#mod advice

[hypocrisyofandrewdobson]

This isn't about Dobson but rather Labelle. I saw her comic about age regression out of context without knowing anything about her and I felt validated by it and it's really upsetting to know what kind of person she is. I had an extremely traumatic experience as a kid which caused me to develop a kid persona that I'm trying to work through and get help for but I've aways avoided the community because they make me uncomfortable, I don't like how people act there and knowing that Labelle is probably a predator I'm definitely keeping it that way. Honestly age regression is a symptom of mental illness in adults, mine's related to my PTSD and a lot of people who truly have age regression symptoms are victims of child abuse and SA so it's really gross to me that she's found herself in that community even if I don't align with them.

First of all, let me say I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with such a terrible experience along with having to learn to cope with that experience throughout your life. It’s one of those things no one should have to go through, and I wish you all the best with it.

It’s unfortunate when someone will latch onto communities simple for pity points, or to use as a shield for their shitty behavior, or to do so to make themselves look better than they actually are. People like LaBelle, Dobson, Peet, ect do it all the time, and it’s a big part of why so many people take issue with them. Because it can make people outside of those communities assume the worst of the group because of the actions of the extremist few, or the ones using the community as a mask or shield.

I also understand not wanting to be involved in certain communities despite being or enjoying what the community is about due to their actions. It can really suck when you can’t bond or talk to people with similar interests or issues due to what’s considered “acceptable behavior” within those communities. It’s a very “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” sort of thing.

The best advice I can give(and I’m just some rando on the internet, so don’t take my words in too high regard or anything) is try and find solace in your friends and family, people who know and like you for yourself, and take comfort with them. You shouldn’t ever let a community or group you technically belong to dictate what you’re allowed to do or not do. Same goes for anyone wanting to label you something just because you’re a part of a community. There is never a “this is how (x) people are SUPPOSED to be/act/think/ect, and if you don’t, you’re not a real (x).” We’re all human, and we’re all different, shaped by our thoughts, our personalities, our environment, and so on.

And always take comfort in who you know yourself to be. You don’t need random people on the internet’s validation or condemnation to dictate who you know you are as a person.

Because you know yourself better than anyone else on earth.

[public-school-things]

yo! i'm a high school student (junior) and i don't know what career path i wanna take in life. it's getting so stressful bcz all the teachers are pushing the idea that we should already have a career picked out and should be actively working to get the job we want. do any college students feel this way when they first start out??? how did you figure out what you wanna do??

- 🔥 anon

Hi nonny!

God i hear you here. But trust me, you don't need to know what you need to do for a little while. I was lucky enough to know what I wanted to do, but I know most people aren't.

My biggest piece of advice is to try to figure out a very general field you'd want to go in. Like stem, arts, etc. From there, during college you can experiment with classes in that field.

If you don't know what you want to do at all, take classes you'd think you'd enjoy. In most schools, you have around 2 years to figure out what your major is. Typically for the first 2 years you take general prerequisites. Sometimes you'll find a passion for something you wouldn't have expected!

You 100% don't need to know what you want to do. There's gonna be advisors and people on campus to help you figure that out! I wish you all the luck in figuring it out.

[starkcanvas]

I was legitimately going to bring up an Eldritch Mari AU idea, but I ultimately chickened out because I didn’t want to make it seem like I was robbing or copying stuff from Reimu’s Eldritch Basil AU….

Hey, we can all feel that way sometimes :)

I'd say go for it because "Eldritch Horror" AU's are one of those AU's where unless someone purposefully copied someone else, any kind of idea can be original

Like, someone else could have an "Eldritched Basil" idea but execute it differently. It's still Basil, but the Eldritched part of him could be/work differently than Remi's. Same idea applies if you wanna add Rowan to the story as well and since I own that idea myself, i don't mind of others use it. Just as long as credit is given if served as a form of inspirations lol

And hey, if it makes you feel better, I've been having a block on where to go for my WolfWalkers AU and I'm thinking of canning it and maybe coming up with something else ^^; as my inspiration and drive for it has kinda run dry...

Anywho, I say go for it but just keep in mind to not make certain things too similar to what you used as inspiration for your own idea ^^

[mod-makoto-yuki]

What would be best for a yellow Aesthetic?

Hello everyone mod Makoto yuki here I have a question for all Editors on here I would like to know what would be good for a Yellow Aesthetic I only doing this for college and I thought it would be nice to have some help with that.

It’s not on Danganronpa or persona anything like that just a normal Aesthetic like flowers 🌸 and etc.

[thylacines-toybox]

Hey, I found a beanie boo that I liked the design of but I can't stand those giant uguu eyes. Do you think it would be possible to replace them with smaller safety eyes akin to the old beanie babies? If yes, do you have any advice?

I was gonna answer this in a normal way, but then I got curious about trying it for myself and thought I might as well demonstrate!

So, I went and picked up a guy from the supermarket. The selection there was pretty barren today but I found a decent test subject:

Eye replacement procedure below!

(First of all, to my friend who loves beanie boos, I am so sorry for this lmao)

So! First I opened up the closing seam on his back. However, I found an extra mesh barrier inside! Clearly this is to prevent bean escape since this is the most likely seam to accidentally pop open through play. This would be a bit annoying to work around so I just sewed it back up and went in the back of the head instead…

Opened and unstuffed the head…

…And turning it inside out to get to the backs of the eyes. Whoa, these plastic washers are the biggest I’ve ever seen!! Cutting through them will take some work!

Please be very careful of your fingers cutting through these!! Be careful not to cut the fabric around the eye too, but mostly be careful of yourself!

Anyway grrrrrrr attack attack slice slice grrrr

They’re out! With a little glue I think the washers would be able to hold on perfectly well again. I’ll keep these eyes to reuse on something where they’ll be a bit more proportional!

The washers on these eyes are particularly cup shaped, fitting around the back of the eye and holding the fabric tightly against them. Now that the eyes are removed, this has left imprints on the fur!

Plenty of brushing and rumfling will help to fix the creased and flattened areas of fur, and wetting the fur or gently steaming over a hot cup of water should help too. It might take a little time!

(Also, I did make a little cut in the cheek while removing a washer, oops! No worries, that can be stitched up.)

Now we can try on a few new eye styles! Restuff the head for now so you can see how they’ll look.

I have a few sizes of solid black, from teeny dots to absolute tbh creature…

These blue eyes were a little scary… no thanks!

I even have some glittery ones like the original, but smaller! Pretty nice actually!

And even some googly eyes hehehe!

But my favourite eyes were some basic 9mm black ones! They are placed a little funny here, but the position will change a little bit…

The holes left by the original eyes were very big, so a couple of stitches are needed on each one to tighten them up to fit the new eyes. I stitched the top outer corners, to move the holes down and inwards a bit. If you wanted, you could even sew them closed completely and make new eye holes elsewhere!

Unstuff again and pop those new eyes in!

Restuff! You might actually need to add a little extra stuffing, as the fabric not being so pulled around the eyes any more will mean it is a little ‘baggier’.

Then sew the head closed again and that’s about it! The fur is still a little creased around mine, but I’ll keep working at it and it should become less visible.

To add a tiny bit more shape to the big round head, I also did a touch of threadsculpting. I ran a thread from the corner of each eye to below the chin and back, just pulling the eyes in a tad more. You might decide you don’t need this!

And there we go! Hope you’ll try it yourself!

[cripplecharacters]

Where to Start Your Research When Writing a Disabled Character

[large text: Where to Start Your Research When Writing a Disabled Character]

So you have decided that you want to make a disabled character! Awesome. But what's next? What information should you decide on at the early phrase of making the character?

This post will only talk about the disability part of the character creation process. Obviously, a disabled character needs a personality, interests, and backstory as every other one. But by including their disability early in the process, you can actually get it to have a deeper effect on the character - disability shouldn't be their whole life, but it should impact it. That's what disabilities do.

If you don't know what disability you would want to give them in the first place;

[large text: If you don't know what disability you would want to give them in the first place;]

Start broad. Is it sensory, mobility related, cognitive, developmental, autoimmune, neurodegenerative; maybe multiple of these, or maybe something else completely? Pick one and see what disabilities it encompasses; see if anything works for your character. Or...

If you have a specific symptom or aid in mind, see what could cause them. Don't assume or guess; not every wheelchair user is vaguely paralyzed below the waist with no other symptoms, not everyone with extensive scarring got it via physical trauma. Or...

Consider which disabilities are common in real life. Cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, stroke, cataracts, diabetes, intellectual disability, neuropathy, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, thyroid disorders, autism, dwarfism, arthritis, cancers, brain damage, just to name a few.

Decide what specific type of condition they will have. If you're thinking about them having albinism, will it be ocular, oculocutaneous, or one of the rare syndrome-types? If you want to give them spinal muscular atrophy, which of the many possible onsets will they have? If they have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which one out of the 13 different types do they have? Is their amputation below, or above the knee (it's a major difference)? Not all conditions will have subtypes, but it's worth looking into to not be surprised later. This will help you with further research.

If you're really struggling with figuring out what exact disability would make sense for your character, you can send an ask. Just make sure that you have tried the above and put actual specifics in your ask to give us something to work with. You can also check out our "disabled character ideas" tag.

Here are some ideas for a character using crutches.

Here are some ideas for a character with a facial difference (obligatory link: what is a facial difference?).

If you already know what disability your character is going to have;

[large text: If you already know what disability your character is going to have;]

Start by reading about the onset and cause of the condition. It could be acquired, congenital, progressive, potentially multiple of these. They could be caused by an illness, trauma, or something else entirely. Is your character a congenital amputee, or is it acquired? If acquired - how recently? Has it been a week, or 10 years? What caused them to become disabled - did they have meningitis, or was it an accident? Again, check what your options are - there are going to be more diverse than you expect.

Read about the symptoms. Do not assume or guess what they are. You will almost definitely discover something new. Example: a lot of people making a character with albinism don't realize that it has other symptoms than just lack of melanin, like nystagmus, visual impairment, and photophobia. Decide what your character experiences, to what degree, how frequently, and what do they do (or don't do) to deal with it.

Don't give your character only the most "acceptable" symptoms of their disability and ignore everything else. Example: many writers will omit the topic of incontinence in their para- and tetraplegic characters, even though it's extremely common. Don't shy away from aspects of disability that aren't romanticized.

Don't just... make them abled "because magic". If they're Deaf, don't give them some ability that will make them into an essentially hearing person. Don't give your blind character some "cheat" so that they can see, give them a cane. Don't give an amputee prosthetics that work better than meat limbs. To have a disabled character you need to have a character that's actually disabled. There's no way around it.

Think about complications your character could experience within the story. If your character wears their prosthetic a lot, they might start to experience skin breakdown or pain. Someone who uses a wheelchair a lot has a risk of pressure sores. Glowing and Flickering Fantasy Item might cause problems for someone photophobic or photosensitive. What do they do when that happens, or how do they prevent that from happening?

Look out for comorbidities. It's rare for disabled people to only have one medical condition and nothing else. Disabilities like to show up in pairs. Or dozens.

If relevant, consider mobility aids, assistive devices, and disability aids. Wheelchairs, canes, rollators, braces, AAC, walkers, nasal cannulas, crutches, white canes, feeding tubes, braillers, ostomy bags, insulin pumps, service dogs, trach tubes, hearing aids, orthoses, splints... the list is basically endless, and there's a lot of everyday things that might count as a disability aid as well - even just a hat could be one for someone whose disability requires them to stay out of the sun. Make sure that it's actually based on symptoms, not just your assumptions - most blind people don't wear sunglasses, not all people with SCI use a wheelchair, upper limb prosthetics aren't nearly as useful as you think. Decide which ones your character could have, how often they would use them, and if they switch between different aids.

Basically all of the above aids will have subtypes or variants. There is a lot of options. Does your character use an active manual wheelchair, a powerchair, or a generic hospital wheelchair? Are they using high-, or low-tech AAC? What would be available to them? Does it change over the course of their story, or their life in general?

If relevant, think about what treatment your character might receive. Do they need medication? Physical therapy? Occupational therapy? Orientation and mobility training? Speech therapy? Do they have access to it, and why or why not?

What is your character's support system? Do they have a carer; if yes, then what do they help your character with and what kind of relationship do they have? Is your character happy about it or not at all?

How did their life change after becoming disabled? If your character goes from being an extreme athlete to suddenly being a full-time wheelchair user, it will have an effect - are they going to stop doing sports at all, are they going to just do extreme wheelchair sports now, or are they going to try out wheelchair table tennis instead? Do they know and respect their new limitations? Did they have to get a different job or had to make their house accessible? Do they have support in this transition, or are they on their own - do they wish they had that support?

What about *other* characters? Your character isn't going to be the only disabled person in existence. Do they know other disabled people? Do they have a community? If your character manages their disability with something that's only available to them, what about all the other people with the same disability?

What is the society that your character lives in like? Is the architecture accessible? How do they treat disabled people? Are abled characters knowledgeable about disabilities? How many people speak the local sign language(s)? Are accessible bathrooms common, or does your character have to go home every few hours? Is there access to prosthetists and ocularists, or what do they do when their prosthetic leg or eye requires the routine check-up?

Know the tropes. If a burn survivor character is an evil mask-wearer, if a powerchair user is a constantly rude and ungrateful to everyone villain, if an amputee is a genius mechanic who fixes their own prosthetics, you have A Trope. Not all tropes are made equal; some are actively harmful to real people, while others are just annoying or boring by the nature of having been done to death. During the character creation process, research what tropes might apply and just try to trace your logic. Does your blind character see the future because it's a common superpower in their world, or are you doing the ancient "Blind Seer" trope?

Remember, that not all of the above questions will come up in your writing, but to know which ones won't you need to know the answers to them first. Even if you don't decide to explicitly name your character's condition, you will be aware of what they might function like. You will be able to add more depth to your character if you decide that they have T6 spina bifida, rather than if you made them into an ambiguous wheelchair user with ambiguous symptoms and ambiguous needs. Embrace research as part of your process and your characters will be better representation, sure, but they will also make more sense and seem more like actual people; same with the world that they are a part of.

This post exists to help you establish the basics of your character's disability so that you can do research on your own and answer some of the most common ("what are symptoms of x?") questions by yourself. If you have these things already established, it will also be easier for us to answer any possible questions you might have - e.g. "what would a character with complete high-level paraplegia do in a world where the modern kind of wheelchair has not been invented yet?" is much more concise than just "how do I write a character with paralysis?" - I think it's more helpful for askers as well; a vague answer won't be much help, I think.

I hope that this post is helpful!

Mod Sasza

[aro-culture-is]

I told my mom that I didn't want to vote Republican because they hate gay people like me. At first she was confused because she didn't understand that Aro falls under the Gay umbrella, and then told me that no one cares that I'm Aries

... there is so much going on there. I think the best I can really offer here is: I'm so sorry this happened to you, but also, "no one caress that I'm Aries" is now being passed around by my headmates and we are giggling. I do not know if that was autocorrect or what she said, but it's one of those things where I was gearing up to be serious and now i'm just saying variations of "No one cares that you're aries, paul. no one cares that you're aries, jimothy."

(for real, they do care, or they wouldn't run the whole "crazy cat lady with no kids" angle, but y'know, sometimes you gotta consider if it's worth arguing with people who either can't or won't understand you, and this is one of those in almost every case.

-- mod rust

[probablybadrpgideas]

It’s very ironic that the best way to spark chaos in the D&D fandom is to ask people to define what “lawful” is in the context of alignment.

[aromanticofficial]

I think I might be aromantic

Which is fine in theory. I would consider myself an ally to all aspec folks.

But the idea of me being aro is actually kind of fucking me up?

Like. I have a boyfriend. I care about him a lot. But at this point, I feel like I'm mostly with him out of a sense of duty.

And that's fucking scary to me

finding out you're not straight can be a shock. i remember feeling disappointed when i first started identifying with the aro label because i would never have anyone's complete understanding of my experience

don't force yourself to do anything because you feel you "should." if you want to break up with your boyfriend, be honest with him. if you don't, be honest and see if you can continue with a new understanding or relationship

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

TAVROS: uH, kARKAT DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS,

TAVROS: fOR UH, nEW PLAYERS,

KARKAT: YES.

KARKAT: BE FUELED BY HATE. FUCK NASTY. CULL YOURSELF.

[scriptlgbt]

I have a deaf trans character who went completely deaf in his teens. He is on T. Is it normal for him to be very conflicted on how he sounds to people? Would he be scared, especially when he starts passing more because the voice in his head will always be his old voice? Would he try to ask people to describe exactly how his voice sounds? Is it okay if he really wants a 'cure' due to this and never cared before he came out? Doesn't actually get the cure though.

I'm hard of hearing so my qualifications for answering this are limited. I can hear my own voice. This is my frame of reference here. I hope that deaf trans people can chime in.

When my voice dropped, I could physically feel the change when I talked. I would go to say something in the way I normally would, but it would feel more strained, or I would feel my voice break. (Hard to explain this feeling... It's like a pressure just gives way and I can feel my voice go softer? I don't know.)

I think in general, it's normal to feel self-conscious when your voice is changing. People who have known you with a higher voice seeing you for the first time in a year might be surprised and comment on your voice. Mine changed over a really short timespan so I had more people notice the change and comment on it and usually people expressed they were a big fan. I had platonic friends say it was hot, even. And I think, at least in my own trans community, there's a lot of celebration when people go through milestone changes.

The voice in my head has never been of any particular range or pitch. Sometimes there's an intonation to it, and if I focus, I can imagine a sound so clearly it nearly becomes hallucination. But my normal inner voice is more of just general language, maybe even closer to text than sound. This is another one of those things that varies with everyone.

I think that the story you're describing with your questions strikes me as an unusual level of hyperfixation on this. There are definitely people who do fixate on one specific dysphoric trigger, usually either isolated from trans community or whose only trans community are people obsessed with "passing" and coming across as cis enough. This usually speaks to an unhealthy community surroundings and a very big sense of danger in some way, whether founded in reality or not.

But I also don't see why this character wouldn't want to de-prioritize voicing if he has these concerns to this extreme of a degree. We (or me anyway) live in a society which is oralist. Everyone is assumed to communicate via oral language, and this is audist (part of the oppression against deaf and hard of hearing people). This is going to depend extremely on individual access, but, if this character has access to resources to learn the local sign language, this seems like a normal option. It's only really helpful if you know other people to sign with, but that usually comes more easily once you take the step to start learning in the first place. Some d/hh people also use other means of communicating, like typing.

There are some people I know who sometimes go nonspeaking and who carry a notepad for that reason, and will use this to interface with clerks or friends or whoever else they need to. There's also AAC in general.

None of this is to say that these things don't mean facing oppression, harassment, misunderstandings and assumptions from strangers. But I do know that some of the folks I know who use nonspeaking methods of communication are sometimes gendered differently by strangers who do not hear their voice. If this is truly that severe of an anxiety, this is probably the route the character would go.

But I don't think this level of hyperfixation on this is necessarily normal. I think wishing for a cure gets into some really big existentialism, like, what if this extremely core part of me were entirely different? It also assumes that deafness is necessarily a disease that requires cure, rather than something that just happens sometimes, which might or might not be related to some pathology or pathological origin.

I'm sorry to keep bugging them with my tags, but I rec reading work by @cripplecharacters.

But overall I'd just avoid writing this if you haven't experienced it. It's a really specific kind of experience and anxiety. I don't know your identities or anything, but if you are cis and hearing, I would probably just come across this and see it as weird and almost like... making these identities into an unnecessarily traumatizing spectacle. These can be things real people experience that can be represented, but they aren't for every writer to write. Not until people from those experiences write on them and get adequate success from that.

-mod nat

[redinthesea]

Oh my god I can't believe this actually worked. There's still a ton of small issues to resolve (mostly clipping / animations, some seams I forgot to close etc, and I haven't figured out the boss battle ink color yet. Also he makes cut-scenes lag so bad even though his file is very close in size with Frye's...) but it... works!!!

I wanted to do all of C-Side but that's gonna have to be indefinitely postponed due to me being insanely busy.

Feel free to ask any questions since I know that modding tends to be very niche and it's hard to discover information around it!

[incorrect-dnd-classes]

Rogue: Don't ask me for advice I advocate breakups and crimes

[pkmnirlevents]

Please remember to be respectful of your fellow roleplayers! It doesn't matter if you personally do not like the muse they are playing, you should never send harassing asks to another person out of character. Always ask for clarification before sending upsetting in character messages in their inbox. Communicate with members of your community.

Often many of the roleplayers you see are talking extensively behind the scenes before making higher stakes posts, only the tip of the iceberg may appear on blog. These are rarely spontaneous, unplanned things, and if they are the person will often say as much on their profile. Never assume someone is automatically okay with this kind of behavior. Remember these blogs are run by real people.

Be kind to one another.

[bassicallymaestra]

Serena's conducting/magic lesson ✨

[cripplecharacters]

Navigation: Helpful Posts - specific disabilities

[large text: Navigation: Helpful Posts - specific disabilities]

This is the long-awaited sequel to the first post that unfortunately hit the link limit. This part will focus on posts for specific disabilities, while the general topics will stay in the original post. If you can't find any posts on the disability you're looking for, please check out the "Other" section in the first post.

This list will of course continue to be updated.

Last update: July 2, 2024

Amputation/Limb Difference

[large text: Amputation/Limb Difference]

Constructing Characters with Limb Differences: Discussing Fetishization Do Amputees Always Wear Prosthetics? Does a Character with Amputation Need a Prosthetic? Does a Character with Upper Limb Amputation Need a Prosthetic? Designing a Prosthetic Arm Making a Character with Upper Limb Amputation Genius Amputee Mechanic: Discussing the DIY Prosthetic Trope Causes of Amputation Limb Differences as a Spectrum

Blind Characters

[large text: Blind Characters]

Making a Blind Character: what to add, what to avoid Designing a Blind Character: Discussing the Eye Covering Trope What to Give Your Blind Character Blindness Tropes: Daredevil, milky eyes, and blindness-negating magic The Blind Prophet Trope Guide Animals: Dogs, Horses, and Their Fictional Equivalents Blind Characters with Superpowers Echolocation and Sound Powers Yeah Another One about Superpowers Portraying Photophobia in Pre-modern Times Characters with Albinism Fetishization of Albinism Going Blind from an Accident Writing Characters with One Eye More on Monocular Vision Writing a Blind Kitty (+possible accommodations)

Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HoH) Characters

[large text: Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HoH) Characters]

Creating Deaf/HoH Characters Writing D/deaf/HoH Characters Another Guide on Writing D/deaf Characters Tips on Writing Deaf Characters Visual Indicators of a Person being Deaf Tips on Writing about Hearing Aids Deaf Character Unable to Sign Sign Language with Limb Difference Writing Out Sign Language (+book recommendations) Cultural Deafness Primer

DeafBlind Characters

[large text: DeafBlind Characters]

How DeafBlind People Learn Language DeafBlind Character not Wanting to be Blind On Access and Protactile [not writing advice, just a piece of great writing; greatly recommended if you know nothing about DeafBlindness]

Facial Difference (FD)

[large text: Facial Difference (FD)]

Introduction to Facial Difference: basics, tropes, what I want to see Constructing a Character with an FD: Discussing Disfiguremisia and the "Mask Trope" Does My Character Need a Prosthetic Eye?: alternatives What Would Happen to A Character with a Scar Through the Eye? What Would Happen to a Character with a Burn on the Eye? How Scars Affect the Character, and How the Character Affects the Scar (in the technical sense) Should your Character with Scars Hate their Scars? Including Characters with Treacher Collins Syndrome in a pre-Surgical Setting Basic Information on Vitiligo Harmful Vitiligo Tropes/Stereotypes Animalistic Characters with Vitiligo Stigmatization of Strabismus in Visual Media How to be Normal about the Real Life Equivalents of your OC with a Scar Over His Eye

Intellectual Disability

[large text: Intellectual Disability]

Introduction to Writing Intellectually Disabled Characters: basics, tropes, how it actually works Down Syndrome and Historical Fiction Combat and Disability: intellectually disabled characters Basic Tips for Writing Characters with Down Syndrome