#there is not much wheelchair users headcanons and we need to think about it as a society

[nwarrior777]

reigen as wheelchair user because i think we need more headcanons like that

[buds-and-baubles]

dc disability related headcanons:

• wayne enterprises under wayne medical, and the martha wayne foundation (and similarly under neon knights) works to make all care for disabled individuals affordable (or free to those who cannot pay) for everyone, as well as design high quality medical aids like wheelchairs, feeding tubes, hearing aids, etc.

• like the above, queen industries and kord industries would do much of the same and collaborate. unsure on if lexcorps would be involved as lex might want to help but his motives are a little shaky.

• hartley rathaway (pied piper) would also use his wealth to do much of the same, considering he is disabled himself.

• on the topic of hartley, i personally have it that he was born with severe deafness and uses hearing aids (but not all the time) as well as ASL. i did my best researching medically and looking up thoughts and opinions of the d/Deaf community but pls lmk if i got anything wrong based on what we know about hartley.

• barbara gordon (oracle) would work with others and utilize her tech abilities to create a variety hi-tech wheelchairs that are affordable (or free to those who cannot pay) and effective. her oracle wheelchair is customized to her needs and even has a compartment that acts as a utility belt (as she can very much still kick ass in the wheelchair and lives in gotham so it's kinda necessary to have).

• each batkid would use being legally adopted/knowing the wayne family to sponsor various disabled causes that personally impact them.

• my concept of wildstorm to dc transfer of semi-retired the authority also would sponsor many causes, disability care and activism amongst it.

• many atlanteans due to living in the ocean i imagine are colorblind due to the difference of environment to the surface. we do have the canon example with garth (tempest), who based off what his color blindness is described as, has blue-yellow tritanomaly color blindness.

• after researching for jack drake and bruce similarly regarding 'fixed' disability of spinal injury, it is highly likely the location of their injury never made them lose function of their legs. intensive physical therapy was required and there are still bad days but i feel this is the best alternative than curing it or making it never happen.

• i have a personal idea that in some scenarios after losing his spleen + the impact of vigilantism on the body + surviving the clench leads to tim developing arthritis and he becomes a cane user (which his bō staff can act as a cane) and he splits his time between working in the field or working on comms and computers with oracle. undecided if it's main universe but it's beloved nonetheless to me!

• to the people who hc jason with hearing aids, being a cane user and or having a service dog.. i see you and ily.

feel free to add on if any of y'all think of anything or give me other disabled dc characters whose names i don't know!

[sir-yeehaw-paws]

No, but it does give you back some control, Kaz. Which honestly is an understandable feeling to want to have. But thinking about it, what’s gotta be worse than being both grounded-and in excruciating pain with much less function than he had previously?

Loss of control.

Even if I go with my headcanon of the capture being an organized thing between himself and Ocelot-that doesn’t mitigate it being traumatic or bad.

(Which obviously, is just a headcanon/theory: nothing I say in any of these posts is 100% proven canonically, this is just my own thoughts after all from context we receive within the game).

Anyway.

Taking aside the other factors (artificial limbs aren’t a guarantee that it makes things better, or easier. Extra weight, difficulties etc) thinking of the kind of personality Kaz has; that of a high-strung man eager to find his place and exert power over others (and if not power, then something akin to it, or mingled with other elements) a core element in that is control.

Being the one in charge. Someone who has enough of a position of authority to exert his will unto others. Whether that word comes from himself or Snake, he’s at the helm somehow.

After Kaz is rescued, he’s open about exactly how he’s feeling-

And honestly, a single look at himself, or even just how much pain he has got to be in on a day-to-day basis would tell him that he really doesn’t need to focus on that in order to remember. Frankly, I think he’d have a much harder time forgetting. After all, it’s been 9 years since the attack, and he’s still fueled so strongly by hate and revenge that it’s on his mind 24/7. Nothing else occurs to him, ever.

Angry enough that even after weeks in captivity, he’s fuming and chomping at the bit to get going again.

Sir the only thing you should be right now is unconscious.

But there is really only so much vulnerability a single person can take. Let alone someone like him.

Kicks help away.

If he’s in pain, it’s more than just a reminder. It serves as the one thing he has left to master. To be in charge of. Pain meds wouldn’t take all of it away. But it would ease it. Bionics wouldn’t take all of it away, but it might (or might not) help him. If he says ‘no’ to all of this, then he’s the one with the final say. Logically, it doesn’t make the most sense. After all, you can’t think or function properly in pain the way you could out of it.

Believe me I know.

I rely on aids myself, from time to time. I was a daily cane user for most of university.

A wheelchair for another trip. 

And there’s absolutely an argument to be made, that if he did take assistance. Help. That if he did get himself in less pain then he’d actually be exerting more control in the situation because now he’s the one that’s got a handle on it. He’s the one that took it back and brought it back to himself. Into a place where it no longer dominates him, but he dominates it.

But the longer he’s in pain, the angrier he can stay. Not to mention it provides an excuse for the anger. Now he’s not just in control of himself (so he thinks anyway, I’d argue the point with him myself if he was a living thing I could speak too) but kept mad and spitting. Mad enough to kill Skull Face, mad enough to keep going and going. Fueling his fire with self grown coals.

Because without that pain, that anger. Also comes loss.

Grief is one of the central themes to MGSV (a whole other post to be honest).  Grief and anger often times go hand and hand. Kaz isn’t a good person with good morals at the end of the day. A man who was so eternally displaced with his position in the world from the day of his birth, and really until his death that his solution was things like nation states and war economies. But you don’t have to be a good person, or a saint, to have been wronged in some fashion.

He's never been shy about admitting exactly what kind of person he is (in this regard, anyway)

And is there not, end of day, a large element of control rooted in things like this?

These are the sorts of ideologies Kaz holds: in his own words.

Like this:

Or this.

His lead, and Kaz's. (Since it's Kaz talking here that is not what is outright stated, but it's clear enough what Kaz might want, within these situations).

(One could also argue this is just morally corrupt people taking care of other morally corrupt people but that’d be a derailment. Another post would have to delve into that as well).

When he lost everything-his home, his limbs, he lost key elements of his control that he worked so brutally to build. Whatever scrap of it he can cling to and maintain, he will.

Obviously, Kaz is in a different place (and undoubtedly frame of mind by the 90’s) but in the 80’s, he’s holding strong to pain, grief, anger, and loss. Because if he lets go of the things that keep him fueled and furious, then all that’s left is all-encompassing grief.

And that must feel a whole lot harder to deal with to him (I’d think anyway) than being raging and fuming.

[sokkastyles]

Do you think Azula's bending would improve too if she did find it in herself to learn from the dragons? I don't think that method would suit her as much as it did for Zuko, but maybe I'm wrong. It would certainly be healthier though.

It doesn't suit her as she is because her bending is fueled by ruthless ambition, and she excelled at it. She'd have to learn a whole new way and it would be even harder than it was for Zuko because the old way wasn't working for Zuko, so it was easier for him to try something different.

The first difficult step is Azula changing her mindset, because she's always been more fixed in her mindset than Zuko, who learned a long time ago that he had to keep trying different things to succeed, where Azula never needed to. But it's more than that.

Zuko being given a new way to firebend is like giving someone with a disability an accommodation. Providing a ramp for a wheelchair user. For Azula, it would be like someone whose legs always worked perfectly fine, but then something happened and suddenly she can't use her legs anymore. It's much harder for her to have to learn to use the ramp because she's used to jumping the stairs by twos and threes.

She would struggle a lot at first. It would not be like what Zuko experienced, where everything suddenly clicked. She would face even more temptation to go back to the old way. She'd have to make a conscious effort to learn, and she'd have to start from the beginning. And she'd have to accept that she won't be good at it at first. But it's manageable, and if she's able to do all of that, she'd come back stronger than she was before, but it would be hard to imagine because she'd have to relearn so much.

What Azula does have on her side is that she's inventive and a fast learner. I headcanon that a lot of her moves she made up herself, because we see the disdain she has for her firebending teachers when she thinks she knows better. If she can turn that self motivation into something positive instead of destructive, then she can go far in improving herself.

But she also needs to accept the possibility that she might not ever be as good as she once was, and that that's okay. Being the best was a big part in her unhappiness, so letting go of the idea that she needs to be would help her greatly. Maybe for her, going to the dragons isn't about being a better bender, but learning to accept herself as someone who has value apart from her bending.

[targentis]

I need to learn about every of your trans and disabled fe3h headcanons actually

step into my lair...i have much to tell you.

BLACK EAGLES

transmasc Edelgard

transfem Hubert with ASPD i love you queen

Ferdinand is cis+. just gnc af.

transfem Bernadetta :)

agender Linhardt (see the below image wherein i visualize my belief that Hubert harvested his gender to distribute to the rest of the beagles). also he is an ambulatory wheelchair user i think. and extremely autistic which i'm like 99% sure is Entirely canon

BLUE LIONS

transmasc Ingrid (i forget who it was who opened my eyes to this hc but they drew it for fetransweek last year and i have never been the same)

when i said Felix with prosthetics i was just waking up from a dream i had where that was the case and i didn't actually put that much thought into it but actually. i'm so right for this. can you imagine the symbolism of him losing a hand and replacing it with just like. a Blade. are you kidding me. god. he should also have a prosthetic leg just because i said so. i am chopping off his limbs as we speak

Cyrus Lenz is there and he is transmasc and autistic and if you don't know who he is then you must open your eyes. to @blaiddydboyfriend

transmasc Dedue also <3

there's something going on with Dimitri's gender but nobody knows, least of all himself. also he's canonically disabled so i don't really have to make a headcanon about this. but he's very autistic and i think it should be said. (who tf says "is my smile presentable".....)

GOLDEN DEER

transmasc Lysithea and i am NOT kidding

TRANSFEM HILDA!!!!!!!!!

OTHER

nonbinary Byleth OBVIOUSLY. this isn't even a headcanon really this is just canon. also they are a weirdstrange offputting autistic person. relatable.

transmasc Rodrigue 💪🔥🔥💥💥💥

TRANSFEM CORNELIA/CLEOBULUS THIS IS ALSO CANON. TO ME.

i THINK this is all of them but don't quote me on that. big fan of these guys being trans and disabled. <3

[walriding]

!! demands you romance us with sleep paralysis & walrider possession !! (but really, that's a fascinating concept!?)

     As with most of my possession headcanons this might only make sense to me, but since you asked so nicely…

     Basically it’s impossible to divorce the Walrider from its demonic/spiritual/supernatural roots (I like the idea that its exact origin is vague because Murkoff had no idea what kind of entity they were attracting, but that’s for another post). Historically speaking, of course, many cultures have associated sleep paralysis with demonic activity because of the nature of the episodes. The common experiences reported with sleep paralysis are the obvious lack of mobility, and the overwhelming feeling that there’s something in the room watching you. Some people even see figures or shadows in corners or around their bed. Without having the medical knowledge required to understand that the phenomenon is basically a result of your body being stuck in REM sleep while your mind has woken up too early, it’s easy to see how more supernatural explanations might be given.

     But one of my favorite subtleties of Outlast is the idea that science is just a different way of examining things, but the answers it provides might be as unbelievable and strange as those offered by legends. The quote that always gets to me is: “The Doctor told me once if you showed a caveman our technology he would think it was magic. And if you showed a modern man magic, he would think it was technology. We have faith in all the wrong things. And it will destroy us.” To me, it really reinforces the idea that science and the supernatural are so closely related they’re practically indistinguishable, at least in terms of what the Walrider is. 

     In my view, the Host body is required to provide the Walrider with the energy it collects from the lucid dreaming process. Much like sleep paralysis, some people theorize that lucid dreaming essentially disrupts your REM sleep by causing the dreamer to be aware of their unconscious state. The Engine was designed to stimulate lucid dreaming in its users with the hopes that the Swarm would latch onto a Host by exploiting that semi-conscious state – once that connection happens, human cells aid the nanobots in their replication, and you’ve got yourself an indestructible super-weapon. In other words, it’s symbiosis. The Host provides for the Walrider, and the Walrider protects the Host.

     Simple, right?

     Sort of. The issue is that the particular type of energy the Walrider needs stems from nightmares and not pleasant dreams. Although it can’t outright create nightmares, it can guide dreams in that direction, but only if the dream is a lucid one (if it’s not, the Walrider can merely observe). The bonus is that the individual is aware of the fact that something else is messing with their mind as they sleep, but there isn’t much they can do about it. It’s extra traumatic. But it’s when they try to wake themselves that sleep paralysis occurs, and that’s when the average person is most likely to see the Walrider. (As a sidenote, its general appearance to non-Hosts and those who haven’t been exposed to Murkoff’s ‘therapy’ is that of a nebulous shadow – hence why sleep paralysis reports tend to describe dark/vaguely humanoid but ultimately indistinct figures.) 

     Unfortunately for Hosts such as Miles, many nights are likely to end in a sleep paralysis episode. For most people it lasts a few seconds, but for a Host, it can last for hours until the Walrider has had its fill. He’ll often wake up pinned beneath the thing, cognizant of his surroundings but unable to move or scream. Reality and dreams begin to overlap as images superimpose themselves on one another until he can’t tell if he’s in bed or strapped to a wheelchair or watching men burn or sprinting or dying or–

     You get the picture.

     This is the main reason why Miles avoids sleep if he can help it. Thankfully, his body is so efficiently run these days he doesn’t have to recharge all that often, but sometimes exhaustion gets the better of him. He’s granted a peaceful night every now and again (the Walrider likes keeping him on his toes), but the episodes are so traumatic he’s loathe to risk it.

     As for why the Swarm requires attachment to “a test subject who had witnessed enough horror”? Easy – what’s more horrifying than memories? Outlandish nightmares are easy to brush off as impossible and therefore non-threatening, which allows a lucid dreamer to potentially redirect the course of their dream away from the Walrider’s encouragement. But if it has enough material to work with from the darkest corners of a person’s mind, it’s far more likely that the individual will feel helpless (especially if the traumatic event was the very thing that broke them in the first place).