Nightlight and Starlyre are both autistic. But their personalities are very different in some ways. Starlyre is obsessed with everything being neat. In addition to being autistic, he probably has OCD. Nightlight, on the other hand, tends not to mind a mess. At least as long as she remembers where everything is.

When Nightlight makes a mess of his things, it sometimes ruins his day. When Starlyre tries to clean things up for Nightlight, the same thing can happen. Being autistic doesn’t always help them get along. Sometimes they find themselves triggering each other in ways that neurotypicals might not.

Each of them desperately wants control over their environment. But they have some opposing ideas on what that means. When one tries to make the other’s environment more friendly for themself, it might trigger a meltdown in the other.

Starlyre, who is slightly older, tends to be fairly mature these days. Unfortunately, interacting with other autistic people can sometimes re-trigger old habits. Neurotypicals often seem to follow more predictable patterns. On the other hand, each autistic person has to be learned individually.

Fortunately, Nightlight and Starlyre share a best friend who knows how to empathize with them. His name is White Night. He is Nightlight’s big brother and Starlyre’s key mentor. He knows a lot about how to de-escalate conflict — and make his friends feel big inside!

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Script by Starponys87 (M. Wayne Howell). Art by lytlelemur.

Starponys: Friends with Autism (“The Spectrum of Friendship”) © and ™ of M. Wayne Howell ([email protected]), along with all characters therein.