Idonom

More MP4 textposts, since you guys really seemed to like the last one! Like before, Tumblr cropped some of the images, so please click/tap on each textpost to see the full thing

My Metroid Prime 4 Textposts:

Part 1

Made some Metroid Prime 4 textposts with the federation troopers! (the image previews seem to cut off a decent chunk of the textposts, so please please please click/tap on them to see the full thing)

My Metroid Prime 4 Textposts:

Part 1 (YOU ARE HERE)

So in my post talking about Myles MacKenzie's neurodivergency, I made an offhand mention that I'd do the same for Reger Tokabi. And honestly? To me, Reger's probably just as (if not more) likely to be neurodivergent. Anyway, here's my list of Reger's neurodivergent traits:

Socialization/Intentional Isolation:

In general, Reger seems to dislike any sort of social interaction, far more than would be considered "normal" for most "lone wolf" characters. His logbook entry even says that he "enjoys solitude" and "dislikes working with others".

Whenever he's in a cutscene with other troopers, he seems to be standing very far away from them. This is most noticeable in the cutscene that plays when the entrance to Great Mines gets attacked by Grievers, as not only is he far away from the other troopers in many shots, but he can be seen moving away when VUE jumps next to him to help attack Grievers.

His logbook entry says that he "always prefer[s] to go on missions solo without a spotter". While this may not sound too odd on its own, the game heavily implies that the missions he's assigned to go on are often very dangerous, which ends up suggesting that he's willing to risk a higher chance of death if it means that he doesn't have to interact with anyone. This is reinforced in Great Mines, as VUE has a line saying that Reger was "adamant" that VUE went into the mines to help the others, while Reger would be fighting the Grievers at the entrance alone.

Reger has a line saying that he "didn't care for anyone other than [his] family", which all but outright says that he doesn't have any friends. Considering that he doesn't seem particularly upset when saying this, it's safe to assume that he also wasn't too bothered by not having any friends.

His interactions with the other troopers seem to be fairly minimal, as evidenced by some of their lines about him (Armstrong says that she "[doesn't] know what he's thinking", while Duke says that he's only "heard a little" about Reger). Even when Reger interacts with the others in cutscenes, he seems to need some degree of prompting in order to initiate those interactions.

Unlike the other troopers, Reger and MacKenzie appear to have formed some sort of connection/bond with each other - the two frequently reference each other in their dialogue, and MacKenzie is the only trooper that Reger has base camp conversations with (even accounting for unused dialogue, the only exception is a single line that he says to Armstrong and Duke). This is somewhat notable, as I already made a post explaining why I think MacKenzie is neurodivergent.

Speech and Communication:

Some of his lines are fairly blunt when compared to the other characters, and when combined with his deadpan tone, they can end up coming across as unusually cold and/or rude ("I'm ready to go home. Go ahead and let Sergeant Duke know.", "You can extend the bridge from the other side."). This could suggest that he might have issues with understanding how his words and/or tone could come across to others.

In general, Reger's way of speaking (and his overall body language) can come across as being kind of stiff or unnatural. Even when compared to the other characters in the game, he still stands out a bit in this regard.

While Reger's voice in the game is usually fairly low-pitched, some of his lines have him speak with a slightly higher pitch (it's obviously the same voice actor and there isn't any sign of them being digitally pitch-shifted at all, so this isn't too noticeable most of the time), with these higher-pitched lines usually being for when he takes damage or is otherwise distressed. With this context, it's very possible that his lower-pitched voice is actually his voice when he's masking, and his higher-pitched voice is what he sounds like when he's not masking.

Special Interests/Attachments:

It's possible that Reger's religion/spirituality is a special interest for him, as by Metroid standards he's very religious to the point where it's one of his defining character traits. Aside from his lines frequently referencing Sollan, the second Sol Valley interaction with Reger boils down to him infodumping about Sollan to Samus with zero prompting from her. He also seems to be very attached to his necklace/pendant that represents Sollan, with his logbook entry saying that he's "never without" it and Reger holding it in multiple cutscenes. While it's very possible that this is simply Reger being from a religious background (which his logbook entry seems to indicate), I did think it should be noted.

He appears to have an unusual attachment to the harmonica that's always on him, with Reger outright calling it a "lifelong partner" in one line. It's also possible that him playing the harmonica could be his way of stimming, since he apparently does it frequently enough that Myles considers it a reliable way to track Reger down (since he mentions in a hint that Reger can be found by "the sound of his harmonica").

He also seems to be a bit over-possessive of his rifle, with an unused base camp conversation revealing that he apparently gave it the name "Sunbeam" and a line from Myles claiming that Reger won't let him even touch it (though this bit very much depends on how Myles asked to touch it).

Miscellaneous Things:

He has a tendency of roaming off in Sol Valley, with some of the places he's found being in fairly hostile territory. Notably, while he's in a decent chunk of the cutscene that plays when you first leave Great Mines, when it cuts to the other troopers on the vehicle that takes them back to base camp, Reger just… isn't there anymore? While this could simply be an animation oversight, it's also very possible that he decided to go off and roam the desert in the middle of a social interaction, which the other characters either don't notice or don't comment on (both options imply that this isn't unexpected behavior from him, which is also evidenced by MacKenzie being aware that Reger "spends a lot of time in the desert"). Reger also has a line saying that Sol Valley is "quiet" and that "being alone out [in the desert] is calming", which could suggest that at least part of why he roams the desert is because its quietness calms him down.

Reger seems to have some fairly strong beliefs, with both him and his logbook entry saying that he has a lot of internal conflict due to his assignments/missions going against those beliefs. Rather than modifying his beliefs to account for the things that he's been required to do for the Federation, he instead keeps his beliefs firm, even if it ends up causing him some degree of distress.

His Sol Valley interactions tend to have a somewhat unnatural flow to them. This is most noticeable in his third one, where he starts off by greeting Samus before immediately lore-dumping about himself with no proper transition or segue.

When fighting the first phase of the final boss, after MacKenzie points out that the arms transformed, Reger… counts them, apparently? Specifically, he says either "I count three" or "I count four", which is a fairly odd thing to include since the final boss's arms are both large and very easy for the average player to count. This could indicate an interest in numbers (which is common in autistic people), or just having an urge to count things for no clear reason (which is also common in autistic people). Seriously why does he do this during the FINAL BOSS of all things

So, I think we can all agree that Myles MacKenzie's neurodivergent, right? I mean, he's written as the "quirky eccentric nerd" trope, which almost always has some elements of neurodivergency in it (specifically traits of Autism and ADHD). But I, a neurodivergent person myself, was wondering: what particular traits does Myles have specifically? Here's a list I compiled in a few hours:

Movement:

Myles moves a lot when compared to the other troopers, which extends beyond the standard idle animations and into certain cutscenes (like in the various shot upgrade cutscenes, or at the beginning of the cutscene where Samus returns from fighting Sylux). His scan log even brings up his "restless energy".

His "conversation" animations are very animated and over-the-top, especially when compared to the other troopers' "conversation" animations.

Myles also seems to have some degree of motor coordination issues. His introduction shows him as being a bit clumsy, particularly when he drops his gun. He also has a base camp conversation where he mentions struggling with doing push-ups, and also has a line where he says that he's "directionally challenged".

Special Interests/Hyperfixations:

Myles is very passionate about his mech in a way that's fairly extreme, even for someone assigned to work on it. He gives it a nickname ("Betsy") and calls it his "baby", and is incredibly distraught when it's destroyed again in the ending. He's also very skilled at repairing it, as it's possible for the mech to be fully repaired after finding the first mech part an hour or two beforehand (though it should be noted that 1. this is done more for the sake of gameplay, and 2. it's possible that the time passed in-game isn't the same as the time passed in real life).

He's also very interested in the Lamorn culture, coming to understand their language and technology very quickly with the help of Samus's logs. He also apparently talks about them a lot with the others, as evidenced by their comment on it (Armstrong says that she "heard a lot about the Lamorn from Myles", and Tokabi says that Myles told him "all about the Bio-labs in Ice Belt").

Speech and Communication:

Myles is incredibly polite with the others, and rarely (if ever) outright says "no" to their requests (the only exception being in an unused conversation where Armstrong tries to get him to remove something from the mech).

He's incredibly talkative, with his scan log outright saying that Myles is "known to be extremely talkative, even while alone". He has almost 500 lines used in the game (not including cutscenes), the most out of all the troopers, and these lines include him reacting to things that the others don't react to (such as being scanned - "Did you just scan me? What does it say?").

Some of his lines could be seen as being fairly immature or childish for an adult to say ("What is that thing? How does it work? Can I try it?", "Look how those robots are orbiting the statue... Think I could catch one and bring it home?", "Corporal Tokabi's rifle is very impressive. But he never lets me touch it."), which could suggest that he isn't aware of what is and isn't considered socially appropriate for an adult like him to say.

When Myles is talking over the comms, he's incredibly persistent and frequently repeats information to Samus. While this is more of a flaw from a gameplay perspective, it could also be interpreted as him being inflexible about Samus not completely sticking to their "plan" for leaving Viewros.

Several of his lines can come off as being uncharacteristically rude for him ("Missiles are effective against a creature with a hard shell, you know.", "Y'know, I'm directionally challenged too."), which could suggest that he has issues with tone and/or understanding what is and isn't considered "rude" phrasing.

Base Camp Conversations:

The base camp conversation where Duke says that he wants a game to pass the time seems to depict Myles as both needing specific details and also being somewhat literal-minded. Duke initially uses vague terms like "chits" and "knick-knacks", which Myles doesn't seem to understand and asks Duke to be specific. Duke clarifies that he wants something to do to pass the time and mentions cards as an example, which Myles seems to take literally when he says that he'll investigate Lamorn-style playing cards later (as opposed to thinking of another game that'd be quicker to figure out or set up).

Another one of Myles's base camp conversations with Duke depicts Myles as being a bit of a workaholic, with him not having had a break since before he ended up on Viewros. This could indicate that he doesn't seem to notice if/when he needs to take a break from his work, which could possibly be supported by his scan log mentioning his "strong work ethic".

Two unused conversations with Duke seem to suggest that Myles is usually disorganized. The first one has Duke chastise him for not knowing what the things he's working on are and having a workspace that isn't "neat and tidy", with Myles only explaining why he doesn't know what everything is (he's still doing research) and saying nothing about his workspace being a mess. The second one has Myles admit that he hasn't been tracking the repairs that he's been doing, and he tries to justify it by pointing out that they shouldn't be stuck on Viewros for too long.

Another unused conversation with Duke shows that Myles is fairly forgetful and somewhat-easily distracted, as he claims that he didn't warn the others about some very dangerous booby traps that he set up because he got sidetracked with repairs and forgot.

He also has an unused conversation with Armstrong where he's probably the angriest that he ever gets (though it's admittedly just brief irritation). The cause of this? Armstrong asks him to take the gun off the mech and turn it into something that she can use. I've already established that Myles cares a lot about the mech, and this (admittedly very stupid) request making him genuinely angry only adds to that.

Miscellaneous Things:

His scan log says he has a "strong moral compass", which could refer to the "firm beliefs" and "strong sense of justice" common in autistic people.

Some of the other characters have some… rather interesting lines about him. Armstrong has a line where she says "Myles is kind of a nerd, isn't he? But he can talk to people too, not just machines." This seems to suggest that he's better with machines than he is with people, which isn't really shown elsewhere in the game. Somewhat similarly, Tokabi has a line where he says that "Specialist MacKenzie is quite the character. But I suppose most of those R&D engineers are…" Not only is this line all but calling Myles weird (with some languages even translating it as him saying that Myles is a "strange guy"), but it also suggests that most of the other engineers in the Federation are similarly eccentric - and rather fittingly, a study found that engineers are the most likely out of any profession to exhibit symptoms of autism.

In general, Myles has a somewhat close connection with Tokabi. He's the only character to have any base camp conversations with Tokabi, and he's the character that Tokabi's lines mention the most (aside from Samus, of course). Tokabi is also a character that I headcanon as autistic, for reasons that I talk about in another post.

Myles is also shown to be very nervous, and while this could be somewhat explained as him being an office-bound worker thrown into a hostile environment, his scan log mentioning his "excessive caution" could indicate that his nervousness is mostly just part of Myles's disposition/personality.

Myles closed his eyes and leaned forward, face-planting directly into the sniper's chest with a soft groan. Reger leaned back slightly in surprise, before gently brushing Myles's hair back and letting his hand linger on the engineer's face. "Don't even know when you're exhausted," Reger said in an incredibly tender tone as Myles started to drift off, "Poor thing." But right when Myles thought he fell asleep, the hand caressing his face suddenly yanked his head up to face Reger, who was glaring down at him. "Or were you too busy staring at my chest to listen?" Reger's cold tone caused Myles to squirm, and the engineer couldn't tell if it was because he was scared or because this was turning him on way more than he expected.

You and Myles walked into his apartment, and as soon as the door closed you pushed him against the wall and started kissing him. He softly groaned into your mouth and pulled you closer, deepening the kiss. As you pressed your body against him, you could feel his erection pressing against you, and you ground your body against it. After a moment, he pulled away, eyes dilated and already looking disheveled. "O-Okay," Myles said, a lopsided grin on his face, "uh, maybe we should go to my bedroom for this." His face blushed at his own words, and you nodded in response, trying not to giggle at how flustered he already was. (EXPLICIT NSFW CONTENT)

Reger pulled out a flask of water from the side of his armor as VUE continued. "Additionally, when Specialist MacKenzie was talking to me, he used a term that I am not familiar with." Reger raised an eyebrow and glanced at the robot. "Hm, did he?" the sniper asked before beginning to sip from his flask. The robot nodded. "If I recall correctly, Specialist MacKenzie mentioned that he wants to be your 'babygirl'. Do you happen to know what that term means?" Reger's eyes shot wide open, the sniper nearly choking on his drink for a moment before turning to VUE. "He said what?" (TECHNICALLY SFW, WITH SOME VERY SUGGESTIVE SCENES)

*pulls out megaphone* METROID YAOI, OVER HERE, COME GET YOUR METROID YAOI RIGHT THIS WAY! *puts megaphone away*

For the rest of the day, you couldn't stop thinking about Myles. His kindness lingered in your mind as you went home, and the brief brush of his hand against yours was all you could think about as you were getting ready for your blind date. Even when you arrived at the restaurant where your date was supposed to be waiting for you, you were hoping that it was Myles. And if the person sitting at the table you reserved was any indication, your hopes were about to come true. (BRIEF, 3 SENTENCE DESCRIPTION OF SEX NEAR THE END)

After an odd griever attacks Myles in the base camp, the engineer starts to feel feverish. Reger volunteers to take him to the healing pod in Ice Belt, but the sniper doesn't realize that it's not just a fever that Myles is having… (EXPLICIT NSFW)