#but it's also 90% headcanons and assumptions

[weather-cluddy]

(Replied as a new post to avoid the character limit)

It doesn't bother me at all! This sort of question is something I've been turning over for quite a while, actually. I tried to make a post pointing out comparisons between non-paired prisoners, because I feel like people focus too much on number pairs without considering other thematic parallels, even with Milgram pointing some out (Eg: Shidou-Amane, Fuuta-Kotoko, Haruka-Muu, Yuno-Kazui). It stalled around Muu though, because it turns out that's a whole lot of entries, and also I wasn't sure that people would be interested in a post that's dozen of paragraphs long (though still much less elaborate than this post, of course).

Personally, I think Mikoto and Haruka have a lot in common and share many themes, but I hardly ever see it brought up. Some of it, I think, is the fact that Haruka's trauma gets a lot of focus while Mikoto's mostly implied, so there's a lot of people who don't look beneath the surface. So they just get slotted in the boxes of "sympathetic" and "unsympathetic", meaning fans miss the similarities even when it's them doing literally the same thing (Like trying to kill Es to protect their self-worth).

But at the end of the day, we have two people extremely afraid yet dependent on other people's opinions of them, whose every interaction is shadowed by the after-effects of their early-childhood trauma in a way that seems "cute" or harmless at first but really isn't, who committed premeditated murder because they saw it as the only way to make their lives bearable, who have artistic inclinations but can't find the self-confidence to pursue them, who are dealing with mental illnesses they have no (healthy) frame of reference for, who are okay with being used and abused (even physically!) so long as people approve of them...

Well, I don't want to drop the entire essay on the intro part. Onto the first section!

(I didn't particularly mean to organize it like that, but the two sections basically came out as Bokukoto- and Orekoto-centered, respectively. Funny how it worked out.)

Children and adults.

What are Haruka's goals? To be loved and cared for, even if it means taking on a subordinate role. To have his weakness acknowledged yet not be shamed for it, to be have his strengths bring joy to those he loves yet not have people ask more of him than he can give.

What are Mikoto's goals? To be a good, responsible, capable person and have people acknowledge him as such. To have his efforts rewarded, even if it means overexerting himself. To find conventional success and prove to those he loves (his mom, in particular) that they needn't worry for him.

In other words, Haruka wants to be a kid, Mikoto wants to be an adult. Haruka wants to be protected, Mikoto wants to be admired.

Why this difference? Well, I see two possiblities. One, Haruka has a golden past to retreat to, a time when he felt loved and safe. Mikoto might not have had that, or he might not remember it: after all, DID forms from trauma very early in childhood, as early as 5 years old and generally no later than 10. And of course dissociation itself tends to make remembering difficult, even before actual alters get involved.

So, Mikoto most likely doesn't remember any 'good old days' he could yearn for, either because he was extremely young or because they never existed. His only option, then, is to place his hopes on the future.

The second thing is that, in spite of Mikoto most likely having earlier trauma, Haruka is far more obvious in his dysfunction. Pretty much every person he meets will at least walk away with the feeling he's kind of weird, if not worse. This only manages to reinforce his feelings that he's inferior to everyone else, and that that's an inescapable part of his being.

Meanwhile, Mikoto can trudge through life well enough to believe that achieving what he wants is within his reach, even to be expected. Surely if he works both hard and smart, he can accomplish his goals without problem. He can get a good career if he just focuses on what he's good at, choosing 'efficiency' over his interests. And he can get everyone to like him, if he just remembers to always, always be nice to them, no matter how much he'd rather not. Then he'll reap the reward of succeeding at life!

That's just how things work, right? You put in the effort to treat others well, and your reward for doing so is to have other people do the same for you. That's the basis of society! And that's also how Mikoto makes himself feel safe. If his own actions determine other people's actions, then he can stop bad things from happening to him by just not doing anything that would invite punishment. Everyone knows monsters only eat the misbehaving kids!  Just follow the rules and everything will be fine.

(That's another big difference between Mikoto and Haruka: Haruka knows he can't do what's expected of him, so by the start of Milgram he's pretty much given up on the idea of ever being accepted or sucessful. Mikoto does believe he can cut it, but that brings its own kind of helplessness: he can never stop striving with all his might, because if he ever does fall short his self-esteem will crumble to pieces.)

The trouble is, sometimes even when you do follow the rules, other people just... refuse to reciprocate. Why is that? Did you do something wrong? Well, you can't exactly go up to them and ask. Now that would certainly be a faux pas! Clearly the only choice is to figure it out yourself by ruminating on it. All night long. Hey, remember when Mikoto said that he wouldn't be able to sleep if Kotoko didn't wish him a happy birthday? Sure sounds like somebody who worries a normal amount about gestures that might possibly be snubs.

But another convo I'd like to bring up is one with Fuuta, where Mikoto shows up unprovoked to tell Fuuta that being upset about being kidnapped is dumb and childish and will get him nowhere in life, and anyways he's just doing it for attention.

This seems a bit OOC, doesn't it? Mikoto basically never criticizes anybody. When Yuno basically calls him fake to his face, he just laughs and calls her a straight shooter. When Haruka said that he's been avoiding Mikoto because he's scary, he just shrugs and goes, that's fair, I'd have done the same. Hell, even knowing that Kotoko tried to beat him half to death, he still goes to congratulate her on her birthday. So what did Fuuta say that was so much worse than all of those?

The problem, really, isn't what Fuuta said or did to Mikoto, but how Fuuta behaves with everyone. Mikoto can put up with being openly disliked; see his interactions with Kotoko. But seeing somebody so brazenly ignore the rules he's based his life around, now that affects him a way that goes beyond Mikoto as a person.

If you asked Mikoto, he'd probably say that it's because he's sad to see somebody younger than him waste his potential with such stupid, meaningless stubborness. But really, it comes back to the fact that "nothing bad will happen as long as you behave" is one of pillar's of Mikoto's life. So how is he supposed to handle seeing somebody misbehave constantly, repeteadly, and still do just as well as him? What's that supposed to mean? Do things not actually work that way? Was he just being taken advantage of? That can't be. If being nice doesn't ensure that you'll get treated well, what does? He endured so much pain because it was supposed to pay off someday. Were all his efforts so far just make-believe, a kid hiding under the blankets thinking it'll do anything?

No, no, no. It's the others who are wrong. All his suffering until now was meaningful and helpful. He knows what he must do and he's not going to stray from the right path. Those who do are just bringing punishment down onto themselves. And while he's not capable of consciously acknowledging his anger, he can always try to share some "friendly advice" about what happens to those who fight against forces greater than themselves. You can't win those battles. He never won, so of course you can't win them. Stop struggling, it's for your own good.

(Amane-Mikoto parallels? In my Haruka-Mikoto parallels post? It's more likely than you think!)

Saviors and weaklings

You might be thinking that the title says it all, really. Haruka is a weakling, Orekoto is a savior, those are opposites, the end.

Well, yes, but it's not quite that simple.

Haruka in the second trial has also taken on a protector role towards Muu. This is a fairly uncontroversial reading, so let's go take a closer look at their similarities:

-Both Haruka and Orekoto put emphasis on Es not scaring/stressing their charge any further.

-In both cases, what they're looking for is acknowledgement from the one they're protecting and a sense of being useful ("Rely on me, praise me with your song, I am your savior")

-Haruka says that Muu is the reason why he can be who he is now. The same could be said for Bokukoto and Orekoto: without the latter, the former would not be able to remain his current self.

-At the same time, the 'saviors' need their charges, just as if not more than the other way around. Haruka's life has revolved around the concept of mothers since basically forever, and we literally don't know a single thing about Orekoto outside of his role. Honestly, considering he only seems to come out during stressful situations, it's possible even he doesn't know who he is outside of being Mikoto's savior.

Even the structures of Metamorphosis of the Weak and John Doe are similar. Consider:

-The interrogation starts with the prisoner being fairly unthreatening. Mikoto is rather nervous at the start, but as soon as Es starts pretending to entertain the idea that he really hasn't committed any murders, he calms down significantly. -The prisoners feel safe thanks to Es' temporary affirmation, but this is soon swept away by Es themselves. Even as the prisoners become more and more obviously distressed, Es presses on dispassionately.

-Eventually, they become totally overwhelmed by emotion and attempt to kill Es. Haruka is stopped by Milgram's rules, Orekoto isn't.

-At this point, a different prisoner makes their appearance, whether physically or just in conversation, and the rest of the drama revolves around them. In John Doe it's of course Kotoko fighting off Mikoto, after which he's literally unconscious for the rest of the VD (except for one line), and instead the remaining time is dedicated to Kotoko and her deal.

For Metamorphosis, it's when Haruka proclaims that Muu is his real mom and starts talking about their relationship. In both cases, there's a clear shift in focus from the OG character themselves to how their actions would affect Milgram overall (Kotoko offering to stop Mikoto if he attacks again, Haruka threatening suicide).

Well, we can probably agree that Haruka is a savior of a sort. But can we close the circle and bring the comparison back around? Is Orekoto also a weakling of a sort?

To answer this, we'll need to define weakness. For this, I'll actually refer not to Haruka's voice drama's, but to Muu's. Namely, this part in Queen B:

"Es: (…) One-sided violence and mistreatment… I’m sure it was difficult to handle. It’s not unreasonable to come to the conclusion that murder is the only way for a weak person to get out of that. That’s exactly why I forgave you." Muu: Yeah… If I hadn’t done that, I could have died some day."

We hear Haruka argue something similar after Es tears him down, asking "So what should I have done!? Was I supposed to give up on myself too!?" So we could say that a weak person is somebody who's trapped by their circumstances, somebody with the deck stacked so far against them that they have no choice but to take extreme measures.

I think that's pretty much how Orekoto views his own situation. Looking at his parts of MeMe, most of the what-if sentences basically come down to "I don't want to do this, but I can't not do it either". We also have lyrics like "It’s like what’s wrong isn’t wrong" and "Is this selfish?", showing that Orekoto is also full of self-doubt about this being the right thing, but doesn't see any other choice. After all, "Hurting it, holding it down, it doesn’t change anything, does it? Ahhh, It’s the same anywhere I go".

Like Haruka, nothing he tries seems to work and he's desperately trying to survive in any way he can. Whether this "death" is on a purely emotional level or if, like Muu, it's hinting at suicide ("Maybe it’s ok to try to keep on living"), he needs to get away. It doesn't matter anymore if it's "good", so long as it works.

Of course, I'm sure Orekoto wouldn't take well to the idea that he's weak. His breakdown in John Doe was, of course, because of Es pushing Bokukoto, but his rant was almost entirely focused on how weak and pathetic Es was. It seems that in that he resembles Fuuta (who was, after all, the first prisoner to try violence): when he's scared, he tries to intimidate the threat to feel safer.

(Of course, there's something to be said for Haruka also despising his own weakness, even if his reaction to it is to worship others for being different rather than project this hatred onto them.)

(And while we're in the topic of Fuuta, it's worth noting that he's also part of the overall protector theme spanning several characters. He even relates to Haruka and Mikoto directly, in that those two are the ones he picked as "weak" people he needed to look out for)

Muu and Haruka, even before the second trial, they were both weaklings and saviors of the weak (themselves). But this doesn't apply to Mikoto, because the roles are split between the alters. There's a clear separation between the 'good', pitiable, socially acceptable Bokukoto and the 'bad' and violent Orekoto. And you know where else we see something like this? Haruka's MVs.

This is most obvious in Weakness, where the separation is at its starkest, to the point where many people didn't think Haruka's younger self was him at all. Basically, every bad thing in the video is attributed to older Haruka. Li'l Haruka plays happily with his maybe-sister, older Haruka attacks her. Li'l Haruka pets his dog while his mom smiles by his side, until older Haruka bashes its skull in. And of course, in the end older Haruka is so consumed by hatred that he chokes his terrified younger self to death. Not the first time he attacks him(self) either; back at almost the start, older Haruka shoves him into a crayon puddle, with the camera making sure to show kid Haruka's terrified expression and Haruka's cold glare.

(I want to point out the dog scene in particular. Specifically, how the younger Haruka is horrified to find blood on his hands even though he never actually laid hands on the dog. This is quite reminiscent of the scene in MeMe where Mikoto becomes afraid of his reflection's evil expression and falls backwards, only to have the devil card fall on him and corrupt all the water into blood. But an interesting difference is how, while Mikoto not remembering is just a literal retelling of events, the same shouldn't apply to Haruka. And if the girl is the same age in AKAA and in Weakness, suggested by the fact she's dressed the same in both, then she couldn't have been playing with same-age Haruka either.)

In AKAA this divide into a good, young Haruka and a bad, older Haruka is less stark, presumably because after a forgiven verdict Haruka feels less disconnected from his past as a 'good kid'. It's not gone, however. We do see his younger self kill fish and a butterfly, but the harder-hitting murders of the dog (and possibly the girl, it's hard to tell) are left to his 17-years-old self. Not to mention the sequence when his mother opens the door, which is probably the part where Haruka is framed in the most threatening way across the entire MV. That too shows us only the current Haruka, notable because just seconds before it kept switching between the two of them.

At the same time, there's also a disconnect in Weakness between current Haruka and his murders. When we see him killing somebody he actually killed in real life (that is, the girl and the dog), it's followed shortly by him waking up in his bed, framing it all as just a dream. This is very similar to how in MeMe the second scene shows Orekoto killing somebody, with the third starting with Bokukoto gently waking up, completely unaware. There's of course also the line "I’m probably just having a bad dream, I need to wake up soon", which only drives it further home.

Well, I think that wraps up my points. To TL;DR it, some themes to consider are: fixated on past/fixated on future, giving up/trying too hard, dependence on others, wanting to feel useful, black and white thinking re: oneself and viewpoints warped by childhood trauma.

For a bit of extra fun, I'd like to note some shared visual motifs between MeMe, Weakness and All-Knowing and All Agony. There won't be much meaning analysis from me here, so feel free to supply your own.

Music Videos

(Some of the screenshots repeat, that's intentional)

Surrounded by eyes: Most obvious in Weakness, but the Hanged Man in Mikoto's shirt (and less obviously, the Magician) also show something similar.

Water turning into blood: This one is somewhat dificult to show in still screenshots, but it's present in both MeMe, Weakness (when one of Haruka's teardrops fall onto the water) and arguably AKAA as well.

Red skies with a moon visible: Interestingly, this one seems to be associated with younger Haruka in Weakness (most obvious at the very start, when he and older Haruka switch rapidly, with the scene outside the window also changing). There's one very obvious moon in a red sky near the end of MeMe, but there might be another one shown in the Fool card. Lots of Mikoto's cards show circles in the upper corner of the cards (but interestingly in the Hanged Man it's at the bottom, near their head, like an halo). Whether we can consider them all moons is up to speculation, but few of them match the color scheme anyways. Speaking of which, while Weakness almost always uses grey/blue moons with red skies, there are two exceptions: when Haruka is shown killing the dog (blue sky, red moon) and in a piece of official art that shows a red moon on a red sky.

Confusion between indoors and outdoors: If you notice, literally everything in Weakness happens indoors, except for the bits where Haruka is floating in water. Even the forest has floorboards, except for a single scene. The opposite also happens: we see kid Haruka out for a walk with his mom, but they're still inside the house, with the city just being images on the wall. Meanwhile, the mindscape in MeMe shows a ruin (no walls) on an endlessly extending sea and sky (natural-ish settings), but it also reflects the structure of Mikoto's house. So is it inside or outside? Looking at the shoes, both Mikoto and younger Haruka are dressed as though they're outside, but older Haruka is wearing slippers.

Reflections not matching "reality": Note how neither Mikoto nor the coffee table show up in the water in the second image, or how the paintings go from having no reflection to having each other's reflection, with those facing the wrong way. The fourth and fifth images are also an interesting example of the reflections not even matching each other, even though the timing and framing suggest we're still looking at the same scene.

[starryoak]

Basic Pokémon Worldbuilding Headcanons

Decided to write down my base worldbuilding assumptions about the Pokémon World, in case anyone else would like to share them;

Pokemon types are not fully a human-made classification system, but rather a metaphysical property of a Pokémon’s aura, the same aura that Lucario and many other Pokémon manipulate; the ‘frequency’ of their type is unique to them, and the combination of types makes its own unique ‘frequency’, much like coordinates on a chart with 18 different axiis on both sides.  This means that classification was first made and named by psychic humans who could sense them, until humans developed machinery for proper classification. The formal classification of a type is conditional on being detectable by modern technology, which is why the Fairy type remained unclassified for years, as it was very similar to Normal type in makeup.

This energy is also how Pokémon can be contained in Pokeballs and transferred electronically; Pokemon are naturally capable of converting from energy to mass and back again, though the exact mechanics of this transformation only became known in the 90’s as advances in science allowed the Pokémon Storage System to come into existence.

Psychic humans, of course, as we know, exist. Up to 5-10% of the population is some form of psychic, the extra 5% having psychic potential of some manner that, while not offering powers of any kind, makes them extra vulnerable to psychic effects or attacks.

This fact mixes explicit canon with my own headcanons; evolution for Pokémon is a process entirely separate to aging or the biological meaning of evolution in our world. Pokémon evolve for a variety of factors that are often connected but not always related to aging; if their territory is suited for them and would not support their larger evolution, many Pokémon simply choose not to evolve, leading to strange (for humans) sights like encountering elderly Treecko. As Grovyle are significantly larger than their prevolution, the Treecko would have had to leave his family behind to seek new territory, so it simply never did. Evolution is not the process of aging for Pokémon, though it’s often intimately connected with it, most Pokémon are fully capable of reaching maturity and breeding prior to their final evolution, so many simply choose not to do so for their own reasons. 

The act of evolution consumes a large amount of energy in a short period of time; this is the cause of the glowing light seen in the anime and some games, while others feature large bursts of swirling wind, the method of energy dispersal can vary, but all evolution causes some form of sudden energy discharge.

The process that is described in our world as natural evolution, and this is explicitly canon, does occur to Pokémon, though often it can be much more rapid than in our world. For example, and this is implicitly (though not explicitly) canon, Electrode and Voltorb’s species was originally a species of Apricorn mimics; this is implied by the Temple of Sinnoh’s statue of the original Lord Electrode, which has no dividing line between the upper and lower halves. As Pokeballs came into existence, they pivoted to mimicking them instead.

Pokémon breeding is more complicated than canon presents, obviously, but the base premises the game uses, of “Egg Groups”, is fundamentally still correct. Pokémon reproduce in different ways based on their species, but all Pokémon capable of breeding are in some form capable of laying eggs, often with the more mammalian Pokémon simply being ovovivaparous, giving live birth to their young, but still having eggs inside their bodies rather than placentas.  Under stress or other conditions that make it more favorable, often these Pokémon can choose to lay their eggs rather than develop them internally. Despite most technically being capable of doing so, most Pokémon simply do not choose to breed outside their species, and in fact, interbreeding between species in the wild is a likely sign of a disturbed ecosystem.  Obvious incompatibilities due to size can be overcome through artificial insemination, and Pokémon breeders often use these technologies to help create more effective battlers. As in canon, male Pokémon pass on very little to their offspring. To elaborate on that fact, male Pokémon pass on their aura to their child more than genes, and this leads to the influence of the father on a Pokémon expressing themselves subtly, often offering the capabilities to learn moves that may not be natural to their offspring. Very occasionally the father’s genes will express themselves in minor physical differences to an average member of the species, but this is very rare and usually very subtle.

Pokémon that are not biological in nature and/or in the No Eggs Discovered egg group tend to reproduce in their own unique ways, but due to unknown reasons, speculated upon wildly by scientists, usually still produce some form of egg in the process of reproduction.  For example; Magnemite and its family reproduce by two or more Magnemite collecting magnetic minerals together into a roughly egg-shaped ball, which eventually solidifies into a Magnemite egg. This type of reproduction is common to most Pokémon in the Mineral egg group. Most Ghost types are capable of natural reproduction, despite their appearances, and simply collect energy together during reproduction that coalesces into an egg once a male Pokémon has provided their aura.

[hornyhermitry]

These are not the Zenins you’re looking for - Naobito & Naoya ramblings and then some

Since there’s no real alternative for longer rants with a personal flavour, let’s give this a shot here on tumblr I guess? Heh.

Preface

General Naobito facts:

71 years → born in 1946, died 2018

Curse Technique: Projection Sorcery

Special Grade 1 Sorcerer

One younger brother - Ogi Zenin

Probably one older brother - unnamed, father of Toji Zenin

(I assume Ogi is younger because they are clearly not twins from the way they look, Ogi looks younger and Ogi’s children Maki & Mai are ca. 10 years younger than Naobito’s son Naoya).

Three sons - youngest son Naoya (27 years in 2018 - born when Naobito was 44)

Fastest Jujucist (except for Gojo Satoru)

Both Naobito & Naoya are names that translate to honesty & straightforwardness. Naobito’s further includes a meaning of “helpful/support”

Hobby: Anime

Favorite food: Sake

Least favorite food: Fishcake

Observations & conclusions from his manga scenes:

Confident, determined, affirmative, tactical (ref. Dagon fight + Jogo appearance right before the burn, doesn’t mind losing an arm, thinks ahead of Toji going for Dagon and jumps in to distract in support)

Cocky & playful, enjoys fighting (often grinning, excited to see Dagon evolve, taunts Nanami “Two 1st grades cannot exorcise (Dagon)?”)

Petty (annoyed by everyone fixated on 4K 60FPS and stupid numbers, retorts to Maki wanting to take Clan Lead)

He was drinking and did not care about Maki leaving the clan. There was no mockery and no attempt to stop her. Only when she said she’d become the next clan head, he asked if he should make her life harder.

He showed up to Shibuya to help out the rest (Maki mocks his drinking habits, with cans next to him he shouts over to her to bring him drinks, but later he nonchalantly breathes into Nanami’s face and we see he actually has not been drinking) and is excited to hear Gojo has been sealed, wants to celebrate.

Maki antagonizes him uncalled for, a bait he does not take but tells her matter of factly she should be the one to go home, to which Nanami agrees.

Assumption based on minor clues

Clan head since the 80s or 90s — depending on circumstances.

→ 2018-1185 (Zenin at the very least date back to Heian times) = 833 years with 26 Zenin clan heads= average leadership of 32 years = his latest “starting date” would have been 1999.

IMO it is very likely he took over earlier than that, because as far as averages go, it usually is way longer spans that are interspersed with very short ones.

(see: “medieval life expectancy was just 31” which did not have most people die at 31 but caused by a high infant mortality seeking the average - you either died as a kid or lived into your 60s).

I think he took over in the mid to late 80s because that sets up the unfortunate situation his family line had to deal with.

On a factual level it’s also not unlikely, because the first half of the 20th century was a chaotic time all around the globe, full of societal shifts and political conflicts that may have potentially led to Naobito’s father/Naoya’s grandfather dying “early”.

Anyway. I present to you:

THE LIFE & TIMES OF NAOBITO ZENIN aka HOLY HEADCANON

The historical context is what makes Naobito so interesting to me and further supports my personal controversial headcanon that:

Naobito & Naoya Zenin are NOT the major players in the, let’s call it “traditional Zenin camp” that exiled Toji and used all kinds of shady internal clan politics to keep power systems up.

Let me take you on a very exhaustive detour on what Naobito being 71 years old in 2018 translates to.

He was born at the brink of World War II and in the wake of the atomic bomb.

During his lifespan, Japan went from a humbled country on its knees to a major player in the global economy, driving technological advancements. During his youth, Japan’s patriotism loosened and a lot of American culture was adapted - the yankii subculture rose to prominence.

JJK readers were told that the Heian era was the peak of jujucists. IRL historically, it was a time famous for many violent conflicts and natural disasters.

Since JJK establishes negative emotions breed curses and cursed energy, this means Naobito‘s young years must have been infested with stronger curses than ever, spawned from the aftermath, suffering, resentment and personal tragedies of WWII, Hiroshima & Nagasaki.

Born in 1946 within months of arguably the worst moment of Japanese history, emerging with a new technique utilising modern animation processes, his potential power upon birth likely matched the new level of curse threats, enabling him to eventually become the fastest Jujucist alive with the use of his modern technique. Growing up in a strongly American-influenced Japan in a rapidly changing world, he was a completely different person than his father (who had seen multiple wars but no massive technological and social progress yet) likely was.

Being the middle child, his father was likely 25-45 years older than him (men back then often fathered their first child between 19 & 23, so I assume he fathered his middle child at 25+), therefore born between 1921 and 1900. This makes him very likely a very hardline conservative patriot who took great pride in the battles he fought in - either during WWI or WWII or even both. A man raised in the spirit of a proud nationalist Japan at the peak of its expansionist mindset across Asia, high in spirits from the successful war against Russia and winning military campaigns in China, Singapore and more East Asian territories. Japan during Naobito’s father’s youth wore uniforms and kimonos.

Whereas Naobito’s social upbringing (outside of his father’s direct influence) was shaped by a more globalist approach and culture, appeasing to the West and showing e.g. through the Olympics of 1964 what a modern country they had become. So when Naobito was 18, Tokyo modernised its post-war infrastructure and built both the Metro as well as the Shinkansen connecting Tokyo and Osaka which kicked off the economic growth in a global spotlight and highlighted how well Japan had rebuilt itself after the defeat 20 years ago. Japan during Naobito’s youth wore slacks, jeans and white shirts. He is old in 2018, but he is a "modern man" in comparison to what came before and he is accustomed to change and progress.

Due to this clash of ideals and lived realities in the world around them, I think Naobito and his father had a very rocky relationship once Naobito entered puberty (and listened to jazz, blues, rock and dressed in blue jeans and leather jackets) and that they had some fundamentally different views on things.

The realities of external life could not have been more different between Naobito’s father and Naobito. Whether it was the world around them or the eventual standing of their clan, Naobito was dealt a very different hand of cards than a very very long line of Zenins in previous generations had been dealt for many centuries.

Due to going up against a man with so much pride and confidence when emancipating himself as his own person, I believe Naobito grew a strong backbone and was a very genuine, upright person - within the limits of his time and upbringing. Much more progressive and less patriotic than his father in any case, which surely was a source of conflict. Yet, I suspect that succeeding in spite of his father’s disapproval is what fueled him to become a more capable and autonomous person than his brothers are and to show that an allegedly inferior curse technique will not hold him back. But Naobito and his father did not only clash about this. In the later Hakari introduction chapter, JJK establishes there are several political factions and some are in favor of traditional millenia old curse techniques like Megumi's 10 Shadows or Gojo's Six Eyes and shun new curse techniques like Projection Sorcery and Idle Gambling that only emerged with new technology. Since sorcerer grades are based on Jujutsu strength and such, people with a modern curse technique are clowned on and not properly being recognized - which applies to both Naobito and Naoya.

The realities of life for Naobito and Naoya are very similar and Naoya’s life is dealing with similar challenges as his father’s. Unlike his father, Naobito was confronted with the reality of established values, routines and social hierarchies becoming horribly moot and due to his own curse technique not being a prestigious one, he was forced to reevaluate the legitimacy of what his father had taught him and what old clans perpetuated. Both in light of the changing world and also his own value as a person and a jujucist. Naoya was confronted with a similar road to growth and reevaluating the classic Jujutsu society & clan values, also having received the same modern technique as his father and witnessing the new kind of strength Toji wielded.

While I do say that Naobito is a different man than his father, I am a firm believer that “the apple does not fall far from the tree” and very much see the likeness between Naobito and Naoya. I feel I should clarify this applies more to personality traits than opinions and I think all three of them are more straightforward and more blunt than the other family lines.

The people readers are told to be suffering by the Zenin family’s actions and opinions are Maki and Toji.

Both of which are not Naobito’s children. They are children of Naobito’s older and younger brothers.

Naobito’s unknown older brother exiles Toji due to him being resented and seen useless by the majority of the clan for not having techniques or energy, Naobito’s younger brother Ogi and his wife raise Maki & Mai in a cruel way, on top of that Ogi is shown to secretly plot behind people’s backs and be involved (with e.g. Jinichi) in inner-clan intrigues and betrayal. Funny enough, Toji himself is shown to be as much of a schemer (as seen through his bounty plan) and backstabber (pun intended) in line with his upbringing.

Naoya & Naobito on the other hand speak their mind openly, announce their gripes and do what they want. Naoya and Naobito are not schemers, they very much are -in accordance with their names - straightforward.

Naoya is many things, but he is not a liar.

Both Naoya and Nabito are eccentrics with a very flashy style that does not conform to plain traditions:

Naoya with his piercings and dyed hair (I’ve previously mentioned his white hakama being unusual for men, which still holds true, but it is not uncommon for high rank swordsmen to wear white ones, so I have now come to conclude these indicate his rank as Chief of the Hei) and Naobito, as an old man, sporting this over the top moustache.

There is an idiom about Japanese society that the nail who sticks out gets hammered down. Both Naoya and Naobito are doing everything to stand out and refuse to fall in line with unreflected traditional actions.

Both have not inherited the Ten Shadows technique but Projection Sorcery - as a result, both are on their own side which aligns more with the reformer side (that contains other Jujucists such as Hakari & Kirara who also have modern techniques), than the conventional conservatives (such as the higher ups or the Kamos. On that note, take a moment to reflect on the implications of Maki and Mai wearing modern school uniforms while Kamo Junior wears a uniform that much more resembles traditional clan attire: The Kamos are as conservative as the Zenins and probably more so than Naobito).

Both Naobito and Naoya are denied their perceived birthright purely by the unfortunate existence of Gojo Satoru and his Six Eyes, and Megumi having the 10 Shadows Technique, for the first time in hundreds of years denying the Zenin’s claim to fame.

Since Gojo was born 1989, I personally like to imagine Naobito tasted clan leadership as “the strongest” (and, in his case, fastest) for at least a few years before the one to change the world’s balance was born - simultaneously stealing Naobito’s position at the peak of the Jujutsu world and also denying that of his at that point two sons. Toji was already past the point of manifesting a cursed technique and therefore all existing “sons” of the Zenin family were ruled out to take their clan’s glory back from Gojo Satoru.

So Naobito tried and succeeded in having another son - I believe this is why Naoya was fathered by him as late as at 44 years. All hopes to restore the waning Zenin power were now on this little boy growing up. Would he be the one to manifest 10 Shadows and make the Zenin a worthy competitor to the Gojo clan again?

No.

Naobito, at this point already several years into watching his clan’s decline, lost the last bit of hope to restore its glory by traditional means and standards when his son manifested his very own curse technique: Projection Sorcery. Personally, I believe that your curse technique is heavily related to your personality - or call it soul if you like - and both Naobito and Naoya having the same technique reflects their similarity in character.

So Naobito raised Naoya to try and surpass the competing Gojo Six Eyes boy even without inheriting the jackpot technique.

While I do believe that Naoya was pampered by servants and women growing up, being the son of the Clan Lead and future Zenin heir in a long line of proud Jujucists, I also coin Naobito as one to give tough love, and demand a lot and would assume Ogi resented him because he would remind him of his own lack of potential, lack of power and lack of future.

On the topic of Ogi:

He is a weak, bitter man who holds resentment for everyone around him and blames everyone but himself for his shortcomings.

Being the youngest brother, his upbringing was different from Naobito‘s and I imagine that especially after witnessing his father and older brother argue and clash, he tried to suck up to his father by being a yesman to all his views and often tried to throw his older brothers under the bus and snitch about his activities.

He has always been a miserable rat with no backbone, hoping for another authority figure to spoonfeed him power.

He never learned that power is not given but taken and failed to take ownership for his life and actions right until his death.

Toji‘s father/Naobito‘s older brother:

I have little thoughts about Toji‘s father/Naobito‘s older brother, but I think he also clashed with his father and (this is super out there) maybe refused to take responsibility despite being the firstborn son and had no interest in leading the clan. I think he was on good terms with Naobito either way and I can see the two of them in their late teens/early 20s out in town, wearing jeans, pomade in their hair, smoking, flirting and riding around on motorbikes with Ogi nagging on the backseat how irresponsible, shameful and reckless they are while they tell the miserable virgin to shut up and learn to be a man.

(In fact, this is the Zenin backstory I want to read and write about, hahaha).

I consider it possible Ogi remained unmarried/a virgin for most his life and only decided to marry a few years after Naobito‘s youngest son Naoya had also failed to manifest Ten Shadows, in a last ill-guided attempt to steal his brother‘s superiority by fathering a child with the golden curse technique. Unfortunately Maki and Mai did not get it either and, to add insult to injury, were girls. Ogi must have been seething about his unlikely decision to marry after all. Possibly he was talked into it by others in the Zenin clan who did not hold Naobito and his ways and his son Naoya in high regard - considering them too unruly and progressive, affirming their future support to Ogi‘s line if he ever takes action.

Either way, I think Ogi and Naobito (and Naoya) are on bad terms and Ogi is a weak rat that deserves to be stepped on by greater people.

Most readers sympathise with Maki and Megumi and their goals and views because that‘s the lense through which we see the story, but take a step back to think about the legitimacy of it for a moment.

Maki leaving the clan is fair, but why would she (or unwilling Megumi) be suitable candidates for leading what‘s essentially a business with lives and salaries and adult people in national positions of power and military units? The thought of it is absurd. It‘s only natural for Naoya, who was raised into this responsibility from a young age, to be outraged over a noname teenager stealing his legacy from him the moment he was supposed to get it in his mid to late 20s. It’s as outrageous as Gojo taking it from Naobito.

My personal headcanon on Naobito’s drinking habit is that it formed in his later years, after Gojo’s curse technique emerged. Struggling to come to grips in his mid 50s, after a life lived for the Zenin legacy for ultimately nothing, watching the power loss and decline of relevancy the Zenin hold after the unfortunate event series - Toji energyless and exiled - Gojo born with Six Eyes - Naoya not having Ten Shadows - from the sidelines of history and the center stage of his clan, with his older brother & his father definitely already dead at this point and him being left with the joke of a person that Ogi is, he took to drinking. “If it‘s all drifting into irrelevancy, I might as well sit back and have a drink in my remaining years.” Something to this extent. In line with this, writing Megumi into his will was a drop in the ocean and at this point no dent in the current state of the clan already past its prime in his eyes.

And yet, old Naobito, leader of the most powerful and wealthy Jujutsu clan (who does not need money) goes to help with the curse outbreak in Shibuya. Sober, despite Maki‘s claims.

And he does not pull a Kusakabe avoiding the curses roaming around but genuinely puts in effort to defeat Dagon and save Maki (who left the clan) after telling her to go home (which against all reason she refuses out of teenage thickheadedness and nearly dies burnt to a crisp as a consequence).

Whereas her father, Naobito‘s little brother Ogi, throws her into a cursed pit to die.

Now, as for Naoya.

Unlike Maki's mother, he does not try to stop her from getting to the curse tools. Unlike her father, he does not throw her into a cursed pit to die. Unlike Jinichi he is not involved in a plot to have her killed.

He mocks her for having an ugly face, rendering her a total failure (on top of not having CE and being a bad fighter). Compared to what everyone else is doing to her, that is really tame.

What I find interesting and most people oddly gloss over, is how he asks her if her plan is to stay in the shadow of Megumi and Yuta.

The implication of this is that he looks down on her choice to tag along behind two other boys — instead of rising up to defeat the odds stacked against her which he potentially considers her capable of. If he was not considering her worthy of being her own person, why would he mock her for being in the shadow of those two? Much like Naobito raised Naoya with tough love, I think this (unconsciously) is a jab at Maki to take Naoya and Naobito as a role model (instead of her weak father) and rise to greatness despite the odds. Somewhere in that douchebaggery of his, he considers her biggest fault her passiveness and acceptance of other people’s low opinion of her and tries to get her to snap and rethink. Be the rebel that Naobito and Naoya also are and were.

I think Naoya, with his definition of and thoughts on strength, his contrarian taunting of everyone else in the clan after his father’s death, had plans to reform the Zenin clan in his own vision once his time as a head comes, to mare sure it will be sustainable in a new age of Jujutsu with less outdated ways of thinking. Naoya has his own agenda. He is not following anyone else's. He does not care for Sukuna's plans, he does not care about Kenjaku's plans. He does not care about Gojo's or Maki's plans (the latter ofc only up until she is all up in his face with her actions) he just wants to get promoted, nothing more. That's not any bizarrely evil masterplan, just a guy trying to steer his life in accordance with his personal vision and goals.

One of my most genuine headcanons about Naoya is that, without Maki and Megumi, he’d have been with Hakari’s and Kirara’s reformer faction and wouldn’t ever have been perceived as an antagonist at all. Because he is not a villain, he is an antagonist, and specifically for Maki & Megumi - he has zero personal agenda with the rest of the cast (aside from Gojo in the broadest sense, but in the same way his father already had it and just lived with it).

Naoya’s whole life revolved around two things: eventually stepping up to lead the clan and to prove himself worthy despite an inferior curse technique, so naturally Megumi stealing the head position from him with contractual fineprint pisses him off to the max. And then to add insult to injury, his “untalented, ugly little cousin” runs amok and slaughters the clan he was supposed to inherit right under his nose. Which he, interestingly, kind of brushes off like water under the bridge and just mocks her for being heartless. He holds no sentimental feelings towards those people murdered there, going by his lack of reaction. And does not care about the Zenin legacy being wiped out for the most part. Which hints at him having prepared for a reform that has now become moot through Maki’s actions.

Now only his other goal in life remains. To be the strongest next to Toji and Gojo. And had Maki not challenged that, had it been anyone else over a different topic, he would not have cared. But his biggest insecurity aka driver was prodded and his arrogance and refusal to acknowledge strength in another Zenin child not him became his downfall. On that note, I also do not consider him a misogynist in particular - he is a petty, spiteful instigator and goader and shittalks everyone. He baits Jinichi into attacking him, he baits Maki in a sexist way, he shittalks women in front of his aunt and he shittalks his brothers to Choso. He does not exclusively single out women to disrespect, he disrespects ANYONE. (Like young Gojo by the way, who behaved the same before he met Geto - all these kids raised into clans, especially as child prodigies set up for future greatness, have little respect for others. A baseline a big ego and a certain arrogance and always feeling better than the rest, no natural instinct to care for others and no respect for established rules are traits both share. Fortunately, Geto opened Gojo’s eyes on the responsibility of strength and taught him some consideration and at least a little humility and kindness. Otherwise, Gojo and Naoya would indeed be standing right next to each other, in arrogance and disrespect for those lower than them).

For what it’s worth, I think Naoya is sexist but the one who is an actual misogynist is Ogi. And that’s why Naoya’s treating Ogi’s wife and daughters mockingly the same way their father/husband does. Yes, there is a difference between sexism (crude prejudice and discrimination) and misogynism (actual contempt and dislike/hatred of women). And while we’re at it -- most of Jujutsu society’s clan-raised peers (vs. random recruits like Yuji, Yuta, Todo) will be sexist. They just don’t get a chance to show it in the manga because their arcs revolve around other things. Kenjaku, Sukuna, Gojo, are all certified sexists given their upbringing and backgrounds.But their stories are different ones, so it’s not likely to come up. Although there has been Gojo’s remark about scary women and Sukuna looking forward to killing women - just saying.

Personally, I don’t see characters or people IRL as good or bad, that’s a childish way of thinking and in such narrow simplistic boxes that only fit in children’s cartoons. People are people. Flawed. Everyone has flaws and everyone has reasons why they have those flaws. Some people click better with your own flaws, some end up causing issues in your life. One bad trait and deed or one good trait and deed doesn’t make or break a person. It’s the sum of what you repeatedly do. Intentions are secondary, the outcome of your actions makes it real. “Who’s worse? The demon who killed 2000 humans or the human who told another human her face is ugly?” is a stupid game to play, especially on childish claims like “oh but sexism is real” like death and murder aren’t just because your sheltered little life has been free from them so far. Grow up and start recognizing the realities of physical violence. Anyway. Naoya mocked Maki for being unable to find a husband with her scarred face, her father threw her into a pit to kill her. People who think Naoya is her issue need to get a grip.

The Zenins you are looking for are not this line of the family but the rest.

And I wanna drink sake and watch anime with Naobito. And listen to him telling me stories from his 30s in the late 1970s.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[eviltothecore13]

I wonder if the writers ever regret putting the rebecca easter egg in

I am not sure the writers have much interaction with the Western side of the fandom, and I don't know what the Japanese-language fandom reaction has been to it. So I don't know for sure that they're even aware there has been a fandom reaction to the easter egg that wasn't viewing it as funny or just going "hey a hot girl" as the average cishet male gamer in the late 90s unfortunately would have.

Honestly people seem to have talked more about the easter egg in the past year than in my entire time in the fandom before that? Like, yes there were always a few people who headcanoned something creepy going on with Wesker and Rebecca because of the easter egg, and there were always a few people who shipped them, too, and also that one old fic that explained it with "she's his secret daughter and he just wanted to keep a picture of his daughter where she was happy and playing basketball like she loved doing, rather than only having an official ID photo of her", but it used to be much easier to talk about Wesker without people mentioning it? Most people in the fandom never really seemed to give it that much thought beyond "yeah, yeah, 90s videogame sexism, trying to 'reward' you with a picture of a girl, kinda cringe", and most discussions of Wesker's characterisation never really seemed to involve it.

For that matter, before RE6, the primary assumption among the fanfic/fanart side of the fandom was that Wesker was 100% gay (generally using his distaste for Excella's attentions as proof). The "gamer guy on Reddit and/or videogame forums" side of the fandom, meanwhile, didn't so much see him as straight, as take a position somewhere along the lines of "Wesker is such a badass killing machine that having any kind of relationship or even being attracted to anyone is beneath him, all he thinks about is mad science and world domination". (Large numbers of people on both sides of the fandom--not just the gay headcanoners and Chrisker shippers as you might think--derided RE6 as OOC because they simply could not picture Wesker ever having had sex with a woman! It's just that one half thought he had sex with men, while the other half thought shipping was lame and for girls and can we get back to the zombies and explosions now.)

"Wesker is a sexual predator who preys on women" wasn't a nonexistent position back then, but it really wasn't the majority, and most people depicting him as such were...well, straight women writing 50-Shades-esque fantasies, rather than people who seriously thought he was a creep and hated him for it. And those would often involve Claire or an OC rather than Rebecca.

It's only the past couple of years that some people have been loud about using the easter egg as 'proof' that Wesker was preying on Rebecca and as a reason to hate Wesker, and only the past few months that I've started getting LOADS AND LOADS OF ASKS about it.

I'm rather surprised by this turn of events and wonder what caused it, to be honest, it seems like a very sudden switch. Is it just the RE2 remake reminding people of it? Wesker seems a more controversial character in general these days though than he used to be. He used to be unquestionably one of the most popular characters with a very high demand for more content of him, the decision to put him in MVC3 being very popular, him regularly placing highly in "best character" polls, lots of people wanting his return from the dead, etc... sure he was evil and there were people who "disliked" him in the sense of "he's an awful person who I'd hate in real life" or maybe "he hurt my favourite characters", "killing him in-game is satisfying because I'm beating the bad guy" kinds of dislike, but not "I wish he wasn't in the series" "I want to see less of him" "I hate anyone who likes him" kinds of dislike, you know? Mostly he was viewed as a badass scheming ruthless supervillain with cool powers, and frequently also as hot. Obviously enthusiasm for "MORE WESKER!!!" will die down after it's been so long since his death (though DBD revived it a bit) but I don't know where the increased amount of outright hate for the character and his fans has come from over the past few years.

Is liking villains just less popular? It used to be a fairly common belief that, no matter how evil they might be (in fact, the more evil the better sometimes), the villains were always the coolest characters in anything. Especially in horror, considering the number of horror franchises that are ultimately villain-based (the Cthulhu Mythos, most slasher things, a lot of kaiju things though how much those count as horror varies, basically all of Universal Horror though Dracula isn't the coolest character in the book). But I know some other villains who used to be seen as a main draw of the series now have a lot of people wanting them killed off for good.

In some of those cases, though, I think decreased quality of the writing is in large part to blame (the Joker used to be seen as an entertaining source of dark comedy and was one of the most popular characters in BTAS and the Arkham games, but now liking him--far from being an uncontroversial opinion--is associated with a Very Specific Unpleasant Type Of Guy...but that's probably because a lot of recent writing of him just hasn't been that interesting or funny). The increase in people who really vocally hated Wesker happened BEFORE RE4make, at a time when he'd basically not been in anything for years, so can't really be blamed on "he recently appeared in something badly written"--so I'm not sure where it's come from.

[heyclickadee]

Okay, here’s the slightly evil, kind of sad, but mostly happy in a somewhat melancholy way (basically just a lot of feelings here) thought I had about Tech and Phee having kids, if that should ever happen:

So, operating under the assumption that Tech comes back, let’s say he and Phee do get together. And let’s say they stay together, and end up more or less space married. Let’s say they both want kids, and, after a lot of discussion about the war going on in the background and how they’re going to raise them and keep them safe, they end up going ahead with it. They don’t really settle down in any one place, but they’ve got their own ship with plenty of room, Pabu (maybe) is a good, stable home base to go back to when needed, and they’ve got a huge family for support. Those kids, if they have more than one, are loved. They have tons of uncles, somebody is always around, maybe some of the other batchers have partners (or not) and also have kids or adopt kids (heck, let’s throw Riyo in there, too, since she and Echo are a popular ship—they end up together but they don’t want kids, but they do a lot of work helping younger clones when they’re not fighting the Empire, Hunter took in several of the clone cadets they rescued from Tantiss, Wrecker is the favorite uncle but Crosshair is the favorite babysitter, they all manage to visit Cut and Suu once in a while, and and both Omega and Lyana are delighted to have little cousins running around (I kind of headcanon that Shep and Lyana kind of adopted Phee into their family after she found Pabu, so even if we’re going with a version of Phee that was formerly a Jedi and and doesn’t really know who her birth parents were, her kids are going to have family on both sides).

And this all exists just as a headcanon for something that could maybe happen after season three, depending on how season three goes, buuuut I like it. It’s just this nice little thought of this big, chaotic family, way bigger than just our six batchers, that’s structured a little weirdly, because clones, and everyone has their problems. but they’re all doing their best for each other and there’s a lot of love in it. And then I started thinking about clone aging.

And we all know clone aging sucks, but: let’s say clones really do age at twice the normal rate once they reach maturity, and let’s say Tech is chronologically, like, twelve but physically in his late twenties. A hard late twenties where he could pass for anything between thirty and fifty, but late twenties all the same. Suppose he gets the best case scenario and manages to live till he’s physically 90. Chronologically, he’ll be around forty-five. So, close to best case scenario, barring dying violently or getting sick, he’s got maybe another thirty-three years in him. That might seem like a lot (and it probably is to a clone), but to put that in perspective, I’m thirty-five. If I die in thirty-three years, I’ll only be sixty-eight—I’ll have died pretty young. And I’ve already been alive almost three times as long as many of the clones have. The clones do not get that much time.

There’s a lot to be explored with that in regards to Phee; I’ll be honest, the potential, “This is going to be over faster than either of us are going to be ready for,” “It is—let’s do it anyway,” is part of why at draws me to the ship, because there’s something a little defiant about two people going into a relationship knowing one of them was built to die faster, and choosing to live their lives how they want despite that. But there’s also a lot to be explored in how Phee and Tech would handle that with their kids. Because—they’d tell them. They’d have to sit down and tell them once they got to a certain age. Tech is going to be lucky to see them hit their twenties. It’s not like they wouldn’t notice their dad and their clone uncles getting old so much faster than their mom, Omega, or their uncle Shep, or anyone else they know. They’d ask questions, and it’s not like Tech wouldn’t be up-front. But I don’t think it’d be an easy conversation for any of them to have.

[bubbledtee]

𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐰!𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬

Warnings: mentions of violence typical to the Wild West.

Summary: Headcanons of early 90s!james as an outlaw in the Wild West.

A/N: this made me so happy to write guys I'm def gonna make this like a series probably ^-^ (also this is for @31-4am 🤭🤭 here you go lana)

He’ll act big and tough whenever necessary, but deep down that man is just a big teddy bear who’s just done a few unspeakable things.

He keeps to himself quite a bit, though he does have a big voice when needed.

He keeps to himself quite a bit, though he does have a big voice when needed.

(For scaring away both animals and men who lay hands on their women and children)

At 6’ 4”, he’s taller than just about everyone he’s ever surrounded by, so he’s hardly bothered when riding through town, following up on leads.

Because of his sheer size and strength, he’s often written off as a big dumb brute.

Which, most of the time, is not an assumption that is all that wrong.

“Goddamnit, where the hell is my hat? I swear, I just had it!”

“It’s on your damn head, dumbass.”

However, he does have his moments of intelligence.

For example, he knows exactly how to, despite his huge appearance, be so quiet and invisible that people in saloons will talk about things like trains and coach routes that are carrying bonds right next to him and not even second guess that he might be listening in. He just always is leaned over, head down with his hat covering half of his face while he sips his beer, somehow being both the largest and smallest person in the room at the same time.

He’s also extremely smart when it comes to animals. Wildlife, livestock, dogs, horses, pretty much all animals, he seems to have unlimited knowledge.

At around 15 when he learned to read after he was picked up by the gang he’s in, one of the first books he really read through was a book on natural history and that really sparked his interest in not just hunting, but the appreciation of the wildlife as well.

And every horse he’s ever had was always treated almost perfectly by him. 

They were always fat, happy, and loved.

If any of them were ever stolen (which a few have been in the past.), he’s felt like he needed to go find them.

And he did find them every time.

And every time that he’s had to put down his own horse, it would leave him broken for months, even if he didn’t show it.

It’s his heart of gold that makes him so soft for animals, and sometimes he curses himself for it.

Finally, James’s gunslinging skills are practically flawless, too.

Most people think he’d be too big and clumsy to be able to quickdraw well, so whenever he’s challenged to a duel, both his opponent and bystanders are ready to see him shot straight through the chest.

Though, it never happens.

He’ll always be way too quick for his opponent, and thus he wins every duel he’s apart of.

He doesn’t duel as much as he’s gotten older, though. It was more of a reckless, adrenaline-filling thing he did in his late teens and early twenties, but he realizes just how much he has to provide now that he’s older and higher in the gang, so he’ll only duel if absolutely necessary.

[daybreakrising]

HEADCANONS - B.OOTH.ILL'S AGE

just a quick one bc i've finally made a decision regarding his age - and for clarification, when i say age, i refer to his actual years alive and not the 'age' of his body. obviously, since he's gotta be at least 90% machine from what we can see / what we know, he's not going to exactly age as normal, but i also believe there's a degree of preservation or at least something to stall the process of aging on his remaining organic parts, that was implemented during the process of becoming a cyborg.

as such, he will retain a fairly static appearance for many, many years, making it difficult to gauge his age based on looks alone. in the current present day, i imagine he's had his cyborg body for a minimum of ten years - possibly longer. he is described as a young man by the doctor who operated on him, so i would place him in his early-mid twenties at that time.

allowing for between 10-15 years since then, i place b.ooth.ill in the age range of 35-40.

given his beginnings, even he doesn't know his exact age (and never has). nick and graey made an assumption based on his size & development when they found him, but it could never be perfectly accurate, so there's no way to tell his exact age - just a range. they assigned him an age and a birthday (after learning he didn't remember either) and that was that.

visually, he still looks the same as the day he became a cyborg, and he won't correct people's assumptions of his age - because what does it matter? he's a cyborg. age is meaningless to him now.

[compacflt]

sorry if youve already talked about this but do you have any views on Goose's christianity? I assume with the cross he wears and Carole referencing him going to church that he is christian, im fascinated by how that might affect his character but im not religious at all, i was raised atheist in a mostly atheist country, so the fact that the tg characters might be caught me by surprise, i know thats not statistically correct but i just assume people arent religious until proven otherwise. feel free to speak on this topic in regerds to fhe other tg characters as well or to disregard this ask completely if it doesnt interest u

yeah. Americans were more religious in the 1980s than they are today. By like some order of magnitude. 90% of Americans were Christian in 1986. And the military tends to be more religiously conservative than the general population. So, I don’t mean to correct you, but the more statistically accurate assumption would be to assume that [X American character] is Christian until proven otherwise.

On the other hand. Characters’ relationships with religion is one of those things that is so personal, it’s completely useless to headcanon. it’s like music taste in that way. Goose outwardly presents himself as a Christian & also makes passing references to cheating on his wife. That’s like one of the 10 main things God told you NOT to do. (check out a little thing called “exodus 20:14.”) So it’s pretty useless to infer any relationship with religion because everyone treats religion differently, and goose doesn’t sit us the audience down and explain the exact kind of Christian he is.

Whatever. He’s a dude in the Navy of the 1980s. Religion comes secondary to dudehood. People can be (and frequently are) hypocrites. That’s what makes people so interesting.

There’s this great military line: “There are no atheists in foxholes.” Your moral code gets a little screwy when you’re constantly facing death or the prospect of death.

I think it’s okay not to shy away from the complexity of these characters. You can let Goose be a complex person who is statistically likely to be a conservative Christian who cheats on his wife sometimes and/or lies to her about it. That was, like, a commonly accepted male archetype in the middle of the 20th century. Those guys existed. Top Gun is a military movie. It confers complexity! That’s what military movies do! It’s okay to let bad people be bad people. Their emotional beats can still hit just as hard.

[silvercap]

Do you have any leon headcannons?

and maybe some krauser ones too?

I've got a few!! In no particular order:

Leon...

- Leon doesn't use a whooole lot of different products for his hair, but he stays loyal to one very specific brand and it's kind of expensive

- Also think he was a 2-in-1 shampoo kind of boy until he started working at the white house 😞 his hair is just nice like that tho. Thick and shiny

- Bite mark scar on his forearm from trying to push away a BOW who decided it looked more like a snack than defense

- Moles all over his body... and I mean everywhere.

- Suffers from a three-hit K.O. of sleep deprivation from working ridiculous hours (some self-imposed), insomnia, and a natural tendency to be a night owl. He's always tired, and if he feels safe somewhere he's constantly taking naps

- He's always thinking about something and has a tendency to get lost in his memories. I like to think he drinks just to stop thinking in endless loops of guilt and regret for a while :(

- Touchstarved as HELL. was joking the other day that he's the 'even held hostage it's nice to be held' meme lmaoo. Give him a hug, somebody??

- Listens to the most dad-rock-light-emo-90s-early-00s-linkin park-nirvana-alanis-morissette-foo-fighters-evanescence-nickelback music possible. Also Chevelle and The Police because I say so

- Tendency to be late to things on purpose, especially with the government

- Lingering nerve pain for a long time after Spain, and though it's mostly subsided after so many years it still flares up if he's pushing himself too hard

- Achy. So achy.

- Incredibly self-sacrificing. He would die to protect almost anyone and he cares very deeply about people even though he puts up a tough front :') not so much a headcanon as true, but it's important

- I feel like sometimes people can't tell if he's joking or not? Obviously he's got his silly one-liners and sarcasm, but I feel like he also likes deadpan humour and it throws off people who don't know him, maybe intentionally if he doesn't really trust them.

As for Krauser...

- He's such an asshole. Never knows when to shut the hell up and stop making sarcastic, biting little comments. I think he's just in love with the sound of his own voice at this point

- Strikes me as a middle child 🤔 maybe grew up with an older brother and a younger sister? Kind of a jock in high school, but also always a little bit antisocial

- Stubborn.

- Very practical. I don't think he really has much use for abstract or hypothetical discussion, he's a man of action. I think he enjoys following orders and being part of a scheme, too, helping to be part of a well-oiled machine

- Relentless drill sergeant, and again, a dickhead, but he really does care about his men

- He has this... assumption that everyone else is just as insane as he is, and doesn't see why people get caught up on small things. If there's something he wants to do, he's going to do it. He knows his strength and always has this intense desire to make himself better and better by constantly tackling challenges.

- He doesn't fail... until he does, and everything falls apart. His panic in Darkside Chronicles after he gets injured screams insecurity to me. The second his strength isn't enough, he feels weak and powerless and incredibly let down by his own inability to push through

- Arm injury in Operation Javier was super debilitating, maybe even to the point where he was advised to amputate it. Again, though, he's a stubborn SOB

- Very touchy. The kind of guy to always pat your shoulder or your back or knee. Just casually moves people out of the way, or readjusts their fighting stance while training without hesitation. If you're cuddling with him it's impossible to get away from his big heavy arms.

I think that's everything?? I'm always coming up with more ahaha but these are definitely the fundamentals :) Thanks for the ask!!

[cloveroctobers]

can you do head canons on what it would be like to date Layla keating? Preferably female reader but gender neutral is also good! It’s okay if you don’t want to ofc!

HEADCANONS DATING LAYLA ・❥✧.* ・❥・

A/N: why not? It’s nothing too long but there’s some cute moments in there. I think present Layla…like end of season 5 Layla would actually make a good girlfriend once she knows what she wants that is! But let me take that back, most of the previous relationships kinda did her dirty so she was somewhat valid. Anyways we’re talking about Layla with a fem! Interest here and I wrote this pretty quick which is why I love HCS so thanks for this request, hope you like it!

・❥✧.*・❥・・❥✧.*・❥・・❥✧.*・❥・・❥✧.*

It takes a minute for the relationship to kick off since Layla’s been lost in love before while also feeling like her previous relationships didn’t value her as a person or really get her they way that they should.

With you, the love was patient and kind and Layla’s actually the first to initiate your very first kiss.

She’s horrified by the impulse she’s pulled and a stuttering mess, “oh my god, I can’t believe I just did that, especially when you were just mid-sentence—I—I don’t even know what that was—

“Yeah, how rude.” You comment, lips swollen and Layla almost appears as if she wants to melt into a puddle and crawl away like a 90s cartoon, which makes a smile spread over your own lips, “Nobody should ever cut me off when I’m trying to show you Rihanna’s iconic pregnancy photos but—if it’s only by your lips, I’ll let it slide Keating, so come here.”

And now she’s shocked because you’re actually kissing her!

You establish what the relationship is going to be that same day after the first kiss, not making any assumptions and always laying it out on the table.

The communication between you two? *Chef’s kiss*

Patience is all grins and prideful when she gains knowledge of the relationship when you stop by with lunch one day, “you bitches! Am I the first one out of the Vortex to know that this is actually a thing?”

You did greet Layla with a kiss and a cup of her round face that she almost forgot Patience was even in the studio (she was practically melting by your touch) with you so yeah!

Layla’s all starry eyed as she rests her neck into the palm of her hand, lounging on the couch beside a curled up you, your hand on her thigh, smiling.

“Yup! But just know, she’s mine and I don’t plan on sharing her with you, or Coop.” Layla warns, not daring to envision a break up with you and the glare she sends Patience let’s the raspy girl raise her hands in surrender.

When coop does find out she’s all for third wheeling dates, hanging out with you guys—which is fine sometimes but ofc you also love your alone time as well.

Layla is the protective gf, someone staring at you weird in public? she makes sure to stay close and block you from their eye sight.

Taser is never too far from her reach, believe that!

If someone upset you? She’s ready to call them up and cuss them out/read them to filth or locate their whereabouts? She’s pulling up, might even throw a restraining order in their face—if it’s harassment status because hello business woman about her shit who doesn’t play!!! especially when it comes to you!

She loves your nose kisses, especially if you’re shorter than her.

Staying over at her place? She likes cold sheets and room while you prefer warm no matter the weather in California (yeah it still doesn’t make much sense to her either, maybe you’re anemic) and it’s no different in her bed. So ofc you’re gonna use her long legs as body heat.

She also likes playing footies and sleeps with fuzzy socks on?

“Layla! Why are the fuzzies in the bed?” Your eyes are wide with bewilderment while Layla chuckles, replying to one last text message before placing it back on the night stand and turns around so you’re face to face.

“Is there a problem?” “Yeah! Who goes to bed with socks on?” “Your girlfriend.” Layla blinks, waiting for you to challenge her more. “I think we should break up.” “Is the break up in the room with us right now?” Basically she knows you’re not going anywhere and will learn to love her quirks, which you already do and it’s likewise on her end so the both of you fall into laughter.

Lots of pillowtalking. Y’all love to just talk with each other about any and everything. If you get to do it laying down somewhere? You’ll be the first two to sign on the line!

Queens of taking naps as dates for 10 points Gryffindor!

She’s the big spoon! Occasionally she’ll let you spoon her if she’s under the weather or having a bad mental health day.

You do have to remind her to take breaks now that she’s reaching big heights as a record producer.

When she’s really stressed out about a track or anything circulating around a certain artist, you take her mind elsewhere for a mental break for at least an hour—usually giving her some sense of direction on how to handle the problem.

Both great at problem solving but mainly Layla is—you’re always team “I’ll figure it out later!” While Layla’s mind is always running until it reaches the edge and slamming right into a brick wall—but it works for her somehow.

The both of you enjoy board games with Layla liking games like scrabble, puzzles, and monopoly and you like clue, LIFE, and card games. If the both of you are on the same team with the rest of the vortex? You’re always the top two couple that’s hard to beat.

Lots of hand holding and chin pressed into your shoulder.

She likes having you as her passenger princess, enjoying the thought of you being beside her and she looks just as gorgeous whipping her ride around with ease, hand in yours.

She’ll spoil you with shopping sprees and always wants your opinion when she’s trying on clothes. She loves trying on clothes while you hate it but do it because she hates the return process since most high-end stores have shitty policies.

Idk I can see Layla getting involved with someone who wants to go into the medical field so while she’s got her career figured out, she’ll help you study for all your lab exams.

“I can’t wait to have my own personal Cristina Yang…or are you more of a Miranda Bailey?” Layla wanders while you just laugh tiredly at the dining table, head collapsed along your arm.

Definitely a supportive gf: will encourage you with clues that she’ll relate to any of your obsessions to help you get the answer right, massages, kisses, and strip teases.

Loves you in her clothes but she actually steals more of yours.

Always has you help her curl the back of her hair with her curling wand when she wants to wear it curly.

Starts wearing it more that way when you tell her how pretty in curls she looks, which you notice.

You’re the most active gf out of the two (you were a complete gym rat in high school and gave the boys a run for their money. You were also on the volleyball team back then and loved the whole gains aspect and working on your arms) and layla tends to only turn to exercise when she’s having a bad day.

You’re not as deep into the gym now thanks to declaring biomedical sciences as your major but you kept your workouts to at least three times a week and doing at home workouts every now and then.

You’ll have to drag Layla to take hikes with you—she rather do the hikes since the scenery is quite beautiful and you in cycling shorts?! is always a great sight to witness but 🤫

She prefers hot yoga or Pilates tbh.

The always busy couple who never find a reason to be bored and definitely keep each other entertained.

Want to go on a road trip or night drive? Layla only questions if it’s going to be a 24 hr thing or a couple of days so she can pack accordingly and make sure things will be handled at the studio in her absence. Any chance she gets to spend one on one time with you? She’s doing it.

You come up with spontaneous adventures, Layla just needs to know how far and the weather so she can prepared.

Whatever she wears, you’ll be sure to tell her how much you love something on her.

Words of affirmation are big in this relationship. 

I do feel like she’s more physically affectionate and you may be more verbal, perhaps that has to do with your professions/desires with Layla always having her hands in music and you constantly thinking out loud when it comes to the sciences and simple human nature—if we’re looking into it deeply.

You’re always reading world science articles to her btw and even if she doesn’t quite get it…she listens just like you do when she lets you listen in on the beats that get sent over to her by the engineer.

She doesn’t mind PDA at all, most of the time she’s always the one touching you and finding some way to touch you unconsciously.

Layla’s never felt like this before, a fresh love that didn’t have to feel complicated, questionable, or suffocating. She could be herself around you and knew she was falling in love whenever she would daze off just staring at you while you talked or just simply listening to the sound of your voice.

“You’re my favorite person, I hope you know that.” Layla finds herself saying on one of your many drives.

You pause in your balled up side of the car, “I’m starting to believe you…why else would you listen to me damage my vocal cords to a Whitney Houston song?”

Layla snorted, “…you have a nice tone.”

“Sure but I’m no Whitney.”

“You can be my Whitney. Because I’ll always wanna dance with you, my somebody who loves me.” She lightly sings

Gagging at Layla, you slap her thigh, “the cheese! I can’t take it!”

“Oh you love it! Don’t you wanna dance! Say you wanna dance!”

You wiggle your shoulders and flip your hair forward and over your face making Layla whoop and snap her fingers, twinkles in her dark eyes.

Laughing you smooth your hair back and reach forward to meddle with the staticky radio before looking for the aux cord.

The silence was just as comforting with the both of you driving down the dirt road, side by side but it was even better singing the lyrics to songs declaring your love for each other.

A love that’s worth it, deserves to be screamed together into the sky, to be felt and genuine

and you were sure a love with Layla Keating was just that.

・❥✧.* ・❥・・❥✧.* ・❥・・❥✧.* ・❥・・❥✧.*

Continue along with my spring anthology series here.

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

The anon really seems to wish for you to validate their own experiences, and preferences. Your words weren't offensive, but just didn't place the white, het, old ship up on some superior altar that their stans are so used to receiving, thinking of course, everyone should know their "classic history." Personally, I'm an Asian, and I've heard of, but never watched XFiles, growing up on retro anime, and where I live, most people are like me, yes these people will definitely know wangxian. Impact is subjective. Our experiences are not universal. If one party takes to trashing over the experiences of the other, then they should expect the other party to retort, lol. That too, constantly likening you to JC or this character is extremely childish.

I'm also not sure why I seem to need to feel bad about what they actively said to be their own assumptions and ideas imposed onto a 90's tv show that was made and aired to an American network for a white demographic that is very apparent based on the content written and made.

It's not my classic history and never was, I don't want it or call it my own especially when the base of it chooses to degrade into sinophobia and try to tell me to put more respect on a white American ship. As if I have not been told that since the inception of Hollywood that makes my own community dead rolled in the same constant. Then get told mexican actors are wrong for any role outside of it and it's just a white character role that is better for a caucasian by the fanbases and my upset is overblown and no big deal because of fandom fun.

I have my own loved mexican medias, American and English ones are not the all just because a person's sphere of interaction is limited through no fault of my own, followers or friends. I won't validate headcanons for a 90's tv show because no, it didn't actually give me or people like me anything substantial for role models. Especially when it's demanded as if I need to once more step down to give the limelight to a demographic that has always had it.

In all of this I will also say I'm not actually talking down a thing or insulting it like they have to me on several personal levels.

[bolters-and-rivets]

OK, time for a Railway Series headcanon

Meme for attention, full headcanon after the break. TL;DR BR diesels and electrics would have been spoonfed anti-steam propaganda and would have very quickly gotten a dose of reality in the 1970s

OK, so, the TTTE/RWS fandom as a whole seems to be ambivelant at best about diesel and electric locomotives, and at worst sees anything that isn't powered by steam as the spawn of satan, and sometimes as someone who's a railfan in general beyond the fandom I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall anytime I wanna info dump about diesel locomotives. personally I find this a huge shame as the history of the modernisation plan and post-68 BR is fascinating in its own right.

the thing that grinds my gears is the perception of the fandom seems to be that all diesels and electrics are evil because reasons, and often completely ignors that the Rev. W. Awdry, god rest his soul, was unashamedly biased against modern traction, which leads to some missed opportunites in further fleshing out the universe whilst also turning modern traction into simply the new generation of engines. It's like this, as soon as 1955 rolled around BR managment was firmly set against steam, just about every bit of media they put out advertising their services used the shiny new diesels and electrics whilst referring to steam negatively, the locomotives own managers saw them as old technology that was dead in the water, and only being kept around until their replacements rolled up.

It's a logical assumption that the diesels would have been spoon fed this anti-steam propaganda before they had even turned a wheel, they would have been elitist and looked down on steam because from the moment of conciousness they would have been told that they were the future. Just think about the sort of superiority complex that would give an engine.

Cue the 1970s.

No sooner had steam been relegated to the history books than BR started the withdrawel of the less succesful pilot scheme locomotives (classes 15, 16, 17, 21, 23, 28), the Western Region diesel hydraulics (classes 14, 22, 35, 42, 52) and the 1500v-DC Woodhead electrics (classes 76 & 77).

just imagine the effect seeing locomotives which ten years earlier been labelled as part of the future being withdrawn en-masswould have on many still relatively young and naive diesel and electric locomotives. I can very easily see the remaining classes shift from an elitist "we are revolutionary" mindset to a jaded "we are just cogs in a machine who will be replaced the moment better comes along", which would be further reenforced not only with the introduction of the class 56 to replace 20s and 37s on the heaviest freight trains, but with the general slipping of standards as trains go for longer between cleaning, and some locomotive even being left out of repaints during the introduction of TOPS.

I see it as a period that has a lot of untapped story pottential for more mature subjects involving regret and greif

A now non-standard diesel being suddenly withdrawn and wondering what they did wrong after being told for so many years that they were the future of the railways

Think about how many surviving 1st gen diesels would back on the late-50s and 1960s with shame at their own arrogance and naivety, and even coming to regret their attitude towards the older steam locomotives and missing out on the chance to be properly shown the ropes as a result.

What about the shiny new class 56s, HSTs, and 58s having any sense of elitism being stomped out by the older first gen diesel locomotives, and being told the story of the beeching cuts and the cull of the 70s to drive some humility into them.

Maybe into the 90s and 2000s the surviving 1st gen diesels would come to view the mainline registered steam locomotives with respect and reverence.

I have a story idea which I may or may not write involving a diesel locomotives which, upon withdrawel and preservation, would by chance be sent to a railway that also had a steam engine that they worked alongside in the 60s. They would seek to make ammends for their attitude when younger, only to find out that the steam engine simple isn't willing to listen to what they would have to say, and the diesel locomotive coming to terms with the fact that an apology given does not mean an apology accepted, and sometimes you simply won't get the closure you were looking for.

[bunnimew]

Weirdest open or loose ends for you in ROTG? One of mine is that the reindeer went loose in Burgess after the de-powered Guardians arrived, and the sleigh was abandoned by Jamie’s house. The sleigh and reindeer were later seen at the ending on Jack’s lake (along with the Guardians, the Burgess kids, etc… all that weight on a frozen pond…), before flying away into the sky with the Guardians. Also, the reindeer have different fur patterns if you look closely.

Hey anon! (We know it’s been ages pls forgive us) 

HONESTLY? Jamie’s AHA! Moment in reviving the Sandman. It’s the biggest plot hole and it bugs me every time. 😂 Talk about deus ex machina. You would think that bringing a Guardian back to life, the exact countermeasure to all of Pitch’s plans, would at least be shown on screen?? Or at least explained a bit?? But since we get nothing, I will continue to headcanon that Jamie Bennet dabbles in necromancy. (Sequel with Jamie’s villain arc anyone? 👀) 

On a more …biased note, I would say how it never gets addressed or resolved that Bunny was about to physically strike Jack after his ‘supposed’ betrayal with nothing but circumstantial assumptions to justify his actions. And he never apologizes to Jack for it, nor the initial argument at the Pole that nearly made Jack cry. 'But the Guardians are the ‘good guys’ and they’ve grown so much as characters over the course of the movie!!' 🙃 I mean yes, we’re not huge fans of Bunny here, but I feel like, especially for a kids movie, there should maybe be some acknowledgement about recognizing bullying behavior/being taken advantage of? (Or even just being compassionate to someone you're supposed to consider a friend/ally) So I consider that a weird loose end. Only so much you can do in 90 minutes of screen time tho. 😂

Thanks for the ask anon! 

[wyrm-in-a-closet]

latenight amphibia headcanon: Amphibia has lower gravity than earth (in the range of 80-90% of earth’s). I say this partly to explain the biology because like. many animals seen in amphibia should not be able to exist, and others can fly that should be too heavy to. a good example of this is the herons. on earth, a bird so tall is simply impossible because pumping that much blood up to their brain would cost an absurd amount of energy. but, cut gravity down to 80%, and it suddenly becomes much more managable (still probably unlikely, but better). in general, lower gravity = larger animals, and considering that much of the wildlife on amphibia is very similar to that of earth’s but bigger, lower gravity is a reasonable assumption. 

also it lets the action sequences and stuff be just a tiny bit more realistic with them jumping everywhere and such. 

additionally, although less important, I think amphibia’s atmosphere is thicker, and probably has a higher Oxygen percentage. thicker atmosphere additionally helps flying animals, while higher O2 helps insects breath with much greater ease, which means they can be overall much larger. (for a real life comparison, during the Carboniferous era, earth’s atmosphere had about 30% O2, instead of 20%. the carboniferous saw insects such as the griffinfly, which looks like a dragonfly but with a wingspan of over 2 feet, and a millipede like guy who was over 8 feet long)

[sialiia]

• . ° .┊┊ BIOGRAPHY & VERSE INFO;;

ㅤㅤJust a quick little bio/verse dump because I'm just hella-- unmotivated with my carrd because last year I accidentally deleted Sydney's info and hated myself, STILL from doing that. And it's just festered in my mind that I did that. And I just...yeah. Anyways. Here's the quick version of a revised take on her bio. I hope it helps for anyone that needs it! -edit- Plot twist, this is not a small post. I finally wrote out Sydney's bio. So, enjoy! I will copy this to my carrd! posting here so I don't HECKIN LOSE IT THIS TIME! If you have any questions, feel free to ask because I 90% forgot a ton of things... again, feel free to ask about things.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ• . ° . 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐒 ;; . ° . • Name: Sydney Carpenter Age: late 20s/early-mid 30s (verse dep) Birthday: November 18th Species: Human Gender: Cis-Female Bloodtype: AB- (sticks neck out to vamps. eyyy) Allergies: Alcohol (she will become physically sick and probs pass out.) Height: 5'4" (162cm) Hair Colour: Brown Eye Colour: Blue Mental Health: Depression, Anxiety, Stockholm.Syndrome & Hybristo.philia Powers/Abilities: Physical Medium Origins: Ontario, Canada Family: Mother/ Lauren Carpenter (fc: Robin.Wright). Step Father/ Craig Holguin (fc: Gabriel.Iglesias). Haven't decided if she has siblings or not. Pets: Pearl (Turquoise Green Cheek Conure) more info on her here [x] Faceclaim: Jessica.Stroup Sexual orientation: Bisexual Romantic orientation: Demiromantic occupations;; (verse dep.) - hunter/researcher of the supernatural *verse exclusive - power ranger (aqua, jetman team)*verse exclusive - employee at ray's occult shop. ft. rcysoccult *thread dependant - employee at sarah's spot. ft. unbearablyindifferent *verse dependant [HEADCANONS TAG] - also any [x] is a link to a specific headcanon.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ• . ° . 𝐁𝐈𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐘 ;; . ° . • ㅤㅤSydney is originally a Canadian girl but she could live in any place a thread might call for it. (I am also Canadian. So like... write what you know. lmao!) She probably would have grown up in a big city and probably defaulted to Toronto because there's just a ton of potential there. Despite having only been there like.......10 times in my lifetime lol! nonetheless. Nonetheless, she might live in other cities or areas such as the United States or something. But her origins are in Canada. She grew up in a small family home in the city. I haven't decided yet if she has had siblings or not. So bear with me on that. She got fair grades in school and didn't go to any college or university afterward. A long line of women in her family have had the physical medium ability, selecting one child from each generation to be a medium. So Sydney was not alone in her abilities. She had lots of support and wisdom from those who came before her. Sydney does not practise witchcraft, though a lot of people's muses have that assumption. She does not. Though some things she might take some things from witchcraft and other sort of cleansing manners for a couple things she would need to use to take care of any spirits or entities. She usually keeps a chipper attitude despite the dead that plague her. She's kind of a bimbo, to be honest. She doesn't let the spirits dampen her mood and tries to make the best of it. However, that doesn't mean that she doesn't have internal problems such as depression and anxiety, treated with medications. She lives in an apartment and it could be anywhere that a thread could call for it. But it's not the best place. It needs a lot of upkeep and the landlord is very hands-off. Though the rent is cheap... it has its reasons. Thus she tries to make the best of it on the inside- even adding a few extra locks to the door because there's a handful of sketchy people in her building. The apartment resides above a store on the ground floor, they would use a door between stores to get to the main area with mailboxes and stairs going up. There is no elevator. rest in peace to anyone coming over. She lives on the 4th floor of a 7-story building. [x] [x] [x] A bit down the line timeline-wise, she will develop a heart problem and respiratory problems. Actually having her been diagnosed with them. But pre-diagnosis she will start to have problems and it progressively gets worse. A lot of real-life mediums have problems with their health throughout their lives. So, only fitting I put my muse through pain. Probably would seek treatment of some kind.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ• . ° . 𝐏𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐒 & 𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐒 ;; . ° . • ㅤㅤSydney is a physical medium, meaning she can communicate with the dead or anything really on the other side. That being demons, elementals, gods, angels, shadow people, ghosts, spirits, elementals, etc. She can hear, feel, sense, and see them. She can also see and feel the energies of those around her if she gets bad vibes from them or positive. Sometimes these beings will make her physically ill being in their presence. They can also tell her things about people that they might otherwise not what known. Sometimes spirits want to talk, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they can be absolute heathens and make her life hell. I take my main lore for the dead from the show "Dead Files" and "Ghost Adventures." but also sprinkle in some other paranormal shows because I personally just love watching them. Lastly would be Supernatural since the lore of the show is a bit different than what is considered to be "real-life lore." They have their own lore when it comes to spirits. For instance, in the supernatural verse; Sydney is able to see demons, angels, and anything else that the otherwise human eyes cannot see, or if a being is only making another person see them, Sydney is also able to see/hear/feel them.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ• . ° . 𝐇𝐎𝐁𝐁𝐈𝐄𝐒 ;; . ° . • ㅤㅤSydney likes to draw, because write what you know. She also enjoys researching and writing about cryptids in her spare time. She knows a fair bit about spirits and entities, so she's your go-to girl about that. She also has an interest in sasquatch and deep sea cryptids to add to her favourite cryptids list. Sydney also enjoys urban exploring in old buildings and partake in photography of such places. She does wear a respirator when doing so because you don't know what's in those buildings. Besides some creepy things, she also loves to bake and cook, trying new recipes is always a challenge and exciting for her. She will gladly give her friends away baked goods even when they haven't asked for it. She just likes to make people smile through food.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ• . ° . 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐒 ;; . ° . •

VERSE 1;; Default/Undecided/Catch All ㅤㅤBasically everything above, in a verse. No specific verse, a verse for having not decided yet. Or I simply forget what verse a thread is in! VERSE 2;; Super.natural ㅤㅤIn this verse, basically the bio and such takes place, but Sydney will help hunters on cases. Though she isn't confident herself with hunting, often looking for any other potential ways for a case to turn out that doesn't involve murdering everything. But alas, sometimes unaliving spooky things in the way to go in this series lol. VERSE 3;; Twilight / Vampire.Diaries / Vampire.Academy/etc. ㅤㅤThis verse could go either way, Sydney is either a human interacting with characters from said series, or she could be turned into a vampire. Her mediumship gets stronger post-transformation. She is torn on feeding on humans or animals. Probably ultimately opts for the latter. But gimme moments where she slips and attacks humans. In the vampire.academy verse, she is a feeder for vampires uwu VERSE 4;; Zombie Apocalypse ㅤㅤIn this verse, before the apocalypse- probably the walking.dead verse. Sydney takes a trip down to the united states and ultimately gets trapped there due to the breakout. She has no way back home to her family or her pet pearl. She doesn't know how they faired in the apocalypse. Though because she is able to see/speak with the dead, she doesn't have her family come through until a few years into said apocalypse. Because she is medicated for depression and anxiety, she does struggle for the first while after she runs out of her medication due to withdrawal and suffers through symptoms plus the dead trying to come to her. Which has dramatically increased since the start of the apocalypse. So, she does have to deal with that as well. She is not a fighter, she rather stay in the safe zones and help the community from the inside. I imagine she would eventually not survive the apocalypse. In twd side of this verse, she resides at Hilltop- I watched until hilltop burned, around that area... So, not too sure about after that. Also, she is terrified of Negan :') VERSE 5;; Superheroes ㅤㅤSince Power.Rangers/Super.Sentai has done crossovers with Marvel and DC comics before, they have been owned by Dis.ney who owns Marvel now, it makes sense to make my superhero verse the Westernized version of Choujin.Sentai.Jetman. More verse info here: [x] On the same note, she is not a physical medium in this verse unless it is a crossover with another verse for a specific thread. VERSE 6;; Anime/Cartoon ㅤㅤWould basically be the same thing as verse 1, however I use these images instead.

VERSE 7;; Fantasy Worlds ㅤㅤI haven't really used this verse as of yet, except maybe one thread really early on. So I will probably scrap and replace it with something else. But if you are interested! Sydney is a fairy/pixie, For convenience, she is able to shrink herself to a small size, or make herself 5'4. VERSE 8;; The Nevers ㅤㅤIn this verse, Sydney is in 1899, Victorian London. She travelled to London with her family during a business trip when the Event happened. Leading her to see, hear and sense the dead/spiritual beings. She stays with the rest of the touched instead of returning back to America, realizing this is a huge opportunity for her.

VERSE 8;; Skill Swap ㅤㅤIn this verse, Sydney has the ability of hydrokinesis instead of being a physical medium. Hydrokinesis is one of my favourite powers in shows and literature. Being indecisive has led me to make this verse! In this verse, Sydney can control and manipulate water and its sub-elements such as snow, ice, slush, etc. She can't control blood or any other bodily fluids... that she knows of. Willing to explore that omg.

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

OK OFMD Astrology headcanons (modern western astrology). I have thought the most about Ed. Feel free to argue with me if you're an astrology bitch

Stede- Leo sun (canon, Man For Sale, Gentleman Pirate), Scorpio moon (He is emotionally constipated but he has a lot of depth), Virgo Venus (jealous, 90% acts of service by mass)

Ed- Pisces Sun (idk what to tell you hes a pisces), Cancer moon (Highly Emotional Person), Scorpio Rising (people tend to have incorrect assumptions about him, he contains many hidden depths, he comes off as intimidating when that's not the case), Gemini Mercury (charismatic social chameleon), Taurus Moon (just wants to be taken care of, likes stuff), Scorpio Mars (the bitch loves mind games, Inventor of the fuckery)

Jim- Vico said Jim's an Aries sun, Scorpio moon, Capricorn rising and I for one believe them.

Olu- Taurus sun (down to earth, realistic, the crew's rock) Definitely has an earth sign heavy chart, although I feel like he has at least one cancer placement, and potentially a Libra mercury although I would also buy Virgo.

Lucius- Libra sun Libra mercury, I will not be taking questions at this time. If you told me this man was air signs all the way down I would believe you.

Frenchie- Also Air sign heavy. He's got one prominent Pisces placement and an Aquarius mercury.

Izzy- Taurus Sun(derogatory) cross Olu's Taurus Sun (affectionate) (Stubborn, bullheaded, unable to adapt), Capricorn Moon (emotionally constipated (the moon's at it's detriment in Capricorn), easily offended) Fire signs the rest of the way down because he is constantly trembling with rage, Except he has a scorpio venus (can't identify love and he's repressed as fuck (Venus is in it's detriment in scorpio) Scorpio is the sign of hidden deapths and Izzy is the worst closet case I've ever seen)

Wee John- Aries cuz it's funny (likes to light stuff on fire)

Spanish Jackie - Scorpio because I have no idea what the fuck is going on with her ever. She is mysterious and plotting. Very sexy vibes

Calico Jack- I've got three different thoughts here. Saggitarius (obvious reasons (Insane frat boy)), Gemini (obvious reasons (two faced bitch)), Leo sun (derogatory) vs Stede's Leo sun (affectionate) (Self absorbed and over confident)

Buttons- was not born so he has no astrology chart but if he did he would be a pisces.