#knowing more of the different ways that different combinations of autistic traits and social pressures can present | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rondoel · 4 months

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Quartz & Riebeck brainrot below! doodles + some snippets of my ponders about psychology & neurodivergence in hearthian society

(snippets but it's still very long! 😂)

Started with the thought I like that Quartz is of the same age as Riebeck, making them of the same hatch bath and therefore having grew up together :D

(hanging out with Riebeck who is very cautious is probably the only reason Quartz even reached the adulthood)

I think of hearthian society as potentially good place for neurodivergence because of its size and how they seem to function.

It makes sense for something like mentorships going on there where it comes to raising young - a hatchling picks an adult that resonates with them in some way and learns their craft. In small society it's very important to do what you're going to be good at. That would make a person that will be raising you the best fit for you.

I small society a common understanding would be that everyone is different. And again, it's crucial for those differences to be used in the best way. So no ostracizing, no assumption to "fit in" with the "norm". Endorsing those differences to progress.

Those things together create a fascinating environment for me to examine those traits in kind of a vacuum, where I can examine how person will function in society with just the traits they have - instead of mainly through lens of learned trauma responses, masking and social pressures.

I'm fascinated by the thought of these two naturally being thrown into the same box of "having a bit of difficulties with people" - while being just so NOT like each other (which later on becomes obvious, but early on they just hang out with each other because 'why not, we're both weird kids after all').

When it comes to social stuff Riebeck just doesn't understand how to relate and connect with others, and it's a big issue for them. While Quartz just doesn't want to participate because they don't feel this need at all.

So there's some common ground here - but they don't really understand each other. Which at some point they start to notice.

(Riebeck - the only person to ever make Quartz laugh. at their misfortune. but. still)

Where exactly the line lies in their difference came further in my research.

It started with me wanting to find a better name for Quartz' neurodivergence. I was thinking about psychopathy and sociopathy and how neither are recognized as a official diagnosis. Especially not medically/neurologically.

So to examine it in hearthian society I wanted to know where is that line between actual neurological condition vs trauma response + adaptation. I wanted to know If there are traits that are there from the start.

Then I found about the Callous-unemotional traits (CU).

This name allowed me to find to find actual scientific research instead of some biased bullshit people have about psychopathy - and it was so good. The interesting thing about it is that it actually shows in infants.

In similar way to autistic traits.

So again, I started to research the links.

I wanted to know hypothetically - what If those came from the same neurodivergence but psychopathy was a result of bad handling of those autistic traits? (far reaching, I know, but I wanted to know)

And then it turned out that NO. That those are very different! The difference most visible in different empathy responses.

I explored one of the differences in my last comic.

In which before Quartz leaves the planet for the first time - they want to actually confirm their suspicions.

A thought provoking moment for Riebeck, after which (and just the way Quartz cuts themself off) they start to wonder whether just spending a lot of time with someone is enough to make you friends.

Even more jarring of a thought - to spend most of your life with someone and for it to not mean anything to them at all.

All those things combined, current Riebeck is mostly unnerved by Quartz.

#outer wilds #riebeck #quartz #oc #it resembles actual essay paper #i mean it when i say brainrot #doodle #rondos #me and friend came up with 'xenotech' as their tag #:D #i love it #xenotech

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andre-the-axolotl · 1 year

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yeah so the fact that a person, especially someone who is still a teenager, and is honestly barely not legally a child, felt pressure to come out because of continuous online harassment is fucked up. just- just so y’all know. this needs to be said.

that said, i wanna talk about the rhetoric and logic of the online pressure he faced. how do we dismantle these ideas?

generally, the online pressure boils down to two points. a) queerbaiting, and b) queer actors should play queer characters.

let’s take these one at a time. let’s start with the notion that queer actors should play queer characters. what’s wrong with this? inherently, not much. with other identities, we generally seem to agree if that identity is key to that character, someone who holds this identity should play the role. if it’s not important to the character, we generally agree that it’s okay to take that component out. (eg: if there’s an autistic character, an autistic actor should play them. if there’s a latinx character, a latinx actor ought to play the character.) why do we say this? it goes back to the point about identities being key to the character. if that identity is key to the character, then it is often best played by someone who understands the experience of people who have that identity. i, an asian/white person cannot understand the experience of a black person, nor will they understand mine. (this is said with the understanding that experiences of different identities vary; no one is saying that intersectionality is not important. i am simply saying that more often than not, there are regularities of experience for certain groups of people.) okay, so then what’s wrong with the statement that queer actors ought to play queer people? it lies in the way this statement is applied. try as we might to fight heteronormativity, we still assume that if someone does not explicitly state “i am gay/bi/ace/queer/etc,” that they are allocishet. therein lies the problem. we have no way of knowing what a person’s sexuality is; there is an epistemic barrier, we cannot understand their subjective experience of their reality, because we really only have access to our own subjective experiences. when we combine the idea that “queer actors should play queer characters” with “everyone is straight unless otherwise explicitly said”, the statement becomes “out queer actors should play queer characters.” why is this problematic? a) what just happened w/kit connor. people can be forced to come out, so as to defend the validity of their role, when in fact they never contradicted the heart of the statement. b) out-ness is correlated with privilege. those whole are marginalized in many ways can often suppress parts of their identities to appear more publicly palatable. queerness, because of its relative lack of detectable traits, is often chosen as an easily suppressible trait, to “compensate” for something more external, like race. by saying that only those who are out (those who have the resources, and social support to do so) can play queer characters, we severely limit the diversity of queer narratives we can have. queer POC and neurodivergent queer people are less likely to see themselves in characters, because queer narratives will focus only on those who are out, and have the resources to be so. in short, “queer actors should play queer characters” isn’t wrong; it’s terribly misapplied, in a way that is harmful to individuals, and to the queer community as a whole.

second is the claim that a person can queerbait. let’s define queerbaiting first, to avoid confusion. queerbaiting is “the action of intentional giving queer coding or subtext to characters in media order to pander to the queer community, whilst never explicitly making a work queer (often making its characters loosely canonically straight, but not attached to their heterosexual relationships/partners) so as to not offend or lose a more conservative audience.” okay. so. there are two key words here. IN MEDIA. in. media. actors are not characters. (in case it’s not obvious: we cannot speculate on their lives as we would characters. characters are works of fiction that we can use to further understand human society, ourselves, and the human experience. people are living, evolving things, whose narratives and experiences are still being created, as we speak, by our actions.) so. that’s a problem. heartstopper is explicitly queer. nick nelson is explicitly said to be bisexual. there is absolutely no ambiguity about whether or not heartstopper is queerbaiting. it is queer. end of story. so. queer baiting must be media. in the example of heartstopper, the show and comics fall under domain of media. the show is queer, ergo no queerbaiting. but fine. there’s the argument that “well it’s a queer show, so in order to really be authentic, it must be played by queer actors. that’s why kit connor was queerbaiting, because he was “supposed to be queer” but he wasn’t confirming it.” two things. a) how fucked up is it that someone is “supposed to be queer?” conversely, it’s fucked up that someone is “supposed to be straight.” there is no moral imperative for sexuality, not even for someone in the public eye, and especially not for someone who is barely a legal adult. moreover, this implies a moral imperative to come out. and honestly, i shouldn’t have to defend this one. if you like heartstopper, you should know this. b) see section one. there’s nothing inherently wrong with the statement “queer roles are best played by queer actors,” but to imply that kit connor was queer baiting would be to imply that a) he was straight, or b) he had a responsibility to “prove his queerness” by coming out. and. no. again, if you have read heartstopper, this is basic logic and etiquette around coming out. no one owes you their identity, period.

what does this boil down to?

1. people should represent their identities on screen, but with queerness, it’s hard, and there are undeniable intersections between outness and privilege.

2. don’t assume people are straight just because they haven’t said they aren’t.

3. people don’t owe you their identities

4. queerbaiting refers exclusively to media, in the sense that it is a critique of attempting to gain further revenue by pandering to multiple, typically contradictory audiences. a person cannot queerbait, a piece of media/characters in it can.

5. people are not their characters.

another note: while all of this has been an analysis on problematic logic and rhetoric around queerness, there is real person at the center of this this. please be considerate of that and show your support for him :)

P.S. whilst i do support the idea that people of certain identities should play characters with those identities, i just want to acknowledge that there is historical precedent for people without certain identities playing people with them. eg: men playing women on stage, straight ppl playing queer people, allistic people playing autistic people. i don’t think these are usually the greatest portrayals of these identities, and in some cases i think they can be deeply problematic (eg: black face). that being said, some of them can be okay-ish (eg: the danish girl, a story about a trans woman, played by a cishet man. no, it’s not the ideal casting, but ample research was done, and redmayne did consult actual trans people.) while i’m not saying this is how i’d recommend movies to be cast, i would like to acknowledge that proper research can make portrayals at least less problematic, and maybe even relatable for people with that identity.

P.P.S - young royals folks; i’m super excited for the next season to come out in like 85 min!!! i also want to point out that this kind of rhetoric about actors “queer baiting” and being forced to come out is exactly the kind of thing we want to avoid, especially if more of the characters are shown to be queer this season. be kind :)

#please just be kind and be logical #young royals #heartstopper #kit connor #lgbtqia #queer #coming out #queer media

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cuntess-carmilla · 4 years

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Update: I stopped taking psychiatric medication because they turned out to have only ever been of “help” because I have POTS/dysautonomia and one made my blood pressure rise (Wellbutrin) while the other kept it from going up too high (Lamotrigine).

Now that I’m taking meds that are for what I ACTUALLY do have (POTS/dysautonomia) not only do I not need the psychiatric meds, but they were throwing off everything else. I hate psychiatry so much. Can’t believe I turned out to be one of those people who had their physical illness mistreated as You’re Crazy for years haha. :) With that out of the way...

Some Many of my Opinions™ on psychiatry, as a psychiatrized person myself who does take medication, but hates the institutions of psychiatry and psychology, and thinks a large chunk of it is white pseudo-science:

A good amount of the issues that the psychiatric institution addresses ARE absolutely real and, as a society, people who’re afflicted by them should by all means receive help and support so they can live happier lives. I experience many of them and take medication to help myself, I obviously don’t think the difficult experiences people seek help for are made up.

At the same time, psychiatry and psychology as disciplines ARE made up (like every other discipline), making them not infallible or objective, AND they were built on eugenics, patriarchy, white supremacy and capitalist exploitation.

Those very real issues addressed by psychology/psychiatry aren’t actual literal pathologies. They don’t need to be literal tangible sicknesses in order to matter or be deserving of help and compassion. Your literal brain as a bodily organ is not physically “ill”, at least in most cases. It doesn’t need to be for your problems associated with an “ill mind” to be real and to matter. Remember, these disciplines were created at a time in history in which (white, male) doctors and theorists were obsessed with turning everything into a material, scientifically tangible subject that could be objectively measured with numbers and shit, hopefully medicalized or otherwise turned into “hard science”. That’s where ethnography came from. It’s called positivism, which is extremely dehumanizing, white supremacist and capitalist.

Psychology should be largely considered as much more of a metaphysical or philosophical discipline than as objective science, which is how most people perceive it to be. It’s mostly pure theory about emotions, thoughts, cognition, relationships and subjective experiences + perceptions -- which isn’t necessarily a bad thing on itself. It not being hard science doesn’t immediately delegitimize it. Get rid of the white capitalist idea that only (western, white) science and “objectivity” are real or of value. Actually, holding psychology to the standards of hard science turns it into pseudo-science, so... Yeah. I genuinely think we’d get so much further As A Society™ regarding psychology's potential to aid people who’re suffering if we treated it as more of a metaphysical or philosophical discipline than as some objective scientific truth.

Psychiatrists often are super ignorant of the actual way the medications they prescribe work or affect patients lmao. I had that almost ruin a whole semester at college because a shrink prescribed me meds that in combination she should’ve known would fuck me up. Not that much is known about how the human brain truly works compared to other human organs, you can’t expect psychiatric meds to be well tried and true. The research on psychiatric pharmacy is very lacking + biased in favor of pathologizing and controlling psychiatrized people, besides attempting to make the most profit under capitalism like any other capitalist industry, so of course they’re gonna prescribe you shit. Plus, like doctors of every other field, many psychiatrists arrogantly disregard the experiences, requests, questions and ideas of their patients, who’re the ones taking those meds.

Psychologists/therapists, just like psychiatrists, also disregard the experiences, requests, questions and ideas of their patients.

There’s such a strong element of power imbalance in how psychiatry and psychology function. The more a patient knows formal information about anything related to psychology/psychiatry, the more the shrink can get upset, distrustful and dismissive of them, saying they’re faking it, or telling them “not to do their jobs” when they so often do said jobs like shit anyway lmao no matter how thorough the research and understanding of the patient is.

Psychological and psychiatric diagnoses are just as made up as any other human construct (such as language, race, gender, etc). They’re not tangible realities as if shrinks had ran into a previously unknown objective fact of nature. In the realm of psychology, someone takes a bunch of traits and behaviors that by their observation they consider to be interconnected with one another, put them in the same bag, stick a label to said bag, and ask other psychologists if they agree with the bag being a thing. These considerations are heavily influenced by sociocultural bias. You can’t tell me it isn’t true that they’re made up and very subjective when “diagnoses” such as drapetomania, hysteria, homosexuality, gender identity disorder, etc, have been seriously considered at least by part of the psychiatric establishment of their times as legitimate mental disorders. Hell, some still consider being gay or trans to be mental disorders. Don’t get me started on "Oppositional Defiant Disorder”, that shit’s just evil.

A lot of the ideas spread by the psychiatric-psychological institution are legit pseudo-science that researches try time and time again to prove and end up coming with nothing, or they end up tweaking their own research or conclusions to maintain the established consensus that just so turns out to be very convenient to the people who make and sell psychiatric meds.

Many of the traits, emotions, thoughts, perceptions and behaviors that are pathologized by psychiatry and psychology aren’t inherently harmful. If they don’t make the patient or others suffer by their very nature (as opposed to like, homophobic parents “suffering” because their child is gay or a gay person suffering because of homophobia) then there’s no need to alter them. “Correcting” them is a measure of social control that crushes individuality and only attempts to mold people into obedient ~productive~ servants of capitalism. Much of psychiatric medical treatment (not just the diagnoses and therapies themselves) focuses on turning the patient into less of a social “burden”, than on their actual happiness. That’s why you have ADHD and autistic kids being given meds that turn them into zombies and that's been considered a good thing for DECADES. Like, why does the stimming of an autistic person or an “unusual” attachment to stuffed animals as an autistic adult have to be corrected? WHOMST does that harm? Nobody! But it makes allistics uncomfortable because allistics are fucking stupid and can’t mind their God damned business to save their lives like normal people do.

Even non-pharmaceutical treatments for psychiatrized conditions are or can be turned into measures of social control.

Maybe CBT wasn’t meant to be a tool to control people and shit, but it can be misused as such SO easily! It can go from being therapy to help individuals process inner pain and redirect harmful behaviors in positive ways, to being turned into training someone to react, feel and process abuse and oppression in ways that are convenient to the status quo.

Don’t get me fucking started on ABA as an inherently oppressive, abusive “treatment” for a psychiatrized condition that does nothing to actually better the lives of autistic people, instead punishing autistic traits, teaching autistic people to painfully repress said traits and ignore their needs, and seeking to appease allistics by prioritizing their convenience and subjective comfort.

Behaviors, emotions, perceptions or traits that on a man or white person would be considered a non-issue or given much more compassionate/less stigmatized diagnoses, are pathologized or given much more stigmatized diagnoses when it comes to female or racialized patients, which reaffirms psychiatry and psychology as subjective tools of social control.

While many of the traits, emotions, perceptions and behaviors of what are considered personality disorders are painful, harmful and real (and thus should be helped, with consent, not hammered down), literal personalities aren’t “ill”. They’re personalities. Pathologizing or medicalizing a fucking personality on itself is ridiculous. It is possible to address those problematic traits/behaviors/etc without saying that a fucking personality is “ill”. So much for “you’re not your disorder”.

What shrinks will deem as hallucinations or delusions can be subjective, and it definitely can be deemed as such out of white-centric cultural bias. Plenty of non-white cultures have considered different perceptions of reality as valid and worthy of respect for centuries, at times related to their sense of spirituality. Not to mention how psychiatry has deemed the real anxieties of oppressed people that they’re being followed, spied on, plotted against and all that, as hallucinations or delusions in order to discredit them.

Many patients are given medication to try to alleviate traits/behaviors/emotions that come from circumstance (poverty, ongoing abuse, trauma, oppression...) instead of addressing the root problems. While I 100% understand using medication as a palliative measure because, bitch, you can’t always fix those problems and you still have a life to live (the same way I take clotiazepam when the insensitivity of the allistics around me causes me sensory overload), this puts the burden of the person’s situation on their own body, as if their body was the essential source of a suffering that comes from outside forces they’re not responsible or in control of. This should ideally be addressed through material change in realities that can be individual (removing the person from an abusive situation, giving economic aid, giving proper treatment to an untreated chronic illness) or social (abolishing white supremacy, the patriarchy, capitalism, etc).

So many times when palliative medical treatments for suffering that comes from circumstances don’t work (BECAUSE THE PATIENT IS STILL TRAPPED IN SAID CIRCUMSTANCES, HELLO?) it’s blamed on a supposed defect of the patient’s body/brain rather than, like... You can give me as many anti-depressants as you want but I’m still gonna be miserable if I’m being abused or suffering from unending physical chronic pain lol. And then, instead of at least having the decency of recognizing the real source of the problem if your shrink can’t realistically fix it, they keep trying more and more different meds on you like you’re a fucking lab rat, keeping on blaming a made up defect you were “born” with. Imagine what that does to a person’s self-image! At least when I loathe my body for the chronic pain, chronic fatigue and more that my chronic illnesses give me, it IS actually true that it’s my body that has a defect that can’t be cured. Why convince a person in suffering due to anything, but especially when it’s due to outside conditions out of their control and your job is fucking supposed to be to help them be happier, that their pain refuses to respond to treatment because their BRAIN is so terribly defective? I don’t wish the hatred I hold for my objectively shitty body on anyone, and causing that to someone when it’s not even true...? Incredible.

Lots of genuine difficulties associated with psychiatric diagnoses are much better helped through accessibility and material considerations, or at least through teaching the patient pragmatic methods to better deal with those, than through pills. But guess what solution shrinks usually give you. Hint: it’s easier for them and they can charge you for it monthly.

Society™ medicalized emotions, bro... WE MEDICALIZED FEELINGS!!! WHAT THE FUCK!!

#antipsych

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ask-autistic-kakyoin · 5 years

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What lead you to interpret kak as autistic?

*takes deep breath in* Alright, anon, here we go.

One of the things people latch onto about Kakyoin is the different, seemingly incongruous sides of him. As an autistic person, I think a lot of that “incongruity” could be explained by his being autistic.

Kakyoin is highly verbal and more polite than most of the Joestar group. (Avdol is explicitly polite because he’s trying to maintain a persona.) But he’s also rude when he feels comfortable around others. “Won’t shut up,” “somewhat rude,” and “overly formal” are all things people commonly note about autistic speech patterns (depends on person and situation). Combined with his infodumping in the Hong Kong scenes, and his partial echolalia,* he talks like an autistic person.

He’s a very restrained person (his profile mentions his “natural reserve”), which isn’t usually how neurotypicals imagine autistic people, but is a common response to societal pressure to act a certain way (and his arcana does represent conforming to tradition). But he has intense, poorly regulated emotions bubbling under that restraint (which is an autism thing).

He’s heavily rule-oriented (for his own rules, anyway), with a black-and-white view of justice, and justifies his actions by how they conform to those rules, even when situationally unnatural. For example, the multiple times he sunbathes in his school uniform because “students should act like students,” despite his decidedly un-student-like skipping school and leaving the country. (The uniform might also be a sign of temperature insensitivity, perseverative adherence to routine, or comfort clothing, all autistic traits).

His profile (as officially translated in Jojonium part 3 vol. 2) says that he is kind to those who are kind to him and that he hates people with hidden agendas, one interpretation of which is that he has difficulty with understanding complex social interactions.

He has odd food-based routines; I don’t think i need to say more. (It makes me think of my own tendency to tear bread apart before eating it.)

Kakyoin’s childhood is very easy to interpret as an autism allegory. He was ostracized for an invisible barrier between him and other people—namely, they did not understand a major, lifelong component of his personality and identity—to the point that it created problems for him in school, maybe as young as 6 or 7. He dealt with this by becoming superficially friendly but distant (masking).

And his teenage years illustrate the double empathy problem (autistic people are assumed to not have theory of mind because they struggle to understand neurotypicals, even though neurotypicals are just as bad if not worse at understanding autistic people):

The first people to truly comprehend him were others who shared this identity with him, any and all of whom could also be argued to be neurodivergent,** but especially Kujo “everyone can figure me out” Jotaro. Kakyoin’s profile even says that he wants to keep the team together more than anyone because he wants people he can respect (i.e., that take the time to understand all of him) as friends.

So that’s why. (I was thinking this would be a paragraph or two and it ended up over 500 words long, whoops.)

*“Why did you risk your life to save me?” / “Well, I don’t really have an answer to that.” // “Why would you want to come with us?” / “Who can say? I can’t really say I know the answer to that myself.” He was saying it to the person he was repeating (Jotaro), so he may have had difficulty finding words to express himself other than what had been said to him. In addition, the only time his Stand talks is echolalic.

**Note that “neurodivergent” does not necessarily mean “autistic”—I’d sooner guess that Joseph has ADHD, for example—but autistic people and people with ADHD tend to have things in common.

#Anonymous #ooc #long post #mod infodump time #qkatte koi #food #meta

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squirenonny · 7 years

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7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14. Voltron and/or Mistborn.

[Autistic character ask meme]

Voltron (Keith, Pidge) first, then Mistborn (Steris, Vin, Spook) below the cut because this got really long haaaa these aren’t special interests at ALL

Voltron

7. what calms them down?

90% of the time Keith calms down with some kind of physical activity (i.e. training). Mostly stress builds up as a restless kind of energy, paired with frustration that very easily turns to anger, and fighting is just… the fastest way to get it out. Plus, training is totally acceptable for a paladin, so there’s that. Other forms of physical activity that Keith finds calming: hiking, cave diving, jogging, pacing. (The other 10% of the time, he calms down by being incredibly still–star-gazing with Shiro or Pidge are favorites, but he’ll also sometimes just…. lie on his bed and let his mind wander.)

Pidge calms down by getting tf away from people. Normally that means going to work on robots/computers/other random projects down in Green’s hangar (or in their bedroom back on Earth), but it could also mean reading, listening to music (or intergalactic transmissions), or watching a movie while wrapped in the biggest blanket they can find. I also like to think Pidge sketches a lot. Mostly technical drawings, but sometimes just random things. (I mean. Voltron with a flaming sword + ladybug + whatever else ended up on their notepad.)

8. Do they know they’re Autistic? if so when & how did they realise?

Pidge absolutely knows they’re autistic. They were diagnosed relatively young, probably in elementary school, after a teacher noticed Pidge’s social and communication difficulties and talked with the Holts. So in a way it feels like they’ve always known. Certainly as long as they’ve been aware of people outside their family, they’ve known they were different, and they had a word for that pretty early on.

Keith doesn’t know he’s autistic. Maybe he’s very early in the process of self-diagnosis: getting to know Pidge brings him past the ‘all I know about autism I learned from Hollywood’ stage, and he’s started to identify with certain autistic traits, but he hasn’t had more than the occasional flash of ‘maaaaybe I’m autistic??’ followed immediately by that kind of embarrassed denial so many of us get. (That, “Come on Keith, get over yourself, you’re just an introvert, stop trying to be a special snowflake.”) We’ll get there.

11. how do they prefer to communicate? are they non verbal/have periods of being non verbal? do they use sign language? do they talk? do they prefer text, etc?

Pidge tends to be hyperverbal and doesn’t usually have difficulty with spoken language, but they do find typing to be more efficient. They’re less likely to ramble that way, and they feel more in control of their words when they can edit them before they send the message.

Keith is partially nonverbal. He goes nonverbal when he’s stressed or angry, and when he’s tired/confused/otherwise emotional or low on spoons, words can be hard to come by or get mixed up. (Also, regulating tone is just. The worst.) He doesn’t have a preferred alternate form of communication, mostly because he’s never thought of it, secondarily because he’s self-conscious about communication issues and would rather just be the “brooding emo silent one” than call attention to it. (I do think that eventually he and the rest of Team Voltron would start to develop a kind of sign language–probably a mix of military handtalk, ASL, and Altean Sign Language, because I doubt anyone else in the castle is fluent in any form of sign language.)

12. Is there any senses they struggle with particularly? (hearing, taste, etc)

Pidge has texture sensitivities, especially in clothing and food, but otherwise their hearing is the most sensitive. Buzzing/beeping/humming/other “white noise” gets on their nerves VERY quickly. They use their noise-cancelling headphones a lot even when they aren’t listening to transmissions or music.

Keith is touch-averse. There are certain people/circumstances that don’t bother him (shoulder-touching, Shiro in general, honestly Hunk most of the time, because Hunk gives such tight hugs that it’s deep pressure, which is nice.) Glancing/incidental/light touches–especially when unexpected–are the main issue.

13. their special interests?

Pidge: computers/robots/programming, conspiracy theories, especially aliens. All sorts of creative things–mechanical projects, crafts, legos, building card towers?? Basically anything where they put stuff together to make other stuff. Pidge is a beast at McGuyvering shit.

[Keith’s SIs answered here]

14. are they open about being autistic or do they prefer to keep it to themselves?

Pidge is open about it with friends. It’s not something they would want classmates or acquaintances knowing about, but they tell the other paladins pretty quickly, and they have it in their About on Tumblr and Twitter.

Keith still isn’t even convinced he is autistic, so Pidge (and a little later, Shiro) are the only ones who know he’s even questioning it.

Mistborn

7. what calms them down?

Steris: The biggest way for her to calm down is to be in control in whatever way she can. That might mean making a schedule, organizing a room, or just researching something related to her current project. Being proactive in general helps–she doesn’t really unwind, per se. She can *be* relaxed, but taking a break for the purposes of stress-relief is counter-productive if she hasn’t already de-stressed to a certain level.

Vin: Physical activity, having a set routine or at least a stable set of rules she can live by. Tactile stims are also good–cuddling with Elend, petting TenSoon, letting her mistcloak drift around her. She finds the mists especially calming because it’s the right combination of control, activity, solitude, and low-level sensory stimulation.

Spook: Being in a social situation without necessarily being expected to interact is very relaxing–he likes to have people around, though for most of the series conversations/remembering social norms is more stressful than it is helpful. He like observing–observing his friends or keeping watch. There’s something soothing about looking out through the mists and listening to background noise (the things that aren’t important enough to focus on).

8. Do they know they’re Autistic? if so when & how did they realise?

Spook and Vin for sure no. I highly doubt the Final Empire has a concept of autism or… anything, really. I feel like Steris is aware that she’s neurodiverse, even if she doesn’t have the words for it (or the same words we do…) I guess it would be the equivalent of self-diagnosed. She realized growing up that she was different and sought out other people (or their writings) who had similar experiences. She’s identified where she struggles and developed coping mechanisms in the interest of control.

11. how do they prefer to communicate? are they non verbal/have periods of being non verbal? do they use sign language? do they talk? do they prefer text, etc?

Vin doesn’t have any specific communication issues as far as forms of communication. She is reluctant to share things about herself, and she struggles with code-switching (living on the streets vs. joining a crew vs. mingling with the nobility), and is cautious with her words when she doesn’t feel safe, but it’s not because of a specific difficulty with verbal communication.

Spook has occasional nonverbal episodes–which were much more pronounced when he had the added anxiety of only speaking Eastern Street Slang. He doesn’t pick up languages quickly, and he has a considerable amount of social anxiety centered on the way he talks, which provoked quite a few nonverbal episodes early on in his time with Kelsier’s crew. They diminished as he learned the language. Social anxiety plus his sensitive hearing (tin + autistic sensory issues = augh son your poor ears) means that I imagine Spook having a tendency toward sign language.

Steris, like Vin, doesn’t have specific problems with verbal communication, but she does find written communication to be more precise than spoken word. Speaking is more convenient, so it’s her default, but she very much enjoys writing letters.

12. Is there any senses they struggle with particularly? (hearing, taste, etc)

I don’t see Vin having any particular sensory issues. She’s pretty adaptable, so when she does have issues it’s because something’s new and she’s hyperaware of it–i.e. longer hair, formal gowns, ect. Mostly tactile issues when it’s anything.

Spook. (Spoooook.) Okay, full disclosure: blame Hero of Ages for this, but I headcanon Spook having a lot of sensory issues even before he snapped. He’s big on control and focus because he has to be. Tin is useless to him if he can’t learn to block things out because it’s so easy to push him into overload. And most of the time he’s fine. Unless he’s low on spoons–then things get iffy. Sound is particularly bad, and bright lights.

I think a lot of Steris’s sensory issues are food-related. Nothing is particularly bad, so she mostly just deals with sensory stuff, but she has strong preferences regarding taste and texture, so she likes to be in charge of the menu as much as possible.

13. their special interests?

Vin: Vin has been so focused on survival for so long that she doesn’t have special interests in a traditional sense, but she does get hyperfocused on things–learning the rules of her current surroundings, learning how to use metals, fighting, ect. She goes all-out and gets obsessed with things once she’s put her mind to learning them. The mysteries surrounding the mist spirit and the Well of Ascension were sort of SIs in their own right (though, again, partially born of necessity.)

Spook: people. He spends so much time observing that he tends to develop special interests for people or places. That slum down the block from the safehouse where he knows everyone’s name and who just had a baby and what the current biggest threats are. That noble family he’s supposed to be watching and their staff and their schedule. Vin was a special interest when she first arrived, and that flared into a crush briefly before the hyperfocus eased and their relationship became more natural.

Steris: Politics is the biggest. She knows everything because of long, intense study. Who’s who, the major rivalries and alliances, expectations and common missteps. How to say what she wants without saying it outright. This extends into history and law a little bit, but it’s very much focused on the interactions between the major Houses and other players.

14. are they open about being autistic or do they prefer to keep it to themselves?

Doesn’t really apply because I don’t think Scadrial really has a concept of autism yet (especially in the original trilogy era). Steris is pretty much “This is who I am, deal with it.”

#cfsbf #mistborn #voltron #autistic keith #autistic pidge #neurodiverse defenders of the universe #autistic headcanons #ask meme #actually autistic #ch: i'll find the truth; i'll never stop #ch: shut up and trust me #ch: homicidal hat trick #ch: pseudo religious vigilante freedom fighter #steris harms #(i can't believe she doesn't have a character tag??)#(for shame)

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