Café Leblanc

((It has...been a while, huh? Well, one of my favorite muns, @the-phantom-crow/ @the-flower-karasu has been sending me their rp threads on dreamwidth, and it's really got me wanting to write again.

Plus, I'm starting to feel a little more human again after a pretty lengthy period of stress. Managerial jobs on an RP blog? Fun. Managerial jobs in real life? Not always fun.

I sincerely hope you change your mind.

The mortality rate differs based on variant, severity, and which country you live in. Also, even those who survive end up having long-term health side effects that are tough to live with. There's a little bit more information here from Johns Hopkins if you'd like to take a look: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality

As for being fake vaccines, I can tell you that the vaccines are certainly real. If you have questions about how they work and how they were developed, here's some great information from the CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/how-they-work.html

As for "preventing you from catching a disease:" that's ideal, sure, but it takes a population achieving herd immunity to do that. We're not near that number yet! We're still figuring out what herd immunity looks like for COVID, but for other illnesses, it takes 80% - 95% people being vaccinated. Here's some great information from the World Health Organization on that: https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/herd-immunity-lockdowns-and-covid-19

The vaccine gives your body a chance to build up the antibodies needed to fight an illness without making you sick. As COVID still is going through the unvaccinated population and develops variants, there will be "breakthrough infections." The good news is that since I was vaccinated, my body already had antibodies to mount an excellent defense against a really bad illness. Instead of sending me to the hospital, I just have to stay in bed. And the likelihood of me having long-term effects is significantly lower.

Thanks to vaccines, I've lived my life free of suffering from mumps, diphtheria, whooping cough, rubella, and tetanus - illnesses that my parents can remember getting and telling me it was NOT FUN. So yeah, I believe in them and I've read enough that I made an informed decision.

It really did. I mean, COVID killed thousands upon thousands of people before the vaccine was readily available. Because I got vaccinated, my body had the memory and experience of having to fight a fake version of the disease. That way, if and when the illness showed up, my body was ready to fight a lot harder than it would have been without the vaccine!

Thanks to the vaccine, what is normally a death sentence or at least a long-term hospitalization is now just a couple days in bed with lots of fluids and rest. I'll take feeling like I have the flu over being in the ICU any day of the week!

So, funny story. I have COVID, despite being fully vaccinated.

I can’t talk about this on my personal because of who has access to it, but basically here’s what happened: someone at my job was in contact with an unvaccinated person. That coworker tested negative, and came to work. Turns out the negative was a false negative, and a few more of us got sick, including me.

I’m counting myself lucky that I am fully vaccinated, have access to healthcare, have a job that gives me paid time off, and that I’m in quarantine with Internet access and good company. 

The café, for the first time since he’d moved to Yongen, felt lonesome. Sure, LeBlanc wasn’t a bustling social hub, but there was something cozy about it -- intimate. With the world slowing to a frozen crawl, Akira felt even more trapped than before. 

And unlike in the Metaverse, the mask he wore now didn’t feel appealing or empowering. Especially with the unintended side effect of fogging up his glasses all the damn time. 

Sojiro, to his credit, found ways to innovate. Futaba helped, certainly - promoting LeBlanc online, looking at contactless pickup, and even finding restaurant supplies that could keep dishes warm for longer. Customers still found them, sure, but they couldn’t come in. The entire transaction was a phone call, an envelope with the money under the door, then Akira opening the door to leave a box and thermos for the customer. 

It was a little heartbreaking; so much of the meal’s goodness comes from the atmosphere, after all. 

So um...I guess I should just admit it to myself: I’m getting sicker, and it’s getting obvious. My energy after work is completely drained, and as much as I keep trying to keep a regular schedule here, I’m struggling. Given the nature of my work situation right now, I can’t call out sick, so I’m just basically plowing through a 45-50 hour a week job while vomiting, running on 4 hours of sleep, and stomach pains bad enough to stop me when I’m walking.

[He hasn't seen her in forever. Screw blowing a kiss - he goes in for the lips.]

[Honestly, he’s just had a rough day. With Morgana out sightseeing with Haru, it was a good time to blow off some...intimate steam. Not that Morgana didn’t understand, but it was a little odd to exile him for it.]

[He plugs some earbuds into his phone, quickly finds an incognito mode tab, and goes to his personally curated video list pulled from several...reputable websites for discerning gentlemen. He’s not expecting any calls at this hour anyway.]