Wednesday Lost To Them In UNO

thread of my favorite glee gifs cause i need to delete them from my phone, but i also don't wanna lose them - pt.1

14. santana being dramatic and brittany being 100% supportive

13. whatever happened between these two bitches

12. whatever happened between these two bitches (b&w version)

11. whatever happened between these two bitches (interview version)

10. lady di playing the drums

9. this deleted scene from that never released episode

8. rachel berry as mrs. claus

—

i don't remember who the owners of the gifs are, but all credits to them!

brittany s pierce is autistic

around a year ago, i made this post about santana lopez and why i (as a neurodivergent person) view her as having adhd (among other things which i've mentioned elsewhere and plan on writing more meta about), and i think it's finally time to talk about brittany s pierce, my autistic queen, and why i view her as autistic.

firstly, i want to acknowledge that i'm not the first person to headcanon brittany as autistic. i'm nowhere near the first person to write a post about it. in fact, sue sylvester calls brittana "autistically feisty", which i think is the closest we've got to an actually autistic canon confirmation. i'd suggest reading these posts by smolbrittana and sopheadraws among others. brittany has also been written as autistic in fanfiction (the road to unicorn and there's something about santana are two of my personal favourites in terms of writing brittany as autistic in an authentic way that doesn't feel like autistic media portrayed by neurotypical people).

as i've said in other posts, i'm autistic myself and also have a background in adolescent psychology. i do not endorse diagnosing real people with anything; brittany s pierce is a fictional character and displays a lot of traits that resonate with me as an autistic person hence why i am making this post. i'm also aware that some of these things were written to be throwaway lines or comic effect but viewing them as that and viewing them through an autistic lens does not have to be mutually exclusive. also, i use identity-first language, which is generally preferred among actually autistic folks.

(trigger warning for discussion of sexual assault, as well as mention of school shooting)

sidenote but i also believe brittany to have a specific learning disability in language in addition to being autistic which will most likely require its own post.

anyway, without further ado, let's go.

poor executive functioning - brittany struggles with basic self-care tasks such as brushing her teeth and remembering to eat breakfast. it's also worth pointing out that a lot of autistic folks struggle with brushing their teeth for sensory reasons, which could be a possibility with brittany and why her teeth were in the state they were in during 2x02. i myself did not brush my teeth regularly until i got braces (when i was 15).

difficulty coping with change - this one is pretty broad and can encompass small things, such as believing in santa claus or believing that storks bring babies in her junior year of high school, and big things, such as her feelings of hopelessness and depression when she is held back a year and santana goes off to louisville.

rigid routines - writes everything with multicoloured crayon (a different crayon for every letter). she was also very particular when the planning for her wedding was taking place; was stressed out by the idea of santana seeing her in her wedding dress and felt the need to put a lot of rituals in place to alleviate her feelings of anxiety in that situation.

difficulty comprehending figurative language - brittany tends to take things people say at face value. there are a lot of examples of her misunderstanding when other people use non-literal figures of speech (e.g. "brittany, take it away"/"take what away?"). in 3x22 mercedes wishes everyone in glee club could all stay in the room together so they wouldn't have to leave and brittany suggests using the bin for a toilet and eating joe.

unusual eating habits - brittany has pica (consuming non-food items); canonically she has eaten the snowflakes at sadie hawkins, kleenex, sand in her master cleanse and the soil sue put in her and santana's lockers.

very particular narrow interests - brittany is an expert on cat diseases and (although the storyline bothers me for personal reasons) she is also exceptional at maths.

flat affect - often speaks in a monotone voice

tendency to come across as blunt or rude - this comes through in a lot of her interactions with tina and rachel, as well as in her speech to santana's abuela in 6x06 and her communication with guests on fondue for two.

inability to lie - often tells on herself, particularly in instances concerning sue and being pressured to spy on the glee club for her.

heightened sensory experiences - the one time when she notices blaine isn't in glee club because she can smell his hair gel. brittany is a great dancer (because the actress who played her was a professional dancer who worked with beyoncé) and is sensory-seeking in a proprioceptive way. she also enjoys the use of koosh pens and fidgets with them at times.

"unconventional" experiences with gender identity and/or gender expression and sexuality - research has shown that autistic individuals are more likely to identify as part of the lgbtq+ community, which brittany does as a bi woman. she has also experimented with androgynous gender expression (e.g. her senior prom outfit) and she ran for prom king.

masking - tends to have different personas depending on who she's with. she is more comfortable around santana and mercedes, but alters how she communicates with people depending on how they have communicated with her (or santana, who she's very protective of) in the past.

hyperfixations - when she's running kurt's (and later her own) campaign for president, a lot of her dialogue includes mentions of unicorns.

learning difficulties and poor experience in mainstream schooling - statistically, autistic children have poor school outcomes (and it's entirely the fault of the school system, not the children themselves). 60-70% of autistic people also have a learning disability. 56% of autistic youth in australia report being treated unfairly at school. when talking to rachel in 2x13, brittany explicitly says that teachers have told her that by not attending class, her grades might improve. as a result of the lack of support (which may have led to discomfort in asking for assistance), brittany was unable to graduate from high school with her peers.

naivety and/or childlike interests - brittany can be gullible at times (e.g. sue's baby cannons tactic). as smolbrittana pointed out in their post, she writes with crayon and plays with barbies at times.

difficulty understanding other people's points of view - the dissonance between her own understanding and expectations of sex versus artie's expectations for what his first sexual experience should be like.

unconventional ways of expressing emotions - brittany often uses lord tubbington to describe how she feels about a particular situation (often when she's upset about a situation involving santana); for example, she tells lord tubbington "you joined a gang" right after santana tells her over skype that her commitments to the louisville cardinals cheerleading team impede on her ability to talk to brittany over skype.

burnout - i've touched on this in other posts, but brittany's presentation in 5x12 and 5x13 read as her being exhausted and overwhelmed with feeling forced to pursue mathematics and not have any other creative outlet.

faceblindness - brittany mistakes a brunette girl who is a member of the prom committee for rachel, and at times confuses unique and mercedes.

love of animals - brittany has a close connection with her cats, lord tubbington and lady tubbington. research shows that autistic individuals prefer to interact with animals over humans and 80% of autistic children participated in pet therapy.

freeze response to trauma - brittany experienced a freeze response during the lockdown in 4x18, which is common in autistic people. this can be prolonged and can occur for minutes, even hours.

sexual trauma - this is unfortunately a case of glee making a joke out of serious topics and it's not an isolated incident. in 1x17, brittany (who at the time is a sophomore and therefore 15 or 16 years old), in an effort to state her case for why she should be ranked higher on quinn's arbitrary list of who are the most sexually promiscuous glee club members, mentioned that she has "made out" with mr kidney the janitor, who is presumably an adult as he is employed by the school* (also i want to point out that any relationship involving a school employee and a school student that is of a sexual nature is predatory regardless of age; for example, although puck is 18 when he has a sexual relationship with shelby, she is still in a position of power over him and by engaging in a romantic and later sexual relationship with him is a sexual predator). in 3x05, brittany later describes her first sexual experience as an "alien invasion" (and in fact the original dialogue for that scene revealed that she was 14 and the "alien" in question was a 19-year-old). research suggests that 30% of women have experienced sexual assault, and 2-3x as many autistic women are affected. an estimated 9 out of 10 autistic women have been victims of sexual assault. outside of her relationship with santana (who also canonically has experienced SA), brittany engages in hypersexual behaviour; she mentions having a "perfect record" and she mentions her sexual history as evidence of her popularity when persuading kurt to let her be his campaign manager. this can be interpreted as her way of coping with her traumatic experiences, and it becomes a problem when she uses sex as a way to help artie move on from tina, not realising that artie views sex differently than how she does.

(*also i want to point out that brittany's experiences with mr kidney could have also occurred much earlier than when she brought them up, which is even more unfortunate)

Every time Ao3 is down we met each other here

Sam: This isn't what I expected when you asked if I wanted to play The Sims with you.

Tara was too busy shoving a handful of chips in her mouth to respond, so she simply removed the door to the room the Sim is in. Sam sweated nervously as the Sim slowly died of poor hygiene.

Sam: Isn't The Sims about making families? This is...

Tara, snorting: And give up the opportunity to give mom some payback? Pass.

Sam, worried: What?

Tara: She locked me in my room a few times because I was "annoying her" lmao. I was just hungry haha. Payback's a bitch, Christina.

Sam didn't know how to respond to that. She wanted to get her hands on their mother though. Unfortunately, she had no idea where her mom is.

Sam switched her attention to the pool with no ladder and walls surrounding it. Mindy's Sim was starting to drown, and the Grim Reaper was waltzing down the sidewalk.

Sam: So why are you killing Mindy then?

Tara: She ate my leftovers yesterday.

Sam:

Tara: And she said The Babadook sucked in film class.

Sam:

Tara: ... And I want to seduce the Grim Reaper.

Wednesday and enid laying in bed facing each other.

Enid: say it again

Wednesday: I already said it alot to day.

Enid : i know but i like hearing it.

Wednesday: fine but the we go to sleep, got it.

Enid(nods)

Wednesday: sleep well. Wife

enid(squeals)

SOBBING.

Potential prompt: Sam gets hurt protecting Tara. Like badly hurt. What would happen?

“Go with grace”

i’m sorry.

————————————

“Sammy. Sammy! ¿Puedes dibujarme una flor?”

(Sammy. Sammy! Can you draw me a flower?)

Sam looked down at the little voice next to her, smiling down at her baby sister. She was working on her art project at the kitchen table, on one of the high stools. At just five years old, she was not quite big enough to reach Sam, so she used her little hands to tug on Sam’s pants for attention.

Reaching down, Sam picked up Tara and situated her on her lap. Her sister curled into her embrace, sighing peacefully. Sam reached for her pack of colored pencils, pulling it closer to Tara.

“Tú eliges los colores. Quieres un lirio o un tulipán?” she murmured, kissing Tara's hair.

(You choose the colors. Do you want a lily or tulip?)

Her sister played with the pencils, running her little hands over each one. Sam knew that Tara liked the sensation and texture of the smooth pencils, and let her sister take her time making a decision. She just held her sister, pressing her cheek into her hair. Tara always smelled like peaches. Sam was addicted.

Finally, Tara picked out a few. Blue, yellow, and purple. She handed the pencils to Sam, leaning back into her big sister, ready to watch. “Quiero un lirio, por favor,”.

(I want a lily, please)

Kissing the back of her head, Sam started to draw.

Tara watched her big sister draw, her eyes big and full of wonder. She rested her head against Sam’s chest, and with one hand on Sam’s drawing hand, gently tracing with her big sister. Art isn’t something that came naturally to Tara. She just loved watching her big sister draw.

It took a while, and once Sam started to feel Tara sag against her, sighing sleepily, she hurried it up.

“Está hecho nena. Mira,” she whispered, shaking Tara a little bit.

(It’s done, baby girl. Look).

Yawning, Tara leaned forward. Sam could practically feel the excitement vibrating from her baby sister.

“Qué bonito. ¿Es para mí?” her sister questioned, marveling at the picture.

(It’s pretty! Is it for me?).

Sam laughed, squeezing Tara affectionately. “Sí, mi hermoso cielo. Todo es para ti,” she whispered.

(Yes my beautiful sky. Everything is for you).

Tara laughed in glee, her little fingers playing with the paper. A purple tulip with blue and yellow highlights, with Sam’s work-in-progress official signature in the bottom right corner.

The two stayed there for a while, enjoying each other's comfort, staring at that picture together.

——

As Tara held her big sister’s body against her chest, she saw the tattoo. After having her sister back in her life for a whole year, Tara had never seen that tattoo. Even with the blood staining her big sister’s chest, Tara could still see it peeking out above Sam’s collarbone.

It was the very same tulip that Sam had drawn Tara years ago. The purple flower with yellow and blue highlights. With that same wobbly signature at the bottom right corner. It was a spitting image of that same flower, but on her big sister’s skin.

Sam gasped in her arms, her eyes drifting away. Tara sobbed, holding Sam tight with one arm, the other pressing on the wound that marred her sister’s chest. Her sister looked shocked, blood dripping out of the corner of her mouth. She could feel her big sister’s quick gasps and wheezing against her chest.

Desperately, Tara started talking, trying to get Sam to look at her. “¿El tulipán? Sam, ¿es ese el tulipán? Sam, mírame. Mírame. Háblame del tulipán, Sammy.”

(Is that the tulip? Sam, is that the tulip? Sam, look at me. Look at me. Tell me about the tulip, Sammy).

Sam looked up at her baby sister, her warm eyes unfocused. Despite the blood loss, Sam still looked at Tara with so much wonder and so much love. Her big sister looked so comfortable, so relaxed. It made Tara cry harder, squeezing Sam.

“El tulipán. Te quiero, Tara. I love you so much.” her big sister whispered, the corners of her bloody mouth quivering a bit.

(The tulip. I love you, Tara. I love you so much).

Tara shook her head rapidly. “No. No, Sammy. Look at me. Stay, Sammy, stay!” she pleaded, shaking Sam a bit.

The color blue and the smell of tulips will haunt Tara.

She will always hear echoes of an ambulance too late to save Sam, for the rest of her life. The feeling of her sister’s blood sticking to her skin will stain her hands permanently red.

And that flower will haunt her. But she will still get it tattooed above her collarbone. And Tara will seek danger for the rest of her short life, hoping that a bullet will bring her back to her sister.

She hopes that she goes with the same grace her big sister once did, a death softened by the blow of love. Tranquility knowing that the person they love will stay with them while they pass.

Grace.

— glee characters as social media posts/memes [pt50/?]

All For Us

Pairing: Amber x Tara

Summary: Tara realizing that Amber became Ghostface for the sake of their relationship.

Words: 1.2k

Special shoutout to @writing-rat because without you, I probably wouldn't have written this

Coming out of surgery, Tara couldn’t believe she was alive. She thought she was going to die while Ghostface was standing above her. She didn’t think she would make it through surgery, but she woke up in a dark white hospital room aching in pain, a splitting headache, and a dry throat from the oxygen. It nearly made Tara wish she had died. 

Grabbing the bedside remote, Tara hit a button to call for a nurse who promptly arrived. 

The nurse knocked before entering. “Good morning, sweetie.” She slowly approached her. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been stabbed repeatedly.” Tara answered dryly. “Can I get some pain meds?” 

“You’re scheduled for another round at nine.” 

“What time is it?” 

“A little after eight.” 

Tara nodded. “Can I have some water, please?” 

“I’ll be right back.”

The nurse returned with water and laid Tara’s phone on her bedside table. “The police did take some evidence off here, but we wanted to make sure it was charged for you.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it.” 

The nurse walked out after a short questionnaire on how she was feeling leaving Tara alone once more. She felt uneasy. 

Seeing the texts from her friends specifically Wes asking if she was ok. She sent each of them a text stating she was awake with a pounding headache. A lingering feeling of fear was setting back in as she swallowed hard and dialed her mother’s number.

The dial tone repeatedly sounded out making her eyes start watering. “Come on, please pick up.” She didn’t want to be alone right now. “Please, mom.”

The dial tone stopped to Tara’s surprise. “Mom, I-”

“You have reached Christina Carpenter, please leave-” Tara hung up before the answering machine could finish.

She threw her phone down as she let the tears fall. It had been so long since she had to experience the wave of abandonment. Her mom rarely answered. Her dad and Sam both left her. 

The only person Tara felt like she truly had was Amber, but even then it was a game of hot and cold with her girlfriend.

Without a knock, Amber rushes through the door and to Tara’s side.

“Are you ok? They’re going to find out who did this. I won’t let anyone hurt you.” She pushed herself as close as she could to Tara to hold her. “I’m so sorry, babygirl. I love you so much, I’m glad you’re still here.” She pulled back holding Tara’s head with her hands. “Am I allowed to kiss you?”

Nodding before receiving a crushing kiss.

“Why are you crying? Are you in pain? I can go track down your nurse.” 

Shaking her head. “I’m better now that you’re here.” 

The taller girl sat down next to Tara’s bed. “When did you wake up?”

“About an hour ago.” She answered, reaching out for her girlfriend’s hand.

Amber squeezed her hand. “What happened? I showed up and there were police and ambulances everywhere.” 

“I was making dinner and-” 

A knock cut her off with a police officer walking through. “Excuse me, I need to ask a few questions.”

“Ok, that’s fine.” Amber answered for the injured girl.

The officer stumbled on their words. “Alone, preferably, but if you’d like for your friend to stay.” 

“I’m her girlfriend, asshole.” 

Shaking her head and letting out a frustrated sigh. “It’s fine, Amber. It will only be a few minutes.” 

A few questions in, Tara just described what she was doing and the phone calls along with the texts. She was as descriptive as possible but started feeling her body starting to produce adrenaline. 

“Calm down, kid, we’ll find them.” He said attempting to reassure the teen. “Just one more question. Is there anyone that may want to do this to you?”

“No, I have no idea who would do this. My family isn’t around. I only have my girlfriend and friends.” 

He hummed in thought. “Be careful, there are certain people that will prey on that.”

A few more questions, medicine rounds, and their friends joining them, Tara sensed that Amber wanted to be alone with her. Her girlfriend’s nails dug into her hand as Wes asked, concerned with Tara’s safety and well-being. 

Before she left after Sam asked to speak to her alone, she leaned over and gave Tara a sloppy kiss. “Let me know if you need anything. I will not hesitate to come here.”

The gunshot rang out and Tara watched as Liv’s body flew against the wall before slumping down. She didn’t know if she had screamed or not. Her body had naturally moved itself closer to Amber for comfort with her brain not registering that the gunshot came from her. 

She was filled with disappointment when Sam admitted to why she left, Amber ignored her messages begging for her to come stay with her. 

-

“Welcome to act three.” 

In the midst of the chaos, Tara felt herself being grabbed and dragged away. Pain shot through her body from her injuries. The person who grabbed her seemed to not realize they had her bad hand either. 

Being dragged up the stairs, she closed her eyes from the pain and when she reopened them, she noticed she was in Amber’s room. A room that felt special. She had her first kiss in this room, her first experience with being drunk, and now it was going to be where she dies.

“Fuck, fuck.” Amber panted out and accidentally threw Tara to the floor. “Shit, dammit. Are you ok?” 

Tara cried out from the pain. “What the fuck, Amber?” 

Amber got down on her knees in front of the small girl. She wiped the hair out of her face. “I’m so sorry, baby. I never meant for you to get hurt.”

“Fuck you!”

“You don’t mean that. I was trying to fix this.” She got up and pulled out tape from a drawer. “I promise, you won’t get hurt. Just stay here and be quiet. I’ll come get you as soon as this is over.” She kissed Tara. “I love you.”

“Why?” She cried out. 

“Sam hurt you so much. You didn’t deserve that.” 

Shaking her head. “Amber, please.” 

“Tara, baby, this has all been for you. It was for you, for us.” 

“You killed our friends.” Tara pleaded. “Please, stop.”

The taller girl placed tape on her lips. “You’ll see, everything will be better after this.” She wrapped the tape around her arms tying them together. “I promise.” She placed a kiss on the tape covered mouth, I love you, Tara Carpenter. Until death do us part.” 

She screamed after being shoved in the closet and engulfed in darkness.

After Sam had freed her, she saw the slight hesitation before guilt flashed in Sam’s eyes. The time in her closet allowed her to review her relationship with Amber. The gaslighting and jealousy ran deep in their relationship. Despite Tara never growing feelings for Wes, the fact that he was a close friend was enough for Amber to want him dead. 

A final gunshot rang out.

Her hands were shaking. “You were a shitty girlfriend.”

Hands covered her’s as they took the gun. “It’s ok.” 

Allowing herself to break down in her sister’s arms.

Enid: I’m warning you, Bianca!

Bianca: What are you going to do? Send your girlfriend after me?

Bianca:

Bianca: Shit, you are going to do that!

Enid: Willa!

Bianca, running away: Fuck! Get out of my way!