hi! I’ve wanted to write an autistic Virgil for a while, but despite the fact that I’m autistic myself, I’ve always been worried about doing so just in case I offend anyone? I don't know if that’s silly or not, but some bullet points are based off of my own experiences. so, here we go:

- he can’t. stop. moving.

- if he’s not shaking his leg, he’s tapping the back of his heel against the floor, or he’s tapping his mid-finger knuckles together as fast as he possibly can to let out some of that energy that won’t go away!!

- he’s tried fidget spinners to help with this, though that didn’t do much other than embarrass him when it became a ‘cringey trend’ to own one (or multiple)

- he did think they looked cool though

- fidget cubes however,,,,, oh man

- they’re one of his favourite things in the entire world; they look cool and help him get all of the energy out (though it never fully goes away), it’s just,,,,

- yeah

- but another thing that, for some reason, soothes both his anxiety and his stressful restless energy is a stone

- you read that right

- when Thomas took a trip to the beach with his friends once, they had made a game of seeing who could throw the furthest, and whenever Thomas picked up a pretty, smooth stone, Patton (and secretly Virgil) encouraged him to keep it!

- there’s one stone in particular that he has dubbed his ‘anxiety rock’

- it’s large and dark grey (almost black) and  s o  s m o o t h

- anytime he’s feeling particularly energetic, stressed, and/or anxious, all he has to do is feel the texture of the stone, which he usually keeps in the pocket of his hoodie, and it releases a whole lot of the tension in his muscles

- which, in turn, soothes some of his pent up energy

- also, another thing.......

- Virgil isn’t always the greatest at following instructions unless they’re very specific and put in vocabulary he can understand

- so, sometimes Logan’s instructions can do him a big Confusion™️

- but they’re working on it

- because of this, he’ll sometimes get really upset and angry with himself because why can’t he just do what people need him to properly???

- he knows it frustrates people, but he just doesn’t know how to improve

- he’s tried using vocabulary cards, similar to Logan’s, but they just don’t work because he always forgets about them and/or loses them

- ok lets be honest, he always loses them

- though this could also be linked back to his anxiety and whatnot, he finds that repeating himself and stuttering is becoming more and more of a problem for him

- repeating himself more than stuttering

- he doesn’t even realise he’s done it until the person he’s talking to is either giving him the Ugh Look™️ or the Patience/Kinda Condescending Without Meaning To Be Look™️

- both aren’t the best to be on the receiving end of

- but that’s not their fault!! he knows that those giving him the P/KC Look don’t mean to be condescending and that they’re just trying to be understanding, but he also takes everything too seriously sometimes and he’s

- way

- too

- sensitive

- but also,

- he’s absolutely terrible at expressing his feelings or being comfortable with intimacy

- kisses are usually a big no-no

- though he doesn’t mind it sometimes

- he doesn’t exactly know if he can control this irritability with affection, but he’s getting kind of sick of being a-okay with it one second, but absolutely terrified of it the next

- Patton is working with him on it, but they haven't made a whole lot of progress

- though he’s starting to like forehead kisses a bit more

- so he guesses that’s progress

- it sometimes takes him a second to process something someone’s said

- and that can be annoying for those with a thin patience such as Roman and Logan

- but they rarely ever take it out on him, knowing he can’t control it

- they’re great like that
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I have so many more ideas for autistic Virgil, if anyone wants to know anything!!

self-projection through fictional characters? I don’t know her