Been really into gardening, so what about Nikolai and König with a gardener s/o? Would they be interested in helping out, or have a specific favorite type of plant?
(I love love LOVE rambling about plants, they're so cool once you get to know them!! I blame my mom entirely since she has a green thumb)
(Also, do you have a fav kind of flower? I personally love hydrangeas)
Plants are really cool, though! Hydrangeas are very pretty, I think I've seen some here and there! I personally adore lisianthus, though! They're absolutely gorgeous! Now I can't help but wonder if I could grow some someday when I move out, haha!
Nikolai and König with a Gardener!S/O
Nikolai: I do believe that he has a garden somewhere near his house only he knows about, where he grows vegetables. He loves having his own little garden, just that little bit of space that no one can take away from him with which he can do just about whatever is nice. He especially likes tomatoes, they’re nutritious, healthy and very delicious, as well as easy to cook. Nikolai is a pretty good cook, so he knows how to utilize tomatoes to their full potential. He has tried to grow flowers as well, though. He’s made some good success with sunflowers, in fact he still has some in his secret garden. So he absolutely knows how to take care of a garden, he finds it relaxing even and would love to help you out a bit, if you let him. Do let him plant some plants of his own, though, he loves watching them grow. Although he’s never been able to do so, he’d love to cultivate some melons at some point as well. Watermelons, cantaloupes, honey melons, he’d love to eat his own ones someday as well, especially with you. He thinks it’s so cool that you’re a gardener because, in another life where he wasn’t a soldier and or leader of a PMC, he, too, would be a gardener. Has always dreamed of having a garden with you and would love to plant some trees as well. Apple trees, cherry trees, maybe even some orange trees, as long as he gets some delicious fruit out of it, he’s down. Besides, what’s more domestic than working at your shared garden together? He’ll even plant some flowers as well. He can’t particularly surprise you well with them, but he can look at your surprised face when they first start sprouting. While he won’t pluck or cut them unless he needs to, he will cherish the moments he gets to spend with you and your shared plants. And if you’re the type of person to name your plants then I can assure you he remembers each and every single name.
König: He’s never really been into gardening. He had a small succulent as a kid once so he had something to take care of that would help him with feeling down, but it didn’t survive very long. He loved the little plant a little too much and gave it too much water every day. To this day he feels guilty about it. He named it “Luisa”. Ever since then he’s not very confident in his plant keeping abilities, thinking he has the worst green thumb imaginable. He would love to help you, don’t get me wrong, but he’s afraid of killing your plants and making you mad about it. No, he’d much rather watch you and encourage you with your endeavors. He’ll buy fertilizer, if needed, or some new seeds or saplings if you want some, but he won’t really do much with your plants, aside from moving them to the sunlight if you want him to. Although, it should be added that he could still learn how to take good care of a plant. With some guidance, and another small succulent that’s hard to kill, it’s not too late. Just show him the ropes, tell him what to do and he’ll do it. He might get nervous about having overdone it again from time to time, and will come up to you, the succulent tiny in his hands, asking you if his plant will make it. Reassure him and give him some good tips, he’ll appreciate it more than you’ll ever know. König feels very accomplished when the plant has survived over two months. As time goes on, he’ll grow more comfortable with plants and ask you if he could maybe help you water some more plants. He may still need to get a feeling for it all, but he’s very eager to help you. Again, this is all very domestic for him, so he quite likes it. Just watering some plants with you, harvesting some parsley, maybe picking some apples from the tree. He can get most fruits from the tree due to his height as well, which is great. König’s more into the practical side of gardening, so he prefers fruit and vegetables over flowers. His favorite plant would be a pumpkin, but only because he loves pumpkin seed oil.
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On Culture As a Social Ruleboook and Late-Diagnosed ASD
I wanna talk about something to do with late-diagnosed autism and the emotional impact of working out that it was, well, a thing. I'll clarify upfront: this absolutely isn't reflective of all autistic experience. I'm grateful for the fact that I had a choice in being able to get diagnosed, and aware of the fact it's not something that everyone has control over, whether due to support needs + more overt disability, or due to restrictions/treatment of ASD folks. This is only my experience. I'm just hoping it'll resonate for some else.
So I'm studying undergrad psychology at the moment, and something we briefly touched on this year was cultural psychology. Culture, we were taught, is the rulebook of any given society. It's learned through processes of enculturation – implicit learning – socialisation – explicit learning – and acculturation – doing all that all over again once you're in a new culture. I'd like to draw attention to acculturation, because it's linked to a model of culture shock. That is, going to a new culture and realising that you don't understand how society works where you are.
If you cannot operate according to the social rulebook, our lecturer explained, chances are that you stop feeling like you are a competent adult. Agency, contentment – these drain away until you slowly learn the culture you're within.
And here's the thing: since ASD is a developmental disability with a huge, huge social component, hearing these words from my lecturer meant so, so much. Because when you are genetically and neurologically programmed to not understand social norms, learning your own culture without explicitly studying it (assuming you have the support and intellectual ability) feels damn near impossible.
I cannot speak for all folks with ASD. But in my own experience: being an autist without knowing/while in denial feels like being in constant culture shock.
I do not comprehend social rules; every time I felt I could not function as a capable adult for the reason of 'I do not know how I am meant to do [straightforward task]', it felt like being stripped of competence, autonomy, ability. And when social rules are so, so arbitrary, this happened so, so often. It still does. Without knowing what autism was or knowing/wanting to acknowledge that it was hardwired into me, it felt like walking around as a broken member of society, and largely helpless to understand and thus act with any real decisiveness or capacity.
At 15, I wanted to write an autistic character, so ended up doing some research. I'd honestly known for years in some capacity that I was autistic, but was in a stringent denial, as I thought it was some kind of sin. And slowly, over the course of that research, everything unravelled.
I did not understand my culture – my social rulebook – because I did not belong within it.
I am autistic. I'm fluent in autism. I wasn't failing to innately understand my first culture. I had a pretty damn good grasp on being autistic, and while I don't entirely understand its every nuance in terms of the fact that I have not and cannot live every autistic experience, I certainly had been fairly well enculturated.
I did not understand neurotypical culture not because I wasn't human, but because I was learning it on the fly. I wasn't incompetent. I was trying to translate and failing because there are no textbooks for this.
And this was not initially a pleasant realisation, because there was still the crushed pride of realising I would never be neurotypical. But there was an awful and wonderful and heartbreaking realisation beneath. For the first time in my life, I was human, so help me God.
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