3, 6, 9, 11, 12 for Garcia (and Reid, if that's not too many)?
3. how do they feel about touch?
Touch is good, and one of Garcia’s favourite ways of showing affection. She’s a huge hugger. Also, touch is one of her biggest stim things- her office is full of tactile stim toys and good textures, and she’s almost always fidgeting with something while working/thinking.
6. how do they feel about music?
She’s… somewhat lacking in musical ability, to put it diplomatically. She enjoys music, though, and has made various (unsuccessful) attempts over the years to pick up an instrument. As for listening to music, she usually does it to relax or distract herself. It’s too much input when she’s working, and she’s more of a white noise sort of person when she needs to concentrate. The many ambient sounds of computers in use is her personal favourite, and she can find it hard to concentrate when there aren’t fans running in the background.
9. if you hc them as self diagnosed how did that impact their life?
Garcia kind of had a vague notion that she might be autistic, but it wasn’t until she joined the BAU and talked to Hotch about it that she took the possibility seriously. Since then, she’s gotten pretty heavily involved in the online autistic community, and also just in general has gotten more comfortable with her own quirks and more forgiving of herself when she has difficulties with things.
11. how do they prefer to communicate? are they non verbal/have periods of being non verbal? do they use sign language? do they talk? do they prefer text, etc?
Garcia is pretty verbal, but she prefers talking to people over the phone because there’s less additional input. All the information comes from words and tone of voice, rather than also having to read and communicate through body language. Plus, she doesn’t have to worry about making too much eye contact. (Eye contact doesn’t make her uncomfortable and she doesn’t understand the rules of it too well, so she tends to overcompensate and stare at people.) Also in general she just prefers communicating from the other side of her screens, and when she’s emotionally overwhelmed that preference gets even stronger. (Although she also gets tactile when upset, so it’s a balancing act between needing her space and needing proper human contact.)
12. Is there any senses they struggle with particularly? (hearing, taste, etc)
She doesn’t exactly struggle with it, but nothing ruins Garcia’s day faster than a Bad Texture. Whether that’s something she touched or something in her food, she always has to spin around in circles and wave her hands and go “ick ick ick” or “gross gross gross” before she feels better. If it was something she touched, she always goes in search of better textures, and that can mean (among other things) stroking the fabric of her clothes or playing with one of the stim toys on her desk.
3. how do they feel about touch?
He’s Not A Fan of touch from strangers. He hates shaking hands (both for touch averse and germophobic reasons) and random contact with people in crowds and the like is The Worst.
That said, he’s really huggy when it comes to his friends. It takes him a while to get there, but there’s a point at which he becomes comfortable with a person, after which he’ll happily attach himself to them and not let go. Generally he relies on other people initiating things like hugs, though, because he’s still a bit unclear on the rules. (Although there’s this one time when he just straight up launches himself at Hotch- who is equally touch averse and awkward about hugging- and it’s the only time they ever hug on screen and it still makes me emotional.)
6. how do they feel about music?
Music with words is distracting. If he’s going to listen to music at all, he prefers classical music (and occasionally movie soundtracks), because his thought process is very verbal and easily sidetracked by external verbal input. He can get really into instrumental stuff, though, and is prone to waving his hands around in conductor-like motions while listening.
9. if you hc them as self diagnosed how did that impact their life?
This is a complicated one to answer, because I don’t have a definitive headcanon for Reid re: diagnosis? Because it’s obvious in canon that he’s not even considered it, but I refuse to believe that he could work alongside profilers for years and not have someone point out that he’s Obviously Autistic. So I like to think that either Gideon or Hotch or both of them nudged him into getting a proper diagnosis (either an official one, or just going through the DSM or whatever with one of them) not long after he joined the team.
As for how it would impact his like, I think a diagnosis would help him deal with a lot of the stress he gets from not really trusting his own brain. Like, he’d actually recognise sensory overload for what it was and not automatically assume his headaches have to be connected to potentially inherited schizophrenia. (Me? Bitter about Reid not being diagnosed in canon so the writers can milk the ‘Reid is scared of his brain’ subplot for all the angst it’s worth? Never…)
Also, I like the idea of him finding a comfortable place in the autistic community (although his general reluctance to use the internet for communication means his version of the ‘autistic community’ would probably consist of himself, Garcia, Hotch, Gideon and eventually Blake) and getting into autism acceptance activism now that he’s got a name for his own weirdness.
11. how do they prefer to communicate? are they non verbal/have periods of being non verbal? do they use sign language? do they talk? do they prefer text, etc?
12. Is there any senses they struggle with particularly? (hearing, taste, etc)
It’s faster to name the senses he doesn’t struggle with, to be honest. (Which is a very short list consisting pretty much of just taste.) Bright lights and loud sounds are Painful, touch is uncomfortable, and he doesn’t often have trouble with smells, but sometimes they can be the thing that tips him over the edge into overload if he’s already feeling overwhelmed.
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