#and if she inoculates them; how are they going to react to remembering everything and move forward from there?

[liltaz-asatreat]

What if in the scenario that Magnus took the Chalice, the only way to get him back was to time jump to his timeline, and the only way to do that was to create another powerful artifact using the Light because that's the only power source strong enough to make something like that, but then of course Magnus doesn't want to leave the timeline he's in, but in the ensuing conflict, something happens that makes him want to fix it, so he uses the Chalice again, making Taako, Merle, possibly Lucretia since she would have to be the one who made the second "Chalice", and whoever else time jump again, and then like, Magnus dies or something, and of course they can't have that! So they make a new timeline, and it just turns into an unofficial contest of who can fuck up time the most trying to get what the other wants until time is so broken and both artifacts have a chokehold on their wielders, and no one knows how to unfuck this situation

Wouldn't that be fucked up? Lol

[hug-your-face]

Expecting Difficult Conversations During the Holidays?

(Thanks to @squeeful for posting the original link from the WSJ; but it’s behind a very tenacious paywall. I did the work of scraping it out from behind the paywall so you can read it --HYF)

Worried About a Difficult Conversation? Here’s Advice From a Hostage Negotiator.

Elizabeth Bernstein 9-11 minutes

There are so many to have right now. Tensions over racial issues, politics and the coronavirus pandemic are provoking arguments within families and between friends: Spouses are arguing about money; siblings are fighting about how to keep parents safe from the virus; some people are confronting relatives about race. Many conversations have the potential to become heated, especially as chronic stress is keeping our fight-or-flight systems activated, making us more likely to react.

Christopher Voss is a former hostage negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and CEO and founder of the Black Swan Group, which trains companies and individuals to negotiate. He has decades of experience guiding people through conversations that are high tension and high stakes. Mr. Voss is the author of “Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It” and once did a video series for a website run by Dow Jones, which owns The Wall Street Journal.

I spoke with Mr. Voss about how to navigate a conversation where both parties are worked up and entrenched in their viewpoints. Here are edited excerpts of that interview.

How should you prepare for a difficult conversation?

Mr. Voss: We often prepare but don’t realize it. When we think about the conversation, we picture ourselves getting mad. That is preparation. And we default to our highest level of preparation. So if that is all you prepared for, that is what you are going to get.

You need to do what athletes do. They prepare by envisioning their performance, by envisioning themselves doing things right. First, you need to envision yourself taking a different tone. If you use a calm tone of voice, it will actually calm you down.

Then you want to rewire yourself for gratitude. The brain functions more effectively when you are in a positive frame of mind. And gratitude is highly positive. So tell yourself you are lucky to be in this conversation or to have this person in your life, that you will miss them when they are gone. If all else fails, remind yourself you’re lucky to be on this planet.

A few years ago, we had a colleague who was trying to cheat us. As I was preparing for the conversation, I couldn’t stop envisioning myself getting angry. Then I had this thought: “I am lucky to be in this position, because she wouldn’t be after us if we weren’t so good.” Instantly, by shifting into gratitude, I thought of all the things I needed to say to make it an effective conversation.

Should you have a goal?

Yes. You want the other person to get a hit of oxytocin. You’re going to get that by getting them to say: “That’s right.” You do this by listening and then really summarizing their perspective for them. You especially want to focus on articulating any negative thoughts they have. Don’t dispute or deny them. When the word “but” comes out of your mouth you are denying and it is time to shut up.

Once you’ve articulated their perspective for them, they feel understood. And a person who feels understood is getting a feel-good wave of chemicals in their brain. The one you are really going for is oxytocin, the bonding chemical. Once they get a hit of oxytocin, everything is going to change. They’ll feel bonded to you. And if they feel bonded, whether it’s a little or a lot, that’s to your advantage.

So your power is in making the other person feel heard?

This should be your goal. When people have arguments, they raise their voices because they don’t feel heard. Ask yourself to remember what it felt like to feel acknowledged during a disagreement. You’ll remember how great you felt. You won’t remember what happened afterwards. That means the fight didn’t continue.

Ask yourself: What is this person saying about this situation and about me right now? We usually know what people are saying. We just don’t want them to say it. Say it out loud and see how they respond.

Some people think that acknowledging how someone is upset allows them to dig in more. But it’s the opposite. As soon as you articulate the other side’s point of view, they are a little surprised. You’ve made them really curious to hear what you are going to say next. And you’ve made them feel that you are in this together.

How do you start the conversation?

You want to start out articulating their negative thoughts about you or the situation. If you’ve had an argument with someone, what do you know for sure? They probably think you’re a jerk. So open the conversation: “Right now, you probably think I’m a jerk.”

This takes a lot of courage—until you know how effective it is. When you see how well it works, you’re like: “Ooh, I’m going to do it this way every time.” It’s like a shortcut in a videogame. It accelerates a positive outcome.

This has to do with the emotional wiring in our brain. Brain science shows that every time you identify a negative emotion, that negative feeling diminishes. So if negativity is an obstacle, and just calling it out reduces it, this accelerates the process of defusing the tension. Then from there you are able to talk.

What if a normal conversation suddenly turns heated?

Remember that people elevate their voice because they feel they aren’t being heard. So you want to acknowledge: “I am being an idiot.” Use the strongest synonym you can: idiot, jerk, something stronger.

You don’t want to be sarcastic. You want to demonstrate that you understand their negative perception of the situation. This has an inoculating effect. It doesn’t matter whether you think their perception is fair or accurate.

How do you deal with your anger?

The whole process of working to make them feel heard will keep you calm. It puts you in a completely different head space and the anger circuitry in your brain will not get triggered.

What are some pitfalls to avoid?

A common derailment is trying to explain stuff to people. Explanation is a nice word for argument. When you are explaining something, the other side feels you’re telling them that they don’t understand, that they aren’t smart.

Once you’ve listened to their viewpoint and they feel heard, there’s a really good chance you won’t need to explain your point at all.

How do you move forward?

Once the person feels heard, you can put it back on them: “How do we move forward?” This makes them take a broader look at the entire landscape. The answer isn’t nearly as important as the thought process you forced them to go through. The “how” question is designed to get them to think about negative consequences. And you’re defending your line in the sand by shifting the problems back onto the person causing them, without being seen as combative.

What if the other person becomes irate?

If you use a soothing, supportive tone of voice, this will have a neurochemical impact on them that will calm them down. Your tone of voice has an impact on someone’s thinking before you finish the sentence.

Should you apologize?

An apology should always precede something negative. The apology is a bit of a warning that bad news is coming. It allows the person to prepare. And it is amazing what people can handle when they are given the slightest opportunity to be prepared, rather than blindsided.

What do you do if there’s a stalemate?

Here is the critical game-changing move: Remember that the last impression is the lasting impression. If you are struggling to get the last word in, that’s when the last word is a cheap shot. But when your last word is something positive, it seeds the possibility that the other person will think about what you said and come back and propose a resolution.

[smileyjily]

A Series of (In)Decent Proposals

Chapter 12: The One with the Strawberry Cake

Summary: Throughout the course of their lives, James would ask Lily to marry him many times. A 14-part series, consisting of 13 no’s and 1 very jubilant yes.

Set in The Bet universe, but works as a canon piece as well.

Word count: 1,515

ao3/ffnet

May 1, 1979

There was nothing extraordinary about the safehouse in Ipswich. Having sought safety in seven since the start of her career as an anti-revolutionary, Lily could attest that there was nothing remarkable in regards to its size – a three bedroom structure with an unfinished basement that let in the brisk night air – or its history – a pre-war structure that had survived the air raids unscathed. Nothing at all to distinguish it from the three dozen refuges the Order employed.

Except the inoffensive, even unassuming house remained Lily’s least favorite safehouse by far.

Conveniently located between London and Thetford Forest, where the North Suffolk werewolves collected, the Ipswich safehouse saw more traffic, and frantic, often screaming traffic at that, than any other. In the six days since Lily and James had taken up residence in the East-facing bedroom, Lily had not known a moment’s peace.

For the dozenth time that night, Lily rolled over in a bid to get comfortable. She deliberately mashed her ear into a pillow in the hopes to lessen the impact of the next, inevitable disruption. Beside her, James snored. Years of rooming with Sirius and his screaming nightmares had inoculated James against noise in the night. He would spring up in the morning, put on his glasses, and face the day as energetic as a kindergartner returning to school after Christmas Hols. Meanwhile, Lily wondered if there was a point at which dark circles became permanent.

Peck. Peck. Peck.

That would be an owl with no doubt urgent correspondence. Lily guessed it was outside the kitchen window. No need for her to react.

Eliza Clarke was on call that night, the only other semi-permanent resident of the safehouse. In the Order, it was common to stay at a safehouse for only a matter of nights before moving on, always some new emergency to circumvent. Jones had been settled in the house for a practically unheard of three months. Clarke was one of the best healers in the Order, and the third bedroom was essentially a sickroom for whoever had been cursed most recently. Lily and James would need to leave soon to make room for the next felled soldier. The full moon was around the corner, and Lily suspected it would be Remus.

Lily heard the creak of a bedroom door. As she expected, Clarke crept to the kitchen to answer the persistent owl. Slippers cloaked most of her footfalls, but there was no stopping the squeal of the bottom step.

Almost silence lingered in the room. Nothing to hear but James’ little breathy snores. Lily and James had shared a bed nearly a thousand times, so James’ sleep sounds made up the melody of Lily’s favorite lullaby. She drifted into a dose, no thought staying long enough at the front of her brain to fully formulate. It all just slipped away, and Lily was happy to follow.

Woosh!

“Anyone there? Present yourself?”

The floo. Mad-Eye.

Lily’s brain supplied the answers before her mind had finished asking the question. They were expecting Mad-Eye in the morning. He was to deliver their next assignment. If history served, it would be either to take advantage of Lily’s potioneering or James’ reckless disregard for his own life and limb. He made an unsettlingly good soldier.

With her sleep already out of reach, Lily sat up. Better to get it out of the way. With any luck, Mad-Eye’s orders would take her and James far from Ipswich.

Lily deftly ignored the bright panic that always accompanied new orders. They hadn’t separated James from her yet.

As suddenly as the voices downstairs had started up, they stopped. The floo roared and fell silent. If Lily strained, she could make out the familiar crackle of a hearth fire, nothing magical about it.

Lily flopped back onto her stack of pillows. Maybe Mad-Eye had stopped by to relay something unrelated to them, for Clarke’s ears only. Maybe he’d been pulled away by something innocent but pressing…a drunken colleague or a scandalous love confession. Alright, most likely someone was dead or maimed or cursed or about to be dead or maimed or cursed. Wasn’t that always the case?

Lily hadn’t heard word from Marlene in two months.

Any downstairs disturbance would have been preferable to where Lily’s mind went then. Staring up at the ceiling, Lily couldn’t see anything to distract her in the dark. The war had her yearning for a nightlight, those childhood promises of protection from monsters that turned out to be very very real.

“Soon. Soon.”

The words were spoken into her shoulder, half-slurred with sleep.

“What’s soon, James?”

Lily rolled onto her side to look at him. His eyes stayed shut, breathing even.

“I’ll take you home soon.”

“Where is home?”

Whispering the words broke her heart. She’d called Cokeworth home for eleven years, Hogwarts for another seven. The Potter Estate had been a home the first time she visited, but since the funeral, it had become a museum to the dead, a container for all of James’ grief that he couldn’t carry with him into the war if he didn’t want to end up joining his parents in death. Truthfully, when the parade of safehouses came to an end, Lily didn’t know where they would go.

“Home is…with you,” James murmured.

He then snored so loudly that he choked on it.

Honestly, the whole Order could have apparated into the room and James would have kept on dreaming. It wasn’t the first time he’d spoken in his sleep. At times, James was capable of complex conversation, like coaching a pretend Quidditch match or firing off one of his prized puns. Normally, he just mumbled about the symbols that made up his dreamscape, something to the tune of, “Fish on bicycles grooming the manticores,” followed by more snoring.

Lily thought it was somehow sweeter that James was dreaming of a home with her, rather than actively trying to deliver reassurances. Her anxiety didn’t soften, but her heart did.

“My home is with you, too,” Lily said, even if he wouldn’t process the words in his sleep.

James smiled like maybe he did.

Lily took a moment to trace the lines of his face with her eyes. The shadows couldn’t conceal from her what she could recall so well from memory: the scar at his temple from a nasty fall down a moving staircase, the encroaching laugh lines earned early from a lifetime of hilarity, the supple lower lip that swelled when she sucked on it.

That very lip quivered as James started speaking again, “Going to marry you. Marry you in a wedding. There will be cake.”

Lily’s face broke into a smile. “Cake, huh? Let’s reach for the stars and have ice cream, too.”

“Yummy.”

He wouldn’t remember a minute of it come morning, one nondescript night of good sleep fading into the next. But she would. Most days, Lily felt like she had nothing left to give. But, like she was a wet rag, James could always wring just one last drop out of her. With a smile, a joke, a word of encouragement, somehow James would make her feel like the girl she once was, and that was all she needed to keep fighting. He was her safehouse.

“James, next time you ask me to marry you, I’m going to say yes. I’ll say yes and kiss you until we both can’t breathe. Until we both forget everything about this year from hell. Until it’s just me and you. Because it will always be me and you,” Lily murmured. “I honestly can’t wait.”

“Hmm, sounds nice,” James agreed.

Lily placed a kiss on the smooth skin of his brow, marveling at how little tension lay there when he slept. Where did he keep his worries? He was the most beautiful man she’d ever known.

“Lily?”

“Yes, love?”

“Can it be a strawberry cake?”

A bang from downstairs – the front door – was followed by a cacophony of shouting voices. From the din, Lily caught something about a raid on a Death Eater hold out in Colchester. Lily immediately flung off the duvet and prepared to race downstairs. The floor was cold beneath her bare feet, but she wouldn’t have time to hunt down a pair of slippers. She always slept in something decent now, too afraid of nighttime interruptions, so no need to throw on a robe.

Wondrously, a smatter of laughter rose from their new guests. That meant there’d be wounded – there were always wounded – but no dead. A good day.

Hand on the doorknob, Lily turned back to James, still sleeping on his side like nothing had changed. Lily wanted to give him every comfort that had been denied them the last year, including a few more hours of uninterrupted sleep.

“Yes, James. You’ll feast on strawberry cake,” Lily promised before slipping out the door.

And the next day, even though Lily had stayed up all night helping Clarke tend to the wounded, she still found time to bake one perfect strawberry cake.

She was James’ refuge, too.

[the-river-person]

Prepare for the Worst

Napstablook was a hit. They’d had their own music playing for all the monsters waiting in line, and they always seemed to know exactly how much encouragement or space each person needed, as if they’d had a lot of practice with that sort of thing. They even seemed a bit cheerier running everything than when Sans had first met them. For some reason they were wearing a kind of top hat made out of tears, but since nobody seemed to mind, Sans hadn’t questioned it when he’d gone to Waterfall to check in on the proceedings there. He’d also stopped in at the cave that he and Papyrus had temporarily lived in while working with Alphys to make the Solution. It was weird seeing it empty. That was gonna be a problem in the future. It was one thing having people repeat the same stuff everyday without knowing, and when everybody started remembering past the Resets that would change. But the world itself would still be reset every time. They had a few weeks where things would work the way they were supposed to. But after the time was up, everything would go back to the way it was before. Nothing they built would be there, if they broke something or threw it away it would be back and fixed, whenever they cleaned something it would be dirty again soon enough. Okay, maybe that last one wasn’t too different from the normal way of things. He smirked, thinking of the war he had with his brother over the sock thing. That had been going for months before the Resets ever even began. But hey, there were some good bits about it all too. If someone was hurt right before a Reset, they’d be back to normal soon enough. And no one would ever have to worry about food, they would always have more than enough if it kept being renewed. It would all take some getting used to, but they could do it. He just had to have hope. Things sped along much faster than they had anticipated, Monsters cooperated and went along with everything cheerfully considering the circumstances. Despite a few minor hiccups on the way, one of which involved adapting the Solution to be used on Ghost Monsters, every monster in the main Underground had been given the shots in just a few short days. Asgore issued another proclamation that he had the very confused Seamus read aloud on television to the Underground. It contained only a very short message that was incredibly cryptic. “On the day of the 24th, a few days from now, I ask that everyone who is able to make their way to New Home or to tune in on this channel. Everything will be explained at that time. Until then, I wish you well. King Asgore Dreemurr.” Everyone agreed that it was most unlike their monarch. Not only being so cryptic but also how formal the message was. And of course, nobody knew what it was he was referring to. Even Seamus admitted that he’d only received the letter to read and had no idea what the King was referring to, and wondered whether it had anything to do with the Solution that everybody had been given. Maybe there was some specific disease the King was afraid of that they were trying to protect everyone from? Rumors were rampant, but most of them were harmless, and nearly everybody was content that whatever his reason for concealing things, the King was a soft pushover that had their best interests at heart. At least he was going to explain everything, and that was a step in the right direction, or so said Muffet in an interview for MTT News that Saturday. Even the strange invisible aura of color that seemed to show up on everyone a day after they’d been given the shot wasn’t enough to make them worry much. Though many had questions about the phenomenon. Seamus had been instructed to only answer the questions by saying that the King would explain everything they wanted to know when he spoke to them. Sans knew they might not be so trusting when the Reset came. He, Alphys, and Papyrus had plans to head to the palace in New Home the moment the Reset came, and the King was going to lock the doors and address everyone from the Balcony. Nobody was really sure how they would react to the news of the Resets, or being lied to about the inoculations. Or the news that they had been murdered possibly thousands of times. Even the Human had been instructed to simply stay in the Ruins until the next Reset to ensure that nothing happened, just in case there was trouble. Asgore had taken Undyne aside not long after Seamus had been hired and explained everything to her personally before she even received the Solution. She’d been deeply shaken, but there had been time for her to get used to the idea, and she vowed that no one who tried would get in through the doors.

[jennymanrique]

Contra-Vax

Vaccines to the rescue? Only if people roll up their sleeves. Photo courtesy of Valleywise Health

Science moved at unprecedented speed to develop vaccines against the new coronavirus. It was too fast for some latinos -- especially those egged on by myth and misinformation 

On the ranch where Gabriela Navarrete was raised in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, she learned early on that the land could provide what she needed to cure her ills. Mesquite bark, olive oil, corn vinegar and baking soda were useful for treating everything from joint pains to throat infections. In case of indigestion, the medicine was a good old stomach rub.

Navarrete, 69, passed on to her three daughters and one son the lesson that "everything natural is what is good for the body."

So when the COVID-19 pandemic began, she quickly stocked up on Vitamin C, infusions of ginger, chamomile and peppermint, and linden tea for sleeping.

And while this arsenal failed to defend her against the coronavirus last year, she remains resolute: Her principle of "consuming everything natural," she said, is more powerful than the idea of getting vaccinated.

That's why she’s decided that the new COVID vaccines are not for her.

"Getting the vaccine is going to be very bad for me because I think they are made from the virus itself," Navarrete said, talking from her home in Anthony, New Mexico, a small town on the border with Texas. "The only time I got the flu shot, I got a lot worse and I don't want to do that to my body anymore."

Graciela Navarrete and her grandson, Diego.

The coronavirus reached Navarrete’s family through her 17-year-old daughter, an athlete who resumed volleyball practice once the school gym was opened after the lockdown. Everyone avoided hospitalization. They were treated by the family doctor with antibiotics, ibuprofen and albuterol in inhalers.

"The virus gave me very bad headaches and I still struggle when walking, so I accepted the medicines. But I am definitely not getting vaccinated."

Like others her age, Navarette is at a higher risk of infection. Yet that’s not enough for her or her children to discount messages they’ve gotten via WhatsApp, complete with videos, that claim, for example, that vaccines are made with tissues of aborted fetuses.

Doubts and fears 

Nationwide, people across demographic lines have lingering doubts about the new COVID-19 vaccines, according to a new survey by the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

Half of the survey respondents said they plan to get vaccinated as soon as they’re allowed to. But 19% say they want to first see how others react to the inoculations, while 24% say they will avoid the vaccine if they can.

Among Latinos, according to recent data from the COVID-19 vaccine monitor launched by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) to track attitudes and experiences with the vaccines, 18% of adults said they will definitely not get the vaccine. Another 11% said they will only do so if it’s required by employers. And, among those who have decided that they will get vaccinated, 43% said they want to wait and see how the innoculations affect other Latinos.

According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Latinos are nearly twice as likely to be infected by COVID-19 as non-Latino whites. The same population is more than four times as likely to be hospitalized and almost three times as likely to die of the virus. This is due, partly, to the large number of Latinos working in essential jobs that expose them to co-workers and the public. Other factors, like access to health care, also play a role.

Despite the higher risk, some Latinos remain uncertain about the safety of the new coronavirus vaccines.

An example: Navarrete in Texas, said she believes the myth that vaccines carry bits of an actual virus.

"There are other vaccines that have virus particles, including live virus particles," said Gerardo Capo, chief of hematology at Trinitas Comprehensive Cancer Center in New Jersey. "This vaccine is more modern. It has internal proteins of the virus that are not considered to cause an infection. It is impossible."

Vaccine hesitancy among Latinos in the U.S. is not necessarily an ideological issue or a belief in the anti-vaccine movement. "It has more to do with not having enough information or having inadequate information," said Nelly Salgado de Snyder, a researcher with  the University of Texas at Austin.

Doubts exist even among Latino health care professionals.

Ada Linares, a nurse in the New York area, told palabra. that it’s not the suspicious messaging seen on social media or via WhatsApp texts, but her own unfamiliarity with this vaccine -- how it was developed and potential side effects perhaps overlooked in testing and trials that moved at unprecedented speed.

“I have always been pro-vaccine, and I think this is why we are here today,” she said. “But at the same time, I don’t know much about (the vaccines).”

Nurse Ada Linares hesitated for some time but she eventually rolled up her scrubs and took her doses. Photo: Jorge Melchor

Avoiding the needle 

In Texas, officials started by vaccinating health care workers, residents of nursing homes and some people older than 65 years.

Throughout the state, according to the KFF monitor, only 15% of vaccines have reached Hispanics, even though Latinos account for almost 40% of the population, 44% of coronavirus cases and almost half of COVID-19 deaths.

"We need to focus on equity as part of the COVID-19 vaccination effort," said Samantha Artiga, director of KFF's racial equity and health policy program. "It is important to monitor data by race and ethnicity to understand the experiences of the communities ... , who is receiving the vaccines, and who has been the most affected by the pandemic."

But it’s more than just reluctance. Studies into low flu vaccination rates among low-income Latino seniors show that being uninsured -- and even the lack of transportation to get to vaccination centers -- are huge barriers.  

Experts suggest that no-cost COVID-19 vaccines, available to everyone regardless of health insurance or immigration status, could help close the gap, “if the information is available in linguistically appropriate materials and the concerns of people are clearly addressed. Immigrant families should be assured that their medical data is private and will not be used by federal agencies,” Artiga said.

Conspiracy theories

In addition to debunked conspiracy theories that Pfizer and Moderna vaccines can alter DNA, or contain microchips implanted by Bill Gates to monitor people with 5G technology, other rumors specific to the Latino community have spread through social media.

“The viral disinformation includes anonymous voice messages on WhatsApp that say that since Trump does not like Mexicans and built the wall, he wants to vaccinate us so we cannot have more children, or that the vaccine is a poison for those of us who are here undocumented, that it is a way to get rid of us,” Salgado de Snyder said.

Photo illustration by FrankHH/Shutterstock

She suggested one possible reason such disinformation is embraced: “People believe it because they don't have the level of education or the institutional support to confirm this information that they hear from other Latinos. Many of them do not speak English and most of the scientific information is not available in Spanish,” she said.

Salgado de Snyder is the co-author of the study, “Exploring Why Adult Mexican Males Do Not Get Vaccinated: Implications for COVID-19 Preventive Actions,” conducted by the Migrant Clinicians Network and published last September.

Data was collected in 2019 at the Ventanilla de Salud at the Mexican Consulate in Austin. Before the pandemic, the clinic offered free vaccines against maladies like influenza, tetanus, hepatitis A and B, and human papilloma, in association with Austin Public Health.

Some 400 patients gave researchers a variety of reasons for not getting vaccinated, including lack of time or money, fear of injections and of potential side effects, insufficient information or motivation, and the perception that they are  healthy and don’t need inoculation.

"While women are more familiar with the health system because in Mexico there is a universal voluntary and free vaccination program, men have the mistaken belief that vaccines are the cure for a problem, they do not see (a vaccination) as a preventive tool," Salgado de Snyder said.

“As breadwinners, they do not want to miss a day of work to go to get vaccinated,” she added. “That is why our recommendations in times of COVID are that through some type of mobile clinic, employers offer vaccines in workplaces such as construction companies or meatpacking plants,” she said.

Moving too fast

María del Rosario Cadena remembers that during her childhood in Tampico, in Mexico’s Tamaulipas state, she received vaccines against hepatitis and polio without any side effects. But she is "very suspicious" about the COVID-19 vaccines that seem to have been developed and approved so quickly.

"I've seen on TV that it affects various parts of the body and people get very sick after receiving it," del Rosario Cadena said.

Maria del Rosario Cadena

Apart from her doubts about the vaccine, del Rosario Cadena insists she follows all recommendations to guard against COVID-19: She wears a mask, she practices social distancing, and she’s always washing her hands. And, since she doesn’t go out "at all," the 71-year-old said she believes that “isolation is my vaccine. I feel I don't need it."

Her daughter, Rocio Valderrabano, 55, is diabetic, so she will soon have access to a COVID-19 vaccine. But she has doubts, so she’ll wait and see how some friends -- nurses -- react to their second doses. "I know people who have had COVID and spent four days with oxygen. I know they had a very bad time ... but I still want to wait and see if there are side effects (to the vaccine)."

Clinicians said mistrust also comes from knowing there were few people of color in the vaccine trials. In the trial for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, participants were 13% Latino, 10% African American, 6% Asian, and 1% Native American. Moderna’s trial population was 20% Hispanic, 10% African American, 4% Asian.

"We hope that the labs that are developing new vaccines will include more Latino patients in their trials," said Dr. Lucianne Marin, a pediatrician at Los Barrios Unidos Community Clinic in Dallas, one of 75 community centers in Texas that will provide vaccines in immigrant neighborhoods.

Marin and the rest of the Barrios Unidos staff have already received both doses --  injections that caused her "a bit of discomfort, fatigue, and a headache."

“Anything strange that enters the body can cause a reaction,” she said. “But one has to understand that the vaccine is not made from the live virus. It’s from genetic material that will help to generate antibodies. … I tell my patients that a fever or a pain in the body cannot be compared with the exposure to the coronavirus.”

The community clinics are out to debunk myths and dispel fears. They emphasize the greater risk of infection for Latinos who have chronic health problems like diabetes, hypertension, and excessive weight.

In doctor’s offices or in telemedicine visits they invite grandmothers to be champions in their families and spread the message about the need to get vaccinated. “Among Latinos, the elders of the family are highly respected and they are listened to; if they are convinced (of the vaccine), the family will be too,” Marin said.

Community health workers also share messages on Facebook, or partner with local Spanish-language media on virtual discussions featuring doctors and public officials -- even representatives from consulates of Latin American countries.

“It is our job to be the reliable messenger,” Marin said. “Vaccines are safe and free.”

Originally published here

Want to read this piece in Spanish? Click here

[chrisis-averted]

The Adventure Zone Fic Recs

I wanted to rec some of my favourite fics that I haven’t seen much appreciation for around. I love these to bits.

An Umbrella Term by brushstrokesApocalyptic

Plot: The Umbra Staff haunts, Taako gets haunted, and Angus McDonald, the world's greatest detective, investigates.Or: AU where Lup isn't quite so trapped.

Comment: I’m a sucker for Taako&Angus fics, but this is an even more delicious cake, Lup&Angus being friends and partners in crime. It has such a good moments and a better inoculation/reveal than in canon if I might say.

Among the Ruins by DistractedKat

Plot: In one universe, Sazed tries to get rid of Taako with poison. In this one, he finds a more lucrative solution. It still doesn't end well.Years later, Lucretia steels herself to enter Wonderland with Cam as her guide. What she's looking for is the Animus Bell.What she finds is Taako.Everything goes downhill from there.

Comment: When I started this fic, I was gripped by such an unexplicable feeling of needing to know what was going on that I ended up contacting (and later befriending) the author. She’s incredibly talented and amazing, I’d read anything of hers.

Babes in the Woods by InterNutter

Plot: The Pine Guard are almost used to dealing with Abominations, by now. But this one isn't acting like your average bom-bom. Older people are going missing, and there's a sudden influx of children turning up lost.And there's something... else... with glowing eyes in the night...

Comment: A ‘the world of Amnesty is one of those visited by the Starblaster’ fic, with a childification twist. Extremely good and in character, especially the Amnesty crew even though they didn’t have many episodes yet when this story was written. Slow paced but enticing, is a pretty good read.

Cycle Sixty-Six by iox

Plot:  The IPRE family of five lands in their sixty-sixth cycle. This planet is battling against a forest and horrific creatures called the Fae. Something is very, very wrong.

Comment: Holy shit. Holy Shit. I’ve never felt such an emotion from any horror story (not even Stephen King can write this shit) - this story is pervaded by such an aura of wrongness that clutches at your heart and yet I couldn’t stop reading and rereading it. There was a moment I was so immersed in the atmosphere my own dog scared me.

Even a Sparrow Falls by distractedKat

Plot: When Governor Kalen is routed from Raven's Roost, he has to go somewhere to collect his forces before striking back.That somewhere ends up being Glamour Springs, where he makes a name for himself by capturing the criminal responsible for forty deaths: Taako, the famous wizard chef.Now Taako has to live with the fallout, injuries that change him and land him in the care of a bunch of weirdos, a new family destined to save more than just the world.

Comment: I did say I’d read anything of hers. I remember binge-reading this fic at uni, instead of paying attention to a goddamn 4-hours seminar. The plot, the character dynamics, everything in this is so fucking amazing I’m emotional just writing this review.

Impossible Encounters by InterNutter

Plot:  What if Angus met Taako a lot earlier in the time stream?

Comment: I have particular love for this fanfic, because it’s the first I’ve read in the TAZ fandom. From a sentence in one of its chapter was born the entire idea for my own fic, too. And I’m a sucker for parental Taako fics anyway.

Letting Dreams of Fame Take Over by Teramina

Plot: Nearly a year after Glamour Springs, Taako is still distant and wandering, looking for any kind of purpose, something to do with the rest of his life that doesn't feel meaningless in the wake of everything he failed.The Philosopher's Stone, since the relic war ended, has found itself bored. Few chanced upon it anymore, and those that did destroyed themselves so quickly. It needed more of a challenge, someone whose mind wouldn't be so easy to twist. At least, not for now.

Comment: Holy Shit (x2). I’ve been following this fic since it was an embryo of an idea and I’m so happy to see it all grown up. I’m like a proud uncle. This is the only fic I’ve ever seen that has such a good characterization of the relics and clear depiction of the thrall.

Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before by ohjustdisarmalready

Plot: Lup is good at a lot of things. Magic, chaos, blowing things up, cooking…the list goes on.But she’s best at knowing her brother. And it doesn’t take much to see that Taako is being suspicious as fuck.

Comment: You know those lighthearted fics where ‘character goes back in time with their memories intact and fixes things’? This is not one of them. Oh God, this is not one of them.

The Act of Remembering by okbutfirsttea

Plot:  Davenport gets inoculated, only sooner than planned. How do they react to being thrown into an unexpected reunion?

Comment: WARNING! DON’T BE FOOLED! THIS IS BAD! UNFIXABLE ANGST! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! I love it and hate it.

What’s Done Cannot Be Undone (Series) by Lanyare

Plot: In the third round of Wonderland the stakes are higher. Refusing a sacrifice can lead to a penalty that's more than you expected to pay.Or, Taako refuses to give up his beauty and regrets the decision immediately after.

Comment: I’m a sucker for lich!Taako and this fic is the one that comes closer to what I want to see more of in this fandom. It’s a collection of 7 short stories, but they could very well be parts of the same fanfic.

What’s Lost by Habie

Plot:  Sazed kills Taako in Glamour Springs and everyone else lives. Taako remembers eveything and tries to find his friends, figure out what happened to Lup, and prepare for The Hunger while juggling death and the rules.

Comment: Taako as a Reaper is a chaotic force of nature that shouldn’t exist. But he does. The scene with Garfield is likely my favourite in all of TAZ’s transformative works.

Wings Made of Flesh and Memories by weevilo707

Plot: This final world they had landed on was so much like their own. They were so lucky to have a place where they could fit in and pick up new lives mostly uninterrupted. There was just one thing that set them apart as otherworldly and strange from the rest of this plane.Those were the wings that each member of the IPRE had.When Lucretia set up new homes for each member of her family, she had to be sure that they would be able to fit in. She had to keep them safe, to make sure nothing ruined these lives for them.Their wings needed to be edited.

Comment: this fic was my baby I needed to see in the world but couldn’t write so I did the next obvious thing. I commissioned it. It came out so much better than I could have ever written it, and I’m so happy weev accepted to write it instead.

[ljones41]

"STAR TREK VOYAGER: Love on a Starship"

"STAR TREK VOYAGER: LOVE ON A STARSHIP" I am not going to deceive myself and pretend that the relationship between Captain Kathryn Janeway and her First Officer, Commander Chakotay, lacked any chemistry. Of course there had been chemistry. Even a blind person could have sensed the chemistry between them just by listening to their dialogue. But while I will admit the enormous dynamics between the two characters, I never could see the possibility of a "happily ever after" for them. Not while the pair served as the command team of the U.S.S. Voyager.

When many "STAR TREK VOYAGER" fans had first started speculating upon the possible futures for the main characters during the series’ early Season Seven, for some reason I had foreseen a tragic ending in the Janeway/Chakotay relationship. I figured that the Captain or the First Officer would bite the dust in the finale, leaving the others to mourn and regret their decision not to pursue a romance during Voyager’s nearly seven years in the Delta Quadrant. This feeling was reinforced in the episode, (7.11) "Shattered", when Season Seven Chakotay not only revealed the lack of romance in their relationship to the Season One Janeway, but also expressed regret in his words . . . and tone: JANEWAY: Mind if I ask you one last question? CHAKOTAY: Will I have to break the Temporal Prime Directive to answer it? JANEWAY: Maybe, just a little. For two people who started off as enemies it seems we get to know each other pretty well, so I've been wondering. Just how close do we get? CHAKOTAY: Let's just say there are some barriers we never cross. Both Kate Mulgrew (Kathryn Janeway) and the series’ producers had expressed opposition against an affair between Janeway and Chakotay. They have repeatedly stated that it would not be appropriate for the two to get involved in a romance. At first, I had believed that she, Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor and later, Brannon Braga and Kenneth Biller were being obtuse. Now that I have had a chance to think about it, I have managed to see their point of view. They were right. A romance between Janeway and Chakotay could have led to many problems. I have never believed that a good idea for someone in a position of power to have a romance with a subordinate. If you think that it is difficult for equals to maintain a relationship, it might be doubly so for a superior and his/her subordinate. There is a great deal of potential for resentment from one partner, subjugation from the other and manipulation from both sides. Chakotay’s relationship with Voyager’s Chief Engineer, B’Elanna Torres, is a mild example of this. I had been one of those fans who had been relieved by the quiet death of B’Elanna’s infatuation with the First Officer by late Season Two. Do not get me wrong. Chakotay was a fine First Officer. Frankly, I have always felt that he was one of the best in the entire "TREK" franchise. But he had an unfortunate habit of dealing with B’Elanna’s temperament by inflicting his will upon her, using his position as her superior officer. I am not saying that Chakotay did not have the right to behave this way toward B’Elanna. After all, he was Voyager’s First Officer. But he was also supposed to be one of B’Elanna’s closest friends. If he and B’Elanna had such moments during their "friendship", can you imagine how damaging this would have been to any romance that may have sprung between them? Remember when I had mentioned the possibility of resentment? Well, even B’Elanna eventually expressed her resentment of being chastised by Chakotay in the Season Five episode, (5.21) "Juggernaut": CHAKOTAY: Your concerns are noted. Get them inoculated. We'll meet you in Transporter Room one. We're trying to avoid explosions, remember? TORRES: Not another lecture about my emotions. CHAKOTAY: No, a lecture about how to treat guests aboard this ship. TORRES: Guests? Chakotay, these people are the scourge of the quadrant. CHAKOTAY: Agreed, but right now they're our only hope of repairing that freighter, so I suggest you make friends. TORRES: Diplomacy. Janeway's answer to everything. CHAKOTAY: This isn't the Captain talking, it's me, and I'm giving you an order. Keep your temper in check. Understood? Understood? TORRES: Yeah. CHAKOTAY: I didn't hear you. TORRES: Yes. CHAKOTAY: B'Elanna, I need your expertise on this mission, not your bad mood. TORRES: I'll see what I can do. Like Chakotay, Janeway was not above using her position to inflict her will upon the crew members under her command, regardless of whether she was right or wrong. And we have seen how Chakotay had reacted when he believed that she was wrong . . . especially in (3.26) "Scorpion I" and (4.01) "Scorpion II": CHAKOTAY: How much is our safety worth? JANEWAY: What do you mean? CHAKOTAY: We'd be giving an advantage to a race guilty of murdering billions. We'd be helping the Borg assimilate yet another species just to get ourselves back home. It's wrong! JANEWAY: Tell that to Harry Kim. He's barely alive thanks to that species. Maybe helping to assimilate them isn't such a bad idea. We could be doing the Delta Quadrant a favour. CHAKOTAY: I don't think you really believe that. I think you're struggling to justify your plan, because your desire to get this crew home is blinding you to other options. I know you, Kathryn. Sometimes you don't know when to step back. JANEWAY: Do you trust me, Chakotay? CHAKOTAY: That's not the issue. JANEWAY: Oh, but it is. Only yesterday you were saying that we'd face this together, that you'd be at my side. CHAKOTAY: I still have to tell you what I believe. I'm no good to you if I don't do that. JANEWAY: I appreciate your insights but the time for debate is over. I've made my decision. Now, do I have your support? CHAKOTAY: You're the Captain. I'm the First Officer. I'll follow your orders. That doesn't change my belief that we're making a fatal mistake. JANEWAY: Then I guess I'm alone, after all. Dismissed. Had there been any semblance of hope of a romance between Kathryn Janeway and Chakotay? Perhaps. If Chakotay’s Maquis ship had remained intact following the battle against the Kazon-Ogla in (1.02) "Caretaker II". Both the Starfleet and the Maquis captains could have become allies in the Delta Quandrant. And they could have engaged in a romance as equals. They also could have begun a relationship if Voyager’s crew had never rescued them from New Earth in (2.25) "Resolutions". To this day, I still wonder if Janeway had ever learned of Harry Kim’s role in that rescue. That would explain his inability to earn a promotion during those seven years in the Delta Quadrant. As for Janeway and Chakotay, there seemed to be a residual of flirtation between the two after their rescue from New Earth that lasted through most of Season Three. This flirtation eventually died after Chakotay’s romance with ex-Borg Riley Fraizer in (3.17) "Unity". In the end, Chakotay began a relationship with another former Borg drone, Voyager’s own Seven-of-Nine by late Season Seven. As for Janeway, she ended up in a relationship with Michael Sullivan, a holographic character created by Chief Helmsman Tom Paris’ for his Fair Haven program. She also had a relationship with Norvalian named Jaffen, after her memory was altered for work at a power plant on Quarren in the Season Seven episode, (7.16-7.17) "Workforce I & II". When she regained her original memory she suggested that he join Voyager’s crew as an engineer. But she also pointed out that it would not be appropriate as they were romantically involved. Jaffen had decided to remain on Quarren. Could Janeway and Chakotay have pursued a romance upon Voyager’s return to the Alpha Quadrant? I really do not how to answer this question. Chakotay had assumed command of Voyager, in the post-series "VOYAGER" novels and Janeway was promoted to vice-admiral. On one hand, there was a chance that he might not have found himself under her direct command. Then again . . . he probably did. But the only way I could see a romance between Janeway and Chakotay was if they had both resigned their Starfleet commissions, one of them resigned from Starfleet or if Chakotay found himself at the same rank as Janeway. Other than the above, I could never see a serious romance between the two . . . even though I believe they were emotionally suited for one another.

[rdgrim]

DiffConvos

Worried About a Difficult Conversation? Here’s Advice From a Hostage Negotiator.

With chronic stress and flaring tensions, many of us are arguing with family and friends. Here’s how to achieve a better outcome.

The Wall Street Journal 

by Elizabeth Bernstein

June 14, 2020

Bracing yourself for a tough talk?

There are so many to have right now. Tensions over racial issues, politics and the coronavirus pandemic are provoking arguments within families and between friends: Spouses are arguing about money; siblings are fighting about how to keep parents safe from the virus; some people are confronting relatives about race. Many conversations have the potential to become heated, especially as chronic stress is keeping our fight-or-flight systems activated, making us more likely to react.

Christopher Voss is a former hostage negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and CEO and founder of the Black Swan Group, which trains companies and individuals to negotiate. He has decades of experience guiding people through conversations that are high tension and high stakes. Mr. Voss is the author of “Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It” and once did a video series for a website run by Dow Jones, which owns The Wall Street Journal.

I spoke with Mr. Voss about how to navigate a conversation where both parties are worked up and entrenched in their viewpoints. Here are edited excerpts of that interview.

How should you prepare for a difficult conversation?

Mr. Voss: We often prepare but don’t realize it. When we think about the conversation, we picture ourselves getting mad. That is preparation. And we default to our highest level of preparation. So if that is all you prepared for, that is what you are going to get.

You need to do what athletes do. They prepare by envisioning their performance, by envisioning themselves doing things right. First, you need to envision yourself taking a different tone. If you use a calm tone of voice, it will actually calm you down.

Then you want to rewire yourself for gratitude. The brain functions more effectively when you are in a positive frame of mind. And gratitude is highly positive. So tell yourself you are lucky to be in this conversation or to have this person in your life, that you will miss them when they are gone. If all else fails, remind yourself you’re lucky to be on this planet.

A few years ago, we had a colleague who was trying to cheat us. As I was preparing for the conversation, I couldn’t stop envisioning myself getting angry. Then I had this thought: “I am lucky to be in this position, because she wouldn’t be after us if we weren’t so good.” Instantly, by shifting into gratitude, I thought of all the things I needed to say to make it an effective conversation.

Should you have a goal?

Yes. You want the other person to get a hit of oxytocin. You’re going to get that by getting them to say: “That’s right.” You do this by listening and then really summarizing their perspective for them. You especially want to focus on articulating any negative thoughts they have. Don’t dispute or deny them. When the word “but” comes out of your mouth you are denying and it is time to shut up.

Once you’ve articulated their perspective for them, they feel understood. And a person who feels understood is getting a feel-good wave of chemicals in their brain. The one you are really going for is oxytocin, the bonding chemical. Once they get a hit of oxytocin, everything is going to change. They’ll feel bonded to you. And if they feel bonded, whether it’s a little or a lot, that’s to your advantage.

So your power is in making the other person feel heard?

This should be your goal. When people have arguments, they raise their voices because they don’t feel heard. Ask yourself to remember what it felt like to feel acknowledged during a disagreement. You’ll remember how great you felt. You won’t remember what happened afterwards. That means the fight didn’t continue.

Ask yourself: What is this person saying about this situation and about me right now? We usually know what people are saying. We just don’t want them to say it. Say it out loud and see how they respond.

Some people think that acknowledging how someone is upset allows them to dig in more. But it’s the opposite. As soon as you articulate the other side’s point of view, they are a little surprised. You’ve made them really curious to hear what you are going to say next. And you’ve made them feel that you are in this together.

How do you start the conversation?

You want to start out articulating their negative thoughts about you or the situation. If you’ve had an argument with someone, what do you know for sure? They probably think you’re a jerk. So open the conversation: “Right now, you probably think I’m a jerk.”

This takes a lot of courage—until you know how effective it is. When you see how well it works, you’re like: “Ooh, I’m going to do it this way every time.” It’s like a shortcut in a videogame. It accelerates a positive outcome.

This has to do with the emotional wiring in our brain. Brain science shows that every time you identify a negative emotion, that negative feeling diminishes. So if negativity is an obstacle, and just calling it out reduces it, this accelerates the process of defusing the tension. Then from there you are able to talk.

What if a normal conversation suddenly turns heated?

Remember that people elevate their voice because they feel they aren’t being heard. So you want to acknowledge: “I am being an idiot.” Use the strongest synonym you can: idiot, jerk, something stronger.

You don’t want to be sarcastic. You want to demonstrate that you understand their negative perception of the situation. This has an inoculating effect. It doesn’t matter whether you think their perception is fair or accurate.

How do you deal with your anger?

The whole process of working to make them feel heard will keep you calm. It puts you in a completely different head space and the anger circuitry in your brain will not get triggered.

What are some pitfalls to avoid?

A common derailment is trying to explain stuff to people. Explanation is a nice word for argument. When you are explaining something, the other side feels you’re telling them that they don’t understand, that they aren’t smart.

Once you’ve listened to their viewpoint and they feel heard, there’s a really good chance you won’t need to explain your point at all.

How do you move forward?

Once the person feels heard, you can put it back on them: “How do we move forward?” This makes them take a broader look at the entire landscape. The answer isn’t nearly as important as the thought process you forced them to go through. The “how” question is designed to get them to think about negative consequences. And you’re defending your line in the sand by shifting the problems back onto the person causing them, without being seen as combative.

What if the other person becomes irate?

If you use a soothing, supportive tone of voice, this will have a neurochemical impact on them that will calm them down. Your tone of voice has an impact on someone’s thinking before you finish the sentence.

Should you apologize?

An apology should always precede something negative. The apology is a bit of a warning that bad news is coming. It allows the person to prepare. And it is amazing what people can handle when they are given the slightest opportunity to be prepared, rather than blindsided.

What do you do if there’s a stalemate?

Here is the critical game-changing move: Remember that the last impression is the lasting impression. If you are struggling to get the last word in, that’s when the last word is a cheap shot. But when your last word is something positive, it seeds the possibility that the other person will think about what you said and come back and propose a resolution.

[lobsters-on-their-heads]

Continuing Travels of Cophine, Chapt. 3

Delphine leaned against the wall in the hallway, listening to Julian tell Cosima the entire story of her relationship with Jérôme Bellot. She'd gone years joyfully not thinking about any of that relationship, except as a means to avoid making the same mistakes again. There'd been no reason to tell Cosima about him; he was ancient history as far as she was concerned, even less a part of her current life than her boarding school suicide attempt. When Julian first brought him up, she'd fled to the bedroom, pacing a few tipsy rounds around the room before going back to the hallway. She didn't want to hear the story again, but she needed to hear Cosima hearing the story.

She heard the story wrap up and Julian offer Cosima another glass of wine, which was politely declined. She heard the scrape of the chair on the floor, and in a moment Cosima walked into the hallway, inches from Delphine's place against the wall.

“Hey,” she took Cosima's arm and searched her face. There, in Cosima's beautiful eyes, was the look she hadn't seen in almost a year. The look that said, Who are you, even? What else aren't you telling me? What else are you hiding?

“Hey,” Cosima said.

In the kitchen, Julian busied himself putting things away, humming a little tune as he worked.

“Come here,” Delphine told Cosima. She took her hand and led her to their room, where she closed the door gently behind them, her eyes never leaving her girlfriend, taking in her face, her eyes, her body language. Cosima did not seem angry, at least, but she was clearly hurt and a little wary.

“Why didn't you tell me about that?” Cosima asked. “I mean, shit happens, but you could've told me about it.”

“I didn't see a reason to.”

“No? You didn't think I'd want to know that you were engaged to a guy for, like, a day?”

Delphine sighed and leaned back against the door. She wanted to keep a hold on Cosima, to physically show her her love, but Cosima pulled away, and she wasn't going to force it. “I didn't think it mattered, no. It doesn't matter to me anymore.” She watched Cosima pace, then sit on the edge of the bed, then stand up again. “I can see it matters to you, though.”

“Of course it matters to me. Everything about you matters to me.”

The words made Delphine's throat tighten. Under different circumstances, they would have been incredibly romantic, but Cosima's face looked so hurt right now... “I'm sorry,” was all Delphine could manage. “I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner.”

“Why didn't you?”

“I told you, I didn't think it mattered. I wasn't hiding it from you. I told you already, I'm not hiding anything from you anymore. Ask me anything, I'll tell you.”

Cosima chewed on her lip. Delphine was quite sure she hadn't done that until recently, until she started spending all of her time with Delphine, a prodigious lip-chewer herself. “Can you tell you more about this?” Cosima asked. She went over to Delphine and put her hands on her waist. “More about Jérôme and... and everything?”

“Yes. You've heard the story, though. What else do you want to know?”

Cosima moved both of them to sit on the bed, where she drew little patterns on Delphine's thigh. “Why'd you tell him yes, if you didn't want to marry him? I guess that's my main question.”

She blew a puff of air from her mouth. “Because he asked me in front of everybody. And everyone was smiling and looking at us with these, these hearts in their eyes like they were watching a romantic movie. I didn't feel like I had a choice.”

“Hm. Were you expecting it?”

“No. Absolutely not. I'd never thought about marriage at all. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to stay with him after medical school, and we didn't have much time left there. He wanted to work for a big hospital in Paris, doing neurosurgery. I wanted to travel, to research, to keep learning.”

“Did you love him?”

That question again. Everyone had asked her that, at the time. “I told him that I did,” she said now. “Before. After he told me, you know, a few times. I never said it without him saying it first.” Somehow, she needed to Cosima to know that, to know the difference between her feelings for Jérôme and for Cosima.

“But you didn't.”

Delphine shook her head. “No. I never loved anyone before you.”

Cosima didn't respond right away, but played with Delphine's fingers resting on the bedspread. “It must've hard to tell him no, after all that,” she said finally.

“It was.” She remembered the growing dread, starting when Jérôme first climbed the steps of the stage, one hand behind his back and roses in the other, and building throughout the night as family and friends hugged and kissed them both, told them how happy they were for them. How Jérôme's parents talked about wedding plans and grandchildren, and her own mother had smiled at her.

“I guess,” Cosima went on, “it's silly to ask if he was upset.”

She laughed at that. “Oh, he was quite upset. I'd never seen him angry like that before. He had a temper, of course, as most rich boys do, but he'd never directed it towards me before.” At this point in her life, thinking of Jérôme reminded her of the fake PT Westmoreland, of his privilege, his assumptions, his pomposity. Dating Jérôme had helped her manipulate him, actually; it gave her the appropriate background. She would tell Cosima that, later.

“How did you tell him? I'm guessing you didn't do it in front of a lot of people.”

“No. It was private, in his flat. He wanted to make love, of course, but I... I didn't want him to even touch me anymore. I took off the ring he gave me, and I gave it back to him. I said I was sorry, but I couldn't. I couldn't marry him.” The memory flared in her mind, vivid as it had been then. “He was shocked, at first. I think he thought I was joking. Then he was angry. He was livid.”

“What did he do?”

“He yelled, called me names, threatened me. He asked who else I was fucking. He didn't hit me, though.”

Cosima pulled her head back, eyes wide. “Jesus Christ. The fact that you even need to say that...”

“He never hit me. He acted like he wanted to, but he knew that was a bad idea, for himself. He was angry because I made him a victim, a fool, but he knew that if he hit me, I would make things even worse for him.” The horror on Cosima's face only increased, but Delphine smiled. “He did throw the ring at my face though. He said it cost him 15,000 euro, and he wanted me to give him his money back.” She snorted at the thought now.

“Holy shit.”

Delphine wasn't sure which action Cosima was reacting to. Maybe it was all of them. “The next day, he made sure that everyone knew. Before I even set foot on campus, everyone knew I had turned him down, made a fool of him. Julian supported me, actually. He was one of very few people who did, who stayed with me when everyone else treated me like, like... like the worst bitch on the planet. They said I broke his heart, but that wasn't true. If it was, that wasn't why he was so angry. He was angry because he had to call his parents and tell them someone turned him down. I was his prize possession, you see. You heard what Julian said; he would take me places, fancy places, where all the rich people went, and he would show me off. Whenever we went out together, he always had his hand on me, on my waist or the back of my neck. He needed everyone to know that I belonged to him.”

As she spoke, Delphine's eyes fixed on the patterns on the bedspread, her mind stuck in the past. When she finished, she turned to look up at Cosima again, and saw tears in her eyes.

“I wish you'd told me,” Cosima whispered. “But I really fucking hate this guy.”

“It was a long time ago,” she said, stroking Cosima's face. “He's long gone for me.”

Cosima turned her head to kiss Delphine's fingers, her face pinched, and Delphine knew why. She knew it wasn't only for her sake that Cosima hated Jérôme, but because she knew how it felt to be owned, to be seen as a possession, an accomplishment, rather than a person. In Cosima's case, though, it had been far, far worse. She took a shuddering breath and looked back at Delphine. “I'm glad you told me,” she said.

“Me too.”

* *

The next day Delphine did two inoculations, thankfully not together, but nearly. The time between the first clone leaving and the second arriving was less than an hour, and when she saw the second arrive she nearly panicked. As far as she could tell, though, the two had not met, so clone drama would not be ensuing that day.

There were times she regretted not telling them. She'd seen how much benefit Cosima got from her clone family, and how much more the others had gotten. Sarah and Helena in particular would be much, much worse off without their sisters, and they knew it. What if these women also needed that kind of support system?

In the afternoon, she met Cosima at an open air market where they bought some more gifts for people back home, and Delphine continued replenishing her wardrobe. The clothes she'd lost were all less than a year old, making her grumble as she bought new ones. At least she knew she had a few items of winter wear tucked in the rooms under The Rabbit Hole – clothes which probably still smelled like Revival or Switzerland. Watching her girlfriend sort through a display of wind chimes, she went over and stroked her back.

“Seeing anything you like?” she asked her.

“Eh.” Cosima gave the vendor a small smile and moved on. “Looking for a Christmas present for my parents. I haven't given them anything in two years; they deserve better than some tourist-trap kitch.”

They'd picked up some sweets already to share with everyone, some accessories for Alison and Helena, more baby clothes and toys than the twins would ever need, and a lewd set of shot glasses for Felix. Kira, Gemma, and Oscar had specific wish lists with links to Amazon, but Charlotte claimed she didn't want anything for Christmas. At the next stall, Cosima picked up a bottle of extra hot hot sauce. “Maybe I'll get this for Charlotte,” she said. “If we all give her weird shit, maybe she'll tell us what she actually wants next year.”

Delphine scanned the warning printed on the bottle, advising the consumer to keep the sauce from eyes, pets, and children, and to avoid consuming if one had heart or respiratory issues. “If we buy this, you're going to try some, aren't you?”

“Heck yeah, I am. My respiratory issues are long gone now, thanks to science.” She paid the vendor, a middle-aged man who's wide grin showed several missing teeth.

“We can find something better for Charlotte, too.”

“I know. She's just being all stubborn, too-cool-for-anything.”

“She is a Leda.”

Cosima gave her a sideways look, and she smiled in return. For the past few months, Cosima and Charlotte had spoken on Skype every week on a schedule, with Cosima helping her with homework or school issues, and Delphine had noticed a strong Leda attitude coming through on Charlotte's end.

When they finished their shopping, they took a local bus back to Julian's house. “Alison does want us to save money,” Cosima commented as they stepped on and found seats, Delphine settling her medical bag on her lap along with the shopping.

After driving a few blocks, though, the bus stopped, trapped in a clusterfuck of traffic and car horns. Delphine was watching a young man selling flowers by the roadside when Cosima reached over and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and she realized Cosima had been watching her, frowning. “Is everything alright, chérie?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah. I was just thinking.”

“Okay. What were you thinking about?” She smiled at her, trying to keep her tone light, but remembering very well their conversation the night before, when Cosima's expression had been similar.

“That I don't know much about you. I mean, I know you now, but I don't know who you were. Does that make sense? Like, Julian told me that it's hard to get your parents in the same place together, and he acted like I already knew that. But I don't know anything about your parents except they're divorced.”

“Mmhm.” Delphine saw a couple people watching them, listening to the English, and she wondered how much they understood. “Well, he's right. It is hard to get them in the same place. They don't get along well.”

Cosima took Delphine's hand in hers and ran her thumb over her knuckles. “How old were you when they split?”

“Four years old. I don't remember them ever living together, actually.” She would have left it at that, but Cosima wanted to know more, so she continued. “I spent most of my time with my mother, at her house, until I went to boarding school, and then I didn't see either of them very often. Chauffeurs would pick me up for school breaks and take me back again.”

Cosima's mouth turned up on one side. “You had chauffeurs.”

She remembered Cosima's stories about learning to drive in her father's station wagon, purchased before Cosima was born, and she sighed. “Yes, my mother had chauffeurs.”

“And your father?”

“When I saw him, he drove places himself, but I saw him, oh, maybe once a year by the time I was school aged. He'd ask me how school was going, and then he'd try to talk economics with me.” As an adult, the memories made her smile. “You know, it's funny. I used some of the things he taught me when we were investigating Neolution. It was nothing super important, nothing I couldn't have read about on Google, but I remembered him telling me how investment accounts worked, and tax brackets, and all of that.”

Cosima's smile spread to show her teeth. “I'm sure he'd be proud to know you put his lessons to good use. Maybe you could tell him some time.”

The bus inched forward a bit and some workmen got off, probably realizing it would be faster for them to walk wherever they were going. The day was cool, with a light breeze blowing through the bus's open windows. Delphine lifted Cosima's hand to her lips and kissed it. “What else would you like to know?”

Cosima snuggled closer and rested her head on Delphine's shoulder. “Oh, you know. Everything about you.”

“Hmmm....” She giggled. “That's a lot.”

A small commotion broke out a few seats behind them, and they turned to see a young, massively pregnant woman grabbing on to the seat back in front of her, her face twisted in pain. People around her stepped back, shouting or gasping. A quick look at the floor showed why – her water had broken.

“Oh, shit,” Cosima said.

Delphine did a quick scan of the people near the woman; none of them seemed related to her. None were jumping to help or comfort her. They all looked confused, afraid, or even angry.

“Why are you on the bus if you're this close to delivery?” one man shouted. Some other called for the driver to assist, but the driver only looked back at them, not moving from his seat.

“Move,” Delphine told Cosima, and stepped past her to the woman in labor. In a soft voice, she introduced herself in Spanish and explained that she was a doctor. The woman said her name was Gabriela, and she wasn't due to deliver until next week. Delphine smiled at her and said, “Well, it looks like you're delivering today, instead.”

Meanwhile, the traffic had ground to a complete stop. Other passengers shouted to each other and the driver about ways to form an opening in the other cars, and two men got off to yell at other drivers to get out of the way because there was a woman in labor on the bus. Cosima hung back, staying near their bags until Delphine waved her over.

“Bring me my bag,” she said. “All of my bags.”

Fortunately, the other passengers recognized that she was taking charge and let Cosima through. When she got to Delphine and Gabriela and set the bags down, Cosima's face was a few shades paler than normal, and her eyes were wide.

“It's okay,” she told both of them with a smile. “I have done this before. Just not on a bus.” In fact, she reflected, her medical background was something Cosima knew plenty about already.

She enlisted the help of a sturdy-looking older woman to help Gabriela into a leaning squat and had Cosima spread out some clean fabric from their shopping bags underneath her. To that, she added her own shirt, leaving herself in a tank top. More clothes to buy tomorrow, she thought.

“We can use your shirt for the baby,” she told Cosima, who nodded, thin-lipped and still pale.

The women on the bus teamed up to form a visual barrier around them, calling encouraging words to Gabriela and offering bottled water and handkerchiefs to Delphine and Cosima. Gabriela's contractions were about a minute apart, making Delphine wonder just how long she'd been in labor and, indeed, why the hell she'd gotten on the bus in the first place, but Gabriela seemed young, maybe not yet eighteen, so maybe she just had no idea what she was doing.

“You're doing wonderfully,” she told her. “Is there anyone we can call for you?”

Gabriela shook her head, breaking Delphine's heart a little. Hopefully this girl had some support somewhere. She was wearing a skirt, which helped a lot, but also panties, which needed to come off. “Can you help me with these?” she asked her, careful not to overreach. Earlier in her life, before meeting Cosima, she might have just told Gabriela to remove them, or removed them herself without asking. See? I am learning.

A wave of contractions hit, making Gabriela scream and grip the other woman's forearms. The bus driver heard and laid on the horn, adding his own shouts to get other drivers to move, and in a minute, the bus did drive a little bit forward, but no more than that. The motion of the bus did nothing for Gabriela's state of mind or physical comfort, and she began to sob.

“It's okay,” Cosima whispered to her, rubbing her knee. “It's okay.”

Looking at Cosima's face, though, Delphine wasn't sure who she was trying to reassure. It was surprising, that this woman who'd calmly autopsied her own clone, removed and dissected the brain of a dead Castor, and handled her former boss's decaying head, would be so squeamish around natural childbirth. There was no time to explore that here, however, as Gabriela screamed and writhed some more, her underwear now on the floor beneath her. With a gloved hand, Delphine estimated Gabriela's cervix was dilated about seven centimeters, and the baby would be there quite soon. She gave Gabriela her best smile even though her own knees were starting to ache.

Not as young as you used to be, Cormier, she told herself.

“You're doing very well,” she told Gabriela. “Just keep breathing. That's right, hold her hand.” Another woman nearby took the new mother's hand and gave her a supportive smile of her own.

The next contraction coincided with a small burst of movement from the bus, and Gabriela peed onto Delphine's hand as she reached to measure the cervix again. She smiled to reassure Gabriela that it was normal, but the poor girl hadn't even noticed. The last woman who's baby she'd helped with had pooped on her, she remembered, and this one probably would, too.

“It's good that we got all that hand sanitizer,” she told Cosima, who just nodded once and looked away again.

When the crown of the baby's head appeared, the bus had advanced a block or so, and some men reported a bad car accident up ahead. Delphine wasn't concerned about that. This baby would be born here, on a city bus, and when it grew up it would likely get tired of hearing the story told again and again at every family gathering. That's what she told herself, at least, to distract from niggling fears of the umbilical cord being wrapped around its neck, or the cervix not dilating enough and the head being squished, or the mother bleeding to death before better equipped help could arrive, or all of the various ways babies and mothers had died during the childbirth in the course of human history. Cosima, for her part, just kept patting Gabriela's knee and flatly repeating, “You're doing just fine. Really good. Just keep it up.” Delphine wondered if Cosima even knew what she was saying anymore.

Eventually, with ever more encouraging words, some gentle guidance by Delphine's gloved hands, and a bit of poop from the mother, the baby's head emerged, no umbilical cord in sight.

“Cosima, get ready to catch it. Use your shirt!”

“Okay, okay.” Cosima pulled off her T-shirt, revealing nothing more than a bra underneath, and gave to Delphine. A quick thought came to Delphine then.

“You're only expecting one, right?” she asked Gabriela.

Through her sobs, Gabriela said yes, only one baby was expected. And then the baby was there, slipping out and onto Cosima's T-shirt. Beside her, Cosima gave a soft groan and turned away like she was going to vomit.

“It's a girl!” Delphine exclaimed. She used the shirt to wipe the fluids off the baby and nudged Cosima to get the scissors from her medical bag, which Cosima did. In a few minutes, she had the baby wrapped in a hand towel given by another passenger and she handed it to Gabriela. “She's perfect,” she assured her over the baby's new cries. “You did a very good job!”

There were cheers then, as the news of the newborn girl travelled around the bus and even to surrounding cars who'd been stuck in traffic with them. One man passed around some cigarillos for everyone and another opened a bottle of tequila. Delphine delivered the placenta, then gathered up the soiled cloth and put it into a trash bag provided by the driver, who just shook his head at the whole ordeal. Once the worst of the filth was away and her gloves were off, she slathered her hands and arms in hand sanitizer and smiled over at Cosima.

“Are you alright, chérie?” she asked.

“Me?”

“Yes.” Some other passengers offered them both their seats, clapping Delphine on the back as she sank into hers. One of them gave Cosima her own light jacket to wear. In English, Delphine spoke softly to Cosima. “You look unwell.”

Cosima shook her head. “No, I'm fine. Gabriela's the one to worry about, not me.” She must have realized she wasn't making eye contact, because she took a deep breath and turned to look Delphine in the eye, a little forcefully. “Seriously, don't worry about me right now.”

“Okay.” She squeezed her hand and nodded. If Cosima didn't want to be fussed over, she wouldn't fuss over her.

It was another two hours before they got back to Julian and Martín's house, parting with Gabriela and her new baby after giving her the peso equivilent of $100 to help her get started with parenthood. By the time they reached the house, color was back in Cosima's cheeks and she was joking about Delphine's hands in another woman's vagina.

“Please tell me that doesn't actually bother you,” she told Cosima as they approached the house, hand in hand.

“Oh, no, just teasing, babe.” She leaned over to kiss her jaw. “Beside, birth is, like, the least sexy thing on the planet. I'm kinda happy that you're never going to see me doing that.”

“You've never wanted to give birth?”

“Hell no. I'm perfectly fine being sterile, thank you very much.”

Delphine was going to point out that, since it was Cosima's uterus that prevented her becoming pregnant, her eggs could, hypothetically, be viable, so sterile might be the wrong word, but Julian appeared in front of the house before she could go there. They told him about the drama of the day, and Cosima laughed off her squeamishness as nerves. Both exhausted, they crawled into bed early, and Cosima wrapped an arm around Delphine's midsection.

“Well, I learned some new things about you today,” she said.

“Hm. You already knew I've delivered babies before. That wasn't news, I don't think.”

“No, I didn't mean that. Although, knowing you've done it before, and seeing you do it are drastically different things. But I was referring to what you told me about your family. I liked hearing about all that.”

Delphine kissed her softly and smiled. “Maybe I'll tell you more tomorrow, then.”

“I'd like that.” She yawned and nuzzled into Delphine's shoulder. Delphine knew she'd need to move before falling asleep, to avoid waking up without any feeling in her arm, but for now she held Cosima close, breathing in her scent and resting her chin against her forehead.

[thatgirlonstage]

Listen, Taakitz is thriving in this fandom. (In a soulmate tattoo AU Kravitz tattoo is "I'm gonna tentacle your dick" and honestly that's beautiful) Just wait until the Lunar Interlude after The Eleventh Hour (which is the best lunar interlude.) Speaking of The Eleventh Hour, any theories as to what kind of arc it's gonna be? (I was way off, I expected something steampunk) You're gonna love Roswell, they're the best. Oh, and what were your thoughts on NO-3113? Isn't she great? And the Hugbears!

Is there a fic of that soulmate AU because I Need It.

Hummm I mean “The Eleventh Hour” makes me think of Doctor Who so I’m gonna guess some kind of time travel thing but I have no idea honestly xp I have not been able to predict much of anything about this show, which I LOVE because I’m so often too good at predicting twists and that can get boring. It’s largely because Tres Horny Boys don’t... necessarily... react to situations like a normal person would? (Exhibit A: Magnus: “I take the philosopher’s stone and I EAT it” Griffin, with feeling: “What the FUCK”. I’ve been laughing about that literally all day)

Oh speaking of predictions though... so at this point, I’m guessing that Taako, Merle, and Magnus are somehow directly connected to the Red Robes, since that apparition whatever-it-was seemed to be trying to help (?) them. Or, well, at least, didn’t seem hostile towards them. Maybe they... WERE Red Robes, themselves, somehow, before their, er, multiple deaths? That would explain how they resist the thrall anyway. But idk how that would work, exactly. I mean I know when they first got inoculated by the voidfish Griffin said they remembered years and years of war, but, iirc, he said it was kind of hazy still? Like they didn’t remember in exact detail everything that happened. Which, from everything I know about the voidfish, doesn’t make sense unless something else was messing with their memories a bit - not-dying 57 times might do the trick, I suppose. I don’t know, I’m just wildly spitballing really. Don’t tell me if I’m right! I don’t want spoilers :P

NO-3113 was great and I love that she hulked out by stealing all the other robot’s body parts before the boss battle lol. I hope she continues to cameo around the moon :D And I can’t believe that Klarg is just going to like. Pop up with a charmed fritz in his head.

Speaking of-- KUDOS to Griffin for writing a really tight-knit story. I mean, having NO-3113 be from Phandalin, having Klarg pop up in Petals to the Metal and then have his origin be revealed in Crystal Kingdom... that is the way to keep your story tied together really neatly and cleverly, and yet it doesn’t reduce the scale at all. Griffin is fantastic, honestly.