#PIPPA LATHAM / headcanon.

[stormlit]

i don't think pippa ever really has a plan or purpose for their life? pre-running away the plan was always to escape, and if a time machine hadn't found its way into their lap (they stole it okay shut up) they'd still have left and just sold all their jewellery to buy passage to the other side of the earth. they want to travel and see new places and learn as much as they can. but like, they're afab regency era nobility; they'd never have had to work, they were raised specifically to be a wife to some lord or other, to run the household and host balls and have no thoughts of their own. so they don't really think in terms of a career or anything. they'll work and steal and persuade to get things needed, but the goal of travelling through time with ned is a) spend life with ned, b) be themself without having to cut off parts of who they are to fit their mother's tiny mould, c) see and do as much as possible, experience cultures and times, learn skills and language, have adventure, cause trouble and upset the way of things.

really, their one goal is keep ned alive. the universe has other ideas, and pip just decides to play god to keep that goal.

with ned gone permanently, they kind of have nothing? they've expended so much energy to keep him alive, they've consciously become something they weren't to do it, and the adventure was only fun because they were doing it together. they sorta float around aimless for a long time, in a lot of times. they do eventually do a lot of writing, and they return to both their own time (which they've generally avoided) and the future to try and make sure ned's name and deeds are recorded and honoured, but i don't think that purposeless feeling ever fully goes away. it just wasn't a concern until they were on their own and living in the moment lost its glimmer.

[stormlit]

i do think pip always loves trying to blend in. wearing the clothes of an era they visit, and they lean towards menswear esp in eras that are very hyperfeminine for womenswear (they're from the tail end of the georgian era, they are NOT wearing the panniers of their mother's era alkjsdhf) even if that means their blending in doesn't work. they will eventually cause a ruckus and have to leave in a hurry, after all, disrupting things is the ned and pippa way. they like learning new skills and are a kind of jack of all trades at various things that are obsolete/very antiquated by the modern era. and they read so much, everywhere they go they want to find accounts and books that have been lost to time as well as read contemporary viewpoints on things. they collect books for sure, i feel like on the odd occasion they come to The Future they "accidentally" leave them at a museum library to be "discovered" and studied again

they don't have any magic way of understanding language, though. they've picked up smatterings of a lot, but are limited for reading to languages they've actively learned

[stormlit]

thinking about 11 year old pippa, chopping all her hair off with scissors she stole because she was tired of having it (thick and curly and long) brushed every night, tired of it being styled, tired of it being called the prettiest thing about her, tired of being told she could never cut it because “a woman should have long hair (and heaven knows you need all the prospects you can get, insolent child)”. so there was just this girl surrounded by a pile of hair and a screaming mother who cared only what others might think, refusing to take pippa out to events until it grew

which suited pippa thank you very much, no more being paraded about or listening to people discuss her prospects or having to look pretty rather than practical

she did let it grow back though, mostly because she likes her curls, but she lets them be loose rather than tied up as they should

[stormlit]

the lathams being a powerful otkazat’sya noble family in ravka til pippa comes along and is grisha. they’re glad to send her away to the little palace (but insist on visiting sometimes, not because they care but because they’re acquainted with the royal family and saints be damned their disappointment of a daughter will marry one of the princes they don’t care which or if she even wants to they just want the power)

pippa’s a tidemaker who’s afraid of open water. at least in part because of that, she finds new ways to use her powers; creating walls of ice to block off the enemy, drawing water out of the body to kill (in a way more reminiscent of heartrenders than anything) or save (when someone’s drowning or has fluid in their lungs), freezing rain into tiny ice shards that become weapons, manipulating water’s surface tension so she can walk on it instead of having to swim, or just separating it a la the red sea parting so people can walk safely, working with squallers to create dangerous whirlpools in the air, probably other things i’ve not thought of.

she also maybe is very interested in merzost and would be drawn to its power if it would help her revive ned, since she’s not a healer and there are limits to what she can do with the water naturally in someone’s body 🤷🏻‍♀️

[stormlit]

it’s the way pippa puts herself & those she loves above everyone else, even if that means literally tearing the universe apart, even if it means making deals for power, even if it means other people die. and while she’ll protect innocent people to a point, she has a major issue with corrupt nobility and people in authority and will do what she can to fuck up their lives, and likes to think that makes her a good person, ultimately she’ll still let those innocents die if it means saving ned or herself or the few other people that really matter to her.

[stormlit]

pippa is...not nice. she’s selfish, cold and cutting, and refuses to play pretend just to protect someone’s feelings or maintain propriety. she holds a grudge like nobody’s business, sometimes over quite petty things. she does try to be good, because they’re not the same thing --- she sows chaos among the rich to help the poor, is incredibly loyal and generous to those she cares about, will use her privilege to help those without any --- but at the end of the day, her selfishness will always win.

[stormlit]

and in like, dnd terms, pippa is definitely an undead patron warlock to begin with. they made their bargain to an evil fey, ended up travelling to other planes trying to find a way to cheat death and make sure ned doesn’t die, and they definitely do things for their patron that aren’t good because of these promises. they cheat death themself, have a slightly dubious connection to the dead, it’s a mess. pip’s constantly at war with their like...wanting to help people vs selfish fear and the fear wins. every time. they’re a flawed person!!

but i think that changes eventually? idk if they’d ever go as holy as multiclassing into paladin/cleric at some point --- i think they feel too corrupted for starters and it’d depend what signs they got --- but i think they do end up turning towards someone like the raven queen more, the god of natural death and it being a cycle. still very much death-adjacent, but not trying to be some kind of undead/necromancer bullshit. definitely fucked up their own life cycle though.

[stormlit]

thinking about pippa and death and like...how she will do Anything to cheat it, how she’ll twist herself in desperation to keep those she loves alive. it’s selfish and she doesn’t think about what other people might want or what it might do to the world, and even when she does know she doesn’t care. she’s so afraid of death, and so afraid of being alone, and with how much her alignment shifts because of this fear, she not only ends up alone but alone for longer, having cheated death...just not for the one she wanted to do it for.

but i do think eventually, after ned accepts his death, after she goes through an extremely long, painful grieving process, she gets to a point where she is more accepting of death, and not just because she 100% wants to die without ned, but realising that it is a part of life and she can’t become a monster and tear the world apart to create some awful facsimile of life.

[stormlit]

idk i just think pip deserves to use she/they pronouns and i wish they had the modern day language for that and their complicated feelings towards gender. they’re not trans --- they wish to be a man solely for the freedom and ability to do anything they like, though they definitely feel more comfortable in what are considered “masculine” fashions of their era --- but neither do they feel like a woman, especially not with the very strict societal norms that upper class women of the late georgian/regency era had to operate within. i think genderqueer is the term that probably most accurately describes how they feel and associate with gender, if pip could learn and understand it it’d fit, but demigirl also works i think. 

i’m still likely to keep using she/her pronouns in threads because they’re the pronouns pippa uses for themself, but in hc and ooc posts i’ll probably use a mix.

[stormlit]

still thinking about pippa using the femininity that she hates to get her own way/get out of trouble with men. she can cry on cue to make them protective or uncomfortable, she can pretend to be helpless and lost, she can turn on the puppy dog eyes and the pleading look, pretend to be flirtatiously interested while lowkey mocking them with her subtext. she knows how men of her era --- and past eras --- think of women, and she’ll absolutely use that to her advantage, because she’s in trouble so frequently and why shouldn’t she, when femininity is something that has been forced onto her? it’s not her fault that they believe her.

[stormlit]

pippa has a really complicated relationship with fashion. she enjoys clothes and pretty dresses, and specifically dressing in era appropriate clothing when she travels, but she finds so much of what she’s allowed to wear --- since she & ned rarely go past the victorian era --- restrictive and frustrating, however pretty it might be. one of the things she likes about her own (regency) era is the simplicity of the silhouettes, even if shoes could be more practical and she constantly gets her white hems covered in mud. there’s no hint of tightlacing, no padding or hoop cages or 10 layers of petticoats. but it’s all so dainty and impractical and she’s fond of men’s clothing, even if she has few opportunities to wear it. it’s more comfortable & practical, and she feels more powerful in it. and it’s just a complex mix of liking pretty things and relishing in trying historical fashions on...until she has to wear them for any period of time.

[stormlit]

thinking about how the latham family --- viscounts, from a very old scottish branch of an english family, very important to society --- never recovers from pippa running away. especially since they think she eloped with a groom, since she was unmarried and eligible and out in society. their reputation is ruined, scandal sheets and papers have a field day, nobody wants to marry their daughter to pippa’s only unwed brother. and they just...never recover. socially. emotionally they’re?? less concerned?? and more angry??

anyway pippa’s just 😏

[stormlit]

i also think this relates to pippa’s complicated feelings about her own gender and connection to the way women of her time are meant to be. in part it’s her mother’s constant pushing of the things a young lady of her class should do/be, all of which pippa can’t relate to, and it’s being aroace (and not wanting children) in a time where there aren’t words for that so she just feels wrong and uncomfortable with her supposed destiny as a wife & mother, and it’s her very strong sense of self versus the societal norms she can never quite make herself fit into. she doesn’t feel like a woman, a lot of the time. at least not a 19th century one. and there are times she wishes she’d been born a man. 

and i don’t know if she’d identify as nonbinary in another time or if she would better be able to connect to her birth gender in a time where there isn’t such restriction on what she “should” be/one accepted model of womanhood.

[stormlit]

𝐄𝐑𝐀 𝐀𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄. bold / italicize what applies to your muse ! repost. don’t reblog.

MEDIEVAL.

tired eyes. coffee stains on the table. listening to the bustle of the city. unmade beds. loose ponytails. sunlight seeping through the curtains. chapped lips. walking barefoot across the floorboards. dusty dictionaries. black and white reruns. huge sweaters. the ticking of the clock. hearing birds in the morning. fireplaces. falling asleep during class.

RENAISSANCE.

freckles. the sun rising. watching the sea. taking shots of the city. historical museums. bright eyes. looking up at the clouds. walls covered in artworks. drawing in the middle of lessons. tracing your fingers on the sand. painting for hours. staying in uncrowded coffee-shops. worn paperbacks. messy braids. going to bed with your kneesocks on.

BAROQUE.

dark hair. a little sophisticated. always observing the world around you. intricate designs. high ceilings. extravagant musical pieces. dim lights. colourless photographs. fancy furniture. pale skin. hearing soft footfalls coming from outside the room. mischievous looks. bitten nails. candlelight dinners. dark shades of lipstick.

CLASSICAL.

chandeliers. the clinking of a teacup mug. laced clothing. modern architecture. light hair. watching the view from the terrace. hidden birthmarks. drinking tea in the morning. wandering about in an empty building. botanical gardens. old films. ancient marble. sculptures. expensive perfume. breakfasts in bed. reading about mythology.

ROMANTIC.

compassion. short writings on scraps of paper. blushed cheeks. a bouquet of roses. reading collections of poetry late at night. loose hair. carpeted floors. attending operas. faint music playing in the background. staying under the covers until midday. the night sky. streetlights. picking flowers. dancing around in silk dresses. scented candles.

tagged by: @ofregence​ tagging: you!

[stormlit]

i haven’t been able to stop thinking about the honourable philippa latham in the red dress in the middle literally all day and icb emma is giving me costumes from pippa’s era that i can actually see her in bc usually my brain sees her in mid-19th c outfits but she’d absolutely go for that dramatic colour and the collar and although she loves dressing in era appropriate clothing when they travel --- it’s part of the fun of time travel --- she’s still a regency girl at heart and her like, “downtime” dress choices would reflect that (gif source)

[stormlit]

thinking about how pippa seems very graceful and elegant but she’s never happier than when she’s covered in mud, and she’s not afraid to fucking brawl