#i assume we're doing some sort of science experiment with the kids ...?

[frogwen]

cannot wait to get to work and find out why my boss texted me at 7:30am asking if i have a pool noodle.... (its February 3rd. in the midwest. currently 37f aka 3c) (???)

[dxmedstudent]

What are your thought on medical students who got into medical school because they were pressured into it (either explicitly by family or implicitly from social pressure/expectation)? I've never really understood it, I jut assumed everyone who applies and gets into medicine is because they have a burning passion to care of people. Thank you!

I think that to a degree, none of us know what we're getting into - completely - when we apply to university for a vocational degree. Even when we have done a LOT of research, had extensive work experience, talked to a lot of people etc. Some things have to be lived.

And honestly? Med school now is different to med school in my day (10 years ago!) and in my predecessors' day. Medicine has changed significantly too - today we're facing job pressures and employment issues that were unimaginable 10 years ago.

I think a lot of people get pressured into it by family or school - when you're academically successful there are a few avenues open to you, and everyone will pick what they think works best for them out of that selection. You have to pick *something*, often with limited data.

I always felt a bit sorry for people like that, because it's hard to be under a lot of pressure - and I hoped that they weren't putting a dream they desperately wanted, on hold to do medicine. I knew some people who pretty much openly admitted that their hearts really weren't into it, but they did it for their parents, and planned to at least live the most lucrative life they could live in medicine, probably leave the country or do mainly private practice, and retire early or move into a non-medical business field eventually.

I do wonder how some of them survived through the tougher parts of university and training - it's a lot of crap to go through if you don't really believe in any of it. And I hope they were good clinicians and kind to their patients - I know that there are plenty who aren't, but I can't honestly say whether that correlates to how passionate someone is about medicine. Because some of the most depressed, burned out and bitter people were absolutely passionate...before the system destroyed them.

Nobody's perfect, and I think all of us were under a degree of pressure to choose when we were younger. Now, I love drawing and it's a LOT more relaxing than medicine, let's be honest. The fact probably hasn't escaped my followers. But as a pretty nervous and realistic teen I was pretty sure that I couldn't make a living as an artist, and I grew up with an immigrant work ethic and the immigrant kid's knowledge that if I couldn't support myself nobody would be able to support me because the UK hates financially insolvent immigrants exponentially more than it hates financially insolvent natives - and it hates them plenty already. Anyhow I loved doing multiple things - drawing, writing etc but I also enjoyed science and genuinely loved the idea of being a vet or doc. Would I have pursued it if i was a billionaire's kid? Maybe not. But I think many of us at least considered the fact that it's a job with some security - even if we weren't pressured into it. We want to do good, but we're also aware that we can't feed ourselves without a job.

There are a lot of jobs now that didn't exist when I was at school, and to be honest, when you're doing career fairs or deciding what you like, there are many fields or jobs you will never have heard of or been exposed to, that you will have no idea if you may like or not. In my actual experience, a lot of people sort of fall into their life work through trial and error, further down the line.

i don't think this is unique to medicine though - my husband read science at Oxbridge because he liked it and was capable, and didn't really know what to do, then switched to working in another field after uni (and to be fair, jobs in science or academia are finite), and many of his friends also weren't sure what they wanted to do when they picked their degree courses. Fast forward many years and many people don't work in the field they went to university for, and many people tried a field for a few years (or even many years) and then decided to re-train.

I do think it's' better for people to try to pick something they genuinely enjoy doing, and that they can see themselves doing in the future - or at least can see paths they can reach through their training that they may genuinely want to pursue. Because that can make life easier. But in reality, we grow, we change our minds, we discover new things about ourselves or the jobs we are aware of.

There are many ways to live an interesting and fun life, and often we change the path as we go along.

[eldritchsurveys]

1162.

Did you ever go to daycare as a kid?: >> not even once

Who’s one of the most talented people you know? What are they talented at?: >> I'm sure everyone I know is reasonably skilled at something but I don't think any of them are particularly, like... prodigious? you know?

How long have you had your current mattress?: >> about eight months.

Do you usually pay with cash, debit card, or credit card?: >> debit card

What do you usually drink with breakfast?: >> tea

What’s your sexuality?: >> extremely xenosexual

What’s your gender identity?: >> I don't identify with gender, but I can always appreciate and sometimes even reenact a good performance

Are you the type of person who can make friends with just about anyone?: >> I am not this type of person

Have you ever experienced a medical emergency?: >> I don't think so What was the last thing you borrowed from someone?: >> probably a clothing item from Sparrow

What’s your least favorite time of day?: .

Are you muscular?: >> amn't

Do you know anyone who’s sort of snobby about the kind of music they like?: >> not personally, which is good because I hate that sort of thing

Do you ever happen to find yourself trying to force yourself to be happy?: >> I sometimes try to force regulation and equanimity, which I guess can equate to happiness, yeah. but it's stressful being so easily triggered and having so many emotions so much of the time, who can blame me

What are some things you like about the area you live in?: >> hmm. well, the accessible produce is nice

When was the last time you drank wine?: >> a few days ago (some kind of champagne-dupe sparkling wine. I made a mimosa with it) Would you rather be transported to 300 years in the past, or 300 years in the future?: .

Do you know anyone who has been to prison?: >> I used to.

Do you have one of those removable hand-held shower heads?: >> I do not and I still regard that as a luxury amenity, ngl

How many burners does your stove have?: >> four

When you go to a restaurant, do you prefer to sit at a booth or a table?: >> booth

What’s the first video game you remember playing?: >> the first video game as in non-computer game I remember playing is Guitar Hero. if we're including computer games (that never had a console release, just strictly for computer), then that'd be, idk... Oregon Trail? Have you ever been to San Francisco?: >> never

Did the high school you went to offer an ecology class?: >> Environmental Sciences, which I assume is the same thing, yeah Which room of your house is currently in the greatest need of cleaning?: >> right now it's probably... hmm. Sparrow did a lot of cleaning yesterday so I'm not sure. oh, probably the craft room, if that's the case. that place is always going to look like a tornado zone, though, I think

What’s something you think everyone should do/experience at least once in their life?: >> the attentive love and positive regard of a caregiver as a child. unfortunately,

When was the last time you shipped a package?: .

Have you ever made a homemade pie?: >> haven't How long does it take you to get to work/school?: .

Has your car ever been broken into?: >> one time someone broke into Sparrow's car but the door was unlocked and nothing of value was in it. they did take a bunch of napkins, though :V

How old is your oldest cousin?: .

[insideoutstory]

Okay what is future Christine’s pregnancy like? Is she absolutely miserable or unsure? Is Steve constantly running out to get her stuff?

Okay heads up, I have ZERO experience writing pregnancy plot lines, and in the past, I have't been super into reading them. But when Steve Harrington tells you he wants six kids, you do what you need to do. So *rolls up sleeves* here we go! This got long, so I put it under a cut. 💕 🍼

Honestly, even though Chrissy and Steve have talked about kids a lot, she's still scared when the time rolls around. It's not so much that she's worried about being a bad mom - like Steve says, they've had practice. Also, she grew up in a single-parent household with a dad who did his best, she she knows that she doesn't need to be perfect so long as they can talk it out.

What scares Chrissy is the physical reality of pregnancy - because human reproduction is a nightmare and there are an endless amount of things that can go wrong. Chrissy knows more than the average person because she's so into science, so at the start, she's definitely terrified of all the different dangers.

Chrissy also struggles with feeling isolated sometimes, because she doesn't have her mom to help her through it. She can talk to Joyce or Claudia or Karen, but even then it's not the same. [Side note: I feel like Claudia is definitely the kind of mom who had like really weird cravings while she was pregnant with Dustin, and just assumes that that's how pregnancy is for everyone, which is how Chrissy ends up with a gift of pickles and peanut butter with absolutely no idea what to say.]

So Chrissy wishes she had the assurance of her real mom, who could tell her their family health history and what she went through carrying Christine. A lot of times she feels like she's wandering through the dark, and she can't tell if what she's experiencing is normal or something catastrophic she won't recognize until it's too late.

BUT

If there's something else we know about Christine, it's that she has the Mom Friend Gene which, outside of being maternal, means that the moment someone else is scared or nervous, it's easier for her to calm down. She will revert to being the rational person in the face of chaos and, lucky for Christine, she is surrounded by well-intentioned men who are the definition of chaos.

We're gonna tackle this in ascending order, most rational to the least rational.

5. Hopper

Okay, so y'all haven't gotten to this part of the story yet, but I promise that once everything in Season 2 calms down, Hopper and Christine are closer. He's best friends with her dad, and sort of a second paternal figure for her. Hopper isn't the kind of dad who panics in this situation, not after everything he's been through. He's actually really great at talking to Christine and calming her down because, by GOD, does this man know what it's like to be terrified of yourself as parent. Hopper is one of the few people Chrissy can talk to without putting on a brave face, which she really appreciates.

4. Pete

Chrissy's actual dad is a little more chaotic. We know that he's well-intentioned and great at communication, but he's also scatterbrained and a little hapless at times. He'll soothe Chrissy with stories about her mom, stories about herself when she was a baby, reassurances that the two of them will get through this together. Then he'll also come visit with a ton of gifts for his grandkids even though they haven't been born yet, only to remember that he didn't remember the take out Christine asked him to pick up.

3. Eddie

Listen, Eddie is terrified of the prospect of raising kids. We know he didn't have a good relationship with his dad, his mom isn't in the picture, and he grew up ostracized by society. He's terrified of being unable to save his kids from that, or unintentionally screwing them up in some different way. That being said, he talks about that fear a lot, so he's actively working it out. Despite his usual chaotic personality, he's usually pretty calm around Chrissy - like his brain is telling him he has to walk gently and soothe her. He'll do things like brush her hair for her or give her a massage, painting her nails, just hanging out doing nothing so she doesn't need to get up to change the thermostat or the TV.

Also he's constantly playing guitar for her, because this baby will know music. (He plays "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica as a lullaby and you can fight me on this because it is PERFECT for their family dynamic.)

2. Dustin

Dustin is so goddamn excited to be an uncle. He's also a nosy little shit who can't mind his own business, so he is 100% the type to grab a drink out of Chrissy's hands and tell her it's bad for the baby. Sees a box of Eddie's cigarettes? Throws them in the trash because they're bad for the baby. Steve leaves the Lysol out while he's cleaning the kitchen? Packs everything away in the middle of the operation because chemicals are bad for the baby. He's dangerously close to getting himself banned from the house for the last few months, but no one wants to lose the happy energy he brings to the place.

Also, you can bet that he's going through all his belongings trying to decide what to give to him. This kid will have their own complete set of Lord of the Rings before they're a month old, coloring books with superheroes, a radio in their room so Dustin can call without tying up the phone line. He's a nerd and an inventor, and the kid will be too.

Steve

We know this. You knew this. Steve is a well-meaning disaster and his brain has too many thoughts to function properly. He's excited. He's scared. He's thrilled. He's mortified. There's so much that he needs to do. Each day brings a different Steve: Handyman Steve who is baby-proofing the house months in advance to the point that he's accidentally locked himself out of the cabinets; Scholar Steve who's checked out every parenting book from the library to learn how to be the best dad he can be; Chef Steve who's taken all of Dustin's critiques to heart and is trying to learn how to cook a healthy meal so Chrissy doesn't need to stand in the kitchen; Doting Steve who will drive any distance at any time of day to get Christine what she needs at this exact moment; back to Handyman Steve who has painted the nursery three times because he's indecisive and can't decide what looks best.

But of two things I am sure.

One: when it finally comes down to it and Chrissy goes into labor, he has a solid battle plan and does not break a sweat. All the go bags are packed, all the appropriate phone calls are made, they take the fastest route to the hospital, and it all goes off without a hitch. He has prepared for this moment and he does not lose his cool.

Two: Steve cannot go shopping with Eddie, because they will both have a meltdown. One of them in the baby section? Okay, they're a little nervous, but they have the mental bandwidth to talk themselves through what they think is the best decision. BOTH of them in the baby section? They work each other into a frenzy, arguing, panicking, pulling the manager into their dramatics because they're scaring the other customers. Three injured, many traumatized, and they spent twice as much money as they intended to.

[3liza]

hey im not gonna spread your weird social media-mediated brain infection on my blog, instead here are some cool studies to look at about how the "beautiful people have an easier life, every day, all the time" is a simplistic view, and is also patriarchal as fuck. more recent studies on "beauty privilege" are finding that the issue is complex, and that perceived beauty acts as a negative pressure in some/many social situations. i have always wondered why my experiences varied so much from the apparent wonderland the pop-science concept of "beauty privilege" paints, and more recent studies (often designed by women this time, imagine) are getting into the complexity there.

you personally may want to think about not reading my social media accounts if they are making you feel and act like this. i think i am not going to interact with you anymore if i can help it because i feel bad about what it is doing to you. anyway.

the short version is that beauty is beneficial in heterosexual social situations when dealing with the opposite sex, but detrimental when dealing with the same sex. this aspect of the research is usually ignored because who needs nuance in their pop psychology, right? not this guy (pointing 2 self)

very simply put, a beautiful woman can flirt her way out of a ticket from a heterosexual male cop. if she tries it on a person who doesnt consider her a potential romantic partner, there may be (and apparenly often are) negative consequences.

similarly in my own life i find that 99% of the apparent opportunities i'd been given for being young and fuckable were predicated on me actually fucking* the person who "offered" them, and most of them turned out to be fake/insincere opportunities anyway. tumblr refers to this as "grooming" when applied to child subjects (which i was, for much of it) but the behavior persists into the target's adulthood, middle age, and even old age if certain conditions are met. i can't find any studies on this because you can't put a Sleazy Guy in a lab setting and ask him "hey were you actually going to hire this woman on hte up-and-up, or were you going to 'hire' her and then spend 16 months making increasingly deranged sexual harassment attempts before reporting her to HR for made-up reasons and then finally firing her or hamstringing her career? just wondering".

i always think about that episode of Always Sunny where Mac goes nuts because every kid in his class was molested by the gym teacher and he imagines this to be some sort of privilege, even though charlie was one of the victims and is clearly devastated by it. thats what this conversation feels like every time it gets to the level of anons making fake tumblr accounts to KEEP pestering me about this stuff. remember that thing i said earlier about blood in the water, and how i dont post about bad shit that happened to me because it attracts the wrong kind of attention??? hehuehueheuheuhuehriuhgfidsrhru

actually thats a whole other realm of study: why victims of sexual assault and abuse are often re-victimized. until recently it was assumed that the victims were making bad decisions in who to trust, and this is sooorrrrtt of true, but doesn't tell the whole story. i read a study once that i am trying to find and will post later if i find it, that took video of adult women study subjects (who had agreed to be filmed) walking normally just down the street publically, and showed this video to male test subjects. if im remembering the study correctly, which i may not be, the male subjects who scored higher on psychopathy indices were better able to indentify the women in the test footage who had been sexually assaulted at some point in their former lives.

something to think about is a lot of "attractive" qualities (including proccupation with physical appearance leading to altering that appearance to be more beautiful), especially in the manic pixie archetype, are very strongly represented in trauma victims, especially sexual assault survivors (as is the opposite, intentionally trying to be "unattractive" to avoid further victimization). this includes "seductiveness", one of the adjectives used to diagnose child sexual abuse victims before the verbiage in the literature got cleaned up. obviouly a child cant be "seductive" and thats pretty offensive and fucked up to say. what they meant is that the childs behavior has been altered by trauma to become sexualized to appease attackers. this is part of the "fawn" sector of emergency responses in humans (along with fight, flight, and freeze).

so when we talk so cavalierly of "beauty" and "attractive people" vs "unattractive people" we are simplifying an issue that is so complex it is difficult even to think about. this complexity makes me go "hmm" every time theres a study on it, much less a popular belief. a lot of it sort of doesnt square with easily-observable phenomena: if physical beauty is so correlated to success, why are the 1% of wealthy people, politicians, actual power-holders, hell even the CEOs of normal companies, very very rarely what you would consider physically beautiful, even when they havent aged out of what the culture thinks is the maximum span of time someone can be "hot"? some of this is just personal preference, and it's real hard to study any of this because of how complex that issue becomes. but where are all these hot successful people i keep hearing about? are they all trophy spouses and retired from the public eye? you can definitely cherrypick examples of "influencers" etc but thats an extremely narrow line of work, and not representative.

anyway! lot of the "do beautiful people get more stuff" research is from quite a while ago, wasnt designed well, and was based on a work and social culture that was quite a bit different than it is now. but even older studies document this effect. ive spent like many minutes typing about this stupid bullshit so im bored and annoyed now and i dont want to type about it anymore

1. Effects of Self-Esteem Threat on Physical Attractiveness Stereotypes

2. Does being attractive always help? positive and negative effects of attractiveness on social decision making (cant find the sci-hub version, alas, but documents a negative effect we're actually seeing an anecdotal example of in my inbox rn)

3. Is beauty a gift or a curse? The influence of an offender’s physical attractiveness on forgiveness

* often it wasnt even just a sex thing. it's very very often a romance/relationship that is desired by the perpetrator. it's a misapprehension of the public that sexual harassment/grooming is "just about sex" or even less accurately "just about power", it isnt

[that-crazy-five-foot-two-chick]

Summary: Winry sat in the optimal place to study in the school cafe for the entire fall semester. Then spring came, and suddenly some self-entitled twit who dressed like off-brand Gerard Way decided it was his territory. He was so not going to get off easy.

Rating: T

Word Count: 1.8k words of coffee shop/college AU with a side of enemies to almost-lovers

A/N: It's finals week, I posted this on Ao3 at almost 5am, and if the rest of the sentence didn't make it obvious, I'm writing from unfortunate experience. Not beta-ed or proofread, although I happened to see one thing to fix when I woke up this morning. Feel my raw power. Rawr.

It wasn't that big a deal.

It kind of really was, though.

Every Thursday morning during the fall semester, Winry sat in the same spot at the same school coffee shop. It was the spot sent by the entire patron pantheon of cram papers. Maybe one person didn't need an entire booth, but it was in the corner, and the tops of the bench seats had opaque plastic barriers that just so happened to be perfect for minimizing excess visual chaos. For the most part, there weren't loud conversations, and the jazz music that came through the speakers helped her tune out people ordering coffee. Add to that the fact that she could use campus flex dollars and not her own bank account that was begging for mercy, and it was the perfect spot to get papers done.

But apparently not this spring.

As soon as Winry walked in, she noticed him in the corner. Some emo wannabe guy on his computer. Probably on Reddit complaining about how women didn't appreciate the amazing pics he sent them on Tinder. Or at least, it was a fair guess based on the sour look on his face. Why did this guy of all people have to steal the holy grail spot? Ugh. She was still gonna get her coffee, darn it.

"You know the deal, Sciezska. Medium roast with a shot of espresso and vanilla creamer."

"On it! You paying in flex?"

"Yeah." She scanned her student ID and lowered her voice. "Who's off-brand Gerard Way in the corner?"

"Who's Ger—"

"The punk kid."

"Ohhh. I can try to get his number for you, if you want."

"No, he looks like a total tool! And not the kind I like dealing with!"

"Which means you think he's hot. I didn't think you were into that type, but you're not wrong."

"For the last time, no, Sciezska! He took my spot! And I'm trying very, very hard to keep this to a stage whisper, but if you keep trying to set me up with some random creep, I won't be able to!"

A distinctly male voice grumbled, "I'm not a creep."

"Keep telling that to the girls on Tinder. I'm sure they'll understand eventually."

"Yeah, and I'll bet if you look at your 'Live, Laugh, Love' sign a little more, you'll understand it eventually." He mumbled something under his breath.

"What was that, Mr. Nice Guy?"

"Lay off, it's eight in the morning. I said the only reason I even have a Tinder account is because my roommate stole my phone while I was going to the bathroom."

"Well, if you didn't want it, why didn't you delete it?"

"Eh, I figured if I really got sick of being single one day, it'd already be there."

"Never would have guessed you were single," Winry said dryly.

"Come on, it's way too early to be rubbing that kind of crap in. Who says I'm not fine with being single anyway?"

Sciezska timidly spoke up. "Medium roast with espresso and vanilla creamer?"

Winry thanked her as red jacket boy continued. "'Edward Elric, Bachelor.' Almost sounds as good as 'Edward Elric, Bachelor of Science.'"

"B.S. degree. Sounds about right."

"About time you stopped acting like I'm an idiot!"

Winry snorted. "That's not what I meant."

"Hey!"

"And with that, I'm going to go find some other spot to write my paper."

Edward, as his name apparently was, scoffed and mumbled something that sounded like "good riddance". Maybe the librarians wouldn't get on her case too much for bringing in coffee.

-----

A week later, Winry walked into the cafe, assuming the circumstances of the previous week were an anomaly. They were not.

"Medium roast with a shot of espresso and vanilla creamer," she grumbled and sulked in the direction of the corner seat.

"Hey, don't start with me again, blondie. I've had a whopping four hours of sleep and I can't promise you'll like what comes out of my mouth."

"We're at a coffee shop. Get some coffee. I can't help it if you're too hung over to be polite."

"Now look, genius. I did not stay up until 4 A.M. working on a stupid chem paper for that sadistic pyromaniac excuse for a professor just for some random chick to accuse me of being hung over."

"Oh."

"Yeah. And for your information, coffee doesn't really help me wake up. It just helps me focus on homework." He lifted up his empty cup and gave it a shake.

"That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard."

"ADHD is a weird thing, and yet, here I am."

"Huh, interesting."

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pick up where I left off with the same stupid ten page paper I started last night."

"Oh right. Sure," Winry stammered. "Listen, I'm really sorry I just assumed things about you. It was wrong of me, and I'd like to make it up to you, if that's okay."

Edward eyed her suspiciously. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well...I could look over your paper once you're done writing it? I've got a paper of my own to write while I'm waiting, and I can sit right across the table here so you don't have to come get me. I won't try to talk to you or anything. Neither of us need that kind of distraction."

"Alright, alright. Get your coffee and sit down. The girl at the counter's been up there waiting for a good minute or two while you've been at confessional over here."

"Wait, she has?" Winry's eyes widened, and Edward laughed at her expense. He was kind of attractive when he wasn't scowling...wait what? She pouted and got up to retrieve her coffee. When Winry returned, she plopped down on the bench opposite Edward and opened her laptop. Peeking out from behind it, she added, "By the way, I'm Winry. I figured you ought to at least know the name of the person who's proofreading your paper."

"Well, Winry, you're the one who volunteered." The corners of his mouth twitched upward. The two worked on their assignments in silence, occasionally speaking up when necessary.

-----

Edward was in the corner again the next week as well.

"Hey, Edward! Mind if I join you for homework again?"

"Normally, I'd say no, but you didn't bother me too much last week, so you might as well." He turned away slightly.

"Great! Have you gotten your coffee yet? I didn't see a cup, and you got something the last two times."

"Eh, I haven't been here long. If you're going up and getting yours, would you mind ordering a caramel macchiato for me?" He asked, sliding his ID across the table.

"Yeah, no problem. I'll be back in a sec."

She returned and slipped his ID back before pulling out her computer. "Do you have anything for me to look over this time?"

"Not this week. But if you have anything you need looked over, I can do that, too."

"Actually, I do, if you wouldn't mind."

"Winry, I just volunteered. Just send the paper to my school email. Mine's 'elricedwa'," he instructed as he proceeded to spell it.

"Medium roast and a caramel macchiato?" Sciezska called out.

"Coming!" Winry replied and turned to Edward. "I just sent it, so you should be able to start while I'm getting our stuff." Eyes glued to his laptop, Edward gave a thumbs up.

Once she returned with their drinks, Winry sat down and wordlessly set Edward's drink next to him.

"Thanks," he muttered distantly. His lips mirrored the words he was reading. Though his lips weren't plump by any stretch of the imagination, they were shapely. His steely concentration made the air leave Winry's lungs. To top it all off, the first rays of sunlight came through the window just right, hitting Edward's hair in a way that made it positively glow.

What was she thinking? Those were only the sorts of things people thought when they had a crush. She'd only had two positive interactions with him, including this one. ...well, maybe it was a crush. She could certainly do worse than someone with a questionable fashion sense. After all, he worked hard, and he got good grades, if the quality of his writing was any indication. Okay, fine. He was also drop dead gorgeous, if you could see past his clothing choices. Yeah, she had a crush.

"Did you hear anything I just said?"

"...no."

"Figures. I finished reading your paper. It's not bad, I just left a few suggestions for sentence structure. Now I am going to enjoy my caramel macchiato." He took off the lid and breathed in the steam with his eyes closed, nearly drooping into the cup in content. When he opened his eyes slowly, Winry was awestruck by the similarity between the color of his eyes and his drink.

"What?" Edward furrowed his eyebrows.

"Nothing. I didn't say anything. At all. Nope."

"Okay." He shrugged. She reopened the document and went through his suggested edits. Gnawing her lip in concentration, she leaned forward a bit to settle in and tackle the editing.

"...hey, uh, Winry?" Edward gulped. "Are you going to drink your coffee?"

"Oh! Yeah, I almost forgot. Thanks, Edward!" she smiled.

"No–no problem. And you can call me Ed, you know. Most people do. Except for that excuse for a professor that calls me pipsqueak. Can you believe he's my advisor? I mean, come on, I'm a grown man. I'm not that short."

Winry made a poor attempt at containing her laughter. "Okay then, Ed. Prove it. Stand up."

"Fine." He slid out of the booth and stood. Winry followed suit and appraised their respective heights.

"Well, I'd hardly call you tall, but you're at least taller than me by a few inches, for whatever that's worth."

Edward grinned as if he had won some sort of prize. "Time for shorties to sit down now!"

"Watch it now. You're not too far from that label yourself, mister."

They both returned to their positions in the booth and worked steadily for the next hour. At the end of that time, Winry closed her laptop. "Ed, are you okay? You seem distracted."

"ADHD. I'm always distracted," he dismissed.

"No, like, are you sick or something? You did get more than four hours of sleep this time, right?"

"No comment." Ed's mouth twitched. He mumbled barely loud enough to hear, "Wouldn't have mattered anyway."

"Are you sure? If you're not feeling well, I can drive you over to the health center."

"N-no. That's not it." He exhaled, then slid a napkin across the table. His hands trembled slightly. "Anyway, here's my number. In case you need me to look over a paper. Or whatever. I've got a class soon."

Winry blushed, but tucked the napkin in her laptop. "Thanks, Ed. See you next week?"

"Yeah. Next week."

-----

Winry: This goes with your major, right?

Edward: Blocked

[coffeebanana]

Science Side of Kayla: Activate

TLDR: no If you want the longer answer, buckle up 😂

Presumably, Adrien was created to be biologically human. That's what I believe, at least. I even headcanon that Emily and Gabe wanted a child that was "their own", and as a result Adrien's still got half of each of each of his parents' DNA even if he wasn't made the usual way. But whether that last part is true isn't actually relevant to the rest of what I have to say, just a fun thought (and I recognize that that part might not make complete sense if Adrien and Félix and Adrien are actually identical...but again, not the point).

Working off of the Adrien IS biologically human theory, there's no reason to believe his children would be sterile. I mean, they could be. Sterility can have different causes. But that should be unrelated to Adrien being a sentibeing.

The above addition to this post mentions ligers and zorses as counter-examples, but the most common example of sterile hybrids is probably the mule. And the reason that mules are sterile is because they're the offspring of horses (64 chromosomes) and donkeys (62 chromosomes), which means mules end up with 63 chromosomes (32 horse chromosomes + 31 donkey chromosomes). When it comes to sexual reproduction (ie meiosis), that becomes a problem because one step in the process involves every chromosome having another one to pair up with. And that can't happen with an odd number of chromosomes!

We see actually see this sort of thing in humans, too. Because sometimes meiosis isn't perfect! Apparently, around 20% of human pregnancies result in a fetus with an abnormal amount of chromosomes. But most of those aren't viable--the fetus won't make it to live outside the womb. It depends on which chromosome, because a person can have more or less of certain chromosomes (for example, people with down syndrome have 3 copies of chromosome 21), but not of others. And some of those viable cases result in sterility, but not all.

Getting back on topic (sorry aksbfjkdsf), if Adrien is biologically human, then he probably has the standard 46 chromosomes, especially because Gabe and Emilie's presumably wanted a "perfect" child. And, well, there's a whole conversation to be had about how that's fucked up. But designer babies (pun actually not intended) are also not the topic of this post.

The point is, there's no reason being a sentibeing makes Adrien less human, and therefore it shouldn't make his kids any more likely to be sterile.

Now, regarding the possibility of Adrien being immune to viruses, it's not as simple as just getting rid of the receptors that viruses latch onto, because...those receptors typically perform important functions in the human body. And, yes, people can have mutations in the DNA that encodes for those receptors which are beneficial to them not catching a specific disease without disrupting the receptor's native function. And those mutations can be passed on. That's why we don't all get gravely ill from the common cold. But viruses can also mutate. We all know that from COVID.

I'm fairly certain there's no way to make a creature that's biologically human (like we're assuming Adrien is) that's indefinitely immune to everything. That just isn't how biology works.

Plus, he's canonically allergic to feathers. And sure, that's hardly life-threatening, but it is proof that his immune system isn't perfect. (If we're considering word of God, then it's also worth mentioning that one post on the old instagram account where Adrien takes a sick day.)

If I had a sentibaby, I would vaccinate it. Even if I thought it might be immune to those diseases (which I don't), that doesn't make the vaccine less safe. So why not vaccinate? Better safe than sorry. But...vaccine hesitancy proves that people don't understand those sorts of things. And I think that, maybe, Emilie might see "better safe than sorry" in the opposite way as I do.

Or not. This was just a fun little thought experiement.

nobody: me: i wonder if sentiadrien is vaccinated or did emilie worry about how a sentibeing would affect his reaction to vaccines or just think that sentibeings would be immune to things like the measles?