Headcanon that Jack has undiagnosed autism
CW //
Stimming
Shouting
Getting embarrassed over stimming
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Jack sits in a chair as Peter yells at him for some random, probably stupid, reason. He absent-mindedly taps his fingers on the side of his thighs in order. Thumb, index, middle, ring, pinky. He mentally counts how many taps he does. His eyes drift off to the computers and camera views in the office. He studies the static interrupting the video feed and tries to find a pattern. He occupies himself mentally, waiting somewhat patiently for Peter to stop his lecturing and just let him go.
"Employee! Are you even listening to me!?" Peter shouts suddenly. Jack quickly looks over. "Uh- Yeah, yeah, of course I am." He says. "Then what was I just scolding you about?" Peter grumbles. "Me and Dave blowing up the urinals..?" Jack assumes. "NO!!1!!! YOU TRIED TO FIX THE TRASHPILE AND MADE IT WORSE!!1!1!1!!" Peter shouts. Jack looks away, his attention already shifting back to the static pattern. "EMPLOYEE!" Peter shouts. Jacks ears feel clogged up, irritated. Theres a shrill ringing in his ears. "I wont try to fix the trashpile anymore, fine, god." He mutters. "Good. Now get out, go make pizza with Ronaldo or something." Peter glares and points at the door. Jack complies and walks out.
He goes to the kitchen and prepares some pizza with Ronaldo. Good dough, nice sauce, and classic pepperoni as toppings. After preparing it, Ronaldo puts the pizza in the oven and tells Jack to wait around 15 minutes. Jack waves and walks out sitting down on a random table in the dining area. He hears the beep of the oven every minute. He hears the kids screaming and giggling.
He hears the beep of the oven again. He mimics the sound quietly, not wanting to seem 'weird'. He keeps mimicking it. After a while, he feels a tap on his shoulder. "Hello there, Old Sport." Dave greets. Jack smiles and waves. "Watch'a doin' sitting here alone?" Dave asks. "Nothing much, waiting to serve the pizza."
Dave hums softly, watching as Jack repeats the word 'pizza' under his breath, barely audible. As if he was echoing himself. Jack snaps himself out of it and just falls silent. He makes a short sound, beckoning for Dave to sit down with him. Dave sits down, and starts idle small talk.
After a while, Ronaldo calls out for Jack. Jack doesnt acknowledge his name being called. After afew more calls, Dave interrupts Jack.
"And then he-"
"Old Sport, uh, Ronaldo needs ya."
"Oh. Uh, okay, one sec, sorry." Jack smiles, albeit a little strangely, and goes over to Ronaldo. The Dough Master™ hands him the pizza on a rusty platter and Jack goes out to the dining area again to serve it.
"PIZZA!!" He shouts out for kids. A horde of children rush over and take pizza slices so quickly they could make Jack's head spin. After a mere 20 seconds, the platter is empty. Peter walks over. "Pepperoni pizza! A classic. Here, have like, 50 tokens!" Peter cheers and hands him the bent and low-quality tokens. He walks off. The tokens hit eachother with a nice and satisfying 'clink' and Jack beams at the sound. He taps them together over and over and over again. 'Clink, clink, clink, clink, c-'
"What are you doing, Employee?" Peters voice cuts through the other noises. Jack quickly stops clinking the tokens together and stammers out an excuse. "I was checking to see if they're real or counterfeit." He clears his throat. "Oh, good call! Angsty teens are always trying to remake them with nickels to play games for free. Ugh." Peter would be rolling his eyes if he had any. "Right. Yeah." Jack shuffles his weight from foot to foot. "Anyways, stop checking, I'm pretty sure they're real." Peter says. He walks off, greeting a few customers every now and then. Jack stands there, his head slowly dropping, and he stares at the floor, now embarrassed over his habits. He just sulks away, back to the table at the dining area where Dave is waiting.
"What's with that orange grimace ya got goin' on, Old Sport?" Dave asks.
"Nothin, just a little irritated. Phone face is rude." Jack mutters. "Oh. Well. Okay. Anyways, we need to talk. Meet me in the saferoom in fifteen minutes, 'kay?" Dave gets up and waits for a reply. "Sure." Jack mumbles. With that, Dave happily skips away like a weirdo.
They were probably going to meet to discuss the murder of the kids. Dave was most definitely going to make him do all the work, no matter what it is. Jack assumes he'll ask him to mess with the toy bots. He lays his head in his arms and just slacks off, relaxing on the grease-stained table in the loud dining area.
Children's giggles and shouts surround him. He taps his knuckles on the fake wood tables. It makes a hollow sound, which he doesn't really like, so he doesn't tap on the table again. He just sighs and waits for his time to go to the saferoom to arrive.
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Again, rushed ass ending, but longer chapter ^^
If I missed a CW/TW, please let me know so I can fix it ASAP. It's not an issue and I would much rather "overtag" than accidentally trigger someone else. (Also, nothing's "stupid." If someone needs a tag, I'll add it.)
Word count: 893
