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Imagine the reason Alhaitham mentions naps and taking naps so often in-game is because his body's default response to overstimulation is to shut down.

After prolonged social interaction, or too many accidental touches from people brushing past him in the bazaar, his body starts shutting off his functions one by one. First, his auditory gating goes away. Someone like him, who already protects his most vulnerable sense with noise cancelling headphones, might not notice at first. Then, his vision starts to blur. Depending on where his focus lies (monotropic focus), he might not notice that either.

Finally, everything starts to cascade exponentially. His brain slows down and becomes foggy, he feels sluggish and struggles with motor skills, his body temperature struggles to regulate (mitigated by his compression clothes manually grounding his autonomic nervous system).

Since all of this spans over the course of mere minutes, Alhaitham is always in a rush to remove himself from unfavorable situations and often takes naps to reset his system/make up for the expended energy.

Alhaitham is already extremely diligent about managing his needs and has countless preventative systems in place, so his tendency to nap could easily be another layer of regulation.

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Imagine that when Alhaitham was in school, he was forced to socialize with other students through sheer proximity and exposure. The Akademiya is still a school environment, after all. And since Alhaitham preferred to isolate himself so he could focus on better things, people noticed. They noticed that he did not behave like others.

So he attracted a certain type of social reject.

The kind who looked at someone visibly outside the norm and immediately hoped they had found someone like themselves.

It started harmlessly enough. People approached him trying to befriend him. In his usual efficient and slightly provocative tone, he would shoo them away.

The problem arose when they would not leave.

Every effort Alhaitham made to get those people to leave only resulted in those peers making excuses for his behaviour. If Alhaitham was rude, it was chalked up to the fact that he had not socialized much due to homeschooling. If he shoved past them to get away, it was chalked up to him simply being unused to the environment and the sheer amount of attention.

Alhaitham was explained away as a person, subtly stripped of his autonomy.

He began to feel stifled and irritable. When he complained to faculty, they brushed him off, saying it was a natural part of making friends and that he would get used to it. At that time, it was true that Alhaitham did not have enough of a grasp of human behaviour to understand why this rubbed him so wrong. He could not explain it in a way that allowed him to feel wronged.

He was only finally able to place it when one peer inevitably came to him and proclaimed that no matter how hard Alhaitham pushed, he would not leave him. Because he truly understood Alhaitham. Alhaitham was just like him. They were both misunderstood by society and outcasted because of that.

This struck Alhaitham wrong.

His peer had mistaken him for something. Or maybe had simply wanted him to be something badly enough that the distinction no longer mattered. Alhaitham could tell, dimly, that this was not just a misunderstanding. These people wanted something more specific from him than friendship. They wanted recognition. Agreement. Some form of confirmation that he was like them. And when he failed to provide it naturally, they kept pressing as if it could still be produced with enough insistence.

That was when Alhaitham began to notice a pattern. He still could not fully place why it disturbed him, but he could tell that these students wanted something more specific than company. They were trying to pull him toward themselves. Trying to make him fit somewhere.

At first, they excused his behaviour. He was not rude. He was simply inexperienced. He was not cold. He was shy in the wrong shape. They still believed he was one of them, only harder to reach.

Then they started working off what they assumed his insecurities must be. Other students found him strange. Other students talked behind his back. Other students did not know how to take him. But they were not like the others. They understood why he was the way he was. They understood what it meant to be treated cruelly for being different. Unlike everyone else, they understood him.

And when Alhaitham continued to resist them, they pressed harder. If he recoiled, then it was because he had been hurt too often. If he denied any kinship, then it was because he was defensive, ashamed, or unused to acceptance. They tried every way. Either they did not realize this distance was deliberate on Alhaitham’s part, or they realized it and tried to gaslight him out of it. In either case, the result was the same.

The more Alhaitham tried, in his own ways, to resist and clarify that there was no kinship between them, the more they imposed on him with seemingly kind gestures.

“We understand you are traumatized. You are an orphan, aren’t you? You do not mean to be repulsed when we show you that we care. We accept you as you are, even when nobody else will. Nobody understands you like we do. You do not mean to be rude. You just were not socialized that way. We understand.”

As a result, Alhaitham started observing people and experimenting with his words more. He studied hard enough to gauge what boundaries he could push, and how much.

And that is all he ever learned.

After all, his aim was not anthropology or any kind of sociology.

He only needed to know how to deal with people before their assumptions became problems. How to shape the perception that would yield the least interference, and allow him to live quietly on his own terms.

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Imagine that Alhaitham didn't realize for the longest time that he went non-verbal from time to time because he never talked to others enough to be able to notice it.

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Alhaitham's headphones are striking in the sense that they are wired but we never get to see what kind of device they're wired to. This leaves plenty to imagination.

Imagine a scenario where Alhaitham's noise cancelling headphones are connected to the Teyvat equivalent of an assistive FM device. Alhaitham initially starts off with such a device when he was still a student. For him, it serves the purpose of artificially creating auditory gating. It cancels all ambient sound and only broadcasts the professor's voice to him. That way, his brain doesn't have to struggle and fail to filter the sound pollution.

Now consider. In real life, FM devices often don't have access to commercial bands (FM radio). FM devices have special reserved bands, as does the radio. However, it is entirely possible for someone to program their own FM receiver to not only be tuned the speaker's voice, but also be tuned into the radio instead.

Theoretically, if Alhaitham found his lectures (or meetings when he grew up) exceptionally boring, he could use a custom FM device to listen to music or other audios instead. Alhaitham could make such modifications with access to a Kshahrewar scholar or graduate. Or, he could do this himself if he was very committed to not listening to inane drivel.

Alhaitham's FM device would be tuned to the Akasha (before it was taken down). That would be the easiest plausible Teyvat replacement for FM radio. Let's assume that the Akasha didn't only contain visual formats for data and that Alhaitham is able to access those directly from his modified receiver.

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Imagine that Alhaitham really does like to explain his ideas and elaborate on his thinking. However, all processes of turning his internal thoughts into language cost effort. So while his brain is clear and he is willing to answer, he runs out of cognitive energy convey any of his thoughts, which causes him to flatten his responses (giving bare and minimal replies) in order to still engage with the little energy he has for this task.

It often comes off as him being disinterested or being rude, but if someone were to ask him precise and exact yes/no questions, he would be more than willing to indulge that.

On a ranking scale, this is how he would process different contexts:

This energy ledger, however, isn’t linear or predictable like most people assume. Certain tasks such as memory recall from 10+ years ago would cause more cognitive strain to search, translate and relay, so Alhaitham will seem more flattened or not answer at all. He will down-regulate output when the retrieval cost exceeds the justification logic. But if someone were to immediately follow up about Kaveh's activities from yesterday, that person would be bored to death by interesting opinions on rather mundane activities.

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Imagine that Alhaitham uses noise cancelling headphones not because he's sensitive to noise, but rather because his brain cannot differentiate between important signals and background, so he can't filter anything. He gets all input at once and his brain overloads from trying to parse all the data in real time, which causes him to become mentally foggy or completely disconnect from his body (dissociate).

The noise cancelling headphones create a soft pressure in his ears that serve as a barrier to separate himself from the outside world. That creates a priority queue so he can keep himself grounded.

Active noise cancelling (ANC) cancels broadband, which basically means all low frequency noise is cancelled (think of broadband as being equivalent to "≥"). For Alhaitham, it would mean his headphones are able to filter ambient noise for him.

With ANC, he'd be able to cancel approximately 70% of such ambient noise sensory clutter, which allows his brain to process a much lighter auditory load.

The lack of sensory flood, and the physical pressure delimiter allow Alhaitham to focus and enjoy life.

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Imagine when Kaveh agrees with Alhaitham without first either providing a different viewpoint or arguing and deconstructing bad reasoning, it causes Alhaitham epistemic distress (think mental nausea). He cannot accept that statement now, and he feels very put off and uncomfortable. Acknowledgement without refutation registers as a tolerance of error, and acceptance without proof registers as a threat to coherence.

For example, when Kaveh and Alhaitham are arguing as per usual, and Kaveh gets too irritated, he just agrees with Alhaitham. He gives Alhaitham a simple "you're right" without elaborating. Alhaitham feels unsettled by this so he avoids Kaveh for the rest of the day, trying to get rid of the disgusting feeling rising from ambiguity and lack of closure via intellectual stress testing.

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Imagine Alhaitham periodically revisits any conclusions marked as "true" to reevaluate them with any new information he has gained since the time he assigned that value to the present.

He performs these integrity checks on everything from if his nails are still proper (within a certain length, within a certain texture), to if he was correct in identifying his affections (degree, type).

This also means he periodically revisits previous events/conversations (concluded == true) to evaluate if his actions were correct. He evaluates them on two primary criteria: 1. If he was rational (did he take the best action he could given the circumstances and the knowledge he had) 2. If he was logical (did he take the best action)

He uses these audits to keep records of his own intended insolence vs accidents.

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I just discovered your blog and I love every single one of your posts! Thank you for sharing your thoughts about Al-Haitham :)

I appreciate your kind words, thank you. Initially, I started this blog as a temporary storage for concepts I hadn't got around to writing as fanfic.

It's pleasing to hear these ideas are enjoyed regardless of how they are disseminated.

I hope you find your time here engaging and enjoyable.

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Excuse the crude rendition, but Imagine a scenario like this. Since Alhaitham speaks with a tone often perceived as "finality", I think he may have participated in such social mishaps at some point.

It's funny to think about.

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This is less of a headcanon and more of a concept exploration.

For the purposes of this post, support needs is defined as the cost to maintain function and not how close to "normal" the person appears.

Imagine a level 2 support needs Alhaitham--unsupported.

Initially, Alhaitham was supported by his grandmother. She observed the boy and learned the structure required to have him thrive and slotted herself around it. She handled meal timing, rerouted interruptions, replaced environmentals without prompting. She did it because she loved him and that's what people who love people do. That was the structure.

This way, Alhaitham had energy to spare outside of trying to maintain his lifestyle and he used that for excellence. He got accepted into the Akademiya.

Then his grandmother died. The support structure collapsed. Alhaitham survived because that is what people like him do. He created backup routines, minimized unpredictables, stripped down his emotional outputs to conserve energy.

His priority system was built in a time of safety, so he maintained that.

Then, he became friends with Kaveh in the Akademiya. Kaveh entered his life and unknowingly filled some of the gaps. Not because he understood, but because he cared. Kaveh is overbearing, but also highly observant. He created a parallel support pattern through overcompensation and friendship. He dragged Alhaitham to the market sometimes, overspent on groceries, maybe bought his cute little junior a snack (that he noticed Alhaitham seemed to prefer in his moods), commented loudly about the length of assigned readings and then set to work next to him. That was a new structure.

Then they fought. And Kaveh left.

Alhaitham graduated. He became the Scribe.

He lived at a net zero. He had just enough energy to complete the tasks and routines he set for himself and anything else would drain him into a shutdown. So he avoided anything predictably unpredictable such as socializing, hobbies, all that. Too much energy for something that wasn’t on his immediate priority list. He stopped engaging in anything that wasn't strictly scheduled. No socializing. No hobbies. Nothing that couldn't be boxed into task format. He maintained his bare minimum according to his priority list (since childhood) to avoid shutting down. Anything else would cost more than it was worth.

Despite his better judgement, when he saw Kaveh on the streets after all that time, he willingly let Kaveh into his space with possible heavy consequences for himself. Because he cares.

It did cost him, at first. He was a lot more irritable. He would hide out in his room more. He suddenly dropped all the chores he used to do because it zapped the life force out of him. The two would fight on just about anything. The drain was measurable from the chaos that was Kaveh. It was just a little too much and tipped his energy debt over into the negatives.

But the longer Kaveh stayed, the more they fell back into the pattern of supporting each other on instinct. They became more comfortable so Alhaitham started dropping some of his iron scaffolding to let Kaveh take care of it.

Alhaitham no longer checks the soap levels. Kaveh would just yell at him if it needed to be done. He cooks or prepares to eat because Kaveh appears in the kitchen, not because he noticed the time. The chores have reorganized themselves around Kaveh's rhythms and the split chore chart. Alhaitham does not need to take command and interfere.

Now Alhaitham lives a more peaceful and fulfilled life. He has more energy to spare. Not a lot. Just enough.

Enough to bicker with Kaveh for fun. Enough to visit Tighnari and Cyno. Enough to upend the hivemind because he decided he should.

Imagine that.

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There was once a researcher that had said "There is no such thing as an untraumatized autistic person."

I have given it a lot of thought. While Sumeru, Teyvat did allow Alhaitham into the form he is now, if Teyvat's world building is robust, there is no chance he escaped completely unscathed.

I headcanon that Alhaitham requires long time of observation in order to become friends with someone. He can tolerate the person, but he will not reveal anything about himself until he is sure that the person is consistent with their own ideals, their ideals are not harmful to him, and they somewhat agree. So in the Akademiya, I imagine he knew of Kaveh and tracked him for a very long time before allowing the blonde into his space (metaphorically).

Kaveh reads as very chaotic, but he is very kind and consistent within himself. So he passes the stress test.

It is in line with Alhaitham's structure and it doesn't cause him problems. Infact, it serves him well. So Alhaitham decides to keep it as a new innate trait of his.

I would assume this trait comes from being betrayed by peers in his attempts to make friendships early on. When he reveals something "unsightly" about himself too soon without vetting people, they weaponize his own being against him.

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Imagine Alhaitham is downright abhorrent at networking, not out of ability, but from his avoidance in the area. He avoids it because prolonged exposure to unstructured social interaction causes him great stress and pain. Which would be part of the reason he took up the job as the Akademiya's scribe. His diligent note-taking and attention-to-detail was easily backed up by his professors and his grade report, so he was selected.

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Alhaitham's voice actor in English did a very good job. He speaks with a very specific prosody.

"I like reading difficult and abstruse books." (Short pause because this in itself isn't a statement)

"And seeing others scratch their heads in confusion." (Pause. Spoken with finality to give permission to backpropogate and parse through the semantic absurdity)

*laughs*

"I'm only joking." (Stretched on the "I" for emphasis it is his thought, and not prose for entertainment.)

"I don't delight in others' misery." (Immediate elaboration to prove previous statement isn't a joke because this follows a logical path)

"And rarely do I encounter a book that's difficult for me." (Drawn on "rarely" as emphasis. Contrasts with previous serious statement to indicate light humor)

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Imagine when Alhaitham plans something for both him and Kaveh, he makes sure to accommodate Kaveh's needs into his own plan (without letting Kaveh accommodate himself).

If those plans fall through and Kaveh doesn't accompany him (despite every single secret failsafe), Alhaitham tries to do it alone just to complete the task but now Alhaitham feels sad and the experience is tainted and completely ruined.

He can't help but feel loss or irritation when he sees pairs together.

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Alhaitham wears tight clothing because pressure helps improve his interoception and it generally feels comforting. But be still needs to externalize interoception since his bodily signals aren't that strong. He uses external measures to gauge how he's feeling.

For example, he provokes Kaveh for their routine bickering. Sometimes he notices his heart isn't really into it, despite it being... a stable routine. So based on his own reactions to environmental factors, he is able infer how he feels.

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When cornered into outwardly expressing emotion in an unnatural way, I imagine Alhaitham iteratively peels back the layers on what's bothering him.

At first he states the objective contradiction. Then he states why there's a problem. Then he states what part of this he has tried to reconcile and which parts he's still stuck on. Then he explains that it bothers him. And then if there's any way it could be resolved to ease him, he explains that.

And that is how he processes and expresses emotions in a generally legible state for public display.

(Imagine Kaveh just says something like "I never know what you're feeling or thinking" so Alhaitham just gives him a rundown of his underprocessed system. Just walks him through. And Kaveh is like wtf. Are you peeling this like an onion? Feelings onion???)