Genuine Night Fury Of A Woman

Washington Post is paywalling the article but it looks like Taylor Farms — a consumer bagged salad brand that also supplies produce to grocers and fast food chains like Taco Bell, Walmart, McDonald's, Chipotle, Burger King, KFC, and Meijer —may be at least one of the sources of the current cyclosporiasis outbreak.

Dark-breasted Rosefinch (Procarduelis nipalensis), family Fringillidae, order Passeriformes, India

Sorry this took so long to get done! I wrote this in the midst of one of the worst flares I've had in a while, so a looooot of that went into this fic (also a lot of research about amputation/phantom/scar tissue pain). Hopefully it's worth the wait!) Thanks so much for the ask! (Also, I'm using this fic to check off a BTHB square, too!)

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Hiccup's Reason by Emachinescat (AO3)

HTTYD | Link in Title

When a bad pain flare hits both Hiccup and Toothless at the same time, dragon and rider take care of one another - and Hiccup learns a valuable lesson from his dragon along the way.

Fandom: How to Train Your Dragon (Animated Movies), DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon)

Words: 4,898 | Chapters: 1/1 | Rating: General Audiences | Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply | Category: Gen | Part 2 of Bad Things Happen Bingo, Part 23 of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Hurt

Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Toothless | Characters: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Toothless (How to Train Your Dragon)

Additional Tags: Chronic Pain, Phantom pain, Fibromyalgia, Scar Pain, Hurt/Comfort, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Toothless Friendship, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III Whump, Hurt Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III Needs a Hug, Hurt Toothless (How to Train Your Dragon), Friendship, dragon cuddles, Worried Toothless, Worried Hiccup, Amputation, wrote this fic during an awful flare up, so much of it is deeply personal to my own experiences, Pain, Scars, The boys taking care of each other <3, Whump, Angst, a lil, because i can't help myself

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Excerpt below; read the whole fic on AO3! <3

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Even before he opened his eyes, Hiccup knew it was going to be one of those days.

He hadn't moved yet, hadn't so much as shifted his legs or turned his head, but he could already feel it, descending upon him like a heavy shroud, wrapping his body in layers of pain and fatigue, scrambling his mind and setting his senses on fire. And the warning buzz in his lower left leg — which didn't even exist because he'd lost it three years ago — painted a grim picture of what was to come in the next few hours.

Nausea settled itself in the pit of his stomach, skin crawling and joints preemptively aching at the thought of moving, of sitting up, of strapping on his prosthetic leg and forcing himself to stand. Of dragging himself to the Clubhouse and subjecting himself to the chaos of breakfast with the other riders. Normally he enjoyed eating with his friends, but when he woke up feeling like this, the laughter was always too loud, the overlapping voices too overwhelming, and any degree of touch too grating on his already shredded nerves.

And so Hiccup didn't move. He didn't rise. Not yet. Just for now, for the next few minutes, he could rest here in this in-between state, where the full weight of the pain and fatigue had not yet crashed down on him, where he hurt but not too much, where, if he focused hard on something else, he could almost convince himself that this was going to be a normal day with a normal level of pain and a normal amount of exhaustion.

Being an amputee on Berk was not unusual by any means — though Hiccup was definitely the youngest — which meant that Hiccup had already known a bit of what to expect when he lost his leg. Especially growing up with Gobber as a mentor. Hiccup knew all about phantom limb pain, and how the scar tissue on the stump often hurt, especially if there was bad weather brewing just over the horizon. Between Gobber and his two stumps and Bucket and his, well, bucket, the village had never been struck by a storm unprepared.

(A storm was on its way now; he knew this already. He and the others had spotted it on a scouting mission, blowing their way from the east. They'd hoped it would blow itself out by the time it reached the Edge, but based on the agony in Hiccup's stump, it was good that they'd made preparations just in case.)

So although Hiccup had dreaded the possibility of long-lasting pain after his amputation, he'd at least had an idea of what awaited him. Or so he'd thought.

Because what he had not anticipated was the full-body assault that had accompanied the phantom and stump pains. It, much like the amputation pain, ebbed and flowed, though it never fully receded. It usually settled like a coiled viper in his joints, stretched along his muscles, and brought with it a fatigue so staggering, so all-encompassing, that it had a physical presence, like millstones had been tied to his limbs and hung around his neck, like enormous, unyielding hands were pressing against his shoulders, pushing him down, wringing him out.