#the abnormality isn't really their problem

[review-anon]

Yeah, you two focus on finding Maeda, the one with the ahoge...

-✨🌌✨ Anon

Gonta sorry but he not know where Review Anon is.

A Funeral of Butterflies: That's alright...I can use my messengers to find the lost soul.

*Several butterflies come off A Funeral of Butterflies and fly off looking for Review Anon*

I would be more concerned about this, but we have a job to do and Review Anon can fend for herself.

I recall her saying that any attempts to drag her into the afterlife will fail as she's "barred from passing on" or language among those lines.

Gonta may not be able to help Review Anon...

But Gonta can help Kirumi's grandfather! And Gonta sees Maeda over there!

*Gonta points over to a bench where Yuki seems to be eating a bento box*

*He doesn't seem to be with anyone*

There is Maeda...now to come over to him and wait as Nijiue will turn up and we can inform her the unforunate news.

Right! Gonta wishes bug man good luck on quest, while we do own quest!

A Funeral of Butterflies: Thank you...nobody deserves to die alone and forgotten....

*The man with a butterfly face walks off, trying to find Review Anon*

What a good man!

I wouldn't call him "good" but Abnormalities are not something I'm used to...let's go and see Maeda.

Yep, time to see Maeda!

[bredforloyalty]

i had a good day i like having things to do but unfortunately i have just remembered i am insane</3

[hinge]

Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co

[bi-writes]

whats wrong with ai?? genuinely curious <3

okay let's break it down. i'm an engineer, so i'm going to come at you from a perspective that may be different than someone else's.

i don't hate ai in every aspect. in theory, there are a lot of instances where, in fact, ai can help us do things a lot better without. here's a few examples:

ai detecting cancer

ai sorting recycling

some practical housekeeping that gemini (google ai) can do

all of the above examples are ways in which ai works with humans to do things in parallel with us. it's not overstepping--it's sorting, using pixels at a micro-level to detect abnormalities that we as humans can not, fixing a list. these are all really small, helpful ways that ai can work with us.

everything else about ai works against us. in general, ai is a huge consumer of natural resources. every prompt that you put into character.ai, chatgpt? this wastes water + energy. it's not free. a machine somewhere in the world has to swallow your prompt, call on a model to feed data into it and process more data, and then has to generate an answer for you all in a relatively short amount of time.

that is crazy expensive. someone is paying for that, and if it isn't you with your own money, it's the strain on the power grid, the water that cools the computers, the A/C that cools the data centers. and you aren't the only person using ai. chatgpt alone gets millions of users every single day, with probably thousands of prompts per second, so multiply your personal consumption by millions, and you can start to see how the picture is becoming overwhelming.

that is energy consumption alone. we haven't even talked about how problematic ai is ethically. there is currently no regulation in the united states about how ai should be developed, deployed, or used.

what does this mean for you?

it means that anything you post online is subject to data mining by an ai model (because why would they need to ask if there's no laws to stop them? wtf does it matter what it means to you to some idiot software engineer in the back room of an office making 3x your salary?). oh, that little fic you posted to wattpad that got a lot of attention? well now it's being used to teach ai how to write. oh, that sketch you made using adobe that you want to sell? adobe didn't tell you that anything you save to the cloud is now subject to being used for their ai models, so now your art is being replicated to generate ai images in photoshop, without crediting you (they have since said they don't do this...but privacy policies were never made to be human-readable, and i can't imagine they are the only company to sneakily try this). oh, your apartment just installed a new system that will use facial recognition to let their residents inside? oh, they didn't train their model with anyone but white people, so now all the black people living in that apartment building can't get into their homes. oh, you want to apply for a new job? the ai model that scans resumes learned from historical data that more men work that role than women (so the model basically thinks men are better than women), so now your resume is getting thrown out because you're a woman.

ai learns from data. and data is flawed. data is human. and as humans, we are racist, homophobic, misogynistic, transphobic, divided. so the ai models we train will learn from this. ai learns from people's creative works--their personal and artistic property. and now it's scrambling them all up to spit out generated images and written works that no one would ever want to read (because it's no longer a labor of love), and they're using that to make money. they're profiting off of people, and there's no one to stop them. they're also using generated images as marketing tools, to trick idiots on facebook, to make it so hard to be media literate that we have to question every single thing we see because now we don't know what's real and what's not.

the problem with ai is that it's doing more harm than good. and we as a society aren't doing our due diligence to understand the unintended consequences of it all. we aren't angry enough. we're too scared of stifling innovation that we're letting it regulate itself (aka letting companies decide), which has never been a good idea. we see it do one cool thing, and somehow that makes up for all the rest of the bullshit?

[maxlarens]

ok so i had an idea for the rb photographer fic if you're up for it

first of all im like in love w ur fics i love em all

and nextly, listen to this..

charles isn't single but manwhore carlos probably is?

he flirts w our photographer and makes max jealous?? roped in by danny ofc to get them together?? what do you think??

anyway have a great day! <33333

UM OKAY THANK YOU! max x rbphotographer!reader are literally everything to me and i am SOO thrilled to have gotten this request. very in character for daniel to get everyone involved in scheming even tho max has told him not to😭 love it so much😇😇 hope u enjoy and i am SOOOO sorry this took so long xx

MV: tonight (i wish i was your boy)

pairing(s): max verstappen x redbull photographer!reader

word count: 1.9k+

Max likes to think he’s not a jealous person.

Max likes to think that— but it doesn’t mean it’s true. Daniel would and has, argued that Max is an abnormally jealous person. In the sense that Max doesn’t like to share. Doesn’t like other people playing with his toys. Not that he thinks of you (or Daniel) as his toy— that’s absurd. He’s a jealous person, not some territorial asshole with an anger problem. (Okay, sometimes he has an anger problem. He’s been working on it. It hardly crops up anymore, but he’s not territorial).

He is, again, bad at sharing, and also uniquely used to getting what he wants.

It’s not because he’s got a crush on you. Despite what Daniel would like to assume. It’s just that you’re meant to be his friend. You’re here with him, because of him. He’s meant to be able to hover around you all night, getting carried away as he tries to explain something meaningless while you give him that half-grin that you don’t even realise you’re doing most of the time. He’s the one who’s supposed to be putting his hand on your back, and leaning in to ask if you’d like another drink—

Not Carlos.

Definitely not Carlos.

(Well, at least it’s not Charles).

Instead, Max is standing next to an overeager Lando at the DJ deck, gripping his drink so hard that he’s mildly concerned the glass will shatter to pieces in his hand. Actually, that’s not such a bad idea to get your attention. Maybe if that happens you’ll stop looking at Carlos Sainz Jr with big googly eyes and you’ll come nurse his hand or whatever it is you’re supposed to do in pathetic little fantasies like the one he’s entertaining. You’re not really the nursing type though, you’re more prone to start freaking out and calling everyone on the Red Bull team to tell them that Max has irreparably damaged his hand.

Max stops entertaining that particular fantasy.

Daniel’s not here, he’s gone home to Australia for a few weeks and skipped out on this weird little grid (+ friends) party that Charles is throwing. This is good and this is bad for Max. On one hand Daniel is not here to rib him about his half-admitted crush on you, on the other hand Daniel is not here to distract him from his half-admitted crush on you. There’s Lando of course, who can be just as good in the distraction department, but it’s not quite the same. 

Lando doesn’t quite know about the raging crush, which is probably for the better. He’s been around when Lando’s tried to set up Oscar before and that was an absolute unmitigated disaster.

“Hey man,” speaking of Oscar, “You good?”

Max frowns and then half turns to look at Oscar who’s now hovering next to Lando with a fruity little drink in hand, “Yeah mate,” he answers, confused.

Oscar gets this weird little micro expression on his face that Max wouldn’t usually take any note of— his forehead creases, he raises a disbelieving eyebrow— but the skepticism grates at Max a little, leaves him wondering.

“Why?”, he caves.

Oscar shakes his head, shrugs, “You're kind of staring down Carlos."

Max's mouth falls open, just a little. He is not. His eyes flit to Lando unconsciously for confirmation before he has a chance to defend himself against what are frankly untrue allegations from Oscar. But Lando is already shrugging, making a face that says he has been.

Fuck. Max frowns. And doesn't say anything.

Better to stay quiet and look moody than to admit anything to these two. Total menaces. Well, no that's Lando. Oscar might be helpful. Still, Max isn't going to admit anything. Daniel and apparently Charles knowing about it is more than enough.

Their hushed conversation behind him fades into the background as Max turns again to look at you and Carlos— and alright he gets it now. There's definitely a different kind of set to his jaw, a scowl on his lips as he watches Carlos put his hand on your shoulder.

There is something in his gut. Something sick. The feeling he gets when he's on track and the car starts sliding, the wheels locking up. When hears the va-rum of a car go by, sees something that isn't wide open space in front of him. Something like panic starts to climb up his throat. He knows he shouldn't be this bothered by you and another person, but he can't get rid of this voice in the back of his head that says you might like Carlos more than him. That you might stop hanging around Max, texting him at all hours of the day with photos of your food or random questions, waiting for him in the garage after sessions and not just because you've got to take pictures of him, and going out for food on 'friend dates' as you've taken to calling them.

If you and Carlos... okay no, Max doesn't even want to think about it.

He starts walking over, trying to smooth his face into something less intimidating as he goes. He turns it into a strained, mouth-closed smile that doesn't reach his eyes. He directs it at Carlos.

There's a glint in Carlos' eyes that Max doesn't like the look of.

"Hi Max," he says, flashing his white teeth, he gestures to you, "I was just getting to know your lovely friend here."

Alright. Max understands instantly. This has Daniel's name written all fucking over it. Max's fake smile falls, turning into a flat look that he levels at Carlos. He's trying not to scowl because he doesn't want you to catch on to anything, but it's not easy. His phone is burning a hole in his pocket, he doesn't care if it's the middle of the night in Australia right now, he's itching to call Danny and ask him what the fuck he is thinking pulling something like this from 14,000 kilometers away?

"Mm," Max hums, unimpressed, unable to fake pleasantries even for your sake, "Great."

You look at him, eyebrows raised a little incredulously at his tone. There's slight amusement there too, he thinks, as he returns your look. You squint a little, as if to say, don't give me that look, Max Verstappen. He can feel himself smiling, the corner of his mouth lifting with ease even though the object of his anger still has his stupid hand on your shoulder.

He can't help himself when he reaches for your elbow, asks, "D'you wanna get a drink?"

You bite down on the edge of your smile, "Sure, Maxie."

You turn and say something to Carlos that he doesn't listen to. Partly because he doesn't care, partly because the sound of you saying Maxie is playing on a loop in his head, like it always does whenever you use the nickname. Which is more often than not. God, he loves it. Maxie Maxie Maxie. It sounds so syrupy sweet coming from your mouth. Smothered in affection. You're the only person, bar his mum and sister that he lets use it. Daniel sometimes, but Daniel would say it regardless, the menace that he is.

"Max," you say, hand on his bicep, thumb smoothing back and forth there, "Where'd you go?"

Max blinks. Carlos is gone now.

"Hm, no, nowhere," you frown, so he says, "Just a bit tired."

This seems to satisfy you. You slip an arm into the crook of his, linking them together as you tug him to the bar. You order him a G&T and yourself a glass of wine before the two of you head out onto the balcony where it's far quieter. Less people, less chatter. Max prefers it like this, with no one there to get in the way of your attention on him, his on you. He thinks you prefer it too.

He hopes you do at least.

You sip your wine, Max’s eyes linger on the line of your neck, the way your fingers curl around the glass, how your eyes glitter in the early afternoon sun.

“What was that earlier?”, you gesture inside, raising your eyebrows again, “With Carlos?”

Max laughs nervously without meaning to, “Uh, what do you mean?”

The ‘something sick’ is back in his gut again. He hopes you buy his nonchalance, but doesn’t feel confident you will. You know him too well. That’s his fault.

You sigh, “I mean the dick measuring contest, Maxie.”

Maxie. Maxie.

Then he finally registers your words around the loop of your voice in his head, he guffaws, almost choking on his drink, “The dick measuring contest!?”

“Yes,” you hiss, leaning forward on your stool, “Yes, Max. I’m not an idiot, you were getting territorial.”

Max blinks. Max feels red creeping up his neck. Max feels butterflies and maybe a chainsaw in his stomach.

“Wha—”, he tries again, “I—”

His mouth doesn’t appear to be working. Maybe because he’s not sure what on earth he’s supposed to say. What do you even mean? Are you trying to say that you know he was jealous of Carlos? That you know he has feelings for you? Or are you just referencing the fact that he’s weirdly territorial of his friends sometimes? What is he supposed to say in response to any of it? He can’t figure it out for the life of him.

Then you’re blushing you’re blushing and you’re saying, “You don’t have to worry, Max. You’re my favourite person here.”

Okay, alright, what the fuck does that mean? God. Max hates this. If you were any other girl he’d have asked you out literally years ago. But because you’re you and you’re his best friend besides Daniel, he can’t ask you out. He has to smother his feelings into something platonic because he cannot bear the idea of losing you.

Despite his better judgment telling him not to, Max asks, “Really?”

You hum, “Really, really.”

It happens in slow motion, it must. Or at least that’s how Max replays it in his head every night before he goes to sleep. You reach forward and put your hand over his, fingers on his wrist, thumb drawing a pattern on his upturned palm.

Then you say, in a way that he can’t figure out for the life of him, “Love you, Maxie.”

Chills run down the length of his spine, that chainsaw starts up again in his stomach. Love you, Maxie. He feels sick— like he might word vomit the entirety of his feelings for you right there and then. Instead, he forces himself to smile. Closed-mouth, eyes crinkled.

“Mm, yeah, love you,” he says back, his voice cracking as he tries to make it sound normal and platonic and not wracked with nerves.

You smile, warm, beaming and showing your teeth, like he’s made your day infinitely better by just saying those words. As if you’ve not just made his stomach churn and his heart take leaps and bounds in his chest. As if he’s not going to think about the way you’d said it every second of every day. As if he won’t dream of you saying it in every other context imaginable.

You pat his hand twice, then pull it back to take hold of your drink again. Smiling as if you’ve not ruined him for anyone else for good.

[leikeliscomet]

A lot of you make statements pathologising or demonising lack of sex as physically, mentally or socially abnormal then slap 'asexuality is valid' & 'oh but I'm not talking about asexuals I'm talking about NORMAL people' at the end like it does something. It doesn't.

Any and every piece of rhetoric that treats human sexlessness as a lesser form of humanity throws ace people under the bus, even sex favourable aces. Whilst attraction =/= action a lot of aces lack of sex correlates with their identity and it puts the onus on sex favourable aces to be 'one of the good ones' and that's not real support. Plus, it implies non-asexual people are acceptable targets if they fail the sexual quota. They're not even if they're not asexual because bodily autonomy isn't an exclusive pass - it's for everyone.

So yeah, everytime you make them posts about the human brain being programmed for sex or how to be #really queer means to be a sexual being, or how being happy and healthy hinges on being horny or giggle about how everyone needs to have more sex to fix this societal problem and political problem or how real art needs to be horny or whatever then yeah, you might get a posse of those 'annoying' asexuals in your mentions. If anything, all this response shows is that you're not ready to accept your understanding of sexual attraction and what you've been taught it's supposed to be isn't the default, and when you come across sexuality different to it you feel then need to shut it down because it's a 'threat' to your idea of normal human sexuality. It isn't.

[tgcg]

thank u so much🙂erm sorry this isn't very "romantic" but its something ive thought abt quite a bit & thought it'd be a nice one 2 share heheh

once they start regularly sleeping together, they find out they have like rlly fascinatingly clashing sleeping habits, but they end up perfectly balancing out for a bunch of reasons. it comes down to them finding each other's presence incredibly comforting.

dave sleeps straight and silent like a plank of wood, karkat sleeps crumpled up like an animal and is prone 2 snoring. he drools a bunch too, because that's just part of having an overbite. and isn't a problem when you sleep in slime, which is his defense when it's brought up.

the snoring doesn't bother dave, in fact he finds the sound soothing. he doesnt snore really loud, it’s kind of gentle and rumbly. and the way he still looks grumpy even when he's sleeping is pretty endearing, so sometimes dave will just watch him snooze for a bit. it's rhythmic and relaxing & something to focus on if he can't sleep.

karkat has his own dedicated pillowcases that are extra-thick for the drooling & they gotta be washed nightly. typically dave will switch the cases for him in passing.

sleeping in a bed is also one of the rare times where someone would get to see karkat in something that isn't long pants and a long-sleeve shirt, especially in warmer weather, because karkat is abnormally committed to wearing the same outfit out every day. so it's a very rare privilege and dave likes to see him in short sleeves.

it actually ends up working really well for both of them even though they're polar opposites, because dave finds a lot of comfort in the steady quiet noise, and karkat is sensitive to sound so the fact dave is a quiet sleeper is good for him too. & they both find having each other there helps against sleeping alone drastically. makes it easier to remember they’re in a safe space.

ofc karkat does the same thing to dave, i.e. watching him sleep sometimes. he never really gets over how nice dave's eyes look even when they're closed. typically though watching dave sleep ends up making him snort because dave will just faceplant the pillow *hard* and karkat wouldn't even believe he's capable of breathing in that position if he couldn't see his lungs expanding in real time.

they both have a lot of trouble sleeping. while dave tends to have trouble *falling* asleep in particular, karkat tends to have more trouble *staying* asleep. once dave is out he's typically OUT on a good night, and although karkat gets to sleep faster than him he's more likely to wake up in the middle of the night. this works out great, because if dave's face is ever visible it's because he was watching karkat until he dozed off -- and that means karkat gets to watch *dave* sleep til he can get back to sleep himself. so they feed into each other sleeping better, if that makes sense.

& they both suck at getting up in the morning.godbless

[alienzil]

DP x DC Prompt/notion # 4

So Danny has the classic reveal gone bad scenario and the Fentons try to capture him to "tear him apart molecule by molecule".

Danny escapes into the ghost zone with the help of Sam, Tucker and Jazz but he's in bad shape.

What Danny had never been told is that newly formed ghosts like himself are considered babies until they're at least a century old. Baby ghosts generally either have parents if they're born in the realms or get adoptive parents shortly after forming and are highly dependent on their guardians until their core is fully matured. Every ghost can sense a baby and has the instinctual urge to protect them (especially if they haven't been adopted yet). Every baby ghost has the instinctual urge to find a compatible parent or parents. A baby won't imprint on just anyone and will hide or run from most ghosts until they find one that they can imprint on. The majority of the ghosts that have met Danny never knew he was a baby, both because he already had his living parents and his emotional connection with them was close enough to satisfy his ghostly need for a parental bond and because, with his abnormally high power level, it never would have occurred to them to think he might be an infant. A newborn ancient is exceptionally rare and your average denizen of the realms will have never seen one. Basically, to your average ghost, Danny feels like he's eons old and any hint of "baby" they get from him mostly just ticks them off because they think he's mocking them and pretending to be less powerful than they know he is. The other ancients knew of course, but they also knew that Danny's human guardians were satisfying his needs for now and most assumed he would be adopted once they passed. Half a century or so isn't very long to wait after all and the new baby is half human so it's probably best to let these things happen naturally.

Knowing none of this, when Jack and Maddie rejected Danny it severed their connection and the backlash of losing that bond caused his Phantom self to naturally revert to a smaller form that more closely matched his actual age as a ghost. Still in shock and operating almost entirely on instinct and emotion, Danny started to search the Realms for what he had lost. He needed to find his parents.

*****

Meanwhile, John Constantine had a problem with an upstart cult that had summoned an interdimensional...something. He really didn't care. Whatever it was, was behind a barrier they'd thrown up that he couldn't breach. He'd be perfectly willing to leave them to their own mess except their whole damn town was behind the barrier so now it was his problem to fix.

Interdimensional problems call for interdimensional solutions so he'd called Bob. Bob wasn't really his name (nor was he really a he) but he hadn't objected to the moniker or the pronouns John had given him so Bob it was. Bob was an eldritch nightmare of a creature who kept the bulk of his true form politely out of this dimension and only just barely inched in for a quick visit every 20 years or so. Constantine had worked with him before, he was a pretty nice bloke for an unknowable monstrosity.

Bob fed on energy and his usual diet consisted largely of the background energy of the cosmos but he liked a special treat now and then (who doesn't?). So John made a deal with him. Bob took care of his little cult problem and John spent a very... ahem... "energetic" evening with Bob in exchange. Not really a hardship on John's part, Bob wanted more energy, not less, and knew a thing or two about how to get it.

*****

The creature known as Bob was preparing to withdraw the small portion of his presence that was currently on Earth with the human called John Constantine when another part of him noticed something. Bob smiled to himself (as much as Bob could smile that is). What a wonderful coincidence that the Constantine human's energy would be so perfectly matched to this other beings and that Bob was here at the exact right moment to assist with their meeting!

"I thank you again for sharing your energy John Constantine. It was delicious as always."

"Don't mention it mate. Look me up next you're in town and feeling a bit peckish. Always happy to oblige." John replied with a smirk.

"I will heed your words John Constantine and seek your presence upon my return. As a token of my affection for you, a small gift that you might enjoy until we meet again." Bob briefly opened a portal between the Infinite Realms and the House of Mystery as he left. He hoped his human friend would enjoy the gift. Bob had never spawned himself but he'd heard parenthood was one of life's great joys.

"Gift?" John had just enough time to say as he was hit in the face by a chirping, wriggling, excited creature.

"Oi!" John stumbled back a step as he reached up to try and pry the thing off his face. He managed to grab ahold of the damn beast and held it out at an arms length to get a look at it. Deprived of his face, it wrapped its body tightly around his arm and nuzzled its head into the palm of his hand.

John stared at the creature. It was the roughly the length of his arm, mostly black with white markings and white floating hair on a human shaped head and face, complete with glowing green eyes. It was vaguely snake shaped...or... one might say...tentacle shaped...

John gulped and pictured Bob. Bob's appearance, or what little bit of his appearance John was able to perceive, was a writhing mass of black tentacles that glowed a bright, luminous green.

So, the "gift" Bob had left him mostly had Bob's coloring and was kinda Bob shaped. Except it had small human arms and hands and a tiny mostly human head and face and... was that his nose?!

"Oh bollocks, I'm a dad!"

[livingthedragonlife]

this is an extremely petty reason to do an analysis but i hate when people call laios a himbo, not only because it really reads as infantalization but also because it's just straight up not true.

the qualities of a himbo require you to be stupid, and that simply is not true in laios' case. for a simple example, he was able to recognize pretty much instantly that the living armors were moving in an abnormal way (coming right for them, instead of just attacking as they approach), and noticed when the Boss Armor (?) protected the shield instead of using it as a defense. he recognized the egg sac on the back, was able to exploit the instinct to protect it, and save the rest of the party with that knowledge right away.

laios is the one who's able to determine which illusions are the fakes, all by himself, with nothing but his knowledge of his party members and careful observation. laios figured out why the changeling spores act the way they do, based on nothing but observation and experience once again. laios is the one who talks marcille down from her dungeon lord rampage. laios is the one who, despite succumbing to the demon's influence himself, PLANNED FOR THAT TO HAPPEN, and gave himself a loophole that saved the entire fucking world. these are just the first things i can think of off the top of my head, if i really went back through the story, i'm positive there would be more examples of laios being knowledgeable and using that knowledge intelligently.

but let's back up. laios is called an idiot by many other characters in the story. why might that be?

well it's usually for: saying something socially inappropriate or blunt, talking about monsters (his special interest) too enthusiastically, not relating to the people around him, or not being able to understand social cues or read a room. he's even called "creepy" or "crazy" in multiple instances. when chilchuck first hears about how much laios wants to eat monsters, he calls him a psychopath. that's in the very first chapter.

the characters who call laios stupid and crazy are calling him that almost exclusively after he behaves "too autistically" around them. perhaps we are giving too much credence to the characters calling him a dumbass and should instead do some critical thinking to determine if it's true. because most of the time, they're wrong! go count the times laios is called stupid for having ideas that ultimately work.

that's not to say laios isn't funny! he's a silly guy! he straight up barks like a dog to solve problems. dungeon meshi is a comedy, so it would be kind of weird if he wasn't, but lack of intelligence is never the punchline. the fact that barking like a dog WORKS is what's funny, not that he was "stupid" to think of it in the first place.

laios is goofy. he makes silly mistakes. but that doesn't mean he's brainless. laios is not a himbo.

[honeyhonest]

warning for domesticity1!!!

okay now get this. you wake up one morning and Grim is a human.

Not a teenager, at this teenage boy school. Grim is like, four years old at most. Okay, sure, he acts, and talks, and thinks like a very small child, but that was when he was a fucking cat! He poops outside and licks himself when he thinks you aren't looking!

So now you have this fucking, tiny human child in your house. Okay. And you have no idea why he is suddenly a little baby. Malleus and Vil both have a look at him and can't detect any abnormal magic. No potions, no poisons, no curses, no hexes, no spells, no blot.

You are not cut out for single parenthood. If you're going down, then someone is going down with you.

Obviously the first and second years are not equipped to be a step-father, even if platonically. The third years, too. If you even look in Leona's general direction he'll pick you up by the scruff of your neck and dropkick you off the island.

But that's no problem! You're a grown-up, there are other grown-ups here, someone has to help!

Your first pick is obvious. Lilia has the most experience, and is the most helpful. He's even offered to babysit cat-Grim before!

And he's flattered, but... no. Babysitting is quite different from raising a child, he just doesn't have the time or energy for that anymore. He has his family, and throwing another kid (+ partner?) into the pot might upset his boys, especially since Malleus'... uh, episode wasn't that long ago.

Then there's Trein. Raised two daughters on his own, years of teaching experience, reputable and reliable and- no. No, absolutely not. He's a girl dad through and through, and he's had ENOUGH of raising the NRC boys to be somewhat respectable young men. Again, he must consider his daughter's reactions to randomly adopting a baby with one of his coworkers-slash-students. And poor Lucius... so, he hands you a wad of thaumarks and tells you exactly what to buy.

Sam jokes about being a cool uncle but isn't much help otherwise. He does give you a slight discount on the diapers, though (Grim is not potty-trained).

Vargas isn't really good with the whole "baby" thing, so even if he did want to help, you'd be stuck doing most of the work anyhow.

Crewel bursts into maniacal laughter and slams his door in your face.

You're at a loss.

While everyone had offered something- their advice, their condolences, and their thaumarks- none had offered to help. How are you supposed to raise a whole BABY on your own?? Let alone one that breathes fire!!!

You can't just abandon him. He's your responsibility, and you have an obligation to...

...Oh, right.

No person, not the staff, nor your friends, had the obligation to help you.

Except for one.

All Crowley says when you throw his door open and drop a thumb-sucking Grim (not that he's that young, he's just enjoying having opposable thumbs for the first time) on his desk, is, "Well... this is quite the predicament you have, isn't it?"

"You mean the predicament WE have,"

He pales, which technically shouldn't be possible, considering the nearly blue shade of his skin.

"Now, let's not be rash, Prefect-"

"Either fix him or help me. We're your responsibility, Headmage,"

He curses under his breath (probably something like "goodness me!") and stands from his seat.

Crowley mumbles something about hatchlings being less difficult while he tries to get Grim's shoes on his kicking feet. The Headmage keeps looking at you, either for help or approval, and you have to remind him that you don't know what you're doing, either. It's not like you gave birth to this thing, anyway.

Baby Grim is also a biter. Every ten minutes you can hear Crowley yelling for you because he's got metal in his mouth again. You haven't had a moment alone in, what, a week?

Potty training is even worse than it sounds, if only because Grim refuses to do anything you ask of him. He's somehow more stubborn as a child than he was as a cat. He won't eat anything but sweets and tuna sandwiches, which you and Crowley are both getting very, very sick of.

There are some upsides to it, though. Ramshackle is cleaner than ever, since Crowley got tired of having to pry glass and peeling wallpaper out of Grim's mouth. Grim has better control of his magic now, and he's less clumsy with thumbs. The Headmage even went out of his way to buy a nicer, bigger bed for the three of you, since he was jealous that you and Grim got to have the bed and he was resigned to the couches in the guest room when he stayed the night.

Crowley is, weirdly, not awful at this. He insists on making the food and feeding Grim (it's a bird thing) and cleans him, too. Even when it's spit-up because Grim can't seem to resist testing the limits of his new stomach. But the Headmage also sees that you're sleeping enough, studying enough, and eating enough, too. And when you're running his errands under this new pretense, it feels more domestic than professional.

Everyone on campus thinks you're absolutely demented btw.

One day you'll get too lost in the sauce and Crowley will tenderly say "Let's have another one" and you'll have to remind him that Grim is a fucking cat.

[fatliberation]

Sorry for leaving this in your inbox, but I need to vent and ask for advice in a place where people won't mock me. What do you do when sex is super difficult because of your fat? I've recently gotten into my first relationship and. I thought I had a handle on my internalized fatphobia and self hate but this has made it worse than ever. We can't have satisfying penetrative sex (we've tried all the tips and workarounds. Nothing works. I'm larger than most of the FA community.), and recieving oral sex is also difficult for me. I also get tired and sweaty extremely quickly if I have to like hold up myself on mostly my arms or something, so he has to do most of the work. So sex is just. Mostly the one that works on repeat, and we don't have it very often because it isn't that fun for either of us, and it also makes me cry afterwards sometimes because of how disappointing it is & me beating myself up over it.

I'm genuinely worried my boyfriend is going to leave me for this. He's clearly very frustrated with the situation, even though he tries to be nice about it most of the time. Earlier today I tried to like be flirty and hint at stuff and he just. got a bit sad. and then said that clearly neither of us enjoy the sex we're having and that he has a lot of trouble staying hard.and that he doesn't see the point when we're both forcing it for no reason. I think he's going to break up with me soon. His ex is way lighter than me, so he's probably comparing the normal sex he had with her with whatever the fuck this abnormal shitshow is :/

All the work I've done on myself to be happy with being fat (including working up the courage to date, what a mistake that was lmao) is all gone. This has ruined my self-esteem so much. I feel like one of those fatphobic jokes but a person.

first and foremost, please try your best to remember this: your body is not the problem. one more time. your body is not the problem. I'm so very sorry you're concerned that your boyfriend would leave you over this. it sounds like he has a lot of preconceived ideas about how sex is supposed to go. I promise you that it doesn't have to be this way. if this is something that could really end the relationship, know that this person is not compatible or open to exploring your needs, rather than your needs being "too difficult." I promise it's him, not you. I know folks who are 600+ pounds who have excellent sex lives and partners who satisfy them and enjoy satisfying them. when someone starts treating your pleasure like a chore, that's just shitty. I know how much it hurts. it also does damage to your own openness to pleasure. when you're caught up in feeling like sex/your body is something that needs to be "fixed," nothing is going to feel sexy, because all that pressure puts stress on and takes you out of the mental state where you're able to experience pleasure. does that make sense? so many couples get stuck in this cycle.

there are so many ways to engage in pleasure without penetration or orgasm. there's a lot that goes into foreplay, setting a mood, making your partner feel appreciated and attractive. words and touch play a huge part in this. something as simple as exploring each other's bodies, not with the intention of reaching climax, but simply to be vulnerable and engage each others' senses. have your partner give you a massage. play with your hair. tickle your back with a feather. shower together. kiss you. compliment you. if either of you are into any kinks or dirty talk, that could be a great way to engage each other sexually without the pressure of "achieving" a goal. the goal here is just to feel good, close, and connected. societal messaging about sex has placed so much importance on orgasm instead of pleasure - when taking the time and space to relax and receive attention, is key.

feel free to check out my other posts on fat sex ed, there's lots of assistive toys that can make pleasure more accessible, but I think that should be a tool for later, since the biggest issue here is the pressure to perform. know that pleasurable sex can exist for you! but for now, I would recommend taking a break from sex altogether since it is not pleasurable for you right now. because pleasure is the whole point. forcing it is only going to feel worse. you do not owe it to your boyfriend, especially if it doesn't feel good and is taking an emotional toll. I hope you both are able to take a step back, reassess and communicate, and are able to reconnect and create a safe space to explore.

I understand why you're beating yourself up over this, I've been there too. but also know that it's just another societal standard that's been internalized (and it doesn't sound like your boyfriend is helping). like you said, you've done a lot to unlearn fatphobia. there's a lot of internalized beliefs we absorb from society surrounding sex, just like body image. I promise that there is nothing wrong with you. If your boyfriend takes his frustration out on you instead of making you feel safe to express your needs, then he's not a supportive partner. you deserve someone who takes delight in your pleasure and your body. believe me, we're out there.

[dzvelinaskebiyars]

No because can we talk about team Sabbath? Not to say that they're hot and they're cool but like analyse them?

Can we talk about how they're different from others individually? How they're socially rejected as if they're fundamentally different from normals?

Firstly, Vinny Hong.

He was always discriminated for being different in every way one can be different from someone. His looks- red hair and Heterochromia which is said to be his albinism. He has been bullied for looking differently than what's beauty standard in Korea, for being different from normal people as he was convinced that he's abnormal one. He was also bullied a lot for being a poor, which sets his difference between rich or non poor people and him. He has been picked on a lot because of that and the fact that he was struggling with money affected his character a lot. We saw that society doesn't treat ppl with albinism and/or Heterochromia well, and plus poor people are often victims of bullying. On top of that, he got in troubles a lot and made himself a name "a thug" in school, which again set him apart from rest of students. He's called mad dog. Teachers can't deal with him, adults are having problems with him and etc. He's completely rejected by society. That's why he wants recognition so badly, so that he can deal with his inferiority complex.

Secondly, Hajun a.k.a Joker

Hajun is underground fighter, I think that already sets him apart from most people and most boxers (as they don't fight for underground fights) so that's one difference for you. Even his little brother hates that he's underground fighter, despite the fact that Hajun genuinely seems to like fighting just as cycling but despite that, his love for fighting isn't being accepted by his own family. He's also different from others as a character. For example, his attention span seems to be short and messy as he gets easily distracted. He's in middle of important race but he gets distracted and stops at red light when he actually doesn't have to. No one stopped in entire windbreaker at red light except Hajun. He also stopped to save the puppy during the race and came in last because of that. People were confused because what Hajun was doing was not making sense for them, that it was actually very different from what kind of players they're used to. Plus Hajun, just like Vinny, is facing money problems.

Thirdly, Wooin Yoo

Wooin was rejected by his own family but I think it's also said how people, even now, refuse to admit that he's normal. But first of all, his main issue is his family. Wooin has been trying for years to get recognition from his family, some love and acknowledgement but he never got one, in fact he got redeemed as useless, disappointment, troublemaker punk. All he honestly wanted was recognition from his family, no one else. He was locked up, yes fucking locked up, by his own father and the freedom got ripped away from his hands. I doubt he had much freedom from the beginning anyway. He got locked up for assumingly long time and even if his house was big and even if he was rich, he was extremely lonely. Now, he's seen as weird by people but I honestly think it's because he couldn't develop well due to his abusive family.

Lastly, Hyuk Kwon

We all know why Hyuk is being rejected: his style. He's pro Cyclist, he's really good and talented but unfortunately, he can be aggressive. Like his jack-knife, or how he tried to crush team ghost's member's head with his bike while telling them to die. That's what got him expelled from his previous team.

"i heard Hyuk is kicked out."

"Finally. Everyone who races against him ends up injured haha."

So it's obvious he was rejectec by his own team. If it hasn't been Wooin, he'd probably be dealing with this problem again.

Team Sabbath is being rejected by rest of the teams as well, as other crews don't welcome their style of cycling. But it's like Hummingbird and Sabbath aren't that different, they're both similar to found family but they have different morals.

[utilitycaster]

did some rereading of Daggerheart and I think a lot of the things it's being praised for are genuinely good, but also aren't particularly unique in the longform heroic fantasy/moderately flexible system sphere, and there are some things it does that are if not unique, at least notably better than 5e or what I know of Pathfinder.

I think collaborating on worldbuilding is something Age of Umbra is already correctly praised for, but this is something you can do in almost any system! This includes leaving things a little open for player improv when they succeed or fail; I think Matt tends to be a little more GM-forward than some others when he GMs in Exandria and Daggerheart may have loosened him up, but this isn't abnormal for D&D. Daggerheart makes it a little more explicit, but the degree to which you can add flavor to the world or minor details that won't interfere with a larger plot is present at least in small amounts in most games.

What I do think it does better than D&D, specifically in regards to core rules, is the following; there is a theme, which is that I think it encourages bold and decisive play, and as anyone following this blog knows, that is what I consider the good shit.

per-session abilities. I think that because D&D abilities are typically once per rest/long rest/day, some people tend to hoard them. Per-session is a very fluid concept and encourages you to actually spend those abilities when it matters. (This is not unique as a concept at all - per-session or per-arc abilities are a thing in a lot of indie games, but D&D lacks it).

resources that are gained through rolls and lost through action. As someone who can be more cautious at times, I've found a really good way to make me do something risky in games is to make it the best way to get something I need. You need to roll to get hope! You need to spend hope otherwise your slots are full and rolls with hope don't benefit you as much. I know resource tracking can be a little challenging, but honestly given that daggerheart simplifies a lot of other things (HP and distances most notably) I don't think it's too bad.

To that point, an emphasis on consequences by having a two-dimensional matrix for rolls. You can do this in D&D, and many do (success with fear or failure with hope in Daggerheart is not unlike a fail-forward ruling in D&D) but this makes it clearer to the GM and players (and decreases the GM mental load). It can take some of the sting out of a failure (if you roll with hope) as well, which I think is useful when dealing with failure-averse players.

no combat order definitely requires getting used to, but I think it allows for more natural and dynamic combat and specifically eliminates the common D&D problem of people having a really strong idea of what they want to do only to have that plan rendered irrelevant by someone else's action higher in initiative. I also like that simple actions that don't require rolls (like moving at regular speed) don't throw action back to the GM.

The character class questions to build out relationships are, rather like many safety tools, a case of "you should 100% be doing this anyway and it doesn't need to be as formalized if you know what you're doing; but I respect that you have provided examples and a framework for those who don't."

Death rules that make character death meaningful for those who want to pursue it but provide a way to prevent it for those who do not. I think character death is interesting to have as a possibility, but saying "you can either commit and make it count; you can evade it for now but not forever [specifically making the risk of taking scars increase with level is very good]; or you can leave it to chance" allows you to cover a variety of player preferences without favoring one at the expense of others.

[emilibro]

Ughhh I'm so sorry to be an ass but I see so much popular art on tumblr and around the internet that really woobifies both Laios and Kabru and their relationship, especially when they're together.... You guys are aware that Laios eats monsters the way people would like. Eat animals, right? He's not crazy or stupid or sadistic or anything. He has a special interest and it's monsters.

Furthermore, his past having himself and his sister be shunned for their interests in the abnormal made him develop a distaste for humanity. Laios has just thought monsters were way cooler since he was a kid, and Falin really looked up for him for his dedication to his interests and personal code of moral ethics. He never loved his sister less for her abilities, he admired her for what made her different. Because he's fucking awesome and they're autistic as hell.... they both went through so damn much. Laios never fit into the military, into his hometown, he barely fit into most groups of adventurers since he met Marcille, chilchuck, and company, and two of the members of that original party didn't care enough to join him. His feeling of worthlessness to his friends in the beginning of the story are enough to make him imagine a whole scenario in between major chapters where he was the one who was eaten.. and he thought nobody except Falin would care enough to save him.

Point being Laios has a much richer character that goes ALONGSIDE his special interest in monsters. Which honestly is more comparable to, like. A fucking biologist. Not a monsterfucker, not a cannibal, none of that shit. Monsterfuckers are cool as a monsterfucker but he's not one.. he's more like a furry man.... And he's not stupid he's just. Autistic. Why are we making autistic characters with a silly side seem stupid? Everyone has dumb moments sure but like.. he's really smart guys... there's a reason he's such a good leader outside of his ability to listen to his party members. Don't fall for the mischaracterization of Laios that his party members originally set for him before major important arcs guys...

And Kabru. Oh my God. Kabru. Kabru is also autistic but for humans, social interactions and culture... he's a nerd for politics and the humanities, and I'll avoid saying much more to avoid spoilers for non-manga readers but you'll see more of that as time passes. But he's not the type to be easily flustered. Laios only gets to him, not even because he's that difficult to read, but because he catches him off guard. He's an interesting critter, bro. And Kabru definitely sees that. It takes time to respect that, but within a period of time he learns to see him as a relatively competent adventurer and places a lot of faith from him. On some level, this guy has learned to understand this very interesting autistic guy who is forward with his feelings that a very autistic Kabru hasn't learned to understand. That's what makes their relationship so cool, man. He's not cold in reality (though people may perceive him that way due to backstory motivations and attitude within the dungeon), but he's a lot more serious than this... c'mon guys.. let's be a little real here please.... at this point I barely like Labru anymore because they've been so like. Babied. Woobified. Whatever the word is man. I'm starting to appreciate their friendship more as a friendship now because I just think the beautiful qualities I saw in their romance have been sort of overlooked or misinterpreted. Nowadays I just think their platonic relationship is beautiful. Sighs.

Farcille is awesome though and these girls are awesome slay

-

Edit: hey guys, I wanna address a couple of things here! For one, this isn't intended to be ship hate. Labru is a perfectly valid ship - rather, I'm just not a fan of how deep the mischaracterization of both characters runs, and how it results in the subsequent babying of their relationship. While it's driven me personally away from the romance a bit, I have no problem with the ship itself. Additionally, Farcille has its own issues with woobification that could use some addressing, I just haven't had to see as much mischaracterization on my feeds. Maybe in a future post I'll address some of my personal peeves with many people's characterization of Farcille, ESPECIALLY Falin.

[dontbesoweirdkira]

Hi! I really enjoyed your Yandere insomniac Peter and Harry headcanons! I was wondering if you could do more headcanons for them with a s/o with a chronic illness maybe? There is very little insomniac content out here T-T

A/N: I actually was going to write something like this. I hope you enjoy and please let me know if I got anything wrong. I tried to keep the chronic illness open enough so everyone can read this despite their specific diagnosis. Thank you for requesting.

Warnings: Yandere themes, mentions of brief infantilization and ableism, forced medication

I think in this scenario, Harry would be a lot more intense than Peter. Mainly because this hits very close to home for him. He lost his mom and almost his own life to chronic illness and he doesn't want that same fate for you.

Of course Peter would be a worry wort and very overbearing but I just feel like Harry would take it to extremes.

They both are obsessed with healing the world, but I think they have different definitions of it. Peter wants to rid the world of evil, he wants to see the good in everyone. Harry means it literally..He wants to heal all sickness in the world and he's starting with you.

Peter would be on board with this concept , anything to make his darling's life easier but if your illness isn't fatal and you are relatively okay with your life, he's not pushing treatment down your throat.

Harry doesn't really care if it's fatal or not or if you don't even care about treatment..you will be healed.

Harry is constantly in Emily-May trying to find different possible treatments and medications to help you. Like almost eighty percent of its money is going into your research. He's turned into his father where he's willing to do anything to make sure his family is healthy. He probably even gets support from his dad on this. At this point, Emily-May is like a second home. Everyone knows you and you know then, they probably have a little lounge room made just for you that's right next to their office.

Peter is more on the inventor side of things. He's constantly making new mobility aids, implementing new things to help you get around the house or town, he's even got you wearing something on your chest that monitors your vitals and alerts them of any changes or abnormalities.

Harry presents you with a new medication like every other week for you to try. He'll pretend to be understanding when you refuse but he's probably just sneak it into your food or drinks.

Dr. Curtis Conner visits you quite often, checking up on your health, reactions to medications and helping in any way he can.

On the bright side, Harry completely understands your feelings and what you're going through. He suffered through so much and always lends a listening ear. He's learned from his own experiences what someone dealing with chronic illness may need or want.

Peter is more keen on focussing on you more than being spiderman. Petty crimes and small tasks aren't his problem anymore. You come first unless he really has to save the city and you from destruction.

There are times where infantilization or unintentional ableism can occur. Often a direct result of their obsession and over-protectiveness. My sweet boys didn't mean to hurt your feelings and watching you get upset over something they said or did, makes them crumble. They are quick to apologize and make things better...but some things just aren't going to change. They both will keep trying to "help" you...even if they have to be sneaky about it.

I almost forgot, no, you aren't going out alone. In the last one they barely let their healthy S/O go out so you aren't either. New York can be so disgusting and unfriendly to those who need accessibility and the last thing they'd want is for you to get hurt or have something happen when they aren't there to get you to safety.

Neither are ashamed of you, even on your worst days, they'd proudly show you off. Their Instagrams are full of pictures of the three of you hanging out in bed, at parks or at the doctors, the caption is always the kindest thing. Anyone who has anything discouraging to say will see the ugly side of them. Spider-man might leave them hanging upside down from a light pole

So many of your days are spent in their arms and basking in their protection while you ride out your symptoms. They shower you with love and affection. It's so nice to be able to focus on the warmth of their loving words than to be alone while you're hurting.

Your boyfriends mean very well, they aren't trying to change you because of your illness but they just want to make sure the person who they love so dearly is healthy. Watching you cry out in pain, lose sleep and barely being able to move at times, hurts them. They have the money, resources and intelligence to help you..please let them.

[excalculus]

I saw some mentions of rabies going around again and have no clue what's set it off this time, but given recent scientific developments I want to revisit the idea of curing symptomatic rabies.

First things first: there is still no practical way to do this. The famous Milwaukee Protocol fails far more frequently than it succeeds, and even the successes are not making it out in anything like a normal state. It's been argued that it should no longer be considered a valid treatment [1] due to these issues; any continued use is because there's literally nothing else on the table.

However. There are now two separate studies showing it's possible to cure rabies in mice after the onset of symptoms. The lengths you have to go to in order to pull this off are drastic, to put it mildly, and couldn't really be adapted to humans even if you wanted to. But proof of concept is now on the board.

long post under the cut, warnings for animal experimentation and animal death. full bibliography at the end and first mention of each source links to paper.

Quick recap - rabies is a viral disease of mammals usually transmitted through the saliva of an infected animal. From a contaminated bite wound, it propagates slowly for anywhere from days to months until it reaches the central nervous system (CNS). Post-exposure vaccination can head it off during this phase, but once it reaches the CNS and neurological symptoms appear it's game over. There will typically be a prodromal phase where the animal doesn't act right - out at the wrong time of day, disoriented, abnormally friendly, etc. This will then progress to the furious (stereotypical "mad dog" disease) and/or paralytic phases, with death eventually caused by either seizures or paralysis of the muscles needed for breathing.

That's the course we're familiar with in larger animals. Mice, though, are fragile little creatures with fast metabolisms.

In the first study's rabies infection model, lab mice show rabies virus in the spinal cord by day 4 after infection and in the brain by day 5. Weight loss and slower movement start by day 7, paralysis starting from the hind limbs from day 8 on, and if not euthanized first they're dead by day 10-13. [2]

This study (fittingly conducted at the Institut Pasteur) had two human monoclonal antibodies, and wanted to see if there was any possibility they could be used to cure rabies after what we think of as the point of no return.

Injecting the antibodies into muscle saved some mice if done at days 2 or 4, and none if done later, even at high doses of 20 milligrams per kilogram of body weight of each. Conclusion: targeting the virus out in the rest of the body is no use if it's already replicating in the CNS.

Getting a drug past the blood-brain barrier is, to use a highly technical term, really fucking hard. It's the sort of problem that even the best-funded labs and biggest companies in the world routinely fail at. And that's for small molecule drugs, which are puny compared to antibodies.

But this isn't drug development for a clinical trial. This is a very, very early proof-of-concept attempt, which means you're willing to ignore practicality to see if this idea is even remotely workable. So you can do things like brute force the issue by cutting through the skull to implant a microinfusion pump, which lets you deliver the antibodies directly into the normally-protected space around the brain. Combine this with the normal injections, and you can treat both the CNS and the rest of the body at the same time. Here's a survival graph of treated mice. X axis is days, Y axis is percentage of mice in that group still alive.

Figure 2A from reference 2, accessed February 2024

The fact that the blue, green, and purple lines did anything other than sink horribly to zero is unheard of. When the combination treatment was started at day 6, 100% of the mice survived. Started at day 7 (prodromal phase), 5 out of 9 mice recovered and survived. Started at day 8 (solidly symptomatic, paralysis already starting to set in), 5 of 15 mice recovered and survived. And when they say "survived", they kept these mice all the way to day 100 to make sure. Some of them had permanent minor paralysis but largely they were back to being normal mice doing normal mouse things. So, success, but by pretty extreme means.

Enter the second paper [3]. This was a different approach using a single human monoclonal antibody against Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV - closely related to rabies, similar symptoms in humans) to try for a cure without needing to deliver treatments directly into the CNS. They also made a luminescent version of ABLV that let them directly image viral activity, so they could see both where the virus was replicating and how much there was in a live mouse.

Figure 1 from reference 3, accessed February 2024

Mice infected with ABLV start showing symptoms around day 8. You can see in the figure that at day 3 there's viral replication in the foot at the site of infection, which has shifted into the spine and brain by day 10. So what happens if you give one of these doomed mice one single injection of the antibody into the body?

Done at day 3, the virus doesn't make it to the brain until day 14, and while disease does set in after that around 30% of the mice survive. Days 5 and 7 are much more interesting. Those mice still develop symptoms at day 8, but the imaging shows the amount of virus in their spines and brains never gets anywhere near the levels seen in untreated controls, and within days it starts to decrease. Around 80% of day 5 and 100% of day 7 mice survive.

Okay, sure, you can stop another lyssavirus, but technically you did start treatment before symptoms appeared. What about symptomatic rabies?

The rodent-adapted rabies strain CVS-11 starts causing symptoms as early as day 3 after infection, and untreated mice die between days 8 and 11. The same single dose of antibody saved 67% of mice treated on day 5 and 50% of mice treated on day 7. Without making the luminescent version of the virus there's no real-time imaging of the infection, but you can still track symptoms.

Figure 2 from reference 3, accessed February 2024. CVS-11 is the name of the rodent rabies strain and F11 is the name of the antibody.

Disease score is a combination of several metrics including things like whether the mice are behaving normally and whether they show signs of paralysis. In untreated mice it goes up and up, and then they die. If one of those lines starts coming back down and continues past day 10 or so, that's a mouse that recovered. The success rate isn't as good as against ABLV, but again, this is a rabies strain specifically adapted to rodents and treatment wasn't started until it was well-established in the CNS.

So how on earth is this happening? The antibody neutralizes both ABLV and rabies really well in a test tube, but we've already established that there's no way a huge lumbering antibody is making it past the blood-brain barrier without serious help. Something about the immune response is clearly making it in there though. And it turns out that if you start trying this cure in mice missing various parts of their immune systems, mice without CD4+ T cells don't survive even with the treatment. By contrast mice without CD8+ T cells take longer to work through the infection, but they eventually manage it and are immune to reinfection afterwards.

To grossly oversimplify the immune system here, CD4+ are mature helper T cells, which work mostly by activating other immune cells like macrophages (white blood cells) and CD8+ T cells (killer T cells) against a threat.

Normally, T cells are also kept out by the blood-brain barrier, but we know that in certain specific cases including viral infection they can pass it to migrate into the brain. In the brains of the infected mice for which antibody treatment either wasn't given or didn't work, you can find a roughly even mix of CD8+ and CD4+ T cells along with a whole lot of viral RNA. But in the brains of those successfully fighting off the infection, there's less viral RNA and the cells are almost exclusively CD4+. So the antibody doesn't work by neutralizing the virus directly - something about it is activating the animal's own immune system in a way that gives it a fighting chance.

Again, neither of these proof of concept treatments is really workable yet as a real world cure. The first one is almost hilariously overkill and still has a pretty good chance of failure. The second is less invasive but careful sequencing still shows both low-level viral replication and signs of immune response in the brains of the survivors even at day 139, so it may not be truly clearing the virus so much as trading a death sentence for life with a low-level chronic infection. But now we know that 1. curing rabies after symptoms begin is at least theoretically possible, and 2. we have some clues as to mechanisms to investigate further.

Not today. Not tomorrow. But maybe not never, either.

References:

Zeiler, F. A., & Jackson, A. C. (2016). Critical appraisal of the Milwaukee protocol for rabies: this failed approach should be abandoned. Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences, 43(1), 44-51.

de Melo, G. D., Sonthonnax, F., Lepousez, G., Jouvion, G., Minola, A., Zatta, F., ... & Bourhy, H. (2020). A combination of two human monoclonal antibodies cures symptomatic rabies. EMBO molecular medicine, 12(11), e12628.

Mastraccio, K. E., Huaman, C., Coggins, S. A. A., Clouse, C., Rader, M., Yan, L., ... & Schaefer, B. C. (2023). mAb therapy controls CNS‐resident lyssavirus infection via a CD4 T cell‐dependent mechanism. EMBO Molecular Medicine, 15(10), e16394.

[numberonetacostan]

Do you have any more autism Taco headcanons? I know theres only so many "she doesn't like loud noises" but maybe through like specific scenarios or something? I find the idea really interesting, theres just already so much on this blog

Hi there!!^^ Welcome, and thank you for sending in your request!! :] I am down for autistic Taco anytime my dear it is a lovely excuse for me to project onto her.

Ask and you shall receive, more autistic Taco headcanons!

A little nervous stim I like to headcanon for her is her bumping her fists together in front of her. We see her do it once when she's talking to Pickle, and I have taken it and made it her little stim for when she's anxious or scared. I like to think Mic would eventually pick up on it and use it to help gauge Taco's mood.

I think Taco would be pretty rigid when it comes to her schedule, which could end up being a problem once she's start living with the others again. No she can't help with construction right now, are you insane, it's noon which means it's time for her second cup of tea for the day, she'll get to whatever you need after and that's that. It'd probably be annoying to the others first, but at some point they'd see her get nervous and upset if she can't have her scheduled tea times and such, and just let her go about her business when she needs to.

Despite Taco wanting to and being happy that she gets to join the group again, I honestly don't see her branching out too much. She likes her alone time quite a lot, yeah? I think she'd get frustrated trying to do things with others pretty easily. I think she'd just do what we've seen her doing so far- making a few friends and just following them around. She follows Mic around. She follows Goo around. She's not purposefully cold to anyone, but she isn't dying to be part of every single activity, yeah?

Sleep disturbances!! A higher percentage of autistic people experience sleep issues/circadian rhythm abnormalities and Taco has lived alone in the woods for years. Her circadian rhythm is incredibly messed up!! It would take ages for her to get on a semi-normal sleep cycle, and even then she'd probably decide to nap sometimes because she is tired and The Sun Is Not The Boss Of Her! I like to think she'd stay up longer than normal and sleep for long than normal, solely because that's my issue. I am projecting.

I've spoken about Taco being low-empathy before, but I like to think post-finale she gets so conscious about not trying to be mean/harsh/blunt etc. (which I am right about anyway since we just saw that in the tour promo) and would more or less give up on masking in that aspect. If she sees that someone's expression has changed she'll just ask why. It would probably get people in the habit of explaining their feeling to her automatically, which would be quite helpful for her. I can imagine Mic wincing after she casually says something that makes her look bad (ex: explaining how she could have burned down the hotel very easily because it's layout and building materials were a recipe for disaster [she has this plan because she schemes to help her fall asleep but no one knows that]) and she just asks Mic, like, "Mic, you're making a Taco-did-something-wrong face. What happened? What did I do?"