#partly because I so rarely see hcs with them included

[artisticxlly]

you are so wise about daichi so i need your headcannons for him right NEOW /nf

First of all, thank you for thinking I'm wise?? That's very sweet

And Oohhhh you dont have to ask me TWICE

Daichi headcanons!

He has a lot of scars from his profession and just generally being stupid (he can be quite clumsy at times)

Stretch marks EVERYWHERE, I'm telling you

He can get pretty insecure about his thighs and stomach (dw his partner makes sure that doesn't happen often)

Being a police officer with a really big heart and sense of justice is HARD (I recommend kings-highway's post about this, I love their take on it), however he also wouldn't even THINK about quitting.

He has the reputation around his police station for being a softie (both negative and positive) and usually when they're dealing with people who are very torn up or emotional Daichi is the first person they like to send to diffuse the situation.

He has a really high pain tolerance!

He has the habit of furrowing his eyebrows a lot (when he's thinking, confused or just angry) so he has a wrinkle between them early in life

He's very grumpy in the mornings

His choice of drink is beers, even shitty ones

He's one of the least pickiest eaters you will ever meet, tries everything (within reason) at least once. He was the one eating his siblings' leftovers because he wouldn't want anything to go to waste.

His family has a cook book that was passed down to him from his mother's side. He likes cooking a lot, both caused by the necessity to do so to provide for his family and because he just really likes to eat (he's canonically the second biggest eater I mean??)

I don't think he'd be as oblivious as people sometimes joke about him being? I think he'd realise that Michimiya has a crush on him (and maybe that the tension he keeps having with the captains might also be them being flirty).

One scenario relating to that last one that I thought about: Kuroo flirts with him but excuses it for being competitive, he doesn't think Daichi picks up on it and acts all cool and cocky until Daichi flirts back. That man is GONE.

Also, since I'm talking about crushes and whatnot, I think Ikejiri and him had a kind-of-but-also-not-really relationship at some point (both were figuring things out, so maybe more queer-platonic?). I mean, the scenes with them are so cute I just can't

In my head that man is BI. In some iterations, I can totally see him as trans ftm as well (I just struggle with thinking about how that man went through high school already being stealth)

He is SILLY. That man has a secret mischievous side. Suga and Asahi know it, and Suga has used it multiple times to prank underclassmen and friends. Because Suga they don't trust, but if he gets the reliable captain to be on his side? Guaranteed success.

He's competitive. Even in the timeskip, I'd say. His responsible act drops pretty quickly if you make a competition out of it.

Do not challenge him to wrestle, though. That man was trained from a young age (play fighting with his siblings, they'd dogpile him when he was an older teen)

He actually stays in contact with a lot of people post-timeskip, I'd say? I mean especially his old teammates, he will forever have a soft spot for them in his heart.

Daichi's parallel to the first year's is Hinata. similarly to Sugawara's being Kageyama (I made a whole post about this), Daichi cares a lot about Hinata and is the one who bought tickets for Suga, Asahi and him for the MSBY vs Adlers match.

I know it's rather unrealistic but I often think about him living together with the captains? Not all of them but the usual combination you see of him with Kuroo, Oikawa, Ushijima and Bokuto. I could go INTO DETAIL about how wonderfully chaotic that household would be (I might one day)

He is very disciplined about staying fit/flexible, but he was not exactly blessed genetically. He gets back pains pretty early post-timeskip and asks Ennoshita for advice through his number. (He also always makes sure to check in on how his former underclassman is doing)

He can grow facial hair but usually shaves it because he doesn't really enjoy how itchy it feels. (It does look good on him though)

Suga was the one who got him off 3-in-1 shampoo, now he uses the bare minimum of products (soap, shampoo, etc.), with the addition of hair oil as it tends to get dry very easily.

Suga and Oikawa are very close friends and they both enjoy teasing Daichi whenever they can, eventually they rub off on him and he gets interested in gossip and shows they're interested in.

He's the kind of guy that says "I don't get why you watch this" but will continue to stand by the TV for half an hour to 'sneakily' watch it.

Family is very important to him. Contrary to what most people think though, to him family is not about blood and genetics but the people who are dear to you (I wonder why he came to that conclusion *ahem* his father *ahem*)

He's really protective when it comes to his siblings. If there was ever a case where they got bullied, he'd be the kind of brother that would pick them up from school to intimidate the bullies. (As cringe as it might be)

His siblings visit him but also come over when they need his help or a place to stay. He is always happy to help them.

Also, here's a very specific one: He can walk in heels. Why? His sisters used to play dress up with him (I mean the whole nine yards, makeup and hairpins and a tiara), and he ended up wearing his mothers heels.

I also had a full concept for his family's names and (kind of) meanings so I'm just going to throw this in there (since it fits with my angst post about him having an absent father):

Kōzui (dad) -> flood

Moemi (mother) -> abundant, thriving

Daichi (eldest) -> earth

Takemi (oldest sister) -> strong, beautiful

Riku (middle child, brother) -> land, shore

Mirai (youngest sister, twin) -> future

Kōji (youngest brother, twin) -> good fortune, peace

Daichi is the grounding eldest and sadly kind of the foundation of the family. Takemi was the first daughter, her mother promised her to nurture her strength but also her beauty. Riku was the shore after rough times at sea (peek at his fathers name, the parents were on a very rough patch). Mirai and Kōji gave their mother hope for the future (their father truly left them during that pregnancy).

I also made an art post (I don't like that one all too much but still it exists) about it, but I think Daichi could have a tattoo with their birth flowers if he ever thought about getting tatted.

Daichi is multilingual (from taking up interest in learning other languages and/or helping out his siblings when they study them) Here are a few fun ideas of how it plays out:

He scares the living hell out of Oikawa by suddenly speaking fluid Spanish to him (Oikawa muttered something in Spanish when he was frustrated). Oikawa later makes it a habit to say things in Spanish when he only wants Daichi to understand/hear it

Daichi kind of bonds with Nishinoya over it because he travels so much

It's great for his job, he can communicate with tourists and foreigners well (plus its extra intimidating when you're being ridiculed by a cop in your native language)

Languages: German (this one is just me wanting to add a language I speak and adore), English, Japanese (obv), Spanish, maybeee more but less fluently?

Spanish: seemed somewhat easy enough, spoken in a lot of places

German: He wanted to see if he could, since its considered very difficult to learn

English: Good for his job, broadens the horizons a ton

Aaaaanyway these are just what came together after a brainstorming session, I'm sure I'd have more but I think this is quite a lot for now lol.

[crescenthistory]

hey my love 💓💓 i just wanted to say that i am so infautuated with the way you write and the way you think, i can't seem to get enough. your characterizations hit for me 🤧 i don't know if this request is going to make any sense, but i was wondering if you could share some general headcanons you have for the slytherin gang? like, i want to see more of how your mind works and how you view them. it can be things about them you already actively include in your fics or things you think about but maybe haven't gotten to explore yet? idk, go crazy, we will eat it up regardless 💘

this. this is exactly the kind of ask writers want to get – you've basically just asked me to yap away about my favourite characters, don't mind if i do love<33 and i appreciate your sweet words so much, know that i deeply appreciate and love you mwah

characters: barty, evan, regulus, dorcas, pandora

cw: discussion of abuse (crouch sr., walburga black, students), foster care system, taxidermy/animal death, violence, mental illness, fire, mentions of canon-compliance (though not based around it)

the holy bible of crescenthistory canon for the slytherin skittles !

barty

this is something i haven't touched upon in any of my writings, but am eager to bring to fruition -> i view barty as eastern european

you give me a dark-haired, thick-browed, chaotic, loud, incredibly welcoming and loyal to those he loves, avid drinker and smoker, i will tell you he is eastern-european

i am not necessarily particular about which eastern-european country, but personally i am partial to romanian

this is partly because it's the nationality that fits best with the rest of my hcs (as it's a romantic language in eastern-europe, surrounded by slavic nations), because i think the stereotypes work well for barty's characterisation while also not putting him too much in a box (unlike for example russian) and i can just see it

romanian pet-names i think he'd use: Dragă (dear), Inimă (heart), Buburuză (ladybug), Frumoasă (beautiful), Soare (sun), Pisicuță (kitten), mami (lol)

i will also accept polish (known in europe for being high-energy and off the rockers), moldavian (alcohol is part of their blood) and bosnian (good-hearted, explosive temper)

specifically, i think his mother was eastern-european and his father was english; his mother tongue was romanian but they primarily lived in england because of his father, thus he went to hogwarts instead of durmstrang

because he is so fond of his mother, i believe barty feels a rather strong connection to his eastern-european culture and it's definitely something he brings up/jokes about a lot

this all ties into another important hc i have for barty, which is that he is The Polyglot TM -> and provides the reasoning for why (apart from the fact that he is freakishly intelligent)

growing up, his father was neglectful and rarely spoke to barty unless it was to scold him. romanian became barty's native language because he was only ever truly raised by his mother.

thus, i think he struggled with english quite a bit in the start, because he was not exposed to it to the same degree

when crouch senior used barty's lack of fluency in english against him, taunting him, barty experienced his first act of rebellion/spite by ensuring he became so fucking good at english

it was not enough for him to become fluent, he needed to be a master of it, even learning many different accents (which he often pull out for a joke or a party trick btw. suddenly he's just speaking with a heavy derry accent)

both to a) show off and 2) prove his father wrong

as he grew a bit older (all still pre-hogwarts), the thought of being so connected to his father's language kind of soured for him, and to counter act that, he decided to pick up as many eastern-european languages as he possibly could

barty is nothing if not petty, fuelled by spite for his father

thus, he learned russian (very common language in eastern-europe), moldovan (neighbouring country to romania), hungarian (neighbour) and serbian (neighbour)

most of the slavic languages are fairly similar, so once you learn one, it is "easier" to learn the others, especially at a young age

by the time barty started hogwarts, i think he was fluent in 6 languages already, toying with a few others

when he befriended regulus in his first year and found out he was french, his reaction was immediately "oh guess i've gotta learn french now too!"

both to know what regulus was saying and so that the two of them could talk shit together

as a romance language, it was fairly easy for barty as a romanian to adapt to it, which is also how he throughout his time at hogwarts also learned spanish and italian. maybe latin?

barty is intelligent, out-of-pocket, spiteful and loyal; thus he is the epitome of an eastern-european polyglot

i think it's also canon that barty received 12 owls? that is a piece of canon i am 100% compliant with. he is just wired like that, he is the type who does not need to study for it and loves to flaunt that in others' faces

lastly, while i often depict barty as aloof and careless, i view this as the persona/facade he is putting on for protection. i genuinely believe barty is so terribly vulnerable and has some grade A meltdowns during his time at hogwarts

i don't want to say outright that i hc him as someone with borderline, but i will say that my partner has borderline and kins him for that exact reason so. do with that what you will

the only people who truly get to see this is the skittles, you, his mother and james potter on one unfortunate evening (which led to him understanding and respecting barty like never before)

evan

first and most obvious: twins with pandora

he was born 12 minutes after her, though i don't view them as the type to argue about "oldest"

visually, i have always imagined them to be almost identical (sometimes one of them are hc-ed as trans and they are identical twins, but i think regardless that they have the same face, height and size)

absolutely angelic, ethereal creatures -> all sharp angles (in their faces, sharp teeth, almost fox-like) and large contrasts (dark skin, blonde dreadlocks & very white teeth, big noses and thin eyebrows)

the twins have hetereochromia -> one green eye and one brown and yellow (again with the contrasts)

evan is also a very contrasting figure between his looks and personality; i see him as an incredibly beautiful, almost feminine person who has a primal, stoic personality

the type of face that makes others' jaws go slack while his tightens painfully at their reactions

i have seen others hc that evan is called a "doll" by everyone because of his looks and i think that does something to him mentally over time

it sent him to a quiet, dark place before he found true comfort and belonging with the skittles -> by seventh year, i think they had made it into an inside joke

stoic in the sense that he does not speak before he has thought over his words extensively and his face is in a constant deadpan, not letting anything slip

incredibly observant, finds comfort and joy in watching others. it can be studying human behaviour and social cues, or watching others squirm under his watchful eye, relishing in their discomfort

i believe he was selectively mute for a period of his life and pandora spoke for him (twin telepathy is real with these two)

with the skittles, he was treated as a person of interest for the first time in his life, with particularly dorcas and barty prodding to find out who he is and what he thinks

this is how he grew comfortable with them; he tested the waters and when they liked him even more for all his weird, he let go with them

humour wise, i believe him to be the type that snickers and barks laughters when he is with his select circle

crude, direct, unapologetic, clinical, curiosity-driven, loyal, animalistic

he is not the type to snap, but rather to sit back with his emotions and let them simmer until he channels them into something dark

however, if one of His People TM snaps, he is loyal to a dangerous degree and will be right there with them, going for blood

(which is how he and barty always ends up in fist fights)

barty gave him his first piercings in third year (perhaps to offset the whole "doll" thing at the time) and ever since, evan has been getting more and more

if his body is an angelic vessel, he wants to decorate it as he fucking pleases

oh and i think he curses like a sailor. again with the contrasts between looks and personality

anything unorthodox or "unacceptable" catches his attention -> his mind almost gets hung up on certain concepts or thoughts like a scratched plate

it can vary vastly from things considered "immoral" to things people just look down upon -> e.g. taxidermy vs skating

fascination with creatures (human or animal or fantastical), their bodies (blood, bone, veins, etc.) and behaviour (social interactions, hierarchies, relationships, etc.)

the point is that evan himself has lived as an oddity his whole life, so he pursues oddities in all forms. a sense of belonging and understanding.

preferably does it all with pandora

in a muggle au, evan would either be a tattoo artist specialising in occultist imagery or a biologist within a super niche field of a species he became obsessed with -> same same but different

regulus

i apply the generally accepted headcanon that the black family has french roots and thus french was his mother tongue; he slips into it when deeply emotive (in either end of the spectrum) and he borrows his favourite words that he feels does not have a sufficient equivalent in english

for instance, he calls his love amour instead of just "love" because he feels like the word holds more meaning in his native language

personally, i don't necessarily view regulus as a polyglot -> i think he could learn spanish and italian if he felt like it, but he would rather pursue poetry and music

(though i do believe he has taught himself latin to be That Bitch)

i recently touched upon this, but i believe that regulus is the most exquisite violinist

all sacred 28 children are raised almost as royals with all the "traditional" upper class teachings of learning classical instruments, reciting sonnets, horseback riding (though perhaps a magical creature instead? thestrals?)

both regulus and sirius were taught the piano to begin with, but regulus excelled much quicker than sirius, and mastered the piano incredibly early on

(the boys were heavily pitted against each other and made to compete, and due to their age difference, this was one of the few areas regulus outdid him. i believe regulus always did better than sirius had at his age, he felt as if he was behind because sirius was better than him in the moment. so he absolutely cherished it, and thus made musical instruments a large part of his personality for the first half of his childhood.)

to continue im(proving) himself, regulus decided to try out the violin, and i believe this is the instrument he truly fell for

the violin is a more physically engaging instrument than piano (at least for regulus, pianists don't kill me) -> he has to move his whole body to make the sounds he chases after, he can hold his fingers down on the sharp strings until they bleed, he can clutch the violin in between his chin and shoulder until it bruises

it becomes a much-needed physical outlet for him as well as an artistic one

if we want to get very sad, i picture sirius unable to listen to any music with violins in them in the parts of his life he spends without regulus (for whatever reason)

generally, i view regulus as someone who appreciates the arts as an escape

i believe he also reads and writes poetry -> originally he mostly consumed and replicated the sonnets he had forced down his throat (shakespeare was probably a wizard, right?) but as he grew older and continued, he developed his own style

i think he primarily discusses different manifestations of pain and generational trauma in his works; these are the pieces he is proud of and considers publishing under a pseudonym

but when regulus falls in love, he falls hard and i think it would be impossible for him not to write sappy love poems; these are the pieces he stows away and vows to never share with the world, until he is old and married and healed and finds them once more and walks into the living room to show his partner as they laugh and cry together

i think his most emotive pieces are written in french, his most secretive ones are written in latin and the ones about healing and developing are written in english

i don't feel like i need to dive deep into it, but i obviously believe regulus is a cat animagus

(i think he either did it young simply because he could, or he found out that sirius was an animagus and refused to be upstaged once more, so he did it over the summer after he discovered it)

(because regulus black is what? petty as fuck)

(it's part of what bonded him and barty early on)

i also want to touch upon the fact that i often (though not always, and rarely explicitly) view regulus as transmasc

i might delve more into it one day, but for now i'll just say i think he would use he/they pronouns if given the opportunity

LAST thing i promise: crop tops. slutty waist. thank you!

dorcas

without a doubt, i view dorcas as the strongest of the group, maybe even the strongest of all marauders era characters.

this is referring primarily to her magic but also her will power.

her spells have an explosive force to the point where she prefers not to cast healing spells or casual spells, because her magic is too "rough" for it to be suitable. she's a strategist in that sense, often delegating such spells to others. she works on more permanent/solid spells, e.g. putting up wards, hexing objects, any and all battle spells, potions.

she is a proper scholar and a good student who gets top marks, but that is not where her talent or aspirations stem from. she knows her power and she wants to use it effectively and pragmatically.

that goes for her willpower as well. say it with me: dorcas "debate team champion" meadowes. she is blunt and direct and unapologetic about it. she believes there is such a thing as a "correct" opinion and she will tell you as much in a so devastating manner you cannot formulate a response.

(canon-compliant: this is why she was killed by voldemort himself. she went straight from the mckinnons' home to where she knew she would find as many death eaters as possible, and then she just unleashed everything she had. knowing it would kill her, a form of suicide mission. she could not live without marlene, could not take the grief, but she wanted her death to be worthwhile; thus, she let go and single-handedly caused the largest amount of casualties for the death eaters had had in one battle. it was voldemort himself because no one else could.)

most of this stems from a pathological need to prove herself.

unlike the other four skittles who all grew up in abusive homes (although in varying forms), i believe dorcas grew up in the foster care system. which in the uk 70s was not a pleasant experience.

i don't think she experienced many caretakers who were angry/violent, but i don't think they were involved or engaged with her at all. they were just there, she was just there, and that was that.

from her fellow children in the system, she learned both what love and hatred was. the first girl she kissed was a roommate at one of the houses she spent some weeks at. but in the orphanage she spent most time at, she was caught in a severely psychologically harmful environment among the children. there was bullying, there were fights, there was instability.

dorcas was a blurred face in a massive crowd, moving at full speed. she needed to stand out, she yearned to be someone.

so; she began proving herself and she never stopped. academically, socially, capability-wise. which is how she harnessed such massive power. she had to establish a strong sense of self and make it seem to others like she stood with her head held high at all times, even when she was feeling fragile or scared.

i don't think she had a temper like barty's though, nor was she so wrung-tight like regulus. she was not one to snap or shake. she fake-it-till-you-make-it-ed her self assuredness and honestly believes it herself until she is alone.

when she crumbles it is through exhaustion and maybe a few tears that lead to silent sobs. if you don't know to look for it, you would never be able to notice it when she's in bed.

"i'll keep everything bottled up right here thank you" and does so successfully until she is held gently and then she melts

from northern england in my mind. favourite curse word is "bloody" and she overuses it.

because she is confrontational and not afraid to ask the tough question, she is the ideal person to come to when you need to get some real advice. in that sense, she serves the same purpose in the skittles as lily does with the gryffindors. i think the two would bond a lot.

dorcas is really proud of her name. i think she feels a real connection with it and identifies with it – it's beautiful. despite this, she likes the nickname "cas" because it signals a closeness she has yearned for her whole life. as i already have written about a lot, she can and will kill you if you call her "dorc" (the skittles still do ("but it's with a c!").

i would not go as far as to call her a pyromaniac, but she has a fascination for flames. i think she identifies with them a lot, too. she would have many candles lit around her at all time, and plays with the wick and the wax when she's bored.

she likes to read kind of niche, disturbing literature. she likes tropes like "cannibalism as a metaphor for love", "transforming into a bug", "a relationship between a voodoo doll and its maker"

i always believed dorcas' features and voice to be rather soft. i think her voice especially was naturally quite airy and light, which she tried to fight against for years to make it louder and match the power she knows she harnesses and wants to exude. as she heals, she knows she does not need to. she can still command a room with her soft voice and can still lead an army with a soft face.

i feel like maybe one of the most disputed aspects of dorcas is her style? and i'll tell you right now, in my mind dorcas has a light academia meets princess mermaid style. and it is significant. she dresses like she is the president of the debate team and would be the best person to bring on a beach date at the same time. with potentially some witchy/whimsygoth undertones.

in a muggle au i picture dorcas as either being in the un or a professional volleyball player. i don't think i will elaborate.

pandora

nicknames "dora"

everything said for evan regarding looks of course also applies for pandora as his twin -> ethereal, angelic, "doll-like" looks, heavy contrasts in colours and features (including heterochromia and blonde dreads)

i occasionally view pandora as transfem (making her and evan identical twins) and i think their features are quite androgynous, though femme-leaning

when i view her as trans, i think it was evan who picked her name out with a reference to pandora's box

in general, "pandora's box" is a running joke within the friend group. there are no ends to how the term is used; it can refer to her mind, her room, her partner, her bag, etc.

she has had the same wide cloth shoulder bag throughout all her time at hogwarts, that she always patches up by hand using natural elements, and she has hexed it so many times (to have more storage, to not let anyone with ill intentions in, etc.) that it radiates this magical energy you can feel when your hand hovers above it.

pandora's oddities are just as severe as evan's, but partly because she's a girl they're more often brushed off as "whimsical" -> i argue this is a mistake on their part

she is not the flora to evans' fauna; they are both fauna, they are both primal and wild

the reason evan is more violent than pandora is largely because he does it out of loyalty to barty and because he has been shunned in a more aggressive manner due to gender roles. pandora instead can be mentally and magically violent, creating new jinxes that crush someone's psyche in ways previously unheard of, should need be.

she is also primal in the sense that she is a very tactile person -> she touches to understand and learn. she can randomly grab someone's chin mid-conversation or rub at their eyebrows. her friends are not fussed over this whatsoever anymore, carrying on their sentence without any disruption. others, not quite as much.

pandora collects bones and uses them with everything from her magic to jewelry or decor. she has a habit of giving the prettiest bone of whatever creature she is pilfering from to whoever she is happiest with at the moment, kind of like a crow.

she has a deep respect for all fauna and their way of life; she often finds it to be more logical than humans'

pandora thinks on a plane above most other people.

i believe her to be a seer, though not always in the traditional sense. she doesn't necessarily know everything that is going to happen (some of it, sure), but she sees thoughts and feelings that are about to form in the air around her. she sees auras and sounds too.

in fifth year, her and barty make a business out of her giving relationship advice based on the fact that she is a seer. unfortunately, she actually said it as it was, leading to some unhappy customers, leading to barty beating them up. not good for business (but hilarious stories at parties)

she enjoys crystals, tarots, sage and other things we usually associate with spirituality. she enjoys them both for the concept of occultism or otherness, and as actual tools for her more unorthodox approaches to magic. many of her friends don't quite believe it, but it always works when she uses it all on them, so they don't say anything. i think dorcas quite enjoys learning tarot from pandora, while barty makes up fake stories for the cards.

her seer-abilities leads to a lot of miscommunication and is in large part why she talks the way she does. on her own plane, she often misses certain social cues or sarcasms, while others aren't privy to what she bases her worldview on, because they cannot see it.

i have always thought her voice and way of speaking to be very similar to luna's (that's where she got it from). it's airy and light, like she is addressing more than just the people present in the room.

in my fics, i usually make her quidditch commentator for that reason -> people find it entertaining (some in good nature, some in taunting) and her insights in players' mindsets and actions is beneficial

incredibly kind and patient with her friends

i think she has a fascination with mirrors -> both the concept of reflecting back, the idea of distorted mirrors, using mirrors in her magic, etc. her house is full of them.

i often view her as on the aroace spectrum ("i have greater concerns"), but if she is not i think she either:

a) views relationships and situationships in an almost clinical sense; experimenting with quite a bit of detachment, maybe even taking notes of it, yet somehow in an innocent-ish way

b) mates for life. finds one person and goes oh yes this one'll do and stays with them forever. (which i suppose is what she did with lovegood?)

in muggle aus, i think she would work at a funeral home and be that soft, celestial presence that sticks with a grieving 8 year old for the rest of their lives like a loving ghost reminding you that death is natural and grief is loved persevering

on that note, given the option i fully believe she would have become a ghost. the only reason she isn't in canon is because she missed evan and regulus.

the whole gang

everyone has made out with each other at some point -> have you heard of the term queer platonic? yeah that's them

overprotective in every form of the word. supporting each other in their maniacalisms. a cohesive group to the core.

pandora and regulus are best friends who can talk about the real shit and understand each other on an almost cosmic level

regulus and barty are best friends who are back to back in any situation, ready to be with each other through the worst -> the type who have been close for almost too long and bicker like an old married couple because of it

barty and dorcas are best friends who "will do it if you do it" and end up in the most nidicolous situations together just for the laughs

if barty goes through a breakup, it's dorcas he calls. if regulus goes through a breakup, it's pandora he calls. if evan goes through a breakup, the group splits in half where regulus and pandora stay with him while dorcas and barty goes to kill the breakup-er

regulus is the mum friend of the group, the kind of exasperated mum who sprays her kids with a spray bottle and put them on leashes. when regulus is out of commission, big sister dorcas picks up the mantle in the most chaotic manner you have ever seen (swap the spray bottles for bug smackers and the tired sighs with screeching). pandora is constantly the aloof auntie. evan and barty are babies with no regard for safety (their own or others').

their interests loop together into funny weird little systems

for example: barty finds the dead animal (maybe kills it if we're being honest), evan experiments on its carcass and dissects it, pandora retrieves its bones afterwards and makes jewelry with it

another example: pandora likes creating paint from natural elements, evan likes using it for his skateboard, dorcas likes using it for her paintings and clothes, and barty likes huffing it

on graduation day, pandora handed them all little dolls of each of them that she made herself -> in reference to the "rosier dolls", showing that they were all dolls because they were all family. they looked like a combination of voodoo dolls and babushka dolls, painted, sown and bedazzled with button eyes. they treasured them.

when i write fics where the skittles never got involved with the death eaters at all (which is most of the time), i usually hc dorcas as half-blood and the discrimination she faced is a large part of the reason why they were turned away.

they will vocal stim at the same time together, particularly barty and pandora. it drives regulus mad, while dorcas and evan don't even notice it.

when barty got in fights, evan backed him up and eventually threw him over his shoulder when it was time to stop. if they were fighting someone who deserved it, regulus and dorcas would stand on either side and throw healing spells on the perpetrator/victim, so that the punishment could be prolonged without actually killing someone.

pandora is the only one with veto rights in the group. whether it is to stop an argument, decide who is right, decide what to do or any such thing, it is only her word that is final. it's not always it comes to that, but when pandora's soft voice says "stop" or "yes", that is the end all be all.

many of them were each other's first real hug.

i love them, your honour

[capitalisticveins]

1 your hc were great tysm!!! (i'm now just picturing FL frantically wrapping Caelum’s horns first time they see them break LOL) and 2 (some of) my favorite characters (cuz i'm indecisive) are Gavin (hence my title), Guy, Lasko(first character audio i listened to was one of his I don't remember witch one tho),Milo, and Sam (to name 5 lol)

~ Deviant anon ／(^ x ^)＼

(ps if you want to write any headcanons for any of the characters above you can use this ask as a space for that! (no pressure ofc!) :> )

Im so mad I wrote this and Tumblr ate it fUCK MEEEE

oh well you win some you lose everything

TRICK!!!

— Gavin rarely returns to Aria partly due to his Steward, Ophiuchus. Aside from not acknowledging his boundaries, Ophiuchus doesn't call Gavin by his chosen name, deliberately calling him "Vindemiator" instead. Ophiuchus finds it disrespectful that Gavin would change his name, so Gavin refuses to pay them any mind until an ounce of respect is given to him. (Which won't be for a while...)

— Guy was always told that screenwriting takes luck, and that he'd never be able to make it to film because of that. People rarely believed in him. Years later, with his script still not pitched, he's starting to think the people who doubted him were right, and he just wasted thousands on a degree that means nothing.

— Lasko's parents were insanely strict during his childhood. They controlled everything about him. The kind of friends he had were controlled, his curfew was always no later than 4:30pm, he couldn't use entertainment technology until the weekend; and even then the hours were limited. If he ever tried to argue against this, his parents would yell and threaten him until he was teary-eyed and sobbing. When his powers manifested, this behavior only amplified tenfold. He was homeschooled from 7th grade to 12th, and was rarely allowed outside at all.

— Milo was always in love with cats, and expressed love for them ever since he was a toddler. For his 13th birthday, Marie scraped up enough money to get him a tiny calico cat. Milo loved her with all his heart, for the year he had her. About a year later, Milo came back from school and couldn't find her anywhere. Marie hasn't seen her, but told him that she might come back soon. After a month, Colm was home long enough for Milo to find him and ask if he'd seen her. He admitted that he sold her to a family for money a while ago after running low on cash. Milo tried contacting the family, and Marie went to go find them, but the family said she was violent and Colm wouldn't take her back when they initially called, so they gave her to a shelter. He contacted the shelter and they admitted to euthanizing her a few weeks ago.

— Sam had an older brother he admired more than anything when he was younger. They had a 7 year age difference, but they would hang out together whenever his brother was free, since no one outside of his family wanted to interact with Sam. After his brother turned 18, he moved states overnight, all the way north. Sam tried calling and texting him multiple times but he never answered. The night before running away, he called his brother one last time, and he picked up very angry. He was yelling about how annoying Sam was, about how that family, including him, ruined his life, and to "Leave me the hell alone!". That was the last time Sam spoke to his brother, and to Sam, his older brother is just as rotten as everyone else in his family. Except for his grandma of course.

[poolboyservice]

some sys HCs about Fun Ghoul because there is like no OSDDID HCs in the killjoys except for 2 things and I'm willing to make that 3

(these are gonna be partly based off of the popular(?) HC that Fun Ghoul was a labrat for BLI, though loosely)

This is Part 1, Part 2 will be more thoroughly discussing the alters outside of Fun Ghoul. This will be a more general overview of the system, what they go through, and and mostly just how Fun Ghoul kind of found out about the system

If ygs are interested, and would like me to do HCs on the other members systems (though I only really HC Fun Ghoul and The Girl as systems, I do like making up HCs for the other members), or have any thoughts, lmk!!

There's around 9 known alters, including Fun Ghoul. There's 1 persecutor (Dasher), 1 introject (Katty, short for Mousekat), 2 littles (Vanta Heart and Rosey Sun), 2 protectors ("Mag" and Coco), 1 caretaker (Mistress), 1 trauma holder (Flash Page), and then Fun Ghoul.

While the rest of the system has fronted before and some even made themselves known to others, Fun Ghoul was mostly unaware of the system for a long time.

The only reason Fun Ghoul manages to catch on a bit is because he has a camera he uses to record for projects or for future reference, and the alters in the system tend to record things on their own, ESPECIALLY the littles, but some of them forget to delete them afterward so Fun Ghoul doesn't find them. As you probably inferred, Fun Ghoul finds the recordings, and finds it really weird, so he investigates, and starts by asking Kobra Kid, as they both work on the trans am together, so he assumed he did those videos. After discussing, Fun Ghoul is confused to learn it was supposedly him that did those videos, and even went by names he never even heard of let alone considered as a name.

After a while of discussing with Kobra Kid on what's been happening, and what's wrong with them, with the little information they have, he decides to be honest and talk with the rest of the group about this. This was reacted to with a general consensus of shock.. but not for the reason he thought. Apparently, they were already aware of some of his alters, but thought he knew so that's why they didn't mention it. When learning of that, he's quite frankly more confused than the rest of his group. When questioned on how long it was like this, Party Poison explained he was always like that, even when they first found him.

Despite all of this, none of them really know the term for what he has, though Jet Star recalls hearing a condition that's similar to what's happening to him, but she can't put her tongue on what it was called.

For a few days after this reveal, Fun Ghoul was just in a constant state of shock. He didn't really talk to anyone and even if he did, it was very brief. He often stayed at their current shelter with The Girl as the others did supply runs and whatnot to just process what the hell happened, which everyone was understanding about.

While unaware of the trauma, Fun Ghoul feels intense fear and hatred whenever he sees the Director or even hears her mentioned, though he can't understand why. This fear also reaches to not only the pornodroids (to an extent anyway), but his own face. He often refuses to look in the mirror, because he's reminded of her, even if only faintly. (as he is the "child" of The Director, a clone, so he looks pretty similar to her)

Fun Ghoul gets nasty headaches, nearly got himself killed during a run in with the dracs because of them. In some of these headaches, he actively refuses to take off his mask, covers his ears tightly as he sits alone in a corner, pushing everyone away. The only person he occasionally allows to come close is Kobra Kid, very rarely The Girl.

and that's all I can think of rn lmao 💔 sorry if it's not really something you'd like, i know it isn't very much but I'm working on half a braincell give me a break (/dram)

[zevlors-tail]

Shinsou x Reader x Deku Zoo HC’s

Pairing: Poly ShinDeku x Reader/Shinsou x Reader x Izuku

Description: A day trip to the zoo with Reader!

Warnings: Established poly relationship, otherwise none. Maybe tooth rotting fluff.

A/N: First and foremost! Both boys and the Reader are in an established poly relationship, are Pro!Heroes, and are aged 21+. Bet y’all can’t guess where I went today lol. Today had hella Shinsou vibes, and of course I will forever love the green ball of sunshine that is Izuku Midoriya, so this happened. Enjoy!

A Day At The Zoo

-It’s so rare that the three of you ever end up with the same day off together, so most of the time you have to plan ahead if you want to have outings or adventures, the zoo included!

-It was Deku’s idea first. Well, not idea per se; he just suggested it in passing and you hopped on that train of thought so freaking fast! A whole day spent looking at cute animals with your cute boyfriends? Um, yes please!

-Shinsou had never been to the zoo before, so he didn’t really understand the hype at first. What exactly was the point in visiting animals other than cats? Especially when you can’t pet or hold them? But if it made you and Izuku happy, then who was he to say no?

-Izuku recommended a zoo that was a little bit farther away than your local one, but it had so much more than the typical barnyard animals at yours. He’d gone a few times himself for fundraisers and meetings but you and Shinsou had never been there before.

-So the three of you planned out a day in advance, took the day off from your respective places of work, and thus, the adventure began!

-You talked about it for weeks beforehand, right up until you were parked at the front gates. “Are you guys excited? Because I am SO excited! I’m gonna pet the goats, and the stingrays, and the sharks, and look at all the birds, and take so many pictures-!”

-The first thing you spot is the giant monarch butterfly chilling on the flowers outside of the front gates, so you already know it’s gonna be a good day. You already have your camera whipped out to take a pic.

-Izuku thinks it’s the cutest thing, and Shinsou is literally taking a picture of you taking a photo of the butterfly. The butterfly might be photogenic, but honestly, he thinks you’re the real work of art here.

-The three of you pay and no sooner than when the receipt was in Shinsou’s hand were you running off to the first exhibit, both boys trying to keep up with your pace so they didn’t lose you.

-The first exhibit had some arctic animals like polar bears and seals, which you watched for a while with a content smile on your face. The bears were up and playing around with a dented bucket and a huge rubber ball, and you got some really cool pictures of them. Izuku even managed to get a video of a seal gliding through their underwater tunnel.

-Once again Shinsou is taking pictures of you taking pictures of the animals, because he thinks it’s absolutely adorable. He has this little smirk on his face as he watches you from the camera lens. Although he has to admit, the polar bears are super cute. 

-You keep bouncing around from exhibit to exhibit. One moment the boys are watching the wolves with you, and the next, you’ve wandered over to the giraffes by yourself. Shinsou briefly wonders if they should invest in one of those backpacks with a leash for you.

-Eh, they can just use Izuku’s arms instead. At some point in the day, you’re not really sure when, Izuku just resulted in wrapping his arms around you and holding you while you’re looking at exhibits to keep you from running off. He likes to rest his chin on your head and listen to you gush about how cute the animals are.

-And when you’re walking from place to place, you can bet he’s immediately reaching for your hand to lace his fingers in yours. You end up in between him and Shinsou who also wants to hold hands with you.

-You point out all the animals, even the ones that aren’t a part of the zoo, and the boys think it’s endearing. “Awe, look at this dove over here in it’s nest! Isn’t it so cute!?”

-”Y/N, I don’t think-” He’s being good-natured about it and laughing because he finds it sweet, but Izuku can’t finish his sentence because Hitoshi is slapping a hand over his mouth.

-”Just let them be. It’s precious.”

-”Hello, Mr. Squirrel!” You probably name all of the local ducks and geese walking around, too.

-Eventually you guys make it to the aviary, and you start to explore all the bird exhibits.

-Shinsou, immediately: “It’s so loud in here.”

-Izuku seems to know little random bits of information on the birds, and really enjoys watching them fly around.

-”Shinsou,” you beg him, “can you take my picture next to this giant bird!?”

-He perks up a little after that. Also, he already took your picture. He’s super sneaky and really good at taking pics while you’re not looking. Some of the best photos he has of you and Izuku are candids he took without you knowing. Nothing terrible; they’re all literally still shots of your smiles, your eyes, or just of the two of you doing routine things. His whole camera roll is full of you and Izuku.

-After the birds, you come to the penguin exhibit.

-Penguins just so happen to be Izuku’s favorite animal at the zoo. He loves how they waddle around without a care in the world, and he thinks their black and white patterns are just so unique!

-Definitely embarrasses Shinsou by imitating the penguin walk. He’s a goofball with the two of you, you know he would! And you’re right there with him, following him around with your hands at your sides as you waddle behind him. 

-”I don’t know them,” Shinsou jokes with the people next to you. But he loves you both, you can tell by the way he’s smiling. He thinks it’s cute how the two of you act like this together...in a dorky way, but still.

-Finally, you guys get to the aquarium. The moment you step through the door, Shinsou is practically mesmerized by the fish. He’s never seen so many before; there’s so many colors and shapes and sizes...

-He feels peaceful while he’s watching them swim around.

-You like all the really weird fish. Izuku likes the tropical ones with all the crazy colors, and Shinsou...

-He loves the moon jellies. The second he stepped in front of that tank, he was gone. You and Izuku just watch him for a moment as he relaxes his shoulders and stares into purple tinted waters, totally serene and carefree.

-Izuku takes a 2 minute long video of him bc the moment is just so precious. RIP anyone else who wanted to look at the jellyfish today, bc Shinsou’s literally been there for like 10 minutes now

-Shinsou decides he really likes the zoo after that. Every other exhibit is much more enjoyable and he’s in such a better mood. Not that he was in a bad mood when he first got there, it’s just that he didn’t see the point in all of it at first. 

-Izuku also spends a while looking at the sea turtles, which happen to be his second favorite animal.

-You guys spent the most amount of time in the aquarium no thanks to Hitoshi, but you did manage to make it to the museum before it closed for the afternoon as well.

-Izu reads all the plaques out loud to the two of you and tells you all about the animals and displays. Some of them are interactive, and you can’t help yourself from pressing every single button and listening to the noises and information it gives you.

-There’s a section in the museum where you can pet stingrays. You had never done something like that before, and neither had the boys, so the three of you decided to give it a go.

-It was so soft.

-Stingrays feel like wet velvet, almost. 

-Izuku decides he’s done so he just ends up taking pictures of you and Shinsou. But soon you’re done too so you grab Hitoshi to leave, however-

-You and Izuku are walking away and suddenly: “Uh, Y/N? Wasn’t Shinsou with you?” “No, I thought he was with you?” “Where’s our boyfriend!?”

-You turn back around and he’s still there petting the stingrays. He’s SO fascinated, please don’t make him leave. He’s having the time of his life! It melts both of your rapidly beating hearts (you know, from the mini heart attack you had bc your other third was missing for a second).

-You both let him stay there for however long he wants, and when he reluctantly leaves (finally), you make your way to the giant gift shop at the end of the zoo.

-You guys buy so much stuff it’s not even funny. Partly because as Pros, you have the money to spend, and partly because you want to support the zoo so you can come back. They always appreciate business and donations.

-Speaking of donations, Izuku whips out his checkbook and makes a huge donation to a cause for sea turtles. The zoo is super thankful and you couldn’t be more proud. 

-You’re sure that if there was fund for jellyfish, Shinsou would be donating too.

-You all end up buying each other a plush of your fav animals; Izu gets a penguin, Shinsou gets a jellyfish, and you get your favorite animal too.

-You may or may not have bought a shirt as well... It has the zoo’s museum name on it along with some really cute animals.

-All in all a really great day! 

Bonus Content:

-Shinsou wants to book another trip as soon as you all are back home. He loves the zoo now and he wants to go, like, all of the time.

-You and Izu have caught him watching jellyfish videos on youtube on more than one occasion. He finds them relaxing and can’t wait to go see the real thing again.

[papabirdurskeks]

I ask this both for Baron Dark, Ariandel and SkekSo !

Give me a character and I will answer: @ben-the-hyena

Oh boy a triple feature! :D Here we go, folks!

Under a read more cause its going to get long but each listed character will be split apart evenly!

First up is Baron Dark!

Why I like them: He is just bombastic in personality! He lives loud in his actions and words, participating in most of the action himself while also showing he is a threat and menacing altogether! I also like that he is one of the few villains that shows he cares for his crew as a “family” (at least for most part of the series before being overtaken with obsession to have power more on his own). Given the dynamic we are given from the show, its obvious he cares and treats them all on a level of respect as well, something so rare to see nowadays! And I also enjoyed that his reasons to take over and do the shit he did in the series, “Because I can!” is just as refreshing and fun to see in a villain too!  And again, his design is a top tier design I love overall! Its menacing, powerful, and outright amazing! Definitely adds to the character and how well he works in effect to keeping my attention! Like just look at that design! And his VA did a wonderful job of adding to that charm that is just delightful to see in his personality! Overall, he is totally a villain I would love to see more of in the future!

Why I don’t: I say my dislikes often fall on the usual tropes of a kid’s show of the 90s. He talks too much when he could be doing things himself and falls victim to the typical “I am too powerful” but doesn’t think of the obvious steps ahead that will be his downfall. But honestly, its so small I don’t find it jarring or that bad to be in the way! It was the 90s and aimed at kids at the time, so we can’t expect TOO much out of that xD

Favorite episode (scene if movie): Oh man, that’s a tough one cause every scene/episode Baron is in he totally slays it! Its either a tie from the first episode to the very last one cause the stakes of start and finish are so well done, I love it all! 

Favorite season/movie: Obviously, the TV series is the best version of him! The comics sucked and turned him too OOC from what was initially given! Like how does one go from point A to be Z so freaking fast? xD

Favorite line: “Because I can.” Yeah, not gonna lie this was indeed my favorite line of his xD

Favorite outfit: Honestly, the outfit he gains near the end of the series is by far my favorite! Its like a mix of the Bejeweled Catacomb Saints and Mictlantechutli put in one and its befitting of the Baron given his gain in power! 

OTP: Baron and Cyborn are my OTP and are married, fight me. 

Brotp: Definitely Brotps with the rest of his henchmen though I see them more being like his adoptive children! 

Head Canon: Baron is of indigenous background! I also like to headcanon that the white tuft/strands in his hair are truly his and have been there since birth!  (I have so many more HCs for him but I will keep it short cause it can go all day x’) )

Unpopular opinion: Don’t think I have one, at the moment at least. 

A wish: To have gotten more information/lore on him and the entire cast, honestly! I would have loved to see more of his character explored and what more he could have had to offer as a series main villain! Hell, the whole damn series had so much to offer! And just the relationships he has with the others and what more he could have done post season and before! So much potential there to be explored! I honestly would not be objecting to a reboot/revival or continuation of the series! 

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: Though with that said, if a reboot does come around, don’t turn it into the mess of current cartoons we have. Not that they are all bad but most of them have been very disappointing in keeping my attention and liking. Keep the same type of messages it had before! It worked beautifully as it did then and still does work now! I’d love to see the same formulas used while also updating it to be more gritty and mature like they did for Castlevania! Just... Don’t turn it into a cringe worthy mess that will ruin Baron and all the characters in the series! Don’t do what the comics did! 

5 words to best describe them: Charmingly evil, badass, fun, conniving bastard, and menacing. 

My nickname for them: Mega dork (affectionately speaking)

Next is Ariandel!

Why I like them: Oh boy, there is a lot to say in terms of why I like him but I will try to keep it short and simple for time purposes!  His design is top tier for me! Like a rotting skull like face? Check! A monstrous body much like a bird’s? Check! And to add he is a giant Corvian, which are one of my favorite enemies in Dark Souls III!  His personality also differs from the usual loud, bombastic, and proud characters I tend to gravitate for. Instead, he’s withdrawn and rather sad to look at and hear. You know he’s going through a lot but don’t know exactly what it is. In game, one can sort of get hints as to what has gone on behind the scenes but at the same time, its still vague and hard to really pinpoint what really did happen. So he has that air of mystery to him that I honestly adore in many characters as it leaves room to explore deeper into their lore! But I also find his personality relatable as well as sympathetic.  But that’s just me, I can gush about him all day but I will cut it short here x’)

Why I don’t: To be honest I don't have any reason not to like Ariandel other then the small fact that he followed Friede and let the Painted World rot in such a terrible state. But that is so minor of an issue to me to really make a difference, lol. I adore this giant bird man!

Favorite episode (scene if movie): I have to say the scene where he ultimately snaps and breaks out of binds after seeing Friede's lifeless body before him is my favorite scene of his. The amount of pain and anguish heard in his scream and the way he moves prior and after; I can very much relate to that feeling. Sometimes, actions truly convey the emotions better in the most powerful means necessary. And this scene alone truly nailed it.

Favorite season/movie: He's only ever seen in the Dark Souls III DLC, so obvious answer points to the DLC!

Favorite line: "When the Ashes are two, a flame alighteth. Thou'rt Ash, and fire befits thee, of course..."

Favorite outfit: Uhh, he doesn't really wear any clothes save for his cape? So I guess the cape does him well as he is, though I always draw him without it xD

OTP: To be honest, I don't ship him with any canon characters within Dark Souls. Friede does not deserve him..

Brotp: Ariandel being best friends with the Ashen One is my ultimate Brotp! Just think of how much of a valuable ally he could have been!

Head Canon: I know his origins are debatable, as either theory I have for him can be plausible but I often lean more towards the idea of him being half Giant and half Corvian! IDK why but I just like it a lot more x’)

Unpopular opinion: While Ariandel is partly responsible for what happened to the Painted World, I still feel he was manipulated overall and probably at one point did have a change of heart before being forced into complete isolation. He plays more the role of the willing/unwilling accomplice then the actual perpetrator of the crime.  

A wish: He could have had a happier ending without having to die for Friede. I know, its Dark Souls. Such a thing is expected to happen in the Soulsborne series but its a wish, right? 

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: That anything beyond the infatuation he had for Friede took place. Just.. No. He loved her but never could ever have her in that sense and never did. Just no, she is horrible to him. 

5 words to best describe them: Sad, lonely, birdman, withdrawn, and tragic

My nickname for them: Papa bird

And lastly for skekSo!

Why I like them: I think its as obvious as the case for Baron Dark. I like evil, smug bastards that shine through their wickedness and don't usually hold back. In the case of skekSo, I actually didn't care for him at first but then after my second viewing of the show, I started to like him more and enjoy his villainy! He's selfish, arrogant, vain, and conniving and I love it! Added that his design is really appealing to the eye and how he carries himself out, I gotta say he's one of the few villain characters from a show that makes the turn around for me to like them instead of hate them more. Also, his voice. Can NOT go wrong with that voice cause DAMN, its good and shows just how powerful a villain can be with a voice like his. And those eyes. Oh man, those eyes!

Why I don’t: Despite his villainy being the main point that caught my attention, its also a part of his downfall too. His constant greed and arrogance pushed him too far into doing what he did and ultimately cost him everything in the end; including loyal allies that end up dying for him in the long run. I hate how easily and quickly he changes his mind when actual logic is put into perspective of his plans and how quick he is to dismiss someone else when they don't please him anymore or things don't go his way for the smallest things. And yes, that is part of his character, I know that. That is what makes him as scummy as he is and why I love how trashy he is. But I also can't ignore just how easily he pushed skekVar away and believed skekSil despite knowing just what a lying bastard he is. IDK, it just feels too obvious but at the same time, it is what it is and I am not upset about it in the least x)

Favorite episode (scene if movie): Honestly, I enjoyed all the scenes with him in the show but mostly in particular with his interactions with skekVar, especially towards the end of the series. It showed a peak part of his vulnerability in his character that honestly I doubt he ever shows to anyone else. He spends most of his time pushing others around and making them fear him but with skekVar there is a sort of mutual respect going that really speaks out in a different way. Maybe I am just reading too much into it, but I always did enjoy how they interacted with one another!

Favorite season/movie: Well, skekSo didn't get much screen time in the movie other then him dying and turning to dust so.... Definitely enjoyed him more in the show then the film xD

Favorite line: "NOOOOO!" (Yes, this scene is still very infamous to me for personal reasons but the way he carried out his "no's" cracked me up each time xD)

Favorite outfit: Honestly, the main outfit he wore throughout the show. It's just so regal and goth, I love it! And as a goth and fashion enthusiast myself, I am all up for the style he has! The battle armor he wore near the end made it a tad more laughable to be honest.

OTP: I started shipping him with skekVar but ended up with an OT3 of skekVar and skekZok. So now all three of them live in a happy relationship with each other in my noodle~

Brotp: I see him being on neutral terms with skekMal! 

Head Canon: I feel that even in the show it wasn’t seen or given, but he did feel a lot of remorse and regret after the loss of skekVar. He seemed very close with him and spoke with skekVar with more trust then he did the others. Perhaps in secret he did mourn the General’s loss. 

Unpopular opinion: Does this count as an unpopular opinion? I know most people see him with just a few strands of hair but I tend to see him with a head full of long flowing white locks he keeps hidden beneath his clothes. It adds to the extra layer of vanity for a proud Emperor such as he! He looses it over time the darkening consumes him and withers down his health. 

A wish: To see what he was like as an urSkek prior to being split up into a Skeksis and urRu. Yeah, I know people don't care or like the urSkeks all that much but honestly, I would LOVE to see more urSkek lore and see what it was that made SoSu so special among his peers. It was said, after all, he had a voice that could move the stars but was conflicted and consumed with darkness. Honestly, I want to know why and who he was prior to all of this mess! SkekSo even says in the show he still has nightmares of the life before so I wonder, what they were and how it was! So much potential here, man!

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: I don’t think I have any of these to be honest? At least with skekSo. Not that I can think of on top of my head now. 

5 words to best describe them: Proud, absolute piece of shit, pretty, conniving, and menacing. 

My nickname for them: Stupid idiot

[mysticalmusicwhispers]

APH College AU: China

Oh hey look I’m doing the Asians now? Perhaps! AU intro here, highly suggested you read for context of why China is out of college.

Also, I know chefs aren’t supposed to be a waiter/see customers and cook at the same time, but too bad. He likes interacting with people personally and is good at knowing when to go back into the kitchens to make sure the food doesn’t burn.

- Owner and head chef of a small Chinese restaurant called Upside Down Luck (*any suggestions for other names are cool!*). He’s thinking about expanding pretty soon, since business is good and very consistent and a second restaurant would probably be as successful as the first. - 50% of business is college students, so he knows most of them. Most have come to his place at least once, and some, such as America, are regulars. - He's really good at memorizing faces and names, and can usually recognize people from the college. They get treated with either “Welcome back! How’s school? I heard there was a small fire in the labs!” or “You, again? *sigh* Same as last time?” - Also relating to that, he never lets students get more than two bottles of alcohol, especially late at night, and has never fell for a fake ID (partly thanks to his siblings telling him who’s a sophomore, freshman, etc). A true mom. - Knows all the school gossip also because his siblings, especially Taiwan and Japan, but South Korea also lets things slip because he forgets China doesn’t know; at dinner or something he’ll be like “Remember how ___?” And China whips around, very surprised and says “What??” with a raised eyebrow and a look that says s p i l l   t h e   t e a   s i s - He always complains about making his food too “Americanized” (?) but honestly it’s more Authentic Chinese style than most people - DESPISES Panda Express and their orange chicken. CHN: “Why is this sweet????” HK: “Chill, that’s just American Chinese food. Anyways, it’s okay tasty.” “No.” “What do you mean, ‘no’?”

- A whiz at budgeting and bargaining; always stays on top of his finances and sometimes manages his siblings’ finances as well when he’s really pissed at them for being lazy/not responsible with their money. A lot of the restaurant’s success is due to his cunning and money managing. - When he’s cooking or frustrated or hot, his ponytail goes up into a sort of bun. He’s not too happy with how it looks on him, but it’s just more convenient that way, either because regulations/sanitary purposes or to get his neck cooler. - He gives his siblings 20-30% off on restaurant stuff most of the time, but it varies a little with mood. Most other students have been jealous at some point or another, but the other side of the deal is that they can’t call Yao “mother” or “grandma” or “grandpa” in any form. They still do it though, and then he’s like “No privileges for you!1!2!1!!” - Also, the restaurant layout is super fengshui, because Yao is superstitious as heck, but also because it’s actually useful for interior design. Like it’s all perfectly aligned, windows face north-south (to get fresh air and sunlight), the door doesn’t have clutter around it, etc. It honestly looks a bit minimalist but also traditional at the same time. During the Lunar New Year he puts up menshen (门神) on the door and couplets on the sides of it, and he always has a small Metteyya (弥勒佛) statue/idol/thingy in the back of the restaurant for money and luck. - Laughs internally at people failing at using chopsticks. (He provides knives and forks and spoons of course, but there are always the handful who keep trying chopsticks). I think he’s the type to just... casually watch you struggle in vain and won’t do anything to help. Of course, if you’re a friend, then he’ll definitely try to teach you, but he doesn’t mind having a laugh at most of his customers. I think South Korea, Hong Kong, and perhaps Vietnam (Japan, Taiwan and Macau would be too kind to laugh and chopsticks aren’t widely used in other Asian countries) would stand and watch as well, taking out their phones and recording any particularly hilarious attempts. - He doesn’t live right above the restaurant, but has an apartment 3 blocks over. It’s not small, but not too big either, so when his siblings come over it gets kinda crowded. South Korea and Hong Kong are always telling him to move out and get a larger place, but China just kinda refuses out of sentimentality. “I like this place too much to leave it!” - Wakes up at 7 AM every morning and walks around the neighborhood and sometimes goes to the college to visit India. He likes routine, and considers it a really refreshing part of his morning. - I haven’t decided a lot of the other ancient’s lives yet, but China and the others would definitely get together for chats once in a while. All of them just happened to stick around close by after college and they’d talk about work and college gossip. College gossip is provided by China and India, but they all know a bit since their siblings are still there. - He majored in business and took a whole lot of outside culinary arts classes in college, and also happened to take a bunch of other random classes just for the heck of it. So now he’s educated on things like human behavior and what people would do in a zombie apocalypse + why they react that way, garbage and sustainability, and medieval studies + folklore through Game of Thrones. He considered taking a tree climbing course but didn’t, just because he didn’t want to waste time relearning how to climb trees with ropes. - Corollary to that, he probably has the weirdest fun facts because of all this miscellaneous info he’s collected. “Did you know there’s immortal cancer cells?” “I don’t want to know, Yao.” (Above fact is true but the story of the cells is really sad (and twisted and makes me kinda angry). They’re called HeLa, after Henrietta Lacks.) - His dorm room was probably on the neater side. However, it wasn’t too meticulously organized, and sorta like a thrown together hodgepodge of themes/aesthetics. Not that pretty to look at but it did its job well for him; he never really lost things in his room. - Loved math assignments (even though he grumbled) and bs-ed English, didn’t do too well in it. I think he’d honestly be ok with a B+, and his grades would’ve ranged from 87s to As depending on subject, with possibly one C+ where he just didn’t really apply himself. But he still applies the Asian Parent Standard to his siblings (but isn’t too strict about it most times. Just when he feels they’re really consistently not doing their best when they could be aceing a class). - He loved history though, and took a lot of courses about it that he didn’t need to graduate. This is also how he met India. - I feel like Yao would have a lot of lifehacks, both for managing college work, job lifehacks and things he uses in the restaurant daily, and tricks for outdoor work ex. farm work. Like if you put him outdoors in a rural area and told him to grow crops and raise chickens, he’d totally be okay with it, and would probably be able to do it well. This is in contrast to his siblings, who are more of city (?) kids. - Of course, he’s proficient with tech stuff and office work, but isn’t as good at it as Japan or HK. - Has a 3/4 heat tolerance and a 5/10 cold tolerance. He warms up by cooking (hot stove) or drinking warm water or tea. - Proud, a bit overly critical of people and nagging. He often gets tiny bursts of anger/intense annoyance at small things, and it makes him scary sometimes. (I hc it’s like this; someone does something slightly off/wrong and he kinda has a mini explosion, but it doesn’t affect his overall mood and he’ll still be pretty cheery to you after the incident is corrected.) - Again, his anger isn’t really full blown anger, but more a bunch of small annoyed explosions. It’s rare he gets mad, but if so, it’s usually a long tirade and lecture with lots of hand motions and shouting. It’s sorta scary since he doesn’t often get like that, so it’s serious when he does. - Relationships with some of his siblings are strained a little. They’re like a sorta mismatched family with lots of squabbles and petty disagreements, especially about who can order the others around. - Honestly a people person, he could ramble on and on for days about his life. Some people find him tiring, but he’s a good mixer with strangers. Casual friends with a lot of people, especially those who appreciate sarcasm and can snark right back at him.

Thanks for reading! I didn’t want to include too much about China’s college days but ended up writing more than I intended. Also, the “random college courses” I mentioned are all real classes, obviously not from the same university, but they exist (pretty cool!!) Next up will probably be SK or HK (I have more ideas for them than some of the others). Feedback is welcome and appreciated!

[serendipitous-magic]

god, don't remind me of the lack of fantasy aus in the fandom. i am suck a sucker for those (especially prince/stable boy AUs) and they have so much potential for byler but like... why is no one talking about them or writing them? ajshajsjahs since you're loaded with other works already, i only want to ask if you have specific ideas you'd generally want to see?

Weeellll.

I do have one idea that’s been sitting in the back of my mind for a while, actually. (And I’m halfway through typing this and it’s getting longer than I expected, so buckle up.)

It’s a fantasy AU (set in a Renaissance-esque world) wherein most people can use magic, and where “light magic vs dark magic” is the LGBT analogy. So, the majority of magic-users are “light magic” users, and by comparison only a small percentage are “dark magic” users, but there’s so much fear-mongering and misinformation and prejudice against dark magic that a) if you are a dark magic user, you’re likely to hide it away completely (be “in the closet”), and b) as a consequence, everyone else thinks that “dark magic users” are these incredibly rare, scary, malicious ~monsters~ that must be vigilantly protected against. There are all these (completely false, ridiculous) rumors about how if a dark magic user touches you, your light magic will get “infected” somehow and turn dark too, or how dark magic users use human blood in rituals (they don’t), or how dark magic is a perversion of light magic (it’s not, it’s just a different type of magic), etc. (And little do they know that some people can use both types of magic (the analogy for bi/pan people), and there’s like a whole spectrum of magic-wielding and it’s not binary like their society thinks, and etc. etc. you get it.)

Oh and one more worldbuilding detail: little kids might occasionally use magic by accident or instinct, but (somewhat like the Harry Potter world), you don’t really start to manifest your actual magical power until you’re like 13-16 - at which point it’ll start to manifest itself as “light” or “dark” or both or something in between, etc. (But they only think it’s gonna be light or dark, binary.) And obviously, everyone is expected to manifest light magic. Like, manifesting dark magic isn’t even considered as an option of something that might happen. (Like straight people being considered “the default” in our world.) Which makes it doubly likely for kids who manifest dark magic to panic and hide it away and do their very best to pretend they manifested light magic, because they know if they’re discovered they’ll be shunned or even thrown out of the kingdom.

AND NOW THAT I’VE DONE THAT INCREDIBLY LONG-WINDED BACKGROUND EXPLANATION, on to the byeler.

SO. The Party is the Party, in the kingdom of Hawkins or Hawk’s Landing or whatever it is. Will’s family is a little bit poorer, probably working-class, Mike’s family may be upper-class merchants or something, you get the idea. They’ve been best friends since they were little, they hang out a lot - maybe Joyce works as a maid or servant or something in the castle, and Mike’s parents are low-ranking nobles in court, so Mike and Will end up spending most of their time together through proximity even though they’re from slightly different social classes. IDK okay, I haven’t sussed out the details. Point being, they’re bffs, they’re in love but may not realize it yet and definitely haven’t admitted it, they’re like eeehhh 14 or 15 or something, right at the age where their magic should be manifesting any day now.

Bonus points if: Will, like his mother, works around the castle for a living, and he’s like a stable boy or something, and Mike is the noble’s son who’s kind of fed up with his parents’ snobbish lives.

And then, you guessed it - Will’s powers manifest. And it’s dark magic. And Will absolutely panics, because not only (see everything above), but his best friend is a light magic user - or so Will thinks. Little known to everyone, probably including Mike, Mike can use both light and dark magic (or if you wanna HC Mike as gay instead of bi, maybe Mike is a dark magic user in the closet, who knows). 

Cue some complication wherein Will is desperately trying to hide his magic for a while, and then somehow Mike ends up discovering it, and Will is convinced that Mike is gonna hate him for it - I don’t need to explain this all to you, you know how it goes. It’s the classic in-love-with-your-best-friend-but-in-the-closet-and-then-they-find-out story. We’ve seen it a thousand times, we love it, it’s prime byeler material, but THIS time not only is it gay but it’s Fantasy and there’s magic and swords and castles and all that, because YAY FANTASY AU.

-_-_-_-

ANYwho, apart from that, I would also love love love:

-prince/servant AU (somewhat like the elmax au aesthetic I made a while back but byeler)

-OR alternatively the “you’re a prince and I’m your bodyguard and we’re not supposed to get into a relationship with each other but we kind of did oops” AU

-The one where the Party is an actual party of adventurers

-darkcleric!Will (possibly at least partly under the control of the Mind Flayer) / paladin!Mike (who may start out as enemies because they’re on opposite sides of the Mind Flayer battle thing until Mike realizes Will is being controlled by the MF)

-Literally any kind of soulmate AU but in a fantasy world (actually, just any kind of soulmate AU - I love me some soulmate AUs)

-Ooohhh OOOHHH how about combining royal and soulmate AUs, actually, for: “I’m just a commoner but it turns out I’m your soulmate and you’re a noble/royal and it’s kind of a big scandal but now I guess I’m getting swept off to live in the castle with you???”

-Arranged marriage royal/noble AU perhaps? Esp good if there’s the good old-fashioned misunderstanding plot device wherein byeler is dating but maybe they both think that the other is just a commoner because they met when they snuck out of their respective castles/mansions to escape their lives for a while, and they’re actually arranged to be married to each other but don’t know it, and they’re both equally vehement that they’re not going to love their arranged partner and they’re not going to go through with the marriage until finally they actually officially meet and... uh... well hi there Will, my bf, or should I say, Will-who-I-never-knew-was-actually-William-the-First, Heir-to-my-rival-kingdom-and-my-betrothed. 

... 

Look can you tell that I just really like fantasy AUs and this fandom never ever does them?  😂

[crazynekochan]

Hospital AU! Kazuichi is signed into the hospital because of (condition of your choice) and he meets Gundam who is (either a doctor or patient, you choose). After some hostility, Kaz breaks down at the idea of going back home to his dad (who's even more pissed with how much he has to pay for his son's medication) and Gundam comforts him. This is the start of their relationship but what could you add to it?

This is going to be fun, considering that I work inside of a hospital and thus often spend my time daydreaming about Kazuichi and Gundham being inside of one

So now I’m going to spam a bit now x)

I would go with Kazuichi being a patient who ended up in hospital due to a working accident inside of the family’s bike workshop, that is partly his dad’s fault. Let’s say due to it Kaz needs minor surgery on his leg, rendering him immobile and of course unable to work for a while even after he gets out of the hospital

Gundham however is a nurse who has to take care of Kazuichi

Kazuichi’s stay at the hospital would be a train wreak of awkwardness and he will never for his life understand how he ended up with Gundham’s number when he was allowed to leave

Now imagine all the possibilities

Gundham comes in for the first time and like a good nurse, introduces himself to his patient. At least he tries to, because he is new, he is very shy and Kazuichi nearly chocked on his drink the moment he saw the breathtaking nurse and spilled everything onto himself. Good first impression

Later on when Gundham takes Kazuichi’s vitals and checks his pulse and heart rate, he is quite confused why it suddenly started getting higher and faster, while Kazuichi is having the most biggest gay panic ever because now that he was up close he was able to see just how fit and well trained the other is

Right after the surgery Kazuichi would be still a bit dazed from the anaesthetic and just start happily babbling just how handsome and cute Gundham is and that they should go on a date sometime, leaving Gundham extremely flustered and his colleague Sonia just giggles in the background. Within minutes the whole ward ships them

Kazuichi would suffer even more in heaven and hell at the same time, because he can’t really move on his own due to his injuries. Meaning to get out of bed into his wheelchair he needs Gundham to more or less lift him. Thus Kazuichi can always enjoy the sensation of being carried in Gundham’s strong arms

However Kazuichi also struggles with things like getting changed and washing himself. Meaning he does need help with these things. Gundham would try to be professional about it and ignore how cute the other is, while Kazuichi is so highly awkward at having a way too hot looking guy, having to undress him and more or less touch him while he is completely undressed. No matter how aware he is that this isn’t weird at all but totally normal, tell it his very embarrassed and gay brain. His mouth should also maybe need to get the message, because it’s not the best time to very awkwardly and badly flirt with the guy who is currently busy with washing you

Now this is the point that leads to the drama

(This is based of my hc that Gundham’s dad was a piece of shit to his mum before she left him and took Gundham, which also involved a few times where his dad hit his mum) While either helping Kazuichi wash himself or getting changed, he notices that some of the wounds and injuries the other has can’t be from he accident at the workshop. The position and how they look like just doesn’t fit at all, and Gundham has to think about how his mother sometimes looked like when he was a young child. This leads to him having suspicions about something being wrong

When he first meets Kazuichi’s father he is able to notice the very faint scent of alcohol on him, however since he doesn’t seem to be drunk he has to let him through. However he does notice that the father only stays as long as it took him to find out when Kazuichi can work again, which led the man in an obvious sour mood, while Kaz himself was very tense and looked almost like a child who was caught doing something naughty and knew they would be in trouble now. However he doesn’t say anything yet, because Kazuichi quickly changed the topic completely

Over Kazuichi’s recovery his father very rarely visited and it seemed more like something mandatory, and every time this very faint scent of alcohol followed him. But aside from these Kazuichi was always in a good mood when he got to talk to Gundham, even if he still is extremely awkward about it. Not that Gundham is any better mind that. Like literally everyone is aware about how attracted they are to each other, including Kazuichi’s friends that visit him every day and decided to find out more about Gundham

Everything is fine and nice the whole time and Kazuichi and Gundham get quite close. At least as close as a nurse can get with his patient, that is. However when one day the doctor comes out Kaz’s room with a smile after telling him that his leg was fine and he was good to go on the next day and should be able to work again in 2 weeks or so of resting

Let’s say Gundham has night shift that day and when he hears about Kaz being able to leave the next day he is a bit bummed out. He really likes Kaz, but he is too shy to really do anything and as soon as Kaz leaves he might never see him again. Though Sonia keeps on insisting that he should give Kaz his numberDuring his night shift Gundham ever so often checks up on the patients as he should and while passing Kazuichi’s room in the completely silent ward he is able to pick up the very faint sound of crying and what seems to be hyperventilating. He of course would quickly go into the room and check what has happened, which is where he finds Kazuichi sitting in bed, crying and shivering while being in the middle of a panic attack. Gundham would go to him immediately and check up on him and try to find out what is wrong, while Kazuichi just clings onto him and begs him to not let him go back home, because his dad would kill him for missing out on work for even longer than he already did and also when he sees the bill for the medications

This would of course be the conformation for Gundham that Kazuichi was indeed being abused by his father. He would stay with him and calm him, while trying to figure out an effective solution for this problem, mainly where Kaz can stay while Sonia’s girlfriend Kyoko (who is still a detective in this AU) investigates the case of child/domestic abuse

In the end they would of course be able to help Kaz, no questions there, and Kazuichi just smile with glee at having Gundham’s number and being able to ask him out and date him

(This is more than I expected

But as I said, I spend a lot of time daydreaming about them in hospital AUs. I have a few more scenarios with them in a hospital, like Gundham being the patient and Kaz the nurse or both being doctors in training/nurses, but it’s getting late here and I need to work tomorrow. So I’m off for now ♥)

[smollandtoll]

HC: Weatherman AU

In a universe in which Sid owns a bakery and does a lot of the baking, his life is made up of very early mornings (gotta get that dough in the oven and things!) and he gets in the habit of watching the evening weather forecast religiously as he gets ready for bed so he’s prepared for the morning in advance. It’s nice to know if it’s going to be raining when he’s heading out of the door at 4:30 in the morning, or if he’s going to need to kick up the air conditioning at noon so the whole kitchen isn’t an oven by mid-afternoon.

When the new weatherman shows up with a range of impeccable coats and massive umbrellas held in even more massive hands he’s, shall we say, even more invested. Geno is tall and smart and built, and has a friendly but occasionally teasing persona that is only accentuated by his charming russian accent while he banters with the evening news anchors. He seems to love weather with a passion, he’s excited to report on snow while dressed in a parka on a street corner, or wearing short sleeves on sunny mornings, or cooing at dogs and children in raincoats splashing in parks on rainy days. He looks adorable in toques, and hot as fire in sunglasses. 

There was even one day when he was in skates, delivering the weather report for the upcoming winter classic right from the rink, skating smoothly backwards away from the camera and clearly having the time of his life.

Sid watches mesmerized whenever Geno’s in the studio and pointing out where the cold fronts are coming in across the country. Motioning with lazy, elegant fingers to where pockets of rain may develop, holding the clicker casually in his hand, shifting his weight from leg to leg, making his hips sway and drawing Sid’s attention to his impossible backside in his finely tailored dress pants when he turns to point.

The bio beside his smiling headshot on the news station website says he likes to cloud gaze, take long runs with his dog, get caught in the rain, play hockey, and sleep in.

Sid thinks he might be perfect.

Sid: He's like a beautiful russian weather-reporting Clark Kent...

Flower: What are you even talking about?

So basically Sid’s “celebrity crush” is definitely their local evening weatherman and it’s like the best known thing in his circle of friends because it’s infinite chirping material. But Sid definitely only thinks of him as a celebrity, as untouchable as the rest of the elite with their blue check marks beside their usernames.

That’s why when Geno comes stumbling into the bakery one late morning, sweaty from a run Sid doesn’t know what to do at all so he just STARES GOBSMACKED. Geno is SO TALL, AND HIS FLUSH IS SO ATTRACTIVE. Sid’s never seen him look truly human before with stubble and sweat when usually he’s coming through a TV screen made up and hairsprayed. Now he’s surveying their display cases wearing a backwards ball cap and an underarmor shirt with gym shorts and sneakers and Sid thinks he might be having a stroke.

"You have bagels?" Geno is looking at Sid like he’s a little dumb maybe, but in a kind way? He has kind eyes. Sid abruptly snaps back into the present and realizes he’s been standing there staring with his tray in his hand for too long and Geno may have asked him the question about bagels more than once.

"Oh. Of course, yes. " He shows Geno to the end display where the bagels live, ready to be cut and filled with whatever cream cheese you wanted.

And Geno does want, he orders an everything bagel with french onion cream cheese and Sid prepares it and hands it over with as much efficiency as possible, sliding into “baking robot” mode as Flower likes to call it.

Geno is still paying when he takes his first bite and moans appreciatively. Sid focuses on his register and tries to ignore the flush he feels through his face and ears, likely making him ferociously pink.

“You big weather fan?” Geno asks with a smirk, like he knows exactly what’s happening here and Sid shrugs, not wanting to say it’s not exactly the forecast that keeps him coming back. Geno just licks some cream cheese from the corner of his mouth obscenely and smiles knowingly at Sid as he backs out of the bakery.

And then Geno becomes like a regular and Sid dies a little. He stops by the bakery most days after his late morning run looking for breakfast. Usually it’s something hearty like a bagel or a cheese twist but occasionally his eyes sparkle and he goes for a fruit pastry and eats it right there in front of Sid. The flaky pastries breaking into small chunks that stick to his fingers, tormenting Sid as he sucks them clean.

Geno is not put together at all when he's not on the news, Sid learns. He’s got thinning hair a little bit, and he forgets non-weather-related words maybe too often, his accent thicker when it’s not being professionally polished into practised 5-minute soundbites. Sometimes on weekends he seems to roll out of bed and straight into the shop without the run first and shows up with soft sleepy eyes, pillow-creased and messy-haired.

And for some reason he seems to have taken a shine to Sid, possibly partly because Sid, while no longer quite so nervous with him, shows him obvious preferential treatment. He even started including one of their homemade dog cookies into Geno’s morning order once he realized that Geno was leaving his massive pooch outside with water while he came into the bakery.

Basically Sid’s crush can maybe be seen from space, it’s embarrassing and he can’t stop at all. Sid doesn’t know how to do anything without doing it 200%. One summer as a teenager he decided to start making his own bread and now here he is, almost fifteen years later, owning his own moderately successful bakery.

In any case maybe all the awkward involuntary flirting was the point, because Sid is once again completely at a loss when Geno leans against the display case one morning (despite Sid telling him every time he does that he has to clean marks off of it), pillows his chin on his forearms and asks Sid on a date.

“Just say yes Sid. Not hard question.” Geno looks at him so fondly. Sid tries to fight his smile but just ends up swaying closer to the display case and grinning wider.

“Yes?” Geno asks him reaching over to dust a bit of flour off Sid’s cheek.

“For sure. Any time.”

Unfortunately any time is more like never because Geno soon realizes their schedules don’t match up even a little bit. Sid goes to bed while Geno is still at work in the evening. And Geno is asleep when Sid starts to work. Geno still comes in after morning runs but the bakery is busy and Sid can rarely spend much time with him. There’s a shaky window in the afternoon where they both don’t technically have obligations but Sid usually spends that time running errands and Geno usually uses it for research and prep for the evening. The days that Sid has off - Sundays and Mondays are ideal, but other previous obligations for their time keep them apart even then. Geno has friends in town, Sid has a visit home planned in advance, it seems like it never works out.

Geno’s so frustrated after a month of trying to sort their schedules out, that he marches in one morning and heads straight to the back of the counter and ambushes Sid right there, taking his face in gentle hands and kissing him soundly.

“Afraid we never go on date.” he’d say mournfully, sweeping the pads of his thumbs over the arches of Sid’s cheeks.

“We’ll sync up eventually.” Sid has faith, and indeed they do manage to have a bLISSFUL date together, what ends up being a picnic in the park with frisbee and Geno’s dog bouncing chaotically between them on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

In the meantime they text, and Geno’s visits to the bakery become stretched and ridiculous, loitering around watching Sid fetch people muffins and loaves of sourdough through obvious and shameless heart eyes.

It probably really bothers Geno a lot more than Sid. Sid is okay with a quiet love, with seeing Geno on his TV and feeling comforted by his (now) weird news voice. So it definitely comes as a surprise one day as Sid’s brushing his teeth with the news playing that he hears a familiar voice saying he’s no longer going to be working the evening news slot.

“We’ll be so sad to see you go!”

“Hate mornings, but must do!”

His fellow anchors rib him a bit more about moving to the morning news slot while Sid sits heavily on the end of his bed, toothbrush hanging forgotten from his lips.

“Must do for love! My boyfriend is very talented baker. I never get to see him because our schedules are not compatible.” Geno says it so casually, like he hasn’t just completely upended his life for Sid, and then didn’t even tell him.

The segment ends and slides seamlessly into some prime time comedy, Sid finishes brushing his teeth and when he plugs his phone in as he tucks himself in he finds a text waiting for him.

>> You watch tonight?

<< I can’t believe you did that. Don’t you hate mornings more than anything?

>> Move to mornings for you. Hate mornings, yes, less than I love you though. Worth it.

So Geno goes about completely flipping his schedule over and hates his life for a good long while, but it allows them to wake up at the same time and be together in the afternoons

He consoles himself with the thought that now every day he gets to see Sid lever himself out of bed naked and go through his meticulous morning routine. They get to curl up together in puddles of afternoon light, and go grocery shopping when there are no lines, take the dog to the park, and have ridiculous early dinners before anyone else is even at the restaurants.

And of course he'd forever hold it over Sid's head that he did this for him for LOVE and at least a dozen "I'm not getting out of bed for anything less than a BJ." BJs.

BUT THEY ARE SO HAPPY, EVEN WHEN IT RAINS.

PHOTO SOURCE (because we can’t see the original)

[giancarlonicoli]

Submitted by Eric Zuesse, originally posted at Strategic Culture

The medical journal, The Lancet, is one of the world’s Big Three scientific journals of medicine; that’s the triumvirate of authorities for physicians worldwide, and the other two are the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the New England Journal of Medicine. On August 27th The Lancet published “Measuring universal health coverage based on an index of effective coverage of health services in 204 countries and territories”. Here is the visual that’s in it, which shows the United States as having, by far, the world’s costliest medical care, at around $9,000 per person per year, and yet as having lower quality of health care than virtually all other industrialized nations do:

Here is another such study, showing the same thing, and calculating it more simply:

What explains this?

Quite simply, the United States is the world’s most corrupt nation, and medical care is such an extreme necessity when a citizen needs it, so that they’ll pay whatever the system charges them for it — and investing in healthcare products and services is therefore enormously profitable in the United States. Actually, the only other market-sector that competes with it for providing simultaneously high returns and low risk (the combination that offers the best of both worlds to investors) is consumer staples, such as foods, which likewise are necessities of life. When people are desperate, they’ll pay, whatever the cost, because these are things they don’t just want — they need. Here, from Maksim Papenkov’s award-winning 6 February 2020 paper, “An Empirical Asset Pricing Model Accommodating the Sector-Heterogeneity of Risk”, is his sector-specific calculation of stock-market profitability during 2000-2018, showing that “HC” Health Care, and “CS” Consumer Staples, were the best at combining low risk with high returns, during that 19-year period:

(“CD” there is Consumer Discretionary and includes Automobiles and Hotels. It’s the only sector that has higher returns than Health Care, but those returns are twice as risky. The S&P500 have lower returns than Health Care and slightly higher riskiness. At the opposite end, “IT” Information Technology is both the riskiest and the least profitable; and “F” Financials are the second-worst sector for investors. The most-profitable sectors are the necessities, the sectors that take the most from the most-desperate.)

In May 2017, Axene Health Partners published their actuary, Chris Slaybaugh’s, study, “International Healthcare Systems: The US Versus the World”, which stated:

The United States is the only industrialized country in the world that does not have Universal Health Coverage for all citizens. … Rather than one system, United States citizens and residents are insured under a variety of sometimes overlapping systems. The United States is also the only developed country where a significant number of citizens are permitted to be uninsured and where a person’s employment can determine whether they have insurance and what insurance they have. … The extent to which medical bills contribute to bankruptcy is hard to tease out from other factors, but even those who are skeptical of the claim that medical costs cause the majority of bankruptcies concede that they are a significant contributor.13

In the rest of the developed world, by contrast, medical costs are rarely or never cited as a driver behind personal bankruptcy.

In fact, CNBC headlined on 11 February 2019, “This is the real reason most Americans file for bankruptcy” and reported that,

Two-thirds of people who file for bankruptcy cite medical issues as a key contributor to their financial downfall.

While the high cost of health care has historically been a trigger for bankruptcy filings, the research shows that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act [“Obamacare”] has not improved things.

What most people do not realize, according to one researcher, is that their health insurance may not be enough to protect them.

While Barack Obama was running for President in 2008, he was promising to provide Americans with a “public option” in order to reduce profits for health insurance companies and thus lower costs, but he dropped that proposal immediately when he won the 2008 election, and he never pushed for it (not even to use as a bargaining chip with the Republicans in shaping his Obamacare). (In fact, Obama chose the conservative head of the Senate Finance Committee, Democratic Senator Max Baucus, to draft his Obamacare, because Baucus was against there being a public option, and because the progressive Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy’s Health, Education & Labor Committee had just drafted an Obamacare with a public option — Obama refused to have Kennedy draft his healthcare legislation. Obama was actually against there being a public option; only his public rhetoric was for it. Joe Biden is apparently now following the same tactic, of lying promises to the public, and true promises to his billionaire backers, to win the White House.) Obama promised the public “universal coverage”, which means 100% of the population covered, like in all other advanced economies, and his Obamacare increased the percentage insured from 84.5% when he came into office in 2009, to 87.7% two years after Obamacare started in 2013 — around 3%, by 2015 (which was after two years). That was still far short of the promised 100%. He was lying through his teeth in order to win election, and the ‘news’-media still hide (instead of expose) the fact that he did, and that he was actually an agent of the billionaires. He’s now the big hero among Democrats, because maybe Trump is even worse. Trump is up-front about his fascism. And Trump’s opponent now is another hypocrite (after Obama), Obama’s V.P., Joe Biden, who was the U.S. Senate’s leading Democratic Party segregationist and won his nomination by claiming to have been instead a civil-rights champion. Everything in U.S. politics is bait-and-switch. That’s the reality in America’s ‘democracy’: a bait-and-switch ‘democracy’, which serves actually only the wealthiest few. The politicians who are elected serve only the wealthy and well-connected.

America is the most libertarian, or “neo-liberal,” of the advanced industrial nations, and this is why it has the world’s most overpriced medical care. It provides the most liberty for the billionaires.

One of the few extremely bold Americans who rose high in the U.S. healthcare system and tried to tell the public how intensely corrupt it is, has been Marcia Angell, M.D, who held numerous prestigious posts in the U.S. medical system, and she was for a while the Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine. On 15 January 2009, Dr. Angell headlined “Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption”, and wrote:

Conflicts of interest pervade medicine. … It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine. … So many reforms would be necessary to restore integrity to clinical research and medical practice that they cannot be summarized briefly. Many would involve congressional legislation and changes in the FDA, including its drug approval process. But there is clearly also a need for the medical profession to wean itself from industry money almost entirely. … Breaking the dependence of the medical profession on the pharmaceutical industry will take more than appointing committees and other gestures. It will take a sharp break from an extremely lucrative pattern of behavior. But if the medical profession does not put an end to this corruption voluntarily, it will lose the confidence of the public. …

She had said, nine years earlier:

If we had set out to design the worst system that we could imagine, we couldn’t have imagined one as bad as we have. … Our health care system is based on the premise that health care is a commodity like VCRs or computers and that it should be distributed according to the ability to pay. … That market ideology is what has made the health care system so dreadful, so bad at what it does. … That is a fundamental mistake in the way this country, and only this country, looks at health care. … The only way to both reduce cost and increase access and quality is to change the system, to scrap it and start over. … I would pay for health care in a single payer system, and what goes into that pot can vary. In Germany, employers have to contribute to that pot. I don’t think that’s a good idea. I would rather see it come straight out of tax revenues.

Experts who are that public-spirited and knowledgeable about the system should be appointed by U.S. Presidents to lead the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services, but the billionaires prevent that (of course).

On June 27th, NPR headlined “After Pushing Lies, Former Cigna Executive Praises Canada’s Health Care System”, and interviewed a retired PR executive for America’s health insurance companies, who said that maybe the work that he had done smearing Canada’s socialized health insurance — “to spread misinformation about Canada or use cherry-picked data and anecdotes” so as to deceive Americans to accept America’s existing medical system — was partly to blame for America’s having performed significantly worse than Canada had done on the coronavirus crisis. (As of 29 August 2020, Canada had 3,378 cases per million and was the 76th worst out of 215 countries, whereas U.S. had 18,522 cases per million and was the 9th-worst. On deaths, Canada was the 27th-worst at 241, whereas U.S. was the 11th-worst at 564.)

America’s billionaires derive the vast majority of their net worth from stocks (capital gains and dividends), and from interest that’s paid to them; and, since nothing does this for them better than healthcare investments, the current for-profit system in health care is terrific for them; and these few hundred people, billionaires, extract this wealth from the hundreds of millions of Americans, the general public, and want to continue doing so, and they consequently finance politicians such as Joe Biden and Donald Trump (and their predecessors, such as Bush and Clinton), and they also set up ‘charitable’ foundations, and donate to medical schools, so as to inculcate this libertarian belief, not just into the public, but especially into the students and professors, who receive that trickle-down from them, as employees and future employees. While many in academe are against it, they’re not the ones who get advanced to the prestigious and high-paid positions. “He that pays the piper calls the tune.” It’s top-down (aristocracy), and it only pretends to be bottom-up (democracy). And, so, the corruption continues, and Americans die younger, and poorer, because of this aristocratically controlled system. It’s the American way. It’s the American system. Of corruption. Americans call it “capitalism.”

Of course, another area in which the U.S. Government is extraordinarily corrupt is its Military-Industrial Complex; and, on August 28th, a former top official of the NSA, Bill Binney, provided, online, an in-depth description of what he personally knows about that. His personal knowledge is enormous concerning within the Government itself, but not outside it — i.e., not regarding the corporations and billionaires who control the economic rewards system that the top public officials, who typically are agents of the “Deep State” (the billionaires), are serving. However, what he says there is informative and highly reliable regarding the way that the Government’s bureaucracy itself functions, and he is extraordinarily honest about the intense corruption within the official Government. He makes clear that the U.S. Constitution is being systematically and routinely violated by top U.S. officials; so, the U.S. Government routinely violates the U.S. Constitution, in this ‘democracy’, where the system functions like clockwork, for the billionaires.

[asgardian-light]

Random HC #13 (Continuation of #4 - #12)

Thoughts?!

His breathing shouldn’t be this shallow and uneven. And the way he frowns with each low groan, hints at the fact that he still is in pain. But what unsettles Sportacus the most are Robbie’s last words, shortly before he fell asleep again. ‘I’m scared.’ It’s so unlike the villain to admit this openly. Sure, the hero has seen the other in multiple situations, in which he was scared…not to say terrified. And most of these times, it was up to him to save him then. But this now is…different. This time, Robbie isn’t falling down or has got stuck somewhere, and none of his plans or inventions has gone wrong and backfired at him. And he isn’t screaming. This time, he hasn’t done anything wrong. This time, he has been entirely confused when he called for the hero. And now he’s…sick. And he’s neither screaming nor complaining the way he would, if he felt just…bad in any way. He admitted in a, very likely more subconscious whisper that he is scared. And he hasn’t been complaining anymore about Sportacus touching him, since he brought him here, either. He even seems to be hardly aware of what is going on around him at times. Sportacus sighs lowly. He’s concerned beyond limits for his friend. ‘Friend’… At this thought, another sigh escapes him. He knows that Robbie sees himself differently. And that’s why he still can’t understand that the hero actually cares and is highly worried about his wellbeing. Especially at the moment… Another heartbreaking whimper, coming from the bed, startles Sportacus and, as always, he quickly spins around to look at Robbie and make sure he isn’t waking up or…worse… But once again, he isn’t. He just winces again and frowns even more. Sportacus feels a short, sharp stab in his heart and swallows hard. He HATES seeing Robbie like this! It’s one of the worst feelings, he has ever experienced! And yet…he somehow is at least slightly relieved, that Robbie broke down when he was present. He doesn’t dare to imagine this happening in his lair with absolutely no one around to help him… Sportacus weakly shakes his head. For helping Robbie, he has to focus! No matter how hard it is… He takes a deep breath in and closes his eyes for a moment, to recall what he learned about the basics of (human) biology and medicine at his school. Then he finally stops his restless pacing in front of the end of the bed and walks (!) over to one of the closets in the wall of his airship. He pushes the button and the door opens silently. The hero’s eyes roam the many different supplies for a moment. He rarely uses them. In fact… He never did for other purpose than mere exercise and tests… And he really hoped, he would never have to change this… He calms himself. It’s not the right time to get lost in thoughts! Besides, right now, he luckily still doesn’t need any of the…heavy medical devices. Right now, he only has to take care that Robbie’s temperature doesn’t rise even more. He takes out the ear thermometer and with slight hesitation, the stethoscope, as well. Then he returns to the bed and carefully checks his patient’s temperature. Robbie flinches away a little with a low whimper, when the coldness of the device brushes against the heated skin of his ear and Sportacus quickly uses his free hand to keep his head still, with gently caressing his warm cheek again, murmuring low words of comfort, although his own uneasiness is steadily growing, getting an extra boost when he checks the display of the thermometer, although he really shouldn’t be this surprised about the proof that Robbie is actually running a pretty high fever. But for some reason, he though feels some kind of shock and… Desperation? Concern? Fear? Probably all of it. But he can’t allow himself to loose his head now because of this. Not if he wants to help Robbie. And that’s exactly, what he WILL do now! With a determined gaze, he puts the thermometer aside and flips to another closet. After taking out all of the pillows and blankets, he owns, he carries them over to his bed. Extremely carefully, so he won’t wake the still whimpering but sleeping man, he arranges the pillows, and very gently turns Robbie on his back, so he is now a little propped up by them, as well. Reacting on his shivering, the hero also wraps him up in several blankets, until the trembling actually fades to a minimum. Satisfied, with how cozy Robbie’s new, temporary sleeping place is looking now, Sportacus then turns, to get a damp cloth and carefully put it on the villain’s hot forehead. Once more, Robbie winces and whimpers lowly, but then he relaxes a little and, probably also due to his changed position, starts breathing a little more evenly. Sportacus is relieved to see that his actions have eased the other’s distress a little, but he still isn’t entirely sure yet, whether Robbie’s discomfort actually is caused ‘just’ by overexertion, lack of sleep and food, and possibly even dehydration, or if there’s more to this. Maybe…something worse? Something more dangerous?… But either way, he has to help him. And right now, there’s not much to do than keep watch, exchange the rag on his forehead then and now and…maybe comfort him with his presents. Because no matter what Robbie may claim, Sportacus did notice that the villain is more relaxed and at ease, when he’s, for example, holding in his arms, after he had to rescue him again. Each time he does, he can sense Robbie’s muscles relax the tiniest bit. Although…this somehow appears to be controversial, because the other usually flinches and winces back when anybody, including Sportacus, does so much as to get a little too close or touch him when he isn’t prepared for it… He sighs lowly. Robbie is difficult to understand and read, yes. But Sportacus wishes for nothing more than to be able to help him. With everything. He was so happy when he got Robbie’s letter this early morning and when the other man later agreed to talk with him. But when he collapsed… Sportacus’ train of thought gets disturbed by a low, weak, but painful cry, coming from the bed. “Robbie!” The villain is tossing and turning weakly but still screaming, obviously terrified. “Robbie, it’s all right!” without thinking about it, Sportacus sits down on the bed again, pulling the trashing man into a firm hug, with his back pressed flush against the hero’s chest, and he murmurs over and over again “Shush, shush…” Minutes pass, until Robbie’s feverish muttering and crying finally stop slowly, just as his weak attempts to twist his body out of the embrace, and all that remains is a soft whimpering. Then his eyes crack open a bit and he looks up and into Sportacus’ concerned face, his voice strained, barely above a whisper, and audibly pained “…Sportacus…” “Shush. Easy, Robbie. It was just a nightmare. I’m here. You’re safe now,” the heros gently runs a hand through the sweat wet, confused hair and forces a soothing smile “You are going to be okay. Don’t worry.” “…Please…don’t…leave me…alone…” rasps Robbie weakly, before he closes his eyes again, with another, low groan, and turns his head a little to nuzzle his hot cheek closer against the hero’s throat. Sportacus freezes for a moment, unable to do or reply anything at the feeling of Robbie falling limp in his arms again now, relaxing into the hero’s tight embrace. But then, he whispers lowly “I won’t. I promise.” He keeps caressing Robbie’s cheek with one hand, then and now, brushing over his forehead to check on his fever, while his other holds him close to his chest. Then, a low beeping sounds up, reminding him, that it’s 08:08 and time for bed. “…Yes, I know…” he breathes in very carefully to not disturb Robbie’s finally peaceful sleep and very slowly eases himself further down, into a lying position, with Robbie now resting partly on his chest, partly on the pillows, surrounding them. Then he manages to cover both of them with one of the blankets, before sighing lowly, with slight relief once more “…I know…”

[adhd-ahamilton]

Joy To The World, 1, 4 and 5!

Hoo boy, so many questions!!! I hope you’re prepared for the deluge that’s gonna result...~ I’ll answer these tonight and finish the ones in the other messages tomorrow morning!

1. What inspired you to write the fic this way?

So. Over the last five or so years I’ve been writing fic, in all but the second year, I’ve written a special Christmas-related fic for Christmas. (And I did two the first year, so.) Christmas is a really important holiday to me and I really love Christmas-related stuff (the cheesier and sillier the better), so it became kind of a tradition. But this year, I was at a little bit of a loss. I knew I wanted to write Lams, because that’s my big thing right now. But how would I write Christmas Lams? Did they even properly ‘celebrate’ Christmas during that time period?? Or should I just go for an AU?

I researched it, and thankfully it turns out that the 18th century is around when people did start to celebrate Christmas in the modern sense (and it’s also when carols really started to come about, which is great because per tradition all my Christmas fic are titled after a carol), but that was just the beginning of the issue. When exactly would it be set? Valley Forge? But, uh... I highly doubted they would be really doing all that much at that point. But I couldn’t really think of any time outside of Lams AU that they’d be together. (And then I found out afterwards that Ham wasn’t even there for Christmas 1777, so, welp.) And I really couldn’t think of any kind of actual plot. I could have done a kind of meditation on their relationships to religion, but I didn’t know that much about which specific form of Christianity they belonged to, and I thought it was something that could be and HAD been done much better by other people. (Plus that’s not really my fave kind of fic to write to begin with.)

So, it wasn’t really working out that well. But still, I really kept trying. Through November, my working plan became almost set in stone: I’d do a combined historical and modern AU fic, switching back and forth between scenes, comparing themes (supply lists in VF compared with finding money for food over Christmas break in modern AU), sorta casually looking at the differences. When I gave it up, it was partly out of lack of interest in the themes, but my conscious reason was ‘I just don’t really care about modern AU Lams.’

...which came to the crux of the problem all along: I’m not really an AU person. Or rather, I’m very not an AU person. I’ve written very few AUs in my time, and almost all of them were historical AUs - certainly not modern day ones, and definitely not school AUs. I don’t have any, like, moral opposition - I can fully appreciate the transformative potential of full-setting AUs and find very interesting the interdependent communities that develop around AU-heavy fandoms as they essentially create their own accepted canons - but I just...don’t tend to like them. I’m very analytical!! The idea of just...MAKING UP not just one character or setting but basically a whole story just always seemed simultaneously too easy and too hard to me!!! Plus, I like to write really interesting and unusual things and try new styles, and one of the most basic points of interests for me in writing is asking what makes these characters and relationships unique, based on their precise personalities and backstories and combinations of traits. None of that lends well to full-setting AUs.

But. As I was mulling this terrible problem over, as usual, I was also running over in my head all kinds of various different characterisation ideas. This time, I was thinking about how it was interesting that Hamilton always seemed to be written in opposition to Henry Laurens, when IRL it seems they had a pretty decent acquaintanceship. And I was thinking about it, and I really started to think that, actually, someone in Hamilton’s point of view - who was constantly abandoned by his father, and desperate for his attention, and incredibly ambitious despite the circumstances of his birth - would be one of the WORST people to understand that an overly-controlling, overly-interested father who expects extremely highly of his son could be a negative influence. Which also added to another thought I’d been having. I always liked one quote from Chernow, that Laurens must have seen in Hamilton what a man who makes himself can do, and it always made me think that Hamilton must have been the same way - that he must have seen in Laurens the man he had always aimed to be. So, Laurens grew up in a good family, acknowledged and promoted by said family, with plenty of money and a great deal of opportunity. To Hamilton... yeah, it’d definitely be hard for him to see the problems with that. (And, you know, there IS a lot of privilege there!! It’s just, y’know, that mental illness doesn’t always listen to that.) But, those thoughts were kinda moot, because I really couldn’t think of any way to contrast these different experiences with fathers in historical verse.

And that’s when it came to me. What if I did a modern AU where Hamilton came down to visit the Laurens family for Christmas?

I didn’t have the time (or, really, the interest) to develop a full-on world for everyone, and a uni AU just seemed to be the most appropriate for this one, anyway. And it also did have a bit of appeal: it always kinda bugged me that in the AUs I read, Hamilton and Laurens never seemed to be studying law, even though that’s historically what they did do. As a law grad, I figured I might as well be the one to write it. (Though law in Australia is p different from in the US - there’s no separate law school, we just study it straight out of high school like anything else - but whatever.) And once I was doing THAT, it was hard for me to escape the fact that, in the real world, studying law hadn’t...exactly always been the best experience for me. Given that Laurens didn’t really want to study it either, it seemed appropriate to lean on those experiences a bit.

Aaand that’s where we really get to the meat of the inspiration behind it, heh. Which is to say: this is possibly the most autobiographical thing I’ve ever written...? I’ll say outright that a lot of it WAS entirely invented - my relationship with my family is nothing like John’s was in this, at all. But my anxieties over studying, and my worries about the future and what a career in law would lead to... yeah, that came from me haha. Because, to get kind of personal about it... well, I graduated July 2015. And in the time since then, I have been employed for about 2.5? months, total. The job scene here, in general and especially for law grads, is just that bad. (And, uh, there was a fair bit of personal fault in my lack of preparation for after I’d graduate? But, seriously, I was really anxious already...) And ever since then - particularly 2016 to the present - I’ve also had a lot of anxiety and depression and stuff going on. At the time I wrote the fic, it was in a position of leaning worse rather than better. So...I honestly don’t know if there was ever, like, a dispassionate fic in there safely cordoned off from my own projections, but if there was, it didn’t last long.

So, I got the idea, and wrote it all up pretty quickly in early December, just kinda ridin’ that catharsis of getting all that stuff out. (And it turned out to be even more relevant than I thought, as ‘trying to enjoy Christmas like you usually do when you’re really not happy’ also ended up a very autobiographical theme.) And that’s how it happened!

As for one or two other things:

I really really didn’t wanna get too into politics in the fic lmao. I don’t feel comfortable with more than the broadest strokes of Hamilton’s beliefs (I’m gonna GET THERE but Im still well rev-verse in Chernow) and I always feel uncomfortable about portraying historical figure in any better light than they deserve when it comes to specific matters. But I also wanted to have Laurens and Hamilton at least as POC because I also think it’s important to increase racial diversity in fanfic in the rare cases that we really get a clear choice. So, I tried to kinda portray that without really getting detailed about any activist stuff or whatever. Which is why in Ham’s argument with Henry he’s really not siding with anyone, he’s just an economics wonk who gets mad when people on both sides of the political aisle don’t make sure their numbers add up, lol. That was my best compromise. (And Philly kinda nudged me when I still got too far off-course;; haha!)

Hamilton has ADHD because: again, I wanted to actually officially write up neurodivergent characters into fic when I had the option of being specific (my Ham is always neurodivergent but obv I can’t explicitly write that into the text of historical verse), and it’s ADHD because......well, I could write a really long thing about that alone lmfao. And I feel like I kind of should in some ways because I know that a lot of people aren’t rly familiar with how ADHD tends to actually, like, feel, for real-life people, and if you aren’t then I KNOW this must sound like a really arbitrary or misguided HC. And I’d really love to write it up and expand education and all, but. It’s also something that hits really close and personal for me and, as someone who can be anxious for days straight over opening entirely innocuous tumblr messages... I just DK I could do it, atm;;;;; Someday I will though, I hope!!! (Tho I will say that I’m totally for all neurodivergent Ham HCs and that honestly my Classic Ham is also influenced by BD and BPD things so I’m p flexible about it.) (Actually I guess I CAN say that my HCs for Ham all involve disorders with extreme moods and mood swings and stuff and ADHD in its lesser known symptoms can absolutely include that, esp with Rejection-Sensitive Dysphoria, so yeah. That’s basically the large part of my reason for that headcanon right there lol.)

4. What's your favorite line of dialogue? 

HM OH MAN, I’m not sure!!! Lemme skim it again real quick.

In terms of sheer characterisation efficiency, I always liked the idea of Henry Laurens’ introductory sentence being to complain about John not calling often enough. It’s just such a perfect combination of a) genuinely cares about his son and wants to hear from him, and b) is an asshole who has no idea whatsoever of the pressure he’s putting on his son without offering any concurrent praise or reassurance. 

...so yeah I think I’ll leave it at that actually, since this thing is long enough already lol.

5. What part was hardest to write?

I was sitting here trying hard to remember if I really had trouble writing any part of the draft because there was one bit where I stalled briefly but it wasn’t really that bad and I couldn’t even really remember it and apart from that it was super smooth...until I remembered that editing counts as writing. And hoo fucking boy.

I was lucky enough to be able to have my fic beta-ed by Philly! Which I’m super grateful for and the fic is undoubtedly better for it! But it was a really difficult process for me because of my anxiety. And I needed to do it rather quickly, because of course I had to have it finished before Christmas, and my family actually was going away for Christmas where we wouldn’t have internet access.

So I get through almost all of the fic. It’s finally almost done. And then right at the end there’s a bit where Alex and John quickly exchange gifts on Christmas morning. Super short scene. And Philly pointed out that, actually, wouldn’t the rest of the family be taken-aback at them exchanging gifts without them?

And I kind of read that and sat back and. that was right. That was 100% correct. So like. What do I do??? Do I involve the other characters? But the original scene was like, three lines. and I don’t wanna have to write a whole new scene lmao. Do I take it out? But in a earlier scene, I’d had John express a worry that the present he’d gotten for Alex was awful and he really regretted it, and I kinda liked that in this final scene we see that actually he’d just forgotten WHY he’d bought it (he’d remembered Alex saying something about it), and I thought that was a nice thing about how anxiety can really fuck with even your memory and stuff bc in the end there genuinely was no reason to worry. It wasn’t necessary to the fic, but it only came about in the writing - I’m pretty sure the outline was just like ‘and then they exchange gifts or somethign??? IDK’ - and I didn’t want to get rid of it again. But then how do I justify them exchanging gifts alone??? 

And so that’s how I ended up just sitting there mournfully or pacing back and forth like p LEASE just SAVE ME, just GIVE ME AN OPTION, I have a HOLIDAY TO PACK FOR and THINGS TO DO and I just want this damn fic to be EDITED and DONE ALREADY. I came up with soo many possibilities, none of which satisfied me,lmao. and eventually after wayyyyyy too long of trying to figure it out I settled on something that seemed mostly plausible and then just. wrote it in and skimmed the rest of the fic and posted it lmao.

Which, honestly, is pretty typical proceedings. I tend to have the general ideas come pretty easily to me, and the actual writing is normally pretty smooth - it’s usually the editing where I start rocking back and forth and cursing myself for ever trying to write :’) (Luckily, at that point I’m close enough to the end that I can usually force it through...!!)