cole

Impaired ability to sense if food, especially meat, is rotten or past due.

Impaired ability to detect smoke or gas leaks.

Impaired ability to gauge the cleanliness of laundry.

Impaired ability to gauge the difference between strong and weak scents, like when picking a soap, detergent, or deodorant.

(and because of that often requiring the assistance of another person when picking cleaning or hygiene products)

Social impairments including difficulty detecting body odor or the smell of shared spaces like cars, rooms, and living spaces.

Impairment gauging environmental dangers such as cigarette smoke, vape smoke, car emissions, and chemicals which can still trigger allergic reactions or asthma attacks.

Impairment recognizing, locating, and disposing of dangers in the home such as living and dead pests, animal droppings, and rotting things, especially when they're not visibly obvious.

It's not just food that's not good that has a scent, your first line of defense against bad water is gone too (cheers to that time I drank bleach water on accident...)

Under the 'unable to smell smoke' category- it can mess with your cooking, since you can't smell if something is burning (the number of grilled cheeses I have turned to charcoal-)

Impairs the ability to enjoy food- ranging from my congenital bum not being able to appreciate Indian cuisine to individuals with acquired anosmia experiencing sudden weight drops due to loss of appetite and depression tied to the large change in the flavor of their food

The sheer anxiety that comes from all of this- whether that's a consistent worry that you smell bad, paranoia surrounding the safety of food, or like me for like a decade having to get up and check every third time I got a weird sensation in my nose because what if that's smoke and the house is on fire

Medically it also takes away a warning sign- there's more than one situation (such as some infections) where one of the signs you need to get looked at is a change in scent or in your smelling ability (I don't want to know how many anosmiacs accidentally spread covid because they were unaffected by a common and distinct symptom...)

The simple fact that you're missing a sense, and one of the core ones at that- there's this tendency to brush off disabilities as 'not actually' if they're not on par with missing a leg or 100% blindness something (it's also part of why you'll see people claim disabled characters aren't 'really' disabled because of stuff like 'he's got a cool prosthetic that works like a real limb'), but low impact disabilities are still disabilities

I redrew this picture of the cast as the characters

The sexuality of a police officer is cop.

The gender of a police officer is cop.

When you become the enforcer and protector of capital, you are making the deal to be slightly favored by the system over others like you, in exchange for being its servant. Your solidarity is with the system that you serve, even if it hates you.

The other day I was out searching if any local stores had TADC merchandise; my area's been lucky and getting quite a bit, so friends of mine asked me to keep an eye out. There were only a handful of plush left, one of them being Jax. I'd picked it up for a bit, when I noticed a teen kiddo shyly coming up to the TADC merch. They were quiet and very sweet, looking at my Jax and back at the empty displays. It was obvious who their favorite was, and I held the plush right out to them--

Seeing how much they lit up and hugged that Jax reminded me how often fandoms forget what's important. We can argue and dissect these characters all day, tear each other apart about episodes and plots and endings. But what matters is the emotional impact that's made, and how stories can mean so much to so many.

I keep thinking about that sweet kid, hugging their Jax tight, thanking me because he meant a lot to them. Their mom happily telling me that they don't have social media and knew nothing of leaks and were excited for the finale. That to them, it was just another show that they truly enjoyed, not something to be torn apart. Reminding me that no matter what the end brings, these stories will always have meaning.

There is joy to be found in TADC. I think a lot of us have forgotten that.

The other day I was out searching if any local stores had TADC merchandise; my area's been lucky and getting quite a bit, so friends of mine asked me to keep an eye out. There were only a handful of plush left, one of them being Jax. I'd picked it up for a bit, when I noticed a teen kiddo shyly coming up to the TADC merch. They were quiet and very sweet, looking at my Jax and back at the empty displays. It was obvious who their favorite was, and I held the plush right out to them--

Seeing how much they lit up and hugged that Jax reminded me how often fandoms forget what's important. We can argue and dissect these characters all day, tear each other apart about episodes and plots and endings. But what matters is the emotional impact that's made, and how stories can mean so much to so many.

I keep thinking about that sweet kid, hugging their Jax tight, thanking me because he meant a lot to them. Their mom happily telling me that they don't have social media and knew nothing of leaks and were excited for the finale. That to them, it was just another show that they truly enjoyed, not something to be torn apart. Reminding me that no matter what the end brings, these stories will always have meaning.

There is joy to be found in TADC. I think a lot of us have forgotten that.