#yeah I'll put this in there bc I'm talking about how buggy he is lmao

[shaiappreciation]

Any headcanos for the butterfly boy? 😩

YES YES YES

Normally I would wait until all my thoughts were together before I answered this, but I know I'll continually have things to add, so I'm putting down a batch of thoughts I've had for a while and might periodically reblog this with more if they come to me!

- Cold blooded! He's got some very prominent insect traits and I think it would be funny for him to have it; he needs to be warm to be fully functional, and layers on clothes if it's too cold. He wakes up with the sunrise to bask in the light, opening his wings as soon as he's warm enough to do so and taking in as much heat as he can to wake up. Conversely, when he sleeps/rests, he doesn't use any blankets bc the cold makes him sleepy. STRUGGLES in cooler weather, gets noticeably lethargic and struggles to actually open his wings, in which the other guards try to let him take it easy since he's got no control over it.

- In addition to being cold-blooded, I think he's also got a more insect-oriented diet as well; butterflies and ants can only consume liquids, and by extent, I think Pouf would struggle with solid food. He can definitely still eat it, but it gives him massive stomach problems and it's just so much easier to completely puree everything he eats. Butterflies also have to supplement salt into their diets (in a behavior called "puddling" - they usually drink from puddles, but can also drink from tears, blood, and carrion), so I think he just dumps an insane amount of salt into his food sometimes. He canonically is a carnivore, but I saw someone else hc that he'd get into fruit bc of his bug traits and I love that idea a lot as well. Beautiful fruit smoothie but half of it is salt, just how he likes it.

- I've said it so many times and refuse to stop, he's neurodivergent, specifically ADHD/autistic. He's got noticeable difficulty interacting with the other ants, tends to stick with the same conversational topics, is exceptionally smart from an academic standpoint but flounders in social interactions, struggles with conceptualizing that the other ants won't automatically think the same way he does, has clear emotional dysregulation, adheres himself to a set of stringent personal rules, struggles greatly with change, has specialized interests he demonstrates high competence in, the list really goes on. I think it could be argued that he demonstrates mild hyperactivity in the way he's in near-constant motion, between his wings, the way he tends to talk with his hands, and his full body gestures and stances, but that one's a little more tenuous.

- His antennae work! He can pick up on pheromone cues and odorless chemicals in the air, and they produce full body reactions. Sometimes his anxiety spikes out of nowhere and he has to decide if it's just a scent or if he needs to take immediate action (it's mostly just scents). His antennae will also move, mostly unconsciously and on reflex. They're mostly small twitches, but occasionally more noticeable and large motions if he's actively picking up a pheromone. They're very sensitive to touch - poking one is the pain equivalent to poking him in the eye. The right touch, however, can be quite nice - the same way a person might massage their temples during a headache, he'll move his hands around the base of his antennae to much the same calming effect.

- More bug traits, his skin is reinforced with chitin like insect exoskeletons are. He got slapped across the face by Meruem's tail so hard that he was thrown across the room, but only sustained a bruise and some light bleeding (vs how Meruem was able to decapitate a human with no effort). Some of this can be chalked up to royal guard strength, but I like to imagine he's got a little something extra in there as well. The reinforcement of his skin stops around his hands - he wouldn't be able to use his violin otherwise.

- More biology thoughts, I think part of what makes him in particular so physically strong is because he's got insect traits in such a large body. That stat that goes something like "ants can lift up to 10x their own body weight"? Pouf is the size of a human, 10x his body weight is a hell of a lot more than an insect would be able to carry; succinctly describes why he's able to punch and kick boulders out of the air with no problem, in spite of being as thin as he is.

- He's capable of sleeping, but sleeps very lightly. A pin dropping can be enough to wake him up, and he wakes very quickly. He, of course, frames this as a good thing, something that lets him immediately mobilize if he's needed, but as a consequence, he doesn't sleep very much. Resting, of course, but actually sleeping? It can be a challenge.

- He's a big fan of classic lit, but you know those trashy romance novels? The ones that are a dime a dozen, very cheap, the same style of vaguely erotic photoshop on the covers? He loves them but manages to keep them pretty well hidden. It's the same plot over and over, but the emotions and sensuality draw him in. He did forget to put one away at one point and when the other guards found it, they never let him live it down