#communication issues

[iceghosto]

Ive been told by a lot of people, including close friends and my wife, that they totally thought i didnt like them at first. Which always surprises me. But apparently the emotions in my head dont always make it out to my bod and its very hard to notice

[autisticlancemcclain]

“You’re not going.”

Keith picks his head up from the table. “Huh?”

“To the Blades,” Lance clarifies, chopping up something that looks like a bright pink potato and throwing it in a rapidly boiling pot in what Keith would call an aggressive manner. “You’re not going.”

“…I didn’t say I was.”

He didn’t. He didn’t mention anything about the Blades to any living soul. Like, yeah, he had made the decision and was going to, but.

There’s no reason Lance should know that.

“Good, then, because I took your uniform — which looks like a slutty catsuit, by the way, just so you’re aware — to the incinerator last night. It’s ash now.”

Keith stares at his best friend, jaw dropped, hands resting limply on the edge of the dining table, because — huh? pardon? what happened?

“Whatever identity crisis you’re having can happen here,” Lance adds, shaking some spices into the boiling pot and stirring it a couple times. He dips in a spoon, brings it up to his lips, then makes a face. “Here, try this.”

He marches over to where Keith has been moping as he makes dinner and shoves a spoon into his gaping mouth. Keith chokes, hot stew making its merry way down his trachea, eyes watering and chest heaving.

“A little too salty,” he rasps.

Lance scowls. “Fuck. I knew it. Gotta add more barbie potatoes.” He turns down the heat, grabbing more potatoes from the sack and busying himself with peeling them. Slowly, as he recovers from the fear of his actual lungs collapsing in on themselves, Keith stands, hesitantly approaching Lance and reaching for a knife to chop what he peels.

“So,” he starts.

Lance ignores him.

But Keith is used to this dynamic. It’s either this or flipped. Friends or not, if there’s one thing they can’t do it’s use their big boy words. So he carries on.

“I take it you…don’t want me to go, then.”

Lance grunts. “Oh, look, the caveman has room in his skull for a brain after all.”

“Uncalled for,” Keith says, scowling. “I am not the one who’s refusing to communicate right now.”

The corner of Lance’s mouth twitches upwards.

Score. Point to Keith.

“Obviously I don’t want you to leave, you stupid dumbass,” Lance admits finally. He wrestles the chopped roots out of Keith’s hands and practically dunks them in the pot, turning the heat back up. Keith smears his starch covered hands on his shirt in revenge (and then wisely takes three quick and giant steps back, well out of backhanding range).

“But there are too many paladins,” Keith points out. “You said it yourself.”

Lance grabs a dishtowel, twisting it menacingly in his hands. Keith tries not to think about the scar he knows Hunk has from when Lance snapped a towel at him when they were kids, wrestling in the McClains’ kitchen. He fails.

“Do you actually have any braincells left in your head at all?”

“Yes, jackass. That’s why I did the math. I leave and the numbers add back up. Problem solved.”

“You leave and Voltron falls apart,” Lance snaps. “So maybe crunch those numbers again.”

Keith stills. Lance steps towards him, still glaring, still menacing, but he doesn’t move — he holds Lance’s gaze, searching his dark eyes, looking for the words he isn’t saying. Because Keith…Keith isn’t the one holding Voltron together. There was a reason his heart caught in his throat when Lance came to him downtrodden and talked about being a seventh wheel. There’s a reason his duffel is packed, a reason he’s talked to Kolivan. He knows who needs to step aside.

“You just don’t get it,” Lance says, frustrated. He takes another step.

“You talk to us about teamwork all the time.”

Another step.

“You’re favourite thing to whine about is the bonding moment.”

Another step, this time as he pitches his voice high and mocking, flapping his hands.

“You never shut up about training as a group.”

One final step and he’s toe to toe, shoes to boots, nose to nose. Keith realises, startlingly, that they’re the exact same height, now.

“We are a crew, imbécil. Team, group, boyband. Whatever you wanna call it. All for one and one for all. The whole nine yards, all that cheesy bullshit.” He pokes Keith hard in the chest. “You don’t get to ditch.”

“But it makes more sense,” Keith argues, weakly and half-desperately. “We only have so many resources. If I can be useful at the Blades —”

“Fuck the fucking Blades.”

Keith deflates. His hand comes up to stop Lance’s jabbing finger, curling around his knuckles. Lance softens, slightly.

“I just want to be as useful as I can be.”

“And if you’re enough as you are?” Lance asks quietly.

Keith opens his mouth, but stops, automatic I’m not dying in his throat. For the first time in his life, it doesn’t seem like the truth, with the determined set to Lance’s jaw and the sliding of their fingers together, gripping tightly.

“Then I guess I’m staying,” Keith breathes.

Lance nods. “Good.”

Keith notices his hands are kind of clammy. His forehead, too, is a little sweaty. The air between them feels hot. Keith swallows.

“Your stew is on fire,” he croaks, voice rough.

Lance drops his hand, cursing.

“Oh — por amor de dios, hablas en fucking serio —”

———

At dinner, Keith eats his burnt stew without a word of complaint. When Lance drags him to the sink to help clean up, after, even though it’s not his turn, he goes, and he lingers too close and too long, and he’s grateful that the duffel he packed to leave home for good is laid emptied on his bed when he turns in for the night.

[alwaysbewoke]

It's even scarier when they fake cry right in your face

[decafdrawing]

[aceofspades2882]

Okay. I’m not usually a thinker of Ronance. BUT Nancy has a hard time communicating her feelings and thoughts. She’s very straight forward but she has a hard time actually voicing the things she wants to say when it comes to personal situations. When she’s annoyed or upset, once it gets to a certain point where she has to say something, it all comes out jumbled and she feels like it doesn’t correctly voice her feelings and thoughts.

Robin on the other hand says what comes to mind no matter how many words she needs to do so. If she feels what she said wasnt correct, shell correct it in another 8 or so sentences. Shamelessly.

While together Robin senses what Nancy feels and wants to say, so she says it, hoping that she didn’t get it all wrong and Nancy won’t kill her for it. Somehow though, she always gets it right. Nancy stays quiet, smiles and nods, and grabs Robin’s hand as a “thank you.” Robin always accepts this and feels a sense of pride with herself.

Sometimes for Robin, she’ll make her points a little more concise. But Robin is Robin and she loves herself for her rambling (even though it gives her anxiety or insecurities sometimes,) and the only two people who love her more for it are Steve and Nancy.

[furiousgoldfish]

I find myself constantly trying to frame the abuse in words that would seem palatable and acceptable for a regular person to hear. I need words to explain what happened to me without getting an immediate confusion/disgust/disbelief/anger reaction. People tend to either interrupt me to say 'past is in the past' or jump to convince me that I'm wrong and I must be exaggerating or just tell me they don't want to hear about it.

At this point all I can really say is that I have been through several types of abuse and I'm still affected by it, and nothing more severe than that can actually get through to people; but when I say this, it feels so mild and unspecific, they forget I even said it and assume it was nothing. If I say I've been through an imprisonment/torture type situation, then they assume I'm lying because I just act warm and friendly and they can't comprehend someone being trained to act pleasing during torture.

'I ran away from home' makes people feel pity for parents, they must be worried about me (yes, they're always worried that I'm still alive somewhere). If I say 'my parent did x to me', they make assumptions and then bend over backwards to justify the parent's actions or to find reasons and excuses for it.

Has anyone been able to find words that make people understand? I can't show any of my trauma symptoms visibly, so people would have to believe my words, and not what they're seeing in front of them.

[ineffectualdemon]

I need a short, simple, to way to convey the difference between:

1. "I don't understand on an intellectual actual understanding of what's going on level and I need and want an explanation"

And

2. "I understand on an intellectual and purely factual level but not on an emotional/instinctual level and I don't need or want an explanation I just want to bitch and complain"

Because it's very frustrating for everyone when it's the second situation and everyone assumes and reacts like it's the first

[aroaceconfessions]

Being aroace is so hard. A few months ago I asked someone out, but I made sure they KNEW I was aroace. They totally just ignored that and started telling people we were in a relationship after I asked to be monogamous. Obviously I was asking them to be in a QUEERPLATONIC relationship?? Allo people will never understand what it’s like to be us…

Submitted March 22, 2023

[aditheursula]

Raise your hand if you’re autistic and neurotypical people misinterpret your humor and personality both IRL and on the internet.

[mogs4rt]

you ever open up and vent to your friends- which you don't usually do - and then feel weird about it the next day, because you just poured out the dark matter in your brain and heart and now they know how to get under your skin, because fuck

[mattsmemes]

[ellie-probably]

representation of me at literally every school camp ever cause im always worrying about friendships and then like im in the dining hall trying to talk to a friend who i think hates me and then just like everyone is talking and im left out and im justy mijwkjngdrowkrehtdg

i dont believe in curses but school camps are def cursed

&

[someonewhoisdesperate]

no because how do I tell someone I want their attention and I want to talk to them but about nothing in particular without playing angry or coming across as needy i swear my communication is better but ive never cracked that code help

[camelliawitch]

🎬 My personal weatherman

This show should have been called ✨Communication issues✨ but surprisingly I really loved it. Maybe because these issues weren’t issuing too badly :D I’m kinda sad they didn’t actually talk in the end but on the other hand it would be completely out of character. Overall: nice, cute, I’ll probably rewatch it later.

[spacexriri]

kinda resisting the urge to leave every server and gc i’m in so someone asks what’s wrong. but i don’t actually want to tell them what’s wrong. i just want everyone to know that something’s wrong lmao

[vizthedatum]

Apropos of EVERYTHING, it's really not nice to mess around with an autistic person who is highly intuitive and empathic - even though we're intuitive, well at least me... I will just assume that you're out there for my best interest, and I will fawn so hard to appease you because I give you so much benefit of the doubt.

It really really hurts.

And it really hurts when another autistic person is doing it to you.

...

Sigh, so what now? I go into my villain era and tell people how I really feel and set boundaries? And tell them that they hurt me when they hurt me even though it makes me feel like an asshole? And refrain from telling myself that I'm foolish because I trust people so easily?

This world is too hard.