#of something that shouldn't feasibly exist

[dustyspines]

Hi! I just read your latest fic (love it btw) but i'm just wondering about the letters bit and when they use Jake to my Sadie? What is it a reference to? I've never heard it before im just curious :)

hi!!! (tysm)

jake and sadie is a reference to one of my favourite stephen king books 11/22/63!!! there's a lot of king scattered in the fic (he's all consuming in my life rn) - i'm pretty sure i reference the shining in there (carrie is coming in ch. 2 and i think the stand as well?) because i've decided to force unto squib albus my love of horror lol.

but yes - jake and sadie are the main romance in 11/22/63, which is one of the best books in existence. they're just a wonderfully written couple and their last scene is soul-crushing and if you know anything of the plot of 11/22/63 you'll kind of know that jake and sadie are drawn to each other in all universes even if they really shouldn't be and i just took that dynamic and ran with it for a throwaway squib/wizard reference :)

(10/10 recommend everyone reads this book!!!!! even if you dont like king i am convinced everyone can love 11/22/63)

[fluentisonus]

.

[toskarin]

going on the twine rant again, lads. fair warning.

-

the twine editor is theoretically great software

which is to say, twine editor is far and away the best execution of "a text game maker for people who mostly make text and not games" that presently exists. it's notable for making wholly self-contained (read: does not require interpreter software) text games with functioning mechanics at about the level of code literacy you could feasibly ask from people who brushed off of other more complicated software

this is in large part because the text adventure and IF ecosystem has the same problem as the (similarly insular and incestuous) scorewriting ecosystem: all of the software is made to be used by a group of like 50 people who don't use anything else, so they just settle for whatever exists

twine solves a lot of these problems by simply existing as an html game maker that can automate all of the functions of a gamebook out of the box. the editor has features which (to me) seem to be inspired by scrivener, which is my favourite WYSIWYG writing software for longform fiction on the market (I prefer writing in LaTeX but I can acknowledge that's a habit I picked up and not an endorsement of LaTeX)

that being said, even though there's an obvious utility to being able to prototype out rpgs and such in twine incredibly quickly, I can't really recommend people... use twine for that. because of the problems.

the twine editor is also kind of beautiful for all the ways in which it issoftware designed to torture the user

twine exists with one foot in "games" and one foot in "writing" and this overlap is the totality of its intended use. this space of compromise is still the best that's been made for this specific scene, but it means that edge cases are (at absolute best) operating twine in much the way that someone being hanging onto the edge of a shattered cockpit is operating an airliner

I could go on and on about the specific elements of twine's design that drive me insane, and in how it punishes you both for making too much of a book and for making too much of a game, but there's one problem that kind of sticks out as a simulacrum of this whole issue

by design, twine organises its projects as a story map. this is kind of like the middle point between scrivener's storyboard and a whiteboard, but specialised for use in making text games. this means that each node on it is one screen, called a card, that you can open and edit

doing this opens a window for text input, and the exact contents of this window kind of depend on which format you're writing your story in, but as a rule, you write everything into these sub-windows and that's the game

because twine runs in one window, these cards open more like menus than true windows. you can have one open at a time, and when you need to test something, you close the window and press the button to test the game. simple as

now, for making software, it's helpful to have a versioning function of some sort in case, among other reasons, you fuck something up in a way you don't immediately notice

for writing, you usually want some sort of undo function, in case you accidentally delete something or edit over it

at the intersection of these two, twine does have an undo function. which works differently depending on which version of the editor you're using. in the web version, you get multiple layers of undo. that makes sense.

in the downloaded version, which is the version you have to use if you don't want to use your browser's local storage (?? you shouldn't be doing this) you get

one layer of undo.

in a modern text editor.

that you are expected to write in.

this is on top of the browser-hosted version of twine editor being significantly more stable than the desktop version, so that's obviously the version you're meant to use, which runs in stark contrast to like... how that should work. this should already be raising your blood pressure a little bit if you remember that the browser version of twine saves your project files to your browser's local storage

now, common to both versions is another important feature which seemingly exists to prevent data loss: twine automatically saves your changes when you exit out of a card

this means that, the moment you close a card to go test the changes you just made to your game, they are saved over the previous version of the game with no way to undo them

but there IS a way to get around this without having to write in an entirely separate word processor! several ways even. you can even use the downloaded version if you do this

duplicate the full project every single time you make changes that could necessitate an undo function

make a copy of every card you edit in case you need to revert to it after testing, then remember to delete it afterwards

if you're editing the cards themselves, see option 1, because there is no way to undo deletion of cards in the story map

and like... that's not good. it's kind of the hell machine for killing all human beings, actually

it's also not a problem remotely unique to twine, because this is the kind of thing you see in most niche-specialised software where there isn't really a distinction made between "this is an expected frustration of working on any artistic project" and "this is something completely insane that absolutely should not be the case and isn't tolerated in immediately adjacent comparable creative fields"

twine can be used to make longer projects, but at the point where you're recommending two layers of supporting software that overlap so hard with the editor that they should be redundancies, it becomes clear that the only thing it's really fit-for-purpose to do is non-linear fiction consisting of two or three paragraphs per card

and that's generally not what it's used for! because that sort of thing is almost universally understood as a stepping stone towards using twine for making either longform non-linear fiction or full-featured rpgs

twine could be really useful software, and in fairness it's generally better than the alternatives it supplanted in its niche (people making little interactive poems probably shouldn't be trying to use Inform or TADS), but it really seems like it was designed with as a cursed amulet meant to cause as much grief as possible while being difficult to justify throwing away

[utdrmv-confession-box]

Transcript: Some people say they want problematic AUs to be forgotten and erased. I have personal issues with that, as someone who thinks far too much about the erasure of history and culture.

No matter how inane or bad or wrong you think the existence of something is, I think it shouldn't be erased. Anything that happens has a place in the world. If we hide and forget the things we don't like, how can we build from our experiences to make something better? To think about how to better deal with such things in the future?

TLDR: If you don't like something you can ignore it, but wanting to wipe it from history is both not feasible as well as ill-advised.

Sorry, I got WAY too serious about that. I think about this too much, and it shows.

[stromuprisahat]

I love your takes on the grishaverse so I was wondering what you thoughts was on the theory/headcanon that Alina didn’t really lose her powers but unknowingly locked them as she did before the books’ beginning? Maybe there was a period where she couldn’t summon light bcs she was too exhausted and stressed out by the whole ‘final battle’ thing – banishing thee Fold, Mal’s ‘death’, Darkling’s death – so she assumed she had lost it. And then it was easier to unknowingly continue like that bcs it allowed her to remove herself from ruling and making any decisions and just have her simple co-depended life with Mal as she always wanted.

Personally, I don’t think that’s what happened in canon (certainly not what Bardugo meant) but I find it feasible as fanon interpretation, considering how depressed and deluded Alina appears post-RAR.

I'm more leaning into the explanation, that she intentionally, yet subconsciously rid herself of them (and maybe revived Malyen, when we're at it, since the second life bullshit is just that- bullshit that doesn't make sense, since no other amplifier's running around the same way. But then again- I'm very skeptical, when it comes to Malyen actually being one- he has no properties others do.).

Alina recognizes that as long as she's Grisha, she won't be able to be only with Malyen, and she already admitted she's trying to mould herself into whatever he seems to want from her.

Merzost doesn't seem to be random- it's driven by intention. Ilya "upgraded" mythical animals to have certain properties, Aleksander fucked up first, but then managed to find a way to actively protect his people, when in situation his powers weren't enough. Alina lost what made her special, but since her goal wasn't finished yet, other Sun Summoners sprang into existence and fucked up destruction of the Fold, because it's merzost-made, therefore logic tells us ordinary Small Science shouldn't be enough to vanquish it.

It's true the previous time Alina worked with merzost, her powers "disappeared" for a while, but the "magic" also isn't working from nothing. No matter what we're told, there is a cost, some input. It's not "pure creation". We can see it, when Sasha makes nichevo'ya- he's using his own essence, his life force or whatever want you to call it, to draw them into existence, so Alina would need ~something~ to distribute her powers among others, and the amplifiers are just that- they amplify, wider one's range, not give a new ability.

Besides- there's the question of what grandpa Ilya wanted. If he aimed at Grisha being accepted, instead of othered, why would he take away from one the give to more. It might look pragmatic, but the range is too limited and even if he created such "tools" over and over- he'd only make a new caste of "once-Grisha", instead of levelling the playing field.

One of my fellow fans also pointed out that if merzost is magic, perhaps Alina used it to become an ordinary otkazat'sya. I don't believe so. She might've made herself to appear as one, but after all those books spent reading how is being Grisha integral part of their being, something that makes them themselves... looking at post R&R Chapter 17 Alina isn't looking at slightly more traumatized Alina that can't summon the Light because it's not a part of her. It's looking at a husk of the girl, just like the ends of previous books, when she was suffering due to missing her powers on physical level.

And her lack of skill, when using merzost previous time would support it. She locked away her powers and her hair went white the first time. She got rid of her Light, but her body "remembers" it's missing something.

edit: Also- thank you for (positive) feedback, I'm not being rude, I'm just an social idiot with totally not ADHD, so I get focused on "the point", and forget the social stuff like greeting and replying to nice words, which ARE very motivating for me, but HERE'S THE STUFF I'm thinking about and my brain's coming up with coherent answers- LOOK!

[seriousbrat]

@annasghosts I didn't want to pile on that post any more lol but I wanted to reply to this because it's interesting.

To me headcanon always implied something that could feasibly be canon. Like, to me it means "in my head, this is basically canon". So presumably something that you think would fit believably into existing canon but just hasn't been confirmed. So a headcanon would be "I think Vernon Dursley is a chelsea supporter", like u can't just go "I headcanon that the avengers came to hogwarts and were sorted into a secret fifth house".

It does seem like it's been warped over time. In some ways I think this is okay, such as saying "my headcanon is that Sirius was gay" even though iirc jkr said he wasn't*. Because even though it's not true in terms of the author's intent, it also doesn't contradict canon in any significant way. There's no concrete information either way in the actual text and it doesnt (or shouldn't lol. anyway...) change anything about the character or the story.

however since most of the fandom has Pretending There Is No Info About the Marauders disease, this just leads people to use 'headcanon' to mean "any random thing I made up on the spot which I personally would like to be true" to the point it has no meaning lol. Since the fanon Marauders are basically just OCs at this point, their "headcanon" are just character traits that they've given to their original characters. Which is kind of funny.

*edit: apparently jkr did not say that and I misremembered/was misinformed. BUt I do think it's likely that he wasn't intended to be gay, so I think my point stands anyway.

[bijoumikhawal]

Bite the Hand that Starves You: Chapter Six

Fic as of this chapter contains: discussion of abortion, references to drug use, intersex and trans characters, torture/graphic violence, colonialism and its aftermath, implied sexual violence, disassociation

Kardasi: peikirvi- would translate to something like "concubine", specifically refers to an individual that socially presents as male, and was assigned such at birth, but can carry children (and often could impregnate someone else), who is legally bound to someone. Usually this is done with a pre-existing couple who has fertility issues.

---

Peikirvi don’t get grand celebrations when they’re added to someone’s family. Women, less commonly men, or more commonly… it didn’t matter.

It is Garak, Barkan, and Palandine. Almost like that night in the garden, many years ago- except now, there is a government official, looking quite bored, and her assistant.

Normally, their parents would be here too. Of course, Garak does not get that comfort. He wonders why they didn’t bring theirs.

The dark coral doesn’t look quite right on Garak’s skin. Palandine and Barkan both naturally look regal in reddened burnt orange. Orange, orange, orange- of course it's all orange. Blue is too improper, even when it's ostensibly the only reason he's here.

Palandine, as the existing spouse, has a structured cap over her hair, to symbolize that she won’t be jealous. Neither of them has been able to make eye contact since they both entered the room. These are the details Garak latches onto as, in turn, they each wash their hands and mouth. The ink of signatures is already drying.

The skimmer isn't outfitted the way it would be if this was a grand celebration either, of course, and there is no procession, no well wishers. It wasn’t that Garak expected any- had ever expected any. He stopped considering the idea that he would have a legally recognized partner after he left Bamarren.

Palandine is sent off so he and Barkan are alone. Barkan stands behind him, stroking his neck ridges.

“How is your leg these days? Your spine?”

“Healed.”

“A pity, what happened during the competition…” Barkan sighed. “I suppose I never explained myself to you.”

“I suppose you didn’t.”

“Shh- this is meant to be a happy occasion. I shouldn't have mentioned it.”

Garak let his shoulder relax under Barkan’s touch instead of pushing himself to resist. “How would you explain yourself?”

“You know how brutal social politics can be, Elim. You were only in your first year… and frankly, you didn't have a strong standing among your peers. If I had awarded you, I realized, it would put a target on your back.” Barkan’s fingers slipped into his mijast, undoing the fastenings. “You would be the one to beat, into submission. It was improper of me to seek out your knowledge in the first place. Hearing how badly you were injured made me realize why.”

“I thought that was an accident.” Barkan stayed behind him, so Garak did not reciprocate the undressing.

“As far as I know, it was. But if that was how bad an accident could be, a purposeful attack…” he was at the lacing on Garak’s supportive garments now. “It was a miserable sight, seeing you use that cane for all those months.”

Garak’s hand curled, remembering the grip of the handle, how smooth it had worn by the end. “I see.”

“You don't.” Barkan’s hands slid over his stomach. “I…”

Garak turned in his arms. “You're still dressed.”

---

This time, Garak wasn't in a decrepit hall, or his shop, or on the promenade. This time, Garak was ill fated to be on a turbolift.

There were many times when he wished stairs were feasible on space stations.

When Barkan laid eyes on him, he turned to his aide, and gestured for them to go off and do who knows what. The doors closed behind him like red curtains.

"How lucky I've become." Barkan mused, voice like a whetstone.

"How unpatriotic." Garak replied. A good Cardassian did not believe in fickle luck- fate was another matter.

Barkan laughed, but didn't go for the obvious barb. He went for a worse one. "That doctor of yours... he's quite young, isn't he? A little younger than you were, when you joined my household."

"I hadn't noticed." Garak said dryly. He was lying, of course, but Barkan didn't know that. It had, once or twice, prickled at him, like straight pins shoved under scales, Julian's youth, and the things that came with it- naivete, exuberance.

It sometimes made him angry. Made Garak want to grab him by the collar and shake him.

"Really?"

"Yes." Garak resisted the urge to elaborate- to say something about Bashir's competence as not just a doctor, but CMO, member of the station senior staff. To further slide in that he was not only a doctor, but a soldier.

Barkan wanted him to talk.

"Strange." Barkan murmured. "You're usually so observant. I suppose you pay more attention to clothes than people these days."

Garak stared at him blankly. Well, not blankly- simply with what, to him, felt like a neutral expression. It tended to make him look a bit sullen.

Barkan tilted his head, smiling. "Well, when you do that, you like you did when we met."

Palandine's advice of smiling as a way of being powerful did not work on this man. Garak’s smile would be evidence of his power. His sullenness would be too, but it was more unpleasant for Barkan.

He hoped it prodded at his wounds, whispered in his ear how did you think this was your caged darling? How blinded by your desires were you not to see the teeth in his maw, the claws at the bend of the wing?

The compartment came to a stop, and the doors opened. Garak left without a word.

Barkan let him.

---

Julian was in line at the Klingon restaurant, trying not to think about work, when he of course ran into his only superior. “Captain.” Julian greeted him with a smile. “I don't usually see you eat out.”

Sisko tipped his head to the side. “Kaga has been pleading with me to try his cooking, on the house, ever since we tied as finalists in a station competition. I gave him a heads up that I'd be taking him up on that offer today- I'm hoping it'll help me relax after all these meetings with Dukat.”

Julian sighed. Dukat and his crew would, thankfully, be leaving in two days. “Speaking of… sir, I have a request.”

It was then that Kaga came to greet his guest. “Captain Sisko! You did not tell me you had a guest!” He clapped a hand on each of their shoulders. “But he will be a great help to you in eating everything I've prepared! Doctor, where have you been hiding?”

Julian opened his mouth to explain that actually, they were both on their own, but a squeeze on his arm from Sisko made him think better of it. “I've just been…” he sighed, “Very busy.”

“Too busy to eat! Pah. You must learn to delegate.” Kaga escorted them to a corner that had been done up nicely, and already was set up with several dishes giving off fragrant steam. They were indeed, more than enough for one person… potentially three. “Sit, sit and eat. Later I will come and entertain you personally, and if T'ustolla does not treat you well in the meantime, he will go in tomorrow's special!”

“That must be the new assistant.” Julian said as Kaga left.

“Hopefully he's a match for Kaga.” Sisko said with a smile. “You had a request of me?” He said, taking the first dish.

“Yes.” Julian looked down at the table. “I understand if you think it's a bad time, sir, but I was hoping to take some leave.”

“Of course. What makes you think it's a bad time?” Sisko asked as he looked around for utensils.

“You eat these with your hands sir, it's like Ethiopian food- well. Recently, we had first contact with the main political power of the Delta quadrant, and it was hostile, possibly irreconcilably so. There's the usual tension with Bajor, increased tension with Cardassia, kunowaat is still going around even if it’s petering out with no new infections, and most likely something I'm forgetting at the moment.”

“To you that sounds like I shouldn't give you leave. To me that sounds like the last chance you may get in awhile, doctor.”

“Oh, don't jinx me.” Julian sighed. “I see your point, though. It'll be a moment before things get worse, and when they do…”

Sisko patted his hand. “Just wait until you've got a decade of service under your belt. Now, is there anything else you wanted from me?”

“No, sir.”

“Then take Kaga's advice and eat.”

---

The rest of their dinner conversation had been light. They'd said their goodbyes to each other, and now Julian was walking. Walking and thinking- found himself thinking about his own... relationship to the idea of children.

One of the things he and Palis understood was that Julian was never having children. She'd been fine with that- understood some of it, even, having a fraught relationship with her own parents that they'd mended after years of effort.

No one knew that a lot of it was for the sane reason as Garak- it simply would be cruel for him to have children. It'd brand them as accomplices, and Julian would rather not repeat his parents mistakes.

He stopped in front of Garak’s quarters.

Naturally, he was here to check in on his friend, as a friend, not as a doctor.

After a moment of thought, Julian buzzed the door. It seemed Garak took a moment to think as well, since the door opened just as Julian was about to press the door buzzer again.

Garak had on his normal clothes this time.

It seemed Garak was in the midst of sewing something, fabric stretched out on the table before him. Fragrant steam floated up from a mug of tea kept in arm's reach.

"New clothes for yourself?" Julian guessed.

"Mm." Garak put down the cutting tool he was using.

"It looks nice." Julian offered.

"Why are you here?"

Julian’s brow knitted in confusion. "I'm checking in on you. I thought you might want to talk again."

"Did you." Garak passive aggressively folded a length of fabric- it made Julian tense, reminding him of his mother.

Julian set his jaw, cautious. "Yes, Garak, I did."

Garak didn't look at him as he kept talking, instead putting the fabric on a shelf under the table. "Well, doctor, I don't. I don't wish to acknowledge whats happened at all- you should know that by now." He hadn't looked at Julian the while time, and he was putting on a a patronizing air, but-

But it was normal, really. Julian breathed. "Alright." If Garak didn't want to talk, that was fine. And he wasn't lying, or at least his lies were consistent- last time, he'd just asked about the pudding. "I still-"

"Came for something else."

"To be... here, yes." Julian felt off balance, but held his ground. Garak had called him last time, and yes, they'd had a misunderstanding, but. Ultimately, Garak had been soothed by him.

Julian wanted to soothe him.

"Why?" Garak asked again. "Just being here is hardly a reason. There's nothing here. I'm in no state to host, and you know this."

Julian stared at him. "I'm not asking you to host me. You don't need to-"

Garak laughed, getting up and walking to the window. "Well, thank you for your clemency. Your permission."

Everything he said was going to be taken badly, wasn't it? Julian sighed- he hadn't figured out how to respond to Garak when he was upset like this yet. "I didn't mean it that way."

"No, I suppose it simply doesn't matter to you." Garak remarked. "That imposing might be inconvenient for others."

He was doing bullshit again, it seemed. Julian bit his cheek, thinking.

Garak had his back to him. "Well? Have anything to say for yourself?"

"Garak... must we do this?"

Garak was still- his shoulders did not twitch, and if his face changed, it was hidden. Unlike last time, and the time before, he had solid control on himself. "Dodging, doctor?"

"You aren't upset that I'm imposing and you aren't in a state to receive guests."

"How do you know? How do you know anything at all?"

"You never cared about it before." Julian pointed out. Admittedly, Garak had only invited him over once or twice before- before this, and the wire. But he hadn't cared then. There'd been the clutter of life around then, and it wasn't that anything special was prepared. They had drinks from the replicator and draped themselves over the too-hard chairs.

"Perhaps I've realized I've been improper and wish to change."

Julian raised his brows, thinking back on their interrupted lunch. "Improper?"

"Classless. Whichever word you like."

Julian frowned. "That's not it either."

That made Garak snap and turn to him. "Then perhaps it's this, doctor: I want you to leave, and wanted to-"

"Be polite about it?" Julian couldn't help himself. The second part was so ridiculous- nothing about Garak’s attempts had been polite. His tone conveyed all that disbelief exactly.

Garak’s face was set and cold. "So clever. So... quick."

This had been a mistake. Or had it? Julian still didn't know why Garak was acting like this, and didn't buy that him coming by had incited it. Mistake implied he could've avoided it.

In any case, he was at a loss for what to do. "Garak..." He tried again, and it hung in the air, lonely and ineffective.

"Good night, doctor." Garak turned away from him again.

Julian reached for him for a second, then, remembering, took his hand back. He nodded to himself and left.

He walked a few yards of corridor before the overwhelming need to stop came over him. He leaned against the wall, pressed a hand to his forehead and willed his heart rate to go down.

CMO of a station fresh out of the academy. Impressive, and an easy way into an early grave- exactly what he'd wanted. But two years was a little fast.

He really needed that break away, didn't he?

[through-lines]

I've had this idea floating around my head for a while that I've been calling xenogastronomy.

There's been talk here and there about food for nonhumans and alternatives that are safe for our bodies, but what I have in mind is more so this:

How do you make a dish that requires ingredients that don't exist?

How do you replicate flavors that the human body is incapable of tasting?

Basically, it's otherworldly cooking/eating; culinary experiments to (re)create food from worlds beyond this one. And I'd rather have this concept in more culinarily capable hands, but meanwhile, I've been brainstorming dish ideas that are personal to me…

As I mentioned previously, I have ideas about what kind of food I ate as a Nightmare/n, and part of those ideas is that food tastes a little weird: either there's qualities to our food that you just don't get in human food, or we're capable of tasting flavors that humans can't. Maybe they can be roughly approximated to human tastes, but there's always something missing. (Which is a depressingly common theme in my attempts to recall things about my experiences in that world.)

One of the things I'm contemplating is creating meat dishes that involve meat that doesn't exist--which is technically all meat dishes, but it's probably good enough to use mutton for a sheep-like creature's meat. But pian…are not like anything. And maybe there's a certain quality to that mutton that the "real"-world equivalent doesn't offer. So an experiment I'd like to try (if I ever get the time and space to) is messing around with ingredients used to make and flavor foods used as meat substitutes (e.g. tofu and seitan). What could you use in addition to (or in place of) water? What can you use to create strange or unexpected flavors? Could radishes be used to incorporate that burning-tingling feeling into dishes? Things like that.

It becomes apparent to me that a lot of my Nightmare/n dish ideas seem to solve the "flavors aren't quite right" problem by creating overstimulating flavors or stimulating flavors that maybe shouldn't be there by human standards. Which seems like a problem if I ever published recipes! But maybe someone'll find it interesting, if not very edible…

A more grounded alternative is food from my home on the islands. My interpretation is that technically, a lot of ingredients aren't necessarily 1:1 to ingredients here, but are close enough that it's splitting hairs to try and recreate them.

And then there's the pa/opu fruit.

I would very much like to know how to make a fruit. Even if it were say, diced up, recreating the experience of eating fresh fruit would be wonderful. But I know I'll never get the tools to breed ~designer fruits~, and I know that infusing fruit only goes so far, especially when you're adamant about getting the right flavor and texture.

But fruit juice blends are a thing. Many exotic fruits have their flavors described as being a blend of more common fruit/food flavors. Creating a fruit is borderline impossible; creating a fruit juice blend that at least has the flavors is much more feasible. And while it's not the same as eating fresh fruit, fruit juice is the basis for many desserts, which is a fun way to incorporate a flavor from your home into this world. Even if those particular desserts weren't eaten in your home, if you enjoy eating these desserts now, you can still have a taste of home. Neat, right?

Like a pa/opu wedding cake? Come on. That's such a cute idea. I'm just imaging how you could decorate that and the ingredients you could add to that and it makes me happy. It's fun, and it brings a bit of culture A into culture B.

And that's the appeal of xenogastronomy to me! It's a blending of cultures to help me feel a little more at home, in a world where "home" is just stories. A sort of defiant gesture to make those stories a little more real.

Of course, like I said…I don't really have the time or space or culinary know-how to figure this stuff out. But I'm hoping one day I will, and in the meantime, it's still nice to brainstorm. Get those creative juices flowing, come up with ideas to act on when the time is right.

[mythicalthing]

I wish I could remember the quote correctly, but I once saw something like "we don't need you doing everything perfectly, we need a bunch of people doing all they can imperfectly."

And I think that's the important thing to remember when we get overwhelmed with causes that mean a lot to us. *I* can't single handedly make a difference. And maybe *I* can't bring myself to boycott every single business for every single cause I support - but collectively, if I can swear off as many as feasible for me, and all my neighbors do as well - it still puts pressure. It still adds up.

Beautifully said - thank you so much for sending this. By the previous anons logic, we shouldn't vote, we shouldn't speak up, we should just sit idly because our taxes are funding war. By that standard we also shouldn't recycle! That's a sad existence. Thank you for sending this and reaffirming what I was trying to say

[gavisuntiedboot]

I'm the anon that u called Islamophobic. I think I didn't get my point across. Mena is notorious for having no democracy or electing fundamentalist gov. This isn't being Islamophobic this is a fact. I don't think Palestinians will want to live in peace after what israel put them through especially kids from Gaza.

Creation of Israel was to make it a Jewish state not a secular state. Makes no sense for them to change law of return. Especially with Netanyahu n abbas to find a middle ground

Its naive of u to think that it won't start a Civil War like in Lebanon. They don't like each other. Either way there will be genocide of Either group. Forcing a one state solution is not feasible,unless u want a blood bath. Ut will be 1947 all over.

I'm not Islamophobic like u make me out to be. I live in a country that feeds the same kind of propaganda. What israel is doing in wrong. They shouldn't have been making a state there. Things happened has happened.

Both of the leadership in very corrupt. This is the reason I support 2 state solution so that they don't kill each other. Or otherwise jews just go back where they come from Europe or Mena wherever.

Also river to sea is a call for genocide. It was used by Israeli gov and also Palestinians. U want to mean it something but it isn't.

I hope there will be peace someday without a genocide

Anon, read these words carefully: you ARE being Islamophobic and racist when you say these things.

MENA is notorious for actually having their governments collapsed by the West and then benefiting from the chaos. That's what happened in Egypt and Kuwait and Lebanon. They never let elections stand as the people want them. You are saying that "MENA people don't know how to pick governments or they pick a Muslim one." Like dude. There is currently no fundamentally Islamic government anywhere in the world. It doesn't exist. Like who are you referring to when you make this statement? If I say "Ukrainian people don't know how to elect a good government, so Russia should have Ukraine" it would be an ASS BACKWARDS STATEMENT. YOU, non-MENA individual, think we don't know how to pick or elect a government. So what if it's an Islamic government? IF THAT'S WHAT THE PEOPLE CHOOSE FOR THEMSELVES WHAT IS THE ISSUE? You're Islamophobic and racist because you believe that people in the MENA region are not capable of making decisions for themselves or capable of being civilized.

"Well I don't think that Palestinians will want x..." Respectfully, what you think means ABSOLUTELY FUCK ALL IN THIS SITUATION. You are not Palestinian, you don't talk to Palestinian or even Middle Eastern people apparently, and your response is "Well they already took the land so let them keep it." No. Fuck you. It's our land and we want it back. Because by your logic "well Franc took Algeria so they should just be fine with it". Like you fundamentally do not believe brown people have the right to their own land and to self determination. If Russia took a portion of Ukraine, you would never say "oh just let Russia keep it what happened already happened" because they're white.

The West fucks up the MENA region and then tells brown people to deal with it. Lebanon was created to make an Arab state for Christians so they would leave Syria. Then the same Western countries put a Muslim government in place TO MAKE SURE THE MIDDLE EAST WASN'T AT REST. THE WHITE WORLD BENEFITS FROM THE DESTABILIZATION OF THE MIDDLE EAST. SO THEY CASUE IT THEMSELVES.

Israel shouldn't exist. And God willing within our lifetimes it will cease to exist. And I mean that in the same way the Soviet Union ceases to exist. Not as a call for killing, but the dismantlement of an oppressive political system of ruling. I want the state of Israel to disappear, not Jewish people.

And finally, from the river to the sea was a slogan made by Palestinians. Israelis stole it, like they stole everything else. Palestinians say it with one meaning, and your refusal to accept the meaning from the creators of the phrase speaks to the internalized bigotry within you. When people say "Black Lives Matter" do you feel threatened? Do you think it is a call to end white lives? Do you burn with the need to say "well ALL lives matter"?

Your argument is based in the fact that you see brown people as incapable of self governance, that because they were massacred in '48 they don't deserve their own land, that everyone is bad so Palestinians should shut up and be happy with a two state solution and that's the best we can do. You are a racist and you are Islamophobic, and I will not be responding to any of your further attempts at a rebuttal until you can sit with yourself and realize that. You think you're free from propaganda? The propaganda has worked extra hard on you, because you still believe that we are not civilized people.

I hope you have the day you deserve.

[t-boy-angel]

About the asexuality: maybe what you're experiencing is low sex drive as opposed to sex repulsion? Libido does vary naturally, I've gone months without even jerking off in the past. You shouldn't pressure yourself to feel horny all the time. If you've had good sex in the past, maybe try to work out what bits made you feel weird after I guess? Like the root cause of the bad feeling. But people's desires do change! And ace people still masturbate/sext/fantasise/use toys. There's no qualifiers for using the term asexual. It's just a description of what you feel comfortable with currently. And demi- sexualities exist too. If you're sexually satisfied by your sex life with sexting partners then don't pressure yourself for more! It's valid! I've been there. Sometimes you just need to feel like someone is listening/experiencing things with you, rather than actual physical contact.

hello thank you this is nice! I guess it's less that I feel a pressure to be horny all the time and more like a lack of desire anymore to share the horniness with anyone? it just feels like it's not really working for me at the moment and the thought of like actually inviting someone into my room and kissing them or whatever just grosses me out at the moment. there's literally 1 person (the bestie) who I would want to kiss but I think that would make things so complicated that I will never do that. and I can't figure out where I've landed in terms of ever wanting to have sex with him - but yeah again that could be a libido thing. I'll sometimes want to do like 1 specific thing with a person but not go the whole hog, like tbh often when I notice my friend's packer my brain is like "bro you Need to suck him off" and I think that's something I'd be okay with in practice too. but anything else just makes me feel really blaaargh and strange. I think partly it's also because, not to toot my own horn, I've got really good at getting myself off, and it's literally never been that good with another person. and any time I do want to be touched by another person, its always for specific things that I can't do myself - eg. someone to edge me bc I'm shit at it, someone to hold my hips down, someone to finger me because I'm too dysphoric but I know now that I prefer to bottom. like I feel like you should want the other person/people there for more reasons than just "can't really do this one on my own". I feel like I want to get other people off because it will make them feel good and that's sexy but potentially don't think they'd want the same thing reversed idk.

I'm mostly just waffling now but I feel like there's a lot here interwoven about transgenderism and dysphoria and past trauma and trust and weird connection to body and emotions and the purpose of sex in the first place and also, what I haven't mentioned yet, is a general feeling of uncleanliness related to newly diagnosed ocd. like sex isnt unclean in terms of "purity" or whatever but literal cleanliness. kissing feels gross to me when tongues are involved or various sexual acts would not be feasible for me because I'd just be thinking about all the wrong things.

[lisafication]

you realize ao3 already moderates harassment right? its not impossible for them to do? the problem is that the guidelines for harassment are so loose as to not cover most of it. in regards to the budget problem, then they need to increase their budget? they have enough money saved up to run ao3's server for THREE YEARS last they said, which is not... actually normal for a non-profit server to DO? and they regularly get at least double for what they ask for in their fundraisers! you keep bringing up the budget like they could not very feasibly increase the budget--and need to anyway! look into how their current content moderators are overworked, burnt out, and, to put it bluntly, near traumatized from the complete lack of organization ao3 gives them!

and frankly if all this was out of ao3's scope then they shouldn't have promised to do it? they either need to sit down and say "we lied to you, we can't do this" or do it at this point, neither of which they've done

I normally prefer to answer things like this holistically, but as this is essentially four arguments in one...

They shouldn't have made that promise. I agree. Unfortunately, making promises that it turns out you can't follow through on is something everyone will do at some point in their life.

I assume you simply did not read my post if you're arguing that three years of server costs in cash reserves can let them increase their budget — I did include (very generous, practically speaking I'd eyeball them at several times that due to bureaucratic costs) cost estimates for paid moderation.

I'm additionally very dubious at bringing up 'content moderators are overworked, burnt out and traumatised' in support of 'we should do more content moderation' as an argument. I, again, mentioned the psychiatric support required for commercial-scale (and AO3 does operate at that scale even though it's non-commercial) content moderation in my post.

Regarding their already-existing harassment policy, I just answered that in a different ask, so scroll down to see.

[whispered-into-the-void]

Between certain Spider-Man AU's and the current deal with Ms. Marvel, I'm curious how Marvel actually considers the X-Gene to work in-canon.

To be clear, I'm not asking about how a single gene can give a multitude of different, wildly varied, pseudo-magical abilities, but more how the X-gene co-exists with other forms of superhuman ability.

Like, the "current" canon, as far as I can tell, has Kamala as both an Inhuman - which is where her powers actually come from - and a Mutant, but her X-gene was inactive and potentially still is; Xavier believes that her Inhuman abilities suppress her mutant powers, and Emma Frost said that her mutation works differently and could activate alongside or replace her Inhuman elasticity. Honestly, I think that I prefer Xavier's explanation; I can't find any proof that "latent" mutants suffered from M-Pox, so it makes sense to me that the latent X-Gene was kept latent by the terrigen in Kamala's system, and when she was revived on Krakoa, her already-active Inhuman genetics didn't carry the same Terrigen and allowed her X-Gene to be activated.

Apparently Sinister had previously tried to mix Inhuman and Mutant genetics and seen no success, with the Inhuman genetics "overpowering" the mutant side, which matches what we've seen with Kamala - an active copy of Inhuman genetics and Mutant X-Gene being incompatible. It's worth noting that the only listed mutant/Inhuman hybrids on the Marvel wiki are Kamala, Sinister's clone of Scott with Inhuman DNA (he died pretty quickly), and some alternate universe versions of Quicksilver's daughter with an inhuman, which shouldn't really count because they seem to match 616 until specific events except main-universe Quicksilver isn't actually a mutant so I'm gonna discount them.

This seems to tie neatly together the ideas around the Terrigen mists and the X-Gene, relating what we already know with the bits that don't make sense. Terrigen doesn't get along well with the X-Gene; if you have an active one, it'll kill you, and if you don't, it'll keep it from activating. That gives you the opportunity to explore a Kamala with inactive inhuman biology who activated her X-Gene instead, gives you another way to put the Inhumans and X-Men against each other - somebody using Terrigen Mists to "innoculate" the Flatscans and prevent further mutants - and puts something solid together to prevent somebody from being a full-on Inhuman-Mutant Hybrid; they can be, but they can't have both power-sets.

However, I didn't just mention Kamala; I also referred to the Millennial Visions Spider-Man (Earth-13270, not Earth-10182), who had a latent mutant gene that was suppressed by his Spider Bite. I have no idea how far this could apply to the main 616 continuity - and I'm almost certain that there's an example that would prove this wrong - but I think it's feasible that the X-Gene, largely, wouldn't activate in an existing mutate, based on X-Gene activation criteria.

Most mutations activate around puberty, and those that don't seem to activate due to stress. Obviously, most mutates get their powers well after puberty, meaning the majority of them would have already had their X-Gene activated by then; in the event that it hadn't, while mutates normally do still end up going through stressful experiences, it tends to be as a result of their abilities, and if they can't survive using their abilities, gaining a random new ability they don't know how to use probably isn't going to help. Let's take The Hulk as an example; if Bruce Banner has an X-Gene, and is in a dangerous situation, how many X-Genes are there that could help against something that's a threat to The Hulk?

[moonlightviigil]

ɢᴇᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴜɴ

ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘɪᴄᴋ ᴜᴘ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛ ᴍᴜꜱᴇ(ꜱ) ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ?

(CANON MUSES) - I seem to favor male muses over female muses. Not saying that I won't have female muses; but it seems for canon muses specifically, I stick with the males more. I truly don't know why. Its possible that it could be a good way for me to explore my more masculine side of things? I've also noticed that I tend to lean way more to muses who are sadTM. Its something I heavily relate to, and can (hopefully) make seem believable. Its something I seem to enjoy so 🤷 (OCs) - I'm all over the board. Some evil, some good, some neutral. Male, female, other, etc. I usually try to find an archetype that interests me, and build around it. Mainly based around certain aesthetics. But then there are some that just come up to me with all of their info and just expect to exist rent free in my head.

ɪꜱ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ?

I'm a very flexible person when it comes to writing topics. It doesn't matter to me as long as my partner is all good with it. Of course, some topics are off limits with obvious reasons that I shouldn't have to explain. But that doesn't mean I'm not willing to toe the line with more unsavory things. As long as everyone involved is okay with it, then it should be all good and fun! Though, there is one thing that I tend to stray away from. Mainly one-liners, and completely winged interactions. I have no clue why, but having no plan stresses me out, and one lines don't give me any content to work with (unless its just crack), and that also stresses me out for no reason. I overthink everything...

ɪꜱ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ʀᴇᴀʟʟʏ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏ ᴡʀɪᴛɪɴɢ?

Angst... its a problem lmfao

ʜᴏᴡ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴜᴘ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʜᴇᴀᴅᴄᴀɴᴏɴꜱ?

I usually base a lot of them off of my own life and how I'd handle some situations. With more mystical stuff, its all based around the character itself. And then sometimes a random thought just some to me like, yeah, that's Phel-coded.

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ ɪɴ ꜱɪʟᴇɴᴄᴇ ᴏʀ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘʟᴀʏ ᴍᴜꜱɪᴄ?

I cannot stand silence one bit. I have to be listening to something no matter what I'm doing. When it comes to writing, there are very specific things I do listen to. Mainly like, ASMR type things. These cafe videos I enjoy a lot ( x ). Both for writing, and just to watch sometimes!

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘʟᴀɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʀᴇᴘʟɪᴇꜱ ᴏʀ ᴡɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇᴍ?

I'll read my partners reply and stick it in my drafts to think about how I should respond. Like, of course I want to tryyyyy to stay in character as much as possible. But I know its not possible all the time, which is fine! I'm not super picky about that. But I do like to try to keep it in mind, that the canon muses are not mine, and I need to think about how they would respond. With my OCs for instance, they flow a little more naturally for me. Since they were in my head from day one, their personalities flow better. But that doesn't mean that canon muses don't flow well for me either. I wouldn't be writing canon muses if they didn't click for me to begin with. I'll try new canon muses... as you know, but if they don't click, they don't click and that's fine.

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏ ꜱʜɪᴘᴘɪɴɢ?

YES I'M A SLUT FOR SHIPS Of course, chemistry is key. I'll try to picture things in my head about certain muses together with mine so I can get the ball rolling if I'm not feeling it right away. But once I think about a certain pair more, I'm sure I won't be able to stop thinking about them. When it comes to random shipping, I struggle with that a bit. Especially for canon league muses. It heavily depends on their backstories and how they can mesh together for me. If there could be a genuine connection, even if its just through them traveling, if that makes sense? Like... I can't imagine Phel with someone from X place just because they'd be cute together. They have to mesh in some way or another for it to be a feasible match for me.

ᴡʜᴀᴛ'ꜱ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴀʟɪᴀꜱ/ɴᴀᴍᴇ?

Online alias is Cherry. Another name is Riley. It isn't my legal name, but a preferred one. But being called Cherry or Riley online is fine by me!

ᴀɢᴇ?

I recently turned 28... I'm old

ʙɪʀᴛʜᴅᴀʏ?

Month late Christmas present (January 25th)

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀ(ꜱ)?

Green and yellow 💚💛

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ꜱᴏɴɢ(ꜱ)?

Uhhhhhhhhh there's a lot

ʟᴀꜱᴛ ᴍᴏᴠɪᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜᴇᴅ?

Spirited Away

ʟᴀꜱᴛ ꜱʜᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜᴇᴅ?

Rewatching Death Note........ But also started watching the live action Avatar series

ʟᴀꜱᴛ ꜱᴏɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪꜱᴛᴇɴᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ?

Eyes - Kaskade

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ꜰᴏᴏᴅ?

Orange chicken!!!!!!

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ꜱᴇᴀꜱᴏɴ?

Fall. I am a fall girly. Its chilly, and not hot uwu

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴀ ᴛᴜᴍʙʟʀ ʙᴇꜱᴛ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ?

I don't want to play favorites, so I'll say that anyone who talks to me pretty regularly is a bestie <3

Tagged by: @poisonflowrs <3 Tagging: whoever hasnt done this and is reading this :3c

[number-1-kuaidul-fanboy]

I cannot shake off the fear that the Velgearians' deaths are permanent

Studio Bridge doesn't have a precedent for deaths the way Gallop did. The closest thing we had to temporary deaths in Bridge was the characters being turned to ice in the Great King of Terror arc and that arc had a heavy emphasis on trying to save the ones who'd been trapped in ice. This Velgearians' death arc though? I don't think the idea of bringing back the Velgearians who've died has graced even a single character's lips yet. It still could in the last few episodes to be fair but so far, it's all about preventing more deaths which at this point, let's be real, is all of one death: Yudias. But if anything, the opposite of saving the Velgearians has come up in the most recent episode:

These lines in particular really fuck me up. Because on the one hand, I see the reasoning: life shouldn't be eternal and we all have to accept death eventually. But on the other hand, the Velgearians have entire goddamn galaxies in them! Look at this dialogue from episode 89 when Kuaidul explains why he's dying:

Is he saying that the Andromeda Galaxy ITSELF is dying here?! Because that's how it reads to me! We know Yudias has to survive since he's on the season 3 poster and, if my logic with Kuaidul is correct, Yudias's galaxy is the Milky Way and you can't exactly kill that galaxy off and still have a world.

My point here though is that if this logic is correct, then it's not just Velgearians who are dying: it's all life in the galaxies inside of them across the vast universe which humans haven't explored more than a tiny piece of that are dying. More lives than we could ever feasibly comprehend or know are having their lives snuffed out swiftly and prematurely. This goes far beyond just the quote on quote "artificial lives" of the Velgearians. I know the end of all life in the universe is an eventual inevitability and can be considered "just nature" but the way it's been presented in Go Rush with all these fantasy elements, like the reason the Velgearians existing in the first place being the actions of one individual, prevents me from seeing it as "just nature" as Zwijo is apparently claiming.

The Creator, from what we know so far at least, has honestly done something sinister and horrific by molding parts of the universe itself and stuffing them into what we know now are mortal, albeit long-living, beings whose lives are flickering out and by extension, seemingly ending the lives inside their galaxies suddenly, pre-maturely and, in my eyes despite Go Rush claiming otherwise, unnaturally.

How much of this the writers intended I have no clue but the more I think about the implications, the more horrified I feel. And I'm not sure what's worse: if the writers did fully think all this through and are permanently killing the Velgearians knowing all this or they didn't think it through and they've just dug a massive hole for themselves.

But why do I think these deaths are permanent in the first place? After all, Yugioh and shounen in general is no stranger to temporary deaths and bringing back characters through whatever means necessary because they want to write dramatic deaths and sacrifices but need to keep the characters around in some form to advertise their cards.

Well, I've seen every Yugioh series twice each and here's every non-evil (or at least not fully evil) duelist character who permanently died. Apologies if I miss a few:

Atem (Freed his spirit by going to the afterlife in the very last episode.)

Daitokuji (Died a villain and a traitor but lingered as a ghost who acted as a guide to Judai at times.)

Roman and Goodwin (Villains who at one point, wanted to do the right thing and were "lead astray." Chose to stay in the afterlife.)

Paradox, Bruno, Aporia, Z-One (Villains whose ultimate motive was trying to prevent a doomed future and in the cases of Bruno, and Z-One (and debatably Aporia), ultimately sacrificed themselves for Yusei to save the future.)

Yuto, Yugo, Yuri, Serena, Rin, and Ruri (Died and became part of Yuya and Yuzu as spirits.)

Haru and Bohman (Honestly just pawns of the pure evil Lightning but believed in their cause to the very end. Were reunited in the afterlife I believe?)

Earth, Windy, Flame, Aqua (Gave up the last of their energy to Ai, permanently killing them. Should be noted that that Flame and Aqua never used their own decks, instead giving them to characters who did live so their cards were still advertised.)

Roboppi (The consciousness that made him who he was permanently dead and gone forever due to being unnaturally given free will.)

So uh... there's some overlap with these deaths and the Velgearian deaths that have occurred in Go Rush so far, particularly the ones who died and didn't come back as ghosts. The VRAINS deaths especially are the most egregious to me since all the temporary deaths (excluding Ai) were human and every single one of the permanent deaths were AIs. They were all an "artificial intelligence". I know these shows were produced by different studios but VRAINS killing all "artificial life" then one of the subsequent shows describing lives that are currently dying in troves as "artificial" is unsettling, especially since VRAINS isn't even an outlier. Fully evil or not, most of the permanent deaths in Gallop Yugioh (that didn't come back as ghosts like the Yu boys/bracelet girls and Daitokuji), were either non human (ie: the AIs in VRAINS) or "gave up their humanity" as part of their evil, like the Stars of Iliaster putting their consciousness inside "artificial" android bodies to extend their lives and carry out their evil.

The way I see it, Go Rush's latest episode claimed that since the Velgearians' lives are eternal and artificial, keeping them alive would be "unnatural" and thus they should accept their deaths. And honestly, in the context of Velgearians, most of whom don't even know that their lives are "artificial," is just horrifying and messed up.

So I hope my aimless overthinking speculation here is wrong. I hope they aren't all permanently dead because it would be a miserable end to their stories. The only thing in my mind that makes me question my own reasoning is not knowing when the Go Rush writers knew for sure they were getting a third season, as I doubt they would've killed all the Velgearians knowing that could've been the final note of their show since the target demographic of the show is still children. Still, I don't know when in production they knew they were getting that third season so again I just can't be sure...

[magically-maddie]

Part-time and full-time wheelchair users aren't the same. We shouldn't compare them.

My own definitions, a mini-ramble, and writing advice.

It's a personal opinion, but I'm gonna throw it out there into the Tumblr void. Here's my reasoning as to why. (From a wheelchair user.)

For part-time wheelchair users, the chair is a tool. It allows you greater access to the world, but it’s not absolutely essential. If it was removed, you wouldn’t be entirely nonfunctional. You’d be able to rely on other tools and aids, though likely with less success.

For full-time wheelchair users, the chair is mobility, plain and simple. Without the chair, you have no little to no access to the world. If it was removed, you would be almost or entirely nonfunctional. Alternate forms of mobility aren’t sufficient, and your ability to function is negligible without your wheels.

In some ways, I am both. I’m partially paralyzed and have no function below the knee, so I cannot stand or walk without specialized bracing. When I have my AFOs, ankle foot orthoses, I am able to walk moderate distances with a walker or crutches. It is fatiguing and painful, but possible. In that sense, I am a part-time wheelchair user. If I don’t have access to bracing, I cannot function without a wheelchair. It is essential, and my only other form of mobility is crawling or scooting. In that sense, I am a full-time wheelchair user.

I recognize that I may have just contradicted the two definitions. I'd like to clarify that, in my case, AFOs cause more problems than they solve. I have the ability to reach things out of the cabinets, which is wonderful. The nerve pain, sores caused by rubbing rivets, and broken parts are decidedly not.

It's not feasible for me to wear AFOs outside of specific activities or physical therapy, and I am mainly a full-time wheelchair user. I personally consider myself as such.

Every form of wheelchair use is valid. Before I was a full-time chair user, I was a part-time one. I understand and have lived in both sets of wheels. I'd like to throw it out there that we shouldn't consider the two the same.

Y'know, this could be considered writing advice. Take it from younger and more inexperienced Maddie. Inadvertently comparing your manual wheelchair to a complex power one is a Bad Move (when trying to make friends or just in general).

There tends to be no definition of wheelchair users in writing besides "he uses a wheelchair." Consider your character's abilities, why they're using a wheelchair, and their day-to-day life. Can they function without the chair? Is it essential to their ADLs (activities of daily living, such as moving around the house or cooking)? There is a distinction to be made, and it can be impactful to writing a well-rounded disabled character. More to come on the differences.

Obligatory disclaimer, I am one disabled person. Everyone has their own opinion, and that's totally okay. This is something I feel strongly about, and I wanted to toss it out there. I'm also planning to turn my non-existent blog into one that's a disability/wheelchair resource for writers. Who knows if it'll happen with life chaos, but that's the hope!