REPRESENT!

The Expanse Aesthetics- Amos Burton for @disabilityfest Gif by @the-roci Content Warnings: CSA, forced sex work, casual abelism

Autistic(Coded)

“Amos is different, but he’s not crazy and he’s not evil. He’s just… always needed someone to help him out with the world.”  -Naomi Nagata, The Expanse TV. “Amos was aware in a distant way that his gut hurt, like he’d eaten a little too much food. Probably fear or shock or something.” - Amos Burton(POV), Nemesis Games

“He couldn’t tell if the release in Erich’s eyes was relief or disappointment. Maybe both. Lydia would have known. Or Naomi. Or Holden. Alex, probably. For him, it was just a little change in muscle tension. Could have meant anything.” -Amos Burton(POV), Nemesis Games

“Amos was a man without subtext. When he said he needed some time alone, it was because he needed some time alone.” - Alex Kamal(POV), Nemesis Games

“There was no fear in [Amos’] voice or… expression, and it left Burton with the sense he was talking to an idiot” - Burton(POV) The Churn “ ‘Kind of fucked it up, me,’ [Amos] said… “Burton told me to get what I could out of this guy. Looking back, I think he just meant money, so.” [Amos] leaned against the couch, hands deep in his pockets, and shrugged. “Oops.” -Amos Burton, Lydia(POV), The Churn

CSA Survivor

“She’d made [Amos] soup the night Liev had turned him out for the first time, and while he ate told him lies about her first time with a john to make him laugh.” - Lydia(POV), The Churn “ ‘Those kids? They’re illegal, but they don’t just vanish, not right away,’ Amos continued, ‘They got uses, too.’ Holden felt his chest tighten a little. It wasn’t something he’d ever thought about. When, a second later, Naomi spoke, her horror echoed his. ‘Jesus.’ ‘Jesus got nothing to do with it,’ Amos said, ‘No Jesus in the squeeze trade. But some kids wind up in the pimp gangs, some wind up on the streets…’ ‘Some wind up finding a way to ship offworld and they never go back?’ Naomi asked, her voice quiet. ‘Maybe,’ Amos said, his voice as flat and conversational as ever. ‘Maybe some do. But most of them just… disappear, eventually. Used up. Most of them.’ “ - Amos Burton, Naomi Nagata, James Holden(POV) Caliban’s War.

An in depth meta by @almostdefinitelydying on Amos’ mental health including his reaction to trauma as an autistic(coded) character can be found here> https://almostdefinitelydying.tumblr.com/post/157406005655/okay-so-the-thing-about-amos

Disabilityfest 2018: Shameless OC plug

Nhu Lam: Thalassemia (in remission), ADHD

Series Overview: Substrate is a cyberpunk-fantasy series that takes place in the aftermath of a megacorp’s backfired attempt to alter the fabric of reality. It features a neurodivergent punk cyborg detective who joins the Brink Tank, a covert group dedicated to protecting humanity from existential threats. As the team investigates reports of weather anomalies, bizarre architecture, missing persons, and people developing psychic abilities, they discover and fight against an expansive coverup effort to prevent the public from confronting a literally fractured reality.

Character Overview: Nhu was born with a severe form of anemia, and was placed into an experimental genetic modification program as a young child in the hopes of saving her life. The treatments were eventually successful in placing her anemia into remission, but came with the side effect of causing her blood (and her entire body by extension) to glow bright green under UV light.

After being granted the newfound ability to live a normal life, Nhu proceeded to come out as transgender, become a punk, and use her existing fame as a medical prototype to gain a media following. She got into videography in high school with her best friend Matt, a chronically ill psychic with the ability to alter people’s perception of information. The two began making a series on the reports of strange occurrences around the city of DIS, eventually capturing a video of a dimensional rift cracking the sky open. After Matt is captured by the series antagonists in an attempt to erase the video from the minds of the public, Nhu begins working with (and later dating) Matt’s estranged older sister Ruma in an attempt to bring him back and find answers. However, with Matt’s absence, she notices that the attention that her constant visibility brings her feels colder and more threatening.

Nhu is a very excitable person and a relentless optimist, although she can also be stubborn, distractible, and impulsive. While she is ambitious, most of her drive is in creative pursuits and activism, as opposed to ‘typical’ pathways of success such school and work, which she tends to struggle with.

Top-left: Picture of a green colored screen with the text ‘The future belongs to us’

Top-center: Image of several bags of glowing teal fluid in IV bags

Top-right: A photograph of a girl wearing a highlighter yellow jacket in a dark blue-tinted room

Center-left: A fishtank under blacklight with multi-colored neon fish and cyan plants

Center: Headshot of Nhu, a neon-green anthro Siamese cat with short, punkish black hair with green and pink streaks. She is wearing a leather jacket with a rainbow patch and is surrounded by a green glow

Center-right: A pastel blue and pink laboratory hallway

Bottom-left: A green glowing jellyfish

Bottom-center: A pair of hands next to a bottle of hand sanitizer, glowing blue under UV light

Bottom-right: A graphic of glowing green dots resembling a double helix

Disabilityfest 2018: Shameless OC plug

Matteo Sinha: Asthma, general chronic illness/poor immune system, depression, anxiety, PTSD, dissociation

Series Overview: Substrate is a cyberpunk-fantasy series that takes place in the aftermath of a megacorp’s backfired attempt to alter the fabric of reality. It features a neurodivergent punk cyborg detective who joins the Brink Tank, a covert group dedicated to protecting humanity from existential threats. As the team investigates reports of weather anomalies, bizarre architecture, missing persons, and people developing psychic abilities, they discover and fight against an expansive coverup effort to prevent the public from confronting a literally fractured reality.

Character Overview: Matt is Ruma’s younger brother and is the only member of the main team with psychic powers. His powers can be roughly summed as as ‘void powers’, and include the ability to alter what people notice, make information unable to be recalled, and appear in and alter dreams.

Matt was born sickly and took the biggest hit to his health after being exposed to an anti-vaxxer’s child at a young age, after which he developed respiratory issues that never really went away. While in the hospital, he met his best friend Nhu, and developed a special interest in space and meteorology. In high school, he became the videographer for his and Nhu’s amateur YouTube show Eclipse and Aurora. Their show went viral after capturing a video of an interdimensional rift forming, drawing the attention of the series’ main antagonists, who eventually capture him and force him to use his powers to make the entire city unable to recall the incident.

After escaping from the antagonists with the help of Ruma, Nhu, and a mysterious demonic guardian, Matt reluctantly joins the Brink Tank to try and learn how to better control his powers. He tries his best to use his powers for good to protect others, comfort them in their dreams, and gather intelligence. However, he has difficulty dealing with the trauma of being forced to use his powers for ill, and sometimes finds them physically and mentally straining to use.

“We will find a way through the dark”

“I don’t want to be a fucking tragedy”

Disabilityfest 2018: favorite disabled character moments

The Jailhouse Job: Parker + normal human limitations are for other people

‘I got it! The furnace room. There’s no sensors because it’s too hot. They crawl straight down along the heating pipes until they reach the sewage system.’

‘No, Parker, it’s 150 degrees in there.’

Disabilityfest 2018: Shameless OC plug

Ruma Sinha: Autism Spectrum Disorder (undiagnosed), Borderline Personality Disorder, PTSD, anxiety, chronic migraines, cybernetic eyes

Series Overview: Substrate is a cyberpunk-fantasy series that takes place in the aftermath of a megacorp’s backfired attempt to alter the fabric of reality. It features a neurodivergent punk cyborg detective who joins the Brink Tank, a covert group dedicated to protecting humanity from existential threats. As the team investigates reports of weather anomalies, bizarre architecture, missing persons, and people developing psychic abilities, they discover and fight against an expansive coverup effort to prevent the public from confronting a literally fractured reality.

Character Overview: Ruma, the protagonist of Substrate, is a reclusive private investigator whose work brings her into contact with anomalies and cracks in reality around the city of DIS that no one in power seems to be aware of. Her findings bring her to the remnants of the Brink Tank, an environmental nonprofit whose real mission is to intervene across the span of time to protect humanity from existential threats. However, as the team’s research into DIS’s anomalies comes dangerously close to dredging up details about her traumatic institutionalization as a teenager, she wonders if opening up about her mental issues is worth risking her found family and her best (and maybe only) shot at a future.

Ruma’s strengths include stealth, observation, navigation, parkour, and the ability to perceive interdimensional rifts, which are of benefit in areas of DIS that no longer abide by the normal rules of space and time. However, her visual hypersensitivity makes it difficult for her to function in bright light, which she finds overwhelming and is a meltdown/migraine trigger for her. She comes off as a tough and intense person, although this is partially an overcompensation for her fear of being seen as sensitive or vulnerable.

While she does not possess psychic powers like her brother, Matt, she is resistant to mind-control attacks and is very cagey about how she acquired this ability. 

The Expanse Aesthetics- James Holden for @disabilityfest made with @jamesholden

Living with Incurable Cancer

“ ‘You’re both dead.’ Naomi said. ‘Seriously, we had to override the triage filters on both of you more than once. The expert system kept clicking you over to hospice care and shooting you full of morphine.’ …Holden was quiet, Miller pretended not to notice. ‘Long-term estimates?’ ‘You’re both going to need to be checked for new cancers every month for the rest of your lives. [Holden] has a new implant where his thyroid used to be, since his real one was pretty much cooked down.’ “ -Naomi and Miller, The Expanse #1 Leviathan Wakes “She stopped at a dark spot on his stomach. ‘You still taking your cancer meds?’ ‘Everyday.’ For the rest of my life, he didn’t add.” -Naomi and Holden, The Expanse #4 Cibola Burn  ” ‘I’m running low on my cancer meds.’ Holden said. ‘Radioactive rain ain’t gonna help with that.’ ’Was my thought.’ -Holden and Amos, The Expanse #4 Cibola Burn ” ‘Do you have any selective apoptosis catalysts on board?’ ’Oncocidals? Sure, anti-cancer meds are standard.’ ’Would you send some down in the shuttle?… Holden needs them. He caught a lot of rems on Eros. It’s not a big thing when we have a med bay, but he pops a new tumor every month or two.’ “ -Naomi and Havelock, The Expanse #4 Cibola Burn “ ‘Oh!,’ Elvie said. ‘It’s his oncocidals. After the Eros incident, he had to go on a permanent course of them. And that means… oh! That’s so pretty.’ ‘…Why would his anti-cancer meds work on something from a different biospheare?… this means we can treat the eye thing, right?’ ‘What? Oh. Yeah, probably. It’s not like oncocidals are hard to sythesize. Just most of us don’t need a constant course the way Holden does.’” - Elvie and Fayez, The Expanse #4 Cibola Burn “ ‘You’re taking medications for a chronic and potentially terminal condition. We are discussing whether or not to use your medication to treat other patients and leave you without.’ ’That’s fine.’ ’Ethetically, it’s actually a little problematic. If I’m going to do this, and I very much want to, I need to know that you understand-’ ’I do, I do, I do. I’ve sucked down enough radiation that I bloom tumors a lot. The thing that keeps it under control does that thing with the other thing. And then there are other people and I can take a nap… Use it, go ahead. We’ll get more if we can’ ‘And if we can’t?’ ‘I might grow a new tumor before we starve. I might not. I’m okay with that.’ “ -Holden and Lucia, The Expanse #4 Cibola Burn  “ ‘We’re getting up to the same age [he] was when he stroked out on a burn. And you’ve been on daily anticancer meds for more than half your life now. It doesn’t matter how good they are, that’s going to take a toll on your system. Leave you a little fragile. So the other thing we can do? Sell our shares. Head down to Titan, pick a resort, and enjoy our retirement.” -Naomi to Holden, The Expanse #7 Persepolis Rising

Kelley, Disability Fest (Comic: The Art of Never Looking Back)

[Image description: a series of comic panels from my webcomic, The Art of Never Looking Back, showcasing Amanda Kelley. She is a chubby black woman with an oval shaped face and large, expressive brown eyes. She has her hair up in a bun and is wearing in most images a white long sleeved shirt with blue strips on the sides, and sitting on a red-framed manual wheelchair. The first image shows her leaning forwards and grabbing her handrims and looking up, concerned. This image is captioned “How do I look?” the second image is her looking forwards towards the camera while speaking, her eye brows set with determination. This image is captioned “I know I can make a difference as handler - we don’t really have the opportunity to do that here.“

the third image shows her wearing a coat and wheeling up to a building, but she has to pop a wheelie to get over a step. (captioned: “Wheelies - the best” The fourth image shows her in her apartment, standing up at a stove and holding a water bottle. Someone off screen says “I keep forgetting you can walk.” The fifth image shows her standing up while holding a cane. She says “Not for any distance longer than around the house, and not without pain.” These images are captioned “Personal experience pt 1 and 2″

The last two images are close-ups of her face. First, we see her rolling her eyes while sitting down on a couch with a neck pillow propping up her head. this image is captioned “Okay, fine”. Next we see her wiping a tear off her cheek. It’s captioned “Kelley asks for proof from a close family member.” end image]

End of image description, beginning of commentary.

So, I figured I wanted to do disability fest this summer but didn’t know who to do it for. Then I was like “Wait! I have my own original disabled characters! I can just use them.”

So, without further ado, here is Amanda Kelley, one of my favorite characters in my webcomic (I’m allowed to pick favorites).

Kelley is a character in my comic, The Art of Never Looking Back. She has my disability (fibromyalgia), and while I haven’t gotten the opportunity to name drop her disability yet, I have gotten the opportunity to show that she can walk but it hurts her to do so (as seen in this image set).

ENG:

☆ DisabilityFest 2018 ☆

IX: The Hermit:   Soul-searching, introspection, loneliness, inner guidance

Chirrut Imwe - Blind

-“ I am one with the Force. The Force is with me. ”-

Chirrut from Star Wars Rogue One.

[Description: an inked drawing of Chirrut Imwe as The Hermit. He’s carrying a lamp with bioluminiscent creatures, and his staff. He’s wearing a cloak that covers his head.]

☆ Commission me (special baby fund commissions)

☆ Buy me a coffee

ESP: 

☆ DisabilityFest 2018 ☆

IX:  El Ermitaño:   Búsqueda interna, introspección, soledad, guía interior.

Chirrut Imwe - Ciego

-“ Soy uno con La Fuerza. La Fuerza está conmigo. ”-

Chirrut de Star Wars Rogue One.

Burial at Sea by  le_mru- Long John Silver

Two years after Skeleton Island, Madi sets out to find Flint and recover the treasure for the Maroon community.

He Who Numbers the Stars by PeculiarLeah- Ivar the Boneless

On the outskirts of Nazi-occupied Copenhagen in the summer of 1943, Ragnar Lothbrock controls a network of partisans who fight against their Nazi occupiers and assist their Jewish neighbors to safety in Sweden. Ragnar’s crippled son Ivar wishes to fight the German’s alongside his father, particularly after he falls in love with a Jewish girl whose life is threatened by the invaders.

His Heart is a Place of Safety by BeaArthurPendragon- Matt Murdock (Daredevil)

After an anti-mutant terrorist organization deals a devastating blow to the Defenders and the Avengers have to step in, Matt Murdock, (adult) Peter Parker, and their friends struggle to adapt to a new, very different reality. All the feelings ensue. (Also, sex.)

Lost and Found by mariana_oconnor- Bucky  Barnes

Clint Barton’s got a bag full of stolen money and a burning desire to stay under the radar. His old friends in the Carnival will be looking for him and they sure as hell won’t be happy. In a desperate attempt to stay off their radar, he ends up in Timely, a small town so far off the beaten track he’s surprised he even found it, and waits for Barney to comes and get him. Because Barney will be coming. Clint knows he will.

But there’s something about the town. Maybe it’s the strange wolf that watches him from the trees, and the way people finish conversations when he enters a room. Or it could be the bartender, Bucky, who decided to hate him on sight. Something’s going on in this small town, and Clint’s not sure if he’s jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.

One Page at a Time by peggycarterisacat- Jaime Lannister, Tyrion Lannister

There were reasons Jaime had asked Arthur to be his fake boyfriend for the holidays and not someone else — 1) he didn’t have plans and Jaime didn’t like the idea of him being on his own for the week, 2) he had enough tact to, hopefully, piss off Dad without starting a literal war over the dinner table, and 3) he was possibly the least flirty person Jaime had ever met, so this wouldn’t turn into anything weird.

But now it was getting weird. Not a bad weird— just weird.

Reaching an Understanding by LMX- Clint Barton (Hawkeye)

When Barney Barton left Carson’s Circus with the Swordsman (and most of their money), he took his deaf brother with him. Because what evil mastermind doesn’t need a lackey who can’t hear nefarious schemes being concocted, or tell the appropriate authorities if they ever figure it out?

When SHIELD finally catches up to his organisation, it’s Clint they end up with, but understanding is a little longer in coming.

Now I See You by CaptainTarthister- Jaime Lannister, Tyrion Lannister

Brienne Tarth is an ambitious, talented director about to make her first feature-length mainstream film. Jaime Lannister is a temperamental but critically-acclaimed actor returning in front of the camera after a devastating accident. But having to shoot a sensitive scene makes Jaime split for parts unknown. With the delay costing the production millions and her career about to go up in smoke, Brienne all but tears Westeros apart to find Jaime.

Shadows on Glass by stele3- Long John Silver

julian bashir, unspecified developmental disability

you were falling behind.

i was six years old. you decided i was a failure in the first grade.

you don’t understand, jules. you never did!

no, you don’t understand! i stopped calling myself jules when i was fifteen and i’d found out what you’d done to me. i’m julian!

what difference does that make?

Rewatched IT last night. 

Disabilityfest 2018: favorite disabled character moments

The Order 23 Job: Parker + once again wondering if Nate has superpowers

What do we do now?

DisabilityFest 2018

Jubilation Lee aka Jubilee - Marvel comics

Dyscalculia

(Caption:  six images. A drawing by Trungles (x). A pair of pink sunglasses.

A comic frame. A yellow jacket.