Ok, a followup on my disabled Xisuma post from yesterday. So like, I come from the Overwatch fandom, where some people like to headcanon Soldier 76 as blind and his visor having some kind of neural link to his brain and it helping him see, but what he can see is all red with just shapes and targets and stuff.
So that-- that and the awesome series "These Blind Eyes" by SannahOfSkva-- got me thinking... What if Xisuma is blind and his helmet can do something similar and help him see, but... he can only see what's on the debug screen.
Like, targeted block, coordinates, direction, light level... Hitboxes, maybe some basic outlines of the terrain that're just enough for him to be able to navigate. He can see the chat and what he needs for his administrative duties. He can ask for feedback on his builds for whether things look good.
(TW internalized ableism/ableist language)
He has no idea what he looks like, ever since the one death that respawning couldn't completely heal him from and left him blind. He can feel that he's scarred, and is he just overthinking things and did his facial features always used to feel like that to the touch, or are they different now, are they deformed?
He doesn't know what the some of the newer hermits look like, either. Or maybe even all of them. He met them After. He only sees their nametags and hitboxes. He plays along and pretends he knows what they look like, and what faces they're making and what they're doing exactly at any given moment. If he messes something up, he laughs it off as a "derp."
Because... he tries to conceal his blindness. (And any other disabilities he might have.) He just... doesn't want to have to talk about it. He doesn't want to be vulnerable. He doesn't want them to see what he looks like, without his helmet, whatever grotesque state his face might be in. He doesn't... want them to think of him differently. He doesn't want them to pity him.
When he does take the helmet off (only when alone, of course) like when the headaches from using it have become too debilitating, he doesn't just worry about being snuck up on by mobs while he's blind and unaware... he worries about one of his friends seeing him like this.
If any of his friends know-- if they knew him Before, or if they just figured it out-- they keep his secret for him. (He might not even be aware that anyone knows.) If anyone knows he's blind, they know he must have his reasons for concealing it, so they respect that. They just hope that someday, he will open up about it.
Also, a possibility to consider: what if the death that took his sight.... was caused by Evil Xisuma??
(Also, an extra mean version of this: if X is missing part or all of his hands. The power armor includes prosthetics, but... it means his sense of touch is greatly reduced. And he can't rely on his sense of touch to compensate for his lack of sight as much as he otherwise would have been able to. I don't know if this should be THAT mean, but, a possibility......)
