They Deserve Nice Things

!! Hello!! I can’t speak for every service dog handler, but me personally, it makes me feel so much better when other people step in to ask people to leave us alone!

Hi everybody! As I’m sure you all know, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Life has really been dragging me down, but I’m back to writing! It’s a little slow going, the therapy series is admittedly pretty draining for me, but I’m getting there!

I’m hoping to get some new content up soon, in the next couple of weeks maybe? So stay tuned! I’ve got a few other side series that are a little easier for me so I might post some of that in the meantime while I keep working on the therapy series.

Also, I realize that I don’t use this blog very often anymore, so I was thinking about doing something to change that. I’m thinking about putting smaller notes and facts on here, stuff like descriptions of the gear each team uses, background information that led to some of the stories or plots in the series, etc.

Let me know what you think! And if anyone has headcanons, thoughts, ideas, or anything else, please feel free to send that! I’d love to know what you all think about the series, how you picture the teams in your own mind, anything!

!! hi, thank you!! sorry for taking a little while to get back to you, mental health (and physical health) have been a mess, but here you go!! (once again, i got long winded, because i don’t know how to stop)

!! aaa thank you so much!!

i definitely do my best to keep things accurate because i’m a very tired disabled who needs a service dog and inaccurate representation makes me really really sad honestly :0

!!!! oh my god Yes I would Love to talk about both of those teams/their stories okay (this got long i am so sorry)

!! omg omg ok so one thing i have Really wanted to talk about is a scene from the second dog play date (story here), and it’s this one:

“It’s perfectly alright,” Loki says, “they’ve been wanting to play with other dogs for quite some time now.”

“I thought you said they were a shapeshifter?” Bruce asks, eyebrows furrowing.

“Well, yes, but whatever form they take is what I refer to them as. Do you have people with fluid genders on this planet?” Bruce nods, so Loki continues. “It’s the same principle. However they want to be seen is how you refer to them.”

okay okay so this scene is really important to me, Slightly Crucial to the idea of ubunye and aelfhun as service dogs, and also very important to me re: diversity and true acceptance of diversity.

because in this scene we see them talking about aelfhun (currently in dog form) as if they are a dog, and this is important to me because it ties into genderfluidity, yknow?

like, for people who identify differently at different times (in other words, want to be seen as one gender sometimes and one or more other genders at different times), this is crucial.

because it’s not that you are ambiguous and just “dressing up” as something, you very much are that something, if that makes sense? so aelfhun, in this section, is that parallel example, that he is currently a dog, not a “shapeshifter pretending to be a dog,” yknow?

this was kind of a long explanation i am So Sorry but thank you for asking!!

Hi everybody! I’m tired and I’m a mess and I know I’ve promised y’all content but I’m a regular disappointment so here we are.

First, a retroactive change to one of the handlers’ orientations: Wade Wilson’s orientation is now listed as panromantic/pansexual.

I originally had him as heteroromantic/heterosexual, but as has been pointed out to me at least twice now, he’s canonically pan.

I messed that up when making the original drafts of this series, it was an oversight (and partially something I just pictured for this series’ Wade, not necessarily Wade in general), but I know this will continue to come up as a concern for people that’s been changed.

—————

Second, I’m going to apologize in advance and say that this series might be on hiatus for a while.

My mental and physical health have taken a nosedive, and I’m barely functioning anymore.

Behind the scenes of this series, I’m an absolute trainwreck on my good days, and lately all I’ve had are bad and worse days.

If I can convince one of the alters to write for this series, I’ll do that, but quite honestly I don’t think any of them are super passionate about writing.

Hi there! I definitely am! That’s another series (or multiple series) I’m planning within this ‘verse, both random side stories as well as stories that are retellings of the original series but through the perspective of one or more of the service dogs.

Hello again!

I completely understand where you’re coming from. I also have disabling anxiety, and that’s one of the reasons I’ve considered a service dog for myself. When I first found out about service dogs, I was ecstatic, and when I got my service dog candidate almost two years ago, I was beside myself with joy.

If you don’t mind me getting a little personal here, I eventually had to “wash out” my service dog in training, or decide that he wasn’t going to make it as a service dog.

Part of that was just that my physical disability needs have changed, and he can no longer support me fully. But part of it was that people would constantly disregard the “do not pet” patches, and even my verbal requests that they not pet him.

Having a service dog can be incredibly exhausting and nerve wracking some days; and depending on whether you decide to get a dog from an organization or owner train them yourself, it can be difficult, both mentally and emotionally.

With that said, though, I am planning on getting another service dog candidate but can’t currently, so I’m kind of where you are: knowing that there’s something that can help, but not being able to get it.

I guess my biggest advice for that is just to hold on as best as you can in the meantime, knowing that you will eventually get there. Do the things that you can do that make you happy, and when you encounter the things you can’t do, just remember that you will be able to do them someday. It’s only a matter of time.

It’s not super comforting, I know, and I also know there’s going to be days when it feels like everything is just impossible and there’s no way you can keep waiting, but that’s the best advice I can give. If I knew anything that could help more, believe me, I’d share it.

TL;DR: Having a service dog can be anxiety-inducing, but it can definitely still be worth it. In the meantime, just hang in there. It might take a while to get there, but it’s worth the wait.

!! Thank you!! As it stands, I don’t have a schedule for it, as the current series thread I’m working on (the therapy stories) is not even set up for the next story to be posted, let alone any future ones. I really am sorry about that, y’all.

Assuming I can kick my brain back into gear over the next few weeks, I might be able to start making consistent posting dates for every week or every other week, but at the moment that’s really tentative.

I promise I’m working on it, and I’ll try to get these stories out to you all as soon as possible!

In the meantime, I do have a question for all of you: Would you want a set of stories showing the morning and night routines of each team? And if so, would you prefer those stories from the perspective of the handler or the dog?

I am! I’ve got the rest of the “In Therapy” stories coming, a series devoted to what would happen if one (1) handler was left alone with all twenty (20) animals, some random bits and pieces from time to time, and I’m debating whether or not to do a series that shows what the teams do for their morning/night routines!

I’m trying to make sure everything that’s posted to AO3 is tagged with “SDfSH ‘verse”, and I’ve even retroactively tagged all of the other parts of the SDfSH universe with that tag.