#might put this as a thing on the page actually

[marauders-brain-rot]

Okay kay give me

4. Mind meld/telepathy/mind reading

7. Trappend in an elevator

12. Turned invisible

42. True loves kiss/brraking a curse

Or

60. Truth serum/spell

With Rosekiller

One of them, more then one or maybe mixed idk

Barty was absolutely losing his mind. He’d tried everything he could possibly think of, and yet Evan still wouldn’t make a move. He was one more disaster away from just accepting that Evan didn’t have any feelings for him whatsoever and cutting his losses entirely.

He’d tried getting them trapped in an elevator together, something that was impressive given that they were wizards and didn’t often use elevators. And yet, he’d managed to get them both on there and get the blasted thing to get stuck between floors, only for Evan to happen to know the perfect spell to get them out, the swot. A truth serum like Veritaserum was something he vetoed early on, not wanting to take Evan’s autonomy away from him. For that same reason, a mind-reading spell like Legilimency was also out of the question.

That all brought him to now, where he was trying his last desperate attempt and then never going to think about it again. He’d managed to find a potion that would put him into a sleep he couldn’t be woken from without a kiss. It would wear off within a week if unbroken. In retrospect, he’d translated the spell from German, and he decidedly did not know German. He’d had to use a dictionary to translate the text, and it had been an old text, so he couldn’t even be certain that his translation meant exactly what he’d thought.

All in all, this plan was definitely not one of his brightest, but he was desperate at this point and not above turning himself invisible if it all went horribly wrong. He’d been lying there for an hour already, aware of his surroundings and conscious in everything but appearance, and he knew that any minute Evan would walk into the room and find him there.

Almost as if on cue, Barty heard footsteps coming into the room and stopping short. He’d know the way Evan walked even if he were actually asleep; his very presence in the room lit his skin on fire as it always had. If Evan didn’t feel the way he felt, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could take feeling like this every time he was near.

“Bee? You okay?” Evan asked cautiously, stepping closer. Barty had laid himself out intentionally, in a way he never would lay normally, almost like he were set for a funeral. “Bee, wake up.”

Evan shook his shoulder, called out to him a few more times, and then contemplated for a few moments in silence. “If you don’t get up, I’m going to slap you.”

Barty didn’t move.

“I mean it, Bee.”

Barty couldn’t move.

“Alright then, I’m gonna do it.”

Evan slapped him.

If he could’ve, he would’ve jumped out of bed with a scream. That slap had, in fact, hurt. As it stood though, he was forced to remain motionless. He knew Evan could see him breathing, so he’d at least know he was alive. But, well, he hadn’t really thought about how Evan would think to kiss him.

He could hear as Evan moved around, looked for anything that might give reason for this. Barty could hear when he picked up the vial the potion had been in, which had been sitting atop the book with the potion itself inside. He listened as Evan picked it up and flipped it open to the bookmarked page. After a second, he scoffed.

“You don’t even know German,” he could hear the amusement in his voice and knew that if he could just open his eyes, he’d see Evan’s lopsided smile. “Mom absolutely insisted on me learning it as a child; did you know I’m still fluent?”

Barty had not, in fact, known that Evan was fluent in German and was kicking himself internally for that oversight. There was absolutely nothing he could do about it now though, not when he was locked inside himself as Evan read through the page and saw what Barty had planned.

“Oh, well, isn’t that just pathetic?” Evan’s tone was soft with a hint of condescension. He sat down on the bed next to him. Barty ached to reach out and touch him. The need increased tenfold when Evan leaned down next to his ear, so close he could feel his breath.

“Did you even translate this properly, Bee? Do you even know what you’re asking for?” The way the words were softly whispered in his ear would’ve made him shiver if he could actually move. Instead, it built up within him, making him absolutely ache.

Everything around him felt heightened. He was acutely aware of every movement Evan made next to him as he sat up. He felt the other boy’s eyes roaming over his face before his hand came up to cup his face. Barty was absolutely certain that he would burst into flames if Evan kept touching him like that, and Merlin if Evan didn’t kiss him, he wasn’t sure how he could take an entire week of lying here in this room. Agonizingly slowly, Evan leaned forward until their lips were so close Barty could practically feel them against his own.

Another breath, and then their lips were finally connected.

His body came back to him slowly, and then all once, he’d been urging it on so hard that the moment his arms were free, he was pulling Evan in closer and deepening the kiss. It felt like hours and minutes all at once when Evan pulled away, leaning his forehead against Barty’s with labored breathing.

“Bee?” He asked softly and pulled away to look at him properly. “What exactly did you translate that to?”

“Oh, um, just that it would put me to sleep for a week unless someone kissed me,” he answered a little sheepishly. It transitioned to full-blown embarrassment when Evan started laughing at him. “Well, it worked, didn’t it!”

“It wasn’t just any kiss, Bee.” Evan’s tone was serious now, all laughter gone, though a smile was still on his face. “It had to be true love’s kiss.”

“Oh.” His brain felt like it had stopped working entirely. If true love’s kiss had to break the potion, then… “Rosie?”

“Yes, Bee?”

“Does that mean…?” He couldn’t get the words out. Sure, he’d known he loved Evan, wanted to spend the rest of his life with him. That didn’t mean Evan felt the same, though, didn’t mean that’s what would actually happen. Evan nodded slowly. “How did you know it would work?”

“I didn’t.” And somehow, that was better than if he had.

[tacitcrow-blog]

Since Foregone Collusion is finished reposting here, I thought I'd post some detritus from the folder I've been keeping all the comic art in.

A year ago, when I finished the comic the first time around, I attempted to write a "making of" document, mostly for my own reference. Y'know, just in case I might decide to start another long-form comic project and need some idea of what I'd learned the first time around.

As part of that, I put together some "character sheets" while I still had Clive and Edgeworth's designs on speed-dial. Please enjoy my chaotic rambling.

I also thought it might be fun to post an example of some traditional (on paper) stuff I scanned to incorporate into the comic. Two and a half panels of this comic were inked traditionally, one of which is on the scan-page below, and all of the typewriter text is from an early-1950s Smith-Corona which I uh. Own,

But I think the most ridiculous multi-media thing I did for this comic was to carve an actual relief block so I could physically stamp game-accurate gibberish onto newsprint paper to make the clipping of the article about his parents' death in Clive's mental conspiracy board. A very pleasant way to spend 3-5 hours. (I'd already prepared the "Layton alphabet" reference sheet months beforehand)

In the end, I placed this article mostly behind Clive's hand. You can't even see it. But you can bet if I ever get my ass into gear re: selling art I will be handing editions of this "article" out like business cards. (Would people actually want them? I have no idea.)

And lastly here's a "phone logistics" panel that I had to edit out of No. 13 at nearly the last minute.

There's more but it's 90% earlier versions of strips/panels/dialogue... these are the highlights! Thanks again for reading.

[mattodore]

when i say they'd act like this in public too...

[sacchiri]

Hellsing 2002 calendar illustration.

Ein wunderliche und erschröckliche Hystori von einem großen Wüttrich genant Dracole wayda Der do so ganz unkristenliche marrter hat angelegt die mensche, als mit spissen als auch die leut zu Tod geslyffen

A wondrous and frightening story about a great berserk called Dracula the voivode who inflicted such unchristian tortures such as with stakes and also dragged people to death

[wingsmould]

the book of bill is interesting because you cant take any of it at face value

[icewindandboringhorror]

I occasionally wish to reach out to old friends/acquaintances I haven't spoken to since high school/some other even earlier time in my life, but I have SOOO little social energy even for required tasks (like making dr phone calls or etc), I never have any leftover for extra ones, and it would be very odd to message someone I haven't spoken to in like 5 years out of the blue but then take 4 entire months to respond back lol.. My natural curiosity with nostalgia/collecting details of the past/etc. (literally if I were born a little earlier I would definitely do scrapbooking or something lol) is very strong, but, alas, not strong enough to beat out the Social Issues Demons apparently

[tricorderreading]

Guess who finally made their card! It's taken forever but they're being printed; I'm going to put one in each of the duplicate copies of Trek books that I have before leaving them in little libraries around my area 😄🖖

And I do intend on posting actual book reviews soon!

[neverlandfaerai]

Response to this: https://www.tumblr.com/ask-the-royal-absol/722436964295540736/destino-lets-begin

(I know this is just a munday thing but I really wanted to do a little response from Agatha, had a lot of fun with this!! <3)

@ask-the-royal-absol

[unproduciblesmackdown]

omgg lol [guy who won't stop going "more like scapeGOATED" voice] now hold! on!! lmao [same guy just saw encanto voice] Hold on!!!

[offthewall1979]

my review of Moonwalk: hot mess. ★★★.

[kleptonancydrew]

I’m currently vibing with Corine’s “the English Department just went gaga over it” as my professor called the paper I wrote half at 6AM after waking up from an accidental benadryl sleep and half while actually teaching a class (admittedly poorly) and submitted two months after it was due “thoughtful, probing, and reflexive” and gave it full marks. 

[soulsxng]

>:3

[kerra-and-company]

You reblogged "tell me about your toons" post so here I am, about to spill the beans :3c

Airell doesn't refer to himself as a sylvari nor mordrem. He always corrects people who call him that. "Not a sylvari", "not a mordrem", etc. In my writing I avoid using these terms either until Airell's identity as a dragon scion/dragon is fully established to the characters around him and the reader.

I sure did!! :D And hell yes, please always feel free to spill beans if you want to!

Ooh, interesting interesting!! That's very fair, and I love how you handle it in writing too. I imagine he has to make that correction pretty often as well, which has gotta be a little unpleasant for him. Hope he hasn't run into too many people who are insistent even after he corrects them.

[gingersnapwolves]

So today I want to talk about puberty blockers for transgender kids, because despite being cisgender, this is a subject I’m actually well-versed in. Specifically, I want to talk about how far backwards things have gone.

This story starts almost 20 years ago, and it’s kind of long, but I think it’s important to give you the full history. At the time, I was working as an administrative assistant for a pediatric endocrinologist in a red state. Not a deep deep red state like Alabama, we had a little bit of a purple trend, but still very much red. (I don’t want to say the state at the risk of doxxing myself.) And I took a phone call from a woman who said, “My son is transgender. Does your doctor do hormone therapy?”

I said, “Good question! Let me find out.”

I went into the back and found the doctor playing Solitaire on his computer and said, “Do you do hormone therapy for transgender kids?” It had literally never come up before. He had opened his practice there in the early 2000s. This was roughly 2006, and the first time someone asked. Without looking up from his game of Solitaire, the doctor said, “I’ve never done it before, but I know how it works, so sure.”

I got back on the phone and told the mom, who was overjoyed, and scheduled an appointment for her son. He was the first transgender child we treated with puberty blockers. But not, by far, the first child we treated with puberty blockers, period. Because puberty blockers are used very commonly for children with precocious puberty (early-onset puberty). I would say about twenty percent of the kids our doctor treated were for precocious puberty and were on puberty blockers. They have been well studied and are widely used, safe, and effective.

Well. It turned out, the doctor I worked for was the only doctor in the state who was willing to do this. And word spread pretty fast in the tight-knit community of ‘parents of transgender children in a red state’. We started seeing more kids. A better drug came out. We saw some kids who were at the age where they were past puberty, and prescribed them estrogen or testosterone. Our doctor became, I’m fairly sure, a small folk hero to this community. 

Insurance coverage was a struggle. I remember copying articles and pages out of the Endocrine Society Manual to submit with prior authorization requests for the medications. Insurance coverage was a struggle for a lot of what we did, though. Growth hormone for kids with severe idiopathic short stature. Insulin pumps, which weren’t as common at the time, and then continuous glucose monitoring, when that came out. Insurance struggles were just part and parcel of the job.

I remember vividly when CVS Caremark, a pharmaceutical management company, changed their criteria and included gender dysphoria as a covered diagnosis for puberty blockers. I thought they had put the option on the questionnaire to trigger an automatic denial. But no - it triggered an approval. Medicaid started to cover it. I got so good at getting approvals with my by then tidy packet of articles and documentation that I actually had people in other states calling me to see what I was submitting (the pharmaceutical rep gave them my number because they wanted more people on their drug, which, shady, but sure. He did ask me if it was okay first).

And here’s the key point of this story:

At no point, during any of this, did it ever even occur to any of us that we might have to worry about whether or not what we were doing was legal.

It just never even came up. It was the medically recommended treatment so we did it. And seeing what’s happening in the UK and certain states in America is both terrifying and genuinely shocking to me, as someone who did this for almost fifteen years, without ever even wondering about the legality of it.

The doctor retired some years ago, at which point there were two other doctors in the state who were willing to prescribe the medications for transgender kids. I truly think that he would still be working if nobody else had been willing to take those kids on as patients. He was, by the way, a white cisgender heterosexual Boomer. I remember when he was introduced to the concept of ‘genderfluid’ because one of our patients on HRT wanted to go off. He said ‘that’s so interesting!’ and immediately went to Google to learn more about it. 

I watched these kids transform. I saw them come into the office the first time, sometimes anxious and uncertain, sometimes sullen and angry. I saw them come in the subsequent times, once they were on hormone therapy, how they gradually became happy and confident in themselves. I saw the smiles on their faces when I gave them a gender marker letter for the DMV. I heard them cheer when I called to tell them I’d gotten HRT approved by insurance and we were calling in a prescription. It was honestly amazing and I will always consider the work I did in that red state with those kids to be something I am incredibly proud of. I was honored to be a part of it.

When I see all this transgender backlash, it’s horrifying, because it was well on the way to become standard and accepted treatment. Insurances started to cover it. Other doctors were learning to prescribe it. And now … it’s fucking illegal? Like what the actual fuck. We have gone so far backwards that it makes me want to cry. I don’t know how to stop this slide. But I wrote this so people would understand exactly how steep the slide is.

[skrunksthatwunk]

im about to start working on a paper that's like two weeks late and looking at the requirements again it says it's 3 pages MINIMUM when i thought this whole time it was maximum. fucks sake that's why i couldn't go back to it what the hell

[evandore]

oh whatever i told her to buy me stickers from amazon instead lol worst comes to worst i can probably color or paint over whatever she gets to make my own