#like ma'am i See You

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: WHEN AMONG CROWS by Veronica Roth.

I finished this last night! It's a shortie (only 166 pages!), and the first thing I've read by Roth since DIVERGENT. Since I didn't vibe with that one, I tried not to be overly optimistic about this one, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it--it was a great little bite-sized modern urban fantasy set in Chicago that draws on Polish folklore.

Cool magic system(s), cool monsters, cool underground boxing ring featuring said cool monsters and cool magic, thoughtfully drawn characters (Dymitr and Ala and Niko, my beloveds,), complicated Sibling and Family Relationships, a little bit gay, VERY bloody (featuring ah. fingernails. and. spines.), an emotional gut punch at the end, and y'know the more I list here the more I think I like it?? She (Roth) also acknowledges Witcher in her post-book shout-outs, which. yeah. If you like Witcher, I think this is worth checking out!

[teaboot]

Social anxiety level: Chatting with someone experiencing a schizophrenic episode and becoming increasingly self-concious of how I'm just saying "That sounds really stressful", "I've never heard of that but it sounds scary", and "You must be pretty worried about that" over and over again

[arttitude130]

both trying their best

based on interactions in +r, i drew these before aba was announced but just remembered they existed

[aroaceleovaldez]

in your most recent tyson post, you said something about leo being distinctly autistic-coded and I was wondering if you could elaborate on that? it sounds really interesting (sorry if you've already posted something on this, I couldn't find anything though)

Of course! I do have a specific tag for talking about Leo's autistic-coding/traits - [here], and [one for Nico as well].

The main aspects with Leo being autistic-coded actually have a lot to do with Nico being autistic-coded, because it's the comparisons between the two that most clearly indicate Leo is autistic-coded rather than it just being his ADHD or etc.

So with Nico being autistic-coded, it's very clear in the Titan's Curse that he's intended to be autistic. First, the first series has a repeating pattern of secondary characters being very distinctly neurodivergent-coded in different ways (Annabeth's adhd/dyslexia, Tyson's down syndrome-coding, Nico's autism-coding). With Nico's introduction, he's pretty stereotypically autistic and we're given a lot of descriptors about him that are notably not attributed to him being ADHD, like it would be for other demigod characters. He doesn't register social cues such as people getting annoyed at him, he's asking/making inappropriate or impolite questions/comments, he gets particularly upset about change (such as Bianca joining the Hunt) and generally gets emotional, and one of his most notable traits he's introduced with is the fact that he has a special interest (MythoMagic) - and we're shown that this special interest particularly colors how Nico navigates the world. While ADHD has hyperfixations, we don't really get much acknowledgement of hyperfixations with demigods usually - Annabeth gets a little, but most others don't and it's not nearly as focused-in on as Nico's is.

Then as the series continues we see these traits stick with him and him start to show or voice more traits that similarly indicate he's autistic: He regularly mentions how he doesn't understand living people and prefers the company of the dead (social issues). He has more notable stims than other demigods (twisting his ring, fiddling with bones, etc). He's indicated to have strong sensory preferences (usually wearing mostly black/aversion to bright colors, usually wearing layers/his coat, multiple times he's described as wearing loose/baggy clothing or clothes too big for him). He has specific comfort items (his ring, likely his jacket(s) as well). We later get even more information about his special interests (Mythomagic/mythology/history and an older interest in pirates - the latter he specifically notes likely heavily influenced his feelings towards Percy). He struggles with emotions and facial expressions and tone. He struggles particularly with ostracism and feeling like he doesn't fit in and has something distinctly different about him from the people around him (who notably, all have ADHD, which indicates it isn't the ADHD that's making him feel that way), and other characters regularly describe him as being off-putting because of his strange behaviors - again, different from specific ADHD traits they recognize. And that last point is kind of notable because we have Hazel and Bianca for comparison - we know people are off-put by both Nico and Hazel because of being children of Hades/Pluto and their powers/aura, but other characters get past that general feeling of discomfort way faster with Hazel. And even after characters get past the death stuff with Nico, there's a second thing that they aren't moving past that isn't a factor with Hazel (Nico's autism).

So that brings us to Leo - Leo is paralleled to Nico a lot. And there's some very specific traits about him that we know are autistic-coding because of how they're used with Nico: He similarly struggles with social cues/etc, and in a very similar parallel to Nico describes how he prefers the company of machines to people because machines make more sense to him. He has similar types of clothing/sensory preferences (again some stuff with layers but also - pockets! He likes having pockets and things to put stuff in! He's even introduced as having a jacket with lots of pockets), and he has a distinct special interest (machinery) that we specifically know heavily influences how he views and navigates the world (constantly comparing things to machinery, describing things with machinery metaphors/terminology, etc etc). He even describes his entire general worldview to Hazel and it's a machine metaphor. He also similarly struggles with ostracization like Nico does, the only difference being that Leo specifically puts on a persona to compensate for areas he knows he's lacking in and very explicitly describes it as a means to make people like him, because without it he normally struggles to fit in (He's masking!). We also see notes of characters describing that similar discomfort with Leo's behaviors that they do with Nico, except without the aura of death this time. And when we're in Leo's POVs we see a very stark difference between his masking and his actual personality/behaviors such as his internal dialogues or how he behaves when he's alone. Also, like Nico, he stims more than other demigods, though for Leo it's more attributed to his ADHD. Leo also, more often than most, similarly struggles with tone and reading the room, such as making misplaced jokes/comments or etc.

But yeah! It's really interesting. Also it's just a fun thing that ADHD/dyslexia and autism have comorbidity, so it makes sense that we see demigods who are also autistic. It's also really fun to look at how other characters are coded in the series, what coding looks like in the riordanverse specifically (usually it's tied into the mythological stuff - like Chiron being in a wheelchair but he's actually a centaur, Grover being introduced as having a muscular disease but he's actually a satyr, demigods having adhd/dyslexia, Tyson being coded as having down syndrome but he's a cyclops, etc etc - it's a lot of specific metaphor stuff that I've talked about a bit before), and to look at how characters are compared to one another.

[millionsknives]

one of the kids i tutor is this very quiet, strait-laced football-and-cars 8th grader, and he's a little out of my wheelhouse because most of my experience is with k5 kids but i've been tutoring this kid for about four weeks and he was so reserved and stiff and quiet our first meeting i think all he ever said was 'yes ma'am' the entire lesson. and i know he's only here because his parents signed him up for writing lessons but i am so desperately scheming to get him to have fun and take interest and feel like its worth his time, like bro we gon get you something out of these lessons and get some of your personality and interests to show. but i have to be tricky about it. i had to think of something fun and cool disguised as something practical and useful because he's not going to want to engage with any of the silly things we use to motivate the younger kids. so at the end of our first day i asked him if he wanted to start developing a signature. and that was the first spark of interest i ever saw out of him, just the smallest crumbs of life in his eyes, so i've started teaching him cursive off-the-books and when we worked on writing his name today he was very moderately enthused but for him that's basically the equivalent of jumping up and down and it makes me SO happy to see my evil plan working

[cyren-myadd]

[b4kuch1n]

What is this for, love? Home, or glory?

[saveugoodmadam]

I really hope that creature starts arguing on hyde's side if I'm honest because this isn't the first time frankie saw a scientific creation as not being a person and if I was creature rn I'd be more than a bit pissed it was happening again

[avalordream]

How I think an instance of Cove climbing to MC's window went via text

Cove: MC

Cove: MC

Cove: MC

MC: GIVE ME A SEC COVE THERE'S SOMEONE OUTSIDE MY HOUSE

Cove: I know

Cove: That's me

MC: Cove

MC: It's like-

MC: 11 pm today-

MC: ITS NOT EVEN TODAY ANYMORE

MC: IT'S TOMORROW

MC: I ALMOST SCREAMED

Cove: please don't

MC: I WILL IF YOU DONT STOP STANDING THERE LIKE MICHAEL MYERS

Cove: I brought snacks

MC: get tf in here

[skellydun]

I just want someone to show me a house and say this is yours now congrats ! instead of making the most indecisive non-opinionated person make a big ass decision

[xxplastic-cubexx]

chat htey fuckin jumpscared me while im trying to do my assignment

[postmanlinksbootyshorts]

just saw 'decentering men' as a youtube video title and almost blacked out and lost it

[thebirdandhersong]

Lol

[mylittleredgirl]

i know it's been two weeks since i read the nurses script for my deep dive post but i swear at least ten times a day i stop and stare into space thinking about hot lips, hurt, is trying to control her rage

[fxxlfxrlxvx]

Actually I do want to talk about how almost every single line Kurt had in episode 10 (and there weren't many) was explicitly religious and I hate hate hate it. Not only do I find it grating I also think it's lazy writing.

[thegalaxytraveler]

you know what ill fucking say it: stardew valley has been sold as a "cozy chill" game but its wrong. its not a chill game; it has a chill atmosphere- but farming is not chill. farming is math and gettin up early and optimizing processes and a lot of planning (which can be fun! but its not chill.) and i am aware you CAN play it chill, that you dont have a time limit or anything- but lets stop lying to ourselves lol. stardew is a farm management game. dont forget that