#I think ​this applies to autism special interests as well

[yourlegacysnotyourstosee]

Me when I don’t have an active hyperfixation: *sleeps too much* *barely any motivation to do anything* *feels empty and unfulfilled because there’s nothing to fill The Void*

Me when I do have an active hyperfixation: *loses sleep to research* *grades slip because I’m so focused on the hyperfixation* *has no motivation or energy for anything else* *ignores the growing mess in my room because that doesn’t matter to me anymore* *I only ever think about the fixation* *forgets to eat, drink water, and go to the bathroom regularly* *friends continuously call me annoying and ask me to talk about anything else*

[rrcenic]

if the scott pilgrim takes off characters had tumblr (yeahhh scott’s username is a sonic/x men reference)

🎸 sonicthemutant Follow

wallace sent me this idk what to say,,,

(12 notes)

🛼 bibibitch Follow

isn’t it funny how you can grow to love your ex boyfriend as a son

🛹 LucasLeeOfficialAccount Follow

which one of us is this about

🛼 bibibitch Follow

yes.

#made this post thinking about scott #but this applies to you as well tbh

(15k notes)

💅 prettydarngay Follow

“and they were roommates” i sob. “oh my god they were roommates” when will he notice me.

🎸 sonicthemutant Follow

we’re roommates haha!! silly coincidence?

💅 prettydarngay Follow

i am in love with you

🎸 sonicthemutant Follow

oh.

(8,345 notes)

💰Evil-CEO1147 Follow

my boyfriend @LucasLeeOfficialAccoubt walked into a glass door 😭😭😭

📝 yungneil Follow

i thought you were dating julie???

☕️ BitchyBarista Follow

it’s called polyamory you dumb fuck

📝 yungneil Follow

sorry ma’am

#pls don’t hurt me

(217 notes)

🥁 sexbobomb-band Follow

💋 envyyofficial Follow

if you cover my song i will beat you with my guitar

🔪 knives-from-sexbobom Follow

☹️☹️☹️☹️

(31k notes)

💅 prettydarngay reblogged toddtheveggiehead

🎸 sonicthemutant Follow

“wow scott you seem so cool why don’t you have lots of friends?”

i have autism *vine boom*

i’m transgender *vine boom*

my special interest is a kids video game *vine boom*

i’m not sure if i’m dating my roommate @prettydarngay or if we just flirt and sometimes kiss *vine boom*

🥷 roxxierocks Follow

#we. we are dating right???

NOT A FAKE POST BUT OMG SOMEONE ACTUALLY MADE WALLACES ACCOUNT @prettydarngay and so naturally i had to make @sonicthemutant! send asks :0

THERES NOW @knives-from-sexbobom and @kimpineofficial

[grison-in-space]

honestly so much of the way we conceptualize autistic special interests is predicated on there not being anyone who shares them with us? and like. have you met humans. have you talked to any autistics. because lots of them are pretty interesting actually! and autistic people are often pretty good at infecting you with their interests so that you share them too even if you're not as motivated to fixate happily on them for their own sakes!

huge whorls of autistic-generated human communities exist, and people who aren't used to autistic people never seem to realize that Yes Those Are Also Autistics, often because people are used to autistic special interests occupying some very limited contexts like Computers because Computers were a big new societal innovation and community spinning up right when people also started thinking about autism as a Distinction Among Humans. Also Pokemon. And the Internet. Nineties kids know what I mean, eh?

anyway here are some heavily autistic communities that allistic people never seem to realize tend to concentrate autistics and be driven by them:

every non-commercial domestic animal fancy ever, including dog, cat, pigeon, chicken, and horse people; also includes a fair chunk of the commercial kinds but there are slightly less of these

fandom of any kind (for some reason--it's misogyny--no one seems to realize that this also applies to female-slanted forms of fandom focused on storytelling and modification as well as male-slanted ones that involve information curation)

religion. especially any kind that involves any kind of organization--less the charismatic ones that involve manipulating other people, more the kind that draw people interested in the way that religion works. less/more is not all/none.

kink and sexuality generally and also gender. we think a lot. it's a problem. and we get snagged on stuff. plus sensory shit ties into everything. just saying. e v e r y t h i n g.

academia. look we get. we get interested in things. if you get interested enough in things people call you an expert and sometimes they give you money. money is nice. it lets you buy more objects of special interest.

acting. we wear masks all the fucking time and we get caught up in it. which makes you think about structure, eh?

comedy. ditto.

building shit. admittedly the allistics have largely noticed that engineers concentrate us by now but it has taken a surprisingly long time to realize that this also applies to other, older crafts.

fibercrafts and textiles. what about "we like textures and also figuring out how things work" is a surprise to you. also math. again the answer to how the allistics keep failing to notice this one is "there's lots of ladies in there."

I bet I'm missing plenty that I'm just not thinking of but my god, man, look at how many of these things touch us! look at how they shape our understanding of one another and ourselves! how cool is that

[weeb-polls-with-pip]

Autistic Anime Girls Finale

SUBMISSION PROPAGANDA:

Asa -

"one of the first things that shows up when you search up 'asa mitaka' on google is 'autistic' which is a good start.

some notable traits is applying herself to rules when it's not needed, when she waited to walk the street at a red light even when there was absolutely no cars, she doesn't fit in well with her peers, notoriously awkward (and a bit of a klutz), she doesn't seem to have an acknowledgment of her own tone or volume when talking to people (she feels okay just yelling out loud to her devil hallucination in public..), and of course.. her idea of a date is setting up a timed-out plan, with her telling many sea creature facts without pause. she does NOT wanna deviate from this plan. She very much bores her date, but she thought it would win him over instantly.

all in all Asa is a very relatable character to a lot of autistic people, especially autistic girls and autistic teenagers. a lot of her character and arc is centered around social isolation and trying to connect with people, and how that also interacts with self worth. personally i think she should win."

Izutsumi -

"Izutsumi is a picky eater and she has sensory touch issues as well plus as a catgirl she automatically gets autism because all cats have autism by human standards."

Richeh -

"her life's purpose is to live her life according to her own rules, regardless of society's rules that don't make sense to her. and she does that by wholeheartedly embracing her special interests of making delicate magic of crystally stuff and shiny ribbons! she's also prone to making lil puns with her name and the names of the other witches in her atelier, and nobody really gets them aside from the people in her found family <3

also (CONTAINS SPOILERS) her brother once told her that he loved her magic just as it was and that he hoped she never stopped making it and being herself (paraphrased cuz i don't remember the actual quote!) and she took that literally to mean that she shouldn't make magic that wasn't the kind of magic that was hers- i.e. shiny, small, ornate, and detailed magic. Being forced to change how she made her magic in order to "do things the proper way" during her original apprenticeship caused her intense distress, and she'd often refuse to do so and would instead think up her own magic to solve problems instead of doing things by the book. Doing that subjected her to harassment and abuse from her original professor, leading to her eventually needing to leave her 'traditional' witch apprenticeship and get her apprenticeship done at Qifrey's atelier, a place far removed from the main witch cities that accommodates her and allows her to grow the way she wants to."

[pteraphylax]

I personally don’t hc Gale as autistic, because to me he comes across very neurotypical? I think a lot of people hc him as autistic just because he’s an academic type who exposits a lot. But for me and my brand of autism, he doesn’t resonate like that. He reminds me of my husband who is neurotypical.

I can see why a lot of people hc that though, and a lot of the reasons people ‘hate Gale’ end up being things that autistic people get bullied and punished for in real life.

I don’t hc Gale as autistic, but I take it personally when I see people hating on him for what could be considered ‘autistic-coded traits’.

You know who I DO hc as autistic?

Lae’zel.

Black and white thinking (whether she’s stanning Vlaakith or Orpheus, it’s with the same all-in fervour)

Blunt and abrasive mannerisms. She doesn’t follow societal conventions. She’s aware of them and thinks they’re a waste of time. She doesn’t react or express her feelings in conventional ways. She is often insulting and brutally honest because she always tells the truth as default.

She takes people at face value and is always earnest. For example when Gale compliments her fighting style, she immediately offers to teach him with 100% sincerity. It often catches people off guard. She doesn’t realise when people are asking rhetorical questions vs. actually wanting to know or do something (same, Queen).

Special interests. The way she talks about her insane training regime, maintains her gear, her learning and memorisation of the Gith slates. It’s very intense.

She gets her mind set on doing something a certain way (go straight to the crèche) and finds it hard to understand why the others want to sidetrack from that.

LOVES rules. She has those protocols memorised and it’s very difficult for her to imagine a reality that is not dictated by them. Even comparing her to other Gith at the creche, Lae’zel is so much more rigid. If she turns from Vlaakith she is equally rigid about her new destiny with Orpheus/ fighting Vlaakith.

Toes are out in her starting armour. For my autism shoes are the devil so I am applying this to her too lol.

Sometimes her complaints about Faerun/ the material plane come across as being overstimulated in a sensory way. At least they do to me.

Other sensory stuff: she has as much bare skin as possible in her default outfits. For my autism, tight and covering clothes are also the devil, so I’m projecting this on her as well.

You could also definitely interpret her idling with her weapons/ using the grindstone as stimming. If that’s the case this is NOT my flavour of autism. Lae’zel stimming on her grindstone makes my ears bleed and makes me want to scream. Sometimes other people’s stims are your sensory hell.

She is ride or die for the party. At first it’s a mutual goal based thing, but as she gains respect for the other party members a switch flips and she’s All In. This sort of black and white approach to relationships feels very neurodivergent to me.

I LOVE LAE’ZEL.

[autism-rizz-tournament]

Autism Rizz Tournament

Rizz: Originally short for "Charisma", Rizz (for this tournament, at least) refers to the appeal, charm or general "ability to pull" a character has, either romantically and/or sexually. (The character doesn't necessarily need to be attracted to anyone to have rizz. If they can make others fall for them, it counts)

How to vote

Propaganda

Chiaki Nanami (Super Danganronpa 2)

the first thing that comes to mind is her tendency to speak in uncertain terms more often than other people (like following up a statement that she's mostly -- but not entirely -- certain in with "i think", as an example), because i also do that. in my case it's probably a combination of literalmindedness and wanting to avoid miscommunication while also not wanting to spend too much energy finding the absolute perfect wording, and i think the same applies to chiaki, since she's also noted to take time articulating responses to things sometimes, another thing which points to the idea that she takes some effort to avoid miscommunications. she usually speaks in a pretty subdued tone (probably for the same reason), but she also gets quite blunt on occasion, usually when in a stressful or otherwise chaotic situation. the least spoilery example i can think of is when she bluntly tells nagito to be quiet during the first trial, because basically everything he said by that point was causing widespread confusion and psychic damage to the other students. it also probably should have been noted sooner that she is the Ultimate Gamer. danganronpa's ultimate talents in general tend to easily read as special interests for the characters who possess them (since even the talents that relate to physical skill often come packaged with knowledge of the subject, including random trivia) and chiaki is no exception. something else that's notable is that the one video game genre she isn't good with is the dating sim genre. last point: facial expressions! this could be chalked up to her being kinda sleepy all the time, but almost all the facial expressions in her sprites are pretty close to a flat neutral, which is notable for a visual element designed to communicate a character's emotion. she does still express emotion with her face, but it's to a noticeably lesser extent than the other characters in the game. also to give some backup to the rizz part as well, the protagonist especially likes her in a way that i assume is intended to be romantic, though i also remember it being somewhat vague, but either way his affection for her leads to the established rules of the plot being broken in a narratively satisfying way in order for him to talk to her during the conclusion of the game, which leads him to have hope that everything will turn out okay in the end. (intentionally vague to avoid spoilers as much as possible, i hope the point still comes across alright)

Reagan Ridley (Inside job)

No propaganda

[coldflasher]

i was listing to your podcast episode and i was wondering if can you elaborate more on your autistic/(and i think?) adhd barry headcannon? i'm very curious to hear more.

Oh boy can I!

So take this with a grain of salt in that after being diagnosed I now see autism everywhere lmao (extremely ironic that so many autistic people literally develop a special interest in autism, go figure) but I actually think there's a LOT of textual evidence of behaviour that aligns with the diagnostic criteria!

Hyperfixations/special interests

Barry often exhibits signs of having what could either be considered hyperfixations and/or special interests throughout the show, including becoming incredibly hyperfocused on certain ideas or tasks, like catching the man in yellow, stopping various villains or metas of the week... Examples of long-term special interests would obviously be science in general, as well as researching the impossible (he had a blog about this and was known to run away from home or travel long distances to investigate these happenings. Incidentally, running away is very common in autistic kids and as I'm sure you'll agree, very appropriate for him as a character haha). He has a strong tendency to infodump about the science stuff. He also often fixates on solving situations and pushes the people around him too far because they're not as laser focused on the thing as he is (this becomes a biiig pattern for him later).

Social difficulties

When we meet Barry, aged 25, he has one friend that we know of, and that's Iris. Other shows will often have an ep or storyline where we meet a character's old friend who's back in town or whatever, but this never happens with Barry. His only friend is (on a technical basis) his adopted sister. He was bullied pretty brutally as a kid, allegedly because of his loud insistence on talking about his mother's murder and the mysterious man in the yellow lightning, but arguably even a traumatized NT kid would catch on pretty fast that talking about that loudly in public is not a great social move lmao. He does end up with quite a few long-term friends, but I'd argue that Cisco and Caitlin aren't particularly neurotypical either lmao so it checks out, we tend to attract one another.

At work, he works in the crime lab by himself, not interacting with other CSIs. He's hypercompetent at the actual CSI work but struggles hugely with the social demands of the work environment and with how to conduct himself in a professional capacity. The only work colleagues we DO see him interact with (at least until later seasons) generally seem to view him negatively. Captain Singh is visibly impatient with him, and Barry's constantly putting his foot in it with him. Chyre also doesn't seem to be a fan of him. Julian actively goes out of his way to get Barry fired. Even in just the first 2 eps of s1 he's repeatedly said things that his colleagues view as inappropriate and been scolded by Joe for "embarrassing" him by letting his mouth run away with him in an unprofessional manner (aka, difficulties adjusting his behaviour for various social contexts).

Strong sense of justice

Having an incredibly strong sense of justice and morality is a common autistic trait. People sometimes interpret this as "autistic people are inherently more moral than allistics", and that's not true, of course. What it does mean is that we're more likely to have a very strong sense of what we perceive as morally right or just, and it can be more difficult to get us to act in ways that go against those beliefs. It's also common for autistic folks to either be intense rule-followers OR to disregard rules that don't make sense to us (usually due to some social hierarchies that we aren't interpreting in the same way or just don't really register, or that don't make sense to us) and I think this definitely applies to Barry. He's incredibly focused on getting justice for people, and he's willing to break rules he sees as unimportant (like uh. Contaminating evidence by working on crime scenes he was involved in... being a vigilante in general... keeping metahumans locked up in his basement) but then he also gets Ralph fired from CCPD for (iirc) planting evidence, because he sees that as wrong and unjust, even though the perpetrator HAD committed the crime and there just wasn't sufficient evidence for a conviction. (Not saying he was wrong to get Ralph fired at all but there is a certain amount of hypocrisy there haha).

He also clashes really hard with Julian in this way, because (in my opinion) they're both autistic but it's presenting in very different ways. Julian is an "I'll follow all rules exactly to the letter autistic" (see him getting mad when Barry tries to leave work less than five minutes before his work day officially finishes) whereas Barry is an "I'll follow rules that I understand as important and that personally make sense to me, and ignore the rest" autistic.

Stimming

This is more true of season 1 Barry but he's a very fidgety boy. He's always messing with his hands and touching the hair over his ears. This is a small thing but a character detail I really love.

Motor function issues

In the first seven minutes of the pilot Barry has already crashed into multiple people. Enough said haha.

A lot of these traits get toned down in him over time, but he's often described as slow and shown to be clumsy, bumping into people and knocking things over. Whenever he doesn't have or use his speed they really emphasize how he struggles physically: he's described as running extremely slowly "even for a normal person", and when he plays baseball in s5, he's unable to catch the ball (he may have been playing this up to help hide his identity but it seems from the way Iris is sympathetic towards his struggles that he just genuinely isn't a good player).

There isn't much or any textual evidence of him having sensory issues or sticking very firmly to a routine (quite the opposite actually, this man is pure chaos) but that could be because of the novelty-seeking; autism and adhd symptoms often "cancel each other out" in some ways, and it's apparently quite common for folks with both to have one they skew more towards that kind of hides the symptoms of the other.

Here are a couple of ADHD things:

Time blindness

When has this man not been late for work? Before he got his speed he was always late. Even WITH speed he's late half the time.

Organizational issues

He's always standing people up, forgetting about commitments, showing up late... again, this could be because he's juggling so much in his personal and professional lives, but...

Impulsive behaviour

From the NHS ADHD criteria:

excessive talking (see the infodumping and getting himself into trouble at work by going off on inappropriate tangents)

acting without thinking (see literally everything he's ever done in his life. how many times have the people around him torn him a new one for taking a risk or doing something stupid?)

little or no sense of danger (again. see literally everything about him. the man runs around the city in a red suit saving lives with little or no thought towards the risk or potential costs to himself).

So yeah, I clearly have spent a lot of time analysing him and his behaviours lmao, tune in soon for my "Rogue Air" episode where I will monologue for an hour about autistic Leonard Snart

[astrosouldivinity]

Astrological placements in a natal chart that may indicate OCD or Anxiety

+ Autism/ADHD

Part 1: ⚠️ Disclaimer: I am not saying these placements have AuDHD/Anxiety/OCD. But they may be more prone to certain behaviors relating to the disorders. You can use astrology to observe your subconscious patterns. Essentially, you can use it for shadow work. But these may not apply to everyone so take what resonates and leave what does not

6H Stellium- OCD regarding their perfectionistic nature. They need things to be exact & orderly. Change in routine may be difficult especially if they have already established a routine that makes sense to them. This placement gives Neurodivergent vibes as well tbh. They need some type of structure/routine to feel secure.

Mercury Aspects: if negatively aspected these individuals may struggle with communicating their innermost thoughts. Their thoughts/communication often get muddled which can make it difficult to understand them.

Mercury Square Venus: relates to Mercury aspects but I wanted to go into detail with this specific placement. They may be awkward in social settings & have a hard time connecting with others overall. They could say the wrong thing or just make someone feel some type of way but it’s not on purpose.

Virgo Anything: OCD regarding their physical environment. I didn’t put any specific Virgo placements because I’ve observed that the placement truly doesn’t matter when it comes to these behaviors. Since they are an earth sign they are pretty grounded. However, they are ruled by Mercury & are a mutable earth sign which affects their stability levels. They need their environment to be perfect & make sense to them at a mental level. So they may be control freaks. They give off restless anxious energy similar to Gemini. They are sensitive & feel things in their gut due to Virgo being ruled by the abdomen. Digestive issues are a common symptom in autistic people.

Libra Sun/Moon/Mars/Mercury: They are likely to have a strong sense of justice which is common for people with Autism. But they are also an air sign too so I think it makes it more difficult for them to stay grounded in general. They pick up on many different frequencies which I think makes them very intuitive. They may have pattern recognition which is another Autistic trait. They like to weigh their options and see things from different pov’s before coming to a decision. But they can be indecisive & value their freedom a lot. It’s giving PDA (pathological demand avoidance).

Gemini Anything: I didn’t put any specific Gemini placements because I’ve observed that the placement truly doesn’t matter when it comes to these behaviors. Their brains tend to be scattered & they are usually all over the place. They have a restless/anxious energy to them. It’s hard for them to stay still for prolonged periods & they need lots of mental stimulation or they will get bored. They are good at retaining information & sometimes have a good memory. But they can be forgetful too. They may remember their special interest in detail but everything else is debatable.

~Part 2~

AstroSoulDivinity on TikTok

[electronicdreamerdreamer]

I love that sharks are my special interest because I can apply them to my Autism.

I have had bad imposter syndrome, thinking that I'm not so called "typical" autistic. Well, sharks remind me of autistic experience. There are over 500 different types of sharks like there are many types of autistics. Great white shark, frilled shark and epaulette shark are very different, but they're still sharks. Unfortunately some people dismiss weird-looking sharks as "ugly" and "not looking like a real shark". Like some people dismiss autistic people from "not looking like autistic." People have a certain image of a shark and a certain image of autistic in their heads and that's their problem. Shark knows it's a shark and I know I am autistic.

[vore-scientist]

How would the Mystic Woods folks get along with the Dungeon Meshi crew?

MW and dungeon meshi

Ok so I’m gonna talk about Sophia and Laois for most of this.

I’m also going to assume this is about during the story and not post-story. Sorry Falin you ain’t a part of this 😢 no Izutsumi either to avoid spoilers for those only watching the anime 😿 (oh wow I started answer thing ask a while ago…) Sophia would bother Izutsumi but eventually they would respect each other.

Sophia and Laois would either get along famously or so horrendously that there would be collateral damage. Actually there would be collateral damage if they got along.

See folks with Autism often don’t get along due to extreme incompatibility of symptoms. One autistics stim might to another like be nails on a chalkboard of the their brain.

But I would lean towards getting along. Sophia doesn’t have a special interest like Laios, but her brain LOVES special interests of others and she loves to get swept into it to the point where you forget it’s not her special interest. She will absorb everything Laios says and apply the knowledge and even learn on her own as she encounters new monsters.

Sophia likes adventuring and helping people so she’d be on board to help save Falin and defeat the lord of the dungeon.

The only issue is she can’t cook. She wouldn’t even be able to be taught and I think Senshi, Chilchuck, and Marcille might think she’s not contributing. The way she asserts she cannot cook might feel like she’s trying to avoid the chore. Until she is forced to try and cook and something explodes.

Sophia would be a huge asset while fighting due to her curse ;) she can take a lot more risk and charge monsters or distract them or even set off traps that they cannot avoid or disable.

Marcille would be impressed that Sophia can learn magic pretty decently! Not as fast as Laios can pick things up but Sophia perseveres and will figure it out even if her magic isn’t powerful.

Now yonah… well. He and Senshi would get along amazing. Two great chefs!

Yonah would let Laios examine him and Laios would be in Laios Heaven. Even knowing Yonah has eaten people, Yonah truly is a monster and person. Not just a mindless monster but still… monstrous.

Marcille would be very uncomfortable around yonah as he’s a monster but eventually they’d become best friends as Yonah is able to help her investigate ancient magic and has no moral qualms about learning it.

That’s all for now

[stem-sister-scuffle]

STEM SISTER SCUFFLE: ROUND 2 MASHUP 2

Honey Lemon (Big Hero 6) vs Ema Skye (Ace Attorney)

Honey Lemon is a Chemist!

Ema Skye is a Forensic Scientist!

Why you should vote for each contestant:

Honey Lemon:

"She applies her science into being a kickass superhero"

"She's so nice and enthusiastic about science. She's funny :)"

"She loves chemistry and wants to make the world a better place through it! She’s always optimistic and upbeat no matter what!!! Cute girlies in STEM!!!!!"

"her excitement for science is so palpable it’s my favorite part of the movie. she’s ECSTATIC about the elements and making chemical reactions just to see what happens!! not to mention she’s smart as FUCK! she created chemical formulas on the fly as she fights bad guys. CHEMISTRY is her superpower. she’s cute hehe"

"Her name is Honey Lemon. That's the cutest name I've ever heard. She's also described as having an innate talent in Chemistry, as well as a groundbreaking chemist. In her hero gear she has a Chem-Purse, which has a typepad of the periodic table which she can press on to make into a dense ball of any element she wishes, and during active battle she can calculate and input chemical formulas at incredible speeds without even having to look at it. Girlboss behaviour!! She also made a 400 pound ball of tungsten carbide turn into DUST before she became a hero when she was only a university student. She's not even a girlboss anymore she's a girlCEO. I had the BIGGEST crush on her when I was young. My Bi awakening. I love her so much you don't even know 💛"

Ema Skye:

"I love her a lot and she's very important to me. We get to see her story from being a high school student who's really into science, to becoming a detective, to then finally passing her forensics exam and becoming a forensic scientist like she always wanted. I cosplayed her before"

"Ema has been interested in forensics ever since she was a kid. She's extremely passionate about it. She works very hard and despite bumps along the way she does manage to achieve her dreams/career goal and get into forensic science. She is amazing and I love her enthusiasm and I love her :D When she was like 16 she personally had her own spray bottle(s) of luminol testing fluid, what a dork (in the best way!). Forensic science is practically her whole life. What an inspiration. The first thing on her wiki page is the quote "Yes! Isn't it amazing? Ah, the power of science. It's my life." Bless."

"this girl is so silly. Her favorite thing is luminol. You have an ace attorney pfp you know her. She is my favorite ever. She calls Klavier Gavin a "glimmerous fop" (accurate description). She wears a lab coat over her school uniform. She brings snacks to crime scenes.i love her your honor"

"shes like every enthusiastic autism girl with a science special interest who then gors to college and gets a job and is tired and a mean lesbian but still is a freak about forensics. i love her"

"SHE WORKED SO HARD TO GO INTO FORENSICS. SHE HELPS EVERYONE DO FORENSICS. SHE THEN FAILS WHEN IT COUNTS AND BECOMES BITTER BUT GETS OUT OF THOSE FEELINGS LATER ON. I love her dearly she's so silly and fun when she needs to be, and I think her failure is fascinating but I'm SOOOOO GLAD she was able to become a forensic scientist in the end :)"

"Showed up and gave Apollo random forensics supplies at just the right time. Not sure if this was authorized. Does not Mayte though she can do anything she wants. C’mon man you know her you know why she’s the best you get me right"

"She's fun and good at science and has pink lenses in her glasses and I like her a lot"

"She is so excited to be using her fun little toys to solve crimes."

"She’s a gosh darn professional in a house of fops. Is passionate about her work and was inspired partially by a murder case she was involved in as a witness. She’s really cute and really quirky, and ya girl knows how to snack. She accessorizes really well. I cosplayed as her once and found myself more and more impressed with her style choices as I was putting it together. We stan a fashionable yet practical STEM queen."

"she is literally everythingggg to me. she has wanted to be a forensic scientist since she was 16 y/o and introduces forensic investigation mechanics to the series like luminol and dusting for fingerprints. when she does not get her dream job, she becomes depressed and bitter, only cheering up when she talks about forensic science. later on, when she attains the job, she is much happier! science is her entire life and her career and she is tremendously autistic about it. also she's such a girlboss i love her <3 ema must go through btw. she is the ultimate woman in stem"

"Ema Skye has been interested in forensics for many years due to case that occurred when she was younger. Even though she didn't pass the test to become one at first she had still continued trying till she made it. She always lights up at the mention of anything revolving sciene. She gets so happy when she's able to work with her forensic tools and investigate the crime scene <33"

"Teaches Phoenix wright about forensics"

"she wears a cool lab coat and I don't really know what else to put here but she's neat"

"she is so autistic about forensic science. she goes against the police rules to take fingerprints. she infodumps to anyone who will listen about forensic science. ema is so special to me and I love her very much"

"Ema is a girlboss! She started using forensics and scientific investigation to help solve murders when she was just 15 years old. she autistic and bisexual bc I say so :)"

"Literally the only character in universe that uses hard evidence in trials."

"The skyentific detective…."

"Its literally her personality ok. Just listen to her theme(s). I just love her"

"She is literally me <33 I love her. I need to see her grow up happy and healthy and i need to tell my friends and family about her."

"Wants to be a scientific investigator and solve crimes scientifically, forced to be a cop. Goes from teen with a weird hobby to reluctant cop to everything she ever wanted and I am so proud"

"She’s just a little weirdo. And she keeps trying to be a forensic scientist, but she has to finish high school first. She solved the murder her sister was accused of "

"Forensic science fascinates her. She sure is a woman jn stem. I am sorry I am very tired i dn what to write"

"I need to actually finish AA but it’s her. You probably have more submissions with better reasoning but I like her vibes from what I did play."

"She's got all sorts of cool gadgets which utilize the DS touchscreen"

[abimee]

i have a cocktail of neurodivergences because when one thing goes wrong in your brain you usually develop 3 carry-on disorders free of charge but the thing that always sucks most is when you have a ''neurodivergent disorder'' that has zero upsides. like you get bombarbed by tiktoks and posts about how great it can be to have ADHD or autism and all these upsides because they alter how you function in positive and negative ways, but as someone with combination OCD-BP (WHICH MAKES THE BIPOLAR WORSE AND HARDER TO TREAT THAN NON-OCD BP) you get every single downside symptom and zero of the ups

like congratulations if your ADHD makes you more aware of the emotions of others or capable of taking on multiple tasks, but here comes bipolar with the steel chair of ''if i see a single other person whos slightly better than me at this thing i just picked up i will ruin everyones day including myself because IM supposed to be the most special person on earth''. I see something that makes me excited/overly happy due to my autism? well here comes the mania triggered by the sudden elation in mood and therefore ill go from ''im so excited and happy!!" to "i can get into a car right now and drive it despite never having been behind the wheel before because life is so perfect that basic laws of physics dont apply to me because the world is so amazing like that!!"

get a new hyperfixation? how long do you think it will last. 3 months? a year? well here comes mania with the ''you will think about this every day for hours on end for 6+ years straight and it will always be VERY sexual because you have hypersexuality problems and just dont know it and even if youre not longer interested in this thing you will be unable to stop thinking about it because it is part of your life now!"

but theres one upside to bipolar disorder that nobody tells you. and that is that you have bipolar, and therefore are capable of telling the world of its existence and to get people to understand this incurable, disabling disorder with many facets from impulse control to mood swings to psychotic behavior to obsessive tendencies, and you have the power to let one more person in the world know its exists and to get them to learn more about it and respect and understand bipolar disorder. and that can make the world a little easier to live in when youre struggling with bipolar

[padfoot0216]

TK Strand is Autistic. (I have evidence I just thought I would start with that. Straight to the point you know)

I would also like to say this is written by an autistic person who has done hours of research in autism. So I kind of know what I’m talking about I think.

Special Interest (there isn’t a lot for this one but there is some soo)

So the first example is from season 2 episode 2. Mateo is talking about his new tattoo and mentions TK’s tattoo. He says “You’re the one with the beetle in your arm.” to TK. TK responds with, “It’s not a beetle it’s a honey bee.” And then without and prompting says l, “Did you know honey bees pollinate a third of our food supply?” I know that by itself it’s not exactly great evidence. Combined with everything else I will speak about it fits. Like the only prompting he had for this random bee fact was Mateo bringing up the tattoo.

Monotone Voice/Flat Face

Every single episode. It’s especially noticeable when he’s working. He has very little facial expression and his voice stays flat. I was going to try and find a scene that I could link here but it’s really difficult to find a scene that’s not just him and Carlos or him just passed out, and I feel like using a clip of him being passed out wouldn’t really prove my point, but if you compare his facial expressions and voice to there during very intense events you’ll notice it. Such as Season 3 Episode 11. The whole capital building is shut down and everyone on the team has at least a little bit of worry on their faces, but TK looks so unbothered. Like this is completely normal. He is obviously worried but it doesn’t really show. The only time he really has expression is around Carlos. I know there are definitely some other exceptions, but a majority of the time this applies.

Stimming (There is so much evidence for this)

TK stims in literally every episode. I’m not going to put every example because that would take literally hours and although I do have time for that I don’t want to. So we’ll start with season 1 episode 4 when TK goes to chemo with his dad. Now this one could just be him being anxious but I have more I swear. Just watch the first 12 seconds of the clip. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uHp4ME6v7MA. Okay another example or I could say examples is him just messing with his hands. At all times. He never stops. If you watch him during the show you’ll notice this. I would put examples but once again way too many. The next one that comes to mind is TK during season 3 episode 19 when they hold the intervention for Nancy and Mateo towards the end of the episode. If you watch him throughout the entire scene you’ll see it but the part I’m talks about is between 46 seconds and 48 seconds of the clip I’m about to give the link to. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_7rtPmn99i8. The last one I’m going to mention despite there being so much more is TK during season 4 episode 8. Once again if you watch you’ll see him stimming throughout it, but the particular scene I’m talking about is when he fires his dad. The more he gets upset the more you see it. It is literally just this whole scene. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ILcATWsXrsM

Being Upset By Change

I only have two examples of this but I think they fit pretty well. The first one also comes from season 3 episode 17. He is having the conversation about catan with Nancy, and seems very hesitant about changing from catan. To be fair they all were but he could t even begin to understand why she would want to change it. It all starts when Nancy says, “We’re both over Catan.” TK at this point gets really confused because who wouldn’t want to play the same game every time they have a game night because he certainly would. He responds with “Over Catan? But that’s like our national pastime Nance.” Later in this conversation Nancy says, “I think it’d be good for all of us to change things up. Spice of life.” The way TK responds once again shows how uncomfortable he is with the change. Replying with “Catan is spicy” after she left. The second example is from season 2 episode 6 when TK finds out he’s going to have a little brother. This might just be me but it seems a little out of character for TK to be jealous of having a sibling. It might be a bit if a stretch but if I’m right it could easily be attributed to that.

Sensory Issues

Okay so I can only think of a couple examples of this but will start with this one . The never ending collection of hoodies. He obviously is very attached to his hoodies. To the point where in his coma dream his mom (his subconscious) says “so many innocent hoodies lost their lives that day.” We also often see him wearing his hoodies after a particularly stressful day, but he wears them all the time. Like he has an endless supply. Where does he store all of them? The second example I have is a little better. It’s from season 3 episode 3. At the beginning of the coma dream TK is hearing a beeping noise and he doesn’t exactly know what it is but he has a very strong reaction to the noise. The specific part I’m talking about is at 1:20 seconds of the video that I’m going to put a link to. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B7uSxmVt6XE

Bad at Telling Hunger

Another very common autistic trait is not being able to tell when they are hungry, thirsty, etc. I can only find two examples of TK with showing this trait and that is in season 3 episode 13. TK says “I think I’m going to skip dinner tonight. I’m not really hungry.” Carlos responds with, “You always say that and end up eating at 2 am.” Based off of Carlos comment this has happened multiple times. Another example is in this same episode more towards the beginning. Carlos asks TK if he wants to change before they ate and TK responds with the fact that he already ate, leading Carlos to say he can’t survive on donuts alone. In this case TK had actually already eaten. But it is also implied that this has also happened before.

Bad At Metaphors/Subtext

I can think of at least 2 examples for this one. The they are both in season 3 episode 17. The first one is once again related to catan. When Nancy says that her and Mateo are both over it. It’s pretty obvious that she is speaking of something other than Catan. I know he didn’t know they were together but she was implying something with the way she said it. TK wasn’t picking up on that at all. He was just confused as to why she wouldn’t want to play Catan. The second example is later in the episode when Nancy and Mateo say they are going to get coffee. Everyone in the room is confused but you can tell they are talking about something else and are going to let them leave. TK on the other hand says they have coffee there. Not even thinking about the fact that they might be talking about something else.

Literally His whole conversation with Iris

Honestly I have no way to describe this but TKs who conversation with Iris in season 4 episode 2. When he goes to talk to her at her job. The whole thing is just I don’t know how to describe it. I can’t find a clip but the conversation is just two neurodivergents talking to each other except both of them are confused.

Going Non verbal

I have no actual confirmation that he goes non verbal but I do have a couple of examples that could be taken that way. The first on being how his mom says he shuts down. When the paramedic team gets kidnapped Carlos goes to Gwen and Owen’s house looking for him and she says something along the lines of “I knew we should watch him when he shuts down like this” Tk is usually pretty talkative but during a particularly stressful situation he is weirdly quiet. Such as in season 4 episode 9 when marjan is missing. Everyone else is asking questions and expressing their worries and he is just sitting there completely quiet. This happens multiple time throughout the series and I don’t feel like showing them all so you’ll just have to watch to figure it out, but trust me it happens.

I could probably have found more examples but I think this is more than enough information to prove my point. Anyway…

[nobodysdaydreams]

Benedict Twins Neurodivergent Head Canons (by popular request)

At first I was going to make a post about all the MBS character's neurodivergencies, then I realized I had wayyyy too many for the twins alone.

Then I also realized that despite my efforts to try and separate them by diagnoses, a lot of their symptoms are the same thing in different fonts and with different diagnoses emphasized throughout the show. So here is everything I came up with.

(Warning: insanely long and unhinged post ahead. Feel free to disagree with any of these. Just don't be ableist please!).

My head canons for the twins:

ADHD-inattentive type - mostly Nicholas, possibly season 2 Nathaniel

Autism - mostly Nicholas, you could argue Nathaniel also has it

Anxiety/OCD symptoms - mostly Nathaniel in season 1, you could argue Nicholas has other forms of anxiety

BPD - mostly Nathaniel in season 2, you could argue Nicholas also has it

Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD) - Both twins have it, and I think Nathaniel also has CSD, and I will explain what that is

Maladaptive Daydreaming (MADD) - I don't know if both twins have it, but there are some scenes they were in the had the vibe going for sure

------------------------------

ADHD-inattentive type:

Nicholas' ADHD-I head canon mostly comes from personal experience (that's been my official diagnosis since childhood). Specifically, the way they wrote the show version of the character was way too relatable to me. The fact that there are so many books on his desk cluttered everywhere? Him dismissing the food Number Two tries to give him in that one scene even though he ordered it? The flashbacks of Nathaniel having to tell Nicholas to make sure his appearance looked good? Flashback Nicholas showing up late for the orphanage pageant? The general scatterbrain tendencies? Nicholas getting emotionally overwhelmed when he has too much to do or can't find a way out of a situation? I love the man, but thank goodness he has Rhonda and Number Two to do the executive functioning for him because if they didn't he would be in trouble. Those scenes were way too relatable, as were the scenes of him feeling guilty for being a burden to his friends family because they handle so much for him.

Since this head canon comes entirely from my own experiences, it's probably the easiest for me to write. I haven't done much with it in my fics yet because I've been focusing a bit more on the plot™️ and other characters, but when writing season 2 content, especially from Nicholas' perspective and how it changes after he's been given the happiness technique, I do intend to do a few things to incorporate this head canon into how I write his scenes.

It's also worth noting that while I see this head canon as mostly applying to Nicholas, Nathaniel does seem to have more ADHD-I symptoms in season 2. Season 1 he has a lot of anxiety (which I will talk about), but in season 2, he's a lot more quirky and scatterbrained and relaxed once his anxiety symptoms are decreased, and I could see ADHD being a head canon for him as well, it's just that his anxiety masks his executive dysfunction more than Nicholas' does. Of course, there are a lot of other possible reasons for Nathaniel's change in personality between seasons, and I'm gonna talk about those too.

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Autism:

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): So unlike the ADHD head canon, the autism head canon is one that I am not professionally diagnosed with, but I am familiar with it through irl friends that I've had that have been professionally diagnosed with autism. It's also worth noting that this is not really my own head canon or an unpopular one, other people in the fandom have mentioned this head canon before).

It's also a head canon that I think makes a lot of sense, especially in the show, they mention multiple times that Nicholas was at one point an academic, which could imply him having special interests and hyper fixations. During the flashbacks of him at the orphanage we really don't see him interact with anyone other than Nathaniel, which could be due to a number of factors, but could also suggest that maybe Nicholas struggled socially. This is support by the fact that when he rants at Nathaniel in 1x8, he says Nathaniel always tried "to control me [Nicholas], to control your friends", but Nicholas doesn't say our friends or my friends, and the only friends of his own mentioned from childhood are Nathaniel (who his says was his best friend), and Tommy Jacobs (who Nathaniel told him to stay away from and was implied to be a social outcast) suggesting that Nathaniel was the one building and maintaining the twin's social circle, though of course that's speculation.

I also previously talked about Nicholas being emotionally overwhelmed, and I know I connected that more to my own experience of ADHD-I symptoms, but I could see it being connected to experiences of autism as well, such as autistic burnout, autistic meltdowns, or sensory overload, I suppose it's open to interpretation especially if you head canon Nicholas as having both ADHD and Autism and consider all the ways that ADHD and Autism can coexist and interact within the same person.

It's also worth noting that Nathaniel is also seen misinterpreting social situations and struggling to connect with his peers both in flashback and in the show. In the flashbacks, he doesn't pick up the fact that the perspective parents don't like him or that people are displeased with his morning after performance. In the present, he has to basically twist Garrison's arm into a friendship and has so many weird and uncomfortable scenes where he tries to offer her "a chance to share the spotlight" and gives her champagne she can't drink where it looks like he's attempting to get her to genuinely like him but he just keeps missing the mark and getting more and more frustrated. I suppose you can also head canon this as ASD if you want since it is a pattern of social struggles that has followed him into adulthood (especially since Nicholas and Nathaniel are twins and would likely have similar symptoms), but it's also important to remember that Nathaniel is an antagonist, so I could understand where this head canon could also be taken negatively.

As for how I incorporate ASD head canons into my fic, since ASD is a disorder I have a lot of personal familiarity with, but am not diagnosed with myself, I try to write it in a way where I keep what's canon canon, I talk mostly about the symptoms I'm familiar with or have heard friends of mine describe (I mention Nicholas stimming as a child and struggling to understand social situations, getting very emotionally overwhelmed, etc.).

One thing I was mindful of, especially when writing my fic was that even though Nicholas (and SQ, who I'll talk more about in another post) having autism is a fairly popular head canon made mostly by autistic people, I still wanted to make sure that when I focused in or hinted at those symptoms that I did it well and did it respectfully.

For example, one problematic trope that can happen in autism representation is infantilizing or having them portrayed as sweet and innocent characters, but also characters without a lot of agency, and I did worry a bit about that when writing them from Nathaniel's point of view, and talking about things like him not trusting SQ to make his own decisions, and viewing Nicholas as incapable or incompetent. I really tried to make it super clear that this is how Curtain or other characters are viewing them at various points in time, but it's not necessarily how they actually are. So far I think that I've been able to make that clear, at least I haven't heard anyone say that my portrayal is problematic or bad, and I have gotten a lot of comments saying that I do a fairly good job of switching between the POVs of different characters and showing how certain things from one character's perspective are incorrect in another's. But again, while I have some personal experience with ASD, I don't have it myself, so I'm curious to know what people with ASD think about this head canon and whether it's an accurate and positive one, and if any of you guys think that it's a problematic head canon, or does more harm than good, please let me know.

-----------------------------

Anxiety/OCD:

Anxiety/OCD Symptoms: My background with OCD and anxiety is that I have several family members and friends with anxiety and OCD, and I know that it's a really difficult disorder to live with especially when you're trying to deal with it on your own.

I know there have been a couple people who have already pointed out Nathaniel's OCD and anxiety-like behaviors, especially in the ways that it parallels Sticky's anxiety and OCD tendencies (and I might do another post talking more in depth about Sticky but if you haven't read Sophie's amazing fic about it, do that now).

I noticed these symptoms of Curtain's mostly in season 1, where Curtain started out as a seemingly confident and calm evil mastermind behind the Emergency and then became increasingly anxious and upset the more he lost control. You could also argue the way the Institute is governed by so many rules designed to not look like rules and Curtain's extreme need for control and orderliness are also signs of OCD or anxious tendencies. (and his anxiety and frustration when that control and order is disrupted, such a when he screams at his stenographer that "every minor detail" matters).

In my fic, I do a few examples of Curtain experiencing intrusive and negative thought patterns and using control to try and cope with that, but since it's not a disorder I've been diagnosed with or symptoms I personally experience, I try to keep it within Nathaniel's canon concerns (his fear of failure, being abandoned by his friends and family, his paranoia and mistrust of others especially when he's investigating the kids in season 1 and assumes Nicholas came to the island to mock him).

There's also a scene where Curtain makes SQ believe that his friend Reynie is only trying to take advantage of him, and while it's an example of Curtain letting his own anxieties and fears overshadow what's best for his son, I really try to write in an way that emphasizes that Curtain does believe he is doing the right thing and protecting him, even if he's not doing it correctly. While I mostly focus on his anxiety and OCD symptoms and tendencies in season 1 (because that's when they are emphasized the most), you could also argue he has them a bit towards the end of season 2 as well, but I also think that might be RSD related, which I'll talk about later.

I have also considered possibly exploring more about his relationship with Nicholas especially within the context of my head canon of Nicholas having ADHD and Nathaniel having OCD, because I've had those kind of relationships irl, and sometimes it's balanced really well, because the person with OCD is usually better at executive functioning while the person with ADHD can provide distraction from negative thoughts and reassurance/emotional support, and those are the kinds of relationships I've had that have worked really well. However, I've also had relationships, mostly with roommates, where things just don't match up; they want a roommate with a certain level of cleanliness that follows a steady and predictable routine they can plan around (when you shower, when you bring guests over, etc.) and I just can't live like that and it's no fun getting bullied and nagged all the time and it's also no fun living with someone who is messy and unpredictable, so I can understand why in a situation where both these things were happening, Nicholas leaving created very complicated feelings for both of them.

I'm not sure if I'll have the chance to explore that more in flashbacks or maybe in season 2 when they spend more time together, but it is an interesting dynamic. And just like I said with Nicholas' ASD head canon, while I have some personal experience with OCD and anxiety through friends and family members, I don't have it myself, so I'm curious to know what people with OCD and anxiety think about this head canon and whether it's an accurate or positive one (because even though Nathaniel does grow and change, he's still an antagonist for most of the series especially in season 1), and if any of you guys think that it's a problematic head canon, or does more harm than good, please let me know.

It's also worth pointing out the Nicholas does have some anxious tendencies as well (this has been mentioned by several people in the fandom, and also Nicholas and Nathaniel are identical twins, so it is likely they'd have similar neurotypes), but he also has a better emotional support system than Nathaniel does, so it's likely easier for him to manage his anxiety in a healthy way vs. Nathaniel relying on control. I'd be interested in hearing what people with OCD and anxiety think about this and whether it could apply to both twins.

-----------------------------

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) symptoms:

BPD Symptoms: Since BPD is a less known disorder, I'll first explain that it's a personality disorder (PD) with 9 symptoms (you need 5 symptoms for diagnosis, which leaves 256 possible types of BPD) and it's often linked to some form of abandonment related childhood trauma (a parent leaving, dying, being emotionally distant or abusive, etc.). I will say I was on the fence about this one, and debated including it in my post at all, because I want to acknowledge that head canoning a character, especially a villain character, with a PD can be stereotyping and problematic if not done correctly (though there are many villain characters who have been head cannoned as having BPD by people with BPD (pwBPD) including Anakin from Star Wars, Catra from She-Ra, and Azula from ATLA).

Additionally, I'm also not someone diagnosed with PD, and wouldn't make head canons unless I thought it could be positive or accurate representation. And I think season 2 Nathaniel might qualify for that. Maybe, it's a little complicated. My experience with PDs and BPD comes from knowing people with it irl, but specifically older people with BPD (older than 45), who tend to present differently than younger people because they are on average less likely to have received mental health help or a diagnosis when they were younger and the relationships and goals you have and prioritize at 60 are not the same as the ones you had at 25. I specify season 2 Nathaniel when I talk about his BPD symptoms, mostly because that was when I noticed them. Going into season 2, I did not have BPD in mind as a head canon for him at all. But watching season 2, there were a lot of his scenes where I found myself saying "this looks familiar" and "wait...are they trying to portray BPD in an older person?" and then I realized that when you took out a DSM checklist and looked back at the character...he does fit the criteria pretty well.

However, just fitting a set of DSM criteria doesn't mean a character is good representation, and even accurate representation can still be stereotypical representation (*cough cough* Number Two's mom). Whether Nathaniel could be considered good BPD rep is a difficult question to answer for a couple reasons. The first is because characters with PDs are often stereotyped as villains and antagonists, and while Nathaniel is a sympathetic, likeable, and ultimately redeemed antagonist, he's still an antagonist (not as much of an antagonist as Anakin "the women and children too" Skywalker, a BPD head canon often made by individuals with BPD (plus more about his symptoms here)), but still an antagonist. And while people with BPD have head canoned antagonists as also having BPD, these are usually well-loved antagonists with popular and clear redemption arcs, and Nathaniel's book counterpart (who, for the record DOES NOT have any mental health disorder he's just awful) is very different from his character in the show. So even if Nathaniel is good BPD rep, if someone unfamiliar with how different the MBS show and books are sees the head canon and applies it to the book character on accident, it could leave them with a very false and negative view of the disorder. You could argue this could also easily happen with Nathaniel's anxiety head canon and his control issues, and it could, but anxiety isn't generally vilified nearly as much as PDs.

But on the other hand, I could also see where Nathaniel's BPD could be a positive head canon, and there were a lot of things about it that I really liked. BPD has slowly started to get more positive rep in the media and in the world of psychology in general, but stories with themes of self-improvement where the pwBPD is portrayed in a positive light are still normally reserved for younger people (20s/30s/early 40s) and people without kids. When older pwBPD, especially untreated or undiagnosed individuals and especially individuals with kids are shown in media or talked about in psychology...let's just say it's not great. Now, obviously untreated mental health symptoms can negatively effect the people around you and cause serious damage after so many years, but the lack of positive growth stories about older pwBPD has always bothered me because it completely ignores any good qualities they have, or even the possibility of getting help later in life, and I hate seeing people that I love consistently talked about and portrayed so negatively not just in media but in the field of psychology in general. I also think it's a bit ageist to say that young people can get help for their mental health disorders and improve, but that it's too late for older adults.

That's why I love so much of what they did with Nathaniel's character. They didn't dismiss the impact his symptoms had on his family and SQ, but they also didn't completely blame it all on his BPD symptoms (in fact, in season 1, his anxiety symptoms seemed to be the main focus). They also established very early on that Nathaniel was a redeemable and sympathetic character and wasn't meant to be a copy of his book counterpart (Reynie's 1x8 speech about how Curtain is a good person). Additionally, once his BPD symptoms were more present in season 2, that was when Nathaniel became more likeable in the eyes of the fandom, not less likeable, and I really like that they did that. For as much as we make jokes about hitting Curtain with his golf cart and hating him, I've also seen a lot of people talk about reluctantly coming around to loving his character as they've rewatched Season 2, and I was one of them for sure. I loved that they showed how silly and fun his character was, and how yeah, he's not thinking clearly and is actively committing crimes, but really all he wants is a world where he is loved and has his family with him, he doesn't actually want to hurt anyone. Then there's the fact that his narcolepsy trigger is vulnerability and how that could connect to his self-image, and the fact that the society kids have trauma linked to abandonment that could led to the development of BPD later and how that connects to themes of healing generational trauma (also side note: children can't have a BPD diagnosis so while the kids do have abandonment related traumas and you can draw parallels there, you can't head canon them with BPD to mirror Nathaniel the same way you can head canon other diagnosis between the adults and kids, like with Nicholas and SQ both having autism).

However, the positive aspects of Nathaniel as a BPD character ironically can also be seen as a bad thing, because on the one hand, it's nice to see an older person with possible BPD getting a self-improvement story arc and sympathetic portrayal, but on the other hand: the show was cancelled. And that was really upsetting to me, especially because becoming "a good guy" didn't completely remove Nathaniel's BPD or anxiety symptoms, but they showed him dealing with them in a more healthy way with a support system, and that's such a great message, and we have so little representation of that, so I'm glad they hinted at that...but they totally could have done more with it, and I'm so sad that they can't now because it's a message that does not go unappreciated.

For writing Nathaniel's BPD symptoms into my fic, this is a bit complicated, because while Nathaniel does have a lot of canon symptoms (abandonment related fears, mood swings, moments of anger, unstable relationships, impulsive career change and self identity between seasons, etc.), and I really don't need to add anything, it's still a matter of debate whether it's good representation or not, and I could see people interpreting his character a number of ways. So while I sticking to canon, I still leave things ambiguous. For example, there's a scene in my fic where Curtain admits he doesn't have a stable identity because he avoids vulnerability. You could say that's also due to BPD/unstable self-image or you could say it's entirely due to his canon narcolepsy trigger. It's up to you whether you want the BPD rep there or not, because I've reviewed posts and tips written by people with BPD about writing representation, and recognize that while Nathaniel fits the DSM criteria pretty well and the show focuses a lot on his abandonment issues and symptoms, he is still an antagonist for most of the series. A likable and ultimately redeemed antagonist, but still an antagonist, which means the plot of the show and my fic, while it's ultimately driving him to redemption, still require him do some pretty bad antagonistic things regardless of whether they are directly connected to any symptoms that he has (consider this your warning), and I can see why that aspect of it might be a turn off, which is why I leave the rep open to the interpretation of the reader.

As I mentioned, there are 256 possible types of BPD, I don't expect that everyone with BPD would relate to Nathaniel, and this is also generally a younger fandom (teens/20s/30s) and a big reason I like Nathaniel's rep is because he's portraying what I've seen in older as opposed to younger people with BPD, so it's possible someone with BPD looking at this character would either see it more as a representation of an older family member (because these things do run in families) or wouldn't be able to relate to him. But I'd still be curious to know what people with BPD think about this head canon and whether they agree that's what's being represented here and if so, whether it was done accurately or positively, and just like with other head canons, if any of you guys think that this head canon is problematic or does more harm than good, please let me know.

I'd also be curious to know what people think about Nicholas possibly also having BPD, because he did grow up in an orphanage and his adoptive parents don't seem to be around anymore. He also seems convinced that his friends will leave him whenever he makes a mistake, which...again it could be the anxiety, it could be that both twins have BPD...it could go a number of ways.

-----------------------------

RSD and CSD:

Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD): I know anxiety is also a popular Nicholas head canon, but I did want to mention the ways that I see Nicholas' flavor of anxiety as very RSD oriented. For those that don't know what RSD is, it's when you experience severe emotional pain because of failure or being rejected, and it's often related to ADHD. In my personal experience, it's a lot worse when you feel like you've messed up in a moral sense, done something wrong, hurt someone, or let someone down, especially when the other person assumes that you have malicious intentions, or did something on purpose. You just feel like you want to delete every memory of what happened or destroy yourself to make it go away. It can also happen in response to constructive criticisms too if the person still feels that they really messed up or hurt someone.

I see a lot of RSD/anxious tendencies in Nicholas, specifically in response to what he did to Nathaniel, but also at the thought of something happening to the children or his friends and it being his fault for creating the Sender and dragging them into this. This is also supported by the fact that Nicholas' anxiety seemed to go up a lot after 1x03 when he finds out Nathaniel is the Sender and he has his little breakdown in the woods. Obviously he's always been anxious about the operation in general, who wouldn't be, but once he realizes he might have himself to blame if things go wrong or if one of the children gets hurt, that's when the anxiety really starts to come. Again, you can feel free to disagree with this head canon and I could see Nicholas having anxiety in other situations as well, but as someone with ADHD-I who head canons Nicholas that way, this was something I picked up on.

Compliment Sensitivity Dysphoria (CSD): I talked about RSD with Nicholas and how it's common in ADHD-I, but RSD is common in other disorders too, and Curtain definitely has it, but I think he has something else as well. A little phenomena I also experience on occasion, which I have named "Compliment Sensitivity Dysphoria" (not a clinical term, my own term). I don't know if it's a thing other people with ADHD-I experience, or maybe just those of us who have a family history of other stuff and it's a combination of things that's causing it, but basically, it's the opposite of RSD. With RSD, you get one negative comment, you want to destroy yourself, but with CSD, you get complimented once, you develop a God complex.

I know I talked about the show's focus switching from looking at Nathaniel's anxiety symptoms in season 1 to his BPD symptoms in season 2, but something else changes between seasons 1 and 2 and that's the characters surrounding Nathaniel. In Season 1, he's getting criticized by Garrison, Nicholas tells him off at the end, his son is disobeying him, and he feels attacked. Season 2, everybody praises his every move all the time, leaving him open to CSD. Now speaking from personal experience, the CSD God complex thing is very fun, but you gotta watch out for those pesky consequences™️ because if you don't, the RSD will come back worse than you could ever imagine, so you need to look out (which, obviously, our poor Nathaniel did not do). I also love the way he apologizes at the end: "I might have been going about things the wrong way (nearly froze thousands of people including my own family) so let's just go now and never talk about it again because if I reflect on the bad things I did I will self-destruct so let's all just move on now thank you :)" absolutely iconic. Accountability king right there.

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Maladaptive Daydreaming (MADD):

For those who don't know what maladaptive daydreaming is, I'll admit, I'm not as active with the MADD tumblr community (it does exist though) and you can google it, but if you've ever paced around or stimmed while listening to music and zoning about thinking about fictional characters, that's basically what that is, but it's only technically considered maladaptive if done to an unhealthy degree, but obviously what constitutes an "unhealthy degree" is a more vaguely defined area. MADD is incredibly common in people with ADHD (specifically, ADHD-Inattentive type), but it's also very common in OCD, ASD, and personality disorders as well.

MADD presents differently in different people, but in my experience, the dancing and stimming to repetitive or happy music is the format that tends to trigger the most euphoria. Which is interesting for someone like Nicholas, because having a form of narcolepsy that causes him to pass out when he feels real joy means he wouldn't have had the chance to experience MADD like that, until he's given the artificial happiness by Curtain. And once Curtain does? Nicholas is cheerfully pacing around his apartment (I think I commented somewhere on a live blog that it looked like MADD), and then there's the whole "dance party in the field scene", big MADD vibes there.

MADD also has an overlap with ASD (hence the stimming and motor stereotypy that often happens during the daydreaming), and OCD (because both involve repetitive and uncontrollable thoughts, it's just that the thoughts associated with MADD are fun and addictive thoughts instead of distressing ones. But they can still be harmful if taken to an extreme).

Again, clinically, I'm not sure if Nicholas has enough instances to be "diagnosed" with MADD, but those scenes in season 2 had the vibes going so I just thought I'd mention it. Also, a canonically autistic character that I (and many others) head canon with MADD is Abed Nadir from "Community" if you are interested in looking for another example of MADD in someone with autism.

Finally, you can maybe make the argument that Curtain has MADD as well, or at least one instance of it.

Again, I wouldn't say the MADD aspect is overly focused on in Nicholas or Nathaniel, but it's common in OCD, ASD, ADHD, and PDs (all of which tend to run together in families), and Nathaniel's Stand Back Dance had the vibe going for sure. Between moving across the world between seasons, getting a new career, and doing his little dance, the man was entering his Rebecca Bunch era (and if you don't know who that is, Rebecca Bunch is a pretty well known canon BPD representation from the tv show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and I've seen a lot of people head canon her with maladaptive daydreaming as well. She's also likely going to be Nathaniel's competition if he makes into the theater kid showdown, so for reference here's a clip of her experiencing RSD).

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Finally, since these are all disorders I know a lot about, I'm happy to answer any questions (as long as you keep it respectful and no ableist. Remember the RSD), and if you feel like any of these head canons are harmful and/or problematic, please let me know (mostly concerned about Nathaniel's head canons since he's a bad guy, but if you think Nicholas' head canons are problematic as well, feel free to message about those too. Again, remembering that I did this with the best of intentions and also the RSD).

Also, since the Benedict brothers are identical twins, and you could argue they both had signs of all the disorders, which all tend to run together in families anyway, so if you want to skip the DSM technicalities and what's popular in fandom and throw up your hands and say "they both have ASD/ADHD/OCD/BPD" it's a head canon, it can be whatever I want!" then know that I fully support you in that quest.

And for those who might not be as familiar with one or more of these disorders, or didn't realize they had such a strong genetic overlap and are interested in learning more, I have resources for that too!

Misdiagnosis Monday has some great charts of symptom overlap. I include some below.

[cottonkhaleesi]

a rare non-crafty post from me today: So this tonsillitis is kicking my ass thoroughly and thus the soft brain wants comfort movies, and what's more comforting (about to really date myself here) than the Jonathan Creek Christmas Specials.

Seriously, they bring back a whole host of feels for me, my ma loved detective and whodunnit stories, my da loved magic tricks, and I loved watching the interplay of characters that you could have picked up of the street so well written were their foibles and talents.

Jonathan Creek especially fascinated me by having such a quick mind and not caring that the world didn't appreciate his special interests but also blatantly awkward and bad with people in a real way. Think Sherlock Holmes if Sherlock Holmes grew up at a state school, wasn't ambitious or overtly pushed, learnt the basics of how to get along with people by osmosis and was absolutely harmless -I can't stress that enough Jonathan Creek is not dangerous due to his vast intellect and knowledge, he is just a guy, who happens to be good at his job which is setting up tricks and thus is suited to unravelling them as well. And the women / love interests are all their own characters, not suped up Hollywood caricatures of women, but women with their own agendas who are often won over by Jonathan through exposure to the way his mind works and the addiction that being part of solving an impossible mystery brings.

I also used to joke in my pre-teen brain that Jonathan Creek was my third dad, because my father and he shared so many traits (up to and including t-shirt flannel shirt and oversized duffle coat fashion; inexplicably being invited to lots of parties despite being the creature who will sit in the corner, drink beer and possibly go through your bookshelves without speaking to anyone the whole time; good at crafts; wants to/does live in isolated/interesting places) and then the traits my dad didn’t share I do (analytical brain and autism-coding*)

So whilst the special effects (of which they tried to apply many) are really terrible in today's climate of CGI, and the situations sometimes require a bit of wilful suspension of disbelief, the Jonathan Creek series and especially the Christmas Specials, remain in my ultimate comfort box. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

[socte-blue]

🦇 - ⋆ INTRO

⋆ ABOUT ME:

My name’s Eddie, or Ed :)

I use he/dirt pronouns. Thought he/him is fine too

I’m a demiboy+xenic and mlm

I’m mentally disabled in a couple flavours but I will most likely post about autism

I’m a teenager! Please dni if your blog is NSFW

I am a therian and furry, I’m learning how to do furry art too so I’ll probably post some of that stuff

My favourite animal is the tardigrade or bats :)

⋆ CONTENT:

I’ll rant about my life and really whatever I’m thinking about

I’ll spitball headcanons, I love writing headcanons so much and I will totally do requests as well as my own. For probably anything but NSFW and possibly y/n x character in general? I have nothing against self-shipping. I’m just not good at, LOL

I’ll post art I’m proud of; fanart, ocs, furry, random dabbles. It doesn’t really matter

I’ll probably make rants about my AU’s for various fandoms, as well as general fandom thoughts :)

I’ll make ID packs! Rq and for myself.

⋆ FANDOMS:

The Owl House (TOH)

Magnus Chase & The God’s Of Asgard (MCGA)

Helluva Boss & Hazbin Hotel (HB & HH)

Wings Of Fire (WOF)

She-ra & The Princesses Of Power (SPOP)

Sally Face (SF)

⋆ I take headcanon rq for all of these

⋆ TAGS:

⋆ I’m incorporating this tagging system basically from now on so some older post may not apply

#⋆ Ed rants = Random thoughts, text posts, you get it

#⋆ Ed IDs = ID packs… self-explanatory

#⋆ Ed arts = Art… also self-explanatory

#⋆ Ed headcanons = Any sort of headcanon sheet

#⋆ Ed fandoms = fandom content

#⋆ Ed responds= Anything to do with a adon

#⋆ Ed reblogs = reblogs

⋆ DNI:

⋆ I know dni usually doesn’t work BUT at least you can make it clear I am anti and not interested in these things or perhaps, you will respect it if it’s not really an opinion thing.

Unsporting of queer people (INCLUDING xenos/neos) (NOT including rad-queers*)

*Rad-queers, I don’t want you near me

Proshippers+darkshippers*, I can provide a long explanation of why but I don’t really think I have the breath right now

NSFW blogs, I’m a minor and it just makes me uncomfortable.

(Supporting of) RCTA

Anti HB/HH, I know about the problems please let me enjoy my special interest

Pro-Israel, if you are get the fuck off of my page

I probably have more but if I look at your blog and shit that sucks is there, I’ll probably just block you 

*yes, Lunter is included in that.

[This user is a little guy]