#prosopagnosia problems

[harleythealter]

If my face ever had to be reconstructed…. I’d look in the mirror and be like. WTF. I don’t remember I looked like that-wait I don’t remember what I used to look like. *insert minor crisis* two months later I look in the mirror and be like. Mmmm looks as strangerish as ever.

Because I don’t remember what I look like on a regular basis

[valerieismss]

I’m not sure if my inane ability to make miis extremely accurate to their real world counterparts contradicts or is a result of my prosopagnosia

[hcvlach]

Long ago, a reader complained that I hadn't described the characters enough in my story, because that reader was unable to visualize the characters' faces. And I thought, "the frick???? who can visualize a FACE?? It's an unknowable void of fleeting movements that indicate emotions?? that's like expecting the author to describe one of those Magic Eye pictures where you cross your eyes and it's a 3-D dolphin or whatever."

that mismatch of expectations did ping me that I was Actually Different, though. I figured out that I have prosopagnosia (faceblindness)! That's a condition that doesn't get much attention, but it uniquely informs my writing. To make up for my poor recognition of faces, I notice other things. People's voices, their silhouettes, their movement patterns and mannerisms, the distinctness of their walking stride, and details like the particular sound their keyring makes.

I think that's part of why I insist on writing stories where non-human characters have a wide variety of sensory experiences. Because what if people saw things differently from each other? What if they had very different brain processes? What then?? How would we address it, huh, humans???

[destieltropecollection]

Destiel Trope Collection 2024 | Day 2: Idiots in Love

like today | @dcforts Rating: General Word Count: 1,798 Main Tags/Warnings: Domesticity, Light Angst Summary: Dean is not too bothered. Outside the weather is bad, but the place it’s nearby, the job seems easy and they can be home in time for dinner. And if they hit the traffic, well, Cas will be there. They will be fine.

Call on your future self for advice and assistance | @deliciousblizzardshark Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 4,136 Main Tags/Warnings: Post-Canon, Crack Treated Seriously, Magic, Mentions of Bottom Dean Winchester, Mentions of panty kink, mentions of spanking, Mentions of healthy diets, Mention of canon-typical racist porno mag, Mention of Exercise, Drinking, Humor, Getting Together, Time Travel (kind of) Summary: After everything and everyone is magically okay, Dean’s not sure how to deal with Castiel’s surprise love confession. At his wit’s end, he decides to cast a spell to bring his future self (or selves, it turns out) to the Bunker for help. The only problem? Future Dean Winchester(s) are still Dean Winchester... and Dean Winchester is an asshole.

The Dadification of Castiel Novak | @Runraerun Rating: General Word Count: 4,780 Main Tags/Warnings: Idiots in love, Canon compliant, rewriting the Cas love confession scene, first kiss, growing old together, Cas has a hard time reading faces, prosopagnosia, Castiel is Jack Kline’s parent, Castiel and Dean Winchester need to use their words, Castiel and Dean Winchester use their words, We can have nice things, fluff, Sam teasing Dean as is his god given right as his little brother, team free will 2.0. No warnings apply. Summary: When one of Cas’ old I.D.’s gets rejected, Sam and Dean tell him afterwards it’s because his picture is outdated—but this doesn’t make any sense, Castiel explains; Angel vessels don’t age. Dean has to break it to Cas that he doesn’t look like he’s in his 20’s anymore.

You Will Get Wet | @notastupidbird Rating: Explicit Word Count: 6,858 Main Tags/Warnings: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, 5+1 Things, Comedy, Food Service Worker Dean Winchester, Lifeguard Castiel (Supernatural), Dean Winchester Has a Crush on Castiel, Castiel and Dean Winchester Being Idiots, Idiots in Love, Explicit Sexual Content, Porn With Plot, First Kiss, First Time, Frottage, Theme Parks, Waterpark, Early Aughts, POV Dean Winchester Summary: The summer of 2003 could more accurately be described as the summer from Hell. It was Dean's second year working in concessions at the local water park which meant it was his second year of sunburn, screaming children, wet dollar bills, and having to stare at Cas, the unbearably hot lifeguard stationed directly across from his stand. Or, five times Dean completely failed at trying to talk to his summer crush plus the one time he didn't have to.

as for prophecies, they will pass away (WIP) | @danishdeity Rating: Explicit Word Count: 9,208 Main Tags/Warnings: Slow burn, fix-it, angst and hurt/comfort, mutual pining, explicit sexual content, masturbation, Summary: Dean has worked tirelessly to bring Castiel back from the Empty, but once he finally manages, he just avoids Cas. Dean is determined to give Cas a shot at a happy life, but in order to do that, maybe he has to step back? But having Cas around all the time stirs some thoughts and a lot of panic.

Icarus to Your Certainty (WIP) | @Miaintheimpala Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 9,842 Main Tags/Warnings: POV Castiel (Supernatural), Post-Episode: s15e18 Despair (Supernatural), Tooth-rotting Fluff, Fluff and Angst, No Smut, Castiel and Dean Winchester Being Idiots, Castiel and Dean Winchester in Love, Castiel and Dean Winchester Use Their Words, Castiel and Dean Winchester Are Jack Kline's Parents, Castiel and Dean Winchester Are Claire Novak's Parents, Jack Is Not God, Human Castiel (Supernatural), Idiots in Love, Hurt/Comfort, Oblivious Sam Winchester, Angst With A Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Fix-it Summary: Icarus and Castiel both flew to their suns and fell. They both lost their wings and drowned, but there's one difference between these two stories: after being drowned in the depths of The Shadow, Castiel wakes up on a concrete floor.

Phantom Manor On the Hill of Big Thunder Mountain | @melancholictearz Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 18,274 Main Tags/Warnings: AU - Amusement Park, Dean Wears a Cowboy Hat, Cowboy!Dean, Ghost Butler!Castiel, Summer Romance, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Meet-Cute Summary: A PLACE WHERE ERAS AND CENTURIES MERGE INTO A SUMMER STORY. Dean struts around Frontierland in cowboy boots and a hat all day for a living— that’s what his summer job is about, at Big Thunder Mountain attraction in the Far West-themed area of Disneyland Parks. He’s pleased with his current life as it is, until his eyes fall on Castiel, the new haunted butler working at Phantom Manor ride next door. Only a lake separates the two rides but Dean’s inability to stay normal in front of his crush might be the biggest obstacle in the whole painting.

Fanfictionland | @verobatto Rating: Explicit Word Count: 21,165 Main Tags/Warnings: Alternative universe jumping, canonverse, idiots in love, mutual pining, cowboys, pirates, regency era, medieval, comedy, fanfic writers, TFW 2.0, season 8. Summary: Imagine a destiel writer with the power of one of the tablets. Imagine that destiel shipper writer trying to make Destiel canon, using different ideas. Now, imagine Dean and Castiel jumping from fic to fic, following the script, tropes and AUs we all know while Sam, Kevin and Becky try to stop that mess. Yep, someone had to do it...

The Architect Of Fate | @verobatto Rating: Explicit Word Count: 23,446 Main Tags/Warnings: Magic, modern setting, fate architect!Castiel, first meetings, character development, winged Castiel, pining, falling in love, top!Castiel/bottom!Dean Winchester, miscommunication Summary: Dean Winchester tries to live his life without any attachments as he looks for the perfect job that brings him money and prestige. But things are not going well for him following the path he decides to make. His luck changes when he meets Naomi, the leader of the Fate Architect Corporation. He only has to fill a form with the life of his dreams, and follow the instructions Castiel will give him, as his assigned Architect. It's time for Dean to get the life he deserves and get the perfect job and the perfect girlfriend. If only Castiel wasn't that beautiful, he could perfectly focus on his targets. Or… How a grumpy and professional Architect of Fate, named Castiel, has to lead with a stubborn and noisy human.

White Lightning (WIP) | @scatterbugged Rating: Explicit Word Count: 24,941 Main Tags/Warnings: top!Dean, Bottom!Cas, Castiel's Grace, Touch-Starved DeanCas, Mutual Pining, Anxiety, Post season 15, AU, Castiel Has Sensitive Wings, Love Confessions, Dean Being Stupid, Dean and his Self-Worth Issues, Anal Sex, Dean and Cas in the Bunker Summary: It started in the kitchen, he thinks, the bursting of this weirdo thing they have between the two of them. Maybe the kitchen's the wrong spot to pinpoint- maybe it was those years ago, stood in an old, dank barn gripping fear and that demon blade. Or, rather, it was before all that, with Dean cutting folks up on the racks and carving out those rictus faces, and Cas still thinking he was worth saving anyway. Wherever it was- Dean thinks now, it really started to break in the kitchen, after everything else is said and done, and when it ends up spilling, he'll be left alone to clean up the mess. - or - Castiel's a little bit human, a little bit angel nowadays ever since he got spit out of the Empty, and both his body and his grace are still adjusting. Dean's more than willing to help his buddy out.

Indeana Jones and the Tear of Pele | @amaranthhiding Rating: Explicit Word Count: 32,679 Main Tags/Warnings: Canon Universe, Beach Vacation, Adventure, Hawaiian Mythology, Fallen Angel Castiel, Humor, Light Angst with Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Magic, Mystery, Castiel's True Form, Castiel's Wings, Mutual Pining, Dean in Denial, Dean Makes Up Ridiculous Excuses for Touch, Castiel Uses Sarcasm, Castiel Goes Missing, Castiel and Dean Save Each Other, First Kiss, First Time, Grace-Powered Orgasm, Post-Season 11 Canon Divergence, DCRB 2024 Summary: What starts as a relaxing beach vacation in Hawai’i turns into a journey of self-discovery for Castiel and Dean. To save the world from the Darkness, they both faced what they thought to be their imminent demise and came out the other side very much still alive. So now they have to ponder the really big questions, such as what a bucket list is, what place in the world a fallen angel has, and how Indiana Jones ever managed to keep that hat on his head. The island seems to have a way of making the barrier of touch crumble to dust until they're sliding toward the edge of something new and fragile between them that neither of them dares to put a name to, lest it might disappear. When what really disappears is Castiel, there's very little Dean wouldn't do to get the angel back.

Even The Chicken is Gay | @avonlady42 Rating: Explicit Word Count: 53,730 Main Tags/Warnings: Gay Chicken, Dean and Castiel are clueless, top castiel/bottom Dean Winchester, switching, marriage, mile high club, smut, adoption Summary: Their senior year in high school, Charlie dares Dean and Castiel to play a game of gay chicken which they both reluctantly accept. Their friends wait impatiently to see who will chicken out first, but they’ve all given up on that happening when they show up to their 20-year high school reunion having been married for 14 years and both of them still thinking they are straight and in denial that they are in love with each other. This is based on a prompt from a meme on the Destiel forever Facebook group: In high school I was dared to play “gay chicken,” which is where two straight guys pretend to be gay, and the first one to chicken out loses. The other guy and I are really stubborn, and neither one of us wanted to lose. We’ve been married 14 years and run a bed and breakfast in Vermont with our adopted daughter. If that dude doesn’t chicken out soon, I’m going to start to suspect he’s actually gay.

My Cryo Sleeping Beauty | @thefandomsinhalor Rating: Explicit Word Count: 55,356 Main Tags/Warnings: Space AU, Action/Adventure, Torture, Gabriel Is The Narrator, Humor, Misunderstandings, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Top Castiel/Bottom Dean, Denial, Hunted, Flirting, Minor Sabriel, Summary: Let me tell you a story about two adorable, yet frustrating, knuckleheads in love. We got Dean Winchester of Venandi, who wakes up on an unknown spaceship with a half-naked man in his arms, and no memory of how this happened. Cuddling him oh-so lovingly, we have, fresh out of cryo sleep, prisoner James Novak, who is equally confused about his whereabouts and to find Dean sharing a bed with him. Now, prisoner Novak is really Castiel, an old acquaintance of Dean’s and his real identity appears to be only known by Dean. That’s when the mercenary Henriksen, doing Empress Amara’s bidding, stumbles upon them and crashes their little (freak out) moment. While dealing with Castiel’s mysterious past and Dean’s personal and urgent quest, they have no choice but to work side by side as they banter away to escape from everyone’s clutches and find out what really happened. I know you might be skeptical. People often ask me, “How in all the stars do you possibly know all of this, Gabe?” The answer is very simple: I’m part of the story! I witnessed first hand their tribulations and lovey-dovey looks. Well, some part of it. As for the rest…Well I’m all about tall tales.

[t1wl1ghts]

If you have any, what are some darker headcanons you have of Killer!Sans?

MY FIRST ASK WOOOOOOO!!

TW: SELF HARM, HALLUCINATIONS, SUBSTANCE ABUSE, EATING DISORDER (?)

꩜ I like the idea of his vision either being normal or extremely messed up depending on what stage he's at! (inspo: astray-anomaly)

꩜ But not just does his vision get incredibly blurry but he has a form of prosopagnosia that gets worse around stage 3 or 4. Where he even struggles to differentiate the Star Sanes from his team.

꩜ He is rarely in stage 1, it's very rare to see him like that. The only person who's been able to see him like that is Nightmare and Color, no one else would see him like that.

꩜ I do think he would have DID or at least something similar to it. Along with MAJOR PTSD, he would have some major trust issues. So getting close to him would be EXTREMELY hard, he most likely would be hypervigilant, and have flashbacks.

꩜ He has depersonalization disorder, I think for him he would have the mindset/coping mechanism of "This is all a game nothing is real", and would try to disconnect from reality and what he's doing. This would cause him to feel like he's just watching himself act out his violent behavior without controlling it.

꩜ He experiences hallucinations, not to the same degree as Dust who would have constant hallucinations, but Killer would have his moments. He'd mainly suffer from auditory hallucinations, voices constantly whispering to him. Some examples are commanding voices such as a voice saying, "Hurt him now," "Kill her," or "End your life." or some voices insulting him "You deserved everything' or "You deserve this punishment", Voices arguing with each other Example: Voices saying, "We should kill him," followed by another voice saying, "No, wait, he isn’t ready yet," making him paranoid. And last distorted sounds of violence, the sound of a knife cutting through flesh, yelling, screaming even in a silent room.

꩜ Bro abuses percs like his life depends on it, even though sometimes it can cause his paranoia and hallucinations to get worse but the highs where he just gets a rush of pure euphoria, all the negative emotions and thoughts leaving him, all the aches and pains in his body magically fading away replaced by warmth and numbness are what keeps him coming back to it.

꩜ He cuts himself for sure, there is nothing he can do to permanently escape from the quilt he feels from killing everyone he loves, his friends, his neighbors, and his brother. He definitely gets a rush whenever he cuts a little too deep, even though he doesn't actively try to kill himself he's not opposed to one day just bleeding out. He won't take care of the wounds either, he'll leave them to fester, bleed, and possibly get an infection. He'll even get injured on purpose during battles, just in case one day it'll kill him. Also because he just likes the physical pain, it's easier to focus on than what's going on inside his head.

꩜ Since he hardly takes care of his own wounds, he doesn't bother to bathe that much, he'll hardly ever change his clothes unless they're completely torn up or nightmare says something about it, though he hardly does. Even if he was to change he'll just get into less dirty clothes. He doesn't do his laundry anyway. Showers, brushing his teeth, and taking care of himself in general are basically nonexistent to him. He claims it's because he's lazy if asked why, but he just doesn't see himself worthy of such things.

꩜ He doesn't eat much either, he doesn't completely starve himself but just like every other problem he has, he just doesn't see himself good enough to eat.

꩜ He has major night terrors, he hardly gets any sleep which absolutely crushes him, if there's anything a Sans is good at it's sleeping. For him, it's just another soul-crushing reminder of what he used to be, happy, punny, a fun-loving skeleton...now he's just a shell of what he used to be.

[thenightfolknetwork]

I need help. I am a changeling. At least, I think I am. For my own sake, I hope I am.

You see, I’ve been changing my face for years. Pretending to be someone else because I know that our kind aren’t always accepted. But now, I feel a bit lost. I have prosopagnosia. Face blindness.

This isn’t actually as big of a problem as it may seem, because usually the moment I do see a face, I can make a perfect one in response. I’ll look like whatever they want me to. And that’s fine, I suppose. For the most part.

But the problem is, I’ve forgotten my own face. I used to be able to remember it well enough, I think. But now I can’t seem to recall it at all. And it’s been getting worse. Even my voice can’t seem to return to normal, if there even was a normal to begin with.

I’m scared now. My face and voice are my own, but at the same time, I’m acutely aware that they aren’t. They are attached to my body, if that’s any indication of self. But the person I see in the mirror is not me. Sometimes it looks nothing like me. I worry that my thoughts are starting to become something else entirely.

If I can’t remember the voice in my throat, how can I trust the voice in my head? The hands writing these words?

My friend confronted me the other day. Called me a fake, an evil thing. And of course, I became one, without even thinking. I hurt them. I didn’t mean to.

I can’t trust my head, my face, my past. What if I’ve always been this evil thing? What if I never was a true changeling, just a fake, desperate to change my face? How do I figure out what I am, when I don’t remember who I used to be? How can I hope to find my true form again, when every time I look in the mirror, I see the monster that I am?

Oh, my dear reader. You poor thing. This sounds horribly frightening, and I am so glad you've been able to reach out and ask for help.

I don't believe for one moment that you are “an evil thing”. I also don't believe that the person who called you that is any kind of friend to you.

You are experiencing profound and distressing disruptions to your sense of identity – you need to be treated with care and kindness, not accusations. What's more, you deserve that kindness. You deserve to be helped.

Before I go on, it would be remiss of me not to address the issue of language and terminology here, though more for our other readers than for you in particular. I will not waste too much time on the matter.

It will suffice to acknowledge that while terms like “evil” and “monster” have be reclaimed by some in our community – and enthusiastically so, at that – they are far from universally accepted. It's clear from your letter that you do not view these words or concepts as liberating or radical.

I urge the rest of our audience to please respect that difference of opinion, and to remember that what one member of our community chooses to call themselves need not reflect on how others use those words. I will have very little patience for anyone wading into my inbox to complain that the language here is somehow “malevolent phobic”.

Now, back to the matter at hand. I am reminded of a letter I answered some years back from a listener wrestling with ideas of identity around somatic instability. In their case, they were concerned about whether or not they could ever be said to know their friend's “real” self, when that friend transformed regularly in different contexts.

The circumstances between you and that person are considerably different, of course. But I believe the same philosophy that helped their might help you, too.

You were once one person, and have since grown and changed and become someone new. It is a statement that applies to every person who has ever lived. Please, try to let go of this unreasonable expectation of constancy.

As much as you can, I want you to unlearn this narrative of a single, static “self”. There is no unyielding kernel at your centre which defines all that you are, and as such, there is no way for you to somehow deviate from who you “really” are. You cannot help but be yourself – there is nobody else you can possibly be.

(At least, assuming you have ruled out the possibility of surreptitious cohabitation. If you suspect you may, in fact, be possessed or otherwise inhabited, please pursue that course of enquiry before continuing any further.)

Uncontrolled shifting is a well documented, if poorly understood, phenomenon, either as genetic trait, the result of a curse or divine punishment, or as a stress response. Speaking to people in similar circumstances, whether online or in person, will hopefully help you feel less alone – and less “monstrous”.

Finally, I strongly encourage you to seek out professional support to treat the underlying issues at play. You have become so used to habitually shifting your identity to meet other people's expectations, you find it almost impossible to resist doing so – even when the results are unpleasant for you and for others.

That isn't an issue with your body, reader. It's an issue with your self-esteem, and your compulsive desire to minimise your own wishes to make way for others. It will be a long and difficult road to unlearn those habits and to accept yourself as you are. But I truly believe you can find a way to live authentically from moment to moment, even as time carries you unerringly away from the person you were, and onwards, to the person you're becoming.

[For more creaturely advice, check out Monstrous Agonies on your podcast platform of choice, or visit monstrousproductions.org for more info]

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

Can it be considered "face blindness" when you technically can see the faces of people but your brain simply refuses to remember them and also is unable to associate said face to a name ?

That happens with me to the point it's somewhat disruptive at my work, I'm autistic and my coworkers know so they tend to help me around but it will be annoying to the people I have to deal often to be asked their name every time

It's like I have to rely on gut feeling to recognize a person, I mistook even my own dad in public many times because a stranger resembled him(would that also be related to my struggle to recognize places if there has been the slight change even if it's just seeing it at different times of the day)

Hi there,

Yes, I would consider your experience as Prosopagnosia (or facial blindness).

In one article:

The main symptom of prosopagnosia is having difficulty recognising faces. You'll still see the parts of a face normally, but all faces may look the same to you.

It affects people differently. Some people may not be able to tell the difference between strangers or people they do not know well. Others may not recognise the faces of friends and family, or even their own face.

According to another source:

About 40% of people with autism have prosopagnosia symptoms.

Research into the extent of these symptoms shows that face blindness is more associated with social identification and communication problems when someone with autism has this condition. People with only prosopagnosia may also struggle to understand distance or angles, recognize objects or places, or understand navigation — none of which has to do specifically with human faces. People with autism and face blindness together can still recognize landmarks, but they struggle with faces and body language.

I hope this helps answer your question. Thank you for the inbox. I hope you have a wonderful day/night. ♥️

[accirax]

Attempting to Debunk the Arei Dress Up Theory

(CW: death, a mention of blackface, and discussion of the BMI system. Spoilers through Chapter 2 of Trigger Happy Havoc and through Chapter 2 Part 1 of Danganronpa: Despair Time.)

As most of you are likely aware, it’s a popular theory that, for one reason or another, the killer of Danganronpa Despair Time Chapter 2 dressed up as the victim, Arei, and that you can see them doing so in this conversation.

Because Veronika brings up Teruko’s prosopagnosia (face blindness) later in the episode, because Arei unusually says nothing throughout this conversation, and because the Dress-Up Room was oh-so-conveniently introduced this chapter, at first glance, it seems very plausible that this could be the twist the Class Trial is heading towards. I, too, liked this theory at first, but then I got to thinking. And the more I thought about all the risk factors, the more I became convinced it was nearly impossible that anybody would have chosen to dress up as Arei.

So, that’s what I’m trying to prove today: no possible killer amongst this cast could have been dressing up as Arei at this exact moment. And, my method is the most fair thing I could think of: bringing up a bunch of points of contention that could trip up anybody, and giving each character either an X or a pass based on their own traits and skills.

Given that there are 14 points that I came up with, I think it’s fair to say that if the character in question receives seven Xs or more (AKA 50%), it would be basically impossible for their disguise to have fooled anyone for this long. I will be giving out double Xs (XX) on some occasions where I think that someone would have a particularly bad problem.

That is based on my discretion, but, uh… so is this entire theory. The good news is that, with this one, it’s particularly easy to play along at home! If you disagree with any of my points, you could run this experiment and change the boundaries or participants to your liking. I’d love to see it if you do!

For this theory, I will be tackling any important character that I think could be dressing up as Arei at this moment. However, that isn’t everybody. Here’s who I eliminated and why:

Because we’re looking at this particular conversation, no one who is present in the Cafeteria could be pretending to be Arei at this point. I mean, I guess if Arei was in on it, then the eventual killer could be dressing up as Arei, and Arei could be dressing up as them. But, if Arei is willing to cooperate… why wouldn’t Arei and the killer just act as themselves? So, Teruko, Hu, Ace, Nico, Veronika, and Levi cannot be dressing up as Arei.

Xander and Min are dead, so I’m excluding them from this conversation.

If Arei is dressing up as Arei, she’s just being Arei. That’s nothing unusual, so we’re not talking about it.

If you genuinely think MonoTV dressed up as Arei and is the Chapter 2 killer, I have many concerns for you.

…Please don’t make me speculate even further about Mai, my heart can’t take it. More seriously, I think that the odds of this huge Mai twist resulting in her being the Chapter 2 killer (and thusly getting executed) are low enough that I can excuse her. I guess it could be that Arei was already dead at this time due to someone else’s hand, and then Mai stepped in from who knows where to impersonate Arei for reasons unknown, but… that’s so speculative that, again, I’m not going to bother. It'd really freak out the killer, too; can you imagine?

Cool! So that leaves us with Arturo, Charles, David, Eden, J, Rose, and Whit as people who could theoretically be dressing up as Arei, likely as her killer.

Before we really get started, I just want to clearly state that, for the most part, I’m not relating this to the actual theories of the timing or method of Arei’s murder. I think it makes the most sense if the person dressing up as Arei then became the blackened, but I’m not actually going to tie anyone’s culprit feasibility into how well they could dress up. There’s no category based on “do they have an alibi for Arei’s time of death” or “could they overpower Arei in a fight.” It’s just an objective look at how good everyone would be at impersonating Arei. I'm going to address the hypothetical person dressing up as Arei as the killer for the remainder of the analysis, though, so keep that in mind.

Let’s get started with issue #1!

Issue #1: Arei’s Hair Color

One factor that even Teruko could notice is if the killer didn’t have the same hair color as Arei. The girl is super blue (Arei even claims so herself in the Chapter 2 Part 1 Q&A), so the killer missing her distinctive hue would be a definite misstep. Out of the characters we have left, I think that David or Arturo would be the best at matching her hair color naturally.

Thankfully, though, they don’t have to.

A point frequently brought up is that we’ve seen these wigs in the Dress-Up Room already. If the killer simply put this on as part of their Arei disguise, it doesn’t matter what their original hair color is. Now, this wig is a lighter color than Arei’s hair, and it’s a little curly, and you’d have to style it, and the white wig being so similar to Sora from SDRA2’s hair makes me think that this wig is meant to parody an existing fangan character… but I’m willing to ignore all that for the sake of theorizing. Plus on that last point, just because the wig may be referencing somebody else doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been used by the killer.

So, no Xs given out this time! A round of applause for all our contestants.

Issue #2: Arei’s Eyes

Similarly, if you showed up dressed as Arei without her beautiful cerulean orbs, a lot of people would probably notice that something was up. J, Whit, and debatably Arturo pass this one for having blue eyes themselves.

The frequent counterpoint to this is similar to the wigs– the Dress-Up Room could easily contain colored contacts which could allow anybody to make their eyes blue. So, let’s talk about the Dress-Up Room.

This is what it looks like in full. As you can see, it’s mostly clothes. Teruko calls it “a boutique,” and Whit and Hu only mention getting “new clothes,” implying that there’s mostly only clothes in this room. However, it’s not only clothes, because Teruko has this to say:

Teruko mentions things besides clothes in this room, but has nothing to say about contacts or makeup. If they do exist, I think it would have to be in this dresser area, either in the drawers or in the pink box.

Now, I don’t think it’s impossible that there could be contacts in either of these places, which is why I’m giving people who don’t have blue eyes a pass here. I’m also ignoring the specific iris/pupil designs that people have here (such as David’s stars or Whit’s heart-shaped pupils) for the sake of the benefit of the doubt. Nobody has patterns on their irises or heart shaped pupils in real life (even after eye surgery), so that could just be a fun design quirk the creator ignored.

However, I will be giving our first X of the game to Eden, because of her glasses. If Eden was dressing up as Arei, she couldn’t wear her usual glasses, which she presumably needs to see. She could remedy her vision impairment with contacts, except that she would have to be wearing colored contacts to have blue eyes.

I did look it up, and it is possible to make colored contacts with a prescription. However, they would have to be customly made for Eden, which would mean that either A) she had to already have them on her at the start of the game (highly unlikely) or B) whoever created this killing game’s set specifically made colored contacts with Eden’s prescription on the off chance that Eden both decided to kill someone AND decided to dress up as someone to do it. They’d have to do it in several colors, too, because they would have no idea who Eden was planning to kill/dress up as. That seems implausible enough to me to discredit her on this one count.

You could also argue that Eden decided to chance just not wearing her glasses here. However, that would raise the obvious problem that she wouldn’t be able to see either what’s in front of her or who’s far away from her, which are both bad for someone trying to go undercover. It would be really hard for her to get through the day without accidentally scrunching her eyes trying to see something, which would start giving her away. Additionally, if Eden’s vision requires a double prescription (such as needing bifocals), you cannot make contacts for that kind of vision impairment.

So, yeah. TL;DR, it’s still an X for Eden only here.

Issue #3: Arei’s Skin Color

Arei has light skin, which you can see on her face and other various body parts in her typical clothing. Thus, anybody with dark skin would struggle impersonating Arei, because they would need to put paint/makeup on their face, neck, arms, hands, and thighs to avoid suspicion.

My point about the Dress-Up Room also comes back here. We haven’t seen any evidence that there is makeup in the Dress-Up Room, and other than potentially in Storage, I don’t think there’s a great alternate place to get it. I would believe that both Whit and Hu might wear makeup, so it would have been easy for one of them to comment about the cosmetics present in this room if they existed, and particularly if they would later be murder relevant.

However again, for the sake of theorizing, I’ll say that there is light skin paint/makeup in one of the drawers that a darker skinned person could use to cover themselves up. It would still be a time consuming plan with a high chance of failure, though, so I’m giving Charles, Eden, and Rose an X for impracticality here.

Issue #4: Arei’s Ethnicity

(This section has been edited since its original posting. Thank you to @another-danganronpa-fan and @xmicrophonyx for drawing my attention to the August 6th Q&A and more importantly the March 6th Q&A!)

Although Google says that the last name “Nageishi” is most common in Brazil (???), given that it’s Japanese in origin (as are Arei, Fuyuko, and Natusko’s names), I’m pretty sure that Arei is Japanese. And many of the other students… are not.

Look, I don’t want to bring real world politics into silly anime murder theory, but I really, really doubt that the creator would want to have a person of one race dress up as someone of another race, especially for characters who would have to change their skin tone. It’s not as obviously bad as a character straight up doing blackface, but it’s close enough that I think the creator would know to avoid putting that beat into their story. I’m tempted to give characters that fail here a double X, but since it’s technically only my opinion, I’ll leave it at one.

Now, I am assuming characters’ ethnicities here based on last names, which isn’t a foolproof plan. It doesn’t account for characters who are adopted, or who have a mixed race lineage. Still, I think that, combined with their designs, it’s the best we have to go off of.

Therefore, I’m giving an X to Arturo (likely caucasian), Charles (confirmed Hispanic), J (confirmed Hispanic), and Rose (French last name, but given that she is obviously black I would say likely Afro-French/potentially Creole?). Because David (likely Vietnamese) is still East Asian, I’m letting him slide; same with Whit (confirmed caucasian/asian). Although Eden's skin tone still troubles me, I try not to penalize or benefit characters multiple times for the same trait. Thus, because Eden is canonically half black and half Japanese, she will also not get an X.

I truly hope that I did not offend anybody with this section. If I said something incorrect, please let me know so that I can apologize and either correct it or remove this section as quickly as possible.

Issue #5: Arei’s Height

Arei is 5’7” (170 cm), so for the killer to impersonate her, they’d have to be somewhere around her height. I know that the Arei we saw was probably sitting down, but like… the killer would still have to walk to and away from the table to get there, which means people could have seen them standing. Not to mention, your height still shows when you’re sitting down if it’s off enough.

I think that being one inch (2.5 cm) off in either direction would be enough to bypass most people (we’ll get to that), so anyone in the 5’6”-5’8” (167-173 cm) range could pull it off. Therefore, J passes at a perfect 5’7” (170 cm), and so does Whit (5’6”/167 cm). Arturo (6’3”/190 cm) gets our first XX here for being literally over half a foot (15 cm) off. Eden just barely avoids being half a foot off at 5’2” (157 cm), so she gets an X. So do Charles (5’9”/175 cm), David (5’9”/175 cm), and Rose (5’4”/162 cm).

Issue #6: Arei’s Weight

I bring in this point mostly to communicate how likely it is that the killer could properly fit into Arei’s clothes. If the killer weighed too much more than Arei, then the clothes would be too tight, and if they weighed too much less than Arei, the clothes would be super baggy.

The best way I figured I could analyze this is to use a Body Mass Index (BMI) chart, which, if you didn’t know, is a ratio doctors use to compare people’s heights to their weights to determine whether or not they may be over- or underweight. Now, there have been several critiques of the BMI system, particularly regarding athletes– muscle is more dense than fat, so some of the fittest people in the world classify as morbidly obese under the system. It also wasn’t designed for anime characters with unrealistic weight expectations (seriously how tf was Mukuro 5’7”/169 cm and 97 lbs/44 kg she should've been DEAD long before the Spears of Gungir).

Because of how unreliable this method is, I won’t be giving any characters XX on this one no matter how far off they are. However, I will be giving one X to anybody who is more than two points off of Arei’s BMI. Because Arei clocks in at 19.5, that means anyone in the range of 17.5-21.5 would be safe.

Weirdly enough, with that range, the only two people who get an X in the weight category are the same people who passed the height category, J (22) and Whit (22). Arturo (21.5), Charles (21), David (21), Eden (20), and Rose (20) all have fairly similar proportions to Arei.

Issue #7: Arei’s Build

Speaking of muscles, Arei’s the Ultimate Bowler, dammit! She’s a professional athlete, and Rose even points out her strength during the arm wrestling contest.

Although I don’t think that the killer would need to expect to demonstrate Arei’s strength (or especially her bowling skills) when in disguise, you can still gauge how muscular someone is just from looking at them. For example, were Levi an option, he would be way too muscular to pass off as Arei.

This point becomes a lot easier to score with the official strength chart that the creator released in the Chapter 2 Part 1 Q&A!

I know that the creator warned us to not take this diagram too seriously, but for the sake of fun speculation, I think that this semi-canon material is the best we have to go off of. Not to mention, each section is only one point out of fourteen overall. If we're a little off here, it'll be okay.

Besides, I suspect that they put in that warning more so for people who do intense math about crime theories (like people who calculate that anyone who lifted Arei’s body using a single pulley system would have to be able to lift approximately 64 lbs/29 kg what who said that). It's understandable if they didn’t complete a physics thesis paper on exactly how a drop of blood would fall on a cashmere sweater when it’s a humid July day and the victim ate sauerkraut ice cream earlier.

Jokes aside, I’ll say that anyone in the fit to average range would be able to pass as Arei at a glance. That means that David and J are a-okay. Arturo, Charles, Rose, and Whit all get one X for being out of shape. Eden gets XX for being even more out of shape than the out of shape people.

Issue #8: Arei’s Voice

Out of all the voices in the cast, I think that Arei has one of the highest pitches. Thus, if the killer was suddenly called upon to speak as Arei, they would need to possess the ability to speak in a high pitched voice to even have a chance of mimicking Arei.

You could argue that the killer would go in with the intention of not ever speaking as Arei, but you have to remember that this killer was intentionally going out and being around people so that their disguise could be seen. A simple “how are you this morning?” or “did you get enough to eat?” could ruin your plans. You could choose to not respond, but part of the reason why people suspect that the Arei in this conversation isn’t Arei is because she doesn’t speak. AKA, Arei being quiet is out of character for her, and not speaking would immediately raise suspicion!

I’m giving David a XX because his voice is deep enough that I think he would seriously struggle to reach Arei’s pitch. Arturo, Charles, and Whit have deep enough voices that I think that they could easily be caught, but it wouldn't be so unreasonable that they couldn't give it a try. So, they get a regular X. Eden and Rose pass this test with flying colors. J has a lower voice among the girls, but I think she could speak in a higher pitch if she wasn’t so concerned with sounding girly, and her experience with actors might give her an edge.

Issue #9: Arei’s Wit

If “Arei” is forced to talk, then “she” also needs to sound like Arei when she does. Therefore, the killer needs to be someone who could mimic Arei’s personality to a certain degree– AKA, they need to bring the savage energy that Arei brings to her bullying roasts. After all, responding rudely is probably the best way to make sure that your interrogator shuts up and leaves you alone.

I’m just gonna run through this one in alphabetical order. Arturo insults people on the reg, so other than the fact that “Arei’s” insults might be a little more appearance-based than normal, he’d be fine. Charles has been seen trading verbal blows with Teruko, so I believe he could pull it off. David radiates so much theater kid energy that I’m sure he could pull Arei off as if it were the role of his life. Eden… is the first character here that I think might get an X. Her general personality is super nice, and even when she does oppose someone, it’s either out of sad desperation (like when she defends Arei in the second Class Trial) or in a silly way (like when she blackmails Teruko). Even if she decided to be mean for the sake of her murder scheme, I just don’t know if she has the killer instinct to come up with ruthless burns as quickly Arei does. While not as much as Arei, J is pretty blunt and rude, plus she’s had plenty of target practice with Arturo. Although Rose is very good at replicating paintings, I don’t think she’d have the energy or present-mindedness to replicate Arei’s personality, so she gets an X too. Whit has made jokes that come off as rude to others in the past (like Xander in the prologue, or Charles in the laundry scene), and he’s hung out with Arei a couple of times, so I think he could do it.

Issue #10: Arei’s Relationships

We’ve discussed somebody talking to Arei in the abstract, but now I want to get more specific. Right before the Class Trial occurred, Arei made some very notable relationships with people that were not made public knowledge– namely, her emotional reliance on David, her unwavering loyalty to Eden, and her defensive feud with Arturo.

The Arturo one isn’t really a problem, as just being normally mean to Arturo would probably suffice. But what if David came up to her at lunch, put a hand on her shoulder, and asked her how she was doing? If “Arei” started insulting him or manipulating him, he would immediately suspect something was up.

Considering that, as the evidence stands, I’m pretty sure no one character (other than Arei) definitely knew about all three of these relationships prior to the Class Trial, I could give everyone an X. However, there is a way you can bypass this– if the killer was confident that they knew about the way Arei felt about everyone, even if they were actually wrong.

I was already going to give Eden, David, and Arturo a pass for knowing about at least some of the relationships, but under this lens, it’s even more believable. Eden is in the best position, given that she knows about herself and Arturo, and at least saw David there when she ran away. Given that Arei thought of her as a friend, it’s also possible that Arei would have mentioned to Eden that David was the one who motivated her to defend Eden. David knew about Arei’s relationship with himself, and knew that she planned to patch things up with Eden. He didn’t have any reason to suspect anything weird with Arturo, but again, the relationship didn’t change all that much. Arturo would have struggled with David, but he at least knew about himself and Eden. I believe he could have been overly confident in assuming that Arei hated everyone other than Eden, so I’ll let him slide.

However, I think Charles, Whit, Rose, and J would all get an X. Charles is a smart guy who I can’t remember ever talking to Arei one on one, so I find it hard to believe that he believed he knew everything there was to know about Arei’s relationships. Whit spent more time with Arei, but he’s also more emotionally aware– he knows how complex people are, and therefore probably wouldn’t bank on nailing how Arei feels when he’s spent so much time off with Charles. Rose is often asleep and therefore misses out on a lot of the daily life. She sometimes can’t even remember who people are period, so I doubt she’d have the confidence to believe she understood Arei’s relationships. J is definitely the closest on this point, given that she’s interacted with Arei a decent amount and is pretty confident in herself. However, she’s pretty practical (just like her effects), so it’s still enough of a stretch that I’d give her the X.

Issue #11: The Killer’s Skill

This category asks, “how much does this plan rely on the talents included in the killer’s own Ultimate ability?” Don’t get me wrong– not every case, canon or fanon, needs to utilize part of the killer’s Ultimate talent. For instance, Mondo didn’t use any skills involved in being the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader when he killed Chihiro, unless you count his overall strength and attitude.

I’m actually asking this because I think that the disguise plan makes a lot of sense with J’s talent, the Ultimate Effects Artist. As I’ve explained before, J specializes in practical theater effects, which would make her far and away the best at pulling off the visual magic needed to make herself look like Arei. So, what of everyone else?

Think about it this way: imagine if you were playing the first case of Trigger Happy Havoc, and you learn that the blackened threw Hiro’s crystal ball at the buttons to make the Trash Room open. Then, you deduce, aha! Taka must be the culprit! In this universe, you’re right, and Taka is executed. But, wouldn’t it be weird if Taka committed the crime doing something that lined up exactly with Leon’s skill, and there was no focus given to it at all?

If someone was killing Arei and using J’s talent to do it, I would expect that they would be doing it with the intention of framing J. And I don’t think that anything else in this case purposefully makes it look like J did it, even if J actually did do it. Thus, I feel justified in giving Arturo, Charles, David, Eden, Rose, and Whit Xs for this category.

Issue #12: The Killer’s Absence

In my mind, the theoretical point of dressing up as Arei is so that, if you killed or otherwise incapacitated Arei earlier in the murder process, nobody would find it suspicious that she was gone. That, of course, raises another question– what if people find it suspicious that you are gone? Because of that, I think that the killer is someone who would have to be able to slip away from the group relatively unnoticed.

Charles and Whit are giving each other Xs here. Since the beginning of Chapter 2, it seems like these two hang out with each other pretty much 24/7. If one of them was gone, the other would certainly notice. (I’m excluding the possibility of one of them being an accomplice for the other because I find it incredibly implausible for actual murder- and character-related reasons.) Not to mention the incredibly gay funny sequence of events in the second Class Trial where David questions if anybody could really have a solid alibi for the entire day, then Charles says that he was with Whit for the entire day, and David doesn’t even bat an eye. In theory, this also means that Charles and Whit were actually together for the entire day, which means that it probably should be impossible for either of them to have been Arei during the scene at lunch. ...Oops?. Speaking of spending the day together, though…

J and Arturo are also exchanging Xs. If J was busy dressing up as Arei all day, Arturo would have been roaming the halls calling her name. And even if J would enjoy Arturo being gone for a day, she would certainly remember it. She even says as much in the Class Trial:

Given that the “that time period�� J is talking about is around 7:30 PM, it’s not fully impossible that either of them could have been Arei at lunch. However, they would still both generally notice the absence of the other, so they get an X.

I think Eden, David, and Rose all get passes, though. Eden is a generally sociable person who likes to talk to others, but she doesn’t have one particular person she’s attached to as much as Charles and Whit/J and Arturo are. The person who would probably be most likely to notice would either be Arei, but she would be dead/incapacitated, or Hu, who was dealing with Nico and Ace at the time. Plus, if she was absent from one conversation, people would probably just assume she was talking to someone else somewhere else. David also generally seemed to get along with people, but also seemed to spend a lot of time alone. Rose… really doesn’t have a lot of close friends, and also isn’t much of a talker. If she was gone, people would probably just assume she was off sleeping somewhere.

Issue #13: The Arturo Pass

Arturo is a plastic surgeon, a profession which looks at the smallest details of a person’s face and tweaks them, even in slight ways, to make them look their conventional best. Or, essentially, if something is even the slightest bit off about Arei’s face, Arturo could probably pick it up from a mile away.

Now, I know that Arturo did not appear in the specific conversation in which Teruko saw “Arei” being quiet. However, there’s no reason that the killer would have to believe that they couldn’t run into Arturo unless they were Arturo, right? Anybody could come into the Cafeteria, so unless the killer did something to stop him, Arturo could have come, too. Since we can’t prove that Arturo and the killer meeting did or didn’t happen, I think we have to assume it was a possibility.

Therefore, I think that all candidates except Arturo fail here because it’s unlikely that they could stand up to Arturo’s scrutiny. Additionally, I would say that J doubly fails because Arturo has spent so much time staring at her face specifically. It’s possible that he could have forgotten what the rest of the casts’ ugly mugs look like, throwing them all into the pile of disgusting rejection. But there’s no way that he wouldn’t be able to recognize Julia’s glowing beauty under the makeup and clothing that makes her look horrifying.

To summarize, Arturo passes his own check because he would have no reason to call himself out, J gets a XX because of how tuned in Arturo is to how she looks, and everybody else (Charles, David, Eden, Rose, Whit) gets a regular X for being ugly in their own unique ways.

Issue #14: The Rose Pass

Same as before, except even worse. Remember when I said we were coming back to the “one inch in either direction could fool most people” thing? We know that Rose can canonically notice 1/16th in (0.16 cm) growths in people, so having literally anything off here could spell death.

I am aware that Rose is sleepy, forgets what people look like sometimes, and is somewhat absent minded. So, let me address those concerns as best I can.

For the first, recall that this is the day where Teruko wakes up four hours late. Therefore, when she enters the Cafeteria, it’s actually closer to noon than it is to morning. Even if the killer was only dressed up as Arei around the time of that meal, we already know that she was awake at that time– Teruko leaves the Cafeteria and runs into Rose around the Gym directly afterward.

For the second and third, we only know that she only forgot about who J was before the first Class Trial. I would expect that after a murder actually occurred, she would be much more aware of her surroundings, and more likely to remember what people look like. She has nightmares about the trial and execution, which every student (except Xander) attended. With her photographic memory, I would expect that she would remember exactly what they looked like at that time. Not to mention that, under my system, everybody has at least one unrelated X. Those are all things that would stick out, which Rose is much more likely to notice than something that’s normal.

That’s my longwinded way to explain that pretty much everyone (Arturo, Charles, David, Eden, J, Whit) is getting an X here. Rose doesn’t because she, again, would not have to worry about running into herself.

The Grand Summary!

So, in the end, we see that (drumroll please…)

DAVID COULD FUCKING PASS AS AREI ARE YOU KIDDING ME–

Ahem. Well, with my analysis today, we have proven that nobody in the cast could have been dressing up as Arei at the time of that lunch conversation… other than David fucking Chiem, apparently. Now, keep in mind that he is just barely hitting under fifty percent here, and that he double failed on the voice.

But, uh, there you go, swap theorists. If anybody was going to swap with Arei, it would have been David. I look forward to seeing everybody’s theories about how David is the true killer of Chapter 2 via crossdressing.

Tip: I am so fucking mad. See ya, everybody– thanks for reading!

[cosmiccoincidence]

i was skimming my groupchat trying to find the name of a Different series and happened across me talking about a series that sounded really interesting and cool and i'd like to re-read it since i forgot everything about it already

just one problem. i never mentioned what it was called.

so now i'm trying to track this series down with very little information:

it's a chinese bl webnovel, likely in the infinite flow genre

there's a character named hei cha who is a POV character, if not the protagonist

the protagonist ostensibly has prosopagnosia

there's a character named tang yu, and she's trans

there's a character named ye cheng, he wears glasses

and that's all i've got. so far i'm coming up with a whole lot of Nothing

[casualadvances6]

carrot (oc)

not much on his story

- he was a community college student once but dropped out after a few days of going

- he is mildly intellectually disabled with a lower than average IQ (69-60 range)

- he has problems with both memory loss and prosopagnosia; he associates different features like clothing , hair , and voices with the people he meets to help him with that

- he's very trusting, gullible and easily controlled

- his brother rips on and makes fun of him a lot

- Carrot's clothes are always mismatched and dont fit , he has no sense of style

- his favorite kind of music is power pop

- he has a small, weak frame

- he's missing a front tooth and keeps his mouth closed out of embarrassment

- he hates being called by his first name but never says anything about it

- he's a man of few words but can talk up a storm when he's comfortable with someone

- he birdwatches in his spare time (which he has a lot of)

- he gifts people he likes with hard candies and has a lot of them

[harleythealter]

I just saw this post.

And my brain went. lol that’s not him.

And then I realized it probably is Chris. Just with the beard, I won’t ever recognize him or at that angle…

[issialou]

Intro : This a translation of a post I did yesteday, in french for the "QSMP Language Day"

The fews headcanon I had abou q!Aypierre.

1. This not my own headcanons strictly speakting, but Aypierre's chat/communauty, are some kind of AI. Some of them are specialized in the creation of music, montage picture, the build, the programmation... Also they like spy what is happens on the is island when q!Aypierre is "sleeping" for after, gossip with him. This is like that he know some things what is happen when he wasn't here. Q!Aypierre can talk with his AI with and without his sunglasses.

2. Q!Aypierre have a very mild form of prosopagnosia because of the Federation's first operation/mind transfert. This is explain why Q!Pierre have problem recognize islanders and even himself on the paintings at the museum.

3. Q!Aypierre is bi or pansexual (this is rather I am myself a bisexuel woman and I like when I some bi and/or pansexuel reprensetation).

4. In fact, when q!Aypierre go sleep this of them one of this moments where Ayrobot take the control of the body and can profit for grinder ressources, created machinery or build rooms.

5. Q!Aypierre is one of the rares mortals of whic q!Etoiles is become friend with. Q!Aypierre seems to be a king of magnets at humoids cubitos and more or less mortal and he created more easy deeper friendship tha with mortal humans (the notable exeption was Maximus).

[alby-rei]

The Astral Artist and His Haughty Hound (IkeVamp; Luigi's Mansion AU, Part 5)

a/n: It's been a while since the last update. Since then, I've graduated master's! Wee! What do you do when you fall head-first into a world inside a painting? Happy reading~ ✨

Series: Comte's Ghost Mansion Tags: Humor, Crack treated seriously, Luigi’s Mansion AU, Spooky scary spectral vampires, Ghostbuster MC Word Count: ~1900 words Characters: You, Vincent, Theo, [Surprise] Previous: Part 4 Next: Part 6

~*~

After dealing with the frivolous phantom named Arthur, you weaved through the winding halls in search of your next target.

Sebastian had marked for you the rooms of the remaining residents and their favorite spots.

A painting studio next? Wow, this mansion has everything!

You wondered how different the manor looked in the daytime. If Sebastian does not find you a way home, would they let you stay with them? Did you want to? Shaking your head, you brushed those thoughts aside.

This is all just one long lucid dream anyway, you thought as you trekked up a flight of stairs.

"Open sesame!" You jammed the master key in. "Woah!"

As soon as you stepped inside, your foot met with air, and you plunged down a starry night cityscape. Time slowed down as the wind picked up in swirls of cobalt blue, trailing across the sky like migrating birds. Stars twinkled in zinc yellow sparks guided by the vibrant orange of a cartoonish crescent moon.

More like a croissant moon, said your stomach while growling.

You stretched your limbs out like a flying squirrel, taking in the sights of a bustling city below. Couples strolled across tiles of spotty ultramarine and red ocher. A farmer pushed a cart of straw. A waiter balanced a tray of glass drinks as he weaved between busy tables. Trees danced to the tune of the wind, each branch shimmering in shades of emerald green. In fact, every inch of the city appeared in constant motion.   

How does such a world exist within a single painter's studio?

Gravity decided you had enough time to enjoy the scenery. You swam in the air towards the farmer's cart. If there was any hope in landing safely, that was your best bet. You held your breath as you hurled down towards your impending doom.

.

.

.

Just kidding!  

You landed in the cart of straw with the grace of a cat. The straw poked into your clothes and scratched against your skin. You climb out of the cart, weighed down by the Poltergust 1899. Thankfully, it did not break on the way down. Otherwise, you would have a bigger problem on your hands.

Brushing yourself off, you looked around for any signs of the artist behind this painterly world. Upon inspection, you found that the city dwellers did not carry distinct facial features. Some had none at all, more like impressions of a face. You wondered if this was how prosopagnosia felt.

You also wondered where you heard that word before.

"Excuse me, miss," said a gentle voice. "If I may trouble you to hold that pose."

Your head darted back and forth to find the source. A blond man peeked his head behind an easel stand. Unlike the rest of the population, his features were crystal clear; cerulean blue eyes and a sheepish smile on creamy skin. Little stars shimmered and swirled onto his features like those of the night sky overhead. An astral artist as beautiful as the world he had brought to life with his brush.

This must be Vincent,*you deduced.

Refusing his request felt like a crime against humanity. Unaccustomed to this sort of attention, you fidgeted in your spot. When you stood still, the colors around you became static. When you moved, the city followed suit. The only one unaffected by this was the painter, who remained engrossed in his work. Your attempts at light conversation were fruitless. He spoke mostly with his eyes with the way they stole glances at you every now and then, studying you. Heat rose to your cheeks as your gaze traveled elsewhere. You blamed the warmth on the bright lights of the coffee shop.

Be still my beating heart, you thought. This is not the time for casual crushes on ghosts.

You were jolted when you heard a loud smack of the paintbrush against wood. Vincent was cleaning his brush from the excess paint. The astral artist's arm shook with the speed of a rubber band. You'd think that brush was possessed, given the force he used to exorcise the spirits within. He stepped back to admire his handiwork, raising the canvas to face the light. His angelic smile was disarming. 

"Can I move now?" You asked, craning your stiff neck.

"Oh, yes! Thank you for your time. You must be a guest at the mansion. My name is Vincent."

"Nice to meet you, Vincent. And what a wonderful city you've created."

He shook his head. "I just paint what I see. The real wonder is the world around us." Stars twinkled excitedly across his cheeks.

You clutched the vacuum tube, explaining to Vincent the real cause of your arrival: to return their spirits to their bodies. You almost felt bad for what you had to do.

Vincent nodded. "In that case, you should find my brother Theo here, too. But, hmm..." He pursed his lips. After rummaging through his briefcase, he scribbled on a piece of paper, then handed it to you in an envelope. "This should help convince him. Please don't be alarmed by his...fiery spirit. Deep down, he is a kind soul."

His words left you skeptical, but you hadn't the heart to voice those concerns. A fiery spirit could mean many things. Given Vincent's gentle nature, *how bad could his brother be?*

"Where would I find him?"

"He usually stays at the pub just around the corner. It's the only one on the block. I'll meet you both in front of the river Rhone."

Waving goodbye to the astral artist, you rounded the corner and found a wooden sign with a beer keg on it. Just as you made your way up some wooden steps, a bloodhound stood in your path.

Similar to Vincent, he stood out from his surroundings. His chestnut-brown fur shimmered with a spectral outline. A silver ear cuff shone on his right floppy ear. His short tail stood on end.

"Intruder! Intruder!" barked the hound. "You're not from one of my dear brother's paintings. How did you get here?"

"Woah, woah. Settle down, boy." You backed up slowly as he drew closer. "Just visiting. I'm looking for—"

He sniffed around your ankles, then your clothes. You shielded the pocket that held Vincent's envelope. The bloodhound's maw pulled back in a snarl.

"An art thief?! Not on my watch!"

"What, no!"

"You stole something of his. It’s in that pocket, I can smell it."

Unable to reason with the haughty hound, you were forced to run in hopes of losing him. He proceeded to chase you around the painted city for a solid thirty minutes.

Huffing and puffing, you looked around frantically for any sign of the river that Vincent mentioned. *Surely he would know how to pacify his guard dog, if that is what he is.*

Your legs grew heavy and rigid like planks of wood. The bloodhound leapt onto your back, sending you tumbling forward.

"Get...off...me!" You struggled against his incessant pawing at your pocket. "I NEED TO FIND THEO."

He stiffened. "For me?"

"For...huh." Still dazed, words eluded you. You revealed the envelope in your pocket, waving it.

A weight was lifted off your chest, and a hand—a human hand—swiped the letter from yours. In front of you stood a tall man with brunet hair swooped left like sharp blades of grass. His cobalt blue eyes scanned the contents of the letter.  

"Why didn't you say so sooner?"

"You wouldn't let me finish!"

He offered you a hand to get up. "Come on, then. We shouldn't keep Vincent waiting."

You got up and brushed yourself off with more insults swirling in your head. Theo was already walking away, cool as a cucumber, as you let out all your frustrations. 

After a short walk, the loud and busy cityscape gave way to tranquil waters and soft sand. A handful of rowboats were docked. The warm yellow light of the buildings reflected onto the river, extending from shore to shore. The shimmering lights above brightened. The crescent moon was out of sight. The astral artist waved and the river swayed in tandem with his sweeping arcs.      

"I hope my little brother didn't trouble you much," Vincent said with a gentle smile.

"Well..." You rolled your eyes at Theo, who whistled loudly while avoiding eye contact.

Though you didn't say more, Vincent's smile fell. "Oh no."

Theo flinched when Vincent pinched his cheek. "Theo... What did we say about reacting impulsively?"

"Urk... I was just trying to keep your work safe."

Vincent sighed. "I understand you meant no harm." His voice trailed off, flicking his head towards you.

Theo inhaled sharply and turned to you. "I'm...sorry. For the way I reacted." He rubbed the back of his neck, looking away.

Vincent pat his head. "You can make up for it with a generous plate of your delicious pancakes."

Your stomach growled approvingly.

"But first, how do we get out of here?" you asked.

"Your device should do the trick," said Vincent with open arms. "Ready when you are."

"Wait!!" shouted Theo. "Me first. I don't...think I can handle seeing Vincent vacuumed like that again."

He has memories of previous nights? you thought. A brotherly bond stronger than paranormal curses, how sweet.

Fulfilling his wish, you captured Theo first, then Vincent. As you did, the world around you swirled in on itself. Blues and oranges blended together, and your sense of direction distorted along with it. The buildings compressed like clay, and the river washed over the stars.

Everything faded to black.

When you opened your eyes, you stood on solid wooden ground in the center of a regular studio.

Moonlight shone through a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. You recognized the paintings on display as the city you ran through. No museum experience could ever live up to what you have seen here. Maybe you should propose the idea of a walk-in painting when—if—you get back home.

Beside your feet, both ghosts had dropped something behind; a paintbrush and magnifying glass. Two more for the count. You were getting good at this.

"Into the pouch you go," you declared, exiting the room with a rejuvenated sense of purpose.

You opened the map to your next destination. The longer you remained here, the harder it was to convince yourself it was just a dream. You touched the furniture you passed by, as a means of testing that theory. The man you met at the Louvre came to mind. Sebastian’s master. The subject of the painting at the entrance hallway.

"Ah," said a velvety voice. "Sebastian didn't tell me we were expecting guests."

You clutched your vacuum tube, aimed at the source. The shadow of a figure came into view. "And you are?"

Expensive leather shoes clicked as a man walked into the light. A large beige coat framed a lithe figure of aristocratic air. Blond hair swept over molten golden irises faintly glow in the dark.

The cause of your arrival in this strange world. He raised a hand to his chest, tipping forward in a noble bow. "I am the head of this mansion. Better known as le Comte de Saint-Germain. Enchanté."

~*~

Tagging: @starlitmanor-network

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[chicago-geniza]

A lot of people I knew pretended not to recognize me (or did not recognize me, sans pretense?) or did not acknowledge my presence at a Yom Kippur gathering and it made me feel like I was always-already dead. I would like to be more stable and anchored and "securely attached" but I'm not and so I feel undead, again, as always, as ever. To be clear I am fully aware how absurd this is and I'm not about to make it anyone's problem but it does ache a little bit, the way an old wound does when it rains.

UPD: A lot of people DID say hi and I talked to several beloved friends and there is a 98.9% chance it's just "I got fat and wore different glasses and steroids radically distorted my face and nobody recognized me because even the less prosopagnosia-afflicted rely more on heuristics than they're aware they do." Expunged/expurgated/exorcised the brainworms, I'm normal now!!! (I slept for several hours and took painkillers.)

[slow-burn-sally]

I love how people say that ASD and ADHD are "trendy" or "overdiagnosed".

Myself and my one cousin on my mom's side are the only two people in my family who've so far sought diagnosis, but based on what I know of how autism and ADHD show up in me, and on my obsessive study of both disorders for the past year, I can honestly tell you that I believe we are only two of perhaps 12 - 14 more family members who have no idea they're ND.

This does not even take into account the fact that the vast majority of my closest friends report sensory issues, anger problems, impulsive behavior, executive dysfunction, prosopagnosia, time blindness and food sensitivities.

There's so many autistics and ADHDers and AuDHDers out there that fly under the radar because most doctors don't know anything about these disorders. Everyone still thinks they only affect children, or male children. Very few people think it's possible to have ADHD without being a 10 year old white boy. Ditto with autism.

Wake up world. We are legion. We might just band together and take shit over.