#i also left out any of the rp blogs but most of those arent super active now except tvlandofficial as far as i know

[smells-like-mettaton]

Hello! I’m kinda new to the utdr tumblr scene, so you have any utdr blogs you could recommend? I love yours so far, that’s why I’m asking ahah

Oops I forgot to attempt to answer this after tumblr ate my response attempt last time

Here’s a brief overview of most of the active blogs I follow! I tried not to include multifandom blogs on here btw so sorry to multifandom bloggers and enjoyers.

@carlyraejepsans - sans enjoyer extroidinaire. does great art

@undertaleheritageposts - run by the above. great intro to classic undertale posts

@papyrusmybeloved - cool super nice person, mostly papyrus reblogs

 @a-home-for-the-holidays - noelle (& other holiday fam) art

@picopepin - the mettaton artist ever

@paintedhen - other mettaton artist ever (also blook fam in general, some non-utdr posts)

@ballgame - misc utdr reblogs, good taste, probably a little more dr than ut

@dreemurr-art - toriel, asgore, asriel, ralsei, kris, flowey, and/or frisk content

@it-refused - great finder of underrated ut art, sansby content

@stronger-monsters - incredible incredible artist

@sansofhumor - great art and just all around good taste in posts. went back on ops blog and realized i hadnt noticed so much good art was from the same person dslfkjds

@undertalethingems - mostly known for the comic “unexpected guests,” which i will not be able to provide a good enough summary for but involves giant gaster blaster skeleton dragon puppies. which is statistically impossible not to love.

@uselessundertalefacts - i know i say everyone here has good taste but. good taste and also great fics. lots of funny reblogs here for a good time

@neitherlightnordark - I THOUGHT I PUT YOU HERE EARLIER WHOOPSIE DOOPSY anyway this is my friend norrie norrie has great dr opinions especially on seam my beloved <3

[better-wcrps]

i know a lot of people who find rps that are non-real time really really hard to keep interest in or keep up with because of adhd. you emphasize non-real time rps a lot as something super accessible. how do you think rps can accommodate people who dont do well with those kinds of rp so those people arent left out?

This is a great thought. What I love about this especially is that you're exactly right-- what works for some disabled folks doesn't work for all of them. Even when it comes down to the same disabilities, I have ADHD myself and what works for me doesn't work for my friends with ADHD and most certainly does not apply as a whole to the community. I've absolutely known people who prefer real time for that exact reason.

I think what's important to consider here is that roleplays aren't one size fits all. A lot of this blog may come from my perspective as someone who fits well into liquid time roleplays-- mostly because of my personal experience with issues in regards to removing for activity or punishing people for taking breaks. I may include this in the blog description for better context to future viewers.

It's completely understandable to want a real time roleplay and to enjoy that pace and style of running. My big note is only that players are not punished for inactivity and resources are provided for them to be integrated back in as well as reasons provided for their exit in roleplay to make it more accessible for folks who can't always keep up with that, plus if any real life issues get in the way!

I think real time vs liquid time are two simply different styles of roleplay, and players can fit into both regardless of preference. As a roleplay runner, sometimes you have to choose what works for you and continue with that.

Here's a few suggestions of things a liquid time roleplay can do to help players who enjoy real time:

Include channels that specifically run in the same way real time roleplays do! Meaning these wrap up within the same day or otherwise just take place live as opposed to the liquid time format.

Reminding people to close roleplays threads that have been running for a while with no activity can help things from feeling too slow or drawn out.

Events are great supplements for these and I find often times a great grounding factor for players who prefer real time-- it's fun to run a fast paced event or one that takes place only over the course of a day or expires after a certain amount of time. This is a great chance to not only reach a 'milestone' of how to process time in roleplay (so roleplays can be clearly marked before and after that event for people who need the distinction) but also simulates that pace.

Supplementing little plots to these members or weekly check-ins by mods might be a good way to meet them halfway as well. If someone needs a lot of interest to keep going, mods could give this character a job that evolves and changes a lot. Something where they might have to check in every week and mods can plot out little events. If a character is tasked with surveying surrounding unknown lands, this gives them a chance to keep active by running into unknown creatures or places etc etc. It might take some work on mod team's behalf, but this could be helpful and I've done similar things.

Never hurts as well to make it an openly discussed thing-- encourage players to let others know if they'll be inactive or may be unable to respond frequently. Players can let other people know as well that they're looking for a more fast paced roleplay, that way people who are capable of that in the moment can step up to the plate. No shame in talking about different paces and needing different things.

If anyone who has more experience with preferring real time roleplays has thoughts on how to make liquid time roleplays more accessible to those members, let me know! I would love to include them here. I admit this isn't my exact area of expertise, so I'm open to suggestions.

[inadeepanddarkdecember]

[[ this is kinda rambly and piecemeal and out of order since its an edited convo off of discord from before cy’s heart got replaced, but i decided i wanted this Extra Large thalassemia infodump on my blog. go read this primer first for basic info on thal; cyrus’s form is beta thalassemia major. ]]

even with a perfectly healthy and functional heart, cy'd still have a too fast pulse and likely have arrhythmias; that comes with the territory of his anemia, and he could still develop heart failure again later in life. the problem with cy's current heart is that its been scarred to shit by the extra iron in his body from his blood transfusions and hes developed cardiomyopathy as a result, which at this point is virtually guaranteed to kill him before he turns 30, even if he takes perfect care of himself and never develops any other complications from his thalassemia ever (which aint fuckin likely). this failing heart just deals worse with arrhythmias he already has, especially under stress, and already struggles to keep up enough blood pressure.

bone marrow transplants are currently the closest thing to a cure for thalassemia we have and hellll no he has not had that done i doubt hes even on a waiting list. with his shit in the state hes in, its questionable if he'd even survive the process its pretty intense, nevermind the finances and healing and finding a match and even so much as qualifying to have it done.

cyrus goes in for a blood transfusion every three weeks. when transfusion dates get close, within a few days, hes more tired; he doesnt go out; he can be moodier; he can get headaches and dizzy spells. he feels best after a transfusion, then its just a slow decline till the date rolls around again. i tend to rp him within a week or two of being transfused most of the time simply bc its easier to get him out there interacting with people.

sometimes they coincide with transfusion dates, sometimes they don't, but he has longer appointments to check up on his other bodily functions every so often. theres general stuff, looking at his counts, then more specialized appointments to keep an eye specifically on his heart or check up on his liver and other organs as needed.

thalassemia by itself kills a person through not having enough blood to get oxygen around the body; this is solved through blood transfusions. chronic anemia means chronic transfusions. which would be fine! except chronic transfusions cause a build-up of iron in the body, and that shit is toxic and where the more fatal complications tend to stem from for thalassemia patients. also, being anemic means your body thinks it needs iron, so it's prone to absorb more from food than the average person, an added bonus. consequently, there are certain foods cyrus avoids. legumes, dark leafy greens, etc. look up any list of iron-rich foods, and thats a list of shit cyrus ought to be avoiding or indulging rarely. (funnily enough, these lists also are often advertised towards anemic people because those who arent transfused have the opposite problem.) part of his tea drinking habit is because tea inhibits iron absorption, along with he just likes it. coffee works too and he doesnt object to it, but he prefers tea.

another consequence of chronic transfusions is that you end up with a lot of old shitty dead blood cells in your system, and your spleen is left to clean it up. unfortunately, when faced with that much to clean, it can enlarge (splenomegaly) and become overactive (hypersplenism). so it starts removing healthy blood cells too quickly and too early, which can cause the anemic patient to need more blood when being transfused, which risks more iron, and not to mention its generally uncomfortable for the patient with the enlarged spleen. in short, this happened to cyrus, so his spleen has been removed. spleens, however, also play an important role in the immune system, so he was already kinda vulnerable as an anemic, but having no spleen makes him doubly at risk of infections. he takes antibiotics as part of his daily pharmaceutical regime.

during cold and flu season, docs tend to strongly suggest he wear surgical masks during school and whenever hes around a lot of people in public places, but he almost never does. he doesnt like the attention it gets him esp in school, but sometimes he'll do it when hes on public transit or anything. he does carry hand sanitizer with him a lot of the time tho

bc his immune system is fragile, he often goes in-patient for what would be minor sicknesses for us, esp if theres a fever. he tends to be hit hard by them, and being sick can make his counts plummet as his body tries to fight off the disease.

coming back around to iron related bullshit, iron overload is treated by iron chelation, for which there are mainly two medicines, deferoxamine and deferasirox, and cyrus uses the latter because i have never been able to find out enough goddamn information about deferoxamine. deferoxamine is the more common and cheaper of the two medicines; its injected subcutaneously over the course of 8-12 hours and has its own list of side effects and the process itself tends to be kinda painful from the accounts ive read. its done at home, often while the patient sleeps bc... well, when else are you gonna get a child to sit still for 8-12 hours. its definitely the one cyrus was on for a while, when he was younger. bc ive had a hellish time finding info on the pump used for deferoxamine and more about that medicine generally, cy’s currently on deferasirox. slightly different side effects, but otherwise does the same job in pill form.

thalassemia patients who've been cared for properly should be healthier than cyrus is. most patients his age havent had a heart attack already and arent dealing with heart failure, not yet. his parents have always struggled financially to keep up with his medical bills, but there was a time when he was still young that they still thought they could manage if they just worked hard enough. they were too proud to accept help, and he suffered for it. they eventually gave in but even then still struggled to keep up. sometimes a sudden unexpected change in insurance policy would fuck em for a while finanacially. so sometimes they'd not fill a perscription for a while or wait longer than they should to take him in-patient, hoping he might just tough out a cold or smth. sometimes he'd manage to do that and have abysmal blood counts next time he went in, and a couple of times he got so sick he was legit on death's doorstep by the time he got to the hospital and needed way longer to recover. sometimes cyrus would be too fussy about the deferoxamine and they didnt have the energy that night to force him to accept it or he'd turn off the machine himself after they left. not too often, he was pretty good about just accepting it and did most of the time, but it def happened more than a few times. and if it had already been activated, they couldnt reuse it and had to throw the dose out, in which case that was it he skips it no replacement they cant afford it not in the budget.

and because the effects of iron overload are long-term ones for the most part, it was easy to be like "ehh he seems fine for now". like, they knew the risks, but it was hard to see them as anything but so far in the distance as to be irrelevant. cyrus himself isnt great about the whole self-care thing either; his depression has helped nothing. he's been known to just flush or toss pills in a small spiteful act of rebellion, all his parents care about is that hes still alive and their money, and medicine's expensive, so wouldnt it just piss em off to throw it all away. he'll eat foods he shouldnt for similar reasons, along with just the pleasure of it. and sometimes he hits the sort of suicidal low where he just.... doesnt see the point. each dose he takes is a choice to keep living, and sometimes that choice isnt one he wants to make.

no one quite realized how bad he was tho till his first heart attack. he was so young; the docs dont rly know when hes skipping, so they werent watching too closely for the effects of it. and the damage his body took over time was amplified by his frequent stress. the heart and liver are the ones most affected by iron overload; his liver is somewhat damaged too, but thats not too bad yet, not as bad as his heart.

other little thal things: hormone levels can get super fucked. cy's puberty was a bit delayed, and his testosterone levels remain kinda low compared to average, so hes not as hairy as his genetics might otherwise dictate. he will never be able to grow a proper beard; it'll always be way too patchy and uneven. and despite what his touch aversion and other factors like stress and said low testosterone might lead you to believe, hes got a pretty strong sex drive, though he suppresses the hell out of it.

he was homeschooled for his first few years of elementary bc health concerns, but that couldnt be sustained bc of cost. so he rejoined public school since then. i wouldnt be surprised if his peers used his puberty delays against him, but i'd expect they were making fun of him less bc he was a late bloomer and more at his general girlishness, esp since this would also be around the time he was growing out his hair.

he has had people do the "lookit me ive befriended the sad disabled kid arent i good <3" schtick (which esp pisses him off bc its similar to shit melinda pulls) and hes met the people who try to be nice to him for three days then turn a 180 on him when he doesnt immediately cheer up and get all buddy buddy with them. and hence he now treats kindness from strangers with extreme skepticism, suspicion, and aggression. (thomas also feeds into this but ye) it scares off plenty of legitimately nice people who he could have befriended, buuut.

Oh, a couple Fun Facts I forgot to mention. bc anemia, he bruises easy and injuries generally take longer than normal to heal. And in part bc depression and in part bc meds are prone to fucking with his appetite, either killing it entirely or just making him nauseated, he tends to not eat enough and is kind of underweight. Melinda put him in charge of dinner most nights as part of a genuine good faith effort to ensure he's getting at least one good meal and get him home when he's supposed to be.