#or at least informative

[poseidonsworst]

Hey, sorry to hijack this ask, but I have a nickel allergy too, and since it was diagnosed by patch test, my allergist gave me a whole list of things to avoid, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but.....

Basically all beans, nuts, grains, seeds, and green vegetables are high in nickel, but before i break out the despair, I wanna introduce yall to the concept of The Histamine Bucket, if you don't know her already.

Here she is all dressed to the nines for the gala:

And here she is for a simple day out:

Histamine is (in extremely simplified terms) what causes allergic reactions, and there's a lot of things that can cause your body to release histamine.

The idea behind the bucket is that everyone has one, but in folks with no histamine related issues, all the histamine drains right out because the body breaks it down before it can cause a reaction.

If you have an allergy, a histamine intolerance, or (like me) a Mast Cell Activation Disorder, your system gets more histamine than it can handle, and your bucket overflows with abject misery. This is why a key part of coping with allergies and other allergy bullfuckery, is figuring out where your histamine triggers are and minimizing them as much as possible, even if you can "deal with" the symptoms. You never know when your bucket could overflow bad enough to cause anaphylactic shock.

You can also do things like take antihistamines regularly if a doc advises it to stop the bucket from filling, get DAO enzyme supplements that help your body breakdown more histamine than it could otherwise which drains the bucket faster, or if your issue is mast cell related like mine, get a prescription for mast cell stabilizers to turn off the faucet.

Once you cut trigger foods and anything else you do to stop filling the bucket, your gut will start to heal from being constantly attacked by your immune system. What happens then, marvelously, is that you start getting a higher tolerance for trigger foods because your bucket isn't always on the verge of overflowing.

As I said, I'm allergic to nickel too, but I've cut everything on that list, (and a bunch of other things cause a Mast Cell Activation Disorder is doctor speak for "Allergic to Everything Disease" (ACAB includes Osmosis Jones for my body)), and after about a year of that, an antihistamine regimen, and mast cell stabilizers, I can drink two cups of black tea a day and be fine! (going for loose leaf so I'm not steeping a staple and god knows what else is in the tea bag is probably a big part of my tolerant as well. my allergies are turning me into a tea snob.) That doesn't mean that I'm gonna go dump a water tower in my bucket by eating a bunch of beans, kale, and nut bread, but it's still leagues better than where I used to be!

Some Resources for Bucket Management:

Nickel Alert: Fair warning, this isn't the most accurate thing in the world. It can give a lot of false negatives for trace amounts of nickel, so if you're INSANELY ALLERGIC still be careful, but it's worked for me so far. (I can't touch most of my crochet hooks anymore :')

This Website: It's got a SUPER comprehensive breakdown of how much nickel is in what kinds of food, and that helps take a lot of the guesswork out of stuff. They even have a handy dandy app called Nickel Navigator where you can search foods, and if they have data on it, they'll show you exactly where they got it! There's one for a cobalt allergy too, which I also have and I desperately want to give the whole team behind this a massive hug.

I'm also gonna put the other pages of the handout I got from my allergist under the cut here cause it's got other cool resources and lists of stuff that might have nickel:

hey thanks for sharing about your nickel allergy! I've always been extremely topically sensitive to nickel, like.... small welts from plated nickel jewelery after just a few hours of wear and it never occurred to me that would impact food until i saw your tags the other day. ive been working as a barista for the last year serving and eating oat milk, oatmeal and granola because my cafe is celiac friendly and very gluten free ........ ☠️ so finding this out has really been a game changer! and also, solidarity - oats are in everything 😭

matcha oat lattes are apparently traps designed specifically to hurt people with nickel allergies

[fonulyn]

since I've seen it talked about in several places recently:

if you are going to do a whump- or kink- or ANY-tober or other similar challenges please please please don't post them as one fic with 31 chapters unless it actually is one coherent fic. if they're 31 completely separate fics or ficlets then please just make a collection for them or just post them as separate fics. it doesn't matter if they're only 100 words or if you think they're too small or insignificant to post alone, they're not.

and why this?

because if you post all 31 of them in one fic the tagging is absolutely useless. if I look for things to read on ao3 I'm gonna look at the tags, and if the tags include something that's a dealbreaker for me, i won't even click on the fic. I might not even SEE the fic because I've filtered out the nope-tag! so I'm gonna lose out on reading 30 perfectly nice fics because of one fic that my nope-tag applied to.

ao3 is about archiving. it's about clear tagging and being informative. there is nothing informative about it if the tags in the fic apply to random chapters while others have nothing to do with it. it makes so much more sense to have each work as an individual fic with its own individual tags and warnings, so readers can make informed choices.

of course, you do you. I can't police what other people decide to do. but personally, I find it incredibly frustrating to weed through 31 chapters to find the ones I actually want to read. so I don't. I automatically scroll past all works posted like that. and I know some others do, too.

there is absolutely no shame in posting short things on ao3. there is no minimum word count. no one is going to look at you funny if you post a small ficlet on its own, I promise. it's just going to make some readers very happy when they can actually find the things they want to read.

so, please. at least consider the upsides of posting each work as their own fic.

signed, one very frustrated fandom grandma.

[ptr-sqloint]

i'm learning blender 👍

[tearlessrain]

kind of wild how much fiction still treats torture as something that objectively works when every study has shown that it does not work at all and is possibly the least effective way to get correct information

[loriache]

"I've been waiting for ages for somebody to unmask them."

This moment tends to elicit negative reactions in a first read through, and I've got some opinions about why where Kabru is coming from here actually makes a lot of logical sense. So I thought I'd elaborate on that.

I think people hear this and go, "He thinks they must be hiding something because they gave money to someone? What a cynic." Or "he dislikes them because they did charity?? What's wrong with this guy!". And obviously, a lot, a lot is wrong with him. But I think this makes more sense than it seems at first glance! What people evaluating this judgement miss is why Kabru is paying attention to Laios and co to begin with.

Kabru knows of the Touden siblings because (he's a little bit of a stalker-) he is keeping an eye on all the relevant parties in events developing on the island, in order to be able to guide them to his preferred outcome. This includes adventurers because they are the ones actually exploring the dungeon! He's well aware that something as minor as internal tensions between party members could be key to the historical events that are developing. (He would love the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.)

His desired outcome is that whatever the rewards are of breaking the dungeon's curse, whether that's kingship or the ancient elven secrets of dungeons, are claimed by:

A) a short lived person

B) Someone who will be a good, effective leader and/or use those secrets and the power they carry wisely, with foresight, and to establish a political bloc for short lived people.

The person he can best trust to do this is, of course, himself. But due to his PTSD regarding dungeons and monsters, he's not able to develop the necessary skills to conquer the dungeon. Once he realises this, he starts looking for someone else who he can support to that end.

But most of the adventurers don't have any intentions of conquering the dungeon, don't have the skills, or are unsuitable in other ways. In fact, it seems like some potentially suitable people are the Toudens. There are a lot of good rumours about them going around - they actually seem to have a very positive reputation! That's what Kabru means when he says "unmask".

So when Kabru is observing something like them giving money to an old comrade from their gold-peeling days, he doesn't consider it a problem because "they're giving money to this person who doesn't actually need it" or because they must have some dark secret if they act superficially nice. I think he actually understands this situation and what it implies about Laios (in particular) perfectly well.

Laios and Falin gave money to an old comrade who got injured and couldn't work. That person then healed up but kept taking their money. Then he used the money to start smuggling illicit goods to the island.

The key is that for Kabru, the problem here is the same as with the corpse retrievers - people using the dungeon's resources to fuel dangerous, selfish, or violent pursuits cause problems for the island, attract more criminals and people with motives other than breaking the curse, and increase the chances of the whole situation ending in tragedy.

Kabru is willing to work with the Shadow Lord of the island if it gets him to his goal - he isn't scrupulous - but the criminal element of the island increasing is something he sees as a major issue.

Also, when you're evaluating someone as a candidate for power, riches, secrets, potentially kingship - then being curious about how the money you give to people is going to be used is kind of a relevant trait!

Interpersonally, Kabru's actually very easygoing - I mean, Mickbell isn't exactly an upstanding guy, is he! But Kabru likes him and they get along well. These traits wouldn't be a problem at all in a friend, or a comrade, or someone Kabru was confident he could use. But he can't get a handle on Laios, and Laios is someone who has the potential to be a major player!

On Laios' end, this is the same as with the marriage seeker who joined their party. She kept asking for things and he gave them to her, because he tries to be nice to others. He even gives her money! It's the exact same thing.

That's fine, but it became a problem because he basically wasn't interested in her motives, didn't notice she was trying to manipulate him, and it also didn't occur to him that the other party members would notice or be affected. We can assume the situation with the gold peeler is the same. When Kabru says that "It's not that they're bad people, they just aren't interested in humans," he isn't wrong.

The extent to which this is true of Laios is linked to his autism imo, (because it isn't just disinterest - he genuinely isn't able to notice nonverbal cues that people are lying to him or have ulterior motives) but to a greater or lesser extent I think it's a very common trait. Most people aren't actually that interested in other people who aren't close to them. Kabru is the weird one here. It isn't an issue except as a leader - which is why we see an immediate comparison to the Island's Lord, because that's how Kabru is evaluating them.

And disinterest in/lack of ability with people to the extent Laios exhibits it, it does, actually, make him a worse leader... it's just that as we see in the story, people can help him out. The rest of the party tell him the marriage seeker is taking advantage of him so he tells her he can't give her special treatment anymore. They're pissed and it's a crisis point - he couldn't have recovered their trust without Marcille and Falin - but that's exactly the point. With Marcille and Falin, he was able to recover their trust.

And he has other good traits that make up for it, such as his intelligence, strategic knowledge, open-mindedness and sense of fairplay.

Kabru doesn't disqualify Laios as a candidate based on what he sees about him from afar, though - he still tries very hard to get close to him, obviously hoping that if he manages he can steer Laios to defeat the dungeon and make up for his lack of people-skills in the aftermath. (Which... he does eventually achieve that goal!) He completely fails until the events of the story, so... definitely I think "They just aren't interested in humans" could also partially be a stung reaction to Laios' complete disinterest in him.

Anyway, that's my read on what exactly Kabru's "issue" with Laios is. Obviously, once he does find out what Laios' true nature is like - about his love for monsters - he develops an entirely new set of fears about Laios' priorities. But since Laios kept that a secret until the start of the story, he has no idea of that yet.

Given all that, I think it's interesting that he says that he doesn't think that the Toudens are suitable to defeat the dungeon, and that he's hoping they'll turn out to be the thieves. As some of his few potential candidates, people who he thinks may play a big role in the island's future, you'd think he'd hope they would be good people!

I suppose it's better, in his eyes, because it means that he's involved in something "interesting". They haven't just had their stuff stolen by regular criminals (boring, puts them further away from his goal) - they've been caught up in the beginning stages of "a historic event". The desperate and dwindling group forgetting morals in their quest to retrieve their lost comrade probably appeals to his sense of melodrama. Because he also just... loves drama.

Despite it being "uglier than anything he was expecting", he still pursues Laios as the person he wants to conquer the dungeon pretty much as soon as it becomes clear that he won't be able to do it himself and they are out of time. That's because... well, to be fair, there aren't any other options. And he fits standard A: he's short-lived!

and Kabru still hopes he can fit standard B, too, and be persuaded to use the power he wins for good. No matter how many nightmares he has about Laios, or whether he thinks about killing him. He doubts him, but ultimately he puts his faith in him and seems happy after the manga's ending that he made the right decision.

[miragenite]

i have a lot of feelings about the pokemon leaks. the most prominent one however is that i love this creature. evolotto/piper/whatever it is

milk creature. useless animal. weird fetus. only 1 foot tall. it doesnt even have ears or a mouth. noone knows how its alive. you wouldve had to gamble on if it would even evolve into something good. probably has the texture of a cross between a stress ball and tofu. it would probably make a loud smack against a wall and flip down the wall slowly. i love you my strange creature

[airplanecrashingtowardstheground]

obsessed with the different way each mxtx protagonist is an unreliable narrator or at least has an unreliable POV

shen qingqui is unreliable because he is set firmly in his belief of "canon PIDW" that he ignores what is right in front of him or thinks himself into knots trying to make something make sense the way he wants it to

wei wuxian is unreliable because he jumps to conclusions while simultaneously not having all the available information/is in the midst of multiple traumatizing experiences

xie lian is unreliable because he is a lying liar

[canisalbus]

They need a bigger bathtub.

[kat-aa]

[stealingpotatoes]

Hello, fellow artist here! I love your comics and I want to create some of my own at some point. Do you have any advice or tips for that?

my number 1 advice for comics is DO NOT GO DIRECTLY INTO A NICE SKETCH. STOP. DONT DO THAT. what you need to do instead is A THUMBNAIL SKETCH. this is basically the crappiest sketch possible and the reason you need this is bc doing a comic can sometimes be like doing 5D chess while you balance panelling storytelling scripts timing composition yada yada

but what does this terrible little sketch need? basically it's a safety net while you work out the composition of the panels and their contents, so you don't end up doing a lovely sketch only to realise you need to change literally everything about both that panel and your layout; so it needs whatever YOU need to work out how to panel/composition/do this crap

there are only 2 rules for thumbnail sketches: make it SIMPLE and make it USEFUL for future you

(and you can always leave yourself little notes!! the x2 ↑↑ on panel 3 is a note to say duplicate the panel that's two above (ie first panel))

and once you're happy with your messy little whatever, go ahead and do your nice cute good sketch over the top without worrying that everything you're drawing is about to go in the bin <3

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 271

“Grandmother is visiting,” Damian suddenly said with no warning and with his usual not-quite demanding tone. 

“Who?” Tim wasn’t the only one to startle, seeing as Bruce had practically froze, a downturn to his lips in a silent show of confusion. 

Damian scowled. “Are you deaf Drake? Grandmother is coming to Gotham to, quote, make sure I am being properly cared for.” None of them had known that Ras was with anyone actually. At least Tim was pretty sure that would have been in the files. 

“Oh?” Dick didn’t quite crouch to Damian’s height but it was a near thing. “She-” “He,” Damian corrected, interrupting him. They all exchanged a glance before Dick continued. 

“Is he coming to the Manor or…” 

Damian scoffed again, a tiny bit of a flush against his face. “No, Grandmother will most likely be staying with Akhi-”

Now wait one moment-

“YOU HAVE ANOTHER BROTHER?!” 

[lucabyte]

Taking pride in One's own appearance.

[starlight-eclipsed]

“What?!” both Sky and him shout in unison, utterly shocked. Nearby, birds startle out of the trees at the sound.

Go read A Dark Among the Lights by @luckylectio! It's a story in which alarmingly few heroes are aware of who their patron goddess is (or at least haven't been keeping up with the recent lore updates).

[sunwukxng]

My cheque I've been waiting a few months for and was supposedly delivered one week ago is now beyond a doubt either stolen or missing. (:

[t4transsexual]

really unpopular opinion but if ur trans u should probably lie to ur doctors. not all of them necessarily, but like you could and should especially in the er/urgent care, specifically if what youre having treated/checkups for has nothing to do with your transition. i had chest pain from binding for years that wasnt addressed because i was told it was just anxiety, until the first time i stealthed at the er. suddenly they wanted to run tests on me and said that my ribs were fucked up but they didnt know from what. ive had chest pain for years and i thought i was binding safely but i was also binding for 6 1/2 years before my operation and youre not really supposed to do that

also, even if youre getting gender affirming care, they do not need to know all the details. gay/lesbian/st4t? they dont need to know. transfem top/transmasc bottom looking for srs? dont tell them that. nonbinary/nondysphoric /otherwise gender nonconforming? dont fucking tell them that. a lot of trans people that arent t4c heterosexual and binary trans people, or just trans people who dont follow traditional gender norms during sex/in general are discriminated against all the time. you cannot lie to your doctors about everything, but theres a lot of things that you honestly should just keep to yourself when seeking care as a trans person. as far as your doctor is concerned, youre a binary trans person who isnt comfortable disclosing their personal sex life and its none of their business. letting them think ur a binary trans t4c heterosexual is the smart thing to do

[kenchann]

drawing my NRC ocs in memes/reaction images that suits them ig www 🎀🪁🐦🎐🧚‍♂️