#wow i really projected a little onto hyoga there huh

[pumpkinpaix]

Anon here! I meant to ask for Hyoga headcanons sorry! I wrote Shun because I was reading your cute headcanons for him and the others and did word association, but I really like your headcanons and they seem really thought out!

alskdjlfskj yeah i was wondering, I’m glad you came back to clarify!! and thank you so much ;~; I love thinking hard about headcanons because I think it’s one of the best ways to understand characters ahaha. I’m glad it worked for you!! :DDDD anyways, some hyoga headcanons:

hyoga didn’t speak any japanese before he was orphaned and moved to japan. his mother only spoke russian to him before she passed, and despite him being half-japanese, there really wasn’t anyone present to teach him anything about it until he was adopted. he learned through trial by fire, essentially, and when you’re four or so, you can still pick up language fast--but only if you’ve got a good environment for it. hyoga, being scared and antisocial and grieving for his mother, didn’t really make friends well

there were two other orphans who tried often to make friends with him: one was shun, but that’s because shun tried to make friends with everyone at least once, even though he was largely bullied, and hyoga mostly ignored him until he gave up, and the other was a much more persistent boy who didn’t survive saint training. hyoga also mostly ignored him, but he learned japanese through constant, direct exposure. they weren’t close, but after the wars, hyoga finds out where he was sent, and visits to pay his respects to his grave

hyoga and shiryu speak the most languages out of anyone in their group at five apiece: hyoga speaks russian, japanese, greek, english and french, while shiryu speaks japanese, jiang-huai mandarin, standard mandarin, greek, and english. sometimes they mock-argue about it, and hyoga says he wins on a technicality since if they’re counting jiang-huai as a separate language even though it’s politically a dialect, then he actually wins because he speaks both southern and standard russian dialects, to which shiryu smiles and says, “if that makes you feel better ;)”

anyways the point is, hyoga speaks japanese with a very faint russian accent that’s nearly undetectable unless he’s agitated, and then it gets way stronger, like when he’s losing to seiya at super mario

wow that was just a lot of language headcanons

actually, I think hyoga and shiryu get quite close, especially after the war, because they share weirdly a lot of experiences, what with feeling both like diaspora in japan, even though they’re both half-japanese (i’m running with my “I think shiryu is half-chinese??” theory), being sent back to train near their birthplaces, losing eyes lmfao and never feeling quite at home anywhere.

hyoga is actually really into literature! i think i said before that that’s how he keeps up with his languages, but he also has a soft spot for russian folktales because it’s something he remembers his mother by and also is like. a little salty in his way? that he fights for a greek goddess and had to learn all this stuff about greek myth and is like :/ but what about the stories I grew up with?

anyways he’s a surprisingly animated storyteller and sometimes, during like, idk, bonfire nights? he’ll tell them all about rusalki and leshi and snegoruchka and the death of koschei

or maybe sometimes he’ll recite poetry! he doesn’t do it often because he’s not really like, a showman? but like. when the Vibes are Right.

when they’re older, they discover that the same stories told drunk are often hilarious, so sometimes they’ll ply him with some alcohol and clamor for their favorites

he has mixed feelings about religion: his mother was russian orthodox, but passed away so early that he never really like, got to experience it as a practice of faith. he was christened, and obviously he has that rosary cross, but that’s about it, besides like, you know, the way the faith of a parent is instilled in a child. he used to pray to saints when he was much younger and alone, but kind of like, in a way where he didn’t really understand. it’s also complicated because you know, greek gods? exist??? but in some ways, he still has a little of that childlike belief. he considers going back and getting confirmed in russia after the wars, since he missed the normal window for it training and fighting, but he’s not sure if it’s appropriate, if it’s what he wants, if it matters

he likes paintings and such, but he doesn’t really get it as much as he gets literature, but shun likes them, so they actually go to museums together quite often. hyoga is, however, weak for craftsmanship, and does eventually acquire a small, beautifully painted icon for himself, despite all of his conflicted feelings about his religion

hyoga, despite giving off touch-me-not vibes, actually really likes physical contact with people he trusts. for a a lot of their early friendship, seiya didn’t really touch him at all because he essentially got hissed at the first time he went to casually bump shoulders. but shun, being a person who likes physical touch and also somehow didn’t get the urge to seek it out beaten out of him, touches gently and reads boundaries well, so hyoga lets him in a lot earlier than anyone else.

ikki is kind of the same, actually? so honestly sometimes he and hyoga challenge each other to sparring matches just to like. touch another human person, even though neither of them acknowledges or really even realizes that that’s what they’re doing. :( fuck i got sad

hyoga prefers fruit popsicles to ice cream. why? idk it just feels right.

bonus shun language headcanon:

shun speaks some tigrinya, which he learned from june (i’ve decided this is her native language)--not fluently (which is why he doesn’t win the language contest, at least, not until he learns some russian), but enough to carry on private conversations when they don’t want to be overheard by others, but most of the time, they talk to each other in english or greek