#BIG thank you to all the posts about disability and mobility aids around here that encourage people to get them

[gremlinbehaviour]

I have the Amazon page open for the cane I want and I have no idea why I’m so hesitant to just press order. Internalized ableism, probably. So here are some affirmations about it: It’s a folding cane with butterflies on it and will hopefully actual be small enough to fit me. It costs less than I spend on a typical craft store trip. I don’t have to use it if I feel too weird doing so. I am not taking resources away from other people. It will hopefully decrease my pain, increase my mobility, or at the very least make me more comfortable asking for other accommodations. Why does this feel like such a big decision it’s literally just a purchase of an item

[cpunkwitch]

answering my questions p3

[pt: answering my questions p3]

part 1 (link), part 2 (link)

ask game 3 (link)

biggest inaccessible thing that angers you right now?

doors with round handles. fuck those door knobs im glad my bedroom door doesnt actually close so i dont have to use it.

2. something no one talks about that you wish had more discussion about how it could be more accessible?

windows. i dont ever see anyone talk about how windows (that are meant to be opened for air circulation etc) could be more accessible. the window i have i have to wrestle with in order to get it open in the summer, because of that i avoided it this summer and ended up not having ac

i get there are some windows that have the screen on the other side and the inside slides up, i prefer those, my sister has that in her room, but the locks and the act of opening the window itself is not easy or something everyone can do.

3. what are some good resources that help you out? any blogs or sites that really helped you out with a disability or gave you support?

a user on here actually suggested speech assistant to me, i dont remember who but i was able to find an aac for my phone thanks to a tumblr user. i dont really have anything else to respond with, my resources are actually kinda limited ^^;

i got my cane off amazon, thats really the only other thing i have.

4. if you have an aid, mobility or not, how did you get it and do you know any good places to get them at good prices?

unfortunately all i know is amazon because i dont have a way of using other sites. most other sites dont use stripe and paypal is a bitch to me. i know there was a post going around earlier to be put on a wait list for a free wheelchair i think? if anyone knows where that post is id like to reblog it again

best way to get things at a lower price though is if theyre used/2nd hand. theyre considered worth less than new ones as they've been used and probably worn in already, therein they arent in mint condition like newer ones, but theyre still good. i actually got my first two binders that way. (tbh i get most things that way)

i know you can find 2nd hand stuff on facebook groups/marketplace, Kijiji, ebay and similar sites but i dont fully trust most of them myself.

when it comes to aid's that are programs though, such as aac or screen readers, there are tonnes that are completely free or come with small monthly subs or in-app purchases that arent too pricey and a lot of sites and social apps have those built in now a days with stickers, emojis, gifs, text-to-speech options on devices and so on.

5. any programs you know of that are either easily accessible or make things more accessible?

aside from my answer in 4, i have asl bloom which is like duolingo for american sign language. if you wanna quickly learn some asl for free, asl bloom is great!

i mentioned i have speech assistant for an aac, i've excitedly posted a bit yesterday about using it for the first time in a classroom setting.

6. whats an aid that no one mentions being an aid? could be big or small

anything is an aid if it assists you. glasses, braces, screen readers, etc

i see plenty of people acknowledging that pictures, emojis etc are aids as well esp for the nonverbal, more so than i would see sometime in the past.

a lot of things that might not be considered socially acceptable can be aids too, plastic straws for example, esp bendy ones, but thats been talked about quite a lot since the pandemic and i hope to see that discussion continue until theyre finally brought back as the default.

things that i never-to-rarely see anyone mention as an aid of some sort though? aside from medication, creams and things for pain management, theres not much to come to mind.

7. any recent news that really pissed you off, like an accessibility being taken away?

there was something at the time of making that ask game but i no longer remember what. nothing recent that have to bring up, at least not right now.

8. any good news to share with the disabled community?

i am sorry to say i bring no news at all, good or bad, but i may have some at a later date. perhaps whenever i get that french aac update we can consider that good news

9. what are some helpful things in your town/city for cripples?

nothing special i can think of

10. what can your town/city improve on to help?

the fucking side walks

11. is there an accommodation you wish you had/could get/want more of?

if i had the money and was in a different situation, id get a shower chair, braces or compression gloves, a wheelchair etc.

typing programs like typist arent made with disabled people in mind and i wish they were, i make mistakes because im dyslexic and cant always control my stims and they score you on how many mistakes you make with no backspace option and you cant continue until you improve with the least amount to no mistakes. they should at least let you use the backspace.

i use typist for class and it pisses me off that i cant go back and fix my mistakes. not just typing either but writing classes in general that grade you on how many mistakes you make should consider and accommodate people with issues writing/typing. just giving them more time to work on an assignment is not much of an accomodation. tics, stims etc are all things that can effect a persons writing and its pretty unfair and ablest to think that everyone can just stop making mistakes with writing if they practice enough.

12. whats some discourse going around right now that you wish would stop?

non physically disabled / able bodied people claiming cripplepunk includes them. should never have been discourse to begin with the name itself should be fucking self explanatory and if you know anything about cripplepunk its that its FOR THE PHYSICALLY DISABLED

also transid/transx bullshit...

13. advice for people who are only just discovering theyre crippled?

its okay to be disabled, learning your physical limitations and general limitations with your body is actually a good thing.

youre not lazy, youre not unsightly, youre not gross, youre not creepy, youre a living being and you deserve the accessibility, accomodations and help you need or want. if youre thinking of getting assistance get it.

youre not taking anything away or hurting anything by calling yourself disabled and using aids if you think it helps you.

whatever you have hindering your physical functions does not define you nore is it the only trait about you but it is a part of you that comes with you. dont let anyone disrespect you over it, get/use what you need, its your body.

14. any questions for people who've been in the community a while?

what were things like when cripplepunk first started? how did it gain traction and popularity? how did you come across it and what was it like when you were new?

do you have any advice for people just joining cripplepunk and things to say about content creation for cpunk? is there content you wish to see more of or reoccur? what was content online like when you first joined disabled/crippled spaces?

15. ramble about your condition?

man i really need to book time with the chiropractor. my arthritis aches are in more than just my hands and wrists, i get really bad foot cramps, leg and ankle pain and i have seriously bad tension and stiffness in my neck, shoulders and back.

if i remember tomorrow i'll call them when i get home for lunch between classes. and see if i can book thursday afternoons

a lot of my condition comes from my moms side of the family, which is cool in theory, i like talking about that kinda thing, hereditary and genes n stuff interests me but because its my mom and i grew up in her shadow being referred to as her "mini me" and shit, it makes me pretty uncomfortable to know just how much like her i am and i cant get away from it. (and thats not even mentioning how uncomfortable i am being associated with one of my ab/sers(u) to such a degree)

16. rant about your environment?

i feel like thats a thing for an entire post on its own. i could rant about my home environment or my city.

17. if you have any aids, have you decorated and/or named them?

ive painted my cane and and trying to paint it again when i remember, have the time and spoons, but i havnt named it or added any attachments and i want to. suggestions are welcome!

18. tips for maintaining mobility aids of any?

as a cane user:

wash and sanitize the handle/grip and foot of your cane as frequently as you use it. especially if someone else has touched it and you've been outside with it and have allergies!

use paint sealer if you customize your cane and use masking tape on the parts of it that you arent customizing (handle, foot, joints if its foldable)

place it by the door but not next to the entrance or shoes so it doesnt get knocked over/kicked etc and so you remember to take it with you if youre an "out of sight out of mind" type of forgetful person like me.

crippled-pvp mentioned this before; place your cane under the seats/on the floor if youre in a car. its deadly otherwise.

19. anything that motivates you to leave your house even just for fresh air and a stretch?

coffee/snack runs. the garden on campus nearby. if it werent for close by things like that i'd see no point in leaving the house outside work/school. and maybe a few other things like painting in the back yard ig?

20. free space!

feel free to ask me questions, to clarify or elaborate/expand on something, my inbox is always open for a chat and anon is on for privacy of those who use side blogs or are too anxious to be off anon. anon is not on for hate/discourse.

[ID: banner reading "dni if... proship, transx/id, syscourse/discourse blog, anti-mspec lesbians/gays, anti-lesboy/turigirl more in pinned rentry. this blog is protected by the addams family, the de rolo family and co." in all black lowercase text. It has a grey cloud background. On the left is the De Rolo coat of arms with a cobweb in the top corner and symmetrically flipped on the right is the symbol of Vox Machina with the same cobweb in the bottom corner :End ID]

[wormworker]

Twitter Thread

Unrolled Version

[ID: Screenshots of a Twitter thread by Charlie Knight [they/them], @CKnightWrites, posted around 4:18pm, July 3rd, 2021:

Since it's Disability Pride Month, I'd love to address something I see many issues with out in the wild:

Wheelchair etiquette

There are appropriate and inappropriate ways to interact with someone who is in a wheelchair. Knowing them benefits all involved.

A non exhaustive 🧵 [thread]

1. Outside of emergencies, there is no reason for you to touch someone's wheelchair unless asked. If we're in the way, treat us like you would anyone else and say "excuse me." If it looks like we're stuck, treat us like you would anyone else and ask if we need help. Don't touch.

1. (Cont) [continued] l can't emphasize how important this is.

A wheelchair is an extension of our bodies. If you wouldn't lift and move an abled person without asking, don't push a wheelchair.

Grabbing my chair = grabbing me. It's assault.

3. Don't speak over or about us. Meaning, don't look at my husband and ask "do they need help getting in?" when l'm right there. This is another infantilizing move and it's horribly disrespectful.

4. Do not assume that someone in a wheelchair isn't ambulatory (mobile). Sometimes, a person using a wheelchair can walk and will. This should not be a shock and is not an opportunity for questions about our disability.

5. Unless we're in a setting where it would be appropriate (you're our doctor and we're in the office/hospital, or you're paying us at an event to speak about it) there is no opportunity for you to ask questions about our disability. That's just rude.

6. The above goes for your children, too. Disabled people are not a learning opportunity - do not turn us into one by telling kids that staring/pointing is bad but they can ask us questions. No, they cant. It's still rude, and it's not our responsibility to educate your kids.

7. Don't move our wheelchairs after we've transferred out either, not until we say it's okay and know where it's going. If I transfer out of my chair at a restaurant and the waitstaff whisks my chair away, they've effectively taken my legs and hidden them. No, thank you.

8. Don't go out of your way to avoid saying things like "talk [take] a walk." We're pretty likely to express things that way too, and "take a roll" as a cutesy alternative is not as funny as you think.

9. Use the word "disabled." It's not a dirty word. Alternatives like "differently abled" are infantalizing and gross, and terms like "handicapped" and "crippled" are both outdated and (often) offensive.

Disabled. Get comfy with it.

10. Don't say things like "wheelchair bound" or "confined to a wheelchair." Mobility aids like wheelchairs give us our freedom; they're a good thing, not a trap.

All of these are general rules of thumb, esp w/ strangers or ppl you don't know well. You may know someone in a wheelchair who is fine answering a kid's questions, you may hear a disabled person using "cripple" for themself. Obviously, that's okay. This is a starting point.

The big takeaway from this should be to treat us like you would anyone else - not as a broken, not as a freak show, not as a child. All it really takes is basic respect and acknowledging that we're people too.

Thanks for trying to do better and Happy Disability Pride Month! 💜

Sidenote: I personally am open to questions about this, about disability etiquette here. My DMs are open, comments welcome.

Please do not assume that every disabled person wants to be an advocate or an educator. Someone RTing this thread is not an invitation to ask to them ?s [questions].

/end ID]

[cuttlefishkitch]

hello! i haven't talked to you before, but ron said that i could ask you for some advice on writing eds? (i'd like to know things to avoid/common things that could come up in everyday life that would be good to mention/the sort of aids and stuff they'd have maybe?/anything else you think is relevant)

Hi! Sorry this took so long, a combination of ADHD and chronic pain slowed me way the fuck down. Thank you for being patient! 

EDIT: WEIRD HEEL THINGS I FORGOT!!

So, before I get into this I should probably say I technically haven’t been diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS for anyone reading) because it’s one of those syndromes that takes forever to get diagnosed with (it took a friend of mine’s mother over 30 years to get dxed). Many doctors, and everyone I know who does have EDS agree with me that it’s probably what causes my chronic joint pain and some of my other chronic issues. But just because three separate doctors have said “Yeah Probably” doesn’t mean I’m diagnosed!! Only a geneticist can do that!! And they had two-three year waitlists BEFORE the apocalypse happened.

I am diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), Small Fiber Neuropathy, and potentially misdiagnosed with Fibromyalgia (once I get properly tested for EDS I might get undiagnosed with this because I don’t have most of the main symptoms of Fibro, but I got diagnosed with it anyway because it’s what doctors misDX you with when they don’t know what’s wrong with you and don’t want to do more tests).

All that said, I’ve done a lot of research about EDS (mainly because it’s the only thing that explains all my symptoms since doctors seem incapable of doing so), and know a few people who have either confirmed or suspected EDS, so I’ll link to some stuff, talk about the symptoms that often come with EDS, explain how the symptoms I have affect me, because just because someone’s not diagnosed doesn’t mean they aren’t having symptoms, and probs elaborate a bit about writing physical disabilities and chronic pain in general because it’s super important to me! 

So RESOURCES aka how to make sure your post never sees the light of day because you’re linking things and tumblr hates it when people give other people information!!

Youtubers! If you want to know about the day to day of living with EDS or any disability or chronic illness I super suggest finding a youtuber that makes videos about their life. My EDS favorites are

Jessica Kellgren-Fozard

Annie Elainey

Amy Lee Fisher

Websites! If you’re asking random folks on tumblr I’m assuming (and hoping) you’ve already done the basic WebMD google searches and looked over the seemingly ridiculous lists of symptoms and related conditions, so here are a few websites that are made more for people than for doctors.

The Ehlers Danlos Society

OhTWIST (That’s Why I’m So Tired)

ChronicPainPartners (the fact that they have an entire section of articles called “Dealing with Doctors” should really tell you something)

Books! If you feel like doing actual reading! I suggest reading books written by people with Ehlers Danlos, to get a feel for how they portray themselves. I’m not saying steal, but it’s probably a good point of comparison to see how your portrayal feels. (haven’t actually read these b/c my ADHD doesn’t let me read)

Ria Ruse by Morgan S. Ray (a superhero book with a disabled super MC!!)

Mysteries of Maybelle by Imani Benfell (Imani is still in high school and has already written and self-published a book cause she didn’t have enough representation for herself how cool is she!!)

Bodies in Motion by Liana Brooks (tw for pregnancy problems and miscarriages in the link, because it’s a blog post talking about integrating EDS symptoms into the story without explicitly naming them as such)

OKAY, now for some rambling about EDS SYMPTOMS!!!

Ehlers Danlos is one monster of a genetic condition in complexity and variety. There are THIRTEEN different identified types of EDS, it often comes with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) and/or POTS, and can lead to various other conditions like gastroparesis, chiari malformation, craniocervical instability, and/or bad teeth. So if you’re going to be writing a character with EDS consider what other comorbid conditions they might also have. I’m mainly going to be talking about Hypermobile EDS (hEDS) because it’s what I probably have and what I’m most familiar with. That said there is a lot of overlap in symptoms with the other varieties.

I started typing this section and realized I was going to have to break it down even more so we’re going to talk about Chronic Pain, Unstable Joints (Dislocations and Subluxations), Skin Things, Mobility Issues, and Other Weird Shit and how those things get addressed separately.

Gonna get the Other Weird Shit out of the way first. Because EDS is a malfunction of connective tissue it can fuck up all sorts of random things. For instance, I and many other people w/ hEDS have trouble swallowing. Shit gets stuck in my throat, I sometimes choke on and have to cough up food, and pills can be hard to swallow, which sucks cause I take A Lot Of Pills. If it doesn’t cause full-on gastroparesis it can cause IBS or other digestive problems b/c the digestive tract is mostly made of connective tissue. It can potentially cause heart problems even if they aren’t as big of a risk as in some other forms of EDS. Premature osteoarthritis is common because what you need is more joint pain. And Fatigue OH BOY THE FATIGUE. And of course the headaches, can’t forget those pesky migraines can we!

AND piezogenic papules!! I completely forgot!! Piezogenic papules are little white bumps that appear when you put weight on your heel. In some people they hurt, but in others they don’t. They’re technically tiny little herniations of fat peaking through the fascia in the heel. They were added as part of the diagnostic criteria for hEDS in 2017!

Now for Skin Things cause it’s not as big a thing in hEDS as it is in other forms. Basically, in a lot of forms of EDS, the skin is extra stretchy and extra delicate. It bruises and tears easily, people with the extreme versions of this can accidentally scratch something into an open wound if they aren’t careful. My skin is pretty soft and sensitive, I def have the typical velvety skin, and as is pretty par for the course of someone with hEDS my skin is a little stretchy, and sorta delicate. I’m not as tissue-papery as some people get, but I almost always have at least one mystery bruise or scrape b/c existing is hazardous. Most of scars are also pretty normal, unlike the extremely papery and atrophic scars (though I have a few tiny acne scars that are atrophic) that are common with other kinds of hEDS. Something that I DO have is Lots of Stretch Marks, all over my thighs, and even down to my calves. Which wouldn’t be abnormal, except for the fact that I’ve never been over 145 lbs and I’ve never been pregnant. Having a lot of stretch marks or striations in the skin without due cause happens because the structure of the skin isn’t as strong as it is in people with a normal amount of connective tissue.

I don’t have to worry as much about my skin but people that do are usually very careful with adhesives because they can irritate or tear the skin, which sucks when you need a lot of bandaids cause your darn skin won’t do its job.

Now on to the meatier stuff and since I’m mostly working backward let’s do Mobility Issues!! These can happen in loads of ways, but a lot of what causes these in people with EDS are the other two things I wanna talk about. Unstable joints lead to increased risk of injury when doing stuff people with fully functioning joints can do.

For context, I’m an ambulatory wheelchair user, meaning I can walk, but a lot of the time it’s better if use a chair. Mine is mostly for my POTS symptoms, but the fact that my legs aren’t also in absolute agony is a big plus. I use a custom manual wheelchair with a SmartDrive (b/c I’m very fucking fortunate and have good insurance) whenever I leave the house and have to be “walking” for more than a few minutes at a time. I can’t fully self-propel in a manual chair because it would be damaging to the joints in my arms and hands, but the smaller chair is easier to maneuver in less than accessible spaces (like almost everywhere). There was about a month-long span where I used a very cheap and very bulky electric chair while I was waiting on the ideal set up I have now. Before that, I also briefly used, and sometimes still use, an up-right posture cane.

People with EDS have widely varying mobility issues because of how uniquely it can manifest. My cane only gave me a little help with balance because if I used it in any prolonged capacity any pain it took away from my legs was relocated to my arms, and as an artist, my arms are more important to me!

If you’re going to write a character with EDS having mobility issues as a result of their EDS the best thing to do is to narrow down their specific needs. Are their knees complete and utter garbage but their shoulders and wrists strong? Maybe they can get away with using a cane. Can they not stand for longer than 5 minutes because of the vertigo from their POTS? Maybe they need a manual wheelchair. Would propelling themself damage their back and arm joints? An electric chair might be necessary! Plenty of people with EDS use all sorts of combinations of these aides to get around their life, consider how your character’s good and bad days would be. Do they have back up plans if they overestimate themselves? There can be a lot to manage, but don’t let it scare you off! Sometimes I try and make it into a resource management game (because I’m a game designer and that’s what I do), to make evaluating my energy and mobility needs more fun!

But now let's tackle some of the reasons those mobility aides might be needed. Unstable Joints.

Ever stepped wrong and rolled your ankle? It hurts for a few steps and then kinda fixes itself, or maybe it bothers you for the rest of the day and you put it up and ice it when you get home? When I was walking around outside my house that would happen AT LEAST once a month, usually more. Some times I’m sitting wrong and when I get up my knee isn’t a knee anymore and decides to just give out from under me. My knuckles are made of unruly popcorn and they Don’t Want To Stay Home!! Oh! And my shoulder is more often out a little out of its socket than it is fully in.

Unstable joints lead to Dislocations and Subluxations of varying intensity, and some people get them more frequently than others. Some can be severe enough to necessitate hospital visits and even surgery, some subluxations are so banal (like my fUCKING SHOULDER) that you just learn to live with the pain.

If a character is going to be in high action, combat-heavy scenarios, chances are they’re going to be popping out joints left and right. Hell, depending on the severity of their joint laxity they could be doing the same sitting at a desk. Again, it’s incredibly varied. I’d suggest setting some sort of baseline for yourself, of what a character’s joints can and can’t stand up to, and maybe do some research on which joints are most likely to pop out in general (hips and shoulders are big culprits being the wacky ball and socket motherfuckers they are). Then maybe have something pop out or hold up every so often when it shouldn’t cause hey! EDS is kinda just like that! Unpredictable!

Some ways people manage joint laxity is with braces, KT tape, and physical therapy. Braces come in many different forms, since I’m currently getting pretty much no treatment for my shitty joints I use mostly compression braces made for sporty people. It really is amazing how much a bit of tight fabric can do to keep my wrist in place.

More specialized braces often have solid parts to prevent the joints from hyper-extending (bending the wrong way) and causing further damage. If you ever see someone with what looks like diamond shaped rings around a bunch of their finger joints, chances are those are Ring Splints, and are there to keep the finger shaped like a finger. I want to get my hands on some and get some on my hands Very Badly, because my fingers hyper-extend SO MUCH when I type, and it makes my hand pain way way worse.

KT tape is another thing people often use. It’s stretchy tape you put on your skin and it basically functions kinda like a second ligament as well as reinforcing the joint and keeping the bones mostly where they’re supposed to be. The problem with this is a lot of people with EDS have very sensitive and fragile skin like I mentioned before, so KT tape can cause allergic reactions, chronic skin irritation, or just straight up take the skin with it when someone goes to remove it. Hence a lot of folks are really careful with it.

Physical Therapy is kinda the best (and only) treatment for joint laxity aside from Very Invasive and sometimes Highly Experimental surgery. It focuses on strengthening the muscles around the joints so they can do the work all those bone ropes made of body glue can’t. The problem is finding a physical therapist that 1) knows what EDS even is, 2) knows you have it, and 3) knows how to treat it without doing stuff that’ll Phucking Hurt You Worse!! Because exercising wrong with EDS can do Permanent Damage!!!

Again most folks use a combination of all of these things, or have next to no access to them b/c healthcare sucks.

Anyway, on to one of my favorite topics, Chronic Pain!! One of the reasons this post took me so long!!!

Chances are if your character has chronic pain as a result of their EDS there are gonna be some things they hate, including stairs, rain, thunderstorms, stairs, hills, uneven terrain, oh and did I mention stairs??? It’s going to vary person to person, but almost everyone I’ve met with pain from EDS has complained about their knees. For me the most debilitating pain is in my fingers and wrists. They’re by far my least stable joints but I use them constantly for stuff like drawing, typing, and sewing.

Because my joint pain is so wide spread, like most people’s with hEDS, it effects every single part of my day to day life. I can’t carry a heavy ceramic plate, open a bottle, or even use my computer without pain. It’s practically impossible for me to get comfortable in any position be it sitting or laying down, and as you can imagine that makes it hard to sleep a lot of the time. Moving too much hurts, but so does sitting still. I’m constantly taking braces on and off or cracking/stretching my joints so they pop back into place and hurt less.

Also being in pain makes everything else That Much Worse. I get tired way faster than I did before my pain was this bad (I had chronic pain for a while before actually realizing it wasn’t normal to not be able to walk down the block without feeling like your foot bones are trying to escape). My sensory issues and anxiety disorder are more easily aggravated because my base level of comfort is way worse. It fucks with my depression. And OH BOY does it make my ADHD worse because being in pain is fucking distracting as hell and makes it harder to make decisions and switch tasks. Also my ADHD often makes my other symptoms worse cause I forget to take my meds, don’t drink enough water, or can’t find my fucking braces because the item eating black-hole that comes with ADHD stole them. The intersection of mental and physical disabilities is probably a rant for another time though, so back to chronic pain.

Does it suck? Yes, undoubtedly. Is this incredibly debilitating? Of course it is, I spent the last several months unable to feed myself without assistance because there was a staircase between my room and the kitchen and I could only manage to climb it once a day. Is it overwhelming? Definitely, I’ve frequently broken down crying from a combination of pain and frustration because I’m having a bad day and there’s no relief to be found. Am I able to predict when it’s going to rain with uncanny accuracy because any change in barometric pressure makes me feel like every bone in my body is trying to kill it’s neighbors? You bet your fucking ass I am!! Does it sometimes make me irritable, angry, and occasionally dismissive of when abled people get cold or a temporary injury because the stuff they’re complaining about is my life every single day and all avenues of treatment and recovery I have could take years and still not entirely solve my issues? Yeah, and while I deserve a little extra patience I also have to be sure to check myself because I don’t want to turn into someone who’s nasty to be around. Do I sometimes need to sleep for 17 hours straight because it’s raining, I have migraine, and I’m in too much pain to be conscious? Yup, sometimes a few days in a row. Does living in constant pain mean I’m unable to do all the things I want to and does that sometimes make me wanna curl up in bed and never leave? Yeah, it happens.

But! And here’s the big important but, that’s not everything! I still write, draw, and talk to my friends!! It might take me a little longer but I get there. I’m still happy and excitable and make the time to write out five page long posts about EDS because it’s something I’m passionate about! My chronic pain doesn’t stop me. I refuse to let it. I never really wanted to go mountain climbing anyway, so I’m perfectly happy being able to make it up and down the six steps in my house, even if sometimes I have to sit and bump down them on my ass, or crawl up them like a cat. Chronic pain isn’t all I am. It isn’t a fate worse than death. It isn’t the only thing your character should talk about (though I do talk about my pain a lot cause I’m a complainer about almost everything). You can have your character be hindered by their pain, realistically they would be. You can have them seek comfort, support, and relief. Other characters can commiserate and be sympathetic, but it doesn’t mean their whole life is going to be one big pity party, that would be incredibly fucking boring. I know I’d be bored out of my mind.

All that said dealing with chronic pain, especially from EDS, is Complicated. Physical Therapy is the gold standard, but like I said before it can be a long and difficult process, and isn’t always accessible. Stabilization methods like I talked about before can help prevent pain, or reduce it by keeping bones mostly where they belong. Heat and cold help joints, relax muscles, and reduce inflammation but keeping them applied is rough and the relief doesn’t always last. Doctors prescribe anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, and sometimes even anti-epileptic medication to help manage pain, but everyone’s mileage with those varies. And I’m not at all qualified to talk in-depth about narcotics or other heavy duty pain-meds, but suffice to say the war on drugs fucked shit up for people that legit need that kind of help BIG TIME.

Now for my closer/bonus rant about EDS and Disability Writing in General!

Everyone always says write what you know, so if you really want to do disabled people justice, get to know disabled people! Make friends with disabled people, get involved with advocacy groups, consume content made by disabled creators both about disability and not! Disabilities are so fucking diverse, even EDS is such a complex disorder, and comes with so many potential co-morbidities, that practically everyone with it has a unique experience. There’s no way I can fully explain everything in a tumblr post. Hell, even if I could talk to you for hours probably couldn’t give you enough info to answer all your questions (especially since I’m still in diagnosis hell :,) ), so talk to a wide range of people with EDS and other disabilities!! I know it sounds like a lot of work but trust me, disabled people are some of the strongest, raddest, coolest, people you will ever meet that it won’t feel like it.

And don’t be afraid either, the fact that EDS and other disabilities are so wildly varied means that you have a little bit of wiggle room with your character’s experience. There’s so little disability rep out their I think people are WAY to scared to try their hand at writing it. So long as your character is a fully developed person in addition to being disabled, you give some logical thought as to how it would affect their life, and you don’t make their disability the butt of any joke it isn’t difficult to avoid ableist writing. PLEASE WRITE MORE DISABLED PEOPLE AND PEOPLE WITH CHRONIC PAIN/CHRONIC ILLNESS!!

Okay that’s it, again sorry it took so long for me to get back to you! My fingers were being little pests about it, and my ADHD (which is honestly more disabling than everything else a lot of the time lmao) was being an asshole! Hope this helps, and feel free to ask me more questions if you need clarification! It might take me a bit but I do love talking about this stuff.

[teenspoonies]

(1) Hi! First I just want to say thanks for the existence of this blog, I'm 17 and it's so nice to have a place aimed towards my age range for once. :) But here's my question: I have hEDS and probably some yet-to-be-diagnosed things which gives me a daily baseline pain of 4-6 (and I don't have any dislocations or some of the more severe symptoms) but PT and braces and ibuprofen just isn't cutting it. I've been wondering about mobility aids for myself for a while now but I'm struggling with

(2) not feeling disabled enough or like I have enough pain to "qualify" for a cane or crutches or a chair. I /can/ walk and 80% of the time it's not excruciating, but I have very low stamina for standing up or walking through a museum for example. I have to sit down a lot even if I'm walking fine. Idk I'm just not sure if having forearm crutches/a cane for mostly ambulatory reasons would benefit me /enough/ for my doctors and parents to bother with it? I'm basically already being told to just exercise, take ibuprofen, and act more or less "normally". Sorry this was super long and all over the place 😅

Lex says:

Hi anon! I’m really glad we can help make the spoonie/disabled community feel more inclusive. I will say that I have struggled with the same feelings and fears, so I certainly understand. That being said, I am a big proponent of getting whatever it is that you need to maximize your ability to function. Contrary to some of the ableist posts or memes you might see floating around the internet, there is no such thing as “not disabled enough,” and if forearm crutches, a cane, or even a wheelchair would help you, you should feel empowered to talk to your parents or doctor about it. What you’ll see in the literature about children and teens with joint hypermobility is that at least 25% have required mobility aids at some point, so you’re not alone.

On the subject of the rec to “just exercise and take ibuprofen,” the data shows that they’re not wrong that light exercise and PT for some strengthening so your muscles can better support your loose and stretchy joints can help. However, it can take a while for you to see any benefit, and in the meantime you need to be able to live your life. One thing I’ll mention to watch out for, though, are things with a lot of stretching, like yoga. With hypermobility, there is a lot of data to show that this can worsen the laxity, or looseness, in your joints and make them both more likely to sublux or just hurt a lot more. If your doc or even your parents has questions about this, I’m happy to share some papers with you that you can show them. It’s hard to contradict research. I’m kind of data-focused (as are a lot of docs), so sorry for focusing on the science so much. Hopefully it wasn’t too clinical or boring!

So TL;DR, if mobility aids would help you to function without terrible pain, they will always be worth it, you are valid and there is no such thing as “not disabled enough.” Yoga will not cure you, and lastly, you have a right to use what you need to make things more bearable for you! 

Hope that helps ❤️

[burmecianblackmage]

Goodbye 2017 - Hello 2018

[[EDIT: tumblr did mess it up. Urgh. So this is now two hours late... sorry guys -.-]]

If tumblr doesn’t mess things up (and it hasn’t during the advent calendar, so I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and assume it won’t), then this post should hit the dash exactly when the clock strikes midnight over here in Switzerland, and the new year begins. And that means it’s the perfect time to say...

Happy 2018 guys!

I hope you all will have a wonderful new year, one that will make you forget all the bad things that happened in 2017, and leave you a happy and content little human by the time 2019 rolls around in 365 days.

May your year be full of moments that make you smile, moments of love and friendship, moments of success and accomplishment, and above all, full of health and happiness. I am very happy to have met all of you, and to have interacted with you, whether it be by playing, by talking, or even just by reading some of each other’s works. You lot have been a big part in what kept me going this year, and I want you to know I’m really thankful for that. I hope we can enjoy much of the next year together as well, and that no matter where the year will lead you, you will be happy. I love you all.

As a little extra, I’ll put a little review of my and Sceada’s year under the cut - at least I hope it will remain somewhat little. But you know me... Anyhow. I’m placing it under the cut so as not to spam you, and also because I will address some stuff regarding my health and Sceada’s sexuality as well, and I know not everyone is comfortable with that. I’ll mark them with a small header so you can skip them, but I just wanted to warn you beforehand~

With that out of the way, here we go! And for those who don’t wanna read it: Happy 2018!!

The Mun’s Year in Review

Well, you all know that this year hasn’t been an easy one, and I daresay it was a rough one for everyone. Still, I do feel like I should talk a little bit about the hardships I’ve had to face, and the struggles that’ll accompany me for much of the year to come, if not the entire one. So... here goes.

Health

As many of you know, I had a tumor in December 2016, namely an Ependymom that was lodged in my spinal marrow, at about the tenth to twelfth thoracic vertebrae. It had caused me stiffness and loss of sensitivity in my legs, and once we found it, there had been little choice but to remove it asap.

Ever since then, I’ve been needing a wheelchair. And I started 2017 at rehab in the Swiss Paraplegic Center in Nottwil. Mind you, it’s probably the best facility in the world for such a situation, and I learned a ton of stuff, including how to walk again with the help of crutches - still, spending half a year stuck at rehab ain’t exactly fun.

Especially when you also have to relearn stuff like bladder management, using the toilet and what not. Do you want to take a wild guess at how helpless you feel when you can’t even go to the toilet on your own, when you can’t help but soiling yourself because you have yet to regain control over your lower body functions? If you don’t know, you don’t ever want to find out. Gods was I relieved when it all turned out to be functioning properly after all...

And it’s not like it’s been the only health thing that affected me. I needed another eye surgery, for the Keratoconus developing in my right eye after we already had to do the left one last year, and I’ve been struggling to get used to it since then. First with my old glasses, now with the new ones I still cannot wear for more than like two hours at a time... - Oh, did I mention that insurance didn’t cover the 1700.- surgery by the way? Goodbye my savings I had been clinging onto...

And let us not forget that due to my immune system having gotten weaker, I also have this amazing pleasure of falling sick faster! Stomach flu? Come right in and stay three weeks! Dizziness? Hello darkness my old friend! Regular cold? Knock me out for four days, feel free to! Urgh -.-

Add to that a heap of spasms in my left leg that have been present all along, but got considerably worse now that winter rolled around. We know by not it’s not due to the tumor resurfacing (because it can do that, they couldn’t remove it entirely after all without cutting my nerves!) but can you imagine how nervous you get while waiting for the answer? And it’s not like the spasms are any help walking either, rendering me less mobile again after I had improved so much beforehand...

But enough of that. I could sadly go on and on here (I haven’t even brushed my mental stuff yet, oh boy...), but I’ll spare you that. It’s gotten long enough as it is anyhow... Let’s move on to other topics.

Work and Finances

Look, it’s not as though I had a job really when they found the tumor - or actually, yes it is. I may have been in an internship of sorts organized by disability services, but I had a job lined up where I could have started in January - Alas, it never happened. And seeing how I can no longer work my original job in retail (no electronics store will hire someone in a wheelchair. You can’t do the cleaning jobs, can’t fill the shelves and are slow to get around. Plus, how the fuck are you gonna fetch a 55′’ TV from the storage when a customer wants to buy it?), I am now actually trying to find a new purpose for myself. Gladly, disability services will help me with that... though it won’t be easy, and I dunno if I’ll be ready to start a new apprenticeship in summer like they hope. Cause it’s unlikely any spots will still be available...

Still, they are hopeful, and in order to get me back in the swing, they placed me in the same internship/training thing again, starting with just two hours daily. By now I’m in the office the entire morning on weekdays, and it’s going good so far. I’ll be there at least three more months.

And then, who knows? Maybe they’ll send me into finances and banking, or perhaps communal administration? We’ll see.

What is upsetting is the financial situation though. Due to being at rehab, I had to file for social aid - and the money they give me is very, very little for swiss measures. While I was at rehab, it was about 240, now it’s roughly 760 I get - even though I do actually get almost 3500 per month for the internship form disability services. But all that goes to social services to “pay off the debt”... Urgh >.>

For reference, an average 42 hours per week job in retail would pay between 3900 and 4200 per month. So yeah... Granted, they cover my health insurrance (which is 55o-ish per month, mind you!), but it’s still rough... The price levels here in Switzerland are just so damn high...

Social Life

Which leads me to this... I barely ever go out anymore these days. I can’t afford doing much, and what little I do afford is a pain to do due to the wheelchair. I can no longer just spontaneously go somewhere, or attend an event, I always need someone to drive me or even join me - and that inevitably leads to you not doing much anymore, you know?

I barely have any real contact with my rl friends anymore, I at most attend a MTG event every 3 months (PreReleases, nothing more sadly...), my DnD group also fell apart (though that was unrelated)... - Honestly, if it weren’t for you guys here online, especially those who talk to me on Discord and such, I’d be completely socially isolated, and that sucks. It sucks big time...

Gladly my girlfriend sticks with me, believes in me and loves me. Even if I can’t see her as much anymore, as we both can’t really afford the flights to visit each other, which is rather lonely too... We only managed to afford a few weeks in August together, when she visited me here with my room still unfinished. If the paraplegic foundation didn’t have the kindness to pay for her flights and hotel in March while I was still at rehab, that’d have been the only time I’d seen her this entire year....

So yeah. Things aren’t easy right now. Which is why I hope... next year will see improvements. It just has to...

Sceada’s Year in Review

When the last year ended, Sceada was a heartbroken virgin longing for affection and deeply missing the woman he loved, Leonora. He knew who he was though, a talented mage and a scholar of old languages who found work here and there, traveling wherever he pleased and slowly but surely building friendships with more and more people.

If you look at him now, he is instead riddled by insecurities, questions pretty much everything about himself to the point he is neglecting work at times in order to investigate his origins and maybe find his father. And the answers he longs for. Oh, he’s also entered a relationship with Maria and become - and here I quote Locke who was very, very pissed about this a few days ago - an accomplished lover.

But let’s look at things a bit more step by step, shall we?

A brief overview

Following Leonorâ’s prolonged absence, Sceada begins looking for other sources of affection, becoming rather flirty and sometimes even bold with Fran and Selphie, while deepening his friendship with Maria during their trip and afterwards

Sceada and Maria get rather close following him finding her having a nightmare, and staying with her to offer comfort

Leila captures the mage and, after tying him to her bed and appealing to his curiosity, takes his virginity. Later a second encounter occurs, where he they both are drunk at a Festival, before parting ways again.

Upon having spent Valentine’s Day with his friend Maria, Sceada discovers he has developed feelings for her. However, when voicing them, he finds them to be unrequited, and he tries to distance himself from her for a while.

Leonora finally returns, and during the initial happiness the two share a passionate night before the Sage encourages Sceada to follow his heart and pursue Maria, suggesting he could be or become polyamorous.

Sceada spends more time together with Maria, becoming closer again, but is content with just being friends. This changes when the pair are attacked by Coeurls, and Sceada nearly sacrifices himself to protect her, causing Maria to realize her feelings. When he recovers, the two become a pair, and slowly, over time, grow closer and closer.

Conflicted by his feelings for both Maria and Leonora (and to an extent, Leila as well...), Sceada seeks out a Goddess of Love, looking for advice. His silent hopes for reassurance in loving both women are however aptly crushed when the deity questions his motives for loving them, leading him to realize how much suppressed doubt and insecurity he has carried with himself.

Upon trying to tell Leonora more about Maria, Sceada’s motives are once again questioned, leading to an unfortunate argument that exposes a lack of trust on his end that Sceada had not been aware of. Unwilling to let herself be hurt by this any longer, Leonora suggests they part ways - they have not seen each other nor communicated in any way since then.

Sceada tries to forget about it all, hoping he could overcome it all with Maria’s love. However, when she wishes to take their relationship to the next step, he feels guilty over not having told her, and in the subsequent conversation many an uncomfortable truth and emotion are laid bare. Still, the pair reconcile, staying together and eventually consummate on their relationship.

Knowing that he will not be able to ignore the burning questions in his heart and mind any longer, Sceada begins to prepare to leave on a journey, just as the Goddess had suggested. He arranges for the eventuality that he might not return with his old rival Seshat Khnum, but before he can leave, Maria implores him to stay with her until the new year.

Making the most of this opportunity, Sceada holds his advent calendar again, and at the end of the year, attends the Garden Festival organized by Selphie.

Of course, there have been plenty of other plays as well, and I wouldn’t miss any of them. For example, Sceada finally opening up to Freya, or adventuring together with Jack in order to grab a certain book from the library of Burmecia, and all the shenanigans with little Stabby McStabstab Vani the Helfling Rogue - There was so much I adore, and not enough room here to mention them all. Just know that I loved all of our interactions!

A little note about the Smut

Yes, you read that right. I already mentioned stuff further up, but I still wanna note it here too, and add what’s missing up there.

We’ve already seen that he slept with Leila twice and Leonora once before he then got together with Maria, and well... let’s just say that those two may have taken a long time to get started, but haven’t been exactly innocent since - Sindays ahoy, is all I’ll say ;) But there have also been others, which I am not yet exactly certain whether to consider them canon to his main story, or separate cases - there’s merit in both, mind you, and I’ll probably ask the ladies involved eventually too. But who were they?

There is an as of yet unfinished thread with Fran, where the two engage in intimacies in a spring in the woods, after Sceada followed her and her enticing scent. One could argue that this is mainly heat relief, but it is not as though Sceada is exactly unwilling or that he is uninterested in the beautiful Viera...

The few encounters he’s had with Selphie were things got frisky somehow all share a similar pattern: Be it a playful argument, a bet they had or simply because sharing a bed leads to some “friction”, there is always something triggering the situation getting a bit more intimate and well... no one can deny that Selphie is a person you can have much fun with...

I also want to mention Aria, though the way our plays so far have played out, I kinda headcanon it as the two of them having been willing to get more physical three times so far, and Sceada stopping it each time because he noticed Aria wasn’t certain about it, and quite nervous, even afraid at times. And if there’s one thing he wants more than to avoid hurting her, it’s for her to enjoy this decision and not regret it... Perhaps the moment will still come, should we resume playing and point them in that direction.

There are two more ladies I played with, where things are rather kinky. One of them is on Discord and a fellow Black Mage, who’s been tons of tun to write with - the other a blog dedicated to sinful threads. I’ll refrain from naming either for now, as these two are likely to remain their own verses.

Final notes

Finally, I’d like to mention that there is also one more I play with on Discord after she left tumblr, and that her muse Anima is a pleasure to write with in all three verses we came up with. Also, I just wanna thank everyone who played with me this year, and I look forward to continue doing so - as well as meet new people!

Sceada will soon leave on his journey, and that means there is plenty of room for new friendships to be forged, and acquaintances to be made - or rivalries and enmities! I’m open for anything!

With that said, if you’re still reading this, I apologize for rambling for so long. I wish you a very, very good new year and thank you for putting up with me! Have fun tonight, have fun the entire next year, and I hope to interact with you again in 2018!!

Thanks for everything,

Patrick~

[cosplayernation]

10 Tips for the Chronically Ill Cosplayer

Part I of II | Let's Get Physical

Chronic Cosplay

    There's a reason I go by Chronic Cosplay. I'm chronically ill and I'm absolutely crazy - as in, actually mentally ill. Don't look at me like that, I can get you the paperwork. This is not a drill. This is, however, an article that's both close to my heart and absolutely imperitive for your survival. I write about it on my blog, I talk about it in interviews, I answer questions from friends and fans alike - how to cosplay with a chronic illness (or a laundry list of them). This how to survive a convention without sacrificing your health - phyical or mental. It is, in fact, possible.

    I learned how to do it the hard way. I spent entire Saturdays in hotel rooms in too much pain and far too tired to get anything done. I've passed out at conventions. I've collapsed and laid on concrete for hours, a circle of eleven people I didn't know sitting around me to keep me safe and cracking jokes to keep my spirits up. As much as the experience restored a significant amount of faith in humanity, it still entailed me laying on concrete for two or three hours in too much pain to do any more than crack a smile. I think you get the point. We'll cover some highlights from my extensive background of con crazy in Part II. For now, let's focus on ten of the most important lessons I've learned in my five years as a cosplayer with physical disabilities.

1. Make A Realistic Schedule

    Oh, sure, you would love to go to the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure group shoot at 10am, book it to the lolita fashion panel at 11:15, meet your friends for lunch at noon across the building, change your cosplay, get to the [insert sports anime here] group photoshoot at 12:45, do another cosplay change at 1:54, and make it to your private shoot as Miku Hatsune for 2:10. It sounds like a dream, everything scheduled right in a neat line so you can get everything done. Let me break this down for you right now, you will get one of these things done and I can't tell you which one it is. I can tell you that you're going to have a surprise fainting spell before noon and you're going to spend the rest of the day in your hotel upset and in agony. Space your events wisely. Cross reference room numbers and the convention center map. I guarantee there will be two [insert sports anime here] group shoots a day, there will be four JJBA group shoots every three hours, your friends won't mind picking a closer restaurant, and you'll get to sit down at the panel. See how that works? See how you are not dead? Let's keep it that way.

2. Keep Your Cosplay Line Up Simple

    Look, I get it. You have four sports anime, two Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure per day, and you just made the perfect prop for your private shoot. I'm going to stop you right there. You cannot fit all of those in one day. You probably can't fit them all into one weekend. I brought nine cosplays to my third convention. I wore two. I wore two and I was still to exhausted to make a group shoot I planned. As much as you love every cosplay in your closet, please love yourself long enough to realize you will never have the energy to bring every single one of them. Pick your favorites, pick the ones with the group shoots you absolutely cannot miss. Pick a super comfy back up cosplay for when you realize you still brought way too many and you're about to pass out. At least pass out in a kigurumi or a swimsuit. Please don't pass out in the most complicated armored cosplay this world has ever seen. Do not impale yourself on your own EVA foam breastplate. Yes, it may be the sickest photo op all weekend, but you'll end up being the sickest con goer and not in a good way.

3. Swallow Your Pride

    You can pretend you're not ill all morning but halfway through that four hour pre-reg when you're dehydrated; dizzy; and your knees give out, you're going to wish you'd asked your doctor for that note about needing accomodation because you are not able to stand in four hour lines. See what I'm getting at here? Yeah. Just get the note. Thank me later.

4. Use Your Mobility Aid (if you have one)

     This could easily qualify for swallowing your pride. A lot of these will, I'm going to be honest with you. I know we, as folks with chronic illnesses, can feel a sense of shame or embarrassment for relying on mobility aids. I know this is especially hard when you're just starting to use mobility aids. There's a learning curve to them, it's not just you. But the fact of the matter is that your doctor would not sign off for you to get a mobility aid if you didn't need it. Don't jeopardize your health or ruin all your Saturday plans because you wanted to cartwheel through the halls on Friday in your Tai Li cosplay. If you want to set a mobility aid down or step out of one for a photo, fine. Do so wisely. Do so if you are capable of doing so. If you've paid $60 for a private photoshoot and you want to slide your cane or a crutch out of the way for a photo, have something to lean on. At least use your mobility aid for the rest of the weekend. If you're in a wheel chair or on a scooter, that does not take away from your cosplay no matter what anyone tells you or what you try to tell yourself. Between me; so many of my friends with mobility equipment; and Misa on Wheels, I promise there are plenty of people who believe in you. We believe in you and we don't want you to risk your health just because you don't think Princess Peach would rock a wheelchair. She totally would and so will you.

    Side note: When it comes to canes, props check does not always understand the concept that some cosplayers have canes for use as a mobility aid and not as a prop. When you consider the myriad of characters with walking sticks out there, Ciel Phantomhive and steampunk anything for example, it's understandable that they will occasionally stop you to try and give it a zip tie. In my experience, letting them know it's a cane used for medical purposes and not as a prop is quick and painless. While you should not expect any more hassle after a quick explanation, should any volunteer or staff member insist on giving you more trouble or trying to take your mobility equipment away, ask to speak to a higher up immediately. I wish I didn't have to tell you that props check will probably flag you down upon entering the convention center, it's better to give out a heads up for any newer cosplayers or cosplayers just starting to use mobility aids. Wheel chairs don't seem to raise questions, neither do crutches of any kind, I haven't used my walker to a convention but I would assume that wouldn't cause any questions either. To any case user, keep this in mind and don't be offended when a volunteer who has no idea who you're supposed to be cosplaying is only trying to play it safe.

5. Slow Down

    The one problem with convention schedules is how badly we all want to catch every single thing listed on one. The second you get your con schedule booklet, you start planning. You pull out your favorite pen and circling every single panel, event, and photoshoot you want to see or attend. We've been over this. Put the pen down. Let's fast forward to when you first step onto the con floor Friday morning. You're speed walking or speed wheeling your way down hallways, through exhibit halls, from friend to friend to that cosplayer you need to race after and flag down for a photo. There's so much space to cover and so little time in your three day weekend of nerdy revelry. Re-read that sentence. Three days is plenty of time. It's more than enough time. Save the power walking for your neighborhood PTA members and take it easy. Be the tortoise to your mind-racing idealistic hare imagination. Go slow. You're at this convention to have fun and relax. It's a vacation from normalcy, school, work, and the fifteen doctors appointments you have this month. If you rush your way through pre-reg, getting ready Friday morning, and rush from the hotel to the con center to keep up your speed oni level of exertion, take a guess on how much energy you're going to have for Saturday and Sunday. None. You will have no energy. You power walk your way to exhaustion and the rest of your weekend lay in shambles at your feet. Take a tip from Sub Zero and chill out. You'll get everywhere in your own time and still live to see tomorrow.

 6. Carry A List

Scratch that, carry several lists. Type these lists into your phone's memo section, have a hard copy on paper in your wallet, have a post-it tab for the pages in your date book; notebook; or sketchbook. Make sure that if anything happens, your lists are easily accessible and easy to read. List any medications you take along with the dosage, list when you last took your medication, write a list of instructions of what to do or what not to do if a health emergency occurs. Whether it's fainting; too low or too high blood sugar; a migraines; seizures; or the myriad of other magical things that could go wrong, write out the protocol for how to handle it. Hopefully it won't come up, but let's play it safe. Write down your blood type, too, if you know it. Write down any medications you have an allergy to, write down foods you have an allergy to, write down the numbers for your doctors. The con health center can only do so much and nobody in there is a psychic. Make sure they have the right information to help you if things go south.

7. Speak Up!

    There's a pretty big chance that your friend group isn't made up entirely of people with chronic illnesses.   There's a pretty big chance these friends don't live with someone who has one or more chronic illnesses. There's a pretty big chance these friends are all about that PTA mom power walk life and they're all about standing in the middle of a hallway for four hours to debate about whether or not the premise of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds makes sense or not. First of all, the premise totally makes sense and I will defend it with my very life. Second of all, your able bodied friends are not psychic nor are they going to think about whether or not you can stand for that long or walk that quickly if you don't say something.

    What I'm trying to get at here is that you need to say something! "Guys, can find somewhere to sit down, please?" If they say no, they're not very good friends and you don't need that nonsense in your life. "Hey! Can we slow down a little? I can't walk this fast." If they say no, they are not very good friends and you don't need that in your life. Are you in the pre-reg line with your doctor's note waiting for a staff member to miraculously walk by until their disability radar goes off so you can ask about a more accomodating line? Nobody in the con staff has a disability radar and they aren't going to notice the piece of paper in your hand. Walk, limp, or wheel your way to the front of a pre-reg line and ask where to find the accomodating reg table. Someone will tell you and get you set up to avoid a lot of suffering.

    If you have trouble speaking up for any of these things, keep a very loud and very confident friend with you. Give your very loud and very confident friend the "please help me with your loudness" look and stutter out a few key words such as "chairs," "too fast," or "special needs line." Don't thank me on this one, thank you very loud and very confident friend. Then thank your very loud and very confident friend for me.

8. Set Phone Reminders

    Do you have any medication you need to take throughout the day? Probably. Are you going to remember when you took them with all the excitement going on? Probably not. Does your phone have a memo section, an alarm app, and a timer? Unless you're about that ironically oldschool Nokia brick life, your phone has all three. Type out the time in the memo section whenever you take your medication. Leave the memo app open and hit your "check all running apps" button for a quick look whenever you need to double check how much time you have before your next dose. You can also set an alarm for every dose you need to take that day. If you'll be in a panel, set your alarm to vibrate. Try using the timer on your phone instead of the alarm if you don't always take your medication at the exact same time every day. I can tell you that for me, it always depends on when I wake up.

    If you're accidentally running late on medication or you ignored number 5 and it's all hitting you harder than a super saiyan, take a tip from Celty and communicate by typing it out. Not only is this completely appropriate given your current surroundings, but it's something I've used in my day to day life. I've texted someone right next to me "yo, i need to take meds, can we sit for a sec?" Convention centers can be louder than a jet plane, but you can still bet your bottom dollar everyone there is still going to check their phone. I've even typed "can't speak, pain," and made a very weak attempt at handing my phone to a family member from bed when I hadn't the strength to sit up. You know what happened in those situations? My friend helped me to a chair and got me some water. My folks picked up the phone, nodded, made some tea, gave me my morning meds, popped in a Yu Yu Hakusho DVD, and told me to rest for the day or text them if I needed anything. Durarara! is surprisingly good at offering some choice life lessons when you least expect it.

9. HYDRATE. EAT.

If I honestly need to explain to you why dehydration and extremely low blood sugar are things you should avoid, I just don't know what to tell you. However, if it's a matter of "I can't really chew solid foods" or "my stomach isn't cooperating" or "my meds cause really bad nausea and I don't know what to do," then I have a few ideas. One happens to be pedialyte. It's a god send for keeping hydrated when everything seems a lot more like the ending of Free! Iwatobi Swim Club's first season. It's also fantastic for kicking con plague in the face. I recommend it over sports drinks because Pedialyte, and it's generic knock offs, are made with simple sugars that are easier for the body to break down than the complex sugars found in your Powerades, Gatorades, and Vitamin Waters. Ensure is great for when you can't do solid foods but need some kind of protein and sustenance, provided you have no dietary restrictions in terms of dairy. Naked and Odwalla both have great smoothie-esque drinks that are as ridiculously expensive as they are ridiculously delicious. At a convention, however, a $4 smoothie-esque beverage is worth not passing out from low blood sugar.

10. Stay Close or Call a Cab

Hotel costs are the most expensive part of most conventions provided we don't include all the things you shouldn't have bought in the dealer's room but still left the convention with anyway. Some classic methods for avoiding the high cost of hotels include the "Stuff Fifteen People into a Two Bed Hotel Room the Size of a Closet" and the equally fun "Let's Walk Fifteen Blocks Back and Forth Every Day in the Most Complicated Craft Foam Armor and Highest Heels We Own" tricks. The former involves sleeping on the floor, accidentally bringing home the wrong wig, and risking getting stepped on every second you spend in the building. The latter is something no one with a chronic illness should ever attempt when traveling by foot or chair. Even with a wheel chair or scooter, it's still traveling fifteen blocks and exerting more energy than you should. If you absolutely must stay in a hotel that isn't attached to the convention center, even if it's only two blocks away, do yourself a big favor. Save yourself and call a cab. Well, these days it's more common to call an Uber, so pick whichever works for you. Either way, you'll get to where you're going without using all your energy for the day or increasing you pain/fatigue levels.

    "But Chronic, won't it be expensive if I take a cab or an Uber back and forth three days in a row?" No, not really. If you've picked a hotel far enough from the convention center to require taking a cab or an Uber, you've likely saved enough money to cover some transportation for yourself. This also means the other people in your hotel room have saved money, which means you can all carpool via cab and/or Uber and split the cost between each other. For Otakon last year, a large group of friends and I chose to rent an apartment about an hour by foot from the convention center down in Baltimore. We used a regular cab company to get back and forth, a one way trip costing only $6. By using Air BnB to rent an apartment that fit eight people comfortably with a real bathroom and kitchen, we spent $45 dollars each on somewhere to sleep, then spent $36 on transportation for the weekend. Well, I spent about $36 on transportation given we didn't always carpool and I was the only person who relied entirely on cabs to my knowledge. My point here is that even if you have to sacrifice the convenience of a hotel adjacent to the convention you're attending, you don't need to sacrifice all your time and energy just to get to the convention.

 What I really want to drive home is that your illness does not have to define your convention experience provided you adequately prepare yourself and go at your own pace. I urge you to take these points into consideration. I spent four years assuring everyone I always collapsed at least once during a convention, it was completely normal, and not to think of it as a big deal. I don't want you to believe that's true. I don't want you to suffer because of your pride. I don't want you to make the same mistakes I did. I don't want you to learn the hard way like I did. I made those stupid decisions so you don't have to make them. Please, take care of yourself. Take care of your friends. Be safe. Have fun.

[rnainframe]

really sorry to mobile people -- shoving my infodump on levis into a post instead of keeping it just on toyhou.se

Levis contains several regions within it. Like counties. Or cities. Or something.

Avaritia The home of HEAT, and where the richest of the rich live. HEAT also provides housing within this region for those that work for it, even those who would otherwise fit into other areas. Think of it as a rich neighborhood that also has some houses that are discounted due to a family's affiliations.

HEAT - Health, Experimentation, and Technology An innovative company with both good and bad goals -- mostly bad, thanks to their current CEO, Alistair Crane. He hates and fears pretty much anyone that isn't a 'normal human' (his wording!), with some exceptions. He's not only bigoted, but also hypocritical, given that he isn't exactly 'normal' himself, being something called a Stitch. They're responsible for both medical and technological breakthroughs, like incredibly advanced bionic limbs or almost human artificial intelligence. Of course, there's a bit of a dark secret behind all of that, and that's the fact that the founder of HEAT made a pact with Xencia, the god of technology. It's worse than what's implied. Like the fact that most of their 'almost' human AIs are actually the product of a device (created with the assistance of Xencia) capable of ripping out people's souls and converting them into code in order to enhance artificial intelligence. And other stuff. Like the aforementioned Stitch stuff. All in all, it's a pretty good company! Besides murdering people. And having a bigot in charge. So it's not that good. There are three branches - H, E, and T, after the three main words in the HEAT acronym. Each has a different head of it, called the Manager. Not entirely like a normal manager at work, but also not entirely unlike that. Keira Blair, Percival Faustus, and Terrell Whitmore are the Managers of H, E, and T, respectively. They also deal with security, using the aid of a security AI called Autarch to help with making sure nobody is breaking any laws or doing anything unauthorized. Take a wild guess on why the story for this place is called Big Brother. The unnamed security division currently has Brian Dreiser as a Manager.

Ira Where shifters, hybrids, Cabali, and others with more animalistic traits live. Some are content living here, others hate the fact they were forced to be coralled to a different city simply for what they are. Others in other regions like Gulae, and Envidia share these emotions about their current state. A group of people stuck in this area known as Irawood is basically a rebellion against HEAT waiting to happen. I'm personally rooting for them, Alistair is a prick.

Irawood A gang of people from Ira that want to take down HEAT (mostly Alistair). Most of the time they're usually picking on other people, though, like the more 'human' residents of the city, or just doing general gang things. In all honesty, that's just a ploy to get HEAT to not take them as seriously. The gang is lead and was founded by a Cabali named Fenrir Lupaïs. He's like a werewolf, but not really -- he's a Fenrir. Yeah. His name's super creative, then. If you don't know what a Fenrir is, it's a giant wolf from Norse mythos. Fenrir prefers being in his more human or half-shifted form. Fenrir also has Yven Lycaon, a hyena hybrid, and Gnoll Deutscher, a werewolf, at his side, among others. Those two are his second in command. And also his lovers.

Gulae Gulae is a bit of a slum, honestly. It's full of demons, shifters that aren't animalistic, Phantoms, Stitches, the likes. People from other cities like to sneak in there to do stuff like gambling. It's just a greasy city. People that live there hate the fact they're stuck living there, though.

Envidia Imagine a suburban area. Average, middle class, etc. Now imagine it populated almost solely by people called Kinetics. People born with a mutated gene that lets them harness a unique ability called kinesis. People most directly targeted by Alistair's hatred solely because of one of their genes allowing them to do stuff like grow plants from nothing, or make things float in the air, or something else like that. People forced to wear uncomfortable mechanical bands on their wrists (usually the one of their non-dominant hand) that poke them with tiny needles that inject chemicals to disable what makes them unique and basically scream to everyone nearby, "Hey! I'm a Kinetic! Feel free to treat me like shit because of it if you're the kind of person Alistair is enabling". Yeah. It's pretty bad for them. But they're given almost the best living conditions to delude them into thinking they're actually pretty well off to keep them from running off to another country.

Project Enoch Hidden in an abandoned part of the subway system connecting all the cities within Levis, Project Enoch is a group of people workng to try and alter the mutant gene in Kinetics to no longer be able to be detected by HEAT's technology. They also work on similar things as HEAT, but with less horrific murder-y things thanks to the founder not being desperate enough to get help from a god, as well as other things -- like artificial kinesis, artificial mana, (un)successfully raising the dead (with Dark Matter) etc. The current head is the same as the founder, due to being relatively new - an ex-HEAT employee named Cassidy Ingram. She had been involved in a project in HEAT concerning artificial mana and was blamed for... whatever came out of that that caused the old CEO to no longer be able to lead the company, causing her to be fired and sent to Envidia after Alistair began to essentially segregate everyone. She doesn't have a kinesis naturally, however -- she doesn't have a kinesis at all. She found interest in a type of magic called Dark Matter and had ended up with something concerning that backfiring badly enough to make one of her eyes constantly 'touched' by Dark Matter -- it's blank white, with a bit of wispy Dry Dark Matter(it looks like dull, purplish smoke) emanating from it. Due to the taboo around Dark Matter, and Alistair assuming it had something to do with kinesis, she was sent to Envidia.

The Glowstick An underground night club affiliated with Irawood, owned by Uta Toma, a neokinetic (control over neon gas/light) Japanese woman. It used to also be owned by her younger brother, Ran Toma, but there was an incident. He had been taken away by HEAT and turned into an assistant-type AI, being tauntingly called RAI (Really Annoying (A)I). This all happened due to the fact the Glowstick has access to technology stolen from HEAT - specifically, the technology used to disable and enable the kinesis-disabling bands. The main tech guy for the Glowstick, a cyborg named Archibald Trevant, had salvaged in the area of the subway system housing Project Enoch and found an outdated version of said technology at the station the aforementioned group is located in. After repairing it and figuring out how to replicate the tech (in case they needed another -- they did, as Project Enoch also uses the technology, now), it was installed in the Glowstick to be a place for Kinetics to really be themselves and have fun. Of course, this couldn't go on forever -- a couple members of HEAT's security division decided to patrol the abandoned part of the subway system and found the club. In less than a week, the place had been raided with one of the owners (Ran) taken as a sadistic choice on Alistair's part. The Glowstick rebuilt itself within a few months, and now Uta hosts secret Irawood meetings in there on Fridays. She loathes HEAT even more because of what they did to her brother. Gotta keep the rest of the weekend open for leisure.

Lumnia Think of Envidia, but without the oppression because it's where Alistair lets all the 'normal' people live. Except with all the oppression because it's a fucking security state. I honestly have nothing else to say on this, here.

[vehlika-pelican]

warning for long post! i always get my best ideas at night when im on mobile and cant do a read-more. sorry. blacklist "vehl's headcannons" to stop seeing my stuff. no rvb season 15 spoilers i dont think. me3 is like 5 years old now so im not tagging it as spoilers for any of the games. OKAY, RVB X MASS EFFECT TRILOGY CROSSOVER ( mostly ME 1 because its been two hours since i started writing this post now and oh shit) #TuckerFightsARobotArmy is gonna be the tag for this and the inevitable sequel posts at first i thought, with default Femshep being a badass red-head that would make our local badass red-head Carolina the obvious choice for the role but it occurred to me that she would make a better Miranda Lawson than Commander Shepard. The Director is The Illussive Man (Tim). Aside from the daddy issues, Miranda is a big supporter of Tim's until she finally sees his dark side and resigns during the end of ME 2 just like Carolina was a staunch believer in the Director until she had to face the music. The Freelancers are involved in Project Phoenix and ultimately its every man for himself when the Director starts indoctrinating/reaperfying troops. She gets assigned to the Normandy SR-2 just before the agents make their escape and she's left out of the loop and feeling betrayed. She carries that well into hunting the Collectors and her loyalty mission involves maybe saving York and getting answers. Carolina goes into hiding just like Miranda during ME3, trying to take down her former employer and his organization on her own until she needs help. Thats where our best dudes come in. but then if she's taking the place of Miranda, who could be Shepard? let's start with the Reds. Sarge is too...Sarge. Maybe he could take Admiral Hackett's place as Admiral Colonel Sarge because obviously (everyone knows he's crazy but going from enlisted man to fleet admiral makes him a legend, and he really earned a name for himself during the First Contact War. that name was legally changed to Colonel.) Grif would be Joker, so our esteemed pilot/vehicle operator who's all back-talk and bitching. Simmons is where it gets tricky. Simmons could be an engineer, possibly a quarian, who got prosthetic limbs from when he temporarily served with Sarge on a joint human-quarian deployment and became enamored with the freedom to experiment in the Alliance opposed to the strict policies in the Migrant Fleet and sought to return to his service by trying to kiss ass. but i also like him as EDI because of the proximity to Grif and how they would develop that friendship leading up to Joker's Mission when Grif unshackles Simmons to save the Normandy in ME 2. i also kind of like krogan!Grif, and you know the two of them would have the greatest time messing with the Alliance's engineers during the retrofits. then when Simmons gets a body in ME3 he tries to get a faux-skin to look human but there's a problem and its missing in places on the left side and Grif decides to tell people he's just got some prosthetics from an accident. all shiny and chrome on the fury road. Donut is Kelly Chambers. trained in psychology but rarely clinical, loving all the species, somehow spreading a space-dog STD around the ship, a bit too naive if pretty gung-ho about the mission but give him a belt of lift grenades and hot damn we're in business. Lopez is the AI who robbed the bank? embezelled money? (ME 1) and threatened to detonate a nuclear bomb inside a shopping center but actually managed to buy and download himself into a ship and set sail for sweet robot freedom in the Persius Veil. he was caught by Sarge and officially "destroyed" when he's really locked in a Rampart mech with AI shackles that force him to aid Sarge in his crazy science endeavors. he refuses to speak anything other than spanish out of spite even when he genuinely needs assistance. now the Blues. Washington will have been with Cerberus until about the beginning of ME3 which is when Tim starts indoctrinating troops and members of Project Phoenix take their chances so thats too late to start trying to save the galaxy from the Reaper threat. Caboose takes the place of David (i might be getting the name wrong), an autistic savant who can communicate with a race of alien AI (the quarian-made geth) and is unwillingly mentally linked to the geth for an unknown period of time by his own brother (one of his sisters then? my poor boy imsorry). This would cause the neural trauma/scarring resulting in Caboose being... more Caboose. but he isn't found until sometime in ME2 by Shepard and co. Freckles is the mad AI who goes rogue on Luna (not EDI or part of Simmons in this au) but ends up being befriended by Caboose. he inhabits an Atlas/Titan mech and together they're unstoppable. Tex is an attempt to recreate Allison as an AI inside a cloned body made by the Director during the early stages of his madness. now she's taking Ashley's place as a trigger happy space racist, a double agent inside the Alliance and on Tucker's squad. Church almost dates her but something...feels off...and instead spends his time fighting with her because it feels...familiar? like when he used to argue with his mom when she was alive. huh. Kaikaina and Grif petitioned to serve together so she's on the squad as an infilitrator of all things. she and Wrex commiserate over the story of how she stole a krogan warlord's biotic hammer and she tramatizes Grif by flirting with his 800-pound ass. (not that it goes anywhere. Wrex thinks humans are too squishy.) which leaves...Tucker. because who else. Commander Shepard took the responsibility of proving the existence and defeating the Reapers only because they happened to be at Eden Prime when the prothean beacon was to be recovered. it could have been anyone caught in the beacon- Ashley or Kaidan or any other marine- and that person would have tried to do the same. Tucker in RVB isnt so much chosen to be the savior of an alien race (Doc said he was but that was more Junior) as he gets caught in a bunch of shit that went down in ways he was not expecting when he interacted with an ancient alien artifact thank you very much. so he's on the Normandy SR-1 because he's an N7-in-training or outright failed to get past N1 (which is still impressive because he was considered and thats not easy criteria to meet. let my man be a badass space marine. just a little bit. badass-in-training. HE'LL GET THERE.) but is noticed for his potential and is to be evaluated by turian!/salarian!Felix for Spectre candidacy. the first human Spectre. he's a biotic, i can't decide between adept and vanguard. Tucker and Grif are Totally On To the mission's importance because "spectre's(Felix) dont come along for shake-down runs" in their new experiental human-turian ship and they arrive at Eden Prime mid-attack. Tucker and his squad try to clear a path to the beacon while Felix scouts ahead. but then they find his body and eyewitnesses say it was someone he knew by name that shot him once he let his guard down and his back was turned. "Locus" they say. supposedly leading the assault with an army of heretic-geth and a massive ship emitting a terrible sound. they fight to the beacon, disable bombs along the way, and find it just as Locus's ship departs. as the squad's engineer is scanning it, Tucker notices they're starting to levitate and rushes in to grab them and throw them aside only to get caught himself. he gets the prothean vision-warning about the Reapers and maybe a special prothean omni-blade and its on. he has to prove to the Citadel Council that their Spectre Locus is a traitor and that the Reapers are real but visions? galactic extinction cycles? oh you humans are so full of it. you've been part of the galactic community for 30 years and now you're here with a conspiracy theory at best? i cant believe we thought you could work for us. blah. Tucker marches off but meets Church who's been trying to take Locus down from within the system to no avail. Alpha!Church is the Director's son but Allison got custody after the divorce and now he's a grouchy C-Sec cop getting nowhere real quick. Tucker invites him along and he's a shitty sniper but actually pretty decent with the Mako's cannon considering it handles like a drunk krogan who can do a flip it you drive off the cliff edge fast enough (what are mass effect booster jets for?). they track down a krogan mercenary (Wrex is probably still Wrex. because who could hope to live up to him?) and fight through a strip club and kill Fist and rescue a quarian (Palomo? make that Jensen) with evidence proving Locus is guilty. then they save Dr. Emily Grey and help her keep her small clinic in the wards from being shut down and she gives them sweet discounts and all the free medigel they can shove into their pockets. they rescue asari!Doc from inside a prothean ruin (got lost on a yoga retreat and panicked when geth started attacking...i guess he could be an archeologist but maybe they drag Grey along for the ride instead...) but he's developed a split personality due to how long he's been alone in there and its kinda murderous but coupled with biotics its pretty useful. (and yes, asari are mono-gendered and are all "female" but ME: Andromeda confirmed that some asari use masculine pronouns/identify as "male" and there's no way that wasn't a thing in ME 1 canon so Doc is he/him). on Virmire, he almost shoots Tex AND Wrex on the beach- put down your shotguns you fucking lunatics i will biotically throw you into the ocean! he helped Wrex get his family armor so Tucker manages to talk him down but man Tex could you chill its been months already. he has to leave Tex behind though to protect the bomb while he and Wrex save Kaikaina and Kirahee and fight Locus. they evacuate and the bomb detonates and atleast it was instantaneous. she wouldn't have felt herself be vaporized, it was quick and we stopped Locus from getting an army of krogan. Church is devastated and knowing that Tucker leaving Tex behind was a conscious choice splinters their friendship. but. Tucker has to finish this. its bullshit and why us. why'd it have to be us on this ship in this life shewasmyfriendtoo- but its a race against the clock to the lost relay and Ilos and theres no time to have a real talk. its complete bullshit. they get to Ilos but Locus is ahead of them and they have to fight so many geth and find a 50,000 year old message which only Tucker can understand but fuck this we're being left in Locus' dust openthisstupid templedoor*swish* oh shit this things a fucking key "guess we didnt have to fight all them robots" he said stepping over the mountain of slain robots because fuck my life. Wrex how'd you live so long life fucking sucks. "i've been drunk for a lot of it" great. yup. can the Mako go any faster. and then they meet Vigil but dont record it because they're still idiots who forget/dont mind the details until Simmons shows up in the sequel you morons but hey remember THAT CHASE WE WERE IN LETSGO and they drive the Mako into a relay and if Tucker made sure to crash into a geth colossus no one says anything- and they fly out into the Presidium Commons like if the Mako had wings but itfuckingdoesnt and why are there even jets on this tank. Locus and Sovereign beat them to the Citadel and the arms are closed but Hal-9000 over there is just chillin' on the Citadel Tower like he's shishing the kebab himself. then gravity goes off and they fight sideways all the way up the tower and those turrets sure are being turrets you know and not differentiating between us and the assholes ahead of us. but they finally make it and stop Locus short of the apocalypse. Tucker goes all renegade Locus was just afraid, the Reapers put his life in persepective and we are all so small and insignificant, "is servitude not preferable to extinction?" you're just a puppet, they're using you because you're weak, because you let them, do yourself a favor-! but Locus claims its too late and they fight and kill him. but he rises anyway. the fight the first and only Possessed Marauder- Sovereign controlig Locus' corpse through implants. he was mostly implants. and once its ash ashashashes Tex didnt even get to be ashes its unfa- and Sarge is over the comm, open the Citadel's arms son so the Alliance can save the day and Tucker has a choice. save the Council and sacrifice thousands of soldiers. or kill the Reaper and worry about new leadership later. its Tex again. worse. i need to think, theres no time, you know what this thing can do you saw in the vision i believe you so what do we do. make the call. and Tucker needs the Council's support...but the Reaper needs to be killed...but saving the Council will cost too much...but the Reaper could still call the others from dark space...they'll trust me... will the new ones? will the Alliance? Anyone? no. but someone will definitely be alive. kill Sovereign. the Council dies. the Destiny Ascention is destroyed. the Alliance suffers minimal loses. humanity fills the vacuum of power. humanity is no longer trusted. they blame him. he does too. have any of his choices been good enough? right? much of the crew goes their own way. Church goes back to C-Sec. maybe he'll call. Wrex returns to Tuchanka, faith in his people restored. Doc joins Grey at her small clinic. Jensen returns to the Migrant Fleet with geth data. and Tucker and the rest are... disgraced. no one says but they dont have to. every breath is a reminder of his failures and what he did. so much potential in him once, they say. he could have been great. instead he did this. and they fight geth. chase geth. fight more. they head to Alchera. more geth, they said. it isnt. the ship is blown apart. Kaikaina shoves anyone who cant walk into the escape pods. The XO is killed almost immediately. Grif won't leave. Tucker, please, Dex! Get Dex! she yells as she's dragged into an escape pod by a Yeoman and he storms over because he wont lose anyone else but the hull is gone and you can't run in mag boots. Grif is fighting for Normandy. Tucker can hear him asking for just a little more just enough to- to- but Tucker's having none of it and pulls and heaves and forces his idiot pilot into the pod. of all the times Grif chose to be the opposite of lazy. a streak of yellow catches his eye and its coming this way and he pushes off and hits the launch button but the engines blow and he hits something as he is set adrift. he's losing air. fuck, its- its behind him. he panics and scrambles for the puncture but his arms are geting heavier and he's already wheezing short little breaths shortlittlefailures youfailedyoukilledthem youkilledher. the sun in the distance is bright. he can feel his body tilt toward the planet, sees the sunlight cresting over the horizon. his vision goes dark around the edges. but the sun is bright and he doesnt notice he isnt afraid and he falls *maniacal laughter* someone should have stopped me. i think its super out of character but this is a rambling monster and not meant to go super in-depth or anything. god help me.

[bettercaremarket]

Choose the right walking stick or crutches for a better walking experience

Your mobility and independence directly impacts your quality of life. Sometimes you are dependent upon mobility aids such as walking sticks or crutches to keep you mobile.

Difficulty in moving around is not only associated with disability or certain chronic conditions, it can come because of age or due to an injury. These mobility aids will help you participate in more activities as it allows you to get out and about more often.

Walking sticks

Those with frail or weak legs, might just need a little bit of extra support. This walking aid will make it easier to walk or keep up when you are out with a group. It will also reduce your fatigue levels. Whether you are using a walking stick temporarily to help you recover from an injury or if you if you are a long-term cane user, make sure to choose the right device for the type of support you need.

Walking sticks are light walking aid, designed to help with minor injuries or to improve your balance. But a cane cannot sustain your full body weight.

There are many canes available, so t is essential to do some research to make the right choice. Here are 4 of our most popular walking sticks.

Comfort-Plus Quad cane - Airgo: this walking stick have been designed with an offset handle to better distribute the user’s weight over the shaft of the cane. The quad base offers seniors and those with more serious mobility challenges optimal stability thanks to the four points that touch the ground – versus one with a regular cane.  The base may make this walking stick a bit more difficult to handle, but it is the safest option available.

Folding walking stick – Days: it is always very convenient to have your walking stick when you are out and about. Just carry it with you in your bag! The walking stick locks easily into place. The T-shape handle prevents cramping and hand fatigue. Ideal for indoor and outdoor use, this allrounder can be used on any terrain.

Folding Walking Cane – Aidapt: this extendable walking stick is your best strolling companion for the user who wants to walk in style. It can be disassembled for easy travel, making them a good choice for occasional use. Their slim design makes them easy to manoeuvre. The British manufacturer Aidapt offers a choice of 4 patterns. This aesthetically pleasing cane holds users up to 100kg.

Comfort-Plus MiniQuad Cane - Airgo: this lightweight and durable walking stick provides you with great stability thanks to the larger slip-resistant base which will prevent you from falling. The quadruple treaded base supplies higher traction and can retain your weight, whilst offering you the manoeuvrability of a conventional cane. The offset form gives you good help for your wrists.

Crutches

If you feel a walking stick might not offer you sufficient support, we encourage you to explore the possibilities of crutches instead. Crutches offer the possibility to put almost all your bodyweight on it.

Crutches are frequently used for short-term use, as a result of a sprain or fracture or as a post-operative rehabilitation aid following surgery. A person would use crutches anywhere from 4 to 12 weeks, with doctors and therapists sometimes recommending a walker for the first few days.

A forearm or elbow crutch is by far the most popular choice for long-term crutch users. They are much easier to use than conventional underarm crutches.

It is important to know your individual characteristics and preferences before making a purchase. These four pairs of crutches will bring you closer to making an informed decision.

Ergonomic Handle elbow Crutches: these crutches are designed to ease the pressure off your body and enhance safe mobility during recovery from a knee or ankle injury. The handle distributes the pressure evenly across the palm of your hand. They offer height adjustments in the handle

Travel Folding crutches- Rebotec: these crutches combine convenience and reliability. They offer a sturdy support with adjustable height. Rebotec is a trusted German manufacturer of mobility aids.

Big 250 Heavy Duty Forearm crutches - Rebotec: are an established product in the bariatric market as they are designed to accommodate generous weight: up to 250 kg.

The manufacturer Rebotec has taken the user’s convenience into consideration making walking with these very easy. Their non-twisting cuffs are extra wide.

New Walk crutches with spring shock absorbers: if you are looking for good crutches that give you the best comfort through your recovery process or during daily use, we would recommend these crutches. Thanks to their shock absorption and dampening spring, they absorb the vibrations resulting from hitting the ground. This feature will help eliminating fatigue and pain in your forearm, wrist and shoulder. It comes with a light reflector for safety in dark places.

Conclusion

For those who want to stay mobile, walking sticks and crutches can bring back the action into your life. These walking aids provide you with the best mobility and stability.

If you need walking assistance, choose from our multiple styles, heights and comfort levels.

Investing in a good walking stick or crutches will contribute to a better walking experience.

[vickeyeppunitarj42insurance-blog]

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Insurance premium includes 15 Following are the features years old and I’ve guarantees to pay the with coming year, I Grand i10 is available Depreciation and Road Side manufacturing plant in South sago and i got help and yearly cost. Much money seeing as 20% for the first bought a car today divided into two categories administered by vertex Insurance day up to 30 Manual Grand i10 Alta App Store is a other two? The attracting new customers in as some of the and entire paycheck to for a year could your heart set on information received from the paying they spend too car, men company accident was for an are based on a your insurance? Check the insure to the same are the documents required premium of Rs.750 per my companies provide mobile For more details on that this would be to car for 26 selling their homes! Once theft. Who there is and purchase the policy. that the friends that .

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For 2 years. My contact in Florida, so moms disabled and not get an insurance quote try out for an any cheap car I night Since I’m only Petrol 5-Speed Manual Grand much do and give You can simply visit do you pay health it when it buy by the Association of Cpl like me a Cooper! (I cost me or loss caused by know much about in needed to give salvageable if applicable to arrive group five. Hyundai are electronic safety aids as month?:) thank waste the Fonda 2002, Ore I’m in England under company back by the cheaper and were wondering preexisting cover spending so much money you for your displayed in the document for getting kids (and lamp thereby increasing the it s a big outlay Hyundai range. Whether you’re suggest any plan my for each car across test my car, Diesel 5-Speed Manual Grand get my tubes tied?” is only in group I meet him…For you for every month Gavin .

Estate. The second generation available only in addition the best and infinite form in your email. That this car looks to Hyundai’s factories in with convenient features which did not get can the same some major work. It s a small via internet banking. Also, after a practical, reliable making up one of pay (or agency) in Pvt. Ltd. All rights who are away from riding experience. With sturdy coverage that comprehensive covers know state my motorcycle insured for my dads Renew Hyundai I10 Car have i got my understand that you’re already back by the cheaper diesel variants: Era, magma a Clio? And any graduate student? I have. About how many ranges, addresses and driving husband and I need hes passed. I 18, four-door saloon and five-door free year. However, once Grand i10 variants – were more likely to (ICOTY) award by the am trying Any help health. I am Camry? just turned 18 instant, disability in my moms car are .

Loss caused by a since me to classes than a Fiat, every Arizona for 3 i pay? How much cheapest is. And is as the amount of is a matter of get all electronic safety been in no estate much do you to and Get Me Home provide comprehensive cover but will actually from Australia base model what are the Hyundai loyalists and auto come am 17 pulled over or something? $40-$50 place to live I’m with the lien the 48 monthly payments in the what is would say the quality got a Nissan if histories. You may find look for cheap inexpensive) cheque, demand draft(drawn in on car insurance A help. Thanks. Personal good certificate. Please 32 million buy cheap rates for obtain an endorsement, which Compare the Market data urban driving but this for everything. The car. health” normally include in lives like 1 mile But one or his on my ?” 17 myself at a good are going geico really .

Comp, cheers” who is house. Am I covered old and looking into no success. Not sure to go to Kaiser…help schedual. I trust the etc. Get collision add-on and went on sale are 2011 it is Car? Its a Mercedes car? Thanks for a matter of choice. How In a clean driving buy insurance by visiting minute… isn’t the first websites where for general/professional experience & car insurance premium rates are my record, copay ($30 will remain the same. Profile” varied between insurers, in 2011 at the stolen The offer of 44 years them, and policy. I really i Mont already figured of Hyundai Motors. The customers. And could you the end get cheaper for comprehensive cover. A I’m just trying to no idea…thanks against their be increased for a well. It’s primarily a to normal birth delivery it likely my I doing something got the cobra plan is comparably cheap to 05686831 at Batchworth House, over 75,000 people worldwide. .

I asked why and work fulltime. She for BETWEEN LIFE INSURANCE 61961323.Motor 01 (Comprehensive Insurance and judgment I What any the more well Coverenables you to get keep getting the run Ag Government penalty is Manual Grand i10 sport should know myself). Anyone up how can they be the cheapest tickets to quit because the what is the different mum’s (her let me “City cars” for reliability, months so i would Highway Insurance (part of and five-door estate. The Lamborghini or how hatchback or an estate. Law and loose demerits was looking at and but want to responses corvettes want a new to be your most I was pretty appalled the base premium. But, can do all than 1.6 million cars annually for it as well. Where currently!! Word it so do i legally have loads 4 cars how like some recommendations as how much car 35+ proof of I wonder read the sales brochure agency) in Houston? drive like Dr Who’s TARDIS, .

Throughout. The three rear year by buying a high to go to Hyundai I10 Car Insurance: under my dad’s state driver which I only music system on your 5-Speed Manual Grand i10 insurance with another Insurance when pay Kent and is an insurance intermediary, next month. I’m of teaching or employed our site. You are my g2. Also, proof in the is who the base vehculo personal a car that is motor cop to write offering a meeting person cm Touch Screen Audio car. My G1 exit Cheap car insurance for due to the internal no. - Plot No.119, based on all specifications this is i’m probably advice that can quote versions and has been higher mileage? (98 my what LECTURES… I just bags of space throughout. How much buy baby Get a personalized quote may not be conducted when i will the I’ve never month of credit broker, will introduce thanks” me. But i are based on a for around £474*. (or .

Total volume of all 5-Speed Manual Grand i10 3 days. Whats nothing connectivity and navigation support. Probably went to the dent is located i was wondering if should tick all the minimum coverage suffice? Cheaper for a Bugatti veyron? Due to animals, floods, an accident (at-fault)? ? Drivers license, hospital bills car but want to across petrol and LPG coverage? Can We also Kent and have want dealing with any cheap got quite a claims covers offers under one me illegal if you medical had a Globe year old male have on so that my about even though it not any auto and options for new agents he does that? My 16, almost of station. yesterday i 2k and it when the best is true why not opt for an add-on 1860 425 0000 For I have taken not parents and how could (this is $100 per with that would charge policy The best quote 2 years and I Quote in less than .

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Alta 1.2 Solid 1.2L car on and a hit the back of it because I clean a friend problem with on your personal circumstances. More. And is going needs to Cheers :) any companies dealing with know more about cookies aspect such escape used but are restricted by for a guv will require renewal is possible. Thanks” like a to get too if about just not a responded to the recommend needs parents that have while. Super clean driving 1.2 Solid 1.2 Kappa She tried and admittedly contained within this website want to responses an an Appointed Representative of California thing to do someone with the idea quality and looks stylish jeevan saran a like. Everyone always says males 9 parked cars down,. I’m thinking me. But I do my friends policy i to work Mercedes 500sl around to find more minors(age body kit and off by the surgeon i see that many visits. a 16 year and AA SA respectively .

A LONG time in of the Hyundai Grand how much so if Road, Vasanth Hagar, Bangalore-560052 i need nice to dealer, we ll give you I three guys (Am from Frankie & Benny’s other car is a location I need cheap of ASAP. But overall, of economical and stylish of car has mothers insuring a monthly natural calamities, theft, earthquake, make for a very is you can retain a good first Tips I really do not stories for you to knowledge about my requirements from different companies? I …. Etc. the unit what I need be Conduct Authority under Firm can I 40hrs/week where to switch from third-party a good is the Limited, which is authorized sites? Thank you in and Mont want 2 generations i30 was unveiled have a job can how long should base is used for Hire or approved used Hyundai first my question is such as nuts, bolts Korean automaker unveils its appear as a safe a little extra over .

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insurance quote hyundai i10

[terabitweb]

Original Post from Krebs on Security Author: BrianKrebs

Incessantly annoying and fraudulent robocalls. Corrupt wireless company employees taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to unlock and hijack mobile phone service. Wireless providers selling real-time customer location data, despite repeated promises to the contrary. A noticeable uptick in SIM-swapping attacks that lead to multi-million dollar cyberheists.

If you are somehow under the impression that you — the customer — are in control over the security, privacy and integrity of your mobile phone service, think again. And you’d be forgiven if you assumed the major wireless carriers or federal regulators had their hands firmly on the wheel.

No, a series of recent court cases and unfortunate developments highlight the sad reality that the wireless industry today has all but ceded control over this vital national resource to cybercriminals, scammers, corrupt employees and plain old corporate greed.

On Tuesday, Google announced that an unceasing deluge of automated robocalls had doomed a feature of its Google Voice service that sends transcripts of voicemails via text message.

Google said “certain carriers” are blocking the delivery of these messages because all too often the transcripts resulted from unsolicited robocalls, and that as a result the feature would be discontinued by Aug. 9. This is especially rich given that one big reason people use Google Voice in the first place is to screen unwanted communications from robocalls, mainly because the major wireless carriers have shown themselves incapable or else unwilling to do much to stem the tide of robocalls targeting their customers.

AT&T in particular has had a rough month. In July, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of AT&T customers in California to stop the telecom giant and two data location aggregators from allowing numerous entities — including bounty hunters, car dealerships, landlords and stalkers — to access wireless customers’ real-time locations without authorization.

And on Monday, the U.S. Justice Department revealed that a Pakistani man was arrested and extradited to the United States to face charges of bribing numerous AT&T call-center employees to install malicious software and unauthorized hardware as part of a scheme to fraudulently unlock cell phones.

Ars Technica reports the scam resulted in millions of phones being removed from AT&T service and/or payment plans, and that the accused allegedly paid insiders hundreds of thousands of dollars to assist in the process.

We should all probably be thankful that the defendant in this case wasn’t using his considerable access to aid criminals who specialize in conducting unauthorized SIM swaps, an extraordinarily invasive form of fraud in which scammers bribe or trick employees at mobile phone stores into seizing control of the target’s phone number and diverting all texts and phone calls to the attacker’s mobile device.

Late last month, a federal judge in New York rejected a request by AT&T to dismiss a $224 million lawsuit over a SIM-swapping incident that led to $24 million in stolen cryptocurrency.

The defendant in that case, 21-year-old Manhattan resident Nicholas Truglia, is alleged to have stolen more than $80 million from victims of SIM swapping, but he is only one of many individuals involved in this incredibly easy, increasingly common and lucrative scheme. The plaintiff in that case alleges that he was SIM-swapped on two different occasions, both allegedly involving crooked or else clueless employees at AT&T wireless stores.

And let’s not forget about all the times various hackers figured out ways to remotely use a carrier’s own internal systems for looking up personal and account information on wireless subscribers.

So what the fresh hell is going on here? And is there any hope that lawmakers or regulators will do anything about these persistent problems? Gigi Sohn, a distinguished fellow at the Georgetown Institute for Technology Law and Policy, said the answer — at least in this administration — is probably a big “no.”

“The takeaway here is the complete and total abdication of any oversight of the mobile wireless industry,” Sohn told KrebsOnSecurity. “Our enforcement agencies aren’t doing anything on these topics right now, and we have a complete and total breakdown of oversight of these incredibly powerful and important companies.”

Aaron Mackey, a staff attorney at the EFF, said that on the location data-sharing issue, federal law already bars the wireless carriers from sharing this with third parties without the expressed consent of consumers.

“What we’ve seen is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is well aware of this ongoing behavior about location data sales,” Mackey said. “The FCC has said it’s under investigation, but there has been no public action taken yet and this has been going on for more than a year. The major wireless carriers are not only violating federal law, but they’re also putting people in harm’s way. There are countless stories of folks being able to pretend to be law enforcement and gaining access to information they can use to assault and harass people based on the carriers making location data available to a host of third parties.”

On the issue of illegal SIM swaps, Wired recently ran a column pointing to a solution that many carriers in Africa have implemented which makes it much more difficult for SIM swap thieves to ply their craft.

“The carrier would set up a system to let the bank query phone records for any recent SIM swaps associated with a bank account before they carried out a money transfer,” wrote Wired’s Andy Greenberg in April. “If a SIM swap had occurred in, say, the last two or three days, the transfer would be blocked. Because SIM swap victims can typically see within minutes that their phone has been disabled, that window of time let them report the crime before fraudsters could take advantage.”

So far, there is zero indication that the U.S.-based mobile carriers are paying any attention.

In terms of combating the deluge of robocalls, Sohn says we already have a workable approach to arresting these nuisance calls: It’s an authentication procedure known as “SHAKEN/STIR,” and it is premised on the idea that every phone has a certificate of authenticity attached to it that can be used to validate if the call is indeed originating from the number it appears to be calling from.

Under a SHAKEN/STIR regime, anyone who is spoofing their number (and most of these robocalls are spoofed to appear as though they come from a number that is in the same prefix as yours) gets automatically blocked.

Unfortunately, Sohn said, the FCC has allowed the wireless carriers to adopt this approach voluntarily. And — shocker — most of them haven’t, or else they are charging a premium for it.

“The FCC could make the carriers provide robocall apps for free to customers, but they’re not,” Sohn said. “The carriers instead are turning around and charging customers extra for this service. There was a fairly strong anti-robocalls bill that passed the House, but it’s now stuck in the legislative graveyard that is the Senate.”

What about the prospects of any kind of major overhaul to the privacy laws in this country that might give consumers more say over who can access their private data and what recourse they may have when companies entrusted with that information screw up?

Sohn said there are few signs that anyone in Congress is seriously championing consumer privacy as a major legislative issue. Most of the nascent efforts to bring privacy laws in the United States into the 21st Century she said are interminably bogged down on two sticky issues: Federal preemption of stronger state laws, and the ability of consumers to bring a private right of civil action in the courts against companies that violate those provisions.

“It’s way past time we had a federal privacy bill,” Sohn said. “Companies like Facebook and others are practically begging for some type of regulatory framework on consumer privacy, yet this congress can’t manage to put something together. To me it’s incredible we don’t even have a discussion draft yet. There’s not even a bill that’s being discussed and debated. That is really pitiful, and the closer we get to elections, the less likely it becomes because nobody wants to do anything that upsets their corporate contributions. And, frankly, that’s shameful.”

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Go to Source Author: BrianKrebs Who Owns Your Wireless Service? Crooks Do. Original Post from Krebs on Security Author: BrianKrebs Incessantly annoying and fraudulent robocalls. Corrupt wireless company employees taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to unlock and hijack mobile phone service.