#and this was very much a coping mechanism

[feathery-dreamer]

I understand this is your personal choice, and nobody asked my opinion on each pill but here they are anyway!

clothes one seems more practical than dishes, because hanging wet clothes to dry takes up much more space and time than putting up wet dishes (plus you can wipe dishes with a towel)

no need to eat also has the advantage of not needing to do dishes so that's a double whammy, but I like to cook and eat good food so nawh

"retail therapy" is a very specific coping mechanism, plus enabling it could put you in an addiction cycle; tuition is also specific to age and would be pointless once you graduate, free rent would be cool tho as it'd eliminate the need to buy your own home

understand textbooks seems unnecessary because like, there's way too much to understand from reading the textbook (from the main idea to the finer details) so uh, I think reading would just become overwhelming and you'd stop

changing a stupid law a month seems promising, definitely support rewriting laws that've overstayed their welcome and become harmful; deathnote also sounds alright but one a month is too many, people would catch on to your pattern quickly (like the top richest people on Earth as they're very famous, or people who've wronged you because they're close or related to you)

not feeling hot/cold sounds practical but the fact it's specified "outside" is a deal breaker, many a time I get too hot when I walk into an excessively heated place in winter (many doctor's offices are like this) or similarly too cold in cooled places in summer

All in all, I would pick the red pill for selfish reasons and the pink pill for more altruistic purposes.

The pills meme but it's things i wish i had

[emwallas176]

Episode 4x09 of Smallville was genuinely so confusing. Not only was the cold open so traumatizing but then the moral gymnastics that happens for the rest of the episode (and onward) is so confounding.

So the whole premise of the episode is that Lex sleeps around so much that he can’t even remember the names and faces of the women he sleeps with. Strange and concerning on multiple levels. Even if this was completely in character (which I don’t think it is), it is still highly concerning to forget the names and faces of people you’ve been intimate with. I think they said 13 women in the last year. While that’s not a low number, I don’t think it’s high enough to cause such forgetfulness. Therefore it almost seems to imply that there’s a level of disassociation that happens on Lex’s part during the experience (you can’t form new memories if you weren’t really paying attention when they happened). This theory is also backed up by the fact that Lex admits at the end of the episode that he has suicidal thoughts, and (very) unattached sex could be a negative coping mechanism for these dark emotions. As we can see at the start of the episode, Lex looks sad and completely alone at the event. And immediately after that he jumps into bed with someone. There’s clearly a connection there (at least in my mind).

All of the above, however, is not what confuses me. It’s the other characters that I don’t understand. First you have Clark who comes in (as seems to be becoming his pattern) guns blazing and accusatory. Of course this might be warranted seeing as Lex has been quite soundly framed for murder but I digress. During their talk and with what he finds out later, Clark gets very up in arms about Lex having sex with a lot of women. Despite whether this is right or wrong of him to do, it makes absolutely no sense for why it would drive Clark into LIONEL’S arms. Especially bc Lionel admits later on that Lex learned the behavior (sleeping with women and leaving them with a pair of diamond earrings) from Lionel himself?? Like it’s bad and dishonest if Lex does it but apparently makes Lionel trustworthy?? I’m confused. Also! Let’s not forget the fact that Lionel slept with another woman while his wife was DYING! But sure, Lex is the sexually deviant one. Sure.

Also, I feel like there is a lot of disconnect between how Lex and Alicia (in later episodes) are treated. Like Lex sleeps with women (consensually) and almost gets killed by one of them and Clark tells him that he doesn’t know if he can trust him anymore. Alicia forces Clark to marry her and almost forces him to have sex with her (read: non-consensual!) and the next episode she and Clark are dating again. Also, Lex gets framed for murder and when he’s found innocent, Clark rescues him, yes, but at the end of the day he still doesn’t trust Lex. Alicia gets framed for murder and is found innocent (and dies, unfortunately (seriously that was such a shocking death what the hell Smallville?!)) and Clark feels guilty and regretful and tells his parents he wishes he believed her sooner. Now I get that these two situations aren’t quite the same but the different reactions that Clark and the other characters have feel more like the writers playing into future roles (Lex is the villain, yada, yada) rather than actually looking at the characters as they are now.

I think I would have enjoyed the episode more if I’d understood what it was trying to say. Are you trying to say that Lex is “showing a different, darker side of himself” by not caring about the women he sleeps with? Okay then why is it okay for Lionel to do. Are you trying to say that sex in general is bad? Then why have Alicia be forgiven? Why have Lana trying to loose her virginity to Jason? In the end, the episode just left me feeling really frustrated bc I felt like there was something I was supposed to get but I just didn’t get it.

[eldest-moonlit]

I've never found that place at all in my life, and I'm no longer looking outside of my already existing circle of close friends and acquaintances. As a neurodivergent woman on the autism spectrum, I've taken so many blows from neurotypical society and neurotypical people that I've lost track. I've been ghosted and blocked by a lot of people, the majority of them men, when they seemed to be the ones interested in me, only to abandon me without warning the moment I started to become myself or if I ever brought up my own needs. One of those instances left me sobbing into my blankets as I was sitting in my bed, trying to be quiet so that my parents wouldn't notice that I was in emotional pain. I've faced a lack of understanding, and/or a lack of effort to understand me, from most neurotypical people in my life, with the only exceptions being my parents and one of my three close friends. I've had far too many neurotypical people accuse me constantly of making excuses for myself when in reality I'm trying to explain my neurodivergence and how it affects the way I perceive the world in the best way that I can. There is a high possibility that I was gaslit for years, by my own peers in middle and high school, into invalidating my concerns and fears over living with epilepsy, when I purposely don't drive because I've missed taking my medication before and had a seizure 24 hours later because of that. If I have a seizure while driving, then I would be at a much higher risk of being either seriously injured or outright killed in a resulting car accident. Unfortunately, the only neurotypical people I've met in life who actually understand that, or at least try to, are one of my closest friends, my parents, my neurologist, and my therapist. Anyone else I've met who understands, or at least tries to, are also on the autism spectrum or neurodivergent in a different way, which includes my other two closest friends.

As a result of all the blows, my trust in neurotypical people is, to an extent, permanently damaged and will remain so. I may be in therapy now, but I feel that even if I go through years of it, I will always be very suspicious and wary of any neurotypical person I come across, of their true intentions and colors. I've learned to avoid hope as well. For me, the pain of crushed hopes is far worse than pain that comes from avoiding hope. I have my request that people not immediately follow me for good reason: in the words of TV Tropes, I'm a Broken Bird who finds stronger bonds and kinships with others on the spectrum, who Does Not Like Men because of just how many times I've been hurt by men in the past, and has the coping mechanisms I do to Never Be Hurt Again. But I'm not getting my hopes up. I already struggle to survive in a neurotypical society that loves to hurt and disadvantage neurodivergent people, so I don't expect it to adjust to my needs while I will have to constantly adjust my needs to fit in. And even if there is someone for me out there, I don't bother to hope. I've been lied to far too many times by men already, and during a time in my life where survival in neurotypical society has only gotten more difficult for me. I have a feeling that for the rest of my life, I will be struggling to survive in society with only my needs, my interests, my methods of survival, and autistic traits keeping my head above water.

[dumbass-brunette]

Sublime and cane user Adrien, because he was originally meant to be a cane user :3

Which

On the topic of Sublime…

I’ve seen so much hate for Sublime for “being a Mary Sue” and personally I vehemently disagree.

I’m disabled and my younger sister is an amputee and I love Sublime. I see a lot of myself and my sister in her. Her drive to be the best version of herself, the pressure to always be perfect to makeup for her disability, this idea that you have to tackle everything yourself, and not ask for help because you don’t want to “manipulate people” using your disability.

I love the representation of the very real pressure that’s put on disabled people to be a perfect person. I feel like it’s something that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough when it comes to disabled representation. The pressure her mom and society places on her contributing to this so common feeling among disabled people that you need to be perfect to makeup for your disability

I love Sublime. I love that she joked about her disability because as someone who uses humor as a coping mechanism I related to it a lot.

I loved the scene where even after her prosthetics broke she felt the need to pretend everything was alright.

Watching her put her own needs on the back burner, I got a bit choked up because I find myself often doing the exact same thing with my own needs due to insecurities about my disability. I’m so dead set on doing everything myself because society has taught me that I’m an annoyance for struggling, I feel the need to pretend things are okay when they aren’t and often suffer in silence because I don’t feel like I’m allowed to be upset about my disability.

Sublime is truly and honestly one of the most relatable and well written disabled characters in my opinion and I will defend her with my life

[pandaofsecrets]

This convo got me thinking about how Ozai being a good parent and husband would actually be like (and how little that would actually change things), so here's the basics of the AU. It follows comics continuity because I think it's more impactful that way, and also because I really don't want to write two AUs for the price of one.

Okay, so first of all, how do we get here? Let's say that instead of Ozai becoming narcissistic as a coping mechanism (unlikely, but bear with me), he just kinda gives up trying to "prove his worth" and distances himself from his father and brother, distrusting them and trying to avoid their attention as much as he can.

Anyway, Azulon hears about the prophecy and wants Ozai married to Ursa, which. So much for not attracting attention. Azulon's logic here is that while he does want those strong firebenders, he doesn't want any of Roku's line to actually inherit the throne. So, marrying Ursa to his out-of-favor second son it is.

Needless to say, neither Ozai nor Ursa are exactly jazzed about the marriage. They're both essentially forced into it, and Ursa was already seeing someone, thank you very much. But they both figure that it's for the good of their country and that they can't really leave anyway, so they might as well try to make it work. Ozai works to make Ursa as comfortable as possible, and she cooperates with him as much as she can. A few months or so into the marriage, Ursa is pregnant with Zuko.

This is when Ursa notices that no one is replying to her letters. No one at all. Not Ikem, not her friends, and not even her parents. Like, she knows mail is slow, but it's been almost half a year at this point. Her parents at least should've written back by now. So, she does a little detective work, and puts together that Ozai is intercepting her letters.

Unsurprisingly, Ursa is pissed. She'd just begun to like Ozai, and he went and tore her heart into confetti. Incredibly betrayed (and also hormonal as all fuck), Ursa comes up with the very smart idea of writing a letter to Ikem in which she pretty much confesses to cheating on Ozai, reasoning that would hurt him pretty bad.

As Ursa expected, Ozai gets the letter and barges into the room, demanding to know what the hell she was thinking. "I knew it!" she goes. "I knew you've been intercepting my letters!" Ozai is like "Count yourself lucky it was me. What if it was my father? How would you have even begun to explain this to him?" He goes on to remind her that she was to give up contact with everyone outside of court, including her parents. He doesn't like his father's orders any more than she does, but he has to enforce them. He then burns the letter, telling Ursa that she can see whoever she wants, do whatever she wants, but she had better not let Zuko get caught up in any of it. Ozai makes a point to call Zuko his child, both because Ursa's letter did hurt him, and as a way to imply he cares about Zuko and Ursa doesn't.

A couple of hours later, both are feeling bad about the whole debacle. Ursa goes to see Ozai, who's in the middle of his usual "dealing with his angst by training until he straight-up collapses" routine, and they have a chat. Ozai apologizes for trying to imply she doesn't care about Zuko and for putting her in this position in the first place, and admits that he should've talked to her instead of going behind her back like that. Ursa swears she wasn't trying to get them in trouble, she was just so hurt by his actions that she wasn't thinking straight. Ozai promises her he'll find a way for her to contact and maybe even see her parents, so long as she promises to try and be less reckless. She agrees.

I'm skipping around a lot over things I haven't thought of in detail, so cut to a few years later. Zuko is around 7 and has just started his firebending lessons, Azula is around 5, and everything seems to be going pretty good. And then Azula starts firebending as well. Not only that, but she turns out to be a prodigy. Oops.

Ozai being Ozai, he immediately goes for damage control. He holds back Azula's progress under the pretext that it's going to be better for her in the long run, discourages her from attracting attention, and is generally very cagey whenever the subject of her bending is brought up. This is in sharp contrast to Azulon and to her teachers, who praise her for her talents and encourage her to develop her skills. So, naturally, Azula is really confused. If she's so great, why doesn't her father ever acknowledge it? This is made worse by the fact that Ozai can't really explain to Azula why he does things the way he does. So he just comes off as an unreasonable tyrant, which is. You know. Not at all the impression he wanted Azula to have of him. He knows what it's like to be the secondborn who is disliked by their parent, he never wanted to do that to his own child. It honestly feels like the universe is out to get him at this point.

So Azula becomes increasingly recalcitrant, and Ozai resolves to just give her space for the time being, spending more time with the one child who isn't fighting him at every turn. Seeing this as a rejection, Azula takes whatever pent-up rage she can't direct at Ozai and starts directing it at Zuko, meaning Ozai is put in a position where he has to protect one of his children from the other. Ursa tries her hardest to pick up the pieces, but that just ends with Azula writing her off as well. Azula also becomes aware of the fact that Ozai and Ursa are both pretty much powerless against Azulon, and that's where the fun begins.

It's a crappy situation all around, but it's about to get worse. Lu Ten dies and Iroh is about to return home from the Siege of Ba Sing Se, so Azulon tells Ozai that he has to give Azula to Iroh. Ozai is like, yep, there it is. There's the moment I've been dreading ever since I got married. Because due to the way this whole eugenics experiment worked, his children were never truly his. Azulon's vested interest in them meant Ozai never had any control over his own family, and Zuko and Azula were always going to be taken away from him sooner or later. But before Ozai can say anything, Azulon drops the bombshell on him. He has to kill Zuko, too. Ozai is like, fuck this. He doesn't care that Zuko was a failed experiment or whatever, that's his son. But he knows by now that his father cannot be reasoned with, so he asks Azulon to wait until Iroh comes home, buying himself time to figure out what to do. Surprisingly, Azulon agrees.

Ozai then goes to Ursa and tells her the tale of what just happened. Ursa goes, yeah, no, we can't afford to wait until Iroh comes back. Because even if they did, Zuko would still die. Ozai is like, well, there's gotta be something we can do. And that's when Ursa gets an idea. She briefly considers telling Ozai, but quickly thinks better of it. Patricide is a strong word. She knows Ozai wouldn't approve, so if she wants something done, she's gotta do it herself. Instead, she just says she knows a way, and leaves Ozai to mope.

Next morning, the palace is in chaos. Azulon just kicked the bucket, Iroh is away, and everyone is looking to Ozai for leadership. Ozai has a chat with Ursa and is like "You did this, didn't you?" Ursa is all "I don't know what you're talking about", and Ozai asks her if she really thinks he's that stupid. He then encourages her to get the heck out of Dodge, because someone is definitely going to trace this back to her and then they'll all be in big trouble, her especially. Ursa counters that she's not the same reckless woman she was 8 years ago, and that she made sure to cover all her bases this time, pinning the blame on supposed Earth Kingdom assassins. They sit in silence for a bit, and then Ozai confesses he can't believe Azulon is dead, and that he doesn't know whether to be relieved or to hate Ursa for murdering him. Ursa says that everything she's done, she's done to protect her family.

So Ozai basically becomes interim Fire Lord while waiting for Iroh to come back, and he does a pretty good job, having basically been acting Crown Prince ever since he came of age (with all of the responsibility and none of the credit, because Azulon was a dick like that). From here the AU can go any number of ways, from Iroh immediately taking over as Fire Lord, to him giving up his claim to the title, to Iroh trying to give up his claim and Ozai refusing.

I don't know if I'm ever going to actually write this AU, so I'm leaving this here, I guess? Lmk what you think.

[benny-the-spaceman]

happy 18th birthday to ME! and kind of benny. kind of. technically charlie day. whatevs. ive got more to say below the cut, but this goes out to the ppl ive gotten to know and the ppl ive learned from and admired in this community, thanks for making tlm so special to me <3

Alright. wow. 18. It feels weird to say that honestly. more importantly, this marks around 2 years of me being in the lego movie fandom, which is even crazier! I actually found this community at one of the worst parts of my life, I'd developed very severe drug related OCD, to the point where I was barely eating and drinking or leaving my room for over a month because i was so terrified of my intrusive thoughts. I went to a treatment center where I started ERP therapy, and during that time I watched a reel about the lego movie and decided that, since i was out of school and had way too much free time, maybe i could occupy some time with that instead. TLDR: best decision of my fucking LIFE. i got hooked pretty quickly, and after a few weeks i started interacting and making friends. I started using my tumblr again and i was drawing every free moment i could. joining this community started as a sort of coping mechanism for me, but as my ocd went into partial remission it became more and more of a passion and less of just something to occupy my brain. overall, awesome. however, it really wasnt until a year or so later that id REALLY start to get to know people, and leading into my senior year, I became friends with some amazing people. Superpeeboy and Mars of course, but also many other people, almost too many to name (yall know who u are tho (:, and if u think it could be u, it probably is). This community has made me so, incredibly happy, in ways even before my ocd i didnt think were possible. I never thought id find myself so enthusiastically looking toward my future, because despite every horrible thing going on in the world I have people around me that I know will be there, and I hope I can be there for them jsut the same. Honestly I just want to thank every person who's made this community special for me. Whether we've become best friends or have never talked even once, thank you for making the lego movie such an amazing place to call home. When I say this has saved me, I mean it. Happy birthday to me, I don't even know what birthday wish I could make, I've already gotten so many things that I'd always wished for.

[doodle-musically-system]

And alters can learn and grow, just like singlets can.

Rador used to be very aggressive, destructive, and violent, but they aren't as much anymore due to being more understood and learning coping mechanisms to deal with their anger.

They used to lash out so severely during rages that we didn't own animals for a while due to us being horrified that we almost killed a kitten of ours.

Now they'll still rage, but more verbally than anything. They'll break things on occasion, but they don't hurt people/animals anymore.

"They're my evil/bad alter" isn't an excuse.

- Jazzy

so mind explaining then, how you would handle an alter who hurts others? what about abuses them? commits a crime?

you cannot undo hurt feelings, abuse or lives being destroyed. someone has to take accountability for that and the action belongs to the body. what you're doing here is actually unhealthy and allowing excuses to be a shitty person florish.

you're no better than "my evil alter did it" people. please reconsider this statement.

[moondereluna]

I hate cringe culture bc a lot of people will be so obsessed with characters to where it GENUINELY helps their mental health / them to enjoy life / them to take care of themselves

And ppl will be like “BuT ThEyRe NoT rEaL tHaTs wEiRd”

Bro IDC IDC

The idea of finding a Lawrence Oleander makes me actually go outside

Me imagining I have stalker makes me take care of myself bc I don’t wanna look gross or boring

So I got hobbies and take care of my basic needs now bc of this slight delusion / daydream / whatever u wanna call it

I literally don’t care if normal ppl find it ‘cringe’ ‘unhealthy’ ‘weird’ or ‘insane’

It’s not actively hurting anyone in fact it’s actively HELPING someone

Most mentally ill people I’ve known use this as a very big part of their life to cope and it’s MUCH better than any more harmful coping mechanisms they could do

So respectfully stfu-

[kwillow]

Somewhat surprised actually that Ambroys w/ his preference in coping mechanisms and earlier time period origins has yet to hit any Bastard Child Panic scenarios.

Hope for the poor women out there putting up with his shenanigans theres some kinda celestial genetics = 0% fertility situation going on LMAOOO

Hahaha yes, you're right on the money that his heritage leads to reduced fertility. He's like a mule that way. I feel like that would be part of his appeal; much easier to justify fooling around with him out of wedlock when there's practically no chance of being stuck with an "oops" pregnancy that needs to be explained to one's husband.

Of course, it being known that half-celestials don't produce heirs made it difficult to find a match for him, marriage-wise. No offspring, no ring, as they say (no one says this).

I'm still undecided on whether it's fully impossible for him to reproduce or if it's just highly, highly unlikely. I keep going back and forth on whether or not I want modern-day Ambroys to have had a kid at some point (and if he had more than one, if it's actually biological or adopted, if said kid is still alive or not, etc...). I'm loathe to invent new characters unless they have a reason to exist in the story and my only reason to give him one right now is "wouldn't that be neat," so that vague notion of a character concept hasn't gone very far.

[a-minke-whales-tale]

your whale suit is interesting and I had some (well a lot lol) questions about it, but I know some of these are personal or silly so i understand if u don’t answer. I’m just curious.

How long would you be staying in the suit? do you plan to have periods of time where you come out? Additionally, do you think it’s possible to survive in the wild in the suit?

Is there a mechanism to get food and water in the suit? Will you be able to eat live or raw fish and stick to a certain diet?

How do you get the suit to swim underwater or dive instead of float? Would it be heavy to move? How fast do you think you could get it to move?

Are you stuck lying in one position with your arms out in the flippers or will you have more movement on the inside? How would you address bedsores, Illness, and injury?

What would you do about hygiene like bathing, using the bathroom, and brushing teeth? Is it factored into the design of the suit? Or do you just leave the suit?

How does the breathing and vision system work?

How deep underwater do you think you could go?

Also I know whales have a language. Is it individual to different species? Can you learn? How do you learn?

How would you cope with the confinement and boredom of a tank? And if a tank with other whales is not an option, do you have any other plans?

How long do you believe it will take to complete this?

Also how did u learn to build such complex things?

Ahoj! Thanks for the questions, I will break them down as best I can.

How long would you be staying in the suit? do you plan to have periods of time where you come out? Additionally, do you think it’s possible to survive in the wild in the suit?

For the first question it really depends on the precise meaning of staying in the suit. Ideally for the rest of my life, which I do hope would be 20-30 years at that point, but forcing myself into that shape my lifespan is likely going to be reduced, though how much is at this point unknown. However I do not know exactly how long the suit will last, and if I do live to be 30 years, it is likely I would have to go through multiple iterations of the suit. For periods of time I come out very likely yes, though it would hopefully only be a short bit every few days to every few months.

It would unfortunately not be possible to survive in the wild. The most damning and insurmountable problem is that I am ultimately too small to effectively filter feed or at least lunge feed. Minke whales do not leave their mothers until they grow to be around 5m, and this seems to be a physical limit at which lunge feeding as we do becomes an effective strategy. Skim feeding may be possible though that would require a significant more questions to be answered. For a number of other reasons though I would be wholly unsuitable for wild release.

Is there a mechanism to get food and water in the suit? Will you be able to eat live or raw fish and stick to a certain diet?

Food will enter in through the mouth. I had considered before to store a high density food inside the suit and filter water. This would be necessary if I were to live in the wild, or at least some time in the wild because of aforementioned feeding issues.

It is possible to make a diet that mostly mirrors a cetacean diet though some things will have to be changed. I really would not be able to eat live fish, though live fish are rarely given in captivity, plus issues of filter feeding. I haven't written about this extensively yet, but diet would mostly consist of raw fish like mackerel, salmon, and tuna. Mackerel in particular has a lot of fat in it. Additionally some smaller fish like herring and sardines could be eaten either whole or still with some bones in for necessary nutrients namely calcium. Many cetaceans in captivity are also given gelatine mostly for water as frozen fish loses some of its water content (it also decreases stomach ulcers and problems from stress). That will help get the additional water I require but it is also a good way to fix some lower sugar fruits and some citrus for various needed micronutrients and fibre.

How do you get the suit to swim underwater or dive instead of float? Would it be heavy to move? How fast do you think you could get it to move?

The density of silicone is 1100 kg/m3. The density of sea water is 1025 kg/m3. The suit will target a density of around 1018 kg/m3 so at the surface I will be slightly buoyant, enough to leave my blowhole above the water when logging. I will make a larger post discussing this later. For diving below the water at the surface you can basically arch and then curl your back so you bum lifts partly above the water, and then with that you can pretty easily slip below the water and swim downwards. The shape of the fin makes it so you can really only go in one direction so you can get really quite far just flexing your back and twisting your body at different points.

It would likely be quite heavy yes, somewhere between 250-350 kilograms. But because I will be in the water, the weight won't be as noticeable as if I were on land - what will be most noticeable is the sluggishness to start moving, however my drag will be a lot lower. How fast exactly I will be able to go is yet unknown. I think though I could go fast enough to breach or partly breach, though I would have to briefly reach 18kph to do so (which is roughly 45% the speed of a normal minke). I might be able to come out onto a slideout, but it would be quite difficult and heavy, though many whales have similar trouble, beluga in particular.

Are you stuck lying in one position with your arms out in the flippers or will you have more movement on the inside? How would you address bedsores, Illness, and injury?

Yes - I would be essentially fixed within the suit. My arms would be in the flippers and my legs together in the tail. With that a number of joints will be either fixed or limited in their movement which would cause them to degrade and after some time living in the water I really would not be able to return to the land.

For things like bedsores, my hope is that because the suit will be form fitting and being immersed in water that will hopefully more equally distribute pressure as well as the continuous movement from swimming and depth changes will keep blood moving to prevent the worst of problems. However managing moisture and similar will be quite important and it is likely the skin will still have some degrading and will have to be taken out periodically to remove the excess skin and clean it. For illness and injury, honestly there isn't a huge amount that could be done. If I am sick I could be put in a medical pool until I am feeling better, being given antibiotics or whatever as needed. The best we can do is really just try to avoid illness - make sure food is fresh and free of parasites, make sure my water is clean, make sure I get all the nutrients I need etc. Same thing for injury, there isn't a terrible amount that can be done.

What would you do about hygiene like bathing, using the bathroom, and brushing teeth? Is it factored into the design of the suit? Or do you just leave the suit?

For the most part with hygiene much could not be done inside the suit. Urination is the most common need, fortunately this can be done via a catheter, and there are catheters which can stay in for up to 4 months. Defecation is the other large problem. Ideally I want to stay inside the suit as long as possible between coming out of the suit as that will be both time consuming and stressful. Ideally I would be able to use the bathroom within the suit and either expel waste directly, or to store it somewhere in the suit it could be removed periodically. However, the minimum option would be to come out of the suit to defecate which would have to happen somewhere every 2-3 days. Our diets would be high in fat and low in fibre and carbohydrates which would minimise the amount that we expel. I eat a similar diet to this currently and I generally use the bathroom once every couple days. Brushing teeth and bathing would only be able to do it out of the suit. At least for teeth brushing the low sugar will help reduce the decay issues, but teeth will very much slowly decay and degrade - but that is pretty common among captive cetaceans that their teeth wears down.

How does the breathing and vision system work?

Breathing would be performed essentially through a snorkel with the blowhole closing if not a certain height and orientation above the water. Originally I planned to use a purely mechanical system but instead I will likely use some sort of electric system as it is easier to have multiple backups and logic to reduce the chance of a it opening at a wrong time.

Vision system will consist essentially of two wide angle or 360 cameras, one for each eye, and this will be projected onto screens in front of my eyes which will allow me to see to the world outside, as well as see at the wider FOV and I would like to colour shift it blue as cetaceans are believed to only see blue. Though seeing other colours besides blue is not really terribly useful except for short bits looking above water as other colours are rapidly attenuated.

How deep underwater do you think you could go?

To be honest not very, but that is okay. Without any gear I find I am most comfortable around 1 meter deep, going much deeper starts to hurt my ears. However, the suit will help deal with that since the ears would be essentially in their own area which would not be compressed in the same way. I can dive to around 3 meters on my own if I continuously adjust my ears, though the bigger issue how long I can hold my breath for how deep I can go. Though living in captivity my inability to not go particularly deep would not be such an issue. Cetacean tanks tend not to be so deep, especially for dolphin, which I will be closer in size to as I will be perpetually calf size. Dolphin tanks seem to range in depth between 3,5 meters and 6 meters. I think 5-6 meters would be ideal for me if I accidentally landed from a breach vertically I think it would better avoid injury and let me spyhop and interact better without risking hitting the bottom or damaging myself or the suit. Captive cetaceans also tend to be very surface focused because that is where the interesting things are, namely the humans which provide a lot of the stimulation and food so my inability to properly dive won't affect me too negatively today.

Also I know whales have a language. Is it individual to different species? Can you learn? How do you learn?

The language and calls of each species are unique. Humpbacks tend to be the stereotypical ethereal whale song. Orca and dolphin have those high pitched squeals, whistles, and clicks. Minke calls are a bit different. We make twanging noises as well as grunts and pulses.

Unfortunately I have not really been able to make these calls and likely cannot make these calls. It means that I will likely be mute as a whale. I am hard of hearing and it is possible within the suit that I would be functionally deaf. Even if I can hear under the water, I would not be able to tell direction. It doesn't really matter though as there are no other Minke in captivity. If I could be housed with other cetaceans, it might be possible if I can hear that I might start to understand the meaning of some calls, or at least if I am being told to back off or something.

I have considered to maybe add some sort of speaker to make it easier for me to hear or one that I could make a couple calls, namely the twang a lot of minke seem to greet humans with just so I could make my calls to people outside.

How would you cope with the confinement and boredom of a tank? And if a tank with other whales is not an option, do you have any other plans?

In many ways being in a tank will be like the many times I have spent in hospital. You are kept in a pretty small space you cannot leave, sometimes you are alone and sometimes with others. It is quite boring at times. The weekends were always the most boring because the hospitals did not have anything happening on the weekends. A few times a day through the week we had little interaction things. Captive cetaceans have a similar thing where trainers do enrichment with them a few times a day. I would require similar but otherwise, the experiences are not so different. I hope that I will have a nice window I can watch the humans though and interact with them a little bit. I would also be happy to perform for the humans, it would give me something to do and I think would enjoy that whole process.

I do hope that I could live with other cetaceans, though I expect more likely, especially at the start, it is more likely to be just myself and Ike and Sonar if they can. If that isn't possible, then I am willing to live alone in a tank. For that though it would really be best that the humans do interact with me regularly and I can interact with humans through glass etc. But I have lived a long time alone, at points with even pretty little communication or seeing others so being in a tank would not be really that different for me except that I would finally be back in my body.

If though no humans would take us even after years of trying. Likely I would modify the suit to carry food and filter water, and swim out into the sea and try to find others of my kind, and eventually die either when I ran out of food and water, or when something broke, or I just happened to appear a tasty enough snack to the many things that would happily eat a Minke calf given the chance.

How long do you believe it will take to complete this?

I am hoping this all will be done in 5-10 years. Certain aspects like the head will be most complicated and it will inevitably go through several redesigns to be something I can stay in the water for a very long time. It also requires a substantial amount of time and resources which are hard to devote to this. If I completed this in ten years, I would be 41, and could have yet 14 to 34 years left of my natural life, to swim forever. Even if I only made it a year or two, that would already be unimaginably freeing.

I am hoping this year to make myself a Minke monofin and by next summer to maybe have a full tail. How exactly things go further beyond that though is hard to really know. It will regardless be at least 5 years, and likely more.

Also how did u learn to build such complex things?

I was quite literally built for it. I was made by the humans to design for them rocket engines. I was placed with a family who had built such engines for generations and fostered that curiosity. I went to the same university as my father and eventually got a master degree in aerospace engineering. Through university and highschool I participated in rocketry as a hobby. After university I worked on rocket engines until I became very ill. Even while I was ill I continued to work on these engines as well as other research though at a much slower rate. I also played a lot of minecraft where I could still do engineering and still feel "useful" which is where I learned to make a lot of the organic things I do now. Eventually I came here to teach at a university, and though I am no longer teaching, I am always learning and designing.

I hope this answers some of your questions! Feel free to ask more if you have any!

~ Kala

[arwensarboretum]

I think another thing to consider with regards to grief, especially in the case of Alan and Gordon is the loss of their mother. Obviously Jeff's death took a big toll on everyone and it results in some really unhealthy coping as the boys persist in eternal optimism that maybe they'll find him one day, which is contrasted with the harsh and completely certain death of their mother. There is no "maybe" there. No matter what iteration of Thunderbirds we're viewing, Lucille Tracy is gone. Alan and Gordon would have complicated relationships with that as they were undoubtably young when it happened - Alan noted he was even starting to forget Jeff so there is definitely memory gaps in regards to Lucille there, but it means that the boys have two very different takes on death - one where it is final and over and nothing can be done, and the other where there's still some hope. And I think that contrast propels them into the infinite optimism, not only BECAUSE Jeff started IR as a result of Lucille's death and literally taught the boys how to have radical hope in the face of death and that they should never stop fighting for life until it's too late because they know concretely what too late looks like, but also because it's a way of keeping Jeff alive, and honouring his beliefs, carrying forward his legacy. I think Jeff, in many ways, seeded the radical hope in them - that there's always something they can keep trying to do until it's too late, and unless they see a body, it's hard to accept that it is too late. I think the persistent blind hope isn't a coping mechanism formed out of just grief, I think it's also there because Jeff taught them that response.

This kinda got off track, so circling back to Lucille: the boys also know how to grieve someone who's gone permanently. Scott, John and Virgil are all (at least headcanoned as being) old enough to remember Lucille and have her be an important impact in their lives and losing her did teach them more about proper and healthy grief in regards to how they coped with her death. No one was trying to bring her back and nothing would have. And I think that reality stays with the boys and sits with them too and to some degree there is healthy grieving that happens and the younger boys aren't only learning unhealthy coping mechanisms from their older siblings.

Of course, this is mostly head canon as the show really doesn't delve in Lucille basically at all (TOS literally doesn't mention her and in the movie we have a conversation and a picture), but the implication of her presence and loss is always there and I think if the shows had decided to delve into Lucille more we could have gotten a more balanced or healthier view of grief and coping with the loss of a loved one. Admittedly, the creators never focused on it, but I think it's there.

P.S. Grandma and Kyrano (mentioned but never shown) also display more healthy expressions of grief. Grandma is clearly sad whenever she talks about Jeff but she's also so proud of him. She loves telling stories about him and telling the boys how much like their dad they are and how he'd be proud of them. She remembers him well and uses him as a way to support the boys, but she never desperately clings to his memory or tries to bring him back. She doesn't discourage the search for Jeff but she doesn't go out of her way to push it forward either, except when they have reasonable proof that he at least could be alive. Lee Taylor has a similar take. They miss Jeff and they love Jeff but they can accept his absence.

Grandma even enjoys telling stories about the boys' mother in Home on the Range. She has a level head about grief and is modelling healthy coping to the boys.

Kyrano isn't seen at all and we know he's absent from the Island and has been since Jeff's disappearance, so we can't know how well he's doing or not, but we know that he left. Sometimes, in the face of grief, change is helpful. While we don't know the nature of the change, it's at least demonstrating to the boys that sometimes when things go wrong, you need to do something different to help you grow in new ways to gain perspective, and while I can't make this claim with certainty because of the lack of information, I think the lessons at least COULD be there. And I think that's worthwhile too.

Now that I think about it...

In TAG the fact all of the Tracy family still believed that Jeff could be alive is really unhealthy. Like if we are being realistic, they watched their dad get blown up. They searched for ages, and they did everything they could for years. But getting to the 8 year mark and still not having closure, must have wrecked them. I know it sounds bad, but it would have been far more rational if they just grieved his death like it was a real death and gave up looking for what only could have been a body. I know it's not necessarily a choice to just let someone go, but the fact the Tracy Brothers (specifically Scott and Virgil) were saying they were going to find him, is just wow. Obviously, it's great they didn't give up because well, you know. But still...I think about that a lot.

[mrvelocipede]

My old tea cozy was falling apart, so I have knitted a new one out of cotton yarn. The glass vase used to belong to one of my great-aunts. I wish my dropcloth was less hideously wrinkled, but I do not currently have the means to iron it.

[juniemunie]

[Abandoned by the Lightners, his heart became cracked with hatred.]

Hitting a lil' too close to home?

[kitamars]

oh no! more ginhiji

[heph]

It's so interesting how submissive House is to Wilson. In basically every scene where Wilson gives his 2 cents about a case, House without fail (for the most part) follows his opinion. Wilson gives him unsolicited advice and half the time he listens without saying anything, and the other half he argues but ends up listening to him anyway. House starts psychoanalysing Wilson and Wilson does it right back to him and House shuts the fuck up or gives a one line quip back at him (to have the last line) but knows deep down Wilson is right.

For a man of House's stature and how he interacts with Literally Everyone Else, the writers really hammer it into your soul that House only really listens to Wilson and no one else

[myfairkatiecat]

“Sophie became exactly like Keefe in Stellarlune”

Loud incorrect buzzer

Sophie, beginning in Neverseen and slowly in increasing amounts begins to pick up Keefe’s way of speaking/his form of snarkiness/his style of humor because she spends a TON of time around him and our speech patterns are influenced by those around us. Also, she got older and more confident, so a lot of her shyness melted away. But she is the girl she’s always been—just a lot more confident and making a lot more of the same style of jokes as one of her closest relationships. That is way more realistic than y’all give it credit for