#does it matter that i kinda headcanon them to be slightly toxic? no no it does not thanks for asking | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kurogxrix · 1 year

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ATWOW characters as parents HEADCANONS ;

- neteyam, lo’ak, norm, kiri, ao’nung, rotxo, + tsu’tey

[ All characters aged!up for plot purposes! ]

Lo’ak

Where to even start.

Pray for that baby’s safety cause damn it’s boutta get wild.

He brings your children on his Ikran every time he gets the opportunity to.

Lo’ak loves to show off and showing off to your children is not an exception.

Does cartwheels in the air while your children are with him.

That earns him a good scolding and probably some ear pulling with it too.

Reassures his children that they’re enough. we love him 4 that.

Goes to Neytiri and Jake for advice sometimes.

Once he made you really upset and borderline doubting yourself as a mother after he had said something and he has never hated himself more in that moment.

He went to ask Neytiri how to make things better.

Asked your kids to help him do something to make you feel better.

You lowkey only forgave him cause your children were in the plan and you didn’t wanna disappoint them.

After that he made sure to hold you tightly at night and reminds you how much of an incredible mother you are everyday.

He’s so smitten for his family it’s insane.

The kind of dad that will put his children up on his shoulders and he spins them around.

It’s all happy and joyful until they’re both dizzy and he ends up with puke all over him. That’s what he gets for spinning a toddler over his head.

The type of dad to furrow his eyebrows at your kids when they don’t finish their food (your son literally told you to add more food to his bowl after you warned him that it was a lot).

Neteyam

The chill parent.

He will scold your children when they disobey but i dont see him as the yelling type.

When he gets really angry then he’s a real scary father. But other than that your children all adore him.

loves being his kid’s ‘hero’.

Like when they get their limbs stuck in the fabric of the tents and he goes to unlatch them.

A stressed and tired dad i can just tell.

Makes toys for his children himself because he wants them to be special.

He prolly makes dinner but the kids don’t like it (L for him)

You take up the cooking after his miserably failed attempts at making food. He’s slightly jealous when he watches your kid’s delighted faces at you cooking.

Stays so close to them when you all go swimming at the lake.

Like the water could be at waist level for them and he’d still accompany them.

Lets his children paint on his warrior body paint and he’s lowkey regretting afterwards.

You cant help but make fun of him and your children join in too.

Jokingly sulks after y’all laughed at him.

So now you all owe him a shit ton of kisses.

‘I’m doing this for your own good’ kind of dad, in the least toxic way possible.

Norm

Cutest thing would be you being a na’vi from the omaticaya falling in love with him despite being an avatar.

Lets say his avatar is still alive and well.

It’s kinda hard for him to maintain his family life and head of the avatar program life at the same time.

He pushes through for y’all though.

He cuddles with you and your children in your family tent at night while he wakes up in his human form to take care of himself and the program.

His kids and Jake and Neytiri’s kids are besties.

Takes his children to the lab with him to show them his research.

Loves the way they’re so enamored about his research until they start touching everything.

Has to restrict them at some point.

He can’t get himself to yell at them.

The type of dad to put his children on his shoulder when they can’t see something amongst the crowd.

He’s such a good dad.

He has the dad drip full on. We’re talking a large shirt with cargo shorts and sandals. In his avatar form or human form it doesn’t matter, he’s always rocking the dad drip.

Passes his awkwardness to his kids but you find it endearing.

You love how shy he was when he met you, and you love that you can see that in your children.

He would’ve never expected that he would’ve been here, mated with children but damn Eywa really has plans for everyone.

Brings your kids something back everytime he goes on an exploration.

He shows them the godly privilege of netflix. Doesn’t tell them that it’s on child mode because he fears rebellious teenagers help.

Doesn’t wanna taint them with some human internet bullshit so he never tells them about the web lmao.

Kiri

She’s so cute honestly.

The both of you chose to adopt an metkayina baby that has lost her parents.

You want to teach your daughter in the future that it’s okay to be different, and even if the both of you are look different to her then you’ll always love her.

She amazes your child with her pandora jesus powers.

You’re badass cause I said so and you teach your daughter to stick up for herself.

You’d probably beef with your child’s bullies and Kiri will scold you for acting so brashly.

Will bring your daughter on a walk in the forest every evening.

Kiri relishes in your sweet daughter’s loud laughter when she attracts wild animals to her.

Ao’nung

HES A MENACE BYE.

He’ll be the type of dad to pull lightly on his children’s tails and then look away as they wonder who did it.

you fear letting them too long with their dads cuz you’re scared that they’re gonna turn out as little bullies like he was.

but it’s their dad so you can’t really keep them away. should’ve just chosen a better mate bae🙁

The type of dad that will hold their baby upside down by the foot while they’re literally screeching in joy.

He’s kinda harsh on olo’eyktan training once your son gets older.

You however take your sweet time while teaching you daughter the ways of Tsahik.

sometimes you gotta remind Ao’nung to calm down lmao.

He doesn’t want his son to hate him or his duties so he eventually does and instead tries and make training sessions more like a fun bonding time between the both men.

He makes dad jokes you cant tell me otherwise.

PROTECTIVE DAD!!!

Every teen in the clan is scared to approach your children (romantically) because of Ao’nung’s wrath.

When one boy finally got the guts to ask your daughter out and she said yes, he was finna flip his shit fr.

You had to PHYSICALLY hold him down as you watched your daughter leave on a date with the man.

He knows that he shouldn’t actually hold his children back from having a romantic life, so instead he chooses to tease them about it.

‘Saw that boy giving you googly eyes yesterday, heard from some rumors that he happens to be dating the olo’eyktan’s daughter?’

‘heard you sneaking out the marui last night son, you really should work on your sneakiness.”

The type of dad that WILL swear at your children but like fondly? like;

Your son and him are playing fight in your marui at night when he has the amazing idea to tickle his father.

‘Oh you little bitch, it’s on,”

Then he gets scolded by you and potentially his ear pulled as you do so but oh well it was worth it.

Brags to his spirit brother about his children.

doesn’t wanna admit but he secretly loves it when you all just cuddle up to him during cool nights. Then pretends to be annoyed by im later in the morning.

You all know he’s capping.

Rotxo

sweetest dad in all of awa’atlu.

The metkayina woman are probably jealous of your baby daddy I ain’t even gon’ lie to you.

He loves burping your child for some reason.

I headcanon him as someone that has grown up with only girls. Like full on just sisters and their mother so when his first child is born a son he can’t help but be ecstatic at the newborn male company.

He physically cannot scold your children so you have to do it yourself.

Makes you look like the bad cop.

He spoils your children a little too much.

Like they wanna try akula meat? damn just wait a min for him to call up his skimwing-

Your children have a fav parent and it’s clearly him.

They still love you though.

Rotxo’s always here to remind you how much he’s grateful for the family that you gave him.

Brings his children to meet his spirit brother as soon as they can enter the water with you.

bonus: Tsu’tey

He lowkey has beef with his baby.

will have staring battles with it.

They both fight to see who can get more affection from you but we all know the cute baby is gonna win.

Hes deadass gonna sulk i aint even lying.

He’s not the ‘awww ur so cute’ kind of father but the ‘you’re not ugly’ kinda dad but we all know he loves his baby.

When his children grow up he will be strict on them there’s no denying.

At this point he kind sounds like a bad father but he isn’t (at times).

He shows his love through words of affirmation.

Reminds his children that he’s proud of them when they achieve something, or sometimes just in general.

He wont go easy on their potential mates. Like he'll lowkey show them what hell is.

HE CANT KEEP IT IN HIS PANTS. after you both have had your first child together he’s just 100x more affiliated with you than he was before.

not to say that he didn’t love you before, on Eywa my man was a goner. There’s just something about motherhood that made you shine much more than before.

You’ll probs end up with like 5-6 children.

for a hoe that claims to dislike children i do be writing a shit ton of family things huh (it’s cuz i love dilfs 🫶🏽)

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mothra-obeyme · 4 years

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Demon brothers with a gn!MC with a toxic mother

!Trigger Warning!

These headcanons contain toxic behavior and if you get triggered easily or have a toxic friend or family member you should be prepared that this may trigger something. If you have a toxic friend leave them and if you have a toxic family member tell it someone who can help. There are also an eating disorder and a panic attack mentioned. I never had an eating disorder before so i would be glad if you told me when i wrote something wrong about it.

Writing this is like therapy for my own problems. If i made a mistake about writing for a gender neutral reader please tell me and i will correct it as soon as i can

- You never really told him or any of his brothers about your toxic relationship with your mother thinking that they wouldn’t really care

- At dinner when one of them asked about your relationship with your parents you told them that it could be better

- All the bad feelings that you managed to push away suddenly came back again which let to you having a nightmare

- Because you were not able to go back to sleep you decided to wander around the hallways

- But when suddenly a stern and slightly angry voice behind you asked what you were doing up at this hour you yelped and quickly turned around

- After explaining to Lucifer that you had a nightmare and couldn’t go back to sleep anymore he asked you about the nightmare

- Knowing you wouldn’t get out of this without telling him you explained your bad relationship with your mother which lead to you having the nightmare

- Thinking that you don’t trust him he asked why you didn’t tell him before

- You told him that you thought hey wouldn’t care and that you were scared that they would make fun of you because of worrying about such a small thing

- He felt hurt because you thought that he would react so badly

- Giving a little lecture about how you should tell him when you felt unwell he noticed that that only made your mood worsen

- Putting his pride aside for a second he wrapped his arms around your body and told you that everything’s going to be alright

- He walked you back to your room to make sure you got there safely

- The next day he told Diavolo about it trying to find a way of making sure you’re safe

- Diavolo suggested you staying here because you would be saver with him and his brothers

- When Lucifer told you the news you jumped in his arms happily and hold him tight which made him blush a very dark shade of red ( he was glad that your head was in his his chest so you wouldn’t see his face

- He found out about it when you guys were studding together in your room when your mom called

- The shocked face you made didn’t go unnoticed by him as well as your shaking hands when you reached out to your phone

- At first when you got into the Devildom you were happy that you were allowed to keep your phone

- They let you keep it so that you could keep in touch with your family and friends back in the human world

-But right now you wish that they would’ve just took it away from you

- When you picked up your phone you were immediately greeted by the loud voice of your mother telling you how disappointed she was in you for not calling her in the last few days

- With a blurry vision you tried to say something despite your voice cracking but you didn’t got the chance to say anything because she interrupted you telling you how much of a crybaby you are and that you can’t to anything by yourself

- Because of his demon senses Mammon was able to hear everything which made him angrily grab the phone away from you putting it to his ear

- “Shut the fuck up! This human is the best person i have ever met and if you can’t see that then you are stupid! So shut up or i will come to your house and eat you!”

- After he hung up he looked at you and saw your shocked and slightly scared vision which made him immediately wrap his around you

- When he noticed the tears spilling from your eyes and you saying that she is definitely going to kill you this time he comforted you by saying that he will make sure nobody hurts you, that you are safe with him and that nobody is going to kill you

- The rest of the day was spent with you two cuddling

- Yes he may be stupid sometimes but he knows how it is to get insulted by your own family

- The next day he told Lucifer about it who discussed the matter with Diavolo and Barbatos

- They went to the human world to report to the police about your abusive mother which lead to her getting arrested

- He found out about it when you two were playing a video game with a toxic person in his room

- “Damn, this dude is almost as toxic as my mother.” You quietly said to yourself thinking that he was too focused on the game to hear you

- But unfortunately he heard you and sat there not focusing on the game and thinking about what you just said

- After he took in the information he asked you if your mom did bad stuff to you back in the human world

- You told him that your mom always talked shit about you behind your back and most of the time ignored you making you having to learn how to cook and clean alone

- He was genuinely concerned and worried about you saying that when you need someone to talk to or get rid of your mom he would gladly

- You told him that you already moved out as soon as possible and now moved a few states away from your old home

- After that he would always make sure that you knew he was there to talk or if you wanted to get away from the bad thoughts that you could come to his room and you would watch anime together

!Extra Trigger Warning!

You have a panic attack in this one

- Because he also reads books about the human world he rather quickly picked up about the sign of your mothers abusive behavior: the jumpiness, the self-hate and you never really saying anything good about your mom

- He also research a bit and asked few witches which told him that he was right about your mother being abusive

- At first he decided against asking you about it thinking that you would come to him when you were ready but over time he got impatient

- So when the two of you were reading books in the library he asked why you were so jumpy all the time

- You told him that you lived in a house full of demons all by yourself and that being jumpy is normal in that situation

- He got slightly angry seeing straight that it was a lie and asked you why you think so badly of yourself

- Kinda scared why he would ask that you told him that you didn’t know

- “MC, i know about what your mother does to you. You don’t have to lie to me.”

-Tears started to overflow your eyes thinking back about how your mother treats you in the human world

- Streams of tears spilled from your eyes, your breathing quickened and your pulse raised quickly

- Satan of course noticed that put a hand on your shoulder to ask if he was allowed to touch you and when he saw you nod he wrapped his arms around you

- He told you to try to match your breathing with his

- When you calmed down he told you that you were going to be alright and that he would help you

!Extra trigger warning!

You sort of have an eating disorder in this one

- Beel was always a little worried about how much leftovers were on the plate you pushed over to him when you and the brothers ate together

- Yes you may be smaller than him but that doesn’t look like a healthy amount to eat

- Over the time he also noticed how you weren’t really comfortable with your body, how you would wear baggy clothes and when getting yourself something to eat that you would look how much calories it has

- When the two of you got into a relationship he was even more worried seeing how you still be uncomfortable showing your body to him

- When he found you in your room in front of a mirror crying looking at your body and only wearing basketball shorts and a bra/shirtless he was extremely worried

- He was shocked seeing how skinny you were, turned your body around to him and cupped your cheeks with his hands

- He asked you what’s wrong which even made more tears spill from your eyes which made him wrap his arms around you and hug you close

- When you calmed down you told him about how your mother always told you how fat and ugly you were and telling that no one will love you when you look like that

- He was shocked how can someone tell his wonderful human that no one will ever love them

- He told you how beautiful you looked for him and that all she was saying were lies and spoiled you with compliments

- After that he would help you get more comfortable with your body always telling you how good you look and working out with him ( Private gym to make you feel better )

- He would help you trying to eat a little bit more everyday and always cooking things you like

- He found out about it when he slept in your room one night because he annoyed you until you said he can sleep in your room

- Waking up he heard you shuffling around in your bed and your heavy breathing

- When he stood up he saw a pained expression on your face and streams of tears on your cheeks

- Hesitating he decided to put a hand on your shoulder to wake you up

- "Hey MC wake up human."

- You ripped open your eyes and quickly sat up trying to calm down

- He immediately knew that you had a nightmare because he also has nightmares sometimes and told you that it was all just a dream and that no one is going to hurt you

- When you calmed down you told him that you want to cuddle because you needed affection

- He complained about how stupid humans are sometimes but you could hear in his voice that he didn't mean it

- He sat himself behind you leaning against the headboard, put his legs on either sides of you and wrapped his arme around your body

- At first you tensed up still a little shocked from your nightmare

- "Stupid human everythings going to be alright no one will hurt you."

- You relaxed hearing his low voice comforting you

- "So what was the nightmare about?"

- You decided to tell him about how your mother would always tell you how worthless you were while beating and smacking you and that you often had nightmares about it

- He was shocked hearing that the stupid homo sapien mother of his favorite human does something like that

- "If she does anyhting like that ever again you will summon me with our pact and i will rip her to shreds."

- "Belphie! She is still my mother and that's illegal you can't do that!"

- "I can do everything i want when it involves protecting you."

- Let's just say the next time your mother said anything bad about you that she wasn't going to do it again

You are trans (Female to Male/Nonbinary) in this just so you know i thought that it would work better like that and the brothers know it

- He found out about it when you two were hanging out him his room

- He let you do his makeup when he noticed how good you were doing that despite not wearing any yourself

- When he asked you where you learned to do makeup like that you stopped your movements and tensed up for a second which didn't go unnoticed by Asmo

- You told him that your mother taught you how to do makeup since you were 10, that she was very stubborn with her methods and that she always made you wear dresses because she wanted you to be a model

- Confused he said that he thought children shouldn't wear makeup at such a young age and shouldn't be forced to do something like that

- You told him that your transphobic mother always said that you have to wear makeup because you are a girl and will stay one

- "Yeah but i got over it. It's okay now."

- Grabbing your wrists to stop you from continuing doing his makeup he looked you kinda shocked in the eyes

- "No that's not okay how could she say something like that. You are beautiful how you are no matter if you wear makeup or not."

- He pulled you against him to hug you and you slowly wrapped your arms around him to return the hug

- After that he always made sure to make you feel beautiful and more comfortable with your body

- Everytime an other demon would say some transphobic shit to you he would nearly beat the guy to death

- You had to hold him back and call Lucifer to help you multiple times to not let him do something bad

Masterlist

#obey me #obey me x mc #abused mc #abused reade #obey me shall we date #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan

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ckret2 · 4 years

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How do you feel about the instagram accounts in general? I know some fans who really like them and others who not only dislike them but feel like they ruined some of the characters for them (i hear this mostly for the 3V). I'm kinda split, I like the outfits mostly and the interactions are kind of funny, but at the same time they're pretty trivial and meaningless.

So there are a lot of restrictions constraining what the creators can do with the Instagram accounts.

I've got a lot of experience in online roleplay on tumblr. Here's the thing about roleplay. No matter what character you're playing, you've GOT to play fast and loose with their characterization compared to how they act in canon, simply by virtue of the medium. For every character, they're gonna have things that they would never talk about on a blog online, right?

Very few characters would, say, liveblog on Instagram about helping their drunk boyfriend while he's puking. Most people would, you know, not tell the whole internet that their drunk boyfriend make himself sick, unless the person in question is either deeply narcissistic or trying to get revenge against that boyfriend for something. They would put their boyfriend to bed and not take pictures while he's drunk and not report the incident to thousands of people.

But Stolas did that with Blitzo. And we, the audience, aren't supposed to think that he's being narcissistic or vengeful as he does it. We, the audience, are supposed to go aww, look how caring and supportive he is. Because those posts weren't made to demonstrate that Stolas is callous enough to tell his thousands of followers when Blitzo's black out drunk—those posts were made because the creators are telling a story, and if those posts WEREN'T made, we wouldn't know that story happened.

By necessity, when social media is used as the exclusive venue for telling a story, either you can only tell stories about the kinds of people who would post ever detail of their lives online, or you have to start fudging what a character would realistically post in order to ensure that the audience gets to see it. In my experience in roleplaying? Inevitably, you start fudging. There are things you want the audience/the other players to see, it may not be realistic to show it, but if you want it out there, that's the only way to make it happen. So that's what you do. And now the character is slightly OOC, because they've gotta be in order to move this plotline forward.

That's even more true with something as haphazard and unplanned as most social media RP—and despite the official art and all that, I really do feel like the insta accounts most closely resemble the creators roleplaying as these characters, with the lack of planning and somewhat loose characterization/plot lines that comes with that.

And also something that comes with RP? The players are more likely to goof around with their characters. Even when they have very rigid, fleshed-out headcanons and portrayals, it's being done for play. It's a game before anything else. And so, outside of deep serious threads or epic plot lines, characters are usually, like... 60%-80% in character. If given a choice between "100% strictly unflinchingly IC" and "mostly IC but a little bit off but also it's gonna be very funny," most RPers will choose "mostly IC but funny" because it's funny. This is for fun.

Things particularly get really weird really fast if the RPer has picked a character in an ongoing canon show and they're trying to keep them inside that continuity—like, a show where season 2 has ended and season 3 comes out in five months and the player wants to keep the character acting in ways that will keep them canon compatible when season 3 comes out. In situations like that, if the players don't decide to branch off onto some wild AU, they're basically forced to stick to doing plots and stories that DON'T result in character development that will contradict canon—nobody can overcome their flaws, nobody can discover deep secrets, nobody can befriend their enemies or break up with toxic friends, because then they're no longer canon when season 3 starts. So in order to remain emotionally static in anticipation of future canon developments, lots of those RPers just... have weird episodic shenanigans.

And all that, taken together, is I feel like exactly what the Instagram accounts are doing.

They can't have character development because they're filling in the long gaps between the pilot episodes and the first seasons of two series. They aren't rigorously pre-plotted narratives, they're playing around between a few people. They are going to choose entertainment value and the opportunity to show the audience what they want the audience to see over strict adherence to characterization. They're roleplay accounts.

So that's how I've been taking them.

So, as far as I'm concerned, facts that come out of the accounts are useable worldbuilding. Imps consider chocolate a condiment for fish, okay. Vox owns every social media site in Hell, okay. Alastor doesn't show up well in pictures, okay. Husk sometimes pet sits Fat Nuggets, okay.

But the characterization? The things they do, the ways they interact, the things they're willing to post online, the dialogue? All that is semi-canon. It's the same "only 60% in character because this is all for a laugh" of RP accounts.

So I'm taking all of that with a grain of salt and holding it at arm's length until we get more comics/episodes to really show us more about these characters.

#hazbin hotel #helluva boss #meta #anonymous #ask

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amwritingmeta · 4 years

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15x08: The Family Thing

I don’t think I have a least favourite scene of the midseason finale, because it was so gorgeously structured, so instead let’s focus on all the good and the exchange between Sam and Dean is definitely top five goodness. Hot. Damn.

Not only because of what it means for the codependency, laying the bones bare, as it were, or what it says about Sam and Dean’s individual arcs, but there’s the Dean and Cas of it all to contend with as well.

Oh, yeah. I mean, there’s really no way around Sam and Eileen being used as an effective mirror for Dean and Cas. Either Sam and Eileen are underlining what’s missing between Dean and Cas (like when Eileen was a literal ghost and she couldn’t touch Sam) (visual narrative subtext much?) (in an episode where Cas was literally ghosting Sam and it was purely because of Dean’s actions) (actions that all began in Dean stating “You’re dead to me”) (yah), or Sam and Eileen act as a highlighter for what a balanced relationship should look like, as in this episode, for very obvious reasons. You know, because right now Dean and Cas need fixing. *the mind delights*

So, my loves. Spades out. Dig-a-dig-dig.

We start with Dean -->

--> and I love how he’s clearly had this on his mind for some time and he’s like “Is this the right moment?” and he just goes for it, knowing that it’s a little awkward for him to bring it up, knowing that Sam will most likely deflect, but needing to have it said, because he wants Sam to know that it’s okay, and more importantly, that he’ll be okay.

He’ll be okay without Sam there. Protect Sammy isn’t the begin all, end all anymore. Sam being happy, truly happy, in himself, is taking precedence and, through that, Dean being happy, truly happy, in himself comes chugging along like a glorious reward for Dean growing out of old patterns and embracing new ones. *so fucking pretty*

This has been coming since 13x20 and their final exchange in that episode, where Dean not only stated that he’s never really cared about himself or felt he matters, but where he refused to apologise for worrying about Sam or for protecting him, and all that speech did was end in Sam saying he didn’t take very kindly to be treated as a kid, demanded not to be kept in the dark (because oh does Sam know what it means to be overprotected by his loved ones), and insisted that they do what they do together and if they die, they’ll do that together too.

And that, finally, made it all sink in, properly, and Dean realised that all his protecting Sam had made Sam as protective of him. Sam had grown up in Dean’s image, following Dean’s lead, and adopting Dean’s self-destructive tendencies without pause because of it.

So Dean realised then that something needed to change, but how and what? Especially when Sam has had trouble letting Dean go, because Dean has noticed and we’ve all been made as aware of it.

Like with the whole Mal’Akh box situation and Sam confronting Dean, pushing him to fight, while Dean told Sam that Sam (and Cas) would have to let him go, if there was no saving him. This was the codependency at a breaking point, just as it is now, but way back around the midseason finale of S14, Dean had no way to gently push Sam into gaining the same perspective Dean’s had for a while now, because Dean gained that perspective through realising what holding onto old patterns meant for Sam. *external influence*

Dean became painfully aware of how Protect Sammy has become the toxic ingredient that could, most likely, end up in getting Sammy killed.

And Dean saw no healthy way of highlighting this to his brother without breaking his heart, yeah? Mostly because Dean felt Sam needing him, and the old pattern was difficult to let go of when Sam clearly was still relying on that pattern in order to know his place in the world.

But now. Oh, man, now. Now here comes a healthy highlighter. *Eileen you beautiful soul you!!*

Now for Sam’s reaction to Dean’s simple recognition of “Eileen did good” -->

--> which is immediate self-consciousness and looking like he’s wondering where this is going exactly, a touch of defensiveness there right away, because this whole situation worries him and he knows what he wants, but he also knows what he thinks he shouldn’t have, and here comes Dean, most likely about to confirm that he shouldn’t have it. (hence Sam’s “Oh SHIT” face when the bunker door opened last ep and Sam thought it was Dean) (because he does not expect Dean to be okay with it)

And then we get this gold -->

Dean: She doing okay? Sam: I guess. Dean: You guess?

So simple and yet so damn complex.

Firstly, Dean prods oh so gently. The “She doing okay?” really being a question of how close Sam and Eileen have actually gotten: how intimate is their relationship at this point, how much does Sam care for her and how much is she letting him care, is she confiding in him, is she leaning on him, is she letting him in, is Sam taking up space, does he want to?

And Sam deflects.

Because his reply of “I guess” is him not feeling comfortable talking about it, still unsure of where this is going exactly, and Dean calls him out on it, slightly amused by it, because he’s not stupid and he has eyes and he knows that, obviously, these two share a *cough* bond. Dean knows, yeah? But he also knows that Sam doesn’t know that Dean’s okay with it, which, again, is why this exchange is taking place. So Dean calls Sam out, deepening the prodding for an actual answer, and Sam gets properly defensive -->

Sam: If she needs something from me, she’ll tell me. We have an agreement.

Dean’s reaction to this statement is amazing, because Sam’s choice of words immediately focuses him.

He’s a laser, yeah? He knows his brother inside and out and I would say Dean reads between the lines without even having to pause, because this is getting at the heart of what he wanted this chat to get at: how Sam and Eileen are relating themselves to each other.

An agreement means communication, and communication about someone needing something from the other and being encouraged to ask for it, and feeling comfortable enough to promise to ask for it, means that they’re seeing eye-to-eye. That there’s caring there, for sure. And mutual caring at that. Which is why his delivery of his response is so laced with undertones, because Dean wants Sam to understand that Dean sees through this half-assed covering up of how meaningful this all actually is to Sam.

Dean: An agreement?

And Sam’s reaction face is epic-->

--> because he looks like he’s thinking oh here we go and you’re one to talk Dean like you’re gonna question me and my choices when it comes to Eileen when you and Cas aren’t even talking BUT this whole train of thought gets halted in its tracks by Dean’s next statement, yeah? Aw yes.

Because Dean looks like this -->

--> and says “That’s adorable” and Sam’s defensiveness is gone in a blink and we get the most gorgeous, wonderfully self-conscious smile of agreement that I ever did see because it is bloody adorable of them to have an “agreement” and Sam soaks it up that Dean sees all of the attached implications and is saying as much, relaxing at the fact that Dean is teasing him rather than lecturing him.

Gahhh. It’s so gorgeous!! Look at that smiiiiile!

And Dean’s enjoying seeing that expression on Sam’s face like -->

So happy for him.

*I cry you cry we all cry*

And then Dean goes serious, admitting that he was in too bad a place to talk about it, and yeah sure Chuck and Lilith and how do we fight God is all a dialogue-stated part of that, but also, obviously, there’s also Cas Cas Cas, I mean, Dean says that he didn’t want to talk to Sam about any possible romance between his brother and Eileen because he didn’t want to jinx it.

Like he was in such a bad place it made him actually believe he’d jinx things if he acknowledged them as viable, yeah?

Look at his... face. :/

(I remember a certain someone who once told dean that he didn’t see himself as good luck) (and this then gave dean the chance to tell him that he’d rather have him - cursed or not) (like get over this low self-worth bullshit already and realise that you are loved for who you are Dean Winchester) (because you love people for who they are so why shouldn’t they do the same for you??) (GAH!)

Anyway, now Dean’s out of that bad place of believing he’d jinx things, he’s in a better place, so now it seems finally he believes that him acknowledging a budding romance doesn’t mean him immediately bringing bad luck and wrecking that good thing.

Actually, this better place might actually mean that Dean can see how not acknowledging it would be worse for everyone, because he’s picked up on the egg-shell-walking done by his brother around the subject. Dean’s inability to speak frankly has made Sam afraid to even think about possibly pursuing something with Eileen, yeah?

Alright, fair enough, that’s conjecture aka headcanoning, but still. And shall we say it together?

What Beautiful Possible Exposition For Dean’s Reasons For Distancing Himself From Cas.

Dean keeping himself away from Cas, on the deepest levels, has everything to do with fear and worry and Dean still believing that the very touch of him corrupts. Yeah? He’s moving away from that now. Hopefully 09 will be the episode where he properly crosses that threshold from constantly thinking himself unworthy, to truly feeling he deserves to have good things happen to him without the ever-present conviction he’ll lose it all.

And then Dean goes in for the very final push, the very thing I believe he’s felt needs to be said for a while now: he ties Eileen right back to trying “the family thing”, because what Dean wants is a chance to clarify that he can see how what Sam has got going with Eileen is different.

And when Sam’s first reaction to trying The Family Thing is a “Yeah, me too. That’s not for us.” it’s kinda clear that Dean needs to clarify not only that he can see the difference, but that there truly is one, because Sam is really the one who needs to hear it, and acknowledge it, and believe it.

Sam making this statement is to let us know, and let Dean know, that yes, Sam is still holding onto the codependency.

What’s glorious to me, from a Dean perspective, is that he agrees with Sam’s assessment of their experience of the family thing not being for them with his response: “Not really.”

It’s glorious because the family thing was so wrong for him and it’s good to have him acknowledge this properly, letting us know he’s let that thought of “When I imagine myself happy, it’s with you and the kid” go (and of course I believe he did let it go a good while ago now but to have it in dialogue!) and then we get one of several heavy-duty callbacks this episode, when Dean reminds Sam about what Sam tentatively brought up years ago, asking Dean if he never wanted to find someone, maybe not to get married and settle down, but find someone who gets the life -->

Dean: But I’m just saying, if it was to work... Eileen. You know, she gets it, she gets us, she gets the life. ...She’s hot.

It’s delightfully ironic to me that Dean is the one who swoops in with the wide-eyed observations of how Sam should open himself up to the idea of a relationship progressing with Eileen, but on the other hand it’s completely understandable to me, because Dean isn’t in denial about his feelings for Cas.

Dean is extremely clear on his feelings for Cas, and that’s exactly why he’s staying away from him.

It’s not that Dean doesn’t know love or can’t recognise it when it’s right in front of his face. It’s that, right now, he’s shutting it out.

Because Good Things Don’t Last.

And the terror at losing Cas again, and being responsible, is overshadowing everything else, or so I’d like to think.

Losing Mary hammered this deeply rooted belief home once more: Dean can’t have good things. So all that gently building contentment Dean felt after 14x06 at having Cas around on a more permanent basis genuinely would set the alarm bells ringing, because clearly something would have to happen to shake things up, to cause more grief, to take it all away.

Losing Mary made Dean believe, more than ever, that it’s only a matter of time before he loses Cas. Again. And he can’t go through that. Again.

So rather inevitably, Dean’s fear of losing Cas has pushed Dean to push Cas away and it’s actually forced him to carry on without him, no matter how much it’s hurt him, Dean masking the pain with anger and defensiveness, and in a beautifully roundabout way managing to teach him the lesson of how he doesn’t actually need Cas in his life in order to be okay, but allowing him the insight of how he wants Cas in his life, because Cas brings the type of meaning to events that no one else and nothing else really does. *headcanon but still*

What’s clear to me in this exchange with Sam is that Dean has come so far in his progression that everything he’s saying to Sam he might as well be saying to himself. Truly.

And, again, we get the Sam and Eileen as Dean and Cas mirrors because, of course, the undercurrent of this scene is tied directly to this mirroring and Dean and Cas’ inability, especially in this ep, to even look each other in the eye properly. God, there was a lot of that. *splendidness* By having Sam and Eileen stand in as the Healthy Relationship Representatives, we get an idea of exactly how far away from this Dean and Cas are currently in the narrative and, more than anything else, it plants the idea in our heads of where we should want them to end up.

Moreover, this exchange outlines how Dean knows what makes for a healthy, balanced, equal relationship and, to me, exposes how much he wants that for himself, though he needs to cross that threshold and finally accept the truth that he deserves it, encouraging Sammy to go for that person who gets it, gets the life, the same way that Sam was trying to gently make Dean admit to wanting someone like that in S11.

Anyway, back to the scene and Sam is still deflecting, still not quite there, no matter how self-consciously smile-y talking about Eileen might make him. Sam is afraid of letting go of the codependency, Sam still clings to old patterns, telling himself it’s because Dean needs him, that this is what’s best for “them”, when Dean, now, is gently pushing for Sam to think in terms of what’s best for himself first, and them as a team second.

Sam rubs his forehead and is about to make a protest to this idea -->

--> when Dean stops him, because there’s nothing more to discuss, is there? Dean knows. Sam knows he knows.

Dean: All I’m saying is that you could do worse. And she could certainly do better. So much better.

Again, this feels like something Dean could just as well be saying to himself, right? And he keeps it light, but it’s still so telling. Not that he devalues Sam, because of course he’s joking about that, but if looking at that undercurrent, it’s like Dean’s lack of self-worth is unconsciously pushing him to put words to that feeling, pushing him to gain that perspective, so that he can knock it down once and for all and know that he matters, that he’s allowed to matter, that he allows himself to matter.

And the first step -->

Dean: I’m happy for you, Sammy.

--> is encouraging his brother to feel that way about himself.

Because letting go of the codependent behavioural pattern between them is key, for both of them, to live long and happy lives.

I find it lovely that Dean interrupts Sam’s second attempt at deflection, seeing through Sam’s own possible worries and concerns - brought on by fears that are so similar to Dean’s and are rooted in mistrust of himself and lack of self-worth rooted in that mistrust - to the heart of it, which is that Sam has been falling in love with Eileen pretty much since the day they met, and Dean’s not going to be the one to stand in the way of that, and he’s certainly not going to let Sam’s fears and worries, allowing for the codependency to continue, to stand in the way of it.

Dean’s final line of being happy for his brother (the use of Sammy instead of Sam is like a dagger to the heart it’s so gorgeous) turns Dean’s gentle prodding into a cattle rod, brokering no argument and rather meaning to serve as a push for Sam to make a move already. What’s he waiting for? Clearly Eileen feels the same way. Clearly.

It’s all subtle and breathtaking and so, so pretty. It makes me curious to see what we’ll get in 09, what will bring about that prayer (I honestly would love for them to end up in an argument that’s loud and full of sudden truths that they’ve kept bottled up for ten years) (without a love confession) (we could get a hundred callbacks that could lead into clarifications) (and that apology) (which the prayer is bound to be) and what the rest of this final stretch will give us.

As always, there’s so much to find in the subtext that it creates the most amazing part of this amazing narrative. Goddamnit. I do so love this show.

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thefadedremnant · 4 years

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✍ 13 and 18?

Anonymous said:✍️ 15 and 1

Anonymous said:�� ✍ 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 😁

{ FOR EVERY ✍ + A NUMBER I RECEIVE, I WILL SHARE ONE HEADCANON FOR MY MUSE ABOUT… }

1. …their sleep schedule.

The thing about PK is he is a slightly awkward intersection between a god and a mortal creature. So basically, he has physiological needs- things like hunger and exhaustion- but at the height of his power, his populace’s worship allowed him to disregard such things with minimal consequences. So a way to think of it is he spent most of Hallownest’s heyday in a period of magical fasting, with very little sleep.

There’s a reason I draw him with dark bags under his eyes basically all the time, even during that past period. It never worked out perfectly. But it did leave him with the idea that all nighters are a divine virtue which he firmly stands by. So he’s very prone to trying to work through exhaustion / has kind of fallen out of step with awareness of how tired he is, which, now that he’s sick, is even more unsustainable.

3. …how long they hold grudges.

He’s not very forgive and forget. Part of it is a combination of the way he relates to time- his lifespan is long compared to most creatures, so giving something a decade without significantly modifying how he feels about it is pocket change to him. There’s also the complicating detail that he feels like his feelings are only allowed to exist if he can justify them, so having a prior resentment on someone doesn’t always inspire him to act on it.

He’ll basically continue to hold a grudge until something changes his mind- time itself doesn’t really matter to him- but he tends reactive in hostility. If you’re not openly attacking he’ll mostly be very passive-aggressive about it.

6. …being alone.

He likes to imagine he’s incapable of getting lonely. In a way, it’s complicated- this guy’s easily stressed out by crowds and certain kinds of socialization, so he genuinely does like the quiet. Given his presence has only ever been significant to others one way or another, it comes with burdensome amounts of posturing and graces that he perceives completely necessary always- being alone lets him escape his semi-toxic social rules.

At the same time, in many ways, he’s perfected the problem of being alone around other people. Even people who were closer to him or who may have wished they were or could help him... not really. He doesn’t really consider the possibility of being close to people without the pedestal of his position. Being vulnerable to another person is tantalizing, and terrifying.

Socially speaking, he’s a coward.

9. …eating.

Tied into what I said about sleep schedule! He thinks he shouldn’t have to but has been relying on it semifrequently of late because in his weakened state, his natural ability to produce soul is dampened and eating something is the fastest way to get a burst of it. It doesn’t help that his pesky wyrm digestive system is very much that of an apex predator inclined towards raw meat.

Travelers around the crossroads might notice a modest dip in the wild animals in the area.

He prefers to make it quick, go unobserved, and leave as little residue as possible, which, incidentally, kinda makes it more embarrassing for him because it means he has been subsisting at least partially on raw aspids. Think of it as the vampire’s version of a depression meal.

12. …how educated they are.

Dude is basically a self-taught polymath. He’s had a lot of time to conduct research and was also extremely motivated to do so. He’s kind of lost that drive to acquire new skills, though, once he became more entrenched and felt more heavily observed by others. Earlier in his life, he was almost unstoppably curious. At present, he’s digging for answers again, and, is kinda too miserable/frustrated from other sources to properly process that part of him is enjoying this.

13. …the type of music they like.

Well, you know. Grand, stately, somewhat empty. (His wife was also known to sing on occasion, which he was extremely partial to)

In contemporary musical genres, he would be pretty rigidly classical in his tastes.

15. …where they see themselves in ten years.

This is part of what he’s having a crisis about! He’s potentially dying from his void infection, but, also, he really did not plan to be here at all past the fall of the kingdom, so he’s been given an uncertain amount of future and, maybe the potential of stopping his ailment before the terminal phase, if he can figure out what’s going on with the kingdom, the void, and himself (all about equal in difficulty) so he’s really not making long-term plans / assuming he won’t be here long but his disinterest in dying in an undignified manner is kind of forcing him to commit to things anyway in survival’s name.

18.…how they would describe their personality.

This is one of PK’s major underpinning hangups: he doesn’t really think he has one. He thinks that there are a series of objectively true things, and that personally he has a number of flaws, distractions from the truth, that he has to manage and work around.

He falsely idealized the void as something he perceived as without any flaws or hesitations, and that was the root of his lifelong obsession with it; to him, a creature that never hesitates, regrets, or wants, is a perfect being, and while he attempts to achieve “perfection” himself in that sense, he is too aware that it is, actually, a fight.

Which actually leads to his affliction: the void isn’t punishing him because it personally hates him- rather, what’s killing PK is that he’s let himself fester to such a degree that, combined with healthier-than-usual external exposure to the Abyss thanks to his work, it found a passage through him that it liked- all the pieces of himself that he denied, repressed, and forced ‘into the darkness’ to try to act as a being of perfect light.

He views himself as someone who is supposed to feel nothing, and merely act perfectly to his role. And this was doomed from the cradle, because someone who does not want things- desperately- does not go to war with a being they cannot directly defeat to build a kingdom.

This is where the hubris / self-loathing duality comes in- as long as he feels like he’s acting perfectly, he sees himself as above reproach and will dismiss anybody who tries to argue otherwise. If he doesn’t feel like he’s acting perfectly, he tends to spiral violently into having a crisis because in his personal worldview, there’s no such thing as a trivial mistake and he’s not allowed to have any of them, and if he does, he deserves to suffer.

#Transcriptions { meme replies }#hamletisintown #Anonymous #long post #what a time for readmore to break

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monochromemedic · 5 years

Text

Little design headcanons about septic egos Anti: you’ve seen my anti before, short brown fluffy hair, black empty eye sockets with little white lights floating around in there. Scarf around his neck wound. Wearing usual Anti attire, literal knife in his back. It’s his don’t worry he stabs it in him. very scruffy beard. more lanky and skinny Schneep: Greying heavily at the temples, tired eyes, neatly trimmed beard. short brown hair. Small scar/imprint around his neck from headphone strangulation. probably dresses most like a dad out of doctor clothes. a little buffer then normal Chase: Scar on temple where nerf bullet/ bullet hit. very scruffy beard. scruffy brown hair, just lightly grey hair. Hat is almost always on, always on. a little chubby. Getting a little dad bod. probably wears sweatpants all the time. probably wears own merch cause didnt sell alot of it. Has something from his kids on him at all times, usually it’s a bracelet they made. Marvin: scars under mask like big scratches over eyes. Cat Mask is almost attached to his face like could almost be glued on somehow. only does kinda bad magic, not an expert wizard/magician. Carries a pack of cards with him. trimmed beard. Fluffy hair. Wears cape like all the time. Probably wears either lazy clothes or fancy ass clothes like a vest and shit. lanky then normal Jackieboy: buff. buff boy. homemade outfit made of some sort of hoodie with gloves with a belt and boots. His gloves have some sort of goo containers that he uses as a weapon. Or maybe even no weapons just his fists but still has the gloves. Covered in scars cause he can’t heal so he needs Schneep too patch him up. short on the sides bangs on top sort of look. well shaved beard. JJ: Somehow has cartoon eyes like dot eyes. Can’t talk talks by sign language or by poofing up cue cards. Looks very similar to actual jj but with brown hair now. Probably has like other vests and fancy shit to wear. Normal Sean build some of these i made up on the spot like little things but other things i have thought about before i have also thought of powers they might have Anti: huge healing factor, toxic/acidic blood, teleportation, fucks up with electronics Schneep: Can heal slightly. His ability comes more like bringing people from the brink of death shortly after they have died. Chase: Can’t die. Love of his children keeps him alive no matter how much damage he’s been through. Has the ability to make anything he throws basically go at the speed of a bullet so like throwing acceleration and manipulation. That’s how the nerf bullet hurt him. Marvin: Magic Cards. can make them fly around and have them be as sharp as knifes or as sturdy as steal. Does other small magic but is still learning that so would need a book Jackieboy: No powers/ Or was smart enough to make a device that spews out a goo that can be slippery, sticky or can harden. JJ: No powers that i’ve thought of

#jacksepticeye #antisepticeye #chase brody #dr. schneeplestein #jackieboy man #marvin the magnificent #jameson jackson #yikes

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askauradonprep · 7 years

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You know when kids are little and they have 'boyfriends' or 'girlfriends' , please make a headcanon of that but with bby! Uma , harry and gilt

Whaaaaaaaat? Nooooooo. I wouldn’t know anything about that! I certainly didn’t have a ‘boyfriend’ from when I was 4 til I was like 8 or so, nuh uh, not me, nope, nope, nope kicks photos under the bed.

(Sorry for the delay! A few hours ago I remembered I was supposed to do something that required me to log off tumblr).

- Honestly, these guys were probably reallllllllyyyyy little if they haven’t picked up yet that love = no-no. I mean, heck, even most dates on the Isle are taken place as part of gang activity so it’s definitely something only most kids would say out loud.

- The parents who care will tell their kids to knock that off right quick because love is weakness, stop showing affection, it’s dangerous. The parents who don’t care don’t care unless it becomes an issue or they’re literally right there watching.

- Honestly, these kids have no idea what a healthy relationship even LOOKS like, so, aha, this.....might be slightly horrifying.

- Harry doesn’t really have many ways to react - his mother is long gone, so he’s basically going off things he’s seen from the crew and their bar maids or ‘women of the night’ or (one or two) wives and other people on the Isle. It’s rarely been pleasant. He’s learned to be blunt and forward and I imagine that’s how he’d pull it off - basically just straight up asking Uma and Gil if they wanted to be his girlfriend/boyfriend.

- Uma isn’t quite sure what to do - her dad took off before she was born, she never knew him. Mommy occasionally has boyfriends or ‘gentleman callers’ though, and those have varied. Only one or two of them tried to be any kind of parental figure and those rarely ended well. She knows her Mommy is super confident though and never really worried much about whether or not another one would be around - she’s great, someone’ll be around.

- Gil has his mom and dad, but his mother will obey, side with, and forgive Gaston no matter what he does. Gaston’s always denigrating Gil for being ‘too soft’ and ‘too much like his mother’ Since he’s ‘like his mother’ he decided the best way to do relationshipping is by going by whoever and whatever the people he likes say.

- Honestly, they pretend this a lot until they eventually get the ‘you don’t talk about love’ attitude as they get a little older.

- Oh god, you know those little kid kisses that don’t really ‘count’ when you’re older? Those happened. A lot. They’re basically platonic but they happened.

- Uma takes the lead because of course she does and honestly they’re both pretty okay with that (although, again, it must be noted, Gil also has that toxic background radiation he called his home life).

- The three of them calling basically every time they hang out a ‘date’ omg.

- The three of them offering each other little things like shiny pebbles or shells to each other (Uma in particular gets lots of presents)

- These three were usually off playing together if they weren’t at home, sometimes with other friends, but not always. They were too young to know better and were just kinda adorable. And, you know, giving other kids fat lips for messing with them …or for kicks. That happened.

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mustinvestigate · 7 years

Text

stream of consciousness headcanon…ish…thing…

...which owes entire countries’ national debts to @niceteeth-nastysmile‘s health & food canon post and @adistraughtthought‘s on MacCready’s teeth and why Lucy was just beyond brilliant.

And this is all fic-related ponderings of general standards of personal upkeep in post-apocalyptia and their divergence from vault or pre-war sensibilities and how exactly romance could surmount this, which doesn’t really earn “above the fold” status, so…

So it’s generally held in fandom lore that folk are too busy surviving to truck much with hygiene, a thought which derails the sexiness of many T+ fics before they start. Like, “We’ve been trekking across the desert nurturing a deadly two-person epidemic of UST and, oops, convenient cave-in, we’re trapped together…carrying several days’ worth of sweat and battle muck in non-breathable armor we seemingly never change, without water to drink or freshen up with, and, y’know, let’s just sit in opposite cave chambers and breathe through our mouths until rescue comes, ok?”

And a vault dweller or pre-war person would live in suspended state of horror at the miasma of human funk and yellowed snaggleteeth when they have any at all, unable to hold a civil conversation no matter how high their charisma stat. As for romancing, well…nope. Nope nope nope.

Except, in settlements at least, with more pooled resources and storage space and security to allow people to spend time on less essential tasks like making tallow soap and extra under-clothing to change regularly and water to wash clothing and bodies, they’d totally raise standards to at least those of a modern week-long camping trip, right? Being clean and in fresh clothing is one of those small achievable luxuries, on the level of toys and games or cards for communal entertainment, that makes a huuuuge difference in feeling like you’re living, not just surviving. And with teeth, well, humans have been cleaning their teeth (albeit sometimes in ways that could not have been kind to gums or enamel) since we’ve been human. Morning breath and stuck-in food bits have apparently always been pretty high on the short list of activities worth spending limited energy on fixing.

Also often found in human settlements? Doctors, or at least some form of medical-type professionals to push for improved sanitation and enough cleanliness to minimise the spread of disease, not to mention heal injuries or perform simple dentistry or help prevent/treat substance abuse and all sorts of other ailments that lead to one being unable to maintain a comfortable-ish body.

(Aside for ghouls: although they’re described in-game as smelling like rotting flesh, I call bullshit. The smell of rot comes from decay, and by definition, things which are decaying are in the process of existing increasingly…uh…less so. [I don’t know, I can’t word good today, ok? Ahem.] And since ghouls are canonically unplagued by senescence [see? Fancy words!], there’s no decay beyond a certain level of damage that would produce that particular offensive smell. And further still since the skin damage would probably render most of their sweat glands gone or non-functional anyway, they’d possibly even lack the traditional human eau du ew at the end of a hard day’s farming. Y’all just decided they smell bad because you don’t like how they look – real nice, post-apocalyptic humans. Real. Nice.)

People living outside of settlements, though…they might be a different story. Like, raiders? Forget it. You’d smell ‘em coming a mile away, where they may be gasping their last due to catastrophic bacterial infection from what started as a wee molar cavity. They’re not expending energy on small personal-upkeep luxuries, or value stealing them from those who do.

Non-sociopathic nomadic types, like traders or mercenaries or people who don’t have useful skills or can’t afford to buy into a settlement (however it works when there’s no pre-war savior throwing away land for free), where carrying space is very limited and they likely don’t have much time or energy for non-essential luxuries…yeah, they might be closer to what we picture as a standard post-apocalyptic citizen. Like…in today’s terms…your stereotypical European gap-year backpacker. You’d certainly bathe and wash clothes when the opportunity and supplies came to hand, but wouldn’t go out of your way unless your red and orange Maslows were all in the black, and if your yellow, green, and blue were already in the pink, why bother?

(Is that a coherent joke? Probably not. Requires googling. But we strike on!)

Hence, in a slightly roundabout way, we come to MacCready’s teeth, and, further, the impact therein on writing a romance with a pre-war character. Or, really, any of the romanceable companion options, but fanon, and Bethesda going out of their way to make him the only one with bad teeth, seem to hold that MacCready’s a special case. He grew up LARPing Lord of The Flies, defiantly proud that there were no adults to make them clean anything they didn’t want to, and he married a girl (brilliant doctor or not) who was part of the same culture and tolerant of near-toxic personal hygiene or at the very least, since they seemed to be on the road when she tragically died, was biding her time until they settled down to enforce better standards.

(And, seriously, Bethesda, just admit it’s the same character as the Lucy he was best buddies with instead of someone who just happened to have the same name…except that does mean that sweet girl died terribly…and now I no longer know what I want to believe. Huh.)

And a pre-war professional lady, one who’d’ve had to maintain a polished image as a non-negotiable element of her career, she’d get past this…how?

Actually…even writing this out, it still doesn’t seem insurmountable. For years, I shared a very small office with a large, manly fellow who didn’t wear deodorant, worked out before work, and ate a lot of fish-heavy lunches. It’s amazing how quickly the human nose shrugs and moves the goal-posts, particularly for lovely people you get on with, or when everyone around you’s more or less at the same level of smell, or when you’re also working out and coming in kinda sweaty and, you know, we’re all human here, right, why are we so dang picky?

And my version of Nora, for all she prefers pretty dresses and parties, isn’t averse to dirty fingernails. She was in the military, had all her hair shaved off and slogged through muddy obstacle courses and dug latrines and everything; she went hunting with her father and helped out in his plumbing shop, getting elbow-deep in animal viscera and worse. A filthy soldier-type would definitely be on her experience spectrum with probably no more judgement than welp, try to stay upwind when possible, even that forgotten after she’s been in the same outfit herself for a couple of weeks.

But the teeth, man, there’s something moreish about bad teeth, right? There’s not just the aesthetics of non-white, non-straight teeth (trust me…having moved to a country [unfairly] famous for poor-quality dentistry, I can report that uniformly white, straight chompers quickly become the weird-looking alternative) but the visceral reaction to class comma lack of, to an indicator not just of “poor” but “poor and not trying to do better.”

Like, I grew up what’s politely called white working class (in a family that mostly passes leisure time with drinking, Fox News, and stockpiling weapons of dubious origins, so, y’know, shruggy-emoticon), and you bet all of us cousins had braces. We were going to get good grades and have office jobs. Our parents were real touchy about terms like “redneck” or “okie” and wouldn’t admit to liking country music. There was something different about the kids who lived in the same area but didn’t get braces. We weren’t encouraged to make friends of them, and as for dating…well…the bad teeth on a significant other brought home would carefully, one could say pointedly, not be mentioned, but every other possible flaw would be.

In college, I dated a mysterious guy I met on Match.com, who wasn’t white and who had the worst teeth I’d ever seen in real life. They were somewhere between ferengi and pirate and I’m sad to say they were the first thing anyone would notice about him. We ended up dating for two bloody years, even talked about marriage, and the funny thing? I never found out what the deal was with those awful, awful teeth.

At first, I didn’t bring it up because, well…how bad did his childhood have to be, that no one made him brush, no one took out a loan to get him in braces? Like, bad teeth were so intrinsically linked with lower-class deprivation in my mind that I just could not even broach the topic with someone of a different ethnic background. And, anyway, he turned out to be solidly middle-class from birth, held two degrees and a software engineering cubicle job that required a tie, even on Fridays. And by that point, well…if the teeth were the first thing you noticed, the second was that he was bubbly and goofy and sweet, and when months later someone looked at a photo of us and asked, “Oh dear, what happened to that poor boy’s teeth?”, it genuinely took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about.

So, my conclusion: even when one’s brought up to see poor hygiene and bad teeth as viscerally, mockably horrifying…as romantic obstacles, they’re quite surmountable. Like, there’d be some half-hearted stocking up of new brushes and mouthwash, nagging to go see the dentist no I don’t care that your childhood dentist looked like Ted Bundy, and probably a collateral raising of their bathing frequency through shared living routines, and it’d be fine, you guys. Totally fine.

Anyway.

This is what happens after a few months without drinking, y’all. These are the brain cells that’d usually get culled off by the friendly gin hammer.

#headcanon #fallout 4 #MacCready’s teeth #mmmmmm gin #storytelling #mustinvestigate rambles #man I really want to brush my teeth now

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