#normal induced birth experience

[eamour]

method · alter ego

many people which are now known as famous and popular celebrities have created their alter egos long ago. jennifer lopez' alter ego called lola, eminem's alter ego slim shady or mariah carey's alter ego mimi — they all serve one purpose: to extend one's self-image. in other words, becoming someone, which is exactly what we do when we manifest!

definition

an alter ego — latin for "other i" — can be referred to as a secondary self, a hidden or even opposite side of one's self. it’s an alternative personality which is believed to be different from a person's actual or original personality. some even say it’s a better or enhanced version of oneself, possessing all characteristics which your first self desires or aspires to have. your alter ego is defined by everything you wish and intend it to be defined by. in manifestation terms, an alter ago is simply a different concept of self or state of mind which you can embody or identify with at all times.

suggestion

creating an alter ego for yourself can be quite beneficial if you find it exhausting to embody your desired version of self all the time or experience difficulties representing or relating to a fixed state of self continuously or repeatedly. inventing and alter ego helps to be able to identify with a made up side of yourself without feeling the pressure or the need to show up as them every minute of the day, especially if they are inherently or drastically divergent than how you are normally.

on the other hand, it serves as a means to express yourself in a way that’s in contrast to how you usually are, reducing anxiety and inducing confidence instead. it guides you into thinking and expecting more of yourself naturally and get over your mental limitations and restrictions. your alter ego is an extension from who you are to who you could be. what you can’t do, your alter ego can!

invention

let's create your alter ego together!

biography. give them a name. it does not have to be your exact first and last name. your alter ego's name could be your actual first name and a different last time, a nickname or variety of your first name or an entirely new name. you can continue by choosing their age, their sex, their birthday, their zodiac sign or even birth chart, deciding on their nationality, their political, sexual, spiritual or religious orientation,…

personality. define their personality. who are they? what do they know? what are they interested in? what do they like? what do they dislike? how do they talk? how do they walk? how do they look like? how do they dress? how do they behave? how do they treat others? what do they know? how do they think of themselves? how do they act? what do they think? what do they own? how does their home look like? what’s their social life like? do they have a routine? do they have a signature smell? do they own a motto they live by? or do they have a catch phrase they always use? who is in love with them? do they have a partner? do they have several lovers? who do they know? what is their family relationship like? do they have a best friend? are they in a friendgroup?…

expression

now, we need to get to action. our next step is all about embodying and expressing. having an alter ego is one thing but showing up as them is another.

whenever you intend to become your alter ego and let them "take over yourself", your job is to get into the mindset of that specific alter ego. you need to let them live through you. let them be who they are while using your body as a "vessel". think about it, what would they do? how would they act? if you were to make a decision, how would they choose? what would they say? make it your aim to BE them.

with love, ella.

[pumpkinbirth]

Potion Game

Base- alien

Add-ons- rapid pregnancy, orgasmic birth

Despite how straightforward this "experiment" seemed, it didn't do much to curb your nerves.

While you and the rest of the world were still reeling over the confirmation that humans most certainly were not alone in the universe, the government higher ups (who had apparently been privy to this fact for years) were already well into various negotiations and experiments with the extraterrestrials, such as the one you currently found yourself volunteered for.

You see, the other life that was out there was dwindling, much faster than they would like. So once it was revealed that our genetic makeup had even the possibility of compatibility, talks of crossbreeding soon followed.

Everyone stood to benefit, it seemed; they'd postpone their extinction, and humanity would have the chance to access even greater evolution. As for you, well...you'd just have to find out.

---

This brought you to now, sitting in a small observation room. To your relief it wasn't the metallic, brightly lit room you were dreading, but rather was lit by a dim, warm light. The aliens, which were surprisingly similar to the greys of pop culture, had made it clear that harsh lighting would disturb and potentially damage their offspring's eyes.

Your eyes flicked to the two way mirror on the wall facing you, where scientists of both species had already been monitoring you for a couple hours now, starting right when you'd been successfully inseminated. Mentally you ran through how the experiment would go, provided it went smoothly; you were to remain in the observation room for the entirety of your pregnancy, which if the aliens were to be believed would be blissfully short, three days to a week at most. You were also to give birth by yourself, they would only intervene if it seemed like things were going south. The reason for this was apparently so the experiment wouldn't be sullied by invasive methods from either side; simply put, the baby would dictate how it would be born. The last thing, something the translator had relayed with an interesting expression, was that this experience would be "far more pleasant than you would expect".

---

Ten hours in, the scientists in the next room watched as you repositioned yourself on the bed provided. The thin fabric of your hospital gown, which had been baggy on you that morning, was now stretched tightly over your newly swollen belly. Every now and then someone would come in to measure and photograph you, which you still found yourself being self conscious of every time.

To the untrained eye it looked like you were experiencing a normal pregnancy, except for a couple odd details. Your belly was flushed with a faint purple hue, which they had hypothesized was the fetus' blood mixing with yours in the placenta. The other detail was that you were sweating, but not with exertion or discomfort, far from it. That cryptic little hint from the translator turned out to be alluding to a natural chemical released by their hormones, which apparently induced an aphrodisiac effect in humans.

The scientists encouraged you to respond to any impulses or urges you felt, provided that it wouldn't harm you or the baby. While you were still very aware of being watched, the sensations became gradually impossible to ignore.

Three more hours went by and you'd shed the gown, sitting upright in the bed with your back supported by pillows. With one hand you cradled your belly, now visually comparable to a full term pregnancy, while your other was nestled between your spread legs, slick sounds hanging in the air as you sunk two fingers into yourself. Your thumb pressed and circled your swollen clit as you worked to bring yourself to yet another orgasm, having lost count of which one this was.

This one felt like it was going to be different, although you were too lost in the pleasure to voice this to them. Instead your fingers worked faster, your hips lifting as much as they could, and with a cry you finally felt the pressure come to a head as you came hard. An unfamiliar sensation washed over you, and your cheeks flushed as you felt a torrent of fluid gush out of you.

Panting softly you reached down to inspect it, finding your fingers coated with a slightly viscous violet liquid, what you assumed was your 'water'. It had definitely caught your off guard, considering you hadn't been experiencing conventional contractions. Gradually you realized that it was the intensifying pleasure that was leading up to your advancing labor, not pain.

Your heart raced as both you and the scientists realized that this was progressing much faster than they'd estimated; if things continued at this rate then you'd have experienced a full pregnancy and birth in under 24 hours. Before you could think about it any more you felt the odd pressure of your belly shifting, dropping as your alien baby began its descent.

Leaning back against your pillows you spread your legs wider, giving a clear view of the flushed lips of your cunt as you moaned through another pleasureful contraction. All shyness was fully out the window now, and you could think of nothing but just how wonderful it felt to give birth, the hormones doing their job perfectly. It wasn't long before you felt the urge to push, and you gave in without hesitation, the resulting orgasm making you squirt even more of the syrupy amniotic fluid.

In the adjacent room both groups of scientists were dutifully noting everything, some of them doing their best to ignore how much the sight and sound of your birthing was arousing them. This became more difficult as they watched you beginning to crown, the swollen lips of your cunt gradually stretching to accommodate a much larger head than it would with a human baby. Surely the aphrodisiac hormones was the aliens evolving an incentive for reproducing; one is more likely to want to give birth if it feels good, after all.

Back in the observation room you were panting heavily, voice hoarse from cumming so many times over the course of the day. You obeyed your body's urges and bore down hard, fluid leaking steadily out of you as you successfully pushed out the head. The overstimulation had you mewling desperately, and as good as this felt you were ready for it to come to an end. The hardest part was done, though, and a few more good pushes had the rest of the experiment slipping free from you.

A pair of scientists in protective gear swiftly entered, retrieving the baby before you could even ask about it. A twinge of sadness tugged at your heart, but you soon let it go. After all, now that the experiment was more or less successful, you suspected you'd have the chance to do this many more times.

[flnpushy]

Helios 10. Experimental Birth Part 1

It had been 3 weeks since the last check up. Kara was now heavily pregnant with a 27 pound baby. Kara was fast asleep when a knock at her apartment pod door woke her suddenly. She struggled to get her huge belly out of bed and waddled to the door. It was Dr. Karens.

“A group 1 mother has gone into labor. Report to experimental lab in 15 minutes.” Dr. Karens said.

Kara got on a scooter and headed to the lab. The other group 1 mothers including angel had already arrived. 

“Ok girls groups of 5 are selected on on screen, you will be escorted to your garden birth area and induced to keep the experiment controlled. Kara and Angel were lucky, they were in the same birth group. They were escorted to EXP Garden 1. A new facility designed for the experiment. The girls entered a lush and beautiful surrounding. The floors where a white membrane designed to be comfortable and self cleaning. The garden had a small pool, a community birth stool area, squat bars, beds, and so much more. It was the ideal place to birth. The garden was also filled with hidden cameras so that the scientists could always keep an eye on the progress or issues the mothers may be having. The girls entered. A scientist was there at the entrance giving the girls a pill as they entered. The pill was to activate labor and get things started for birthing. The scene was set. Its was time to birth some babies. 

The girls were instructed to sit upon the birth stools and were briefed for the mission. The stools were in a circle so the 5 girls could birth together and offer each other encouragement. In the sub group was Kara, Angel, Molly, Luna, and Kate. A screen mounted on the garden entrance wall also displayed the information from the other sub groups of group 1 so that everyone knew where everyone else was at. All 20 names were on the screen and next to all of them currently read “Induced.”

Kara and Angel acquainted themselves with the other girls. Molly was a petite brunette about 5 foot 2. She had freckles and blue eyes, she supported a big belly that was much to large for her frame. Luna was a blonde hair medium framed girl, about 5 foot 7. Her large belly fit her frame a bit better then Molly. Finally there was Kate. She was a small 5 foot 1 brunette girl, her small frame made her like Molly, her belly was much to big for her! Both Angel and Kate were to be birthing breech babies, where as the others were to have normal headfirst births. The average size for the babies in this group was 27 pounds. 

Dr. Karens entered the room. 

“Since this is group one I will visit you girls first and get things set up.” She said.

“You will all be equip with probes to help us monitor your progress and health of the babies during this birthing process, lets fit these probes now.” 

Dr. Karens grabbed a probe from a sealed container and moved toward Molly first. 

“Ok Molly open those legs. Molly leaned back on the birth stool and opened her legs revealing her small pussy. Karens pulled her open a bit more and with a gloved hand inserted the tiny probe. 

“Ok the probe will fall out on its own after the placenta is delivered, It will relay information to us as well as live video feed of whats happening inside you.” 

Karens fit the rest of the girls with their probes. Each girl was given a screen to hold onto. this screen provided a live video feedback from the probes that were inside of them. A self-locating wire from the probe made its way from the probe itself through the mucus plug and into the womb. The girls could now all see their babies inside of them, as so could the scientist to help monitor the progress. As the mothers pushed and progressed the babies, the wire would move allowing them to see as they pushed. 

The girls had immediate entertainment from their live feedback screens. 

“Oh look at that little man inside me!” Molly said. 

“Ohhh He’s so cute! Luna said, looking at Molly’s screen. 

Kara and Angel were also seeing what was within their wombs. Kara could see her babies head and face on her screen, as Angel was birthing breech she could see her babies legs and feet. 

Angel looked at Kara’s screen. 

“Oh hes so cute! But his head is so big!” She said.

“Right, that head has to come out of me! Wheeeew!!” Kara said. 

About an hour passed, finally Molly was the first to experience a contraction. 

“Oh, here goes, I’m contracting!” Molly said. 

On the screen above the girls that showed all 20 names, Molly’s status changed to “Active labor.” It wasn’t long after and all the girls in the sub group were experiencing contractions. The birth marathon had begun. 

In a small dark room above the gardens another group was forming. All of the gardens were in a circle around a central tower shaft. This was invisible from the girls prospective in the gardens but the scientists within this tower had perfect viewing of all the gardens. As the girls went into labor, the scientists gathered to begin taking notes and monitoring the “Challenge” Experiment. 

“ Ok so have we discussed options for the mothers carrying breech?” A scientist asked. 

“Yes.” Replied Dr. Karens. “They will proceed as usual.”  

“Ok what about the possibility of a stuck baby?” Another scientist brought up.

“We will let the mothers push until they can push no more, then we will intervene, this must be a realistic trial as per Council orders.” Dr. Karens applied. “We need to stay hands off!” 

Back in the sub group, contractions were coming and going rapidly. The girls were enjoying watching contractions on their personal live screens. They could see inside themselves and see the contractions squeezing the babies, slowly working them downwards. Little to the girls knowledge the labor of this “Challenge” Experiment was designed to be short. The pills they took would make them dilate much faster then natural so that the pushing stages could begin sooner. The probes that were inside the girls could also measure dilation. And after the first 2 hours, many of the girls in group 1 were showing 6-7 cm dilation on the information screen. A couple more hours passed and the group 1 girls were now reading 10cm. The painful transition phase was about to begin. Transitioning from labor to active pushing. In the sub group that 

Kara was in, the girls all started to loose their mucus plugs around the same time. Their probe cameras now showed the dilating cervix instead of inside the wombs. They could now watch the babies being forced through the 10 cm dilation. 

Up in the tower the scientists were scrambling to take notes and observe. 

“Ok everyone, critical timing!!!” A scientist said aloud. “Will these babies fit through?

Back on the floor of the garden below, Angel was laying on a small bed relaxing, she was in pain as she was transitioning. She watched her screen intently, watching each contraction to see if her baby was moving. All of a sudden a tiny baby foot poked through the cervix and out of her womb! 

“Hey girls, my baby just poked through my cervix! He’s coming!” Angel said.

A few moments later Kara could see her babies large head begin to push its way through her cervix and into her vagina. It really hurt! But it was exciting to see her baby slowly coming. Soon though would be the pushing. 

Within the hour all the girls in Kara’s sub group were through transition. In the tower the scientists celebrated this first major milestone. 

“Ok they fit through the cervix, but now can theses babies be pushed out?!?” Dr. Karens said to the team. 

Down in the garden things are changing.

“I feel like I could push.” Kate said. 

Kate was having a breech baby and could see the babies two little feet an her probe camera sticking through her cervix and into her vagina. She could feel the baby wiggle as she began to push on the birth stool. On her camera she could see babies little feet twitching and moving around. 

Up in the tower all attention was now on Kara’s sub group, but most specifically on Kate. 

“We have a push!” A scientist said aloud.  “Kate is pushing her baby!” In the tower a large screen was now devoted to Kate’s probe. The scientists watched the baby inside of her as she began pushing. When Kate pushed they could see the babies little feet move a few millimeters into the vagina, but then retract slowly back in her womb through the cervix. This went on for a few more pushes. The more she pushed, the more worried the scientists became. Can she progress the baby from her womb? Will it even fit? Another few pushes went by, luckily there was forward movement of the babies foot from the cervix and into the vagina, but only a little. Progressing these large babies was going to be a difficult task. 

  As for Kara she was just starting to feel like pushing. Kara loved that she could see what was happening inside her. Her babies head was now engaged and she patiently waited to begin the pushing progress. Total elapsed time since induction for the group was now about 4 hours. The inductions pills rapidly increased labor and dilation time, but would obviously not help with the pushing. For that simply time, effort, and stretching had to take place. Kara reached down with her hand at felt inside of her vagina. She felt back as far as she could, but she could not feel her babies head. The baby was simply too far inside yet. She looked over to see Angel, Angel was clearly in a bit of pain and was progressing her baby quickly. Angel was also birthing a breech baby, but she was progressing faster then Kate. Meanwhile, Kara, Luna, And Molly had normal births and were progressing slowly as they needed to get the big babies heads through first. At this point, no girl had yet seen any outward signs of their babies. Now time was progressing, but the births weren’t. The girls continued working and pushing for about 12 hours, not a single girl in any of group 1 had seen bulging, water break, or outward signs yet. 

Up in the tower scientists started to deliberate on their next move. Dr. Karen's was starting to bring up the idea of manually Breaking the girls water to help speed up the pushing process. This was eventually decided against as the babies were so big and would take so long to birth, that breaking the water could risk them. As long as they were within the water sac they would be safe. Now twenty four hours had passed. Still no real outgoing progress from any of group 1. Kara looked intently at her screen to see her babies head. After 24 hours now she had not seen any movement of the baby whatsoever. She could feel her baby kicking so she knew it was ok. But it was stuck well within her. 

“Come on little man.” She whispered. 

Just as she whispered Angel made a noise.

“aahhhh, owwwww ahhhhh!” She moaned. 

Angel was sitting on a birth stool and making small pushes. The other girls made their way over to the birth stools to see if Angel was making progress. Angels screen camera now moved further into her vagina, she was making progress. A little foot could be seen on camera. The other girls gathered around closely to watch her screen. Angel reached a hand down and inserted a  finger into her opening. She pushed in a bit and made contact with the babies foot!

“Oh there he is, I can feel his foot!” Angel announced. “It feels so big for a baby foot.” 

Just then Kate announced that he breech baby was moving as well. Up in the tower Dr. Karens that the scientists were in debate.

“It seems the breech babies are advancing faster.” One scientist said.

“This was unexpected.” Said Dr. Karens 

All the attention was now on Kate and Angel with their breech babies. The other girls with head first babies had made no progress whatsoever. Inside Kate a new development was happening. The babies feet were now being drawn back in her womb. The other girls watched on Kates live feed screen. The baby transitioned inside her womb to a Frank breech position (rump first). Kate pushed and now revealed the babies butt coming out of her womb, through the cervix and into her vagina. She was now committed to a Frank Breech. Meanwhile Angel was working through some pushes, About 30 minutes elapsed. Finally the first signs of birth were happening, Angel made a big push while pulling her legs back. The others watched in anticipation. A little baby toe appeared in her opening, when the pushed ended it went back inside. Her next push made the babies foot come out. Dr. Karens came down from the tower with one other scientist to get a closer look on the action. 

“We should probe it and get vitals.” Dr. Karens said.

Dr. Karens grabbed a probe from her lab coat. She touched the babies foot coming out of Angels opening. The instant she made contact with the foot, the baby squirmed and the foot withdrew back into Angels vagina.

“Oh my we have a shy one here!” Dr. Karens said. 

“Little guys not ready to come out of me yet.” Angel said. 

Dr. Karens and the scientist went back to the tower and left Angel to push some more. 

As Angel continued to push the footling breech baby, Kate was starting to make progress with the frank breech baby. Meanwhile the other girls with normal head first babies were making zero forward progress. 

Angel resumed pushing once more. the babies foot made another appearance, The next push revealed a leg. Angel got into a squat position as the leg was now dangling out from her. She pushed a few more times and managed the other leg. Angel now had two legs hanging from her vagina. The other girls marveled at just how large the baby was. Angel pushed a few more minutes and managed to get the baby out to its waist. The baby was huge! the babies waist was wide and filled angels opening beyond what was thought possible. Angel struggled a bit at the waist, but eventually the babies chest began to slide out. Now only the arms and chest remained inside Angels vagina. However the baby itself became very active. The baby began moving its legs and doing small tummy crunches as if trying to extricate itself.  Angel dealt with the pain as best she could. The heavy moving baby was a huge strain on her perineum. The next few pushes made the baby move, but little progress. Finally one should popped free. Then the other. Now just the head remained. Angel was on a birth stool so all of the babies weight was now being held on the babies head that was still inside Angel. She needed to move immediately for the bases safety. Two scientist came down from the tower to aid in the move. One grabbed the baby and held it while the other helped angel up. They laid angel on her back and rested the still stuck baby on the birthing pad. Now the weight was off the baby and Angel could focus on getting the head out. As Angel continued to try and free the stuck head form her vagina, the baby continued to be active and move. It wanted out, but angel couldn’t quite push the head free yet. 

Meanwhile Kate was starting her one battle with her frank breech baby. She was in a squatting position as the other girls watched her each and every push, waiting to see the babies rump come out. It had been about 2 hours now since the baby had switched positions inside of her. Each push showed the baby moving on her live feed screen. It would soon begin coming out. 

For Angel each moment began feeling like eternity. she could feel her almost born abby struggle to try and free itself from her vagina. Only the head remained inside her vagina. She pushed, wiggled, and tried for over an hour, but the large head wasn’t coming. Finally two scientists came down from the tower. 

“We fear that the baby could be under extreme stress with its head bing stuck.” One scientist said. 

“We need to get that head out.” The other said. 

One scientist grabbed a bottle from her lab coat. It was lubricant. She put a bunch in her hand and began rubbing it around Angels opening, she pushed the lubricant up and around the babies head inside Angels vagina, making an effort to lubricate the opening as best as possible to help the baby slip out. Angel tried a few pushes but with no luck. The girls gathered around angel for support. Even Kate who was trying to push out her breech baby waddled over to watch. The scientists attempted more lube, but no results. 

Dr. Karens arrived from the tower.

“We need to extricate this baby soon, It is under stress.” She said. 

Two scientists grabbed the baby and began giving it a slight pull as Angel pushed. The head of the baby made angel bulge farther than anyone thought possible. The head was so stuck! 

“PULL!” Dr. Karens said.

The scientists pulled hard as Angel pushed with everything she had. Finally in one huge gush of fluids the head came free. Everyone stared in awe at the size of the baby. Angel and the baby were immediately taken for farther testing and examination. 

Next it was Kates turn. She was making some progress. Each push now revealed the babies rump in her opening. She was getting to the point where each push was revealing the entire rump of the baby, But it continued to slide back in after every attempt. Just then an alarm went off on Kates live feed. The babies vitals were slipping. 5 scientists rushed from the tower and down to Kate. Dr Karens followed as well.

“Ok times limited, we need to get the baby out!” Karens stated 

“The baby may be too big to fit out this way.” One scientists stated. “We must correct the position to a footling.” 

Two scientists gloved up and inserted hands into Kates vagina. One pushed the babies rump back up inside while the other was trying to locate the leg and pull one down. The scientists struggled as Kate struggled in agony. Finally after 5 minutes the scientists managed to free a leg. Now the baby was footling breech. Kate was instructed to push hard. The scientists pulled on the babies leg until the other came free. Now they pulled hard to get the baby out. The rump and the waist came free, the chest was next. Kate pushed hard as the scientists pulled. The shoulders came free next. Then the battle for the head began. Two scientists lubricated Kates opening and joined in the extrication efforts. Kate pushed as hard as possible as the scientists pulled. This battle went on for ten minutes till finally the head came free. Kate was carted off for further testing and examination. 

Now remained the girls with the normal head first babies. None had made any progress. Kara, Molly and Luna, now just patiently awaited their turns to push…. To Be Continued. 

[dailyanarchistposts]

J.6.3 If children have nothing to fear, how can they be good?

Obedience that is based on fear of punishment, this-worldly or other-worldly, is not really goodness, it is merely cowardice. True morality (i.e. respect for others and one-self) comes from inner conviction based on experience, it cannot be imposed from without by fear. Nor can it be inspired by hope of reward, such as praise or the promise of heaven, which is simply bribery. If children are given as much freedom as possible from the day of birth, if parents respect them as individuals and give a positive example as well as not being forced to conform to parental expectations, they will spontaneously learn the basic principles of social behaviour, such as cleanliness, courtesy, and so forth. But they must be allowed to develop them at their own speed, at the natural stage of their growth, not when parents think they should develop them. What is “natural” timing must be discovered by observation, not by defining it a priori based on one’s own expectations.

Can a child really be taught to keep themselves clean without being punished for getting dirty? According to many psychologists, it is not only possible but vitally important for the child’s mental health to do so, since punishment will give the child a fixed and repressed interest in their bodily functions. As Reich and Lowen have shown various forms of compulsive and obsessive neuroses can be traced back to the punishments used in toilet training. As Neill observed: “When the mother says naughty or dirty or even tut tut, the element of right and wrong arises. The question becomes a moral one — when it should remain a physical one.” He suggested that the wrong way to deal with a child who likes to play with faeces is to tell him he is being dirty. The right way “is to allow him to live out his interest in excrement by providing him with mud or clay. In this way, he will sublimate his interest without repression. He will live through his interest; and in doing so, kill it.” [Summerhill, p. 174]

Similarly, sceptics will probably question how children can be induced to eat a healthy diet without threats of punishment. The answer can be discovered by a simple experiment: set out on the table all kinds of foods, from sweets and ice cream to whole wheat bread, lettuce, sprouts, and so on, and allow the child complete freedom to choose what is desired or to eat nothing at all if he or she is not hungry. Parents will find that the average child will begin choosing a balanced diet after about a week, after the desire for prohibited or restricted foods has been satisfied. This is an example of what can be called “trusting nature.” That the question of how to “train” a child to eat properly should even be an issue says volumes about how little the concept of freedom for children is accepted or even understood, in our society. Unfortunately, the concept of “training” still holds the field in this and most other areas.

The disciplinarian argument that that children must be forced to respect possessions is also defective, because it always requires some sacrifice of a child’s play life (and childhood should be devoted to play, not to “preparing for adulthood,” because playing is what children spontaneously do). The libertarian view is that a child should arrive at a sense of value out of his or her own free choice. This means not scolding or punishing them for breaking or damaging things. As they grow out of the stage of preadolescent indifference to possessions, they learn to respect it naturally.

“But shouldn’t a child at least be punished for stealing?” it will be asked. Once again, the answer lies in the idea of trusting nature. The concept of “mine” and “yours” is adult, and children naturally develop it as they become mature, but not before. This means that normal children will “steal” — though that is not how they regard it. They are simply trying to satisfy their acquisitive impulses; or, if they are with friends, their desire for adventure. In a society so thoroughly steeping in the idea of respect for property as ours, it is no doubt difficult for parents to resist societal pressure to punish children for “stealing.” The reward for such trust, however, will be a child who grows into a healthy adolescent who respects the possessions of others, not out of a cowardly fear of punishment but from his or her own self-nature.

Most parents believe that, besides taking care of their child’s physical needs, the teaching of ethical/moral values is their main responsibility and that without such teaching the child will grow up to be a “little wild animal” who acts on every whim, with no consideration for others. This idea arises mainly from the fact that most people in our society believe, at least passively, that human beings are naturally bad and that unless they are “trained” to be good they will be lazy, mean, violent, or even murderous. This, of course, is essentially the idea of “original sin” and because of its widespread acceptance, nearly all adults believe that it is their job to “improve” children. Yet according to libertarian psychologists there is no original sin. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that there is “original virtue.” Wilhelm Reich found that externally imposed, compulsive morality actually causes immoral behaviour by creating cruel and perverse “secondary drives.” Neill put it this way: “I find that when I smash the moral instruction a bad boy has received, he becomes a good boy.” [, p. 250]

Unconscious acceptance of some form of the idea of original sin is the main recruiting tool of organised religions, as people who believe they are born “sinners” feel a strong sense of guilt and need for redemption. Parents to should eliminate any need for redemption, by telling the child that he is born good, not born bad. This will help keep them from falling under the influence of life-denying religions, which are inimical to the growth of a healthy character structure. Citing ethnological studies, Reich argued the following:

“Among those primitive peoples who lead satisfactory, unimpaired sexual lives, there is no sexual crime, no sexual perversion, no sexual brutality between man and woman; rape is unthinkable because it is unnecessary in their society. Their sexual activity flows in normal, well-ordered channels which would fill any cleric with indignation and fear … They love the human body and take pleasure in their sexuality. They do not understand why young men and women should not enjoy their sexuality. But when their lives are invaded by the ascetic, hypocritical morass and by the Church, which bring them ‘culture’ along with exploitation, alcohol, and syphilis, they begin to suffer the same wretchedness as ourselves. They begin to lead ‘moral’ lives, i.e. to suppress their sexuality, and from then on they decline more and more into a state of sexual distress, which is the result of sexual suppression. At the same time, they become sexually dangerous; murders of spouses, sexual diseases, and crimes of all sorts start to appear.” [Children of the Future, p. 193]

Such crimes in our society would be greatly reduced if libertarian child rearing practices were widely followed. These are obviously important considerations for anarchists, who are frequently asked to explain how crime can be prevented in an anarchist society. The answer is that if people are not suppressed during childhood there will be far less anti-social behaviour, because the secondary-drive structure that leads to it will not be created in the first place. In other words, the solution to the so-called crime problem is not more police, more laws, or a return to the disciplinarianism of “traditional family values,” as conservatives claim, but depends mainly on getting rid of such values.

There are other problems as well with the moralism taught by organised religions. One danger is making the child a hater: “If a child is taught that certain things are sinful, his love of life must be changed to hate. When children are free, they never think of another child as being a sinner.” [Neill, Op. Cit., p. 245] From the idea that certain people are sinners, it is a short step to the idea that certain classes or races of people are more “sinful” than others, leading to prejudice, discrimination, and persecution of minorities as an outlet for repressed anger and sadistic drives — drives that are created in the first place by moralistic training during early childhood. Once again, the relevance for anarchism is obvious.

A further danger of religious instruction is the development of a fear of life: “Religion to a child most always means only fear. God is a mighty man with holes in his eyelids: He can see you wherever you are. To a child, this often means that God can see what is being done under the bedclothes. And to introduce fear into a child’s life is the worst of all crimes. Forever the child says nay to life; forever he is an inferior; forever a coward.” [Neill, Op. Cit., p. 246] People who have been threatened with fear of an afterlife in hell can never be entirely free of neurotic anxiety about security in this life. In turn, such people become easy targets of ruling-class propaganda that plays upon their material and emotional insecurity, e.g. the rationalisation of imperialist wars, the Military-Industrial Complex, increased state powers, and so on as necessary to “preserve jobs”, for security against external threats and so forth.

[whentherewerebicycles]

gonna do some reflective journaling about the rest of my BIRTH EXPERIENCE under the cut

i had a really good birth experience in retrospect. the induction part where we were trying to get my body to actually go into labor was super hard and weirdly demoralizing. obviously no one could give me any clear indication of how long it would take and it was really hard to manage my own expectations and mentally prepare for it to take anywhere from 12-48 hours or longer to get my body into labor. i think all the normal big feelings around birth itself were exacerbated by being so sleep deprived going into it & in so much pain from my hands… like it was just hard to be like i've felt so bad for so long and i am afraid i'm about to be in a lot more pain that will compound the existing pain and also i have no clear timeframe for when either pain will end. also i think i was still a little traumatized by the foley balloon experience lol. like i think that if the promised dilation had happened over 12-24 hours like they expected maybe it would've felt less abrupt and violent, but instead it took less than 2 hours and was SUPER painful at the end, which then terrified me because i was like wow if birth is even worse than this how am i going to handle it. i had a total meltdown around 9pm the first night (sunday night) just being like I'LL HURT FOREVER AND I DON'T EVEN FEEL EXCITED ABOUT THE BABY ANYMORE BECAUSE I'M SO FOCUSED ON THE FACT THAT I'LL HURT FOREVER. but my mom and sister were SO good through the whole process and so loving and i felt a lot better after having a big cathartic cry about it.

the other hard part of the induction was that the pitocin contractions really were kind of a lot to handle. i was intellectually prepared for that after reading about it but physically it is hard to prepare for pain you have not yet experienced! i also have no experience of natural contractions to compare them to but it felt like they just got REALLY intense really fast and were so close together that it felt like there wasn't a lot of time to rest/recover after each one. from about 11pm to 4am when i got the epidural i was just in a lot of pain. my sister was sooo good through this part. she got up around midnight and we just hung out and she did counter-pressure for me on every contraction from maybe 2-4am when they got really intense and close together and also she helped me wash my hair which was for some reason extremely important to me.

the other part that i found hard about the contractions-with-no-pain-management part was that the night nurse was not all that helpful or sympathetic and mostly seemed kind of annoyed that i was asking for the epidural so early (i was a little over 5cm dilated at the time). and that made me feel embarrassed because i felt like a wimp!looking back on it i feel like i could've endured longer but also i was just SO tired from being awake and in escalating pain/discomfort for 24 hours and i was really overwhelmed by the idea of spending like six more hours of doing this on no sleep. but also looking back on it: who cares about what some nurse thinks of me!! i was the one in my body and i was feeling overwhelmed and it was ok of me to not want to be in pain anymore. anyway the epidural was incredible, i loved it, i want to marry my anesthesiologist, etc etc. i still think if i have another baby and am able to have a non-induce birth i would be interested in trying an unmedicated birth or at least seeing if contractions without pitocin allowed me to get further. it was an interesting physical experience and i think if i hadn't been so tired and in so much hand pain i might have found it more intriguing to keep going & to see what else that experience had in store for me. but as it was: i am fine with how it went down! and i was Ready to not be in pain.

anyway: got the epidural around 4am or so on monday and immediately crashed SO hard. like i was falling asleep sitting up at the table after they injected the pain meds. the anesthesiologist said that was normal lol i guess you don't realize how much adrenaline is coursing through your body bc of the pain until the pain is abruptly & totally removed and then your body is like PHEW!!! TIME TO COLLAPSE. i did indeed collapse. i slept three hours, just like the deepest and most uninterrupted slumber i've slept since literally late march, and woke up feeling like a new human. at that point they did a cervix check and i was i think at 6ish cm? so they let me sleep another three blissful hours and then i woke up and they were like whoa you're at 9.5cm it's almost go time. then we had a frantic 45 min or so of getting ready (i was like i NEED to BRUSH my TEETH!!!!!! i cannot BIRTH this BABY without BRUSHING MY TEETH but of course i could not walk so my sister had to bring me all the things aha). and then it was go time!!!!

pushing was hilariously fast ahaha this was by far the easiest part of my labor. everyone was in a great mood and the vibes were good and i felt like i had newly acquired superpowers after sleeping for SIX WHOLE HOURS. i spent so much time getting myself emotionally ready for it to take hours and be really hard, and then i think i pushed for like, five sets of three 10-second pushes, and he was there. it took 27 min total and would've been even faster except that they made me stop and wait for five-ish min while his head was RIGHT there in the birth canal (i saw it in the mirror!!!!!! it was insane!!!!!) because someone had to RUN and grab the OB. then i pushed for one more set and he was out!!!!! it was crazy!!!!! his cord was so short they ended up clamping and cutting it right away so they could put him on my chest. when they first threw him on me it was kind of terrifying because he was SO still and silent, and also a very dark purple/blue color, and i was like oh my god. he's dead. he's dead. i made it this far and he died. it was so scary gahhh i'm crying just thinking about it!! but then they started massaging him and patting his back and he coughed a bunch and started crying. they made him cry a LOT and checked his lungs a bunch the first 15 min or so because they were full of gunk/didn't sound so great, but he cleared it all by crying up a storm and then he was fine!!! and not so purple!!! and he was all mine he was my healthy baby boy!!!! he cried so much because it's scary to be born but we did it!!!!

wahhhh it was so good i want to remember it forever i am bawling again thinking about it. my guy!!!! he was so little and squashed and such a funny color and he opened his eyes and looked at me!!! and now he's just mine he's my baby!!!!! he had big dark eyes and big hands with long long fingers and long narrow feet with long delicate-looking toes and perfect little orecchiette ears and a truly majestic conehead from coming out of the birth canal ahaha. a perfect baby!!!! he weighed 7 lbs 14 oz at birth and was 21 inches long, and everyone kept saying phew if he'd had three more weeks to cook in there he would've been a BIG boy!!! i love him so much he is so perfect. oh also they gave me a 'placenta tour' which was very fun and also kind of horrifying like ouch that ripped off the side of my uterus?? also i had a small tear they had to stitch up but nothing too bad. idk the main event was obviously the BABY and he was perfect and everything was perfect and it was worth it to go through the shitty parts of induction to get him early. my kiddo!!!!! i love him!!!!

[alittlebitofrainbyyourside]

PhayuRain and the 'Cringe' of Loving

Gif credit to @/notbadluv on Twitter.

The choice to have a full length song in the uncut version of this episode, sung without accompaniment, is an unusual one in film. Normally we instead see a scene like this ending partway through or it switching from an unaccompanied version to a studio recording. It's a somewhat shocking moment and maybe even to some people watching an overwhelming or cringe-inducing moment.

But to me, I think their performances, the wonderful singing and the choice to do a montage for some portions of the song, all help make this scene work without endless secondhand embarrassment the way it would in others. And a critical part of why the scene works within the larger story is that it's a little cringe.

This is one of those moments that is a pure distillation of their relationship: Phayu is presented as the ultimate cool guy initially in the show but in reality he isn't very cool while Rain is presented as passionate and emotionally clumsy so in this moment, it should be easy for Rain to hurt Phayu. But that's not what happens.

Rain worries about talking too much and being annoying at the start of the show but in scenes like their movie date, we see how Phayu enjoys listening to Rain's rambles and how well Rain responds to sincere and straightforward expressions of love and care from Phayu like when Phayu whispers that he likes Rain in Ep 5 and Rain spends the next day still thinking about it. This is why Rain is the kind of person who really enjoys having a love song sang to him while at the same time getting very overwhelmed as the song continues and he's not allowed to look away without losing.

This all goes to show that Rain isn't after 'cool senior Phayu' or 'hot and powerful mechanic Phayu', even if he finds those personas fun and hot. Cool guy Phayu is the one that Rain raises his chin at in challenge to while sweet and loving to the point of cringe Phayu is the one who overwhelms and supports Rain and makes him feel so confident in himself and his work.

The singing scene is in Phayu's home, just between the two of them, and it's Phayu letting all his nerdy, loser, cringeness out. Instead of Rain making fun of Phayu's cringe or not getting the message of love that Phayu is using this song to convey, the moment instead overwhelms Rain to the point of needing to cover his eyes.

It's a moment that confirms their match.

Within the cool guy showoff between Phayu and Rain, Phayu had a pattern in which he would tease Rain while Rain offered his many reactions. Over the course of the show, this also gives birth to a dynamic where Phayu flusters Rain with his sincere interest.

Both of these strands come together in this moment: Phayu is being sincerely affectionate and instead of being worried about cringe, he's actually using it to tease Rain and it works, Rain gets flustered, so flustered in fact that he has to run away, while Phayu laughs on. He's laid out his entire cringe self, all the cringe of loving another person and it's gone wonderfully. And that is such an important moment in his character arc because it's really the moment that Phayu's needs and goals for a relationship have been realized.

The fact is that when we love someone, we often do things that are more than a bit cringe but the experience of them is anything but specifically because we love them and they love us.

My original meta thread on Twitter.

-The Wife

[gatheringbones]

[“Having been out of the baby-catching game for some decades, I was caught off guard by a phrase Stanger-Ross used when we spoke: “obstetrical trauma.”

“That has become a term,” she said. “Unfortunately, a lot of women feel that their birthing experience was one of trauma, which, of course, is going to have impacts on the parent-child relationship. If the birth was traumatizing, then how does that translate when now you have a newborn in your arms?”

Right on cue, I was given a textbook illustration of this alarming trend via a conversation I had the day I finished this chapter. I was being interviewed over video conference by a New York journalist reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic, which at the time was engulfing her city.

At one point, Courtney, as I’ll call her, proudly showed off her three-month-old cherub. When she learned what I was working on, she poured out the awful story of her recent experience at Mount Sinai Hospital at the hands of one of New York’s most prominent and well-regarded obstetricians. It is as clear a tale of normalized obstetrical trauma as can be imagined.

Thirty-seven years old and healthy, Courtney was expecting an uneventful delivery. At thirty weeks the physician phoned her to announce, as if by decree, that, given her age, labor would be induced at thirty-nine weeks. This, the doctor said, was “the office protocol here” for anyone older than thirty-five. “She had known my age from the beginning, since I walked into her office last May,” Courtney said. “I was so shocked that I hung up the phone—I barely said a word. I had to have half a glass of wine. I was so upset, I didn’t sleep all that night.”

It went downhill from there. Courtney recalled with pain “the sudden disappearance of flexibility and the imposition of a tyrannical dictate. It was not the kind of care I expected. I’m not used to being bullied by doctors or talked down to. The tone became so toxic . . . and then she also kept saying, ‘The baby is huuuge. He’s going to be huuuge.’ I said to her, ‘Wait, I heard that growth scans are notoriously bad at predicting weight.’ She responded, ‘Not at Sinai. He’s going to be nine pounds at least.’” (The baby’s actual birth weight: less than eight pounds.)

Courtney considered looking for a new physician, but this late in pregnancy and still in awe of the specialist’s credentials, she stayed put. “By week thirty-eight, she was saying, every week, ‘This is really not looking good for vaginal, it’s really not. I don’t know what to tell you.’ I just kept saying, ‘I really don’t want a C-section.’ And this was our dynamic week after week. I was in a terrible state of mind for the last three or four weeks of the pregnancy: sobbing, nervous breakdown . . . At the appointed time, we show up at Mount Sinai, and it’s a horrible scene. We’re in this waiting room for three hours, a million different things going on, and I kept saying to my partner, ‘Why the fuck am I here? We are totally within our rights to go back to Brooklyn and go into labor naturally.’”

Feeling disempowered, having her intuition invalidated at this most vulnerable time of her life, being intimidated by a highly extolled medical specialist, and having been raised in a culture where “expert” authority trumps one’s own, Courtney lacked the wherewithal to assert herself. She finally acceded to the induction and, after fifteen hours of fruitless labor, the inevitable surgery. “I was so weak. I’d been throwing up. Everything about this was like the biggest nightmare. I said, ‘Fuck it—let’s just do the C-section. Like, what choice do I have at this point?’ So we roll into the OR, and I’m throwing up on the table, and I’m a basket case, sobbing. Scared out of my mind, shaking. They start the surgery; it takes forever. She then says to me, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize your abdominal muscles were this strong.’ They were, because I’ve done Pilates for twenty years. I’m thinking, ‘Why didn’t you realize it? You’ve been examining me regularly for nine months and anticipating this surgery for weeks.’ And the following morning she said to me—can you even make this up?—‘I’m going to call the Mount Sinai scanning department and complain about how inaccurate your growth scans were!’ All that week in the hospital I would just lie awake at night, sobbing at how violated I was.”

I asked Courtney whether she had thought of working with a midwife. “I’m not that left-wing,” she said. “I’m not that far-out. I completely bought into the system.”]

gabor maté, from the myth of normal: trauma, illness, and healing in a toxic culture, 2022

[partialbirthabortion]

I have a question about 3rd trimester abortions that I can’t find the answer to on Google!

When I had my baby, I had to be induced at 38 weeks for cholestasis. They tried multiple different induction methods for 36 hours, and my cervix barely ripened and I did not even kind of go into labor. I had misoprostol, cervidil, catheter balloon, and I got up to the max dose of pitocin. Eventually they gave me the option to keep trying or get a c-section. I happily opted for the c-section. My baby was never in distress and we were both 100% safe and healthy the entire time. It was a very non-emergent c-section.

I’m assuming part of why I couldn’t go into labor is that my body was in no way ready for it. The induction (and eventual c-section) was 100% medically indicated and things happened the way they needed to happen. No complaints here.

I guess I’m confused about why that wouldn’t happen during a late stage abortion. Does it happen? Are there people who never are able to go through cervical ripening or dilation? If an abortion is very late (I know someone who had to have one at like 37 weeks), doesn’t labor need to be induced? Can’t it just not happen? Does it ever not? Then what? Thank you!! :)

Hi there! I'm so happy to hear that you and your baby had a safe labor and birth experience, even with the failed induction attempts! I'm answering your question under a cut. To others: all the expected content warnings apply.

I think this is a super interesting and reasonable question to have! To be totally frank, this does not happen because there are just many, many more interventions available when the desired outcome is not a healthy mom and baby.

Late term abortions are typically done over four days, with mechanical dilation occurring over the first 72 hours (so twice as long your induction was attempted, primarily by chemical methods besides the foley catheter). The cervix is opened with increasingly large osmotic dilators (osmotic: they go in smaller, absorb your body fluid and expand over several hours) that are placed and replaced every 24 hours, in addition to being given the misoprostol/cervidil/mifepristone/pitocin etc used to induce normal labor. The cervix can be further opened by passing through metal dilating rods that would injure (maybe fatally!) a healthy fetus. Fetal death itself, which is induced before the first osmotic dilators are placed, also seems to contribute to preparing the body for labor.

In all honesty, the limiting safety factor for most induction interventions is baby, not mom. In addition to being able to use more physically forceful methods of dilation, different medications or doses of medications, etc, fetal delivery in a late term abortion doesn't have to occur intact. In many late term abortions, patients want remains to grieve and bury and this is definitely something that guides care, but the abortions later in pregnancy that I have assisted essentially never result in complete fetal remains. This means you do not need 10 full centimeters of dilation to get all tissue out.

I asked one of the attendings at work a similar question a few years ago and in 25 years of abortion care he personally had never seen an abortion performed via cesarean. There are certainly cases where fetal death has occurred or is likely to occur and a csection is performed (the zavanelli maneuver for example, when the head has passed through the cervix but the shoulders are unable to, so the head is reduced back into the uterus in anticipation of csection, has pretty poor survival rates for baby; if placenta is disengaging, a lot of times it is the only option to get mom out safely) but I think in planned abortion, it is either exceedingly rare or just doesn't happen.

[looks-to-the-moon-cock]

“pseudo pregnancies repeatedly every month for three years”

hey there, I’m really sorry if this is an insensitive ask, but would you mind clarifying? It sounds like my own experience, but I’m not sure if I’m interpreting what you’re saying right. :(

I was forced on hormones that tricked my body into thinking it was pregnant and with that comes severe morning sickness. Still on them, I’m not allowed off unfortunately cuz I’m being monitored and they make me feel really awful.

Again, if you feel uncomfortable, don’t hesitate to delete this

Okay so. I was also monitored up until 15 where they thought I would "balance out". Which never happened. I got more masculine as I grew into being an adult.

I developed body hair on my chest and belly at 15 and hid it via shaving or bleaching it lighter. I also had my breasts forcibly swell up and... Frankly. Lactate when I was 12 till 15. It was a monthly set of pills. 3 weeks on the hormones to induce the "pseudo pregnancy" and 1 week on an iron pill that definitely wasn't just iron from how it tasted to me.

Body Horror in Night Terrors CW

It caused me to have night terrors of my own breast tissue falling out from my nipples. Repeatedly for years. I know I was an awful person as a kid because of what was being done to me. Those dreams still haunt me to this day, as well as the "pseudo pregnancies" as they made me very suicidal and depressed all the time. That gives me full reason to believe medical records I was able to find about my mutilation as a baby. I was acting out awfully and need corrected but I also needed help at that time. =/ (I'm only mad at a parental Associate about this.)

I found out real fast the moment I went on Testosterone at 18 that I felt: Less Epileptic, Less Suicidal, Less Nerve Pain, and Less Muscle Pain. My cycles were even Regular and Normal Flows. No more pain or cramping that Hurt.

So no, you were not misinterpreting what I said, if that reassures you. The birth control, as they called it, forcibly feminized me and made me physically ill as I am missing a testes and need Testosterone bodily at least. It really doesn't help I had brain damage from a brain bleed that healed forcibly around that time either but. Yknow. Yknow how intersex and unwanted children are treated.

I appreciate you at least asking and giving me an opportunity to explain why I personally am VERY against the idea that HRT and Gender Affirming Surgeries has never been used for bigoted reasons. I am even trans and want to transition still. There is just a disturbing lack of care for intersex individuals, trans or cis. I've even had to watch cis intersex women be treat awfully in public and medically. It's not pretty. Those women deserve better. Every intersex person deserves better. Including you, anon.

[bitter-limelight]

I know trans people have a lot of different opinions on things like Omegaverse or monsters/aliens/demons having different biology and shit. Some folks find it transphobic or too sex essentialist and I get that but honestly one of the reasons I love it is that it's a far safer playground to experience a body like mine than trans headcanons.

I very rarely have trans headcanons. In my 34 years I have exactly one canon character I have looked at and decided yup. He's trans to me. I rarely write original stories with trans people. It just doesn't connect with me the way it does with some. I don't like to envision the world around them that doesn't seem them as their true sex but at the same time I don't like removing the struggle organic to my experience of being trans.

So I love Omegaverse worlds or fantasy scenarios where characters are born with or develop a body different than our binary. It gives a safe middle ground where I can walk that line between my body being a dysphoria inducing nightmare and my body being my own, especially when it's a world I can craft myself. There are things that are severely dysphoric for me that I don't touch. There are other things where the dysphoria is more nuanced or situational, where I might not be as sick about it in a world where it was considered a normal and acceptable male variation. And this to me is different from writing or reading a world where being trans is super accepted and people are just automatically ok with your transition because that word still weighs a body like mine as female at birth and some amount of life is still lived as female. That doesn't do it for me, but like. A world where some men are just born able to carry children or have more ambiguous/smaller junk but they're never questions as being anything other than male, that serves me better, even if said parts still give me real world dysphoria or I wouldn't ever want to actually have a kid.

Just the idea that there could be a world where the reality of the body I have to live with could be seen physically and societally as male from the get go without any having to come out is nice. If I could snap my fingers and have a cis male body, I would, and I'm going through the hoops to transition to the extent I can, but there is no magic wand here. I don't want so much of this body, I don't do V in bed, I don't wear much feminine clothing at all, and never outside. But it helps me to deal with reality to craft a society where someone born with a body like mine, or similair to mine with the elements of the fantasy world in question, could get an M on his birth certificate from the get go

[l0lcuntcrush3r]

I should honestly probably write this in my journal or talk more about this with my husband rather than putting it on a social media platform but I feel like I need to put it out there somewhere cause I don’t feel comfortable speaking about it with my therapist yet and tbh I didn’t realize it was as still affecting me until yesterday. But it’s come to my attention that I still blame myself for my son being born early. I was miserable during my pregnancy and I was so ready for him to come out and I remember when they told me I had to stay in the hospital the last time because it was too serious and they thought I was dangerously close to having strokes and then 3 days later told me I was being induced cause they just couldn’t keep my blood pressure down. Yesterday was my son’s 9 month appointment. He isn’t really using his legs. He does army crawling sometimes he will get on his knees but not to crawl and we thought that was okay because it’s normal. He was 3 months early. His doctor wants him to have physical therapy because he’s not using his legs very much like when she lifted him up he doesn’t pull his legs down he lifts them up with him and idk why but that has made me have so much guilt going back to pregnancy and how I wanted him out because of how terrible I felt and I blame myself for not having him full term and maybe it’s so silly of me. I know it’s not that deep but I can’t help it. I just want him to be the best him he can be and tbh I always worry about him and his growth.

I also see how women get to hold their babies for a long time after birth. Not necessarily women who had cesarean births but they still get to have them close enough that they’re touching and mine. He was literally on me for a second and they yanked him away from me and that shit literally traumatized me and when I see people holding their babies I’m so happy and thankful for them but so envious at the same time and idk. It’s so hard to explain. I didn’t get to hold mine for almost a week after birth. And it was the most terrifying thing I’d ever done. Lmao. Anyways. I cry a lot when I think about it. My birth experience and just pregnancy in general was traumatizing and I guess it still affects me to this day even with my baby being healthy and home with me and I think it’s so silly. But I was talking to Andrew a little bit about it yesterday because of his Dr. appointment yesterday and how it went and I just needed to post a little bit of my feelings somewhere. I should write about it I think. I don’t need anyone to comfort me. Or relate to me. I just needed to express it I guess.

I used to think existing was the hardest thing I had ever done but motherhood was the hardest thing I have ever done.

[antisolararc]

the design on the visor of the mask is just a glamour lmao he can see thru it-

worldbuilding dump under the cut, cw for discussion of supernatural disease stuff, nude guy drawing at the end (censored, no Parts) and maybe body horror (??) idk man nothing graphic is drawn but there's a goo creature inside of him

The artificial Oracles of Ranlindyr have two traits of natural oracles that are usually mutually exclusive - increased sensitivity towards magic and the ability to convene with spirits. These traits do not work well together. The increased sensitivity towards magic greatly increases one's susceptibility towards possession. Said possession can cause internal damage from large amounts of magic inside the body "working against" the host, and attempting to remove the spirit may exacerbate the injury. Only reversable with prompt magical healing, magic-induced injuries on artificial Oracles will permanently turn into a dark crystalline substance. Since Oracles present no physical abnormalities at birth, many artificial Oracles are not identified as such until a possession occurs. As the body grows weaker with each possession, they are left more and more vulnerable. Artificial Oracles are prone to developing exaggerated sensory and immune responses to more mundane things as well.

One... treatment, for lack of a better term, is to allow a relatively harmless spirit to inhabit the patient long-term, as only one spirit may possess a host at a time. Some spirits may work to preserve their "home" as part of a symbiotic relationship. However, long-term possession often causes various psychological symptoms. Finding an appropriate spirit for the host can also be rather difficult, as their synergy will vary widely depending on the individual.

Audrist, a young petty mage, was rummaging around a factory near his home when a distortion there brought a spirit called an astropod to the terrestrial realm. As a sprite, the weakest class of spirits, it has no will of their own and generally behave in an algorithmic manner. Astropods are rarely seen by humans, existing on its far fringes and feeding on the faint essence of long-past dreams. Their appearance changes based on what they consume, as does the properties of the ectoplasm they secrete. They are able to hide in extradimensional pockets within their own shadows, using their bioluminescence to later pull themselves back out to feed. Astropods are rarely seen, almost always hiding to avoid becoming prey for more powerful entities. The astropod inside of Audrist lives on a flat shadow plane against his right lung, though it does emit a faint light through his skin when it uses its magic. He was previously unaware of his status as an artificial Oracle, previously only knowing that he was "of weak constitution."

Feeding off his dreams and adapting to respond to its host's weaknesses, the astropod would protect him by absorbing harmful magic and other irritants from his body. The absorbed magic and substances are converted to inert ectoplasm, but it will start to fill his lungs and force him to cough it up. Aside from its more conventional functions, his mask emits a vapor that dissolves the ectoplasm in his respiratory system. Rather than turning to the dark crystal, his own magical injuries scar over with the substance, discolored but otherwise no different from normal scarring. It can only do so much at a time, and overtaxing it will exhaust both him and it.

After studying and experimenting with the light-based properties of the creature, he's developed a system to store items in a small, flat plane contained in a piece of glass and use a laser to bring the item back out. The rings he wears (usually hidden under gloves) emit a faint, constant light, which allows him to summon the item connected to them with a gesture. As is the case for all magical items, the source of this magical light is Mani dust melted into the glass. In order to continuously emit light and function properly, his devices must be recharged through sacrifices - usually that of surrounding light, which will be sucked into them and temporarily plunge the surrounding area into darkness. Audrist has further experimented with the astropod itself. In an emergency, the two cuffs on his thighs will prompt it to alter the properties of its ectoplasm, generally to medicate him in some way, and redirect it to the affected part of his body, but this is incredibly taxing.

[cryopathiic-a]

character study. the origin of misanthropy.

This post contains manga pannels, so beware of MANGA SPOILERS under the cut!

Disclaimer: I've been writting villains for well over 10 years at this point and I'm deeply aware that studying the 'humanizing' aspects of them can often be seen as excusing their actions, so I'm adding a disclaimer here to clarify that I am in no way excusing anything — a villain is a villain, but a villain is also a character and personally, I prefer them three-dimensional. Also, all thoughts expresssed on this post are only my own take on the character.

𝗧𝗪𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗟𝗗 𝗔𝗕𝗨𝗦𝗘/𝗡𝗘𝗚𝗟𝗘𝗖𝗧, 𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗜𝗢𝗨𝗦 𝗔𝗕𝗨𝗦𝗘, 𝗖𝗨𝗟𝗧 𝗔𝗕𝗨𝗦𝗘

Dōma's hateful views on humanity are mainly sourced in three things:

His parents being poor role models.

Pent up frustration from the emotional labor he was forced into as a child.

His isolation from the outside world and the fact he was permanently exposed to people's trouble — thus growing to think humans are whiny and inherently miserable creatures.

The only canonical information we receive about Dōma's background comes from his own lips; hence reflects his own perception of the events that transpired. Dōma however is an unreliable narrator; because all recounts of past events are filtered through his narcissistic personality & apathetic nature.

From the crown on his father's head, which is the same crown Dōma later adorns as the Lord Founder of Eternal Paradise, we are given to understand that this cult already existed & was run by his parents. That would make his family the leading family of the cult. Dōma mentions his father would 'lay hands' on the female followers, as well, from which we can assume he was a man that would exploit his influence as the leader, among other inherently abusive tactics deployed to maintain leadership ( induced dependency, isolation, thought reform etc ) as is often the case with cult leaders. So his role-models were disturbed people who later on proved to be capable of violent acts as well; even if those acts had not been directed towards them at the time, it would still serve to 'normalize' these behaviors in Dōma's perspective.

In his mind, based on his parents' behavior, humans will take advantage of others for personal gain, be greedy & manipulative, grow violent against each other & display poor control over their emotions and show weakness & willingness to believe illogical things when confronted with something they fear deeply, such as the concept of death.

From that narrative we can assume that Dōma's parents may have held genuine belief that their child was special & gifted, or the crown was simply passed down to him as he was the Founder's child. In either case, Dōma was given special treatment from birth; which inevitably warped his view of himself and others around him. The contempt he expresses towards others is sourced in the understanding he grew to develop based on his experiences; it is not necessarily what they had been experiencing as a child, however.

Watch how offensive he grows towards his parents. The amount of contempt in his narration is notable; he thinks of them as weak & pathetic — almost as if there's some pent up grudge against them. That's the first inconsistency in his narration. A child born without any emotion would not be so quick to attach a negative quality to the worshipping. Instead, Dōma's understanding ( 'They were stupid', 'They were pitiful' ) is a product of his repressed confusion & anguish. As an inherently narcissistic character, Dōma could never accept an image of himself as a confused & scared child that was put in an uncomfortable situation. Instead, he protects his Ego by warping the image.

Cognitive dissonance is a major theme of Dōma's childhood. On the one hand, his parents ( the main source of information in the beginning of a child's life ) are telling him that Gods exist & he has been chosen by them, thus ought to offer his council to other adults. On the other, Dōma is not hearing their voices or experiencing any godlike intervention. Cults rely heavily on the censoring of independent thought; critical thinking & distinct personality become 'evil' traits, in a setting where only absolute devotion is rewarded with the leading figure's favor. Dōma was left to deal with his worries & confusion alone; and yet again his conclusion, that the worshippers are pitiful for looking to him for advice, is a hateful one.

How did he come to that conclusion? Was it perhaps after hours upon hours being forced onto that throne, listening to the stories of other people that expected some words of wisdom from him; words that he was not in a place to deliver; and so, when he didn't know what else to do, he cried out of frustration ? Couple that with the fact he would have received special treatment as the Founder's son, possibly being pampered & exempted from consequences, and that frustration easily turns to disdain and disrespect for others. His misanthropic view on humanity is a NARCISSISTIC DEFENCE MECHANISM.

Narcissistic defenses are those processes whereby the idealized aspects of the self are preserved, and its limitations denied. They tend to be rigid and totalistic. They are often driven by feelings of shame and guilt, conscious or unconscious.

Dōma's relationship with the cult has shaped his view on humanity as a whole. But, at the same time, it is because of the cult that he has grown alienated from humans and doesn't understand them. And that has a negative quality attached to it; he thinks of himself as someone 'defective' because of his lack of "normal" emotions ( as concurred by this post ) So for him, the very place that defines him is the place that has caused him to suffer.

[careforcritters]

Vet Med in Warrior Cats: Reproduction and Theriogenology

Disclaimer

Additional disclaimer for this one: I fully understand why a lot of these issues were not addressed in the series since it is written for children, but I still think the topic is interesting and that some concepts, especially those involving kitting, could have been more accurate.

Cats are seasonally polyestrous long day breeders, meaning that the females only cycle reproductively in the spring and experience multiple heat cycles every breeding cycle. Estrous cycles occur when the females are exposed to over 14 hours of light every day, so depending on the climate that they are in, cats are only able to become pregnant in the spring and fall. A queen’s gestation period (the time that they spend pregnant) is 2 months, so queens can have their kits from about late spring to early fall. The location of warriors is never confirmed, but it is presumed to be in England or the UK since that is where the authors are based, and since it snows every winter. With a colder, darker climate, this breeding season is even shorter. Queens in warriors are shown to have their kits at any time of year, even in the dead of winter. It is possible for some females, especially short haired breeds, to be able to cycle year-round, but not common. Narratively it makes sense to spread the litters out, but realistically the clans would have most of their kittens in the summer and fall. 

Cats are also induced ovulators, which means that ovulation is triggered by and occurs about 24-48 hours after mating. Females need to be in estrus to allow mating, but the induced ovulation makes it very likely that pregnancy will result from mating. Females may also mate with multiple males over the span of a few days, meaning that one litter can have multiple fathers. This is not something we would see in warriors since there is an unspoken societal standard of monogamy. 

Pregnant cats require almost double their normal nutrient intake in the second half of gestation, and even more while nursing. Taurine deficiency can cause pregnancy loss, as well as malnutrition in general. It would not be uncommon for a queen to lose her pregnancy if prey is scarce in her clan. There are several infectious causes of pregnancy loss, including feline herpes, FIV, FIP, feline panleukemia, toxoplasma gondii, and other bacterial infections of the reproductive tract. Many of these diseases, especially feline herpesvirus, are extremely common in feral cat populations. Early, undetected embryonic loss from these diseases could be a reason for why female cats in warriors are not pregnant as often as real life feral cats, but that is unlikely. Cats in warriors seem to be able to plan when they become pregnant (except when it's a secret forbidden romance of course), and I have no explanation for why that could be. Unless the medicine cats discovered an herb that can act as contraception (progestagens, dexamethasone (a gluccocorticoid) and dopamine agonists can all be used in companion animals as temporary contraception, but they all have moderate systemic side effects). 

At the start of parturition (birthing), queens become restless, pace, and nest. Once uterine contractions begin, the “water breaks” and a kitten should be delivered every 3 to 5 minutes. This entire process can take anywhere from 4 to 42 hours, with the average being about 16 hours. It’s unclear how much time the birthing process takes in warrior cats, but it usually seems to be much faster than this. In Bluestar’s Prophecy, when Leopardfoot has been kitting for “most of the afternoon” and then into the night, this is implied to be an abnormally long amount of time. 

Dystocia (complications with pregnancy) are pretty rare in cats. The most common cause is primary uterine inertia, which is when the queen is unable to begin uterine contractions. This would be treated with oxytocin in a veterinary clinic to induce contractions. Borage is stated to be used to help with milk let down and may work to stimulate oxytocin since oxytocin is also used to stimulate milk letdown. The other common causes of dystocia are uterine torsion and oversized fetuses, both of which would require a C-section to correct. 

When Sorreltail is kitting in The Forgotten Warrior, she is described to be in pain and having trouble passing the kits. Jayfeather gives her chervil root to help, so it is implied to be either something to give Sorreltail strength or to help with uterine contractions. Several sources said that chervil can be useful for cough, eczema, and even abscesses, but there was no indication that it could be useful during childbirth. 

Leopardfoot is also described to have a long, painful kitting in Bluestar’s Prophecy. Featherwhisker gives her raspberry leaves. Raspberry leaves have been shown to benefit with strengthening uterine tone and facilitating contractions, so this herb would be more useful than chervil root. Two of Leopardfoot’s kits die young because she kitted two weeks too early. This is called “fading” and occurs because the kits were not able to thermoregulate or breathe properly. Premature kits are less likely to be developed properly, and may be lacking in reflexes such as suckling that would have helped them to acquire sufficient nutrients and immune-boosting milk (colostrum). 

In Crookedstar’s Promise, Brightsky delivered 3 stillborn kits followed by one surviving kit, and then died. Brightsky had been sick not long before her kitting and was described to still be weak from her illness. Brightsky likely was sick with a virus that causes late term abortion, like herpes, FIV, or panleukemia. While it is possible for a cat to abort some fetuses and still deliver other fetuses to term, it’s not common, especially this late into the pregnancy. I honestly was not able to find the most concrete information on this, but it is feasible for Leapordkit to have survived. As for Brightsky, she likely died because the three stillborn fetuses mummified inside of her, causing her to develop an infection. If this were true, she would have had dark or purulent vaginal discharge and had abdominal pain even before her kitting.

Silverstream also died from dystocia after delivering her kits in Forest of Secrets. She is described to have powerful spasms that slowly got weaker, which sounds like secondary uterine inertia (when the queen is too exhausted to continue contractions). Since she only had two small kits and fetal malpositioning is rare in cats, there might have been some sort of obstruction to the birth canal. In later books, Silverstream was described to have been “blood soaked”. Possible causes of hemorrhage during birthing could be uterine vessel tearing, uterine rupture, or uterine torsion. Uterine torsion would cause an obstruction to the birth canal and would require emergency surgery. The likelihood of Featherkit and Stormkit surviving would have been very low without the ability to intervene and there are no reported cases of a uterine torsion resolving without surgery. It is most likely that Silverstream experienced uterine rupture due to the stress of contractions.

There are several other common reproductive issues that do not appear in warriors. Mammary hyperplasia is the spontaneous overgrowth of mammary tissue in intact female (and sometimes male) cats. This condition usually spontaneously regresses, but it can be confused with mammary neoplasia. Mastitis is the bacterial infection of mammary glands after parturition. This condition is not only painful and dangerous for the queen, but can cause the kits to fail to thrive. This would be treated with antibiotics, warm compresses, and milk replacer for the kittens in a veterinary clinic. Cystic endometrial hyperplasia is a degenerative condition mediated by a hormone called progesterone. Too much progesterone causes the endometrial glands to proliferate and over-secrete hormones, making the uterus an ideal environment for bacteria and leading to pyometra (bacterial infection of the uterus). Depending on if the cervix is open or closed, the queen will either have purulent vaginal discharge or the pus will build up in the uterus. While a closed cervix is more dangerous, both will cause the cat to feel extremely sick, vomit, run a fever, and experience renal dysfunction. A pyometra can quickly develop into a systemic condition, so emergency ovariohysterectomy is required to save the cat's life.

Sources:

BSVA Manual of Canine and Feline Reproduction and Neonatology. Gary England and A. von Heimendahl, 2nd Ed, 2011

L. Ari Jutkowitz, Reproductive emergencies, Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice, Volume 35, Issue 2, 2005

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2055116917726228

https://www.merckvetmanual.com/reproductive-system/reproductive-diseases-of-the-female-small-animal/dystocia-in-small-animals

https://www.rxlist.com/chervil/supplements.htm

https://healthyfocus.org/health-benefits-of-chervil/

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/top-9-health-benefits-of-raspberry-leaf-tea

[kiribread]

Spirit Realm AU!

I’m finally getting to a lore post with this au!

Also while the AU does differ from the main series it does mirror some of the OG bnha storyline so spoilers ahead!

Overview:

So this AU consist mostly of the spirit realm (obviously) and the living! It mainly follows Edgeshot and Bakugo. Edgeshot died in a lab incident after reviving Bakugo but due to the nature of his revival it opened up a vestige realm between them! 

Living World:

In this world, quirks exist but in a different manner than in the OG series.

People receive quirks in this world by either one, being gifted it in lab experiments or two, either one or both parents passing their quirk DNA onto their offspring.

Quirks, while originally reserved for police and military, have been spreading throughout civilian lives.

The main reason for this was the rise of illegal quirkifications. Many criminals were illegally getting quirks and terrorizing citizens. The quirkified police force (QPF) was not yet fully formed at this time so they let citizens within certain parameters receive quirks to defend themselves.

A few years has passed since then and now quirks are mostly a part of normal life with criminals being better taken care of by the QPF.

The Beginning of Lab Experiments:

The lab experiments were started by two brothers.

Their goal was (what it seemed at least) to make people's lives easier by special powers they called quirks. 

The younger brother stayed true to this goal, he himself was rather weak and fragile due to his health and hoped that with quirks burdens like this could at least be eased for future generations.

The older brother however did not, he saw the potential power this could bring and became consumed by power and greed. 

Because of this the two brothers fought and broke the experiments up. The younger brother kept his experiments going according to his ideologies while the older brother hid in the shadows and did his experiments according to his ideologies.

Today, governments mostly use the younger brother's experiments for their country while criminals use the older brothers.

Lab Experiments Today:

While the younger brother was still alive and was running his version of the experiments he had a specific guideline of morals for the experiments to follow. He did this to avoid corruption and to give every right possible to the experimented.

Of course as time went on after his mysterious death those guidelines grew to only be loosely followed if followed at all.

The Public Safety Commission (PSC) runs both the experiments and the QPF.

Experiments are usually done either before the subject is born (in which case they’ll be considered lab born) or after which the time period to receive said quirk is from the moment they’re born till they’re about 5 or 6.

The reason they’re done so early is that it gives the subject the most likely chance of survival. After 5 or 6 the rate of survival drops year after year. While it still can be done as an adult it would be very risky.

This time period also gives them a chance to adopt and grow into their quirk.

Unless the subject lab born, receiving a quirk is considered like a second birth.

The quirkification process can provide a large toll onto the body so to combat that they put the subject into a medically induced coma for anywhere from a week to a month or 2.

If you’ve been experimented once before (usually when you first receive your quirk) you could be experimented on again since now you have a tolerance. 

This (for the little brother’s version at least) doesn’t mean you’re getting another quirk, but they can run tests and all that good stuff on you.

They can only do this to subjects either in the military or in the QPF. So civilians are mostly safe.

There’s no way to 100% ensure you won’t get experimented on as a military or QPF member since if you want to be either one of those things you have to sign a waiver agreeing to it. If you say no you’ll be denied. 

You can consent to certain experiments however. So you could agree to experiments that may test your quirk’s endurance or how it interacts with different environments.

The experiments don’t usually sound too bad on paper, (done on purpose) they could be a lot worse in action.

The PSC also has been known for out right discarding your options and just doing what they want to you anyways.

Spirit Realm:

(This category isn’t exactly done because I only have notes down for the overview and one of the subclasses so there will be a second post once I get at least the important ones down. Also this post is already pretty long so breaking it up should make it more manageable!)

This includes one section of many realms you can enter when you die.

These realms have more of a relationship similar to countries in the living world than being separated. Think like how the US gets along with the UK and not with Russia. 

If you were to look at all of them on a map I'd look more like a puzzle than a world. 

Each one of these realms can be quite different from each other and could have sub categories.  

They all have one thing in common though, it’s that they are semi similar to the living world and are a common destination for young people (18 and younger), those who had a strong will to live at death, and those who are not ready to fully pass on (The main spirits can also chose if someone is ready to pass on or not). 

Sometimes people choose to go to the spirit realms if they have a friend or loved one there that they want to stay with.

Well that’s enough for now! I’ll link the posts for character info and more spirit realm info here and here for when I finish those!

[sohannabarberaesque]

So Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy have joined Peter Potamus for a diving vacation at the latter's isolated Polynesian atoll ...

For such a precocious and overactive pup like Augie, as much as his equally-caring father (essentially caring for Augie all the more after his birth mother died of complications following a difficult whelping), such an experience as diving in such crystalline waters as Polynesia Uncharted has (and are known to Peter Potamus, Ambassador of Diving unto The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera) couldn't have been more interesting. Especially coming over via The Magic Balloon of Peter Potamus, also expected to serve as the guide and instructor throughout.

It was during the journey over, in fact, that the obvious was made evident: Augie, normally wearing a green T-shirt, was going to more than likely be "wearing himself," as Peter explained the folderol.

"You mean--?" asked Doggie Daddy incredulously.

"His birthday suit."

"You don't mean--?" asked a now-stunned Doggie Daddy, prompting Peter to whisper in his ear, "Naked."

"And you wonder why that is ... even if I happen to be naked myself!"

"Consider the climate," Peter Potamus explained. "The warm and rather tropical nature thereof explains why the natives of such islands across Polynesia that I happen to be acquainted with obviously go naked, otherwise wearing a loincloth and little else."

"So that explains the birthday suit diving!" exclaimed Doggie Daddy.

All in all, for such a devoted father-and-son duet being in such a fascinating milieu, living off coconut milk, coconut meat and reef fish for the most part (as if canned provisions weren't exactly worthwhile to the ever-intrepid hippo), sleeping in hammocks set in the shallows just off the beach (and letting the sound of the waves induce sleep) and having such fascinating times bound to be led as much Peter Potamus as some rather friendly dolphins inhabiting the atoll's waters couldn't have turned out all the more memorable. And I do mean memorable; Peter Potamus "himself" will tell you about his teaching Augie the proper form for riding a dolphin's dorsal fin while diving, and Augie taking quickly to the experience ... the fascination with a certain specimen of brain coral in the lagoon as was bound to send previous guests of the hippo into "those feelings" being made obvious between the legs, with nothing embarrassing to show for it in the bargain (after all, in Nature, you try not to be embarrassed by the sexual in particular) ... the sheer magic inherent in just wearing one's self underwater, as if mask, fins and snorkel wasn't essential enough to a dive experience ... and the sheer experience of Peter Potamus' Underwater Hippo Hug as the highlight of any dive, a way of expressing friendship as much as satisfaction with the diving experience.

Sheerest fascination and delight prevailed as much as the desire to reinforce the father-son bond vis-a-vis Augie and Doggie Daddy, as well as Peter Potamus relating a number of Polynesian legends from his travels to such islands uncharted acquired from his travels into such regions fascinating. But if there was to be a particular highlight of this diving excursion, it would have to be the occasion where Doggie Daddy got caught a little off his guard while swimming with a dolphin who sent him down five fathoms in the Pacific inexplicably, coming across quite the reef in the process as stunned Doggie Daddy so into having quite a show between his legs, which Peter Potamus "himself" admitted initially was unbelievably hilarious. (Besides, what would be a diver's equivalent of "ROFLMAO"?)

"Nothing like some diving," Peter Potamus is quick to explain on the journey back, "to discover how interesting family bonding can get--and you certainly demonstrated as much!"

To which Peter's simian pilot and navigator, So-So, concurred.

*************

@warnerbrosentertainment @joey-gatorman @jellystone-enjoyer @tallcharlie @archive-archives @screamingtoosoftly @thylordshipofbutts @thebigdingle @themineralyoucrave @warnerbros-blog1 @princessgalaxy505 @theweekenddigest @xdiver71 @warnerbrosent-blog