been thinking about autistic peter… in p1 the developers labeled one of his emotion animations as “autism”, but then it grew so much in the fandom that they started expanding on this idea, and in p3 they dropped that story about how he jumped out of a window when some distant relative tried to hug him without permission
i have a headcanon that he didn’t speak at all until he was like 5 years old. only andrey understood him because he didn’t need words to do so. parents kept taking him to doctors, and when they realized he wasn’t deaf-mute and didn’t have any intellectual difficulties, they started scolding and punishing him (and andrey as well – for taking his side). he could have grown up much more withdrawn and distant, but because of andrey he learned social norms (at least most of them) and masking
still, he has days when he’s overwhelmed and can’t talk. for that exact reason, when he and andrey were still a kids they learned sign language. and every time peter goes nonverbal he speaks to andrey using it
