any autistic malcolm headcanons ? (I am nothing if not predictable!)
Hi, thanks for sending an ask Penny is highly appreciated and we love talking about autistic Malcolm headcanons in this blog uwu.
- During college Malcolm liked spinning his chair as a way to ease himself while having a short break from work, which helped a lot too, even though his roommates would ask him to stop doing it after minutes of spinning around since it would get them all dizzy, he still does it today whenever he's at the precinct and doing office work, and feeling like the noises are getting too loud to bear.
- Malcolm has light sensitivity, especially with fluorescent lights, which is why when it's getting late at the precinct, the team makes sure to lower the lights in the conference room while working on a case ( See ep 4 when they're watching the pictures in the conference room).
- He prefers to be the one to initiate touch, reason why he flinches whenever someone touches him, (see ep 4 again where Dani takes off the mic or ep 10 where Shannon touches him from behind) he doesn't like being touched in the neck which can cause an immediate reaction, the only person who he fully trusts to initiate touch is Gil.
- Malcolm accompanied his talking with hand gestures (see literally any episode where he's giving a profile uwu like in ep 14), whenever he was doing a presentation at school he would talk while making expressive gestures with his hands, clicking a pen or flipping a marker around, or just waving his hands, his teachers told him to stop doing it bc it was getting the kids distracted from actually listening to what he was saying, and it was a difficult task, his teachers would begin to warn him not to do it again but it was impossible not to. (look a hc where the teachers definitely had no remorse for him bc of his serial killer father)
- After his father´s arrest, Malcolm would spend most of the nights just staring at the walls, the figures from his dim carousel themed light which would remind him of the moments when his father used to tell him bedtime stories (like the count of monte Cristo) and that would bring him good memories to remember to try and drain out the bad memories for just a tidbit, Jessica would later come in the morning to find him with terrible bags under his eyes bc of staying up until late watching his light spinning the walls.
- Malcolm loves snakes, at first he began making journals about every type and species out there, with interesting facts about each one of them and even making sketches and drawings about the ones he knew about, he made sure to always learn about a new type, at least one, every day, he would come to Gil and Jackie's house along with Ainsley and would tell them all about how they could change skin and the way they trapped their preys and could go on about it for hours until realizing Gil's head flopping in his shoulder with eyes closed, he would stay there and lay his head in the warmth of his non- biological father.
- Malcolm did a lot of passing during his time with the FBI, which resulted in a very tiring, exhausting part of doing the job, whenever he got back home after a long day of work. this would be as a way of masking in order to pass as someone 'neurotypical' to his co-workers. ( :(
- the Snakes Malcolm had as a kid would sometimes cradle over his neck or tights and stay there while he was working on school stuff, this pressure would help ease his anxiety, stay more focused and calm.
-Malcolm is a very fast reader, and this earned him some extra points as ‘brother of the year’, whenever Ainsley had a book for her literature class but had too little time to actually read and understand what she was reading, she would ask Malcolm to read it and give her a resume about the whole book, which were indeed very useful and gained her a lot of A’s in her class, despite not having actually read the book herself.
- Jessica had the kids go to her high elite social events, in order to show a normal vision about them and that after the arrest they still were to keep their appearances, This type of setting would become too overwhelming for Malcolm, Ainsley would notice him start rocking bc of the sensory overload and take him to a quieter room to stay away from everything that has been overwhelming him. Jessica having two or more drinks in, looking like crazy for them through the whole event.
