meme: headcanon vs real canon

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

It's another snow day here and I'm completely bored, so here, let's do a meme. It looks like this one hasn't been done since July and it should be pretty doable for the newbies, too!

Even the most obsessive of canons (yes, Star Wars, I'm looking at you) leaves some gaps in information as you play a character. But canon also provides some truly random factoids. So today's meme:

Provide us five bits of things you totally made up headcanon for your character, as well as five things that are, sadly, canon but could sound like you made them up.

Bonus points if you go over five!

Comments

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

Real Canon
1. Reads obsessively. Like, if you see Celia and she doesn't have a book with her, something's probably wrong.

2. Has a real soft spot for the underdog, especially children and animals, because of her childhood. God help us all when she's first exposed to the commercials with sad puppies and Sarah McLachlan.

3. Doesn't really remember her mother, but will insist that she does. She has completely idealized her image of her mother in her mind -- in all reality, Celia probably wasn't especially wanted by either of her parents.

4. Used to be paraded out for company by her father when she was little and cute -- once she hit puberty, she pretty much got left behind in dressing rooms to be sad and lonely. Poor Celia.

5. Hates walking around in wet skirts and will use her magic to stay dry if there's inclement weather, though she usually has an umbrella for appearances, too.

Headcanon
1. Can and does change her hair and dresses using magic, rather than buy new things or spend a long time on it. (She does use magic in real canon to darken her hair when she joins the circus -- I figure she probably doesn't put it up manually every day, either.)

2. Once caused a theater blackout in London when she was twelve, and Hector had decided to leave her in the dressing room rather than take her out with him and Celia actually threw a fit in response. She had to spend the rest of the night repairing all the gaslamps while her father distracted the theater manager.

3. Has spent time in nearly every American or European city, but really wants to visit for pleasure. She daydreams of when the challenge is over, and how she'll be able to tour the world the way she wants to.

4. Really, really doesn't especially want to perform magic for a living, as of right now. It'll probably change in a couple of years, but as of right now she can't think of a less enjoyable way to spend her life than how her father has.

5. Is a very heavy sleeper -- she's had to fall asleep backstage dozens of times as a kid, not to mention her dad coming in at all hours and making tons of noise. Girl can sleep through just about anything.

[flickofthewrist]

Real Canon
- Hallucinates his little brother who is always wearing his Peter Pan costume.
- Really, really loves Chinese food and enjoys the Chinatown area of New York.
- Doesn't drink due to the alcoholic father (though proves himself a hypocrite when he does drink because he's stressed)
- Tends to let himself get beat up just so he can steal a wallet or a watch or something
- Described as too pretty or too attractive all the time. It's weird.

Headcanon
- Likes to steal Apple products more than anything else. They tend to bring in more money.
- Not at all religious. Really anti-religion, in fact.
- Doesn't ever sleep all the way through the night.
- A few steps below a master hacker. Knows his way around a computer and various websites and can make life miserable for sites that aren't secure.
- Sometimes thinks about seeing a therapist and then immediately disposes of that notion.

[pursuedthestars]

Real Canon
- Total juvenile delinquent with his love of stealing classic cars (such as Corvettes).
- Loves getting into bar fights. They're just fun!
- Doesn't often hear no. Sigh, Jim.
- Stealth genius
- Total whiny baby when he's sick.

Headcanon
- Pretty romantic when he wants to be and makes an effort.
- Kind of obsessive about his hair. It has to be juuuust right.
- Prefers weather where he can show off skin.
- Owns a lot of books that you will never see him reading.
- Acts like he can go at it alone but really likes surrounding himself with people.

[notmysupervisor.livejournal.com]

Real Canon

Has a pet ocelot named Babou, who is named after Salvador Dali's pet ocelot. I'm not sure whether Cheryl's actually that clever or if it's the writers being cute.

Sometimes forgets which companies she owns and which ones she doesn't. Money-management is hard, guys!

Went to space pretty recently as a stow-away, and then voluntarily tried to become the Queen of Mars -- ie, the female component of a new breeding colony on Mars. And she made that dress in the icon out of spaceship parts. Regal, no?

Does macrame! And she seems like she's pretty good at it -- she made a really cute owl, anyway.

Doesn't understand how pregnancy tests work.

Once seduced a man using shrimp.

Headcanon

Bought Babou from someone who had smuggled him out of a zoo, while on ecstasy, because he was soft and fuzzy and totally asleep. And thus obviously woke up and then Cheryl really regretted that.

Sometimes she drops Malory's cobb salad on the floor before she takes it to her, but then arranges it all perfectly so she'll never know.

Thinks Dr. Krieger is probably the closest to a real relationship she's found in the office. He built an arm for her! But she can't compete with an anime hologram, you know? (Plus, like, who needs that? Gross.)

Likes Pam a lot more than she lets on. Because seriously, what other friends does this girl have?

Keeps meaning to redecorate her house but the ceilings are too high and...ugh, work.

[1stinkinpercent.livejournal.com]

Real Canon
- Cubicle inhabitant before Ben spirited him away to adventure and craziness!
- Master hacker. He won't hack your mom but he'd hack her computer.
- Total and utter sidekick who thinks he could be a hero.
- Genius.
- Likes food a lot. Eats when under stress.

Headcanon
- Braver than he's given credit for. Just likes to avoid dangerous situations.
- Total gamer nerd.
- Terrible fashion sense but makes what he has work.
- Likes loud music. Likes to headbang.
- Writes computer viruses to keep his skills sharp.

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

REAL CANON

1) Eleanor's mother Sofia tried not to love her. Or at least, tried to love her no more and no less than she would any other child.

2) Eleanor's mother's entire creepy cult thinks that Eleanor is the coming Messiah who will save them all. There are literal shrines to Eleanor in Rapture. Her Little Sister dress is marked as HER HOLY VESTMENT and has candles lit around it. There are stained-glass windows with moments from her life. There is graffiti around that just says ONE FOREVER IN HER.

3) Eleanor was doing advanced algebra at age 7. (She's smart, but in my headcanon this isn't SHE'S A GENIUS so much as the fact that she had literally nothing else to do but study.)

4) When Eleanor's mother went to prison, her trusted lieutenant Grace Holloway got temporary custody of Eleanor. Grace admits she couldn't even be sad about Sofia going away, because she was too happy about getting to raise Eleanor.

(Not out of weird creepy cult reasons, but because Grace never had kids of her own and adored Eleanor.)

5) Eleanor knows very well that her "Father" is just some guy who was forcibly bonded to her, and that their familial love was created in a lab. She tells him that love is always just a chemical, and it doesn't matter where that chemical comes from: "We give it meaning by choice." They get to be a family if they say they are, dammit.

HEAD CANON:

1) Grace Holloway would sit Eleanor down on her lap every night and brush out her braids and redo them. Eleanor sat very still and always hoped it would take longer than it did, because she liked how special and loved it made her feel.

2) While doing the above, Grace would sing some of her torch songs. (Grace is canonically a lounge singer, based on Bessie Smith.) As a result, Eleanor is extremely fond of old blues/jazz tunes.

3) Eleanor learned several languages while isolated, but sucks horribly at pronunciation, since she's never heard any of them out loud.

4) The Big Sisters in-game are canonically 6'10". Eleanor was made the same way, but does not tower over people in cut scenes, so I have decided she's 5'10" -- tall, but in the normal expected range.

5) Sofia does love Eleanor, and it bothers her tremendously that she failed at being impartial.

[sharp_as_knives]

Oy. Five things I didn't say last time...

Actual canon:

- Does actually say that he quit being a surgeon because he saw too many patients die.
- Speaks Lithuanian, German, Russian, French, Japanese, Italian, and English (and probably Latin and Greek).
- Has near-perfect recall due to an extensive and elaborate "memory palace".
- Is a really good artist (sketching); his illustrations were used in at least one standard medical text.
- Is apparently a US citizen (naturalized). It's never stated outright, but nobody seems to have discussed deportation once he was captured.

Headcanon:

- He really did leave surgery because he saw too many patients die - he was too tempted to let them or to play with them, so he'd thought he'd remove the temptation. Also, it sort of bored him and he likes being his own boss.
- He really does love teaching; he adores knowledge and is happy to share it.
- The Bentley used to belong to a former client; Hannibal subtly convinced him to will it to him. (Hannibal didn't kill him; he was just old.)
- He learned a lot of his cooking skills from his uncle's chef, and then from talking his ways into restaurant kitchens in Paris and observing and helping. Other than that, he's self-taught.
- Hannibal likes helping the FBI catch (other) killers. It's occasionally a bit of a challenge, and the times that it's not, they deserve to be caught; they give serial killers a bad name.