hi, I'm very sorry if this is a weird question (and if it is - feel free to just ignore me) but I've been wondering if you hc your cat-stan-verse Ford as autistic? genuine question, it's cool if not, it's just that I'm autistic and there are some bits with how you've written HTCBAF Ford that remind me of my own experience, and I wanted to know if that was in any way intentional. regardless, your writing is amazing and HTCBAF is one of my favorite fics on this site :)
Not weird at all! I've got no problems with you asking :)
And the answer is...
Hmm. Yes and No.
Yes in that he has several autistic traits and probably is, and I head canon him to be, no in that I don't intentionally write him with that in mind. I just write him as I write Ford, who happens to have traits that can be read as autistic.
This is somewhat personal as well on my end, but I write very similarly to how I experience life on the reg. You'll notice I don't really have the characters think about their feelings or wallow, or even think about what they're doing except for the physical sensations, because I don't do these things either. I don't really think 'oh i'm sad', i just get a tightness in my chest and my eyes water, and later will go 'oh i felt that because i was upset/mad/tired/overstimulated, but in the moment its just all physical, and I try to write that way too.
Similarly, while I have been told many times that I read as autistic and probably am, I've never been diagnosed and don't really see my actions as anything other than me being myself, and so I don't write the characters with 'and they're autistic' in mind, i just have character traits for them, that together can read as being autistic without out right saying it.
I'm glad it came through as that way though! Like I said, I do hc him as autistic, I just don't go out of my way to try and have scenes for it, they just come as they come.
Thank you very much, and I hope you have a wonderful timezone! HTCBAF is my favorite fic too :3
