#wilson the gentleman scientist

[ice-cream-writes-stuff]

⧱Appetency⧱

{At heart Wilson is truly a man of science. It's not in his nature to resist the call of the unknown...}

-

You side-eye the man a few steps away from the log you sat on, watching him eagerly re-reading through his blueprints on the makeshift table the two of you made, claiming it as a work desk.

You couldn't help but let your lips curl up at his fidgeting. Finding it oddly cute and rather funny when you notice him mumble a few words here or there. His face having a certain pink glow.. Myabe due to the lightning of the fire.

Glancing back at the small fire, the chopped bits of meat turn a darker color as you turn the skewers so the other side could crisp up.

You couldn't help but recall the few times he acted like this in front of you...

-

During your first meeting, the two of you were more different than... Well, many things!

Clothes for one! While you are dressed in more contemporary wear and fabrics. His was more, dignified, well.. As much as cloths could be in The Constance.

Wilson, ever the gentleman, glances away as you walk beside him. Clothes riding up slightly against your skin, heaving slightly as you drag back your kills together.

You try to strike up conversation and gain his attention, yet his milky-skin becomes a light pink as you do.

The way he spoke, too!

"My dear, are you alright?" You blink, the first time you've been called such a pet-name.

"Huh-? Oh, I'm fine! Don't sweat it!" You wave it off, a bit surprised at the warmth in your own face as you laugh it away.

""Sweat it"? Dearie, I thought we both concluded that the weather is rather too cold for such things."

He was an oddball, but.. You liked him all the same.

-

While you day-dreamed, Wilson peeked at your expression. Enamored by the sight of your far-away gaze, he tried to see if anything caught your eye. Though he couldn't find a single thing, what kind of lovely thought a beauty like you could have?

A small sigh left him as he turned back to his blueprints.

-

Meeting you was one of the strangest and most wonderful encounters he's had since being stuck on the wretched island.

You were quite.. What's the word.. Rather, many words could describe you! Or, actions spoke a bit louder to him.

During the winter season, more so Winters Feast. Wilson sat by the fire, shivering as he made a thermal stone. You and Chester arrive back to camp, you frown as you take a spot beside him.

His eyes held agitation, not bothering to wander his sights on your pitying look.

Kind could be one.. Maybe well-meaning.

You politely take a seat beside him, not too close as Chester happily barked and opened his jaw.

You pull out a few items, cautiously setting a small scarf down on his lap. "I know you don't prefer hats... So I thought this might be more.. um.. Ya' know? "Suitable"?" You test out the phrase on your tongue, smiling hopefully.

You were.. Unknown to him. Such as this daft place, his fate had now been resigned too!

Though.. You made grand company.

Helping him pick up crops, you sang a small tune under your breath. Bits of giggles leaving your throat at a few lyrics. A bit curious of the song, he spoke up.

Questions and inquiries left him as he rambled.

You only smiled, head tilting to the side a few times in confusion at a few proposals he had on the song.

"That's lot-" You huff out a laugh, Wilson could only smile back patiently. Waiting politely now, wanting to listen. You playfully bump his side, "Alright, I'll tell you."

-

You blink away your former thoughts after smelling the scent of something burning...

..!

Yelping, you grab the skewers. But it burns your hands! Causing you to drop them in the fire...

You groan unhappily, now staring at a worried Wilson as he moves to your side.

"Dear, it's alright, we're lucky to have made a few extra rations." Wilson states as he takes a seat, politely holding out his hand for you.

You slowly grin, nodding as you hand him your hand. Interlacing them together. The scientists eyes widen as he coughs awkwardly, glancing away. "I.. Wanted to see if you burned your hand."

Your own eyes widen as you let go quickly.

"I'm fine! See? Oh..." You glance at your hand and see a small cut.

Wilson gently takes your hand, encompassing it tenderly in his palms.

"A butterflies wing should fix it up." Wilson states, fixated on your hand. Lightly tracing it, the touch was kinda soothing...

Chester yips happily, bumping your leg as he opens his jaw. Wilson smiles happily at the chest, "Otto von Chesterfield, Esquire! You smart little lad!" Taking the items from the small critter, Wilson hands it to you as he pets the creature fondly.

The two of you laugh together as the sun slowly sets, the fire burning even brighter.

-

[Happy 11th Anniversary DS/DST! I had a big crush on Wilson when I was younger, so this needed to be made! Anyway, hearts and reblogs are appreciated! Let's see some comments too! Happy birthday Wilson!]

[lee-the-yeen]

Ok this may be me being pedantic BUT

Something's always bugged me about the Triumphant Skins. They're supposedly the survivors if they had the opportunity to rule the Constant (minus Maxwell) or something along those lines. And for those most part, they do a good job of it.

But you cannot tell me that Wilson would run it like Maxwell did and dress in a fancy suit that (if you go by his Guest of Honor skin and quote) he'd likely hate.

If Wilson was in charge of the Constant, there's no way he wouldn't treat the place like his own personal science experiment. Studying the behavior of humans under stressful conditions and deadly situations? That would be a goldmine of data for any aspiring scientist of the era.

TLDR Wilson's Hallowed Nights skin is a better fit for a Triumphant skin instead of him cosplaying as Maxwell.

[chemsaway]

He is my special main nerd:

Happy birth Wilson P. Higgsbury!

Edit:

seems like i was just in time haha!

: ] 

[cant-tune-a-ukulele]

This may be my only contribution to the Don't Starve fandom

[survival-and-magic]

Commission of Winnie and Wilson from @loadingbones that came out JUST absolutely gorgeous. I'm such a sucker for these two it's shameful.

[rotzcakedraws]

Haven’t drawn this baby boy in a while 👏🏻

[cupiowaffles]

Wanted to make some Don't Starve art cause it's an underrated game and I use to love this so much (which I still do)

Silly science man

[botanists-little-cookie]

😈🫂 for Wilson P. Higgsbury ( @imaginemyshipswithme )

🧪🥼: "Evening. I appreciate the questions."

😈 - Does S/I get up to mischief? Are they goodie two-shoes, or a menace to society?

🧪🥼: "Hah, Willow? He's a lovely sister figure, but he's also a menace. Let's just say that Willow and forests don't mix."

🫂 - Are you two close? Do you spend a lot of time together?

🧪🥼: "We definitely spend a lot of time together, though I must admit that I would be unsure how close we are. Life in the Constant skews these sorts of things, after all."

[distortedsoup]

willow and wilson as foils

copy-pasted directly from discord, apologies for any poor formatting

i think willow has a lot of interesting parallels with wilson, or at least the Correct Wilson Fanon (lol)

they both have very intense fixations on One Subject. for wilson, it's the Concept of science. not necessarily actual science, but being able to point at something and say it is Very Scientific.

for willow, it's fire. for both of them, these fixations are a manifestation of desiring control over their life and circumstances, and have brought harm to both themselves and the people around them. they are both pretty socially abrasive in different ways.

wilson often comes across as odd or offputting, can be too blunt and uncomfortable. willow is brash, rude, and generally contains all the softness of a sea urchin. both of them struggle with sanity and have been frequently dubbed as insane in one way or another, or otherwise severely mentally ill. bonus points for when wilson's instability causes people to consider him a threat. i think they're friends . um

they don't seem like people who would get along because wilson prides himself on being orderly (or at least having the perception of orderliness) and willow is walking chaos, but i think they see themselves in each other to some degree. they recognize the way their lives mirror each other's, even if they ended up in such different directions

it's especially interesting to me when thinking about how wilson is a gentleman scientist, independantly wealthy, dropped out of uni because he just Didn't Like The Vibes (and definitely wasnt expelled. for. um. checks notes. explosions) and willow has been dirt poor her whole life

willow is uncomfortable with making herself presentable because she doesn't think its possible and she doesn't really like the idea of people truly enjoying her company or being gentle with her. wilson seems obsessed with how he is percieved and maintaining the character of a Good Scientist who is Very Smart and Professional, desperate to please

there's just a lot of really interesting stuff going on in how they parallel one another and work as a dynamic

and unfortunately i think a lot of people miss it. especially when they're just looking for "tee hee ship" or view her strictly through the lens of his counterpart. which, don't get me wrong, i think she's a great counterpart to wilson in the same way maxwell is a great counterpart to wilson, but she has her own identity and character outside of that. people usually can realise that with maxwell, but with her its harder (cause she's a woman)

[madscientistotd]

MAD SCIENTIST OTD IS…

Wilson from Don’t Starve!

wilson is a gentleman scientist who tends to fail due to being overconfident in his abilities

[fukanoystuff]

Wilson Percival Higgsbury, the Gentleman Scientist

X X X

X O X

X X X

My first one!

[dstconfessions]

correction on the tooth brushing thing, because im a pedantic little shit: brushing your teeth with a toothbrush and toothpaste only became popular in the 1930s, after a pretty long campaign from one guy who had an overstock of the toothpaste he made. America did have a problem in ww1 with soldiers having atrocious dental health so bad that they had to declare a national emergency. BUT assuming Wilson is a European immigrant and grew up wealthy(which is implied by his very title- gentleman scientist meant someone who had their own funds to do whatever, usually funded by family money) he probably was in the habit of otherwise cleaning his teeth, even if not how we do it today. it wasn't as effective, but ppl(mostly rich) did use like... rags and scrubs and toothpicks n shit. ok thats all ur allowed to throw rocks at me for being a freak ab things like this bye.

.

[nayroart]

It was Don't Starve's 10th Anniversary on April 23 if I'm correct, so here's some of my dusty fanart of everyone's favorite Gentleman Scientist from 2013 that people apparently liked back in the day, also time flies wtf??? I should draw my boy Wilson again

[lover-of-whatever]

Fandom AUs do tend to lean towards not engaging with the material so much as treating it as a mere prompt to slap any aesthetic on. Swap AUs have become infamous for changing characters into something completely unrecognizable, but I don't think the Au is an inherently bad idea. I think Swap Au's are at their best when the two characters in question are already narrative foils and come from similar backgrounds/can easily be put in the same situation as the other.

My favorite example is kinda cheating because there is kinda basis in canon for it, but it's from one of Don't Starve Together's skin sets, called The Triumphant. The context for it is that upon being placed on the throne that controls the world of DS, you become a pawn for "Them" and they warp you into a worse version of yourself. But it's okay, you get a cool goth outfit and magic powers. Every character gets a super evil version of themselves, all but Maxwell. Maxwell as a playable character had already spent years as an evil pawn, before that he was the timid and dweebish William Carter. His time hanging out with/being used by some weird shadow shit straight up had him take on a new identity. Default Maxwell is already "Triumphant", so in order to have a skin in the set he is instead reverted back to William and literally dubbed "The Untriumphant". This is literally a Swap AU but instead of two people it's Maxwell swapping with everyone else out to kill him lmao. That in of itself is hilarious and more Swap Aus should do that actually, but that's not the example I'm going for.

Wilson is the kinda protagonist of the series, poster boy is more accurate, but he has the most involvement in the narrative for a playable character. As a result the official narrative of the game is that it was Wilson at the end of the first game that freed Maxwell from his throne and took his place. While their roles as protag and antag are loose, esp since Max is no longer the main antagonist but another guy just a part of the ensemble, they were written to have reasons to hate each outside of circumstance. While neither would admit it, they are very alike. Both are stubborn and insist on being gentlemanly, but are ultimately just massive dorks. Maxwell more the former and Wilson the latter, but Max is still subject to the butt of jokes by the rest of the cast and Wilson is literally called "The Gentleman Scientist". Both had ambitions in their respective fields but sucked at them, and when in a moment of desperation They took advantage of their desire's and offered them a trade. Max/William practices magic and Wilson science, and each insist that their. Methods let's call them is superior to the other. Their fighting is ultimately pointless, the world they live in is capable of both. They may be able to come to an agreement if they were to admit they both really wanted the same thing, knowledge. Knowledge is what drives the game; you may die and no longer have the tools of the previous sessions, but you have your memory. You can learn from your mistakes and get progress. Wilson isn't GREAT at science, but the mc/posterboy/protag is a scientist for a reason, he's as curious as the player is.

The main difference between the two is that William didn't get full understanding, his magic in the real world was all just a performance using something he didn't fully understand. He literally faked it so hard he became his persona. The extent that Wilson understands his knowledge isn't clear, but in his circumstance he has to use that to survive an environment out to kill him. When Maxwell is freed and has to live in that same environment, he does the same.

How much of Maxwell is William and how much is the result of Them? The extent of Them's influence isn't clear, but what is clear is that Maxwell would not have come into existence without Them. Every cast member has the potential to become Triumphant, not just from the potential to do evil in everyone but because They would enable that evil. Wilson's Triumphant skin is even a bloody three piece suit like Max's for Pete's sake. Wilson literally would of looked like Maxwell after taking his place. To swap the two would be to explore the worst aspects of Wilson, and William as his own character with less Them influence. What about their dynamic changes now Wilson is the one with more power? How then would they view each other? Would they still have that iconic slap fight gif or is William nicer/weaker than that?

I think it's neat :)

[survival-and-magic]

Things Winnie learned in The Constant.

[zomboyfren]

In me and my friends new world the traveling merchant finally spawned, one went to him and read out the contents and I wasn't even listening until I heard 'the gentleman scientist' (Wilson painting). The SECOND I asked where he was he fucking despawned

But fortunately he bought it for me :-) So I yelled into the mic in despair for no reason