#which requires a Lot of support in both houses to pass

[contortionyx]

[mariacallous]

As national legislation on deepfake pornography crawls its way through Congress, states across the country are trying to take matters into their own hands. Thirty-nine states have introduced a hodgepodge of laws designed to deter the creation of nonconsensual deepfakes and punish those who make and share them.

Earlier this year, Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, herself a victim of nonconsensual deepfakes, introduced the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act, or Defiance Act. If passed, the bill would allow victims of deepfake pornography to sue as long as they could prove the deepfakes had been made without their consent. In June, Republican senator Ted Cruz introduced the Take It Down Act, which would require platforms to remove both revenge porn and nonconsensual deepfake porn.

Though there’s bilateral support for many of these measures, federal legislation can take years to make it through both houses of Congress before being signed into law. But state legislatures and local politicians can move faster—and they’re trying to.

Last month, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu’s office announced a lawsuit against 16 of the most visited websites that allow users to create AI-generated pornography. “Generative AI has enormous promise, but as with all new technologies, there are unintended consequences and criminals seeking to exploit the new technology. We have to be very clear that this is not innovation—this is sexual abuse,” Chiu said in a statement released by his office at the time.

The suit was just the latest attempt to try to curtail the ever-growing issue of nonconsensual deepfake pornography.

“I think there's a misconception that it's just celebrities that are being affected by this,” says Ilana Beller, organizing manager at Public Citizen, which has been tracking nonconsensual deepfake legislation and shared their findings with WIRED. “It's a lot of everyday people who are having this experience.”

Data from Public Citizen shows that 23 states have passed some form of nonconsensual deepfake law. “This is such a pervasive issue, and so state legislators are seeing this as a problem,” says Beller. “I also think that legislators are interested in passing AI legislation right now because we are seeing how fast the technology is developing.”

Last year, WIRED reported that deepfake pornography is only increasing, and researchers estimate that 90 percent of deepfake videos are of porn, the vast majority of which is nonconsensual porn of women. But despite how pervasive the issue is, Kaylee Williams, a researcher at Columbia University who has been tracking nonconsensual deepfake legislation, says she has seen legislators more focused on political deepfakes.

“More states are interested in protecting electoral integrity in that way than they are in dealing with the intimate image question,” she says.

Matthew Bierlein, a Republican state representative in Michigan, who cosponsored the state’s package of nonconsensual deepfake bills, says that he initially came to the issue after exploring legislation on political deepfakes. “Our plan was to make [political deepfakes] a campaign finance violation if you didn’t put disclaimers on them to notify the public.” Through his work on political deepfakes, Bierlein says, he began working with Democratic representative Penelope Tsernoglou, who helped spearhead the nonconsensual deepfake bills.

At the time in January, nonconsensual deepfakes of Taylor Swift had just gone viral, and the subject was widely covered in the news. “We thought that the opportunity was the right time to be able to do something,” Beirlein says. And Beirlein says that he felt Michigan was in the position to be a regional leader in the Midwest, because, unlike some of its neighbors, it has a full-time legislature with well-paid staffers (most states don’t). “We understand that it's a bigger issue than just a Michigan issue. But a lot of things can start at the state level,” he says. “If we get this done, then maybe Ohio adopts this in their legislative session, maybe Indiana adopts something similar, or Illinois, and that can make enforcement easier.”

But what the penalties for creating and sharing nonconsensual deepfakes are—and who is protected—can vary widely from state to state. “The US landscape is just wildly inconsistent on this issue,” says Williams. “I think there's been this misconception lately that all these laws are being passed all over the country. I think what people are seeing is that there have been a lot of laws proposed.”

Some states allow for civil and criminal cases to be brought against perpetrators, while others might only provide for one of the two. Laws like the one that recently took effect in Mississippi, for instance, focus on minors. Over the past year or so, there have been a spate of instances of middle and high schoolers using generative AI to make explicit images and videos of classmates, particularly girls. Other laws focus on adults, with legislators essentially updating existing laws banning revenge porn.

Unlike laws that focus on nonconsensual deepfakes of minors, on which Williams says there is a broad consensus that there they are an “inherent moral wrong,” legislation around what is “ethical” when it comes to nonconsensual deepfakes of adults is “squishier.” In many cases, laws and proposed legislation require proving intent, that the goal of the person making and sharing the nonconsensual deepfake was to harm its subject.

But online, says Sara Jodka, an attorney who specializes in privacy and cybersecurity, this patchwork of state-based legislation can be particularly difficult. “If you can't find a person behind an IP address, how can you prove who the person is, let alone show their intent?”

Williams also notes that in the case of nonconsensual deepfakes of celebrities or other public figures, many of the creators don’t necessarily see themselves as doing harm. “They’ll say, ‘This is fan content,’ that they admire this person and are attracted to them,” she says.

State laws, Jobka says, while a good start, are likely to have limited power to actually deal with the issue, and only a federal law against nonconsensual deepfakes would allow for the kind of interstate investigations and prosecutions that could really force justice and accountability. “States don't really have a lot of ability to track down across state lines internationally,” she says. “So it's going to be very rare, and it's going to be very specific scenarios where the laws are going to be able to even be enforced.”

But Michigan’s Bierlein says that many state representatives are not content to wait for the federal government to address the issue. Bierlein expressed particular concern about the role nonconsensual deepfakes could play in sextortion scams, which the FBI says have been on the rise. In 2023, a Michigan teen died by suicide after scammers threatened to post his (real) intimate photos online. “Things move really slow on a federal level, and if we waited for them to do something, we could be waiting a lot longer,” he says.

[leonardcohenofficial]

Hi Maddie! Are you willing to talk a little about your PhD journey? All I know is you write a really big paper but I imagine it involves more than that

absolutely! the requirements of a phd will definitely range depending on both your field and subject of your research, but typically involve taking courses that allow you to gain general but high level knowledge of the area on the whole, passing some type of qualifying exam that shows you’re prepared to complete your dissertation, and then writing the dissertation itself, all in a process that can take between typically three years (this seems very short but is fairly common outside of the USA) to a decade. in my program people typically graduated in five or six years; i myself took six years to finish everything up

for my program i took classes in a wide variety of areas, most of which were not directly related to what i wrote about for my dissertation, but all of which were extremely beneficial in 1) learning in areas outside of what i do, 2) helping me feel more prepared when teaching those subjects as part of my TA duties, and 3) allowing me to develop deeper critical and theoretical knowledge that helped me with writing the dissertation itself. i was also really happy that i was able to take classes outside of the theatre department (in the music and literature departments; though the lit class i took was a film class lol), which made total sense given my research is so interdisciplinary. the biggest thing i learned about my research throughout my time is that i very much live in the performance studies world (vs. theatre or drama) which is helpful framing given i write and teach about such a wide range of performance and media forms. my dissertation was much more a performance studies/musicology/american studies project than a Theatre™️ project, but i had a committee that really encouraged me to think across multiple disciplines with my work (and i also got to teach both theatre and film classes, which is pretty cool)

i also really appreciate that my program also gave us so much experience teaching! i taught every single quarter and many summers during grad school, which (while exhausting) not only gave me a ton of practice to build up my own pedagogical approach but made my CV pretty competitive as an early career scholar when applying to jobs. i don’t think i would have gotten multiple tenure-track interviews while still finishing my dissertation had i not had so much teaching experience (as instructor of record!) on there. i also am really grateful that my department also really cares about encouraging phds’ practice within and beyond the department, so i was able to dramaturg and/or direct ten shows within my department on top of a ton of outside gigs at the major LORT houses in town (which was also a really big deal)

the actual dissertation writing process sucks. it’s exhausting and thankless and even if you have a really amazing committee (like i did <3) it is extremely stressful and i do not know ANYONE who has reported a smooth and easy dissertation writing process LOL; however i had really good people on my side (friends, family, colleagues in the department and in arts and humanities in general at school, my faculty, my coworkers at the record shop, etc.) who were so supportive and my biggest champions as i was taking on this massive project. it was a lot but in all honestly even though it took so long, it was not the most difficult academic work i’ve ever had to do (that badge of dishonor goes to the horrendous process of getting my international baccalaureate diploma, which was so awful it led me to go to hippie college with no grades no tests and no majors LMFAO). i am super proud of my dissertation—if anyone wants to read it i’d be happy to send the link!—and even though there are plenty of sections i’ll rework for when i submit it to academic presses for publication, i am really pleased with the work i did and i think that it provides new and (imho) exciting scholarship about topics that i find really meaningful (many of which i’ve loved since i was a kid)

all of this to say, if people have phd, grad school, research, or otherwise related questions or want to chat, please hit me up! always happy to talk about this stuff / offer my very humble advice about any stage of the process <3

[moonlitphoenixflight]

In Stars and Time AU with shapeshifting aliens (Of Void and Light) [part 6]

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5]

Things which occur after the Events of the video game!

A lot of this stuff makes absolutely zero sense without the context of the previous parts which is something I find funny.

At some point post-game, the party gets a letter from Dormont that a strange lightless liquid has been spreading from where The King is frozen. Tests (throwing pebbles in) have shown that it doesn't have time freeze powers, but when something touches it, the liquid rises up to cover it for a moment. After that moment the item then either interacts with the liquid as if its water, or it gets pushed out from the pool.

As Siffrin and the party enter The House and start climbing, they will notice that Siffrin starts to breath more heavily. Farther up, his breath starts to become visible, but they aren't shivering or saying they feel cold. When the party enters the room where The King is, Siffrin's breath starts to shimmer, and gather around his feet in a vortex.

Siffrin is very nervous because The Horrors, but is also drawn to the pool of liquid. As they approach, the darkless energy swirling around him makes contact with the lightless energy around The King, causing both to dissolve.

Siffrin notices this and hesitates, but pure Void and Light essence are like magnets to each other. Siffrin jumps back, but in a rapid flurry of light and dark, The King Ozephyr unfreezes, and Siffrin remembers that they are also Nynrael. (I will only refer to them as Siffrin for simplicities sake)

Ozephyr is even smaller than the armor that was shrunken down from massive The King size, and tumbles out of it in a cloak similar to Siffrin's, but inverted color. Siffrin, who now Realizes, whispers "Oz?" To which Ozephyr looks up at them suddenly, shouts out a nickname* and runs up to hug them. Ozephyr starts crying Void essence, and Siffrin starts crying as well, and breathing Light essence. because of this they both start to look visibly healthier.

*I haven't decided how to make a nickname from Nynrael. My ideas are Nya-nrael, Nini, Nyn, and Rae, but I'm not sure which to make Ozephyr's go-to nickname for them. If a person or persons seeing this have a preference or other idea please share.

After this there's explanations, then more journeying of various types. During the journeying, Siffrin and Ozephyr think about how to stop the Xiriel moonship from completely annihilating the planet. Even though the anchor is disconnected, they know that engineers on Xiriel would eventually be able to make a new one.

They end up deciding to go at it by overthrowing their mother Queen Vitris. They know that they won't be able to do it without going through written Xirien law, otherwise they wouldn't have full support. They could theoretically use force to obtain this support afterwards but they would prefer keeping bloodshed to a minimum. This minimum ends up being one, because they know that the Queen won't accept anything less than a fight to the death.

In Xirien law, to attempt to take the throne, the challenger must have a single soul in harmony, and be an adult. The former usually means the twins fight to the death situation, but since technically twins always share different pieces of one soul, twins who care for each other also fit this requirement. Siffrin and Ozephyr may need some therapy or something though just in case.

The requirements for being an adult, while defined by most as only taking an adult form, actually has one of two other requirements deep in the laws of Xiriel. The first option is that the changeling in question be at least 200 years of age. Ozephyr and Siffrin are barely 30. If they waited for this time to pass, the chances that Xirien engineers reconnect the anchor rise. And if the anchor is reconnected the siphon will be too. The planet is very close to the point of permanent damage if the siphon gets any time to function, so this isn't the option the twins go with.

The other method buried deep in Xirien legal codes, known only to a few because of how obscure it is, is for the changeling to acquire a Mark of The Lake. The Lake is a pool of concentrated magic on Xiriel programmed to judge whether or not a changeling has performed one of each of the 6 Great Feats. These are what they are and how the twins obtain them. They count as one because of their being twins and sharing a soul.

A Great Feat of Mind: Ozephyr obtained this before the Events by making huge strides in the field of magic theory.

A Great Feat of Body: Siffrin obtained this before the Events with prodigal shapeshifting.

A Great Feat of Magic: Ozephyr and Siffrin both obtained this through their respective timecraft uses.

A Great Feat of Self: If this au was twohats compliant this would be that. Since this is not twohats compliant this was instead obtained by Siffrin over the course of the loops, culminating in confronting his own Sadness and technically making it out. They wouldn't have managed it without his family but it still counts because of the confrontation itself.

A Great Feat of Endurance: Ozephyr and Siffrin will obtain this by reconnecting the anchor. Since they reconnect it, they are able to prevent the siphon from activating. This is a Feat of Endurance because to reconnect the anchor from below they basically need to turn themselves into magical lightning rods. A lot of energy is gonna be hurtling directly at them.

A Great Feat of The Stars: The twins obtain this one by reawakening Loop. This Feat requires an alliance with a Star, which is very difficult to obtain if you don't have a brand new Star whose first conscious actions were to help one of you out of a time loop. This is also when Loop gets the name Lulenim.

At some point, another thing that also occurs is Siffrin and Ozephyr taking their adult forms. They had rough matching designs chosen for a long time. Both of they adult forms are primarily dragon centaurs, with the torso and up being the same as their human forms, and below being long, many legged dragon bodies. Details for each are not fully thought through by me.

When they go up to Xiriel and challenge Vitris, I am uncertain if I want to have them on purpose create a new time loop in order to make sure that they win the fight.

~~✦✧✦✧✦✧✦~~

That is all of the thoughts I currently have on this au! I didn't realize there was so much here, I hope that at least 1 (one) person has enjoyed this very self-indulgent au even a tiny percent as much as I have because I know that many of my favorite aus for various fandoms are the ones where the creator just goes wild. If you have any thinks please tell me I am a human (social species) which means I crave approval and other people to go 'heeheehee silly characters go brrrr' with!

(I want to do some art but I don't know if my adhd will align in a way to let me. If I do I will add the links to the top of these posts.)

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Riley Rogerson at NOTUS:

Ever since November, when Republicans swept both chambers of Congress and the White House, GOP lawmakers have been bullish about making the most of what they see as a clear mandate to reinvent Washington. But as Republicans try to shake off a close call with a government shutdown and prepare for Donald Trump’s first 100 days, lawmakers are starting to grapple with a simple reality: They may not be able to do much of anything. “They can’t even extend government funding,” a frustrated Sen. Josh Hawley told NOTUS in December, as the House GOP nearly imploded over a stopgap spending bill. “They’re going to do this all over again in March. There’s a debt ceiling fight coming up,” he said. “Good luck.”

Before Trump even takes office on Jan. 20, House Republicans must elect a speaker — a delicate, historically difficult task given the mutiny currently on Mike Johnson’s hands. Republicans then had to agree to a rules package, which was released on Wednesday. Those rules are rife with potential trip wires, like the nine members required to hold a vote to oust a speaker, and are already under negotiation as Johnson tries to secure the votes he needs for the speakership. These two items — electing a speaker and adopting a rules package — are supposed to be the easy part. They are more often perfunctory votes than hurdles for a new majority to clear. But in this Congress, the first day is just where the problems start. In Trump’s first 100 days, the Senate will attempt to confirm his cabinet — including controversial picks like Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Then, leadership in both chambers intends to take up a sweeping package that addresses border security, energy production and defense via a complicated reconciliation process that lowers the Senate vote threshold to circumvent the filibuster. Or maybe Republicans plan to first do a tax bill through reconciliation. Or maybe they plan to do just one reconciliation bill for the whole lot. There hasn’t been clarity on the plan, but there’s already a lot of debate.

Either way, some of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for individual rates and small businesses expire at the end of 2025. Republicans will have to act if they want to extend those rates, and many GOP lawmakers think of the tax bill as their lone opportunity to enact other tax policy changes. Throughout those early days, Republicans and Democrats will also be negotiating a larger spending package to carry the government through the rest of the fiscal year, until October. Government funding runs out on March 15, and Republicans have not passed a government spending bill without Democratic support since 2017. But there are already signs that Trump and Republicans plan to push for partisan policies, like a border wall and reduced domestic spending, that could lead to a shutdown in the president’s first 100 days.

Republicans offered a glimpse of their partisan priorities in their rules package, which lays the foundation for a floor vote on 12 much anticipated, conservative bills. Those bills would define sex as solely based on “reproductive biology” for Title IX purposes, impose stricter criminal penalties on migrants who illegally cross the border, restrict federal funding to sanctuary cities and prohibit a moratorium on fracking. Among the other measures are bills to mandate medical care for fetuses that survive abortion, sanctions for the International Criminal Court after the ICC was critical of Israel and proof of citizenship voter requirements. Of course, all of this is just the beginning. At some point this summer, Congress must also raise the debt ceiling. Due to a “handshake agreement” brokered between Johnson, Trump and House conservatives, the plan is to pair a $1.5 trillion debt ceiling increase with $2.5 trillion in mandatory spending cuts that target programs like Medicare, Medicaid and veterans benefits.

Such a feat, which would almost certainly have to be passed by Republicans alone, is unlikely to happen, but the discussions could be politically damaging. Plus, after extending the farm bill for one year, Republicans still have to deal with a rewrite of that legislation before the end of the year. If this all sounds difficult to accomplish with a bare-bones majority, that’s because it is.

[...] There is a certain miracle-working required to get Republicans to play nice, especially with a razor-thin House majority where lawmakers are regularly plotting to knife their own speaker. It’s true that, in the Senate, Republicans control 53 votes. That gives the upper chamber some wiggle room. But the Senate GOP will need near-total alignment to confirm certain Trump nominees and pass laws. That’s particularly tough with moderate Trump critics like Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. Both have signaled they don’t plan to rubber-stamp the incoming president’s nominees or agenda. Still, even if laws advance in Majority Leader John Thune’s Senate, they must fly in the House, where the margins are even narrower and the conference is more unruly. Senators and Trump allies know that, even without a filibuster, the House is the toughest roadblock to the GOP’s agenda on Capitol Hill.

The House GOP’s nominal threadbare majority could be a big roadblock to implement Donald Trump’s vision this session of Congress.

[tomorrowusa]

Trump White House staffers were apparently big pill poppers. And we're not talking about generic ibuprofen or Vitamin C.

The White House has its own pharmacy. It's run by the military because the president happens to be commander-in-chief of the armed forces. But during the Trump administration things went awry – as you might expect.

For years, the White House Medical Unit, run by the White House Military Office, provided the full scope of pharmaceutical services to senior officials and staff—it stored, inventoried, prescribed, dispensed, and disposed of prescription medications, including opioids and sleep medications. However, it was not staffed by a licensed pharmacist or pharmacy support staff, nor was it credentialed by any outside agency. The operations of this pseudo-pharmacy went as well as one might expect, according to the DoD OIG's alarming investigation report. The investigation was prompted by complaints in May 2018 alleging that an unnamed "senior military medical officer" was engaged in "improper medical practices." [ ... ] Provigil is a drug that treats excessive tiredness and is typically used for patients with narcolepsy, sleep apnea, and other sleep disorders. Brand-name Provigil is 55 times more expensive than the generic equivalent. Between 2017 and 2019, the White House pharmacy spent an estimated $98,000 for Provigil. In that same timeframe, it also spent an estimated $46,500 for Ambien, a prescription sedative, which is 174 times more expensive than the generic equivalent. Even further, the White House Medical Unit spent an additional $100,000 above generic drug cost by having Walter Reed National Military Medical Center fill brand-name prescriptions.

While they were plotting to repeal Obamacare for millions of Americans, Trump staffers were getting brand name stimulants and sedatives cheap and sticking US taxpayers with the bill.

They were handing out baggies of drugs to staffers going on trips overseas.

The staffer told OIG investigators that ahead of overseas trips, the staff would prepare packets of controlled medications to be handed out to White House staff. "And those would typically be Ambien or Provigil and typically both, right. So we would normally make these packets of Ambien and Provigil, and a lot of times they’d be in like five tablets in a zip‑lock bag. And so traditionally, too, we would hand these out. ... But a lot of times the senior staff would come by or their staff representatives... would come by the residence clinic to pick it up. And it was very much a, 'hey, I’m here to pick this up for Ms. X.' And the expectation was we just go ahead and pass it out."

Trump wanted to send the US military into Mexico to go after drug kingpins. But he was running his own out of control drug dispensing operation financed by tax money.

The Department of Defense Inspector General's report detailed how Schedule II drugs were poorly inventoried and monitored. (emphasis added)

The Code of Federal Regulations requires that registered pharmacies maintain inventories and records of Schedule II controlled substances separately from all other pharmacy records.16 In our site visit to the EEOB Clinic, we concluded that the clinic maintained the controlled substance inventory records in a binder on hand‑written paper logs, stored in the EEOB clinic’s medication dispensing area. The inventory records showed that White House Medical Unit stocked four different types of Schedule II opioid pain medications (fentanyl, hydrocodone, morphine, and oxycodone), as well as medications from Schedules III through V, such as stimulants and sedatives. However, White House Medical Unit kept the records for its Schedule II medications in the EEOB’s inventory binder together with records for all other controlled medications and not maintained separately as required by the CFR.

So the Trump White House pharmacy also included opioids which were not properly kept track of. The Trump drug mill was a microcosm for his administration as a whole.

[fresh-bag-of-ham]

seeking urbanism / housing advocacy advice (because you're the only person i follow who both posts about it and does it): my city (primarily a college town, population < 100k) is holding a community discussion about ways to increase affordable housing, including inclusionary zoning and other zoning reforms. what kinds of policy ideas / comments are best to bring to this as A Member Of The Public? does inclusionary zoning work like it's supposed to? are there other specific zoning reforms that work well? i know getting rid of parking minimums is a big one, but i don't know if that's achievable here yet.

MY TIME HAS COME.

First of all, if the forum is about 'affordable housing', then you may need to start with drawing the connection between affordability and increasing housing supply. There are a lot of tangents you can go down in a discussion of affordable housing, but the crucial point to get across is that increasing housing supply on its own makes housing costs go down. Investor speculation in real estate, e.g., happens because supply is constrained and those are the conditions where real estate values reliably go up, creating profit. It is a symptom, not a cause. See also: landlords in Austin, TX melting down on Twitter because they're increasing supply so fast there that they're having to lower rents. Video recently studied and shown to be 3x more effective for changing people's minds about supply-side housing than other interventions.

INCLUSIONARY ZONING. a.k.a. mandating that for any development with more than X units, Y% of those units must be 'affordable' units reserved for families earning Z% area median income. In a perfect world, all housing would be mixed-income housing. In practice, the effectiveness of IZ depends almost entirely on what you set Y% at. About five years ago, our local DSA passed a referendum increasing Y% from 10% to 25%. This change has basically stalled all housing development that this applies to because the projects just don't pencil. You need subsidy to build affordable housing, you have to cobble that subsidy together from a lot of different funding sources, and all these sources have different requirements on how their funding can be used. Your problems become twofold: (1) Most subsidies for affordable housing want you to build something that's more like 80-100% affordable, so a 25%-affordable development won't get funding. (2) The subsidy available for affordable housing is finite, so even if your 25%-affordable development were able to get subsidy, that necessarily is taking subsidy away from somewhere else. The same number of affordable units will be built, IZ just ends up trying to dictate how those units are distributed. It mainly ends up kneecapping market-rate housing construction, which, again, adding market-rate housing puts downward pressure on housing prices.

Our prior level of 10% IZ seemed to work ok..? but I would caution strongly against relying on IZ if you are supply constrained, which, I can't imagine you're not. A buzzy new strategy for mixed-income housing creation is "social housing" -- AOC wrote about it in the NYT last week, here's a talk about it that I admittedly haven't watched yet. This is what's getting traction here as DSA is tentatively walking back support for their very aggressive IZ policy that has not created the affordable housing they wanted it to.

If you have parking minimums, KILL THAT SHIT. We were successful in advocating for our table of parking minimums to be turned into parking maximums. Add/increase bike parking minimums, bike theft is a HUGE deterrent from biking here, so having a safe place to store your bike at home is critical if you want anyone to start leaving behind their cars. You also probably want to look at dimensional standards: increase heights, reduce setbacks, increase lot coverage maximums, reduce lot size minimums, if you're anything like our city then you probably have even more and weirder constraints you'll want to relax so new buildings can be bigger and hold more units. You probably have just straight up caps on number of units per lot -- kill single-family zoning, get at least 4 units or something per lot allowed! Lot area per dwelling unit is a particularly terrible constraint, basically creating a minimum amount of land you have to own in order to be able to have a home. Horrible! Kill it!

My personal preferred urban form is the perimeter block enabled by single-stair apartment buildings that's common throughout Europe and basically anywhere outside of the US and Canada. This will take reforms at multiple levels before it becomes possible even here, but Seattle-based architect Michael Eliason (@holz_bau on Twitter) has stair-pilled me on this form so powerfully, and https://secondegress.ca/ makes the extremely compelling (Canada-centric) case for allowing single-stair apartment buildings, which for us means changing building code at the state level. #goals, though.

I have had a lot of practice recently writing and organizing public comment to advocate for this stuff so I would be happy to talk messaging/strategy at any point, I could go on and on about this subject! I'm so thrilled that you're asking about this though, it's so important to get involved and show up at these kinds of meetings, because the people who reliably show up to these things are the retiree busybodies with nothing but free time to oppose every type of change imaginable and are the ones who got us into this situation in the first place.

[honey-beann]

Ruiner, Ruination (RK900 x Reader)

Chapter 5: An Overwhelming Overture - Insight

Series Masterlist

Chapter Synopsis:

Part one of another two part special that tells the tale of the infamous DPD mandatory gala, and all of the things that can happen in apartments and empty hallways.

In this part, everyone's favorite duo deals with an injury that requires a lot of teamwork, which may or may not lead to them growing a bit… closer so to speak. What will happen at the Gala? How are Reader and Nines doing after Reader's long drop from the Hughes family attic? And how did Hank and Connor get dragged into this mess?

AKA: Reader gets hurt, Nines experiences guilt, and they both have to learn to adjust for the sake of the other's sanity. What could go wrong?

Chapter Content Warnings:

Mentions of injury

Mentions of blood

Mentions of death

Vague android self harm

Word Count: 8,510

You sighed nervously as you entered into the foyer, fighting the urge to adjust the sling on your right arm as your gaze shifted from person to person.

Everyone here was dressed in formal attire, no one wanting to disappoint Fowler or the higher ups with less than stellar clothing on a night like this one.

Tonight was the Detroit City First Responder and Civic Services Gala, one of very few events the entire department was expected to attend annually, and here you were, in your very best dress, with a trademark blue sling supporting the shoulder injury you'd received while working the Hughes case six days ago.

How fun.

Well, at least you looked good.

Your dress was long and black, with a thin slit that ran up your right thigh in a way that nearly revealed the light bruising present there.

And suddenly, standing there in the foyer, your mind flashed back to that night without warning.

You had only just come to after passing out mid-fall during your death defying drop from the third story of the Hughes' House, and every nerve in your body felt as if it was on fire.

But the most notable feeling by far was that of cool fingers, long and thin, pressing hard into the flesh of your upper thigh with enough force to leave the aforementioned bruising even days afterward.

Even still, you had neglected to mention said bruising to Nines, even after you'd realized it was his intense grip that had caused it.

You didn't want to make him feel bad for something that, if nothing else, almost seemed to show how deeply he cared for your well being, so afraid to lose his grip on you and let you down (literally), that he had held you tight enough for it to bruise.

It was about as sweet as Nines could get, honestly.

You swayed a bit on your feet, eyes unfocused as the familiar feeling of falling unconscious began to overcome you once more, just as it had shortly after you'd felt Nines' hands on your neck and thigh that night, and you were only brought back to reality by the faint smell of cedar and clary sage, the familiarity of it causing you to refocus your gaze with a sharp intake of breath.

You looked over to find your partner, the source of the familiar scent in question, taking in his curious and mildly concerned expression as he looped his arm through yours, as if worried you might fall over without the extra support.

"Are you feeling alright, Detective?"

He asked cautiously, his words slow and purposeful in a way that made you focus intently on each individual syllable.

You nodded quickly, although perhaps too much so based on the face that Nines made in response,

"I'm fine, just a little distracted is all."

You reassured gently, noting the look of subtle displeasure that flickered across Nines' features before he was right back to his same neutral and vaguely disapproving expression.

"I see. Would you prefer it if I found you a seat, then?"

You thought for a brief moment before shaking your head, offering your partner a mostly genuine smile as you did so,

"I'm alright to stand. I have plenty of support if I need it."

You joked, watching as Nines rolled his eyes in response, guiding you further into the venue where most of your fellow coworkers and various other supporters of the DPD were mingling, their conjoined conversations melding into one loud noise as you grew further away from the foyer entrance.

The sudden shift in sound made you feel dizzy for a few moments, your mind briefly flashing back to the shouts and clamor that had surrounded you as the scene of your previous case effectively crumbled to dust behind you.

Thankfully, there had been no casualties or injuries amongst your coworkers (save for your own), but as you thought back to that night you couldn't stop your mind from conjuring up the image of the little android girl you had so desperately wanted to save.

Gwyneth.

She had been blonde, although the blood of her abusive guardians had dyed her hair a sickly orange, and she had been so incredibly excited when you'd mentioned knowing Connor. She was just like so many other little girls, she had idols, loved her family, felt fear, and was so undoubtedly alive that it sickened you to know that a great deal of people didn't believe that to be true.

You could remember so vividly the way her fear had consumed her, blue blood staining that matted orange hair as she slammed her head against the floor again and again in an attempt to end the influx of negative emotions she was feeling.

"It was self destruction."

Nines had explained to you afterward while sitting in the arm chair you kept in your living room, his gaze cast downward as he spoke, guilt weighing heavily on his shoulders whether he would ever admit such a thing aloud or not.

"It is common in deviants, especially those who have only recently deviated or are younger and more prone to rashness as a part of their protocol. There was nothing you could have done to stop her once she started."

The unspoken words at the end of his sentence were that what had happened to Gwyneth was therefore not your fault, but you couldn't bring yourself to address that wordless promise, the same way that your partner hadn't been able to bring himself to say it outright.

Neither of you wanted to talk about the guilt you harbored over that night,

Yours for letting both Gwyneth and your partner down when they had trusted you,

And Nines' for allowing you to be hurt when he had promised no harm would come to you.

Of course, in the end, a simple dislocation because of your arm positioning upon being caught was far less severe than any injuries you would have received otherwise.

But your android companion seemed to struggle to see that as a positive.

In his eyes, you never should have been injured at all,

It never should have been possible.

Suddenly though, and without any warning, you were thrown back into the present, this time by a voice that pulled you far from the recesses of your inner thoughts in a single moment.

"Hello, you two, enjoying the evening so far?

You smiled up at the speaker, nodding politely as you addressed him,

"Of course sir, how could we not?

You spoke to your captain formally, grinning up at him as he gave you an apologetic smile of his own.

"I'm glad to hear it, Y/n, as well as to see you in attendance tonight. I was happy to learn that RK900 was willing to help you make your way around safely the same way he did with your reintegration into the department on Monday. It has been great to see the successes of your partnership within the office this past week."

You let your gaze flicker over to your partner, who was regarding the captain with the same cool politeness he always did, his eyes meeting yours for the briefest of moments before they moved back to Captain Fowler once more.

You let him take the lead of the conversation after that brief look of acknowledgement, and as you further considered the captain's previous words, you felt your mind leave you once more as you recalled all of the ways in which Nines had supported you throughout the past week.

You remembered vividly the way he had looked when you had awoken for the second time on the night of the case, this time in a hospital rather than in the arms of your partner.

You had panicked briefly before you'd caught sight of him sitting there, tie loosened around his neck, collar unbuttoned, and jacket foregone entirely as he sat in stasis mode, his only obvious movements being the rise and fall of his chest due to his internal fans, and his eyelids as they fluttered ever so slightly on occasion, as if he could sense you looking at him even when he wasn't aware of the world around him.

You had watched him like that for a while, surprised to note that it had been the very first time you had seen him in even vaguely casual clothing. Sure, it was just the usual pieces of his uniform being worn in new ways, but still, it almost made him look like a completely different person.

You continued to admire him even as your eyelids grew heavier with sleep, taking in the way that one of his long legs crossed over the other as he sat, straight as a board, at your bedside.

He'd looked almost painfully beautiful like that, and you could recall that being your final thought before you finally succumbed to slumber once more, your dreams that night so incredibly vivid that you could envision them even now.

They came in bright flashes and short bursts,

The feeling of his broad shoulders beneath your hands,

His fingers digging into your thigh,

His voice rumbling in your ear,

Breaths cold and short,

His hand in yours.

Disastrous.

You had awoken with a start the following morning, surprised to find that save for you, your room was entirely empty.

You looked around for a few moments, attempting to sit up in order to get a better view when a sharp pain burst throughout your right shoulder.

You let out a low groan of pain and settled back down into the bed, jumping ever so slightly as the door to your room began to open, revealing your partner and three other figures as they entered quietly.

Nines was the first of the group to notice that you were awake, and he regarded you with a quiet relief as he walked over to your bedside, his LED blinking yellow as he scanned you for any concerns.

You watched him for a few seconds, confused, before you recalled the other individuals in the room, recognition hitting you hard as you shifted your gaze to look them over.

"Hank? Connor?"

You asked, your tone revealing more of your surprise than you'd intended as you took in the sight of your two coworkers, who were just about the closest thing to friends you had due to your busy work schedule.

"Hello, Detective."

Connor greeted politely, a soft smile gracing his lips as he stood towards the end of your hospital bed, shifting to the right a bit as Hank moved to stand beside him.

"Hey Kid, how ya feelin?"

He asked gruffly, and you attempted to shrug in response, only to wince in pain.

Nines shot a glance towards the unidentified individual who had entered the room with the three of them, and it was only then that you noticed he was a doctor rather than another visitor.

"Don't worry, the pain is completely normal."

He clarified immediately, smiling as he approached the side of your bed that Nines wasn't standing at,

"She doesn't have any serious injuries, but she did dislocate her right shoulder. It should start feeling better within a week or two, but I'll send her home in a sling to make sure it heals well."

You groaned internally about being spoken about as if you weren't there, but chose not to say anything. It sounded like if you played your cards right you might just be able to head home, and there was nothing you wanted more in that moment than to sleep in your own bed.

"So she can be discharged after you help her into the sling?"

Nines asked, his tone betraying his look of pure disinterest as he looked you over for any further injuries.

"I don't see why not."

The doctor replied soon after, checking his tablet for any necessary information he may have been missing before he continued,

"I'll have a nurse bring in a sling and her discharge papers in a few minutes. I take it that one of you can take care of that for her?"

Nines nodded immediately as his gaze met yours once again,

"I can."

The doctor nodded before heading out of the room to grab a nurse that would be able to assist him, leaving the four of you to wait for his eventual return.

Thankfully, it did not take very long for the doctor to get your sling on, nor did it take very long for Nines to finish up your discharge paperwork, and thus you were exiting the hospital within the hour, nothing in your possession save for your cell phone.

"You guys need a ride?"

Hank asked gruffly as the four of you slowly made your way towards the exit, and Nines seemed to think for a moment before he answered for the both of you,

"A ride would be beneficial, Lieutenant. Thank you."

Hank shrugged and lead the way to the parking garage, unlocking his car remotely as you approached in order to allow everyone access.

As if you had all done this a million times before, everyone slid into a seat quickly, with Hank driving and Connor in the passenger seat.

You and Nines on the other hand sat on opposite ends of the back seat, both of you nodding in confirmation when Hank asked if everyone was buckled in.

Thus began the drive back to your apartment.

Silence filled the vehicle for the first few minutes of the drive as everyone took the time to relax after a long day, until suddenly, Hank spoke up for the first time since you'd left the parking garage.

"I'm not gonna lie to you Kid, I'm kinda jealous of the whole injured shoulder thing. I've been looking for an excuse to get out of Jeffrey's annual DPD gala bullshit for weeks now, and I've still got nothin."

You groaned in response, cursing as you leaned back against the seat,

"Fuck, is that this week? I already bought my dress for it, and it's nonrefundable. The hell am I supposed to do with that now?"

Your ears perked up as Connor spoke from the front seat, his voice light and almost amused as he spoke,

"If you still wish to attend, I'm sure that RK900 would be perfectly suited to accompany you safely in spite of your injuries."

You raised your brow at that statement, resisting the urge to lean forward towards Connor and risk exacerbating the low thrum of pain already present in your shoulder.

"Perfectly suited?"

You asked cautiously, turning to face your partner as he hummed in confirmation from the seat beside you, looking rather unamusedly at his predecessor.

"I believe that Connor is referring to my extensive medical knowledge pertaining to the human body. It was originally intended to bolster my chances of success during my original mission in the case of... unnecessary casualties. As a result, I am theoretically capable of supplying better support to injured individuals that require it."

You bit back a laugh at that, amused at the idea of your normally standoffish partner attempting to provide someone with care.

"I have no idea why you wouldn't have told me any of this sooner, 'Nurse Nines' has a great ring to it."

You continued to hold back laughter as you spoke, and your partner, though barely sparing you a glance at your words, allowed his lips to curl upward ever so slightly at the edges, his gaze aimed out the window as you grew closer and closer to your apartment.

The rest of the ride was fairly silent, save for the occasional comment from Hank or the exceedingly bad joke from you.

It was nice. You didn't get the opportunity to hang out with friends due to your busy job, and honestly, this was as close as you'd gotten to doing so in a long time.

When you finally did arrive back home, you thanked both Hank and Connor profusely for coming to visit you at the hospital, and made them both promise to let you treat them to a night out sometime soon (although what benefit that could possibly have for Connor, you weren't sure yet).

You waved to them from the front door of your building as Hank slowly pulled back into the road, sparing both you and your icy looking companion a wave of his own before he drove off towards home.

Afterward, you turned to face Nines once more, taking a deep breath before you spoke,

"So, how bad do you think this is gonna hurt?"

You asked, referencing the long stair-filled walk up to your apartment on the fourth floor of the tall brick building that stood before the two of you. You were not looking forward to the jostling all of those steps had in store for your shoulder, nor the long walk up with no railing since the only one was to your right.

Nines gave a fake contemplative hum of response at your words before he tossed the jacket he'd been carrying over his shoulder, freeing up his hands to better help you ascend the steps.

"Depends on how determined you are to struggle."

"Wha- Hey!"

You could've sworn you heard Nines chuckle at your reaction as he lifted you unceremoniously off the ground, one arm supporting your neck while the other rested beneath your knees.

"Feel free to place your arm on my shoulder if it provides it better support, Detective. Though I can't imagine this will take me very long at all."

You huffed in response to your partner's teasing tone, but relented nonetheless, supporting your injured shoulder against his body as he made quick work of the stairs leading up to your apartment.

It was only then, as he set you down just outside of your door in order to allow you the opportunity to unlock it, that you realized that he had never actually been inside before. It wasn't like you were hiding it from him or anything, but even still you couldn't help but feel a rush of nerves as you inserted your key in the lock. twisting it slowly until you felt the deadbolt recede, allowing you to turn the handle and use your foot to push the door inward, causing it to swing forward.

"Home sweet home."

You muttered as you walked inside, attempting to bend over to remove your shoes only to hiss as yet another bolt of pain ran through your injured shoulder.

"Sit down, Detective,"

Nines' voice was stern as it sounded out from behind you, and almost immediately you did as you were told, too distracted by the pain to bother putting up a fight for the sake of your dignity.

"Thank you,"

He began, a hint of satisfaction evident within his tone,

"Now, elaborate upon what it is you need in order to be more comfortable please. I have no sense of what that entails."

You nodded to show your understanding before you opened your mouth to speak,

"Right um... My shoes first I guess, after that I think I can figure everything else out on my own..."

That wasn't really the truth, since you knew how horrendous putting on a new shirt and pants was going to feel later that evening, but you weren't about to admit that to Nines and risk having him insist on helping you with that task too.

You'd much rather take your chances with the unbridled agony.

Nodding in response to your previous words, Nines knelt down in front of you to untie your shoe laces, adept fingers pulling at them until they came undone entirely. Afterward, you watched as he grabbed your foot by the ankle, cupping it within his palm as he began to pull it off slowly, as if worried he could hurt you if he went any faster.

Once that was over and done with, he moved on to the other shoe, expertly removing that one as well before helping you up gently, looking around the room as he did so.

"Are you sure there is nothing else that you may require assistance for, Detective? I am perfectly content to help with whatever you may need."

You shook your head in response to your partners words, leaning your good shoulder against the doorway between the kitchen and the living room as you addressed him,

"I'll be fine, Nines, It's a dislocation not a break. I'll see you at work tomorrow?"

The android in front of you nodded in the affirmative,

"Of course. I can come and pick you up if that would be helpful. Though I would need to borrow your car in order to do so."

You thought for a moment before shrugging your shoulders,

"Yeah sure, what the hell, you already drive it damn near as much as I do anyway."

You fished your keys out of your pocket before tossing them to him, watching as he caught them with ease.

He looked over to you again afterward, keys jingling a bit as he adjusted them within his hand,

"Please contact me if you require any assistance, Detective."

You smirked at him, raising a brow in response,

"Whatever you say, Nurse Nines. I would hate to strip you of a patient to care for."

The man in front of you rolled his eyes but grinned ever so slightly nonetheless as he approached the door once more, swinging it open and taking a step into the hall before he called back behind him.

"Oh, Little Mouse?"

He called, his tone haughty and unconcerned.

"Yeah?"

You answered meekly, praying he wasn't about to say anything abundantly humiliating for all of your neighbors to hear as if the nickname wasn't already bad enough.

"I would be more than capable of supporting you on your venture to the gala later this week. If that would be of interest to you."

And with that he was gone, the door closing abruptly behind him and the sound of his footsteps slowly fading into the distance as he went.

And after that, Nines' help had only grown more and more crucial.

It had started off small, helping with your shoes each day and taking on the majority of typing for your conjoined reports, but eventually, you'd been forced to admit you needed more support than you'd initially let on after one too many issues with injury.

After that, you were finally willing to ask for extra help, especially when it came to things like cooking, cleaning, and various other embarrassing chores you would've preferred to simply do on your own.

One incredibly embarrassing example of the extra support you needed was what you were now lovingly referring to as "the pants incident", but that was far too much for you to think about right now.

No, now you were thinking of how well you had worked with Nines throughout the week, reading him various cases aloud to help as best you could with the paperwork process that you were now effectively useless to support him with.

Of course, both of you knew that things would go even faster if Nines had done the reading himself in the background of doing said paperwork, but truth be told, you both enjoyed the teamwork aspect of the routine. It gave you something to do, and it ensured that Nines wouldn't be distracted by your nonsensical need for entertainment every few minutes.

Needless to say, it was a good system, and it wasn't even close to the only one that the two of you had developed in response to your injury.

For example, you would work together to make you coffee in the break room, with you gathering materials while Nines did all of the two handed motions required, such as stirring, packing the coffee machine, and pouring the milk and sugar.

But truthfully, the most beneficial thing Nines had done for you thus far had occurred today, when he'd helped you into your ridiculously long gala dress.

You had been hoping to avoid requiring any clothing related help, especially when it came to the type of clothing that you had to be almost entirely naked to put on, but even so, there was no way you could have managed the task of getting that dress on alone.

He had shown up at your door at 6:00pm on the dot, just as he'd said he would earlier in the day, and you had to fight the urge to bite back an audible whine of frustration when you realized he'd arrived in time to learn of your embarrassing dilemma.

For the past six days, you had been wearing solely sweatpants and tee shirts to work after receiving special permission from Fowler, and honestly you'd managed to get pretty good at getting dressed in the mornings.

But this dress? This was a whole new obstacle for you to worry about.

Currently, you had it pooled upon the floor, perfectly maneuvered for you to step into and pull up, except you lacked the motor capabilities necessary to do that incredibly important last step.

And those straps? Those were basically a death trap without extra help with getting them onto your shoulder.

You sat on the edge of your bed, desperately wishing you had the ability to place your head in your hands as you tried to find a solution before your android partner assumed you'd hurt yourself and burst into your apartment, leaving you with a mess and a door bill you had no interest in paying.

Nines knocked again, louder this time, and fearing for your wallet, you forced yourself up slowly, careful to nurse your still bruised shoulder, which was currently without the sling you typically used to support it, since you had been about to attempt the insane feat of putting on a dress.

"Coming!"

You called out as you tugged on your bathrobe, walking quickly towards the door before unlocking and opening it, glaring a bit at the man who stood on the other side.

"You literally have a key, Nines, I've been using the spare since I gave you my key ring with my regular apartment key on it so you could take the car."

Your partner shrugged and brushed past you, looking you up and down slowly with a slight tilt of his head.

"You aren't dressed? I thought you said you wanted to be at the event by 6:30 tonight. I'm not sure how that will be possible if you have yet to get ready."

You resisted the urge to shoot your partner another glare as you shifted your gaze towards the floor, feeling warmth rise to your cheeks as you spoke,

"I tried to get ready. The dress is too long to pull all the way up by myself with my shoulder still injured."

Nines was silent for a few moments before he gave a brief nod of understanding and stepped closer to you, using his heel to close your apartment door behind him as he did so.

"Would you like some assistance?"

You blanched at that, certain your cheeks were bright pink as you continued to keep your gaze fixed on your kitchen floor, lips unable to form words as you tried to think of some way to respond to that question.

The android standing before you watched with vague amusement and slight confusion as you continued to look anywhere but at him, and he crossed his arms and sighed before he elaborated upon his earlier question,

"I can close my eyes, if you would prefer. I can assure you that I do not require vision to assist you in pulling a dress up and maneuvering some fabric over your shoulders for you."

You rolled your eyes at his ever persistent confidence before you gave in and nodded slowly, turning around and leading the man in question quietly to your bedroom, where he made his way over to the dress that was lying on the floor without a word, gesturing for you to stand before him as he prepared to ready the dress for you to step into while he was holding it.

Swallowing thickly, you sighed, moving to stand with your back to your partner and watching as his hands appeared from behind you, maneuvering around your body before holding the dress before you expectantly.

"Step in first, after that I can close my eyes and you can take your robe off."

He murmured, his voice coming from behind and below you as he knelt on the floor to ensure you wouldn't have to take too high of a step in order to get your legs into the dress.

You nodded softly, trying to ignore the subtle heat that emanated off of Nines as you stepped into the long black gown he was holding between his finger tips.

"Done."

You said softly, your voice almost meek as you resisted the urge to fidget, knowing full well that the android behind you would notice instantly and call you out before you could even think of a good excuse as to why you were doing it.

"Alright Detective, my eyes are closed. You can remove your robe now. I will not open until you tell me to."

Desperate to dissipate some of the tension in the air, you let out a nervous laugh as you clumsily untied the knot at the front of your bathrobe,

"Until I tell you to? Since when do you take orders?"

You joked, letting the robe drop to the floor in front of you, shivering ever so slightly as the cool night air drifting in from your open bedroom window hit your bare torso.

Nines let out a low hum in response to your teasing, but didn't say a word as he slowly started to pull your dress upward, his knuckles occasionally grazing your thighs and hips as he moved the fabric skillfully up your frame, stopping when his hand grazed your upper back, which left you fighting off yet another, far less temperature related, shiver in response.

"Can you put your hand through the strap if I lower it a bit?"

He asked calmly, feeling to you like the very antithesis of yourself with his grounded attitude and unbothered feelings towards the situation you were in.

"Yeah, I just need it a tiny bit lower and I can get it in."

You murmured, feeling the hair on the back of your neck stand up as your partner's artificial breaths hit it, and you were surprised to find that they were slightly warm rather than cold the way that they usually were.

Strange.

Without a word, Nines lowered the right strap of your dress, and you slid your hand in without issue, thus allowing him to pull it the rest of the way up before situating it gently on your injured shoulder.

"Does that feel alright, Detective?"

He asked, his voice low and smooth in a way that had you hoping all of this would be over before too long, because you weren't sure how long you could endure torture like this.

You cleared your throat in response, giving several quick nods to answer his question,

"Feels perfect. Wanna hand me the other one? I can do that myself."

You said quietly, hearing a light and affirmative hum from behind you as Nines placed the left strap into your left hand, allowing you to maneuver it upward before pulling the built in bra portion of the dress to your chest, adjusting things accordingly before you spoke up again,

"Would you mind zipping me up?"

You asked, resisting the urge to shift your weight between your feet as Nines replied,

"Not at all, Little Mouse. May I open my eyes?"

There was a teasing lilt to his tone that made you inhale sharply, and you prayed that he hadn't noticed as you struggled to regain your ability to speak.

"Oh yeah, sorry..."

You trailed off, having forgotten about his previous promise to leave his eyes closed until you said otherwise almost entirely before he'd brought it back up again, leaving your cheeks red and your hands clenched slightly where they hung.

You bit back a surprised gasp as the sudden feeling of a cool hand pressed against the warm skin of your back as Nines used his other hand to deftly pull at your long zipper, which began to close to your lower back and ended just below your shoulder blades.

He zipped your dress slowly, breath still slightly warm on the back of your neck as he moved your hair out of the way, voice incredibly close to your ear as he made his way towards the end of the zipper.

"How does it feel, Little Mouse?"

He asked, the sound of his voice, ever so slightly lower than usual, so close to your ear making you shiver involuntarily for the third time that night.

Your brain felt fuzzy and far away as you tried to think up a reply, eventually squeaking out an embarrassed,

"Fine!"

Before the android behind you hummed in response, taking a step away that had you briefly missing the almost unnoticeable warmth of his body before you snapped out of it and took your own step forward before turning to face your partner who was stood behind you, gaze locked on your form as you gave him a nervous laugh,

"How does it look? Gala appropriate?"

Your partner gave a subtle nod before his gaze moved upward towards your own, causing you to realize with a start just how long he had been looking you over.

"It is perfectly suitable for tonight's event."

He said cooly after a few moments of silence, picking your sling up off of your bed not long after he finished speaking in order to help you put it back on.

And it was only then, your chest just inches away from his own as he helped you put on your sling, that you started to notice what your partner was wearing tonight.

Nines was dressed in a grey turtleneck sweater with black dress slacks, the silver watch adorning his wrist catching in the light of your bedroom as he adjusted the strap of your sling accordingly.

God where did he get his clothing?

It seemed that everything that Nines wore was perfectly tailored to fit his trim but imposing frame, every single detail perfect in every possible way no matter where he went or what he was wearing.

Talk about unfair.

"Is everything alright, Detective?"

The sound of your partners voice, this time from what sounded like very far away, caused you to start, and suddenly, without warning, you were tossed right out of your own thoughts and back into reality, only to find that Captain Fowler had excused himself to greet more guests and that Nines was staring down at you intensely, his hand gripping your arm in a way that was almost forceful.

"Detective?"

He repeated, eyes burning into your own as you cleared your throat awkwardly, giving your partner a nervous grin as he continued his unwavering ocular interrogation, eyes narrowing as he tried to discern what exactly was going on.

Thankfully enough for you though, you must have looked far more lucid than you had previously, because after a few seconds of this he relented, loosening his grip on your good arm before he motioned over to the bar.

"It would be best if you had some water, Detective. You appeared to be more than a little bit dazed for quite some time during my discussion with the captain."

You started shaking your head, only to groan audibly as your partner began to guide you towards the bar against the wall to your right, his hand never leaving your arm as he did so,

"It was not a suggestion, Little Mouse."

He said, his tone almost stern as he helped you into one of many empty bar stools before gesturing for the bartender, ordering you an ice water as you turned your attention towards some of the other people at the bar, your coworker Chris included.

"Y/n!"

He said excitedly, grinning as if he hadn't seen you at your desk just hours prior as he moved to sit at the empty stool to your right, his gaze briefly flickering to your still occupied partner before he looked towards you once more.

"Hey Chris."

You greeted with a smile, looking around to see if he had brought any of his family members with him to the gala,

"Did you not bring your wife or son? I thought you just told me the other day that you had a little suit ready to go and everything."

You teased, and your friend laughed as he shrugged his shoulders,

"Eh, turns out kids have to have strict bed times when they're still that young. I'll convince the wife to let him go next year, or to at least get a babysitter so she can come along."

You laughed at his response, having only just opened your mouth to reply when a familiar hand placed a cup of water on the bar top in front of you from behind.

You shifted your gaze back to Chris only to find he was grinning slightly at the very same figure who had brought you your water, his eyes flickering between the two of you before they settled behind you once more.

You shifted slightly in your seat, turning your head to see that Nines was standing directly behind your back, watching you expectantly until you finally relented to his wordless command with a sigh and drank some of the water he had insisted upon you getting.

When you set the cup down again, Nines didn't look entirely pleased, but he was significantly less pointed with his expectations than before, so you took what you could get and turned your attention back towards Chris, who was still watching the two of you with what appeared to be amusement.

"And what's so funny?"

You asked, your tone betraying your tough guy question as you watched Chris roll his eyes at you,

"Oh nothing, I'm just wondering how much you must've drank already to have the android on water duty."

You scoffed at your friend and placed your left hand to your chest as if offended,

"Excuse you, officer, but I haven't had a drink all night long, so you can cool it with those accusations of yours. Besides, I couldn't drink even if I wanted to, Nines has decided I must be the most severely dehydrated woman on earth and has restricted me to only drinking water for the remainder of my time at the event."

You could almost feel the eye roll that Nines gave in response to that, his voice cool and unbothered as he replied,

"You may drink whatever you please, Detective. I may be acting on your best interest at the moment, but I can assure you that I have no intention of baby sitting you all night."

You felt your cheeks turn bright pink at his words as Chris burst out laughing at his response,

"He got your ass!"

He all but cackled, arms wrapping around his stomach as he leaned forward on his bar stool, and you had to resist the urge to nudge him off with your foot as you prayed this humiliation would be over soon.

Luckily enough for you, it appeared that Chris had a few beers in his system and didn't have much of an attention span to work with, because when he came back up from his raucous laughter, wiping a tear from his eye as he did so, he had an entirely different topic at the tip of his tongue.

"By the way, did either of you stop by the Hughes crime scene again after the incident?"

He asked, and you hid your slight grimace at the reminder of the case behind your glass as you sipped at your water.

"No."

Nines responded far before you could, having been so dreadfully occupied with your water, and you were just about to apologize for his curtness when Chris nodded.

"Yeah, I didn't think so. But when Tina and I got there today it was crazy, the whole house is a pile of rubble, and the city apparently has no idea what to do with it since they don't want to bother spending any money to rebuild or even clean it up. It's a huge shit show, I do not envy the poor soul that has to deal with that property now that the family is gone."

You nodded absent mindedly, placing your glass on the bar as you felt yourself slowly slipping into your own memories once more, the reminder of the case bringing back the sounds, smells, and sights that night had unfortunately had in store for yourself and everyone else who had been present on the scene. You were just about to let yourself go entirely when the feeling of someone grabbing your good arm once more planted you firmly back into reality, your eyes widening a little when you'd realized what had happened.

You looked over to the owner of the hand that had gripped your arm, unsurprised to find your ever vigilant partner all but glaring down at you, concern and what almost looked to be anger evident within his gaze as he gently tugged you off of your stool and away from the bar without another word, leaving Chris to watch in confusion as you were dragged out of the crowded event room and into an empty hallway.

You swallowed thickly as you finally felt Nines let go of your arm, allowing yourself to lean slightly against the wall behind you as you took in the unfamiliar sight of this new area of the building.

The wallpaper here was fancy, almost a yellowed paper color with various swirls on it that made you feel dizzy if you looked at them for too long. You averted your gaze, but regretted it almost immediately as your eyes locked onto those of your partner, who still looked a bit too mad for your liking, even in the dim light of the hallway, where his features were just a bit less clear than they had been before.

"Nines I-"

"Tell me what is going on with you. Now."

He ordered, his voice just barely above a growl as he took a step closer to you, the look in his eyes betraying him as you watched the anger all but drain from his eyes, leaving behind only concern and something else you couldn't quite put your finger on.

Pain?

You brushed it off, gaze falling to the floor as you quietly explained what had been happening to you throughout the night, hands playing nervously with the fabric of your dress as you spoke.

"I'm not really sure what it is or why it's happening..."

You clarified towards the end of your explanation,

"But for some reason, I just can't stay focused tonight. I keep almost drifting off and getting stuck in my thoughts for a while until something catches my attention and suddenly I'm right back here."

Nines listened intently, nodding from time to time as something new,

Relief maybe?

Filled his grey eyes.

And finally, several long seconds of silence after you had finished explaining yourself to him, Nines spoke up once more.

"I believe you are overwhelmed, Detective. There are a great deal of people here, both known and unknown, and given your recent experiences, I believe it is normal for you to react to so much sudden external stimuli this way, especially after we have been so careful to avoid it throughout the past week. My apologies for not considering this could occur, I neglected to consider your mental state as much as I did your physical and-"

"Nines, I'm fine."

You cut him off abruptly, wishing you had the ability to cross your arms as you watched the man in front of you blink in surprise at your sudden interruption before continuing,

"Well, regardless, I think it would be best for me to bring you home. I can apologize to Fowler for our early disappearance tomorrow, and I am sure that he will understand given your circumstances."

You sighed and gave your partner a pleading look, desperate to do something, anything, but sit in your apartment alone for yet another night.

"C'mon Nines, please don't make me go home so early, it took me forever to finally get this stupid dress on, and everyone will think we're total losers."

That last part was meant to be a joke to lighten the mood, but the RK900 model android in front of you ignored it entirely, watching you in silence for a few moments before he sighed, and you had to fight the urge to yell out in victory.

It was very rare that you got your way if Nines thought something else was best, so honestly, this felt like a pretty historic moment for you.

"Fine. We can stay for a little while longer, but only if you allow yourself a few minutes more of quiet before going back into the event room. I have no interest in dragging you back out here in ten minutes because you went back in there and overwhelmed yourself again immediately. If anything like that becomes necessary for a second time tonight, I will consider the venue to be too much for you and bring you home without a second thought. As I said earlier, I have no interest in being your baby sitter, Little Mouse."

Your cheeks began to grow warm again at the nickname, and you were just about to open your mouth and make a retort when the sound of voices coming towards your secluded hallway shocked you into silence, although that was mostly due to the fact that you easily identified the large group of voices as seven to eight of your coworkers, something Nines appeared to have done instantly, his gaze flickering back and forth between the direction the voices were coming from, and you.

Suddenly, without warning, you gasped as Nines took multiple steps forward, shushing you as he all but pressed his larger form up against your own, making it all but impossible for anyone to see you if they made it as far as this particular hallway.

"Don't make a sound. I am certain that multiple of the individuals I have identified would be more than just a little bit chatty if they happened to see you, and as I said before, if you must insist on staying, then I must insist upon you letting your mind relax before attempting to take in even more external stimuli."

Still shocked by your partner's unfamiliar closeness, you nodded without a word in response, noting in your mind the way that he had braced your injured shoulder with one of his hands before he had all but forced you against the wall, thus ensuring he didn't cause you any harm in the process.

Watching your partner through still slightly widened eyes, you both listened intently for several minutes as the voices slowly grew louder and louder until they finally began to fade away once more, headed back in the direction of the event room.

You let out a sigh of relief at the sound of the voices growing fainter as they moved further away from where the two of you stood, only realizing then just how glad you were to not have to talk to anyone at that moment. Maybe your brain did need a break.

Relenting to the idea that Nines had been right all along, you moved your gaze up and down his form, your hand moving up to the neck of his turtleneck before you even realized what you were doing, causing the android in front of you to jolt a bit in surprise at your sudden touch.

You looked up at him, vaguely amused by his reaction and grinning as you spoke,

"What's with the high neckline shirts all the time, by the way? Got some sort of secret under there?"

You teased, pulling the fabric away from his artificial flesh before allowing your finger to graze the normally covered area before you froze entirely at Nines' response, which was a harsh and sharp sudden intake of breath, something you knew for a fact he didn't do often.

In fact, you had never heard him react to anything like that before.

But then, it got even weirder,

Because standing just over an inch away from you with his hand wedged between your injured shoulder and the wall at your back, Nines, an android created to hunt down and destroy his own kind, shivered.

You fought the urge to gape at that, desperately trying not to seem as in awe of him as you were as he slowly opened eyes that you hadn't even realized he'd closed when you'd touched him, and gazed down at you intently, his chest rising and falling with each slightly heavier breath he took.

"Are you alright?"

You asked softly, watching as the man in front of you nodded tensely, his gaze never leaving yours as he spoke,

"Yes, I am perfectly fine, Detective. My apologies for the impromptu reaction, I'm afraid that there wasn't anything I could do to control it. Your actions were... unexpected."

He finished, and when you raised a brow at him he opened his mouth again to clarify,

"Due to all of the necessary technology required to make me more advanced than my predecessor, I required significantly more data analysis capabilities. As a result, I was equipped with many sensors, most of which can be utilized via the primary sensors found on my tongue, which then sends that data to multiple other sensors that were stored within my neck. This had lead to what could be described as a vulnerability in my physical form at my throat, as this issue was not remedied prior to the uprising, and was not seen as important to remedy afterward. Therefore, I simply decided that clothing that covers my neck is best, though I have never outright avoided clothing with a normal neckline."

You nodded slowly at your partners explanation, feeling almost disappointed as he suddenly took a step backward, allowing you to move away from the wall as he readjusted his shirt, his cheeks an incredibly pale blue color that was so faint you weren't sure if you'd seen it at all before it was gone entirely.

A trick of the light maybe?

You shrugged it off before realizing that Nines was offering his arm to you once more, just as he had upon your arrival, and you found yourself accepting it eagerly as the two of you took slow but deliberate steps towards the event room once more.

AO3 Link

Series Masterlist

[arshisrabbaves]

Arnav Singh Raizada and Redemption!

Ok so, let’s talk about it.

Rewatching the show as an adult made me realize that many people weren’t happy with Arnav’s redemption and how it was portrayed. They were looking for something more intense and serious

Now this might be a little unpopular opinion but THAT kind of redemption would be very unrealistic for him and let me explain it why.

By no means I’m trying to defend or justify his actions towards Khushi. I completely on the side that what he did to her or how he treated her was extremely wrong and toxic and I don’t support that, his past trauma shouldn’t be an excuse. However IPKKND is a show that handles trauma and trauma response in a better way than most of the ITV shows.

Notice how they (characters, storyline, scenes) never try to indicate that Khushi should fix Arnav’s trauma. That’s right! It’s because they are well aware that both of the characters are deeply traumatized yet have different outcomes. However I really wish they highlighted Khushi’s trauma as well and gave it more importance.

And now speaking of trauma they both had similar kind that of losing parents, but everything that happened later on was different.

For Khushi she was younger than Arnav when her parents passed away, only 8. She even mentioned it in one episode that she had no idea what death meant and always thought her parents would come back. And considering the fact that she was immediately taken in by Garima and Shashi there’s a high chance that they didn’t let her know or tell her anything about her parents death, leading her to believe that they’ll come back. There’s a high chance she found out later on after growing up or Madhumati told her while lashing out at her for something.

Notice how Khushi is always smiling, laughing, is very goofy and not only that she’s also always trying to fix everyone’s problem and never complains about her own. And even if she does she only does in front of her Devi maiya. It’s probably because she has a fear of judgement from other people.

I am very heavy on this but growing up Khushi heard a lot of such things as “You should be grateful for us, we took you with us and saved you. You would be in Orphanage without us” specially from Madhumati.

That’s why Khushi believed that no matter what happens she should always make them aka Guptas happy, never complain or do anything to make them upset. No doubt she was so hell bent on getting their forgiveness after the elopement track.

Arnav on the other hand was older than Khushi, he was more mature and had witnessed everything. His mother confronting his father, their deaths, his sister being left at the altar, his grandmother (Dadi) abandoning him and Anjali instead of taking responsibility and his uncle throwing him out of the house. Having to endure all this at the age of 14 made him more cold in general, which compelled him to ignore his emotions and just see things practically. It was his goal to be rich and successful so that no one can look down on him and he did that keeping his emotions aside.

You can critically argue that Arnav had some little changes after he started catching feelings for Khushi. Like being able to take jokes, laughing, having more compassion but still the huge parts were there. Notice how he still got nightmares and felt the pain deeply, and how he struggled saying things like sorry, Thankyou or even happy birthday. That’s the proof right there that falling for Khushi did infact NOT heal his trauma.

So that’s why! The kind of redemption people wanted would’ve required some intense therapy sessions which obviously didn’t happen 🤷‍♀️

[portmantaur]

I want to try to make a longer/more informative post about this in the near future, but for now, for anyone in the USA who might care about it

there are currently a few bills being processed by congress that are essentially geared at positive SSI reform, namely two

H.R.5408/S.2767 or the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act (link) — a bill that proposes to raise the maximum asset possession for individuals and married couples receiving SSI from 2000/3000 dollars to 10,00/30,000 respectively. As of now, individual SSI recipients cannot have over two thousand dollars in assets (particularly savings) without facing the threat of losing their benefits and/or being required to backpay on said benefits — often in larger numbers than the total excess of that asset limitation. This limit hasn’t been raised in literal decades and has never been adjusted for inflation. This is SUCH an integral and necessary change to the SSI system.

and

H.R.7138 or the Supplemental Security Income Restoration Act (link) — this is a bill that proposes larger-scale reform in several different areas, and while I don’t have the ability right now to detail all of it, and unfortunately there’s no available summary even in the link provided, a good portion of this bill proposes changes in what income/assets should not be counted AT ALL in determining financial eligibility for SSI, providing much more income security for people reliant on these benefits. There are also proposals for less restrictive eligibility requirements in general, as well as proposals for better funding so as to provide more resources to be distributed through the SSI program across the board.

I know this is a bare bones post, but if anyone in the states feels compelled to contact their representatives and/or senators, I would encourage you do to so while citing your interest in having these bills passed. The few sponsors/cosponsors for these bills are all democrats with mostly more progressive records, and committees to which these bills have been/are being sent are deeply conservative both historically and in terms of their current members/chairs. The first bill already seems to have been sort of fast-tracked on the quiet in what looks like a deliberate attempt to squash it without really making any of the public aware of it. That’s pretty par for the course, but it’s especially egregious (imo) for such a small, clear-cut bill that would provide an absolutely necessary change to SSI.

Here is a link (click) to help you find and contact your representative in the house, and here is a link (click) to help you through the process of contacting senators. Both sites have information about relevant committees (Ways and Means for the house, and the Committee on Finance for the senate) and their respective members, if you wish to contact those individual as well.

I know things can and do seem sort of bleak and hopeless much of the time, but even the prospect of knowing their constituents are informed and unafraid to apply direct pressure can have a tangible effect on the behavior of congresspeople. These are two bills that can change things materially for a lot of people, and even just the act of receiving a lot of informed attention could have rippling effects into future legislation. If you can, please, contact your reps/senators and let them know you are invested in voting for individuals who care to support and vote for these bills specifically, and the general improvements represented by bills like these.

Thank you for reading. 🩵

[widthofmytongue]

The other night, ahead of Purim, I had some drinks with colleagues. Later in the evening, a conversation with one of them turned to politics. Obviously. I asked her why she’s not a member of a union, and she said pretty bluntly ‘well, I’m a lot more right wing than you’. In the spirit of the mitzvah to drink until unable to distinguish between Mordechai and Haman, friend and foe, I decided to hold back my impulse to hiss, and simply asked her ‘in what ways?’

In truth, she and I agreed on most basic political points. The Tories are abusive, selfish pricks; Labour is wet and stands for nothing; privatisation has all but destroyed Britain; everyone deserves basic necessities like food, housing, even education; we have more in common with each other and with the homeless than we ever will with either Charles III or our bosses. She was also very supportive (far more so than most Brits I meet) of my experiences of antisemitism and transphobia.

Here’s where her right leanings shone through:

1) She obviously believes in meritocracy; those who are best suited to specific tasks deserve recognition. But then this is hardly an alien sentiment on the left, is it?

2) She believes hierarchies are necessary for systems to function; certain people are required to take responsibility for the group, and they supposedly must therefore be above the others. This directly contradicted something she said earlier, that we should all take more responsibility for our shared situation, with which I agreed, but she considered a right wing view. I also gave peer-review as an example of a fully functional non-hierarchical system, which she essentially ignored. An odd response given we work at a university.

3) She believes ‘socialism has never worked’. When I responded to this by saying ‘it’s working right now’ and pointed out that Cuba is thriving and has passed the most progressive LGBT and family rights legislation to date, and that China is the most populace country on earth with the highest GPD and a sitting communist party, she said she’s not informed enough about either of those, ‘but Nordic countries...’ which I interrupted, and we agreed that Nordic countries are not socialist, nor especially good examples of capitalism. We also agreed that capitalism isn’t very viable in the long term, and I made the point that any criticisms of socialism can be made tenfold of capitalism, plus dozens more condemnable. So I think this is just about a fundamental misunderstanding of what ‘socialism’ even refers to, resultant of hegemonic propaganda?

4) She believes issues like transphobia and antisemitism (etc.) are problems on ‘both sides’. Now, I agree with this, but what I said was, the difference is that such prejudice or hate is a betrayal of leftist principles, whereas the same prejudice and hate actually props up many - if not all - right wing values.

One of our main talking points was my assertion that things like the NHS or Right To Buy council housing or tuition fees or whatever are really a question of priorities. I said that there are some things everyone deserves: healthcare, housing, food, power, education, transport, and we should prioritise them, especially as it’s entirely within our (or the state’s) capacity to provide these things. She agreed. However, she seemed stuck on the idea that the government should be expected to provide food. I am entirely unclear on why, but when I mentioned that supermarkets throw away enormous quantities of food she agreed it was despicable. I suggested that such food waste could be legislated against and/or wasted food could be claimed by local authorities to redistribute to those in need, but she seemed dubious. She did agree that local food programmes would be possible, though, yet she called this ‘traditional conservatism’, relating it to some imagined precept of charity. Now I don’t know what kind of topsy-turvy Bizarro world conservatism invests in practical charitable measures (rather than e.g. laundering the money of the rich), but I did assert: ‘when the Black Panthers were doing it, I don’t think anyone called it conservative’.

Anyway, my point about priorities was that strengthening the NHS or ensuring people are housed and fed are simply more important to me than the military, for example, so I suggested we could defund the military in order to re-allocate funding to more important services. Her response to this was, I kid you not, ‘well we can’t just tax the rich and assume that will solve all our problems’. I replied ‘well we could actually, and it would certainly go toward solving some problems, but my suggestion was to defund the military, not tax the rich.’

Now what can we learn from all this? As I said, I actually agree that we should all take more responsibility for our shared plight. The crucial difference, in my mind, is that the reason for doing that is so that we can all lessen one another’s loads, make things easier and more comfortable and even enjoyable for one another. C'est assez, languir en tutelle; l'égalité veut d'autres lois! But the conservative psyche has no desire to make things easier. Perhaps this is obvious from the constant overcomplication of adding obstacles in the form of strawmen. ‘Socialism has never worked!’ It has and it does, but who mentioned socialism? ‘We can’t just tax the rich!’ Yes we can, but who mentioned taxing the rich? ‘The money necessary to keep the NHS going is more than we have available!’ How much is being spent on the Coronation, and where is that money coming from? (spoiler: not ‘the rich’) ‘Helping the needy is a conservative value!’ Okay seriously WTF dude, but also, why then do conservatives stop leftists from doing it every time we try?

These aren’t just rehearsed talking points. These are symptoms of targeted hegemonic misinformation. No one is born conservative, one is made conservative, perhaps even by force. But to be conservative is also at odds with the fundamental experience of social beings; caring for one another, empathy. Part of right wing psychology is the desire to impose one’s own trauma on others, because after all one’s own experience, however brutal, must be the natural order.

Of course, dialectical materialism illuminates precisely the opposite. My experience and hers and indeed yours are not the same, and yet they are all true, even if they are at odds. The difference is that where the right wing practices an ongoing separation into ever smaller in-groups, our immortal science teaches us to understand, to reach out, to gather together and to unite. The revolutionary personality is driven by love, a desire to confront injustice, to heal the world. This is the final struggle, so let each stand in our place...

And tomorrow the International union shall be the human race!

[ciaossu-imagines]

Hello! For the mini event: Mairimashita! Iruma-kun & AU number 17

Of course, anon dear! Thank you so much for the request and I hope you enjoy the headcanons, as late as they are getting to you!

Okay, so I will admit that, other than House and a couple episodes of both The Resident and The Good Doctor, I haven't really watched many medical dramas and aren't really familiar with the various tropes and such normally used in them…am I familiar with the actual medical field? Yes, yes, I am. Did that actually help any with this AU? Nope, not really. But I did finally settle on an idea? Yes! Does the idea require you to suspend a large amount of disbelief and require you to ignore how much of this would actually be very, very illegal? Also yes!

Anyway, so this AU I imagined up does very much take place in a hospital. It's not only the largest hospital in the area but the one with the most prestige and a sterling reputation. It's also a teaching hospital, an important thing to know, but also houses a lot of the specialists and such that people are literally on wait lists for over a year to get into. This hospital is actually owned by Sullivan, who also does have a hand in the running of it and is Head of the Board of Directors, with the most say as to how the hospital itself actively operates, much to the displeasure of some of its staff, as Sullivan is something of an eccentric…no, that's going to be putting it too lightly. Sullivan is most definitely eccentric.

His eccentricities are most definitely on display when almost fourteen year old Iruma Suzuki is brought into the hospital after a vicious beating at the hands of his latest employer. The boy is held at the hospital to be treated but because there's just so much evidence of repeated injuries and neglect, social services is called in. Social Services investigation into Iruma's parents discover a staggering amount of neglect for their son and that they have been forcing him to work at various jobs to support their own gambling habits and pay the bills. The boy has never even been to school.

Anyway, in the end, they don't really care if their parental rights might get lost. Iruma's parents willingly relinquish their parental rights to him and it looks like Iruma is going to be held, after he has healed and been released from the hospital, in a group home until a suitable foster family can be found for him. But Sullivan had taken an interest in Iruma, no doubt helped along by the fact that Iruma's initial doctor and the one in charge of his treatment plan was Dr. Opera, Sullivan's adopted son. And Sullivan's interest in the boy led to Iruma Suzuki becoming the second son Sullivan would adopt and spoil, despite being in his sixties at this point…something about Opera never settling down and giving him grandchildren so Sullivan would have to adopt his own.

While Iruma is technically his adopted son, Sullivan very much treats him as his precious grandchild and Iruma finds a fatherly figure in Sullivan, who spoils Iruma rotten. Opera, meanwhile, also takes an interest and welcomes Iruma into the family, becoming someone Iruma both looks up to and aspires to be like.

Sullivan decides and, after discussing the matter with Opera himself, that Iruma shall join the family business and when Sullivan passes will be the one to not only inherit the business (and make no mistake, a hospital is very much a business) and Sullivan's spot on the Board of Directors. He'll not only be expected to learn academically, and learn quickly, but Iruma becomes a volunteer candy-striper at the hospital as soon as he's healed and shadows Opera and Sullivan throughout the years.

Which leads to present day, when Iruma has gone through enough schooling and grueling training and studying to become a resident. The story really becomes his daily life as a resident doctor at this teaching hospital, him meeting the other residents and interacting with the doctors, nurses, and other staff members at the hospital, along with the weird, zany, sometimes sad patients he interacts with and treats, along with exploring some of the pressure he feels, knowing he's expected to run this hospital someday, along with cute family moments between Iruma and his adopted 'grand'father and adopted brother.

Now, to get into some of the wide and crazy cast of characters that Iruma does have to learn how to deal with and manage, because like, isn't that half the fun, having all these secondary characters to add to the overall plot, all while having fun little plotlines of their own?

So, first off, when Iruma arrives for his residency, Sullivan really entrusts Iruma to an actual doctor who really is supposed to mentor and help teach Iruma. Iruma had been hoping to do his residency in the pediatric ward under Opera, but for some reason Sullivan refused to allow it. Instead, Iruma is doing his residency under the watchful (and spiteful, because this doctor most certainly does not want to have to put up with being a mentor to anyone, and considers the time he has to waste teaching Iruma as time he could be spending elsewhere) eye of Dr. Kalego Naberius, Head of the ER Department. The ER at this particular hospital is always insanely busy, with the doctors, residents, and nurses getting to see a little bit of everything, honestly, so Kalego does get Sullivan's insistence that Iruma do his residency solely there. Every resident has to do at least a shift a week in the ER, since there is never enough staff there, but Iruma's residency is done solely in the ER Department and solely under the eye of Dr. Kalego. The two don't always get along, honestly, but I do see them growing to at least strongly respect each other.

The various teachers are, of course, doctors in various wings and departments throughout the hospital, except for Balam, who I do see as Head of the Pharmacy Department, since a hospital that size does, of course, need it's own pharmacy. A pharmacist himself, Balam has an encyclopedic knowledge of all pharmaceuticals, both medicinal and holistic. Now Balam looks really scary, especially because a childhood accident left him with some noticeable facial scarring, but the man is a gentle giant and after Iruma stopped being so frightened of him, I could see him and Balam getting along fantastic, even back before Iruma became a resident. Throughout his schooling years, before going to university, I think Balam took Iruma under his wing and the boy spent a lot of time in the pharmacy, learning a lot from Balam. Iruma still makes it a point to stop by to see Balam as often as he possibly can, and honestly, Balam shows up to the ER quite often anyway, because he and Dr. Kalego are childhood best friends who take lunch breaks together so he's another important 'teacher and mentor' figure to Iruma overall.

The surprising twist here, but one I really liked and just made sense to me. A child prodigy, Ameri Azazel graduated high school ridiculously early and I see her being the same age, at most a year older, than all the residents. However, she's actually Dr. Azazel, though still a fairly new doctor, only a year out of her own residency. She most often works in the pediatric wing with Opera, but does do shifts in the ER as needed.

I'm sure you're wondering…are the other residents Iruma's classmates in canon? Mostly, yes! How could I not? But there's still a few surprise twists, haha.

One of those surprise twists is that I really don't see Clara as an actual resident. Nope, I see her as being a fairly significant member of the hospital's kitchen staff. Though she doesn't do all the planning and overseeing of the hospital's meal plans and such, because the Head of Food Services does that, I see her being at least a sous chef in the kitchen itself, but she often shirks her duties here and there to actually go and deliver the meals to patients, which really should be left to a lower ranking member of the kitchen staff. She just finds it really fun to get to go and explore the hospital and see all the different staff members (and patients, though giving the patients their meals is actually supposed to be left to the nurses) and despite the many write-up's she's had over it, Sullivan and even Clara's own superior refuse to fire her or make her stop it. After all, she clearly means no harm and really just is a kind of nuisance at worst.

Another person I don't see as being a resident is Elizabetta. I actually see her as being a new nurse in the hospital. She works in different departments as needed, and honestly, though she's good enough at her job and does have a really good heart, with a lot of compassion for the patients, it's obvious she's really not that interested in making a huge career out of nursing. She actually just really wants to marry a handsome doctor who's wealthy enough so that she can become a stay at home wife and then mother and live a picture perfect, happily married life.

The last person I don't see as being a resident doctor is Kamui Caim. Instead he's an intern pharmacist under Balam. An odd, weird-looking little duck, the boy's honestly a little bit of an incel and definitely a huge pervert, who becomes known for being a little inappropriate with both the female nurses, doctors, and patients. However, when it comes to his actual area of expertise, Kamui is actually a brilliant pharmacist and really helps not only fill the astounding amount of prescriptions that come through each day, but is able to help prescribe and treat the various small ailments of people sent to the pharmacy for help instead of an actual doctor needing to waste their time treating them.

So, that leaves us with the other residents. The most important two are Alice Asmodeus and Sabro Sabnock. Both men have relatives who sit on the Board of Directors for the hospital. Sabro's uncle, in particular, raised the boy to believe that, when Sullivan was gone, Sabro's uncle would run the hospital and then pass it on to Sabro, so the boy was pushed to prepare for that from a young age. Brash and arrogant but actually really good-hearted, Sabro would like to specialize in sports medicine but was pushed by his family to follow in his uncle's footsteps and become a surgeon and his residency is done in that department.

Alice, meanwhile, is prim and proper and determined to make the most of every second of his residency. He also has quite the ego, but deservedly so, as he is brilliant and everyone has very high hopes for him as a practicing doctor. Due to an accident during childhood that had left his sister badly burnt, and witnessing her recovery and various surgeries and skin grafts afterwards, Alice does his residency primarily in the hospital's Burn Wing and hopes to specialize in that field of reconstructive surgery.

Another resident hoping to become a surgeon is Goemon Garp. Goemon was born with a rather extreme form of facial deformity and because of that, he was badly bullied growing up. It wasn't until after many medically necessary surgeries and then some extensive plastic surgery, finished by mid-high school, that Goemon grew to look relatively normal, though he's still not the most handsome man out there. However, he's finally happy with the way he looks and he wants everyone to have that opportunity, so he would, after his residency, like to specialize in cosmetic surgery.

Picero Agares, however, was well known to those in the hospital even before he becomes a hospital. Picero has suffered from narcolepsy from the time he was a child and was treated at the hospital. He hopes to become a doctor working in the hospital, specializing in sleep disorders…though everyone is a little shocked, as Picero has always been anything but friendly, even as a child, and probably has the worst bedside manner out of any of the residents.

The last of those residents who know what they want to specialize in, Soi Purson was born severely hearing impaired. He received cochlear implants in both ears by the time he entered middle school, which opened up a whole new world for him, really. Because of that experience, he really decided that he wanted to become an audiologist and is doing his residency primarily in the hospital's Audiology Department.

Schneider Allocer is an absolute genius, even rivalling Ameri. While he is a resident doctor, he's actually not sure what he would like to specialize in. There's too many opportunities, too many possibilities, too many areas to learn and grow his expertise in with hands on experience. He bounces around the various departments, along with the other three residents who have not figured out what they would like to specialize in.

Keroli Crocell is one of those three. Her family has always put a lot of pressure on her to go into medicine, to become a doctor so that she could have 'the best life', be financially secure, and bring honor to the family name. So she's gone to school, always done well, always brought honor to her family, and is doing her residency. But honestly, she'd rather be doing anything else, but especially she'd rather be playing with her band, like she does in secret on weekends, doing gigs at clubs around the city.

That leaves the other two undecided residents as Lied Shax and Jazz M. Andro. To be honest, though neither of them has decided on a specialty, Lied actually becomes a hit in the pediatric wing, while Jazz is noted to have the best bedside manner out of all the residents.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Lisa Selin Davis

Published: Jun 26, 2024

Last night, I had drinks with a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time, determined not to talk about The Issue. But a few minutes before I arrived, I found out that The New York Times had decided not to publish a part of a story about the World Professional Association for Transgender Health—an advocacy group that creates “standards of care” for trans medicine, which American medical groups avow to adhere to (they don’t) and claim are evidence-based (they aren’t).

That part of the story would have discussed recently unsealed WPATH documents, subpoenaed by the state of Alabama, as part of a lawsuit, Boe v. Marshall. Alabama parents, medical providers, and a Birmingham pastor named Paul Eknes-Tucker sued the state because of its ban on “gender-affirming care” for minors—and the criminalization of those who practice it.

We got a sneak peak of some WPATH internal communiques a few weeks ago, when the advocacy group Do No Harm shared emails between Johns Hopkins and the federal Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. AHRQ had been asked to conduct a systematic evidence review on “gender-affirming care,” and knew that WPATH had hired Hopkins researchers to conduct such a review. Maybe they could share?

The emails show that Hopkins did conduct a systematic review, and that—like all the other SRs—it found diddly squat in terms of evidence supporting the efficacy of hormones and surgeries. But WPATH prevented Johns Hopkins from publishing these reviews because they didn’t come to WPATH’s preferred conclusions. WPATH hid this very important information from the entire world, then published standards of care saying an evidence review was impossible. And a government agency knew this!

We are talking about kids and the most invasive possible interventions here. We are talking about venerable academic institutions and government agencies and censorship and secrets.

Turns out, there’s a whole heckuva lot more of these damning emails. The New York Times had access to them but chose not to cover them. A source told me this is because no one from Johns Hopkins would comment on the record. The documents will be available via the LGBT Courage Coalition tomorrow (I will add a link and start a thread when it’s up), but I had a chance to preview them. If you have not yet had what GIDS whistleblower Anna Hutchinson called her “holy fuck!” moment, now’s the time.

An executive summary of the docs tells us:

WPATH leadership went to great lengths to suppress systematic reviews (SR) commissioned from Johns Hopkins because the reviews’ conclusions did not support the WPATH plans to recommend wide access to hormones and surgeries for all those who desired them. The evidence suppression was achieved via a 2-prong strategy. First, WPATH forced JHU to withdraw the manuscripts that were already submitted for publication as they did not meet the desired conclusions. Next, WPATH instituted a new policy whereby WPATH would have to approve all future publications by JHU.

More on the policy:

WPATH developed an approval checklist, which required that the authors must have the “intention to use the Data for the benefit of advancing transgender health in a positive manner,” the content approval must involve SOC8 chapter leads, and the review must include “at least one member of the transgender community in the design, drafting of the article, and the final approval of the article.”

Two levels of WPATH approval were required before JHU could submit a publication: first, the proposal which includes the conclusion had to be approved; and then, the actual manuscript draft, with WPATH retaining the rights to alter content.

Only the reviews passing both levels of approval could be submitted by JHU for publication—and they had to carry a specific disclaimer that “the authors are solely responsible for the content of the manuscript, and the manuscript does not necessarily reflect the view of WPATH in the publication.”

Can you believe the John Hopkins folks agreed to this? This is not science. WPATH is not credible. And this is why we in America are the outliers: we’re not basing guidelines on systematic reviews, or reality. We’re basing them on an activist group’s political agenda, and even the HHS knows there’s no good evidence. In fact, AHRQ was asked to review guidelines for treating gender dysphoric youth back in 2020, because, the request said:

There is a lack of current evidence-based guidance for care of children and adolescents who identify as transgender, particularly regarding the benefits and harms of pubertal suppression, medical affirmation with hormone therapy, and surgical affirmation. While these are some existing guidelines and standards of care,2, 5-6 most are derived from expert opinion or have not been updated recently so a comprehensive evidence review is currently not available.

What did AHRQ decide, after communicating with the Hopkins researchers?

The EPC Program will not develop a new systematic review because we found protocols for two systematic reviews that addresses portions of the nomination, and an insufficient number of primary studies exist to address the remainder of the nomination.

Basically, they said someone was already doing it, and there wasn’t enough evidence to sort through. But the someone already doing it had already agreed to put science aside and only discuss benefits, not harms.

How could a federal agency abdicate its responsibility? Wouldn’t you know it, the Assistant Secretary for Health for Health and Human Services (HHS) is Dr. Rachel Levine. And as the NYT did report, and as I summarized briefly in The Free Press this morning, Levine pressured WPATH to remove age restrictions from guidelines—not based on science, again, but on advocating for Levine’s own trans community.

It’s officially a scandal now, and it goes all the way to the White House. Holy fuck.

Needless to say, I was not able to ignore The Issue at drinks.

--

[raining-anonymous-lad]

Time to drop some more knowledge on ASUA, so hey here I go. Bullet point style, learn more about my funky lady of an iterator.

All’s Seen Under Authority is situated in a region that’s considered highly desirable, and as such is the 6th iterator project built there.

Out of those six, ASUA is the second project created by a group of ancients for a purpose other than their normal function of serving as cities, though finding the solution was still intended to be her top priority.

ASUA is the youngest iterator in her group, and built extremely late.

She was built by a highly religious group of ancients who were unique in their concern for the other creatures of the world. As such, ASUA is built to survive for as long as possible, with the ultimate goal of being able to pass the solution on to the next intelligent species to journey to her can. They put all their effort into constructing her, as it was the group’s last major action before journeying to the void sea and ascending themselves.

To facilitate her superstructure’s intended massive lifespan, another machine, named 6 Cycle Synchronization, who is similar to an iterator was built as an attachment to her superstructure. This results in her superstructure having a very weird shape due to 6CS’ operations sticking out as a building to the left on top of her own.

Here is a sketch of what ASUA’s superstructure looks like: Notable features include 6CS’s operations on top of her own, and bigger plus stronger support beams to support that. Since her function was to pass the solution on to any creatures who could find her once she found it, an access shaft was built to make surface access to her chamber much easier. Lastly, her superstructure was not constructed to be lived on permanently, and so temporary housing is only there for the ancients who were working on 6CS and finishing her building.

6CS has access to a lot of ASUA’s superstructure, and has the capability to operate her inner workings much more than any normal iterator can do to themselves. His puppet can also navigate her structure on a track specifically so he can conduct repairs which require the precision of hands. He was built as a part of her specifically so while ASUA can focus her efforts on finding the solution, he could focus on inventing ways to fix or prevent any damage to her superstructure, even when confronted with problems the ancients could not have anticipated.

6CS is not officially designated an iterator despite resembling one in all but name due to his purpose not being to find the solution, but ASUA calls him an “honorary iterator”. He meanwhile refers to her as his Boss.

ASUA and 6CS share overseers, and there isn’t any way to tell who is accessing the footage overseers gather since they can both do so at any time. Here’s what they look like:

ASUA was built very close to the global ascension of the ancients, and as such lacks a lot of understanding and respect for ancient traditional values that other iterators may have

As expected, this means she stopped searching for the solution very quickly after her construction. Rather, she has taken to observing the creatures around her superstructure and looking after them. Using 6CS’s skills in technology and his ability to modify her superstructure heavily, the area around it has become a bit of her animal sanctuary. She has close companions in several of the wildlife, often modified to improved their survival. 6CS was exasperated by her “slaking” at first, but has grown used to it and rather chill overall.

ASUA is a hoarder. This started with her taking care of a mask one of the ancients gave her before ascending and hanging it on the wall of her chamber. As she observed creatures through her overseers and the world they inhabited, she started to dislike the boring white walls of her chamber. This, combined with her preferences to physically store her knowledge of creatures and the environment rather than rely to her superstructure, has overtime made her quite a collector. Now, her chamber is completely cluttered with pearls, hung up scraps of cloth and more. She always keeps gravity on inside it because of this.

[snickerdoodlesandsausages]

I ran Three Raccoons in a Trench Coat for my local game store's Extra Life fundraiser from midnight-4am.

This post might not make a ton of sense as I am currently running on a lot of caffeine and no sleep.

Three raccoons in a trenchcoat is a game in the playtest stages by David J. Prokopetz (@prokopetz here on Tumblr, follow him and buy all his games he's great.)

I would be remiss in failing to drop the link to our fundraiser as well. All proceeds go to support projects St. John's Children's Hospital in Springfield, IL. The funds from this specific event go towards projects that make it less horrifically miserable and boring to be stuck in a hospital for days/weeks/months on end, as some kids unfortunately are.

The event was last night and it was AWESOME!!! Seriously the most fun I've ever had roleplaying, which is saying a lot.

The game had me as the GM plus 6 players for the first scene and 4 for the second (a couple people went to bed) and it worked great with both group sizes as the spotlight got passed pretty quickly. The game was free to play and raised a couple hundred bucks to help the kids!

The donation opportunities were as follows:

The order of choosing stats went in descending order of donations for that purpose. A bidding war broke out over first place, and the character creation process ended up raising ~$70 by itself.

$5 to re-roll a single die. This only happened a few times, usually resulted in another failed roll, and the second failure was basically universally accepted.

Once, I spontaneously offered a player a 6 on a roll to hurl a computer monitor through a second-story window without drawing too much unwanted attention in exchange for a $10 donation. The offer was accepted after about two seconds of hesitation.

$5 to narrate the failed outcome of another player's roll. This was by far the most popular option, and THE reason the smallest donation amount was $20.

My face physically hurt from laughing so hard by the end, the game is fantastic and my players were deeply into it. We only got through two scenes.

The first was an adult's birthday party at a park that the players determined was a wizard battle with grand prizes due to the camera flashes going off.

The second was set on a suburban street during Halloween, and the players broke into a house to steal the gamer mouse of a teenager on league of legends. I have so many more ideas, the required prep was honestly like three prompt words to generate a mental image and we all filled in the rest. I put on a spy-themed spotify playlist after someone made a mission: impossible joke, which turned out to be the perfect ambience.

Overall experience: 12/10, will run again as soon as possible.

[kariachi]

How about a bit more daemon worldbuilding, for shits and giggles? Some stuff regarding having a daemon with a shape that limits your mobility and access to necessities.

Generally placed in this category are 1) large, fully-aquatic daemons, 2) daemons of extreme size, and 3) large daemons whose own mobility is limiting.

Of course how one adapts to one’s daemon’s shape is always variable- just as someone with a labrador daemon and someone with a butterfly daemon adapt their lives and environments differently from each other, someone with a giant tortoise is going to handle things differently from someone with a sturgeon, and both are going to do things differently from someone with a rhinoceros. To account for this, we’ll be doing each subcategory on their own, followed by more general information.

~~

Large Fully-Aquatic Daemons

The group most limited by their shape and size. Fully aquatic daemons are considered ‘large’ if their weight exceeds 30 lbs(13.6 kg) and/or their largest measurement, either width or length, exceeds 3 ft(1 m).

Incapable of traveling over land under their own power, fully-aquatic daemons’ shapes present a unique challenge given humans’ terrestrial nature. Special transport is required for any inland travel, generally in the form of appropriately sized water tanks. Smaller shapes can be carried by the human half of the pair, but as they get larger this becomes untenable, especially for longer periods of time or great distances. Due to this when traveling inland large fully-aquatic daemons are carried by car, train, or plane, and in day-to-day life these pairs are typically restricted to life on or directly against the water.

Due to this, areas with a large amount of large, fully-aquatic daemons often have residential areas against the waterfront and even on the water whose purchase is restricted to households with aquatic daemons. Some require fully-aquatic, while other will also accept large semi-aquatic pairs. However it’s not unusual for such areas to find themselves slowly taken over by individuals without aquatic daemons, having either inherited them from individuals with aquatic daemons or having formerly housed individuals with aquatic daemons. Some regions have taken measures against this, forcing homes in these areas to be passed on to individuals with aquatic daemons, or sold should that not be an option.

Homes against the waterfront often have a short canal leading from the water to the home, and tend to be placed far closer to the water than non-specialized houses. Because of the greater inherent risk caused by weather, these homes tend to have far greater and sturdier foundations than nearby non-specialized homes, and are always planned with regular flooding in mind. They also are usually only one story, which you’ll hear a lot of going forward. Meanwhile, homes on the water come in two separate variants- the floating home and the specialized houseboat.

Floating homes tend to come as part of a greater community of aquatic pairs on very large bodies of water. These typically end of forming small floating towns, of a sort, with their own businesses and established, permanent, pathways. Despite the name these may or may not actually float, with pillared supports being commonplace. The end goal of these locations is to allow to the greatest possible mobility of both halves of any one pair by making sure that neither individual is restricted more than is the norm for pairs, and to allow for the smallest physical distance possible between halves of a pair given the situation. All buildings are one-story, and floors tend to be as thin as possible while still being stable and secure. Buildings also tend to have columns or pools in the floors from which daemons can enter and interact with individuals inside.

Specialized houseboats, meanwhile, are, as the name implies, houseboats that have been built with the presence of aquatic daemons in mind. They’re always one-story, typically raft-like in construction, and often have multiple closable canals running across them for the daemon’s use. These are more common in areas with a smaller aquatic community and on rivers and lakes.

As with all daemons covered in this post- large, fully-aquatic pairs tend to struggle various things, the most pressing of which are education, employment, and shopping. Employment we’ll hit on later in the General section, but the other two we can hit now. 

As far as education goes, pairs in this category find their options determined by where they live. Floating towns often have a small school, though it tends to be a one-room-for-everybody type of thing, and there are some boarding schools built specifically for large aquatic pairs- often being on ships or a situation similar to floating towns- which often have scholarship programs. Should neither of the above be an option then pairs often find themselves being homeschooled or going to school online, though in impoverished or isolated areas they may end up no longer getting schooling at all. Colleges often work on the same premise as the boarding schools

Meanwhile, when it comes to shopping, well, in a society built around a terrestrial lifestyle, going down to the shops has never been the easiest option for aquatic pairs. One result of this is the floating towns mentioned earlier, where the shops are built to be accessible, but also worldwide you find a long history of delivery.

Pretty much any settlement alongside a body of water had their own traditional method of ensuring that if an aquatic pair needed something, they could request it and have it brought to their home. Sometimes it was as easy as a child or spouse running into town, but in case where individuals lived alone some solutions were for weekly visits to be scheduled to see if anything was needed- a job often filled by younger members of the community or by community leaders-, or for some sort’ve signal such a bell to be utilized to communicate that they had need of assistance of some sort. In some areas different sorts of signals were used, to differentiate between everyday issues like being out of flour and emergencies like somebody being hurt. This has translated very well to the modern age, where postal services and the internet mean make it easier than ever to order items for delivery to one’s home. In many areas with large aquatic populations you’ll even find well-established businesses dedicated to delivering anything from a full ‘day on the town’ shopping trips worth of goods to restaurant food specifically to floating homes or specialized houseboats.

Another longstanding tradition which continues into the present day is the floating market. These are typically one or more boats that travel up and down rivers and coastlines together with goods to sell along the way. These markets can carry everything from foodstuffs to generators, yarn to televisions, diving gear to even small watercraft. Ships in these markets tend to run in families, and may even be the source of goods sold in the shops in floating towns. Floating markets target aquatic clientele primarily, and often will only open their doors to the general public- if they do at all- for the last few days of each stop.

Because the Settling of daemons isn’t always convenient, most countries have volunteer organizations who specialize in helping move pairs who have settled as large, fully-aquatic species either to better locations where they can stay until they can move into appropriate accommodations, to make them comfortable where they are if there aren’t better locations nearby, and to help in the often inevitable move.

~~

Daemons of Extreme Size

Often terrestrial, size is the determining factor in this subcategory, as one would expect. ‘Extreme Size’, in daemons, is typically classed as any daemon weighing in excess of 1000 lbs(450 kg). This confuses some people, as the idea of ‘extreme’ size calls to mind such things as elephants, not things such as horses, but multiple factors go into determining these limits, including the carrying capacity of buildings and vehicles, standard dimensions of buildings and vehicles, and ease of safe movement in crowded spaces such as stores.

Because of the range of sizes represented by this group, the degree to which pairs are affected varies considerably. One pair may be able to access buildings perfectly well, but need to go at off times in order to have space to maneuver, while another may not be able to even get in the door of most buildings. But as a general rule all will need to have their needs reflected in their housing.

Preferred housing for extreme-sized pairs is, yet again, one-story and often open floor-plan for maximum maneuverability. The need for one story is twofold, not only do many extreme-sized pairs simply weigh too much to be properly supported by upper floors, especially when the floors are also having to support other things such a furniture, but also a good number simply cannot comfortably go down stairs, requiring an specialized elevator system. In the end extreme-sized daemons are in a similar boat to aquatic daemons, in that their homes have generally been built to accommodate creatures of their size- with larger doors and windows, taller ceilings, more square footage, etc. The largest, such as elephant pairs, may even find themselves living in converted warehouse or factory buildings to accommodate their size. Unfortunately, this also means they share the aquatics’ problem of being pushed out by households who don’t require these homes keeping them.

Due to their large size, pairs in this subcategory also don’t typically live in heavily urbanized areas if they can help it. Too little space per pair. It’s more common for them to move to the outskirts of town or into rural areas, where they’ll have room to comfortably live their lives. As a result of this, many rural towns will leave a publicly accessible throughway behind businesses to allow any of these pairs who move to the area to comfortably move around. Ones who don’t, well, the speed limit tends to be set by the slowest ungulate. While some pairs in the subcategory can be transported in vehicles around the general area, most can’t comfortably and so there tends to a large outcry for walkable towns from them.

As far as education goes, while not as limited large aquatics, extreme-sized pairs don’t always have it easy. Their size and the stair issue can cause problems, especially in large, multi-room schools. They have an easier time with smaller schools where the the rooms open to the outdoors, where pairs can sit where they can hear the lesson but also have enough space. Still, homeschooling, tutoring, online courses- often taken in the school itself if there’s space for them- and boarding schools are commonplace. Boarding schools often taking the form of large, flat campuses with high ceilings and massive doors to allow for student movement and comfort, and are more common than those for large aquatic pairs. Colleges specialized for extreme-sized pairs also follow this framework.

The topic of shopping, meanwhile, is it’s own thing. Delivery isn’t as necessary for extreme-sized pairs as it is for large aquatics, the most common being things like take-out and those cases where you only need the one thing real quick. In fact it’s common for extreme-sized pairs to shop less often than other pairs in less walkable areas, because they tend to have a large carrying capacity.

The defining factor really is whether a pair can enter a store. The smallest of them can typically do so, but have issues with getting around, while the largest? You may as well not even look. The latter tend to be more likely to order things online than the former. But stores have not missed this lack. Many will have a few days every month where entry is restricted to mobility-impaired pairs, so they can maneuver safely, or in other areas special times of day. Even more will have people whose job is to take grocery lists and a form of payment from shoppers that can’t enter the store and make their purchases for them while they go off and do something else in town.

Some stores, in areas with a particularly high population of extreme-sized pairs (which tends to be a self-enforcing trait, accommodating the pairs already there encourages more pairs to move in), even go so far as to build and arrange their buildings to accommodate their large clientele, with massive doors, high ceilings, and goods arranged for maximum maneuverability.

While aquatic daemons typically don’t Settle in bodies of water that can’t hold them, extreme-sized daemons’ Settling doesn’t necessarily take into account exits. For this reason most building insurance plans include a section about how much you’ll get if you need to a knock a wall or two down to get a newly Settled pair free. Some insurance companies will also offer Settling insurance plans, which sometimes cover large aquatics but always cover extreme size, which will pay for you to move if your child’s Settled form requires it. If it doesn’t you can transfer the account to another child, but if you don’t then you just lose the money.

~~

Limited Mobility Daemons

The group with the least obvious issues, but still enough to make a struggle. Daemons fall into this subcategory when weighing more than 50 lbs(23 kg) and having physiology which limits their mobility and maneuverability. Examples include large seals and tortoises.

Size isn’t typically the big problem with pairs in this subcategory, though it can compound other issues. Here the problem to look at is purely the mobility of the daemon and the limits it sets, typically by severely limiting speed. If your daemon jogs at 0.6 mph(0.9 kph), you’re not getting anywhere fast.

This subcategory is the only one that doesn’t necessarily have special housing needs beside, say it with me now, preferring a one-story home. Instead housing needs tend to be very individual- one pair may need as small a home as possible so they don’t take fifteen minutes to hit the bathroom, while another may be large enough to require a certain amount of space to maneuver at all comfortably. Open floor plans are common, but not strictly necessary, and unlike the other pairs in this post housing is generally less of an issue.

Again, the problem they face is getting around. These pairs often have issues with stairs and are slow moving either on land or in general. Depending on the schools available that can have a impact on their education. A small, one -story building is ideal, but for some pairs even a large one-story is perfectly manageable, while others simply can’t get across a large building in decent time, and while some can fit on elevators, others are too large. This means that while some pairs can continue their schooling as they did before Settling, others are more restricted. In these cases a pair may take online courses in the school or at home, be homeschooled, or privately tutored. Unlike the other subcategories, you don’t see boarding schools specialized for this grouping, though some more mobile pairs may find themselves in boarding schools specialized for extreme-sized pairs. Limited mobility pairs tend to have an easier time in college, where they can choose their classes to allow themselves easier access, though it may take them longer to complete degrees depending on where classrooms are each semester.

As far as shopping, again they have an easier time than others, but still not a good one. You’ll often find them taking advantage of the same open days and businesses as extreme-sized pairs, though they’re more likely to have items delivered to their homes, especially if the daemon in question is particularly large or cumbersome. When you’re slow, need wide turns, or just aren’t comfortable moving terrestrially for long periods, bothering to go shopping, especially when there are other people around, can be a pain.

~~

General

There are two things I want to touch on here- 1) employment, and 2) governmental support.

The first of these things is, as you can guess, very important. Anything that limits your mobility can have a large effect on your job opportunities, and it’s no different with daemons. Again, those whose daemons have limited mobility tend to have it a bit easier. Not perfect by a long shot- good luck getting a position on the third floor when your black caiman can’t fit in an elevator- but they have more options available to them. Much like society is built for terrestrial life, it’s also built for smaller, maneuverable pairs. There’s many jobs out there that are inaccessible due to things like not being able to physically enter the location, or not being able to keep up with the required pace. As a result of this, a sizable number of pairs in this greater grouping take online jobs when they can, or enter into lines of work where their shape is a benefit rather than a hindrance. Not everyone is that lucky though, and plenty still just grab whatever they can get, or even try to start their own businesses. Even with that though, pairs who are limited by their shapes have a relatively high rate of unemployment.

Which brings us to the concept of governmental support. Most countries who offer financial aid to their citizens have a section for these pairs, the idea being that most require special housing, transportation, supplies, and are limited in their career options and so a bit of financial aid won’t go amiss. Typically the amount given is determined on an individual basis by how much a pair is believed to need based on their shape, with amounts being far from consistent across the world. Often there is an income cut-off after which a pair is no longer eligible, and receiving this aid may or may not make a pair ineligible for other forms of financial aid. Most consistently it’s given to children, whose families may need to replace items, make home repairs, send them to a boarding school, or even move to accommodate them, while adults moving to a new area may have more trouble.