This doesn't actually happen when you're typing

[frameacloud]

Theri There page number 4, originally posted on September 19, 2005.

---

If the picture above looks distorted, click on it to see it full size.






Image description:
A person is working at a desktop computer. Narration: "Sometimes when you're typing..."
Narration: "...With phantom claws..." The person is now shown as a gryphon, with their claws punched through the keyboard.
In exasperation, the gryphon struggles to get their claws out of the keyboard.
End description.

I'm not satisfied with this one, since therianthropes' phantom sensations don't work like this! A therianthrope can feel like their claws were passing through a keyboard, but it wouldn't make anything happen like this. I was trying to work with old (1997-ish) slang from the dragon community on alt.fan.dragons. They had a running joke that they'd hired a typist due to their claws, blaming them for typing mistakes. Then they called their human, physical body their "typist."


[Edit October 21, 2023: Added local images, links, and transcript.]

Comments

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Hm... web research is coming up inconclusive; the "dilated = interest, contracted = fear/aversion" meme turns up several times, including a couple of citations of research proving that dilated pupils make a person seem more interesting, but there's no clear indication of when pupils contract vs. dilate as an emotional response. Hm. [/geeking] ;)

[frameacloud]

I remember reading some things that suggested a clearer link between pupil dilation and drug use. Depressants = dilated, stimulants = contracted. The biography I saw it in didn't state it so clearly as that, though, and it's probably only as applicable a rule as the emotional connection, if applicable at all. Heck, maybe it's even on snopes.com... um... nothing that I can find, although searching for "eyes" on there brings up some pretty disturbing results.

Having one pupil larger than the other, that's a sure sign of a severe concussion. They always check for that when someone has a head injury. Hm... but there are exceptions to that, too: a similar effect is seen if someone's face is strongly side-lit... I've only seen that as being visible on cats, though, since slit pupils show changes in dilation more clearly than round pupils. You could tell the difference between those because a concussed person's eyes would stay mismatched even when the light was moved, though.