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sergeantsporks · 2 years

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Autistic Hunter Week Day 2: Stimming/Fidgeting

@spinaroos-47

“Heeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, Huuuuuuuuuuuunter!”

Hunter eyed Gus as he sidled up, holding his hands behind his back. “Hey? What do you have?”

“Remember a couple of weeks ago, when we went to the library? And there was that book series you liked, but they were missing the third book, and you didn’t want to skip ahead?”

“Yes?”

Gus whipped his hands out from behind his back, and Hunter flinched before he saw the book Gus was holding up. “Tadaaaaaaaaaa!”

Hunter’s ears wiggled up and down of their own accord when he saw the familiar artstyle and font of the front cover, and he snatched it out of Gus’ hands. “Yes! Amazing! I can finally…” He clutched the book to his chest. “Where did you get it?!”

“The library. Luz helped me reserve it, so they gave it right to us when they got it back!”

“Thank you, Gus!” Hunter held his hand out for a fist bump before bolting to the couch, curling up in the corner, his fingers tapping on the hard cover before he flipped it open. He absentmindedly put his hand to his mouth, chewing on the tip of his gloves and turning pages with his other hand.

Where are they going…?

A sneak attack and a kidnapping made him bite down on his glove, hard, accidentally nipping his own finger. “Ow.” He shook his hand, then went back to reading, his hand slowly drifting back up and his glove resuming its position between his teeth.

“Whatcha got there?” Luz asked as she walked behind him.

“Mmm,” he answered, tugging on the glove with his teeth, “Book,” he mumbled around the leather.

“The one Gus reserved?”

He flapped his free hand at her. “Shhhhh the main character just got kidnapped.”

She plunked her elbows down on the back of the couch, reading over his shoulder as the heroine made a new friend, and finally made an escape with the help of her friends, bolting for the way home. He chewed more desperately on his glove then bit down, shaking his head and pulling against the leather as one of her friends fell back, promising he’d be alright.

“Mmmmmmmmm…”

“Upsetting?”

He spit the glove out long enough to reply “No, exciting, I want to finish” before the glove went past his front teeth and his molars ground against the fabric.

His other friends passed by, wandering in and out, and eventually someone flicked the light on as the sun started to go down. Hunter mumbled a thanks as he came close to the end of the book, tugging on the glove.

What next?

#written as i chewed my nails into oblivion #anyway hc that hunter wears the gloves for sensory issues #but also because he used to chew his nails until they bled whenever he got super engrossed in something #so he got the gloves to try to break himself out of it but just ended up chewing on the gloves instead #hunter is a biter agenda #toh #the owl house #autistic hunter week #toh hunter #toh fanfiction #my writing #self harm #accidental self harm

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drewkopp · 2 months

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Burning Out: A Dramatic Monologue - Part 1: Ignition

I'd love to get some feedback on this piece and the other two parts that follow, which were written as part of a collab between my local writer's group and the local theater group. I'd specifically like to know if I captured the narrator's psychopathy through their voice and if their character arc is clear. Each part has to be under 500 words.

Dear Diary

They let me out of the looney bin because of the world’s impending death-by-meteor, and I wanted to kick off my reintegration into society by doing something special. So, I lit up the local campground with my art.

Gathering the necessary materials wasn’t a bother. Soldiers of the Faith were handing out free pamphlets at every street corner, and the barbarians scrambling in and out of Kroger’s weren’t aiming to stab someone over a jug of cooking oil.

The hospital even gave me back my lighter, probably hoping that I’d be dead before I could use it.

The first person to argue that you cannot pin a price on human life had to have been born before the barter system. The right to sit down at the nearest campground cost me a can of beans.

The place really needed a touch of warmth. I haven’t seen people so frozen in their own misery since the group homes. Remember those? Everything within those walls was ice; the clearance-sale mattresses, the boxes of expired Cheerios, that one tobacco-scented worker paid by the hour to tell you that someone somewhere cares about you…

My allotted patch of dirt was right behind the grandest RV on the lot. The air circling the roving residence smelled like nail polish remover and toasted marshmallow perfume.

I’m glad I started timing my artistic process before I was sent to the hospital. Everything fizzles out eventually, but I knew that long before oblivion manifested as a blot on the sky.

I tied and cut the cord in 7.6 seconds, 4 milliseconds shy of my pre-commitment record. The bundled wad of doomsday scripture reached total saturation in 24.5 seconds, but I chalk that one up to physics.

I hate how similar all of my artwork looks in its larval stage. Greasy and hunch-backed, like a teenager who finally learned the world will keep twirling after they’ve turned to dust.

Remember when I was a pre-cooked adult?

Yeah, I don’t either; I was on way too many antipsychotics.

I let my lighter burn within a stone’s throw of overheating before I married the flame on its lips to my soggy patchwork bible. Then I stepped back and chucked my newest seed through the RV’s rear window.

There’s something magical about the moment a fire is born. It’s a liminal space, a short-lived gateway that chews up cold, dead things and spits out beasts that run faster and farther than any creature on Earth. And I love being the first person to document the emerging species.

My latest piece, “Smokey Bear’s Rebellious Cousin,” was well-received by the local community. Communal art is the best art, and I hung around until Yogi was flogged into a premature hibernation.

I should get going. The apocalypse’s closing in, and I still have ideas for a few new pieces blowing around in my head.

#showyourwork #writing #blog

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quillyfied · 7 years

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Magnus and Lup bonding time. Taako's cooking recovery towards being able to cater at Killian&Carey's wedding. Davenport and Lucretia talking about what she did to him, coming to terms with what happened. Merle pitching his youth group ideas to the first people to send their kids with him. People who only know Lup as a lich meeting her in the flesh.Taako meeting Lup in the flesh. Taako meeting Angus' grandfather. Kravitz convincing the raven queen to hire Lup and Barry post death.

Treegona my friend, you’ve given me some amazing material to work with, but one in particular really stuck in my head to work on, so we’re gonna go with that!

gosh i hope this isn’t too bad for a first foray into TAZ.

The first time Magnus met Lup, itwas IPRE orientation, he was a little hungover, and she was smirking as shelevitated his sunglasses off his face and onto her own. Her brother, whose namehe would learn later was Taako, stifled his hysteric giggles in her shoulder asshe slid his shades down her nose and winked at him. Magnus supposed heshould’ve been grumpier about it, but between Captain Davenport’s warning lookand the instructor clearing their throat, Magnus didn’t get a chance to do muchmore than frown. After a few minutes, the sunglasses fit back onto his face andhe fought down a smile.

The twins had their training, andMagnus had his, so they didn’t cross paths much, but Magnus had a feeling heknew who it was when his shades floated off into oblivion again during a lunchbreak. The elf was wearing them again, this time tucked up onto her head, andshe and her brother bracketed Magnus between them and sprawled in an elegantsort of way all up in his personal space. Not that he was much bothered by it,to be honest, but strangers probably should’ve cared more.

“You’re huge, my dude,” the elfthat stole his glasses said. “Also, your taste in eyewear is rad.”

“I’m pretty much the best ever,”Magnus shrugged, and pushed his tray towards the male elf, who was picking friesoff his lunch and crunching down obnoxiously. “I would like those back,though.”

“Cool,” the elf said, stretchingback and setting her elbows behind her on the table. “Name’s Lup. That’sTaako.”

“Sup,” Taako said, and went back tomaking very quick work of Magnus’ half-finished meal.

“I’m Magnus,” Magnus said, and wentto take his glasses back. Almost quicker than he could blink, Lup was standinga few feet away, Taako slinking up by her side, and they gave him matchingpredatory smiles.

“See you around, Maggie,” Lup said,and as they walked away in sync Magnus considered running after them for hisglasses, but his rare moment of hesitance was rewarded by said shades floatingback to him, neatly folded.

His exchanges with the twins werealways brief—a couple of quips, a smile, and then sauntering away. Magnus was alittle confused about their end goal, here, but whenever Lup stole hissunglasses she always gave them back later, so it wasn’t that bad, really.

His first full conversation withthem happened at the end of the year, during what the recruits were callingHell Week—a solid week of assessments, tests, and interviews, determining whowas going to be staying in the program. Magnus wasn’t too worried about it,since that afternoon he’d bench-pressed his commanding officer when he’d toldhim to demonstrate what he felt he brought to the Institute. The same could notbe said for the twins, who, for the first time since Magnus had met them,looked agitated instead of smugly bored. They sat across from him at thecafeteria this time, as one reaching for his food. Magnus produced two bags ofchips from beneath the table and shoved them at the twins instead. Taako lookedconfused for a moment about what he was holding before shrugging with a“thanks, my man” and digging in. Lup examined her bag, looked at Magnus, andgrinned, squeezing the bag and popping it open.

“Rough week?” Magnus asked.

“You could say that,” Lup replied.Taako made a derisive noise around his chips and chewed furiously, swallowingthem down.

“More like a nightmare from thebowels of the Underdark, if you ask me,” he said. “None of the instructors herehave any idea what they’re doing, we can spell circles around them for days.”

“It’s nailing down the technicaljargon that’s the worst,” Lup grimaced. “Sure, calling it an arcane core is allwell and good, but it’s totes like the Tesseract from that Maarvell Comixscroll, so why not call it like it is?”

“Written exams are a special kindof torture, really,” Taako added. “Practical exams are way better.”

“Most of my exams are practical, soI feel you there,” Magnus shrugged. “I guess it’s different for arcanistsjoining the Institute, huh?”

“You’re, what, security personnel?”Lup asked, and Magnus nodded. “Way different ball game there, kemosabe. Gottause what’s in here,” Lup tapped her head, “not here,” she finished, pokingMagnus’ arm.

“You guys wanna go hit up a fewbars when the day’s out?” Magnus asked, and the twins looked at each other fora moment before turning back to Magnus, smiling widely. It was a good thingthey wore their hair differently, or there’d be no telling them apart.

“Magnus, my dude, my man, my maincompadre,” Taako said, “that sounds like the best idea I’ve heard all day.”

In the years to come, Magnus wouldlearn a lot about how to party with Lup and Taako. On more planes than anyonecould ever dream of, he’d do an obscene number of pub crawls, keg stands, andbar hops, and get hopelessly wrecked at most of them. The ones he’d remember,usually there would be a reason why. But Magnus, back then, back during thatfirst night, with all three of their futures hanging in the balance, didn’tknow any better.

“Oh, you sweet summer child,” Lupsaid, “we’re gonna show you a truly gnarly time.”

If pressed, Magnus could recall afew hazy memories from the first time he and the twins went out, but the mostvivid sensation was the nauseous, pounding headache he had the morning after,along with a healthy coating of glitter and a bruise on his jaw (neither ofwhich went away with a cold shower and both of which lingered for far longerthan he thought possible). He had his sunglasses on as well as a hat when heshowed up to the Institute the next day for final evaluations. The twins,dressed in a curious amalgamation of their clothes from the night before anddefinitely things from his closet, slouched beside him up to the building.

“Mags,” Taako mumbled, bags underhis eyes and probably still a little drunk, “if we don’t make it in there, I’mgonna find you and beat your everything into a puddle.”

“The fourth bar was your idea,dude,” Magnus grunted back. “Now shut up, we’re awesome, and we’re gonna dofine.”

“If you say so,” Taako grumbled,and as the twins peeled off to their wing of the Institute, Magnus’ glassesshot off his face and onto Lup’s. He scowled at her, and she shot up a peacesign before catching up with her brother. Magnus pulled his hat down a littlelower and grumbled his way into his classroom.

“So,” Captain Davenport said, foldinghis hands on his desk, “Mr. Burnsides, you’ve tested excellent on all yourphysical examinations, and your instructors are overflowing with praise aboutyour improvisational battle tactics, but I have no less than six notes heredetailing concerns they have about your temperament outside of combat, and yourwritten exam scores leave much to be desired.”

Magnus shrugged. “I’m more of apractical kind of guy, sir. You can’t study and plan for everything, you canonly act in the moment.”

“I see,” Captain Davenport said,holding Magnus’ eyes with calm authority. “Magnus rushes in, yes?” Magnusshrugged again, a smile quirking his mouth. “The Institute does not needsecurity officers who rush into situations half-cocked, Mr. Burnsides. And yourlack of respect for your superiors shines through in almost everything you do.”Davenport leaned forward, and despite his diminutive size, Magnus wasintimidated, his moment of amusement sliding off his face. “Explain in asentence why you deserve to be here.”

Magnus bit his lip, opened hismouth, and closed it again. After a moment of furious thinking, he said, “I actbecause hesitation in a dangerous situation costs lives, and yeah, I’ll giveyou that maybe I’m not the most formal of dudes, but I think the Instituteneeds more men like me, who can think on their feet and push ahead, rather thansit around brown-nosing or fretting they’re stepping on toes.”

Captain Davenport made a few noteson the paper in front of him, then put his pen down and laced his fingerstogether. “That was bordering on run-on sentence, Mr. Burnsides, but I’ll allowit. I have one final question for you.”

“Yes, sir?”

“You’ve become close with a pair oftwins in the Arcanist Department, is that correct?”

“You mean Taako and Lup?” Magnusasked, furrowing his brow. “Yeah, I’d say we’re friends.”

“What do you think of them?”

“I think that’s more than one finalquestion, sir,” Magnus said, and Davenport’s mouth buckled almost into a smilebefore he schooled it back down. “I think they’re cool. Can’t speak for theirmagic powers too much, since I’ve never seen ‘em in action before, but they’reclose, and I like them.”

“Okay,” Davenport said, makinganother note. “That will be all, Mr. Burnsides, thank you.”

“You got it, Cap’nport,” Magnussaid, and Davenport snorted a laugh. He followed it up with stern captainlyglowering, but Magnus just saluted and exited. Hey, if they were gonna keephim, they’d have to deal with him, and Magnus loved puns. (Later, when he toldthe twins what he said, Lup snorted her drink up her nose and Taako laughed sohard he fell off his barstool; Lup slid Magnus’ sunglasses back onto his faceand solemnly proclaimed him “the master now.”)

A hundred planes and apocalypseslater, Magnus Burnsides was dozing beneath a tree outside Neverwinter, taking abreak from reconstruction efforts, when something dropped onto his face. Heawoke with a start, then panicked for a minute before he remembered his visionwas dark because of the glasses on his face, not because he was going blind(or, gods forbid, the Hunger was back; he’d seen it destroyed with his own eyesand yet he knew he was never going to stop half-expecting dark opalescentgalactic death for as long as he lived).

“Sorry there, big guy,” a voicesaid, and Magnus grinned, shifting the shades up on top of his head. Lup, stilla lich, floated overhead, and if a skeleton could grin Lup was doing her best.She settled her incorporeal form down next to Magnus on the ground, crossingher arms behind her head and splaying her robes out like her sprawling legsused to do in her flesh body. Where her raw power intersected with his meatform was tingly and warm, but not in a bad way. Magnus let out a deep breath ofcontentment.

“Body not ready yet, huh?” Magnusasked.

“Nah. Barry says it’ll be anothercouple of days,” Lup said. “I told him I didn’t care if it was a bit early, andthen Taako mentioned going through elf puberty again and, well, nah, son, I didit once. Never again.”

Magnus laughed. “Don’t blame you.”He twisted the ring around his finger, a nervous habit he’d picked up in thedecade since he’d seen Lup, so maybe it wasn’t so surprising when she clearedher ghostly throat.

“Gonna tell me about the ring, mydude, or am I gonna have to get the gossip from my sweet baby brother?”

“Not much to gossip about,” Magnussaid. It didn’t hurt to talk about Julia anymore, not since he finally startedtalking to his friends about his feelings (and…whoever he gave up inWonderland), but with the doublethink still going in his head of “spent ahundred years in found family space adventures” Magnus and “lived a decade withno memory of that century and went through some hefty stuff” Magnus, it was alittle confusing to try and marry the two parts of himself. Lup’s spectral footnudged his leg, and he nudged back, phasing right through.

“Her name was Julia,” Magnusreplied, “and we were married for a few months when…somebody…bombed the city welived in, while I was on a trip away. She and her father were killed.” At Lup’squiet swearing he shrugged. “It sucks, but I know I’m gonna see her again whenI finally kick the bucket here, so that…that’s okay.”

Lup whistled. “A lot of what youwere doing while I was in umbrella town makes a lot more sense now. You werealways reckless, ya big lug, but not careless. Not since Fischer. Not in thatlast half-century.” She laughed. “You were almost mature, my dude. I waswondering what happened.”

Magnus laughed too. “A lot ofstuff,” he said, and sighed. “A…a lot of stuff.”

Lup twiddled her skeletal thumbs,then elbowed Magnus (or elbowed through Magnus). “Hey. Mags. Maggie. Mango.Magnum. Mag-dude.”

“Yes, Lulu?” Magnus replied, andLup casually flicked a tiny flame onto one of Magnus’ sideburns. He swatted itaway before it could do much damage.

“When I get my body,” she said,“you and me, we’re going on the town. All-night rager. We’re gonna take theliver Barold so kindly regrew me, and trash it.” She paused. “Was Julia a partyanimal?”

“Drank me under the table,” Magnussaid, and Lup burst out laughing. “This one time, she carried me home fromthe bar, and she actually finished the bottle.”

“I’ll pour one out for her, shesounds awesome,” Lup said, and floated up. “Anyway, I’ll let you get back tobeing a working man. Lucretia said she wanted to pick the ole spectral brainsabout something, so I’mma go take care of that.”

“Sure,” Magnus smiled, and waved asLup vanished. He settled back against his tree and flicked his shades down overhis eyes to catch another quick nap before heading back into town.

(Later, back in her body and readyto party, Lup would steal Magnus’ shades again like old times and parade aroundthe Neverwinter taverns in them; much, much later, she’d clutch the sunglassesto her chest and smile a watery smile at a white-haired Magnus as he winked andtold her they always looked better on her, anyway.)

#quilly writing #taz #mangus and lup hanging out and being bros is my absolute jam #treegona

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