#this is what i get for being autistic and having object attachment and naming my device. isn't it

[deadm0ss]

brains r like. we are going to process the tablet dying by wondering what if we can someday get all the stuff in it that were inevitably going to forget back. how will refinding this affect our psyche. but also the tablet is a human and you are a voice in their head telling them to kill themselves and your other devices are their friends

[royallygray]

fic recs pls (part 1)

I am in need of long (don’t actually know what qualifies as long, 10k+ words?), complete (or not) dsmp (mainly sbi) or Life Series fanfic recommendations. I have read so many and I am trying to find more to soothe the brain itch.

Here are several that I have read, if you’re looking for fic recs yourself :)

Dream SMP (SBI)

tommyinnit’s clinic for supervillains by bonesandthebees (bonesandcacti) — [26/26 chapters, 189k words] aka “clinic”. A superhero au from Tommy’s pov where he’s just chillin with his healing powers and then he heals a villain and then gets sucked into it. He also gets attached to this Wilbur guy that visits the coffee shop he works at.

the world forgetting by the world forgot by bonesandthebees (bonesandcacti) — [21/21, 165k words] A superhero au from Tommy’s pov where he is the hero Dream’s sidekick and has terrible amnesia, forgetting the entirety of what happened the year before. The Syndicate, a band of villains, is looking for something that was stolen from them.

Hush Now (You Were Lost But Now You’re Found) by CorpseArt — [Incomplete, 56/?, 301k] A superhero AU where Tommy was Dream's sidekick and made it his entire person, and then Dream kicks him out of the Hero Corp. Tommy needs to figure out what the fuck is going on, bc there's no way Dream would just do that, even if he did protect the villain Siren. Their one rule is to not kill. Also he meets this funky man named Wilbur at a coffee shop and they become besties. (Pogtopia my absolute beloved.)

say you’re open by remrose — [9/9, 43k] A magic AU from Wilbur’s pov where he finds this kid unconscious on the floor if his shop after attending his mother’s funeral, obviously bearing the marks of intense chaos magic. He takes care of the kid. He also gets sold a mysterious object. The twinsduo here makes my heart sing. Also Phil is kind of like “you are mildly breaking the law” and Neapolitan trio just shrug.

Technoblade’s Entirely Average Babysitting Gig by opheliabloo — [3/3, 34k] A Techno pov fic where he is in college and needs money. A really shady family is offering like 20k for babysitting for 3 hours or something absurd like that, and him being a money-hungry college student, he ventures to this house in the middle of nowhere to take care of gremlin children that try to kill him.

His Curse of Binding by bari_astralis (orphan_account) — [30/30, 144k words] A foster au from Tommy’s pov where he is reincarnated into different Greek hero stories and he needs to figure out who this time’s story is before his sixteenth birthday. Featuring: Complicated SBI bonding, (minor) Clementine being a girlboss, bench trio being absolutely precious, allium duo making fun of each other but alsok being so damn precious, Linda Smith and Miss Allingham bashing (you’ll understand when you read it, I hate their guts), and generally trying to find your peace in life.

Breathing’s Just a Rhythm by MollyPollyKinz — [53/53, 186k] A time travel canon-divergent fic where Tommy, Schlatt, Dream, Tubbo, and The Voices travel from Exile era back to Pogtopia-Manburg era, and they've gotta fix the shitty world and avoid Dream at all fucking costs. Relationship building happens, and the Voices are the best character to ever exist in all literature.

the from ice to water series by Drhair76, plantform — [12 works, 157k words] The main fic is icing those hurts, but my personal favorite is hailing on you. An ice skating au fic centered around found family and belonging in a place without harm. In the main fic, Tommy gets healed, but in hailing on you, Wilbur gets healed and it's so sweet <3

holding onto nothing by remrose -- [20/20, 71k] A mainly Techno pov fic, twinsduo centric. adhd and autistic techno, and his mom is a bitch. He goes to the Crafts for help and it's terribly sweet but also pretty angsty. At times this fic has literally been my lifeblood, like my support system in keeping me alive. I love it so much.

My Faithless Hoax by phantom_star739 -- [24/24, 105k] A supernatural? (fae, vampire, siren) crimeboys centric fic with mild political aspects. I don't really know how to describe it, but it's amazing.

Fic recs part 2!

[blubushie]

do u just name the guns/knives or do u name other stuff too (i'm asking respectfully)

Ok, since you come respectful I'll answer respectful.

Getting this out of the way: I'm autistic. Object personification is a symptom of autism. It is something I have. This paper will be very sad if you don't read it. I will also be referring to people as "humans" throughout this to separate from my own concept of "people."

I'm an extremely low empathy autistic, plus some other things. While I'll see non-human things as people, I also don't really see humans as people. It's more like watching animals go about their natural behaviours. I'm an outsider looking in, taking notes on behaviour and interactions within the community. I don't think of humans as any different from the animals I observe and hunt. We're all just organisms. Humans are people with our own place in the food chain, try as we might to rise above it. There is me, a person. There is Misty, a person. Once I get to know another human well, they become a person to me instead of just another animal.

Only ones this doesn't apply to is kids. I'm horribly empathetic to kids. Teenagers are on thinner ice but still get empathy. But kids fuck me up hard. If something happens to a child I'll be fucked up for days.

This doesn't mean I go around being an arsehole, because I'm polite and learnt a long time ago and that no one will ever really understand my perspective on how I see other people. They'll call you a monster, a freak, a psychopath, etc. They'll think you want to harm humans, or that you're a bad person because you don't see other humans with the same personhood as you see yourself, or say you dehumanise humans. And I don't reckon I dehumanise humans, because all of humanity is like this to me. Additionally, while I'm low-empathy, I'm not a fucking sadist. I don't want anything to suffer. Shots I take on animals are clean and accurate--ethical and humane. I try to have the same approach with people. If someone is in distress, I am going to help them because that's the right thing to do. I might not personally care about the person, but I will help them because it's good to be kind. Sometimes that means I put up with a lot more shit than I should.

When I get close enough to someone, I start seeing them as people. Those in my server, my mates, my family. If I become emotionally attached to something, my empathy starts working and they become a person to me. But this also means that anything with sentimental value to me is now granted personhood. Misty is a person. My rifle, Winnie, is a person. My knife, Kaz, is a person. My stockwhip Stozza, my ute Matilda (though really, Matilda is the camper and not the rig itself). These are all people to me. They have emotions and feelings and this paper will be very sad if you don't read it.

And when something is granted personhood, I grant it a name. There's a reason everyone in my server--my friend group--is given a nickname by me, even if most of them don't know what I've given them. There's a reason my rifle and knife and car have names. There's a reason my dog has a name. People have names.

When I first got Winnie at twelve, she was just my gun. "Can I bring my gun?" No, Jet, we don't bring guns to Macca's. "I'll leave it in the car. I just wanna bring it." I didn't wanna let her out of my sight. She was my pride and joy, even then. And later that year, after I was assaulted, there was days I'd spend shooting tins out behind our caravan, and she was the only thing that made me feel like I had any power over my life. Because she felt powerful. She made me feel safe--like if ever I needed to, I could protect myself. She couldn't change what had happened to me, but so long as she was by my side I was sure it'd never happen to me again.

When I was fifteen and went bush, I brought her with me. .30-06 is fucking overkill for rabbits, but I shot a roo with her and the meat lasted me the whole near-three weeks I was out there until the coppers found me 60km from Ghan. She kept me alive, because I didn't bring enough food for three weeks. To be fair, leaving was an impulse decision and I was also 15 at the time, but still. Her dedication to me then was rewarded with her going from a gun to my most beloved companion, and being granted the name Winnie.

They took her when I was taken into custody, and I wouldn't talk to the detective until he assured me I'd get her back once I left the copshop. I went directly from the copshop into a mental facility, but she was there at the detective's house when he pulled me out of it.

By the time I was 17 and going to high school in rural California, I was in the school carpark when I noticed one of the boys at my school had a semi-auto shotty on the rack in his ute. So on the drive home I stopped by our local gunshop and immediately bought a gunrack for my back window, which is where Winnie rests now when she's not locked in her safe in Matilda or by the door.

Eventually Kaz went from "dad's knife" to "the KA-BAR", then back to "my knife" cuz KA-BAR is a mouthful, then finally to Kaz. By the time I'd bought my camper for my ute, I'd come to terms with sometimes people just Name Things when they get attached. And as I was 17, going on 18, and homeless at the time, I immediately named her Matilda.

When I became a stockman I wasn't given a station knife because I had Kaz and told them I didn't need one, but I was given my stockwhip and after it was used on me I finally gave it the name Stozza. And sometimes I take it out and crack it a couple times just so it's not sitting there coiled in a box at the bottom of my wardrobe.

The pronouns comes with the name territory. I just get a certain vibe off things, if that makes sense? Winnie is, without a doubt, feminine to me. Kaz is feminine to me. Stozza is masculine, but I usually find myself calling him an "it" instead of masculine pronouns because while I'm attached to it for sentimental reasons, it's not quite reached a level of personhood with me yet.

Anyway, hope that covers things. Cheers.

[imjustheretomooch]

Who wouldn’t want to read about an immortal amoral autistic mage/wizard and her dumb sociopath of an apprentice that she doesn’t realize is trying to murder her because she’s too op?

“Doesn’t that get old quick?” well stay tuned for book two where said dumb sociopathic apprentice becomes less dumb and decides instead to try and sleep with his master with the same success rate of his murder plots! Which is to say he fails and it’s still so good! This time in America where they wreck havoc on the population simply because neither gives a fuck 

I once again have absolutely fallen in love with a book that has an absolutely miniscule fanbase oof. On the bright side, its small enough that the author will respond to your reviews on goodreads!! 

Anyway, Dark Apprentice! There’s our protagonist, Nikolai. He’s dumb of ass and the least pure of heart man you have ever come across in your life. Like he’s a psychopath. Literally. Author confirmed he has ASPD. Despite being free from the shackles of emotion, he manages to be the least objective mfer out there and spends the entire first book clowning himself to the highest degree.

And then there’s out other POV, Medea. Due to the scale of her life- she’s easily a 1000 yrs old- she seems rather apathetic to the plight of man, but who really cares about World War 2 when you were around for a millenium of human atrocities.

She’s also undeniably the strongest mage in the world and will fuck you up in the most creative ways possible, but usually she lays pretty low because she isn’t a fan of social interaction and spends her time studying magic, which she notices is slowly dying out. Medea decided against taking on apprentices because those bastards keep trying to kill her (her reputation draws mostly only scummy, power hungry mages who want to learn dark magic) but when she meets Nikolai, who has incredible magic potential like she hasn’t seen in years (and also blows it out of the park in terms of being scummy and power hungry) she decides to try again.

She's pretty standoffish when it comes to justice because she's lived long enough that even the concept of what behaviour is wrong has changed, but if you're a rapist will flip your digestive tract to attach your mouth to your asshole and shove your dick up your ass-mouth so you digest your own penis and while she slowly rips your sinew apart.

Honestly I have never seen such a unique pairing of characters in a book. Nikolai and Medea are both highly unusual personality types to see in media, mostly because the author follows through on their bloodthirsty-ness and their quirks that make them sorta awful people. It also makes their dynamic, which is sooo good in the second book, so funny. I laughed out loud at the part where Nikolai, who’s convinced himself that he’s the center of Medea’s world, finally is like wait. Do you even fucking know my name? And she’s like Um. uhhhh, errrr… 

and if you get frustrated with Nikolai being stupid, know that the second book is even better and he's no longer a massive idiot

anyway. go read it please please please

[solarishashernoseinabook]

Hi, so I thought I'd ask you this because you'd know: I think I may have autism. I was never diagnosed as a child, but I was pretty sheltered so idk how that factors in. I'm an adult now, and I have persisent issues with sensory stuff, fidgeting, interacting with people, and so on. It may just be related to my depression. However, as Ive made the transistion to adulthood I just keep realizing I function way different than others are comfortable with. Am I just overreacting?

Nope, I don't think it's an overraction at all! I could go on a very long tangent about this, but what it comes down to is: does identifying as autistic help you understand yourself better, and can you use that to help you manage your problems?

Does identifying as autistic help you understand yourself better? I first thought I might be autistic about fifteen years ago. At the time, though, I had a very stereotypical view of autism because I was only exposed to high-support-needs autistic people (hard avoiding eye contact, predominantly non-verbal, very obvious stimming, etc.). As I've gotten to know a wider variety of autistic people, though, I've started realising that a lot of stuff I thought were just quirks about myself were autistic traits. I don't feel all that comfortable looking at eyes, or faces in general, unless they're someone I know well (my best friend, my family) - though I'm still trying to sort out my boundaries around eye contact. Figuring out I'm autistic helped me identify my sensory issues as falling into clear patterns instead of being random things that bugged me, and it helped me realise that a lot of things were stims! But a lot of my stims are atypical. For example, I love pressure as a stim - like putting clothes pegs or hair clips on my fingers, or clipping a pen to my lip or finger. It also let me realise text is a visual stim, which is why I actually read slowly unless I'm forcing myself to get through something quickly and why I have trouble watching any show that I can only access with subtitles - just looking at text, even without reading it, is hugely calming for me.

For years, my biggest sense of imposter syndrome was around special interests. I didn't have any classic special interests that you see all the time in fiction, besides an interest in animals and natural history - but it didn't seem to manifest the same way special interests normally did, because while I love talking and learning about them, my entire personality isn't based around them. Once again, learning about autism helped me realise I do have special interests, including animals and natural history - and one of those interests is worldbuilding! I love creating settings, social mores, explanations, etc. Introduce me to a legend or mystery and my brain will start building something around it! I also realised that books, as objects, are a special interest for me - I like having physical books around, holding books, etc. Just touching a book is hugely calming for me. Once I learned that special interests could take more forms than just "can name hundreds of types of trains" or "wants everything to be Mickey Mouse related in some way", I noticed I had a fair few special interests and realised how big of a role they played in my life!

The social difficulty was the last hurdle for me. Actually, doing image descriptions consistently helped me figure out that I can't interpret faces or tone very well! I went a surprisingly long time genuinely believing most people go through social situations emoting very little and with flat voices. As it turns out, my brain just interprets all facial expressions/tones of voice as "neutral" unless there's a very strong emotion attached! I remember one time being in the break room at work, and one of my coworkers was on the verge of tears about something - but I had no clue, because she seemed neutral to me, despite other people asking her if she was okay. It was only once she started sobbing and tears were on her cheeks that I realised she was upset and comforted her. Once again, realising that I don't perceive emotions at all unless they're very blatant has helped me figure out a lot of things that didn't make sense before - like why so many people would seemingly have abrupt changes of heart and get annoyed at me "for no reason", or why I have an easier time interacting with little kids (they tend to be very open with their emotions because they feel everything strongly, so I can read them better) - and why most of the friends I've made are people who wear their hearts on their sleeves!

Can you use that knowledge to help you manage your problems? Pretty much as soon as I recognised a pattern in my sensory issues, I planned around them and could solve them. I've adjusted my wardrobe around the fact that I have trouble with having things too close around my neck, and take noise cancelling headphones with me places. I recognised what stims I have, got some fidget toys (I have a spinner ring that I have on me at all times), and recognise when I'm getting overwhelmed so I can get out of a situation, or at least take steps to mitigate it. But these have come up in other ways, as well.

It's often said that autistic people like routine. In my case, that manifests more as wanting to have an idea of what's going to happen and when and in what order it will happen, and sudden changes to this get me cranky. Uncertainty, especially regarding something I've been told I can do, can be hard to deal with. For example: one of my best friends has ADHD, and pretty much every time she comes to visit me she forgets something at my place - which is a bit of a problem when she lives a few hours away and is busy with school and work! One time, when she was coming for a week's visit, we agreed beforehand that I'd help her make a list of everything she had brought and where she had packed it so she could easily check if she had it with her before she left. I was excited to do it, and figured it would happen very soon after she got to my place. But when she got there it turned out she wasn't planning on unpacking right away, and within minutes I had pestered her so much about when I would be allowed to make her list that she got annoyed about me asking - she felt like I was pressuring her when she didn't have the energy to do it, when I wanted a clear timeline and an assurance that we would do it at some point. Ever since I realised I have that routine issue, I've started consciously telling myself that most days will happen with only a rough routine, or I give myself alternatives if a routine falls through. Like, "If this class doesn't come to my library at the time I expect, I'll spend time cataloguing these books instead" - either way, then, I'm following a routine! I can spin my spinner ring a few times to calm down during the transition period between events and I'll be just fine.

Similarly, once I realised there were a lot of unstated social expectations that I simply wasn't picking up on, I started taking initiative and actually asking about them. As it turns out, no one seems to mind - at least, I've never had any trouble getting answers! Once I started doing that, I ended up having an easier time meeting people's expectations, but if I hadn't realised that autism made me miss those rules in the first place, I would've kept going doing what I was doing, which just resulted in miscommunications.

Can your issues be caused by social isolation and depression? Maybe! But you could also be putting the cart before the horse, so to speak - your social isolation might be the result of autism, and it's very common for undiagnosed autistic people to end up with depression. One of the things that settled it for me was that I genuinely found autistic people and people with ADHD more predictable than neurotypicals - every day I'm baffled by something a neurotypical person does, but I can sniff out someone who's autistic or got ADHD from a mile away and figure them out quickly because their behaviour follows similar patterns to mine. I talk a lot about making Halt clearly autistic in The Royal Ranger, for example, but honestly a much harder thing for me has been remembering to keep everyone else neurotypical - I often have to think hard to figure out how Crowley would interpret something without an autistic lens there to colour it! But ultimately, whatever the cause, if you find autistic terms useful for you, use them! If they help you, they're free for you to use. If they don't, you have no obligation to. And most importantly, don't feel like you have to figure this all out right away - I first started seriously debating if I was autistic when I was fifteen, and only got comfortable actually calling myself autistic when I was closer to thirty!

[eternivex-a]

📌 how did you find your hyperfixation? ✨ what draws you towards your hyperfixation? what is interesting about it? 🎥 do you have any favorite scenes from your hyperfixation? 💕 tell us about one of your favorite characters and why you like them! 💔 tell us about one of your LEAST favorite characters and why you dislike them. 💎 are there any fun facts or trivia that you would like to share?

Time to get so autistic [huh_squidward]

📌 how did you find your hyperfixation?

Fairly simple actually, my dad had a copy of Saints Row 2 since I was a little kid and when I was like 5? 6? I started playing it, then as the years went on I played more and more of it, beat the story several times, started playing the other games and I beat most of them. Besides Saints Row 1, right up until last year in the summer. I beat SR1 and 2, then in December I beat 3, 4 and Gat Out Of Hell in a week long streak.

✨ what draws you towards your hyperfixation? what is interesting about it?

Honestly, I'm not 100% sure. Anything with violence and crime seems to attract me, but the world and characters definitely play a big part in it all. Maybe it's why I don't enjoy the later games as much, since they were pretty lacking in both departments. The combat is what kept me going back to the later games, since its objectively better than the mechanics in the first two. Overall I'm not really sure, I've just grown really attached to everything with these games over the years.

🎥 do you have any favorite scenes from your hyperfixation?

A few! Julius' death in the second game is definitely one, seeing the final climax to what had been built up from the ending of the first game and the events of the second. The entire House Party scene in Saints Row 2 is another one, seeing Gat and the boss fight off the Ronin right after an impactful death is just fuckin awesome.

💕 tell us about one of your favorite characters and why you like them!

Troy is actually one of my favorites, he's a bit more complex in the sense that he grew genuinely close to the Saints despite being an undercover cop. He saved the playas life twice, once in the beginning of the series and the second time was just by keeping them alive in their coma. Refusing to pull the plug no matter how much he was told to, because he cared about the playa. He still shows loyalty to them even after he becomes chief of police, and is willing to get on the bosses payroll by the third. He should've gotten more screentime honestly, he's one of the most interesting and important characters in the series.

💔 tell us about one of your LEAST favorite characters and why you dislike them.

It's a tie between Angel and Julius, Angel because he's just a very weak character in terms of, y'know, character. And Julius because of what he did to the boss. But the thing is, Julius actually had a good character and some development, where Angel was just a bad character altogether. I found him to be really annoying and the fact that he refuses to talk to you if you don't kill Killbane at the end of the game is also irritating! Angels just terrible, plain and simple.

💎 are there any fun facts or trivia you'd like to share?

Dex was going to be killed in an Xbox arcade game called moneyshot! You would've sniped him at a dinner party. Julius was never meant to be the villain, the ending to Saints Row 1 was completely altered because some animators didn't do what they were told to. Originally he was supposed to be running out of an alleyway bruised and bloody, but the animators kinda just... Didn't feel like doing that, so they made him stand there looking at his watch which set him up as the bad guy. The playas name was originally Mickey, and they did speak in the trailer. I do prefer the fully customizable direction they went with the game, instead of just having the playa be a set character. Also, there's a direct reference to Dead Rising in the form of a "I've covered wars y'know" line from a male news reporter if you taunt him.

[lesbian-hannibal]

sooo... i love to know what others fannibals associate with will and hannibal, so my question is: do you have any useless headcanons for them?

okay okay okay

so i’ve done an ask like this before (x) but i’m using u as a opportunity to do even more (and project some more hehe)

- hannibal shows love through acts of service and gift giving

- he draws will alll the time and does little portrait of him and their dogs as gifts

- hannibal receives love through words of affirmation (i am a hannibal praise kink truther)

- will shows love through quality time n also acts of service (he eventually learns that hannibal dies every single time he compliments him)

- will receives love through quality time and physical touch (quality time bc he just like me and hates being around other people unless it’s his one specific person)

- will is the minecraft player that mines and builds the house and collects and hannibal is the minecraft player that collects flowers and explores and decorates the house

- hannibal signs his name at the end of texts (like “Sincerely, Dr. Hannibal Lecter”) he does this at the end of EVERY text

- will gets attached to random inanimate objects and doesn’t want to hurt their feelings

- ^ he’ll go to store and see a sad broken lamp on sale and have to take it home and fix it because he feels so bad and it looks sad (inspired by that squishmallow post)

- hannibal has a special interest in art and arts history as well as cooking (he do he autistic fr)

- ^ Will will let him info dump about it for as long as he wants and will let hannibal take him to art museums just to see him gush about it

- hannibal researches wills special interests so they can have long discussions about then

- hannibal is pansexual and literally does not care about gender (agender) (he also wouldn’t use the label pansexual bc he does not care at all)

[meangreenmother-fromouterspace]

[ ooc: to preface this this is all headcannon and violently ignoring cannon sue me <33giving evil irredeemable characters a heart is what i do!

I n my mind in my HEART twoey is attached to audrey. The most out of everyone they know definitely. BECAUSE audrey is the only one who actually values twoey for what they are and not for money! in scene 1 audrey says she and seymour have been talking and she thinks the strange and interesting plants (she's the first to use this phrase throughout, and bonus hc of mine audrey is autistic and repeats phrases intrinsically, i have more 2 support this but basically the first thing she said when she saw twoey was something along the lines of 'you're a strange and interesting little thing, aren't you girl?' an this was the first thing twoey heard directed to her from someone other than seymour who has just been prodding at her and trying to figure out what she is and treating her like the object seymour reasonably thinks she is, so she has a little 'that girls pretty sweet, huh' in thr back of her mind them on) seymours been working on might bring in more customers , but she only did that at desperate times, when mushnik was going to shut down the shop aka the only place she can see seymour aka the only place she can get away from orin aka her second bigger source of money! then we have grow for me (another instance of audrey being the only one nice to twoey just because she wants too not because of money or anything-- seymour talks directly to twoey but only to complain about her which must suck) ect moving forward to Suppertime reprise audrey takes little convincing to water twoey-- and when she does, its because twoey said that its dying. not because it promised audrey anything just because it said *it* wasnt doing well. also being named after a person would probably get you a little attached 2 them i think ? thats it ]

[thatlavenderblue]

Okay I'm gonna vent for once because I'm really fucking sad and angry at the same time

So today, my little sister who is two years younger than me lost a cute rock she was really attached to. My mom spend some time looking for it in the entire house, car, etc. When my mom mentioned it at dinner, my dad said he felt so sorry for her and talked about how she was attached to it and how bad it must feel. My sister was visibly sad and at one point my mom went '' oh poor baby, I don't know how to end your sadness''. Like both of my parents were really compassionate and concerned and helped her try to find the rock.

The thing is, I also had a pet rock when I was way younger than her and when I lost it I wasn't met with the same compassion at all. My mom tried to comfort me and spent 10 minutes asking me where I left it. But that was it.

The reason why I'm feeling angry is becaude I brought up the story with my pet rock, how I loved it and how sad I was when I lost it to show her that I understood how she felt. And my sister's réponse to literally say '' yeah but you didn't love it as much as I did''... Bitch you were like 4 at the time so how do you remember?? Also this rock named Gertrude was my comfort object and it meant so much to me. I was devastated and I' m still looking for it up to this day. It really pisses me off that she's getting all the attention when in the same situation I was disregarded and wasn't supported.

And second, between us two I've always been the more sensitive child. The one that would cry over the littlest things, the one that would give names to every objects and adopt sticks as pets. And I am also the most obviously neurodivergent one. So I was the one being bullied at school for literally existing. I had to mask so hard that I hated myself. I suffered from this and as an undiagnosed autistic child it was really fucking hard to grow up in this harsh environment. Meanwhile, everytime that I was laughed at for something, my sister could do the exact same thing and get supported, encouraged and praised by everyone around her. She never knew what it was like to be bullied for being quirky because when it was her doing it, it was seen as cool and unique.

Also what I kind of despise about her is that I'm unable to tell if she's neurodivergent and really masking or if she's just copying a couple of my autistic traits. Because my sister has always been copying me from day 1. Everything she does is something I've done before and I hate it because again, I'm getting the side eyes and she's getting the applauds. She '' has'' a couple of neurodivergent traits like sensitivity, associating numbers with colors?, stims, and some stronger interests but she doesn' t have the more inconvenient ones. When I have sensory issues she looks at me like I'm an alien and tells me to get over it. She doesn't understand when I talk about my experiences. And she doesn't seem to be affected but any of her traits in social situations or in her personal life. So to me it seems that she has a couple of traits, some that she may have picked for me, but not enough or at least not very impactful ones that could make her more obviously neurodivergent. She appears more ADHD to me but again, either her traits are not enough in number or her masking is too good, but she doesn't have enough strong traits to make it visible.

Anyway, I'm very frustrated right now because my feelings were invalidated too often and now I'm too emotionally repressed :/

[doctor-gyro-gearloose]

Aight so Gyro Gearloose is autistic am I right?! Brought to you by a local autistic person. This is going to be overlaid with my own experiences so please, be kind , if you are offended scroll away thank you.

Starting off with the most obvious thing to me is Lil Bulb is Gyro’s comfort item. Throughout the entire series Gyro is seen holding the light bulb or the light bulb is somewhere in his pocket, regardless Lil Bulb spends all of his time with Gyro excluding the finale when he was tasked with watching Boyd. Anyway, moving on from that there is not a particular reason that Gyro would be required to have lil bulb on him 24/4 unless Lil Bulb was a comfort item, often times people that are on the autism spectrum have what would be called a comfort item, something that would calm them down in times of overstimulation. Myself for one had one of these, actually many things, to name a couple I had this yellow pikmin plushie from the game pikmin, that I constantly had to have on me and in bed with me or I would not sleep. I would get very stressed and without it, the other thing which I often took to school with me was the Funko Pop figure Legolas from Lotr again. I would need to make sure he was in my hoodie pocket before I left for school. With that out of the way, I believe to Gyro lil bulb is more than just a trinket, he's something that reminds him of not only what he is most passionate about but also home. To Gyro his lab is his comfort place. That’s the place that gyro can feel the most at home and secure. Lil bulb gives him that comfort without having to be there. It’s also apparent that Gyro is also socially awkward especially in that first scene he is in when Scrooge makes those cue cards for him to read. This was something that I immediately  related to him with because I am also socially awkward especially when it comes to public speaking. He creates a false confidence to make him appear like he is not, which could possibly be him masking, something that a lot of us do because in many situations having a disability such as autism is looked down upon. His autistic tendencies can also be backed up by the creation of 2BO. A very common comparison to autism (unfortunately) is being treated like you are a robot. Gyro puts so much of himself into 2BO that he becomes attached to him he treats him exactly as he deserves to be treated, like another person, going as far as becoming defensive over 2BO , it becoming more of a friend and son to Gyro, he devoted so much into that creation, losing him was like losing a part of himself which is why I believe he reacted the way he did to the accident, 2BO was him, he messed up not the robot. 2BO was THE comfort object (or well robot) before lil bulb as the story is told. Now to talk about stimming, I am going to agree with dear-Alex-chill in that he would immediately think something is wrong with him the first time he ever stimmed. He would be quite embarrassed about it at first he would presume it was not normal because he had not ever done, or noticed it before. I believe his Stims would be at their worst under stress, he would find himself tapping his finger, or his foot without ever realizing he was doing it, I also believe he would mess with his hair a bit more often especially during conversation. This is what I would believe for him, would cause him to finally become diagnosed. I think it's safe to say he would not find out he was actually autistic until he became an adult, his symptoms possibly worsening upon trauma and overstimulation. Knowing Gyro would lose sleep doing research about this stimming, eventually this would definitely lead to him confronting Scrooge about it, Scrooge is like a father figure to him, he can trust that Scrooge would handle the situation correctly. Of course Scrooge would never judge him, but he was reassured that there is nothing wrong with him. It's good that he knows this about himself, it’s normal. It doesn’t change how he should be treated. He just may find certain things harder than it would normally be but he would learn to overcome these things. From experience it is not all that easy thinking you are vastly different from your fellow friend or coworker.  With the help of the people that care about him he’d quickly feel accepted, Fenton would definitely help him feel comfortable possibly sharing experiences of his own, and Scrooge would never allow something to happen to Gyro of course. Lil bulb also totally plays a huge part in this being his comfort item he would feel safe as long as he had Lil Bulb with him. Anyway if i don't stop this now it’s going to get way too long. I'm not the greatest with words so I hope this is understandable and if you read this far feel free to touch on something I have missed :)

[thechangeling]

My own personal Lizzie headcannons (Kit's gf)

Ok for those of you who don't know we got a picture of Kit's gf and we the Mari fandom decided that she was a completely different character from Mari and we named her Elizabeth (Lizzie) after Mary Elizabeth. Yes I know we are unhinged.

- Aroromantic and bisexual (but romance favorable)

- Quebecois but does not speak fluent French like her parents. She was pulled out of French Immersion she was 12 when her family moved to the UK for her mom's new job.

- She can speak a basic French words and a few sentences but her pronunciation is a bit shakey and her mother always give her the side eye when she speaks French. She can read it no problem though.

- Magnus who knows France French once told her she spoke french "weirdly" and she almost lunged at him.

- She has been drinking wine ever since she was nine years old so she is quite familiar with different kinds. When she tells Kit this he just gapes at her.

- She is autistic and has C-PTSD (from growing up autistic mostly and having less then supportive parents)

-Seeing as I hc Kit, Mari and my OC Janessa as trans, Lizzie can be the token cis.

- She can be very prickly and dark and gloomy. Her trauma makes her angry and prone to violent outbursts. When Kit realized that she gets smashy when she's angry he decided to take her down to the local junkyard and let her wack at stuff with a baseball bat.

-And then comes the screaming. She's very careful not to yell at Kit or anyone she catee about. She mostly screams into the sky or at inamite objects. Or at her own reflection in the mirror.

- She has a lot of tattoos and piercings. She likes the way they feel as a sensory experience.

-Very sensory seeking. A super tactical person. She tries to come of all come hearted but she's super needy with affection when she trusts you. She'll just attach herself to Kit, dig her nails in and refuse to let go.

-She loves Alternative rock and Indie Rock. Especially girl bands from the late 90s and early 2000s. Like Hole, Garbage and No Doubt. She loves blasting loud ass music at any given time.

- Lizzie's a huge candy person.

- Goes through really bad bouts of depression sometimes, coupled with burnout that knocks her put for weeks. She'll get really distant and emotionally closed off.

- When she's burnt out she doesnt have the energy to care about people at all.

-Extremely low empathy like she is the type of person who will hear about your dead relative and be like "wow that blows man." (It's me lol)

-It doesnt mean she doesnt care about your suffering. She just doesnt know what to say or how to help.

- She is very hypersensitive to criticism and feeling like she is being controlled or told what to do due to trauma.

-If you tell her to calm down she will punch you.

- She also has extreme abandonment issues and if she thinks your pulling away from her in any way she will either shut down or completely explode, which she always regrets afterwords.

-She always has a sense of genuine amazement on her birthday ever year because she didn't think she would live this long.

-She and Kit meet in detention and she makes an impression by setting the teachers desk on fire.

- Oh yeah she's a bit of a pyro. Kind of like someone else Kit knows.

- She braids her hair as a sensory thing and sometimes Kit will braid it for her.

- Her curly hair is so thick and unruly that she needs to use her mouth to hold the third bundle of hair while she's doing three strand braids. Although with her it's more like three giant bush braids.

-Kit will regularly make comments like "jesus christ you have so much hair"

- Among her many tattoo, she has a tattoo on her collarbone that says "Already Dead"

@littlx-songbxrd @spooky-drusilla @the-wckd-powers

[singtheskyandfightlikehell]

BatFamily Headcanons: Stuffed Animals

In an attempt to productively combat my recent writer’s block, I’m practicing writing the batfam characters through short character study fics (which I will post once I make enough) and comparative headcanons. I might end up making short fics out of these, as well, since some of them got a bit long anyways

Today I decided to explore how many stuffed animals each member of the batfam (plus an adjacent character or two) has, what they think of them, how they got them, etc. I’ve got eleven characters on this list (and I’m still missing some, sorry)

Bruce:

Bruce put aside stuffed animals when he was eleven, deciding it was time to become serious. However, since acquiring children, he has been gifted a number of stuffed animals, ranging from a small and realistic brown bat to a child-sized bear wearing his cape and cowl. None of the children know this, but he keeps them all in a prominent position in his walk-in closet. Sometimes, when he has a particularly nasty fight with one of his kids, or he discovers something (like an injury) that they were hiding from him, he’ll tell the stuffed animals all the things he struggles to tell his children in the hopes that, one day, he’ll figure out how to express himself when it actually counts.

Alfred:

Alfred has no stuffed animals of his own, but he keeps the old, worn teddy bear that was once Thomas’ and later Bruce’s, alongside the somewhat lopsided bunny that Martha attempted to sew for Bruce when he was two. They sit side by side in a spotless glass cabinet filled with other memories that various members of the family have at one point or another attempted to cast aside.

Dick:

Dick has a pair of stuffed elephants, Eleonore and Zitka, and a teddy bear of his own, all from the circus. Most of the time they sit on the shelf under one of his nightstands, but when he has a particularly bad day, he’ll hold them all tightly until he falls asleep. If he’s crying, he finds it slows the tears to press kisses to the tops of their heads, or just smoosh his whole face into them. Sometimes, if he’s having a particularly good day – especially if no one else is sharing in his good mood – he’ll tell them about whatever made him happy. The rarest occasions are a bittersweet combination of both, the moments when he dwells on his happiest memories of his parents. When this happens, he is more likely to address them than his family, talking to them like old friends who were “there” for the things he’s recalling. It reminds him of the parties he would host as a small child, attended by his stuffed animals and his parents and sometimes other people from the giant family that was Haly’s, and for just that moment he’ll feel suspended somewhere between grief and content.

Barbara:

Barbara had lots of stuffed animals growing up, but as she got older, she gave most of them away. The only one she kept was a little otter that her father gave her for her first birthday. She doesn’t remember this, of course, but they have an old home video of that day which she’s seen a few times, and she know it’s one of her dad’s favorites to watch when he’s feeling nostalgic. She does remember the way she used to drag the otter with her everywhere she went when she was about four, and it’s so worn now that all of its original fluffiness has disappeared. She sets it up near her main computer and uses it in place of a rubber duck.

Jim:

When Babs decided she was too old for her stuffed animals, Jim was instructed to give them away at one of the Gotham children’s toy drives he helps run as commissioner. Only about half of them ever make it out of the house, because he keeps looking at them and remembering little moments that involve each of them. He has two boxes full of them that he swears he’s going to bring to the next drive, but he’s been swearing that for over ten years now.

Jason:

When Jason first arrived at the manor, he swore up and down that stuffed animals were dumb kids toys that he was way too old for. The first time Dick showed up at the manor after Jason was there, he brought a plush dog he’d picked up on the way there, unsure what to get his surprise new brother but not putting an excess of thought into it either. After all, he wasn’t about to ask Bruce what Jason might like. Jason made a show of scorn and tossing the toy in the trash, but when Dick was gone he dug it back out. When he was sleeping, he clutched the dog protectively against his chest like it might be snatched away at any time. When he wasn’t sleeping, he kept it hidden in a box wedged under a floorboard beneath the bed, alongside his other contraband. It was there when he died and it’s still there now. Every time he’s in the manor, he thinks about sneaking into his old room to retrieve it, alongside some of his other old belongings, but he never does. His reasoning alternates between not caring, being too old for toys, not wanting to set foot in his old room, and not wanting to get caught caring after all these years.

He does however have an obnoxiously long bright red snake that Roy won at some sort of archery carnival game while they were supposed to be tracking a suspect. He’d griped at Roy for wasting time with frivolous games, a complaint that was very on brand for their relationship. He’s pretty sure Roy saw through him, though, and understood the real reason he was so antsy to leave the carnival, given his soft apology later that night. He also recently acquired a floppy stingray, a gift from Lian for his latest birthday. She told him that she’d gotten to pet a stingray at the aquarium where she’d bought it, and it reminded her of him. Specifically, she’d said he was, “Kinda dangerous and maybe a little scary, but actually really soft to anyone who’s nice enough”. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that description, but the gift had a place of pride, resting atop an old model of his helmet that Roy had “defaced” with a sweet message that always made Jason smile.

Cass:

Cass grew up without stuffed animals, and was honestly a little confused at first about why she might want one. The first one she ever got was a tiny key-chain cat that was given to her by a little girl she saved. She was unsure what to make of the object itself, but she treasured it as a symbol, proof that she was doing good in the world. It was Steph who convinced her to look for more, to look for stuffed animals in her “style”. Eventually, she got two of the most different ones she could find: an iridescent octopus packed tightly with beans and made of a coarse fabric, and a large fluffy goose that squished like a cloud and was made of the softest fabric imaginable. She likes tossing the octopus lightly in the air to feel the weight of it, and faceplanting into the giant goose. She also has a big bear holding a plush heart that Steph got her for their first Valentine’s.

Tim:

Tim’s relationship with stuffed animals is a bit more complicated. He had five growing up: a dog, a bear, a lion, a rabbit, and a lamb. They had names, stories, personalities, and they were his friends (his only friends, at the time). When he was seven, he woke up one day to find them gone. His mother scolded him for his tears, explaining that he was too old for baby toys, and that his attachment to them would only hinder his path forward. For years, he felt ashamed whenever he thought of his grief towards them, because he knew they were just toys, he knew he was being a baby about it, and yet…

It wasn’t until he was fifteen years old and stumbled across an article about autistic people and the projection of feelings onto objects that he understood why he had been willing to sneak out at night to search through pawn store after pawn store and – once – the landfill in the hopes of seeing his beloved toys again. As a teen in the Wayne household, he knew he could get as many stuffed animals as he liked, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so after what had happened before. He got one giant, floppy moose, barely half a foot shorter than himself, that he clings to like an octopus when he manages to lay down, whether he succeeds in falling asleep or not. Additionally, on a night after Jason made amends with the family, Tim returned to his room to find a fifteen inch plush latte with a cute little face on the mug portion and a sticky note on top that simply read: Sorry for trying to kill you a bunch. My bad :) He keeps it on top of his dresser, and while he doesn’t really hug it, he did discover it was the perfect object for chucking at his siblings’ heads whenever the situation calls for it.

Steph:

Steph loves stuffed animals. While she never got any of the fancy brand name ones, or the luxuriously soft ones, or the hyper-realistic ones, her mom had a tradition of buying her one for every birthday, Christmas, and Easter. She soon had quite a collection, and – like Tim – she gave them all names and personalities. She played out complex scenarios with them and the few dolls she had, designing an intricate world of wild concepts and plots. She also used her stuffed animals to conquer her fears, like thunderstorms and darkness, by pretending they were all more scared than she was, so she had to be brave for all of them. Steph still has her whole collection, as well as quite a few “nicer” (though equally loved) ones that she has acquired from various Waynes. At this point, pretty much everyone in the Wayne family has given her a stuffed animal at some time or other. For a couple of years now, she has taken to posing with her massive collection and making fake family Christmas cards to send out to everyone she knows, where she will update them on the well-being of any plushie they’ve given her.

Duke:

Duke also has a great love of stuffed animals, although he doesn’t match Steph for quantity. He only had a few beloved animals growing up, all of which he’s held onto (a panda, a penguin, a turtle, a frog, a leopard, and a pikachu). Since being fostered by Bruce, Duke has taken to searching out and buying only the rarest stuffed animals he can find: an anteater, a platypus, a manatee, a sloth, and an axolotl have made the cut so far. Bruce knows about this and has taken to keeping an eye out for anything interesting whenever he’s out. After accidentally mentioning it at a gala one time, it has since become his favorite topic, as getting drawn into an intense discussion with Bruce Wayne about where to acquire strange plushies for his son elicits one of two reactions from his guests: delighted awws or hilariously awkward attempts to steer the conversation back to high society definitions of business and pleasure. At Duke’s request, a large shelf was built around the top of his room, so that all of his stuffed animals can sit comfortably and be clearly seen.

Damian:

Damian was much like Jason when he arrived at the manor in more ways than one, but his determination to prove himself above stuffed animals was certainly on that list. He sneered at his siblings’ attempts to treat him like the child he swore he wasn’t. And honestly, even after he began to lower his walls just a little, he still wasn’t particularly fond of stuffed animals. Sure, he privately thought they were cute, and sure he might (might) find himself holding one at night if it happened to have been left in his bed by an annoying sibling, but in general he preferred live animals to fake ones. Real animals had personalities and feelings, fake ones did not, it was as simple as that, no matter what Stephanie claimed. But as time went on, Damian found himself acquiring a small army of stuffed animals against his will. Some of his siblings (Jason, Tim, sometimes Duke) gave them to him because they found it funny to watch him growl about how he was not an infant in need of deceitful comforts. Some of his siblings (Dick, Cass, sometimes Duke… sometimes his father as well) would give them to him because they knew he liked animals so they assumed he’d like imitations of animals as well. Steph would just give them to everybody, every now and then. But regardless of motive, Damian soon found his room overflowing with stuffed animals that were moderately cute but ultimately pointless.

It wasn’t until a patrol a few years after he’d taken on the mantle of Robin that he discovered a solution. Tim had hidden a tiny stuffed bear in the medical supply compartment of his utility belt, a felt bandage wrapped around its little head. He hadn’t been wounded, but the young girl he’d rescued had been bleeding from a wound that looked worryingly dirty. The bear had fallen out of the pouch, right into her lap, and she’d stared at it with wide eyes, surprise halting the flow of her tears. She’d held onto it the whole time he disinfected her arm and bandaged it, and afterwards he had insisted she keep it. For the first time that night, she’d smiled. After that, Damian began taking a few of his many stuffed animals out on patrol with him, ready to hand out to any and all injured, lost, or otherwise traumatized children once he’d rescued them from their troubles. Eventually he began running out of toys he’d been gifted, even though he kept getting new ones, so at some point he begins to regularly sneak out for the sole purpose of acquiring stuffed animals to hand out. He never tells his siblings, but he suspects they’ve found out anyway, when the presents they give him drastically decrease in size.

[knickynoo]

I loved your recent post about Marty and his ADHD! It was soo spot on. And, I saw in the tags that you mentioned Alex Keaton and how you believe he’s not neurotypical either. Care to elaborate? Do you have any headcanons about neurodivergent™ Alex? I’d love to hear your thoughts! :)

Oh, hey, thank you! Marty having ADHD seems to be one of the most common headcanons in the fandom, so that post was a lot of fun to work on.

As far as Alex goes...yes, I will elaborate, BUT I'm putting it under a cut because ya girl is really going to E L A B O R A T E.

I've mentioned before that I think Alex's overall personality/demeanor comes from a variety of different places. Some parts of who he is are likely caused by all the pressure put on him to be a high achiever, due to being so academically gifted from a young age. Other parts are due to being overly coddled and spoiled by Elyse and Steven. Still, there's probably a part of Alex that genuinely enjoys being difficult and getting a rise out of people. Then, there's the obvious anxiety he struggles with, which even MJF has talked about in some interviews when discussing how he approached playing a guy like Alex.

"Giftedness" & anxiety are already included under the umbrella of neurodiversity but in Alex's case, I actually think there's even more to it than that. Yeah, Alex is a funny character whose actions/words are so often played for laughs. He can also be a really irksome character when he's dishing out the sarcasm and being selfish. But I also can't help but look at Alex and think, This guy is just so not NT and he is struggling, somebody Help Him. And since Alex P. Keaton is one of my favorite characters AND I love to analyze/ do deep dives AND the topic of neurodiversity is a particularly strong interest of mine... well, here you go....

Mans is autistic.

• Difficulty with social cues and "reading the room". Seriously, there are so many instances of everyone around him all being on the same page about something or dealing with something serious, and Alex walks in and just proceeds to miss every single cue people throw his way. Two scenes that pop into my head, in particular, are the Reflective Pajamas one and the Clam Puff one, lol.

• He frequently struggles with putting himself in other people's shoes: Alex is certainly shown to be a compassionate person. He can recognize when people are hurting and will do the right thing, but sometimes he needs some help to get there. It seems that a lot of the time, all he knows is how he feels or thinks about something, and it doesn't occur to him that another person could be experiencing it differently. Then, once Steven, Elyse, Ellen, etc, break the situation down for him and explicitly say things like, Hey, that person's feelings are hurt because... or Here is the exact reason this person is angry... Alex is finally able to connect the dots, which usually leads to him being like, I hadn't ever thought about that/ I didn't mean it. (Of course, there are also times where Alex is just purposely being a jerk, but I'm not focusing on those)

• Specific, intense interests: Politics & economics, obviously. It's made well-known that Alex has been completely fixated on these two areas since he was a toddler. He's prone to enthusiastic, overly detailed discourse on the topics and either doesn't care or can't pick up on when people are growing bored at listening to him.

• Also, can we talk about how it's established that Alex's favorite toy as a little kid was a box? Like, he carried it everywhere, played with it, slept with it, and was devastated when it fell apart. Idk, I know kids can be attached to random objects, but it's just interesting that Alex is noted as having been enamored with a box. I'm just picturing little Alex, ignoring all the toys he has in favor of just sitting and staring at a box, and his parents are like, Yeah, this is normal.

• Highly intelligent, bordering on genius/prodigy (He was doing long-division at like, 3 years old) but has difficulty connecting with peers & making friends: This is most prominently shown in "A, My Name is Alex," where we see glimpses of various events in his childhood. In the scene where Alex meets Greg, we learn that Alex spends recess inside, helping the teacher plan her lessons rather than going out to socialize with his classmates. He's bewildered at Greg's invitation to come play, meaning he likely spent the majority of his childhood on his own due to being considered an outcast by his peers and just generally relating more easily to adults. (He also mentions taking night classes at a local college at age SEVEN. So like. If the long-division story and night class thing are taken to be actual facts of Alex's childhood...we're looking at something similar to hyperlexia/hypernumeracy here. This kid must have been bored out his mind having to sit through elementary school if he was that advanced)

• Very literal at times/ misses sarcasm: Interestingly enough, APK is very fond of being sarcastic but doesn't do so well when he's on the receiving end of it. Someone will make a joke or spin the sarcasm towards him for once, and he'll either just stare blankly like ???? or smile/thank them and they're like, Yeah, that wasn't a compliment, or, I was kidding.

• Black and white/ inflexible thinking: This might be the biggest one. Alex is super concerned with rules and ensuring that everyone is following them correctly. There's right and there's wrong, with no gray areas or middle ground as far as he's concerned. My favorite instance of this is in the episode where the family goes to visit Steven's mother and Rob, Alex's uncle, is telling a story of how Steven got in trouble as a kid for refusing to put his name in the upper right corner of his test papers. Everyone around the table laughs...except for Alex, who is deeply troubled by the information.

Just...Steven's delivery. The way he pauses and stares at Alex before replying with a ridiculous punishment that obviously didn't happen, but Alex shows no signs of being aware of or amused at the joke and is just glad his father faced the consequences of his actions. It's great, and a prime example of Alex's preoccupation with "the rules."

Another good example (& one that crosses into the empathy category as well) is "Big Brother is Watching", where Alex exposes a cheating scandal at school (that involves Mallory) and then can't wrap his mind around why everyone is angry at him when he gets the students who were involved suspended. He spends half the episode saying things like, But cheating is wrong. It's wrong and I told the truth about it. I did what's right. You (Steven) told me to always tell the truth, which I did. WHY PEOPLE ANGRY???

And so Steven has to basically spell it out and be like, You got those students suspended, Alex. They are upset with you because of this. They were exposed publically, which embarrassed them, and people tend to not like being embarrassed.

And Alex is like, Oh.

• Repetitive behavior/movements: Most often seen when Alex is distressed or scared, his mannerisms definitely stand out in many scenes. He paces, taps his foot/bounces his leg, rubs his hands together or over his lap, rocks back and forth, and avoids eye contact. I made a post about this a short while back because it really is interesting (and a testament to how well the character was played). There are moments where Alex is completely confident and "calm", and you can see that reflected in the way he carries himself. But whenever he's upset or anxious, you'll start to notice a variety of the things listed above.

So. Yeah. All these things considered...I headcanon Alex as possibly being autistic?? Which is not a take I've ever seen anyone else mention (and I seriously doubt anyone working on the show had this angle in mind at all) but watching through the series, my radar just goes off when it comes to APK.

I have no idea how this will be received. (If anyone even reads it because wow, this got away from me).

Thanks for the ask. As you may be able to tell, I enjoyed being able to spew out my thoughts.

[jonismitchell]

fixing season five of doctor who

or: rectifying issues i have with the way my favourite character, amy pond, was treated, and correcting some weird writing decisions while i’m at it

the eleventh hour: i actually love this one, and i would leave most of it as it stands, but i’d cut the weird travelling-up-her-legs shot from our introduction to adult amy pond. might also kill the kissogram element: have amy be in a halloween costume (commit to the bit) and establish her as flitting between jobs. 

the beast below: i also love this episode. it gets undue flack. (series five is my favourite, what can i say?) i’d cut the ‘basically i rule’ line because it sounds stilted, and i’d let amy respond angrily to the doctor shouting at her near the end. make it a proper argument that ends with the ‘very old and very kind and the very very last’ line! commit to building this relationship from the ground up!

victory of the daleks: pace it faster, add women, do something interesting with the daleks. this isn’t an awful episode it’s just not as good as it has the potential to be. i might cut churchill entirely and have the doctor respond to a child’s cry for help. keep amy’s speech about love to the dalek technology (i am obsessed with this plot beat). have the doctor give her the tardis key at the end rather than demanding it back.

the time of angels / flesh and stone: moffat has a weird habit of sidelining the main companion to deal with a woman he finds more interesting (arguably nancy, definitely true of reinette, sally, and river). so i’d minimize river’s involvement in these episodes and emphasize amy’s. instead of the doctor telling her to shut up, let them work out the problem together. let the doctor reassure her when she says she’s scared. definitely keep the scene where she says ‘doctor, i don’t need you to die for me, do i look that clingy?’ i love that scene. do not let the weeping angels move on screen, ever, it reduces their fear factor. and at the end, have amy be shaken and confused and ask to be taken to rory. don’t have her come onto the doctor, that was stupid and got handled in a very weird way. just... agency for amy is the new name of the show. doctor who?

the vampires of venice: kill the moments where the doctor and rory treat amy like an object, establish rory as someone willing to tell the doctor to fuck off, and have the doctor save the species instead of dooming them. have rory be discomfited by how easily amy has attached herself to the doctor (give rory williams a properly explored inferiority complex 2021). i want him to be so apprehensive of what might happen to amy (she better almost die at least twice) that he stays with the doctor and amy. 

amy’s choice: the only part of this i really dislike is amy being pregnant in the dream world so cut that and replace the humour with the doctor being stunned that ‘amy pond, wild thing/free spirit, would choose to settle down.’ have this be part of the proof for amy’s decision that the leadworth life is not the real world. maybe a line about ‘you chose the best of both worlds: rory and the tardis.’ like... treat that choice as a big moment for her and also a sort of avoidance. (i want to say i actually do like the episode as it stands, i just have some notes.)

the hungry earth / cold blood: i dislike these episodes. here’s how i would fix it: 1) stronger environmental messaging, 2) have madame vastra be the humans’ captive and form a relationship with the doctor, 3) have the doctor be the silurians’ captive and amy/rory have to figure out how to save him, 4) midnight-esque scenarios (by this i mean explore morality) on both sides about whether to kill their prisoner or not, and 5) properly show the conversation about the silurians’ return. but keep the ending for cold blood, i thought that was brilliant. 

vincent and the doctor: this is a perfect doctor who episode. i think that throughout the season i would want to make amy’s struggle with mental illness more evident so this hits even harder, but this is my favourite doctor who episode and i wouldn’t really change anything. 

the lodger: anyone but james corden plays craig. uh that aside i would want the tardis to dematerialize on its own and amy accompanies the doctor on his adventure of trying to be human. it’s cute anyway!

the pandorica opens / the big bang: instead of rory saying that amy is crying because she’s happy (the ‘happy happy mrs rory’ line haunts me) have him ask what’s wrong and acknowledge her concerns. it’s suuuuuch a fucking simple thing to do but it would help a lot. don’t have amy ask the doctor to kiss her at her own wedding. have it be explicit that amy remembered rory back into existence like she remembered the doctor. i don’t hate river here! 

things i wanted to add that i couldn’t figure out where to put: i'd want to flesh out amy and rory’s relationship a bit more. make rory’s inferiority complex in general a big thread in the season alongside amy’s mental illness (which is evident to me but i’d want it to be explicit). have amy cope with her abandonment / commitment issues—the doctor is coming to get her, rory will wait for her; and before either of them can show up? amy pond has got it covered.

establish amy’s interest in history from the get-go (remembering details surrounding world war two that save them, rambling to rory about venice), have her interest in art be a running thread throughout the season (she could look for future paintings in the beast below, bond with sophie over a shared interest in the lodger... literally endless possibility). have it be canon that the reason amy wants to escape so badly is because her aunt is abusive, which also lends power to getting her parents back.

also, because this is my universe and i can do what i want: amy pond is canonically autistic now.

things to pick up for next season: amy’s relationship with her newly remembered family, how waiting for two thousand years affected rory. 

tl;dr: if amy pond is angry and untrusting, then her best moments will come when she is kind. when she has empathy for the star whale, when she convinces a piece of dalek technology that he is human, when she believes in the doctor and rory enough to resurrect them. 

then again: her flaws make her character real! they make this arc interesting to watch! when she goes from waiting all night in her garden for the doctor to being the reason he exists again. it’s all about the power of amy pond’s will.

[popculturebuffet]

Amphibia Weekly Reviews: New Wartwood and Friend or Frobo?

Hello all you happy people! And welcome back to another week’s worth of Amphibia reviews! And we got two standout episodes today as Marcy tries to home improvement her way into people’s hearts, and Polly makes friends with a destructive but endearing robot. Find out what I thought about in full under the cut!

New Wartwood: Marcy episode! Wu-hoo! And true to the show’s current status quo, and I do love how it evolves, it’s her first day in Wartwood and she’s pumped. And true to the awkward, probably autistic like yours truly, nerd we’re dealing with.. she does not make a great impression or intergrate herself to the naturally suspcious of outsiders tow. So when questioned by Anne how her day went she gets into how the town’s carefully built on a swamp.. and how the townsfolk hate her, complete with Angry Mob. Anne disperses it but it’s still the funniest moment of the episode to me, both in how a small one sprouted up so quick.. and how polly’s there despite LIKING Marcy (”I go where the mob goes anne!”). ALso i’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Anne just.. casually blushing while talking to Marcy. There’s no catalyist or any reason she would for any other reason than being sweet on her. 

So Marcy, after fixing a statue she knocked over, decides she can earn their love faster as she dosen’t want to wait.  This does get to one of Marcy’s core issues.. while she has many, like any of us, it ties back to the fact she has trouble getting this isn’t a video game. I mean she does get the diffrence between real life and a game on an objective level, but she can’t get real life dosen’t WORK like fiction, something i’ve also struggled with and can massively relate to. So she assumes helping them, via fixing up the town a bit, will make them like her. It makes them warm up a little but they still don’t. 

So naturally, who should come in by blimp to give her a tempting offer that will end badly but Mayor Toadstool! He also has a blimp now but it keeps escaping... I think I know where it went. 

So THAT’S how he can afford those things. Naturally seeing how nice Marcy made things he has a plan to exploit the hell out of her gifts with masonry to pretty up the town as a tourist attraction to make him more money. Anne talks her out of it.. but she ends up caving in the middle of the night. I also love the touch of her staying in the Fwagon, not forgetting the plantars bought it and finding a practical use for it in and out of story now i’ts no longer needed. I also love the little signs she has on it. 

The next morning the town awakes to marble pillars in front of all of the shops to make them look fancy and Marcy and the Mayor promoting the town’s new effort,s including a golden founderss tatue and a horrifying golden clock of toadstool, with Anne warry of her girlfriend’s antics. Mostly becaue you can’t force people to like you or bribe them to. Otherwise you cause the entire town to sink into the water bellow... like now. But while Marcy is now convinced the town will never accept her she still dosen’t want them all to die, and summons Joe Sparrow.. who continues to be the best thing ever added to this cast I swear to god as he helps her save the day, removing the various new things to reduce weight, saving some villiagers from a pillar (as Croaker points out their frogs ending up in the water isn’t that deadly), and getting rid of the gold monstrosities. 

So the end result is that the town is rightfully liviid, though she does genuinely appologize.. and suprisingly.. TOADSTOOL actually tries to take all the blame. The town rightfully dosen’t let him, but it’s clear he’s somehow growing as a person. Even if anne’s assement of him as “What would happen if the Monopoly Man had a Baby with a PIece of Fried Chicken” is still 100% accurate. They do agree they’ll like her with time, just like Anne, and if supscious, will gladly give her another shot. So Marcy’s learned her lesson.. always listen to your girlfriend. And while she literally fixes her damage.. the mascot toadstool hired explodes as it’s full of bugs. 

Final Thoughts on New Wartwood: This was a fun episode. A fairly simple and predictable one, but sometimes that works perfectly and this one was just damn funny, charming and full of good character stuff. Top notch. 

Friend or Frobo?:

I have a confession to make: I fricking love robots. It’s something that really HASN’T come up before, but I love a good robot. There’s just tons of good stories to be had with artifical beings, their struggles to be recongized for who they are, their cool powers, their awkward but endearing attempts to fit in with us less than deserving humans. And ficton’s had TONS and TONS of awesome ones: The Vision (in both 616 and MCU flavors), who is one of my faviorite heroes period, Red Tornado, Jenny Wakeman, Shard the Metal Sonic, BOYD, Aya, Data, Crow, Tom Servo, Gypsy, Growler, Robo, Grimlock. the list really DOES go on into infinity for me. 

WEirdly though I didn’t pay much mind to Frobo before this episode.. but with no real personality other than endearlingly running into the same obstacle for hours, and no real background yet, I didn’t really have anything to attach to other than “Cool anne’s either going to nearly get killed by a robot or get one”. But this episode changed that using the oldest trick in the book: having a child befriend it. We’ve seen it before with Sentinels, Badniks, Autobots and Iron Giants. Now we get it again with largeish frog robot. And it is pretty damn good. 

This is a Polly episode. It’s Hop Pop’s faviorite day: Seed Store Day! Naturally Marcy has come along and naturlaly she’s just as geeked out about seeds as he is because she’s precious and I must protect her from the horrible trauma her trusted father figure is about to inflict on her. Polly naturally wants to get into some shenanigans but suprisingly.. Anne and Sprig don’t wanna anymore. THey’ve learned their lesson and decide to just play video games. So polly does the resonable thing.. and blames them for some shenanigans on her part and goes out to get into more shneanigans only to find it’s lonely without a friend. 

Enter Frobo, named that because he looks like a frog and she heard the term robo from anne’s game. And despite very limited programming... Frobo is VERY loveable. As Polly notes he’s essentially a baby: he starts by mimicing her, including his horrifying but endearing laugh, and even doing her spin dash she gained a few episodes back I didn’t mention because I forgot. That one’s on me. Sprig also did the Yooka Laylee thing on top of her spin dash then so there’s that. 

Point is it’s all fun, games and heartwarming bonding till Frobo accidently floods the city and gets mobbed and one of the mobbs makes the terrible mistake of accidently kicking polly. 

He goes into Red Eye Iron Giant HOmage mode and starts fighting everybody.. including Anne and Sprig who show up to contain things, but eventually Polly wins everyone over with a heartwarming speech as she stops him, pointing out it was her fault and while he is weird, he’s just an innocent> The town.. decides why not. As the mayor points out “We already have two freaks what’s a third”. And given Marcy nearly killed them all yesterday and they begrudginly acepted her and anne did it WAY more than once and they see her as one of them, yeah they give up. 

Naturally once they get back Marcy is an easy sell. Now she can do chrono trigger cosplay! Hop Pop is a bit till it’s shown that frobo can farm super fast, and he’s part of the family now. Sprig and Anne shrug off him having come from the factory, and this surely won’t backfire on them surely. 

Final Thoughts on Friend or Frobo:

This one was excellent. The idea of Polly having to learn repsonsiblity was a nice idea, and Frobo is as I said endearing: he’s simply an innocent being who knows nothing and is slowly learning and his friendship with polly is really fucking cute. And giving him an emotional attachment to the plantars means whatevers going on with him gets higher stakes.. and given how robots are treated in fiction i’m just counting the minutes till he tragically gets blowed up real good. But until then this episode was a standout for the season. While as I made clear the “Kid befriends death machine” trope is not NEW, the baby concept made it feel fresh. It also as usual had some good jokes. 

So all in all a top notch week, really great stuff and i’ts only going to get better next time!

Nexttime: Mayor Toadstool is tempted to leave. Kay. But more importantly MADDIE EPISODE AGAIN BITCHES. AND IT HAS MARCY IT. I’M READY. 

Next On This Blog: Final Space Yo! Quinn and Gary visit earth and Tribore leaves.. again. Be here or be... elsewhere I guess

If you liked this review, follow for more, join my patreon, and comission your own review if you want via my askbox, discord and dms. See you at the next rainbow. 

[zosonils]

surely post some autistic ferb things for us all,,,,,,

hell yeah anon!! here’s an absolute hell dump of Ferb Autism Indulgence Things because i have really been wanting to get my grubby little autistic hands all over him lately

his special interests are engineering and tetris [which is the game he’s internationally ranked in!]

he stims vocally by humming or repeating other vocalisations, but rarely with actual words

if he’s too nervous to vocalise/just not in the mood he goes for small hand movements to stim like clicking pens or tapping his fingers

he does flappy hands/arms when he has a lot of excitement to release! otherwise he prefers to stick to smaller/more subtle motions for a variety of reasons

he only repeats actual words as echolalia, almost always off of either phineas or perry! that thing they do where perry chatters and the boys mimic it and they all just loop off each other for a while is absolutely an echolalia loop for all of them [yes even the platypus]

a very epic headcanon i have is that owca agents are typically labelled as having therapy animal training to give them some more wiggle room with showing intelligence, so perry is officially a therapy platypus for the flynn-fletcher kids, especially the boys. ferb does the aforementioned echolalia chatter thing with perry and also just generally finds him extremely comforting to hold. of course perry’s figured out all of ferb and his siblings’ needs by observation and makes sure to subtly be as comforting as possible for his kids, especially if they’re having a meltdown and need to hold someone who won’t try to talk to them

ferb genuinely dislikes communicating verbally, due to a combination of general social anxiety, struggling to translate his thoughts into words, and finding it physically uncomfortable to talk. it’s not serious enough to prevent him from cracking a joke or vocalising his thoughts every once in a while, but he prefers to be nonverbal as much as possible and communicate through gestures and body language

throughout the series he only ever speaks on his own terms and as much as he’s comfortable with, so it comes out without issue, but if he’s forced to talk when he doesn’t want to or while he’s under stress he struggles to string sentences together and stutters really badly. fortunately he’s got nice friends and a great family so this issue rarely presents itself, although it comes up sometimes during the school year in battles with pissy neurotypical teachers over oral presentations

over time he starts to work past the discomfort [genuinely, it’s on his own terms as opposed to masking to get allistics off his back] so that by the time he’s an adult he can hold an entirely verbal conversation for a decent while before it drains him, but he still tends to avoid speaking if he can

phineas instinctively understands ferb’s silent emotional cues, a lot better than he understands most people’s [but that’s a whole other infodump lmao], and unless ferb actively indicates that he wants to talk for himself phineas usually speaks for both of them and translates any of ferb’s less neurotypically obvious signals

phineas and ferb made The Ultimate Fidget Cube as one of their daily projects [they were being mass produced for an hour or two and then something or other happened, there was a mobile phone and an avalanche of instant noodles, long story short only the handful they made for themselves and their friends are left now] and neither of them go anywhere without it

ferb doesn’t have any specific comfort/security objects but he feels significantly more at ease if he’s got some kind of tool in his hand or within reach [or, failing an actual building-stuff tool, anything he can hold and Do Something with, like a pen or his fidget cube or a video game controller], and is a lot more stimmy with his hands and generally anxious if he isn’t holding something

perry performs the task of comfort item better than any inanimate objects but platypi aren’t allowed to come to school even if they’re very polite :(

believe me the brothers have tested this numerous times

school is stressful for ferb because it fires up his sensory overload and is usually where he’s forced to do some neurotypical shit that upsets him, but his friends always have his back and linda and lawrence are definitely super involved in making sure their kids’ needs are met and respected by their teachers, so he manages pretty well unless something really bad happens to set him off

he’s susceptible to sensory overload, mostly with bright lights, sudden noises, and being touched. the light and sound involved in many of his and phineas’ projects is alright because he usually designed them and knows exactly when they’ll come on and what it’ll be like, but if he doesn’t have that prediction available he freaks out easily. being touched [especially without warning] is the absolute fucking worst and he almost invariably flips out if someone unfamiliar tries to touch him or he’s hit with an unexpected sensation he doesn’t like

he only rarely has meltdowns because he’s good at self-regulating when he needs to and his friends and family know what does and doesn’t fly with him, but when he does they’re often triggered by either sensory overload or being forced to talk

when ferb starts entering meltdown territory his verbal skills are the first thing to shut off, and if it gets worse he usually stops communicating altogether and enters a really bad dissociative state that he won’t come out of until he feels safe again and can be carefully brought back to his senses

standard procedure for ferb meltdowns is to get him a weighted blanket and some tea and a perry if you can find the slippery little bugger, let him snap back to reality at his own pace, and once he can communicate his needs again pay extra close attention to them until he calms down enough that he can properly self-regulate again

his favourite sensations are weight/pressure, the funky bumpy shit perry’s tail has going on, and anything soft!

most of his clothes [including his usual outfit in the show] are tight-fitting but made out of soft fabric for maximum comfy

the blanket on his bed is a weighted one, but if he’s too far from his room or it’s too hot to be comfortable under a blanket sometimes he’ll just find the tightest spot he can wedge himself into without getting hurt or stuck and squish himself in there to calm down a bit

his favourite food texture is crunchy stuff, and he samefoods with particular cereals and sandwich combos that rotate every few months when he finally gets tired of the exact same breakfast and lunch every day and wants slightly different identical meals

while he’s fine with variation from day to day, he’s very firmly attached to the summer/weekend formula of wake up > cereal > big idea > where’s perry > [building montage] > mom holy fuck > sandwich > [having fun montage] > our fuckoff massive contraption has vanished somehow > oh there you are perry > snacks > nondescript vibing > dinner > bed time, and if this schedule gets significantly thrown off it really bothers him

ferb shows his emotions more subtly than neurotypicals, which can make him seem hard to read, but his external emotional range is still extremely distinct - he just expresses it in atypical ways sometimes!

one of his most notable atypical emotional cues is that thing he does when he’s startled and he pulls his hands up - he does this in we call it maze when candace falls over on her skates in the beginning, split personality when busting candace scares him, lost in danville when he’s worried another capsule might fall on him or phineas, and the phineas and ferb effect during how do i do it when milo’s exercise bike crashes, just to name a few instances! this boy has Unique Emotional Cues and i love him for it so much

he’s better at reading emotions than phineas [as low as that bar is], but sometimes misses more subtle cues and doesn’t quite trust his ability to read anyone aside from phineas, candace, and his closest friends

he’s been aware that he’s neurodivergent ever since he was diagnosed as a little kid [he was first diagnosed with autism when he was extremely baby, not even three years old, and had it continually reconfirmed as he got older] and he’s been entirely happy with being autistic for as long as he’s known what that even means, with this only being reinforced as he found siblings and made friends with other autistic kids :)

good lord this is such an infodump i’m sorry i just love my son so very much and have been feeling particularly self indulgent today ;<;