hardly ever better

No painfully obvious plastic surgery, no blur filters, no uncanny white veneers.

Now GO3 makes a bit more sense.

There are 760,000 Australians on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the system that - if they feel like it and your personalised plan says you get to have it - provides funding for everything from personal hygiene care to support workers to therapies to assistive technology. It's already very hard for disabled people to get on the NDIS, regardless of your disability. It's near impossible to access most support and equipment without being on the NDIS. And the government has announced that they want that number to drop to 600,000 in four years. 160,000 of us cut off the Scheme - and countless more denied access. This will cause deaths. People will die and people will suffer because there is no safety net. The NDIS is the only option for most of us. Even private health insurance doesn't cover most of these things. Nobody will swoop in to save us.

The bill wants to give the (non disabled!) NDIS minister basically unlimited power to cut our funding. They're already planning what they'd do with that power. What rights they'll strip from us. What dignity and freedom they'll remove to make their budget look better.

The bill wants to force people to try every treatment out there before they're allowed to be on the NDIS. Including if the treatment is literally impossible to access. There’s a lot of us living in regional areas or out bush who can't just pop to the capital cities for specialists. This will especially hurt disabled First Nations people in regional and remote communities, who already experience limited access to healthcare. Oh, and it includes chemical restraint, too. The government has directly refused to exclude chemical restraint from the required process, calling it "trialling medication".

If you're australian and worried, the ABC did a good breakdown of the proposed changes.

I know australia stuff doesn't really pop up on the radar on this site, but I want everyone to know what's going on. What we're fighting for here. Your australian disabled friends might be NDIS participants fearing for their life, rights, and freedom. They might not be a participant and afraid these changes mean they never will have access. We deserve better. The government built a system with no backup plan, and now they want hundreds of thousands of disabled people to pay the price for their bad planning.

"Crowley’s just— so free, so alive, so vibrant, and he can feel his control on his corporation slipping, can feel dozens of eyes threatening to become visible just for their chance to watch him as well."

the poll results are in! based on your answers, here are some fics you might enjoy:

A Proper Apology by @roughwinds

“I did the ‘I was wrong’ dance,” Aziraphale reminds him, ticking the years off on his fingers, “in 1650, in 1793, 1941–”

“I remember,” Crowley cuts in, with a hint of a smirk Aziraphale hears in his voice more than identifies in his expression. “But…”

And he strings this part out, dangles the word over the edge of itself until Aziraphale has no choice but to hang off of it.

“I said no.”

Ah. He wants to play this game.

love the “i was wrong” dance? hate it? either way, this fic is for you. with no dancing required, aziraphale and crowley find a way to make amends. ohhhh the love in this one. the characterization is absolutely sublime and the playful banter is as much of a treat as the happy ending.

Severin’ (Speak So Slightly) by @hakunahistata

“Gonna tie me up, are you?” Crowley smirked from behind the rim of his glass. “Truss me up like a Christmas turkey?”

“Oh, I am going to do so much more than that.”

Aziraphale crossed his legs, sitting back in his chair, and grinned.

“My dear, I am going to undo you.”

*

Aziraphale and Crowley try something new.

a beautiful tribute to shibari. and despite being an 8k one-shot, it reads like a long fic. this human au starts with a just-established relationship, but it feels like you’ve been along for the ride the whole time the way the (incredibly loving) dynamic instantly feels familiar. remarkably soothing read, and clearly written with so much care. i cannot overemphasis the love and tenderness. i would read 100k of these two in one sitting. made me feel warm in every way.

Akrasia by @depraveddame

Professors Anthony Crowley and Aziraphale Fell do not like each other.

They despise one another.

In fact, most would more than likely describe them as being mortal enemies if nothing else.

Rivals in their field of Philosophy at a prestigious university, they clash in nearly every sense of the word, doing their absolute best to either 1) go out of their way to metaphorically rip the each other to shreds, or 2) aggressively and/or spitefully avoid the other.

Most of the time.

[Image ID: The Destiel confession meme edited so that Dean answers 'JK Rowling posted upskirt photos of a woman on Twitter' to Cas 'I love you'. /End ID]

No one doing this should be allowed to call themselves a feminist.

"I am on holiday! Instead of a new podfic chapter, please enjoy some old favourites. Today: Petrichor & Parchment. “Mr. Crowley, I presume?” Aziraphale asked in lieu of an introduction, which was not forthcoming. The guy hadn’t even removed his sunglasses. Oh God, he had a tattoo on his face. Aziraphale wasn’t one to judge, but… what kind of gardener had a snake tattoo on his face? An all time favourite that I know many of my listeners frequently come back to.

The World

is violent and mercurial

it will have its way with you.

We are saved only by love --

love for each other and the love

that we pour into the art we

feel compelled to share: being a parent,

a writer, being a painter, being a friend.

We live in a perpetually burning

building and what we must save

from it all the time is love.