Icon from a picrew by grgikau. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
I will genuinely fight you if you try to tell me that Doctor Bashir isn’t autistic, holy christ
May I ask why you say that?
Shore! But, it mostly comes down to a combination of my anger issues (the fighting) and me watching Dr Bashir do ridiculous stuff on TV and being like “same” (the autism).
I don’t have caps, but here’s a handful of incidents of note:
Every time someone is like “you’re one vain, stubborn asshole, Dr Bashir” he immediately doubles down on the stubborn assholery
He literally has a schedule for how long certain romantic gestures can delay a fight. not a rough concept, a series of numbers. Up until that point I had been on the fence and then I was just like, that’s it my son is confirmed for autistic baby.
I’ve seen allistics with a crush, and they tend to react pretty badly to their crushes busting into their room in the middle of the night like “hey let’s break several space laws” with no explanation for this behaviour. Dr Bashir just sort of roles with it, and I can’t shake the feeling that it’s an extension of a general inability to tell where the limits of appropriate behaviour go.
He tells the exact same flirt story about the final exam again, and again, and again, with nearly no variation. Scripting.
It literally takes O’brien drunkenly being like “man, I used to totes hate you bro” for him to realize O’brien used to totes hate him, bro. More social lack of awareness.
Kukalaka the Bear matches an overall pattern of autistic people developing a fixation on a comfort object in early childhood or adolescence and then carrying it around with them forever. When his bear gets hijacked by his ex, it literally leaves him morose and out of sorts because a critical part of his pattern of self care is interrupted.
Hyperfocusing on his new medical research problems and reacting very angrily to interruptions, disproportionately so, and completely at odds with his usual patient oriented behaviour.
He is canonically confirmed to have a developmental disorder (this is why his parents shipping him off for gene therapy) but the one in question is not confirmed in canon. It’s symptoms, however, are recognizeable to many autistic people: slowness to speak or lack of speech, difficulty processing language, trouble identifying abstract concepts like what this shape represents from the complex category of “animal,” etc
That part where Kira is being sent home and he spends the entire conversation basically just saying “what is happening? Hey, hey someone explain what all these meaningful glances and double entendres mean? Hey, hey, I have no idea what any of you are saying.”
Also his breathing exercises and tennis warmups, and general inability to recognize why these might be perceived as weird since he explained them already, gosh guys.
As the series progresses, he noticeably picks up scripts from other characters (lookin’ at you Mr Garak, but also O’brien, Dax [the first one, I haven’t finished S07 yet so IDK about Ezri yet, other than she is good and precious and must be protected] and Sisko).
Speaking of Mr Garak (no one was) Julian sure is easy to manipulate with the application of even the smallest bit of praise from someone he respects over subjects he recognizes he isn’t very good at. People describe this trait as childish (which, I mean, yeah it is okay I’ll give you that), but it’s also part of the reason why autistic people end up in such deep shitholes so easily.
Many of the other genetically modified people present traits that are A) recognizeable to Julian in himself, B) recognizeable to autistic people (as well as several other diagnoses) as us.
This ridiculous line is literally how I speak. Why create new scathing insults for people who won’t stand still for 5 seconds so you can process, when you can just rely on the “well I think you’re [echolalate their own insult]” script. Much faster and easier. Imbue it with enough of a scatching tone of rejection, and people don’t even tend to notice that you’re basically hitting them with kindergarten level shit.
And finally, the only ONLY excuse to go anywhere fancy in a velour running suit is if you literally just cannot handle the other fabric options all rubbing on your skin in the heat and stuff (see also, holofoil speedo). So I’m chalking that one up as sensory sensitivities, along with the peaches- which is fair, peaches are a mess, they are full of weird strings and the juice is sticky, overly perfumed, and gets everywhere, and don’t get me started about the pits (worth it for me, but obvs not for him).
When he’s reminded, and takes a moment to realize, and carefully puts the stone down, and sighs, that turns it into one of Julian’s most recognizably autistic moments.
autistic!Julian has nonverbal periods and becomes comfortable enough around Garak to not force himself to talk during them. Julian knows federation standard sign language so Garak suggests he learns it too so they can communicate during these periods. Julian gets a break from neurotipical constraints and Garak discovers that honesty is a lot less complicated when told with his hands…
so most of the fandom seems to be in agreement that Jules Bashir had a nonverbal and very high-support variety of autism. Now everyone knows that there’s no way to remove autism from someone–the autism and the person are intertwined. How then did Julian go from nonverbal and high-support to very verbal and low-support?
Well, two of the most significant effects of gene enhancement are perfect reflexes–meaning perfect environmental perception– and perfect memory. Julian came out of enhancement no longer able to filter stimuli. Faced with an unending torrent of information, he had to either swim or drown. He doesn’t zone out or go into stim fugues anymore because those techniques no longer work.
The gene treatment removed Julian’s capacity for positive dissociation.
I’m a drunk bitch rn babey so you get some thoughts on autistic Bashir because it’s me favourite headcanon and guess what? It’s my party and I’ll write if I want to
ANYWAY god you know what? I started thinking about this when I was watching the fucking electric hopscotch Allamarine count to fucking whatever episode and Julian shows up like “sorry I have uhhh misplaced my dress uniform” and honestly I’ve done that before too with clothing that I was supposed to wear but was a Bad Texture
So I like imagine a Julian who struggles with bad textures and clothing that is too restricting - the jumpsuit is fine, he can deal with that because it’s loose and comfortable and lined, but oh GOD does the dress uniform itch like a bitch. Plus the trousers that they have to wear with it now? Double Nope, why can’t they just wear tights like the old style?
After the whole shenanigans with the Wadi(?????), Sisko offhandedly orders Bashir to make sure he’s got a new dress uniform, and soon. He’s counted as a senior officer, and it’s an expectation. The thing is, wearing clothing that grates on your nerves with every movement is doable if you have enough time to prepare, but it’s exhausting. Couple that with the sorts of occasions where you’d be wearing one (important Starfleet ambassadorial social shit) and it turns into a complete nightmare of a situation.
Garak notices. Well, he notices something, because Julian is jittery as hell, he keeps squeezing his thumb into his fist, and tugging at his sleeves. So he’s not particularly surprised when Julian shows up one day, looking around his shop as casually as he can manage (not very, by the way)
It takes the better part of half an hour of dancing around the issue before he admits it, but it’s really the easiest thing in the world for Garak to design a new dress uniform for him, one that’s made out of something a little softer and thinner, something that breathes a little better, something that’s lined in a texture he can tolerate, with sleeves that edge just over his wrists. It’s barely noticeable until Sisko, fake-smiling at another idiotic function, reaches for Julian’s elbow to tell him something.
“That’s soft,” he says instead, and his eyes are slightly suspicious, then confused, then understanding, and he leaves it at that.
A couple of weeks later, Julian wakes up to his alarm, and three new duty uniforms. Jadzia feels like hugging him is suddenly nicer than before, although she can’t quite figure out why. Odo is fixated on the change for a while, convinced something fundamental has changed about Doctor Bashir, although he can’t put his finger on exactly what. Sisko refuses to acknowledge anything, having put all of the pieces together from start to finish on his own and wanting absolutely nothing to do with the situation. Julian, for what it’s worth, rehearses his thank-you for ages - the exact way he’s going to berate Garak for the blatant disregard for his personal privacy and security. Garak is flattered beyond words by this, and as they stand nose to nose, radiating irritation as their argument reaches its peak, he leans in.
