Vlad clucked in annoyance and his red eyes narrowed. “ You don’t change. Twenty years later and you’re still quick to jump the gun! Can you just think for five seconds?”
Her guard dropped from the causal statement and Vlad took the opportunity to rush her lithe form. A gloveless hand wrapped around her wrists as he pinned her against the floor while his left hand grasped onto the gun and pointed it away from the two of them. “LET GO!”
Vlad snarled, “ So you can murder me? Fat chance! I prefer not being six feet under!”
“ Funny? Isn’t that where you’re supposed to be?” Maddie hissed venomously. Vlad flinched and his grip loosened slightly.
“ You can’t be this blind… Maddie, don’t you notice? You’re a scientist! A doctor! Can’t you feel that I am tangible? That I have mass and life?”
Maddie tossed and struggled. Seeing his wounded shoulder she eyed him angrily. “All I see is a liar and a coward! You took Danny and hurt Vladimir!”
Vlad stared at her in absolute confusion. “ What type of lunacies are you smoking down at Fenton Works? Does it look like I-”
A sharp bang resonated through the foyer. In his desperate pleas to make her see reason, his grip on the gun had weakened, allowing her to subtly aim it at his already wounded arm. Red eyes weakly faded to a dull cherry, devoid of a ghostly glow. Ectoplasm slowly dripped down the arm and splattered against Maddie’s chest. She smiled in triumph only for something warm to land against her face.
“ You really can’t see my humanity can you Mads?”
Her eyes widened in confused perplexion. A hand let go of his wrist and trailed up to her face in wonder. A black glove tapped against the water and held it aloft. This ghost was crying…
Angel with a Bicycle- A short story that follows a 9-year-old Naru as he meets the man who will teach him about magic tricks.
Confessions of a White Crow- A Short story which takes place when Naru is 15 years old. The story is told through a discussion about Naru and his family by two others.
Eugene: A story from Gene’s POV of he and Oliver’s home and school lives prior to the events of the main series.*
Least Visible Side Profile: Page 1,Page 2- Some of the SPR Irregulars having a chat at a restaurant, takes place between the two series.
Trajectory of a Satellite-A short story from Masako’s POV that takes place while Naru is back in England for Gene’s funeral.
The Millennial Kingdom-A short story about John Brown’s life both before and after coming to Japan.
Genki: A short story about Mai and her thoughts on the future of school, life, and love after Oliver leaves after finding Gene’s body.*
GHHQ would like to thank all of the great individuals who have worked so hard to translate and share this information. @flychansan,@yonakayaku,@csakuras,@withchhuntress,@thisurlplease,Kagedreams, and others who we don’t have contact information for. This fandom would be would be missing out on a lot of important information if it weren’t for you!!
*Translation updated/added with 1/11/21 update
It has been some time since I have had a chance to update this list so if you or anyone you know has translated a Ghost Hunt story and you don’t see it listed here please let us know. We would love to help spread the word.
A few more links to translated works have come our way. So, here is an updated list. Enjoy!
Akuryou - First series (Ongoing translation by a few different translators) One of the translators for this is also posting their chapters here Parts of Volume 3 by another translator can be found here*
Angel with a Bicycle- A short story that follows a 9-year-old Naru as he meets the man who will teach him about magic tricks.
Confessions of a White Crow- A Short story which takes place when Naru is 15 years old. The story is told through a discussion about Naru and his family by two others.
Eugene: A story from Gene’s POV of he and Oliver’s home and school lives prior to the events of the main series.
Least Visible Side Profile: Page 1,Page 2- Some of the SPR Irregulars having a chat at a restaurant, takes place between the two series.
Trajectory of a Satellite-A short story from Masako’s POV that takes place while Naru is back in England for Gene’s funeral.
The Millennial Kingdom-A short story about John Brown’s life both before and after coming to Japan.
Genki: A short story about Mai and her thoughts on the future of school, life, and love after Oliver leaves after finding Gene’s body.
This fandom would be would be missing out on a lot of important information if it weren’t for you!!
*Translation updated/added with 2/9/21 update
If you or anyone you know has translated a Ghost Hunt story and you don’t see it listed here please let us know. We would love to help spread the word.
It’s finally here!! Take a look at Familiar Keepsakes, our fandom’s collaborative zine! With the theme of ‘Family,’ we wish to impart how much Ghost Hunt has brought us all together to make one big ole family, just as how the SPR gang has formed lifelong ties with each other
We apologize for the wait, though it’s always better late than never, right? Consider this as a special treat just for you. (Happy Halloween!)
1. The [reading copy] is meant to be read digitally. The pages have been ordered so as to emulate the appearance of a zine, but please do not print this. 2. The [printing copy] has been set for back-to-back printing on A4 paper. If you do not have a border-less printing feature on your printer, scale the file down to 90~95% so that nothing will be cut out. If you need help with this, message @rmnitb 2a. After printing the zine, you can bind it using several methods. You may find tutorials online.
Lastly, thank you for your support! Let’s collab again and make more zines together soon~
Are you a Ghost Hunt fan? Do you continue to create and subscribe to fan content despite the series having ended several years ago? Has this fandom become a family of sorts for you, just as the SPR gang eventually became a family as well?
If you answered yes to all these questions, this zine is for you!
To commemorate our fandom’s first collaborative zine, the theme is: FAMILY.
We accept previously unpublished Ghost Hunt fanworks of prose, poetry and visual art that utilize the family theme. (It doesn’t have to be literal. You may interpret the theme any way you want.)
Limits (works should not go over) : Prose - 3000 words Poetry - 30 lines Artwork - A5-sized, colored and b/w (2 versions required)
Submit your pieces to [email protected] with the subject line “GHZINE - [TITLE] - [AUTHOR/ARTIST]” on or before June 1, 2020, 11:59PM (EST), .docx or .rtf / .png file formats only.
The zine will be available to everyone by July 2020. You will be able to keep it as a PDF, or print it on A4 paper if you’d like a physical copy for yourself
Are you a Ghost Hunt fan? Do you continue to create and subscribe to fan content despite the series having ended several years ago? Has this fandom become a family of sorts for you, just as the SPR gang eventually became a family as well?
If you answered yes to all these questions, this zine is for you!
To commemorate our fandom’s first collaborative zine, the theme is: FAMILY.
We accept previously unpublished Ghost Hunt fanworks of prose, poetry and visual art that utilize the family theme. (It doesn’t have to be literal. You may interpret the theme any way you want.)
Limits (works should not go over) : Prose - 3000 words Poetry - 30 lines Artwork - A5-sized, colored and b/w (2 versions required)
Submit your pieces to [email protected] with the subject line “GHZINE - [TITLE] - [AUTHOR/ARTIST]” on or before June 1, 2020, 11:59PM (EST), .docx or .rtf / .png file formats only.
The zine will be available to everyone by July 2020. You will be able to keep it as a PDF, or print it on A4 paper if you’d like a physical copy for yourself
Are you a Ghost Hunt fan? Do you continue to create and subscribe to fan content despite the series having ended several years ago? Has this fandom become a family of sorts for you, just as the SPR gang eventually became a family as well?
If you answered yes to all these questions, this zine is for you!
To commemorate our fandom’s first collaborative zine, the theme is: FAMILY.
We accept previously unpublished Ghost Hunt fanworks of prose, poetry and visual art that utilize the family theme. (It doesn’t have to be literal. You may interpret the theme any way you want.)
Limits (works should not go over) : Prose - 3000 words Poetry - 30 lines Artwork - A5-sized, colored and b/w (2 versions required)
Submit your pieces to [email protected] with the subject line “GHZINE - [TITLE] - [AUTHOR/ARTIST]” on or before June 1, 2020, 11:59PM (EST), .docx or .rtf / .png file formats only.
The zine will be available to everyone by July 2020. You will be able to keep it as a PDF, or print it on A4 paper if you’d like a physical copy for yourself
Prompt: Naru and Mai shares a dream (or multiple dreams), but neither of them know they’re actually sharing it. - @seoulsborne123
——
A week later, a client finally came in with a promising case. Promising, in that at least it didn’t sound totally bogus, but it was still the type of case that Naru normally wouldn’t take interest in. Nonetheless, he accepted the job, to Lin’s visible surprise.
The next issue was whether this case actually had any legit paranormal activity, and if not, would Gene even appear? Naru had Mai contact Masako right away, and while they were setting up the base, she spotted him checking a hand mirror periodically.
They had managed to get through the past week without another spree of nightmares, but Mai could tell he was impatient to get his dreams back to himself. She tried not to take it personally.
Masako arrived on the evening of the first day. So far, they had collected very little data, and their investigation showed that the reported phenomena could be easily explained.
Mai watched anxiously as Masako walked around the house. At last, she came to a stop.
“There is a spirit here,” she said.
They breathed a sigh of relief.
“It is the spirit of an old man,” Masako went on to explain. “I see this kind often. I believe he must have passed away in his sleep and simply hasn’t realized he has died. It would be very easy to purify him.” She turned to Naru. “Shall I?”
“No,” said Naru, a bit too quickly.
Masako blinked.
“I’d like to gather more data first,” he lied. “If you could please come back tomorrow.”
“If you insist,” she smiled.
Mai facepalmed and sent the medium a mental apology. This wasn’t what it looked like!
——
That night, Naru and Mai left Lin to watch the base and went to bed at the same time. This earned them a suspicious look, but they could deal with that later.
They sat in the train compartment and waited. And waited.
Finally, they heard someone walking down the corridor. Gene appeared outside the door, and his face lit up when he saw them inside.
He opened the door and came inside. “It worked!” he said.
Naru stood up. “Like hell it did.”
Oh shit, Mai thought. She could actually see the murderous aura gathering around him. Naru was furious.
As his brother approached, Gene’s smile widened nervously. “N-Noll?”
Naru grabbed his twin by the shirt collar, and Mai decided now would be a good time to intervene.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” She cut in between them, holding Naru back as best she could. “You can’t kill your dead brother!”
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Naru seethed.
“I’m sorry?” Gene looked confused. “I didn’t know if it would work! It was just an idea I had…and then I fell asleep before I could fully see it through…why, did something go wrong?”
“Oh, Gene…” Mai groaned.
“What?” he looked at her, now worried.
“It worked,” Naru said through grit teeth. “And it’s been stuck that way for over a week.”
“Oh.” Gene looked between them. “Oh.”
They watched as the news continued to sink in.
Then finally, Gene put on a smile. “Did you guys have fun though?”
Naru smacked him upside the head.
“NARU!”
“I’m sorry!” Gene put up his hands defensively. “I’m sorry, both of you! I just…ow, why does that hurt, I’m not even alive…”
“Give me one good reason not to do it again,” Naru said.
Gene hung his head. “I’m sorry…I only wanted to see if I could meet you face-to-face, instead of just through a mirror. So I thought, maybe this way…”
There was an awkward silence.
Naru lowered his hand and let out a sigh. “If you ever pull something like this again, I swear, I will exorcise you.”
“Naru!”
“I guess that’s fair,” Gene smiled weakly. “It is good seeing you again, though. Despite the violence.”
“And? Can you undo this?” Naru crossed his arms, with an unspoken ‘you’d better.’
“I’ll try my best.” Gene turned to Mai. “I’m really sorry, Mai. I didn’t mean to subject you to my brother’s subconscious for that long.”
“Oh, it’s okay,” she said, blushing a little. “It was, um…interesting.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Naru huff and look away. A little bit of regret settled in her heart.
——
Mai and Naru saw Gene out at the doorway to their compartment.
“Just sit still, you two. I’ll go get this figured out.” Gene wandered off down the corridor.
As they watched him go, Mai gripped the door frame for support.
“Hey, Naru?” she asked. “Before we wake up…can I ask you something?”
“What?”
“Do you ever dream about me?”
Naru hesitated.
She already knew the answer. And judging by the look on his face, he knew that she knew.
“Sometimes,” he admitted.
Mai knew that wasn’t necessarily a good thing, as she’d seen before. But judging by how unphased he’d looked seeing her in his dream the first time, she hoped those instances didn’t all become nightmares.
In the myth, narcissus rejected the nymph echo, dooming himself to a fate of falling in love with his own reflection. in my interpretation, naru is both narcissus and echo. he cherishes his brother, his reflection, first and foremost but once he is faced with the matter of love—love for oneself or love for another—this creates a dilemma. he believes he must let go of gene before giving in to love.
Left at a standstill, naru has no choice but to question himself constantly, echoing his own thoughts to make sense out of everything. the accumulation of doubt and heartache leaves him with an incurable illness—the hanahaki disease.
“Is he going to be okay…” Gene asked, huddled in a warm blanket the paramedics had given him.
Mai nodded, “It seems so. They’ve got him stable. He just has to go to the hospital to get that knife removed.”
“Oh, thank god…” Gene sighed.
Mai offered a tiny smile before looking at Oliver. He had refused to allow anyone to look him over. Mai couldn’t say she was surprised. That’s… just how he was.
“Hey Naru,” Oliver looked at Mai as she spoke, “you did a good job. I’m glad you came out okay.” Her cheeks were tinted with a slight pink.
Taking a moment to consider his words carefully, Oliver nodded and returned Mai’s smile. “You know I’m always good at my job.”
Mai stuck her tongue out at Oliver, “Well, sorry that I was so worried about you, Dr. Narcissist!”
“You just can’t let a moment be, can you, Noll,” laughed Gene.
Oliver looked from Gene to Mai. He continued smiling as his eyes appeared to soften.
“Thank you, Mai.”
…line break…
“Ah… I see. So, the last set of remains we have belongs to a teenager named Sakauchi?” Yasu asked Mai. He tried to sit up, but Mai quickly scolded him before resting a hand on his shoulder.
“Yeah. Gene said that was the name of the guy that was there before him. Supposedly Gene saw what happened. Naru’s got a team working on a partial facial reconstruction to compare with the photo in missing persons.” Mai glanced at the anthropologist. He sipped on his tea and nodded.
“And what about the other remains? Do we have any idea how many people died?”
“No,” Oliver answered. “We have no way of identifying them. As for a body count, it is impossible to know. I’m sure if a field team went out to his dumping ground they would find traces of remains. But, if I were to guess, he easily had over forty victims. Possibly even more.”
Mai held a hand to her head, “It’s so sad… that he got away with it for so long.”
“I agree,” Yasu said, “but think about it. He can’t hurt anyone else. This whole saga is over.”
“Yeah. Thank god.” Mai glanced at Oliver as he took another sip of tea. When he caught her ogling at him she turned her face away and blushed profusely.
“Well, looks like you two sorted everything out. I’m a bit sad I missed it,” Yasu simpered.
“I have no idea what you’re-”
“Yes. I believe we’ve fixed things.” Oliver placed his hand over Mai’s. The young woman’s face grew darker in color.
“I don’t think I was made aware of this!”
“Ah, still dense as ever,” Gene called from the door. He held out a bouquet of flowers. “Sorry I’m late. Had my first appointment with the psychologist…
“No need to apologize. You brought flowers for me, after all,” Yasu quipped.
“And who said they were for you? Maybe I brought them for Mai?” jeered Gene.
“Oh please, I saved your ass.”
“And Mai saved yours,” Oliver reminded Yasu.
Gene set the flowers in the vase on Yasu’s bedside, ignoring his brother, “But you know, I don’t mind giving you a piece of my ass as a thanks. Once you’re out of here, anyway.”
“Huh…?” Mai looked dumbstruck.
“Oh for god’s sake Mai, you’re a detective,” Oliver rolled his eyes.
Mai put a finger in Oliver’s face, “And you knew?! Then…then why did you say that?! We could have avoided all this drama had you not been so stupid!”
“Hey Mai,” Gene patted her shoulder, “remember that Noll is just as thick as you, oaky?!”
“Oh, he’s thick alright!”
Yasu coughed, “Anyway… Thanks for the flowers. Means a lot.”
Facing Yasu, Gene beamed, “No problem! Really, I should be indebted to you for the rest of my life.”
“Maybe we can make that arrangement,” Yasu wiggled his eyebrows.
“Okay… I’m out…” Mai clapped her hands together as she stood. “I’ll be seeing you guys later.”
Oliver followed after Mai as she exited the room. He glanced at his brother and nodded before pulling the door shut.
“Mai,” he called.
The woman spun around, “Yeah?”
“Why don’t we go and get lunch while those two idiots entertain each other?”
Mai frowned as she tapped a finger to her chin, “Hmm… I don’t know…” She then grinned before nodding, “Alright. But you’re buying!”
Autistic people do not like being touched, primarily because of sensory stuff. For example, I am very sensitive to bright lights, I don’t like them, they hurt me. For others, physical contact is the same.
Also, in the notes, they talk about stimming and how Oliver does his finger-tapping thing.
They mention how Oliver is avoiding eye contact (autism) and also about how Oliver is told he has a ‘bad personality’. A lot of autistic people are told they are rude because they do not understand social interactions, and thus they have a bad personality. Eye contact is just horrible. It’s uncomfortable and unnecessary like 99% of the time.
The Evidence:
My sources
I have re-read the all the manga in the last few days to take a hell of a lot of pictures of evidence. I have a few general points I want to make:
· Oliver never makes small talk, he only talks about work,
· He info-dumps during and at the end of every case,
· It’s hard to tell with eye contact in manga, but he’s often looking down/away when talking to people,
· He’s logical,
· He often says a thing, then reiterates in different words,
· He says “I see” so often.
None of the above points will be conclusive proof, only a real diagnosis would be, but they’re all evidence.
In my diagnosis, a lot of things could be explained away as being something else, but the culmination of everything leads to the result.
X~X~X
I’ve probably missed stuff and not explained other stuff well, please send me questions, I’m happy to answer things as best I can. Tumblr has an autism community, search for “actuallyautistic” and do some reading, lots of people share!
(idiomatic) An issue to pursue with wholehearted conviction and/or single-minded focus, with little or no regard to the cost.
X~X~X
And so our story begins…
Okay, so if you’ve been around the fandom on Tumblr/Fanfiction.net, you will probably have seen me write “Oliver is autistic, I will die on this hill” on a post or story. If you have not, then, you have now. Congrats.
I came to this revelation maybe three years ago now. I had been in a discussion with some fandom friends and something in the conversation had made me wonder if Oliver was autistic.
We’ve all seen the cliche representations of autistic people in the media, especially those coded as such without explicit confirmation. For example, Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory. These characters are often there for comedic value, where we, the audience, laugh at them for their disability. The shows get away with it because they never explicitly state the character is autistic.
I’m getting off track already.
So after the discussion mentioned before, I went away and began my research - to Google! Now, I have to admit, part of my curiosity regarding this matter is because I have been told I write Oliver well. Personally, I feel I write him a little OOC, but I like how I write him so it doesn’t bother me. I write Oliver as a version of myself. So my thought patterns at the time were that if Oliver was autistic, could I be too?
Oh yes, you thought you were just here for an educational piece about autism? Nope, you’re getting the whole damn story as to why I will die on this hill.
So I did my research and I found lists of signs of autism. I devoured internet articles and soon it was all I was interested in. I even bought a book titled ‘Aspergirls’ by Rudy Simone (who is autistic). If any of you read this piece and start wondering if you’re autistic (and you’re female, more on gender later!), I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I literally cried reading it.
The signs!
Okay so what are all these signs, let’s start a list! Autistic people can have:
Rituals that they refuse to change,
Odd or repetitive movements,
Unusual sensory reactions,
Be clumsy or awkward,
Nervous in large social groups,
Have a hard time making friends,
Speak in unusual ways or with an odd tone of voice,
Talk only about themselves/their interests,
Have narrow, often obsessive interests,
Want to be alone, or want to interact but not know how,
Avoid eye contact,
Have a hard time understanding body language,
Have trouble understanding other people’s feelings or talking about their own feelings,
Poor/abnormal posture, often sit on chairs oddly,
Trouble with left, right and other directions,
Large or unique vocabulary,
Lack of organisation,
Intense compassion/empathy,
Intense anger or no anger at all,
Connections with animals,
Difficulty understanding pop culture, styles, trends, etc.
Rigid in their ways,
Easily distressed,
Delayed speech and language,
Lack of imitation of others or imaginative play,
Indifferent to the feelings of others,
Sensitive to light and sound,
Self-stimulatory behaviours (stimming)
Echolalia (repeating or echoing words or phrases)
Unusual emotional responses,
Meltdowns,
Responds adversely to physical affections,
Does not initiate conversation,
Very poor diet,
Frequently walks on tiptoes,
Socially withdrawn/socially awkward,
Self-injurious behaviour,
Makes irrelevant remarks,
Difficulty with abstract language and concepts,
Need for sameness,
Severe upset when routines are disrupted,
Attachment to unusual objects,
Fascination with spinning objects,
Good memory for repeating lists or facts,
Unlikely to discriminate against someone on basis of race/gender/age etc.
Unlikely to give superior status to the wealthy or those high up in an organisation,
Have their own set of values,
Can hyperfocus,
Struggle to separate themselves from their work,
Lack the ability to filter information received,
Alexithymia - the inability to describe emotions in a verbal manner,
Likes patterns, putting things in order,
Often limits diet,
Often wears the same clothes,
Black or white thinking,
Auditory processing disorder…
Okay, I’ll stop there. I could probably go on if I wanted to, because although I’ve written a lot of things there, these are all manifestations of the clinical diagnosis criteria.
X~X~X
Diagnostic Criteria for 299.00 Autism Spectrum Disorder
Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, as manifested by the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive; see text):
Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.
Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviours used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures; to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication.
Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understand relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties adjusting behaviour to suit various social contexts; to difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends; to absence of interest in peers.
Specify current severity:
Severity is based on social communication impairments and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour.
Restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, or activities, as manifested by at least two of the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive; see text):
Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech (e.g., simple motor stereotypes, lining up toys or flipping objects, echolalia, idiosyncratic phrases).
Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behaviour (e.g., extreme distress at small changes, difficulties with transitions, rigid thinking patterns, greeting rituals, need to take same route or eat same food every day).
Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (e.g., strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interests).
Hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment (e.g. apparent indifference to pain/temperature, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects, visual fascination with lights or movement).
Specify current severity:
Severity is based on social communication impairments and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour.
Symptoms must be present in the early developmental period (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities, or may be masked by learned strategies in later life).
Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning.
These disturbances are not better explained by intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder) or global developmental delay. Intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder frequently co-occur; to make comorbid diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability, social communication should be below that expected for general developmental level.
Note: Individuals with a well-established DSM-IV diagnosis of autistic disorder, Asperger’s disorder, or pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified should be given the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Individuals who have marked deficits in social communication, but whose symptoms do not otherwise meet criteria for autism spectrum disorder, should be evaluated for social (pragmatic) communication disorder.
So I went to my doctor after all of this reading. I was convinced. Nothing had ever made so much sense to me in my entire life as reading about autism.
I was, at this point, what people in the autism community call “self-diagnosed”. Now I was lucky, I could go on to get a “proper” diagnosis. Not everyone is as lucky. Many doctors do not believe that girls/women can be autistic. Many doctors do not believe that ethnic minorities can be autistic. Many doctors do not believe adults can be autistic. In some countries, people do not have free healthcare and so they cannot afford a diagnosis. There are many reasons why people can’t/won’t get diagnosed.
The point I’m trying to make is that if you see someone posting about being self-diagnosed, don’t be all “oh but a doctor hasn’t said it so you’re not”, because that person does not need your doubt and it does not help anyone. Their self-diagnosis helps them to navigate their life and it does not hurt anyone. Honestly, the amount of people that are “wrong” about their self-diagnosis is probably very small, and those that are probably have some other kind of neurodivergent condition such as ADHD.
Anyway, my doctor gave me a form to fill in, a questionnaire. A series of questions aimed very much at the male expression of autism. I felt horrible at the time, because I knew exactly how to answer these questions to fill the boxes required. I knew because I had read so much about autism that I knew what they wanted to hear.
I filled it in honestly. I scored highly enough anyway.
My doctor did not know who to refer me to. She had never had to refer an adult before. She asked around and found out what to do; I got put on a waiting list.
A while later, at work, I found out I could get tested privately and work would pay for it. Oh, how I love my job. I spoke to someone who had been the manager of another employee who had gone through the process. That helped.
I talked to the man who was supposed to be the disability advisor, he made me fill in the same questionnaire that my doctor did. I filled it in again.
I was on another waiting list.
The advisor had also recommended me a book, which I bought and read and hated. The language used very much implied that I would never be ‘great’, just ‘coping’. It was written by a neurotypical person. I told the advisor by email that this book was stupid and damaging. He did not reply.
Months later, the private assessment happened. I spent an entire day with a clinical psychologist and a speech and language therapist. My parents and manager came too. I answered questions, had to explain things to them, made up stories with random objects. My parents, mainly my mother, talked about my childhood.
At the end of it all, they decided I was autistic.
I was ecstatic.
The day before, a person at work said I was a hypochondriac. One of those people who read about conditions on the internet and convince myself that I have them. I still do not talk to that person.
Finally, everything made sense. Finally, I had a reason why people made fun of me for reasons I could not fathom. Finally, my weirdness had a name.
X~X~X
The Gender Issue
So there is a ‘gender issue’ with autism and it’s diagnosis. Everything is aimed at young (white) boys. It’s designed for the stereotype of the young boy who likes to collect trains. And that’s why there are five times as many autistic boys in comparison with girls.
People of colour, women and girls are very often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.
Generalised anxiety disorder, depression, OCD, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, various eating disorders, borderline personality disorder, ADHD…
The list goes on.
Now, that’s not to say many girls don’t have these things. Often they do. But often they have those and autism.
I very much doubt there is five times as many autistic boys. I think there are just a hell of a lot of women and girls who are undiagnosed.
Why this disparity? Well, autism presents differently in girls, or perhaps, society sees it differently.
When a young boy is quiet and withdrawn, happy to play by themselves, something is wrong. When a girl is quiet and withdrawn, she’s just shy. There’s also a lot of evidence to suggest that girls are a lot better at masking their autism.
Essentially, due to the societal pressure on young girls, they hide their autism and mimic their peers. That’s why the most common time for a woman to get diagnosed with autism is when she has children of her own and they’re getting diagnosed.
Is it genetic? There’s no strict evidence of an ‘autistic’ gene, I don’t think. But its quite common. When I was getting tested, I gave the previously mentioned book to my mother and said, “Hey, can you read this, I think I have this”. My mother read the book and told me she thought she had given it to me. She got tested two months ago.
I also look at my father and see many of the traits. But he has no interest in getting tested.
If you’re intersted, google “autism in girls” or something similar, there are plenty of resources.
The result
So I have my diagnosis, my work is fully informed. I am now protected by the Disability Act. I can’t use disabled parking spaces, but some autistic people can, if they need it.
What does this mean for me? It means that my employer has to make adjustments for me to make me comfortable for work. Changing the lighting, giving me a quiet place to work, working with me on deadlines and stuff. They know now (officially) that I have issues with auditory processing, and that they should take that into account.
I’m lucky, my employer has been good about this, and it is in their interest to. Autistic people can be an asset to any company. They are often experts in their chosen field and will work solidly on stuff they enjoy.
Lots of autistic people are not as lucky. They are one of the highest unemployed groups. Workplaces are full of unwritten rules that are hard for autistic people. This brings me on to…
Autism Acceptance Month
April is Autism Acceptance Month. You may see this as Autism Awareness Month in some places. But I don’t like that. “Awareness months” and “awareness days” are often reserved for horrible diseases like cancer, for which we want a cure.
There are a lot of resources out there from damaging institutions this month, such as Autism Speaks. They are advocating for a cure and also promote ABA (a type of ‘therapy’ that is disgusting and should not be allowed). If you take anything from all this, please do not support Autism Speaks.
There is no cure for Autism. It is a developmental disorder. It’s not a disease.
Of course, I cannot talk about autism without mentioning the vaccines!
In the 90s, about 1 in 150 children were diagnosed with autism, by the early 2000’s, this went up to 1 in 68. One of the big things that had changed in this time was the number of vaccines children had.
There have been many studies regarding autism and vaccines. And there was one that said there was a link between autism and vaccines. In this study, there were 12 subjects.
Now I do statistics for a day job. So I can tell you categorically, that 12 subjects for a study is not enough for decisive proof. The person who did this study was struck off and rightly so.
But the media got hold of this idea.
And so the anti-vaxxers rose up, refusing to vaccinate their children from deadly diseases because obviously, being autistic was worse than being dead.
In summary, vaccinate your children.
Side note, I, as an autistic person, am allowed to make jokes about vaccines. For example, I received some vaccinations before travelling and joked with the nurse that I was ‘topping up my autism’. This is funny because we both knew it was wrong.
‘Autistic person’ vs ‘person with autism’
This one is a tricky one. I’ve seen arguments both ways.
‘Person with autism’ puts the person first, but also makes the autism sound like an accessory.
‘Autistic person’ puts the disability first, but you can’t separate the person from the autism, it’s intrinsic to who they are.
Basically, this is up to the person. If they prefer one way or the other, use it. It’s like pronouns, you use what the person you’re talking about asks you to use.
Personally, I’m not too fussy, but I lean towards ‘autistic person’.
Asperger’s vs Autism
Asperger’s was merged into the general Autism diagnosis criteria a while back. Asperger’s is what is sometimes called ‘high functioning autism’. The autism community do not like the term ‘high functioning’ because it denies aid, in the same way that ‘low functioning’ denies agency. The criteria for ‘low functioning’ is having an IQ under 70. So it’s quite broad.
Also people who have been classified as ‘high functioning’ don’t necessarily function well in everyday life without help.
Also, Hans Asperger’s was a bit of a knobhead, so a lot of people don’t like using his name.
Headcanons
A headcanon is a fan’s personal, idiosyncratic interpretation of canon, such as habits of a character, the backstory of a character, or the nature of relationships between characters. The term comes from the fact that it is the canon that exists in a fan’s head.
So when I say ‘Oliver is autistic’, this is my personal headcanon. Do I want it to become fanon? Yes, of course, I do. In the same way, I love that Yasuhara x Gene has become popular (for which I take full responsibility).
But if you disagree with it, that’s fine. You’re allowed to do that. I will not think any less of you for it. Because at the end of the day, the author has not come out and said ‘Oliver is autistic’.
Personally, as an autistic writer, who has always written some of her characters as autistic, whether she knew it or not, I suspect the author of Ghost Hunt might be an undiagnosed autistic person. Because Oliver is not the only person I recognise traits in… But that’s for another day.
If you only take one thing away from reading all of this, then let it be this:
If you’ve met one autistic person, that’s it. You have met ONE autistic person.
Hello all! I thought it would be interesting to see a follow-up to the previous Ghost Hunt survey(results) with some additional questions. Since the original creator is no longer around, I decided to create my own survey. :)
This survey is open to anyone who has seen and/or read Ghost Hunt by Fuyumi Ono and Shiho Inada. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to answer.
I’d like to reach as much of the fandom as possible, so a reblog/share would be greatly appreciated! Share a link to this post if you know of anyone who is familiar with Ghost Hunt, but perhaps not on tumblr. Thank you!
71 responses so far. Thank you for filling out and sharing! :D
Hello all! I thought it would be interesting to see a follow-up to the previous Ghost Hunt survey(results) with some additional questions. Since the original creator is no longer around, I decided to create my own survey. :)
This survey is open to anyone who has seen and/or read Ghost Hunt by Fuyumi Ono and Shiho Inada. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to answer.
I’d like to reach as much of the fandom as possible, so a reblog/share would be greatly appreciated! Share a link to this post if you know of anyone who is familiar with Ghost Hunt, but perhaps not on tumblr. Thank you!
This challenge is a creative and low-pressure exercise to create textual, visual, and audio(visual) works based on words from the Glossary of Parapsychology and/or the Glossary of Psi. The deadline is a half year from now on.
Deadline for prompts: December 15th, 2017 Assignments due: January 15th, 2018
Rules and guidelines
This challenge is restricted to the Ghost Hunt fandom.
It’s possible to sign up with and claim the word that you personally wish to write. Do not re-prompt words as it’s possible to claim a prompt more than once.
We started posting our fanfiction recommendations on fanfiction appreciation day last year. So we figured this year for ffr day we should list out all of our recommendations thus far in one handy referenceable place. So here you go, happy reading…
Last year GHHQ members had a lot of fun crafting works for the twins’ birthday so we decided to do it again. This year we are opening things up to the fandom to create works with us!
What can you make?
Theme
The Davis Twins in general
The Twins’ birthday in particular
Special yearly theme…
Since this is our first year as a community event this year’s theme is Firsts; first anything(in the realm of SFW). Some example of firsts for the twins or for anyone in GH include.
First night in…
First time at…
First meeting with…
First time (action)…
All types of fan works are welcome!
Fan Art; including drawings, aesthetics boards, text manipulations
Fanfiction
Whatever you want to make
The only rule is, keep it SFW
How do you participate?
Create your work
Post your work on your tumblr on September 19th with the theme you chose and the event hashtag, #davistwinsbirthday
GHHQ will be following the tag and will reblog tagged posts.
Please tag your work with the hashtag #Davistwinsbirthday
If you have any questions about the even send GHHQ an ask.
It’s July 3rd and that means it is Mai Taniyama and @ghosthunthq’s birthdays!
While it wasn’t planned this way when we started, GHHQ is very happy to share a birthday with the protagonist of Ghost Hunt!
We are one year old today and we want to thank the 231 of you who have followed us in this the inaugural year of GHHQ.
To do so GHHQ is offering a fan art giveaway contest.
Reblog this post by end of day on Sunday, July 9th and you will be in the drawing to get a custom made Ghost Hunt Fan art based on your prompt.
(Our artists ask that you please keep things SFW, so no nudity or crazy gore, but we are all about spooky!)
It has been a great year, we have hosted online exchanges, promoted fan works, and even provided some of our own.
We are working on some more big projects and we hope to have even more content for you in the upcoming year. See below for this year’s proposed schedule of GHHQ content.
Recurring events:
Posts EVERY THURSDAYwe will be alternating between: Fic Reviews/Recommendations & Fan Art (including drawings, aesthetics boards, and textpost images)
Once Monthly: Ghosts Against Humanity, its Cards Against Humanity with a Ghost Hunter twist. Game dates will be announced on the tumblr page and all are welcome to attend.
GHHQ Event Schedule:
August:Fanfiction Author Appreciation Day! We will be compiling a master post of all of our fic reviews so far and maybe more depending on what life throws at us.
September 19th: The Davis Twins’ birthday! This year we are opening things up to the fandom to create works with us! Essentially, you the creator will post your work with the tag on the day of. There is always a theme of the twins in general and their birthday and we will have a unique theme for this year’s event as well.
We will have more information in a follow-up post in the next few weeks.
April (First or Second Weekend):GHHQ’s 3rd Annual Fan Work’s exchange!
Thank you all for spending this first year with us, we look forward to many more!
Finally! Sorry it took so long. I’ve been reading and rewriting and editing John’s analysis for the nth time, and I just wasn’t satisfied until now >.< But honestly even until now—
I guess I’m just such an idiot (and extra) for these things lol But I’m just tossing it anyway, because I’ve done enough. It’s long and all, but it involves connecting things about John a bit from the original and later series as well, among other things. So I hope it helps? I just want everyone to appreciate John more~ Besides that, we haven’t gotten anything new about John after a long time… Although the short story is old…
Some of the terms, I just linked. As usual, you can verify the wiki sources yourselves. If there are terms not linked or stuff you want to know, you can send me a message~ Have fun reading~!
Thanks for the extra info! I have been living under a rock lmao XD I didn’t have the other old volumes, so I didn’t see those illustrations or the Akumu profiles.
Anyway, this completes the puzzle then! (more under the cut as well ^^)
It’s possible to sign up with and claim the word that you personally wish to write. Do not re-prompt words as it’s possible to claim a prompt more than once.
There is no minimum word count, but 500+ words would be nice.
Deadline for prompts: June 15th, 2017 Assignments due: July 15, 2017
Please follow @ghosthuntcollections to keep track of fills and any further announcements~ Thank you!
But wait, I have another announcement…!
GHHQ recs are being added to the bookmark collection!
As you probably know, the people of @ghosthunthq regularly post fanfic reviews. By now they’ve grown a significant collection of reviews and recommendations! I started adding these recs to ghosthunt_recs on AO3. Currently there are over 50 fics waiting to be bookmarked. The bookmarks will have the following note + a link to the review.
Recommended by Ghost Hunt HQ reviewer(s) [name of the reviewer(s)].
I will bookmark AO3-based fics directly on the site itself. Anything else will be added by means of an external bookmark later on. Considering the circumstances it will pertain to the majority of the bookmarks. In addition, the AO3-based works will receive an invitation to the collection. Once I have your approval your fic will be part of the works collection! :)
Wasn’t writing for the exchange fun?
Don’t you feel motivated to do more!
Didn’t write for the exchange but enjoyed reading?
