#my god how do i tag this

[flecks-of-stardust]

Sensitivity Reader Info Post

more recent update: dreamless is no longer a fanfic and this post is now defunct. please do NOT respond to the call.

You may have seen me post one of these around a year back. That post is now totally outdated; please refer to this one for future reference.

Let's cut to the chase for this. I've got a bunch of characters whose experiences I don't share, and I just want people who do have those experiences to look over my ideas and maybe talk a little about what they'd be interested in seeing for these characters. I'm very into the idea of casual disability, ie where the fact that a character is disabled is as mundane as, say, the fact that a character is queer. I don't want it to be a big deal if at all possible, though in some cases, they will implicate plot; that's where I need more input.

Dreamless is a Hollow Knight fanfic, so ideally, if you want to help, you should be at least somewhat familiar with the game and the lore, though I'm more than happy to relay information to you if you don't know it. I am working with anthro bugs, so some things will differ from human biology (namely, bug vision), but a lot of things will be mostly translatable to human experiences. Largely I just want personal anecdotes, maybe a space to chat about this character in the context of their disability and iron out some kinks.

Since the last iteration of this post went up, I've met some people who have been a great help on some of these things. I'm going to keep them up just in case other people still want to give input, but anything marked with asterisks (*) is something I still need extra input on. And like last time, there will be spoilers under the cut, so read at your own discretion.

I'm going to separate this by disability/condition I want to have input on, just for organizational purposes. Asterisks will be put around the header for the disabilities/conditions I want extra input on, and will also be bolded.

Blindness/Visual Impairment

Lurien — blind via injury; he essentially got his corneas melted. He has a bit of retinal damage and a bit of color vision loss from that, but the bigger impact is actually what's left of his corneas healing in a way that gives him really severe astigmatism. At the point in the story that he shows up in, he's been blind for decades, so he's very accustomed to the way things are now. He does have some visual correction from his mask, which is enchanted to work like glasses, and he uses the equivalent of a white cane to get around. He also paints and plays the harp, and can also build several kinds of instruments.

I have received a lot of input about him; I know that with good lighting he'll be able to do a lot, and he'll likely turn his head to see from the better side of his vision a lot. The reason he's blind is a bit plot relevant, but honestly this is one of those things where regardless of whether he's blind, he would still react the same way. He just so happens to be blind. This is a theme in a lot of these characters; I just want to know how they would go about their lives, disability or no.

Monomon — blind by birth. She's a jellyfish, specifically based on a box jelly, so she has eyes, they're just. Really really tiny. At her size and the size of things around her, her eyes kind of can't keep up. She's roughly equivalent to having pretty bad myopia, though I couldn't give you an exact figure on how bad. She's a scientist and her Archives double as her lab, so she does work with dangerous substances from time to time. I know she'll have lots of tools to help her though, and again, good lighting will help, as well as her mask, which is enchanted to work like bifocal glasses. I've also been told that her visual impairment won't be that bad, but again if anyone has any other input I'd appreciate it.

Glimmer — aka the Hollow Knight; blind by injury. As of their appearance, their right eye ruptured and had to be amputated, and their left eye has what could be likened to cataracts. There's still shards of Radi's influence inside their remaining eye that no one can safely operate on to remove, so they're just leaving it as is. This means they have very little remaining vision, and I'm uncertain how this would change something like direct combat. Not that they'd have the energy to fight much of anything once everything is resolved though, honestly. They're more inclined to burrow into a pile of blankets.

*Epilepsy*

Orchid — aka Greenpath Vessel. Hornet pretty much gave them brain trauma, and that and some magical shit going on resulted in them developing epilepsy. They still have mainly absence seizures, but I haven't fully decided if they ever end up having a grand mal. That's really something I'd prefer discussing with someone, since their epilepsy becomes plot relevant in two different instances. Just want to run it by someone who actually has experience with this, yknow. Their epilepsy is unmedicated because no one's figured out how to actually get the typical treatments to work on them yet since they're Void based. You can treat it like medication resistant epilepsy if need be. I do need more information on what it's like to mostly have absence seizures; most of the information I've found so far focuses on grand mals, which is very understandable.

Lyzi — an original character; she's a white mantis. She has idiopathic epilepsy that developed out of nowhere fairly late, like around her early twenties. That fact can change if necessary though. She's grown accustomed to living with her epilepsy, and it's also medication controlled now. I don't think she's had a breakthrough seizure in years, but you never really stop worrying about it. She mostly has myoclonic seizures, which, again, I do need more information on.

*Service Animals*

Lyzi — putting her right after again because this ties into what I said above. Lyzi has a service grub (effectively a service dog), Asta, who is not with her for the entirety of the main story. Mostly I just want to run this by someone who has a service dog/animal to work out some logistics. The main idea behind this is that where Lyzi escaped to is inhospitable to Asta, and trying to bring her along would almost 100% guaranteed kill her, so Lyzi had to leave her behind. I'm just a little concerned since I know how important service dogs are to keep their handlers safe, so I want to talk about it with someone.

*Amputees*

Glimmer — if you've seen them you will know that they canonically lost an arm. In Dreamless, it was their left arm, and it's effectively a traumatic amputation. From what I've seen from leg amputees I know there's a lot of shifts in muscle weight bearing and energy needs overall from the sudden loss of a limb, but I haven't found much information that's specifically about arm amputees. I don't mind input from amputees who did not have a limb/limbs from birth though; again, a lot of this is very casual and background, I mostly just want to know how they'd go about their life, though there is some plot that is relevant to them losing their arm. They do confront their sire at some point down the line, so. Maybe we'll talk about that a bit too.

*Adoption Trauma*

Hornet — I feel like no matter which way you cut it, Hornet's a trans racial adoptee from the Spider Tribe that was sort of dual fostered by Veska, the Wasp Queen, and the pale rulers. More so Veska though. I've seen some stuff about this; a few advocates talk about the inherent trauma of adoption, even if your adoptive parents are kind and loving, and that's kind of the angle I want to talk about. No matter how much Veska loved Hornet, and she loved her so so deeply, she can't replace what Herrah was to Hornet, and she can't give Hornet the true experience of the culture she was forced to leave behind. She doesn't even really have visitation with her old kingdom, she was just totally cut off for years. I can extrapolate a bit based on my own experiences, but if possible it'd be nice to talk to someone about this.

Stuttering and/or vocal disorders

Aila — Myla in canon, name just slightly changed for conlang reasons. Mostly just me wanting to know how best to approach writing her dialogue, since I want to expand on her canonical stutter. I recently got information on this, but other folks who want to chime in are more than free to do so.

If you're interested in giving input, let me know via sending me an ask, and then we can communicate more from there on out. I typically prefer talking over discord since it's easier to share information there, and tumblr's chat function is. Pretty fucking ass, to be honest, but it's not a strict necessity. If you don't want to commit to a more formal sensitivity reader arrangement, but still want to provide some input, you're more than free to leave stuff in the comments, like thoughts, concerns, resources that you want me to have, etc. I'm very open to it all.

I will say that I can't offer very much in terms of compensation, but I'm very happy to boost your work/follow you/whatever else you want if you want me to. And you're also just free to ask more about my characters, and I'll see what I can share without spoilers fgkjsd

[marfian]

So act 3 huh

[me-beef]

@strangeravatar made a great point

i was gonna focus on the spike-hotboxing-celestia aspect but i got distracted somewhere along the way and i think i forgot what joke i was trying to make

but dont you think its interesting how many guards of the exact same color/body type she's managed to accrue?? i do

ooohh you want to go look at our stickers so bad

[brainrotcharacters]

the easy grip on the knife. the leg over the seat. the hand over the other seat. the sassy "come get it" move. you know the bitch is smiling behind that mask even as he said the line.

[4rackn0]

My first full body shot in FD where i actually designed an outfit & stuff, pretty old-i see all the mistakes and its killinnnnnn me. anyway here ya go

i remember how gosh darn proud of the hair at the time ^v^

[bloominglegumes]

i love normal guys doomed by the narrative

[hinamie]

some quick jjk eye paintings

[artrealla]

[lilygilded]

feed the men.

[lucabyte]

On autonomy, and what it means to be Obliged to Help.

Bonus:

[winkle-pickers]

Covenant

[xxplastic-cubexx]

[right to left]

finally finished This Wip from Ever ago and so now i ask you ever look into another dudes eyes and suddenly want to do whatever he wants

[nailsinmywall]

Descendants of finwë (incl. kidnapped children): sons and daughters of fëanor, fingolfin and finarfin

[captainswhore]

you see price sitting like this when you walk into a room post mission- and you know exactly what it is he needs.

he's licking at you and holding your thighs open with his rough palms- and you can't take it. his calluses and his beard and the fabric of his sleeves are rubbing at your legs just right- but not enough for you to lose focus on his hot tongue rubbing on you and in you and you've never been wetter in your LIFE.

his only problem? you're still moving too much. he can't reach where he wants to inside of you because you keep wiggling out of his way. his hands want to touch you everywhere- not just hold your thighs still. this is when he begins to squeeze at you everywhere, and tell you to rest your thighs on his shoulders.

"b-but price- hhnngh ohmygod- i c-can't. they're too big. thighs are too big"

you whine at the loss of contact, but then you look down and see him staring at you with massive pupils and a wet face. "lovie- my shoulders are broad for a reason. rest your thighs on em and i swear they'll have enough room"

and you listen, and you're crushing his ears with your thighs, and he's never been happier. the next time you look down? he's rutting into the mattress and you see his hips stutter when he groans into you and your vision goes white

(@chamomiletealeaf and i had SUCH A HORNY discussion about this and she told me to post it so here i am- and also omg photo creds to her. we've gotta reign it in lmfao)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Sorry for not having a Year of the Dragon MDZS artwork; Unfortunately, I can only picture Dragon LWJ in this particular flavour.

[hinamie]

completely innocuous vash sheet :) fr practice