but what if we took it a step further

what if the WHOLE OF AMITY PARK was affected by the portal, being in such close proximity to a tear between dimensions and effectively SOAKING in all the ectoplasmic radiation it’s been pumping out over the years

so this quaint little town starts to develop a few rather odd… quirks

like the water fountain in the park turns strange colours on occasion and smells (and tastes as Tucker discovered on a dare) strongly of burnt sugar

there’s this one road on the edge of town that, though it appears to be straight, somehow loops back on itself so that you end up back where you started, but only if you’re wearing shoes, this odd detail was discovered when Paulina’s heel broke as she and Star were writing a school paper on the landmark and she had to continue barefoot

the local shopping mall has its strange traits too, the glass ceiling of the food court shows an odd stormy red sky no matter the weather outside, except for once every seventeen days when it randomly turns into an aurora borealis-esque light show for differing periods of time, Kwan has these days marked on his calendar and sometimes skips school to see it, sometimes Danny joins him

a lot of the stores reach much farther back than physics says they really should, clerks always remember to clear the back of the shops on Monday afternoons, some of the stores like to revert back to regular size on Tuesdays

the parking lot behind the bowling alley is a favourite of Ida Manson’s, she and the elderly of Amity frequent the spot on Saturday mornings as the strange gravity shifts do wonders for their aching joints, being able to dance and leap like they’re light as a feather makes them feel young again

the walk to school could take someone five minutes one day, and an hour the next, Lancer has added ‘spacial disturbances’ to his list of acceptable excuses for being late

there’s this one tree in the park that every child feels compelled to climb, because halfway up they discover that they’re suddenly climbing back towards the ground upside down, their friends have to grab hold of their arms to stop them from falling into the sky until they climb back down the tree again and gravity goes back to normal

the Mansons lobby to have the tree cut down after catching their daughter climbing it, Sam and the neighbourhood children protest by climbing the tree and hanging upwards from the lower branches like reverse bats, the parents refuse to let the tree be destroyed until their childrens’ sense of gravity is restored

nobody goes down the slide at the Nasty Burger playground any more, the last three kids to do so still haven’t stopped screaming, nobody can figure out why

a majority of the residents of Amity Park overlook most of these strange occurrences, or put police tape around the dangerous ones and ignore them, they live in a town where ghosts attack regularly, changes like these have become not only unsurprising, but expected

and then the animals start to mutate, dogs are born with unnaturally coloured fur, fish are leaping out of their tanks and floating above the water, cats slip behind one object and come out behind another across the yard, some herbivorous animals gain a craving for meat and all of the local pigeons decide that flying in a spiral shape above the public library for three hours every morning is a productive start to the day

even plants start to grow into weird shapes and sizes, fruits with strange tastes and colours become a trend at local Sunday markets, seeds grow without even being planted or watered, root vegetables are found on above-ground vines, berries start growing out of the painted wood of a backyard fence

and then the children start to change

the only trend among the human mutations that local doctors can find is that every person identified had been a child or young teenager whose body had yet to finish developing when the ghosts had first started attacking (or, more accurately, when the portal had first been opened)

mutations range from purely harmless to downright disturbing, a teenager with blue eyebrows, a child with horns growing from the back of their left hand, a little girl whose hair drips down her back as though it’s made of liquid, an older boy whose teeth all fell out and grew back seemingly normal but turned out to be diamond hard and capable of biting through solid steel

the mutations only grow as the years pass, the older children developing dangerous abilities that could rival some of the local ghosts, kids being capable of duplicating themselves, a girl spotted flying to school, someone with green skin seen at the local supermarket, it’s even said that the Fenton’s kid can knock buildings over just by screaming at them

the Guys in White stop trying to protect the town, it becomes very clear that it doesn’t need protecting, it needs CONTAINING, but they soon discover that this is a far more difficult task than first assumed

because the overpowered youth of Amity Park have grown accustomed to a new-found sense of freedom the likes they’d never experienced before

“AN ODE TO SPOT” IS FREAKING GENIUS FIGHT ME

• No neck to bite into

• Not polite enough to invite anyone inside

• Effectively immortal

It happened at a graveyard, I was there to help an old lady clean a grave and it didn’t even cross my mind my grandma could have been there. When I heard her voice I instinctively looked up in shock and there she was, giving me the same “You filthy disgusting mongrel who is beneath me” look.

I froze. She talked to the old lady I was helping, basically whined how nobody helps her, then went on with her business. She didn’t recognize me. She saw my face, heard my voice. Nothing. I recognized her by voice only!

I was wearing a self-made hat and an old hoodie and was a bit wet and filthy and to grandma I looked like some sort of filthy suspicious criminal so she had no desire to even look at me past the first glance of contempt!!! She legit didn’t recognize me! I couldn’t believe my luck, and I was thrilled when she didn’t even look in my direction for the next hour I was there.

Only danger of this situation was for the old lady to reveal something if my grandma talks to her again, so I confessed to old lady it was my grandma and to not say anything about me, and she agreed. I went home by bike, and old lady was left there to wait for the bus, my grandma sat next to her.

The old lady later told me what went on in the conversation, she was curious so she asked my grandma “Who do you live with? ” and grandma deadass replied “My son and his wife and three kids. But the oldest one is sick and knows nothing.”

I burst out laughing when I heard this, three kids? It was two because I ran away. I’M THE OLDEST ONE. ME. She was sayingI was home but sick and not in my right mind! She was trying to gaslight a stranger about me being presumably insane and knowing nothing, she didn’t even know this person! it was such insane streak of defensiveness she needed to insure people who didn’t even know her needed to know I was insane and clueless! Also the blatant denial that I ever left home, my god.

Abortion Clinic Employee Shares How Some Pro-Life Women Act When They Come In As Customers

An autistic meltdown is not a behavior.

An autistic meltdown is a feeling.

Behavior is a result of losing control of that feeling.

There are autistic people who can have a meltdown right next to you without you knowing it because they aren’t flailing around, banging their head, screaming and crying.

They might be clenching their hands so hard their nails dig into their skin, they may have tears rolling down their face, they may be chewing ulcers into the tip of their tongue or inside of their cheek, they may hold themselves very rigidly, they may seem short of breath, they may be sweating, they may stare off into space…and as soon as they’re safe inside their own home they blow up into the meltdown most people know.

Because society forces autistic people to mask, and those of us who can’t mask or whose mask falls off under extreme pressure are Othered.

Meltdowns don’t just happen, they have triggers. A big universal one is the person feeling like they have no control of any aspect of their environment or themselves.