#ive spent so much time thinking about ctubbos appearance in case you couldnt tell

[thatweirdguyinthebushes]

for the ask thing: 5, 9, and 16 about c!tubbo

fear, childhood, and appearance!

5: tubbo doesnt have fight or flight, he has fawn. its an obvious remnant of his time under schlatt, but it also means that when hes scared and especially when he's triggered, most people dont notice. tommys never really picked up on it because tubbos never really been scared of tommy before, and even quackity, who was there while it developed, never figured it out until a little into nlm. ranboo put it together eventually, but it was a little hard for him to understand, because when they disagreed tubbo argued until he ran out of breath, and whenever he fought someone he never hesitated to use every weapon in his arsenal -- actual threats to his life were always responded with in kind. but in more personal situations, when he's put back in that mindset he had as a spy, where he thinks theres no way out, he's just going to do his best to please and pray that you dont hurt him. basically, if you pull out a gun, he'll pull out his own, but if you broke a bottle on his head he'd ask where the paper towels were.

9: this one is a little complicated, because it tends to change a lot based on what i'm writing, but i really like the idea of tubbo being from 2b2t. its why he thinks anarchy doesnt work and how he learned what nuclear weapons are. tubbo is hopeful about human nature, although one would not go nearly so far as to call him an optimist. he believes that people are inherently good, and that they do want the best for those around them as a general rule. but he also believes that humans are a product of their environment and that without proper guidance and enforcement of rules from something like a government, they will turn to violence because it's how they have to survive.

16: I HAVE SO MANY GET READY. okay so let's start with clothing/deliberate presentation: he got a shit ton of medals. lots of ones for bravery and good leadership after the battle at the jungle base especially, because in my version of the war that was a really big deal (they got ambushed while doing reconnaissance and tubbo managed to trick the greater smp leaders and got most of his troops out alive). he wore them on his military uniform which was, of course, part of the white house attire, since all their members were some form of military. then schlatt came into power and, since he wasnt military and that made him look less experienced, he wanted to kind of scrub away evidence of it, and no one was allowed to wear their medals or uniforms anymore. tubbo realised pretty early into the administration that the best way to get by was to make sure he wasnt seen as a threat. when he was ordered to get a suit, he made it a little too big -- not enough to be remarked upon, but enough to make him seem smaller, more childish, a little more ineffectual. he messed up his hair in the morning and, when that was called unprofessional, he pushed it up with too much gel, left it a little clumpy and unflattering, enough to imply youth and, crucially, inexperience. speaking of hair: obviously it was in a military buzz cut for lice prevention during the war, but he had grown it out by schlatts administration, so it was about the same as cctubbos. then the festival happened, and quite a bit, especially on one side of his hairline, was burned off, so it was just shaved down for easier access to the burns. after the festival, he realized that his efforts didnt work the way he wanted them to. because, when someone already suspects you, looking weak doesnt mean you look non-threatening -- it just means you look easy to hurt. so he kept his hair short, even though it made him feel insecure about his scars, even after it started going grey at the temples. after tommys reported death, he stopped cutting it regularly, so it was grown out a little by doomsday, and afterwards he gave up entirely for a while. it was only a while after adopting michael that tubbo commented he should probably cut it again. ranboo had frowned, brushed a strand out of his face, and said he thought it looked nice. and tubbo was kind of baffled, because it had been a very very long time since someone had ever said he looked anything close to nice. and he had almost argued that it drew more attention to his uneven, burned hairline, or that it made the grey even more obvious, or that the way it framed the crows feet by his eyes made them more pronounced. but, for reasons he didnt quite know, he didn't say any of that. instead, he'd just set down the scissors, and that was that.