MetaDede Week Day 4: Swap

the king and his ugly ass knight

I want to see this with more of Puss' lines

Sir Meta Knight’s cooking is beyond compare

WEAPON OF CHOICE !!🔫

hi guys

Reblogging this because I didn't understand the impact this trope had, which I regret because I have a disabled father who has worked in disability rights activism for a large part of his life, until recently in fact. If I needed to know about this, people with significantly less direct ties to the disability rights community certainly do.

The Untrustworthy Fake: Disability Tropes

[ID: A screenshot of Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as he limps towards a crowd using a cane. In the picture, he has a brown top hat in his hand, and he's wearing a suit with a purple jacket, multicoloured bow tie and cream coloured pants. Beside him is text that reads: "Disability Tropes, The untrustworthy Fake" /End ID]

Tell me if this sounds familiar: A new character is introduced into a story with some kind of disability - usually visible but not always. Maybe they're a seemingly harmless person in a wheelchair, maybe they're a one-legged beggar on the street, or maybe they're an elderly person with a cane and a slow, heavy limp. But at some point, it's revealed it's all a ruse! The old man with a cane "falls" forward and does a flawless summersault before energetically springing back up to his feet, the wheelchair user gets to their feet as soon as they think the other character's backs are turned, the one legged beggar's crutch is knocked out of his hand, only to have his other leg pop out of his loose-fitting tunic to catch him.

All of these are real examples. Maya and The Three introduces one of it's main protagonists, Ricco, by having him pretend to be missing a leg in order to con people (something that works on the protagonist, at least at first), Buffy The Vampire Slayer had the character Spike, pretend to be in a wheelchair, until the other characters leave and he gets up, revealing it's all a ruse and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory introduces Wonka by having him slowly limp out into the courtyard of the factory, only for his cane to get stuck, causing him to "fall" and jump back up, revealing that he's actually perfectly fine. Virtually every single major crime show in the past few decades has used this trope too, from CSI to The Mentalist, Castle, Law and Order and Monk all having at least one episode featuring it in some way. Even the kids media I grew up with isn't free from it; The Suite Life of Zack & Cody sees Zach faking being dyslexic after meeting someone who actually has the condition in the episode Smarter and Smarter and the SpongeBob SquarePants episode Krabs vs Plankton has Plankton fake needing a wheelchair (among other injuries) after falling in the Krusty Krab as a ploy to sue Mr Krabs and trick the court into giving him the Kraby Patty Formula.

No matter the genre or target audience though, one thing is consistent: this trope is used as a way to show someone is dishonest and not to be trusted. When the trope is used later in the story, it's often meant to be a big reveal, to shock the audience and make them mad that they've been duped, to show the characters and us what this person (usually a villain) is willing to stoop to. Revealing the ruse early on though is very often used to establish how sleazy or even how dangerous a character is and to tell the audience that they shouldn't trust them from the get go. Gene Wilde (The actor who first played Willy Wonka) even said in several interviews that this was his intent for Wonka's character. He even went so far as to tell the director of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that he wouldn't do the film without that scene because of how strongly he felt this trope was needed to lay the foundations for Wonka's questionable intentions and motivations. His exact words are: "...but I wouldn't have done the film if they didn't let me come out walking as a cripple and then getting my cane stuck into a cobble stone, doing a forward somersault and then bouncing up... the director said, well what do you want to do that for? and I said because from that point on, no one will know whether I'm telling the truth or lying."

There's... a lot of problems with this trope, but that quote encapsulates one of the biggest ones. whether intentionally or not, this trope ends up framing a lot of actual disabled people as deceitful, dishonest liars. Now I can already hear you all typing, What?! Cy that's ridiculous! No one is saying real disabled people are untrustworthy or lying about their disabilities, just people who are faking!

but the thing is, the things often used in this trope as "evidence" of someone faking a disability are things real disabled people do. A person standing up from their wheelchair or having scuff-marks on their shoes, like in the episode Miss Red  from The Mentalist isn't a sign they're faking, a lot of wheelchair users can stand and even walk! They're called ambulatory wheelchair users, and they might use a wheelchair because they can't walk far, they might not feel safe walking on all terrains, they might have unstable joints that makes standing for too long risky, they might have a heart condition like POTS that has a bigger impact when they stand up or any number of other reasons. Also even non-ambulatory wheelchair users will still have scuff marks from things like transferring and bumping into things (rather hilariously, even TV Tropes calls this episode out as being "BS" in it's listing for this trope, which it refers to as Obfuscating Disability). A blind beggar flinching or getting scared when you pull a gun on them isn't a sign they're faking their blindness like it is in Red Dead Redemption 2. Plenty of blind people can still see a little bit, it might only be a general sense of light and darkness, it might be exceptionally blurry or just the fuzzy outlines of shapes, or they might only be able to see something directly in front of them, all of which might still be enough to cue the person into what's happening in a situation like that. Even if it's not, the sound of you pulling your gun out or other people nearby freaking out and making noise probably would tip them off. A person needing a cane or similar mobility aid sometimes, but being able to go without briefly or do even "big movements" like Wonka's rolling somersault, doesn't mean they don't need it at all. Just like with wheelchairs, there's a lot of disabilities that require canes and similar aids some days, and not others. Some disabilities even allow people those big, often straining movements on occasion, or allow them to move without the aid for short periods of time, but not for long. Some people's disability's might even require a mobility aid like a cane as a backup, just in case something goes wrong, but that still means you need to carry it around with you, and unless it can fold down, it's easier to just use it.

Disability is a spectrum, and a lot of disabilities vary in severity and what is required of the people who have them day to day. This trope, however, helps to perpetuate the idea that someone who does any of these things (and many others) is faking, which can actively make the lives of disabled people harder and can even put them in very real danger, physically, mentally and even financially.

Just ask any ambulatory wheelchair user about how many times they've been yelled at for using accommodations they need, like disabled toilets or parking spaces. How many times they've been accused of faking and even filmed without their consent because they stood up in public, even if it was to do something like get their wheelchair unstuck or as simple as them standing to briefly reach something on a high shelf. I've caught multiple people filming me before, so have my friends and family, and it's honestly scary not knowing where those images have ended up. This doesn't just impact the person either, a friend of mine was filmed while standing up to get his daughter (who was about 4 at the time) out of the car. He was lucky to have stumbled across the video a few days later on facebook and contacted the group admins where it was posted to get it taken down, but had he not stumbled across it by chance, pictures with his home address and his car's number plate, his child's face and his face all visible would have just been floating around, all because a woman saw him stand briefly to pick up his daughter.

Many people don't stop at just saying a nasty comment or taking a photo though, a lot of people, when they suspect people are faking, will get violent. I have many friends who have been pushed, slapped in the face, spat on or had their mobility devices kicked out from under them. I've even been in a few situations myself where, had I not had people with me, I think the situation would have turned violent.

There's even been cases where those photos and videos I've mentioned before have been used against real disabled people and they've been reported to their country's welfare system as committing disability fraud. While cases like this are usually resolved *relatively* quickly, in many parts of the world, their payment will be halted while the investigation is in process, meaning they may be without any income at all because of someone else's ignorance. If you're already struggling to make ends meet (which, if you're only living off one of those payments, you probably will be), a few weeks without pay can mean the difference between having a home and being on the streets.

Not to mention that when there's so many stories about people faking a disability in the media, especially when the character is doing it to get some kind of "advantage", such as getting accommodations or some kind of disability benefit, it perpetuates the idea that people are rorting the systems put in place to help disabled people. If this idea becomes prevalent enough, the people in charge start making it harder for the people who need them to access those systems, which more often than not results in disabled people not even being able to access the very systems that are supposed to be helping them. A very, very common example of this is in education where accommodations for things like learning disabilities require you to jump through a ridiculous number of hoops, especially at higher levels, only to have some teachers and professors refuse to adhere to the adaptations anyway because they're convinced the student (and usually disabled students as a whole) is faking.

Yes, the "untrustworthy faker" is a fictional trope, and yes, it does occasionally happen in real life, but not as often as media (including things like news outlets) would have you believe. However, when the media we consume is priming people to look for signs that a disabled person is faking, it has a real impact on real disabled people's lives. "Fake-claiming" is a massive problem for people in pretty much all parts of the disabled community, and it ranges from being just annoying (e.g. such as people spamming and fake-claiming blind people online with "if you were really blind, how do you see the screen" comments) to the more serious cases I mentioned above. It's for this reason a lot of folks in the disabled community ask that people leave this trope out of their works.

Chocolate Pudding Clodsire (SOURCE)

I love Clodsire <3

Sports announcer salmon ocs

Kirbcat is the most adorable thing I have ever seen, and Metacat is cool too, I would code this or make pixel art for this in game if I only knew how :(

satisfying my need to draw kirby art and rw art by ,, combining them,,,

Transitioning on Ravnica: A Guide

Introduction

Ravnica, the city of guilds. Of all the planes on which to be trans, it is perhaps the one with the widest variety of options on how to transition. Indeed, each of the guilds seems to have their own preferred method by which their members (or guildless with enough coin) can become their true selves. But if transitioning is your aim, or if you are unaffiliated and seeking guidance, which guild should you join? We walk through the most common process each guild’s members use to transition below:

The Azorius Senate

Widely considered the most boring of the guilds to transition with, the process for the Azorius Senate does indeed largely consist of filing a large number of forms. In some jurisdictions, assessments by mind-mages are required to assess if the applicant is ‘truly in need of gender correction’, though these practices have been made unnecessary in most districts as of now.

Most applicants hoping to change their gender with the senate will find themselves having to file the needed forms multiple times to correct minor procedural errors, paying additional filing fees and correction fines each time (the Azorius often give the Orzhov a run for their money in this department). As such, the speed and smoothness of the transition process with the Azorius is in many regards a matter of the skill of the applicant (or their assistant, hired or otherwise) in navigating the endless bureaucracy of the senate.

However, transitioning with the Azorius does have several upsides, contrary to the popular view of them being the worst guild to transition with. For one, the forms by which one applies to revise their gender double as forms by which to amend any unwanted element of one’s body, and if one knows the proper procedure, one can sculpt their ideal body using their process down to precise elements. This is a far cry from most of the other guilds, where one’s post-transition body will often be quite similar to their old one or have a somewhat random element to how it turns out.

Furthermore, though the process of obtaining, correctly filling out, and waiting for the forms to be filed does often take months, once approval is obtained, the actual process of ‘correction of applicant’s misaligned bodily attributes’ is performed instantaneously via magical decree.

House Dimir

The Dimir are perhaps the most efficient and effective at changing one’s gender of all the guilds. They have mastered countless methods of shaping one’s appearance – illusory, transformative, temporary, permanent, magical, alchemical, and countless more besides. Though their methods were devised originally largely for the purpose of disguising oneself, they know quite well that there are those who seek them for personal reasons more than professional ones.

It is even rumored that for those of the genderfluid persuasion, or who simply enjoy flexibility of expression, that they possess methods to transform someone of any origin into a shapeshifter capable of near-instantly rearranging one’s body precisely and at will.

If they have such skill and magic, why then are they not the definitive go-to for all trans Ravnicans? Well, the answer is quite simply that the Dimir are loathe to part with their secrets, and even more loathe to surrender something of value for less than its worth. They will use their methods to allow those outside their guild to transition, to be certain… if the one who seeks their favor can pay the price.

Over the centuries, countless guild secrets have been surrendered, and many an aspiring trans person conscripted into spy work and other clandestine missions in exchange for the Dimir’s gifts of transformation. Interestingly, it is thought by some that this may be at least partially responsible for the fact that each guild has developed their own paths to transition – so that those seeking to realize their gender have options besides betraying their home guilds to the Dimir. Still, the speed and comprehensiveness of the Dimir’s methods still draw in the curious even in this more enlightened modern age….

The Cult of Rakdos

Known by many as the ‘murder clown orgy’ cult, the Rakdos of course have more than a few ways to change one’s gender. The two most widely known and commonly used will be described here.

First is the way most commonly seen by those outside the cult’s membership, as it is a frequent ‘party trick’ of sorts at their gatherings. This method involves ‘cursing’ someone to shift into the form of the greatest sexual fantasy of another linked person. Though the ‘safe’ version of this spell links the cursed to a specific other person, other variants link the cursed’s appearance shift to the most amorous person viewing them at the moment, the last person to touch them, or the person in the world most attracted to them.

This can involve the ‘cursed’ person’s gender to shift if the fantasy of the linked person is of someone of a different sex than them. Normally, this curse is intended to be temporary, used for a wild night of debauchery and nothing more, but permanent variations exist, and aside from that the curse seems to have a habit of ‘sticking’ to people who enjoy the new bodies it thrusts them into.

Like most things the Rakdos create, while this ‘curse’ is not seen as such by many who it is cast upon, it obviously has a lot of potential for misuse, and even when used ‘properly’, can sometimes shift not just the physical body by the actual gender identity of the cursed, causing them to see themselves as the gender of the body they have been made to inhabit, even if they were happy with their body before. As such, this curse is best used with caution, though given where it comes from, it almost never is.

The second most common method of transition is largely reserved for actual cult members and is quite a bit different than the curse described above. This form of transition is done via an enchanted ritual dagger, and most commonly performed in a fittingly ritualistic fashion. The person who wishes to change themselves is restrained on a table while a cultist wielding the enchanted dagger asks them to renounce the aspects of their body they wish to be rid of. Though commonly performed with an audience (as voyeurism is quite prevalent among the Rakdos), it can and is often done in a more intimate one on one setting.

In any case, the process is quite gruesome on the surface. The enchanted dagger is used to carve away the unwanted parts of the body, literally slicing off genitals, secondary sex characteristics, and carving into the skin where changes are to be made. Though intensely painful, the enchantment on the dagger is that of healing, and as the flesh is parted, it regenerates swiftly into the form of the desired sex. A severed penis will grow a fully healthy and functional vagina in its place, sliced off breasts will reform into a masculine chest, cuts along the face will soften or harden the flesh as it regrows, and the like. A sublime torment that ends in a newly idealized form, born in a ritual of blood.

The Gruul Clans

The Gruul clans, despite their reputation as uncivilized barbarians, by and large have fairly enlightened views on gender. Many in the clans see gender as what it is – a societal construct, and laugh in the face of gender norms and the rigid views many others have on the subject.

As such, quite a few in the clans transition socially only, not feeling the need to change anything about their bodies to feel confident that they are the gender they feel.

That said, for those Gruul who do desire to change themselves physically to match their gender identity, options exist. Perhaps the most common is going to clan shamans who prepare alchemical treatments from herbs, which change the body over the course of a few months. This is essentially the same treatment commonly used by the Selesnya, despite the specifics of the preparations varying somewhat.

The other method some clans use is the trial of the true form. Using a spirit-calling spell, shamans transform an aspirant into a being closer to the spirit seen as closest to them. Typically, this is some sort of animal or beast. Though temporary, when one reverts to their original form after the trial is completed, aspects of their ‘true form’ remain – often animalistic features, but for trans people, this commonly includes a full (or at least partial) transition of their sex characteristics in line with their true gender.

The Selesnya Conclave

The Selesnya take a very open and accepting view to gender and encourage those in the conclave to explore their presentation and meditate on what they desire even from a fairly young age. Those who decide they wish to change their bodies in alignment with their thoughts are given one of a wide variety of herbal alchemical concoctions which, when taken over the course of a few months, alters the body towards different sex characteristics.

Those undergoing this process are not simply given the way to change their bodies, however, and the Selesnya place a large emphasis on the social aspect of transition as well. Those in the conclave who transition commonly find themselves a mentor who will guide them on how to socialize as their new gender.

Though the Selesnya are very free with their resources to physically transition, their attitudes also interestingly lead to their ranks containing many who choose to transition solely through social means, or in only minor physical ways. Conclave members often ask the pronouns of those they meet, and are somewhat famous among other guilds for their members using a wide variety of neopronouns rarely seen in the other guilds, especially not in as large of numbers.

Overall, the Selesnya are one of the guilds most freely accepting of trans people, and are a common choice for guildless, as they offer their herbal remedies and guidance freely to any who come to them. The subtle price of course, is having to listen to their recruitment pitch to join their guild, but despite general social pressure, they don’t make any more insistent demands of those who transition with them.

The Orzhov Syndicate

Syndicate members in high standing often have the money to pursue transition through other guilds that meet their specific needs. The services of both the Dimir and Azorius are popular, as both are efficient, customizable experiences whose main issues are access and money, both of which the Orzhov elite have in spades.

That said, there are two methods of transition unique to the Orzhov, though they are unpopular among the elite for reasons that will become clear.

The first is through so-called ‘total possession’. Though the Orzhov deal frequently with ghosts and possession is a rather common occurrence, total possession is a more involved affair. This involves a ghost completely taking over a person’s mind and going so far as to reshape their body as well. Most commonly, they reshape their host into the form the ghost had in life (though often somewhat idealized). This can of course can be a fairly drastic change when the host is a different gender than the ghost.

Now, obviously this is an ineffective method of transition as long as the ghost remains in control, but using it as a method of transition involves allowing the ghost to reach full possession, to reshape the body into the desired form, and then to exercise them. As this involves the host losing control of their body for some time, not getting much if any control over their final form (unless they called a specific ghost whose living form they wished to look like) and then relying on an outside exorcist, it is considered a risky method of transition at best.

The other method of Orzhov-specific transition is known as ‘soul reshaping’. If someone has given their soul over in debt to another, that new holder of the soul, if they know the right spells, can reshape the soul of the one they hold in thrall to whatever they want. This can be extreme – often being used to make the subject’s mind pliable and obedient and to twist their body into a thrull or other pitiable being.

However, it is certainly possible that a kind soul-holder might reshape someone’s soul so that it fits more with what they view themselves as, with their body soon following suit. In cases where a trans person’s soul is held this way, their soul is usually already ‘shaped’ closer to their desired gender anyway (in such a way as a soul can be said to have a shape) and thus the actual effort needed on the soul-holder’s part is minimal.

Like total possession, the fact that this method of transition requires surrendering oneself fully to another makes it all but unheard of among those with other options, but it is a frequent dream of the highly indebted and the desperate.

The Izzet League

The Izzet league is famous for their odd experiments and outlandish inventions, which might lead one to believe that they’d have a wide range of options for those seeking to change their gender. And in a way, that’s not entirely wrong. But the thing to remember is that it is the Simic Combine who focus more on the biological side of experimentation, meaning that options within the Izzet tend to be less varied than one might expect.

Now, given the highly individualized and experimental nature of the league’s countless inventors and mages, likely there are a dizzying array of unique and one-off devices capable of altering one’s body to fit their gender identity. However, we will focus here on the two methods most commonly found that can perform this effect – both of which are quite effective, so long as you don’t care about remaining humanoid.

The first method is the ‘weird’ method. Weirds are ooze-like elemental creations, and the Izzet are (usually) quite good at making them. Transferring one’s mind into a weird, whose body can then be fluidly reshaped to fit whatever gender presentation one desires, is a well-trodden field of Izzet research, which isn’t to say it doesn’t often go wrong in unpredictable ways, but that’s true of basically anything the Izzet work on.

Similarly in the field of mind transfer, uploading one’s consciousness into a robotic construct body, while not extremely popular, is also a burgeoning field of Izzet research. One could sculpt their own ideal construct body in advance this way, and then live out their life outside of humanity, upgrading or changing things as desired.

The Golgari Swarm

The swarm are an interesting situation when it comes to transition resources. As the guild in charge of handling Ravnica’s trash and refuse, they often come across the methods to cobble together close-enough facsimiles of the methods that every other guild uses in their transition methods and rituals, and it is through these second-hand acquisitions that many members of the swarm make their transitions.

The swarm’s primary unique method of transition comes from specially grown fungi. Similar to the herbal transition methods of the Gruul or Selesnya, these fungi alter one’s physical body towards another gender expression. However, unlike those methods which produce a gradual change across several months, the fungi of the Golgari take effect after just a few doses. This rapid shift is accompanied by intense pain and vivid hallucinations, though those who utilize this method often say that they see both the pain and the visions as important steps not just towards a body they can feel more comfortable in, but towards self-acceptance and the abandonment of fears over not ‘truly’ being their desired gender.

The other method of transition within the swarm is through the sting of the shifter wasp. A single sting from this creature causes a total shift of sexual characteristics over a single agonizing day. The wasps are rare however, and the pain is not always survivable, making this a method seen as dangerous and undesirable. It is also one of the few on Ravnica that is commonly inflicted on the unwary and unwilling. Fortunately, there are many ways to alter one’s body back to what it originally was if one finds oneself transitioned against their will.

The Boros Legion

The Boros are perhaps one of the least interested in the process of transition. They aren’t against it, per se, and it is legion policy to treat all as they wish to be treated, a policy actually enforced and with harsh punishments for violation to boot.

That said, legionaries seeking transition often go outside the guild to obtain the transition services of another guild, something the Boros do allow, if not openly encourage. That said, there is an ‘official’ method of transition within the guild, but due to the legion’s practical, militaristic focus, it is quite specific and comes with certain requirements, to which it owes its relative unpopularity.

Despite being egalitarian in their overall forces, official Boros transition resources are split into two distinct paths for female to male and male to female. There is no official Boros resource for nonbinary members, who typically just seek the services of another guild.

Legionnaires who wish to transition from female to male within the Boros go to minotaur program. This program involves drinking a volatile potion brewed from minotaur blood and bottled lightning which transforms one into a male minotaur. As a side effect, the drinker often goes temporarily berserk, but this is a known side-effect and usually well-handled. The potion is somewhat difficult to make, and as a result, those who take this method of transition are typically conscripted into a specialized unit for a period of time as ‘compensation’ for their use of the potion.

The process for legionnaires wishing to transition for male to female also involves a transformation, but this time and even more drastic one. Only a few legionnaires every year are eligible for this process, an honor often reserved only for the most elite and successful soldiers. The process involves being turned into an angel – and, as some know, the angels of the Boros are all clones of the original angel, Razia. As a result, the transformation necessarily involves taking on the physical characteristics of a female, red-haired angel, rippling with muscles and infused with powerful magic.

Like the minotaur program, the transformation into an angel (often referred to as ‘ascension’) can come with mental side-effects though in this case they tend to be more severe, with new angels often finding their mindset shifting to become more practical, focused, and emotionally detached, save for the emotions needed for battle.

The exact process used for ascension is a closely guarded Boros secret, but it is known that it is fairly extensive – certainly much more than the potion required for becoming a minotaur. Persistent rumors, likely spread by the Dimir, say that the hopeful ascendant’s body is slowly burned away by holy flame and remade by the songs of existing angels. Though new angels are sworn to secrecy on the process, their defensiveness over accusations towards the process working that way seem to imply it is at the very least, close to the truth.

The Simic Combine

The Simic Combine is famous for their bioengineering, and of course, this means that altering a body to fit one’s desired gender is trivial for them.

The combine see transition as something desirable, and many in the Simic transition just to see what its like even if its not a deeply held desire of theirs. Transitioning with the Simic often comes with other body modifications (or 'upgrades' as they more commonly refer to them) and so most trans people in the Simic are also sporting gills, claws, and any number of other exotic features in addition to their new gender expression.

Ironically, despite their well-honed mastery of the art of transition and the stunning array of ‘extras’ they have on offer, the Simic are rarely sought out as a path to transition by those outside the guild, as they have a bad habit of including ‘unwanted additions’ in the form of experimental biogenetic alterations to those outside their guild. That said, those who seek to transcend not only their gender but their humanity often see the Simic as their saviors, and the Simic certainly has no shortage of members willing to perform changes for free to those willing to participate in a few experiments along the way.