#i just kinda decided that and put it in the story. explained my thought process for the decision in the end notes

[orcelito]

I think the #1 thing to make writing good is to just. Stick to your guns. Take yourself seriously. If you treat your writing as if it's serious, even if you're doing some crazy shit, people are willing to believe it. The moment you doubt what you're doing in your writing, it's gonna shine through. So even if you're scared, pretend you're not until you get the hang of it & no longer feel so scared

It's worked for me so far 😅

[daftpatience]

heurhgh. thinkin abt the prince and the sea witch AU because i am an ocean boy and and and theres so much to thinkabout with this one!!!! i love aus that tap into classic fairytales becasue theres so much to work with!!! connections to make and parallels to draw

context and thoughts under tha cut cus this au sorta escaped me at first and there's very little stuff about it in english

the original au came from a leaflet that was bundled with volume 8 on toranoana:

rough translation explains that mermaid princess hinaichi rescued prince ronaldo, and sea witch draluc offers to give her legs to meet him again (and if he doesn't like her she'll turn into seafoam) which she declines. (literally what she says is "no need!" and the big words to the side of her say "no regrets" which is hilarious.) thats the end of the story and ronaldo is left alone. also, john is a sea turtle that lives in a clam.

im lifting my own headcanons and such from the original little mermaid story (not so much the didney one) where the prince doesn't see the mermaid and instead falls in love with this woman who comes to help him from a nearby temple (who he doesn't realize is actually the princess he's betrothed to later.) in this au that's draluc who was observing from a distance. (i just drew a half sunken agora and im calling that a temple. watever. its refd from one of the old arts and i think its pretty)

i like the idea that ronaldo exaggerates his own memory of spotting draluc that day due to the distance making details difficult paired with the fact that he was probably a little delirious. the idea that he doesn't immediately put together that draluc is the person he saw is kinda fun 2 me, and of course he'd make up some beautiful girl in his head. of course he would.

im messing with some ideas about draluc deciding to meddle with ronaldo instead - does he offer to turn him into a merman to look for his made up maiden? or does draluc come to land for his own reasons? maybe they visit each other at the temple every day and bring each other little things and talk and stuff. itd be cute if they butted heads but still went to see each other every day anyways.

a popular thing in the au is draluc being captured - maybe ronaldo, desparate to find his love and only knowing she was some sort of fish, does something stupid like setting up nets and traps. hahah. maybe he catches draluc and takes him to his castle to learn about merfolk and such. iunno. whatever the case i hope they fall in love in the process and also bicker a lot like their usual schtick

ive got a little sad idea that borrows from some 30 years later au stuff where draluc is worried about ronaldo's lifespan (this is also in the orig little mermaid where mermaids live longer than humans by hundreds of years) but also can't turn human to match ronaldo because it's too painful for him to walk on legs (since one of the au rules is that he must always be weak and the orig little mermaid made it clear that legs hurted real bad)

also also i very big headcanon draluc the sea witch has a sunken castle that looks a lot like ponyo's dad's house on the inside. fulla potions and stuff. wouldnt that be cute! maybe hes got an interest in human life/a collection of old things kinda like didney little mermaid - since canon draluc is so well adjusted to modern human stuff like games and livestreams and whatnot. in this au i think he'd be a lot more stubborn and reluctant to admit it, though, cus i also like the idea that his grandpa went the route of loving a human and going to land and maybe he doesn't want to end up like that? but it might be fate just cus draluc and ronaldo parallel D and helsing so well.

also i still want hinaichi to be in it but her rejection of the plot is so funny and good, i don't want to shove her in without thinking of a good way for it to make sense. she's good friends with draluc and likes his cooking...can you cook underwater??? maybe magically?? maybe draluc takes up cooking on land and brings hinaichi things he makes??? maybe then she gets interested in humans and wants to come to land to try all the cooking theyve got. iunno.

i usually keep this sort of note taking and doodling to myself but this fandom needs all the stimulation it can get. hiii hellooo :]

[gaylordscooter]

Log of the Multiverse: Blue (aka me, sans t. skeleton)

Originally this was supposed to be an entry on ink but he didn't really like the sound of he wanted to write his entry himself when he had the time to. so i decided to write about myself instead.

it's kinda funny, i should've made this the first entry maybe. it seems pretty self-centered to write an entry on yourself or would it be self-centered to not write an entry? it'd be like assuming everyone already knew who i was.

my name was sans. first name sans, last name, i shit you not, skeleton. pap my brother thought i was joking when i told him it was, in fact, our last name. of course i had to let that name go once i lost my home. i was given this nickname by ink even though it's not mine to have

i didn't lose my home to error, or any outcode for that matter. it destroyed itself, to put simply

according to ink, there were "too many plot holes" and "contradictions" that ended up breaking it. "unfinished" he said, like my world was just someone's drafted story.

it was.

speaking of ink, they're the reason im able to write this in the first place. he dragged me out of my universe right as it collapsed. honestly that whole series of events was a blur, i remember running away from temmie, who just got all six human souls and was trying to kill me along with the other stray monsters that managed to evade the human's murder-spree. i thought temmie was my friend. i question why ink rescued me

my universe was a "swap" universe, meaning in the original universe i was more like my brother and he was more like me, for example. but i've met the sans from "underswap" he's fairly different from me. i've also met versions of my brother when i went to the omega timeline and im still different from them too. like. more different than they are from each other

i assume that has to do with the instability of my universe, ink did nickname it "botchedswap" after all (flattering name, i know)

ever since ink rescued me from my universe i kinda just stuck by his side. i joke that he's my "universe taxi driver" but (i REALLY hope he doesn't read this) he's my best friend.

he's a better friend than temmie ever was. that's for sure

but sometimes i feel like when he looks at me, he's not thinking about me. it's like he pretends im someone else. i remember when he first called me "blue". they didn't say it like they just came up with that nickname, they said it with familiarity.

like it already belonged to someone else

and it did, it belonged to the guy before me, the guy im a replacement for. i was so mad. i was infuriated, at ink, for using me as a replacement. but then he explained his side

it was like his mask of ingenuity cracked as he told me. he was guilty. he's been guilty. and i was their solace

i'm his attempt at repentance

it made sense why dream and i aren't that close, he didn't want a replacement and i'm hardly a good one too i can't count the amount of times ink looked at me weirdly for saying something blue wouldn't. he misses blue, the real blue.

[the paper's damp here, as if drops of water was spilled onto it]

i haven't really been talking about myself, have i?

before my universe destroyed itself, i was in the process of studying to become apart of the royal science division, i was getting training from undyne alphys oh god which one was it someone. i, i think i got in? at one point. i remember celebrating getting in, but that doesn't sound right.

meanwhile my brother he [the writing afterwards is completely scribbled out and illegible, the paper's somewhat torn from how intense the scribbling was]

im forgetting.

[the-s1lly-corner]

Random Eyeless Jack tongue hcs

Cw// kinda borders into suggestive territory if you squint, but nothing intentional? Writing this before actually putting down the hcs, but

Yeah

Nothing too crazy, obviously

Also cw// for body horror and shit since I also wanna dive into his whole.. how he got messed up

Getting the body horror stuff out of the way, I hope yall already know ab my whole curse hc/interpretation on jack

If you dont/if you're new; hi! Welcome to my blog! I hc that jack used to be a normal dude but got dragged into a cult that made him the way he is now!! Real important and relevant to my take on him/I haven't seen many other people use that spin on fan story for this sort of thing

Anyways

As per the whole "his body is shifting into something horrific," thing, his tongue literally. Splits into several tendrils

Havent decided on an exact number, but hes got.. a few alright!

Thick, but get thinner to the tips; and they have the same goop that leaks from Jack's eyes! Sensitive sense of taste; and he can kinda detect scents with them, like snakes do!!

His mouth is kinda crowded, though, so sometimes he'll talk with a bit of a lisp (?), or accidentally bite himself

Now onto the real horror; the process of his tongue splitting was painful, and long. He felt all of it, and given that he's literally turning into a man eating monster, he was unable to seek medical help; so he had to suffer alone and without aid

Obviously, if your tongue is splitting itself open, there's gonna be a mess plus lots and lots of pain

Poor dude

Moving on

They writhe

A lot

Especially when theres... food.. nearby; they tend to flick out (snake like!!!) If hes hungry (tends to lose himself for a while)

In the most sfw way I can say it because there is literally no way I can say it without being sus, they kinda??? Wrap around things??

Like okay I had an art idea, to draw jack with a blood-popsicle, since summer is coming; and with the previous hcs it'd make sense that his tongues would just naturally latch around it and grip said blood-pop

So that's my hc now

Also back to horror stuff i feel like that'd make his feeding frenzies all the more terrifying

I mean when he goes into one he completely loses all his humanity and thoughts and just jumps on someone

Imagine he latches onto someone and like

Idfk anchors them into the persons flesh so they cant just easily shove him off

That's terrifying

I love it sm

Downside; kissing jack is not fun since 1) it's a legitimate choking hazard, and 2) the goop makes his tongues taste gross

I feel like the goop is also, to a degree, corrosive

Or at least, an irritant

Like super powered saliva that can break down meat fast; also explains why I draw jack with huge dark circles n shit around his eyes

I bet yall (who follow my main) just thought I made him tired

Nope, it's his flesh being slowly burned away!! Granted hes more durable to it since the whole monster thing + it's his own material but

Still

So

Yeah!!!

Take what you will with these hcs

[zymruk]

All the ways we sabotaged it. [Shang-Chi x reader]

Inspired by skinny dipping by Sabrina Carpenter. Ever since I've heard the song, I couldn't get this fic out of my mind. So why not write it?

Warning: Angst, angst, so much of it. Shang-Chi hiding things. Lots of misunderstandings, break-up. Happens six months after the events of Shang-Chi.

Summary: Six months after the break-up, you and Shang-Chi cross paths in a café downtown.

It had been six months. Six long, hard, agonizing months since you and your ex, Shaun, broke up. It has been a long process but with the help of your family and friends, it seems less hard than if you had to do all of it alone. You just started to move on. Yes you still loved him; but in retrospect, you and him wouldn't have lasted. There were too many things happening at the time and honestly, neither of you were mature enough for a relationship.

It had been a Wednesday when you had decided to go out. Just spend your day with your own company. It had been a while since you'd been to this café specifically because of some guy. You really missed their lattes. Once you placed your order, you had searched for a seat and then sat down. Appreciating the calmness of the place. You would start writing on your computer, letting your fingers dance on the keyboard. The place has given you writing ideas that you were more than excited to write about.

ϟ

Everything was going perfectly until a familiar voice had stopped you in your frenzy. A voice you hadn't heard for so long. At first you thought you had misheard. Maybe it was someone that sounded like him. It couldn't be him right?

So the logical thing to do was to go back to what you were doing in the first place. It was just your imagination playing tricks on you. He couldn't be here. You'd heard from a mutual close friend that he had to fly back home. Where was "home"? You hadn't known, he'd never told you about his home country. "Family business. I swear!" She had told you.

However, when you looked up, you're surprised to see the same face attached to that voice. The same smile, and the same hair. All in all, the guy that had taken your heart six months ago. He was there right in front of you. And it seemed like he wanted to talk to you.

"Hi." He almost whispered when he had arrived in front of your table. In an instant you couldn't think of a proper salutation, so you opted for a simple "Hi. How are you?" And soon, a conversation bloomed. You two would catch up to whatever had happened since the separation. It was nice, talking like no time had passed; no separation happened. To be honest, you kinda missed those sort of days. When words would just fill out of your mouth, and you being unable to stop them.

And very soon, minutes would change into hours. Niether of you would notice. In those hours, Shaun had told you that he was actually grateful you had broken up with him. At first it stung a little; but then he told you the reason why. It had opened his eyes; he was reckless, had lied to you so many times, and hid so many things. His words. In retrospect he couldn't understand how you had put up with it. The gall of the man. He even had lied to you about his name!

Your response to it should've been to be angry with him. To yell at him about lying about his name. Understandably you were upset, you two shared a life together, though short lived, you felt he should have felt safe enough to tell you about it. After everything that had gone down after your departure, was explained to you, you understood. You would've probably done the same in his shoes. I mean, did it sound crazy? Yes. Did you wonder how that concerned you in any way? Heck yes. Were you still worried about the guy? Yes.

So in the end, you still listened to his crazy-not-so-crazy story. In the end, you still had a little bit of concern and empathy for this guy.

You decided to go home when the sky changed hues. You had spent a good day in his company in this café. But now it was time to go home. As soon as you two parted ways, you questioned yourself on why you two didn't work.

Yes, he had lied and hid things. But at the end of the day, your delusional mind thought that it could've been salvaged somehow. It rattled on past opportunities of reconciliation and the multiple ways you would have been more than happy to be supportive of him and journey. However, you ultimately came to the conclusion that if it hadn't worked, it probably wasn't meant to be.

Really, that day had just been a reafirmation that you two had had a good run, but like all good things it was time to let go and move on. you were more than ready.

[stateswscarlet]

Good morning Scarlet, I hope that you're doing amazing!

First of all, I wanted to thank you for all the amount of time you put in explaining the law to all of us and seeing all those success stories, we all know how good of a blessing you are in our life.

So, I've been working on manifesting my ex back for a few months now, more than a year actually, and it's kinda embarrassing to me. I'm naturally a visualizer and have inner convos, but when envisioning scenarios like us hugging, holding hands, and being together again (what I've always done before knowing the law and being in love with him) it feels too good to be true, even if I have a deep understanding of the law conceptually. I know part of this process involves letting go of attachment to the 3D and recognizing that my outer feelings (anxiety, fear) and thoughts (how will he change his mind, he doesn't love u anymore) don't define my true self (the inner man that is being happy and in a rs with him). However, despite this understanding, I still encounter challenges when I attempt to engage my imagination regarding these scenarios. I often feel unfulfilled or disconnected from the vision of us being together.

Furthermore, I've been feeling doubtful about all that lately. Different sources offer conflicting advice - some suggest focusing on feelings, while others emphasize decision-making. I've even studied materials from authors like Edward and watched Tom Kearin (BSW), and while I understand the concepts intellectually and have applied them before with success, I haven't seen significant movement. The only time I experienced progress was when I wholeheartedly believed in my ex's return, even if I wasn't necessarily thinking from the end (focusing on the 3D aka he is going to come back). However, now, as I try to embody the version of myself with him already, I'm starting to lose faith in the possibility of him changing his mind and coming back. Have you ever experienced a similar struggle or doubt in your manifestation journey?

I feel maybe my issue is linked to the "feeling" that I do not understand, do you have maybe some recommandations in terms of source, or YouTube channel or else ? I feel like I'll never succeed in this specific manifestation while I succeeded in others for instance my job and travels... it was so hard for me too bc for more than a year I was jobless and so focused on that, that one day I decided I am going to get a job no matter what and not thinking from the end and it happened while I didn't focused on how I felt, I wasn't like "I need to feel I'm already employed", so I am lost in all of that ..

thank you so much for the kind words!

“working on manifesting my ex back” im really hoping you only worded it like this for simplicity sake to tell me, but please stop identifying with manifesting (at all) or seeing anything as a process bc there is NO PROCESS. there is no work to be, no point A or point B, and no one is coming “back”.

the reason you feel disconnected is because you’re still dominantly believing the 3D as a fact/seeing it as unchanging/dont understand youre SHIFTING TO A DIFFERENT REALITY/STATE and not changing the current one. figure out which one. in other words, youre being accidentally 3D oriented.

“i havent seen much movement” excuse me? wym movement? eradicate that word from your loa vocabulary please theres no such thing as movement. do you HAVE IT OR NOT?

stop looking for more material. no coach or video or book can change how you feel internally if youre just looking for results and refuse to completely drop the outer man and their reasoning.

your sp isnt changing his mind, you SHIFT TO A STATE where you and them are together. the one in the current 3D is NOT the one youre in a relationship with nor will ever be, you have to fully drop that version of him.

if just deciding you have something fulfills you, then so be it. do whatever you enjoy.

[hawkinshighdropout]

All Within My Hands.

Pairing: Eddie Munson x (female) Reader

Summary: Y/N gets chronic migraines, they've happened for years and it's only getting worse. Nothing makes Y/N feel any better, so Eddie offers himself up as another form of distraction from the pain... Finger fucking ensues. Spoiler!!

Warnings: There are (2) mentions of sick in this story, it's just Y/N feeling nauseous, nothing is graphic and no one actually throws up, Y/N just feels sick. I know people are sensitive to vomit so if even the thought of it triggers you, please do not read. This has smut towards the end so 18+ only. No minors are permitted to read this. This is kinda fluff/smutty content. Unless you count a couple of curse words as needing a warning? Idk, I haven’t written fanfics in like 8 years so I’m a little rusty…

Note/Request: Requested by @boomhauer. "Alright: reader and Eddie are friends and don’t know they like each other. Until reader gets a migraine and Eddie decides to help her out by getting her off. “I don’t know, I read it somewhere that it cures headaches!”

Bonus: This is my first time writing smut and I'm not very good at it, so sorry if it doesn't live up to expectations. I'm just an awkward person so I can't write very convincing smut, I apologise. Hopefully y'all can enjoy anyways! <3

Word Count: 4.4k

Send me prompts to write about!

“I’m gonna be sick,” you mumble pathetically, sitting in the office of the school nurse. Sunglasses on your face to shield you at least somewhat from the piercing white lights above you.

Another migraine, you were prone to suffering from chronic migraines since you were a lot younger. Usually, they would only last a couple hours, a day at maximum, but recently they were persistent and caused you to deal with them for longer periods of time. Nothing seemed to shift them anymore, not water, rest, the dark, medicine, iron rich foods, nothing. It was getting to the stage where you’d have to walk around in sunglasses and noise cancelling headphones just so you could function through them.

The nurse looked at you with concern on her face, reaching over and grabbing out the trash can to pass to you just in case you were going to puke. Luckily it was just a wave of nausea, and nothing came up, but the nurse was in the process of writing you a note to go home early as it was. She could tell that you didn’t need to be here suffering like this when you couldn’t even sit up right without wanting to hurl.

“Do you have someone who can drive you home, love?” the nurse questioned.

Taking a moment to think before mumbling a weak “Eddie…” to her, she then excused herself from the office to head to the principal’s office to get them to make an announcement to bring him from class to where you were. It didn’t take long for the nurse to come back to you, it make you smile a little at the overhead announcement, knowing that everyone would assume Munson was in trouble rather than what he was needed for.

“Eddie Munson, please report to the Principal’s office immediately.”

The class he was sitting in filled with chuckles or comments about how he was in trouble again, Eddie groaned in annoyance before packing away his things and leaving class to report to the office.

“Son of a bitch” he hissed, walking down the halls in a mild tantrum.

The nurse intercepted Eddie before he made it all the way to the office, smiling and reassuring him that he wasn’t in trouble, this time. She explained that you needed a ride home and his demeanour softened instantly. Looking up from your place on the bench as the door opened, Eddie wandered in, backpack flung over his shoulder before he swipes up your bag from the floor.

“Come on then, let’s get you outta here.” He said, tone soft as the nurse passed you your absence note, along with a note for Eddie to explain why he was leaving school in the middle of the day.

You thank the nurse, quickly going to the front desk to hand in your notes and checkout for the rest of the day. Eddie walked with you to his van, putting both your bags in the trunk before opening the door for you so you can climb in, following suit and starting up the engine.

The short drive back to your place was more uncomfortable than normal. Each speed bump made you want to throw up, and the heat from the car made you sweat under your collar, Eddie had been meaning to fix the AC, he just hadn’t gotten around to it just yet.

“Home sweet home” he smiled, pulling up on your driveway and shutting the engine off. Grabbing your bags and helping you out of the car, you both head inside and he makes a point to shut the door quietly behind you rather than the slamming he usually did.

He followed you straight up to your bedroom, which was dark and cold due to the curtains being closed for a couple days now. Your bag placed alongside his on the study table, you placed your glasses on the nightstand before kicking off your shoes and falling into bed. Groaning in delight as you did, nothing could beat the cold sheets against your body when you felt this shitty.

“Can I get you anything?” he asked.

“Nah, I’m good. Thanks…” Your voice muffled by your pillow as you shake your head, you were all out of options as nothing had been making it better recently. You were almost fed up with trying. “Sledgehammer? I dunno.”

He laughed a little at that, kicking off his shoes and shutting the door behind you both before he sat beside you on the bed. Reaching over and brushing your hair away from your eyes as he looked at you with a concerned expression. He wanted to help but he truly didn’t know what he could suggest that might make you feel better in this situation.

“Have you had meds?” he asked.

“Yup.” You respond, half-heartedly.

“Food? Water?”

You nod again.

“Have you been sleeping well?”

Another nod.

“Are you under any stress?” he queried.

“I wasn’t, but now I feel like I’m being interrogated so maybe a little stress…” Raising your brow at him and peaking one eye open in his direction, trying to make light of the agony you were in, he smiled sheepishly.

“Sorry, just trying to help. Uh… Maybe some weed?” he suggests.

You weren’t a smoker; you didn’t drink alcohol or take any drugs. He knew this too, he was just desperate for a solution to your problems as none of the more traditional remedies were helping you, clearly. Shaking your head in response, slumping back down into your pillows whilst he thought.

“Head?” he suggested, voice playful at the mere thought.

“Excuse me?!” you said a lot louder than expected, caught completely off guard at his suggestion, causing you to wince as your head begun to pound in reaction to your previous query.

“I don’t know, man! I’ve heard that it’s good for migraines and stuff because it makes your body relax. Hey, don’t shoot the messenger!” hands up in the air as he got defensive, keeping his voice hushed so he wouldn’t disturb you.

Screwing up your face in disgust, you hadn’t ever even thought about trying that. The last thing you’d want at a time like this is someone between your legs, when you are dizzy and sensitive and wanting to vomit, you can’t imagine even attempting to be sexy or intimate.

“It was just a suggestion.” He laughed to himself, seeing your reaction to his option, you rolled your eyes playfully at his typically perverted ways.

Eddie spent a little longer trying to suggest things that might make you feel better, but all were things you had either already tried, or didn’t want to try. Such as getting in the bath or going for a walk to get fresh air, you didn’t have the energy to even attempt those things.

So, you both settled on just lying in your bed, you on your stomach and faceplanting the pillows, Eddie on his back looking up at the ceiling as you relaxed in peace and quiet.

——

You didn’t know who fell asleep first, or how long you had been asleep, all you knew is that it was kinda late and that you really needed to get up and pee. A groan coming from you as the moment your eyes were open, your head begun to pound again. Sitting up slowly with a wince on your face, you pull your hair away from your face into a low bun and let out an overdramatic sigh.

“Morning, Cranky” Eddie mumbled to you, peaking just one eye open from where he was laying on his back outside of the covers, glancing at his watch before looking back up at you “we napped like… three hours?”

The sun was just beginning to set outside, and you didn’t stop for a second to wonder if your parents had ever come home from work, all you knew was your bladder was screaming for your attention.

“Be right back, gotta pee.” You mumbled, prying yourself out of the comfort of the sheets to head to the bathroom. Doing your business, flushing and washing your hands before coming back into your bedroom to see Eddie now sat up in your bed with a smile on his face.

“Still hurting, hm?” he asks, clearly referring to your migraine, “I’m still suggesting you try the whole ‘head’ thing, it’s the only thing you haven’t tried apart from weed!” he insisted playfully.

You grab the pillow from the end of the bed and throw it his way with a soft giggle, stripping off your sweater as you had gotten far too warm in your sleep. You change out of your jeans in favour of just laying about in your oversized shirt and underwear, far too clammy to change into anything further.

“Stop trying to get into my pants!” you giggle again, shaking your head in playful disapproval before laying back in the sheets.

“I’m not, I’m just saying—” he started, the death glare you gave him soon shut down the idea, watching as he climbed out of the bed and wandered to the door “okay, okay, I’ll be back…” he snorts as he leaves the room.

A few minutes pass and he comes back with a cookie, Tylenol, and a fresh bottle of water. Passing all of those items to you as it had been a while since your last dose, but he didn’t want you taking anything on an empty stomach in case it made things worse. You quietly ate the cookie, took the meds and sipped at the water until it was almost completely empty, clearly far thirstier than you thought.

“Thank you” you said gratefully, Eddie just smiled across at you as if to say that it wasn’t a big deal.

“A hot bath might help?” he suggests, you shrug your shoulders at the thought as you didn’t want to go through the effort of running one. It was as if he could read your mind, he stood up and went into your bathroom and started the process of running you a hot bubble bath before you could even object.

You only moved once he called out that it was ready, scooting yourself off the end of the bed as you followed the voice. The bath was full and smelled of lavender with bubbles threatening to overflow the tub, a few candle on the sink to light the room so you weren’t subjected to the harsh light of the bathroom ceiling.

“Thank you” you smile, looking around at the effort that he had gone to to ensure that you would be okay, he excuses himself and allows you the privacy to undress and to bathe in peace.

Eddie would stay seated on your bed which was just out of visual distance from where you occupied the bath, the pair of you talking through the open doorway as you washed yourself. You feel your cheeks flush pink and your eyes go a little wide once you are ready to get out of the bath as you realise you didn’t have a towel.

“Uh… Ed? Can I have a towel please?” you call out, hearing the squeak of the bed as he comes to the rescue with a clean towel from the linen closet, stepping into the bathroom to hand it to you.

“Thank you” you offer whilst taking the towel in your hand, bath already in the process of draining when you raise yourself out of the tub, wrapping the warm towel around your middle.

Eddie clears his throat and quickly turns away from you to hide his red cheeks, having accidentally caught a glimpse of your wet and naked torso as you were climbing out to reach the towel he offered you. Watching him wander back to the bed to take the attention away from the situation as you closed the door and dried yourself off, eventually tugging on clean underwear and an oversized t shirt to sleep in later.

“Want me to throw on a movie?” he asked, to which you called out a soft “yeah!” and watched as he slipped out of your bed towards your tv. He took a couple of minutes deciding before laying on his back with his arm around your shoulders once you had joined him back in your bed, curling up into him for comfort and warmth.

The movie was just over halfway finished when you let out another grumpy sigh, irritated with the fact this pounding pain in your head hadn’t decided to shift. You were sick and tired of being so uncomfortable and in pain that you looked up at Eddie with the softest pout on your lips.

“Still hurting, huh?” he asks, nodding your head in response, “anything I can do?” his voice gentle, clearly he is desperate to try and fix this for you. You shake your head this time. “Want me to get outta here so you can see if rubbing one out helps?” he chuckles, making you blush.

“Shut up, idiot.” You giggle, smacking him lightly on the chest before wrapping your arm tighter around him to make it clear that you didn’t want him to leave you.

Not more than another ten to fifteen minutes pass before you are groaning in discomfort again. Hiding your face against his chest to shield yourself from any sound or light coming from the screen. Eddie pauses the movie, shuts off the screen so the room is dark and silent, turning his full attention back to you.

“Y/N… This isn’t good…” he whispers, pressing a kiss to the top of your head as he strokes your back and does his best to comfort you. You sigh, you knew this wasn’t good, this wasn’t exactly a blast for you to have to deal with for this long. “Are you sure there’s nothing I can do?”

You shrug your shoulders. It had gotten to the point where you were so uncomfortable and in pain that you were willing to try anything. Well, almost anything.

“Maybe I should just do thing you keep suggesting, anything is worth a damn try at this point!” Glancing up at him with an annoyed look on your face, not at him, at the situation you are in, you let out a disgruntled little noise.

“Want me to head home?” He offers, not wanting to be the person in the way or stopping you from getting any intimate time alone to attempt to cure your pain.

“No! No.. I don’t wanna be alone when I feel this shitty.” You pout, a quizzicle look on his face as he’s watching you.

“I can’t exactly just sit here though, can I? I can’t just sit and watch you doing your thing, that’s weird, isn’t it?” His tone doesn’t sound so sure of himself.

You were friends, best friends, you told each other everything and knew everything about the other. This was crossing the line… Right? Having him sitting right beside you whilst you’re doing that to yourself? That’s gotta be weird and a boundary you’re crossing even by asking… Right?

“I mean, I don’t know…” both of you had matching nervous energies and flustered pink cheeks as you avoided eye contact, the pair of you staring at your own hands whilst you fumbled through the conversation.

“Unless I just do it for you?” He offers, words tumbling out of his mouth before he’s even gotten a chance to think them through, both of you suddenly wide eyed and looking at each other.

“What?!” you softly squeak.

“I. Uh. Nothing, nothing.” He tried to backtrack, scratching the back of his neck with an awkward little laugh. You both sit in silence for a couple moments before you turn to him a little.

“You really wanna do that? For me?” Looking him up and down to see if he’s was just messing about or truly interested in helping you out in probably the most intimate way imaginable.

“I mean, why not? What could go wrong? You’re in pain, it might help you, it’s not a big deal… I don’t know” he mumbled, shrugging his shoulders and looking back down at his lap.

“Won’t that totally ruin the friendship and make things awkward if you’ve seen me in that way?” You ask shyly.

“Not if we don’t let it? Consider it a favour? You need help, I’m helping you. Next time I need like… help passing a class, you can slide me the answer sheet and call it even?” He lets out an awkward and not fully committed laugh.

You take a few seconds to think about it before the pounding in your head comes back, causing you to nod quickly in agreement.

“Okay… Deal.”

——

Looking up from your spot on the bed as your bedroom door shuts, a shy smile on Eddie’s face as he’s coming back into the room after having peeked downstairs to see if your parents were home or not… they weren’t.

You were alone, home alone with Eddie.

You were laying in the centre of your bed on your back, head in the pillows as you’re looking up at your best friend who came walking towards you, he sits beside you on the bed with his hand pressing to your thigh. Giving you a comforting squeeze as he looks down at you.

“Coast is clear” he announces softly, the both of you smiling like goofballs at one another.

He shuffles a little higher up the bed so he’s on his knees beside you, his hand moving up to cup your cheek instead. His thumb brushing back and forth along your cheekbone to soothe your nerves as you’re giggling at each other, trying to see who will step up and initiate anything.

You’d never thought about Eddie sexually before, he was your buddy. Your best friend. It was always affectionate but platonic, but something about the way he’s looking at you right now? You couldn’t deny the butterflies in your stomach. Maybe it was nerves? But there was a hint of excitement too.

“Can I kiss you?” He whispers, you immediately nod your head and close your eyes as he comes closer to you.

Eddie leaned down, tilting his head to the side and connecting your lips in a few tender kisses, you giggle into each others mouths as the nervous energy takes over. It was sweet that he didn’t want to rush you, he didn’t just get the job done and leave, he wanted to ease you into it and make sure you’re comfortable.

One of your hands cupped the back of his head and tangled in his long locks, holding him closer as you kiss one another. Massaging your fingertips against his scalp as his hand would slip up and down your bare thigh, causing you to shiver a little in response. He shuffled around slightly so that he’s laying on his side beside you, hand sneaking up under the hem of your shirt to lift the fabric up a little. His fingertips now trailing back and forth along the waistband of your underwear, waiting for your permission to go any further.

Nodding your head a little in the kiss, he’s shyly sliding his hand into the waistband of your underwear, his warm hand cupping your mound whilst his fingers would delicately swipe up and down your folds whilst you kissed one another. A little hitch of your breath makes him smile, playfully tugging at your lower lip with his teeth before kissing the skin, his fingertips moving in slow circles around your clit to start you off.

It didn’t take long for you to start to let out little noises at his touches, grinding lightly against his hand as he would alternate between massaging your clit or teasing his fingers up and down your slit. His fingers taking little time at all to become soaked by you, him kissing along your jawline whilst working towards your ear.

“May I?” He whispers, you nod in response.

He’s careful with you, delicately sliding his middle finger inside of you whilst replacing the pressure on your clit to include his thumb. He massages your bundle of nerves whilst working the finger in and out of you, curling his finger up to brush against your weak spot.

You’re groaning and dropping your head back in the pillows, legs spread open for him whilst he’s moving his finger in and out of you in a slow and steady pattern. Your underwear still on, meaning he can’t pull too far away before he’s hitting the fabric, you were grateful for the barrier keeping him close.

Easing a second finger into you, he’s slipping them in and out at a constant pace whilst his thumb would alternate between circling and rubbing your clit. His name falling from your mouth over and over, causing him to grin proudly down at you at the sound. Eddie was solid in his pants, but this wasn’t about him, this was about you. He didn’t even hint or reference himself, focusing on helping you out instead.

“M-More, please…” you whimpered, loving the stretch that his fingers cussed inside of you, your body twitching as your breathing quickened from his touch.

He smiled fondly down at you, inching his ring finger alongside his index and middle to stretch you out, the three long digits make you pulse around his fingers whilst you’re hiding in his neck and whimpering. He dropped your clit in favour of softly pumping his fingers in and out of you, a slightly quicker pace than before as he could feel you clenching around him.

One of your own hands slide between your legs so you could rub your clit whilst he took control of your needy entrance, the pair of you working together to bring you the pleasure you had craved for a while. Your lips soon connecting to muffle your noises as you felt yourself getting closer, body shaking and breathing heavily as you cursed and moaned into Eddie’s mouth. You were trying to fight it and hold back on your climax as you wanted to enjoy this for longer, but the rhythmic strums of his fingers inside of you pushed you closer to the edge.

“Cum for me?” Eddie mumbled into the kiss with a fond smile on his face, pulling back to look down at you whilst he angled his fingers a little deeper.

“Oh, shit!” You curse softly, rubbing your clit feverishly whilst he admired the way you fell apart under him. Your muscles tense up before you drop your head back and curse a little louder for him. Suddenly your walls spasm around his fingers and you’re gushing out around his digits, trembling under him as you’re gasping for air.

He lets out a soft noise of approval at the sight of you, finger fucking you through your climax until you’re whimpering from how sensitive you are. Your hands dropping back to your sides before Eddie slows his hand to a stop, slipping his fingers from you in favour of bringing them to his mouth and licking them clean.

“Yeah, that was hot. Any better?” He asks, a cocky smile on his face as you look the most relaxed you’ve been in days. Nodding your head tiredly as you look up at him with flushed cheeks and a giggle.

“Mhm, a little… Thank you.” You mumble.

Eddie laughs, half out of arrogance for being right. Half because you look so cute when you’re all spaced out and comfortable. He’s just glad he could have helped you. Leaning down, he presses a few kisses to your forehead before he excuses himself to the bathroom.

Looking up at him as he comes back into the room, a confused look on your face as he’s bringing a towel. You lift your hips when he’s hooking his fingers into your underwear, watching as he slips them down your thighs and throws them to the floor. Spreading your legs, he’s delicately wiping your wetness with the towel to clean you up.

A smile on his face as you’re making soft noises or twitching away from him, kissing both of your knees once you were all dry and ready for bed. Taking your underwear and the towel and throwing them in the laundry, before he comes back to the room and sits beside you on your bed once more.

“Did this ruin our friendship?” You ask, a small and nervous look on your face, laying on your side so you’re both face to face.

“Not at all.” He shakes his head, cupping your face in his hand and stroking his thumb along your skin whilst pressing a kiss to your nose, “if anything, it brought us closer.”

You smiled bashfully across at him, giving him a gentle kiss whilst wrapping your arms around his midsection so you’re cuddling as close as possible with him.

“Do you… Do you need anything?” You look down at his crotch and then back up at him, gesturing to the fact that you could feel he was hard against your thigh.

He’s shaking his head immediately, chuckling as he kisses your forehead once more, reassuring you that he was going to be alright.

���I’m good. This was about you, I’m just glad I was right and you’re all good now. We can worry about me another time.” Eddie says fondly, bumping your noses together before he pecks your lips.

“Are you sure?” Voice unsure of yourself, not wanting him to feel like this was one sided and like he wasn’t allowed to voice his feelings just because you didn’t feel good.

“I promise, sweetheart.” He confirms.

“Okay.. Thank you.” You giggle, realising the reality of what had just happened. Your best friend on the planet had just finger fucked you into an orgasm to soothe your headache. The both of you quietly laughing into the arms of one another as this can’t be your reality.

“Munson 1. Migraine 0.” He says proudly.

You just kiss him to stop the bragging rights he’s already trying to cash in on, giggling into his mouth before pulling away to grin up at him. Eddie pulls the blankets over the both of you and slumps against your chest, his arms around you as he yawns like a big cat.

“So, about those math answers…” he says innocently, already trying to cash in his end of the deal of you helping him pass a class.

“Consider them yours.” You mumble tiredly.

[not-krys]

I remember your details for things I've never considered, in your fanfics! Oddly its mostly the pregnancy fanfics that stick out to me the most, how Arthur warms up the stethoscope before using it on her, or the one about Abby waiting for vincent to come home. They've always stuck in my mind due to some of the details and how easy it was to visualize them super well, so thats what I remember the most! Good details and great at putting together scenes.

I also remember the zoned out mitsunari fanfic hehehe

Anon or not, tell me what passage, fic, line of narration, or anything you remember about me as a writer (ask was sent to the wrong blog, but I'll answer it here anyway since it is a writing related question!)

About details! I usually try to keep two main things in mind when I come up with them. First one is to keep who I'm describing in mind. With the Arthur x Reader pregnancy fic in particular, I remembered that he was a former doctor and that he has an knack for noticing and remembering small details. In the fic, he says that his partner complained last time he had checked in that the bell was cold, so for this checkup, he warmed it for his partner's sake.

Funnily enough, the stethoscope moment almost didn't happen as when I looking through my original notes, it was up for debate. Screenie below to show how the thought process sort of went (and with the timestamp pictured because I wasn't kidding when I said this fic came to me in the middle of the night, not even fully convinced I was gonna participate in Arthur Week then)

Same can be shown with the Abby waiting for Vincent fic. I'm assuming you're talking about the 'First Kicks' fic where Abby is waiting for Vincent as a storm brews outside as I also a WIP Wednesday where Vincent comes home to find her sleeping, but I'll go with First Kicks for example's sake.

Abby's a nervous person, especially worried when Vincent was caught in the storm. She calms herself when she looks at her reflection and sees her anxious self, realizing that's she's making a mountain out of a mole hill, and talks to her son to settle her nerves.

The other thing I keep in mind is an offshoot of 'show don't tell' in that, to help enrich a scene, evoke the five major senses (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste).  The quiet of the room while Arthur's listens to the baby's heartbeat (so quiet, a pin dropping would sound like a gun going off), the blue satin ribbons on the reader's clothes, how the stethoscope tickles when it makes contact, etc.

Same thing with Abby's story: Abby looks at herself in the window with the rain pouring down, which breaks up her reflection as rain does on windows; hearing the door open and some muttered Dutch lets Abby know that Vincent's back; smelling the rain on him because he was just outside and got soaked in it; feeling those cold hands on her belly and her jumping back because cold (previously wet) hands touching your belly? It'd be a surprise at the very least!

And because I'm feeling cheeky, all the things can also be applied to the zoned-out Mitsunari fic (mind the summary and the tags, this is a smoot fic). Keeping both characters in mind (Houki is a proper lady that wants to try something but is a little embarrassed about it so she sneaks around to get what she wants, while Mitsunari is also a curious critter and wanted to see what Houki was trying to do and isn't judging her for tricking him) and scene-chewing in describing things with the five major senses (salty taste of Mitsunari's finger, feeling the cool air on her [redacted], hearing his whispers against her ear, seeing that Mitsun has two hands (two hands!) and where they decide to travel), things like that.

(No, I'm not screenshotting an example from that fic for propriety's sake, ya filthy animals.)

So, yeah, that's a little bit about me explaining how I do some details and how it all can come together to make a scene in a story. Kinda sorry for the rambling if this was something you knew about already, but I had fun discussing details either way.

Thanks for the ask, Scummy!

[aita-blorbos]

(oc thing)

AITA for abandoning my world for 103 years?

Ok I know this sounds bad but let me explain.

I (NB, don't really have an age) am the creator of two worlds but only one is important to this story. The one that isn't relevant is more like a world-sized computer, but the relevant one is just your average world with life and stuff, and was the first one I made.

Before you mention it, I know there are guides and templates for life created by the God community. I know the best way to make stable life is to put a simple organism on the world and let it evolve to fit the environment. I know. Believe me, I know. But I certainly didn't know or care back when I made this world because I wanted to make everything from scratch. That was foolish of me. I know. I should have at least read a guide or something.

All this to say I made a bit of a mistake with my initial thought algorithm. Because thoughts work quite fast and I wanted to see everything so I could troubleshoot, I introduced an intentional "throttle" into the algorithm; it would wait for me to acknowledge the thought before it progressed. It's all fun and games until you forget to remove that throttle and create countless creatures all using that flawed algorithm. Yeah.

I didn't want to wipe everything out and start over because that seemed needlessly cruel. Applying patches to anything, especially something like brains, live is a difficult and risky process for the person with the brain. So I just kinda set up a "server room" of power that would just auto-acknowledge anything coming through. That was a temporary solution.

I spent a good couple centuries working out a method to patch the throttle out of my beings. The expansion of life was beginning to overwhelm my temporary measure. I was tired. So tired. I finished it and found blissful silence awaiting me. Wonderful.

In fact I was so tired I wanted to take a bit of a break. I'd also use the time I would be out to test and workshop a self-sufficient, hands-free (for me at least) way to keep my world safe from any existential threats. They're not common, but it's always a good thing to look out for.

So I decided that I would randomly give out my power to people, disappear completely (except for a couple recording devices that were hidden ofc), and come back in a year and see how things went. Then I'd adjust things accordingly. Simple right? What could possibly go wrong?

I think you probably get what happened, but I'll explain it anyways. I essentially had NO IDEA the flow of time was usually different between universes. I didn't know I was supposed to chrono-lock my universe and the universe I was in together to preserve the flow of time between them. And I just so happened to take my year-long vacation to a universe that was REALLY slow compared to mine.

So I come back, 103 years later. There was a war, and this lady somehow consolidated everyone's power and is now acting as the goddess of my world (which I'm honestly fine with, I was never one to take an active role in my world). There's a cult worshiping me, using the hijacked power of one of my observation devices to shield themselves from the lady who made herself the goddess and doing terrible things in my name. Things kinda sucked.

And I'm sort of thinking things would be a lot better if I didn't accidentally spend 103 years of my world's time on vacation. So, AITA?

[flowersarefreetherapy]

Could you explain the timeline a little bit? I searched through the Cameron tag and there’s just a few short posts and a drabble

Yeah, of course I totally can!

So a good chunk of the Cameron stuff lives in my head, for better or for worse, and the timeline is wacky because ya boy hates doing math and numbers. But! Cameron’s story pretty much takes place about 14-15 years before the main plot and the trio. He goes through the WRU training process, spends too long thinking he isn’t going to be bought, and then finally gets his master.

Now, how his story connects to the main plot is that he meets Thad while he is a Fighter in underground illegal fighting rings. Cameron basically takes one look at him and decides that is who he is going to flirt with because it’s funny to Cameron how uncomfortable it makes Thad and also, he’s hot. Thad never views him in the same light, seeing him as more of an annoyance and a potential friend to help ease the suffering they both are trapped in (which never happens). When Thad escapes, he never sees Cameron again, and Cameron tries his best to forget about him.

(And this is where I haven’t put a lot of thought into his plot lol) But fast forward thirteen or so years and Thad is happily married while hell breaks loose with the trio. Cameron, as far as I think, is no longer with his master (who died) and is now at WRU. He is considered “too old” to be resold and is instead kept as a demo pet for both potential buyers and as a training tool for the new Romantics. Does that mess with his sense of self, you may ask? Yes it absolutely does. Does he still believe being a pet is the best thing to happen to him? Yes, yes he very much does and just can’t understand why these new ones fight it so much in the beginning. After all, he had such a sweet, kind master who loved him so much. Who wouldn’t want that?

Anyway, there’s my long rambling for the timeline. Which is kinda there. Thank you for the ask! Cameron holds a special place in my heart and I love seeing him get the love he deserves!

[pankomako]

felt like actually making a ref of my splatsona this afternoon. so i did that

also as much as he's a representation of me he's kinda his own character too lol (like im not so sure im bi at all but i've decided mack is to a degree. but the way he plays matches is exactly what i do)

some extra fun facts i couldnt fit in the ref:

total sailor mouth. says fuck almost every other sentence

can get SUPER pissed during matches. sounds like a dad yelling at a football match on tv, worse combined with his sailor mouth. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING JUST STANDING AROUND" "CLAIM THE FUCKING ZONE" "HOLY SHIT LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE I WAS OUT OF INK" "THATS RIGHT BITCH THATS WHAT YOU FUCKING GET FOR CROSSING ME"

loves his body hair. everyone else thinks it's freaky as fuck. his friends have gotten over it though

often says he's part shark, sometimes to impress people. nobody believes him. unclear whether or not he believes it. he's not

has ADHD. probably should've put that in the ref. i just thought of it as im typing this out. explains a LOT of his behavior though

severely attracted to guys; experiences a very shallow attraction to girls. will flirt and offer to make out with either one but is more likely to date a guy (basically how i feel?? idk it's confusing im still thinking)

hangs out with shiver sometimes after meeting her in story mode. sharks bro (occasionally hangs out w the other characters too but not nearly as much)

is friends with my friend failboat's oc liv. they sometimes do salmon run together + he babysits her smallfry l'il chatty. like "hey im doing anarchy w/ jay can you watch lil chatty for me on the sidelines" "ya sure no problem lol (VERY reluctant)". she finds him kinda weird n annoying but they're still like besties

stingers HATE HIM! is the first target of stingers like 90% of the time. absolutely despises them for this reason. will angrily rush over to annihilate a stinger that targets him as soon as he is able. very likely to get splatted in the process. (NOT EVEN EXAGGERATING THIS IS MY EXPERIENCE WITH SALMON RUN AUUUUUUGH)

has a personal grudge against any dapple dualies players he encounters. for literally no reason. he just has an urge to prove that he's better than them as a dark tetra dualies player (also very much real)

rarely has a successful use of reefslider. usually gets splatted immediately after either activation or when it explodes. wishes it had invincibility like kraken. refuses to main anything other than dark tetras because he's stubborn as fuck (just take a guess whether this is real (spoiler: it is))

literally so silly and goofy about everything. tends to lean into annoying. im tellin ya it's the adhd

yknow i think that's enough for now. thanks for reading all this i guess LOL (assuming you actually did)

[i-write-hurt-not-comfort]

no brain space for nice things so how about. an opportunity to ramble about pharmacology. i’m listening

hello and thank you! nothing particular comes to mind as of late so i thought i'd talk about my dissertation that i did in my third year.

the title was "The importance of dose: a systematic review of gabapentin and amitriptyline doses used in pre-clinical chronic pain models and their clinical relevance" and i scored 72 on it in the end. maybe that doesn't sound that high to international students but at universities in the UK, anything over 70 is a first which is the highest grade you can get. so 72 vs 92 would still be the same grade, hence i was happy with a 72. it may be just barely over 70, but it's a first.

it's a shame my other units were a bit shit and overall i only got 65. which is a 2:1 (second highest grade) but i wasn't happy :(

anyway i'll put this under the cut because it'll probably be long.

i guess i gotta make this kinda simple to explain but basically, when we're making new drugs to treat chronic pain, which is what we (i mean my project partner, supervisor and i) chose to focus on, we have to use animal models to test whether they work. unfortunately there's not many rodent models of chronic neuropathic pain which translate to humans effectively, which is why having translatable behavioural tests of pain is really important!!

some of these include hot plate test, tail flick test, hargreeves test etc. all of these basically test how long it takes for a rodent to respond to painful stimuli (thermal or mechanical usually). if a drug targeting pain is effective, the time to respond to this pain will increase, and that's kind of how we measure if drugs work.

so amitriptyline and gabapentin are two drugs used to treat chronic pain. they're both widely used in humans and because of that, they're used as comparison drugs when we're tested novel compounds. let's say we have compound X (i'll use this as a hypothetical novel drug throughout this post), we test it in a rodent and also test amitriptyline or gabapentin, and then we compare how well they work. if drug X works as well as GBP or AMT, then we can assume it might work well in humans too. below is how GBP and AMT work, if you wanna know.

this all seems kind of simple, right? just use the dose of AMT and GBP we use in humans which is adapted to rodents' metabolism (in milligrams per kilogram of weight, or mg/kg), right?

that'd be great if that's what happens, but it's not! why? good question! the process behind this review was screening a large number of papers and extracting the doses used and comparing them to what should have been used according to this paper. the process of deciding what papers to screen looked like this.

we extracted the following data from a total of 314 papers for GBP and 93 papers for AMT. yeah, it took a REALLY long time.

the other stuff beyond dose was also analysed to gauge the general quality of pre-clinical studies, but that gets really technical and i won't go into that today. long story short, a lot of these studies are slacking in quality parameters such as randomisation and blinding.

based on preliminary research, we thought that the majority of studies would be using doses MUCH higher than the translatable dose. here's the table for the doses which should've been used.

mice and rats are smaller, hence their metabolism is faster, so they need higher doses. the doses which should be used in animal models is the starting dose because y'know, that's what we start with in humans. so, we collated the mass of data and made two stunning lil graphs.

it's... pretty fascinating, right? the majority of pre-clinical studies are using comparative doses of AMT and GBP which are WAAAAY off what we use in humans. we also did tests into effect size (won't show the forest plots here because they're complicated) and found that these animal studies were extracting much larger effect sizes than what we see in humans. that means that the doses being really high DOES influence the data we get in animals, and it's making it harder to translate those results to humans.

you might think, "well, that's fine. big doses mean big responses, so that makes sense", and you'd be correct, but for the wrong reasons, and this is where the really juicy pharmacology comes in.

it's very rare that drugs have only one target. well, i'm not sure that ever happens. that's why most drugs have side effects at higher doses (or even at therapeutic doses). in the diagram higher up of the mechanism of action of AMT and GBP, you can see that both of them have off-target effects (in red).

a core pharmacology concept is that as drug concentration increases, the occupancy at receptors also increases. so with higher doses comes increased engagement of the receptors which we don't want to stimulate. and this can have an impact on some responses, even in pain studies!

for example, AMT can have up to 100% occupancy at histamine 1 receptors (H1) at higher doses. histamine antagonism causes sedation, therefore animal studies with 10 times the required dose of AMT may be measuring responses associated with sedation rather than analgesia. if AMT is being used in a comparative pre-clinical for say, drug X, then drug X's effects are being held against responses which really have nothing to do with humans in the clinic.

AMT has a lot more off-target effects than GBP, whereas GBP is quite specific. we proposed that this is why GBP studies don't have to use as relatively high doses compared to AMT, because off-target effects aren't required to observe measurable analgesic responses.

there's a lot more gritty technicalities, nuances and even ethical considerations behind this study we conducted. it was 6k words in total, so this is a really brief overview. but if you were interested in what i spent months and months working on, here it is.

[thelastspeecher]

Whoops I wrote more Firefighter AU with Stan and Angie interacting.

———————————————————————————————————–

             Stan walked through the front doors of the obviously brand-new Gravity Falls Fire Station.  He looked around.  The only person in the lobby was an intimidatingly large, muscled, and tattooed man.  Stan walked up to the man.

             “Do you know where I can find the chief?” he asked. The man turned around.

             “Why?” he rumbled.

             “I’m a new hire.”

             “Oh.”  The man pointed down a hallway to the left.  “Down there, first door on the right.”

             “Got it.”  Stan strode away, glad to be away from the rather threatening man.

             I get a weird vibe from him.  He came to the door the man had indicated.  It was already open.  A smile spread across Stan’s face at the sight of his new boss. Of course it’s her.

             “Shoulda figured you’d be the only one nuts enough to hire an ex-con like me,” he drawled.  The fire chief looked up.  She grinned broadly.

             “Stanley Pines,” Angie McGucket drawled right back. She gestured to the chair across from her desk.  “Take a seat.”

             “Sure thing, boss.”  Stan sat down.  “So, how’d you end up being the fire chief in a town like this?”

             “Funny thing, actually.”  Angie leaned back in her chair.  “Apparently there was some sort of lab-related accident what resulted in a fire.  Said fire got rather out of hand, and the city decided they couldn’t get by with just a volunteer fire department no more.  They wanted some professionals.”

             “You got hired to start up this town’s first fire department?” Stan asked.  Angie nodded. “That explains why the building is so new.  But why’d they get you, specifically?”

             “One of my older brothers works fer a researcher here.  Actually, he works fer the researcher responsible fer the fire I told ya ‘bout. He put in a good word fer me and that was that.”

             “Huh.”  Stan grinned. “I’m kinda into the idea of meeting one of your older brothers.”  Angie rolled her eyes.  Though they had been friends back in California, because Stan was incarcerated, he hadn’t been able to meet any of Angie’s siblings.  But he’d heard so many stories, he felt like he knew them already. “Which brother is it?”

             “Fiddleford.  And apparently the researcher he works fer ain’t too quick to clean up his act, so you’ll have plenty of opportunity to meet him durin’ the many calls we’ll no doubt get.”

             “Was he one of the ones involved in…”  Stan gestured to his right eye.  “Y’know?”  Angie touched the burn scar on her face.  It was the first thing Stan had noticed about her when they met, though in his defense, it was very distracting, stretching from her right eye to halfway down her neck.

             Kinda stinks it’s the first thing everyone’s always gonna notice first.  There are a lotta other things about Angie that should get attention.  Her caramel-colored hair was in an even shorter pixie cut than when Stan had last seen her, but her long, narrow nose and insanely muscled arms remained the same.  At least the accident didn’t mess with her eyes.  She’s got some damn pretty peepers.  Her bright blue eyes were misty as she thought back to the day she’d gotten her scar.

             “No,” Angie said softly.  “Fidds wasn’t part of that.  Harper was the one what set off the firework without realizin’ I was close by.”

             “Right.  The only one with a normal name,” Stan said.  Angie chuckled.  Stan smiled, glad to have lightened the mood.  “Y’know, you said you’d tell me what Angie was short for after I finished serving my time, but by the time I got out, you moved on.”

             “You want to know my full first name?” Angie asked. Stan nodded.  Angie sighed.  “Fine. Banjolina.”  Stan snorted.  “That’s it?”

             “Whattaya mean?”

             “I was expecting full belly laughs from ya, to be honest.”

             “Hey, I gotta show some respect to my boss.”

             “Darn tootin’, ya do,” Angie said with a nod. She glanced at her wristwatch.  “All right.  We should get down to business and actually start the on-boardin’ process.”

             “Before we do that…”

             “Hmm?”

             “The linebacker out in the lobby, what’s his deal?” Stan asked.  Angie raised an eyebrow.  “Is he an ex-con, too?”

             “Yup.”  Angie messed with some paperwork on her desk.  “Most of yer coworkers are.  I’m callin’ it my Second Chance program.  ‘Cause everyone deserves one of those.”  She cocked her head, smiling.  “But you knew I believed in that.  Otherwise, I would’ve never let ya come back from insultin’ me ‘n pointin’ out my scar the very first day we met.”

             “Yeah, I gotta learn to shut my mouth more.”

             “If that’s the case, we’ll discuss it at yer first performance review.”  Angie grabbed the ballpoint pen tucked behind her ear.  “Now, let’s get this introductory paperwork out of the way so’s I can show ya ‘round the place.”

[layzeal]

Hello!

This is my opinion, please correct me somehow im really willing to change since thats how i am with new fandoms i get myself into(is it really new if i have known it for 2 years) anyway, please forgive my insolence. I just wanna ask what you think of cql changing a lot themes (especially that importance they have put on yunmeng trios ( its to the point ive ask my myself if JYL manipulates WWX, you know guil tripping forcing someone to be with you (obv not romantically) out of pity or other) (and downgrading certain things like JC's cruelty or washing WWX making him not lose control but have outside factors) (the timeline is also confusing) and i just felt like most of the lessons in mdzs was not successfully implemented in the live action. There were a lot of times that made me leave the show halfway because i was hoping for a lot of wangxian actions (it was 50 epi after all) but most of it was in flashback and focuses too much on the said trio. then the sudden change of story into XXC and XY, and the little changes too like LQY being a Jin disciple.

and also about that LWJ self harm ask, ive read some meta about it him being sad and in grief, another saying its a part of remembering WWX (which for me is so ridiculous, which part exactly will remind him of WWX, the self harm part of the scars?) and frankly im more inclined to believe thats its a mistake he have done while drunk and grieving, he has to let it out somehow and without logic and inhibitions he must have done it after seeing the torture weapon?? like its not a planned thing( but who am i talk, it could be depression speaking) which is not making sense how do you manage to find it just lying so it could also have been because something have reminded it of him. i honestly wanna stop thinking about the hows so i just ask.

another point id like to ask is how do people manage to have questions that sounds so amazing? idk the word for it. but you know what i mean, bizarre then people like you somehow have the word to explain such things. how long does it usually take you to articulate what you mean, and what process are you using that makes it so easy to understand.

hi friend!! so, for a brief history: i actiually got into MDZS through CQL back in june 2021, and i really loved it!! however, there were a lot of things that were very confusing to me (especially the timeline), which is why i decided to pick up the novel, because i was very very interested in understanding the whole picture!

(more under cut)

but as you can see by now, my fandom content has almmost exclusively switched to novel/audio drama canon! and well, there's not really much secret about it, other than me just vastly preferring the novel's narrative, for many of the reasons you mentioned! my general stance on CQL is that, while it's a pretty bad adaptation that fails in a lot of ways to convey some themes of the original work, it does work really well as its own, independent thing, and that's kinda how it exists in brain? i've kinda grown a wall of separation between the two, in which i don't really see CQL as MDZS, and tend to appreciate it on its own (ie. for as much as i LOVE wangxian's relationship in the novel, there really is something incredibly tasty about how it was done in the show that only works within that universe)

but most of all, i only watched cql like, once, and can remember VERY little about it, so it's why i don't really feel comfortable talking about its changes because i genuinely cannot remember how they were executed LMAO. but YEAH there are more changes i dislike than i like, and whether they were made because of censorship or not, it's still sad how much lost potential there was :(

and @ you last question: oh, thank you so much!! hmm, i do tend to just kinda... write down what i'm thinking, so the words you're reading are pretty much my exact train of thought haha i guess i can be really thankful to having reached a level of english fluency that allows me to make-up sentences in my mind already in english, rather than having to translate them beforehand. a lot of my practice experience was actually by doing writing and roleplaying here on tumblr, so maybe that's related! just reading and writing a lot can definitely help you develop an easier way to articulate your thoughts. it's why i love doing media analysis, really, i get so excited about something from a piece of media that i HAVE to share, and for that to work i need to articulate it well enough, so it's very motivating! does that make sense? i hope so dkjfhjdfkg

hope you have a good day, anon <3

[my-my-my]

hihi!! if its okay to make a request, i was wondering if u could write something about a platonic/silly thing with y0 majima (ive only just gotten into it) and a teen mc/reader(??) where they have a puppy crush on majima and try to hide it (but its very obvious, maybe even painfully so)?

i think itd be kinda silly and cute watching majima try to reject the kid without crushing their hopes and dreams of love

In most instances, I would've said no to this, but because it's one-sided, I'll try my best!

TW: Interactions with a minor? The minor in question I put to be 16-17 years old. Not sure how to classify this. Majima absolutely has no romantic feelings or thoughts in this.

Sotenbori was alive and well. The barkers were ushering pedestrians into clubs, civilians and yakuza alike wearing their flashiest and best, and the smell of fresh and hot grilled food filled the air.

But Majima was exhausted. Running The Grand wasn't easy, running The Grand successfully was a whole other story. He always made sure to get to the establishment three and half hours before opening, just to make sure inventory was ready, any adjustments needed to be made in the schedule and menu, and what other unforeseen circumstances could creep up before doors opened.

But as he made his way closer to the entrance, he noticed a heavily made up woman, in a dress that didn't fit her quite right. She lookin' for a job? She doesn't have the look we're goin' for...

And as Majima got closer, he noticed that she looked familiar. Maybe he saw her around town? A local at the restaurants he ate at? But she looked a bit young.

"Sorry lady, we're not hiring anyone at the moment." Majima drawled, exhaustion evident in his voice.

"Oh no, I'm not here for a job, Majima-san!" The person explained, her voice nervous and hurried.

Majima narrowed his eye, she does look familiar.

"Aren't ya Akemi-chan's kid sister?" Majima asked.

The girl fidgeted in place, avoiding eye contact with Majima. She let out a quiet "yep" as she vigorously nodded her head.

"Whatcha doin' here then? Akemi-chan's workin' tonight. Don't tell me ya decided to come here to work with her!" Majima exasperated, I don't need to deal with this shit right now he thought to himself.

"No! That's not why I'm here Majima-san, I-, I-" her voice was flustered as she stuttered out her words,

"IReallyLikeYouMajima-san!" She exclaimed, her makeup unable to hide the bright red of her face.

Oh boy. Majima sighed to himself.

"Girly, and ya really are a girly. You got better things to do than hang around here, especially talking to me of all people" Majima explained.

"You don't understand Majima-san! You're so cool and nice. My sister and her friends always say nice things about you too."

"I'm flattered y'all think that of me, but I don't feel the same." Majima said, trying to carefully think of his next words.

"Trust me, the stuff you're hearing from your sister and her friends - they're just seeing the work side of me. We all have different sides of ourselves." Majima winced as he saw the deflated look on her face, as tears started to well up in her eyes.

Majima fished out a pack of pocket tissues and handed it to her.

"Little lady, you got a whole life ahead of ya. What ya like now, is gonna change five years from now. Hell, I bet even in a year from now!" He put his hand on her shoulder to give some semblance of reassurance.

"It took guts kid, to come here and share your feelings for me. Any person worth their salt, and worth your time is gonna respect that of you. I'm proud of ya sharing this with me, but it's not the end of the world that I don't feel the same."

Majima gave a small smile, as she sniffled into her tissue, her make up coming off in the process.

"You'll meet plenty of people cooler than me, I promise you that. I ain't that cool anyways." Majima sheepishly explained, trying to let her down easy. "Don't worry about it", he explained.

A few more sniffles later, she nodded her head, "thank you, Majima-san" she whispered.

"No problem kid, now go home, ya here? Yer sis is gonna get worried if she sees ya here."

"Thank you again, Majima-san." The girl murmured, bowing her head, walking away. Majima sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"I should probably tell Akemi when she gets here." Majima said out loud, his exhaustion catching up to him. As he watched the young girl make her way through the throngs of people, it made him reminisce of the times in his youth, when teenage Majima confessed his feelings for the first time and got rejected.

Majima smiled wryly from the memory. Shaking his head and checking his watch, it was time to get to work.

[ravenloftbythelamplight]

   Well luckily for you I am now awake and thereby now able to try and explain! I’m gonna try and keep this as structured and coherent as possible, but I am very liable to ramble my way into a word salad so apologies in advance if this becomes unreadable a paragraph or two in. Brace yourself because this is gonna be long.

   So, first things first, in order to explain what the fuck is happening in that meme drawing, I have to explain how my brain eventually made its way to this bizarre conclusion because yes that process of going from thought to thought does have significance here.

Flashback to however many months ago: I had speed-read through VRGR several times over and was mindlessly, non-literally hungry to non-literally consume more Ravenloft lore. I went to TV Tropes because I do that on occasion and the idea of digging through a whole wiki felt intimating at the time. I only skimmed through the bits I was interested in (i.e. the pages on the darklords) but one thing on the main page caught my eye:

   Now for weirdly personal context: in ninth grade at my high school we did a whole section in English class all about Edgar Allen Poe and one of the things we had to read was The Masque of the Red Death. As an end-of-section project one of our options was to make a short graphic novel (of sorts) out of one of ol’ Poe’s writings, and I picked masque of the Red Death because it was the one I liked the most. I made a design for the Red Death based on the description given for the uninvited guest and said design was something I really liked, and even after that section of class was thoroughly done with, I kept drawing it anyway because I just really dug that design I made. Slight aside but actually, funnily enough, I at one point about two years ago had an idea for a story that where I smooshed all the gothic horror lit. stories into one universe (fun fact: the franken-lad NPC in the middle from this post of sketches is a carry-over from this story idea! That’s it’s own whole text post though so I’ll leave it at that), and because I wanted to use that Red Death design for something, I put it into that story as an overarching, looming presence... which is an exceptionally funny thing in hindsight, now knowing that the Gothic Earth spin-off is a thing.

So, with that personal context you can imagine the degree of eyes emoji but slightly blurry to indicate rapid movement I was to see something in reference to the Red Death (and a mashing-together of gothic lit.) so of course I wanted to know more. I wanted to know more, but then I got hung up on that last bit: “..., and Word of God has described the Red Death as an ‘exiled’ Dark Power from the Demiplane of Dread.” “exiled”- that word choice, that one word, fucked me up and I have friends who can attest to that because there is evidence of my wild text-yelling about this on Discord, most of which boiled down to two questions: 1.) Is dissension amongst the ranks of unknowable, cosmic nightmare forces even a thing that can happen? and 2.) If so, then why and how was the Red Death exiled in the first place? What did it do? Those questions can be considered more thuroughly another day though.

   Here’s where our detour ends and we finally make our way back onto the main route of this whole post: Saidra. In the section on Saidra in VRGR it is stated several times that she will, when not hosting lavish and decadent balls, shed her elaborate garb and haunt the streets of Dementlieu as a murderous spirit known as the Red Death.

You can probably see the direction in which this is going.

Saidra’s story in official 5e is a fairly simple tossing-into-a-blender of Cinderella and The Masque of the Red Death and nothing much else beyond Dementlieu itself ... but what if there was more. As my mind is wont to do, I connected dots that had no need to be connected in the slightest and went “OKAY BUT HEAR ME OUT-” and decided that it’d be kinda cool if there was a connection between Saidra and the Red Death of the Gothic Earth spin-off. Now we’re finally at the explanation of the meme image.

   For my partial “my city now”-ing of lore and thereby my campaign, I’ve decided on the following points:

I’ve changed Saidra’s backstory somewhat; in the broad strokes it’s the same as the official one, but of the changes I made the most notable for this post is that her powers and her “darklord” (and that’s in quotes for a reason) status stem from and are due to the influence and interference of the exiled Red Death. It is, functionally, her warlock patron. The plague that swept the ball she was at was not a random occurrence and it wasn’t the Dark Powers either, it came as a result of the willing Faustian pact she made as did her death and return as a wraith-like being.

Throughout this whole thing I have yet to even mention the grandfather clock in the back. That is the vessel through which the Red Death was able to reach into the domains and make a pact with Saidra in the first place, hence the intended ominousness in the drawing. There’s an unrelated reason as to how it was even able to do so without being kicked back out into the infinite multiverse which can be summed up simply with, “Once again Azalin has fucked up everything for everyone and also himself” (a whole post in it of itself). The clock is currently hidden within Saidra’s estate and yes organic tissue has amassed around it.

Speaking of which, you may be wondering what the fuck is up with all the flesh ‘n bones ‘n stuff. That is because for some reason I wanted to give the Red Death a visual association with flesh and organic bodily material. Why? I really don’t know, I just thought it’d be a neat contrast to the immaterial, shadow visual associations of the Dark Powers. So Saidra, as a result, has the power to twist and mold flesh and bone to her will, hence the gross muscle-claw-hand; the two lines coming down along her arm is the skin unraveling like a ribbon (EUGH--). Also, now instead of just casting a regular ol’ disintegrate... you get melted. Like, “Good day to you sir you are now a puddle of viscera on the shiny tile floor” melted. Also there’s minions made of flesh and bone and teeth and eyes. It’s all very body horror. She might make a flesh-throne for herself later but we’ll get to that whenever.

If you’re wondering how she even has flesh to rend like in the picture if she’s still a spirit like in the official stuff... yes.

None of the darklords are aware of this all even being a thing, even Azalin (this has plot reasons). The Dark Powers haven’t done anything about this either (there are also reasons for this).

   And that’s the basic bulk of what I have at the moment. So yeah that meme post is A Lot and I didn’t even get to how all of this ties into my campaign’s overarching plot! I also left a lot of points undiscussed because they could be posts in it of themselves! I have likely thought on these things far more than I should even as a GM--

   In summary: ominous clock does not bode well and Dementlieu has gotten a lot more body horror-y. Both vampire and lich don’t know what the fuck is going on and neither of them are on board with this, meanwhile ghost lady is having a great time. That’s it that’s the meme.