#his feelings and issues probably aren't as important as everyone else's right???

[drawbauchery]

Ok so heres some headcannons for your au imposter. :>

Although imposter is mainly shown dealing/helping with others im sure he has got some issues Besides recovering from the killing game and trying to be a better person. Ok first thing,imposter tends to serpress his emotions,like he barrys any thoughts he doseint want to deal with in the back on his mind so he doesn't have to deal with it. He doseint unpack his thoughts often like when he said "ill unpack this later" he never did. Ok next,they hate mirrors mainly because they probably hate there real face,i mean there body is one thing theres nothing extremely discernable about it. But there face is different. When ever they look at there face all he sees is an emptyshell of a man they dont remember being. They weren't allowed near mirrors for awile. And last thing, He felt guilty for lieing to them for so long that he often questions why his friends actually like him.

Also i drew some art that matches with this

Im not good with angst so it kinda sucks BUT i hope you like it :)

[cripplecharacters]

Do you have any advice on how can I write an intellectually disabled character acting manipulative/lying (as a personal bad habit of theirs) without it coming off in bad taste?

They're a quite complex character with many conflicting feelings and motivations for sometimes falling into such behaviors; one of the reasons I started working on them was me getting sick of the "pure kind sweet angel who can never lie or do wrong unlike us, evil selfish cunning humans" trope for characters with ID.

The story has a lot of other disabled characters, (including characters with developmental disabilities) who don't act like that, but maybe I can do something else to convey that this is a behavior trait specific to this character and their personality/background, and not in any way some sort of statement on disabled people in general?

Hi!

Funnily enough, I feel like we are for the most part we tend to be pretty bad at lying (or at least I am. perhaps a skill issue?). Most people with ID I know (myself included) have the "omitting crucial information on purpose" type of lying rather than "just making shit up". I think because the first one is easier and the latter leaves a lot of room for holes that are easier to overlook when you are intellectually disabled.

What I would actually try to do with an intellectually disabled character lying is to make it clear that it's a conscious decision that they're making. One, because we can do morally questionable things, two, something about an intellectually disabled character being assumed to be lying when they aren't feels... bad for some reason (as in, makes me very uncomfortable on a personal level).

I would also advise treating your ID character in the same way that you would treat any other one; if someone does catch them lying about something important, they shouldn't be treated like a baby who doesn't know what they were doing.

You also said that it's a complex character and that they have actual motivations for acting in this way, which is great - you're not making it seem like "person with ID=lying" but rather just "pwID = could lie if has the right reason to" which is true for intellectually disabled people as much as for everyone else.

If you have more ID/DD characters, then you're probably fine! As a rule of thumb, I try to look for patterns when it comes to implications like that; e.g. if you had a singular character, and they were manipulative then that could be a problem, but if you have five and one of them is, then that's kinda just how people can be lol. That's also true for many tropes I feel like, there will be a difference between 100% and 20% of characters being stereotypes, sometimes people do fit the stereotype in one way or another while also still being complex outside of that.

I hope this helps!

mod Sasza

[nikethestatue]

So I've been thinking about this.

The Inner Circle, as we came to realise, isn't exactly perfect. It's a stagnant place for the 5 people that had occupied it for so long. It's a relationship of secret resentments, lies, half-truths, and mistrust, and while the Archeron sisters relationship is wrought with issues, compared to the IC, it's based on honesty. These women don't always like each other, also resent one another, are frequently annoyed and unhappy, but they don't hide. They don't hide their natures or their feelings.

Here is what's interesting: Rhys looks at the IC with these absurd, rose-coloured glasses. He doesn't want to 'interfere' with the Moriel x Cassian, situation, offering the pretense of him being uninvolved and simply an observer. He CHOOSES to not see things around him--chooses not to see Mor, chooses not to see Azriel, and generally expects Cassian to just go along with everything. The lies that they've been telling each other for centuries are so ingrained in them, that the moment someone new arrived--Feyre--Rhys immediately began feeding her the same crap he's been so keen on accepting as truth for so long. 'Azriel is madly in love with Mor' and 'Azriel's been hoping/waiting for the bond to snap' and 'Azriel's been pining for her non stop for 500 years'. And naturally, Feyre, seeing that all-important confirmation bias, begins to 'see' the same thing. She begins to trust and believe Rhys's opinions as if they are facts.

But these 'facts' don't coincide with realities. Feyre finds out that all of these people have had numerous lovers throughout the centuries. She finds the dynamic between Cassian and Mor and Azriel odd and begins to question Rhys about it. He, as always, tries to sweep it under the carpet and tells her not to interfere.

Yet, who is the first person who questions the bond between Lucien and Elain? Feyre. And what does she ask? She asks 'why not make them (Azriel and Elain) mates?" Because from her fresh, new perspective, which isn't coloured by deceit and BS, that's what she immediately notices, and feels innately--why aren't Elain and Azriel mated? It feels right to Feyre that they should be. On the flip side, what does Rhys do when he confronts Azriel? He immediately slides back into the familiar status quo of 'What of Mor?" It's almost like he can't fathom that something 'unsanctioned' by him should be taking place in his Inner Circle.

Nesta--another Archeron sister, who is keen on seeing things as they are, and telling things as they are--sees her sister with Azriel, and immediately notices that something charged passed between the two of them. She sees it at once, as soon as she observes them together, whereas her 500 year old mate is still unable to comprehend as to what might have caused these changes in Azriel. It's at Cassian's fingertips--and yet he still can't put two and two together.

Lastly, what does Azriel say about Elain? That she was 'well aware' of why he was avoiding her, and that she could always see through him. What those who were closest to him and who seemed to have known him the best couldn't understand or acknowledge about his behaviour, Elain just...knew.

The sisters coming into the IC is probably the best thing that could've happened to all those people. People hate Nesta for being rude to Rhys and not liking him, but it's because SHE can see him for what he is. Not this idealised version that Cassian and everyone else seems to believe, but the real him.

Same with Feyre, to whom Mor is finally able to come out. She couldn't do that with anyone for 500 years, but Feyre saw, and understood her.

Elain, the quiet, gentle Elain, is refusing to bow to the bond, and questions the expectation of male entitlement to her time and affections. When Rhys immediately falls back to 'well, Elain and Lucien are mates! We shouldn't be going against that, we shouldn't be starting wars or blood duels, and I forbid you (Azriel) from pursuing her' Elain is finally offering a new stance on the bond issue.

I love seeing these three girls shaking things up and opening some eyes and some wounds.

[imperatorrrrr]

Twenty Two Games Left in the Season

Its two in the morning, I have New Jersey Devils thoughts, so here you go.

We have to remember last season was not the plan. I think this is the most important thing. If last season went how last season was expected to go (we're a bubble team potentially fighting for a wild card spot), this season actually doesn't look as bad as it does by comparison. This season is so disappointing because we're, of course, using the lens of last season and so is everyone else. Now. I'm not saying last season was a fluke. All I'm saying is last season really colors how we're perceiving the team this season and maybe we should put all of that into context.

We knew this season would be worse. I think we tend to forget that the expectation was always that this season was not going to be as miraculous as last season. There were no moves made over the summer for goaltending. Fitz decided that he was going to run a tandem of Schmiddy and VV. That..did not work out well for us. We also lost two veteran defensemen and replaced them with one rookie defenseman, Luke, and one basically rookie defenseman, Bahlers. Remember, Nemo was most likely not going to see many games this season. I mean, I'm so happy he did because he's a revelation, but Nemo was not supposed to be playing NHL games, not yet anyway. There are guys on the team that are having pretty bad regressions, but that's not indicative of a bigger problem, it happens.

Injuries. I cannot begin to emphasize how detrimental the injuries were this season. We have not been healthy once. Millsy was hurt in the preseason. My belief is he was always supposed to be the sixth defensemen and BSmith was gonna be our 7D. Haula wasn't one hundred percent to start. Nico gets hurt. Jack gets hurt. Timo gets hurt. We have Laser missing random games here and there. Pally gets hurt. Dougie gets hurt. Siegs gets hurt. BSmith gets hurt. Nosek hurt. Jack gets hurt again. I feel like that isn't even everyone?

Sixteen back to backs in one season. Yes, its an excuse. Yes, they should have learned how to play in back to backs. But like, come the fuck on, man. That is brutal scheduling. Absolutely brutal. Our record would look so different if we had like, I dunno, just ten back to backs instead of a league leading sixteen.

Lindy Ruff. I have already done my Ruff rant, but to summarize, that man does not know how to utilize his players properly. Until MM20 was forcibly removed from this team, Lindy was using Nico Hischier all wrong. Until recently, Timo has been used all wrong. Don't get me started on Holtzy. He overplays certain players and underplays others. He played the same goaltender on back to back nights. He doesn't switch out goalies until its too late. His defensive pair decisions are ass. And thats not even getting to the fact that his only in game strategy is to shorten the bench and/or change the lines. Its endless, really.

Now I know this sounds like I'm making a doom and gloom post, but hear me out.

It isn't over. We are still, somehow, in the playoff hunt. Can you believe, that even with all this adversity we've faced this season, there's still a chance they could squeak in?

Fundamentally, the team is not the issue. I think thats really important. I think there's been a lot of questions around whether last season was a fluke or that these aren't the guys that are going to lead the Devils to a Cup run. I truly don't think thats the case. Do we need a goalie? Yeah. But Dawsy is showing signs of being steady. Akira is showing signs of being steady. Even VV had a handful of good games before he was sidelined. They probably aren't our main guy moving forward, but I'm not going to sit here and hate on goalies man, thats absolutely not my MO. We have the pieces. We really, really have the pieces. When they're played correctly and put with the right linemates, our stars can really shine. Siegs was having a pretty brutal year, but you see him getting back to shades of himself when he's paired with Nemo. Kevvy was also having a bit of a bad year too, and his last, what, ten or so games, have been lights out. I think Johnny and Luke together really work. Loads of people were bemoaning the Timo trade and look he's played properly and he has like what four or five points in his last four or five games. You find the right line combos for our top six/top nine, and oh man can we really get cooking. There's going to be growing pains sure, but you have to remember how young this team is. But we have the pieces. We have our core. The elements are there. This team has the foundation to truly fly.

This young team is learning to deal with pressure. That is the main difference between last season and this season. There weren't any expectations for the Devils last season outside of whatever internal ones they had in their locker room, so everything was gravy. This season, however, this season you have a lot of external pressure. Being named Cup favorites or Cup contenders by every major NHL media source in the summer and in the lead up to the season, that is very new for the majority of the guys on this team. And they're gonna have to learn how to respond to it. And it may be painful. You know I'm the first person to rag on Lindy, but I think his comment about the pressure from the reporters leading to the unsuccessful powerplay was actually really telling. These Devils have not had to deal with any expectations. And now they do. And dealing with that mentally and not letting it affect your game is a learning process, its a growing process. How do you silence the doubt not only from the outside but internally within yourself? That isn't automatic. Each of these guys needs to figure it out. And they will. Together. This is not a case of these boys getting too high and mighty on themselves because everyone thought they'd cruise to the playoffs. No. Not at all. This is a case of being in a brand new position in the NHL and figuring out how to navigate it.

This season is not a disaster. Now, I'm not saying this season isn't cursed. It definitely is. But its not a disaster. Its not a write off. Its part of the process. Its part of our window. Our window, which remember, only really opened last season and even then it opened at least a season earlier than everyone expected, is at its very beginning stages. Its frustrating to see them seemingly "waste" a year of prime Jack, Nico, Jesper, Timo, et al, but its wrong to look at it as a waste. It isn't a waste. This is why they call it a window and not like a singular shot or whatever.

I think I'm ceasing to make sense now and it is past three in the morning, so I'm going to stop typing.

TL;DR: I love the New Jersey Devils. I will always love the New Jersey Devils. I refuse to hate this team. I refuse to say this team sucks. I refuse to give up on this team. We've had a tough season. It isn't over though. And I hope we get to see them play some fun hockey as we have a little over a month of regular season hockey left to play.

[soaps-mohawk]

Yay! Thank you for answering!

Okay, so I know you said you haven't given it much thought yet, but I wondering about Alejandro, Rudolfo, and Valeria's relationship with each other.

So, you know how all three of them were in the Mexican army together and A and R feel betrayed by Valeria for turning? How would that work with Packs in your story?

I know they were in different units in the army, but there was still supposed to be loyalty between them, right? So, for example, if they were in the same pack, and Alpha Valeria chose to leave, how would that work?

Like, if Alejandro and Rudolfo weren't specifically bonded to her, but they were in the same pack and had a pack bond, and then Valeria abandoned the pack for whatever reason- is that a thing that can happen, or are pack bonds for life?

I know this would never happen, but if Ghost decided he wanted to leave with Soap and have a separate pack, how would that work? Would the other members be passed?

(Now that I think about it, this is giving me Breaking Dawn vibes woth the packs splitting lol)

I hope this makes sense. Sorry if it didn't.

Sorry, I had to snort at the Breaking Dawn part lmaoo!! It makes perfect sense!!

But that absolutely can happen. It does happen.

Packs can split for a lot of reasons. Sometimes circumstances force them apart. Think military packs, where members are constantly getting reassigned places, moving bases, etc. Those tend to be less intense type of bonds versus what like TF141 has, because they're a specialized team that was created and it's less likely one of them would be leaving to be assigned somewhere else. Those kinds of bonds tend to be more camaraderie/friendship based than what we see in the story. (We will get a glimpse at a pack like that in the future.)

In the civilian world, packs might split because of jobs. In larger packs with several alphas, they might hold different jobs at different places and if one alpha has to move, then they might split off into separate packs, but that doesn't mean that they've permanently split. An alpha might take a beta or two and an omega with them and become sort of a satellite pack to the one with the pack alpha. They'd still be considered bonded, even if they're in different places.

Packs can actually fracture and split because of other reasons, usually due to some sort of tension within the pack, inner fighting, betrayal, or even just unbalanced dynamics. If you have three alphas in a pack and one omega? That can cause some issues down the line if there's unbalanced dynamics between the three alphas. The alphas may fight with each other over the omega and that can cause a fracture in the pack bond and lead to one or maybe even two leaving. (This is why betas are so important to pack dynamics.)

Valeria leaving as it happens in canon would cause some disruption as it did just in canon because that's a big betrayal and I think everyone that considered her an ally is going to feel that regardless. That's someone you thought you could trust, someone you thought was on your side. Now if they had all been in the same pack, they'd probably feel it a lot more. Even if they weren't particularly close, they're still going to feel that fracture in the pack bond and the sudden shift in dynamics.

Bonds transcend just being close to someone, there's emotional and physical ties in there that aren't really understood completely. When bonds are broken, there's actual physical pain involved, even for those that weren't particularly close to the one that causes it.

If Ghost wanted to leave, he technically could without fracturing the bond. As I stated above, he could basically become a sort of satellite pack and exist on his own, while still being under Price. If he wanted to leave the pack completely and fracture the bond, he could, though that would be a lot harder and that has to be something you're absolutely sure you want to do. It's a hard decision on all fronts, but sometimes it's unavoidable.

I hope this answer makes sense, but yeah. That's kind of how that works and how things would play out. 💚

[paleio]

okay you've tagged bpd!percy and Puerto Rican/Filipino!percy on my different posts now and they have made my day twice so I have to ask you to elaborate on one or both pls and thx po naman 🤲🤲

(-helyeahmangocheese)

okay honestly i suck SOOO bad at headcanons because the characters i tend to develop them for are also the characters that are so deeply attached to my own brain that we end up kinda bleeding into each other. there are two different percy jacksons to me—the one i play with in his natural environment and view as a really compelling and interesting individual, and the one that has been inside my head so long he's molded into the shape of my skull. sometimes the line is blurry which is why a lot of my headcanons aren't actually backed up by anything in the canon. i do really like PR/Filipino!percy as is, but bpd!percy doesn't actually make sense (in my opinion) for the way he narrates in the first series. you could argue for it in heroes of olympus but i honestly like your bipolar!percy better and think it makes way more sense.

THAT BEING SAID. i refuse to believe that annabeth chase doesn't have bpd. the attachment issues, the constant fear of abandonment, the sudden mood shifts. it makes her bitterness toward rachel make more sense—percy is clearly her fp (favorite person) so of course she's scared of being ignored or replaced. she was probably panicking constantly throughout the last two books, thinking percy would completely cut contact with her if he got with rachel. it would also better explain her struggles with luke, and with morality as a whole. she seems to have trouble seeing situations and people as anything other as completely evil or completely good (in the first few books at least, she does get to work through this to some extent). her mother? perfect, a genius, always right about everything. her father? horrible, irredeemable, worst parent in the world. of course, this is a struggle for a lot of kids and teens (morality is hard and complicated!), but combined with everything else—and from personal experience—i think bpd works extremely well for annabeth.

as for PR/Filipino!percy, i just think it's neat :3 it could be either or both, but the idea of sally jackson being an immigrant or a child of immigrants makes for some really interesting ideas and goes well with the themes already present in the books. her being a first gen college student would be so cool and so sally, and her financial/familial success would feel even more vindicating. plus it's so tough for neurodivergent kids who are also poc. it would add another layer of bitterness to percy, and possibly another parallel to luke. i personally don't think the luke/percy dynamic is as good or interesting if luke is white and percy is poc, especially because to an extent, luke is RIGHT, and it's kind of uncomfortable to have the only white guy be the most revolutionary character (even if he goes about that revolution in the worst way possible). i was really excited when pjotv cast charlie bushnell as luke and i desperately hope they actually acknowledge that he isn't white (i'm not super optimistic but there's still plenty of time). because that's fucking important. he grew up in a place where he already felt unloved and betrayed by his father and ashamed of his mother, but it would make such a huge impact on his psyche and perspective if his community also alienated him. for context, the town luke canonically grew up in is like 97% white in real life. luke probably felt like he had to be better than everyone around him just to get the same amount of understanding and recognition and love as them. imagine how much harder his anger at the gods—at the world!—would hit. and then imagine if he had that in common with percy. imagine if they bonded over that anger when percy first got to camp (TLT musical, anyone?). and imagine, after luke has gone to kronos's side, percy looking at him and seeing the exhaustion and fear and resentment in his eyes and recognizing it. because that's what percy sees when he looks in the mirror.

AUGHHH. anyway.

those are some of the feelings i have about these headcanons. not sure if any of it makes sense but i'm not going to edit this massive block of text because just looking at it makes my head hurt 👍

also i love your blog. you are so right about everything all the time

[themculibrary]

Homeless Bucky Masterlist

A Life Near By (ao3) - Queerily_kai steve/bucky G, 7k

Summary: Bucky may have snuck away after saving Captain America from the Potomac, but he didn't go far. He needed answers, and this Steve guy seemed to have them, so he did the last thing anyone would have expected, hiding out in the middle of Washington, DC while working on answering the most important question.

Who the hell was Bucky, and why was he so important to this Captain America guy anyway?

A Place to Stay (ao3) - sarahyellow steve/bucky E, 23k

Summary: Homeless and weary, Bucky Barnes just wants a guarantee of safety. But as Darcy points out: It's hard to pull yourself up by your bootstraps when you don't have any bootstraps.

Opening a vein for Steve Rogers is all he's got left.

Coming Home For Christmas (ao3) - Chiyume steve/bucky E, 118k

Summary: Steve Rogers is a good man. His friends have told him so on numerous occasions, but this might actually be more bordering on "stupid" rather than "kind".

Because what else would you describe the act of inviting a complete stranger - and thief - into your home over the Holidays?

Steve isn't quite sure what to call it himself, but fact is that when it comes to the case of Bucky Barnes, Steve's actually pretty okay with being referred to as an idiot, as long as it keep the other man safe. And to Steve's defence, it had all started out with such good intentions...

For Words to Say It Right (ao3) - Squeaky, Taste_is_Sweet steve/bucky, bruce/natasha, clint/laura T, 25k

Summary: Turns out when you're missing an arm, everyone asks are you okay? all the damn time. And when your soulmark is one of the most common questions in English, it's even worse.

Generic soulmarks are a bitch.

Gimme Shelter (ao3) - humapuma steve/bucky E, 84k

Summary: James "Bucky" Barnes is a homeless veteran with a dark past. He's accepted to a six-month shelter program meant to help veterans get back on their feet, and he has his work cut out for him. He needs to find a job, save up money, and hopefully get his own place, but he keeps getting sidetracked by his attraction to Steve Rogers, one of the therapists in the program.

Steve is kind, smart, funny, and clearly in a relationship... but Bucky can't help feeling that Steve is interested in him too.

More issues arise when Bucky's past deeds begin to impact his future and the things he wants aren't something he feels he deserves.

Can he begin to heal himself so he can finally live?

Or will he let the life he left behind destroy what he could be... and what he could have?

Going Through (ao3) - Taste_is_Sweet pre steve/bucky G, 2k

Summary: Bucky wasn't quite sure what to do with the extremely angry fairy he rescued from the group of Make Humanity Great Again! assholes who'd been trying to suffocate him in a jar.

No Enemy But Winter (ao3) - rubygirl29 steve/bucky E, 10k

Summary: "You know there is a homeless guy in the alley next to this hellhole you insist on living in," Tony comes through Steve's open door, stripping off his gloves and looking generally dissatisfied with life.

"There are a lot of homeless people, Tony, even in Manhattan."

"This one has a suspiciously nice blanket and his hands are wrapped around a Stark Industries thermos - the one I give my employees. He's probably drinking that gourmet coffee I also give my employees. I don't suppose you know anything about that?"

Sour as Vinegar, Sweet as Honey (ao3) - Call_Me_Kayyyyy (Cheeky9274), thiccbuckybarnes steve/bucky, past bucky/brock E, 46k

Summary: “Hello?” Steve asks, hiding his gun behind him as he steps out into the snow and down the few stairs to the ground level. It is already snowing hard, but it will continue well into the next few days, building up several feet. It’s already five or six inches high, and a light layer of it is dusting the person crumpled up in his alley.

“Excuse me, but this is private property,” Steve says to them, feeling adrenaline start to pump through him at the lack of response. He scents the air and only finds that indescribable smell of cold.

“Sir, the individual appears to be unconscious,” JARVIS informs him.

-

Commander Rogers is getting ready to hunker down for what is expected to be the worst blizzard that New York has ever seen when JARVIS alerts him of an intruder on his doorstep.

He figures he’s going to find someone looking for trouble, but instead finds an omega in trouble, and they’re running from more than just the cold.

subways and soup kitchens (ao3) - crazywineaunt steve/bucky G, 1k

Summary: Steve sleeps past the last stop on the subway.

Tap-Tap Into Your Heart (ao3) - Huntress79 steve/bucky, background sam/riley T, 5k

Summary: When HYDRA finally fell, the Soldier was lost, in more than one meaning. And for the next several months, he, more or less, drifted from one former safehouse to the other, always avoiding to stay too long in one place. Until he comes to Brooklyn - and finds a new purpose, again in more than one meaning...

Wenceslas (ao3) - dragongirlG, velociraptorerin steve/bucky M, 17k

Summary: Steve is a short, skinny Brooklynite with a very stable, predictable life, which he built after losing his memories in a traumatic accident six months ago. He works from home on a steady stream of art commissions, goes to weekly trivia nights with his superhero friends the Avengers, and tries not to get bothered by the constant feeling that something is not quite right.

When Steve invites a homeless man with one arm to take shelter in his apartment during a December snowstorm, both of them enter a dreamscape that unravels the fabric of their memories and reveals the truth about their identities—and their relationship to each other.

A wintertime fic featuring dream-sharing, identity porn, and Steve in the 21st century, inspired by the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the musical composition Wenceslas Suite by Bob Chilcott. Now complete!

we're up all night to get lucky (ao3) - idekman steve/bucky N/R, 1k

Summary: Then there's the dog.

He's not sure how you can make friends with a dog, but he's fairly sure he's managed it.

-

The Winter Soldier is homeless, but Bucky Barnes' Super Secret New York support group are on hand to help him out. Also, there's a dog.

What Stays and What Fades Away (ao3) - Golden_Archer G, 39k

Summary: Steve can’t sleep, the guilt and pain eating him alive, leaving him empty and drained. But when he coincidentally stumbles into Bucky on one rainy freezing night, he must do whatever he can to save his sick and starving friend. He will not let him down again, he can’t.

Why do we fall (ao3) - inkandwolves M, 4k

Summary: After D.C., the Winter Soldier goes home, the long way 'round.

[sirenium]

Time to obsessively talk in depth about my Sonic head-canons, because I literally cannot stop thinking about them. This is likely to be a long post, so I'll spare you all by putting everything under the cut so you aren't forcibly subjected to the wall of text💀

Also sorry for the sudden increase in Sonic related content, it's just that my hyperfixation is slowly coming back lmao

⚠️these are mostly queer identity centered, so if you're not into queer headcanons you've been warned⚠️

Sonic: arospec, bisexual, trans man, he/him. Stealth. Is only out to Tails. Actively fights for trans rights, just doesn't feel comfortable sharing his identity with most people. Hides his negative emotions because he feels as though he has to be a source of positivity 24/7. Probably cries himself to sleep sometimes, the poor guy. In a QPR (queer platonic relationship) with Shadow.

Tails: (I don't feel comfortable labeling the sexuality of a literal ten year old lmao/lh), transmasc, he/they. Looks up to Sonic, literally aims to be exactly like him: he's the only other trans person he knows (who's out to him, at least), and he's cool asf. Admires his bravery. Tails sees Sonic as an older brother figure, and Sonic sees him as a little brother. They've got the ultimate brotherly bond, which also means they argue over the dumbest shit lol.

Knuckles: panromantic, pansexual, transfemme, he/him. Masc presenting, gives off egg vibes (not because he's masc presenting and uses he/him, but because he's hella clueless about trans people). Isn't out to ANYONE, not even himself.💀

Amy: heteroromantic, heterosexual, cisgender, she/they. MASSIVE ally, one of those friends who gives their gay friends rainbow pride merch(/pos).

Shadow: panromantic, asexual, non-binary, all pronouns including it/its, slight preference for he/him. Doesn't give a fuck about gender; they think it's irrelevant to who they are. Though he has pronoun preferences, if someone referred to it using pronouns other than he/him, he would literally not care.

Rouge: greyromantic biromantic, lesbian, cisgender, she/her. Secret mom friend vibes. Has the scariest 'you fucked up' glare known to man(/hj). Takes no shit.

Omega: bro is unlabeled, literally just vibing. Pronouns? Nah bruh (use he/him). A GOD at baking, doesn't brag about it. Can't cook for shit otherwise, literally almost blew up the kitchen somehow (how he knows how to operate an oven but not any other cooking device is beyond me, he just gives off those vibes lmao).

Less detailed HCs:

[plaintext: less detailed HCs end pt]

Espio: biromantic, acespec bisexual, cis, he/they.

Vector: aroacespec, cis, he/him.

Charmy: transmasc, he/him

Silver: panromantic, gay, cis, he/they

Blaze: lesbian, asexual, cis, she/her

Big The Cat: aroacespec, gay otherwise, cis, he/him

Time for the villains I've thought about:

[plain text: time for the villains I've thought about end pt]

⚠️trigger warning for Infinite, mentions of death and other potentially triggering themes (they're kind of heavy but nothing too serious)⚠️

Eggman: aromantic, gay, cis, he/him. Surprisingly supportive of trans people... as in he just doesn't care enough to not be.

Infinite: biromantic, bisexual, cis, he/him. Bro's in denial: he thinks all 'straight' guys have the occasional crush on other guys. Doesn't even know about the label 'bi' so he just thinks someone can either be straight or gay, and since he DOES like women he's convinced his attraction to men is either not real or unimportant. Definitely cries himself to sleep, and has nightmares about the death of his squad. Secretly blames himself for everything, has extreme self esteem issues but hides them by inflating his self worth. His life SUCKS; he's lost everyone who was important to him, just when he thought he couldn't lose anyone/anything else. He's also very prideful despite having low self esteem, and those two things mixed together give him an extremely fragile ego that's easily shattered. He genuinely hates his face, because as far as he's concerned that is the face of someone who's failed everybody, including himself. A 'pathetic' face. Would literally start having a panic attack if his mask were to come off for whatever reason. (Jesus this one got depressing, but I just put a lot of thought into his character because I feel like he has a lot of potential as a character that wasn't explored. Literally just 'lol he had a temper tantrum because he got beaten up and called weak' and that's all the backstory he gets? Nahh💀. I could make a whole post going into the backstory I made for him lmao)

Uh so yeah those are my headcanons–

I know I missed characters but these are the ones I've really thought about/remembered. If someone reblogs this, it'd be cool to see their own headcanons (you can also just comment them or like, message me or whatever/lh /nf)

[penroseparticle]

Penrose Song of the Day Day 42: Queen Mab from Bare

Do you like Musicals? Do you enjoy feelings? You might not be alone! Theatre kids are ravenously waiting in the wings (heh) to discuss their favorite version of a cast recording or what shows they've seen live.

I don't want you to read this one, sorry. This one was just for me.

There are countless, countless musicals out there. Some you've heard of, some you know from pop culture. You will form opinions that no one agrees with, and care about things no one else does. Here are a few opinions with no source whatsoever, haha what are you talking about: Les Mis sucks, Company rules, and Bare is probably the most personal, important musical- so much so that talking about it to other people is not to be done. Because what if they're mean about it.

If you have never heard of Bare, a quick breakdown: Two catholic school boys are in love. One of them dies of a drug overdose. You are welcome to eyeroll right now, it's ok. When you're 18, things need to be very very direct, you see. Because you're a dumb idiot. Many people are tired of Christian nonsense as well. I am keeping this one, though. Sorry.

Is Bare good? Yes, ultimately. It does have some... shall we say, products of its time. It doesn't pretend it's not a musical but it's from that similar school to like, Spring Awakening, you know? It's tackling tough issues! There are guitar riffs!!!

What it is most successful at is that it's a musical ABOUT a musical being put on. The kiddos are doing a rendition of Romeo and Juliet (barf), and the framing story has some successful (and some slightly more opaque) parallels between characters. But the way the Shakespeare parts are sung. Something in there feels. Transformative? Inventive? It's not how it sounds spoken- hearing a Shakespeare play put on with love and care is an experience, let yourself have one as a treat- but rather it did a much more interesting reformatting into a musical theatre framework. Auditions is a great showcase of the work done by Jon and Damon. That was almost today's song. It's frenetic. It's got a strong backing drumline. It's got competition for the roles, people cutting over each other, it feels cutthroat somehow. Differing delivery styles, beautiful layering. Intercuts of comedy and drama. The little bit at the end where Diane Lee gets cast because her dad has a camcorder... so true to high school drama. Chefs Kiss.

It's a great early first act song- sets up the tensions between Peter and his Mom, Jason and Peter, Jason and Matt, Nadia and Ivy. It introduces the drugs. It has clever background vocals which sort of give away major plot points, which you think are just. The plot of Romeo and Juliet.

But it's Queen Mab today.

The soundtrack is... challenging. God I feel like I'm apologizing for liking it. Sorry mom! I'm bad at being proud anymore. I like it. I love it. I don't want to change a bit of it. I want other people to like it and love it, warts and all. I don't think you hear me. See me.

How resonant the whole musical is, especially with teens and young adults, can be explicated by how the characters don't feel authentically seen. Built in a lab for a youth's consumption. It's a pity that Bare never got a Broadway run (It probably doesn't deserve it- it's good not great. It was off-Broadway though!).

Queen Mab is when we finally see someone the clearest we ever have. It's the middle of the play, and they're up on stage. In front of god, their parents, the priest, the church, their friends, everyone- Jason, the main character and love interest, dies.

Something is wrong. discordant. Sinister. The song starts with a few signs things aren't right, a stutter step to the wrong line in the play- a whole back and forth cut over. A beat while the other character picks up the slack. Then the song ends with a dance scene where, well. He doesn't make it. The song is a little kind, actually. In bed asleep where they do dream things true. Said like a votive to the night. There is a peace in this song, somehow. Things are foregone, the death is all but guaranteed. He will die. But finally, finally he is at peace in this song, something Jason has never been the entire rest of the musical. Going through the motions, but nakedly. Openly. No longer trying to hide it. Waiting out one last struggle.

Interesting bit of theatre, putting the Queen Mab speech at the end of the musical. See, Mercutio relates Queen Mab visiting Romeo in his dreams as sort of a longwinded tirade, starting innocently enough, talking about dreaming about getting what you want, etc. But slowly, it gets darker and more sinister. Dreams leading to unfullfilment. Dreams of voilence. Ultimately Queen Mab like all fairies is vindictive and cruel, in his telling. It's a bit chilling and out of nowhere really. Perhaps a warning? But see, Romeo is dreaming and optimistic and thinks things will go well, and he's being cautioned by Mercutio that dreams are just dreams. They lie sometimes. Something ironic about the warning against dreams being the scene where Jason gives up on his dreams and. Dies. Something strange about an Act 1 foreshadowing being the punctuation of the Act 3 climax. Something tragic about the skeptic in the scene, Mercutio, being played by Peter, the one dreaming of being out and open and proud, and the one originally to speak "Dream things true" is the one who has given up on dreaming and is preparing for death.

I remember when I was younger and people thought that Bare, the title track, the track preceding this song, was a cute love song. Tragic, but romantic. Bare is a suicide note. Bare is Jason saying goodbye. And Peter doesn't know that. Jason is already gone by then and no one can tell.

There's something really interesting about how this song fits into the musical. And it's why it's my favorite song on the soundtrack.

Anyways, you could be dead right now. By, say, oh, I don't know. Perhaps a drug overdose.

Go listen to something you love.

[nelyos-right-hand]

Re: fandom disagreements about Elwing/Fëanorians/whoever - what irks me here is that none of this was a problem for years when it was a common practice to piss on Elwing and various other female characters, but when people start defending them and acting in the same way against their rivals, people are suddenly amazed at how much it sucks to have your faves hated even in their tags. I don't think it's in itself a sign of misogyny to dislike Elwing or someone else, but when the fandom comes up with completely unfounded ideas in order to villainize these women while woobifying and explaining away the actual canon crimes of male characters, one can't help but draw some conclusions. So let's talk more when this fandom learns to respect women.

Hey Anon, thanks for writing me!

One thing I should probably say in advance: When I talk about "fans should be nice to each other in the kidnap fam/Elwing corner" I meant both Elwing and kidnap fam fans, I hope it didn't sound like I was only criticising the Elwing side, because that really wasn't my intention. I also only mean a small minority of people, and I don't know you, but since you came here to talk civilly about it and explain your issues, I assume you're not one of them, so I hope you didn't feel offended.

I absolutely understand your frustration, and I know that it's not easy for Elwing fans in the fandom; liking Elwing isn't a hot take anymore, but it's also far from mainstream. Nobody likes it when a person they love is portrayed negatively, and you have every right to defend her.

On the topic of disliking Elwing and misogyny - There might very well be misogynistic people in the fandom. It's actually rather likely. There're probably also racists in the fandom. This is the internet, and it's never completely free of idiots. And even though we can't change that, that's of course still not a good thing. But I don't think it's possible to identify those people based on their opinions on characters. The reason for that is that the characters we like don't mirror our moral compass. If Maedhros was a real person, he should go to prison for the rest of his life, and I would never even come close to defending him, but as a fictional character I can like him. It's like dark romance: No one would actually date their murderous stalker, but it's nice to read about it in a book.

Now, I'm not saying that there aren't any fans who dislike Elwing out of misogynistic reasons, only that I'm not in the position to judge that. And while I don't actually know any of the people in this fandom personally, I have met many very nice people, for example my beloved mutals, and some of them like and others dislike Elwing, and I do feel the need to defend them; There might be bad people in this fandom, but most of those I have interacted with are absolutely wonderful.

But I'm getting off topic and sappy. I think whether or not we have the right to draw conclusions based on these kind of things is a rather philosophical and complex question, so I get it if you disagree. The problem I addressed in my post also wasn't really about whether some people out there are misogynistic, but that some people say "Everyone who likes/dislikes Elwing is a bad person" and that's wrong and hurtful.

Now, this post has gotten way longer and chaotic than I was planning (I'm so sorry for rambling, I have to get that under control), so maybe a short summary: You're right that Elwing has been hated for many years and that it's good that her fans are standing up for her, you're also right that it sucks to only hear negative things about the characters you love. I don't think we can draw conclusions on people's moral compass based on their opinions on characters, but that's a rather complex question. What's important to me is that we treat each other with respect, don't insult others because they like/dislike a character we don't, and accept it when someone has different views on something.

I hope this helped/adressed your issues/answered your question. If not, or if I maybe misunderstood you, or something else, feel free to contact me again, I found it very interesting to hear your opinion on this and it helped me understand some things!

[purplerakath]

Cobra Kai S6 - "Part One"

(That title might be misleading, I'm not numbering my responses to Season 6, this is literally about how this is part 1 of 3 for the season.)

I need to start with this, because it's going to come up a lot over everything else I want to say about Season 6. This one won't have a ton of spoiler spoilers, but I do talk a little about the plot. (Really I spoil three other movies instead because I get spicy.) But how this is not a full season (and no, showrunners, it isn't a 'mini season' either), it's important to go over what a narrative looks like.

Okay, so I've seen a lot of the comments about what's going on in S6 (so far) but I feel a lot of them can get answered by a handy-dandy graph. Everyone has probably seen the storygraph. A rising line of tension to a climax, then a dramatic fall back to equilibrium.

This graph:

This applies to scenes, episodes, seasons. Scenes, chapters, books if you go all literary. And it's generally a solid structure to go with. It works and it feels good when you do it right (there's a sex joke to make here if you want to, but I'm too lazy to do that).

The issue is that we're dealing with only a third of this. Which is a lot of the complaints people are having. What they've done with every character has been setting up conflict and resolving nothing. We get to the end of the blue section and we don't even start into the red yet. And things only really feel content when we get that green bit.

See, normally when you're breaking up a narrative into parts, you create a sub-narrative to handle a satisfying ending for that installment. Empire Strikes Back, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, and Spiderverse 2 all are half of a larger whole (with Return of the Jedi, Pirates 3, and Spiderverse 3) but each has a plot to itself. Han's sacrificing himself in ESB at the end is resolving his roguish not standing for anything at the start. Jack sacrificing himself in DMC is putting his friends over himself (deja vu). And Gwen making up with her dad, determining fate can be changed and the whole Spider Society nonsense is nonsense for AtSV.

We leave Luke's plot in Star Wars, Elizabeth and Will's plots in Pirates, and Miles's plot in Spiderverse fully open. But someone got a proper resolution now and that sates our desire for narrative meaning. There is NONE of that in Cobra Kai S6.1, and things that should get some resolution are just set-up for later so it feels like characters aren't doing what they should.

Now! All that said, if we were waiting a week or two, this would be fine. We get to stew in these questions, these unfinished thoughts, for a few days. We have to wait four months to... see what the climax is, we won't even get our falling action until sometime next year.

And that's honestly the problem. I get milking this for three months worth of Netflix subscription. But they could have done that in July, August, and September just as easily.

[magnuficent76]

For Baltazar: Self, Social Circle, Exit and Future!

COMIN RIGHT UP !!! Ough I love this dude the Ball

[Prompt list can be found here !!]

Self – How is your OC's relationship with themself? Does your OC like who they are? Is there anything about themself that they would change?

◆ Baltazar and Good Self Image are NOT words that go together. This man has beem having every type of dysphoria / dysmorphia you can name for three million years, and there's nothing he can really do about it considering to makenit get better he would have to... yk. Actually Accept Himself. Which is hard. They struggle a lot with assigning themselves any worth that isn't just purely practical for everyone else, and while they do work on it... yeah, they aren't what you'd call a fan of what they see in a mirror half the time. If there had to be changes... he'd probably try really hard to make himself normal again, but there's just no way to actually achieve that <3

Social Circle – What's your OC's social circle? Are they obligated to spend time with others in their circle, or are they happy to be there? Has their social standing and social circle ever changed, and if so, how did your OC feel about it?

◆ Oh people get plenty worried if they don't see Balt around anywhere ! They're the Local Depressed Guy !! Everyone gets worried if the Local Depressed Guy is missing for A Little Too Long.

◆ Nah but seriously, Baltazar has a good support system. His friend group is mostly people his age or older, so they understand a lot of his struggles and try not to make him feel left out. What they do is basically parallel play for Adults in the sense that they're all in the same space at once while they each do their own thing– Yoga, drawing, cooking, whatever they're doing at the moment, they prefer doing it with the rest of their buddies :]

◇ ...before that though, most of Baltazar's friends were just the other sportspeople from work. They didn't actually know each other much, they were just kinda acquaintances that enabled each other's issues in appropriate "party" ways. Was better than being alone, I suppose !

Exit – Has your OC ever had someone important leave their life in a way that was unremarkable, unintentional, or clumsy? How do they feel about it? Is there any chance they'll meet again?

◆ This literally happens everytime they met up with Luis again. These two have been having the messiest relationship since the begining of time, and instead of trying to talk it through like adults, they either prefer to tough it out and fight, or just run away from each other like the plague. The very last time they met though, Luis yelled a bunch of very mean things until they eventually came to an agreement, and then disappeared off the entire dimension for 500 years. Mature style ♡ These two R Normal [lie]

Future – Is there anyone your OC is looking forward to meeting or to seeing again? Who? What might that meeting or reunion look like?

◆ Hmmm... I don't actually know how to answer that to be honest ! Baltazar is usually just grateful to get through each day, with the future just being this kind of hazy thing they don't really count on [Depression tendencies], but if they had to pick... it'd be nice to see some of their old highschool friends again, catch up on everything, especially since they moved out their hometown without much notice... it'd be good to apologize.

TYSM FOR THE ASKK <333

[cripplecharacters]

Hello! Sorry this is going to be a long ask.

I'm writing a cast of four characters, all of whom have some form of disability and I'd like your input, especially since a few of them fall into tropes I've seen talked about on the blog.

I have autism, ADHD, and chronic joint pain that is undiagnosed but probably related to hypermobility. All of them have ADHD and autism but I'm not going to talk about that at length for any of them because I'm pretty comfortable with writing them.

Dispite the amount of disabled characters I have and the questions I have about how to portray them, this is not a story about disability or the disabled experience, but I do want to showcase my disabled characters in a nuanced way that highlights that their disability is not separable from them.

This is also for a fanfiction, and the source has some trouble with how it portrays disability (evil character with an eye patch, bionics that completely negate the disability) and I'm trying to figure out what I can modify and what I need to just throw out.

I'll go in alphabetical order and talk about them and the tropes I'm worried about falling into/what I want advice on.

Autumn (he/they)

He has ADHD, autism, classical EDS, is mildly HoH (about 20-30 decibels less than normal range), and has three fingers on his right hand due to an injury. They use a variety of mobility aids throughout the story, starting with only occasionally using a cane and ending with using forearm crutches on good days and a wheelchair on bad days.

The tropes/things I'm concerned about with them are the “good” wheelchair user, the noble dead disabled character, and finger prosthetics

The "pure/good" wheelchair user trope I'm partially concerned about because he becomes the moral core of the cast as time goes on and he gets more disabled. He doesn't become a better person, really, but everyone else gets Worse. He's still snarky and can be selfish and jaded at times, but I feel like it's harder to demonstrate that at the end.

Being the most honest and least willing to capitulate to doing terrible things leads to his execution, which is a turning point and a point of no return. I feel like this ties into a trope of the disabled character dying first, especially since he's the one who's using disability aids/is most explicitly disabled.

I've seen the posts about why finger prosthetics aren't useful/common, but I was thinking that he'd start off with canon-typical bionic fingers before eventually realizing that he doesn't need them and it's more hassle to put them on and off than it is to just not have them. Is this an okay use of finger prosthetics since it's kind of grappling with the trope itself? Or would it be better for him not to have them in the first place?

Right now I have it so Autumn’s sister Summer died and he named himself in her honor when he transitioned. That's pretty immutable at this point. However, right now I have her as d/Deaf, with much more profound hearing loss than Autumn. (Which is also why he knows ASL) Does this fall into a disabled dead character issue?

Chauncey (he/him)

Chauncey has ADHD, autism, burn scars, chronic pain (unspecified, based on my own experiences) and dyscalculia.

Chauncey's the one I'm frankly least concerned about any specific tropes. There are only one or two concerns I have with him:

As an author, it's important to know what disability a character has even if they don't know. I know in your FAQ you say “I'm disabled is it okay to x” is generally okay, but do you think I should have a more specific disability in mind that matches my symptoms or can I keep it no specificity?

He's a clone who was rapidly aged and I wasn't sure how to figure out if/how that might affect his dyscalculia since it's not exactly a situation that happens in real life but that's about it.

Morticia (she/her)

She's my protagonist. She has autism, ADHD, a visual impairment in the form of a missing eye, and visible scarring on her face.

She's heavily based on the canon character who was an “evil eyepatch” guy. I changed it so she actually has issues with said eye and made her less evil during the period of time she uses it but I'm not sure if I should just ditch the eyepatch all together.

She starts with a bionic eye (it's not perfect, but she can see out of it to some extent). Then she gets into some sci-fi bullshit and starts piloting around a robot telepathically, but her signals get crossed with her bionic eye, so she covers it with an eyepatch while she's piloting the robot. She does use this scheme to commit 28 murders, but the murders are kind of justified by the plot? She's really written as doing some ehh things for what she believes is right. I definitely wouldn't write the eyepatch that way if it wasn't in the source, but it was like the way to identify her character in the source, so it feels weird to not have it at all.

After that, she gets arrested, gets her bionic taken, and gets a prosthetic to keep appearances and hold the shape. Stuff happens, and she gets another bionic with some more visual info that is sometimes too much for her. She gets a lot worse than when she had the eye patch, but she does still have a noticeable eye difference. Her later bionic is totally customizable and she normally keeps it a glowing gold.

I have questions about her facial scarring because she uses it to play on people's perceptions. When she's campaigning and trying to look innocent and kind, she covers it as much as she can. However, when she feels like she is in control and can do whatever she wants without consequences, she doesn't bother or even chooses to try to cover her freckles but avoid her scars because she thinks they make her more intimidating. This results in her having her scarring visible during scenes where she's being "evil" but not when she's being "good." Is that okay? It feels like it's playing into the "villain with scars" but since she as a character is doing that, it feels less like the story itself is doing it (especially since Chauncey has similar or slightly more prominent scarring and doesn't do similar things), but I'm unsure.

She is evil, and disabled, but I don't want her to be an evil disabled character. I try to associate her covering up her scarring more with masking/trying to fit in than with her being “good” but I'm not sure if it comes off that way.

Mortimer (he/him)

ADHD, autism, and limb difference (upper arm amputee)

Mortimer is probably the character I'm most worried about with my disability rep (shocking considering the five huge paragraphs I just wrote about Morticia). He's the trope of “amputee that fixes his own prosthetics/tinkers on himself.” He also makes Autumn and Morti’s aids (at least until the arrest). He also kind of falls into an autistic savant but I'm less worried about how to navigate that since I'm very familiar with the autistic community, am autistic, and have other autistic characters.

I'm worried that if I make the prosthetics he makes not “cybernetic fix-all” it'll defeat some of what I'm trying to do with making him just as good as inventors who have done that in canon. I don't know how to retcon that canon without using an author's note, which feels disjointed and I want to avoid it.

To try to work with this and not ignore the fact he's disabled, I show the prosthetics needing maintenance and try to show them sometimes being uncomfortable or heavy.

However, this leads into my second problem with how I'm handling his disability. His character arc causes him to go from being the nicest one in the cast who is very meticulous but can sometimes have a temper, to becoming reckless, rude, and seemingly uncaring.

As he becomes more reckless and less willing to care for himself, he stops doing some of the necessary maintenance on his prosthetic, causing it to break more often and rust. I'm worried this looks like I'm tying his disability getting “worse” with his morality, since he also stops caring for others as much when he stops caring for himself.

I'm also not sure if it is okay for him to paint his bionic arm to try to look like a flesh arm, since he was a criminal and he was trying to make himself look less identifiable at a glance. And if it is, when he stops doing his maintenance on it, it makes sense for the paint to chip, but that would strengthen the association of him being more visibly disabled as he becomes meaner and harsher. I'm not sure if having Autumn bring the only one who's personality remains more or less the same while becoming more visibly disabled balences this out a little bit or if it's a point of having two tropes at the same time doesn't make either better. (If Autumn is a “good wheelchair user”)

Questions involving more than one character:

Autumn knows some ASL. Mortimer is an unrealistic character that knows far more than any one person can know, and he knows basically any language as far as the story is concerned. Autumn teaches Morti a little ASL, as well. Since Autumn can understand most conversation, they generally use it instead of whispering rather than in normal conversation. Is that an acceptable use of ASL?

Currently all of my visible facial and limb differences are due to injury. I have extremely few other characters with any prominence or description at all, certainly to the extent where it would be reasonable to know if someone has a difference due to injury or birth. Do I change/add something to these four so it's less All Injuries?

I mentioned before Mortimer and Morticia trying to hide their differences for different reasons. I don't really want to go into any sense of shame they have over it, just them hiding for practical purposes. If it's not appropriate to hide them for practical purposes, do I have people react as if they had hidden them or is that erasure? (e.g. Mortimer doesn't paint his arm and it's visibly mechanical. Is that something the police are looking to identify him by or do I ignore it? It feels weird to ignore it, but if it's causing problems for the characters it feels like a reasonable reaction would be to try to blend in, but is trying to blend in/hiding their disability just heightening the sense that disabled people need to hide?)

I'm so sorry I wrote an Entire Essay I promise I tried to be concise but I have a lot of questions about the tropes I fear I'm hitting and whether I'm missing anything trying to portray the disabilities I don't have

Hi!

I will answer only some of your questions because I don't have enough experience with a lot of the subject matter here. I'd recommend looking at this post some time after it's published to see if maybe a follower had an answer/suggestion for you.

Now for the questions I'm able to answer:

For Chauncey;

It's 100% okay to base it on your own experience. At times disabilities are mysterious and unspecific, that's just how it sometimes is. The problem with this that appears from abled authors is that the symptoms or treatments just often don't make sense, because they have no clue what they're doing; confusing basic terms, making weird conclusions...

But you are a person with lived experience. You understand how your symptoms work and how you manage it from the best - first person - point of view. If someone is well-equipped to write a character with your disability, it's you.

For Morticia (cool name BTW);

As of the bionic eye; as far as I'm aware they don't really exist yet, but this is a sci-fi scenario so it's a bit different. (If you want to hear about the currently real options, here's a post that could interest you).

I'm slightly puzzled by her eyepatch fixing the signal issues; I would've assumed that it would transmit things either way (?) because with an eyepatch she would still see, just the inside of the patch and not the usual stuff. But my cluelessness here might be my fault by the fact that I'm not familiar with the source material. But if it's meant for a general (non-fandom) audience, I think it would be great if you could elaborate on the science here!

With the later eyes she gets, I advise you to keep her visually impaired even if her vision improves somewhat. It shouldn't be a cure. You potentially could think of it like hearing aids, where they can be more or less helpful, but are often more annoying than anything else and aren't fully "restoring" the sense by any means. Maybe her bionic eye has static, or weird spots, or causes double vision.

Now for the "hmm" part...

"When she's campaigning and trying to look innocent and kind, she covers it as much as she can. However, when she feels like she is in control and can do whatever she wants without consequences, she doesn't bother or even chooses to try to cover her freckles but avoid her scars because she thinks they make her more intimidating."

Please, please, please don't do this. To answer your question; not okay.

I have written a post somewhat about this kind of thing. I really dislike playing with ableism in this way. Portraying scars as "intimidating" on an already dicey character... just no.

To pull this off in a way that's not offensive, you would have to research disfiguremisia in and out. It would need active commentary and a lot of teaching-the-reader-why-this-is-bad, and if you have to ask if it's okay, then you just aren't ready for it. And that's fine! You don't have to write a scenario based on heavy disfiguremisia, so don't. Remember, it's not her acting a certain way, it's you writing her to act a certain way.

I don't want you to take this personally, but please just don't write this. Not like this, at least.

For the "fitting in" part, I addressed it in the post linked above; I don't think that I have anything to add that wasn't included there.

For Mortimer, the best I can do right now is give you a bunch of links that will hopefully be helpful to you. This is just way beyond my answering capabilities and we don't have any mods who are amputees at the moment, so you're at the mercy of follower input for the most part. But;

Post of posts about arm prosthetics

Our general amputee tag

@cy-cyborg 's account, xe posts great writing advice, often regarding prosthetics. I believe that ze accepts asks as well.

For the rest of the questions;

"Currently all of my visible facial and limb differences are due to injury [...] Do I change/add something to these four so it's less All Injuries?

I would say yes! Some of the tropes that you're working if are Not Great, so adding a few additional characters that don't fall into them will help a lot. Try having some characters with similar disabilities that don't tick the issue-causing boxes. Throw someone with a facial difference that doesn't commit any kind of mass murder in there.

"I mentioned before Mortimer and Morticia trying to hide their differences for different reasons. [...] If it's not appropriate to hide them for practical purposes, do I have people react as if they had hidden them or is that erasure?"

In real life they would probably be recognized by it, though I need to say that there is absolutely a part of the population who just Doesn't Notice. People can absolutely be oblivious, especially if the lack of limb is hidden by clothes. Particularly if there are a lot of things going on.

That said, if whoever seen them has noticed, then they would look for that. That's just the logical outcome. But I don't think an eyepatch helps much to hide the actual disability, they would still assume that the person with a bionic eye and the eyepatch-wearing person are probably the same.

You can potentially avoid it by making a large chunk of the population disabled, lol. "Girl without an eye" isn't very helpful information to hunt someone by when there's dozens of people with that description in the city.

For the end, I'm sorry that some parts of it might have come off as Not the Most Encouraging (the Morticia part...), please remember that I'm just criticizing the tropes and implications. I can kind of tell that whatever the source material is, it is way worse about its treatment of disability/facial difference, so I would consider it an improvement nonetheless. Still, it could be better. I hope that the above links and answers will help you with your project.

If any followers are familiar with the topics discussed here, you can leave a reply or reblog with your suggestions. Remember to be constructive.

I hope this helps!

Mod Sasza

Hey! Mod Patch hopping in here to talk a bit about Autumn. I think that you’re aware of the tropes this could fall into is a good first step. 

First of all, you mention Autumn is missing some fingers and has classical EDS. Both of these could make using a manual wheelchair more difficult. Is the wheelchair in question manual? If it is perhaps consider adding a power assist (perhaps like a fantasy version of a smart drive. 

I’m not too concerned about him being “pure” because you mention that they are 1) working with other “immoral” folks. My suggestion would be to try and lean into the selfish and jaded parts of the character. Show his motivations aren't exclusively disability-related. I am a bit concerned about his execution. I understand that you might not be able to change that plot point but can you have other characters who use mobility aids and survive longer? They don’t have to be as major in the story.

mod Patch

[thessalian]

Thess vs Upcoming Elections

Both the US and the UK are coming up on elections this year, and the usual notifications are coming up - hell, I've posted them myself - about how people are going to try to convince you that there's no point in voting because both parties are the same, and that it's a psyop by the Republicans / Conservatives, etc. And in the US, that's probably true. But I did want to say something about the whole deal in the UK, because I actually live here, and there's one problem with that theory.

That theory doesn't hold true when we're hearing it directly from the Leader of the Opposition.

Those of us in the UK have heard Kier Starmer saying, time and again, how he will fall into lockstep with the Tories on so many issues. He's spoken in support of teachers outing transgender kids to their parents. He's refusing to condemn the genocide in Gaza. He's going to continue to 'bolster the NHS with private contracts', which basically means stealth privatisation of the service and already cost us billions during the early days of COVID. Just about every nasty policy the Tories have put out there the last few years, Starmer has more or less agreed with. I'm not sure where he stands about this stupid Rwanda thing, but he is a lawyer so I'm pretty sure that at the very least he's wary of breaking international law.

The worst part is that it feels like we're damned either way. If we don't vote Starmer, our not-two-party-system-BUT is arranged in such a way that the Tories will probably win again. This will bolster the far right element and things will get worse for us. However, if we do vote Labour ... well, Starmer's going to go on about "See, that's how you win an election" and carry on with his Tory-With-A-Red-Tie mentality, and the Tories will go, "Well, obviously we need to go further right to win the next one", and get absolutely fucking feral about it. And the Tories probably will win next time because the absolute mess the Tories have made of the economy and everything else is impossible to fix in five years, and everyone will blame Labour for it because they have the mental capacity of goldfish.

I mean, I'm going to vote Labour anyway. My borough is one of the safest of safe Labour seats, but I'm going to do it anyway. People keep saying, "Vote Green!" but ... I'm sorry, no matter how important that one issue is, I will not vote for a one-issue party. The Lib Dems have become basically wallpaper at this point, and there aren't a lot of other political entities in my borough. I mean, the absolute best we could do by voting third-party is to force a hung Parliament, but I mistrust that kind of thing ever since the Conservative / Lib Dem coalition in 2010, which was the start of this whole mess.

Anyway, I'm going to vote Labour even though I know what they are and what they're doing because I cannot imagine aiding and abetting the Tories at this point. I can hope that Starmer, who has been very cagey about his manifesto to stop the Tories from spending time during Prime Minister's Questions trying to use it as ammunition against having to actually answer the man's questions, is further to the left than he appears. Then again, we live in a capitalist hellscape and I would guess not? But at least he doesn't want to send refugees to Rwanda. Maybe. Maybe he'll actually respect international law. And maybe he'll even get rid of the idiotic voter ID laws which Jacob Rees-Mogg admitted was deliberate gerrymandering on live television and no one batted a fucking eye. In fact, Rees-Mogg said, "We just have to do it more effectively" and then there were even more draconian laws put into place around postal votes, and again, no one seemed to care.

It's sad when all the hope we can cling to in these cases is "Maybe the other guy won't be a literal criminal" ... but I guess the US knows that one too.

[gloriousmonsters]

this post is just killing me.

the flying leap from a tweet that's just 'the fanciest house in my neighborhood put notes in everyone's mailboxes asking them to be quiet from 2pm bc they were having a backyard wedding, and i'm in awe of my neighbor who proceeded to mow his lawn at exactly 2' to 'oh my god this is everything wrong with america. thinking HORRIFYING behavior like this is OK is why we had Trump!! don't you know that conservatives feel the same way about PRONOUNS as you do about the richest people in the neighborhood issuing a notice that everyone needs to shut up for their event?'

Like sure, it's rude! It's really funny to characterize it as 'you think you're the MAIN CHARACTER', though (god, that criticism is... not only flawed to begin with, but is quickly being overused to the point of incoherence) considering that if anyone seems to think the world revolves around them, it's the people who expected the neighborhood at large to stop and shut up because they're having a backyard wedding (which requires absolute silence from the surrounding area, apparently).

This wasn't some plea for love and kindness and mutual understanding that was shut down by chest-thumping MURICA spirit--the tweet is a TWEET, short and lacking a lot of context by its nature, but the implications are glaringly obvious. Fanciest house on the block, by a mile. No names, they probably aren't friends with anyone in the neighborhood. They issued notes to everyone via mailbox--not talking to them. The notes weren't inviting them to the wedding or any overture of friendship, just 'please be quiet we're doing something important'. Do you think they cared about or checked whether anyone else had something important happening? You don't get love and peace and community and mutual understanding and respect by shushing when someone asks you to shush. In fact, the attitude of 'you have to be polite and not bother people--for the sake of Community and not being rude!!' is twisted just as much to use against marginalized people as belligerence over being asked to do anything at all.

but overall, maybe this isn't some great example of america/humanity's flaws with villainous behavior that must be decried and analyzed, maybe it's just someone's funny little bit of gossip about the richest people in their neighborhood being rude and someone being rude to them back. and maybe if you're comparing it to YOUR neighborhood where everyone is totally OK with people being noisy because they all respect each other and YOU personally would be quiet if one of your neighbors, who you already have an understanding with, asked you to be quiet for a wedding in the area.... realize at some point that the situation is not the same? and this has nothing, in fact, to do with 'how is anyone going to respect your pronouns/being queer if you don't respect and be kind to people in the first place??' which is an unhinged connection to make, period.

Respect and kindness are good. Being respectful and nice and a Good Community Member is not actually a tax you must pay to have a right to live your life. Don't have an outdoor wedding in the middle of a neighborhood if your life will be ruined by someone mowing their lawn. why did we even make this jump in the first place

[kylejsugarman]

I was watching the commentary of One Minute earlier and it got me thinking of the recurrent orbital injuries Jesse sustains over the series. Between the smashing his face into a rock in the pilot and Hank assaulting him, his left eye socket alone has been at the very least fractured twice. Not to mention the right side getting injured when [REDACTED] in Ozymandias. I’m genuinely surprised he didn’t have to have it surgically repaired. Goodness that’s not to mention the head trauma and multiple concussions he sustained.

Do you think his vision will be effected long term? Would he even have had time to notice a change in his vision with how crazy his life was until he got to safety? I can imagine migraines and seizures being issue. I just wish someone would whisk this fella away to a neurologist (And a good one! I’ve seen my share of bad ones🙃) ASAP.

Again I’m sorry for opening Pandora’s box trunk, but this is fresh on my mind and it is just rattling around in my brain and I had to consult someone else or my mind would explode.

(officer who is in retirement being called back in for one more big case voice) goddamn. im getting too old for this shit.

specifically regarding the orbital injuries, ur absolutely right that after getting his left socket likely fractured twice, he might need surgical repair. most repairs of orbital fractures are relatively simple, especially if they're rim fractures like i suspect his are in these cases (he probably could've gotten it done quickly in the hospital after the hank beating), but even with surgery and after that injury to the right socket as well, there's a high chance of him developing double vision. orbital fractures aren't necessarily correlated with vision problems (unless of course we're talking about a fracture that involves direct injury to the eyeball as well), but in tandem with the head injuries, the chance of double/blurred vision is pretty high and problems with eye-tracking and peripheral vision are likely. also i suffered an orbital fracture back in august after falling during a seizure and they hurty :(

knowing jesse, he probably wouldn't even notice a change in his vision (jesse strikes me as the kind of person who would go thru life like "damn. crazy how everything's blurry all the time huh" as an adult and everyone around him would be like. oh god have u ever had an eye exam??) and if he did, it'd be at the bottom of the list of Issues (diplopia can be transient too and its not exactly easy to treat when its the result of this much trauma). but u all absolutely KNOW how i feel about getting jesse to the nearest quality neurologist as soon as he sets foot in alaska. even divorced from my au, seizures are going to be a HUGE possibility from all that head trauma/concussion injury + yo-yoing blood sugar. add exposure to chemicals and starvation to the head injuries, and symptoms like migraines, limb weakness/tingling, and memory loss are basically guaranteed.

when u compound severe physical and neurological distress with the psychological distress of surviving Literal Hell On Earth and Losing Everyone u Love, it's actually. really, really hard to picture his early time in alaska as anything but scary and painful and miserable :( like yeah he has this freedom and he's "Safe", but being alone and living in a body and mind that have been legitimately torn to shreds and are almost beyond his own recognition is somehow worse than captivity. i mean, jesse's young and isn't exactly up to snuff on like biology and physiology, he doesn't KNOW all the things that are "wrong" with him (a lot of which can be fixed or alleviated!!) and so its scary to have all this pain and these symptoms along with the debilitating psychological scars. thats why its SO important that he see a neurologist ASAP after getting to safety: he Needs someone, someone who is caring and wise and has no reason to distrust or hurt him, to look objectively at his problems and put names to them and tell him how they can be treated. like jesse is absolutely going to live with chronic pain and certain symptoms for the rest of his life, but to have Names for these things and Ways to cope with them.....to See them from a more objective standpoint, not as curses and suffering he deserves to continue serving out his "sentence" but as pieces of baggage that are not inherently good or evil.....like that's going to at least open the door for him to start seeking other forms of treatment and accepting help instead of suffering alone with his pain as some kind of self-laceration or some desperate, misguided attempt to isolate his pain to avoid it Contaminating anyone else