#also i rarely get phantom sensations...

[sealcore]

questioning if extinct felids are included in my cladotherian-ness because last night i almost felt like i had phantom saber teeth 😭

[syscest]

Dear mods... thank you for running this blog, and this ask might come off as desperate at first but it's really funny once you think about it in hindsight.

The thing is; I have alters, which have their own states of being, they can switch to the front and even some of them have their specific phantom sensation, some have their own writing styles, they have their own belongings in my room, their own social media accounts, we have a headspace, we have a subsystem AND they have their own headspace, I can talk to some in the headspace, we have shared and non-shared memories, in fact one of my headmates is reading this with me (can't let him know of all the intrasys on this blog or he'll get freaky with it though) and yet...

I fear that one day it'll turn out that all of this is not real.

Does it ever get better?

Yeah, I think so. We still have the rare off day where we feel tinges of that "you're pushing it" or "surely this is a bit fabricated" feeling - especially when we're experimenting with something new.

It's always a possible feeling, but i think it gets less frequent and especially I think it loses its bite - the different way I'm wording it probably shows some of that already.

For one, external support is huge - someone who knows you who can smack sense into you when you're worried that experiences they've SEEN HAPPEN are somehow complete acts is a serious help. Hell, having someone that sees you at all takes such a weight off - if you're stuck being the only one seeing yourself/ves, it can take a real toll trying to stay confident in what you're feeling.

But also, I think your definitions change? Your personal perceptions and experience actually matter a lot. Early on its easy to get caught up in this narrative of objective "realness" and be scared of delusions. But over time it's like - you are having this experience right now. you're there. you're in the experience, you're accepting it. you're talking to a gimmick blog on the internet about it. It's too late, you can't erase it anymore. If you say tomorrow you realised you're actually just a singlet, that's fine, but you will still have been plural today - not even you can take that away from you.

Lastly, and this is gonna sound dumb but, just plain old exposure. We've been going for three years now and we've seen ourselves shrug off all kinds of junk. We've had fronts stick for weeks and completely forgotten what switching feels like, only to have it happen out of boredom or external stimulus and be shocked to feel the cog move again. We've repeatedly assumed things about ourselves only to then realise that we are wrong and that the system works differently to the way we think it does. At this point, suddenly being a singlet would be like starting from scratch - our being a system is so much of us, being "wrong" just isn't as thinkable.

idk, I love us, and I think other people do too. try unrealize that.

[rhouxl]

Open wound care, a writing guide

To start—

This is based on my own experience getting treatment post-surgery and will therefore be very subjective, as well as case-specific. This is not medical advice, though I will touch on medical topics and explain everything as well as I am capable of.

The Wound

Depth and width

The depth and width of the wound will, separately, affect the given treatment and therefore the related sensations your characters experiences. The basic types of wounds, no matter the cause, are:

Wide and deep

Narrow and deep

Wide and shallow

Narrow and shallow

These are sorted by longest to shortest healing time. The more tissue that needs to be regenerated, the longer the healing process will take. This guide primarily deals with the treatment of deep wounds.

The edges

Similarly, the edges of your character's wound will affect the healing strategy and speed. There are, ignoring specifics, two primary types of wound edges:

Frayed

Straight

Frayed, or uneven, edges usually imply larger damage to the tissue and may be caused by any kind of ripping, including bullets, but also scraping or blades with non-smooth cutting edges. Straight edges usually, but not always, imply lesser damage and may be caused by any kind of cutting (and some rather rare cases of shooting). Straight edges are usually easier to heal because they are easier to "piece together" and tend to be easier to clean.

The sensation

The exact sensations your character experiences will depend heavily on the wound itself, as well as the care, or lack thereof, they may experience. The following is a list of some sensations they may experience:

Pressure, especially applicable to deep wounds that are being "stuffed" to avoid/catch bleeding (wound tamponade); feels dull and heavy, sensation shifts according to the movement of the body, but is overall relatively consistent; comparable to the pressure in one's sinuses during a cold, but very localized.

Phantom bruising (and real bruising), especially around the edges of the wound; can be a very large area of phantom bruising, where there is nothing visibly "wrong" with the skin, but the tissue is still sensitive and may feel somewhat warm; feels exactly like a fresh bruise.

Pinching or "biting" sensations, again especially around the edges; feels sharp and precise and often only lasts for a few seconds, usually "moves around" rather than being just one specific spot; comparable pricking one's finger with a needle or getting pinched by fingernails.

"Pins and needles", especially after a period of inactivity of the affected body part; feels very similar to a limb that has fallen asleep, but sharper where the actual wound is; more likely if pressure is being put on the wound, by a tight bandage or the character lying down on it.

Stiffness followed by phantom (or real) tearing, again after periods of inactivity, often accompanied by an aching numbness; feels like the sensation of stiff bones after a long car ride, but applied to skin, can be accompanied by a sense of dryness, followed by a sharp sensation that shoots out towards the spine; phantom tearing may feel similar to the sensation of breaking an old, dried leaf between one's fingers and can be very startling if the wound is out of sight and therefore cannot be checked.

Warmth; can be a sign of infection past a certain point, but a lot of wounds feel faintly warm because of the energy the body is spending trying to repair the tissue.

Nothing at all, at least while the wound is being left alone; if the wound is in a place where there is nothing messing with it, nothing touching it from the outside or inside (see: "stuffing" to avoid bleeding), then it's completely possible that even a deep and wide wound may be mostly painless for some time; though any kind of touch will certainly remind your character that it exists.

The Wound Care

The methods of wound care primarily depend on the depth and width of your character's wound and not every wound can be sewn up. Especially deep wounds may not get sewn, since there is a chance of creating a "wound chamber" by closing the surface, where the the surface heals shut while a hole in the tissue remains within the body. Such a wound chamber can then easily develop infections or abscesses. Therefore, deep wounds may be kept open to slowly heal from the "bottom up".

Healing a deep wound properly is a very long process and can take many months. Under normal circumstances, an average adult can be expected to heal between 1-4cm of each depth and width per month, depending on the exact care given.

Cleaning the wound

In a medical setting, this should be done with sterile saline solution or a special wound cleaning solution that may also include antibiotics or antiseptics, but can also be done with "regular" water, though this ups the risk of infection and may draw out the healing process; the liquid is usually pushed into the wound with a needleless syringe or a similar applicator rather than "just" pouring liquid in and around the wound, with the liquid then being dabbed away with cotton balls; the liquid used to clean the wound will be room-temperatured, and with wounds being a bit warmer as well, the liquid will usually feel uncomfortably cold; additionally, the character may experience burning sensations and pressure sensations, especially when the liquid is initially applied.

When using cotton balls (or anything similar) to remove both the cleaning solution and blood from the wound (and there will always be bleeding during a bandage change), your character may experience a repeated, very painful ripping sensation from the material touching the edges of the wound. Additionally, your character may notice one or two points of pressure, which feel painful and hard, but without a temperature sensation, if tweezers are being used to hold the cotton ball. These tweezers will usually be very dull and made of plastic, but are still noticeable to the person getting treated, even if the wound is wide enough for the tweezers not to touch it; pressing the cotton balls down to soak up any liquid is enough to make them noticeable.

"Stuffing" the wound (wound tamponade)

Stuffing the wound, which means filling it with sterile material, like gauze, that is intended to soak up blood while keeping the wound open and is usually done before applying a bigger bandage or bandaid to the surface, is very, very painful.

Removing the previous material causes a painful ripping and tearing sensation comparable to singular body hairs being ripped out one by one, which can also be accompanied by sharp pressure if tools like tweezers are used to remove the material. The material will often have slightly fused with the edges of the wound, be it through healing or through the drying of the blood, which makes the process as painful as it is. In addition, this means that removing the material will (almost) always cause the wound to bleed again, even if there was no active bleeding before the bandage change. Changing the bandages more often (once a day or more) will lessen this effect to some degree, but it will still be painful; waiting longer between bandage changes will increase both the pain and the bleeding, as well as the risk of infection.

Reapplying the material is similarly painful, if not moreso. The exact sensation depends on the "stuffing material" (light vs dense material), but the process is generally overwhelmingly painful, as the wound is being pushed further open than it may be in its relaxed state to ensure that it will heal correctly. This causes an extreme burning and pressure sensation that can take an hour or longer to get better without painkillers.

Bandaging the wound

No matter if you are using a large bandaid or a bandage, the surface level treatment is usually the least painful; this does not mean that it's not painful, though.

The application of a bandage itself will rarely be painful, at least, and will oftentimes feel faintly warm with each layer that is applied. Still, while being gentler on the wound, bandages have a high chance of sticking to the wound and especially the edges of the wound through blood, and if the bandage itself isn't sticking to the wound, the gauze used certainly is. Even if the bandage/gauze is wetted before removing it from the wound to make the removal easier, it will still be painful and cause a tearing sensation that can leave a feeling of cold burning.

Bandaids, especially at a large scale, are painful to remove and painful to apply. They may be more secure than a bandage, but during the application, the caretaker will usually need to apply some tension to the wound, especially to align the edges correctly to avoid the wound healing crooked or uneven. This will leave the wound with a burning feeling for some time after the application, even if the edges are being kept apart. The removal is no easier, especially due to mammals' unfortunate habit of having body hair in combination with the skin around an open wound being generally sensitive. The entire area that the bandage has covered will at least temporarily feel extra sensitive and may even feel faintly scraped open, though actual damage from bandaids is very rare.

Effects on the Body

Beyond what has already been mentioned, here are some further side effects of the wound and especially the care thereof that your character may experience:

Extreme tension due to pain; the muscles of the body automatically tense up when we experience pain, sometimes to the point of cramping and lingering stiffness; if your character is being treated while lying down, it is completely possible that their limbs may stiffen to the point of moving off the surface they are lying on.

Shaking, again due to pain; tends to accompany previous tension, but can also be caused by fear/anxiety or pain on its own.

Weakness in one or more limbs; this one somewhat depends on the location of the wound, but especially torso wounds will often take a toll on the nearest limb, which may be weak and/or shaky, especially after a bandage change; for legs, your character may need the help of another person or mobility aid to be able to walk securely, for arms, they may not be able to hold or lift things for a period of time. If this weakness isn't permanent and, for example, triggered by the bandage changes, it will usually last over an hour.

Soreness in the general location of the wound; can result in the already mentioned phantom bruises, but can also affect muscles and even bones, leaving rather large areas of the body to feel painful and difficult to use.

[tarinetea]

hey. list of hallucinations and delusions hux has. coming from someone with a history of both. content warnings in tags but typical hux things i think.

- people he knows dying in some ways. crying out for help, screaming. auditory to the point of him having to go check multiple times for a body, even if the person in question is known to be somewhere else.

- bugs. tactile, audio, or visual. it depends. he doesn't actually mind them. if anything, it's more of a comfort. usually beetles or moths.

- random officers of lower rank coming to sabotage him. even to the point of deciding they've compromised his devices or even put cameras in his room. these officers are swiftly dealt with

more under the cut this is getting long. but even if you don't read on please understand this is still a 35 year old working general. sure it causes occasional issues but in no way does it make him incompetent

- delusions of kylo attempting to sabotage him are also frequent, but he's not exactly able to take kylo out in that fashion. though, it's led to more subtle attempts on ren's life and a lot of vitriol. (this also goes for the command circle in tros)

- after starkiller and the destruction of the supremacy, he hears the emergency alarms from both whenever it's too quiet. to the point where it's almost too loud to think

- any drinks handed to him are presumably poisoned. one faked courtesy sip and it's getting tossed. he's the only person who can handle his own belongings under the same logic with extremely rare exception.

- honestly at times he's convinced too that ren isn't exactly human. interpretations change at times but sometimes they're an angel, other sent to be his personal torture. but a manufactured being nonetheless

- while not exactly a delusion he gets unshakeable, lingering feelings of things happening. like premonitions that unless he takes very certain actions to prevent it something will go down.

- also auditory hallucinations of brendol and other abusers of his past. sometimes more or less vague, occasionally accompanied by fleeting shadows or phantom sensations.

- as a coping mechanism, hux also occasionally falls into the belief that he isn't human- more mechanical. not needing to eat, drink, sleep. this is a comfort to him until he crashes from some human need not being met

anyways. yeah have that

[salty-an-disco]

My voices' abilities, mainly in my Heathens AU, but also something I usually give to them in general:

Hero: mild shapeshifting between his different routes forms (not smth he can control and intrisincally linked to his facets); some emotion manipulation abilities, usually manifesting as his own emotions being projected into the air around him (fear, anxiety, happiness, determination, etc)—also not very good at controlling it, it usually just kinda Happens

Contrarian: Surprisingly resilient, since the skin under his feathers is made of a rubbery material and his bones might as well not exist for how much they seem to affect him; additionally, body has some elastic properties—can contort themselves to all kinds of weird positions; changes saturation (and, more rarely, the colors themselves) based on mental state

Cheated: Regenerative abilities; her body is made out of a hard material that can easily be reattached if it breaks off (not without pain though); can still control any limb that gets cut off, and the phantom sensation they leave behind helps him find them if they get lost

Skeptic: incredible far-sight vision (not as good near-sighted); intuitively knows the purpose of almost any object he comes across and how to use it; photographic memory

Smitten: can he really affect what's about to happen through the sheer power of belief or is he just extremely fucking luck? who knows!! Can also conjure up almost any food at will as long as he knows how to do it and has the energy for it

Cold: High-tolerance for all kinds of pain as well as extreme temperatures (doesn't mean his body isn't affected by it); has a natural defense against mind-reading and mind-controlling magic, as well as most effect-based spells (this includes potions)

Paranoid: High-sensitivity for magical and others supernatural activities; similar intuition to Skeptic, but leans more towards magical/cursed objects; can see through invisibility, including that of spirits

Hunted: Heightened senses in general; can talk to and understand all kinds of animals and creatures; faster-healing when sleeping; if it considers someone part of its 'flock', it becomes able to sense exactly where that person is if they're in its general area

Opportunist: mild shapeshifting, mainly on his face (can also change voice); his scorpion tail stores a non-lethal venom he can seep from either the tail's stinger, his teeth, or claws—the venom will slow you down and fog your mind, and may even cause some hallucination

Stubborn: Incredible resilience and strenght, only held back by how easily he can tire out; gets a buff when protecting someone else

Broken: the opposite of Hero's emotion projection, where they'll absorb the emotions surrounding them (it usually leaves them feeling pretty overwhelmed and a bit numb); their singing has some healing and soothing effects, unless they're in a particularly bad mood, then the singing will cause anguish and pain

[fakegingerrights]

Got another whump prompt for you inspired by my IRL miseries, but: sunburns. (TW for sunburns, I guess? Throwing it under the cut anyways)

Sunburns are, essentially, a minor radiation burn. And when they’re severe, they cause issues

And I’m not just talking ‘oh I got skin cancer ten years later issues,’ there’s this handy dandy thing called ‘sun poisoning.’

Different from heat stroke or heat exhaustion, sun poisoning is essentially minor radiation poisoning. This is usually seen in people with second or third degree sunburns.

Symptoms of sun poisoning include: fever, nausea, vomiting, severe inflammation, dehydration, severe cramping and joint pain, and itching.

In my experience, the itching is the worst. 10/10, pain but not really, even the lightest breeze can set it off and you’re screaming for it to stop. Also, lidocaine and other topical painkillers rarely help with the itch, even if they bring down the inflammation.

You seriously want to tear your skin off. It’s utter torture, and that’s coming from someone with chronic pain conditions that send most people running for the hills. In the two times I’ve had burns this bad, I had to be sedated several times because it itched so bad I couldn’t stop screaming.

And the inflammation. If you were burned on your back (like I was) raising your arms above the shoulder was a challenge, as was opening them all the way to the sides. If you get burned on your legs, you can’t even stand straight without pulling on the inflammation.

Now, couple that with the infernal itching, the chills and nausea and the hypersensitivity of fever? Of the skin coming off your back/thighs/arms in sheets? Of it cracking open again and blistering and being so, so painful to move for weeks after? Good for tormenting a pale whumpee.

And how long it takes to set in is another thing. I’m very very pale, but for context: an hour in hawaiian sun gave me second degree burns. Thirty minutes at my home altitude of 5000 feet gave me severe burns. It does not take long at all. A whumpee restrained outside on a particularly sunny day? Maybe with their hands tied above their head and left there to wither for a day before being brought back inside crispy and dehydrated? Beautiful.

And for those of you who love scar whump: sunburns scar. And more than just a tan or freckles, I mean scar-scar. Everywhere it blisters, everywhere it peals and cracks open? Scars. In my case, it blends with the freckles in a white and dark pattern of blotches, but more than that the scars get phantom itches and pains. Sensation is dulled and they grow tight like other burn scars. Whumpee’s body will carry those burns for a good few years, if not for life.

And if you’re holding onto a whumpee that long, cancer is gonna crop up somewhere. These are radiation burns, after all.

(Bonus: for those of you like me who burn really easy, or want to inflict some nasty melanoma on a whumpee, remember the ABCDEs of skin cancer: Asymmetric shape, Border is irregular, Color is weird, Diameter is unusually large, and it’s Evolving and changing, it’s probably cancer.)

Anyways. I keep seeing the lily white anime pretty boy in so much media and not enough sunburn whump. If you’re going to make them that pale they must suffer the curse of the sun like all the rest of us sad fucks, in my honest opinion. Give them boys some burns!

[there-and-gone]

Hey there!

I freaking LOVE your works, so I wanted to recommend a prompt :)

(If I have time, I'd love to draw what happens in the short, if you write it!)

It's really stupid... an idea is that Alastor adopts or finds a cat, and Husk grows jealous of all the attention the cat's getting instead of him. XD

Thank you for the prompt (and feel free to draw something for this if you like)! When I settled down to write this I thought something hot and angry was going to manifest, but I was pleasantly surprised when this came out. It's calmer/more sedate, but I think it still fills the prompt :)

I hope you all enjoy!

Pairing: Husk/Alastor

Rating: T

Length: 1125

Title: Mirror Neurons

It was raining, and the sedate mood outside the Hazbin had infected the hotel too. Charlie and Vaggie napped on one of the sofas, Niffty occupied herself with finding all the leaks and taking her time doing it between sips of hot tea. Angel and Cherry Bomb had gone up to the spider demon’s room to do fuck knew what, and Pentious was in his laboratory with the Egg Boiz, lulled into serene work by the steady downpour. 

Husk, for his part, hadn’t wasted a second taking advantage of the hotel’s quieter energy for a midday catnap of his own at the bar, arm curled around a bottle of whatever booze had been closest. If no one had the energy, he wasn’t going to bother with it either, and the alcohol in his blood had more than paved the way for fatigue to take him under. 

He’d have let it too, if his radio-obsessed prick of a deal-holder hadn’t walked into the lobby to settle by the window to quietly watch the rain, stroking KeeKee’s back as he peacefully wiled away the time like the rest of them.

It shouldn’t have bothered him. It shouldn’t have. Any other time Husk would have turned his head away from the red freak, and that would’ve been that.

Except it was a rare day to see Alastor relaxed like this. And it was also a rare day when KeeKee wanted Alastor’s attention. A rare day that Husk even noticed.

But the low energy in the building kept him in the strange, in-between place of having too much and too little energy to care, and he’d gotten stuck watching Alastor watch the rain and ease long, languid strokes along the cat’s back. KeeKee, for her part, was on the cusp of sleep from Alastor’s attentions, leaving Husk the only one to see. He peered over his arm, sheltered by the darkness the wing he’d slung over him created, and he just… watched, too tired to do anything else.

If it had been just Alastor, then he wouldn’t have cared. But the way he petted KeeKee was hypnotic. Stuck in the in-between world of a doze, before Husk realized it, he'd become drowsily lost in phantom sensations that started at the crown of his head and eased down the long line of his spine, matching Alastor’s motions with KeeKee. 

Husk glowered, hating how his fucked-up hell body was trying to synchronize with what the hotel cat was experiencing, cat-to-cat. It wasn’t the first time he’d noticed this happened when KeeKee was around. He’d heard someone say something about mirror neurons, and how seeing something could mirror it in you, like yawning. Whether it was that or not, it bothered him, and he'd made a point of being careful around KeeKee to avoid accidentally matching her. Feeling what she felt.

Because he could only imagine how good those pets must feel.

Even in her doze, KeeKee shifted to ensure that she got the best pet she could, stretching and sprawling until her silent demands were met by Alastor, ensuring she once again settled in relaxed pleasure.

Husk’s back ached. Every muscle and bone in his body did, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been touched in a way that created that level of relaxed pleasure, and like this, half-awake, he wanted it. Badly. He didn’t care who it was that gave it to him, but since it was Alastor he could see, when his mind drifted it was Alastor causing the phantom sensations along his spine. Over and over that horrible hand eased along the cat’s back and Husk craved it. If he’d been more awake, he’d never have let it get this far but stuck like he was, the aches of his body were a little more persistent and with some stupid hellish mirror neurons driving him mad, he didn’t feel too bad for it. It was Hell after all.

Still, he surprised himself with a low warning growl when Alastor’s fingers slipped under KeeKee’s chin to scratch there, causing the hotel cat to purr with pleasure and make Husk seethe that he wasn't the one experiencing it.

The sound caused Alastor to pause, his red eyes immediately pulling away from the rain outside to pin him down, but Husk was startled by his own response so much that he'd broken out of the in-between enough to force his head around, destroying whatever mirror neuron contact he’d had hypnotizing him. Embarrassment stung his cheeks, and more awake now, he refused to let on that he was anything but still asleep. That he was just making noises during a nap. He did that. Everyone did. Nothing wrong with that.

Except he knew Alastor, and Alastor, like it or not, knew him. Husk’s face tightened into a closed-eyed glower as he buried his face in his arms and shifted his wings even tighter around himself when he heard the distinctive sound of the Radio Demon’s boots striking the ground. Husk willed those boots to take the demon who wore them away, but his luck wasn’t that good. They moved toward him, the sound soft to anyone else, but loud to his enhanced hearing.

Still, Husk pretended, and even when those footsteps finally stopped beside him, he didn't move. He could just imagine the look on the asshole’s face, amused and arrogant, the bastard. He waited to see how this would play out. What Alastor would do.

It took everything he had not to react when a warm hand settled on his crown before slowly stroking along his neck, then down the length of his spine before pulling away just above the top of his pants. Husk was so shocked by what he’d just experienced that the bastard got in two more slow, steady, decadent strokes before he had enough brain to do anything about it.

But instead of snapping and shouting like he usually would, Husk shifted just enough so he could glower at Alastor. 

Alastor paused and smiled at him from where he’d taken a seat on the spare stool behind the bar top, settling himself comfortably before glancing out the window to watch the rain once again.

“I much prefer petting you, Husker.”

“Fuck off.”

The Radio Demon chuckled but stroked along his spine again, and if anyone woke up and saw them like this, he’d tell them it was just Alastor being his fucking deal-holder. Shamelessly exerting his authority over his damned soul.

Even if, hidden within the darkness of his wings as his muscles relaxed and the rhythmic sensation threatened to pull a purr out of him that he wasn’t releasing into the world for anything, he knew the reality was far from that.

[a-random-pillow]

But little do we know, the stars Welcome him with open arms

AO3: But little do we know, the stars Welcome him with open arms - Chapter 1 - A_Random_Pillow - World Wrestling Entertainment [Archive of Our Own]

Tags: Chapter 1/?, Crime Drama/Slice of Life, Prosecutor Cody Rhodes, Detective Seth Rollins, Enemies to Friends to Lovers

Characters: Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens

Ship: Cody Rhodes/Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn,

Seth's pencil flicks across the paper as he reads the most recent reports from his field agents. Another robbery, three more dead bodies and tens of thousands of dollars stolen... They failed again.

He scribbles names and notes between the margins, mapping out their plan, calculating exactly what they stole and figuring out what they left and why. His hand cramps, but he doesn't give the pain any mind as he grabs the next page. He's already been at the office for hours, and the sun is only now rising.

His mind begins to swirl, frustration becoming a firestorm inside of him.

He really thought the trap would work! He set it up perfectly, hell, he even put his own life on the line to try to bait them, but instead they struck an entirely different bank across the city!

Seth leans back into his chair. He wants to move, get all this energy out of his body, but his limbs feel heavy, impossible to lift. His breaths quicken like he's running even though he can't move.

He can't tell who he hates more, Roman for doing all this, or himself for being incapable of stopping him.

The phantom sensation of flames spreads across his arms, it's painful even though it's only in his mind. The anger is seared away, replaced by the need to burn something or be burned himself. The old memories of combat boots and kind hands are replaced with even older memories of cruelty, dark rooms and small hands covered in blisters and sores.

He feels like a child, an incapable little child who can't do anything right.

"....?"

Is someone talking? Seth glances over and sees a blur of black, white and brown. For a moment, he is stricken with panic. Who's here? Why are they here? Did Seth do something wrong? Is he safe?

"Seth?"

Kevin... Seth's safe, it's just Kevin, his friend.

"Hey man, are you feeling okay?"

Seth blinks away his tears before sitting up as he forces himself to say.

"yeah, I'm fine."

The words sound fake even to him, but Kevin doesn't push. Instead, he pulls up a chair and hands Seth some water from his desk. Kevin frowns a little before he begins speaking,

"This weekend, Sami surprised me with a reservation at a nice restaurant I wanted to go to but could never justify spending my money on."

Seth forces his racing mind to focus on Kevin's story. Kevin speaks calmly with an ease and compassion that Seth rarely manages. Seth was sharp; his words were biting, even if he tried to be kind. On the other hand, Kevin was gruff, but he could switch between kindness and coldness as needed. Seth couldn't switch; he didn't have another mode.

"Sami picked out our outfits ahead of time, so all I had to do was get dressed, matching suits and everything. After dinner, we got ice cream at the zoo and-"

Seth smiles, allowing himself to replace all the painful memories with Kevin's words. He isn't in the dark places in his head; he's at a nice restaurant or the zoo.

Kevin continues speaking, and Seth listens, allowing Kevin to paint him a picture of a mundane peace that Seth has never really known. Seth has known Kevin for a long time, but they only started working together recently when they were both assigned to the Bloodline Case. As much as this case consumed his life, he also made some new friends through it.

"Feeling better?" Kevin asks with a kind smile.

"Yeah," Says Seth honestly.

"Good... Listen, I know our most recent plan didn't go exactly how we wanted it, but we can recover, we always do and..." Kevin smiles as he pulls a crumpled paper form from his coat pocket. "We got a new prosecutor!"

Seth blinks in surprise, they haven't had a single prosecutor assigned to this case in what felt like years, most of the local ones had been scared off by the Bloodline, and despite it being common knowledge who the leaders of the city's most infamous crime family are, they still haven't managed to build a decent legal case. Needless to say, most prosecutors won't walk within five feet of them.

"Who is it?" Seth asks suspiciously.

Maybe the Bloodline hired someone to be a mole for them? Or maybe this prosecutor was just an idiot who didn't understand the case or who they would be going up against?

"Cody Rhodes," Says Kevin, his voice full of excitement.

. .. ...

Cody Rhodes?!

Cody Rhodes? Orton's bratty legal assistant? The youngest son of the city's most well-known entertainment family? The guy who hasn't been seen in the city for six years? That Cody Rhodes? No fucking way.

"Yeah, I didn't believe it either," Says Kevin, clearly reading Seth's expression loud and clear.

"I didn't even know he passed the bar, but turns out he's been specializing in international organized crime for the past few years, he helped bring down three different drug rings so far... Seth, he might just be a game changer!"

"No." Says Seth matter-of-factly as an amused smile crosses his face.

"We are not letting him anywhere near our case; remember the Orton scandal?"

"One, he's already on the case and two, Orton is our informant now, remember?"

Seth leans back in his chair before saying.

"Yeah, but Orton's still a criminal; he just happens to benefit from the destruction of the Bloodline. What if The Bloodline hired Rhodes?"

"What is the saying? Keep your friends close but your enemies closer?"

Seth kicks his feet, spinning his chair as he tries to think up a retort.

"Also, Seth, you should know how much people can change."

Seth drags his feet on the ground turning back to glare at Kevin but Kevin knows he won. The brunette nods, waiting a moment before saying, "I think we should pick him up from the airport, you know, welcome him back to the city."

Seth huffs, he's already lost the argument on blocking Cody from the case, but he definitely won't consider driving out to pick up this guy from the airport!

---

Seth drove into the arrivals section of the airport, glaring at the brutalist architecture like it had personally ruined his life.

He should never have agreed to this in the first place, but Seth's respect and love for Kevin allowed that stupid Canadian to sway him into 'kindness'. Then Kevin had the nerve to bail on him because Sami's car broke down or something.

So now Seth was going to pick up a person he didn't even like from the airport! He should have just gotten Kevin to tell Cody that they couldn't make it, but unfortunately, Seth fell for Kevin's logic again!

Seth hears a ding. He glances at the small notification on his dashboard, seeing a message from an unknown number. He presses a button on the steering wheel before saying, "Read me the message I just received."

The electronic voice speaks slowly and clearly as it says,

"Hello! It's Cody, I am at exit 7."

At least he was to the point.

It takes Seth around five minutes to get to exit 7. He parks out front before texting Cody back.

"Here, Black Lexus."

Seth looks around for a head of brown hair and feels a little confused when he doesn't see him. He double-checks his phone to ensure he's at the right exit before hearing a polite knock on his window. He looks up and sees familiar bright blue eyes looking back at him.

He blindly fumbles for the unlock switch on his car door as his mind catalogues the many changes in Cody Rhodes.

For one, his hair is bleached blond now instead of the dark brown Seth was familiar with. He had a few more scars than Seth remembers and a hideous neck tattoo. But the part Seth finds most striking is his eyes; before, Cody's eyes were cold as ice, but now they seemed warmer, like a tropical ocean or clear sky. He's wearing practical travel clothes that easily blend into a crowd, rather than the colourful polos he used to wear as a legal assistant.

Cody opens the back door, quickly storing his large suitcase and backpack before sitting in the passenger seat.

"Hey Seth, long time no see," Says Cody, casually with a friendly smile.

"Yeah..." says Seth as he tries to reconcile this new Cody with the Cody he used to know.

Seth snaps back to reality, finally noticing all the awkward tension.

"Yeah, it has been a long time." Says Seth, forcing a smile.

Seth starts the car, pulling out of the exit as he asks,

"So, where are you headed?"

A fond smile crosses Cody's face as he says

"156 Georgia Street."

That causes Seth's smile to become a little more genuine as he says more than asks,

"Going home?"

Everyone knew Georgia Street, but when people thought of Georiga Street, they were most likely only thinking about the couple blocks owned by the Rhoeds family: the Hard Times bar, the American Dream hotel, and the Black and Yellow Night Club along with a few other establishments, all icons of the city built by Cody's late father, Dusty Rhodes. It was one of the only places that could manage a warm, comfortable atmosphere, good food and drink, along with affordability. There was nowhere like it in the city.

Seth never spent much time there, but everyone who was anyone in their city had been there once.

Seth didn't need a GPS to get them to Cody's destination.

"Yeah, there's no reason to stay anywhere else, " says Cody, looking out at the window and absorbing the familiar yet different skyline.

Seth could remember a time when Cody was desperate to escape his family's shadow, so desperate that he did stupid, dangerous things. He's changed a lot... maybe, this could all just be an act.

"How have the past few years been?" Seth asks, genuinely curious.

"After everything that happened, I realized being in the city wasn't good for me, so I left, passed the bar, became a prosecutor, joined a couple of firms and helped build one from the ground up, but nothing ever felt right... When I saw your case, I knew it was time to come home."

Seth hums. That was a good overview and gave Seth some starting points for research; he mentally files away the information.

They stop at a traffic light, and Seth can't help but ask,

"Blond? Really?"

Cody runs a hand through his hair before saying.

"Yeah, I bleached it once and never went back. Well, save for one time, but that was the exception."

Cody turns to look at Seth before asking.

"So how have you been?"

Terrible, Seth wants to say, but he's not going to open THAT can of worms with Cody Rhodes right now.

"I'm alright," Lies Seth.

Cody nods, looking back out the window as they drive down Main Street. A nostalgic smile crosses his face as his blue eyes dance across the shops and restaurants, always lingering a bit longer on the newer establishments.

Well, one benefit of having Cody on the team is that Cody is actually from the city, unlike Kevin, John, Becky, Eli and Seth. He knows things intrinsically that they would either have no way of knowing or have to look up.

They finally turn down Georgia Street, and Seth is pleasantly surprised to see that the whole area still seems pristine despite it's age. Seth turns into the American Dream hotel, seeing bellhops gather bags onto their carts, tourists just now arriving, and businessmen and women leaving for their meetings or fancy lunch; it's a lively place.

"Thanks for the ride, Seth. I really appreciate it." Says Cody with a smile.

"Do they even know you're arriving?" Asks Seth, looking out over the sea of people who don't even give them a second glance.

"No... I'm just going to head up to my family's old apartment, I didn't want anyone to touch it before I got there."

Cody's expression is grim, and Seth feels his heart twist, not because he empathizes with Cody but because he knows exactly what he's feeling. Dusty had been an important part of the city, and he had been especially important to Dean, Roman and Seth... his sudden death had been a shock to all of them.

"Are you sure you want to stay up there?" Seth asks, looking up through the sunroof of his car. He sees all the curtains drawn on the top two floors.

"I think so," Says Cody, reaching out for the door handle but never pulling it.

"I'll come with you," Says Seth, impulsively.

He regrets it as soon as the words come out of his mouth, but the hope in Cody's eyes stops him from taking his words back. Cody smiles and says, "Thank you, Seth."

. .. ...

Seth still doesn't like Cody.

[arinwritesstuff]

Long post warning!

I’ve gotten a few anon hate messages in my inbox about the content warnings in my MHA fic (in the darkness, there was you) from people that clearly have not read it. I’m also inclined to believe they’re all the same person since they have similar spelling mistakes. So, just for clarification (cw for rape/SA, teen pregnancy, and trauma recovery under cut):

My fic touches on heavy topics like rape and teen pregnancy, but this is not done with the intention of fetishizing or romanticizing these topics, and I’ve been assured by multiple people that were also wary of the tags at first that my fic does neither. My fic explores recovery, identity, and finding strength after trauma, as well as found family and the importance of good support systems and the many ways that can look like. I write heavy topics, even ones out of my comfort zone, because I plan to write books of my own someday that explore trauma and overcoming it to find yourself.

While in promo for the fic I use the main ship (Kiribakudeku) as a way to refer to it, the story itself is much more centered on Eijiro. I’ve made it a point to put emphasis on his other relationships (his moms, his daughter, Mina, Mr Aizawa, his other friends) in addition to the romantic plotline with Izuku and Katsuki. They don’t even get together until chapter 12, and once they are together, I put emphasis on boundaries, discussions of consent, and clear/open communication between them. There is also 0 smut, and it will remain that way. The most I will include is discussions between krbkdk (as adults) about their boundaries when it comes to sex, and a few rare references to them making out.

I intentionally did not include the SA in text outside of PTSD-related flash backs that are focused solely on dialogue or describing vague phantom sensations Eijiro is experiencing. I know how often showing the actual trauma gets taken by the wrong crowd to fuel fetishes/rape fantasies.

I did include the birth at the very beginning to put the readers in Eijiro’s shoes. You’re watching his life completely change in the span of a few hours, seeing how terrifying and stressful that is given the cryptic nature of his pregnancy, seeing the support system he has in his moms. It also puts his bond with Eiko into perspective, because despite how terrified he was and how horrible the situation was, he was able to find a good thing in the middle of it all. This decision would not be the same with different characters, but Eijiro is extremely empathetic and caring by nature, and I think he would have had a very difficult time letting go after meeting her.

This story also does not make everything sunshine and rainbows, as if once you hit a certain point, you’re fixed. Eijiro has many ups and downs with his trauma recovery, like PTSD and anxiety attacks. He can get triggered by things. He struggles with low self esteem and intrusive thoughts. He has stumbles in his parenting and doesn’t always make the best choices. He reflects and grows and learns and relapses and heals. None of this is linear, just like in real life. He’s human, and as much as he may struggle, he also finds joy and love and support.

All in all, my intention with this story is to handle these topics with respect and understanding. I myself am a childhood SA survivor, and while I was fortunate enough that the nature of my abuse did not come with risk of pregnancy, many others are not so lucky. I think telling stories like this in any format are essential for building empathy, even in something like fanfiction, as long as it’s done with proper research and respect. I think honestly fanfiction is a great medium for it because people already have a connection to these characters, and anymore there are people that almost all their reading is exclusively fanfiction.

I do understand the concerns and wariness people have around the content warnings and tags on my fic. As stated before, I’ve had multiple people tell me they were nervous until they started reading it. This is mostly due to the fact that many stories on ao3 that touch on these topic range anywhere from well-meaning but ill-advised attempts at covering them to full-blown fetish content. My fic is not perfect, and I won’t pretend that it is, but I am doing my best to treat these topics with the care they deserve.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62901022

[thepluralmaster]

Mirroring (as a Plural Shapeshifter)

Written by Rei Kagura (He/him)

(Crossposted from Dreamwidth)

(Blurb: We noticed polymorph traits that sounds similar to our experiences as shapeshifterkin, and this essay is us comparing the two.)

One polymorph trait that caught our eye when reading some polymorph writings (here and here) is a polymorph’s tendency to mirror those around them. To quote Arethinn, whose writings on polymorphs can be found on the first link:

“The polymorph tends to mirror the forms of those around them, though the exact operation of this phenom/skill hasn't been worked out. Why we would easily mirror some and not so easily others, we don't know.” “(...) There's the additional twist of a tendency to mirror others.. faced with a dragon, I tend to become dragon; faced with a pixy, that is brought out in me, though some "work better" than others. It doesn't take much to make me reflect dragon, but there's not a lot of pixy in me to begin with, so it's never a clear "image".”

While we’re not polymorphic, we notice that we do experience some form of mirroring, though in a much more limited way than what we think a polymorph may experience.

We visualize ourselves as wearing certain outfits in headspace, ones that we have visual references of via official art of our sources. Our abilities to conjure this mental image is not without flaw, and we may be unable to keep it “stuck” in our mind for prolonged amounts of time without having it change in any way, and different members can be more or less easily affected by this. We may end up rapidly cycling between several outfits for some amount of time before slowing down and settling with one. We may also notice that our outfit has changed to match one of the images we’ve seen of ourselves recently (e.g. a fronter saw a picture of X wearing a school uniform, then X in our system would be seen wearing the exact same uniform when they came to see them). In rare cases, we may mix up several details of different outfits (e.g. getting colors wrong, wearing outfit A but using a hat only seen as a part of outfit B) or in even rarer cases, using an outfit their source have never been seen using but is seen being used by someone else’s source instead (e.g. X wearing Y’s outfit because X misremembered who wore that specific outfit).

This also includes costumes of nonhuman entities, though in these cases, we can feel the nonhuman body parts as phantom limbs and we can move those as if it’s part of us. Despite that, this doesn’t always mean that we identify as the beings we dress up as. For example, there is an image of me wearing cat ears, tail, and claws, shown below.

Most of the time, looking at this image would cause me to look like how I was portrayed in that card and feel those aforementioned phantom body parts. I do register these phantom sensations as belonging to me. Despite that, I do not identify as a cat or any other feline beings. To me, this is nothing more than a costume, or rather, a form I can take without needing to identify as such.

Another thing we noticed is that polymorphs not only change their form into multiple beings, they become those beings entirely. This is definitely not the case for us since our shapeshifting noemata is very clear that our minds stay the same despite our form changes. However, what we experienced is a bit similar to that. If we’re being reminded of a certain member in our system by being exposed to images or voices of their source for long enough, said member would be dragged to co-consciousness and/or co-front with varying levels of ease depending on each member. This could help us whenever we want someone to front, but it could also be an annoyance if we have no intention to do so. At first glance, this looks similar to a polymorph mirroring and becoming what they see, except that in our case, the "I" of the two forms belong to different people, the previous fronter does not change into anything, instead the controls are handed over to a different system member.

We haven't seen many writings on shapeshifters and polymorphs, there probably isn't that many, or we just haven't found them yet. Hopefully our writings on our experiences can be helpful for others, possibly by being a jumping-off point for discussions.

[fae-born]

I found this fun questionnaire and I thought I'd answer the questions :)

Faerie Questionaire

1. What Mythology/Story/etc. is your Faeself from? What "kind" of Fae are you?

I don't want to say too much here because it's a bit personal and specific. I will say that my Faeself is similar to a nymph, but not quite, and kind of like an oracle. I dwelled in a mountain cave that had its own world inside it.

2. What are your nonhuman features like? Do you have Wings? Pointy ears? Are you short? Tall? Beastly? Beautiful?

I looked like a winged human, and sometimes a wingless human. I have a star on my forehead.

3. Do you have a past life?

I don't know if I would call it a past life, but kind of? It's complicated and I don't fully understand the nature of it. I chose to be here though.

4. Do you work with any kind of Fae or Nature Spirit?

I work with the local nymphs, fairies, and spirits of plants, places, and things in general.

5. Do you get Shifts? What are they like?

I have a star on my forehead that's always there, but it's kind of like how your nose is always in your field of vision but you don't really notice it. I'm rarely thinking about my star.

There are times where I feel astral wings on my back very strongly, but the sensation of them comes and goes.

Otherwise I feel like I'm in a constant state of mental shiftiness, if that makes sense? But the feeling of feyness, of being tapped into something ethereal, can intensify or weaken.

6. How did you realize you were Faekin?

I always felt a connection to fairies, and I always felt a sense of alienation from humans (also for mundane reasons) despite loving humanity. I also had the sensation of phantom wings since I was very young.

I had an intuitive feeling that it might be because I myself am fey, and decided to explore it. Things started to fall into place after that, and I'm still figuring things out :)

7. What do you do to get in touch with your Faeself?

I do magic, I garden, I go for nature walks in places that remind me of where I lived before I came here. I like to go to archaeological sites too, especially temples. I like to do divination and make potions and tasty food with foraged ingredients. I like to look at the night sky and I know a few constellations, but I'd like to learn more of them :)

[tallysgreatestfan-art]

"Here I am - what is left of me."

Nara caressed over his jaw with her finger. "You're beautiful, Laurent.", she said, using his first name.

He shook his head. A smile appeared on his lips, and his voice vibrated as he spoke: "I am broken, Nara."

[...]

"You began your life in insanity, Nara. But now you awake each day, and put yourself back together and return to sanity. Me, however...", he raised the prosthesis, "As a child, I had absolute certainty in religion and the holy books. And with every day I break more..."

Nara took both of his hands. The inanimate one was hard as metal, without the rubber-like sensation of civilian prostheses. It closed around her fingers gently. Nara Oxham ignored Laurents cold pain, grabbed the living and the inanimate parts, pressed her fingers into the strange interfaces of human and machine. She found the hidden closures and opened them, released the artificial limbs. She saw the phantom limbs as clear as if they were real.

Mentally she merged with him.

"Then break.", she said.

(Translation back to english from the german translation because I only had the german one avaliable)

Full drawing as well as some more thoughts on this piece under the read more because it's somewhat suggestive

1.

That's actually not how prostheses work in real life, because sci-fi and the technology there moved on, however I tried to be as accurate as possible in every detail that was not explicitly mentioned in the book as being sci-fi technology.

There's cables connecting his body with the prostheses because unlike real life ones they can transmit sensations back to him, if somewhat flawed. That is something the book directly describes, even if I could not quite pinpoint how they would look like.

He also has implants, basically metal rods sticking in the bone of the residual limbs to hold the prosthesis, which is called Osseointegration prosthetic and does exist in real life, but is quite risky due to being prone to infection here, and thus relatively rare. I figured out that in this future, they would have learned how to prevent these infections, so it is used even on his legs additionally to suction even though there is enough leg left for it to hold on even without it (combining this is not a thing in real life as far as I know). Also in real life they look different, not these sci-fi clipper things but just a metal rod. The way these additional implants at his shoulder (collar bone and shoulder bone) work is made up too; I just figured out if this was not risky anymore it would be useful to distribute the weight on his whole shoulder and not just that one point.

His legs holds through basically closing around the residual limb and then the air getting sucked out - also directly described in the book - which is very much how most real life prostheses work.

2.

However I am able-bodied, so don't take my word for any of this. I really hope I did this in a respectful way, but truth is, despite the research I did, I am not hundred percent sure if I managed to pull it of without fetishizing amputees. There is a lot of focus on Laurent Zai being an amputee in this drawing, an ankle I choose because it empathizes the vulnerability but also healing tenderness of that scene and the following (implied) sex scene. This is just what his body happens to look like, but also, it is so much focus on it - ah damn, I don't know.

3.

Was he actually half undressed in that scene? Reread it a few times, and couldn't find out. I don't think he would tell the horrific body horror story of how Dhantu rebels tortured him while being half naked, but also every area where the prosthesis sit is covered by cloth, so he has to be half naked in order for Nara to be able to unclasp them like that.

Also not sure if they had sex directly after or only later. I mean, a disturbing torture story is not exactly a turn on. But then, there also is nothing in the picture saying that it has to take place directly after that dialogue

4.

In every other situation taking off someones limbs without their consent is really fucking intrusive, but in this it works for me, and I am not sure why? Maybe because Laurent seems to be totally okay with it? Maybe because Nara is a telepath so she knows already that it is okay for him?

[pctaldrunk]

@dreams-of-fate asked : 💍 (taliu) - send 💍 to jokingly propose to my muse. (Accepting!!)

“…You know, I think marriage is an outdated and low cost efficient practice.” He had - very calmly, blankly, inhaling through his nose - assessed what was offered to him then - lumpy and lopsided, clumsily twisted from what looks to be a broken bit of twine - and tried and failed to press down the beat his heart skips regardless. The person holding it was perfectly poised, however, knelt in the aisle of the chapel not with both knees like a devoted believer but with only one - like a person, like any other person.

Xie Ta must have been reading again. He liked horror, but he also liked Shakespeare, and fairy tales. When he felt like romance, even Bai Liu could be made to blush. Beneath the shadow of silver spirals, Bai Liu could see clearly the ice blue eyes that were much more like diamonds than the small, smooth, painted pebble at the center of the ring, peacefully, patiently, unmoving - looking at him. In the same way Xie Ta liked to pretend everything he said was meant for him to hear - sometimes Bai Liu wondered if Xie Ta ever looked at anyone else.

He swallowed unconsciously, mouth suddenly dry. “…Why do you want to marry me?”

“ - Because when two people get married, they can stay together forever.” The other’s voice matter of fact, sure, calm, as if he is saying the sun will rise, or that night will fall. “I want to…” Now Xie Ta blinks, and tilts his head only a moment as if puzzled, as if looking for the right words, “…Read with you. Forever.”

Bai Liu felt at once full and hollow, like he was flying but the air had been knocked out of him, the wind within and without at once. It occurred to him, that marriage didn’t work like that. He could have said so, and yet he had the feeling Xie Ta would still be kneeling there, waiting for him expectantly - to give a real answer. He didn’t have to wait for long. Like the very first time Bai Liu had seen Xie Ta in this chapel, like the very first time he turned his head and asked him, “Do you want to read together?” - Bai Liu knew his answer before the question had even been asked.

He stepped closer, the way only he ever seemed to do, and held out his hand, naturally. And, like he knew the answer already, equally naturally - Xie Ta slipped the delicate thread around his finger. It fit, by some miracle, snug against his skin, like a brand of fire. His fingers twitched, and Xie Ta’s fingertips stopped lightly, coolly against his palm, only for a moment, and then their fingers were entwining, and he felt Xie Ta twist the loop of twine, almost mischievously satisfied, before its thin thread was trapped between their hands.

The gods looked on with their stone eyes, unfeeling.

He felt Xie Ta’s pleasure, the unspoken - joy. A rare thing that was only ever shared with him.

“…I want to read with you forever too.” It was the first time Bai Liu admitted it, voice uncharacteristically hoarse.

The confession - the promise - was too quiet to echo in the open space of the chapel.

Now it becomes blurred out, warbled by the bubbles in the water.

The hand that held his fades away, along with the phantom sensation - he is the one holding onto that hand. The stone twisted into the ring beats upon his knuckle against the mysterious current, the twine almost coming loose under the water. Still, he holds on, bringing that hand closer. Together forever, Xie Ta said.

He did not have the chance to tie twine around Xie Ta’s finger - but rather around his ankle, anchoring him to this place, this lake behind the chapel, waiting for one day - one day.

I am a monster that cannot die, he said.

And Bai Liu - never believed himself to be a believer. He is just a person, only a person, and beneath the water, he can almost pretend that they’re the same temperature.

Bai Liu pulls the small loop of string, tied delicately around a painted stone, out from between his teeth. He thought Xie Ta’s handiwork had been rustic, but it turns out his own is even more so. His lungs constrict from the murk, bubbles exploding, and he drags it with great difficulty over Xie Ta’s finger.

The last promise, the last prophecy, the last shred of divinity that still exists in this place.

Together forever, the “monster” Bai Liu believes in had said.

The eyes of the gods he did not believe in ought to bear witness.

[facelessnamelessanarchist]

1/ I& am otherkin, and otherhearted, as well as humankin and nonhuman (as a plural system.) Generally, we also identify as constellic.

2/ We have an endermankin headmate who is also xenomorphhearted. We also have someone who holds our Na'vikin identity, despite not being said 'kin herself. Other kintypes include: wolf, crow/raven, fox, and some other fictionkin. We have a headspace of our hearthome, and we have shapeshifters.

3/ Our shifts are generally tied directly to the current fronter, but we did have a very strange bunny cameo shift the other day. We usually get phantom shifts of horns, ears, wings, tails, and fangs.

4/ Generally, it exists as an underlying feature, affecting our individual personalities and tendencies.

5/ It's a really nice, welcoming community in our experience. It's helped us to explore our own identity(s) and even realize that we weren't a singlet.

6/ Just recognizing that we are alterhuman, and that we can feel phantom sensations is one of the most comfortable and validating things.

7/ Very rarely. Most of us are very comfortable with the fact that our body is human, but we're also mostly humanoid beings. Some of our less human-shaped headmates do experience dysphoria about it.

8/ If you don't related to humanity, you don't have to try to force yourself into that box. There are communities of people that will welcome you, no matter what you come to identify as or why you identify that way. You don't have to try to fit yourself into a box forever either: people change over time. Your identity may change forms but retain it's cause, and that's okay.

9/ We really want prosthetic ears and a tail, and to get permanent fangs. For the moment, we just have ear hairclips and costume fangs.

10/ Between us, we have different reasons. Some are spiritual, such as our Na'vikin holder, and others are more psychological. For the most part, we believe that we're alterhuman due to experiences that we've had and attempts to adapt to the world.

11/ I'm not sure we know anyone else ):

If you are a alterhuman, reblog and answer these questions!

(don't be afraid to write a lot, do what you want ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯)

1/ Which category of alterhumanity do you belong to?

2/ What/who is/are your type(s)? (if you have any)

3/ Do you experience shifts? If so, can you tell us your most common shifts and your strangest cameo shift (if you've ever had a cameo shift)?

4/ How do you experience your alterhumanity in everyday life?

5/ What do you think of the community?

6/ What are the things that make you most comfortable and euphoric in your alterhumanity?

7/ Are you experiencing species dysphoria?

8/ What advice would you like to say to a young alterhuman who has just awakened?

9/ Do you have/want to have gears?

10/ Do you know/have any theories about the origin of your alterhumanity? If so, tell us! (all beliefs are legitimate)

11/ Tag someone/a creature to answer these questions!ㅤᵕ̈

[beyondthetemples-ooc]

I really want to analyze some of the RP Character Bleed-over I have with my characters, so here's that analysis! Definitely doing a deep dive for Dove, gonna at least brush over Srentha and Leyla and Kary too, but I doubt I'll have the energy for Team Transition.

Dove's alone got Way Long, the HECK.

Dove

Emotional bleed: Dove and I handle our emotions in VASTLY different ways, though sometimes the pure response to certain things have overlap, like our reaction to the thought of war. Azarath has a lot of emotional overlap too; there's a reason Dove is Azarathean and that reason is that I wanted to write about it! I have fondness for the place, and writing about Dove (and Srentha and Raven and Alerina and Magena and Leyla) only deepened that.

Dove gets a lot more carried away by her fear than I do. Unless there's a Phobia Trigger involved. Even then Dove falls apart a little more than I let myself, she needs someone to cling to or she's just an absolute total mess emotionally, but the fear involved is pretty much the same for us. Come to think of it, especially comparing her when she's younger to myself when I was 14-18, we both have a lot of shame and embarrassment around it, too...

As for happiness, Dove's is usually a much more even-keel contentedness, and while that's my most blissful state, more often if I experience joy, it's a sharp spike of delight. Dove has capacity for that, but she's more likely to feel a gentler joy. Especially because she has to restrain hers and I'm trying to get more in touch and experience mine more. We're going completely opposite directions with that.

(Though we both do experience a deep satisfying joy when we're with our loved ones!)

Anger is interesting, because my anger is a very long, slow, cold burn. It's the focused and icy kind of rage. While mine is something you really have to work to earn, and Dove's is similarly a very rare thing, when you REALLY manage to make Dove angry, she gets a lot more fiery than I do. (Loud voice, disgusted snapping, dramatic gestures, etc.) We can both be motivated to take extreme measures by rage, but Dove is more likely to react out of emotion, while my reactions remain focused on practicality or accomplishing something with it. Dove's anger also burns out a lot faster than mine.

And then there's peace. I was going to say Dove gets a lot more of it than I do, but then I remembered I actually wrote her experiencing DDD, and there's not a moment of peace (that lasts more than a paragraph) in that entire story. Whoops.

Well, her childhood was certainly more peaceful, but in teenagerdom and beyond, we both had to Work to earn it.

We both find peace in solitude and meditation and being in natural areas. I find forests more peaceful than she does; that's a bleed for Kary actually, but Dove has Memories of Struggle associated with forests, and while she CAN relax once she's in a better place, if she's in a negative mindset the memories of struggle will creep up on her and make it a lot less peaceful. This is especially true after she's held captive as a prisoner of war in Something Special, and especially for That Specific Forest. It takes a long, long time for her to be able to be there peacefully again.

Perception bleed: How Dove experiences both empathy and her emotionally-heightened energies are VASTLY informed by my own experiences! The sensations of the energies coming alive especially. (I've been doing energy work for more than half my life, like 17 years at this point! I write her energies the way mine feel, though she feels them more viscerally than I do and I have a lot more "phantom shifts" and "astral shifts" associated with it. Mine are more nonphysical and thus Dove's have more bodily/tactile sensations.)

Both of our Ideal Worlds are peaceful, but Dove has a lot more wistfulness about Earth never being that way than I do. I used to be a lot more pacifistic as a child, and at my core I still am, but I'm also too much of an activist to let pacifism stop

Come to think of it, Dove is too, at least after DDD and TFJ, and she realizes she has to DO something about the bad things in the world. For her, becoming a hero is sort of penance for the murders in DDD. For me, activism is just about doing what's right because it's right and I want to help people.

I'm also a lot more determined and harder to shake than she is when faced with resistance. Dove learns not to hesitate, but she doesn't exactly feel the same Fulfillment I get from standing my ground.

I think that's an Emancipatory Bleed though: we both feel liberated by peace, and the most ourselves when we're calm and collected.

Other emancipatory bleed probably comes from overcoming our struggles as teenagers, and "freeing" our sense of self from the fear that we'll become what we don't want to be.

Other procedural bleed: I don't think there's a lot of this. Ironically, I'm way better at hiding my emotions than Dove is, generally speaking. Dove's body language is pretty expressive, even if it's reserved. I guess we have that in common, at least; unless I'm at a concert or doing choreography, my body motions and gestures are pretty reserved. I sometimes creep people out with how still I can stand. Dove also doesn't like to hold eye-contact much, especially as a teen-- sure, she's nervous, but the reason she Avoids Eye-Contact with Most People is because it can accidentally activate her telepathy! I have no such nerves or telepathy.

I'm already halfway to burning out so I'll stop with Dove there, but mostly the bleed into Dove is with Azarath, our loved ones, and the energies.

--

Kary

Since I mentioned her before! There's actually not a lot of bleed at all into Kary; she's so different from me, usually polar opposite, that I have a hard time figuring out her reactions.

We both have the same calm, happy, peaceful emotional reaction to being in forests, we both love animals dearly, and Kary has my very strong sense of self and ethics. It doesn't align with my ethics much, but that sense of Fairness being important and feeling greatly betrayed when treated unfairly probably bled over from my own childhood.

Kary lies to herself a lot more than I do, though. Convincing herself something doesn't bother her, convincing herself she's not hurting (physically or emotionally), not admitting her feelings about someone else to herself unless they're Anger for a long time, etc.

Kary also has my trauma of being ostracized and bullied as a child, but while mine made me gentle and standoffish and deeply reserved, it made Kary sharp and ferocious. I defended myself by not caring; Kary defends herself by caring so much she stops it before it can happen.

--

Srentha

He's fun! And because he's so fun and optimistic and charming, you can tell there's not a whoooole lot of bleed, perception-wise. There's that connection to Azarath again, but Srentha's connection is much more with its primal mystical forces than its people/philosophies. (Though he still adheres to those religiously!)

Srentha's love for his magic was definitely a LITTLE bit bleed-y, but his passion and dedication to it are very different from my passive casual approach. It's an important part of both our lives, though. It's definitely his main "emancipatory" angle; he feels the most himself and free and fulfilled when he's working magic, especially inventively or creatively, discovering something new. I'm just happy to do my old favorites.

Srentha's SUPER physically expressive; his eyes and mouth and head angle and arm placement and angle of leaning all speak volumes, and loudly. He's also super vocal and talkative; while I can ramble if you hit my hyperfixation chords just right (I mean, this certainly counts as a ramble, right?), Srentha is a lot easier to get on a tangent and keep talking.

He's way more emotional, too. And he's way more positive than me. (I have to work for it. He's basically positive out of personality and habit.) Most of his emotions are Happy or Peaceful, but if he's afraid or depressed, you'll Know it. Very different from me.

I do think I bled some of my love of study into him, even if it's on different subjects entirely (though I do enjoy studying magic or occult history/etc, it's not with the whole-hearted dedication Srentha ALWAYS throws into magical studies.) Srentha's curiosity is insatiable, sometimes to the point of annoying people. I can be curious given the right subject, but he's ALWAYS curious about EVERYTHING.

We also have the very same "career" goal, but that's a private affair and I'm not even sure how to talk about that. tl;dr RETIREMENT.

He has an ultimate goal to retire so he can do his magic, though. I mostly want to travel, write, and spend time with my friends and chosen family. We do both want to publish something someday, but Srentha wants to publish something about being the last pure-blooded Azarathean ever, sort of a "maybe their legacy can continue on Earth" sort of thing, and I just want to publish fiction.

--

Leyla

I'm not sure what there is to bleed over into her, honestly. Connection to Azarath though neither of us have been there, maybe, and she also loves her magic. But Leyla's another one who's totally different from me. She's generally optimistic and while she seems very reserved on the surface, especially at first meeting, she opens up quickly and she can be every expressive when she has a chance/reason to express it.

She does have emet*phobia too, but she's both Much Harder to Trigger than me and Much Faster to Recover.

She's very studious! I forgot to mention that with Srentha actually; both he and Leyla love learning, which I do too. Leyla's is more any random facts; Srentha's is more magic, though he can get lost in a Wikipedia rabbit hole too given the chance; and I usually lean towards science or history or linguistics.

I have a much stronger sense of self and purpose than Leyla does. She doesn't doubt herself, but her identity is kinda more shifty, and she's never really sure what her Purpose is. Her mom is a hero and her dad has his magic, but her magic and powers aren't very strong, and while she does participate in heroing OCCASIONALLY, if it's not too dangerous, she can't really make her life on it.

She does love animals too, especially cats! But she's a lot less tolerant of the gross or otherwise unpleasant parts of pet ownership.

Oh, she's genderqueer! That's something that might've been bleed.

And she's very loyal, and she thrives when she feels the most at peace. (Though she does seek happiness moreso than peacefulness!)

Oh! Leyla's also very artistic. I used to be a lot more artsy, now I mostly just focus my creativity on writing, but Leyla looooves hands-on crafts and fashion.

That's about all my brain is providing and I'm tired so I'm running out of words, but I think that's a pretty good overview.

[qnewsau]

Musical masterpiece My Fair Lady comes to Brisbane stage

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/musical-masterpiece-my-fair-lady-on-the-queensland-stage/

Musical masterpiece My Fair Lady comes to Brisbane stage

The classic musical My Fair Lady is bringing its timeless charm and unforgettable music to the Brisbane stage at the Twelfth Night Theatre in Bowen Hills.

The Queensland Musical Theatre production promises to captivate with its stunning visuals, talented cast, and a full theatre orchestra bringing the iconic score to life.

Lerner and Loewe’s award-winning story of Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower girl transformed into an elegant lady, is widely considered one of the greatest musicals of all time.

When Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady opened on Broadway, it collected six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The 1964 film version starring Audrey Hepburn took home eight Oscars, including Best Picture.

Now, My Fair Lady is that rare musical by which all others are measured. Featuring one of musical theatre’s greatest scores, including Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?, With a Little Bit of Luck, I Could Have Danced All Night, On the Street Where You Live and Get Me to the Church on Time.

Playing the lead role of Eliza Doolittle in the new Brisabne production is Queensland’s own Kirra Lang, whose recent credits include The Wizard of Oz, Oklahoma!, The Phantom of the Opera and The Pirates of Penzance.

Also in the cast are talented actors James Lennox, playing Henry Higgins, and David McLaughlin, appearing as Colonel Pickering.

Immerse yourself in the splendour of this Broadway sensation, featuring a live orchestra, lavish costumes, stunning choreography, and a talented cast ready to transport you to the dazzling world of Edwardian London.

With its witty dialogue, charming characters, and unforgettable music, My Fair Lady is a musical theatre masterpiece that has delighted audiences for generations. Don’t miss your chance to experience this timeless classic live on stage.

My Fair Lady is at the Twelfth Night Theatre until June 23, 2024. Tickets via queenslandmusicaltheatre.com.

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