#maryellen

im as shocked as you are

7/21/2024: July is Disability Pride Month!

Dulcie is our most visibly disabled doll, which is to say she's the one who uses obvious mobility aids most of the time. She has forearm crutches; she recently received a wheelchair for days when that's better! She also has a service dog, Chrysanta (our original dog character do not steal!

For those not in the know about Locked Tomb canon, Dulcie was born with hereditary leukemia. She's lived far, far longer than anyone anticipated (thanks in part to medical interventions suggested by Palamedes and Camilla) but it's not easy for her. Mobility is often an issue; in canon she uses a pulmonary drain, while many modern AUs see her using a cannula and oxygen tank. She has a lot of bad pain days and her immune system is nearly nonexistent.

Her partners Cam and Pal are both autistic. Camilla has more sensory issues and experiences nonverbal periods; Pal also has ADHD and would readily admit that he jumps between hyperfixations.

Speaking of AuDHD folks!

Here are all of them! (As far as we/they know. There are a couple of folks who are still up in the air here.)

In the back row: Kavi, who has (semi-)canonical ADHD; Nora, who's autistic; one of our new girls, Nancy (yes as in Drew), who's autistic; Judith, who's autistic but hates talking about it and is only in the photo because Nona begged her; May, who's autistic.

In the front row: another new girl, Sookie (yes as in Stackhouse), who's autistic (ADHD was canonically considered for her in childhood as a way to explain what was really her fairy stuff but disregarded; I still think she's autistic); Kit, who has ADHD; Cam and Pal, as said above; Courtney, who's autistic; Harrow, who's autistic (and schizophrenic, and has PTSD, and has depression, and has anxiety, and probably has an eating disorder); Gideon, who's AuDHD.

And in front of everyone: Nona, who's AuDHD and everything else.

Ianthe, who's sporting a new wig, is obviously disabled because she lacks an arm. She's got PTSD from that whole incident; she's probably got some other stuff going on, but damned if she's going to admit it.

Miss Maryellen is also disabled! Canonically, she had polio as a child; she now has one weaker leg and, again, pulmonary issues.

let’s go over the state of things:

maryellen’s vacation playsuit. a totally adorable summer outfit, leaning into the 50’s trend of a playsuit - a romper with a matching detachable skirt. so darling! naturally, it was retired after only one year, and the cheapest it’s currently being sold for on mercari is ninety dollars (missing the shoes, so it’s not even complete). okay, that’s sad, but every collection has one or two poor gems like this.

maryellen’s strawberry outfit! I love this one - I think the colors are just the right combination of cute and garish, which gives it a really fun retro vibe. This one was out for three years so I’m sure the secondhand prices are more reasonable - oh wait, no. they tend to be listed for around a hundred dollars. 😞

maryellen’s rockin’ roller skating outfit is a *little* better. but the dress on its own is still being listed for about fifty five dollars so it feels weird to celebrate that as an improvement. it was out for two years, so I get it being a *bit* more pricey. but the full outfit is being listed for about a hundred dollars so like. still way too much for me.

maryellen’s flamingo swim set is super cute, but it’s only a swim suit. surely people can’t be asking that much for - oh. the swimsuit alone tends to be listed for about 70 and the whole set I seems to be listed for mostly around 150 at the low end. bro.

maryellen’s play outfit. look, at this point I’m getting a bit desperate. I don’t even really like this one all that much (I think it’s cute but it looks weirdly cheap to me?). but this was out for three years, and looks like the kind of outfit that would have good sales! surely I can find it at a decently low price. oh - no, it looks like that will be $70 without the shoes. okay then.

honestly, i get the prices a bit. clearly people are buying them occasionally at those prices, as the sold listings were in those ballparks. however, I AM annoyed at ag. they rotated her collection so quickly that they burned through a bunch of cute designs super fast.

i wish ag would bring back some of these! I feel like her playsuit especially got the short end of the stick. it’s such a cute design and a really cool bit of fashion history.