(Part 1/2)
So, just for clarification purposes, this account features the contributions of two different people. I (Lynn) write the stories and make these posts, while my friend (for whose privacy, I won't reveal her name) comes up with the prompts and wackadoodle headcanons, plot holes, and canon inconsistencies that allow my fics to happen. I recently got into an argument with someone about portrayal of neurodivergent characters and the importance of diagnosis so...
-- I (Lynn) have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).
-- My friend has HFA (High-Functioning ASD) - (yes, I know, not a technical medical term, but what I'm getting at is that she's basically a genius but has, in her own words, "the social tact of a brick")
Anyway, the thing that really pisses me off is that I have never met ANYONE (fictional or real) who exhibits more autistic traits than her (everyone who meets her in a social setting quietly asks me whether she's autistic), but she's never brought it up with her parents, who don't think she actually is autistic but constantly call her "autistic" and "retarded" to the point that she's scared to discuss her suspicions that she is (which have been confirmed by every medical journal analysis we've read insofar) with them. In fact, the first time she brought it up to me, she was just like really scared that someone else would overhear and, I don't know, report her?? She was just like "Do you think I'm autistic?" (to which I was like, "girl, I've been waiting for you to figure it out since we were 5") like it was this scary prospect (but not because she was ableist---she thought it was an absolute relief that there might be an explanation for why people made fun of her for being dense and for taking things way too literally---but because she was scared that her parents might hate her or that people would hate her because she didn't have an official diagnosis and might just be lying to "seem cool" or get into college or idk).
