#otp: words aren't necessary

[leviiackrman]

"I you don't want to speak, sit next to me, because I too am fluent in silence.... and sarcasm"

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[ionlymadethissoicouldleaveanask]

hello hello!

For the OTP ask meme, how about Vaz/Naomi, Fred/Kelly and Mal/Serin (plus any other couples you want to talk about, up to you!) for these questions:

8- Who needs/gets more sleep?

11- If they were to adopt a pet together, what kind of pet would it be?

13- What is their love language?

thanks!!!

Okayyyy I'm excited about this one. I'm also going to throw Carter/Kat on there because I've been feeling a lot of Feelings about them lately.

8- Who needs/gets more sleep?

Vaz/Naomi - Naomi sleeps more. Which seems odd, since she's a Spartan, but c'mon. Vaz is in his 20s and he lives in a confined space with his best friend. He and Mal definitely get up to shenanigans as soon as everybody else goes to sleep. Phillips has gotten so accustomed to waking up with mustaches drawn on his face that he doesn't even question it anymore.

Mal/Serin - Same answer as above (because Mal is hyperactive) but Serin also needs more sleep. Heavy hangs the head that wears the crown, as they say. In her case, though, heavier hangs the head to which the crown is about to be passed.

Carter/Kat - Carter just doesn't sleep. He is always so stressed about taking care of his team that he can't bring himself to shut off. On the rare occasion that he does, Kat usually wakes up to start breaking into highly classified documents and Carter ends up staying awake with her because he's just as curious as she is... if a tiny bit less willing to do the law-breaking necessary to satisfy that curiosity.

Fred/Kelly - No sleep 'til Brooklyn. On the rare occasions that they aren't in the field, Fred has an easier time falling asleep, but Kelly has developed nightmares and Fred ends up staying up so that he can comfort her through them.

11- If they were to adopt a pet together, what kind of pet would it be?

Vaz/Naomi - They have Needs Adjustment and BB... what else could they want?

Mal/Serin - Serin is a cat person, Mal is a dog person. So they end up with a black alley cat and a golden retriever with one eye, three legs, and boundless energy.

Carter/Kat - A beta fish that sits on the desk next to Kat and judges her hacking skills. Its name is Thom.

Fred/Kelly - A Spartan from Gamma Company and a horse for Kelly. (Fred is a dad and Kelly is a horse girl, don't challenge me on this.)

13- What is their love language?

Vaz/Naomi - Quality time for both of them, though they are both very touchy whenever no one else is around.

Mal/Serin - Touch for Mal, words of affirmation for Serin. That's why their late-night snuggle sessions work out so well - Serin curls up in Mal's arms, and Mal whispers about how amazing she is until she falls asleep.

Carter/Kat - Acts of service for Carter. But he's more of a Giver than a Receiver, and so he is always trying to do things for Kat (like put himself bodily in front of her whenever a threat shows up). Kat's is quality time. Her favorite is when Carter lays his head in her lap and talks to her while she's working on breaking into some encrypted database she's not supposed to be touching.

Fred/Kelly - Touch. For both. Bumps to know the other is there and paying attention, kisses on the nose or cheeks whenever no one is looking, 24/7 cuddling whenever they get a moment together out of armor. They're just a couple of severely touch-starved little dorks.

[princesssarisa]

Character ask: Cordelia (King Lear)

Favorite thing about them: Her kindness, love, compassion, and forgiveness, which have rightly led many critics to describe her as Christ-like, combined with her pride, dignity, stubbornness, and courage that make her more than just a standard ingénue.

Least favorite thing about them: Hmm... Maybe "No cause, no cause." While I do like that she wholeheartedly forgives her father, it's another thing to imply that he did nothing wrong. He did! But then, to remind him of that fact probably wouldn't be wise in his frail mental condition, and when he's already so humbled and ashamed that he implies he's willing to let her kill him.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I'm very honest.

*I sometimes have trouble putting my feelings into words.

*I'm close to my father.

Three things I don't have in common with them:

*I've never been rejected by my father. (Though I have an irrational, autism-based fear that I might be rejected someday, by everyone I care about, which is probably why I have more trouble sympathizing with a daughter-rejecting character like Lear than I'm supposed to.)

*I don't have sisters.

*I'm not royalty.

Favorite line:

The speech that gets her banished:

"Good my lord,

You have begot me, bred me, and loved me:

I return those duties back as are right fit.

Obey you, love you, and most honour you.

Why have my sisters husbands, if they say

They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,

That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry

Half my love with him, half my care and duty.

Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,

To love my father all."

Her lament for Lear's suffering as she watches him sleep:

"O my dear father! Restoration hang

Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss

Repair those violent harms that my two sisters

Have in thy reverence made!...

Had you not been their father, these white flakes

Had challenged pity of them. Was this a face

To be opposed against the warring winds?

To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?

In the most terrible and nimble stroke

Of quick, cross lightening? to watch - poor perdu! -

With this thin helm? Mine enemy's dog,

Though it had bit me, should have stood that night

Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father,

To hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn,

In short and musty straw? Alack, alack!

'Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once

Had not concluded all."

brOTP: Lear in their final scenes together, after he's humbled and realizes her love and goodness.

OTP: Her husband, the King of France.

nOTP: Lear, Goneril, or Regan.

Random headcanon: She's yet another character I can imagine as being on the autism spectrum. Her refusal to lie or to play a role to please others, her inability to express her deep love for her father in words, the seemingly cold and clinical talk of duty with which she attempts to express it, and her resistance to social expectations that contradict each other (i.e. that her father and king demands that she love him above all else, yet she knows that when she marries, her husband is supposed to come first) all make sense in this way. Especially because she implies that these aren't deliberate choices – she claims that she "cannot heave [her] heart into [her] mouth," that her tongue is less "rich" than the love within her, and that she "lacks the art" of dishonest flattery.

Unpopular opinion: I think her death is necessary. It's tragic, of course, but I don't find it agonizingly cruel and unfair. All the misery and bloodshed over the course of the play take place because of Lear's mistakes, so from a poetic standpoint, he can't live happily ever after with Cordelia the way he did in earlier versions. He needs to lose her and then die of grief (or of delusional joy as he hallucinates her reviving, depending on how you read his last lines). Of course I would never view the fates of real people in this way, only fictional characters; and I understand that in viewing her death this way, I'm treating her as something of a Woman in the Refrigerator, saying that she needs to be sacrificed for poetic justice on Lear. But Lear is the main character, and from the start Cordelia is defined by her relationship with him. So I can accept her death as a plot device to both figuratively and literally break Lear's heart, and I don't find it quite as upsetting as other people do.

Song I associate with them: None to speak of.

Favorite picture of them:

This painting by John Rogers Herbert.

This illustration by Arthur Rackham.

This painting by William Frederick Yeames.

This painting by Ford Madox Brown of her lament over the sleeping Lear.

This painting by James Barry of her death.

Anna Calder-Marshall mourned by Laurence Olivier as Lear in the 1983 TV Film. (Very interesting casting, because Calder-Marshall had played Cathy in the 1970 film version of Wuthering Heights, while Olivier had played Heathcliff in the classic 1939 version.)

Phoebe Fox at the Almeida Theatre, 2012.

Romola Garai with the Royal Shakespeare Company, 2007.

Natalie Simpson with the Royal Shakespeare Company, 2016.

Florence Pugh in the 2018 TV film.

[distapata]

Casual declarations of love

Phrases like 'Love you,' 'I love you,' and how often they are thrown around, if they are indeed thrown around like candy, featuring my OTPs

Brishti-Subinoy

They never use the English phrases, which ensures that they don't throw in love declarations like it is candy. Even when they were young and very much in love, they must have used the words Bhalobasa* and Bhalobasi* very sparingly, reserving them for special occasions, savouring the words.

As they grow old, and, most importantly, grow apart, the words get slotted into the dictionary they only bring out for their monologues - usually the bitter and/or wishful ones.

The love never diminishes, and they never forget, or deny its existence, but they pretend that it doesn't matter - for a while, it doesn't.

Even when they reunite, the words and phrases never pepper their conversations, but they don't need to declare their love, they know.

They express their love through their eyes, and through their actions. Little gestures. Leaning into each other, finding out names of products the other likes and buying them, listening to hobbies, rants, and working as human diaries, making sandwiches and drinking coffee, in remembering old memories, ironing one another's clothes. Little touches, holding hands, resting their foreheads against each other, sitting in the balcony while rain falls outside, offering coats and dupatta to battle the cold, they show love in entwined fingers.

* Bhalobasa (love) Bhalobasi ((I) love)

Wriju-Ramola

They too, prefer the Bengali words, and prefer not to say them. Love declarations are not something they sprinkle into their lives.

However, they do mumble sleepy 'Love You' s to each other, and write it down in their letters.

They believe that there is a difference between between 'Love you', 'I love you', and Ami tomake bhalobasi* and they maintain this distinction between the phrases, using the first very casually, almost flippantly (although even then it is only reserved for bedtimes and letters), the third they reserve for when it becomes necessary to say it, and the second lies in a corner, forgotten, because the appeal of Bhalobasi is bigger than anything else.

* Bengali for I love you.

Agni-Prabha

There is a lot Agni does that meets with either her disapproval or her annoyance, and that's when she brings out the love card, saying phrases like 'Bhalobasi bolei bolchi' * and Bhalobasi bole ki kichu bolbo na?'*

Agni pouts when she says that, then walks out of the room and sulks in a corner, because what can he say to that line of argument? Nothing.

Not that they won't use the phrases how they are meant to be used, they do, and they do it quite often. I love you is thrown around like confetti in this household, and they both love it.

*Bhalobasi bolei bolchi ((I) am saying this because I love (you)) & Bhalobasi bole ki kichu bolbo na? ((You) think I won't say anything because I love (you)?)

Deepti-Saikat

They love each other, a lot, but they rarely say it. They don't need to, so they don't. They have missed out on a lot of time, and they are always engaged in a battle against time, to create more moments, moments worth remembering, moments worth holding on to, so they don't use the words, but they express the emotion.

Physical intimacy is a big part of their life, whether it is little touches, or impromptu hugs, or sitting side-by-side with their shoulders touching, resting their foreheads against each other, leaving little kisses everywhere.

His art is also an expression of love, be it her portraits, or bright canvases in pink and blue.

She gives material gifts, shirts, pants, brushes and paint, sketchbook and charcoal, aftershave.

The 'I love you,' is silent, but not non-existent.

Dhruba-Tara

Tara enjoys casual love declarations. She feels shy when the words are spoken out, be it she who does it or Dhruba, but she loves hearing about how much they love each other. These aren't words she has heard often, so the verbal confirmation is necessary for her to fully believe in her love, and his love for her.

Dhruba knows how much Tara needs it, and he, himself, enjoys saying it out loud, to have the love surround them from all sides, like a fluffy blanket. So he says it as much as he can.

I love you is not thrown around like candy, but it is sprinkled into the air like rainbow glitter.