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sign-from-god-complex · 5 years

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Hello again! (I'm the one who asked about requests) might I suggest... autistic sides/side hopping in crunchy leaves for sound stim + happy flapping arms? It's so fun, I love the crunchy noise

Falling Leaves

Summary: Patton adored the fall.

Not for the cooler weather or the variety of pumpkin-spiced food items—though he liked those things too. No, Patton adored the fall for all the leaves that came with it, leaping and bouncing from crunch to crunch, boots hitting the pavement and bringing a smile to his face.

Logan learns to understand this.

Pairing: Platonic Logicality

A/N: Lucky for you, I adored this prompt and started writing it pretty much as soon as I saw it. It’s probably the most fun I’ve had writing a fic in quite a long time, even if it’s not particularly complex or emotional. So here! I hope you enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Patton hopped across the sidewalk outside their house, jumping from one leaf to the next and delighting at the sounds they produced. Some were wet and disappointing, smushing under his boots and leaving an absence in his chest but some—some—made that wonderful…

“Crunch.”

Patton echoed the word aloud as another leaf was flattened beneath his shoes, unable to stop the giggle that erupted from his chest. It felt childish but, at the same time, he couldn’t bring himself to care—people were always gonna judge him for one thing or another, might as well have fun with it.

“Crunch, crunch,” Patton echoed again, stepping on two different leaves in quick succession. Unfortunately, one did not make the lovely noise he had expected and he frowned for a moment, searching around for one that would.

“Patton, what are you doing out here?”

Glancing up from the ground, Patton saw Logan approaching him, groceries in hand from his trip to the shops. Patton gave him a big grin and watched Logan nod his head in acknowledgement—not really one for exaggerated expressions.

“I’m crunching the leaves!” Patton explained, eyes still distractedly scanning the ground for any that he might have missed, “They make this really cool sound when you step on ‘em and it’s-”

The rest of that sentence was simply Patton flapping his hands happily but he was sure Logan was familiar enough with that stim to understand exactly what he was trying to convey.

Logan simply hummed his reply, seemingly satisfied with the explanation, before turning to head into the house and leaving Patton to his crunching.

It was only a few minutes before Patton found himself mostly out of fresh leaves. Autumn had only really just begun and Patton had possibly jumped the gun in his leaf excursion but in his defence, he had been really excited. Now though, Patton headed inside, knowing that the cold seeping into his exposed arms and legs had demanded it far before he’d decided it was worth it to listen.

Logan wandered into the hall at the sound of the door closing, just catching Patton’s sigh as he rubbed at his arms, trying to warm up a bit.

“Why did you return so quickly? You seemed to be enjoying yourself.”

He had a feeling Logan only really knew that because Patton had told him as such. The reasoning behind it was irrelevant anyway, he was just happily surprised that Logan even cared enough to ask.

“I’m out of leaves,” Patton stated plainly.

“Out of leaves? What do you mean? There’s an infinitesimal amount of leaves in Flo-”

“Lo, I don’t think that word means what you think it means.”

Logan blinked for a moment. “…Well, regardless, I think it’s near impossible for you to run out of leaves”

“I mean, around the area, at least. I’m sure there’s some elsewhere but we’re not elsewhere, are we?”

Patton tried not to be too overtly disappointed by his statement, knowing that though Logan may not be the most intuitive of the four of them, he was almost certainly scanning Patton for any irregularity in his body language.

“We could be…” Logan said thoughtfully.

A confused sound drew from Patton’s throat but no one was there to hear it as Logan had already ascended the stairs out of Patton’s line of sight.

Almost immediately, Patton picked up a stim toy from the kitchen table, fiddling with it absentmindedly and wondering if Logan had any real plans to return.

He had a tendency to do things like that, wandering off, poorly estimating the amount of time his task will take and returning several hours later as if he expected the person he left to still be there. Or sometimes he would want the person to follow but wouldn’t clearly instruct it, resulting in him turning around to say something and finding only empty space.

Just as Patton was about to head up to see if he was needed, Logan finally came back into view, several coats and scarves piled in his hands. Carefully, he passed one to Patton who opened it up to find his favourite winter coat—light blue with little white pawprints on it and fur around the hood.

“Would you like to go for a walk with me?” Logan asked as Patton looked up at him questioningly, “We can find more leaves on the way.”

The grin Patton gave him was blinding. “I think I’d like that.”

——————————————

He flapped his hands absently as Logan locked the door behind the two of them, anticipating all the fun stimming to come.

Stepping on leaves was such a seasonal thing, giving him only a small window to be able to enjoy it, and Patton was delighted at the chance to wring as much pleasure out of it as he could.

There was quiet as they walked, occasionally interspersed with excited giggles or a muttered “crunch” from Patton. Logan didn’t seem to be paying Patton too much mind but sometimes when Patton flapped particularly hard he caught Logan drumming his fingers against his thigh quickly—a stim of his own—so he knew he was being granted at least some of Logan’s attention.

Logan spoke up as they turned a corner, hearing Patton make an awed noise at the number of leaves he could see.

“What is… the appeal… of this exactly?” Logan’s voice was careful, not judging but mostly curious—exactly what Patton would have expected from him.

Patton hummed for a second as he thought, stepping on a nearby leaf.

“Well… part of it is trying to figure out which leaves are gonna make the sounds you want. I think that’s the bit that’d appeal to you, anyway. You gotta look at the leaf very carefully—” he interrupted himself with a short hop, smiling at the crunch that resulted—“so you know which one’s the right kind of leaf!”

“And what are the criteria for the… right kind of leaf?” Logan asked, eying the ground with a kind of suspicion that Patton had to try not to giggle at.

“I can’t tell you, Lo, that’d take all the fun out of it!”

Logan furrowed his brow for a moment, screwing up his mouth before taking a step forward onto one of the leaves in their path. Patton watched his shoulders drop at the way it was smushed into the concrete but rather than becoming discouraged Logan scanned the ground again, taking another step forward.

This time, as Logan’s boot descended upon the leaf, Patton heard a—“Crunch.”—Patton’s word quietly mirroring the sound Logan had created.

He glanced briefly at Logan, seeing the corners of his mouth quirk up ever so slightly, his hand moving to tap quickly against his leg again. Thankfully, Logan didn’t return the look, eyes focused firmly on the ground where more leaves could be found.

With a quick scan of the walkway, Patton bounded forward a rather large distance, landing on another leaf and grinning as he was successful yet again.

“Crunch.”

He turned his grin on Logan, watching him step on every leaf before him until finally reaching one of the right ones.

“Crunch,” Logan replied softly and Patton beamed in response.

Their walk, while fairly quiet before, was now filled with twice as many quiet crunches—both from the leaves underfoot and the mouths of the two walking.

Patton was happy flapping twice as much too, ecstatic to be sharing in this experience with someone else for the first time since his childhood. He had been a bit worried that Logan wouldn’t enjoy it or would think it was too silly—as opposed to Patton, Logan had issues surrounding not being taken seriously—but he was so very glad to be proven wrong.

And as they arrived back at the house, Logan saying goodbye with a nod and a small smile that hadn’t been present before, Patton made a mental note to ask Logan out for a walk again before fall was over.

Taglist: @mutechild @super-magical-wizard @shadowsfromthesun @teadays @sandersships @camcam774 @autism-goblin @deadlyhuggles6 @romanthestarstruckqueer @whispers-stuff-in-your-ear @rainboots-are-for-snobs @sanders-and-sides @spirits-in-my-thoughts @kee-and-co @autistic-virgil @stop-it-anxiety @figurative-falsehood @jadedfantasies231 @poisonedapples @sanders-screams @another-sandersidesblog @do-not-just-see-observe @mychemicalpanicattheemo @thomassandersenthusiast @localagendergrape @fandomsofrandom @idosanderssidespromptssometimes

#sanders sides #sanders sides fic #logan sanders #patton sanders #logicality #platonic logicality #autistic sides #lo can write

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omnipah · 4 years

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So. @campanulaflora asked if I had any more thoughts about nd wei ying and. I super do, I’ve just been less vocal about them because my thoughts are. less focused? And part of that is that I’m less familiar with the dx criteria of his conditions (or the ones I read him as having), even tho they’re things I also have, but part of it is also just that I see him as having multiple neurodivergencies that aren’t necessarily related, which makes it complicated.

(Disclaimer, this is maybe gonna be a less Fun analysis cus I’m gonna be talking about The Trauma, so proceed with awareness, if not caution)

Like, with lan zhan, u could make a case that he also has ptsd, or social anxiety, or any number of other things, but those all jive very much with his autism in a way that makes it easy to talk about all as one big picture. e.g social anxiety is a very natural, and common, thing to develop in autistics in any situation, because we get used to being misinterpreted, or told we’re communicating ‘wrong’, or told we’re rude, or boring, or too nerdy, so we learn to fear those interactions and approach with caution, and that in itself is also a trauma. And like, the kinds of other traumas lwj has, tho not necessarily related to his autism, interact with it very directly, like how he was always the ‘favourite student’ because he was quiet and was easily led into black-and-white thinking, but then later had to deal with the repercussions of realising that there’s no ‘teacher’ to ‘please’ in real life and that things are more complicated that he’d been allowed to consider; similarly with losing his mother, part of the grief there seems to me to be about losing one of the very few people who genuinely liked spending time with him and wanted to understand him.

Whereas, while wei ying obviously has similar traumas to do with his adhd, like how he was always the ‘least favourite student’ because he found it hard to focus, especially without fidgeting, which was probably not allowed, he has some other traumas which are more or less unrelated, but which interact with his pre-existing neurodivergency in a complex way. Like, his traumas from when he was homeless are, at their root, unrelated to him having adhd, but also the way his ptsd presents is probably very much affected by the fact that he also has adhd, and the same can be said of when he gets super depressed in the burial mounds because of the conflict between the grief of losing his former life, vs the absolute certainty that he has to help the wens, because the alternative is unthinkable.

So my thoughts on just his adhd are pretty generic. Like, his nose-touching stim is a textbook thing to keep himself focused, while also possibly having positive associations that make him feel happy/safe because of how yanli always boops him on the nose (because she’s wonderful). There’s also the stuff about having memory problems, which he mentions a whole lot, and the stuff about how he Cannot Sit Right Ever, which is also a stim. And the fact that he’s so bored and unfocused in his lessons, which we know are lessons he’s already learned, even tho later he becomes an inventor, because of that adhd thing of only being able to focus on something he personally thinks is interesting, so instead in school he focuses on lan zhan as a potential friend, kind of as a puzzle to solve, and also as someone he feels challenges him intellectually. Also, I’m not sure it’s ever canon, but his sleep schedule is definitely a nebulous and unfocused thing – we do see some of that when he’s researching about jc’s golden core, but again that’s the thing of how hyperfixation trumps literally everything, even basic need to eat or sleep.

But a lot of those things are things that could also be chalked up to ptsd or depression, or which are very much exacerbated by overlap in symptoms – the memory problems are a super obvious example, especially when we also know he has stress nightmares and his phobia of dogs. But also the way his hyperfixations are almost always related to his morality, either in getting revenge against wen chao and co, or in how he can make life better for jc or the wen remnants, because u could make a case that that’s just what he personally finds interesting and that’s because he’s a good person, but also it very much interacts with the way he was brought up to put himself second to ‘earn’ his parents’ conditional love.

Then there’s also, springing from that, the question of RSD vs depression/low self esteem. Cus on the whole, wei ying is impressively comfortable with being rejected by literally everyone for the sake of helping a few people in need, at least on the level that he says he’s never regretted it. And he doesn’t really seem to care about being judged by lqr, which is correct because lqr has bad opinions, but it’s still impressive. But when it comes to more personal stuff, like if he thinks he’s being rejected by lwj or jc, he gets a lot more emotional and sometimes self-destructive, which super smacks of RSD. But then those reactions are very similar to his other emotional outbursts or episodes, like how the trauma of his first stay in the burial mounds prompts him to push people away, or how he gets lonely and demotivated when living there with the wens.

Tl;dr he’s complicated and I love him a whole lot, but I’m not sure I have well-defined thoughts on him. Do feel free to weigh in if u have anything to add tho!!

#the untamed #cql #autism #adhd #mental health #zero thoughts #couple things i havent mentioned #both of them presumably have some kind of trauma from the wars they were in #but mostly that isnt something we see other than the specific stuff like being thrown into the burial mounds #the other thing i havent talked about is wwx's alcoholism for a few reasons #mainly that its not something i have experience with #so keep in mind. yes im aware its also a potential problem he has

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getinthefunvee · 3 years

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mobile-friendly rules

GENERAL INFO

❔ #getinthefunvee

❔ semi-private: will generally only write with mutuals, but very happy to meet new people.

❔ exclusivity: is pre-pubescent and used as a cliquey gatekeeping & ostracising mechanism 99% of the time. I do not practice character or ship exclusivity; I will side-eye you if you do, and I will not tolerate it on my dash, and I will lay the verbal smack-down if I see you using it to bully someone else. I've been playing with some muns for nearly 5 years, and at least one for more than a decade; if anyone was going to be an exclusive, it would be those friends, but exclusivity = possessiveness and it's really, really not the way to roll your adult relationships. Note: if you choose to make me your exclusive Tony for any reason (ie, if you generally hate Tony interaction and want to avoid it, emotional safety reasons, whatever) please give me a heads up. Please be aware that, as stated above, I will not do exclusivity in return.

❔ basic etiquette: human decency is expected. Do not attempt to god-mod (it's so 90s), force-ship, engage in pass-aggro nastiness, harassment, or any other asshattery. Thanks.

❔ Personals et al are very welcome to follow and 'like' RP posts and to reblog non-RP content. Please don't reblog RP threads you aren't participating in; it's creepy, and I will call you out on it.

❔ multi-muse, side & personal journals: I will not follow you back if you run a multi-muse blog or RP from your persona that heavily features muses from fandoms I’m not familiar withl; I really need to limit dash clutter in order to be able to focus. (ADD & autism are gr8 that way.) That doesn't mean I won't RP with you on your multi-muse blog, and I'm very happy to RP with side blogs, but I will not RP with personals.

❔ OCs, female characters, obscure canon characters: This shouldn’t need to be said, but: Yes please! I look for fully-formed characters whose creation you've put thought into; this goes for 'popular' canon characters in equal measure.

❔ crossovers: Please check with me first to make sure I'm familiar with your fandom.

❔ cut your replies: Please cut your replies & repost asks as new posts when replying. (note: this is not the same as 'read mores'; I'm happy to explain the difference.) I will not follow you if you never cut your replies.

❔ You must have rules or, at the very least, your age stated somewhere on your blog. I will always read your rules before interacting, and I ask that you please do the same.

ABOUT THIS BLOG

❕ est Dec 2012

❕ 21 or over for intermittent content which may not always be tagged; I will generally not play with you if you are under 21 as I may not be comfortable writing certain content [because I'll feel like a dinosaur]. I will not RP with anyone under 18 years old, regardless of thread content or your geographical location's 'legal age.' This is not up for discussion, though I'm happy to explain the legal ramifications (for you and your RP partners around the world) of lying about your age. tl;dr I'm not going to jail so you can have smut. Thanks.

❕ safe space: This blog is fiercely inclusive. I make a point of avoiding ableist or bigoted language and terminology. Please come talk to me in chat or send an ask and tell me if I screw up. note: If you ever need to talk about anything, or if you're having a really bad day, I'm here for you & wouldn't want you to feel alone. Seriously. Come talk to me. I do have chat set to mutuals only thanks to the huge influx of spam messages I was getting, but you can always unfollow me after we’re done talking (I won’t be upset) or send me an ask if that's easier.

❕ triggers: I will tag genuine triggers when asked (please don't conflate squicks with triggers). I don't have any triggers, but I prefer not to see child abuse, domestic violence, incest, or pregnancy on my dash; if you regularly include that content, I will generally unfollow. Please see below for a comprehensive list. Triggers will be tagged 'triggery thing tw' and added to the tag dump post.

❕ formatting: usually no fancier than small text +/- 66x66 or 100x100 icon (depending on the size you use), but I will try to match your style. If you need any special formatting to make it easier for you to read, please tell me. I'm very happy to comply.

❕ pre-established relationships: I'm happy to discuss these.

❕ readmores: used rarely, but will always use for explicit dubcon/noncon content & graphic stuff.

❕ memes: generally mutuals only but will always be tagged as 'mutuals only', so if you don't see that, feel free to interact. I do my best to observe reblog karma but don't expect you to; it's all good.

❕ open posts: will be tagged clearly; generally open only to mutuals, sometimes character-specific (will specify in tags).

❕ shipping: multiship; not ship exclusive. Shipping is dependent wholly on muse interaction and never guaranteed. Tony is demiromantic and pansexual; he may or may not be open to poly setups depending on verse. He's experimental, inclusive, and flexible. Got a kink? Bring it. BDSM? He'll want to know your safeword. Three/four/eightway? He's probably into it. That in mind, I'm on the ace spectrum (see below) so mature-content threads aren't going to be that common and will generally, though not always, fade to black.

YES PLEASE

✅ duplicates, multiple 'canon' realities, AUs, cross-fandom, What Ifs

✅ crossovers, especially within Marvel & DC

✅ AUs: love, love, love. Give me your tropey coffee shop AU; better yet, give me your research-worthy Mesopotamian AU, time-travel AU, etc. I'm utter trash for Sentinel!verse (and if you don't know what that is, come at me).

✅ plot-development, complex characterization

✅ conscious, intentional, creative abuse of grammar/syntax

✅ any gender identity/lack thereof; sexual orientation/lack thereof; neurodivergent characters; disabled characters

✅ LGBT, non-cis/het, POC, or other minority versions of canonically white cis straight Christian etc characters

✅ female versions of canonically (cis)male characters

✅ dark, edgy, angsty themes up to and including psychological & physical torture, abuse, and character death

✅ complex and conscientious portrayals of trauma and mental health issues

NO THANKS

❎ self-insertion (omnipotent manic pixie Gary-Stu/Mary-Stu characters make me cringe)

❎ pages of ooc

❎ pages of graphic porn

❎ you RP nothing but smut of a variety that squicks me, such as (below) and don't put it behind readmores: - A/B/O, especially if it involves 'mating'/'breeding', pregnancy (esp cis male or cis female pregnancy), etc. Really major squick; - BDSM that uses an abundance of misogynistic language like 'slut'; 'daddy/mommy' themes; pet play; romanticising unhealthy abusive relationships ('50 Shades of Nope' comes to mind) by framing them as consensual BDSM.

❎ consistent grammar/spelling errors (note: ignore if English isn't your primary language; I’m happy to help if that’s something you want, and I speak a few languages so I might be able to RP in your language)

❎ lots of family/baby/child content

❎ 'child of'/'sibling of' & non-canon family member/friend characters

❎ anthropomorphic, furry, or 'real people' characters

❎ SuperWhoLock, anime

❎ gatekeeping, canon-snobbery, constant negativity

❎ erasure of any minority group (ie male versions of canonically female characters; suspiciously white FCs for canonically POC characters, etc)

❎ messianic anything; proselytizing

ABOUT THE MUN

✩ ari (aka kai), 30s, London (GMT)

✩ working in medicine, re-qualifying for med school entry; usually not around much Tue-Fri due to work (replies are sometimes queued & I'm usually happy to do short stuff like texts during the week)

✩ thoroughly spoken for; married to cap.co.vu (but thanks for asking *fingerguns*)

✩ introvert: very social at times (I tend to 'read' as an extrovert), but I need more distance when out of social energy. Feel free to ask me about this. I will love you forever if you respect the need for space, and will not like you very much if you insta-pounce 10x daily when I've gone quiet.

✩ jewitchy = unrepentantly jewish + low-key hedge witch (observant Reform/Conservative Jew; dash of pagan)

✩ grey-a + demi, greyromantic, as impossibly flirty as Tony Stark

✩ ADD, autism (psa: you can be super direct with me), major depressive disorder, EBS (epidermolysis bullosa), mild anxiety (when out of social energy)

✩ sharp-spoken, sharply-dressed, stickler for punctuation, polyglot, menace to society, method RPer, (mostly) good human being, guaranteed at least 80% carbon-based lifeform, will use elbows on the Tube, well-travelled, great ass (thanks, yoga!), hearts horseback riding, BDSM, dismantling the patriarchy

✩ ask box is always open, Discord available by request, IM/chat is gr8

If you feel like it, send me your favourite trope as a way of letting me know you've read these. I'm not going to ask for any sort of specific symbol, codeword, etc to prove it, but I will presume you have and act accordingly. If you feel compelled to acknowledge any specific parts that jump out at you or query something that doesn't sit right with you, we'll probably be bffs.

#|| mobile links #|| pls don't reblog thank

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otdderamin · 7 years

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How the "Wednesday Club" Helped Normalize Autism

Geek & Sundry has a new show called the "Wednesday Club" where Amy Dallen, Taliesin Jaffe, and Matt Key discuss comics to make them accessible. Wednesday at noon PST on Twitch and Alpha (taking questions from Twitch chat). It's a fabulous show. They do a good job of talking about broad topics without getting too into the nitty gritty of a particular story. They're really good about checking themselves when they do get detailed and explaining the specific character, comic, or plot better. It's easy to follow even if you're not already familiar with the comics they're discussing.

This week's episode was talking about "Legion (TV show) and portrayals of mental health in comics." I was really psyched for it. As in--this is not hyperbole--I woke up in the same horrible pain my disability's inflicted for the last few weeks, dragged myself out of bed, forced myself to eat a peanut butter sandwich with an unhealthy amount of ibuprofen, and staggered into my chair to watch this episode. Use that to gage my expectations for how good I was expecting it be. It was mind-blowingly better.

This is just one example of what made this episode incredible: A viewer, who identified themselves as autistic, asked about comic book recommendations for people with autism. Everything about how they took the question, how they answered it, was so spectacular. I was too engrossed and shocked to really process what I'd just seen the first time. Partly because it was so bloody normalized. I went back a few hours later, rewatched this part, and started crying. Half from joy that this happened, and half from sadness that this isn't just normal. They took the time to answer a question to the best of their abilities that almost any other show would pass up as unimportant or inconvenient, especially if it challenged them.

That whole nine and a half minutes was a textbook example of how autistic people constantly ask to be treated, and almost never are. They gave him agency and authority over his life, and respected his perspective as valuable and interesting. They just generally acted like he was any other human being, and greeted him with warmth and enthusiasm. It should be obvious that that's how you treat anyone. I should not be talking about like I just stubbed my toe on the Maltese Falcon half-buried in a sandy beach. But I am because it's that rare in real life. I've never remotely seen it in front of a live camera. I'm writing this, transcribing this, and sharing this because good examples of how to be a decent person are how we educate ourselves out of ignorant bigotry and stigma.

I'm not autistic, but I am neurodivergent in a way that's given me a lot of similar experiences to my friends who are. One of those close friends, who I met through D&D, is a teacher and autism rights activist. I've run most of these thoughts by her to check myself through her perspective. I don't want to speak for her, but I do want to help amplify her voice.

Her research has put her into contact with good examples of the everyday abuses perpetrated against autistic people by mainstream medical professionals, ignorant people, and other bigoted people in power. They show how autistic identity is erased and despised, their personhood stripped. Not in a way that helps any autistic person manage better in the world, but in a way that seeks to hurt them. She frequently shares some of these examples and deconstructs why they're awful. If you're not autistic, it's important to understand the context of what autistic people frequently face because it will help you understand how truly spectacular this response was.

Neurodiversity

I have personally found the framework of the neurodiversity paradigm to be useful, if squishy. The bounds of 'neurotypical' to 'neurodivergent' are their own debated spectrum. Sadly, simplicity is useful, but untrue; whereas complexity is true, but useless. There's not a lot of debate that autism is neurodivergent. This episode is labeled as discussing "portrayals of mental health in comics." But it is perhaps more accurate to say that it discussed neurodivergence in comics. Autism is not a mental illness, it’s a consequence of how a person is neurologically wired from birth. But there's a reason we tend to talk about managing it and experiencing it similarly to a mental illness, and neurodivergence is that reason. To varying degrees, neurodivergent people mentally function differently than people their society deems 'normal' (neurotypical). I'm not wired like my autistic friends, but because all of us never did and never could pass for normal because of our wiring, we have a set of shared experiences. We understand elements of each other's personalities where our brain wiring creates the same pattern, which may not exist at all in neurotypical people. Same reason I can commiserate with another mentally ill friend about where we overlap, but we have to explain the rest.

How autistic people are frequently & abusively described

(Collecting these made me want to throw up and cry in disgust.)

"Autistics as Undomesticated Humans" https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-imprinted-brain/201608/autistics-undomesticated-humans

My friend's response: "I don't believe they ask this in the US, but when I was institutionalized in Germany, I was told that I was not worth treating because I would use up resources and kill myself in the end anyway. Eugenics is alive and well and applied to autistics daily." https://twitter.com/Alice__Kirby/status/835209015445553156

This "treatment" gave my friend PTSD. https://twitter.com/tbccautismABA/status/830511026730856449

Philosopher Peter Singer: "For me, the knowledge that my child would not be likely to develop into a person whom I could treat as an equal, in every sense of the word, who would never be able to have children of his or her own, who I could not expect to grow up to be a fully independent adult, and with whom I could expect to have conversations about only a limited range of topics would greatly reduce my joy in raising my child and watching him or her develop." http://www.thismess.net/2017/02/peter-singer-milo-of-philosophers.html

Unpack the very idea that if, very hypothetically, vaccines cause autism (they don't; dear gods how many times does this need to be proved), risking your child dying of a preventable disease is better than risking them developing, living with, autism.

How autistic people describe themselves

"autism is just the way our brains are wired. we still have unique personalities." http://autpunk.tumblr.com/post/157740045930/oops-i-think-im-autistic

"We are not made wrong, or wired wrong, or something to be fixed, or worse—eradicated. … We are different. Innately born to see the world through an alternate lens. … We understand the torment of living in a world, where you not only feel like you don’t belong, but are told from the authorities that be (parents included) that your condition, your being, your very existence has 'affected' everyone around you." https://everydayaspie.wordpress.com/2016/08/09/affected-by-autism/

Everything the "Wednesday Club" got right in their response

Saying that it's great that an autistic person is being open about it. That it's not something to hide. (Autistic people as so often punished for that. Even autistic rights activists that identify themselves as autistic can lose standing with professionals who claim to want to help autistic people.)

Showing that a question from an autistic person is worth answering. (This rarely happens.) It's worth answering thoughtfully, seriously, and honestly, equal to any other question. (This practically never happens.)

Casually saying that autistic people and non-autistic people are friends and understand each other. I cannot overstate how normalizing that one sentence was. (Not can be, not should me, not technically capable of being, but are. Far from can't, or doing the autistic person a favor.)

Differing to autistic people as the authority on their experiences, on who they are. Not pretending you know better because you're not autistic. Saying that autistic people are different from each other and don't necessarily have the same experiences. (This barely even happens at autism conferences after autistic people have fought tooth and nail to be heard there for years. A lot of medical professionals claim they know the experience of autism better than the person experiencing it. That the autistic person should have no agency in helping them manage their lives. The worst abuses are derived from that line of thinking.)

Acknowledging that autistic people are a marginalized group who are looking for their own strengths, and need and want their own community of similar people.

Says that getting depictions of autism wrong is harmful. "Because in getting it wrong, you can perpetuate a stereotype into a wrong direction, or you can normalize something that shouldn't be." Saying that depictions of autism, even tacit ones, can be problematic. (Legitimately the first time I've seen "problematic" used anywhere near a discussion of autism as if they were any other marginalized group facing discrimination.)

Saying that there aren't a lot of direct depictions of autism in comics, but there are not‑labeled‑as‑autistic characters who have facets of their personality that autistic people can identify with, and those are still useful. (Autistic people are often maligned by bigots as incapable of understanding other people.)

Saying that not being normal is interesting, that sometimes crazy can be a super power. (For any neurodivergent or mentally ill person that's up there with "bullet proof black man" as an empowering statement of power of character to a marginalized group.)

Saying that the opinions of autistic people are valuable and interesting. Saying that an autistic person's draw to special interests, "wonderful hobbies," is fascinating. Saying, repeatedly, that autism can make someone valuable in ways no one else can be. (Autistic people are often ignored and erased. Their hobbies are often treated as boringly narrow, and derided as a waste of time. The contributions of any neurodivergent person are often treated as inferior to neurotypical people. Or exploited while denying the person respect or accommodations that would help them thrive.)

Acknowledging the feeling many autistic people have of "not being human." Acknowledging that many autistic people feel like they're mimicking and scripting social interactions with neurotypical people. (Because neurotypical society refuses to acknowledge or accommodate how autistic people experience the world.)

Acknowledging, like it's obvious, that autistic people can and do fall in love. That they can and do enjoy conceptually challenging art. (Autistic people are described by bigots as incapable of feeling emotions and lacking 'theory of mind,' the ability to understand that other people have different thoughts. Imagine being told that to your face by people who claim they know you better than you ever could and are thus there to help you. Imagine being told that as a child. Do the math on the psychological abuse.)

Showing an actual desire to give a better, more through answer. Acknowledging that they don't know as much as they could, and should seek more knowledge. That this question is worth researching. Taliesin followed up on Twitter saying, "we're gonna revisit it at some point, once we've dug a bit deeper." (Autistic people are routinely dismissed as unimportant, and inconvenient, their identities erased. A non‑autistic person's life being 'affected' by an autistic person is almost always used with negative connotation. But the Wednesday Club tacitly said, "Thank you affecting us," and that is basically what moved me so strongly.) https://twitter.com/executivegoth/status/837213450778468352

To Amy Dallen, Taliesin Jaffe, and Matt Key, thank you. THANK YOU. You helped normalize autism. You helped keep someone's identity from getting erased. Your actions told someone they matter who, I suspect, has repeatedly been told and shown that they don't. You have garnered a tremendous amount of respect from me.

I have only one request for Geek & Sundry: make this episode available on YouTube. Help me share the best of what your network stands for with others. If you want people to tune in for this show, let them see this episode.

Transcript

Times from: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/125658409

01:10:23 Taliesin: "Somebody, actually, I want to say AutisticCosplay, which is a great handle, was asking, 'I'm not a Marvel or DC person, but people have told me I should look in the X-Men because I have autism.' And I don't know if-- You should read the X-Men because they're fun. But what would be a good comic book-- I'm trying to think of a good comic for someone-- I'm trying to think of my own friends who are on the spectrum and what they read."

1:10:46 Amy: "We'd love recommendations from anyone in the audience who is in this category."

1:10:49 Taliesin: "I'm really digging Shade the Changing Girl in that direction, actually. You read the first issue… So, this is a reboot of a new… It's a little psychedelic, if you're down. It's not a classic superhero, it's kind of a--"

[Amy puts out the comic.]

1:11:02 Taliesin: "This is the original."

1:11:03 Amy: "Got the classic here."

1:11:04 Taliesin: "Shade the Changing Man."

1:11:05 Amy: "Well, the semi-classic. Once again, like Doom Patrol, this was an older, '60s, character who got revamped under this wonderful Vertigo wave of DC reinvention."

1:11:14 Taliesin: "And crazy is his power."

1:11:16 Amy: "He wears something literally called a 'madness vest.'"

1:11:19 Taliesin: "And he's maybe from another dimension, but he makes people crazy-- So, again, problematic. But the new version is a popular girl, she's kind of a bitchy popular girl at a high school somewhere in the Midwest, who…"

1:11:36 Amy: "Previous to the events of the book, has fallen into a medical coma."

1:11:40 Taliesin: "Yeah, she was, not to give too much away, but she went skinny dipping with her kind of friends, with the kids who hung out with her because they needed to hang out with a popular person. And she hit her head, and they all just disliked her so much that they took a while dealing with it. So they're all [feeling] guilty. And then she woke up weird. And that's because there's a thing living inside of her that is shade."

1:12:04 Amy: "There is an alien creature using the power of the madness vest."

1:12:07 Taliesin: "So, it's not really even human anymore. So, it's this very off-kilter, not normal… thing. And they just think it's trauma, but maybe it's not, and I'm really liking it."

1:12:19 Amy: "I want more good recommendations. So, I'm wondering--"

1:12:22 Matt: "I don't know anything about what you-- I feel like an idiot."

1:12:24 Amy: "It's a really good, a really fun book."

1:12:26 Matt: "Whose is that!? I want to borrow that comic!"

1:12:28 Taliesin: "It's mine."

1:12:29 Matt: "Can I borrow...?"

1:12:29 Taliesin: "Of course you're going to borrow it."

1:12:30 Amy: "But the new one, Shade Changing Girl, which we might have a picture…"

1:12:32 Taliesin: "I have a copy here somewhere. Oh! Did I put a picture of Shade the Changing Girl in the…? I may have brought a digital copy of it, 'cause I don't own a physical copy of it. There should be a Shade in there."

[Comic is brought up on the screen.]

1:12:40 Amy: "The X-Men in general are turned to by people in all sorts of marginalized groups because they're almost always telling stories about people who don't fit in or don't feel normal, and the way that those people can find their own strengths, and find community, and come together. Which means they speak to tons of people in different groups. I'm curious about, specifically, heroes or things for people on the spectrum, and I'm not sure off the top of my head."

1:13:07 Taliesin: "I know; I'm feeling like a mild failure here."

1:13:10 Amy: "It's interesting, because one of those examples I eluded to in the intro was-- it's the dangers of applying labels to comic book characters. And there's a chance that I'm remembering this wrong, but I think it was James Tynion, who has been writing Cassandra Cain, who was talking about the fact that in some versions, Cassandra Cain, who, as a character became Batgirl, and was nonverbal for many years,"

1:13:38 Taliesin: "Completely."

1:13:38 Amy: "that she has been-- in some cases, people identify with her who are on the spectrum or who are borderline non-verbal. But there are other-- I think-- And please-- I'm worried to even say this because I need to fact check it, but I think it was James Tynion who was saying he was reluctant to but that label on it because the Cassandra Cain character has a history of specific traumatic abuse, that he wasn't sure-- that's not exactly fair to say-- that doesn't resemble the typical, if there is such a thing, experiences of a person who is on the spectrum. So, he'd rather treat her without that label then get it wrong. Or imply it where it doesn't belong."

1:12:16 Matt: "Yeah. Because in getting it wrong, you can perpetuate a stereotype into a wrong direction, or you can normalize something that shouldn't be."

1:14:25: Amy: "I should have checked on this before I said it. This is a memory of, probably, a Twitter conversation that I saw months ago. I should really nail down."

1:14:34 Taliesin: "I will saw, one of the great things-- I've been having this quote saved for the correct moment. 'One of the great things about comic books,' and this is paraphrasing Grant Morrison, who said, 'Sometimes superheroes exist to settle complex moral arguments by beating each other into the ground. Don't laugh, that's the way we deal with things in the real world, too.' But the nice thing about super heroes, though, is that they do break down these complex stories into more symbolic and metaphorical struggles. Which is why, sometimes even when they get it wrong, it's still useful. I had a weird thought for our AutisticCosplay friend, The Vision. The Vision book. It's very…"

1:15:10 Matt: "In fact, the Tom King... Oh! The reason why-- Oh my god, that's a good call."

1:15:14 Taliesin: "So, you all know The Vision from The Avengers. Now, it's kind of dark, and if you know The Vision from the Marvel movies, he's an android."

1:15:26 Amy: "A synthesoid."

1:15:27 Taliesin: "Synthesoid. And the book, he has built himself a wife and two children."

1:15:34 Matt: "And a dog."

[They discuss when in the story the dog was built.]

1:15:56 Taliesin: "And I would be curious-- Actually this is not a recommendation. AutisticCosplay, I actually would love for you to pick up a couple issues of this and tell us what you think. 'Cause I would be genuinely fascinated by your opinion of it, of how you feel. It's not a representation of autism, necessarily, but it's such a spectacularly interesting point of view, and it creates one of my new favorite characters. The Vision's daughter is now a character."

1:16:21 Matt: "Viv."

1:16:22 Taliesin: "Viv, in the Champions. And I cannot wait for the cosplay of this character. She's so cool! And so, I would be really curious to see what you think."

1:16:32 Matt: "I'm going to…"

1:16:34 Amy: "They're struggling with emotional issues and relating to people."

1:16:37 Taliesin: "Yeah, 'cause they're whole thing is they want to try and pretend to be-- they're like, we're going to try and be human, and we're going to be a human family, but they're not."

1:16:48 Matt: "Yeah. I want to tread carefully in saying this, because I myself am not autistic."

1:16:52 Taliesin: "We are in tread carefully territory."

1:16:53 Matt: "No, I know. But I also want to make sure that I'm respecting those of you who do deal with this. But it does feel like, even though they never label Viv, or Vision, or anyone in the family as having autism, or being on the spectrum in any way, their behavior, and their interaction with the world, does seem to 100% mimic…"

1:17:14 Taliesin: "Fall into that direction."

1:17:15 Matt: "or fall into that category in a way,"

1:17:18 Taliesin: "It's very analytical."

1:17:18 Matt: "that someone with autism might be able to actually really identify with that character, but still see the strengths of being who that person is."

1:17:26 Taliesin: "And then watching these analytical characters fall in love, and experience theater. One of the characters falls in love with Shakespeare and starts really identifying really heavily with Shakespeare. And there's this intense romantic relationship that one of the characters… It's fascinating."

1:17:44 Amy: "There is also-- You get really heartwarming stories like one that went around after Guardians of the Galaxy hit theaters,"

1:17:49 Taliesin: "Draxx."

1:17:50 Amy: "Where someone said, 'My brother,' I think it was they were talking about their brother, they watched the movie and their brother was just incredibly struck by watching Draxx."

1:18:00 Taliesin: "In the movie!"

1:18:00 Amy: "Literally for comedic effect, in the movie, their brother said, 'That's how I see the world!' And so, that's one of those, without intending to necessarily create a representation in an old hero, they did something that reached that viewer in a really special way."

1:18:18 Taliesin: "Please don't read Draxx in the comics, by the way. Nah."

1:18:20 Amy: "Quite different!"

1:18:20 Taliesin: "Not yet, not yet!"

1:18:21 Matt: "Very different. But I think there's something to be said for seeing-- I feel like so many times-- And I know this from my dealing with depression, you can feel-- I'm saying, me dealing with my depression and extrapolating that to someone who's dealing with autism, and that's the best that I can do. But it's good to see people who I know are depressed, who also kind of are able to manage it and see their own value, and continue to push through into the world and do their own thing. And I would imagine that someone with autism, on the spectrum in any capacity, would also enjoy that. And see that Draxx actually has an immense amount of value, and is invaluable to the team."

1:19:09 Amy: "Not related to his ability to pick up social cues."

1:19:09 Matt: "And despite his shortcomings or whatever else, despite all of that…"

1:19:12 Taliesin: "Which actually just makes him adored, and fabulous, and fun, and great. Without that he'd be less of a character."

1:19:18 Matt: "So, there's something to be said for, yes, this is something that you have to manage, and maybe something that you have to deal with, and maybe even something that you get made fun of, but that's also a wonderful part of who you are."

1:19:30 Taliesin: "And we have this-- Thanks to these cameras we have this wonderful community of people who can litmus test some stuff for us and tell us what they think."

1:19:38 Amy: "Are you checking us? Because that's important."

1:19:40 Taliesin: "Please! I'm so excited. I'm so excited to have people read some of these books, and I want to hear what you have to say."

1:19:47

#essay #wednesday club #autism #neurodiversity #comics #Geek & Sundry #Amy Dallen #Taliesin Jaffe #Matt Key #GSA

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sebastianshaw · 7 years

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9, 12, 33.

9: What power do you wish you had?Reality warping. I could just make myself and my life be exactly how I want to be, and fix lots of other problems in the world too. And if I wanted any other powers, like flight or time-relapse, I could just change reality so I had those.12: What character do you dislike the most?I really, really hate Sabretooth. He’s one of the few characters that I just full-stop won’t even RP with, and I frankly can barely read anything with him in it. 33: Which character deserves more attention than they get?So many! Probably more than I know! These are a few of my own underrated faves though (and it’s a very biased list, I RP as several of these characters)Fabian Cortez - Fabian was a major villain during the first half of the 90s, and remained an important character in relation to Quicksilver and Magneto even after he lost his “major villain” status overall. He’s the asshole that manipulated the retired Magneto back into villainy for his own ends before then killing him off so he could use his image as a martyr to lead a cult, and he also was a constant thorn in the side of Quicksilver, even kidnapping his daughter during the Blood Ties event. He’s very devious, very competent, and very…hilarious? The guy is definitely intelligent and dangerous, but he’s also RIDICULOUS. Like he’s the thirstiest fucker alive, he does shit like lying to birds and wrapping his cape around himself when he’s scared, he’s a huge diva, he’s just super duper awful with no redeeming qualities whatsoever and he’s so much fun to read. Add that to being a part of some major stories and connected to such popular characters (Magneto and Quicksilver, plus Apocalypse in the cartoon series) and I think more people should be aware of this guy.Madelyne Pryor- She’s not what I’d call unknown, but I’d like to see a bigger tumblr fandom for her. Most of tumblr is only familiar with the movies, but Maddy’s tragedy and pathos and spiral downwards are all super compelling and something I think a lot of people would find engaging. Claudette St. Croix- There’s a lot of demand on tumblr for autistic representation. Claudette is the only canonically autistic mutant in the X-Men series. What’s more, she’s also female and POC, and I’ve never seen someone with autism in media before who wasn’t white and male. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have much of a character/personality, and her “autism” was written as just being completely non-verbal (not that there’s anything wrong with that, some autistic people are, but she never really communicates in any way and we never see her thoughts either, so her personality never gets shown) and staring at nothing, but I feel like if a new writer picked her back up and expanded on her with care and accuracy, she could become a really good character, both in terms of autistic representation and in general. Haven- Haven was a seven-issue X-Factor villain in the 90s and she’s unique for being the kindest, most benevolent “villain” that any X-Men team ever faced. Her story and design are very interesting and unusual, and also stuff that happened to her is actually pretty relevant to things going on now (government team gets sent after a brown woman with a funny religion because well she MUST be a terrorist, and of course they turn out to be right so that makes it okay they opened fire on her immediately before even telling her she was under arrest)Shinobi Shaw- Sebastian’s illegitimate son, and a barrel of laughs. Exploits include trying to drunkenly seduce a yakuza boss and the X-men bursting in on him TWICE while he’s in the bath. He’s not competent or threatening at all, but his flamboyancy and stupidity are just wonderful to read. He also has some unexpected pathos due to his abuse by Shaw, and the glimpses we get of what’s going on under his shallow stupid playboy surface are really profoundly painful. Also, he’s very openly bisexual. Like, blatantly. It’s not GOOD bisexual representation, as it’s used to play up how decadent he is and relies on some nasty stereotypes of bisexuals as sex-crazed hedonists who are probably evil, but, well, it was the 90s. The Hellions - These were a team of young mutants being trained by Emma Frost in the 80s while she was still with the Hellfire Club, but most of them weren’t evil. They were just kids that she got to before Xavier. They were really great, engaging characters with lots of potential, and it was a shame they were killed off. There was surprising complexity and depth to them, and there was surely even more going on we weren’t aware of because they weren’t the focal characters. Between this and their connection to a majorly popular canon like Emma, I think more people should know about them.Zaladane- Given how popular Magneto’s family is, how much fanart I see of them, I think more people should know Zaladane/ Zala Dane. She’s a sorceress from the Savage Land who claimed to be the long lost sister of Lorna Dane aka Polaris, and she used a machine to steal her powers. Lorna dismissed her claims, but Moira MacTaggert confirmed that the machine could only have been used to transfer powers between genetic relatives. Zala then later used the same machine on Magneto to add his powers to what she already took from Lorna. Meaning, she must be related to BOTH of them. The math kinda does itself—she’s got to be Magneto’s daughter. Later changes to continuity makes that impossible, however, but who knows, maybe she came from an alternate universe or something and that’s why Lorna didn’t know about her, how she wound up in the Savage Land, etc. Zala’s admittedly not really noteworthy in her own right, but she intrigues me as a long-lost-Magneto-spawn, and given how much fandom loves the Magnet clan, I think she oughta get some attention.Selene- Like Maddy, she’s not what I’d call unknown, but there’s not a lot of love for her in the tumblr fandom. She’s not really a compelling character as a person, but she’s a lot of fun as a villain who just relishes in being evil. Her ridiculously overt predatory lesbianism is also downright hilarious in terms of how much Claremont was clearly enjoying writing her.Kwannon- Everything Psylocke is today is due to Kwannon. Psylocke was originally a white British woman, a model and not much of a fighter, but a body-swap with a Japanese ninja asassin named Kwannon turned her into the Psylocke we know today. Kwannon suffered tragically for this, and I think she ought to be remembered, especially by any fan of Psylocke. Moira MacTaggert - If you’re imagining a sexy young American CIA agent, stop it right now. I’m talking about comics Moira. Comics Moira is around Charle’s age, very Scottish, and she is actually DOCTOR MacTaggert, a world-renowned leading geneticist whose area of specialty is mutants. She’s badass, she’s smart, she calls Charles out on his shit when no one else does, she has dark issues of her own, and she goes after a kelpie with a giant gun. She’s a longtime ally of the X-Men and friend to mutantkind, she lives at the mansion and forms a relationship with each team member of the time, and even forms/leads her own team of X-Men on Muir Island (the site of her research center) when it appears the original team has been killed. Moira debuts at an early point in the comics, and is an important player in numerous stories for years to come up until her death at the hands of Mystique, but not before she discovered the cure to the Legacy Virus, saving the lives of countless mutants. Moira definitely needs more appreciation, and I’m not even a Moira fan. (I don’t dislike her, obviously, she’s just not an area of focus for me)Exodus- A super powerful mutant from the 11th century awoken by Magneto in modern era, Exodus was a Crusader during his own time and remains one today for Magneto’s cause. He’s so powerful, writers tend to just...ignore he exists, because he can do SO MUCH it’s hard to write him. But I really love his well-intentioned extremism, the fact he really means so well, is often noble, and his really unsubtle gay crush on Mags.And, of course, Sebastian Shaw here. He’s hardly a D-lister in the comics, but all fandom seems to be aware of is movie Shaw and it makes me sad :C

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