#adhd fives

And some ADHD Fives headcanons (bc I have always liked the idea of Fives having ADHD)

Please? I would really appreciate it

YELL HEAH OMG

Okay, so I haven’t been super active in the fandom for a while and I don’t really remember what headcanons I’ve talked about before. I saw that you’ve liked a couple of my posts and hypothetically I could double check those but where’s the fun in that? /j

Autistic Echo

One thing I love to think about in autistic characters is how they stim. I think Echo has a general energy-release stim of tapping his toe in his boot. I also think he stims verbally by reciting the regs.

Echo definitely experiences echolalia! I’ve actually written a fic on it, but I misrepresented echolalia in that fic so I’m not going to link it here. It’s a cute little nod to his name, of course, but also I like thinking about the different ways echolalia and palilalia present and I think Echo does it when he’s stressed (I’m projecting lol)!

He likes the weight and compression of his armour! It’s soothing.

He clearly has a hard time getting along with and communicating with other people. This isn’t really a headcanon so much as evidence to the overall autistic!Echo headcanon. I also like that he and his brothers ALL learn to communicate better with each other and get along, that the onus isn’t on the autistic-coded character.

I think he has a special interest in the regs! I think there aren’t a lot of things to have a special interest in when you’re a clone, and of the few options I think the reg doubles as a good way to feel a sense of order and organization, which a lot of us crave.

Another fic I have is about how he gets overwhelmed sometimes in the battlefield and experiences sensory overload! I don’t think it’s an all-the-time thing, or he just wouldn’t survive that environment, but I do think it’s something he experiences on occasion and his brothers do his best to protect him when it happens.

ADHD Fives

Oddly this is harder even though I also have ADHD and totally vibe with it! (Also ADHD Hardcase for SURE.) But I have a few!

I think he’s primarily hyperactive!

He TOTALLY self-medicates with caffeine. He drinks as much caf as he can get without getting in trouble or making himself anxious.

In some ways I think he’s actually found a lot of healthy coping mechanisms. Like, exercise is really good for the ADHD brain and easily accessed for a soldier, likely part of his daily regimen.

External routine is also awesome for ADHD! Although I headcanon him as ADHD-PH, I know that all ADHD is on a spectrum much like autism and he likely still experiences inattentive symptoms, and routine helps. I think that he actually THRIVES in the military, especially on Kamino where routine is strictly regimented.

I think Echo taught him to stim by tapping his toe in his boot! Get out that excess energy when standing at attention or parade rest for long periods of time.

He sits on the floor a lot! Floor-sitting and other forms of active rest are awesome for ADHD, and he finds it super comfortable.

I have SO MANY THOUGHTS and I’m too excited to have permission to yell about them okay. (Also I LOVE getting asks and getting responses to my posts, so if anyone has headcanons they’d like to send in, prompts to write, or thoughts to add on to this or any of my other ND clone posts, I will probably melt, please do it.)

First, Echo!

I headcanon Echo as autistic for a few reasons. First, he repeats orders. Technically the way he repeats them is not exactly how echolalia presents in most autistic folks, but I mean. It just fits? (And I try to write him with more classic echolalia where I can.)

He also has a hard time understanding and responding to social queues, which is especially prevalent in Clone Cadets (s3e1). His brothers don’t like that he repeats orders, they call him Echo, he doesn’t get it. They want him to shut up in the scene with Colt, he doesn’t. That sort of thing.

Also I headcanon that because physical stims such as the classic rocking, hand flapping, etc. would be frowned upon, he stims verbally and that’s why he kept cracking jokes in the scene with Colt and also why he explained the giant eels in Rookies (s1e5).

Which brings me to my next point, which is that he probably doesn’t process grief the same way as an allistic person would. I mean, who sees a giant eel eat their squadmate and just brushes it off with “That’s why we have the regulation not to go outside”? (Echo, that’s who.)

Speaking of regs! His obsession with the regs, which is super prevalent in Rookies but also notable in Clone Cadets, mirrors the autistic trait of loving and sticking to rules. And his desire to specifically read (and maybe memorize?) the regs is so relatable to me. I hate not knowing the rules, I go into job interviews and ask if there’s an employee handbook that includes the more important rules so I know exactly what I’m doing right or wrong. I feel like that’s part of what Echo’s doing.

And those are just the canon bits that feed into this headcanon! I have so many more thoughts about it! Like, I headcanon that he loves routine, and he needs to know beforehand if there’s going to be a change in routine. I think going to Rishi would have been a difficult but manageable transition, but joining the 501st after Rishi would have been miserable because he lost his squadmates, lost his station, and had no idea anything that happened was going to happen until it did.

I think he’s probably okay with klaxons and similar alarms, because he probably grew up with them, but other forms of auditory overstimulation like his brothers talking too loud are highway to overload.

He probably has a hard time with task switching and multitasking, and so he CAN but it takes extra energy, and he’s burnt out after every battle.

He loves the sound of marching and he loves Dha Werda Verda. I am now projecting directly onto this poor human. Those are rhythmic and he knows what to expect and he loves them. War songs, chants, space shanties, etc—he loves them all.

I imagine he has several special interests throughout his life, including the Rishi eels and Mandalorian history and culture.

Now Fives!

Fives I headcanon as having ADHD-PI (primarily inattentive, for those who don’t know the different ADHD types). He is incredibly smart, as are all the clones, but he tends to be impulsive, a trait which I personally think is magnified when he’s with Hardcase on Umbara.

In Clone Cadets he and Hevy are constantly blazing ahead. On Umbara he’s pretty much in charge of all the borderline questionable stunts he, Hardcase, and Jesse pull. During the inhibitor chips arc, he’s the one who follows Tup, and—yes I know he was drugged but still—he’s the one who goes to 79’s, who goes to talk to Rex and Anakin and traps them in the rayshield, and obviously his first thought when cornered is to go for the nearest weapons instead of thinking things through. Again, I know he was drugged, but even so. Also, in that same scene, obviously he’s of the correct impression that if Anakin and Rex don’t listen, the Republic will fall, but he’s just so distraught when they don’t listen that I immediately think “rejection sensitivity”. (Side note: are we still calling that the Order 66 arc? Since the Siege of Mandalore is more directly related to Order 66 but is definitely called the Siege of Mandalore.)

Let’s go back to happy thoughts, I don’t like being sad about the Dominoes. I think Fives probably struggles with executive dysfunction, and considering how he was raised I would say his most prevalent dysfunction is not being able to tell time because he probably never had to on his own on Kamino, and they were probably raised cleaning up after themselves or Badness Occurring. (I’m sure he had help with that.) He seems to be pretty decent at emotional regulation except for occasional RSD. I bet he has a hard time sleeping though.

Uh hmmmm what else?