#are we supposed to wholeheartedly believe that this man who knows dunwall so intimately is genuinely shocked that jessamine's assassination

[pasdetrois]

i've been thinking about how haunted the outsider's marked must be—noticeably so, to the extent that any passerby can see it. as the most liminal character of the cast, it's most often remarked upon by people speaking of and to corvo (with the countless characters unnerved by him and describing him as some otherworldly spirit), but there is some measure of uncanniness present in all of them. but then, how could there not be? they're branded like sacred livestock (as though by an actual iron, if the animation is anything to go by), implied to be damned (see the heart line that says the void is where they draw their power from, but will ultimately be the place of their doom), and have been given a type of second sight and reach that hitherto only existed in blood soaked strictures and occult rumor.

consent is not even an afterthought here, and you certainly can not ask—to even try will likely earn you nothing more than the outsider's disdain. but if you are chosen, if there is something in you that has caught his eye, the trajectory of your life will be forever altered. you're no longer a human, but a character, a tragicomic figure that is allowed a glimpse behind the stage curtain that you have been suddenly made aware of, and given only one set of instructions: be interesting. and now, for a time, you're god's favorite, the darling of the narrative. until you're not. until he loses his interest in you—which he will! whether he leaves you with a fond accolade or a cold premonition, his favor is not infinite. human lives are short and the novel excitement of their decisions is even shorter, and there will always be someone new to catch his eye—and you're left to search for him in shadows that he no longer deigns to step foot in, while the play continues around you. and there is absolutely no one you can tell about it—how can one even sufficiently put it all to words? the only options left are to remain silent (as corvo does) or extend a fraction of his reach unto others (e.g. daud with the whalers, delilah with the brigmore witches, granny rags with the executioner). a simulacrum, ultimately, for the one who is and is not beyond humanity.