#we're a dysfunctional tumblr family

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Dear becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys ! Please suggest to your dear sister with the fibromyalgia epiphany, to pursue an Ehlers-Danlos diagnosis! Fibro symptoms are often a sign of this also-very-undiagnosed-in-women condition. (Signed, an EDS-sufferer's wife)

Yeah, she also checked that out last year, a lot of people suggested it (some got... weirdly pushy and insistent about it, and should probably examine that urge). But we're confident it's not.

Thing is, both conditions don't have firm diagnostic tests, so in both cases the game you're playing is 'Can we draw a circle around enough symptoms to say it's X condition?' In this way, it's like a physical version of neurodiversity. There's no solid answer to whether a person has autism, ADHD, dyspraxia, more than one, all, none, etc - you just have to see how many symptoms they have before they trip the diagnostic threshold.

And sometimes, you get symptoms (or, in the case of neurodiversity, characteristics) that apply to more than one category. Time-blindness is common to ADHD, dyspraxia, dyslexia, and dyscalculia, and there's growing evidence that temporal perception is atypical in autistic people; Executive dysfunction is common for all five; etc.

EDS and fibro have similar crossover symptoms, but also plenty that don't. Last year we went through every description we could find for every type of EDS we could find, but ultimately, the only EDS symptoms she had were the crossover ones. The ones that were specifically fibro, she has. The ones that were specifically EDS, she doesn't. Plus, there's no equivalent family symptoms in parents or grandparents, plus a whole bunch of other variables that I obviously haven't spelled out in a short Tumblr post but we who have been there for 41 years of her life (well; I'm younger than her, but eh) know about.

So we're confident it's fibro and not EDS. But, it kind of doesn't matter in one sense - there's no actual treatment anyway, so management now becomes Whatever Works. If that means using some techniques common to both conditions, then who cares what the name is? As long as it works.

However, I shall leave this here in case anyone else wants to consider EDS for themselves! It's always worth exploring.

[marzipanandminutiae]

I've followed you for a really long time i think back when i was a teen. I'm 25 now and i think i just wanted you to know that. You're basically a staple for my tumblr feed. love u

Thank you so much for staying with me all this time. That's very touching.

I was a teen when I started this blog; I'd just graduated from high school and all the Cool Nerds had Tumblr. I actually started it specifically so I could follow a webcomic artist I like. Since then, it's become so much my social media home that I can't imagine I'll like whatever comes after it half as much.

We're one big dysfunctional family here, and there's nowhere else I'd rather be.

[but-thats-idiocy]

Hug the Angel

Some still blame Aziraphale for acting 'weird' and 'selfish' in the last 15 minutes. Now is the time to use empathy:

Imagine having a very dangerous, bigoted cult-like family where each member has the authority to kill and your father, a man above the law, carries a big gun*. Now, picture your celebrity crush – perhaps David or Michael – whose photos you browse on Tumblr daily while making inhuman sounds. One day, you discover that your celebrity crush loves you back. The Thrill! Unexpectedly, they give you your first kiss and express a desire to rescue you from that life, while your severely dysfunctional family witnesses the kiss and hears the entire dialogue. What would you do in that moment? How would your body react? Would you easily reciprocate with a hug or would years of trauma, fear and hiding make your body rigid? Would you caress your love or would your hands instinctively push away? If you resist, there's a 99% chance that both you and your crush will suffer. We're yet to ascertain if Metatron** is truly as unlikable as we perceive him to be, but that 'trauma' was Aziraphale's reality in that moment. His feelings were very similar to those of a closeted gay man who lives in a highly conservative town, being stripped naked by their lover in front of their murderous family members.

The camera showed us where Metatron was looking before TheKiss™, indicating that Metatron didn't go near Muriel for nothing:

Please put yourself in Aziraphale's shoes and rewatch before TheKiss™ for the 598743985th time. While it's true that Aziraphale wanted them both to go to heaven and take control, the reason he acted differently was because he knew The Voice of God, Metatron (therefore God) was watching them.

* Metatron came with coffee in hand. Since those in heaven perceived everything literally, they would either offer Aziraphale 'coffee' or 'death'. If the coffee gesture hadn't worked, Crowley would likely have been in danger.

** In contradiction to the previous viewpoint, considering that all of this is part of the ineffable plan and that Metatron is God's voice, Metatron may not be as bad as we perceive. Given that the ultimate war will involve Heaven and Hell against humanity, God (Neil?) is appointing Aziraphale and Crowley as the new leaders of Heaven and Hell, knowing their affinity for humans and their capability to safely guide humanity to a new location. Their cottage will be situated in South Downs, though South Downs won't remain on Earth anymore.

Click for the visual version of this post

[sparethedreamer]

We're trying to make a simple website about our system and about plurality generally. We're mostly done with the coding and we're just working on the actual site content.

The issue is that our severe ME/CFS as well as our various mental illnesses are posing real barriers to getting it done.

We want this website not only as a tool for our support system (non plural group of carers, friends, family, etc that support us) to have to learn what's going on and about plurality, but also to provide it as another helpful tool for education for anyone who may stumble across it.

Would anyone be willing to help out a bit? If we could even get permission to use already created Tumblr posts, that would be so helpful. Obviously you'll get credit for your work, assuming you don't want to be anonymous.

Fatigue, brain fog, executive dysfunction, etc. are really kicking our collective butt.

You can see what we've already made (please keep your expectations low! We're not completely happy with the content and the coding is very basic) at https://whispdreamsys.neocities.org/

We're just doing our best and would be so thankful to anyone who wouldn't mind lending us a hand.

[theiliad]

GET HIRAMED! Do you have secret thoughts about Hiram and Archie?

okay we're doing this on main i guess <3 i have. so many thoughts on hiram and archie and they're not gonna be coherent sorry

the thing about hiram and archie is that you've got kj apa and mark conseulos' incredible chemistry, archie's canonical history of being groomed, the inherent comedy of a mob boss whose Main Rival is his teenage daughter's boyfriend, the inherent everything else implied by a mob boss whose Main Rival is his teenage daughter's boyfriend, riverdale's commentary on the lie of the american dream, the violence of the nuclear family, and the dysfunction both try and ultimately fail to conceal, a whole lot of homoerotic wrestling and boxing scenes, an episode directed by Gregg Araki, and of course the 'there's nothing soft about me' sauna scene all floating around

and i don't have time to unpack that all in a tumblr post or really much to add that i don't think is already pretty evident from just. watching the show. but they are deeply compelling and i'm rotating them in my mind. i'm always gonna be obsessed with their shared habit of vigilantism and how hiram once cured his mystery illness by punching guys in dark alleys.

hiram is hiram forever <3

[zyrafowe-sny]

🎲 ⇢ what stops you from writing more in your free time? 

🪐 ⇢ name three good things going on in your life right now

📚 ⇢ what's the last thing you wrote down in your notes app? 

🎲 ⇢ what stops you from writing more in your free time?

the good: I have a partner/HH & family members who sometimes like to spend time with me, though I do get to write during "parallel play" when we're just hanging out in the same space while reading/on various devices. Fandom event housekeeping (mostly @nimonabigbang) eats into general fandom time as well (emails, posts, check-ins, reminders, messaging, planning, etc). Now that some summer conflicts are over, I'm also hoping to get back to attending choir rehearsal regularly (it has a noticeable positive effect on my mental health).

the bad: executive dysfunction/mental health, occasional insomnia, occasional wrist pain, tech issues (both my phone and laptop are aging)

🪐 ⇢ name three good things going on in your life right now

We're getting into the home stretch of the @nimonabigbang! We're looking at around 30 new fics that will start dropping in October, which isn't too shabby considering there are currently less than 1500 fics combined on AO3 for the movie and comic sides of the fandom.

@vee-week starts on Wednesday! Vee is an Owl House character whose planned arcs needed to be pared back due to the shortening (instead of a full third season, TOH only got three specials), and she has a relatively small but enthusiastic following. The @/vee-fanzine will also drop that day (it's the anniversary of Vee's proper introduction, and we coordinated). I may be slightly addicted to running fanweeks now.

I don't want to jinx myself, but for a couple months I've been regularly managing to write at least a few hundred words a week (and sometimes get up to a few thousand). I know that's not much by some people's standards, but I've had months (and pre-2022 so many years!) go by with zero new words of fiction. Definitely owe some of that to @/kedreeva's WIP Wednesday Game Community — external motivation/cheerleading is a huge help.

Things outside of fandom are not terrible but also currently a bit complicated (lots of household/schedule changes this week).

📚 ⇢ what's the last thing you wrote down in your notes app? 

I copy-pasted over the asks I sent you. :)

(Tumblr likes to eat draft asks sometimes and I didn't have the patience to risk that today.)

[pb-dot]

300 Followers?

Now how the hell did that happen huh? I mean I'm glad there's approximately 300 of you who enjoy my particular blend of queued dog posts and writerly shenanigans, or at least feel that this is a level of posting that isn't worth unfollowing me over.

I'll say this: I do like it here on Tumblr. It is a shambling mess of a website, but in a very "bless this mess," dysfunctional found family kind of way. It's not optimized seven ways to Sunday to extract my personal information, your personal brand is mostly irrelevant unless you're a gimmick account, and maybe most important of all, it makes it very plain and visible to you when your posts have reached people, in fact so much so that being more than "known by a select few"-famous actually sounds a bit miserable.

More social media should be like this I think, because frankly that's how humans are. We got our little groups, and groups connecting those groups, and once we start thinking about more than a few hundred people it gets all abstract and hard to process. After all, we're still doing math on simian hardware, and we're not particularly optimized for it.

Anyway, I think I can thank Tumblr for a lot of good times in the year or so I've been on it. While the impact on my writing productivity can probably be discussed, there's no denying Thereafter would not exist in its current form if it hadn't been for Writeblr. There's things I've learned, perspectives I have experienced vicariously, and a whole lot of good advice I have heeded to some degree or another that's absolutely made the writing and release process for this thing possible.

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't shill my work a little bit while I'm at it. Subscribe to Thereafter. Next week I'm releasing a chapter featuring a strong lady, and if I know Tumblr, I know y'all love Strong Ladies. I'm also posting some writing discussions on @the-writers-corner-inc with (some) regularity, so check that out if you want a chance to yak about your OCs and WIPs.

[luvingshidou]

hiii !! i was wondering,,, what is girlfriend fc? i dont mean to be nosy or anything, but i always see it on my feed and was wondering what it was !! have a nice day and take care <3

Haha no ur not being nosy dw!!! <33 but its a group where lots of ppl on bllk tumblr have 'I ♡ my girlfriend' pfp of different bllk characters & now it just spiralled into us doing crazy shit. We're basically like a dysfunctional family lmao

[somedayillbepeterpan]

I want to write an in-depth analysis of Ji Dong-hui's murderous obsession towards Choi Chiyeol but my dumb brain can't figure out what to say.

So let's look at the timeline of Dong-hui's descent to madness. My ramblings are all over the place but I do want to talk to someone who may have a more cohesive understanding of how to explain Ji Donghui's character.

-early childhood to middle school: grew up with no dad maybe. Grew up with an emotional and physically abusive mom who took it out on both him and his sister.

-Middle school/high school: Even when the household was dysfunctional, sister grew up to be a positive person who loved to study (which is probably pushed mainly by her desire to get out of that abusive household). When mom says, her kids are her only hope, they might be poor and she wants her kids to save her from poverty. (which is never a good motivation to get kids studying). Mom does the unthinkable and pushes sister to the brink when she gave her daughter the answer sheet to "ensure" her future. Sister crumbs under the guilt and kills herself leaving the brother on his own to deal with crazy mom. He starts practicing his metal ball slingshot around this time.

-Highschool: Living with mom is hell. He is also pushed to the brink but instead of killing himself, he kills his mom. Due to being a minor (and this is also when he first starts to learn how to become manipulative), he was let go. He probably started killing animals with his metal sling shot around this time but he can never get back the feeling of revenge from killing his mom.

-Young adulthood: Ji Dong Hui is born from feelings of revenge and loneliness. Revenge probably started from the educational system and he found a "hero" he can wants to be a "support" for. Choi Chiyeol, the only adult that his sister trusted. He will serve this "hero" because this hero is the only person who showed him and his sister kindness. Also, he's just as lonely as he is.

-"Serving" Choi Chiyeol: He knows Chiyeol inside and out because he's made Chiyeol into who he is. But the Chiyeol that he knows who he thinks is "professional" is an empty shell because everything the Choi Chiyeol, the star teacher, is not really the Choi Chiyeol but Ji Donghui's projection. And he protects this projection fiercely by literally killing anyone who even comes near it (remember the girl who causes the "first scandal" that we become aware of who we never heard of again).

-Nam Haengseon comes barging in to Choi Chiyeol's life: From the get-go, Mr. Ji has done his best to keep Chiyeol to himself and to getting him away from the Nam family. From attacking them early on, to convincing Chiyeol repeatedly to get food somewhere else, from giving his disapproval to Chiyeol tutoring Haeyi, to controlling the situation by printing the materials for Haeyi, to blowing up on him when Chiyeol was angry over Mr. Popular exposing Haengseon

-Nam Haengseon and Chiyeol dating era: Nope nope nope for Ji Donghui and he starts to crack. He tries to threaten and manipulate Haengseon by showing two faces, making her believe that being with Chiyeol is going to end in heartbreak. He starts cracking even more and resolves that there is no other way of getting Chiyeol back to being his "hero" but to take out the blockage that is Nam Haengseon.

And now we're on Ep 14. I hate this character so much but I love Shin Jaeha is an incredible actor by portraying the duality really well. I didn't suspect him until I saw the theories when I jumped on tumblr late into ep 9.

The unhealthy co-dependency, worshipping a human who is just as lonely and traumatised as him, the projection of a "hero" is all so so so creepy. I can't shake the creepiness. And I can't stand his character. I don't think I even want him to stay alive in this show. I understand that what he went through is really past what can even be called trauma, if you think about it. But any person who resort to murder (or even just doing something evil like the evil moms of this show) and justify that as something they did for the good of another, is something I can't get my head around.

I think, if there is any redemption, it would come from his "hero", Choi Chiyeol, which is actually true to form. He is kind, even though he is lonely and depressed inside. I also think that Nam Haengseon would be a key factor in his redemption because actually, they are both kind who knows how to take care of the people around them.

I'm just hoping no one else dies.

[ssa-inge]

Criminal minds twitter fandom is something else huh... They're wild and a lil obsessed with some actors.. This is why I love tumblr cm more, we're all like one big happy dysfunctional family without drama

[importantshoewolfbat]

Avatar.

Okay I'd like to start with: Wow AWOW can possibly be in the Top 10 Grossing film 2022 — and that's just the second movie!

I was excited for this film so I had to go to Twitter to see if people felt the same way. Of course I assumed this because normally, movies will shortly get memes, be discussed, have fan accounts, or the typical mass media meme-validation. But yeah, no, not so much of that. Not gonna lie, I was downed by this because I was eager to interact with people!

And then I come across how people wanted to boycott the film, how problematic it is, how it's such a bad movie. I gulped hard and accepted that not everyone is going to share the same enthusiasm as me. I acknowledged the issues the film had and felt bad for enjoying it.

"No cultural impact!"

I was beginning to agree with them considering I don't see much materials from this film. Until you know, I've come across some contents that just spark hope. I love analysis and when people explained it without prejudice and analysis, I was able to digest and accept my liking for the movie despite its flaws.

I've seen people in TikTok both appreciate the movie while acknowledging indigenous and environmental issues. Posts like 'Earth is our Pandora', 'I'm glad we're getting representation [Polynesian]', 'James Cameron isn't a humble man but he knows what he's crafting.'

Until it progresses into people, real life people away from TikTok, Twitter, Tumblr, etc, talking about Avatar 2. That's when I realized that—

Avatar doesn't have much pop-culture impact but it has IMPACT. General impact for:

• Families when it comes to being dysfunctional, protective, and relating to family imperfections like the Sullies and Spider. Many had mixed feelings but the imperfections made it relatable.

• Environmental and Indigineous awareness. It made plenty uncomfortable when witnessing the Tulkun hunting, burning down of the Metkayina houses, and burning of the forest. It was impactful in the sense it was simply delivered but people acknowledged how bad these were.

There are many more underlying themes but the general mass — general mass who aren't necessarily in a fanbase, not film critics, or those who haven't watched the first film – can easily enjoy the film.

It's not trying to be like MCU that pulls a comedic one-liner or you don't have to watch a few predecessor films to understand the context. You don't have to read all comics to fully appreciate and understand the film. It was digestable, relatable in some aspects, eye-opening, simple, and entertaining.

People kept rewatching the movie. People got attached to these movies. I realized that you have to pick which community you put yourself in to and realize that other than the online community, there are also people who are detached from the internet, who also enjoy and discuss the movie.

[navree]

Hello there!

I want to know your opinion about the show version of Aegon, what do you think about it, do like their interpretation of his character? ( with exception of ramsay's stuff they added to his character)

Given by the fact you've read the book what things you want to change about Aegon and things you want to stay the same. I mean I'm curious how you would write aegon if you have given the chance to do so, just going by the vague description of his book character

Hey anon!

Fortunately for you, I have discussed Aegon a lot (because people ask me about him A Lot), so I'll link the posts below, but the long and short of it is that, excluding the "ramsay stuff" as you said, there's a lot that's going on with Aegon that I quite like, I just wish it was intentional writing rather than some subtext, TGC's acting choices, and interpretation.

So with that in mind, by and large I'd keep Aegon the same as we're seeing him thus far, just exclude the stupid bad writing stuff and make it clear that the stuff I do like about him is authorial intent, not just us overanalyzing stuff. I've touched a bit on stuff I'd change and keep if I were writing Aegon here but in how I'd write him if I were in charge, I'd add in a lot more of him being incredibly family oriented.

The book, like with everything it is, is kinda vague about it, but I do think it's important that Aegon be shown, despite his failings and his waywardness and his alcoholism and all his issues (and he does need to have issues, this show would be incredibly boring if it actually was cookie cutter good side vs bad side), to have a deep and unabiding love of family that overrides everything. One of the versions of how Aegon was convinced to accept the crown has it that he really started to get on board with it once it was pointed out to him that his kids would be in serious danger if Rhaenyra and Daemon were ruling, which is remarkably prescient considering Certain Things That Happen Later. It also needs to show up in his relationship with his siblings too (and honestly we just needed so much more of Aegon and Helaena's dynamic I would have loved to see the messy contradiction that comes from a pretty solid older brother/younger sister relationship contrasted with a dysfunctional marriage and what it does for Aegon's character that he physically can't love her That Way but he still loves her cuz they're family), the core actualization of that Alicent line about cuffing each other as they wish at home but defending each other in the world. It's why I love the dinner scene in episode 8 so much, Aemond decides to be petty at people who hurt him and Aegon is 100% on board to the point of committing physical violence against Luke even just for getting involved.

Most things about his book storyline I'd keep the same (I especially love his time on Dragonstone and eventual takeover, if only for the Sunfyre bond), but I'd definitely flesh out more stuff about his thought process, his feelings, how he as a character reacts to certain things. All in all, I don't think I'd write him much different than how he is now (stupid bad writing aside) I'd just be making a better, upgraded model.

And here's the more detailed posts about Aegon. It's not all of them, cuz I do reblog stuff and I'm a prolific tag talker, but this is all the important stuff in terms of how I view Aegon and some of the wants I have for his arc and trajectory:

Post about Alicent's relationships to her kids where Aegon and their relationship is discussed at length (to the point where I finally hit Tumblr's character limit per paragraph)

Post about how Viserys is the worst where Aegon and their relationship is discussed at length

Some generalized Aegon thoughts

More Aegon thoughts and why the rapist thing was bad writing

Aegon and his brothers

Some theorizing on Aegon and Aemond

Theorizing on Aegon's ultimate fate (spoilers for what that is in case you haven't ready the book and don't wanna know)

Hopes for Aegon in s2

Aegon's subtextual touch repulsion

Sunfyre headcanons post that includes parts of his relationship with Aegon

More Rook's Rest wishcasting (seriously I have like a shot for shot idea of the entire battle in my head)

[he11fyre]

𝓛𝓸𝓸𝓴𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓪𝓷 𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓰𝓪𝓿𝓮𝓻𝓼𝓮 𝓻𝓸𝓵𝓮𝓹𝓵𝓪𝔂 𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓽𝓷𝓮𝓻

❀ 25, woman, only 20+ partners ❀ CEST timezone ❀ semi-literate ❀ multiple OC's ❀ romance centred plot, NSFW a must ❀

Hi tumblr,

I'm currently looking for someone who would be interested in starting an omegaverse roleplay with me. I am open to contemporary and more urban/high fantasy settings.

The omegaverse itself could either be soft ABO where humans have alpha, beta and omega designations that affects their personalities, appendages and urges, or it can be more of a shifter combination. Open for either and in between!

This world could either be a sort of sweet omegaverse where omegas are cherished, or a slightly darker world where they are viewed as belongings (with fewer rights, belong to their family or alphas etc.) and sold to the richest alpha packs.

I love omegaverse books. In case you're a reader, some of my favourite omegaverse stories are: ❀ Lola & The Millionaires by Kathryn Moon ❀ Manix series by Grace McGinty ❀ Breaking Our Rules by Sinclair Kelly ❀ The Seattle Omegas by Calliope Stewart ❀ Pack Darling by Lola Rock ❀ Slate City Omegaverse by Devyn Sinclair

Specifically, I want a roleplay with the following sort of vibes: ❀ nesting ❀ knotting/locking ❀ scent marking ❀ bonding ❀ possessive alphas ❀ alphas cherishing and providing ❀ new or existing dysfunctional pack coming together around omega ❀ accidental bonding ❀ friends to lovers ❀ rivals to lovers ❀ age gap ❀ gender doesn't matter ❀ exploring sexuality ❀ betas are the glue ❀

𝓐 𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓼𝓮 𝓹𝓵𝓸𝓽 𝓲𝓭𝓮𝓪 𝓬𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓫𝓮: Alpha A, Alpha B and Beta A have a close knit friendship and are occationally lovers. Alpha A and Alpha B are high-standing and their parents want them to get serious about life, start a pack and settle down, preferably without Beta A whom they tug about. They get an omega in an attempt to cement a pack, but several of the pack members already have feelings for or meet someone else, shaking up the dynamics of what they are (a little unwillingly?) trying to create.

𝓡𝓸𝓵𝓮𝓹𝓵𝓪𝔂𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝓶𝓮

❀ WHERE: - I will only RP through EMAIL or Google Docs - NOT Discord. Will use Discord to chat oop, but I don't like it for writing anything more than a couple sentences.

❀ Writing: - Semi-literate to literate writing, a few paragraps - Preferably 1st person present or past, or 3rd person past tense - Replies from once a day to twice a week - I'll try to match length, and hope you'll do the same

❀ Characters: - No existing OC's or muses - Any gender or sexuality (I am cis and heterosexual)

❀ Triggers: - Only really toilet and blood play - Not a trigger, but I prefer no mpreg. - Looking for a partner with similarily few triggers

If we start an RP, please tell me if something isn't working for you. If you think we're a good match writing wise, but a character/plot/couple isn't working for you, I am super flexible to change things up, just give me a clear heads up!

If don't think we're a good fit at all, that's okay too! Just let me know so I can move on.

𝓒𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓪𝓬𝓽

If you're interested, I'll be happy to hear from you! Please include some information about yourself so I can see if we're a good match.

email: fr4nroleplays@gmail.com

[abd-illustrates]

Sometimes I’m like “nah ADHD doesn’t impede my life at all” and then the rest of the time shit like this happens

(Time is an abstract enough concept as it is - save your ADHD friends from getting stuck in the void by just being gotdamn specific when making any kind of plans, please. PLEASE.)

[aftgficrec]

Staff Recs - Mermay

For the merry month of may we present to you as our theme:  MERMAY!

In the fics and (frankly prolific) art below you will find mer!Neil, mer!Andrew, mer!Aaron, mer!Kevin and even mer!Matt.  Dive right in, folks! - Aftg Fic Rec Fam

from previous posts:

mermaid aus here

‘Fear no fall’ series here

‘Perhaps we’re just humans’ here

‘A Blessing and a Curse’ here

‘My Brother’s Keeper’ here (part 2 of ‘Way Down We Go’ below)

‘we're inside out’ here

‘breathe air into my lungs (a Chinese whisper fic)’ here

my life, my lover, my lady by roseandwoodbine [Rated T, 1894 words, complete, 2021]

Dan is a hard-working young woman who waitresses at a beachfront bar. Every night after work, she tells her troubles to the legendary kind-hearted merman who lives in that port. She barely believes he exists, until one night, the merman (who goes by Matt) appears out of the waves. They begin talking for real, and quickly fall in love. But can Dan truly trust a man who she can never really have for herself? Will Matt choose his home(not)land or the love of his life?

fairy tales might be true by coughing_and_choking_is_funny [Rated G, 1024 words, incomplete, last updated April 2021]

Kevin lives in Ireland with his mother and comes across a mermaid one day. Who could it be?

Way Down We Go series by kanekicure [Rated T/M, 24641 words, last updated 2021]

Part 1: Start of Time (with you) (M, 5643 words)

If Neil was anyone else, he would have been able to do this. 

Mermaids spend their entire youth, on land or otherwise, talking about how they’ll design their nests when they finally accept the courting of a male counterpart. About how beautiful it’ll be, how soft, how intimate it’ll be as they become one. It’s one of the most overhyped things in merfolk culture. 

Finding your mate, accepting your mate.

But Neil never grew up like the others. 

He isn’t anyone else, and he never would be.

NB: Art for this fic, merfolk mate for life, by @kanekicure

Part 3: Red Fins and the Number Two (T, 7300 words)

Dan Wymack-Wilds has grown up around merpeople.

Her dad's creation of the Foxhole Sanctuary has made that a sure thing, and now Dan has created her own small family of humans, merpeople and people in between.

It never occurred to her that the new pair of merfolk would also have their own history with her family as well.

-

Or, Dan has a dysfunctional family, Andrew hates everyone, and Neil wants out of his kitty pool.

tw: implied/referenced torture

The Lighthouse Keeper by erosandhades [Rated T, 2374 words, complete, 2020]

When you set sail on your journey and happiness is far away

Love will guide you til' the morning, lead your heart down to the bay

Don’t resist the rain and storm, I’ll never leave you lost at sea

I will be your lighthouse keeper, bring you safely home to me

(The Lighthouse Keeper by Sam Smith)

Or in which Neil loves Andrew from far away until he doesn't anymore.

Overflow of Love by orphan_account [Rated T, 27917 words, incomplete, last updated Aug 2018]

Neil’s mother had always warned him that girls were dangerous, a distraction, but she had never said anything about boys, and she definitely had never said anything about mermen.

tw:  attempted drowning, tw: implied/referenced child abuse, tw: implied/referenced torture, tw: implied/referenced vivisection

Mermay aftg au by @sambutwithbooks [twitter, 2021]

andrew comes to the surface, because he smells smoke.

NB:  Art for this by @caraleadraws on twitter here

mermay au #2 by @sambutwithbooks [twitter, 2021]

neil wakes up underwater.

tw: implied/referenced nonconsensual drug use

some merkevin  by @sambutwithbooks [twitter, 2021]

kevin doesn't remember the sound of the sea.

Andreil mermaid au, part 1, part 2 and part 3 by @rosenbeckers [tumblr, 2020]

Mermaid Neil on the swim from a sea witch and he goes up to the surface and comes face to face with Human Andrew, who’s been chillin on the beach avoiding responsibilities

mermaid au by @spanglebangle [tumblr, 2017]

“Andrew!” Nicky hissed and darted forward. Andrew sighed. Looks like his grand plan of sneaking off unnoticed had a hitch already. “Where are you going?”

NB: NSFW art for spanglebangle’s merfic by @still-waiting-for-godot

mermaid!Jeremy and human!Jean by @wesawbears [tumblr, 2017]

Jean’s first memories were of the water. He remembers looking out at the glittering sea, walking out and wanting to feel the rush of the waves against his toes. Every time he toddled out toward the water, though, his maman pulled him back. “If you go too far, my darling, the mermaids will pull you in with them.”

Art

Happy Mermay by @kanekicure [twitter, 2021]

Merman Neil for Mermay by @EstaVS_art [twitter, 2021]

we love one fish boy by @godot_co [twitter, 2021] plus finally its mermay and precious-fish-boy by @still-waiting-for-godot [tumblr, 2019, 2018]

A little bit of andreil in celebration of mermay by @kevingayimeanday [tumblr, 2021]

Andrew as a mermaid and Merman Neil by @teomoy [tumblr, 2021]

they're fine by @moylismp3 [tumblr, 2021]  

I’ll take you down with me art by @i-did [tumblr, 2021]

Merfolk Andreil bb art by @drewthesapphic [tumblr, 2021]

Dan x Renee and Andreil Merman AU art by @thegreenerartist [tumblr, 2021, 2020]

A Mermaid AU hc and art by @jojen-hewitt [tumblr, 2020]

merman neil and pirate andrew art by @reinventlinda [tumblr, 2019]

A mer-Neil for mermay art by @microolli [tumblr, 2019]

Little mermaid au art by @wingsoutforshin [tumblr, 2018]

Renison for fantexy art by @cute-electrocute [tumblr, 2018]

Twin mermen art by @drawssj [tumblr, 2017]

[cambriancrew]

Regarding endogenic, nondisordered plurality and impairment (or lack thereof): a reply to a post by Just Another Syscourse Blog, who says they have me blocked but Tumblr is broken and still showing me their posts which are showing up on my dashboard because I follow the #syscourse tag.

Anyway.

The point of the distress and dysfunction criterion is so that people who are merely different don't get diagnosed as disordered. Which one of their sources explicitly says.

Which is what we've been saying for years: we nondisordered endogenics are different, not disordered.

Yes, multiplicity is not a normal response to everyday stressors. Our whole point is that what we experience is NOT a response to stressors at all.

And even if it were, that would still be being different, not disordered.

It has to also cause impairment in functioning in some way, in a persistent way over a significant period of time. We find that in almost every aspect of our life, we experience the opposite of impairment due to our plurality. Literally the only thing that causes us persistent problems instead of relieving problems, is worrying that people won't understand and will think we're dangerous or whatever. That's the same reason why people don't talk about being gay in a heteronormative homophobic area, or pagan in a Christianity dominated area, or a staunch liberal in a conservative area, or any one of the million myriad other nonstandard but nondisordered ways of being. If being gay or pagan or a liberal isn't a disorder just because other people are bigoted about those things, then neither is being multiple.

(For the record, we Willows are pan, we Crew have an eclectic assortment of beliefs, and we're as bleeding heart liberal as it gets, so we have every right to compare what it's like to be those things in areas where those things aren't broadly accepted by people, to what it's like being multiple in a society where it's not broadly accepted.)

Sure it's not all cake and rainbows. Sure we have our minor issues, same as any other group of people. But if a family isn't dysfunctional just because they don't all always see eye to eye, just because they sometimes get on each other's nerves, just because sometimes they're human and make mistakes and have to accept the interpersonal consequences of that and work to make things right? Same with plurals. We Crew are not dysfunctional, we're just normal people working together as a unit, easing the load and helping each other out and making life a little easier for each other and for the people we care about and interact with. And often we disagree about minor things that don't really matter, rarely we disagree about things that really do and we work together to compromise and do what's best for all of us, occasionally we get on each other's nerves and have to give each other space as best as we can, occasionally we mess up and have to take responsibility and make things right. If a singlet can do those same things with a family or other social group and not be disordered, then so can a multiple system.

You don't have to be perfect or normal to not be disordered.

Again, I like to compare it to our synesthesia. Yeah, because of our ticker tape synesthesia, we sometimes struggle to understand what people say because we'll hear it wrong the first time and those wrong words will literally overwrite what they're actually saying. With our mirror touch synesthesia, we can't watch brutal action movies and even slapstick comedies are often difficult to watch. We had some additional minor issues with helping with wound care in our medical jobs, because we'd feel on ourselves the wounds we'd see. But we are EXCELLENT spellers thanks to the ticker tape synesthesia, we're extra empathetic due to the mirror touch synesthesia, and by and large they don't negatively affect us.

Same with our plurality. By a very large margin, it makes our life so much better. Which is the opposite of distress and dysfunction, and therefore we're just different, not disordered, thank you very much.