take some south asian!ballister headcanons
okay so ballister is, at least partially, based off of his va, Riz Ahmed, who is south asian/pakistani (like me!) and speaks Urdu (like me!), so I think I have some stuff to throw in the Headcanon Pot
when ballister was in the orphanage before he did his whole Jump The Gate Out Of Spite And Desire To Become A Knight, he primarily spoke Urdu and was in the process of learning english
also, when people learn english in countries that don't speak english, they typically learn british english, which ties in nicely to ballister's canon accent
this means that he had to learn a fair amount of english at the institute
he might've also been bullied for his questionable grammar and accent by todd and the other knights
ambrosius did his best to help in teaching ballister english and mostly helped in his grammar and vocabulary. they went through a little phase where ballister would pick up more obscure objects and ambrosius would say the english word for them.
ambrosius has only heard ballister speak urdu a handful of times, but every time it happens, he swears he falls a little more in love with him
after he was regarded as completely fluent in english, he didn't speak much urdu, but he never forgot it
post-canon, he once went on a tangent in urdu and nimona heard him and her jaw just DROPPED
"you're bilingual?? why didn't you tell me??"
"you never brought it up...?" (doesn't think it's a big deal)
she thinks it's the coolest thing ever and went through a phase where she tried to piss off ballister JUST to hear him talk in urdu
eventually, he realized what was going on and had to sit her down and explain "you don't have to do all that, all you have to do is ask and I'll talk to you in urdu."
she definitely exploited that eagerly, but she still occasionally does the whole "piss him off just to hear the rambling of Words She Doesn't Understand" for fun
ballister has absolutely no idea that both ambrosius and nimona love how he speaks urdu or he would talk way more in it
honestly I love the concept of ballister speaking urdu, but almost always when I'm speaking urdu it's for a joke, so I've kinda ruined that language for myself LMAO
also, about the south asian thing of eating pretty much everything with one's hands,
first day in the mess hall. ballister grabs the food that looks the most familiar to him- rice
sits down at a table alone and starts to eat with his hands (or is it "eat with his hand"? he's only using one hand to eat but it feels strange to have hand in singular here)
immediately todd, who was going to go pick on him anyways, notices and makes a huge deal about it
the next day, ballister did his best to work with the fork, but it was an adjustment and he stuck out like a sore thumb with his clumsiness with the utensils
when he was befriended by ambrosius, they would sit together in the mess hall
at first, ambrosius tried to help ballister become more comfortable using utensils, and ballister was eager to learn
until one day he just thinks to himself "what am I doing? the same thing as todd but nicer?"
that's when he starts sneaking meals into his room so he and ballister can eat in there together- alone, peacefully, and with whatever damn utensils (or lack thereof) they want
ballister would eat with his hands, ambrosius used chopsticks, they would chill and vibe and, when they got older, slowly fall in love (or quickly, if you're ambrosius simp goldenlion)
ballister also teaches ambrosius how to eat with his hands there, and in turn, ambrosius teaches him how to use chopsticks
they continue to eat together in that room all the way until the knighting ceremony, and it was one of their favorite routines
post-canon, the trio had rice for a meal, and nimona saw ballister eat with his hands (probably his flesh hand- even though, culturally, you're supposed to eat with your right hand, I think a prosthetic is a pretty damn good exception)
she stared in shock for a few moments, then slowly dropped her fork and attempted to mimic his motions
ballister noticed and was flattered beyond measure, and was more than happy to help her out
rice is the ONE AND ONLY thing ballister can (and is allowed to) cook, so he makes it whenever he can
and when he makes it, everyone eats it however the hell they want, society standards be damned
I have more south asian related headcanons, but this is long enough already, so I'll do a part two later! :D
-Storm
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lmao people are already hounding on Hunter for not hugging/comforting Crosshair as if Crosshair didn't order his troops to shoot down a child, didn't try to fry his fam with a whole ass star cruiser engine and didn't trick the batch into coming back to Kamino when he knew it was going to get bombarded soon.
Yes, Crosshair was under the control of the chip for two of those things and he does regret doing what he did, but that doesn't mean Hunter has to trust him fully and accept him back like nothing happened. There is hurt on both sides and it needs to be addressed, and since Hunter and Crosshair have the emotional intelligence of a freaking lamp post, the process of getting that trust back will be ugly.
Neither of them are comfortable with being emotionally vulnerable and neither are fully comfortable with physical affection, so no, there will not be hugging and crying and kisses and "I love yous", that's not who these people are. Wrecker? Oh yeah, totally. Echo? Sure. Omega? Absolutely? Hunter and Crosshair? Forget it.
Don't hound on characters for acting within the bounds of what's normal behaviour for them.
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