I haven’t even read this yet but I needed to scream: I HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS EXACT CONCEPT since I learned Shane was (semi) canonically autistic and I’m SO EXCITED to see this fic.
Coming back now that I’ve read it with all my thoughts. This is gonna be long as hell so you have my apologies in advance.
Okay, okay so like. Autism is attached to one of my main special interests, which is also my field of study. Which means I know a lot about it, both because I study it and also because I am autistic. Which is all to say I’m holding back from info dumping so much information, and I’m only going to touch on specific parts that I connected to your fic rather than just broadly dumping everything I know about being a late diagnosed autistic adult. (unless you want to know more and are still looking for people who’ve been diagnosed as adults to talk to! I was even diagnosed the same year as Shane and in Canada, though not ON.) I really really enjoyed this fic so much, and it was special to me before I’d even started reading it, and it’s extra special now. I already identified with canon Shane, but your Shane is soooo much like me. Right down to the teachers being a little sus of us between like 4 and 7 years of age, although in my case my mom did listen, but I’m also ADHD, and at the time they were a mutually exclusive diagnosis, and, well, I talk. Like, a lot. So ADHD it was.
So, one of the first things I was thinking about it is Hayden’s reaction, and the way he has some rigid thinking patterns himself, and also Shane answering “I don’t know, my dad?” when Hayden asks who Arthur (the autistic traits Hayden describes) reminds him of. Everyone always jokes about how highly genetic autism is, which is very true, but also I loved how there are some subtle references to that in both Hayden and David (and maybe Yuna but honestly I think that’s also just her canon personality. Her and Shane share a special interest and I love that for them) But there’s multiple studies that show that first degree relatives (specifically parents) showed way higher occurrences of neuro-behavioural autistic traits, even if they remain at well below clinical levels. I’m not sure if that was on purpose but I just think it’s very neat.
The second thing was when Shane was answering questions for the self-assessment, and thinking about the time I took my first self assessment, and the way I totally don’t struggle with that specific thing because you see I have a system. And so it is easy for me. Without realizing that most people don’t need systems set in place for normal daily activities. And also that a lot of autistic people struggle to take these self assessments because they get to a question and they take it too literally (similar to how Shane didn’t think that hockey could be a special interest) or they (and by they I mean me) struggle with the wording of the sentence and how its limits range of answers made it hard for me to fully answer and if they’d just phrase it this way— anyway, again, Shane in this scene made me giggle, because, yeah, buddy. Yeah me too. I think all of these examples probably boil down to “taking questions too literally” but you see there are distinctions I think are very important to distinguish, lol.
(btw, if you’re looking for a specific self-assessment at all, the RAADS-R is a great one, and completely accessible online. It’s been shown to be relatively reliable when used in non clinical settings, and I sometimes use it in my research! It was designed specifically for undiagnosed adults. And there’s also the cat-Q, which looks at masking! Not sure if that’s the one Hayden would have given him, since he maybe specifically had one they went through with Arthur? Unless he found it on the internet while researching. It would be interesting to see the comparison between one designed for children, and the way it doesn’t really apply to adults (especially late/undiagnosed and high masking ones) and one designed for the undiagnosed high-masking adults).
I also keep wondering if you’re going to touch on skill regression at all, which is so fucking annoying to deal with. I keep thinking about what it would be like for Shane to suddenly be completely unable to tolerate the sensory input of hockey, suddenly be even worse about food because it requires executive function and choice, suddenly be questioning every single social interaction. I’ve seen so many people not believe it will affect them and then be clobbered over the head with it. Tis a bitch!
Once again I just really love this fic and your Shane. That meltdown in chapter 10 (9?) at the rage room really had me cringing in familiarity. The embarrassment about not being able to control it, people seeing the deep tender parts of you out loud. Being perfect and never angry until one thing just snaps and suddenly you feel all the anger you’ve ever not felt all at once.
This is an incredibly long comment, but hopefully you at least found it interesting, given that you wrote an entire fic around ASD, and also that it’s not all information you’ve read a million times already. 😅
And I guess if it is, please know it’s only because I enjoyed the fic so much I couldn’t help but pour everything out, and maybe it was fun to read anyway.
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Tenacious_Minds on Chapter 1 Mon 05 Jan 2026 05:14AM UTC
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Tenacious_Minds on Chapter 1 Mon 05 Jan 2026 07:14AM UTC
Last Edited Mon 05 Jan 2026 07:18AM UTC
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kiki_is_better on Chapter 1 Sun 11 Jan 2026 10:07PM UTC
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