#thesecondsealwrites

@thesecondsealwrites, in regards to your concerns about my boys:

Magical Sweetheart Son: Vincent is currently sitting in all sorts of romance-y feels across multiple AUs and pining over Roz like a dork in all of them.

Magical Trash Son: Gavin is busy conning money out of people by cheating at cards and “Why no, Mister Templar Officer Sir, I can’t possibly be a mage, see? I’m wearing warrior armor.”

“You just set some bandit on fire.”

“With this torch! Nothing magical going on, move along, nothing to see here!”

The Boy 2.0 and Curly Jr.: Alex is dragging his cousin Gabriel through the streets of Kirkwall to meet Grace because if his bff is going to move in with him, it’s only fair that he knows the whole reason Alex decided to pull up roots and set up shop in a should-be-condemned tavern in a town Gabe’s dad spent the better part of a decade living in. Besides, Uncle Varric invited them both up to the Keep for dinner and they can drop by the garrison on the way.

Gabe thinks Alex is out of his mind, but someone has to be around to keep him out of trouble.

The Boy: Rolfe is right smack in the middle of a three-part story involving meeting his biological father, his half-brother Vincent’s mother, and dealing with the “did we just break up?” aftermath of Cassandra’s nomination of possibly becoming the next Divine. He’s retreated to the third floor of the Herald’s Rest and the Chargers, Southerland’s Company, and his own Super Secret Spy Squad are running interference downstairs.

“I’ve said it once and I will pretty much die on this hill, so… DON’T...”

Gauze pad goes first! But! Now! I'm thinking there is another (better? Less like to be confused?) term for the thing. What is the thing? We've akways called them gauze pads lol

<_< >_> I found myself looking side to side for the term as well, but I can’t really think of it. And, at the risk of sounding like a jerk, even one who has already made the disclaimer, gauze shoulder never be used unless you are planning to debride a wound, and that’s basically like saying, you should only use scissors to turn the pages of your book.  Yeah, you can manage it, but there is going to be a lot of unnecessary damage in the process.

purpleravenlily replied to your post “I’ve said it once and I will pretty much die on this hill, so… DON’T...”

Honestly I’ve never had to use it so like 10/10 for things I did not know and will file away for the future

Life congrats!  Seriously!  I mean, to never have had such a bad cut or wound?  That is either great luck or cautious living, both of which I approve :D

While I’m here.... I did a post on this a while back (wow, I need to re-read this and study), but my blood’s up now and I want to just vent into the ether for a skosh.

One of my favorite things to do when I’m at the pharmacy is to stroll through the wound care section and see what they got.  Some CVSes have good inventory and some have only basic plasters/bandages, but if you look at basic bandages you’ll notice they always, have a non-stick part built in.  And you’ll say, “But Chama, I have used plasters before and they STICK to me wound!”  

To which I say, “OK, Blackbeard, but did you use a topical antibacterial ointment to keep it moist?”  (Yes I said moist, twice now, sue me).  

“But Chama, you’re supposed to dry out a wound!”

Have you ever tried to move your skin, or a joint in your body when a huuuuuuuuge scab was covering it?  NOT FUN.

We all know the human body is 70%+ water.  Skin cells and muscle cells and all of the other cells need water to migrate as they propagate new tissue and heal (hint: this is why you’ll hear of physicians/nurses/whomever packing a deep wound with extra material even as they cover it with a bandage on top, to encourage the upward mobility of the deepest tissue AND to keep the wounds’ edges from coming together before the deep stuff comes up- this company has great packing material that is NOT gauze and will NOT dry out the wound: https://www.convatec.com/wound-skin/aquacel-dressings/hydrofiber-technology/).  If you put super dry gauze on a wet wound, it will definitely make sure that no blood leaks out, and it will soak up a lot of exudate (exudate is the “weepy” cocktail of blood plasma and other interstitial stuff that your wound actually needs to heal up really well, but because there is a hole in your skin it’s natural that some of it is going to come out).

The best thing to do is (assuming you’ve cleaned your wound to the best of your ability): 

gauge the nature of your wound: is it deep?  does it need packing?

fill the wound, regardless of depth with something that will keep the wound moist (neosporin, etc., hopefully something anti-bacterial and “staying power” like the sporins).

cover the wound with a bandage, the borders of which are well enough away from the boundaries of the wound to not interfere with your movement or the wound’s healing - DON’T USE GAUZE.

LEAVE IT ALONE.

Seriously, leave it alone.  I mean, if it’s not a serious wound leave the bandage alone for two or three days and then take a look at it.  Even if it IS serious, you need to leave it alone unless you need to apply a new non-gauze and non-stick bandage because of all of the fluid coming off of it.  If that’s the case, you’re probably in the hospital and someone else is doing that for you.  Either that or you’re on the run, in which case, splurge an extra two or three bucks on good bandages and hang in there.  Chances are, when you uncover the bandage after having left it alone for a little while the neosporin or whatever wet medium you’ve chosen will look yellow or even greenish- unless your skin is very hot around the wound site, it it’s most likely NOT infection.  It is exudate seeping out of the wound bed.  Yes, it looks nasty as hell, but you really need to leave it alone.

After two or three days, change bandages, starting over from scratch, including cleaning away the old neosporin and stuff.

Repeat until healing is finished.

Ideally, ideally, ideally, you should NEVER have a scab.  Ever.

I tell you this after having gone through my own wound care courses and then practicing on myself.

Ignore whatever flaws you may find in my otherwise gorgeous leg (no blood or scabs or anything below, just some old, healed scars):

The above picture is a wound I sustained in a running fall about 11 months ago.  It’s just a slightly darker patch of skin.  I followed my own instructions above and never let the wound scab over, and yes, it was at first a blood piece of nasty, nasty work.

But on the whole not too bad, right?  I mean, it could look like a shadow if you were just looking at it casually.

Below, however, you can see (on the same knee), before I knew better than to let wounds dry out, I had a similar fall (years previous) and took it upon myself to let that wound dry out.  It was actually NOT as bad a scrape as the above wound, but it looks like I got into a fight with a gangster or something.  Oh yes, it scabbed, and the every time the scab caught on the healing skin it hurt to move.  

Okay, so.... let’s all say it together!  We won’t use gauze!  We’ll save money and our bodies and use fewer bandaids and leave our wounds alone to heal like they want to!

Thanks for listening.

I'm dying. lolol

muscle is denser than fat. your clothes fitting you better is a better indicator of achievement than the scale.

Someone’s left the window open,just a crack, enough that the breeze slips through and rustles through thecurtains. There’s noise down in the streets, sunlight flickering on theceiling. Ash and ember left in the fireplace, its warmth long since gone. She’shuddled under blankets, surrounded by pillows, snuggled in tightly, her facebarely visible and her hair splayed in every direction. He leans against the doorframeand simply watches for a moment. There’s a bird outside the window, singing itssong, but she does not wake. Instead she simply rolls over onto her side. Hestruggles with the smile, hides it with a hand.

Fenris takes each stepcarefully, avoiding that one spot that creaks terribly, makes his way to theside of the bed. Leaning over, brushing hair from her face and tucking itbehind her ear. Gently climbing into the bed with her, an arm slidingunderneath her neck. His chest pressed against her back, his legs bent the sameas hers, his other hand drifting over her arm. It settles around her waist,pulls her close. Hawke murmurs in waking, breathing deeply as she struggles toopen her eyes. Shifting and turning, and her smile is full of sleep. “It’s timeto get up,” he says as he runs a hand through her hair, fingers curling againsther cheek.

She blinks once, twice, thenburies her face against his chest. Her arms slowly wrap around him, handsfisting in his tunic, pulling him closer. He can barely hear the “no,” somuffled and hoarse. He chuckles under his breath as he leans away slightly,presses a kiss to her forehead. Faking a pout as she looks up at him, tanglingher legs in his. “Stay,” she says.

“You know that Aveline wants tosee us about –” He’s stopped by the thumb running over his lips, her hand sowarm against his face. Fingertips that trace the shell of his ear, follow theline of his jaw. Her eyes shift from his to his lips, once last brush of herthumb before she fulfills her promise of a kiss.

“Stay,” she murmurs against hismouth. Her hands against his shoulder, pulling at his shirt, dragging himcloser. He moves as she asks, stretching out over her, elbows against themattress. She tastes of sleep and sweeter things, her mouth warm and wet, hertongue explorative. Her hands are moving as her legs wrap around his waist,finding the bottom of his shirt and sliding underneath. She finds the track ofhis spine, presses fingers against it as she moves upwards. Over his shoulderblades, against every rib, back down again.

“Stay,” she says with quickenedbreath, in between longer kisses. She always has an appetite for him, thecraving, and the fervor. Wanted and needed, never taken for granted. Not injust simple kisses, but for his company itself. For the quiet words before bed,food shared in the morning. Drinking wine as he reads, his head on her lap.Offering the words he doesn’t recognize, speaking the things he cannot say.Terrible jokes crafted for his laughter alone, her hand over his, the smileflashed across a room.

“Aveline will be furious,” hetells her.

I wrote chapel smut one satinalia and in convinced I'm going to hell for it. Lol

block-of-writers replied to your post “Admission:  I feel like I should be exorcised or something. I’m...”

That’s the only way to write smut tbh