#in fact no one in this little fuck up family is neurotypical

[blackholesun321]

something just occurred to me with the wing!au,,,,

roronoa ‘i will challenge the same person 2000 times till i win’ zoro

and portgas ‘i will spend 100 days trying to assassinate the strongest man in the world’ d. ace

will be in proximity to each other as children,,

poor mihawk

Ace and Zoro upon meeting each other.

Mihawk has so many regrets.

[youcouldmakealife]

Stuff That Helps Me Write: Procrastination Busting (Intro)

My entire writing process, I've learned, boils down to trickery.

I'm the queen of procrastination (I think that royal title automatically comes with your ADHD diagnosis). That applies to literally everything: I will procrastinate eating. Sleeping. Hydrating. Bathroom breaks. Working. Not working. Doing shit I am actively looking forward to. I have a graveyard of games I never finished because I got too close to the end and my brain went ‘I’m enjoying this too much to finish, So I guess I’ll just never play it again’.

So obviously writing’s no exception to my ability to postpone doing anything and everything, but for some reason, it’s impacted less than everything else. So why?

Because it’s my job, but that goes for literally every other part of my job too, and I can procrastinate just fine on those parts. Just look at how long publication takes me.

Because I frequently hyperfocus on it, but in order to get into that state of mind I still have to start, and that’s the part that procrastination impacts the most.

Because I enjoy writing, but as I’ve just said, enjoyment has no bearing on whether I’ll do it. Ditto the fact I find it meaningful, and satisfying, and am invested in where it’s going. None of that makes something immune to procrastination. In fact, as those poor video games show, sometimes that makes me more likely to procrastinate.

So why don’t I generally procrastinate writing?

The fact that it's my job, and I enjoy it, and find it adds meaning to my life, all have in no way made me less likely to procrastinate, but they have meant that for 20+ years, I have been methodically figuring out workarounds for said procrastination. Things will work for a little while, until procrastination inevitably pops right back up with a new excuse, and then I have to figure out a workaround for that one. It’s been a very extended game of whack-a-mole, but I now have an entire toolbox to work with, and writing is now the most consistent thing in my life, only second to reading, which I basically do daily, and don’t consider a ‘habit’ to work on any more than most would consider watching TV or playing video games every day a ‘habit’ to work on.

Now, when I say consistency, I don’t mean I write on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays at 5:30 am with a lit candle and a fragrant mug of tea like I have been told to do (writing guides all seem to require writing before dawn, which is something I only ever do accidentally, wrapping up a ‘whoops, got an idea in the middle of the night’ session).

I have found some things help with that sort of consistency (and that may be another post), but I'm not that kind of consistent. Every week looks different. Every day looks different. But on average I write between 200k and 300k a year, at a rate of between 1000-1500 words a working day. My schedule may vary — I might write five days one week, three days another, might write double one week to the next, might write 12,000 or 30,000 in a month. But when I zoom out, I'm consistent as fuck on a long-term basis (with the caveat that shit can happen, such as family emergencies or ol' bastard eye acting up again)

So uh, how?

All the common wisdom is has been distinctly unhelpful, in my experience. Treats don’t work on me, as I am aware I can just…not do the thing and have the treat anyway. Rewards don’t work on me, because ‘thing in nebulous future’ doesn’t have much to do with me now, does it? Holding myself hostage (‘no dinner/break/bathroom break until you write’) does not work, and should not be done, because those things aren’t rewards, they’re basic bodily functions (…apparently).

This is, I’ve learned, literally due to my wiring. Neurotypical people have an importance based nervous system. Motivating factors for tasks are the task's importance to them (duh) or someone they care about, the rewards associated with completion of the task (offer yourself a treat! Reward yourself at the end!), and the consequences associated with not completing the task.

None of that works on me. Like. At all.

It was only in recent years I learned about the interest based nervous system, and how it’s motivated by completely different things. Things that work to motivate me involve novelty, challenge (some will use competition interchangeably here, but I am not a particularly competitive person), urgency, and, well, interest.

And in hindsight, every single trick that’s ever worked for has touched on at least one of those categories.

I’m going to stop here, because I am literally procrastinating on writing Robbie by writing this, and the irony is too much for me right now, but I think that a larger than average portion of my readership may also be helped by tricks that specifically target novelty, challenge, urgency, and interest.

So, next week — an actual bullet pointed list of shit that tricks my brain into doing the thing. Some are more targeted to writing, some can be applied to plenty of things, but all of them have, at one time or another, made me Do the Thing, which, as the queen of procrastination, is a damn triumph.

[alllgator-blood]

okkk wait this is the anon that sent an ask about autistic narinder and leshy hc 😅 i retract my statement they're all autistic 🤯🤯🤯🤯

I WAS LITERALLY IN THE MIDDLE OF ANSWERING THAT ASK TO SAY "I FEEL LIKE THEY'RE ALL AUTISTIC" BEFORE THIS ONE GOT SENT IN, I was two sentences in so your comedic timing was impeccable actually

I know there's like no evidence in-game to back my claims so this is purely a vibe check (and also me being unable to write for neurotypical characters) but yeah no I 100% feel like all the bishops have autism for some reason. They definitely express it in different ways and I was actually thinking about that in the car ride back home tonight??

SEMI-DETAILED HC EXPLANATIONS BELOW THE CUT

For leshy, I feel like since he's the youngest...when he came along, everyone was like "yep. We don't even need to get this one tested" after seeing him in his natural element. Which sounds cruel but that's just personal experience after people in my family started getting diagnosed and we started noticing things about each other better LMAO. I kinda actually designed my iteration of him to be like a big stim toy, I did that shitpost sketch in the last post but even the first time I drew him I was like "this dude is made out of orbs that make satisfying noises when they click together", so if I had to categorize the way his neurodivergency manifests, it's definitely "I NEED TO MOVE AROUND!! RIGHT FUCKING NOW!! MAYBE SCREAM A LITTLE IDK IT JUST FEELS RIGHT!!"

Heket is for sure the one that fights the most against people labelling her with it, just because she's like I'M SO NORMAL GUYS. LOOK HOW NORMAL I AM. LOOK HOW WELL I CAN ADAPT TO CHANGE AND LOOK AT ME NOT FREAK OUT AT ALL WHEN I'M OUT OF MY ELEMENT!! She's the new leader of the family so she does her best to hold it together but if you make plans with her, she's gonna be in Waiting Mode as soon as the plans are made and might tear you limb from limb if you flake or reschedule. Something my therapist told me recently is that me getting absurdly upset over injustices (small or big) is likely directly related to being autistic, so if heket feels like something is wrong she will absolutely be vocal about it. If someone says something mean to her, they are her fucking arch nemesis from that point on. The block button is NOT enough she wants them DEAD

For narinder, I feel like he maybe bonded a lot with shamura over the fact both of them feel pretty disconnected from everyone else? The way his autism manifests is probably the feeling that he's on a completely different wavelength than everyone else, and can't experience empathy the same way his siblings can. He'll like have conversations with people but it feels like someone just talking at him, and him having to mentally choose the dialogue options that make the conversation end the quickest. He probably feels like a completely separate species from everyone else on more levels than just "I am a cat and you are not". I know this doesn't line up with my narinder art so far but I have a distinct characterization of him pre-schism that's completely different from post-schism. I feel like he also resented the other siblings for having the same condition as him but presenting so differently, he felt like he got the short end of the stick.

Kallamar........is a FREAk ABOUT TEXTURES. Bro will actually throw up if he has to eat or touch something gross. He would probably excuse himself to go hurl if he sees leshy combining everything on his plate and shovelling it into his face. I'M actually about to hurl just thinking about it. I have to have lotion on at all times or I freak out when I touch things with my hands, and I feel like kallamar needs to have that famous Cephalopod Mucus Layer in order to exist in his body without wanting to implode. Maybe even a special oil he formulates himself? I also feel like he probably has the most freakouts and has been left crying inconsolably + hyperventilating on the floor over something seemingly stupid MANY times, but shamura is understanding enough to be patient with him and not try to grab him or repeat phrases at him over and over.

LASTLY, SHAMURA DOESN'T THINK THEY HAVE AUTISM. They're like "I love my Neurodivergent Family :) can't relate tho" but all the siblings have unanimously agreed they have something going on up there, even before the TBI. I think they're very book smart, and have little file cabinets of their brain of stuff like "arthropod husbandry" and "dreamcatcher making techniques" but are totally clueless to how other people operate. They don't really know *why* people do the things they do; in my prequel AU thing, they gain most of their social knowledge through people watching rather than like...being normal and just knowing how to behave. Out of all the siblings, they've probably been told the classic phrase "but you don't look autistic!" the most LMAO

Also shamura 100000% has misophonia and that's the reason I didn't have them sitting at the table with the other siblings in the voidpunk comic I did of them. They love their family to death but they have to make the conscious decision to not shake baby leshy every time he loudly chokes down his dinner, so they just sit out meals and eat on their own time. If shamura was real I would build them a shrine and sacrifice my noise cancelling headphones cause idk if they have sound reduction methods in cotl world <3

I know autism kinda encompasses ALL of these traits and isn't something that can be categorized into "this one hates noises, this one needs to follow a schedule..." but I also don't want to just point at one bishop and go "YOU. YOU WILL BE MY VESSEL" because I'd never get to write all that I have in mind if only one character had it. There's definitely overlaps in symptoms between them but I just wrote down what I felt would be the most notable to that specific character. I've been wanting to do a comic about their special interests or the times they just like sync up and have a brain blast jimmy neutron moment, cause usually they're all over the place. I have literally never said the word "autism" so many times in my life I think I gotta cut it here, THIS IS SO LONG. I REALLY DID WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS THOUGH SO THANK YOU FOR THIS ASK GENUINELY. IDK IF YOU EXPECTED A SMALL ESSAY ON THIS BUT I WROTE ONE ANYWAY

[vivianbernadetteaurora]

Heroin addiction hello,

this is me my name is heroin, I am more expensive than gold, but you will pay more for me. I’m like a diamond you want me you you wanna wear me you wanna wear me all over your body you wanna be me you wanna be inside my body, you want me to take the pain away like a hug like a hug used to do like a kiss like being in love used to, my name is Cherry and I’m a heroin addict I’m not some 12 stepper I kind of wish I was so I kind of wish I didn’t get the vibe that it was a cult , but maybe it is but who said all Colts are bad well this person right here was see. I’m also autistic I have a strong time of the past, I’ll tell you what this addiction has taken everything away from me. Let’s go back and let’s go back to 10 years ago. Roughly let’s go to the 3rd of December 2012 when I met this man who to this day, I can’t get out of my head see this man🕰️ introduced me to this awful awful thing, but at the same time he kept me away distance control. Yes I get it on the first night I met this man me off my feet. I was telling him about my situation ship and he was very compassionate. He was very understanding and it sort of Started there and went on the next five years, I was hooked line and sinker .

So the first night I met this man he was with my friend I met with, and I can still tell you everything about it that night it had to be one of the best nights of my life as I sit here now with tears in my eyes, five years later, I remembering things when I write, I wanted to be writer when I write I want to I remember And I started my life story again I’ve been with him for awhile see you inspired me be a bad person being with me and made me wanna be better and we had this little secret but let’s go back to the question because I’m very good at track no drugs happened it was just drinking Maybe smoking weed because I did back then but I was just talking it was like talking to someone I’d know my whole life and when you’re autistic this doesn’t happen often I hadn’t been diagnosed then but he had both bonded over the fact that we both had personality disorders and that we didn’t fit into society boxes, but now as I see it, I see it. I do but This man had a complete control over me. He had literally just had a baby with somebody who he’d been with for 10 years. He told me it was over, but yet they just had a baby a month prior premature, I didn’t want to take this woman’s man I didn’t want to take away this father, so I said don’t chase me, so on the days that he saw his child up at the hospital still, he would come back really quickly like he hadn’t even been there at all. I know that he had a premature baby. Yes I do I don’t know the whole truth of it I never will Until years though, when I spoke to his ex and I still don’t know the whole truth and why the fuck should she have to tell me anyway but all night he painted her is a villain same as I did with my ex yes as a personality disorder, everyone else is a bad guy You never the bad guy until it all comes tumbling down and you hate yourself and you wanna cut yourself or burn yourself so I trigger on this post but I have to say this I have to be honest with myself I must’ve liked it the fact that my family my family was born into because I don’t have kids that’s another sad part of this story is, I can’t Maybe it’s sick but there you go. They treat this man as an outcast just as much as I treated me as an outcast. I feel he wasn’t allowed to my sisters birthday party even though my sister was married to a literal word rapist still in prison for it now, and all the other sick things he did And my ex or right through this, of course I’ve noticed can also see crazy people who are crazy can always see crazy and others. Neurotypical are very selfish people. The first time I met him. He didn’t use her when he told me about it. apparently he told me about it and anyway I told him not to choose me over his child. Anyway he did we were texting all the time I was texting him. He was writing me love i never had this in my entire life. He literally swept me off my feet and the good thing that happened at the beginning of our relationship was that I went away for a week two days after we met Which made me want him more and vice versa now he probably did stuff I’ve heard he might of he’s married now to this girl. He slagged off for years and shagged. The sister who is 17 when we were together together what we broke up we didn’t properly broke up, but we broke up This is where the comes in we’re living in accommodated living for people who are not very well addicts mentally ill and so on. Anyway, many of the nights I would sneak into his room through the window or he sneak into mine and would lie bad faith, even if there was cameras. Oh he hasn’t asked your random stuff like this and I’ll be like it has. I’ve gone to bed, and obviously it was the most exciting time of my life. I was 23 years 22 years old and absolutely in love. Yes I know they got married at the age of 17 but it wasn’t part. Of course it was in my res autistic and everything was always more dramatic. The next time I’m bigger and better also I thought crazy so we end up getting kicked out of this facility I live there for a year I hadn’t really stayed there. I’d stayed in my mum, still even though she di

So things got out of hand that I’ve got made homeless I’m looking back now I thought it was so unfair and at the time I thought it was unfair. People who got made homeless shouldn’t have got made home as really people who this is all they had and the man I’m with now With living in the shed house with my ex there is four of the houses two of them staffed two of them not! so my partner was in a house without staff and then got put into the room next to me in the staff house which I was in me and my partner and I said maybe it was a distraction from my ex and his past, I will never know the full extent of.

So heroin heroin you ask how did it come into it well slowly that’s what I’ll say slowly he came back one day in a really really bad mood. This is before we got kicked out and started smoking on the bed. I’ve never been a situation I’ve been around hard before and it made me very uncomfortable, especially because I hadn’t touched them so I felt embarrassed and obliged this time I didn’t. I felt safe I felt safe with him. I just did so here it goes we move out and by this point before I go with him I will say I was addicted to sleeping pills on and off and opiates pill, but only pills so I sort of being there, but I wasn’t in the world of dealers drug addicts, horrible people debt, losing friends, and emotionally and because of the addiction. No nothing was that bad yet was destined for this maybe probably who knows I don’t I don’t even know so I will never forget the day I did it because it made life, so like it made sense for the first time in my life. It just made sense everything fit into place. Everything was like this is what it’s meant to be and this is how I should feel it wasn’t overwhelming how I thought it was meant to be, and this is how it traps you guys so don’t do it, it just felt like I had found the key to a door that had been locked 22 years and I had found that key. Obviously not a drug use. very narcissistic you really don’t think it’s gonna be you you just don’t you don’t think it’s going to be you in 1 million years even when you told me all these things via my ex when he told me this is what it’s like. I’m depressed now I can’t feel without it sex drive it fuck it fuck the way you connect with people you lose that connection and when you’re autistic anyway that is hard to have by the beginning it makes that all possible it makes you have emotion it makes you connect it makes you feel like you are invincible, and I always thought the word heroine became from the hero within, it kind of makes sense, wouldn’t it.

So the first time I used it, I smoked it we were living in one of his friends house in the spare bedroom that was freezing cold and the guy was addicted to it. The wife wasn’t they had two children. They had three children but the two children were in the room next to the dad, who is addicted really bad day and ill And this was the first place I used it they thought I was just normal. They didn’t think I touched so when I asked to try it one time when I got kicked off Valium which as you know it’s not very good I’ve got put on after a bad experience. Grape grape by my ex, and it was a short term thing, but I felt awful and I was hallucinating and I was in a really weird way and I also still appealed from my other exes house which led me to be really drooling and off my head and not remembering things in this house anyway, so that’s where I first tried it and for that year when we were living from house to house of people and Sophie spare rooms whatever, was the most exciting time of my life. It was an adventure that I’ve never been in. It was some kind of life experience that I needed for that time, but it led to this really scary time that I live in now so would I take it back? I’m not too sure i’ll lose all these memories, but then I won’t be attached to it so much either. Yeah I’d probably take it because the people I know now I really don’t wanna know I’m telling you something, there’s a lot of really dodgy men in this world who will try and proposition you for sex for money or they will try and do things to you the amount of times I’ve had men do things to me that dodgy sexually, I can’t even fathom it’s very sad, no one should have to go through that. made me feel so protected from the heroin all of it the relationship with that felt amazing, We lived from moment to moment we bonded so deeply our moon 🌙 signs very compatible. we shared everything let’s say so in the five years 2 1/2 of them are good 2 1/2 of them really bad but let’s say this was really severe case of grooming two that felt good though it felt really good because it came with the drugs and it came with the reward system that your brain creates of Doberman, but after a while your break your brain needs a pleasure and reward centre to survive. It’s like breathing it felt amazing. I felt so good every time I felt so good he he controlled my habits so I didn’t get too bad so I would get high probably off. Let’s say £10 worthb or £20 worth a day, maybe less let’s say less.

Eventually, my family obviously found out because I’m a very honest person and I like why did you say that I’ve noticed addicts are very dishonest people, scum of the Earth and I can’t stand them and they can’t stand me either. They do not like me and I think my ex knew this about them that they wouldn’t like me because he did all the messaging and calls to these people I didn’t know these people were so uptight about a text message, but they are absolutely ridiculous, I wasn’t used to this level of paranoia unless it was in your mind none of these people give a shit about you. I’m talking as 33-year-old me now and not 22-year-old man. It’s been over 10 years can you believe it because I can I mean it could be another lifetime ago and it could be yesterday 22-year-old didn’t know about this. Didn’t know this rule it’s uptight don’t do that and I honestly I hate these people honestly I’m miserable it’s not good for me I’m constantly sad,😔 yeah I mean the end of last year I going to join this astrology course and I have a teacher now at this woman I listen to for years on YouTube who I love I love her way of teaching listening to her on YouTube she was so good at going into it all. I looked up with Darkside zodiac and I found her but anyway I’m gonna tell her I lost friends in my opinion, so basically when I was younger, I was a bit of a goody-goody so that transition into hard-core addict who thought she was Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain with her boyfriend was obviously a massive shock to my friends and family I’m guessing constantly asking for money this day,

They didn’t realise this world opened up, a whole box of things that made me feel better, but a whole shit load of a basement full of crap that came with it. They won’t so yeah, I was a goody goody I didn’t really drink. I didn’t do this I didn’t do that, but I was fun. I was a happy shy girl And I would join in and have a laugh with my friends we would get the stone high part when I used to bring school in into school my sister’s part into my friend and he smoked I didn’t even smoke. Then I didn’t even feel the pressure to smoke. So yeah this was a massive personality change I guess so I always went from group group I was always a bit of a drifter.! point of sticking a needle in my arm, I wasn’t bad in fact I was the opposite of a bad arse you could say but as he has went on things happened and you meet people, my best friend who I be my best friend from the age of 10 made her be my best friend until she agreed. She was my best friend from me from me, her being sick of me, trying to ask it probably so I made my first love through her years later 18 years old and he was just schizophrenic and I even got warned off him which was probably the right idea cause this is where my first mental break happened a few years after that so this is why is slowly threatened to do law, and my personality was really changing, and I guess it was very scary for the people around me, so I’d have relationships with people friends whatever, but it always felt forced with this man. It never felt forced. It felt natural, and he would convince me that these people wanted to hurt me, or they weren’t good enough for me or they for I wasn’t good enough for them. He was very clever very very very clever he had me believing all of this shit and so it still this day is in and I can’t get rid of and I think anyone who’s been in a abusive relationship will feel this.

I have put a lot of pressure on my family. I feel like I am loving girl but I don’t have a family like the rest of them all my sisters have children. My brother is happy in a relationship. He is with someone for 11 years and he was very very happy even though he’s my older brother he sometimes feels like my younger brother because he’s so more innocent and I was innocent like he was too Very similar. In fact he was more of a rebel than I was saying I think I wanted to rebel so badly because I never had the opportunity. I mean the first guy I slept with gave me herpes if you want to talk about bad luck, but I thought it was a bad ass then because I was going out of a guy from Bangladesh who was a Muslim who had a restaurant well he didn’t have the restaurant who I was fucking in his restaurant And I thought I was cool. I was getting free curries and then I went to the next shop up the road and it was a Turkish guy who had a gorgeous green eyes. I was obsessed with being in love and not with English man. I thought English men were trash they never fancied me in school. I never had boyfriends, and I lost my virginity at 16.

 so my friends now anyway, who I lost I’ve tried to bring back into my life but they’re not perfect either. I’m not saying they’re perfect but they weren’t drug Alex and we weren’t into people like that. They don’t know anything about people like that when I tell them about the things that have been degraded too, I’m in the last three years I didn’t leave my house because of a sexual assault kind of thing again And it’s very very scary so they couldn’t understand it or comprehend. They didn’t know why I was agitated. They didn’t know why I couldn’t meet up with them till sad times. They didn’t know why I didn’t pick up my phone they didn’t know why I called them at weird hours they didn’t understand it they didn’t understand why I wanted money they didn’t understand why I didn’t have this. They didn’t understand the people that knew I get it. I wish I didn’t even guys They see it though they see what happened, but then I did have one very abusive friend who is a Gemini and she would send me essays with you sometimes and this was before I got with Matt! she could still be very nasty I mean when I got her, she was like really rude about that and telling people I mean what kind of friend does that anyway so she comes and stay with me after a few years of me being with him and we have a nice time. Kind of have a good time, I’m still happy because I’m with him well I think I am anyway she comes down with fake note she was like can you use it cause she knew the olive. It was a bit backwards compared London I was like yeah probably be fine anyway one day we walked into town and I call her from upstairs from my exes flat and she looks horrified on that. Oh God here we go and she looked up annoyed anyway she’s there and a few days later, she’s all happy happy all on her phone and a good mood God. I wish I felt like her with making weed and I was being very paranoid and that’s when I stopped because I’d started smoking crack at this point because my ex couldn’t do heroin any more fuck from injecting and I hated cocaine. I just did it because he did it and he wanted me to owe him money. A lot of these drug addicts Connell is too so you owe the money I offend this. Well I’m too good for it and I know I’m so good for it and I wanna meet the other people who are not like this who are not con artists ! so she is high and she’s like don’t you feel so amazing I didn’t but I pretended yeah for great anyway she doodled all over this night and then she goes he go you can have it as she left to go home. I was like cheers can’t use it for shit now but thanks 🧑‍🎨.

Chapter 1

[cherryp0p224]

~General ROTTMNT HC’s~

Here, I’ll be posting my personal headcanons for rottmnt. Over time, I’ve noticed a lot of traits within the characters and certain quirks that I’ve associated with ideas that would fit the boys and other characters perfectly.

(I’ll be adding onto this whenever I have new headcanons)

Headcanon #1

Both of the disaster twins use contacts. As seen in the episode ‘Air Turtles’, Leo wears protective glasses (glasses used for athletes to see better without harming their vision), which means his vision is possibly impaired. As for Donnie, we all know Donnie used to have glasses when he was younger, but since glasses can be a huge boundary when in battle, both of the twins decided to switch to contacts so they could still see when fighting

Headcanon #2

Splinters vision is just as bad as his two sons. Splinter sees things a little blurrier than everyone else so when he sees his sons, instead of identifying them by their features, he identifies them by their colors, hence why he calls them by their colors (Blue, Red, Purple, Orange). When he was still Lou jitsu, he had some glasses, but I feel like he had them designed to fit his movie star look, so while his glasses are for seeing, he had still wanted them to look good. Teen Lou jitsu and Leo are the same thing Fr

Headcanon #3

Donnie doesn’t do too well with emotion nor does he seem to interested in romance, so the first thought that came to my head was ‘ARO/ACE DONNIE’. Aro/Ace : having little to no romantic or sexual attraction. I do still believe Donnie could fall in love, the feelings just wouldn’t be as intense as it is for those who are neurotypical

Headcanon #4

I think Mikey definitely has ADHD. Mikey tends to be very impulsive and wild when he’s fighting. In fact, he’s so impulsive, Donnie made him an inflatable suit so he wouldn’t get hurt because this boy is a loose canon. He also seems to be very hyperactive and can’t keep his focus on just one activity, hence why he has so many hobbies like cooking, drawing, skateboarding, and other things. We gotta love this ball of energy

Headcanon #5

Raph has GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder). We all know this poor boy has a lot of anxiety and always stresses himself out when it comes to his family. Due to carrying the weight of his family on his shoulders, he tends to stress out a lot, but when you stress out a lot, your brain finds it a custom and a normal occurrence, so anything that might start up the slightest bit of stress could possibly turn into a full blown panic attack (I know cuz I’ve got GAD :((). He also overthinks A LOT

Headcanon #6

Casandra has gotta be nonbinary/gender-fluid.I headcanon Cassandra using she/they pronouns, why? While cassandra is presented as female in the show, she seems to be in touch with both her masculine and feminine side and I definitely think that if someone were to refer to her as a boy, she would not give a flying fuck, she just doesn’t seem to care for gender labels and you gotta love that

Headcanon #7

Sorry to the people who don’t ship this, but I see April and Sunita as a lesbian couple. In Tmnt 2012, April was placed in more as a love interest for Donnie, but it was just so forced and his obsession with her was concerning. In Rise, April poses more as an older sister for the boys and her relationship with Donnie is so sweet too. Instead of April and Donnie being lovers, Rise decided to make them best friends and they’re dynamic is something I am in love with. Rise April doesn’t really seem to have much of an interest in men, nor does she seem to be interested in having a boyfriend period, but I have noticed that she seems more interested in creating a bond with other girls (like Taylor and Sunita). When Sunita was first introduced, she was presented as just beautiful (flowers along with a beautiful background) and the way she was presented was how April perceived her, we were looking from aprils point of view. So, in conclusion, I think the girls a lesbian, argue with me if you’d like, I stand by this

Headcanon #8

Casey Jones is most definitely a trans man. The first time I saw this boy on screen, I pointed to the tv and said ‘That is a trans man’. Now where Casey came from, I have no idea. I’m not sure if he was birthed out of Cassandra or if he was a dumpster child found by Cassandra, but either way, something about Casey caught my attention that made me come to this conclusion. Ofcourse we know Casey is a teenager, but it seems like he hasn’t yet hit the full point of puberty, he’s got little scruffs on his chin and I’ve noticed his voice does crack a bit (which I love. I would die for him) but I think he has these traits because he’s still in the process of transitioning fully. In all honesty though, I have a crush on this boy, I’m down bad bro, I wish there were more fics for him

[deathbydarkelves]

why has no one asked about Ylrith yet??? please tell us more about Ylrith

:3c

In all fairness, I don’t post about her that much. Mostly because I’m not currently working on any stories that directly involve her so she’s not in my brain as much. I LOVE her, I’m just more focused on the characters I work with more often lol

But basically: poly lesbian mob boss with a snake obsession

She’s the head honcho of a centuries-old crime syndicate called The Gray Order. Ylrith (il-rith) herself usually goes by “The Gray Matron”, but her enemies have given her a plethora of other, similarly sinister names. By now, the Order has connections all across Azeroth, in most any faction worth a damn. The opening up of Kalimdor to the rest of the world was one of the best things to happen to her.

The Order specializes in smuggling drugs, weapons, and other illicit items, but Ylrith will ferry war refugees to safer lands too, and other such things. All she wants is money and more people under her thumb — if you have the money, or are willing to do a favor for her, she’ll help you do what it is you want done. Her trademark phrase isn’t “A favor for a favor, darling” for nothing. Of course, she’s a master of wordcraft, and often gets people to promise more than they think. She’s also got informants everywhere — brothels in the big cities, innkeepers, compromised city guards, and so on — and thus is master of blackmail. You go to her to discuss a deal, you say something she doesn’t like, and she’ll drop a detail about your life you thought no one else knew.

She also has an EXTENSIVE snake collection of species from all over Azeroth and even beyond. If we’re being realistic a lot of the money she makes goes into caring for them lmao she just really loves snakes <3 In fact I was leaning so hard into the snake thing I decided to just say she’s (the elf equivalent of) autistic because no neurotypical person could possibly be that into snakes KSBXBJD Which makes her my second autistic night elf, the first being Cathala 💜 Yet another win for lesbians.

The third key thing about her is the upper crust of the Order are all in a sapphic polycule. They use their powers of polyamory for evil (affectionate). Ylrith is also kind of(?) a “lesbian femme fatale type”. One of her favorite activities is fucking with the royalty of patriarchal cultures like humans by seducing the wives of powerful men and then helping them kill their husbands, the end result being Ylrith now has control over that piece of land at best, and that rich woman’s loyalty at worst. It’s enrichment for her.

Now for more art. This first one is her and her spymaster/favorite assassin/girlfriend Delphine Kaltel, a.k.a. The Serpent’s Fang. Originally Delphine had actually been hired to kill Ylrith but it was an enemies-to-lovers thing <3

This one’s her and her blue dragon girlfriend Tyalagosa, who’s sort of her “court” mage, I suppose:

(She has more gfs/people in the Order’s upper crust, those are just the only two I’ve named, designed, and drawn. One I have yet to draw is Evelyn Torvannas, another Nightborne. She’s the head of a fairly powerful merchant family in Suramar.]

One showing off her other tattoo:

And her voice claim :) (Morrigan from Dragon Age: Inquisition)

Plus this dumb meme that sums her up perfectly imo:

I also like to imagine she has the stupidest most cartoonish rivalry with Shaw lmao. She doesn’t see him as a threat whatsoever and loves toying with the funny little human man, while he fucking HATES her because she’s got her tendrils all up in the Alliance but always worms her way out of repercussions. WLW and MLM hostility.

[mass-convergence]

Okay …. I kind of wonder with the prevalence of ADHD diagnoses in the past few years, if that statistic of 5% of people who have ADHD graduating college is a little low?

Doesn’t change the fact that universities very much do have issues with accommodating people with ADHD or really any disability.

However … after googling the hell out of it - I have yet to find the actual published study that says “5% of people diagnosed with ADHD graduate from college”

The ONLY source I have found is this news article https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/for-adhd-students-transition-to-college-is-tough/article_950df28a-ac05-5b50-8768-2ed34aa05376.html sorry it’s behind a paywall

And that doesn’t cite the study only says “according to a 2008 study in the Journal of Learning”

So one single study.

In 2008.

There have been some other studies that have found lower graduation rates of college students diagnosed with ADHD but not as extreme as 5% (okay those you’re going to have to look up yourself - I’m like tired).

The thing is, there are a lot more people being diagnosed with ADHD now - I got my diagnosis last year. I’m 30. I have a college degree and a job (this isn’t bragging - many other people I know who have ADHD are also working in my field and that requires at least a Bachelor’s if not a Master’s)

5% is a fucking grim number and I don’t think it’s actually representative of the true graduation rate. I can’t even find the stupid study that says that - only the news article - so I can’t really read what their methodology was. What was their sample size? How did they choose participants? How did they gauge educational outcomes? Were there maybe confounding variables? (Like race, socioeconomic status, etc). Didn’t see if they were looking at Associates vs Bachelors or anything.

In conclusion:

I think the 5% figure is most likely bullshit or at least comes from a single study that I cannot find that was done in 2008. That’s 16 years ago.

I think that there are still serious differences in educational outcomes between people diagnosed with ADHD vs neurotypicals. Colleges are indeed very shitty about accommodations and professors very much can just not give a fuck. (Source: I was in college … it took me almost a decade to get through undergrad)

Anecdotally (so very much not scientific) … in my current field of work where you need at least a Bachelor’s degree (if not a Master’s given how fucking competitive it is) - I have met a ton of people with ADHD. None of them came from like rich families that were willing to chuck money at the school to keep their baby in college. I’ve met people with ADHD in other scientific/highly technical fields that require at least a Bachelor’s for any job. There are more people than you think.

Some people may not follow the typical college track where you graduate high school and go to college right afterward like it’s 13th grade or something. In fact some people go do other shit for a while before saying “y’know I want to get a degree”

A lot of adults now are being diagnosed with ADHD as we gain a better understanding/diagnosis criteria for it. People are now self-diagnosing and also seeking a diagnosis now that, due to increased awareness of what ADHD actually fucking is, are like “ah fuck so I wasn’t a lazy idiot in my childhood like my parents and teachers told me I was?!”

If you are just starting out in life and have an ADHD diagnosis … please do not let the 5% statistic dissuade you from pursuing a college degree. It’s not hopeless. If you want to go to college then go to college.

Scientific studies can have glaring weaknesses. Which is why replication of results and peer review are super important. One study that says the graduation rate of college students with ADHD is only 5% does not make it true in the wider context. You need multiple studies.

[seldnei]

Taking stock of the writing: 2023

For any new followers: this is my annual post about my writing in the past year.  This is purely for my own mental health–the tag says “seldnei is tired of feeling like a slacker” for a reason.  Please feel free to skip.

So what did I accomplish in 2023?

Well, it was a helluva year, again.  We’ve acquired another teenager, with all that entails, which is a good thing overall but definitely added some chaos.  My boss retired earlier than expected, so day job went sideways for a while.  My cousin died, which was entirely unexpected.  My father died, which was both more and less unexpected.  Also the eldest BFF’s mom died, which was not traumatic for me, per se, but being able to spend a week with him was, like acquiring Q, a good thing surrounded by chaos.  Oh, and Z got his ADHD diagnosis, which has triggered some interesting realizations about the assumed neurotypicality of everyone in the household.  We are, in fact, that family who said, “But that can’t be a ‘disorder’; everyone is like that, right?”

I am exhausted, and my brain feels not only full but occasionally like it’s eating itself with self-analysis.

BUT.  I am here.  And I wrote things.

Stories/Poems/Etc.

Finished the second Exorcist story, and decided it did need to be mashed up with the first one.  I dunno, it’s still cuter than I like. 

Did the requested rewrite on the Teachout camel story, and got rejected again (I vaguely recall this as another rewrite request, but I could be wrong and can’t be arsed to dig through my email right now). I kind of think this editor and I have fundamentally different ideas as to what these stories are.  Keep this in mind as I get into future plans, btw, as it was a contributing factor.

Wrote some more TMA fanfic.

“And the Forest Sings of Secrets and the Dead” for FUCKIT, which prompted the best review of all time from Q: “What the fuck, Laura?”

“The Modern Eurydice: with Leto in the Mountains of Delos,” also for FUCKIT, which is probably my favorite thing I wrote this year.  I really hope there are more modern Eurydice stories somewhere in my head, because I loved writing this one and the first one.

Poetry:

“Elpis at the Farmer’s market” for FUCKIT

“4am, April 2023,” also for FUCKIT, the poem my husband wants to frame and put on the wall

Random bits and bobs in my notebook

I wrote three podcast scripts because I really want to make a podcast. 

Script one is a monologue type thing, continuing my explorations of ghosts and terrible mothers.

Scripts two and three are the first two episodes of a short series that adapts the not!Tempest/not!Mosquito Coast/not!Island of Dr Moreau thing I’ve been fucking around with for like four years now.  I think three more scripts and I’ll have the series completed, and then I can turn my attention to things like casting and recording and editing and hosting and posting and dear lord what the fuck.

 I started a bunch of other things:

The baseball/ghost romance novella, where I am trying out iterative outlining.

Some abortive attempts to find my way into my post-apocalypse cunning folk thing

A start and some notes for a gothic horror story that I probably will get back to in a while (watch this space in, like, three years)

Other Stuff

“An Oral History: The Dead Queen at 1223 Murchison Row” sold and came out in Artifice & Craft. 

I created my author website, which I’m still very pleased with.  Also did some blogging, but not as much as I would have liked.  Still, not sure when I had time?

Submitted things sporadically.

Kept up my morning writing routine, though it did have some disruptions here and there and the time got a little compressed.  But the biggest thing, I think, is that I kept going.  There was a lot of stuff going on in my life this year, and I wrote through it all.

Novel and Goals for 2024

Okay, this is where we get into the stuff that makes me nervous.

So the novel is on a second round of reading at a publisher.  This is taking forever, but the publisher has also posted periodically that they’re still working their way through subs, and frankly, I am entirely willing to let them do their thing because, as I said last year, I think this might be the absolute worst time to try and find an agent or publisher.  This is one of like two sparks of interest I have gotten for a book that a professional editor says is very good, so … yeah, we will let that lie.  Additionally, I’ve been reading some stuff from established trad authors who are also  having issues selling things, and I’m like … uuuggghhh.

Bearing that in mind … I’m going to start looking at and dipping my toe into self-publishing this year.  Guys, I am so tired of thinking about what an editor might or might not find appealing enough to publish; I want to write my weird little stories and have people read them.  I don’t even care if it’s just my friends and I only sell, like, three copies of anything.  I have long since resigned myself to never being a full-time writer, so while extra cash would be nice, it’s not something I desperately need.  (That said, I am going to be selling my work because it’s work, so.  But I have thoughts about discount codes and freebies, so we’ll see how it goes.)  I’d like to be able to hire an editor, commission covers, that kind of thing, though, so I’m also thinking about starting a Patreon to help fund those aspects of it, with rewards and all that good stuff.

So I can publish the novellas and short story collections, and if the publisher passes on my manuscript, I can publish the Teachout book and start writing the second one.

This is the scary part, though.  Am I too scattered to make something like this work?  What if no one has any interest? What about pirates (both cyber and sailor)?  Will I annoy people with self-promo?  Will people in my circle think less of me?  (Do I care about the people who would think less of me for doing this?) How will this affect my other writing?  OH GOD HOW DOES THIS AFFECT MY TAXES?!

I think I can do it.  I might ask y’all for cheerleading here and there.  I have a planner and Mr. Seldnei.

Every time I think about it and get scared, I think second Teachout book no matter what happens and I’m like … yeah. Yeah, I think I need to at least try.

So, goals for 2024:

FUCKIT subs

finish this baseball thing

Podcast

Patreon (?)

Self-publishing

AAAAAAAAAAA.

[lilflowerpot]

I'm like a bloodhound that seeks worldbuilding fuel and worldbuilding fuel only— one time I was like “...the fuck is a matriarch tree” and then hours later came back out the other end, head buzzing with mycorrhizal fungi and plants that apparently have eyes. Or I'd sink so many hours just listening to YouTube videos about various mythologies (OSP in particular is a favourite haunt of mine)— I just can't help it. No wonder I zeroed in on you from the first post I saw, lol. I still can't remember what that post was about but eh.

I commend you so much for being so meticulous with the science stuff despite it not being your forte! I try sometimes but... I get lost in all the words and it's hard to focus because my brain would much rather be munching on history or something. How do you get yourself to focus??

I absolutely relate to you about thinking too much about your AU and fleshing it out a lot, I think it's impossible to be normal about your passion projects! That's just how creators are.

Fun fact, I was also the person who sent in the ask about whether the Archivist can also be the Imperial Consort! I'm gonna have a field day with LB, I can tell.

A question for you, what would be the procedure if a Galra were to pass away faraway from home in space, faraway from a planet, would their remains be preserved to be brought home and then the traditional procedures can happen? Or would the act of holding off a Galra's reunion with Sa by holding off the funeral be considered rude? Daibazaal (the home planet of the Galra) is gone, right? What are the current practices for the folk that live on the ships?

And oho, a new culture/science post coming up??? 👀👀👀👀👀 I'll definitely be looking forward to that!

— I probably need a signature of some kind, don't I

[1][2]

anon this is SUCH a mood actually

As to how I get myself to focus, I'm truly flattered that you think I have control over such a thing, but the truth of the matter is I just chase the intense serotonin high of whatever task is presently delivering it until that is no longer the case, and then I move on to the Next Fascinating Thing......... y'know, like a neurotypical person.

((this is a good part of the reason why some asks remain unanswered for a greater period of time than others, because I physically cannot force myself to craft a proper response to anything until my horrible little goblin brain deems it shiny enough))

The archivist/consort post was also you???? Damn, okay, you've really been single-handedly fueling my worldbuilding as of late haven't you asdvsvcdghsvdfk your contributions are all very much appreciated ♡

So as I said in my post on galra funeral rites, the only phenotype that culturally favours burials over cremation are the Dox, due to their major religion—Eiyyka’an—dictating that just as the jungles in which they historically made their home provided for their people in life, so should they, in exchange, provide for those jungles in death. Of course, Daibazaal is no more and the Empire extends far beyond the confines of a single planet besides, but the ultimate site wherein their body will be laid to rest is usually one of three places. The most traditional is Feyiv, as for the modern galra this has been their official homeworld for (according to my calculations regarding galra lifespans) over sixty generations, and this choice is particularly popular for aristocratic families who boast a personal plot of land that has been cultivated with the flesh of their ancestors; the most common is whichever alternative imperial planet they personally grew up on, as that would be considered the planet that they predominantly owe their flesh to as the place that sustained them in life; the least common (but not unheard of) option is one only really taken by those who spent more time in artificial colonies than not, which is to be buried in the greenhouse of said artificial colony to provide nutrients for the fresh produce.

This last one, as I'm sure you can imagine, is controversial in some circles—particularly for the Jaev who believe that the body must be delivered to Sa's embrace whole for the deceased to have any chance of triumphing in what is considered to be their final battle, thereby proving themselves as worthy of being revived as one of Her chosen—so it is of course required for Imperial colonies to make note of whether any given food (be that plant or animal) has been cultivated on galra burial sites.

This brings us neatly on to the Jaevaji Faith as the major Aalk religion, the followers of which embalm their dead by slathering them with a special clay that is then engraved with the deceased's greatest deeds, before traditionally lowering them into one of Daibazaal's great lakes of magma. Again, with Daibazaal being long gone, one could use any volcano in an Imperial territory of their choosing, usually one with some significance or tie to the family, and though this may draw out the death rites of a given individual depending on how far away they are from one of these locations, the embalming process (with a little help from a cryopod if required) does an excellent job of preserving the body for as long as is necessary. The most popular alternative, however, is simply launching the prepared body directly into the closest star, as while it's less traditional, the general feeling is that if their ancestors had this option available to them, they would have thoroughly endorsed it.

Finally, the most widespread method of disposing of the dead as popularised by both the Byal & Kyx: cremation. All imperial territories, artificial or otherwise, will have a crematorium in the vicinity—the profession itself is a highly respectable one—though these can vary from the more traditional funeral pyre, to that with which humanity is more familiar. After the body is reduced to ash, where the family chooses to disperse them is incredibly personal, and while many choose to return to Feyiv, or another Imperial planet if they deem that their home, it is equally common to simply scatter their loved one's remains out amongst the stars.

[thegayneurodivergentagenda]

pran autism anon here!!! hi friend!!

so i was working on a fic today and i started wondering about pran and his diagnoses. obviously, as of our skyy, his ocd is diagnosed. i figured his autism could also have been diagnosed at the same time, but since him being autistic isn't canon, we will never know. there's also a possibility of him being diagnosed with autism as a kid (in my fic, this is what happened and the reason he got his ocd diagnosis in his 20s is because he and the people around him kept attributing a lot of his ocd symptoms to autism), but a lot of his behaviours and his tendency to mask lead me to believe that he grew up undiagnosed and learnt all these masking methods as a defence mechanism. yes i spent my sociology class today thinking about pran and how likely he would be to have a professional autism diagnosis in my totally canon version of bad buddy which is basically exactly bad buddy but pran is canonically autistic and aware of the fact. as i was writing this i also realised it's entirely possible that he is autistic and just doesn't know it yet. so yeah i was wondering what your opinions on this were? if you've ever thought about it.

sorry if none of this made any sense i am tired rn

I wrote an answer to this but tumblr glitched and deleted all of taking away my entire dopamine spike with it.

But I'm here again, more prepared than ever to write my thesis: Pran probably was unaware of his autism, majorly due to his relationship with his mother and Pat.

The premise of my thesis is rooted in the ways high functioning autistic traits manifest in Pran have always been rewarded and/or neglected because of his relationship with both Pat and Dissaya.

Symptom: Executive Dysfuntion , ie, the inability to plan, monitor, prioritize, make decisions etc.

The Executive Dysfuntion that would otherwise render most neurodivergents paralysed for an amount of time they can not perceive, does little to influence both Pat and Pran. They are being run by the mutual dopamine release of having to compete. Having an external source of pressure/deadline/competition provides just enough dopamine to make both task initiation and cessation easier.

Thus, more often that not, Pran wouldn't be experiencing the executive dysfuntion in presence of Pat and vise versa.

This does bring up the valid tangent of Pran's dysfuntion being visible when he gets transfered. For that, I do believe, mixed with the stress of having to transfer, the anger and hurt of leaving his entire life, the feeling of unfairness triggering his RSD and the need to have to mask for new people would provide enough context for him to attribute the dysfunction to THAT rather than autism.

Specifically with dissaya, the inability to do anything would probably have been met by "you should try again" or "did the neighbour's kid get it?". Would there have been many instances where Pran let dissaya know that he's unable to work? No. Would there have been some instances instances? Yes. Would they have instilled a sense of shame for his inability? Yes, more than what neurotypicals feel for the same inability.

Symptom: "incompetent" social skills (I WILL DIE ON THE HILL THAT DSM 5 JUST TALKS ABOUT INCOMPETENCE BECAUSE ITS WRITTEN BY NEUROTYPICALS WHO THINK THAT LYING TO PEOPLE'S FACES IS CRUCIAL FOR THE CAPITALIST HELLSPACE TO THRIVE I HATE IT SM)

When it comes to Pran, when we first meet him, he's shown to be interacting with his group of friends, he has a very nice conversation with his family and he is the class president for fucks sake. How can he be incompetent amirite???

First of all, he isn't. No one with autism is incompetent. They just have a different dialect.

Second of all, the rules to social interactions and communication is something people with autism learn after being reprimanded for their dialect, which as Anon pointed out previously, leads to a lot of masking.

The crux of masking as a concept comes to this: lying to save yourself.

Pat and Pran learnt early on, beyond their neurodivergence, that they need to lie and manipulate their presentations to save themselves from their families. Their interactions were always ladden with the awareness of the careful line they danced around; of lies and safety alike.

What takes years for us to understand, Pran speedran through. He spent a lot of his time energy trying to find ways to communicate with Pat without getting caught or hurt. And because they both wrote their own rulebook, learning other dialects became easy.

Long story short, given that they lied so much to sustain a friendship they both wanted, their ability to mask was never seen as a burden. It's just another lie. Very little emotional toll because their narrative around it is part of the larger struggle: their family. NOT autism.

Dissaya and her husband played a huge role in setting the rules for Pran, but even more so, they probably rewarded him for being poised and better than Pat (and the entire ming clan) at being respectful and correct in his speech. Regardless of his own inability to understand and the complex layers of his interactions with Pat, Dissaya taught very stern rules he needed to follow.

His and Dissaya's relationship taught him the needed communication rules to mask effectively, his and Pat's relationship taught him to navigate the guilt and dissonance that comes from masking and lying around social situations.

(Idk if I was coherent enough to explain this but I really hope my point go across)

Lastly, the question that arises then, is do we even believe Pran had autism if he doesn't struggle with the major two symptom?

The short answer: yes.

The long answer:

Struggle is not a contingency for you to qualify for a disability. Struggle may be visible or invisible. The costs of a disability may be visible or invisible.

He also had the privilege of having a neurodivergent best friend/enemy from the day he was born. And the clearly defined social language tutor of a mother.

That being said, it's not that he did not struggle, rather that he was able to build his world to minimize the costs and struggle.

The reason I so throughly believe in Pran’s Autism is because of the ways his everyday life (and P'Aof) shows the invisible struggle.

His hyperfixation with the smilies that he's used to understand and deal with emotions (symptom: emotional dysregulation, hyperfixation). His rigidity to his mechanisms (symptoms: routines and rituals). His inability to prioritize smaller decisions like going to save wai over his pens being set correctly (symptom: Executive Dysfuntion). His self rejection around being a burden and hyperindependance (symptom: RSD, Shame). His inability to let go of something that hurt him deeply, seemingly little to everyone else but a core issue for him in OURSKY2 when Pat jokes about Pran needing him.

Most importantly, he embodied Internalized ablism, one of the worst consequence of high functioning mental illness/conditions. Because we're able to be productive (barely) according to neurotypical standards it's second nature to fool yourself into thinking your disability doesn't even exist (@honeysachet bb).

But it's every single time Pran tells himself he should just take one more workload and it'll be okay. Sound with stage props and dating the actor in secret? Surely that would not be too much ??? The way he chose to take up an entire shifting of house because he felt so fucking guilty about causing Pat inconvenience (I can manage an entire transfer again whatever do you mean?) The way he visibly deflects in front of his parents mentioning not to date Pat (or Paa).

It's the little ways in which he struggles, the otherwise cracks in his perfect picture that he learns to embrace later. But not until his after his OCD diagnosis.

Conclusion: Pran was protected from the worst of his autism's consequences because of his relationship with Pat. Pran internalized a lot of his disability and consequent abelism because of his relationship with his mother. His struggle with his autism was hidden but it still existed, inextricably linked from the epic highs and lows of his life.

[susie-dreemurr]

Willow, Luz and Hunter for the character asks

(Edit: fuck it read more time)

Willow Park

1) First impression:

(Episode 3?) She seems a bit like the stereotypical sweet bullied best friend, but that’s okay. She’s nice and has some mischievous moments. Not much to say about her.

2) Impression now:

She’s still not a favorite, but I like her more now. I enjoy the parts where the girl subverts some of the tropes she was assigned (being allowed to being angry at her bully, not immediately forgiving, still a gremlin) and how just because Willow got more self-confidence, it doesn’t mean the teen won’t struggle with negative thoughts after getting put down for being “half a witch” for so long.

3) Favorite moment:

The monster in her mind being revealed to be Inner Willow after it was pushed into the water. Plus, the iconic: “I remember what you did, too. I can’t say we’re friends, but…it’s a start.”

4) Idea for a story:

We’ve seen Willow’s complicated feelings on Amity, now it’s time to explore what she and Skara got going on. Although I remember S1E17 hinting that Skara would be nicer to her and didn’t hate her, unlike Boscha, it’s still a bit weird to see one of Willow’s former bullies in her team when they’ve had zero on-screen development. Especially because, unlike with Amity, they don’t have any history to build on.

In other words. Fanfics of Willow & Skara friendship slow burn when.

5) Unpopular opinion:

Willow should have gotten more screen time, yes, but I think the girl’s current time explores her enough. She’s one of those characters who already feel complete since season one. (With that said, gimme some a Willow POV reason to ship Huntlow, bc if this is gonna happen, I need mutual content—)

You can argue that the girl hasn’t completed her arc yet, but, while that’s fair, I think the fact that we’re being shown that she’s in a better state than she ever was in her life, plus that she will keep growing, makes up for it.

6) Favorite relationship:

Willow and Amity. It’s not even a competition. Understand Willow, my best friend…

7) Favorite head cannon:

She’s somewhere in the AroAce spectrum! Maybe she can have crushes still, but they’ll be either very small and short, or they’re less “blushing, can’t function, etc” and more her normal attitude them + a mushy feeling in her chest and the desire to cuddle. Thought people were exaggerating about how intense their romantic urges were until Luminity happened. I’m not projecting.

Gus Porter

1) First impression:

Funny little man. Definitely not neurotypical. That’s it.

2) Impression now:

Labyrinth Runners changed me as a person, so listen. His whole character is about autism and the ND experience. His struggle of feeling guilty for not being able to read people as well as the others around him, therefore leading into being taken advantage of, mostly for his smarts, is a mood. Still a funny little man, but now is a character I love. This explains it better than I possibly could, but the point is: He Gets It!

3) Favorite moment:

His last on-screen Illusion Nightmare, when Hunter goes into the sphere to snap him out of his mind. Specifically the “I let myself get tricked…again” part because the slightly creepy and symbolic visual is my kind of shit. Aside of that, probably the whole scene where he calms Hunter down from a panic attack and then gives his speech.

4) Idea for a story:

Something exploring his post-King’s Tide feelings, because…imagine having to deal with being a 12 year old unable to go home to your only family member, who’s current status is unknown, going to your dream location in the worst way possible, and. As if that wasn’t enough, having to stay silent about his knowledge of Belos’s backstory, including the creation of grimwalkers, which his friend is. I am but a humble angst enjoyer and I need my crumbs.

5) Unpopular opinion:

Okay idk tbh. Although he was criminally underdeveloped in season one, TTGLR and LR came in clutch, so I don’t mind his lack of exploration as much as other fans. My main complaint is that I wish he got more focus on King’s Tide. Let him into the Angst Train in the next specials, Dana. You know you want to.

6) Favorite relationship:

As the Labyrinth Runners stan that I am, I’d have to be lying to say it’s anything but Hunter & Gus. It’s just an equally positive thing for both of them. They are nerdy sillies together me thinks

7) Favorite head cannon:

Augustus Porter has the autism swag (real)

Luz Noceda

1) First impression:

Luz looks like a regular “quirky child” kid’s show protagonist, but just because she’s not anything special right now doesn’t mean I won’t like her. She’s fun. I like her neurodivergent swag and…girlie made me cry in S1E02 😔 why would you hurt me like this. It’s not even a sad episode. It’s just… her being tricked by that self-indulgent illusion hit me in my weak spot 😭😭😭

2) Impression now:

ONE OF MY FAVORITES, JUST LIKE ME FOR REAL! Watch this video, it’s the best. Seriously, I still like her kid’s show protag vibes, yeah, but what really draws me in is her insecurities. It’s the alienation Luz faced due to being neurodivergent and never really fitting in anywhere until the Boiling Isles. It’s about the people pleasing and hiding away any signs that she needs help due to not wanting to be a bother, because being too much of a burden means losing your only friends. It’s about loving your parents but feeling as if they will never really get it.

The urge to self-sacrifice and put the blame on yourself in case anything goes wrong. It’s about reaching one of your lowest mental health points and thinking you’re a horrible person who ruins everything when you’re just a kid with some Issues and anger. When, at some point, you start only confiding on your sibling figure because they’re the only one who understands and you think won’t run away. Pushing away your friends and, after apologizing, being surprised at how instantly kind and forgiving they are. It’s about Reaching Out and Thanks To Them.

3) Favorite moment:

Camila watching her computer diary in Thanks To Them. Literally everything about it, but especially the reveal of her hyperfixation being a connection to her late father. Aside of that, moments like her bitter speeches in S2E02 (to Eda) and in S3E01 (to her class) are very cool…I relate to her so much 😔

4) Idea for a story:

I’m not very creative when it comes to these types of questions, so this is hard. You know what they say, when in doubt, go for a PMMM AU! She gets a Sayaka-like role! (it’s about the heroism complex and ideals, the destruction of the fantasy, the angst. And the gay, too. Amity, get in the Kyoko cosplay right NEOWWW—)

5) Unpopular opinion:

I mostly stick to my fandom bubble, so I always see similar takes, but. “She got some trauma and issues from the Boiling Isles, as no kid should bear the burden of the world’s fate in the way Luz does, Belos worsened her ‘I gotta do this by myself’ shtick” and “She already had trauma before the Boiling Isles, that island is essential to her healing atp, and her Owl Family + friends helped her get some coping mechanisms and actually rely on her loved ones” are all statements that can and do coexist!

6) Favorite relationship:

The Owl Family, aka Luz, Eda & King. It’s the heart of the show! Three outcasts, who grew to unconditionally accept and love each other, even when others don’t have their back. Three traumatized people with awful coping mechanisms who do their best teach each other how to be better. Found family that may not be perfect, but is essential in all its members in a growth and healing journey. Plus they’re really funny. Can best be described as “they’re a set, do not separate them.”

7) Favorite head cannon:

No “favorite” comes up right now, so regular ones it is. HC that Luz has not only ADHD, but autism and (for a while) depression as well! And undiagnosed eye problems, because she refused to ask for glasses and is deeply regretting it! I’m projecting! Also, when she stays in The Boiling Isles, she’s going to cut her hair to fit the Clawthorne Women Hair Style(TM) like how Eda looks in the EOTP flashback, but mixing it with her own style at the same time. The girl needs a cool leather jacket, too! Give her some more drip.

[yanderespamton78]

a lil drawing of human au termite :3

the hands look off why help me save me waaaaaa (i think theyre too small but i cba to fix them)

ramblings below the cut vvv

yea i made a human au for termite and willow B) honestly human termite and willow are much more interesting since theres so many situations to put them in :D i have a whole lil storyline built up with my friend n its very cool and now you lot get to hear about it (warning it is 3am i am very tired and will not read over this so sorry if its incomprehensible)

SO in the human au willow is an entomologist and is like successful and happy and stuff idk then she decides one day "how cool would it be if i had a child but also im single as fuck so lets adopt one". meanwhile Termite was off being saved from an abusive household (which we'll get to later) and willow ended up adopting termite!!!! YIPPEEEEEEEEE

termite is autistic hence the ear defenders :3 this is more brought to light in the human au since i dont really think theres as much of a definition of neurodivergent and neurotypical in the forest. luckily willow is also somewhere on the spectrum so she is understanding. willow and termite are very close like i often say that willow would commit war crimes for termite and im not kidding. both original willow and human au willow would blow up planets Smiling Friends Style for termite

so uh back to termite now i was agonising over whether i would have to change termites pronouns in the human au since with original termite i could just be like "oh termites just some weird forest creature who is above gender therefore i can use it" however it becomes an issue as soon as termites a human cus its a bit dehumanising to call a child "it" when the child isnt even really like. aware of gender at that point lol. and THEN my friend who i was complaining to said "what if termite came from an abusive household who used it/its on it" and thats when the cogs started turning. now the reason that termite continued to use it after being taken away from its bio family is still a bit jumbled in reality i just dont want to use different pronouns for termite nor do i want to pick what its sex is so here we are look i promise if human termite was the first termite i wouldnt be using it on it but this is just the way the cookie crumbles okay anyways as i was saying termites tragic backstory okay

so termite came from an abusive father, its mother died during childbirth due to lack of access to proper healthcare, which only made its father hate it even more because he was like "my girlfriend died for this stupid child >:(" and it most definitely didnt help that termite was disabled and struggled with so many things. It was abused pretty heavily up to age 6 but then was saved YIPE :D also not very fun fact its legal name is Milo (i like the name) but Willow noticed that every time she would call it Milo it would flinch from yk its dad shouting its name at it so instead she affectionately named it termite because it is aggressive and will bite you :3 also another unfun fact it haaattess people touching its hair since its father would drag it about by its hair often if it wasnt following instructions :(

anyways ty for reading my rant about my beloved little monster gremlin im sorry for how long it was and how off termites hands look anyways im gonna go family guy death pose on my bed now good night

[phoenixbrainvomit]

Introduction

Disclaimer, I am human presenting. I am afraid of making mistakes and not having the best structure when writing. I want a space where I feel relaxed enough to allow my brain to vomit without worrying if I have backed up all of my theories with facts and figures. Ideally it's a good practice to go by, however sometimes one is just on a roll and doesn't have the strength to interrupt a free flow state of writing.

Please do forgive any future mistakes to be made.

Who am I? A spec of magical dust, someone who cares about the world, people and animals, but still trying to understand my place in society and where I should place my efforts that would actually help any cause. My current obsession is revisiting the past Doctor Who series/episodes and getting my life advice, understanding of life and supporting my own theories with quotes from the Doctor. If I didn't know any better I'd think Doctor Who takes a form of God just like thousands of demigods and deities that people worship worldwide.

Just a little expected self loathing/ hatred. I am chronically late to everything. I am a slow learner in the sense I have to understand the fundamentals of things before starting to comprehend the current situation at hand. When I focus on something, I tend to give it my 90%. 10% goes to self care if I'm lucky enough and everything else in my life including responsibilities? Out of the window. I enter these horrific cycles of feeling overwhelmed and then freezing as I don't know where to stand to get myself out of the rut.

I have a slight inkling that I am on the neurodiverse spectrum. I have no time for people that automatically respond with, "EvEryOnE iS." "ItS NoRmAl". I'm sorry but if it was fucking normal I would surely be neurotypical and bossing life right now, because I am fudging fantastic. And those wanks that tend to respond like that are my family members, and I'm patiently waiting for them to hear the penny drop and for them to understand they're not neurotypical either.

Even if they were or were not. It doesn't give them the right to brush off what I'm saying. If they knew how to care properly, they would just fucking LISTEN and make space for me sharing my shit.

This is why I need God. They're the only being that is genuinely there with me throughout all moments from conception to decay. My limitless ear to natter to. I can only ask that they never forget me and never leave my side.

So I wasn't expecting that for an intro, I don't read much, unless I'm going on a deep dive into something with the purpose to learn something specific. I haven't read many blogs. I don't know if this will ever get any traction or interest.

If someone is reading however, I'd like to say Hello! And Welcome!

Lets fucking go!

[howdydoodydodis]

I see where you’re coming from! Context does matter a lot here, and that’s one of the reasons why I find the “sharks are smooth” prank funny where other “innocent” lies or insistence on falsehoods is frustrating.

I grew up with a big loud family of engineers with autistic traits if not autism itself. We split hairs and argued over semantics ALL the time, and those kinds of verbal spars are still something that happens with me and the people I’m closest with. Sometimes that sort of pedantic nitpicking is a fun kind of playfighting, but like physical playfighting sometimes it goes too far and becomes frustrating and hurtful when one or both of us begins to get too caught up in the weeds of who’s right. The biggest difference that takes it from fun to infuriating is when I can’t tell that it’s playful.

That’s why the “sharks are smooth” never bothered me, even though I otherwise relate: the troll made it increasingly transparent that his “evidence” was coming from made up, badly photoshopped stuff. People who kept coming back to argue repeatedly and putting a lot of time into correcting him even in such a long-standing and public refusal to see the light on a clear factual matter made it a little bit more clear that it was a troll.

I don’t think people who offered one comment, or even a second comment with a source, especially near the beginning of the thread, should be targeted for being “annoying” because that does disproportionally hurt autistic people. But the thread DID ensnare some people who are of the unhealthy personality type where they HAVE to be right. Learning to recognize when someone won’t change their views and when to stop putting effort into an argument is a skill that both neurotypical and autistic people can learn. So I can’t blame anyone (especially a neurodivergent person) for being “oh let me offer a helpful correction,” but there’s definitely a limit where the doggedness in trying to correct someone who refuses to listen does become funny (and a little sad) regardless of the corrector’s intent (or neurodivergency imo). It’d be a different story if one individual was gaslighting another individual about sharks being smooth, and if the whole debate wasn’t public, and if the troll hadn’t given clearly doctored evidence.

Not to say that you “should” find the joke funny or anything! And the fact that their skin is teeth IS fucking cool as hell! I wish that had been a viral part of that meme…

But maybe I just found it amusing to look into a dark mirror and remind myself how it looks from the outside when I try to be the one who’s RIGHT goddammit! I’ve certainly fallen into the trap before… in more subtle contexts of course, but still :p

The joke about smooth sharks has never been funny to me, partially because "insisting on something wrong and making fun of the other person for trying to correct you" was constantly used against me when I was an (autistic) kid and as a teenager I often assumed people were arbitrarily lying to me when they made innocuous statements. I was afraid to respond sincerely to anything and often ignored advice and information people gave me because of the chance it could be a joke at my expense.

It's even more grating in this case because people explicitly say they think the joke detects and entraps people who are already "annoying" and "need to be the smartest person in the room."

(Never mind that the "outcome" is entirely contingent on subtle differences in context and how social rules in the exchange were followed; the person that said honey is made by putting bees in a bee grinder got ridiculed even though they were doing the same thing—confidently asserting something stupid on the internet.)

The other reason I hate the "sharks are smooth" joke is that it obscures the reality that sharks are literally covered in teeth. They evolved from teeth, they are morphologically teeth. TEETH

[midorree]

How (I Think) Quirk-based Discrimination Works In BNHA

I've seen a lot of claims about how people interpret the quirk-based discrimination from an ableism allegory (not quite) to actually comparing it to Jim Crow laws, which is completely out of pocket. Quirk based discrimination in BNHA is very unique, especially with quirks not existing for very long in the grand scheme of things. Trying to compare it to existing forms of discrimination (that, mind you, exist in the fucking show) is simply put, not accurate in the slightest. Racism has existed for long enough for it to be embedded into our everyday lives and systems. Ableism has existed long enough that it affects how we view disabled people as people and how doctors view their disabled patients. Quirk-based discrimination has not.

PART 1: Comparing and Contrasting: Ableism

I've had this conversation a couple times with my friends, and typically we find that ableism doesn't match up with qbd. First and foremost, let's define a disability.

[Image ID: disability: a physical or mental condition that limits a person's movements, senses, or activities. A disadvantage or a handicap, especially one imposed or recognized by the law. End Image ID]

Quirkless people do not meet this standard definition unless they are already disabled. Being quirkless does not limit movements, senses, or activities in any way shape or form. Being quirkless is not a hindrance in every day life when it comes to these specific criteria.

But why would people thing that being quirkless is the same as being disabled? Let's take a look at accommodations and accessibility.

In the BNHA universe, quirks have existed for long enough that people with mutation quirks that alter their body significantly can comfortably buy clothes as seen with Shoji in some occasions.

[Image ID: Shoji is wearing baggy, patterned pants tucked into laced boots and is wearing a tank top. End ID]

He is able to buy shirts with bigger sleeve holes rather than having to fix his clothing so that he may be able to wear it himself. This is also seen with UA making a uniform so that he can fit without him having to work excessively for it.

[Image ID: Shoji wearing UA uniform. The uniform has no sleeves. End ID]

Why does this matter? Because Shoji is a perfect example of how small accommodations for people mutation quirks exists idly in the BNHA universe. Everyone has a different quirk and require different accommodations, and with Quirkless people, when it comes to buying clothes, or walking up steps, or going comfortably to a restaurant it's never a problem! Assuming they are able-bodied/neurotypical, they truly won't have a problem with getting by in day to day life.

However, there is one thing I will say is similar to ableism in this aspect: how doctors would treat quirkless people. With the opening episodes/chapters of BNHA we see firsthand how a doctor treats a child who is quirkless. Uncaring, cold, and straight to the point as to let them down as hard as they can saying "you might as well get used to it." The doctor had little to no belief that Izuku would become a hero, saying that he should pursue other careers instead. It's not a perfect match up, but I'd say in my personal experience it's pretty similar.

PART 2: Racism in BNHA

I'm not going to dwell long on this one because it's frankly very tone deaf and not very thought out to be comparing qbd to actual racism.

[Image ID: White text on a black background that states: What was worse, he would now be forces to keep his family from visiting or even living in America. It was never talked about openly, but the way quirkless were treated in the States came very close to how they handled different races with the Jim Crow laws of the past. He would never subject his Izuku to that kind of hatred. End Image ID]

There's a lot to unpack here, but let me preface this by saying this: qbd and centuries upon centuries of racial discrimination are not the same thing, especially considering racism exists in the show/manga itself. Big Yikes.

Let's start by defining what Jim Crow laws were.

[Image ID: Jim Crow laws were a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. Named after a Black minstrel show character, the laws—which existed for about 100 years from the post-Civil War era until 1968—were meant to marginalize African Americans by denying them the right to vote, hold jobs, get an education or other opportunities. Those who attempted to defy Jim Crow laws often faces arrest, fines, jail sentences, violence and death. End Image ID]

So lets make a hypothetical and say quirkless people were treated like this. Okay, what would be an identifying factor in discrimination? Would quirkless people have to tell employers their quirk status? Possibly. Would the right to vote be revoked? Due to what? Would they be held back in educational places? Why would they be?

There are too many unanswered questions as to why these things would happen. The Jim Crow laws happened due to white entitlement after the enslavement of an entire race. Qbd happens because of inherent power dynamics (which I will get into later), and while racial discrimination has that factor, it has existed way longer and is more prevalent in society. What if a quirkless person was a quirkless person of color? Think on that.

There are also heroes of color that exist in the show, and racist caricatures of people of color.

[Image ID: Pro Hero: Native with a shocked expression and some sweat dripping down his face. End Image ID]

This fucker right here.

The BNHA universe has existing racism in and out of canon, seeing as the black/brown characters are underrated outside of the show, and microaggressed within the show.

PART 3: Kacchan vs Deku 3: How Did Deku Being Quirkless Affect Their Relationship And Why?

The line "not all men are created equal" really stuck with me while writing and thinking about this meta. Deku has understood and worked through social dynamics and understandings since he was four years old. He's understood that since he's quirkless, people with quirks hold power over him that he can't defend himself against. He understands this, and chooses to roll with the punches.

Bakugou also very much understands how social dynamics work, and chooses to use it to his advantage. He bullies Deku as a boast of power rather than a boast of privileged. It's been drilled into young Katsuki's head that quirkless people are weak, and that he is strong, His teachers are seen encouraging this behavior and the adults around him tend to not view him as a person, but as an existing beam of potential. Propaganda probably exists even in his Sunday cartoons. The strongest people he looks up to all have quirks, and he makes that correlation of quirk = strong at a very young age. He learns that quirkless ≠ strong. A part of me feels like this is intentional.

Izuku being quirkless would put him at the bottom of the food chain, in a sense, and anyone who had a quirk would be listened to more than he ever would. Izuku learned that not all men are equal because of the inherent power dynamics that come with having the ability to fly, or create explosions, or use fucking fire and ice on command, because he realizes he will never be stronger than Kacchan (at least for now). Even Izuku's idols who he considered to be strong and amazing and admirable were people with quirks. People with power over him.

When Izuku got OFA, the playing field shifted, and Katsuki was afraid and confused. Just because Izuku got a quirk, that doesn't mean Katsuki's view on quirkless people changed. We don't know if it did because its never addressed. He has made significant character development and is working to atone with Deku, but would that still happen if Deku had stayed quirkless? We don't know.

PART 4: Conclusion

The BNHA fandom has a lot of views on how qbd might work, but these are just my thoughts. These are all my opinions and if you'd like to add something feel free to! I just hate the fact that qbd is being compared to actual racism when that just doesn't apply and wanted to weigh in my two cents. Qbd, in my opinion, is all about power dynamics and how easily that can be abused.

[themollyjay]

The Myths of Forced Diversity and Virtue Signaling.

In my novel Mail Order Bride, the three main characters are a lesbian and two agendered aliens.  In my novel Scatter, the main character is a lesbian, the love interest is a pansexual alien, and the major side characters include a half Cuban, half black Dominican lesbian, a Chinese Dragon, a New York born Jewish Dragon, and a Transgender Welsh Dragon.  In my novel The Master of Puppets, the Main Characters are a lesbian shapeshifting reptilian alien cyborg and a half black, half Japanese lesbian.  The major side characters include three gender fluid shapeshifting reptilian alien cyborgs, and a pansexual human.  In my novel Transistor, the main character is a Trans Lesbian, the love interest is a Half human/Half Angel non-observant Ethiopian Jew, and the major side characters include a Transgender Welsh Dragon (the same one from Scatter), a Transgender woman, a Latino Lesbian, an autistic man, three Middle Eastern Arch Angels, and a hive mind AI with literally hundreds of genders.  In my novel The Inevitable singularity, one of the main characters is a lesbian, another has a less clearly defined sexuality but she is definitely in love with the lesbian, and the third is functionally asexual due to a vow of chastity she takes very seriously.  The major side characters include a straight guy from a social class similar to the Dalit (commonly known as untouchables) in India, a bisexual woman, a man who is from a race of genetically modified human/frog hybrids, and a woman from a race of genetically modified humans who are bred and sold as indentured sex workers.

Why am I bringing all of this up?  Well, first, because it’s kind of cool to look at the list of different characters I’ve created, but mostly because it connects to what I want to talk about today, which should be obvious from the title of the essay.  The concepts of ‘forced diversity’ and ‘virtue signaling’.

For those who aren’t familiar with these terms, they’re very closely related concepts.  ‘Forced Diversity’ is the idea that characters who aren’t neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white males are only ever included in a story because of outside pressure from some group (usually called Social Justice Warriors, or The Woke Brigade or something similar) to meet some nebulous political agenda.  The caveat to this is, of course, that you can have a women/women present as long as they are hot, don’t make any major contributions to the resolution of the plot, and the hero/heroes get to fuck them before the end of the story. ‘Virtue Signaling’, according to Wikipedia, is a pejorative neologism for the expression of a disingenuous moral viewpoint with the intent of communicating good character.

The basic argument is that Forced Diversity is a form of virtue signaling.  That no one would ever write characters who aren’t neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white males because they want to.  They only do it to please the evil SJW’s who are somehow both so powerful that they force everybody to conform to their desires, yet so irrelevant that catering to them dooms any creative project to financial failure via the infamous ‘go woke, go broke’ rule.

What the people who push this idea of Forced Diversity tend to forget is that we exist at a point in time when creators actually have more creative freedom than are any other people in history.  Comic writers can throw up a website and publish their work as a webcomic without having to go through Marvel, DC or one of the other big names, or get a place in the dying realm of the news paper comics page.  Novelists can self-publish with fairly little upfront costs, musicians can use places like YouTube and Soundcloud to get their work out without having to worry about music publishers.  Artists can hock their work on twitter and tumblr and a dozen other places. Podcasts are relatively cheap to make, which has opened up a resurgence in audio dramas.  Even the barrier to entry for live action drama is ridiculously low.

So, in a world where creators have more freedom than ever before, why would they choose to people their stories with characters they don’t want there?  The answer, of course, is that they wouldn’t.  Authors, comic creators, indie film creators and so on aren’t putting diverse characters into their stories because they are being forced to. They’re putting diverse characters into their stories because they want to.  Creators want to tell stories about someone other than the generically handsome hypermasculine cisgendered heterosexual white males that have been the protagonists of so many stories over the years that we’ve choking on it. A lot of times, creators want to tell stories about people like themselves.  Black creators want to tell stories about the black experience. Queer creators want to tell stories about the queer experience.

I’m an autistic, mentally ill trans feminine abuse survivor.  Every day, I get up and I struggle with PTSD, with an eating disorder, with severe body dysmorphia, with anxiety and depression and just the reality of being autistic and transgender.  I deal with the fact that the religious community I grew up in views me as an abomination, and genuinely believes I’m going to spend eternity burning in hell.  I deal with the fact that people I’ve known for decades, even members of my own family, regularly vote for politician who publicly state that they want to strip me of my civil rights because I’m queer.  I’m part of a community that experiences a disproportionately high murder and suicide rate.  I’ve spent multiple years of my life deep in suicidal depression, and to this day, I still don’t trust myself around guns.

As a creator, I want to talk about those issues.  I want to deal with my life experiences.  I want to create characters that embody and express aspects of my lived experience and my day-to-day reality.  No one is forcing me to put diversity into my books.  I try to include Jewish characters as often as I can because there have been a number of important Jewish people in my life.  I include queer people because I’m queer and the vast majority of friends I interact with on a regular basis are queer.  I include people with mental illnesses and trauma because I am mentally ill and have trauma, and I know a lot of people with mental illnesses and trauma.  My work may be full of fantastical elements, aliens and dragons and angels and superheroes and magic and ultra-high technology and AI’s and talking cats and robot dogs and shape shifters and telepaths and all sorts of other things, but at the core of the stories is my own lived experience, and neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white males are vanishingly rare in that experience.

Now, I can hear the comments already.  The ‘okay, maybe that’s true for individual creators, but what about corporate artwork?’.   Maybe not in those exact words, but you get the idea.

The thought here is that corporations are bowing to social pressure to include characters who aren’t neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white males, and that is somehow bad. But here’s the thing. Corporations are going to chase the dollars.  They aren’t bowing to social pressure.  There’s no one holding a gun to some executive’s head saying, “You must have this many diversity tokens in every script.”  What is happening is that corporations are starting to clue into the fact that people who aren’t neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white males have money.  They are putting black characters in their shows and movies because black people watch shows and spend money on movies.  They are putting queer people in shows and movies because queer people watch shows and spend money on movies.  They are putting women in shows and movies because women watch shows and spend money on movies.

No one is forcing these companies to do this.  They are choosing to do it, the same way individual creators are choosing to do it.  In the companies’ cases the choices are made for different reasons.  It’s not because they are necessarily passionate about telling stories about a particular experience, but because they want to create art to be consumed by the largest audience possible, which means that they have to expand their audience beyond the neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white male by including characters from outside of that demographic.

And the reality is, the cries of ‘forced diversity’ and ‘virtue signaling’ almost always come from within that demographic.  Note the almost.  There are a scattering of individuals from outside that demographic which do subscribe to the ‘forced diversity’ and ‘virtue signaling’ myths, but that is a whole other essay.  However, within that demographic, lot of the people who cry about ‘forced diversity’ see media and content as a Zero-Sum game.  The more that’s created for other people, the less that is created for them.

In a way, they’re right. There are only so many slots for TV shows each week, there are only so many theaters, only so much space on comic bookshelves and so on.  But at the end of the day, its literally impossible for them to consume all the content that’s being produced anyway.  So, while there is, theoretically less content for them to consume, as a practical matter it’s a bit like someone who is a meat eater going to a buffet with two hundred items, and then throwing a tantrum because five of the items happen to be vegan.

The worst part is, if they could let go of how wound up they are about the ‘forced diversity’ and ‘virtue signaling’ they could probably enjoy the content that’s produced for people other than them.  I mean, I’m a pasty ass white girl, and I loved Black Panther.

So, to wrap out, creators, make what you want to make, and ignore anyone who cries about forced diversity or virtue signaling.  And to people who are complaining about forced diversity and virtue signaling, I want to go back to the buffet metaphor.  You need to relax.  Even if there are a few vegan options on the buffet, you can still get your medium rare steak, or your chicken teriyaki or whatever it is you want.  Or, maybe, just maybe, you could give the falafel a try. That shit is delicious.