#and again are semiverbal so we do struggle to communicate thoughts

[self-indulgent-devils]

Valentino with an extremely shy reader. Him just loving to tease and push your comforts all the time. He loves to see the way you get all flustered and blush, giving his big toothy grin as he feels so much power from controlling you. If you're a bigger demon (more height wise, but can be weight too, just closer to his size) then he will especially find it adorable how someone so large can be so shy and sweet.

People wouldn't expect Valentino to like shy people since he's surrounded by confident whores most of the time. But he secretly loves someone that is so shy. They're easier to take advantage of and easier to mess with. Plus he can control them far easier since they'll most likely rely on him.

If you're someone nonverbal or semiverbal or just deal with selective mutism, he will treasure every sound you may give off. He will love to hear what you have to say if you use AAC. (We are semiverbal and so haha big fantasy there ngl.) He'll just watch you with his smug little grin and wait to hear what you have to say. He doesn't mind being patient for someone so precious and trying their best.

You may not be what he typically surrounds himself with. Nothing like Summer or Dia or Angel Dust. Nothing like Vox or Velvette. Even if it makes you insecure, Valentino doesn't care. He'll enjoy every second of you. He likes you after all. And if anyone dared to make you cry or feel like shit because you're shy or semiverbal or scared of people or struggle in any way, Val would lose it. He would kill them on the spot unless he knew it would scare you. Then he'd just have his guards take them away for him to deal with later. He would stroke you just under your chin and speak a soft voice, reassuring you that you are perfect. And if you weren't perfect, he wouldn't be there paying attention to you right now. That he loves you the way you are. That you're a rare treasure. It's not often he meets someone like you in his line of work and so he's going to keep you close and treasure you like you're the most precious and rare gemstone he's ever laid eyes on. He doesn't care what anyone has to say about it and he won't tolerate anyone making you upset or cry. Only *he* can make you feel anything like that. Only *he* can make you feel insecure for his own entertainment. Because you're his and his alone.

He adores you the way you are. Valentino wouldn't want to see you change just because the world expects someone confident and talkative. Valentino doesn't want to see you change because you feel insecure being nothing like his employees or friends. It's you being this way that has caught his attention. To lose what makes you you would be a travesty to him. So he will make sure that you always look to him for love and acceptance and help. Because he wants you to know that he is the only one able to give it to you. He would spend all the money on you because a rare gem like yourself deserves it.

Valentino won't let anyone mock you or shame you for being shyer or easily flustered or even struggling to communicate. No. It's only him that's allowed to tease you about it just to see you get all embarrassed or upset. He loves your reactions to things after all.

And no matter your size, he would love to wrap his wings around you and hold you close against him. Feeling how warm you are and keeping you there like you're sharing a blanket. He rarely does it with anyone aside from Vox and he used to do it with Angel until Angel started pissing him off. So now you're the special one he does it with. It doesn't matter if you're way bigger than him in height or weight, he will still do it. Because you. are. his. And he gets to do with you what he wants. And in that moment, it is wrapping you in his wings. Especially if it makes you feel safer because *he* should be your only sense of safety.

(I have so many ideas omfg. I gotta write a fic of a scenario like this sooner.)

[post-punk-revival]

I didn't want to run a tag essay on someone else's ask post just because it touched on my apparent Rant Button Topic and I kept going, but it's always so important to me to stress that deciding you can Tell who is part of the in-group and who isn't based on immediate first impressions is how you get outright accusatory gatekeeping, without even a middle step in between point A and point B. Not just with alter/nonhumanity‚ but with everything. When you do this, you implicitly think yourself immune because you know your own identity and it's obviously real‚ source: you—so you are the standard‚ it's obvious‚ and those who don't match up to it just wouldn't get it, just won't ever understand the complexity of your lived experience as part of an in-group they're not in-. If they insist, they might even be faking.

Can you tell I'm tired of other autistic people assuming I'm not autistic because we didn't relate to each other or me to their self-inspired understanding of how to define autism? How many other neurodivergent people have had a different experience of it throughout their life or to begin with, those whose autistic traits I couldn't relate to and therefore mine are just annoying or me being stupid, not autism? When someone decides they "know their fellows when they see them," they have already decided that their outspoken directness (for example) is the default autism, and someone else's inability to verbally explain complicated things disqualifies them.

You cannot smell the nonhuman on someone! If you think you can, you may be someone who has decided that your nature is the default and outside of that circle is everything orthohuman, facing someone quietly deciding the same thing about you, more than you'll ever know. In a community that's already by nature comprised of so many different species who are never going to instantly click and relate to each other because some of us are dogs and some of us are fish—what makes you confident you'll always know another alterhuman when you see one if you're a bluejay and you're interacting with fucking Count Orlock? See also: This guy claims to be autistic, but struggles to verbally explain complicated things and uses reticent or confusing language; clearly he's an obstinate neurotypical refusing to just speak in a clear manner about things, as everyone knows they're like. Don't consider he might be semiverbal or psychotic or traumatized or that that can even just be a trait of autism on its own.

Point of order 2: this mindset almost-always leads to a superiority complex. It's not about the misanthropic ideals, it's about feeling like you are the arbiter and when you sweep everyone else outside of your specials circle, they're whatever word your particular community uses for what Reddit has compassionately dubbed NPCs: every single other person on the planet who isn't you and your friends. Don't you just hate humans? Don't you hate looking at ugly humans being loud and obnoxious all over the place? I, too, love arbitrarily deciding which people are part of the out-group based on how aesthetically pleasing they are to my nonhuman eye. (How often, I wonder when I see these sentiments, are they being thought in the moment about a disabled or homeless person in public.)

This isn't just an alter/nonhuman thing, it has been a huge problem in the autistic community with people deciding "neurotypicals" are the root of all evil, transmascs especially deciding cis men can just never understand anything true and real, and since knowing I'm aro I have adamantly refused to engage with the "we're better because we're enlightened for being ace/aro" thing that is surprisingly common, but since that was the topic of the previous post, this goes out to the alterhuman community: I am once again asking you to stop making assumptions, let alone extrapolating from them the in-group's exceptionalism and the out-group's lack of an inner life.

Somewhere there is a bluejay being a stubborn human again for being oblivious to Count Orlock's intricate fictionkin experiences.