#I KNOW THEY'RE MOSTLY NOT AUTISTIC

[notfeelingthyaster]

*me, softly passing them a stim toy* this bad boy can fit so much fucking autism in it

[tatsumi-rin]

Moral Orel doesn't seem 100% like a show I'd feel seen in if you don't know me but then I remember the episode with the special ed kids and underneath the usual satire on extremist bible belt religion it reminds me WAY too much of how actual special ed departments treated me and other kids growing up.

Like the writers must HAVE BEEN THERE IN LIFE, man. I'd kill to sit down with Dino Stamatopoulos and find out what the fuck inspired him and the other writing staff that day.

[uygfiug]

1, 33 and 70 for the ✨horrible✨ ask game

1. Do you have a good relationship with your parents? No, not at all. My father avoids me most of the time, out of guilt, I think. When we all have dinner together we just pretend nothing's going on, though. I get along really well with my parent & we talk about equality & human rights & stuff a lot, but they've also put the responsibility of caring for my brother on me, and now complains to me about how they feel like they're 'neglecting' my little brother. So you know, that kinda fucks it all.

33. Do you have trust issues? Not really, but I used to & I still have a hard time opening up fully, but I do trust my friends not to secretly hate me, so that's something :) I do also have a habit of casually talking about trauma, but never the things that still really get to me :)

70. Is there anyone you would die for? Yeah :) My friends & brothers :) I have a tendency to sacrifice myself for others benefit already, so I really wouldn't be surprised if I did end up giving my life for someone. I'm trying to be better about that now, ever since I almost fainted from skipping breakfast, so my brothers could eat more & then forgetting lunch.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

omgg lol [guy who won't stop going "more like scapeGOATED" voice] now hold! on!! lmao [same guy just saw encanto voice] Hold on!!!

[katyspersonal]

[shopcat]

there is, Obviously, fundamentally a difference between headcanon and an analytical reading of text, and treating the two as exactly the same is not only wrong but devalues both, but funnily, i've found people tend to forget that both of these things are the product of referencing our real life experiences and applying them where we see fit to make a more interesting way to interact with media. and you can't just like, forget that it's not JUST about headcanons and meta analysis and whatever, because people in real life also still matter. and in real life, there are different stakes and EXPERIENCES, and those experiences lead to thinking the way we do because that's how you Be a goddamn person, which is why it's ironic is all 😭

like, saying zuko atla has to be cis in order to be "properly" gay in order to be Truly Compelling narratively is fucking ridiculous. textually, zuko is not actually gay. he never was intended to be, he never will be intended to be, he was never even subtextually. the assumption otherwise is already rooted in fantasy, and the tongue in cheek assertion that it isn't, which means it has more credence, is ... dumb? childish? admitting to at least yourself that the things you talk about wrt character analysis aren't the intention of the creator is literally half the point of doing said analysis – you're MEANT to throw away the intended interpretation in order to give it a new life through different keyholes without entirely divorcing itself from the text. (in the same breath, insisting the creator truly meant One Thing when they absolutely would not have/don't care at all, and ignoring that the people who made the piece are going to put their own biases and experiences and background into the media itself and actually MUST be taken into account for things like this is just ... well. Stop That.)

i've personally never been someone to ever claim that The Writers All Along INTENDED to do something that they obviously didn't, like make a character from a 2005 cartoon lgbt+. this doesn't mean that reading doesn't have any substance or cannot possibly hold any meaning, or that it's wrong. if you can't be objective about your own readings what's the damn point... leaning into it being fiction, which changes just by being observed by a different person, is why it's fun or interesting to do in the first place. and yeah there are some basic cookie cutter headcanons people like to fling around, and there can be criticism for that otherwise, but claiming headcanons themselves AREN'T an offshoot of this way of thinking is fucking stupid. like it's plain wrong.

our own thoughts on why a character acts, what they do, what their presentation is, why their personality is what it is up to and including their sexuality, gender identity, religion, JOB, whatever, are made to fill the gaps the text can't or won't provide, and in the case of lgbt ones as long as it's not actively harmful (as in like insisting a lesbian character is bi or something) it is literally harmless seeing as it is fairly solidly a "won't", along with a whole bunch of other hc material that usually don't see the light of day on-screen nonstereotypically. people seeing themselves in characters isn't new but more than that, saying that you know this but then pushing it aside because The Analysis Means More when it's Realistic And Plausible is fucking dumb. and rude. bc the entire point of drawing the line of connections this way is how WE see them. being all like "oh well, your own personal identity is still valid otherwise, don't get your feelings hurt bc it doesn't matter," is moot if you've already asserted there's only One real way to be... plausible 🤨. which is to be NORMAL ! duh.

like, the read that zuko IS gay (and cis) relies on extracting parts through the lens of our own gay perceptions and is why cishet fans don't pick up on it, but you can ask pretty much any other lgbt fan and they'll agree. zuko's narrative arc IS compelling with the read that he is gay, from the way he is ostracised by his family, neglected and abused, the "punishment" he receives and then continues to become his own warden of, the order of his death and the banishment itself, sozin criminalising homosexuality, his inability to connect with others especially his own age, his inability to seamlessly interact with girls, his literal externalised viewing of seeing himself as someone with Two Sides, them being good vs evil, realising he can change the damn world through love and acceptance, striving for peace, being the face of change for his nation, relearning what it means to be who he is once he is free from his past, the shame and humiliation rituals, the claim of his father that he is worthless as a prince and person, AND MORE... and i cannot express enough here how fucking little it matters if he's specifically gay or WHAT THE HELL EVER 😭.

to claim in no small way that it's impossible for a trans person, or a bisexual person, or anyone else lgbt, could ever line up his narrative with their own personal one is so beyond ridiculous it gives me a headache. no, "plausibly", i don't think zuko is like, transmasc. yes, plausibly, he could be gay. plausibly, he could be amab nonbinary but no one seems to actually give a fuck about that for some reason (i wonder!). nothing would change in both cases, because he's not actually either, so i really don't see the point in making fun of or being frustrated by one to lift up the other because you want cisgender boot soles to brush the back of your throat THAT badly. the implausibility of thinking any way about a fictional character should be taken into account to an extent, sure, but at the end of the day neither of us are doing anything truly worthwhile, and no one is claiming that it's the intent from the beginning to say otherwise, so what's the point here. why are we doing this. let's go skip in a meadow together before i kill someone with this rock.

[that-ineffable-devil]

During my TTRPG game tonight:

Me: What uh... What's going on at that arena over there?

GM: You hear the sounds of cheering, yelling, and flesh hitting flesh. There's a faint scent of blood under the overpowering smell of grog wafting from the entrance.

Me: Poe is hovering nearby, hesitating. Is it really loud?

GM: Oh yeah, crowds are cheering and people are roaring over the sounds of battle.

Me: Hnnng. Poe really wants to go in, but it's really loud and they don't like loud.

GM: But Poe also has a thing about pain, don't they want to see what's going on?

Me: Yes but... The sounds... *completely torn*

Other Player: Hold on, has Poe been flinching away from and avoiding loud noises this whole time?

Me: Yes, loud noises and bright lights. They also react badly to being touched out of battle, especially on their arms (which are mutilated).

Player: Got it. Havok wants to make Poe a set of like... Noise canceling earmuffs? Can I do that?

GM: Uh... Sure, roll for it?

Player: *rolls a nat 20*

Me: Holy shit, dad-mode activated!

GM: Well damn, yeah. So not only do these earmuffs muffle loud sounds and lower high pitched sounds, they clarify lower pitched sounds and generally equalize everything to make everything the perfect level. They may also provide protection against sonic attacks.

Player: Right, so Havok goes up to Poe and says "I noticed you been struggling with noises there, bud, so I made you these...want to try them on?"

Me: Poe takes the muffs in their talons, stares at them, stares at Havok, stares back at them, and puts them on. As the muffs take effect you see Poe immediately relax, sighing a little. They stare at Havok a moment longer before wrapping them in a bony, feathery hug.

Player: 😭😭😭 WORTH IT.

[firedragon1321]

Pokemon/Digimon-Esque Bullshit

Being autistic over Pokemon and writing means taking a hammer to the entire Pokemon Cinematic Universe in three hundred unique ways and getting shit that's basically only united by "there are people and monsters". I've seen more modern takes on mon stories, but I feel like they all wanna be Pokemon 2.0 or they're leaning on Ow the Edge factor. So fuck it- I'll make my own and pretend Temtem and Palwold don't exist.

Because I don't like repeating myself (when I'm really repeating myself) and there's just. SO MUCH. So many different ways to approach Pokemon, and I will turn ALL of them into at least one (1) novel.

In no particular order-

Zunru (vicious deconstruction of the "monster as fighter" concept), which I started in 2020.

I have a WIP about Ash's departure from the anime (which I'm saving along with other short WIPs to get rid of in NaNo).

The Toon-iverse Saga plops Pokemon-esque characters in the real world and skewers the fandom.

FENmons (baby's first attempt from 2016- not very good on the mon stuff, but hey- we get to make fun of the orange cheeto man!)

I have an untitled side WIP that's about the mon genre in general, and focuses more on child-friendly naivety (sort of like Toon-iverse Saga, but different, aka "help my art project is mutating (again)").

(Still haven't figured out how to work Kieran into something yet. I have a lot of feelings about him. He recontextualized the games and how people interact with the player character forever for me. Oh well. Future WIP I guess. Maybe a short story? Novella? Maybe.)

And don't get me started on the Digimon style novels/WIPs. Holy shit.

Toon-iverse Saga (again, same as above)

Singularity (more optimistic source material deconstruction than Zunru. There's a focus on modern tech like social media algorithms and artificial intelligence because I want to throw kaiju at them.)

School's Out Forever (not officially Digimon-esque, but features kids with monsters that react to their emotions- c'mon)

The untitled WIP will hook around to Digimon since it's a crossover (of original shit???)

If it's not here, Tai threw his genes at the protagonist and gave them big hair, goggles, or both. Or I used the Adventure cast as building blocks to make a group of OCs (it's actually a really good base).

TL;DR- I am drowning in hyperfixation-related WIPs.

[grimalkinmessor]

Someone stop me I am severely tempted to make a Death Note My Hero Aca crossover

[katya-goncharov]

i've got such a dilemna, because i really want to include a non-binary character in my creative writing project for uni, but also my lecturers were going on about how we shouldn't write from perspectives of identities that aren't ours, and i really want the character to be one of the pov characters in my story, but now i don't know if i should since i'm not non-binary myself...

[relicsongmel]

Currently messing around with some ScarVi Timeline Bullshit for Denise's Paldea AU and much of it is extremely tentative at the moment but uhhhh. As things are currently listed the day Kieran puts his hair up and goes Evil Mode is also the same day my mom died irl which is. Interesting to say the least

[zeynatura]

Vent in tags

[absolutely-esme]

What do you mean he's not eldritch?

What if all of the members of the Bat Family other than Tim Drake were secretly eldritch abominations?

They all work very hard at pretending to be human, and they've even gotten pretty good at passing. They can even mostly avoid the uncanny valley when in their civilian identities. There was a heck of a learning curve, but they've gotten things figured out for the most part.

Enter: Tim Drake

Weird, poorly socialized, probably autistic Tim Drake

The Bats think they've encountered a fellow eldritch being in disguise, and one that seems like he could use some help blending in. Naturally, they're quick to welcome him into their fold. Jason is delighted to take his turn at being a big brother mentor.

It takes a comedically long time for anyone to realize something's up because there is an absurd amount of overlap between stuff you need to know for masking and stuff you need to know to pass as human.

Meanwhile, Tim is amazed that the Bats have apparently decided he's cool enough to hang out with. It's like something out of his daydreams. They even have good advice for him on problems he hadn't known how to ask about. They are so patient and understanding about it, too. They never get annoyed with him for not already knowing. They also seem to be okay with the bits of weirdness he can't change.

Just weird kid Tim getting bundled into an incredibly helpful and supportive found family of eldritch entities. They're all going to get a good grade in human-ing, something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve.

...

I imagine the Bats are various different kinds of eldritch abominations because they're still adopted. They look wildly different when not in human form.

Bruce is a mass of... shadows? Smoke? Something dark and formless that shifts and flows in different ways depending on his mood.

Dick kind of looks like a pile of owls that is also somehow a single body.

Barbara is a spiral galaxy with stars that are also eyes somehow?

Jason is a solid-looking mass of muscle with six strong legs, a thick coat of shaggy hair, a mouth that opens much further along his body than it seems like it should, and even more teeth than you'd expect a mouth that size to have.

Stephanie Brown is kind of like an incredibly dense storm system with purple glitter.

Cassandra is a silhouette through which undiscovered nebulae can be seen. What she is a silhouette of depends on her mood.

Tim, they have only ever seen in his meticulously well-crafted human form. He's really good at that part even if he needed some help with the behavioral bits.

Damian is half human. Talia saw a mass of living darkness trying really hard to pretend to be a man and decided she was into that.

...

Dick: So, eye contact is actually pretty simple once you have the formula figured out. You need to cycle between looking at the other person and looking at something else at the appropriate frequency. If you look at them too much it will come across as staring. If you look away for too long they'll think you're not paying attention to them. You'll need to experiment to figure out the appropriate frequency.

Tim: *frets*

Jason: You don't have to look straight at their eyes, just in the general direction of their face.

Tim: Oh! I can do that!

...

I think Eldritch Bruce having history with the league of assassins in a markedly less inentional way than Canon would be funny. Like, you'd think an encounter between an eldritch abomination and a cult would be deliberate on someone's part, but no.

Bruce was still young and unskilled at differentiating between normal and abnormal human behavior.

[inkskinned]

crows use tools and like to slide down snowy hills. today we saw a goose with a hurt foot who was kept safe by his flock - before taking off, they waited for him to catch up. there are colors only butterflies see. reindeer are matriarchical. cows have best friends and 4 stomachs and like jazz music. i watched a video recently of an octopus making himself a door out of a coconut shell.

i am a little soft, okay. but sometimes i can't talk either. the world is like fractal light to me, and passes through my skin in tendrils. i feel certain small things like a catapult; i skirt around the big things and somehow arrive in crisis without ever realizing i'm in pain.

in 5th grade we read The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-time, which is about a young autistic boy. it is how they introduced us to empathy about neurotypes, which was well-timed: around 10 years old was when i started having my life fully ruined by symptoms. people started noticing.

i wonder if birds can tell if another bird is odd. like the phrase odd duck. i have to believe that all odd ducks are still very much loved by the other normal ducks. i have to believe that, or i will cry.

i remember my 5th grade teacher holding the curious incident up, dazzled by the language written by someone who is neurotypical. my teacher said: "sometimes i want to cut open their mind to know exactly how autistics are thinking. it's just so different! they must see the world so strangely!" later, at 22, in my education classes, we were taught to say a person with autism or a person on the spectrum or neurodivergent. i actually personally kind of like person-first language - it implies the other person is trying to protect me from myself. i know they had to teach themselves that pattern of speech, is all, and it shows they're at least trying. and i was a person first, even if i wasn't good at it.

plants learn information. they must encode data somehow, but where would they store it? when you cut open a sapling, you cannot find the how they think - if they "think" at all. they learn, but do not think. i want to paint that process - i think it would be mostly purple and blue.

the book was not about me, it was about a young boy. his life was patterned into a different set of categories. he did not cry about the tag on his shirt. i remember reading it and saying to myself: i am wrong, and broken, but it isn't in this way. something else is wrong with me instead. later, in that same person-first education class, my teacher would bring up the curious incident and mention that it is now widely panned as being inaccurate and stereotypical. she frowned and said we might not know how a person with autism thinks, but it is unlikely to be expressed in that way. this book was written with the best intentions by a special-ed teacher, but there's some debate as to if somebody who was on the spectrum would be even able to write something like this.

we might not understand it, but crows and ravens have developed their own language. this is also true of whales, dolphins, and many other species. i do not know how a crow thinks, but we do know they can problem solve. (is "thinking" equal to "problem solving"? or is "thinking" data processing? data management?) i do not know how my dog thinks, either, but we "talk" all the same - i know what he is asking for, even if he only asks once.

i am not a dolphin or reindeer or a dog in the nighttime, but i am an odd duck. in the ugly duckling, she grows up and comes home and is beautiful and finds her soulmate. all that ugliness she experienced lives in downy feathers inside of her, staining everything a muted grey. she is beautiful eventually, though, so she is loved. they do not want to cut her open to see how she thinks.

a while ago i got into an argument with a classmate about that weird sia music video about autism. my classmate said she thought it was good to raise awareness. i told her they should have just hired someone else to do it. she said it's not fair to an autistic person to expect them to be able to handle that kind of a thing.

today i saw a goose, and he was limping. i want to be loved like a flock loves a wounded creature: the phrase taken under a wing. which is to say i have always known i am not normal. desperate, mewling - i want to be loved beyond words.

loved beyond thinking.

[soup-mother]

really insidious thing people do when dismissing people's transness, especially for autistic people, where they act like if your feeling of discomfort with gender comes mostly from it conflicting with how the world and people treats you and not some inherent innate feeling of gender "wrongness" you're actually just mistaking social discomfort for being trans.

and it's like gender is literally a series of social interactions and relationships, like i know people's conception of transness and dysphoria is super wrong and outdated anyway but legit seeing the "too autistic to be trans" shit and taking the idea of dysphoria and gender as some innate thing and not just social bs is frustrating. "you're not trans you're just autistic and constrained by cis gender and dumb rules" is the most insulting shit ever. like basically every time someone tries to pull the "you don't have to be trans u can just be ur assigned gender but weird with it" they're trying to stop someone being trans, they're not being helpful or kind.

[flowersbian]

I got bored so here's a little get-to-know-you tag game I think could be fun :3

Name(s)

Pronouns

Star sign

# of siblings & fun facts about them (if you have any)

# of pets & their names

Fandoms

Favorite color

Favorite song

Favorite author (of anything readable-- books, fanfics, zines, webtoons, whatever!)

Hobbies

Favorite fic type

Favorite holiday

Do you have any partner(s)? (romantic, qpp, anything!)

Fun facts about you / anything extra you wanna share!

────────

Name(s): Loki (highly preferred), Elye

Pronouns : they/them mostly, he/she okay too

Star sign: Pisces

# of siblings: I've got 2! An older sister and a younger sibling. The fun fact about them is that they're also both queer; in fact, my mom is too. The only non-queer person in my immediate family is my dad.

# of pets: 4 cats! Phoebe & Frankie are our girls, Lenny and Murray are our boys :3

Fandoms: MCU (kind of), BSD, OFMD, Ranboo (does his fanbase count as a fandom?)

Fav. color: Don't have one

Fav. song: Aurora Borealis by Lemon Demon

Fav. author: Alice Oseman

Hobbies: singing, acting, drawing, writing, procrastinating

Fav. fic type: Fluff, definitely. I am a sucker for well written coffee-shop and flower-shop aus, too. Smut's fine, but only if it's romantic. I can't do angst if there's no comfort.

Fav. Holiday: Hanukkah or Halloween! I love autumn and winter

Partners?: Yes! I have a girlfriend (queerplatonic) who I love very much, and a boyfriend (romantic) who I love very much :]

Fun facts:

- Even though I'm a cat person, I really, really want a dog.

- I actually used to play sports. Because I don't do gendered leagues anymore, I don't play, but I've been looking for mixed/gender-neutral/queer sports teams. Baseball and basketball specifically!

- I started questioning my identity in 2019; I'm no closer to finding a label now than I was then. The difference is, now I don't want a label. I just am. :]

tags: @neonganymede @cha0ticlesbian @x-chiara @exceleo @brinnybee @autistic-katara @gandalfthemorallygrey @ohboyanotherlokiblog @roachandrenfri @ourflagmeanslokius @exceleo @edettethegreat @swiftlyspidey