Sage★

Ya got it, boss!!>< (Requested by @levaluq )

Acceptance

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--The thoughts just won't leave this time...--

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|Lee - Rumi - Lers - Zoey & Mira|

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FTing Lee(s) & Ler(s) - Mira (Ler) Zoey (Lee)

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Mentioned - Jinu & Celine

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Rumi was sitting on the couch of the penthouse. She scanned over the patterns on her arms. It felt... weird not covering up after so long. After Celine's constant rules that told Rumi to hide. To cover up. To hide her true self from her friends...

Rumi was finally able to get closer with Zoey and Mira after Jinu's sacrifice and the Honmoon returning. Sure, Jinu was... basically her sword, but... still hurt. She missed him. Even if she was closer to Mira and Zoey, and even if she was happier than before... everything still felt out of place. *She* felt out of place.

Obviously, these were just overthinking thoughts. Usually, she'd just shake it off. But this time? It was pretty bad. She couldn't help it!

"RUMMIII!! We got ramennn!!!" Zoey's squealing interrupted Rumi's thought

"And cookies... cause *somebody* snuck them in the cart like the sneak they are~" Mira chuckled, poking Zoey's side playfully

"Ehehe-!" Zoey giggled cheerfully and flopped on the couch next to Rumi, Mira sitting on the other side.

Rumi gave them a small smile, curling up a little with a nod.

This didn't go unnoticed by the two

"You okay?" Mira placed a hand on Rumi's shoulder, Zoey facing her purple haired friend

"Hmn?.. Oh, uh-- yeah..."

"You sure? You don't sound okay..." Zoey frowned, scooting closer to Rumi

"You know you can tell us, right?"

At Mira's words, Rumi sighed a little. Not in annoyance, not in sadness... well, a little. But more in confusion.

"It's just... I feel... wrong?.."

"Wrong?" The two girls questioned

"Yeah.. I know everything is fine now, but... these thoughts just... won't go away." Rumi looked down, not wanting to face her friends worried faces

Rumi was more open now after everything. Mira and Zoey were thankful for that.

"Is it about your patterns?.." Zoey asked carefully.

Rumi nodded. "Everything's just doesn't feel right this time..."

After the whole saving the world thing, the girls had a talk. A long one. But it ended well. Zoey and Mira understood Rumi's side, and she understood their side. And that talk did end with the three loved each other. Inside and out, patterns or none.

Mira and Zoey looked at each other, wondering what to do. They shared a look and nodded

"Rumi, you want the thing to help??" Zoey asked, leaning on Rumi

Rumi blushed a little "I-I, um...--"

"It's fine if not. Zoey probably has another 500 things to help." Mira said, a light jab to Zoey

"Hey!!" Zoey laughed, the other two giggling along

"Um.. yeah, it's fine..." Rumi smiled softly.

"Yay!! Okay, c'mere, c'mere, c'mere!!" Zoey clapped her hands, and practically bounced closer to Rumi "Readyyy?"

"I guess?.."

And before she knew it, she felt fingers lightly trace over her patterns. Zoey focused on Rumi's arm, and Mira focused on Rumi's belly. Mira was lying down on her stomach, her legs swinging behind her.

"eek-! Ehe-.. Mihira..." Rumi giggled softly, not squirming but curling up a little

"What? I'm doing it lightly. I *could* be doing this--" Mira scribbled her fingers on Rumi's exposed belly

"MIHIHIRA!!--"

Zoey snorted "Mihims! Don't kill the poor girl!"

"Okay, okay.." She went back to the light traces

"I like how they shine when we touch them!" Zoey pointed out

"Just means she likes it~" Mira teased with a grin, adding a little bit more pressure

Rumi snorted, covering her face with her hands. "Shuhuhut uhuhup!!"

"Wow, you hear this, Zoey? We're trynna help and she's being mean!"

Zoey giggled, shaking her head "Ruhumi, how could you!"

"Buhut-- EEP!!-" Rumi shrieked as Mira's fingers became a claw opening and closing on her knee

"But what, eh?~" Mira grinned

"EEHEHE *hic* hehehe!! M-MihihihirrraaAAA!! ZOHOHOHOEYYY!!"

Zoey laughed as she traced her fingers up and down Rumi's sides "Quit yellin' at us, ya silly goose!"

"Nahaha!!" Rumi's legs moved a little, some blush spreading on her cheeks

Zoey gasped "Wait! She's like a shooting star!!"

"Ohh, you're right! Her patterns glow a lot..."

"Yeah!! And they make her so pretttyyy!~" Zoey spidered her fingers up Rumi's ribs, snuggling close to her.

"They doooo!!" Mira lightly poked Rumi's thighs with her pointer fingers.

Rumi hiccuped and uncovered her face, just holding her arms close to her. "Guhuhuhuys!!"

"Yessss?~" The two lers asked in a sing-songy tone with little evil grins

"Ehehehehehe!! N-Noho! Nohot-- whyhy-- *hic* aahahahahaaa!!"

"You feel better?" Mira asked a little more softly, the tickles easing up a.

"Yehe-- ehe... a lihittle..." Rumi nodded

Zoey and Mira smiled before stopping and trapping Rumi in a hug. Mira's arms wrapped around Rumi's waist, and Zoey around Rumi's neck

"We love youuu!!" Mira and Zoey declared with a giggle.

Rumi's eyes lit up a bit. One arm wrapped around Zoey, and the others hand rested on Mira's head

"I... I love you guys, too..."

As long as Zoey and Mira accepted her?

She'll be just fine.

💖End💙

WOOO!!! FIRST FIC DONEEEE

- I am absolutely not trying to rain on strbry's parade, I encourage fandom to get silly with headcanoning (except where it gets unsafe or where you need to give objective, non-headcanon information about the show, yes I speak of the Dora Fandom Wiki). I just want start an open dialog about headcanons about Dora being neurodivergent. Because when I was on Dora fandom internet in my first few years on the world wide web instead of just a couple of websites, her having a mental disability has mostly been discussed in the view of "she's an idiot, her adhd makes her forget her map lol" and not like, any real in-depth conversation about it (not that I really expect that from people, I just haven't seen anyone really impassioned start like, meaningful discussion around it that isn't framing her, and subsequently people who might relate to her, as an idiot. At least as far as I'm aware)

- I am under the impression that @strbry-c0utur3 , like me is is AuDHD (aka is autistic and has ADHD) due to the original post having the audhd tag. Idk if people who don't have audhd use that tag, I'm assuming it's like the actually autistic tag.

- I come from the perspective of someone who is low support needs AuDHD who has a special interest in Dora, and likes studying DSM-5 requirements for mental disorders and disabilities, especially when it comes to writing

- That said, I'm not like, someone who professionally diagnoses mental disabilities

- I mention how a portion of the media and Dora's fanbase reacted to how she looked in the 2010s and my own opinion on it. I say this because I do mention how there was a lot of articles and parental outcry about Dora being too "non-wholesome" for kids to watch. So unless I ruined it for you now, this is a fair waring of caution that the sexualization of tween girlhood/feminity is briefly discussed (and you are recommended a video that talks about it more in-depth)

Why I don't think she's autistic: While Dora definitely shows rigidity, see her emphasis on redeeming those who have done bad things regardless of how bad they are (blatant or implied), and some socialization issues, see her lack of an extremely angered expression, even when something clearly makes her mad, she doesn't seem to show a very common experience within autistic communities, including myself: sensory issues. We never really see her over or underreact to anything she encounters sensory wise, nor have any kind of particular hatred or upsetness about things due to them being too loud/quiet or anything of that nature.

Anyways: I definitely think that Dora has adhd, for more reasons than the obvious one.

Obvious reason: Dora still having to ask the viewer for certain directions even after seeing and hearing them from Map.

Non obvious reasons:

- Dora having to make an entire adventure out of returning library books (And also the fact that she did literally wait until the day the books were due back at the library to return them)

- Dora struggling with the monkey bars. I would overlook this, but on her adventures, Dora has had the upper body strength to pull other characters out of stuff, even alone (human preschoolers are not very strong), so it doesn't really seem to be a matter of upper body strength but more like an issue of actually fully concentrating on completing the monkey bars.

- The fact that she has interests in baseball, soccer, gymnastics, recorder (or wooden flute I can't really tell), electric guitar, exploration, and community service. As far as I'm aware, nureotypical children don't have this many interests, it might be more like, baseball and flute or gymnastics and exploration. I didn't and still don't know anyone in my life who willingly takes on 6 after-school activities/hobbies at the same time unless they were interested in all of them.

- How her school in The Rainforest worked. Her school seemed like some kind of special needs school to me, because it involved more walking around the school to get to different classes, and the classes are all more hands on work than seatwork. I don't know how third grade schoolwork is now, but I know when I was in elementary school, it was more seatwork than standing or hands on work, and most, if not all of it was in one classroom. We don't really see an actual schoolday in DAF:ITC, so I'm not going to try to comment on it.

- Her dad, Cole, has forgotten parts of recipes/forgotten to check if he even had important or obvious parts of a recipe he making. So her forgetfulness may come from him.

How I imagine it functions:

- It's predominantly hyperactive-impulsiv

- The shows mainly show her better days because her worse days are mostly her struggling to just sit down and finish her homework, and then ending up wandering around and then chaos ensues because she is a magnet for people in need

- She's fairly good at the basics of following a daily routine, and can do tasks she's obligated to do daily, but when it comes to things like cleaning her room and organizing Backpack, stuff that doesn't happen very often she needs help or at least hold her accountable or it will end up incomplete/not done at all. The last time she had her room fully clean, and didn't just clean some of it and then have like- doom piles in her closet is when she was hosting for a baby dragon. And we aren't going to mention that Backpack is essentially one giant doom pile in a bag of holding.

- We, the viewer, are technically are a sentient invisible friend/friends she has, that help her with functioning well, and keeping up with information (aka invisible body doubling on worse days, out loud trying to recall information at best). The blue cursor/correct object glowing is technically just the same thing as the lightbulb on cartoon characters when they get an idea, it's not anything significant, just a stylistic choice to show "right, go that way," or anything of that sort.

- @levaluq Mentioned a headcanon and detail that didn't come to me at first, but makes sense when I look at how Dora acts in the show. I'll reblog the post, but essentially, Dora doesn't defend herself and others as much. Not in means of she's become cowardly, but more in a sense of growing anxiety. Which makes perfect sense, especially considering that part of her viewer base eventually went on to talk smack about her behind her back to call her an idiot, too fat, too skinny, a cheerleader (Dora has never shown interest in or done cheerleading in the entirety of the franchise) or, to a highly concerning note: being implied to be a tramp/slut/overly sexual, over wearing a dress shirt and like, jeggings by news media and ACTUAL FUCKING PETITIONERS.

(Also yes, Dora's 2010s era did get that kind of reaction, watch the Darling Dollz video about it)

(Also if you want my opinion on the topic, I can understand the sentiment of "hey, don't advertise feminity as the optimal way for a girl to be a tween, especially not using character was a tomboy in her earlier life. Also don't commercialize my tween girl's hobbies and personal stye geez." but calling Dora sexual is definitely overreacting, racist (why are you calling a latina girl sexual for a dress shirt and jeggings), and possibly puts the name-caller in need of a hard drive check (the character isn't in lingerie or in an outfit at services to fanservice easily, and is a character on a literal preschool show. What in your right mind leads you to believe it is in any way sexual?).)

Basically, what I'm trying to say here is that her ADHD has been both "helped" and harmed by her growing anxiety and shrinking self-confidence caused by the viewer judging a book by it's cover. The anxiety does mean she's less hyperactive and impulsive, but it now means it's her thoughts racing everywhere, so she can't really form good arguments on the spot anymore, due to now needing more time than ever to put her words together. Unfortunately, due to racing thoughts, slowly but surely shrinking self-confidence, and concerns about how she appears to the viewer (yes, even when the viewer isn't watching), she isn't as able to focus on life, and her ability to advocate for herself has suffered from that, because she is so busy trying to cater to a specific friend/group of friends that she is losing sight of being friends with herself.

IDK how to end this off other than saying that I didn't mean to post this in the morning after I found the post I'm reblogging stuff from (I liked a lot of transparent pngs so I could have them for later, ok). I just was working on it throughout yesterday and at ungodly hours of last night and earlier in the morning.