Space Case

and finally whoever the handler is just "sorry, she's still in training." and ilya is just "ah, a professional in training. what a smart girl." "yeah, she's training to be an anxiety service dog. :)"

and ilya just looks RIGHT at shane, who is suddenly

oh my GOD, they had been fighting about getting another dog because ilya wanted anya to have a sibling and shane wanted to call it at one dog because what if the next one ISN'T good and now they're going to have two dogs AND one is a problem-

so they're already miffed at each other, and shane is convinced ilya keeps somehow signaling this dog to come over because he's being an asshole about their fight about dogs, the exchange about her being an anxiety service dog happens, shane avoids eye contact COMPLETELY and manages to fully escape standing next to ilya

but then ends up retreating to an empty conference room that the dog and handler also happen to go to as a break place for the dog, and the handler is like no worries if not it's okay but do you mind letting her practice tasking? it's really okay if not but she seems really eager-

and what is shane going to do? say no i won't help out with training this dog? no.

in their household, she is dogtor rosie because she has a degree even if she doesn't use it (ilya made it, it hangs on the fridge), and when shane tries to appeal to ilya to help him call rosie off when she's tasking, ilya shakes his head and refuses

dogtor rosie is SO good at this! she's a little angel (and sometimes menace), and i adore her.

i can also maybe picture anya picking up the basics of some of these moves/behaviors after the two dogs have spent some time together and she's seen rosie receive positive attention/praise for doing so. (ilya is for sure providing that, even if shane himself is more unsure at first)

all of a sudden, anya is also now fetching things With Purpose when she senses that someone is upset/anxious. she doesn't have rosie's discernment or training, so she's not grabbing water bottles or prescriptions (even if they are for the wrong person), but she is bringing whatever random item feels right in the moment. she has the spirit!!!

also the idea of anya frantically looking around for an item to give shane when rosie goes to grab the empty pill bottle from the counter because she WILL go looking for it if they don't leave it there for her is SO cute and funny to me. incomplete list of items anya has prescribed shane to make him feel better:

his sunglasses

ilya's keys

yuna's purse

a pair of tongs for the grill

her leash AND rosie's leash

a pillow from their bedroom

her stuffed hockey stick toy

the empty pill bottle when she got there first, prompting an annoyed rosie to try and take it from her because that's HER item!! give it!! meaning it actually did work because shane is now having to ref a sibling squabble over helping him with an empty bottle of medication that wasn't even his to start with

and @hardlyhinged adding your tags here because Best Wiggly Girl hopping the boards and getting carried off with a puck in her mouth is SO delightful to me

Most languages use relatively similar sound inventories overall, but make distinctions others don't. And the way the our language centers work is they group these sounds together, allowing us to recognize that things within a given range constitute a recognizable phoneme. If your languages groups together sounds another language makes a distinction between, your brain cannot tell.

So everyone on those posts congratulating themselves for looking up pronunciation and saying "It's Not That Hard?" Surprise, you might have still got it wrong and can't even tell. You can look up the IPA chart and still flub it completely because what sounds right to your brain and what a native speaker will understand are totally different things!

"I might have butchered that, please let me know" is sometimes an excuse for lack of research, but it is, unfortunately, also a much more accurate self-assessment than confidently fucking it up after mouthing along to a wav file a few times.

Okay I'm just going to spend the rest of my night grieving a beautiful kind of art that simply doesn't exist anymore. Like.... I will blame Candace Wheeler for patenting an ARTISTIC TECHNIQUE, apparently, I don't think that's reasonable....

Water Himbo

Earth Himbo

Fire Himbo

the way you frame your conversations is important! People with dementia are often, particularly at the earlier stages, very much aware that their memory is getting worse. This can make them very anxious, which isn't fun for anyone, least of all them. One of the most common things that people say to people with dementia is "do you remember ___?" as a way to try and prompt their memory. This feels helpful, but it's not. Because hey, in all likelihood, that person does not remember ___, and being confronted with this fact is not going to make them feel great. Remember that they literally have a degenerative brain disease; they're not going to suddenly regain their memories because you tested them. Instead, try talking about your own memories. Tell them what you remember. Tell it like a story. If they remember, then they can join in. If not, then hey, it's a nice story.

don't correct them if they say something wrong. Their version of reality is not going to be the same as yours. That's just a given. My grandma is often convinced that she's just on a very long holiday in a nice hotel, and that her dad is waiting outside in the car. I'm not going to tell her "uh, actually, you're in a care home and your dad died 50 years ago," because who's that going to help? Quite literally no-one. It'll just confuse her more, and she's already confused enough. Even if the person is saying something that's making them anxious - a common one is believing that people are stealing from them, or that someone is being unkind to them - then it's easier to try and distract them by trying to talk about something that you know makes them happy, rather than to outright tell them that they're wrong. Being consistently told that they're wrong can make them react defensively; they're not children, and they (usually) know it. It's just easier not to get into a confrontation.

get used to repetition. Don't get frustrated when you have the same conversation 25 times in two minutes. It's going to happen. For them, it's the first time you've had that conversation; they won't understand why you're angry at them for asking a question. It's completely normal to feel frustrated, but the onus is on you not to make it their problem. My grandma's short term memory is, charitably, about 3 seconds long. A conversation with her at this point is like rehearsing for a play; I know her lines, and I know mine. That's just how it is. She gets just as much joy out of telling me that she likes my cardigan for the 86th time as she did the first time she said it. People with dementia are not able to retain the information or the memory of that previous conversation; reminding them that you've already answered their question is just going to confuse and upset them.

don't take things personally. They might say things that are unkind. They might say completely inappropriate things. Again: their brain is deteriorating. It is a medical condition. They're not becoming bad people, or showing their 'true selves' to be evil and rage-fuelled. It's a combination of the fact that they're living in a perpetual state of confusion, which can lead to frustration and anger, and the fact that their ability to process and respond to information is affected by the dementia itself. If they say something cruel to you, you just have to take it on the chin and recognise it as a symptom of a disease that they're not able to control. Step out of the room for a moment if it gets too much. I've been fortunate in that my grandma has never experienced this symptom, but it's very common, and it's no reflection of you, or them.

don't treat them like children. My grandmother is 92 years old and she will look at you like you're the bane of her life if you try and tell her what to do, or use baby talk. Keep your sentences short and clear to avoid confusion, but don't ask them if they need you to clean their wittle fingies.

try and avoid open-ended questions, especially ones that involve memory recall, like "what did you do on the weekend?". My grandma was an absolute queen at making shit up when people asked her that, because she couldn't remember a damn thing, and she never liked to admit that she couldn't remember, because it made her stressed and anxious. "I picked up leaves" was her personal favourite, for some reason. I used to just tell her about my weekend instead, and sometimes she would joyfully tell me (completely falsely) that she also went to the shops, and that was much less stressful for her; she wasn't actively trying to come up with an answer to cover for her own lack of memory, and instead felt like she was part of the conversation on her own, equal terms.

most importantly: don't try and pull them back to reality. The best way I've learnt to communicate with anyone with dementia is to enter theirs instead. Sometimes, this is referred to as 'validation therapy'. It's about acknowledging that the reality of someone with dementia is as real to them as your reality is to you, and you're not going to be able to 'reorient' them to your version of reality, because they don't have the short term memory or ability to retain information that would enable that. Put simply: if my grandma asks when my uncle is going to come home, I gain nothing from (correctly) informing her that he's dead. This just upsets her, because every time she hears it, she's receiving the news of his death for the first time. That sends her into a spiral of grief and anxiety that remains even after the memory of his death has vanished again. Instead, I just tell her that he'll be home after lunch. She nods, accepts it, and we're both happy. My uncle is still dead, but in her world, he's going to come home soon. It's a way of having empathy for the person with dementia, and acknowledging that your reality, or objective 'truth', is not more important than their wellbeing.

not vegetarian, blood counts as part of the meat

not vegetarian bc you have to harm/kill the animal (human) to get it (not sure how these people think blood drives work???)

maybe vegetarian but only if you don't kill the animal (human) to harvest the blood

and my autistic nonhuman brain was like oh? species can be learned? species can be taught? species can be earned?

Imagine the tiniest, most wimpy, pathetic, pitiful dragon you possibly can. She’s got blunt horns and blunt teeth, and her claws aren’t very sharp! She’s a little smaller than your average house cat! Her name is Altheria. Her hoard consists of;

One dirty gold coin

That’s it.

And she’s so little she can’t even hold the coin in one paw. It’s not a big coin, she’s just little and doesn’t have thumbs! 👍

So the other dragons are all bigger and greedy, and very mean to her. She’s struggling to hold onto her one pathetic coin, and these other dragons are fucking HUGE with caves full of gold, yet they’re super greedy and want all the gold they can get! So one of them sees Altheria’s single little coin and steals it. She tries to fight back, but they’re so big compared to her that they just bat her out of the sky like hitting a fly with fly swatter.

So she’s lost her entire hoard in one night, and she’s feeling pretty pathetic, when she sees a poster!

HELP WANTED - RESCUE PRINCESS ELIZABETH - REWARD 15,000 GOLD

and she gets a very bad idea, but she’s pretty desperate and stupid so she does it anyway!

So the story follows Altheria as she blunders her way through this quest to save the kidnapped princess (so tragically taken days before her wedding!!!) And she kinda sucks at it. She mostly skates by because everyone looks at her and goes “She’s so small!!! She’s harmless!!!”

And there’s this thing called The Gift that people are born with. Only people with The Gift can understand dragons, so no one knows what the fuck she’s saying anyway. Everyone just ignores her!

Well Altheria makes it to the bandit infested fortress where the princess is only to discover….

Drum roll please!!!!

The princess wasn’t kidnapped. She ran the fuck away because she was not vibing with that whole marriage thing. She’s taken over this small army of bandits and become their leader. She’s plotting to take over her father’s kingdom and become queen instead of being sold off to some prince. She’s building an army.

Elizabeth has offered every would-be rescuer to show up a choice; join her cause, or die. Out of 37 would be rescuers, only three have joined her. The other 34 she defeated and killed in single combat. Because she’s a badass.

She then ransomed the bodies to their families for a shit load of money.

So Eliza has The Gift, and gives Altheria the same choice but with some added sugar; if Altheria joins up, she can be Eliza’s treasurer.

Altheria takes one look at the 35,000 gold Eliza has built up, and Eliza promises they’ll get even more gold if they can take over the kingdom… And Altheria is 100% on board!!!!

But the reason dragons need gold is simple; the more gold a dragon possess, the larger they grow. That’s why Altheria was so small. She only had one coin! But now she has 35,000 that she (kinda, she shares with Eliza) owns.

Altheria starts growing again. Throughout their quest to take back the kingdom in Eliza’s name, she gets bigger, her teeth and horns get sharper, her fire gets hotter… She becomes a fucking badass, just like Eliza.

And you know I had to draw my favorite part

Imagine the tiniest, most wimpy, pathetic, pitiful dragon you possibly can. She’s got blunt horns and blunt teeth, and her claws aren’t very sharp! She’s a little smaller than your average house cat! Her name is Altheria. Her hoard consists of;

One dirty gold coin

That’s it.

And she’s so little she can’t even hold the coin in one paw. It’s not a big coin, she’s just little and doesn’t have thumbs! 👍

So the other dragons are all bigger and greedy, and very mean to her. She’s struggling to hold onto her one pathetic coin, and these other dragons are fucking HUGE with caves full of gold, yet they’re super greedy and want all the gold they can get! So one of them sees Altheria’s single little coin and steals it. She tries to fight back, but they’re so big compared to her that they just bat her out of the sky like hitting a fly with fly swatter.

So she’s lost her entire hoard in one night, and she’s feeling pretty pathetic, when she sees a poster!

HELP WANTED - RESCUE PRINCESS ELIZABETH - REWARD 15,000 GOLD

and she gets a very bad idea, but she’s pretty desperate and stupid so she does it anyway!

So the story follows Altheria as she blunders her way through this quest to save the kidnapped princess (so tragically taken days before her wedding!!!) And she kinda sucks at it. She mostly skates by because everyone looks at her and goes “She’s so small!!! She’s harmless!!!”

And there’s this thing called The Gift that people are born with. Only people with The Gift can understand dragons, so no one knows what the fuck she’s saying anyway. Everyone just ignores her!

Well Altheria makes it to the bandit infested fortress where the princess is only to discover….

Drum roll please!!!!

The princess wasn’t kidnapped. She ran the fuck away because she was not vibing with that whole marriage thing. She’s taken over this small army of bandits and become their leader. She’s plotting to take over her father’s kingdom and become queen instead of being sold off to some prince. She’s building an army.

Elizabeth has offered every would-be rescuer to show up a choice; join her cause, or die. Out of 37 would be rescuers, only three have joined her. The other 34 she defeated and killed in single combat. Because she’s a badass.

She then ransomed the bodies to their families for a shit load of money.

So Eliza has The Gift, and gives Altheria the same choice but with some added sugar; if Altheria joins up, she can be Eliza’s treasurer.

Altheria takes one look at the 35,000 gold Eliza has built up, and Eliza promises they’ll get even more gold if they can take over the kingdom… And Altheria is 100% on board!!!!

But the reason dragons need gold is simple; the more gold a dragon possess, the larger they grow. That’s why Altheria was so small. She only had one coin! But now she has 35,000 that she (kinda, she shares with Eliza) owns.

Altheria starts growing again. Throughout their quest to take back the kingdom in Eliza’s name, she gets bigger, her teeth and horns get sharper, her fire gets hotter… She becomes a fucking badass, just like Eliza.

And you know I had to draw my favorite part