finally got this digital and all neat <3
boothill hair-headcanons! I did some (admittedly short) research on indigenous hair traditions & cultures (x).
A bit too tired to paraphrase rn so direct quotes to get the main points:
> "believed that a person’s long hair represents a strong cultural identity"
> "As part of the practice in self-respect, we are taught to take good care of our hair through proper grooming"
> "adorn their hair with fur wraps, woolen wraps, feathers, fluffs, and bead work for war dancing and ceremonies"
> "common to see family members and friends brushing and braiding hair for each other.
> "we don’t cut our hair unless we have experienced a significant loss, like the death of a close family member, traumatic event or significant life change."
> "When we do have to cut our hair, it is never to be thrown away, but rather, burned with sage or sweetgrass in a ceremonial way. When our hair is burned, all of our thoughts, prayers, dreams, aspirations, experiences, and history rise to the Creator to be properly taken care of."
> " hair embodying so much of who we are, boundaries are important. Touching someone’s hair without permission is disrespectful in the Native community."
With that, looking at canon Boothill... I decided that at first he straight up just. Did not have the time to cut and burn his hair at first, and by the time he did he. Couldn't. (He’s dead anyway. Everything on his is dead anyway, so it doesn’t exactly count right now…) (he should be ashamed. He is. Being so fuckin selfish and one of the last of Aeragan-Epharshel and he making a mess of their culture). (He really should. He should stop being selfish but he can't let go of his memories of them and he's sorry, he's so so sorry, please he knows he's nothing more than a fuckin husk he's sorry he's sorry he's sorry-). (Going off of my other boothill art,) He loosely braids where a few of them would usually be, but comparatively it's too loose and he doesn't have as much feathers or sweetgrass or fur anymore but it's as close as he's ever going to get anymore so it'll do.
If any of this is inaccurate, really sorry and please correct me! :)
Text (Sorta. In order of my thoughts, all that, and then some):
Aeragan-Epharshel "Boothill" (tesswehas)
> had thick, soft, black hair
-> current hair is thinner from lack of care + general consequences of becoming mechanized.
-> Marie-Antoinette Syndrome + stress turned the majority of it white.
> Tight & neat braids (w/ feathers, sweetgrass, fur)
-> Family braids his hair & vice versa (-> Consequently, Boothill can't braid his own hair as well as he could someone else's. The difference in doing it to someone else vs. oneself, and all that)
> Around~a bit longer than waist length
-> Might've gotten a bit shorter when getting mechanized.
Post killing Oswaldo
(a few months)
> Cuts it a while after killing Oswaldo (while the power vacuum and all the extra stuff that comes with killing a head of department)
-> Especially the braids/where the braids would be & the black parts.
-> (his hair's all white now).
> Burns it with sweetgrass
> Additionally (not on drawing), He's tried to tie it back, sorta; It's a bit too short so he uses hair clips and stuff. It's at like mid-neck length.
> His red bandana was his little girl's baby wrap. (yk those non-descript cloth wrapped around a baby).
-> (Eventually*) ->
*meaning Argenti & Robin are able to keep Boothill from joining the rest of his family + heal/take care of himself
> He lives long enough to grow it out. About shoulder length.
> He usually has four braids (A/R/Sv/C), all with a few different ornaments.
-> Side note, usually I guess one would get their hair braided with their associated accessories (if that makes sense???) but Boothill wants accessories based on his loved ones, so he has a little something. (Still doesn't have enough feathers, either).
(Braid Dictionary):
Each person's Ornaments, from Neatest -> Messiest:
> Argenti(Tied w/ R): Vines & Roses
> Robin(Tied w/ A): Metal/Fake flower ornamets (3); They're based of her halo.
> Sunday*: "haloes"/rings
> Clara (Tied w/ Sv): (Brass) Bolts & sometimes (uncommonly) fluff/fur, or flowers.
> Svarog (Tied w/ C): (Steel/Silver) Bolts & Nuts
> Hook: Usually doesn't have accessories, but the messiness & bits of dirt/grime (/aff) is enough of an indicator. Sometimes she can "braid"/tie string or smth.
+ Possibly aventurine? depends. -> neatness-wise would be around Sunday-Clara's; Accessories would be straight up jewlery, yk?
Bonus: Boothill (Makes the absolute neatest braids). Doesn't actually leave much accessories unless asked (Will be encouraged by A or R)
-> would be feathers or sweetgrass; The children get flowers too.
-> Bullet shells would be like bolts but he doesn't really want to give bullet shells to anyone. If he really wants to, it usually ends up in Svarog's ornament-strings/fur.
Ext. :
> Boothill would give Argenti and/or Robin waterfall braids a good amount of the time.
> Rose braid either from or to Argenti, to or from Boothill or Robin.
> Boothill & Clara braid Svarog's coat's fur + give him strings of accessories.
Ext. Not in Drawing:
> Between Robin & Argenti, Boothill gets around to taking proper care of his hair again :).
> Sunday eventually joined in per Robin's request (as long as Boothill was okay with it, of course), and he found it calming & also just a good way for these two to bond.
> Boothill keeps in his braids as long as he can, until it really has to or he meets the others again.
> I only draw Robin, Argenti, Clara, & Svarog's braids in the final-post killing Oswaldo, so Sunday's would probably go behind Boothill's ear, next to Robin's. Hook's goes around the side, near Clara's.
> Guess it was sorta implied with the neatest to messiest thing, But Argenti & Robin have the most clean braids, Sunday near close - his perfectionism/idealization is getting to him a bit - Clara & Svarog both have some troubles. It's like. Average-good? Not expert but not bad either. Clara's is a bit messy, and Svarog has some trouble with his bigger, mech-hands. Hook has the messiest. For obvious reasons. Little menace <3
> Oh also Don't think I ever specifically mentioned it but implied open/poly relationship between Argenti, Robin, Boothill & Svarog. (Argenti X Boothill X Robin, Svarog X Boothill).
Think that's it. 👍
Original paper sketchpage:
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So, after seeing @half-shadowgalra's post about what if Bianca stayed alive, I thought of analyzing the topic. So, my take on what might change, following the details of canon I can remember:
Firstly, let us assume that Bianca accidentally drove Talos into the Labyrinth, and just got severe head trauma and amnesia instead of dying. Zoe, Percy and co, however, still think she died and continue under this assumption. What happens next?
Well, as far as I know, only one god might actually know Bianca is still alive - her father, Hades. Who, I might say, is not present for the Winter Solstice council and doesn't seem like he'll inform anyone. He would want his daughter safe, probably, so there's a chance he'll send Alecto to find her and bring her somewhere safe - possibly the underworld. No guarantee that the Erinyes would succeed, though.
As to what we see in canon... In his angry burst, Nico mentions feeling Bianca being judged in the underworld, and having nightmares. I'm going to have to assume his nightmares will be altered. And, well... This certainty of her death, which was another sign of them being children of Hades, will likely not exist. How will it change things? Well, I think Nico will still be angry at Percy and consider him guilty of Bianca's death. Maybe. After all, the lack of certainty he had in another timeline can't actually help him realize Bianca is alive. He can't know he would've felt it if she died - even if he started feeling such things, he probably didn't understand that well enough yet. He might have some doubts, though. That's still a minor change, all things considered.
Next time Bianca's death affects the plot is the Iris-net messages. However, we might need to explore first what happened to Bianca. Especially since she not only fell into one of the most dangerous pieces of magical architecture, she did so in a time it was being explored by a whole bunch of people. At any given moment, she could encounter Luke's forces, Clarisse, Daedalus or one of the creatures looking for her. So, you're Bianca Di Angelo, daughter of Hades, who's trapped in a maze underground and have amnesia. What can you do?
Well, I think her bow and arrows are either right beside her or a summon away - the latter is going to be problematic, because she doesn't remember how to summon them. She'll probably have her hunting knife. Oh, and did I mention that she won't remember her training, whatever amount she had?
I don't think canon gives us much indication on what she might do in such a situation. Part of the question is how much she forgot. And since we're makeing this up anyway, we can go for the option we find the most fun! Oh, and I forgot Nico is joining everyone in the Labyrinth pretty quickly. Either way, I think I'll go (regarding her memories) with forgetting everything except for her brother. And English, though it will be fun to have her speak some Italian dialect for some time. Oh, and her name. Easier that way.
So, Bianca wakes up in a cave. She only remembers her name and that she has a brother called Nico. Who is, for some reason, not present. She hears weird sounds and runs away from them.
Now here's another bit: we don't know what Bianca's powers include beyond the ability to permanently kill skeletal warriors. Incidentally, we have another canonical Pluto kid who can control caves. Now sure, Hazel and Nico supposedly have between them Hades' two dominions: riches and death. No reason to keep them separate, however. Bianca can have some power over underground spaces. We have seen Hazel interact with the Labyrinth in the House of Hades, even manipulate it - though she was using magic instead of demigod powers, so we can't be sure if someone with similar powers but no magic could do it. I do think it's possible, though - especially without anyone directly resisting her. It'd be mostly instinctive and unintentional, though, so there's no telling where it would lead her.
Now, where would Bianca find herself? It's hard to tell. Everyone goes through the arena eventually, but it takes time. Bianca can get to many places, Camp Half-Blood included as well as Geryon's farm or the underworld. There really is no telling. Meanwhile, Nico is looking into ways to find his sister and bring her back. Does he realize she's alive? Or does he still try to learn from Minos? As far as I know, we were never told how he made his way to the underworld. Did Hades send Alecto to collect him? If so, does that mean we'll have a family reunion sooner rather than later? Or maybe does Bianca inadvertently run away from it in effort to stay alive and, ironically enough, find her brother?
One possible change would be that when Hades gets Nico, he tells him (at some point) that his sister is still alive. Not in an attempt to console him - Hades doesn't really know about that - but as a throwaway line when Nico mentions her death. I think I can picture that. Nico still runs away, but this time to find his living sister - all that assuming he somehow got to Hades' palace in the time between the Titan's Curse and the Battle of the Labyrinth. In such a case, he might not turn to Minos, which would significantly change BotL. So... Maybe the best option here is Nico not getting to Hades' palace/Hades being too secretive about it all.
Now, no Percy Jackson story is complete without old myths underlining events: Percy isn't compared to Heracles for naught, there are a couple of parallels between them - at least in monster slaying and such things. Sadly, I can't say I'm an expert in Greek mythology, and I'm not sure I know enough to create a story paralleling any myth. So, I kind of hope someone more experienced could come and give a fitting story - only thing I can think of right now is Atalanta, the huntress who took a vow of virginity, joined the Argonauts for a time and participated in the hunt for the Calydonian boar, drawing first blood and thus winning the boar's hide - which eventually lead to much strife. Now, one would think this boar was used in the past, like in tTC - but nope, it was a different boar, so I'm sure having some taste of the Atalanta myth could work. Kind of. Maybe, somehow, I don't know.
So, Bianca is dealing with her own stuff. Maybe, because I just thought of it, she can also have a taste of Cadmus' story - the guy looking for his disappearing sister who went on to found a city instead. I'll have to think about it for a bit, especially since I think both Atalanta and him had a weird "happily ever after in animal form" thing. Cadmus and his wife became snakes, while Atalanta and the husband she eventually did marry (thus breaking her vow of virginity, though the consequences were somehow unrelated) were turned into lions. Huh.
Anyway, she deals with that while running away from Alecto. Nico tries to find a way to reassure his sister while Minos hides the fact she's actually still alive from him. And maybe Bianca encounters Luke.
Now, the repercussions of Bianca being alive include Percy not getting the Iris-net calls about Nico. Which would mean that, if they meet in Geryon's farm, Percy has no way to convince Nico that Bianca doesn't want what he does. Which leaves us at an impasse, so Nico would head out with Minos straight away... Probably. Here's the thing: Bianca being down there means she can be found by someone. I think Clarisse isn't a good option for that, though. So, what if Luke found her? Would she join him? Or be killed? Well, obviously not the latter, we didn't save her so that someone else might kill her. But since we want her as a hero, we'd prefer her not to serve the titans, right?
So, after some thought: maybe she got to the arena and was forced to compete. Her fighting talent was promising, so Luke suggested she join them. And then... I think she run.
This is just a vague outline, and you may have noticed this is stream of thought writing. So, umm... well, I can only say that next she's probably told to give up the search for her brother and follow a cow, which probably should lead her to the huntresses, but instead of following it she'll keep looking and will find Nico, because I honestly don't like how easily Cadmus gave up on Europa just because the oracle told him. Curses be upon Zeus. Coming to think of it, the myth of Cadmus might fit well with the theme of BotL, because Cadmus is Minos' uncle. Yeah, it's all still stream of thought.
Bianca will probably meet Nico before the whole "king of ghosts" fiasco. I think this should affect the larger story, but I'm not sure how. So, umm... Let's leave it here for now?
So, a suggestion to a more organized outline: Bianca is in the Labyrinth. She runs away from some monster and accidentally finds herself in the company of some half-bloods loyal to Kronos. At first she journeys with them and they slay monsters together. However, after having drawn first blood from a very strong monster, some of the half-bloods became angry at her for hurting their egos or something? So she run away from them? Then she gets the magical cow, maybe Alecto finds her, and then she continues to search for her brother, who she maybe finds on the verge of killing someone to bring her back to life.
I might try to write it at some point, but I'm not very good at finishing stories. So, I guess we'll see.
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