ineffable ephemera

made this cake a week ago while i was visiting my best friend because they love making foodstuffs and i love eating foodstuffs. it was a totally average cake.

Henry Collins doll I’ve made for @schestokryl BD ✨

Head, hands and buttons are from oven baked polymer clay, body is plush, clothes removable.

Disclaimer: Though I have been using a cane for 6 years, I am not a doctor, nor am I by any means an expert. This guide is true to my experience, but there are as many ways to use a cane as there are cane users!

This guide will not include: White canes for blindness, crutches, walkers, or wheelchairs as I have no personal experience with these.

This is meant to be a general guide to get you started and avoid some common mishaps/misconceptions in your writing, but you absolutely should continue to do your own research outside of this guide!

This is NOT a medical resource!!! And never tell a real person you think they're using a cane wrong!

The biggest recurring problem I've seen is using the cane on the wrong side. The cane goes on the opposite side of the pain! If your character has even-sided pain or needs it for balance/weakness, then use the cane in the non-dominant hand to keep the dominant hand free. Some cane users also switch sides to give their arm a rest!

A cane takes about 20% of your weight off the opposite leg. It should fit within your natural gait and become something of an extension of your body. If you need more weight off than 20%, then crutches, a walker, or a wheelchair is needed.

Putting more pressure on the cane, using it on the wrong side, or having it at the wrong height can make it less effective, and can cause long term damage to your body from improper pressure and posture. (Hugh Laurie genuinely hurt his body from years of using a cane wrong on House!)

(some people elect to use a cane wrong for their personal situation despite this, everyone is different!)

(an animated GIF of a cane matching the natural walking gait. It turns red when pressure is placed on it.)

When going up and down stairs, there is an ideal standard: You want to use the handrail and the cane at the same time, or prioritize the handrail if it's only on one side. When going up stairs you lead with your good leg and follow with the cane and hurt leg together. When going down stairs you lead with the cane and the bad leg and follow with the good leg!

Realistically though, many people don't move out of the way for cane users to access the railing, many stairs don't have railings, and many are wet, rusty, or generally not ideal to grip.

In these cases, if you have a friend nearby, holding on to them is a good idea. Or, take it one step at a time carefully if you're alone.

Now we come to a very common mistake I see... Using fashion canes for medical use!

(These are 4 broad shapes, but there is INCREDIBLE variation in cane handles. Research heavily what will be best for your character's specific needs!)

The handle is the contact point for all the weight you're putting on your cane, and that pressure is being put onto your hand, wrist, and shoulder. So the shape is very important for long term use!

Knob handles (and very decorative handles) are not used for medical use for this reason. It adds extra stress to the body and can damage your hand to put constant pressure onto these painful shapes.

The weight of a cane is also incredibly important, as a heavier cane will cause wear on your body much faster. When you're using it all day, it gets heavy fast! If your character struggles with weakness, then they won't want a heavy cane if they can help it!

This is also part of why sword canes aren't usually very viable for medical use (along with them usually being knob handles) is that swords are extra weight!

However, a small knife or perhaps a retractable blade hidden within the base might be viable even for weak characters.

Bases have a lot of variability as well, and the modern standard is generally adjustable bases. Adjustable canes are very handy if your character regularly changes shoe height, for instance (gotta keep the height at your hip!)

Canes help on most terrain with their standard base and structure. But for some terrain, you might want a different base, or to forego the cane entirely! This article covers it pretty well.

Many cane users decorate their canes! Stickers are incredibly common, and painting canes is relatively common as well! You'll also see people replacing the standard wrist strap with a personalized one, or even adding a small charm to the ring the strap connects to. (nothing too large, or it gets annoying as the cane is swinging around everywhere)

(my canes, for reference)

If your character uses a cane full time, then they might also have multiple canes that look different aesthetically to match their outfits!

When it comes to practical things outside of the cane, you reasonably only have one hand available while it's being used. Many people will hook their cane onto their arm or let it dangle on the strap (if they have one) while using their cane arm, but it's often significantly less convenient than 2 hands. But, if you need 2 hands, then it's either setting the cane down or letting it hang!

For this reason, optimizing one handed use is ideal! Keeping bags/items on the side of your free hand helps keep your items accessible.

When sitting, the cane either leans against a wall or table, goes under the chair, or hooks onto the back of the chair. (It often falls when hanging off of a chair, in my experience)

When getting up, the user will either use their cane to help them balance/support as they stand, or get up and then grab their cane. This depends on what it's being used for (balance vs pain when walking, for instance!)

That's everything I can think of for now. Thank you for reading my long-but-absolutely-not-comprehensive list of things to keep in mind when writing or drawing a cane user!

"Good luck, Edward."

you called and I answered

Fairholme cake for Fairholme Friday @lieutenantfest

Bonus:

Hello! I'm new here.

I've been writing in a different fandom for years and recently became obsessed with The Terror, so I decided to try my hand at this. I'm very invested in Fitzconte and Francis/Dundy, so 25K words later, here we are! This is complete, but I'm posting the first chapter today, second chapter on Monday, final chapter next Thursday. 

Keeping this anonymous for now, but might claim it on my ao3 handle if I end up writing more Terror. 

This is a prompt fill for two events (I LOVE all the events in this fandom!!)

For the @lieutenantfest the Dundy alternate prompt Betrayal 

And for @dundybingo2026! This starts in 1998, but it ends in the 21st century, so I think it works for two squares: 

Fitzjames/Dundy—Modern Times—Love Triangle 

and 

Rarepair Francis/Dundy —Modern Times—Polyamory. 

This is a semi-modern AU about our boys if they were running AskJeeves in the thick of the dot-com boom (with my apologies to the real AskJeeves).  

As for plot, think You've Got Mail, if it was about online cruising and featured an angsty love triangle and problematic dynamics. And, a lot more smut.

So, um, we may have breached containment with this one......

Transcript:

Anyhow.... Oh, we have had a message in from regular listener Aeriann [ @aeriann ]. Thank you for listening, Aeriann! What are we saying here? That today, on Tumblr, is Lieutenantfest [ @lieutenantfest ], which is a kind of Terror-related fan... dom... activity. And today is Hodgson day, which is my character, funnily enough! So you can go on Tumblr and check out Lieutenantfest and see lots of great pictures. I've been sent one, of my character, Hodgson, sort of floating upside down with a seal. It looks great! Fantastic picture, whoever did that one! Is it run...frost? [ @runfrost ] If that's you, it's a great picture; I really really like it! So yeah, happy Lieutenantfest Hodgson Day! Thanks for messaging in to tell us, I would never have known that!

the terror + the moment they step from a high adventure story to a horror story

I like putting on instrumental music when I write to help me focus and to get myself into the mood of whatever I'm writing, and I simply cannot get behind anything that doesn't include cello when writing fitzier. If there isn't a cello I get pulled out of the scene and distracted.

My favourite "basic" fitzier piece is Ludovico Einaudi's Passaggio arranged for two cellos

And for more emotional/intense scenes I looove Nuvole Bianche (also composed by Ludovico Einaudi and arranged for two cellos)

slight side effect I did not expect - now every piece with a prominent cello screams "fitzier" to me. I don't mind it at all but it does surprise me ever so slightly every time I listen to an instrumental playlist and without a warning I start thinking about fitz and/or crozier and getting sad only to realise that it's because there is a cello playing.

I'm very curious if anyone else associates specific musical instruments with either one of the characters or a ship?