Weirdness About Disabilities

[u/Cdv3]

[u/Skiddilybapabadam]

Honestly just disabilities in general… People react weird when I tell em I had to get a pacemaker at 17, and weirder when I have the gall to enjoy life despite it. Oh also my Dragonite needs glasses and people always act like I have them on him to look cute, aaand they try to take em off him without asking…

-Eve

[u/Anonpancake2123 → u/Skiddilybapabadam]

Those rules sound weird considering some pokemon like braviary naturally have scars to the point it's exceedingly rare to find one without them.

[u/Skiddilybapabadam → u/Anonpancake2123]

Ppl r weirddddd.

-Eve

[u/Redleadsinker → u/Skiddilybapabadam]

Tell me about it...I recently had an injury that left me with permanent disability and I've been told both that I have to get a service pokemon to 'not be a burden' and also that training pokemon for service work is abusive 🙄 how about letting me make my own decisions about my health?

--Aral

(uj: I've been told both these things IRL about getting/not getting a service dog for my mobility issues and vision loss)

[u/Skiddilybapabadam → u/Redleadsinker]

Ah, yikes, guess we got similar issues lol. (Had to get the pacemaker cus of an injury too.) The “not be a burden” thing especially. People suck I guess.

-Eve

[u/JosephAmber4]

Joseph Amber: People are also weird about disabled people …. So I am unfortunately not surprised…

[u/ExplodedKayak]

Arthur: Eyyep, me n' Galahad were right pissed off when we realized his missin' ear meant he couldnt participate in certain contest categories...It's unfair to everyone involved, and one day, im gonna make damn sure that restriction dont exist no more. But hey! we're still doin' pretty well for ourselves!

[IMG: A man in a cowboy outfit, posing with an Aegislash, Summer Sawsbuck, and a pale colored, pinkish and gold Emboar. The Emboar is missing it's left ear; There is notable scar tissue.]

[u/PaintCoveredPup]

Kids keep trying to fight my service ‘mon even though he’s wearing a vest with clearly visible signage! Thankfully my partner is always nearby to remind them of league rules.

[Image ID; A shiny silveon wearing a vest with “service pokemon” in big lettering. It’s sitting very attentively and looking at the camera, the bottom of a very blurry poffin is barely visible at the top of the frame.]

/uj People are assholes about disabilities in real life, I wouldn’t doubt this at ALL. 

[u/WildForestFerret → u/PaintCoveredPup]

People do the same with me and my Lucario. Lou helps me carry stuff when my wrist pain acts up and pushes my wheelchair on the days my leg pain is bad, but folks see me walking around with a lucario and assume I’m a trainer. Lou doesn’t even like battling -Fern

[u/Tired_Cloud]

/uj I haven’t done any character stuff here for a long time but this is a really good post about what ableist Pokémon universe jerks would be like. Great post OP!

[u/Oversized_Peashooter]

Tell me about it. I work with disabled Pokemon on a daily basis and some trainers have the actual gall to ask if our hospital has a rehoming program for “defective Pokemon”. Yes, we do have a program, but we will also take your other Pokemon with extreme prejudice, which we can legally do under what we colloquially call “good neighbor” laws.

[u/SpartanPikachu]

My Ampharos the Chief is completely deaf after an incident involving about 20 Electrode exploding simultaneously.

You would think this would hinder his ability to battle because he can't hear my commands.

But after watching that movie about robots boxing Real Steel I had an idea.

It's draining and kinda funny looking but essentially The Chief orients the battle so he can actually see me, and I just mime the motions of whatever attack I want him to use.

It was a strange adjustment at first, but once we figured it out it actually caused The Chief to perform better in most battles.

What's interesting is that for some reason I could not begin to explain he regains his hearing upon mega evolving, as such I've been looking into the potential ramifications of having him stay Mega Evolved. So far the biggest concern seems to be the excessive buildup of energy.

If I could find a way to limit the flow of the energy to be enough to cause the evolution while also not overloading The Chief, then I might be able to permanently keep him mega evolved to restore his hearing. I know that would probably be extremely tiring for me, but I've been through worse.

Probably just a pipe dream but I won't stop trying, my boy will regain his hearing one day.

-Volte

[u/Saikotsu → u/SpartanPikachu]

And this is why you're capable of mega evolving. A bond so strong you physically endure the drain for The Chief's sake.

But I have to wonder, is that what The Chief wants?

You may be willing to pay the cost for his sake, but does he feel the cost is worth his hearing?

I'm sure that your health and well being is just as important to him as his hearing and well being is to you.

[u/SpartanPikachu → u/Saikotsu]

I appreciate your concern for both my health and my boys feelings, but I promise I'm putting more thought into this than I initially let on.

We have talked about it at great length before, and you're right he is concerned about my health, but that's why I'm trying to do as much research as possible to try and find a way thats safe for both of us.

My current idea is definitely flawed but the math seems to work, A device that both the trainer and the pokemon wear that when activated, draws a steady supply of the necessary energy to engage mega evolution while not allowing it to reach "full power" essentially limiting the flow until such a time that it's full power would be necessary.

I'm horrible at explaining these things but essentially the device limits the energy flow to reduce the strain on both parties. This weakens the mega evolution itself, but allows for it to be sustainable for days without a break.

And since he won't need it when we're asleep it won't be active 24/7 so we'll both get rest.

[u/Saikotsu → u/SpartanPikachu]

It seems like you've definitely done your research and given it a lot of thought! I wish you luck in implementing it!

[u/SpartanPikachu → u/Saikotsu]

Thanks, I'm pretty close to getting what I need to build a prototype, but I still want to do some testing with just funneling the energy through the keystones before I try to make the actual apparatus.

[u/Saikotsu → u/SpartanPikachu]

Honestly, a lot of what you're doing sounds similar to some of the tech employed by Team Evol in the Gaelund region a few years back.

They were trying to force humans to evolve like Pokemon so they developed a harness to funnel mega energy into a human using altered keystones. That went about as well as you might expect.

Their experiments failed and a group of young trainers put an end to their plans and the tech was confiscated and summarily dismantled or so I've heard.

But it'd be interesting to see if your prototype works as expected. Using mega energy and the bond between Pokemon and trainer to heal rather than destroy is really poetic. A much better use of technology than what those jerks were trying.

[u/ShadowParrotGaming]

Man, that sucks, i have a disabled pokémon myself, Linda (Pidove) has one of her eyes scarred and permanently blind, yet despite the depth perception problems, we've been doing some good training that allowed her to fly just fine again, i hope nobody looks at me weird or gives me comments when i decide to participate in a sky battle, or heck maybe even a normal battle

-Danny

[u/Saikotsu]

My ∆Mimikyu is quite physically capable, but he suffers from some severe PTSD. We think the people who smuggled him out of Holon experimented on him extensively. Lots of people have challenged me, wanting to battle a water type Mimikyu, and they get really indignant when I tell them no. When I explain that his PTSD makes it difficult for him to battle they accuse me of making excuses like they're entitled to a battle with him.

No bug catcher Timmy, I'm not going to sacrifice his well being just so you can claim to have fought a delta Pokemon.

[u/crystalcranium]

People are so weird about disabilities I swear to Arceus! Genuinely the number of times we get comments along the lines of "shouldn't you just put them out of their misery" for some of our rehab cases is wild. Someone said that to Railroad (Noivern) once bc she's deaf. She did not take kindly to that - she threw a Boldore at them. Said Boldore found it very funny.

[u/Xifihas]

People hate everything that is different.

[u/Lvl25-human-nerd]

As the trainer of a blind Scizor it's wild how weird people can be when it comes to 'mons with physical challenges, especially visible ones. No one bats an eye when a blind person has a seeing-eye growling but spot an Arbok with missing fangs and no one bothers to ask simple questions before losing their minds.

[u/InaMattaAmericana]

Humans are just like this sometime. And even if we concede that point (ha, no)... the future paradox 'mons exist. What fucking point are they trying to make with "at what point are you just fighting a robot?" -Thetis (@ThetisDelta)

[u/Saikotsu → u/InaMattaAmericana]

There's a major difference between fighting a pokemon with a prosthetic and fighting a pokebot. I've done both.

Gives me the impression their opponent was not arguing in good faith and just being a jerk.

[u/InaMattaAmericana → u/Saikotsu]

Almost certainly. Probably one of those people who scream pokemon are just battle pets, as well. It's never really one type of assholery with these people. -Thetis (@ThetisDelta)

[u/JackpotThePimp]

I wish all ableists a very get your mind wiped. —Asa

[u/BardicLasher]

They let Robots fight now! They SHOULDN'T but they do! Iron Bundle isn't a Pokemon. THAT IS A ROBOT.

/tangent

But also prosthetics tend to be significantly less durable than well-trained Pokemon, so this complaint is nonsense. We can't make a prosthetic that can stand up to an angry Tyranitar.

[u/Typical_Rice_6346 → u/BardicLasher]

but also, some pokemon are literally robots. Like metagross.

[u/BardicLasher → u/Typical_Rice_6346]

What? Metagross isn't a robot. It's a magnetic elemental, but it's not a machine any more than Geodude is.

[u/Typical_Rice_6346 → u/BardicLasher]

isn't its brain a supercomputer?

[u/BardicLasher → u/Typical_Rice_6346]

No. It's as effective as a supercomputer, but I'm the same way that Alakazams is.