Jerry Stokes ¹⁷ || The Eltingville Club

💚 Autistic Behavior

1. Social Processing and Communication
   • Sometimes he has difficulty reading between the lines: He recognizes sarcasm well, but he often doesn't identify it well, and even less can he use sarcasm himself.
   • Different eye contact: Often chooses to avoid it. To feign interest, they stare at the forehead/mouth instead of the eyes.
   • Endless information: When talking about their special interest, they can talk at length, in great detail, without noticing if the other person is bored. It's very noticeable when they get excited talking about what they like and their hobbies.
   • Difficulty initiating/maintaining casual conversation: Short conversations such as "how's the weather?" feel tiring or pointless.
   • Facial expression / tone of voice: Sometimes a flat face even though inside he feels a lot, or a very monotonous / very formal voice for his age.

2. Interests and routines
   • Intense and deep interests: It's not just "he likes it a lot", it's that he knows EVERYTHING about the subject.
   • Repetitive behavior for self-regulation: Sorting Dungeons and Dragons figures by size and race, sorting Magic cards, repeating a word/phrase (such as "Bidi-Bidi-Bidi")

3. Sensory
   • He gets overwhelmed in places with a lot of stimulation: A packed comic book store + people talking = overstimulation. To stop feeling overstimulated (similar to being overwhelmed, anxious, inert, and not knowing what to do or how to react, he often clings to his clothes to have something to hold onto or to self-regulate)

4. Stimming / Self-regulation
   Movements they make to calm down, concentrate, or when they feel strong emotions:
   • Flapping hands, swaying, playing with a die nonstop, biting one's sleeve, humming softly.

5. Shutdown / Meltdown
   • Shutdown: They go blank, don't speak, isolate themselves, and appear "turned off." This is when they are internally overloaded.
   • Meltdown: Crying, explosive frustration; it's not a tantrum, it's a breakdown due to overload. Afterwards, they are very tired.

💚💡 Essential and extra traits that identify him

The most self-aware of the group. Jerry is the one who doubts the most about the path they are on, and eventually breaks with them.

Symbol of potential growth: Unlike the other three (Bill, Josh and Pete), Jerry has a development arc: he gets tired of the toxic geek environment and leaves it.

Frustrated intellectual: He has strong opinions, but is usually overshadowed by the louder personalities in the club.

Moderately socialized: He is not as misanthropic as the others, although he is still a misfit.

💚Dislikes:
Bill Dickey: Although he's Jerry's friend and the leader of the club, Jerry secretly detests him for being selfish, authoritarian, fanatical, and intolerant. He eventually explodes at him.

Extreme geek elitism: Although he participates in it, he criticizes it internally.

The drama of the fandom: He dislikes how the group gets caught up in endless fights over trivialities.

The group's lack of maturity: Although he himself does not mature much, he does show signs of wanting to break out of the toxic cycle.

💚 Tastes

Tastes:
Star Trek (not a big fan): While he's seen the series, he's not a big fan of it.

Quality comics: He likes to discuss narrative, continuity, and classic authors.

Order and common sense (relatively): He is bothered by geeky idiocy or hypocrisy, although he also falls into it.

Satire and nerdy humor: Enjoy the references, although he doesn't always have the sharpest sense of humor in the group.

💚🎮 Hobbies, pastimes

Hobbies and pastimes:
Jerry, like everyone else, is a die-hard nerd, and participates in all areas of geek fandom, although he has some more marked inclinations:

Fantasy and adventure books: Obsessive reader with encyclopedic knowledge. Supports certain publishers or comic book series they like.

Role-playing games (RPGs): Participates in role-playing sessions as the dungeon master, the one who creates the missions and scenarios and gives life to the villains of the campaign, although he gets frustrated with the behavior of the rest of the group.

Collecting: Interested in figurines, Dungeons and Dragons dice, Magic cards, and Grand Fantasy video games.

"Geek" pop culture: Has strong opinions about movies, books, and game adaptations.

💚🧠 Personality

Jerry is the "most level-headed" and moderate of his group, though that doesn't make him particularly mentally healthy. He has a somewhat solid moral compass, but he's still part of the same toxic and obsessive environment.

Reasonable (relatively): He usually tries to mediate in arguments, but ends up falling into chaos himself and gets hurt in some extreme cases, both physically and emotionally.

Passive-aggressive: Although less aggressive than Bill, he can be sarcastic and resentful.

Frustrated: He often feels fed up with the group, but he stays there, trapped in his nerd identity.

Loyal, but with limits: He has certain principles, he sets limits on how far he can go with his hobbies.

💚 Jerry Stokes' body characteristics

Appearance: Of slender and scrawny build, not muscular, but not extremely weak either.
He has a slightly hunched posture, typical of someone who is sedentary and spends a lot of time hunched over, but less exaggerated than in the others.

Blonde hair and blue eyes that mostly remain half-closed, rarely opening only when he is very surprised or his emotions are very strong.

Face: pale, turns red with little physical exertion, burns easily in the sun, has little acne on his face, blue eyes and slightly yellow and crooked teeth.

Height: He is tall, quite tall, taller than his other friends in the club.

Body movement: His movements are usually restrained, somewhat clumsy, but less spasmodic; he remains hunched over when sitting, always rigid in his posture.
When he gets frustrated, he gestures a lot with his hands, as a sign of his repressed anxiety and possible panic attacks or anxiety related to it.

She has a skin hypersensitivity condition, which means that even the slightest scratch causes marks that make her affected skin swell and become raised, in addition to being sensitive to the sun.

Approximate age: Teenager (18 years old)

Residence: Eltingville, Staten Island, New York

Group: Member of the "Eltingville Comic Book, Science-Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Role-Playing Club" Fantasy Secretary