And then jean puts their leftovers away and cleans the kitchen that first night, and carries their bags when they go to the beach, and just constantly helps out and steps in to defend them more than once. And they realize he’s not like any other Alpha they’ve ever known. That he really does love caretaking, that he likes protecting, and that he really doesn’t like violence, despite what the public says about him, and despite what he’s been taught.

I don’t like the word “tism” or “touch of the tism” it feels infantilising, like people don’t actually take autism seriously. Even other autistic people who use those words. Joking is one thing, but I feel like you’re infantilising yourself and other autistic people by using tism and touch of the tism unironically.

Imo there’s already a huge problem, especially on social media, with people not taking autism seriously. As an autistic person, I hate it. I don’t want to explain my struggles to someone and get “oh you got the tism”. Yes, that’s happened before. I don’t care if there’s “no malicious intent”, it’s still infantilising.

There’s also an awful problem with social media, especially TikTok, making fun of autism and making it this lighthearted, quirky personality trait instead of what it actually is. It’s a disability. It affects my life every day.

It really just feels ableist.

You’re allowed to disagree with me, but if you’re not autistic, imo, you’re not allowed to have a say in this.

No hate to people who do these things, of course! If they work for you, it's wonderful! But there are things that seem to be very popular or common in the shifting community, and whenever I see them I can't help but thinking "nope, can't relate", so here is a list, just for fun!

♥ Using face claims Again, nothing against using them, but for me it would be weird to have someone else's face, especially someone who already exists in this reality (like celebrities or random Instagram users). I'm not saying I have my CR face in every reality, I know I don't, but I also don't feel the need to visualize my exact face (or other people's), I just have a general idea of my look and I'll see the exact details when I'm there.

♥ Scripting dramatic backstories, drama or beef just for fun I try to stay away from drama in this reality and the others. If it happens it happens, but I'm not going to put myself in situations that I KNOW are going to make me feel bad on purpose. I don't really see the "fun" of it, or the need to "spice things up". But if you like that, it's totally okay, good luck! (BUT I have to admit I like to script dangerous situations sometimes, to give me an excuse to fight side by side with my s/o or even be saved by him, as a moment to bring us closer... but only if the comfort is greater than the hurt!)

♥ Scripting that I'm everyone's crush or that everyone is attracted to me My social anxiety could never handle so much attention. Having someone try to flirt with me or even knowing they're attracted to me is the most awkward thing ever. Even if I don't have anxiety in my DR, I'd probably hate it. If anything, I'd script that anyone who has a crush on me keeps the distance, sees me as unattainable and never makes a move (except for my s/o of course).

♥ Regretting your first DRs / scripts or finding them cringey I guess this is more common for people who were REALLY young when they got into shifting but, honestly, my DRs and scripts haven't changed that much from their first versions and I still want to shift to my first DR from 5+ years ago. I recently saw a post saying something like "can we appreciate the fact that we haven't shifted yet? if we had shifted to our first DR we would have regretted it" and... sorry but no, can't relate. I'm still very attached to my first DR and it's my end goal.

♥ Scripting every single little detail I'm very freestyle when it comes to scripting, I don't use templates or fancy scripts and just go with the flow. But I understand that many shifters are BIG overthinkers, many have anxiety (including myself) and feel the need to control everything. But, for example, I don't feel the need to script every single outfit, I just describe my general style and let the universe surprise me with the most perfect outfits when I get there.

♥ Procrastinating on shifting Look. I'm a BIG procrastinator. I procrastinate on everything, even the things I actually enjoy doing. But not shifting. Shifting is the one thing I've always been consistent with since I started my journey. I've been very organized, journaling my progress, trying new methods, doing shifting attempts at least 2-3 times per week. So I've never been able to relate with those shifters who spend more time planning their DRs than actually trying to shift. And yes, I also spend a lot of time scripting and watching motivation videos, I enjoy it a lot, but that doesn't stop me from shifting at night (or rather in the early morning, it's my preferred time now). One thing doesn't exclude the other. The same goes for spending more time chatting on character.ai than shifting. As an artist, I'm very much against AI and stopped using bots or anything AI related a long time ago. We don't need to destroy the planet and kill our braincells in one go to shift or manifest.

♥ Asking other people for help with your script Like asking for help to choose your DR name or ideas for your superpowers. Maybe it's because I've had memories from my other realities from an early age, but these things just come naturally to me as soon as I start thinking about them, and if something doesn't, I just don't script it and wait until I shift to find out. I can't imagine asking strangers on the internet what my name is, and it makes me think that many shifters still treat scripting their DR self as creating an OC. I've also never struggled to "create an interesting backstory" (you don't create it, you just remember it). Again, if it doesn't flow naturally, I don't script it, because I know I'll remember it when I'm there. It doesn't have to be interesting or dramatic, I'm not writing a novel, just remembering the details of another life. Sometimes my life is not interesting until I meet my DR friends, s/o or found family.

♥ Feeling guilty about permashifting or leaving this reality / family / whatever behind I've never felt attached to my CR. I've been wanting to leave this reality all my life, long before I even knew shifting was real and possible, so... no. Not me. May I end up missing my family when I'm there? Who knows, but then I can always come back. But remember, you're not leaving anyone behind because you're not "going" anywhere, you just choose to be aware of a different reality, a version of you always stays here, they won't even notice. Ironically, I used to feel guilty about leaving this reality when I thought I'd have to physically leave (before I knew about shifting) and thought my mom would be so worried when I disappeared out of the blue. But now that I know how shifting works, I'm completely at peace.

I like the way you highlighted the diff between collins and dana! bc like yes it def does give a toxic sense of like dependency. working and being a nurse someone to rely on is all that dana knows. she was born at that hospital and everything. while it’s just different for collins, her working and pushing through everything felt more less like her refusal/fear to face her guilt and her grief rather than a misguided allegiance to the hospital.

which is why collins in s2 would have such a interesting storyline because maybe we could see her developing that toxic relationship with the hospital—what makes her keep coming back since she would definitely feel extremely guilty for missing the MCI and not being there. worker bees that keeps coming back to the hive or whatever abbott said. and yk domino effect lol makes tracy being a nut and leaving even more frustrating.

but i think for me i was just pissed that the writers played off her absence as a plot device. they said it was to push robby in the deep end and isolate him bc collins is the only person who could bring him back or whatever. i feel like playing off her absence in favor of robby was the worst thing they could’ve done because it just seemed like they used a black woman to further a white mans arc and then yk the suspicions of her not returning just didn’t help at all ykwim? lol but anyways it totally does give her character strength to leave especially since she forced herself to work but it’s also just ugh because to get that we missed out on her leadership and cowboy techniques. every character got to shine it felt like but her.

taking into account that they fully thought bonnie and damon were dead and didn't know about the prison world for the first four months (?) i assume you mean the other like. four? five? months she was there (she was there for almost a year wasn't she??)

yeah that's true idk what you want me to say. for one bonnie is good for trying to resurrect bitches she would've been trying to resurrect either one of them and coming up empty BUT let's say for the sake of it that they found out after four months as they did in canon and damon comes back but caroline/elena doesn't

if it were elena and damon stuck in the prison world damon wouldn't have accepted elena was 'dead' so easily even if she was stuck with kai he would have been doing his usual shit and threatening any and everyone into finding a way back far quicker than he did for bonnie (that's nothing against bonnie or their relationship at all. that's just his canon behavior towards elena and stefan to a degree that he does not display towards bonnie in canon until later on)

The story of the first person I cursed,

It was due to a very dumb reason, my friend called me and he asked for me to curse this girl, I of course ask for reason, reason because she was being fake, so I said sure because why not it be a good test subject and i had a wee bit of pent up frustration that week , and you see I didn't plan on cursing her, it was suppose to just be a hex.

well next day some shit she said back fired on her ( she caused so much drama around the school like a whole lot, but she still had friends)

So I'm of course super happy it worked, like I was super proud of my self.

Well as a month goes by I'm hearing about how much her social life has gone to shit lost almost all her friends, so I'm like okay yeah maybe thus wasn't a hex but a curse

So I was super, fucking happy about that, because oh my goddess I cursed someone and it is fucking up their life , gave me alot of confidence in my magic

And so about another month goes by and I'm talking with a friend and we start talking about the girl and I'm like hey, how is she doing anyway, and they preceed to say, " oh yeah she hasn't been at school as much because she has been in the hospital"

Now you would think that I would think that hey curse went to far let me brake it,

Nope I did not care one bit, infact I was shocked yes, but again really proud of my magical ability

And like last month maybe October I broke the curse because I just didn't feel like keeping it and I need to clean up