#My old Gabe headcanons are completely different

[seaweedbraens]

As someone who has read the book countless times since I was an eight year old, I liked the show! Totally get what the other anon was saying but I think the different reactions have more to do with expectations than familiarity with the source material. I knew from the second they cast Hermes in the first season that there would be some changes, so I went into the show trying to judge it separate from accuracy.

I definitely disagree with some of the show characterizations (gabe being diluted, sally putting a lot of pressure on grover) but so far I’ve been pretty impressed with Percy, especially Walker’s acting.

I am a little salty about annabeth though. Leah is amazing, but she’s barely been in it so far. They cut annabeth introducing Percy to camp and changed the context behind the you drool when you sleep line. I hope they don’t keep her too serious as the season goes on.

I don’t think the pacing is terrible either. Obviously a lot of pjo fans (myself included) are in their 20s and older, but the intended audience is still middle grade. I think the show does a good job at keeping the more significant plot points without much filler.

I know rick’s motivation for this (and chalice of the gods) was probably just the money, but I don’t think the show is as soulless as people have said. I think there’s so much heart in Percy’s relationship with sally and so much sincerity in all the kids (props to the casting department).

At the end of the day, the show is going to attract new fans and reignite new fans, and more people reading pjo is always good. Of course, this will lead to shitty takes on ig and tiktok but that’s why I’m on tumblr and follow the same people I’ve followed for over ten years

Sorry this was probably much longer than you were asking for, but I just wanted to say that while there are bad part, I think overall the show is worth the watch for anyone on the fence.

thank you for the detailed answer, and i'm glad to hear you liked the show! i think between the people who liked the show (like you) and the others who didn't, i'm kind of just coming to the conclusion that i have to watch it myself haha

glad to hear about percy and sally!!! i think their relationship is brushed over a lot (i'm guilty too).

changing the context of 'you drool when you sleep' is unforgivable, though. rick must burn. that's my holy bible right there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway

i think what i need to do, like you're doing to some extent, is consider the show a completely seperate....thing from the books. they're not the books, they're an adaptation, and so things are going to change, whether i'm okay with it or not.

with a new show like this comes new fans, and i am NOT looking forward to all the newbies in the fandom making their headcanons and assumptions about the characters based on the show, but it is what it is. like you, i'm active mostly on tumblr. i actually consume very little pjo content on here and ao3 and anywhere, so i don't think this show is really going to affect my fics. i've become a rick skeptic in recent years, but if the show is genuinely good and older fans enjoy it, then great! i'll have to watch it when i get the time, and form my own opinions.

thank you for your take, anon!

[lieutenant-amuel]

Do you have any favorite or weird Headcanons?

oh, man. I had a bunch of OCs and Gabe headcanons time ago, but they're sooo irrelevant now ×)

Anyway, I don't have a lot of headcanons, and I feel like most of them are about Gabe and, honestly, I really admire people who have so much to say about every character. I'm very narrow-minded at this point ×)

Random Gabe headcanons:

Gabe is an excellent chess player. He has an analytical mind and is a good strategist that make him a very strong opponent.

Kinda feels like a canon, but Gabe is a dog person.

Gabe likes coffee don't ask me why. This is super randomly ×)

Gabe loves traveling. As a professional olaball player, Roberto and his team visited lots of kingdoms, and he always traveled with his wife and son. Gabe might've not interested in olaball, but he loved seeing the new places also, I just can't stop thinking about the winter hat at their bakery. They just HAD to travel!!

When Gabe a child, Blanca read him stories about brave knights who protect and defend their kingdom, and this is what inspired him to be the guard himself I'm not the one who came up with this, but this is such a cute idea!! I can't help myself 🥺

At school, Gabe loved history the most. He paid attention to the war events, different kinds of weapon, famous guards Rodrigo Bello, anyone? and already at young age was obsessed by the military.

Being inspired by mom's stories and history lessons, Gabe wanted to learn the swordsmanship. Gabe's instructor was one of his school teachers who was a retired guard (he left when Shuriki overthrew Raul and Lucia). He found out that Gabe wanted to be a Royal Guard and decided to help him. He taught him fencing (the way that we saw in A Princess Knight) and told about the general things he should've known to be a guard.

ohhh. Actually. Speaking of Gabe's instructor. I think his first thought when he found out about Gabe's dream was like: "Boy. Do you really want to be a guard? To serve Shuriki, to threaten people?" And Gabe like: "No, señor. I want to show everyone what actually means to be a guard. It means to be a protector. To defense your kingdom, family, everyone whom you love. I'm here to bring Avalor to the peaceful life. And I'm ready to work as hard as I can to achieve this.

this is probably too dramatic, but why not? ×)

And continuing the previous point, when Elena defeated Shuriki, she opened the recruitment for the new Royal Guards. Gabe took part in the competition (that I think would've been similar to the one we saw in Changing of the Guard). He showed his amazing swordsmanship skills and thanks to the lessons with his instructor, he passed the competition and joined Avaloran Royal Guard.

ohhh, and also. In A Princess Knight Gabe says he won the Royal Guard fencing match last year. What if he meant the recruit competition? 👀 How plausible is that? ×)

No matter how bad Gabe is at baking, he actually enjoys doing it, especially with his mother. When Gabe was a child, he loved baking with Blanca. She was soft with him and always said it didn't matter if his baking wasn't perfect. The main thing he had a good time doing it. However, Roberto expected Gabe to run the baker someday and was very demanding when it came to his passion. He was very strict, and it made Gabe losing his interest to baking.

Gabe is a hugger :3

Not really a headcanon, but rather a speculation of why Roberto didn't want Gabe to be a guard. We may guess that Roberto is around 40-45 years old that means he spent his whole life under Shuriki's reign. He saw the actions of her guards, and since childhood, he didn't see anything good from the guards, only the spread of fear and the dictatorship. All he wanted was to protect Gabe from the wrong decision. However, when Roberto saw Gabe saving Isabel and Caterina, he saw the true side of being the guard and could realize he was wrong and accept his son's path and he was so proud of him 😭

And I kinda see The Nuñez and Son bakery as a family business that passes down through generations.

And some other hcs:

Elena learnt how to dance thanks to Felicia. Very often, girls left the palace and joined street festivals in the city. There, Elena saw Felicia's talent to dancing and wanted her to teach her.

Naomi can play violin, like her mom.

In modern AU, Gabe and Naomi are the couple that would've worn the couple T-shirts.

That's it. I feel awkward ×)

[foxymuses]

how does your muse feel about not being cis or straight? are they content with it, proud, ashamed? would the situation be the same if the culture or surrounding support systems were different? (Dean)

it was very hard for dean to admit to himself that he may be bisexual. like, impossibly difficult. he was young, think like fourteen, when he first found himself attracted to a guy, and it’s not that he was afraid of john’s response (but he was) because of john being phobic or anything (which, you know, is up for debate). it was more that like... as much as one can within the hunting life, john was very traditional minded? like he often dismissed sam’s more emotional personality, and it’s canon that he fashioned dean essentially into an obedient solider, so dean kind of had this idea that like... being not-straight was Bad. which isn’t to say he thought of other sexual identities as bad in general, because even if he’s a little awkward around it, he accepts it. in fact, the awkwardness stems from his own refusal of his identity. but like, for instance when he’s trying to help charlie flirt with a guy to get into dick’s computer, and she admits that guys aren’t her thing, dean just rolls with it and continues to try to walk her through it. AND CAN WE FUCKING TALK ABOUT THE SIREN EPISODE PLEASE, like i know the siren was trying to give dean the ‘brother he wanted’ but come on. the fact that he chose to be a guy over the usual chick he’d been playing?

i digress. my point is that like, the only time dean was ever caught off guard or strange about someone’s sexual orientation is when it was in some way directed at him, even indirectly. for instance during fan episode where the musical literally included destiel and dean was like ‘what the fuck’, or when there was the spn convention at the hotel with chuck and dean was thrown off by the two guys who were pretending to be hunters being in a relationship. these things were not about dean, but they connected to him in a way, and that felt really weird to him, but otherwise, generally sexual orientation doesn’t matter as long as it’s about other people

so you know, he didn’t tell anyone about these feelings, aside from maybe a passing comment to bobby about his thoughts on the matter, which bobby casually was like ‘it don’t matter’, because you know bobby probably knew immediately what dean was getting at. but then he didn’t bring it up to anyone again, and that’s a large part of why he desperately slept around, had so many hookups, because he thought, you know, if he could sleep with a ton of girls, he could convince himself he was straight. i wouldn’t say he was necessarily ashamed of his feelings towards men, but more that he was scared of what it meant, worried it would ‘ruin’ his tough-guy act, make him seem weaker for some reason, because his whole life was about being strong and “manly” or whatever.

in fact, my personal headcanon is partly in line with the ship that i have with @gavrele but it’s that dean doesn’t even begin to acknowledge that he’s bisexual until like... however old he is in s13. at that point, you know, he’s getting older, he’s tired, he’s been through so much shit, he’s stopped having random hookups and one night stands, and if he weren’t a hunter, this is when he’d be ready to settle down with someone special and take it easy. so he’s got that mindset in that he’s mature enough, surrounded by people he mostly trusts, that maybe he can... start to be okay with it. but like 30+ years of denial don’t just go away over night, and, still referencing his relationship with gabe since that’s really the only solid ship dean has atm, things start off very small and secretive and behind closed doors or in the shadows, evolving slowly into being affectionate in front of other people, letting it be more obvious.

and some of this also explains why dean is bad at being vulnerable, why he doesn’t open up to emotions easily and has a hard time admitting he loves people, too. as he learns to accept his interest in men, he’s also slowly recovering that part of him that craves affection, that wants to be openly in love and happy and emotional. but as ever, it’s a slow process and i don’t know if he’ll ever be completely comfortable with labeling himself bisexual.

now, i do have a verse where dean was not raised to be a hunter, and he spent most of his childhood with bobby and ellen instead of john, and therefore he grows up openly bisexual, having had several boyfriends and girlfriends. i firmly believe that it’s the mindset of having to be a hunter, having to be strong and tough and hardhearted that affected his comfortability with the identity, and so having bobby as a firmer support, having more freedom in what to do with his life and what’s okay, it allows dean to be more open and vulnerable and accepting of his interest in men. so yeah, a different support system would totally change his views on the matter.

that got long sorry, but by god thank you for asking

[lostbutterflyutau]

Sunset Carla (Part 3)

With the premiere of Not Without My Magic and Naomi Knows Best we’ve learned a lot about Carla, her parents, their dynamic and the effect that this dynamic has on Carla.

In Not Without My Magic it’s revealed that Ash had been gone at least seven years, meaning that she’s been absent from Carla’s life since she was about nine or ten-years-old -- possibly earlier since in Naomi Knows Best she said she studied dark magic for ten years. And this depends on when Carla’s birthday is. I personally headcanon Carla as being 17 at this point with a November birthday. (She’s a Scorpio.) But, I digress.

Shifting back to canon, since even their first appearance in King of the Carnaval, Victor and Carla are shown to have a really close relationship, which is to be expected after he raised her alone for so long. It’s very subtle at first, but as time goes on, we can see more and more of just how much he really cares for his daughter.

 Yes, they do clash sometimes because they’re both strong personalities. And, of course, he does get frustrated with and scold her from time to time – after all, he is her father – but even with the little hiccups they’re shown to genuinely care for one another. They look after each other and never leave the other behind. Ever.

 Until recently…

 Ever since Ash came into the picture in Not Without My Magic, there’s been a lot of tension within the Delgado family that was only recently confirmed. Victor, understandably, holds some resentment against Ash for leaving them and not saying a word for years. As he says, they waited five years and searched for two more. They believed she was dead until Snow Place Like Home. He’s aggravated that she has the nerve to be annoyed with him and rightfully so. Ash snaps that, “I didn’t get to see my little girl grow up. You took that from me!” Despite the fact that she is the one who left for years without sending so much as a letter.

On top of that, she seems to not respect Victor as an equal in general. When she defends the amount of time she spent away training, she tells him that, “Unlike some people I never gave up!” And insists that he should have waited for her to teach him dark magic. This tells us two things. One is that she wants to have the control. She wanted to be the one to have control over his (and by proxy, Carla’s) magical development. Wants them to know what she wants them to know and be able to do things her way. The second, is that along with control, she wants all the power for herself, something that is confirmed by her claims that Jewel of Night will make her, “The most powerful Malvago who ever lived.” When she says this, Victor cuts in, saying in Not Without My Magic, “You mean, ‘we?’” And later pointing out in Naomi Knows Best, “What about us?’

Both times he is brushed aside – kind of. The first time, she gives him a look and hesitates before answering. In that look, it can be seen that she is simply appeasing him. She doesn’t actually intend to share any of the power with him and whether or not she intends to share with Carla is another question. Because when Victor asks about “us” – as in him and Carla, Ash simply replies, “Yes, yes. All of us” in a dismissive tone.

 Speaking of the Precious Smol, Carla clearly looks up to and idolizes her mother, something that was suspected since her comment in The Race for the Realm when, after first being turned into a Malvaga, she says, “If only Mama could see us now!” Knowing what we do now, it can be inferred that Victor and Carla wanted to become Malvagos because of Ash. And, now that she’s back with them, Carla strives to please her. She wants so much for her mother to be proud of and praise her. Any time Ash acknowledges her skills and compliments her, her face lights up and her voice gets this happy, eager tone.

 However, while her mother’s praise is important to Carla, so is her Papa. She’s a total Daddy’s Girl, something that was only subtly hinted at until Snow Place Like Home. In that episode, both Victor and Carla gave the most obvious show of love and affection for each other up until that point. There’d always been a bond between them, it had just been presented through small hints before, mainly in the way Victor and Carla display physical affection. She grasps his arm, he sets hands on her shoulders, even once pulls her into him when they’re talking with Shuriki. When she reaches for the Jewel of Maru in the episode of the same name, he calls out to her when he thinks she’s in danger due to the spell Amalay cast to protect it. He doesn’t want to lose her, especially since, at that point, he believed Ash to be dead. He already lost his wife. He didn’t want to lose his daughter too.

As for Carla, she’s often terrible with her feelings and doesn’t appear to have a lot of trust for other people. She covers up a lot of her emotions with anger or annoyance – which is blatantly shown when she shifts from being upset to being annoyed when Ash confirms that, no, they’re not going back for Victor who is the one person Carla does seem to trust fully. The look of adoration and trust she gives him when he’s carrying her through the blizzard says everything. She loves him more than anything, in part because he’s the one who’s always been there for her.

Now, I’m not saying that Ash was ever a bad mother. It’s not known how things were before she left all those years ago. But, I will say that as much as Carla idolizes her, there also seems to be some tension growing between them. Carla is no dummy. And she appears to be picking up on the underlying tension between her parents. It’s subtle, but the confused look and awkward smile she gives after Ash comments about Victor holding Carla back and him saying that, of course he wouldn’t do that, followed by an awkwardly forced show of affection, says that she’s maybe…not so sure about everything. She’s thrilled to have her mother back. To be learning powerful magic and be told that she’s the “more powerful Malvago” with natural talent, but at the same time, she doesn’t like seeing her mother put her father down. Especially not when he’s done so much in raising her as a single parent. Granted, he doesn’t win the award for “Best Dad Ever.” He is raising a criminal, after all. But he does take care of her and it’s clear that they have a strong bond between them. One that Ash is trying to break apart, which leads me into how this fits in with and changes the Sunset Carla narrative.

I still believe that at her core, Carla isn’t evil. Something she’s shown more recently in the latest episodes as different sides of her personality are displayed. She clearly loves her family and revels in the attention she’s getting from her parents. More than anything, she has always wanted to be loved and wanted and respected.

Now, there’s no doubt in my mind that Ash loves and cares for Carla. Why else would she be upset over missing her daughter grow up? But, she doesn’t seem to be very good at expressing it and doesn’t like the idea of being second to Victor in anything. Her ego is the reason she won’t apologise for being gone for so long without so much as a word or acknowledge the fact that Victor did a decent job of taking care of their daughter alone for years. And it’s this attitude that has her purposefully driving a wedge between father and daughter by putting Victor down, pointing out his flaws and trying to make him look incompetent in front of Carla. When he dares acknowledge that she is, in fact, his wife, she cuts her eyes at him. She declares Carla the more powerful one, (which, in her defense, is true. Carla does have more of a natural affinity for magic) and wants her help in casting the spell with the Jewel of Night. To get rid of him, she orders Victor to take Gabe to the dungeon – “If you can handle that.”

She wants to be the favoured parent and show her superiority any way she can, even if doing so means that she has to manipulate her own daughter. In this case, she’s manipulating her against Victor. And possibly to use her in order to gain more power for herself. Like I stated above, it’s unclear if Ash intends to share any sort of power with Carla, considering the dismissive way she brushes them off when Victor asks. And if that turns out to be the case, Carla is not going to be pleased. She’s a master manipulator herself, but, as pointed out by one of my fandom friends, she knows where the line is. She doesn’t manipulate people she actually likes, and especially not her family.

 Carla has always been genuinely herself around both of her parents. Venting and whining her feelings to Victor in private, squealing and acting like a happy little girl when her parents are finally together again (seriously, that happy clap is everything!), showing pure excitement whenever her mother praises her…She’s not afraid to show them her true feelings. Finding out that her mother is possibly manipulating her and very likely keeping secrets would devastate her.

She’s already picking up on and showing displeasure the tension between her parents – the face she makes when Ash says that they’ll come back for Victor later says a lot. She doesn’t want to leave him behind. She’s never left him behind and he’s never left her. The idea of doing so confuses and upsets her. And she’s annoyed with her mother for not listening to her feelings. Their relationship is already likely strained from Ash being gone for so long and therefore, knowing virtually nothing about her daughter. This, I feel, is only going to worsen and is likely being set up as the catalyst needed to make Sunset Carla happen, just in a different way from how I initially predicted. While I still believe that Carla could benefit from friends her own age and being shown a better way to live, I also think that this isn’t going to be the path the canon story will take. Not completely. And I’m here for it.

 I’m starting to think that someway, somehow, she’s going to be put in a place where she’s going to be forced to choose between her parents. Because Victor isn’t going to stand to be pushed around for long, especially with Carla in the middle of it all. He cares too much for her to let her be caught in whatever problems he and his wife have with each other. In fact, I doubt that he opposes them having or reforming a relationship. He wants his daughter to be happy and if it makes Carla happy to bond with her mother, I don’t think he would mind them spending time together. His attitude comes from the fact that Ash is trying to put a wedge between his and Carla’s own relationship in order to form that bond.

 Though we’ve seen hints of it already, she’s going to realise that her mother is not who she always thought she was and is likely to end up heartbroken as a result. I can’t say when this will happen, but if the prediction that Ash is going to bring the ultimate darkness is true, it’s likely to be in the midst of her making plans and perhaps even being corrupted by dark magic herself. Carla will be put in a position where she’ll have to make a major decision about her future, her family and who she wants to be. She’s always been directed to one path by both of her parents, and I still hold to the idea that she doesn’t know there’s another way, but I also think that, rather than her breaking off on her own like I initially predicted, she’s instead going to be privy to the way power can corrupt and overtake people, which while already seen with Shruki, is going to hit harder when it’s someone she actually cares about being subject to it.

[areallyyellowmango]

Ey yoooo! You're art is amazeballs! I'm in AWE of your mad skillz, &hello my fellow TWDG!DuckLives AU fan?!? I'm not the only one who wishes that?!? Also, wild concept but, what do you think an AU where Both Duck & Sarah survive to continue traveling with Clem &AJ would be like? Sarah in S3? S4? How would things change or stay the same d'ya think?

Hey there, anon! Thank you so much! ♥ I’m glad you like my AU!

That’s a really good question actually. I hadn’t thought into it very much, but now that you’ve mentioned it, Sarah would be a very interesting character to see develop and grow, especially with both Duck and Clem around.

Here’s some headcanons for you! ♥(I got kinda carried away with this so there’s quite a lot, I hope you don’t mind fuhishfufhs)

By the end of season 2, Clementine’s relationship with both Sarah and Duck would change drastically based on whether she shoot Kenny or let him kill Jane, and so would their character developments from them on.

They’re both appalled if you choose to shoot Kenny. Since Sarah had developed a good bond with him, and Jane always regarded her as a liability, she would be taken aback by Clementine choosing to save Jane out of the two, especially after what she’d done to AJ. The scene would also bring her back the traumatic memory of what happened to her father, giving her an anxiety attack, as Duck mourns over his father’s dead body and confronts Clem about what she’d done. In this scenario, Duck and Clem’s relationship is greatly damaged for the time being, but can be restored later as Duck gets older and understands why Clementine made that call.

If you chose to let Kenny kill Jane, Duck is relieved, albeit shocked by what his father had done. Sarah is frightened of Kenny’s ruthlessness, and is distrustful of him from then on. You aren’t given the opportunity to leave Kenny behind, but you can still go into Wellington without him later.

A while later, into season 3, Clementine cuts some of Sarah’s hair for safety, like Lee taught her to. 

Sarah lost her glasses while fleeing from a pack of walkers, so her vision isn’t as good as it used to be and she’s struck with dizziness constantly, another factor to keep her away from fights most of the time.

If Clem and the others stayed with Kenny instead of going into Wellington, he not only teaches Clementine how to drive, but also teaches Duck how to properly handle a rifle, which he picks up surprisingly fast. Before dying, he also teaches him how to hunt.

As age comes to him, Duck quickly abandons his loud, childish ways, and becomes a strong survivor and a cunning marksman. Kenny jokes that his little duckling is now flying off the water. 

Kenny also teaches all of them how to properly handle a baby and all the care needed to keep AJ healthy and happy. Even though it takes a while for her to pick up on everything - and to be able to even carry AJ without getting a bit panicky -, Sarah loves looking out for him once she gets the hang of it. It takes her mind off of everything else going on around her, and they can all agree she looks like a complete different person when she allows herself to relax, picks AJ up in her arms and gives him cute baby talks.

Being older than Clem, Sarah is the first one she could possibly confide to when she ‘starts bleeding’. Sarah is a little (and by a little I mean utterly) embarrassed to talk about that, since she wasn’t ever given a proper explanation on why that happened to her either, but she tries her best to convince Clem that it’s not a big deal - it’s just a bit gross and painful.

When they tried to scavenge the New Frontier’s medicine for AJ, Sarah didn’t take part in it. Despite how much she loved AJ, the thought of going against their rules was beyond her. Of course, she wouldn’t tell on them, but she wouldn’t go along with their plans either.

Sarah was reluctant to leave The New Frontier after Clementine and Duck were kicked out for stealing their medicine. She didn’t want to live out in the woods anymore; without food, or water, or safety, and wanted a place to call home - and to stay with AJ in his final moments. She tried to convince them to take them back, but of course they wouldn’t listen.

Sarah attempts to escape with AJ once she realizes he’s alive and well, and that the illness is gone. The New Frontier catches her in act, and questions her for her treachery. They’re both left at the McCaroll Ranch, not long after.

When Clementine and Duck meet the Garcias, Duck gets to experience what it feels like to be jealous for the first time in his life, as he can’t get over Clem and Gabe’s strangely close bond and tries to step in the middle of it at every given opportunity. He blames it on protective sibling instinct, since he didn’t see Clem under a romantic light.

Come season 4, Clem and Duck have reunited with both AJ and Sarah at the ranch. Duck’s hunting has managed to keep them alive for a good while, even though they need to raction their food very strictly in order to stay alive.

Sarah is nearing young adulthood, and is now more secure of herself and can manage her emotions better, even if anxiety still strikes her more often than not. She can now kill walkers with more ease when necessary, and has a small knife as a weapon of choice; sharp enough to kill, but compact enough to not feel like a killer’s weapon.

She has developed good cooking and nursing skills, and even though they rarely have any medicine, she can improvise stitches and patches with very little material, one of the very few things she got out of The New Frontier, as she sometimes watched Dr. Lingard work when he was not drugged. 

Sarah and Duck become polar opposite influences on AJ. Duck would be in favor of teaching him to preserve his own life at all costs, never hesitate, and justify his actions. Sarah, on the other hand, has never been supportive of violence and would stand by thinking before acting, and only resorting to killing when absolutely necessary. This polar dynamic would affect either of them after AJ pulled the trigger on Marlon at the school’s yard, depending on Clementine’s choice to teach AJ to justify or regret his actions.

At Ericson, Sarah wouldn’t talk much to the rest of the kids, and would rather stay on her own as she usually did. She would be very interested in bonding with Ruby, as she also shared the passion for nursing, but would be very intimidated by her attitude at first. Clementine would help her befriend Ruby, who she soon realizes to be really nice and sweet.

Duck wouldn’t get along with anyone at first, mostly because he’s very cold and shut to anyone else except Sarah, Clem and AJ. Clem could also help him make friends, even though it wouldn’t work out well at first. He’d be very dismissive of others’ attempts to befriend him, for the most part.

Duck would absolutely hate Louis at first glance. From the moment he started serenating Clementine, he knew he’d hate that guy’s guts.

Louis does his best to earn Duck’s respect. They’re eventually sent on a hunting party together, and Louis compliments his skills with the rifle, dissing Aasim’s “old fashioned grandma bow” and telling him to grade up. Duck chuckles and compliments him in return on the traps he’d built around the forest, but trying to keep it very lowkey. They eventually become good friends, after a short while.

He’d be very fond of Mitch and Willy. Willy reminded him of himself when he was young. and Mitch’s knife skills catched his eyes almost instantly.

Duck would love Rosie. He had a dog a little before the apocalypse started, which he loved beyond belief. Seeing a friendly dog again after so long made him instantly love her.

[violentnonretirement]

About Bastet: Jack

I’m doing multiple posts to kind of separate out things. This one will be about Jack, there will be one about Ana, and then one about the general Lore.

So keep in mind this is just about Jack, since the short story was equally about both and I literally have way too much to talk about with Ana to fit them both here while still being at all readable.

I’m just going to go through chronologically. Also under the cut because it’s... It’s a lot. Ana’s might end up longer, though.

“ As she took a closer look, she could see that the jacket and his flesh had been ripped apart by a shotgun blast. From that range, it should have killed him, but Jack had certain advantages. His wounds could heal themselves—a legacy of his past as a test subject and an enhanced soldier...“

First of all, we can finally do away with the ‘Gabe wasn’t trying to kill Jack’ theories because he absolutely was. Also, referring to Jack (and by extension Gabe) as test subjects says a lot about the nature of the SEP. Not an exact process, not a 100% smoothed out deal. Jack and Gabe were test subjects.

Jack’s got a crazy good healing factor. Like. We learn later the bullets from Reaper have a necrotic agent of some sort that’s trying to keep him from healing and his body is still pushing through to heal the wound literally minutes after the attack, also aided by Ana’s dart.

“ His genetic enhancements should have helped him acclimatize to different conditions, the same way they should have stopped the blood that was seeping through the shirt he’d tied across his midsection as a bandage. “

First of all, “genetic enhancements”. Second, Jack is able to acclimate to different weather very easily.

ALSO

How many times has Ana bailed his dumbass out of danger???

“ ...He made a face at the bitterness. “Any sugar?” “ “ ....“You’re a kitten, Jack,” Ana laughed. “

THIS IS FUCKING CUTE COME AT ME. I got that hc wrong Jack apparently likes sweet things if tea is too bitter for him. Fucking adorable you big punkass  funky boy.

Tangent here to talk about their banter? Like it’s so... honest? Like it’s just “these are two extremely close people who still have the fun sarcasm and are easily filling back into the role of close friends despite everything that’s happened”. It’s genuinely entertaining and I had a lot of fun reading the back and forth because it’s just fun and snarky and both have so much life to their replies. And it shows they know each other to the point that Ana knows Jack well enough that she literally drugs him because she knows he’s about to be a dumbass the minute he wakes up.

Also, proof that no one but the three of them and by extension Talon know Jack and Ana and Gabe are alive.

Jack took a trip to New York with his mother and loved the Egyptian museum as ‘his favorite part’, so that’s rly cute.

“ “We tried to find you,” Jack said somberly. “I used every resource at my disposal. Gabe even put McCree on it personally. Not a trace. Everyone else tried to convince me you were gone and that I was being irrational. But deep down I knew that you couldn’t be dead.” “

“...It turns out we couldn’t do it without you,”

“.... Don’t let this go. Don’t be like the others. They dismantled everything we spent our lives building, and then they made us into villains.”

“ “... You never were good at letting go,” Ana chided him. “Too stubborn for your own good.” “

Fucking. One of my big headcanons confirmed. That Jack and Gabe did everything in in their power to find Ana, and that Jack did not give up. If there’s something to be learned about his character from this it’s that Jack is a deeply emotional and very unforgiving character. He remembers, and he holds grudges like a motherfucker.

Even after the years, Jack was in Cairo because he believed Ana was alive and he wanted to find her.

Jack says he’s moving on and his quest is moving on but I don’t think Jack can let things go. Period. He couldn’t let go of Ana, Overwatch- his in-game lines “I’ve got a long memory”. Jack does not forget, and again, he holds grudges like a motherfucker. 

She was thought to be dead for years and yet Jack held out hope the entire time, all the way up to chasing her down in Egypt after hearing there was a vigilante there and hoping it was her. If we’re looking at canon Jack, canon Jack loves Ana deeply. She is an important person to him. Just like he loved Gabriel.

Which brings me to a big point. Jack is an angry, frustrated figure but he feels deeply. He feels so deeply for the people he’s with. Ana, Gabe, those people are so fucking important to him that the issue of Ana’s unknown fate, plus the (still only theorized) ‘betrayal’ from Gabriel, two people who were so important to him, turning to anger and vengeance would feel like the only option for him.

“ Ana read the desperation on Jack’s face. “Getting revenge for what happened won’t accomplish anything other than getting you killed.” “Maybe, but I still have to fight. Everyone else gave up, but not me.” “

This is the core of my style of characterization. If Jack lets this fight go- against Talon and Hakim and Los Muertos- he has nothing left. Jack was a soldier for the majority of his life. We know he enlisted around 18 and fought in the crisis, and led Overwatch, all adding up to about 30 years of “fighting the good fight” and something like 6 of fighting it from the shadows. At this point, giving up that fight would force him into an identity crisis, and I don’t think Jack wants to face that, so he just puts up walls against forming new bonds, and considers that, yes, he may die, but he wants to do what’s right. (it’s not healthy. There are so many times when Jack is wrong, etc, and he’ll fight you tooth and nail because he’s a stubborn jackass but he’s not a mentally healthy person)

This also supports my hc that Jack kind of blamed everyone. In that anger, Jack considered everyone at fault, and then sat on that anger and pain for years as he tried to find out what happened. He saw people either get to return to normal life, be forced into mercenary situations, or worse, and he couldn’t do anything to stop it- just try to find out what caused it and expose the people who ruined his life.

“ “Cairo and the world will suffer until we bring them all down! You have to see the bigger picture,” Jack said heatedly. “Are you even hearing yourself? You would never have made this argument before,” Ana said disapprovingly. “The way we do things matters.” “

Jack was the man who believed in saving everyone and Gabe was the bigger picture person, I think. I think Gabe did the dirty work no one else wanted because he saw what needed to be done and got it done for the greater good, even if that meant sometimes morally wrong choices in the moment. Now, Jack sees Hakim and Cairo, he sees the wrongness there and he doesn’t want to get involved because he knows Talon is Hakim’s benefactor and taking out Talon is the only true way to get rid of Hakim.

And we see that as much as he loves Ana, he is still angry and lashes out. He sees the world through a selfish view. He sees it as ‘this needs to get done and I don’t know why you don’t see it my way’ but Ana sees Cairo as she has for the time she’s been gone. Egypt is her home, she can’t see it rot under Hakim. This is her mission.

It was the sort of problem that was never Jack’s strong suit. He preferred two sides, concrete facts, and one clear, unequivocal decision.

In messy situations, Jack finds an answer, and he goes with it. And in a time when almost all his decisions are ‘messy’, Jack often has the moments between Los Muertos escaping and the grenade at Alejandra’s feet. There is what’s important now, and what’s important for the future. Deciding that Alejandra was the most important then, and then agreeing to help with Hakim, Jack is being forced to do what’s right again, and it causes him to fight against the personas of Soldier: 76 and of Strike-Commander. We hear SO much that Jack is stubborn, stubborn, stubborn, but he relents to Ana. He comes back after storming off and helps Ana take down Hakim. Hakim is the grenade at Alejandra’s feet- he cannot ignore his conscience, and here, he also knows he cannot do this without Ana.

“ He had gotten one good night’s sleep since he arrived in Cairo, and it was the first in as long as he could remember “ ...He was uneasy now. Staying in one place for too long was risky, especially now that Gabe would be looking for him. He had to move on.

Also going along with the “Jack just doesn’t stop” vein of characterization. Jack can’t stop. Especially now that Talon is very aware of his presence and that he’s coming after them.

“That’s why it’s a great photo!” laughed Jack.

cute.

So let’s get into Vincent.

Jack is gay, as confirmed by Chu. I have my issues with this reveal like I did with the Christmas comic and Tracer’s reveal. The romantic partner characters are not really, full characters. They’re stand-ins, and they’re not given a whole lot before they’re buried in the story again, but they do their job. Lena is a lesbian, and Jack is gay. This in itself makes me so happy. Because here, in this whole update, we are given a Manly Man’s Man in Jack- except that we learn he’s a deeply emotional man, struggling with trauma and mental health issues, and is so far from the picture so many people might have of a gay man. Like Lena, he isn’t defined by his sexuality, it’s just a part of him. Which is what we want. Yes, again, I have my issues with the reveal, but in the end, and if I’m deeply honest with myself, I’m happy that two mainstay characters in this game are irreversibly, wholly, completely confirmed inside and out as SAGA, and I’m happy that Jack is given that identity as someone who was open about it. Ana apparently knew Vincent well enough that she recognizes him from an old photo.

But in that vein, we get the fact that they’re separated, and that once upon a time Jack “I’ll never stop fighting” Morrison wanted to settle down in the quiet life with his then-boyfriend, and openly talked about that, at least with Ana if not others. Again, we’re given the image that Jack as a younger man was a very openly emotional, connected, and caring figure. Someone who loved the people he was close to dearly and showed that.

“At least you and Gabe managed to have families.”

Another one of those hcs I’m ding-ding at, Jack did not really engage in relationships as Strike-Commander. Whether or not he tried we don’t know, but he didn’t ‘manage’ to have a family, or connections beyond platonic love for people like Ana, and Gabe, and likely others. But it also ties into that resentment and anger he’s been nursing for so long. It’s not a kind remark. Not mean or hateful, just, kind of unnecessary.

“I just thought my mask was scary.” Jack smiled.

What a fucking dork.

In all. I’m happy. I’m so happy to see Jack confirmed as gay, I’d love to know more about Vincent, I’d love to see where this all goes, and I love that we have a continuation, more lore for Ana, and more personality for both of them- seeing these softer sides of the ghosts.

That being said, I’m happy with the s76 lore we have. I love him, he’s my dude, but we need lore on literally anyone else. I would be happy if their story was either on pause for the next however long or working in the background while other characters got their stories and their time in the spotlight. I want to see Zen, Lucio, Zarya, the Junkers. They need to be fleshed out. They need to be fully realized.

[ograndebatata]

More new ships, and some changes of stance on old ones...

Well... I agree I may start to change some things here a bit too often, but I guess that sometimes that’s what happens when you just happen to run into a ship that you end up being interested in enough to reshuffle your pairings. 

This has recently happened to me... so as a result, I’m reshuffling my current ships (I guess someday I should post an updated complete list). 

These are the changes I’ve made since last time.

Changes of stance on old ships

Naomi x Alonso - I’ll be clear on one thing here. Unlike what happened with me regarding Gabe x Carla, I did not develop any problem with the characters of Alonso and Naomi. I still like them both, and I still like the ship itself.

That said, the ship I mentioned above involves Naomi, and I happened to like it more than Naomi x Alonso... so forth goes the reshuffle. 

Sorry, Alonso fans...

Gabe x Marisa - I’ll admit, while I thought this pairing had some potential, it was never a ship I was invested all that much in. I thought it could work... but the new ship I got interested in (which is Naomi x Marzel) seems more interesting... and as it would have too many dynamics in common with Gabe x Marisa (while also adding new and, I think, very interesting ones) I decided to jump this particular ship.

New ships

Rather-invested-in tier

Naomi x Marzel - I can’t take credit for this ship, as it was, to my knowledge, proposed by user GijinkaGal on the Discord server. All I can say is that I happened to really like the idea.

Other users may put it better, but basically I feel it makes for an interesting take on the foes-to-lovers trope, and their characters look like they’d fit well together.

So... as of now, this is my preferred ship for both these two (and if I had to guess, this time is it).

Gabe x Tomiko - Thanks to @pizzansunshine and @long-live-elena for helping me here. :)

This one largely came forth because I thought it would be unfair if Gabe was the only one of the cuatro amigos who stayed single, at least given he doesn’t strike me as an eternal bachelor kind of guy, but this one settled into sailing rather nicely.

All I can say is that these two look like they fit well together, as they’re both endearing dorks who take their jobs seriously and are loyal to those they care about. It also feels like there are a few ‘sufficient differences’ between them, so to speak. 

All in all, I feel this one would work.

Different changes of stance on old ships

Somewhat-invested-in tier

Fiero x Prisma - Well, on one hand, this ship still qualifies as ‘Crackship-that-could-still-sort-of-work’ for the most part. 

But on the other, I have grown interested enough in it lately to be interested in developing this relationship for my Elena of Avalor and Sofia the First personal fanfic universe. As I still believe both Prisma and Fiero could be redeemed (though it would be considerably more difficult for the latter) I’m changing this ship’s status. 

And again, to anyone creeped out by the apparent age difference, I headcanon that Prisma and Fiero are about the same age (i.e. in their 130s by the time Season 2 of Elena of Avalor takes place, and in their 140s by the time I plan to have them meet), and Prisma only looks like she’s younger because she ages at a different speed due to being a crystal master (in ‘species’ if not in title), and because of her generally immature behavior for much of her screentime. And lest anyone think I’m being unfair or biased, I’m well aware Fiero can be a very immature sort as well (one only needs to look at his childish bickering with Victor as evidence). He just doesn’t have the benefit (or problem) of looking young enough to be mistaken for someone in their 20s or so (though I’d say he is surprisingly spry even if one only views him as being in his 60s or 70s).

///

So... these are all my changes of stance on ships for now. 

As always, I look forward to any thoughts any of you may want to share. 

Thanks for reading! :)

[zenyattayatta]

You wanted angst so maybe could you do headcanons for how Reaper, Mccree, and 76 would react if they cheated on their S/O and regretted it, only for the s/o to find out and want to leave them?

A/N: Decided to pair these up cause they’re similar. 

 Also, if someone cheats on you dump them. 

Reaper

Reyes hadn’t meant for it to go that far. A little seducing? Sure. Taking someone to bed? No. He wasn’t sure what prompted him since the information he needed was at already at hand but a few lingering touches had somehow pulled him to confines of someone else’s bed. 

However, he had left his comm on. The sounds of a heated moment flooding through the receiver of your Intel office. It had thrown you completely off since the action was not necessary to the mission. 

You tossed the equipment in a moment of anger and bitterness. Reyes finding out much later that the forced cut of communication had meant you had heard the entire thing. Immediately regret floods his system. 

He knew his main circle had found out upon landing when the stern glare and tight-lipped answers from Ana had been an indication that you sought comfort from her. 

He asks about your whereabouts to which Morrison answers bitterly given that Ana might have ripped him a new one if she spoke. They leave him with a vague answers as you choose to keep your distance.

Its a couple of weeks before he finally sees you. You having strut into his office which makes him feel as if the world collapse on him as you do so. Its within work hours but he breaks his professionalism in order to vocalize his apology before you slap a thick sheet of paperwork on his desk. 

“Transfer papers?” The stressed crease above his eyebrows is evident. “You’re transferring to Amari’s division? Why?” Your lips are held in a tight line as you respond. “You know why, Gabriel.”“Cariño-” He opens his mouth but you cross your arms as if to shield yourself away. The action tearing at his heart. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be, Gabe. Please just sign the papers.” 

And so he does. The commander watches you leave with a clenched jaw and slamming fist into his desk in frustration when your presence is gone. 

Soldier 76

This mission has been rough on the both of you. Testing the lengths of your relationship in more ways than one but ,once a breakthrough had been made, boy were you both grateful.

It gives you two some room to breathe as the mission comes to a close. So, Solider decides to cut loose at a bar while you take a night on the town. It was a mutual agreement on the different relaxation methods which in the end meant you’d meet back at your hotel.

What you hadn’t though to occur was for you to find your boyfriend plastered beyond control. A stranger underneath him in the early throes of intimacy.  

He’s drunk but you’re fuming. An argument breaks out,  his words are slurred as he tries to justify himself claiming he thought it was you. Yet, your argument stands in which that there is no excuse no matter the circumstance -he should know better and he knows that its the truth.

The person he’s brought back has left moments long ago and your not quite sure why your still here either. Shortly after arguing till your in tears and your voice can’t take it, you take your awaited exit. Leaving the old solider alone with his thoughts for the night.

Jack wakes up the next day with a massive hangover and empty room. Winston alerts him that you had finished the mission the night prior (which he assumes was after you left) and pick up was awaiting him at the rendezvous point. 

Soldier’s gaze follows you as set his things down upon the air craft. He takes a moment to compose himself before trying to apologize. 

“Sweetheart,” He begins before you turn to him. Your eyes are red and puffy, the shaded purple under them letting him know you hadn’t slept at all. His chest aches and he can feel the embarrassment of his action rush to his face. “Save it, Jack.I don’t want to hear your excuses anymore.” You bite back bitterly. “I trusted you and I can’t believe you betrayed that. I hope you understand how bad you’ve hurt me.” He falters when he notices your glare is set in stone and nothing he say will change that. With a nod, he sits a good distance from you as regret weighs down his entire being. 

He hates himself. He regrets letting himself stoop to that level but knows your justified in breaking it off with him. The leather of his gloves squeak as his hands form angered fists.

He could never keep anything good now can he?

Jesse McCree

You’d notice how he’d been distracted a couple of times prior. His only reply to your speaking had been a series of hums and grunts as his gaze focused on something else.

McCree tells you he’s going out with co-workers that night. A small celebration for god-knows-what but you give him a kiss and with that you part. 

Its not until the next Reyes comms you to wake him up that you find him a mess of tangles sheets and a body laid next that is not yours. Furious and disheartened your voice is cracked as you wake both of them with your breakup before storming out. 

It takes him a while to adjust. Jesse slowly coming to terms with how different it is without you at his side. The way you loved and assured him gone to which left a lingering emptiness in its place. 

He comes to regret it immensely. The Cowboy Casanova angry at himself for choosing to ruin something good he had going for a night out and one-nightstand. 

Jesse comes up with an apology before searching for you. Finding you hard at work and approaching you with faux self-assurance.

McCree opens his mouth to speak before a poised hand is raised. He watches as you cut him off, level headed with a stoic face. The radiant smile gone at his presence. “Let it go, McCree.” You frown, watching his crest fallen expression. “I can’t believe I gave you my all and...” Your broken sniffle pinches his heart. “This isn’t something you can charm you way into fixing. Just go.” 

He doesn’t want to but he lets it be. He made a decision that hurt you real bad and, honestly, he wouldn’t take himself back either.

Hanzo Shimada

Your relationship had been challenging from the start. He was a soon-to-be Clan leader and your work within castle grounds hardly constituted you a suitable partner. Though, that did not deter you two from falling for each other. 

Genji had found it rather humorous but supported the two of you the best he could. The younger brother ecstatic to have someone melt the cold heart of his older counterpart.

It wasn’t until the elders has wished for Hanzo to seduce a member from another clan. His orders given were to allure them with promises of relations in exchange power. 

Hanzo had been hesitant to take it, his love for you a striving force, but duty called and he knew what must be done. 

The call in to work that night is unexpected but you take it upon yourself to stop with Hanzo in order to surprise him. Only then do you find him undressed and in bed with another. Hot anger flushes your face before you storm out without a word.

Genji is the first to stop his brother the night after. His eyebrows furrowed in anger at what you explained to him shortly before escaping the castle grounds the night prior. 

“You are the last of everyone to be telling me such things.” Hanzo growls at his brother. Genji tightens his hands into fists. “That may be so but the one’s I take on as lovers know from the start, brother.” The ninja’s glare is staggering. Hanzo’s jaw aches from being clenched as Genji continues.“They genuinely loved you, you made them believe you could give them the world. Even I am not that heartless, Hanzo.”

He regrets what he did to you everyday. The pang of guilt hidden behind the stoic face of a ruthless clan leader. 

Yet, Hanzo lets you go like water through his fingers. Your love had not meant to be from the start, he convinces himself. Maybe in a different life, under different circumstances, you two could be together.

[rynnaaurelius]

Reblogging this, just because Annabeth Chase Discourse™ is back on the good ol' dashboard, and I'm. . .thinking.

Riordan gives as much thought as necessary to make Annabeth Chase a certified Love Interest, and, arguably, not even that. And I've talked a lot about how this means that. . .a lot of shit about her life is played off like it's nothing, leaving gaps that I try to cover with headcanons.

Her father told Athena that he didn't want her (This is not news to twelve-year-old Annabeth, at all). Her stepmother was clearly disbelieving of her demigod status or never informed of it, leaving a brilliant seven-year-old to try and conduct risk-benefit analysis about night terrors of her worst fear made tangible, terrorizing and biting her at night until she was begging to call her dad for comfort.

(Note: Frederick is clear-sighted and clearly intelligent, as well as an academic. He knows who Athena is, and to pretend that Annabeth's heritage would have no consequences is laughable)

She spent almost a year on the street, ending in her watching one of the two people in the world she believed to care about her effectively die.

By virtue of Riordan's lack of interest in Annabeth's life when Percy isn't in it, we then have to come up with a lot of things about how the parental neglect and stint of homelessness (Where everyone and everything was trying to kill the runaway trio, sometimes with added psychological torture for funsies) and trauma of losing Thalia changed Annabeth Chase.

And. . .this is my main oversight, I think, in the original post, and discussing Riordan's treatment of this.

Because a lot has been written about how Percy's behavior is written as a bit different in proximity to Annabeth, but nothing is written about Percy "My own stepdad was a piece of shit and I went to private schools full of kids with shitty biological parents" Jackson's mysterious proclivity for making excuses for Annabeth's father and insistence on assuming the best of parents Annabeth had spoken nothing but ill of.

(Book receipts in the original post, under section VI)

"But Rynna," you say, "He had met Annabeth's parents, and they were nothing but kind to him, and even gave him lemonade. Of course he would want to assume to the best of them!"

And this is where I get angry (But not at you). Because there are two things going on:

1. You can discuss Percabeth's issues all day long, but Annabeth never, in her lowest, meanest moments, gaslights herself into anything remotely similar with him. Or with Luke, for that matter. She has her moments of justification, but it's never the kind of delusion or as incongruent with reality the theorized gaslighting as a kid would've required.

And she, by her own admission, went back to her own family when she was ten for another shot, and things still went to hell, so something is up. This is compounded by MoA, where we get the spider night terrors and all of the consequences from that.

2. In TTC, Riordan successfully uses Percy's narrative to de-fang Frederick and Helen Chase within a few paragraphs, successfully getting the reader to consider that Annabeth was. . .I'm not even sure, at this point. Lying?

Anyway, Percy's general reaction of, "Man, Annabeth's parents are cool, they gave us lemonade and they both seemed worried. I wonder what happened?", is just. . .generally not lining up with his character, but more importantly, I have one (1) question for Rick Riordan:

*Ahem*

Richard.

HOW in the motherfucking hell do you think abusers get away with it?

This is all played completely straight in TTC and onwards. Frederick is charming in his mad historian way, Annabeth was clearly on drugs as a kid or something, obviously, her parents couldn't be neglectful or abusive, considering the only abusers that seem to exist in the Riordanverse are drunks like Gabe Ugliano.

Moreover (And yes, this is why I'm ranting, I'm not perfect), a lot of this affects the fandom's treatment of Annabeth, because her designated purpose in the plot is Percy's eventual girlfriend, so a lot of people only care about and talk about her in relation to that, taking the non-Percy bits of Annabeth's life in canon at face value, when we care at all.

Annabeth is often treated as strictly equivalent to Percabeth, which means the fandom's opinion of her vs. that relationship is often pretty one-to-one.

Which, uh, there's a word for that.

(Look, I'm not saying, I'm just saying, you and I and your favorite Riordanverse mutuals are not immune from fandom misogyny)

(You are not required to like Annabeth Chase. But my god, if you can acknowledge that Riordan's writing has flaws that affects your fave, you can acknowledge that it's warped Annabeth's character and goddamn form an opinion of her independent of a fucking ship)

Character Continuity, #MenWritingWomen, & Healthy Relationships: The Tragedy of Annabeth Chase

[Tagging @evergardenwall and @thein273 real quick because they wanted to see this meta. Lord knows why]

I saw Annabeth Chase discourse on my dashboard, so, well. . .

This will be me breaking down Annabeth Chase's characterization and Rick Riordan's continued nonsense, in an attempt to square my many thoughts on her, for both my reference and maybe others'.

Also, bear in mind that a lot of this meta is less about Annabeth Chase as it is my breaking down what makes Annabeth Chase, because I do believe that she really stands out in how her background does and should shape who she is—and how often that gets ignored, both in canon and in fandom.

Disclaimer/Warnings: Extensive, non-graphic discussion of emotional/physical abuse and neglect, extensive discussion of sexism/internalized misogyny.

If you think I owe credit/should link to someone else, message me/leave me an ask.

In addition: My apologies in advance, but I cite directly from the books multiple times in this post, and the PDFs I use lack page numbers, so I do it by chapter.

Also, this post is long. Ridiculously long and hopefully thorough.

NOTE: Same rodeo rules as my Solangelo post:

I don't like bashing. Everyone can and should leave each other alone if they've got nothing nice to say. Block who you need to for a nice time on this fair hellsite.

While I'm not about to beat up on a ship/characters themselves—because they're hardly writing themselves—I'm about to take their characterization and Rick Riordan to the cleaners.

If that's not what you want to see, blacklist the tags 'anti percabeth', 'rr crit', 'riordan critical', and get on with your day, please.

Fandom isn't activism, but it can be hella racist, sexist, ableist, and queerphobic. We need to fight that.

Now, on with the show—

I. Fandom Context

I'm queer, got a small list of mental illnesses, and write Riordanverse fanfiction. I write a lot of Annabeth Chase's character/POV, too.

The character in question, Annabeth Chase, is a deuteragonist in Percy Jackson and the Olympians (PJO), and co-protagonist in its sequel series, Heroes of Olympus (HoO). She's popular in fandom, too.

As of 08/25/2021, she's in the third highest number of fanfictions in the Archive of Our Own (AO3) Percy Jackson and the Olympians - All Media Types fandom tag, behind only Percy Jackson and Nico di Angelo.

[Click on image details in the corner for description]

Of course, it's worth mentioning that this probably has a lot to do with:

A. Her long-time major presence in canon. Annabeth was introduced in The Lightning Thief (TLT), the first book of the original PJO series.

B. The dominance of the Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase ship, AKA Percabeth, within the fandom, which was formally canonized in The Last Olympian (TLO).

The latter is backed up by both anecdotal accounts and when looking at relationship rankings by fic number in AO3:

[Click on image details in the corner for description]

Annabeth and Percy's romantic relationship wins out at 8,412, with Nico di Angelo/Will Solace (AKA Solangelo) handily coming in second at 7,936. But Annabeth doesn't appear again, romantic or platonic, until the last placement, where her and Percy's platonic dynamic makes an appearance.

(Congrats on achieving Satan's favorite number for Percy and Annabeth's gen dynamic, by the way)

Anyway. Just to look at romantic rankings for thoroughness, I excluded Annabeth & Percy, and what d'you know:

[Click on image details in the corner for description]

Congrats to the Nico/Leo shippers, I remember when that ship was huge in the Riordanverse fandom.

But from this, I think it's safe to say that Annabeth's popularity, is at least partly wrapped up in the popularity of shipping her with Percy Jackson, despite her long-time tenure as a leading hero in the Riordanverse, particularly considering characters in her stratosphere of popularity (Percy, Nico), and those one step below (Jason Grace, Leo Valdez), feature multiple times within the most written-about romantic relationships.

So this is also a Percabeth analysis, which I'm sure will piss absolutely no one off. Wonderful.

(But we'll get there)

II. The Retconned, Pathetic, Half-Dead Clusterfuck We Call Annabeth's Timeline And Backstory

Rick Riordan can't do math or continuity with a gun to his head and it drives me insane, so that's what we're calling this section lmao

To keep me from going insane and keep confusion to a minimum, we'll be recounting what I call hard canon: Confirmed events, dates, and actions.

We're ignoring for a second the emotional and psychological fallout of choices, or soft canon, since—particularly for pre-canon events, which form the goddamn backbone of Annabeth's original series arc—there's a lot more there to interpret and argue over. Especially with regards to Annabeth's family and personal trauma, which gets Jossed repeatedly.

We're also ignoring my personal headcanons/fixed timeline that I use for writing fanfiction for a second, so if you read my shit. . .this ain't that Annabeth. Or the other one.

This is going to be pretty spare, since a lot of important things are left up for debate, and Riordan is fundamentally uninterested in the psychology of the mortal parents in his books.

1. When Annabeth is "born", her father asks Athena to take her back. She discusses this with Percy in TLT, Ch. 13: I Plunge To My Death:

"My dad’s resented me since the day I was born, Percy," she said. "He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise me on Olympus because he was too busy with his work. She wasn’t happy about that. She told him heroes had to be raised by their mortal parent."

2. In the same canon conversation, she tells Percy that she "took the hint. [She] wasn't wanted. . ." and ran away when she was seven, after what she recounts as inadvertent neglect due to her demigod status at best, and purposeful emotional neglect/abuse at worse.

She reaches camp before she turned eight with Grover Underwood, Thalia Grace, and Luke Castellan, with an army of monsters trying to kill them.

2A. Two summers before Percy Jackson arrives at Camp Half-Blood, when Annabeth is ten, she receives a letter from her father, asking for her to come home so they can try again. He gives her his Harvard college ring, which she still keeps.

"My dad sent it to me folded up in a letter, two summers ago. The ring was, like, his main keepsake from Athena. . .Anyway, he said he wanted me to have it. He apologized for being a jerk, said he loved me and missed me. He wanted me to come home and live with him."

This ends horribly, because of course.

"I tried to go home for that school year, but my stepmom was the same as ever. She didn’t want her kids put in danger by living with a freak. Monsters attacked. We argued. Monsters attacked. We argued. I didn’t even make it through winter break. I called Chiron and came right back to Camp Half-Blood."

[Both quotes above from TLT, Ch. 16: We Take A Zebra To Vegas]

3. With Thalia turned into a tree by her father, Zeus, to save her life, Annabeth remained at Camp Half-Blood for the next five years, as proven by the five beads on her camp necklace that she shows to Percy in TLT, Ch. 7: My Dinner Goes Up In Smoke:

Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke’s, except Annabeth’s also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.

"I’ve been here since I was seven," she said.

3A. Worth noting this makes Annabeth and Percy's official birth year of 1993 wrong. Percy is already twelve years old in June 2005, and Annabeth, while never stated outright to also be already twelve, they are heavily implied to be the same age multiple times throughout the original series.

We also get this in MoA, Ch. II: Annabeth:

She’d secretly had a crush on him since they were twelve years old.

So, they're born in 1992. This isn't all that important but I am petty and this has driven me batshit while working out timelines in the past.

4. At the end of the summer of TLT, Annabeth writes her father and asks to come home for the year (TLT, Ch. 22: The Prophecy Comes True):

"I wrote him a letter when we got back,’ Annabeth said. ‘Just like you suggested. I told him... I was sorry. I’d come home for the school year if he still wanted me. He wrote back immediately. We decided... we’d give it another try."

5. So, towards this point, we, as readers figures that Annabeth's family has been. . .not great, towards her, at minimum. A lot of things are left ambiguous, but it's clear that there's been a lot of misunderstandings and A+ Parenting going on. Which makes it very interesting when we reach The Titan's Curse (TTC), finally meet Frederick Chase, Annabeth's dad, and Helen Chase, her stepmother, and this is what we see (TTC, Ch. 16: We Meet The Dragon Of Eternal Bad Breath):

After hearing Annabeth gripe about her dad for two years, I was expecting him to have devil horns and fangs. I was not expecting him to be wearing an old-fashioned aviator’s cap and goggles. He looked so weird, with his eyes bugging out through the glasses, that we all took a step back on the front porch.

"Hello," he said in a friendly voice. "Are you delivering my aeroplanes?"

Thalia, Zoë and I looked at each other warily.

"Um, no, sir," I said.

"Drat," he said. "I need three more Sopwith Camels."

"Right," I said, though I had no clue what he was talking about. "We’re friends of Annabeth."

"Annabeth?" He straightened as if I’d just given him an electric shock. "Is she all right? Has something happened?"

Followed up shortly by Helen's—who Annabeth has expressed a lot of vitriol towards—first on-page appearance:

We introduced ourselves a little uneasily, but Mrs Chase seemed really nice. She asked if we were hungry. We admitted we were, and she told us she’d bring us some cookies and sandwiches and sodas.

"Dear," Dr Chase said. "They came about Annabeth."

I half expected Mrs Chase to turn into a raving lunatic at the mention of her stepdaughter, but she just pursed her lips and looked concerned.

"All right. Go on up to the study and I’ll bring you some food." She smiled at me. "Nice meeting you, Percy. I’ve heard a lot about you."

Effectively, after two books and change's worth of talking up Annabeth's difficult childhood and past and the borderline hate she's expressed for her father's choices and stepmother's treatment of her, both when she was seven and when she was ten, they're de-fanged within the narrative pretty quickly, with Percy repeatedly wondering if these are actually Annabeth's relatives.

6. This, of course, not to say that people can't change or improve for the better. It would be more than easy enough to mention how Annabeth's parents have read Parenting A Demigod For Dummies or similar since she's last seen them.

Instead, we get this conversation as our follow-up in TTC, Ch. 18: A Friend Says Goodbye:

Annabeth and I flew along side by side.

"Your dad seems cool," I told her.

It was too dark to see her expression. She looked back, even though California was far behind us now.

"I guess so," she said. "We’ve been arguing for so many years."

"Yeah, you said."

"You think I was lying about that?" It sounded like a challenge, but a pretty half-hearted one, like she was asking it of herself.

"I didn’t say you were lying. It’s just... he seems okay. Your stepmom, too. Maybe they’ve, uh, got cooler since you saw them last."

She hesitated.

And. . .there are interesting implications here, about Annabeth's perception of her parents when she was younger. I'm going to put a pin in this for the next section. They're not, necessarily, bad implications, considering Annabeth's character and how much is left ambiguous as of TTC about what exactly happened to make her run away beyond monsters and arguing with her parents.

7. For now, Annabeth's relationship with her mortal relatives seems fixed. Battle of the Labyrinth (BotL) and TLO happen, her mortal family remains off-screen, and we don't hear about them until the third book of HoO: The Mark of Athena (MoA), Ch. XX: Annabeth:

[This is a long passage, but I think it's important to include it in full]

Terror plunged her into memories. She was seven years old again, alone in her bedroom in Richmond, Virginia. The spiders came at night. They crawled in waves from her closet and waited in the shadows. She yelled for her father, but her father was away for work. He always seemed to be away for work.

Her stepmother came instead.

I don’t mind being the bad cop, she had once told Annabeth’s father, when she didn’t think Annabeth could hear.

It’s only your imagination, her stepmother said about the spiders. You’re scaring your baby brothers.

They’re not my brothers, Annabeth argued, which made her stepmother’s expression harden. Her eyes were almost as scary as the spiders.

Eventually she fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. She woke up in the morning, freckled with bites, cobwebs covering her eyes, her mouth, and nose. The bites faded before she even got dressed, so she had nothing to show her stepmother except cobwebs, which her stepmother thought was some sort of clever trick.

No more talk of spiders, her stepmother said firmly. You’re a big girl now. The second night, the spiders came again. Her stepmother continued to be the bad cop. Annabeth wasn’t allowed to call her father and bother him with this nonsense. No, he would not come home early.

The third night, Annabeth ran away from home.

It's worth remembering that A) Annabeth is still seven years old and a child, B) Night terrors are not unheard-of in children, and C) A child screaming their head off every night and begging just to call their father is not something that you ignore and tell them to grow up with.

So. We now have two relationships for Annabeth and her mortal parents, because for as much as we get of her POV in HoO, we don't actually get very many details about what was, at minimum, a very messy complicated relationship. Either:

A. Despite being unprepared for a demigod child to raise, Annabeth's mortal parents did their best and Annabeth tricked herself into think they were both awful and gaslighted herself into believing they hated her and she had plenty of cause to run away from home.

B. Annabeth's mortal parents were woefully unprepared for a demigod child to raise, blamed the child for the monsters brought down upon them, and gaslighted the child about part of their godly heritage until said child—a daughter of Athena, who presumably is good at risk-reward calculations—decided they would rather take their chances on the run then stay home.

Pick your lane, Riordan.

III. Bringing Up Daisy A Demigod

Please note: This section is about to get into speculation and headcanon. I do my best to clearly delineate the line between my theories, insulting Riordan, and confirmed canon. Sorry if I fuck it up.

So, the case of Annabeth's father and stepmother is actually pretty curious in canon. Obviously, it's incredibly difficult to raise a demigod child, and I think sometimes that non-Sally Jackson parents don't get enough credit for the jobs they do.

Riordan tends to divide parents into two categories: parents that do such a wonderful job they're borderline canonized as saints (Sally Jackson, Esperanza Valdez, Maria di Angelo), and parents who utterly fail at parenting (Beryl Grace, May Castellan, Marie Levesque).

Mind you, this is also how he and the narrative paint them and their actions. I could write whole essays on Riordan's treatment of mothers and my feelings about that, but we're focusing on Annabeth's mortal parents here.

And they're. . .weird. I think the closest parent to them is Tristan McLean, but he nopes out of facing Piper's demigod heritage in canon for his own mental health.

Frederick—because ultimately, this all comes down to Frederick—is, ultimately, given a "passing" grade in demigod parenting in canon, with the giant asterisk of Annabeth running away because she believed he and Helen didn't care about her.

But—still just going off of what's confirmed in canon—I'm disinclined to disagree with this (Bear in mind I love Frederick's mad scientist/historian schtick; I like him. I don't think he's a great parent).

So, he and Athena have a whole whirlwind romance. Athena gives him their brainchild as a symbol of their intellectual love. Frederick doesn't want said child, knowing who Athena is.

But obviously, he gets with the program and raises Annabeth, clearly informing Annabeth of who her mother is and what she is from a young age. Which works, to a point.

The problem is the monsters. And the spiders. And the godly heritage. And—look, integrating families is difficult enough when all the children involved are mortal.

Telling Annabeth Chase that her mother is a freaking goddess, but also, her father is in love again and re-marrying, is not going to go over well. Not when Annabeth's a small child and, admittedly, a prideful little shit on the best of days.

But regardless of how difficult she's being, she's still a child and Frederick's responsibility, since he either owned up, or is still refusing responsibility (Which would be a huge yikes).

I think to not inform her stepmother, the person taking care of her while Frederick is away, traveling wherever he is for his job, that Annabeth's a demigod and there may be consequences from that, is parental malpractice.

Because. . .look. Pre-MoA, it's very easy to make a case that Annabeth was determined to think the worst of her mortal parents, and any and all mistakes/arguments they had were magnified tenfold in her mind—and then once she meets Thalia, Luke, and their parental horrorshows, it's very easy to put together something in her mind that matches what her new family went through.

But the spiders happened. The supernatural night terrors happened.

And her parents not only did nothing, but those two nights of night terrors left Annabeth Chase, daughter of the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, convinced that she was better off running away from home, alone.

She was also clearly still of the belief that her father could fix everything, and judging from the state of Frederick and Helen's marriage in TTC as well as Bad Cop conversation, "don't let Annabeth call her father for 'attention' while he's on a work trip" is likely a mutual decision between the two of them.

(It's also worth questioning the consequences of how Frederick is implied to be clear-sighted, since he's able to see the Pegasi Blackjack, Guido, and Porkpie in TTC without problems, but Helen is not)

She meets Thalia Grace and Luke Castellan and things get. . .even more fascinating, frankly. Because those two very angry, very violent teenagers—not without reason, don't get me wrong—essentially then spend a pretty important time in Annabeth's life acting as the closest thing to parents she has.

So, believing her parents either can't or won't acknowledge what's happening to her, and, like her parents, blaming herself for the monsters said to have been attacking their home in Richmond, VA, Annabeth runs away from home.

[Edit, 12/5/2021: I dunno how many people will ever actually see this, but I think an oversight I made in this post is mentioning that abusers appearing perfectly charming and normal and nothing like their victims mentioned is really common in real life, and Riordan playing it straight via Percy's POV is, uh, really fucked up? It's increasingly my suspicion that this also really contributes to fandom perception of Annabeth's trauma, too.

Anyway. As you were.]

She's assuming her demigod heritage and modeling herself after her heroes, by her own admission: Luke and Thalia.

Then Annabeth loses Thalia. She then only has Luke and Camp Half-Blood to take care of her through a pretty formative time in her life, where she's taught the only possible way she can hold onto anything is being smarter and better at violence then anyone else.

Which, well. Annabeth Chase is pretty good at that.

IV. Character Construction: Growth and Flaws

One of my most red-hot takes in Riordanverse fandom coming right up. Ready?

Annabeth Chase has no character arc in the original PJO series or HoO.

(Percy doesn't have much of one either, but that's for another essay)

It's really obvious and depressing with Annabeth, however, because she is perfectly set up for some really fascinating characterization. And Riordan draws attention to it! Attachment issues, hubris, just generally. . .Annabeth learning how to healthily deal with people outside of immediate life-or-death situations, because my god, she's got hang-ups.

(Not unreasonably so, all things considered. But still)

But nothing is ever meaningfully done with this. In TLT, there are signs of growth—Annabeth looks like she's coming to respect Percy and view him as a friend (Wanting him on her team for Capture The Flag, talking about her family with him, looking after him when he's attacked by the pit scorpion, etc), we see her both put her own intelligence to work and work with Grover and Percy (fighting the Furies, Medusa, dog-training Cerberus, fighting Ares, etc).

There are still flaws and signals of recurring issues over the rest of the series (Annabeth's attachment issues acting up with Rachel) along with signs of Annabeth's own inherent strengths and abilities (Such as fighting the Hydra), and her ability to still learn from mistakes when faced with them (Tellingly, they usually require her to face physical consequences because of her own belief in her intelligence).

But nothing's ever made of it. There's no culminating moment.

Things get. . .weird. Repeatedly weird, throughout the original series. In Sea of Monsters (SoM), we have the fatal flaw discussion (Ch. 13: Annabeth Tries To Swim Home):

"You feel that way?"

She looked down. "Don’t you ever feel like, what if the world really is messed up? What if we could do it all over again from scratch? No more war. Nobody homeless. No more summer reading homework."

And this is genuinely interesting stuff! You can see how Luke would try to exploit that to try and get her on his side in the future! This is what Kronos is claiming he offers to the demigods.

Annabeth's belief in her ideals, combined with her conviction in her intelligence and ability to get this right, can make for a dangerous combination.

This also combines pretty beautifully with her relationship with Luke, which is. . .a mess.

(We're going to ignore any romantic overtones from that scene in TLO from Luke towards Annabeth. He loved her like a little sister/daughter, she adored him and had a helluva crush on him for a while. End. Of. Story.

. . .Riordan really doesn't remember what age differences as a teenager were like, huh)

Anyway. With Thalia as a pine tree and her relationship with her mortal parents still up in the air, Luke was the only family Annabeth had and the person she had convinced herself that she could depend on for anything. Luke, in turn, kept losing family to the gods and their apparent whims: First his mother to the Oracle, then Thalia to the Great Prophecy, and now he has watch his siblings and Annabeth grow up and wait for them to die.

They absolutely bring out the worst and most irrationally emotional parts in each other and it's been established many—

"Travelling with a Cyclops," Luke chided. "Talk about dishonouring Thalia’s memory! I’m surprised at you, Annabeth. You of all people—"

"Stop it!" she shouted.

I didn’t know what Luke was talking about, but Annabeth buried her head in her hands like she was about to cry.

[SoM, Ch. 9: I Have The Worst Family Reunion Ever]

—many—

I knew immediately that Annabeth had designed it all. She was the architect for a whole new world. She had reunited her parents. She had saved Luke. She had done everything she’d ever wanted.

[SoM, Ch. 13: Annabeth Tries To Swim Home]

—many—

“Luke!” Annabeth yelled. “Stop this. Let us go!”

[BotL, Ch. 14: My Brother Duels Me To The Death]

—many—

He did just what I expected. He said, “Antaeus is dead. His oath dies with him. But since I’m feeling merciful today, I’ll have you killed quickly.”

[BotL, Ch. 14: My Brother Duels Me To The Death]

—many—

"YOU!" Annabeth turned on Luke. "To think that I—that I thought—"

She drew her knife.

"Annabeth, don’t." I tried to take her arm, but she shook me off.

She attacked Kronos, and his smug smile faded. Perhaps some part of Luke remembered that he used to like this girl, used to take care of her when she was little. . .I yanked her back as Kronos swung his scythe, slicing the air where she’d been standing.

She fought me and screamed, "I HATE you!" I wasn’t sure who she was talking to—me or Luke or Kronos.

[TLO, Ch. 18: My Parents Go Commando]

—many times.

Yes, my other red-hot take is that Annabeth should've had a corruption arc at some point. Nobody will convince me otherwise.

But back to the point, which is not what I think should've happened with Annabeth, but rather how we never really see her struggle with actual weak points in her personality and/or past.

In BotL, when she's in a rather one-sided pissing match with Rachel Elizabeth Dare over Percy's affections because. . .girls, I guess, it's pretty obvious that it's not—or, at least, shouldn't be—over Percy's romantic affections.

It's over the fact that Rachel offers Percy something that Annabeth never can, and in doing so, threatens Annabeth's place in Percy's life as his Most Important Friend.

(Rachel de facto also threatens Grover's place in Percy's life as his best friend, but Grover, to the best of our knowledge, doesn't have endless attachment issues.)

Rachel, while being clear-sighted, is still a mortal. She—pre-becoming the Oracle of Delphi—leads a pretty normal life. When she and Percy hang out, it's outside demigod things. It's Percy, for the first time in a long while that he gets to experience normal things that are good things. It's not having to cope with Smelly Gabe, or try and not fail out of mortal high school, or worry over his mom.

When he hangs out with Rachel, he's completely himself, not fighting for his life, and gets to hang out with some he likes. This is really fucking rare in Percy's life.

Hell, in TLO (Ch. 1: I Go Cruising With Explosives):

Technically I wasn't supposed to be driving because I wouldn't turn sixteen for another week, but my mom and my stepdad, Paul, took my friend Rachel and me to this private stretch of beach on the South Shore, and Paul let us borrow his Prius for a short spin.

You could switch out names of people and places, and this could be just about any summer coming-of-age teen romcom. Percy "my life as a half-blood sucks shit beyond even the normal half-blood experience" Jackson never gets this.

Rachel even knows and respects the fact that he's a demigod and will always be sucked back into that. Bonus points.

(. . .I might be spreading the Rachel/Percy agenda here. Maybe)

Anyway. Annabeth knows this. She really knows this. Annabeth, who has, at some point or another, lost nearly everyone in her life because of either too much demigod or too much mortal, who has survived by fully assuming her demigod identity year-round, can't offer Percy something like this.

We should see Annabeth struggling with this. Struggling with the idea that Percy can go, have nice things in the mortal world, still do demigods things, and not completely lose him like she has Thalia, Luke, or her father.

But nope.

So, Rachel,” Annabeth said, “where are you from, exactly?”

[BotL, Ch. 14: My Brother Duels Me To The Death]

Bearing Annabeth's attachment, abandonment, and losing-people issues in mind, i think this also puts quite a different spin on this moment from BotL, Ch. 13: We Hire A New Guide:

Annabeth glared at me. “You are the single most annoying person I have ever met!” And she stormed out of the room.

Less "jealousy" and more "I spent two weeks convinced you were dead and just realized you are not only not dead, but instead spent two weeks with a beautiful immortal goddess who asked you to stay with her and because of my unprocessed relationship issues and the number of emotions I'm dealing with right now, I can't really process that properly."

If I'm allowed to fully editorialize for a second: I find jealousy subplots, ninety percent of the time, to be extremely tedious and pointless, including here. Percy doesn't fully clue into the fact that Annabeth's jealous of Rachel for whatever reason, Annabeth doesn't learn how to let go of her friends and not be so possessive, and nothing is learned by anyone.

All that's achieved is Annabeth looks much worse as a person than before, and is eventually rewarded with a kiss on Percy's sixteenth birthday and her "romantic competition" being sworn to eternal celibacy.

No growth. No change. Nothing.

And there could've been, I repeat, something, a lot of something, to be learned here, especially with Annabeth fully and completely losing Luke to Kronos in the same book, as he takes on the Titan's spirit. With her learning to emotionally let go and move on in healthy ways.

And it's really emblematic of Annabeth's problems growing as a character, at the end of the day. She has enough truly great traits and strengths to remain a protagonist—Annabeth, for all that Riordan rarely gives her a chance to shine, is still brilliant as hell, doesn't know how to surrender without stabbing her enemy in the back, is stubborn as a pig, and sticks to her guns, and I love her for it—but the flaws. . .man, her flaws.

Riordan never actually picks at her true flaws beyond waving vaguely in their general direction, and instead chooses weaknesses that have either never been particularly relevant to her as a character, or things that, if anything, were shored up in the original series.

Case in point:

What did Annabeth have? A bronze dagger that did nothing special, and a cursed silver coin. She had her backpack with Daedalus’s laptop, a water bottle, a few pieces of ambrosia for emergencies, and a box of matches—probably useless, but her dad had drilled into her head that she should always have a way to make fire. She had no amazing powers. Even her one true magic item, her New York Yankees cap of invisibility, had stopped working, and was still back in her cabin on the Argo II.

[MoA, Ch. XXXIII: Annabeth]

Two perceived weaknesses for her to overcome here: The lack of her divine mother helping her out, and no big shiny weapons or special powers.

Two weaknesses that Annabeth has been dealing with her entire life. Hell, Annabeth is the one who gives Percy the "your godly parents aren't ever around" speech in TLT. She knows this.

And the lack of special powers isn't new. If we were to salvage that, it would be the fact that for a rare time in her life, Annabeth is alone.

(Cue: My angry speech about how MoA is where we should have gotten what went down in TTC while Annabeth was kidnapped, and how that should've been interesting as fuck.

And even then, she had Luke and Artemis)

Annabeth gets less character development than Percy in HoO and that is saying something.

But what do I know, compared to the guy who makes his stand-in for any sexism less blatant than a literal ancient dude ghost thinking women shouldn't be warriors to be blonde hair?

V. Notes on Demigod Children and Inherited Traits

Okay, this section is going to be short and sweet due to obvious reasons, but I feel that I should include it for the sake of completeness. It wouldn't be a meta essay about Annabeth Chase if I didn't address The Blonde ThingTM.

*Clears Throat* Ahem.

The Blonde Thing is beyond stupid and peak #MenWritingWomen. I have spoken.

I am blond. The only people I have ever met who even made blond jokes even semi-seriously were preteen boys, who knew that it would get a rise out of their female blonde agemates with short tempers.

. . .which lines right up with Rick Riordan, now that I think about it.

I do suspect the blonde hair was meant to function as a stand-in for the systematic misogyny Annabeth would face as a female genius in a male-dominated field, when her social skills are already not fantastic.

And, like, that's interesting, but it also requires you to have a more nuanced understanding of feminism than the late aughts-celebrity tabloids. Or any idea of how to actually write women and girls.

Lastly: Having the godly inherited traits of the goddess of wisdom being blonde hair and grey eyes is racist as hell and I despise it. Fuck off, Riordan. I get you want a resemblance of some kind, but THIS:

Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her grey eyes and honey-blonde hair.

[TLT, Ch. 7: My Dinner Goes Up In Smoke]

This isn't it.

The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blonde hair curled like Cinderella’s.

[TLT, Ch. 4: My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting]

Tell me you don't understand how white women's hair normally works without telling me you don't understand how white women's hair normally works.

Either Annabeth's hair is a thick rat's nest and Percy's just being poetic, which is absolutely fair, knowing that boy, or Annabeth actually enjoys curling her hair and taking excellent care of it. You can't have her Not Like Other Girls it and give her fabulous loose curls, Riordan.

*For reference, here's what the infamous and oft-used "princess blond curls", a descriptor used by multiple characters, actually look like IRL:

VI. Perseus Jackson

This section is going to make everyone angry. I apologize in advance.

So, Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson. Probably one of the more iconic canon romantic relationships of fantasy of the last twenty years. There's a reason for that.

Before I tear it apart, let's get a couple things straight:

A. They do have chemistry for days. There's a reason, beyond the relatively young age of the Riordanverse fandom, that they're so pervasively shipped.

B. They can, in the right hands, do a pretty good opposites complement each other, instead of opposites attract.

C. They hit a lot of the tropes in canon that people really enjoy, and, for the most part the story (if not the writing), is a good one; you've got friends to lovers, mild Romeo & Juliet vibes due to their parents, they're pretty badass together, lots of genuine attraction that isn't just the usual compulsory heteronormativity, etc.

D. They genuinely possess a lot of legwork and time put into their relationship, with plenty nice moments. I believe they have a strong relationship with romantic potential/realized romance.

E. Annabeth Chase is not Satan. She is a traumatized, brilliant demigod with attachment issues, who has been repeatedly failed by the adults and people acting in loco parentis around her. This doesn't rob her of all agency or blame for what we're about to discuss.

F. (Those attachment and mistrust issues are part of the reason she and Percy "I never met a friend I wouldn't burn the world for" Jackson work, but that doesn't excuse. . .well)

There is, however, one and a half problems. Very big ones. I say half because I'm of the opinion that one feeds off the half, but not entirely, so it still counts.

1. So, remember how we just finished discussing all of Annabeth's many issues, that Riordan never really addresses in any meaningful capacity? As well as how he so drastically missed the point with Annabeth's jealousy towards Rachel? I sort of lied in saying Riordan never really addresses them.

He does. He romanticizes a lot of Annabeth's more trauma-related and problematic traits where Percy/Annabeth is concerned.

We're going to largely study the big one, because it's the infamous one, and also. . .it really sort of encapsulates Annabeth's issues, how they're channeled into her and Percy's relationship, proves Riordan is aware of them, but then. . .nothing is ever done about it.

[PLEASE NOTE: If discussion/breakdown of an abusive action/patterns of potential abusive or toxic actions are triggering for you, skip to 1.5, marked with asterisks and in bigger text.]

From MoA, Ch. II, Annabeth:

Annabeth grabbed his wrist and flipped him over her shoulder. He slammed into the stone pavement. Romans cried out. Some surged forward, but Reyna shouted, “Hold! Stand down!”

Annabeth put her knee on Percy’s chest. She pushed her forearm against his throat. She didn’t care what the Romans thought. A white-hot lump of anger expanded in her chest—a tumor of worry and bitterness that she’d been carrying around since last autumn.

“If you ever leave me again,” she said, her eyes stinging, “I swear to all the gods—”

There's a lot going down here. We're going to break it down.

-First off, we've got the immediate violence. This isn't something I'm going to excuse because you shouldn't judo flip your boyfriends, no matter how terrifying the last couple weeks have been for you, but it's certainly. . .explainable (re: Annabeth has been repeatedly taught via traumatic experience that the best way to handle losing people and re-assert control over the situation is action of some kind, usually violent).

-I'm also going to say it outright, because I think it's only responsible of me to say: It is an abusive action. Men can be abused by their partners, including if said partner is a woman.

-It's not an inherently bad place for the narrative to go, but it, like many other places in these books, is an excellent time for Annabeth to realize that her trauma is hurting others, including her boyfriend.

-So. Next up. Obviously, we have the reaction of the Romans, Reyna telling them to stand down until they get a better idea of what just happened, since presumably, Percy has been singing Annabeth's praises since he got his memory back.

-Then we have the next big thing, which tells me that Annabeth's. . .lack of self-awareness, at times, when she lacks a degree of separation from the situation at hand, is in place, when she says, "If you ever leave me again. . ."

-Obviously, Percy didn't have a choice in the matter, which leaves me inclined to believe this is the shitty writing acting up again, because for whatever reasons, Riordan decided in the back half of HoO that he had it out for Percy (But that's another essay), or—it is, once again, after what's probably been an awful couple months for Annabeth, a lot of very old, scarring stuff is acting up in victim-blaming Percy for his kidnapping in that moment.

-The thing that kills me is this isn't a bad moment, but a very good one, if we treat it for what it is: a wake-up call that Annabeth's trauma has exaggerated her worst personality traits until she's now hurting the people she loves.

*1.5*

A lot of Problem #1 featured my making sense of the canon given us, so I think I've earned the right to quickly go off on a few things out of diegesis real quick, so here we go:

Richard Riordan sucks at writing female characters and I will fucking fight him in a Denny's parking lot at 3AM over it.

Annabeth Chase, in the original series, suffers from a lot of tropes of late aughts/early teens pop culture feminism: She's aggressive, SmartTM, dismissive of boys, Pretty Without Trying, suffers from the ever-infamous I'm Not Like Other Girls Syndrome, in which Annabeth seems to almost actively avoid or even hate being perceived as a normal girl her age—something that, interestingly, Riordan almost seems to try and rectify with writing Annabeth and Piper into a close friendship off-page between The Lost Hero (TLH) and MoA.

Admittedly, while I like the idea of Annabeth and Piper bonding, there's certainly something to be said for Riordan choosing Piper, who gets a narrative where she gets to prove to her half-sister, Drew Tanaka, an embodiment of "what Aphrodite stands for" and extremely traditionally feminine, that she is That Much Better than Drew.

In addition to be extremely annoying to sift through for a real character, it also betrays a real lack of thought of Riordan into what Annabeth's non-Percy life looks like, which carries over into HoO in the form of a fairly popular complaint: Annabeth and Percy spend way too much time being a cutesy endgame couple.

If Annabeth's closest friend pre-Percy's arrival is Luke, who's much older than her and pre-occupied with trying to bring down Olympus, and Grover, who by all accounts hasn't been that close to her since the loss of Thalia, that's going to leave a mark.

It's certainly a reasonable enough scenario: Annabeth's terrified of opening up again after bonding to the point of co-dependency with Thalia and Luke, while Percy befriends her against her will.

But we don't get that. We don't get tales of Annabeth actively avoiding becoming too close with her siblings, or telling Clarisse and Silena and her other age-mates to go away, she doesn't need them. Or her learning to open up again.

Annabeth Chase, for all that she gets a lot of time on-screen, never gets clear turning points of growth in her character because she's too busy struggling for the purpose of the men in her life.

She's never afforded the complexity necessary for growth, unless it's in service of the plot, or furthering the character of Percy Jackson or Luke Castellan.

She explains her background and fatal flaws to Percy so he can learn. She struggles with her relationship with Luke so that Luke can have angst over being the bad guy—or because making Luke/Thalia canon is too much moral ambiguity for Rick Riordan.

Hell, even in TLT, when she's struggling with returning to her family, Percy Jackson is encouraging her to return to the family she tells him didn't want her, and is very eager to make excuses for them:

. . .He got a “regular” mortal wife, and had two “regular” mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn’t exist."

I stared out the train window. The lights of a sleeping town were drifting by. I wanted to make Annabeth feel better, but I didn’t know how.

"My mom married a really awful guy," I told her. "Grover said she did it to protect me, to hide me in the scent of a human family. Maybe that’s what your dad was thinking."

[TLT, Ch. 13: I Plunge To My Death]

As well as this wonderfully uncomfortable bit, after Annabeth informs Percy that whenever she visits her family, monsters attack, she's blamed for everything, and she gets into endless arguments until she decides it's better off at camp:

"You think you’ll ever try living with your dad again?"

She wouldn’t meet my eyes. "Please. I’m not into self-inflicted pain."

"You shouldn’t give up," I told her. ‘You should write him a letter or something."

"Thanks for the advice," she said coldly, "but my father’s made his choice about who he wants to live with."

[TLT, Ch. 16: We Take A Zebra To Vegas]

Of course, as we've previously well-established, Riordan either can't quite decide the narrative that he wants for Annabeth's backstory, or he has a very complicated one in mind that he refuses to devote the needed legwork to. So the veracity of some of what Percy is told can be left up in the air.

And Percy is, of course, still pretty optimistic, seeing as far as he's concerned, Sally is nothing but wonderful—to say nothing of how weird Riordan can get with biological relatives and the need to have them in your life.

But all things considered, with Percy is able to push that with an ease that I find mildly discomforting. Annabeth's life is given a simplicity and ease that I find discomforting, all things considered.

She's held in captivity and what amounts to torture as she's tricked by her oldest living friend into holding up the sky during TTC, with few apparent consequences. Assuming she's gained friends at some point, we don't see much of her grief or worry in BotL or TLO.

Percy is a limited narrator, but very little is given of Annabeth that revolves around Annabeth. Even Annabeth lashing out after Percy's return about Ogygia is back to Percy. Not her own emotions or mental state after the immediate fact.

In TLO, the closest Annabeth gets past Love-Interest-In-Waiting (re: Rachel) and Plot-Device-For-Percy's-Badassery-And-Manpain (Being Percy's anchor and taking Ethan's knife for him), is her moments with Luke as they struggle towards the finale, when we finally get, "Family, Luke. You promised."

It's about Annabeth and Luke's relationship and Annabeth finally letting him go! It's great!

But even that is turned back around in service of Luke and Percy with this:

"Did you . . ." Luke coughed and his lips glistened red. "Did you love me?"

[TLO, Ch. 19: We Trash The Eternal City]

(We're ignoring any romantic overtones that aren't between Annabeth and Percy in this scene or about Annabeth's one-sided crush on Luke. Ignoring them, damn it}

It's all in service of Luke and Percy's angst in completing the Final Prophecy. Which I would possibly give a pass for because adrenaline and final battle and story pacing if Luke were brought up at all in HoO.

Beyond Percy's thinking about him for 0.5 seconds in MoA, of course.

For all that Annabeth has a lot of POV time in The Mark of Athena and The House of Hades (HoO), she's not afforded much depth in her narrative.

We don't learn anything new about her, we don't hear much about her mortal family, whom she is presumably at least on speaking terms with these days, and—most infuriatingly enough, in my opinion—she doesn't spend much time thinking about her own life beyond, well, her boyfriend.

And. . .look. In a lot of ways, the original PJO series really reflect the environment and time they were written in. Including and perhaps especially in the treatment of Annabeth.

There are a lot of things in there can be forgiven, however, with good writing in HoO that's reflective of greater attention in writing female characters and affording them complex inner lives that don't either revolve around the plot at hand or their love interest.

This. . .doesn't happen. TLH!Annabeth Chase being singularly obsessed with finding her missing boyfriend speaks for itself, I've already discussed MoA quite a lot, and I think HoH really speaks for itself with this:

"I can’t see!" She touched her face, looking around wildly. Her eyes were pure white.

[HoH, Ch. XXIX: Percy]

This is all good and cool; it's a sweet callback to both SoM and THe Odyssey, actually centered around Annabeth's own deeds.

"Percy!" Annabeth’s voice cracked. "Why did you leave me?"

[HoH, CH. XXX: Percy]

This isn't inherently bad, per se, but considering Percy's already coping with Bob/Iapetus finding out he's responsible for the memory wipe and didn't tell him, combined with both past and future events in the Tartarus sequence, it's really. . .low, I think.

To have Annabeth's pain still be centered around Percy and her relationship with him (As well, I think, to be equally low for Calypso, who portrayed no visible bitterness in BotL, to curse Annabeth anyway, then add in the pointless feud between Percy and Leo over Calypso in the next book).

This entire scene isn't about Annabeth's abandonment issues, or it would have been in her POV. It's about torturing Percy and furthering the manpain.

And then Blood of Olympus (BoO) happens, neither Percy or Annabeth are meaningfully involved at all, Annabeth has to be rescued multiple times, Percy has to be rescued by the son of Jupiter from Percy's own half-sister in the sea, and Riordan writes Percy and Annabeth's dynamic like they're thirteen years old again and still trying to figure out how to be friends.

So. . .why was Annabeth in the Seven? If the Mark of Athena was purposefully a solo quest with the line of "Wisdom's daughter stands alone" and she gives no meaningful contribution to defeating Gaea in BoO that another demigod handy with a sword could've filled.

If anything, to be frank, she could've seen a much more interesting and meaningful story if Reyna had been in the Seven and Annabeth had accompanied the Athena Parthenos back home with Nico, forcing the Romans to confront their crimes again Athena/Minerva in the form of the statue and the goddess's favored living daughter.

Percy/Annabeth is a fun ship and, to a certain extent, deserves it's large fandom, thanks to the character chemistry and nice canon moments on their own.

But the shoddy writing around Annabeth's personality, trauma, personal story, and Riordan's inability to write mature romantic relationships with fierce partners that don't feature genuine threats of violence issues that need to be acknowledged and critiqued in work.

The misogyny in being incapable of writing a complex, brilliant, and flawed female character without writing abusive tendencies and romanticizing that bullshit is truly breathtaking.

(And yes. I've seen what he's done with Magnus Chase and Alex Fierro)

VII. Fandom Treatment

I figure, as always, it's worth making a note about the two treatments of Annabeth that I've seen in how fandom and fanon treat her because as always, none of us are off the hook:

1. The people who romanticize Percy/Annabeth in its full canon form to within an inch of its life, think Annabeth has done nothing wrong ever, and think the judo flip is the peak of romance. This is the majority of y'all and I can't say I wasn't once one of you and really annoying about it, because we were all young and stupid, but we all have to grow up at some point.

(And listen, listen. If you want ships that aren't necessarily that healthy because you want that fantasy or you want Percy/Annabeth as a not-fully-healthy ship in a fic, I have both suggestions and fully encourage you.

Just tag properly and be aware of what you're writing. Abuse and toxicity are no joke, including and especially if a woman is an abuser)

2. This is much more the minority, but they exist because I've seen y'all on my dash: People who despise Percy/Annabeth because they can't take the shit in canon, which is absolutely more than fair and I love you all, and think that Annabeth, is, well. . .Satan.

Also I swear if I see one more person sexualizing Annabeth by claiming that she's, I dunno, "fucking her way to the top," I will. . .probably block you and get on with my life. Because I am an adult. Despite certain appearances. But still. Stop it.

Annabeth's twelve and that's a goddamn misogynistic trope used in the workplace against women and in media. It's gross.

She's a flawed character. You can dislike her. She's certainly not the most likeable girl in the world.

I think learning to realize and remember that there's always an author behind your favorite character or least favorite character's actions, and that you can disagree with the writing choice (before getting on with your life and leaving the creator the fuck alone), is an important lesson in fandom. Allows for some clear-headedness.

VIII. Conclusions

I gotta be honest: Annabeth's my girl.

At least within the original series, she's coded pretty hard as autistic and actually ADHD, in a way I find intensely relatable. She's smart as hell, not afraid of it, and has a thing for competency. She's so, so brave.

When she's not got the abusive tendencies creeping in, she also fiercely adores her friends, knows how to make her enemies regret it, and doesn't say die. She met the one person in the world who should've been her enemy and decided yes, this is my new friend. I'm going to get hurt again with him.

She's also got abandonment issues, a possessive streak, a desperate need for therapy, and a nasty temper. Again, I. . .well, I relate to a lot of that.

It's buried under a lot of shit, but Annabeth is unapologetically flawed in a way that's refreshing and rare for female characters, still. I latched on hard when I was young and never quite let go.

I wrote this meta because, despite it all, I love Annabeth Chase, I hate what Riordan warps her into, and I hate the indifference she's treated with when Percy's romance with her isn't being furthered.

I. . .I dunno, what I'm trying to convince y'all of, with this meta. I just hope it's coherent, at this point.

"So if the gods fight," I said, "will things line up the way they did with the Trojan War? Will it be Athena versus Poseidon?"

She put her head against the backpack Ares had given us, and closed her eyes. "I don't know what my mom will do. I just know I'll fight next to you."

"Why?"

"Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?"

[TLT, Ch. 16: We Take A Zebra To Vegas]

If you or someone you know is in an abusive situation, HERE is a link to resources for victims and survivors of domestic violence. It includes a phone number to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, National Dating Abuse Hotline, National Child Abuse Hotline, and other relevant resources (If in the USA).

Please, please get the help you need and deserve.

[caslikescoffeeandfreckles]

For @prayforjensen

A fem!destiel coffeeshop au with barista!cas and mechanic!dean. Based on this post about my favorite fem!destiel headcanons.

There’s an odd grumbling noise coming from the engine and Cas groans, easing her foot off the gas.

“Oh come on, not today, please not today.”

The clock on the dash is taunting her and she sneers at is as she races through the quiet streets. There’s no one out yet. They’re all still in bed. Because it’s fucking four in the goddamn morning and no one in their right mind should be awake right now.

But Castielle Novak has a coffee shop to open. So the sorry sons of bitches who have to be up at six can actually function and feel alive when they show up for work.

The grumbling continues as Cas drives but by some miracle she makes it to the shop. 

Opening isn’t half bad once Cas is in the swing of things and about three triple espressos in. She lowers the chairs, preps the machines, starts brewing the house blends.

Gabe dances through the door around 4:45, late as always, and heads to the kitchen to start the pastries. 

At 6:30 on the dot, she flips the sign and waits for the angry mob of bitter caffeine-addicted zombies to swarm her.

The customers incite a whole other sort of exhaustion in Cas. In just an hour, they’ve brought her to her limit and it’s all she can do to just stand there, recite orders, and wish them a good day.

But around 8:30 she gets her pick-me-up.

And her name is Deanna Winchester. She’s a mechanic who works just down the street, as Cas has learned during the months the woman has been coming in for her grande Columbian roast. 

Always a grande Columbian roast.

Always black. 

“‘Morning, Cas!”

The greeting washes over Cas like pure energy, soaking through Cas’s skin so she has the strength to smile for the first time in hours as she looks up into bright green eyes.

“Hello, Deanna.”

Deanna’s smile is easy as she leans against the counter, eyes flicking across the menu as if she’s going to order something different.

“Mmm, I’ll have a grande Columbian please.”

Cas already has it punched into the register. “One-fifty.”

Deanna fishes two dollar bills out of her wallet. “How’s your morning been?”

“Oh, the usual,” Cas says, returning two quarters. Deanna drops them in the tip jar. “Um, how about yours?”

Deanna’s eyes shift to Cas’s and her smile lifts on one side. “Awesome.”

It takes a moment for Cas to get into gear but then a customer in the middle of the line coughs loudly and she’s stumbling to the bar, pouring Deanna’s cup. 

Deanna is still smiling when Cas turns to hand her the cup and it makes Cas pause. “What?”

“Hm? Nothing,” Deanna assures her, reaching out to take the cup. Their fingers brush and Cas hates herself for the way it makes her stomach stir. Deanna raises the cup to her lips, moaning through the first scalding sip like she always does and Cas has to hide her clenched fists under the counter. “God, it’s perfect. I don’t know what I’d do without you, Cas.”

Cas tries to laugh it off and pretend like her face isn’t on fire. “G-glad you like it.”

“Have a good one.”

“Oh, yeah, ugh, you too,” Cas manages to get out as Deanna steps away and turns to leave.

It’s the most disastrous, embarrassing part of Cas’s morning but she lives for them. The rest of the day is smooth sailing compared to those four minutes and soon it’s noon and she’s clocking out.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she calls to Gabe and the rest of the team as she hightails it out of the shop.

She drops into her car, completely worn out, and fights the key into the ignition. Turns it. 

Nothing.

She tries again and the engine sounds like it’s making some sort of effort for about three seconds and then it’s gone.

“Fuck,” Cas hisses, slapping the dashboard. “I thought we agreed not today!”

With a snarl, she climbs out of the car and pops the hood. “Okay, what’s wrong with you?” she demands. “Is there a leak? Is your battery dead? Did you blow, like, a gasket or something because I am about to!”

“Everything okay?”

Cas startles and spins and nearly explodes there on the spot when she sees Deanna standing just a few feet away in her jumpsuit. She’s got the sleeves tied around her waist and her white tank top is streaked with oil like some kind of sex goddess. 

It takes all the damn air out of Cas’s lungs and all she can do is stare.

“Cas?” Deanna asks, stepping closer. “You okay?”

“C-car. Won’t start.” It’s all she can manage and Cas wants to die the second she says it.

“Oh? Mind if I take a look?”

Cas can’t really say yes or no so she just stares and let’s Deanna interpret that however she likes. Apparently she sees it as a “sure” because she steps right up to the car, close enough to brush Cas’s arm. 

“Jesus, Cas, how old is this thing?” Deanna asks as she digs around. 

“Um. I don’t- I’m not... sure.”

“Well, she is in dire need of a check-up.” She straights suddenly, brows lifted. “And your problem is a broken starter.”

“Is that bad?”

“Nah. I can fix it right here. Let me go get my tools.”

Cas just nods as Deanna runs across the street to a sleek black car. She watches Deanna lift the trunk and pull out a giant tool box and she’s breathless all over again. 

She doesn’t say a single word as Deanna jacks the car up and slides beneath it. And she has no idea how long the woman is under there.

But when Deanna crawls out she’s covered in a fresh layer of sweat and her hair is a wild mess and Cas is certain that she’s having a stroke. 

“Should be good to go. Wanna try it?”

Cas nods and makes her way to the driver’s seat, clumsily fitting the key into the ignition and turning it.

The engine roars to life and Deanna claps her hands together once before closing the hood and lowering the car. 

“Thank you so much for all of your help,” Cas says. “I can’t- I can’t afford to pay you right now but I-”

Deanna waves the rest of her sentence off. “Don’t worry about it. I’m happy to help.”

It doesn’t sit well with Cas but she doesn’t know what else to say at the moment. “I, ugh, well thanks again. You really saved me.”

“No problem. But try to get her into the shop sometime soon, okay?” Deanna pats the hood. “This old lady is in serious need of some TLC.”

Cas smiles through her nerves. “Yeah. I will. Promise.”

Deanna smiles back. “Okay. Then I’ll see you soon. Tomorrow. Probably.”

“Yeah, yeah. See you, ugh, tomorrow.”

And she does see Deanna the next morning and somehow the woman’s smile seems even brighter than, like she’s radiating sunbeams and it turns Cas into a hot mess.

She still hasn’t thought of a way to pay Deanna back so she slips a muffin across the counter along with the coffee, scribbling a quick “Thanks again!” on the package.

Deanna’s smile softens when she reads it and she coughs. “No problem, Cas.”

She does it again the next day and the next and it continues even when Gabe starts sending her the stink eye for just giving away his pastries. 

Deanna is always sweet as she accepts them, even saying it’s unnecessary a few times, but Cas persists.

Until the morning when she’s sliding a scone across the bar and instead of scooping up the pastry, Deanna’s hand lands on Cas’s. Cas looks up and Deanna is wearing her crooked smile, the one that puts butterflies in Cas’s chest. 

She leans in close. 

“How about slipping me your number instead?”

Also tagging @wanderingcas @casandtheimpala @destielonfire @randomdestielfangirl As always, let me know if you want to be added to my tag list or removed :)

[misscrazyfangirl321]

You might be tired of hearing from me lol I just gotta know. How is Martin around the legacies? ( if he interacts with them at all)

First off, I love getting your asks!! Second, sorry this took so long! I’d typed a good chunk of it, when I realized Martin would have left the Waverider with Jax, and all of my headcanons were impossible. Whoops!Okay, here goes! Take two….He, Clarissa, Joe, Cecile, Donna, and Quinten are the Official Grandparents for all of the kids. Martin and Clarissa moved to Star City when Jax did. (Jax moved so that Thea could be closer to her family, and when Ray and Lily landed for breaks from the Waverider, they came to Star City anyway, so it seemed like the best thing.) In particular, Hannah and JJ spend a lot of time at Clarissa and Martin’s house, especially while Thea is sick. Sometimes they stay with Quinten and Donna instead, but for practical reasons, it usually ends up being Martin and Clarissa. (Martin can FEEL when Jax needs him to come get the kids, so Jax doesn’t have to call.) JJ is especially close to Martin. As a kid, he’d hide away in Martin’s office when everything got too loud, and he’d spend hours studying and learning. That’s probably where his passion for science comes from.Hannah is closer to Clarissa, but she loves Martin dearly. He’s incredibly proud of her, and tries to tell her so as often as possible. He’s definitely protective of her, (and JJ as well, honestly,) because he can feel Jax’s torment at their mother’s suffering, and he knows how much worse it would get if something happened to them.The Flash Kids aren’t around Martin as much, but they still love him to pieces.Emily is probably the closest to him out of all of the Flash kids. She’s been calling him grandpa her whole life, though she doesn’t learn exactly why until she’s older. (She’s quiet as they tell her about Ronnie, about the role he played in the lives around her. It’s hard to imagine that she might not have been born if he hadn’t died.) They don’t spend a lot of time together, just because of distance, but he always sends her the best presents. Luke and Martin get along okay, but they aren’t particularly close. Martin’s the science guy that Luke’s dad thinks is so amazing, and he’s quite excited about Luke “becoming a hero like your father,” so Luke tends to keep his distance. Dawn regularly uses her superspeed to visit all the grandparents when she’s younger, (sometimes without permission, which can be chaotic,) but as she gets older, and more questions of “What are you going to do with your life” come up, she tends to run off more on her own. Martin always asks her for souvenirs from different countries, and encourages her that she can be or do anything she wants. Don gets along with Martin okay. He respects him as a hero, and thinks he’s pretty cool, (for lack of a better word,) but they aren’t exactly close.Waverider Kids… He obviously isn’t incredibly close to them, just because he doesn’t see them as much. He misses it, sometimes, (often,) the whole travelling through time thing, but he wouldn’t trade his life now for the world.Victoria is his actual granddaughter, and in ways, they’re close. He loves her to pieces, and she loves him, and he always has a mountain of presents for her when she gets back. Sometimes those presents are hit or miss, especially if the Waverider doesn’t land for awhile. (Give a 13 year old gifts for an 11 year old, and see what happens.) Still, they love each other.Dinah inherited her parents’ snark, so she banters with him often when they see each other. They both hold their own pretty well, and if no one stops them, they can go back and forth for hours.Gabe... Oh, boy. Okay, full disclosure: Gabe reminds Martin way too much of Mick. And Mick has come a long way, but Gabe hasn’t. Not yet. When Martin first finds out that Gabe is now onboard the Waverider with Victoria, he’s furious. “You’re letting that-that delinquent endanger my granddaughter?” Of course, he never says a word of it to Gabe, but Gabe can feel the distrust, and in turn, he pops off with thing to make Martin trust him even less. Not the best relationship, at least at first. As time goes on, they slowly, reluctantly start to accept each other. (Martin saving Gabe’s life during one of the visits to Star City probably has something to do with that.) Still, the two aren’t exactly close.Kali, on the other hand… Martin counts her as one of those, like Clarissa, Jax, Lily, and Victoria, that prove he must have done something right in his life. From the moment she steps off the Waverider to meet him the first time, she completely embraces him as her grandfather. Every time they see each other, she regales him with tales of their adventures through time, and brings him tiny souvenirs from various time periods. Slowly, her mountain of gifts grows to match Victoria’s, and he feels years younger every time he sees her.-Ta-da!!! Thank you so much for the ask! I hope you enjoyed!

[lupintyde]

Master List of ML Crack Posts: #1

 As some of you may know, my memory sucks.  This list is as much for you guys as it is for me ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ 

I’ll be updating this thing periodically.  I’m putting the links under a “read more” so the updates will show up in case someone wants to reblog this.  I love it when something is reblogged (especially when I can read the funny tags), but y’all are random af.  You give me a good laugh on my rough days and I love each and every one of you ＾ω＾

Have fun down the ML rabbit hole of crazy (after the cut)!:

*PLEASE READ THE GENERAL DISCLAIMERS*

i won’t tell you how to live your life

but it’s probably a good idea to read the general disclaimers

I am no longer in this fandom for several reasons

so there won’t be any updates to this list

but here are the posts I’ve done

we watched the English dub because I have a kid who can’t read

and a husband who doesn’t want to

I prefer the French, but use the English names for all but Chat Noir

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Master list of ML Crack Posts: #2

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Have Y’all Noticed...?

This show is not just for kids  

Episodic Nerdery

Homages by episode

The Opening Credits Homage to Anime (Opening) ML’s Love Letter To Horror Movie Fans (Horrificator) Obvious homage is obvious (Kung Food) No one is above Naruto running (Kung Food) Gamer Geeks: UMS3 = Street Fighter (The Gamer) The Mime = Marcel Marceau (The Mime) Where have I seen that...? (Multiple) Historic Miraculous Holders (Multiple)

The Walking Pop Culture Reference

aka, Adrien is a NERD

Adrien the Old-School Nerd (Adrien = Fred Astaire) Dorito chins are easy to grasp when flirting… (Adrien = Tamaki) The Devil’s in the Details (Learning to make friends through anime) Life skills through gaming (Chat = Frogger)

That Was Random

Did...they mean to do that?  Yes.  Yes, they did.

The ZAG license plate Is this an inside joke or…? Continuity in ML Nathaniel the art director Dotting their eyes WTF psychic Hawky

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Jen & Dave’s Arting Adventure

My husband’s amazing fanart and my crappy artings.  I encourage reblogging, but please do not repost Dave’s art.  If you don’t know what that means, check out my rant.

Jen’s Crappy Artings

Don’t expect much -_-

Jen attempts to art (Chat Noir) Poor Hawky... (Hawkmoth/Papillon) Chat Noir Car Art Jen crappily arts all over Chat Noir

Jen’s Attempt to Comic

Comics is HARD

Jen’s Arting Problem: Silent, But Not Deadly

Dave’s Amazing Artings

You can tell which of us is the household artist

Hawmoth/Papillon

Jen & Dave’s Collaborations

Where we work together for once.

Chat & Nino: The Bromantic Fluffcanon (DJNoir Bromance)  Jen continues to art (with special appearance by Dave) Battle of the Nino Artings (Nino)

Miraculous Sewing

I sew for a living.  This show was bound to influence me...

Jen’s Completely Free ML Doll Tutorial So, I found this fabric... I made this thing... Then I made all the things All. The. Things.

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Adrien Agreste/Chat Noir

Our favorite sunshine cat son and what the majority of my posts are about.  Let’s be honest with ourselves.  He’s deserves a category of his own.  Literally.

General Adrien Goodness

Grumpy Chat (Adrien = Grumpy Cat) Chat Noir, the Blue Paladin (Adrien = Lance)  Adrien’s Adorkable Wink Master of the Cheese The Real Agreste Smile Chat’s gravity-defying hair When you’re making a You Tube video... It looks like he’s requesting takeoff First day of school...again Adrien Agreste, Professional Fanboy HIS SARCASM LEVEL IS OVER 9000!!! Chat’s face in Volpina He’s not gonna try to get out of this one Someone should put a bell on him Let it out Adrien’s...er...”talents”

Let Adrien Eat 2K17

Someone please feed this kid

Feed Him Rule #1 

Actual Model Adrien Agreste

In case you needed a reminder about what he does

The Photo Dump The Reality Your Chat Is Showing Taking Flight Sneaky Alya

Chat Is A Cat

=^..^=

That rare cat that comes when you call Coming home to your kitty Chat, The Jellicle Cat Chats don’t always land on their feet Cats can sleep anywhere It did him a startle Cat Memes: The Box Cat Memes: The 3:35am Marathon Cat Memes: The Invisible Fly

Adrien vs. Chloé

Exploring the dynamic between my favorite blondes

Adrien Vs. Chloe: Round 1 Chat can relate to this Chloé: The Mountaineer   When Chloé adopts Ladybug’s moves DO NOT WANT Slasher movie poster Marinette’s escape plan

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Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug

Our favorite Fearless Leader/Low-Key Stalker

Marinette vs. Cat (Part 1) Marinette’s not a cat person (Marinette vs. Cat Part 2) Mari Be Scary Ladybug Be Scary Epic conversational Skills LB = ctrl+z Mari’s charade game is STRONG Writing LadyNoir Fics Adrien’s Controller Learning an important lesson Marinette’s Guide to Being Hands-Free

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The Miraculous Holders

I think this category will grow next season.  Call it a hunch.

Cat and Bug Team

The LadyNoir meet-cute (Origins) Look at these dorks The Chat In the Hat The True Meaning of Bugaboo Raining Cats and Bugs: The Horrible Pun Transformations Reverse Transformations Chat’s premature gray is named “Ladybug” LB puns against Chat (Mr. Pigeon) LB puns against Chat (Reflecta) Lady Wifi’s plan went to pot The Cat & Bug Team (Bubbler) Ladybug Is Done, Y’all He was just kitten (Puppeteer) Breaking the laws of physics as a team (Stormy Weather) Synchronization  LB grabs some tail

Chat Misses His Punportunity

Bad puns based on lucky charms.  That’s pretty much it.  Sorry not sorry.

The Bubbler Stormy Weather

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The Kwamis

Again, mostly Plagg because I’m a cat person.

Plagg & Adrien

My favorite dynamic in this show

Plagg: Adrien’s Literal Shoulder Devil The original trash son (Plagg) Plagg’s True Love (Plagg/Camembert) Plagg’s True Love Pt. 2 (Plagg/Camembert) The Poster Child for Chaotic Neutral How can something so devious be so cute? It’s not like he’s magic... Plagg’s cheesy undoing When people look like their pets When you can’t see your cat...

Tikki & Marinette

aka Mari and her conscience

Tikki: Marinette’s Shoulder I-Told-You-So Tikki is Mari’s Toddles

Wayzz 

I See No Difference: Wayzz = Kif Wayzz is Chat’s biggest fan

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The Others

The-other-but-no-less-important characters

Nino Lahiffe

My second fav ML character

Nino the Peacock AU Pt 1: Shell or Feathers? Nino the Peacock AU Pt 2: Cluck cluck you guys Nino the Peacock AU Pt 3: Nino should have gotten the Troll Miraculous… WTF Nino… Nino Models

Alya Césaire

The real MVP of this group

Alya’s default reaction to Mari’s “love life” Alya’s Adventures in Matchmaking: This’ll Be a Breeze!

Secondary Characters

Mostly Chloé because I love her so

What would have happened in Dark Cupid... (Chloé Bourgeois) The Seeds of Chloe’s Redemption (Chloé Bourgeois) A dad & his baby girl (Mayor Bourgeois &  Chloé) Poor Gorilla (The Gorilla) On no you didn’t! (Sabrina Raincomprix) Kim’s expressiveness (Kim Lê Chiến) That sneaky tomato (Nathaniel Kurtzberg) Fang is a good boy (Fang & Jagged Stone)

Background Characters

What happens when the animation team only has a set number of characters made up for the background, but still needs a crowd.

The Return of WTF Dad WTF “Family” WTF Kids Xmas Special Minor Characters in ML (Mireille and Aurore)

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Gabriel Agreste / Gabe Is Hawkmoth Theory

OR Gabriel’s evil twin idk

This is why he doesn’t smile The unmentionable post  Dr. Hawkmoth’s Guide to Parent/Child Relationships

The Main Theory Posts

Gabriel is Hawkmoth/Papillon Hawkmoth/Papillon’s Room Gabriel Has a Sense of Humor (Adrien’s butterfly shoes) Gabe’s Safe Gabe’s Old as Crap

Gabriel Notices Crap in Simon Says/Jackady

The cat’s out of the bag (also under “Crazy Headcanons”) If you want something done... (LB’s earrings) Not today, Dad (CN’s ring) There goes his freedom (Adrien’s ring)

(Insert Name) Is a Better Dad Than Gabriel

The Dad Clap™ (Nino Lahiffe) Kindred Spirits (Tom Dupain)

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Speaking of Outrageous Theories...

Theories, predictions, headcanons and CRACK.  It’s all crack.

Jen’s Crazy Headcanons & Bullet Point Fics

I apologize for what you are about to see

Crappy Gif Theatre: Hawky’s Cold Crappy Gif Theatre: Adrien’s Thirst Crappy Gif Theatre: The True Identity of the Easter Bunny

Second-Rate Storytime:  The Epic Tail of a Girl and Her Cat Second-Rate Storytime:  The Bully Blues

The cat’s out of the bag (also under “Gabriel Agreste”) LB Gets Woke: A Bullet-Point Crack Fic (Chat x OC, Ladynoir) Chat & Nino: The Bromantic Fluffcanon (DJNoir Bromance)

ML Theories & Wild Predictions: Spoiler-Free

Theories based on common knowledge

Gorilla KNOWS (Gorilla and the Kwami Social Club) That…makes so much sense (their identities are safe!)

Spoiler City: NOT Spoiler-Free

Theories using spoilers from upcoming seasons of ML

ML Season 2 & 3 Predictions Poor Kim... Is this foreshadowing or...? That leaked season 2 ep Who has the Butterfly Miraculous?

ML S2 Trailer Shenanigans #1: Adrienette vs. Chloenette ML S2 Trailer Shenanigans #2: Frenemies ML S2 Trailer Shenanigans #3: New Miraculous Season 2 Trailer (10/17)

ML S2 #1: The Collector ML S2 #2: Despair Bear

Thank you for visiting.  Please come again.

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[lieutenant-amuel]

The Royal Guard Headcanons.

So, I've been thinking about the Avaloran Royal Guard a lot recently and I wanted to share some of the ideas again (yes, again, because I already wrote the post like that before and I'm just gonna unshamelessly copy it here and then add the new ideas as well). Most, if not all, of this stuff was developed specifically for my fanfiction to have a clearer picture of what Gabe even wants from being the guard and simply to add more depth into their military system, because the fact of how undeveloped it is in the canon really always bothered me a lot.

Anyway, let's get started.

General information and Shuriki's reign:

1. For the children from the military families, there are the schools with a military focus to prepare them to be the guards from childhood. Along with the basic academic subjects, they also make a big emphasis on the things, which are required for joining the ranks of the guard.

2. During Shuriki’s reign, those schools were strictly private as she wanted to choose the potential guards herself and keep an eye on how well they were prepared to serve her eventually.

3. This reformation of the guard system caused the citizens’ outrage (especially among the military families, sure thing), however, all the attempts of a rebellion were suppressed, which soon led to the decision of “a quiet rebellion”: to create the secret rebel organizations against Shuriki.

4. Although, those organizations were especially strong only first ten years after Shuriki overthrew the previous regime. During the years, they were less and less active and eventually were gone completely until the small rebel groups were formed.

5. Anyway, one of the reasons of weakening of this rebel movement were different points of view of its members. Some people tried to fight Shuriki’s regime, because they wanted to return the right to attend the military school for their children, while people, whose children were chosen by Shuriki, wanted to avoid this obligation, because they knew how strict, tough, and even wrong at some points this system became.

6. Anyway, closer to the decline of Shuriki’s reign, the small groups that formed decided to choose other ways to achieve justice and to get the opportunity for their children to be the guards. They taught them the right morals and the actual purpose of the Royal Guard, which was encouraging both the older and younger generations to fight against Shuriki and prepare their forces for a future revolution.

7. And if it makes sense, those small groups were the main source of inspiration for people to join Elena when she was freed from the amulet.

8. And just to clarify, the organizations/groups I talk about here are strictly created by people who are connected with military somehow. It’s not the same one as Rafa and other citizens were involved in.

1) The first “wave” (well, if I can call it like that in English) involved the guards who served Raul and Lucia and didn’t accept Shuriki’s reign (were active first ten years)

2) The second one had the same structure plus their children who weren’t accepted by Shuriki (were active next five years; next three years their power was getting more and more weak because of the inner conflicts, which led to the complete dissolve)

3) Next fifteen years nothing was happening.

4) And the last eight years were dedicated to the formation of the new rebel system, which eventually had its big role when Elena returned. It involved the guards who were the part of the Royal Guard, but eventually left and decided to take matters into their own hands to fight against Shuriki, because couldn’t accept her politics; plus sons/grandsons of the old members of the rebel organizations.

The Royal Guard schools system:

1. It has a different grade system from the ordinary schools: they start at age eight and end at eighteen (while at the ordinary schools, 6-16 years old those make no sense, but are my headcanons, so don’t mind me)

2. First three grades are no different from the ordinary schools: they’re taught the core skills, plus the basic academic subjects, but it’s accompanied with a more strict discipline, a bigger amount of physical exercises, and the basic military theoretical stuff (like drills and such, I think)

3. Soon, their study gets more expanded and specialized as they begin to develop their practical abilities, like swordsmanship, survival, horse riding, archery, and making a first aid (and also, marching, I think?). Also, much attention is paid to the teamwork and leadership tasks to develop the right skills for becoming a commander. Plus, some exercises for developing the strategic skills, because, really, this is super important for any officer.

4. The last two years are spent at the actual military camp when the young guards are directly involved in the guard life. Plus, they become a part of a specific branch (the branch is chosen by the commander, based on each student's best skills; yeah, nobody asks your opinion)

(honestly, I could never understand why Avaloran army is not divided in any way, so I’m going to change it again, if it makes sense)

5. Upon completion of the school program, depending on how well they were doing their responsibilities, they officially become the part of the Royal Guard and receive the first officer military rank - lieutenant (well, in their universe, they don’t have Second and First Lieutenants, so I’m gonna deny their existence, too)

6. Those schools are the boarding schools, btw. I forgot to mention it ×)

Military branches (aka the only new stuff here):

1. Avaloran Royal Guard is divided into four branches: ground force, medical service, naval force, and special forces (specifically intelligence agency and logistics service) - who are directly involved in the war events.

2. There are also the military police and border/coast guards, who protect the kingdom during the peacetime. The military police is also a privileged branch, as the guards serving there are the closest to the king/queen (especially during Shuriki's reign)

3. Ground force is the main source of the military power in the Royal Guard, so it's concentrated in the capital, in Avalor City, and has the highest level of control from the ruler.

4. Other branches are under control of the officers who are chosen by the ruler. They're capable of making their own decisions, but they always need to be coordinate them with the ruler.

5. Naval force is developed in Nueva Vista the most, as it's literally surrounded by water.

6. Intelligence agency is a classified branch, as intelligent officers are the part of the secret operations and gather information about other kingdoms' military preparation. Their identities are known only inside the troop they're the part of, plus the ruler knows who they are as well, sure thing.

7. During the war events, intelligence officers usually play the role of snipers and use firearms (yes, because I want it).

8. And the medical service heals people ×)

Elena's reign and other random sruff:

1. Anyway, nowadays, during Elena’s reign, this system has changed a little bit, having gotten more reduced. The military schools still exist, but Elena shortened the education grades by removing two last ones. Now, to get to the Royal Guard, you need to pass the recruitment competition first, and then, during the actual guard serve, you’re given a chance to raise your rank.

2. Besides, Elena allowed people from the non-military families to be the part of the Royal Guard, too. They also need to pass the recruitment competition to show their skills, and if that’s enough, they join the guard and get a military education during the serve.

3. This is possible in Avalor to get the new rank, avoiding the strict order, for the merits to the kingdom yes, because I literally hate this joke about Gabe becoming a general, jumping through like four ranks. This man has done enough to earn it, so, pls, leave him alone.

4. And also, the Royal Guard has the military orchestra, because it’s really an omission that it doesn’t in canon and Gabe can play a trumpet

5. And just let them make the military parades, please.

Barely anything new, but I really wanted to do it. Maybe, I'll add something new later.

[crystals-angel-blog]

Shipping info. Answer the following questions for your muse(s) so people know how shipping works on your blog.  Repost not reblog

What’s your OTP for your muse?

H-ha.. haha... hahaha.... Fuck Ok honestly I feel really bad for saying this... But honestly for Fawniss it’s Fawniss and Gabriel. I know I have my singleshippiness with Truth and honestly I love them to absolute crushing bits... But Fawniss and Gabriel hit me hard and fast with so much love. They just fit together so well and they complete each other so perfectly I just can’t help it.  Especially since I had a dream about them. Gabriel got shot and Fawniss had to get to the hospital where she saw Gabriel all bandaged up and kinda being all sad and unable to talk. So me, as Fawniss, crawled in bed with him and put his arm around me and in that moment I felt nothing but peace. No worries, no pain, no stress. Nothing but tranquility and peace and quiet. Soul rest, as it were. And I am positive that Fawniss and Gabriel feel that for one another and I have never been able to see them apart ever since. My love for them has only grown stronger since then.

For Chaj it’s kind of a threesome. Including Alice.  Lilith from @redlips-blooddrops in a poly relationship with Alice and him is my OTP for Chaj specifically. I am just having so much fun imagining Chaj opening up to his wives and supporting them both and having a healthy, poly relationship with both.

I don’t have an OTP for Chott.

And it’s the same for Alice, kinda. I ship her with a ton of people.

What are you willing to RP when it comes to shipping?

This is a toughie... Because it highly depends on the mood I’m in. Anything goes as long as it’s useful to the relationship or character development. Of course I sometimes have short smut or fluff threads for relaxation. But for me, almost anything is accepted.

How large does the age gap have to be to make it uncomfortable?

No pedohpilia. No lolicon. No shotacon. No matter hoe old the characters are. Other than that? I think 10 year age difference. I mean, if the characters are supernatural beings where they age slower or are immortal, sure I’ll take a thousand year age gap. But if it’s truly just, young person on really old person, I’d rather not?

Are you selective when shipping?

I wish I were more selective. I think it highly depends on the character I play with. I’m a lot more picky with Chaj than I am with Alice. They are both very different in their tastes for mates or partners. But I see myself more as a shipping whore. ESPECIALLY IF THE SHIP INVOLVES FLUFF!

How far do steamy moments have to go before they’re considered nsfw?

When hands wander to the nether regions and undo whatever clothes cover it or when hands grab the boobaroos.

Who are other muses you ship your muse with?

Talking purely sexual/romantic relationships? Fawniss and Truth, Fawniss and Gabriel, Fawniss and Zed in a weird AU that isn’t on here. Chaj and Alice and Lilith, Chaj and Jade. Chott and his girlfriend. Alice and Lilith and Chaj, Alice and Rezzak, Alice and Jhin.

Does one have to ask to ship with you?

Not necessarily if we’re both comfortable with our characters chemistry going the way it’s going. But I HIGHLY recommend that you DO talk to me about it so I won’t be sitting in stress about whether we are both ok with it or not or where specifically either of us want this relationship to go. Talking in ANY relationship is very much key. So yes, please do speak to me so we’re both on one line in terms of where our ship stands and what is and is not ok to do.

How often to you like to ship?

Uuuhhh... All the time? I mean I’m not going to turn a ship on and off... That’d be rude.

Are you multiship?

... Fuck... I mean... I do have the fact that I’m singleship on Fawn’s bio... But... Also there’s Gabe. And people like him so much. I guess... I’m singleship with two canon ships?

As for my other muses, yes. Except Chott, he’s unshippable.

Are you ship obsessed or ship more-or-less?

I have no idea how to interpret or answer this question.

What is your favourite ship in your current fandom?

Heine and Naoto I guess???? BUT I DON’T WANT ANY SHIPS IN DOGS I JUST WANT MIWA TO FINISH THE STORY AND MIHAI TO STAY ALIVE!!! And Dishwasher doesn’t have any canon shippable things I think.

And though I RP in the League fandom, I don’t count it as a fandom I’m in because I’m not really a fan of it anymore.

Finally, how does one ship with you?

Size difference. Haha, I kid. Anyway.  Talk to me a lot. Give me a reason to like the ship and give me desire to maintan it. Give me cute headcanons and healthy fluff moments and CRUSHING ANGST. Invest me in it. Be EXCITED about the ship. Make us both excited for it and I’ll do the same for you. Be part of it!

And also, don’t force it. Leave my character and your character IN-character. Let the relationship build on its own. Let the chemistry do its work. Don’t push them together. Let love take its course and if it takes longer for my character to fall in love with yours, please don’t get angry. They’ll get there, they’re just not there yet. Have patience.

Tagged by: @yasuo-the-unforgiven (thanks sweet egg)

Tagging: ... I’m pretty sure everyone’s done this already. IM me if you want to be tagged :D

[kffandom]

so @theglowqueen and i literally went on for hours the other day continuing this post where i talked about gabe w/pokemon, so i’m going to try to do a graceful summary for each topic we covered and she can call me out if i forgot anything

the first text had to be in its entirety because it’s #perfect and what started everything but I’m just going to summarize the rest and quote sparingly. kara’s quotes, after the first one, are in italics and mine are in bold~ 

text that started it all, from kara: 

“Yo you know your headcanon about Gabe’s Mimikyu? Like what if when everything goes to shit, he loses her. Like Ms. Beak knows to get out of dodge until things settle, but Sweetie wouldn’t let go. So then later on as Reaper, he senses a shadowy thing that originally [he was] wary of, but then he’s just like, “Sweetie?” and it is and she’s so excited that her boy recognized her even though she won’t let him see her. She knows the rumors that people die when they see a true Mimikkyu form, and she’s not taking that chance. 

So he tears up his cloak. Sewed it into a costume like the Pikachu one she used to haev. Except now it’s black. And instead of doing a pikachu face he uses some white favri to sew the likeness of his own mask instead. 

He gives it to her, and he has his Sweetie back. He feels bad that he doesn’t have anything [to] let her hold, but she’s okay with it. 

Rumors begin about the tiny ‘Reaper’ that signals the arrival of a very real one. 

I kind of want her to pick up one of his guns as her carry item, but at the same time all I can think of is ‘This is my Mimikkyu OC Mimigun. She’s a Mimikkyu, but with a gun.” 

Sweetie, post-swiss HQ: 

--Afterward, gabe is uber, uber protective of Sweetie and I argued that he’d flip on even widowmaker if they talked shit on his raggedy lil girl, and kara went on to say that “The reason people die after seeing the Raggedy Reaper is because they laugh at her and Reaper is just like Y’all dune fucked up my guys”, like they don’t take him seriously at first with this itty-bitty Raggedy Reaper following it around--until someone hears him call her Sweetie, and they say, “I thought ‘Raggedy Reaper’ was bad” and he doesn’t get much farther than that before they all start taking the mercenary seriously. 

--Sweetie wants a gun so she can fit gabe’s new #aesthetic even more, but gabe’s like “no that’s okay” until she is sad she’s ruining his #aesthetic, so he goes to his gun supplier and is like “Hey, you know mimikkyu? Could you make one of my guns, but so she can’t hurt herself? I keep telling her no, but you know how they are.” Cue confused but willing supplier. 

--heard on the field: “That pokemon has a gun!” “Relax, she’s not gonna hurt anyone with it.” noticeably absent: explanation that the gun is incapable of firing.... ever 

Ms. Beak, post-swiss HQ: 

--Ms. Beak is more of a reconnaissance agent than a fighter, because she’s a really common pokemon and therefore blends in real easily. we argued that she’d be trained to retreat whenever a situation went FUBAR, so that’s why she wasn’t in the explosion at all 

--She was a giant, mournful pest in the aftermath until Gabe found her and she “disappeared” while overwatch fell apart. 

--sadly, she’s also the reason they figure out gabe’s identity so quickly. cloaked man + custom Mimikkyu? not easy to identify. a giant pidgeot, combat-ish-trained and with familiar markings? much, much easier. Ana, in their first confrontation where Ms. Beak is there, is like, “waaaaait a minute” 

--”Throws the whole mission on its head because she’s pulled out snacks for the enemy’s Pidgeot. 

*deep voice from a distance* 

‘Ms. Beak, no!’ 

‘I know it’s you Gabriel!’ 

‘shit’”  

Post-discovering Gabe’s identity: 

--in the past, gabe’s pokemon have always loved ana. she has the best snacks! ( “Ana has best pokebeans?? how turn down Gabe. How.”) and she’s so nice! good pets, good compliments--she even compliments Sweetie on her new outfit that gabe made for her, so that’s like. mucho bonus points. gabe’s a little annoyed that they go running to her right away, a little wary, but ana wouldn’t use them against him-- “she may have done some sketch stuff in her day, but she finds it wrong to use a pokemon’s trust like that” 

--Jesse, too, was the weird kid that gabe liked, so they’re cool with him too. “Sweetie goes running up to him because she’s like, “Gotta show Jesse my gun. He likes guns” and Gabe is like yeah go for it. It’s a terrifying 5 minutes for Jesse before he recognizes Sweetie”. he shows her his own gun in response and she’s v v excited, and gabe’s relieved because that’s still his boy, underneath the gruffness and exhaustion 

^^after that, jesse sort of ‘debriefs’ with ana like, “What was that?? is gabe back what’s going on” and she basically goes, “you’ve never seen that pidgeot or mimikyu in your life. understood?” so it’s like their lil secret 

--Sweetie does /not/ like 76. at all. rumor has it that he thinks mimikkyu’s aren’t impressive and they’re just knock off pikachus and she doesn’t forget that sort of nonsense. would gouge out his eyes given the chance, and since those are normally covered, she tends to go for the throat when they have missions against him 

Ana + reaper + his pokemon: 

--She won’t use his pokemon against him, but she thinks that they’re a tool to use to get gabe back. part of her wants gabe, her best friend back, and that’s a good portion of her motivation. but the other, agent-side of her recognizes that overwatch would do more than survive if they could get commander reyes back. 

--so that’s part of the reason she keeps extra poke-snacks in her kit, from then on, and she’s the one who starts using Ms. Beak to get messages to gabe--sends over his favorite type of tea, one time, and it’s a sentimental move that does move gabe

--”’If we’re good to Miss Beak, he’ll remember that when talon does something awful’ --Ana”  her hoping that they can sway gabe back to their side, but understanding it’s contingent on circumstances rather than any type of emotional moves. but stacking the emotional deck in their favor? not a bad idea, in her opinion

--it’s a very calculated approach

--these interactions are easier for ana, almost, because she has that calculating side, though it hurts when sweetie comes bounding across the field with a flask of her favorite kind of rum and she’s reminded of them as stupid kids--Ana, gabe, and jack, who thought they were the world. 

-- (”She doesn’t miss commander reyes, she truly misses gabe,”) 

Jesse + reaper + reaper’s pokemon: 

--jesse sends sweetie over with a note and gabe’s blackwatch beanie after ana starts sending messages. it’s hard for gabe, because it makes him want to start caring about them again and he knows that can only end badly. at the same time, it makes his pokemon happy to see the two, soe he doesn’t want to stop them from visiting 

--gabe sends ms. beak over to jesse’s in return and has her trash his liquor cabinet while depositing a (Really nasty, actually) note that basically says, “stop drinking you’ll get sloppy and lazy here’s a help hotline get help u fuckin loser” . and while it’s p nasty jesse’s like, “he still cares!!” 

--which is really rough for jesse, because like. one minute they’re talking through his pokemon, and the next gabe’s completely ignoring him on the battlefield. not even looking his way, brushing him off, dismissing him.

--every response gabe gives him gives him hope, but every time he’s ignored crushes him all over again. 

--(Gabe doesn’t want to fight him, is the problem. doesn’t want to hurt the man he loved as a son, and he definitely doesn’t want overwatch to know they’re in contact. in old overwatch, it’d be a death sentence to talk to the enemy without attempting to bring them in. he has no reason to believe that new overwatch is any different, is the thing. they’ll hurt him, he thinks, a little manically, and so he ignores jesse) 

--(He thinks that new overwatch might even be worse, because they have so many enemies and won’t stand for any leaks. it’d be a firing squad. he has no idea that they don’t have any “warhawks” outside of ana and jack, that it’s a small organization that can’t afford to lose anyone, really--he just knows what old overwatch was like. so he deliberately acts obtuse and ignores and ignores, despite the hurt he can almost feel radiating off of jesse) 

--jesse is not having a #GoodTime, basically 

jesse + dealing w/hurt from reaper’s ignoring of him + bastion: 

--”It gets bad enough that even though he and Ana decided to act like nothing was happening, Jesse wanted so bad to talk to someone about it. He knows that Ana obviously would be the best choice since she’s already in on it, but she’s so detached. He knows that they were good friends, but he also isn’t stupid enough to not see what she’s really doing. 

He wants to tell Genji. They were all Blackwatch together, but Genji has moved on with his life. He’s found peace, and Jesse doesn’t want to fuck that up. He wants to tell Angela. He knows how close she and Gabe were. It was like she and Jesse were siblings for fuck sake. But she’s also Jack’s girl. Gabe was not her only support. And judging by the way Sweetie reacts to Jack, he’s not sure how she’d react to Angie.

Somehow, he ends up with Bastion. Bastion, who for some reason has Miss Beak sitting on her head.” 

--jesse takes miss beak’s presence as a sign and info-dumps the fuck onto bastion, and bastion doesn’t really mind--she likes when they treat her like an equal/person, so while her communication methods are limited, she’s a good listener and she can be sympathetic and give him a pointy but nice hug when he gets upset. so jesse talks about gabe, about how it’s unfair because he’s always been gabe’s man, always been his right hand. and if gabe had gotten to him before the recall--well, he doesn’t know. bastion doesn’t fault him for admitting that

--bastion attempts to get across that jesse has much more support now with new-overwatch, that angela and genji love him, the younger agents think he’s great and look up to him, and winston in particular is so relieved that jesse is on their side with how skilled he is. unfortunately, her vocabulary isn’t the best with english even when she tries to type a message for him 

--Ms. Beak croons and grooms his hair through it, and when jesse starts to feel better and thanks both of the ladies kindly for being ears for awhile, she leaves and pecks the shit out of gabe when she gets back. she’s pissed for daaaaaaaays, will leave him deliberately on the field to go groom jesse, and gabe gets the hint 

--but. well. he doesn’t really change anything because what can he do? 

jesse + reaper + snail mail snapchat:  

--after this, gabe sends a letter to jesse asking about bastion and whether Ms Beak is safe with her or not. he gets a picture back of bastion covered in all kinds of bird pokemon. he also gets another one of jesse flipping him off, “but he doesn’t take it too harshly”  

--it takes like 3 back and forths before gabe sends a selfie (Ms. Beak covers most of him, but it’s more skin than anyone’s seen since he ‘returned’) and jesse has an “oh” moment. because he didn’t just go off after swiss hq. He was actually really fucked up. he's a little forgiving of his initial hurt b/c part of him was assuming gabe was hiding and pretending to be dead like Ana was, for weird ambiguous justice-moral reasons Jesse still doesn't really get, but gabe didn’t. the pic soothes the old hurt of "gabe?? You're still alive??" “Because something that [rough] would need recovery and if deadpool has taught us anything, it's hard to face loved ones after being remade” 

-- “Like seeing how Gabe was actually /fucked up/ really helps. Gabe didn't choose to leave him. His mom died, the gang left him, Genji left, and with the return of Reaper, he had been convinced that Gabe had left him too. But he gets it. He remembers having such a hard time facing everyone after he lost his arm. Gabe lost most everything. So it doesn't hurt as bad.” 

-- “Exactly yes that. Gabe didn't leave willingly, so he's more in the category that his mom is in I'd imagine. So he's able to think of him fondly and still love him without that justified betrayed-feeling that he's still working out w/genji and the other overwatch members that just. Left when everything went downhill” 

happier note: snail mail snapchat onto real snapchat! : 

-- “Jesse sends him a picture of Angela and Genji. Gabe sends him back a picture every time he makes Sweetie a new outfit. Jesse manages to send him a picture of Widowmaker who had fallen asleep in her hiding spot, propped up against her rifle. Gabe sends back a picture of Miss Beak dive bombing Jack. Jesse sends him a picture of him flipping off his fucked up liquor cabinet. Gabe sends him back a picture of himself flipping him off” 

--after ms. beak gets ticked and exhausted at being used like a post owl from harry potter, “Sweetie comes skipping over with the next message to Jesse's surprise and it's just a phone number. He saves it in his phone as Dad. They never message each other, but their Snapstreak is 50 days long. (Lena goes through his phone once and now thinks Jesse has a weird daddy thing going on but is too nervous to actually put it in his phone like that. So she changes it for him)”  

jesse + his pokemon: 

--jesse has 3 pokemon: a cubone named Kit, a growlithe named Cassidy, and an ampharos named Fluffy Spark. 

--jesse found kit shortly before he joined the deadlock gang ( Kit’s backstory, up to this point, was basically >> Kit: *falls into a trainer's carry-on luggage* *sneaks off the plane* *wanders into a car because she smelled food* *ate a pizza man's delivery and was chased out* *ended up on a train, like a nice one with a food cart and was assumed to be one of the passenger's ones* *somehow ends up near jesse* ) on the side of the road trying to eat a rock. she’s his bb. she’s also an alolan one, which he doesn’t know, so when she evolves boy howdy is that a hot adventure i’ll go over below 

--he gets cassidy when he joins the gang, and everyone wants him to evolve her right away (big, intimidating arcanine? much more useful for their needs than a smol pupper) but he keeps “losing” the fire stone they got him. he knows that cassidy isn’t ready and she doesn’t want to evolve yet, so he gets into some trouble and gets a reputation for being forgetful/for misplacing shit, but it’s all good. even at blackwatch, she doesn’t want to evolve, and gabe’s like “k whatever but i have extra fire stones if you need them” because he’s collected a lot over the years but never had to use any since none of his pokemon need them 

--Fluffy Spark was originally just Fluffy, and cassidy basically herded him into jesse’s arms right after they went to blackwatch and they’ve had him ever since.  (Gabe’s like “the fuck kid” and jesse’s like, “cassidy won’t let me put him back!” then when fluffy evolved, jesse was sorta like “Well, you’re not fluffy anymore, so. spark!” but fluffy won’t respond, so he tries to be sneaky and call him fluffy spark and transition to just spark, but. didn’t happen. 

cassidy + fluffy spark : 

--basically your typical teasing-sibling relationship. will destroy each other but only they are allowed to do so, anyone else will be destroyed MORE 

-- “People talk to Jesse like "Your Growlithe and Ampharos don't seem to like each other at all. Are you sure you should keep them together like that." Jesse looks over to see Fluffy Spark bopping Cassidy on the head and she nips at the ball on his tail. "Nah, they love each other!"”  

--cassidy doesn’t want to evolve yet (”Cassidy is best pupper?? 1 out of 1 pupper agree. Best pupper is me. Don't listen to Fluffy Spark. He is full of lies.” ) and fluffy spark’s like “okay cool but you won’t be bigger than me until you do. so.” and thwacks her in the head and nibbles because he can and cassidy gets all riled up 

-- “They're actually siblings. Cassidy steals Fluffy Spark's favorite pokebeans all the time and Fluffy Spark takes the treasured spot on Jesse's bed at night just so Cassidy can't “ 

--Ms Beak is the only one who really stops them when they get riled up together and are at each other’s throats. she likes to pretend she’s an old woman and make gabe carry her around, but jesse’s pokemon are to her what jesse is to gabe. 

-- Sweetie is a little intimidated by Fluffy Spark, just because he has Much Personality and Sweetie is shy, but overall they get along and Sweetie can roughhouse a little rougher with Fluffy Spark than she can with anyone else. And Cassidy likes to give Sweetie piggy back rides because she's one of the only Pokémon on base smaller than her

Kit: 

--so jesse has no idea that kit’s an alolan cubone. looks like a cubone, acts like a cubone, is a cubone! so when she starts to evolve, he’s like “oh cool” and then very quickly is like “WHY IS SHE ON FIRE” 

--we didn’t have a concrete timeline for when she would evolve, but if it was during blackwatch-era it’d go like this: jesse bursting into gabe’s office/room/whatever with a weird-looking marowak yelling, “IS THIS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN”  while kit’s just cuddling into his chest and basically being like “you’re so weird, human, it nap time because evolving is hard work.” (if it was post-recall, it’d be the same but it’d be a snapchat video instead of in-person, and gabe would respond a few hours later with a picture of a map of alola, acting like he knew right off the bat [he didn’t, he had to look it up and do some digging b/c no one really goes to alola or knows much about it]) 

--gabe’s hella confused how jesse got an alolan cubone (”did you get her on the black market or something?” “no? i found her on the side of the road?? trying to eat a rock??” "why was she trying to eat a rock" "I don't know! She was a baby! I think. Regardless, she was hungry. Oh no. Do you think she'll want to eat fire things now? What do you eat now baby??" Kit, true to form, just nibbles on Jesse's pants pocket where she knows he keeps snacks, but he's a little too freaked out to get the obvious message. "She's eating my pants Gabe!" "Is there something in your pocket?" "Some Pokebeans but I don't know what that has to do with- oh.")  

--in conclusion: Kit: happily nomming on pokebeans Jesse: still freaking out, would like to know what happened to his ground type Pokémon Gabe: long suffering, a tired dad

--Miss Beak thinks Kit's kinda weird and sometimes has to peck her hand so she doesn't eat things that aren't to be eaten, but at least she doesn't cause much trouble and lets Miss Beak sleep when she wants to. 

--Sweetie and Kit are closer, because Sweetie never really acts like the age she is, like she's not that much younger than Miss Beak but she's more in the maturity range of Kit. They like to hold hands (or in Kit's case, hold one of Sweetie's tendrils that act as hands) and they chatter to each other, are much more "talkative" than the other Pokémon.

so yeah! the end. may do more with this some day because this is a lot of world-building to not continue imho, but we’ll see. huge thanks to the best roommate ever for spending nearly 10 hours hashing this out and being as enthusiastic as i am about a kinda out-there crossover <3 <3 <3 kara, u r my fave and i miss u already and you are the #best for starting this rollercoaster i took a week to actually write up and get on here 

[lieutenant-amuel]

Do you have any royal guards headcanons

Hi! Thank you so much for the ask!

I'm not entirely sure whether you're asking about the Royal Guard as a military system, or the Royal Guard characters, but I'll take the first option (because I have more ideas for it now ×)). And if you want to ask me about any specific character, feel free to! I'll try to come up with some ideas.

I've got a few ideas for the Avaloran Guard system when I was developing my old story for Gabe (with a few new additions and corrections to make it more realistic hopefully), but I think it might be still accurate for the new concept, so here it comes:

1. For the children from the military families, there are the schools with a military focus to prepare them to be the guards from childhood. Along with the basic academic subjects, they also make a big emphasis on the things, which are required for joining the ranks of the guard.

2. During Shuriki's reign, those schools were strictly private as she wanted to choose the potential guards herself and keep an eye on how well they were prepared to serve her eventually.

3. This reformation of the guard system caused the citizens' outrage (especially among the military families, sure thing), however, all the attempts of a rebellion were suppressed, which soon led to the decision of "a quiet rebellion": to create the secret rebel organizations against Shuriki.

4. Although, those organizations were especially strong only first ten years after Shuriki overthrew the previous regime. During the years, they were less and less active and eventually were gone completely until the small rebel groups were formed.

5. Anyway, one of the reasons of weakening of this rebel movement were different points of view of its members. Some people tried to fight Shuriki's regime, because they wanted to return the right to attend the military school for their children, while people, whose children were chosen by Shuriki, wanted to avoid this obligation, because they knew how strict, tough, and even wrong at some points this system became.

6. Anyway, closer to the decline of Shuriki's reign, the small groups that formed decided to choose other ways to achieve justice and to get the opportunity for their children to be the guards. They taught them the right morals and the actual purpose of the Royal Guard, which was encouraging both the older and younger generations to fight against Shuriki and prepare their forces for a future revolution.

7. And if it makes sense, those small groups were the main source of inspiration for people to join Elena when she was freed from the amulet.

8. And just to clarify, the organizations/groups I talk about here are strictly created by people who are connected with military somehow. It's not the same one as Rafa and other citizens were involved in.

The first "wave" (well, if I can call it like that in English) involved the guards who served Raul and Lucia and didn't accept Shuriki's reign (were active first ten years)

The second one had the same structure plus their children who weren't accepted by Shuriki (were active next five years; next three years their power was getting more and more weak because of the inner conflicts, which led to the complete dissolve)

Next fifteen years nothing was happening.

And the last eight years were dedicated to the formation of the new rebel system, which eventually had its big role when Elena returned. It involved the guards who were the part of the Royal Guard, but eventually left and decided to take matters into their own hands to fight against Shuriki, because couldn't accept her politics; plus sons/grandsons of the old members of the rebel organizations.

9. About the school system:

It has a different grade system from the ordinary schools: they start at age eight and end at eighteen (while at the ordinary schools, 6-16 years old those make no sense, but are my headcanons, so don't mind me)

First three grades are no different from the ordinary schools: they're taught the core skills, plus the basic academic subjects, but it's accompanied with a more strict discipline, a bigger amount of physical exercises, and the basic military theoretical stuff (like drills and such, I think)

Soon, their study gets more expanded and specialized as they begin to develop their practical abilities, like swordsmanship, survival, horse riding, archery, and making a first aid (and also, marching, I think?). Also, much attention is paid to the teamwork and leadership tasks to develop the right skills for becoming a commander. Plus, some exercises for developing the strategic skills, because, really, this is super important for any officer.

The last two years are spent at the actual military camp when the young guards are directly involved in the guard life. Plus, they get a specialization, like ground forces, cavalry, etc (honestly, I could never understand why Avaloran army is not divided in any way, so I'm going to change it again, if it makes sense)

Upon completion of the school program, depending on how well they were doing their responsibilities, they officially become the part of the Royal Guard and receive the first officer military rank - lieutenant (well, in their universe, they don't have Second and First Lieutenants, so I'm gonna deny their existence, too)

10. Anyway, nowadays, during Elena's reign, this system has changed a little bit, having gotten more reduced. The military schools still exist, but Elena shortened the education grades by removing two last ones. Now, to get to the Royal Guard, you need to pass the recruitment competition first, and then, during the actual guard serve, you're given a chance to raise your rank.

11. Besides, Elena allowed people from the non-military families to be the part of the Royal Guard, too. They also need to pass the recruitment competition to show their skills, and if that's enough, they join the guard and get a military education during the serve.

12. This is possible in Avalor to get the new rank, avoiding the strict order, for the merits to the kingdom yes, because I literally hate this joke about Gabe becoming a general, jumping through like four ranks. This man has done enough to earn it, so, pls, leave him alone.

13. And also, the Royal Guard has the military orchestra, because it's really an omission that it doesn't in canon and Gabe can play a trumpet

Alright, I thought I had more, but that's it for now! Thank you so much for the ask, even though I actually apologize that I, more likely, got it wrong, and you received something that you didn't ask for ×)