Trans Megathread for the Week of 2025-01-06 to 2025-01-12 - Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Trans Megathread for the Week of 2025-01-06 to 2025-01-12 - Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Children of Time is a 2015 science fiction novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
In the distant future, humanity seeks to create new habitats for itself on distant planets, terraforming them and seeding them with life. Dr. Avrana Kern is heading one such project, orbiting the tentatively named "Kern's World", where the plan is to release monkeys 
infected with a nanovirus that will accelerate their evolution. Through an act of sabotage from an anti-technology group that has also destroyed much of Earth, the monkeys are never released, and the virus instead infects a species of spider, Portia labiata. The book follows the evolution of the spiders and their eventual civilisation, as well as a remnant of humanity that fled to Kern's World hoping to find paradise.
also children of ruin and children of memory, the sequels, are really good
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cw bodily fluids, advice wanted
ok, so, i'm losing my mind here. for like as long as i can remember, every time i go to brush my teeth, i gag on the damn toothpaste or brush. but lately, its getting really bad. this morning, i literally puked up a bunch of water (and maybe my meds that i just took??) i had just drank and just now at night i nearly lost my supper. i've been having trouble eating as-is for various reasons so i think its understandable that i'm frustrated at trying to keep food down and maintain dental hygiene.
wtf, chat? like, what do i even do about this? has anyone run into this before? i'm not like jamming anything on my tongue back there, so i don't know why - i've given up trying to brush my tongue at this point due to this.
Hey,
I actually have this exact problem. I don't have a great gag reflex, but specifically when brushing my teeth it is absolutely atrocious. Like I will be brushing my front teeth and gagging, and then I will get sick brushing my tongue, and since I do that twice a day this is a very regular occurrence for me.
I have found a few things to help: certain toothpastes trigger this less than others, potentially something in them is part of the cause, like a sensitivity? (Though there is also a bit of a trauma element to it as well). So try different textures/types of toothpaste.
Another thing to try: when brushing your teeth, take the hand you are not using to brush and ball it tightly into a fist. This works a bit better if your thumb is actually inside of the fist, because what you want to do is focus on clenching and exerting pressure on your thumb (if this is painful or uncomfortable then just focus on clenching into your palm). You're not trying to hurt yourself, but to ground yourself by focusing on a very strong sensation other than the toothbrushing.
A calcium tablet taken before brushing your teeth can help reduce acid reflux caused by severe gagging.
Pick a tooth-brushing song. A song you can sing in your head/hum that takes about as long as you want to be brushing your teeth for. And then sing it in your head (or hum along depending how able you are to do that while brushing) to keep your mind off the sensation of brushing.
Whenever the gagging starts up, relax on whatever part of your mouth you are brushing and shift gears. If you were going soft and slow, move to different teeth and be vigorous (or vice versa). The point is to shift the sensation causing the gag to a different sensation.
Try to brush at least the front of your tongue. If you start getting intensely gagged, stop and then try again the next day. You want to be able to train yourself to be used to the sensation so you can more comfortably brush farther back.
Do not brush your teeth shortly after eating. If you are feeling bloated/very full, wait longer, or do some exercise or something. While bloated/very full your gag reflex will be worse and you are more likely to trigger reverse peristalsis (vomiting) from gagging.
None of this has made the problem go away, but I can successfully thoroughly brush my back teeth and even the back of my tongue multiple times daily, with only occasionally being sick, and with relatively minimal gagging (some days are worse than others of course).
thank you I will try these things! I appreciate your response so much
sorry
Not really helpful but my wife nearly vomits literally every time she brushes her tongue. No solution, but... Well at least you're not alone
While I don't have this issue, sometimes I just use (a long tweezer I then wash) to scrape my tongue (with the blunt, long side) instead. Maybe that can help? I also brush my tongue interchangeably, but this way is presumably less gag-inducing (and faster somewhat).