#medicine for ear infection middle ear

[anaconamor]

day in the life w bf!jude but your sick and not well/feeling so down. jude being all caring and protecting while you are mentally drained and hurt (like my throat LMAO) he’s all taking care of you and immediately on bf protection mode. when you wake up, to when you’re both out, to when you’re both visiting his moms, showering, to when it’s time for bed . then before bed he’s holding you so comfortably, endlessly asking if your okay or if you need anything or to take your thoughts on the pain away, asking you want to watch something w him?

would be the biggest and softest bf ever :(( NEED HIM NOW 😔😔

it was strange to jude you hadn’t woken up early, in the kitchen either on your online class or making your gifted smoothies. it was almost 11am when jude returned from his morning run, walking into your shared room where your were completely tucked in your sheets, head barely peaking as you slept.

jude frowned, walking quietly and sitting on the bed, where you didn’t budge. “y/n? darling? you okay?” he whispered, brushing his fingers on your cheek and tucking your messy and all over the place hair back. you groaned turning away from him, ducking under the covers, “let me sleep! it’s so early jude!” you complain.

“it’s almost 11:30 love…” jude reclaimed, running his hand and massaging the middle of your bare back. “so? still early…” you tried to defend but ended up sneezing and sniffling. “are you sick?” asked jude, immediately opening your night desk drawer and looking for cold and flu pills. it explained your mood and tiredness.

“shh stop talking… my head hurts really bad jude,” you whined, covering your ears. you hated being sick, and it was super rare when you did. though when you were, it was the worst. constant headaches, runny nose all day, congested nose and throat, and body chills, aches all over, which made it hard to do anything. “sit up for me, i have some medicine,” jude ordered listening to your protest but doing as he said.

he opened the bottled water, placing the 2 pills in your mouth and helping you so the water wouldn’t fall or spill. your eyes remained closed, knowing the light would cause more pain. jude gently rubbed your eyes, and brought you to his chest. “promise you, you’ll feel better soon…” he placed a kiss on your temple, rubbing the sides of your arms, “especially if you take a hot bath and eat something.”

“i’m not hungry,” you dismissed shaking your head, “i know but the medicine won’t have any affect if you have no food here,” jude tickled your tummy hearing you let out a small giggle. “drink more water,” he helped you again, seeing as you almost drank it all. “cmon i have to shower too, i’ll help you baby,” he picked and helped you to the bath.

jude softly scrubbed your skin and washed your hair, paying close attention to you being soft with his movements. he loved to take care of you, returning the affection especially when you did it to him after his games or long travels. he massaged your back and neck, feeling the tension go away after. “it feels so nice jude,” you praise, wanting to return the favor but he wouldn’t allow you, saying he didn’t want you to lift a finger.

jude then also helped with your hair care and skincare, knowing you would cause a fuss if you didn’t at least have any moisturizer on. helping you change into some loose and comfortable clothes after rubbing your skin with lotion. “do you want some herbal tea your mom brought us? it will make you be able to digest some food and clear your sinus?” jude spoke softly, seeing as you nodded.

while he prepared and made some soup, he brought you a warm blanket and your tea, setting it down along with some cookies, and antibiotics incase you had an infection or virus. “do you need any help?” you pout feeling bad as he was doing all this work after his game the day before. “no love, i have it handled. i just want you to rest okay? you need to or else how are you going to get better?” he quoted your words when he was injured. you let out a small smile, “thank you, handsome,” your leaned up and hugged him tight.

“we still have stuff to do. we need to go grocery shopping and visit your mom, i promised her to join her later today,” you recalled, sitting up and holding your head. “you can’t go out like this!-”

“i wasn’t asking. i was telling you. i have put it off for so long and there’s barely any groceries left. it will be quick and easy, same with your mom! she needs one on one girl talk and i haven’t seen her in so long,” you tell jude to where he rolls his eyes at your stubbornness. “one on one girl talk? about what?”

“it’s called one on one girl talk for a reason jude… we can leave a little later okay? i’m feeling way better compared to the morning,” you admit, standing up but jude ushers you to sit down, taking your mug to the sink and washing it for you. “i can’t talk this one out of you right?”

“nope,” you deadpanned.

jude made your warm soup, organizing and cleaning up the kitchen so it wouldn’t be a mess. writing down stuff that was missing from the refrigerator, pantry, and other necessities, making note to also refill your medicines. he insisted you wear a jacket, knowing the grocery store would be cold and he couldn’t risk you getting a deep cough and sickness.

“what else is left?” jude asked, placing different veggies in their bags into the cart. he was in charge of bagging and you crossing off items on the list. “new toothpaste, cases of waters and juice, and your snacks,” you read off, following jude as he filled the bottom with water and juice like you said.

“i know i can be annoying when im sick, but thank you for taking care of me,” you said, feeling overwhelmed with joy and happiness to have a boyfriend like jude. he was patient, loving, helping, and sooo protective. he wanted you to feel safe and cared for by his side and he never failed to do that.

“see that’s what we’re not going to do,” said jude when you rejected his kiss, he grabbed your face a placed a messy kiss on your lips. “don’t care if i get sick, just need you to know i’ll do anything for you okay? sick or not,” jude hugged you, as you waited in line to pay.

after returning home and unpacking, you took a small and well needed nap. jude doing some laundry and placing it where it goes, watering your plants and worked out. he also took you to his moms after you insisted, where you guys talked for hours and then did some re-arranging in the house. if there was one thing jude loved, it was watching his two favorite girls get along so well, sharing laughs and making new memories.

you fell asleep once again in the car ride home on jude’s lap, jude massaging your scalp where you fell into a deeper sleep. he carried you to the room again, changing you into a long sleeve and some shorts, also helping you brush your teeth and take the night pills for your cold and headache. “wait for me here okay? gonna make sure everything is off,” he kissed your head.

he brought back a warm blanket and waters, doing his own night routine before joining you in bed. you immediately looked and seemed for comfort on him, resting your side and head on his chest, eyes closing softly wanting to stay up with up. jude held you tight, so in love and infatuated with your beauty even when sick.

“how are you feeling?” jude asked, running his hand along your spine, tracing shapes, and holding you close to him. “mmm better, but my headache returned in the car… and before you worry, the medicine is helping though,” you reassured him, knowing he would be quick to jump out the bed to help you. you loved when he was clingy and just so protective like this. especially when it was about you. “i’m gonna be waking up every now and then to check in on you okay? if you don’t feel better by tomorrow we’re booking an appointment,” he said seriously.

“okay jude,” you nodded, your hand resting on his chest as you felt your sleep return again. it was a long night for you the day before, so sleep is what you planned to do this night, to catch up on it. “if you don’t feel good, just me me know okay? i don’t care if it’s the smallest pain or ache.”

“i promise i will jude.”

“do you need anything else before we go to sleep?” he whispered, “no jude. im right where i want to be,” you smiled, kissing his chest and then a longing kiss on his lips. “we can watch a movie in the mean time? your choice,” you relaxed in his hold, grabbing the remote for him. jude scrolled and scrolled for minutes, finding the perfect movie to end the hectic day.

not even 5 minutes in, you had fell asleep, brows pulled in and a small pout as you rested soundly. you tried to stay up for him but the medics had done it’s job and jude couldn’t complain. him to was tired, after watching a few more minutes he turned off the tv, charging your phones and bringing you up close to him, careful to not wake you.

“sweet dreams darling…”

[rawan-soso]

Hello, my name is Rawan. I am a 21 year old engineering student and I live in Northern Gaza with my family. Since the beginning of the war, we have been displaced more than 30 times and we have suffered from famine and illnesses. The situation has gotten better thanks to my campaign, but if I can’t get more donations, it will get worse again at the worst time, in the middle of winter.

✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #347 )✅️

I am here to ask for your help. Sharing my post and my campaign can mean that someone who can donate will see us. It can save our lives!

A lot of our money recently had to be spent on firewood and the few winter clothes we could afford. We still don’t have enough for everyone and we are still freezing, but we can’t afford to spend more money on this. You see, we have a rent to pay. $500 every single month for one room with no door or windows that shelters 10 of us in a destroyed house. We live amongst bugs and rodents, but it’s still the better option. We used to live in a school until it was bombed. That kind of shelter is too dangerous and so is sleeping on the streets, so we can’t afford to miss out on rent.

Then we also have to buy food, of course. I swear, I never in my life thought that food could become so expensive. When we have enough donations, we can have one meal a day. It used to be flour bread, but with the siege, flour has become too expensive again. All we can find is expired canned food that I refuse to eat because it makes me sick. When we get a lot of money, we buy a few vegetables for way too much money. In the picture below, we paid $80 for these two vegetables. We haven’t tasted fruits or meat for more than a year.

Because of the lack of vitamins, we all suffer from malnutrition. My grandmother now has to use a wheelchair and suffers from many conditions including high blood pressure. My mother was also diagnosed with high blood pressure recently and has a severe infection in her eye. I suffer from hypothyroidism which I can’t access treatment for anymore as well as a bacterial skin infection that feels like it’s burning my whole body, even spreading to my face, due to our living conditions and the polluted air and water. Medicines are a distant dream because we need to buy food and pay rent first.

My youngest sister Soso, who recently turned 4, also suffers from malnutrition and shock from seeing people get ripped apart by bombs multiple times. She cries from hunger at night as she blocks the sounds of bombs with her hands on her ears. It breaks me that I can’t provide her with her basic rights as a child. I don’t know how to explain it to her.

We recently had to spend about $2,000 on a portable battery because it was becoming increasingly harder to find ways to charge my phone, and without my phone I can’t access the little money we have or promote my campaign. It feels like an impossible situation where I have to spend $100 every time I am given $10. It is exhausting. I can’t see the end of it and my hard work isn’t paying, people always stop hearing me after a few days. I am extremely depressed. The only people donating lately are my friends and my family members abroad, but they can only give so much.

Please help us. I swear I wouldn’t ask if there was another choice. If you can’t donate, please share widely, because there is someone out there who can. Every repost helps, every sharing of the campaign link helps, please. Soso deserves to have a full stomach as we wait until we can rebuild our lives.

[sulfies]

Wolves In Romé pt2

pt1 here

“I know, I know… believe me I know exactly what you are going through” Ezio could swear he heard a scoff in response

The wolf under him gave a soft whine as he fastened the last knot of the bandage onto the poor animal. He was glad all his fingers were left intact from this encounter...

”I would say you almost sat better than me on my first time” Ezio entertained himself as he talked to the wolf, fingers smoothing the bandage he wrestled onto the beast. “And I do mean the arrow, you horndog… or hornwolf”

His tone teased but Ezio was not lying with his compliments even if the animal could not understand him. The wolf had sat surprisingly still, not that he had wanted to be bit, but he was fairly certain wolves didn't just let you pet and bandage them so he had expected at least a nibble or some puncture marks to remember by.

And now that Ezio had done the basics of medicine, the fact that he was crouched next to a grown wolf that he just helped was entering into his brain fully …. he did not know where to go from there.

His fingers reached back up to the furry ears, digging them into the thick fur to scratch at the spot that got the wolf to close his eyes in a sigh. 

Definitely not a normal wolf.

”You must have an owner, Cuccilio… You are trained at least to human touch aren't you?”

The amber eyes slowly opened back, focused directly to his own.

”Those freaks were chasing after you for a reason hmm? Were they your owners? Please don't tell me they were your owners”

The wolf just tilted his head and sneezed on his face. Rude.

”Yea okay, spray your nasty sylva over my face… not like I saved your hide or anything” He said as he crossed his brows in a fake anger. The reply he got was a soft huff and whack of a tail on his leg. As if the wolf was playing along with his ramblings.

Ezio’s voice was low and soft in the night “Now what to even do with you…”

———-

“No way!��

“I couldn’t leave him in the city!”

”Ezio… No way!”

”And If I leave him in the woods his wound will just get infected!”

”SO YOU BROUGHT IT HERE?”

Here, being the doorstep of Leo’s studio in the middle of the night.

”Well he did follow me all the way here… he is friendly Leonardo, I swear!”

Leonardo glanced at the monster with blood-soaked fur mouth… 

“It’s a wolf Ezio! Wolves are not friendly.”

”I thought you would be excited to see one! You told me one time how you wanted to study them…” Ezio placed his hands on his hips and… pouted like the grown man he is.

Leo sighed. “Yes a DEAD one, the kind that won't maul me to death.”

”Well, good thing this one won't!”

Leo glanced at the bloody mess sitting right next to Ezio listening to their conversation calmly… weird.

”Merda…” He looked back at Ezio’s grinning face “Where did you even find him Ezio?”

The other man rocked on his feet “He was getting hunted by those crazed wolf worshippers on the street… So I-“

”You thought it was a dog at first and jumped in, didn’t you…?”

Ezio snapped his mouth shut and looked to the side down at his new friend.

”It was dark…”

A snort came from the wolf and it looked back at Ezio with what could be described as a wolf's best attempt at an eye-roll… again, weird.

Another sigh… Leonardo leaned on his doorframe and watched the two most dangerous beings in all of Italy standing at his doorstep in silence for a few seconds.

”You cannot leave me alone with it…”

”I wouldn’t dream of it!”

”not even a second!” “I won't, I promise!”

Ezios grin went bigger as he made a step to go into Leo’s workshop only to get stopped by a hand on his chest.

”I am not kidding Ezio, I do not want to be wolf food!”

This time the wolf's snort was directed at him. Did he understand them? No… animals are animals.

Ezio looked down and with his head gestured to it. “Come on Cuccilio, Leonardo decided to be kind to us… for now”

His third sigh of the night left him and he stepped back,

“If it was anyone else but you Mi Amico… but you need to clean him.”

Ezio’s shoulders dropped in relief.

“Thank you, Leonardo, I owe you one”

“You owe me so much I should just have access to your banking records.”

Ezio laughs as he walks past Leonardo, giving his shoulder a pat. “As if you already don't~”

Leo glared at his friend, almost forgetting about the giant beast till it walked past him like he already owned the place!

“Ay… it's going to be a long night”

He walked toward his wine stash.

—-----

He was finally clean, getting his face dried with a rough towel as he lay on the ground of the workshop.

Desmond was surprised Leonardo actually let them in. At this point, he was concerned both for Ezio and Leo’s rational thinking ability because he personally, under no circumstances, would allow a wolf covered in human blood into his home.

“Now, you are clean… as you can be at least, Cuccilio”

“Really? You are still going to call it a puppy?” 

Ezio looked back to his friend who was sitting at his table sketching Desmond’s form on the ground. Getting used to having a wolf in his studio with the help of a glass or two. 

Now that the initial shock, some-don't ask-how, was gone the artist was happy to get his observations. 

“Well… he doesn't have a name-”

“And he should not, you will get attached the moment you name him Ezio.”

Ezio scoffed “No I wo-” 

“Yes, you will.” Leo smiled down at his friend from where he sat, trying to get Desmond's back muscles right on his paper.

 He was getting sketched by The Leonardo da Vinci, in his studio, as a wolf… 

His tail thumped on the ground slowly.

“I get helping the poor thing, Ezio, but surely you aren’t planning on keeping him?”

Desmond’s ears perked up at that. Ezio put the dirty towel he used to wipe his face away. His other hand still underneath his maw, holding it lightly, while middle two fingers scratched lightly at a spot that gave Desmond’s tail a bit more speed.

Oh no… Desmond knew exactly what Ezio was thinking.

“I mean… I always wanted a dog.”

“Ezio-” Leo started but Ezio cut him off. “He is clearly not a normal one, Leo… took an arrow to the leg and didn't even try to nip when I ripped it out of him..”

His free hand joined to scratch his neck and even if baffled at his stupidity Desmond couldn't stop himself from leaning into it when it was digging into just the right spot.

“Look, he even lets me pet him. I don't think he is a wild one at all… most likely trained.” He looked back at his friend with a grin. “It's a tamed wolf, Leo! I mean-”

“Per l'amor di dio Ezio, You can barely look after yourself, do you have time for a pet? Let alone a wolf?!” His dear friend mused in a concerned tone. 

Desmond looked back at Ezio who was still just petting him with a soft excited smile. 

Oh no…He already made up his mind, didn’t he?

“Oh, who am I talking to…You already made up your mind the moment you brought him to my door didn't you Amico?” the only sane man in the room parroted Desmond’s thoughts.

Ezio turned to look back at his friend his smile turning to a sheepish grin. “Come on Leonardo… when will I ever come across an animal like this again?”

“And you plan on what? Making him a dog assassin? Teach him how to jump roof to roof?”

Desmond sneezed at the image that came to his mind of a wolf in an assassin getup. 

“And does it even want to be kept?”

That made Ezio look back at Desmond, his face showing an expression that said he had not thought of that aspect… Desmond realized he also had not.

He did follow Ezio willingly to here almost automatically but he didn't need to stay here… he could just go, he should just go but… then what? Yes, he was a wolf now, but Desmond was human first and his mind was, surprisingly, still his. 

He didn't know a thing about being a wolf! Would he survive? Did he even understand wolf talk or howl or whatever they do? 

Did he want to be a wolf?

No, he thought.

 He did not want to run through the woods every day hunting for a meal to not starve, sleeping in the open cold air, and waking up with no one to talk to. 

No, he decided. He would not run to the woods.

“Bené… you make a good poi-” Ezio’s somber tone was cut off as Desmond slowly sat up, trying to not move his injured leg too much and plopped his head right on Ezio’s lap, nuzzling into his leg as he sighed softly. Looking up he met his eyes, rich brown ones looking back at him.

“Per carità… forget I even asked” Leonardo’s voice supplied in exhaustion.

Ezio’s grin returned full force, eyes twinkling like the first time he let him pet and Desmond found that he could get used to being a lapdog if it made Ezio this happy.

The three sat there in the night as Ezio’s hands found their way back to Desmond’s fur, Leonardo’s pencil strokes filling in the silence between them.

After a good while as Desmond’s eyelids grew heavier, he heard Ezio’s deep voice speak up again “Now can I name him?”

A well-repeated sigh came as an answer “What do you have in mind?”

“Something strong, a good Roman name for a good Roman wolf…”

Desmond’s ear twitched, half listening as the soft rumble of the assassin's voice lulled him to almost sleep.

“Aldobrandino…”

WHAT?!

[iiconicxpersona]

My Girls. Joel x Ellie x fem!Reader

Summary: Reader and Ellie encounter David and James while out hunting and searching for supplies for injured Joel. After their traumatic experience at Silver Lake, Joel is left to pick up the pieces of Reader and Ellie's shattered souls.

Warnings: SA, mentions of r@p3, abuse, cursing, ANGST AF

Word count: 2.5k words

"Ellie, are you sure you don't want me to go with you? I can always scout for supplies after we get back?" You asked as you walked further down the snow-covered road.

Ellie hugged Joel's rifle close to her and walked alongside you. "I'll be okay. Joel's been teaching me how to hunt, and I want to try to do this on my own. Besides, we're losing daylight, and you know more or less what to look for than I do." She half smiled.

You nod in agreement. Deep down, your intuition told you that maybe separation isn’t a good idea, but you want to show Ellie that you can trust her. "Okay, well, stay close by, and we'll meet back here before sundown. If you run into any trouble or anything, radio me." Using your index finger, you motioned to the walkie-talkies clipped to your pockets.

"Okay, I will."

The idea of letting Ellie and Joel out of your sight, even for a moment, scared you to death, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and right now, you and Ellie were desperate.

Joel had been stabbed in an ambush the day before. He tried his best to tough through the pain from the open wound, but he lost too much blood and fell off the horse halfway to the nearest town. It took every bit of strength you and Ellie had to put him back on the horse. You sat in front of his limp body to hold up his weight while Ellie squeezed on the saddle behind him to help you hold him up until you found shelter in an abandoned neighborhood. Thankfully, none of the doors were locked, making it easier to drag Joel inside and down to the basement, where an old mattress lies in the middle of the room. The pain from the open wound and Ellie sewing it shut with a needle and thread she found in the house was enough to knock Joel into a slumber. But now his wound is infected, and everyone is starving to death. So, while Ellie decided to hunt for food, you must find medicine or anything else helpful.  

At the same time, you kept an ear open for clickers, scavengers, or calls from Ellie. You scout three houses with little to no luck besides bandages and aspirins. That isn’t enough to aid Joel's injury, but it’s a start. At least the aspirins could help break his fever.

You were heading to scout another house when a gunshot fired from the distance. Your pulse racing began deafening your ears, and your adrenaline kicked in as you ran in the direction where you last saw Ellie walking.

"Ellie? What was that? Are you all right?" You frantically asked on the walkie-talkie only to get static in return. She was still too far out of range. "Goddammit, Ellie! Answer me!" But again, there was static. "Shit! Fuck!" You breathlessly cursed to yourself as you continued running forward, unsure where you were going, but time was of the essence.

Trails of blood and footsteps finally caught your attention, and your heart sank to the pit of your stomach. Your mind was already imagining the worst. You knew you shouldn't have left her alone, and if Joel were here right now, he'd be cursing you and himself out for even allowing this to happen. Desperate for some answer, you tried to call Ellie on the radio again as you followed the bloody trail.

A small, nearly demolished shack became the stopping point, and judging from the smoke leaving what once was a roof, there was someone inside with a fire. You slowly crept closer to the shack and took cover behind the wall. You could hear two people talking, and one of the voices belonged to Ellie.

The trail of blood led up to a dead deer lying behind the older man Ellie was talking to, and you felt relief that she wasn’t physically harmed. You watched as she calmly spoke to the man neither of you had seen before. His back was towards you, and from a small opening, you aimed your rifle straight for his head in case he decided to try anything funny. Ellie had the same mindset as she kept Joel's rifle aimed at the man, but she slowly dropped her defenses as he kept talking. The man gave the impression that he was a good guy.

"I sent four of our people to a nearby town to scavenge what they could, and only three of them came back. And the one that didn't was a father. He had a daughter just like you, and her dad was taken from her. Turns out he was murdered by this crazy man, and get this... That crazy man was traveling with a woman and a little girl." 

Just then, your and Ellie's defenses shot sky high as her grip on the rifle tightened, and her aim pointed back at the man.

"You see? Everything happens for a reason. James, lower the gun."

That was when you and Ellie noticed the second man standing on the other side of the shack with his gun aimed straight toward Ellie. Suddenly, you began to see red as you shifted from around the wall and aimed your rifle straight at James. "Stay where you are! Drop the gun, or I will put one between your eyes, asshole!" You demanded James as he kept his gun pointed right at you.

The man chatting with Ellie chuckled at you and looked back at her. "I'm guessing this is your mother?" He sighed. "Okay, no need for hostility today. James, lower your gun. We're not a threat to these women."

"David, they're the ones who killed Alec." James kept his gun pointed at you.

"They didn't kill anybody, so lower the gun and give them the medicine they need for their friend," David demanded in a relatively calm tone. James hesitated while looking between the three of you before gazing at David. "James, I'm not coding anything. Lower the gun and give them the medicine now." David demanded.

James slowly lowered his gun and tossed Ellie the small black bag. You not once took your aim off James, nor did Ellie off of David as she slowly searched for the bag before making her way to your side.

"I know you two aren't with a group. You won't survive out there. I can protect you."

You kept your eyes locked on both David and James as you and Ellie headed back to the house Joel was hiding in. "I told you to call me when you needed help." You scolded once you were far enough and noticed the two men did not follow you.

"I know. I'm sorry, but-" She began, but you cut her off.

"No 'buts' Ellie! You should've called me or at least come to find me first! Do you realize those men could've taken advantage of you or worse? You're still just a kid, Ellie, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if anything happened to you!"

Your words had hit Ellie straight in the heart. You and Joel had treated her like cargo; Joel even told her that's all she was to you two. But deep down, she always hoped that that wasn't true. Maybe you and Joel cared for her, maybe not as family, but at least a friend. You two offering Ellie a choice between you and Tommy taking her to the Fireflies was hint number one that she was right, but your words confirmed the possibility that she meant more than just cargo.

You caught a glimpse of the single tear leaving her eye and felt a sudden wave of guilt wash over your entire body, but she tried to quickly wipe it off as the two of you walked in silence.

───※ ·❆· ※───

After giving Joel a shot of the medicine and changing his bandages, you spent the remainder of the night keeping watch while Ellie snuggled next to Joel for comfort and to keep him warm. The sight of them lying together warmed your heart, and the idea of starting a new life with them back in Jackson flooded your mind for a split second. However, the three of you were on a mission: take Ellie to the Fireflies and use her immunity to save what was left of the world. You and Joel agreed that the whole concept sounded too good to be true, but it may be worth it if the Fireflies could provide you with what you need to go your separate ways. Maybe.

───※ ·❆· ※───

The next day seemed to go by too fast. You and Ellie devised a plan to get David and his men as far away from Joel as possible. Ellie would take the horse to lead half of the men in one direction, and you led the other half out on foot in another. Joel would remain barricaded in the basement, but Ellie would leave her knife in his hands and warn him to stay awake and keep alert in case anyone would find him.   

Before you left Joel, you gently kissed his lips and said a quick mental prayer for the three of you before rushing out of the basement to follow through with the plan.

───※ ·❆· ※───

"HEY MOTHERFUCKERS!" Ellie shouted before shooting her gun at the group.

Just as you hoped, the group split in half and ran after the two of you. David's intentions were clear to you since the day before: he wanted Ellie. You knew that look. You had fallen victim to that look twice back. You were ready to kill him if he touched her, but you needed to focus.

The men behind you were coming up fast as they shot at you to slow you down, if not kill you. You managed to kill one, but two more were still hot on your tracks until they lost you between the trees. Your aim on one of the men was right on target, and just as you were about to pull the trigger, you heard a gunshot and the sound of the horse falling to its death. You ran towards the noise until David caught up and hit you across the temple with his pistol.

───※ ·❆· ※───

As your vision slowly adjusted to the small, dark room, the stench of death filled your nostrils, and you couldn't help but cough and gag. "What the hell?" You whispered to yourself.

Before you could examine the room, the two men who chased you shoved the door open and let themselves in. The harsh wind from the blizzard outside further wakes you up. "Ah, there she is." One of them chuckled before they shut the door behind them and quickly made their way toward you. You tried to fight them off, but the more muscular male hooked your upper body tight between his legs while the other sat on your thighs. "Oh, so we got a fighter; I like that." The man sitting on your legs pulled out a knife from his waistband, and the sight of the sharp blade made you try to fight even harder.

"NO, PLEASE DON'T!" You screamed. Your PTSD kicked into high gear.

"Don't scream!" The man demanded as he held the knife to your face. "Now we were going to kill you, especially for what you and your friends have done to our friends, but David still thinks there's hope for you and the kid. So, while he tries to convince her, he wants us to convince you to give up your friend and join us."

Ellie. Oh god, he has Ellie. "If any of you assholes touch her, I'll ki-"

Your words were cut short when the man with the knife punched you. Your head fell to the side, and ringing filled your ears, but that was when you noticed the decapitated bodies hanging from the ceiling. "I knew this bitch would be difficult." "Maybe we should just kill her." The two men mumbled to each other. "No, better yet, let's see what David's God blessed this woman with underneath all these clothes first." The man with the knife chuckled.

You began groaning and attempting to wiggle free from the men as fear took control of your body. The man on top of you used the knife to cut open your jacket and blouse until your bra was on full display. "Oh yeah, we're gonna have fun with this one." He chuckled. You began to cry out, but that only made the man hit you harder as he struggled to remove your clothes.

"Dude, hurry the fuck up before David shows up!" The man holding your upper body demanded.

"Hang on! This bitch is a fighter!" He laughed as you continued to cry for help. "Make yourself useful and shut her the fuck up!" He demanded the man holding your upper body before lowering himself to pull off your pants. The man holding you covered your mouth with his hand, and that's when you finally saw your opening. You bit down on the man's hand hard enough to bite off a chunk of his skin, with his blood coating your face before he let go of you, screaming in agony. At the same time, you wrapped your bare legs tightly around the other man's head and snapped his neck. The dead man had a gun in his waistband, and you grabbed it and used it to kill the man holding you down.

You stood there momentarily staring at the two men in shock until you remembered Ellie was still out there. You rushed to put your pants and boots back on, holding tight to the gun as you stumbled out of the shack. Your adrenaline is too high to feel the blistering winter hitting your exposed skin.

───※ ·❆· ※───

After running and panicking in circles, you approached the burning building in the distance. At this point, your body began to fight you as the adrenaline rush slowly wore off. You tried to run towards the building, but you no longer had the strength.

Once you were close enough, you could see Joel hugging Ellie, and for a moment, you thought your mind was playing tricks on you. It wasn't until Ellie saw you, quickly ran over, and embraced you in a tight hug that you realized it was real. She was here. He was here. And for the most part, they were safe.

Your hands slowly touched Ellie's head before you wrapped your arms tight around her and held her close while you both cried. Joel slowly approached the two of you and took you both in his arms. His mind was racing, and his heart was breaking at the sight of your bloody, swollen face and ripped clothing. He took off his heavy coat and wrapped it around you and Ellie before holding you close to his chest. Neither you nor Ellie could stop crying in Joel's arms once you both turned to embrace him. Guilt flooded him at the thought of being unable to protect either of you from the men in this god-forsaken town. A mistake he swore then and there to himself that he would never make again.

"My girls," Joel whispered.   

Author's note: Holy shit this was LONGER than I expected it to be, but I have been wanting to write a TLOU fic for a while. I hope you guys like it and if you want me to write more please let me know!

[blueberrypancakesworld]

Day.5 ~ Night time viewing ~ Hallowtober

Jonathan Reid x wife!reader

warning : fluff, kiss, no use of Y/n

Summary : In the chilly month of October, patients are piling up, staff are absent more often and a city seems to be getting even sicker than it already is. But one night when John comes home to his wife, he realizes she's bored and eager, so he wants to show her a nice distraction, a distraction in the romantic October night over London.

info : I knew I had to write something for Jonathan again, and as a vampire, there was no better option than him. As always, have fun reading :)

masterlist

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

London, a world city today as well as a hundred years ago, this city was always growing and with growing cities and populations it was mostly diseases that afflicted these poor souls.

Illnesses ranging from simple treatments to those that revealed death, but in the middle of the nineteenth century it was one of those nights at Pembroke Hospital when Jonathan seemed to get no rest, with every medicine brewed from his forays and researches, three times as many new sick seemed to arrive.

He knew it, knew that the source of the sickness was out there in the night so it just had to be but besides the normal pathogens he also knew the truth of this 'flu' a pretext for the creatures of the night to seek out and infect the blood of the people.

Something he tried to prevent night after night without being able to stay awake because the sun was his sleeping time…and only rarely was he at home.

Something he knew was bad enough that he wasn't with his beloved, but just as much he protected her by keeping her in his family home, ,,I couldn't bear to expose you to those creatures,” he had told her on the last full moon when he was home, seeing her worried look as she stroked his cheek and he gave her a kiss on the back of her hand, ,,Just promise to come back Jonathan” were the words she used to release him back into the night, not having been home for almost a month.

A month in which he almost lost his life, killing people and killing creatures to get blood, the only thing he depended on…until the dawning morning when it was a little quieter, with new nurses and a few replacement doctors, Jonathan could take a break at least for a night and hurry home.

The shadows in which he disappeared and reappeared were hardly seen and his arrival on the balcony of his room was not respected by anyone as the people below him never looked up at the rainy sky to avoid more of this melancholy, ,,Darling? I'm back” he said and took off his coat, hung it on the hanger and went on through the house.

He didn't find her in her room and he didn't find her in the living room either, only when he listened for her heartbeat was he led further down into the cellar where he found his wife bent over the boiler, ,,Darling…is everything all right?” he asked, placing his hand carefully on her shoulder, even though he couldn't see any injuries, he knew best how dangerous the draining was under the conditions.

As she winced and took earmuffs from her ears and removed an apron from her dress, ,,Jonathan Reid do you know how hard it is to heat the house alone, alone without you? “ she asked, throwing a screwdriver into an old metal box before walking past him, he noticed her increased angry heartbeat and reached for her hand.

,,Sorry my heart it's been a lot again I wanted to get back faster but-” he was interrupted when she smiled slightly and hugged him, ,,I'm just glad you're back with me” she replied before the couple walked back up the stairs and they shook hands in the kitchen.

Even though she understood his work and had felt the dangers out there first hand, the pain of a gunshot or a bite from a night creature was like hell so boring could it be in the house because no matter how much she left to help, how much she asked around she could never really help him, ,,And that's why when I ran out of ideas I started upgrading the machines more or less” she admitted and pointed to a few books she had found in the library.

A gesture that both made Jonathan's heart beat faster and heaped him with guilt, but as he looked at the light of the bulb and heard the sounds of the night clearly, an idea came to him, ,,Would you please meet me on the balcony at eight o'clock tonight with your winter coat?” he simply asked, hearing her say yes before he kissed her goodbye to make a few more preparations.

Because his beloved should never be alone or freezing in the dark of October, she was the most important thing for him, he had to show her once more what beauty the night had than just sorrow and death.

A night that was only a few hours away and he was waiting for his beloved on the balcony, her lovely winter coat made of black leather with floral ornaments snuggled up to her, ,,A beautiful sight,” he commented and gave her a kiss on the lips before she could even ask her question, he suddenly lifted her up.

,,Jonathan? “ she asked awkwardly, clinging to him tightly as he turned to face her and the roof above them never appeared as he disappeared into the shadows with a jerk and reappeared above them, ,,Are you alright?” he asked, slowly setting her back down on the small roof terrace she had once wanted to use for stargazing and wasn't quite ready yet.

But now there was a small couch next to a telescope with a table on which she saw wine and cookies in leaf form, ,,Yes…but Jonathan what is this?” she asked and went to the couch, admiring the telescope and looking up at the sky as she heard him open the bottle and pour her a glass of the expensive alcohol and he himself had poured his own 'drink'.

A fact that didn't bother her, but made her smile as the two glasses clinked together and she felt his cool hand on her cheek, ,,An apology and a gift to you, the night offers its own beauties in this chilly October,” he said and they both took a sip of the drink before he instructed her to use the telescope he had aligned and she looked up at him as joyful sounds overcame her.

In the sky she could see the stars, the moon as clear as if she could reach for it and London couldn't have looked more beautiful, a London where she saw warm orange lights, children and families walking around in light disguise and ghosts seemingly going about their business.

It seemed to be the first time that London hadn't been overrun with death and she felt his touch on her hand, ,,It's beautiful,” she murmured, looking from the telescope to him and seeing the smirk on his lips before she broke into a kiss.

,,You're more beautiful” he said and they both giggled at the exaggerated romance as they shuffled through the air and Jonathan kept telling her new places and directions they could look at together while their hands were together, they were both close and the cold and darkness were more romantic than scary.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[a-bucket-of-trash]

And we see us again – Kelvin x Neutral Reader - One Shot

Prompt: Kelvin has recovered, time for a friendly visit.

Tags: Fluffy uwu

The last time you had seen Kelvin, it had been a couple of months ago, in the hospital, after having been finally rescued, after several months trapped in that hellish forest full of cannibals, mutants and an overpopulation of squirrels.

You had nothing more than superficial physical damage and poor nutrition, after consuming the tons of fish that he caught with inhuman skill, industrial quantity blueberries and the occasional legs that, in the winter season, gave you the opportunity to don’t starve.

Kelvin had it much worse, as his untreated brain injury had handicapped him over those months. Being on the island, you knew that the fact that his ears bleed on their own every couple of weeks was absolutely not a good thing, but in a place like this, there was nothing you could do but give him extra rest when you could, and cool down his head with a damp cloth. The fact that he had a fever along with the bleeding was a sign that something had become infected in his poor head, and the medicines you found lying around weren't the best, especially since most of them had already expired.

Still, the prognosis for him was pretty good. With proper treatment, medication and so on, within a few weeks his brain was working as it should, his hearing was beginning to return and he was finally articulating words. At least that's how you had seen on one of the last visits to the hospital. Maybe he would never be 100% the same as before, but, after what had happened, neither would you, and you hadn't had brain damage. You also needed treatment, especially psychological.

Forcing some of your contacts in the army, you got an address and, in that warm noon, you knocked on the light wooden door, seeing a familiar face open the door, and a pair of warm brown eyes smile in recognition.

"Permission to break your bones," he said, spreading his arms.

You laughed an "Affirmative" before giving him a hug, feeling how he squeezed you hard, almost lifting you into the air.

You had never been there, but you really wanted to visit your old friend of adventures and tragedies. Soon you were inside a very normal house, watching him walk back from the kitchen, a bottle of cold beer in each hand, pointing to the pale couch in the middle of the room, noticing the light coming in through the windows and the music playing in the background.

It was a little strange for you to see him moving fluidly and wearing a brown shirt and gray pants, shaved. Especially after months of seeing him dressed as a military and walking like a hasty duck.

You heard him sigh deeply, sitting down next to you, while you held your own beer.

"And well?" You asked, curious, “How are you? Getting better? You feel good?"

"What?" He pretended not to hear, to which he laughed as you smacked his leg firmly. “I'm fine, I'm fine. Little by little. I still don't hear as well as before, the doctors doubt that I will fully recover, but 90% is better than nothing. Possibly I will have a chronic headache from now on, and for another month I was forbidden to do any physical effort… The worst is the Post Traumatic Stress…” Kelvin shrugged and looked at you “And you? How did you find my house? Our mission was supposed to be… you know…”

"What mission?" You joked, taking a sip “I feel fine, except that now I'm terrified of flying… And well, you know, I can be a real pain in the butt. And I may have threatened to say things if they didn't give me your address."

"You're going to have them accuse you of Treason and end up in jail..." He shook his head softly "But I'm glad you convinced them" He looked at you out of the corner of his eye, smiling "After so much time together, let's just say that I've missed being ordered around by paper”

"I'm going to give you another concussion" You pushed him playfully, seeing him laugh, "I missed you too, puppy face... Did you get your memory back?"

“Mmmm…” He rubbed the back of his neck, wondering. “I don't remember anything about the week before the accident. I only have fragments of the first month, and I have more and more memories of the following months. The doctors say that I will not recover much more because of how my brain was then"

"Honestly, it's a relief" You sighed, looking at him "What happened to you was horrible, but it was also a horrible few months, it's better that you don't remember much"

“It was complicated, but not at all horrible” His brown eyes fixed on yours “You were there, I never felt alone or hopeless, despite the circumstances. I remember the hundreds of times you ran by with an ax in your hand, ripping off heads like you were possessed, but I also remember how you looked for a way to distract me, to make me feel useful, to cheer me up…”

"Don't start, please" You smiled, somewhat emotional "We already cried whole days, I don't need more..."

"You cried" He bothered you a little, smiling "Crybaby" He pushed you gently with his shoulder.

"Shut up" You laughed "You were the one who told me, crying, that you couldn't sleep in the hospital because you felt so alone"

"I still find it hard to sleep alone," He confessed.

“Mmmm” You sighed “Me too…” You remembered something and looked at him “In the end, I never found out your real name. Tell me to replace your code name, because it's already strange to call you Kelvin, Mr. Alpha Bravo Charlie"

“10.4” He laughed softly “But I've gotten used to being called Kelvin by now. It's going to seem strange to me that you suddenly call me Robert"

"Is your name Robert?" You laughed, denying "You don't have the face of a Robert"

"Affirmative, I'm going to change my name to one that matches my face," He joked, shaking his head, before slapping your knee "Keep calling me Kelvin"

“Kel…” You thought, in your own world inside your head.

"Hey" He gently drew your attention, touching your arm delicately "I know I thanked you a thousand times for keeping me alive, but thanks again"

"You're welcome, again" You smiled.

“Are you going to tell me what you saw in the caves?” He saw you deny “What? Why not? Military secret?

"Why do you want to know that?" You hesitated, taking a long drink of your beer.

"Don't fuck with me... If the times I saw a mutant on the island, I almost shit my pants, and you would happily go with your ax to cut off their heads or whatever the hell they had" Kelvin gestured widely with his bottle "You faced them! Like it was a picnic! And every time you left a cave, you came back beaten, without resources, with skin things hanging from your pockets… I want to know what the hell you saw for you to forbade me to accompany you down there”

“Rob… Kelvin” You put the beer down on the table “There was darker than a moose's butt, you were deaf. What was I supposed to do? Put a noose around your neck and walk among mutants as if you were a dog?

"I don't know…" He sighed, before drinking.

“Besides, if something happened to me in there, I knew that you were at the base, relatively safe…” You thought “Knowing that you were waiting for me back, somehow gave me the impetus to be extra careful, to make sure that I would come back to help you…”

Kelvin looked at you, half sad and half warm inside. You took care of him, even with your absences. The sound of his alarm clock woke him slightly, looking at the time, time for legal drugs. He slowly got up, to walk to a medicine box that was to one side, looking for what he had to take. He took out three different pills which he placed in his mouth and swallowed with a long sip of his beer.

"I'm going to kick your head until you even forget about your mother" You snorted angrily, seeing his surprised look "Idiot, don't mix drugs with alcohol. Are you still half stupid or what?"

"Ah" He chuckled, walking back to the couch "It's non-alcoholic beer, overprotective"

"Oh" You lowered your face from him, somewhat embarrassed, seeing him sit nearby.

You were still talking, when you remembered something else. You lifted the sleeve of your shirt, showing him a recent tattoo on your arm, below your shoulder. It was a skull with an ax stuck in it, very similar to the one you had used in all that time on the island. And next to both, what seemed to be a notepad, and on it, written: Survive.

Kelvin looked at it carefully, holding onto your arm a bit. He recognized that handwriting and even the design of the notepad, since he had read commands and suggestions in it, for months.

“It was going to be just the skull and the axe” You mentioned to him “But I didn't survive alone, on the contrary, I don't think I would have survived without you. So the notepad was in your honor."

Your name sounded tenderly on the lips of a Kelvin who had gotten quite touched and who hastened to give you one of his especially strong hugs.

"Silly..." He whispered, closing his eyes "Absurdly silly and cute... Even though at the time I saw you cutting off the testicles of all the cannibals you killed because you were in a bad mood..."

"Aren't you afraid of being next to me? Who knows, I might do the same to you” You smiled, rubbing his broad back.

"I don't sleep well since you're not by my side" He whispered again, holding you more, squeezing you against his chest "I feel safe with you... Calm... And... Everyone who found out I had some brain damage treats me as if now I had the mind of a two-year-old..." He growled softly, somewhat annoyed "I hate being pitied... I'm not incapacitated, I'm not stupid... But..." Kelvin sighed, rubbing his face gently against yours "You treat me like if nothing had happened... Even though you lived by my side, when I was at my worst... For you it's over, and you treat me as such, as myself... That reassures me so much..."

“Oh, Kelvin…” You hugged him tighter “You, at your worst, hurt and deaf, on a demon island, did more than anyone would have done in the same situation…” You tried to lift his spirits a little “I never saw anyone fish with their hands as well as you, you should dedicate yourself professionally to that”

You heard him laugh softly, still squeezing you, as if he was partially afraid to let you go, although it didn't bother you, he was warm and utterly huggable. You knew it well, since, on many cold nights on that island, it was only possible to sleep because you both stayed embraced, sharing warmth and softness.

“Could you…stay?” He asked, almost as if his voice were a distant instrument of the music that was still being heard over the speaker, not daring to move a muscle, “I don't know… Maybe… Maybe you'll let me take a nap like we used to do then? I miss sleeping… accompanied…”

"Me too" You whispered, with your eyes closed, with his clean perfume entering your lungs.

"And have dinner…? I promise there are no fish to eat, not this time.” The soldier teased sheepishly.

"Sounds like a good plan to me, big guy" You smiled "I have weird dreams about fish"

"I dream... of you" He murmured "I only sleep well... if I dream of you"

You stayed still for a moment. The way he spoke was mixing with the feeling of his hands running down your back, and his face rubbing tenderly against your cheek. You prayed that you weren't misreading the signs, you prayed that it wasn't your own confused brain, that mind that months ago had fallen in love with that soldier, and you moved your face slightly, to find that pair of soft lips that had brushed your jaw like the wings of a butterfly, landing on yours.

You were sure that both of you had kissed at the same time, so you stayed there, still in his arms, tasting that shy mouth that tasted faintly of antibiotics. Kelvin was slow to kiss, but that made him utterly sweet, cuddly, and overly romantic, as if he had the time in the world for that. You weren't in a hurry either, you spent a long time in his mouth, caressing his soft short hair, enjoying it, so that later he just hugged you, burying his face in your neck, taking a deep breath, soaking in your scent.

"I hate that I can't do physical effort for a month..." Kelvin growled, impatient "But you wait... As soon as I have the medical approval, I'm going to show you why I could cut wood for hours..."

Your laughter echoed both in the walls and in his ears.

[uispeccoll]

Special Guest Post from John Martin Rare Book Room

Hardin Library of Health Sciences

INGRASSIA, GIOVANNI FILIPPO (1510-1580). Iatrapologia: Quaestio, quae capitis vulneribus ac phrenitidi medicamenta conveniant [Defense of Medicine: Question regarding the medicinals convenient for head injuries and meningitis]. Printed in Venice by Giovanni Griffio, 1547. 16 cm tall.

This month's book was one of six John Martin Rare Book Room items selected to be scanned as part of the Iowa Initiative for Scientific Imaging and Conservation of Cultural Artifacts (IISICCA) project. Iatrapologia (Greek: "defense of medicine") by Giovanni Filippo Ingrassia (1510-1580) was selected for two reasons. One, with backlighting through the thin, limp vellum cover, we were able to determine it had small pieces of manuscript waste that included both green and red inks. Different inks show up at different energy levels in Computed Tomography (CT) scanners - or sometimes not at all. Finding a variety of inks helps to calibrate both types of scanners used in the project.

And two, it's just a darn cool book.

Ingrassia was an influential 16th-century Italian physician. He grew up in a well-educated family and received a classical education. He studied at the University of Padua, one of the most important western centers for the study of medicine and anatomy.

There, he learned from renowned intellectuals and physicians, such as Realdo Columbo, Bartolomeo Eustachi, Girolamo Fracastoro, and, of course, the Anatomaster® himself, Andreas Vesalius. Ingrassia would go on to make his own significant impact on not only anatomical medicine but also public health and hygiene, forensic medicine, and teratology (the study of abnormalities of physiological development).

After completing his studies in 1537, he became the personal physician to a minor Italian noble family in Palermo. Soon after, he became the professor of human anatomy at the University of Naples. It was during his time in Naples that he wrote Iatrapologia. Ostensibly a book about how to treat head wounds, it was also a critique of the current state of medicine and surgery - one of the subtitles, liber quo multa adversus barbaros medicos disputantur, translates as "a book in which many things are argued against the barbarian physicians."

In Iatrapologia and elsewhere, Ingrassia argued that medicine should be considered a less subjective discipline. Treatments should be verified, results checked, and useful diagnoses disseminated among physicians. He also thought that physicians and surgeons should be integrated into a single profession to prevent surgeries by "unqualified" people. Indeed, in Iatrapologia, he states rather dramatically,

"Oh, God, so much human suffering has been caused by the vainglory of contemporary doctors. Indeed, surgery has been abandoned to some inexperienced, empiric [i.e., quack] physicians, most of whom are not only lacking in dogma, but also in what relates to the Art." p. 252

Ingrassia was also a strong believer in continuing education, suggesting physicians should refresh their dissection skills every five years so as to avoid becoming "imperfect and ignorant physicians." If nothing else, Ingrassia demonstrated a natural skill with insults!

Ingrassia made significant contributions to the field of anatomy, particularly with bones and the skull. He is most well known for identifying a third small bone in the middle ear, which he called the "stapes." He also described differences between human and animal bones, breaking down parts of each bone to make identification easier.

Ingrassia was not only a physician and anatomist but also a pioneer in public health. He held various political positions, most notably Protomedicus (chief physician) of Sicily, and implemented measures to prevent the spread of diseases such as malaria and the plague. He emphasized the importance of preventive measures, such as isolating infected patients and cleaning objects to reduce the risk of transmission.

Overall, Giovanni Filippo Ingrassia was a remarkable physician and scientist who significantly contributed to our understanding of human anatomy and the practice of medicine.

Our copy of Iatrapologia is a delight to hold and leaf through and, as indicated, holds a few secrets inside. The limp vellum cover is soft but dried out enough that it has a bit of a rattle while opening. The cover image above shows discoloration from use and bits of writing here and there. The textblock is in excellent shape, the paper bright, and almost completely free of damage.

One interesting surprise is a piece of paper that has been pasted over the verso side of leaf A3 in an attempt to cover up a printer's error (a repeated page from elsewhere in the book). At some point, someone made a concerted effort to remove the paper to see what was underneath. Whoever glued it on, though, made sure the vandal couldn't remove much!

Other surprises can be seen in the images above. The images show close-ups of the text visible with backlighting. In one image, green and red inks are still vibrant and really jump out. The IISICCA group estimates the date of the manuscript to be roughly the 10th or 11th century and suspects the complete word is some form of "archiabbas" (chief abbot).

Another image shows a small scrap where the photo is repeated several times. Different photo filters were applied in an attempt to make the text more legible.

Contact me to take a look at this book or any others from this or past newsletters: damien-ihrig@uiowa.edu

[theblackdahliaemporium]

Lamb's Ear - Stachys Byzantina

Basic Plant Facts and Care:

AKA: Wooly betony, woundwort, wooly woundwort, betony, or lamb’s tongue

Family: Lamiaceae (Mint family) Native to: Middle East, Armenia, Iran and Turkey Sun needs: Sun-loving! Full sun to part shade Water needs: One good watering per week, drought tolerant. Overwatering very bad! Soil needs: Well-draining, evenly moist to dry soil. Slightly acidic (6.0–6.5 pH) Feeding needs: Doesn't need feeding Seeds & Growth: Barely cover seeds. Best way to grow is by dividing (they naturally propogate on their own). Spreads by underground shoots. Common issues: Overwatering or high humidity can cause fungal diseases Flowers: Blooms in spring, some varieties rarely bloom. Flowers are small, pink or purple, and grow on stalks. Edibility: Edible and can be used in teas, tinctures and infusions. Young, fresh leaves are best for eating. Mild taste others describe as "fruity" or like apples. (I've nibbled on a leaf but idk about the taste. May try in a salad eventually). Warnings: Possible interactions with blood pressure medications

Medicinal Uses: Infusions of dried leaves are good for colds, fevers, diarrhea, sore mouth, gum and throat infections, and asthma. Crush and wrap over bee or wasp stings  or insect bites to reduce pain and swelling.  Historically used for dressing wounds, particularly on the battlefield - absorbs blood and helps it to clot quickly and the antibacterial, antiseptic, and anti-inflammatory properties are bonuses so this makes the leaves a great alternative to store-bought bandages. Not just bandages but the leaves can also be used as toilet paper, female hygiene products, and makeup removal swabs! Antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, astringent, antispasmodic, hypotensive, stomachic, analgesic and anti-bacterial properties

Now for the Magick!

Element: Water

Planetary: ☾ Moon, ♀ Venus

Energy: Receptive

Vibe(UPG): Gentle and nurturing but also hardy

-Protection, repel nightmares, healing, purification, negating hostile influences

-Dried and crumbled lamb’s ears sprinkled around the perimeter of your home forms a protective barrier that no negativity or evil can pass.

-Once dried you can hang it over your door ways to help prevent negative energies from coming into your home.

-Use it in a charm bag and carry it around to help strengthen protection spells.

-Use it as a component for any healing spell work.

[yfmconfessions2]

everyones fav anon is back💪 THE PUFF ANON OFC. And as always, i have came to deliver some more shit about that shortie bc im fr starved for any content with him LMFAOAO

Hes really skinny. Benatar is skinnier than him but hes still stronger than Puff (skill issue tbh). But still he eats like a pig but just stays so skinny like wtf man

He has only one hoodie that he washes once a year.

If anyone compliments his smile he will MELT inside but he will just say "Yeah whatever" and change the topic.

Hes a cat person. Like his grandma brought a cat once from the streets and he was like "Man, thats dumb asf." And the next day he was petting the cat like his life depended on it BUTTT the cat didnt like him and scratched him so hard he stayed away from him for weeks. But Puff still tries to pet him.

He had ALOT of voice cracks when he was a teenager. Like he tried to record a song once because he was just bored and got some good lyrics, and when he started singing his voice cracked 12 times during the start. He literally went apeshit because of that.

Also back to the skinny thing, when he stretches you can see his ribs. But does he care? Nope.

Hes the closest with Dee Jay out of everyone in the band, and they actually hang out alone kinda often. Like they go to bars and shit and Dee Jay has to carry drunk ass Puff all the way back to the tour bus.

In middle school Axel got a piercing and Puff was like: "Wow cool." So he asked Axel to give him a piercing..He had an ear infection for a month and since then he hates needles.

Puff cant swim, but he can run the fastest out of all of the guys (Benatar is a close second one when it comes to running)

Talking about swimming, There was probably a school trip to the pool and stuff and he almost drowned multiple times. Oh and also almost fell out of the *highest* slide because he wanted to impress Tig.

Loves using others people words against them but if anyone gives him a taste of his own medicine, he will be PISSED.

Can hide his stress really well. Like for example preforming on stage. Hes nervous inside, but it isnt visible at all. And he wouldnt admit it anyway.

Hes the only one that can make fun of his band mates. If anyone else does it he will get so mad.

Also, hes the only one who can in general make fun of people. If someone even dares to do the same to him, he will get REAL offended and just not speak to that person for a while.

He cant keep his clothes clean for a minute. Like hes eating anything with sauce or stuff? Its all over his pants and hoodie. But again, he doesnt give a shit.

When it comes to relationships, he can actually be romantic and all lovely dovely, but only when hes alone with that person. When hes out with them he acts like a dick.

AAAAND THATS ALL I GOT

YAAAAAYYYY THE PUFF ANON HAS RETURNED 🥳🥳🥳😄😄😄😄 *crowd cheering sound*

OKOKOKOK SO. FIRST ONE. THIRD ONE. FOURTH ONE. SIXTH ONE. ELEVENTH ONE. THIRTEENTH ONE. SO ME.

AND YEAAAA HES ALWAYS LIKE "HEY. NO ONE SHITS ON MY FRIENDS BUT ME!"

[flyonthewallmedstudent]

Leishmaniasis

Case Reports, like we're on a episode of house

23M in Kenya, presenting with months of LOW, persistent fevers, and abdo fullness, found to have massive splenomegaly.

examination: massive splenomegaly (10 cm below costophrenic margin, and will definitely cross midline) and hepatomegaly

pancytopaenic on bloods, plt's down to 40s

diagnosis confirmed on BMAT (parasite seen)

normal HIV, liver and kidney function

Bodies seen on the BMAT below are part of the lifecycle of the parasite that is intracellular, hence you can see the macrophages/neutrophils loaded with them, even bursting

What is it:

think of it when you get a patient with pancytopaenia and hepatosplenomegaly, who either traveled to or is in/from a tropical/subtropic region (where sand flies are)

cause - protozoa parasite Leishmania, transmitted by infected sandflies

Epidemio (when to consider it)

tropics, subtropics (South America, Asia, AFrica), Southern Europe

Microbiology/Transmission

parasite, replicates intracellularly (Leishmania donovani)

transmitted in sand flies (can be unnoticeable and usually bite in dawn or dusk - evenings or night), can also be transmitted via needles/blood

more common in rural areas

I've simplified this, but is more extensively covered in StatPearls and Wiki (there's different species of Leish and sandflies that transmit it)

once bitten, the protozoa are phagocystosed by skin macrophages, which then becomes full of the "bodies" (part of the lifecycle). Eventually these burst to release more of the bodies that infect more macrophages

they eventually are spread via blood to liver/spleen/BM and LNs

Random history:

ancient, records of disease date back to Egyptian mummies from 3000 BC --> positive DNA amplication for Leishmania and on papyrus from 1500 BC

multiple physicians from different times have described the disease, but it's named for 2 who described the parasite's intracellular ovoid body stage in smears from infected patients in India: Lt General William Boog Leishman and Captain Charles Donovan (Ronald Ross named the bodies after the 2 --> "Leishman Donovan bodies"

significant disease in Allied troops in Sicily in WWII, called "jericho buttons" (image on wiki from a WWI trooper serving in the middle east)

Leishman: Scottish pathologist and British Army medical officer, later it's director general in the 20s, did extensive research into the parasite named for him by Sir Ronald Ross. He mistook the parasite he observed for trypanosomes (cause of Chagas in South America and African sleeping sickness in Africa)

Donovan: Irish parasitologist, medical officer in India, observed an epidemic across India just after the rebellion of 1857, discovered the "bodies" in spleen tissue as the causative agent for what the locals called "kala azar" (severe visceral leishmaniasis - see below)

Donovan also discovered the "bodies" of Klebsiella granulomatis, hence these too are named after him (cause of ulcerative granulomas)

It became scandalous as both wanted credit for the "discovery" of this newly identified organism. So Sir Ronald Ross named it for both of them.

Sir Ron, by the way, won a Nobel in Medicine for discovering that malaria is transmitted via mossies (this was also a source of scandal, he was meant to share it with another physician who he accused of fraud - and they never received the award)

finally, it was actually a Russian physician who identified it first, but well, he published in a little known Russian journal which was promptly forgotten.

Clinical features

cutaneous type vs visceral organ type (spleen, liver, bones)

From wiki

can be asymptomatic

cutnaeous: can be there for years and resemble leprosy, causes an open chronic wound (most common), incubation 2-4 weeks on average (nodules at site of inoculation that eventually form ulcers), can heal spontaneously in 2-5 yrs

in diffuse cutaneous cases, can affect face, ears, extensor surfaces

can be muscosal = eg nasal symptoms/epistaxis, severe: perforated septum, this occurs in 1/3 after resolution of cutaenous symptoms (can be severe/lifte threatning, as it can affect vocal cords and cartilage, but oddly not bone)

visceral (incubation periods of up to years until immuncompromise): fever, weight loss, hepatosplenomegaly (spleen more than liver), pancytoaepnia, high total protein and low albumin with hypergammaglobulinaemia

this has seasonal peaks related to sandfly habits and humidity

interestingly it is an infective cause of massive splenomegaly, such that it crosses the midline

Extreme - but noticeable hepatosplenomgealy/abdo fullness, from medscape

can be atypical in HIV co infected patients, LAD in seom regions like Africa

Kala azar = black fever in some severe cases (fatal due to secondary mycobacterial infection or bleeding), refers to damage fto spleen, liver and anaemia

invstigations:

serology not great (minimal humoral response to the parasite), so often requires histopath (tissue sample) for which BMAT is safest in visceral organ involvement

visualisation of amastigotes (or Leishman-Donovan bodies), as intracellular --> can be seen in macrophages (small round bodies) post Giemsa staining

PCR of DNA also possible (as done in the Egyptian mummies)

Image source:

Treatment

liposomal amphotericin B (holy shit strong stuff) in visceral, PO: miltefosine (caution in pregnancy), all have significant ADRs, or paromycin. however, mortality of 10% if visceral left untreated

mixed results with azoles

in HIV co infection - start the HAARTs! can improve survival, mortality is 30% in HIV patients

cutaneous: stibolgluconate (have never heard of these drugs) and megluaine antimoniate, but limited disease often spotnaeously gets cleared by the innate system

prevention:

use DEET insect repellant at dawn and dusk

loose fitting clothing that covers all skin

no vaccine (were attempts at vaccinating dogs, which decreased rates)

sandflies are smaller than mossies, so requires small netting

Differentials for hepatosplenomegaly

Sources:

WHO guidelines

CDC guidlelines

Wiki - Haven't covered pathophysio, but wiki does extensively

StatPearls

DermNet - great resource for all things derm, that my derm colleagues pointed out to me

[anurapoda]

Could you write some Grian + Etho? Don't care about type of pairing

HELLO ignore the fact it took me several months to write this, but I did it! I did a thing! I even had it beta read!! Just for you! The beginning and middle were written about 2 months before I got around to the ending, so if there's a mild shift in quality that's why. I haven't actually watched the episode where Grian enacts the sword so this isn't going to properly follow that AT ALL but it is inspired by it because at the time it was fresh on the ol' brain

Pairing: Grian + Etho Relationship: Platonic/Ambiguous Content Warnings: blood, injuries Words: 1335

The Sword

In Episode 8 Etho finds Grian exhausted, gravely injured, and without the supplies needed to heal himself. Instead of taking advantage of the situation and ending the last Bad Boy, Etho offers to enact the sword. Fluff ensues as the T.I.E.S member tends to the Bad Boys wounds.

[story under cut]

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

Grian's breathing was staggered as he clawed his way up the hill towards what was once The Clockers home, now abandoned with the once chaotic family that inhabited its walls dead somewhere in the small world they had called home. The blond knew he'd soon meet the same fate, the blood steadily running down his neck ensuring he’d bleed out if someone didn’t get to him first.

As his nails dug into the soft soil at the top, the avian pulled his body up and breathed deeply. Behind him, his wings hung limp, useless even if it weren't for his cut flight feathers.

Shaking some dirt from them, he didn't hesitate any longer as he made his way onto unsteady feet and dashed towards Bad Boys Bread Bridge and the mansion. There would be supplies there for him to heal. There had to be.

Limping as he made his way across the bad boys bread bridge, he thanked Mojang that no one else seemed to be around. Reaching the top of the mansion, Grian practically collapsed on top of the first chest he saw. Opening it with trembling fingers, he peered inside only for his heart to drop.

Moving to the next one he checked again, surely there would be food or medicine in this one! When the second was also empty he checked a third, then a fourth... his breathing only grew more unsteady as chest after chest yielded no result.

Frantically checking the chests once more, he didn't hear the footsteps approaching him from behind. Didn't hear the sword as it was drawn. Didn't hear the object swing through the air, making contact with his already injured shoulder and sending him tumbling to the side.

Gasping as fresh pain infected his entire being, Grian quickly caught himself on the dark oak roof and fumbled to draw a sword as he stared up at his attacker. Etho.

The man above him didn't give him a chance to stand, quickly bringing another swing down which nearly missed the blond's head as he rolled out of the way. With shaky hands he swung back but was easily countered, the diamond sword clattering to the ground as its owner tried crawling away.

A foot dug into the younger man's back, stopping him in his futile attempt at escape and cutting off much of his already shallow airflow as Etho bent down to whisper in his ear. A shiver ripped through Grian’s spine as he spoke.

"Hi, little birdy~" He sounded almost smug, waiting a moment for a response before giving a small laugh, "Cat got your tongue?"

No response still. No, Grian’s breathing was far too staggered to even dream of responding to the man above him. To the man who was about to end his life. His breathing only staggered more at the thought as splintered nails dug into wood, trying desperately to pull away from the constant pressure on his spine.

Etho seemed to move away from him, foot staying steadily on his back but at least now his mouth wasn’t practically touching Grian’s ear. Awaiting the final swing that would remove the head from his limbs, the blond closed his eyes.

But it never came. Instead, Etho sighed and evenly asked, "Do you want to enact the sword?"

The sword? Grian’s mind raced, what sword? He couldn't think straight, his mind racing far too quickly to properly compute anything intelligent. After a few moments of continued struggling as the pressure on his body only increased, it hit him. The sword!

"Y-yes!" Grian gasped between sharp breaths, immediately feeling the pressure lift from his back. Without a word Etho flipped the man over, checking his pulse as the younger continued to breathe irregularly.

"Ok bud, I need you to calm down, can you do that for me? One breath in," Etho said, taking a deep breath in as though to demonstrate.

Once Grian followed the motion, the white haired man breathed out, Grian did the same. After repeating this motion for several minutes, the blond's breathing evened out as well as it could. It was still rather shallow and not completely even, but it was far better than it had been when the encounter began.

Brushing some hair out of the younger man's face, Etho smiled, "Good birdy, got any healing supplies?"

Grian shook his head, opening his mouth to brush off Ethos concern only to be shushed as the white haired man reached into his pocket and pulled out a roll of bandages. 

As the older man reached out for Grian’s shoulder the blond pulled away and shook his head, “You can’t use your supplies on me, you need them.”

Etho only tilted his head, giving the younger a smile through his mask as her cheerfully replied, “Don’t worry, I got more. Plus I’m not injured right now.”

“Right now.” He echoed, pulling away as the older tried to bandage his shoulder again, “What if you get hurt later, what then?”

Shrugging, the fox hybrid shifted his weight, “You don’t have to worry about me, just let me fix your arm.” He began reaching out again.

“No!” Grian almost yelped, trying to pull away once more only for the older man to snatch his arm up and drag the avian closer with considerable force. Etho barely acknowledged him as he began wrapping the shoulder, ignoring his various protests and pleas to save the supplies for himself.

When the fox finished bandaging the blonds shoulder he leaned back into a crouched position and studied his work with a faint smile before pushing himself to stand properly. Looking at Grian, he tilted his head, “Got any food?”

The avian huffed, staring up at the man with feigned anger, “You’re not giving me your food.” 

“Who says it’s my food?” Etho asked with a smirk, pulling half a stack of bread from his inventory.

Grian squawked, “You evil man! You stole our bread!”

Tossing the slightly stale loafs on the ground before Grian, Etho watched as the smaller scrambled to grab them before they got completely coated in dirt. The two stared at one another for a few moments before Ethos smile widened.

“Are you not going to eat?” The man asked, mischievous slipping through his words.

The avian stared at him skeptically, picking at a piece of bread as he asked, “Why are you helping me?”

“You enacted the sword,” Etho replied with a shrug

“Yeah but that just means you won’t kill me right now, we’re still enemies.”

“True,” The fox looked into the distance, eyes squinting as he focused on something just out of Grian’s sight, “But you’re still my friend, even in this hellscape. I’m not going to leave you when you clearly need help.”

Grian snorted, “But you’re ok with killing me?”

“No,” Etho gave a pained smile, turning his attention back to the avian, “But we both know what will happen if we refuse.”

The two fell into a silence after that. Grian finally popping a piece of bread into his mouth as Etho watched intently, eyes occasionally wandering somewhere else only to snap back to the smaller man. By the time two loaves were gone, Grian sighed.

“I guess this is where we part ways then?” The blond asked.

Nodding, Etho gave a small smile, “Just remember, there’s no sword left to enact - next time I will kill you.” 

The man said the words so nicely, as though speaking to an old friend, that they sent a shiver down Grian spine. He didn’t wait for a response before the fox hopped off the side of the bridge, the sound of water echoing from where he landed as Grian was left alone.

Taking a moment to gather himself, the blond gripped the fourteen remaining bread before stuffing them into his inventory. Getting to his feet, he brandished his weapon and continued on down the bread bridge. Next time he saw Etho he would win, he wouldn’t need to enact a sword.

[marsphonlamai]

Moans and groans fill the night sky, blunt nails scratch along the smooth surface of a car caught amidst a horde of infected. Screams from inside barely carry, they can barely be heard in the distance. But what's that in the distance? Is that JEFF SATUR? No way, that's MARS PHONLAMAI. The 25  year old MALE  (HE/HIM) used to be a PRISON COOK. Since the outbreak, they've proven to be FRIENDLY & INNOVATIVE, but rumor has it they're also LOUD & RAMBUNCTIOUS, which may pose a risk to the group. They appear to have taken the COOK role within the group. Only time can tell if they succeed.

Name: Kasemchai “Mars” Phonlamai Age: 25 Languages: Thai, English, a teeny bit of Italian Occupation: Cook Gender: Cis male + Traits: Kind, generous, resourceful – Traits: Loud, unserious, laid back Sexuality: Questioning/Bi Height: 5’7.5 (the half matters) Hair: Black, wavy Tattoos: Number 7 behind left ear, heart inside left middle finger, small cat on his ribs Piercings: Double earlobes Voice: Soft, quiet voice, speaks with a slight accent. Correct his speech and you will be stabbed. Skin: Tans easily, freckles on nose, scar on his left arm Habits: rarely smokes (weed>>>cigarettes), drinks socially, rises early, sleeps early. Tendencies: playing dumb, agitating people, overspicing food to be petty, bouncing his left leg, nail biting.

HISTORY Kasemchai was born and raised on a small, rundown little farm that he spent most of his life on. It’s the one thing he truly remembers. He remembers being homeschooled until he was a certain age because there just wasn’t enough support and remembers spending the rest of the time with his grandmother, trusted to her care after his mother had left. They spent their days selling and harvesting when they could. He learned mostly about food, farming and botany, good with plants but also a big believer in modern day medicine. He studied various spiritual and cultural practices that his grandmother taught him, in touch with a certain sixth sense that he often ignored. Maybe it would’ve helped to have listened to his instincts earlier but he doesn’t think about how he could or couldn’t have prevented the accident.

After the accident, he doesn’t remember much between his time in recovery and his adoption, spending most of his time in and out of consciousness. He became different; fighting the doctors and the nurses, becoming flighty and paranoid. He was adopted by an older rich couple that felt the need to spread their savior complex and life became a showy affair of dinner parties and business deals he didn’t quite understand. “Mars”, they rename him, because his mother thinks that he’s strong somehow. His adopted parents were nice enough—they didn’t hurt him or neglect him the way he’d heard horror stories of, but love was not something that came easy to them and it was easier to pretend that a lavish lifestyle was going to fill the void his grandmother had left. Bonding over any of his old interests was discouraged—astrology was just a silly party game to them, tea leaves just clickbait they discouraged, and he was soon shipped off to boarding school.

What most considered a prestigious opportunity for a second chance at life overwhelmed him into changing who he was; no longer a naive pushover with a glimmer of hope for love and now a short-tempered menace. He had never really adjusted going from a small farm to a big city in a country he’d never studied before. Despite it all, he manages to feel something for someone just once—he doens’t know anything about love. Teenagers aren’t supposed to. Boarding school is a culture shock to him; he’s not religious, and he hates it all, but it’s fun and carefree and a break from the reality that is his world until it comes knocking sense into him every once in a while.

He finds that he’s good at math, a natural penchant for numbers, something his father becomes instantly proud of. Flights back and forth between Italy are long and tiring and Mars tries his best to play dumb so he doesn’t have to deal with the family business. He’s heard all about the Italian-American ties to the mafia but he’s too afraid to say no.

Italy had its perks but it was not kind to him and all it takes is getting kicked out of three schools before he’s allowed to never go back. He doesn’t graduate, comes home and expects to be set free at the age of eighteen. But somehow, his adopted father doesn’t let him go. Mars finds out that he likes how it feels to carry something heavy in his hand, having a preference for his own hands over any of the weapons he’s allowed to choose from. He may have been able to tussle in the schoolyard but these affairs are much different than the violence he’d known, a punch here or there, petulant and immature incidents, and it haunts him. Deep down, he wants to be who he used to be, who his grandmother wanted him to be, and he tanks an entire meeting on purpose.

His father considers prison a punishment but to him, prison is just like boarding school; there’s curfews and roommates and people telling him what to do, and he’s used to that. He doesn’t particularly hate it, being staffed in the kitchen. He preps things more than he cooks, his happy-go-lucky attitude getting him easily trusted with sharp objects. He's only charged with illegal possession; that's what he tells people anyway. He’s learning how to reconnect with his feelings again and the people around him, desperate for connection and willing to give people another chance.

He doesn’t really care about the end of the world; in a way, he feels it’s karmic for how the world has treated him. When he thinks about all the people who are gone, maybe he's even a little happy. He’d just been a boy wanting love and safety and been thrown to the wolves over and over again. He does miss the modern day security that their world once had, misses technology and simplicity of convenience, but he’s not afraid of the undead. To him, they’re no more pesky than some of the cellmates he’s had over the couple of years. He just hates that it happened the week of his release while he was in isolation, resulting in a riot that had forced him to learn that the biters were not the only threat to his safety.

He’s got blood on his hands, blood he’ll never forget, and blood he’ll never forgive. He stays out of harm’s way most of the time, choosing to use his skills of prepping and cooking to help others survive and to stay close to his grandmother’s memory. He doesn’t know what’s become of his father, but he hopes at least that his mother is somewhere safe, choosing to go by the name she gave him just in case they ever run into one another again.

PERSONALITY

His fight or flight consists of FIGHT and he will absolutely swing if he feels the need to, years of having to defend himself in Italy and Prison ingrained in him. His birth name is important to him and he doesn’t give it out freely but calling him by his full name can make him chill out if you've pushed him over the edge. He cannot keep quiet when he feels something is wrong or unjust but if you push him, he might fly off the handle. Has a very strong sixth sense and intuition and always listens to it, even if it makes him seem irrational. He’s smaller than most but can absolutely take and throw a punch. Despite knowing how to fight, he’s more agile than he is strong: he can and will absolutely get his ass kicked. He might ramble when nervous but when he’s anxious, he won’t be speaking much at all. He can be stubborn as he tries to adjust himself between being too soft and too difficult. Pure of heart, dumb of ass.

[littlegodzilla]

Next!

Our Story.

Daryl Dixon x Wife / Daryl Dixon x Reader.

Part 5.

Masterlist.

Warnings: TWD Gore. Little angst. Memories. Blood. Hallucinations. Slow Burn.

Words: 3.800

Summary: You have to fight for your life. Sophia is missing, Daryl wants to find her, memories come back at his head, and Merle too. It doesn't help at all.

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

Part 5. The Farm and the new one.

You run for your life, your heart in your mouth, your hands and clothes full of blood.

Of innocent blood.

That night was... God you don't even know how to define it. You went with the boys in search of those arrows that Guillermo had commented for your bow, it was an easy patrol, those streets you had run through before, however, now they were not only plagued with dead people, you also ran into a group of people that were not friendly at all, you had to fight, run away, and kill people that weren't infected. That part was the part that left you in shock for a few minutes when you got to the store, when you managed to recover, you helped those who were left to pick up the arrows and a few other things.

Going home at night had never been a good idea, but you had to go back, the group that had attacked you was small, which meant there could be others around and if the place was unprotected, all those people... Going there, in the middle of the night, you saw something you never thought possible, the doors of the CDC were opening for a group of people who were fighting against the dead. The light was so bright you couldn't really see anyone, but once again you thought you heard Daryl's name and that made you act. You pulled out one of your new arrows and shot at the being that was heading straight for them. You didn't even stop, you kept running.

Your people needed you.

But you didn't arrive in time, they had blown the door, you could hear gunshots inside, you found several bodies of those old men bleeding to death on the ground, they didn't even bother to give them the rest they really deserved. You had never been in a war, you had rarely had to fight seriously, but that massacre was necessary, you had to fight for what little was left of your home.

And there you are, trying to recover, alone. There is no one left, neither yours nor theirs, you have fought with everything you had and you have lost everything. You take several deep breaths trying to recover completely. You can't stay there, that place is no longer safe, not anymore, the dead will soon appear due to all the noise caused by that brawl, you need to take your things, some supplies, medicines.

You stop as you remember what you saw the night before. The doors of the CDC opening for that group, it meant that there was someone else there, that you could find another safe place.

"Maybe Daryl is there too." You think and feel your hair stand on end.

You quickly pick up your backpack after stuffing some more meds in it, bandage and run out of there, clutching your bow on your back, retrieving the arrows you've wasted during the fight.

On the way to the CDC it's not easy, you don't know how but there are many more Walkers than last time, you don't know what's driving them to move but certainly something has drawn them there by filling up the streets they once cleared, that were safe and more passable. You move stealthily but quickly, your ears alert to any movement, you have those skills to thank for the time your sister's boyfriend spent teaching you, they are certainly most useful now. Tracking is not something you are so good at, but you learned to go unnoticed quickly, even he admitted he was impressed.

Thinking about those days makes you flinch for a moment and your eyes sting, wanting to cry, but you restrain yourself, this is not the time for this. You squeeze the pendant around your neck tightly once more and continue moving nimbly through the alleys, shooting arrows and retrieving them again, without touching the pistol that Guillermo gave you and that still rests in your belt.

All your hopes are reduced to nothing when, upon reaching the vicinity of the CDC, you hear, see and feel the huge explosion that leaves the building reduced to rubble, your body takes a step back from the shockwave and your heart clenches. What happened? Will everyone be okay? Will Daryl be okay? You quickly approach the scene, praying in your mind that you will find that everyone is okay. You have to brake abruptly because the dead have also heard the rumbling and are approaching the area, stalking you, cutting your path off.

"Out of my way!" you roar, pulling your knife from the other side of your belt and plunging it into their heads.

You fight through shoving, stabbing, some frustrated shouting and even throw the occasional arrow that you then try to pick up again, but you can't get too far because they force you back again. There are just too many of them.

The last thing you see, before you look for a place to hide, is the small group grab their cars and drive away from there as well.

**

For a moment Daryl thought about staying, letting it all end, sitting there with Jacqui, with Dale and Andrea and not waiting for anything else, just the end. It would have been easier, more comfortable, just close his eyes and it would have been over.

However, the image of you and your sister come back to his mind and he simply can't. She would never have let him give up like that. You would have pulled him and forced him out of there. So Daryl just vents his fear and frustration against that door, against that huge pane of glass, walking out of there with a brutal ringing in his ears from the explosion of the grenade Carol has given Rick. They have to find a new strategy and apparently the idea of going to Fort Benning is the one that wins all the disputes, Daryl doesn't care as long as they get out of there as soon as possible. Before getting into the car again, pick up an arrow that is stuck in the head of one of the Walkers. Once inside the vehicle, following the others, he realizes that it isn't his.

He doesn't feel right, or comfortable in his own skin. When Rick has returned from the trees announcing that he hasn't found Sophia after leaving her hiding while he attracted the attention of some Walkers. She's just a child, the fear and anguish that is triggered in her mother causes her to act on autopilot. He slings the crossbow on his back and runs off in search of footprints, Rick, Shane and Glenn follow. None of them know what he is looking for, they don't stop talking, Shane keeps protesting, but he can clearly see the nervous footsteps of the girl running away, going where Rick had indicated, but suddenly they swerve and lose the trail.

Daryl feels like screaming, going in a group has never been good for him, it distracts him, he loses his own train of thought, he wants to tell them to shut up and get out, but he is left alone with Rick and that seems to be enough to concentrate again, but not to find the girl. They have to get back on the road, it will be dark soon and the woods are not safe with those beings out there.

Daryl can't sleep that night, nightmares take over him, memories mixed with the world they are living in now. He dreams of Sophia. He dreams of her. He dreams of you. All turned into those dead people walking around just devouring people. He stands up startled and has to run away when he feels the bile scratching his throat, he moves away from the group and vomits with his hands resting on his knees, his whole body trembling, breathing agitated and saliva dripping from his lips. He needs a second to recover, wipes his lips with his arm and when he turns back to the group he discovers Carol watching him. Neither says anything, they just share a long look before Daryl gets lost inside the RV.

The next day Rick organizes the group to return to the forest, he and Daryl go ahead leading the group, protecting them from any unexpected attacks. They stop when they find a tent. Daryl moves slowly towards it as Carol calls out to her daughter in the hope that she has taken shelter there. There is no response no matter how much the woman insists, Daryl unzips the tent and has to suppress nausea again at the strong smell coming from inside.

"She's ain't here...just some guy who took Jenner's exit." He grunts, but no one says anything.

Silence falls over everyone as they hear some bells in the distance. There are too many doubts, too many questions and too many hopes. They run there wishing that Sophia is the one who is ringing. When they open the church doors they find only a small group sitting there.

Daryl is blocked, he has gone straight for one of them, but when he is ready to attack it he realizes that it is a young woman dressed in a wedding dress. His heart freezes, his mouth goes dry and the dreams of the night before come back to his head. Before crushing her skull, the image of her face comes back to him and he has to back away in fear as the corpse falls at his feet. His heart races, he feels his eyes stinging. He knows it's not her, but his skin crawls, he squeezes the bridge of his nose hard to calm himself.

Neither of you are there, he has to stop torturing himself with that, he hates dreaming about those days again, reminding him of his life before he lost her, making him feel guilty for everything that happened after that, after all, he was the one who walked away and let everything change.

He sighs tiredly, he hates the whole situation. He leaves the church, they have to get back on the road, make sure Sophia hasn't returned on her own two feet, Rick and Shane decide to keep exploring. Carl leaves with them.

And again chaos controls everything.

***************

Daryl can't sleep again, Sophia is missing, Carl has been shot and is in a critical situation, Carol keeps crying and calling for her little girl in her sleep, his skin cracks open every time he hears her. Within all the chaos, they have found a stable place to stay, the Greene's farm could be a perfect place to set up camp. Rick tries to defuse the situation with Hershel, the man of the house and Shane, it's clear the man wants nothing to do with the other cop and Daryl understands him, that son of a bitch killed Otis for his own good, he's convinced he didn't even give him a choice, he just left him behind. Shane is not well, he's not stable and every time he spends more time with Rick, that Lori ignores him, the more unhinged he seems.

He's a bomb about to explode and Daryl knows it.

"Where are you going?" Carol asks him as he comes inside the RV.

"I'm gonna get one of the horses, keep lookin' for Sophia." He tells her and sets a flower down on the table in the RV.

"A flower?"

Daryl nods, he dares to tell her the legend that falls on that kind of flower, she seems curious, he doesn't know if it will relieve her or not, but Daryl still believes in them finding the girl.

"Ain't stupid enough to believe that this flower has bloomed for my brother, but it did for yer little girl."

"Thank you, Daryl." She smiles warmly.

He smiles too and leaves the trailer to get to work as promised. He walks over to the Greene family barn to get one of the horses, they are not animals he is overly fond of, but it will help him cover more ground without getting tired and be able to return to the farm in the afternoon. He saddles one of the animals and leaves without attracting attention.

*****************

You have been looking for them days. You lost their track before leaving Atlanta, the dead didn't let you get to them in time, but you managed to take a vehicle and leave the city, you had no fixed course, you took secondary roads knowing that the general highway was totally flooded with cars that had tried to flee the city, without success. You stopped the car when it started to run out of gas and went into the forest looking for clues in case you found them again.

You didn't find the group, but you did find a girl who was desperately running away, scared to death, from some zombies. You shot a couple of arrows to save her and made sure she was okay, that she didn't have any scratches or bites. 

"What are you doing out here all alone?"

"I lost my mom, Rick told me to hide, but they chased me and now I don't know how to get back..."

"It's okay, relax, between the two of us we'll find them." You promised her by giving her something to eat from your supplies and waited for her to get a little over her fright before setting off.

Sophia doesn't talk much, she's quiet, she walks carefully, she doesn't make much noise, she always stays next to you, glued to your back, but you don't mind, so you can keep a better eye on her. When she talks, she talks about her mother, how worried she is about her, how much she misses her, she lets her cry and unburden herself, she talks about her father too, but she only does it once and what she tells you tears your heart out and you give thanks that he is no longer on Earth.

When you prepare a camping area to continue the trip the next day, you show her your bow, explain to her how it works and even let her practice, a couple of days later, when she has gathered the courage to ask you for it. She's good at it, she's a good aimer, but she's a kid and gets scared easily, making her targets more wrong than right, but you can't blame her, the same thing would happen to you.

One day she asked you for your gun, but you refused to let her have it, guns were treacherous even for the one who fired them, you didn't know much, and you weren't going to let Sophia have an accident because of you. She doesn't put up much resistance when you scold her and teach her new things, you share with her the knowledge Daryl taught you about tracking and she smiles excitedly.

"Daryl, a man in my group, also knows how to hunt and track, just like you. But he's a bit weird..." She mumbles as she chews her ration of food you've given her and you feel your heart racing again.

"D-Daryl?" You look at her curiously and she feels again.

"Do you know him?" she looks at you curiously.

You don't answer whether you know him or not, not sure how you could explain to her why you weren't with them at camp.

"He was always looking at me and my mom...and Andrea and Amy." She continues as you walk slowly through the woods. "I think he was lonely...that he missed someone, you know, even if he was with his brother."

You don't answer again. You're surprised at how observant and smart she is, she wasn't supposed to know Daryl, but she's gotten the hang of it fast. You smile trying to hide it a little, stroke her head to calm her down and move on, she remains silent again, clinging to your waist, but attentive to her surroundings. You both stop at the same time, you hear the rushing noise, something tearing, and a horse passes close to where you are. A horse with a saddle, but no rider.

"Come behind me, let's go take a look, maybe someone is hurt." You say to Sophia who nods her head quickly.

******************

Daryl needs to stop his path again. He is mentally and physically exhausted, the fall out of the horse, his own arrow piercing him, fighting two Walkers have robbed him of what little strength he has. To make matters worse, the visit of his brother as a hallucination, hasn't helped him at all. First lying in the river, mocking him for looking for a girl who had nothing to do with him, but Merle could never understand it, it wasn't only about the girl, but also about her mother, what she was suffering with her disappearance. He didn't want her to go through that anymore, he wanted to bring her little girl to her side, preferably alive and for the two women to be okay again, besides if Sophia was still out there lost, alone and scared, it was a matter of time before some Walker would hurt her or another group would take her and that for Daryl, it looked much worse. Ever since they left the CDC and he felt death so close, something inside him has twisted, he's changed a little, he feels a little like the Daryl of before, the one he wanted to be before she... he shakes his head, he has enough of his brother's taunts without torturing himself with his image.

"Daryl?"

His blood freezes in his veins, his heart freezes as he lifts his head like a spring, next to his brother, there she is, kneeling on the ground, stretching her hand out to him. He struggles to catch his breath, swallows nervously, feeling his eyes water.

"Don't listen to your brother, Daryl. Come on, there are people waiting for you." She encourages him in a gentle voice.

"Sure, those same people who left me tied up on that rooftop." Merle insists wryly. "Is this how it's gonna be now bro? Yer gonna be the sheriff's lapdog?"

"I was better off without yer encouragement." He grunts low, holding his side before attempting to climb back up the slope.

"Because y'know I'm right."

"That's not true, Daryl, those people care about you, you need to go back." She insists and he crawls back up, following her voice.

"Ain't make me laugh, woman, those people just use him, when he's no longer useful they'll throw him out like a dog." He hears Merle's laughter and grunts holding onto a thick root as he propels himself upward.

"There's still hope, Daryl, you found that doll, imagine how happy Carol is going to be." She ignores Merle's words.

"She's alive." He nods without stopping climbing. "We'll find her, I'll find her...she's still alive..."

"That's right, Daryl. Give me your hand, I'll help you up. Come on, honey."

The archer hears Merle's laughter, he seems to say something, but his ears no longer hear him, the image of her, smiling, clouds everything else, he takes a deep breath and with a roar takes off upwards. Another hand holds him firmly, he feels his wrist being pulled, his feet dig into the ground and he climbs upwards.

"I've got you, I've got you, you're almost there." He hears a voice encouraging him. "I don't know how you fell, but it's a miracle you're still alive..." Her voice trails off, Daryl looks up and she's still in front of him. "Daryl..."

Her image blurs for a second, he feels dizzy, the pain, the lost blood, the overexertion, he smiles and squeezes her hand before collapsing at her feet.

"It's Daryl!" Sophia says excitedly, a few feet behind you.

"Y-yes, it's him..." You try to snap out of your astonishment, his condition is pitiful, he needs help as soon as possible. "That means your mother is nearby, Sophia." You encourage the girl who starts to cry. "Here, take my things, please, I have to get him up." You ask her and she accepts your backpack and bow.

Carefully, you lift him off the ground and load half of his body against yours. He's not totally unconscious, but he can't move on his own. Following the trail he and his horse have left, you decide to follow the path in search of whatever camp they may have set up in the forest. As you walk through the trees, you are aware that Daryl has a doll tied around his waist, the hunter has gone out to look for Sophia, the same girl you found running away from those Walkers, you are sure that if you had not been there, Daryl would have found her sooner or later. That melts your heart, he cares about that group, about that woman and her daughter, you remember that Sophia told you that she had seen him watching them, just like Andrea and Amy, you don't know who they are, but maybe Daryl remembered you in them and that's why he had that feeling of protection towards them. You can't help but smile and grab his body firmly as you leave the forest.

You have to admit that you don't expect to find that huge farmhouse in front of you, but the horse's pace leads you in that direction, Sophia, now in the open, is a little ahead, leading you, holding all your gear proudly as she looks impatient and excited.

"Sophia, wait!" You warn her as you hear shouts and see people running towards you. "Behind me, hurry!" She doesn't hesitate, you are too far away to know who they are, maybe you have mistaken your path and they are hostile people, so she backs up and quickly hides behind you, making herself almost invisible.

"Who are you!" Roars one man with a gun, there's another brown man with his shirt unbuttoned and....

"Glenn?" you recognize the Asian and he looks at you in surprise.

"No way!" gasps the man. "Hey, hey, she's a friend, she was in Atlanta, at the nursing home... How did you get here?"

"Well..." You point to Daryl and they quickly notice his sorry state, but that's not all, Sophia comes out from behind you, and they don't give credit.

"S-Sophia..." They gasp at the same time. "W-who are you?" asks the man with the revolver, and Daryl raises his head in a second of lucidity.

"She's my wife..." He growls. "She's come looking for me..." He says finally and completely loses consciousness.

Your cheeks burn feeling all eyes on you.

********

.

To be Continued....

.

.

Hope you liked it!! They meet again! Yay!

See you in the next chapters!

Taglist: @green-eyedladywrites @minervadashwood @livingdeadblondequeen @bringinsexybackk69 @graniairish

[angeliikiit]

Echomistcharic [left] // Gender related to Echomist from Warriors

Echosnoutcharic [middle] // Gender related to Echosnout from Warriors

Echosongcharic [right] // Gender related to Echosong from Warriors

Art by @/cloudtail

Echomist is a long-haired pale grey she-cat. She currently resides in Starclan, previously being a Riverclan warrior. She was the mate of Hailstar and mother of Petaldust, Voleclaw, and Beetlenose, as well as the mentor of Mistystar.

Echosnout is a black-and-white she-cat. She currently resides in Starclan, formerly being a Riverclan medicine cat under Volestar and the former mentor of Cloudberry. She notably was against the idea of Goosefeather becoming a medicine cat apprentice at 4 moons old.

Echosong is a silver-grey tabby she-cat with a white chest, green eyes, and a nicked ear. She currently resides in Starclan, dying due to an infected wound, formerly being a Skyclan medicine cat under Firestar and Leafstar. She joined Skyclan after learning her odd dreams were messages from Starclan, learning herbs from Sandstorm before going on to train both Frecklewish and Fidgetflake.

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[nullbutler]

Info dump about your oc if you feel comfortable with that

MY GUY! He's a grim reaper named Ulysses Treadway. He's a half-english, half-slavic guy, in his late 30s early 40s. His reaper scythe is a rake and he almost always wears a Russian-style ear cap.

He's been dead maybe 150 years. After his daughter died from an infection, he followed in her footsteps, to 'ensure' her soul made it to heaven. They lived a very secluded life and only really had each other (also his daughter was not his by birth, he did not have a wife <3) After that point, he kinda fucked off to do his Reaper Job, with the expectation that if he worked hard he'll get to live with her eventually. He and his daughter used to observe birds, see, and every time he'd see a bird on the job, he'd think of her. So he's got this little journal for observing avians. it's like in the middle of reaping you "oh a bluejay. I don't see those in the winter very often :0"

He doesn't talk about himself much, though! Very much an enigmatic silent type. His main flaw is he's kinda like a brick wall. He's also got bizarre opinions about things, which are unshakable. He thinks books are cool (never had much time to read - sometimes reads on the job) so he usually thumbs through those, but he's also wary of modern medicine (which is a good idea, because heroine and opium were very prevalent back in the day, and so was addiction) (unfortunately this extends to a mild paranoia about coffee). He also thinks beards are unsanitary, and has a very nonchalant attitude towards death. He also has 'cat-feet' (very light footed and quick and kinda enjoys climbing up on things most humans can't reach, such as trees and buildings and shit)

love him.