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Can't breath for laughing.

They can compare notes about Wit/Hoid. Kelsier will be deeply offended.

Kelsier: "I am the survivor of Hathsin! I returned when none thought I would! I will become more than a sliver of adonalsium and become corporeal again! And I will bend this Cosmere to my will!"

Kaladin: "Seems like a lot of work. Have you tried having supportive friends?"

Kelsier:"...what?"

Kaladin: "I mean, I just refused to die each time that something tried to kill me. And then I found inner peace and I'm helping others to find theirs."

Kelsier: "..."

Kaladin: "And I keep coming back from the dead, man. And I mean, this time I literally died. There's a body and everything. And you can bet that Bridge 4 is 100% certain I'm still coming back. They're definitely going to start a religion or something anticipating my return. Those guys have way too much faith in me."

Kelsier: "..."

Kaladin: "Anyway, I've found that working through my own issues and helping other work through theirs is much more fulfilling work than trying to amass power. So I'm gonna be hanging with some quasi-dieties doing group therapy for a while. If you're not busy with anything...?"

Kelsier: "..."

Kaladin: *waits hopefully*

Kelsier: "Get bent"

Syl: "I like him!"

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RHYTHM OF WAR SPOILERS

Still mad about Eshonai. One of my favorite Cosmere characters. I love that the Stormfather was kind to her at the end, but it makes up for nothing. She deserved better. 😭

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WIND AND TRUTH SPOILER

This is so very true. I had to sit and chew on it. Every time I think about eternal therapy for the sunshine mind, this pops up. Mostly I keep thinking about how Taln NEVER broke.

Gotta be honest i wasn't expecting the blame for this Return to bounce from the singers, to Gavilar, to Odium, to the radiants, to Taln, to the Heralds, to Tanavast, to the unfairness of the cosmere, to land on storming Shallan and Chana Davar

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Freddie Forever

That's my job.

— Freddie Mercury

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Also, you don't have to do it right. For example, I have 2 brushes:

Electric, I'm feeling functional, 2 minutes is no big deal today. Might even top ot off with floss.

Manual - I'm lucky to be doing this at all, may not hit all the teeth, fuck i may not use toothpaste, but this is better than nothing.

Lots of space in between. And, hell, I I can floss but can't bring myself to brush, awesome!

All or nothing thinking is hell to live with, esp re basic self maintenance/care.

the most helpful thing i have ever seen from neurodivergent internet spaces is “THERE ARE OTHER TIMES OF DAY TO BRUSH YOUR TEETH”. this has genuinely saved me from executive dysfunction spirals so many times.

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ADHD Tip:

I have a "missed Rx" bottle. Any time I forget to take my meds (and realize it), I put the pills I should have taken into this bottle. I treat these like they don't exist, which is why I don't leave them in the original bottle (yay for adhd object impermanence). This helps prompt me to get my refills on time.

THIS IS NOW MY EMERGENCY STOCKPILE of medication - particularly for my Adderrall.

If I don't/can't get my refill in time, if there's a shortage, if there's some kind of weather event or other emergency that prevents me from accessing a refill, etc, I have this. For controlled substances prescriptions, there's no other way to have a backup that I know of.

I occasionally swap the "forgotten" pills out 1:1 with new pills so they don't expire - I try to do it when I pick up my new prescription.

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The rest of this became my personal manifesto regarding access to ADHD stimulant medications. Sorry, not sorry.

Anyone with ADHD who is lucky enough to be medicated knows that suddenly being unmedicated can be life destroying. And that's not an exaggeration - life-threatening accidents go up, risk of being fired for ADHD-related performance issues go up, interpersonal/telationship conflicts increase, etc, not to mention the increase in anxiety and depression for many while it feels like the very structure of our lives is decaying, and it's ALL OUR FAULT.

So, needless to say, med compliance is really important for stability. But getting med refills can be a chronic problem for people with ADHD.

Most ADHD medications are controlled substances, so we need a new script every month. For various regulatory, legal and ethical reasons, the onus is on the patient to initiate a refill with their doctor rather than the doctor's office being able to provide any kind of proactive support. In a lot of cases, we need an appointment every month, and at a minimum we have to remember to contact our prescriber to ask them for the refill. It's hard to remember to do that, especially to do it in advance so that they can submit the refill in time so we do not miss days. It's particularly hard to do it in advance vbecause we can't request the refill too soon because they're on guard to ensure we only have exactly the number of pills we need and not a single one more. Because we all must be abusing our medication.

In addition, pharmacists can only fill our new prescription the date they show we will run out based on the pick-up date and not a minute earlier. Sometimes a day in advance if we're lucky. Because, again, thw system assumes we must be abusing these medications.

To say the least, the timing of getting a refill is very exacting - for people who literally struggle with exactly this kind of challenge.

On top of all of this, there have been amphetamine supply shortages over the last few years. This is because the DEA restricts the amphetamine market for pharmaceutical companies, but does it in a way that leads to hoarding, exporting, and other market inefficiencies. The DEA will determine that there's enough of the ingredient available to meet patient demands, and won't give pharmaceutical companies additional allotments, even though the companies actually manufacturing the medications don't have the ingredient they need to meet demand. While this has improved since The Year We All Ran out of Pills, the issue is chronic and systemic so shortages still pop up occasionally.

Thus, even if we do everything perfectly to get the prescription, our pharmacy may not be able to fill it when it's time. This can often happen the day before we're going to run out (see above re timing of refills), often the evening before, in fact, because a large number of folks pick up their meds after work.

This then means people with executive dysfunction need to call around for a pharmacy with available pills, and we have to do it RIGHT AWAY because we are going to run out of pills today/tomorrow. Quite often, though, we have to do this while unmedicated, because in the moment we may not have time for the process (and it takes time - I've spent an hour on the phone with pharmacies before) or the pharmacies may not be open. And that assumes we're lucky enough to have access to an alternate pharmacy. Then, even if/when we can find a pharmacy that can help, there's another hurdle: pharmacies often can't transfer prescriptions for controlled substances (even from store to store within the same chain/company), so now we have to coordinate getting a NEW refill from our doctor (and don't get me started on the mess that is partial refills of controlled substances). Fingers crossed that it's our doctor's office's business hours (it never is).

Because forgeting tasks and difficulty with motivation due to executive disfunction are KEY SYMPTOMS of ADHD, this can trigger a (sometimes long) period of without medication, which can be dangerous (see above). AND SO, I have my baby emergency stockpile of pills.

There's not a lot of sympathy for the problems this causes for people with ADHD, which means getting support through this process is challenging. In fact, there's still a lot of stigma. I've personally been treated with suspicion and doubt by a pharmacy assistant while panic-crying because I couldn't get a refill. I've heard comments about how people trying to get refills act like drug addicts. I have thick skin and a supportive community, so those experiences didn't stop me from pushing for what i needed, but I know there are people who would give up after an encounter like that.

There is no political will to improve the system. In fact, there's more political will behind increasing restrictions on and further limiting access to stimulant medications. This comes from the narratives that 1) ADHD isn't real ("everyone forgets things" "everyone gets distracted" "it's trendy to have adhd" "stop making excuses"), 2) ADHD is overdiagnosed and/or overmedicated ("you should just try harder" "why are you so lazy" "have you tried using a planner" "o knew someone who..."), and 3) ADHD medications are being widely abused recreationally.

During the pandemic, the FDA started allowing doctors to prescribe controlled substances via telemedicine, which has increased access to treatment and improved patient ability to actually attend appointments (from decreased time commitment, lack of need for transportation, lack of need for much advance planning/remebering, etc). Add to this the increase in adult diagnoses, particularly for women who went undiagnosed/untreated as a result of systemic social issues when we were children, and the result is a general and not insignificant increase in patients being effectively treated for ADHD, including being prescribed ADHD medication. However, if you doubt ADHD or the effectiveness/importance of medication in treating ADHD to begin with, the increase in stimulant prescriptions is an indication of drug abuse, over diagnosis and over medication, NOT better access to care and decrease in missed diagnoses due to bias. Nevermind pretty solid science around the prevalence of untreated ADHD, medication being the single most effective and life-improving treatment for ADHD, and the very reasonable conclusion that telemedicine improved both access to healthcare as well as ADHD patient appointment attendance.

Which is to say, the FDA keeps pushing to revive the requirement for in person appointments in order to received prescriptions for controlled substances, like stimulants.

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Kaladin Stormblessed.

'asleep in the valley,' arthur rimbaud, 1871, tr. paul schmidt.

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Kevin is the perfect example of being able to read everyone's motivations and interactions but also stay entirely disengaged because *hypervigilance* and *freeze* and a complete *avoidance of non-exy conflict* are his trauma responses. They kept him safe in the Nest and sometimes kept people he cared about (Jean) safe or at least less hurt.

So, of course, he knows about Neil and Andrew before they did and was entirely unsurprised in Baltimore. But he ain't saying shit now.

"kevin day doesnt see more than the exy court" is such a blatant lie. kevin day i saw ur emo ass crying in the middle of the court telling neil to run away so he wouldnt be hurt. i saw u telling jeremy knox to be careful with jean moreau. i saw ur ass keeping the letter that said wymack was ur father. faker! u care! and u see so much and everyone writes u off as some psycho athlete but ur a lover boy! i see u, kevin day!

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BOOKS SAVE LIVES.

Ignorance is a tool of repression - it protects the status quo and those in power. Censorship is a favorite tool of the authoritarian, who wants to control all information. Because if they can erase knowledge, then they can gaslight everyone in their power. Because how can something be happening if we all agree it's not real by silence or affirmation And who is more in the power of those around them than children?

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STORMLIGHT/WaT SPOILERS

I'm very curious if The Wind and Stone will be busy during the next 10 years. Because The Wind is the third witness to what happened in Shinovar - and she knows what happened to Kal.

Like, are the Wind and Stone Spren-Spren? Because they both predate Honor and Cultivation and are more like little bits of Adolnasium. They couldn't be eaten up/claimed by Retribution as some regathering of Honor's splinters like was going to happen to the rest of the spren.

But also, how the eff did THIS oathpact work in re the spren/Retribution? Is it just that Honor won't let Retribution break such a powerful oath?

The other Wind and Truth thing that won't stop rotating in my mind is that

No one knows Kaladin is fine, actually.

There's only 1 source for what happened in Shinovar - Szeth. Who doesn't know about the reforging of the Oathpact to protect the spren. He thinks Kaladin is dead. I mean, he BURIED the guy!

I can guess at some point communication gets restored, because the in-universe Knights of Wind and Truth book was written 6 years later AND references its part of a multi-author work and that Jasnah provided information about Kaladin.

When word gets out about what happened, literally everyone who ever cared about him or looked up to him is going to be distraught. On top of everything that's happened - you've lost one of the biggest inspirations for those that resisted Odium. One of the first Radiants. The mythical Stormblessed. Dead.

Meanwhile he's actually just leading a beach therapy retreat and might turn up again one day.....

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!!!!!

PLEASE for the love of the universe read anti-colonial science fiction and fantasy written from marginalized perspectives. Y’all (you know who you are) are killing me. To see people praise books about empire written exclusively by white women and then turn around and say you don’t know who Octavia Butler is or that you haven’t read any NK Jemisin or that Babel was too heavy-handed just kills me! I’m not saying you HAVE to enjoy specific books but there is such an obvious pattern here

Some of y’all love marginalized stories but you don’t give a fuck about marginalized creators and characters, and it shows. Like damn

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STORMLIGHT/WaT SPOILER

Rereading Rhythm of War and realizing that Kaladin did go to Braize ala Odium nightmares. So he can relate directly, at least in a tiny way, to the Heralds' oathpact trauma. Wonder when in the group therapy someone will put that together???

Just, Ash asking, "Uh, Kal, can you describe those nightmares again...?"

Also, do you think he had any clue THAT was what he was risking if sunshine Spiritual Realm uber-fix didn't work?

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Teeheehee

"immortal therapy retreat land" and "the only place on the planet left with sunshine" are funny places for "born-unto-eternity" and "born-unto-light" to end up in for sure

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The official design of the carapace shield is so much more horrifying than what I had imagined… I know they had to do it but if I was Rlain I would have killed everyone in Bridge 4 with a gun

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1. This art is incredible.

2. Rlain is incredible.

@cosmerelists I drew a poster for one of your PSAs

This doubles as a Rlain appreciation post, love you buddy <3

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Perfect.

”Neil’s Mother might have been awful and violent at times, but she was fiercely devoted to him. They were two halves of a miserable whole, inseparable co-conspirators”.