HEADCANON TIME || ALWAYS ACCEPTING! || @plushmenace
plushmenace asked: 12 (top 3 favourite headcanons) for Norm and 4 (a headcanon that i think people won’t agree with) for Callum
12: top 3 favourite headcanons (norm)
Even after being "welcomed" back into Dialtown, Norm refuses to take off his paper bag. Ever. People do wind up treating him decently (moreso than Phonegingi, which he takes personal offense to), but he just doesn't trust anyone with his actual face -- but he absolutely rejects the idea of changing his head to fit societal norms. It's rough out here.
The only people he would ever wind up showing his face to would be Phonegingi, Callum, and Mingus (although Mingus HAS seen his face before (directly after his return to Earth)). In truth, Norm can't stand taking his paper bag off around Mingus, but it's necessary if he wants to show his face around Callum -- she always monitors visits with him, and Norm wants to restore his memory just as much as she does.
Norm is outwardly callous towards the people he cares about, even after the events of Dialtown; it's just how he is. He's not great at being affectionate or showing his true feelings. That said, if you do wind up in a(n established) relationship with Norm, he will shower you with love and affection (mostly in private -- he gets embarrassed). He finds plenty of little and personalized ways to show that he cares, although this extends to his friendships as well. He is an incredibly sweet and kind man at heart -- unfortunately, it just took a lot to get him to express that side of himself. He was shut off from the rest of the world for a LONG, LONG time.
Norm will shoot anyone who talks shit about people he cares about (Gingi will often need to talk him down, if they're around. Otherwise, shit-talkers are probably screwed). He also has a really soft spot for Phonegingi after the events of the game. He still gives them a hard time, but he's obviously sweet on them, and he will frequently encourage others to give them a chance (and hold others at gunpoint if they so much as give Gingi a dirty look).
Norm has fantastic paternal instincts. He INSISTED on helping Gingi take care of their hatchlings, even with how "repulsive" they looked. Norm warmed up to Gingi's babies faster than any of Gingi's other love interests (Oliver excluded, that lovable goblin man), and Norm was quick to adapt when it came to raising them (since, y'know, they aren't meant to be raised like human kids). Norm is incredibly protective over those babies, just like Phonegingi.
Norm may or may not have been a parent before he was sent into that wormhole fifty-ish years ago. It's an incredibly sensitive subject for him.
4: a headcanon that i think people won’t agree with (callum)
I THINK CALLUM AND PHONEGINGI ARE CONNECTED. THAT'S ONE OF MY BIGGEST HEADCANONS FOR THE TWO OF THEM, ACTUALLY, ALTHOUGH I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE SHARE THAT BELIEF OR IF ANYBODY ELSE WOULD EVEN SEE THE CONNECTION.
Hell, Phonegingi might even be the key to unlocking his lost memories (although Norm has the potential to help as well, considering the line "Sgt. Allen, is that you?" from the Dialtown Discord files - but that's a discussion for another time). While I'm rambling, I'll go off about that.
There's a moment where Mingus remarks about how her grandfather wouldn't even LOOK at her because he was too busy staring out the window -- directly at Phonegingi. Phonegingi was the one capturing his attention, not her, even after she'd changed her head FOR him. The two of them also look INCREDIBLY similar, with phone-heads that are hand-made (in Phonegingi's profile, it states that the flesh for their head is "acquired," and that it's a "sheath," etc.). Phonegingi is also able to hear Callum's voice crystal-clear in their head, and read letters that he wrote, despite (presumably) not being around in that era / around Callum personally (they never seem to know who Callum is and frequently forget who he is). They also can't read, so being able to infer what his letter reads is pretty damn remarkable. Gingi & Callum also share a penchant for memory loss, although this might be a coincidence.
What their connection IS is still beyond me, but I had a few theories throughout the game, some of which kind of felt silly by the end.
Phonegingi IS Callum Crown - this was a first-minute "wait a sec, WHAT IF" thought that popped into my head the second that Callum's voice popped into Gingi's head, but...y'know. Still, Phonegingi is considered a unique anomaly on the timeline, so their existence in itself is a mystery -- God himself doesn't know where they came from. Maybe they are somehow an alternate version of Callum who's been through even more shit than this timeline's Crown. But, yeah.......it seems kinda silly in hindsight.
Phonegingi is some sort of experiment and / or prototype - Phonegingi doesn't seem to know how they acquired their own head, nor what their number is, nor if they can even take calls. They don't know about the mechanisms of their own head, despite them being the only one who could've possibly built it for themselves. Maybe they were some sort of experiment by Callum -- a way for him to test his first phone-head, hence the similarities between them. Gingi has been treated like a zoo animal and held in captivity before, so this doesn't SEEM super far-fetched to me, but...I am not sure how in-character this would be for Callum. Seems more like Theoroar's vibe tbh.
Phonegingi is a "back-up" of sorts for Callum - again, not sure how this one would necessarily work, but? The thought behind this is essentially that some of the parts in Gingi's head have Callum's memories & plans stored on them, so they're like a back-up computer. Gingi is not aware of this, obviously, nor is like. ANYBODY else. But Callum could still be alive in there, hence the memories waking up every so often, the similarities, etc....hell, maybe the reason their memory is so shitty is because 90% of it is taken up by Callum's bullshit without them even being aware of it. This is similar to the experiment theory in that this probably would've went down with them BEING an experiment, but only after Callum was in office, and Callum probably would've been the only one aware of their existence. Kind of a dumb move on his part, if true.
Phonegingi was just ALIVE back then, but their memory is shit, so they don't really grasp that - honestly more plausible than any of my previous ideas. It wouldn't necessarily explain the letter reading, since they're illiterate, but...yeah.
