#bc dammit i want nancy to have powers bc she's so fun to explore in that context

[nancykali]

Nancy x Kali headcanon

Nancy is such a beautiful warrior character like she’s the best breaking of tropes for a white female character, and I don’t mean that in a bad way.

If only Kali was a true main character like she deserves, she and Nancy would have the most magnificent chemistry. That’s what captivates me most abou t them as a ship - but most importantly how their friendship would become romantic.

Because Kali is so much about vengeance that it’s consumed her nearly her entire life. Nancy has had her need for justice for her dead friend only recently change her worldview in a drastic and traumatic way. They’ve both had their own version of trauma, and rather than resent Nancy for having it better than her (nice house, rich parents, a family behind her, never having been tortured and forced to be seen as inhuman) Kali feels an immediate kinship with Nancy, and they can’t help but feel something intuitively in the other that told them they were allies.

That’s why I want to write with Kalancy so bad, they just have so much good that could be explored with how they look at the world in very similar but also dramatically different ways. And how they find common ground, navigating an uncertain future with the government still searching for Kali, through other means than the lab.

And they would have a different sort of intimacy with each other than either of them have ever had, but especially Kali, who still remembers and at the same time can never know her blood family. Nancy gives Kali a closeness and mutual trust that Kali can’t quite have with El, because she is El’s sister and mentor, and a guardian of sorts, after they reconcile. It’s unspoken that as sisters Kali would give her life for El if need be. And definitely take lives for her. Kali feels that way for Nancy after only knowing her for a short time, but she also doesn’t see Nancy as vulnerable the same way El is.

Nancy isn’t someone Kali has to worry about like she does for El, and the physical and supernatural pull between them is electric and makes Kali feel uncertain and truly afraid for the first time in a long time. She had learned how to bury fear a long time ago, taking on this external numbness that protected her but hurt others. It’s what drove El away, and Nancy and El together brought that numbness crumbling down for the first time in 8 years. (Kali has a very dramatic elaborate backstory in my head that I’ve yet to write down but will soon)

Kali’s love for Nancy creeps up on her. She won’t acknowledge for months, but will not be able to leave Nancy completely no matter how hard she tries to resist her feelings. When they’re not together physically, which is most of the time, they talk on the phone at least twice a month. And Kali dreams of her. They had connected somehow when they first met, and the dreams were frequent. Nancy called it meeting on the astral plane, another place that was like the Upside Down but rather than ugly and dark it was peaceful and empty except for the people or spirits you wished to see. Or those who visited.

Though Kali thinks Nancy made that up because she was just whimsical and truly odd in her thoughts sometimes. But sometimes Kali doubted that the dreams were just dreams.

It’s both similar and different for Nancy when she realizes her feelings for Kali. Kali makes her feel more secure than anyone ever has, much like El is for Mike. Kali came in and didn’t judge Nancy, she was only wary, and immediately saw things in Nancy that Nancy had worked very hard to hide from her friends and family for over a year. Since Barb had died. And when Kali reacted with pure understanding, no pity, just friendship and kindness, Nancy realized she’d never been given that by anyone. They both felt that way about the other.

From Steve, Nancy received an acceptance that made her feel warm and well protected. From Jonathan, she received acceptance in her heart, for him and for her, and how they fit in the world, and how their minds meshed.

From Kali, though, she felt more than acceptance, or kinship. She felt like she was powerful, and that Kali was powerful with her, but she had a hard time putting this feeling into words for a long time.