#autistic fiction

[frilledshark-enthusiast]

I love how hh and hb don’t infinilization their autistic characters. Blitz and stolas very clearly autistic and horny on main. Blitz even includes his special interest into his sex life and honestly that is such a vibe. And alastor the one aroace character also has autistic traits but not in the uwu their so innocent they could never have sex their just a baby way. Like their is no possible way anyone could think that about alastor.

this also might be why so many people hate it so much, it not only challenges the “queer media has to be comfortable and innocent for straight people” archetype but also the “autistic characters have to be innocent and do no wrong and be perfect angels because their babies” archetype

[fenmere]

Guide to our work

If you are trans, non-binary, autistic, amistic (ADHD), disabled, plural (of any type), and/or therian/otherkin/alterhuman and enjoy novels with science fiction style settings, you might really appreciate our stories! If you want to practice using neopronouns, we've also got you covered.

Below is a guide to what we've done so far:

Systems' Out! is our very first novel, and the one we're the most proud of. Its writing is very tight, and is ultimately the best, non-spoilery introduction to our world. It's about a couple of systems and their friends trying out a new accommodation for their various neurotypes and bringing about a kind of revolution in the process (or participating in it, in any case). This story is largely about fighting deadly dysphoria, and why one might even bother. But it's also about the responsibility parents have for their children.

Ni'a and Outsider are sequels to Systems' Out! and elaborate on the characters' lives, tell what happens after (or during) the revolution, and delves into the problems and ethical dilemmas inherent in the world we'd created. They are also about the journey of recovering from trauma, and how your community might help to do that (if your community were supportive).

Crew is officially the fifth book of the Sunspot Chronicles, and follows up on themes and questions that arise from the first three books. Specifically, it covers some of the prehistory of the Sunspot and the culture of the Crew, and some of what they do behind closed doors. But it also delves into personally dealing with amnesia, shifts in identity, dissociation, loss, and bigotry. The ending may be described as bitter sweet. It can be read out of order with the fourth book, which isn't written yet.

Blood in the Duff is the sixth book of the Sunspot Chronicles. It is part murder mystery and part polyamorous romance novel, or hopes to be. It can be read independently of the fourth book, but probably should be read after reading the other books, particularly Crew. It takes place 110 years after the events of Systems' Out! and references many social and technological developments that come after. It features the return of Ralf, Morde's tutor, though! And is covering aspects of daily life and Sunspot biology we hadn't covered in the other books, including toilets. You want to read about Sunspot toilets, right? Seriously, we're pretty proud of this one. We've put more physical planning into it than any of the other books.

The Adventures of Molly Rocketcoil is a politically driven pulp sci-fi serial written by two of the characters from Ni'a and Outsider. It's fictional within the context of the above canon, meant to address the issues that the people aboard the Sunspot are facing at the end of that series. It's also an exploration of the drive to reproduce, alien relations, and comparing radically different cultures and personal development. It involves warp drive and exploring the rest of the galaxy, but with the effects of relativity still intact.

Even further from the canon, but a great introduction for anyone who wants something familiar, Star Trek Mercury: Two-Way Mirror Mountain is our one and only fanfic! It has the least use of neopronouns, and is a totally non-canon speculation of what might happen if the Sunspot buzzed Earth and the Kelvin time-line Federation. It's a sequel to a role playing game we played, and is written in first person perspective from the three members of a system who are captain of the U.S.S. Mercury. It includes a model for how we think the Federation would (or should) accommodate plurality.

It's totally OK if you read Molly Rocketcoil or Star Trek Mercury first. They are also perfectly fine entrypoints into our stories. They'll reveal some plot twists from the earlier books, but they don't explain in detail how we got there or what happens after, so they don't really spoil the stories. Also, everything is written from various different perspectives of unreliable narrators that have then been (canonically) translated loosely by a somewhat irresponsible publishing company, so a certain amount of interpretation and speculation is left up to you.

Completely outside of canon, but tangentially related, are our series of writing-prompted tumblr fics, Crime-Cat and the Deliverator. You will read almost nothing about the Sunspot or our system by reading these stories! But, you will encounter gay, non-binary villains full of queerness and super gayness. The Earth does undergo a bit of destruction. Just a bit. But that kind of happens sometimes when it's overrun by people with superpowers. And it is written in second person, because most of the prompts we used were presented in that way. If you enjoy imagining yourself to be a non-binary gay monster from outer space entering the world of supervillains, and having the cutest human partner you can imagine, this is absolutely the story for you. Also, "Kepekapean" is really just another word for Ktletaccete, but shsh.

[sillystringpony]

THE AUTISM SISTERS!!!!!!!!

no text ver below :3

interactions hugely appreciated <333333

MY KO-FI <3

[badolmen]

They don’t even attempt to assassinate US politicians anymore. You notice that? Not since the anthrax scare back for… who was it, Barack? And even that… pathetic. This new generation has no respect for an honest hitman. I’m not sure this new generation has any honest hitman - you see that shit with Boeing? Sloppy, fucking disgraceful - you kill the whistleblowers before they get halfway to a lawsuit. What kind of fucking amateur is doing faked suicides the night before testimony? Goddamn greenhorns. Back in my day someone tried to shoot Ronald Reagan in broad daylight. There used to be bomb threats to Congress. I took out a few union leaders in the utilities sector myself. Today’s generation? Won’t even threaten to throw a punch - not even over on that - what’s it now, ‘X’? They got no guts. None! And they don’t even have poor impulse control to boot! Too much of that - that panopticon anxiety bullshit. “Oh what if I get a called out post???” People used to send the president letters full of bioweapons. In the mail! Today’s generation? Not a chance. All because of woke.

[thesylverlining]

Instead of "you came back wrong", I came back wrong and no one will tell me why.

No one will even tell me I'm wrong, I just feel it in the way their voices are so cheerful and strained, how they look at me and smile too hard, until it looks like it hurts their faces, like they're smiling to keep from screaming.

I came back wrong and I know you gave up so much for me, things I'm terrified to even ask, things you'd cry to tell, but you won't, you'll never even tell me you failed.

Everything is exactly the way I remember it, everyone, even you, except now you've spent too long and awkward a time in a room with a stranger and can't think of a polite way to leave (or ask them to)

I wish you would just tell me the truth, or listen when I say I KNOW I came back wrong, instead of changing the subject or insisting it's fine, everything's fine, it's so much better with me here, your dreams come true. But that would be admitting it was for nothing.

So we both sit here. Until one of us cracks. If there's mercy, it'll be at the same time.

It's not you, it's me.

[rjalker]

Dear people who aren't physically disabled who plan to write fantasy settings:

[ID: Several images taken from the Geordi La Forge yes and no meme format, with Geordi holding out a hand disapprovingly for the no section, then pointing in approval for the yes section.

The first image is the meme:

No: "Saying the existance of magic in your setting means there are no disabled people (this literally just means disabled people are killed. AKA eugenics)"

Yes: "Having disabled people who use magical mobility aids and other assistive devices. Realizing that someone is still disabled even if their prosthetic arm is made of magic instead of plastic."

This is followed by four more panels of yes section:

"Geordi la Forge is still literally disabled. His visor helping him does not erase his disability and make him magically abled."

"Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender is still literally disabled even though her Earthbending helps her. It does not make her disability ~magically~ go away."

"Having your disability be accomodated does not mean the disability goes away. Having a prosthetic hand, even one that's made of magic, does not mean you're not disabled."

"Magical mobility aids do not mean disabled people don't exist. It just means they use magical mobility aids instead of plastic or metal ones. A limb made of magic is still a prosthetic even if it's made of the soul of the universe instead of plastic and metal."

Then another no panel: "'There's no disabled people beacuse magic'".

Then one last yes panel: "'Magic helps disabled people in a variety of ways'".

End ID.]

This also applies to science fiction; just because Luke Skywalker's prosthetic hand is super advanced doesn't mean it's no longer a prosthetic, or that he's not disabled. Same with Darth Vader - just because he has a suit that lets him breathe and walk around doesn't mean he's not disabled. (And Star Wars' propensity for making the villains visibly disabled while the heroes disabilities get covered up by super advanced prosthetics is a topic that deserves its own post, especially with how ableist some of the authors of the books are. Troy Denning is especially ableist)

Edit:

Because people keep being fucking obnoxious and ableist in the tags, yes,,, motherfuckers, if you refuse to have disabled people in your setting, that does make you fucking ableist. If you say that the magic is used to cure all disabled people and that's why they don't exist, that's fucking eugenics.

You cannot ""cure"", more like remove all disabilities without fucking eugenics. Magically automatically destroying disabled fetuses (a very fucking popular trope!) is eugenics.

The only way to fucking "cure" autism is to fucking kill all autistic people, also known as eugenics!

What about people with PTSD? Do you just fucking brainwash them so they aren't traumatized anymore?

Do you force all Deaf people to be able to hear? Do you force all blind people to be able to see? Do you force all anosmics to be able to smell?

Do you magically force everyone with a speech impediment to speak to your standards?

Do you force everyone born with bodily or facial differences to live up to your fucking standard of beauty?

You cannot fucking say "disablities don't exist in this universe because magic cures everything" without inherently saying that eugenics exists in your fucking universe.

Not all fucking disabilities need a cure. If you ""cured"" my autism I'd just be fucking dead. You'd literally just be changing me into what you think is fucking acceptable.

Stop fucking arguing in defence of ableists on my fucking post so you can pretend that eugenics has never been written about in magical settings when it is extremely fucking prevalent.

And while we're fucking at it, let your gods damned characters become disabled over the course of their story, and call them disabled within the fucking story. I don't care if they're a robot. I don't care if they have magic. Not all fucking damage can be fixed. Curses exist. Hardware can go out of fucking date and no longer be manufactured anywhere.

Let your characters become disabled and do not magically fucking cure them back to brand new every single time they get hurt. The only thing you accomplish by doing that is destroying any chance of ever having stakes.

No, "magical healing leaves scars on the mind from the memory of the injuries though!!!!" is not fucking good enough. Let your characters have scars. Let them become disabled. Stop being fucking ableist cowards.

Edit number fucking 2:

No, motherfuckers, you do not get to comment "if the disability was caused by magic it's not ableist to cure it with magic". You are the ableist this post is about. Shut the absolute fuck up, stop treating being disabled as the worst possible outcome, and just admit you're a fucking ableist. If you don't want your characters to become disabled, then don't fucking make them disabled.

[ID: The Garfield "you are not immune to propaganda" meme, now edited to read:

"If your first thought upon reading this post is, 'Oh, but it's okay to magically cure disabilities caused by magic!' Congrats…you are the exact sort of ableist jackass this post is about."

End ID.]

Edit number fucking 3:

Autistic people exist! People who are born with disabilities exist! You cannot create a setting where disabled people do not exist because we're all "cured" or "fixed" and not inherently say that you are killing disabled people as soon as they're born, or fucking aborting us as soon as you figure out we'd be born disabled! That's fucking eugenics!

There is no way to "cure" autism without eugenics! There is no way to "cure" people with body differences without eugenics! There is no way to make disabled people nonexistant in your setting without eugenics! Thinking you can and should "cure" and "fix" all disabilities IS EUGENICS!

Also:

[ID: A character shouting at the camera, now edited to read: "Shut up about Dungeons and Dragons! Shut up about Dungeons and Dragons! If the rules of Dungeons and Dragons are ableist, then fucking change them! It is your fucking personal responsability to be a better person than your bigoted society wants you to be!". End ID.]

[ID: White text on a dark brown background with white and black borders around the edges, that reads:

"I don't fucking know or care about Dungeons and Dragons.

This post is not about Dungeons and Dragons.

Do not fucking throw the rulebook of Dungeons and Dragons at me like it's some sort of 'Gotcha!'.

You will literally just be blocked like the rest of the ableist assholes who've already tried it.

If you play dungeons and dragons, it's your responsability to make your games not be ableist, even if it means breaking the rules.".

End ID.]

I do not fucking care what the ableist rules are in Dungeons of Dragons. Do not fucking throw ableist rules for a game I have never and will never play at me on a post I made so that people could learn how to make their settings less ableist. If the rules in Dungeons and Dragons are ableist, then fucking change them. If you don't want to change them, then stop fucking playing an ableist game.

Disabled people deserve to see ourselves represented in fiction just like everyone else, without any fucking requirements that we be "cured" or "fixed" before the story ends.

How the fuck would you feel if a trans and gay character's whole story revolved around going on a quest to become straight and cis, did so, and only then was allowed to live happily ever after?

Why do you fucking think suggesting people write stories about disabled people going on a quest to be cured because it's the only way they'll ever be happy is any less fucking offensive?

Also:

This post is NOT a place for you to talk about how disabled people in fiction should have the option of curing their disabilities. It's just not. That's the fucking default for this society. That is not a revolutionary concept. It's not novel. We fucking know this society wants us gone. A post about how disabled people deserve representation is not the place to talk about how "Well, actually, in fiction disabled people should be cured!" Like that's not the fucking universal default???????????

Edit #4:

Everyone needs to stop tagging this singing praise for Fullmetal Alchemist. A story that uses disability as a punishment and the characters are on a quest to cure their disabilities is not the amazing representation you're all claiming it is just because the character who is only disabled because of DIVINE PUNISHMENT uses prosthetics.

Read this post, and this one. Fullmetal Alchemist is a hell of a lot more ableist than you people are letting on.

guess what you can now find a PDF version of this post on the web archive.

Edit #5! August 23rd, 2023!

A) Everyone. Disabilities that can only exist in the magical setting are still disabilities.

Trying to cure the younger brother's magical disability of being a soul floating around in a magical suit of armour is, in fact, going on a quest to heal a disability!

It doesn't matter if the older brother doesn't want to get his limbs back when they're going on a quest to heal the younger brother's disability! Especially when they BOTH get magically healed at the end!

Magical disabilities that can only exist in that setting, but not real life, are still disabilities, and it's not okay to magically heal them either! What part of the Garfield meme on this post did you all choose to ignore?!

B) When you leave tags on a post you are reblogging, the original poster can see them! When you leave tags on this post, I can see them!

If you think this post is ""too aggressive"" then simply do not reblog it! Don't fucking tone police me on a post I've had to edit five times now due to the constant ableism people have been commenting since I made it!

I have been called the R slur by multiple people in response to this post! People have literally reblogged this post to defend eugenics abortions! You can't see these comments or replies anymore because I blocked the poster!

If you think minorities are being too aggressive by responding appropriately to bigotry, you're a bigot! And you should either not reblog the post at all, or at the very least, shut the fuck up and not tone police us!

Do not fucking put tags on this post complaining I'm being too aggressive! That's called tone policing and you're a bigot if you do it! Don't fucking do it on anyone else's posts either! They can see your tags too!

C) When I fucking say Harry Potter fans are banned from this post, yes, this means YOU!

Either stop supporting a billionaire who's literally using the profits from her bigoted shittily written books to fund REAL FUCKING GENOCIDE, or fuck off!

By continuing to support the Harry Potter series, you are literally giving JK Rowling free fucking advertising! You are encouraging more people to read the series and watch the movies, spending more money and giving her more fucking money with which to LITERALLY SHAPE A COUNTRY'S LAWS TO COMMIT GENOCIDE. She is literally fucking fighting to make being trans illegal! She is literally fucking fighting to have even more of autistic people's rights taken away!

You cannot fucking be a fan of the Harry Potter series in 2023 and call yourself an ally to all the minorities harmed by JK Rowling and the bigotry baked into her shitty series!

Read another book! The Web Archive has tons you can read for free! Literally every single book on gutenberg.org/ is free! Including audiobooks for some of them!

If you write Harry Potter fanfiction, simply fucking get rid of the names and identifiable features and start writing original fiction instead! It's literally free!

Not supporting a literal fucking genocidal billionaire costs LITERALLY NOTHING! And if you refuse to fucking stop supporting JK Rowling, which is what you are doing when you support the Harry Potter series and squeal over her OCs, you are not an ally to any fucking minority! No! Not even if you're trans yourself!

= = =

Edit again Nobember 28th 2023 because this comment is just. such a perfect example for all of you that think this doesn't happen.

butter-whore2 said, two hours before this edit:

kind of a fan of tumblr's slightly more algorithmically elements for reminding me of the hell's other people construct for themselves but this one hits like five of the boxes. How do people do this to themselves? it's such a bizarre way to act over media I genuinely do not believe is capable of stirring an emotional response the metaphysics of disability here are unintentionally really funny but disability is not a coherent ontological framework, it's a vague descriptor for literally thousands of different things none of which lend themselves to categorizing Moralizing over fiction is incredibly lame.

Liking harry potter is also incredibly lame, it's not morally wrong nor transphobic and you do not get to decide that lol. people literally do get "cured" of their disabilities all the time, many of them have a positive experience in doing so. this is not what eugenics is.

the anti abortion stuff lol

Literally how do you live like this? you guys don't even read real books I don't get it.

Archived version of the comment for posterity.

So yeah, lofl, block this fucker.

[the-bar-sinister]

Villain monologue? Excuse me I am infodumping to you about my special interest and my special interest is death traps, machinations, and machiavellian plans.

You'll find that if you've paid enough attention to my interests, you'll be able to escape your inevitable death at my nefarious hands, and we can start building a relationship out of this.

[captainjimothy]

personally i do think julian bashir is trans, but not in a way that sublimates his genetic alterations into a trans allegory. i think he's disabled and trans at the same time, but i think his rebellion against his parents--the symbolic death of his old self with the name change--that's not about gender, for him, at all.

it's about the incredible violation of autonomy he experienced as a disabled person under the knife of a eugenicist society. it's about the need to reclaim some, any, of the agency that was so completely stolen from him by his parents.

it's about discovering that his entire self was deconstructed and reconstructed, without his knowledge or consent, for the express purpose of being less of a burden on his parents.

because let's not forget that the death of julian's old self was not his decision. it was his parents who killed the old self and created a new one.

let's not forget that human society in star trek is still recovering from the eugenics wars--that just because it's post-scarcity doesn't mean it's a utopia.

let's not forget the multiple episodes where bashir is forced to confront the fact that his "success story" is truthfully a gross reminder of how deeply his society (and his family) hates disabled people, not only shown in how they tried to fix him, but also in the fact that the process so rarely works as intended, yet is still done anyway--and the failures and the ones too far gone to save are locked away! with no connection to general society, and only the bare minimum provision for their physical needs, with no privacy and no autonomy!

and let's not forget that julian sees these people and is torn between the empathy he has for them, and his urge to fix them. and he goes through with this urge on Sarina, "fixing" her to conform to his idea of what she ought to be, treating her as a problem to be solved, objectifying her via "my ideal woman was trapped in this disabled body/mind and i saved her," thus continuing the cycle of violence, because even he can't conceive of a world where the disabled do not need to be fixed. where the violence done to him was wrong. fuck man

[bajaja-blast]

i can’t explain it but these characters are so autistic imo

EDITED BECAUSE I FORGOT TO ADD

[marc0-darlingg]

Commentary youtubers are so sad, theyll see someone who is proship minding their business making art on twitter or tumblr and take a hissy fit.

Its sad really, some make callout posts, some make whole ass videos on people they dont know, and then their fans that have justice boners harass the artists/creators.

@the-silli-crow

[bioluminesced]

the cat’s cradle

[stanfordpines-enbyboyfriend]

Y'all ever just look at your f/o(s) and just *runs around in circles like a dog*

You know?

Pro.shippers/com.shippers DNI please

[twigsandhearts]

Non-verbal & non-speaking characters in Audio Dramas

A PowerPoint was created after receiving questions as to how we could have characters that don't speak in our show. For an audio version, check our TikTok.

Suggestions for other ways to give non-speaking characters space in shows are welcome! This presentation was made by someone who is mostly non-verbal and previously fully non-speaking.

[golden-rolling-hills]

Pony and Darry are both autistic but their autism manifests very differently from each other’s which is part of the reason they’re always butting heads.

Darry is very reliant on his schedule to function throughout the day so when pony does something like miss his curfew it throws Darry’s whole day off in his head and he has a hard time being flexible

Pony on the other hand is literally incapable of sticking to any semblance of a schedule bc my man is audhd and time does not exist to him. This stresses Darry out to no end

i could go on and on about this so lmk if y’all want to hear more

[cephalopaints]

im definitely not the first person to do this

[basement-buddy]

Gloomy Hank! Glank!