#also think about his behavior as a kid. 100% he has adhd

[purpleshadow-star]

Here's a reminder that Frank does not have adhd or dyslexia like most demigods, so he was stuck on the Argo II with at least five to six other teenagers with adhd at all times. I wonder what that was like for him...

#5-6 bc it was the rest of the 7 and then nico after percy and annabeth fell into tartarus #and nico def has adhd one look at his chaotic thoughts in his pov chapters confirms this #also think about his behavior as a kid. 100% he has adhd #so frank stuck on a ship full of adhd kids for like a month and a half to two months #i wonder what that was like lol #i mentioned this to my sis (who doesnt have adhd) and she said it was prob vary chaotic #she has a lot of friends with adhd and i have it too so she has experience being in franks shoes lol #i wonder how many conversations he just got lost in cause they kept going on tangents or smth #it must have been an experience for him #riordanverse #rick riordan #frank zhang #argo 2 crew #heros of olympus #pjo hoo toa #pjo verse

[shinsorokiri]

y’know i know a lot of people talk about how they love shane and seb because they’re the damaged men in the game, and like same 100%, but i also see a lot of people kinda dismiss sam as a golden retriever, positive, happy character. but if you really think about it, sam fits into the same category as seb and shane too. like:

1. his mother expresses multiple times to the farmer that although she loves her children, she very much longs to have a life where she doesn’t have to constantly worry about kids. in a way a part of her deep down wishes that sam and vincent didn’t really exist and it tears her apart and vincent isn’t necessarily old enough to grasp the concept, but sam is and you know he notices it. this is the woman who raised him and (i at least headcanon him) as someone who is very observant. he definitely notices these behaviors coming from her. and idk about you, but having an inkling that your mother is unhappy with her life in any capacity would really screw me up personally.

2. his father went to WAR. like fully went to war and i’m thinking he was in the army for 2 and a half years at least because he has a corporal badge (even though it’s upside down) but that means that he was away for bootcamp, then deployed, and if sam is around what? like 19? 20? that means that he became the “man of the household” at 17 or 18. Because I personally believe Kent was away for three to three and a half years. Bootcamp for about 10 weeks, straight to a base for more training, and it seems as though the active war made it so he got deployed into action fairly quickly. So, not only did Sam have an absence where his father should have been during the years he became a young adult, but he has to adjust to his father coming back and struggling with PTSD and quite honestly being shellshocked. (i also believe kent was honorably discharged, meaning something bad happened to him in the war. perhaps it was the same event where he lost many of his friends, but i fully believe the war is still ongoing even when kent returns to the valley considering the traveling merchant is still smuggling things into the town.) all the memories he had of kent are just memories now because his father will never be the same as he was before. And sam KNOWS that! even vince notices it!

3. he’s literally a rebellious skater kid, one of his heart events is him getting in trouble WITH THE MAYOR because he’s skating where he’s not supposed to, AND he purposely tries to sabotage the soup for the potluck and leads in community service hours. he’s a teenage dirtbag baby! a misunderstood edgy kid who acts out because he doesn't know how to express his feelings! and on top of that, with his adhd he’s even more misunderstood and people don’t take him seriously at all. he gets scolded for things that he seemingly just can’t help all the time and that just hurts him and makes him act out even more.

4. sam is also a damaged individual - he’s just better at masking it. seb embraces the darkness and accepts that he is an outcast and doesn’t try to hide the fact he is. shane struggles with addiction and depression publicly and it’s not negative necessarily, but he can’t hide it from anyone. sam has a warped idea that he cannot show his ailments, physical or mental because he needs to be strong for his little brother and give an example of what he believes a man should be (and because of the patriarchal society he lives in he doesn’t know that he can be vulnerable because no one told him because the man who would have been able to explain that to him during the years he really needed to hear it wasn’t there). i fear he suffers a bit from toxic positivity and desperately tries to rely on hobbies to distract him from his reality. 

long story short, sam is not just a silly guy, he has depth. i mean come on, he's best friends with sebastian for a reason! they’re similar in ways! he just doesn’t know how to talk about or express it. all this to say, sam is an interesting and deep character that shouldn’t be written off immediately by people.

sam supremacy! lmao

#stardew valley #stardew #stardew valley sam #stardew sam #stardew headcanon #stardew valley headcanon #woke up and thought i'd advocate for samson today #cause i love that guy #sdv sam #sdv

[crazylittlejester]

THEYRE (the chain) ALL AUTISTIC ESPECIALLY THE ERAS WAR TRIO!! IN THIS TEDTALK I WILL-

mask was, ironically, very low masking

warriors was (and still kinda is) VERY high masking

(Tune is somewhere in the middle + ADHD)

mask really struggled at first on the battlefield because of his extreme lack of social skills (dude was raised in the woods with a bunch of other autistic fairy kids), lack of danger awareness, and poor understanding of war/battlefield (he’s used to 1-1 boss fights not war), and the fact that as a kid, he was already much much higher support needs, not even mentioning how traumatized he must’ve been.

warriors was drowning in stress, a literally TEENAGER (I hc him being 16-20 during the war) severely masking and like, PHYSICALLY UNABLE TO STOP. Among all the other non-neurodivergent stressors (cia, A WAR, parenting two kids in battle, food issues)

warriors helped mask learn tips for surviving the neurotypical world** (TM) and made sure he was 100% accommodated, since warriors knew he, himself would never have that.

Mask subtly (and probably accidentally) pushed warriors to mask less, creating a safe space where the three bros could all be them selves. He’d throw the biggoron sword if someone so much as looked NEAR where warriors was when he was stimming, ready to fight the h8ters if necessary.

later on, the trio (and now 6 more!) rejoin, and time is pleasantly surprised to see that warriors has kept some of the mentality. Granted, he’s not made any progress since then, but he’s not gotten worse, so that’s something.

Warriors is also quietly content that time has retained the social skills he taught him, in fact, he’s picked up even more! Though he finds it hard to find time at all scary, intimidating, or powerful, because warriors knows EXACTLY what is going through time’s head when he makes that face, I mean, he taught his brother himself!

warriors now has to face the living proof that he’s not weird or broken, lest he tell that to his eight brothers who are nowhere near as masking as he is, culture shock!

**DISCLAIMER!!

I know that the idea of “normalizing” autistic kids via teaching them neurotypical behaviors is a very complex and nuanced conversation to be had, and I’m not trying to parade around supporting ABA. (not to make this about me or anything,) but this pov/head cannon/prompt (?) is inspired from the perspective of me and my lower masking/much higher support needs sibling (both are autistic) :)

Your favorite,

-MANDARIN WARRIORS

I love you for this oh my god

To me, one of the things Mask struggles with the most besides social cues is controlling his facial expressions when especially when talking to others, which is why the other Links just automatically assumed he was the stoic silent type, because they saw this serious looking older guy who rarely smiles and were like “oh he means business-” but really he just has very flat expressions. Similarly I think he’s very dry when he speaks, it was worse when he was younger, and he’d gotten better at making himself sound more excited/happy, but occasionally the others (not including Wars) think he’s being sarcastic when he isn’t. And this is part of why they can never tell if he’s joking about having fought the moon.

With how chaotic his childhood was (and also because of the autism), to me he’s someone who really needs stability and predictably, which is why ranch work is sooo good for him. Like yeah unexpected things happen, but he can also sit there and take care of the animals and know he will be taking care of the animals the next day (also I think braiding Epona’s mane would be both comforting for him AND the horse)

Warriors is someone I can see stressing out so much about how people view him and he’s so scared of being anything less than perfect that he ends up getting trapped masking and everything just builds up until he explodes. He certainly was not coping well during the war, with everything that was going on, but I totally agree that Mask helped him mask less. Those two absolutely helped each other, both intentionally and completely by accident. By the time he’s in his mid/late twenties, he’s gotten a lot better about not letting everything build up, and also at unmasking every once in a while when he feels safe. (you’re so right, time/mask would fight ANY haters on wars’s behalf)

Everything you said was so perfect and I love it!! I’ve written one fic centering around these two being autistic (although I didn’t explicitly state that because I don’t know if they’d have like, the medical diagnosis for that in hyrule), and i really need to write more. I myself am autistic and good autism rep is really important to me because I never saw it as a kid

You’re literally my favorite at this point, mandarin wars anon, I hope you’re having a good day 🫶

#linked universe #linkeduniverse #lu warriors #lu wars #lu time #jes talks #jes ask

[lilaccoffin]

Had some thoughts today...about their relationship...

Mostly how Chai's envy towards Vanilla gradually culminates into their falling out.

Like, they both have a lot of similarities and differences that contribute to Chai deciding to ghost Vani, both being dudes struggling with inferiority complexes in different ways. Chai handles his by gassing himself up to be the coolest dude ever because no one can call you a loser if you don't act like one, right? And his slacker attitude going hand in hand with his fear of rejection. If you don't try and put your best into stuff or do anything, it won't sting as much if someone tells you you sucked or rejects you, right?

For Vanilla, he copes with these feelings of inferiority by working his ass off to prove himself, masking his autistic behaviors and being as by-the-book as much as possible. Sure, he isn't always 100% compliant, I mean, he's lying to his parents about his major so that he can do what he actually wants to do, but for the most part, he's the type of guy who thinks doing things like they're instructed to be done will reward him. This results in all of his anxiety and stress in school. He basically overexerts himself where Chai does not.

I've boiled down three things that Chai's envious of and it's Vanilla's friend group in college, school stuff, and finally, the band that came to talk to their class.

1: The Friends...

At the start of the game, Chai tells Peppermint he's better off by himself and in general you get this air that Chai is a loner. (Using Lonely Boy as the opening song of the game is also uh...y'know, a huge indicator.) A lot of the fan base (me included) headcanon that Chai had a really hard time making friends growing up. He was the weird kid, and some (if not most) of the teasing also came from a place of ableism. I know a lot of us also headcanon Chai to have ADHD and that paired with him not being able to fully use his right arm gave bullies a lot of material. I remember someone (edit: FOUND THEIR POST, psychangels said this and it's a really good post btw) mentioning Chai dealing with pity/fake friends too and I can definitely see that and how it contributes to him being cautious of new "friends." Vanilla was pretty lucky to even get as close to Chai as he did. The shared love of music and having classes together were probably the main reasons their friendship worked for as long as it did (not very long, but not very short). Well, Chai wasn't Vanilla's only friend, even if it seemed like it at times with how often Vanilla wanted to be around him. He has a group of gothic pals who care about him a lot, most of them being people he met in middle school that he was happy to be able to go to high school and now uni with. Chai tends to just observe them from a distance because Vanilla's friends don't really like him very much over some of his crappy behavior towards Vani, and he sees how close and happy they are. Makes him wish he had that, but he tries his best to ignore it since years of bullying have made it really uncomfortable for him to accept genuine connection or kindness. It's already tough when Vanilla is so nice to him, a friend group full of that? Makes him nervous to even think about it. Though Vani and his friends aren't the type to fake anything, he's still weary.

2: School...

So, yeah, Chai isn't getting the best grades whereas Vanilla is getting straight A's. Again, Vanilla works his little ass off to get the grades his parents want him to have and Chai doesn't put that much effort into his work. To him, half-assing it also diminishes the sting of rejection if his professors don't like any of his genuine work, so getting Cs and Ds are good enough. Even with music focused classes Chai tends to take it easy. I can see him being the kind of guy to ask why they need to study the other stuff that has nothing to do with how to make music? Still, his slacker persona tends to aggravate a lot of his professors and they tend to exhibit some pretty nasty behavior towards Chai for it. Since Vanilla is hardworking and contributes to class discussions a lot, they're a lot more generous to him and have definitely cracked jokes about Vanilla's work vs Chai's. Vanilla would just nervously laugh while Chai rolled his eyes. God, actually, I don't doubt professors would make mean jokes often about those two. Probably begging Vanilla not to let Chai influence him. Vanilla didn't exactly do much about those jokes except wave/nervously laugh them off. He should have stood up to them and told them to stop making fun of Chai but, well, that kind of thing doesn't come easy to him (looks at him lying to his parents instead of putting his foot down with them about himself and his life and also how they would aaalways compare him and his older brother, which, yeah it bothered Vanilla to have their professors do the EXACT same thing with him and Chai, but...again, not REALLY great about confrontation during this time). Yeah, the way professors treat Vanilla compared to how they treat Chai also made Chai envious of Vani. Especially when it was something Vanilla could have helped to some degree if he told these people to shut up, but it's not like Chai expected him to stand up for him, either. Why would he? Why would anyone?

3: Last, the visit from the band...

Okay so, I've gone to community and uni, and it's not unheard of for a professor to have people agree to come in and talk to their students about stuff regarding the subjects they're studying. I've had professors who know some pretty neat people invite them to talk to us, so I imagine one of Chai and Vanilla's professors have done the same. I've written this scenario out before, but to TL:DR it, a band that actually went to their university and met in their classes agreed to come on down and talk to them all about the industry and how they do their thing. They went the full mile and brought their instruments and shared a short excerpt of a song with them, too. The band ended up being a band both Chai and Vanilla liked as well, so it was a pretty sick class that day! Vanilla gushes to Chai about how rad and inspiring it was and Chai offhandedly tells him he should share that new song he wrote with them and see what they think, not thinking Vanilla would actually go and do that, despite how he always considers Chai's suggestions. The band ends up really liking it and asking Vanilla if they could play a bit of it to hear it out loud, which makes him nearly faint (it's a good thing most of the class had left by then and it was just him, Chai, their professor, and the band, who was just about to put their stuff away to go). Chai's happy for Vanilla, but then he thinks back to the time he met his favorite band and how they received him...blowing him off completely (took some inspo from kennyswurvegurl's post here for the visual 'cause, damn, it hit hard). It led Chai into a bit of a spiral afterwards, wondering if maybe he really didn't have a future in all of this because of the cruelty he's faced from so many people. Seeing Vanilla flourish was every bit as painful as it was great. Sure, he tried to fall back into his cocky behavior to not think about it so much, but it was getting tougher with each snarky remark from a professor, each glare from Vani's friend group, and Vani himself being so hyped around him, the fake him.

It all just gets worse when Vanilla runs by the idea of starting a band together after Uni. In Vanilla's mind, it was a great way for them to fulfill their respective dreams of being rock stars and filling in for each other on the roles they couldn't do (Vanilla wants to sing but can't because of his monotone voice and Chai can't play guitar because of his arm.Sso in Vani's head, them doing each thing would be fine, right?). Chai just gets upset at the idea, feeling like he's being pitied all over again and that he's only going to achieve his dream by bumming off of Mr. straight A's? Nah. He rejects the offer, and after a week he drops out of college. It...super sucks for Vanilla because he thought the world of Chai. Sure, his friends get him to take off the damn rose tinted glasses after they tell him Chai wasn't really that great of a friend, but he still feels awful about Chai ghosting him and his own faults in their friendship.

#doodlies #hi fi rush #vanilla #oc x canon #KINDA...? it's their crumble fumble... #oh my god this got so long.. #this always happens with me idk why I'm always shocked FDJSLF #thank u to anyone who reads <3 #vanichai makes me ill...

[shakertwelve]

the obvious defense of this point would be that Victoria is simply supposed to be Wrong About It, which I would love, except that the narrative very carefully bends to make sure that Victoria is Always Right, and ESPECIALLY Always Right about Cape Science

[ context: the quote we're talking about: “I guess it doesn’t make sense as a thing powers would do.  Powers tend to steer clear of the suicidal, the helpless, the invalid, or people who are limited.” ]

my best guess as to what wildbow meant, if he put any thought into this at all? this is ward's version of the scene in worm that goes out of its way to make clear that labyrinth is not autistic and had a "normal" mind before her trigger (and the similar clarification about bitch). wildbow didn't want to write about developmental disabilities, probably because he thought he didn't know enough about the subject not to mess up and get in trouble for writing something offensive, so his solution was to just state that no one in parahumans is meant as "representation" of that demographic and avoid the issue altogether. this at least makes some kind of sense, if you are wildbow.

the obvious issue here is that this quote doesn't just single out developmental disabilities, but is phrased broadly enough to apply to almost any kind of illness or disorder. worm presents superpowers as explicitly tied to a traumatic event and as a metaphor for the effects of trauma, and experiencing other forms of illness and distress make someone much more likely to process an event as a trauma, so logically, mentally ill and disabled people should be overrepresented in the parahuman population (feeling "helpless" or distressed enough to be suicidal are common elements to many parahuman triggers), and the ways capes tend to act in the text of both books consistently reflect this. the only other explanation i can think of is that we're using an extremely restrictive definition of mental disorders (i.e. we're being the guy who thinks adhd isn't a real neurotype, so imp and kid win don't count, and low-empathy is just code for being a bad person, so cradle doesn't count, and so on...), and even that doesn't explain why we're claiming physically disabled people also can't get powers, when wildbow has written about it happening plenty of times (thank you @john-cherry-the-6th for bringing up this wog about triggers in suicidal people that includes the trigger event of a coma patient). also, we've seen that powers can cure illnesses as part of the trigger (see: vikare, famously the first hero ever, whose powers manifesting cured his cancer) if they really need to (they don't even do it all the time if the host isn't dying and can still fight with the power, like genesis), so why would they care if a prospective host is disabled? but whatever--let's disregard all evidence to the contrary and assume that all capes were 100% Mentally Normal (a very objective standard) before their triggers, so their erratic behavior after triggering must be purely the influence of their superpowers.

of course, now we have to go back to the first part of the quote. victoria claims that she doesn't think it's likely that finale's powers would affect her mental development after she manifested them, because powers want their hosts to be able and ready for action. so that can't be why capes like labyrinth and bitch exist, either; powers avoid choosing "limited" people as hosts and they also don't want to make their hosts limited, therefore all parahumans must be healthy because shards want healthy hosts. except there's absolutely no way any scientific study of parahumans in this world would come to this conclusion! scores of therapists run themselves ragged dealing with the various complexes of just the heroic capes, and capes on the "villainous" side are understood to be, on average, even more unstable! victoria has been working with jessica yamada, who definitely knows this, for ages! what the fuck is she talking about!

CONCLUSION: ??? wildbow got confused while writing about his own setting's alien brain parasites and started describing yeerks instead

#ask

[foster-the-world]

In better news

I thought I was going to write a post about how terrible the pre trial hearing to try and get baby boy an enhanced rate for OT, PT, speech and SEIT providers was. Trust me it was horrible. It was abundantly clear we needed a lawyer. I had called multiple law firms- all of them had long waiting list and one quoted $10k. It would make more sense to spend that money on providers. We figured it couldn’t hurt to go forward with it ourselves. Worse case they say no and we are just in the same spot. The DOE lawyer had “not talked to her client.” so nothing could be discussed. Which brought back not fun memories of years of foster care court time with lawyers who clearly showed up without even reading the case let alone doing any actual work. Anyway it was terrible but we moved forward with writing affadavits and gathering documentary evidence. I was dreading the actual trial with every ounce of my being.

In the mean time they called to say they found a SEIT! Ten hours per week 1 on 1 services. My special ed lawyer friend said she is 99% sure it was the threat of trial that made it happen. I signed an authorization form but no word on a start date. The evidence/affadavit was due and already done so I went ahead and submitted. In an old trick from foster care I included a very cute picture of him as a “remember this is an actual human being we are talking about.” I’m afraid if I cancel the hearing the SEIT won’t actually start. The hearing is next Thursday. Fingers crossed the SEIT starts so I can officially cancel the hearing.

We still need 2xPT and one time per week speech but I’m much less concerned with those.

He’s also been doing really well recently. Someone in the special needs FB group recommended a high school senior who gives private swim lessons really close to our house. The private lessons were the same price as group lessons. Signed him right up. He has no fear so I think he will learn to swim really quickly. I was just afraid to put him in group lessons because I don’t think he will sit and wait for his turn.

My husband took him to the first development pediatrician assessment. Thankfully covered by insurance. He has one more appointment but it seems he will get a ADHD diagnosis. No autism. Which was what I thought but didn’t want to dismiss the school evaluators. I didn’t think I was the type of person to be in denial about my kids diagnosis. Especially because I don’t mind if he has autism - I just didn’t see an overlap in his behavior. Anyway nice to know I’m not crazy. Although admittedly bummed to miss out on the many services insurance would cover with an autism diagnosis.

I would have prefer to take him but had to work. Also, 100% recognize the benefit of my husband going. We need to start splitting this stuff more evenly. It’s better for everyone in the family.

[black-but-mildly-sunny]

Greek Mythology HC's

I am a firm believer that the Greek gods (specifically talking about the big 3 for right now- I'll do the other later), have common disorders.

If they are the creation devised by the human mind to represent nature and traits, then they should have common issues (mostly basing this around like PJO universe or another fictional Greek thing, kinda Hades game but whatever.)

Hades: Has to be like on the ASD in some little way (I say this because I work with kids who have ASD), and I feel he would be one of the older kids. Like he's high functioning, but there's small things he does that sets him apart. Ie socially awkward, hyper interested in things pertaining to but only the underworld, nature/flowers (cause Persephone), specific literature, and so on.

Masking when in the presence of his Olympian family or when he's judging.

Stimming, simple like playing with his hair (he keeps it long) or tapping his fingers either in rhythm or out of rhythm.

Poseidon: ADHD and a behavioral disorder. I was thinking ODD, but maybe more just BP (just cause of the change of the ocean is described like his mood..)

I feel he's the most hyperactive of the brothers, the sea is always restless so is he. Though every now and then you can find him just zoned in on something, let's say like when he tries to overthrow Zeus and he just couldn't let it go till he got punished by Zeus.

For the BP, I was just thinking that he can be wise and chill - as is per Poseidon the wise sea god, obviously but there's just times where he's just too much and times where he's just there. Everyone is unsure what Poseidon they'll get since it's not everyday they see him.

Zeus: I 100% see him with OCD and, for some reason, color blind.

OCD because he's so uppity about everything being done how he wants it and will absolutely lose it, as seen in many myths, if anyone questions him or does something he doesn't want to happen. Of course he's forgiving but I feel he just stamps it down till it overflows.

Also, he just has rituals. He does certain things a certain amount of times or just must do certain things in a certain way, and everyone has learned to just let him do that.

Color Blind, I just thought that would be cool. I just had a dumb thought that after 100's of years of marriage Hera just asks Zeus one day why he occasionally gets her things that are red when her favorite color is purple and Zeus just sits there and stares, so confused because.. aren't...they the same...? And then slowly realizing that he can't see the difference between red and purple or blue and yellow (and possibly pick and orange).

Also a minor HC is that Zeus' favorite color is green because he can't really tell the difference between blue and yellow, but he's worn blue for so long that he just hasn't changed (which plays into his OCD because he's worried something might happen if he changes colors now)

Yeah. Let me know if you have anything to add or adjust with these HC's!!!!

(I'm being very general with them only because these disorders/diagnoses are complex and different for everyone and I didn't want to be to honed in a something specific.)

#greek mythology hc #greek mythology headcanon #zeus #Hades #Poseidon #love making hc for fictional characters #i just feel Zeus would be so precious with being colorblind hera would be so helpful in choosing outfits with him #so he wouldn't be stressed about clashing or mismatching occasionally #Amphrite would like the only one who can help Poseidon chill and be level headed #but also #be right next to him when hes acting a fool #Hades would sit with Persephone at night and just rant about alm the flower knowledge hes learned and about the different rocks/gems #hera greek mythology #persphone #amphrite greek mythology #hades greek mythology #zeus greek mythology #Poseidon greek mythology

[filamints]

gordon: 1, 10, 14. tommy: 20, 48. benrey: 36

this is so so so fucking LONG IM SORRY i just got excited to talk so now i wont shut up. it will be readmore'd to save ur dash

gordon:

1) What does their bedroom look like? Like a shithole, mostly. All his life, its always been too cluttered with junk in a haphazard stack of piles. If he lives in one place too long, eventually every inch of wall space gets coatings of posters and papers and sticky notes. Its overwhelming visual stimulus.

Take his tendency for all those behaviors, and mix them with post-canon agoraphobia and depression, and the stacks of magazines and games get stacks of garbage on top. Door dashed takeout containers pile up, endless empty bottles of beer and bottom shelf vodka, bags get stacked in towers by the door for when he get brave enough to leave his apartment to sprint to the dumpsters (not nearly often enough).

The apartment he's currently is was only supposed to be short term, off site housing set up by Black Mesa before the new compound dorm/apartments were finished and he could move there. He at least started with a pretty clean apartment fresh from that move, so most of the current mess is honestly just nesting in depression trash now that his next move has been obliterated off the face of the earth. The only thing different about his bedroom vs the rest of the house is that's the room with the bed in it, a box spring and mattress directly on the floor, the frame leaning against a wall behind unpacked boxes, never assembled. Pull yourself together, man. (This will happen eventually at least)

vv More below because all of my answers are this long. vv

10) Neuroses? Do they recognize them as such? CHRIST hes got brain problems. He has had ADHD all of his life of course. Hes also has anxiety & depression, look at him. Hes aware of those at least. The one hes not aware of, at least preResCas, is bipolar disorder. ADHD was an easy diagnosis as a kid, visible from the outside. The anxiety & depression troughs are what made him seek out meds in college. But it can be hard to see the bipolar cycles from the inside, especially with the neat and easy depression diagnosis right there obscuring half of it. He just thinks every time he hits his unstoppable stride that hes 100% over his shit and hes gonna get better and hes fucking unkillable untouchable unstoppable.

And then he falls off a fucking cliff and he can look back and beat himself to shit that he should have known better, this happens every time and this time the hell is just gonna last forever as punishment. Repeat for a good decade of his life.

Post canon, add that agoraphobia mentioned before here, as well as a good dose of PTSD. Between being tracked by the military, every time hes seen the fucking sky for the duration of canon he will shortly have bullets or missiles raining down on him, and general paranoia that he is still a wanted man, 'going outside' is just too much. (He even states in canon that he has ptsd from the grenades and even soda cans look too similar and freak him out lol) I feel like he would also be very anxious about the dark after Black Mesa. He had been sleeping in random rooms still brightly lit, and the dark was always bad news with the most heavily damaged sections of the compound + he got his hand literally cut off in the dark. He has to go pussy mode and sleep with lights on or nightlights at least and he will beat himself up about being a child for it endlessly. Speaking of that incident again, grabbing or restraining his right arm will also send him into a meltdown. This is a fun fact that he will learn about only in the most embarrassing bedroom meltdown over toy handcuffs.

14) Physical abnormalities? (Both visible and not, including injuries/disabilities, long-term illnesses, food-intolerances, etc.) And on the non-mental end, theres the hand. Although reattached to his body, its still not perfect. Most days its not too bad, a bit slower and less sensitive. But sometimes it acts up, pins and needles, weird aches, grip strength weakness, a kind of lag in input that leaves him dropping things or breaking them. Particularly at night, it tends to hurt. Touching the skin around and on the reattachment scar really skeeves him out for a long while, the location of physical touch doesn't quite map with where his brain thinks it should be, like his nerve map is slightly to the left of where it all should be.

tommy:

20) Childhood illnesses? Any interesting stories behind them? Not an illness persay but it did take quite a while for him to get the autism diagnosis. A lot of the symptoms that stand out at weird in boychilds get glossed over in girlchild, not speaking is just 'being shy', the tiptoe walk is just 'high heels walking', etc. Especially as a girlchild in the foster care system. It wasn't until like, late middle school that was figured out when the social aspects and meltdowns made paying attention to the symptoms inevitable, looking back it was Very Obvious.

48) How do they express love? Certainly not verbally, lol. If we are going by the typical love language categories, its more on the 'quality time' side. He's the type to like parallel play type activities. There's also gifts, but its food gifts 90% of the time. Very good at memorizing people's preferred orders at any given restaurant or coffee place and will pick you up your favorite treat. :)

benrey:

36) What makes them feel guilty? Not gonna lie, he's very hard to make feel guilty on account that he doesn't view most of what he does as either wrong or at least not his fault. I think it takes up until the boss battle for him to even get he did something wrong and feel bad about it. Because it was unintended, there really wasn't any guilt for him. I think to make him feel guilt, whatever he does would have to have a very visible and understandable detriment to someone he cares about, and if you want him to feel guilty without telling him why he SHOULD be, his involvement better be obvious.

It seems funny, but i think he would have a lot more genuine guilt over something simple and cause/effect like knocking over and breaking a glass or eating someone else's food in the communal fridge as opposed to something more abstract, like someone getting hurt as a consequence of something else that he did but genuinely thought was harmless.

#answers #hlvrai

[f1uckinghell]

please tell us more about our favourite neurodivergent triplets

I love them so much <3 warning: this contains some angst regarding the parenting of ND children

So, Evie and Flynn have ADHD, and Jakob has autism. Before they get the diagnoses, it’s a real struggle; Max and Dan are overwhelmed by suddenly having 5 children, Charles, Pierre and Michael help them out a lot of course but 1. Lando had Luna around the same time and since the birth was so tough he needs a LOT of help with her 2. Max and Dan want to give all of their kids enough attention, they don’t want the twins to feel like they’re being pushed aside and get less love now that they have younger siblings.

They do their very very best, but since they just don’t know how to handle ND children (of course! most parents have no idea!) and there’s 3 of them, it escalates a lot. They’re incredibly likeable and cute children but there’s meltdowns and food issues and sleep issues and sensory issues and it’s just A Lot. They find ways to deal with it for most things, but sometimes it’s just so overwhelming that Max just needs a good, secret cry in the pantry away from his children.

I think there’s something about Flynn’s high energy/low concentration behavior that sometimes really sets Daniel off, they get into a few fights even though Daniel loves him so dearly. Until one day Grace makes an off-hand remark that Flynn is 100% a mini Daniel; Daniel was just like this as a kid. And that’s really eye opening for Daniel, because Flynn just displays so many qualities that were trained or shamed out of Daniel when he was a kid (eventually) and so he promises to do better and embrace his son as he is.

Unfortunately, it escalates really badly one time, because Max is just overwhelmed and Daniel is too (but he always has the possibility to „hide“ at work) and it just all comes crashing down. They make an appointment with a pediatrician the next day and finally, the triplets are eventually diagnosed. It makes it a lot better for everyone to handle, they all go to occupational therapy, Flynn gets some meds, they find an ADHD omega playgroup for Evie so she has an easier time making friends, they learn better ways to deal with Jakob’s food and sensory issues and his nonverbal behavior, and they learn how to handle meltdowns properly. Also I think both Max and Dan get some therapy themselves because there’s just a lot coming up.

asdfghjk this was probably way more than you bargained for lmao sorry, I could go on for ages, I could literally write an essay

#asks #virtues verse #pup tag #vv!triplets #vv!flynn #vv!evie #vv!jakob

[everlastingspiral]

he has been compared to and treated like a child multiple times, what about that do people want to fuck? erik said he wouldnt make nsfw content for him, can ppl stop being weird and just go be horny for a character that isnt treated like a little brother/CHILD, aka literally any other redacted character

ppl stop trying to justify sexualising characters meant to depict kids ffs its not hard

This is a lengthy response, but I just wanted to explain thoroughly enough as to not create any confusion. I’m not going to reiterate what one of the fic authors said either, as I’m assuming you’re here because you read it.

I can tell some of you are new to fandom spaces, but changing the behaviors, relationships, sexualities, ages, etc. of characters is something this fandom has already been doing. The author has stated a lot of things that he wouldn’t do/aren’t canon, and the fans have gone wild with their own ideas anyways, so the argument that “well the author said-” holds no weight.

I do understand why people could be kind of uncomfortable with the fics. Caelum is one of the few characters that the fandom has reached a general consensus of his characterization (as a child/mentally a child), and the deviation from it has been extremely limited. So to suddenly go from that to smut fics can be jarring, and it was for me too when I read them.

However, I will gladly inform you that interpretation of the characters is still open, and nowhere has it ever stated that Caelum is 100% a child. He has no canon visual imagery besides the horns, and no canon voiced line about his age, so it can be left open that he may be technically an adult that’s very child-like. Being a child/mentally a child is a different ballpark than being childish/child-like. Adults with autism, ADHD, trauma, etc. can have “child-like” behavior and still be consenting adults. As someone with one of those things myself, seeing Caelum be treated as such was a refreshing take.

If seeing this content is uncomfortable for you, then you don’t have to consume said content. This is of no personal offense to you anon, but in general, not all of the content in this fandom is wholly crafted for any one person’s personal tastes. No one has to only put forth content that others can self-insert themselves into and fits nicely into their mental bubble. While more problematic content circulating a fandom space can be uncomfortable, we’ve already got a myriad of “problematic” content that goes around (just to name a few, Villain/toxic ships, some hefty age gaps from the fascination with DILFs/MILFs, etc.) Interpreting the age of a character who has no canon age is not in the least bit problematic.

Lastly, while the “characters” of Freelancer, Angel, Sweetheart, etc. are given those nicknames and neutral pronouns to be considered as “self-inserts”, at the end of the day, they are still characters in their own right. The author has given them thoughts and actions of their own, which are also up to the interpretation of the fandom. That being said, someone writing a fic you don’t like is not a personal attack on you, and you do not have to imagine yourself in the place of Freelancer or whoever else. Some of these fics can be about exploring ideas or character dynamics without thinking that the author or reader of said fics is, themselves, the main character. I understand that this medium of storytelling is built on the idea of self-inserting oneself into the shoes of the listening character, but it is simultaneously a medium of free interpretation. Everyone in the fandom, you and I included, needs to take that into account when interacting with fan content.

I hope that all makes sense, anon.

#redacted asmr #redacted caelum

[iron-sides]

actually lemme Break Down issue 23 and why max's behavior is. soooo frustrating esp if u read from the 'speedsters lean adhd' angle that seems pretty common

he asks for bart's plan, bart evades, and max accepts this-- he wants to see what bart does. he gives no instruction and never actually bothers to interrogate barts half-baked plan or even to tell him that "hitting" doesnt count as a plan. its pretty clear to me esp since max KNOWS bart that bart doesnt actually have a plan.

bart's right. lol. objectively. also at no point was he told to do the thing max is scolding him for not doing. lol.

hey max remember how at no point have you bothered to explain how your way is better? because you haven't. at any point. also bart's still right. lol.

a) max you literally have a speedster metabolism leave him fucking be. jesus

b) surprise camping trip is not a good solution to helen being justifiably irritated with you but whatever

c) hey so on a related note (and remember for a sec that bart is simultaneously 2 and 14) the most important thing you can do with toddlers and teenagers is give them as much autonomy as possible. so uh. well. surprise camping trip. that bart really doesnt seem excited about-- and like, i cant blame him! i wouldnt be either, and i love camping!

d) hey do you see max poking fun at barts past mistakes bc as someone who has had their parents do that it Fucking Sucks

e) look at the first panel its so pretty. anyway

he's framing this as a criticism, which is fucking rude considering bart has literally no way of knowing you dont bring video games camping, also-- he is knowingly setting bart up to be bored out of his mind. on purpose. he doesnt even propose another way for bart to entertain himself. remember this.

a) hate that he uses normal like that. like i get it but still, to have something inherant to your existence constantly used to abnormal-ify you fuckin sucks.

b) wow max its almost like you didn't fucking plan this. the WHOLE THING YOU'VE BEEN MAD AT BART ABOUT THE WHOLE DAMN TIME

b.1) like again i cannot emphasize enough that what hes been mad about the whole time is bart's lack of planning. and now here is is not planning this whole trip

c) hey remember how i said max was knowingly setting bart up to be bored. lol.

max is genuinely trying to level with bart and i get how its frustrating when people completely miss that but like. girl. you forget that hes both fourteen and two and spent most of that time in VR. he doesnt exactly have a lot to look back on king. you cant hold that against him

ok the blah blah paragraphs are kind of babbling but again-- bart makes a good point about how max isnt exactly very active in the superhero scene, and, again, HAS NEVER EXPLAINED WHY HIS WAY WOULD BE BETTER TO BART. anyway. lol notice how he's choosing to give bart his "final exam" (not a good way to view parenting OR mentorship btw. just for reference) out of frustration? ive worked with kids. ive worked with some WILDLY frustrating kids. any choice you make out of frustration will be a mistake 100% of the time you have to make your plan of action BEFORE you get frustrated. this is rookie stuff this doesnt even just apply to kids it applies to everything

its fucking mean to fake a life-threatening experience for yourself and then make the young teen you're in charge of save you. btw. even if hes a superhero and shit like this is still mean.

HE LITERALLY JUST SAVED YOU. HE DID THE FUCKING THING YOU ASKED HIM TO DO. "little thanks to you" FOR DEMOLISHING THE AVALANCHE YOU PUT YOURSELF IN THE PATH OF? REALLY?

"id like to think ive taught you something" at no point have you done that though. at no point have you actually sat him down and taught or explained anything except maybe secret identities which youll notice he cares very much about upkeeping because he loves and respects you and wants you to be proud of him. lol.

also yelling never helps anyone. btw. i get why people do it but like.. you didnt TELL him to pull you out of the way you never even explained why he handled the hostage situation wrong! you just told him he did! thats not how teaching works!

this wouldnt surprise you if you had like ever sat down and talked world-view with him btw. hes pretty open about it.

hey fun fact if theres a teacher and a student and the student doesnt learn anything it's the teacher's failure. because bart's trying- bart's trying REALLY HARD. and sure, so is max, but more is expected of teachers than students because a) theyre the adults and b) they know more. theyre coming from a place of knowledge. so anyway hes literally soooo mad at bart for something thats his own damn fault

and here we're seeing bart who clearly can feel that max is mad at him and wants to fix it so so bad. but max isnt mad at bart hes mad at himself (for his failure with helen) and he's taking it out on bart. lol. which means nothing bart does can fix it. which is a horrible feeling.

anyway. this whole thing just makes issue 24 physically painful becasue max and bart separate (presumably forever) without ever making amends, max never apologizes for this and since im now at issue 28 and theyre not mentioning it im going to assume itll be a good long time from now if he ever does, which fucking sucks. anyway. the whole point here is that i love max very much and this was seriously painful to read. and that i saw a post in the bonnie tag about how max shouldve adopted cissie and girl max shouldn't have adopted BART. like dont get me wrong they love each other very much but max is NOT fit to be ANYONE'S mentor.

#my thots #obligatory reminder that i love max hes reminding of of my parents who i love dearly but they fumbled the ball bad in some places #and this is one of them and max is fumbling it too #this isnt really a liveblog? idk what it is tho #and im absolutely not going to maintag it even tho i probably could? bc Someone would read it as neg which like #it is but its neg with love lol #i think its good that max is a bad mentor it makes him a more interesting character

[hintofelation99]

The all had multiple expulsion threats and meetings at school no question. And yet Bruce somehow is voted the best parent at the PTA.

Bruce is the best soccer dad. Also they all get expulsion threats for different reasons.

Dick

Fighting -> He does get into a few fights at first, but after becoming Robin he stops getting into fights.

'Being Disruptive' ->Then he starts to get in trouble for not paying attention, talking in class, constant fidgetting. For the most part it's from teachers who don't even try to understand or accommodate kids with ADHD. Like he's a good kid, he's not trying to be 'disruptive' or 'rude', he just struggles with ADHD and needs teachers who are understanding of that.

Reckless Behavior -> There are several teachers who are amazing and work with his ADHD rather than against it, but even with them he gets in trouble a few times because of 'reckless behavior' (jumping from high places, climbing things that shouldn't be climbed, etc). These teachers aren't rude about it or critical, they're literally just concerned for his safety and that's why they call Bruce.

Jason

Fighting -> He sometimes gets into fights with rich pretentious kids who try to bully him. They quickly learn not to fuck with him.

Reading During Class -> This is usually only done in classes where he doesn't like the teacher —which is pretty common, he likes learning but sometimes he doesn't like school because the teachers annoy him, if he likes the teacher he's a wonderful student, if he doesn't like them... well, he can be a handful— or where he's so far ahead that he gets bored.

Cheating -> Jason has gotten accused of cheating several times, mostly because some people think a kid from crime alley can't get straight A's without cheating.

Cass

'Being Disrespectful' -> There has been at least one teacher who considers Cass' selective mutism to be a form of disrespect.

Physically Attacking Another Student -> One time this guy kept harrassing a classmate of Cass' the person was clearly uncomfortable, so when the guy tried to grope them Cass flipped him.

Ditching Class -> She has at least once just walked out of class after a teacher annoyed her. No comment, no response, no explanation, just left.

Tim

Ditching Class -> He has been known to skip class on occasion. Which honestly, understandable.

Sleeping During Class -> Self explanatory tbh.

Cheating -> He kept getting 100% on tests, even after constantly sleeping during class, so the teachers assumed he was cheating.

Duke

Fighting -> After his parent's went insane he was pretty depressed and angry. Ended up getting in a few fights.

Cheating -> Much like Jason some teachers also thought Duke shouldn't be able to do well in school. So, when he did exceedingly well they assumed he cheated.

Ditching Class -> This mostly happened right after the stuff with his parents, but he still occasionally skips, usually he ends up going to the library.

Damian

Insulting Teachers and Classmates -> Self explanatory.

Physically Assualting a Student -> Usually he's good about not trying to murder others, but he did attack one or two students after they made a racist remark.

Having a Rude Tone -> This got thrown out pretty quickly but there was a teacher who reported him based solely on the tone of his voice.

Everytime one of his kids gets in trouble Bruce comes in and listens to all available perspectives. If they actually did something wrong then Bruce is fine with them facing consequences. But if they didn't actually do something, or it's something he believes they shouldn't be punished for then he will fight it. His most well known fights with the school were over:

Their response to Dick's ADHD

Teachers accusing Duke, Tim, and Jason of cheating without evidence

The teachers response to Cass' selective mutism

The racist remarks made about Damian

As a PTA member he focuses a lot on mental health education, diversity, and funding the arts. He and Alfred tend to tag team events. Alfred handles everything baking always, but other than that they split responsibilites based on Bruce's schedule. Bruce likes to be as present as possible but sometimes he's just too busy, so when that's the case Alfred steps in.

With each kid Bruce learned different areas where the school was lacking, where he could help improve. First was with Dick, he learned that the teachers didn't have the training or resources to give Dick the support needed. None of them knew how to handle ADHD and at first it resulted in poor grades and 'behavioral problems'. To fix this Bruce set up a fund to send teachers to extra training seminars on common learning disabilities and mental health issues, these covered a wide range that not only helped Dick, but also other students who had similar needs. Bruce also helped planned a yearly fundraising event that would make sure the fund was sustainable and not relient on him.

With Jason he focused on revamping the bookfair, there were a lot of other projects he could/wanted/did do, but the bookfair meant the most to Jason so it meant the most to Bruce. He turned the bookfair into a yearly two week long event where authors came to speak, writing work shops were held, and books were donated (ofc books were also sold). Basically he turned it from a bookfair to a bookcon.

For Cass his efforts in getting the teachers the training needed to help students with disabilities was doubled, this time he focused on communicative and sensory disabilities. Like selective mutism, deafness, blindness, etc. His biggest goal was making sure all teachers took at least one sign language course and encouraging them to take more with bonuses and pay raises. Eventually this monetary reward system extending to other out of work classes that could prove beneficial to students.

In a lot of ways Bruce felt like he failed Tim, this was a kid who was his neighbor for years and who eventually became his Robin. Yet it still took him much too long to realize how neglectful Tim's parents were. It really made him question a lot of things, mainly how much child abuse went unnoticed. He started a campaign to raise awareness on types of abuse and the signs to look for. It focused on all forms of abuse, not just neglect. In a way it was therapeutic, not only did it help kids like Tim, but it also helped kids like Jason who faced physical abuse. It ended up begin a popular program that expanded to other schools in the area.

Duke made Bruce think of problems closer to home, namely how Rogue attacks affected children. So for Duke, Bruce worked on creating a support network for children who were victims or were close to victims of Rogue attacks/organized crime in Gotham. Outside of the support network for Rogue victims Bruce also worked with the PTA to schedule several writing competitions, Dick often places in the top three and Bruce is always insanely proud of this.

For Damian Bruce really focused on the arts. He and the PTA started doing art shows every quarter and having students help with school beautification/mural making on campus. These programs helped Damian bond with peers and encouraged him to participate in after school activities. Dick also helped with these programs and expanded them into the community, specifically he worked combining art/beautification programs with fundraising for animal shelters.

#batfam #batman #bruce wayne #nightwing #dick grayson #jason todd #red hood #tim drake #red robin #duke thomas #the signal #damian wayne #robin #headcanon #ask #mypost

[oh-hush-its-perfect]

I like just saw your post from a few days ago about magnus being mentally ill

(and while i read all the books together so i don't know if this was a different protag [i know percy did this as well])

didn't magnus used to beat kids up at school? and have anger issues? like intensely? like that would be the only thing hindering him from Harvard but it would actually hinder?

idk maybe i'm just projecting actual adhd symptoms onto these characters but yeah.

No yeah Magnus 100% showed symptoms of neurodivergence and mental illness.

He never claimed to beat other kids up, but he did off-handedly mention he had "behavioral problems" at school, and since those behavioral problems were used by the police to implicate him in his mother's murder, it is safe to assume that his issues were violent. I personally can't see him actually beating someone up for no good reason, but he did have a consistent problem with property vandalism. Early in SoS, he mentions having broken the radio at a homeless shelter because the Christmas carols it was playing were "driving [him] crazy." This demonstrates two neurodivergent symptoms: a) sensory overload, and b) violent responses. It's also worth noting that he engaged in other PG-13 behavior; he mentioned once that he binge-drank twice, among other things.

Magnus also struggles with emotional issues and social situations. Though he's a very empathetic and selfless person, he has trouble picking up on social cues. This can be seen in a few places: when he doesn't understand why Samirah is freaking out when he takes her to see Amir in book 1, when he doesn't understand that he's pushing Alex's boundaries until she snaps at him in book 2, when he only realizes that Alex actually likes him after she's kissed him in book 3.

It's pretty easy to profile the issues: he's probably has some kind of autism or ADHD, he came from a low-income, single-parent family, and he struggles with depression and grief from his mother's death.

Worth noting that book 1 Magnus is very different than books 2 and 3 Magnus. Call it what you want— bad writing on Rick Riordan's part, or an in-canon better environment contributing to personal growth— but he still shows ND traits.

What's weird is that I think this was unintentional on RR's part. Of the characters in the Riordanverse, the ones in MCGA are the ones who don't have formal diagnoses. And they all probably should. Could do a whole nother one of these about Alex.

#I feel like he was kinda close to falling down the alt-right pipeline #what with the whole profile #but he DIDN'T and I love him #magnus chase #mcga #mcatgoa

[goldenpixel]

can u talk more about the feral boys smoking and examples of why u think they do? i’ve Always thought especially sapnap has, and him and dream probably smoke a lot together irl (also the way dream always clears his throat??) but i haven’t had anything to really back it up to other people other than a Feeling. idk if ur the same but .. yeah

Honestly, for the most part it is just a Feeling, I like to call it my Gaydar for Stoners, but Sapnap especially I’m like 100% sure

Other than the time that Sapnap straight up told Tommy he was high (which a lot of people write off as a joke, but I firmly believe he was just a little too high and forgot Tommy was streaming, which would explain Tommy’s “huh? This is weird and strange and has definitely never happened before” type of response), there’s also the time that Sapnap was on Dream’s stream and he lit a Hot n Spicy McChicken on fire with the blowtorch that was in arms reach of his set up (what other reason can you think of for a 19 year old to have a blowtorch in his bedroom - on his desk that he likely spends most of his time at - if not for dabs?), and then there’s also that one time pretty soon after the blowtorch thing that he could be heard igniting a lighter in the background while Dream was talking. And that’s just the things that I can think of off the top of my head

Dream is much more subtle about it, but if we look at his behavior in other people’s streams, especially Sapnap’s since they moved in together & Train’s latenight streams, you can’t count the amount of things he says/does that could very easily be attributed to him being high/a stoner. The big thing that I can think of right now is whenever he asks Sapnap if he wants food or Sapnap brings up their eating habits. I know that this can be explained away by them being young guys living on their own, but that combined with Sapnap being all but confirmed and Dream being very open about his mental health (weed can help anxiety, depression, and adhd among many others), just makes me think that he and Sapnap get absolutely blazed together. (also how he hesitates and giggles a little bit whenever someone asks him if he drinks or does drugs)

I think George used to smoke a ton, and probably still lights up sometimes, but not to the same degree that he used to. George was a party animal in college and statistically, British youth actually smoke more than Americans do, despite it now being legal in America. This one is not based in any fact at all, solely just an observation combined with the vibes, but every single one of George’s outfits that we’ve seen him wearing outside of his home are stereotypical seshfits (comfy outfits for the purpose of being as comfy as possible while high)

Most of my stuff for Karl, like George, could just be because he’s a busy gamer boy, but I’m gonna list them out anyway. First, every solo-Karl alt stream I’ve ever caught, he’s been absolutely schlumped playing some mindless game like slither.io, and idk about any of my fellow weed partakers, but when you’re alone, being slouched and stoned at 2am-5am playing something like that is one of the greatest things ever, especially when you’re listening to the music that he almost always is playing. Then there’s that photo I posted a while ago with Karl and Mr Beast eating the Dream Burger, where Karl looks absolutely blasted, and I’m sure if we were to go back through old photos, videos, vods, whatever, there would be many many more just like that photo. And remember that old photo of Karl when he met Valkyrae? He looks like the epitome of the nerdy kid in high school who everyone thinks goes straight home, does his homework, and then plays video games until school the next morning, but he actually has a major smoke sesh before the gaming starts, and if you’re the lucky one to figure this out, you’ll suddenly have access to the highest quality weed that that school will ever see

Quackity is the one that I’ve got the least proof for, just because he’s always so Quackity. Like, if that boy is smoking regularly, it’s gotta be pure sativa, or he’s just timing it perfectly that he’s rarely high on stream, and probably never on his own streams. I’ve actually been meaning to go back through his vods and see if I can find any substance to it other than vibes and the fact that I firmly believe the feral boys have had smoke sesh calls more than once

If anyone wants to add or refute anything, feel free!! I love discussing this stuff, cuz it’s almost certain that we’re never going to get clear answers cuz they need to keep up their mostly family friendly images. Swearing and sex jokes are one thing, but if parents were to find out that they openly smoked weed a lot of kids would 100% be banned from watching them

#omg I thought I lost this ask #I saved it as a draft and it vanished #but it’s back! #and I’m finally posting it! #I’m so sorry anon! #I’ve had this in my inbox for a reallyyyy long time 😬 #it’s the anxiety innit 😙👆 #but it’s out now! #and that’s what matters! #mcyt #dream smp #smp smokes #dream smp weed #feral boys #dreamwastaken #sapnap #georgenotfound #karl jacobs #quackity #long post #asks #anon

[himboarcher]

reasons i've seen folks say that grad critics hate grad:

they hate travis (in fairness, i’ve def seen some comments of people shitting on trav for the sake of shitting on trav, but it’s not super common and typically gets downvoted into oblivion on reddit.)

it's not balance / travis isn't griffin (???????)

they hate neurodivergent people (again, in fairness, i have seen a handful of comments that could come across this way! but most of the time when travis being ADHD or his NPD is brought up, it's by defenders saying that criticizing travis is ableist because he's neurodivergent or, in one particular comment, infantilizing him bc of it and literally comparing grad to putting a kid's artwork on the fridge. there were some comments early on that pointed to him being a narcissist as the reason for things people disliked about grad, but everyone seems to have realized that that's a shitty train of thought and left it behind.)

they're just toxic haters (again, there are a small handful of people like this because this is the internet, but the genuine criticism greatly outweighs their bullshit. i 100% think that the people, which is mostly just one dude who is also insufferable on reddit, who have been responding rudely to positive tweets under the episode announcements lately are out of line and need to stop. there's been an influx of that lately, presumably because people are frustrated that after over a year of grad going on, there's been no improvement to most of the major issues. that's still no excuse to be a dick to folks, though.)

vs some of the actual reasons i don't like grad:

the racism / racist tropes, and the way that they’ve straight up ignored this criticism and will likely never acknowledge it. pretty wild considering a core tenet of their brand is their willingness to acknowledge when they’ve messed up and do their best to course correct.

clumsy attempts at inclusion that are shallow and often end up being fairly offensive ("...ask me about my wheelchair," anyone?)

on a related note: i don't think that travis had bad intentions, but as an nonbinary person, it feels othering to me that travis only has enby characters give others their pronouns unprompted. i'm thinking specifically of kai here. having listened to their introduction, i don't think it's as bad or awkward as some people have said, but i can't remember travis ever having another NPC tell the PCs their pronouns, especially not a cis character. it's not a huge deal, but it's something that rubbed me the wrong way. admittedly, i don't think it would bother me so much if travis hadn't dropped the ball so much with performative inclusion in the past.

okay i'm putting the rest under a read more because even without getting into all of the problems i have with it, this got Long.

little to no player agency. player choices are ultimately meaningless and have little to no effect on the world. even when he seems to go along with a plan they come up with, it always ends with them having to go back to travis' pre-written script (see: subpoenaing the xorn, but not really because they had to go with travis' original plan of "send the xorn home through the rift".) the players repeatedly get told things about what they think or feel or what they've been doing to an unnecessary degree. fitzroy is the only one who really gets space to play and decide things for himself, and that's only because travis has decided he's the main character.

the NPCs are all too nice and willing to give the PCs anything they ask for and more, unless the PCs are trying to follow their own plan and then the NPCs are completely useless. but honestly, aside from gray, all of the NPCs are just.... nice. travis refuses to even let his antagonists be mean or cruel or even more than just slightly rude, because that'd be a bummer and we don't want that! the "twist" of gordy the lich king actually being polite and chill is not a twist at all because everyone is like that in this world. the NPCs are also wildly overpowered, but then suddenly absolutely useless when the PCs actually want their help.

too many cliffhangers that are dropped immediately at the beginning of the next episode. i feel bad for travis because so many of these cliffhangers actually set up good momentum and seemed like things were gonna get interesting, but almost every single time he just dropped them at the beginning of the next episode. like when althea showed up to interview the boys and the next episode started with travis being like "actually you went to sleep, she said she'll be back tomorrow!"

that time travis specifically said in his exposition dump that the thundermen left their horses behind because they thought the centaurs might be offended by them riding horses, only to later on rag on them for being surprised that the centaurs had horses they could ride.....

also the centaur arc in general, but i already listed racism above, so.

the way that the toxic positivity and parasocial tendencies in the mcelroy fandoms have made a large portion of the fandom take ANY criticism as a personal attack on travis and/or on themselves for enjoying something others consider bad, either morally or just quality-wise. it’s okay to admit that something you like has problematic elements or just isn’t as good as it once was. you can and should engage critically with the media you consume.

related to above: the way travis has handled genuine criticism, which is to throw public tantrums on his twitter or make weird passive aggressive tweets & ultimately ignore all the genuine criticism and advice he's been offered by claiming it's all subjective, even after he specifically asked for it and set up an email for folks to send in genuine, objective advice for him (after he threw a tantrum on twitter and replied to someone's criticism publicly, which resulted in his followers dogpiling on that person bc how dare they insult their internet best friend). while i was writing this last night, he actually announced that he’s taking a break from Twitter and acknowledged that he’s been using it as an echo chamber where he can easily get validation from folks, and honestly i’m happy for him that he’s recognized this problem and is stepping away for a while! i hope he’ll genuinely use this time to reflect on how he’s been behaving and find a more healthy way to use social media. i’m leaving this point in because i think his Twitter being such a positive echo chamber was encouraging him to do stuff like this, and him somewhat acknowledging his behavior doesn’t mean it can no longer be discussed.

rainer. extremely cool concept in theory and i was very into it until that awkward "does anyone want to ask about my wheelchair?" moment. also when travis had her use her mobility aid to RAM INTO A DOOR instead of just fucking knocking???? also all the times travis has tried to force a romantic relationship between her and fitzroy, despite fitzroy displaying no interest in her in that way. also, just to clarify: as an ace person, i don’t think this is aphobic! (and it’s kind of a stretch to call it that imo, especially since griffin never explicitly said that fitzroy's aromantic!) i just think it’s weird and awkward and a little uncomfortable for me personally, mostly because it reminds me of the times i’ve been in similar situations.

less of a problem than a lot of the other stuff and more just bad writing, but the forced emotional moments. in general, nothing in grad feels earned (why are the boys heading a war? when they have multiple actual heroes with combat experience on their side and a supposedly powerful secret organization? and the thundermen are like 21 years old max and have only had like ~10 fights in the entire campaign?) but there've been a couple times where travis has tried to force unearned emotional moments, presumably because he knows people enjoyed those with the last campaigns. but the difference is that in balance, the big emotional moments happened because they were earned. in grad, it's just travis throwing a baby pegasus at us for a few minutes and then the next time she shows up, it's supposed to be a tearful goodbye.

there are absolutely no stakes. remember when the thundermen got told that if they left, gray would kill 10 students? and then they left and came back and it turns out that what gray actually meant was, "i'll tie ten students who are mostly nameless NPCs to a tree and throw some dogs at them that you can easily stop in time, then throw a tantrum because how dare you but i'll leave before you can really do anything to hurt me lol" travis did have fitzroy's magic get taken away, but like. it didn't really do anything? also all he had to get it back was be coerced into using drugs by an authority figure and trip in the woods?

we're told that the school is weird and the hero system is corrupt, but the world of nua is still presented as more of a liberal utopia than anything? althea getting fired because of a corrupt villain is the only time we've somewhat seen corruption, but even then, she was still allowed to get (what seems to me, anyway, but admittedly i don't know for sure bc nothing about the HOG makes much sense) a fairly important job from the very people who stripped her of her hero license or whatever the fuck heroes need?

travis doesn't actually seem to understand how capitalism or bureaucracy works and just chalks up everything to "red tape." also more on the rest of the boys than him specifically, but the "let's destroy capitalism!" thing turning into just pushing some filing cabinets over................... okay.

and one last piece of extremely subjective criticism: it's just kind of.... boring. i think a lot of people, myself included, would be willing to overlook 90% of the problems with graduation if it didn't feel like such a slog to get through.

also people saying that we can't or shouldn't criticize graduation because it's "free" is absolutely absurd for several reasons. first, something being free does not make it above criticism. second, there ARE people who directly financially support the show with monthly donations. three, there's a difference between something being free and something being not for profit. podcasting is their full time job. they make their living off of money made from TAZ and MBMBAM (and probably their other shows to a lesser extent). this not a fun home game that they are graciously recording and sharing with us. it is a product they are producing that they make money off of, both from ads in the episodes and merch & books based off of these podcasts. they have marketed themselves as professionals, and both griffin and travis have been on panels where they are marketed as professional DMs and appear alongside other professional DMs (which makes it incredibly frustrating when people say that travis is just a newbie DM and we can't criticize him because of that. if he's a newbie, then he should not be taking part of panels as a professional DM where he speaks as an expert). TAZ is free in the same way that an episode of NCIS is free. i may not pay for it directly, but the creators are paid to create it and profit off of me consuming this product. so saying we should be grateful for any mcelnoise that the benevolent good boys share with us and that we're not allowed to criticize it "because it's free" is absolutely wild.

#negativity cw #i guess #anyway this is not meant to say that you cannot enjoy grad. #but i'm tired of folks on this website acting like there aren't genuine problems with it #and saying that people just dislike it bc they hate travis etc etc #taz graduation #i genuinely don't expect anyone to read this bc it's so long #but here ya go. #long post

[spacegoatart]

Hi! I've seen your post about Treasure planet headcanons, soo here is a bunch of mine:

• Silver speaks multiple languages; sometimes he mixes them up as he goes, especially when he's tired, and ends up with "wait what" moments. Some of those become inside jokes between him and Jim.

• Silver hums space shanties when he's working; sometimes he isn't really aware that he's doing that, and if someone (Jim or maybe Sarah Hawkins) asks him what song he is humming, he may not be able to answer right away. He taught Jim a bunch of them, and Morph learned them by constantly overhearing; sometimes the little shapeshifter would either copy Silver's humming or morph into a musical instrument(tin whistle, harmony, maybe a really small lute/guitar) and literally play itself, or morph into whatever lyrics say–tiny ships, aetherium sea monsters, you name it.

• The eye in the bonzabeast stew isn't an actual eye plucked from someone – its actually a fruit from Silver's homeworld, basically a really freaky looking space cherry tomato; it is tricky to industrially grow and harvest even in its natural range, so there is little export and not many people know about it. It is tasty, though, especially pickled, and Silver likes it. They are legally required to be sold in opaque glassware on some worlds, though.

• Jim really likes the texture of solar sails(I hc it to be similar to a really tough, but smooth synthetic, like an outer layer of clothes for winter sports–not stretchy and making nice crinkly/hissy sounds when rubbed against itself) also, solar sails are ironed together rather than sewn when repairs are needed, and when Jim gets his hands onto a real sail iron press for the first time and gets a feel of patching up a sail, he nearly cries with happiness(he put the sails on his solar surf together with homemade instruments, and it was a lot of trial, error and burned fingers)

• Jim has either inattentive or combined type ADHD(a good bit of projecting here, gotta admit); it added a lot of stress for him, both during his sailing on RLS Legacy and in the Academy; Silver is mildly confused, but supportive dad.

• Jim learned some really fancy cooking skills from Silver–he knew how to cook before, but had a pretty utilitarian attitude towards it, not a passion for it. Sometimes he stress cooks or stress cleans, and Silver has to remind him to drink water/stretch/take a break, kid, seriously, you've spent literally hours pacing around, you'll have blisters on your feet if you won't stop

I have more, but I feel like I shared a lot for the first time. Hope you're having a good time ^_^

yess thank u for these, i love all of these :D i wanted to talk about each one so it gets kind of wordy, i really enjoyed seeing these (sorry it took me a few days to finally answer, i meant to answer earlier but i got busy)

1. i love this one, this could be canon lol. its very resourceful to know multiple languages as a pirate so i’m sure he does know many, as well as mix them up. Jim would immediately tease him about it, Silver would laugh about it too.

2. UGH YES he totally sings, i was kind of disappointed that we don't hear him sing in the movie but whatever. morph loves his singing and would totally join along or find a pocket and fall asleep. Silver probably has a great voice making his humming/singing even more enchanting to listen to.

3. this one is really interesting, i hadn't thought about the fact that it may not be a real eye but that would make sense. it wouldn't be the first time nature has adapted visual defense mechanisms to stop things from eating them. the glass jar idea is really cool because yeah, you don't want to buy a jar of something and see eyeballs, as well as someone might put actual ones in, that's a hazard.

4. yess love Jim with sensory issues, he would totally just go up on the mast and touch them and loose his mind. Silver would tell him to get down, etc but he kind of gets it. solar sails are probably hard to care for, especially if they're supposed to soak up energy (i think at least, they're supposed to be solar panels but thinner and flexible) so they would need a special set of tools, ones i’m sure Jim couldn't afford at the time. i wonder if he bought his own or if Sarah and Silver got him one for a birthday or something

5. YES i hadn't even thought about mentally ill Jim but yes he 100% has ADHD (i also have ADHD so don't worry about projecting xD). he probably couldn't focus as well in school and with the stress of the inn and Leland leaving him, he got so frustrated and kind of gave up. while that sucks, he found something to entertain himself, solar surfing and it absolutely became his special interest. when he gets to the academy, he starts to struggle again but this time hes not as put off by it, since he really did want to go. he probably doesn't find out that he has ADHD until either a year or few months in, mainly because it isn't his behavior causing him to fall back. Sarah probably feels so guilty but Jim lets her know that its ok, even he wasn't aware. he starts using his diagnosis to learn what he can do to help himself and he starts getting motivated to keep learning. i was thinking about Jim in the academy, i think he’d become super interested in math, maybe it'd even become a special interest! i just think he’d love to know the way numbers make up the world and how you can determine events based on calculations

6. Jim probably knew how to cook before from his mom but Silver definitely sparked an interest in him. cooking became less of a known skill and became an art, watching Silver garnish dishes, make special sauces and create something delicious out of just the few things on the ship. i bet he’d come home and start stress cleaning, confusing the heck out of Sarah. she knew he was stressed but couldn't help but be a little grateful that her kitchen was completely clean. when Silver is around, he doesn’t really understand that Jim is stressed out, he just thinks he’s cleaning. once he DOES catch on however, he hangs around while Jim is scrubbing, handing him water, convincing him that he can talk about it if he wants and keeping an eye on him in general. it ends up stressing Silver out, watching Jim get so worried over a grade or an assignment, so Silver tries to get Jim to go on walks with him and relax a little. however, Silver knows he can’t make Jim do anything so when Jim insists he just wants to clean and think for a bit, Silver leaves him be. not that he doesn’t immediately go to Sarah to talk about how worried he is about Jim. i wonder if Sarah stress cleans to, maybe Jim gets it from her?

#treasure planet silver #treasure planet jim #treasure planet jim hawkins #treasure planet morph #treasure planet sarah #treasure planet sarah hawkins #treasure planet headcanons #treasure planet hc #treasure planet #UGH my heart bro #ill probably make a post about my own headcanons since ive been thinking about them all week