#and I'm sorry mobile users if it's long

[sugaredrhubarb]

A QUICK GUIDE TO AO3 CUSTOMIZATION FROM SOMEONE WHO KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT CODING

ft adding pink to everything and my secret to writing long comments

note: I originally posted this to twt but if that place burns in a fiery pit I spent too long on this for it to disappear, so I'm putting it here too :)

so many people know way more about this than I do, but this is a step-by-step walkthrough of the changes *I've* made, and hopefully it works as an introduction people can build from for whatever they'd like to do

There are a lot of images in this post! (click to enlarge)

to start, AO3 skins

site skins change how the AO3 website appears when logged in (even on mobile), mine is pink and blue!

I'll have my skin turned off throughout the post so the guides appear as they will for you

to create, edit, and view skins, go to the "skins" tab from the left-hand menu. you can also view public site skins from there or from the button in the preferences.

public site skins are made by other users. i would really encourage previewing and exploring them to become familiar with the possibilities (maybe you just want to use one of them and now you're done!)

to create your own skin

on the skins page, click "create site skin"

if you don't know CSS (same), use the wizard! clicking on the "?" will give more information about each option

I only use the colours section you'll see a link right there for hex codes I use pink as a header colour and bue for accent but lots of people change the background colour and that looks really cool!

submit

The next step (optional!!!) is to add CSS from a public skin to your own. I use "ByLine" by Branch. this separates the tag categories and adds spacing to make them easier to read.

here is a before and after using the fic "Landslide" by @roosterbruiser as an example

to see the CSS of a skin, click the title

copy all the text below the CSS heading

in the skin creator/editor press the custom CSS option and paste all the text into the CSS box

you can have both wizard and custom CSS settings, in mine you can see the header and accent colours as well as the CSS

level up: USERSCRIPTS

userscripts are small pieces of code that modify a website. for AO3, this may involve adding shortcuts and buttons or even advanced tagging functions (computer people, I'm so sorry if this is wrong, I'm trying). I use Greasy Fork and Tampermonkey.

This is how I write long and formatted comments!

Greasy Fork is an archive of userscripts and Tampermonkey is a browser extension and userscript manager. You don't need to use these two in particular. please use your common sense when downloading anything or adding permissions to your browser.

Greasy Fork guide on installing scripts

Install Tampermonkey on Chrome

there are TONS of user scripts for AO3. This is another good opportunity to explore all the possibilities. there are lots of more complicated options I haven't explored.

scripts for AO3

i use this floaty review box

and this comment formatting

EDIT: if you use chrome you might need to turn on developer mode in your chrome extension manager - you can google "tampermonkey developer mode" and it should explain that :)

to install (once you have Tampermonkey installed):

open the script you want in Greasy Fork and press install

Tampermonkey will open, press install again

clicking the Tampermonkey extension will let you toggle scripts on and off, and opening the dashboard will let you view, edit, and delete scripts

i find i can only have a few turned on at a time before they cancel each other out, but that depends on which ones you're using and someone more savvy might be able to fix that

how to use the floaty review box - write more comments!

there will now be a "floaty review box" button at the top of the work, it will open a floating text box you can move anywhere on the page. highlighting any text and pressing the insert button will paste the text with italics into the box

anything you type in the review box will appear in your comment at the bottom of the page!

if you have also installed the comment formatting script, you'll be able to highlight any text in your comment and use the new buttons above the comment box to format it

thats all ive got! Hopefully this is a good starting point to get familiar with some of the terms and basics for skins and scripts <3

if you want some inspo for how to comment on fics i made a whole fic rec list on twitter based on comments I've left, it's here. i have a masterlist of recs there mostly for darklina/reylo and similar ships.

the tag #reading with ru has cod recs and me talking about books

:)

[felassan]

Snippets. 🐺💜 DA:TV spoilers under cut.

Kala has heard rumors that there may be merch pins coming of Assan and Manfred [source]

(Previous comment for context - Dev Brenon: "You can sprint, there is also a dash/dodge move you can do for short range mobility - though I don't tend to use that much when exploring.") A user asked on this, "Will it be a push-to-sprint key, a sprint toggle, or other (to be explained later)?". Brenon replied with some more detail on this feature: "Right now it's a pseudo-toggle, you press it once (while moving) to start sprinting and then as long as you keep moving you keep sprinting. If you let got of the movement controls, you stop sprinting." [source: the official BioWare Discord]

User: "if a choice i made 30 hours ago affects me.. best believe im restarting the whole game". Brenon: "Uh oh''. User: "UH OH???". Brenon: "I mean... we do have "decision saves" before big choice moments, but there are still a bunch that depend on a whole mess of stuff you've done earlier... so... yeah... RIP :P" [source: the official BioWare Discord]

They hope to get a bunch more BioWare-themed emojis for the Discord [source: the official BioWare Discord]

Trick Weekes has been signing DA:TV stuff with "with love and appreciation for your patience" [source]

Carly: "theres so much id love to say, but i unfortunately can't , that being said, i hear y'all and love working on a game for such passionate people and hope y'all enjoy when it does come out 💕" [source]

Actor signing attendees report that it was amazing and that we're in good hands with this acting cast. You can see more photos from it here [source].

Dev signing attendees report that it was packed. You can see another photo from it here [source]. and here is a photo of the sign from it [source]

Another photo of the booth [source]. Sometimes at the booth the devs had a Solas statue [source] (this is done by Dark Horse). I think Dark were also displaying somewhere a Varric and a Cassandra statue too, and I think these were the ones that Dark Horse do too (Varric, Cass), but I can't find the image or video where I originally saw this anymore, sorry >.<

The companion tarot-style art from the website was shown on the big screen at the acting panel [source]

A few more details from the actor panel, from an attendee: John Epler said that this is the best group of companions written because of their relationships with each other, not just Rook. They can become friends, lovers, rivals with each other. Zach thought that Lucanis was the coolest character he gets to play. It sounds like he mentioned Illario [I'm assuming] by name. Lucanis is quick-witted. Neve is a bit of a romantic. Jessica found voice acting freeing as it felt like playing pretend when she was little. In her role, she felt like she could embrace being very powerful. Neve is passionate. On Emmrich, "wisdom, calm to group, warm-hearted, loves learning". Emmrich has some fantastic lines. Along with working with Varric to track down Solas, Harding has also been working with Rook and Neve. Ali talked a lot about how much collaboration there is between BioWare, the actors and the material they're given to work with. Harding has been through some things and has more of an edge to her, but they can't talk about it! [source]

A few more details from the actor panel, from an attendee - Jessica Clark: "A lot of the time, we kind've really all bonded in the way that we were intended to, you know? And that's why we've been so excited all week and all weekend, because we can be like 'oh my god you're here', 'oh my god you're here, you're here, you're here', finally, you know? You know, I know on a lot of projects people are like 'oh yeah, we're all like, we love each other', but we really do, we really really do, and it just evolved so organically, and there was something magical about it just being our voices in the beginning, you know, like, sort've taking anything else out of the [equation.]" [source]

A few more details from the actor panel, from an attendee - Nick Boraine: "I think I've been preparing for Emmrich all my life. I was very attracted to the role initially, and I was so, I was so, I was overjoyed when I got it, because I think it was, the writing of Emmrich is really fascinating, it's this, this man that is obsessed with death, on one hand, but on death as a comfort, death as a transition, death as something that is not scary, and that, that ability to enable people to transition and the investment that he gives in that sphere, which we don't give in our own lives. I was immediately attracted to that and I thought that that was, I'd never seen that before, so to go in these two ways, to talk about death and to talk about it in a way that is kind, and that the transition becomes a kind transition, that was fascinating to me, and I think, will be fascinating to you too." [source]

A few more details from the actor panel, from an attendee - Zach Mendez: "[before they started shooting] I did kinda get an idea about how passionate the fanbase was, which made me really excited. I don't wanna say nervous, because I don't say I'm nervous, I say I'm excited. And so, before the first day of shoot, I was very excited. And luckily, you know, Ashley and them, didn't have me do too much on the first day. I played a lot of darkspawn. I darkspawn-ed my ass off, though. I want you guys to know, I really. And when I got home, I thought to myself, 'Zach, did you darkspawn hard enough?' I was just worried. You know, and within an hour I got texts from Jeff, who's a part of this cast as well, and G, telling me what a great job I did, and then I'll never forget, I got a call from Ali Hillis down here, and I'll remember that conversation, because for thirty minutes she made me feel like I was welcome in the Dragon Age family, and it gave me so much confidence moving forwards. So thank you, Ali, so much, I still remember that." [source]

[Character limit text break!]

Varric and Manfred: "not romanceable" [source] ?

Neve mostly eats deep-fried fish [source], it makes up the bulk of her diet [source]

Bellara loves pan-fried fish [source]

John on SDCC: "thank you to everyone who came out to the signing. thank you to everyone who came out to the panel. thank you to everyone who said hi, swung by the booth, or otherwise expressed how excited you were about the game. absolutely amazing experience. was wonderful to see you all" [source]

There's a lot of lovely concept art for DA:TV [source]

Trick Weekes: "One of the things I was proudest of was inviting leads from other teams/departments into writing peer reviews and having them later say, "Wow, those critiques went deep, but everyone stayed professional and compassionate the whole time." My junior-most writer knew she could tell me I was wrong." [source]

Violet: "As we get closer to DATV, I just want to send out a reminder Var lath vir suledin 😭" [source]

Derek on the casting department: "They really did an incredible job! Every single one of these folks deliver such amazing performances." [source]

Derek: "a lot of great talent doing awesome stuff from KY nowadays. I count myself extremely lucky that I can work on such an amazing project with such a wonderful team straight from my home state!" [source]

Michael Gamble: "i know a few people on the DA team, and i want them to have a nice time." [source]

User, on the recent word count news: "Sooooo , when will I (we) get to hear all these words". Michael: "hopefully when the game is out." [source]

User, on the news of no microtransactions: "This is great news that I hope survives past the review period". Michael: "it will" [source]

User: "What class have you been playing as in DAV mostly?" Michael: "mage. i light everything up. everything." [source]

DAMP / multiplayer mode is not returning [source]

Ghil: "Im very sorry for the teasing tweet but to be very real, i really miss playing veilguard and to stop THERE and have to wait over a year is killing me tbh. Im bothered. My crops are dying. I am withering. I want to know what happens" [source]

A user asked a question around if there are dialogue options and choices available in the game that indicate a mixed or less favorable positive perspective on Solas. Bria, a Councilmember, shared: "As an Egg Cracker, I was pretty satisfied with what we saw. I don’t want to go into spoilers but I was able to play my Rook the way I wanted when it came to the Sad Egg Man." [source]

User: "would you be able to tell us if you can change your perspective while in a fight? Those circles we saw on the video were kind of hard to see from that angle". Ghil: "Like a bit- no promises but they told us a lot of stuff like that would be in an accessibility feature. I get pretty motion sick so I remember talking about backing it up a bit." [source]

Kala: "The amount of gasping, screaming, @/ElbenherzArt having to lay on the floor, @/hattedhedgehog and @/chaosbria having to stand up from excitement and us just being in shock the whole time. Yeah 🔟 😎" [source]

Kala shared that there are moments in the game that she knows people will freak out about [source], that in terms of marketing, she knows that the devs have more things planned [source], and that she found Bellara endearing, despite not usually vibing with optimistic and energetic characters [source]

Kala shared that she feels that the Lighthouse is way cooler than Skyhold [source]

Also, in early May 2024 Zach appeared on a podcast:

Zach: "I'm very excited because it looks like at the end of this year, the video game that I've been working on for about three or so years is gonna come out, and I'm really excited for that. I'm gonna come back on and I'm gonna promote that, you guys, you will have no choice, I'm coming back on." Host: "Does the video game feature dicks?" Zach: "I can't say too much about it, but it, it doesn't ignore dicks, you know what I mean? It doesn't, you know what, there might be, yeah, there's, it's a sexy video game, it's a hot video game." Host: "So are you a character?" Zach: "I'm a character in the video game." --- Zach: "I'm gonna come back on to promote the hell out of that, because I'm really excited about that. I'm still working on that, and that's been, like, I'm super grateful for that, because that's been going on for like three years and it's been consistent work." --- Zach: "I'm super excited about it [...]" "Other people help you make really amazing things, when humans get together they make pretty stuff, and this game looks amazing"

[source (acting career segment. source link isn't work-appropriate. I don't recommend the podcast)]

[sofia-d-asb]

Hello. I noticed that you said you were using Ren'py for your new game. What made you come to the conclusion that this was the best option, if you don't mind my asking? I am looking into developing something, but I'm unsure which program to use. I thought the point of Ren'py was more for visual novels. I am interested in making something that isn't as visual heavy. Do you think that's possible with Ren'py? Sorry for the randomness. Thank you for taking the time to read. Have a wonderful day!

Hello!

It depends on what you're looking to achieve.

If you want the bare minimum of functionality and the bare minimum of coding to learn, you can go with ChoiceScript. Which, fair warning, is a proprietary language, so if you want to monetize/publish your work without having to adhere to their opaque content rules/cede 75% of your sales, I'd suggest you steer clear, but YMMV.

Twine is a little less easy to use, but comes with higher customization. It supports HTML/CSS/JavaScript, so what you can do is much broader than ChoiceScript. Plus, monetizing your game is fine. I find that Twine is more meant for short-form IF than long-form, but it remains usable. Deploying your game in any other form than HTML (a web game) is a hassle though, and not supported by Twine directly.

Ren'Py comes next; here you must make your own user interface (or you could just use native NVL-mode with no edits, which... it'll work for sure, but the presentation will be questionable), but I find it much more flexible than the other two options. And it comes with the added bonus of making it much easier to deploy your game to multiple OS and platforms including web and mobile.

There are other tools (Ink?) so my advice would be to try them all and settle for the one that suits your needs.

Good luck with your project! And have a wonderful day as well.

[cripplecharacters]

Sorry if this has already been asked before but as a general statement do you feel like the trope of having mobility aids doubling up as weapons in a fantasy story is ok? I’m disabled myself so I have a lot of disabled characters in my story so there’s a wide variety of mobility aids. Since a lot of characters fight in the story because of the genre I was thinking of making mobility aids weapons (cane as a magic staff or like prosthetics with built in powers etc) but I’m not sure if it falls into the category of ‘character is disabled but it’s actually their superpower!!!’ because I want to avoid that trope at all costs. Hope this makes sense to you since communication isn’t a strong point of mine. Love your blog btw:)

Hello! I'm glad you enjoy the blog.

I really feel like it depends. It can be done well and respectfully, but in my experience it usually isn't.

If you're a mobility aid user writing about the aids that you're using, you can do whatever you want. For my deeper thoughts that are too long:

The main issue that I have with the "magic aids as weapons" is that often it feels like the author doesn't actually like the aid because it's "too boring" and thus wants to "improve" it by making a cane into a wizard staff that shoots fireballs or whatever. But I don't feel like that's a good way to go about it at all. Mobility aids are cool in itself. They allow use to be more mobile. Why do they need to be made into something else?

The something else part is also what bothers me a lot around magic aids, aids as weapons, all that. Like the old "replacing a wheelchair with an animal" thing. Why not have a wheelchair? Why not a walking cane instead of a staff? It sometimes feels like the author tries to distance whatever they're writing about from disabled people and our actual experiences because they're "too boring to fit their fantasy story". It could be done effectively, but it usually really isn't.

To finally get to the combat part of the question, it again depends (...sorry). If the character with a cane has to fight using it, then I do find it weird, I guess. "Doing cool explosive stuff" shouldn't be a requirement for a disabled character to be included, especially because a lot of disabled people can't do the things that writers want them to do. Sometimes we are weak and unsteady and fragile. Fighting isn't for everyone, and I feel like that's where some of the annoying fantasy tropes appear.

"Hm, my blind character can't fight because they're blind.. oh they have a superpower that lets them 'see'! solved!"

"Hmm, I don't know how to include a wheelchair user… I'll give them a Magic Mecha Exoskeleton that lets them 'walk'! solved!"

"Hm, real life prosthetics seem inconvenient. I'll just make them Magical so they're just like meat limbs but with a gun! solved!"

...and all these kinds of "solutions" that make one wonder if the author even wants to have a disabled character. It's not even that the disability is a superpower, it's more that it's non-existent. Sometimes the better solution is to have us in other roles and not make us do things that our disabilities prevent us from doing, which fighting can fall under.

If the above isn't what's going on, then I think it comes down to how the whole thing is even supposed to work. Are the in-universe rules for magic centered around the idea that the Body makes magic? In this case, it could be interesting to have a character who uses a mobility aid and considers it a part of their body to be able to use it in a magical way. Because a lot of people do consider their cane or wheelchair an extension of them, so it could be actually interesting to see it validated by the magic system. But if it's like, "anything could be used" and then every character with a mobility aid ends up using their aid for that, that's... somewhat weird. It does feel like reducing the character to their disability if abled character 1 has a spell book, abled character 2 has a magic necklace, but the disabled character has their disability aid as their magic weapon. To use the example that you did, if the character's prosthetic is the only way they can use magic, I do think that's weird, because well. Why… it's both reductive and "disability as a superpower". But if they can use magic through, let's say, both of their legs, and one of them happens to be a prosthetic, then I think that's cool.

I also believe that it depends on what kind of weapon you are talking about at the end of the day - in real life, mobility aids are already treated as potential weapons. I'm under the impression that no one would assume that a walking cane could cast a spell, but people do very much think of a cane as a potential tool to fight with, of a prosthetic as a potential bomb, of a wheelchair as a potential way to smuggle something illegal. I have very much seen and heard of situations where a disabled person wasn't allowed to enter somewhere because their aid was seen as a threat - you don't want to make more people think that this is a reasonable conclusion to come to. If you want to go for it without doing any kind of retrospect on that, I would keep it as a fantasy thing.

I hope this helps. Apologies for the answer length.

mod Sasza

[risingphoenix24601]

Why (stage) Nessa is Ableist: An Essay

Disclaimer: I am disabled, but not a wheelchair user. I am chronically ill (EDS + all the bs that comes with it) and neurodivergent (ADHD, SPD, awaiting an Autism eval).

I will start with my personal perspective. My gripe with Nessa is that she is spoiled, her father favors her, and she expects everything to be done for her and soaks up everyone's pity. I'm not saying this never happens, but I feel like a lot of people just assume our parents coddle us and that our lives are easier, as if being disabled is some sort of advantage, and I've even seen us represented as going around looking for people entrap into helping us. When I was in high school, some kids found out I had a 504, became jealous (bruh, I'm jealous that you were born with high-speed internet brains) immediately assumed I was an arrogant prick who thought I deserved "special treatment," and took it upon themselves to make sure I felt like a burden. Believe me, being born into a world that doesn't know you exist is NOT an advantage.

Getting into more specific stuff: the movie did a great job correcting this, but since I'm talking about the stage version, I'm just going to list it: Elphaba's going to school just to care for Nessa, but I don't think she's in a position where she would need a full-time care-taker, so there's the trope of us entrapping people to do our bidding and that we're burdens on others (movie made clear that the dad is the asshole here and not Nessa). Second, many characters, some of whom don't know her at all, wheel Nessa around. You NEVER touch a person's mobility aids without their permission. Again, move fixed this. Third, Nessa says to Elphaba "I'm about the first happy night of my life!" Don't get me wrong, having a disability can really suck, but it doesn't mean our only emotion is misery. Plenty of disabled people live meaningful, fulfilling lives. My uncle has commented to me that he'd never guess I'm sick because "those people usually go around with a scowl." My uncle is Vietnam war vet. I'm sure if I knew half of the hell he went through, I would be shocked that he doesn't walk around with a scowl either-- but life goes on.

I'm going to address the controversy of the cure in Act II. Let me make this clear: plenty of disabled people want to be cured, and portraying someone who wants to be cured is not problematic. What is problematic, however, is that this is a very complicated topic and the show presents it in a way that is very simple. I'll use myself as an example: I would cure my EDS in a heartbeat, but neurodivergence, I honestly don't know. I am now at a point where I don't hate myself and actually like the way I am, but there are still days that I wish I was normal. I don't view my neurodivergence as a "gift" or another way of being, it is a disability and my life is harder because of it. And yet, I would be a completely different person without it. And I'm not sure if that's a person who I'd want to be.

We must remember that Nessa has been disabled since birth, this is her normal. And more than that, it's part of who she is. Suddenly being able to walk would be a massive change, and not necessarily a welcome one-- I think she would have the same fears that I have regarding fixing my neurodivergence. I also don't think Nessa is in a significant amount of pain or discomfort. So, ultimately, she is not disabled by her physical condition, she is disabled by the world around her.

This is, is my opinion, the biggest problem with the Wicked Witch of the East scene. Nessa's life is undeniably harder, but the lyrics incorrectly ascribe her suffering to her disability, when her suffering is actually caused by ableism. Also, wheelchairs are tools of accessibility. They are not bad or shameful things.

So yeah. I'm sorry that was long, but I've been seeing a lot of people asking about why it's ableist and there's no way to explain in one or two sentences, because this a complicated topic with complicated feelings. I hope I covered all the bases.

[hoovesandfloorpaws]

https://www.tumblr.com/hoovesandfloorpaws/783621635209134080?source=share

Sorry for asking this, I'm just trying to understand. What point is the user @voxina trying to make with the information she added at the end? The one you replied to with 'wholeheartedly agree'? What exactly does this additional information imply? That the merch isn’t exclusive to Berlin? Or?

hello dear anon,

no worries, it's always okay to kindly ask for clarification 💕

I took it as (and that is what I wholeheartedly agree with) @voxina making the point that the OP of that tweet had taken the screenshot of the t-shirt directly from the Firmament (Berlin store) website (mobile version), on which it also said that the brand is Japanese, so the OP of the tweet could have fact-checked right there and then. or even a few seconds of googling would have clarified what they thought. there is also the possibility that the OP just used the wrong words, but I can only guess.

It's just frustrating sometimes, because there is unfortunately so much misinformation or long-debunked things being spread on Twitter and aside from other factors, it's just not cool for people who actually care about whether things are true or false or different. and with the history of this fandom, it should matter to us that things we say are fact-checked to the best of our abilities or that if we're i.e. just clowning, that that is clarified, too. Because our society nowadays has unfortunately become extremely comfortable with taking things as fact that have absolutely no evidence or base.

Which is also why I urge everyone to take everything about H&L on Twitter that didn't come directly from H's or Lou's twitter account with a HUGE grain of salt.

and if you care to seriously read up on the lore with sources, Tumblr was and still is where it's all at 💖

and everyone is welcome!! elder Larrie, baby Larrie, chill Larrie, demon Larrie.. and Niall.

thank you for your kind question 💖 x

[flowercrowncrip]

Sorry if this is a weird question but have you ever thought about getting bottom surgery? Is that even possible for wheelchair users? It seems like it would get squished or something which is 😬

I know when people get top surgery they can't use mobility aids that require a lot of upper body exertion, so was using your chair more difficult?

I'm not really looking into top surgery for mobility aid reasons and since I'm kinda small up there anyway, but I reeeeealy want bottom surgery and can't find any resources on whether my disabilities will complicate things ;^;

I’m actually in the early stages of pursuing bottom surgery myself! I annoyingly can’t find many people talking about it at all, let alone wheelchair users. Even my GIC doctor isn’t entirely sure right now.

Right now the doctor at my GIC is informally asking surgeons whether they’d be able to take me as a patient before making a formal referral. I’m not sure where you are but In the UK you need a second opinion from an in person appointment with a doctor at a different clinic just to get a referral for bottom surgery (but not top), and since none of the clinics in England except my current clinic would accept me as a patient, it’s looking like I might have to go to Scotland for that one short appointment. (My doctor is also trying to see if we can make an exception to the in person rule on disability discrimination grounds because travel is harder for be, but as far as I know that hasn’t happened before so I’m not holding my breath).

My GIC doctor doesn’t know for sure what the exact complications of being a wheelchair user are likely to be if I get surgery, but said I was likely to experience more discomfort after surgery and might need longer in bed during recovery. He also said it was possible that a surgeon might say that metoidioplasty could be more possible me than phalloplasty, which I’m really hoping isn’t the case because ideally I want phalloplasty. We also don’t know what the implications are of me having a catheter.

All of this is really hypothetical at the moment though, it’s all based on my doctor’s vague hunches and third or fourth hand information, and also trans healthcare here, especially around meta and phalloplasty is shockingly awful, other places in the world are way ahead. I’m planning to share more when I have concrete information than my doctors relatively uninformed speculation

In terms of top surgery I had no issues at all about using my power chair joystick after. I was in hospital longer than most people (a couple of nights after surgery) so didn’t use my chair for that time, but I don’t think it would have been too difficult. I found as long as my elbows were by my sides I was fine and since I use my arm rests anyway there were no issues with me steering my chair. Even my chest harness caused no issues. I definitely think propelling a manual chair or using crutches would have been a bad idea in the first few weeks, but with support people and/ or a hired or borrowed powerchair and things like transfer boards if needed there’s definitely ways around that for anyone who really wants to surgery (if it’s not so important to you and you don’t want to go through that, that’s totally valid, but I also don’t want people to think it’s impossible).

[genericpuff]

Great episode, but—and maybe it's because I'm on mobile—I noticed some of the panels were a little blurry. Not to the point of being unreadable, but there's definitely a quality difference the longer the panel is compared to the shorter ones.

Unfortunately this is a limitation of Tumblr that's also at odds with the image limit, sorry u.u"" Sometimes I do need to cut long panels in half to accommodate the resolution limitations (as the larger an image is, the more Tumblr will deep fry the shit out of it), but then it becomes an issue when I hit the 30 image limit and can't upload the full episode. So I'm kind of having to just do the best that I can to upload the best images that I can that don't exceed 30 panels. Sometimes the image limit isn't an issue, but it was this time around as the episode was particularly long, so I had to settle for "good enough, here's hoping Tumblr doesn't fuck around" with this one u.u

That said, that's also why we have the Dillyhub mirror so that you can read episodes in their original resolution, which is perfect for when Tumblr decides to fuck around with mobile users >;0 The newest episode is up now if you want to read it there!

[saszor]

hey I have been working on a bit of a side project for some time i play a lot of queer indie games where sex and sexuality are prety common themes but i think that some of the best of these involve actual in depth conversations around things like bodily autonomy and address societal issues youd less than likely find outside of the genre i always thought it was odd though how despite the tendency of these indie games to be abl to go beyond some of the confines of larger production quality games so many of those types of games tend to have pretty uniform body representation skinny usually white able bodied etc if theyre trans theyre usually pre/non op so my side project is that for some time now ive been playing around with the idea of making an rpg video game exploring themes of autonomy commodity fetishism and the goal is to create a system wherein the user can create a character from a very wide array of physical traits weight race secondary and primary sexual characteristics and i thought it makes sense to also allow a fair bit of discussion around disability in a game thats so heavily about autonomy and a tendency of people to treat others especially those in minority groups as commodities while the game has ome disabled side characters i also wanted to give the user the option to have their character have mobility aids and or have their character present with physical disabilities this is all very long winded and im sorry but ive been trying to find where i can find more information about certain physical disabiities and how to depict them both visually and textually and how not too and i feel im unfortunately coming up dry in my search for some of this information especially about some physical disabilities/congenital conditions like phocomelia your art is really wonderful and youre one of the few artists ive found on tumblr who depicts such a wide range of physical disabilities if it wouldnt be a bother i would really appreciate any resources or pointers you can provide

Hey! For the writing part I will just recommend @cripplecharacters , check out the tags there, etc. There is also some vis dev advice on there but not as much.

For visual IRL references, positive exposure is pretty good, I use it a lot for my own drawings

If you have a question for drawing a specific disability then feel free to send me an ask/DM me, I will try to help. But I have to preface this with saying that I don't have experience with drawing every disability or every aid so I can't help with every scenario. But if you saw me draw it before I will probably be able to at least give some pointers

[For your second ask, I don't think I'm currently able to provide paid art advice because I just don't have enough free time and I don't enjoy leaving people waiting for months. Donations are very welcome if you feel like sending one, but I'm not in a position do be doing proper commissions right now]

Thank you for the nice words=)

[supmaww]

the video of my bug becky painting :) unmute for music!

details under the cut 'cause this was a fun piece and I like talking about my work

In case anyone is curious, the song in the background is "A melody better left unknown" from the Blood in The Bayou soundtrack. It's fitting for obvious reasons (RIP Kian ily, you down-bad failed rockstar), but it's also one of my favourite tracks because of how gutted it leaves you!! I'll never forget that feeling of dread when Grizzly started to write the song with Becky. God. My favourite scene of the entire series.

We never truly meet Becky in bitb, but she's my favourite NPC anyways. I could go on and on about her and Kian's relationship (and I have... let me know if you want me to dig up the post) and what could've been. She's the perfect tragic ex-girlfriend for this silly tragic story. She was dead before we ever even meet her.

I struggled a little with the colours of this, mostly trying to get them to show up on my phone. My monitor does not display colours correctly, so it can be tricky trying to make stuff bright and saturated enough while still maintaining the contrast I was looking for. I think I did okay, but ehhh I think it could be improved on. It still looks miles better on desktop. Sorry mobile users.

The flowers, red spider lilies, are an iconic symbol of death. I tried to think of something more unique and less overdone, but fuck it. Straight from google they represent "sad memories, such as last goodbyes or the death of a loved one", plus they're also linked to reincarnation?? Hello??? The fact that they're native to Louisiana and grow in bayous make them all the more perfect. They're Becky's flower, hands down. Plus they're spider lilies. Like the bug (or arachnid). Haha.

It's kinda tricky to see, but the front pieces of her hair floating in the water form little bug mandibles. Probably my favourite part of the piece. I got the idea midway through the sketch and I knew I had to follow through.

Speaking of her hair... it's brown. This is due to the fact I was referencing the very talented @/alkalineleak's becky design and got carried away with my beloved warm colours before remembering that one of the only actual canon descriptors of Becky is that she had black hair. Whoops. I adjusted it a little but alas... It's brown. In a desperate attempt to make her look less like Rachel, I gave her an eyebrow piercing. But it's covered mostly by her bangs. Oh well.

This is probably my first digital painting I've posted since I drew Chip as a werewolf for halloween last year (if I remember correctly). I've improved a ton since then, but I'm still learning. I find with paintings the lack of lines gives you wayyy more freedom but also makes conveying forms much more tricky. Though I like how it turned out!!

My art program crashed a total of four times, two of which seriously set back progress. Consequences of recording a timelapse on a computer that can barely run Clip Studio Paint in the first place. Still not as bad as my goobleck animation... don't talk to me about that

This was all a huge bout of chronic procrastination. I have actual art projects due, figuring that I'm in art school. I'm so screwed. Like a week ago I swore off fanart and yet here I am... didn't last too long did I?

I am no better than Kian and would also die and join the hive for Becky (bug wife! bug wife! bug wife!). I hope they're together in hell.

Okay damn I still have more to say but that's a whole essay and a half, so I'm going to stop myself there. It's also 4am and I gotta head to uni in 3 hours. God. Uhm... Happy halloween go relisten to bitb it's spooky season!! (edit as I am posting this the day after: wow, that was a bad idea)

[genderqueerdykes]

i have cerebral palsy, and i’m a forearm crutch user. i’m also bigender and bisexual. i feel like people see me as more of a child or “innocent minded”, as i’ve been told. they don’t expect me to have the weird gender or any queerness at all.

i struggle a lot with passing, as i’m biologically male and want nothing more than to seem totally androgynous. but my disability prevents me from dressing how i’d like. when i use she/her pronoun pins, people go out of their way to misgender me. when i use he/him pins, they all call me she. it just sucks being a queer disabled person because it feels like no one takes you seriously for either thing because of the other.

hello there, i'm sorry this took so long to reply to, as well as to hear what you're going through

i understand where you're coming from for sure with feeling as though people infantilize you for using mobility aids. people do the same to me with my wheelchair, and when i used a walker. i'm sorry that people treat you poorly for your disability and then push that treatment on to your gender as well. people seem to find reasons to tear every part of you down when they see that you're disabled. it's sickening

i'm sorry to hear that people are going out of their way to misgender you no matter what. i find that i've had that experience around the wrong people, too. i think due to my autism a lot of people view me the same way, as "innocent minded" and go out of their way to see me as the opposite of what i want at any given time. people argue with my for being genderfluid and multigender and bisexual as well, people refuse to trust my own word for my experience and will become fixated on my birth sex for some reason

i'm sorry that people disrespect your pronouns whenever you try to express them, and i'm sorry they refuse to see you as who you tell them you are at that given moment. it's not fair to you that they treat you poorly because they know you're disabled. it happens to many of us, you're not alone, and people need to learn to trust us to be the arbiters of our lived experiences instead of forcing their views on us because they think we're incapable of thinking for ourselves just because we're disabled folk

take care of yourself. i know i'm not there for you in person, but i see you for who you are. your disability does not take away your ability to know who you are. you will always know yourself better than anyone else. i hope things get better for you. stay safe out there, you are valued

[sunnys-aesthetic]

Hello! Sorry, it's out of the blue a little djfjf I don't know if it's on purpose, but with tumblr's filters going on the fritz lately I'm scrolling through the list of blogs I follow to warn affected logs just in case

Long story short, yours has been marked as mature : O

So if it's on purpose then nevermind! But if not, wanted to give you a heads up : O

YEAH,, i straight up just got the heads up from a friend of mine in discord too, discord is deeefinitely on the fritz but from the looks of it, It's only affecting mobile users

[raven-artz]

OKAY GUESS WHO DREW (and wrote) THIS STUFF FOR THREE DAYS STRAIGHT? Anyway enjoy this new post with my girl's characteristics, physical features, and personality yippieeee

I didn't count exactly, but there's like about a thousand words about her under the cut, so just warning you guys 😔

⚠️ Mention of blood, injection, poisoning, alcohol, drugs, death and vomiting (not as awful as it could be, but it can be unpleasant!)

Physical data and notes:

Pronouns are he/she, towards herself uses "she" or "I, me, myself" but don't mind to be referred to as "he". Tomboy, but doesn't feel the need to be a male (I don't know how to explain it properly, sorry)

Age fifteen to nineteen (I'm still thinking about it), essentially still in his teens.

Wiry, flexible but angular body (remember the long teen cat joke), lean build, masculine body type, height 135 cm.

Euge's weight varies by 30 to 45 kg, but his normal weight to body proportions should be a MINIMUM of 50-55 kg.

Long, unevenly colored fur, fluff covers his entire torso from the front, noticeable on his elbows, knees, and cheeks. His haircut is always disorderly.

He has scars all over his body, but I haven't drawn them yet because I'm thinking about where to place them.

Ears are sensitive, mobile, susceptible to loud or unnatural sounds.

Body movements are sharp and precise.

Eugene's voice is clear and expressive, but quiet (androgynous or unintelligible type).

Accelerate by feline standards (although he looks like an Oriental cat compared to, say, Blaze's body proportions, I don't think he has any breed affiliation, BUT his look was based on Russian Blue and Siberian cat :] ).

Specifies and Experience:

Tech, specializes in repairing the running gear of cars, bikes and airboards.

Can drive cars, airboards, bikes, trucks and buses.

Knowledgeable in medicine, about the level of a nurse, but no formal training.

Knows how to use technology (like a PC or phone) better than the average user, but very far from a hacker.

Good at singing and drawing, but it's not something he'd rather talk about.

Actually a total humanitarian, but he was lucky enough to be taught physics and math, so he's good at it.

In general, can be a good therapist despite his own mental health issues😔.

Can play acoustic guitar, knows chords and basic music notation. Sometimes picks up tunes by ear.

Sewing, knitting, good cook.

Knows plumbing and electrical. Changing the siphon under the sink and changing burnt wires is not a problem for him.

Skills and Combat Experience:

Combat skills mostly gained on a couple not-so-legal jobs, also when fighting robots.

Possesses the ability to sense, accumulate, and manipulate any ebergy type, be it electricity, chaos control, nuclear, or biological (living creatures, earth, plants and the energy they produce when growing and moving). Hides this ability well and uses it when absolutely necessary or accidentally shows it when strongly emotional, as controlling it takes a lot of his energy.

Psionic, has many talents, but half of them are unknown. At the time of his adolescence, he can control people's emotions and compel the weak-minded.

Eugene's body rejects any poison. If you inject this in, the liquid may start to protrude through his skin or simply fail to penetrate. If you poison food, his body will give it back out within a short time. If it's gas, it may burn his respiratory tract, but it won't poison him. If it's alcohol, the body will also give it back. If you do manage to inject him with a poison/drug, his body will fight like a fever: cold sweats, vomiting, fever temperature, rapid heartbeat, sometimes nose or throat bleeding. If it is a drug, he's may hallucinate and delirium, but it will not have the same effect as on a normal person. With proper hydrating and nutrition he will recover quickly.

Good with firearms, sniper's eye. Possesses two hands when shooting. Owns three handguns, one Colt Mustang Pocketlite (for self-defense, carries under his clothes), one Strike one (or rather, a pistol based on that design), and one Walther P99Q (it has such a cool design hoouh). The best of the carbines will be able to handle the "Saiga M3" because of its size and less recoil. In terms of maintenance and handling it is best with the "Barret M82" sniper rifle, but won't be used often due to its bulky size.

His combat knowledge and techniques are not as well developed as Sonic's or Shadow's, but this is compensated for by his attentiveness, agility, logic, and quick thinking in combat situations. Euge is quick to learn additional ways to fight.

When threatened, he's rarely will fight back, usually trying to avoid trouble or will threat you with a weapon. If you manage to challenge him to a face to face fist fight, he will proceed cautiously, study you, and try not to attack first. Thanks to his medical knowledge, Eugene knows where the main pain points are and tries to hit rarely but accurately, but sometimes lacks strength and experience in hitting.

Ideals and Opinions:

He holds personal conclusions and opinions about government, law enforcement, and civil rights. Bases his views on personal, rather bitter experiences and observing the system of government from the outside.

Very incomplete and disjointed notions of honor and conscience, but somehow he manages to adhere to notions of morality.

Supports the principle of "an eye for an eye" or "instant retribution", but is not enthusiastic about revenge.

Fine with murder and violence if someone deserved it, though avoids doing it himself if possible.

Character:

When interacting as a stranger he will react acutely or dangerously to irritants, is embittered, teasing and manipulative when communicating, and doesn't let a single word pass without complementing it with sarcasm and snide remarks. Will put himself above others and inflate his ego. This should work to repel you when you try to show him undue attention. IF you will be patient, polite, friendly and observe enough, it won't take long to notice that he has a patient, polite, quiet and non-confrontational nature. But that doesn't mean he will be soft with you. Acrimony will be his weapon in trying to alienate you for fear of betrayal, fear of getting close and loving and then losing you like so many others. If you eventually break through walls, that he has erected for fear of hurting someone, earn his attention and trust, Eugene will prove to be a gift from heaven: charming and kind, understanding in conversation, supportive at every moment, attentive to your preferences.

He's aroace, and will therefore be attached to you as a family member, soulmate or friend. Does not show interest in romance or falling in love, but is aware of the concept and is adept at recognizing any type of relationship. When in the mood, may tease and accidentally create a flirtatious effect, but it doesn't happens on purpose and Euge hates it.

Some facts about Eugene to help you better understand his nature:

Doesn't like to be touched, but it all depends on the situation.

Inculcated an inferiority complex, accepts as true that differences from the standard type of appearance such as scars, disproportionate body or face, altered limbs and mutation disgust others and attract too much attention, so hides scars, body and face with baggy clothes, bandages and such.

He's knows English, Russian, and a little bit of Spanish and German. Russian is the best, he's perfect in it, verbally and in writing. English is slightly worse, but it is mostly felt only verbally, with accidental stiff and weird pronunciation. Euge's embarrassed by it, so he's quiet and taciturn. Spanish is mostly on ear, interjections, greetings, pronouns and some simple word combinations (like "go to break" "it's bad" "help me please" "I can/can't", etc.), which he understands by sound (some unfamiliar words he can also guess by ear), in writing he can't speak at all, shy to say something verbal. German is the worst, literally a couple sentences and greetings by ear, he knows this language coincidentally.

Usually smells like rusty iron, dust and fresh earth, if he brushes his fur and showers he smells like buckwheat honey and pine board. Rarely when perfume is applied will bring out the scent of apple blossoms and notes of cinnamon.

Have good experience in handling and caring for children of all ages, pets and farm livestock. Despite this, dislikes children up to about 12 years of age.

When awake, his coat is always slightly raised and fluffed up, making him look a bit bigger, healthier weight and stronger. This indicates that Euge is always tense. When he falls asleep or relaxes, his ears become floppy and his fur is smoothed out.

Rarely falls into a deep sleep, sleeping sensitively and nervously. Wakes up from any noise, often sleeping much less than it should. Occasionally (in deep sleep), sleeptalking and may spoke on conscious topics. Often suffers from nightmares, can damage the environment when awakening from it.

Sensitive smellsight and hearing, good eyesight (+ night vision) and he often suffers by city gases, because a keen sense of smell, and wears a gas mask all the time.

Prone to anorexia (his body does it on its own, Eugene himself can't handle the reactions) due to nervousness and lack of quality food. Likes heavy, nutritious and rich foods like meat, beans, mushrooms, peas, buckwheat, wheat, etc., but unfortunately can rarely afford them. Generally unpretentious in food, thinks that something like pineapples on a pizza or olives weird but edible. He have a craving for creamy-sweet-salty, can stir his milk with sugar and salt to a fierce taste, likes salted caramel and nougat, you can say that this is his favorite type of sweets.

Adheres to a healthy lifestyle based on his own experience of unwanted interactions with addicted people. He is afraid to panic and disgusted of people who are drunk or on something, but if he sees that such a person needs help, he will provide it. (Disclaimer: I'm not judging anyone for their life choices or circumstances, this was written for purpose of characterization of Eugene's life choices.)

That's all for this time, thank you for reading and goodbye!

[cripplecharacters]

Hello! Sorry this is going to be a long ask.

I'm writing a cast of four characters, all of whom have some form of disability and I'd like your input, especially since a few of them fall into tropes I've seen talked about on the blog.

I have autism, ADHD, and chronic joint pain that is undiagnosed but probably related to hypermobility. All of them have ADHD and autism but I'm not going to talk about that at length for any of them because I'm pretty comfortable with writing them.

Dispite the amount of disabled characters I have and the questions I have about how to portray them, this is not a story about disability or the disabled experience, but I do want to showcase my disabled characters in a nuanced way that highlights that their disability is not separable from them.

This is also for a fanfiction, and the source has some trouble with how it portrays disability (evil character with an eye patch, bionics that completely negate the disability) and I'm trying to figure out what I can modify and what I need to just throw out.

I'll go in alphabetical order and talk about them and the tropes I'm worried about falling into/what I want advice on.

Autumn (he/they)

He has ADHD, autism, classical EDS, is mildly HoH (about 20-30 decibels less than normal range), and has three fingers on his right hand due to an injury. They use a variety of mobility aids throughout the story, starting with only occasionally using a cane and ending with using forearm crutches on good days and a wheelchair on bad days.

The tropes/things I'm concerned about with them are the “good” wheelchair user, the noble dead disabled character, and finger prosthetics

The "pure/good" wheelchair user trope I'm partially concerned about because he becomes the moral core of the cast as time goes on and he gets more disabled. He doesn't become a better person, really, but everyone else gets Worse. He's still snarky and can be selfish and jaded at times, but I feel like it's harder to demonstrate that at the end.

Being the most honest and least willing to capitulate to doing terrible things leads to his execution, which is a turning point and a point of no return. I feel like this ties into a trope of the disabled character dying first, especially since he's the one who's using disability aids/is most explicitly disabled.

I've seen the posts about why finger prosthetics aren't useful/common, but I was thinking that he'd start off with canon-typical bionic fingers before eventually realizing that he doesn't need them and it's more hassle to put them on and off than it is to just not have them. Is this an okay use of finger prosthetics since it's kind of grappling with the trope itself? Or would it be better for him not to have them in the first place?

Right now I have it so Autumn’s sister Summer died and he named himself in her honor when he transitioned. That's pretty immutable at this point. However, right now I have her as d/Deaf, with much more profound hearing loss than Autumn. (Which is also why he knows ASL) Does this fall into a disabled dead character issue?

Chauncey (he/him)

Chauncey has ADHD, autism, burn scars, chronic pain (unspecified, based on my own experiences) and dyscalculia.

Chauncey's the one I'm frankly least concerned about any specific tropes. There are only one or two concerns I have with him:

As an author, it's important to know what disability a character has even if they don't know. I know in your FAQ you say “I'm disabled is it okay to x” is generally okay, but do you think I should have a more specific disability in mind that matches my symptoms or can I keep it no specificity?

He's a clone who was rapidly aged and I wasn't sure how to figure out if/how that might affect his dyscalculia since it's not exactly a situation that happens in real life but that's about it.

Morticia (she/her)

She's my protagonist. She has autism, ADHD, a visual impairment in the form of a missing eye, and visible scarring on her face.

She's heavily based on the canon character who was an “evil eyepatch” guy. I changed it so she actually has issues with said eye and made her less evil during the period of time she uses it but I'm not sure if I should just ditch the eyepatch all together.

She starts with a bionic eye (it's not perfect, but she can see out of it to some extent). Then she gets into some sci-fi bullshit and starts piloting around a robot telepathically, but her signals get crossed with her bionic eye, so she covers it with an eyepatch while she's piloting the robot. She does use this scheme to commit 28 murders, but the murders are kind of justified by the plot? She's really written as doing some ehh things for what she believes is right. I definitely wouldn't write the eyepatch that way if it wasn't in the source, but it was like the way to identify her character in the source, so it feels weird to not have it at all.

After that, she gets arrested, gets her bionic taken, and gets a prosthetic to keep appearances and hold the shape. Stuff happens, and she gets another bionic with some more visual info that is sometimes too much for her. She gets a lot worse than when she had the eye patch, but she does still have a noticeable eye difference. Her later bionic is totally customizable and she normally keeps it a glowing gold.

I have questions about her facial scarring because she uses it to play on people's perceptions. When she's campaigning and trying to look innocent and kind, she covers it as much as she can. However, when she feels like she is in control and can do whatever she wants without consequences, she doesn't bother or even chooses to try to cover her freckles but avoid her scars because she thinks they make her more intimidating. This results in her having her scarring visible during scenes where she's being "evil" but not when she's being "good." Is that okay? It feels like it's playing into the "villain with scars" but since she as a character is doing that, it feels less like the story itself is doing it (especially since Chauncey has similar or slightly more prominent scarring and doesn't do similar things), but I'm unsure.

She is evil, and disabled, but I don't want her to be an evil disabled character. I try to associate her covering up her scarring more with masking/trying to fit in than with her being “good” but I'm not sure if it comes off that way.

Mortimer (he/him)

ADHD, autism, and limb difference (upper arm amputee)

Mortimer is probably the character I'm most worried about with my disability rep (shocking considering the five huge paragraphs I just wrote about Morticia). He's the trope of “amputee that fixes his own prosthetics/tinkers on himself.” He also makes Autumn and Morti’s aids (at least until the arrest). He also kind of falls into an autistic savant but I'm less worried about how to navigate that since I'm very familiar with the autistic community, am autistic, and have other autistic characters.

I'm worried that if I make the prosthetics he makes not “cybernetic fix-all” it'll defeat some of what I'm trying to do with making him just as good as inventors who have done that in canon. I don't know how to retcon that canon without using an author's note, which feels disjointed and I want to avoid it.

To try to work with this and not ignore the fact he's disabled, I show the prosthetics needing maintenance and try to show them sometimes being uncomfortable or heavy.

However, this leads into my second problem with how I'm handling his disability. His character arc causes him to go from being the nicest one in the cast who is very meticulous but can sometimes have a temper, to becoming reckless, rude, and seemingly uncaring.

As he becomes more reckless and less willing to care for himself, he stops doing some of the necessary maintenance on his prosthetic, causing it to break more often and rust. I'm worried this looks like I'm tying his disability getting “worse” with his morality, since he also stops caring for others as much when he stops caring for himself.

I'm also not sure if it is okay for him to paint his bionic arm to try to look like a flesh arm, since he was a criminal and he was trying to make himself look less identifiable at a glance. And if it is, when he stops doing his maintenance on it, it makes sense for the paint to chip, but that would strengthen the association of him being more visibly disabled as he becomes meaner and harsher. I'm not sure if having Autumn bring the only one who's personality remains more or less the same while becoming more visibly disabled balences this out a little bit or if it's a point of having two tropes at the same time doesn't make either better. (If Autumn is a “good wheelchair user”)

Questions involving more than one character:

Autumn knows some ASL. Mortimer is an unrealistic character that knows far more than any one person can know, and he knows basically any language as far as the story is concerned. Autumn teaches Morti a little ASL, as well. Since Autumn can understand most conversation, they generally use it instead of whispering rather than in normal conversation. Is that an acceptable use of ASL?

Currently all of my visible facial and limb differences are due to injury. I have extremely few other characters with any prominence or description at all, certainly to the extent where it would be reasonable to know if someone has a difference due to injury or birth. Do I change/add something to these four so it's less All Injuries?

I mentioned before Mortimer and Morticia trying to hide their differences for different reasons. I don't really want to go into any sense of shame they have over it, just them hiding for practical purposes. If it's not appropriate to hide them for practical purposes, do I have people react as if they had hidden them or is that erasure? (e.g. Mortimer doesn't paint his arm and it's visibly mechanical. Is that something the police are looking to identify him by or do I ignore it? It feels weird to ignore it, but if it's causing problems for the characters it feels like a reasonable reaction would be to try to blend in, but is trying to blend in/hiding their disability just heightening the sense that disabled people need to hide?)

I'm so sorry I wrote an Entire Essay I promise I tried to be concise but I have a lot of questions about the tropes I fear I'm hitting and whether I'm missing anything trying to portray the disabilities I don't have

Hey!

I will answer only some of your questions because I don't have enough experience with a lot of the subject matter here. I'd recommend looking at this post some time after it's published to see if maybe a follower had an answer/suggestion for you.

Now for the questions I'm able to answer:

For Chauncey;

It's 100% okay to base it on your own experience. At times disabilities are mysterious and unspecific, that's just how it sometimes is. The problem with this that appears from abled authors is that the symptoms or treatments just often don't make sense, because they have no clue what they're doing; confusing basic terms, making weird conclusions...

But you are a person with lived experience. You understand how your symptoms work and how you manage it from the best - first person - point of view. If someone is well-equipped to write a character with your disability, it's you.

For Morticia (cool name BTW);

As of the bionic eye; as far as I'm aware they don't really exist yet, but this is a sci-fi scenario so it's a bit different. (If you want to hear about the currently real options, here's a post that could interest you).

I'm slightly puzzled by her eyepatch fixing the signal issues; I would've assumed that it would transmit things either way (?) because with an eyepatch she would still see, just the inside of the patch and not the usual stuff. But my cluelessness here might be my fault by the fact that I'm not familiar with the source material. But if it's meant for a general (non-fandom) audience, I think it would be great if you could elaborate on the science here.

With the later eyes she gets, I advise you to keep her visually impaired even if her vision improves somewhat. It shouldn't be a cure. You potentially could think of it like hearing aids, where they can be more or less helpful, but are often more annoying than anything else and aren't fully "restoring" the sense by any means. Maybe her bionic eye has static, or weird spots, or causes double vision.

Now for the "hmm" part...

"When she's campaigning and trying to look innocent and kind, she covers it as much as she can. However, when she feels like she is in control and can do whatever she wants without consequences, she doesn't bother or even chooses to try to cover her freckles but avoid her scars because she thinks they make her more intimidating."

Please, please, please don't do this. To answer your question; not okay.

I have written a post somewhat about this kind of thing. I really dislike playing with ableism in this way. Portraying scars as "intimidating" on an already dicey character... just no.

To pull this off in a way that's not offensive, you would have to research disfiguremisia in and out. It would need active commentary and a lot of teaching-the-reader-why-this-is-bad, and if you have to ask if it's okay, then you just aren't ready for it. And that's fine. You don't have to write a scenario based on heavy disfiguremisia, so don't. Remember, it's not her acting a certain way, it's you writing her to act a certain way.

I don't want you to take this personally, but please just don't write this. Not like this, at least.

For the "fitting in" part, I addressed it in the post linked above; I don't think that I have anything to add that wasn't included there.

For Mortimer, the best I can do right now is give you a bunch of links that will hopefully be helpful to you. This is just way beyond my answering capabilities and we don't have any mods who are amputees at the moment, so you're at the mercy of follower input for the most part. But;

Post of posts about arm prosthetics

Our general amputee tag

@cy-cyborg 's account, xe posts great writing advice, often regarding prosthetics. I believe that ze accepts asks as well.

For the rest of the questions;

"Currently all of my visible facial and limb differences are due to injury [...] Do I change/add something to these four so it's less All Injuries?

I would say yes. Some of the tropes that you're working if are not great, so adding a few additional characters that don't fall into them will help a lot. Try having some characters with similar disabilities that don't tick the issue-causing boxes. Throw someone with a facial difference that doesn't commit any kind of mass murder in there.

"I mentioned before Mortimer and Morticia trying to hide their differences for different reasons. [...] If it's not appropriate to hide them for practical purposes, do I have people react as if they had hidden them or is that erasure?"

In real life they would probably be recognized by it, though I need to say that there is absolutely a part of the population who just doesn't notice. People can absolutely be oblivious, especially if the lack of limb is hidden by clothes. Particularly if there are a lot of things going on.

That said, if whoever seen them has noticed, then they would look for that. That's just the logical outcome. But I don't think an eyepatch helps much to hide the actual disability, they would still assume that the person with a bionic eye and the eyepatch-wearing person are probably the same.

You can potentially avoid it by making a large chunk of the population disabled. "Girl without an eye" isn't very helpful information to hunt someone by when there's dozens of people with that description in the city.

For the end, I'm sorry that some parts of it might have come off as not the most encouraging (the Morticia part...), please remember that I'm just criticizing the tropes and implications. I can kind of tell that whatever the source material is, it is way worse about its treatment of disability/facial difference, so I would consider it an improvement nonetheless. Still, it could be better. I hope that the above links and answers will help you with your project.

If any followers are familiar with the topics discussed here, you can leave a reply or reblog with your suggestions. Remember to be constructive.

I hope this helps!

Mod Sasza

Hey! Mod Patch hopping in here to talk a bit about Autumn. I think that you’re aware of the tropes this could fall into is a good first step. 

First of all, you mention Autumn is missing some fingers and has classical EDS. Both of these could make using a manual wheelchair more difficult. Is the wheelchair in question manual? If it is perhaps consider adding a power assist (perhaps like a fantasy version of a smart drive. 

I’m not too concerned about him being “pure” because you mention that they are 1) working with other “immoral” folks. My suggestion would be to try and lean into the selfish and jaded parts of the character. Show his motivations aren't exclusively disability-related. I am a bit concerned about his execution. I understand that you might not be able to change that plot point but can you have other characters who use mobility aids and survive longer? They don’t have to be as major in the story.

mod Patch

[chiprewington]

So...uh...what's Perry's story?

Oh I have. Absolutely no way to summarize this easily, but you don't know how long I've been waiting for this to get asked.

Being completely honest the easiest way for me to share Perry's story is via Toyhouse (ey're also my only visible character on there currently, sorry </3), but everything there is pre-Chip (though there's some links to a currently hidden tab WITH that info that'll become public once finished). HOWEVER, everything pre-Chip is written down. I'm a lot better at drawing things out than actually writing about them, but I hope things still make sense for the most part. I'm happy to share this little forced angel with y'all.

(Additional Bigger Clicky Link for Mobile Users Here)

[mizukagami-takamagahara]

Annon-Guy: That's cool!

In an XBLAZE Arkham style game, who'd be your favorite character to play as (villains also count sense in the Batman Arkham games, you can also play as Joker, Drathstroke, Harley Quinn and Azrael)?

It took me a long time to get around to answering this, since I needed to refresh on XBlaze AND learn a little bit about the Arkham series. I've still never played the games myself (it's not a genre I'm really into) so my opinions here are pretty basic; honestly, I should send you a similar ask, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how the characters might operate since you're familiar with both games!!

This ask is referencing one I discussed with Annon a while back, which can be seen here!

I think Ripper would probably be my go-to, since I'm a villain fan and he seems well suited for this kind of game, given what we know about his combat style from the XB duology and his BBDW appearance. I could see him being pretty comfortably mobile, having some quick and vicious moves that flow well into one another, and we know he uses explosives/pyrotechnics sometimes (from one of his fights with Es in XB) so we know he has access to some versatility.

I'd be really curious about how the magic users might be implemented, though. Like, Sechs would go HARD, straight up- actually he might be really fun it would be so cool to have free reign with the Kusanagi I might need to change my pick- ahem, anyways, and Kuon is shown to be capable enough with physical combat to have a good blend between that and her magic, but a character like Mei, who as far as we know can only fight at long range, might have a harder time in a game like this. Her Shikigami Raven technique could do something similar to Robin's Remote Controlled Shuriken in City???

...thinking about it more... I can't stop thinking about all the cool shit we could be able to do with Sechs. His Gravity magic, his flight, THE FUCKIN' KUSANAGI.... yeah sorry Ripper I think I'm gonna have to switch my main pick.