#syb headcanons the old guard

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Nicky x Joe (+ the Old Guard) headcanons

Of the Old Guard, they’re the ones who have the most non-combat related skills. I am definitely adopting this fic’s headcanon that Joe can cook really well and Nicky can bake really well

Obviously they make Andy baklava whenever possible

Joe, Nicky, and Booker may not get along all the time (Booker tends to stay away from their eternally sunshine vibes when he’s feeling morose), but they three of them are excellent fisherman and often take bets on who can catch the biggest fish. Booker jokes that it’s the best way to get them to be quiet and stop making eyes at each other. 

Joe knows a ton of plant identification facts – it started as a way to find food in literally any environment, and now he just like, knows about plants. It also helps him cook because he’s very willing to experiment

He’s only poisoned himself once! He and Nicky had a fight about it though cause it took him a long time to come back from that (even Andy was worried), so he’s not allowed to eat something just for the experimentation of it all

They both live/die as Crusaders (as in looking for the Big Cause) to the heart though, so part of them is always waiting for Andy to bring the next mission to them. 

When they learn Andy is to die they have a long talk about what they might do next; whether they should be in charge of the team for a little while or what. Nicky is adamant that Nile will take over, that she’s being passed the torch. Joe believes it but he still wants her to have a choice in the matter and thinks they should consider stepping up for at least a few years so that Nile can find her feet. 

Nicky is the most at peace with the idea of death in the crew, and he’s sat down with Andy and gotten out of her the kind of funeral she wants.

He and Joe have a document detailing theirs that they left instructions for her to find, and now they’ve passed that on to Nile <3

Old Guard Headcanons

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Not to dig in the knife, but my biggest headcanon for Booker and Joe’s friendship is that it’s one of -- unraveling, of trying to listen, of trying to help. 

Joe listens to Booker. He tries to cheer him up, watches sports with him, occasionally will sit with him for long periods and try and soothe him about the bleak realities of immortalities. Joe is hopeful. He has Nicky, so he knows he will always be all right. 

Joe is hopeful that Booker will find a way to be all right too. He wants that for him badly.

It’s not just Nicky who he’s feeling the betrayal for when he yells you selfish asshole at Booker in Merrick’s lab. It’s naked fury that Booker would do this, would turn back to destruction and self-loathing and everything Joe hopes in his heart of hearts he is able to get free of someday. It’s that he dragged everyone else into that, everyone who tried so hard to help him. 

Joe still thinks he was maybe too hard on Booker, that one hundred years will do nothing but make him worse. 

But there are many days he just thinks “after that? I can’t. Not for a long time.” And that feels selfish too. 

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Nile (+The Old Guard) headcanons

She does, on some level, come back to her spirituality and connection with her God, though it’s differently nuanced than it was before. She has a lot of conversations with Nicky and Joe about this, who both have a kind of blended dialogue about their past religions and are fond of saying they’re in dialogue about their respective gods

She like REALLY throws herself hard at combat study with Andy, because she knows they have limited time together. I think the both of them get hurt in the first few weeks after Andy recovers, and it’s Nile who gets hurt more.   

It's also Nile that advocates for a less slaughter based fighting style-- like she rightly points out, if they have all these skills, why not try their best to spare life where possible? They go back and forth on this but it does change their operating style as a team in a good way. 

It’s amazing how fast she falls in as a natural leader of the group-- the level of mutual respect they have for each other is off the charts and it makes her really rethink her time in the marines; especially some more unpleasant moments and how quickly her bonds with her friends were shattered.

She's the one who has to be cajoled the most to take up a non-combat adjacent hobby. Part of it is her eagerness to be worthy of Andy's leadership position and part of it is she's not really as familiar with the concept of having leisure time. For a while there she just learns languages from Joe and Nicky, who use every language they know to tell her to do something that sparks joy. She points out that a lot of their hobbies do have usefulness (such as Joe's artistic abilities) and Joe is like "yeah but that's not why I do it?"

Andy eventually gets her by starting a team ultimate frisbee game which oddly enough gets her into studying aerodynamics. At first it's so that she can learn to fly a plane but then she just gets really into the mathematics of it all. It's very affirming to her since she was funnelled into non STEM/military stream work from a young age. 

Apart from Andy, she worries about Booker the most and speaks up about it privately to Andy the most. Joe and Nicky don't really want to hear of it. 

Old Guard Headcanons