#chronic illness/disability Sky and Legend my beloveds

[arecaceae175]

Sentence word prompt: Health

"I don't know what they're talking about. We're the pinnacle of health," Sky said sarcastically, lightly elbowing Legend in the side.

Legend scoffed. "I can think of four different parts of my body that don't work right off the top of my head. Four for you, too. That's not to mention the places that hurt all the time for no reason."

"Eh," Sky said, waving a hand. He dislodged the blanket wrapped around their shoulders. Legend reached a hand out, winced at the cold air, then tugged it tightly to his chest.

"At least no one ever denies me warm blankets and cuddles," Sky said softly. His words were breathy and ragged by the end of the sentence. He coughed roughly, then groaned and let his head fall onto Legend's shoulder. Legend adjusted the blanket more securely around Sky's shoulders.

"That's your secret, is it? All of this just for free hugs?" Legend asked.

"You got me," Sky said. Legend shook his head, biting back a smile.

[arecaceae175]

Directors cut: thoughts on Sky and Legend? Especially as chronic illness buddies like in Resting Together.

Hello fellow chronic illness Sky truther!!!! I’ve been thinking about this all day and all night. I love them your honor

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Sky and Legend as chronic illness buddies. For one I just think they would get along very well, and for two they are so easy to project chronic illness into hehe. Sorry blorbos but actually I’m not 😂

One big thing I enjoy exploring with Sky and Legend is the differences in how obvious their disabilities are to other people. With Legend, he’s naturally a more vocal person, so he would talk about them more I think. I also usually imagine him having mobility aids like braces or compression garments or a cane, etc. So, all that to say I usually write him so that it’s very clear to others he’s disabled. 

With Sky, his are more invisible. Or at least he plays it down well. For example, everyone knows he’s sleepy. When people make lighthearted jokes about it, Sky just smiles and goes along with it instead of saying something like yeah I’m always horribly fatigued from my chronic illness 🥲.

I also think there would be a difference in how disability and chronic illness are handled between Sky’s and Legend’s era. Legend is so far into the future and his civilization is more advanced, so he would be much more likely to actually have terms and words and diagnoses to describe his experiences. That makes it so so so much easier to understand his body and his experiences, describe them to others, and ask for and use accommodations.

Sky has a tendency to downplay and ignore his symptoms until it sends him into a flare up and he can’t ignore them anymore. Part of it is who he is and the trauma issues from not being fast enough, but also part of it is some internalized ableism telling him his symptoms aren’t as bad because they don’t present exactly like Legend’s. THAT IS NOT TRUE!!!!! DO NOT BE LIKE SKY!!!!! Everyone’s symptoms are different and you should never downplay your problems because you believe someone else has it worse.

All of this is something very important to me personally, and I think it resonates well with any others out there with undiagnosed issues and invisible disabilities.

So yeah. Those are my thoughts. They’re very important to me 💞💞💞💞💞