Augustus

31 | She/Her

Augustus used to work at a Gamestop, but moved to work at a privately owned bookstore when the local Gamestop location closed. She's full-time under the 'Hiring Manager' position, but mostly works the front register since the bookstore is rarely actually hiring.

Diehard Sonic the Hedgehog fan -- she likes making shitty art of her OCs and plays mostly on PC. She is very bad at playing the Sonic games because she has godawful reaction time and hand-eye coordination, but she makes it work. Has extensive thoughts on character dynamics and relationships. Makes fancomics for the thrill of it -- is not a good artist, but can put together a cohesive comic page so she thinks that's good enough. She's not great at stringing together narratives either, but she gets the character voices so well you almost don't mind. Posts some of them online, but not very often; still has a decent sized audience she never interacts with.

Extensive Bakugan collection. Was mostly a fan of the show, and started collecting due to that. Occasionally ropes Changeling into playing the toy game with her, but this is rare because they both acknowledge that the game experience fucking sucks. Regardless, she still won't stop collecting the things. Favorite Bakugan: Altair -- she carries it around in her pocket as a comfort item.

Augustus has a mild-moderate speech impediment. Went through a lot of speech therapy as a kid, which Improved it, but did not eliminate it. She never managed to kick the lisp, and occasionally her R and L sounds dip more into W's -- especially when she's tired/overstimulated. Also has a tendency to have "atypical" cadence/pacing when she speaks -- tends to talk very quickly, with a lot of her words bunching up rapidly and then dragging slower in other areas, giving her a very uneven rhythem when she speaks.

First word most people would use to describe her is "Obnoxious". She is always very eager to talk about the things that excite her, and is usually very bad at noticing when the person she is talking to is not interested. Voted most likely to accidentally infodump extensively to customers just trying to check out and leave. Doesn't have a very good grasp on "personal space" and tends to get too close when she isn't paying attention, but is generally good about backing up and maintaining space when reminded. Has a tendency to argue for fun, and other people can find that off-putting, since she can get pretty heated about her arguments externally while still viewing the debate as a 'bonding activity' internally. Tendency to talk too loudly and for too long, except for her small talk, which is pretty stilted. Never goes out of her way to make people uncomfortable, she'll make certain adjustments depending on the situation, but for the most part is very unabashedly herself and doesn't have a problem with telling people that they don't have to interact with her if they don't want. "We just don't get along" is a sentence that doesn't have to imply blame on either party.

Augustus has a moderate tic disorder. Most common tics: Eye Blink, Head Jerk, and Nose Scrunch. Doesn't really go through the effort of masking this, and is very blunt/up-front about it when asked, but most people honestly don't pay close enough attention to notice unless they spend extensive time with her (not because her tics are particularly subtle, just because that's how it tends to go with tic disorders, really -- more than you'd think, at least). Notable stimming behaviors are: lots of swaying / rocking back and forth on her heels, usually carries a silicone brush that she likes to brush against her face/fingertips, and hops up and down when she's excited. Doesn't often handflap because she has weak joints and it can kind of hurt, but still occasionally falls into it when she's particularly bored/understimulated.

Extremely clumsy, and has poor depth perception, so she walks into furniture/walls pretty often and is usually sporting a handful of bruises from it; also struggles with fine motor skills, so she has bad handwriting, can't draw very well, and has trouble using scissors. Usually keeps her converse loose/pre-laced so she doesn't have to fight with them very often. Very bad interoception; has to use a schedule/reminders for most body functions so she won't forget. Okay with most noises when she's calm, but they bother her more the more keyed up she gets. Bright lights give her headaches. She's mostly particular about her clothing -- refuses to wear certain fabrics/cuts, despises tight clothes, and only ever wears full pants + long sleeves because she doesn't like having a lot of bare skin exposed to the air because that's uncomfortable. Not a picky eater at all though -- she'll truly eat anything.

Has a fluctuating tolerance for actual physical contact with other people -- sometimes enjoys it, other times very much adverse to it. Experiences all of her emotions as Very Big; got in trouble a lot as a kid for "overreacting" to things, and has never really grown out of this, although adulthood has allowed her the opportunity to leave to calm down when she needs to, so it seems less noticeable. Has meltdowns infrequently, and can usually get herself somewhere safe/isolated to ride them out without much trouble even though she won't always consciously notice she's getting overstimulated until she's already on the edge.

Augustus still lives with her dad -- she pays rent to occupy a room in the basement. They do not get along especially well; her dad thinks she should be "trying harder" to mask, which Augustus is largely disinterested in doing. She does tend to make more concessions with him than she'd make for anyone else, though -- mostly in regards to censoring some of her autistic traits, interests, and gender. She does still depend on him for certain life demands (in particular, Doing Dishes, among others). Part of the reason that she is not fully 'out' about her gender identity, nor seeking medical transition, is because she relies on him enough that she can't afford to risk their relationship, and doesn't believe that he'd take it well. She could probably live alone and take care of herself okay, but it would be hard for her, and she's not sure she's comfortable risking it and not being able to take it back if she's wrong.

She met Changeling when she still worked at the Gamestop, after its mom decided it needed to spend more time outside of the house and made it go. She wandered over and wound up sparking a debate about Naruto that lasted for over thirty minutes, and eventually culminated in Changeling giving her its number so that they could continue the conversation after its mom picked it up. They've been hanging out ever since. When Augustus finally moved to work at the bookstore, she recommended Changeling for a part-time position, and aligns their schedules so that she can drive it home after its shifts. They spend a lot of their interactions with each other arguing and at least mildly irritating one another -- socially and autistically -- but are extremely close and mildly codependent. Most miscommunication in their relationship tends to come from Augustus' inclination to take people at face value and lack of curiosity -- if something genuinely bothers her, she'll say something or ask about it, but for the most part is willing to just roll with whatever impulses or odd behaviors that Changeling exhibits, under the assumption that if it meant something deeper, it would tell her (it would not). They do also tend to be kind of antagonistic with one another, but they are fully on the same page about it being steeped in affection, regardless of what it looks like to outsiders.

She met Tiffany much later, when the two of them both happened to go over to Changeling's house one afternoon. Immediately started to get along very well because of the way their respective autism just happens to line up (Augustus is very bad with understanding tone, which works out since Tiffany is very bad at coming across as anything other than 'kind of bitchy'; Augustus is bad with personal space, Tiffany likes the claustrophobia/physical contact; Augustus enjoys talking at length about things regardless of her audience's participation, and Tiffany doesn't mind half-listening while scrolling through social media on her phone; etc.). They tend to butt heads the most over art -- Tiffany as an artist is set on improving her skills and being 'good' at it in a way that Augustus couldn't care less about for her own art. Tiffany reads Augustus' sonic fancomics and says "You're bad at this! Don't you want to practice and improve and make Good Art?" and Augustus is like "No <3". It drives Tiffany a little up the wall about it every time, because that's The Wrong Way To Do It, but the real "Gotcha" of Augustus' argument is that Tiffany just happens to be bad at drawing Sonic -- "Can you draw my character better then?" and Tiffany is forced to do a little seethe about it because the answer is "no".