#this is formatted slightly weirdly and that's bc i didn't actually think at all about halt's family tree when i started writing trr

[solarishashernoseinabook]

Hey, so random question about your Royal Ranger fic-

Autism is genetic right? So, which parent would you say Halt inherited it from? Was it from an uncle or someone else?

Y'know, I saw this ask before I went to bed and had to spend all night thinking about it

So first off: yes, autism has a genetic component! However it's not a one-to-one, you-have-this-gene-that-you-got-from-this-parent-so-you're-autistic sorta thing. Multiple genes are associated with autism, but no clear causal component has been identified. I can clearly see autistic traits in my dad, for example, and those have been passed on to me, but I think my brothers are more likely to have ADHD than autism, and while I can think of a couple of traits in both my dad's parents that are associated with autism, neither of them properly strike me as "autistic". Epigenetics is also likely to play a part. So while "autism is genetic" can certainly mean "an autistic parent will likely have an autistic child", it can also happen that autism sprouts up in a family tree and we dunno why ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (shrug emoji)

(Identical twins are also highly likely to both be autistic. So why is Ferris neurotypical? Well, one, because even identical twins can have DNA that varies greatly despite starting from the same source code. And secondly, because it works better for the story.)

So, are any of Halt's relatives autistic? I think it's pretty safe to say his dad isn't. The way I've written him so far, I don't think his dad has any autistic relatives - he's very confused by how Halt thinks and interprets the world, and is surprised by everything Halt does that's different from normal. Anna probably had some autistic relatives, or relatives that showed autistic traits, but I'd say they were more likely to be siblings with whom she had a significant age gap, so she didn't grow up with them and fully learn to accept their behaviour. After all, in chapter eight, she got angry at Brian for triggering Halt's meltdown, but still decided it was necessary to teach Halt to "overcome" his sensory issues.

So what I figure is most likely is: Anna has a sibling who's significantly older or younger than her, or maybe a half-sibling who didn't grow up with her for whatever reason. She saw this sibling having intermittent problems with noise, textures, and social situations, but this sibling had learned coping mechanisms and could mostly pass or mask. From this, Anna got the idea that their autistic traits were just peculiarities that they overcame, the same as you might learn to like a food you previously hated. She brought this attitude with her when she noticed Halt displaying the same behaviours, not realising that simply punishing him for reacting to things was only going to make him feel worse.

Thanks so much for the ask!! This was actually a fun little exercise