Does the outsider really /control/ animals? Or does he just reduce them to their purest instinct: feed, mate, feed and repeat?
well … it depends. he can’t control them in the sense of that he directs their every move as if he were them, as if every nerve in their bodies run along with his own —- but rather, he wears the crown of their society, no matter hierarchy.
specifically, in the context of rats and whales, he is their king. he can walk nude into ice cold waters and swarms of rats will follow him blindly ; because he tells them so. he is the most stealthy, mischievous and intelligent of them all, the natural energy of the void causing his strings to be the most powerful. above all, they obey him in a way they will never obey any living human being. they become vile to those who destroy outsider’s reputation, humanity and honor. all because they feel a strong need to protect their king.
as for whales, they are part of the void’s essence itself. as he is bound by the void, he is bound to whales, him a whale in spirit. each time a whale is slaughtered, a piece of his connection dies among the millions of strings dug under his skin. for every corpse, one snaps and as their bones are crafted and shapen to become an offering / sacrifice to acknowledge his holiness, it is a circle of a life ( in a way ). the manners of which many defile these sorrowful & magnificent beasts however pains him on a rather physical level. it digs tallies into his bones and leaves paper-thin cuts among his spine. an emperor of the sea & reigning over the royal family between the waves, there is a desire to preserve the beauty humanity is destroying through its industrialization and rebuild the holes they leave where once thriving communities were. to be quite literal … “ someday [the void] will devour all the lights in the sky ” will be the day the last whale is slaughtered —– the outsider himself.