#elijah ramirez : ⧽ conversations.

[lostrnkets]

closed starter for @wormful ft. elijah based off the plot in the source

it was often in his line of work that he had to deal with a few bruises after following a lead but it didn't normally end with him looking this rough. he had numerous cuts and bruises along his body, including the black eye that was slowly forming. "so, tell me. am i still hot with this black eye?" he teased as an attempt to lighten the mood.

[lostrnkets]

lately the guilt of constantly staying late after work was taking a toll on him, so he made sure to leave early and even picked up their favorite take out on the way. after setting everything up in the kitchen, he decided to change out of the clothes he was in for work and into a more comfortable option. he certainly wasn't prepared to walk into a scene of what looked like his fiance rushing to make it out of the door before he noticed. his heart began to beat rapidly in his chest as the anxiety of what was unfolding in front of him was closing in. it's like his brain and his eyes weren't able to keep up, he was trying to convince himself this was a dream and that he'd wake up still at work. "what do you mean? i don't understand." his thoughts immediately tried to scramble through what his actions had been lately - did she finally get fed up with how much energy he placed into work? was it his fault that she decided to pack up her entire life and walk out of the door? he didn't want to believe it but nothing else made sense, or at least that's what he tried to convince himself. "how is this keeping me safe? you here with me is what is safe. please don't do this. please don't leave. we can figure out whatever this is together." he was desperate, hoping that his words would somehow change what was happening right before his eyes. "please stay." he had let his guard down with her and let her in - he never thought that was a possibility for him after the past that he endured and the way he used to be completely closed off from the world. "talk to me, please."

open to: males/nb, 30+

plot: miriam is your muse’s fiancé and unknown to him, is the daughter of one of the most dangerous mo.b bosses in the world. she ran away and moved to the states years ago in hopes to start a new life away from her father but she just got word from an inside source that he has finally found her. she knows that she needs to leave to keep your muse safe… gimme angst and drama!

muse: miriam ivans ( margot robbie ) 30. test muse.

alternative fcs: meghann fahy, brianne howey.

note: please don’t like my starters & i use beta!

𝙈𝙄𝙍𝙄𝘼𝙈 𝙆𝙉𝙀𝙒 𝙏𝙃𝘼𝙏 her father would find her eventually, really she did, but now that the time was actually here and his men were on their way to take her home after running away almost ten years ago, she was devastated. being raised in a world surrounded by the m.afia had been hard for the blonde, even more so considering she was the italian m.ob boss’ only child, but when she was younger she’d taken the role with grace and��respect. all that had changed the moment her mother was m.urdered by one of her dad’s enemies. right before her d.eath, she promised the woman that she would leave italy and never come back. that she would start a new, normal life in the states away from the dangerous world she was born in and she did. what she hadn’t planned was to meet and fall in love with your muse. over the period that they knew each other, the man had been able to break down her walls and gained her trust like no one else had and for his protection, she never talked about her old life. who her father was. who she was. it was stupid to think that the happy life she’d made with him over the years would last forever. the moment she received word from an old friend that her father had found her, she rushed home from work to pack her things. now here she was, hurrying to get everything together and holding back tears as she packed her bags. it’s not until she takes the last suitcase from the storage room and into their bedroom that she freezes, not at all expecting to see her fiancé standing there. ❝ f.uck… i-i’m sorry but i have to go,❞ she places the last piece of luggage onto their bed, her anxiety so high she’s practically shaking with nerves. ❝ i know you probably have a million questions but i can’t answer them right now, okay? i need to keep you safe. i need to leave.❞

[starry-skies-116]

Bizzare Occurences (Aroace Evan Afton Fanfic!!):

(Pre-Story Note: Pigtail Girl in this story is called Cindy, while she is not the same Cindy from Fazbear Frights. Plushtrap Kid’s name is Oliver and he is the same age as Evan in my AU, and the Freddy Mask Bully- Andrew- is one year younger than Michael and the other tormentors. Evan attends a large school/campus for grades all the way 1 to 12, and Michael goes to the same school as him, which means the Tormentors do as well.

The names of the Tormentors are Michael Afton, Evan’s older brother and the Foxy Mask Tormentor, Dorothy Coleman, the Chica Mask Tormentor, Andrew Hanson Lee, the Freddy Mask Tormentor, and Elijah Ramirez, the Bonnie Mask Tormentor.)

***

Another strange day of school had taken place.

Evan was a fourth grader, and it was nearing the end of the school year- the air was becoming warmer, the dew clinging to grass coalesced earlier into the morning upon first light, and all too many children his age were more than delighted to simply rip themselves out of their seats and horseplay around by the time recess came- a significant improvement in the cheeriness of the environment than the doom and gloom of winter post-Christmas.

Time did seem to fly by when people were having fun.

The ambience of a gentle breeze fills the brunette’s ears as the raucous battle cries of hyperactive children fill the playground. Nebulous, compound eyes that devoured light entirely in their darkness flicked across the scene, glancing back and forth and taking immense pleasure in simply observing the collection of commotions taking place before him from afar: girls were gossiping about something on the benches, boys over on the swing sets were having a mock-lighstaber duel, some rowdier fifth graders were going down the tubed playground slide in… rather unorthodox ways.

He feels an ice-cold shudder rush up his spine when the detail of one kid sticking a wad of chewed up gum to the inside of the slide fails to escape him. Not like going down that accursed tube of mild claustrophobia was an option to him, anyways. They probably would’ve made him do so had he been anywhere near that thing, though.

“Yo, loser!”

Great.

“Speak of the devil,” he murmurs aloud, not really caring that he voiced his thoughts. The pitter patter of his own footsteps and mechanical breathing behind closed, white-painted wooden doors, which were the only things keeping him from death… he shuddered quite a bit at the thought- sometimes they showed up, sometimes they didn’t, and either way, they were monstrous imprints in the back of his mind that were as every bit as real as the world around and beneath him. Did Dad’s creations really have to make his life harder?

He glances up, meeting the gaze of a group of kids led by a green-eyed girl with dark auburn pigtails held up by crimson scrunchies. His nose upturns in slight indifference- he recognized that sleeveless orange top and bright red skirt anywhere, complete with the perfect white socks and red sneakers. She was the perfect example of the classic saying that looks could be oh-so-decieving.

“G-Greetings, Cindy. Oh- and good morning to you too, Andrew, Oliver,” he greets rather robotically, raising a hand and merely giving a light wave to the people that bothered him when those stupid masked bullies weren’t doing so.

Then again…  Andrew always wore that stupid Freddy mask of his whenever Michael and his friends were all over him. Aiy, couldn’t he get a moment’s rest?

“What’s with the formalities?” Cindy asks, and Evan’s purses his lip knowingly. She could be nice when she wanted to, but… sometimes her sarcasm utilized in everyday conversations was a tad too much, even though he wasn’t one to talk since he was probably starting to mimic such things.

“Nothing much,” Evan replies rather curtly, trying to hide the anxiety creeping into his voice. “I, uh… assume you came all this way because you wanted to say something to me? Wh-what do you need?”

They snicker, as if trying to hold back laughter. His eyebrow creases and furrows in intrigue- kids his age were truly an interesting specimen- it was a wonder he could understand them emotionally… or at all.

“We-we were just wondering…” Cindy chuckles out, placing oddly specific emphasis on the diction of ‘wondering’. “Do you…”

“Yes?” the boy tilts his head to listen, curiosity piqued and high on alert. “Do I?”

After a long while of awkward and tense silence, eyes glancing back and forth and barely repressed laughter, the pigtailed girl finally chokes out her sentence before the three kids before him burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter, so much so that tears were falling from their eyes: “Do you have a crush, Evan?”

Fear dissipates into intrigue- the tears disappear from his lashes.

A… crush? Well, that was certainly the more… unexpected response.

What on earth did crushes even mean?

“You mean…” Evan asks in response. “You mean if I… like someone? As in- like, like them?” he asks, wondering for a brief moment if the kids before him were being serious. “C-Cindy… I don’t want to rub an obvious fact in, but- we’re children. Adults say that we’re too young to know what we want for ourselves. You know that, right?” he asks, only to recieve a pout in return and a sudden weight leaning onto him.

“Awww! No wonder Michael doesn’t like you, you’re no fun!” Andrew complains, and Evan feels his heart slowly tumble into his stomach as his lip thins apprehensively, his eyes darkening. “Rude,” he mumbles tersely.

He didn’t understand. “What even does a crush feel like?” he thinks aloud, not realizing he had spoken until he feels three pairs of incredulous eyes on him- even some passerby had picked up on the conversation and were staring at him. “You mean you don’t know!?” the emerald-eyed redhead exclaims, as if romance was some universal truth he had not been enlightened to. Tension grips his muscles and he straightens a little bit as he internally cringes at the next sentence that insensitively flies out of the girl’s mouth: “I thought a mushy emotional crybaby like you would know what love feels like!”

“Educate me,” he replies, blinking twice, tears strangely not coming to his eyes. The girl somehow finds her words after some remuneration.

“Well- you know… how, when- you really like someone? Like, love them? You know how you get shy and giddy and can’t really speak around them?” Cindy explains, practically doe-eyed, the kids around her nodding in agreement. “And then- around Valentines Day, it gets even more romantic? Like, we chase our crushes around the playground, call them on the phone, or tease them to get attention? It’s wonderful- your heart beats in your ears so loud you can’t think straight- you can’t sleep at night, all you can think about is them!”

For the first time, Evan was speechless, out of sheer and utter shock. “...You’re romanticizing symptoms of intrusive thoughts, incapacitation and cardiac arrest simultaneously? Romance sounds horrifying in your context, I’ll be honest.”

The gazes on him grew more dissapointed and pitiful. “Well, we tried,” Andrew murmurs, running a hand through his dirty blonde hair and placing a sympathetic hand on Cindy’s shoulder. “Antisocial robots like him just won’t get it.”

R… robot?

Evan looks on in confusion as the crowd before him walks away and disperses from him, leaving him alone with his thoughts again. Was this some sort of inside joke he didn’t have enough information to understand? Was there something wrong with him, something missing that other people had?

Unsurprisingly wet tearducts force his eyes to flick down to his hands.

“What do they mean…?”

Was there something he was missing? Was he wrong?

He sighs deeply, tucking a lock of hair behind his ear and letting his body weight shift for him to fall back against the pole again. “It’s fourth grade,” he convinces himself with a surprising maturity to his tone and diction of his words. “Everyone’s loco in elementary school. Don’t worry about it too much, Evan.”

Don’t worry about it.

At least, not too much.

***

Walking home from school was easy… suspiciously easy. The early sunset came in hues of blue to pink and then streaks of orange and gold, wisps of clouds streaking across the sky as if it were rainbow graffiti. The silent calls of crickets and the chirping of birds migrating their way back to their home ring clear in the sky like bells. With every step he took closer to home, the scent of something faintly greasy combined with the recognizable smell of oregano and cheese… and- something else- pepperoni?

Pizza?

Evan’s eyebrows upturn as he follows the scent. Pizza… ‘course, it smelled good, but… too good. It must’ve been ordered from some fast food joint- no, his keen judgement supplies. Not just any fast food joint.

It must be from Fredbear’s Family Diner, more specifically, since Dad ran the restaurant- that meant infinitely free pizza for him and his family, which meant…

“Michael’s home,” he mumbles. “I knew something was off.”

Of course the jerkface was already home… and earlier than usual.

Exhausted and already somewhat mentally numb to the teasing he had to undergo, he reluctantly opens the door, which beckons him in with a loud creak alerting those inside to his presence.

Crud.

To make matters worse, the wooden floorboards buried beneath segments of blue carpet here and there creaked as loud as they possibly could upon the tiniest bit of contact with his foot.

Double crud.

Making haste, the brunette quickly slid off his shoes and socks and puts them on the rack nearby, shuffling as discreetly as he could into the living room, hoping that the background noise of the TV obnoxiously playing some teen-rated movie would mask his presence. Turns out, the odds didn’t intend on being in his favor in the slightest- within seconds, four pairs of eyes with surprised and malintented gazes were on him.

“Hey!” a girl’s voice calls out, smooth and calculating and almost snobby. Dorothy Coleman, seventeen years old and always wearing the Chica Mask, he recognizes the girl’s voice as as he glances to the dark skinned girl with raven black hair styled in bouncing curls. “It’s the little guy!”

“How was school, buddy~?” another dark-haired boy with lighter, more tan skin mockingly coos at him- Elijah Ramirez- the one donning the Bonnie Mask, sixteen years old- the same age as Michael. Evan shrugs- he had grown to become a tad amused by the antics of his older brother and his friends, although they still could very much wound him. “Fine, I guess…” Evan replies before he glances to Andrew on the couch, feeling a tad emboldened by his previously indifferent attitude at school. “Ask Andrew- he saw me at recess today.”

Their eyes widened in considerable surprise- Michael must’ve heard from the kitchen as he walked in. “Andrew?” he inquires, to which the blonde nods in confirmation. “Mhm- Cindy and Oliver were there, too. We asked him about something…” he adds mischeviously, eyeing the poor boy out of the very corners of his peripheral vision with a smug grin practically oozing with the intent to humiliate, to make him red-faced, wet-cheeked and teary-eyed with a throat sore from sobbing.

Well, not today.

“A purely personal topic was what I was inquired to divulge the details of because they were fishing for blackmail, please and thank you,” Evan spits out, hissing the words through his teeth with a harsher tone than he intended before he could stop himself.

Well, shit- never talk back to people older than you. I just broke that rule on complete accident.

As if taking such a statement as a challenge of sorts, Michael’s arm extends out to grab the grey sleeve of Evan’s turtleneck rather harshly towards the couch before he promptly finds himself sitting on a lap covered with jean fabric. “Hey- hey!” he cries out in protest. “What in the- let me go!”

“Not a chance,” Michael replies rather rudely, the abrasive sharpness he usually spoke with returning to his tone with a newfound prominence- the audacity, Evan bitterly thinks to himself. Honestly.

“Is this an interrogation or something?” the younger asks, only to be met with the classically obnoxious, pubescent teenage laughter. “Mike’s your older brother, you big baby,” Dorothy replies, rust green eyes staring at him. “He has a right to know if he doesn’t already.”

I beg your pardon, excuse me? I beg to differ, as well.

“Look, you don’t even have to put yourself through adult stuff in the movie we’re watching so Dad won’t scream at us,” Michael adds with some sort of twisted glee. “You missed the best parts of it while you were at school!”

Confused, compound dark eyes meet the fluorescent static of the television before them, and Evan immediately regrets it as he feels a lurching sickness barrel into his gut and shoot dusken, cracking and spiderwebbing ice across his entire body akin to pain.

A woman and a man, kissing in bed. Covered in bedsheets and barely clothed.

Hell. No.

“Eugh! What the- no no no!” the fourth grader exclaims, disgust upturning his nose. It’s not out of bashfulness or a lack of curiosity- a deep, primal and rooted fear bubbles from inside, kicking straight into him like a brutal punch to the stomach upon imagining the horrible, no-good thought of himself in such situations like Elizabeth sometimes encouraged with her limited knowledge of romance.

A fight-or-flight instinct in him would always trigger from inside, prompting him to either claw his way out of hell without an ounce of mercy or to run as fast and as far as he could. “That’s disgusting! Who would pay to see this bullcrap!”

“I would!” Dorothy chirps jovially, practically singing out the words. Elijah, meanwhile, makes eye contact with Evan the moment the latter glances briefly to him- another action he knew he’d come to regret. “It’s just romance, crybaby- can’t you deal?”

Well, I don’t enjoy it, he wanted to respond. Instead, he merely sat in silence, pretending to hesitate when the response already lingered on his lips unsaid.

“D-does it contribute to the plot in any way whatsoever?” Evan opts to inquire instead, only to receive a couple of snickers in return as a response. “...So I’m going to take your laughter as a no?”

“Well- no and yes, actually,” his big brother replies nonchalantly, that stupid grin still on his face. “We’ve just been waiting for the guy to get with the girl for some time now- that basically is the entire plot,” he adds, and the dark-eyed brunette just barely restrains an eye roll. “Seriously?” he grumbles, his british accent faintly intesifying from exasperation.

What was the deal? Why was romance such an uncomfortable topic for him- was it because he was too young?

Father often commented on his ‘lack of interest’ in girls his age, actively encouraging such behavior and the frequent exercise of his keen intellect and above-average intelligence. And he did love people, he truly and wholly did- he loved his family and his friends, loved cuddles and hugs and head and nose touches that nuzzled faces against faces. He adored prolonged eye contact full of adoration and warmth and sincerity… but whenever it went any farther- when he imagined the thought of lips pressed against his own, suffocating him, hands roaming to places that were strictly his to own, his to possess… he couldn’t picture it anymore and would immediately be jarred back to reality, harsh and merciless.

It’s like his brain would go on lockdown.

The sudden question and rather harsh shove to his shoulder pulled him out of his thoughts, a yelp escaping from his mouth. “Why are you taking it so hard anyways?” Dorothy queries rather invasively, quirking an eyebrow before her confused expression begins to morph.

Obsidian dark eyes, abyssal and coffee brown, bronze and gold simultaneously, widen considerably as the other’s assumption rings clear in his head- he hated having the ability to deduce people so easily sometimes, as useful as it could be. Oh no.

The words come out of the girl’s mouth before he feels his heart drop and his insides lurch and crumble: “Unless…”

“No, no- Dorothy, no-”

“Do you like someone, Evan?”

I failed to stop her. Damn it all.

Repulsion and disgust, humiliation and shame- all of it floods his body in red hot emotion as the world around him erupts into clamor. He could barely make out the words being spoken around him, or the mock kissing noises in the background- he could only presume that they were mercilessly teasing him, judging by the rather aggressive grip wrapped around his chest and a hand roughly ruffling his hair. “Stop!” he hisses, already feeling tears of embarrassment and frustration coming on- he felt like he was going to combust, and not in the good way. “Michael, stop it!”

“Yeah, Michael, stop it, you’re going to make your baby brother cryyy, waaa~!” Elijah taunts, miming a motion of wiping his ears. “Oi, hush! That’s not even funny!” Evan shrieks in response.

Michael pretends to be a twisted cross of shocked and offended, leaning back and loosening his grip- Evan finally relaxes his muscles a tad bit. “Crush or no crush, you know you’re not going to get any girls to like you with that attitude and crybaby personality, don’t you?” he sneers.

Well, good! Maybe I don’t want girls to like me anyways because I don’t like them!

…

Wait… what?

Baffled eyes land on him. Evan quits struggling in his brother’s lap as he realized he had practically shouted those thoughts aloud.

Oh. Oh.

Andrew then slowly cranes his head to Michael, their eyes meeting. “Dude,” he whispers, practically mouths. “I didn’t know your brother was gay- he came across as straight to me.”

Gay- the heck is that? And why was he so offended at both terms?

“W-what!?” he exclaims. “N-no, I’m not- I’m not gay, or straight, or whatever-! I’m not… I’m not… a-any… anything… I’m pretty sure…” he murmurs before his voice trails off and words escape his lips.

He didn’t want to be the prince or the knight in shining armor. He didn’t want to kiss or be kissed, didn’t want a love story nor a wedding. He didn’t want a crush. All he wanted was to love and be loved, not to fall in love. Was that… normal? Was that wrong?

Was he… broken…?

The room is silent- too silent. Elijah, contrary to his normal attitude, gets up, and moments later, comes back bringing the younger one a slice of pizza, which he hesitantly accepts, too gobsmacked by the mini-incident to say anything. His chews are slow, careful and punctuated, and the expressions on everyone’s face was a mix of what he saw as intrigue, realization and… understanding? No, he must’ve been hallucinating.

‘I’m not anything.’

The movie continues to play, the screen enveloping the room in a blindingly fluorescent light as all eyes were glued to the screen tensely, glancing back to him every now and then before flicking quickly back to the screen, trying to pretend as if it never even happened in the first place.

Evan was confused.

Why was everyone making such a big deal out of him…?

Eh. Just a case of the classic Thursdays, I guess.

[gryffindordaughterofathena]

Chapter 4(i) : HOLDING TIGHT....

Book : Open Heart 2 and 3

Pairing : Ethan Ramsey x Diana Ramirez

Word Count : 690 words

Category : Angst, Mutual Pining, WIP series

Warning : None

Series Summary:A fix it series where I try to fix the inconsistencies through out books two and three, by omitting certain plots and adding a few others. (Somewhat AUish)

A/N : Part 4 was getting too big so I decided to split it into two parts.

✍︎Series Masterlist

Read chapter 3 here

Ethan

Loss and pain

Two things Ethan had been familiar to for most of his life. Yet, it felt as if he was feeling those emotions for the first time as Diana slowly slipped away from his grasp.

He stood helpless as someone took her away.

It was time to head to the lab. He had to do something, anything to bring her back.

He couldn't lose her now, not this way.

᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽

ROOM 512, EDENBROOK HOSPITAL

Marlene blinked back tears as she monitored his heartbeat, it was slow, too slow for her liking. Danny had been like a brother to her for so long, to see him lying on the hospital bed, crushed her from within. Sarah stood outside the room as she came out, her head low.

"Dr. Ramirez is in coma and there's almost no hope for the antidote", she informs her.

" They have Dr. Banerjee, Dr. Emery, Dr. Ramsey and that team from Kenmore, why is this taking so long?"

"Dr. Ramsey is in no state of helping the others out, he's completely devastated. He was in the room with her, when it happened."

" The two were friends. weren't they? No doubt he's devastated. "

Marlene shakes her head as the two of them heads towards the lab and unbeknownst to them, a lone figure in a white coat stows away the overheard information for later use.

᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽

Ethan

"You really should eat something, you won't be of any help to her if you keep this up.", a very known and surprisingly not completely unwelcome voice breaks him out of his trance like state.

" Tobias, look I am really grateful for your help but please leave me alone."

"I can't do that, no matter what happened between us, there was a time when we were friends and I can't leave you like this. Look I don't know the nature of your relationship with Ramirez but it is clear that you both care for each other, she won't want to see you like this Ethan."

Those words somehow get his attention, "I- you are right."

The weight of Tobias' palm on his shoulder is oddly comforting, "We will cure her, Ethan, we will."

With that the two men head towards the lab.

᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽

OUTSIDE DIANA'S ROOM

Landry watches as Dr. Mirani holds Diana's hand steady as Ethan Ramsey injects the antidote into her hand. His eyes never once wavering from her face.

He spots Jackie and Aurora supporting Sienna as tears run down her face.

Bryce, his usual cocky grin gone, stands with his hand on Elijah's shoulder.

And he feels a sudden pang of loss, which is quickly pushed aside as he notices the tender look on Ethan Ramsey's eyes as he still stands by her bedside, silent refusal to leave evident on his face.

Diana Ramirez always has a way of winning things she never deserved.

᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽

Diana

The first thing that she sees after gaining sense, is his face.

His face, full of concern with his head resting on his hand.

The next thing she notices is his other hand tangled with hers. Her next action is a repetition of the silent conversation perfected as they danced around each other, she squeezed his fingers, her grasp weak and feeble, yet full of hope for the man she comforts (or seeks comfort from?)

The soft pressure on his hand gets his attention.

And it's cosmic.

Fear, pain, happiness and an even greater emotion fights for dominance, they tear at each other and threaten to spill out with every ragged breath.

With every moment that passes with blue and brown locked on each other, the world grounds to a standstill.

And then it spills out, she feels his hands around him, her arms finding their way around his neck, both of them holding on to each other as if they are scared that it will turn out to be a dream (perhaps it really is)

And a single tear tumbles down her cheek.

She isn't sure who it belongs to.

(Perhaps both of them?)

And they let them flow.

Tears and Toxins doing nothing to stop their heart beating in tandem.

᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽

TAGGING :

@genevievemd @jamespotterthefirst @drariellevalentine @rookie-ramsey @aleynareads @openheartfanfics @miss-smrxtiee @terrm9 @aestheticartsx @fireycookie @maurine07 @starrystarrytrouble @schnitzelbutterfingers @tsrookie @anntoldstories @iemcpbchoices @stygianflood @sophxwithers @actuallybored @iloveethanramsey @natureblooms24 @chemist-ana @mercury84choices @casey-v @uneravine @mm2305 @mrsethanfreakingramsey @smilex1104 @missmiimiie @shanzay44 @sweetheartdetectivex @potionsprefect @headoverheelsforramsey @jerzwriter @mainstreetreader @coffeeheartaddict @adiehardfan @mia143 @kdjdhdvksojs

᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽

[writemarcus]

Downtown Urban Arts Festival Announces 19th Season Finalist

Playwrights selected include Allison Whittenberg - Choice, Robin Rothstein - Grassroots, Elijah Vasquez - Teeter and more.

by BWW News Desk

Jan. 11, 2021  

   The Downtown Urban Arts Festival is planning a return to the stage in spiring/summer 2021 for its much anticipated 19th Annual season with Tony-nominee Reg E. Gaines back as its Artistic Director. From over 100 submissions received from across the nation, DUAF has selected the following emerging playwrights for its 2021 season.

Short

Allison Whittenberg - Choice Robin Rothstein - Grassroots Elijah Vasquez - Teeter Marcus Scott - Wookies in the Wilderness Mel Nieves - TGIF Can't Get Here Soon Enough Sarah Congress - COVID-19 Bachelore Number 5 Marcus Scott - Sundown Town Mary E. Weems - A Conversation in an Elevator Cris Eli Blak - Breakz J. Lois Diamond - I Feel Good! Alano P. Baez - Los Lolitas Chima Chikazunga - The Detention Hours Rollin Jewett - The Big Dream Sheldon Shaw - Jailbird Audrey Lang - Lily Ineffable Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj - a sudanese mother... a mexican mother...

Full

Kieran Carroll - The Youthful Adventures of Damon Dukirk Andy Boyd - Coney Island Baby Mallory Jane Weiss - A & Z's Escapes in Moonstruck City Nattalie Gordon - Rice and Roundworm Antionette Ellis - Williams - Scarf Diaries Carmel Lotan - Smartphone Love Juan Ramirez Jr. - Say Less Kwik Jones - Memphis Bound LaDarrion Williams - Umoja Mehrnaz Tiv - Threads Phil Blechman - Murderabilia Brian Quirk - Morrow Sheila Duane - The Loom Tommy Jamerson - Murderous Innocent Malique Guinn - Gang Sines Lawrence DuKore - Sunshine

In 2001, DUAF was founded with the purpose to build a repertoire of new American theatre that echoes the true spirit of urban life and speaks to a whole new generation whole lives defy categorizing along conventional lies. That purpose has been realized many times over, as more than 100 writers have created and refined their work for the stage and thousands of inspired audience members have applauded their performances. DUAF inaugurated the festival in 2002 at HERE in SoHo to help revitalize the NYC downtown arts scene, which, at the time, was experiencing a severe downturn due to the WTC disaster. It has been recognized as one of the world's best festivals for new works and described as not only prestigious, but a slice of heaven for playwrights who want the chance to freely express themselves. (Lisa Mulcahy, Theater Festivals, Allworth Press, 2005).

[lostrnkets]

for once, it was fairly slow around here and most of the office was catching up on paperwork from previous cases himself included in that. he headed down towards the lobby as one of the workers down there had called for one of them and he happened to be available. he was immediately greeted by a strikingly beautiful girl, the smile on his face quickly developing as he held his hand out to return the shake. "hi, hi. i'm elijah." he said softly, taking his hand back as he glanced over all the items and food that she brought along with her. "oh, wow. that's really kind of you. yeah, yeah. we have a break room upstairs and i can help you carry everything up there if you need."

closed starter for @lostrnkets ft. olivia & elijah

olivia was a kind hearted person and she often spent her downtime sharing her wealth with the people who she thought deserved it. she'd donate to soup kitchens and feed the homeless, and this time she decided to buy dinner for the entire police department. she led the delivery person through the front door and smiled at the first person she came to contact with, "hi," she started and held her hand out for the man to shake, "i'm olivia and maybe i should have called ahead of time but," she glanced back at the delivery man behind her, "i wanted to treat the entire police department to lunch. you know, as a thank you for everything you do. is there somewhere we could put the food?"

[nancy-astorga]

A city in Illinois realized it was spending a lot of money on one drug, so it sued the maker (MNK)

ROCKFORD, Illinois — This city 90 miles from Chicago runs its own health plan for its hundreds of police, firefighters, and other city workers. And a couple of years ago city officials watching the books noticed something weird about its healthcare spending.

Just two babies on Rockford’s health insurance were eating up 2.5% of the plan’s total budget. That money wasn’t going for heroic surgeries or cancer treatment. Instead, the infants were being given a drug to stop infantile spasms, which is serious but easy to treat.

The problem was just nine vials of H.P. Achtar, the drug the children needed, cost the city nearly a half-million dollars. The drug isn’t new. It’s been around decades and used to cost just $40 a dose. But the drug’s owner hiked it up to $36,000 in recent years.

So this city of 150,000 decided to do something almost unheard of. It sued.

Cutting down on healthcare spending

On April 6, the City of Rockford filed a lawsuit against Mallinckrodt, the makers of H.P. Acthar, “to challenge an anti-competitive, unfair and deceptive scheme” that the company undertook “to enhance and maintain Mallinckrodt’s monopoly power in the U.S. market for adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) drugs in violation of the U.S. antitrust laws.”

Class-action suits contesting high prices have become increasingly common; one against the makers of insulins and another against that maker of the EpiPen have been filed in the past few months. In 2016, Providence, Rhode Island, sued generic drugmakers over the antibiotic doxycycline and a heart medication called digoxin. The antibiotic has since been involved in a price-fixing case brought by 20 state attorneys general. And in 2014, Philadelphia’s transit agency sued Gilead, the maker of the hepatitis C cure Sovaldi, over the price of the drug, which has a list price of roughly $1,000 a pill.

But it’s still a little unusual for a midsize city to be leading the charge.

Rockford is part of a growing movement of employers keeping track of how much they’re spending on medications. In going after Mallinckrodt the city hopes to inspire other employers to take on the rising prices of prescription drugs.

As a self-funded health plan, Rockford’s essentially pays for its employees’ health care expenses out of its own pocket, instead of those funds coming from a health-insurance company.

Starting in 2005, Rockford wanted to get a better idea of how much the city was spending on healthcare. At the time, the city was running a $4 million deficit in its health fund. By looking at the city’s healthcare spending, Rockford managed to put $12 million in reserve at one point, which the city then used to start a clinic for its employees.

As part of that initiative, the city realized it spent a lot on specialty pharmaceuticals, a term that’s often used to describe costly medications that are a bit more complex than the antibiotic you might pick up at the pharmacy. These include biologic drugs used to treat autoimmune disorders, and Acthar, a drug that came on the market in the 1950s.

“We set this chain of events in motion where we were constantly reviewing the drug spend, and that meant getting pretty granular at the specific drugs that were being purchased and how they were being utilized,” Ryan Brauns, a consultant at Rockford Consulting & Brokerage who has been working closely with Rockford’s health fund since 2005, told Business Insider.

That’s when they started seeing a trend. “The most significant cost threat to the plan at this point is specialty medications,” he said. Overall, medical expenses for Rockford were down 0.25% in 2016 compared to 2015 in the face of a 6% rate of regional medical inflation. Pharmacy expenses, on the other hand, were up 25.2% in 2016 compared to 2015.

One drug that made up 2.5% of the total health fund

Achtar is not frequently used, but its high price tag means a few prescriptions can add up quickly. In addition to infantile spasms, the drug is used to treat flare-ups of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune disorders. In 2015, Medicare spent $504 million on the drug.

In total, Rockford and its employees spent almost $500,000 on Acthar in 2015, coming out to a gross cost of $54,339.76 per vial, according to the suit. The cost made up a significant portion of Rockford’s $20 million healthcare fund.

” While we will not comment on the details of this litigation, we can reiterate our publicly expressed view related to the FTC settlement – that we strongly disagreed with allegations that we engaged in any anti-competitive behavior,” a Mallinckrodt spokesman said in a statement to Business Insider.

Rockford, of course, has catastrophic claims it has to cover every year, such as emergency surgeries, accidents, or other unexpected medical bills. But Kim Ryan, associate director of human resources, told Business Insider that “the pharmacy seems to be the most blatant and growing problem that health plans are facing trying to control all these expenses,” she said.

“The abuse that can take place through the network in the pharmacy benefits management world, and how something like this could happen is really very shocking,” Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey told Business Insider. Morrissey ‘s term as mayor is up at the beginning of May, but Morrissey said Mayor-elect Tom McNamara supports the suit.

While Rockford investigated its drug spending, Mallinckrodt settled with the Federal Trade Commission over Acthar in January, agreeing to pay $100 million, after the FTC charged the company with violating antitrust laws. Back in 2013, Questcor (a company that Mallinckrodt later acquired) bought a competitor to Acthar called Synacthen. The FTC alleged that this kept other companies from selling the competing drug at a lower price. As part of the settlement, Mallinckrodt had to agree to license Synacthen to Marathon Pharmaceuticals to treat infantile spasms and nephrotic syndrome in the US.

“Questcor took advantage of its monopoly to repeatedly raise the price of Acthar, from $40 per vial in 2001 to more than $34,000 per vial today – an 85,000 percent increase,” FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said in a January news release. “We charge that, to maintain its monopoly pricing, it acquired the rights to its greatest competitive threat, a synthetic version of Acthar, to forestall future competition. This is precisely the kind of conduct the antitrust laws prohibit.”

Mallinckrodt, on the other hand, had a different perspective on the settlement.

“We are pleased with the agreement reached to resolve this legacy matter, although we continue to strongly disagree with allegations outlined in the FTC’s complaint, believing that key claims are unsupported and even contradicted by scientific data and market facts, and appear to be inconsistent with the views of the FDA,” the company said in a news release at the time.

But the settlement didn’t go far enough, Morrissey argued. “The question that I asked when I was going through some of the background before the lawsuit was filed, was how in the world does the federal government allow a $100 million settlement on a drug” when the government didn’t get a commitment to change the price moving forward, he said.

This is why Rockford decided to file its own suit against the company, using the FTC’s case as a starting point. Morrissey said he hoped the case would clear up some misconceptions about how much employers are paying for medications.

“There’s this mythology that the healthcare industry tries to describe that this doesn’t hurt anybody except big insurance companies,” Morrissey said. But in the case of Rockford, “Every dollar that we overpay there is a dollar that can’t go to other community services, has to be paid for by taxation.”

In its lawsuit, Rockford also named United Biosource Corporation, a company that’s owned by the pharmacy benefit manger Express Scripts.

What’s ahead

After Rockford filed the complaint on April 6, Brauns said he got calls from other employers who might be interested in joining in on the class-action suit. In particular, those calls came from employers in the public sector who have started looking at their own health plans.

“There’s been a lot of talk about what to do with rising cost of pharmaceuticals,” Brauns said.

Using this case, Rockford wants to get Acthar on Washington’s radar. It’s not without the realm of possibility. President Donald Trump has said drugmakers are “getting away with murder” and expressed an interest in negotiating drug prices, something the government isn’t allowed to do for Medicare and Medicaid. And in March, the president met with Reps. Elijah Cummings and Peter Welch, at which time the representatives showed Trump a bill that would allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices.

As the case goes forward, the city hopes to get a refund on the $500,000 it spent on Acthar. Morrissey said he hopes the case goes beyond that. Ideally, the case will bring the price down so that if Rockford needs to purchase Acthar again, the city won’t face the same prices.

“There’s zero discouragement of future antitrust conduct when you get a slap on the wrist,” Morrissey said.

SEE ALSO: Something weird’s going on with the doctors prescribing one of pharma’s most controversial blockbuster drugs

DON’T MISS: One of the most controversial drug companies in America is out of the industry’s lobby

Join the conversation about this story »

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[lostrnkets]

closed starter @swxrnscrts​​ | elijah & felix

after coming home from work, his heart felt much heavier than normal and it was due to the news he found out. the same news he had to share with felix and he wasn’t exactly ready to. seeing his face, he offered up a grin before he reached his hands out to take his. “listen i have to to talk to you.”

[lostrnkets]

( 2 of 2 ) closed starters for @moonlightmuses​ featuring elijah

he was surprised to hear from her, especially when it came with an invitation to a local bar. he didn’t have to think twice about his answer and now the time had flown by, they had been catching up on what they missed and truly enjoying the company of one another. “i still find it so funny that we ended up in the same job after all. i guess you can say that you inspired me all those years ago.” he admitted, taking a sip of the beer in his hands.

[lostrnkets]

( 2 of 2 ) closed starters for @wozmi​​ / based on the last bullet

       it’s sort of ironic that he is in the profession he’s in and isn’t scared of the potential of being killed on the daily but when it comes to flying - he can’t stop how fast his heart is beating. he’s trying to keep his composure to avoid alarming the person sitting beside him but that was turning out to be impossible. especially with the way his hand was gripping the arm rest that was supposed to be theirs. noticing they were giving him the side eye, the embarrassment immediately sent him into regret. “shit i’m sorry. i don’t really like planes.”

[lostrnkets]

(2 of 2) closed starters for @iinterastra​

he still found it amusing that the pair had ended up married but it worked out in their favor - they fell in love along the way and he wouldn’t trade how things happened for anything. as the clock was counting down to the new year, he took a sip of the drink in his hand before setting it down on the counter. approaching his husband and placing his hands on the other’s waist, a soft smile on his lips. “ can’t believe i’m going into new year as a married man. who would have thought ?? ”

[lostrnkets]

"I know it sounds far fetched seeing as I don't normally get this hurt on the job but this guy was a few steps ahead of us on this call. He basically was ready to do whatever it took not to get into custody and I got the roughest end of it." He immediately shook his head, trying to ease any worries that he had about what happened to him. "Listen, it's all taken care of now. That guy is at the station, okay?" There was a bit more to the story but Elijah was trying to avoid those details, he didn't want to cause any further worry as it wasn't worth it.

　　Sanjay, typically — and expectantly — full of jokes, was speechless at the moment. Looking at Elijah had him totally baffled. "What the fuck happened to you? You followed a lead and got beaten to a pulp? I'm not buying it." He winced as he examined each scrape and contusion, even from a distance. "Seriously, what the fuck?" He put his hands on his hips. "This isn't safe. You need to be more protected. SHIT — what if they come here?" Flabbergasted, Sanjay quietly replied to the other's inquiry. "Yes, you look hot. But I'd rather you look healthy."