#. headcanon ( the diary of them )

[oz2b]

A Silent Dove

Last of the Trio, Gareth! (Garroth)

Also no chibi version!

He gave me quite the trouble for sure ahaha, overall I am happy with his final!!! Might tweak stuff here n there though!

Wip's as usual

also the speedpaint if anyone is interested!

Wasn't as happy with his chibi's so...don't look too hard at them okay?

I wanted to give him a fun shape with his clothes and helm!!! I also made his clothes main colors opposite of Lulu's heh..

Ft goofy doodle of him n LuLu

Last of the main Trio, I would like to draw the other's at some point!!

[iridiss]

mcd!aphmau may be an incredibly good person and a massive pacifist with more wisdom than anger but. i think she should be allowed to tell people to eat shit and fuck off. you’d have to push her pretty far to get her to do it but she should still tell people to eat shit and fuck off. i think she’s more annoyed with people than she shows

In my mind, MCD!Aphmau and Zane have a very special unique relationship in that Zane is the only person on earth that Aphmau hates more than anything. Like, this is a woman born from the mercy of Christ. And she fucking hates his guts so bad. He’s done far too much damage to everyone she’s loved for her to ever see him as more than pure evil. She is a woman of redemption and even i think she would see a Zane redemption arc as utterly impossible to ever achieve. She has a “kill on sight” policy that ONLY applies to him and NO ONE ELSE. Her and Zane could go back and forth bickering and telling each other “fuck you” over and over again. Even Shad earns more sympathy and mercy and empathetic understanding from Aphmau than Zane does. Aphmau would sooner befriend The Shadow Lord himself than EVER side with Zane.

And on Zane’s side of things, Aphmau is special because no one has ever thwarted him as much as her. He absolutely underestimated her at the beginning, thinking she’s just some random peasant girl in a shitty old town that no one’s ever heard of. And then she turns out to be his enemy nm. 1. The arch nemesis. I very much picture their dynamic in my head as a constant chess match going on between Zane and Aphmau. Zane is normally the king of chess, he gets everything he wants and the whole world cowers before him, but Aphmau has never cowered before in her life and she is most certainly not going to start now. She doesn’t quit. He can back her into a corner, he can take away her loved ones, he can put her in impossible dilemmas and threaten the lives of everyone she cares about with certain doom, all scenarios that would normally crush the average opponent and get them to cave under their own fear and beg him for mercy. But Aphmau doesn’t. She keeps fucking going and she never stops, she just can’t be held down, no matter what he tries. And in the end, he loses. They end up in the Irene dimension and he loses.

There’s something to be said that the High Priest of the Church of Irene’s worst nemesis is Irene herself. The very woman he’s supposed to worship with utter devotion, but once he actually meets the object of his religious faith, he REFUSES TO. He HATES her. He has met his own God and has decided he’d rather punch her square in the face than pledge himself to her. No one hates Aphmau more than Zane, and no one hates Zane more than Aphmau.

anyway i think she would tell him to fuck off and die all of the time and he’d tell her right back at you bitch

[dilly-dahlia]

oh nothing, just thinking about how Garroth most definitely had helmet hair in MCD

[mcgrillzdumpinc]

random headcanon:

as a couple, jinmao like kissing each other a lot. on the back of the hand, on the cheek, on the lips especially. when maomao doesn't feel like talking jinshi's like "well can we kiss 🥺" and if she says yes, nobody else is seeing him that day. important meetings? no no. girlfriend make out time.

[maxmagic]

Couldn't even draw a date I had to be realistic khkhkhkh-

Loser Ronnie walking up to a pretty girl with sweaty hands and wobbly legs (me too brother how does one flirt)

Hanks a bastard (luckily he has two babysitters)

[trashmancer]

In celebration of new Murderbot news, I redrew PreservationAux yesterday!

[somnas-writes]

Aphmau is the only person within mcd to have an inventory so to everyone else she just pulls shit from thing air.

Like

Laurence: we need Something to offer this guy so we can get away

Aphmau: oh I have a stack of gold ingots, would that work?

Laurence:… how tf were you carrying that?

[thatmexisaurusrex]

Just Sam and Bucky, needing one more minute in the quinjet before they leave, getting these superhero suits on is hard.

[hanzajesthanza]

i think it would be really funny if regis had a kind of fucked-up haircut

“he could save everyone except himself” but like with regard to the barbery, and not the surgery. kind of like when chefs don’t cook very well for themselves. or when fashion designers wear sweatpants all day.

but moreover. i think the aesthetic effects of a bad haircut would help to dampen his natural lugosian allure and good looks. to reduce any potential suspicions

[stellisketches]

Y’know we give Aph a lot of shit for adopting literally everything that doesn’t have a parental figure within fifty feet of it but what about Garroth. That man brought home a baby wyvern and a half-dead unconscious person he found in the woods twice. Honestly it’s no wonder Aphmau is like that™, She probably got the habit from Garroth in the first place. She just thinks that’s what you’re supposed to do in those kind of situations.

[beastsovrevelation]

Michael's so stern, and laconic, she's honestly just... Cold. But, I think she'd be so gallant towards a female love interest.

Damn... Imagine her kissing your hand (and refusing to break eye contact as she does it).

One could swoon. I'd say she definitely goes on one knee to propose.

Her Spartan demeanor does soften in her love interest's presence. A fond smile lights up her lips, and her piercing eyes shine with adoration. She mindlessly does things like brushing a lock of her so's hair behind her ear, putting her arm around her, or having her sit on her lap.

I also think (since she's the Champion) she has a pathological need to protect. Honestly, it might cause tension as she gets patronizing, even controlling. She's used to being obeyed without question, after all.

[jpdrawsalot]

Janus: *barely exists outside one rebirth ep and one og thumbnail*

Me: i love them and i love him and i love them and i love h

[nottoofondofgaypeople]

The Most Important Polycule

The one that started it all. Irena is a poor girl who has run from everywhere she's known. All that she knows about people and how to be one is from watching, and she's usually content to just bounce around wherever she does, until she lands in Phoenix Drop, a village so down on their luck she can't help but want to help them.

She doesn't officially take the lord position for quite some time, but she starts using her strange random skills she learned from drifters and wanderers to help these people. This naturally brings her to Garroth, the former head guard, who's keen on keeping her safe because she's just a very kind person. Garroth quietly thinks she'd make a good lord, but he never wants to push her to that.

Laurance is introduced in almost the exact same way. I mean it. The full head of hair, obnoxiously green eyes, the so called Cassanova of Meteli. The most flagrantly bisexual man. Laurance is the first person to show outright and very direct interest in Irena, which she's never experienced. Most people are very subtle about it, or don't express it at all because she's well. She's kind of weird. And doesn't always get what they're saying. She's actually just autistic and doesn't know how love works because nobody's explained it in a way that makes sense to her. And Laurance doesn't quite get what her vibe is but she's really fucking pretty, and also not afraid to give him a piece of her mind but in a light hearted way.

A lot of Irena's early interactions have her express herself in rather comedic ways, like she's super witty, because most of the people she learned from were bards and con men. She can be off-putting to some, but to Laurance? A girl who he can say romantics to and she'll respond with some cheeky retort that isn't an outright rejection? And she's beautiful and could maybe beat you in a fight?? Irena is the girl of Laurance's dreams.

And Laurance is always a fiercely dedicated person. He's known Irena for three weeks, and yet he'll still go into the pits of hell by her side. Laurance has read so many romantic poems and stories, I imagine that ancient Greek literature still exists in this universe, and he's read the tragedies of men who thought they could walk through hell and back safe and sound. He knows that Orpheus always turns around to see if Eurydice is there, but he's confident that they won't have to do that. He's confident he'll walk out of hell hand in hand with her.

No, what happens to them is worse. We all know the story. In order to save the life of one of his closest friends and the life of one of the most mystifying people he's ever rapidly fallen in love with, Laurance actively and willingly sacrifices himself. Irena returns to Phoenix Drop days later and when she finds Garroth at the guard station, she just collapses into his arms and begins weeping.

He's caught her crying before, but never like this. She's never completely fallen apart. He doesn't even know what happened, and she's too wracked with guilt to say anything at first. She knows how Laurance felt. She doesn't know what love is exactly supposed to be, but she knows what it looks like. She's seen people fall in love by staring at one another from across a fire pit. She could tell on day two that Laurance was falling hard and fast, and she was honestly scared the same might be happening.

Now she can't even bring herself to admit it out loud because he's gone, and in her eyes, it's her fault. Oddly enough, once she's able to admit some of what happened, omitting certain details about the nature of her and Laurance's relationship, Garroth is actually able to empathize with her. He isn't very direct at the time, but he gives her advice on how to use her grief as a motivator. Laurance sacrificed himself for her sake, and he would want her to keep moving forward.

Content Warning (y'all knew this was coming): Torture

What ends up being a brief period of time without Laurance, only about two months or so for the Overworld, is far far longer in the Nether. Laurance was planning on dying a warriors death, but after he suffered a nearly killing blow, he was kept alive, and dragged back to The Shadow King's castle. The Shadow King is only a phantom at this point, a pitiful version of his former self. But conscious enough to give orders, and to allow Gene to do what he wanted with this Shadow Knight. Let him prove himself.

So Laurance gets tortured. A lot. And is forced to become a shadow knight without dying. Which the Shadow King didn't even think was possible?? How tf did he fuckin do that, fuckin wizard. The entire process is unbearably painful, and Laurance's only solace are memories of Irena, some other prisoner he gets to talk to on the other side of the cell wall, and oddly enough, memories of a guard he hadn't seen in... years. At his lowest moments, Laurance wishes he could see Garroth, wonders where he is, what's happening in his life, if he managed to get the head guard position he rightfully deserved in some thriving village.

It's the last persons name he starts crying that finally breaks him. Laurance starts thinking about his family, about everyone he's lost, everyone he's going to lose is he dies here, and everyone he might lose if he somehow makes it out alive. The existence of shadow knights is contradictory by nature, and it's starting to break Laurance down. He starts to lose his sense of self. It's only when he weeps at the memory of a young boy finding a wounded wyvern in the woods that something finally happens.

Within seconds the wall is broken into, Laurance gets grabbed, and he's suddenly flying through the Nether in his best friends mouth. And going through the open rift between realms? One that was forcibly opened with the life essence of an immortal under dire circumstances? Laurance was not pretty when Irena and Garroth found him. He was malnourished, a little too pale, so many scars, his hair was all fucked up, and when they first found him, he just wasn't breathing.

Eventually Zoey is able to get his condition stable, but Irena refuses to leave his side until he wakes up. Laurance is out for a few days, and she's dedicated to being there when he wakes up. He has to. If he dies, then both his death and Ungrith's are her fault, and she can't let it end like that. He has to wake up. He has to.

When Laurance finally wakes up, he only notices he's blind because he can hear Irena's voice but can't see her face. But he can feel her hand in his. She's alive. His sacrifice wasn't meaningless because she's still alive. This is the point that we really get the ball rolling, and the point that I take the canon story out to the back alley to be violently beaten to death.

When Laurance desperately confesses his love to Irena, she remains quiet. She listens, and only when his breathing starts to even and the panic has subsided a little does she simply mutter the words "I missed you too Laurance."

"Would you say you loved me?" She has to think for a minute. Lots of people have tried to quantify love to her, explain how it feels or what it looks like, and despite best attempts, Irena still struggled with the concept. But when she sees Laurance's beaten form nearly crying, iron grip on her hand, and the weariest smile on his face, she sort of just gets it. Like it's the most obvious thing in the world that she loved him from the first back and forth they had while walking to Castor's house. Suddenly she can see the appeal of spending all her time around another person.

"I suppose I do."

As for Garroth falling for Laurance, I've covered this on my main blog twice before so I'll simplify it here. Laurance has repeated nightmares/night terror related to his experience in the Nether, and when Garroth is comforting him after one, he realizes this fool of a guard he met in the academy all that time ago is still taking up so much space in his mind.

He realizes it's love, and starts freaking the fuck out because Garroth?? Loves two people?? And one of them is a man???? What the fuck is going on??? Unlike my previous musings, there's a lot more time dedicated to this. Laurance's recovery is slow, and while Zane does interrupt this time, when he's gone there's even more time for Garroth, Irena, and Laurance to all just sit with these emotions.

(Trust me I have a lot to say about how I'm handling Zane and what he does to the story in this rewrite, but that is an essays worth of a post unto itself)

Maybe talk about them with their loved ones. Obviously Garroth doesn't talk to anybody at first, but Irena might go to Zoey. Tell her how she's feeling and Zoey has a faint ache in her heart because she still can't bring herself to admit she feels that way about Irena. Laurance talks to Cadenza about how happy Irena makes him, and how much he wants to share that with Garroth. She nearly whacks him over the head and tells him to just fess up to them already, stop talking to her about it when he clearly understands how he feels. Laurance always does, he's just got a lot of room for improvement in communicating it.

And one day when they all manage to have a day off, Laurance sits the two of them down at the docks and the three of them just talk. He spills his guts to them, tries not to be too emotional about it, fails miserably, and they just sort it all out. No need to hold it in, no need for Irena to deny them this time, and even if Garroth faintly thinks this is a waste of time at the start, when Laurance very directly says that he's in love with Garroth, that opinion very quickly changes.

Irena freely admits she doesn't have a lot of experience with love or relationships, but she knows that she feels love for both of them, and she'd like to try something. Even if it's quiet. Even if they have to hide it so Zane doesn't try to use it against them. She wants to try. And well, Garroth really can't say no to them. He's still faintly terrified of being emotional and vulnerable with people, even though he's already been this way with both of them. He's still so paranoid it'll get them hurt.

But he'll learn to let down his guard for them. They're worth it.

[zanes-pet-catfish]

Some rq boy sketches

I like the idea that each series with the recurring characters are just different reincarnations of each, MCD isn't even where this starts in my mind, that goes to a mermaids tale, then a royal tale and then it's actually mcd then pdh/fcu/mystreet.

Although it would be wild in universe to name your child Zane, yaknow, like the mass murderer from 700-1000 years ago

[wednesdaythesecond]

Those "how do I get mutuals?" posts are baffling to me. You get good mutuals by... posting things that people like? And then when they follow you, you follow them back if you like what they post? Am I missing something? Is everyone else complicating the shit out of this?

I talk to one of my mutuals regularly because he followed me, I followed him back and then one night he got drunk and sent one of my posts to me and said "pleeeeeassseeeee explain what you meant by this, I wanna hear more about it"

[akoichoi]

something I love about the new Zelda game and it being a direct sequel to BOTW-

Okay. So playing BOTW, Zelda and Link's relationship always felt professional, at least, to me. It was a princess and her knight. And by the time the calamity started, their relationship 'ended' right when it started.

We see this in most of the memories, with Zelda brushing off her appointed knight and Link, stoically performing his duties and not getting personal with the princess.

Link waking up after a hundred years and fighting Ganon felt like due diligence — redemption for failing as Zelda’s knight, a second chance to save humanity, and maybe a few side quests but that’s besides the point.

I like to imagine Link's story in BOTW as an opportunity to become human, experiencing a life away from knighthood. He's finally experiencing a life that he never got to have. Zelda mentions a bit of Link's past in one of the memories. Specifically how his fate was essentially locked-in from birth. Like Zelda’s role as the princess of Hyrule, he was destined to be the knight that would seal away the darkness.

I like to think that him waking up from the shrine of resurrection as a literal rebirth.

but TOTK. TOTK is where the real story starts. Zelda and Link have an established relationship that they've cultivated over the few years in between the two games. We see this in the intro of TOTK, where they don’t even have to exchange words or gestures to communicate. Their backs are no longer turned against one another and they’re working in true harmony.

We immediately pick up that, at this point, the two are able to work as one. So the quest to find Zelda has some real weight to it.

At this point, Link (and the player) knows Hyrule and its inhabitants. Everyone is talking about her disappearance, as if Link is running everywhere, from town to town, trying to find any clue about her location. There's no need to explore the surface after doing it once, but he is running around everywhere, desperately trying to find her.

And he is traversing the depths and climbing the skies; doing the absolute impossible just. to. get to where she is.