some headcanons I have, The Outsider as a human lives in Dunwall tower, is picky about food, hates being left alone, claustrophobic af, as a general rule; hates being touched unless by specific ppl, he doesn't like darkness and sleeps with the lamps on, for the first few months he's jumpy, isn't fond of alley's (I headcanon that he was kidnapped IN an alley) and won't go through them.
GOOD. All these are Good. You triggered my brain a bit actually, I do remember I also did a hc that he doesn’t like being touched, but with a couple of conditions: it’s mostly ok if he sees it coming (like if someone went for a handshake or some other common casual pleasantry) even if he’d really rather you didn’t. He only really hates it when you surprise him, like if you come up behind him, because that brings up a vague memory of that gut wrenching fear he felt when someone kidnapped him. SO I totally buy that. The claustrophobia makes total sense to me as well.
I don’t know if I can call these headcanons as such (I always think headcanons are Things That Could In Fact Be Canon and I tend to think mine are too tenuous for that so I’m hesitant to say, especially on tumblr, hey these are Headcanons), but here’s some stuff my fic incorporates, sometimes only in the background:
He lives in Karnaca, in the wrecked apartment Billie used as her outpost in DotO. It’s cleaned up now, but you can tell it was a real mess for a while there.
While he was still in the void, other languages were no problem. He knew the meaning of speech and language without being able to translate the sounds and shapes that formed it. He just understood. He can’t do that anymore, so he focuses a lot of effort on learning them because it feels weirder not to know.
Eats like a bird. Little and often.
Loves the street bands dotted around the city.
Imitation makes up the majority of his social interactions. He knows how to play the aristocrat, he’s watched them long enough. He slots in easily next to Emily, but on a buried level, playing bougie doesn’t sit right with him and sometimes he just needs to be by himself to get a break from it.
There’s a lot he just doesn’t confront. Emily is surprised and somewhat concerned at how well he seems to just hit the ground running. Billie helped him get started, but once she was gone, it was as if he’d never been anywhere. He acts like the last 4000 years were a minor inconvenience because he doesn’t know how to begin to process it. It’s all locked up and god forbid you actually pry that box open.
Some of the abilities he retained include Blink, Domino, a longer-lasting Dark Vision and Billie’s skill from KoD that allowed her to hide for prolonged periods and reappear when she wants to speak. If he moves too suddenly (eg to attack) or speaks, it’ll break and he’ll be visible again.
Encourages Emily to invest in non-whale oil power.
Sometimes people will get a bit silly around him and tell him he looks just like that painting Sokolov did of... the outsider. He says he gets that a lot.
The rumour circulates that he was the one who sat for that painting in the first place, making people think he ages very well. No one is ever really sure how old he is.
Sometimes, just to be a lil shit, he’ll let an overseer stop him and get deeply involved in conversation about how to keep the outsider from tainting your life, pretending to be elegantly shocked the whole time at how such a terrible thing could occur. Emily has told him off for this before. They may not sense the sarcasm in his voice, but she does, and she’s sure one of them will realise he’s winding them up one of these days.
OKAY I’LL STOP NOW. this is good tho this is organic thanks
