elijah with the swords

if we are to be submerged, let us be submerged together they/he 29, music, art, a distinct lack of swords, so on

[seelieyoulater]

This is literally Murray and Demodus’ dynamic

[suneatershore]

this is just what teaching is

[wingkink]

btw it's so fucking stupid you can be anxious physically in your body even after you've decided mentally you don't care. I'm supposed to be in charge here

[penis-peeper]

“no kink at pride!!!” “no leather at pride!!!!” “no bears at pride!!!!” “no nudity at pride!!!!” “no slurs at pride!!!”

just stay home and watch an MCU movie bro

[penis-peeper]

‘’ PRIDE SHOULD BE KID SAFE!!!!!’’ I agree. every transphobe who wants to control trans kids bodies should be shot on sight.

oh you meant you’re afraid of leather. fucking lame go die

[hephaesta]

Question: What do you say?

Response 1: Do you want to go to the garden?

Response 2: How are you feeling?

You wait until you've reached the top of the stairs before steeling yourself and asking, 'How are you feeling?'

Lex stiffens and asks, voice carefully flat, 'What do you mean?'

'You just seemed... um... pretty upset back there.'

You walk the length of a few blocks in silence.

'If you don't want to talk about it -'

'Got a bad feeling about where the next witch meet's going to be.'

'When do we find out?'

'I don't know. Soon.'

You almost ask them to elaborate but one look at their hunched shoulders makes you rethink that decision. Instead, thinking of how they warmed up when helping with your experiment, you say, 'I'm going over to the community garden now. Do you want to come?'

They consider the offer, then say, 'Sure.'

--

The only volunteer you recognise is Allan, and he smiles when he sees you and Lex. 'Brought a friend!' he says.

'Lex, this is Allan. Allan, Lex.' You wait for them say their hellos then say, 'So, I was talking about the heat stones with my mentor, and I think they would make the warmth too concentrated? If we set up a bigger sigil around each garden bed they'll be less intense and distribute heat more evenly. But I don't know about plants.'

'It turns out sigils don't work if weather witches don't complete them,' Lex says with a trace of amusement. 'So you'll need something that can be deconstructed and put back by a weather witch.'

'I like the idea of a big one around the bed we can remove,' Allan says thoughtfully. 'But... it would create a tripping hazard.'

You breathe out a sigh of frustration. That hadn't come up when you were playing with seaweed.

'Can you work it into the path?' Allan asks.

The three of you look down, where little stones have been used to pave walkways around the garden beds. They're wide, reaching almost to the sides of the beds. You remember Deema and her friend's art installation - little paths of stone formed into part circles. This would just be bigger. 'I can.'

Lex squats down and digs their fingers into the path to pull out a stone. 'Obviously don't want to make pulling them out a habit, but...' They toss the stone up and catch it. 'Just one from the outer circle needs to be removed, right?'

'Yeah. As for the rest of it...' You remember Deema's warning about carving sigils in, but does this count if it's removable? (But honestly - you'd rather not ask her how to do the exact thing she's told you to not do.) 'I have to work out if I need to scratch something in, or if I can just put them close together.' You hope the latter works - switching out a stone can still be managed by Deema.

You try to remember how close the stones were at the art installation, but the details escape you. So more experimenting it is.

Right now?

Right now.

After I sort out records for Hafiza.

Remaining time: 10 hours 38 minutes

[autistichalsin]

Hear me out: transmasc Kattigan

[bougiebutchbitch]

sorry just I am listening xTREMELY hard

[suneatershore]

hi wait sorry, I'm also listening

[welcomingdisaster]

what level of skin care do you perform regularly*?

none

just sunscreen

just lotion/chapstick

sunscreen + lotion/chapstick

sunscreen + lotion + exfolliant

sunscreen + lotion + exfoliant + serum/toner/primer

several different kinds of the above/more than the option above

Voting ended onMay 28

*by this I mean genuinely a part of your routine, not just once in a blue moon -- things you're doing at least half the time.

[suneatershore]

I just want to go back to playing music with other people

[hephaesta]

Question: When are you taking a break?

Response: After finishing the letter.

Enough is enough, you tell yourself, and bravely sit down to write the letter from start to finish. To nobody's surprise, due to your extensive notes you have the letter completed and addressed to Dessa in an envelope within an hour.

You set it aside to post later on and bring over the box of Deema's records. You glance over to her - she's sitting on a chair with Reginald under her arm, pretending to be absorbed by a temperature keeping tool. You decide to take advantage of her good mood and walk over with an older report.

'Hey, Deema, what does this say?'

She squints at it, murmuring to herself, then says, 'I'm not entirely sure.' She takes the report from you and holds it closer to her face. 'My handwriting isn't very good. This is... oh, there was a cold snap a few years ago. I had to ride out with Moss to deal with it.'

You go through a few more reports, peppering Deema with questions and gradually getting more used to her notation, until you get bored and decide to tackle another problem.

'And the heat sigils for the community garden,' you say, and Deema sighs.

'What do you think?' she says.

'Big ones, to keep them weak. And having the garden beds in the middle of a sigil makes more sense to me than doing a bunch of sigils around the beds - we would have the outer spokes pointing inwards, right?'

Deema nods, and you continue. 'Hafiza and I were talking about whether they could be deconstructed then moved back into place as needed, but... I'm not sure how to do that. Would it even work if someone else puts it back together?'

'I don't think so - but I've never had reason to try. Those sigils I worked on with - the road witch. would be the closest thing.'

You remember the art installation, where incomplete sigils were activated based on the position of the sun. 'Well, you didn't carve the rocks out yourself.'

'No, he did the majority of it. I just smoothed it out, and laid out the pebble paths. The sun would have done the rest.'

'Huh. I can ask Lex to try completing one later. So, we want something that's more permanent than chalk, but less permanent than an engraving?'

'Precisely. I'm sure you can build something - do some woodworking that can go into storage if they don't need it. Deconstructing won't be a problem - anyone can break a sigil.'

You think back to fixing the table on the back porch. Woodworking might not be the way to go. 'I'll figure something out,' you say, and return to the old reports. There aren't that many, really - the weather here is mostly stable because of the long-range work Deema doesn't report, and of the reports that have actually been completed, they're sparse on details because she would have tried to minimise her writing

Tomorrow you'll finish condensing the reports, post your letter to Dessa, and deal with the sigils.

What sigil thing are you doing first?

Bother Lex for an experiment.

Drop by the community garden for a consult.

Voting ended onMay 22

[aminta]

spotify says ive listened to my top song 644 times.... that's 3.5k minutes I've spent listenjng to one single song

[aminta]

ok i want song recs so let me know what your All-Time Top Song is according to spotify. or whatever the fuck u use. mine is Joan of Arc by Arcade Fire

[ladyshinga]

[biomaterial]

new kind of guy dropped

[3liza]

he's unironically 100% correct and i will hear nothing against him

[trickstercarlos]

seeing trans women out in public is like warm sunlight washing over me it genuinely brightens my mood

[byjove]

whenever I see archeological remains of a human who suffered from a terrible disease that couldn’t be treated in their lifetime but could be fixed now, this wave of sorrow and mourning washes over me. a woman in the 14th century who spent her 35 years of life bent at the waist because of congenital scoliosis. a man from the 18th century who died because of a non cancerous mass on his jaw that made eating progressively more difficult. remains of a woman from the Neolithic who died in childbirth having evidence of peri-mortem trepanation on her skull.

and yet she survived to 35. and yet the physicians in his time tried to strengthen his jaw. and yet someone 4,000 years ago tried to save someone they loved from dying of preeclampsia/increased cranial pressure. we tried. we tried and we tried and we tried. we failed and we learned but we tried. that’s what makes humans so beautiful.

[lyricwritesprose]

My mom sometimes talks about a child in her neighborhood who was born with hydrocephaly and died of it. His parents strove to keep him alive for years, but he ultimately passed after a long decline. No treatment available. No hope at all, and the parents knew it from his birth.

Several decades later my sister had an MRI, as a long shot, to try to figure out why she was sick and deteriorating with a number of symptoms that were close to being written off as anxiety. She was sent straight to the hospital for adult onset hydrocephaly. Two days later she had brain surgery to put a shunt down her neck into her stomach and drain the fluid out. (No, you cannot usually get brain surgery that fast. Yes, it was that urgent.) Recovery was long and squiggly but it happened.

I think of that boy every once in a while. The one who died. I have no doubt that treatments developed for people like him, and tested on people like him, saved my sister's life.

He never knew he made the world better. His condition was severe, he never knew much of anything, I don't think. I think if I ever track down a God or something like one, that'll be somewhere on my List of Wishes. To make sure people like him know that they helped.

[mutedtempest]

I think about this a lot.

I've been type 1 diabetic since I was about one and a half, and was incredibly sick. If my mother hadn't also been type 1 and recognized the signs I likely would have died.

I was born in 1982. Insulin was first given to a patient in 1922, and he survived. Before that, type 1 meant death, often very slow and agonizing. Before insulin, doctors advised a super strict "keto" diet to prolong life, and it could work for awhile - up to a year, I believe. But it was a miserable existence as the body was literally eating itself as the blood turned acidic until the patient eventually died.

60 years. Only 60 years before my birth did that procedure work for the first time. That's absolutely nothing given the span of human history and I think a lot about the people who died from it throughout time.

But yes, people tried. Healers and doctors of all sorts tried all manner of things to allow these (mostly!) kids to live. The fact that it was accomplished at all is nothing short of a miracle. The fact that I've been alive 42 years is fucking insane considering my body doesn't produce a hormone necessary for survival. If you think that doesn't blow me away on a regular basis you have another think coming. It's nothing short of a miracle.

Every medical advancement is. The amount of work that goes into it and the vast amount of luck necessary to get it right even when all the research and information is sound is just astonishing.

Thank you, humanity. Thank you ingenuity and determination to save lives and make them better. Thank you to every medical practitioner and medical researcher in existence now and through all of time. Thank you to all the people who died so I could live.

[hyperactivehedgehog]

Diabetes is one of these illnesses that really throws medical history into perspective. It's so common, everyone knows someone who has it, people live pretty normal lives with it. And yet, a hundred years ago, it was an instant death sentence. And then we were able to treat people with insulin and yet - it was extremely disabling. The insulin was extracted from animal pancreas had severe side effects, even with how similar the hormones are, there is always an averse reaction to proteins from foreign species, especially during long-term treatment. Injections had to be given every few hours, at-home-tests were only available from the 70s onwards. Insulin pumps entered the market in the 80s. Genetically produced insulin - humanized insulin - was first available in the US in 1982, in many countries only around the year 2000.

In 1930, having diabetes type I would basically mean being hospital bound, being woken every few hours for regular injections.

In 1965, you'd be able to live at home and get by with a very strict diet and a few timed injections. You'd struggle with chronical side effects. Having children wasn't done - passing on your genes would be immoral, and it might not even be legal for you to marry.

In the year 2000, you'd have a device clipped to your belt that would measure your blood sugar and distribute insulin, you only need to change the needle a few times a day. You might even be allowed to join in P.E. class

In 2025, you stick on two patches that do the same thing. They're synchronized through your phone.

That wasn't fate. It's not natural development that made diabetes a common chronic illness. It was hundreds of people who cared. It was the people who created the keto diet. It was the people who came up with tests. The ones who went through different species, trying to figure out the closest analogon to human insulin. It was the people who fought in court to get genetically produced insulin approved for medical use. It was people who looked at a rare, incurable disease and said "but what if it wasn't?"

[macgyvermedical]

I have schizophrenia and a severe anxiety disorder. I have a good job and a wife and an apartment. This is because I also have escitalopram and risperidone. Risperidone came to market in 1993. There is another med I know works for me (haloperidol) that came to market in 1958, but which has a high risk of future side effects I would like to avoid.

Prior to 1958 I would likely have had to live in an institution, and I would have been miserable because my brain can do some very unpleasant things to me when not controlled with medication.

From 1958 into the 1970s, the dose of haloperidol they would have had me on would have been so high that severe and permanent disabling side effects would have been almost assured, and very quickly. My symptoms might be controlled, but working and having a family would likely be difficult or impossible.

I am grateful to live in an era where the medications that work for me are available and covered by insurance. And I look back and think of the hell that the people who had schizophrenia before me went through and I am thankful that science has learned and evolved.

[dykepuffs]

The one that always fucks me up is lung surfactant for premature babies - The lungs do an incredibly difficult and complicated transition as they move from being soaked in amniotic fluid and "breathing" a liquid, to being out on dry land and needing to have their countless microscopic alveoli exposed to the air, to do the gas exchange needed. Before about the middle of the 6th month of pregnancy, if the baby is born, their lungs will still be in wet-mode and the alveoli will struggle to inflate. It used to be incredibly common that premature babies, even ones who were otherwise healthy, would drown in the air, slowly failing to get enough oxygen in their blood, until their brains were too damaged to live any longer.

And then in the late 80s or early 90s we managed to synthesise a surfactant which you could scoit into the lungs, once (I believe up the nose) and it would unstick all the alveoli and allow them to breathe normally. And suddenly, that wasn't a way that babies died.

[fostertheory]

And then there are all the diseases and comorbidities prevented by vaccinations. Start with the iron lung and go from there.

When this post next comes 'round a few years hence, we might be able to say that we have a cure for AIDS. That certain cancers can be eliminated.

Science and public health--amazing!

[fresne999]

A week ago, I first heard about grandparents for vaccines. This is a group of folks sharing their stories about how vaccines (or lack) affected their loved ones to advocate for childhood vaccinations.

[canary-prince]

Do yourselves a massive favor: practice asking for help BEFORE it's an emergency.

I am a social worker. I have worked in community mental health and in home-based healthcare. And it is much, much easier for me to help you when the situation you're in is not yet a full-blown crisis.

"I'm out of money and have been for a while and now I haven't eaten for three days." This is a crisis. A crisis where I'm likely going to have to put you in the car and take you to the nearest food bank--except food banks require appointments now, and the next opening is in four days, so you're staring down the barrel of a week with no food. That's obviously not going to work, so, let's call eight different food banks until we've found one that has an appointment the next day...except it's in the neighboring county and you can't drive. So now I'm calling your doctor to try and brow beat an emergency plan of care update out of him so I can come back the next day and drive you to the food bank. And we haven't even started on the "constantly broke" part of the problem.

"I don't think I have enough food to make it to my next paycheck. I have (xyz) in my house and that will only last until (date)." This is bad, but not a crisis. We have a few days. We make you an appointment at the food bank and contact your brother to make sure you have a ride there. Now we can spend our visit talking about what bills are causing you the most problems and make a jump on a long-term solution, like looping in a community action agency to cover your utilities and getting you an OTC card from Medicaid to cover some of your groceries every month.

"I'm ten months behind on rent, and my landlord said I have a week to get out, or the cops will throw me out. I don't have the money, and if I get evicted, I have nowhere to go." This is a crisis. Every single thing we do here is going to be some version of a Hail Mary. In Michigan, we have the state emergency relief fund for rent issues, but process time is well over one week. There are community action agencies that we can call to assist you with payment, but they are unlikely to have sufficient funds to cover nearly a year of back rent. We can contact legal aid clinics to try and prevent your landlord from evicting you, but they may look at your case and determine that too much "fault" lies with you. Most likely, I'm going to have to put you in touch with homeless shelters and the public housing office.

"I'm two months behind on rent and I don't think I'll be able to pay next month either." This is bad, but not a crisis. This is solvable. We have time to apply for SER, or put you in contact with community action agencies. We have time to review your finances and see if you qualify for a public housing wait list or other forms of ongoing rental assistance. We have time to talk about a million possible adjustments to try and ease the burden of your rent.

"I am the sole caregiver for my elderly parent who has dementia and is emotionally volatile and fully dependent on me. I have not slept through the night in weeks and I have not had an actual break for over a year. I am having screaming meltdowns multiple times a week and I am threatening self-harm unless someone comes to collect my parent and take over all caregiver duties." This is a crisis. This is a crisis where the ethical code of my profession demands that I call 911 and report the conversation to them. They will likely come to the house and interview you. If they determine your threats were serious, they will have you forcibly committed to a psych ward. Your parent will either be dumped into a random hospital or rehab center, or left in the house on their own. Upon release from your psych hold, you will be expected to resume caregiving duties as though nothing happened. Except, now, adult protective services is actively investigating you, because it was determined you may be an ongoing danger to your parent.

"I am the sole caregiver for my demented parent, and I have not had a break in a couple of weeks, and I feel angry and weepy most of the time." This is bad, but not a crisis. We can get you in touch with volunteer groups for respite, and apply for state funded programs to get more day-to-day help, and talk about long-term planning for when the dementia symptoms get worse. We can get you the phone numbers for crisis lines and enroll you in a support group.

Obviously, you can ask for help at any point. Don't use this an excuse to never ask for help. If you always wait until it's a crisis, fine, you have free will. But you are ALLOWED to ask for help BEFORE you're in a blind panic, and it is always easier to get help when you aren't screaming and sobbing because you think your life is over.

[setulose]

Hi. It's me, Trustfund Whitelady, here to tell you all about my queer-owned small business oddities shop. Check out our multiple products on offer such as: quartz bought in bulk from Amazon, $5 vinyl stickers of animals in cowboy hats, king cake plastic baby earrings, and up in our display case, a taxidermied bat we for sure don't have a permit for. Our brick and mortar store has no available parking or public restroom but it DOES smell so strongly of incense that you'll need to hose yourself down after exiting :) If you can't make it out to the shop, no worries! We'll be at the craft market next Saturday between the amigurumi mushrooms stall and the 3d printed fidget slugs stall

[scramratz]

I think people would be less suicidal if they were allowed to talk about being suicidal without risk of being sent to the Torture Dungeon

[cognitohazardous]

me: hmm time to google something

google every time: can i PLEASE have your location PLEASE 🥺🥺🥺 I need to know where you live so BAD 😫😫😫😫 Where do you fucking from?????? 😩😩😩😩😩😩