bucket!

*cracks knuckles* let's go—

His voice is very stern, monotonous, and very loud, at all times. He always speaks like this, even when he's being casual or funny. No matter what emotion he's feeling, either.

His catchphrases are part of his social script, the octo-alert is part of his routine, and he gets visibly bumbly when they're interrupted or triggered unexpectedly.

He very often does this thing where when the octo-alert is randomly sounded, he will instinctively react and begin saying his catchphrase, before getting really confused.

See also this scene where, really, there's no point of sounding the alert, as they're the only ones there, and everyone else is busy—when Tweak is unable to do it, Barnacles pulls out his compass, and does it himself. Plus the time when he sounded the alert telling everyone to go to the launch bay, but they were already there. He also has a morning routine, seen in ROF.

He always knows when Tweak has an invention that is perfect for whatever oddly specific situation they're in, when nobody else does. Likely because he doesn't like surprises/unexpected things, so she always tells him when she starts a new project.

Sensory issues! Observe his reaction to a loud noise:

Yes, everyone reacts negatively to the noise, that's true, but look at him! He completely recoils and tucks into himself, he tries to flatten his ears, he shuts his eyes, and he even shakes his head.

Special interests: music (his accordion), ships (his tiny hand-built models), and the octopod itself.

He wrote 3 books! 3!!! Just on how to pilot the Octopod. For who? Himself. Who else could actually read these books, and understand any of it? Even Peso in that scene says he doesn't think he'd understand it.

The octocompass is a comfort item for him—the entire cuttlefish episode is him being stressed about getting it back after it's lost, and he gets easily frustrated whenever it doesn't work.

I'm out of space for pictures, but he struggles with social cues sometimes too.

Amazon River special: Kwazii has to directly say to him "that's your cue." when he misses his hint to sound the octo-alert.

Seahorse Tale ep: Kwazii is worried Barnacles is mad, and he doesn't notice at all.

Shellington stims a LOT, usually by fidgeting with the strap of his bag, tapping his paws together, or holding his paws up in the "raptor hands" pose (very common in autistic people).

He has a special interest in marine biology! He's the marine biologist on the ship, he spends 98% of his time in his lab—he even has his bed in there. He talks about his interest constantly, throwing it into every conversation any way he can, and he gets very excited at the possibility of discovering something new. Most of his personal episodes are focused on him freaking out about something fishy. He easily gets overwhelmed/confused/messy when he's excited, like in The Immortal Jellyfish, and he'll start forgetting or mixing words together.

Speaking of him speaking; he talks more awkwardly when he talks about anything else besides marine life. And like Captain Barnacles, he also speaks fairly monotone, unless he's infodumping—because then he'll talk really fast. Sometimes he speaks very slowly/quietly, and a lot of the time he skips saying certain things entirely, even if it's important.

He takes things extremely literally. He does this for the entirety of Operation Co-operation. He misses social cues frequently, and seems to lack self-awareness sometimes; like whenever he crashes a Gup, breaks something, falls asleep at the wheel (or even standing up), etc. He needs direct instructions or a step-by-step to understand orders, and he needs to be asked very specific questions or else he's more likely to leave something out.

He likes to sort things! He likes to make lists, he has a giant wall of shells in his lab that are all labeled neatly, he sorted the coral pieces by colour in the Dolphin Reef Rescue even though he didn't need to, he sings a perfectly alphabetical song to Tunip to teach him about sea creatures.

He seems to have a unique skill in linguistics, as he's the only one who can understand the Vegimals, and the Jawfish when his mouth's full.

He avoids eye contact, and usually has a wide-eyed blank expression, yet it's never assumed that he isn't listening. He looks around the room a lot too.

He can't drive, which is a common struggle for a lot of different neurodivergent people. Autistic people usually struggle with the amount of concentration it takes, the unpredictability of it, and for some it could be a motor control/reaction speed issue. Shellington seems to struggle with all of these.

ft Peso