*Skateboards into the Q&A section* Waddup, fellow nerds?

I'm sorry this is late; I have been introduced to the wonder that is Magikarp Jump and it's taking up a lot of my free time... Also, I'm just bad at staying focused. Sorry.

Namely writing and non-competitive sports like swimming. Though the latter I've been doing less as I recently started to get a bad runny nose the day after swimming, which impacted my school life. And I'm also kind of lazy. The former I haven't done too much of lately since I've been lacking time and inspiration to get started.

All the time. Most of this is due to the fact that I'm terrible at socialising with people I don't know well and I legitimately don't know how to just approach unfamiliar people and talk with them; especially if I have to ask them for something.

I was messaged by someone on Fanfiction.net who mentioned the Literature Library and I thought I might as well check this place out. Though since coming here, I've hardly used the Literature Library...

I can't speak for everyone, but I find most people are rather laid-back and there's little drama (at least, not among the people I surround myself with). Quite a lot of us have a sense of humour that involves sarcastically insulting one another and screwing with foreigners. Most people here I find are rather modest and dislike listening to other people bragging. Overall, most of the people in Australia are pretty easy to get along with.

(I'm not 100% sure what you're asking here sorry, but I'll do my best).

I don't think I look for much in my music. I'm not incredibly picky; though for some reason, I can't stand those songs that go "Be with me instead of your current S.O.! I'm so much better than them!".

I'm not very good at paying attention to my surroundings, so it's a miracle that I haven't been hit by a car or something yet. I usually don't pay too much attention to background noises, unless they're particularly loud or I'm in a crowded place; in that case it's a little unavoidable. I usually don't try to listen to a particular sound.

That's a pretty interesting question. With autism, the things that you may define as 'positive' or 'negative' factors may vastly differ between people as the extent of certain symptoms tend to vary. I find it can be a positive for me as I can focus incredibly well on certain tasks or subjects that interest me. However, I also find it incredibly difficult to focus on uninteresting areas or tasks that I'm forced to do, such as assignments and projects for school. My social skills are also hindered as I have trouble interacting with unfamiliar people and asking for help. I suppose another negative would be the stigma that surrounds autism based on a lack of understanding about the condition, but that's more of an external negative than something I cause.

Also, I know a lot of unnecessary information about Greek mythology. I don't know when I'll ever need to use any of it, but it's there.

 

Well, it's the beginning of a new day as I write this, but yesterday wasn't too great. I forgot to bring my glasses to school, so my eyes were aching until I got home. It was also raining really heavily and my umbrella ended up breaking (after I got home though, fortunately). Then I ended up procrastinating all evening and then had an existential crisis at night which stemmed from a long train of thought which makes more sense in context and I couldn't get much support from my boyfriend, who had to study for a test today.

But today is looking a lot better! I've been motivated to write for the first time in a while and I think this is the fastest I've ever written a response to this thread (I usually just open it up, answer some of the questions and leave one unanswered for a few days until I remember I should finish it).

I don't really keep up with sports, but lemme look that up just quickly...

I think they're doing alright? I can't decipher any of the scores or terms. Let's just go with 'they're doing ok'.

I do believe it's 'e'. Though I only know that because at one point, I decided to sit down and read a bunch of Sherlock Holmes stories and one of them involved breaking a code, which Holmes started with the fact that the most common symbol had to represent 'e'. The rest was a confused mess, but at least I remembered that bit.

 

Well, I'm not entirely sure how schooling works in other countries, so I don't have much to compare it to but I'll do my best. Most of my experiences are from my own schools and I'm not too certain about how it's done in other schools across the country. Be prepared for a random assortment of things I'm writing down as I remember them:

We have four breaks from school each year, all 2 weeks long except for the Christmas/Summer holidays, which is 6 weeks. School itself is pretty boring; although I like learning things, I don't like being forced to learn things. If you get under 50% in a test, you've failed, though a lot of people feel they've failed if they get under 80%. At my school, it was compulsory to partake in sport until year 12. Also at my school, it's somehow possible to do 4 major projects for the HSC (I think this is known as SAT outside of America but I'm not certain).

I can't remember too much about primary school. Despite what they say, most teachers actually do tolerate bullying. At my school, year 6 always put on a play at the end of the year that only about 10 kids actually wanted to be in and the rest would have been perfectly fine without. Most days blur into us learning grammar from textbooks with cartoony pictures of fish and maths classes once or twice a week. We have seven years of primary school (Kindergarten to year 6) and 6 years of high school (years 7-8).

In all schools I've been at, we'd have 2-3 school carnivals that are compulsory to attend: Swimming, athletics and cross country carnival. The only one I actually like is cross country as I'm better at long-distance running than short-distance anything. Basically all that happens at a carnival is you're forced to attend as some people run and you try not to slip into a coma out of boredom as the school captains desperately try to look enthusiastic. As I'm not at all interested in organised sports, these days were not at all pleasant, coupled by the fact that my friends would usually skip school on the day so I'd just spend the day reading. But some times, a teacher would come up to me and try and stop me from reading because I should be cheering for my school house. But no school I've ever been to cares about their school house, as it's basically just a colour randomly assigned to them they they need to cheer for three days a year.

Everyone has to wear a uniform at most schools. They're usually uncomfortable or ugly looking, but at least nobody mocks your fashion choice as they all look as bad as you do. The sport uniforms usually look decent, but you get in trouble if you wear it on a day you don't have sport.

You can use all the resources in the art rooms, which is pretty cool. Art students can use whatever paint, clay or expensive paper they want, which is great if you're a cheapskate like me. There's also at least one room full of old, slow computers in each school that students are free to use, through most just bring their own computers to school as they're faster and portable.

We don't have cafeterias, either. Students just sit wherever they can at lunch and either bring their own food or buy it from the canteen. I don't know if cafeterias are common in America. Are they? It seems like every school in a book or film set in America, there is one.

That's all I can really think of right now. Most school days blur into one giant blob of go to school, go to your first class, break, go back to classes, break, classes again and go home.

 

Oh, really? I sort of fluctuate between being incredibly stressed over things and not caring about the same things at all. I also tend to get incredibly stressed when someone's yelling at me, but I don't think that's too odd; most people don't like being yelled at.

I tend to get paranoid at night. It's pretty strange, as I don't believe in ghosts or demons but I'm still terrified of them. It doesn't help that my bedroom is really far away from the rest of my family's rooms, so if I do get attacked by Freddy Fazbear in the middle of the night, nobody would hear me scream.

I actually did for a little while. My dad bought an archery kit and set up a target in the backyard, so whenever we felt like it, we'd go outside and shoot things, though it didn't last too long. We still have the bow and arrows lying around somewhere though.

Penguins. They're small and cute and go waddle waddle. I want to hug one but it might peck me.

Shock and horror. The last thing I want is to be cooing over an adorable penguin, only to see it explode before my very eyes. That would most likely traumatise me. So yeah, I don't approve of exploding penguins all that much.

 

My favourite myth is either the one about Hades and Persephone, or Sisyphus' story. The former because I have a bit of a soft spot for Hades, who seems to be the villain in most media based off Greek myths despite Zeus doing way more messed up stuff than he did. Also, I really like the idea of the goddess of springtime ruling as the queen of the Underworld. And the latter because there's something hilarious about a guy kidnapping the god of death in order to avoid dying. I also think we all kind of relate to a guy who's forced to roll a boulder up a hill for all eternity.

As for my favourite creature, I think it's either the Hydra or Medusa. Or maybe Cerberus, the three-headed doggo of the Underworld. But I always found the Hydra to be pretty awesome. The poor thing was minding its own business when Heracles came around and murdered it in cold blood But yeah no, the whole 'cut off one head, two more shall take its place' power is pretty cool. I don't know how it didn't bleed to death when all those heads were being chopped off, though...

Oh nice! I always wanted to go to Canada, but I'm kind of scared of all the bears and moose. Are there bears and moose? I think there are. It must sound a little ironic, someone who's from a continent full of the most poisonous animals on Earth being scared of Canada's wildlife...

Not really. The memes generally exaggerate the danger a bit, and Australians have this joke where we make things up to scare foreigners. I have seen poisonous snakes near my house and while walking in the bush, but if you leave them alone they'll generally leave you be. Overall, the country is pretty safe and almost no people die from the venemous fauna. I think heatstroke might be a bigger issue because it can get so hot here in summer.

The only animal you need to be worried about are those drop bears, but our diet of Vegemite helps keep them at bay

 

Depends on where you live. There are more snakes in rural areas, or places near bushland. There are less snakes in the city, though I have come across a few near my house. Warmer places toward the centre and west of Australia tend to be better environments for snakes to live in.

I was horrified when I saw how big moose are in real life. They're not too dangerous though, are they? I mean, unless they step on you or something.

Oh, I love squirrels! They're small and soft and have nice tails. Raccoons and foxes are pretty cool too, but I have a slight grudge against foxes ever since one ate our chickens.

 

Yeah, there are quite a lot, though I don't know if there are any more spiders here than in other countries. There are a lot more poisonous spiders, that's for sure. There are quite a few in our house, but I don't think they're poisonous.

Yep, it's a couch right by the window in my living room. The only thing I don't like about it is that it's made of leather, so in the summer it gets really hot and you end up getting stuck to it.

What I like about Australia: Fairy bread, Vegemite, cool wildlife (even the poisonous animals), Mad Max, Steve Irwin, most people are pretty friendly, sausage sizzles, good healthcare, possums
What I don't like about Australia: It's hot. Really hot. Too much poisonous wildlife, there's always something wrong with the government, nobody can buy a house because housing prices are so high, foreign movies are released here much later so the internet spoils everything before we get to see it, swooping season, Mt Kosciuszko in summer

What I like about where I live in Australia: Good public transport, park full of dogs nearby, close to school, within walking distance of several shopping centres
What I don't like about where I live in Australia: We live right next to a golf course and I've always had this odd hatred toward golf, I need to walk up this hill right when leaving the driveway, there are all these cockatoos that live on the golf course and every few minutes as I type this, I can hear their annoying squawking

I kind of want to see a poison/electric type. Not only would it combine my two favourite types, but it'll also be immune to two common status conditions (poison and paralysis). I wonder what kind of Pokémon would have those two types... Some kind of electric snake?

 

I've got quite a lot of favourited stories on Fanficion.net, so I'm going to have to narrow it down a little bit. I'm leaving links for all of them, so if you want to check any of them out, just click on their titles.

I think my favourite Pokémon fanfic has to be Carnage Necropolis. I don't usually read fics about the anime, but I gave this one a go. It's incredibly gory and suspenseful, though it is really long.

Other completed multi-chaptered fics include No Antidote (Pokémon) and Flat Dreams (Gravity Falls).

Most of my favourite Pokémon fanfics are one-shots, like New Game, Burial at Sea and The World in Red.

There are some good fics I found a while ago that haven't been updated for years, which is a real pity. I think those among my favourites are Flying High: a Warrior's Parody (Warriors), The Starvelympics (Hunger Games), Lamentations of a Starry-Eyed Twit (Harry Potter) and Peackock's Cry (Kung Fu Panda). A weird combination of fandoms, I know.

Also, from Steven Universe, there's the one-shot Pearl and the Manga of Corruption.

I mostly read fics from Fanfiction.net, so that's all I have for now.