April Prompts Day 1 - Ladybug

April Prompts Day 1 - Ladybug

Featuring: Fera and a brief mention of Vera, who belongs to @pagesofcursive

Pale and cheery, the sun shone overhead. With her feet spread out in front of her, Fera relished in the breeze that swept her short ginger curls around her face. She tilted her head up, squinting and watching clouds glide lazily by. It was a good day.

Sweet green treetops raced down her vision, followed by dense foliage sprinkled with light buds that were chased down by chocolate trunks, a spread of grass and finally, daffodils that shone brighter than the sun. She giggled under her breath as she ran her hands through the short blades, her fingers catching on shallow roots. Brushing her fingers against the edge of a smooth, boxy wooden planter, something clinked among the birdsong. Turning to face the noise, fuschia snapdragons wheeled around the edge of her vision. A tiny clay fairy lay toppled by her clumsy gestures. Sheepishly, she plucked up the periwinkle figure. She paused with the edge of the base resting in place, a flash of orange catching her eye. Focusing her attention away from the figurine she heard it tinkle back down. She winced, but soon forgot as a ladybug captured her gaze. Two horizontal pyramids of dots mirrored on the centre of its shell. The edges of her lips crept up as she laid her chin on her overlapping hands, catlike, as she watched it climb a normally unremarkable clay pot. Although small, the orange critter made quick progress up the black beans Fera was resetting the planter with. It wound its path around the top third of a pole and Fera's heart twisted, knowing it would leave her soon. She hoped it would remain in the garden at least, to join the others she'd begun to see again. She'd seen a two-spot ladybug a week ago, one she'd met right before winter. This amber friend was new. She resisted the urge to catch it; it would be so simple, just to cup her hands around it and bring it inside. She could show her sister, Vera, who loved orange ladybugs the most. It was almost too late now anyway. It reached the top of one of the support sticks. It stopped, as if to acknowledge its audience, as if saying farewell, as if reassuring Fera she would see it again. Maybe she was imagining things. It parted its shell, exposing delicate, translucent wings that extended into the slowly strengthening sunlight. It took off. Fera watched the ladybug for as long as she could, until the glare of the sun cast it into invisible light. A breeze curled around her ankles and a shy thump distracted her search of the sky for her newly lost friend. She bent down with a bittersweet smile, and righted the pale blue fairy with a red dot on its outstretched hand. A friend for them who would never say farewell. Another ladybug enjoying the pale spring sunshine.

what a great day to remember that all aces and aros belong in the lgbt community

My Child is Neurotypical

So I made a few…dozen…posts on twitter about my experiences being neurodivergent. They’re a roughly 60/40 split between being autistic and having adhd with heavy overlap. They take the form of a parent in denial saying “My child is neurotypical” and the response of “Your child is X” where X is a common neurodivergent experience phrased as if coming from a teacher.

(I’ll be updating these as I make more)

Classroom

Your child was a pleasure to have in class

Your child can’t focus unless they’re playing with something

Your child has awful handwriting

Your child is tapping their foot through class

Your child just needs to apply themselves. They can clearly do the work but keep making silly mistakes

Your child had a breakdown over not getting all their homework done

Your child is quiet and struggling to stay on task

Your child thinks school was indistinguishable from torture but struggles without the structure

Your child needs outside structure or they can’t figure out what to do first

Sensory - Sound

Your child hears the CRT TV noise (double this if they hate it)

Your child needs to cover their ears any time you use a blender

Your child wants to know where that buzzing is coming from

Your child can tell if the fridge has been opened recently from the other room

Sensory - Touch

Your child can’t wear rough or slippery fabrics

Your child hates any texture beyond flannel (any other distinctive texture works too)

Your child hates tags on clothing

Your child overheats in thick socks

Your child wears sportswear but hates sports (@checkerfired1 on twitter)

Your child thinks water has a strange texture

Your child finds showering exhausting but also doesn’t want to get out at the end

Your child can’t stand the feeling of oil on their skin

Sensory - Light

Your child sat in the dark from noon til sunset before starting their day

Your child thinks sunlight is ‘too much’

Memory

Your child forgot they were hungry halfway through making dinner

Your child has had midnight new years pass by because they forgot to wait for it

Your child can’t keep a grasp on time

Your child is confused about how it’s already evening

Your child has over 50 tabs open in chrome

Your child can only ‘wing it’ because they always forget what they planned to say

Your child made a list of what they needed to do and forgot to check it

Your child came up with a ‘my child is neurotypical’ post but forgot

Stimulation

Your child can’t focus without background music

Your child thinks everybody is exhausted after conversations

Your child drinking caffeine is like a roulette wheel in its effects

Your child struggles thinking while seated

Your child likes to constantly be chewing on something

Your child finds crowds overwhelming

Your child finds existing at night less exhausting

Sleep

Your child is reading this in the middle of the night

All of your child’s friends live on the opposite side of the world because they can’t maintain a traditional sleep schedule

Your child had midnight new years pass by because they’re normally awake well past then even as an adult

Your child has trouble quieting their brain to sleep

Dyspraxia

Your child is extremely klutzy

Your child’s phone typing is riddled with typos

Empathy

Your child felt guilty for bumping into the table

Your child is painfully uncomfortable watching shows with awkward situations

Your child cries even thinking about somebody being in pain

Your child is extremely trusting with new people they just met

Emotions

Your child has lots of mood swings

Your child hates compliments because they’re sure they’ll disappoint and alienate anyone who thinks anything good about them (from @MaebyIsSweet on twitter)

Sharing

Your child shares extremely personal experiences with people they just met

Your child can talk for hours about the same subject without getting tired

Communication

Your child learned nonverbal communication from the family dog/cat

Your child gets frustrated because people can’t understand them

Your child has been discussing the same topic for 30 minutes without taking a break to breath

Your child tends to speak repetitively - they may feel somewhat scripted

Your child feels like an alien sent to observe humans

Your child cries when instructions aren’t clear enough

Your child communes with animals because they make more sense than people

Your child doesn’t see the point of small talk

Your child finds comfort in the scriptedness of small talk

Your child is anxious about misreading people’s intentions

Your child is anxious about contacting somebody because they think it’s too last second

Your child gets frustrated when instruction manuals skip steps

Your child is constantly anxious about misunderstanding

Your child needs subtitles to hear anything

Your child has times they struggle to make words

Consistency (Anxiety)

Your child asks for the same meal every time they come home

Your child watched a single movie more than 3 times in one day

Your child feels anxious watching new movies or tv shows

Your child nearly has a stress breakdown if plans change last second

Your child’s anxiety spikes every time you ask them a question

Your child has a favourite song they’ve listened to for a week straight

Your child finds split second decision making stressful

Your child gets anxious if they don’t exactly follow their daily routine

Masking

Your child can pick up accents easily

Your child grew up wishing they could just go live in the forest away from people

Your child gets anxious when you ask aabout their day

Your child emotionally relates to fictional characters more than real people

Your child has said ‘I just don’t have the energy to act human right now’

Your child has described people as ‘just too much’

Your child was so ashamed of being different they tried to reshape their personality so people would like them

Misc ones I haven’t really sorted yet

Your child is protective and doesn’t like anybody new coming into their room

Your child wishes it was easier to get up and do what they need to

Your child is confused by how other people relate to their gender

Your child thinks their functioning is an inconvenience to people

Your child is either ‘on’ or ‘off’ and there is no in between

Your child gets stuck in excitement feedback loops with their friends

Your child is convinced they just aren’t working hard enough

Your child is on their third hobby this week

Your child spaces out randomly during the day

Your child considers every step of getting dressed an individual task they have to do (from @sisi7304 on twitter)

Your child differentiates between food they like and food they think is good (@sweetmoonpigeon on twitter)

Your child has severe imposter syndrome about whether they’re neurodivergent ‘enough’

Your child isn’t sure what they’re supposed to do to be a man or a woman

Your child’s fingers and toes change colour in the cold

E, F, L for the get-to-know-the-author ask game?

E: What other writers are you friends with?

Mainly just @pagesofcursive

But other than her, I don't actually talk to many other writers. I follow a few and interact regularly and enjoy their stuff, but I hate to make assumptions since friendship is a two way street

F: Do you prefer to write stand-alones or series?

Series. I have too many ideas for writing a stand-alone, plus I don't know when to leave a story be

L: How do you select the names of your characters?

I look up baby names based on the main try of a character. Or one just comes to me and fits, like Nala and Zach

“You’re Not a Good Writer.”

I once received a DM comprised of just that sentence. Nothing else. No constructive criticism or any reason as to why this person clearly agreed with my own view of myself.

For someone who has never told anyone in their real life that they write anything, reading something like this from an anonymous user only solidified in my mind the fact that this person was right.

I’m not a good writer.

After an embarrassing amount of minutes passed, in which I thought about deleting every story I ever posted, I decided to delete the message instead. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean I could delete the feelings it caused or change the fact that I’m not a good writer.

Two weeks went by and I didn’t write anything, let alone post. Then I received a comment on a story I had posted three years prior, one I’d written after a death in our family. The comment read, “Thank you for sharing this heartfelt story. I really needed this. I just lost my mom and this really got me today.”

I stopped thinking about being a good writer after that. I thought instead, “what if I had deleted my stories and that one person three years later hadn’t read it that day?”

Here’s what I realized: no one is a good writer.

Good means to be approved of, but stories aren’t created from approval. They’re built from life experiences, feelings, and emotions Therefore, the impact of anyone’s story isn’t good or bad. It’s a million other things.

Heartfelt.

Sad.

Funny.

Inspiring.

Romantic.

So to all the story writers out there, hold your head up, write what is in your heart, and never doubt that there isn’t at least one person out there that needs to read your story.

So, no.

We’re not good writers, but why would we want to be?

Oh they're so cute!! I love them

[ID: a happy person with brown skin, vivid green eyes, and dark curly hair poses in an oversized wolf onesie. A jack-o-lantern-shaped bucket of Halloween candy hangs off their arm. end ID]

Every time I draw my beloved gentlethem Aspen, their hair gets longer, and I’m okay with that.

Anywhere, here- have a Halloween-ready Aspen for your evening, loves!

The Stray Spirit Taglist: @crystallized-ink, @little-boats-on-a-lake, @semblanche, @theramwrites, @wordsbycreed, @pretend-im-normal, @mel-writes-with-her-dragons, @wildswrites, @ladywithalamp, @ettawritesnstudies, @mj-comics, @cecilsstorycorner, @write-your-own-stories, @chayscribbles, @storytracks, @lightningmastertrilogy, @magic-is-something-we-create, @authortango, @thegoldenseries, @lunewell, @vellichor-virgo, @writeblrfantasy, @blindthewind, @weaver-of-fantasies-and-fables