#mother of learning headcanons

[demigods-posts]

luke fumbling in recruiting percy has to be one of his greatest failures. a beautiful thing the show does regarding luke and percy's relationship is building rapport between them through shared moments like settling into camp, eating meals together, but especially through swordfighting lessons. the swordfighting scene at the beginning of episode 8 not only reveals that percy and luke already share similar beliefs about the fear-based system the gods have cultivated, but it's clear the conversation stays with percy when he fights ares and later calls out zeus on his waning skills as a father and a king. however, luke's plan fell through the moment percy learned that the winged-shoes were meant to drag him to tartarus. not only that, but the shoes nearly killed grover, a friend percy cared for deeply. if nourishing loyalty and trust was the key to ensuring a partnership with percy, then it was luke's faulty planning, arrogance, and impatience that cost him the greatest ally he could ask for.

[mangotelevision]

headcannon that after the squad becomes meifwas nekoette starts calling katelyn auntie because they both have blue hair and now share similar features. it starts reminding katelyn of abby, she loves and she loathes it because she misses abby, she misses having someone looking up to her. it reminds her of her brothers, of the times before she messed everything up. nekoette reminds katelyn of all of the things she regrets in her life.

[seleneprince]

Amphitrite and Sally were lovers first before Poseidon joined them. They're in a polyamorous relationship, and that's how Persea was conceived. She's quite literally princess of the Seas because of this

Meanwhile, Persea thinks her cool godmother Trite is actually her mother's secret girlfriend with whom she cheats on Gaby, but Percy supports them and wishes the three of them could just run away and live all together.

[sneaky-eel]

Sense Ubisoft decided to give us jack shit on Desmond's mother I wanted to do my own little head-canon of her.

Desmond's mother is a cold, no-nonsense woman. A prodigy in her own right who was probably one of the options for the next mentor, but preferred field work. Her acts of love are through services and what is a better service to those she loves then ridding the world of templars. The longest she probably went without being out in the field was when Desmond was born and it isn't till he is 5 or 6 that she goes back out. Now she is working twice as hard. Not just for her fellow assassins, but now she has a son. A son who will be forced to do this same exact thing if she doesn't do something.

So she is around less and less. One day here, two days there. And maybe she thinks she is doing her family a favor. She deludes herself into thinking this will push Bill and Desmond closer together. Desmond will love Bill more because he is there and she is not. But it has the opposite effect. As he gets older Desmond starts to resent Bill. He can never be good enough. Never strong enough or fast enough. He is subjected to a constant stream of belittlement from his father. Bill works all the time and Desmond hates that he is forced to have dinners at an empty table all alone while Bill is in his office. So close but still too far.

But his mother? Oh his mother is his hero because all this time he has been building in his head the idea of what his mother is. An ideal mother. "Yeah she isn't here cause she is keeping us safe. Everyone says how great she is. The best of the best." He tells himself. Then as he gets older he starts to compare Bill to this idea of his mother. "If mom was here she'd be able to explain this better to me. She is really smart.", "When mom gets back I'm sure she can help me with this move. She's the best.", "Once mom gets here we can have dinner like a family, maybe we can cook together." on and on.

Finally, at 16, his mother is home for the first time for a longer than a day. Two whole weeks in fact. And he is so excited only for that reunion to be awkward and kind of cold. He doesn't get those meals together like he hoped. Training with her is worse than his father. With Bill he had learned when the man is actually paying attention and where, which allowed Desmond to slack in other areas, but with his mother she is always watching. She nitpicks every movement and doesn't seem to understand why he can't get something on the first try. She pushes Desmond well past exhaustion and makes him train even past that. Desmond's carefully crafted view of his mother is destroyed in just a few days leaving him empty and convinced that neither of his parents actually love him.

From Desmond's mother's point of view the reunion is "cold" because she doesn't know what to say to her son. She has been gone for so much of his life and the only things she really knows about him are through Bill. She knows he has potential, but he is "disinterested" and "never takes anything seriously" so in training she pushes him. She has been a field agent this whole time. She knows that a single misstep can mean death and Desmond is already 16. In a few more years they will send him on his first mission and she will be damned if she lets him die. Those missed meals together? She is with Bill in his office helping with his work and on occasion they will sit there with a bottle of scotch between them, talking about life before. Before he had to be mentor, when they had at least a little time to themselves. A little time for each other. She doesn't see what she is doing to Desmond.

When it's time for her to leave again she doesn't question Desmond's lack of smile or how he says he is going to go "train", she only thinks 'Good. He is going to start taking things more seriously.' She doesn't think anything is wrong when she gets off the plane and she drives to the safe-house. She doesn't know that Desmond has snuck out. Ran away from the home he believes never even cared about him. Nothing is wrong until Bill calls her and says the three words the shatters her world.

"Desmond is gone."

[ersetu-gazette]

Seeing a post talking about how STEM majors in different conferences respect each others kinds of work while fearing it gave me an idea of how Zorian's reputation after the time loop could manifest. Imagine you're at a spell forge conference/convention. Everyone is giving talks, pitches, and grant requests for their very niche work in spell formulas. You've got advanced warders, golem crafters, training sphere designers, etc. And then this new kid comes up to present, an academy graduate that started his own spell forge in Cyoria with the dirt cheap property costs. He starts pitching his spell formula that allowed you to communicate both telepathically and verbally over vast distances. The specifics fly over your head, it's not your specialty, but you think you understand the broadstrokes. And it makes sense for him to be good at this, you heard he is friends with some telepathic spiders or something. And then throughout the event you see him talk animatedly with other experts in their own fields and keeping up with whatever they say. You think you also hear him pitch his own improvements and suggestions that those experts seriously consider. And then he comes to you, at your little golem booth. He compliments your design, makes an inside joke many golem crafters make, and asks you detailed questions with an obvious knowledge base of the field. You have an opportunity to ramble so you take it and the kid asks you questions that allow you to talk more without betraying any secrets. You try to return the favor but you still don't get some of the fundamentals of what his project is about, but he helps you better ask the gist of what you're curious about. Eventually you ask how he knows so much about golem crafting. He waves off the question with "Oh I have a friend who's a real nerd about it. Anyway if you make some space around the inside of the golem's joints you can inscribe a separate animation spell formula which gives it a better range of motion. Good luck with your work!" And then he leaves, not seeming to care he just solved one of the roadblocks your team has been struggling with for weeks. Talking to your other friends you find that they had similar experiences with the kid. What the fuck is he?

[shannonsketches]

Do y’all ever think about how Vegeta’s only ever mad at Freeza for what happened to his planet and he’s never mad at Freeza for what happened to him because I think about that a lot

[abisexualsylveon]

Not to be rude to all the z&z shippers, but you know what would be really funny? Zorian being gay, and not being interested in Zach,

like imagine Zorian comes back home with a boyfriend , and Zach is like

Zorian‽ I thought you were straight‽

and Zorian is like

“What have you that impression? I’ve literally never dated a girl seriously in my life?”

“When I was hitting on you, you didn’t even seem a little bit interest!”

“Zach, Zach, Zach, you are my best friend and I love you for that, but I would rather help Daimen try and put our family back together than date you”

“But we spent years in a time loop together!”

“Yes, and I love you dearly as a friend for that, but conversely I know you well enough to know that a relationship between me and you would end in one of us in a soul jar at the least,”

[4me2knowandyou2wonder]

As a fandom we have come to the conclusion that Graves has mommy issues. This got me thinking… So hi i'm here to talk about some of the southern parenting I’ve seen in the form of Graves’ mother head canons. Welcome!! (or at least I tried to do that jury is still out lol)

This post is dedicated to @captain-mj ! and is based on This poll where, we can all agree, the answer is Graves! LMAO

now, onto Mrs. Graves:

Phil's Mother is seen in her community as a kind and strong willed woman. People might describe her as ‘a joy to talk to,’ ‘always ready to offer a helping hand,’ and ‘a strong leader’ but there are also people in her community that refuse to describe her at all. ‘Oh do you know Mrs. Graves?’ these people may be asked. ‘We're not close,’ these people will reply, letting their tone carry the end of a topic.

This is because, to those who meet her in passing, she’s a wide smile, a southern drawl and sugary attitude—What they don’t see is this is all done because she is using kindness and charisma to craft a careful social narrative that is designed to keep criticism at bay, and people complacent. (Have you ever noticed that humans are more willing to let people who we consider ‘good’ get away with hurting others?) Mrs. Graves cannot handle anyone challenging her authority, and she is constantly fighting to make sure no one may question her.  

To those who spend more time with her, her personality becomes much more clear. She’s the woman who won’t hesitate to tell the farm hand what they’d done so wrong, the woman who will demand hard work and harder hours, the woman who is seemingly blind to the struggles of anyone who she deems under her. (Which is everyone except the people who will grant her social power btw.) 

Those who are unlucky enough to get closer to her have seen even more of the cracks in her mask. Mrs. Graves holds her power over the others heads, she will claim she deserves privileges beyond a reasonable expectation, she often uses the lord’s word as justification for unjustified opinions, and (in some cheap version of making herself look Better) Mrs. Graves complains about those she deems ‘under her social level’ to ‘peers.’

The largest crack in that ceramic smile, however—the one that reveals the raw flesh beneath—is how she treats her son. 

Her “mini me.”

Mrs. Graves enacted strict control over all activities Phil did. Privacy was a luxury not a right, and it was a luxury he didn’t have. “You shouldn’t have anything to hide,” was a common phrase uttered. Phil had limited and monitored access to any ideas outside of the christian ideals his mother wanted for him. Phil went to christian school, and any friends he was allowed to hang out with outside school hours were either from his church or approved by his mother. Phil didn’t fight this. He was a kid, this was his mother. She said she knew what was right for him, so she knew what was right for him. He liked it when his mother thought of him as a good son and letting her approve of all his friends would make her think that. 

Mrs. Graves used her husband’s authority for her own gain, using the “man of the house” as a tool to inflict her will. Mr. Graves’ parents did have a hand in his matrimony :/. They found him a nice christian woman for their good (read: bitter and emotionally closed) christian son. Mr. Graves shares the same perspective of gender roles as his wife… 

Actually I need to stop talking about Phil’s father, this is a post about mommy issues. 

Point is, if Phil did something wrong in Mrs. Graves eyes she would threaten Phil with his father’s wrath. And if Phil did something wrong in his father’s eyes his father would rage on his own. Phil hated disappointing his mother, but he feared making his father mad.

-

Phil’s mother of course forced him into community activities as much as she could, church groups, 4H, anything that had a community where her boy could make her look good. She would make him participate and do the best work he could even if he hated it, he had to win every paper boat race, every mini science fair. Sometimes she would do the work for him to make sure it was done ‘right.’ Mrs. Graves would berate Phil if he ever did anything that might make her look like a “bad parent” (Like losing the boat race … Ma’am please…)

Mrs. Graves also believes emotions are a weakness especially from women and believes emotions are simply not allowed for men either. Any Big feelings Phil showed as a kid were frowned upon and chastised. He was made to feel pathetic for fear, sadness, and even anger.

Mrs. Graves is unafraid to use humiliation to punish her son, she will happily drag him aside and chew him out in front of his friends. Sometimes it's a show for Mrs. Graves' friends, other times no one is around and she is just angry at something he did. 

As an example of how Mrs. Graves handled parenting, A kid on the playground once shoved Phil to the ground and stole the toy dino he was playing with. Phil wanted to cry, but “Buck up” was one of his mother’s favorite phrases, and Phil hated to be told to Buck Up so instead he got angry. He rips the dino out of the other kid's hand and yells at the other kid that he hates them. I’ll spare you a whole play by play about what happened and give you the footnotes:

-Phil gets his toy back, but his anger didn’t go unnoticed by his mother

-His mother realizes that the other Kid’s mother has now seen Phil act up and can’t handle the perceived judgment.

-everything Phil does she takes as a direct reflection on HER so she is blinded by this hit to her ego

-she now must prove to the other mother that she is a Good Mom who has her kid Under Control

-She yells at Phil, grabs his ear, forces him to apologize and gives the dino back to the other kid (it's Phil’s toy) she tells him they’re going home.

-the other kid has realized their own mistake and quietly gives Phil back his toy. 

-Mrs. Graves doesn’t realize Phil has the dino back until they’re in the car.

-She grabs the dino, breaks it and throws it out the car window

wow… That hurt to write

Anyway~

It wasn’t always bad, When Phil did something good he was showered in praise and affection. If he was cute for a picture, If he complimented his mother in front of her friends, or won a school competition (remember this reflects well on her), that's when life was good. She’d get all sweet, maybe they’d get ice cream later, or maybe she’d even tell him that she loves him.

I hope you’re picking up what I'm putting down: that Love was inherently conditional for Phil. 

But you see, Phil has known no other type. He never knew unconditional love, this was just how life was. As long as he worshiped his mother, sung her praises, was successful, was good and listened to what she asked, he was loved. As a long-term consequence of this Phil is always looking for praise and reassurance, he has deep rooted self worth issues that he can’t see.

-

Phil’s mom has always been described to him as powerful, a woman to respect, (no one is going to insult someone's mother to their face. Though they probably should have, because now…) Phil has internalized these ideas, and he can’t see how flawed his mother truly is. Phil has idolized his mother, becoming blind to her faults in some twisted compensation for all the pain she has caused him. (Phil is the type of person to say “sometimes I just needed a good slap” and MEAN IT.)

His worship of his mother was of course more extreme when he was a naive child. So during his tween and teen years when he was a bit more of his own person ‘all the sudden’ a rift definitely started to develop between him and his mother. 

Phil’s mother has always made jokes about never wanting Phil to grow up, never wanting him to stop being her little boy. Once he was grown they just shifted to wishing he never had. Sometimes when she’s feeling affectionate towards her son, (normally after being particularly doted on by her adult child,) she’ll say ‘You’ll always be a little kid to me.’ Phil thinks its praise, thinks its love. He can’t see how toxic the narrative is. She’s expressing love for the young kid who worshiped her, and denouncing the teen or adult that is his own person in front of her. ‘I wish you were still that little kid, I wish you’d never gotten bigger.’ These are words that hurt, but cut in a way that isn’t felt on the surface. 

(sorry, the timeline ran away from me. We’re going back to roughly Phil’s teen years again, weeee!)  

Speaking of hurt that isn’t felt on the surface! While corporal punishment wasn’t uncommon in the Graves’ household, 

(sometimes in the classical sense when he was younger, but also as a teen in the sense of off-handed corporal corrections, like the quick hards knocks over the head if he talks back, the swift yank of taking something from his hands, and kick in the shin under the table if he talked too much to guests about something that interested him.)

There was also an undercurrent of causal aggressive physicality that Graves hasn’t identified as abusive to this day, because, well, these family interactions that were always spoken of positively. Why should reality be any different? These are all just loving family play? Right? 

The dig of nails into his side to jumpscare him around the kitchen counter, (only to be laughed out when he yelped). The trick that got him to picking up something hot when he should’ve ‘known better.’ The throw his favorite canned cranberry sauce into his shoulder hard, as a ‘gift’ 

Graves got mad at that one at first, telling his mother to not throw hard cans at him, as duh, it hurt?? She chewed him out for 15 minutes about how she’d done something nice and gotten him something he liked and his ungrateful ass was so selfish that he couldn’t even say thank you“Th-”“Do not interrupt me!”

She ‘didn’t hurt him’ and ‘he was being dramatic,’ ‘a real man could handle a light hit to the shoulder!’ 

Graves tried to show her the already forming bruise. She offered to give him a real one. 

That was her joking with him… right?

These are the interactions that Phil would never see as trauma inducing. These are positive memories starring playful family rough housing. 

He doesn’t give a second thought to why he remembers each one vividly. 

-

Okay, almost done!! Adult years! 

Once he was 18, Phil left to join the army and Serve His Country as the Good American he was, but even out from under her rein Mrs. Graves’ influence can be felt. 

Mrs. Graves always demanded respect, and like a good southern boy, Phil has always given it to her. Even now as an adult Phil loves his mother and tells everyone he couldn’t ask for a better mom. (He really could…) He has disregarded his own emotional well being in a desperate attempt to be a good son, and can’t even see it.

I mean, of course he did. Taking care of his mental well-being was frowned upon. If he wasn’t pushing himself to perform for his mother he wasn’t being a good son. But now the last time Graves cried was at 15 years old, and he’ll need to do a lot of healing before he’s able to again.

When he visits his mother she without fail tells him he doesn’t come home enough. All mothers think their kids should come home more, but Mrs. Graves makes it sound like a personal affront. When he’s home the light bullying hasn’t stopped. He can’t do much without being chastised. Even when he does something she can’t criticize like taking care of himself she can often find a way to make a remark. (like putting on sunscreen? ‘Scared of a little son, don’t want a thick skin?’)

[caitlynmeow]

The daughters @ Alcina

[artbyfuji]

Do you have any fav food headcanons for STRQ?

summer: everyone get on my spinach & cheese omelette agenda 🤩 anyway she also loves arroz con pollo. it was one of the first meals she taught yang how to make.

the twins: raven's is braised rabbit & qrow's is venison stew... they probably only get to eat it once or twice a year. (branwen twins "don't make it obvious we grew up in the woods" challenge: failed.) a plate of steak & potatoes would also make them happy. butttt their favorite childhood meal was oyakodon 👍 i can imagine qrow making it for ruby & yang sometimes when they were young.

tai: mapo tofu (with extra chili flakes) he seems like the type to have a pantry shelf just for a hot sauce collection. second place is his shrimp fried rice. yang is allergic to shellfish. this was a crushing blow to him.

[a-a-a-anon]

sketch bc sometimes thinking about dee's relationship with her mother, motherhood itself, and her surrogacy drives me crazy..

here are my Thoughts (rambles) on dee and motherhood by the way

on one hand she was never meant to be a mother. she doesnt have the instincts. she despises motherhood as a concept ("moms are stupid!"). on the other? she has a baby brother. which, okay, sounds funny as a twin but the less loved child was definitely less coddled. she was likely parentified as a child. look at the way barbara seems to resent dee and see her as her competition, and compared dee to every other woman (degradingly). barbara probably saw dee as a failed woman—neither graceful nor popular nor beautiful enough. imposing in dee the need to be validated and seen as a Good Woman from a young age (see entering beauty competitions at a young age; wanting to be an actress; tell me i'm good (tell me i'm as good as an idealized woman)) and at the same time instilling in her the feeling that she will never be one. i'm going off on a tangent.

remember how dennis said barbara was warm and loving? dennis was probably always cared for more by barbara (and frank was probably never around.) and so that was just the status quo in the household to treat him with care. and so dee inadvertently took on that instinct. that dennis is cared for and she isn't. that she is sacrificed for his comfort or satisfaction. she feels an obligation or a compulsion stemming from this—to take dennis' hand even though she can't say "i love you," to let him cry on her shoulder while she has to stand a little firmer even though she is also distressed, etc. but at the same time she resents it. she hates offering comfort where it is never given to her (she's trying to care for her brother in some type of way and shes learned it from her mother who never cared for her a fraction as much as she cared for her brother.) and thus she resents motherhood—which is all about selflessness—both because it is such a parallel experience to this and because she never feels she could've been a mother. not a loving one. another failure as a woman.

the baby represents everything she could've been—loving where she is unfeeling, a dee who has moved past her mother's influence to become a mother that isn't cruel, at the same time finally winning at being what a woman supposedly should be like. but she isn't any of those things. yet she's still wholly loved by the child the few minutes she gets to hold him, and i think dimly deep down, through the echoes of her mom's criticisms, dee knows the child would only grow to resent her if she was really to mother him. another failure. dee's mother was kind of right about her—if only because she doomed her to be a failure at (their notion of) womanhood and all the warmth and beauty and instincts associated with it.

[hotchfiles]

harry getting ready for his first house party during summer and james insisting to go with him because he's good at parties

parents not allowed, dad

but i'm not a normal dad, i'm a cool dad !

[spiderwarden]

Small reminder that it’s implied Minthara witnessed the banishment of Viconia DeVir and she was a child at the time.

[violetc4ts]

random headcanon: Evie can cook but can't bake, Mal can bake but can't cook

im here for it

mal trying to make a romantic breakfast for evie but instead burns the kitchen down & evie bans her from ever cooking again

but mal also teases evie whenever she burns something as simple as cookies

and evie being frustrated because HOW can she make the finest dish with her flawless culinary skills yet she cannot bake a brownie

yet mal makes them perfect every. damn. time.

and mal WILL take this time to flex, she takes pride in beating evie at this

but she also makes evie the most elaborate birthday cakes from scratch just to see her face light up

[cal-cium-the-nerd]

“To answer your last question, I am Zach Noveda and this is Zorian Kazinski. We are but humble academy students coming here to pay our respects to a living legend,” Zach flattered shamelessly. Silverlake snorted derisively at him, saying nothing. “And also to arrange for a trade, I guess. Or should I say… re-negotiate our existing one? After all, this is the second time we’re meeting like this.” “I don’t think so?” Silverlake said curiously. “I don’t remember you. I may be old, but I’m pretty sure I’d never forget a couple of brats as brazen as you two. I mean, I kind of like that kind of attitude, but only when it’s directed at other people…” “That’s just because your memory of our meeting has been wiped clean from your mind,” Zorian said in a carefree manner. “Nothing to worry about. Anyway, here is a gift.” Zorian reached into his backpack and withdrew a bottle of brandy and a box of sweets from it, which he then handed to a surprised Silverlake.

(chapter 76)

Anyone who thinks Zorian didn't change that much during the time loop needs to reread this scene

[ersetu-gazette]

I keep on thinking what Zorian would do if he were stuck in a soft fantasy time loop (a la Groundhog Day or Supernatural's "Mystery Spot" episode) and I'm amused/worried about how he would absolutely go insane. Initially hes going through it with suspicion and caution, and then after enough loops pass he would try to get down to the bottom of the mechanics and why he's stuck there. And with an answer that didn't have any scientific, political, existential, or tactical reason, he would explode. "What do you mean this time loop was made just for me to 'learn a lesson???' I'm supposed to be a better person/make peace with death of someone else/find true love/[insert reason here]? You could've just talked to me!" [Zorian then proceeds to invent a way to bust out of the loop while avoiding the lesson just to spite the architect of the loops.]