#until it seems natural and you'd never realize that he was being so scrupulous

[bookwyrminspiration]

so i was reading your post from a while ago about adhd tam and i love it a lot so consider: autism keefe?

Oh yes yes 1000 times yes! Autistic Keefe is very special to me, and when I first read I'll Be Your Real Tough Cookie, With the Whiskey Breath by @enbies-and-felonies and saw Keefe was autistic in that fic I was instantly entranced.

It would be especially interesting to consider alongside his empathy, how being autistic affects how he perceives, understands, and reacts to other people's emotions. I least I think it would. Does it give him a better understanding of emotions because we've seen him identify emotions hard for other empaths, or does he have to work harder and be more perceptive to identify things and he can identify those harder emotions because he's working harder? He's also got really strong empathy in general, so could we attribute that to a higher sensitivity to the states of people around him or something else?

Another aspect that my mind is latching onto is how he doesn't really have anyone in his life in meaningful ways. I've talked about how he's alone, he's not really close with many people. He was close with Fitz but that's faded, and now he's closer with Sophie. Aside from that he doesn't connect with people, and that is something I also experience as an autistic person! I don't really have people. I've usually got one, maybe two, people I get close to at a time and aside from that I'm alone. It's not a bad thing, but connecting with people is difficult and can be taxing, so instead I'm solitary. Keefe is like that! He's solitary and independent and there are people around him, but he's still got his person.

Delving away from canon for a second, imagine autistic Keefe staying up late looking into his special interests and him just having this whole arsenal of really specific knowledge no one knows about because he doesn't talk about it. Maybe when he started doing art that sparked an interest and he started looking into famous artists and other forms of art, perhaps he's got an eye for photography. Maybe he's got a blossoming interest in mechanics and that's why he was so stoked to learn Dex was a technopath because he loves that stuff! He doesn't know as much, but he wants to!

Back to canon: his thing with his hair where he has it such a specific way and always does it the same. Routine and texture preferences! He's gotta have his hair done that certain way because that's How He Does It, and when he does it that way it's got this fluffy and satifying feeling when he touches it.

There's so many avenues autistic Keefe could be taken both within and outside of canon and I love all of them. I am hitting him with the autism beam. I love him so much, Nonsie