#to start having really mysterious health problems

[drchucktingle]

On your blog you've talked about dealing with chronic as a result from the stress of masking your autism.

It's a bit of a different situation, but my little sister (who we've begun to suspect has adhd) has been experiencing chronic pain in her arms and legs. I may be totally off base, but I was wondering if a similar stess might potentially be a factor in her pain.

If you're willing, would you mind talking about how your pain affected before you found a way to manage it (I tried searching your tumblr, but not much came up, so sorry if I'm asking a question that's already been answered)?

Thanks either way, I love your books. Love is real!

sure buckaroo GOOD QUESTION. i have had chronic pain in some form or another for LONG TIME in a number of STRESS RELATED WAYS. in past it has been cracking teeth from clenching dang jaws while i sleep and things like that, but a few years ago it was FULL ON BODY PAIN AND TIGHTNESS like every muscle was clenching up. went to the doctor over and over all kinds of dang specialists and it was very difficult to figure out what was going on. eventually landed on a sort of nebulous trot of STRESS but i can get more specific.

there are several things about me that you would never know just from looking or even talking to me for long times. i am a bi buckaroo, i am a non-dysphoric trans buckaroo, i am an autistic buckaroo. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE THINGS IS EITHER HIDDEN AUTOMATICALLY OR I AM SUCH AN EXPERT AT HIDING THAT IT IS SECOND NATURE

autism presents its trot in many ways, so my words do not apply to all, but my version is EXTREME ORGANIZATION AND ENDLESS WORK ETHIC. in way of freud (which is a silly way but sometimes good for symbolism talk) i have what you would call an OVERDEVELOPED SUPER EGO which is a double edged sword. i can write 100s of books at an incredible pace, but also feel like my body is constantly collapsing in on itself

this is not really something i consciously think about much, but eventually these health problems started creeping up. it was all from carrying this mystery tension in my body, because while it feels EASY for me to mask i believe all that tension goes somewhere and it stores up and stores up and stores up.

so i think the HEALTHY way that i have found to deal with this (i think of it as releasing the steam valve a bit so the boiler does not break down) is ART. this space where i am allowed to be CHUCK TINGLE and write without obsessing over the spelling or punctuation, or to loudly express my queerness, or explore gender, and to let my neurotypical mask down DIRECTLY RELIEVES my chronic pain because it literally makes my muscles relax.

when i started out this ARTISTIC TROT as chuck i used a LOT of metaphor to keep my privacy, with different words or different versions of people for different things, and buckaroos found this very funny. as a way to express myself artistically i also liked this metaphor trot a lot, but i have also found that the LESS metaphor i paint over my life as chuck, the better it is for my health. if you have noticed, i talk less about some of the parts of my life that were metaphors, or maybe you have seen that my voice has relaxed a bit in interviews, or that i carry myself a little differently over time, this is partially why. (there is another artistic reason that was a planned trot from the beginning and it has to do with my feelings as a young autistic buckaroo of not fitting in on this timeline, but we can dive into that later).

anyway, as PRACTICAL ADVICE i would say that FINDING A SPACE TO EXPRESS YOURSELF WITHOUT FEAR OR MASKING has been the number one trot for me. that can be a pink bag over your head writing hundreds of erotic shorts, or that can be just laying on the ground howling your heart out, or doing whatever stim you need to do.

i will also say that ONCE I REALIZED IT WAS MUSCLE TENSION getting a physical therapist helped a lot. because there are two sides, you have to start releasing steam from the steam valve, but at the same time youve also gotta start HEALING THE DAMAGE. so i think stretching and techniques like that can be very helpful.

hope that helps buckaroo LOVE IS REAL

[vettelsvee]

ONCE UPON A WISH SERIES

˚ ༘✶ ⋆｡˚ 2K FOLLOWERS EVENT ✧ F1 ROYAL AU MAIN FORMULA 1 MASTERLIST | REQUESTS/LET'S TALK!

© VETTELSVEE (2025). Please, do not steal, copy, translate and share my works in other platforms. Thanks for reading!

❝Six kingdoms, but a secret one has the truth behind them all.❞

BOOK 1 BITTERSWEET CROWN | Lando Norris Prince Lando of Vermora is getting into an arranged marriage, which means all local businesses will be examined to provide for the royal wedding. Y/N and her mum's bakery is the chosen one to supply for everything related on the royal wedding desserts, locking them into an agreement they can't refuse while they'll start being owned by the Norris' family. Even everything seems a problem, Y/N finds the perfect opportunity to try finding out why the Norris family made his father disappear. ↳ CAKE TESTING (One Shot available now!)

BOOK 2 ROYAL REPLAY | Charles Leclerc Prince Charles Leclerc of Caelondrose is caught too close with Y/N, a mysterious top Formula 1 driver who has close contact with republican ties. As both of them are in serious problems with everything being posted on social media, and everyone talking about it, the best solution the royal family and Y/N's PR find is selling to the world a fake engagement by a reality series starring both of them. ↳ FIRST TAKE, SECOND GLANCE (One Shot available now!)

BOOK 3 SILENT REIGN | Sebastian Vettel King Sebastian Vettel of Grendwalt lost his wife five years ago under strange circumstances. Now, as his daughters grow up and there are more controversies involving his kingdom and himself, he decides to get help from Y/N, a commoner that might know a few secrets that could put his kingdom to an end but, in front of others, might have to act as the princesses' nanny. ↳ TEA WITH THE PRINCESSES (One Shot available now!)

BOOK 4 SOVEREIGN SILENCE | Max Verstappen Prince Max Verstappen of Solvaris is the next in line to the throne, but he doesn't want to be part of it, specially not under his father's shadow. When rebellious journalist and activist Y/N starts asking him questions that start generating international controversy, everyone starts wondering if the Verstappens are really the royal family who should be in charge of the kingdom. ↳ One shot coming up on June 20th, 2025

BOOK 5 CROWNED GAME | Mick Schumacher Prince Mick Schumacher of Valstrasse doesn't know if being a king is what really fits him, especially when he starts ruling his kingdom right after his dad's health worsening. Even when he should be focusing on trying to make lives better, he decides to keep going with the secret life he's been having for a few years now as an amateur hockey player from a team where everyone keeps their identities as a secret. However, Mick knows his reign might be at risk when one of the people he shares team with discovers who he really is. ↳ One shot coming up on June 21st, 2025

BOOK 6 UNVEILED HEIR | Oscar Piastri After the President and the First Gentleman of the secret Republic of Astralara are killed under mysterious conditions on their way to let the other 5 Kingdoms of the new world they exits, their daughter, Y/N, starts being under protection of Oscar Piastri, a bodyguard who might try his best to protect her from the death threats she's receiving while trying to finish the mission their parents started. ↳ One shot coming up on June 22nd, 2025

[jojo-schmo]

✿ Forgotten Land Roleswap AU ✿

✦ 3rd Anniversary ✦

I was hoping to get this Light Novel cover redraw finished by today, but I haven't been feeling well and ran out of time- but I still wanted to at least share this WIP and muse on how much things have grown during these three years, and how much this project has meant to me so far.

April 12, 2022 was the day I created posted the first doodles that would, unbeknownst to me at the time, germinate the idea that would transform into a passion project spanning multiple years. I had just finished Kirby and the Forgotten Land's story and slowly getting back into the Kirby fandom space for the first time in years. It had been a long time since a game made me feel as wonderful as Forgotten Land did. I've loved Bandana Waddle Dee since I first played Return to Dreamland on the Wii when I was a kid, and wished he had more opportunities to shine outside of directly supporting Kirby in the game. I also love "What If" and "Roleswap" AUs, so I considered what would happen if I swapped Bandana Dee and King Dedede's role in the game.

The posts didn't really get much traction at first, which was fine. But I kept going back to the idea after a few days and thinking about how to push it further. Instead of just swapping Bandee and Dedede, what if Dedede was Player 1 to increase the stakes of rescuing the kidnapped Waddle Dees? Dedede wouldn't have access to Mouthful Mode, so how would the gameplay work then? Instead of Kirby taking care of everything with his own Mouthful Mode, it could be more fun to have Meta Knight be Player 2 instead, and explore their teamwork dynamics and problem-solving methods together!

So I explored an alternative- Combo Mode! And developing and researching ideas for that lit a spark within me! I had to keep going after that!

Now I had to consider, if I'm already swapping around all the main characters, I'm starting to have an entirely new universe here! What's next to change up? For the heroes' companion, I felt like Elfilin wouldn't behave very differently in this AU than in canon, he would probably continue to be friendly and helpful and sweet. Which would be okay- but to make things more interesting for myself, what if I played around with the origin story of the missing pieces of Fecto Forgo and switched "Elfilis" and "Elfilin" around? That way there's new obstacles and possibilities there and maybe I can even surprise some people with the lore down the line!

Now I'd had my Dream Team shuffled around, a very different mysterious companion for them... And why stop there? Why not play with the Beast Council's roles too while I'm at it to make things even more interesting for myself to write?!

From the early days of this AU Project...

To my more recent work...

...Now here we are.

It'd been a long, long time since I enjoyed the creation process of anything for myself like this! I was coming out of some pretty hard times in the early 2020s, and in a lot of ways, this AU has been there alongside me during a years-long journey to get help for my mental health, to become more confident in who I am and what I can bring to the world around me, and to love myself. Now I'm the best version of myself I've ever been, and I can pour so much more into my art and writing, especially with this AU!! <3

AND MAN, does it feel good to see physical evidence of my art style's evolution side-by-side! Like comparing my first Light Novel cover redraw from 2022 with my current WIP!

Creating this AU has taught me so much about storytelling, the medium of comics, organization, and most of all, to enjoy the process and really push my personal limits in a positive way. I've met so many amazing people since starting this story, some of whom have inspired me in ways I never could've imagined. Some very key people have even helped me ponder different mediums to tell this story.... Some animatics... or maybe even more interactive storytelling...? I am slow cooking some fun ideas, dear reader....

This AU gave me the confidence to become more involved in the fandom space and find community among people who have taught me so much. I am so, so grateful for this project.

I know it's taken some time to get here. I still work full-time and now I'm pursuing a second bachelor's in hopes of a career change that will allow me more time to focus on creating someday. But for now, free time can be frustratingly limited for me. It's also taken this long because I've put a lot of thought into how to set up the metaphorical "dominos" in the forms of foreshadowing and world-building I want, to do my best to make the wait worth it for the future plot pay-offs and reveals I have planned!! I'm hoping to continue to pick up speed with updates as I increase my skill and solidify my master plan for this story... MUAHAHA....

I plan on seeing this project to the very very end, and I can't wait to continue this journey with you all. Especially with the announcement of Star-Crossed Worlds!!! I'm not too worried about it turning my AU lore upside-down quite yet since it's post-game content and my bigger lore drops are still a little bit away, so I have time to navigate that when it does drop :3

Thank you to everyone who has read, enjoyed, and supported this project in any way, whether it's a like, comment, reblog tag, dm, carrier pigeon, paper airplane- whatever!! <3 I love, appreciate, and am beyond grateful for every reader, supporter, and friend I've gained in the past three years!!

Cheers to a successful three years under my belt, and I look forward to the future!! By the end of this journey, I hope you will enjoy reading this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

🫧 Love, Jojo T. Schmo 🫧

★○★○★○★○★○★○★○★

♫ Laughing loud! Even if you're far apart, they're right by your side. Hearts full of love! Everyone is welcome to live in this new world. ♫

｡⋆｡˚ ʚïɞ ˚｡⋆｡

[creekfiend]

I wanted to make a bonsai kitten recovery post that outlines some of the stuff that I've been doing. Because I don't think that you need to ✨see a therapist✨ to start dealing with a lot of this stuff and I get really frustrated when that is the answer that everyone is constantly giving. Firstly a disclaimer, because I know what website I am on: this is a guide for things that have worked for me! I am not everyone and if there are things on here that do not work for you or even that you think are stupid, that is fine, but please do not make it my problem. If you are reading it and you're like "that sounds like it would actually be detrimental to my specific mental health because of my specific issues" then please disregard it. Use your critical thinking skills and do what you think is right for you!

My second disclaimer is that I didn't make any of this up myself; most of these are collected from various places either in therapeutic guide books or various websites about emotional regulation etc. Some of it is stuff that I have extrapolated from those places based on experience with what works for me or does not work for me. A lot of the way that I treat myself when I need to get my body and brain into a place where I can think about stuff productively is actually directly from gentle parenting guides, because frankly cptsd recovery stuff is very often like parenting a toddler. And the toddler is you. ALL THAT SAID,

The first skill that I had to get good at, that many of the other skills depend on, is to learn how to understand when I am Reacting to something. If I am Reacting it is extremely likely that that's going to only escalate the situation and make it much worse. I HAVE to be able to tell if I am Reacting emotionally to something in a way that is coming from a place of fear and panic. This is important because it involves not being prescriptive about your emotions. You could be Reacting to something that you do not logically feel is at all justified in making you feel that way and that doesn't matter! You can't be doing math equations to try to come to the answer of how you SHOULD be feeling; you have to be observing your mind and body to see how you factually ARE feeling and then respond to THAT. This can be really hard to learn how to do especially if you were abused as a child. (If you cannot think of yourself as someone who is abused as a child perhaps it would help to think of yourself as someone who simply was not taught various emotional regulation skills for mysterious reasons that have nothing to do with your parents' inadequacies.) I need to be able to glance inward and see what the physiological reaction that I'm having is and identify whether or not I feel like this is the biggest emergency in the world that needs to be addressed right now immediately! That is a sure sign that Mr Fight and Mr Flight are in the building and it is bad to make declarative statements or important decisions when that is the case. So, I have to work on dismissing them first. That is literally the first step to any of this. One of my friends calls this "fire mittens," which is to say, if you are wearing mittens that are on fire and you try to touch stuff, the stuff will also become on fire. You have to put the fire out first before you can touch other things.

Once I have determined that I am indeed Reacting and in a physiological state of fear, I have a document in my notes app that is a "what to do when you are in fight or flight mode" guide and it has several helpful things that I will try to outline here.

Firstly, the really important thing for me for trying to get back into an emotional state where I'm capable of making decisions and being thoughtful is to feel safe and comfortable. So I actually have some stuff in my document that is straight up just like "go in the blankie nest. put on this specific music album. light this specific scented candle." etc. You might want to have a specific food or drink that is comforting to you or some other sort of stim toy that helps you regulate. If there's any calming medication or supplements for anxiety that you take as needed, now is also the time to do that. Physical sensory grounding is really important for this. This is probably especially true if, like me, you are neurodivergent, but I think it is also true for everyone because we are animals! And you can't just think about it, you have to actually do it. Which sounds obvious but is the thing that has often tripped me up in the past. Once you start getting into the habit of actually physically doing this it DOES become easier though.

One of my rules is that if I want to respond to something but I am in fight or flight mode, I don't get to respond to it for at least 24 hours. I'm only allowed to respond once I've gotten myself out of fear mode. If it is some kind of comment on Facebook that has set me off, often this means that 24 hours later I realize that I actually don't want to get into it to begin with, which is great. If it's something that is pretty serious and interpersonal with a friend, sometimes that means I have to communicate to them that I'm going to take a while to process it and then get back to them. IMPORTANT: You CANNOT do this passive aggressively or else it undermines the whole thing. You can't phrase it in a way that will make your friends think that you are guilt tripping them for "making" you feel a way. It is VERY tempting to do this when you are in the first stages of trying to form this habit and you simply need to resist the urge because it will render this step worthless. I know. It sucks.

If I am feeling fearful and insecure about friends or loved ones, I also usually try to spend some time thinking about the people that I love and care about. Because often this stuff manifest for me as insecurity that the people that I care about do not care about me, or that they think that I'm being annoying, or that they are secretly thinking mean things about me. It's obviously not good for me to constantly be imagining that the people in my life who I care about are actually avatars of my own insecurity who are here to tell me that I'm secretly fundamentally unlovable! But crucially also it's ALSO not fair to those people to imagine them as that. They are not that guy, they are their own complex human beings with their own lives and experiences and interiority. So sometimes I do thought exercises where I will imagine my friends or loved ones doing things in their everyday lives and I will think about them as people and I will think about the things that they like to do and the things that they say and the places that they go, and I will try to imagine them fondly in those circumstances. This helps to remind me that they are just people and that the scary puppet wearing their faces is not real. To this end I sometimes will have a document of screenshots of things that they have said to me that I can use to reality check myself. I personally find reality checks to be essential for a lot of this. Things can feel true when they are not true at all. Things can feel wrong when they are actually true. The point of most of these exercises is to gently remind myself that those feelings are normal for me to be having, but that I do not need to let them dictate my responses.

It is crucial throughout all of this that you are nice to yourself. You can't talk to yourself in a mean way while you're doing this, or you will not get to a point where you are feeling safe enough to react from a place of not-fear. You can't make yourself feel ashamed or defensive for your emotional reactions. This is the particular area where I find gentle parenting protocols helpful. You HAVE to be patient with yourself.

Ok that's all for now bc I ran out of steam but I will try to think of more to add on another day maybe. Godspeed everyone

[flymetosnarryland]

We have a problem...

There is only one person you can ask for help when Harry disappears, right?

I'm stressed, super tired and in pain, so… going to vent a little, because feeling a bit helpless, eh. The thing is, I have this nasty cough and I have it all my life. 30+ years of endless months of freaking cough that no doctor knows why I have it and how to fix it. I know people have worse health problems, so I'm not complaining. I'm just living with it, even if it's really hard sometimes, because my body is too tired to deal with it. Imagine coughing every day for couple months in a row like you spit your lungs and other inside stuff out. Your throat is sore all the time. You have hoarse and your chest muscles are on their limits, everything just hurts. Every time it ends, I'm feeling fucking blessed. Now it's going for two months after a month or so break and I'm pretty sure one of my chest muscles tore up or something. The doc I went to, said by hearing what I feel, that it's some in between ribs nerve issue. She gave me some fat painkillers and say goodbye, heh. (They works half way though) I hate to take pills and trying to avoid it as much as I can. But I started this year with different pills for different shit and I just want… I want this cough to stop. I want to be free from other not fully understood health issues than was born from that stupid flu and go back to my good, free from stress life. It was so good before, eh. I just cross my fingers that the lungs specialist I have a visit at Monday will not treat me like a pest and actually will be able to help solving some of the 30 years old cough's mystery. I'm not dying or something. I'm happy, because I'm pretty healthy in general. But I'm so freaking and dead tired because of stupid, neverending cough and can only cry. Just cry, cus can't do a shit with it. Normally I was swallowing it all. It's a shame to talk about something such trivial like this, isn't it? But as my psychologist said, I shouldn't ignore things that makes me feel really bad. And to be honest, talking about it, venting here and even crying, eh, it helps. Next day is a little bit better. Every time. And I'm really happy and grateful for having something to do. To be able to draw at least, since I'm slow with writing cus of the pain. But Snarry truly is my comfy blanket and helps me a lot dealing with stress.

Whoever managed to read that wall of cry, thank you. Hopefully you will not count me as stupid, heh. It's hard as fuck to share personal stuff for me. Especially knowing that other people have bigger problems... mines sounds silly compare to others. I know...

[itmeblog]

It's Black History Month

(Over here in the US of A) So here are some podcasts to check out.

Absolutely no Adventures - a fantasy (un)adventure story that follows Sig, the owner of Signature Eats bakery, as he aggressively avoids becoming embroiled in any daring quests or chosen one shenanigans even though the universe really seems to want him to do just that. This is a story about cutting Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey off at the knees to chill with friends and staying far, far away from the slightest whiff of adventure. And also baking. This is also a story about baking.

Afflicted - Lovecraft Country meets True Blood in this new series from award-winning producers Tonia Ransom and Jen Zink. In season one, a small East Texas town suffers supernatural disasters caused by a demonic book bound in human flesh…and only hoodoo can save the town from its affliction.

Apollyon - In the early 22nd century, the Apollyon virus wiped out 75% of the world’s population, and now most of the world is governed by the International Conglomerate of Research Scientists. Dr. Theo Ramsey is an ICRS research scientist who may have just discovered an effective vaccine for Apollyon, but the stakes to get the vaccine to the public are higher than she ever imagined.

Between Heartbeats - Tan immersive Urban Fantasy about the hurt, the powerful, and their growth within a broken world. We follow Sundiata, a guilt-ridden time manipulator with a knack for unemployment, and Nadia, a moralistic telepath determined not to lose control, as they balance frayed mental health against an unsympathetic police state. But when a malevolent presence rears is head, their neuroses become the least of their problems. Can our heroes make the most of their abilities before the option is taken from them?

Fan Wars: The Empire Claps Back - Two passionate Star Wars fans on opposite sides of the Last Jedi debate argue via Skype after their favorite forum closes down. If you love Star Wars (or call yourself a proud member of any fandom), you’ll love this romantic comedy told via

Harlem Queen - a Black historical fiction audio drama based on the life and times of Black, woman, "gangster" Madame Stephanie St. Clair during the Harlem Renaissance.

His Royal Fakin' Highness - What if Ophelia helped Hamlet get his throne back? This modern day, romantic comedy re-imagining of Shakespeare's Hamlet asks just that. As they stage an engagement in the wake of the king's death, these childhood frenemies must decide between duty and love.

InCo (This one's mine :D) - A Sci-Fi story about a disgruntled information seller, a mysterious space boy, and an android doing her best.

Janus Descending - a limited series, science fiction/horror audio drama podcast, follows the arrival of two xenoarcheologists on a small world orbiting a binary star. But what starts off as an expedition to survey the planet and the remains of a lost alien civilization, turns into a monstrous game of cat and mouse, as the two scientists are left to face the creatures that killed the planet in the first place.

Lady Lucy - Lady Lucy is an audio drama inspired by Shakespeare's "Dark Lady" Sonnets, 127-154. Between running her brothel, fighting the Church, murdering her friends' abusive husbands, and pretending to be a poet, the last thing Lucy needed back in 1586 was a surprise visit from her former flame... Will Shakespeare.

Liars and Leeches - Tonya Wright felt it all after the tragic murders of her sister and brother-in-law in a random act of gun violence. Struggling to travel outside of her home, she now lives constantly on edge about perceived threats that seem to surround her.

Nightlight - Multi-award winning horror podcast featuring creepy stories with full audio production written by Black writers and performed by Black actors. So scary it’ll make you want to leave your night light on.

Null /Void - a science fiction audio drama about a young woman, Piper Lee, whose life is saved by a mysterious voice named Adelaide. Piper soon uncovers a malicious plot by a monopoly of a tech company and must work with her friends and an unusual ally to help foil their deadly plot.

Out of Ashes - (currently remastering season 1) Follow a group of survivors as they navigate the ruins of modern civilization and battle against demons, ghosts, monsters and the looming threat of extinction from an ancient power.

Small Victories - A recently recovered drug addict tries to start her new lease on life, too bad life has it out for her.  This dramatic comedy follows Marisol through the ups and downs of her life.

The Courtship of Mona Mae - In the 1870s, pioneers Mona Mae Christophe and Zekial Montgomery search the American West for Mona Mae's mother, Clara. Mona must recall a past, long forgotten in order to survive, so that she can find her mother, love and create a way of life for herself.

Vega a Sci-Fi Adventure Podcast - In a fantasy futuristic world, Vega Rex is employed by her government to kill off the world's worst criminals. She's never met a criminal she couldn't catch…until now. Join Vega as she journeys through a world of bumbling apprentices, powerful technogods, and her biggest challenge yet. Hosted by Ivuoma Hall.

Witchever Path - is an anthology series where your decisions effect the story. Our stories are based in America’s NorthEast, featuring characters finding themselves in the thick of the unknown while tackling issues like queer identity, gender, race, and spirituality. Stories often focus on the communities not typically seen in stories taking place in New England, and giving voice to the perspectives of those communities while uniting under some universal themes. And the supernatural happens. A lot.

(All descriptions were taken from websites)

If you want to find more and there are way more there's a directory :D

[sunderwight]

TSCTIR-inspired SVSSS AU.

Shen Yuan was just a regular (ehhh kind of) nerd when the invasions began, monsters and dungeons started showing up, and people started "awakening" as RPG-style superheroes with special abilities, enhanced strength/speed/etc, and ranked classifications.

Shen Yuan's older brother awakens as S-classes. His younger sister awakens as an S-class. Shen Yuan?

F-class.

Of course, chronically ill Shen Yuan told himself he wasn't really expecting any different. But there have been people who have awakened as higher classes despite their own lifelong health problems or disabilities, and in many cases awakening cured them, and so he'd hoped...

Well. It doesn't matter what he'd hoped.

The worst part isn't even that he's not some badass dungeon-delver himself (even though he is wildly curious about all the strange monsters and beasts and demons that have been turning up), the worst part is that his siblings have all but left him in the dust. They aren't just busy, he can tell that they've increasingly been avoiding him, until virtually the only time they speak to him is when they catch him trying to go into a dungeon again and then yell at him about it.

(Of course, his siblings have been increasingly aware of the danger SY is in whenever he's in proximity to them, but no one ever accused the Shen family of having strong communication skills...)

Nonetheless, if there is some possible way for Shen Yuan to increase his rank, he won't find it staying at home. And there are too many mysteries to investigate to just keep himself out of it, even if that would be more sensible. So, Shen Yuan arranges to be on various low-level dungeon teams. Often among the more questionable, misguided ones being attempted by the newly-awakened or by people who are just desperate to try and get some kind of windfall. Dungeons are dangerous, but a lucky item drop can still make someone more money in a minute than they could otherwise earn in a year. It's through these jobs that Shen Yuan meets fellow F-class Shang Qinghua, whose motives for entering the dungeons are definitely more financial than academic.

This is also how Shen Yuan ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, in a dungeon that has suddenly gone from low-level to a high-level boss, fleeing for his life. Just when it seems like he's about to become mincemeat, his older brother (Shen Jiu) shows up and takes on the dungeon boss. But it's too much for a lone S-class, even one as determined and vicious as SJ, and Shen Yuan can only watch in horror as his brother is killed by the terrifyingly powerful and weirdly beautiful Heavenly Demon Boss.

But the reason SY survived the initial assault, when no one else did, is thanks to his hidden ability. Which temporarily grants him the powers of anyone he has a bond with who has just died, x2. Previously, he had his bacon saved by Shang Qinghua's traumatic death, and when Shen Jiu dies, SY gains enough power to actually take down this mysterious Heavenly Demon boss.

It's a hollow victory. His brother is dead. His friend is dead. Even the boss monster seems inexplicably tragic to him somehow.

And why did SJ show up anyway? Between his siblings, Shen Yuan thought that his brother had grown the most distant from him, that he even hated him now! Why couldn't he have just... stayed away...?

Despite the traumatic horror of these events, killing the boss monster grants Shen Yuan a boon. It isn't a "raise people from the dead" boon, but it does permit time travel! In fact it seems kind of emphatic on that point, like something has gone really horribly wrong with reality and the world is struggling to hold itself together now somehow. Though that could also just be because Shen Yuan's world is struggling to hold itself together...?

Regardless, this new entity called "the system" refuses to let Shen Yuan go back to a point in time before he awakened, or before the dungeons appeared. But he can go back to a point before his brother died, which is definitely good enough. Accept, accept! Who has time to read the terms & conditions? Whatever it is he'll deal with it! Just send him as far back in time as he can go!

As such, Shen Yuan's memories are sent back five years in time. Along with him go a bunch of weird new unlocked abilities, and the system menu, which demands he fulfill certain tasks and complete certain quests as a stipulation of the time travel boon. Succeed, and he gets more rewards to help him keep himself and his loved ones alive. Fail, and he'll be rebooted back to the bad ending, except to the moment before the Heavenly Demon boss died but without any of his power boosts.

So maybe Shen Yuan should have read the fine print.

Though, even if he had, he still would have made the same choice.

Back five years in the past, he's got some thinking to do. Five years is a decent chunk of time. His siblings have both awoken, and begun distancing themselves from him, but their positions are still pretty different. Shen Jiu and his childhood friend Yue Qi had a falling-out over something (they wouldn't say what) at this point in time. Shen Jiu signed on with the Qiu Collective, one of the initial rich adventuring guilds that hired people to go into dungeons. But the Qiu Collective was corrupt even by the standards of a lot of dungeon-oriented corporations, and though Shen Yuan was never made privy to the details, he knew they mistreated Shen Jiu badly and that there were a lot of investigations. The collective ultimately went under when their office was destroyed by a rogue rampaging monster, after an undiscovered dungeon opened nearby. Dungeons that open but aren't found are especially dangerous, as the threat levels will steadily increase without anyone to clear them out, until the result is a dungeon break -- monsters escaping the dungeon and emerging in the normal world, causing havoc and Godzilla-style rampages.

According to the official reports, that was what caused the destruction of the Qiu Collective's head office and the death of their CEO.

Yue Qi, on the other hand, joined the Cang Qiong guild, which had fared a little better over the five year span. Yue Qi eventually even took over the guild, and after the Qiu Collective went under, Shen Jiu made up with him enough to join him there. Shen Yuan had hoped they would reconcile and maybe even answer some of his calls, but things remained strained between all of them even afterwards.

Shen Ying, his little sister, was sheltered and trained by their older brother until she was old enough to join Cang Qiong as well, but despite being S-rank, her youth and inexperience kept her more on the sidelines. Shen Yuan had thought they might bond over being kept out of the loop, but his last conversation with his sister had made it clear that as far as she was concerned, he was still world's away from her level.

(Read: Shen Ying told him he should keep away from dangerous things, was clumsy about it, and unwittingly fed some of Shen Yuan's worst insecurities.)

On top of that, though, was another consideration:

Luo Binghe.

Among the guilds that could rival Cang Qiong five years hence, the biggest one was Demon Path. Luo Binghe would start out as a member of Cang Qiong guild, recruited shortly after awakening. Shen Yuan had thought he was pretty cool, actually, but there was some bad blood between Luo Binghe and Shen Jiu, and it got bad enough that when Luo Binghe made his solo break he got Shen Jiu embroiled in some kind of legal investigation (something about the wrongful death of another guild member) on his way out. Demon Realm and Cang Qiong remained thoroughly at odds afterwards, and things only got worse when Demon Realm surpassed Cang Qiong's count of S-rank members, and conducted a successful merger with Huan Hua guild. That is, until Luo Binghe just mysteriously vanished altogether from the public eye.

Though Luo Binghe of course wasn't the dungeon boss that actually killed Shen Jiu, he had certainly been trying to destroy him before Shen Yuan reset the timeline.

But going five years back in time... Luo Binghe had been a prodigy, the youngest to become a guild leader. Five years hence, he'd be around twenty years old.

Which means that right now, thanks to the rewind, he is fourteen or fifteen years old and hasn't even awakened yet.

It would be possible to take him out of the equation altogether.

Then, there's Liu Qingge. An S-rank who died in a dungeon under suspicious circumstances, which provided the crux of the investigation into Shen Jiu. He and Shen Jiu had also never gotten along, although once again no one had confided the details to him. Shen Yuan refused to believe that his brother had actually murdered Liu Qingge, though. If Shen Jiu was going to murder someone he'd be a lot less obvious about it.

But it would probably be better if Liu Qingge didn't die at all.

Lastly, there's the matter of Shang Qinghua.

According to Shen Yuan's mental math, Shang Qinghua won't have awoken his abilities yet either. Five years into the future, extensive research and several regrettable moves on the part of various governments and guilds would reveal that even though it was supposedly impossible to increase someone's rank after awakening, how a person awoke their abilities could have a great deal of impact on their rank.

Shang Qinghua was a textbook example of a bad awakening. His skills were mostly oriented towards stealth and item drop bonuses, but his awakening had been violent, prompted by a shady center that promised people an avenue to adventure and riches only to use mortal terror to trigger the awakening process. Being in extreme danger would work fine for those with combat skills, but wasn't so good for everyone else. A lot of people had their awakening stunted by such early methods, which were not only a bad way to go about it but also traumatic to boot.

Shen Yuan has a suspicion that someone like Shang Qinghua would actually be incredibly valuable for stealth missions and item farming, if only he'd awoken at full potential. Instead, he'd struggled to make anything of his abilities due to his lack of durability or access to the kind of high-level items that would compensate for it.

Gathering all this foresight, Shen Yuan sets about altering the future to protect his siblings.

Step one: find Luo Binghe.

Shen Yuan's initial thought was to just kind of, nudge Luo Binghe towards something different from Cang Qiong altogether. Maybe if he started out with Huan Hua guild, he could contain all his trouble there. But when he finds him, Binghe is in a bad situation. The kid's living in foster care with abusive caretakers, his adoptive mother has recently died, and he's waiting tables and picking up trash instead of going to school. His clothes are threadbare, he's too skinny, and he looks like he's been beaten.

Between a rocky introduction and an attack from a Moon Python Rhinoceros thanks to a nearby dungeon break, Shen Yuan manages to convince Luo Binghe to hire him as his agent (fee = 0% of all Binghe's dungeon earnings plus 0% from contracts), and determinedly takes over. The System seems to wildly approve of it.

Creepy. And suspicious.

But Binghe is actually a total sweetheart, as it happens, to the point where Shen Yuan can't imagine what inspired the enmity between him and Shen Jiu. This kid truly is a diamond in the rough. He just needed a little help and some actual guidance, that's all!

With Binghe on the road to a less antagonistic fate, the next most chronologically urgent item on the list is Shang Qinghua. Shen Yuan has a new ability that lets him awaken people to their full potential, and his chosen guinea pig is his own formerly deceased bro. Somehow, awakening Shang Qinghua's abilities ends up involving a near-miss with rescuing him from debt collectors, and running into (and rescuing) the S-class Mobei Jun, who had joined Demon Realm as Luo Binghe's subordinate back in the original timeline.

It's actually quite fortuitous, though, because Shang Qinghua's treasure-hunter and stealth abilities are best suited to him being accompanied by a high-ranking hunter who can pick up the physical slack. Shen Yuan had been thinking that at least awakening Shang Qinghua as a D-rank would make him durable enough to handle some dungeons without turning to sketchy organizations for back-up, but with Mobei Jun, the ice prince can ferry the man right to the most valuable loot!

Shen Yuan's on a roll!

He discovers that some of his new abilities have utility as beast-taming skills, and tackles several dungeons successfully with the help of Luo Binghe, Shang Qinghua, and Mobei Jun. They even manage to rescue A-class Sha Hualing from a sticky situation, and Shen Yuan learns that his abilities can, in fact, help other awakened level up their own rank (previously believed impossible). With enough of his influence, Sha Hualing could become S-rank one day.

But of course, it can't be too easy.

When Shen Yuan moves to intervene with the dungeon break that wiped out the Qiu Collective, and seemed to start all the controversies against his brother, he instead finds that there is no dungeon at all. Yet, clearly some kind of attack on the building is underway.

He finds out why when he comes across his brother in a fugue state, murdering his way through his own guild.

Turns out, most S-ranks creep people out. Most average people can barely tolerate being around them even before they awaken. But afterwards? Their oppressive auras and sheer strength tend to trigger everyone's flight-or-fight reflex. Shen Yuan never noticed, because he's grown up surrounded by S-ranks his whole life. Even upon watching Shen Jiu kill the Qiu members, Shen Yuan's chief source of upset is that they were apparently treating his brother so badly that they inspired a murder spree from someone ordinarily much more calculating and clever than that.

Apparently, Shen Yuan should have been taking the opportunity to move against them a lot sooner, rather than just mitigating the whole supposed dungeon-break disaster and then investigating after. His own fault. He thought that keeping his distance would help his siblings, but clearly, letting them hoard their secrets and do whatever they think is best isn't the way to go either.

Does he even know what's really happening with his sister? Or to Yue Qi over at Cang Qiong? At this point in time, his friend had stopped contacting him altogether for several months in a row. When he came back, he was definitely more subdued and even more distant than he had been before. And that's the same guild that Shen Jiu and Shen Ying will eventually join as well, presumably with its own skeletons packed into the closet.

Shen Yuan's going to have to adjust a lot of his plans, it seems.

But first -- he's got a murder spree to help cover up, and an older brother to take home and, uh. Calm down. Or something?

Damn. Maybe Shen Jiu did kill Liu Qingge on purpose. He's going to have to thoroughly figure that situation out too, if he wants to handle it right...

[oishitea]

So I need to talk about this scene between AlanJeff. Starting with the phone call that Jeff answers for Alan and hearing a nurse talking about getting a whole surgery scheduled is kinda big. And we already had Alan ice Jeff out for a minute about not being open with him over his increasingly disruptive visions, so he absolutely expects the same standard in return.

This part really digs back because Alan used those same arguments earlier on. But it goes further here because Alan is older in this relationship, and this is a significant health concern. If Alan were to get surgery Jeff would be the one taking care of him. Jeff loves him and wants to be able to offer that care, but if Alan doubted him in any way he deserves to know!

And I recall being told last week that he had a "chronic neck spinal compression issue" (not sure if the subs meant to say nerve or if the nerve compression is meant to be in the neck or what), and since so far his complaints have been small and mainly relegated to this season, surgery being suggested up front sounded like a reach. I had figured it's Pit Babe and it was mainly For The Drama.

But then Alan elaborated:

SO LIKE

This has been a problem going largely untreated for years. ALAN!!!!!!

Chronic nerve issues aren't simple. If they remain chronic and go untreated for 6 months or longer, there's a risk of permanent damage. They suck. I have them. I still have no idea what the fuck is going on, but I finally got my own referral to a specialist! Mine have also gone massively untreated for years and I've kept either mistaking them for other problems or gone straight to the ER only to get shrugged at what the mysterious pain could possibly be.

So now I'm thinking all the way back through season one of all the comments of him being an old man - made by himself and members of the X-Hunter family - and it's all clicking about how this injury being the end of his career as a racer and turning him into the garage dad we know him as today has really been weighing on him for so long. Especially being the older partner who has been established as someone can handle a lot of activity and shoulder the burdens of a half-dozen traumatized stray boys who just wanna race, it probably seems easier to minimize his own struggles. The added teasing, however well-meaning, and the way he's been working on his relationship with Jeff, has merely added to the complexity of his feelings toward it.

And then of all things, he still has to consider the fact that Tony Chen Palpatine has fucking returned and he's already lost Kim and then Charlie as members of the team. The stress is piling and making the pain flare up and he doesn't think he can consider surgery because he has to keep it together. Being in months of recovery when he can let the pain slide for a little longer (indeterminate amount of time, but please let it be before the end of this racing season GOD) is what he thinks is best!

And we still don't get to understand exactly why he didn't feel like he could tell Jeff, but I hope we come to know that soon. Thank goodness Jeff is such a sweetie, because this is what every couple should be doing when it comes to Big Health Things:

[rsventhesecondd]

midnight rant,

╰ • → Featuring . Hayato Suo as your boyfriend ! ╯

sypnosis . whereas— you're an overthinker, desperately trying to save your friend group that is falling apart. You find no way to cope, but luckily your boyfriend, Suo is here for you. :3 , Hayato Suo x f!reader 

warnings . light cursing, mentions of mental health issues, abandonment issues, angst, self-vent, skin picking , fluff

note ⧽some parts may seem rushed or ooc in other peoples opinion. english isn't my first language, so please bare with oncoming vocabulary or grammatic mistakes. Based off real life experiences

authors note . hi! this is for all those people that overthink a lot specially when it comes to relationships. I didn't really explain more, it has so much lore potential too.. It's not really more of a you getting comforted once you read it, but rather it's a you being in the same situation again, but not being alone. I really wanted to write Suo, but I didn't know how. Anyways, this might be a subtle vent, foreshadow :3

—

You sat down the bench just a few steps far from Furin Highschool, your eyes welling up– unable to hold tears. You should've been home, if not for that argument you had with your  bestfriend. 

It was your mistake, it was your issue, you're the problem. Was what kept on replying all over your head like Broken record. What was is the cause of this scenario? let us go back. 

You lashed out, unable to control your feelings any longer. What was once joyful and full of glee, was now full of trepidation and gloom. Your two  close friends, somehow, two of your only close friends that you consider as close ones are starting to drift apart. You couldn't really blame them. You rarely meet, nor called. Rarely chatted, hell– whens the last time you guys ever talked about your own lives? They were all too busy with their places to be, and you were too. Not that you  didn't have any other people to interact with. But somehow, some part of you is missing the times where you three were happy, talking about this– your new crushes, how your lives has been going, laughing over stupid things, ranting about this and that about how annoying they were knowing damn well you were annoying too. But you couldn't care less, because at that time, you felt safe. It was as if a safe zone, your safe zone. But then things started to fall apart, barely chatting, updating, and the other more— you tried. You tried to replicate the same energy you've had before, you tried to bring back the joyous and gleefulness of memories that you've remember. Now realizing that it has only turned into a mysterious enigma written in the ink of stardust on the back of your brain. You were hysterical. How could such strong bond just fade away ever so quickly? The promises and plans made, are now starting to fade. 

Those tears welling up in your eyes not holding up any longer, flowing as they stream down your cheeks. You wipe them away with your sleeves, hoping the flow water from your eyes stop as you let out a sniffle. 

"[name]?" a familiar voice questions, causing you to instinctively turn your head away from where the noise came from. You begged to the gods that this was just a dream, hoping you were hallucinating. You were in such  disgraceful state, you don't need another problem to participate.  There you were on the bench, closing your eyes shut as you continuously picked on your skin, hoping that the man of that voice disappears into thin air. 

"[name], dear.. what happened?" the same voice from before said, inching closer. You open your eyes to see Suo with a worried expression. You quickly wipe your tears once more, using your tear stained sleeve, trying to utter out words, but it seems as if you couldn't speak. "Shh.. It's okay, my love." Suo says, sitting down beside you, resting your head on his shoulder. "You know, your skin will be irritated if you wipe your tears like that" he says in a gentle, but slight tease of a tone. He faces you, cupping your chin as he wipes your tears away with a handkerchief. As much as you wanted to push, maybe– shove him away even, you found yourself calming down from his actions. You wanted to go away as far as you could, you wanted to bury yourself deep underground. You've never shown him this side of you, and it terrified you. "Are you going to tell me what's wrong now?" he says with a smile, it's as if it wasn't even a question, rather a clarification. You take a deep breath and sighed, "It's just, my friend has been seeing this person lately, well, used to. And they've been ranting about how this person they're seeing is 'cheating' , only going to them when they need something, and other more stuff. It just pissed me off. My friend deserves more than that, and it got to me. I attacked their ex in spite, saying shit I didn't even know I would. And.. I know it's my fault, I wasn't in the right place to do that. And I apologized, I felt bad, I swear, I really did." you say, unbeknownst to you that tears are flowing down your eyes, fingers picking on your skin. Suo, nodding silently, his hand creeping up to yours, holding them– as a way to prevent you from picking on your skin. "But, I'm.. scared. I know we all make mistakes, and I know my friend is a good person and that they do forgive me. But I'm scared. I'm scared that it'll fall apart, I'm scared that they'll leave me– I'm scared that I caused a problem, that I break something again" you say, breath hitching as you tighten your grip on his hand.  "I contacted my other friend Kotoha, who I was closer with. We three were really close, and I know them a lot. Even though they don't realize it, I always observe how they react to different stuff. And, Kotoha was friends with the person I fought.  I reached out to them, after the argument, and apologizing to my other friend because of the situation I've created, and after awhile Kotoha never replied even though they were online. And, I can't judge them, they might've not seen it, and they've been there for me a lot too. But I just can't help but overthink at the most little things, and I hate it. I hate it so much, I–"  you stammer, cut off by a light kiss on the lips. "I understand." Suo says, wrapping his arm around your back, his hand pushed you ever so slightly to his chest– pulling you into a hug. "You can't really force someone into a relationship, [name]. Platonic or not, if the relationship is not working and there is no solution, best leave things be" , he says, patting your head. "If the friendship wasn't it, then it's all part of the plan of fate. Mistakes are normal, [name]. And if they truly are friends, people you consider you can trust the most then.. , they will accept you for who you are. Your flaws, mistakes, but that doesn't mean they'll tolerate it. If the gods have decided that friendship truly is not meant for you three, then let it be and accept things for what they already are. Yes, it'll be hard, but I'll be here with you. I'll accept you for who you are, flaws, and secrets kept. I'll be with you when you need me, and when you're alone. I'll accept you with my all of my heart. Just like you did with me" he added, moving his hand to pat your back soothingly. This time, you weren't crying from sadness, or terror. You were crying tears of glee. 

"Let's buy ice cream? My treat of course." Suo says, standing up– reaching his hand out to you, the other behind his back as usual. "Really?" you exclaim, eyes brightening up as you let out a sniffle, him nodding in response.  "And let's put some cream on your hands after wards, get you fixed up" he added.

"Okay! I love you!" You said in your same bubbly mood, almost forgetting the events of today. 

"I love you too, my dove" he says in a soft tone, giving you a look of love. 

note . this had so much lore potential. I'm gonna rewrite this whole, trust.

[theomnicode]

How does Genos show he cares? How to write a relatable cyborg character

Warning: Very long post incoming, tl;dr at the bottom

This meta doubles as Genos appreciation post. :D

Ever since his introduction, Genos has shown multiple times his very humane side of caring about Saitama and caring about defeating evil for the betterment of mankind. (Chapter 5: Itch explosion)

The first line he utters to Saitama is to tell him to hide because he does not want this casualty and when he forgets Saitama was there with him, he worries about him having become a casualty to his incinerator. (Chapter 6: Saitama)

Genos has to resort to almost blowing himself and mosquito girl up because he sees no other way to rid the world of such a powerful monster, but fortunately Saitama intervenes. They exchange names and go their merry way but later on, Genos knock on his door as he promised he would. Saitama is very uncertain about this new cyborg buddy of his, but he lets him in regardless and they have a chat.

Here Genos shows that he also worries about Saitama's health, after having barely met him, when he considers how odd it is that Saitama has balded completely at his age already, which is very abnormal medically considering. (Chapter 7: Mysterious raid)

Genos seems to have bunch of medical knowledge inside his head, as later on in the series he improvises a defiblirator and would have used it on Tank-top master if Bang hadn't gotten his heart started first. (Chapter 144: Silver fang)

He also remarks about Kombu's not so proven scientitic research about it growing hair when Saitama has defeated the Kombu monster and taken the leaf parts for him to eat, making the assumption that Saitama must've gotten the Kombu for growing out his hair. Genos cares a lot about Saitama's health already and they're barely acquainted at best at this point. (Chapter 20: Rumour)

The first duo battle they have shows Genos showing a lot of concern towards Saitama's well being, even when he really does not have to, but he's not yet acquainted well with the level of power Saitama actually possesses so he would not need to worry so much. (Chapter 7: Mysterious raid)

He also looks very disdraught about the fact that he cannot just rush to Saitama's aid because he's too busy himself with Armored gorilla, when the other monster decides to take advantage of Saitama's immobile state. (Chapter 8: You mean this guy?)

Poor Genos is such a worrywart because of his own trauma of losing everything in an instant, it honestly does him good to be able to trust Saitama and that Saitama cannot be harmed that easily. It is good that nowdays, he trusts in Saitama's capabilities to handle himself and he worries a lot less (Chapter 165: Absolute evil), even if he immediately went for an enthusiastic armless glomp on him the moment he saw Saitama was back safe and sound. (Chapter 168: Awakening of the gods)

Otherwise he might want to rush to Saitama's aid without thinking about himself and his own opponent first, like he does with Armored Gorilla, who manages to grab his shoulder when he turns his back to his own enemy. If he cares too much, he lets his guard down against enemies and that is not a good habit to have when his enemies are extremely strong.

A very glaring weakness that could be exploited without mercy in any kind of (double) battle if he does not have the insurance that Saitama is just about impossible to be harmed...well, physically at least.

Genos trust in Saitama's capabilities has unfortunately gotten to the point where he thinks Saitama is an answer to every possible problem mankind could face and where Saitama is basically some sort of messiah. Not without reason either, because Saitama performed some insane feats during the Garou fight. (Chapter 166-168, Chapter 173.)

-*-

Moving back in timeline, Genos is instantly very protective of Saitama, to the point of zealousness and jealosy popping up from time to time when other people try to monopolise Saitama's time to themselves.

Genos overprotectiveness early on also shows in way that he wants to take care of anything that might threathen Saitama's well being without mercy, like blowing up the entirety of the House of Evolution building and ramming himself into the next enemy he sees, that being Carnage Kabuto, but in doing so he can and will easily overexert himself. (Chapter 11: The key to his power)

Genos has immediately become the guard dog of Saitama, that even Flashy flash makes a remark on and tells Genos to sit out like a dog, that Genos immediately refutes by having a peep hole into Saitama's apartment and rejects the proposal of Flashy becoming Saitama's master. (Chapter 193: World I know nothing about)

Genos just outright refuses anybody from monopolising Saitama's time to themselves when he's the one who feels like he has the right to 1 on 1 interaction with Saitama, being his obsessive disciple. 😂

Anybody who dares to waste Saitama sensei's precious time, they have to go through him first.

Early on, Saitama has also learned that he can't scare Genos away with his problems. Genos is far too loyal and even if Saitama wanted to stew with his problem alone, Genos cares far too much already and is far too loyal to be sidelined that easily. (Chapter 15: Hobby and work)

Saitama has also learned that Genos can get quite passionate, intimidating and murderous even if he feels like Saitama's been hurt in some way, such as embarrassed due to low score on his exam when Genos thinks he deserves much better scores, so Saitama has to rein him in lest he seriously go off on some random poor dude who just examined his scores. (Chapter 16: Passed the exam)

(Ah Genos, always over the top reaction. Never change. :D)

-*-

One thing about Genos that gives him points in Saitama's eye is that he is quite willing to explain any concept to Saitama, without judgement even if the logical deduction of said thing would've been easy for to understand. Other people might make snide remarks at Saitama, but not Genos. (Chapter 17: Sparring)

Genos also always has Saitama's best interest in hand and asks if he's going to be fine considering his hero rank and that he hasn't seen Saitama active. (Chapter 18: Business activity)

Genos integrates into Saitama's life almost seamlessly, from grocery shopping to meticulously cleaning the house each and every day, from cleaning the windows, vacuuming, cooking, doing dishes and even scrubbing the toilet on daily basis. There is a lot house work that he does for Saitama.

However, the most outstanding character quality in Genos is that he refuses to give up, no matter how dire or dark the situation may seem, such as during the meteor incident, where he goes completely alone to face such a dragon level threat that it could wipe out the entire city and then some. He cares much about Saitama, but so does he care about the innocent citizens getting caught by such a disaster. (Chapter 21: Giant meteor)

Being close to Saitama, it gives Genos strenght to carry on through even the most difficult tasks shoved on him, because not trusting himself enough and his capabilities will only cause him to hesitate in the face of potential collateral damage and that can be a big weakness in itself when time is of the essence.

After the meteor incident has been dealt with, Genos also shows that he cares a lot about Saitama's feelings and does not want them to be hurt, so that is why he omits telling him that public has made Saitama their enemy, hoping that with time their unjust anger would fade. Unfortunately, that is not to be because Saitama goes outside and faces these angry people anyway. (Chapter 22: Voices)

Genos holds Saitama is very high regard and immediately writes down Saitama's inspiring quote. It is not enough that he cares about his physical and mental well being, but he also cares about Saitama as the person and his feelings, even if he idolizes him a lot.

This trait is further explored in the anime with the extra scene where Genos comes to bring Saitama back home because he worries for Saitama's well being again since the public is turned against him, listens to Saitama's rant and affirms his feelings but still tells Saitama that he would always follow him, no matter what the public thinks about him. Saitama however does not quite get it and only thinks Genos is just buttering him up like earlier, with complements and such, because he does not think of himself very highly but it still manages to bring a smile to his face, something that Genos unfortunately does not get to see. (Episode 7, The greatest apprentice)

Genos being a caring, loyal, headstrong and hardworking protector is put to another test against Sea King, where he gets pummeled and pummels back as much as he can give in an incredible fight, but chooses again to self-sacrifice himself to save a little girl from the corrosive acid of Sea king when he sees no other option to save her, besides throwing his more resilient cyborg body in the way, but at the same time, allows himself to become inoperable and at the mercy of Sea king. (Chapter 26: Glimmer of hope)

It is in Mumen rider's care and headstrong intervention that saves Genos from dying at the hands of Sea King because Saitama had become lost and only just made it there to save them both. At the end, Genos contemplates that he will still follow Saitama, even if the public turned on him en masse and he found himself in a tight spot. (Chapter 28: Since it's raining)

As soon as the letters start pouring in about their heroics, Genos sees how ugly the masses treat Saitama in the form of hate letters and he does not want to stand idly by while everyone throws disparaging comments about Saitama. But poor Genos also feels like he's the one to blame, for showing the letters to Saitama. 😭

This has become quite a long ramble about how Genos is very caring, headstrong, hardworking hero and I could go on for even longer than that since I've only checked out the first portion of the manga for this meta to use as examples, but as a final thought, not a whole lot encompasses Genos as a character than the last panels I can put into this post.

Genos cares so much he does not just fiercely fight for the individuals; he fights for his sensei, for the citizens, for the other heroes and for the world to be a better place, rid of evil. That he still came to Tatsumaki's aid even when the situation seemed hopeless because he could. This humane side of him is very relatable, caring about our loved ones and other human beings is very intrinsical to our own well being as social people. (Chapter 134: Twist & Chapter 137: Resonance)

However, he still has those self-destructing tendencies that are hopefully curbed now that he got positive reinforcement from Saitama for not blowing himself up, so that he values himself a bit more. That he is not expendable piece. (Chapter 155: Results)

Last thoughts, Genos is incredibly passionate individual when it comes to protecting others and avenging his loved ones. He even threw his remainder of a torso directly at Cosmic Garou, just because he's resistant to radiation, with his brain being encompassed behind heavy fortifications. (Chapter 166: Squared.)

(^ Chapter 186: Turning point ^)

Hope y'all enjoyed this incredibly long post about Genos and how he shows his caring side. :D

Thank you @themisterhip for this meta idea on discord. :)

Tl;dr Genos is hardworking, passionate, very caring, meticulous, fierce, intelligent and well-researched individual who fights to the best of his ability for other people, no matter what it takes. Ironically, Genos is one if not the most humane character in the series, despite being a cyborg.

[ginandvodka-writes]

A little imagine.

You work as a stagehand in a series called "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare". Despite being started as an indie project it quickly became a popular show, three seasons and counting, rankings always high with every chapter release.

Everyone talked about its success, how an unknown writer managed to create such a successful franchise along with her partner, who was also a novice director.

You didn't were there from the start, in fact, you just started working there on its third season. Why a stagehand? Well, the pay was excellent, especially for a kind of easy work where you could be part of the series behind the scenes, as a little shadow that enjoys from the front row.

Before that, you were a professional makeup artist that worked on a model agency, the pay was good too (not as much as your current job, but it was 10/10 anyway).

However, the work environment was toxic, bosses always mean to you and everyone, models included. You saw first sight a few of them suffering an ED, women and men equally. Late emergency calls at least twice a week, and since everything had to be quick, you barely ate properly. You quit due to the problems it was bringing to your mental and physical health.

That's why you wanted to try something different, something where you'd be involved but with a bit less pressure since you'd be working with a whole team, a real one, not just a trio working for a whole agency like before. The only problem is that since the horrible experience you got, you tried really hard to be a shadow, the less visible the best.

Well, now, this show is starred by our dearest men, that as a curiosity, have the same names, characters and actors.

New actors starred in their first roles, it was their debut, and they were already acclaimed by critics and admired by hordes of fans, even by another actors.

Despite their fame, they were really reserved on their personal lives, as well as pretty nice with every employer no matter their status or job, and you noticed that they are a little too similar like their characters.

Especially Simon Ghost Riley. The actor was even more reserved (what was already much to say), no one who wasn’t part of the series had seen his face completely exposed, no social media except for a single account on Instagram where he rarely post something, and even when he did it was always a photo of a landscape, his friends or his cute dog Riley (who was part of the show too), never of him. Quiet, controlled, stoic, mysterious. But of course, as gentle as the team.

And you never noticed it, but from the first moment you started to work there, you caught his attention. Not by your physical appearance (although he’d never deny that he finds you quite attractive), but because of your reserved and professional personality, the way you laugh with your coworkers, how punctual you were, always putting the best of you on everything you did.

What was your story?

One day, the makeup artists couldn't arrive due to an emergency, nothing serious but hard enough to force her to quit literally from one moment to the other. Kate Laswell, the director, didn't know what to do, everything was ready, that day they'd start recording the climax of the season, and a day off would mean delays, therefore monetary losses. She called every makeup artist near there but all of them only worked by appointment.

That's when you decided to help and told her that you're a professional makeup artist.

As an angel sent from above, she kissed your cheeks and gave you everything you'd need.

Used to working under pressure you got them all ready in less than half an hour, even though when you were making up Simon, his intense chocolate gaze made your skin crawl and his deep voice reverberated inside your chest, warming your cheeks.

Kate was more than delighted with your skills, and since that day she asked you to be their makeup artist, same pay but with more pause moments, and you could still be able to see everything behind the scenes.

And so, your relationship with those men started, they got charmed quickly by you despite that you weren't even trying to.

With time, something began to grow between Simon and you, something that went beyond work. He was as stoic as gentle, not saying much but showing a lot with his kind actions and sweet compliments.

Along with that, little did you (nor anyone else) know that not everything on the show was fake. All of them were indeed past soldiers, part of the SAS, with real physical and emotional scars craved throughout years and years on the battlefield.

Kate's wife was a writer, and she wrote all their experiences on thousands of pages that became scripts. When they decided to quit the army after Johnny's near-death experience, they agreed on letting her to create a story based on them, with the condition on changing delicate information and very personal stuff.

One thing led to another and now they were there, being famous actors of one of the most successful franchises of the century.

Now, it's up to you to discover the real men that inspired that story, to know the real Simon Riley. How much of his character is real? His back story? His mysterious personality? His scars?

And would he let you see through the legend he was? Would he let himself experience life after the war?

This is just a little idea I've had for a while. However, I've never felt very inspired to expand it and write a proper story with it, so if anyone wants to try and develop it, go ahead! I'll be more than flattered and excited to read what you'd create! Just please tag me and give me credits!

Pd: I was thinking on not killing Simon's family here, they were near dead and even his brother lost a leg, but fortunately they all were safe and sound. However, if you want to be more loyal to the comic's canon it's okay.

Masterlist of my delulus

[lonecapybara]

TW/ child abuse, Suicide attempt

Creepypasta character analysis

Before starting I want to say that since there is not much direct information, most of what I'm saying are my own assumptions and theories that I thought would be cool to share since I don't see many people theorize on creepypasta. Also Tumblr has a limit of 10 images in a thread, so I had to choose only the images that were really important to what I was talking 😞

Creepypasta is one of the most mysterious characters from eve, he is full of dubious actions and contradictions. Because of this I wanted to try to understand him, how he affects Fuchi and his intentions with Fuchi, Tobi and Ryuuko

First let's start with the insomnia MV. In the mv we learn that fuchi has been suffering with the balloon disease ( where he sees people's faces as balloons) and even goes to the doctor to try to diagnostic it, with no success.

But from what we know from the fight song character information, creepypasta has mental abilities . So I think it's safe to assume that creepypasta is the one causing the balloon disease that Fuchi suffers throughout the insomnia MV.

However, that raises a huge question: why would he manipulate Fuchi into seeing people's faces as balloons? In the mv it's shown that creepypasta has been by fuchi's side since he was a little kid and cared a lot about him and fuchi seemed to also love him, usually drawing him and creepypasta together as family. However when Fuchi was hurt by his abusive father he got so upset that he got to the point of murdering his abusive father and faking his suicide in order to keep Fuchi safe.

With this in mind I believe that with the decline of fuchi's mental health, creepypasta became more and more protective of him, drastically changing their relationship with Fuchi, going to the point of manipulating his view of reality to "protect" him from the world.

Since fuchi had low self-esteem he took his ability of seeing other people's expressions so they wouldn't affect him negatively . Since he was depressed, creepypasta made him sleepwalk as brat fuchi, to help him escape from reality, where he could be the happy and confident kid he always wished he could be. ( I think that brat fuchi was creation of Fuchi's mind, but the sleepwalking is part of creepypasta manipulation)

The problem was that everything he did on his "Dreamworld" actually happened so fuchi's destructive thoughts were reflected on his dreams and became reality . I think that's what caused the street incident where creepypasta was helping brat Fuchi cause chaos ( that's the only explanation that I can give for creepypasta stealing a truck and causing all those accidents lol), but Fuchi was actually causing that whole destruction in the real world, which he later realizes and ends up fighting against brat fuchi, finally accepting his trauma and freeing himself from creepypasta's manipulation.

I was going straight to sayonara end roll, but before that I wanted to talk a bit about fight song since creepypasta makes an appearance there too.

On fight song, creepypasta is part of the Mafia that are the main villains of the MV ( Don't ask me what the heck he's doing there cause I have no clue lol), and he was there when adult Ryuuko was alive, and watched her get beheaded. So this guy is just hanging out with Fuchi, Tobi and Ryuuko knowing damn well that he participated (or at least witnessed )to her execution and he's just acting like nothing happened, what's wrong with him 😭

However there's something interesting that happens in the fight of Tobi against gazu. Like said in the creepypasta characters information he was supposed to fight tobi in case gazu was defeated, and he is defeated because of Ryuuko's intervention, but creepypasta doesn't do anything, he just stays at the table and in the end he seems to be untouched like he didn't fight at all. You could say that he just didn't expect Ryuuko to be in the fight and decided to not do anything, but she actually only stays in her dragon form for a few seconds. So if he really wanted to he probably could deal with Tobi by himself ( since they were already sure gazu was going to defeat tobi,and they were right about it, they probably were also right about creepypasta being able to defeat him). So this could mean that creepypasta isn't that loyal to the Akamaku and might have his own reasons to be part of the mafia, or maybe Fuchi and Tobi had already met so he decided to not attack him since he's Fuchi's friend.

Now let's finally get to sayonara end roll. Even though he doesn't appear much( he appears in like one frame lol), I think it's extremely important for his character. In this MV Fuchi attempts to kill himself drowning at the beach, however before drowning Tobi saves his life. When the MV ended my first question was how did tobi know fuchi was at the beach? But we had our answer in one post from eve official on twitter.

The translator: https://x.com/aakaeve/status/1875076813589975301?t=uTW6Mgbx193HWLdZA3mGNQ&s=19

Because of this we discover that Fuchi has no memory of sending his location on twitter at all, so creepypasta probably controlled Fuchi and made him tweet his location. Without that tobi would never have found fuchi and he would have died at that beach. I think that with this we can assume that creepypasta not only didn't have anything to do with Fuchi's suicide attempt, but he was also doing what he could to save fuchi's life.

That made me question how many times did creepypasta saved Fuchi from himself? Because we know this is not his first suicide attempt, since we saw him trying to hang himself on insomnia MV(which I doubt was his first attempt).

Even though there is still a lot of information missing about creepypasta, and the fact that we never see things from his own perspective I think it's possible to make a summary of his character.

First it's important to note that creepypasta is not a human, and he probably doesn't have a good understanding of human emotions or morals, also a zingai is their host shadow, so they are heavily impacted by their host mental health, so while fuchi's mental health was getting worse creepypasta was getting worse too.

Therefore I believe that he does love Fuchi, however with time this love was corrupted. Because of everything he saw Fuchi suffer he started to become extremely overprotective of him, until instead of protecting him he started to manipulate and control him.

Even though Fuchi would probably be dead without creepypasta either by his father's actions or by himself, it's a fact that he caused a lot of pain on fuchi, even if he had good intentions, by making the balloon disease he basically took fuchi's ability to communicate with people and create ties with others and by making him sleepwalk Fuchi committed crimes against his will, making him go to jail , which was one of the reasons for his last suicide attempt.

Nonetheless, I think that creepypasta could be getting a bit better, one thing that could show this is that on sayonara end roll it was the first time that we saw creepypasta trusting another person to save Fuchi. By sending his location on twitter he was probably hoping that tobi would see it and rescue him.

[certifiedsexed]

I have this problem where I am hyper aware of the smell of specifically my mom’s sweat/discharge. It isn’t like this for anyone else, but to me I can always smell it whenever I am around my mom or if she has been sitting somewhere for a while and it really reeks to me, like to an unbearable level. Nobody else in the house has complained about this and I’m made out to be this hateful spiteful bully for always telling her she smells and that she leaves smells wherever she sits. Idk what to do anymore, help??? Why am I the only one who can seemingly smell it? Why is it only hers that I smell??

So, this is really far out of my wheelhouse and has nothing to do with my field of study but I still feel compelled to answer this.

My first thought here is that constantly telling someone that you think they stink, especially in front of other people, is very rude and hurtful. Even if it's true.

I think the way you're going about this, "always" telling her you think she stinks and around other people is actually very unkind and that's probably why people think you're trying to be a bully. That can be very humiliating and awful to constantly hear.

Even if someone stinks, that's often not something to comment on. It can be okay if you're with a family member, or someone you're close to, and you think they'd want to know, so you pull them aside and tell them maybe they need some deodorant.

Even sometimes, especially during puberty, a sibling might not smell the greatest. That doesn't mean you can tell them that all the time. Sometimes it means you give them some hygiene tips but often it means you wait it out, maybe spray some cleaning stuff sometimes. Sometimes people stink.

But the way you're going about it isn't like that in the least and you're describing how awful this is for you and how you're being blamed for saying these things but what you're describing is also happening to your mother. You don't mention once how she's reacted, how she feels about this, what she's said in response, etc, at all.

It sounds like this situation might be far worse for her to be experiencing, Anon.

It might not even be sweat you're smelling. It could be a soap or perfume she wears that smells bad to you.

Regardless of what it is, the way you're going about it sounds hurtful and it also sounds like you're not being very thoughtful about how this might be affecting her.

I think this could be solved much better if you try to figure out when this issue started, figure out if this is a hygiene issue or just a perfume type issue-

If it's hygiene, it's possible it's a health issue, which is not necessarily something that can be helped beyond you not shaming her constantly for it. If it might be perfume, ask if you can check out what soaps and possible perfume or whatever she uses.

That doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to "fix" it, given she's allowed to wear what she wants, even if you don't like the smell, but it would clear up the mystery.

But if you can't figure it out respectfully and while being kind, then its an issue where you just need to mind your own business. Either way, it sounds like you really need to apologize to your mom.

I can't tell you exactly what's going on here but that's my thoughts. Not sure how helpful they are tbh, like I said, this is not my wheelhouse.

[jennifer-jeong]

Hi there :)

Can I request some headcanons about Xiao and Wanderer (separated) with an old s/o? Like, they've been together for decades, but reader is a mortal and they're not, therefore they don't have many years left to live now that they're in their 80s. I would like something sweet but feel free to add some angst in it.

HI ANON TY FOR YOUR ASK! Ok so I’m literally goiNG TO CRY because I actually purposely make my own self insert immortal because this makes me so depressed but dw I will make it a fluffy happy ending. I would be unwell if I didn’t make it a happy ending LMAO

Fluff + Slight Angst | Xiao/Wanderer x Reader Mortals

CONTENT Fluff, some angst, gender neutral reader, HAPPY ENDING WOO, CHARACTERS ARE 18+

XIAO has been alive for longer than he can genuinely remember and most of it was spent suffering alone. He’s scarred so deeply that even until the end of time, the marks will never fade. He can’t get rid of his past but you came along and he realized he could at least start to heal from the centuries of pain. Your time together has been the best years of his life and it makes his heart ache to think that you’re about to come and go before even living for a fraction of his life. He’s watched your mortal body age but he still thinks knows that you’re the prettiest thing he’ll ever encounter. Xiao has always treated his time with you like it was limited, even when you were younger. He’s been getting desperate recently though, your body has slowed down, and you’re well into your elderly years. He’s always wanted to ask you if he and Zhongli could help you with this, return you to your younger body and help you live forever. But, he thought it would hurt you. Immortality is more of a curse than a blessing and he of all people should know that. But as your health deteriorated, he started to plan how to ask you without pressuring you. Honestly, when he finally brought it up, you giggled at him and said “I didn’t even know you could do that.” He blinked as he realized how much time had passed and how he really had been avoiding it all these years. It was just somewhat unfathomable to a 2000 year old being that all these fun years with you had already been a few decades. He explains why he felt bad suggesting it, but you quickly comforted him and thanked him for even bringing it up. You said you needed some time to think about it but you knew that you wanted more time with your beloved. It’s near impossible for most people to find their soulmate and so since you found yours, you wanted to somewhat selfishly hold onto him as long as you could. Of course he secretly felt the same though. Your time together might end soon as the traveller discovers the underlying mysteries of the world or it could end millenia later. Either way, you knew you’d be able to face it, together.

WANDERER has been through so much over the past few centuries of his life and he’s believed his emotions have been so useless to him as he isn’t even human. His suffering, pain, and desire never made sense because he always lacked a heart. He thought he’d be doomed to this forever until he met you. You breathed life into his mechanical body and into his new anemo vision heart. He felt truly alive with you, it was like he was freshly born as a real man when you came into his life. He took a while to properly warm up to you before he could express himself in a healthy way but you always had the patience for him. The problem was that he couldn’t have the same patience, not because he wasn’t a healthy partner, but because your life had a definite end. He was impatient because he couldn’t lose you and he didn’t know what else to do. He consulted Nahida/his mom about it and she suggested using his body as a template to create a body for you. One that would last forever with him. He was immediately overjoyed to hear that there was hope and he almost forgot to consider that you might not want to live forever. He probably tries to gauge if you would want to by prodding you with small questions but you see straight through him. You know something’s up, and you tell him that you know there’s enough trust between you two for either of you to speak freely. So he does. You take some time to debate it and decide to do it because even if at some point you can’t take it, you’d talk to him about it and come up with a solution (but you doubt that'll come up <3). There was a lot going on in Teyvat at the moment but just knowing that you’d have more time gave both of you peace. He was worried that afterwards you might not be the same, and that you might become emotionally hollow. But you knew that with him there, you’d never feel any less alive. Even without your physical body, you both had your souls, and it was all you’d ever need.

|| MASTERLIST ♡ || Thank you for reading! ||

[covid-safer-hotties]

An article from April that still holds true (Also preserved in our archive)

By Danielle Chiriguayo

Reda Rountree and her family have long been the cautious type — always wearing seatbelts, looking both ways before crossing the street, and in the earliest days of the pandemic, constantly wearing masks. If she dared to see another living soul, it had to be outdoors.

But in December 2020, COVID breached the safety of their home. Everyone in her family caught the virus and eventually recovered from their mild bouts.

But the 48-year-old from Eagle Rock didn’t bounce back like everyone else in her family. Pre-pandemic, Rountree was an active person. She got her 10,000 daily steps in while juggling long hours as a music publicist and president of her kids’ PTSA.

Her illness put an end to all of that. At first, she chalked her symptoms up to stress and grief. Rountree lost her mom at the beginning of the pandemic.

“I'm looking back on my life from those days, and what I really truly thought was depression, which was sleeplessness and feeling fatigued constantly, fluctuations in my blood pressure,” Rountree explains. “What had happened with my mother and then catching COVID that same year, I really just attributed to being rundown.”

In February 2023, Rountree’s symptoms came to a head. As she was leaving her kids’ high school, she was unable to walk to her car — less than half the length of a football field. She was admitted to the hospital. Her blood pressure bottomed out.

“I had a close call where they took out the paddles,” she recalls. “I thought I was going to die and that it was the end.”

No one understood what was wrong with her.

“Everyone in the hospital said, ‘It's all in your head. It's stress. Maybe you're depressed. Oh, it must be mental illness.’ And everyone just brushed me off and dismissed me,” she says. “And then I started thinking, well, maybe it is all in my head.”

What is long COVID — and why is it such a mystery? It would be another grueling four months before doctors would confirm that it wasn’t all in her head. Rountree is one of the estimated 17 million Americans who suffer from long COVID, an umbrella term for what the CDC has identified as new or recurring symptoms that don’t go away after an acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. The CDC estimates that 1 out of every 9 people who have caught COVID experience long COVID. To date, the agency has identified more than 200 long COVID symptoms, including fatigue, brain fog, nerve pain, and shortness of breath.

For years, the illness has confounded patients and doctors alike. In some cases, it’s led to misdiagnoses — the condition’s broad and nonspecific range of symptoms can present as an equally varied number of other illnesses.

“There were several weeks where we thought perhaps I had Parkinson's disease, because so many symptoms mimicked Parkinson's,” Rountree says. “But then I had a variety of other symptoms on top of those. I had started having seizure-like events, tics, similar to a tic disorder, and a myriad of other symptoms. And we just didn't know what was wrong.”

“We should have the answer” Dr. Nisha Viswanathan is the program director of the UCLA Health Long COVID Program. Since opening in 2022, she’s seen an influx of patients, including Rountree, who come in exasperated, searching for answers and relief.

The confusion extends to medical providers. Viswanathan says working with the disease has been incredibly humbling, even as a trained professional: “Our ability to diagnose and treat and understand all these medical conditions is so much greater than it's ever been at any point in history. And it really makes you feel that anybody who comes in, we should have the answer to any of their medical problems.”

She adds, “When you come into this profession to really not only do no harm but to maybe alleviate suffering and to feel that maybe you don't have the tools to do that, it can be incredibly saddening.”

It’s taken the medical community four years to begin to better grasp what long COVID is — and that it’s a legitimate condition. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is in the midst of a years-long study examining the long-term impact of COVID in adults.

“Many patients had noted that they felt gaslighted by the medical community, when they were presenting with these symptoms after their COVID infections and were often told, ‘These are just in your head,’” Viswanathan shares, “I can say, overwhelmingly, the medical community now understands that long COVID is a true condition, and is better at identifying when patients may be struggling with it.”

Who gets long COVID, and how is it diagnosed? Women are two times more likely than men to develop long COVID, Viswanathan says. Trans people and people with disabilities are also the most commonly affected by long COVID, according to the CDC’s Household Pulse Survey.

Diagnosing long COVID is so difficult in part because there are currently no tests that can specifically determine whether someone has it.

Viswanathan and her 10-person team of internal medicine doctors and other specialists use what’s called a diagnosis of exclusion.

“We exclude other medical conditions before we say that patients have long COVID,” she explains. “And that requires a comprehensive workup to verify that there's not another medical problem that could be causing our patients’ symptomatology.”

The process includes an exhaustive review of patient medical histories, as well as thorough questionnaires, which doctors use to understand the severity of patient symptoms and how their mental health is fairing.

As of 2021, the federal government recognizes long COVID as a protected disability under the American with Disabilities Act.

Treating long COVID: An uncertain path to recovery There is no cure for long COVID or medications to specifically treat it. Treatment can be piecemeal, directed to the specific symptoms each patient experiences. Sometimes, the illness improves or completely resolves on its own.

“Is it like cancer, which we say is in remission?” Viswanathan asks. “Or do we say this is a long COVID resolved, they're permanently cured? We have no way of saying that yet, because we have no way of following them at the molecular level.”

While Rountree’s long COVID diagnosis has given her validation and emotional relief, treating it remains precarious. She has enrolled in lung retraining classes through UCLA’s partnership with the LA Opera, which have helped alleviate pain and make it easier to breathe. She also does weekly acupuncture, which helps address inflammation.

Still, Rountree remains on what appears to be a downward health spiral. She was forced to resign as president of her kids’ PTSA and is no longer able to work. Just last year, she was hospitalized four times.

Rountree has also been diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a circulatory condition causing lightheadedness and fainting that has forced her to use a wheelchair. Chronic fatigue and pain upon inhaling are among her daily challenges.

But Rountree finds relief in the daily strides emerging alongside them. She has a new personal record of how long she can stand: three minutes.

“It's hard. It's frustrating. … And sometimes, exercise makes symptoms worse,” Rountree says. “I can walk a very short distance. But honestly, this time last year, I didn't know if I was going to even be able to do that.”

Scientists are making new long COVID breakthroughs all the time. There are new and existing treatments that are available to patients, like lung retraining and prescribing SSRIs to treat low serotonin levels. The National Institutes of Health has also boosted its funding for long COVID research by nearly half a billion dollars over the next four years.

Ultimately, one thing about long COVID remains definitive — the only way to prevent it, is to not catch COVID in the first place.

[orion-archives]

I made a MegaSound fanchild (Fanspawn? Fanspark? Fansparkling???)

Meet Kaon!

^ Adult Kaon ^

- Megatron was the one who named him (because of course he would be the one to name his offspring Kaon). Soundwave loved the idea.

- No, that visor is not something he can take off, that is his face. His actual face.

- Kaon is obsessed with scavanger birds. His favorite is a big bearded vulture he named 'Steelclaw' that he raised from egg. His obsession with birds probably originates from Soundwave's bond with Laserbeak. Why scavanger birds specifically? That's still a mystery.

(These are bearded vultures, in case you didn't know these amazing birds:)

Small concept of Kaon and Steelclaw

The proportions are off, but I really wanted Steelclaw to be visible on Kaon's hand in this sketch. Because in reality, Steelclaw is like a small parrot to adult Kaon.

- As a sparkling, Kaon was very small and slim, with a very fragile looking frame. But growing up he got stronger, resulting that (combined with other factors), as an adult, Kaon is taller than Megatron, very buff and basically a walking tank.

- His alt mode is a AH-64 Apache helicopter.

- Kaon was born (is that the correct term for transformers? Crafted? Created???) with his voice box damaged, making him completly mute. Therefore, Kaon uses radio signals, music and audio/voice clips to communicate.

Some common sounds Kaon uses and their meaning:

- Disco music/Bird chirping: Very happy, excited.

- Animal hisses/Slammed piano keys: Displeased, annoyed, scared, usually when he doesn't like something.

- Air raid sirens/Strings/Screeches/Recordings of actual cries: Terrified, crying, screaming.

- Static/Mix of corrupted noises: In pain, severely stressed.

- Growls/Engine starting noises: Angry, upset.

- Things Kaon loves:

• Cartoons (Megatron watches MLP with him)

• Scavanger birds (Steelclaw is his main bird, but he also takes care of multiple wild vultures and condors)

• Skulls

• Rubber ducks (he likes the noise)

• Music

• Training

• Soft things (plushies, blankets, fur, feathers)

- Things Kaon hates:

• Medical appointments

• Having to stay in the medbay during long periods of time

• Extremely high-pitched noises

● Very bright lights

• "The dark voice that keeps whispering weird things" (wait, the what now–)

• Zombie/vampire movies (Knockout tried)

- Kaon spends more time with Soundwave for safety reasons, but Megatron tries to be with him as much as possible.

- If Kaon doesn't have a normal face, how does he eats?

...Yeah.

Speaking of that, this brings me to another Kaon fact. Well, a few, unfunny, facts:

- Due to Megatron's past use of dark energon, Kaon was born with tons of health issues or body anomalies. A list of the main health problems and things that Kaon has as a result of having dark energon in his entire frame since creation are:

○ Constant headaches

○ Seizures

○ Chronic pain

○ Having a Terrorcon mouth

○ Unnatural amount of strenght

○ Damaged voice box since birth

○ Hearing voices

○ Nightmares and visions of things he hasn't even knowledge of

- Megatron hates himself because of this, since it was his use of dark energon that caused Kaon being born with medical problems. He suffers a lot everytime Kaon has to stay on the medbay due to another complication, when someone looks at Kaon with disgust or horror when he has to drink energon or just all the nights Kaon has woken up crying because he is scared or in pain for an unexplained reason.

- To end this post on a better note, here's a sparkling Kaon I doodled at 2 in the morning because of insomnia:

He tiny