#test cases with examples

[br1ghtestlight]

this scene but in s4 with test tube/fan and the failed test tube alts who are all objectively smarter and better than she is..... </3

[flowering-darkness]

having a poke around in my MMD folder and

I think it's fun comparing all the different textures I use for my self-inserts' eyes. Somehow I thought I had more whose eyes were not green, but.. evidently not!

Can you tell them all apart?~ (That's a rhetorical question, I don't expect anyone to be able to. But if there are any you reckon you know, feel free to say!)

[broke-on-books]

Days since last cried in class: 0

[tineymang]

oh yea speaking of text posts! i thought about including this in their actual references a bit too late (whoopsies) so i figured i may as well share team epic squad's movesets here! (mainly for my own reference but also for anyone who was curious i suppose dfjgjd) ofc their movesets change over time, but this is generally what i consider to be their canonical postgame movesets!

circuit:

shock wave

discharge

dark pulse

ominous wind

mello:

take down

hydro pump

dig

rock slide

stripe:

sucker punch

grass knot

flamethrower

ice beam

mana:

energy ball

water pulse

blizzard

take heart

luna:

moonblast

psychic

protect

lunar dance

lumi:

leer

twister

(shes like level 5 she doesnt really have much to work with)

[the-little-crow]

Well we think you have symptoms syndrome, but we don’t know what it is or what causes it so we have to test you for literally every other thing first. Also if you don’t have this exact symptom on the day of the test then you don’t have Symptoms Syndrome either. Yeah, the Wikipedia page says you have to have every symptom to have it. Sorry dude, guess you’ll just have to deal with it.

chronic pain diagnoses are all like yeah we don't know what this is or why it happens. we also don't know how to treat it. good luck out there soldier

[wachinyeya]

A company making wooden wind turbine blades has successfully tested a 50-meter-long prototype that’s set to debut soon in the Indian and European markets.

Last year, the German firm Voodin successfully demonstrated that their laminated-veneer timber blades could be fabricated, adapted, and installed at a lower cost than existing blades, while maintaining performance.

Now, Voodin has announced a partnership with the Indian wind company Senvion to supply its 4.2-megawatt turbines with these wooden blades for another trial run.

Wind power has accumulated more than a few demerit points for several shortfalls in the overall industry of this fossil-fuel alternative.

Some of these, such as the impact on bird life, are justified, but none more so than the fact that the turbine blades are impossible or nearly impossible to recycle, and that they need to be changed every 25 years.

Wind turbine blades are made from a mixture of glass and carbon fiber heated together with sticky epoxy resin, and these materials can’t be separated once combined, which means they go into landfills or are incinerated when they become too battered to safely operate.

GNN has reported that folks will occasionally find second-life value in these giant panels, for example in Denmark where they are turned into bike shelters. In another instance, they’re being used as pedestrian bridges.

But there are way more wind turbine blades being made every year than pedestrian bridges and bike shelters, making the overall environmental impact of wind power not all green.

“At the end of their lifecycle, most blades are buried in the ground or incinerated. This means that—at this pace—we will end up with 50 million tonnes of blade material waste by 2050,” Voodin Blade Technology’s CEO. Mr. Siekmann said recently. “With our solution, we want to help green energy truly become as green as possible.”

The last 15 years have seen rapid growth in another industry called mass timber. This state-of-the-art manufacturing technique sees panels of lumber heat-pressed, cross-laminated, and glued into a finished product that’s being used to make skyscrapers, airports, and more.

At the end of the day though, mass timber products are still wood, and can be recycled in a variety of ways.

“The blades are not only an innovative technological advancement but a significant leap toward sustainable wind production,” said Siekmann, adding that this isn’t a case of pay more to waste less; the blades cost around 20% less than carbon fiber.

Additionally, the added flexibility of wooden blades should allow for taller towers and longer blades, potentially boosting the output of turbine by accessing higher wind speeds.

Now partnered with Voodin, Senvion will begin feasibility analysis in the next few months, before official testing begins around 2027.

[catboybiologist]

Hey. You know how laws against queer people never really mask off say that they're for queer persecution? You know how they always have to wrap it in a layer of "saving the children" or "protecting women", when the goal is actually the destruction of queer groups without actually any improvements to the lives of children or women? You know how the cherry pick examples without context of queer people committing horrible Acts, most of the times in completely false ways, try and make their point?

A bill to destroy biomedical research as we know it just got introduced to Congress with a similar tactic.

The SPARE act would ban all use of vertebrate animals for biomedical research in the United states. It's dressed in language of animal welfare, into aims to tap into the public lack of knowledge about how animal research is used and why is necessary. Not easier, necessary.

I can go into great detail about why this is, but I'm going to put this as simply as possible. There is an inherent paradox to not using animals for biomedical research. If you know enough about a factor or disease or whatever, that you are studying, replicated in a model system and no, for a fact that this model system reflects the reality of how that factor operates in a complete organism, then you know enough about that factor by definition to none use an animal. And therefore, no research is even necessary. If something is being researched, somewhere in the thread of that research, there will be an animal study involved. Maybe not in that particular paper, maybe not in that particular research group, but something that group cites, some continuation of that research, some thing that is necessary to actually provide a meaningful understanding about human or animal biology, must involve a research animal at some point in the process.

Anyone who has done animal research understands this is the case. Anyone who has done animal research also understands that there are great standards put in place by University IACUCs to maintain ethical standards. Are there lapses? Of course. And you're about to hear about *all* of them, without context, without the thousands of examples of lives that have been saved by disease research. And of course, we already *have* systems of accountability.

Animal testing is a delicate topic across the political spectrum. And for good reason. However, I don't think very many people outside of the field truly understand how necessary it is to gain literally any understanding about biological systems, nor the systems of accountability that already exist to ensure it's done ethically and meaningfully.

The goal is destruction of research science in this country. If this bill passes I'm genuinely doubtful that I will ever be able to be employed in this country again.

Please, PLEASE urge your representatives to do something about this.

Oh and by the way- if you needed any indication that this law is bullshit and they don't care about animal welfare, any testing on military and police animals is a specifically allowed exception.

[joy-haver]

Something I’ve noticed is that leftist movements tend to turn practical, thought out tactics that were part of a larger plan for liberation, and remove them from their context. Then we often use these tactics as symbolic ways to mark our distaste for empire and harken back to older movements. However, these tactics are often already accounted for by the system, and sometimes are actively encouraged as ways to harm our people and defang our processes.

Here is an example;

In the Civil Rights struggle, getting arrested en mass was seen as an important part of the process of freedom. The civil rights leaders realized that the areas they were in did not have large enough jails to confine them all, and that if they filled the jails up, the police simply could not confine everyone else in the movement. Getting arrested in coordinated ways was a noble and helpful sacrifice that kept your brothers and sisters from getting arrested. Due to less strict sentencing at the time, and the ability of the movement to scare the police into releasing people, getting arrested often wasn’t the utterly disabling and free-life ending process it is today. (That’s not to say getting arrested was easy on people; the police brutality of the time was incredibly intense.)

Those who spent time in jail were given almost a reverent status. That had gone through much suffering to keep others from the same fate. Often, their ability to taking confinement completely off the table for the rest of the activists is precisely what allowed for certain other actions to be successful. Paying for legal defense and moderate bail costs was something of a drain on the movements scant, resources but it could often be worth it due to the role arrests played.

However, the state responded to this, and turned it to their benefit. The next fifty years saw a prison boom. Now, economically deprived small towns were made to bid and beg for prisons to be built in there areas; not only to lock people up, but also because working at the prison was presented as one of the only jobs left in rural America. Additionally, thisdrove the labor minded population to be further in conflict with other movements in some areas.

As the capacity of the government to capture and confine increased, the capacity of the movement to fill up the jails and prevent further arrests did not. Now, the system was hungry for more and more bodies for its endless rooms. It further instilled and mechanized the capacity of prisons to force labor, undercutting labor movements. Sentences became longer, parole became stricter, fines and restitutions increased to exorbitant amounts. Those who went in for petty arrests often never came out.

But, the feeling that getting arrested was a noble and venerable goal did not leave the movement. Some transitioned tactics; instead of filling up the jails to allow others to act without recourse, they sought to get arrested in test cases, as they had seen work occasionally before. But this too became more and more difficult, as the legal system realized it did not have to play by its own rules. Slowly but surely, the legal mythology that because it is written and because it is fair, it will be ruled so, began to overtake the minds of activists; even as they failed time and time again to win this way, they still threw countless of their friends into the mouth of the enemy, and condemned them to life in prison.

Even this had become a shadow of itself by the 2000s and 2010s. Arrest became an aesthetic goal instead of a practical one. The most radical in the movements were culturally encouraged to throw their lives away for petty protests that none would see, and would have no material impact on the operations of the system of dominion. The reality that getting kettled at a non violent protest could land you with the same jail time as a political assassination did not dawn upon these activists until long after hey were already in jail, and already disconnected from the movement. Their friends would gather all their meager savings towards bail funds, oftentimes going into debt, or otherwise extracting money from the rest of the marginalized communities supportive of the activism. Those funds would then go to the government in the form of bail, and then right back towards operating the same policing systems that targeted them. In this way, the main economic output of the leftists movement of the time was to fund the very systems of policing that they sought to destroy; and to get themselves and each other locked in cages in the process. Instead of developing practical systems of change, radicals were taught to emulate key aspects of the tactics of prior generations that had specifically been recuperated into the goals of the state.

Those who saw the futility in this were readily pushed towards the defanged and self acknowledged pointless marches of the nonviolent liberal movement, which never had any goal other than to once again emulate the visual aesthetics and personal emotional fulfillment of past movements.

We see this pattern play out all the time. People insisting on the radical importance of a leftist print newspaper in a time when print journalism is dead. A fetishization of industrial unionism in a town where no factory has been for three generations. Arguments over whether to support long defunct governments and long dead leaders for some tactical benefit which will never arise from reality.

It is long past time for us to realize that the process of achieving human liberation does not come from symbolic actions, nor from following the playbook of past movements. We must learn our history, yes, but not to emulate it; instead we must learn it to understand its failures and its successes, and, most importantly, how our movement ancestors interacted with the material conditions of their time to create multifaceted plans that met the needs of their people and made successful guerrilla war upon dominion.

We need to imagine ways of making change that are suited to the times that we are living in, the problems we face, and the opportunities that we have. This utterly necessitates that we get deeply embedded into the places and communities around us, that we listen with open ears to the problems our people are facing, and that we fold those ever more towards opportunities of liberation and care for one another.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Stages of Decomposition

The decomposition process occurs in several stages following death:

Pallor mortis

Algor mortis

Rigor mortis

Cadaveric spasm

Lividity

Putrefaction

Decomposition

Skeletonization

PALLOR MORTIS

The first stage of death.

Occurs once blood stops circulating in the body.

The cessation of an oxygenated blood flow to the capillaries beneath the skin causes the deceased to pale in appearance.

In non-Caucasians, the pallor may appear to develop an unusual hue; the skin will lose any natural lustre and appears more waxen.

Occurs quite quickly, within about 10 minutes after death.

ALGOR MORTIS

The cooling of the body after death.

The cooling process will be influenced by many factors, including the deceased’s clothing, or whether they are covered with bed linen such as blankets or duvets.

The body will typically cool to the ambient room temperature, but this alters if there is heating in the room or if there is a constant draught cooling the body.

RIGOR MORTIS

Can occur between 2 and 6 hours after death.

Factors including temperature can greatly affect this.

Caused by the muscles partially contracting, and the lack of aerobic respiration means that the muscles cannot relax from the contraction, leaving them tense, subsequently resulting in the stiffening we associate with rigor mortis.

This stage typically begins in the head, starting with the eyes, mouth, jaw and neck, and progresses right through the body.

The process is concluded approximately 12 hours after death (although, again, certain variables may occur) and lasts between 24 and 72 hours depending on circumstances.

Contrary to popular belief, rigor mortis is not a permanent state and is in fact reversed, with the muscles relaxing in the same order in which they initially stiffened.

The reversing process also takes approximately 12 hours, when the body returns to its un-contracted state.

It is possible to ‘break’ rigor mortis by manipulating and flexing the limbs. This is usually done by undertakers, pathologists or crime scene investigators who are attempting to examine or move a body – or by a murderer trying to hide their victim in the closet or the boot of a car.

CADAVERIC SPASM

A phenomenon that can be misinterpreted as rigor mortis.

The instantaneous stiffening of the body (most commonly the hands) following a traumatic death.

Unlike rigor mortis, the stiffening of the affected limb is permanent and is not reversed, causing the deceased to maintain the rigidity until such time as putrefaction causes breakdown of the particular muscle group.

Examples:

The deceased following an air crash were later discovered still clutching their seatbelts or arm rests in a final, desperate act of survival.

In a drowning case, the victim was discovered with grass from the riverbank still grasped in their hand.

Perhaps the most famous case of cadaveric spasm involves the rock band Nirvana’s lead singer, Kurt Cobain. Cobain reportedly committed suicide in April 1994. His body was discovered a few days after his death with a shotgun wound to the head, and tests revealed he had large traces of heroin in his system. He was reportedly discovered still clutching the gun in his left hand, due to cadaveric spasm. However, a great deal of controversy surrounds the veracity of this latter assumption, and indeed the cause of his death, with many people insisting and attempting to prove that he died as the result of foul play rather than suicide.

LIVIDITY

Also known as livor mortis, hypostasis, or suggillation.

Once blood can no longer circulate, it will gravitate towards the lowest point of the body.

Example: A supine body will display pinkish/purple patches of discoloration where the blood has settled in the back and along the thighs.

Occurs about 30 minutes after death, but will not necessarily be noticeable until at least 2 hours afterwards as the pooling process intensifies and becomes visible, finally peaking up to between 8 and 12 hours later.

Once it is complete, the lividity process cannot be reversed.

Therefore a body discovered lying on its side, but with staining evident in the back and shoulders, must have been moved at some point from what would have been a supine position at the time of death.

It is worth noting that if the body has had contact with the floor, a wall or other solid surface, lividity would not occur at the points of contact as the pressure would not allow the blood to seep through the capillaries and pool. The specific area of pressure will be the same colour as the rest of the body and a pattern of contact may well be evident.

PUTREFACTION

Derives from the Latin putrefacere, meaning ‘to make rotten’.

The body becomes rotten through the process known as autolysis, which is the liquefaction of bodily tissue and organs and the breakdown of proteins within the body due to the increased presence of bacteria.

The first visible sign is the discoloration of the skin in the area of the abdomen.

Bacteria released from the intestine cause the body to become bloated with a mixture of gases; over time these will leak out, and the smell will intensify to unbearable proportions.

Typically, this will attract flies that will lay eggs, which develop into maggots.

Bloating is most evident in the stomach area, genitals and face, which can become unrecognizable as the tongue and eyes are forced to protrude due to the pressure of the build-up of gases in the body.

At this stage, the body will also begin to lose hair.

The organs typically decompose in a particular order: starting with the stomach, followed by the intestines, heart, liver, brain, lungs, kidney, bladder and uterus/prostate.

Once all the gases have escaped the skin begins to turn black: this stage is called ‘black putrefaction’.

As with all the other stages of death so far, the rate of putrefaction depends on temperature and location. A body exposed to the air above ground will decompose more quickly than a body left in water or buried below ground.

During putrefaction, blistering of the skin and fermentation can also occur:

Fermentation - a type of mould that will grow on the surface of the body. This mould appears white, and is slimy or furry in texture. It also releases a very strong, unpleasant, cheesy smell.

As the putrefaction process comes to an end, fly and maggot activity will become less, which leads to the next stage.

DECOMPOSITION

The body is an organic substance comprising organisms that can be broken down by chemical decomposition.

If the body is outside, any remains that have not been scavenged or consumed by maggots will liquefy and seep into the surrounding soil.

Thus when the body decomposes it is effectively recycled and returned to nature.

SKELETONIZATION

The final stage of death is known as ‘dry decay’, when the cadaver has all but dried out: the soft tissue has all gone and only the skeleton remains.

If the cadaver is outside, not only is it exposed to the elements but it also becomes food for scavengers such as rats, crows or foxes.

As the remains are scavenged, the body parts become dispersed so it is not unusual to find skeletal remains some distance from where the body lay at the point of death.

The way in which skeletal remains are scattered in such cases is of interest to archaeologists, and is referred to as taphonomy.

Where a body has lain undiscovered at home for a period of time it has also been known for family pets, typically dogs, to feed on the body. The natural instinct of a pet is to attempt to arouse the deceased by licking them, but once it gets hungry, its survival instinct will take over and it will consider the body as little more than carrion: it will act with the same natural instinct as a scavenger in the wild, which will feed on any corpse, be it animal or human, if it is starving.

Obviously the number of pets, the body mass of the deceased and the time lapse before the body is discovered will influence to what extent it has been devoured.

For further research on the stages of decomposition and the factors that affect it, look up body farms. These are medical facilities where bodies are donated for research purposes so scientists can specifically observe the decomposition process. However, be aware that some of the images are quite graphic.

Source ⚜ More: References ⚜ Autopsy ⚜ Pain & Violence ⚜ Injuries Bereavement ⚜ Death & Sacrifice ⚜ Cheating Death ⚜ Death Conceptions

Writing Resources PDFs

[osterby]

The thing all the archaeologst vs. trans body things misses is that archaeologits will know that we were trans and will care about what that meant for us. Even if the archaeologists themselves were to come from an impossible future where no one is trans and where male and female sex and gender binaries are rigid and clearly defined, they would know that we did gender differently and they would be digging us up to find out who we actually were, not to squint at a funny angle on a fragmented ilium to decide which box to put it in. The whole point of archaeology is to learn about the past, and archaeologists understand that the past is not precisely identical to the culture they live in. And future archaeologists, no matter their own culture and perception of gender, are going to have even more tools for getting information out of corpses than we do today.

Right now we can look at someone's hair from 2000 years ago and tell where their drinking water was coming from*. We can look at the DNA in a tiny sliver of degraded bone and know the person had Klinefelter Syndrome. It's very common for archaeologists to look at a body for signs of dentisty, injury, illness, or medical treatment.

Future archaeologists will absolutely have the tools to look at our bone fragments or teeth or mummified skin and understand things like HRT and top surgery. I fully expect anyone working with my archaeologically significant remains will be able to tell at what age a person started T or E. They might make some wrong guesses about our culture and our feelings about our genders, and they might have trouble telling the exact gender of a person from their remains and grave goods, but they will know that trans people existed and they will be able to recognise a lot of us in the archaeological record., and the relative length of a femur will have very very little to do with that.

Grave goods are another important facet of gender in archaeology which is often overlooked in the mainstream. Take a look again at the person with Klinefelter Syndrome; before we had the DNA results, people had various theories about this person's biological sex or lived gender based entirely on the grave goods. We believe the person buried at Sutton Hoo was a king and a man, because all the grave goods are typical of that social role and gender; there is no body left in Sutton Hoo with bones to measure or DNA to test, all we have is a the outline of a ship and the metal grave goods. If you are buried in a suit and your headstone says "brother and son", the archaeologists are going to assume you are male long before they measure your bones (get your wills in order, guys. Don't get buried under a deadname).

Don't worry about your bones getting measured by a twitter phrenologist. Let your burial reflect who you are, and trust the future archaeologists to be curious enough to look at your actual remains and grave goods in the context of what they know about your era and culture, and go "yup, that sure is a trans person who ate a bunch of microplastics circa 1900-2400CE".

*I love this paper in particular because it's such a snarky rebuttal to another paper, but that's beyond the scope of this reblog.

Only the most miserable people on the planet are obsessed with bone structure. Terfs. Incels. Racists probablty. Whoever still thinks that the weird skull shape astrology- no wait I did remember the word. Phrenology. Whoever still thinks that phrenology has any scientific value. Nobody who's enjoying their life goes out of their way to turn the framework of your meatsuit into an inescapable prison.

Future archeologists aren't going to look at my implausibly well-preserved carcass and go "this is a female skeleton", and call it a day. They're going to look at it and go "hmm, this isn't the standard early 2000s era cadaver amount of microplastics. This mf was eating macroplastics."

[officialspec]

so we just moved, and the house we moved into has been abandoned for a few years so weve discovered some fun little secrets scattered around as we explored. for example, theres a little room downstairs with graffiti on the door dubbing it 'the dog box'

of course we were intrigued. aside from some storage and a place to put a washing machine, the dog box seems to exclusively contain this old ass piano, with a little window to see into it from outside

also pictured sitting on the piano is a little novelty dagger we found in the grass outside. its all very funny and novel, right? we thought so

that was when we found The Stain

of course, we immediately jumped to some conclusions. the knife outside, the abandoned house, 'do not enter' written on the door. whatever it was, it had dripped through the floorboards from upstairs, from approximately just outside the bathroom. we decided to wait until we finished moving and then grab some peroxide to test it just in case

still, the dog box bloodstain remained a hot topic, and the curiosity was killing me. after figuring out where upstairs the stain wouldve dripped down from, we noticed it had also seeped up through the newly installed flooring, and i decided i couldnt wait to investigate

looking around the dog box, i noticed that there was a section of the ceiling/underfloor that was noticeably newer than the rest of it, meaning the place the stain had leaked through had been pulled out and replaced just before we moved in. suspicious

im using my phone torch to look around in the dark, and when i shine it on the bloodstain it lights up in a distinctly.... glossy way. when i get closer i can see its not matte, but sticky. so i decide to touch it, and immediately im hit with a STRONG smell of something deeply familiar. all the pieces fall together at once, and using my superior investigative prowess i have deduced the culprit

it was bees. there was a fuckoff massive beehive in the floor that got taken out before we moved in and it leaked honey up through the floorboards and onto the floor of the dog box and the landlord didnt feel like cleaning it up. mystery solved

[fishnapple]

Observations about lucky colours

Wearing the colours associated with the Sign of each house in your chart will bring more luck to the matters of that house. The following are my personal observations about each house.

The colours of 1st house sign: people notice you more and comment on your appearance more, boost of confidence, high contrast look (the colours seem to make your features stand out)

The colours of 2nd & 7th house sign: look pleasing/harmonious on you, people are nicer towards you, good for going on dates or attract someone, good for meetings involving contracts, exchange, going to the bank

The colours of 3rd & 9th house sign: you feel more adventurous and more carefree, sometimes more impatient, good for exams/ tests, could have some delays or difficulties in traffic though

The colours of 4th house sign: look naturally good on your skin, match your features, comforting, peaceful, great to wear at home

The colours of 5th house sign: feel more exciting, fun, exuberant, boost of vitality, could be the colour you wore a lot when you were a kid

The colours of 6th house sign: increase or decrease of vitality and health, I usually avoid the colours of this house, they feel unlucky to me

The colours of 8th house sign: pretty similar to the effect of 1st house, but people seem to be more bold or in some case, rude when interact with you, I think these colours should be worn in a more private settings, could make you feel heavy and not in a great mood

The colours of 10th house sign: people take you more seriously, you look more professional, could bring some delays or heavy moods

The colours of 11th house sign: lucky colours, things go more smoothly, especially in public places or social medias, great when you need to do a presentation

The colours of 12th house sign: peaceful, great for travelling, also like the 4th house, these colours usually match the colours of your features, they blend and make a soft/ low contrast look

Colours of each sign (just a few examples)

About me | Masterpost

[baambied]

sevika with pregnant wife headcannons

mdni cw little nsfw at the end cursing sevika is protective / possessive even worried sevika

just cute little fic

sevika ✗ pregnant!reader

m.list

𓇢𓆸 sevika has always ever been protective over you. It was in her nature...her possessive acts would come off so naturally you wouldn't even notice most times..she had always been protective over you.

𓇢𓆸 for example, when you and sevika are both out at a friend's get together having a fun time, talking to people and drinking, anytime a man would come up to you attemting to strike up a conversation, she'd make sure her arm is tightly secured around your waist, moving you closer to her.

𓇢𓆸 or when the two of you are walking down the sidewalk, she'd make sure she's walking on the edge part near the street while you walk on the inside.

𓇢𓆸 and when you tell her you're going out late at night with some friends - which she doesn't mind, she'd walk you to your car (that's literally in the driveway) and give you a small bottle of pepper spray to use just in case anyone tries something slick on you.

𓇢𓆸 or when you're both at a bar and a fight breaks loose across the room, sevika won't hesitate to pull you behind her, blocking your view and making sure you dont get hurt.

𓇢𓆸 but once she finds out you're pregnant, her protective nature intensifies from 100 to 200 real quick, as much as she wants to just hold you in her grasp, keep you in her eyesight at all times, have you around her 24/7....she doesn't...she doesn't want you to feel coddled and overwhelmed by her actions, sevika is aware that you aren't fragile and can take care of yourself but she genuinely can't help it.

𓇢𓆸 also, she actually found out about your pregnancy before you had a chance to tell her.. you clumsily and accidentally leaving the pregnancy test in the most obvious hiding place in the bedroom.. safe to say she kinda freaked out, for days anytime you'd talk to her she would respond while slightly stumbling over her words, or when you two are having a conversation her gray eyes would always be on your stomach

𓇢𓆸 she knew you wanted to tell her yourself so she didn't say anything to you about it...but her staring increased more..her protective nature began to slowly as well.

𓇢𓆸 one day you were gonna wash the dishes but before you could get your hands wet, sevika hops up in her seat volunteering to do it instead, or when you walk up the stairs sevika is suddenly behind you making sure you dont fall..you were confused about this sudden change not knowing sevika knew about the growing baby in you belly.

"sevi...i have something to tell you.." Your soft meek voice spoke out over the sounds playing on the living room television, you stood near sevika who sat on the couch, her gray eyes staring at the misplaced shoes beside your feet..anxiously her leg bounced up and down at the thought of you tripping or falling over because of it..

something so small like a pair of shoes causing her to get this anxious was beyond her.

sevika hummed at your words, you take a deep breath in and close your eyes...slowly bringing the pregnancy test that sevika seen 2 weeks ago out from behind you..

silence engulfed the room, the nervous butterfly pit in your stomach growing stronger.

"oh baby that's- lemme just.." sevika's fumbling words coming out strained as she stood up and bent down, picking up the pair of burgundy Mary Jane heels.

"doll, you have to stop leaving your shoes around - you..you could have tripped just now hurting you and the baby.." sevika scolded in a gruff but also soft tone.

"huh?" You open your eyes in utter confusion, watching as sevika place your heels near the wall "what- how did you-" you stutter out words, trying to make sense of sevika saying 'baby' as if she had already processes the news of your pregnancy....than it clicked.

"did you know this whole time?"

sevika's movements came to a halt, slowly turning to face you.

her eyes a little wide as her lips were parted, you could tell by her expression she was attempting to explain herself but still thinking of the rights words to use.

"wow! baby! you're pregnant?! i had no idea I'm so-"

"sevika.."

silence was heard onec more in the room for awhile.

"yeah...i knew.."

You couldn't help but laugh at sevika's sentence. Those nervous butterflies in your stomach were now replaced with soft, pretty flowers as you finally realized why sevika had grown extra protective over you these last 2 weeks, you couldn't help but feel all warm inside as you stepped forward throwing yourself in sevika's arms, her buff arms wrapping around your smaller figure, the words 'careful!' escaping her lips.

𓇢𓆸 when your pregnancy symptoms start to get stronger over the next month, things began to change...a tote bag filled with essentials you used to bring everywhere with you now held onto sevika's shoulder anytime you two were out..sure sevika felt weird carrying a light pink bag but if it was for you she didn't mind.

𓇢𓆸 she'd even carry flats anytime you'd go out in those small heels you liked, now knowing how sore your sensitive feet could get due to the pregnancy.

𓇢𓆸 her face would visibly cringe anytime she saw you moving around fast in your shared home - not in a bad way more of a worried way...she doesn't want you to accidentally hurt yourself even though you insist you're fine and need no help.

𓇢𓆸 one day, while you were walking around the kitchen table, your arm hit the sharp edge of it, causing you to hiss in pain for a small second...even though the pain was small it didn't stop sevika from holding you in her chest while muttering out "are you okay?" The next day, when you woke up in the morning, your eyes couldn't help but notice that all of the sharp edges from tables , desk, counters...were all covered in tape and cloth to create a round smooth area.

𓇢𓆸 sevika, who used to go out almost every friday with her co-workers from work, stopped that routine, and stayed home with you instead..which made you incredibly happy has this gave you through chance to do some fun skin care, or watch cute movies with her.

"yo! sevika! we're all going down to the last drop for drinks! margot paying .. you comin' ?"

"Nah, imma sit this one out? i already got plans.." sevika states knowing that these "plans" consist of you putting a clay face mask on her face.. while her hair is up in two pigtails so it can stay out of her face with a cheesy 2000s romcom playing in the background.

𓇢𓆸 sevika, who now does all the cooking every night, she doesn't want you hurting yourself as you attemt to reach for seasoning in the high cabinets or something worst..she'd look through cooking books for recipes good for pregancy.. she'd also buy pregnancy books so she could learn more about the process and what good for you and stuff that isn't.

𓇢𓆸 sevika, who had gotten used to your constant mood swings, you randomly snap at her in anger.. She'd take it like a champ, being the calmest person ever knowing you don't really mean what you say, and of course giving you the space you desire.

𓇢𓆸 sevika, who makes sure you take your vitamins every day and at the right times as well.

𓇢𓆸 sevika would feel so insanely bad when you're in pain, and there is nothing she can do to make you feel better, she'd cuddle you and whisper soft, sweet things in your ears and give u gentle kisses on your neck though.

𓇢𓆸 she adores your swollen baby bump, watching it grow bigger as the months progressed..her hand roaming around your big belly, smiling each time she felt a kick, even leaving soft kisses all around your swollen belly.

𓇢𓆸 but she's also the type to grow protective over your swollen baby bump, she absolutely hates when you two are out in public and she sees an unknown hand reaching to your belly, now you on the other hand don't mind as long as they ask for permission, but there are times when you get overwhelmed by the attention.

you and sevika sat in the waiting room of your doctor's office. .It was time for your daily prenatal visit.. and the woman sitting beside just so happen to see your pregnant belly immediately started cooing at it and giving you many questions like "How far along are you?"Is it a boy or a girl?"

you scrunch your face up in discomfort. . .not really in the best mood for this type of interaction, which your wife - sevika clearly notices.

and without asking .. the middle-aged woman's hand slowly made its way to your pregnant stomach, your face immediately frowning at the sudden contact that only lasted for 2 seconds before sevika grabbed the women hand away roughly glaring "did you fuckin' ask first?" she sneered in disgust.

and that was just with some random lady.. God help any man who tries to talk to you.

𓇢𓆸 she is also the type to make the baby listen to music through her headphones saying "you gotta teach them young"

"vika? what are you doing?"

you ask as you eyed your wife who was crouching down in front of you with big black headphones on each side of your stomach, you giggle slightly at feeling of vibrations from the music playing in the headphones.

"he's listening to music.."

"sev, i don't think our baby is gonna like old jazz music.."

"he's kicking to the beat!"

𓇢𓆸 she's definitely the type to read whatever pregnancy book she can get her hands on once your bump starts growing bigger, writing small questions and notes she'd ask the doctor during appointments.

𓇢𓆸 every little wish you had was sevika's command..you want take out at 2am in the morning? sevika is already on the phone ordering chinese. you say your body is sore? sevika already has massage oils in her hand telling you to lay down. . You're craving beef jerky at 5 am? sevika already has her car keys in her hand, ready to drive to the nearest 7/11.

𓇢𓆸 at night, she'd talked to the baby (your belly) when you were asleep, expressing her fears and self doubts, your due date was getting closer and closer as the months progressed these feelings hit her like a train on the railroad tracks..she didn't know if she'd be a good parent when she herself had a hard relationship with her's..her mother always working not having time for her...her and her father never seeing eye to eye, these thoughts engulfed her.

she knew for a fact that you would be such a wonderful mother, but she just couldn't help but get in her head about herself.

sometimes you'd wake up during these moments, by her soft voice and gentle touch, catching her whispers through the midnight air . . seeing how vulnerable she was - felt, you bring her head into your chest, her stronger - bigger figure over your chest as she let you cuddle her..listening to the soft reassuring words you spoke into her ears..everything she needed to hear.

𓇢𓇢𓆸 even though aftercare was already a big thing for sevika, but it grew bigger when you got pregnant..after the two of you are done, she'd immediately ask you if you were alright while leaving breathy kisses all over your sweaty body..softly massaging yout thighs that were once around her waist.

she'd get up and go to the bathroom to run a warm bath for you, putting in your favorite scents and lighting a lavender scented candle....she had read somewhere how that scent tends to calm people down..she'd get in the bath with you, rubbing your body with a cloth, washing your hair even though you told her you could do it yourself she still insisted.

𓇢𓇢𓆸 when she found out hormonal changes can cause your skin to get more sensitive, she would use this to her advantage when it came to.....things....

"f-fuck- sevika! ahh!" Your soft moans could be heard throughout the living room, bouncing off the walls and back, your fingers squeezing sevika's hair as her mouth sucked roughly on your swollen nipple, you could feel her saliva running down your chest, you could feel the groans she let out every time you roughly tugged the strands of her hair

you sat on the edge of the couch, back arched in sevika's face, who was on her knees in front of you.

"feels so- ah! g-good. " You hadn't even realized how sensitive your body had become over time due to your pregnancy, not until sevika's hot mouth made it way around your tits..

one of her hands wrapped around your left tit, thumb moving against your nipple which caused your body to shudder at the feeling, not only your nipples but your skin as a whole was just all to sensitive...everywhere her hands touched had you letting out whines and moans.

𓇢𓇢𓆸 when your belly finally started to grow, your hunger increased, you were eating for two now and you couldn't help but express some insecurity in your new weight gain because of it..one time standing infront of the body mirror in your bedroom with a frown on your face..sevika caught you asking what's wrong...she herself frowning at your words.

why couldn't you see how beautiful you looked? that natural pregnancy glow on your face?

next thing you know . . . you're laying on your side, damp face buried in a pillow as sevika's 8 inch strap slid in and out of your soaked, wet cunt in a fast pace your hands fisting the white sheets .... all that could be heard throughout the bedroom was the wet sticky sounds of her strap moving in and out of you, grunts and whimpers echoing in the humid air.

the scene was dirty, sweaty so fucking sinful ...... but all you heard in your ears was sevika's sweet words , her sweet - soft words she spoke to you as if she wasn't 8 inches deep inside of your pussy.

she praised you.

saying how radiant you looked waking up every morning, how every time she saw your face - no matter how you looked...no matter what you were doing..she always thought you looked breathtaking.

[doctormohansamira]

Samira's direct honesty is something I find so fascinating about her as a character. She's the most empathetic doctor in the department, but she really isn't soft in the way one would typically expect of a character like that.

She asks Santos how thick her skin is, then provides blunt, direct feedback without being concerned about how to say it "nicely". When her patient with the butt injections from a guy on Tik Tok asks how bad it looks, she admits freely and without hedging that it doesn’t look great. She gets deeply offended at the claim she’s lying: both Whitaker and Pugliesi accuse her of it, and she points out to both of them that what she said was totally true – she gave him a morphine-like drug that binds to the same receptor to treat his symptoms. But most interestingly is the way it manifests in her relationship with Robby.

She tells Dana directly that just because Robby's having a bad day, there's no need to take it out on her. She defends her treatment choices, even when Robby is getting mad about them. The one time we see her not being vocal about something she knows? When Robby's working on Leah.

We see Samira initially helping there. But then after she puts in the IO, the next time we see her, she's working with Abbot on a different patient. The time after that, she goes to help Langdon. And when Langdon asks how Robby's doing with Leah, she doesn't answer out loud and instead shakes her head. She knew full well Leah wasn't going to make it. And later, she goes back to Robby's side and asks if there's anything she can do, more softly than we ever heard her say anything else, still not telling him that she thinks he should give up and go help someone he could still save. Robby is in so many ways the exception in terms of Samira's reactions to things.

It's such a cool example that highlights the differences between them. I'm usually more focused on the ways in which they're the same, but there are also these crucial differences. In the cases where we see Robby doing the "unnecessary tests" and spending too much time that he berated Samira for, he's often more motivated by the families than the patients due to his own Adamson trauma, whereas Samira is patient focused – wanting Joyce to feel safe and comfortable when she's terrified of intubation, trusting Nandi when she's scared her symptoms are being dismissed – and less concerned with the families. Her exception is Pugliesi, who is in some ways to her what Joyce was to Robby – she is absolutely, legitimately concerned about doing no harm and treating his symptoms. However, she's also reacting very strongly due to her own personal experiences losing her father and visceral reaction to the idea of someone rejecting help.

Robby's reaction to Joyce feels so similar – in contrast to so many other patients, he's not talking to her wife and trying to make her feel better. He's angry at the thought of any delay, driven by the idea that maybe they could have saved Adamson if they'd moved faster.

They're just so similar, but they're approaching their work through very different traumas, and it's all so fascinating.

[ccsainzleclerc5516]

Testing His Patience

Pairing: Lando Norris x reader

Warnings: smut, jealous girlfriend, a bit toxic btw idk if Max even has a sister, I completely made Carla up

Now you have to admit that you were a jealous type of a girlfriend, but like really jealous, the possessive type of a girlfriend. It was something that you couldn't help and you weren't proud of it, but it was either that or you weren't interested at all. It's not your best feature, and you know it very well, but when you love, you love with all your heart, strongly and completely and that's exactly why you don't let anyone mess with or touch something that's yours.

You weren't really insanely jealous and acted like a crazy person about it, but Lando knew from the very beginning that you had a little jealousy problem, although you didn't always and constantly show it. For example, you were never jealous of his fans, but you would be jealous if Lando paid more attention than you would like to one of his girl friends or, for example, Max's sister Carla.

Oh, you didn't like her at all. She was a thorn in your side and you couldn't really do anything about it because she was Max's younger sister.

Carla was only 20 years old, but she sure didn't look 20. Lando's known her ever since he's known Max and Max is like a family to him. Their friendship is on another level, it's very special and they both mean a lot to each other. However, Lando always looked at Carla as Max's younger sister and she looked at Lando as Max's best friend.

And that was the case until half a year ago, when you noticed that Carla had turned into a "pick me" girl and that she was trying to flirt with Lando on several occasions in front of your own eyes.

At first you ignored it because you knew Lando would never even look at her that way, but when it started happening more and more often it started to bother you a lot. You told Lando about it, but he didn't take it seriously and just brushed it off.

Now Lando hated your jealous scenes. He loved you more than anything and showed it to you all the time, but he hated it when you used to give him a jealous outburst from time to time. It bothered him because he saw it as you not trusting him, and he never gave you a reason to not trust him, but sometimes you just couldn't bite your tongue even if you wanted to.

It was the same this time. An article online titled "Lando Norris and Max Fewtrell's Sister?" which talked about Lando possibly dating his sister and also had a picture of Carla hugging Lando after taking the pole position, was the final straw.

People didn't know about you and Lando. They didn't know that you have been together for two years because you agreed that you wanted to keep your relationship private and away from the media because Lando wanted to protect you and your relationship at any cost.

But lately, this idea of ​​keeping a relationship private has started to do more harm than good precisely because they always linked up Lando with some girls and talked about how he was with them, when in fact he wasn't at all. All of that started to affect your self-confidence and it definitely increased your feeling of jealousy.

That led to arguing with Lando about Carla all over again and Lando was not having it.

"Y/n, please don't do this again. I had a busy weekend and I just want to lie down together and relax in front of the TV. Please stop."

"No, I'm not gonna stop! I'm sick of it! I'm sick of her making me feel like a fool!" You yelled clenching your fists.

Lando sighed trying to keep his cool, running his hands over his face and then through his curls.

"She does it all the time and even in front of me! I see the way she looks at you, the way she always finds an excuse to touch you, the way she always tries to prolong the hug with you, the way she's at every single race." Exasperated, you continued to speak in a raised tone, barely catching your breath.

"And you keep letting it happen! You never said anything to her nor have you ever done anything about it even though you know how it's making me feel, Lando!"

You continued to complain for probably another 3 minutes without stopping until you completely pushed his buttons. He abruptly got up from the couch where he was sitting at and walked towards you grabbing your waist and harshly pushing you against the wall. You winced in pain as your back hit the wall behind you.

"What? What do you want me to do? Do you want me to fuck you in front of her? Is that what you want?" His eyes darkened as he yelled tightly gripping your hips. "I absolutely don't give a shit about her. I don't even notice all those things that you keep talking about because you are the only one on my mind." He continued talking, looking deep into your eyes, his gaze penetrating your soul.

"But do you realize that she is Max's sister and that I can not do anything about it because Max is like a brother to me. I love you, y/n, I love you more than anything in this world, but I don't ever want to put myself in a situation where I have to choose between you and him."

"No one even knows about us, Lando. Do you know how much it hurts me to see them trying to link you up with other girls that aren't me?" Your eyes slowly began to fill with tears, but you were still angry and wanted to prove your point so you didn't let them rush down your cheeks.

"But I kept us a secret because I wanted to protect you, y/n! I would love nothing more than to show you off every fucking day, but at what cost? So that they can completely invade our privacy? Send you death threats? Mess with your mental health? I'd fucking lose it if anything happened to you, y/n! Fuck!!" He yelled letting go of your waist and turning away from you trying to calm down.

You were angry, but he was angrier. His patience was wearing thin and you could sense it.

When you stayed silent for a moment, Lando thought that you had tried to give yourself a chance to understand this situation.

"Maybe you won't have to choose between me and him, but you will have to choose between me and her."

But when these words came out of your mouth, you completely drove him crazy with your stubbornness. He pulled your arm and threw you onto the couch hovering over you.

"Don't test my patience, y/n" He said through gritted teeth pinning your hands above your head. "I'm telling you, I'm getting sick and tired of this shit. How many times do I have to remind you that I only want you?" He asks grinding himself against you.

His mouth moved down to the level of your neck, pressing his lips to your thin skin. "Why do you always have to make things so difficult when you know that I'm only yours? What part of that don't you understand, huh?"

It was his time to talk now. His hand found its way down your stomach and into your panties making you moan at the unexpected contact.

Your back arched off the couch as two of his fingers slipped inside you while his thumb continued to rub your clit. You tried to close your legs around his hand, but that only resulted in him spreading them even more and watching you whimper open-mouthed beneath him.

"From now on," He kissed you hard and passionately before he started. "Every time you try to act like a brat, i will treat you like one. I'm going to fuck you so hard you won't be able to walk for days." His fingers quickened their pace as he held you firmly down on the couch with his other hand.

You were so wet, so close. "Oh, fuck, Lan.." You whimpered trying to grab his wrist.

"But you'll never get to cum, if you don't stop acting like that." And just when you were about to, he stopped pulling out his fingers that were glistening with your wetness. You whined almost crying out when he decided to deprive you from the release you needed so bad.

He pulled off your leggings and unclapsed your bra, leaving you in only black panties and a tight crop top that showed your hard nipples. He leaned down to kiss you, his tongue fighting against yours, before he pulled down his grey sweats and shirt tossing them somewhere to the side.

He grabbed his hard prominent member through his boxers grunting as he pumped himself through the fabric. You tried to move to a sitting position to be closer to him and kiss his stomach all the way to where he needed you the most, but as soon as you tried to get up, he pushed you back down on the couch. He pulled down his boxers freeing his cock and taking it in his hand. He hovered over you again and pressed his red leaking tip against your clothed folds rubbing himself up and down.

"Do you want to cum, baby?" He asked leaning down closer to you and pressing a soft kiss on the side of your neck.

"Yeah, I do."

"Yeah? Does that mean you're going to be a good girl for me then?" He asked squeezing your boob then lifting up your crop top just above your nipples. Your response came out as a whimper as he stuck his lips around your nipple and began sucking on it.

"I can't hear you, baby" He let go of his cock and let it rest against your stomach as both of his hands played with your breasts.

"Yes,-ah- yes"

Holding your breasts, his teeth bit your nipples so hard that you cried out in pain.

"Ah, Lando, it hurts, fuck" You whined. The pain was so stinging it made one tear roll down your cheek.

"Shh, it's okay, baby, it's okay" He cooed you kissing your cheek and now gently caressing your nipples with his thumbs while grinding his cock against your stomach. "You like it when it hurts, don't you baby?"

He moved your panties to the side and positioned his tip at your entrance. "So wet for me" He commented spreading it with his tip all over your slits. Your fingers went down to your clit as he pushed in. The face he made when it first went in, head thrown back, eyes closed, lips slightly open letting out a long moan in relief, it almost made you cum right away.

He stayed still for a moment, not wanting to move because he was so painfully hard that he knew he would come in a matter of seconds and he wanted to at least wait for you.

He pulled you by your thighs even further down on him and then hovered over you again. You wrapped your arms around his neck and he pressed his forehead against yours.

He started thrusting in slow, but deep and hard knocking the air out of your lungs. "C'mon, baby, take it, take it like a big girl" He said holding your face between his hands.

You were so turned on by his words. You loved it so much when he'd be angry like this and then ruthlessly took all of his anger out on you. You could feel yourself dripping down as he kept ravaging you with his cock.

"I-I'm so close, Lan" You whispered.

"Yeah, baby?" He took your leg and lifted it up to wrap them around him. That way he got to thrust even deeper into you, knocking your mind out of your body. "You gonna cum around my cock?" He asked against your skin.

Before you could even answer, you threw your head back against the couch, you gripped his shoulders tightly trying to resist him and get away because the pleasure was so intense you couldn't take it. But he didn't let you escape from under him, he continued to fuck you through your orgasm as you screaming out his name filled his ears.

"That's it. That's a good girl." He praised you kissing your chest to calm you down as you were barely being able to catch your breath.

"You can take it a little longer, love yeah? I'm almost there." The weight of his body was completely pressed against yours, you could feel his heartbeat, see beads of sweat forming on his forehead as he kept pounding into you like his life depended on it, like you were the only thing keeping him alive.

Once you pressed your lips against the sensitive spot on his neck and ran your tongue over it, he lost it. His breath hitched, head tilted back, grip tightened around your waist and soon he was cumming inside you, filling you up to the brim.

His head fell on your shoulder and you wrapped your arms around him, wanting to hold him even closer to you if that was even possible.

When both of your breathing calmed down and your pulses returned to normal, Lando pulled out of you. He watched as his cum rushed out of your pussy at the loss of him and hissed at the sight. "Fuck, baby" He leaned down and kissed your thighs making you blush.

...

The next race weekend, Lando took P1 and you were there to support him. You blended into the group with Max and the rest of his friends including Carla.

You were annoyed that she was here for yet another race and once again doing everything to draw his attention to herself. But you weren't going to let her get the best of you this time.

Although when Lando came closer to all of you to celebrate his victory, she was the first one to go and hug him. At that moment your heart ached and Lando saw the sadness in your eyes as you stood on the side watching him from afar. At that moment, he finally understood what you've been talking about all this time. He felt your hurt through your teary eyes and therefore without a second thought he made his way through the crowd to you, pulling you to himself and trapping you into a tight hug and a passionate kiss in front of thousands of people and cameras before whispering

"It's always you."

[grison-in-space]

from the number of asinine complaints about how "voting is NOT a form of harm reduction" because harm reduction is for ADDICTS! ONLY! I'm seeing around... all coming from OP blogs I don't recognize and which otherwise don't have much presence... well, that coordination alongside the timing of US politics sure feels like the Russian troll bots agitating again. (Yes, they absolutely infested Tumblr; I think @ms-demeanor had a great post about what the bots looked and felt like somewhere that I will have to try and track down tomorrow.)

The thing is, if you actually do know harm reduction well, the complaint makes no sense. It's not as if the origin of harm reduction is a secret or especially hard to find out more about. I am not exactly an expert in the field: I have a educated layperson's interest in public health and infectious disease, I'm a queer feminist of a certain age and therefore have a certain degree of familiarity with AIDS-driven safer sex campaigns, and I'm interested in disability history and self advocacy (and I would in fact clarify harm reduction as a philosophy under this umbrella). So I have about twenty years of experience with harm reduction as a philosophy basically by existing in communities whose history is intertwined with harm reduction, which means I know it well from many different angles, and I know how the story of the philosophy is generally taught.

See, this is a story that starts, as so many stories do, in the 1980s with something monstrous President Reagan was doing. In this case, it was the AIDS epidemic, and Reagan refusing to devote any money or time to what eventually became called AIDS (rather than the original GRIDS, which came with its own baked in homophobia). Knowing themselves abandoned by society in this as in all things, and watching as friends and loved ones died in droves, queers and addicts are two communities who see that they are the only resources that they collectively have to save each other's lives. Queers know that sex, even casual sex, is an important part of people's lives and culture... and people aren't going to stop doing it even if there's a disease, so how can it happen safely? Condoms. Condoms every time, freely available, easy and shameless, shower them on people in the street if you have to. (And other things: this is the origin of the concept of "fluid bonding", for example... both of which were concepts that were immediately adopted in response to COVID, like outdoor socially distsnced greetings and masks and "bubbles." That wasn't an accident. Normalizing sexual health tests and seeing hard results on paper before sex was a thing, too.)

Addicts, too, knew that using was going to happen no matter how earnestly people tried to stop. If it was that easy, addiction wouldn't exist. So: how do you make using safer for longer? If you could stop someone getting HIV before they could bring themselves to get clean, that's a whole life right there. If you could stop someone overdosing once, twice, a dozen times, that's more time you're buying them to claw themselves out of addiction and into a better place. Addicts see, right, needle sharing is getting the diseases spread, so cut down on needle sharing. Well, needles aren't easy to get hold of. Their supply is controlled because people who aren't prescribed needles are theoretically junkies, so taking the needles away makes it harder to use, right— and no one is complicit, and also you see fewer discarded needles lying around where they're unsanitary and unsafe, right? Except that people want to do a buddy a good turn, so they share if there's no other option, and they'll keep a needle going until it's literally too blunt to keep using if need be. So fighting needle sharing means making it easier to get needles to shoot up with: finding a place to discard used ones and get as many fresh ones as you need to use safely!

Making free needles available to junkies and free condoms for the bathhouses was not a popular solution with politicians, for perhaps obvious reasons. Nor was routine testing of the blood supply, because that cost money too. But these things work to stop the spread of disease. Thus the principle of harm reduction: policy interventions in response to communities that frequently engage in risky behavior should focus on whatever reduces aggregate harm by reducing the risk rather than by trying to reduce the behavior. The homos and junkies say look, all your societal judgement in the world hasn't stopped us being homos and junkies yet. You ain't going to look after us? We'll look after our own. And this is the form that takes. Not increasing the pressure to act like people who aren't is, but making it safer to be the people we are while we try to be the happiest versions of ourselves. Even if that means being morally complicit in a whole lot of casual sex and drug abuse.

The thing is, harm reduction is a philosophy rooted in the defiance of people who knew that their society thought they deserved to die painfully, young, invisible and alone. This is not the kind of thing that people come up with and get mad if you adapt it and share it, especially if you tell the story of where it came from. And importantly, harm reduction is not purely the child of addiction: that philosophy, from the get go, was cooked up to apply both to substance abuse and casual sex. It didn't just spread from addiction care; it was born straddling addiction care and queer & feminist health care.

So it doesn't make sense to see actual activists who know harm reduction well complaining that this is a term exhibiting semantic drift when we talk about voting as harm reduction. It's actually a good metaphor: you're reducing the overall risk of the worst case scenario metaphors by voting Democrat, at least until future votes can install a system where multiple parties can flourish on the political scheme. (Democrats and Republicans are essentially coalitions of a pack of arguing factions anyway, and those factions are essentially what would be classed elsewhere as a party in its own right; the US essentially just lumps political granularity rather than splitting it in our political system.) And anyone who understands harm reduction itself knows that.

So it's this wildly inorganic complaint being voiced repeatedly by different sources. Sounds like a pretty good flag for a potential psyop to me.

If you want to learn more about harm reduction and its history, especially from an addiction perspective, I cannot recommend Maia Szalavitz's Undoing Drugs: How Harm Reduction is Changing the Future of Drugs and Addiction (2022) highly enough. Szalavitz has a history of addiction of her own as well as being a clear and accessible writer with an excellent grasp of neuroscience and history. I have a lot of respect for her work.