Katlyn Post - Blog Posts

I used the poll options to narrow down choices for the ball/toy pit poll

The "Fandom" account on tumblr has posted an April Fool's Day set of polls asking people to guess how many of 3 different kinds of toys and how many toys total are in a container. Using the numbers given in the polls, I've found five possible answers to all the poll questions in which the numbers of each kind of toy add up to the total:

247 crabs + 277 horses + 235 paws = 759 objects total

247 crabs + 277 horses + 249 paws = 773 objects total

247 crabs + 313 horses + 242 paws = 802 objects total

239 crabs + 299 horses + 235 paws = 773 objects total

283 crabs + 277 horses + 242 paws = 802 objects total

Feel free to use this information along with your own (or someone else's, no judgement!) size/volume estimations to make your guesses! Or just guess, there are no rules!

Explanation under the readmore:

Each poll gives four potential answers. Assuming that the correct answers for how many of each object there are and the total number of objects are given as options in the polls, this means that the correct total would have to be the sum of three of the answers given in the polls about the individual objects, one from each poll. There are sixty-four possible combinations of one answer from each of the three four-option individual object polls. (If you start with all the combinations you have when you pick the first answer in the first poll and the first answer in the second poll, there are four potential combinations, one for each choice in the third poll. You have the same four choices and four combinations if you choose the first option in the first poll and the second option in the second, and so on for the third and fourth; this gives four combinations for each of the four choices in the second poll, so there are sixteen combinations for each option in the first poll, giving a grand total of sixty-four possible combinations.) I used a spreadsheet (linked here) to find what each of those sixty-four combinations added up to, then found the combinations which added up to a number that was presented in the "how many objects total" poll.

Took me a long time to realize, but the main reason Jayce's speech to Viktor didn't resonate with me, that it felt so hollow is because it's not the message I needed.

I don't know about other disabled people, or even specifically chronically ill folks... but for me, I haven't needed "you're beautiful/there's nothing wrong with you" regardless of how nice it would be to hear.

The message I feel is so sorely lacking from this media and things like it is "you're worth it." Viktor was suffering, in pain, dealing with the grief of death in so many ways. It wasn't about having something "wrong" with him; these things were objectively hurting him and it's normal/valid to feel negative about them. Specifically anger, which is so often suppressed because it's considered an unpalatable part of grief.

It takes a lot to care about someone with circumstances like that. You have to deal with the concepts of death, pain, uncertainty. You have to see your loved one suffer. They'll snap sometimes, behave emotionally, regardless of how much they control their feelings. Viktor pushed back a good bit, like in the bridge scene.

I never wanted to be told there's nothing bad about my disabilities. I wanted to know that if the bad bled over, I'd still be worth it.

job search

Man, we have got to stop treating art like it has an expiration date. That show stopped airing? Doesn’t mean it can’t haunt your every waking thought. Everybody’s into this album, but you don’t have the energy for new music right now? It’ll be waiting for you when you’re ready. That movie’s fifty years old and indie as shit? Incredible, you have the chance to share it with folks who might never otherwise feel that particular punch of delight. Books don’t go bad. Shows inspire fandoms decades after they’ve wrapped up. We’re still looking at cave paintings and statue work from ancient times and letting the joy of creation bring tears to our eyes. That’s the point of art. It’s as close to immortality as we ever get. Why try to give that magic a shelf life?

Okay, for anyone interested in the science here, I have a few clarifications.

First, early fossils of land plants date to around 433 million years ago, during the Silurian period, not to the Precambrian (defined as before around 540 million years ago).

Second, Tiktaalik was not the first land animal; it is known for being the earliest/one of the earliest vertebrates to walk on land, but arthropods got there first. Early centipedes and millipedes ventured out of the water relatively soon after the plants (around 425 million years ago, also during the Silurian), while Tiktaalik evolved around 375 million years ago, during the Devonian period.

can you imagine plants on land in the precambrian like aw fuck yeah fish cant even eat us anymore this owns and then tictilak shows up

A cute guy likes me on a dating app. After chatting with them for weeks, we decide to go on a date. They are very flirtatious and forward over the app, but not when we meet in person. He admits he thought I was transmasc like him, we laugh about it because his mistake is funny and means I'm not passing but in a silly backwards way. I think his sudden awkwardness in person may be nervousness and flirt with him in ways less forward and aggressive than he'd been flirting with me earlier, and they become cold and distant for the rest of the date. By the time I get home they've blocked me on the app we met on. This case of being mistaken as a transmasc on a dating app will happen 3 more times, and in 2/3 times it results in a similar sudden lack of interest where once they were coming on to me. None of these people will be cis.

I am in a self defense class for queer people, learning hand to hand combat as a community. I have been here months. I notice I'm the only transfem in the classes but there are other trans people there so I don't think much of it. Today I have some stubble as I did not have time to shave before the early morning class. When discussing unrealistic action movie and anime fight scenes I describe on of my favorites, quoting the lines as I pantomime the goofy moves. They smile and laugh along until the word bitch leaves my lips in one quote, then the bisexual woman who only ever they/thems me glares at me like I've committed a grevious crime, and the rest of the class looks at me like a freak in awkward silence for a moment before moving on. I learn bitch is not a word a clocky bitch can "reclaim". I am quiet in classes now, and when I go I focus primarily on the training, when I see other trans women try it out they often give me a sad look and do not return for a second class. I get a sinking feeling that if I ever use this training to save my life one day I'd be branded a violent man instead of a strong woman.

I am texting with a good friend of years who was one of the people who helped me realize I was trans like them and even the one who helped pick out my name loves talking about our shared interests and sharing their favorite smut with me. We bond over favorite stories, artists, characters, and kinks as well as our trans experience. Yet they constantly tell me they could never date someone who's AMAB because of the trauma of being "female socialized" and their genital preferences for vulvas. Every compliment they have ever given me on my appearance or outfit is followed up by "but in a non-sexual way, I could never date you". Today I finally have the courage tell them they don't need to say that every time. They ignore this response. We keep talking for awhile, but they start taking months to respond to my messages and respond with a short sentence at most. They no longer share details about their life and shut me out when I ask or share details about mine, even the most mundane and chaste details. I stop talking to them. A birthday gift I bought them months before this falling out happened looms at me in my closet. I cannot use it as it doesn't fit me but can't bring myself to throw it away, just in case we reconcile one day. I feel pathetic for craving friendship with someone who sees me as "abuser-bodied", that so much of my early stages would've been impossible without their help. I feel a little more lost without them.

I am at a queer/trans/enby kink dance party with some friends. I am scantily clad and wearing a skirt and high heeled boots. I do not pass well so this space is one of the few places I feel safe and free dressing like this. It is packed with queer and trans people just like me engaged in delightful debauchery and wearing very little. The music hurts my ears but I'm happy to be here, I feel overstimulated but alive and authentic. I am approached by a beautiful stranger from across the dance floor, she is graceful and stylish, like some modern Galadriel clad in leather, white lace, and industrial piercings with impeccable voice training. She compliments my outfit, I compliment hers. She tells me I need to shave my armpits if I want to look like a real woman. My two friends stand up for me and yell at her. They assure me she was just being an asshole, that women were supposed to be hairy, but I can't help but notice how both of them have hairy armpits and yet the "advice" targeted me. The wide range of bodies that people here tonight find desirable on cis women don't seem to apply to the women like me. I am the only one of us that doesn't go home with a hookup at the end of the night. I realize now she likely spoke from experience. I am still hurt by her words, but realizing the kinds of experiences she must have had herself to feel her words were kind advice hurts far worse.

A local queer photographer who's work I follow is looking for women & non-binary models for a photoshoot. I have become comfortable with getting photos taken of me for the first time in my life since my egg cracked, and had a few small time modeling gigs under my belt. With something like this I could actually have the beginnings of a portfolio. I reach and am told that they are not looking for trans women models, "only women and AFABs". Getting the same line I get from agencies from an independent queer photographer repackaged in "woke" terminology stings. I see many queer and nonbinary models I looked up to take part in the shoot. I have to wonder if they knew that the photographer's definition of woman didn't include trans women, or if like me in my martial arts class they noticed no transfems were there but didn't think much of it because there were other trans people there.

It is years ago and I am still an egg. I am with my partner of 4 years. I am exhausted after a long day. She asks me for sex in the voice that I know means saying no will hurt her. I learned from her long ago men have high and insatiable sex drives, therefore saying no meant I wanted to have sex, just not with her. So I say yes. The sex is painful and unsatisfying, and I simply do my best to thrust through the discomfort until she cums. I feel numb and hurt. She enjoys herself but seems sad I did not cum. I assure her I love her. When we hold eachother after my obligation has been met and I finally feel comfortable and safe. We begin talking. She talks about the trashy women she saw on the street today, describing their cringe outfits and ugly styles and bad hair. All the styles and clothes and hair I yearn to try myself in my deepest and most repressed desires. I change the subject and ask her about work and family. She asks if I'd still love her if she were a man and I say yes. She says she would still love me if I were a woman. Something in that statement feels like a lie. It is months later when we break up and I move out. Now that I am a woman I look back and know from our years together that if I were a woman then she'd hate the kind of woman I'd become. That if I were a woman she'd still have the same expectations of me as a man, that her refusal of sex equated an impersonal not being in the mood but my refusal of sex equated a cruel refusal of love.

A lesbian group begins organizing a queer woman's strip night event. A safe place for amateur performers to shine and women to perform and enjoy sexuality away from the male gaze. I see no transfems in the promotional material or leadership team, and I've learned not to think nothing of it just because there are other trans people there. I do not go.

I am talking with my therapist. They are trans too and an amazing therapist, often providing insights and advice only someone else with the lived experience of being trans can. I express distress and suicidal ideation at the fact I feel like I need to pass before I can dress the way I want. That until I get expensive hair removal procedures and FFS I can never feel safe and welcome presenting authentically. I lament how these things are expensive and may never be accessible to me. They tell me I need to deal with my "internalized transphobia", as if these feelings aren't a result of constant rejection and othering by external forces even within queer spaces. As if the scrap of womanhood others sometimes acknowledge in me does not rely on their perceptions of me.

There is a publication accepting works from trans people of all stripes to document trans experiences. It gets flamed for not having a single transfem as a contributor. The people behind it apologize profusely, they say didn't notice no transfems had sent work in and would do a sequel publication that was transfem-centric. I wonder if anyone had noticed there were no transfems but didn't think much of it because there were other trans people there. I think about the kinds of spaces I've seen like that, and the implications it has about how they treat transfems, and I am unsurprised no transfems submitted.

One of my closest friends for years is very supportive of me when I first begin crossdressing and experimenting with they/them pronouns. She gives me suggestions on cute clothes to wear and takes me shopping as well as asks for pictures. We had helped eachother discover we were both queer as young teens, come to terms with it, and navigate it in a hostile environment, so I have complete trust. We are close enough we are frequently asking eachother advice on serious life choices & relationships, sending nudes for critique + tips before sending them to our partners, and sharing our most secret and vulnerable moments. She often asks me for tips on getting her straight boyfriends into pegging and crossdressing that make me slightly uncomfortable but I don't mind, she is a loyal friend I would endure a great many discomforts for. I host a lunch for us one day, and come out to her as a trans woman. I tell her my new name, say I no longer use he/him pronouns, and thank her for her support on my journey thus far. She launches into a monologue about how by changing my name I am throwing away all our memories together and spitting in the face of my family. Taken aback by her sudden heel turn after being so supportive of me being nonbinary and GNC, I excuse myself to go to the bathroom to get a break and give her some time to process. When I am in the bathroom trying not to cry, she is on the phone. I overhear her misgendering me as she is talking about me being bisexual in a frightened voice. She sounds truly afraid that I intend to be sexually violent towards her. When I leave the bathroom and sit back down I pretend not to have heard. She gets off the phone, saying she was just chatting with her boyfriend. We talk a bit longer, she explains how "the surgery" is dangerous and experimental and she hopes I won't get it. I assure her I won't and do my best to change the subject and hope she comes around after some time to process things, hurt and shocked that what I saw as a natural shift in the path I was already on marked me as frightening in her eyes after knowing eachother for over a decade. That a fellow bisexual suddenly saw my bisexuality as dangerous now that I was asserting myself as a trans woman. I say goodbye to her, and she says goodbye to me using my deadname, I do not risk an argument to correct her. It is months after the meeting we have not seen eachother since and she has not responded to any messages I sent. After reflecting on her reaction further I decide that I don't really want to spend time with someone who thinks these things about me for my own safety and mental health, regardless of our history. A friend of 14 years who supported my queerness and transness gone the instant I crossed an intangible woman-shaped line that marked me as a predator and invader in her eyes.

I log online and day after day see trans women getting banned and harassed. Seeing baseless callout posts calling them groomers and abusers getting taken seriously by other queer and trans people. Seeing proof that deep down so many people I consider kindred spirits see me and people like me as worthy of intense scrutiny and policing to keep "the queer community" safe and united. The blocklist grows but everything stays the same. I treasure the people in my life who don't take part in this and would do anything for them, but it seems they get fewer each time.

I'm not making this post to seek sympathy, I am used to this kind of shit and far worse has happened to myself and others. I just make this to illustrate transmisogyny is not some "online-only" issue like people claim. Even if online issues weren't "real" (as healed is fond of saying, "online is real") this has tangible effects in the way trans women are treated offline as well. By communities, friends, partners, colleagues, systems, etc. That's why we talk about it.

So much of the discussions people have paint transmisogyny as some online oppression olympics maliciously trying to divide the community, smear transmascs, and "reinvent bioessentialism". That is not what it is about. Discussions about transmisogyny is about how we are treated for being what we are, and while related to transphobia and misogyny it is seperate because it often represents doors other trans people and women can walk through that transfems cannot. It has affected me in my most intimate moments when I was with other trans and queer people I felt safe around, and taught me that I need to carefully manage my persona and presentation at all times lest my authenticity be branded "male socialization". I am even terrified to express attraction to people who express attraction towards me because I'm so used to being treated like a predator upon reciprocating or being used and abandoned by people I trusted. I am terrified to be too excited about shared interests with friends lest I be too loud or talkative about it and branded with aggressive male socialization. So I make myself quiet and small, and shrink from the community and people I care about, and become more and more isolated.

Anyways, stop platforming anons who spread lies about trans women, stop hopping on TERF harassment campaigns because the trans gal they're smearing "gave you bad vibes", and maybe consider carefully if in your own life where you draw the line for a transfem's behavior is any different from where you'd draw the line for anyone who's not one.

In my next life I will be reborn as #plural stuff.

Sally sells #identity confusion by the sea shore.

This is the kind of thing I love about tumblr.

What is the itsy bitsy spider if not sisyphus's fursona?

My dad has bees. Today, I went to his house and he showed me all the honey he had gotten from the hives. He took the lid off a 5-gallon bucket full of honey and on top of the honey there were 3 little bees, struggling. They were covered in sticky honey and drowning. I asked him if we could help them and he said he was sure they wouldn't survive. Casualties of honey collection I suppose.

I asked him again if we could at least get them out and kill them quickly, after all he was the one who taught me to put a suffering animal (or bug) out of its misery. He finally conceded and scooped the bees out of the bucket. He put them in an empty Chobani yogurt container and put the plastic container outside.

Because he had disrupted the hive with the earlier honey collection, there were bees flying all over outside.

We put the 3 little bees in the container on a bench and left them to their fate. My dad called me out a little while later to show me what was happening. These three little bees were surrounded by all their sisters (all of the bees are females) and they were cleaning the sticky nearly dead bees, helping them to get all of the honey off of their bodies. We came back a short time later and there was only one little bee left in the container. She was still being tended to by her sisters.

When it was time for me to leave, we checked one last time and all three of the bees had been cleaned off enough to fly away and the container was empty.

Those three little bees lived because they were surrounded by family and friends who would not give up on them, family and friends who refused to let them drown in their own stickiness and resolved to help until the last little bee could be set free.

Bee Sisters. Bee Peers. Bee Teammates.

We could all learn a thing or two from these bees.

Bee kind always.

Having your own OC as your Blorbo is great because you will never have to see a bad Fannon brainrot take or awful but inexplicably popular ship involving them, but also I Have To Do Everything Myself Around Here Augh

I, uh, might do that… except I’d probably worry too much about the welfare of the bugs.

Me walking around with a “Free Bugs” T-shirt and when people ask I point out all the little guys around them and tell them which ones are introduced species that they can totally just grab off the street and keep as pets

walking around with a “Free Bugs” tshirt and cargo pants with a lot of very full pockets that are visibly writhing 

Me when I say I have an OC

i am. so sorry if i have ever used the phrase “i have an au where—” and led you to believe that there is an actual fic out there for you to read rather than, at best, a post where i explain the concept, and at worst it is simply something that lives in my brain

snail shell doodle (done with a real shell for reference as I was listening to my TA talking in marine biology lab)

@joaniejustwokeup Thank you for voting for Oakie and spreading the word! Enjoy the shell, I think it’s a moon snail.

(If you see this post and want us to post more art, vote for Oakie here and reply, message us, or like the post linked here to let us know!)

This is why I eat honey as a vegan: not because I don’t value insects as animals, but because it is generally not produced through cruelty. In general, the bees can leave if they’re being mistreated. I have no problem enjoying the fruits of their labor, because they’re getting something out of it (a sheltered hive, defense and support from human beekeepers, et cetera) and they can leave. It’s not “eating/using something that comes from an animal” that’s the problem, it’s harming or mistreating the animal to get it that I take issue with.

vegans make peace with honey

no shut up do it

Thank you @amanita-strange-and-true for voting for Oakie! This is a traditional piece we did together in an Entomology Club activity. The moth is a sphinx moth (family Sphingidae) :)

Here's a close-up:

And just for fun, we put a photo through an art filter:

If you want us to post more art like this, vote for Oakie here and reply, message us, or like the post linked here to let us know!

@theoptimistictabby thanks for voting for Oakie and spreading the word!

These are roughly inspired by my soulless mad scientist OC, Dr. Kaye.

Player Character Support Group!

I’m dropping a somewhat old crossover fanfic of mine here and running lol

It’s an Undertale/Deltarune/Little Nightmares/Hollow Knight fanfic about a group of video game characters who are aware that their lives are video games (similar premise to Wreck-it Ralph) and the struggles of the player characters who go through all kinds of nonsense at the players’ whims.

This is also a crack fic chock-full of personal headcanons! Also, I’m putting it out here but I don’t promise quality lol. - Katlyn

(edit: now on AO3!)

(Here’s the Google doc I originally linked)

Google Docs

Player Character Support Group!

(Also: I’m ignoring Very Little Nightmares because I haven’t played it. Sorry to any Very Little Nightmares fans.)

Italian, German, Swedish, Polish, Hungarian and English and I only really know my ancestry up to my great-grandparents 🤷 Sadly the only one I currently speak fluently is English, growing up “white” in the US… I heard somewhere that being considered white in the USA often means giving up aspects of one’s culture and heritage in order to fit in, and knowing that so much never got passed down in the generations between my great-grandparents and me makes me really feel like there’s some truth to that.

Reblog with what languages.

On Hallownest in your Hollow Knight AU, what is it like and is it a rural or urban town?

I picture it as a kinda small town, but not particularly rural, having more suburban-type neighborhoods. I don’t have an incredibly defined idea of it though. (Characters are usually my favorite part of stories, lol.)

Ok, ngl, I love how much effort you put into your Human/Modern AU. It's quite fantastic to read, I do have to ask on other characters like the God Tamer, Zote, Elderbug, and Lace, what're they like in your AU if you have any ideas for them?

Honestly, I haven’t thought of much for most of them yet, but my friend and I had some discussions that led to more character lore regarding Zote and the ghost characters, so here ya go! • Gorb: the school janitor and a crazy Radiance fan. He occasionally talks with Sybil about their obsession. • Zote: The Hallownest public school’s horrible gym teacher, who may or may not be on drugs. He thinks way too much of himself and keeps talking about how his precepts are the way to success. Bretta develops a crush on him. • Marissa: an up and coming young singer who likes Radiance’s music but wants nothing to do with The Fandom (TM). She’s Marmu’s older cousin.

• Marmu: One of Ghost and Grimm Jr.’s classmates. A sweet, naïve little girl who likes to play ball games. • Xero: An absolutely obsessed Radiance fan who got arrested for threatening the lives of the mayor and his family during the Radiance protests. • No Eyes is the local legend/Cryptid.

I read this and couldn’t help but think of my mad scientist OC Dr. Kaye, who is very much a Type 1 (cold, calculating, emotionally detached) but has the recklessness of a Type 3 (rat bastard drenched in glowing mystery liquid with a shit eating grin). And she used to be anxious and paranoid… and still gets accused of being paranoid sometimes, because she has no friends and a lot of enemies and has decided it’s entirely rational to carry a gun and know how to use it. She’s a terrible person in general, but she gets a semi-redemption arc and she’s my little meow meow ❤️

I love mad scientists who have more academic knowledge than common sense (because I relate) (this is probably all mad scientists, kinda in the definition).

i love how many different mad scientist archetypes there are. we have like

- cold, calculating, really good at what they do, emotionally detached

- “dear GOD what did i just create”, paranoid, little meow meow

- bastard, rat, would find them drenched in glowing mystery liquid with a shit eating grin on their face, maniac cackling every time something is silly

and of course we have the mix why wouldnt we

What other ideas did you also have for the Hollow Knight Modern AU?

I have… a lot. (For context: I originally posted about my Hollow Knight Modern AU here). I tried to type some things out and then tumblr erased it, so instead you get my unorganized ramblings that I have on my notes app. (Under the cut so not everyone has to read them). Essentially, Pale Royal (the Pale King) is the mayor of the oddball town of Hallownest and the somewhat negligent father of five chaotic children.

Character names:

Pale Royal (= The Pale King)

Blanca Royal (White Lady) 

Hollis Royal (The Hollow Knight/Pure Vessel)

Kinsey Royal (Broken Vessel/Lost Kin)

Hornet Weaver (Hornet- her mom insisted she should have the Weaver name)

Herrah Weaver (Herrah the Beast)

Greene Royal (Greenpath vessel)

Knight "Ghost" Royal (The Knight/Ghost/player character)

Grimm Nightmare Sr. (Troupe Master/Nightmare King Grimm)

Grimm Nightmare Jr. (Grimmchild)

Dr. Sophia Monomon (Monomon the Teacher, I chose the name Sophia because it means wisdom or knowledge)

Quirrel Monomon (Quirrel, Monomon's adopted son)

Morningstar Claw (Mantis Lord)

Lance Claw (Mantis Lord)

Arrow Claw (Mantis Lord)

Mace Claw (Traitor Lord) 

Bretta Scriber (Bretta)

Tiso Shieldsmith (Tiso)

Sybil Erebis (Seer)

Pale and Blanca have an open relationship - Blanca and Herrah get along fine and Pale having a child with Herrah wasn’t a problem for Blanca. Blanca is also bisexual and in a relationship with Dryya, the Hallownest Chief of Police. 

Tween Hornet: What are you talking about I have no interest in girly things I like ninjas and swords! *hides princess book under the bed* 

Ghost: second grade Force of Chaos

Grimmchild/Grimm Jr.: Second grade arsonist and Ghost's best friend/accomplice 

Pale King and White Lady: parenting is easy! Just let the kids figure it out for themselves! 

Teenage/Young adult Hollow Knight: the only responsible person in the household. Is slowly going insane taking care of four younger siblings. 

Troupe Master Grimm/Grimm Sr.: Similar parenting philosophy to PK and WL. Is *fabulous* Actively encourages his son to be a ball of chaos. 

Herrah: Like a crazy cat lady but with spiders. Her home is not a place for the faint of heart. 

Teenage Mantis Lords: Sisters Morningstar, Lance, and Arrow. Leaders of the student-run Fencing Club which is really just a veneer for a bunch of kids who want to be TOUGH WARRIORS! Members include Hornet and Cloth. 

Traitor Lord: Mantis sisters’ older brother Mace. A deadbeat high school dropout who makes a living as a drug dealer. The family doesn't talk about him. 

Lance: "Yes I'm a girl and anyone else who'd like to comment gets STABBED!" 

People know better than to mess with these kids. 

When Grimm gets a call from the school: "Oh? My son set a fire in the boys' bathroom, you say? Did he tell you why? Because toilet paper is very flammable, he said? Oh well, kids will be kids, it sounds very much like something I would have done at his age... Suspended? Surely that's a little harsh? With all due respect, I think this behavior is teaching him important life skills! Surely that should be more acceptable in a school?" 

I'm imagining Grimm Jr. asking Ghost to run away and join the circus with him 😆😆😆

"You'd be a great act, Ghost! I'm sure my dad wouldn't mind having another kid! You could be an acrobat or a clown or a mime... (at this point Ghost gives him a look).... okay, maybe not a mime."

The town of Hallownest is technically their "hometown," but the Nightmares travel. Grimm Sr. just drops his kid off at the local public school whenever he's too busy to take care of him, never mind whether or not he's actually enrolled. Cue a lot of teachers trying to figure out where the hell this kid came from. How much the kid is actually learning, missing school so often and being dropped in random classes is... questionable, but everything is fine! The Hallownest school system has already given up. Grimm Jr. really only goes to school because Dad is too busy to deal with him full time 😆

He's doing his best to just push his kid off on a stranger like in-game 😆

Ghost also often begs for Grimm to come sleep over, which of course causes more chaos than usual in the Royal household. Poor Hollis, trying to maintain some semblance of order. 

Bretta is already writing fanfic. Ghost once saves her from a bully by dropping onto him from a tree, at which point Bretta decides she’s in love. Then Bretta mentions this to Greene. Bretta: “Oh, is he your brother? He’s so hot! 😍😍” Greene: “… sibling. And they’re seven.” Bretta: “Oh… so that’s why he’s… they’re… so short….” *is mortified*

Bretta later develops a crush on Hollis and writes fan fiction about them.

Grimm just drops off his kid at the Royal house with no notice and no indication of how long he'll be gone 😆

The whole Royal family is autistic in some fashion, because look at them. Pale is an inventor in his spare time and is always thinking about how to optimize infrastructure in the town of Hallownest. He also works late and forgets to eat or sleep when he's hyperfocused. Blanca (White Lady) spends more time with her garden and her large variety of houseplants than with her children, and everything has to be clean and Just So or she'll make a fuss. She always adjusts her children's and stepdaughter's clothing before they leave the house, much to Ghost's and Hornet's chagrin.

Hollis couldn't break a rule to save their life and comes off as stiff and robotic when trying to interact with people. Their parents are proud of the former and entirely oblivious to the latter. 

Kinsey is sensory-sensitive and awkward. Loud noises, bright lights, and busy rooms drive them crazy. This does not stop them from being kind of an extrovert or from getting into trouble with Hornet. 

Hornet, for her part, has some sensory issues with clothing (and hates the fancy things her stepmother tries to shove her into with a passion) and speaks in a very blunt but also overly archaic/wordy manner (if you've seen her dialogue in game you'll know what I'm talking about). She has little interest in socializing with people unless a) they're her mom or siblings, b) she's causing trouble, and/ or c) it's something violence-related. 

Greene takes after their mom with their love of plants. They also love animals and are better with animals than people. They're super shy and awkward lol

Ghost is well, Ghost. They often struggle to speak/experience speech loss and have a raging case of ADHD in addition to the autism, making them constantly chasing after new and interesting things, unwilling and unable to pay attention unless they're interested, and entirely oblivious to social norms. In other words, they're hell to deal with 😆

Quirrel is Miss Monomon's adopted son and a giant nerd. He's 14 and a sophomore in high school because he skipped a grade as a kid. He has an I ❤️ isopods (group including pill bugs) pin on his backpack and is really into "bugs" and other invertebrates. 

Hollis, nicknamed "Holly" by their siblings, is Very Tall (like 6 foot 5 or something), rather gangly and skinny, and AMAB (in part to make their height more plausible lol). At first they look kinda intimidating but they wouldn't hurt a fly, and are just about the quietest, shyest person ever, with one exception: if you hurt their siblings, you incur their wrath. Other than that they will take anything that's thrown at them - bullying, name-calling, way too many home responsibilities for a teenager, etc. - with a stoic front. They have just about no self-esteem and have a bad case of "awkward tall person syndrome," always hunching over and trying not to stand out despite the fact that they are literally head and shoulders above their classmates. Like all their siblings they have white hair (which they keep long), pale skin and very dark eyes. 

Blanca (the White Lady) is an albino, thus the white skin, white hair, and very light blue eyes. She's also something of a Karen and acts like being an albino makes her an oppressed minority or something.

She also never leaves the house without makeup.

Tiso Shieldsmith is Hollis's classmate and maybe-friend who moved to Hallownest last year. He's kind of an idiot teenage boy and he calls Hollis "Stick Bug" thanks to their stick-bug-esque physique. He's, obviously, in the martial arts and fencing club, and he's kind of trying to be a tough jock but not always succeeding. I love the way he interacts with Hollis: 

"Yo, Stick Bug, my man!  I mean, my non-binary guy... I mean, uh...whatever. How are you doing, pal?" 

*Hollis stares at him in an expressionless way as Tiso rambles.* 

Hollis always refers to their parents as Mother and Father instead of just saying "Mom" or "Dad." It's out of respect mainly, and also because Blanca tends to like everything fancy. The outfit I drew Hollis in is what they normally wear to school, at their mother's request XD

Radiance is a local celebrity with a cult-like fan base. Miss Sybil (Seer) is the school's history teacher and the students are shocked when they discover she's an intense Radiance fan. “Radiance” is a stage name and she's Grimm's cousin (a relationship neither of them particularly care to mention most of the time). Pale hates her for reasons unknown, to the point where Pale has tried to pass all kinds of town restrictions on shows and circuses specifically because of Grimm and Radiance. Grimm either ignores the anti-circus ordinances or finds loopholes, and protesters stormed the town hall at the restrictions affecting the Radiance, enough that Pale had to undo them. 

Grimm has some level of ability to break the law in Hallownest in part because the police in Hallownest don't want to deal with him either (lol) and in part because Blanca has used her influence and her relationship with the Chief of Police, Dryya, to discourage the Hallownest Police Department from prosecuting him. “Oh, Mr. Nightmare can’t be in jail, his son is my youngest’s best friend, and the poor man is a single father. I can’t imagine what that would do to poor Grimm Junior. Not to mention I’ve heard that Radiance is actually a relative of his… do you want her fans storming the police department?” (This is, of course, behind her husband’s back.) 

Grimm is also very good at finding loopholes, twisting people's words, and generally being a pain in the arse to anyone who has issues with him. 

Herrah has dark skin and a fat but very muscular figure. Usually around Hornet and the Royal kids she's all motherly and sweet, but when dealing with people she doesn't like she's intimidating AF. 

Obviously the Royal family is white af because... a) they're entitled jerks, at least to a degree and b) look at them. 

Hornet has brown/light brown skin but still has the white-blond hair and almost-black irises that run in Dad's side of the family. She gets strangers trying not to stare occasionally, but at least she isn't so pale she could be mistaken for a corpse XD

In fact I imagine that several of the characters often get strangers trying not to stare- Hollis and Grimm Jr. come to mind.

Grimm has dressed his son in red and black since he was a baby; it’s not every day you see an 8-year old dressed in a fancy black and red suit with a cape and makeup that looks like a cross between "vampire," "emo," and "circus." 

Tiso: Yo, Stick Bug! What's with the dress? You look like you're going to prom or something! 

[Hollis is wearing a white frilly dress that's too long to be anything other than one their mom ordered specially made, along with a fancy necklace and earrings]

Hollis: Mother has tea with her gardeners' club this afternoon and would like to show me off to all her gardening friends (said in a completely calm tone, even with a slight smile) 

Tiso: "Show you off?!?” You say it like you're her favorite doll instead of her kid! Are you expected to do anything at her event? That sure doesn't look like gardening clothes. Your mom is definitely being weird, you sure you're okay with this? 

Hollis: Of course. It means Mother is proud of me. 

Hollis has issues.

They're shy and desperate for approval and their parents are (somewhat unintentionally) walking all over them. They need love and support that's not tying their value to being "perfect." Luckily, their siblings don't want Perfect Obedient Hollis, they want the real, happy them. 

glad that im not popular enough to have an evil shadow version of my blog that exists just to make contradictions on my posts

With their tiny buggy feet.

I want #hemiptera to stomp on me.

Lol

Guess I got a little too into entomology

#hemiptera and Other Things That Ruined My Life: An Autobiography by spectruminterests

I regret to inform you I’m #actually autistic trash.

These cool characters by @cozylittleartblog caught my eye lol. Check them out if you want :)

val is kind of a freak

I used this picrew to make images of some of my OCs :)

Dr. Kaye:

(She basically has two expressions: her usual fake smile and a totally blank/neutral expression that’s kind of the facial expression equivalent of an error screen, used when she’s confused or actually having emotions.)

KT:

(KT is cute and she knows it. She will use her adorableness to get what she wants.)

Ted Kaye:

(He’s perpetually exhausted and trying not to show it)

Bonus: Katherine Kaye as an exhausted college student

(She will deny that she was up all night studying and doing homework for the past 3 consecutive nights. She’s a straight-A student and she will insist she’s totally fine and not struggling with anything).