there’s a sleep “disorder” that is literally just “your circadian rhythm is inconvenient for school/work” and people with it have to take meds to make themselves sleepy earlier/later
otherwise there’s absolutely nothing wrong with their quality/amount of sleep they just don’t have a schedule that works for society
shout out to second shifters – i traded prime time for good sleep
It’s even got disorder in the name: delayed sleep phase disorder. And yes, if you have to have a “normal” schedule, it makes your life hell.
Oh, and it can run in families. Thanks Dad. 🙄
So many disabilities are disabling not because they’re inherently impairing, but because society just doesn’t make room for us
ADHD throws your circadian rhythm off, too. Most people with ADHD have a natural circadian rhythm that makes us tired from, generally, about 4am to noon – myself included. When I’m left to my own devices, those are basically the exact times I will naturally fall asleep and wake up.
“Why do kids with ADHD have so much trouble in school? Why do adults with ADHD have so much trouble keeping decent 9-5 jobs?” Well, gee, maybe because it’s hard to get any work done when our bodies are literally programmed to be asleep. How well would you perform if you had to wake up at the equivalent of 2am to go to school or work? Not well? Then imagine how it feels for us, every single day of our lives.
There’s a lot about ADHD which I hate and wish would go away, but this part? See above. Our circadian rhythm is only disabling to us because society refuses to make room for us.
Imagine Tony writing a parenting book on “how to make sure your superhero kid lives to adulthood” but everyone thinks the “superhero” part is just like an extended joke because he’s Iron Man and it becomes a #1 seller. When he does an interview about the book they’re like “it was such a creative idea to have everything be related to superheroes” and Tony is just like “no I meant that. My kid literally is a superhero” and no one ever believes him.
Chapters include:
“Obtaining your superkid: if you don’t have one of your own, adopted is fine”
“Stitches first, panic attack second: dealing with injuries”
“Bonding activities for when your kid is literally climbing the walls”
And “So, your kid broke curfew cause they were out fighting crime”
“This is our little secret: Keeping a secret identity”
“Trust is a two-way–street: Basics of communicating with teenagers (including Vine, Snapchat and other platforms)”
“Popular culture as inspiration: Battle strategies are 90 % extempore”
“Even superheroes might get sick: Breaking down NDAs, emergency first aid and symptoms”
“Don’t do anything I’d do and definitely don’t do anything I wouldn’t do: A collection of dad paradoxes tailored to a vigilante”
Your watching spiderman far from home. The after credits scene has finished and people are just starting to leave. The lights go back down and the screen lights up. Everyone stops.
The screen shows an apartment and a blonde getting out of bed in overwashed purple boxers. He has messy stubble that matches his disaster of a bedroom. He throws on an old grey hoodie and goes to the kitchen to start the coffee machine.
He was Hawkeye, now he’s just the neighbour people warn their kids about. He downs coffee straight from the pot and checks the mail. There’s the usual overdue bills, divorce papers and a large grey package. He opens it to discover a plastic case the entire front filled with a loud font. “a dummies guide to Budapest”.
Great which idiots idea of a sick joke is this.
He opens the case and discovers its an audioguide. Throwing the CD on he continues to drink from the coffee pot not a clean mug in sight. The CD begins filling the apartment with classical music. It ends abruptly.
Scrambling to stop the CD he manages to reach for the plastic case. The CD stops and he examines the case. There’s a postcard from Budapest. He turns it over to find the words “Did you miss me?” written in a swirling calligraphy that can only belong to one person. He pales before laughing as he sees a silver arrow necklace taped to the bottom. “you little-” he begins but the footage cuts before he can cuss her out.
Its replaced with the words “Natasha Romanoff will return in” and the black widow movie logo. Toxic by Britney Spears is playing. The audience erupts. Somewhere in the distance, Joss Wheldon is crying.
I think the important difference between aziraphale and crowley’s relationship with gender is that like. aziraphale is simply agender. he likes presenting as male, but past that doesn’t really have a concept of gender in relation to his own identity. gender exists on a different plane of reality from which he has entirely separated himself. while crowley actively embraces the idea of gender nonconformity and deliberately uses the fact that he’s nonbinary to present however the hell he wants to. neither have a gender in the conventional human sense, but crowley has a much more involved relationship with the concept of gender exploration and presentation than aziraphale does, whose overall attitude is just like “whatever. I don’t even go here”
as @thevioletsunflower put it, and deserves to be shared with the world: Aziraphale’s gender is “heavens no”. Crowley’s gender is “Hell yes”
Ok but Crowley is the reason Sherlock Holmes is so enduring.
No no, bear with me.
The first stories come out in The Strand. Crowley, newly woken from his near-century of sleep, reads them in Aziraphale’s copy, and really likes them. Aziraphale, who moves in literary circles, offers to introduce him to Doyle.
Crowley is very excited, and when they meet wrings Doyle’s hand and go on about how much he likes the stories.
Doyle, of course, is a rude bastard, and dismisses Crowley’s praise. He doesn’t like the character, he’s not interested in what people like Crowley think to him.
Crowley is initially tempted to destroy him, and ruin his career, but then realises he can get better revenge than that. He makes the popularity of the stories and books blow up. He puts them everywhere. He makes Sherlock Holmes the talk of London. He finances the backstreet presses printing spin-off stories.
And he keeps it going, firing up Holmes’ popularity until Doyle is driven out of his mind, believing in fairies and hating his own work. Until Arthur Conan Doyle is only ever remembered for Sherlock Holmes, and Crowley gets unending adaptations for himself.
I have several head canons to this, most of them pertaining to Crowley and Zira staying involved in Adam’s life precisely because they’re worried about something like this, and well, they missed out on being there for him when they were supposed to be guiding him, so the least they can do is be there for him now.
But perhaps say, in a universe where that doesn’t happen, yes, I do still believe a good child/teen therapist would be able to help him with that, because Adam’s story is our story. We all have power, we can all affect the world we live in an enact change, both great and small. We all have the potential to commit dark, horrible things in the name of despair, and we all grapple with that inner demon on a daily basis. It’s a universal human truth.
But we also have a great capacity for goodness, for kindness, to strive for the light, in both defiance and hope of our despair and just keep putting one foot in front of the other because someone’s got to fix this miss, someone has to do it. And if not you then who?
And while Adam does have very real, metaphysical powers with scope beyond mortal measure, the despair he feels? The overwhelming helplessness he feels at having all that power and not knowing what to do with it, is very much a relatable human emotion. And learning to control that is also part of the human experience, and he can’t learn to be human from a demon or an angel, he has to learn it from other humans. He has to learn where empowerment begins and how not to let it turn into something awful, how to use his sway in the world for good. And that starts with solidarity, love, and hope.
It starts with his friends, his family—his real family, the people who raised him—and if he needs it, a helping hand now and then from another adult trained in how to untangle his headspace.
And maybe a little help from Uncle Anthony every now and then, and a trip out in the Bentley for ice cream sandwiches down by the coast and a chat about ineffability and what it feels like to pick yourself up after you fall. And you’ll always fall, you’ll fall lots of times. It’s only human. But so is getting back up and trying again tomorrow.
