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sweetygirl90 · 4 years ago

Note

How did frisk realize they're enby?

It’s long to explain and I don’t have time right now for a comic :( So...

I made a One-Shot! I usually explain myself better by writing than drawing. I just want to clarify that this is Frisk’s personal experience, it doesn’t have to be the same as other people.

I’m a spanish speaker so... I did my best translating this! I hope it’s good. This is from Frisk POV (something like that) so I made use of “he/him” pronouns at beginning.

“Don’t belong”

It was still late afternoon, Frisk knew it because the big clock that hung on the living room wall. He was lucky to have it, because guessing the time just by looking through the hole he had fallen into was not very efficient. Many trees covered the sky from there and not having a wide view of the horizon hindered him more. In other words; looking at the sky wasn’t an option.

He had fallen underground a few days ago after what he hoped was his last reset. He knew perfectly what awaited him behind the enormous door of the ruins, he knew that sooner or later he would have to venture beyond that great portal to finish what he had started by falling into that world. He had promised that this would be the last time he would restart things if he got a good result and was not forced to go back to the beginning due to a failure, but until then he wanted to prolong this as long as possible. So sure everything would work out? Maybe, but if he ended up failing he would have a chance to repeat this again.

Yes, it wasn't very responsible to keep procrastinating like that, but could they blame him for it? From his first meeting with Toriel, something told him that next to him he would find his home, a place where he belonged, and it was difficult to detach himself from that new reality.

He didn't want to leave all of it just yet. Each moment with Toriel only became more enjoyable than the last. He was beginning to placidly get used to waking up feeling the soft fur of her muzzle brushing against him when she was going to wake him up with a warm hug and a kiss, he had memorized her characteristic aroma of caramel and cinnamon, unconsciously filing himself in those smells that comforted him. He wanted to continue that home routine a little more, he wanted to enjoy it as much as he could before he got into his work.

He wanted to be just an ordinary kid before he was the hero everyone expected him to be.

"And then the prince of water and the prince of fire got married and lived happily ever after... The end!"

Frisk smiled, raising another piece of cinnamon and butterscotch pie to his mouth as he watched comfortably curled up on Toriel's lap at the illustration of both characters from the storybook. If he was honest, he was at an age where he had lost interest in children's stories a bit, but he could never turn down the woman when she offered to read him one of them and she did it with such dedication and emotion. She even sometimes interpreted the voices of the characters changing the tone, although sometimes he lent her his help with that.

Most of the repertoire of stories didn’t stray from the typical fantasy trope with princesses, princes, knights, witches and wizards but... It was curious how monsters could interpret things in so many different ways. He swore that if he had taught this book to the adults in his orphanage they would have been shocked demanding to know who the degenerate was that would write such bestiality for the children to read.

The adults saw something frightening, he for the part of him only saw two princes in love in a nice simplistic illustration. He hadn't stopped to observe until now that monsters saw these things so naturally, as if it were something from day to day. Perhaps for them the plot twists of princesses escaping from their kingdoms to marry witches was already something of a cliché.

"Ah, what a beautiful story." The monster sighed, closing the book and setting it aside. "Did you like it, my child?"

Frisk nodded smiling, letting her gently stroke his hair. He almost always heard a derogatory comment from his ghostly companion in such cases, but they had been strangely quiet, listening intently to the narration all this time.

“I loved it.”

He lifted some of the pie back to his mouth, allowing himself to be comfortably pampered by Toriel's matted hands. Frisk still could not find a way to begin to describe how much he enjoyed her continuous displays of affection, how much he loved that woman who, even with a broken heart after so many losses, had love to give to the helpless children who fell into that underworld due to misfortune. There was no space for joy in his heart after having longed for since he was aware of the unconditional love of a relative, and that even after having lost all hope she had crossed his path.

He didn't care that she was a monster, he didn't care about anything anymore. He loved Toriel, she was his mother, and he wanted to stay with her.

Yes... He would, if he managed to free them all and no one would separate him from her side.

"Glad to hear it, my dear."

Frisk sensed her genuine happiness in her blue eyes and wished she could know just by looking at him how infinitely happy she made him just sitting there, looking at him as if his mere existence meant something to be grateful for. Toriel was like that with him, she made him feel valuable just by staring at him.

How was he able to coldly grip the knife against her? How did he have that stupid primal urge to harm her? Who did he think he was to see her as if she were nothing more than a dusty pothole that he stepped on as he left the ruins?

He regretted so much... He really regretted it. Even if she was ignorant of his sins, now Frisk wanted to show that he could be worthy of her, that he could make Toriel very happy. If she wanted a perfect and loving child that is what he would give her, although it was not very difficult to get it when he willingly wanted to follow her everywhere.

When his adventure came to an end he would strive to fulfill the fantasy of a happy family. He would be obedient, well behaved, loving... He would be the perfect child, he could not miss this opportunity.

Frisk had already been rejected by so many families... His heart would not bear another rejection, much less after he had tasted the true joy and warmth of home.

No matter the cost, even if it meant suppressing that part of him that he screamed for out in the open... He would do it to preserve this illusion.

He would be a good boy… Boy… Why did it still not sound good to say it like that?

"Oh dear… Look what time it is. It will be late for us to go grocery shopping and recalibrate the puzzles in the ruins.” Toriel watched the clock strike 4:30, patted his head once more, and got up after he got off her lap with help. "I'll find the bags to go out, while you can go change, my child."

Frisk nodded and went to his room. Something that had motivated him to stay with Toriel for a few days before inevitably moving on to Snowdin was his curiosity about what was outside the house. If he remembered something well from the books, it was that the ruins were much bigger than it appeared to the naked eye, after all the monsters used to all live there before moving further into the cave and finding the other cities that today they know as Snowdin, Waterfalls, Hotland and New Home.

He had watched from the balcony that the city of Old Home stretched beyond what he had ever thought or stopped to look at. There were few monsters that from time to time walked the streets doing their daily lives, but they were enough to keep the city inhabited and sustained. Too bad he didn't have a chance to visit it and see it up close... Until today.

He searched the closet for something to wear. He hadn't changed his pajamas since he had awakened, and although he was very comfortable he admitted that it was a bad habit as a result of not leaving the house every day.

His sweater had gotten dirty the day before after getting too close to an old fountain in the ruins and falling inside. How was he to know there was mud at the bottom of the pond? The water was crystal clear, but the darkness in the corner prevented him from seeing all the details. But he wasn't that clumsy, he was sure Flowey had pushed him! Damn impatient flower. He knew how boring it was to wait for the flower to finally deign to move things forward, but he'd already warned Flowey that he didn't want to be pressured. Frisk would decide when to do it, he would not stay in the ruins forever.

He was lucky that there was some clothing of his size that Toriel could lend him. Could it be that it belonged to Prince Asriel? That made him feel a bit guilty wearing the clothes of Toriel's dead son, but since there was nothing else… There wasn't much left to choose from.

Frisk took out some things and put them on his bed so he could choose better. He knew it was just a grocery shopping outlet, but he didn't want the monsters to think that Toriel was raising a lazy person either. Never! There were many things, generally striped shirts that almost always shared the same color range. Was it customary for children in the basement to wear stripes? Monster Kid mentioned it high above, but he wasn't sure. Perhaps this was a signal for him to begin to investigate a little more in depth about monster culture.

Going back to his clothes… Nothing convinced him at all. And that he was not demanding, he alone believed that yellow and green did not suit him very well.

He looked among the things that were hanging on the hangers, there were very warm coats, hats, scarves and... An elegant tuxedo with a tie and everything. That made him smile a bit. Even in this underground life did the royal family have events where they wore elegant clothes?

His gaze then hit something he hadn't noticed so far, an immaculately white sleeveless gown hung between two coats, hidden between the two. Frisk took it off the hook curiously and leaned it against his chest to check that it was for someone small like him and yes, it was.

Why would Prince Asriel have one of these? Maybe it was a mistake. The adults were very explicit with their instructions "boys don’t wear skirts."

He himself had learned the hard way, with punishment and humiliation that it was not appropriate, no matter how much it hurt.

"Those aren’t Asriel's clothes… But mine.”

Frisk left his thoughts for a moment to turn to his ghostly companion, who crossed their arms and with a skeptical look just floated beside him.

"Asriel's clothes stayed in New Home, I think... Mom took my things with her when she fled to the ruins."

"Oh… Then it's yours."

“Yes.” They confirmed it again, now floating on their back and with their arms crossed behind their neck, giving him a look of displeasure but at the same time disinterest. “I wasn't in my plans to donate my clothes to a brat like you, but since it's not very useful to me… You can have it.”

“Cool! Thanks, Chara.” He thanked them with a smile. Chara might be a bit surprised that he had these courtesy details, but despite the fact that the human repeated that their reason for being there was to make life a mess... He couldn't help but think that being close to them was pleasant. Chara wasn't such bad company, at least not when they was trying to make him feel bad.

Frisk was about to put the dress in the closet, but then he realized something else. If it was Chara's clothes… Why would they have a dress and a tuxedo?

He unhooked this one, too, and spread both sets on the bed, set apart from the rest of the folded clothing he'd pulled out to choose from.

Maybe… The monsters didn't find these things strange either. Could that be it? His hand went to the white dress, he took it, took it with him to the mirror in the room and placed it in front of his chest to have a visualization of how he would fit it. The last time he had used something like this was when he and his best friend Emma exchanged the school uniform secretly from others, it was when after her departure she gave him said uniform to remember her, when the director of the orphanage found him wearing it, when he lost the last gift from the first girl he had ever loved, when...

When he started wondering what was wrong with him. He never hurt anyone when he wore those clothes, did he? Was Emma thinking the same thing too?

"Are you ready, dear?"

Frisk turned, surprised to find Toriel inside the room, already dressed to leave it and staring him with a calm smile. He couldn't help but start to shake and gasp when the goat's eyes focused on the dress, reflexively hiding it behind his back. She was confused.

Frisk couldn't even look into her eyes, he was terrified to do it and find himself with a disappointed or disgusted expression. It was something he had gotten used to enough by now, it was always a reason for the foster homes to decide that he was not the type of child they wanted to adopt.

"E-Eh… I just… I was just looking at what to wear and…"

He stopped abruptly when Toriel crouched down next to him and bringing one of her hands to his chin made him lift his head. She didn't look upset, she had the same peaceful glow in her gaze and that warm smile that she had seen the first day.

"Do you want to wear that dress, honey?" Frisk didn't come out of his bewilderment, but he nodded softly as Toriel got up and went to the door. "Okay, I'll be back, I'll look at for something."

Without further ado, she left the room, Frisk managed to look at Chara, who for the first time seemed to see him with some compassion, perhaps because they understood what he was feeling in those moments.

"You heard mom, don't keep her waiting."

Silently and with some anxiety, Frisk made the change of clothes. His dress was of a very soft fabric and the skirt reached below the knees. Apparently Toriel glued washes to his clothes so it wouldn't get smelling of dust and damp, because now he could smell the fragrance of laundry soap on it.

The only problem he had with this was the zipper in the back, it was difficult to make it go up without it locking in the middle of his back.

"Oh, let me help you with that, dear."

Frisk hadn't noticed that Toriel had returned, but he said nothing and allowed her to help him by zipping up.

“Don't worry, the truth is that it has always caused problems, so most of the time I had to do it.”

He assumed that she was referring to Chara indirectly, and confirmed it just by seeing the half smile that the aforementioned was trying to hide. With the dress already on, Frisk stopped to observe himself at ease in front of the mirror. He didn't look bad at all, he liked it.

Toriel touched his shoulder and offered him something. It was a country hat with a white ribbon around it and some fake flowers of the same color adorning it. Did she go looking for that for him? He didn't ask questions, he just accepted it and settled it on his head. It seemed that both things were made to go together.

"There is no sun to watch out for, but I thought you'd like it.”

Frisk looked back at his reflection and felt fear leave him suddenly. A smile crossed his face and he moved to the side for a twist that made the skirt of the dress move in the air. Toriel gave a light laugh when she saw him wearing that garment so happily.

“I look good?” He asked, doing a couple of poses that would make his mother laugh because of how exaggerated they were, but that made him feel looser from the tension of a while ago. He didn't perceive that this was a forced reaction from Toriel, she looked genuinely pleased about it. It was as if the laws of the surface didn't matter to her… Because they were underground now.

"You look gorgeous, my dear. You're a very handsome boy!"

Frisk broadened his smile for Toriel and didn't fight the urge to hug her skirt with all his might, hoping that maybe she could feel his gratitude in that little gesture. She accepted him instantly, wrapping her warm arms around him lovingly. Frisk wish she didn't notice the pair of tears of relief that stained a tiny space of her garment and then wet her snout when she gave him a pair of kisses near his eyes.

“Thanks… Mom.”

Toriel tightened the hug a little more but without hurting Frisk. He melted her heart whenever he called her that way. "You’re welcome, my little boy. If you are ready we can go now.”

When they parted, they both left the room on their way to the city of Home.

"Or dear... There are many things missing at home and I had barely noticed today. I think we will also buy you school supplies so that you can start classes at home. Better hurry up or it will get very dark by the time we're done.”

“Okay, mom.”

"I have to get you notebooks… One for each subject. I don't want you to be disorganized!"

Frisk nodded as she continued speaking. For Toriel it was already a reflection of her holding his hand every time they went out together and it didn't bother him at all.

He tightened his grip on her hand to keep her in step. She was so big that on occasion he was forced to be faster or take longer steps, this was one of those times. His heart had stopped weighing him down, replacing that suffocating sensation with freedom, feeling light with the air moving his skirt and the end of the hat's bow brushing against his shoulder every time he took a step.

He was happy.

Although something was still bothering him.

. . .

The departure proceeded normally. Frisk and Toriel toured the city buying the groceries that were needed at home. It was not very different from the surface, there were supermarkets with electrical appliances, small shops, stalls to sell fast food, etc. They spent two hours shopping for everything on the list until they filled the bags, which Toriel could carry perfectly on her own and without any effort. Frisk wanted to help her by carrying one of hers, but this was already heavy enough that he could afford to carry one more.

They also went to buy supplies and notebooks as she said. In the old human school he could not afford to use many things because according to the director of the orphanage "it were unnecessary and a silly waste of money", which he understood perfectly, although he came to disappoint him a bit. He did not want to make Toriel spend a lot, however, he didn’t need to ask for anything, since she decided that she needed to buy him colors of all the materials available and to have (paint, watercolors, crayons, chalks, pencils, markers...) because she was afraid he would get bored at home and not have something to draw with.

They both had a good time. They talked about some things, Toriel bought him an ice cream, they decided what they would have for dinner at night, even some monsters greeted Toriel with respect —long ago he would not have understood why but now he knew it was because they remembered her as the former queen of the underground— and monster commented to her more than once that he was adorable. Toriel almost always replied "I know, isn't he a very cute boy?"

He didn't want to sound ungrateful at all, but… Something didn't feel right when he heard her say that. It was not for the compliment, throughout his life he was lucky if some adult remarked something positive about him, especially his appearance. Why now that someone did it, did he continue to feel dissatisfied? It wasn't for the compliment itself, of course not. There were times when Toriel said things like that, but... Something was left over, or maybe something was missing.

When they returned, he helped her organize the shopping and they continued with the routine. It was a bit late to leave so the rest of the duties were left to Toriel for the next day. She insisted that she go alone to recalibrate the puzzles in the ruins, but he wanted to accompany her.

It was no use being persistent because she was able to convince him to stay. She told him that she needed him to stay, as if he bathed in what she did her work then the two of them would have enough time to get ready to go out to dinner at night. It was too tempting an offer not to accept. When had he dined at a restaurant in Home? Never. Maybe at the Mettaton hotel, but he didn't count it as dinner. Sans hadn't even invited him anything!

Frisk accepted instantly, Toriel hadn't been long anyway because she was back in time to help him dry his hair. Apparently she wanted to help him get ready to go out.

For his part, it didn't bother him at all. Toriel had sat with him on the bed to brush his hair, and he was sure that she knew that it was not necessary for him to do it because he rarely ruffled, however Frisk didn’t complain, there was nothing to reproach her. Maybe she just wanted to cuddle him for a while and that's it. Would Frisk make a fuss just for that? Nah!

His mother hummed very softly as she continued her attentions. Her hands were gentle and soft, as if she were afraid to pull his hair by accident. That treatment in conjunction with her voice was the perfect recipe to relax him. If it weren't that dinner was still on the agenda, he would have already fallen asleep.

Frisk remembered again now how lucky he was to have Toriel close, but... Since yesterday he kept thinking about the same thing that had been bothering him forever, but that after yesterday became more evident. He reproached himself for letting such stupidity prevent him from enjoying his mother's affection to the fullest, but… Maybe it wasn't stupid after all.

It made him angry that he didn't understand what was tormenting him. For a boy it should be easy to rate feelings, only he was already pre-adolescent, he wasn't sure if he could continue to call himself a “boy” any longer.

What was this? Why did he feel as if something was missing? Why did he feel wrong? Every time someone made it clear that he was a boy, every time he think about himself with “he” something felt wrong. At first he thought it was due to those prohibitions that humans instilled in him just because of that, because he was a child, but even now that with Toriel he felt free of those restrictions... It was still the same.

"What’s the matter, my dear?"

His mother's voice snapped him out of his musings suddenly, but he struggled to sound like nothing was wrong. "Nothing, just... I was thinking."

“I see.” She said, always parsimonious about everything. “About what? It must be something important for you to be this overwhelmed.”

Frisk was surprised at how quickly Toriel came to that conclusion. It was his mistake to underestimate a mother's suspicion and now he was paying for it, feeling nervous that he didn't know how to explain himself.

"Nothing, it's... It's silly."

"Nothing that worries you is foolish, my dear boy. Your feelings will always be important, and sometimes to deal with it you have to know what causes that feeling.” She explained, putting the brush aside so she could better focus on it. "Talking about how you feel is sometimes helpful."

Frisk lowered his gaze not knowing what to answer her. If anything had remained in him from the adults who had cared for him, it was that those his age used to worry about nonsense, things that don’t deserve to be heard, something that would disappear under the rug. “You have no reason to feel like this. It's not important. People around the world are suffering more than you and you cry for a nonsense!” or “Boys don't cry. Stop being so girly! ” was a common sight around him. Why he would talk about what was bothering him then? Why he would bother trying to express himself? The world had taken it upon himself to let him know that it didn't matter at all, that by drowning in grief he would learn a thing or two that would serve him well in the future.

And now… It was shocking that Toriel told him that after all, if something distressed him, it wasn’t a foolish at all.

"I won't force you to tell me anything if you're not comfortable with it, Frisk. But I want you to know that if something bothers you… You can tell me, I will not judge you and I will listen to you.”

Frisk looked in front of him. In the midst of his hesitation to choose what to wear for dinner he had left the dress on the bed next to Chara's tuxedo he had found the day before. He knew that he had to choose one of the two, and not that he bothered to use one of them, but... Thinking about it too much gave him a different meaning to things.

He wanted to tell Toriel everything he was thinking, but his mind was a mess. He didn't know where to start, he didn't even understand what was happening to him! How was he going to put into words something he didn't know? It was so frustrating! Now that he was given the freedom to speak he didn't know what to say.

"I just… I don't know why sometimes… I don't know, I feel like there's something wrong with me."

Hearing his words, Toriel decided to move beside him to speak comfortably. She didn't say anything, she was still silent to give him permission to speak.

"It's like I don't belong anywhere, like I don't... Like I don't fit in. You know what I mean?"

"Uhm… I think so."

Frisk decided to continue, he knew that Toriel still did not understand where he wanted to go, even he did not know!

"It's just that... People always say you were born to be something, but... What if I don't like that something? Where I should go? Because they say that there are only two paths and nothing else, but... I don't want to choose any. I don't want the path I'm supposed to go and I don't want the second one either. They say "you are this or that" but... I think then I am nothing.”

They were both silent and he was beginning to regret having spoken. His mother surely didn’t understand what he was talking about. Frisk sighed in the midst of his frustration with a lump in his throat, he didn’t want to cry, however he could not continue with that tightness in his chest.

Frisk didn't know how far Toriel's tolerance went. What would happen if this completely exceeded it? He had to fix it but in that moment.

“I’m so sorry. I know you have treated me very well and I like it when you flatter me, but I...”

"You don't like it when I refer to you as a boy, do you?"

Frisk looked up at Toriel, still impressed at how easy it was for her to sink into his dilemma as if it were an everyday thing for her. It was just like when she found him admiring that beautiful dress, the way she looked at him hadn't changed at all.

He couldn't understand it. Why was this all right for Toriel? Why wasn't she like other human adults? Why wasn't anyone there that way? Is it that perhaps he had missed something? Why did he end up getting a caress every time he expected a slap? He couldn't find a way out of his own overwhelm and Toriel kept talking calmly, as if she had all the time in the world.

"Frisk, it's okay if you feel that way. Look, I notice how you react to everything and… I don't know how humans deal with these things, but if you think it seems strange or something bad… It doesn't.”

She paused, stroking his hair and then she got off the bed taking the dress and tuxedo. She looked at both garments for a moment and held them up in each hand.

“If you want to choose one that's fine, if you go for a different option that's fine too, if you choose both it's fine, and if you're not ready to choose something that's fine too. It's like when I want to choose cinnamon or butterscotch, I can't! So I create my own options.”

"B-But…" Frisk swallowed, hoping that would take away the lump in his throat and his confusion. "That's the problem. It's not that I'm choosing! It's not what I want, it's what I am What am I? I don't feel like I'm a girl either. So what am I? I don't have a third option.”

Toriel raised an eyebrow, perhaps as if surprised that he said that. "Uhm… Do you know what non-binary gender is, Frisk?"

He cocked his head not knowing what she was talking about, and knew that Toriel noticed because she smiled like when he was going to her with childish doubts.

“There are people who, like you, don’t see themselves as women or men, but as something different. They are not both and it is not that they are nothing, they are only on a third path among the others.” She explained patiently and put the clothes she had taken back on the bed. Frisk was watching her intently, still unable to process that there was an answer to his question. “There's nothing wrong with not being what others expect of you just because of how you look or how you are… Even for the way you were born.”

"But what about you?" He blurted out. That question had come to his mind a second ago and he felt that he would die if he didn't get an answer now. He felt very stupid saying it so suddenly, almost interrupting Toriel, but he couldn't help himself. “What do you think about it?”

"It doesn't matter what I want or think, Frisk. It is your happiness and your way of perceiving yourself. Nothing else matters than your own happiness. How you identify yourself or who you love you should know that everyone should respect it, and never apologize for being like that.”

She declared, and then moved to the basket of clean clothes she had brought with her when she came into the room. Frisk stifled a sigh when she returned to his hands the striped sweater that he had soiled days ago, and that he had missed even though he liked to change his style of dress.

"It doesn’t matter if you are a boy, a girl, or something else… You are still Frisk. That won’t change.”

An involuntary reflex made Frisk hug his sweater, and so he stayed, silent and lost in his own mind as he processed everything Toriel had said to him in his rhythm. So much information had left him somewhat perplexed, more than anything because he did not imagine that there was an option that would leave him satisfied.

"You don't have to know it now, you can keep thinking about it and take your time. I just want you to know that if it bothers you that I refer to you as a boy then I won't. And if you want me to call you by "they/them" instead of calling you by "he/him" like I did when we just met, I'll do it.”

Frisk muttered with his… No, their face still half buried in the sweater. They had a hard time letting the words come out.

“I… I think I like this third way and… “they” would be fine.”

Without having to say more, Toriel sat back on the bed with a satisfied smile. Frisk was still dizzy and dazed, not sure what to say or how to react, they could only respond to their own impulses when the woman touched their shoulder and immediately threw themself into her arms like a small child and began to cry. Toriel sighed, holding her child in a strong, protective hug, letting their crying stop on its own.

Frisk didn't know. Was they crying out of sadness because no one told them this before? Was the rage at this anguish that they carried with for years? Yes, it was all that, but it was also a cry of relief. Now they knew that they were not weird, that there was nothing wrong with them, that there were people just like them who knew how they was feeling including Chara themself.

Frisk knew then that they did have a place to belong.

They let all their tears release them from that stormy regret and let the goat's maternal affection slowly bring them back to reality, ending up warmly cradled in her embrace. They finally found the missing piece.

"I... Uh... Jeez.” They laughed through tears, still not letting go. “You must believe that so much drama just because of this gender stuff is silly.”

"I don't think gender identity discovery is silly. Maybe you don’t understand why it is so important to know it, but... I think it is difficult to judge when you don’t feel the pain in the hearts of others, much more when I know that you don’t come from this world.”

Frisk nodded with a sigh and finally pulled away from Toriel as she wiped their tears away.

"So… You know what you want to wear to dinner, my child?"

"I want to wear my sweater."

#ask #answer #together at last au #undertale #frisk #toriel #enby frisk #chara #enby chara #oneshot #fanfic #fanfiction #my writing #sweetgirl90

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thezodiaczone · 7 years ago

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November Forecast for Aries

Get ready for action, Aries. The stars are in a continuous cosmic dance this November, making some major moves. Two outer planets, Uranus and Jupiter, are making zodiac sign changes, which is a big deal since they do so infrequently. Meanwhile, three other planets (Venus, Mercury and Neptune) will weave in and out of retrograde slowdowns. Stay alert because this shifting cosmic landscape can switch up the vibe without notice!

Until November 22, this is all happening against the backdrop of Scorpio season, which is intense enough to begin with. As the Sun moves through your eighth house of merging, transformation and intimacy, you might be uncharacteristically quiet. But who could blame you? There’s a LOT to reflect on and many moving parts to bring together, so you’re in “focus mode” now. You could be processing some heavy emotions or forging a deep connection, particularly near the November 7 Scorpio new moon. Even though there’s plenty going on, devote this day to finding some quiet time to meditate, tune in or connect to your inner guidance system. The powerful messages you receive could impact you for up to six months. Some Aries could make a relationship official. Considering a joint business or financial venture? This new moon favors all mergers, so let the talks begin.

The action really kicks off on November 6, when radical changemaker Uranus backs into YOUR sign for a final four-month lap. It will remain here until March 6, 2019, then it won’t return again in this lifetime. Uranus made its long trek through Aries from March 2011 to May 2018, a seven-year upheaval that could have completely reset your life trajectory. While it may have been hard at times to find your groove, you DID discover authentic new parts of your identity, and by now you’re probably wearing them proudly on your sleeve. Your revelations could have led to a career change or a passionate new life path. Uranus only visits each sign every 84 years, so hosting it in your sign is a big deal!

On May 15, 2018, Uranus moved into Taurus and your second house of work and money, helping you build your big ideas into something tangible (and profitable). But just as you were screwing in the first nuts and bolts, Uranus started its annual five-month retrograde on August 7, first through Taurus and now in Aries. The side-spinning planet will be in reverse until January 6, so the next two months are a powerful window to ensure that you don’t abandon your most innovative ideas. You’re an Aries, and that voice within will never steer you wrong. Take a break from practical details to recalibrate your GPS. In March 2019, when Uranus settles into Taurus until 2026, you’ll be ready to put your visionary ideas into practice!

And then, on November 8, some truly exciting news arrives. Lucky Jupiter, the planet of growth and expansion, zooms into Sagittarius and your ninth house of risk-taking, travel and entrepreneurship for a 13-month visit. Until December 2, 2019, your “out there” ideas could go viral. This auspicious Jupiter cycle, which only happens every 12 years, will supersize your ambitions and, if you want one, it will give you a giant platform for your message. Both Jupiter AND Sagittarius are at “home” in the zodiac’s ninth house. It’s like you’re getting a triple-strength vibration of this no-limits energy. Talk about a gift!

Higher education and publishing also fall in this domain. Over the coming months, you could return to school or spread your message through media, a book or an inspiring “edu-tainment” project. Travel is a highlight, and you could see new parts of the world, or work with people in far-flung places. Jupiter was last in Sagittarius from November 24, 2006, to December 18, 2007, so if you can, reflect on that period for clues of what might resurface.

You probably won’t be sad to see Jupiter exit Scorpio and your intense eighth house, where it’s been since October 10, 2017. Some heavy-duty soul-searching may have consumed you since then. And while all the spiritual and emotional growth was epic, it’s been a lot to take in! Now you’ll move forward with inner resilience, ready to share the transformational energy with others through bold and impactful projects.

Mid-month, there’s a retrograde “changing of the guard” to navigate. On November 16, love planet Venus ends a six-week retrograde that’s been shaking up your committed-relationship houses since October 5. If an ex resurfaced or an important bond was tested, no surprise. Venus retrograde pushed you to strengthen your partnerships or leave the unfulfilling ones behind in order to create room for a real-deal connection.

But no sooner does Venus straighten out than communication planet Mercury starts acting up, turning retrograde from November 16 until December 6. Mercury will back through Sagittarius and your expansive ninth house until December 1, which could interfere with Jupiter’s attempts to heat up your grand plans (so slow down a tad!). The communication planet will finish its last few days in Scorpio, a time to be mindful about everything from close relationships to holiday spending.

In the first half of November, do some “Mercury-proofing” by backing up your data, triple-confirming any travel plans and thinking before you blurt out a brusque or tactless remark. This is a time when all signals can get scrambled, technology breaks down, and conflicts erupt. The holidays are already a minefield of miscommunications for many people, so if you can prevent any breakdowns by planning ahead properly, do it!

Whether or not you observe Thanksgiving, there will be lots of gratitude and good cheer on November 22 as the Sun sails into jubilant Sagittarius until December 21. Now you can emerge from your “intensity cocoon” and reconnect with the wider world. So, what do you want to say or share? You’ll be at no loss for words on November 23, when the year’s only Gemini full moon ignites your third house of communication. You could get exciting, long-awaited news or have a powerful conversation with a friend or sibling. This also happens to be Black Friday, which gives business owners a special boost with marketing and social media. Connect to your audience with an attention-getting, relevant message.

The next day, November 24, foggy Neptune ends a long retrograde that began on June 18 in Pisces and your twelfth house of closure and healing. If you’ve been struggling to let go of a painful or addictive pattern or dealing with some old self-doubt, you might breathe a sigh of relief when Neptune finally corrects course. Feelings you’ve suppressed, perhaps some old grief or pain, could come up. If they do, connect to a supportive professional to help you process those emotions. A creative or spiritual pursuit that got sidelined could pick up speed again. And if you’ve felt disconnected from your intuition in any way, your hotline to the divine will become fiber-optic clear again!

The luckiest day of the month—and year—arrives on November 26, when the radiant Sun and expansive Jupiter make their annual conjunction (meeting). This is especially fortuitous because both are in Sagittarius and your go-big-or-go-home ninth house. What a way to end the month, Aries! If you’re considering taking a leap of faith or making a big plunge into unfamiliar terrain, there’s no better day to do it. An exciting opportunity to travel or spread your message to a larger audience could pop up. If it does, don’t overthink it—seize the moment!

Love & Romance

Ah, love—it hasn’t necessarily been the easiest part of your life for the past month. If you’ve been feeling a little shortchanged in the romance department, you can blame it on vixen Venus, who’s been retrograde (backward) since October 5, bringing back ex-flames and old dramas or just throwing obstacles in your path to partnership. For couples, well-worn conflicts could come up, pushing you to make sure your relationship feels balanced and mutual. Or maybe you just haven’t been able to get that quality time in together.

Venus has been reversing through Scorpio (from October 5 to 31) and Libra (from October 31 to November 16), which happen to rule the two most intimate and committed parts of your chart. If you’ve attempted to rush into anything serious—as your sign is notorious for doing—Venus retrograde will slam the brakes. But the cosmic love goddess is serving up some important lessons that you might (finally) want to heed. As your fellow Aries Diana Ross sang, “You can’t hurry love.” Your sign gets caught up in the magic of the chase, the courtship, the honeymoon; but maybe your staying power could use a little work?

For the first half of November, spend time soul-searching or dealing with any anxiety you might have about feeling trapped or bored in a commitment. Perhaps you’re just not voicing your needs, or you feel like you have to suppress your adventurous appetite. That “exchange rate” doesn’t always seem like one worth paying. For what: security? That’s not even a top priority for your sign. But remember: It’s up to YOU to keep the flames burning when they stop generating automatically. So instead of sitting back and expecting the magic to just happen, work on becoming a fabulous magician who can conjure chemistry anytime, anyplace—no matter how long you’ve been together.

Meantime, lusty Mars (your ruling planet) is bolting through Aquarius and your eleventh house of friends and technology from September 10 to November 15. An online match could have heated up in the past couple months, or you may have felt sparks with a previously platonic person. That could happen in the first two weeks of November, too.

With Venus retrograde, acting on these feelings could get #complicated. But maybe it won’t on November 9, when the love planets serve up a conciliatory gesture by meeting in a beautiful and harmonious trine. Friends could become lovers, couples could connect through honest conversation, and that Tinder swipe could actually deliver a winning match. Stay open to friends hooking you up with their friends, too!

On November 15, Mars will move into Pisces and your dreamy twelfth house for the rest of the year, amping up the fantasy factor. While you could get swept away in a sexy affair, don’t throw out all those important Venus-retrograde lessons! The temptation of a clandestine connection could intensify with Mars in this illusion-spinning zone. While the rash planet could find you acting first and thinking later, don’t underestimate the stress of turning your life upside-down in the name of love (or lust). For couples, this is a powerful time to work through anger toward forgiveness and closure.

Key Dates

November 30: Venus-Uranus Opposition While it’s important to keep the peace in key relationships, neither sacrificing your own desires nor resolutely insisting on having your way will lead to harmony. If you can’t find a suitable partner, look at the role your fierce need for independence may be playing.

Money & Career

With the Scorpio Sun blazing through your magnetic eighth house (until November 22), people will be eager to team up with you. Well, of course they are—but what’s in it for YOU? Actually, Aries, it could be a lot! Your ruling planet, Mars, is heating up your networking sector until November 15, which can point you straight toward a perfect collaborator. In your screening process, look for someone who shares your principles and work ethic, but complements (rather than duplicates) your skills. You might stumble on an ideal candidate around November 7, the date of the Scorpio new moon.

You’ll be feeling confident and optimistic about new ventures starting on November 8, when expansive Jupiter leaves cautious Scorpio and returns to Sagittarius and your entrepreneurial ninth house for the first time in almost 13 years! But don’t try to do everything at once. This transit is in effect for a little more than a year. Enjoy the rush of motivation it brings, but don’t get carried away by big ideas and promises—yours or anyone else’s!

More synergy could spark on November 9, when Mars forms a rare and empowering trine with Venus in your partnership sector. If you feel an instant click with someone, that’s definitely a sign to proceed—but with caution. With Jupiter making you overeager, you might not be using your keenest judgment.

You’ll get a chance to tap the brakes and process all these major developments starting on November 15, when go-go Mars downshifts into Pisces and your twelfth house of rest and reflection. While Aries IS the sign of action, even you need to occasionally take an off-ramp and integrate changes. Take advantage of this opportunity to fully recharge your batteries because when your ruler revs into your sign on New Year’s Day, you’ll want to be ready to hit the ground running!

Key Dates

November 20: Mars-Jupiter Square Letting go can be painful, but if you’re honest with yourself (encouraged by truth-teller Jupiter’s presence), you’ll acknowledge that it’s time for closure—and possibly forgiveness. Difficult as it is, when you confront these things bravely and release what no longer has a place in your life, you open doors to a whole new level of freedom and contentment!

Love Days: 27, 31 Money Days: 11, 20 Luck Days: 8, 18 Off Days: 29, 29, 16

#aries #monthly horoscope #horoscope #horoscopes #astrology #aries monthly

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heartslogos · 6 years ago

Text

seas who could sing so deep and strong [136]

Communications offline. Attempting to reestablish connection in 3.

Attempting to reestablish connection in 2.

Attempting to reestablish connection in 1.

Communication grid restored. Initiating patch repair of damaged audio framework.

Recalibrating life sign monitor and reconfiguring Tenno HUD. Adjusting display saturation. Adjusting for noise. Reconnecting to data scanner and synthesis database.

Calibrating and adjusting noise level. Resetting voice modulators and volume input.

Sound test for ambient sensory details initiating. Background calibration running.

Recalculating for selenic interference. Calculating transference static interference.

Adjusting for transference static.

All systems are functional, read outs are stable. Biological read outs are stabilized and transference is steady.

Hades: Did you get thrown through a scrambler?

Punk: My brain hurts. Like. A sore muscle. Persephone do not make the joke.

Persephone: I would never.

Chic: Don’t get thrown through a scrambler.

Punk: I didn’t choose to get thrown through a scrambler. It just happened. It’s not like I saw it and thought I’d love to get thrown through that and get my entire nervous system fried. Did you guys know there was a scrambler there?

Hades: Yes.

Chic: Yes.

Persephone: Yes.

Empress: How did you not see the scrambler’s motion sensor? They aren’t hidden.

Punk: You know that literally everything in a Grineer ship is some shade of brown and orange, right?

Hades: Are you trying to tell us you’re colorblind?

Alpha: Infiltration completed.

Persephone: How the fuck —

Chic: Void and fucking stars —

Hades: Void!

Punk: Seriously?

Empress: Excellent work. Squadron, fan out and start searching for those hidden caches. I think I have eyes on a potential target.

Hades: We’ve been here for ten minutes, how did you hit every single data point so fast?

Persephone: I don’t know why I’m surprised anymore. I should expect it by now.

Chic: I bet he didn’t even have to kill anybody to do it. He just walked right on in there and took the files and left and no one even knew.

Punk: Seriously, Alpha. Seriously. How do you do it?

Alpha: I tried hard.

Chic: It’s been ten minutes, and you hacked all three data points without tripping a single alarm or killing anyone. And the alarms were already on because of a certain blue Tenno.

Hades: Is it me.

Chic: Hades. Please.

Alpha: I tried really hard.

Persephone: I found a cache.

Empress: I appreciate one of you being on task.

Alpha: I was on task.

Empress: I know, love. I know. Thank you.

Persephone: I have it, also this area of the base is cleared. There are some bodies. I attempted to shove them in storage containers but I think any passing patrols will notice. So just kill anyone coming this way, or detain them. Or some — Hold. Squadron leader, I’m getting static interference. No scrambler. No alarms. Something is trying to breech my system.

Empress: Squad sound off.

Chic: Clean. Full health, full shields, half energy, no variance.

Punk: Clean. Most health, full shields. A little under half energy. Some disorientation from the scrambler but otherwise fine.

Hades: Clean and clear. Full health, almost full energy. No variance.

Alpha: Clean and clear. No damage taken, no sights.

Empress: Persephone, hold position and report any changes. I think you have the Gustrag Three hot on you. Any other bounties?

Persephone: Zanuka, but that isn’t new. Stalker. New Lokka. Perrin.

Chic: It isn’t a Zanuka, Alad V would have started talking. He can’t keep his mouth shut even if someone had to wire it that way.

Punk: Word.

Empress: Squad, converge on Persephone’s position and keep an eye out for extra security. Eximus, Bombards, Manics, Executioners.

Hades: Moving out now. Closest ETA?

Alpha: Acknowledged. Farthest out. I was next to our extraction point.

Empress: Noted, check our backs.

Punk: I’m closest. Persephone, keep an eye out, I think I’m only a few halls down from you right now. I’ll be approaching from your left.

Persephone: Noted.

Chic: Empress I’m converging on your signal, I’ll flank. Hades is already with me.

Empress: Understood. Persephone, any changes?

Persephone: I think you’re right. It is the Gustrag Three. No signs of the rooms being sealed yet. Squadron, I’m moving from this room. I’m heading into one of the open areas just in case. I do not want to be stuck fighting those three in a closed hallway.

Empress: Acknowledged.

Punk: Noted.

Hades: Recalculating closest path to you, Chic turn here. Look like a short cut and we should bypass any security patrols already out.

Chic: Got it.

Alpha: Incoming. Security personnel on their way from my side. Fresh. Unaware, most likely.

Empress: Good. They won’t know what they’re going into. Ranks?

Alpha: Several heavy Eximus. At least two arson teams. No manics on radar.

Empress: Good. Persephone, eyes on the Gustrag Three?

Persephone: Not yet. Squad, I am in position. Punk, ETA?

Punk: I see you.

Persephone: When I have eyes on the three I’m going to use Nidus’ link up on you, Punk. So don’t go too far from me.

Punk: Does it have to be me? Why not Empress or Hades?

Persephone: You’re going to need it the most. Especially if you enter close combat with one of the three.

Punk: But it’s so gross. It’s all wiggly and makes these weird sounds and it feels all crawly. Like worms or some other nasty stuff.

Persephone: Go cry about it.

Punk: Maybe I will.

Chic: Cry about it after we deal with the Grineer assassins. We’ve met up with Empress and we’re on ur way.

Alpha: I’ve taken care of the back up headed your way.

Empress: Thank you. Keep an eye out.

Alpha: I found the caches.

Punk: Why are you so ridiculously good at everything?

Alpha: I —

Punk: Tried. Hard. I know, buddy. I know. It’s starting. ETA?

Empress: We’re here, fan out. I would like it if we could get a sniper, but since Persephone is the target and Alpha’s ETA is unknown we’ll make do. Punk, stay close to Persephone. Chic and Hades engage from the back. Chic, switch to day form. Hades, hit with sandstorm as soon as you get in range.

Chic: Done.

Hades: Got it.

#heartsfic #warframe #punk and chic #otp: space kids #otp: our ribs are cages

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liliannorman · 5 years ago

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Puberty may reboot the brain and behaviors

A preschooler slips stickers under some of the colored cups on a lazy Susan tray, then gives the tray a whirl. When the spinning stops, the child must find the hidden stickers. Most kids remember where they are. But a few have to check every single cup.

A spin-the-pots task uses colored cups and hidden stickers to test working memory. This type of memory can be impaired in children who experience early hardship.N.H. Brito et al/Frontiers in Psychology 2014

This game tests working memory — the brain’s system for storing and retrieving recent information. It’s among a set of mental skills known as executive function. These skills develop poorly in young kids who face trauma, such as physical abuse or neglect. From then on, throughout life, the body’s systems tend to respond differently, observes Megan Gunnar. She’s a child psychologist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

A childhood filled with hardship, negligence or abuse can skew the system that regulates how the body responds to stress. Problems in this stress response set kids on a path toward behavior struggles. As they grow up, these kids also face an elevated risk for depression, diabetes and a host of other health problems.

Explainer: What is puberty?

But that difficult future may not be set in stone. Stress responses can return to normal during puberty, Gunnar and others have shown. This raises the prospect that some impacts of early trauma can be erased.

The new research is prompting a rethink of puberty. It’s not just a time of acne, armpit hair and other uncomfortable body changes. Puberty also may be a window of opportunity. It could be when kids who got a difficult start get a chance to reset how their bodies respond to stress.

Surprised by stress

When the brain perceives a threat — an angry family member, a stressful exam, a high-stakes competition — levels of a hormone shoot up. Called adrenaline (Ah-DREN-uh-lin), this chemical sets off what is known as the “fight-or-flight” reaction. Breathing and heart rate soar. Palms get sweaty. Sight and other senses sharpen. Soon the brain releases chemical messengers. They go to the kidneys. This stimulates the nearby adrenal glands to release another hormone. It’s called cortisol.

Explainer: What is a hormone?

Cortisol moves sugars into the blood for quick energy. It slows digestion and immune responses. It also slows growth and other processes considered nonessential in a fight-or-flight situation.

When the threat passes, adrenaline and cortisol levels fall. The heart’s rate slows. Other systems resume business as usual. The stress response turns off.

By the time Gunnar started work on her PhD in the 1970s, researchers had mapped out the key actors in this process. These signals form the HPA axis. Those letters stand for the three hormone systems that work together here: hypothalamic (Hy-poh-thah-LAM-ik), pituitary (Pih-TOO-ih-tair-ee) and adrenal (Ah-DREE-nul). Gunnar set out to study how the HPA axis influences the brain and behavior in people.

A bit of stress may help young people build resilience

Studies in rodents and monkeys had shown that adversity early in life throws the HPA axis off-kilter. These types of studies weren’t easy. To measure cortisol, scientists had to collect blood or urine. Then methods were developed for measuring cortisol from samples of saliva. That was a lot simpler to get.

In the mid-1980s, Gunnar studied this neuroendocrine system in newborns. She showed that having a secure parent relationship regulates the system. It helps babies deal with stressful situations, such as getting vaccines. “You can go to the doctor as a baby and get a big shot in one leg and the other leg and you’re crying your head off … but [the HPA axis] doesn’t kick off,” notes Gunnar. But if babies get separated from their parents for even a few minutes, “their HPA axis shoots up like a rocket.”

Setting off this system once in a while isn’t harmful. It’s what helps us learn to cope with stress. But what if that sense of safety is disrupted for far longer?

To find out, Gunnar and a research team ventured to eastern Romania in Europe during the mid-1990s. For decades, thousands of Romanian children had grown up in orphanages. Conditions there often were crowded and grim. “You walk into these wards, and all of a sudden you’re mobbed by kids saying ‘mama, mama, mama’ — and reaching their arms up to get held,” recalls Gunnar. She had two school-aged sons at the time. “It was awful. I just wanted to bring them all home.”

Teen-time shift

Before puberty, adopted children, who grew up with early-life trauma (gray curve), had blunted stress responses relative to kids living with biological parents (blue curve). By the time puberty ended, the adopted children showed normal cortisol patterns before, during and after a stressful task. Saliva was collected 20 minutes and 5 minutes before the task. It was then collected 5, 20, 40, 60 and 80 minutes after the task. The researchers converted the data to a logarithmic scale, which shows negative numbers. The actual cortisol levels are between 0 and 1 micro-grams per deciliter.

Cortisol stress in adopted and nonadopted children

T. Tibbitts

What she did bring back to Minnesota, along with that searing memory, was a set of small vials. Each held a sample of saliva from one of the 2- and 3-year-old orphans. Cortisol is the end product of the neuroendocrine cascade. So measuring the children’s cortisol offered a window into the stress effects of their parental deprivation.

Analyses like these are tricky. Whether a kid faces poverty or neglect, “the way you start out in life tends to continue,” Gunnar says. A report published last November by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention points to those long-term consequences. People who experienced childhood trauma are more likely to smoke or drink heavily, it found. These people are more likely to drop out of high school. They also develop heart disease and a host of other chronic conditions at higher rates.

This doesn’t mean that having a completely smooth life is good. Growing research suggests that some adversity — such as dealing with a bad grade or a challenging friendship — can help a child build resilience. And there may be a sweet spot for how much hardship brings this benefit without becoming overwhelming (see sidebar).

School, homework and tests can all be stressful for kids. But some children endure far more traumatic experiences. New research is showing how puberty can help reset the body.eclipse_images/E+/Getty Images

Adoptee struggles

Early-life hardship clearly takes a toll. To study these effects, Gunnar needed children who had felt deprivation in infancy, then moved into healthy, supportive homes. Such children, she reasoned, would be the ideal human analog for all of the animal studies on early adversity. It dawned on her that such a group exists. They are adopted children who spent part of their early life at an orphanage.

Gunnar shared her idea with members of the adoption unit at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This group provides services to improve the health and well-being of Americans. With their support and funding, she surveyed parents who between 1990 and 1995 had adopted children from other countries. She also invited Minnesota families with adopted children to join a university registry and to take part in her research.

Parents noticed early on that often their adopted kids had behavioral problems. They brought the children to the university lab for problem-solving and sorting tests. These included that lazy Susan task and the famous marshmallow test of delayed gratification. (In the marshmallow test, experimenters offer young children either one small reward right away, such as a marshmallow, or two small rewards if the kids wait 15 minutes. Follow-up research suggested that preschoolers who held out for the larger reward had healthier behaviors and years later showed better success in school.) In such tests, adopted kids struggled with attention and self-regulation.

Much to the researchers’ surprise, the kids also had unusually low cortisol levels. In the face of sustained hardship, cortisol levels usually skyrocket. But high cortisol is bad for the body. It can raise a person’s risk for various conditions, including heart disease and diabetes. So a weak stress response could be “nature’s way of preserving the brain and body,” Gunnar now speculates.

She continued studying the Minnesota adoptees as they grew older. Preschoolers with low cortisol often entered kindergarten with attention problems. They might also show problem behaviors, such as physical aggression and cheating. Their blunted stress responses persisted, too. They lasted even after the kids had spent an average of seven to eight years in a caring adopted family.

That was disheartening, says Russell Romeo. He works at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City as a psychobiologist. “We’d always thought that maybe if these individuals get out of the adverse situations, they could start recalibrating their stress reactivity.”

But earlier work that Romeo had done in the mid-2000s gave Gunnar reason to think she just needed to study the children longer.

High time for change

Romeo had been studying rats. He wanted to see if stress affects the brains of adolescents and adults differently. In one set of experiments, he stressed the animals by trapping them inside a wire-mesh container for 30 minutes. Some rats were adults. Others were young and had not yet undergone the rat version of puberty. Romeo measured levels of the rat’s version of cortisol. He recorded levels before, during and after their confinement. The stress spiked hormone levels in both age groups similarly. But levels in the young rats took far longer to get back to normal.

Then Romeo observed how the animals reacted to repeated periods of stress. The rats endured the 30-minute restraint each day for seven days. Now the stress pattern changed. On the first day, stress hormones surged higher in young rats than in adults. But at the end of the seven days, rats near puberty returned to their initial levels more quickly. The responses were being shaped more powerfully when those stressors occurred around puberty rather than later in life. This suggests that puberty may offer a greater potential for change.

Explainer: What is anxiety?

Other researchers studied what happens when adolescent rats move into “enriched” environments. These were larger cages with more toys and cage-mates. It was the rodent equivalent of a human’s nice home and family. A nicer environment could reset to normal the stress responses that had been thrown out of whack by early-life trauma, these studies showed.

Those findings heartened Gunnar. “Maybe I should be looking at puberty,” she thought. It could be a time to recalibrate.

So her team invited 280 children into the lab to complete two stressful tasks. All were 7- to 14-year-olds. They included 122 children adopted from institutions. Another 158 kids had not been adopted but came from families of similar backgrounds.

Giving a speech in front of the class can be a stressful experience. Scientists even use this type of activity to study how children respond to stress.Comstock/Stockbyte/Getty Images

For the first test, each of the children prepared a 5-minute speech introducing themselves to a new class of students. They gave the speech facing a video camera and a mirror. Their speech would be rated by judges, they were told. Some kids spoke with confidence. Others looked nervous. “We did have one who burst into tears,” Gunnar says. But “we don’t torture them. If we think they’re too nervous, we help them quit.”

After the speech, participants spent five minutes on a verbal subtraction task. The difficulty was adjusted by age. Seven- and 8-year-olds began with the number 397 and counted down by 3s. Kids 11 and older started with 758 and subtracted by 7s.

Before and after these tasks, researchers collected saliva from each child to measure cortisol levels. The researchers also noted at what stage of puberty each child was in —from 1 to 5. Stage 1 meant no noticeable body changes. At stage 5, a child had completely matured physically.

Among kids in early puberty (stage 1 and 2), adopted kids had lower cortisol levels than did children living with their biological parents. This confirmed Gunnar’s previous research on Romanian orphans and international adoptees living in the United States. Trauma showed an effect on those kids.

In the late-puberty group (stages 3 to 5), however, cortisol patterns looked similar for adopted and non-adopted kids. The adopted kids appeared to have gotten over the impacts of their earlier trauma.

Rather than just comparing across groups, Gunnar and her colleagues wanted to confirm that a normalizing of the HPA axis had occurred in each of the kids. So they brought these children back for the same tests one and two years later (for a total of three yearly sessions).

Closer to normal

During a stressful activity (giving a speech, for example), saliva cortisol levels rose temporarily and returned to normal in those children who lived with their biological parents. Children who were adopted after starting life in an orphanage (an early-life trauma), had blunted cortisol responses during stages 1 to 2 of puberty. But at the tail end of puberty, stages 4 and 5, adopted children’s stress responses normalized.

Stages of puberty and cortisol stress reaction

T. Tibbitts

T. Tibbitts; Source: M.R. Gunnar et al/PNAS 2019

The body recalibrates its response to stressors during puberty, they found.

Says Romeo, this may mean the teen brain responds better to interventions that didn’t work during childhood.

Gunnar’s team detailed its findings November 26, 2019 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Matthew Duggan is a therapist in Long Beach, Calif. He finds the new results encouraging. They could apply, he thinks, to a range of children who have trouble managing their emotions and connecting with others because caretakers abused or ignored them at a young age.

There may be “a window, you know, a decade from now, where things might be able to change,” Duggan says. “And we have some data here to suggest that at a biological level, that is a possibility. For me, that’s really hopeful to see.”

How might puberty combine with better caregiving and support to reshape the body’s response to stress? One speculation stems from the fact that brain regions controlling how we react to stress are among ones that continue to mature during adolescence. So there might be some brain flexibility that “lends itself to changes uniquely during this time,” Romeo says.

Mental health and resilience emerge from an ever-changing mix of genes and life experiences. Some of these set the body awry early on. But research by Gunnar and others shows that adolescence could potentially erase some of the damage. And future work could reveal more of the underlying biology behind such a reboot.

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Puberty may reboot the brain and behaviors published first on https://triviaqaweb.tumblr.com/

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andythomas684-blog · 6 years ago

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How hiking is good for your health?

At first, walking and hiking may sound like two words for the same form of exercise. The footwear and scenery may vary, but the lower-body mechanics seem the same.

Surprisingly, though, they’re radically different. Research shows that your joints, heart and muscles perform in distinct ways during a hike compared to what they do during a jaunt around the block.

“When you walk on a level surface, your body does a really good job of what’s known as passive dynamics,” says Daniel Ferris, a professor of engineering and biomechanics at the University of Florida. Your walking stride, he says, is like the swing of a pendulum. “Thanks to gravitational and kinetic energy, if I start that pendulum swinging, it’s going to keep moving back and forth for a long time without any additional energy input,” he says.

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Like a pendulum, walking on flat terrain allows you to keep moving with little effort. “But when you walk on uneven terrain”—the type you’d encounter on nature trails, deep-sand beaches or other natural surfaces—“that knocks out a lot of that energy transfer,” Ferris says. “Your heart rate and metabolic rate go up, and you burn more calories.” In fact, hiking on uneven terrain increases the amount of energy your body uses by 28% compared to walking on flat ground, Ferris found in a study he conducted at the University of Michigan. The varying ground slopes you encounter while hiking also make it different from flat-ground walking. Paths that go up, down and sideways require subtle shifts in the way your leg muscles lengthen or shorten while performing work, and those shifts increase the amount of energy you’re expending during your trek.

But the benefits of hiking extend well beyond the extra calorie burn. Navigating uneven ground—whether you’re hiking or trail-running—recruits different muscles than you would use on flat, man-made surfaces. “You’re turning on and strengthening a lot of muscles in your hips and knees and ankles that you don’t normally use,” Ferris says. Pumping up those oft-neglected muscles may improve your balance and stability, which helps protect you from falls. Using those muscles may also knock down your risk for the kinds of overuse injuries—like knee or hip pains, or band issues—that can result from the repetitive nature of level-ground walking or running.

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Of course, hiking isn’t without its own risks. If you’re not careful (and sure-footed), missteps can lead to rolled ankles, sprained knees, or even tumbles. Just as a novice runner or weightlifter is asking for trouble by kicking off a new routine with an extended, arduous workout, Ferris says inexperienced hikers may be more likely to injure themselves if they tackle a long, rocky hike right off the bat. You need to give those little-used leg muscles time to build up strength.

While variable terrain works your body into shape, the sights, sounds and smells of nature may be performing a similar kind of alchemy in your brain. A 2015 study from Stanford University found that time spent in natural environments (as opposed to busy city settings) calmed activity in a part of the brain that research has linked to mental illness. Hanging out with Mother Nature also seems to reduce your mind’s propensity to “ruminate”—a word psychologists use for negative, self-focused patterns of thought that are linked with anxiety and depression. “I’d say there’s mounting evidence that, for urbanites and suburbanites, nature experience increases positive mood and decreases negative mood,” says Greg Bratman, a Stanford research fellow and coauthor of that study.

pending time in nature can work wonders for human health, from lowering blood pressure and stress hormones to sparking feelings of awe. Growing research suggests it may also improve sleep by resetting our internal clocks to a natural sleep cycle. A new study released in the journal Current Biology adds to that evidence by showing the sleep-promoting benefits of the great outdoors.

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Kenneth Wright, a researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder and author of the new study, embarked on his camping research back in 2013, when he sent people on a week-long summer camping trip to understand how their internal clocks changed without electronics and only natural light. Before and after the trip, he measured their levels of the hormone melatonin, which alerts the body when it’s time to prepare for bed and helps set a person’s internal clock. Wright found that people’s internal clocks were delayed by two hours in their modern environment—which isn’t a good thing, since an out-of-whack sleep cycle has been linked to health problems like sleepiness, mood problems and a higher risk of being overweight. But they were able to recalibrate after a week in nature.

Now, in the new study, Wright set out to better understand how long it takes for people to recalibrate their internal sleep cycles and whether it also works in winter.

In the first part of his study, Wright equipped five people with wearable devices that measured when they woke up, when they went to bed and how much light they were normally exposed to. Wright also measured their melatonin levels in a lab. After that, everyone went on a week-long camping trip—but this time, it was during the winter. Wright found that people’s internal clocks were delayed during their normal schedules—this time by two hours and 36 minutes—compared to when they were exposed to only natural light on their camping trip. They also had higher melatonin levels, which signals that it’s a person’s biological night. “We don’t know what this means, but we do know some humans are sensitive to seasonal changes,” says Wright. “Some people get winter depression or may gain weight a bit more.”

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In the second part of the study, Wright wanted to see what happened when some people went camping for just a weekend and others stayed home. Most who stayed home stayed up later than usual and slept in, and their internal clocks were pushed back even further. But on the two-day trip, campers’ internal clocks shifted earlier. “That says we can rapidly change the timing of our internal clock,” says Wright.

Fun as it may be, camping isn’t the only way to get similar results, Wright says: Exposing yourself to morning light, cutting down on electrical light from smartphones and screens in the evening and even dimming the lights at home can help.

As for Wright, he sets his internal clock by hiking in the morning, then waking up and going to sleep at the same time every day. It appears to be working: he doesn’t even need an alarm clock anymore.

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thezodiaczone · 7 years ago

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July Forecast for Cancer

What a birthday season you’re having this year, Cancer! Not only is the Sun in your sign until July 22 and resetting your whole aura, this month will bring two powerful eclipses one of which will fall in Cancer. Get ready for a powerful and purposeful push onto your path! There’s a lot going on in the heavens all month, including a signal-scrambling Mercury retrograde toward the end of July (more on that in a bit). But the skies are looking mighty fine for the first three weeks, so let the fun begin!

The action kicks off on July 10, when expansive Jupiter ends a four-month retrograde and powers forward in Scorpio and your fifth house of love, creativity and joie de vivre. If you haven’t planned a birthday extravaganza yet, book it asap! A romance that’s slowed down since March could pick up speed again, or you might resume a back-burnered project. Don’t be surprised if fame comes knocking, as global Jupiter in this head-turning house shines the spotlight on your talents.

Your confidence and charisma get even more fuel on July 12, when the Cancer new moon—a partial solar eclipse—lands in your sign. This is the first of summer’s three scene-shifting eclipses (the next two are on July 27 and August 11) that are sparking radical change. And while eclipses are significant for all the signs, because the moon is your celestial ruler, they can be downright cataclysmic for Cancers. Eclipses sweep in four to six times a year and shake up the status quo, removing anything that’s past its expiration date and flinging open the doors for a fresh start.

In astrology, solar eclipses mark bold beginnings, often with an unexpected twist. If you’ve been on the fence about making a change, this new moon could catalyze a swift decision. Maybe your intuition told you to wait, and you weren’t sure why. Now following that divine-timing hunch could pay off, and an even better offer or opportunity arrives. With this eclipse in your first house of self and appearances, some Cancers will make a dramatic style shift or debut a project that has your personal stamp all over it.

This is the inaugural eclipse in a series that will fall on the Cancer/Capricorn axis between now and July 2020, initiating a wave of transformations around your individuality and your relationships. Prepare to renegotiate the balance between “me” and “we” over the next two years. This is the only eclipse from this group in 2018; the rest will fall in 2019. It will also coincide with the Sun’s annual opposition to Pluto in Capricorn and your partnership house. As you emerge from your shell to reveal Cancer 2.0, don’t be surprised if you get some pushback or resistance from your closest people—even ones you’d expect to support you. Be selective about whom you share your nascent plans with now.

In fact, it might be best to put your head down and just work, especially once the Sun enters Leo and your industrious second house for a month on July 22. As birthday season wraps up, it’s time to focus on practical matters and lock down some security. As el Sol heats up your zone of daily routines, work and money, you could start building some of those grand, eclipse-fueled ideas into something tangible.

But as quickly as you start, there could be speed bumps because Mercury—planet of communication, technology and transportation—turns retrograde in Leo on July 26 (until August 19). Watch for misunderstandings with clients and coworkers, budget snafus and computer crashes at the job. Early in the month, take precautions by backing up your data to the cloud and deleting any questionable emails, especially ones sent on the company server. A promising financial lead could ghost you, or a key meeting could be delayed. Use this window to tighten up your presentation and look for other options. During Mercury retrogrades, it’s more important than ever to not put all your eggs in one basket

Besides, speedy Mars is retrograde from June 26 to August 27, and for the majority of its backspin, it will be in Aquarius, disrupting your eighth house of joint ventures and shared finances. You may need to scale down overly ambitious plans or deal with an unanticipated expense, perhaps related to a legal bill, a real estate matter or debt.

While money and power struggles could be a source of stress, examine your own role in any conflicts. Where are you acting rashly and from a place of ego? Tunnel vision or an unhealthy rivalry could be consuming you. This retrograde is a crucial time to step back and change counterproductive behaviors. If you’ve pooled funds or gotten entangled with someone who’s not holding up their end of the bargain, you might have second thoughts about proceeding. Couples or business partners may decide to go separate ways—careful that combative Mars doesn’t provoke a contentious battle as you divide up your assets and responsibilities.

Although the retrograde can cause bottlenecks, you won’t be stuck ALL month. On July 27, a total lunar (full moon) eclipse lands in Aquarius and your merger-minded eighth house. A simmering sexual attraction could consummate quickly, perhaps turning into a full-blown soulmate relationship. This eclipse could also bring a large financial windfall or unexpected momentum around a legal or property matter.

Lunar eclipses can feel more intense than solar ones because full moons bring endings, transitions and full-circle events. Powerful emotions that have been tucked away could erupt, taking you by surprise. This eclipse will conjunct fiery Mars, which is retrograde in Aquarius for the next couple weeks. If you have buried resentments or frustrations, that could all come pouring out. Since the eighth house rules merging, some Cancers could suddenly get engaged or pregnant, move in together, buy or sell a home or make some fast-but-permanent life change.

This is the final Aquarius eclipse in a series that’s been touching down on the Leo/Aquarius axis since February 2017, transforming the way you deal with money, work and your deepest bonds—everything from investments to emotional vulnerability to shared space. Look back to the prior two Aquarius eclipses on August 7, 2017, and February 15, 2018, for clues of what might fully come together now. There will be one last Leo eclipse on January 21, 2019, so get your financial and emotional ducks in a row for one last big breakthrough then.

Love & Romance

With impassioned Mars spinning backward in Aquarius and your intense eighth house all month (from June 26 to August 27), a mishmash of emotions gets stirred up—from lust to trust to things you weren’t even aware of. This phase can spark jealousy, resentment and a fierce competitiveness. It could also signal the return of an ex, so keep your eyes wide open! Couples may need to talk about or negotiate shared finances and other assets. Having second thoughts or feel like you rushed in a little fast? We can’t help thinking of the speedy engagement of Cancer Ariana Grande to Scorpio Pete Davidson. Mars retrograde can help you recalibrate if necessary.

On the other side of your chart, Venus is sailing through your second house of money and security until July 9, helping you clarify your values. But since Venus is in luxury-loving Leo AND opposing Mars retrograde, this probably won’t help you curb your spending. At the very least, you can think about your own financial goals and challenges: Where do you need to hold back, and how could you be more confident and let your savings work harder for you?

On July 9, the social planet will cruise into Virgo and your third house, lightening the vibe. If you’re single, you could meet someone with potential while casually hanging out—perhaps it’s a friend of a friend, or one of YOURS who suddenly seems worthy of a “benefits package.” Couples who’ve been arguing will calm down now and have the clarity to talk things through like two people who genuinely care about each other. Lay down your weapons and just listen to what the other has to say.

Throughout the month, Venus will form flowing trines to innovative Uranus (July 11), structured Saturn (July 14) and transformational Pluto (July 27), all in the most interpersonal houses of your chart. The Venus-Uranus trine could spark sudden chemistry with a friend, colleague or an online match. And the love planet’s divine dalliances with future-oriented Saturn and alchemical Pluto in your eighth house of mergers could find Crabs deciding to make things official—or establishing new terms of engagement.

Who knows? Mars retrograde be damned, we might just see some slipping off to City Hall, especially near the July 27 total lunar eclipse in this same sexy and intimate zone. Eclipses bring events to a sudden culmination, and at this one, smoldering chemistry could consummate…or combust!

Key Dates

July 12: Sun-Pluto Opposition This power pairing only happens once a year, and something’s bound to happen. Have you been stuffing down some strong feelings because you’re afraid you’ll hurt someone or rock the boat? How happy are you not speaking up? If you truly want resolution, stop tiptoeing around the other person’s ego and come out with it! You’ll be pleasantly surprised to discover that they’re not as fragile as you think.

Money & Career

Make some calculated power moves, Cancer. With the Sun in your sign until July 22 and a rare Cancer solar eclipse arriving at the July 12 new moon, one of your solo projects could move to the front burner. This is the start of a two-year cycle that can put your name on the map or redefine your whole path. Since this eclipse will oppose powerful Pluto in your partnership house, you might cut ties with someone who’s been holding you back or step into a more assertive role.

We’re still in retrograde high season because this month will see Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune AND Pluto all in reversal at some point. The emphasis of retrogrades is on the past, so go back and clear up any confusion or grey areas. Renegotiate, revise and tweak anything—this fall will bring back most of the momentum, so your careful inspection will pay off in a tight final product.

And watch your spending! Anxious Mars is retrograde in Aquarius all month, lending some intensity and uncertainty to your eighth house of shared ventures and long-term finances. Ease up on the big purchases and hold off on any large investments if you’re feeling stressed about bearing the expense. This is a good time to consolidate debt or make an aggressive repayment plan—but pace yourself. Cut up a credit card or three if you’ve been overusing the plastic and find a way you can live sustainably within your means while still enjoying your must-have Cancerian creature comforts.

The month’s second eclipse on July 27 lands in Aquarius, riding shotgun with Mars. This turbo-charged lunar (full moon) eclipse could bring a lucky windfall or an exciting opportunity to join forces with an influential person or partner. La luna also shines a megawatt spotlight on your emotions around money and power. Is it time to step into a role befitting of your creativity and capabilities, Crab? If you’re unconsciously sabotaging yourself by overspending or mismanaging money—or by letting your emotions eclipse your judgment—it’s time to cut that out. The world needs you to be your best and brightest self already, so quit holding back!

Key Dates

July 9: Mercury-Jupiter Square Before you’re off and running on a new project, crunch the numbers. If it’s not financially sound, be prepared to temper your enthusiasm and scale back the plan. With overeager Jupiter adding impulsivity, things could get out of hand quickly. Think twice (and a third time) before launching into any long-winded defense of your ideas—or before completely shooting down another person’s.

Love Days: 19, 25 Money Days: 6, 14 Luck Days: 12, 30 Off Days: 10, 23, 27

#cancer #monthly forecast #horoscope #horoscopes #astrology #cancer monthly

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andythomas684-blog · 6 years ago

Text

How hiking will help you to maintain good health?

At first, walking and hiking may sound like two words for the same form of exercise. The footwear and scenery may vary, but the lower-body mechanics seem the same.

Now, in the new study, Wright set out to better understand how long it takes for people to recalibrate their internal sleep cycles and whether it also works in winter.

0 notes