This post is something that can actually be so personal and no I am not done talking about it. There's a whole concept behind it and the fucking hair ties are just one way of channeling it but oh boy is it a good one. This works so well with the hair braiding too and i cannot think about it to much or i will spontaneously combust, but I had to so I hope you enjoy the result of it.
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Joel has a hair tie on his wrist because Ellie forgets to take a spare and when the first one breaks or she loses it somehow, he can offer it to her before her hair becomes an annoyance.
He has one because she gives it to him sometimes when they're laying on the couch and her ponytail makes resting her head on a pillow or against his chest uncomfortable. At times she also takes it out simply because her scalp is especially sensitive that day and the constant pull becomes painful after a while. There's always another one in his jacket pocket, too, so when Ellie asks him for braids afterward or allows him to do her hair he isn't limited to simpler styles.
It starts with hair ties in Jackson but there are months of different acts preceding it.
Joel carried whatever he could for her, taking more than necessary sometimes because the slim line of her shoulders being weighed down by her backpack made his heart ache even when he couldn't admit it to himself back then, not at first at least. There are water bottles, sweatshirts she cannot quite fit into hers that day, all of their food, whatever first aid materials he can find, even a spare bar of soap.
Then he starts carrying hair ties once they get to Jackson and suddenly he needs to keep a brush on him, too, and with the brush comes a comb and with the comb comes a hat and with the hat comes a homemade creme he traded for since her hands are uncomfortably dry sometimes (she never said so but he knows her), and after that what started as a small piece of twisted fabric turns into him carry a bag around that is filled with everything his brain thinks Ellie might require at some point. Sure, maybe he is being a little bit overprotective and maybe Tommy jokes about getting him a purse several times, but he can offer her sunscreen and a bottle of water during summer, he gives her gloves and a scarf in winter when she doesn't remember to put them on before leaving, there's always one of her books in a side pocket, too, and as soon as he finds her a new one, her Walkman gets an especially safe place in his bag.
And yes, he fusses over her a little bit too much, maybe even to the point of being smothering sometimes (she always tells him to back off when that happens and he does without complaint), but Ellie grew up utterly alone and without someone to look after her for fourteen years, she deserves to know what it is like to be cared about by someone. Whatever she asks for, whatever she needs, he gives it to her even when she could walk home and come back with the thing in question in less than ten minutes. There's always a snack, a spare sweatshirt in case she gets cold, space for the one she takes off when she gets too warm, a small sketchbook and a pencil both as a distraction and so she can draw whenever she feels like it.
No one pays any attention to it, and while Tommy softly teases him about it from time to time, the smile that blooms on Ellie's face when he quietly gives her something she needs based on nothing but hardwired instincts before the words leave her mouth tells him everything he needs to know.
Joel might not be good with words, but he continues to carry a bag and hands her little pieces of his love time and time again, hoping she can put the puzzle together, hoping she knows.
Ellie does the same, hoping Joel notices it, hoping he knows what it means, that with every time she tells him to rest, every cup of coffee on his nightstand, every night spent in his bed when she wakes to the mere suggestion of a nightmare and brushes them away before they can settle so she can put herself in their place instead, every trashy action movie she borrows from the library for their weekly movie night, every handmade guitar pick she gifts him, every single gesture she does not have to do but does regardless because she wants to, she is saying I love you, too.
They notice, they care, they willing hand over carefully chosen parts of themselves and the puzzle they piece together is one and the same, because paying attention to things is how they show love and it is oh so easy when there is nothing to look at but each other.
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JJK Uraume and Reincarnation. [217 Spoilers]
So Uraume has quickly become one of my favorite awful creatures due to his recent appearances. Seriously we've gotten more personality for him in the past 5 chapters than the whole of JJK. But that's aside the general point. Now a line in 217 by Yorozu got me thinking.
"Has Uraume incarnated as well?"
The obvious reason is because Yorozu want him to be the chef at her wedding with Sukuna's.. Erm... Corpse? It's phrased weird by Sukuna so whatever. It's not important here.
The key thing to keep in mind is that Yorozu doesn't know if Uraume is even alive. This is the same case of Sukuna all the way back in Chapter 116. This is right after Sukuna trashes Jogo.
Sukuna pretty clearly had no clue Uraume was alive before now. So what does this mean? It's possible that Uraume died in the past previous to Sukuna and Yorozu so they had assumed he was just fully dead. Or Uraume outlived them both and they assumed he died of old age.
The first one is the one I want to focus on here. But I'll quickly dissuade the idea of of Uraume being over a thousand raw years old. See the oldest characters we see in the series through pure age are Kenjaku and Tengen. Both of which sustained their prolonged life through 'stealing' the lifespans of other people. Kenjaku body hopped Tengen absorbed people. So then why would Uraume be the exception to this unwritten rule? It's possible his ice technique lets him freeze himself in time in a way but I find that less likely.
I think the more likely is the first possibility. Uraume died sometime in the past and was reincarnated into a new body by Kenjaku. It explains why he was hanging around with Kenjaku at the start of the series.
Chapter 53
And it explains why he put up with Kenjaku for so long. As well as stick with him up until Shibuya. It's clear Uraume doesn't like Kenjaku very much as their interactions while comical it's pretty evident that Uraume: Finds him really fucking annoying.
This isn't just how Uraume is since we see him get all chummy with Sukuna
So Uraume being reincarnated by Kenjaku around the time of the beginning of JJK would align with all these facts and ideas. So what's the point of all this? Just to state that Uraume is reincarnated?
Yes, But actually there's a bit more.
As we see with Reincarnations and Vessels as a whole, Cursed Techniques are imprinted on the body. Kenjaku can use the cursed techniques of the people he previously body snatched. Sukuna can use Megumi's Ten Shadows. It's a basic rule that if the host has a technique the reincarnated person should have the ability to use it.
So then Uraume should logically have the potential to use 2 techniques.
Unless he was reincarnated into some random person like everyone in the culling games was, or the original body's technique was Ice and he's just been rolling with it. If it's either of those then the whole idea of a second technique is moot.
Keep an eye out because Uraume is the biggest wild card of the big bad 3.
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