#Don't do drugs and alcohol

[befuddled-calico-whump]

Hunter (Corporate AU)

- one of Rex's personal bodyguards

- chronically lonely

- slightly more socially adjusted but still treated like shit

(more lore under the cut, cw for themes of drug use/addiction)

- Hunter's childhood years/teens are mostly unchanged here, but instead of bouncing directly to organized crime after gang #3, he ends up alone for some time

- no friends, plenty of enemies, and in a really bad mental place, Hunter started taking one-off jobs as a drug mule to stay afloat. One job resulted in him getting paid with the product he was running, and at that point he was close enough to rock bottom that he said what the hell

- this started a destructive eleven-month cycle of him saying "never again", fighting with himself about it, and then having a shit day and cracking. The periods of self-argument got shorter and shorter with each time he caved

- he met Rex outside a bar purely coincidentally. They wound up having a one-night-stand (Hunter just wanted to sleep somewhere warm)

- later, Rex found him passed out in an alley and called an ambulance for him. In the hospital, he offered to pay the bill if Hunter came to work for him

- he made him get clean before officially taking the job (one of the only decent things he's done). Since then, Hunter's taken up nicotine and drinking as a legal substitution

- Rex isn't the most moral CEO. His bodyguards are there to protect him, yes, but they also act as enforcers and collectors

- he saved Hunter mostly for selfish reasons. He got rebuffed during their first encounter and liked the idea of taking back that control. Plus, having a guard dog who owed him everything sounded very appealing

- anyways my skrunkly boy looks cute all dressed up

[n64retro]

Mario Party (Hudson Soft, Nintendo, 1999) magazine ad.

[queenjunothegreat]

Been considering writing angst recently, and I've fixated on this AU where the Physicians Cure doesn't work so Leo never comes back and Jason and Piper wind up in this incredibly toxic marriage where they're in this awful cycle of "You make me miserable beyond words and I can't help hurting you with everything I do and we hate each other but we also love each other more than anything and we're both terrified of losing the other half of our heart so we're both desperately clinging to each other spitting venom and seeing who can dig our claws in deeper." And Jason absolutely hates himself now that he's become the worst parts of both of his parents because he's constantly drinking and cheating on his wife with every Latino twink he claps eyes on (which is getting more pathetic every year he gets older). Meanwhile Piper has completely dedicated herself to work to an unhealthy level and she's used her Charmspeak to up her meds way too much and she knows she's breaking a poor woman's heart because they've been having an emotional affair for nearly a year now and she keeps promising that she's finally going to leave Jason but she knows she never will. None of their friends talk to them much any more because it seems like the two of them are deliberately making each other and themselves worse and nobody can stomach what they've become. But they still love each other. God, they love each other so fucking much, and every few months they'll break down in sobs, holding each other close and promising that they'll get better. And maybe for a little while they do, but when they look at each other and say, "This time we'll make it," they both know they're lying.

[bad-traffic-smp-ideas]

Limited life but their all on meth, coke and maybe some alcool too

They will never recover from that ever I think 😭

[theminecraftbee]

There’s a flier someone’s left on the bus. Something shaming a—company logo he doesn’t recognize, as he shoves it aside to grab the last seat in the back that usually means he and Gem don’t have to sit next to anyone else—for “desecration of the Carrows Life”. Alright; with a logo and a slogan like that, it’s either a religious nut job or one of the people real mad at the Church about the demons.

Yeah, sure. He’s exhausted. Impulse can’t really bring himself to care about neon-yellow fliers in the dead of night on the bus.

Just another hour and practically every single stop down the line, and he’ll be home. He’s glad there’s a late-night bus down here; enough people come and go from these streets at two am that they make some poor bus driver do the route.

Next to him, Gem grumbles as she removes her makeup. “Impulse, why do I keep getting the waterproof kind?”

“Hard to dance and still look good if it doesn’t stand up to sweat,” Impulse says, settling into his seat as the bus starts moving again. “Don’t see why that should make it that much harder to remove, unless you’re sweating acetone these days, but they don’t pay me to know how your makeup works.”

“No, they pay you to be your stupid big protective butt. You absolutely know how my makeup works,” Gem says.

“You could wait until we aren’t on a moving bus to take it off?” Impulse offers.

“Nah. I need something to do so I don’t fall asleep, and I’m not opening my other bag until we’re both safely at home.”

“Yeah, fair,” Impulse says, not glancing at it for too long. Gem had a good night tonight. Sometimes, he’s jealous of the nights she has; the amount people are willing to throw at her sometimes is insane. Most of the time, though, he’s just glad he’s paid a regular salary to stand in the corner and occasionally show people exactly why he’s so big if they act up.

(Someone’s got to do it.)

The doors open. The unmistakeable smell of someone on way, way too much weed wafts through the doors. Impulse sighs. There’s a reason they sit in the back.

“What are the odds we get lucky and get home early?” Gem says. “My knee hurts.”

Impulse looks at her sharply. “You didn’t say anything during the show.”

Gem laughs. “Relax, relax. Not that bad. Nothing a bit of icyhot won’t solve, or one of your little…” She wiggles her fingers.

“You need to tell me these things before you dance on them, Gem,” Impulse says. “One of these days, I won’t be able to fix it! Then what are you gonna do about your knee, huh?”

“Uhuh. And the bruise on your face…?”

“He was drunk,” Impulse says. “It’s barely a scratch. Or, uh, well, it’s a bruise, but…”

“If I were any good at healing,” Gem says.

“I’ll ice it!” Impulse says, putting his hands up. “Besides, I don’t need my face to do my job. Might make guys respect me more?”

The bus stops. A few more people get on. There’s a bit of shouting from a drunk guy, and it makes Impulse look up on instinct, both his and Gem’s awareness hovering around their bag. Gem has a nasty curse on it if anyone but her tries to grab it, but these days…

The drunkard isn’t looking their way. He settles down again. Impulse doesn’t.

“One day, one of us will get a car, and we’ll just drive,” Impulse mutters.

“And pay for parking?” Gem asks.

“Well, it’s the thought that counts,” Impulse says.

The bus stops. Impulse looks up at the sign, just to make sure they aren’t near their stop. They aren’t. He almost looks down.

There’s a feeling in his gut. He doesn’t ignore gut feelings after as long as he’s been doing what he does. He puts a hand in his jacket. He doesn’t actually carry a gun; people think he does, but he’s fairly effective at threatening without it, and if all else fails, he does have a thick vest he’d bought with his own money after the only time he’d been shot. It had taken all of his savings, but it had been worth it.

He curls his fingers instead around the lucky charm Gem had given him after they’d become roommates and tries to focus on the feeling. There's something scraping nearby. A horrible scraping, like talons against brick, or maybe more like death clawing against soil.

The bus starts moving again. The drunks stay drunk. The fellow exhausted club and bar workers stay exhausted. The guy who’s high out of his mind doesn’t even blink.

A woman who had gotten on the bus, though, approaches them. Gem stiffens. Impulse is hyper-aware of the bag full of the night’s tips that Gem has with her.

“Hello. Sorry for interrupting,” the woman says. She’s tall. She has long, light brown hair that she hasn’t tied back. She’s wearing a long overcoat. It looks second-hand, but not properly so, like it’s being worn by someone who doesn’t quite know how to fit into second-hand clothes, or perhaps doesn’t quite know how not to fit.

There's bruises on her face, too. A split lip and a black eye and a bit of blood on the collar of her shirt.

"You look lost," Impulse says without thinking. The woman blinks.

"Oh! Yes, I suppose you could say that," she says. "That's..."

Impulse slowly takes his hand out of his jacket. Her voice is even more lost, somehow. Impeccably put-together. Very hard to read. But Impulse, he has to read people for a living, and this is a woman who is lost.

"I was just here because you two look the most aware and fit on the bus," she says.

"Oh, I'm not all that fit," Gem lies to the woman's face. "I mean, just look at me! I'm delicate!"

Impulse has seen Gem's abs. She's not delicate, she just puts on a show of being—still not delicate, actually, but the kind of not-delicate men like, not the kind of not-delicate she actually is. It's a fine line.

The woman raises an eyebrow. "Okay," she says. "I'm just—there are demons. Not far. I got away from them, but they might be following you."

"They're following you?" says Gem.

"Shhh," says the woman.

"Fine," Impulse says. "They're following you. Why? And why did you get on the bus?"

The woman is silent for a moment. "I don't think they'll catch up to us," she says. "I don't—I don't have another place to go back to, right now. I'm a bit... I don't mean to put anyone in danger. You two are the most fit looking people on here, is all. If danger did happen..."

Impulse feels something in him crack. He looks at Gem. It wouldn't be the first time the two of them have helped someone down on their luck off the streets. Of course, it's not entirely out of the goodness of their hearts, all the time, but, well, Impulse is still Impulse and Gem puts up with it and this world doesn't work if people don't help each other, Impulse has always said.

Gem shrugs and nods.

"Sit down. You can get off at our stop. My name's Gem, by the way."

The woman, slowly, sits down in a seat across from them.

"Impulse," Impulse says.

The woman opens her mouth. The woman closes it. "You can call me Griba," she says, finally.

Impulse quirks an eyebrow. "I can call you?"

"Hey, that sounds like—wasn't there someone with a name like that on the news recently?" Gem says.

The woman grimaces. "You could say that," she says.

Gem and Impulse look at each other. They look back at the woman. "Fine then. Keep your secrets," Gem says imperiously, and her tone works, because it makes—Griba, Impulse supposes, until she wants to give them her real name—laugh.

"At least until we find out if the demons get me," she says agreeably.

The bus stops again. They all tense. One person gets off and no one gets on. The bus starts moving again.

"One of these days," Impulse mutters.

"You've got to finish the sentence," Gem says. "Don't leave me hanging like that!"

"Is this an ongoing thing?" Griba says, and they continue onwards together.

[brogatory]

Shit barely fucki works i have to gt fuckgn drunk 2

[sableprince]

was talking about that one buckshot roulette OC template and how i Wouldn't participate because i would never put my critters in such a situation, but someone made a joke about a "dealcrow and a high-stakes game of scrabble" and i thought it was so funny that my commitment to the bit is stronger than my desire to protect my own creatures. i hope you get out of there, pilcrow!

[as-frightened-as-you]

I started to write this post almost a month ago, but some bad stuff happened and I was… really not okay. But I'm getting better, kind of, so here are some (a bit angsty) night thoughts for you.

I share the fandom headcanon that Jason's father was not, you know, exactly the "father of the year" type. So, when Jason and Salim start to live together (because, as we all know, that's how the game ended, that's canon, right?), Jason sometimes becomes… overprotective of Zain.

He doesn't even realize that. It's just small things. Taking the blame for the glass that Zain accidentally broke. Trying to convince Salim that in Zain's age it's totally normal to come home late and a bit drunk, even if Salim is understanding and not actually angry. Stressing out when Salim and Zain argue, even if they both mean it as a joke. Stuff like that.

Jason doesn't realize that's the thing. Salim and Zain do.

"You know I love my son, right?" Salim asks one night.

"Yeah, I noticed,” Jason chuckles. “You've said that, like, a million times in the first hour after I met you."

"And you know I will never hurt him."

"Yeah, you'll probably hurt yourself first. Why?"

“You seem to… protect him from me.”

“What?"

Salim can see that Jason genuinely doesn't understand what it's all about. Salim tells him about all those small moments, about his obvious nervousness — and Jason is visibly embarrassed.

"Do you want to… talk about it?" Salim says.

"I'd rather not."

"Okay. And it is fine, you know. It is kind of cute."

"Fuck off," Jason grumbles, rolling his eyes.

Salim just smiles and changes the subject.

It's Jason who brings it up again in a couple of days.

"About… me being overprotective."

"Yes?"

"I wanted to make it clear… it's not about you being a bad dad or anything. It's just…"

There's a long pause as he is trying to find the words. Salim is waiting patiently.

"I had a fucked-up childhood, alright?" Jason says finally. "And my father… I mean, he meant well, I guess, but I do still have a couple of scars. And… well," it gets really hard for him to say that, "I guess, l myself wanted to be… protected. And, I guess, it'll stick with me for the rest of my fucking life."

He stares at his hands as if it's the most interesting thing in the world. Salim doesn't interrupt.

"And about Zain, it's… what's the clever word, projecting or something? I'm projecting this stuff on him, probably. I mean, I don't know shit about psychology, but that's a thing, right? It's just… not easy to stay chill when you two start arguing. Even if I know that it's really alright."

He sighs as if it was physically hard for him to say. He seems relieved that it is finally put into words.

"So, yeah. You're a great dad, and Zain is far better than I was at his age. And I'll try not to do that shit you told me about. Sorry."

It's Salim now who is trying to find the words. Jason never really mentioned his childhood; Salim did not expect this.

Salim could never understand how it is possible for a father not to love his own kid. Salim is not an ideal dad, of course; but it feels impossible for him to hurt Zain. Even to think about hurting him.

"I did not know about your father," he says as calmly as he can, even if something inside him is furious. "I will try not to raise my voice when you are around."

"No, that's… fine." Jason shrugs. "You don't have to. I mean, it's your family, your rules, you are both fine with that, and I'm just intruding."

"Jason."

"Yeah."

"You are a part of the family too. Have you not noticed?"

Jason mumbles something unintelligible and moves closer on the couch. Salim puts his hand around Jason's shoulders.

"I love you," he says. "And Zain thinks of you as the cool dad. Or, at least, the cool big brother."

"Yeah, that's all I lived for," Jason grumbles sarcastically.

He is smiling — he just can't help it.

It's all going to be okay.

[blubushie]

Watching Mavis contemplate the idea of herself possibly being on the path to becoming an alcoholic is strangely cathartic after how she treated me for being an alcoholic. I'd say I wouldn't wish the shit I've gone through on my worst enemy, and that's mostly true. I wouldn't wish the shit I've gone through in full on my worst enemy.

So I hope her recovery goes quick. But I also hope it sucks. I hope she gets withdrawals that she recovers from, but I hope she suffers the fevers and the chills and the cramps and the cravings and the agony. I hope she learns a lesson in how she enables and encourages the way society treats the struggling, the less fortunate, the downtrodden, the traumatised, the addicted.

I hope she learns something from this and never speculates or utters another fucking word about anyone else's coping habits or addictions. I hope she learns to stay in her fucking lane and not judge people for the methods they use to cope.

I hope she comes away with the knowledge of what her own medicine tastes like, and I hope it's bitter.

[baby-prophet]

do you think my roommate will rat me out about vaping in the bathroom .............

[roach-works]

Hey, I picked up After the Storm and the alcoholism is giving me some anxiety. Would you be willing to spoil how that thread plays out? In particular, how badly and in what way does he fuck up his life before things get better? Thanks! I'm otherwise quite enjoying the book.

rich is going to be a maintenance drinker for years, but eventually his friends do convince him to move on to healthier ways of managing his anxiety, in a future novel we're not done with yet.

i can promise we don't depict any gruesome rock bottom scenes of abject disaster and humiliation, like some Don't Do Drugs moralistic passion play kind of stories about addiction and recovery that are out there. in After The Storm, he's just told to shape up and be more professional, and is very embarrassed, and does his best to do so.

i think there's not enough rep for characters that are like, 'this guy drinks his problems but not in a badass macho noir way NOR in a pathetic horrorshow Tragedy Of The Demon Drink way. it's just kind of a dumb thing he keeps doing instead of getting the therapy everyone keeps telling him he needs. sorry!'

[yourlocaldisneyvillain]

ppl who do mushrooms and weed bc they are "natural" (many things are Natural and doesn't mean they are good for you) will literally say shit like actually is has been PROVEN mushrooms are much less dangerous than alcohol!!!! alcohol is the DEVIL!!!!

gurl a glass of wine will never do to you what mushrooms can do to you. i've had a friend almost die bc she took "very safe" mushrooms that were legal and guaranteed by a certified shop owner that they were okay. she took a small, recommended amount. and she had a trip so bad she couldn't drink water bc she couldn't remember how and then she couldn't sober up, or eat chocolate which usually helps, etc. and she needed to be supervised bc she almost died. and other ppl in the group weren't doing so great either.

[buysomecheese]

I forget how simply I can fall into addictive habits and I forget how many things this can be applied to. I forget how much physical contact is compared to a drug and I forget how accurate that comparison often is.

[alarrytale]

I’ve been studying to become a therapist and one of the first things I’ve been told is that therapy doesn’t work for everyone and isn’t necessarily a cure for someone. Louis never said he opposed therapy. It sounded like it doesn’t work for him. He did take his sister to therapy and rehab, even took her to Egypt for intensive rehab. He also paid for therapy and rehab for that xfactor contestant when he was one of the judges. Lottie has made it clear that therapy helps her and that’s great but again it’s not for everyone. Louis is often in touch with his emotions openly and has teared up many times while performing on stage so that’s not apart of a lad image at all if we’re going to stereotype. He’s also said in Interviews he’s not afraid to cry. Louis is very emotionally expressive when he sings Saturdays also. I was happy to see he included that song during his longer set. Louis must really love that song or has formed an attachment to it because he really lets it all out during singing that song especially. I noticed he does have some of his previous little mannerisms peeking thru more and more these days too. I saw his popped hip make an appearance a few times in these performances recently. Made me smile that he was feeling at least a little more relaxed. It’s good to keep in mind though that we really don’t know Louis. We don’t know how he’s feeling or handling his grief & trauma, nor should we as fans. He could be trying therapy now for all we know. We don’t know how often he drinks outside of the public eye either. So to say he’s handling his grief thru drinking, etc seems like it’s just not our place as outsiders to judge. I do remember Louis losing a lot of weight during the time he must’ve learned his mom was ill til her passing so that was very visible at the time. Dangerously skinny from a few pics. If I remember correctly they even wrote an article about his thin appearance and fans concerns for him. I think Louis is one to see the glass 1/2 full always but in reading some previous interviews and even the article with Lottie yesterday I got the sense that he feels the need to take care of others, just as Lottie does. Emotionally that’s a heavy weight to bear, but I think the optimism thought process does keep him on more of an even keel.

Hi, anon!

I hope Louis at least has tried therapy, before deciding it's not for him. Or that he goes from time to time. I think it should be mandatory for people in the spotlight, people who went from rags to riches, closeted celebrities and people who worked under SC to get help dealing with the pressure, the supression of yourself, the mistreament and having to deal with a shitty, corrupt industry who boycotts you.

I personally think Louis would greatly benefit from therapy. He's lost his mother figure, who he used to tell everything, he heavily relied on his vocal coach (Helene) as a life coach and motivator, and as a confidence supplier. He's got a friend clinging to him wherever he goes and acts as a comfort goat to him. I have never seen anyone more in need of therapy actually. He should be getting professional help. I'm pretty sure Oli's advice to Louis would be to blaze up to forget and repress stuff more. He can't move on until he deals with his issues. He's been pretty stagnant for years now. He's still super nervous before shows. He still relies on liquid curage to do his job, and his stoner brain is affecting his performance. He also acts uncaring about his health and appearance at times and that's concerning.

I don't care what anyone says, Louis would benefit from therapy. He needs to be told he's not responsible for his siblings, he needs to be told he's good enough and make a plan to be less reliant on his bad coping mechanisms and get some healthier ones. He needs to want to do this for himself though, and it shouldn't be forced, but he would benefit from it, i'm sure. It won't fix everything, but he needs to start somewhere.

I also think it's important to distinguish between having an alcohol issue that's born out of surpressed emotions due to trauma vs. not having an issue, but you’re promoting alcohol as something cool to your fanbase and using it to enforce an image. If it's the first he's not to be judged, i just want him to get help. If it's the second, then i take issue with that. If it's the first, masked as the second, then that's enraging and i blame his team. Regardless if it's the first or second option he's promoting it, even if it's unintentional, and i'm just not down with that. I'm not liking what i'm seeing.

[lab-gr0wn-lambs]

Oh man I think I finally just understood something fundamental about myself? So. When I was a kid/teenager I was kinda super depressed all the time, but there were intervals where I was suddenly fine. And I just realized, it follows the pattern of my hyperfixations. When I was super into something I was super depressed. And I think it's because the thing I was into gave me so much dopamine that everything other than the thing felt unbelievably hollow in comparison. But when I was less into stuff I was out and about and doing so much better. Bitch I had addiction problems with cartoons and viddy games lmfao holy shit?

[no-passaran]

It doesn't matter how much you post about transgression and being proud to be weird and queer as in fuck you and going against society's expected behaviours if you then turn around to ridicule and infantilize the people who diverge in other ways that aren't the same ones as yours or the couple more that internet discourse has made you care about.

I'm saying this because of a poll going around in my dash (won't link because it's not a matter of these people in particular, it's much more widespread) asking people if they've taken a certain drug and people commenting different variations of 'why has this poll only reached children' or not believing the results when they see that most of the voters say no. I assure you most people (specially young people) who don't like the things that are expected of them like going out on clubs and drinking alcohol and doing some of the popular drugs of their subculture are already getting enough shit for it and don't need any more people trying to shame them into following the majority or telling them they're children for doing what they choose and not what others think is the Correct and Appropriate Hobby for this age group/demographic.

I never see this term in English-speaking internet but Latin American activism often talks of the 'right to the free development of personality'. Maybe it needs to go viral before many people really take it into account and get rid of the ideas that their hobbies, their interests and their way of living are the only correct ones and everyone else has something wrong with them or hasn't grown up, because clearly you can't be a healthy adult and not be just like them. There are always going to be people who like different things on Earth, and we can only get used to it.