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English
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Published:
2026-01-24
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641
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1/1
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echolocation echolalia

Summary:

Headcanons for Sonar with a reader who vocal stims and sometimes copies his bat noises.

Notes:

originally posted to tumblr for the following ask:

'Can you do hcs for Sonar with a adhd and/or autistic reader who vocal stims a lot and sometimes copies Sonar by doing small whisper screeches, or just mimicking bat sounds if he makes any?'

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

  • The first time it happens, Sonar’s a little confused.
  • Being half bat lends him certain instinctive traits, one of those being, well, bat sounds. Smooth and capable talker as he is, it doesn’t stop him from making squeaking or chittering noises sometimes under his breath, like when he finds a particularly good stash of something addictive; it's not a hindrance, but no one else he knows really does it.
  • Until you, he supposes.
  • You’re on your first mission together, fighting off a couple Red Ring villains, and Sonar has just recovered from transforming into his Mega Bat form, getting his clothes back on as you securely tie the villains up.
  • He mutters as he brushes himself off, letting out a rapid-fire, annoyed series of chitters and clicks — he knew he shouldn’t have worn his good suit today, they’re so fuckin’ expensive to dry clean — and then, from across the room, he hears you make a noise.
  • His noise. A little screech as you secure a knot around the villain's waist.
  • It's not identical to his, slightly lower-pitched on account of you having fully human physiology, but it's similar enough that he can immediately pick up that you’re imitating him. He turns his head to look and your expression is one of nonchalance, not mocking in the slightest.
  • ‘Fuck’re you doing?’ he asks incredulously.
  • ‘Nothing,’ you say.
  • Then a secret third Red Ringer comes at you and you punch them in the face, and the conversation kind of ends there on account of the fact that you’ve got to go back to base. He tables it for future discussion.
  • Over the next week or so, Sonar starts noticing that you do this kind of thing a lot, actually. You tend to repeat certain words or sounds over and over, humming or tapping and, more often than not, screeching to yourself around the break room as you wait to be sent out again.
  • It's curious that you tend to only copy his sounds more frequently whenever you’re around him.
  • He's not annoyed, but he turns it over in his mind. Why do it, and why copy him in particular?
  • Eventually, the fourth or fifth time you’re dispatched together is on a calmer mission, and he finally has the chance to ask you without distractions.
  • You shrug. ‘Sometimes I repeat stuff. Things that I watch or hear. Like the new Her-Os jingle that was on TV last week, you know?’
  • ‘Why?’
  • ‘It just helps me out,' you reply, absentmindedly scratching at your hands. ‘Repeating things buys me more time to process them, or manage when stuff gets really overwhelming. It’s like a form of expression. Is a form of expression.
  • ‘Okay, I can get that,’ he says. ‘Why me, though?’
  • ‘I guess I just like how you sound,’ you say, simply.
  • Oh.
  • …He’s not going to get all sappy on you, but he's pretty touched by that, actually.
  • After that, he finds himself actively listening for the sound of your voice mimicking his when you’re around, and lets himself be more free with his vocalizations even when he's perfectly capable of talking "human". Each time he eats a particularly juicy bug when you're around, he lets himself go so that he can hear your little chirp after his, another half of an imaginary conversation.
  • Sometimes he even throws in extra sounds in there for good measure or tries to vary them a little, just so he can hear more of how you try to imitate him.
  • If he focuses, he can even sometimes hear you screeching softly to yourself from somewhere in the building, even when he's not around, the sound echoing through his eardrums long after you've stopped.
  • He likes to think of it as you thinking of him, even if subconsciously.
  • And doesn’t that just warm his half man, half bat heart?

Notes:

my tumblr is carbon-dating-everything !