hello! my name is jess (main: @spearbe) and in preparation for treasure’s debut, i finally gave in and created this side blog i make mediocre gifs and would love nothing more than to find fellow treasure enthusiasts and ccs! if you would like or rb this post so i can check your blog out i would be forever grateful mwah
hello! a formal post is long overdue but this blog will be indefinitely inactive
i’ll be active on my instagram and tumblr art accounts (@junmielle for both) if you’re interested in following! i might post any choices and litg art i draw on this sb, but that’ll be about it (unless i feel compelled to write another essay about open heart, which, in that case, i apologise in advance for adkjladj)
thank you so much to everyone who’s ever enjoyed and/or interacted with my art T_T i doubt this post will properly convey just how much i appreciated being able to meet and experience this fandom with you all, but it was a lot of fun! all the best
can you really blame people for questioning/criticizing pb’s writing and social media/pr decisions and holding them accountable? not only are the ways we read stories influenced by our own lives (let alone how stories are never completely detached from politics and reality), but… they literally engage with political and social issues in their own stories
being critical of the media we consume and games we play is good and something we should do
i can’t help but feel as if open heart 2 missed the mark on what makes open heart so enjoyable and how it could have handled its social commentary on the american healthcare system.
one of the core features of pb’s popular and more successful stories is the strength of MC’s friend group. such a diverse and likable cast like open heart’s is poised to effectively address its overarching theme of the accessibility of healthcare and its critique of privatized healthcare – especially when diversity is an issue in medicine, all while developing each character as they become an accomplished resident.
yet, it falls flat because it was a plot point for one character.
the other residents and raf are inexplicably sidelined in terms of interaction with MC and development both in and outside of diamond scenes, which seems counterproductive when a strong friend group is one of the book’s strengths. we miss out on seeing not only their growth, but also their views on the healthcare system. raf could provide a unique perspective as a paramedic from a different socioeconomic background than the others as well.
making ethan the centre of the book’s social commentary felt forced. his long-winded shtick about morality, objectivity, and not wanting to treat the rich felt uncharacteristic when his character and route are fundamentally about separating the personal from the professional. that arc just seems like an attempt to humanize him by giving him the flaws of having some self-righteous saviour complex (seemingly unaware that he is most definitely not the only person to identify the healthcare system’s flaws) and inconsistent beliefs. his disproportionate share of diamond scenes only exacerbates this.
why not have MC and the other residents navigate conflicts between their ideals and reality as they start practicing medicine? why not have ethan weary from years of sacrificing his ideals to work within the constraints of privatized healthcare, his passion for equitable care reignited when he advises MC on said moral conflicts as a mentor and they challenge his jaded attitude? or have him show MC how he does work within these constraints?
why not have the residents and raf be the focus of this ongoing plot line?
1.catherine lacey; cut 2. douglas coupland; life after god 3. bell hooks; all about love: new visions 4. la dispute; nobody, not even the rain 5. the front bottoms; bathtub 6. mary oliver; upstream: selected essays 7. unknown 8. amanda palmer; runs in the family
Shaken from her thoughts, Maria flushes at being put on the spot. “Sorry, Miss Clancy.” She swallows against the lump in her throat. “I just don’t feel well today.” An understatement if there ever was one - for the last two hours, her heart’s been tight in her chest and her stomach in knots. The pressure behind her eyes threatens to split her head in two. She isn’t sure what’s causing her to feel so ill, but it’s made it increasingly hard to focus on long division. “Could I go to the nurse?”
Miss Clancy, well-versed in Maria’s various N.I.D.S. symptoms, nods, concern coloring her tone. “Of course. Do you need someone to walk with you?”
The handful of other kids in the room pretend to be studiously completing their worksheets to avoid being chosen, but that doesn’t bother Maria. On another day, perhaps it would, but she’s so caught up in feeling so wrongthat she disregards it with a shake of her head. “No ma’am, I’ll be okay.”
“Go on, then. We’ll get you caught up when you’re feeling better.”
—
Maria doesn’t actually go to the nurse, however. She’d intended to, honestly, but the second the classroom door closes behind her, something begins pulling her in the opposite direction. The longer she walks, the more her body reacts: her heart pounds, her face grows hot, and her lungs seem to constrict. She knows enough to place these symptoms with an oncoming anxiety attack - it wouldn’t be her first - but something feels off.
Then, inexplicably, it hits her: Shadow. Something must be wrong with Shadow. Immediately following this thought, something pricks her wrist; she instinctively swats at the skin, expecting a bug to have bitten her, but when she looks, there’s nothing there. She rubs the skin in confusion, but then a shout in the distance echoes down the halls of the wing she’s accidentally found herself in and brings her back to the task at hand. Clenching her fists in determination, she sets off towards the sound of her brother.
—
She bursts through the door with a surprising amount of force for someone so young. Multiple doctors suited for surgery surround an operating table in the middle of the room, all of whom turn to stare at her as the door slams shut. A myriad of machinery and trays of tools litter the room. Two massive lights mounted to the ceiling on movable arms are stretched down to spotlight the table and, more importantly, the patient on said table.
Lying under the incandescent lights with his eyes squeezed shut and an IV in his wrist is her little baby brother. Between the dark blue scrubs of the doctors she catches a glimpse of restraints tied around his wrists and ankles. The anxiety and the terror she’d felt all morning on Shadow’s behalf culminates in an anger that makes her head spin.
“Whatare you doing?”
“Maria,” one of the doctors begins, holding his hands up placatingly. “You shouldn’t-”
“Maria?” comes Shadow’s voice, so frightened it breaks her heart, accompanied by the shuffling of sheets and desperate struggling against his restraints as he tries to sit up to see her.
“I’m here, Shadow,” she attempts to soothe before cutting her eyes at the doctor who had addressed her - Tully, she thinks his name is. She plants her hands on her hips, portraying a bold attitude despite the bile rising in her throat. “Let him go!”
“Maria-”
Stomping her foot, she all but shrieks, “Now!”
The doctor closes his eyes for a moment contemplatively. Maria’s outbursts are few and far between, so no one save for her grandfather truly knows how to handle them. What he does know is that in the long run he’ll be better off telling Robotnik he let Shadow go at Maria’s behest rather than Maria herself tattling to her grandfather and blowing everything out of proportion. With this in mind, he begrudgingly gestures for his team to release Shadow.
The second the IV is removed and the restraints drop away, Shadow leaps from the table. He skirts past the doctors quicker than they can move out of the way (one of them nearly has her legs swept out from under her at the sheer speed with which Shadow barrels past her) and throws himself into Maria’s open arms to be held close like one of her baby dolls. Shadow buries his face against her neck; filled to bursting with all kinds of emotion, both her own and Shadow’s, Maria turns to the side as if protecting him from the doctors with her entire body. Howdarethey.
“You can’t dothat to him! He’s still little!” she chastises them with angry tears in her eyes. A few of the doctors look away, embarrassed at being reprimanded by a ten year old or ashamed at seeing her cry, while others exchange unimpressed looks. “How would youfeel if you were tied up and alone in such a scary place?”
“Maria,” Tully says with as much patience as he can manage, “we’re only doing-”
She doesn’t care to hear it. “No!” Her gaze flits between doctors. “Where’s Valerie? She wouldn’t treat him this way.”
“Valerie is your doctor, not Shadow’s.”
“That’s stupid.” She edges a little closer to the door, ready to make a break for it if anyone so much as looks at them wrong. “She should be his doctor too. She’s nice.”
“Maria, let’s go,” Shadow urges, anxious to get as far away as possible before they change their minds and put him back on that table. His heart hammers in his chest like it’s trying to break free.
Before she can move, however, the door to the operating room swings open again - this time revealing Doctor Robotnik. As an awkward silence descends on the team of doctors, Maria takes the opportunity to turn her pleading eyes towards him. Shadow peers at the doctors over her shoulder until their eyes on him force him to look away uncomfortably.
“Zayde,” she inhales past a sob, “you have to tell them to let Valerie be Shadow’s doctor, okay? It’s not fair, they can’t do this-”
“Alright, alright, now hold on.” Gerald stoops down to her level, one knee on the ground and arm resting on the other. Given Maria’s distress and the way Shadow is latched onto her, refusing to look at anyone, this experience has truly shaken them both. “Take a breath, then tell me what’s going on.”
Maria does as instructed; Shadow copies her, twisting to face Gerald as well. “I felt like something was wrong so I came to find Shadow.” Her bottom lip quivers. “They had him strapped to that table like he’s dangerous. He’s not dangerous, he was scared.”
Tully breaks in, exasperated. “Doctor Robotnik, we were only carrying out orders.”
“They were hurting him, I could feel it!” Maria protests, frustration evident in the crease of her brow.
Gerald looks sharply at Tully over the top of his glasses. “My orders did not include restraining Shadow, especiallynot without consulting me first.” He straightens up. “All of you, out. We’ll discuss this later.”
Knowing better than to argue, Tully purses his lips. He and his doctors shuffle out of the room, and with them goes the tension. Maria’s shoulders relax and Shadow lets out a quiet sigh of relief.
“Now,” Gerald says, turning his attention to the children, “let’s talk about it, shall we?” He guides her and Shadow further into the room, where he lifts them up so they can sit on the table. Shadow remains firmly in Maria’s arms, though for whose benefit is unclear.
“You said you could feel them hurting Shadow?”
Nodding, Maria says, “My head was hurting really bad and I couldn’t breathe. I felt scared, but I didn’t know why.” She holds out her arm, wrist facing up. “I even felt it when they gave him the IV.”
Gerald examines her wrist. It’s completely clean: no redness, no marks, no sign at all of anything that may have pinched her in a way that mimicked Shadow’s needle. “How did you know where Shadow was?”
“I dunno. Miss Clancy let me leave class to go to the nurse but when I left, I felt like I had to go somewhere else.” With all the nonchalance of a child who can’t tell weird from normal, she says, “I think he brought me here.”
Pensive, he looks to Shadow. “Shadow, what do you think?”
Suddenly alert now that he’s been addressed, Shadow answers at length, “I wanted her to find me. That’s all.” His ears flatten against his head in fear of being reprimanded. ”I didn’t do anything.”
Gerald senses his unease. “Don’t worry, you aren’t in trouble. Neither of you did anything wrong.” Affectionately, he lightly ruffles Maria’s hair. “You did the right thing trying to protect Shadow.”
She beams at him, though her satisfaction is quickly replaced by concern. “Does this mean you’ll let Valerie be his doctor instead?” She looks down at Shadow. “You like Valerie, right?”
Noncommittally, Shadow shrugs one shoulder. He only met Valerie in passing when she’d come to check on Maria. “I guess.”
“Unfortunately, Valerie isn’t qualified to be Shadow’s doctor.” Maria’s face falls, and Gerald clicks his tongue. “Come now, don’t make that face. I will speak with Doctor Tully and his team, and if Shadow is still uncomfortable with them moving forward, I’ll have him replaced.” He looks at Shadow. “How does that sound?”
Pulling at the cuff of his glove uncomfortably, Shadow doesn’t meet his gaze. He isn’t keen to see Doctor Tully again, but he also doesn’t want to be fussy. “No more restraints?”
“No more restraints.” Gerald places a hand over his heart. “I promise.”
Mollified a bit by the Doctor’s vow, Shadow nods. “Okay.”
Maria isn’t as pleased. Reluctantly, she says, “As long as Shadow’s okay with it, I guess that’s fine.”
“Wonderful,” he claps his hands together once for emphasis. “Any other grievances to air today?”
Shadow shakes his head; Maria raises her hand. “Do I have to go back to class?”
The unexpected question makes Gerald laugh. As a doctor, he should encourage her to continue her studies for the day; as a grandfather, he sees no harm in allowing her a day off after such an unpleasant encounter. Still, he pretends to consider her request for a long moment before finally answering, “I’m sure Miss Clancy will understand if you skip the afternoon.”
The sentence is hardly out of his mouth before Maria throws her hands in the air with a cheer. Shadow, finally freed from her grip, uses the opportunity to roll backwards out of her lap. The chill of the table’s thin, vinyl-covered cushion sends an uncomfortable shiver down his back. “What should we do first, Shadow?”
“Don’t get too ahead of yourselves,” he says, helping Maria down as Shadow hops off the table and lands on all fours, shaking out his spines as he straightens up. “Stay in your room or the observatory. Let’s not push our luck, hm?”
A bit deflated, Maria grumbles out a “fine” before looking down to Shadow with a grin. “Race you to the observatory.”
He glances from her to the doctor, asking permission with a tilt of his head. When Gerald responds with a nod somewhere between exasperated and fond, Shadow says, “You’re on,” and bolts from the room.
Maria tears off after him with a squeal of laughter, leaving her grandfather with nothing but a goodbye shouted over her shoulder.
