so much trouble sticking to a schedule in his life. Work at home kept him busy from dawn to sunset, and farm work was hard even if he loved it. He was happily exhausted at the end of every day, and still, he wanted to hop into his truck and drive to the city to see her. It wasn't beyond him to just show up on her doorstep, dirt caked under his fingernails and an easy smile on his face, but he really, really wanted her dad to like him.

He respected that very deliberate foot of space between them on the couch. It felt a little like she'd electrified it like a fence. He was about seventy percent positive he'd get an electric shock if he tried to cross it. Regardless, dinner was amiable, and Levi had no problems chatting with her dad and Wren. He'd never known any strangers and, frankly, Cath's dad was far easier to win over than her twin sister.

He'd seen Cath's room before, but he was still gazing around the space, hungry for new details about her life while they'd been apart. Not a lot had changed, which made sense. Cath lived in her head more than anywhere else. He was dying to hear her newest fic, but it was silly asking her to read it on voice chat. His eyes crinkled at the corners with his smile, and he sat on the edge of her bed, keeping the electrified foot of space between them. "I missed you too. Almost jumped in my truck and drove over at least once a day."

"What, why are you looking at me like that?" (Cath/Levi @fanboylevi)

She didn’t realize that not being able to see him for part of the year would have such an effect on her. With Abel, she didn’t feel anything. She had thought that she missed him — that the reason why she texted him when they both finally moved away and were attending their respective colleges…was because she missed him. But now? Now she knew that she felt like she had to out of the obligation of being in a relationship. Now, she felt an ache in her stomach that she couldn’t get rid of. Their phone conversations weren’t enough to satiate that pain in her stomach. She had written over and over again what it felt like to miss someone — someone you were in love with — and that felt mediocre compared to the ache in her stomach. In her chest. She understood why her sister would be glued to her phone when she was dating someone now. She understood just how much of a side table Abel was — and how much she hadn’t really cared about him.

So when he was there, at her home — it was extremely hard to keep her hands to herself, because there was absolutely no way that she was going to be affectionate around her Dad. Wren was fine. But her dad? She wanted to remain at least a foot away.

After dinner, the two of them were found in her room — her dad had always trusted them…probably far more than they should. The expression Wren had sent her when they disappeared into the room made her blush and roll her eyes before slipping into her room. Out of pure habit, she plopped down onto her bed and pulled her laptop onto her lap. She was getting ready to open it up — but the sound of the floor under his feet creaking distracted her. Her eyes followed him as he moved to sit next to her — taking in everything about him. That tanned skin, the deep widows peak — that she still always assumed was because of how much he liked to run his fingers through his hair. That absolutely sinful chin paired with that…stupidly handsome smile. His question only pulled her attention to his eyes.

“Oh—” a pause to push her glasses up her nose and she felt a heat rise in her cheeks while she gave him a smile that she hoped didn’t look as awkward as she thought it did, “It’s just been a while. And I’ve…missed you.”

[bookwyrminspiration]

some highlights from the first keepblr skribbl.io session <3

(artists: @camelspit, ash, @aphelea)

what a delight--there'll be another session at 8:30 est if you missed this one :)

[sweet-berrry]

Songs about living a life that looks perfect from an outside view but feel hopeless. >

[mothsantics]

this nerd

[yvanspijk]

Cat, chat, Katze, kat

The origin of the word cat is unknown. There are similar words in many related languages, such as French chat, Welsh cath, and Polish kot, but also in unrelated languages, e.g. Arabic qiṭṭa and Turkish kedi. However, none of these languages can be identified as the source language. See the infographic to learn more about it.

[lapsed-lys]

Everyone! I made a Discord server for trans Catholics! Everyone is welcome as long as they want to interact with trans people and Catholicism :D

@carry-on-wayward-catholic @cath-lic I know you two were looking for one!

[heademptie]

Ghoap x Comms!Reader continued...

Reader avoids Ghost as much as they can, not wanting to stir things up more than they already have, but they're only successful because Ghost allows it. And Ghost only allows it so he can better observe them. He's tried pulling strings, using his rank and reputation to try and find out more about reader. But it comes up short. He gets access to their file, but its all fluff inside, lots of it confidential or just blank. Their name isnt even on the file, just the callsign (to keep reader anonymous) Laswell gave out. He asked her too, but she didn't have the answers he wanted.

"Tell me about them." "Not much to tell, I'm afraid. Why? You think they're a threat?" "Don't know yet." "Should I be worried, Ghost?" He pauses, thinking it over. But Laswell knows well enough, that if there was a threat, Ghost wouldn't hesitate. So she sighs and hands over the lackluster file. "They work behind the scenes, no field record. They were brought here-" Her voice drowns out with information Ghost already knows, the extent of Laswells knowledge on the matter. On first glance the file looks fine, personal information left blank or blacked out, a brief service record. Nothing in the field, like Laswell said, but a few listings for assistence with signal decoding. But most of their work is as a mundane office drone, 'A temp,' Ghost thinks amused.

So he skulks around base and observes.

Johnny is confused. He's been able to read Ghost for some time now, their connection and dynamic so intertwined, so in tune with each other, thriving since Las Almas. He notices almost immediately, the sudden hostility and caution Ghost displays on base, it takes him a bit longer to find the target.

He tries to ask outright, of course he does because why wouldn't Ghost talk to him, but he gets shut down. A gruff response. "Don't know what you're talking about Johnny."

Soap pushes, of course, but he gets repeatedly shut out. He moaps a bit, like a kicked puppy, before he catches on to who has made Ghost like this. He's surprised when he cathes the critical look of Ghost when Reader walks by, and he doesnt miss the quick glance they flick over Ghost. Then that glance jumps to him and reader gives a small smile and nod, one that looks a little too nervous to be oblivious to Ghost's scrutiny.

So he finds them the next evening, Reader is leaving tomorrow, going back to wherever they were before, so they went out for a drink. He slides up next to them easily, and gives a bright, syrup sweet smile to ease into things. Reader is a bit tense to begin with but relaxs just a bit once conversation starts. Soap starts slow and vague, idle chat morphing into talking about readers time on base before eventually reaching his desired point of discussion.

Immediately, the mood shifts. Reader is subtle with it, smile becoming a little tighter at the corners, and eyes scanning over him with an increased intensity. They play dumb, not lying to him but repeating his words, asking thier own questions, faux confusion furrowing their brows.

'They're good at this,' Johnny thinks as reader gives another vague answer, easing him in the direction to make a false assmunption. He's not mad, a little annoyed, but mostly he thinks that they're clever. 'Maybe this is why Simon is suspicious,' reader is still on guard, but as Johnny relaxes into the back and forth, so do they. Its like a game now. 'A simple desk worker shouldn't be this good'.

The night comes to an end and Johnny insists on walking them back to base. He'll bring it up to Ghost again, mention how reader easily navigated the pseudo interrorgation, get him to talk. Its on the walk back that reader looks over to Soap, eyes kind yet critical and sighs. He looks over and reader offers a smile. Theres something in that smile he doesnt have the chance to decipher before they've caught him off guard.

"It's his business to tell you what's going on. I don't want to step on any more toes, especially since im out of here in a few hours."

Soap goes to ask more, opens his mouth, ready to launch into his questions, eager to finally get answers. But they put a hand on his shoulder and he falters.

"But for gods sake just tell him already."

He's confused, but the look they give speaks volumes. Oh. Oh. Johnny understands now. The hostility, the caution, the observation. Just as they saw through Johnny and cupped his weakness in their gentle hold, they had done the same to Simon.

Oh. This is...

Reader is gone the next day, as was expected, but Ghost is only slighty eased, and Soap finds himself a little on edge. It's not till weeks later, with readers voice nagging at him with that kind exasperation, that Soap (a little liquored up) is in Ghosts barrack.

They're shouting at each other, fear turning into misplaced anger before it goes quiet in the small room. They're both breathing heavy, Ghost, Simon in this moment, breaks it.

"I'll kill anyone who hurts you. And I'd be pleased to." He follows closely, closing the gap until uncovered hands grasp Johnny's face, as gentle as Simon can manage. "If you're mine, no one, no one, can touch you." Johnny is thrilled.

As the sun rises, the two are twisted together in the sheets of Ghosts too small bed, Johnny wears a tooth rotting smile. They think, seperately, offhandedly, that they really should thank that too clever reader.

[magellanicclouds]

Halo - An Essay: regarding waste management systems and devices for MJOLNIR armoured Spartans It has been a hectic sort of few weeks. Between work and getting sick again (for the fourth time already this year thanks to my crewmates who can't remember it's their duty to stay home when they're ill) I've been on the outs. I haven't had the energy for much, but I'm usually a pretty active person, so this has kind of made me loopy? Which feels like as good a time as any to talk at length about the concept of catheterizing Spartans for waste management in MJOLNIR.

Let me explain.

This Silly Post crossed my dash recently and I fully understand it is meant as lighthearted fun - we have fun here. But it also dragged out some strong thoughts I've had haunting in the back of my mind about this for years because I'm super normal about Halo, and have time on my hands and the right amount of sleep deprivation and medication on board. So I wrote 3500 words about it. And about Karen Traviss, who is pretty knotted up in this conversation, since she's the one who decided to start it back in 2011.

To preface, I'm not an expert, but I have worked in emergency medicine for 25 years, and been a fan of Halo for almost as long. I've had more of a lukewarm relationship with it the last decade or so if I'm being honest, but it will always have a home in my heart; I just think letting it under my skin like that in the first place may have made me feral and prone to biting. Thankfully, I can always happily rotate Fred in my mind until the heat-death of the universe, so that's nice. Anyway, full disclosure: the essay below contains discussion about medical devices, physical trauma, and I am sharing quite a lot of personal negativity about the Kilo-5 trilogy and Karen Traviss. That said, if you'd like to sit in on the length of what I'm about to yell into the sky about all this, you can find it under the cut. I love you.

Welcome to my dissertation.

Section 1 - The Relevant Background:

Equipping Spartans with urinary catheters weeded itself into the Halo universe in the 2011 book Halo: Glasslands, during a conversation between Spartan II Naomi-010 and ODST Mal Geffen. Glasslands was the first in Karen Traviss's Kilo-5 trilogy, and she is both the originator of this, and the only official Halo author or source to have used catheters specifically since. Some context: I don't personally like these books, or their author, or even her reasoning for why she chose to add this. My personal preference doesn't make something 'bad', and I'm not out to hurt any feelings. Kilo-5 isn't a total wash for me, there are some characters and ideas that I'd of otherwise loved to have seen explored through the lens of a different author, but these books felt smothered under Traviss's habit of always injecting her very loud personal voice into the narrative fabric. I think this is something that's fine to do in an original series, but doesn't really belong in an established third party IP. She bangs on about so much of her own narrow worldview and self-assured prejudices across the trilogy that still discussing them today creates division in the fandom, and sadly did a lot of lasting damage to a couple characters. But for the topic here, the dialogue that started all this cath chat came from Naomi-010, having idle conversation with Mal who asks her about bathroom breaks. “I’m catheterized. Another reason why that machine has to be so precisely calibrated. This suit plugs into me in a lot of places.” 'The Machine' she's referring to is a Brokkr assembly, which was introduced to the lore as a large mechanical armature used to get Spartans in and out of MJOLNIR. You can see them in action in cinematics from Halo 4 (+Spartan Ops) and 5.

One single mention, and it was big news. Traviss was naturally interviewed about it because of course she was - people can't help themselves but forget an entire novel and tunnel vision on 'but how pee pee?', and her answer has always irritated me. It's not in what she says, so much as what 'what she says' means in her voice. Traviss didn't answer it directly, but instead talked about how she likes to get into character's heads by addressing the mundane necessity of things that often go overlooked to expand a sense of familiarity with the character and their world. Sounds super reasonable, I know, but don't give her too much credit - that's not a quote. It's just me paraphrasing and honestly I was pretty generous in my wording. Probably because I agree! What bugs me about it, is if you've ever read literally any interview with her, or her personal musings about her writing process, you know there's a bit of an 'honesty' issue there. She's somebody who feels perfectly comfortable ignoring established character voices, traits, or histories to satisfy whatever roles she's reinvented for them, and too many others wind up as mouthpieces. How much are you really challenging yourself in finding characters' voices when most of them are just yours? And the part about familiarity with their world? I giggled a little. She doesn't care about their world, or their aesthetics, or their technology, or their medicine. Because she didn't care about Halo while writing these, and she's not vague about admitting that. It's a matter of pride for her to purposefully refuse to research those things, in the same way she disregarded Star Wars and Gears of War - she doesn't consider the effort to be a valuable part of her process. So instead she'll skim the foundation, gather some recognizable names, pick her targets, and trusts that her personal experiences combined with an outsider perspective will generate better content to seamlessly overwrite what existed. Cool, Karen. Annoying, but why bring all that up? We're here to talk about catheters, right? Well, the fandom for the most part begin and end their assessment of the dialogue at urinary catheters, but the whole quote implies so much more than that - "This suit plugs into me in a lot of places." We're not just dealing with a cath, but apparently with multiple additional external-to-invasive connections. Reader, this dialogue is a plinth to Traviss's bizarre refusal to research not only the franchises she's contracted to write in, but also just into the basic function and hazards of existing concepts that she wants to introduce, and all because she's convinced herself she's done learning about the world. Choosing to ignore the creative freedom of limitless potential in a future of technology that would be basically magic to us today, and instead degrade 529 years of advancement is certainly a take, but it's even more ridiculous to do it with a subject (The Spartan Programme) that is considered to be the peak of advancement in that future's setting. That's clownery, just like her alleged commitment to adjusting her perspective to suit a universe's world.

I want to close out this section with a question: Why is it that writers in the Halo space - both fan and official - cling so tightly to current-day modern concepts as if they'd still be perfectly relevant in 500+ years? Music, for example, apparently suffered a multi-century stagnation in lots of published and fanmade Halo media. Though my partner made a strong counterpoint about this to be fair: we still listen to music composed by Mozart. So there's an argument to be made there. Medicine though. There is way less latitude to embrace the classics there. It's been shown across several games, novels, and films to be sufficiently advanced well beyond anything we're currently capable of or even understand, so why undermine that and choose to drag it centuries backward? For clarity, I am not talking about what might be standard in the public or private sectors, nor the enduring things that'd be used by the public and military alike, like sterile dressings, syringes, supplemental oxygen equipment. Those are the Basics and they will be relevant to us indefinitely. But I'm talking about the UNSC. I'm talking about ONI R&D. I'm talking about Section Three. Retrograding tech and failing to address a necessity that applies to every living person in the Super Soldier Wizardry department makes my mouth flatten into a tight little line.

Section Two - Caths, and why this whole thing got written:

Indwelling urinary catheters, both urethral and suprapubic. There's a laundry list of problems here, but I've distilled it down to the three biggest when suggesting they'd have any safe practical application in Spartans: Care. Activity. Damage. There is unreasonable expectations of care and maintenance for caths with regards to people who can be on operations isolated for months at a time with no support of any kind and are often limited to carrying only what can be kept on their person. The level of extreme physical activity Spartans engage in on any perfectly normal day whether deployed or not is unfit for the stability and safety of a cath. And damage; obvious enough, but with this one I'll be taking a huge emphasis on concussive forces - explosions. Something Spartans are subjected to a lot. I'll be using the height of modern-day catheter quality as a baseline for this, since that's what Traviss felt was sufficient. Regarding Urethral vs Suprapubic, Traviss doesn't specify by name, but Naomi's comment in full reads to me that she's only catheterized temporarily while armoured, hence the assembly needing to be so finely calibrated. Foley caths are temporary urethral caths that would only supplement the urinary process while a person was armoured. Suprapubic caths however are surgically placed devices. They do need routine tube replacement to keep them clean, but unlike the Foley that just serves as an aide measure for an otherwise fully functioning bladder, suprapubic caths are usually placed in people with congenital bladder disfunction, or who've suffered injury or disease that left the bladder in poor health or failure. This type of access will always require a tube in place and this would be the exclusive method of urination - in or out of armour. My Big Three Concerns fit both types similarly, though there is some additional risks associated with urethral caths that I'll cover.

Care: Caring for an invasive cath is a not insignificant effort. They're prone to blockage, kinking, and bacterial growth. They're so frequently responsible for UTIs and kidney stones that these complications are just considered the Standard Fair for having a cath. Their need to be frequently replaced because of their penchant for bacterial growth is the kicker here - whole floral colonies sprout up in caths and can eek their way out into the body through compromised tissue and wreck havoc. They have no self-cleaning mechanism, and steadily deteriorate. Changing and replacing an indwelling cath is a procedure that requires additional supplies that'd have to be carried, and needs to be done in a practiced and clean setting; preferably medical. Granted, there are people who manage the removal and insertion of their own caths at home, but they still need to ensure a clean and safe environment while they do this. A Spartan could never be guaranteed that, nor would it even be wise to consider the vulnerability of removing so much armour to handle it. Modern day caths are recommended to be replaced every 30 days or so, with some models able to be in place for a few months at a time, but that's with constant daily care and cleaning; something that'd be unreasonable for a Spartan to maintain while entrenched who knows where for who knows how long, and without access to replacement medical supplies. Those endurance times between replacements are geared for the average public person who leads an average public life and care for their cath as directed and don't get into fist fights with Sangheili. Needless to say, the endurance time for the same device in a Spartan who leads a wildly different lifestyle probably cuts those times down to a third.

Activity: Modern day caths are designed to offer people the most utility and versatility possible. Both models are available for people who are bed-bound or have extremely limited mobility, as well as for those who are mobile, independent, and live out average lives. With regards to the latter, suprapubics are somewhat more common, if for no other reason than to reduce the Foley's higher risks of induction injury, but modern urethral caths also allow for regular movement and activity with a more reduced chance of becoming dislodged or damaged than they would have had a couple decades ago. But when I say regular activity, I mean going on a walk. Shopping for groceries. Doing basic house chores. Even light exercise and sexual activity can be managed with physician advisement and the appropriate precautions taken. Anytime a Spartan was fielded they'd have to be all the more overly-cautious about Movements Outside of Their Control during confrontations, maneuvers, ambush, environmental or vehicular incidents. Even when things go well there'd be too much risk involved. That said, traumatic decatheterizations happen more frequently than anyone would like, and I'm talking about regular old Joe Everybody. I respond to no less than a dozen of these incidents a year. Both types of catheter are held in place by a bulb balloon that's inflated from a port with around 10-30ccs of saline after the tube enters the bladder (30ccs would be more appropriate for better security of the line). Before removing a cath, the saline is removed to deflate the balloon and the tube is guided out - with a Foley cath, that means being guided out of the urethra. When a Foley cath is traumatically removed, the saline filled balloon - which is like five times wider in diameter than the average 6mm urethra - does a pretty devastating amount of damage on it's way out, penis or vagina; though a penile urethra has significantly more length to damage, and the penile meatus very typically is torn. These incidents run high risk of bladder hematoma as well, which requires urgent surgical intervention. The very worst traumatic decatheterizations I've responded to were all penile and had trauma to external tissue. Ever microwaved a hotdog a little too long?

Damage: How often are Spartans subjected to explosive and other concussive forces? Silly question - answer: a lot and often and unavoidable. And we know they still feel the powerful feedback. Despite shields and dampeners and a self-moderating gel layer, strong inertial forces are still felt through the suits. Across multiple novels we're given details about near misses and blasts, accelerated or uncontrolled falls, rattling their teeth, hampering their vision, hearing, or balance; they've been rendered unconscious and suffered internal injuries. The fact that most of these events don't flat out kill them is a credit to their armour and augmentations. For reference - when a person experiences explosive or concussive force from a distance enough to avoid separation of limbs, bisection, etc, the totality of their injuries can't and won't be seen externally. How they present on the outside is just the tippy tip of the iceburg - it's what's happened to them internally that you need to be concerned about. Cracked or fractured bones, torn musculature, arterial shearing, hollow organ rupture, cardiac and brain tissue bleed, to name some common ones, and this kind of trauma extends to all implanted devices as well. For example, rods and nails and other structural aids or replacements are much more resilient than your organic tissues, and can dislodge when tissues tear or rupture, damaging anything in their way like shrapnel. The fragile little balloon of a catheter will shatter when subjected to even relatively minor explosive force, so to even consider for a moment that this would be a viable piece of equipment for people intended to routinely be involved in explosive environments is beyond willful negligence. That there wouldn't be a better solution to the question of waste management - a necessity for literally all human people who make up the entirety of the Spartan branch, with the infinite funding of ONI R&D seems so stupid to me that I… well, that I wrote this. Because, friends - participating in active warfare is not cath-safe. The kinds of physical demands and forces on Spartan bodies are not cath-safe. The risks will never outweigh the benefits to this. Even while sealed in powered armour and a skinsuit tech layer, the very thought of Section Three engineers or Halsey or anyone involved in the development of MJOLNIR dismissing the glaring obvious failure of Spartans having any kind of externalized invasive devices is so unreasonably negligent that it could only be the brainchild of an author who's convinced that these characters are all actually just psuedo-intelligent government boogiemen who aren't as capable as they claim to be. But No. They are that capable, and they are that intelligent and the fact that they have a bottomless budget and deeply flexible ethics is literally what makes them so dangerous.

So if we have to address this, how do we do it? Apparently there was always an official answer for this. Former Franchise Development Director, creator of the Master Chief**, and extremely racist asshole Frank O'Connor weighed in on this in the same interview, where he almost immediate rejected and denied Traviss's catheterization claim and says that 'this sort of stuff' was the kind of thing he and the other creative heads at Bungie/343i talked and planned about all the time. So how does this work then, because we're invested now. According to 'ol Frankie's elegant input: they just pee freely into the suit. That's it. For clarity, he's talking about the skinsuit and not the MJOLNIR interior proper. He goes on to say that connectivity between body and MJOLNIR at all levels is fully noninvasive, but precise, and that it doesn't matter what kind of body output a Spartan introduces into the suit interior, because a hygienic valve system (??) will scrub it continually and collect all matter for recycling and reintroduction via capillary action powered by movement. It's not clear in what layers or intermediaries these mechanisms occupy, he doesn't break it down more than that. But that's the answer, and it did exist back when Traviss was penning Kilo-5.

Is this answer better than haphazardly plugging extension cords from actual organ systems into MJOLNIR interior? Yes. Like, leagues better by comparison, but also I still think it sucks. To me anyway. It's flat out gross as hell, which definitely fits the personal brand of a man who proudly overfed his cat and called himself "Stinkles", but also it just doesn't strike me as the kind of design strategy ONI would pursue for any of their assets. Beside it just being 100% torn from Dune's stillsuits, it's also missing that special brand of proprietary Section Three je ne sais quoi. There's layers upon layers of too-specialized equipment installed into these people for everything else, why skip this? A body function that should have been Point 3 on a 50 point list of 'stuff to manage'. Also though? It's a lot of freedom. This is just another easy opportunity to add yet another layer of dependence. Spartans are expensive equipment. It doesn't do to give them any fewer reasons to think they can ever walk away.

So anyway, I figured I'd take a crack at it. I came up with this while editing the last two paragraphs: [Waste management] - a fully internalized collection and processing device - lets say a cybernetic implantation - that entirely replaces the bladder. It has bio-organic lumens that interconnect it to the GI and Hepatic organs. The implant assists in accelerating the processing of gathering and refining waste materials with the help of nanobots that identify and redirect waste along the lumens of each system, plus they keep the implant clean and free of bad flora. All twice-processed waste gets refined a lot quicker and any water by-product of the process is refined and redistributed back to the organs along the lumens. None of the refined water is removed from the body for drinking, because that's an unnecessary step; it's already inside. (Drinking water would be the responsibility of a suit system more likely - like, sweat leeching in the skinsuit; refine, filtrate, purify, collect into a reservoir, and jettison the excess sodium. ) There is no 'extraction of other viable nutrient' from the remainder, it's been twice identified as waste. It gets catabolized and consumed by the nanobots as a fuel source, and no externalized waste is created at all while the Spartan is geared up. The implant doesn't always run like this - it only engages this way when the Spartan is wearing MJOLNIR, and when they're not, it just works like an out-of-the-box bladder. The intermittence of usage lets the organic organs truck along as usual, preventing risk of atrophy, and the Spartan can just use a bathroom like everyone else. I'm not a bioengineer, but I do like sci fi and I think all that sounds like something that'd be possible in this sandbox. And that's the real fun of it, isn't it? There's no way anyone today can anticipate what sort of gadgetry might be available 500+ years from now, especially in a fictional universe that includes military tech hybridized with reverse engineered alien tech.

I think it's fascinating when writers and artists shake loose and really grab the reins, and I love seeing the fruit of that labour in this particular tumblr community so often. We're not a huge Halo circle, but we're a passionate one, and if this essay leaves you with nothing else, I hope it will at least remind you to Go For It when you're writing your next fic or drawing your next piece, or composing, or sewing, or printing, or anything!

In Conclusion: Rest easy, friends.

Despite Traviss's word and even books that went to print, the official canon is that Spartans are not catheterized. If that's a bummer for anyone, canon can't stop you from writing whatever you want, but I do hope maybe you'll remember my reasoning for why it might not be the best idea? At least not for armoured Spartans. A Spartan, but they're laid up in hospital? Any non-Spartan personnel? Maybe you're writing in the public sector, a colony world or vessel? Sure - I'll bet caths are still plenty widely used. Why not? They're a blissfully simple and useful effective piece of equipment. It's just all about adjusting and adapting for practicality. Medical science, like any technology, adapts and evolves infinitely as we learn and discover new things. Treatments or drug algorithms I'd of used just last year have already undergone changes, and protocols are amended constantly. It's why a person 'practices' medicine; why a scientist is always a student. If questions like this or similar really need answering in your next work, remember: Give yourself the credit you deserve, and embrace the spirit of invention. Let my Cyber Bladder, by Sparklets be the candle in the window for you!

You may all retrieve your keys from the bowl and unsilence your phones. Stay safe and please text me when you get home. Thank you. ' u ' **Addendum: Former Bungie Creative Art Director Marcus Lehto is in fact the person who is most associated with the creation of the Master Chief.**

[andhumanslovedstories]

any advice for nursing students/new nurses?

When you buy a stethoscope, get it engraved with your name, I literally cannot tell you how much that has saved my ass. All stethoscopes look the exact same, even if you think you got a unique looking one, and they're super easy to lose, and they're a hundred plus bucks. engraved!!

There's literally so many acronyms, and everyone assumes the acronyms they know are universal, and no one is correct. Get comfortable with the phrase "remind me what [x] stands for" when someone rattles off a string of letters you don't recognize. (sometimes the person talking to you doesn't know either! whoops!!)

Ask questions all the time actually. This is the ideal time to do so and everyone will be scared if you don't.

For straight cathing patients, you can usually get a lidocaine gel that numbs the urethra, which helps with discomfort. Also for straight cathing patients, if they have a vagina, make sure you visualize the urethra before you start the whole process. You don't want to have to find it later when you're sterile and can't touch anything.

If you've never used a bed pan, it is surprisingly much harder than you would expect. familiarize yourself with them before you have to place one for the first time.

At the end of every shift, find one thing you can point at that you did and were proud of. You can be proud of helping a patient get up and walk. You can be proud that your patient's pain never got above a 4. You can be proud that you helped out another nurse's patients while they were dealing with an admit. You can be proud that you didn't get visibly mad at a patient who was screaming at you. You can be proud that you got to the end of the shift and everyone is alive. You can be proud that you realized you were in over your head and called for help. Find something each shift to be proud of, and the corollary to that is behave in ways that make it easier to be proud of yourself when you look back at the way you spent your shift

get good shoes.

prioritize sleep.

meal prep

pick a few things about yourself that are harmless, not at all intimate small talk. I also have a few fun facts about myself that I love to talk about but don't overstep any boundaries (stuff like that I'm from Virginia, that I'm part of float pool so I can tell you how this room compares to others in the hospital, I have dyed hair and people love talking about that). Draw boundaries to be personable but not inappropriate. Genuinely, practice small talk. You have small talk when things are going fine so you can have Big Talk when someone's breaking down crying or starts screaming in the hallway or wants to leave against medical advice or is furious that their visitors are gonna get searched on the way in. Build rapport before you need rapport.

Sort of similar to the last one, I try to care very deeply about my patients on shift and then forget about them when I go home. I debrief with my mom or Cyrus or my journal, and then I take a shower. The shower is my mental reset time. I tuck my nursona away and emerge as just some dipshit in a towel. Find whatever ritual helps you end your shift.

there are many ways to be a good nurse. sometimes you need a hardass. sometimes you need a cheerleader. sometimes you need a goofball. sometimes you need someone who doesn't chit chat but will always get your teeth brushed, your hands washed, and your hair braided before breakfast can even get to the floor, no matter how shortstaffed the floor is. sometimes you need someone who will talk to you at three in the morning about what the dying process is like. it is impossible to be all things to all patients. as a new nurse, you start by focusing on basic minimal competency, but pay attention to what parts of the job energize you, what parts come easy to you, and lean into those. get competent at the things you are bad at, get passionate about the things you are good at, and you'll have a better chance of building a nursing practice that you can keep up with the shit times start.

the shit times can start anytime but oooh boy do they tend to arrive at your six month mark.

[enarien]

fic idea that i would like to write but never will

Rookie getting hurt on a mission and now being in coma and ghost spends most of his time in their room taking care of them. just rubbing lotion into their skin, moving muscles so they wouldn't atrophy

the rest of the tf141 cathing up on his behaviour and coming to see him and rookie more and more

Gaz softly reading his favourite books to rookie and whoever is in the room at the time

Soap being the biggest gossip and just chatting about the newest juicy stuff that's happened on the base

and Price. poor price feeling like an utter failure everytime he steps into that room. watching how his boys cope with all this shit. trying to be there for them but losing bits of himself to sorrow

[everliving-everblaze]

I've seen new people floating around for a while, but I haven't actually written an introduction post, so here! ^-^

I go by Catherine (and sometimes variations "Cath" and "Heron"), my pronouns are she/her, and I'm an adult. I've been reading KotLC for around a decade now and been in the fandom for over seven years! I'm also Catholic, and my passion is language.

I've kind of been all over the fandom! I'm the longest-active user on the wiki, which I ran from 2018-2020, and I've been part of the fandom on Goodreads, Pinterest, and Discord as well. Basically, I never shut up about KotLC, so. >u<

Mainly, I think I'm known for loving Sophitz, making (often cursed) edits, and my various work editing the wiki, writing analysis, and writing fanfiction. Sometimes I'm also funny, but I am first and foremost a major nerd.

I'm not great at responding quickly, but I love to chat, so feel free to hit up my askbox!

Nice to meet you all!

[yourfavepookiebear]

Introduction (again 😭)

Requests: open (?)

I'm currently less active since I have exams coming up, so I'd rather answer any requests once my exams have passed. I'm gonna post my WIP soon, I just have to finish it first

Again, my only side account is @thepookiestpookiebear

Request Rules :

Character limit : generally 4 unless it's a group

I don't write incest, racist, homophobic, or that kinda stuff

Uhh I don't have much rules

I can write yandere stuff, I can also write self aware stuff

I write for twisted wonderland and genshin impact, and maybe tokyo revengers too !

And that's all, moving on :

Feel free to chat, I LOVE MAKING FRIENDS and i love talking/chatting ❤

If you don't like my works, just ignore them. If you don't like my account, block me. If I offend you somehow, either ignore me or block me.

I don't argue with people (most of the time)

I'm a pacifist, I have a teeny weeny wittle tiny eety beety bitty bit of anger issues

I haven't made a masterlist yet bc I don't know how to sorry

Do not steal my works, they are mine. Do not do anything with my works unless I consent to it, please. Don't copy !

Pookie, come and have some chai with me ♡♧ (or some coffee if that's what you prefer idk)

Hi pookies! I'm a beginner fic writer. I write for twisted wonderland, self aware twisted wonderland, and a slight bit of genshin impact, but mostly sagau. I'm a ✨FaLLeN AnGeL✨ /HJ SORRY 😞

My pronouns are she/her

I'm half European half Asian (specifically middle-eastern asian) my first language is French and my second language is English (chronologically), oh and I can speak in total 3-4 languages.

Edit: I have a lot of names and nicknames, so you can call me whatever you'd like, but here is a list of what most people call me, both online and irl :

Jess

Pookie

Pookie bear

Bear

KitKat

Jessica (rarely)

Cathy

Cath/Cat

Catastrophe (a nickname my previous classmates used to give me)

Sometimes even Catharina, or Catherine/Katherine

In conclusion, I have a lot of names and nicknames, so just call me whatever you'd prefer to call me, I just gave that list so maybe you'd have an idea.

Sometimes I'm dumb sometimes I'm smart, it all depends and varies.

I'm a girl, bisexual + greysexual (basically a biromantic greysexual). I'm a huge simp -> (edit: sometimes), and I like cute things.

I LOVE CATS

requests are almost always open pookies

Proud member of the pookie nation.

I will call u pookie or pookie bear no matter who or what you are.

I'm a pisces, my birthmonth is March. I'm not a huge fan of astrology but I do like astronomy tho

Subjects/topics I like:

Fashion, modeling, models.

Astronomy

Biology

Physics

Chemistry

Science (general base)

Philosophy (self-explanatory)

Edit : Sometimes history/SS too

Things I like/LOVE:

Vacuum cleaners ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤💖💞 (love of my life <33333333333333)

Food (everything except some seafood and mushrooms)

Cats (self-explanatory)

Cute things (self-explanatory)

Animals

Social media (sometimes, depends on the type)

My friends

My (new) classmates

My old school

Fast-food (KFC especially, OMFG I LOVE FRIED CHICKEN WINGS AND OML FRIED SPICY CHICKEN WINGSSS <333)

Chicken nuggets

Dried bacon

Bacon and eggs

Scrambled eggs

FRIED CHICKEN

Sandwhiches

Hotdogs

Riceballs

Tuna fish cans (canned tuna fish 🔛🔝)

Basically any food

Chocolate, ex : chocolate cakes, chocolate milkshakes, chocolate bars, chocolate tablets

Nutella/chocolate milkshakes

Writing (depends, sometimes)

Dancing

Ducks (And he waddled away waddle waddle waddle 🥲.)

CARS

Motorcycles

MONEY (no need to explain)

My extra-curricular classes (kinda, sometimes I also hate them 😞)

Uh, a Lotta things, I'm just too lazy to write all of it (it would take hours)

Music too

My personality type:

I'm ambiverted actually so it depends, so idk.

Edit: I'm an INTP pookies

Little details about me:

I could talk about food for hours. (It's one of the only things I like more than astronomy and money.)

I can't focus for too long.

I have a wild imagination (not in a bad way tho)

I love mostly everything, except for a few people/things that I still hold grudges to. (For a good reason tho).

I have a super packed schedule most of the time, it's mainly cuz I go to 2 schools at the same time, along with extracurricular classes, and both school's homeworks, and school projects

My hobbies:

Horseriding

Rockclimbing

Hiking

Writing (sometimes)

Reading

Studying (only rarely)

Jogging (but mostly cycling)

Track running

Cycling (every day, except for when I'm sick or not in form)

I don't like:

Judgemental people

Sh*t-talkers

People who have massive egos

Roaches

Spiders

Dirtyness

Dirty people

Dust

Unsanitary people

Dirty food

Dirty water

Unhygienic people

People who don't wash their hands after going to the bathroom.

Some things you should probably know if you're one of my mutuals:

2. Also not that inportant, but I try to be nice to people because they already have enough problems and I don't need/want to be one of them. Sometimes though I may be rude or mean on accident, srry.

3. I LOVE ALL OF MY MOOTS ♡♡♡

4. Also not important but I don't really think much before subscribing to someone, if I see a random stranger on the internet who has good humor, then I'll hit the plus button. Sometimes though it can be troublesome, since i don't really check people's bios.

ALSO this is my beloved creature that I found on the streets on a snowy day, it's my best friend now @farfarurfav

I'm in a lot of fandoms, mainly Twisted Wonderland, Genshin impact, Attack on Titan, Jujustu Kaisen, Honkai Impact, Honkai Star Rail, Sailor Moon, Naruto, Boruto, Assassination Classroom, Spy x Family, KNY, Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken/ That time I reincarnated as a slime, Obey me, Dark Fall, Etc etc and also I'm a manga, manhua, manhwa, and anime enjoyer and I also know some webtoons too !

ONLY Side account : @thepookiestpookiebear

Must read to navigate through my blog :

Tags :

See "#yourfavepookiebear" for anything related to me !

See "#pookiebear rants" for whatever rants I've posted !

See "#pookie talks" for me talking with people or just chatting and stuff like that

See "#thepookiestwrites" for some of my newest works !

For now these are the only tags I'll introduce.

for all the dividers ! ⬇️

Oh btw @cafekitsune , love your stuff

[lazyneonrabbitt]

Can I request how the Gallaghers would react to lip/reader/carmy? Pretty please?

Oh man, meeting the Gallaghers is always an interesting time.

Clearly, Carmy cooks a huge dinner for all of Lip's siblings so he's still busy when the whole gang comes in but as soon as the gang starts to settle around the large fold out table carmy borrowed from the old restaurant stash they do NOT stop staring.

Fiona jokes about Lip's time in Patsy's kitchen, with Ian joining with college kitchen comments, laughing about how Carmy ia the spitting image of what Lip would have turned out as if he stayed in the kitchen instead of studying. Ian also adds a little comment about Lip saying he was 100% straight back in the days. Carl has zero filter so he immediately throws a comment your way about having a type and both of the noys being incredibly whipped if they were sharing you. Debbie feels the happy, housy vibes so she has nothing to comment on except that you should get a bigger apartment. Liam is cool with it, just wonders why there's three of you inatead of two.

After dinner eberykne just mingles and chats together. Lip and Ian share a smoke, talk about how things go between Lip and Carmy. Fiona and Debbie praise you for getting Lip in a healthy relationship and off booze almost entirely. (He was now drinking one of those fruity, low persentage beers for the occasion.)

You know, just normal, adults cathing up on conversations until Carl starts asking about the details of you three having sex.

[celestiall0tus]

Into Another World - Black Cats

Table of Contents

Cast:

Lady Noire (Miraculous AU) || Kuro Neko (Salvation) || Chat Noir (Absolution || Luka (Of Virtue and Sin) || Luka (Scions) || Cath Palug (All That Remained) || Razor (Siren's Song) || Fang (Say My Name) || Midnight (Amaranthine) || Sith (Paradise) || Chat Noir (Bloody Bug) || Felix (Court of Miracles) || Adrien (Rapture)

            Gateways in the sitting room between worlds lit up. Portals spun and people emerged from them all in various black cat-themed outfits. They eyed each other suspiciously when Lady Noire gasped.

            “Oh my, look at all the other black cats!”

            The others eyed Lady Noire suspiciously as she circled each of them. Scions Luka furrowed his brow, then widened his eyes.

            “Oh! I remember all this, but I don’t remember you,” Scions Luka remarked.

            “I wasn’t there, but my boyfriend was. A ladybug called Lord Bug.”

            “Oh! I remember the little twink. He was with the giant bee lady.”

            Lady Noire nodded. “He showed me the pictures he got of all of you. I’m so excited to talk to you guys. Come, come!”

            Lady Noire and Scions Luka took a seat. The others shot glances at each other before they took their seats.

            “I must say, I do remember meeting your little Lord Bug. Would that happen to make you Marinette?” Rapture Adrien asked.

            Lady Noire nodded. “We had switched miraculous because he was turned into a murderous monster while transformed. So, we switched so we could avoid that, and to give him some time to, y’know, recover mentally. It was… it was really hard on him.”

            Fang grinned, sat on the other side of Lady Noire, and put his arm around her. “Marinette, eh? Say, you have nicer legs than mine. What time do they open?”

            Court of Miracles Felix, Sith, and Kuro Neko moved to stand when Lady Noire decked Fang in the face. Fang yowled, stood, and backed away. Lady Noire stood and kicked Fang in the groin. Fang let out a guttural scream and crumbled to the floor.

            “Maybe once you learn to treat a person with more decency, then we can talk,” Lady Noire hissed as she took a seat.

            Scions Luka laughed and clapped Lady Noire on the back. “Wonderful job, lass. I was a little worried your guard cats would have to handle him.”

            Lady Noire tilted her head as she looked at Felix, Sith, and Kuro Neko. “Is everything ok?”

            “Just… not used to seeing Marinette, well, a Marinette I suppose, being so… aggressive?” Felix remarked.

            “Yeah. I mean, the Marinette I know can stand her ground, but not like that,” Sith said.

            “I’ve seen my Marinette played into a corner and forced on a leash for a horribly, manipulative man,” Kuro Neko hissed.

            “Oh. I’m sorry that’s how your Marinettes are, but I don’t have whatever circumstances they do. I sort of need to be strong for my team. I lead it with my darling kitten, well, bug. I have to keep my head high, even if I’m not at my best. I need to be their rock no matter what. If I fall apart, I fear we’ll all fall apart,” Lady Noire explained.

            “Very noble of you. Much like Marinette. Though she is heir to the throne of an empire. Weaknesses are not allowed when all eyes are on you,” Adrien pointed out.

            “Royalty or even just being a superhero. I’ve had to deal with the public and their opinions, along with the enemy taking advantage of them. It is… well, exhausting is a gross understatement,” Lady Noire said.

            Absolution Chat Noir snorted. “Please. Handling the public isn’t that hard. Maybe you shouldn’t be in the public’s eye if you can’t handle it.”

            Lady Noire bristled. “I am a mere high school student, thrust into a double life as a superhero. My job is to protect the people and stop my enemy. I don’t have time for the public, but have to make time. Maybe you shouldn’t be such an attention whore if you clearly love being in the public’s eye.”

            “Agreed. Your job is always the people first. If you feel the need to please the public, you’re not doing your job,” Midnight hissed.

            “Oh, get off my case! I have to keep the public happy with a crazy ass butterfly running rampant,” Absolution Chat Noir hissed.

            “Oh, you think you’re fucking special with a crazy ass butterfly? I had to watch thousands of people die to mine. He would have erased everyone off the face of the Earth if not for me and Carmine. Thanks to us, and later a golden dragon, we were able to stop him. So, don’t think you’re special. If anything, you’re just a massive, whiny bitch!” Midnight yowled.

            “All this whining reminds me of Adrien,” Felix hissed.

            “Hey!” Adrien hissed.

            Felix tsked. “I’m not wrong. I hear the same bitching from my Adrien that I’m hearing right now.”

            “Ugh, same. My cousin does nothing but bitch about how his little Marinette broke his little heart. I usually leave the phone alone when he goes off on a rant of how he’ll win her back, or something like that,” Cath Palug added.

            Lady Noire flinched. “Uh, that’s, uh, interesting? What happened there?”

            “Oh, hell if I should know. Just that Marinette changed after she got the reality kwami, and then started dating Luka,” Cath Palug remarked.

            “Oh. Well, that’s… rather sad. Why didn’t she go with him and Luka? And Kagami as well?” Lady Noire asked.

            “Because clearly that Marinette has some class and isn’t some whore,” Cath Palug commented.

            Lady Noire’s pupils narrowed into slits. “Excuse me?”

            “I have to agree. If you feel the need for more than one partner, you might as well spread your legs open to invite everyone in,” Felix added.

            Lady Noire’s ears pinned back as she hissed. She took a step when Fang shot to his feet and pulled her close to him.

            “If you’re open for business, I could show you a heaven better than any other version of myself,” Fang teased.

            “In. Your. Dreams!” Lady Noire yowled.

            Kuro Neko hissed and lunged with Lady Noire and attacked Fang. The trio wrestled around the couches until Kuro Neko and Lady Noire hoisted Fang over their heads. Fang squirmed as a portal opened up. Kuro Neko and Lady Noire threw Fang through it and it closed behind him.

            “Thank you for-,” Felix started.

            Kuro Neko and Lady Noire approached Felix and decked him in the face.

            “Don’t think we forgot about you, asshole!” Lady Noire yowled.

            “What gives you any right to judge how people love?” Kuro Neko challenged.

            “Yes, indeed. What gives you such right, cousin,” Adrien cooed.

            “Zip it, Adrien. I don’t want to hear it from my version of you, or any of you. Far as I’ve learned, you’re all a bunch of whores,” Felix hissed.

            “Hey! Not all of us are in polycules! Even if we aren’t, that doesn’t mean we disprove of it,” Bloody Bug Chat Noir yelled.

            “You clearly need to get off your high horse and get that stick out of your ass,” Scions Luka remarked.

            “I think it’s time to take out the rest of the trash,” Sith hissed.

            Felix stood and braced himself. “Try it.”

            Kuro Neko and Lady Noire took a step when Of Virtue and Sin Luka grabbed Felix by the scruff and threw him out through a new portal. Of Virtue and Sin Luka rolled his shoulders, then looked at Cath Palug and Absolution Chat Noir.

            “Are we going to disrespect these young ladies anymore?” Of Virtue and Sin Luka growled.

            Cath Palug shook his head.

            “Define ‘disrespect,’” Absolution Chat Noir mocked.

            Of Virtue and Sin Luka glared at Absolution Chat Noir, grabbed him by his scruff, and threw him out. He huffed and sat down again.

            “Thank you for getting rid of them. They were, well, annoying would be generous,” Lady Noire said.

            “More than annoying. Just a pair of pompous bluebloods and whatever that sleaze was,” Razor hissed.

            “Yeah. I haven’t had to deal with someone like that since, well, since the Felix I know. Granted he’s also a serial killer and did technically kill me once, but it’s fine. I got better,” Lady Noire half-heartedly joked.

            Kuro Neko growled, scooped up Lady Noire, and sat down with her. She cradled Lady Noire while she shot warning glares at the others. Tears formed in Lady Noire’s eyes as she curled around Kuro Neko. Sith tilted her head and crawled closer, then curled up near Lady Noire.

            “My, how sweet. Perhaps we should leave the girls be. Yes, gentlemen, and lady?” Adrien said.

            “Whatever. As long as I don’t have to deal with it,” Razor remarked.

            “I have to agree with him. I’m not the best with the feelings stuff. I do better smashing things,” Scions Luka boasted.

            “Barbarian,” Of Virtue and Sin Luka hissed.

            “Why, how’d you know?” Scions Luka teased.

            “Wait, are you really?” Chat Noir asked.

            “Indeed! I am a mighty warrior and defender of my village. At least, until I was blessed by the almighty kwami god of destruction. At that point, my path was set and adventure called. Though what I hoped to call adventure is more babysitting my reckless twin,” Scions Luka explained.

            “What’s wrong with Juleka?” Of Virtue and Sin Luka demanded.

            “Oh, she just hates being doted on. I mean, what else am I supposed to do? She’s small and dainty. Prize pickings for any bandit or highwayman. I can’t even begin to count all the times she’s nearly been kidnapped because she won’t listen to reason. Made worse that she was blessed by Creation, so she’s more a prize than she ever was before. And she still looks for danger. What am I supposed to even do?” Scions Luka complained.

            “Appease her. So long as you meet her demands, she settles down,” Of Virtue and Sin Luka advised.

            “I can’t do that, because she wants me gone. And if I’m gone, I can’t keep her safe from herself. I can’t win no matter what.”

            “Maybe you should try leaving her alone?” Chat Noir suggested.

            “No!” Of Virtue and Sin Luka and Scions Luka yelled.

            Chat Noir flinched and shrank back.

            “I have to agree with the kid. No woman wants to feel like she’s constantly being looked down on. Especially one as independent as that. The more you push, the more she will too. You’re just guaranteeing that she’ll ditch you and really get herself in trouble,” Midnight commented.

            “Might as well keep her caged up in a prison at that point,” Razor remarked.

            Scions Luka hummed. “That’s not a bad idea.”

            “That’s… that’s not what you should do,” Adrien remarked.

            “And why not? At least that way she’s safe. No one can hurt her,” Of Virtue and Sin Luka added.

            “Except for you,” Chat Noir shot back.

            “Excuse me? What did you just say, tiny?” Of Virtue and Sin Luka demanded.

            Chat Noir shrank back, shook himself, then sat up. “You heard me. No one wants to be trapped. You’ll make things worse for you and her if you do.”

            Lady Noire raised her hand. “I can agree. My Adrien was trapped in his house by his father. He didn’t get better once he was out and free.”

            “And I have to see my bee and my kitten trapped with myself while we watch our bug be free,” Kuro Neko hissed.

            “And I was trapped in a country that wasn’t my home, stuck with people that barely tolerated my existence, and unable to break free until I was given a miracle,” Sith added.

            “I was stuck under my father’s thumb, unable to break free from his control or dare disobey him,” Cath Palug remarked.

            “Exactly. You can’t honestly believe keeping her trapped is remotely close to a good idea after hearing all this,” Midnight commented.

            “Sounds more like a bunch of bitches whining,” Razor muttered.

            “Excuse m-!” Midnight started.

            “I agree. If you’re willing to suffer like that and not do something to change it, then you deserve to suffer,” Of Virtue and Sin Luka said.

            “Exactly. Only the strong prevail. If you’re not strong, then you might as well die,” Razor agreed.

            “Do you fucking hear yourselves? How can you even call yourselves heroes if you hold such views?” Midnight challenged.

            “I don’t. This ring was given to me by Otso and Megalodon after they saved me. Not that I asked her to help, but she still did anyway. Not like it was her business, but whatever. But I was given it and I’m making it everyone else’s problem for everything ever done to me,” Razor hissed.

            “You dare call us whiny bitches, but have you looked in the mirror lately?” Kuro Neko hissed.

            “You know what? Fuck this. I’m out,” Razor hissed.

            A portal opened and Razor took his leave.

            Midnight snorted and turned to Of Virtue and Sin Luka. “And what’s your excuse?”

            “I’m a mob boss,” Of Virtue and Sin Luka answered.

            “A… what? How did you even get a jewel? I thought they were all supposed to be good and be used for good,” Chat Noir pointed out.

            “Not all. There are some with dastardly concepts such as animosity, betrayal, fear, sorrow, and so much more. Not all kwamis are here to help. Even those that are fall victim to the whims of their holders,” Lady Noire explained.

            “Exactly. That’s not even getting into how the kwamis can corrupt their holders as well,” Sith hissed.

            “Corrupt? I… I don’t understand,” Chat Noir said.

            “Then you are a fool to wield a kwami without knowing the first thing about it. Perhaps you should do yourself the favor and let Plagg go to the next holder that can handle him,” Of Virtue and Sin Luka hissed.

            “Wait. How can you let a kwami blessing go? You are stuck with that for life once you’re blessed,” Scions Luka asked.

            “Not all are blessed, barbarian. The rest of us wear a ring and transform to use the power of destruction,” Midnight answered.

            “Speak for yourselves. I was born with this blessing,” Adrien remarked.

            Midnight rolled her eyes. “Alright, some of us have to use jewels while the lucky princesses around here get to be blessed.”

            Adrien beamed. “Why, thank you.”

            “Princess? I’m no princess! I’m a warrior!” Scions Luka protested.

            Midnight deadpanned. “Right, well, I’ve had my fill. I’m leaving.”

            Portals opened along the walls. Midnight leapt over the couch and through the nearest portal. Cath Palug and Chat Noir slipped away through a portal. Adrien shrugged and left. Lady Noire lifted her head, kissed Kuro Neko’s check, then led them to a portal. They shared a goodbye kiss before they stepped through together. Sith shot a glare at the Lukas before she scrambled through a portal. The Lukas lingered a moment longer before they got up and left.

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