#unfortunately i am on the autism spectrum and that is not possible

[kayotic-catgirl]

cant believe this episode made me speedrun getting a new ship right after showing me some psychosexual needle shit

[dysfunctional-doodle]

too many turtles made me headcanon mutant mayhem mikey as having dyscalculia :]

do you have any neurodivergence headcanons for the turtles you want to share? (can be about what they have or what they do)

I hc mutant mayhem Donnie and Mikey as austistic (they literally had the autism rep stickers in the concept art for both of them so it’s kinda canon to me), and so are most of the Donatellos in some way, some higher on the spectrum than others because…it’s Donatello. Just like how I hc that most Michelangelos have ADHD or ADD, I see it not as a trait that defines their character but a trait that has helped build their personality in the best way possible :)

Also, mutant mayhem leo I hc as having an anxiety disorder that, like some anxiety disorders often do unfortunately, worsens as he grows more mature. And I hc that 2003 Leo suffered from depression in season 4 and still has episodes that his brothers help with. I actually have included this aspect in my future design of him - he has his brothers’ mask tails woven with his own to remind him that he is not alone and will always be supported by them.

And finally, Raphael. I hc that 2003 Raphael also has autism, hence his struggles with controlling his emotions and frustrations at change (for example, he was very uncomfortable in Fast Forward, when they travelled to the future).

Obviously no one has to agree with these, I only really hc them to aid me in writing their characters rather than draw attention/label any of the bros in Too Many Turtles just by these neurodivergencies

Feel free to discuss your own hcs, or disagree with mine! I am sorry if I offend anyone with any of these, I am very eager for some reeducation if I have accidentally offended anyone :)

[roykiller07]

I think disability stereotypes tend to happen in media a lot more when they are the ONLY character in that media with their disability. Because a lot of the time—as far as ive seen—the most-known stereotypical characters ARE valid representations of some experience with that disability, but because the entire show, or story, or whatever they're in only has that ONE disabled character, it feels like theyre trying to represent the whole of that disabled community in that one way. It ends up feeling like a diminutive generalization whether the creators intended it to be or not, and it impacts the non-disabled audience's conception of what that disability as a whole is, which in turn impacts real disabled people. Like for example, sheldon cooper IS in fact a valid representation of an autistic experience (speaking as someone whos never watched the big bang theory btw, ive only heard about it and seen young sheldon lol hes just the first example that came to mind) but because he's the ONLY character in the show that the creators are intentionally trying to make autistic, it feels like he is what the narrative believes the entirety of the autistic experience to be, and that has real influences on its audience's perception of us (theres a reason the "genius geek man" is such a common autism stereotype, and i am certain that this era of media with this character trope was at least partially responsible). Thats why i tend to be put off or wary of shows/other that i see that only have one autistic character, and i often end up finding that character iffy and stereotypical regardless of the accuracy of their portrayal, as its hard to enjoy representation of such a broad experience when it feels like the media its in views the group theyre representing as a monolith.

Of course this is not a RULE and you CAN represent autistic people deftly in just one character without it feeling like a representation of what you believe autism itself is (see quinni gallagher-jones from heartbreak high), but its just something ive personally noticed in a lot of the stuff i watch or read that try to depict autistic people—especially childrens media honestly, because it gets simplified and directly explained in order to introduce the concept to children who don't have any idea about it, but unfortunately by teaching kids about one single experience out of a vast sea of possibilities, you end up teaching those kids that your singular autistic character is a definition of what the entirety of the autism spectrum is

[neverloseguy]

This is not something I want on my blog, but I need to use it to get it out there, or at the very least, serve as an evidence, should there ever be an event I find myself in a situation where I can no longer maintain this blog involuntarily.

I live in Thailand, in a household that lives near other households. All the members around this area are full of relatives. That is normal.

Unfortunately, there are other 'normal' things that I disagree with, and it has caused me a great deal of stress and troubles in recent years. My family, like many other families, seems to follow a hierarchical structure, which seems like a cultural norm here; father and mother look after their children and children are expected to respect parents. That kind of deal.

The problem? I have deviated greatly from this norm. I don't consider myself religious, when my family very much follows one. I don't believe in the saying "blood is thicker than water", when my family would not put anything else before family. I believe in self-discovery and self-fulfillment, when my family would rather oblige to what their elders say to them and treat it as a duty to serve.

This has put me at odds with my family many times. Almost all, if not all, good memories I had with them are all but shattered as I began to find myself flabbergasted, or even disgusted at what my family believes in and what they do. I will not say that I'm impartial to it, hell, I would say that I'm heavily biased against them, and chances are, there are situations that I was in fact, in the wrong here.

But a lot of times I brought these matters into online space, I found myself overwhelmed by the reactions of people being horrified of my situation.

I would tell them about the boundaries between family members, or lack there of, and how my parents always seem to take advantage of that. I would tell them about how my family seems to be okay with neglecting their pets and mistreating them, which I will admit, was something I played the part of, and I still regret it to this day. I would tell them about how I constantly being treated by my parents, that others would label it as "emotional manipulation", "gaslighting" and all the other terms you would see in a textbook about abusive parents. I would keep telling them, to the point I ask myself what is even the point because it just keeps on coming, and they will never hear the end of it.

I looked for professionals for help. I wasn't even sure why I even went there in the first place, but even now, I try to tell them about the situation that's going on within this space, and I was told to "reconcile" and find a common ground with my parents.

That would have been okay for me until a few days ago, when I found out that my mother denies any sorts of mental illnesses, blaming modern day science for creating "labels" and attempting to discredit everything as "just someone misbehaving". She compared it to transgenderism and how it would have been worse than my conditions (stuff like OCD, autism spectrum, etc.) if they were all real so to speak.

That was a moment I knew that I could never see my mother the same way again. Even when I tried to tell professionals about this, my mother would constantly try to learn about what I told them. Knowing this, and how she would try to lecture me about her beliefs, I find myself hard to believe that there could ever be a day when we stand on the common ground again.

I do believe it may be an exaggeration and my paranoia at play, but if it's anything to go by, there is a small chance that I may not be able to write things like this again. It's easy for me to just go, "nah, my family wouldn't do this," but knowing their tendency to overstep boundaries, and how I'm the only one in the midst of relatives who seems to be unaware or does not care about any of these things, who am I to deny that possibility, small as it may be?

So, it has inspired me to write this out, at least serving as a message to anyone who might be coming across this about my situation. In the end of the day, I don't think it will help much, but by doing this, I'm getting my side of the story out there, even if it's just to serve as a reference for anything that may happen from here on out.

[stimmingbabie]

My Take On Self DXing

Disclaimer: My definition of self diagnosing is putting in A LOT of time into researching, trying to get a professional diagnosis *first and foremost*, among other elements. Not just looking at the top 3 traits of a disorder and saying "that's me!", that is not recommended and I do not condone that! Please be safe <3

I'm making this post because I've gotten some comments here and there of people using my posts as a reason to self diagnose/suspect autism, BPD, etc (whatever else I post about). I do *not* condone using my posts as a tool for this, as this blog is all about my *personal* experiences with being neurodivergent. Everyone is so vastly different and I do not represent everyone with these disorders! However, as someone who has self diagnosed before getting professionally diagnosed (and still haven't been professionally diagnosed with them all!), I understand the need for an identity and an explanation for your experiences. So here's some reasons I support self diagnosing, some tips, and some warnings.

Why I support self diagnosing

Mental health care in certain locations are absolutely horrible. Where I live, mental health care is...very limited. The professionals in my area are trained in very few areas, mainly depression and anxiety, and are trained to do very specific types of therapies, medications etc. For example, in the ER I was given a xanax for a panic attack, and this worked wonders for me, however when going to a psychiatrist I was told they don't prescribe those on the off chance that someone will get addicted. Because of this, my anxiety has been overlooked and I've been given medications that did not work and has even given me a bad reaction. Needless to say, I stopped going to psych appointments. (I don't recommend this for everyone! This is just a personal experience).

Insurance isn't always an option. Without insurance, you will be paying out of pocket for evaluations, therapies and treatments. Even a diagnosis. An autism diagnosis here out of pocket is anywhere from $1k USD to $6k USD in most places for adults! That includes the two part evaluation and then having it on paper. I have what's called a pending diagnosis of autism, which means that I was given a basic screening (thankfully for free, but it costs $500 out of pocket on average here!), and the results were that I am very highly likely on the spectrum, but I can't afford to continue with the evaluation. So my health care team knows that I am autistic but will not put it on paper, therefore I can't get any accommodations with my insurance, and any accommodation that I need has to be listed for "anxiety", which my insurance doesn't see as a big enough problem in an adult to cover things for.

Being professionally diagnosed is a privilege. A lot of mental health professionals have a bias, and this is an unfortunate truth. Racism, sexism, classism, and even fatphobia play a huge part in how you're treated by the health care system, including mental health care. For example, if a healthy, average white cis man goes in and explains his symptoms and can afford to pay whether it be through insurance or out of pocket, he will be taken much more seriously than someone who is not any of the above.

Why I don't support certain self diagnosing disorders

A self diagnosis is not anywhere close to a substitution for a professional diagnosis. You will not get the proper therapy, treatment, or accommodations necessary by self diagnosing. You also won't be taken seriously by professionals if you walk into their office and say that you have a disorder, because their next question will be if you have documentation of the diagnosis. If you are suffering from a severe mental illness such as schizophrenia or borderline personality disorder, you will likely need treatment and therapy if at all possible. If you are able to get this, please do!! Do not suffer alone!!

Some disorders have overlapping symptoms...autism included. While I support self diagnosing autism to an extent, you have to realize that autism in a person who does not have high support needs will more often than not look very similar to ADHD, OCD etc etc. Autism being a spectrum can make it look like so many different things in so many different people. Someone with autism may be hyperverbal, able to read tone of voice and emotions with ease, and be outgoing, which are all traits that are not inherently apart of autism.

If you do not have *insert disorder that you self diagnosed*, you may be spreading misinformation. Many mental illnesses are already so stigmatized. Regardless of if YOU think that YOU have this disorder and that YOUR experiences are part of it, if you're wrong you may be adding to the stigma. For example, there are a lot of people who fake tourettes, dissociative identity disorder, etc. and this is very dangerous to people who actually suffer from these conditions. When self diagnosing please be mindful of others when you post about it publicly and be sure to specify that you are self diagnosed if you do! This is not meant to be mean or make you feel any less valid. Your experiences, regardless of your disorder or label, is 100% valid and you deserve to be taken seriously. But you have to realize that your words have impact on others.

"Tips" for self diagnosing

Don't! If you can easily get a professional diagnosis. See above points for why.

If you do, put in the research! This doesn't mean look up "autism spectrum disorder" on Google and look at the first 3 symptoms and decide that you resonate. Look up how it is professionally diagnosed, what the DSM-5 criteria is, and speak with/watch content creators, friends, family etc that have been diagnosed!

Take note of the different variations in different individuals. Do not watch one YouTube channel of a person with *insert disorder* and think that they represent the entire community. They do not. Not one single person represents an entire community, this goes for any, mental illnesses, physical illnesses, etc. If you know one person with autism you know one person with autism.

Research other conditions that are similar. You think you're autistic? Cool, research it as stated above! But don't forget to research ADHD, OCD, and other disorders that have overlapping symptoms! And yes, it is possible to have multiple, which is another reason why self diagnosing can be tricky.

ABOVE ALL ELSE: LISTEN TO THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN PROFESSIONALLY DIAGNOSED AND TO PROFESSIONALS!

There is no shame in telling someone, especially a therapist, that you think you have a disorder. What will likely happen is that the more you fight for yourself and your concerns the more you will be taken seriously and possibly given an opportunity to get a screening. The worst that will happen is that you'll self diagnose and get it wrong, but possibly be properly diagnosed! You know yourself better than anyone. Regardless of what label you have, you are valid, you are loved and you will be okay. If you ever have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me! I'm here for you!

For transparency, this is my situation:

Autism - pending diagnosis, see above ADHD - diagnosed PTSD - diagnosed Dissociative identity disorder - diagnosed, previously self diagnosed Borderline personality disorder - sort of pending. was told by a therapist that it seems more likely that I have BPD than bipolar disorder, but it was never screened. self diagnosed Bipolar type 1 with psychosis - diagnosed, mixed beliefs from different professionals, personally undiagnosed Eating disorder - diagnosed (will not elaborate, am in recovery!)

[missnobodymadness]

Saw @sunbadger doing this and couldn't resist doing it myself too. I am not diagnosed with autism and was diagnosed with SzPD instead, but I have always had very strong special interests since I can remember, my biggest ones impact my daily life (both negatively and positively) and have been with me since childhood. I still believe that I could maybe be on the spectrum, considering that none of the professionals who discarded the possibility of me being autistic never really tested me and unfortunately I was never able to find a specialized professional (small country with one of the lowest percentage of diagnoses in Europe), also, everything is too expensive so I just gave up on it.

Anyway, the weird one is conspiracy theories and cryptozoology, forgot to write it. ^^'

Here is the blank version if you'd like to do one yourself:

[taraelghrimwilliams]

Friends, family, random internet users who, for some reason or another, happened upon this page, welcome to my diary. Since it's hard to let every single friend know whenever something new happens in my life, I've decided to start a diary. This way, I can update those who care enough to keep updated. However, I'll still start this as I would a normal diary: by writing information about myself.

My name is Tara Elghrim Williams. I am twenty six years old, and I'm living out of my car in rural America. My only marketable skills, if you could call them as such, is my writing (which I'm told is above average despite me harshly disagreeing) and my graphic design work, which is still quite amateurish as I do it as a hobby, not a profession.

I am a trans woman who suffers from a multitude of mental health problems. Diagnosed, I have PTSD, OCD, anxiety, and depression. Through researching symptoms, I do believe that there is a possibility that I may suffer from ADD/ADHD, and it may be possible that I am also on the autism spectrum. However, as none of those have been diagnosed (due to lack of funds and insurance), I do not pretend that I definitely have any of them.

This all started around a year ago now. It was a single meme. Something about taking a bunch of Benadryl and getting high to see a shadow monster. I dismissed it as a joke, but eventually curiosity got the better of me. I got high off of them. And it uprooted my entire life.

Everything was strange. I didn't see monsters, but I felt calm. For the first time in years, I felt zen. And then I fell deeper into that high. My music was distorted. I could feel the vibrations rattling my very core. My body could barely move, I was physically unable to speak due to both my mouth being so relaxed and my mind being so, for lack of a better term, laggy. Nothing felt real anymore. It was as if I fell through reality and into a dream where existing didn't hurt anymore.

But of course, after falling asleep, I woke up to the aftermath of this kind of high. Everything was sore. Everything felt wrong. I felt wrong. I wanted to feel that way again. I had to feel that way again. So, I kept abusing allergy medication. I kept getting high behind my fiancee's back. Slowly but surely, this changed me. I became more secretive. I became distant. Eventually, I even became someone else entirely. Someone I've grown to despise.

I cheated on her. It wasn't physical, and I didn't even realize what I was doing in my drug addled state of mind. But it was true. I cheated on her. I was disgusted with myself, and planned to kill myself that same day. She gave me the older of our two cars, a kindness she didn't have to extend to me, and despite crushing her so thoroughly with my actions, she still stood by me and insisted that I go to my parents house instead of killing myself.

I wish I could have taken back the implication that I was going to end my life. Not because I wish I had gone through with it, but because she didn't deserve to have an even greater burden on her mind while going through something so devastating. Unfortunately for us both, I can't take back any of the actions I've taken, wish as I might.

That was around five months ago. Every day, the weight of my sins grows heavier upon my back. The worst part is not knowing why I truly feel this guilt. I want to believe that this guilt is because I truly regret my actions. I hurt the one person in this world that I ever saw myself marrying. The person who I would have given up everything to be with. My highschool sweetheart, my soul mate, and above all of that? My best friend.

But there's a nagging at the back of my head. Do I truly regret it? Or do I regret getting caught? Do I regret losing the woman who sacrificed so much to keep me happy and healthy because I appreciate what she did for me, or because it cost me the roof over my head? More importantly, why do I want to ease this burden of guilt? Do I truly just want her to heal from me harming her, or do I just want to feel good about myself, being able to pretend to the world that despite straying, I'm still a good person?

It kills me not being able to know.

From there, I lived with my father briefly. My stepmother was unreasonable as ever. Despite my plethora of health concerns, such as my tendency towards suicide while stressed and experiencing the most stress I've ever endured in my life, she insisted that I get a job within the month, or else I'd be kicked out. Eventually, as the aspect of holding down a job in my current mental state was unbearable and the deadline was drawing nearer, I made up a lie. I pretended to get a job to get her off of my back while I attempted to figure something else out.

My stepmother, though, is nothing if not the nosiest human being on the planet. Somehow, despite her busy schedule, she managed to find enough time to invade my privacy and snoop around where I claimed to work. She had a friend there that she asked about my employment with, which led to a massive fight.

I left that day, telling them both that I would rather die on the streets than ever live in the same house as her. Her years of mental and verbal abuse was too much for me to deal with anymore.

My plan then became to move in with a friend of mine, one who said they had the space for me and was willing to take me in. I would have to wait some time for them to figure out arrangements for me, so in the meantime, I left for Kentucky to stay with another friend temporarily.

Here, I'd like to take a small break from explaining the past to thank someone very dear to me. A friend that I'll call Sue for privacy reasons. Sue couldn't and still cannot take me in, but I absolutely would not be here today without their help. They've sent me more money and support than I could have ever expected from or asked of them. Without their help, I never would have made it to Kentucky, and I'd most certainly have died by now. If you're reading this, and I'm sure you will at some point, you really are a saint for helping me through these dark times.

I got to Kentucky without incident and met my roommates, a fellow trans woman who I'll call Jill, and a bisexual (or formerly bi turned gay? Unsure of which) man that I'll call Jack. Jack and Jill could only host be for about three-ish months, but hopefully, that would be more than enough time. I helped out with rent and groceries where I could, and as time went on, I got the bad news.

My friend who had previously offered to take me in had to rescind the offer. I don't remember if they told me what happened or if they purposefully left it vague, but I assume it had something to do with finances. Either way, that threw a wrench in my plans. A fairly large one at that. I used the rest of my time looking for a new plan while staying with Jack and Jill, and eventually contacted an old family friend. They were willing to help out! Great. I left Kentucky hopeful, but by the time I got back home, things had changed again.

An illness in the family meant money was going to be tight. And this meant that I was now living out of my car in a cold winter, mere days before Christmas, right before a blizzard was set to hit us. Thankfully, my dad was able to put me in a hotel for a little under a week, either five or six days. Long enough to wait out the negative fifty (with windchill) temperatures and the intense winter wind. During this time, my laptop charger broke, and I spent nearly half of my Christmas money getting new chargers that didn't work. Despite having charging cables that matched my port, none of them actually charged the damn thing, meaning I was now out of not only my only escape from reality, but my connection to charity organizations and government aid programs.

This last week has been one of the most eventful, as I've been rejected by one charity, found another, got pulled over by a literal saint of a police officer that helped me discover the previously mentioned charity, got to help a stranger jump their car in a gas station... Things are honestly changing so fast that its even hard for me to keep up with everything! That's all of the important bits about the past. Now, it's time to focus on the future.

[annjensenbooks-blog]

Never forget what you post may be your last words.

I've restarted this post several times and now am at the F-it stage so forgive my strange rambling.

Several months ago, my ex-husband and father of my two teenage children died of a heart attack at the age of 49. My son, who is on the autism spectrum, was staying with him at the time and called me in a panic. My daughter and I drove as quickly as possible and the three of us were present while EMTs tried unsuccessfully to save his life. To say I have large feelings on the event would be an epic understatement.

I'll save talking about the impacts from that day for other posts. What is relevant to what I want to say today is what was on his computer screen at the moment of his death:

"The pain in my jaw and chest is so bad I barely slept last night. I've done some research and am sure that I have TMJ. This is a nightmare. The f-ing medical system is an expensive joke designed to suck our money out. "

There were several friends sympathizing with his pain and agreeing that medical care was too inconvenient and expensive. Which he responded to with...

"I'm glad I took those EMT classes or I would right now be wasting thousands of dollars on going to the hospital thinking I was having a heart attack or stroke."

That was three hours before his death and as far as I can tell the last thing he said to anyone. From the autopsy he'd been having a heart attack for an extended period of time. From what I've read he might have survived if he'd gotten treatment right away. Those are the facts as I know them. Now here is what I have to say after months of grief, anger, and frustration.

What the F*C%!

If you even think you are having a medical emergency, don't stall or let money concerns stop you from calling 911. Our country has laws for emergency rooms that mean they can't turn you away. Your continued life is worth risking having a debt you might not be able to pay. This is especially important if you have family or children who will be devastated by your death.

Ok I'll admit, I became his ex-wife for many, many reasons so take what I'm going to say with a grain of salt. His last post was frustrating but that was just the tip of the iceberg. He was extremely active on social media advocating for trans/gay rights, socialism, and homeless rights. On the surface all of those seem like positive things but what I'm really struggling with the fact that a man I once loved left behind a legacy of online hate and vitriol.

He was a troll. He would find people who opposed his views and go after them with personal and vicious attacks. Instead of posting the informed and well thought out arguments I know he was capable of he would stoop to name calling and petty insults. He saw it as his mission to go after anyone not on the extreme left with the same tactics as people on the extreme right use only in reverse.

If you haven't guessed yet I don't agree that hate speech or attacks in any direction is productive. Differing opinions and values are an important part of our freedom as Americans. I do hate that in the sound bite society we live in basic human respect is often ignored in favor of shock value. My favorite quote from one of the smartest women I've ever heard speak is "When they go low, we go high."

In the online world it seems like everyone feels that they need to not only share their opinions but defend them with a vigor that can only be compared to ancient gladiators. The shelter that being behind a computer has brought out the worst in people and I really wish that before hitting 'send' that people might stop for a minute and ask, "What if these were my last words to the world?"

My children in their grief scoured social media to preserve anything they could of their father. Unfortunately, they were shocked by a lot of what they found. Because he didn't set his privacy settings on his posts or keep his more extreme activities off the public forums instead of being remembered as the intelligent educated man he was, his children looked back on his words and only saw the anger.

As an author my books will live on and while some of the characters may share my morals and views what I write is fiction. I don't want this to be all that is known about me. This blog is going to be about the woman behind the words, not the perfect image that most people put on social media but the gritty truth. I'm going to write about my struggles and thoughts from the past, present and eventual future. One day I hope my kids will read this and understand who I am and be proud.

Disclaimer:

If you found this by searching specifically for me your internet-fu is strong or the AI searching gods are scary

Yes, this is the blog of the author Ann Jensen

No, this will not be curated content about releases or what I'm working on (www.annjensenwrites.com has that stuff)

This Blog is my therapy and a journal of my rants/raves/realizations about life.

Read/enjoy/hate at your own risk because it's not for you it's for me.

If you go back and read my old posts, you will be very confused by this content because I haven't posted in years (I forgot I had an account).

Why not start a new blog you ask?

Because I'm Lazy

I don't want to lose the old content (It makes me nostalgic)

This post is a new beginning for me on this platform. I plan to tell stories from my life, share some lessons I've learned and hopefully work out some pent-up anger and grief.

[sassycordy]

I 100% remember DH saying he played Rodney on the spectrum. Even if he didn't, just the stimming he does constantly with his hands, the rocking motions, the complete lack of filter, and sometimes very black and white view of social situations.

Very on spectrum.

I am glad you agree with the possibility. John strikes me as someone on the spectrum for sure but with a childhood focused on learning social skills. For example, those born biologically female on the spectrum tend to be better socially because social skills is a focus people tend to do with biologically female kids (dumb.) Because of this, many of them are never diagnosed because they are better at masking. Considering his childhood I feel like this makes sense. 🧡

( I think i've actually seen david use the stimming hand motions in other roles as well which i think is fun aha) but yes! I think rodney is 100% on the spectrum and I doubt anyone could raise a valid argument against this headcanon lmfao.

ooooh woah there's a lot to discuss here ahha and i 100% agree! i like to believe his dad had some sort of military career before retiring and becoming the figurehead of some evil conglomerate. bc of this and where john lived, and his dad's growing business, i think john had to learn at a young age how to interact with people at fancy ass events lol. (also where he learned how to put up that charming mask so people wouldn't see how miserable he was underneath). so this hc lines up pretty well!

there's SO much of john's character that lines up with some of the more "traditional female" traits of autism. (side not its honestly pretty unfortunate that its extremely difficult to diagnose women with autism). but apparently a major difference between "men and women" w/ autism is the ability to camouflage their symptoms (at least according to my prior knowledge and some research I did! correct me if im wrong PLEASE). which is like hello. that is john in a nutshell. also reminding himself to make eye contact in conversations and preparing phrases to use in advance which again is uhhh. *looks straight into camera* classic john sheppard!

also there's the more known traits of autism as well that I think match up with john's character + behavior! resistance to touch, difficulty with discerning emotion, and even his hyperfixation with flying! so yea 100000000000% agree that both rodney AND john are somewhere on the spectrum. and im grateful that (for the most part I think?) everyone on tumblr seems to agree ahha.

once again thank you for sending this ask 💘💘

[not-enough-teeth-and-treasures]

An Autistic’s Perspective on Tears of Themis’ Representation (spoiler alert: it’s bad)

Before you read, I should warn you that there will be spoilers for Chapter Five! Read at your own risk. Also, trigger warning for discussions of ableism and harmful disablility stereotypes. I get pretty heated as well, so if you’re not a fan of swearing and stuff, then it might be best to skip this.

So, I was debating whether or not I wanted to talk about this, mostly because this game doesn’t do anything new in regards to the perception of autism in media. Unfortunately, it ends up leaning into a lot of not great tropes and goes into “what the fuck that’s incredibly offensive territory” waaay to quickly. So here I am.

The most prevelant character with autism (or who we start out thinking has autism. Don’t worry, I’ll get to that) is a small, supergenius child (a boy as well *sigh*) is so overdone at this point that there aren’t many new criticisms I can say. The stereotype of autism presented in media is overwhelmingly extremely intelligent (usually with sciency or math based interests) men with no ability to socialize or be kind to others. This not only paints autism as a disability that effects men primarily (which creates intense stigma around AFAB autistic people and makes it harder for us to get diagnosed or believed), but also creates this expectation of greatness. Autistic people are often held to superhuman standards, which further others and dehumanizes us in the eyes of allistic people. The vast majority of autistic people are not savants, and that it perfectly fine.

But all of this is pretty standard. The red flags started popping up when it was revealed that the autistic kid, Hugh, doesn’t actually have autism and is faking it in order to keep people from asking hard questions about him or trying to pry into his life (which is full of secrets). I’m definitely not a fan of perpetuating the idea that people fake diabilities in order to manipulate people, so this plot twist was not my favorite. However, it wasn’t really enough to inspire me to write a whole ass essay about the representation. And then I got to the fucking text conversation with Vyn.

Here is where I’m gonna put a trigger warning for talk about eugenics, curing autism, ableism, and basically just a fuck ton of awful shit. Fuck, this makes me so mad.

So, I went in and took screenshots of both options just to see, and all of them lead to terrible bullshit. Lets start out pretty light with the MC and Vyn discussing symptoms.

This is a pretty limited and honestly incomplete explanation of autistic behaviors. These can definitely be symptoms, but they’re heavily overcovered and really basic. A lot of autistic people don’t have these symptoms, and it would be really nice if more media branched out and covered more of the spectrum. However, considering they don’t do anything different in any other areas, I’m not surprised.

Also not a fan of Vyn’s use of “abnormal.” It has some very negative connotations and is a bit insulting, honestly. These behaviors are perfectly “normal;” they’re just not as accepted by neurotypical people. Plus, no behaviors can really be labeled as normal because humans are complex and different.

That was the easy shit. Let’s get into the truly awful garbage.

This is treading into ABA territory here. For those of you who are unaware, ABA is pushed as the best autistic therapy, but a large majority of autistic adults consider it to be abusive and unhelpful. This is mainly because it seeks to “correct” many behaviors that are helpful for autistic people. It seeks to surpress stims (which are behaviors that improve the mental health of autistic children), force us to talk (as opposed to letting us use sign language and technology), and more. This harms our mental health and makes us ashamed of who we are. These behaviors do not need to be “corrected.” We don’t need to act “normally.” All this therapy does is make us more palitable for neurotypical people, and it’s bullshit.

It also doesn’t help that ABA was pioneered by Ivar Lovaas, a man who did not believe autistic people were human. He developed ABA as a way to “build a person” using harsh punishments such as withholding affection and ELECTRIC SHOCKS. If you think this is a think of the past, you’d be wrong. Electric shocks are still being used to harm disabled people. Look up the hashtag #StopTheShock to learn more and help push for legislation that bans this practice.

Oh, and did I mention Ivar Lovaas also inspired gay conversion therapy? Because he did! So yeah, fuck ABA and fuck Vyn for performing it (god damn it, Vyn, I liked you a lot).

And now, onto the eugenics. Fuck my life.

FUCK! THIS! BULLSHIT!

I am so tired of autism being treated as this horrific disease that needs a cure. I had a perfectly fine childhood. Yes, it was hard at times, yes I got traumatized, but a large part of that was due to ableism and abuse from teachers and peers. A large reason why autistic people suffer is because the world is not built for us, and we are often denied accommodations that would make our lives better.

It is beyond offensive and disgusting to suggest that we would be better off not existing than “suffering so much” because of autism. Because that is what this game and everyone else who thinks there should be a cure is suggesting. There is no me without autism. it literally affects my brain structure. You are wishing for a completely different person when you tell me that autism should be cured.

Now, I’m not going to get into the horrible consent issues that arise from talks about a cure, including genetic editing, fear mongering to parents so they think abortion is the only option, and straight up Nazi style eugenics. I do not have the spoons to delve into that exhausting discussion. But if you want to know more, then there are so many incredible autistic people who have written blogs, Twitter threads, and more about why a cure is a terrible idea.

Oh, and if you’re going to come at me with the “severely autistic people should be cured” bullshit, don’t bother. There is no such thing as “severe” autism, first of all, and second, non verbal autistic people (which are who people think of when they talk about “severe” autism), largely don’t want a cure. There have been so many surveys of tens of thousands of autistic people, and the result is that the overwhelming majority do not want to be cured. We want support and proper accommodations. Listen to us.

So, in conclusion, fuck this text conversation and it’s ableist and offensive bullshit. I really wish ToT had stayed away from autism, or at the very least did not touch on therapy or a possible cure. For a game that is about genetic experimentation on children and how bad that is, it sure peddles a lot of eugenics.

Fuck, this text conversation actually made me ill and I hate that. I’m so done with constantly trying to prove to the world that I am a human being who deserves to exist. I’m gonna go cuddle my service dog now.

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: May 15th Part 1

It’s been longer than usual since our last answer session, so I’m answering a ton of questions today! It’s so big I split it into two parts. Thank you for the patience on getting a response to these.

Thanks for reaching out to us with your questions and kind words ^^!

Sorry if this has been asked before or isn't something you can say but is there anyway for Cove to confess in step 4? I wanted him to confess in step 3 and followed all the steps to make him do it but ended up texting my family instead of Cove at the end.

Yeah, Cove can confess in Step 4!

Hello! I heard that Cove is on the spectrum, albeit undiagnosed. As someone who is ND, this makes me UNBELIEVABLY happy. I literally was brought to tears! Thank you for that!

Out of curiosity, will Cove be diagnosed in Step 4? I have a strong feeling y’all won’t make it a HUGE deal/make it out to be negative, so I’m not worried about that whatsoever! I’m just curious just he’ll off handedly mention it? Or will it just not be touched upon at all (which is ok!)?

Either way is ok, I’m just curious!

I’m happy it made you happy! Admittedly, Cove simply being someone with autism that grew up not being diagnosed was something I included for myself. I didn’t really think anyone would notice or ask about it, aha. But players did start to have questions about his traits, so I started to talk about it outside of the game. It’s great to see it get such a positive response and now I do feel like having it be a non-topic may have been the wrong choice and bringing it up would’ve been good in terms of having positive representation for that. I don’t know if I’ll find a way to mention it in Step 4 now, with how far along the game is, but I am at least thinking about it when originally it wasn’t something I really even considered.

Hey!  Just wanted to say thank you for Our Life.  It's been a bright spot and a needed escape in what's otherwise been a crummy year.  I know you just did a Q&A post but I figured I'd ask anyway.  Was just curious about Step 4.  Will it be similar to the other Steps in that it consists of several different moments or will it just be one long sequence?

Step 4 is shorter than the prior Steps because it’s just an epilogue rather than a full arc of a story. It’ll consist of scenes that all happen in a set row one after the other. There won’t be a collection of Moments to choose from. But it’ll still be very sweet and fun.

¡hola!, you see, first I want to say that I love Our Life! (°◡°♡) and I have 2 important questions, would Cove cry watching titanic? and what is the saddest part according to him? (sorry for my english) 

Titanic would make him cry. He’d probably think the parts showing people who aren’t able to make it to the life boats/are choosing to stay and go down with the ship were the saddest.

Hello, I wanted to ask how much you earn with creating games? Like is it possible to make a living? Thank you >< <3 

How much I earn varies a lot month to month based on Steam sales, Patreon backers, and how many projects are in full production at the time. It’s also hard to say how much I make historically, since that also changes dramatically year by year. But I do earn enough to work on these games full time! I really appreciate all the support that allows me to do that.

Hey!! I was wondering for the 18+ Our Life moment, will there be an emphasis on safety/comfort for all involved? I feel like there  would be just going off of what the rest of the game is like, but I wanted to ask 

Yes! Cove is a nervous boy himself and also super cautious about doing anything the MC doesn’t like, so clear consent from both is absolutely needed for anything to happen. It’s a conversational sexy times Moment with stops/starts so the two can talk about how they’re feeling, rather than a heat of the moment just going for it kind of thing.

Hey!! I was wondering how long the wedding dlc would be? Will it be broken up into moments, or just one big event? 

It’s one long series of scenes all in a row rather than a collection of Moments to pick from. It’s the shortest and the least expensive of all the DLCs. It’s not super crucial to get and those who aren’t into big weddings can totally skip it without worry.

HELLO AMAZING DEVS 👋 i am hopelessly in love with the worst guy ever (jeremy king) and because of this i have a really stupid question: does he really hate people who are nice to him? TvT he’s too cute to be mean to istg it’s a miracle JB held the urge to be consistently nice to him bc just look at his FACE he is so cute! thank you for jeremy’s route it’s so lovely (and awful bc he’s scum 11/10) it gave me so much laughs LMAO i hope you guys have a good day!! 

Haha, thank you. He doesn’t hate them but he’s certainly not pleased with them. Jeremy is either uncomfortable with or annoyed by people being sweet on him, depending on how they approach it. He’s far more comfortable with jerkiness. It lets him relax and he can be himself without it being a problem, since he’s also a jerk. He feels a level of guilt being such a little punk to kind people, not enough to be a better person but still.

Has Cove dated or been interested in someone other than MC? 

Nope! He stays single over the course of the game if he’s not with the MC.

Is Step 4 more mature? Or it's gonna be set in similar atmosphere as Step 3? 

Step 4 is a similar atmosphere as Step 3. Though, it’s actually kind of less mature-topic heavy than Step 3 since it’s just a ‘hey, let’s check in on the gang to see what they’re up to’ style epilogue rather than a story arc with serious issues.

will there be new music for now and forever?? or will the old our life music be reused? 

It’s gonna be a brand new soundtrack. We’ll be opening up a job position for that soon.

Hi, is it okay if we use the assets in Our Life (like the sprites) for fanworks or fan content content, like edits? 

Sure! Just as long as you don’t use the assets made by those artists to make money.

Quick clarification on Step 3 choices: I hope I didn't come off rude (because I LOVE the game, really!!), I was just curious because the intro threw me off at times. For example, you could choose how you felt about Elizabeth in Step 2 (Dinner), but during the Step 3 intro, it says that you got closer to Liz and I didn't get a choice in it. 

For the example, it can’t be helped that you’re closer to Liz in Step 3 than you were in Step 2 because she’s inherently closer to the MC regardless of whether you liked her or not in Step 2. Her feelings are out of your control and the game isn’t so dramatic that you can push her affection away and not let her bond with you, haha. But ‘being closer’ can still be relative. For some people maybe that means you’re best buds now and for others it might just mean you’re not fighting all the time any more. If there’s other parts you want to mention, feel free to let us know.

Did the illustrator for Our Life change? 

We have many OL artists! The main artists who set the game’s style haven’t changed, but there’s multiple other artists who help finish assets.

So Miranda's type is confident and outgoing, huh? So...does that mean Terri's her type?? 👀 

Haha, sorry for the late reply on this. As you might’ve seen in our post yesterday- yeah that is her type.

Hey! First, I just want to say I've really enjoyed how detailed OL got with gender identity and sexuality and how respectful the topics were handled! It's been so wonderful to play since the experiences could be close to my own (I'd be lying if I said I didn't tear up at parts). Second, I was wondering, would future games explore the topic of polyamory? I'd love to see more visual novels allow room for that and I saw you've explored the topic before.

Keep up the amazing work! ♡

Thank you! We do want to include polyamory in at least some of our future projects. Floret Bond, which might be what you’re referring to when mentioning how we’ve explored the topic before, is on hold unfortunately. So right now I’m not sure when something might release or what will be the first game of ours to come out with poly relationships (we might do something else before FB is done). We’ll have see how things ends up coming together.

Hey um. I feel like im not allowed to ask this on the private discord cuz people will yell at me but why is there so much focus on OL2 and not finishing OL1 stuff? I like the new people but i kind of want to finish cove's story and get derek and baxter stuff first. didn't people pay for it? 

I’m sorry, I don’t understand entirely what’s making that situation a concern. There’s a channel in the discord for critique where no one is allowed to comment back. People can voice things they’re worried about without any way for others to push back on it. And the two teams working on the OL games are different. We try to post pretty often about how we’re hiring brand new people to start on Our Life: Now & Forever. The OL1 team is all still working on OL1 like normal. There’s only more updates on the Patreon for OL2 because the expansions to the first game are mostly script-based at this point while OL2 is just starting to get all its art, which means there’s a lot more to show off as previews.

Also, there was a Kickstarter for the first Our Life, if that’s what you mean by people paying for it. But one of the stretch goals was to start Our Life 2 early, before fully completing Our Life 1, so that the new game could be out sooner. It wouldn’t make sense to stop doing OL2 work because that would be going against what backers were promised. Maybe you didn’t get the full story before and hopefully this clears it up!

Hello! I know it's up to every player but.. What is your recommendation for playing order? Did you ever had any timeline  events planned? 

I didn’t make the events with a planned timeline. The events got made simply as I had ideas for them and then I just kind of organized them from left to right on the screen in an order to space out more dramatic ones between more lighthearted ones. Any order the player wants to go with is totally valid!

Hi! It's Step 4 a paid dlc or update? And how long it's planned to be? Ps. Love the game! 

The Step 4 epilogue is free! The Cove Wedding DLC does cost money, though. Those are planned to be shorter than the usual Steps/DLCs.

Will we have options for what sort of job the MC might have by the time step 4 takes place? 

Yeah, you can. It’s not super exact or detailed, but there are options about it.

Is there a pandemic in Our Life world, or is it just in a better timeline with no pestilence? 

Our Life is pandemic-free! That didn’t exist when we began working on the project and it’s not something we’d like to feature in this story now that it has unfortunately come along, aha.

Hi, you said that you can play tic-tac-toe or hangman with Cove in Boating if you're sick/scared but I keep getting tic-tac-toe. Am I doing something wrong?

After being sick/scared you have to continue to be upset/unwell. If you calm down and decide to just chill you’ll end up playing tic-tac-toe.

Hi, GB Patch! Since Lee was initially commissioned to only appear in two Steps does this mean she won't appear in the Wedding DLC? I really like her character so it'll be a little weird to not have our cousin at our wedding, aha.

She is gonna be in Step 4/the wedding DLC after all! We’re still working with her creator to make sure it fits with what they wanted.

Is Sunset Bird based on a real place? Asking for a friend, not trying to move there or anything. 👀

It’s based on small beach towns in So-Cal, but not one specific town you could go see in real life, I’m afraid. It’d be nice if it was real, though.

—– —– —– —–

We released a new FAQ! It answers common questions and we’ll keep adding more to it. Please check there before sending an ask. FAQ   Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

[youngjusticeslut]

After the last episode for the year I'd love to know what your hopes are the second half of Young Justice for next year. What do you hope or expect to see in the second half for both the remaining arcs and the b-plot?

Good question! Disclaimer that my theories are usually 1000% wrong and I'm totally prepared to get clowned hard. But here is what I hope/expect to see in the latter half of the season:

So we already know part of Kaldur's plot will take place in Xebel, so it's possible we might have some Atlantean conflict on our hands!

I hope we get to see lots of Kaldur and Wyynde being cute together bc it's what Kaldur deserves.

It's possible that Kaldur's arc will tackle the purist stuff, and we may learn more about Wyynde's backstory (and see Topo again!)

I fully expect the Beast Boy plot is going to continue throughout the season (unfortunately) and that it's going to take a long time for him to heal.

For Nightwing's arc, I'm willing to put some money down that it'll be semi-focused on Jason Todd. Which, admittedly, I am excited for.

Not just because the queen of my life is also on Infinity Island and I need to see her again.

M'gann will probably come back towards the beginning of the season.

And, of course, we have all the Legion and the save Superboy stuff.

I'm really hoping we get to see Bowhunter again (in actuality, not as a flashback) because I miss them and Will a lot :(

I don't think Wally will be coming back this season, but who knows.

I do think we'll be seeing more of Halo and her journey into discovering Islam.

I'm hoping we see more interactions between the OG team :( It's one thing I've been really missing this season.

We know that Raquel will have a bigger role in her arc, and that Amistad has Autism (or is on the spectrum, I don't remember which), other than that we have no inkling of a clue what her arc will be about.

[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 :)

[fellowstrangetownappreciator]

Curious and autistic-coded

Hello there! April draws to an end and with that I think it’s high time to hurry up and write this. What does April have to do with anything, you ask? April is the Autism Acceptance Month. So what better month to do this?

Unfortunately I didn’t make it. I failed. It’s already 1. 5. when I’m posting this. But at least I tried to deliver on time.

In this mini essay I’ll present my case about why I think the Curious brothers from TS2 Strangetown display autistic-coded traits and my personal takes on it.

It’s basically your average headcanon post but with a funny top hat!

0: Preface: What do I mean by “autistic-coded”?

When a character is coded as something, it means that they have traits that are associated with the demographics in question to make the consumer knowingly or not link the character with the demographic, although the character's "label” is never explicitly disclosed.

In the nutshell, it means that there are canonical reasons to read the characters as autistic, although you won't find the word "autism" anywhere in the game nor in the developer's commentary.

In this particular case I do believe that the developer may not even be aware of the code, as there is no evidence to suggest otherwise. If there is, I’m not aware of it and I would be happy to learn.

So, let’s start!

1: “The white male who is very good at science”

Unfortunately autistic representation in pop-culture has a long history of being rather straightforward in which traits the characters often have. This stems from the belief that autism is “a boy’s disorder” (that’s why some autism charities to this day use blue in their symbols). Among popular examples of autistic-coded characters are Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper and Death Note’s L and Near. I’m sure you can think of more but you’ll find that most of them are men and either explicitly white or racially ambiguous white-passing. They also tend to be gifted in tech, logic or other science-y activities.

There’s nothing wrong with that! Nothing wrong with being an autistic with those “stereotypical” characteristics and there is nothing wrong with people being represented. What is wrong is the monotony and afab people/people of color being underrepresented which leads (among other factors) to harder access to diagnosis and resources for those people in real life. But! That’s a topic for a different day. (and not for a simbrl, mind you)

Back to the Curiouses! I just wanted to say that autism in media is traditionally associated with characters whose gender presentation, race and interests align with theirs. Those characteristic thus make a very convenient template for autistic-coding.

2: Inconsistent performance, huge gaps between strengths and weaknesses

Pascal, Vidcund and Lazlo are very skilled Sims by default, extraordinarily even for their age. Pascal has a skill maxed while his younger brothers both near maxing theirs.

But as you can see in Pascal’s default skill panel, apart from Creativity, all his other skills are extremely low, 0 points for Mechanical, Body and Charisma, 1 point for Cooking and Logic and his second best skill, Cleaning, has only 3 points. The same situation can be observed in Vidcund’s and Lazlo’s, except their strong suits are Logic and Cooking respectively.

Huge discrepancies within performance in different cognitive areas is a common trait found in those on the autism spectrum. We’re often talking extremes here and the scale of the difference is the defining factor. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, it’s just in neurodivergent people those tend to be unusually noticeable.

I think that skills, simplified as they are, are the closest The Sims has to possibly simulate that because they track the character’s performance and expertise in different areas and allow comparison. In real life, of course, this comparison is not nearly as possible and exact, nor desired, but for all our analysis-loving enthusiasm, here we’re still talking fictional characters.

3: Struggle with social cues

It is widely known that one of autistic traits are difficulties with processing social situations, picking social cues and successfully replicating socially desired behavioral patterns.

But these three are Sims, are they not? They cannot possibly display this trait, since they’re programmed the same way as others.

Yes and no.

It is true that there is no specific in-game feature that would allow Sims to behave with explicit neurodivergency in mind* but with the right combination of traits they can simulate behavior that really hits close to home for neurodivergent players.

*at least not in TS2, TS3 has traits that simulate some possible neurodivergencies but their names tend to be rather... ableist unfortunate and they’re not relevant to this post since they’re not autism related, and even if they were, we’re focusing on TS2 exclusively

Let’s take look at Lazlo here. He is, indeed, a playful soul. He likes to goof around, tell jokes, make others laugh. And since he’s very close to his brother Vidcund, close enough even to Tell Dirty Joke (an interaction that needs quite a high relationship to unlock), he autonomously does just that.

And oh boy, does Vidcund disapprove.

From my personal experience playing them, their relationship usually takes quite a hit from every cheeky joke Lazlo throws Vid’s way. They usually autonomously repair it very quick but it happens often.

But that’s a standard behavior. Vidcund’s very serious, he doesn’t take well to jokes.

No. I mean technically yes, Vid is definitely a grumpy old plant dad but, at least in my game, he tends to accept Lazlo’s jokes. All kinds of them, actually, except for the dirty ones. And Pascal, who technically has even lower Playful points (0 in comparison to Vidcund’s 4), doesn’t seem to mind Lazlo’s poor attempts at grown-up humor.

But! What is it that makes Lazlo try still? What drives him to attempt to make Vidcund laugh with a dirty joke over and over again? (and fail?)

I my interpretation, Lazlo doesn’t do that on purpose, he is just really poor at evaluating “dirtiness” of a given joke and frequently misinterprets Vidcund’s cues. The animation of a dirty joke being rejected even supports that as Vid doesn’t signal his discomfort with any exaggerated easy-to-read facial expression until Lazlo gets to his punchline.

No only that but as I mentioned, the invisible lines between spicy and too vulgar are often hard to thread. I can recall many times I thought I was saying a witty quip on an “adult” topic and was met with awkward silence or someone shushing me because “that’s not how you speak in public”. I can well imagine myself in Lazlo’s shoes.

A situation of social cues being misinterpreted or ignored can be observed also in Vidcund. Programming-wise, those are just his low Niceness and extreme Shyness showing but combined they again paint a picture of a very neurodivergent-looking behavioral pattern.

He often behaves like the concept of politeness or social rules doesn’t exist because the combination of the aforementioned traits makes him come off very blunt (lecturing and shoving telescope-peepers with no warning whatsoever) and distant (having a high chance of rejecting simple small-talk socials).

(That’s Jasmine Rai casting the “Summon Vidcund” spell.)

Yes, I am fully aware that it makes a stronger case for him being an a**hole than autistic but... there’s no reason he can’t be both. Not all autistic people are sweet cinnamon buns, all personalities you can think of can be neurodiverse and, for some their neurodiversity can even amplify their inconsiderate ways, as I believe it is the case with our dear grouch Vidcund.

4. Their bios

“No matter what happens, Pascal believes there is a logical explanation for everything. In his free time, he practices home psychoanalysis and collects conspiracy theories.”

(that’s how I imagine practicing psychoanalysis looks like, sorry Freud)

“Serious and exact, Vidcund strives to fit the universe into a nice tidy package. He has an unnatural fondness for African violets.”

(let’s collectively pretend those are African violets)

“Not as studious as his older brothers, Lazlo got his degree in Phrenology. He likes to call phone psychics and spends hours trying to bend forks with his mind.”

*error: screenshot of Lazlo bending forks not found*

(but here he is hanging out with Erin Beaker, the closest thing to “calling phone psychics” you can actually do in-game)

Both Pascal’s and Vidcund’s bios point to a pattern-focused worldview with a strong emphasis on rationality as the center-point that anchors the way they understand the world around them and build their principles on. This “pattern-ization” of thinking is a common autistic trait, with rationality being a popular theme because emotions tend to be difficult to access and asses for many of us.

Lazlo’s biography is an outlier. But it still has something significant in common with those of his brothers: All three of their bios allude to a potential special interest of sorts.

Special interests as an autism-related term are very specific, in-depth and long-term hobbies or areas of expertise that make an autistic person happy and they tend to go to seemingly exhausting lengths, often at the cost of other areas of knowledge and most likely the person’s ability to talk about anything else for a long enough time. (a loving hyperbole, no disrespect meant) Mine are my characters and cats. An even more intense but a short(er)-term passion is called a hyperfixation.

Them potentially having a special interest is yet another possible autistic-coded feature.

5. Wait. Why does it matter?

Right. What does it matter if a Sim (A SIM) (or two or three) is autistic? What do I hope to achieve, pushing my autistic Curiouses agenda down your throats?

I got to write a long rant-piece about some of my favorite TS characters and I feel like I can finally die satisfied.

Apart from that and me sharing my happiness of finding some good pixels I can relate to, it is a matter of representation.

Remember by the very beginning I wrote how most of the representation our community gets in media tends to be just a one specific type of character?

And how the Curious brothers seem to fit the stereotype to a point?

There is something I omitted, something I saved for the last on purpose.

The role. The role in their story, the role in the society the piece of media portrays.

We often see neurodiverse, autistic or autistic-coded character as children, students, villains, lone savants, victims in distress, comedic relief sidekicks, either very vulnerable and needing protection, or detached and having their role defined only by their academic prowess or their special interest/profession.

What we rarely get to see them as, are... parents.

That’s what many of us autistics are or plan to be someday in the future. The dogma around autism has started to dwindle relatively recently and there are little to no examples of autistic adults being the care-givers for once in the media around us.

The Curious brothers are just that. They are chaotic, they are eccentric, they can be a little too much... but they are dutiful and loving fathers/uncles to their little aliens they raise.

They make it work. Even if they face difficulties, even if they don’t exactly fit the standard.

“Sometimes, a family truly can be three brothers raising alien babies, and it’s beautiful.”

It encourages us to define family by love rather than traditional structures and it shows us that portrait of a functional neurodiverse family we need to see.

And goodness, is it a powerful sight.

[tornateos]

Why I think Denki Kaminari has ADHD or is neurodivergent (as someone who has ADHD)

These are just a few of the things I’ve noticed about Denki and I have only written about a few of the symptoms that I experience because they’re the ones that I really understand and I didn’t want to write about something that I may not be able to accurately write about. Please feel free to add more.

** Trigger Warning— Mentions of tics!

For the last point I’m talking about Tics. If you get them, reading about them can cause them. If they cause you any physical, mental, or emotional distress feel free to skip this post :)

Focus. He’s said he has trouble focusing on school and studying. This is what most people think of with adhd is a lack of focus and while that can be a part of it caused by sensory issues, hyper or hypo energy phases, fixations and other symptoms that’s not all ADHD is.

Schooling issues. Many people with either adhd, autism, or anything else on the neurodivergent spectrum have trouble in school either due to a lack of focus, not being able to comprehend the questions, not being able to form your thoughts into words on paper, sensory-overload and a multitude of different issues. Denki, like in the last point, has said he has trouble with school, had the lowest score on class 1-A’s midterm and is often called dumb (which unfortunately is not uncommon for people on the spectrum)

Stimming. Stimming(self-stimulatory behavior) is a common coping mechanism for neurodivergent people. It’s a way of stimulating yourself with a physical stimuli and can be to release energy, to have a sense of control, to stop sensory-overloads, and a whole bunch of other possibilities that are unique to the individual. I can see Kaminari playing with Ojiro’s tail as a way of stimming.

Sleep issues. A big part of neurodivergence is either not being able to sleep, always feeling like you need to sleep, or not realizing that you need to sleep. These can all come from focus and attentive issues, sensory issues, or other symptoms but I always find this panel fun (I can’t remember what chapter the screen shot is from Im sorry)

Personal Space. An especially common symptom of ADHD and neurodivergence that isn’t talked about much is personal space. People on the spectrum may either be very serious about their personal space due to sensory reasons and may not want people touching them while others may not realize that other people value personal space and as a result they are often times touching other people or at least extremely close to them. This can tie in with Denki touching Ojiro’s tail but we’ve also seen him being very touchy with multiple characters including Bakugo, who other characters are cautious about.

Warning

for this next one I am talking about tics and if you have them reading about them can cause them!!

The last one I wanted to point out isn’t as common, but can happen very often (and is a symptom that I get) which is tics. Tics are usually involuntary motor or vocal actions that can occur randomly or they can be triggered by something in someone’s environment. I head canon that when Denki is in his “whey” mode him saying “whey” and giving thumbs up like he does are actually both ticks caused by the sensory-overload when he overexerts himself and essentially shocks himself.

[artinandwritin]

Since I’m on a roll after redrawing my first HTTYD oc, let me just slide onto here and talk about my current HTTYD ocs as well <3

Siri Elisabeth Vínteri;

Siri!! The baby!! She is the first current oc I created, back in December of 2019 and quickly became my favorite, even tho she was made so I could have an oc to join in on the HTTYD oc fandom on Instagram with. However, after her sweet nature and lovable tendencies developed, she captured my cold heart and opened up room for a whole branch of ocs.

Despite in a branch of the rowdy Hofferson family, Siri has proven herself to be a sunshine with a heart of gold. Her first instinct is to be kind to the people she meets and her forgiveness knows no bounds, even if this makes her naïve. She is the most caring and loving character I’ve ever created, which honestly made her even more of a treasure to me. I adore her qualities and personality, as she gives off total comfort energy. I just <333. Baby.

Siri’s Dragon is a sassy diva of a Deadly Nadder named Funnet and is friends with Gustav Larson (they fall in love at the end of their teens and marry and start a family in their mid-twenties, cute babies ship) and is four years younger than Hiccup and the Gang. She’s also quite close with Astrid and ends up having a total of three kids with Gus; Niv, her son, and Sunniva and Helene, her daughters. Siri’s story is actually the prequel to Niv’s story, which is funny considering I created her long before Niv.

Niv Fanghook Larson;

The goodest of bois! Niv is one complicated cookie and I adore him. He is Siri’s son and oldest child, having been born when she was almost 23. However, he was believed to have been born sleeping and was given a traditional viking funeral, something that left his mother heartbroken for years to come.

However, Niv survived as his status was actually a medical situation as the result of an early birth, and was rescued and raised by a tribe of assassins, the Myriad Tribe. Here, he was adopted by a man named Bendik (whose brother actually has ties back to Siri, having met her in their teens) and his wife. However, Niv never stopped longing for his birth parents, as life in the Myriad Tribe was cruel and hostile, filled with murder and faceless men giving assignments. Thus, the young boy made it his life goal to one day find his mom and dad.

Niv is actually the main character between all of my HTTYD ocs! His story is the most interesting for me and I adore playing around with all the different possibilities in his plotline. His sassy attitude and edgelord tendencies crack me up as well lmao.

He’s just such a good boi and I love to talk more about him <3

Sunniva Funnet Larson;

Niv’s little sister and Siri’s first daughter! She is very analytical, quiet and turned towards herself, but passionate as can be. Being a daddy’s girl, she gets along with her dad Gustav perfectly, something Siri absolutely adores. Their little family remains the three of them for a long time and they love each other to death.

Sunni is on the autism spectrum and has a special interest in herbs and medicine, as well as all and everything Dragons, something her parents stimulate greatly and support with all their might (she mainly adores Fanghook and Toothless, thinking they’re cool). She also loves to talk to her parents’ peers, calling them her “grown up friends”, mainly adoring Snotlout. She thinks he’s cool and likes to talk to him about the olden days <3

Unfortunately, Sunni’s story is still a bit up in the air, as she is actually one of my newest ocs! However, I am stoked to craft her story and plotline as I do adore her character and little quips. She is just such a little bean and I’d love to explore more about her.

Obviously I have a lot more ocs, but these are just my main ones! I love them to bits and I would love to talk about them more haha. Soooo, if you have any questions or would simply love to hear more, yeet a question at me! I’d love to answer <3