Retrospring is shutting down on 1st March, 2025 Read more

Anonymous Coward · 3mo

does ardbert have any physical habits or tics you headcanon?

He has a few!!

They're mostly related to social discomfort, and generally have to do with distracting or avoidance. While he's very confident and charismatic as a whole, personal questions leave him off-balance, especially when asked in privacy; he's very accustomed to easy back and forth conversation with an emphasis on asking and listening, but talking about himself is another matter. This discomfort manifests as what you can see in MSQ- directing his eyes away, turning askance to avoid direct confrontation, and crossing his arms as a form of solidity and barrier. These aren't conscious choices, and are extremely obvious giveaways for when he's uncomfortable or self conscious.

(he also unconsciously has a resting glare; he's not aware of this unless it's pointed out, but even while calm or smiling, has a severity to his brow that tends to imply intensity that may or may not really be there.)

Some other physical habits are learned from repetition! He leans more weight on his right hip than his left, thanks to learning the weight of Bravura on his shoulder. He walks fore- and mid-footed due to wearing shoes that don't protect his soles, preferring the agility and lack of weight they offered instead.

A fear-based and reinforced habit that he displays only when significantly uncomfortable is keeping himself with a wall to his back, or otherwise staying with his head angled to see behind him. This particular habit is far more likely to occur in the dark or around large dogs; despite behind dead, he hasn't entirely unlearned it, and seeks out places to haunt where he knows there's something solid behind him, even if it won't realistically make any difference. (This is a Shadowkeeper scar, and one he is both aware and almost protective of.)

AND FINALLY, strictly post-death, he has an unfortunate habit of trying to Touch things. This wasn't exactly an unusual thing to do while he was alive (yay tactile touching things fun), though he did so more often while discussing anything in private to give his hands something to do- but it hasn't worked in 100 years and you'd think he'd learn. Unfortunately he hasn't, and in conversation will reach for objects and just kind of hover his hand around/through them while talking to keep his eyes on something easier than personal subjects.

Retrospring uses Markdown for formatting

*italic text* for italic text

**bold text** for bold text

[link](https://example.com) for link