#just tagging that bc i know its a relatively popular hc

[chaotic-solutions]

nightcord gender thoughts

[gothvince]

i wanted 2 redesign some of lydias classmates and i’m NOT tagging this bc they look awful and they’re super quick drawings but. just wanted to ramble abt my decisions for this and?? fuckin????? infodump baby thats what i do. i put the art under a cut bc 1. this post could get long and 2. ghhhh its bad

SO i’m british and my high school had pretty much the exact same uniform as the gals at miss shannons school. and like... i can VIVIDLY remember what people would consider cool back then. rolled up sleeves, jackets tied around your waist. top button always undone. for some reason we’d roll down our socks and that would be considered cool?? and also... really short and fat ties. so since claire is the popular mean girl trope, i wanted to make sure she wore her uniform in all the ways that seemed cool at that age. she’s also big on makeup and jewellery, both of which are banned, but Cool Kids Wore It Anyway.

i think i might change her earrings to be a lot smaller, but for the most part i really like her design!! her hair is similar enough to the old show that it’s recognisable but i wanted to change it up a little just to show that this is like, a reboot. claire in general is really... bossy and mean and confident in herself so she’s not exactly afraid of all these dress code violations. and her parents are probably rich doners to the school so she rarely gets in trouble for it.

also she’s... very insecure in herself! my hc for her is that her parents are really neglectful and not very present in her life - she has money and all her needs are provided for but there’s not that emotional attachment kids need from their parents. as a result she sort of latches onto things that other people consider cool so they’ll think she’s cool and admire here, yknow?? like a shallow substitute for the love she isn’t gettin from her parents. her family’s very... strict and hate anything they’d consider “other” so in an effort to live up to her parents expectations claire takes on the roll of bully 2 people considered “other” like lyds, bertha and prudence. also she’s gay and has a crush on lydia and picks on her a lot bc of that bc she doesn’t know how else 2 deal with her feelings.

i have a whole. goddamn redemption arc in my head for claire and i love her SO much. a lot of it involves learning from lydia and BJ that it’s okay to be weird and and it’s okay to be yourself and... she struggles with it but she does eventually learn how to be herself regardless of what her parents think. YES lyds/claire is endgame and YES i’m emotionally attached to that ship

also i have her listed as 17 here but i think im gonna lower it to 16 bc i want all the gals to be around the 15-16 age. it’s older than the 12-13 age range in the show but i feel like i can write better from tht age range cuz i BARELY remember what i was like at 12 but all that teenage angst stuff is fresh in my mind

MOVING ONTO BERTHA, she wants to be as popular as claire so she imitates a lot of stuff that kids consider “cool”. like. untucked shirt, small amounts of jewellery, make up. the difference between them is that bertha is more encouraged to be herself than to conform to any kind of... standard or whatever. so she’s a little weird and dorky, but in a super endearing way. her parents are from the relatively poorer part of town, her uniform is second-hand from her older sister, so it’s kind of loose and ill-fitting. all her make up is from the dollar store so it’s the really bad kind that exacerbates her acne and doesnt really cover it up.

bertha’s tall and skinny but in a more awkward way than anything, and she has braces and acne and she wouldn’t really be considered conventionally attractive in the way claire is, but she’s so unabashedly herself that her confidence shines through that and makes her generally super likeable. she’s on good terms with pretty much everyone outside of claire’s friend group! she’s been best friends with prudence since they were kids so the two are super close, and since prudence is a lot more reserved and shy, bertha’s taken it upon herself to stick up for her and make sure she’s okay.

and prudence!! i honestly didn’t change her design too much from the show but like... she’s tiny and VERY neat and tidy. not concerned with being cool or anything - she just likes to follow the dress code exactly. she’s quiet and shy and studious and spends a lot of her time w her nose in a book. her grades are amazing. she’s from a somewhat middle class family who want her to do well, her parents are a bit strict on homework and studying and that kind of thing which can sometimes get really stifling for her, but they mean well and only want her to succeed. she enjoys hanging around with bertha and lydia because it gives her the chance to let loose a little. being friends w/ the two of them has really helped her come out of her shell, and we see her become braver over the course of the series!!

bertha/prudence is CANON and i LOVE THEM and they’re so goddamn cute together. they go to every single school dance together and have study dates once a week where it’s just the 2 of them. bertha’s out to her parents and they’re very accepting so a lot of their study dates happen at bertha’s place. prudence isn’t out, but she’s not so far in the closet that she’ll pretend she’s straight. (her parents just think she and bertha are friends but when prom rolls around and they’ve coordinated their outfits and bertha comes to pick prudence up, it hits them that they’re dating and they’re supportive when they do find out)

GOD. CLAIRE AT PROM. she’s so goddamn gay she doesn’t end up getting a date to prom because she doesn’t like any of the guys in her town. lydia goes with betty as like, a friend thing, but there’s. a part of the night where claire is watching bertha and prudence dance and she looks to lydia and just... works up the courage 2 go and ask her to dance. and they DO and they share a really shy awkward kiss at the end of the dance. meanwhile betty is NOT happy about it

i have a full prom episode written in my head............. a full goddamn series in my head... i think a lot abt these characters all the time and i REALLY wanted to go more in depth with them! claire especially bc she’s SO one-dimensional in the show i just rlly wanna explore. her whole vibe. shes heavily inspired by pacifica frm gravity falls if u couldnt tell

[admins-home-for-peculiar-hermits]

Season after season, the Hermits had been tormented relentlessly by hollows, or horrible, invisible monsters created by Evil X. They were a result of an experiment of unknown intent, and now they steal peculiar Hermit’s souls, and somehow manage to creep their way into every new season.

Once they acquire enough of these souls, they can ascend into wights. These wights take the form of beloved Hermits, making them far more dangerous. The only physical difference is that wights bear entirely white eyes that seem to glow in the dark.

Now, Season 6. It’d been relatively peaceful. It was the longest time the Hermits had been hollow-free, and newer technology that came with every Update had made the future seem much brighter. The possibility of never having to leave their homes behind again is closer to becoming a reality than ever. Maybe Evil X has finally given up. Old Hermits have even joined along the way! However, what the others don’t know is that the return of these presumed-dead Hermits opens a whole new realm of disaster beyond either of them’s control, and perhaps a tear into the fine fabric that keeps Season 6 safe.

--

hey hi howdy so i made a blog for anyone whos interested in this au lol this is basically where i just drop anything i write about or draw w this au haha. please note that this au has semi-permadeath (nobody will die forever or anythin but sometimes people just don’t respawn if that makes any sense??) and not a whole lot of angst but its there. i’ll try and have this deviate a bit from the og books bc some of its either problematic, confusing, or doesnt fit with what i have planned.  in fact, heres a small list of things ive changed for reference (and in case u get the books and go “wtf quee this isnt canon”): ymbrynes can be men bc admins if a hermit spends a lot of time around another hermit, they’ll pick up a bit of one anothers abilities. not enough to be useful for anything but hey its there ymbrynes are leaders not caretakers wights and hollows travel though underground nether portals and tfc usually has to break any unfinished ones he finds while caving rip seasons in hc = loops in mphfpc

anyways as a refresher heres a list of peculiarities the hermits have, alphabetically (tumblr’s a bitch and wont let me put this under a cut for whatever reason so i’ll just tag as long post):

Bdubs: it is a mystery Biffa: He’s an admin so he’s an ymbryne! Basically hes a bird guy (he can become a crowned eagle) who’s sorta the decision maker of the server with x and joe. in this au ymbrynes aren’t caretakers (bc thats problematic, in my humble opinion) and are leaders sorta? anyways moving on oh yeah he kinda went poof one day n nobody knows where he is Cleo: Zombie, but powered by redstone. Cub: Vex magic Doc: He can reanimate the dead. It’s incredibly draining, but hey its there Evil X: An ex-ymbryne. He created the hollows, but not for the reason you, or the other hermits, think. He retains the ymbryne power of becoming a bird, in this case, a crow. another thing he is, is redeemable. False: basically she’s almost impossible to beat in battle its kinda scary but its also really cool. Grian: hes got birdie wings also hes very light which allows him to fly without using rockets and its kinda like a perpetual slow falling potion. somehow he still manages to splat on the ground lol Impulse: manipulates shadows n darkness. he makes lil shadow puppets for tango n zed bc team zit’s friendship is so fucking cute Iskall: Manipulates slime iskallium. he and jevin claim their abilities are different. He’s also noticed that the area around him gets just a little chillier. Jevin: is being literally made out of slime not peculiar enough for you (he can manipulate slimes) Joe: Ymbryne, again! He’s a bluebird. Also he’s got enhanced synesthesia and it’s pretty rad. Keralis: it is a mystery Mumbo: Living lever. He can activate redstone simply by touching it. He has to think for it to work though.  Python: flowers kinda grow at his feet. because of this hes the master of poison. he uses lilies of the valley in tea to poison enemies. he was once accused of making biffa disappear because of this. Ren: he speaks fluently to animals. haha furry ily Scar: Vex magic... 2! After all the time spent at Area 77 with Doc, he’s also gotten a bit popular with the undead. Stress: Ice magic for the ice queen! Tango: Fire manipulation. He’s always very warm. TFC: He doesn’t seem too special until you look closely at his eyes. One of them is completely white. When X first met him, he just thought he was blind in that eye, until the man saved X’s butt from a wight in Season 5. That is how the server found out their “normal” is part wight. Wels: Metallokinesis! Don’t make him angry. He’ll drop an anvil on you. Xisuma: Yet another ymbryne, and the last one I have to talk about. He’s a snowy owl. Zedaph: He’s kinda what happens if you stay in the End for too long. He’s got a very potent dragon’s breath attack at his fingertips and he has natural dragon wings/horns. also pointy teef and end crystals give him regen. Admittedly this is my headcanon for him already (except the end crystal part), but shhh..

[vardasvapors]

Do you have any Lindon headcanons, if so please throw ALL of them at me because I have zero and it's terrible. This was more Elrond-centric bc I've been trying to fill in that thousand-year gap between Elros and war but then I realised how LITTLE I can actually picture of... the biggest Elven kingdom in Middle-earth... Galadriel's off collecting fairie court campsites, and Celebrimbor's kickstarting a magic object Renaissance, and what's every other elf doing this millennium? I just don't know!

omg i’ve lazily on-and-off thought about making a wip list of vague Lindon headcanons before so this is the perfect excuse. hope you don’t mind me limiting this to just the timeframe you mentioned, or this post would be WAY too long, instead of just regularly too long:

First: observe, my Lindon tag! It’s not very long, but

This and especially this are some of my favorite headcanon visuals for Second Age Mithlond as a capital city. Starting as a giant camp for everyone who escaped from Beleriand, lots of flux, more like a RL city than most Tolkien cities: gorgeous, but very disorganized, patchwork, built up ad-hoc, happenstance and convenience slowly rising into districts. All the people stopping in it or passing through it, either east or west, leave another layer of their presence there. um….I still haven’t read invisible cities despite buying it because of bamboocounting like….months ago. Anyway it’s 90% turned to dust by LOTR.

With abruptly going from lush inland forested river-filled Ossiriand to this newly-formed bluff-edged shoreland with a huge new saltwater gulf splitting it down the middle, I headcanon it being a pretty big mess for decades. Before Galadriel took a lot of them to Eregion, I picture all the characters you mention spending a lot of time on fixing up – collecting and reuniting scattered people, building houses, establishing diplomatic ties and supply chains, etc.

eg: there is very little formality or ingrained institutions and no palaces full of comforts let alone luxuries for at LEAST a century, thanks

BUT, the fixing-up period being mostly a very happy time! Like, I think there was certainly a ton of hardship and stress with trying to keep people fed and housed in this chaotic near-post-apocalyptic situation while new villages and stuff were built, and fighting stray dark creatures who had also escaped, but still a lot of general relief and feelings of being insanely fortunate and curious exploration, finally free from being under constant overwhelming threat again even if this peace is quite a different kind from the peace before Morgoth returned, going hand-in-hand with the work, and building together as a conduit for bonding and feasting etc – and celebration and joy as deliberate defiance against the loss and grief and war they suffered. I think this real-world thing would fit it well.

Not a very big population at first, since not a lot survived at all, and most of the elves went to Eressea and most of the humans went to Numenor, and most of the Sindar who remained went east. I headcanon the early “kingdom” as more…scattered villages along the shore with a large but transient population concentration around the Havens because most of those were just looking for their friends and relatives and waiting for seats to open up on the constant flood of ships heading west, and when the passengers finally dwindle down this distribution has taken root and multiplied, but not a really powerful force until post-The Mariner’s Wife.

After the establishment period, now that it FINALLY isn’t a time of war, after centuries of it, elves start having babies all over the fucking place, and all the accoutrements that go with it. Dozens of new and half-forgotten festival days that are literally just giant bacchanalias, zillions of weddings, society shifting to be very oriented towards sex and romance and children and child-rearing, rather than warfare, etc. With this showing up a lot in their songs, and art, and lifestyle, etc.

One of the most delightful Lindon-adjacent nuggets in the Histories of Middle Earth I think is that elves of Lindon spent at least 50 years, if not more, ferrying the Edain to Numenor. I won’t repeat the tag ramble I appended to that passage here, but just… *blows kisses off fingers* it’s so absurd and fitting….I think of this as a big post-war self-image thing, the cataclysm and Morgoth’s defeat just so utterly scrambling their view of the world and their role in it. >_o

Speaking of that, not a lot of cultural continuity between the Noldor of the First Age and the Noldor of Lindon. The people of Cirdan and therefore at first for Gil-galad were the Falathrim, so I hc that especially after lots of Noldor left for Tol Eressea and Eregion the dominant culture of Lindon was a blendy Falathrim twist.

But that’s mostly just dominant as a plurality – the real “main culture” of Lindon is the hodge-podge mixture itself. Exiles who stayed because they wanted to, exiles who stayed because they are ex-Feanorians or otherwise can’t face going back or aren’t allowed. Descendants of exiles, mixed Noldor/Sindar elves who weren’t even born during the early Silm. Noldor who feel totally alienated from everything, Noldor who feel more connected to their fellow people of Sirion than to the Noldor generally. Survivors of Gondolin, survivors of Nargothrond, Sindar who didn’t want to go east, Edain who didn’t go to Numenor, Edain who are just waiting around to go to Numenor, Dwarves who had to leave the Blue Mountains due to them being broken up in the war, other peoples of all kinds, who all scrambled convergently to Lindon to flee the incoming war and water like ants. The areas of Lindon, and the districts of Mithlond, array themselves as reflections of, or deliberate eschewings of, the weird headlong rush into intertwining and splitting apart and morphing into new things that characterizes late Silm-era dynamics and groups.

In addition to pre-existing Falathrim attitudes about the sea, a major cultural/religious/etc tradition would spring up in Lindon in relation to the sea – the destructive, overwhelming, healing, saving, unfathomable, un-tameable, enticing, perilous sea that broke the earth, yet cleansed it, destroyed both enemies and homes, the place that now holds everything that Beleriand was in its depths, the place that deliverance came from. Kind of a less cynical but still very terrified version of Voronwë’s complete lack of chill about it. Sea-longing and going to sea and either never coming back or not coming back the same carves out a major place in their understanding of the world. One of the Standard Identities available to a segment of the popular in Lindon is like, “oh, he’s Waiting For A Ship,” An overlap of understanding grows between them and the Numenoreans over this. Ahem. Feel free.

eg: great Implied Significance for the new shoreline and the gulf of Lhûn as the place where Beleriand broke off and sank. References to these places as idioms to refer to being just past the furthest reach of a calamity, or a now-innocuous reminder of past calamity, or the duality of homecoming and escape

also eg: “lmao X is as unpredictable as the Lhûn amirite #microclimates”

the Numenoreans love them, but are sort of boggled by them. They have the same strange varied mixture and mood swings of cheer and gloom and Issues as the ex-Exiles and ex-Sindar of Tol Eressea, but the Numenoreans don’t entirely understand why they stuck with Middle Earth, for after a few generations have passed, the Numenoreans can only really guess, from their own lore, what having life experiences that were once concurrent with the long-distant sufferings of their Edain ancestors might be like. The Tol Eressean elves, on their island of release, are easier to understand, they’re sort of like us! But what of these weirdos back east – and that way lies the peril of like…you know. Everything wild, that Numenor is not

ETA: Later, when they realize the shadow has returned, this slow kind of infuriated disillusioned backslide…like, really? really? again? and the buildup back to war being really grim and depressing, though a minority of them always knew something like this would happen again. And rising conflict short of outright hostility with Eregion. People relearning to be soldiers again…or generals…