#and on the topic of that: touch of the tism is also not a cool phrase

[trlvsn]

tiktok users are fucking killing me im sorry. just saw that one "if _ was a crime" trend with "if being gay was a crime"... you are aware that. it still is. a crime. in a lot of countries. people get the death penalty. you are aware of that right

and i'm sure that if i scrolled a couple of times after that video i would see some guy with one slightly feminine feature and the comments calling him "zesty" and asking him if "his gun is pink" as if that's normal and friendly behavior?? honestly it might be a reach but if someone shouted "gay!" at me in the street i would assume it wasn't an allyship moment, i would assume they meant it as something homophobic. you are ridiculing people for femininity and that's just not cool no matter how trendy the terms and copy-pasted comments are. sigh

[autisticgirliesbracket]

What makes Cure Custard from Kira Kira Precure a la Mode the autistic girlie ever of all time? Here's what the people have to say:

Cure Custard-related asks/reblogs: x This post will be updated after each round!

Image ID in alt text and under the readmore.

[Image ID. White slide with a screenshot of Cure Custard on the right. She is surrounded by text boxes which read,

"She has a special interest (purin) and her backstory is about how she felt alienated from her peers for being different. Her character arc is about her becoming more confident."

"Very reserved and shy but becomes talkative on the topic of sweets and making sweets which she takes very seriously, however she was considered weird for this and became ashamed about talking about it until she met friends who were accepting of her. Displaying special interest behaviour tbqh. Not just a “touch of the ‘tism” my friend this is critical levels of autism."

"Absolutely obsessed with sweets to the point where she made it her entire career, she has a cute little notebook full of notes about sweets, she's loved it since she was a little kid"

"Her special interest is sweets, and specifically the chemistry used in baking and making pastries. While usually shy, she'll infodump about them at the slightest prompting - though she's done it less since she was a child and other kids found her passion for sweets offputting and long-winded. Her arc for the season involves her starting to overcome her shyness in the name of explaining the chemistry of sweets with everyone, because knowledge is cool. On one occasion, at an audition, she is asked to pretend to whisk and make cream as she talks. Himari then gets hung up on what KIND of cream this is, what'll it be used for, because that seriously changes how she should be whisking and frankly this should be cooled in advance if it's meant for this or this and if that's not the Autism Mood. She also has a notebook where she records all her recipes and specific notes on methodology! She was inspired to do this by a book written by her idol, whose catchphrase, adopted by Himari, is "Sweets are chemistry!" "

"out of all of the Precure with autistic vibes. she is the most canon."

"Himari has a special interest in the science behind sweets-making, keeping extensive notes in a series of notebooks and eagerly explaining all about it to anyone who so much as mentions sweets in her presence. She has a flashback where we learn she used to info-dump about her interest to her classmates, who often ignored her, causing her to become rather shy and insecure. (luckily the other girls in her magical girl group are also passionate about sweets and are super supportive of her, which helps her regain confidence and pursue her dreams <3)"

"ohhhh my god. shes so autistic coded!!! she literally has a special interest in sweets (specifically pudding), and she infodumps about it all the time!!! her backstory has a moment where she accidentally started rambling about sweets and her classmates found her weird for that. it made her very insecure about her tendency to ramble, but she comes to be accepting of that part of her when she makes friends with ichika!!! she's also very nervous in crowds (she has a lot of other traits but it's been a while since i watched a la mode so my memory is spotty) all of her focus episodes r so. Wow!!! This girl is autistic!!! i love her dearly" End ID.]

[chaosandthe-deadblog]

at some point im gonna doodle Band AU Shadow and Maria in the sweaters like goddamn i really love how you characterized them the trans chapter still makes me tear up, I like how you rolled with the idea of sexual dimorphism between female and male hedgehog Mobians too tbh, did any of that originate from Amy's old design by chance? How she had once had her quills spiked up but later it was changed to them being slicked down? (Personally I like the echidna-hedgie hybrid theory for her but your take on it is really neat!)

I also just love how you've characterized them all. I'm gonna be ranting a bunch and it's gonna be confusing a lil but like pls stay with me i just have the Big 'Tism so my brain go hugvyfcrytjkn

I enjoy having the whole thing be very plotless tbh, there's not enough of that in fics imo and it's the exact stuff I need a lot and I love that. I don't ever really feel anxious that, say, Maria is gonna suddenly die or some shit like that, or that some cataclysmic event is gonna suddenly happen. I like that, I've needed a lotta that honestly. I just love how you've written it so much,,

I am still curious about Shadow's past, though. Was he still genetically engineered? Is he still part-alien??? Does Chaos Energy even properly exist??? Is Gerald just A Guy who is a scientist and actually succeeded at what he'd wanted to do???? Seeing as it seems his "backstory" never properly happened, and they're in modern times, I presume Gerald would be still alive or something. Is Eggman there too???? /Is there potential that younger-Eggman exists and he's like a weird internet troll to the band or something????/ Perhaps jealous that his cousin gets to meet the "cool guys" and there's a very small and non-dramatic plot of Tails being like "ugh this guy again" and Maria's like "oh yeah thats my cousin!" and everyone's like "WHAT????"

There's just so much to explore with such a domestic take on these characters honestly, and I really love that. It explores parts of their characters that often don't get touched often due to how much they're always fighting or dealing with drama. It allows dynamics to be explored that are never really toyed with in canon. Adapting various pieces of the characters to a more laid-back setting is genuinely REALLY fun and you've done it so well I just,,, wawUUUGH,,,

I'm so interested to see what goes on with Knuckles too, since his whole story is seemingly so fantastical yet so easy to adapt to a more mature and "realistic" setting. Does he simply come from a culture that's often overlooked in this world? Is his inner compass about protecting his family name? Is he actually the last echidna in this world or are echidnas moreso simply a group that are marginalized in some way? I almost feel like him being someone who's struggled through, like, immigrant struggles would almost be a really interesting take on him as a character. He's quiet about who he is, where he's from, often keeping to himself, it's why he doesn't sing on his own and why he often is seemingly just... There. But Amy knows, she's one of the only ones who does know.

And maybe if Shadow still shares that "being made in a lab" past as his canon self, perhaps he and Knuckles could end up being friends if Shadow were to learn about his past. They could relate to one another's feelings of not belonging where they are, yet having strong drives to defend WHO they are.

(I've been reading a lot of immigrant poetry recently for class and because, despite not sharing those experiences, I still always feel like I relate to the general themes of them. I dunno why, but I always imagine Knuckles being the type to write stuff like that himself, since his whole story draws a lot from very real and serious sorts of topics that can be related to some of those real-life issues. I really like that about him, how it always seems that his story is taken VERY seriously and not downplayed. That's why I liked him in Frontiers, and why I know many liked him in Sonic 2. Just mentioning this all because that's my inspiration for even coming up with this idea)

Again I absolutely do not wanna seem like im hijacking your story! I just wanted to rant about characters because hmmmmng,,, you write them so well and give me many idea and I love that,,

damn you put so much more thought into this au than i did LMAO

ummm okay i'll take these one by one

first: the trans chapter, that is ABSOLUTELY what i wanted to do and i'm so glad someone picked up on it. I think male hedgehog mobians have their quills spiked up while female hedgehogs tend to have them drip down. That's why Sonic pre-transition tied up his quills! However, I do think Amy fucks with her presentation a bit in that sense, she still spikes up her quills (though i think, similarly to how there are short haircuts that are deemed femenine by humans, the same thing could apply to hedgehog mobians and their quills)

about it being plotless... aha. haha. im gonna be honest. i love drama. there WILL be some dramatic event, and there’s gonna be drama, but it's not gonna be sudden. i'll be sure to have enough build up so it hurts a little less. a little. but its gonna take a while. so dont worry about it :)

OKAY shadow's past. okay. yeah so. okay. everything is like a lot more normal and domestic than in canon, so the whole magic and powers aspect is... altered. similarly to how it is in pirate au, the characters still have some trait thats similar to their powers/abilities in regular canon (sonic raced in highschool and regularly goes on runs, for example). I think Chaos Energy and the chaos emeralds and all that stuff is the equivalent they'd have of mythology. some people believe it, some people don't. "chaos and the emeralds" is a name that came to sonic based on one of those myths.

so... about shadow. gerald is dead. old age. i'm gonna try to explore shadow's past on later chapters so i'll keep it to: shadow was adopted by and raised by gerald until the doctor died, leaving shadow in charge of finishing raising maria. (and also, i didnt take eggman in consideration for this au because... implications. but it would be funny if he was just maria's annoying cousin that both of them can't stand)

and about knuckles! yeah, it's pretty much the former! it'd be interesting if he was an immigrant or someone from an overlooked culture. and no he is definitely not the last of his kind but i do think where the gang leaves it's not THAT common to see echidnas. i don’t think i'll touch much on that because... well i'm very much white and very much live in my birth country so i am deeply unqualafied to write about immigrant struggles, but that's definitely the direction i'd love to go to for knuckles. also you didnt ask this but he's like a big brother figure to amy, they were childhood friends

i actually hadn't thought about most of the things you asked, and this helped me do some worldbuilding, so thanks a lot for the questions!!!