Bands, Fandoms, and Autism

Barbara enters the kitchen and finds Y/N and Lydia hunched over the table that has tubes of food dye, candy molds, assorted candy melts and unwrapped hard candies, and a jar with a skull and crossbones beneath a pepper on it scattered across it's surface

Lydia: *Notices Barbara* Hey Barbara! Come check this out!

Barbara: What are you girls up to? Are you making something?

Y/N looks up with a streak of green food dye on her cheek

Y/N: Lydia and I are trying yet another way to keep BJ from eating my dice. I'm hoping this time actually works.

Lydia: *grinning* Yep! We made edible dice!

Barbara: *pauses, blinks* Edible dice? I thought you were trying to keep Beetlejuice from eating your dice?

Y/N: That is still the plan, but nothing I've tried thus far has worked. But then, Lyds here (bumps Lydia's shoulder with her own affectionately) had the idea to trick him. Ergo, edible dice!

Lydia: *points to blue and purple D8s, D20s, D6's and D4s* Yeah, Y/N found ice cube molds that look like dice; so we filled them with melted Jolly Ranchers and used candy melts and food dye to write on the numbers! Pretty cool, huh?

Y/N: *nods* See, the blue and purple dice are for us, they're the safe ones. (Pointing over to a shimmery green set) Those green ones were made specifically for Beej.

Barbara: How so? And what do you mean by 'safe dice'?

Y/N: The green dice have a bit of a special ingredient to them: Carolina reaper and scorpion pepper syrup! Two of the hottest peppers known to man! We mixed in just a couple drops in with some luster dust. The purple and blue dice have the luster dust, but no pepper syrup in them. That's why they're the 'safe dice'.

Lydia, nodding: The luster dust was a nice touch. Beej seems to always go for Y/N's sparkly dice.

Y/N: That assbutt knows, for a FACT, that some of my sparkly dice are my lucky dice.

Barbara: *smiling* Well, this is a very creative way to protect your dice! I hope it works out.

Y/N: Thanks Barbara. And thank you Lyds, for the idea and all of your help. Couldn't have done this without ya.

Lydia: Glad I could help! Now let's clean this stuff up before Beej sees!

*Lydia and Y/N begin speed-cleaning the kitchen*

Once they're done...

Y/N: Alright Lydia. do you have the safe dice?

Lydia: Yep! Right here. (she holds up a baggie of the 'safe dice')

Y/N: Good deal. Now let me just set these up.

*She places BJ's dice on the table next to a note that says 'Y/N's new dice set. BEETLEJUICE CAN'T TOUCH!!!*

Barbara: May I try one of the safe dice? They look really good!

Lydia: Sure! Take a couple for Adam too! (She gives Barbara two blue D8s and a purple D20 and a purple D6).

Barbara: Thanks girls! Good luck with your trick!

Barbara exits the kitchen and goes up to the attic.

Y/N: Well Lydia, now we wait for Beej to take the bait.

*She and Lydia fistbump*

Because now these people I see on the screen, the new ones like Danny phantom.exe or filmcooper are around my age!!

Like Danny is attractive and that is an intimidating factor

But he doesn't rlly feel as intimidating now because I realised he's a YEAR YOUNGER THAN ME

Like I also feel like insecurities come out when I think of "oh I wanna date this person" because it's like "oh they're so attractive they would never go for me"

And while I still feel these irrational insecurities...I see Danny as on the same ground as me...not someone on a pedestal. Not just cuz he's younger but cuz he's very honest with people

But similarly, I learn that someone is my age and they're an influencer and it doesn't fill me with "oh they achieved so much at my age" but with "oh we are both dumbasses born in the same year"

When I was a teen, Dan and Phil, influencers who were rlly popular back then had a wide age gap with me and I felt the intimidation

Which makes going to college anxiety inducing

But I realised that people..even attractive people...are human.

And they SHOULDNT judge you for being unattractive because if they do they're a loser

Cut fast fashion - buy used, learn to mend and/or make your own clothes, buy fewer clothes less often so you can save up for ethically made quality

Cancel subscriptions - relearn how to pirate media, spend $10/month buying a digital album from a small artist instead of on Spotify, stream on free services since the paid ones make you watch ads anyway

Green your community - there's lots of ways to do this, like seedbombing or joining a community garden or organizing neighborhood trash pickups

Be kind - stop to give directions, check on stopped cars, smile at kids, let people cut you in line, offer to get stuff off the high shelf, hold the door, ask people if they're okay

Intervene - learn bystander intervention techniques and be prepared to use them, even if it feels awkward

Get closer to your food - grow it yourself, can and preserve it, buy from a farmstand, learn where it's from, go fishing, make it from scratch, learn a new ingredient

Use opensource software - try LibreOffice, try Reaper, learn Linux, use a free Photoshop clone. The next time an app tries to force you to pay, look to see if there's an opensource alternative

Make less trash - start a compost, be mindful of packaging, find another use for that plastic, make it a challenge for yourself!

Get involved in local politics - show up at meetings for city council, the zoning commission, the park district, school boards; fight the NIMBYs that always show up and force them to focus on the things impacting the most vulnerable folks in your community

DIY > fashion - shake off the obsession with pristine presentation that you've been taught! Cut your own hair, use homemade cosmetics, exchange mani/pedis with friends, make your own jewelry, duct tape those broken headphones!

Ditch Google - Chromium browsers (which is almost all of them) are now bloated spyware, and Google search sucks now, so why not finally make the jump to Firefox and another search like DuckDuckGo? Or put the Wikipedia app on your phone and look things up there?

Forage - learn about local edible plants and how to safely and sustainably harvest them or go find fruit trees and such accessible to the public.

Volunteer - every week tutoring at the library or once a month at the humane society or twice a year serving food at the soup kitchen, you can find something that matches your availability

Help your neighbors - which means you have to meet them first and find out how you can help (including your unhoused neighbors), like elderly or disabled folks that might need help with yardwork or who that escape artist dog belongs to or whether the police have been hassling people sleeping rough

Fix stuff - the next time something breaks (a small appliance, an electronic, a piece of furniture, etc.), see if you can figure out what's wrong with it, if there are tutorials on fixing it, or if you can order a replacement part from the manufacturer instead of trashing the whole thing

Mix up your transit - find out what's walkable, try biking instead of driving, try public transit and complain to the city if it sucks, take a train instead of a plane, start a carpool at work

Engage in the arts - go see a local play, check out an art gallery or a small museum, buy art from the farmer's market

Go to the library - to check out a book or a movie or a CD, to use the computers or the printer, to find out if they have other weird rentals like a seed library or luggage, to use meeting space, to file your taxes, to take a class, to ask question

Listen local - see what's happening at local music venues or other events where local musicians will be performing, stop for buskers, find a favorite artist, and support them

Buy local - it's less convenient than online shopping or going to a big box store that sells everything, but try buying what you can from small local shops in your area

Become unmarketable - there are a lot of ways you can disrupt your online marketing surveillance, including buying less, using decoy emails, deleting or removing permissions from apps that spy on you, checking your privacy settings, not clicking advertising links, and...

Use cash - go to the bank and take out cash instead of using your credit card or e-payment for everything! It's better on small businesses and it's untraceable

Give what you can - as capitalism churns on, normal shmucks have less and less, so think about what you can give (time, money, skills, space, stuff) and how it will make the most impact

Talk about wages - with your coworkers, with your friends, while unionizing! Stop thinking about wages as a measure of your worth and talk about whether or not the bosses are paying fairly for the labor they receive