#and thanks to

[boogflake]

The blue fairy 🦋🪄

[cripplecharacters]

Alright, so long story short, my oc has a autism service dog (who is kind of also her familiar) and is a witch. What can I do to make this character realistic?

(sorry if this is vague, I have no other idea how to express this.)

Hi asker!

The most important thing would be to do research on service animals and how they specifically help people.

First, service animals are also a huge investment, both in terms of time and in terms of money. Owner training is expensive, but so can a professional trainer. Someone who gets a service dog via a charity will still be on the hook for things like food and vet bills. This means that someone who doesn't have enough time or money might not have a service dog because they're a pretty big commitment. They're not generally a first resort, because while they are very useful and can really help many people, they are also an alive being. And anything that's alive needs more care than things that aren't. Dogs have to eat and poop and pee and that needs consideration; and they can get sick, distracted, develop allergies to foods, and whatnot while machines can't. So thinking about how your character navigates these things will help them feel more realistic.

Not that you have to include or even know every detail of how they paid for training or how many hours they spent on it! But just knowing the general idea will be good.

Second, what tasks does the dog do to help your character? Basically, what does she need help with that the dog can do?

The International Association of Assistance Dog Partners has a list of tasks a service dog could perform for psychiatric conditions; it mentions depression, anxiety, and PTSD specifically but are not exclusive to those. From that list I'm including a couple that could be relevant to an autistic character, although it's in not exhaustive.

Bringing medication

Summon help from designated people

Assistance leaving an area by finding the exit

Providing deep pressure therapy to calm/ground handler

Help 'unfreeze' handler from dissociation or similar

The organization Ella's Animals also has a list of tasks a service dog for specifically autism could do; again, not exhaustive:

Providing deep pressure therapy to calm/ground handler (mentioned again!)

Trained tactile stimulation to ground handler

Behavior interruption, like of harmful stimming

Alerting handler of something they're not responding to

"Buffering" in crowds

Retrieving items

Alerting of elopement (NOTE: tethering and body-blocking are sometimes mentioned as something a service dog can do for autistic handlers, particularly children. But generally speaking, this shouldn't be done. It can be dangerous for the dog and the handler.)

You'll want to think of what tasks your character will generally need from their service dog, and while you don't have to describe them all in great detail, mentioning them when relevant will be pretty important and make your character feel more real.

Also, depending on your character's witchiness, too, you could add a little flair. Like maybe your character needs extra assistance after they cast spells because it's overwhelming, or they had to train the dog to recognize what they look like when they're casting spells so the dog doesn't interrupt!

I hope this helps!

– mod sparrow

[oldloveforever]

Butterfly Effect

She waited patiently with her back pressed against the wall. The cool walls of the Domo stiffened her bones, making it hard for her to bend even a finger. Her eyes bounced across the room, looking for a threat. She was just a distraction, prepared to fight her own brother.

The relationship between her and Ikaris has never been particularly easy. He was always loyal to Mommy, hanging by the top of her skirt like a baby on his bottle. Fighting him was not easy, but winning was child's play in many ways. Ikaris relied entirely on his physical strength and the cosmic laser beams. But he lacked the knowledge and the discipline to use them wisely. That's why he beat up his opponents without thinking. It was reckless in many ways.

When he broke through the ceiling, she pushed away from the wall with her palms and created one of her cosmic swords. "Where is Druig?" he asked, indifferently, as if he had no intention of killing his own brother. "He's busy." She walked toward him without losing even a hint of her elegance. "Thena, play nice." She twirled the sword above her head and then forward. He grasped it with one hand as if it were merely the toy sword of a small child.

"You've never had to fight me." She smiled and it disgusted him. "But I've always wanted to." As soon as she finished speaking, she turned the sword into a spear, forcing her brother to let go of the weapon. She twirled her weapons several times and made him recoil with a thrust to the stomach. Ikaris lifted off the ground and drew on his sister with his lasers, who devalued his attack with her shield.

As Ikaris smashed her shield and pressed her against the wall of the spaceship, shreds of memories flashed before her eyes. And in this moment, she snapped. Anger overcame her. The longing for peace for her mind overwhelmed her. It was not the Deviant she had to kill for her inner peace. Kro was not the culprit who had taken away her anchor to reality, to her life.

She grabbed his wrists and turned the tables. She pinned him against the wall and jammed two daggers into his hands to hold him in place. She lost control of herself and punched him in the solar plexus to knock him out for a moment. "Scraggly bitch!" He pulled his hands down. The daggers stuck in the wall tore his hands in two. In pain, he clenched his bloody fists and punched the goddess of war. Thena barely got a scratch. The adrenaline and the desire to kill her brother filled her from head to toe. He killed Ajak, who involuntarily had to give up her powers to a beast. He sacrificed his mother for his moronic conviction.

She rammed her elbow into her brother's gastric triangle. He stumbled backward and lost his balance. She knelt over him and rammed a dagger into his liver. Ikaris tried to fight back, but his aim left much to be desired. He coughed and spat blood. Thena's blow burst the fine blood vessels in his stomach. "This is your fault." she whispered in a low voice. Ikaris cried out as she drove her blade through his chest and into his lungs. "I wouldn't have to do this if you hadn't been so selfish."

Another stitch.

"If you hadn't killed her, if you would have let her live-"

Another stitch. Her hands were shaking.

"Then none of this would have happened!"

She became louder, her stitches sloppier.

"HE'D STILL BE ALIVE!"

With each sting, the blood in her face multiplied. The wall was broken through. Everything she had ever felt poured out and her tears covered the blood on her otherwise pale skin.

Another stitch.

"T-Thena-"

Another stitch.

"T-The-na, p-plea-please-"

The blood flowed from his mouth. She was befuddled, trapped by her feelings, guided by pain.

One last stab.

Her trembling hands clutched the dagger stuck in her brother's chest. Tears dripped onto the blue-gold armor, the blood spread and covered the floor like a carpet.

"You killed him." she whispered. "And you didn't care." The dagger vanished into thin air. She braced herself heavily with her hands and leaned limply against the wall. "Your choices..." She pulled her knees to her body and clutched them. "...cost them both their lives."

"You killed him." she sniffed.

"You took him from me." She buried her face between her arms and legs.

There she sat now, huddled against the wall, next to her brother's corpse. Her sandy white hair, her porcelain colored skin soaked with blood.

It could have turned out differently. But every decision has consequences.

[toomanyfandomsneverenoughtime]

'I Can See Clearly Now' somehow made it onto my Spotify Wrapped playlist despite the fact that every time it starts playing, I have the overwhelming desire to skip it because of the disturbing dread the song fills me with.

Thanks, YMATA.

[chiisana-lion]

[evilgoodguys]

he’d forgotten how much he missed that smile.

[nintooner]

This is the highest compliment I could receive on my art

[archivegeo]

got a major pest problem this year actually

[omatoxin]

fish song

[word-count-bullet-count]

I've been seeing a lot of knight posts recently. pretty great

[manny-jacinto]

ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP (2019)

[cancatsdraw]

yeah i'm mad

[batboyblog]

President Biden's plan for the first 100 days of his next term:

—Restore Roe v. Wade

—Sign John Lewis Voting Rights Act

—Expand Social Security and Medicare

—End all medical debt

—Raise the minimum wage

—Pass the PRO Act for workers

—Ban assault weapons

—Lead the world on clean energy

—Permanent child tax credit

—$35 insulin cap for all

—Build more housing

—Invest in child care and elder care

you want that? FIGHT! for it, check if you're registered to vote and then find a way to volunteer, everyone can make a difference everyone!

[historiansmp3]

it’s fucking insane that a moderator had to say “there is no state where you can kill a baby after it’s born” at a presidential debate.

[electricpurrs]

i also woke up in the middle of the night today and i felt the impulse to grab my phone but not even joking i stopped myself by conjuring this image in my brain so i just went back to sleep