#get those hunger games and percy jackson kids back

[doctor-mccoys-sanity]

i think people that read a lot of fanfics should be allowed to be as openly insufferable as those people that boast about the amount of books they’ve read. bc fanfics you’re literally just reading about the same two people falling in love like… we’re dedicated we don’t just move on to new characters

[moonlit-imagines]

Preferences: the Avengers visiting you, the owner of the local bookstore

Avengers x reader

warnings:

a/n: i hope it ok i turned into prefs!! i think it made more sense with the interaction part <3

prompt: @groovy-lady: “May I please request headcanons of being the owner of a bookshop the Avengers all go to and how they all interact with you?”

Bruce is there quite often, frequently in the scientific section. He buys stacks of books at a time and is quiet and polite when checking out. You always comment on how smart he must be and he awkwardly laughs it off. After a while, you start pulling certain books you’d think would interest him, which melted his heart when he realized you thought of him. “I added a science fiction novel in there, too. I don’t know if that’s your thing, but it’s one of my favorites.” You told him and he smiled. “Thank you for thinking of me.” He said.

Clint bought a lot of kids books. “How many?” You asked. “Three. Two boys and a girl.” He told you. You admired his choice of books for his kids. Teen fiction, sci-fi, graphic novels, fantasy, and a few children’s books. “Lots of variety.” You commented. “Yeah, trying to get them into reading.” He explained. “Any recommendations? The older ones are preteens, a boy and a girl. The little one is just learning how to read.” You smirked and started heading towards some classics like Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, and The Hunger Games. “These are the most popular for their age group, and I love them, too. As far as your little guy, you’ve already got the right idea.” Clint was grateful and took the first book of each popular series, promising to come back if they loved them as much you you did.

Nat was a fantasy reader. She had no shame in it. “What do you have for me today, y/n?” She’d approach the counter and have a small stack waiting for her. You’d go down the list with a little synopsis of each. “I hope you like them.” You told her. “You haven’t let me down yet.” She said back. She also donates her books when she’s done with them, saying she wants someone else to enjoy them as much as she did.

Steve nearly picked your history section clean. “Catching up, Captain?” You joked, recognizing the Super Soldier as soon as he walked in. “I don’t even know where to start.” He admitted. You gladly slimmed down his pile of history books and replaced quite a few with some fantastic works that came out while he was on ice. “As much as I enjoy reading, you won’t learn everything from these. Make sure you aren’t missing out by trying to catch up.” You warmly told him. “That’s good advice.” You told him you try and rung him up, warning him not to go reading those all at once.

Tony was more interested in comics and graphic novels, you’d laugh when you saw him pick up the more risque comics and he’d give you a playful wink. “They’re not for me, they’re for Clint’s son, the three-year-old.” He always knew how to make you laugh. “Yes, Elvira is the perfect choice for Clint’s small child.” He said he knew you’d understand. He also admitted he likes comics because they give him a little break from thinking all day and some of the characters remind him of his own life. You told him he was like Batman, he disagrees.

Thor checks out Norse Mythology more often than not. He likes to see what is written about him and his family in the eyes of Midgardians. “Are you sure you don’t want to try something different this time, Thor?” You motioned to a different section. “There’s so much more to choose from, I’d love to give you some recommendations.” Thor declined, placing another Norse book on the counter. “Have you ever read about me? Or my brother, Loki?” You nodded, telling him you’ve read a book or two that had them featured. “Wel”l, maybe next time I’ll buy something with a little less…me in it. We’ll see. Thank you, y/n!”

Before the Darkhold, Wanda was actually quite the enjoyer of teen fiction. She begged you not to tell the others what she read, and you promised you’d never share her secret. Most of the time, she’d cozy up in your reading corner with a coffee and read her “secret” books away from the Avengers. “Wanda, this one just came in. I think you’d love it.”

taglist: @locke-writes // @captainshazamerica // @summersimmerus // @prettysbliss // @simp-legend // @wild-rose-35 // @nekoannie-chan // @beth-gallagher22 // @mymelodymia // @deanzboyfriend // @mr-mxyzptlk-1940 //

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

sully family trip to the library 🥺

So much drama.

I really don't think Jake and Neytiri are library people, I think they're bring your kids to the local rock climbing gym parents. I live in a world where they're just like, doing the most insane shit all the time. Pre-kids they were like what if we randomly skipped work today to go sky diving, and what if tomorrow we try a kickboxing class? Like their idea of a fun date or couple activity is trying something they've never done before and seeing who is better at it. One week they're in a couples cooking class like bullying the shit out of each other's food while the rest of the class is like 👀 because it's couples cooking you were supposed to make something together? Next week they're learning parkour, and every time the other falls first they run over and make sure that person is okay and then they point and laugh. By the time the kids are born it's crazy. Kiri, Neteyam, Lo'ak, and Spider in the back of a stupid family skateboarding class watching their mom not so subtlety push their dad so he falls and then pretending not to have seen who did it like Jesus Christ, right in front of us?? Our salad??? (This got off track can you tell I'm entering my Jeytiri era rn?).

So yeah I don't think the library was their main place before their kids. But now the kids love reading and the jocks (their parents) must entertain them.

I think Kiri and Neteyam vibe hard with a good book, while Lo'ak is with his parents in that he'd rather be outside doing something athletic and dumb. Spider and Tuk are in between, they can be swayed either way and get bored with reading or with dumb shit. They have short attention spans.

I think Jake does really good voices in the childrens section, so he without fail will find himself surrounded by like 15 kids and not notice until the end of the book because he feels like he has 15 kids anyway. Parents don't realize he's not there to read for everyone because he's so good at it and he's got so many kids sitting there listening who don't all appear to be siblings lol.

Neytiri really likes the romance books. I think she's a little bit of a romantic, and even if reading isn't her favorite pastime she'll get sucked into a good romance. Jake likes John Grisham type detective dad novels, but he'll read all the YA nonsense his kids say is good. He's read all of The Hunger Games, Divergent, John Green, he and Tuk are caught up on Percy Jackson. Lo'ak reads those crazy sports books middle school boys read, and those My Weird School books. Neteyam has read all the books. Man is reading Stephen King and Octavia Butler and what not way too young. Idk just every book, all of them. Kiri mostly has as well but she and Tuk have also read every single Warrior Cats book multiple times. Tuk also eats up the Rainbow Magic series, and some Junie B. Jones.

[beardedmrbean]

Okay am I the only Gen z who got the messages of hunger games and Percy Jackson?

The pjo books pointed out how the Titan Kronos exploited the shitty system the main 12 Olympians created and the much needed reformation the Greco-Roman pantheon needed in their treatments of lesser gods and demigods

The hunger games pointed out how BOTH sides exploit people like Katniss and was as bloodthirsty the capitol leaders.

Y’all remember how district 13 hides bombs in packages which lead to the death of innocent CHILDREN including Katniss sister prim right

Oh and the revolutionaries were planning on doing another hunger games with capitol kids as revenge.

Almost like revolutionaries are as shitty as the oppressors?

*cough* Killmonger *cough*

I mean PJO and Hunger Games gave as much nuance as they could while being published under Disney Hyperion and Scholastic .

But y’all didn’t get the memos

Oh right right my family issues so that why I got it.

Also another thing, the majority of enemies Percy Jackson and other demigods are monsters and gods going like “Your godly parent did something terrible to me so I’m going to take it out on you!”

Just like how for some goddamn reason, a poor white trailer boy is responsible for the evil shit the pilgrims did

But the Benin and Muslim people are A okay despite being the direct descendants of the Dahomey and

*check wiki*

Hmm, the Kashmir genocide, 9/11, the on going rampant killing of Nigerian Christian children by Muslim extremists

Obviously not all of them, but a lot of Gen z doing understand they have the mentality of VILLAINS rather than good people

Oh and my generation saying Osama Bin Laden was right. As a military brat and if I was heard someone say that in public

I will make the hunchback of Norte dome look like Prince Charming after the face rearranging I would do to those wokies

I never read any of those and only saw the first movies of the series's so I can't comment much on that.

Just like how for some goddamn reason, a poor white trailer boy is responsible for the evil shit the pilgrims did But the Benin and Muslim people are A okay despite being the direct descendants of the Dahomey and *check wiki* Hmm, the Kashmir genocide, 9/11, the on going rampant killing of Nigerian Christian children by Muslim extremists Obviously not all of them, but a lot of Gen z doing understand they have the mentality of VILLAINS rather than good people

With the not all of them, yes you're 100% right it's a oddity we get people online making 30 tweet threads about how black Americans are not a monolith but individuals each one being the sum of their own lived experiences which are different from each others.

And then Simone Biles smashes through the record books again (girl is unreal, just wow) and all of a sudden it's melanin power and all that jazz firing right back up. Or god forbid Tim Scott says something

the root: we don't do the HN shame

Also the root: but......

Not so bad as Atlanta Black Star can be but still. ______________

the people cheering on the various Islamic groups confuse the shit out of me, if they think white Europeans were harsh with them they should look up slavery in the middle east.

there were some bright spots yes, but mostly it was slave labor till you could labor no more and then you get left to die

Last place to make slavery illegal was Mauritania in 1982, it was lip service though since having slaves wasn't actually criminalized till 2007.

Still "bonded" servants there too, fancy name for slave/indentured servant for those that may not know that one.

[darkcrowprincess]

*Don't like don't read. Post hate and I'll block you*

Female characters I can't stand(both books, movies, anime/cartoons, and TV shows). Reminder I am a female and this is my personal opinion.

Annabeth Chase from the books Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus series.

She is toxic, mean, abusive(both physically and emotionally), jealous and automatically is rude to anyone romantically liking Percy even before she's even in a relationship with him. She is a know it all but not in a good way. Prideful, and looks down on people especially when their mortals or monsters. The monster part I get. But still. Yes she has a tragic background, but I still don't like her. Especially since the books treat her flaws as female empowerment and not actually flaws that she needs to work on.

2. Amity Blight from the Owl House

I just find her boring honestly. Especially in the later half of the series when lumity gets together. I love Luz's character, she's my favorite. I just don't like her. Plus she never had a proper redemption arc for being a bully(and yes she was one, she was honestly more interesting when she was a bully). I'm glad teens have their lgbtq representation. I'm bi myself. I just really don't like her or the ship Lumity.

3. Katniss Everdeen from the hunger games

Both books and the movie. I just don't like her very much. I love Lucy Gray Baird from The ballad of songbirds and snakes book and movie. But her, just no. She's part of the reason why I never fully read all the books except the prequel and the first one.

4. Mcu's version of Wanda Maximoff

I never read the comics. But the movie version of her. Oh boy I can not stand her. Especially since I'm team Iron man. She willingly joined Hydra. She helped make Ultron, she took a town hostage against their will and never faced consequences for it. She set the Hulk on innocent civilians. She messed with Tony's mind! She brought Vision back to life against his will and gaslight him when he got close to the truth. She tried to kill a child so she can play pretend with someone else's kids. She killed tons of people for very selfish reasons. Yet she acts like the victim all the time.

5. Amy March for Little Women 1994

Mostly because I'm petty and I wanted Jo and Laurie to get together. Plus she's so annoying.

6. Bella Swan Twilight Saga

Both books and Movies(no hate to actress Kristen Stewart though, I love her in the movie Spencer) she is such a boring character while also being incredibly selfish character at the same time. More so in the books(though I'm team Jacob and a Jacob Black defense squad member).

And those are all the female characters at the moment that I can't stand. There's probably more but I can't remember right now. Sorry if you like these characters. This is just my opinion so let's agree to disagree.

[impossiblesuitcase]

i really wonder whats your top 5 in movies,series,singers,books

it may seem weird but please

This is hard because I always struggle to rank things I like. It's usually more of a "hey, I like all these things, and I prefer some aspects of them than others." So these lists are not in order of preference, and I won't always be doing 5 of each because I feel bad about picking favourites 😂

Movies:

How to Train Your Dragon - excellent cinema, why are they adapting it. please don't ruin it.

Back to the future - c'mon, it's iconic

Tangled - The disney movie I return to the most

Spiderman far from home - MJ and Peter are just the sweetest in this one

The Princess Diaries - both movies are amazing, but I do prefer the second. I feel like Julie Andrews is my third grandmother because of these movies.

Series (movies? books? shows? I'm not sure so I'll just go with shows.):

Phineas and Ferb is always a fun time.

Miraculous Ladybug is sick and pathetic and terrible but I still thoroughly enjoy it.

H2o: Just add water, baby.

And yes, I do enjoy shows besides kids shows, these are just more fun to talk about ���

I like K-dramas, some of my favourites are W: two worlds, Exxtraordinary You, Legend of the Blue Sea and Crash Landing on You.

Singers (I'm not sure if you mean singers as in my favourite muscial artists, or who I actually think are the best singers. I will do both.)

I love Dodie Clark's music and songwriting, although she isn't the strongest singer.

Laufey, Marina, Mitski, Taylor, Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood can be super fun.

Julie Andrews was such a gorgeous soprano, as was Marni Nixon and the other contemporaries of that time.

And speaking of musical theatre, Ramin Karimloo, Philippa Soo and Lea Salonga are brilliant.

For male singers, those Korean boys have some great vocals.

Books:

The Anne of Green Gables series. Often when I mention this series people say "oh yeah, I read the whole series! The four books are so cute." The full series is actually 11 books and I only know of a few people that dedicated themself to reading all of them because I'm telling you--some parts draaaggg. But I still really love this series and I always get sad when I see the references L.M Montgomery put in reflecting her own life which was much sadder than Anne's. Anne and Gilbert will always be my favourite enemies to lovers ship and when she rejects him and only realises she loves him when he's dying? Impeccable. Plus the eternal classic, "I don't want sunbursts or marble halls. I just want you." 😭 Gorgeous. The last few chapters of Anne of Ingleside are so good, the reminder that even after decades Gilbert still loves her is so sweet.

The Hunger Games is by far the best piece of dystopian YA literature. Suzanne explores themes in way that informs the way we now consume media. Every time I see a media circus against the backdrop of war and brutality I am reminded of Katniss. The series does loose points for me in that I find the love triangle boring, but I can see why it was included.

I recently reread the Percy Jackson series and while some parts are a bit too kiddy for me, I still love Rick's character depictions. Percy is such an interesting, layered character, and when people say it's impossible for men to write an authentic female character, I point to Annabeth Chase. Rick wrote her as a person, not just the female love interest.

Another book series I like, I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, is The Lunar Chronicles🙂

[bohemian-nights]

My favorite romantic relationship for Daemon was his relationship with Laena. They seemed to have built a healthy and loving relationship and family. Another thing I like was the fact that she was an adult. Both by their standards and by our standards. And how she died was really heartbreaking. That being said the show f*cked them up in every which way. And then they f*cked his relationship with his daughters that while not much is given for in the book you can still make a claim that he loved and cared for them. In conclusion this show is sh*t and if Netty (who unfortunately is Daemons only saving grace) isn’t included this season I will be finding a new fandom to either join/re-join. Maybe my childhood favorite(s) ATLA or Percy Jackson since they both are getting new shows. The Hunger Game franchise just came out with a new movie that is slowly but surely getting me back on the wagon. H*ll I might even trade out one toxic fandom for another, I just can’t decide if it’ll be Bridgerton (though they’re only toxic when it comes to certain characters), Star Wars (I haven’t been apart of this one in a while but if my memory serves me it was just shipping wars) and if I’m really feeling it I’ll go back to Harry Potter (which is low-key worse than HOTD cause the writer is problematic as well as some of the actors/actresses and the stans are crazy and the shipping wars alone can make you leave the fandom ). But yeah I have low hopes for this next season.

Dettles has a special place in my heart, and I believe Nettles was Daemon's person, I will admit that Daemon and Laena is his least problematic ship. Instead of the showrunners giving us a relatively normal healthy loving marriage they gave us dog sh*t and I will forever be pissed off about that🫠

I’m gone too if Nettles is cut.

However, honestly, after this whole situation, I refuse to get involved with another fandom again.

Granted HOTD is probably one of the worst fandoms out there(I feel like it’s worse than GOT fandom), but there are a lot more sh*tty fandoms than there are good ones and I wouldn't want to trade one sh*tty fandom for another.

Star Wars is the same fandom that bullied Jar Jar Binks actor to the point where the poor man was suicidal and they bullied the kid who played Anakin to the point where he quit acting. Not to mention how fans treated John Boyega, Kelly Marien Tran, and Moses Ingram. Those people are just as mentally deranged as HOTD stans. In fact, a lot of Dumbnyra stans ship Reylo💀That’s really the last fandom I’d join. They are one of the OG crazy fandoms.

Never got into the Hunger Games, but I know they had their issues(Rue). Percy Jackson same issue. People’s grievances with JK Rowling aside, the Harry Potter fandom has calmed down, but I imagine the crazy antics will pick up again with the new series. At their height though they were probably running neck and neck with HOTD(I wouldn’t say it’s worse).

I love Avatar. Never got into the fandom(and even if I do decide to write something for Zutara because of this new show that will be my extent of fandom interaction).

Speaking as someone who is in the Bridgerton fandom, while it has its kooky fans they are relatively harmless by fandom standards. (Though I did have some Kathony fans getting mad at me over a non-issue and saying I should stick to watching the incest show🤣 even though I've been watching Bridgerton since the beginning ).

I feel like the type of show it is makes it difficult for really crazy fandom drama to form(which seems to revolve around shipping).

Everyone has their favorite couple of course(Benophie aka the best ship, Kathony, Polin, Saphne, Francheal, Grucy, or hey ship them all), but there is no infighting like Zutara vs Katang or Dramione vs Romione.

There is one ship per guy and girl and you ship them. That’s it. It’s simple. It’s easy. Everyone loves it. Of course, you can fight with another couple, but everyone’s couple is a couple. You can’t deny it’s not canon, that it won’t happen, or that they don’t love each other(well Eloise and her man are iffy, but they are a couple).

I may be biased though considering it’s my favorite show, but even with some kooky stans it’s great.

[edgyandoverzealous]

Consider this, all of rottmnt brothers are the medic. @moltenatlas just in case you were still interested in that all the rottmnt boys are the medic post we talked about ages ago, this is it.

Mikey is starting as patient 0 because I am a firm believer of accident prone Mikey, it's primarily self-indulgence at this point but hush I have fragments of evidence. He's a skateboarder is the main point of said evidence bc he's going to be covered in injuries at some point. That's the way of skateboarders. Additionally that kid had his nose in some kind of fiction/comic book or Sketchbook too often to not have tripped or ran into a wall, and no you cannot tell me rottmnt Mikey didn't read anything he was definitely raised on one of the main four fantasy fiction pipelines, meaning harry potter, warrior cats, percy Jackson and the Olympians (me), or the hunger games pipelines. I am not accepting criticism. He's also way too good at cooking to not have been doing it for years and little hands make many mistakes. Also Raph being increasingly worried about Mikey the first time he goes out, ignoring the obvious mother hen instinct, indicates that Mikey is at the very least a little clumsy or accident prone I mean he even has knee and elbow pads he wears consistently ffs. Due to these many possibilities I believe each of the other brothers have a fair knowledge of first aid and medical aliments.

Raph's-

Raph learned first. Obviously. The oldest of four and babies are bound to get a few bonks as they try to learn how to do basic motor functions. Such as walking and talking, having those bonks himself he picked up what to do from Splinter and put them into practice when Splinter was going through one of his rougher more absent patches. (I am a depressed/body dysmorphia rottmnt splinter truther tm and as someone with active and diagnosed chronic depression and also suffers from body dysmorphia taking sometimes taking care of yourself feels impossible let alone four young kids so I'm a firm believer Raph had to take over some responsibilities sometimes. Not all the time, because I also believe splinter loves his sons to death tm and he tries his best, but sometimes.)

Donnie, upon seeing Mikey cheating the crawling system by popping in his shell and ping ponging around the house, tried to copy and ended up somersaulting into a chair leg leaving his entire being aching. Raph having crashed a few times himself mimicked what Splinter had done previously and whipped up a warm bath, children's bubblegum Tylenol, ice packs, and firm back scratches to help ease his brother's pain. Help which the tot insisted he didn't need though the last words, or chirps rather, as he fell asleep were a clear thanks.

Leo so badly wants to play sports-ball with his big brother, who was bouncing said ball on his knee, ran to tackle and got kneed in the gut followed directly by a ball to the face. He let out a loud "oomph" and the saddest and most distraught chirps and clicks Raph had ever heard. This insight made Leo's twin, who was peeking in front behind a nearby corner, to also start crying after he scooped Leo's face and tried to chirp a form of consolation before refusing to leave Leo's side. Feeling awful Raph brought him ice packs and snacks as well as asking simple questions and checking his eyes to make sure his brother didn't have a concussion as the twins sat, snacked, and watched movies to avoid scrambling more of their insides. Luckily he didn't, just a few bruises, a black eye, and a very worried twin.

Mikey, poor Mikey, got bumped and bruised far too often, his ping-ponging ended up with the tot popping out too early and getting a mild concussion, scrape, rug burn, or bruise from impact. It got to the point where Raph stopped knowing what to do and was running out of bandaids. Raph eventually duct taped pillows to his little brother who, like a dog, thrashed around until he was free. I'm also a firm believer that Mikey is accident prone as all hell and could bruise his knee getting a juice box, which he has.

The Disaster Twins-

I will not be swayed. I don't care who I have to fight they learned around the same time for exceedingly different reasons.

Donnie was already leaning into self-experimentation/running experiments solo. This means more unpleasantries could arise such as injury and seeing as Donnie likes having working motor functions and not being coddled by his other siblings. He cracked open all the books he could get his hands on and figured out how to cure anything from a paper cut to cardiac arrest. He learned how to do all as painlessly as possible as well, used simulated situations and robots, to ensure that he could. Once he could he immediately chipped his brothers as well as himself.

Donnie took a more anatomical and medicinal approach to learning. He learned how the body is built and designed to react to stimulus. For example he built an x-ray machine with adjustable levels to figure out the differences between his mutated muscle and skeletal form and the ones of humans in the books he found. He'll also learn why specific injuries or illnesses occur and focus more on prevention above solution for when it occurs but he's well versed in solutions should it come to be despite efforts.

Leo is a mischievous little thing. He does things he's not supposed to and more often than not ends up in wild situations. Such as chipping a tooth or losing a tooth. That hurts but he refuses to explain to his brother's and chooses to ignore the pain instead. He understands that this isn't practical so he also picks up every book he can get his hands on and learns how to handle anything from a paper cut to resuscitation. He really gets into it once Mikey and Donnie got involved in his shenanigans, Mikey in particular being accident prone meant he, as an older brother had to make sure he could take care of him.

Leo took a more situational and medicinal approach. Leo thinks that injury in his shenanigans is bound to happen eventually. He is correct because he's canonically self-destructive and self-sacrificial, that at very least, gets him hurt. So he is less interested in the why and more interested in how to negate the effects of specific accidents that may happen. IE: "I fall from a tree and land on my arm funny. It bends the wrong way what do I do?" Or "Mikey falls of the wagon as we take a sharp turn in the tunnels, he slid across concrete, and his leg is covered in blood" he thinks of specific scenarios and then learns as much as he can about the injury and how to make it better.

Mikey -

Mikey learned to repay his brothers for everything they've done for them.

He thrives to be someone his brothers can rely on as well so he started watching when he was little. He saw everytime someone else got hurt and often provided comfort cuddles. As he sat in their laps. Mostly Raph, would explain what he was doing, and how it would help as he helped with various ailments. So that's how he primarily learned.

Additionally Mikey is quite independent, don't get him wrong he loves his brothers to death, but he also doesn't like being coddled. He likes to do things his way and on his own. So he observed his brothers everytime they helped him with an injury or got injured themselves and acted as "nurse" for whoever was helping the others.

Eventually he started patching himself up when he got hurt. (Raph cried the first time he saw Mikey patch himself up because his littlest brother was all grown up tm)

Mikey is nowhere near Leo and Donnie's expertise but he can handle the basics plus having extended knowledge in burns and cuts which are commonplace accidents in the kitchen where Mikey spends a lot of time.

Mikey has fun/colorful bandages designated to each of his brothers for the rare occurrence of his brothers getting hurt around him/during family times. One time when they were little he got Jupiter Jim ones on a trip with Splinter to a local convenience store and his brothers almost seemed to get hurt on purpose to get them. Needless to say he got more but those are only for special occasions and his brothers don't know he has them.

Mikey also knows how to lower a fever better than the others because he and Raph got influenza when they were little, not tots but young kids, and both run h o t. The both of them had 104 (or equivalent for turtles idk) fevers and Splinter spent three sleepless nights monitoring them and trying whatever he could think of to lower it. So Mikey and Raph know how to lower fevers at a near expert level.

Mikey is also good with Migraines. Because the Hamatos all suffer from migraines for one reason or another I've decided actually.

[starboyshine]

introduction

hey! i'm zoe (some people call me zo), leo, or percy. my pronouns are she/he/they + neos.

this blog is something i do entirely for fun. i first began playing around with google docs thanks to a PJO roleplay server (that is constantly referenced in my posts actually). i began making templates for said server as a silly little thing, and one day i thought 'hey, wait a minute. what if i posted this on tumblr?' and here we are! maybe one day i'll do templates that don't have anything to do with that server. who knows?

other than fucking around with docs, some of my hobbies include reading, roleplaying, acting, singing, and worldbuilding. some of my favorite books are the hunger games, ready player one (the sequel is patiently sitting on my bookshelf at the moment waiting to be read), and, if it wasn't obvious already, percy jackson/PJO! i've been roleplaying mainly on discord for a few years now. i mostly use original characters, but every now and then i'll fuck around with canon characters. the ones i feel the comfiest with at the moment are annabeth chase from percy jackson, zoe murphy from dear evan hansen, and veronica sawyer from heathers. (i actually kin annabeth!) i'm a huge theatre kid. some of my favorite musicals are heathers, next to normal, and newsies. my all time favorite and comfort musical will always be dear evan hansen. i'm currently in a production of wicked, and i'm starring as the one and only elphaba. sometimes i'll sit at my desk, whip up my laptop, zone out for a few seconds, and what do you know? i have a 26 page long google doc full of lore and whatnot for a fantasy universe. i absolutely love writing lore, and it's something i occasionally do out of pure boredom.

going back to google docs—at the moment i am not taking requests, commissions, or anything of the sorts. i'll edit this post if that is to change. please don't request access to my docs, if you're having trouble with the link tell me using tumblr and i'll get back to you as soon as possible. don't use my templates as base templates for roleplay groups, forums, etc., and under no circumstances remove the credits. i spend hours on every single one of these docs, and it'd be extremely upsetting for the credit to be removed.

to those who made it this far, thank you for reading! i know this and my previous post aren't docs related, but hang on because i just finished a new template that i might post today. i'll uh... see you guys around!

[foreverozziessongbird]

{So I don't do this too often.. however I feel like I should tonight because I am truly interested to see just how many of my fellow writers are/were in the following verses. After all i'm considering making another blog or two for them.

Percy Jackson

(I played Annabeth Chase)

The Hunger Games

(I have an OC for this verse, which I brought over onto Tumblr. Link can be given for those interested in interacting with her.)

Resident Evil/Silent Hill

(Claire Redfield, Sherry Birkin, Moira Burton, Heather Mason, and an OC.)

Kuroshitsuji

(An Oc reaper)

Dragonball Z

(An oc, Chi-Chi, Bulma)

Ed, Edd, n Eddy/90's cartoons

(An oc related to Double D, Tak -invader zim, Dani -Danny Phantom, Nazz - Ed, Edd n Eddy, Numbuh 362 - Codename Kids Next Door, Reverse! Kevin - Ed, Edd, n Eddy)

Homestuck

(Roxy, Joey, and an OC troll)

South Park

(Karen Mccormick)

Teen Titans

(Terra)

There's a few more verses, but I figure this lil list will be good enough. So if anyone is interested in any of these do let me know! I've bolded the ones that I'd love to get back to.

[katnissdoesnotfollowback]

#Who would I have become if I discovered the fandom back in 2012?!?!#I was going to use my actual age in the tags for added comedic effect#but I legitimately don’t remember how old I am#I had to ask excel#and was shocked at the result#lol#ask#KDNFB#thank you for the ask

omfg @mollywog you had to ask excel bwahahaha

+++

#also in my early 40s 😖#and my daughter read thg last year#but i don't like to talk about it bc she doesn't love peeta#i've failed as a mother lmao#she'll come around right?

@distractionsfromthefood I feel you on this one. It's such a nail biting experience introducing the kiddos to the series we love so much.

My youngest came home from school last year with a permission slip from his 6th grade English teacher. They planned on reading The Hunger Games and my son was all "you're gonna let me do this, right Mom? because you've read these books. I know you have, Mom. They're some of your favorites sooooo....?"

So of course, I signed it and sent it back the next day. But then, apparently there was OUTRAGE amongst some of the other parents. They didn't just mark "no" and send it back, they wrote angry notes to the teacher about it. So she had them read Percy Jackson instead, The Lightning Thief. Which okay, whatever, I love those books too so my son and I read the first series together and talked about them because he loved the first book.

Neither of my kids are big readers, at least not of text novels, so I didn't push him to read thg when summer rolled around, even though he said he wanted to eventually read the series. He's more into graphic novels anyways. Then, my oldest opted out of a field trip and came home from 8th grade that day all "Hey Mom, so we watched The Hunger Games movie and Catching Fire, but we didn't get to finish it...what happens?" And I was like ooooooh no, buddy. I don't hand out spoilers. You wanna know, we gotta watch. And of course, youngest was incensed. "I WANNA WATCH TOO!"

So we sat down over the course of like two weeks, started from the beginning for the youngest, and made it through all four movies. I was nervous about a few things because I've never loved the movies the way I loved the books, even if I was absolutely parking my butt (alone) in the theaters opening week for all but the first movie and was definitely embroiled in the fangirling here on tumblr back in 2012-15 whatever it was. I figured my oldest might (gasp!) be a Gale fan, but he surprised me on that one. I did warn them both that given the plot, characters that they got attached to would die, but I didn't really want to warn them specifically which characters.

There was definitely a feeling of relief when we got halfway through the first one and my youngest was basically climbing on me going "Peeta doesn't die, does he?!?!?!" He knew Katniss doesn't because she's on the cover of all my dvd's lol, and he was still a little shaken by Rue's death. Well, this is my kid who will break down sobbing inconsolably when a dog dies. Literally cannot tell you how many movies we've been in the middle of watching and I'm frantically checking doesthedogdie.com so I can warn him. We are the criers at movies in this family. Oddly, he watches seriously bloody horror flicks with his dad without batting an eye, but animals or characters they specifically get you emotionally attached to? nope. can't handle it. So given that he was specifically asking me about Peeta, I caved. "No, honey. He and Katniss both survive." He didn't believe me so I told him I'd spoil just this one character for him and gave away the epilogue. "They get married and have two kids."

That seemed to settle him for a long time, and while it was rough going (he was seriously pissed at me over the hijacking, but he was more so angry at Snow for that) he made it through...

And then Finnick. Lord, that was not what I was expecting him to lose it over. But he literally stood up on the couch and screamed at Katniss over it. Threw a pillow. "WHAT?!?!?! NO!! HE COULD'VE MADE IT!!! GET BACK IN THERE, KATNISS!!! MOM!!! YOU DIDN'T TELL ME FINNICK WAS GONNA DIE!!! THESE MOVIES ARE HORRIBLE!! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!?!?!?! MOM WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? YOU LIKE THIS?!?!?!"

Yeah. I felt like a shit bag. But also... alright, we're getting the message. Except he still hasn't read the books. Every time I mention it, he scowls at me. "I'm still traumatized from the movies, Mother."

Meanwhile, the oldest was like.... meh at the end. *facepalm*

You all are truly making me feel old here lmao.

Gah. The year I first read the books, which was also the year the first movie was released, this b***** turned 30. My babies were actually babies. Most of the people I followed on here were mid twenties to fifties, so I wasn’t even that old, in comparison. Now my kids are the target audience age and it’s like every new person I see on here, I wanna ask them if their mother knows they’re here. And also to stop reading my porn, but then I remember the kinds of things I was reading at 13-19 and I’m like okay fine read my porn but don’t blame me if you get traumatized. 🤣

And also to stop reading my porn

🤣

I remember finishing the Mockingjay audiobook hunched over in my cubical, driving home on autopilot, calling off work the next day (but feeling hungover about it for weeks), then spending the preceding years trying to avoid THG ennui:

This was not a universal experience?! Lol

[golden-holland]

thoughts

this whole the little mermaid thing has me very confused. why do so many people care that she isn't white? her skin color isn't relevant to the story. I would be mad if they got someone who couldn't sing or someone who didn't have this “ethereal” look but Halle Bailey has both of those. if anything this trailer only confirmed to me that whoever did the casting did a great job. do people realize that they don't need to watch this new version? like, if you dislike this version so much, you can just stick to the old one. and while I do understand that maybe we should start thinking about creating new black characters in media instead of just changing the characters´ skin color, I think that all of this outrage is just ridiculous... just don't watch it.

also, a new trailer for the Percy Jackson show came out and I feel... weird. I was 11 when Percy was 12, and now im 20 but Percy is still 12. and the kid who plays him is 13. I feel so old. and I know that I am not. but I get so envious of kids who are now 11/12/13 and will grow up with this show and the cast itself. like, I wish I had that. I had Harry Potter growing up, but I was too young to actually feel like I grew up with the movies (I mean, I was 9 when the last movie came out. that is the only one I watched at the cinema.) Same with Twilight. I was like 10? when the last movie came out. The one saga I feel I grew up with was The Hunger Games, but then again, the last movie came out when I was 13. (yes, I read those books when I was fairly young.)

I guess I now regret not getting into any kind of books or shows from the ages of 15 to 20. I used to read so much when I was young. I am now getting into books and shows again, but they make me feel so old. main characters used to ALWAYS be older than me. the fantasy and dystopian books, which used to be my favorite type, now only make me feel like im too old to do anything impressive or fun. mainly because I have already experienced what it was like being those ages, and I can no longer imagine what my life would be like at that age. like with The Hunger Games, I now look back and think about how 16-year-old-me would have never been as courageous as Katniss. but 9 year old me could only imagine what it was like being 16... I don't know if im making sense. I guess I just tend to feel like my life is so boring. well, not boring, but never fulfilling.

11 September, 2022

[prismdelta]

So I am slightly inspired by @incorrectgenerations to make my own depictions of the Generations as characters and also these are for fun, this is just a Part 1 there will be a Part 2

Gen Alpha

A Literal Child, she just found out Twitter exist and is slightly traumatized even when previously Millennial told them it's a Dumpster fire should not look at it, though it's not truly their fault because she saw Millennial use Twitter.She also use a Phone almost as if it's an extension of their Hand.Overall she is still figuring themselves out.

Gen Z

They are not human, they are made of Pure Chaos and Spite, but however they are Depressed and Touch Starved, Gen Alpha is too scared to approach them because of one time they walked in and saw them vibe to Mandela Catalogue, almost as if it was Lofi hip hop.

Millennials and Gen X see pass this Facade and that's why they have this Chaotic Good Relationship.Though They seem to relate to Greatest Gen that seem like Mental Health link of sorts.

Millennials

The Definition of a 'Tired Dad', he face Pressure from Boomers constantly and they argue alot, Gen Z is their Pillow and they consent, Gen X is their Drinking and Working out Buddy.Millenials needs alot of sleep but he have a kid, who is Gen Alpha, and feels like he needs help in terms of Parenting.

However if given the chance to geek out, everyone will have Harry potter, Percy Jackson and Hunger games themed food for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.No one Complains, except Boomers of course, because they know he deserves a Break.

Gen X

Gen X are rarely around actually, because he is in the Military.BUT WHEN HE IS AROUND, Greatest Gen and Silent Gen are just Looking and shouting at him be like,"OH MY GOD YOU'RE NOT DEAD GOOD NOW EAT ALL OF THE FOOD I GIVE YOU CAUSE I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE" Gen X's intimidating Aura is Enough to make Gen Z's Sarcastic and Dark humour mask fall apart and give them all the Hugs they can, Millennial get their confidence back just by talking to them and Gen Alpha teach them Modern Lingo.

For example, he just found out about the terms 'Himbo' and 'DILF' Gen Alpha and Gen Z explained those terms to him because he called those while scrolling Facebook and Instagram.Also he has Casual Roast Sessions with Boomers whenever he is around, he basically insult Boomers in every aspect possible without the Usage of Social Media especially when the subject of Millennials come up and Gen Z demands know and learn such power, not knowing that Greatest Gen is the MVP of Casual Insult.

[highpope]

a cute, wholesome blurb for your night.

warnings: none :) 

wordcount: 900

requested: yep! @amoreagron -  Hi! I saw your little JJ fluff blurb about being sick and it was too cute! If you’re feelin’ froggy, how’d you feel doing a little fluffy thing where JJ finds out Reader is a huge nerd (like lord of the rings and stuff) and gently makes fun of her, but then sits there and lets her talk about everything and fun facts and quotes and just falls more in love with her. Kinda sounds stupid now that I write it out but JJ fluff is all I need! xoxo

notes: This was super fun to write! I hope you don’t mind I focused on hp and not lord of the rings (i admit that i know close to nothing ab it) thanks for the ask!! *** I do requests! Feedback is welcomed and appriciated 

You were nestled into your bed, covers pulled up to your chin, rereading your favorite Harry Potter book, The Prisoner of Azkaban. It had been raining for days and while you were upset you couldn’t spend the days surfing or at bonfires with your friends, you were perfectly content to sit inside. You hadn’t spent the whole time reading, though. You decided to watch The Lord of the Rings movies with your younger brother the days before. They were his favorite movies and you had read the books growing up. Something about rainy nights made you feel nostalgic for a world you hadn’t lived in, only read about.

You were lost into your book again until a heavy knock came from your window. You switched the light on and peered out into the dark storm only to see your boyfriend, water dripping down his face.

“JJ, what are you doing?” you exclaimed, opening the window and pulling him through. Once he was inside, you rifled through your closet for a towel and a pair of his sweatpants he had left behind. This wasn’t the first time he had climbed the roof and knocked on your bedroom window and you could bet it wouldn’t be the last.

“Maybe I wanted to see my girlfriend”

“We’ve got a door, Maybank, and I have a phone” you threw the clean clothes and towels and laughed at his disgruntled figure. His hair and clothes were soaked. His face red from the wind. His eyes were still bright regardless. You couldn’t help but smile at him.

“Do you?” He asked, “I’ve been texting you all day.”

A sudden pang of guilt washed over you, had he? You didn’t even know where your phone was.

JJ quickly came back into your room, wet clothes discarded, drying his hair off with the towel you had lended him. 

“I’m sorry, baby,” you replied, pursing your lips out. JJ chuckled and shrugged it off, “Do you have one of my shirts? I’m freezing.” To prove his point he grabbed your face with his hands. Instantly, goosebumps covered your body. You screeched, pushing JJ’s hands off of your cheeks, “Check my closet, geez.”

While he searched for something warmer to put on, you crawled under the blankets, wrapping them around your torso. JJ pulled on a dark blue long sleeve. The color brought out his bright eyes and flushed cheeks. He instantly crawled under the covers, too. You felt his arms wrap around you as he brought you closer to him. His face burrowed into the back of your neck, his breath was warm on your skin. His hair was tickling you, “J-” you started, softly.

“No, please I’m so cold.” He begged. You obliged, allowing this winter boy to absorb your body heat and scatter kisses on your shoulder. 

“What did you do today?” He asked when you finally broke apart. JJ intertwined his legs with yours and sat across from you, both of you under a mound of blankets.

“I was just reading, nothing too exciting,” you said, motioning to your bookshelf. It was an impressive collection to say the least. It was filled with books from secondhand shops, some you had traded with your friends way back in middle school, and even some that the library was going to throw out. The covers were too torn or someone had spilled coffee on a few pages. The Harry Potter series was at the top, followed by all the Percy Jackson books and The Hunger Games. A few from english class had scattered the pile and a few nonfiction ones. 

“Have you really read all of those?”

“Yeah,” you laughed nervously. You knew JJ wasn’t very keen on reading for school. You didn’t want him to think you were trying to brag or put him down

He studied the shelf before speaking again, “I think I’ve seen a few of those movies. It’s like a magic school?”

“Kinda!” You lit up, “More like the kids are magic. There are a bunch of wizards and they get sorted into houses at the beginning of their first year and there’s this whole competition where the professors can award points and the house with the most points wins the house cup. But that’s really not even the plot to, like, any of the books actually. I’m a hufflepuff. I’d honestly say you’re probably a slytherin, but not in a bad way.” 

You stop, realizing you have been talking nonsense for far too long. JJ has a smug grin on his face which makes your ears turn red.  

“Sorry,” you muttered, playing with the hem of the blanket.

“God, you are such a nerd, babe.”

“Stop,” you laugh, pushing JJ’s shoulder.

“It’s cute!” JJ pulls your hair to make you face him, “It’s so cute, like too cute to even look at you.” You, again, feel the blush spreading across your face. You scrunch up your nose, making a face at him.

“So cute,” he said again and kissed the tip of your nose and then your cheek, “C’mon tell me more. Why am I a slu..sly..”

“Slytherin.” 

“Yeah, that.” He said, kinda bouncing before laying down next to you and snuggling his head into your stomach. You placed one hand on his back, lightly drawing shapes with your nails and began telling the story.

[ravenclaw-headcanons]

moving forward and propositions

tldr; although this blog has been p much abandoned I still think we could have some fun here with a bit of reformatting and fresh ideas. any thoughts on things you’ve enjoyed from this blog or things you’d like to see in the future? or do you think there’s nothing wrong with the format and I should just go back to posting headcanons like normal?

hey

long time no see.

it's been, what 18 months since I was properly active on this blog? actually I just checked and the last headcanon was posted in Jan 2019. mad

when I sent out the word that I wouldn't be keeping up with this blog anymore I cited graduating and starting a full time job as the primary causes. essentially that I just didn't have the time to dedicate to this blog anymore. which was and still is true tbf

but I also (semi) abandoned this blog for the less admirable fact that my heart just wasn't in it. I guess you could probably tell that considering the headcanons kept getting scarcer and scarcer. I guess it's just, I've always loved having this community y'know. we've had great discussions on here and held events and forged friendships and that was really cool to have

but in terms of what this blog actually is

I don't know. I mean I can't say I have my finger on the pulse of fandom culture the way I did back in 2015, but when I started this blog it really felt like we'd found this untapped thing that people could be passionate about and engage with in a new way

I'm not going to sit here and pretend I'm some sort of innovator. in fact I stole the premise of this blog from mugglebornheadcanon. but there was still something new and exciting about it

I had loads of ideas and people had tons of their own headcanons they wanted to share and idk I guess it was just nice to have a creative space for people who were all passionate about the same thing

whereas now we're 1000 headcanons deep, I have nothing left to give, and there are tons of other blogs out there who can do this way better than I can. I'm not saying that in a self pitying way. it's just to have a blog like this that feeds off ideas and creativity you kind of need some passion, or at least inspiration

anyway this is all a very convoluted way of asking for a community brainstorm

because I still think this blog is great, and has the capacity to be the community driven creativity vortex that it was, I just don't think this is the way to go

hey, maybe you'll all reply and say 'no we've still got hundreds of headcanon ideas please let us post them!!' but my intuition is saying it might be time to move onto other content? it just feels a bit like the well has run dry on this kind of content, but wouldn’t it be awesome if we could find something new that relit that old spark?

so I guess this is a general call for ideas? a heads up to the muse of inspiration that now might be a good time to strike

if anyone has any thoughts or ideas on a way we could direct this blog to actually being, well something then please drop me a message!!

general musings so far on my part are that by far my favourite parts of running this blog were the various community events. ravenclaw pride day, the advent calendar, secret santa, harry potter playlists, and primarily the rereads we did

if you missed them, on this blog we hosted rereads for the 20th anniversaries of PS, CoS, and PoA where everyone would read one or two chapters a day. people would post their thoughts on the chapters, artwork, their progress on reading in another language, jokes, I posted discussion questions every day, it was pretty much a free for all

I don't know, maybe there's not a way of turning that into its own project. I mean theoretically I could set up a blog dedicated to hosting those kind of events. obviously having breaks in the middle, but it could be kind of fun. percy jackson would be a great one to do, or maybe the hunger games, narnia, asoue, his dark materials, twilight, spiderwick, inkheart etc

idk the issue is theoretically it could be great fun. we could have community votes on what people would like to reread, we could reread books slowly so it's not really a commitment, and revisit some books we've all loved or maybe even some newer books

but I guess it’s more of a question of whether that could ever work in practice. like again theoretically I’d love to tie each event in to raising money for a charity (again by public vote). I mean wouldn't it be great to have a reread of GoF where people were encouraged to donate £1 to a charity to support trans people? or maybe raising money to help kids with ADHD when reading PJO?

I think I’m getting too ambitious haha

tbh the real thing that was great about this blog is the community feel it had. a group of people who all love hp and learning and creativity and expressing themselves and so really what I’d like to do is find some way to recapture that, however you guys see fit

I am obviously have no illusions about the fact that this blog is not active, and its followers are (mostly) not active so I know any projects would likely be on a smaller scale. but hey, I started this blog with a following of about 1k on my multi fandom blog so anything can happen when you hit on a good idea

and I think there’s still a great idea lurking here somewhere, I just need a bit of help from you guys to find it

so let me know what you think and I guess I’ll see where the wind takes us

[dr-nero-is-god]

i felt the urge to riff on the hive streams for a little bit since discussion came up on the hive discord, namely, holding issue with the idea that the alpha stream is inconsistent in that it is about leadership when otto is the only leader, and that it’s also possible that the alphas are just kids with specialized skills, and not actually bonded by any particular unifying element.

and, in response, @vulpix-sinistre brought up a quote from the abridged hive fanfic, that goes something like: “there are four streams: main characters, stereotypical bullies, ?, and nerds.”

and i disagree with the first two ideas, but almost completely agree with the abridged fic quote. that is pretty much how the streams work, and it is IMPORTANT that that is how the streams work. 

in the end, you may conclude that the streams system still doesn’t make sense. you won’t be like “well clearly dr. nero was just logically dividing the labor of his students to reflect a specialized training program” because it’s more complicated on that. i  hate to do this to y’all, but a lot of everything streams-related requires an out-of-book explanation to get where you’re going, but i can promise that i will at least try to go

first, let’s think about why h.i.v.e. would have streams at all

on the one hand, it’s inescapable to consider that one primary reason that hive has streams is because harry potter had houses, and for the same reason that percy jackson had cabins, the 39 clues had branches, hunger games had sections (or counties, idk), divergent had factions, and so on and so on. the rise of fandom spaces on the internet was concurrent with a big ya/mg boom in the post-2005 world (after twilight was published), and within those fandom spaces it became important to identify with an aspect of the fantasy world as part of your personality. that became a very marketable thing for a while, and so separating children into streams would, to a publisher, seem like a pretty solid storytelling choice.

however! the alpha stream is not the same as gryffindor house. on the one hand, it seems easy to make an alpha/gryffindor and henchman/slytherin parallel, because one group is good (relatively) and one is bad (or at least antagonistic). but it doesn’t work because while slytherin has a reputation for constituents of poor moral character (which has been largely revised in fanon), being a henchman is where you go, according to the books, if you are unintelligent and burly. it’s not a really sexy stream, is what i’m trying to say. and though there are undoubtedly some readers who would look at the henchman stream and see themselves, i think the majority of readers would likely find the henchman stream a completely undesirable stream to be in. 

and, given how little importance the role of streams have after the first book, i will go out on a limb and say that mark walden knows that the henchman stream is unsexy. we aren’t interested in the hopes and dreams and motivations of the henchman stream; as we learn in book two, the ideal henchman is weak-minded and easily led—so what dreams would they even have? this leads me to conclude that while mark walden might have sold h.i.v.e. on the “there are personality-based groups in the school!” idea, he had something completely else in mind when he started writing and that, I think, is actually far more interesting.

but really, why would h.i.v.e. have streams at all

a few things about mark walden: 1) he studied english lit in school, 2) he has a background as a video game producers, and 3) he likes james bond. i know the first two things because i have read his bio and i know the third thing because i have read his books in conjunction with seeing all the james bond films. so we will call 1-3 facts. 

if you are wondering what a lit degree, video game production, and the james bond franchise all have in common, then let me connect those dots: all three of those things depend heavily on the study and understanding of repetitive structure in storytelling as an interpreter and creator of meaning. each one of these fields requires an understanding of how stories and words work to create meaning in order to be successful. 

and, to quote mr. walden here directly (sourced from this here link):

“So, I was playing with this cat one day and it got me thinking that those old-school Bond villains always just seemed to appear out of thin air with very little back story and that got me thinking about how they became world- conquering megalomaniacs in the first place.  It was only a short mental walk from there to HIVE.”

so, imagine you’re a writer trying to tell a story about a school for villains like those in james bond—you’ve studied storycraft and you have a lot of experience in a job finding believable and compelling obstacles for people to interact with in video games. you have noticed patterns. and you need to make those patterns work for you.

enter: streams

i have watched all the james bond movies (all of ‘em) (i mean it) (just not the unreleased one yet lol) and you know what? 

there’s probably just about four kinds of villains in those movies.

henchmen include the likes of jaws, oddjob, and tee hee. often physically disabled in a cinematically interesting way, these guys are the muscles and the machines in every bond film. they are the ones who tail bond as he takes long train rides and who try to personally throw him into shark tanks. they are the hands and feet of their evil masters and they don’t have a lot of emotional depth or backstory. 

politicians/financiers abound in the james bond franchise because he is a government employee who often hangs out with other government employees (he has no friends). these people are like colonel rosa klebb, georgi koskov, prince kamal khan. there are a lot more, as a matter of fact, because the whole point of james bond is that they are in the cold war and even people without titles have political and financial motivations for screwing around with stuff. these types of villains depend on being well and truly embedded in an existing infrastructure or hierarchy, somebody who worked their way up from being a foot soldier or clerk into a powerful leadership position that gives them a lot of state-sanctioned trust and authority.

technicians and inventors include folks like henry gupta and boris grishenko, who use technology as their primary weapon. they are often inventors or innovators and are really good at making high-tech stuff. however, i think this stream is also a direct result of the character Q, someone who is actually on James Bond’s team and who runs an entire department of people who test sometimes outlandish gadgets for Bond to use in the field. (but we love the gadgets. they are fun.) in other words, Bond arguably has a technical stream at his disposal in MI6, which means the idea isn’t necessarily evil, but, likewise, our James Bond School also needs Qs. it’s the rules. if you are familiar with Q from James Bond at all then you understand

and that leaves us with alphas... the “supervillains.” these are the famous ones. dr. no. mr. big. scaramanga. le chiffre. blofeld. max zorin. emilio largo. goldfinger. these are the ones with the master plan, the dreams to recreate the world as they see it, the passion to see their desires to fulfillment and the resources to make them happen. they are rich. they are fancy. they are larger than life. is it weird that karl stromberg tries to incite a nuclear war between Britain and the USSR so that a lot of people can die so that he can colonize the ocean? yes. but by god, it’s fancy and dramatic, and that’s what counts. 

are there other kinds of villains? oh, definitely. lots more. but you have to understand, that those kinds of villains generally don’t appear in Bond. sometimes! but it’s not a staple. for example, not many people in the bond films are motivated by revenge because each movie is kind of designed to function as a one-shot. villains don’t come back and so there is no revenge. the villain who gets the most notable reprise, jaws, actually ends up finding his true love in space. 

compare: every movie is going to have henchmen. every movie has government stooges making morally questionable decisions. (almost) every movie has Q, or some gadget stuff going on. and every movie has a big bad that has to be better than the last. 

so that explains why the streams are what they are. 

it was a jumping-off point for mark walden to figure out what this universe might look like and how different character types need to function. consider that while the core four are all alphas and are kind of insulated as a group, the teachers all kind of roughly align with one of these groups. colonel francisco, raven, and chief lewis are henchmen types, doing on-the-ground work to get stuff done. ms. tennenbaum and the contessa are political af, they are all about the corruption and infiltrating institutional power. ms. gonzales, ms. leon, and professor pike all have technical skills that help keep an organization moving forward. and over them all is the singular alpha, dr. nero, who is coordinating and monitoring it all for his own evil plan: to run a high school.

honestly, dr. nero’s hive idea operates just like a james bond villain plot! it works, or it does when pitching the idea. the problem is that the books continued after the pitch did, and with worldbuilding came some complications. namely, the fact that the megastructure of james bond villainy does not replicate well into a small friend group on which the narration focuses. so let’s return to the question presented at the beginning:

how can alphas really be alphas when not everyone on the field trip can be a mastermind?

i’m gonna give this to you in two ways. one, the way i personally interpret it as an in-universe explanation, given the background premises we have already established. and the other, why the stream system kind of ruins the structure it sets out to create.

so, for me, the alphas can be alphas because there is more to villainy than being a mastermind and there is more to being a mastermind than being in charge. as i think about it, this novelization is actually the backstory for every one of the students, who will go on to do great and scary things. they will manage big projects and come up with interesting ways to terrorize the British government, because that is what James Bond villains do (and James Bond does canonically exist in their universe). much like your actual teenage years, this is not the main event.

as students, the core four need to learn to do a little bit of everything. you gotta learn some lock-picking, that’s essential. everyone has to be able to climb a rock wall. it’s the rules. and everyone needs to be able to do some programming. that’s just the way school is. though everyone has a different personality and a different way of looking at the world, their education has to cover the basics because the fact of the matter is, none of them are villains yet. will they become one? that remains to be seen. but they are being given the tools to become the greatest villains if that is something they choose. 

the main problem that remains when holding this attitude is that the specialized skills of otto and his friends might be better suited to other streams, in which case, what is an alpha anyways?

here’s the facts: if everyone were assigned to a stream by talent, then there wouldn’t be an alpha stream.

franz? political/financial stream. 

nigel? laura? otto? technical stream.

shelby? wing? henchman stream. 

you can debate me on the specifics of those assignments, but the point is this: all the other streams are based on hard skills. franz can manage a ledger and that is a financial skill. laura can build a computer from scratch and that is a technical skill. wing can do martial arts, and each martial art is a physical skill that can be taught and performed in a measurable level of proficiency. 

the idea of being a “mastermind” is a much softer skill—which is to say, there’s no one recipe that will make it work. my manager at work has coached me by saying that leadership is often about having a “style,” and working at it that way. leadership requires interpersonal flexibility, being able to stay organized and to make important decisions rapidly, it is about being able to prioritize and delegate. and it’s very much open to interpretation, every day, all the time. 

let me tell you something else about james bond: there is a lot of classism, racism, and sexism embedded into every aspect of those films, but that goes for double when it comes to the villains in the show. to vastly oversimplify that very concept, it shows up in the bond films like this: henchmen are working class folks, the villainous equivalent of “the help,” and the supervillains are (usually) rich and glamorous and powerful. henchmen are uneducated (read as: stupid) and ugly and poor. no one cares if they die. (there’s more complexities, as always, but this essay isn’t actually about james bond so we’ll fast forward through My Opinions to the end)

the problem with replicating james bond in your villain school universe is that some of the biases of the james bond universe get replicated in there, too. poor and uneducated folks get turned into disposable henchmen whose lives are irrelevant. people who are educated and talented get fast-tracked to a more glamorous and interesting stream that will catapult them to the top of the ladder as soon as they graduate. if you look at the dialect with which block and tackle are written, they are clearly meant to be seen as a different social class than otto, despite the fact that otto is coming from basically nothing. and we understand that when otto graduates, he will be able to do basically anything that he wants to at all.

so, if you’re asking why wing has a role in the alpha stream when he doesn’t seem as leader-y as otto, there’s a simple answer: because dr. nero believes that wing can be more.

the climax of book one is dr. nero explicitly telling otto, wing, laura, and shelby that they are in his school because he believes in them and he wants to see them grow. they are given an elite status other students do not have despite the fact that they have just literally tried to escape. as we see in the case of duncan cavendish, the main way to get on that highway to a guaranteed career is to convince him that you’ve “got it.” for those who are not believed in, there is no way to make up for the special grooming. you’re stuck with the stream you’re placed in, doomed (perhaps) to be a second-in-command at best.

is all this intentional? probably not. but it is implicit in the structure of the story and, alas, that’s the way it is.

all i can think to say in conclusion is that while the stream system tends to replicate some of the unfair and classist realities present in other media and the world we live in, i think part of the reason we read h.i.v.e. is because the alpha stream is so appealing. imagine! you are competent and you have a desirable, specialized skill as well as a proficiency in many general skills and you are certain you are going to do good things—and all because someone believes in you. to receive someone else’s support and confidence can be life-changing. the magic of h.i.v.e. is that yes—lives are changed and ordinary, boring people were elevated to the level of supervillains. we are only left to wonder, are they the only people who deserved that honor?