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Im sorry if this is a dumb question but how would someone use a white cane to locate and go down stairs, specifically if they are at the top of the stairwell. I'm asking because im the story Im writing a blind character (who is the protagonist btw) has to go downstairs to reunite with his younger sibling but he cant take the elevators because the power is out (and there's a monster chasing after him so that doesnt help) I want to make sure I write this scene accurately, especially since I am sighted and do not use a white cane myself. Thanks in advance and sorry again if this is a dumb question.

Hi! Not a dumb question at all. I will do my best to explain it in writing. Most blind people are perfectly comfortable using stairs if they have cane skills, so I appreciate that you aren’t shying away from having your blind character using them.

Finding the top step is super easy. You just tap or slide the tip of your cane around until you find the place where the floor drops off, and then briefly slide the tip of the cane along the edge of the step so you can orient your body to go down the stairs at the right angle and not accidentally go down diagonal or anything like that.

Actually going down the stairs with a white cane is pretty easy as well, because the nice part about using a white cane as opposed to a guide dog or a low vision aid is that the cane can give you an exact idea of the size and depth of the step, so you aren’t left wondering until you actually step down.

The tip of your cane should always be two steps ahead of you. This applies for going up as well as down. So if the character is standing at the top of the steps, he would put his cane down on the step in front of him, which will give him a clear idea of the height and depth of the step, and then put the tip down one more step beyond that. As he steps down, the tip of the cane should move down to the next step beyond that, so every time he steps, the cane is still two steps ahead. He will know he is at the bottom when his cane slides forward on the floor of the landing instead of finding another step dropoff. Having the cane two full steps ahead will give him enough time to slow down when he finds the bottom with his cane so he doesn’t try to step down again onto flat floor.

In case you are also interested in how he could go up the stairs as well, the two-step rule still applies, but it’s slightly different. Every time he takes a step up, he should be tapping his cane against the front of the step two steps up. When he is approaching the top, his cane won’t have another front of a step to tap, so it will just swing out into open air, which is how he will know he is approaching the top and can slow down for the last two steps and not accidentally try to step up again onto empty air.

If he has been using a cane for a long time, this should feel totally natural and shouldn’t slow him down at all. It becomes muscle memory and second nature pretty quickly, so he should be able to get down the stairs as fast as he needs to without incident or worry.

I hope this made sense!

— Mod Lane

𝗍𝖺𝗄𝖾 𝗆𝖾 𝖻𝖺𝖼𝗄 𝗍𝗈 2014 𝗍𝗎𝗆𝖻𝗅𝗋 (𝗂 𝗐𝖺𝗌 6)

Merry Christmas Everyone - Character Trauma

Sorry, Y'all. I'm a day late.

I wish I could have posted yesterday but this wasn't on my mind at all lol. I was very sick yesterday, but at least I'm alive!

Here's my Christmas gift to y'all!

Harsh characters vs Kinder Characters - These are general vibes --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kind/Cute Characters -

Constantly Apologizing

Trying to help people 24/7

Always worried about Disappointing people

Constantly avoiding answering questions

Lying about being okay

Blaming themselves

Always Guilty

Jumpy

Always inches away from crying

Always doing favors for others

Doesn't take care of themselves

If they do, it's only to keep other people from getting worried

Running away from problems

Constantly overreacting to minor inconveniences

Harsh/Reserved characters -

Violent outbursts

TRUST ISSUES

No emotions

What am I?

Breakdowns

Silence makes them irritable

Too much noise also makes them irritable

Hyper-activated Emotions

Emotionally or Physically abusing self on a bad day because it already sucked

Violent intrusive thoughts or words become normal

Pessimism

Constantly overly alert

NO RELAXATION

Trouble relating to anyone in any sort of way

Extra: Dreams

PTSD dreams are usually never anywhere close to the actual events

Flashbacks usually happen when awake

Often dreams are based on the type of trauma

Soldiers are more likely to see blood in dreams

Sexual abuse survivors are more likely to have people attacking or violating them in dreams

Physical abuse survivors are more likely to have loud sounds and other events related to their abuse in their dreams

Of course none of these are specific to each type, and you SHOULD mix and match, but these are generally more likely

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Different people have different trauma reactions, and so should characters. This sounds pretty obvious, but it's rather hard to do in my experience. It also goes to show that different types of trauma or traumatic events will make a different type of character

For example, I have a few of my characters and their trauma responses because Idk how else to explain it.

Character 1 - Marril - Experienced Physical and Emotional abuse, as well as witnessing several deaths and killing several people.

As a Child he used to be very exposed and unable to hide with short hair and a home that was generally very safe and quiet until it wasn't.

He has a tendency to break or destroy things out of resentment or just as a way to make himself feel better. He also generally obsesses over keeping things clean, because it usually meant better treatment at home. He also generally stays away from children because they remind him of the first person he killed. He also sometimes hallucinates blood on his hands, and isolates himself for fear of hurting them. He hides his emotions until he can't anymore and generally has very extreme negative emotions.

He is often mistaken to be much older than he actually is, and is generally very quiet. He also grows out his hair to distance himself from his past and to give himself an easy hiding place when he needs it. He hates people grabbing him, moving quickly, or touching his hair, and sometimes he will hurt or yell at people when even slightly provoked. Silence often triggers overthinking which brings guilt and bad memories, while sudden loud noises cause screaming, fight or flight, or even flashbacks.

Characters 2 & 3 - The Twins, Xhaazi and Kasi - Experienced emotional and Sexual abuse

The two of them have varied Emotional responses. Kasi tends to hide her emotions and act overly aggressive or overly friendly. She tends to be very tense and in many occasions, fight first ask questions later. She cannot tolerate being alone oftentimes and is sometimes clingy. She hates being restrained in any way and is prone to panic attacks and separation anxiety

She's generally a little reserved but becomes a little clingy when she finds people she likes. She is also over-apologetic and tends to cry around people she trusts for no reason. She always has nightmares and tends to enjoy loud noises because they distract her from her overthinking and anxiety.

While on the other hand, her Brother Xhaazi

He was the one who got it worse. He often injures himself when he's alone, hides his emotions extremely well, and tends to enjoy being alone or in silence. His tactics also amount to fight first ask questions later, but he is always in fight or flight mode and never trusts anyone unless given a good reason.

He tends to get very clingy to those he trusts and hates loud noises. He also tends to have a lot more nightmares than his sister and tends to cover up every single emotion he's feeling unless he thinks people will like it. He has depression and a lack of self-preservation along with extreme separation anxiety for his family and no one else when he can't easily get back to them.

So uh... Yeah? Have fun torturing your babies! Just make sure to differ their trauma from one another even if they experienced roughly the same things.

q saudade do leandro

Checklist of character traits prone to inconsistency:

Heyo, quick one today. It’s great to give a lot of detail to character traits and personality quirks, but they aren’t real people, you’ve made them up, and thus, might not have a perfect memory for how you’ve described them, or drawn them in the past.

So before you post or publish, do yourself a favor and make sure the following are consistent throughout your story, if applicable:

If they’re left or right handed, or ambidextrous.

Which side their hair parts on.

Which side their scars are on (especially facial scars).

Which eye has the patch or is just missing, and how much or little the character fiddles with it.

Missing glasses and how prone a character is to forgetting them or anal about cleaning them. Glasses are always dirty (do they clean them with a proper cloth or the edge of their shirt?).

Which side broken, missing, or bandaged fingers are on.

If they’re wearing a cast, how it inhibits their mobility.

If they have a leg or foot injury, how severely they limp.

If their clothing takes damage, when/how they replace it or repair it, and whether or not they’re wandering around town accidentally covered in blood or grease or all-purpose flour.

Which injuries they sustain that should still be bothering them, like pulled shoulders, bruises, shin splints, paper cuts, sun burns, cramps, carpal tunnel, arthritis, tinnitus, road rash, and stubbed toes or pinched fingers.

Which side of their body buttons, rings, bracelets, pins, brooches, badges, or name tags are on.

If they’re wearing gloves or mittens, when they take them off or how their mobility is impacted by them.

How mobility changes if their fingernails are short and stubby or long, or artificial, like typing, eating, and grabbing objects.

If they have a wheelchair, how they transition out of it, into it, and move within it, like getting dressed or putting on shoes, or lifting themselves up into cars and back down—and how public spaces do and don’t accommodate them.

If they have prosthetics, how they maintain them, how they might sound different than someone else—prosthetic feet for runners won’t sound the same as sneakers.

If they need crutches, a walker, a scooter, or a cane, and how the world accommodates them.

If they're colorblind, how it impacts their day to day and descriptions compared to other narrators.

Jewelry often jingles. Pandora bracelets are loud af especially if they’re on your dominant hand when you try to write on a desk. Charm necklaces jingle if you bounce and some earrings can jingle when you shake your head.

Where tattoos are and if they take measures to hide them and how.

An aside about characters with tattoos (from experience):

If they’re new, they still hurt for at least a week depending on the level of detail.

Tattoos are basically mega sunburns and fresh ink should either be covered from the sun or, once it’s healed enough that the skin isn’t broken, heavily sun-screened to preserve coloration. Newer ink is very noticeable in sunlight, just like a healing sunburn.

Black ink tends to turn a bit green over time and sharp details blur. Tattoos are beholden to the skin they’re on, and how it stretches or sags.

Tattoos stink, as plasma and other fluids build up under the wrap (that can either be straight plastic wrap or a dermal cover akin to the stuff used for burn victims).

Tattoos can burn and ache if they’re on the legs when you stand, as blood and your body weight settles back into place.

Tattoos do very weird things to your body depending on the amount of ink and the time it took to design. Your skin peels kind of, but not exactly, like a sunburn, and every artist has their own tips for aftercare.

If the ink is over thin skin (I have one that ends over my ankle) the ink may have a texture left behind, a raised puffy bump, that fades over time.

A character receiving a tattoo might have this kind of bell curve effect, where it hurts really bad at the start, until adrenaline kicks in and dampens it, and then again once their adrenaline runs out. There is no pain quite like tattoo pain and everyone describes them differently. I like to think of them as itching a bug bite on a sunburn, dialed up to 11.

According to my past artists, women almost universally handle the pain better than men. I have definitely suffered other injuries worse than tattoo pain.

Fine linework hurts more than broad stroke coloring or shading, because the distribution of pressure is wider with more needles packed together. The larger the needle bundle, the less it hurts. All of mine are water color and the *splash* effect for the illusion of water drops uses a single needle and it’s always the most painful part.

Feel free to tag any that I missed!

The leaked hertamei lightcone,,,save me unethical scientist yuri,,,

feixiao... you will be mine...

esse cara

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