#literally all of Stede's are ways that I stim

[toomanykidsverse]

Behold, the fabled stim post!

Stede

- The Classic, flappy hands <3

- rocks back and forth on his feet

- spins/twirls, especially to music

- walks on his toes if he's not wearing shoes

- bites his nails as a nervous stim

- stims with nice fabrics <3

- paces when he's nervous

- snapping/clicking his fingers

Ed

- shakes his fists up and down

- bounces

- drums his fingers on surfaces

- taps his feet against the floor

- give him some drum sticks and he'll go wild, the man is a drummer

- loves pressure stims. weighted blankets, getting Stede to lay directly on top of him, and the feeling of tight leather are some of his favorites

- also stims with nice fabrics, but most the ones Stede is wearing

Izzy

- Running his hands along Poppy's fur

- nail polish asmr videos

- draws on his skin and clothes with markers absentmindedly, specifically really likes drawing stars

- hums the tunes of his favorite songs when he's alone

Olu

- sort of specific one here: he pulls his knees to his chest and then pulls his hoodie over his legs

- fidgets with rubik's cubes

- yo-yo king, king of the yo-yo

- blows bubbles. really likes those bubble wands that look like swords

Jim

- This one is kinda specific, but I think they have one of those practice butterfly knives that they spin around a lot. They want a real one but they aren't allowed to have one just yet.

- cutting wood with their pocket knife

- rips leaves off of plants and tears them up

- popping the bubbles that Olu blows

Lucius

- Stim toys galore. Has more pop-its and cute squishies than strictly necessary, but uses them all often. aways has several in his backpack. He'll share with anyone who needs one

- chew necklaces that he matches to his outfits

- flippy sequins!

- claps his hands and bounces when excited

- calligraphy asmr videos. with the sparkly ink <3

- dances as a happy stim

John

- pulls his arms into his sweater sleeves

- has one of those 3D printed slug fidget toys that he carries around a lot

- swimming as a stim! the water feels nice

Pete

- stress balls! specifically those ones with the goo inside and the nets around them.

- punches at the air when he's excited

Frenchie

- Flappy hands with sweater paws!

- also has lots of stim toys! really likes fidget cubes

- slaps his hands against any surface. tables, walls, his own legs.

- always humming and whistling

Buttons

- bird sounds! he'll echo different calls that he hears

- just generally repeats sounds he hears

- animal stims. will pet any animal for long periods of time.

Roach

- slime!

- loves how soft flour is, will shove his hands in a bag of flour

- bites his fingers

- finger painting

- fidgets with those stretchy lizard toys

- rainbow groan tube

Swede

- bites the straw on his water bottle

- runs his hands along his favorite blanket

- vocal stims from his favorite cartoons :]

and now, shared stims!

- I think most of them, if they make a sound at someone in the house, the other will echo it back most of the time. if several of them are in one spot they just go on with this for a bit.

- Ed and Frenchie are the musical boys, and if one of them starts humming or whistling or drumming a beat, the other will probably join

- Ed and Stede both fidget with their wedding rings <3 (they also eventually catch onto this and think it's very sweet they both do it)

- Ed, Lucius, and Swede are the chewy necklace gang.

- watching stim videos is a family activity, they all give their input on which ones they like or don't like after each one

- Ed and Stede will hold hands and spin together, but they can't do it for very long. Very good stim for very high happy energies :]

please share with me any other stims you think any of them would have <3 or if you do any of these let me know!

[shinyql]

my partner wrote some autistic ed thoughts and wanted me to post them:

some of this stuff heavily overlaps with adhd so take it as a general neurodivergent dump, if you will:

- first thing that struck me that he is almost always either overstimulated or understimulated and moments of emotional clarity are seldom. this of course is not only an asd thing but also common in people with adhd or bpd, but i found it very relatable. like, in the beginning of the show, ed is literally so underwhelmed and bored of being blackbeard but also not realistically capable of breaking character or the routine he has created that he almost considers death just for the fuck of it. after meeting stede it gets better, but later in the show, he is often shown as jumpy or sometimes quick to anger, which could be seen as overstimulation (i.e. in the party with the french or in the nature with the snakes).

- masking! like no one else ever before! everyone has seen the meta about the beard being a literal mask. in addition to blackbeard being this huge personality that's tied in with masculinity, danger, and expectations, the beard also literally hides most of his face and facial expressions, which i think many autistic people can relate to.

- always wearing the same clothes. in a sense they're probably to keep up the blackbeard role, but at the same time i read it as a kind of a habitual comfort thing. impractical in the summer heat, but before stede he is reluctant to change what he's used to. like even when he probably should just to, idk, not burn in the sun.

- random stimming. the fabrics seem to function both as emotional support objects and sensory stim. especially pre-stede or while falling into the role of blackbeard while telling stories and stuff he's often shown smoking, which is obviously just. you know, smoking, but also looks suspiciously like an oral stim (also the smoke hides his face, in this essay i will—). also the random stabbing of the block when he's contemplating killing stede. oh and also echolalia (a rather exquisite cashmere). ALSO the absolutely unnecessary jumping everywhere, you know the little parkour shit i'm talking about. can't remember a lot of examples but i swear it happens a few times, think ed hopping onto the barrel in stede's clothes for starters.

- i have some thoughts on the yummy lavender soap thing too but don't know how to elaborate.

- not understanding social clues and the unspoken. to a certain extent he seems to have embraced it, having become a pirate and all, but the whole thing with him curious and a bit frightened of the french boat party people and not being able to understand social clues… hmm. what especially struck me was the way he realized that passive aggression was happening because it was so obvious he didn't really GET it but recognized it based on his earlier talk with stede. also lmao he's so impressed when stede actually gets passively aggressive, he's like wow mate people know how to just do this shit????? mental

- re: social clues, he often seems to have certain scripts that don't always land the way they maybe should. i.e., doing the dramatic gentleman pirate, i presume? entrance on stede even though he's more than half dead and probably won't remember anything, and telling murder stories in the fancy french party. this absolutely is a man who has memorized a bunch of stories and will crank them out when needed

- wanting to win social interactions. do i even need to elaborate

- slightly uncomfortable with the vocal, focuses on the physical. this momentarily changes in episode 9, but in general he is shown to struggle with words and also somewhat uncomfortable with people noticing this change in him. like when he hypes stede back up during the dumb treasure hunt and lucius is like heh that's cute. ed is NOT having it and does not want to be perceived like this. obvs this can be seen as general emotional repression, but i'm putting it into the bin of struggling to unmask/attached to own routines and scripts of who he is supposed to be with other people.

- MORE ON THIS: i know this was most likely written to emphasize the mask coming down and that the man to kiss stede on the beach was edward teach and not blackbeard, but the fact that the big speech about what makes ed happy was in third person just screams vocal/linguistic disconnect to me. like when you have all these feelings you might not know how to filter because you've been churning them out through several crafted fronts (blackbeard, the kraken, etc.), how do you just be yourself and? let people know shit? he doesn't even fucking know who ed is but he's getting there (or was until episode 10 happened)

- this in general though, he seems to have different sets of learnt traits he shows around different people and things get weird and murky when they're supposed to intersect and it doesn't work, i.e. when he's hanging out with both calico jack and stede.

- also, that scene with lucius telling him to get it together during the treasure hunt really actually emphasizes his body language. i feel like this happens often in the show, but can't remember when else, maybe with izzy at some point? anyway, whenever he is speaking with someone who is not stede, he's just kind of frowning and his eyes are bouncing everywhere and not focusing on the one he's speaking with. it was probably written as an intense and comical processing face, but i'm just. hmm. lack of eye contact can be hard to include on film but here i think it was obvious even if it wasn't intentional. like ok. ok ok ok.

- more body language stuff: extremely jumpy when the lady at the french boat party proceeds to touch his beard, has a meltdown of sorts immediately after. the sounds becoming louder and louder and the paranoia he has about everyone laughing at him were actually a great portrayal of this, imho.

- before knowing stede, the whole thing seems like a hyperfixation. like, ed hears one (1) thing of this absolute silly madman and suddenly drops the arguably very little business he has going on, becomes fixated, and starts following stede around just because why not.

- and then of course at the end the mask goes back on, but it's 100 times worse because the crying sequence shows the viewer that he's probably masking more intentionally than he was in the beginning of the show. masking has become so much more exhausting now that he's somewhat realized who he could be if he wasn't masking, but also the betrayal if stede being gone and izzy being an ass is too much to handle without the mask.