Genshin Characters x a reader with adhd (part two!)
Summary: Your adhd may be strange, but you're convinced your (boy/girl) friend is stranger despite that.
Or, how the genshin characters react to a reader with ADHD. (Ft some lesser known aspects of ADHD)
Featuring: Hu Tao, Collei, Cyno. Can be read as romantic or platonic (except for Collei, I wrote hers only platonically)
A/n: Hey it's me again after *checks notes* about nine months. Whoops.
I don't have any crazy stories I just lost inspiration. Truth be told I had 2/3 of this already written out mostly but lost inspo and also time so it was kinda left in the drafts for a while. And I only finished writing it today with minimal proofreading so if there's mistakes no there isn't-
Anyways, you don't need to read part one to understand this, but as I said before I do use some more less known features of adhd in these hcs so i'm putting a general index of what they mean here. It's not a perfect summary but it'll give you a general idea of what it means.
And disclaimer! While I do have adhd, not everyone's adhd is the same. So what's common for me might be super uncommon for other folks with adhd and vise versa. So don't take this index or hcs as verbatim and do your own research if you don't know about something!
Executive dysfunction/ADHD paralysis: Wanting to do your job/work, but it feels like you’re physically unable to.
Food sensory issues/selective eating habits: A lot of people with ADHD are ‘picky eaters’ and refuse to eat certain foods even if it's good for them. Usually we pick foods with high sugar since it causes a ‘dopamine surge’.
Auditory processing disorder (APD): Having difficulty making out what someone is saying or processing what someone said too slowly.
Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD): Being much more sensitive to rejection or perceived rejection.
Verbal stim: Exactly the same as other stims (Like bouncing your leg or clicking a pen) but just with words. Usually being a certain phrase, sentence or singing, although any vocalization can be a verbal stim.
Time blindness: Becoming so engrossed in something that many hours can pass when it felt like a much shorter amount of time.
Intrusive thoughts: unwanted disturbing thoughts and ideas that come to mind randomly. Can either be mildly unnerving to totally distressing.
Now with that word vomit out of the way, onto the hcs!
Y'all can't tell me this girl also doesn't have ADHD.
Once you tell Hu Tao about your ADHD she'll go "ayo that sounding kinda familiar 🤨"
Whether or not she has ADHD is up to the court to decide but NONETHELESS Hu Tao can absolutely relate to at least a few of these.
Impulsive? Check. Stimming? Check. Time blindness? Check.
(Society not liking how you act? Check. /J)
If Hu Tao hasn't already latched onto some of your stims she definitely will after you tell her, even if she doesn't realize it right away LOL
You also steal some of hers <3 like her idle animation with the hillichurl song?? Yeah that.
You two don't even notice it until someone (probably Zhongli) points it out.
The amount of times you two impulsively went out is kinda impressive tbh. Either one of you will be like 'hey are you busy?' And if the other says no they're dragged off somewhere LMAO
You two always have fun though
She’s good at helping you out but her ways are kinda unorthodox
If your executive dysfunction or smthn is acting up girl will literally just. Pick you up and bring you where you need to.
“What? You need help getting somewhere and I can help! Besides, you said having others around helps you work, right?”
Stop being right about this Hu Tao how dare you /j
Really tho girl can and will just. Pick you up to get you to do something/go somewhere LMAO. Only stops if you get genuinely upset by it.
And while she’s good at helping you she’s also a bit 50/50 on what she does help you with.
If it's actively hurting you in some way she'd absolutely stop it, but if it's a bit more hehe silly goofy she'd prob just do it with you
Don't like this texture of food? Yeah her neither, let's get something else. Found something shiny and now you're distracted? She's looking at the shiny thing with you.
If you mask/Your ADHD isn't very obvious people would view you as the one who keeps Hu Tao in check which, depending on what kind of person you are, could be true but it's much better imo if you both are equally as strange
Stranger: Oh, you'll keep Hu Tao in check, right?
You, about to do the same thing as her: Yeah of course!
Tbf even if you did try to keep everything in line Hu Tao has a way to always convince you to do it her/another way instead. She knows how to trick you.
You fall for it each time 😔
"Wait. We aren't supposed to be here! We have to go to-"
"Too late! We're already here! May as well have fun!!"
If you're playful like her you two love to tease each other all the time. The amount of inside jokes y'all have is insane
As long as you're fine with it you two try to one up embarrassing each other in other people's presence LMAO
"Hey, 'Tao, remember that one time when you-"
"If you're talking about the knuckleback incident then it's not even half as embarrassing as that time you-"
You two have a relationship not many understand but it doesn't really bother either of you. As long as you're both happy you couldn't care less.
You two are little freaks of society /lh
Although, if you're also a bit of a troublemaker like Hu Tao, y'all turn into team rocket. Prepare for trouble and make it double fr
"Hey, y/n! You'll never guess what I just found!"
"Whatever it is, it better have the ability to mess with someone."
The people of Liyue often wonder how you two have that much energy.
Hu Tao is a pretty good listener and loves to hear whatever you want to talk/rant about.
Probably the best person out of this list to rant about your hyper fixation to because girl will match your energy even if she doesn't care/knows nothing about it. If it's important to you, it's important to her!
You'd be stimming happily talking about it and she'd be doing the same; not to mock you but because if you're excited she's excited too and also needs to let out that energy
Even if you're talking at 2x speed, she somehow keeps up with all of it.
She also likes when you space out because it becomes 10x easier to scare you back into reality. She can’t help herself. What can she say?
“You were spacing out! Cmon, we can find something better to do besides staring at a wall all day.”
“... Who do you want to prank?”
You're preoccupied for the rest of the day.
BEING NEURODUVERGENT/HAVING A MENTAL DISABILITY
Even though ADHD and PTSD are nothing alike, girlie is still so happy she's found a kindred soul who personally understands (at least some of) what she has to deal with that many others don't.
I'ma be real with you tho I don't think Collei really knew what ADHD was before she met you lmao
I feel like at most she's heard the term but not much beyond that. With that said though I don't think she'd have any preconceived notions on what ADHD entails, she's prob the easiest to explain your disability to honestly.
She also hears you explain some symptoms and is like ‘hey wait… Some of this sounds familiar to me!'
She actually confides in you quite a bit because of this. usually about her the lesser known aspects of her PTSD. It's usually the parts she feels bad about telling Tighnari, things like intrusive thoughts.
She probably thought she was a terrible person for thinking that, unaware that intrusive thoughts are, well, intrusive. Once she tells you about them you tell her about yours as well and probably have to explain that it doesn't make her a bad person.
Although a good bit of you and her talking about your guys mental disabilities is just that spider man pointing meme since quite a few things overlap LMAO
“Oh! So you say some things repetitively, too? I thought only I did that!”
“Yeah! I have a lot of vocal stims, honestly. Like one where I- Uh… you good, Collei? You look kind of confused.”
Despite relating to quite a few things and already knowing she has a mental disability she's completely in the dark about more nuanced things than the standard. You'll have to teach her some things about it 😭
Although some things she's a bit lost on, she's got the spirit!
She can be a bit awkward about the things she doesn't relate to, though. She doesn't mean to be! But this is uncharted territory for her, and she's not quite sure what to say at times. After that initial phase of uncertainty though she sees it's not as scary/intimidating as it sounds on paper.
For example you'll tell her of your executive dysfunction and she'll get so nervous and absolutely blow out of proportion how bad it is/looks but when she once catches you just laying around while you were meant to/want to work she's like ‘oh, that's not as bad as I thought.’
She definitely tries to help you if you need it though. If you had food sensitivity issues she would prob try to make foods you dislike taste better.
(Even if it failed you appreciate the attempt she made.)
You also teach her how to manage some of her own habits as well by sharing your own tricks.
Some work perfectly and she's forever grateful you told her about it, but others completely flop.
(Even for those that don't work, she also appreciates that you tried.)
Sometimes though, she's completely flabbergasted by your antics lmao.
She’ll see you working on something new and asks you about it, to which you respond in 2x speed about how you went down a rabbit hole these past few days and now are trying to learn a completely new skill from scratch and she lost you after your second sentence.
“Okay so basically a couple of days ago I saw this person who was making some pottery and I thought about how cool that was, so I looked into it and-”
Girlie means the best but she's so confused 😭 by the end of your tangent she's giving hesitant encouragement because while she has no clue what you're doing or why you seem to be having fun at least.
But honestly Collei worries about you sometimes, but that's more because she's anxious and even if she's been around you for years can probably never fully get used to your antics lmao.
She's worried that others will see you as weird since at times you can be so unapologetic with your ADHD and worries you won't fit in.
You always reassure her that even if that did happen, you wouldn't want to be friends with people who think you being yourself was weird or a bad thing.
If you keep this up you're going to completely rewire Collei’s brain.
You probably inspire Collei quite a bit. She's a shy person so seeing you so open with your disability (and helping Collei with hers as well) makes her look up to you a little. She thinks it's so cool you can be so upfront and honest about it without really worrying about what others think of it.
At some point, Tighnari pulls you aside and thanks you for being her friend. You helped her by just being someone who can relate to and understand her in some way, something that he can't do. Showing her that no, she isn't less than just because of a disability.
Congrats you officially joined the family.
“Ah, y/n! There you are! I um, have been meaning to give this to you… it's a plush of that character you like a lot! You've helped me a lot so I… wanted to give this to you as thanks! I-I hope you like it!”
Congrats Cyno for being the only one on this list to know what ADHD is besides just knowing it exists!!!!!!
Fr tho I think Cyno knows a good bit about ADHD, like how it ties into other mental disabilities, sensory issues or even things like going non verbal… but at the same time he falls for a lot of the misinformation/generalizations about it as well 💀💀💀
If you mask well, he absolutely will not be able to tell you had ADHD. Completely unaware of it LMAO. But he's trying, give him a break.
It might even take a bit longer to explain to him since you have to correct any misinformation he has about it unlike the others who come in with mostly a blank slate.
Like, no Cyno, not everyone is super hyper. No, not everyone is unable to sit still. No, some of us can mask. No, we aren't all connected to the ground itself- where'd you even hear that from!?
He grasps onto it pretty quickly though, and he remembers everything you say about it. And by extension, how it affects you specifically.
“You shouldn't buy that.”
“It has that material you dislike the texture of in it.”
“Oh shit I didn't notice-”
Tbh Cyno is probably one of the best people to help with your ADHD since he's so observant. He’ll recognize when you're about to hit your sensory limit, remind you to do things you forget, and even helps you when your executive dysfunction is acting up.
Although Cyno isn't perfect at everything and… honestly, you'll probably lose him at a couple parts.
He doesn't mean to be rude or anything, but some parts he just genuinely does not get.
That doesn't mean he doesn't respect them or anything, but like when he hears you talk about verbal stims he’ll both think ‘huh that's kinda weird how they have certain vocalizations they like to say I don't think I've heard of that before’ and ‘it's cool they feel safe enough around me to tell me that I wonder what their vocal stims are’ simultaneously.
Mans doesn't fully understand why you do some of the things you do (and tbf you don't either) but he also doesn't care as long as you're happy.
And while he's a great help, you can't forget that this is Cyno. Since he's helping you so much you know there's only one way to pay him back…
It's time to d-d-d-d-d-d-duel!!
That's right he forces you to play tcg with him LMAO.
He doesn't really care if you've never played before or not, he will lend you his cards and teach you right then and there if he must.
And if he gets you hooked on it? (or you already are hooked on it) Oh boy-
You two could battle each other for hours, you both probably have before. Cyno is so happy to have someone who likes the game as much as he does tbh. Even if you're not a pro, he still enjoys the battles.
And if you are a pro, then you may just confuse everyone else around you with your in depth conversations about the most optional strategies and best support cards.
But if you're not talking about and/or playing TCG, he'd love to hear about your current hyperfixations. He can keep up with you if you talk at 2x speed so don't be afraid to go crazy with it lmao.
He’ll listen attentively and even ask questions about it every now and then, but he tends to keep quiet when you talk about your own interests. Content to just listen to you ramble on and on.
However with all this new information about your hyperfixation you've given him you accidentally made a monster. Because now that he knows how it works/what it's about, Cyno is going to make bad dad jokes about it and you can't stop him.
When he sees you again he'll tell you his new greatest joke about your hyperfixation.
“So you remember when you info dumped about that book series to me yesterday?”
“*Pulls out a written list* okay so I've got some new jokes about it and-”
Please he's SUCH a dork. Laugh at them he’ll be so happy about it.
He’ll be even more happy if you make your own jokes/add onto his. You literally just made this mans whole month with that.
Cyno may even repeat these jokes to others if your hyperfixation is something well known.
Cyno will also probably find himself repeating some of your own stims (verbal and non verbal) too. Generally he only does your quiet/silent ones, (quiet humming, tapping a pen, clenching and unclenching his fists, etc…)
I like to think that once or twice he repeated one of your more bizarre vocal stims and then just. Didn't elaborate.
He probably won't even notice himself doing it until someone else points it out. He doesn't mind it though, just probably was surprised he did it at all lol.
At first Cyno would probably see your ADHD antics as strange (and to an extent, he still kinda does lol) but takes it in stride. As said before he's of the mindset of ‘as long as they're happy and not hurting anyone I don't mind.’
After a while though it definitely grew on him lmao. Now he actively initiates conversations about it to better understand you and your adhd.
If you ever feel upset about your ADHD he's kinda shocked because you probably never mentioned it before. Def the type to listen to your worries and calmly yet rationally tell you how that's actually not as bad as you think it is. Besides, you have like a thousand other redeeming qualities, so what if you can't always pay attention? Who else is Cyno going to duel with on a random Saturday afternoon?
… Yet even after learning all this about ADHD, he's still going to come to you asking weird questions.
“Y/n, is it true that people with ADHD like shiny things?”
“Cyno, that's every human.”
Ending note: Annnnnd that's a wrap! Sorry if this one is shorter/less detailed than the last one but i'm tired. However if I don't do this now I probably won't post it later because of a lack of confidence oof. Anyways thanks for reading this far and I hope you liked it!
Also what characters do u think I should do next if any?
