A ghost in the attic (a bird on the stairs) is a burgeoning new OC project of mine that I have been working on lately. While not entirely dissimilar to my other large project -- "I'm not supposed to say "I love you"" -- in that it is very much about deeply strange people and the ways we live life and look after one another, it is a new direction as well: a little more complex, more experimental, and more Mad.

I've been wanting to work in more complex, unstable places lately. Difficult symptoms and experiences, trauma, grief and instability -- a lot of works that deal with these topics tend to have a very narrow idea of what "healing" looks like, and it's not one I'm particularly interested in. While I consider this a much more "angst" focused story, I do intend for it to have a "happy ending" -- one very much inspired by antipsychiatric, disability justice, and mad pride visions of the future. That said, content warnings for: Self harm, psychosis, psychiatric trauma, suicidal ideation, and religious themes/imagery.

I'm in the process of overhauling what I have for this project so far; this entire project is still a work in progress, so character details and the overall narrative are subject to change in big ways as I decide what I want to do with all of this!!! I'm currently thinking of something a little more inspired by books like "Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice" / "Soteria" / "Accidents of Nature". Something about mad-disabled spaces and interdependence and psych abolition and creating ways of living that are actually accessible and safe, even if they seem strange to abled-NT people.

AIDA

Aida Villanueva is a 28 year old woman who spends most of her time outdoors, particularly in the grove street she grew up in. Highly in tune with various spirits, aliens, and extradimensional beings -- generally considers them to be helpful presences, albeit occasionally annoying. She's not particularly extroverted, but can be very open and chatty when she feels like it. An eternal optimist, wears her heart on her sleeve, and enjoys looking after people in her own unique way. Still, people largely find her slightly off-putting, but this doesn't put her out so much.

Aida is very sensitive to 'signals', hears voices and sounds, and is quite preoccupied with the spirituality and animism of Nature. Most of the voices she hears are disjointed and fleeting, but does consistently hear the voice of her late Abuela Bella — who passed away a few years ago. Very prone to sensory overload and is particularly sensitive to electronic noise and humming — lights, fans, etc. In contrast, loves the sensory experience of being wrapped up in the sun and wind, and hearing the birds and leaves. Acknowledges her experiences as "unusual", but does not particularly consider herself to be "crazy" — just Sensitive/Spiritual.

Ostensibly an artist, but doesn't always do a lot of art. Does keep nature journals, but often just sits outside and enjoys the act of sitting outside without having to justify it by Doing Work about it. When she does make art, she works a lot with watercolors and linocut block printing. Gives most of her finished pieces to her older sister, Belle, who sells them at the front counter of the Taxidermy shop. Aida is also employed by several other local businesses/office buildings to stop by and look after their office plants.

VERONICA

Veronica Reyes is a 49 year old woman; she's around 5'6", and has curly hair she doesn't particularly style or take care of — mostly only occasionally cuts it to keep it out of her eyes. She's relatively polite and unflappable, but also a little defensive at baseline, so she's not exactly Friendly per se. Largely prefers to keep to herself and avoid catching other people's attention.

Experienced her first psychotic episode while in college and has had a handful more throughout her life since. Struggles a lot with post-traumatic symptoms caused by her experiences being incarcerated in psychiatric hospitals. terse and unwilling to speak too freely or allow people to get too close, she's extremely preoccupied with attempting to mask her more unusual thoughts and behaviors in order to keep herself safe from further involuntary commitments. Is usually distressed less by her unusual experiences in and of themselves, but very distressed by what they "mean" (ie, how they 'allow' other people to mistreat her.)

Bit of a Video Game Nerd, more interested in Achievements, game mechanics, and completionism than the stories of the game — when she's info-dumping about her games, she's talking about item locations rather than the plot or characters. Particular fan of the Resident Evil games, RE4 is her favorite of the series. Unfortunately, she's stuck spending most of her days as a receptionist — not a job she's particularly fond of.

BELLE

Anabel "Belle" Villanueva is 32 years old, she's 5'11" and dresses a bit like Miss Frizzle, if Miss Frizzle was obsessed with taxidermy and clowns rather than early childhood education. Quirky prep energy off the charts — loud, unabashedly Weird, and often overly eager.

Belle is autistic, but slips by unnoticed most of the time — not that she masks as NT particularly well, just that she plays up the Weird enough that most people don't look past it. Doesn't struggle as much with sensory issues, but becomes significantly more sensitive to things when already upset or stressed out — usually "the straw that broke the camel's back" kind of an issue than a constant stressor in itself. Extremely bad at reading social cues; cannot read most people's facial expressions or tones, and often does not understand sarcasm or subtlety. Compensates for this mostly by dominating conversations and being blunt about demanding other people be blunt back to her. It doesn't necessarily make her well-liked, but she's not particularly interested in Being Social — at least, not the same way Clarisa is. Belle is more content to have a select few friends she interacts with, and is content enough to scrape by merely "tolerated" by most other people she has to interact with.

Absolute vulture culture enthusiast. Means she's a bit "strangely obsessed" with Death, but also means that she lucked out by getting an apprenticeship at a local Taxidermy shop and has since taken over the business from its former owner. She does all the taxidermy work while her dad and Michelle help out with the accounting side of things. Collects bones as a hobby. Also, bit of a fan of cryptid conspiracies — Bigfoot and the Jersey Devil are her favorites, though she secretly loves the idea of one day going to the ocean and being the one to find the next modern Globster washed up on the shore.

CLARISA

Clarisa Groze is 20 years old, around 5'5", and generally prefers to wear her hair loose around her shoulders -- although sometimes she gets Aida to braid it for her. Bit of an unabashed nerd and out-going; social and enthusiastic and often a bit impatient. She wound up moving in with Belle and Aida after graduating high school, both to get some space from her slightly overbearing parents and because their house is in a better position to get access-a-ride's to the local community college where she attends classes. She also self-publishes short novels for a small profit online.

She was born with spastic quadriplegia Cerebral Palsy, which causes very limited mobility in her case. She uses a power wheelchair to get around, and has limited use of her hands (her right more than her left; she can operate a touch screen with little difficulty, but struggles significantly with grip and finer motor skills). Went through enough speech therapy growing up that she is able to speak cogently, but with a strong "accent" — her family and friends understand her well, but strangers often struggle to decipher her speech, so she tends to use an AAC device outside of the house. She enjoys being social, but occasionally struggles with a lot of frustration caused by how frequently people tend to talk over/around her rather than To her — she's not particularly shy about this and will snap/yell at people if properly provoked, although she prefers to try to be as patient as she can.

While she spends most of her free time listening to audio books (equally fond of thrillers/mysteries and cheesy romances), her biggest interest is definitely in Star Trek. Grew up watching The Original Series, and has watched every subsequent iteration of the show — although Star Trek Discovery has earned its place as her singlemost Favorite work in the franchise.

More to Come:

Michelle Glenn (Belle's girlfriend)

Snippet #1 - Veronica At Work