an ever expanding comprehensive list of autistic shit we know about zayne
because for some reason I have become the autistic zayne propagandist of tumblr so here we go
tried to waddle like a penguin as a child. also knows everything about penguin mating rituals apparently.
his love language is clearly an imitation of penguin behaviors (penguins give stones to express devotion, he gives candies to express that he cares because he literally can't say things like a normal person. hes a fucking autistic penguin)
can apparently tell every kind of flower apart by SCENT
rejection sensitivity so high he became a heart surgeon after he accidentally caused one (1) injury and tried to resign after he was FALSELY accused of malpractice
when you touch a part of his body he names a fact about that body
refers to your body parts by their full scientific names all the time
in his myth, the majority of books in his GIANT LIBRARY TOWER were about jasmines. where the fuck did he even FIND those
as a child he tried to comfort MC by leaving an unexplained and unnanounced box of snowballs vaguely shaped like seals at her doorstep. note that this was an entire box full of them like where did he even come up with this
during the "meet the parents" thing in the cafe interactions he's the only LI to very aggressively avoid eye contact during the entire dialogue
he obviously has a safe food (dessert) and a very unsafe food (carrots)
in the caleb five big booms arc, zayne gave hands down the most contextually weird explanation of anything I have ever seen, gave mc a pep talk (in the most monotone voice since amazon echo, mind you) out of NOWHERE, then slid mc an ipad looking thing (only mentioning it was willed to her by her dead grandma, not mentioning AT ALL that it contained life changing information, nor that grandma josephine actually asked him to take care of her after her death) and a candy. this man is the social interactions final boss
we learn in the wedding card story that during med school he struggled with executive function when it came to taking care of himself properly, basically lived off the bare necessities for survival etc. it could just be depression/exhaustion but from the phrasing of it it sounds like a deeper issue
in a text conversation with him, you find out that he apparently named a squirrel that comes to the hospital garden at times after a receptor-inhibiting drug. He named the squirrel fucking Clopidogrel btw. Of course, nothing about this is inherently and clinically autistic but I mean come ON now
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Despite seeming somewhat averse to eye contact, he also holds rigid rules about eye contact being a necessary part of politeness
His students say he is strict, which again highlights rigid rule-following
One of his regularly commented on character traits is that he seems cold and robotic.
His jokes often concern and terrify people instead of making them laugh (such as in his A Pure White Heart Anecdote)
His social habits and rigid rule following frequently cause him difficulty in his relationships (romantic and otherwise) as well as his career.
In the meet MC's family interaction he also explicitly says "im a picky eater" for his flaws
when he was a kid he wanted to fly but he already knew why humans couldn't fly so instead he tried to decrease his bone density. (it's giving me as a kid bc i knew babies were made with a sperm and egg but i didn't know HOW those two met so I asked my mother in complete terror whether my dad was in her tummy like me. like fully in her stomach)
in the "animal tails" text exchange if you suggest he's bad at expressing emotions he says maybe you just need to get better at reading emotions. this suggests he isn't trying to be a standoffish Ice Prince. he is legitimately trying his best and as far as he understands thinks he's being genuine and clear. I thought I'd be the only one that was getting spectrum vibes from the boi lolol
alsoo could be a stretch but there is a photo booth pose specific to only Zayne called "clutch claw" where he has his hands dangling in front of him. my first thought was it's almost like the T-Rex hands which I recently found out is a common thing people on the spectrum do
He is the only one who smiles when you open the notebook for reminders and period tracking. This is, again, obviously not concrete on its own, but it does lend to the idea. He obviously struggles with being misunderstood or people believing he is cold, but the notebook is proof he's paying attention and cares, so of course he's happy to see us open it and see that. Or even just to use it to give him the chance to prove it in a way that is "meaningful".
GUYS GIVE ME MORE CANON AUTISTIC STUFF TO FILL IN IK IM FORGETTING STUFF
