#hadige tips

[camperpunt]

Camperpunts: Handige tips voor onderweg en thuis!

Tijdens je camperavonturen komt het regelmatig voor dat je even wat extra tips kunt gebruiken om dingen makkelijker of sneller te regelen. Daarom hebben we voor jou een lijst samengesteld met handige weetjes die specifiek zijn voor het reizen en kamperen met de camper! Klik op de link achter het onderwerp voor meer informatie. Hier alvast een voorproefje van de tips: Gasvuladressen in Europa –…

[wistfulcynic]

biblio - philia

@courtorderedcake often sends me posts and picsets, which I love, but I know she’s hoping they might spark a fic and as I generally have fifteen ideas on the go at any given time, I don't always have the spoons to follow through on even a promising prompt. 

However. 

This little ficlet is inspired by this post sent to me by Court. It... got a bit emotional. I hope you like it ❤️. 

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Words: 1.5k Rating: G Tags: modern AU, books, rough childhoods, some pretty sappy emotions, ngl. 

On AO3

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biblio - philia:

“So what kind of books do you like to read?” 

Emma hesitates with her fork halfway to her mouth. “Um,” she says, then stuffs the bite in and takes her time chewing it as she tries to come up with an answer that won’t make her sound like a child.

 “I really like short stories,” she says finally. 

“Oh?” Walsh raises an eyebrow and it occurs to Emma, not for the first time, that he can be really fucking patronising. Why did she agree to this date, again? “Saki?” he asks with a smirk. “O Henry? Poe?” 

“Fairy tales,” she replies shortly, irritated by him pulling author names out of thin freaking air as though he knows them. Maybe he does, but that doesn’t make it any less obnoxious. 

“Fairy tales?” he says with a scoff. “Pretty princess stories?”  

Emma frowns. There are no pretty princesses in the stories she’s talking about. 

“Witches, more like,” she says. “Baba Yaga. Nourie Hadig. Vasilissa the Fair.” 

“Oh.” Walsh looks taken aback, and she draws perverse pleasure from it. He doesn’t know everything, much as he likes to pretend he does. “That’s—well, it’s not what I would have expected.” 

It’s not really what Emma would have expected either. She’s never been much of a reader. It was hard to be, bouncing from one school to the next, never really having time to settle in and form relationships with teachers and school librarians. No foster home she ever lived in had much to offer in the way of reading material, and she just never developed the knack of escaping into books. 

Not like Killian had. 

“Saved my life, is what they did,” he said, tracing the gilded title on his copy of Treasure Island. “When my father was drunk and my mum was crying. Liam made me stay in our room, said there wasn’t anything I could do to help. Which was probably true, but I could still hear them. I could hear—” He swallowed hard, gave his head a tiny shake. “Unless I had a book,” he continued hoarsely. “Then I could shut it all out, pretend I was sailing off in search of Flint’s treasure or taking the Ring to Mordor. Books kept me sane.” He looked up to meet Emma’s eyes. “I’d like for you to know that too,” he said softly. “That… transportation to another place, away from all things that trouble you.” 

She shook her head, her chest aching. “I’m not like you,” she said. “Words don’t—I don’t know, they don’t vibe with me. I just get bored if I try to read.” 

“What if I read to you?” 

“What?” 

His face was hopeful, his eyes a drowning blue. “What if I read out loud and you listened?” 

“Um, well—” She thought about it. About Killian’s deep, smooth voice telling her a story. About sitting, cosy under a blanket, and just listening to him. “—yeah.” She gave a small shrug. “Maybe, if you wanted to.” 

He smiled. “Let’s give it a try.” 

And still, Emma thinks, she’s never read a book. 

~

The date ends as early as she can manage it. Walsh drives her home, tries to invite himself in. 

“Best not,” says Emma with a tight smile. “My roommate’s probably asleep.” 

“Ah.” There’s tension in Walsh’s smile as well. “Sure,” he says. “Your roommate.” 

She wants to ask him what the hell he’s trying to insinuate, but also she doesn’t really care. She gave Walsh a chance and it didn’t work out, and—

“I’ll call you tomorrow,” says Walsh. “Maybe we can—” 

“I don’t think so,” Emma replies firmly. “I don’t think you and I are going to work.” 

“Yeah.” Walsh sighs. “Yeah. Okay, then.” 

He gives her a nod then turns to go. No further words are spoken. 

Emma turns the key in the lock as quietly as she can, creeps into the apartment on the tips of her toes. The television screen wants to know if he’s still watching but Killian is sound asleep on the sofa. Emma smiles softly as she brushes back a lock of hair that’s fallen across his forehead. This is a turnaround, she thinks. Normally it’s her falling asleep, to the soothing sound of Killian’s voice as he reads her a tale. 

She doesn’t think she can carry him to bed the way he does her. 

“Killian?” she murmured, nuzzling sleepily at his neck as he lifted her from the sofa. The effortless ease of the motion, the smell of his skin and the warmth of his breath on her cheek had her heart fluttering, her belly clenching with sensations she couldn’t bring herself to name. 

“Shh, love,” he replied. “Go back to sleep.” 

“But is it finished?” she protested. “How did it end?” 

Killian laid her gently on her bed and pulled the blanket over her. “We’ll read the end tomorrow,” he said softly, and she was sure she imagined the press of his lips on her brow as she drifted into dreams. 

They never do read the ends, though, she thinks now. The next night is always another story, another ending she falls asleep before she can hear. 

“Killian,” she says softly, brushing her fingertips down his cheek. “Killian, wake up.” 

“Hmmm?” he mumbles, sleepy eyelids blinking open. “Swan?” 

“Hey. You fell asleep.” 

“So it seems.” 

“I just thought you might prefer to do that in your bed, so you don’t wake up with a crick in your neck.” 

“Aye.” He sits up and rubs the neck in question. Emma gulps as she watches the cords stretch as he does, and the ripple of muscle beneath his t-shirt as he rolls his shoulders. “How was the date?” he asks. 

“Eh.” She shrugs. “There won’t be a second.” 

“I’m sorry, love.” 

“I’m not. I wasn’t that into him to begin with.” 

“Well, so long as you aren’t upset.” He’s watching her so intently.

“Definitely not.” 

His expression relaxes into a smile. “I’ll say good night then,” he says, standing and moving towards his door. 

“Good night, Killian.” Her heart twists a bit as she watches it close behind him.

~

In her room she sits on the bed and kicks off her heels, reaches into the paper bag that sits on her bedside table. A soft knock sounds at her door. 

“Come in,” she calls, letting the item fall back into the bag. 

The door opens and Killian steps in, rubbing at his neck with one hand and holding a very familiar object in the other. 

“We, uh, didn’t get a chance to read tonight,” he says. “And I thought—well, I thought perhaps you might be ready to see some of these endings for yourself. That you might like to keep this for your own.” 

He reaches his hand out to her and she takes what he’s holding, staring wide-eyed at the worn cover, her thumb tracing along the F in Fairy Tales. 

“But—” She looks up at him, dumbfounded. “This is your favourite.” 

“Aye,” he agrees. “It’s seen me through some very tough times. That’s why I want for it to be yours.” 

There’s a lump in Emma’s throat and she has to swallow hard around it. “Thank you,” she whispers. “I’ll take good care of it.” 

He nods and turns to go. 

“Killian!” she cries out, and he turns to her again. “I—I love this book,” she says. “I love it because you love it and because I—” She can’t finish the sentence but Killian’s eyes snap to hers and the look in them is ferocious. She grips the book tight to her chest and reaches into the bag on her table. 

“I bought this today,” she says, pulling out another book. The same book. A newer copy, with a tougher cover and illustrated with real engravings. “I was going to read it tonight, but now—” Now she holds his book against her heart and knows she can’t part with it, not for anything. Not for all the world. 

“Now I want you to have it.” 

“I—” He takes the book almost reverently, eyes shining as he runs his fingers over the cover. “I don’t—” 

“I want it to be yours,” she whispers. 

“Emma,” he chokes, and then he is pulling her close, his fingers in her hair and their books knocking against each other. “I’ll treasure it,” he says his voice thick and rough with emotion. 

The words he doesn’t speak are the most precious ones she’s never heard.  

“I love these stories,” she says. “But only in your voice. The words are beautiful but it’s you speaking them that transports me. I bought the new book for the words but it doesn’t have you in it. This one, though—” She grips the old book tighter. 

“That one is my heart.” 

“And that one—” she nods to the new book, clutched tight against his chest “—is my hope.”

“Your hope?” 

“For an ending,” she whispers. “A happy one.” 

He rests his forehead against hers and she sighs into his embrace. “Oh, my love,” he breathes. “That, at least, I can promise.” 

-

[uicscience]

PHOTO:  Deepak Shukla, the Marion Schenk Professor of Ophthalmology and professor of microbiology and immunology in the UIC College of Medicine.  Photo: Jenny Fontaine.

Researchers at UIC identify master molecule behind corneal inflammation

One of the symptoms of herpes simplex virus-1 infection of the eye is lingering inflammation of the cornea – the clear outer layer of the eyeball. But without blood vessels, it has long puzzled researchers how this tissue becomes inflamed after trauma or infection. For an inflammatory response to occur, immune cells need to be present, and these cells travel throughout the body in blood.

Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have identified an enzyme present in the cornea that becomes dramatically upregulated and triggers inflammation during and even after a herpes virus infection has cleared. Their results are published in the journal Cell Reports.

The herpes simplex virus-1, or HSV-1, is transmitted through body fluids and infects the mouth and eyes, and is one of the leading causes of blindness. It can be eliminated in the eye using antiviral drugs, but inflammation of the cornea — the clear outer layer of the eyeball – can persist indefinitely, requiring ongoing treatment with steroid-based eye drops.

“We wanted to know why there is still inflammation even after the virus is gone from the eye,” said Deepak Shukla, the Marion Schenk Professor of Ophthalmology and professor of microbiology and immunology in the UIC College of Medicine. “We thought that there must be a factor or molecule already in the eye that the virus influences in some way, and that molecule helps tip the balance in the cornea towards inflammation.”

Shukla and colleagues looked at human corneal cells infected with HSV-1 and saw that an enzyme called heparanase became significantly upregulated and activated in cells just after infection, and remained upregulated well after the initial infection.

“The active form of heparanase was clearly involved in promoting and sustaining inflammation in the cornea through multiple channels,” said Alex Agelidis, a graduate student in the UIC College of Medicine and a co-investigator on the study.

Heparanase is an enzyme that exists normally in cells throughout the body and in the cornea in low levels. In its active form, it functions to regulate levels of heparan sulfate, a kind of generic cell membrane receptor. “Lots of things bind to heparan sulfate to trigger various cellular responses, but when active heparanase levels are high, the receptors become degraded, so bound molecules are released and can cause damage to the local tissues,” said Agelidis.

In the cornea, when active heparanase levels are high, certain molecules that would normally bind to haparan sulfate instead damage junctions between cells, making tissues leaky and permeable to blood and accessible to immune cells. “We think this is one of the ways that increased levels of heparanase promote inflammation in the cornea,” said Shukla.

Another way heparanase promotes inflammation is through the production of pro-inflammatory molecules in corneal cells. “When levels of active heparanase reach a critical point, the enzyme enters the cell nucleus where it stimulates the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines,” said Agelidis.

In mice where the researchers induced elevated levels of heparanase in their corneas, small lesions of the cornea grew larger and did not heal. When they applied a heparanase blocker to similar lesions produced in cell and tissue culture, they healed quickly and completely. “This inability to heal small lesions may be another way that HSV-1 spreads throughout the cornea,” said Shukla.

Heparanase may be a key factor in other inflammatory disorders, including dry eye disease, Shukla explained. “A drug that blocks heparanase may represent a novel treatment for long-term inflammation associated with HSV-1 infection as well as other inflammatory disorders of the eye,” he said.

Satvik Hadigal and Dinesh Jaishankar of the University of Illinois College of Medicine are co-authors on the paper.

This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grant R01EY024710, fellowship F30EY025981, core grant P30EY001792 and Research to Prevent Blindness.