#Also I was on painkillers for a long time and that doesn't mix well with alcohol

[shwoo]

Day 30 of Flooftober! The home stretch. I'll do the last one tomorrow because there's 16 characters and no such thing is the 32nd of October I think. I could've just left Floofty out of the potential characters for them to talk to, but that's no fun. Anyway, this one has Cromdo, and the the prompts are Ketchup/Ranch/Cheese/Hot/Chocolate. So sauces, basically. But I did name them all in the story.

(Prompt list)

Title: Focus on major safety concerns Summary: Cromdo asks Floofty for help with a new business venture. (Also on AO3)

.

"So, how much you charging for this?" said Cromdo.

"Oh?" said Floofty, who hadn't even considered money. Their PhD stipend wasn't much, but it was at least a steady income for the foreseeable future, something Cromdo still lacked. "No charge. Consider it a gift."

Cromdo waved his arms. "Whoa whoa whoa. I ain't going down that road again."

"The road of… cost reduction?" said Floofty, confused. Didn't Cromdo like money? That was just about all they would've been able to say about him in the past

"If I start taking 'gifts'," Cromdo made quotation fingers with both paws, "then suddenly they turn into 'I did so much for you, Cromdo, when're you doing something for me? We gotta square things up!' Feh! Let's figure all that out up front, huh? I'm giving Wambus a fair deal for his sauces, and I'm gonna give you a fair deal to tell me what's in 'em."

"Why would I…?" Floofty began, then sighed. Clearly they weren't the only Grumpus who didn't understand other people. "If you are so intent upon giving me money, I suppose I can accept. I will calculate a fair rate, and communicate to you it by the end of the day." Besides, if they didn't go along with Cromdo's confusing demand, he might change his mind about wanting their help.

"Great!" said Cromdo. "Pleasure doing business. Just you watch: Sauce cocktails are gonna be the next big thing! Cheese that never curdles? Liquid peanut butter? Ranch… Eh, I'll think of something for ranch."

"Will you be requiring an analysis of all known sauces?" said Floofty, curious. They didn't drink themself. They didn't see the appeal in deliberately making themself stupider. But mixed drink design was something they'd never really thought about before. It probably involved some level of skill. A lot of things did, they'd been learning. "Chocolate, ketchup, hot sauce?" Were there spicy cocktails? If so, why? Chocolate they could sort of see the appeal of.

"You kiddin'?" said Cromdo. "They're gonna be my go-tos! A little ketchup, a little hot sauce, and you're halfway to a Snaktooth Bloody Mewry! Uh, once you give the all clear."

"I must say, I hope I do," said Floofty. Would hot sauce really work in a Bloody Mewry, or any kind of mixed drink? Not that they were going to show their ignorance and ask.

[little-cereal-draws]

@scuorge101 I had some headcanons for your alive!Polites au! (I hope that's ok)

Eurylochus lowkey became the captain after the cyclopes incident bc Odysseus was spending 24/7 next to Polites' bed

Odysseus let him use his captain bed (which was slightly better than the others) and either slept on the floor or on a stool next to him

nobody blamed Odysseus for not being there tho, they all knew it was serious

it still takes them several years to get home but not as long as it does in canon. in that time tho, Polites recovers somewhat

he likes to sit on deck and feel the wind on his face. this is also where he talks with the crew and tries to lift their spirits

Odysseus cries bc he's being eaten alive by guilt but somehow Polites is still optimistic even after all he's been through

Polites cries a lot back in his room tho (sometimes in front of Odysseus, sometimes keeping it a secret from him)

he makes more progress back in Ithaca where they have access to actual doctors. He sort of learns to walk again but it's never like it was before. He can shuffle from one room to the next, either holding onto Odysseus' elbow or the wall for support, but then immediately has to sit down

it takes a lot out of him to move from his bedroom to the dining hall, the living room to the garden, etc. Anywhere farther than one room is all his exercise for the day

his speech is messed up too. By the time they get back to Ithaca, he can speak again but his words are slurred which can make it hard to understand him sometimes. He'll also mix up words, make up words he thinks are real, or say words in random unintelligible orders. A modern doctor would call it "word salad"

This doesn't happen all the time tho, and he actually loves to talk to people. Odysseus, Eurylochus, and Telemachus are his favorites. He doesn't like talking about himself much -I don't think he ever would- but he loves asking them about their days

(let's pretend the ancient Greeks had wheelchairs) Telemachus loves to push him around and they get really close that way. Telemachus will push him out to the garden and they can easily spend all day there talking, bird watching, or napping. If Polites isn't in his room, you can find him wherever Telemachus is

Polites loves to go in the garden bc he was cooped up in his tiny suffocating room on the ship for nearly a year before he was well enough to make the journey upstairs. He can't bear to be trapped in his room anymore

Odysseus helps him take all his medicine (mostly painkilling herbs), redo his bandages, walk places, eat when his hands are too weak, and, in the beginning on the ship, go to the bathroom and bathe

Odysseus checks up on him every night before bed too. He'll take more painkiller and have Odysseus help him lay down. By the time it's night tho, he's usually not feeling well at all and is either mostly or all the way nonverbal

a bit of fanfiction to end: At dinner, Polites always sits next to Odysseus. Polies' hand suddenly falls to the table and he drops the food. Odysseus looks over. "Are you ok? Do you want help eating?" his friend asks. Polites grimaces down at his food. His skull is pounding like Athena is being born again and his hand won't close around the bread he wants. "Yes," he manages to get out. Odysseus holds the food up while he nibbles on it. He groans and squeezes his eyes shut. Hurts, hurts, it all hurts. His body is on fire. "Do you want to lay down?" he hears Odysseus gently ask. He nods; he can't think of the words to respond. "Ok," Odysseus says, quickly nodding to Penelope. "I'll be right back." She hums in acknowledgment and Polites feels Odysseus stand up and get ready to help him up.

[jongbross]

if requests are still open, can i request? i was thinking kyungsoo and reader are mixed martial arts fighters and they train and teach classes at the same gym. they’re just a pair of bickering coworkers as they’ve always been some of the toughest fighters at the gym. idk, take it whatever direction you’d like, i can’t see what you write! thanks!

pairing: do kyungsoo x reader word count: 611 genre: fluffy? warnings: kyungsoo is really annoying and there's a plot twist at the end. got inspired by those k-dramas where the dude "hates" the girl, you know? a/n: had a lot of fun writing this! thank you so much for requesting <3

"oh my gosh, you're such a softie."

it was always like this, every single day, 24/7 - bickering was now considered a background noise whenever you and kyungsoo were at the gym at the same time.

i mean, kyungsoo was a really great fighter and an amazing teacher, you could admit that, but he was also the most annoying person you have ever met.

"what did i do now, kyungsoo?", you asked with a sigh.

"you're really cleaning up the mess your kids left behind?", he said, a playful smirk on his face. "discipline is part of what we teach, y/n, you should let them do it themselves."

you rolled your eyes, picking up the last towel from the ground and getting up to face kyungsoo. he had his arms crossed against his chest, his black belt tied firmly around his slim waist.

"and you should worry about your students, not mine", you fake smiled at him. "should i remind you i got three kids wanting to be transferred to my class because you were an asshole with them?"

"they're softies just like you", it was his time to roll his eyes. "taehyun couldn't even learn how to kick properly."

"he's 5 years old, kyungsoo!"

"so? all of my other kids can do it."

you scoffed, even though you weren't a bit surprised by his behavior. you just passed by him, getting back to what truly mattered: cleaning up the room so the next class (kyungsoo's class) could start.

"i still don't get why you act like that with them", kyungsoo kept going though.

"cause i'm a great teacher and i respect their timing."

"wow, you're wrong two times in that sentence, that's a new record!"

"i'm not a great teacher?"

"well, you're a teacher, that's for sure", the bastard chuckled. "but you're a better fighter though..."

you hummed in response, folding your last towel and sighing one more time.

"you wanna know why?"

"honestly? no, i don't", you replied, turning around to look at him. "i have had a headache since the moment i woke up this morning and you didn't let me be for a goddamn second. can you please save this conversation for tomorrow?"

kyungsoo frowned, relaxing his arms. "headache?"

"yeah. you're gonna complain about that too?"

you sighed in relief when kyungsoo just murmured a tiny 'idiot' and finally walked away towards the back of the gym, leaving you alone to finish your tasks.

it truly didn't take long until his students started to arrive, a few of them greeting you before taking a seat on the floor, just like kyungsoo taught them to do it so they could wait for him.

the moment you finished what you were doing was the moment kyungsoo appeared for his class. you walked away to let him do his work, frowning when he said "check your locker" as you passed him by. so you went to the locker room, meeting and greeting some other teachers there.

to your surprise, you found your locker unlocked. you pulled it open to find a bottle of painkillers - the one you've always seen kyungsoo taking - and a little note, which you took it between your fingers so you could read better.

"take two of these, it should help you with your headache. go eat something too, and if it doesn't get better, i already texted minseok hyung saying i could take your other classes for the day. rest! don't make me say it twice. see you at my place tonight! - kyungsoo ♥ (:"

at that, you smiled - sincerely, this time. perhaps kyungsoo was as good of a boyfriend as he was of a teacher.

[foone]

Electrolysis

So some info on this hair-removal procedure that I thought might be useful for anyone starting it or considering starting it. PSA: I'm not a doctor or an electrolysis tech, so this is not Expert Advice or anything. I'm just an interested amateur undergoing the procedure, with access to the interweb's collected knowledge.

I stuffed it under a readmore because it's long.

How's it work?

Basically they poke a needle into the hair follicle, and then pass electricity through your body. You'll be holding onto something or putting your hand in (salt) water to provide a path for the current.

This generates sodium hydroxide (aka Lye) though electrolysis, hence the name. The lye kills the follicle, and then the technician pulls out the hair with tweezers. If done correctly, that hair will never grow again.

Importantly: This is an external procedure. You see that pink layer around the follicle? That's a layer of skin. Your skin is not being punctured by the needle, it's simply sliding down the pocket in your skin that the hair lives in. So the needles need to be sterile because of the risk of accidental puncture, but this isn't like surgery or anything.

Does it hurt?

Yep. You're being zapped. Generally in my experience the needle doesn't hurt, but the current being on does hurt. It's not too severe, and importantly IT CAN BE ADJUSTED. See, the amount of time it takes to generate lye depends on the voltage used. If the pain is too intense to manage, your technician can lower the voltage. This'll make it take longer per hair, but it will hurt less. (And similarly, if it doesn't hurt much at all, they may be able to go faster by turning up the voltage)

It's not a "shock" type zap, where it's unexpected and high-intensity. You don't jump with fright. It's more of a "burning" (but without heat) kind of zap, where it's uncomfortable/painful over several seconds, slowly increasing and decreasing in intensity. You may want a stress ball to squeeze.

What should I do before the appointment?

Ask your technician! Generally they'll have a sort of pre-appointment appointment to talk about what you need to do, or they'll send you instructions.

But basically you're gonna want to have short hair in the area you're getting electrolysis done on: My technician suggested 1-4th to 1/8th inch (3-7mm). The idea is that it's long enough that they can grab it with the tweezers, but not so long it curls or gets kinky (lewd). I use an electric razor which comes with one of the shields for cutting hair to a specific length (which my wife bought to buzz her undercut!) and it works great. I just give it a once over the day before my appointment.

You should also make sure you're hydrated. Being dry makes it harder to get the hairs out. Try to do this the day before or early in the day: Not only because it takes a while for the water to make its way through your body and affect the tissues, but because you don't want to have to interrupt the hair removal session to go piss.

I tend to take some painkillers an hour or two before my procedure. Ibuprofen and Tylenol/Acetaminophen/Paracetamol are both over the counter and can be safely mixed, and work well for this. My roommate used to vape some THC before going into her appointments, that may also be an option for you.

You should also ask about topical numbing cream and if your technician wants you to use it. Sometimes it's not a good idea because it can make your skin slimy, but it can definitely help.

The stuff I use is topical lidocaine 5% cream: You will typically find this in the hemorrhoids section of your pharmacy: it's butt cream. Just make sure you are getting a kind that's not got a bunch of added "flavors" like aloe and oatmeal and coloring and the like. You want the most generic cheapest kind.

You put it on "like you're icing a cake". I get the 30g/1oz tubes, and I basically use one per session. You don't rub it in, you just cover the skin with it, as thick as you can. You want to put this on an hour before your session so it has time to sink in. After putting it on, you should cover it with some plastic wrap so it'll stay in place and not get on your mask or shirt or glasses. (You will probably still get it on your shirt. That's okay, it washes out easily)

You probably want to ask your technician which area you're going to be working on before the appointment, so you know where to cover. It's a waste of cream (and less effective) to cover your whole face if they're just going to be working on the moustache area! Speaking of which...

What should I do after the appointment?

Again, ask your tech, but general stuff is:

Ice the affected area. You'll probably have some redness and swelling from the procedure, so this helps minimize that.

Keep that area clean. Don't scratch it, and have some kind of sanitary wipes (I used witch hazel wipes) for when you forget and touch it accidentally. Get a new/clean mask and be careful with headphones, so you don't introduce any surface bacteria into the area.

Again, painkillers. They'll help.

This'll last 1-3 days depending on how fast you heal. It's not hugely noticeable on my skin, but be warned that it might be, like you got a big sunburn on your face.

How do sessions go / how many will it take?

So the thing about electrolysis is that it's not exactly fast. Basically they have to stick a needle in every single hair on the area of skin they're de-hairing, and typically this is the face, which has relatively dense hair. It takes a long while. So for example, in one of my first sessions, they basically started at my right sideburns and went down, making it maybe 2 inches (5cm) down my face, over 2 hours.

It's slow going. You will need a bunch of sessions. I'm sorry. The electrolysis tech who runs the clinic I go to said it could be anything from 30 sessions to 600, depending on your hair density and how much area needs to be covered.

But once they've gone over a section, that section is done, right?

Sadly, no. Hair goes through a cycle of growth-regression-resting, over a cycle that's dependent on where on the body it is and your particular genetics (and some environment conditions! this is why stress can make your hair fall out). If the hair has been shaved before and is in the resting phase, it's not there for the technician to get at. They'll need to go over that spot again to get the hairs they missed. How much this needs to be done depends on your body's hair growth. And sometimes you can be "done" and then a year later some hair pops out of nowhere because it decided to take a long nap and you need to go back for touch-ups. Those will be minor and quick, however, since you'll have far fewer hairs to need to be treated.

It's permanent in the long run, right?

Absolutely. And I mean that: ABSOLUTELY. It is the gold standard of hair removal. Properly electrolysised hair simply cannot come back: you are hairless there forever. There is no longer any living follicle in your skin to grow hair.

Is there only one type of electrolysis?

Nope! There's 2, or 3, or 2 and a half. or, arguably, only one. Basically the idea of "zap someone with electricity to get rid of hair" comes in three(ish) forms:

Galvanic Electrolysis

Thermolysis

Blend

The one I explained is Galvanic Electrolysis. You pass DC current through a follicle, it creates lye, the lye kills the follicle. This was the first one, and is nearly 150 years old. It was originally developed to treat ingrown eyelashes, which could cause blindness.

The second, Thermolysis, doesn't actually use electrolysis, so technically it's a type of "Electrology", the practice of hair-removal-with-electricity, of which Electrolysis is only one method. Instead of creating lye in the follicle, the probe is instead an RF transmitter, broadcasting several watts of high-frequency radio waves at a frequency where they'll be absorbed by the hair matrix, kinda like a microwave. This creates high temperatures (50°C/122°F) causing electrocoagulation, basically denaturing the proteins and killing the follicle that way.

The third (or 2.5th) method is Blend. As you might guess, this is simply mixing both of the above methods. It's relatively easy to do, as they both need an electrical probe, and you can just build one machine that switches between the two methods or combines them at the same time.

My particular electrolysis clinic manager feels very strongly that galvanic electrolysis is the way to go. It's slower than thermolysis or blend, but she believes this is more reliable and has fewer side-effects on the skin (as it's possible but hopefully unlikely for the skin to be damaged by the heat of thermolysis). But I think those are mainly her opinions rather than a scientific consensus, so you may want to do your own research if your local clinic does Thermolysis or does Blend. Maybe she's wrong.

Are there other methods/how effective are they?

Kinda. So the big competitor to electrolysis is Laser Hair Removal. Despite the name, the FDA (who regulates hair removal tech in the US) says it's not actually a form of hair removal, just a form of "hair reduction". It's not allowed to be advertised as permanent hair removal because of this.

Basically it works something like Thermolysis: A laser is fired at the skin, using a wavelength of light that will be mostly not absorbed by the skin, but will be absorbed by the darker and denser hair follicles. They'll heat up from the laser, and electrocoagulate, and die.

This has several advantages over electrolysis: It's far faster, it requires less training for technicians, and it's less painful. Note that that's less painful, not "painless". It still hurts, as you're being SHOT IN THE FACE WITH A LASER. (It also has the side-advantage for trans femmes that you can keep shaving while doing it, vs electrolysis which requires some hair growth)

So, the problems: First of all, even when working, it is less effective in general. You're unlikely to get all the follicles at once, and you'll need many passes over the same area to get anything like consistent coverage.

The second drawback is that it can have some very negative effects on your skin. If you can get photosensitive rashes, firing a laser at the skin will probably cause them to show up really badly. It also (anecdotally, at least) can have same negative effects on skin that thermolysis sometimes causes: all that heating causes damage to the skin, making it harder, less smooth, and potentially darker from the heat damage. Making sure to ice your face after treatment can help with this, reportedly.

But the third and final drawback is probably the biggest one: it's very color-sensitive. Basically for laser to work, you want VERY DARK HAIR on VERY PALE SKIN. If you have any other combination, it's simply not going to be very effective. The laser light needs to pass through the skin without being absorbed, then hit the hair follicle and dump all its energy there. If your hair is blonde, it'll keep going. if your skin is dark, it'll end up absorbing all the energy instead of the follicle, and they're basically giving you a suntan instead of hair reduction.

And even for someone who is pale with dark hair, it can STILL not be terribly useful! See, I'm in my 30s, so I have a couple grey hairs.

At least, that's what I thought, until I got laser hair removal. It turns out something like 5-10% of my facial hair was grey, and once you remove the 90-95% of the dark hair, guess what's left? 100% grey hairs! Basically laser hair removal just gave me a grey beard. Whoops.

And finally, there's IPL: Intense Pulsed Light. There's less to say with this one except that it's basically the same as laser hair removal, just at lower power levels and less specific wavelengths of lights (ie, it's more full-spectrum). Reportedly this gets near the effectiveness of laser (it's like 66% reduction after 6 months of treatment, vs 71% for laser), but can be done at home by the user. It has all the same side-effect problems, but worse as the light isn't as precisely targeted to a specific wavelength. If you can't get anything else, it's an option, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're very pale with dark hair and no history of photosensitivity.

On a side note, both IPL and Laser do involve flashing very bright lights at your face. I don't think they're going to be repetitive or quick enough to cause issues with photosensitive epilepsy, but you should definitely ask your doctor if that's an issue. You can't close your eyes to avoid the flash, it will travel through your skin and hit your retinas through closed eyelids, it's both absolutely wild and a little scary.

How expensive is it?

Obviously this is going to vary a lot as healthcare is a nightmare, but generally if your health insurance covers trans-related things like hormones, it'll be covered for at least the face.

If it's not covered, the price will of course vary with your location and the clinic you go to, but it's not going to be cheap. Sessions are going to be like 1-2 hours and they're trained medical professionals. They get paid for their time. In the cheapest areas of the US, you're looking at like 30$ an hour, and in the most expensive, 130$ an hour.

Is it just for the face?

Nope! Anywhere you can get hair, you can do electrolysis. chest, back, arms, legs, crotch, whatever you want (I don't know if anyone has done their whole head to become permanently bald, but probably!)

Combined with the last question, that'll probably not be covered by insurance, as they'll be considered "cosmetic" rather than "medically necessary" (other than some non-face electrolysis that's done before bottom surgery to avoid issues with hair growing inside neovaginas or having a hairy neopenis).

Areas outside the face tend to go far faster as you don't have the same hair density there.

But what do you actually DO in an electrolysis session?

Lay down on a massage table in a dark room, with one hand in a metal bowl of salty water. A tech wearing a flashlight on their head pokes you with needles and zaps you for a few seconds, yanks the hair, then repeats the process. You can talk (if they're not working on the chin or other areas where it'd cause problems) and we usually chat for a half hour or so about random stuff, before settling into mostly silence, listening to some music playing off a streaming service. I spend most of the time thinking about stuff to write, either stories or programs.

It's not a continual procedure, they're repeatedly poking and pulling, so you can interrupt them whenever if you need to use the bathroom or shift position. I was worried that my ADHD would have trouble handling "do nothing for two hours" but honestly it's not too bad in my experience.

Is this only a trans thing?

Absolutely not! I'm writing this from that perspective, but anyone can get electrolysis. For example, often post-menopausal women get it on their upper lip, as the hormone shift causes them to grow facial hair. But you don't need a big trans and/or medical reason to get electrolysis: You can just go "HEY I HATE SHAVING AND ALSO I HATE HAVING HAIR" and decide to do it. You'll probably have to pay out of pocket for it, but it's your money. Have fun.

Just keep in mind that it is absolutely permanent. Make sure you are certain before doing it, because I think your only option if you change your mind would be an expensive hair transplant (if that'd even work. I'm not certain, off the top of my head)

[tokillamockingbird427]

Trans Man Rorke headcanons [with some headcanons trans headcanons for Keegan and Neptune mixed in] (this is a but long)

Scared the ever loving shit out of Elias the first time he almost keld over from a painful menstruation cramp

Stocks Chocolate, painkillers, and heating pads in his office

Doesn't bother hiding his top surgery scars, most of the guys thought that he just got into a really weird fight until he explained that they were from a surgery he had in his mid twenties

He came out at the diner table when elias was talking about combing two types of cars together and said “I just don't know where i'm going to put the tranny*” [*he's talking about the transmission] and Gabriel replied, “I’d put the tr*nny in the driver's seat” whilst pointing at himself, cue Elias being horrified and rapidly apologising

He then proceeded to lecture Elias and the rest of the guys over the use of words that double as slurs

Both Keegan and Neptune came out to him later that night [Keegan's FTM and Neptunes FTMTNB]

Rorke immediately lectured Keegan on using unsafe binding materials [ace bandages] and lectured both of them for working out whilst binding. He also took the shopping for binders and packers, and taught them how to use KT tape as an alternative to a binder.

He also offered to pay for ant surgeries the wanted

Neptune took up his offer for top surgery

Keegan, meanwhile, blue screened [poor thing is scared of surgery.][okay it may be more of a fear of being alone+unconscious around a group of people he doesn't know that well]

Gabriel assured him that he doesn't need to have any type of surgery if doesn't what to, and that not having them doesn't make him less valid as a trans man

To this day Keegan still has his tits

He started stocking pads and tampons in his office after this conversation

Rorke also made sure that they both had access to a different set of showers then the rest of the guys

And he double checked that they both had a safe place to live

He wound up putting aside some rooms in his house for them

Keegan wound up moving in with him and Neptune tends to stay over randomly

After Gabriel ‘died’ they found out he had left the house to them and they live together now

Gabriel got a *bit* protective over them as well

He also made sure that they could always have access to their testosterone injections

On that note, Gabriel himself prefers to use a gel testosterone

Gabriel shaves his head for gender confirmation reasons

He originally didn't want to get top surgery, he drank a lot of coffee [which helps shrink breast tissue apparently] and did a lot of weight lifting when he was a teenager in order to build up pectoral muscles, and the combo of those gave him a very masculine presenting chest. He only got the double mastectomy after his mother died from breast cancer, mostly out of fear that he'd develope it as well [he will literally never tell anyone this].

Keegan and Neptune often catch them self looking out for David the same way Gabriel looked out for them

🐺

Trans Neptune truthers, join me, we will conquer the world! ...Or maybe just the fandom. That's more manageable.

I like to think there was zero warning sign before he keeled over so one second Elias is babbling in his ear about supplies and the next Rorke is half collapsed on the floor convincing Elias for a good moment that he just bored his Captain to death.

Merrick simply assumed he got into a weirdly targeted knife fight until Rorke explained.

NOT THE TRANSMISSION

Mf just immediately adopts them. They had no chance.

I gotta see what this mf's house looks like, I always figured it was on the smaller side because I think of him as the practical type but it'd be real funny if it turned out he lived in a big ass house in the suburbs rather than the cabin in the woods. Has a wild lawn rather than the mono-green-dead bullshit tho. (DEATH to plain ass lawns with zero biodiversity.)

He's a HEN! Broody. Hah.

Aw, every time I make fun of him for being bald one of you come in and give me a reason to feel bad about it. Alright Rorke. You get away with it in this scenario.

Oooooo, a secret to take to the grave. Interesting.

Don't let Rorke find out Hesh is trans he might swap Logan for him seeing as he was so quick to grab Neptune+Keegan up

[musicreveiwsbyezti]

What's up babygirls (literally no one reads my blog) here's my March topster

This month was mostly shit I thought it would be interesting to listen... so lot of metal again. Also for the sake of my sanity I have 2 records that I genuinely don't know what the fuck I should do with.

Unrated: Current 93-I have a special plan for this world (Dark Ambient/Poetry): Arguably the best scary stuff I have ever listened but I never want to hear this again as once was perfectly enough. It gives a really disturbing atmosphere and the poetry part itself was interesting too. I highly recommend checking it out at least once. Slipknot-Iowa(Nu metal): I don't get it. The instrumentation is good but the lyrics are so god damned corny that it hurts. It doesn't help that it sounds like death metal for people who don't want to listen to actual death metal. I probably give it another chance later... not now tho I still can't take The Heretic Anthem seriously.

Alright now the actual tierlist begins:

14th: Combat Wounded Veteran-Electric Youth Crew(Powerviolence): I had a small journey and sat down to listen through the entire CWV discography (it's not that long definitely recommend it to get into powerviolence) and this is arguably the "weakest" of their releases. It doesn't really stand out and can be forgotten easily.

13th: CWV-This Is Not an Erect, All-Red Neon Body (Powerviolence/Grindcore): Idk it just doesn't click as well as IKAGWDCSP.

12th: Death-The Sound of Perseverance(Death/Prog Metal):Jesus Christ this album was a major disappointment for me. As a last Death album I expected it to be a last brutal yet technically extreme blast...but they just had to listen to 30 hour acid freeform jazz or some shit to get inspiration. This album has genuine fire songs, but they just had to fuck up the in the middle with a boring ass bass "solo" or someshit... Also the Painkiller cover is the worst song I heard this year so far, how the fuck can you ruin a perfect song when you are already a talented vocalist is beyond me.

11th: CWV-Duck Down for the Torso(Powerviolence/Grindcore): A short and sweet end for CWV's discography. Having it end on a Folded Space song was a great choice which gives an interesting feeling for the end.

10th: Stabbing-Extirpated Mortal Process(Brutal Death/Slam metal): Now this is a good slam metal album.

9th: Sematary-Bloody Angel(Horrorcore/Chicago drill): After Sems last EP I thought it was over... BUT IT ISN'T! It gives vibes of RB2 with RB3 mixing with some HAW mixed in. He can cook just let him do his thing :pray:

8th: Spycada-Hiking Lung(Psychedelic rock): It's good, great vibe, good tones, overall enjoyable. Looking forward to their next stuff.

7th: Magrudergrind-Self title(Grindcore/Powerviolence): THE grindcore album. Absolutely slaps, the sample use is interesting.

6th: Igorrr-Spirituality and Distortion(Avant Guard Metal/Breakcore) This... is Schrödinger's kitchen. I don't know if the kitchen is burned down or has served a 5 star menu, until I care to write an actual criticism of it. (Also the mixing of metal, break core and classical music is insane and the sheer heaviness this album gives is phenomenal, though it falls of gradually on the second half)

5th:Sweet Trip-Velocity : Design : Comfort(IDM/Glitch Pop) At least 200 people already circle jerk around this album, yes it is good, no I don't explain why I love it because I ain't talking about why breathing air is good.

4th:Have a nice life-Deathconsciousness(Post Punk/Shoegaze): Same as last time, people already told you enough why it's good, just fucking listen through it already. (side note some of the songs on this albums mixed weirdly quite for some reason, and it's kinda wack how the drone parts are the best, but still really good)

3th: Dead in the Dirt-The Blind Hole(Grindcore/Powerviolence) Jesus I listen to a lot of powerviolence this month... Anyways this is probably my favourite pw record yet. Probably the more understandable vocals help to lift it just a little bit above the rest for me.

2th:Mastodon-Leviathan(Sludge metal/Prog metal) Fun fact in the 2000's 2 whale concept prog metal albums came out, both of which are peak. I don't know how they got The Moby Dick nailed so well in metal form but they sure did with heavy riffs and amazing vocal performances.

1th: Electric Wizard-Witchcult Today(Stoner/Doom metal): I was afraid to check out the rest of EW discography after Dopethrone cuz it is too peak... However this album is probably as good as Dopethrone. Something about this album gives more OG metal vibes with less insanity.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Effort

Today has been ... A Day. And it's not quite over yet.

First, I woke up earlier than I wanted to, but I had shit to do so I didn't just go straight back to bed.

Had some coffee, checked some bus timetables, and went out for some supplies. Mostly mallet meds, coffee, sugar, and some baking potatoes ... though I did splurge, if you want to call it that, on an acorn squash. (For everyone else, it's pumpkin spice season; for me, it's acorn squash season.)

Could I have got a better treat? Well, treats are expensive. However, I have ingredients at home. Just requires ... effort. Which is a problem, but effort can be manufactured - or scraped from the bottom of the barrel in my case - but money is a monthly event and mine is kind of at low ebb until a week Wednesday. Painkillers are expensive.

Anyway, before I could expend effort on that, I had three hours of overtime. Which made a dent, but ... well, there's just so much fucking typing. So that's in no way enough dent (83 reports is "not enough dent"; fuck my life) and I'm going to have to do more later. I might wait until Sunday, I dunno. Basically they've authorised "as many hours of overtime as I can physically manage". I will do my best to manage as best I can, and be all about the extra money. I mean, MCM Comic Con is coming up.

So after the three hours of overtime, it was finally time to try the gluten-free pizza dough recipe I found on Gluten Free On A Shoestring. I have lactose-free mozarella, I have pepperoni, I have onions, and I have the fixings for pizza sauce (including fresh herbs from my garden). The making of the pizza dough was not as difficult as I feared, at least. Still, it takes a lot of effort to get decent gluten-free anything, because gluten-free is not forgiving enough for mass production, I guess. Either way, there's going to be pizza.

After that, I cleaned off my mixer attachments and hit up B Dylan Hollis' TikTok for the "Poor Man's Ice Cream" recipe. I actually put a can of evaporated milk and the necessary bowl in the fridge last night in preparation for this, so there you go. Instead of vanilla, I put in 2/3 cup of my homemade hot chocolate mix, because someone in the comments mentioned that you could make hot chocolate ice cream that way. And if that doesn't work out, I still have another can of evaporated milk, so hey, I can try again and just stick with vanilla next time.

And after all that, I brought out my little Dyson and hoovered the kitchen floor, because a lot of what I do in there gets powder all over the place. Then I had a careful wash of my hands because I usually keep my nails fairly long (until one breaks; then I cut them all and start all over again) and every hobby I have gets stuff stuck under my nails.

Now I am finally sitting down as I wait for my pizza dough to rise and my ice cream to start to set. I should just be able to finish this entry before I have to start Doing Shit again. I need to part-bake my pizza crust (one can apparently go in the freezer), start my pizza sauce, and whip the ice cream before putting it back in the freezer to set.

I hurt. I'm very tired. I'm fed entirely up. But at least some of my back-breaking effort today has gone towards treats, instead of just maintenance or ... you know, carrying the fucking department. At some point there also needs to be laundry. There's a lot of "Please let me do this tomorrow..." in my life right now.

[focsle]

What was medical care like on a whale ship? I'm guessing not very good?

Not very good!!

Firstly we're dealing with medical treatment that for much of the 19th century was centered largely on purging, bloodletting, and blistering. Medicine chests aboard contained a mix of chemical and herbal compounds, some which are still used holistically today and some that you.....absolutely want nowhere near your body. Epsom salts as a laxative, laudanum for painkiller, St John's wort for bruises and burns, mercury for syphilis, rosemary as an antiseptic, lead acetate as an anti-inflammatory, arrowroot for dysentery, henbane for insomnia. Etc.

Secondly, depending on where the ship was coming from there was likely no actual doctor on board. On British whalers it was required by law for a surgeon to be signed on for the voyage (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was one on a voyage bound for the Arctic and apparently fell in the water so many times that the crew called him the 'Great Northern Diver'.) However on American whalers, which dominated the industry, no doctor was required (though there were a few who found themselves aboard anyway, but were not necessarily hired as such). There was the captain, the carpenter, and the sail maker, and agents were like 'together, that makes one whole doctor!'.

Joan Druett, in her book Rough Medicine highlighted some really fascinating things that came as a result of this, ranging from men who had scars that healed in a herringbone pattern because they were mended like canvas, to this wild bit about an amputation performed between a captain and mate at gunpoint.

As such, it was the captain's responsibility to oversee medical treatment. Often not having training himself, he was given a case full of numbered tinctures for various treatments. An old folkloric tale repeated in a number of places (one that doesn't sound particularly farfetched all things considered) was the story of a captain who had to treat a man with Tincture 11. Having run out of 11 he just mixed 5 & 6 together and gave him that.

There are also several instances of captain's wives on board taking up the mantle of doctor, stitching and dressing wounds, making plasters, dosing medicine, and otherwise caring for the sick.

When coming across another ship at sea, if that ship happened to have a doctor they might be called upon to come over and examine the ill. If there was a port nearby as well ships would go there to have sick crew tended to by a doctor in town. Depending on how long it took for someone to get better though, they might be abandoned there. Such was the case of a lad named Albert Peck on the ship Covington. He was brought to a doctor in Honolulu, but when it took him longer than a week to recover he was discharged from the ship because the ship was Leaving. He ultimately had to find his own way back to New England after that.

For a lot of people, if there was no land nearby they were just given an emetic or painkiller and...hoped for the best. I spend a lot of time reading journals and being very concerned every time someone offhand mentions some medical horror they're powering through (or that another crewmate didn't survive).

Druett's book, mentioned above, is really great for this subject if you're interested in reading further.

[myjunkisyuzuruhanyu]

Kogan (RusFed president) announced via Russian media that Yuzu aquired his visa for Russia and that they are waiting for him to come to Rostelecom Cup.

Tbh I don't want to let hope live Yuzu will participate.

I have a mixed feeling about this. On one hand I am desperate to see Yuzu on ice again and if he can participate it could also mean his injury may not be as dramatic as it may look, on the other hand it is Yuzu and he also skated on painkillers and injuries that were indeed super bad but he still chose to compete (which is totally his own decision to make I am not judging it), but I fear he might get injured even more. I also don't really see the point of going to Russia - especially with the way RusFed is treating Covid - not only do I have to worry about him getting injured but also of him getting Covid and he also can't qualify for the GPF anyway and he would need to quarantine when returning to Japan etc...so to me it seems a lot of hassle for a competition he does not need to attend...

It could also very well be just a stunt by the Russian fed to sell tickets as Yuzu is not withdrawn yet. There was a massive resell for the NHK tickets after Yuzu's withdrawal, they may fear the same happening to CoR and unlike in Japan ppl may not buy those reselled tickets without a star attending (because let's be real Russian male skaters aren't the key attraction in Russia)

The reality is that getting a Visa, even plane tickets, doesn't say anything if he really participates. A visa has to be ordered at least a months before...and let's be real we don't really know much about the seriousness of his injury nor recovery time, we also don't know what Yuzu's plans are and also don't know if it is his decision when to announce his withdrawal. For example seems like JSF knew much earlier than we did that he was injured because Sota told he knew after SkAm that he would replace Yuzu at NHK so approximately two weeks earlier.

If Yuzu will participate or not Kogan at least made sure that Rostelecom Cup is in the talks again and gets attention.

Anyway I trust Yuzu and his decisions. If he choose to compete I am ready to cheer! ❤️

Yuzu always the mysterious man. Where he is reigns chaos! 🔥

Get well soon Yuzu! We are waiting for your return how long it might take! ❤️ 🙏

[satanfemme]

im Intrigued about how your day has gone now

assuming this is wrt my last text post (hdfbghfdghfg):

my blood smell is unfortunately not very interesting, my compulsive skin picking has just been acting up lately and a stress flair today made it WAY worse so just... I've got lots of open wounds, scabs, dried blood, and etc on my person at the moment. and the scent can build up lol. no shame in that though -- even if it's not ideal, it's just the physical reality of my body sometimes! so hopefully this only adds to the neurodivergent gothic charm I'm bringing into my workplace.

as for why I was covered in baby food tho!!!!! ohohohohohoh this one's actually a really good story, I'm glad u asked >:3c !! so I currently work with shelter dogs, most of whom have behavioral and/or medical concerns, which they're being treated for. (if ur squeamish about veterinary care or dog surgery, that's ur sign to stop reading btw).

we've currently got this brown papillon named Phineas who is ONLY three (3) years old!!!!! his fur is long and a bit unkempt, but silky too. and he's got massive buggy eyes that look a bit off to the sides, and he's very very small and cute. but unfortunately, when he first arrived last week, his lower jaw wasn't functional. I don't have any idea how it got to be that way, but basically it hung down loosely from his top jaw at a 90 degree angle, and he had no control over it; he couldn't move his lower jaw in any way nor close it nor eat with it. and naturally, his pink tongue danged out a good few inches as well, since he didn't have anything to hold it in place.

because of this, he can only eat wet dog food that's been mixed with water and mashed up into a soup. or....... he can eat baby food. >:3c I think you can already see where we're going here?

about two days ago or so, he had his lower jaw amputated. obviously, this means he's been extra moody, probably in some discomfort, emotional frustration and/or distress. but it also means he's got a massive cone compared to how tiny his body is, a completely new mouth shape (less of a hole now, believe it or not. the skin where his bottom jaw would've been has now been partially brought together), and ofc he's constantly on a LOT of painkillers which make him a lil drowsy and loopy at all times lol.

as u could probably guess, he wasn't a very neat eater to begin with; he'd basically lick up his mush paste with his long tongue -- aiming for his open mouth hole -- but in the process splash some of it onto his face and the floor as well. just a few streaks of meat water and/or baby food in his hair, nbd.

but, for all the aforementioned reasons, surgery recovery has made eating much harder for him. he doesn't even want to eat half the time, then when he does, he struggles to get it both around his cone while also into his mouth. he'd been giving up after only a few licks -- if any at all.

then TODAY!! I cracked the fucking code! I figured out how to get him to eat!!!! I've discovered the ideal bowl shape/size, the right mixture of slop to put in there, the whole deal. it's exciting! this is, like, my job at the most impactful! and -- now to finally answer ur question of why I was covered in baby food today -- as part of this process I:

hand-mixed baby food with pâté and water. I don't use spoons to mix cause I don't like washing them lol.

I hand-scooped this slop out and into a different (better) bowl once I realized the first one didn't work

I sat down on the floor with Phineas and his food

and I encouraged him to eat it. so, once he did, I was even in the splash zone.

that little boy's got a baby food biohazard range of a good few feet! watch out lol!!! 🥺 I love him.

& to make matters even messier: shortly after this whole ordeal, I had to hand feed a similar mush to Dahlia the beagle cause she's sick with a cough rn and will literally refuse to so much as look at her food unless someone (ie: me) is hand feeding pâté to her one finger-scoop at a time. having a sick beagle lick pâté off ur fingers is a formative experience btw, genuinely, I do recommend it. I love her too -- and she loves me 🥺

[yanderepuck]

I don't think I've talked about this!!

@spoopy-fish-writes

So Abigor is originally an angel, and angels aren't anything special. I see angels being like demons, just lil minions and do some shit for God, idk religious stuff.

But he sorta rebelled and started collecting souls himself for a personal army. Well this and his actions were discovered and was exiled, aka dubbed a fallen angel.

Buuut angels are assholes, Supernatural convinced me of that, bc well it makes sense too much power. So instead of just a simple exile, two other angels decided to torture him, and with him being a fallen angel, they don't see anything wrong with this.

So they tie him up, have him hanging from his arms, just high enough where he can't touch the ground. They cut him in multiple places to drain him of his blood then gave him demon blood in return, how they did this idk, they just did I didn't get that far. They do this for a few days, trying to get "holy blood" out of him. They cast some sort of spell so that he'll also grow a pair of horns, it will take some time, but he won't be able to be mistaken for an angel with them.

Now demon and angel blood shouldn't mix, it burns when they do, which is why no half demon and angel being exists, it burns too much for a baby to survive it. So the mixing off the two bloods burns his veins, and the demon blood can't keep his wings alive, but he has just enough angel blood to keep them alive, even though feathers are falling out and it hurts to use them.

This is 1200BC

When he ended up on Earth he ended up in China, and by the 5th century he ended up in what is now Italy Where he met Ambrosia

By the end of the 6th century is when he asked Ambrosia to marry him. A good part of him having success was because he had a flight advantage, which Ambrosia never had to deal with.

Though all of this his veins burn, half of his body is producing a demonic blood while the other half still produces a holy blood, which is unheard of. His body is legit burning from the inside out, causing him to not be able to use his full strength because he's always tired and in pain.

He was able to keep mortals out of their city up until the 8th century by creating wars among them, keeping them preoccupied, but then he couldn't keep it up because he was in too much pain. The pain got to the point where he had to take something equivalent to painkillers that one of the local elves made for him.

10th century is when they left the mainland to find somewhere else to live. The thing that the elf made helped until the end of the trip when they were almost out of supplies and he was doubled over in pain. Ambrosia is unaware of most of this. She knows he's a fallen angel, but doesn't know about the mixed blood.

Finally in the 12th century...24 centuries later, Abigor couldn't stand the pain in his wings any longer. It's where much of the pain came from. There's enough feathers where they don't look like they are actively dying, but they can't carry him any longer, so they are useless.

So one day when Ambrosia left to get things done, Abigor sat on the floor and spent a good amount of time trying to rip his wings out of his back. He should have had someone there with him, but he didn't want anyone to talk him out of it.

By doing this he also had to rip out the bones. This is the part that took time. He used a fairly thick wooden stick to bite down on at first, but he snapped it with no issue, so he got a rag to bite down on as he ripped a wing out. He could have passed out from pain but he had to force himself to stay awake, because he still had to rip out the other one. It took way too long and caused way too much pain.

Ambrosia was going back and could smell a lot of blood, she was more confused than concerned and followed the scent, which led her to Abigor who is basically bleeding out from the two giant wounds, which he is somehow trying to bandage himself.

She starts freaking out and yelling at him, trying to stop the bleeding, which isn't happening. She makes him lay down while she goes to find someone to help.

He's unconscious for a few days...which then ends up being weeks. Ambrosia is a wreck, but when he finally does wake up she slaps him and refuses to let him go.

His back is still very sensitive, he can't do anything for months while it heals, or else he's at risk of opening the wound and he might pass out from blood loss again.

[werevulvi]

I saw you posted something in a transmed Reddit about not beliving in nonbinary anymore, which I thought was interesting since you used to identify that way a year ago? What was the thought process that led to it?

I don't think I believed in nonbinary much even when I identified as that, tbh. Like, I can understand and rationalize it to a certain degree, but I never managed to actually make sense of it, and I've been battling with the concept for many years. Mostly the purpose or point of identifying as such, as it comes across as either escapism or re-defining gnc, quite a lot. I go back and forth between being against it and just kinda not giving a fuck. Like I don't wanna argue it with my nonbinary friends, and I'm fine with them identifying however they want, but I can't help that no matter how I've twisted and turned and shaken it about, it's still largely nonsensical to me, with a hint of... kinda sexist. So I suppose that's what I truly feel about it deep down. It's a shoe that will simply never fit my foot. Because I can't say that I didn't goddamn try.

When I previously identified as nonbinary, I intended it more so as a description of my messy relationship with gender and my atypical dysphoria, but I don't think it ever came across that way, which was a big reason I dropped it. I still essentially feel the same way about my gender, that I like having a mix of male and female sex characteristics, that I relate to manhood as well as womanhood, but I feel like the nonbinary label doesn't do justice to my experience as I previously hoped it would.

Basically, it feels like the nonbinary identity more so gives the impression of wanting to escape womanhood, or like my flavor of gender non-conformity is too trans or too masculine for a female to identify as a woman, and that doesn't sit right with me. Identifying as a woman, not just reluctantly accepting being female, although at times extremely challenging... is what feels empowering to me, and makes me feel proud. Not only proud of my hard earned physical masculinity due to having started at the point of being female, but also proud of my even more hard earned love for being female despite dysphoria.

That is what makes the difficult and painful identity of woman feel right for me, and is what makes it an identity for me. Nonbinary was like trashing all of that. A relief of pain, yes, but it wasn't dealing with the pain. Nonbinary was like a painkiller for a broken leg, while woman is the difficult and gruelling rehabilitation. Nonbinary feels like a quick fix to a seriously intense problem. A quick fix that in the long run does more damage than it attempts to fix.

Nonbinary also feels more like an anti-identity than explaining what someone is, wich makes it come across as kinda obnoxious to me, and I was a fool to think I could make it mean anything more than that. Then there's also the whole tucute/TRA vibe that comes along with it. Being a nonbinary gender critical, I felt like a joke.

Also, I used that label as a placeholder during a time I kinda knew I'm a woman, but struggled to accept/face the reality of it. I still do that thing, going through periods where I just need a break from conceptualizing myself as a woman, because it is painful and difficult, much like rehabilitation. But in hindsight, I don't think using the nonbinary label was a good way to go about that. I seems I find more comfort in the transman label during those times. At least it doesn't require much of any explanation. Most people know what a transman is, and those who don't are usually fairly fast to catch on, because they know what a transwoman is.

Thing is also that I switch perception of myself kinda fast. Like dissociatively, jarringly, kinda fast. So while I may switch labels annoyingly frequently, my identity, how view myself, actually stays the same. I just perceive it differently at different times. Kinda like the same symbol is sometimes a 6 and sometimes a 9, depending on how you flip it about. And I'm always spinning.

I've also been pushed to identify as nonbinary by a lot of people. Either because they tire of my constant flipping of labels, or because their perception of me is that of a clearly transgender person who isn't committing to either being a total transman or a total detrans woman. Which is true; I do choose sort of a middle path. But whether that middle path is to be called nonbinary, cusper, 24/7 drag king, dysphoric woman sometimes pretending to be a man, or medically masculinized female, ultimately comes down to nothing but semantics. But even though it's just semantics, synonyms are not equals. They're merely similar. And sometimes the difference doesn't matter, but other times it's hugely important. Like warm and hot are synonyms, but they don't mean the exact same things. And it matters which word I choose. If I call a sexy guy "warm" or a hug "hot" that would be weird, but flip the two and it makes sense. I'm a writer, I should know! Same goes for gender identities, I think.

And I can understand people having that perception of me, but the forced labeling of me as nonbinary did get to me, way more than I wanted to admit back then. I think that also contributed to why I tried out that label, thinking maybe people were right. But I was thoroughly pissed off when I realized I had been talked into it.

Currently, I mostly see myself as a woman who's just really masculine and kinda dysphoric. Pretty much how most radfems and other gender criticals perceive transmen, but that does lead to cognitive dissonance within myself, in whether I'm a transman or a woman, if transmen are women. Like it opens more questions than it offers answers. No one really expects a passable ftm-adjacent person to up and say "yeah I'm totally a woman, because ovaries" basically, which leads to confusion. It opens questions like "but don't you wanna be a man, if you transition?" which "yeah, kinda, I suppose I want that, yeah" leading to "so then you are a man?" to which I say "no wait you don't understand" and such the cycle continues. (Not a lot of radfems out there, I've noticed.)

So, usually these days I just don't announce that I'm a woman, and let people believe that I identify as a man. I sometimes even lie and say that's what I am, to avoid confrontation. So, I'm a woman who pretends to be a man, quite literally. Which is yeah, again, perception.

But I guess I just vibe with that kinda crude and old fashioned, borderline transphobic language for myself. Because I am a crude, old fashioned and borderline transphobic person. I'm still stuck in the 1980's. Nonbinary isn't my jive.

Nonbinary is a hip, modern and politically correct way of saying woman living as a man; gnc, androgynous or masculine woman, tomboy, butch, woman who hates being called woman, transman who hates being called man, person with atypical dysphoria, and so on. That's how I see it, and I think I always have. I tried to play nice, but now I'd rather just say what I actually think, because I realized that I'd still rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I'm not. And I am tired of always appealing to other people's feelings. Go breathe in a paper bag! I'm not your therapist!

I mean the general you. People can request to not talk about certain topics with me if they're offended by my opinions on it, but they can't demand me to agree with them just because they think their opinion is objective fact.

Ugh, people can disagree that I'm a woman if they want to as well. Most people do anyway. It might upset me but the solution is to find strength within myself to not give a shit, not to force people to think of me as a woman, but I digress.

[labyrinth-of-headcanons]

omg ok what about a scenario for a modern au where Koumei's s/o has had a really tough week and doesn't want to do anything for Easter, and Koumei's not used to his s/o being so lethargic and unwilling so he enlists the help of Kougyoku and Kouha to try and hype them up?

It wasn’t that unimaginable really, he just... wasn’t used to it. Normally it would be Koumei lying face down on the couch, mumbling words into the cushions and sighing like there’s no tomorrow, so he did understand his lovers reaction after having that long and exhausting week but seeing them like this was still so unusual.Walking over to place a glass of water and some painkillers - at least he thought they could need it after hearing some cries in between the sighs - onto the coffee table nearby, he’d carefully push his s/o’s legs a bit to the side so he could sit next to them. Giving them a clumsy back rub and listening to their tone of voice getting more happy, he’d flinch a little at their right knee pressing into his back, as they’d finally turn around. 

“You know, I think I just want to rest this weekend. No decorating tomorrow and please no celebration this year.”, they’d groan, one arm put over their eyes to shield them from the light and the other one grabbing for the hem of his shirt.Carefully pulling their hand away and give it a small squeeze, Koumei would nod, wondering if they were looking from beneath their arm.

“If that’s what you want, my love. But are you sure? Don’t you usually love Easter? What if you regret it on Sunday?”Twisting their hand out of his, he could finally look them into their eyes as they’d sit up, rubbing their temples.

“No, no I definitely won’t. I just... I’m not in the mood for it you know? This week took all the anticipation from me. I am sorry, I know it’s a big thing for you- or well, your siblings.”Nodding again he’d give them a smile, promising that he’d take care of everything and leaning forward, give them a kiss on the forehead.

“I can not accept that!”Kougyoku’s voice - usually a tender, sweet thing to hear - was definitely too loud at this time of day. Koumei would have called her the first thing in the morning, since they were supposed to decorate for the dinner tomorrow, and had wished for her to be just like: Oh yeah, okay! Of course it wasn’t like this.

“How are we supposed to do this? The others already bought the things for tomorrow evening and - woah wait, did you tell them already?”

“No I didn’t but we can always have the dinner at your or their houses, it’s not that big of a thing is it?”

“It is!”

Giving a loud sigh at her reaction, Koumei would pour the freshly brewed coffee into two cups, asking her to overthink once more, for his s/o’s sake. But the girl wasn’t really convinced from the idea to change their big plans and would make sure that he knows.

“Then tell me, what else is there to do?”

“We could... no, you know what. I am coming over. Give me five minutes!”

“Kougyoku it’s eight in the morning, please don’t-” He would be interrupted by the peeping sound as she had already hung up on him.

Coffee in hand he’d take a few second to look at the display of his cellphone, wondering how she’d want to make it in five minutes, as their apartments were not that far apart but also at least triple that time. Taking a sip of his drink, Koumei would figure that at least he should tell his partner who was coming over, fearing that it might shock them to see his sibling on their doorstep so early in the morning.

As expected, his s/o wasn’t that happy. Usually they did love having Kougyoku around but since it was more of an unpleasant visit to attend, they’d wish that there was a way to skip it somehow.But the door bell rang, surprisingly half an hour later, Koumei’s lover giving him a pat on the knee before getting up from the couch to open the door.

“Kougyoku! And... Kouha? What a surprise to see you... two?”Intentionally raising their voice they’d look back to Koumei, the later only leaning forward to see his little half-brother, standing next to Kougyoku, looking a little grim and seemingly lacking sleep.After coming inside the four of them would take place at the dining table, an awkward silence over them, it would be Kouha to speak up at first.

“So we heard you had-”, he’d start only to be interrupted by the way more lively Kougyoku, but he didn’t seem to mind so much, as he’d stifle a yawn.

“- an awful week! And we can totally understand that you need some rest. But just sleeping won’t do! So we thought we’d come over to cheer you up! And that’s why we thought about giving you a surprise and...”

While Kougyoku would lean down to grab one of the cartons the two of them had brought along, the couple would exchange a quick, worried look, awaiting the surprise with mixed feelings.

Gently plopping a small, white bunny in front of them - the couple respectively jumping a little at the sudden living animal before them - as the girl would bestow them with a confident big smile and finish her sentence.

“... got you a real Easter bunny! It’s cute right?”

Watching the little animal for a moment in silence, Kouha would snort at their shocked faces and tap onto to surface to catch it’s attention, making it move forward.

“Kougyoku that’s nuts, get the animal off my table instantly!”, Koumei would demand after seeing the shy thing scamper from one side to the other. What he didn’t expect was the reaction afterwards not only from Kougyoku but also from his s/o.

“But brother!” -  “But Koumei!”

His s/o carefully picking it up into their arm and petting it’s white fur as they’d state just how adorable it is and get a lot of approval from Kougyoku, Koumei could only look to Kouha for help, but the later would only shrug with his shoulders, whispering that it was their sisters idea and he just tagged along for the joy of their reactions to it.

With Kougyoku’s enthusiasm about how inspiring it would be to have their Easter fest with a real bunny and Kouha actually bringing forth a cage and fence for the little one to be put in, they’d actually achieve what they came for: Koumei’s s/o getting more and more into the mood and without realizing it they eventually would have decorated the apartment and prepared the food for the dinner the next day, all while talking about bunny care and what to feed them, Kouha being the one to actually know all this things, since he’d have done a little more than just “tag along”. So to say, he listened to the caretaker and even made sure to buy the necessary supplies. And so they’d even get Koumei’s lover to agree to the plans again, seemingly taking off some tension of both the younger siblings.

And while he could only watch them talk so vividly next to the cage, while the bunny nibbled on a piece of carrot, a smile came up on Koumei’s lips, while looking at his s/o. Seeing them happy and relaxed, made him think that this idea was pretty stupid but since it worked for his beloved to cheer up again, it was worth the trouble.

Extra:

“Oh I almost forgot, congratulations.” 

Looking at his older brother Koumei would raise one of his eye brows. The dinner would be over and most of his siblings would be gathered around the small animal to get a good look at it again for like the sixth time this day. That meant all of them but Koumei himself and Kouen. The later would take one more sip of his wine before continuing to speak.

“I mean the rabbit. Congratulation on expanding your family, or not?”

Koumei’s mouth opening a little, taken aback by the statement, as his last information was that the little bunny wouldn’t stay at their house after this festivity.

“No wait, we are not going to keep it. I mean, I guess Kougyoku is taking it with her?”

“No I don’t think so. Kougyoku’s apartment complex doesn’t allow any kind of animals and I mean, it was your sweetheart who gave it that, well, name.”

“What? Love, did you give it a name?”

His s/o turning around, along with all the relatives, after being called out, gave him a confused look, petting the small bunny in their arms.

“I sure did, you know, it came to me after it fell over and slept immediately.”

“Oh god, please don’t say it.”, Koumei pleaded, already covering his ears with his hands and ignoring the suppressed laughter and the giggles from his siblings.

“Fluffmei!”

[keeganmsod156]

KRATOM: THE UNPALATABLE PLANT THAT MIGHT ASSIST OPIOID JUNKIES-- In Case THE DEA DOESN'T BAN IT

The girl up in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. It is a small community, upscale and charmingly New England. Heroin was really readily available there, and great.

She stopped going to school, stopped doing much of anything besides scoring drugs, doing drugs, stealing stuff, selling stuff, scoring more drugs, doing more drugs. "This was the beginning of the New England heroin epidemic," she states.

That experience was mirrored around the country. In 2014, overdoses from heroin or prescription opioids killed 30,000 individuals-- four times as lots of than in 1999. Today, 3,900 brand-new individuals begin utilizing prescription opioids for non-medical purposes every day. Nearly 600 start taking heroin. The yearly health and social costs of the prescription opioid crisis in America? $55 billion.

Campellone kicked her habit at 19-- with rehabilitation, suboxone, and a lot of determination-- and moved out west, to the San Francisco Bay Area. Her managers and co-workers presented her to a huge selection of plant-based products, amongst them a tart-tasting leaf called kratom. It was also a good painkiller, so she 'd take it when she was harmed, or on her menstrual cycle.

And, on two occasions, she utilized it to assist with the withdrawal signs following heroin regressions. "Nothing actually feels great when you're withdrawing from heroin, so no matter what you're taking, you're still in pain and it's pretty excruciating," states Campellone. But kratom assisted some.

Campellone never needs a prescription to get kratom. And when she does not take it, she does not crave it like she craved heroin. She was shocked when, on August 30, the DEA revealed that it was pursuing an emergency situation scheduling of mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, the active alkaloids in kratom.

The DEA Takes an Exception to Kratom

Biologically, kratom acts enough like an opioid that DEA considers it a threat to public safety. The firm prepared to use a regulative mechanism called emergency scheduling to place it in the very same limiting classification as lsd, marijuana, and heroin . This category, Schedule I, is scheduled for exactly what the DEA thinks about the most harmful drugs-- those with no redeeming medical worth, and a high capacity for abuse.

Prior to they completed the scheduling, something unexpected took place. An advocacy group called the American Kratom Association (yes, AKA) raised $400,000 from its impassioned subscription-- excellent for a not-for-profit that normally raises $80,000 a year-- to spend for lawyers and lobbyists , who got Congress on their side.

On September 30, agents both liberal and conservative -- from Orrin Hatch to Bernie Sanders-- penned a letter to the DEA. "Given the long reported history of kratom usage, coupled with the general public's sentiment that it is a safe alternative to prescription opioids, we believe utilizing the regular review procedure would offer for a much-needed discussion amongst all stakeholders," they wrote.

The DEA lifted the notice of emergency scheduling, and opened a public comment duration until December 1. Galloway could not recall another circumstances when the DEA responded to public outcry like this.

As of this writing, those remarks number almost 11,000. They are from: individuals who utilize kratom to eliminate persistent discomfort or endometriosis or gout; people who utilize kratom to treat anxiety or wean off opioids or alcohol; individuals who stated it conserved their life. "It doesn't permit you to escape your problems," says Susan Ash, founder of the AKA, who utilized kratom to deal with discomfort and escape an addiction to prescription opioids. "It instead has you face them complete on due to the fact that it does not numb your brain at all, and it does not make you feel stoned like medical marijuana does. And yet it's reliable on so many things, like pain and stress and anxiety and anxiety."

That guarantee becomes part of the problem. Scientists understand almost absolutely nothing about kratom-- how its compounds operate in concert, exactly what it can actually deal with, how addicting it might be, what counts as a safe dose. And definitely insufficient to support all the life-changing claims extolled in public remarks, and by the many kratom users we interviewed. In the absence of great science and the tiniest hint of policy, Ash and potentially millions of other users are winging it. And ought to the DEA follow through on its promise to schedule kratom, these individuals will end up being criminals over night.

For Ash, that's entirely unacceptable. "I want the future to appear like this is your next coffee," she says. "I 'd like it to be offered in Starbucks. I'm not even kidding."

An Herb Wades Into an Opioid Crisis

Kratom is not an opioid-- really, it is in the coffee household-- but its active molecules bind to the exact same neuronal receptors as opioids like heroin, oxycodone, morphine, and codeine . Typically, those drugs offer users a sensation of ecstasy and dull their pain-- that's why David *, a former boarding school teacher, started using prescription opioids to treat his pain from ski injuries. He ended up being addicted, when his prescriptions went out, he changed to heroin. "I became a high working user," he says. "My addiction was never ever identified at my place of employment, although I do believe my habits became more erratic."

When David ultimately committed himself to rehab, his medical professionals weaned him off heroin using suboxone, a mix of two drugs-- buprenorphine, a partial opioid that quenches the body's chemical thirst, and naltrexone, which obstructs any blissful opioid sensations. However suboxone can give users symptoms of withdrawal, not to mention a dulled sense of truth. And users like David can still find ways to abuse it. "Dependence on that was different from heroin, and it ended up being simpler to take more suboxone to a greater high, or offering it to score heroin once again," he states.

As of this writing, however, David has actually been clean for 18 months-- success that he associates to kratom. Given that it binds to the very same receptors as opioids, kratom users report comparable blissful and pain-killing effects, however they're silenced. After other 12 step recovering addicts presented David to the plant, it helped him restore his life-- he did ultimately lose that boarding school teaching task-- and deal with the physical discomfort that got him hooked on opioids to begin with.

Because it mirrors opioids in other ways, the concern is that kratom is likewise addicting. However once again, the real science is sparse. David and several other users we talked with said kratom is habit forming, to some degree, though one survey in Southeast Asia found that for people using it to kick an opioid addiction, the reliance is far less most likely to disrupt their lives. "When I take kratom, that addicting part of me kicks in and it ends up being regular," says Jeffrey *, another former opioid addict. "It doesn't toss my life out of control, but it bugs me when people say things like, 'it's not more addictive than coffee.' I believe that hinders us making inroads with the regulators."

There is no doubt, nevertheless, that kratom is less harmful than opioids-- even take-home synthetics like https://www.drugs.com/illicit/kratom.html suboxone. "The 2 primary alkaloids in kratom, 7-hydroxy and mitragynine , appear to have a low ceiling for respiratory anxiety," states pharmacologist Jack Henningfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who with the consulting firm Pinney Associates has actually encouraged the AKA on kratom scheduling.

In its preliminary notification of emergency situation scheduling for kratom, the DEA did connect the drug to 15 deaths in between 2014 and 2016. Folks utilizing kratom to wean themselves off opioids may still be taking those opioids.

And some deaths might be attributed to contamination: Because kratom isn't really strictly managed, bad stars can and do lace the plant with real opioids, like the exceptionally powerful artificial opioid fentanyl. Well, we've got a special kratom item,'" Henningfield says. The question is whether the DEA's scheduling is the ideal kind.

Regulatory Wranglings

The FDA might help prevent contamination-related deaths by strictly managing kratom as a supplement, rather than the DEA scheduling it as a drug. "FDA has a lot of authority to in fact assist customers understand that what they're purchasing is exactly what is labeled, and have at least some level of guarantee," Henningfield says. "It's not near to the drug requirement, however it's much better than something that's illicitly marketed."

But the FDA is in fact also critical in advising the DEA on the scheduling of drugs. "The decision to permanently arrange any drug is not a DEA unilateral choice," states Steve Bell, a DEA spokesperson. Think about the regulative pathway of suboxone. The FDA approved the drug in 2002, and the Department of Health and Human Services recommended that the DEA put it in Schedule III, which the DEA accepted. This puts the drug in the exact same classification as Tylenol with codeine: It's offered for doctors to recommend for narcotic dependency, but is still a illegal drug.

If the DEA places kratom here, nobody can touch the stuff. And researchers will have a harder time learning how kratom works, and supporting, or refuting, the claims users make with tough data. (Consider cannabis, also a Schedule I drug.

All that research study costs cash. Which is kratom's catch-22: The DEA wishes to schedule the drug due to the fact that they think it may position a danger to public health, however the only method to confirm (or refute) the DEA's worries is with more research study-- which will be beside difficult should the DEA follow through on its promise to schedule.

Among the couple of scientists studying kratom is the University of Florida's Oliver Grundmann, who is ending up an online survey of almost 10,000 users. And the data (preliminary, though Grundmann plans to publish a paper in the coming months) reveals a various profile of kratom users than you 'd expect from an " illegal" leisure drug.

Not quite the celebration drug demographic. And the public remarks on the DEA's scheduling notification reflect that population. Many of those folks are utilizing kratom to either wean themselves off prescription opioids or use the drug alone to treat discomfort.

Still, that's self-medication using a item that may be polluted. "The industry requires to come together," says Susan Ash of the AKA.

Grundmann says he comprehends the DEA's inspiration. "They do not wish to have another drug out there that could possibly contribute to the currently devastating opioid epidemic that some neighborhoods are experiencing," he says. "But on the other side, we also have to think about that the 4 to 5 million estimated users of kratom might deal with a health crisis of their own if kratom becomes scheduled.".

Anecdotes and Evidence.

Ariana Campellone takes her kratom with coconut milk and protein powder. She blends, watering down with water to take the lumps out https://americanaddictioncenters.org/kratom/does-it-get-you-high of the mix. "Coffee offers me a noticeable spike and high, and can feel when I'm coming down," she states.

The DEA's public remark period closes tomorrow. The agency states it will think about those remarks together with the FDA's clinical and medical evaluation before proceeding to schedule. The FDA did not react in time to discuss this story.

However, if the DEA follows through on its previous intent to schedule, Campellone states she'll still continue to use kratom. "Just like people have continued to use cannabis where it's not legal," she states. In useful terms, it implies getting ahold of kratom would probably get more personally risky and expensive . Those expenses, those dangers-- those troubles-- may not be worth it to some kratom users. And then the not-so-small neighborhood of recuperating opioid addicts lose something available, and perhaps rather great.

[keeganmsod156]

KRATOM: THE RUGGED TREE WHICH MIGHT SUPPORT OPIOID JUNKIES-- ON THE OCCASION THAT THE DEA DOESN'T BAN IT

The girl up in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. It is a small neighborhood, wealthy and charmingly New England. Heroin was very available there, and great.

By age 15, Campellone was a day-to-day user. She stopped going to school, stopped doing much of anything besides scoring drugs, doing drugs, taking things, offering stuff, scoring more drugs, doing more drugs. "This was the start of the New England heroin epidemic," she says. "Everyone I knew was overdosing, passing away, lives breaking down, people contracting diseases from sharing needles."

That experience was mirrored around the country. In 2014, overdoses from heroin or prescription opioids eliminated 30,000 individuals-- four times as numerous than in 1999. Today, 3,900 new individuals begin utilizing prescription opioids for non-medical functions every day. Nearly 600 start taking heroin. The yearly health and social costs of the prescription opioid crisis in America? $55 billion.

Campellone kicked her routine at 19-- with rehab, suboxone, and a lot of willpower-- and moved out west, to the San Francisco Bay Area. Her employers and colleagues presented her to a variety of plant-based items, among them a tart-tasting leaf called kratom. It was likewise a good painkiller, so she 'd take it when she was hurt, or on her menstrual cycle.

And, on two events, she utilized it to assist with the withdrawal signs following heroin relapses. "Nothing truly feels good when you're withdrawing from heroin, so no matter what you're taking, you're still in discomfort and it's pretty unbearable," says Campellone. Kratom helped some.

Campellone never needs a prescription to get kratom. And when she does not take it, she doesn't crave it like she craved heroin. She was shocked when, on August 30, the DEA revealed that it was pursuing an emergency scheduling of mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, the active alkaloids in kratom.

The DEA Takes an Exception to Kratom

Biologically, kratom acts enough like an opioid that DEA considers it a hazard to public safety. The company prepared to utilize a regulatory system called emergency scheduling to place it in the very same limiting category as lsd, marijuana, and heroin . This category, Schedule I, is reserved for exactly what the DEA considers the most unsafe drugs-- those without any redeeming medical worth, and a high potential for abuse.

Prior to they finalized the scheduling, something unexpected took place. An advocacy group called the American Kratom Association (yes, AKA) raised $400,000 from its impassioned subscription-- outstanding for a not-for-profit that usually raises $80,000 a year-- to pay for legal representatives and lobbyists , who got Congress on their side.

On September 30, agents both conservative and liberal -- from Orrin Hatch to Bernie Sanders-- penned a letter to the DEA. "Given the long reported history of kratom usage, paired with the public's belief that it is a safe option to prescription opioids, our company believe utilizing the regular evaluation procedure would offer a much-needed discussion among all stakeholders," they wrote.

It worked. The DEA raised the notice of emergency situation scheduling, and opened a public remark duration until December 1. When was the last time the DEA withdrawed anything? "This is unusual," states Gantt Galloway, a Bay Area pharmacologist concentrating on treatments for addicting drugs. When the DEA reacted to public outcry like this, Galloway might not recall another circumstances.

Since this writing, those comments number almost 11,000. They are from: individuals who utilize kratom to alleviate persistent pain or endometriosis or gout; individuals who utilize kratom to deal with depression or wean off opioids or alcohol; people who stated it conserved their life. "It doesn't permit you to leave your issues," says Susan Ash, creator of the AKA, who used kratom to deal with discomfort and get away an addiction to prescription opioids. "It rather has you face them full on due to the fact that it doesn't numb your brain at all, and it does not make you feel stoned like medical cannabis does. But it's effective on numerous things, like discomfort and anxiety and anxiety."

And definitely not enough to back up all the life-altering claims proclaimed in public comments, and by the many kratom users we spoke with. And must the DEA follow through on its pledge to set up kratom, these people will end up being criminals over night.

For Ash, that's totally undesirable. "I desire the future to look like this is your next coffee," she says.

An Herb Wades Into an Opioid Crisis

Kratom is not an opioid-- really, it is in the coffee household-- but its active molecules bind to the very same neuronal receptors as opioids like heroin, morphine, oxycodone, and codeine . Usually, those drugs offer users a sensation of euphoria and dull their discomfort-- that's why David *, a previous boarding school teacher, began utilizing prescription opioids to treat his pain from ski injuries.

When David ultimately committed himself to rehab, his doctors weaned him off heroin using suboxone, a mix of two drugs-- buprenorphine, a partial opioid that satiates the body's chemical thirst, and naltrexone, which blocks any euphoric opioid sensations. However suboxone can provide users symptoms of withdrawal, not to point out a dulled sense of truth. And users like David can still find methods to abuse it. "Dependence on that was various from heroin, and it ended up being easier to take more suboxone to a higher high, or selling it to score heroin once again," he states.

Since this writing, though, David has been clean for 18 months-- success that he credits to kratom. Considering that it binds to the exact same receptors as opioids, kratom users report similar blissful and pain-killing effects, but they're silenced. After other 12 action recuperating addicts introduced David to the plant, it helped him reconstruct his life-- he did eventually lose that boarding school teaching task-- and handle the physical discomfort that https://www.drugs.com/illicit/kratom.html got him hooked on opioids to begin with.

Since it mirrors opioids in other methods, the concern is that kratom is also addictive. Once again, the genuine science is sporadic. David and a number of other users we spoke to stated kratom is practice forming, to some degree, though one survey in Southeast Asia discovered that for people using it to kick an opioid dependency, the reliance is far less most likely to disrupt their lives. "When I take kratom, that addicting part of me begins and it ends up being habitual," states Jeffrey *, another previous opioid addict. "It does not throw my life out of control, however it bugs me when people say things like, 'it's not more addicting than coffee.' I think that hinders us making inroads with the regulators."

There is no doubt, nevertheless, that kratom is less damaging than opioids-- even take-home synthetics like suboxone. They do it through respiratory depression-- they slow your breath until you stop breathing entirely when opioids kill. Kratom's chemical composition does not appear to produce the exact same results. "The 2 main alkaloids in mitragynine, kratom and 7-hydroxy , appear to have a low ceiling for respiratory anxiety," states pharmacologist Jack Henningfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who with the consulting firm Pinney Associates has advised the AKA on https://americanaddictioncenters.org/kratom/does-it-get-you-high kratom scheduling. "And that's why if you look hard, it's extremely challenging to discover deaths attributable purely to kratom."

Notification he stated "purely." In its preliminary notification of emergency situation scheduling for kratom, the DEA did connect the drug to 15 deaths in between 2014 and 2016. But that accounting disregards that all but among those individuals had other compounds in their systems. Folks utilizing kratom to wean themselves off opioids may still be taking those opioids.

And some deaths might be attributed to contamination: Because kratom isn't really strictly managed, bad actors can and do lace the plant with actual opioids, like the incredibly effective artificial opioid fentanyl. Well, we've got a special kratom item,'" Henningfield states. The question is whether the DEA's scheduling is the best kind.

Regulatory Wranglings

The FDA might assist avoid contamination-related deaths by strictly regulating kratom as a supplement, instead of the DEA scheduling it as a drug. "FDA has a great deal of authority to actually help consumers understand that what they're purchasing is what is labeled, and have at least some level of guarantee," Henningfield states. "It's not close to the drug requirement, however it's better than something that's illegally marketed."

"The choice to completely set up any drug is not a DEA unilateral choice," states Steve Bell, a DEA representative. The FDA authorized the drug in 2002, and the Department of Health and Human Services recommended that the DEA put it in Schedule III, which the DEA accepted.

If the DEA places kratom here, no one can touch the stuff. And researchers will have a more difficult time discovering how kratom works, and supporting, or refuting, the claims users make with difficult information. (Consider marijuana, also a Schedule I drug.

All that research study costs cash. Which is kratom's catch-22: The DEA wishes to set up the drug since they believe it might posture a threat to public health, however the only method to validate (or refute) the DEA's worries is with more research-- which will be beside difficult must the DEA follow through on its guarantee to schedule.

Among the couple of scientists studying kratom is the University of Florida's Oliver Grundmann, who is finishing up an online survey of nearly 10,000 users. And the information (preliminary, though Grundmann plans to release a paper in the coming months) exposes a various profile of kratom users than you 'd expect from an "illicit" recreational drug.

" The age range is more geared towards an older population," says Grundmann, "which is most likely to experience work related injuries or severe or persistent discomfort from another medical condition." Over half of users are in between the ages of 31 and 50. Eighty-two percent completed a minimum of some college. Nearly 30 percent of participants draw in a household earnings of over $75,000 a year. Not the celebration drug group. And the public comments on the DEA's scheduling notification reflect that population. A number of those folks are using kratom to either wean themselves off prescription opioids or utilize the drug alone to treat discomfort.

Still, that's self-medication utilizing a product that might be polluted. "The industry has to come together," says Susan Ash of the AKA. "There's no chance the FDA is going to feel comfy not seeing this as a set up illegal drug without a dedication from the industry that there will appertain procedures put in location." Better labeling, for example, would be a start.

Grundmann states he comprehends the DEA's motivation. "They do not want to have another drug out there that might potentially contribute to the currently devastating opioid epidemic that some communities are experiencing," he says. "But on the other side, we also require to consider that the 4 to 5 million estimated users of kratom may face a health crisis of their own if kratom becomes set up.".

Anecdotes and Evidence.

Ariana Campellone takes her kratom with coconut milk and protein powder. Then, she blends, watering down with water to take the swellings out of the mix. By itself, the stuff tastes terrible. Like oversteeped tea, or a mouthful of peat. She believes the comparison to coffee is a bit overstated. "Coffee offers me a visible spike and high, and can feel when I'm boiling down," she says.

The DEA's public remark period closes tomorrow. The firm says it will think about those comments together with the FDA's medical and clinical evaluation before proceeding to schedule. The FDA did not respond in time to talk about this story.

If the DEA follows through on its previous intent to schedule, Campellone states she'll still continue to utilize kratom. "Just like people have actually continued to utilize marijuana where it's not legal," she says. In useful terms, it suggests getting ahold of kratom would most likely get more costly and personally dangerous . Those expenses, those risks-- those hassles-- may not deserve it to some kratom users. And then the not-so-small neighborhood of recovering opioid addicts lose something available, and potentially quite excellent.