#so I went vague

[oh-hell-help-me]

July 21: National Be Someone Day

Luigi knew only a little bit of the Koopaling’s past.

It’s not that he didn’t make an effort to learn, but even mentioning their time before Bowser adopted them often led to these looks- expressions Luigi never wanted to see on their faces.

So, Luigi concentrated on learning everything about them- their likes, dislikes, plans for future occupations…

And sometimes this included spending time with them, including activities like shopping with Wendy, painting with Junior, knitting with Roy, and other things that can be done one on one.

The latest excursion was a day out with Ludwig, attending a tour through a museum of Koopa Kingdom instruments before spending the rest of their time in antique shops for possible records or sheet music.

It was great actually, and Ludwig seemed to appreciate the comradely over their shared knowledge of music theory.

And then they heard the sound of breaking glass.

For once, Luigi was only mildly alarmed- long since used to sudden sounds thanks to Iggy.

It was Ludwig’s reaction that scared him.

Because his confidant, put-together son was rapidly gasping for air yet utterly still even as a random patron provided background noise with apologies and whatever else that wasn’t important-

He reaches out to the Koopaling-

His bambino bolts into a nearby shelf blindly-

And Luigi’s fear starts to edge to panic.

Ludwig wasn’t responding to him, and he only tries to burrow into the wall behind him whenever he tries to reach out to comfort him.

Luigi felt lost, and the far look in the Koopaling’s eyes and sheer quietness gives him nothing to work with-

He hates how his hands are uselessly reaching for his bambino, and despises himself for giving into his nervous habit of humming.

After the first incident with King Boo, he’d thought he’d broken the habit- but apparently not since it’s not-

Not….

It took a minute, but Luigi could see Ludwig relax- just a little, but enough to tilt his head like he was listening-

Luigi continues to hum, just more steadily and to a tune he hoped was familiar enough to cling to.

Fives minutes pass, and Luigi is sure that Ludwig is not pressing against the wall, and is quick to give a patented glare to anyone who wandered too close.

(He is glad their spot is generally isolated- he doesn’t want to think what it could’ve been like in a stifling crowd.)

Seven minutes, he’s starting to take deeper breaths.

By ten minutes, Ludwig seems to be slowly blinking into awareness, his breathing nearly normal and Luigi wants to desperately hug him but-

He needs to make sure.

“Ludwig?” The flinch is barely there, but it’s enough to make him soften his voice even more. “Ludwig, can you hear me?”

And the Koopaling opens his mouth, visibly trying to say something, but ends up silent.

He settles for a nod.

And Luigi feels the tightness in his chest ease. It’s not gone, but any response is welcome at this point.

“Can I hold your hand?” He wants to just hug him, but Luigi felt it best to start small.

Ludwig shakes his head, pauses, nearly nods, and ends up making a grasping motion. Almost like what Junior does when-

Oh.

A hug it is then.

And Luigi is careful to wrap his arms around him, nearly sent stumbling backward when the Koopaling just burrows into his chest and shudders-

And Luigi realizes he’s crying.

After that, it was a bit of a blur of getting his bambino home and situated into the family nest- snagging Larry on the way to keep him company as he looks for Bowser.

(Rumors about the Koopa King’s husband ran that day from guards who happened to be around for the afternoon shift.)

(Some have passed down a warning- Luigi wasn’t known for violence, but the look in his eyes-)

(Some have kept information to themselves, especially as they overheard the intense conversation from the King’s office and swore they heard a roar that wasn’t from a Koopa-)

(Others had seen glimpses of the Royal Couple gathering their children and heading to the Family Nest Room.)

(But all of them knew that the look in the human’s eyes promised a dark violence, and they spent a week tiptoeing around before realizing it wasn’t going to be aimed at them.)

(They breathe a sigh of relief by the eventual peace that settled in after.)

[chloesimaginationthings]

FNAF Movie Mike got mixed signals from Vanessa..

[bigfatbreak]

Birds of a Feather previous / next

[uncharted-constellations]

The Princess and Hero of the First Great Calamity

The orange snoot is very important to me….

[inkskinned]

so one of the things that's so horrifying about birth control is that you have to, like, navigate this incredibly personal choice about your body and yet also face the epitome of misogyny. like, someone in the comments will say it wasn't that bad for me, and you'll be utterly silenced. like, everyone treats birth control like something that's super dirty. like, you have no fucking information or control over this thing because certain powerful people find it icky.

first it was the oral contraceptives. you went on those young, mostly for reasons unrelated to birth control - even your dermatologist suggested them to control your acne. the list of side effects was longer than your arm, and you just stared at it, horrified.

it made you so mentally ill, but you just heard that this was adulthood. that, yes, there are of course side effects, what did you expect. one day you looked up yasmin makes me depressed because surely this was far too intense, and you discovered that over 12,000 lawsuits had been successfully filed against the brand. it remains commonly prescribed on the open market. you switched brands a few times before oral contraceptives stopped being in any way effective. your doctor just, like, shrugged and said you could try a different brand again.

and the thing is that you're a feminist. you know from your own experience that birth control can be lifesaving, and that even when used for birth control - it is necessary healthcare. you have seen it save so many people from such bad situations, yourself included. it is critical that any person has access to birth control, and you would never suggest that we just get rid of all of it.

you were a little skeeved out by the implant (heard too many bad stories about it) and figured - okay, iud. it was some of the worst pain you've ever fucking experienced, and you did it with a small number of tylenol in your system (3), like you were getting your bikini line waxed instead of something practically sewn into your body.

and what's wild is that because sometimes it isn't a painful insertion process, it is vanishingly rare to find a doctor that will actually numb the area. while your doctor was talking to you about which brand to choose, you were thinking about the other ways you've been injured in your life. you thought about how you had a suspicious mole frozen off - something so small and easy - and how they'd numbed a huge area. you thought about when you broke your wrist and didn't actually notice, because you'd thought it was a sprain.

your understanding of pain is that how the human body responds to injury doesn't always relate to the actual pain tolerance of the person - it's more about how lucky that person is physically. maybe they broke it in a perfect way. maybe they happened to get hurt in a place without a lot of nerve endings. some people can handle a broken femur but crumble under a sore tooth. there's no true way to predict how "much" something actually hurts.

in no other situation would it be appropriate for doctors to ignore pain. just because someone can break their wrist and not feel it doesn't mean no one should receive pain meds for a broken wrist. it just means that particular person was lucky about it. it should not define treatment.

in the comments of videos about IUDs, literally thousands of people report agony. blinding, nauseating, soul-crushing agony. they say things like i had 2 kids and this was the worst thing i ever experienced or i literally have a tattoo on my ribs and it felt like a tickle. this thing almost killed me or would rather run into traffic than ever feel that again.

so it's either true that every single person who reports severe pain is exaggerating. or it's true that it's far more likely you will experience pain, rather than "just a pinch." and yet - there's nothing fucking been done about it. it kind of feels like a shrug is layered on top of everything - since technically it's elective, isn't it kind of your fault for agreeing to select it? stop being fearmongering. stop being defensive.

you fucking needed yours. you are almost weirdly protective of it. yours was so important for your physical and mental health. it helped you off hormonal birth control and even started helping some of your symptoms. it still fucking hurt for no fucking reason.

once while recovering from surgery, they offered you like 15 days of vicodin. you only took 2 of them. you've been offered oxy for tonsillitis. you turned down opioids while recovering from your wisdom tooth extraction. everything else has the option. you fucking drove yourself home after it, shocked and quietly weeping, feeling like something very bad had just happened. the nurse that held your hand during the experience looked down at you, tears in her eyes, and said - i know. this is cruelty in action.

and it's fucked up because the conversation is never just "hey, so the way we are doing this is fucking barbaric and doctors should be required to offer serious pain meds" - it's usually something around the lines of "well, it didn't kill you, did it?"

you just found out that removing that little bitch will hurt just as bad. a little pinch like how oral contraceptives have "some" serious symptoms. like your life and pain are expendable or not really important. like maybe we are all hysterical about it?

hysteria comes from the latin word for uterus, which is great!

you stand here at a crossroads. like - this thing is so important. did they really have to make it so fucking dangerous. and why is it that if you make a complaint, you're told - i didn't even want you to have this in the first place. we're told be careful what you wish for. we're told that it's our fault for wanting something so illict; we could simply choose not to need medication. that maybe if we don't like the scraps, we should get ready to starve.

we have been saying for so long - "i'm not asking you to remove the option, i'm asking you to reconsider the risk." this entire time we hear: well, this is what you wanted, isn't it?

[escyn]

Old Wounds Reopened[flood]: Kyoshi Warrior Sokka | Blue Spirit

Zukka Week Day 3 (id in alt)

+some close-ups bc I love them so

other things from ZW2024: Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7

[purplepixel]

[naturecalls111]

WIP!!! Stealing glances amidst victory celebrations in Suna….

[morganbritton132]

Oh geez this might be a double ask because my phone glitched out when I tried to send previously BUT just wanted to say that I love ur Steve has older siblings au

I also need to say that I shamelessly combined that au with ur post about Tommy knowing Steve the best. Just picturing Steve’s sibs zoning out when his mom lists what he can’t eat because they assume she’s just being difficult. Flash forward a few years and they accidentally poison Steve with like peanut butter cookies and are realllly lucky that Tommy was staying over that weekend and knows he’s allergic.

anyways thx for all ur writing!

I only got this ask once so we’re good! The Steve Has Older Siblings AU has kinda been on hold for a bit because Dustin is either the easiest or the hardest character to write and right now, he’s being difficult for me.

BUT! I love this.

I’m going to change it around a bit because I’m on this kick right now where Steve is allergic to aspirin. Also, with the way that Steve’s mom is written for this AU, she is negligent but protective of her son. I don’t think she’d allow peanut butter in the house if Steve was allergic.

She wouldn’t allow aspirin either but Richard insists that it’s the only thing that cures a migraine (hangover), and Steve’s eight. He doesn’t even like taking his Flintstone vitamins so she’s not concerned about him getting in the medicine cabinet.

It’s not common that Tommy stays over at Steve’s when they’re sick.

Typically his mom watches them at their house but she had to go wake up his grandma (“That doesn’t make any sense. Why can’t she set an alarm clock?”/”I dunno, Steve. That’s what Mommy said. She had to go to Granny’s wake.”) so Mrs. Harrington was babysitting them.

Mrs. Harrington isn’t very good at taking care of them. Tommy wouldn’t tell Steve that because it’ll make him sad, but his mom kinda sucks at this. She doesn’t even give them popsicles for their sore throats or kiss their foreheads to check their temperature. She just disappears for long periods of time to yell into the phone.

Tommy’s kinda happy when she has to go into the office because he thinks Claire might look after them, but she’s apparently studying in her room so Steve’s brothers are doing it.

Tommy secretly likes this better because Jason and Richie are very nice to him, and they tell him that he’s cooler than Steve. No one has ever said that before! Not even Carol and they got married under the jungle gym.

Tommy likes hanging out with them even if he feels icky today.

He is standing in the kitchen next to Steve, watching Richie cut a little orange pill in half with a knife. Richie keeps muttering under his breath about running out of the ‘liquid S H I T.’ Tommy thinks it’s funny that he said a bad word, but can’t laugh about it because he can see the bottle that the pill came out of and –

“I don’t think we take that,” He voices but Richie brushes him off. He says it’s like candy. Tommy has brothers too, so he knows that sometimes you gotta give in or they’ll rub your face into the carpet until you get rugburn, but, “I know but… but what if only I take it?”

“You take half,” Richie tells him. “Stevie over here takes the other half and then we’re right as rain. It reduces fever.”

“Yeah,” Jason adds from behind them. “So your brain doesn’t leak out your ears.”

Tommy looks over at Steve but he isn’t fully awake so there’s not much of a reaction there. Plus, he’s not a very good reader so Tommy’s not sure if he even knows what the bottle says. He tries again, ignoring Jason, “That’s not what Mrs. Harrington gave us earlier.”

“Yeah, I know. This is better.”

“Steve can’t take that,” Tommy tries again after he crunches the medicine between his teeth. He sticks out his tongue so Richie can see that it’s gone, and then adds, “Mommy gave that to him once and it made him really sick.”

“It did?” Steve croaks, snatching his hand back when Richie tries to hand him the pill. Richie tries to force the pill into his mouth but Steve presses his lips together. It makes his brother swear and gesture to Jason, and then Steve is snatched off his feet with a hand pinching his nose shut.

He struggles and Tommy wants to help but he – he also wants Richie and Jason to like him so, he doesn’t help. Steve gasps for breath and the pill goes in…and Steve is fine. He’s angry and out of breath, and his nose is still stuffy so he still kinda sounds like a frog but he’s not.. he’s not blue like last time.

Tommy thinks, oh. He thinks, cool.

Everything is fine for fifteen minutes and then Tommy is yelling out the door of Steve’s bedroom that they need help. Steve is breathing weird and – “and, I – I think he’s going to die!”

A lot of stuff happens at once. Claire leaves her room, Jason and Richie come up the stairs, and they all start yelling and blaming each other. No one really jumps into action until Tommy bursts into tears. Then it’s movement and car rides, and Tommy is sitting in the waiting room at the hospital without shoes on.

He doesn’t know how long they’ve been sitting there when Mr. and Mrs. Harrington rush into the room. The only thing he does know is that he’s never seen anybody look as angry as Mrs. Harrington did when she sees them.

She looks like she’s going to yell at them but Mr. Harrington grabs her by the arm and drags her to the reception desk. They disappear behind the white double doors that Steve went through.

It only makes Tommy cry harder.

[stabbyfoxandrew]

okay so, upon thinking about it, this is how the twin switch (horrible bad edition where luther confuses the twins and sends aaron upstairs into drake's arms instead of andrew) would go:

-

aaron goes to get smth from the kitchen for maria and luther follows him, tells him there's something for him upstairs. a couple minutes later luther is back at the table and aaron is not.

"did my brother get lost?" andrew asks.

"no. he went upstairs." luther puts his glass down.

"and why would he do that?"

"we arranged a reunion with one of his old foster brother-"

no. no. no.

andrew is up and out of his chair in a heartbeat. he hears footsteps following behind him but wastes no time getting up the stairs. he tries the doorknob but it's locked and fuck it's gonna take too long to pick, it-

neil is there. he has a look on his face that andrew doesn't like but he doesn't even question why andrew needs to get inside. after gesturing for him to back up, neil's foot goes through the door right by the knob and he shoves his hand through the hole to unlock it. andrew shoves the ruined door open and rushes inside to a scene from several nightmares.

his twin on a bed, drake standing over him.

andrew moves on pure instinct, grabbing drake by the neck and yanking him backwards. drake's head thunks against the wall and it's not enough to kill him (later, andrew decides) but aaron is there and bleeding and-

"get out." andrew says to neil. "and keep them out. i will kill any and everyone who comes into this room."

neil moves backwards to the doorway and keeps his eyes on drake, funnily enough. he doesn't look at aaron, he doesn't look at andrew. "do we call an ambulance or not?"

andrew turns a snarl on him.

"not for him. for aaron." neil specifies. "is he... hurt?"

"call it. tell them to send a pig too." andrew tells him and neil immediately goes to stand in the hallway with his phone at his ear.

"andrew?"

andrew's eyes snap back to his twin, looking at him with a confused squint. there's blood trickling down his face onto his shirt. his pants- andrew lets out a breath of relief. aaron's belt is undone, jeans unzipped. but that's as far as he got.

because andrew was fast enough.

"it's alright." andrew says. and it is, mostly. because he was fast enough. "it's going to be alright. you just got hit in the head."

"with what?" aaron sits up groggily, leaning to one side. andrew steadies him and glances down at the floor.

"a bottle of whiskey it seems." andrew holds up his hand. "how many fingers?"

"three." aaron says with a groan. then he squints down at the body in the floor. "who's that-"

"nobody."

"andr-"

"no. be quiet." andrew glances over at the door. "ambulance neil, where is it?"

"on the way." neil says. then he shushes kevin in the hallway. "the 'reunion' didn't go as planned. there's a body in there. you don't wanna see it."

"a body?!" nicky shrieks. "andrew what did you do?"

always my fault, andrew thinks bitterly.

"he's not dead yet." andrew says. probably. if he is, good. if he's not, andrew will finish it later.

aaron blinks heavily and looks down at his lap, at his undone belt, before raising his gaze back to andrew, eyes wide. "what did... andrew?"

there's a rasp of breath behind him and he turns to see drake's eyes start to open. andrew kicks him in the face and grabs aaron, hauling him up by the arm.

"we're relocating now." andrew leads aaron to the bathroom across the hall and sits him on the toilet lid, locking the door behind them and letting neil field questions. from neil's look, he knows exactly who drake is and what he's done. for neil's safety, he'd better not mention it.

in the bathroom andrew doesn't say a word, neither of them do. andrew just holds a washcloth against his brother's temple as aaron struggles to re-buckle his belt. finally, he hears sirens approaching from the distance. he looks out the bathroom window, ripping the lace curtain down in the process, but can't see the ambulance yet.

"he thought i was you." aaron says suddenly, with a disturbing amount of clarity. his eyes are huge and his pupils uneven and andrew doesn't know what to say to that. drake had no preference. he'll never tell aaron that. "andrew?"

"it's quiet time. you have a concussion." andrew says, tapping his finger against aaron's head. it makes him wince.

there's a knock on the door. "andrew, they're here."

"good." andrew looks back at aaron. "do you want a gurney or can you handle the stairs?"

"andrew-"

"just answer the fucking question."

"i can walk."

"alright. let's go." andrew opens the bathroom door and sticks his head out into the hall. only neil remains, standing between the bedroom door and here. he looks over his shoulder.

"he hasn't moved in a minute but he's breathing."

andrew grunts at him and keeps an arm around aaron's shoulders on the way down the stairs. the peanut gallery is in the living room, kevin and nicky sitting on the couch. kevin's texting someone, likely wymack. and maria is opening the door for the EMTs to come inside.

andrew rides in the ambulance with aaron, fills out his forms, and sits in the waiting room while a doctor looks aaron over. it's a concussion, andrew knows. but it couldn't have been too bad, he was lucid enough to figure drake out. andrew's phone rings and he's not surprised at the caller ID.

"what the hell happened?" asks wymack as soon as andrew accepts the call. "i've talked to kevin, nicky, and neil and none of those assholes has a clue."

neil definitely does. but he didn't say. good for him.

"mm. above your paygrade coach." andrew flips his phone shut and leans back in his chair until his head hits the wall.

he was fast enough.

[pickersonpaints]

10.2.24

[hajihiko]

Welcome to the S.S Awakening, Ryota

[horrorgay]

beautiful world where you can block anyone forever

[bardicblast]

[fudgelling-away]

The comic says it all, but you can check the tags for more context.

[teddybearty]

Using an Oral Hygiene Product 💀