#Autism indicators but not specificed

[fuckingstrange]

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| "I don't like myself that much. But I'm glad you do." — Personal Prompt |

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WARNINGS: Self-hating talk, Indications of possible Autism, talk of a not-so-kind mother, cussing, kissing, probably bad writing

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WORDS: 657

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Begging y'all to be nice (or not idk) and if you know me irl fuck off (kindly or just don't talk to me abt this)

You sit in bed, your head in Reid's lap as he soothingly strokes your hair while humming an unfamiliar song to fill the silence so that you don't get that annoying ringing in your ears. You've been laying there for about thirty minutes, trying to calm down from the stressful day at the bureau where the office was just a little bit too loud, a little bit too bright, and everybody was just a little too chatty. The odd buzz that was pulsing through your body that left you on the verge of tears thirty minutes ago has calmed down tremendously with the help of his soothing humming and the feeling of his fingers carding through your hair, so much so that you're able to space out and fall into a landfill of thoughts. They're not good by any means, but it's whatever.

Reid turns his head down to look at you, smiling in a slightly worried manner when he sees how zoned out you seem. "Penny for your thoughts, baby?" He says in a quiet tone, watching the way your eyes trail up to his and seeing how it takes a minute for your vision to focus in on him. "Hey there." He greets when you finally blink, an indicator that you're back from whatever rabbit hole of thoughts you fell down.

"..hm?" You hum in question, asking him to repeat whatever he said before. He smiles before moving his hand to poke the center of your forehead. "I offered you a penny for a chance to get an idea of what's going on in that racing mind." He says, hearing the way you hum softly as you think about it.

"..I was thinking about how much you seem to like me. I, frankly, don't like myself that much. But I'm glad you do." You respond, giving a light shrug as if the way you talk bad about yourself is normal. Sadly, it is, but Reid has been trying to break you out of that habit. "Oh." He reacts, making you raise an eyebrow as you wait for him to say something more. It takes a minute but he eventually whispers, "You know I don't enjoy hearing you talk like that about yourself." Pressing a hand to your cheek before he adds, "I find you very interesting."

"..Love, I'm not that interesting. I'm just some 28 year old dumbass-" You start, though he silences you with a kiss. He holds your lips against his until he feels you melt into it, letting it linger for another few seconds before pulling back enough that he can look into your eyes. "You're not as dumb as you think. You're pretty smart, you just have certain issues that make it hard for you to voice your words correctly." He says, the compliment making you feel a little bad that you even decided to say anything. Reid notices your uneasiness, moving his hand to cup the back of your head and pulling you in for another calming kiss. "You'll learn how to take a compliment, eventually, baby." He mumbles into the kiss, "And I'll make sure you're never treated anywhere near the way your mother did." He adds.

"..I just don't understand why you're so nice to me." You admit after he removes his lips from yours, hearing him sigh makes you start to feel like you're annoying him until he suddenly pulls you to sit up in his lap. "I'm nice to you because I actually love you. You're just not used to it, and I swear that's fine." He explains, his words putting you a bit more at ease. You rest your head on his shoulder, mindlessly beginning to play with the soft fabric of his plain brown shirt. You get so lost in the soothing feeling of the soft material in your hand that you barely notice when he begins to whisper sweet nothings in your ear.

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

wanna ask how you feel about the eridan bpd headcanon/theory(?? not sure what to call it!) you're so good at your character analysis and i'd love to see your outlook on it

Since I don't have a degree or any formal training in psychology, I feel deeply uncomfortable diagnosing characters. I've made an autism joke before but only because I'm on the spectrum. He's definitely traumatized and anxious, but I mean those as descriptors of his behavior rather than capital-D Diagnoses. I try to focus on those when I can - the cause and effect of cognition, self-image, and behavior - and those factors may very well match up with DSM criteria, but I try not to touch an actual diagnosis with a ten foot pole unless the author has explicitly stated that X character has Y condition.

[gothmods]

Do you ever identify like, patterns of thinking or behaviour in yourself that seem like the sort of response someone would develop due to trauma or repeated negative experiences but you cant really pinpoint why/when/where you developed those patterns?

Hmm...

[wachi-delectrico]

I can't decide how I feel about tone indicators myself tbh

[kneptoon]

This might get some peeps mad but like. Is it really worth the effort figuring out the niche subtypes and cocktails of disorders you have? Is it really worth the struggle to find the right collection of clinical labels to fit yourself into? is it really worth the effort to know if some specific symptoms of yours are indicative of autism or adhd or ptsd or ocd or anxiety or whatever? Or is it just that you are a nuanced, neurodiverse person existing under capitalism, a system which has inherently traumatized and disabled you?

It’s great if you’ve found pride or community in your diagnosis, but always remember: diagnosis was not made for that.

It was never made for community or identity labels. It was made to categorize, to treat, to suppress, to segregate, to control, and to MAKE MONEY. Psychiatry is and forever has been an industry that exists under capitalism and colonialism, and is deeply rooted in eugenics, racism, queerphobia, and misogyny.

NEVER FORGET THAT. REMEMBER THAT ALWAYS.

The next time you start chatting about incredibly technical clinical terms and pop-psychology words, REMEMBER the autistic children who were abused, gaslighted, and programmed using those same words.

The next time you take the findings of a clinical research paper as gospel, REMEMBER the women and the black/indigenous people of color who were wrongfully incarcerated because of that research.

The next time you feel thankful for your psych meds, REMEMBER the survivors of psych prisons who have been permanently disabled from being overmedicated against their will, and the pharmaceutical companies who profited off of their suffering.

Capitalism WANTS to disable you. It WANTS you to be mentally ill, to think there’s something wrong with yourself. So that it can force productivity out of you, and make money off of you.

Like, I totally understand the researching and collecting of all the little mental illnesses itches that little autistic part of our brains. But in the long run, all it does is perpetuate the over-pathologizing of mental health. It does nothing for Mad liberation or abolishing the MH industrial complex.

I’m not saying to never use words ever, or to never seek treatment. Because clearly, the MH industry helps many. BUT IT ALSO HARMS MANY. IT KILLS MANY AND IT ERASES MANY.

NEVER FORGET THAT.

REMEMBER IT.

REMEMBER IT ALWAYS.

[imitationgame77]

Progression of intimacy in Artificial Condition

Cycle 1

MB: After the events of All System Red, spent 7 cycles on a bot piloted transport, then embarks an unmanned ship, thinking it only has a low-level bot pilot.

ART: Readily responds to MB's ping, and accept media in exchange for passage to RaviHyral Mining Facility Q Station, letting MB to believe that it is just a bot pilot. It admits later that it was curious about a rogue SecUnit trying to travel on its own.

ART: Waits until MB settles down and start watching media before suddenly addressing it via its feed, and reveals its true self by dropping the wall for 0.0001 of a second.

MB: Instantly recognizes its power and implicit threat and withdraws. When ART, not understanding MB's strong reaction, tells it not to sulk, it fires back and sends a file showing its experience of torture as a SecUnit.

ART: Stays silent for 5 minutes, and then apologizes for having frightened it. [For omniscient machine intelligence like ART, we now realize that is a VERY long time. It was probably shocked by the cruelty experienced by a SecUnit, and digging up extensive information on SecUnits and how they are treated in Corporation Rim. Also analyzing why MB was reacting the way it was.] Then withdraws behind its wall, giving MB space.

MB: Watches 3 episodes of Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, while trying to calm itself. Then starts to see the event from the transport's point of view. [This demonstrates its ability to understand the world from other person's point of view, known in psychology as Theory of Mind, lack of which is considered to be indicator of autism spectrum.]

Art: After further 6 episodes, quietly re-enters MB's feed, and lurks there while MB watches 7 more episodes. [No idea how long an episode is, but even if it is about 30 minutes, ART was patiently watching MB watch its favourite show at least for 3-4 hours without interruption!] Then politely pings MB to request to watch the new serial World Hoppers. When refused, repeats the request after 2 minutes. And explains that it cannot usually understand the context of media, and watching through MB's filter gives it the context and understanding.

MB and ART start watching World Hoppers together

Cycle 2~

MB: While watching World Hoppers (3 times) and other media (hundreds of hours), comes to see how ART is attached to its humans, and begins to feel "charitable" towads it, letting it to watch a potentially traumatizing episode 1 or 2 minutes at a time. Also comes to understand it well enough to create a content filter.

[There is no mention of specific time span, but it must have taken at least a few cycles to view all that media, even without recharge cycle]

ART: After 4 episodes of Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, by which point ART had noticed that it was MB's favourite show, it asks if the serial has a SecUnit character. Subsequent conversation (reluctantly, on MB's side) reveals that MB does not like SecUnits in the way they are used, and even portrayed in media, because it is unrealistic, but not in a good way.

ART proceeds to ask why MB is there, surprising it because MB had assumed that the transport had no interest in it. MB reveals its brief history with PreservationAux but reluctant to talk any further. ART confesses that it is not supposed to pick up unauthorized passenger, saying that they both have a secret. MB goes as far as to admit it is going to RaviHyral Mining Facility for research, but would not say any more. And when pressed, proceeds to start a shut-down cycle.

[When MB wakes up 4 hours later, ART immediately resumes argument, calling the shut-down a childish behaviour. With ART's processing capacity, managing travel through a wormhole would not take up much. Probably lots of speculative thoughts were going through its mind while also probably looking up on everything about the Mining Facility and SecUnits, as well as past newsfeeds on Mensah's team.]

ART does not drop the subject. It presses MB saying that it should share its plans as they are now friends. MB tries to convince the transport and itself that constructs and bots can never be friends as they may have to act against each other if their humans command them. ART simply points out that there are no humans now. Eventually, MB relents and tells ART what happened at RaviHyral Mining Facility before the partial memory purge around the time of Governor Module hack. Discussion with ART gives MB new perspectives. [It is around this point that MB decides to call the transport ART, short for Asshole Research Transport. ART does not show any negative response regarding MB's grim past]

ART points out the risk of being spotted as a rogue SecUnit at RaviHyral Mining Facility Q Station, much to MB's dismay. [MB talks of "ART was doing that thing again where it asked me questions it knew the answer to so it could trap me into admitting stuff I didn't want to admit. I decided to skip to the end." This passage indicates that perhaps more conversations had taken place prior to this, and like a good university instructore, ART was manipulating guiding MB's thought processes, and MB had noticed it.]

ART suggests configuration change which horrifies MB. ART points out that its survival as a rogue SecUnit is at stake, and makes it realize that if it wants to survive and meet the PreservationAux people again, it needs to make sure it does not get caught as a rogue Unit. MB thinks it over 2 cycles, during which time ART says nothing more about it, watching media together. During the same period, MB tries to see if it can look less like a SecUnit by creating codes to make itself behave like a human. MB asks ART to record its movement, but realizes that it still looked like a SecUnit, as it meets the unit standard size which can be spotted by a scan.

[ART loves being right, but it shows genuine desire to help it survive, and tries to get MB to realize the importance itself. Probably having learned MB's character and its past (at least in part), once having given suggestions, it simply waits (and trusts) until MB comes to make the choice itself.]

Unspecified Cycle

MB and ART argued a lot over what should be done to change MB's configuration from the unit standard. ART even suggests giving it sex related organ which MB vehemently rejects.

ART performs configuration change on MB.

While MB is still incapacitated ART does search on RaviHyral Mining Facility Q Station, narrowing down the likely place of incident to Ganaka Pit.

There is no mention of time frame from the configuration change to the arrival at the destination. However, based on the facts that they seemed to know about each other a lot by Network Effect, they must have spent some quality time together talking, as well as watching media. Once they have reached RaviHyral Mining Facility Q Station, they stayed together by the Comm feed, but most of their attention was on protection of the three young humans.

Cycle 21-23?

They reach RaviHyral Mining Facility Q Station. ART suggests that MB takes on a temporary job as a security consultant (augumented human) in order to gain legitimate way to access installation site and helps it with preparation. MB protects its first voluntarily taken clients and does a lot more than what is required as a security consultant. It also manages to find out what really happened at Ganaka Pit where the incident happened before its memory purge. Throughout, ART stays with MB, keeping company, offering tactical and morale support, except when it was in Ganaka Pit and out of comm range. When they finally part company, ART tells it to keep its Comm in case they may come within the range again, to which MB could only send an acknowledgement, as it feared it would get too emotional if tried to speak.

Rogue Protocol; Exit Strategy; Fugitive Telemetry

In all the books whose timeline come between Artificial Condition and Network Effect, MB mentions ART several times, indicating that it was thinking of its friend frequently and misses it.

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Not explicitly written interactions that solidified the basis for their friendship "mutual administrative assistance" probably happened from around the time of the configuration change and arrival at the station. By the time MB starts its security consultant job, they seem significantly more comfortable with each other than before. Some indications are:

MB admits that the only important thing while at RaviHyral Mining Facility Q Station was ART's comm interface.

MB could tell ART was withholding something by its a few seconds of pause and pressed it, and ART admits it has debris deflection systsm.

MB allows ART full access to its brain in order to let it use it as a bridge to reach the shuttle's control. Twice. MB has guarded its mind tightly ever since it hacked the governor module. It disliked Gurathin because he accessed it while MB was shut down, which he found as violation of privacy. Even with different circumstances, with more urgency, MB does not hesitate much nore does it seem to mind that it had to allow ART full access.

When MB was distressed at Tapan's questions about its "augumentation" after investigation into Ganaka Pit incident, ART plays soundtracks of Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon for MB, which calms it down. It knows that the serial is a kind of security blanket to MB.

Before meeting ART's crew in Network Effect, MB had already known that Iris was ART's favourite human.

ART was telling its crew about MB, without going into details about their adventure on RaviHyral, but in such a way that its favourite human had thought of MB as "Peri's SecUnit".

ART entrusted its fate to MB when its existence was at stake. Not to its colleagues from university. Nobody else could have rescued it except MB.

The first thing it said to MB when it came back online after deletion was, "I'm not going to hurt your humans, you little idiot", which sounds extremely affectionate.

Their mutual feelings (despite MB being very angry at the time) were apparent enough that Rhatti, only shortly after hearing them interact briefly, called it "a relationship" which horrifies MB.

Overall, they exhibit deep level of mutual affection from the moment they are reunited in Network Effect, which suggests their intimacy had progressed rapidly even before arriving at RaviHyral. Also, probably "absence makes the heart grow fonder" was also the case. ART must have been keeping track of MB's doings as much as it could. Otherwise it could not have known that it was then working with Arada at the time of kidnapping!

[raining-anonymously]

rewatching pnf season 1 & 2 and here are some of the neurodivergent highlights!

“obsession rocks!!!” said at a moment when candace and stacy were gleefully bonding over their love of the bettys. the joy of new hyperfixation!!!!

“fossils! dun dun dun…” my man lawrence vocal and audio stimming let’s go!

perry crashes in, heinz doesn’t react, perry goes over to heinz and pokes him in the nose, revealing heinz is an inflatable decoy. perry immediately pokes the inflatable nose several more times! autism is stored in the platypus

jeremy tells candace he’ll call her soon, so cancace goes into waiting mode the next morning and tries to find the exact meaning of “soon.”

candace (scared of heights) on a ferris wheel. jeremy asks her what’s wrong and candace wordlessly indicates the drop. she contonues not to speak after jeremy comforts her. loss of speech!

phineas usually displays empathy, but when buford loses biff, phineas shows annoyance and doesn’t seem to empathize. nevertheless, he helps buford both with emotional support and by working to solve the problem. this is because i’m projecting fluctuating empathy onto him and also because empathy ≠ kindness.

baljeet owns a lot of books on a seemingly uninteresting topic (shoelaces). conclusion- he fixated on the topic in the past and got all the information he could find at once!

one of dr. d’s schemes is entirely because he considers the noise outside his building to be too loud and he can’t concentrate. he gets off-topic in conversation and apologizes, blaming his lack of focus on the noise. it’s harder to act neurotypical when you’re sensory overloaded, ok?

at one point heinz tells perry that there’s a tin cup inside his cage for him to play with, specifically because of the sound it makes. perry proceeds to move this tin cup around for a while.

vanessa sensory overloaded by the sound of heinz building vs heinz making incoherent sounds while he builds (vocal stimming!). in a different episode vanessa uses earbuds to deal with her dad making noise.

honorable mention: stacy and candace reading all of sherlock holmes in one night / dressing as the characters the next day

[sincerelystesichorus]

let's talk about that one scene in oops

(and fizzarolli in general bc me and my autism r obsessed with this scene and haven't seen someone break it down. also ft. blitz lmao)

just a general scene and vague character breakdown/analysis!

i first of all want to admire the perfect representation of best friends to enemies with blitz & fizz because ugh.

And like Blitz tells everyone this but the way it's so malicious here. Just the perfect simple dig and Fizz's little shit eating grin because it delivered how he knew it would sdfkjsdkf. Shoves Blitz to the side because really that's all he cares to say. Fuck you and what you did to me, bye bye <3 Fizz is so for talking shit and dipping (House of Asmodeus) I love how messy it is but also shows how he really doesn't hold malice for Blitz otherwise. Obviously we see this front and center later in the episode once they start reconnecting, but I like the subtlety and how he's so willing to snap at Blitz despite his usual anxiety with confrontation.

Blitz also knowing exactly what to say to really piss Fizz off once things escalate <3

(Fizz literally so smug and content with himself lmfao)

(smirk wiped off bc hey that's the thing i'm sensitive about!!)

But Fizz keeps his composure. And if you'll let me be alarmingly gay for a second, I love how his version of keeping his cool as a messy gay is managing to basically recreate this drag race confrontation in what is probably my favorite set of Fizzie lines.

eat him up babes. also it's so important that that shitty coffee and fizz were on this side of the street for framing i'll talk about it more in a sec jfskjdfksf.

and now my personal favorite exchange of this entire scene that is criminally underrated imo:

love his face after this line. I SUPPORT DISABLED PEOPLES WRONGS sfjdlkfsdd. literally so fucking nasty with his clown wit but also so justifiable because yeah blitz did just pull this nightmare and dip in fizz's pov. i cannot wait for that to get touched on more likeeee why were they kept apart ugh.

and finally!!

this cut to blitz,, specifically the scarred side of his face is sooo good.

the face of a man who just achieved critical vicious mockery vs. the face of a man that knows he can only win this interaction one way now

Blitz does deserve a little violence maybe <3 Fizz underestimated his ass jjdkfsdlk.

Idk I just love how indicative this whole interaction is for their characters but especially Fizz, it's a perfect build-up for him. Fizz has major imposter syndrome with dual layers because of general haters but especially because of Mammon and Asmodeus. Not on any fault of Ozzie's,, we just see Fizz obviously thinks he isn't fully deserving of their relationship/his situation and the healthy dynamics of it and so do most major news outlets apparently askjfsk.

(full fizzy meme post & also i like how this is a special also like damn do u think they were also apart of the crossword??)

It'll be really interesting to see how his character develops in future episodes because I feel like a lot of what I've rambled about here has come to a resolution after 2 Minutes Notice in the musical special lmao. I really like how here when he goes to compose himself, this is how he does it.

Makes me wonder how many times him and Ozzie have had the self-worth and imposter syndrome conversation before it finally stuck in the Mammon Musical Special. I just love their relationship and how they compliment one another,, and how it projects into Fizz's other relationships because they're healthy for one another. Love my OTP love Blitz & especially love Fizzie. Obviously.

[cripplecharacters]

im thinking about making a character who is born autistic and Deaf, would she struggle with learning ASL/[sign language proxy in story universe] because of how important expressions/facial grammar is in ASL? im autistic and hearing but im learning asl in school and it's been very difficult for me to both maintain eye contact and also know when to do the right expressions, would that be something she'd be able to learn easier from birth? thank you!

Hi!

This really depends on the person and their specific autism traits and communication difficulties.

I am autistic and I don't have a lot of trouble following facial grammar in ASL, although I do often struggle with recognizing and interpreting emotion and expression generally, as well as making my own expressions.

ASL grammar has rules of what to do when. Eyebrow movements, pufffing out cheeks, and leaning/angling shoulders are all parts of certain signs and concepts. These rules are something I personally was able to pick up on.

I do sometimes forget, or do the wrong motion! I also rock back and forth a lot, and stim with my hands while I'm signing, which may get in the way of other people understanding. I haven't had too much of a problem though--people generally have understood that it's not part of my signing, just a part of me :) [smile face]

I haven't talked with many autistic people who learned ASL as a first language. However, language delays and difficulty learning language are common among autistic people, so I think it's likely that there are autistic Deaf people who struggle with ASL grammar because they struggle with language or with facial expressions, or who have motor control difficulties that make parts of signing and/or facial grammar physically hard.

Eye contact is important in Deaf culture to show listening, but there are other ways to do that too. There are lots of signs and gestures that are genetic reactions, like how someone might say "mhm" to show they are still paying attention.

Eye contact isn't necessary 100% of the time either! Face and body are important to ASL grammar, so you definitely need to pay attention to a signer's face and body as well as their hands, but this doesn't require making eye contact. Facing the person, along with reaction signs, is usually enough.

I will add--facial grammar greatly enhances understanding, but signs alone still have meaning. A change in the "size" of expression can change the meaning of a sign by changing its intensity, or specific mouth shapes can indicate the use of a synonym, as examples. ASL is still understandable without perfect facial grammar. It may look choppy at first to native signers, but people who spend a lot of time with your character will get to understand their signing specifically.

Some other sign languages that are not ASL rely less on facial grammar. They may rely on size of the sign itself or other cues. An autistic character may still struggle with these, and have trouble replicating them.

This is really all to say: it depends greatly on the person. I don't think an autistic Deaf character's signing, if they signed with less facial expression or variation in signing size, would be significantly different to the "flat" or "unusual" affect that people often refer to autistic people's speaking voices with. However, an autistic person may still struggle with learning and conceptualizing sign language, or have physical difficulty reproducing signs.

Autism encompasses a huge spectrum of communication abilities, so you will need to decide what specifically your character struggles with before you can determine how they will sign.

Please feel free to ask more questions for specifics once you've decided more about your character!

Mod Rock

[lostlegendaerie]

Veritas Ratio and Autistic Representation

Chances are you know autistic people in your life; autism itself is a fairly recently coined term, dating back to 1911, and can encompass a wide variety of symptoms and eccentricities which have existed since the dawn of humankind. (The 'fey-touched' child or changeling in European lore shares a lot of traits with autistic children.) Autism is a spectrum, encompassing and overlapping a lot with ADHD and other neurological disorders. There are probably millions of people out there, especially from older generations, who are on the spectrum and have no idea. I did not even get my diagnosis until I was 27.

So it is entirely possible that the creators of Veritas Ratio from Honkai: Star Rail did not intend to write him as autistic and based him on people they knew in their own lives, who, diagnosed or not, are on the autistic spectrum. However, the point of this piece is to talk about the ways in which Veritas Ratio is good autistic representation (in my opinion as a autistic person), and how people who want to write characters like this can take a page out of Honkai's book in their own work.

1) SPECIAL INTEREST. Ratio shows a *staggering* amount of dedication to the pursuit of knowledge and his quest to cure the world of ignorance. This quest of his tends to supersede everything else in his life, with no mention of any friends, family connections or romantic partners in his character story. (Said as a Ratiorine shipper - not sinking any 'ships, here) His dedication to education started early, with reading college undergraduate education levels while still in middle school - seven or so years ahead of his peers. Autism is considered a disability, yes, but it does not exclude you from being smart, and the fixation on your chosen topic(s) can be extremely useful in motivating you to reach the top of your field. His path being The Hunt also outlines this dedication; he is seeking his target without rest or distraction.

2) SENSORY ISSUES. Ratio very explicitly can become distracted and disgusted by the feeling of dirt or sweat on his skin, something that tends to be more prevalent with specific clothing textures but absolutely can manifest in a need to feel clean. He also can apparently become very irritated and overwhelmed by lights and sounds, and wears his plaster mask as a way to deaden and deafen the amount of sensory input that he receives. This allows him to think better, and is a fantastic example of what it feels like to suffer from sensory overload. (If you find yourself getting stressed in crowds, try bringing earplugs and putting them in the next time you're in a noisy restaurant and see if doesn't help you out.)

3) STRONG SENSE OF MORALITY. Autistic people tend to suffer from a somewhat black-and-white feeling of right and wrong, and can hold themselves and other people to an extremely strict moral code. This does not mean that they are always correct in what they believe is right and wrong, but it means that they can be extremely passionate about following those rules. Ratio's beef with the Genius Society and their selectivity is indicative of his unwavering passion towards sharing knowledge with the masses, but the tactless way in which he wishes to cure ignorance bleeds into our fourth point.

4) DIFFICULTY WITH SOCIAL CUES. In one of his earlier conversations with Aventurine (where he is clearly irritated at how careless Aventurine seems to be about their entire mission), Ratio inadvertently insults Aventurine's his lack of education and parents. He apologizes afterwards, stating he did not intend to come across that way, but he maintains the same imperious tone of voice. Autistic people often, but not always, struggle with social cues and can often be considered rude when we are trying to be direct and easily understood; and we can especially struggle with understanding sarcasm or sounding sarcastic when we intend to be sincere.

With my reasons for believing Ratio to be Autistic coded firmly established, let's move onto why I think he is good representation. The two most important parts of representation, in my lived experience as an Autistic person, are RELATABILITY and EMPATHY.

Ratio exhibits some of the same mentalities and symptoms I've had, such as being misunderstood and accidentally offending people and becoming extremely stressed in large crowds due to overstimulation, so he checks off the first box. But the way that the other characters in the game respect him and do not ridicule him for his eccentricities marks the second. Whether in marketing material or in character dialogue options, Ratio's love of baths, his plaster bust, and his ceaseless drive to educate other people (whether they need it or not) are seen as charming and generally positive, and those attributes are not constantly brought up (and mocked) in his interactions and dialogue with other characters. Aventurine doesn't constantly ask Ratio if he needs to leave the Dream to take a bath, and the TB's text conversations with him allow you to engage with his special interests such as his requests for problems to solve and debates to wage against you. He is canonically seen and respected as a brilliant individual, and not reduced to a joke or viewed as comic relief (e.g. Sampo, who almost exclusively is given negative dialogue options for the player to use when interacting with him and who almost every character in the story openly despises.)

Some of you are going to disagree with me in the comments (which is fine, it's my opinion), but for the few of you who read this all the way through, thank you. I hope that this helps you view Ratio and Autistic people overall in a new light, and I am excited to see where else we go from here with him and the rest of the cast!

[aroaceleovaldez]

in your most recent tyson post, you said something about leo being distinctly autistic-coded and I was wondering if you could elaborate on that? it sounds really interesting (sorry if you've already posted something on this, I couldn't find anything though)

Of course! I do have a specific tag for talking about Leo's autistic-coding/traits - [here], and [one for Nico as well].

The main aspects with Leo being autistic-coded actually have a lot to do with Nico being autistic-coded, because it's the comparisons between the two that most clearly indicate Leo is autistic-coded rather than it just being his ADHD or etc.

So with Nico being autistic-coded, it's very clear in the Titan's Curse that he's intended to be autistic. First, the first series has a repeating pattern of secondary characters being very distinctly neurodivergent-coded in different ways (Annabeth's adhd/dyslexia, Tyson's down syndrome-coding, Nico's autism-coding). With Nico's introduction, he's pretty stereotypically autistic and we're given a lot of descriptors about him that are notably not attributed to him being ADHD, like it would be for other demigod characters. He doesn't register social cues such as people getting annoyed at him, he's asking/making inappropriate or impolite questions/comments, he gets particularly upset about change (such as Bianca joining the Hunt) and generally gets emotional, and one of his most notable traits he's introduced with is the fact that he has a special interest (MythoMagic) - and we're shown that this special interest particularly colors how Nico navigates the world. While ADHD has hyperfixations, we don't really get much acknowledgement of hyperfixations with demigods usually - Annabeth gets a little, but most others don't and it's not nearly as focused-in on as Nico's is.

Then as the series continues we see these traits stick with him and him start to show or voice more traits that similarly indicate he's autistic: He regularly mentions how he doesn't understand living people and prefers the company of the dead (social issues). He has more notable stims than other demigods (twisting his ring, fiddling with bones, etc). He's indicated to have strong sensory preferences (usually wearing mostly black/aversion to bright colors, usually wearing layers/his coat, multiple times he's described as wearing loose/baggy clothing or clothes too big for him). He has specific comfort items (his ring, likely his jacket(s) as well). We later get even more information about his special interests (Mythomagic/mythology/history and an older interest in pirates - the latter he specifically notes likely heavily influenced his feelings towards Percy). He struggles with emotions and facial expressions and tone. He struggles particularly with ostracism and feeling like he doesn't fit in and has something distinctly different about him from the people around him (who notably, all have ADHD, which indicates it isn't the ADHD that's making him feel that way), and other characters regularly describe him as being off-putting because of his strange behaviors - again, different from specific ADHD traits they recognize. And that last point is kind of notable because we have Hazel and Bianca for comparison - we know people are off-put by both Nico and Hazel because of being children of Hades/Pluto and their powers/aura, but other characters get past that general feeling of discomfort way faster with Hazel. And even after characters get past the death stuff with Nico, there's a second thing that they aren't moving past that isn't a factor with Hazel (Nico's autism).

So that brings us to Leo - Leo is paralleled to Nico a lot. And there's some very specific traits about him that we know are autistic-coding because of how they're used with Nico: He similarly struggles with social cues/etc, and in a very similar parallel to Nico describes how he prefers the company of machines to people because machines make more sense to him. He has similar types of clothing/sensory preferences (again some stuff with layers but also - pockets! He likes having pockets and things to put stuff in! He's even introduced as having a jacket with lots of pockets), and he has a distinct special interest (machinery) that we specifically know heavily influences how he views and navigates the world (constantly comparing things to machinery, describing things with machinery metaphors/terminology, etc etc). He even describes his entire general worldview to Hazel and it's a machine metaphor. He also similarly struggles with ostracization like Nico does, the only difference being that Leo specifically puts on a persona to compensate for areas he knows he's lacking in and very explicitly describes it as a means to make people like him, because without it he normally struggles to fit in (He's masking!). We also see notes of characters describing that similar discomfort with Leo's behaviors that they do with Nico, except without the aura of death this time. And when we're in Leo's POVs we see a very stark difference between his masking and his actual personality/behaviors such as his internal dialogues or how he behaves when he's alone. Also, like Nico, he stims more than other demigods, though for Leo it's more attributed to his ADHD. Leo also, more often than most, similarly struggles with tone and reading the room, such as making misplaced jokes/comments or etc.

But yeah! It's really interesting. Also it's just a fun thing that ADHD/dyslexia and autism have comorbidity, so it makes sense that we see demigods who are also autistic. It's also really fun to look at how other characters are coded in the series, what coding looks like in the riordanverse specifically (usually it's tied into the mythological stuff - like Chiron being in a wheelchair but he's actually a centaur, Grover being introduced as having a muscular disease but he's actually a satyr, demigods having adhd/dyslexia, Tyson being coded as having down syndrome but he's a cyclops, etc etc - it's a lot of specific metaphor stuff that I've talked about a bit before), and to look at how characters are compared to one another.

[positivelyqueer]

hey, if you’re ever in a situation where it feels like an autistic* person is mocking or imitating your speech, especially if it’s out of character for them (autistic people can just also be mean sometimes, we’re not exempt), chances are it’s something called Echolalia. Echolalia is essentially the repetition of sounds or words. It can be immediate (right after hearing something) or delayed (a long time after) and used by some people to communicate (someone singing a theme song to indicate they want to watch tv).

Simply put, if you say something with a fun accent, or a different manner of speaking, or an unusual sound or word, it can be enjoyable or compulsive to repeat. Some autistic people (usually lower support needs) are able to suppress this in specific circumstances. I personally try my best to avoid imitating people’s accents or speech impediments out of respect. But not all autistic people are able to do this. Either because they cannot mask that behaviour, or do not understand the impact of their behaviour on others.

I used to get into trouble a lot as a child and thought of myself as a ‘bad person’ because I’d ‘mock’ (repeat) other people’s different ways of speaking.

If it’s something that is really bothering you for whatever reason, there’s no harm in having a private chat with someone to discuss your different feelings and needs. And if you come to the conclusion that it’s not something that can be compromised on, neither of you is a fault, that’s just how human relationships work sometimes.

*I’m a big supporter of ‘respect people for the sake of respecting them, not because they ‘might be autistic’ or ‘might be queer’ or ‘might be..’ whatever. But I also want to talk here about the specific autism experience. So if someone is doing this and you don’t know or suspect they might be autistic just treat them with respect or dignity same as any other person.

[enbycrip]

I’ve now seen more than one post from U.K.-based as well as US-based people promoting “blue pumpkins for autism”.

For the love of literally any god you want, this autistic adult is asking you to please do not engage in this or promote it.

a) it was promoted by Autism $peaks, the pro-eugenics organisation that actively promotes trying to prevent autistic people being born. They are considered a hate organisation by the vast majority of autistic adults. The focus on “blue anything for autism” is also an active contributor to the diagnosis gap in autistic women, girls and nonbinary people who don’t present or are read as “traditionally male”.

b) they are dangerous because they create confusion regarding the Teal Pumpkin Project, which indicates a household has treats available that don’t contain allergens.

c) they are dangerous because they mark out a potentially more vulnerable non-verbal child to predators in a potentially chaotic situation.

d) they are stigmatising AF. No one owes anyone else a medical diagnosis in return for sweets. There are a whole variety of reasons a child might not speak while guising/trick or treating, nor should anyone require them to. They’re not performing dolls. Just give them sweets please.

e) this entire movement is stigmatising and anti-inclusion. It promotes inaccurate stereotypes about autistic people that actively contribute to the many harms autistic and other disabled people face.

If you don’t want to participate in this festival, please just keep lights off or put up a notice on your door. If you want to participate, please give sweets out to everyone without requiring them to do things a specific way for your idea of how children are meant to act. It’s a festival, not an exam.

[hunter-sylvester]

Skullflower is Autistic: A Breakdown.

Buckle the fuck up.

Disclaimer: Don't take any of this too seriously.

Also all of this was written over a year ago with only minor edits. I'm just posting it now cause it's been rotting in my drafts and, like, fuck it.

I've wanted to try and make a comprehensive breakdown like this for a while just because I love these characters and very heavily interpret them all as autistic (with ADHD as well.) But this is just the perspective of one guy. And I probably overstate it but the fact that we can all have our own very personal interpretations about media is what's great about analysis & fandom.

Hunter Sylvester.

Yes I'm doing Hunter first, what do you think I am? Unbiased? Please.

Autistic Perfectionism. Hunter's autistic perfectionism is something I've mentioned before and somewhat struggle to describe satisfactorily. But to me the most obvious example is his inability to deal with the idea of Emily joining Skullfucker as a cellist. Obviously, there's the queer angle to this but I think two reasons can play a role at once. He's in love with Kevin so he doesn't want a girl that Kevin picked to be a part of their band. Additionally, I'd argue that he can't deal with the idea of having a girl cellist as their bass player because it in NO WAY fits the mental image that Hunter has in his mind of what he wanted Skullfucker to be. It doesn't match the perfect idea that he's dreamed of, that he holds onto for dear life, so he can't deal with it.

Hyperfixations. "Hunter's been into a lot of things since I've known him but he's stuck with metal longer than any of them." - Kevin. Need I say more? Well, I will anyway. The guy hyperfixates. I think the closest thing we have to a canon confirmed hyperfixation is Dungeons & Dragons. Because of what in my mind is a combination of Autism and ADHD in Hunter, they don't fully leave him. He still likes and plays D&D, but he's not as obsessed with it as he used to be when he made his dad buy him the most ridiculous game terrain that fucking lights up.

Special Interests. I think one of the easiest claims to make is that metal is a special interest for Hunter. He entrenches his entire life in it and reaches for it when a stressful situation happens to try and make himself feel more okay. (getting his hair cut off by Skip and relating his new look to Jason Newsted) It's clearly something that comforts him, having been obsessed with it ever since his mom left. Which, regardless of the specific circumstances, is a horridly stressful situation for any 12-13 year old.

Struggles with social interaction. He doesn't seem to have a lot of friends. He gets along with Robbie, Kevin (obviously) and the people he plays D&D with but that seems to be it. Especially whenever the situation gets very stressful, Hunter's mind immediately reaches for his comfort interest to try and make it through (or to lash out). He can't easily just be comfortable in a strange social situation. Or a strange situation in general.

Stims. Hunter stims by playing guitar. That's it, that's the whole point. And there's this little move:

Kevin Schlieb.

Neutrality. The way Kevin just takes Hunter and Emily as they are feels autistic to me.

Struggles with social interaction. And he clearly wants it to be easier for him. He wants to connect to people but he doesn't know how. It's not like he doesn't understand people. He does. He understands Hunter better than Hunter understands himself. "sometimes he's not so nice to people when he's uncomfortable" "You are afraid of everybody" "you treat everybody like shit and you make them hate you" But that understanding of how people think and work doesn't translate to his direct interactions with most of his peers. Maybe because he understands other neurodivergent people but not neurotypicals. The fact he does have a decent read on, at the very least, his best friend could also be indicative of the extra work Kevin has had to put in over the course of his life to try and understand people to begin with.

Directness. A lot of Kevin does feel direct to me. I suppose in a 'what you see is what you get' sort of way. He obviously has the whole protagonist thing going on which tends to end you up with pretty neutral, earnest and open characters.

Stims:

Emily Spector.

Gets overstimulated. Emily's outbursts could be attributed more to a struggle regulating her emotions. It's not a huge stretch to assume her mystery medication is a mood stabilizer. However, the idea of it being a combination of being overstimulated and then no longer being able to deal with her anger on top of the distress she's already feeling feels apt to me. This is a stretch, but, we only ever see her have outbursts at school. A nightmare environment for the stimuli sensitive. Emily is by far the character out of the main three we spend the least time with, which could easily explain my previous point away. We hardly see her out of school to begin with. But I think there can be merit in taking it as a part of the story, rather than an incidental effect of her being left by the wayside.

Black and white thinking. "So first you tell me that I should hate him, and now you want me to help him?" - Emily. No, he didn't say you should hate him, Emily. "You have every right to be mad- especially at Hunter!" - Kevin.

Directness. I mean she literally calls up Kevin to ask him if he wants to go fuck in a parking lot and more power to her. But it is very direct.

Struggles with social interaction. And apart from Skip & Co. having a particular hate-boner for Hunter, Emily might actually be the most widely ostracized for her lack of social finesse. Which would check out because society is brutally cruel to girls. Kevin is shown to have some positive interaction outside of the other two main characters, so is Hunter. And, yes, so is Emily. But it's only with the janitor of the school, who she is implied to have had previous interactions with. Having your only friend at school be the fucking janitor is not a neurotypical experience. I know I certainly got along easier with a handful of teachers than I did with my peers back when I was at school.

Whatever this is. Fam, I've BEEN there...but it's not neurotypical:

A 'little' note to end on: I want to state that I love all three of these character very dearly. I don't pretend that I don't have a favorite, but they are all amazing. There's various reasons why Metal Lords is such a comforting movie, but a big one, is that the characters act in a way that feels incredibly familiar. They act like me. They act like my autistic friends. We make weird facial expressions, we understand the world and each other through our interests. The way all of them talk feels so close to home. (The swearing is actually part of that. A lot of real people swear and over-censoring of that tends to bug me but that's kinda beside the point lmao)

[defectivegembrain]

Okay but like talking about Sheldon. Because I've seen some people use him as an example of the stereotype people have in mind when they insist that autism isn't a disability. But like Sheldon is disabled. He would probably never admit it, but he is. Like look it's been years since I've watched that show but okay just looking at the Roommate Agreement thing on the wiki:

Leonard drives him to work and all his appointments. He depends on another person for regular and important transport, and this is so necessary that he felt the need to write it into a contract.

Leonard must provide a "confirmation sniff" for questionable dairy products. This shows a large degree of concern about such things and/or difficulty telling for himself whether something is edible.

Various parts indicate serious trouble dealing with change, such as certain nights being reserved for specific activities, advance notification of house guests, and a complicated process to select a new takeout restaurant.

It is written specifically that once a day Sheldon must ask how Leonard is. He needs this prompt to engage in basic social niceties. This reminds me that a running joke was him asking about the "social protocol" for situations.

There are specific clauses specifying sensory needs, such as control of the thermostat and banning loud events.

Now obviously he goes about dealing with this in a selfish and coercive way, but these are not the actions of a well functioning person who just has preferences, these are signs of someone who needs proper accommodations and understanding. And he doesn't mask well either, just about everyone who interacts with him thinks there's something wrong with him.

If this is your image of the autistic people who it's somehow fair to say aren't disabled...you have a skewed view of disability and you're erasing a lot of people's struggles.

[toddsevilex]

*QUICK NOTE!!* I have an autism spectrum, and ADHD. There's a possibility it'll cause issues for me and you when it comes to communicating or understanding a certain tone, so please be patient with me.

I appreciate the use of tone indicators/tags <3

Updated : 09/25/24

INTRODUCTION !

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| Hi! My names're Seth, Nataniel, or Natalie. Depending on whether I feel more masculine, feminine. My pronouns are he/she/they,i'm non-binary, and bisexual. ⊹₊

RATING : TOO WOKE ! ⋆

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side-blogs !

@hypnosirlwife — hades, greek mythology & pjo content, will try to post art & more.

@olderdanieldiazsgf — life is strange one & two account, but *mainly* life is strange two.

@onewiththemusic — scott pilgrim, was supposed to be a mainblog but ended up being about natalie/envy.

@chilchucksscarf — chilchuck.

more about me !

☆ I draw, write and take pictures from time to time. I don't know if I'm confident enough in my writing skills for one of my works to be posted, but we'll see.

☆ I really want moots who's into any of my interests. I just love meeting new people, and I get so happy to see that we have the same similar interests!!

☆ super multi-fandom

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! !

if you'd like to be moots/friends with me, please simply just follow!! <3 I'll follow you back.

! !

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main fixations !

Life is Strange [1 & 2 <3]

Greek Mythology

Hades [1 & 2]

[I LOVE YOU HYPNOS]

Delicious in Dungeon / Dungeon Meshi

Scott Pilgrim

Arcana

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BASIC DNI CRITERIA ! !

specifically proshippers, israel supporters, etc. my blog is NOT a safe space for people like these, i will never condone this type of behavior and you will be blocked. I have a tendency of blocking freely, however this usually happens when someone makes me uncomfortable.

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THE END :3

Thanks for reading!