dear parents, if your child has "seemed fine this entire time" but is now seeking out diagnoses, mobility aids, medical help, more doctors, and is sharing their pain more. do not fucking shut them down? even if it ends up being nothing, showing them that support through all of that will seriously help them. if it ends up being something and you're a bitch to them, the joke will be on you and that strain on your relationship will never go away because. you didn't listen.
listen to kids. we tell you what we need, it's not that hard.
what do you mean elon musk did a nazi salute on live tv at the united states presidential inauguration twice and is now erasing the evidence off the internet by replacing the footage with the crowd cheering instead?
would be a shame if people reblogged this, wouldn’t it?
Transgender community, please please please do NOT use this product! It will kill you if used, please do not use it whatsoever.
Please reblog and spread the word
• Children all have access to magic, but as they get older, their powers fade away.
• Mastering even the most basic spell takes years of training.
• “We killed the gods. Turns out that doing that destroyed magic.”
• The amount and strength of magic is inversely proportional to the level of industrialization.
• Characters don’t know what kind of magic they have and must embark on a long and arduous journey in order to find out what they can do.
• “We can use magic, but only on the microscopic scale.”
• The reason why magic doesn’t work is that no one believes in it anymore.
• To cast a spell, one must play the correct tune on a specific instrument.
• Only maker of staffs, rods, and wands has a 10,000 year long waiting list.
• Magic comes from the stars…and it can go no faster than the speed of light.
• The power of magic waxes and wanes. Right now is the part of the cycle where magic is at its weakest.
• People once had a symbiotic relationship with organisms that gave them the power of magic. The organism has been extinct for centuries.
• As the use of magic has a destabilizing effect on the universe, a secret society exists with the sole purpose of killing all magic users before they destroy the universe (some of whom have deliberately attempted to cause an apocalypse).
• “You must sacrifice a part of you in order to use magic. It could be a part of your body, it could also be your identity, or even your very soul.”
Have you ever started writing a story and realized your world has a bunch of unexplained shit and you have to fill in the gaps as you go? Me too, buddy. Me too. Here’s a checklist so that you can fully flesh out your world to the max. (I’m dying)
How does Time work? (Minutes, hours, days, the daylight cycle, years, ect.)
Species (if Fantasy. Will probably make another post on this.)
Countries, Nations, Tribes, ect. (nationalities/ races. Will probably make another post on this.)
The geography of the world (draw a map. Doesnt have to be good. Just for a general idea.)
Rivalries between races (includes prejudice, racism, ect.)
Religions
Technology
The Magic system. (Will probably make a whole other post on this.)
animals, plants, ect.
The sky: Sun, Moon(s), Stars, Constellation, Are there rings? (If the planet has rings)
Educations system
Government system
Politics
Methods of transport (Vehicles)
Medicine
Can’t really think of anything else. If you have more to add then reblog and add to the list! :) bye bee
Vetted by : @gazavetters
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I'd there anything that you'd like a prosthetic limb to be able to do? Like something that's not on the market but you could slip on to accomplish a task and then easily remove before it gets cumbersome?
I'm sorry i sat on this ask for so long, it's been very difficult to write an answer to this question that i feel is both honest and useful, but here's my best attempt at answering with what i consider to be an okayish amount of context...
I'm assuming you're asking because this post of mine blew up and got a lot of attention, and it looks like you're a maker that's keen on designing things to help disabled people and that's great! there are a lot of areas where products just don't exist but are of great help or need to people, and filling that gap is really really great! lots of people have lots of different needs, and many disabilities and situations can be helped with technological solutions, much of which need more development, both professionally and more grass roots.
but when it comes to my situation, ie upper limb amputee, i cannot stress enough: the problem is not prosthetic technology, the problem is other people, and ableism.
what i want people to focus on is that i can do almost everything i need to for myself without a prosthesis, using just my elbow, my nub (the soft squishy end of my residual limb), and a taking my time. a bit more awkward, a bit slower, more trips to the fridge and back, but i can do it. the things that i can't do myself, I'm lucky enough to have people to help me and happy to do so.
but what people actually focus on is prostheses, people love prostheses... so let's talk prostheses!
I have a myoelectric prosthetic "hand" - a big robot gripper that i can control with intentional nerve signals picked up via electrodes inside the socket that sits over my forearm; telling it to open and close on command, and controlling how fast it does so. the initial reason i wanted one was for soldering, because electronics is an on and off hobby i wanted to continue. I'm sure you know that through-hole soldering is at least a three handed job even for the regularly limbed, so i thought i needed it for that at least, and figured it would be handy (hah) to just wear all day for any task i might want two hands for.
well, in the four years of training and rehab and practice since... I'm fairly confident i don't actually need it for soldering, let alone anything else. my elbow grip and dexterity is good enough i can easily hold and aim a spool of solder without my prosthesis. i sometimes put it on to take out the trash, but that's just a time saver, it takes less trips and is faster than slinging bags over my nub arm. it has a little led flashlight in it that's useful at night outside sometimes? and as alluded to in the original post, it's got a small tip that can press little buttons that my nub can't, and that's the role i most often reach for it to fill.
but myo prostheses are a hassle to put on, often taking several attempts to get positioning right, it's hot and sweatty, there can be pressure sores, and it's real heavy in a way your shoulder never really gets used to. these are not really technological issues that need more research or smarts to solve, they're pretty fundamental limits of trying to attach any kind of medical devices to the human body. if i really had any big necessary use case for absolutely needing two hands, I'd go back to physical therapy and re-train to use a body powered prosthesis; the ones that secure with nice soft leather straps and use your opposing shoulder to control hook grip with tension wires. technology that hasn't changed in several centuries because we kinda already perfected it... it's low tech, reliable, has built in proportional control and feedback, and never features in science fiction because it's just not cool enough.
so why do i still bother? why keep my prosthesis, maintain it, have the socket padded so it keeps fitting, continue the slightly painful muscle control exercises instead of letting them atrophy and the damn robot hand sit on the shelf forever?
the problem is other people, and ableism.
when I leave the house in my natural body, nub on display for all to see (under an arm warmer because perpetually cold stump is a problem seemingly every amputee has to deal with)...
people stare. they notice me from a distance, no matter what i wear, how i carry my body. but it's not just staring. it's glaring, it's disgust, it's fear, it's dehumanisation. i have people recoil in horror, cross the street to avoid me, pull their children close to their bodies as if they might start dropping limbs if they get too close. people have stopped me in the street, from behind, demanding to know "what happened", I've had to get off trams at random stops to escape little old ladies insisting i disclose my highly traumatic medical history and that I'm being rude and uncooperative for not "educating" them on "such a fascinating curiosity"... or best yet, the one all my wheelchair using friends know inside out: forceful unwelcome "help" from strangers without even a hello, yet alone an ask. i once had a man leap to his feet and begin thrusting his hands towards my crotch because i wedged a water bottle between my thighs to unscrew the cap and he decided i was clearly incapable of doing it myself... and this isn't even getting into the ways that medical professionals treat me differently.
i go outside in my natural body, and I'm treated as a freak.
you know what happens when i go out wearing my prosthesis? children smile, adults mind their own goddamned business, leave me alone, and at absolute worst I've had a total of two people in four years talk to me about it, politely introducing themselves before saying "that's neat, how does it work?"...
because fiction and futurism have given people so many deeply ingrained fundamental ideas about prostheses and amputation that I am treated more like a human being while wearing a bulky robot claw with electrodes pressed into my skin, than when i dare to exist as i now naturally am.
this is also borne out by the hundreds of notes on my original post declaring we need to invest more, research more, design more, so that prosthetic technology is better and "works" and is cooler... and literally nobody asking why a piece of technology was designed in such a way that i needed to use my nose, needed to hold two buttons down simultaneously half a meter apart that are barely fingertip sized, when either of them being a toggle would work - a firmware fix that would take 30 seconds to implement if anyone actually thought about the real technological needs of limb different people, instead of scifi fantasies about improving prosthetic technology until its "indistinguishable from the human body", as if that goal should be self evidently desirable.
the actual technological solution to this situation, by the way, is a bracelet with a chopstick glued to it.
so.
*deep breath*
I'm sorry this was long and angry, I hope you can sense that my anger isn't directed at you, the question asker, but broadly at everyone and the way society perceives amputees/limb different people... and I hope anyone who reblogged my original post also shares this, because damn did tumblr miss the point of it!
to finish off, I'll give you the snippy snarky bitch response i originally had in consideration, before I decided to spend several hours on paragraphs of furiously slow one-thumbed attempt at shifting my audience's perception of prostheses... because legit it's great that you want to know how things can be improved for disabled people through technology! it's just that in this one particular case...
if you want to design some technology that would be most helpful to me but is totally absent from the current market, I'd like a portable pocket sized device that projects a psionic field to make ableds mind their own fucking business and just treat me like a human being when i go outside :3
The people who police your gender will police your gender even if you're cis.
Eat them.
Whenever Americans use Cryillic like. That. I just. Instantly shrivel up an cry
seeing people my age talk about how scared they are of memory loss, which they only associate with old age, is so surreal to see as a 24 year old who has actively experienced memory loss for a long time now
there are causes for memory loss besides dementia and alzheimer’s, i hope y’all know that. dissociative disorders, trauma, brain injuries, thyroid problems, even just stress and lack of sleep can fuck up your ability to store, process, and access memory. and that’s just a few of the many causes i can think of off the top of my head right now.
please stop treating disabled people like some scary “other” that you might become only in the distant, decades-away future. we are your age, too. you may become one of us sooner than you know. stop acting like memory loss marks the end of a life, when so many of us have so much living left to do!
Magic - change wrought through unnatural means
Most fantasy can be placed along a spectrum where there are 3 main points: soft magic at one end, hard magic at the other, and a middle ground between the two.
Magic that is not well-defined for the reader.
Generally, we don’t understand where the magic comes from, who can use it, or what its limitations are.
Readers can see this type of magic being used.
But they can never anticipate when magic will be used in the plot because they can’t begin to guess how it works.
You can’t break a rule if the rules don’t exist!
Most stories that feature this system will have the magic users be secondary characters, allowing them to avoid explaining exactly how the magic works.
It’s also argued that without knowing everything about the magic, it tends to hold more wonder and excitement for readers.
Has very rigid boundaries.
Readers know where the magic comes from, how it’s used, who uses it, and what its boundaries and limitations are.
We know the limitations of the characters and can understand why they can’t simply magic themselves out of any particular challenge.
Stories with hard magic systems do not need to avoid the main character being a magic-wielder, as they have the capacity to explain to the reader what is going on.
A lot of writers this system because it gives them very explicit guidelines to follow in their plot and creates some more satisfying pay-offs for readers.
The meeting point between the soft and hard systems.
We might understand a bit about the way the magic works, but not all our questions are answered.
While most of the content adheres to rules, these rules aren’t fully explored.
This system relies on the reader’s suspension of disbelief.
The main character can be a magic-wielder or not, and it’s up to the writer to determine when magic will be used in terms of plot.
You can and should use these guiding principles to build your magic system. Remember that you don’t have to choose one or the other. Your system can draw from aspects of both. Just stay aware of the weaknesses of the path you choose, and ensure you utilize its strengths.
You are going to use magic to solve problems
Your audience is accustomed to the tropes of hard magic
You are okay with jumping through hoops to expand your system
Your magic doesn’t convey a theme
You want to convey a theme through magic
You want to create a sense of wonder
You want the ability to expand easily
You want to be accessible to a broader audience
Your magic won’t regularly be used to solve problems
Like most writing processes, there isn’t really a correct place to begin designing a magic system. A common, and efficient, place to start, however, is by choosing what type of magic system(s) you wish to employ, such as:
Nature-based magic: water, earth, fire, air, and everything in between
Divination magic: see beyond sight and peer through time and space
Conjuring magic: move objects through space over any distance
Psychic magic: master the world of the mind
Life and death magic: tap into the very forces of life, death, and un-death with this surprisingly versatile collection
Animal- or creature-exclusive magic: some creatures just do it better
Magitech systems: the blurring lines of sorcery and science give magic a next-gen, high-tech flair
Eclectic magic: it doesn’t have to be “real” magic to have a real effect
Uncommon magic systems: the unsung heroes of fantasy magic
How to create your own magic system using the AALC (Appearance, Abilities, Limits & Cost) Method
What the magic looks like
Makes the world feel more exotic
Can cause problems for characters but cannot solve them
Usually tied to a character arc
What the magic does
Points calculated based on magical effect, range, number of people affected, and duration
Characters have a finite amount of fuel (mana) to use abilities
More powerful abilities require more fuel
The fuel does not have to be overt for the audience to understand
If points not overt, cannot solve conflicts unless a cost system is added
Unlimited uses of magical abilities
Abilities stratified in codified levels defined by their limits
The more the levels' abilities and limits are known by the audience, the more they can be used to solve conflicts
Focused on clever uses of abilities against stronger foes
Cost system can be added to enhance dramatic moments
Costs must be greater than or equal to abilities to make them dramatically satisfying
Costs can include time, exhaustion, materials, sanity, morality, etc.
Adds dilemma to magic by forcing characters to make choices
The greater the character's sacrifice, the more audience satisfaction at conflict resolution
Each system builds on the previous ones, so that Cost Systems use all four, while Point Systems only care about Abilities and Appearance.
Multiple systems can exist within the same story, and systems can harden over the course of the story.
The Force, for instance, has been a Soft, Point, Level, and Cost System depending on who wrote it at the time.
Window Dressing - magic for secondary characters; can instigate conflict but cannot solve it; e.g., Gandalf
Soft Villain - No explanation or upper limits needed; makes villains more powerful to make heroes greater underdogs; e.g., The Emperor
Chosen One - Unknown power keeps hero safe throughout story; can be considered plot armor unless earned through character arc
Sort Hero Incomplete - Curse or positive ability the character cannot control; hero still learning limits of ability at story's end; powers and arc continued in next adventure
Soft Hero Complete - Hero embraces ability to complete arc and solve main conflict; magic must become harder in subsequent adventures
Points Opaque - Non-explicit reservoir of energy fuels powers; cannot solve main problems without cost option because characters finding hidden energy reserve feels like deus ex machina
Points Hard - Both abiliites and points system must be explicit like in video games; becomes about resource management; easy to understand but takes sense of wonder out of magic
Soft Level Static - Unchanging power without upper limits; cannot solve conflicts because feels repetitive; power must be used cleverly; e.g., Wolverine's healing factor
Soft Level Advancing - Increased powers or new powers with unknown limits; cannot solve conflicts unless tied to a character arc like Soft Hero Complete, at which point "unlocks" new abilities
Hard Level Static - Unchanging abilities with clear-cut limits; can solve conflicts so long as setup is properly seeded, usually resulting in sacrifice; e.g., Genie
Hard Level Advancing - Well-established abilities with limits; can solve conflicts based upon clever uses of abilities, usually against stronger foes; e.g., Airbender
Static Cost - Well-established cost remains consistent for each use of ability; can solve conflicts since based on personal sacrifice
Cost Fluctuating - Costs change based upon dramatic need; costs must be greater than or equal to ability; possible costs include lost time, money, sanity, health, memory, life, morality, etc.
Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 ⚜ Writing Notes ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs Writing Notes: Magic System ⚜ Fictional Items; Poisons ⚜ Fantasy