#i got what the kids call The Tism and the adhd

[creatingblackcharacters]

Long ask, I'm so sorry! My 'tism! :-(

One of my favorite characters, though he could have been written a LOT better, is Jesper Fahey from Six of Crows! He is part of a larger series called the Grishaverse, and he even made it into the live action adaptation on Netflix, called Shadow and Bone!

This is his official art.

Jesper is a very tall (6'3") 17-18 year old boy from Novya Zem. His father is Kaelish (Irish) and his mother is Zemeni (??? No specified country other than the Black characters are from there. The "vaguely African" continent. What were you thinking, Leigh Bardugo 😭). He grew up on a jurda farm, where his mother taught him how to shoot.

(Spoilers) Jesper is considered a Grisha, which are the magic users of this world. He's a Materialnik, meaning he can manipulate metal, glass, textiles, chemicals, etc. That's why he, a Sharpshooter, never misses: he can control where the bullet is going. His mother, who died using her power to save the life of a child, taught him how to harness his power. She called them both Zowa, which means "blessed."

Jesper is heavily coded as having ADHD, unintentionally or not. Hiding his power to protect himself leaves him constantly distracted and unable to focus. He leaves the farm to attend a university in Ketterdam, but quickly falls into bad company and begins to struggle with a gambling addiction.

(Ketterdam is like a mix between Las Vegas and Amsterdam, if that makes any sense. It's overrun with crime. Six of Crows is a YA heist novel.)

Jesper began taking on jobs with a gang called The Dregs (one which most of the characters in this book are part of) in order to pay off his neverending debt, and he befriends Kaz Brekker, one of the leaders. His relationship with Kaz is... complicated. Kaz is a cruel kid, and he and Jesper can butt heads. Kaz considers Jesper to be a brother to him nonetheless, one he looks out for.

Yadda yadda, plot of the books happens. Jesper learns how powerful his identity as a Grisha/Zowa can be. He meets his future boyfriend, Wylan Van Eck. They bond over their trauma. Jesper comes clean to his Dad and makes up with him. He meets his pirate idol. His character arc revolves around accepting his power and learning to use it, and recovering from his addiction. He decides to stay with Wylan, where they can take care of each other. Wylan will help him find somebody to teach him to use his Grisha/Zowa abilities and help hold him accountable and support him on his journey to recovery, and Jesper will help Wylan manage his business.

He's an extremely endearing and appealing character, and his struggles and anxieties feel so dynamic. He's witty, sarcastic, cocky, and teasing, but also good-natured and friendly. He's somebody with good intentions who is dragged down by the weight of the world, always feeling like he's screwing up and barely taking the time to appreciate how wonderful and talented he is. He's very relatable in that regard.

It's really cool that he's openly bisexual, too! That's emphasized in the TV adaptation. We don't get much insight into his character as there were only 2 seasons, and they were mostly focused on the A plot. We do get to see his awesome sharpshooter skills and his touching friendship with Inej, his bestie.

(Jesper, Inej, & Kaz / Wylan and Jesper)

As much as I love Jesper, Leigh Bardugo's writing of people of color leaves a lot to be desired. I can't speak much on it myself as it isn't my place, but somebody I remember from back in my fandom days who had great headcanons for Jesper, Novya Zem, etc. and lots of constructive posts criticizing the writing of the Black characters in the Grishaverse series is @/zemenipearls (Huge shoutout to her, BTW. We used to be mutuals a few years ago, and it was like being in the trenches trying to get certain characters to receive fair treatment and accurate characterization from the fans of the series - and she absolutely got the worst of it.)

From what I understand a lot of Black fans were disappointed by a lightskinned actor playing him rather than a darkskinned one, considering he is canonically darkskinned. Kit Young did an excellent job, however, in my opinion - I just wish more care had gone into the casting of the series' diverse characters. (A canonically fat female character was made skinny as well!)

Jesper may canonically have gray eyes and a shaved head, but to me it kind of feels like a cop out? (Forgive me if I'm out of line.) I prefer Jesper designs that explore different textured hairstyles and give him more natural brown eyes.

My favorites from @/sewer-lizard.

One of the best Jespers around.

Some other Jespers I really enjoy: 1, 2, 3

Sorry for rambling! To those reading this, nothing I mentioned here is a major spoiler that would inhibit your enjoyment of the books. If you'd like to read them, please buy a copy secondhand or pirate them. Leigh Bardugo is a real piece of work.)

(This blog is wonderful and I hope you have a great day!)

Ah, the Grishaverse! I remember reading like... I think like the first two books (I remember a girl with the power of the sun, and the darkling) and it lost my interest. And then I found out about the Netflix adaptation and said.. mm.... I see that this will not regain my interest.

Unfortunately, talking about the treatment of Black characters in fandom more often than not opens one up to racism and wrath. It's part of why fandom isn't really "for everybody". I hope you were supportive of your friend while she was fighting the battle. And if her writing leaves much to be desired for characters of color (and if she herself is questionable) I don't think I need to read it lol. I'm cool. It's a shame too, because the concept was really interesting when I was a teen! And I always think costuming like that is intriguing.

What I am happy about is your excitement, bc I did not know there were Black people in either them books or in that show- it's been a while, clearly! Thank you for the reminder!

[hhnconfessions]

Hey, I just wanted to apologize if my last ask was weirding you out. I was kinda joking, but I’m neurodivergent and terrible with tone, so sometimes my jokes don’t sound like jokes and can sound creepy, and I really don’t mean it! I just realized how odd it could sound and I hope I wasn’t weird 😭. I’m so so sorry if it was.

- Director Valentines Day anon

MY LOVELY HOMESLICE PLEASE DONT WORRY IM ALSO VERY ND IM JUST BAD AT KEEPIN UP W EVERYTHING 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

[were-wolverine]

au where when tim finds dick and asks him to be robin again, dick is like “no but also are you okay?? where are your parents?” and proceeds to adopt/kidnap him

dick sends clark and diana to babysit bruce and tries to dissuade tim from being robin, but he’s a stubborn little shit so blüdhaven gains a new vigilante alongside nightwing (dick won’t let tim be bruce’s robin, not robin in general)

dick isn’t a cop because fuck you dc he would never idgaf what you think it’s wrong and goes against so much of his character!!! i hate cop!dick so much, he isn’t real to me

dick is a part-time college student majoring in human biology and minoring in psychology while training to be a paramedic. tim moves in with him (a small studio apartment) and they forge some records and IDs so tim can go to school in blüdhaven (not that the schools really care)

tim likes to read dick’s college textbooks & notes (if eligible) and spends most of his free time in the library or taking photos across the city. dick is 19 and tim is 14. jack and janet don’t even notice tim is gone

they both have enough to live comfortably but dick only uses his own money (from his parents) and tries to teach tim about like. class differences and how much normal stuff costs (i love timmy but he is a lil rich boy)

dick can cook and clean (which is CANON thank you very much), but his room is basically an organized mess (adhd-ass), while tim is used to needing his room to look perfect and deep cleans like once a week (trauma & he has a touch of the ‘tism)

when dick kills the joker, thinking tim is dead, tim gets to him in time but dick doesn’t let bruce resuscitate him and joker stays dead. this leads to post-pit jason going to blüdhaven instead of gotham.

part of him feels vindicated that his big brother the golden boy killed the clown, but part of him feels like he was replaced by tim. either way it drives him to blüdhaven. he observes nightwing and the new robin for a while, realizing that shit, this robin is just a kid. he can’t hate the new robin for something that’s not even the kid’s fault

he has a mess of complicated emotions about dick, though. again, he’s glad dick avenged him, but is mad he replaced him, and is a better brother to this robin than he was to jason. jason wanted that fun older brother. he got it for a little bit but it wasn’t nearly enough time, and then he fucking died

anyway, this of course leads to a confrontation between red hood & nightwing and robin. jason considers messing with them but decides to just get it over with (so he can yell at dick) and takes off the helmet. dick recognizes him immediately, and tim figures out who he is by dick’s reaction.

queue jason failing to be mad at dick when he starts sobbing and hugging him, and tim jumping in and making it a group hug. they bring him back to their apartment and give jason the guest room (they often have titans friends over), while jason is still like “…what just happened”

him and dick do talk later that night, and dick pretty much tells him everything. jason does the same “so they’re even”

jason goes back to gotham to protect crime alley, he has a couple safe houses set up around the city, but he visits blüdhaven whenever he can. similarly, when dick and tim are free they visit jason in gotham, at his main safe house that only they know about

going back a while, tim is kidnapped by joker while helping bruce with a case in gotham. he goes missing and bruce calls dick to see if he went back to blüdhaven, which he obviously didn’t, and dick speeds to gotham and finds joker, who tells him tim is dead and taunts him about jason. dick beats the joker to death, and doesn’t let bruce revive him, even if he has to live with what he did

after that bruce cuts contact with dick, but tries to stay in contact with tim. tim, however, is pissed at bruce for how he is treating dick and similarly cuts contact with bruce. both boys stay in contact with alfred, though, and sometimes he will update bruce on how they are doing

after jason settles into gotham, he joins dick and tim on one of their visits to alfred (while bruce is away/at work) and gets to reunite with him. alfred agrees to keep red hood’s identity a secret from bruce until jason is ready to tell him, but encourages him to do it soon because bruce misses him terribly

after blüdhaven is destroyed, dick is a wreck, so they move in with jason at his apartment near crime alley. nightwing is out of commission for a while (mentally AND physically) so robin patrols with red hood, who agrees to be as non-lethal as possible around him

dick is in a depressive episode for a while, so jason plays the role of Big Brother to tim (and dick if he’s being honest) until he feels a bit better. he’s actually the best at helping dick when he’s upset (aside from alfred ofc) and forces his ass into therapy with dinah

therapy and spending time with his brothers helps dick a lot, and he manages to force both of them to see therapists as well (not dinah cuz like. bias and legal stuff. but they find some good ones)

jason actually talks to harley sometimes (she’s calmed down a lot since the joker died and she started dating ivy), and she’s stable enough to give him solid advice occasionally. regardless, she’s a great listener and will always let him rant to her

okay flashback time again: when dick was living in titans tower in nyc, he attended college at hudson university. after about a year there, he moved to blüdhaven and transferred to blüdhaven university

tim moves in with him after dick’s been in blüdhaven for a few months. he finishes sophomore year at BU and starts paramedic training, deciding not to return to college. he’s 20 as of March and tim is almost 15

it’s around this time that jason (18) shows up- after dick’s finished sophomore year at BU but before he finishes paramedic training. after blüdhaven is destroyed, dick stops his paramedic training but eventually picks it back up again in gotham

ANYWAY so yeah the three of them share an apartment in park row

dick finishes paramedic training and starts working with gotham emergency services / thomas wayne memorial hospital (leslie’s clinic), and often helps anyone he comes across for free (he always has first aid supplies on hand & their apartment is hella stocked up)

dick and jason also often make meals for nearby homeless shelters (tim would help but he is a terrible cook, instead he manages to trick rich assholes into donating to and funding shelters, food pantries, schools, etc. in park row)

idek where i’m going with this anymore, just the three of them being brothers and visiting alfred. bruce focuses more on damian and cass, but occasionally they will all work together on a case (bruce has given up trying to get any of them- mostly jason- to move back to the manor)

damian and cass will drop by their apartment from time to time, as will alfred. jason, after watching over robin while nightwing was down, has stopped killing (for the most part) and focuses more on community support than beating up criminals

nightwing has become a sort of medic vigilante of sorts, he bounces across the city helping anyone who is injured (mostly abusive victims / those who can’t afford healthcare and are too far from leslie’s clinic to go there / homeless kids who can’t go there without having CPS called / etc)

he mainly patrols park row, but if he has time he will venture further out into the rest of gotham. tim is still robin atp, but he eventually changes his vigilante identity from robin

tim and steph still meet and become friends, but instead of working with batman as spoiler, she works with nightwing, red hood and robin. also, she is never robin, but she is batgirl for a bit

babs is oracle (okay timeline wise idk if she gets shot by joker before or after dick kills him soo i’m just gonna say before) and she helps out both the bats (bruce, dami, cass) and the birds (dick, jay, tim, steph)

steph ends up moving in with babs (who is very excited to have a little sister). this is when babs gives her batgirl, which she eventually (with permission) gives to cass.

sidenote: babs & dick are Best Friends like ride or die and that’s part of the reason dick killed joker- tho he doesn’t tell her that. they see each other all the time (the boys’ apartment building has an elevator) and stay in contact throughout all of this

robin and spoiler meet when the boys move back to gotham, and the two become fast friends. spoiler runs into red hood and robin one time and tim is like “hi S, this is my big brother!” and she’s like “your what.”

once dick is back as nightwing, he meets spoiler as well (who has told them her name is steph atp) and she’s like “i’ve heard all about you from your brothers :)” and dick is like “🥹 really?”

after that the boys tell steph their identities- “didn’t you die?!” “yeah, long story”- and she does the same- “wait is your dad that knockoff riddler guy?” “unfortunately, yeah”- and she crashes at their apartment sometimes after long nights of patrolling

it’s MY au so i say that cass found damian, understood what talia was trying to say when she saw her, and steals lil dami to arrive on bruce wayne’s doorstep. alfred opens the door and she basically shoves damian at him and then runs into the manor and launches herself at a very confused bruce with a hug. bruce is just like ‘okay i guess this is my daughter now’ and then alfred walks in with damian and he’s like ‘…i guess i have another son now too’

this all happens while tim and dick are in blüdhaven and jason is in gotham avoiding bruce like the plague. babs doesn’t tell them because she can be evil sometimes and wants to see their live reactions. imagine their surprise when the boys go to visit alfred and find two assassin children (cass is 19 but shush)

when bruce is lost in time, jace fox takes over as batman while tim, dick and cass go look for him. jason and steph stay and guard gotham and tim gives robin to damian so he can help them (and not go stir crazy without his dad). huntress and the sirens also help out in place of the three vigilantes looking for bruce

they find him faster since there’s three people looking, and everything pretty much goes back to normal after that, aside from jason being damian’s favorite older brother (instead of dick, bc he was never the batman to damian’s robin)

another sidenote: i am totally just ignoring jack and janet drake’s existence bc i don’t wanna deal with them yk? also crystal brown is alive and a decent mom, steph just moved out cuz she wanted more independence

rough age timeline rq

dick is 19 when he kidnaps adopts tim who is 14

jason (18) confronts dick (20) and tim (15)

cass (17) & dami (7) - jay (19), dick (21), tim (16)

blüd destroyed - dick (22), jason (20), tim (17)

tim (17) and steph (17) meet as vigilantes

cass (18) becomes orphan

dick (23) returns to nightwing - jason (21), tim (18)

tim becomes sparrow- robin is put in storage

the boys meet cass (19) & damian (9)

steph (18) moves in w babs (26)

steph becomes batgirl

future timeline

steph (19) gives batgirl to cass (20)

cass (21) becomes black bat

bruce gets lost in time

dick (25) jay (23) & tim (20) give damian (11) robin

[woodenchip]

DANGANRONPA 2 GENERAL HEADCANONS

Just some headcanons that I wrote down, most of it is just pure nonsense and I love that for me

🍊Hajime Hinata🍊

•TRANS MASC (HE'S JUST LIKE ME FR)

•Bi man, big bi man (men pref)

•He doesn't untie his tie, he just makes it loose enough to slip it on and off

•Is like really quiet when you don't know him, but once he's comfortable with you he has no control over what he says

•Deals with intrusive thoughts

•He's so silly

•Has ADD or ADHD and OCD

•Sleeps in the fetal position

🍖Akane Owari🍖

•My favorite Demiromantic demigirl

•My girl is sex REPOLST

•Aoi is her cousin

•Akane is so proud of Aoi

•High metabolism omg

•Whenever she got bored doing something with gymnastics she'd go up to little kids and show off

•"You wanna see what I can do-"

•She hopes that by showing off the kids get inspired by her and work hard

•She's really good with kids, like #1 babysitter type shit

•Her and Kazuichi are close too

•Like bff's

⚜️The Ultimate Imposter⚜️

•Agender. Definitely Agender

•They/It motherfucker

•gently holds them

•I LOVE THEM SO MUCH :((

•Everytime they disguise themselves an identity crisis happens

•"No one knows who I really am :), but also, no one knows who I really am :("

•Has a very empty room

•like, little to nothing

•CAREGIVER, I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

👾Chiaki Nanami👾

•My silly little she/they lesbian

•Tbh I also feel like she's aroace

•My girl is a whole program, I doubt they care about all that‼️

•Loves Mario Kart

•OCD

•Collects old school gaming controllers and stuff

🩸Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu🩸

•HE/HIM BUTCH LESBIAN

•but also he/him trans masc

•no matter what he's trans, I don't make the rules

•With the Trans fem headcanon I love him with Peko

•They are my silly lesbians♥️

•Has so many scars

•I LOVE HIM

•He does age regression

•I DON'T MAKE THE RULES

•Let me project

🐹Gundham Tanaka🐹

•HE/SHE/THEY NON-BINARY SILLY

•They are simply too cool for gender

•Autism?

•Autism.

• yk that one meme that's like "When I go nonverbal at the function"

•Yeah, that's them

•Has costumes for the Dark Devas of Destruction

•HAS MATCHING COSTUMES WITH THEM

👘Hiyoko Saionji👘

•Lesbian‼️‼️

•Her and Imposter are so Sibling coded

•Like her calling him "Ham hands!" SIBLINGS

•I like found family :)

•Like Hiyoko would annoy them so much but will apologize ONLY to them

•Even with Mahiru, Hiyoko will give her half-ass apologies

•HIYOKO AND IMPOSTER FRIENDSHIP‼️

🎸Ibuki Mioda🎸

•My bi-con

•When she gets Overstimulated she just gets more verbal

•Like "omg it's so loud in here??? Should I be louder? I should-"

•She has like those noise cancelling headphones for when she sleeps because of her heightened hearing

•Without the headphones? Not a wink of sleep

•ADHD and OCD

•Whenever she doesn't concerts she makes friends with the staff (or at least tries to)

•Ibuki and Kazuichi have sleepovers and watch kid shows together just for the fun of it

🔧Kazuichi Soda🔧

•AGAIN, TRANS FEM OR MASC THEY BOTH WORK

•LIKE THAT ONE PART OF KAZ SAYING THAT HE WOULD WANT TO BE A WOMAN TO TALK TO SONIA CASUALLY???? SCREAMS TRANS FEM

•also his thing with Sonia? That's not a crush, that's gender envy. (Let me be silly with this)

•Like his eyeliner in game?? No cis man would be able to do that/hj

•Also has the tism

•NEEDS TO BE HOLDING SOMETHING, ANYTHING

•Has like, a box of stim toys

•DOES JUMPY AND TIPPY TOE STIMS

•They really like the feeling of Gundhams scarf

•ALSO DOES LITTLE SPACE

•Let me project onto them😡

📸Mahiru Koizumi📸

•Lesbian or Panromantic

•Big asexual icon

•She forgets things so easily (Main reason why she took up photography)

•She's always late to the first class of the day because she sees something really pretty and takes multiple pictures of it

💉Mikan Tsumiki💉

•DEMISEXUAL, MY HOMEGIRL HAS TO GET CLOSE TO SOMEONE BEFORE SHE EVEN THINKS ABOUT A RELATIONSHIP

•She's also trans fem

•Gently holds her omg

•She asked Nagito to help fix her hair

•He fucked it up more

•Like you know that one part of her bangs that's shorter than the other strands? He did that

•Nagito and her would be silly friends

•"Why would an amazing Ultimate like you want to be friends with a worthless human like me?"

•She'd say something like- "Because you're not that bad, you just get unlucky sometimes, just like me!"

•Like, with how she falls, she's definitely unlucky

•SHE'S ALSO HYPERSEXUAL

🍀Nagito Komaeda🍀

•I really dislike him so I have very little

•My guy is definitely a He/They

•Is (somewhat) close to most of the Lucky students

•He'd end up degrading them though

•"It's amazing how we got into Hopes Peak from just luck!" "I know, how worthless is it that we are only here because of a name drawing!"

•He doesn't have many friends

•And with the few he does have, he just doesn't understand??

•like, my man is struggling to understand why HE has friends

🌪️Nekomaru Nidai🌪️

•The only cis Man here istg

•I love him so much omg

•He would help younger students train and just exercise

•Like him, Mondo, and Taka, they were like besties

•Taka would look up to him SO MUCH

•I'm also a Taka lover, be warned

•Also really good with kids

•Type of person to swing the swings so hard that it tangles up

•Akane would have to fix the swings

•He's just so silly :((

🎭Peko Pekoyama🎭

•FUTCH LESBIAN, HER AND FUYUHIKO ARE MY SILLY LITTLE LESBIANS, I LOVE THEM.

•She's near sighted

•She HATES contacts

•No matter what she does she doesn't take off her glasses, she wears them in the shower, in the pool, everywhere (just like me)

•Her eyesight gets worse and worse everyday/hj

•CARETAKER‼️‼️

•I LOVE HER SO MUCH

•Near sighted

👑Sonia Nevermind👑

•My girl experiments with pronouns and labels

•She's knows she likes woman though, 100%

•Going with the Trans Fem Kazuichi headcanon: she'd help Kaz with clothes

•Like, "You should try this on-"

•Of course she wouldn't forgive Kaz with the weird harassing thingy but she'd be okay with them after a while

•Sonia doesn't hold grudges

•I'm also a Kazuichi apologist ‼️

•SONIA WOULD CRY IF SHE MET GENOCIDER SHO

•CRYING OF HAPPINESS, LIKE‼️‼️

•"Omg- I've been watching police reports of you since you first started killing-!"

•She would watch Gundham's animals and dress them up in fancy little animals clothes

🍴Teruteru Hanamura🍴

•Pansexual

•We already knew that though

•I have like, nothing for him

•I don't like him >:(

•Loves those really corny romance shows

•Like the really bad ones that suck? Yeah, those

•He has a whole notebook with his mother's recipes for when he left to go to Hopes peak so he could cook them whenever he got homesick :(

•He HATES sharing recipes to other people

•Can NOT work in the kitchen with someone else

•MOVE OUT OF HIS WAY, HE WILL SHOVE YOU‼️

[cosmosgroundhogday]

Why the DHMIS youtube series is centred around ASD (autism), entirely based around just the songs for now

All three of the main guys show so many ‘tism traits

- all hate change at different points

- every single song relates to a different ‘tism symptom/trait/stereotype

The Creativity Song

- children with ASD are a lot more likely to display a deep sense of creativity and imagination

- they often show lower performance in creativity as it’s all in the brain and unable to express it

- which is essentially the entire song

- the notebook (social rules) is explaining to the three guys how to be creative, limiting what they’re allowed to do, and everything they suggest themselves is told wrong

- yellow guy paints a clown ridiculously quickly and he’s told to “slow down” and destroys the painting (destroying autistic kid’s creativity because what they can express is usually entirely outside of the primary school education)

- the childish primary school activities that ensue that they keep doing “wrong”

- “green is not a creative colour” (this feels like a long shot but there’s the primary media theory that essentially because he doesn’t pick a primary colour like red guy chooses blue and green guy chooses red, he’s not following the primary education, and so this can link to growing up too fast which is a thing a lot of tism kids are forced to do, so yellow guy is ‘mature for his age’ choosing green, and obviously notebook is not happy)

- and then the whole chaos that ensues is mostly the horror aspect, if I can get some film analysis in during a rewatch i shall

The Time Song

- it’s more an adhd trait but it happens in asd too, simply just the disassociation from time

- also obsessive schedules, as to not lose the concept of time

- “an old man died but look a computer”, theorised as the clock keeping the guys from thinking about death to lure them into whatever horror he’s got in store, however what about the fact that autistic people while more empathetic than neurotypical will often not be effected by the concept of human death unless they know them, (idk how much sense that makes but say a cat died that you never knew, that’s sad, but a human dies that you never knew, no feelings, obviously people you know it’s a different story a lot of the time but hopefully you know what i mean)

- the entire scheduling, with fish and bath, forcing of schedules so you don’t lose track of time, cuz often people with asd won’t eat unless they think about the time as hunger isn’t something they will always feel

The Love Song

- my absolute favourite and jesus christ there’s a LOT

- so the yellow guy is aroace, poly, and autistic, and it all shows in this song

- he calls a butterfly a “little baby pigeon”, this is tism in itself

- the first part of a song is literally about how people are ‘different’ and in an ideal world it wouldn’t make a difference and they should live in harmony

- PLEASE

- I can quote every single line in this song and go “THIS IS AUTISM”

- autistic people obviously can feel love, but it’s another concept like gender that in most cases is so much more confusing

- “no it’s a feeling deep inside” “because I’m hungry” - !!!!!!!

- by the end of the song monogamous marriage begins being displayed like a cult

- why would you demonise monogamy in a show like this?

- apart from maybe the fact most autistic people are polyamorous

- because, social rules aren’t real

- and humans are biologically polyamory

- it’s just social conventions that make us monogamous

- but when you’re autistic

- you’re more likely to ignore that

- so

- you see where i’m going :)

- “he’s made for her and she’s made for him that’s the way it’s always been”

- and so ensues feeding Malcolm gravel

- monogamy is a cult

- autistic people >>>>>

The Computer Song

- the biggest metaphor for gifted kid burnout I’ve ever seen

- the way autistic people are treated robotically and praised for enhanced mental abilities as everything about them just b r e a k s

- gifted kids are very clever-y guys

- they can count to a ‘fifty in the blink of an eye

- and paint a picture

- and they can tell you the time

- also the fact that autistic kids are more drawn to technology and being ✨online✨ as an escape from the real world

- red guy being incredibly against change is another thing that’s going on

- the ‘digital home’ could essentially be an autistic brain

- not feeling 🥰real🥰

- wow, look a pie chart

- digital style

- do a digital dancing

- so basically most gifted kids thrived in maths, not always but it’s the main stereotyped one

- the same three being repeated

- eventually “wow look nothing”, the burnout has become

- your skills are gone

- what you gonna do now?

- keep opening the door for it to come back?

- nothing

- it all speeds up and eventually unplugged

- just

- burnout :)

The Healthy Song

- metaphor for ARFID, an ED that’s associated with autism

- as I said I’m not rewatching the actual episodes yet so I’m going entirely off what I remember (which isn’t a lot cuz I hated this episode with a passion) and the song on a spotify playlist

- the explanation of hunger at the start, which is something confusing in autistic people

- pretty sure the can and the other lad will only let the guys eat plain food in little amounts and claims that’s ‘healthy’

- also the explanation of the body as a house, it’s just all very confusing which is a metaphor in itself

- even though ARFID is an ED around the texture of foods and not amounts it still kind of makes sense??

- this one’s a bit of a stretch

- but bread, cream, and plain white sauce keeps the body ticking over??

- that’s limited flavour and texture

- fancy show-offy foods like cooked meats, fruit salads, soil food and yolk is bad

- too much flavour and texture

- but then eventually even plain white sauce is bad

- having a comfort food so much you can’t touch it anymore

- but it’s hard to find a replacement

The Dreams Song

- this one bored me when I used to watch the series

- and I can’t tell a lot from the song apart from it reflects on the entire series

- so

- idk

- but they all have autism and it’s different trait from the spectrum every episode

[vodid]

Idk who else to ask since the internet isn’t exactly helpful and I don’t trust any medical professionals to help but if you’re uncomfortable answering that’s okay, but I was wondering if I was neurodivergent and I took some online tests (I know that you can’t actually self diagnose but I was just curious) but I don’t know anyone else to go to for maybe a little bit of help but like I said before, if you’re uncomfortable answering that’s completely fine too!

if you're questioning it this much, chances are it's likely but i am not a medical professional (unfortunately you cannot and should not trust my word over theirs) and i am not you. i know nothing about you or how your brain works, i only encourage that you put in as much research to be able to make that call for yourself. you can check out ActuallyAutistic resources or educational accounts about autism (from autistic people)

if you don't trust medical professionals, i would look into the why of that more and what you'd even want out of them in the first place besides knowing if you are neurodivergent or not. would you do it only for the validation? why is that important to you? would it help you get accommodations? if that's what you need, then you need to figure out how to tackle the mistrust to work towards an evaluation.

ask yourself how you'd benefit from a self diagnosis as opposed to a clinical diagnosis. also know that you really don't have to self diagnose or diagnose at all. you can suspect it to play it safe, to explore your options and yourself. so even if self diagnoses are frowned upon, you can still potentially learn more about yourself and how to accommodate based off your needs

it should be known that i am not diagnosed as autistic. i am diagnosed as having adhd, and the chances of the 'tism too are very likely for me based off my personal experiences, but i am not an accurate source of information for experiences as i do not have an autism diagnosis nor do i really know how to separate my neurodivergent traits from what's neurotypical (you're telling me not everyone got unreasonably angry over their socks as a kid?)

[frodispatch]

STANLEY URIS, and why he’s neurodivergent.

From the perspective of an autistic\OCD person who’s favorite book is the doorstop which is IT, and who’s favorite movie is the wonderful 1990 IT miniseries.

Stanley Uris is one of my favorite characters. He’s always just spoken to me. As someone who’s always been very practical/logical, even before I knew I was autistic Stan stood out as someone like me. We share a love of birds, bell bottom jeans, powerful memory that can even hold up to Derry-induced amnesia, and have a similar "weird" sense of humor.

. Book Stan

Focusing on him as a kid since that’s when we see the most of him (poor babylove), he is shown to be the "skeptic" of the group and he desperately tries to rationalize the existence of Pennywise using logic. This fear of change/disruption to order resonates with me deeply. He loves birds a lot, (can be seen as a special interest), and so did I at that age so of course I loved him right away. (I used to carry a little green book about birds in New England from the 40s around everywhere when I was 10 and would list off facts about parakeets to any unsuspecting human who happened to come into my presence). He is shown to have an odd sense of humor, or at least different from the other losers, with his joke "kookie kookie, lend me your bones". He is heavily implied to have OCD, which makes him neurodivergent anyway, but I hold that he’s autistic, since OCD and autism can often go hand in hand, and he’s a comfort character of mine who is basically me so if I’m autistic, so is he. This isn’t primarily neurodivergence-related, but I believe he stayed back a year in school due to health problems as a kid and as someone who had a lot of those (when I was seven in particular. Asthma. Eddie Kaspbrak got to me too, I think Stephen King fucks with me on purpose.), it’s another reason I resonate with him so much. As an adult he seems to get a lot of "action" and we all know autistic people are the sexiest people alive so that’s reason enough to believe he’s got a touch of the ‘tism.

. 2017/2019 Stan

This is the Stan I'd say is most heavily OCD, with his need to get things right, to maintain order, and an obsession with cleanliness, pushing aside his fear to straighten that scary painting and being very precise while cleaning blood off of Bev's bathroom window. He calms himself down by pressing his fingers to his temple, in what I see as a sort of self-soothing stim. He wears clean & practical outfits, which give way to something softer and looser as an adult, which is nice to see, as it shows that some of the pressure on him has loosened. Unfortunately, it’s sad too since he was the one who was arguably the most comfortable in his adult life out of the losers, but a certain call from an old friend brought everything back too soon. In the 2017 film, he keeps a lot of the traits of book Stan, though I’d say he’s a bit less childlike and more "stiff" or “prudish” than in the book, showing this Stan to lean more heavily into the boy who had to be an adult too fast. This Stan's attempt to rationalize Pennywise's appearances is still shown to be Stan trying to keep his world order in check. Pennywise is a manifestation of fear after all, and even Stan's attempt at disbelief gives It power.

. Miniseries Stan

I don’t really care for the adult Stanley in the miniseries, and, as it is with all of the adult Stans, he’s not there for very long, so I am specifically focusing on kid-Stan since he is the best and I love his little bowtie. This Stan is the stereotyped "smart" kid, with his eloquent ways of speech and use of big words, giving expository descriptions to the other Losers like when explaining to Bev about Richie's "metabolism" *cough cough ADHD*. He, like in the 2017 film, wears formal and "adult" clothing, having him present as a man stuck in a kid's body. (Like, boy wears suspenders and a bowtie to school, I love him) This Stan is still the skeptic, and I will not be redundant and talk again about his rationalization of everyone's favorite child-eating space clown to keep his world in order. This Stan also comes with some things I see as stims! I included a picture of him fiddling with his ear when he’s under stress and he also repeats the Boy Scouts mantra-thing in the sewers, which is definitely a vocal stim to help himself calm down.

Thank you for reading this if you read this far! If you agree or disagree with this take, feel free to share your thoughts. I’d love to talk about more of my autistic (or other neurodivergent, or even queer) comfort characters. There’s a lot of other Stephen king ones I could look at, like from The Body (which is my favorite Stephen King piece and inspired the movie Stand By Me, just for reference because some people don’t know that) or Danny Torrance (or even Wendy!) from The Shining, specifically the Stanley Kubrick film. I could also look at Star Trek, with Data (my favorite!) Odo, Bashir, Spock of course, and so many more lol. I could also get into Sherlock being autistic (obviously), but to avoid bringing up middle school trauma, I will not, at least for the time being. (I could write about it if I talk about Data though because he loves Sherlock Holmes and so do I)