i'm doing an essay on the house of hades for english, and i was writing my paragraph on how rick includes readers based on race, disabilities, sexuality, etc. and came across quite a few tumblr posts about how leo (and one that said nico too) has autism. i did see something about how leo stims through tinkering with machine parts/playing with his fire, but most of the tumblr textposts just blatantly say "leo valdez is autistic" and that's it. my younger sister has recently been diagnosed with autism, but i do see a couple similarities between them (though my sister is only 3 while leo is like 16). has this been proven? because there are a fairly large number of articles mentioning him potentially being on the spectrum, as well as a reddit user with autism agreeing that leo might be.
on this topic, i hope you all realize how great of a writer rick is. i've never noticed it until now, but he's very inclusive of his audience through his writing, and it just becomes more and more relatable as he releases books. :)