#if you have any neurodivergent headcanons tell me so i can absorb them into my belif system please | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bitter-sweet-coffee · 3 years

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Henlo! I'm curious what your fave Sonic character(s) is ^^ and do you have any headcanons for them?

oh boy! okay i'm going to do my best to answer this but i have been in this fandom forever and could write a dissertation on just like,,, one character. so instead i'll sparknote some cute things about my top 4 and if you want to hear a more elaborate response i can do separate posts for each of them! it was hard enough to pick a couple characters since i love them all 😊

1) espio the chameleon

i love this little purple man so much oh my god. for starters, i'd like to think he isn't as serious as a lot of people make him out to be. yeah he seems chill but let's be real, he's arrogant and i love every second of it! he definitely radiates hot topic vibes but we're talking ronnie radke, hollywood undead vibes. definitely an e-boy but not in the fake alt way, he just radiates soft-grunge vibes? he's bisexual with a male lean and definitely dated mighty at some point, but i personally ship him with wave (more on that in a second!) his best friend is silver (i ship them too tbh) but his friends are rouge and shadow for the most part. he's the character closest to shadow (personality wise, not emotional proximity) and i adore their interactions in shadow's game so i sorta ship them too...? ahhh this is supposed to be about headcanons! anyways, i think he's fun to be around and has a thing for people with good stories to tell: wave about the past, silver about the future, and rouge/shadow with the present as agents. i think the cooperation between the chaotix detective agency and GUN is something people should write more often! oh, and he likes green tea boba ✨

2) wave the swallow

god, she made me realize i like girls and i still absolutely adore her. it was taken down but at one point years ago, her birthday was listed as november 11th which makes her a scorpio, and as a fellow scorpio i stand by it! she's also definitely bi but with a female lean, and her best friend/occasional partner is rouge. they remind me of maddy and cassie from euphoria, but wave isn't as bitter as maddy ofc. i feel like people forget that storm and jet are pretty damn incompetent without her, she literally does everything for them and that's a big nod to her people pleasing. yeah she's arrogant, but she's not wrong in being self absorbed because she keeps things running! she radiates hayley kiyoko, p!nk, 100gecs, and paramore vibes. she's a baddie but a softie! i think her and espio would be amazing together (even platonically) because he loves learning and debates, and she has a lot to say and needs someone to respond, as opposed to zoning out. i feel like she could be a famous rollerskater on tiktok or something, and would have her own line of custom gear! she might be cold and competitive, but she's really sweet and just has no way of expressing it... poor girl. i think her and sonic could be amazing friends, and i'd love to see more art of them being pals and going on adventures together!

3. shadow the hedgehog

hehehehehe oh boy, as the current love interest of my fixation character, shadow is getting more attention than usual these days! i always liked him but my fave boy and girl were espio and wave for the longest time, so finally getting to fixate on shadow is great for me! shadow is neurodivergent, basically in canon. his memory issues are both trauma related and just a part of his programming. something that i admire about espio and shadow being friends is that the former loves authority and doesn't need it, but the latter despises it but needs it. shadow was created to obey, and so even if GUN wrongs him a thousand times, he needs them. it's why he keeps going back to eggman, and helps sonic when asked. shadow might not admit it, but he has a saviour complex! although i agree that with modern music he'd listen to like mcr and pierce the veil etc, i think he'd also resonate with sex pistols and other music from the decades he missed while in stasis (footloose is probably one of his fave movies just because of the killer soundtrack!) he loves flowers and does his best to take care of plants, has nervous tics, and the reason his quills turn upwards is because of all the chaos energy he has! super sonic's quills turn up when transformed, and shadow is constantly tapped into that energy: even with inhibitors it's a lot to manage. shadow also loves reading, and i think his favourite book would be The Wars by Timothy Findley (amazing read, please check it out because it reminds me so much of Shadow oh my god)

4. INFINITE!!!

okay i have to keep this one short but he is currently my favourite character, and i could talk about him forever. i know SEGA claims his real name is Infinite, but i headcanon that in the village he came from he wasn't given a name because he was considered a burden and a curse (due to his heterochromia and other reasons). for me he was called araperi or ara (nothing/no in Georgian) because they only referred to him via negative reinforcement. the scar on his eye is because either he or another jackal tried to claw it out when he was little because it made him an outcast and he wanted to belong. he only started school when he was in highschool and never really learned how to read english (i base a lot of his village lore around Georgia and my experiences with Georgian culture- even though my culture was erased when i got adopted lol). he only learned english through musical theatre, and is fluent but not very literate in english (can't read or write very well). he radiates younger sibling vibes so i headcanon that he has 4 older sisters who all treated him pretty bad on varying levels. after a year or two of highschool he ran away with some friends and after meeting more nomads, squad jackal was eventually formed! infinite (or finn as i sometimes call him) was definitely into theatre (his favourite musical being sweeney todd) and he's an AMAZING singer, acting too (which is sorta canon because he adopted shadow's personality and fighting style after their first encounter and rehearsed a whole monologue lmao). his singing voice sounds like clem turner's but with a bit more rasp, probably because i feel like he'd listen to bring me the horizon and kim dracula! infinite is actually a big puppy once he likes you, he's just secretly awkward and insecure as hell (maybe the last part isn't a secret, haha)

wow, this was longer than expected and i feel like i hardly said anything, but this is sorta where i'm at with these four! i could talk about them forever though, so feel free to ask follow ups or request a full post for them, any ships i mentioned (or didn't) or if you want a post about anyone else!

#infinite the jackal #sonic analysis #wave the swallow #espio the chameleon #shadow the hedgehog #i love them so much #asks open #thank you for this

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evilform · 4 years

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soup eater, Gimme the works (all of the)m

AUTISM ACTIVATED. ok fuck this is gonna be long. under the cut it goes

📃 what is the plot of your hyperfixation? and is it a movie, game, show, etc?

😔 i am an anime enjoyer sadly enough. theres also the manga but i havent read that SO im just gonna be focusing on the anime for this one. uhhh (digging through my brain) none of this is going to be worded intelligently im sorry give me a moment.

there are these kids and some of them can turn into weapons. actually theres just weapon people in general and thats like Normal. dont ask too many lore questions. and they uhhh the kids go to a high school called the DWMA (lit. demon weapon-meister academy) focused on keeping the balance between good and evil. i uhhhhh

The anime is based on the Soul Eater manga series by Atsushi Ohkubo. The plot of the episodes follows Maka Albarn, a "meister" of the Death Weapon Meister Academy (DWMA), and her living weapon, Soul Eater, as she seeks to make the latter into a "death scythe" through absorbing the souls of evil humans.

thanks wikipedia

📌 how did you find your hyperfixation?

uhhh if im not mistaken an old friend introduced me to it back in 2018!! (hi holly the chances of you reading this are slim but hi) and it recently bubbled back up into my brain. ive been here for 2 years :heart:

✨ what draws you towards your hyperfixation? what is interesting about it?

i think that drew me towards it initially was the very halloweeny, early 2000s feel to it (and.. fair enough, it WAS made in 2008-2009 so its authentic) but what kept me reeled in was a lot of the themes and symbolism that i am waayy too tired to get into rn but i am just telling you bro this anime hits.. a little deep

and also canon nonbinary (even if shoddily translated at first) and psychotic characters win

🎥 do you have any favorite scenes from your hyperfixation?

i DO but i am keeping this spoiler free for you wife. these are all tearjerkers anyways so

🎶 if your hyperfixation has songs/an ost, what is your favorite song from it?

just one? 🥺 honestly the anime’s entire OST goes hard as hell and its super hard picking favorites but here:

LOTUS JUICE - PSYCHEDELIC SOULJAM DJ SHINYA - NEVER LOSE MYSELF LOTUS JUICE - STEP UP

and this one isnt part of the ost butttt....

CHIAKI OMIGAWA/KOKI UCHIYAMA - SOUL EATER CHARACTER SONG (Soul&Maka) - MAUVE IRO NO SYMPATHY

💕 tell us about one of your favorite characters and why you like them!

i could say crona and talk about their character development and how much i see myself in them and how we share the same trauma. or i could say maka and talk about HER character development and how i see myself in her in the sense of always trying to be good enough and pushing her limits to be strong and resilient in the face of everything. or i could say stein and go in depth about how hes written as a psychotic character while still not letting that define his entire being and how much i see myself in HIM. or i could talk about kid and liz and patti a

💔 tell us about one of your LEAST favorite characters and why you dislike them.

🏳‍🌈 do you have any headcanons (lgbt, race, neuro, etc) that are important to you?

lesbian maka, trans/intersex/nonbinary/lesbian crona, transmasc blackstar, nonbinary kid... literally all of these kids are neurodivergent (i see myself in them moment part 3845875)

🍀 do you have any kins or comfort characters from your hyperfixation?

that’s a little personal don’tcha think?

all jokes aside i don’t think i “kin” but uhhhh. honestly most these characters are comfort characters to me. soul eater in general is comfort media

💎 are there any fun facts or trivia that you would like to share?

*does a silly little dance* OHKAY!

none of the soul eater games (there were 3 of them) were ever released outside of japan

black☆star is voiced by women in both the jp and eng dubs

maka was chiaki omigawa’s first VA role

💢 what do you NOT like about your hyperfixation? is there something you would want to change about it?

this isnt anime specific and i am thinking heavily of the manga crona boobage weirdness but every time atsushi ohkubo writes something weird with these characters i feel like this image. it fills me with primal rage

anyways thanks for listening this took me over an hour to write amd i kept bouncing around my room because i am so autistic and this series makes me so happy

#REALLY long post #sparkleanimal

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coldtomyflash · 7 years

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Could Barry have aspergers?

First, and I genuinely don’t mean this as any sort of attack, I just want to note that Aspergers = autism spectrum. Aspergers used to refer to a related spectrum but was often considered “milder” than autism, and modern research and clinicians have realized that they’re ultimately the same (broad) spectrum and the issue was their diagnostic tools classifying people on “severity”. There are issues with separating people into “high functioning” and “low functioning” groups the way the Aspergers/autism distinction does and there’s just… a lot of stuff that goes into this.

That being said, I think what you’re really asking for is more a question of “could Barry be neurodivergent, and specifically could he be somewhere on the the autism spectrum?”

And the answer is: of course! Why not?

For the purposes of headcanons, I always say: go for it, if it works for you.

For the purposes of canon-analysis, it’s a bit harder. Writers will sometimes write neurodivergent characters without even consciously realizing they’re doing it, because as human beings we recognize behavioral patterns and think “well this person is like that” without always knowing how to name or identify where that characterization comes from. This is part of the reason some characters get coded as neurodivergent without it ever being made explicit in the text (there are other, sometimes more insidious reasons as well but we don’t need to chat about them here).

I’m not sure if I’m the world’s best person to write an analysis of Barry as being on the autism spectrum specifically, because although my husband and some good friends of my are on the spectrum, I myself am not. I can take a stab at it for you though since I’ve been learning and reading a lot in the past few years about it (and may one day come back to that question I got like 2 years ago about Len being on the autism spectrum because… yeah, he really is I think).

Anyway, hopefully what I say will ring true for people, fully realizing that of course all people on the spectrum are going to have slightly different experiences.

Before I do that, however, I also want to say that my personal headcanons for Barry are really that he’s ADHD, which is a related form of neurodivergence, and one that I’m more closely tied to (I’m not diagnosed but I show a ton of the signs and symptoms for it and it seems to run in my family, so I have more personal experience with it). So a lot of this discussion might end up looking more like general indicators of neurodivergence that can fall into autism spectrum and/or ADHD or both, as they do overlap a good deal.

Anyway!

Some canon discussion/evidence?

Well, first, Barry’s single-minded focus. Neurodivergent people can have difficulties with switching attention and can get totally absorbed by things, and Barry’s no different. Once he has a goal or a thought in mind, the rest of the world sort of gets put on mute, it seems. From searching for the Man in Yellow to Saving Iris to whatever the goal of the day is, that becomes ‘it’ for him for a little while.

That helps lead me to ‘special interests’ and hyperfixation. From what I can tell, Barry ran a blog on ‘the impossible’ and raced across the country looking for cryptids and other impossible events whenever he had the opportunity. I would say that this could be classified as a special interest for him. He likely has others or has had more in the past: musicals (maybe even specific ones), specific aspects of the sciences that he’s pursued, the Speed Force, etc.

Also, and I’m sorry if this ends up stereotyping slightly, people on the autism spectrum generally have advanced abilities in mechanical understanding (and score noticeably different as early as the age of 4 on tests of engineering/mechanical types of knowledge) and Barry demonstrates this type of understanding time and again in the show.

He uses those abilities all the time at crime scenes, and as the Flash as well, like when fighting Zoom and using gravity to his advantage. He pursued a career in the sciences and uses chemistry, physics, and mathematics in his everyday life (and when working on things such as the speed equation).

A little less “stereotype” and we see Barry’s physical behavior.

In S1, he was often physical awkward in that he was clumsy and backing into doors, always running, and seemed to have… too much energy? It’s been said elsewhere that speedsters, or at least Bart (from the future), were introduced in part as a metaphor for ADHD (and that at least Bart’s arc was supposed to help educate people about ADHD because comics can be awesome like that). So that spectrum of “too much energy, almost clumsy because of it, always moving and kinetic and touching or doing something or running out the door” has made me think of Barry as having ADHD and thinking of his behavior more from than perspective. But from an autism spectrum perspective, you sometimes see a lot of the same behaviors. Clumsiness is common, from what I’ve read (though of course, not for everyone. My husband is the least clumsy person I know). And being late! Barry is often late, and that can be a sign of ADHD for sure (I’m always late, my husband always wants to be exactly on time… it’s an issue).

In terms of sensory processing, I can’t think of anything too specific. Certain fabrics, textures, foods, or physical sensations can all be important to people on the autism spectrum due to how they process sensory information, but I don’t think canon provides us with much information for how Barry deals with sensation. I also can’t think of any evidence of physical stimming off the top of my head but sometimes that won’t be obvious anyway. Barry keeps chemistry toys in his lab (we’ve seen them in background shots a few times) but nothing else really comes to mind there. He paces a lot? Is standing whenever it’s an option, really? Rubs his hand over his hair/ head whenever he’s tense or anxious? None of that is specific to neurodivergence (over, say, anxiety) but it is still technically self-stimulation behavior.

In terms of speech patterns, I can’t think of any really canon examples of atypical speech patterns that might imply autism spectrum neurodivergence (in contrast to say, Julian, who is sometimes overly formal or literal to the point of awkward, which can be a sign of autism spectrum for some people). Barry does info dump a little sometimes about things related to speed (a new special interest? It would make sense) or other information, but the show doesn’t often give us conversations that aren’t related to the plot so it’s hard to say.

(That being said, one of the things that used to be used to “distinguish” autism spectrum from Aspergers was the children with Aspergers didn’t show the same language-related issues in childhood, and now that we understand autism as more of a constellation of behaviors, not all of which will be present in the same person, it’s not overly surprising not to find it here. Also, Barry really doesn’t use almost any adjectives or flowery language, even few adverbs, and he sticks to either simple or exact words for things [in contrast to Wally who’s word-choice is a lot more diverse!] so maybe we do see a bit of evidence through that? His speech is relatively straightforward?)

(precise, specific, informative)

Sociality… well we know that Barry didn’t have many friends as a kid, especially after his mother died. He talks about having been bullied and we know he was a big anime nerd and part of a lot of clubs in high school. That’s not evidence in and of itself of neurodivergence because neurotypical kids get bullied all the time as well, but some of it could be a sign, especially because it’s clear through the clubs etc. that he was trying to put himself out there and maybe it wasn’t working.

He clearly gets along just fine with other people who are on the side of scientifically-oriented (i.e., all of the Star Labs team, Felicity, eventually Julian) and other people who are smart and kind (Iris, Oliver) so it’s definitely not that Barry can’t make friends. But kids can be cruel and neurodivergence can be easier to notice in childhood for one reason or another (including because people haven’t ‘learned’ to hide or suppress their own signs as well, and it sucks that people would ever ‘have’ to but that’s what childhood teaches some folks).

In either case, there’s evidence he had issue socializing and pretty much only had Iris as a close friend until he hit adulthood? And it’s also clear that although he’s “liked” at the precinct, he doesn’t really have friends there and he sticks out, at least not until Patty came along.

Last points: again, not to stereotype, but anecdotally at least, there does seem to be some potential overlap between people on the autism spectrum and the asexual spectrum, and a lot of people headcanon or interpret Barry as being demisexual? Which makes a lot of sense to me, and could be part of an interpretation of Barry as being neurodivergent. (Though it really should be clearly noted that people can be on the autism spectrum without being on the asexual spectrum and vice versa, and I don’t want to imply otherwise!)

And… I think that’s most of what I have to say? I’d have gifs for more of this but honestly they aren’t easy to find for this topic ^^;

And I invite people to make additions to this post if they have any more headcanons or canon examples, or clarifying information?

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lulusoblue · 7 years

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Headcanon: Casey Jones being on the Autistic Spectrum

I see plenty of neurodivergent headcanons for the turtles galore, but never for any of the human characters. In all honestly, saying one of the turtles is on the autistic spectrum is iffy and uncomfortable to me at least because it’s sorta implying that said autism would be the result of a mutation caused by an external element. Because it’s not like we’ve had shit over some dickhead portraying autism as a side effect of vaccination rather than it being a mental disorder that’s as embedded in our genes and beings as internal organs and a massive part of who we are as people. also fuck you wakefield

And so thinking about it more, it just clicked that Casey could fit an autistic headcanon. So here’s a list of things about his character I believe fit such a headcanon based on personal experience and from other autistic people I’ve known:

• Apparently the writers put him at around 17 years old, a year older than April, with some intent that he might have been held back during his education (probably to tie into him seeking April for tutoring). I don’t have any knowledge of American education beyond secondhand information I may see on the internet or pop up on my dash, so my only knowledge of being autistic in a learning system built around neurotypical students is from brief personal experience. Neurotypical education sucks when there isn’t enough awareness of learning difficulties or the teachers don’t have enough training to know how to handle it. Casey might have trouble with his education because he may have difficulties trying to pay attention and absorb information without the tools or support to help him focus. This can get you labelled as just bad behaviour or being dumb/stupid. I sure as hell wasn’t able to follow lessons in school until I finally had someone who listened to why I didn’t like lessons and found them hard to understand. We don’t have any clue as to when Casey was held back if this concept still applies in canon, but being held back might not mean he just didn’t care to study or doesn’t have the smarts to pass. Granted it gets harder to care about learning when you have trouble understanding and your educators don’t bother to help you so much as call you lazy. Which brings me to my next point.

• Casey’s interests and knowledge in gadgets, vehicles, and metalwork. The boy knows his stuff when it comes to Mad Max-looking makeshift weaponry and devices, which is clear from his decked out bike and the crude taser that he’s managed to strap to his arm without frying himself. He worked with Donnie to rig up a supercar as a hobby and helped pimp up the Party Wagon. And he’s still flunking trig. (so’s April but shhhhh that was just a Season 1 thing) Casey seems like a very visual learner in this case: he picks up on things through observation and is self-taught on what interests him. For all we know he figured out cars while being cooped up on a farm with nothing better to do while one of his terrapin friends was in a coma. I’ve ended up doing that with some programs I use or with life stuff in general. Manuals are boring and slow and easy to lose focus on. Maybe look up a couple of video tutorials for something but most of building skills and interests is self-teaching and trial-and-error. (my experience of video editing and art programs is “what’s this do and can i figure out what makes it tick without looking it up”, which is an approach to new interests I think also fits Casey). Likely not something specific or common in autistic people, but figuring things out in such a way has been a thing that popped up for me and a couple of old friends. What I’m saying is Casey made that new mask after half-watching a couple of cosplay tutorials and winging it with some scrap.

• Casey wears those gloves and that headband all the damn time. Even when he’s eating pizza, he’s eating it wearing gloves that have probably been worn working on his bike, wielding a hockey stick/baseball bat that’s likely bashed sweaty heads in rain two weeks ago without being washed, and just the day-to-day things that would get those gloves sweaty or grimey or icky. He wears that headband at all times, even when he’s wearing a mask thank would probably fit better if he took that band of material off of his head. What do his headband and gloves also have in common? They’re articles of clothing that usually have elastic to stay in place. Sure canonically they’re just there to fit his grungy look (get to that hoodie in a second), but digging myself deeper into this headcanon i got to thinking they might also serve sensory/stimming purposes. If there’s something that I think is one thing autistic people have in common or a feeling they share, it’s fiddling/fidgeting and certain sensory things to some level: e.g. I usually wear loose tops because i like fiddling with the hems and corners of my clothing. Some people wear tight or loose clothing based on how they process the sensation of skin against different type of clothing. Casey never taking off his damn gloves or headband could be seen as him liking the sensation of the elastic in them around his wrists and forehead. He probably pings the elastic as well because that’s fun too when you’re bored and need to fiddle.

I refuse to believe that he has never washed that hoodie. I mean yeah the turtles have smelt worse living in a sewer but Casey is a Human who has spent most of his life around Humans and his Human father would probably have burnt his clothes by now if Casey never washed the stink out of them. That and Casey is a hockey player, and I imagine stinking clothes is an annoyance that comes from most sports. Those paint stains on his hoodie I think he’s leaving there on purpose, like he’ll wash his clothes but no dad his clothes get washed separate because he can’t wash his clothes with your clothes because you use stuff that lifts stains and that’ll get rid of the paint splats that he likes on his clothes and why does he want paint splats because he does and they look nice and he probably won’t get the same splatter pattern again if he tried and shush dad this hoodie stays the same because it has to because shut up. We don’t really see Casey tagging anything regularly so unless it’s because they don’t change the texture on animated models because what’s the point it’s not a cgi blockbuster we’re making here Casey probably keeps his paint splattered hoodie like that because it looks nice and it’ll stay nice dad. It’s a Thing.

• Casey constantly refers to a love of heavy metal music. Too much sound for an autistic person can end up in sensory overload and that fucking sucks. And in general just the world around you can suck and you wanna shut it out because ugh. You know what helps? Headphones and really loud music. What genre has really loud music? Yup.

Casey having a social battery. He just pops in and out of the show all the time because the writers dunno what do with him shrug so yeah. Autism likes to play up the variance of a person’s social needs and wants and limits. You want to be friends but you just can’t be asked to be with people right now. You get this surge of wanting to hang out with friends and be loud for a bit, and then you have this mood where you just want to not exist or just not do things. Basically like this:

“raph great to see you i love your face” “whatever weirdo”

[dude where are you] [home] [you’ve been at home for three days] [i’m waiting until i stop hating faces to talk in person again]

If anyone has any other things to add to this headcanon, please do share/add onto this post. Now if you’ll excuse me i’m gonna dig myself further into this headcanon.

EDIT: I forgot another point I wanted to put in and also @a-specforest added some cool addon tags so broski if you don’t mind imma put them here too

• #okay so one symptom of autism is speaking in ’pre learned phrases’ #and casey has a ton of catchphrases • #sometimes speaking in a tone that doesn’t match the conversation? #casey does that a lot too • #he seems to have a few hyperfixations #in season 2 he’s practicing hockey late by himself #and the working on cars that you mentioned

1) how else would he come up with Goongala of COURSE!!! That and pre-learned phrases are great to have when spontaneous speech is a bitch and you trip over words and stammer. not that i would know anything about that nooo We’ve already heard him muddle up words in the moment (I think he said jumbled up “racism” later in S4)

2) Tone control is something I’ve dealt with, too. Apparently I have resting bitch voice so I’ll say something and get asked if i’m in a bad mood or snapped at for “being rude”. Also knew other autistic people who would have ranges of tones in certain convos too, e.g. one always sounded happy and chipper and laughed a lot even when something wasn’t particularly funny, one person’s tone of voice went everywhere it was hard to tell what their feelings were even with the context of conversation. Casey’s attitude and tone in conversation, even serious ones, might be an indication of that, I agree.

3) Oh yeah, he definitely fits hyperfixation. There’s his hobbies, and also there’s how he sees his future. When he and April are in the park for their first study session, he’s got two clear ideas for what to do with his life; Hockey Star or Bounty Hunter. With him immediately trying to play hero when confronted with a walking talking tank of organs his bounty hunter fantasy may have something to do with it. He’s reckless and headstrong, but it also lends to his fixation on one of his dream careers; if fighting a monster that he’s confronted with something he sees as a step to bounty hunting, he’ll likely put up his dukes and get melted because ACID HANDS I have definitely known people who were determined on doing something because it was what they wanted. It might’ve come across as stubbornness or rigidness depending on what it (even something as simple as just doing something like a chore a certain way), but in context of ambitions and their future they were pumped as hell to take the steps they needed to take to do what they liked and what they wanted for themselves. They didn’t care about what people thought of them even if they didn’t pass as neurotypical and would get stares on the street. Not sure how they would react if say culinary career path involved fighting mutated food, but considering the show itself is an action-adventure cartoon with mutant turtles I think we can give Casey a pass on that lack of realism there. we begrudgingly give the writers passes all the time so why stop now

Aaaand the point i forgot to put in my original post:

• Casey’s less-than appropo reactions or attitudes in situations possibly links to difficulty reading people, being empathetic or understanding social cues/priorities. Reading and understanding facial expressions and body language can be a bitch if you’re autistic. There’s even a learning software program a couple of students from my school would use in one-to-one sessions that specifically addresses this for those who find it THAT hard to tell what another person is expressing. It’s especially troublesome because empathy can be a confusing thing too, because it can go from you not really having any empathy to you having so much that you think you’re hurting the feelings of a pair of shoes because you chose to wear something else that day which totally isn’t the extreme i experience at all hahaha help i’m mentally apologising to a boot Casey doesn’t appear to take things seriously in dangerous circumstances the majority of the time, nor does he appear considerate of others at other times. It’s a lot of confidence and certainty that things will turn out OK (with a heaping spoonful of “self preservation instinct what self preservation instinct”). It’s not always an appropriate attitude to make jokes and quips and tease and make jabs at people, but he HAS taken things seriously and shown worry/sadness at appropriate times. He’s really quiet and almost numb when the subject of his family’s fate comes up in Invasion, and he was surprisingly the only one to be most affected after watching someone get mOLECULARLY RIPPED APART. From experience, both personal and through observation, figuring out how to react and respond to things when you don’t really know how to is a pain in the ass and often distressing because you feel bad for not knowing. Sometimes you resort to humour to lighten things and try to ease tensions, sometimes you have an internal screaming match with yourself and panic and go through an archive of potential reactions because what the fuck would apply here, or sometimes you just shut down or just don’t react like it’s not really a big deal or even happening. Or you end up going through verbal barfing and dig yourself deeper into a hole of instant regret because you’re making yourself look like an ass when you don’t want to why is this so hARD. I think Casey would fall into the “address things with confidence and cockiness” kind of reaction pool, because it’s an attitude he’s comfortable with and how he better deals and processes things. It’s not to say he doesn’t have some empathy or disregard for other people’s feelings (hello Buried Secrets), it could be that it’s not comfortable territory for him even when he wants to be serious/emotionally supportive. did any of that come out right fffffffffU

• Casey’s small social circle and it possibly being by choice. His best friends are the girl who he met through tutoring in a subject she was failing before and four giant turtles who are trained in ninjutsu. He only mentions having one friend before, a friend with whom he had a falling out, and he didn’t seem to like Irma all that much (you can say it’s because “she’s a third wheel on dates” but even outside of that he didn’t seem to get along with her much). With things like hyperfixation and the like making a vast group of friends is tricky. Being autistic might mean the friends you choose to make have lots of interest in common with you rather than just being someone you get along with. Not to say being autistic means you are limited to a few friends. I’m no expert on autistic social lives, I can only draw from firsthand experience. I found trying to maintain a number of friendships difficult and often overwhelming so at some point in school I stopped trying to make friends, with the exception of a couple of people I liked and had common interests with. I chose to keep my social circle small because the thought of making lots of friends and keeping in touch with them all and remembering who likes who and what overwhelmed me and made me nervous as a child. Still kinda leaks into adulthood because I don't have many friends outside of the company I keep on tumblr. In this autistic headcanon, Casey’s very small social circle could be by choice. He doesn’t mention having any other friends besides one previously, fixates on April (and yes I am knocking the romantic aspect out the window for this) after approaching her for tutoring because he found her cool and likes hanging out with her (and probably saw kicking a mutant’s ass as common ground/bonding too), hung out with her even when a person he wasn’t keen on (Irma) was also there, and even when he’s introduced to the turtles and befriends them he still appears to be platonically closest to April arguably, depends on how the writers want to write him that week. Considering how the love triangle bullhockey has been given little to no reference as of late, his concern for April in Tokka vs the World and his annoyance at Leo’s teamup picks in Tale of Tiger Claw might be more because he can’t be with his favourite person. (and yes that can be a Thing too) He might also fixate on having April’s company because she isn’t much of a social butterfly herself outside of the friendly neighbourhood mutants living in the sewer. Compare how many times we see him hanging out with the turtles minus April versus when April is present.

#tmnt 2012 #casey jones (2012)#autistic casey headcanon #yes good #bonus his sister is also autistic #their interactions are just 'ugh' 'what' 'people' 'same'

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