#autistic!scott

First some context...

The autism spectrum isn’t what you think. It’s a condition that adapts to nurture. And much of the research has been done on kids perceived as boys, who, let’s be real, tend to get socially trained way differently than kids perceived as girls. I would know because I was raised as a girl before I realized I’m trans. My autism can be said to have “female symptoms” despite me being very masculine. And I’ve learned enough coping mechanisms that most people just assume I’m willfully quirky as opposed to an alien pretending to be human.

So here’s what I think when I think of autistic Scott:

- he was raised by his mother and canonically exhibits “female strength” in the form of patience, compassion, and nurturing. It’s not a far reach to say he was socialized in the way girls are, with an emphasis on sticking together and working as a group. This is all meant to say: Scott’s autism would be more invisible to the untrained eye due to him realizing he can fit in by mimicking the behavior of the people around him (namely Stiles)

- speaking of mimicking, whenever Scott has to make difficult decisions, it’s done with a “what would [this other person in my life] do in this sort of scenario?” Kidnapping Liam, for example, was a very Stiles thing to do. And Scott repeats Derek’s “we’re brothers now” despite having cringed at it himself

- Scott has this childlike naivety and ability to take things too literally that’s very autistic (e.g. “my mom does all the grocery shopping")

- Scott’s special interest is lacrosse, something he persists in despite his asthma, and later, despite werewolf drama

- Scott’s best friend has ADHD, which is just a fascinating tidbit because me and a lot of autistic people I know are very close with ADHD folks because of our many overlapping symptoms

- Scott’s stimming can be said to be subtle, like taking the form of bouncing when he’s happy. He also has a thing with his thumbs. It obviously nowhere near as flaily as Stiles, but this isn’t a competition, okay?

- Scott’s relationship with Allison begins with Stiles explaining to him “You don’t ‘hang out’ with hot girls” and, later, when Scott mentions he’s studying with Allison, Stiles says “That’s my boy,” cajoling Scott into doing more than “just studying”

- Scott’s relationship with Kira can be summarized by Scott following a script he built with Allison and then belatedly realizing, in horror, that he’s doing things with Kira (kissing her, saying he loves her) in such an automatic way that it leaves Kira in shock

- Scott’s relationship with Malia actually had time to develop because they were friends first, so the most different part for Scott is when they sleep together and Scott ends up in a sweater in bed after sex like he’s just hanging out with a friend

- Scott has a very strict moral code, which tends to be prevalent in autism. His morals allow him to make exceptions for lying villains (e.g. willing to kill a sick Gerard if Gerard’s lying gets anymore people hurt) but is harder to bend when he sees that the antagonist is also a victim (e.g. Void Stiles)

- Scott is hyper-empathetic, meaning he’s prone to putting himself in other people’s shoes even when it’s not in his best interest to do so. He’s also prone to not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings

- Scott repeats arguments because he has conversations scripted in his head and when they’re going wrong he must repeat

so they cuddle in Scott’s bed (as much as everyone is comfortable with since… Scott stims by getting physical comfort but Lydia usually doesn’t and Kira is sort of in the middle), while listening to Emilie Autumn, Fiona Apple, and Depeche Mode, and just sort of quietly emoting in ways that they can do with each other because they feel safe and non-judged when doing the things with each other, and aww cuties

every time my one autistic Scott gifset starts going around and people start tagging it with things like, "oh my god it would make so much sense" and, "headcanon accepted," and, "don't talk to me this is so important to me," I just. my poor dead little heart grows three sizes and I remember why I periodically still have faith and people and get all flappy hands and squeeful and giddy and delighted. ♥

I have 215 tabs open on my mobile chrome browser right now. 143 of them are reblog pages for posts from one specific blog where I go for Scott feels and personal catharsis, plus 13 tabs of posts that I'm going to reblog from said blog and two shared OneTab pages of more posts from said blog to reblog (offhand, I think there are ~280 posts between the two OneTab pages).

this is all well and good except I think I've lost sight of which posts are getting reblogged purely for Scott feels reasons, and which ones are a mix of Scott feels and "this resonates with me so deeply and personally and I'm using my Scott feels as a glorified excuse to reblog it for myself so I can sorta kinda acknowledge the thing but not actually be made to talk about it because I don't want to because feelings are weird and gross unless they're about fictional characters, get these emotions about my actual life away from me I don't wanna hiiiiiiiiiiissssss"

ps: there will eventually be more autistic Scott gifsets like that one, going into other reasons why I headcanon him that way (or well, my rationale for it beyond, "I'm autistic and I like to make believe that my baby sunshine favorite is on the spectrum too because it makes me feel happy to do the thing") and I wanted to do them earlier but… mental health stuff has made existing kind of difficult in the past little while before my doctor and I adjusted my meds again

but in the meantime… heeeey, if you like autistic Scott and have feelings on the subject, you should really come talk to me about them because I am super interested and I want to know all your feels and headcanons please come and share them with me, you're all so great and autistic Scott is so great and ahhh let's discuss things!! ♥

How much I like it: actual cause of global warming | notp | don’t care | it’s okay | cute! | otp | MY BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN

"Their" song: Placebo's cover of "Running Up That Hill" or Depeche Mode's "I Feel You." Maybe Gotye's "Heart's A Mess."

…someone should probably explain to them that at least one of these is not necessarily a good thing to have as their song because I don't actually know if either of them gets that because they're too busy going, "but we love each other so that means everything is okay despite our blatant issues right." and just… no. oh, no, babies, no. no no no no no. doesn't work like that. do not pass go, do not collect $200, get yourselves to a therapist like yesterday.

(full size image because tumblr)

Who does more housework: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Lydia, probably.

…no but seriously, though, Scott and Derek actually remembering to do the housework, that's the best joke I've heard in weeks.

What couple cosplay they should do: …I've actually been thinking a lot about them cosplaying as Dan and Rorschach from Watchmen lately (which is in large part due to how I've been having a Thing and kind of watching the movie thereof… more times in the past few weeks than I am comfortable admitting publicly).

but like… I really wish I could pull off a fusion here because Scott as Dan, Derek as Rorschach, and Kira as Laurie is kind of fucking perfect to me?? …except that literally nobody else fits in ANYWHERE, except for like… Noshiko as Sally Jupiter/Silk Spectre I and Deaton as Hollis Mason/Nite Owl I but… those castings are incidental and I also really don't like them on the level that has to do with my epic laundry list of grievances against Alan Moore and large parts of his fandom.

…so in the interests of not trying to break my brain hamfistedly shoving other Teen Wolf characters into this fusion, Scott and Derek could totally cosplay as Dan and Rorschach. or if we just want to avoid Alan Moore altogether (which is fair enough because Alan Moore), then… Scott as Aragorn and Derek as Boromir. for serious.

Who cried watching Toy Story 3: ……are you serious? they both cried like babies. Scott started it because he's more comfortable with being open about the fact that he cries while Derek was sitting there, trying to be all stoic and crap, and being like, "I must be a big strong man, my Alpha is crying and sad about this freaking Disney movie, I can't cry, I have to keep it together"… and then they just devolved into a clingy little mess of crying on each other and cuddling it better.

Who hogs the blankets at night: they take turns. but Derek does it more because Scott usually prefers to glom onto Derek's body and use his chest/collarbone area as a pillow and affectionately steal his body heat all night.

What they fight about: ……is this a trick question? like? …have you seen Scott and Derek? they fight about everything. even when they basically agree with each other, they fight about everything.

Who has more Facebook friends: lol, Scott, obviously. Derek doesn't even remember that he has a Facebook most of the time. mostly since he didn't sign up for it himself, Isaac and Stiles sort of "borrowed" his computer this one time and signed up for it for him in yet another attempt at getting actual Luddite Derek Hale into the twentieth century.

(Derek: "…this is the twenty-first century. :|"

Isaac: "I know. I'd settle for getting you into the twentieth century. that's how behind the times you are." …this was supposed to be a Parks and Rec quote but I probably butchered it because I can't remember the episode it came from so I can't go verify the actual quote. I thought it was "Smallest Park" with the Tom and Jerry B-plot but I can't find it in that ep and it's frustrating.)

One headcanon about them: …I object to this question because it's really open-ended and I need more direction than this because I can come up with a lot of headcanons and like what do you want from me, ask box meme?? what topic should I focus on?? heeeelp???

so let's go with dmab agender Derek and dmab demigirl Scott trying so hard to do each other's makeup so they can look pretty for Lydia's birthday party… but they keep getting distracted because Scott's fussy and needs to stim so she gets distracted by one of her favorite calm down stims (running her fingers over Derek's beard) and Derek keeps getting distracted because xie puts the different shades of lipstick on Scott's beautiful mouth and xie's just like, "no but we should uhm. test it out. we should test it to make sure it's actually going to stay on all night. by making out. for science."

"wait, you’ve been flirting with me?"

"…yes? and Laura and Lydia both told me to tone it down? like, they said I was embarrassing myself and that it was so obvious, it could be seen from space? and I can’t keep doing this, Scott, so just… I have to know: do you have any romantic feelings for me or not?"

"…oh. oh, no. oh my god, this is happening again. I can’t believe it, this is happening again, I just… I cannot believe I totally screwed up and missed out on freaking everything again…”

"…wait, Scott… what do you mean, ‘again’?"

"Nothing, not really, it’s just… this happened with Allison, Kira, Danny, and Isaac too? like, they thought they were flirting and everyone else thought it was totally obvious but I just… didn’t get it? I mean, we sorted it out eventually, but at a first go…?"

"…how do you just not get that someone is flirting with you?"

"Ms. Morrell said that it’s a spectrum thing? Like, misreading social cues and missing out on subtext? and I’m so, so sorry, Derek — I didn’t mean to lead you on or anything, I really didn’t, I just… I didn’t get that you were flirting? Because I really need everything spelled out for me, sometimes?”

"oh. …well, I was, so… do you want to go get dinner? As a date? With all the romantic stuff intended?”

"…wait, Derek, are you… you’re sure you’re just okay with this? like, you know about it and you still want to date me?"

"Of course I do. I wanted to date the total Scott McCall package, and this is a part of that, and I’m not the kind of asshole who’d ditch you for this, so… dinner? As a date?"

Spectrum Wolf AU: Derek’s been flirting with autistic Scott for months and didn’t get why Scott would seem interested one minute, only to act like their relationship is completely platonic the next. And fair enough, Scott’s been interested… but he misread all of the flirting and assumed that Derek was just being friendly. Finally, Derek gives up and uses his words, much to everyone’s relief. (✿^♥ᴗ♥^)

I’m autistic. Yes, really. I even have two different mental health professionals who’ve said so, one of whom has known me since I was eight.

even if I were self-diagnosed and didn’t have a professional backing me up here, I’d still be autistic. If you are allistic (not autistic), yes: my opinion about autism is more significant than yours because I actually live as an autistic person and you don’t.

for the record: as a general rule, it’s “autistic person,” not “person with autism.” Person-first language doesn’t work so well here because most of us on the spectrum (myself included) view autism, which is our neurotype, as a part of our whole being and not as a separate thing that was forced on us.

I am also a huge Scott stan. go take a look at my tags page and notice how much bigger, “Scott McCall” is than most of the other tags. Scott is my baby sunshine favorite and my most preciousest precious.

I made that gifset to celebrate Scott and share my autistic!Scott headcanons or some of them anyway. If you are seriously going to try to come over here and ask me if it’s offensive to headcanon Scott as autistic, then please take five steps back, check yourself, and ask why the Hell you think that my neurotype is offensive or a slight against any given character.

if you want to argue about the “difficulty using language” thing and want to see it as some kind of slight against Scott’s intelligence, been there done that bored now, go read that informative post on the subject, please and thanks.

that gifset is a headcanon and a headcanon only. I’m not saying that it is true facts or that Jeff and/or Tyler and/or any of the writers intended for Scott to be read as autistic. Given the way that Jeff wrote Spencer Reid in the early seasons of Criminal Minds, if Scott were meant to be read as autistic, then he’d be a walking talking little professor stereotype of one way in which people on the spectrum can present.

but hey, you know how we talk all the damn time about how queer representation in media sucks like Derek at a dick convention? yeah well, representation for autistic and neurodivergent people isn’t doing that great either. I’m not going into specifics right now but the TL;DR point is that autistic/neurodivergent representation totally sucks. more often than not, we get baited every bit as much as characters get queerbaited, with characters who blatantly display autistic traits and behaviors but are never canonically autistic.

even canonically autistic characters like Abed Nadir from Community end up with people trying to erase their being on the spectrum for the most bullshit fucking reasons. No, seriously, people in the Community fandom have tried to say that Abed “can’t really be autistic” because he loves his friends and especially Troy. Because we on the spectrum are completely unfeeling statues who are incapable of love apparently.

my autistic Scott headcanons make me happy because I like getting to pretend that my fave is on the spectrum too, even for just a little while. that’s it, that’s the great and amazing endgame there. that’s why I made the gifset, that’s why I write Scott as autistic in all of my fics and tag them as such, that’s why I have my autistic!Scott tag. I like to pretend that my fave is on the spectrum too. The end.

…are you even for real right now, nonny?

exactly what the Hell is so offensive about an autistic person having a tag for their autistic!Scott feels (as well as tags for their feels about how Lydia, Kira, Danny, Hugh Dancy’s Will Graham, Hermione Granger, Legolas Greenleaf as of the other day, Troy Barnes from Community, April and Andy from Parks and Rec, and LITERALLY ALL OF YOUR FAVES, EVERY SINGLE GODDAMN ONE, are autistic)?

like, excuse you? If people are allowed to have their bullshit headcanons about how Scott is a terrible friend or the next great Anakin Skywalker or more abusive and terrible than Peter Hale, Kate Argent, and Joffrey Wossname from Game of Thrones combined without anyone who calls them out on their blatantly racist character bashing getting taken seriously except by our own friends…