#in which a checkup

[warmfuzzyanimal]

i really need help

i've been putting off making a post like this for awhile now out of shame and embarrassment about asking for help, but... it is. truly undeniable that i could use some now.

to keep up with stacking bills i've been working and taking as many commissions as much as possible. on a regular workday i'll draw for an average of 6 - 8 hours a day, and it is quickly becoming apparent my wrist can not keep up with that kind of strain. on top of that, i've got a defunct car (forcing me + my disabled household to mostly get around via public transit & walking,) cavities that are giving me jaw pain, residual mold poisoning, and taxes that drained what little savings i had managed to amass. AND. the mental strain that comes with.... all of that.

i have been making massive strides in other areas of my life- finding ways to stay positive and hold onto hope- despite my depression and anxiety surrounding the entire situation. a little boost to get me back on my paws would quite literally change my life.

if you can spare anything, spare it here: square paypal venmo @ cowdragons or if want something for your generosity: i have furry bases on kofi

reblogs & shares immensely appreciated.

[the-barefoot-hatter]

pediatricians are hard to find.

you aren't broken and other important things a triangle needs to hear

[szhmidty]

The California insurance thing is adding on to my established belief that insurance is inherently a bad mitigation for any risk that affects large swaths of the population who will very likely need it at some point.

The point of insurance is for the collective to pay an affordable regular fee, and the few who are affected by a given risk are compensated. Ideally, the EV of insurance would be 0, but in practice the EV is negative, but since we are broadly risk averse* we want it anyway.

But that only works if the fee is affordable and the risk is low. Fire insurance in California was a bad idea because everyone was at a major risk, the full cost of premiums would have been immense. California made it worse by making it illegal to charge for the real cost, but even if they hadn't, the premiums would have simply ballooned and many people would have been priced out of insuring their homes, and would still be in this situation.

Similar thing happens with healthcare. Everyone wants their insurance to cover everything, including very common, every day medications for long term medical problems. Needing my ADHD medication isn't a risk, it's not at the tail end of the probability distribution. My insurance shouldn't cover it, because covering it means that the company has to raise everyone's premiums, and raising the premiums prices people (myself included) out of being able to afford insurance for actual tail risks that could ruin their lives.

"But I need my ADHD medication to live a good life, it would ruin me to not get it" yeah, I hear you, same here, but insurance is just a bad system for dealing with that. It just isn't a risk, it doesn't fit well with the "small affordable fee to avoid unlikely disaster" model. If insurance pays for everyone's lifetime medications, then it has to raise premiums by the average of the cost of everyone's lifetime medications, and everyone breaks even, except now insurance is just more expensive and some people are priced out.

I think anytime insurance starts to sail out of the price range of the target demographic, it's a sign that something is deeply wrong and some intervention, likely government intervention, is needed. If people can't afford the fire insurance, it's because the fire risk is way too high and your forest management strategy should be overhauled. If people are struggling to pay their health care insurance, their insurance probably covers way too much because too much of every day health care is also out of reach of people.

Insurance companies aren't the good guys, you have an adversarial relationship with them. They will try to screw you over and lie to you and scam you and all the rest. But you can't get blood from stone, and you can't get a policy of "pay me money if my home built on top of kindling burns down" without paying for it somewhere, and instead of getting mad at the insurance company you should probably start asking why your home is built on kindling.

*Or, well, more complicatedly the full cost of some disasters is much worse than than strict accounting cost. Losing your home is far more destructive than losing the market price of the home's value, because it means spending weeks to months homeless and opening you up to other risks.

[brokenrefraction]

water dispenser roboe

[figofswords]

going to the vet soon to get midna her official silly goose diagnosis

[a-dumb-sarcastic-bisexual]

Nimona headcanons I wrote instead of sleeping

Sometimes the boys forget that Nimona isn’t human 

Like they’re used to the shifting into animals aspect of Nimona because she does it as often as she breathes

But sometimes she’ll do some really creepy shit like make her arms longer to reach something when she’s too lazy to get up

One time they shifted just their neck to be like an owl so they could turn their head 180 degrees instead of just turning around cause that was “too boring” 

Or he’ll mimic people’s voices without realizing it 

Sometimes he’ll tell a story and suddenly he’s using Bal’s voice 

The first time she did this Bal searched the whole house cause he was convinced that Todd has snuck in

Or she’ll grow an extra arm to hold more shit and they take a moment to realize “oh yeah we adopted a little weirdo” 

They get used to it after a while and the arguments surrounding it are always funny because both the boys will complain and say “I don’t sound like that” and they have to be told “No love you do you really do” 

You know those videos of babies reacting to their parents shaving their facial hair or putting on glasses 

That’s Nimona's reaction every single time the boys change their appearance even the smallest bit they cant shave or wear their reading glasses because if they do he freaks out 

Talking some “help me Nemesis I heard bosses voice but I can’t find him” while Bal was standing right in front of them 

It was the first time he shaved his face in years and he’s never doing it again 

Mostly cause Ambrosius kept telling him he looked like a teenager and it was freaking him out 

I feel like Bal and Ambrosius are those kinds of people who will tell people about the little injuries but neglect the big ones 

Like Bal mentioned that he thinks he sprained his ankle during the fight at the institute but he won’t mention that he’s pretty sure he got a concussion 

(BECAUSE THIS MAN HEAD-BUTTED TWO PEOPLE WHEN HE HAS A METAL ARM) 

(I’m bout to wrap this man in bubble wrap and give him a helmet because wtf) 

Ambrosius will complain the whole day about the fact that he has a paper cut

But will completely neglect to inform his doctors “Oh yeah I can’t move my left arm higher than my waist without pain and I can’t see that well out of my left eye or hear that well out of my left ear do you think that’ll be a problem?” 

It isn’t until Nimona makes an off handed comment about how this super weird that the laser did basically nothing to him that he told both of them

They literally dragged him to the ER because “Who thinks those symptoms are normal Nemesis what is wrong in that pretty little head of yours!!” 

When Bal tells Nimona she’s being a bit of a hypocrite (cause who refers to an arrow as a splinter?) she turns to him and says “I know you’re not saying something Mr. Human battering ram” 

It took literally everything in Ambrosius not to break down laughing

After that she forces them to have frequent checkups with the doctor because these dorks wouldn’t go otherwise

Honestly I'm fully convinced that some people in the kingdom don't know who Nimona is and are constantly confused why they let this little weirdo follow them around 

And finally the curiosity will eat away at them and they’ll finally ask 

Sometimes the boys will give some “normal” answers like “Oh that’s Nimona” and they won’t elaborate at all

Sometimes they’ll give funnier answers like “Oh that’s a raccoon we found in the garage who turned into a person one day” “I don’t know they just showed up in our living room” and their personal best “You see her too?” 

And their favorite that they only started using a couple of years down the line “Oh that’s our kid”

[puppetmaster13u]

Mermay Special Prompt 2

Jason? Displeased right now. Incredibly upset even. He’s near certain that he’s gotten kidnapped by some sort of fae creatures, and he is not happy about it. Not to mention everything is greenGreenGreen like the Pits. 

And now, either he’s tiny, or these things are huge, and he doesn't have legs. He keeps getting picked up by these massive horned ones that he would say looked seal-like, but like, to the left? Something like the legends of merfolk but Other. Wrong and right, terrifying and comforting and horrible in how he found himself relaxing. 

Hopefully the rest of the bats realize he’s missing and- um, that is a child? That is a child with scales of starlight, fins of the very cosmos, hair like a bursting nebula growing closer- He blinks and the ever-expanding form is back to a teen chatting in horrific warbling-howl-screech-crack-electrical hum noises to one of the big seal-ish creatures. 

Fuck, he’s definitely gotten stolen by some sort of lazarus siren things hasn’t he?

[theriverbeyond]

the fact that pet food perscriptions not only exist but also expire is baffling to me what do you MEAN my online shipment request was denied. do u think i am just feeding my cat very expensive anti stress urinary care food recreationally. to fuel his habit. of peeing in a non-stressed way.

[wantonlywindswept]

Definitely True Facts About Commander Vertex #3

He has negative Force bacteria.

[forgotten Fox AU tag]

"Midichlorians," Patches said, for the third time, his head in his hands. "They're called midichlorians."

"Tiny little buggers that live in your body," Jek scoffed. "I might have barely scraped by my biology modules, but that sounds like bacteria to me."

Patches whimpered.

Jek grinned and reached over to pat his babiest of brothers on the head. Their youngest medic really was too easy to rile up. 

Still, at least Patches was capable of taking a break on occasion, even if it was just to sit at Jek's bedside in the medbay while he recovered from a round of Force cleansing. He always felt a little like the mess hall slop after every session, squishy and mostly-liquid, though the effects had been lessening as the treatments went on. 

Turned out that working in close proximity to an evil Sith overlord for an extended period of time could be 'damaging' and 'harmful to the spirit', and as soon as the Jedi got the okay from Marshal Commander Thorn they'd instituted regular healing sessions for the Guard. Some of them weren't overly affected--the ARF division hadn't been allowed in the Senate Dome that often anyway, and the medics rarely left the infirmary, much less Guard HQ--but the majority of them were on rotating schedules to get their minds checked for Sith residue or whatever.

It was even worse for the Force-sensitives.

No one was more surprised to find Force-sensitive clones than the clones themselves, and a frankly unsettling percentage of the Guard tested for above-average midichlorian counts. That was just those who agreed to submit to the assessment, too--a lot of the Guard refused to do even that. It wasn't like they could be Jedi, and with the war over, what did it even matter?

(Except it did matter, a lot, because apparently evil Sith overlords could also drain the life force from sentients around them, and particularly enjoyed ones with the Force. Palpatine got a little tasty burst of power like they were some kind of energy snack, and it wasn't like the Guard weren't already exhausted anyway.

That kind of siphoning left even worse traces of Sith influence; Jek's cleansing sessions made his bones feel like wobbly gelatin, but Glitch's sessions hurt.)

"I bet Defib's m-count is the highest in the Guard," Jek mused absently as he watched their CMO stalk around the medbay between the beds--and the Jedi--with a scowl on his face. 

Patches lifted his head to give Jek a horrified look.

"Don't say that where he can hear you."

Jek, who lacked both bones and a sense of self-preservation, merely shrugged. Defib had refused testing, scoffing that he didn't need the Force to heal, but he wasn't named after a defibrillator for nothing: he'd brought more than one brother back from the brink of death against impossible odds.

Jek had his suspicions about Patches, too. 

Even with Defib hovering suspiciously over their shoulders, the Jedi healers--there were four of them, led by Master Rig Nema--moved around the medbay with an almost unearthly poise. Jek was more familiar with ordered chaos in the infirmary: medics shouting across the room to each other, rushing back and forth to see how far their meager supplies could stretch. The Jedi were quiet, coordinating with each other soundlessly while still seeming to be aware of everything else happening in the room.

The mesmerizing little dance wasn't even interrupted by the main doors opening, which drew Jek's attention to Commander Vertex stepping into the medbay. The commander had his bucket tucked under one arm, and sharp eyes surveyed the room in a quick glance.

Patches waved at Vertex, because he was adorable. 

Vertex waved back, because he was a sap.

Defib immediately veered off his self-appointed task of looming to intercept Vertex before he got too far into the room. They ducked their heads together in a brief conversation with far too much angry gesticulating on Defib's part, and the calm competency Jek had come to expect on Vertex's. Jek watched, fascinated, as Vertex managed to settle the fuming medic with just a few words and a gentle touch to his shoulder. 

Defib made a bitchy face, but he did seem to lose some of his protective bristling; at Vertex's nudge he sidled over to his desk in the corner of the medbay, dropping into his chair to finally take a break and...to angrily chew on a ration bar?

Incredible.

The Jedi, meanwhile, had continued on with their Force nonsense, which lasted up until Vertex tapped one of the healers on the shoulder and their serenity shattered with a resounding squawk.

The poor Rodian who made the noise spun around, flailing wildly, and would have fallen back onto one of the beds if Vertex hadn't grabbed her to keep her upright. The other three Jedi's heads snapped up in eerie synchronicity, startled expressions on their faces, and Master Nema took a jolting step forward before seeming to register what had happened.

In the frozen stillness that followed, Defib's sullen crunching took on a distinctive note of glee.

"Apologies," Vertex said. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"When did you even..." 

"How can we be of assistance, Commander Vertex?" Master Nema asked, stepping away from her patient to take the place of the still-baffled apprentice healer. Both she and Vertex smoothly ignored the disbelief radiating off the other Jedi, who were looking at Vertex like they didn't know how he had appeared. 

Jek wondered that sometimes, too, but it didn't bother him.

"Hey," he said, nudging Patches with his elbow as the two bigwigs conversed, "What do you bet that Commander Vertex has negative Force bacteria?"

Patches stared at Jek like he'd kicked a baby massiff, and then slowly sunk lower in his chair with a low, despairing whine.

So easy.

[wantbytaemin]

okay just one more little thing. and then sleepy time

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

Love going to the dentist and being told very casually that if I want to keep my chipped tooth and have a crown on it, it'll cost me over a grand, but if I just want it out, it'll cost me over a hundred quid.

It's such a great choice especially after desperately ringing every local NHS dentist yesterday just to find out they can't see me for a month or aren't accepting new patients, and having to resort to private if I want something done about the tooth infection within the week.

Insane that teeth are exempt from "cradle to grave" in this country.

[end-orfino]

I saw some people say that Razzma didn't show up in the finale because she couldn't bear to see King ascend. And I have to agree that in normal circumstances, it could be in character for her. (Though I still think she probably wouldn't miss it. Your best friend only ascends once. But I digress)

But this argument ignores the fact that these aren't normal circumstances. King is missing, everyone thinks she's the one spreading conflict across the grove, and the only people (other than Godpoke, who just appeared) that are doing anything to "help" are the Bizzyboys, and he already noticed they're not doing anything as far back as in Milldread. She mentions that she's worried for King plenty of times, hell, I think he's one of the few characters that are talking about her in the context of being concerned about what happened to her instead of just talking about the letters she's supposedly sending and stuff.

She's also clearly familiar with the Guerrillas, both by knowing Lulu from before and knowing to call her "Colonel" now. Maybe she technically joined them? And is just chilling outside of their bunker instead of inside. Which means she would have definitely had the ability to go to the Spire with them during the finale.

And during the finale, after BuzzHuzz, there's really no other place to look for King other than on the Spire. Keep in mind no one was even really sure that she'd actually be there, it was just the best guess. And no one knew what state she'd be in, if the rumors were true or not, if she was going to actually ascend, all of that was called into question when she disappeared and the letters started showing up.

So Razzma really, really had all the reason in the world to go there. I think even if he would normally struggle with the idea of seeing her friend ascend, he wouldn't hesitate to go anywhere it took to see if King was alright in the first place.

The only real reason I can think of other than these ones for why he didn't appear would be that she trusted Godpoke with this mission after seeing how capable they were in solving conflicts everywhere else? But even then, I don't know if she would see the revolution gathering up to climb the Spire and decide "Y'know what, I'll pass, I'm sure they've got it handled." I think if she saw a real chance to get there he would take it.

I had these thoughts for a few weeks now, but I got reminded of them right now as I was replaying BuzzHuzz and got this dialogue:

I think it speaks for itself.

[lestappenforever]

Something feels inherently wrong about wishing for my period to start asap, despite all the dreadful symptoms that come with it.

Oh, how I love being a woman.

[orangedogsquad]

What it feels like trying to schedule the next few months

[satoruxx]

yk for someone who wants to be a doctor in the future being at a doctor’s office makes me nervous as hell

[elstoy]

thinking abt the doctor!abby request i have in my inbox that sounds so hot but could also get me cancelled <3