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What is everyone's hcs for the killjoys city names?

I think Kobra Kid was Elliot, Fun Ghoul was Alex and Party Poison was Jesse and Jet Star is city born so doesn't have a Batt name

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Thinking about zones culture...

(Before I get into this, please keep in mind that I see the DD universe as like 75 years removed from the literal apocalypse, so things like communication, transportation, and infrastructure are very different from our modern world, or even the real world 1950s. Add that to extreme poverty, and you get zone dwellers living 'only' 200km apart who don't necessarily know that much about each other first hand.)

Really there is no singular "zones culture". Well, there is in a sense — in the interplay between the collective cultures of the California Desert — but that's nobody's real culture. It's just the natural result of cultures colliding.

This half-real "Zones" culture is little things — like everybody knowing a little bit of English, but not because they speak it for real, just because it's the lingua franca between communities, and between the desert and Battery City. It's using the same ingredients in very different cuisines because those are what's available in this time and climate. It's dressing pretty differently but following similar principles, since everyone lives with the same relentless sun, dust, and drought. It's broad things that came about due to proximity or convenience, not necessarily out of a sense of community.

But then there are smaller, much real-er cultures — local ones, lone ones, town-by-town ones. It does tend to cluster in regions, and there is lots of crossover of course, but each settlement, whether 100 people or 10,000 people, has it's own norms and customs. There's a lot of dead space out there; neutral towns vary wildly in their languages, religions, beliefs, and values... and smart folks will know at least a bit about their immediate neighbours! It's hard not to, to be honest. Life in the desert of California (and maintaining sovereignty from Battery City) requires a decent bit of cooperation and willingness to form alliances.

Some of the biggest towns in the Zones — the few approaching that 10,000 citizens mark — have quite the influence on the settlements around them. The biggest of them even exert influence on the entirety of the Zones, being big enough to support things like newspapers and far-reaching radio stations. Even then, though, people really do value tradition and custom; they've fought tooth and nail to keep it, as did their parents, grandparents, and so on. The city is already after their culture. They're not friendly to people trying to change their ways.

Killjoy culture is a little different.

Killjoy culture, as I'm defining it in my canon, is primarily the culture of ex-citizens of Battery City. Of course, it is also describing a political movement, and these escapees are not totally isolated in their politics, so it also includes some people who were born in the desert. There are plenty of reasons why desert-borns dislike the city, though few take it so far as to join up with killjoys. Similarly, some immigrants from the city have no interest in the political fight and instead do their best to assimilate into (usually) one of the larger towns. Mainly, however, I think about Killjoy culture as being heavily influenced by Battery City, especially in ways that feel very 'un-city' and free to people who once lived there, but feel restrictive and extremely 'city' to anyone desert-born. It's sort of separate from the cultures of desert towns as a whole, because they do not interact nearly as much or on as good terms. Neutrals don't have the sort of wariness with each other as they do with 'joys.

So, I think killjoy culture is sort of false in the same way that "zones culture" is false. It exists, but it's built first and foremost around something other than its people. Well, that combined with whatever scraps of Old World (pre apocalypse) culture their family in the city managed to keep. Very “killjoy” to have one-of-a-kind cobbled together cultures like that.

Killjoys do have a sense of community, though neutrals often miss this because killjoy community looks different than theirs. Killjoys are often rather nomadic, and they're always scattered. A lot of their culture is in media, and in folklore, and in the few events that are important enough for mass gatherings. Different than typical zones folklore, which often follows certain themes — killjoy folklore is heavily influenced by lobby culture, including a lot of droid religion.

But folklore is another topic…

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I hc that the city government generally prefers mind games/manipulation to physical force (though they’re not above that when the manipulation doesn't work). They're in it for the long term, and they're perfectly content to keep people in reeducation for months or even years as long as they feel the person is making progress. If not... well, they've got harsher, much more secretive stuff for those people. In my hc reeducation is merely step one, the thing regular people know exists. It sucks to go through and it's super immoral to normal people in our world, but in the context of the city I think it's just kinda something that happens to people sometimes, and there's not that much stigma around it for those who "successfully" complete the program.

In my hc the primary goal of BLI's reeducation is to make people come to the correct (government-approved) conclusions themselves about what’s true and what behaviour is appropriate, because they feel like that gets better and longer lasting results. They don’t want to have to force people into it, they want to exert so much influence and control over the narrative that they can get people to agree they were wrong.

BLI is big on euphemisms even when they don’t fool anyone: it’s not reeducation it’s involuntary treatment, it’s not part of the penal system it’s healthcare, it’s not trying to force people to believe in the City’s moral code it’s just helping people who are heading down a bad path get their lives back on track. People sent for "treatment" aren't inmates, they patients. Even though it's definitely closer to prison than healthcare and 100% definitely part of the penal system, it's just about appearances and manipulation. Them maintaining these euphemisms regardless of if the 'patients' believe them is the first step of the city controlling their reality.

I think reeducation is heavily conformity based in a way that goes well beyond the typical conformity expected of citizens of Battery City. They keep very tight control over every element of the day; what people are allowed to wear, what they're allowed to talk about, where they're allowed to go, what they're allowed to do, when they’re allowed to do it. There is very little opportunity for any sort of choice or self expression, no matter how minor. Every man gets the same haircut, and every woman gets the same haircut. Everyone wears the same clothes, to the point where if you wear glasses, they make you a pair of their uniform glasses in your prescription. They calculate your portions for meals and they expect you to eat exactly that, no modifying it in any way (no salt shakers, no condiments beyond what they give you, no picking out something you don't like, not even deciding what order to eat things in).

They keep VERY tight control over what media is allowed in the facility — staff don't even get to bring in their personal phones and stuff. There's a lot of media consumption in the reeducation facility, it's just all propaganda, much of it specially made for the purposes of reeducation. Loooooots of city history and stuff about how shitty the zones are. They do "citizenship classes" too, which are similarly propaganda-y.

I think they also do really fucked up therapy where they're continuously building psychological profiles of their 'patients' and work to figure out their soft spots and how they can exploit those, and from there they’ll tell people basically whatever they think they'll find persuasive. Then they do incredibly manipulative group therapy where they strategically pit people against each other, or target the discussion to intentionally single out one person as having particularly "crazy" beliefs. They are very careful to not let people mix with others who are there for similar reasons (so they don’t share ideas, and to maintain the sense of “You’re literally the ONLY person who thinks this, don't you think other people would feel the same if it were true?”) but they do it in this really sneaky proactive way where nobody even realizes they’re being kept away from certain people.

The staff are always watching, always observing, always taking notes... and they don't really try to hide it. Visible cameras and two-way mirrors everywhere, high ratios of staff, a real panopticon sort of deal. People knowing they're being watched is the point.

Basically I think it's a lot of isolating people and gaslighting them to the point that they no longer trust themselves and are willing to submit to BLI voluntarily.

I think day-to-day life in the reeducation facility is probably (intentionally) pretty boring. Three mandatory bland meals a day, a schedule packed full of mandatory bland activities, day after day in the most blandly decorated building you can imagine... boring af. Their version of "recreation" is mainly facility-approved media (meaning propaganda tv, documentaries, and books).

I think they’re also pretty open and upfront with certain things, namely that failing the "treatment" program will mean going to the next level of "care", where they basically drop the medical facade and treat it like the highly specialized prison it is (their justice system is all sorts of corrupt, this is one of several ways you can get tortured/imprisoned indefinitely without actually being sentenced to it). That's as close as they get to force in what they call reeducation — reminding you that force is on the table but only if you ~make them~ do it.

what are your guys hcs for what re-education is like

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Party Poison Headcanons

- He was totally captivated from the moment he learned about the Phoenix Witch and the religion surrounding her. Religion quickly became a big part of his daily life; it’s very important to him and he structures his days to give him time to pray and do the rituals he feels are important.

- He’s been dating a guy named Dunerover Danny for a few years. They are very in love, though sometimes long distance due to the “dune roving” thing. Dan is basically an anthropologist (for his own enjoyment of desert history/culture and also wanting a more accurate and humanising version than whatever BLI would do), he’s travelling a lot. Poison goes with him on occasion.

- Extrovert to the extreme, almost always prefers to be around other people. He’s always out and about, running errands or visiting people, or else he’s wandering around the diner looking for someone who’s not too busy to hang out while they work. He’s very chatty.

- He has a habit of making up silly little songs while he goes about his day, usually narrating what he’s doing. It’s very cute.

- He’s a really good cook and (largely) in charge of both supply management and meals. He learned everything he knows about cooking from various people in the zones, including Jet and Ghoul, since cooking was never something he really had to think about in the city. He doesn’t know how to “properly” do any particular cuisine but he does some interesting fusion food.

- he’s an incredibly quick learner and excelled in school growing up. A ton of his identity is baked into that and it’s been hard for him to let go of as an adult/in a society that doesn’t value formal academia in the same way as the city. He speaks and writes fluently in 6 languages, has fancy double psychology and law degrees from Battery City’s most elite university, picks up on new things with ease… and it does not impress people in the desert like it did people in the city, for a variety of reasons. He can be both a little overwhelming in his desire to learn and incredibly obnoxious in his constant need to debate and be right. Also tends to think he knows better than everyone else and comes off as extremely arrogant, sometimes controlling and even belittling. He figured it out eventually but it took a while to learn what upset people.

- Despite the brashness he’s really charismatic and charming. He gets away with a LOT just by being a good manipulator and knowing when to turn it on and off.

- Fame really suits him, he never gets tired of being known and recognised, even by those who hate his guts. He’s just happy to leave an impression.

- The desert really suits him in general, which is sort of surprising because he fit flawlessly into the city until his early 20s. He’s really thrived out in the zones, though — more than most people — and it’s hard to tell he wasn’t born out there. It’s the best decision he ever made.

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In my headcanon the two-part killjoy names function almost like stage names.

A killjoy name is the one you use to represent yourself on the radio, the one you give to strangers, the one you work under, the essence of your public persona — it's something that's intentionally and thoughtfully crafted as a form of self expression, and it's very culturally meaningful both as a name and the process of finding that name — but I don't think people give up on having 'regular' names entirely. Within a crew (or between partners) people flip back and forth between names, and often people's regular names end up being used as pet names by their loved ones. It's a trust thing; someone who can comfortably know and use a name that's not a code name is someone that you have serious mutual respect with.

It's fairly common for people to change or alter their 'real' names to something that they like better, especially for those who left the city, but it's very different from the process of making/getting a killjoy name. Usually (though not always) it's more grounded in the traditional naming conventions of whatever culture(s) the person comes from.

(In my hc Poison changed his name after leaving the city, Jet and Kobra kept their birth names, and Ghoul shortened hers to a more traditionally masc name that happens to be part of her birth name)

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Kobra Kid Headcanons

- avid photographer. Cherri has a little dark room at his place and the two of them go on photography day trips and then hang out while developing the photos.

- He loooooves to show off his pictures, and they’re pretty good! He’s got a natural knack for composition and is very detail oriented, he can spend a really long time carefully setting up a shot if given the opportunity. His subject matter is fairly predictable: exceptionally cool cars/bikes/trucks, close ups of rare or weird car parts, decaying animals and animal skeletons, and bugs. Once in a while he’ll take a candid shot of Cherri or Poison or someone, or a landscape if something cool is going on, but 95% of the time it’s car or decay related stuff.

- He’s really sentimental, and his half of the room he and Poison share is decorated with his photos and the trinkets he’s collected over the years. He remembers the story behind every single one of them, and they are meticulously sorted by some sort of elusive criteria that Poison can’t quite figure out and Kobra can’t quite explain in a way that makes sense to others.

- Absolutely fascinated by vehicles. Can’t stress that enough, dude is ALWAYS thinking about cars. He loves to watch Ghoul work on cars in the shop and help her out when she’ll let him. It’s one of the few topics he’s interested in having an extensive conversation about. It’s basically impossible to be close to him and not pick up a lot of information about car parts.

- He’s got a little collection of die-cast cars and usually has one or more of them on him at any given time (though there are some that are too precious to him to leave their shelf). He does this half because simply having one with him is comforting, and half because he stims by spinning the wheels. He’s never been much of a “pretend to drive the toy car” guy.

- He’s fluent in both Japanese and English, and has picked up a handful of words and phrases in Spanish and Korean. He rarely verbally says more than a word or two unless it’s scripted.

- Generally relies VERY heavily on dialogue from The Mousekat Show for communication, though he’s constantly expanding his repertoire and picking up new scrips from the people around him too. He’s just extremely comfortable with his childhood scripts so he sticks with those a lot. It’s very easy to tell which scripts were taught to him by teachers or whoever because they’re much clearer to outsiders but don’t sound like him at all; it’s rather jarring if you’re used to his typical style of speaking. Very formal, VERY “city” style.

- He loves animals in general, but he had a startling and scary encounter with a military dog as they were leaving battery city and has been terrified of dogs ever since.

- Jet taught him to sew, and he does a lot of that. He does most of the mending and patching for the four’s clothes. He does some of that for friends too, which is how he finances his photography hobby.

- He and Poison have always been close (they’ve never known a life without the other, after all) but Kobra found it hard not to be somewhat resentful of his brother when they were kids. His disability and support needs were judged even more harshly in comparison to Poison’s extreme academic aptitude, and them being identical twins only made the comparisons and expectations worse. Poison has always seen him as an equal, but it was crystal clear to Kobra that people outside of his family only saw one of them as a full person, and it was understandably hard for him to not feel jealous and angry. Their relationship kind of struggled in their teen years and improved a lot once they left the city.

- He’s not religious or superstitious at all and has basically no patience for Poison’s fairly intense spirituality. He’ll put up with some amount of participating in it of it out of love, but he won’t pretend to believe.

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isn’t it weird but rlly nice that every headcanon we have for the Danger Days universe/characters is canon within our own versions of the universe? nothing’s canon so everything’s canon, except canon’s always slightly different. changes depending on who you ask. love that.

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Yo do you post anymore?? I just found you're blog and I really like it and think it's cool

Thank you, I’m really glad you like it, but I don’t really post here anymore. I still love danger days, but the fandom is something I cannot deal with any longer for various reasons. Maybe one day I will come back, but for now this blog is basically inactive.

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not only does poison give cool haircuts because of his training as a hairstylist, but he gives fucking amazing scalp massages.

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🍒🐍?

Kobra and Cherri have a tentative relationship. Neither quite understands the other, despite their best efforts. Kobra finds Cherri incredibly difficult to read (which, to be fair, he is) and Cherri just finds Kobra overwhelming (his demeanour reminds him a little too much of the SFP. Not his attitude or ideals ofc, just his energy and his rashness. It scares him a little because he’s terrified of slipping back into who he used to be). They like each other enough though, and get along fine when they see each other– but they would never hang out just the two of them, it would be really uncomfy for both.  

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all of the four know how to do medical things (for practical reasons) but ghoul has the most knowledge about how to treat injuries bc he’s a mess that gets injured a lot

except no one wants Ghoul to treat their injuries bc he’s too rough with the procedures

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Capturing the Social Side of Food with @samishome

To see more of Samantha’s food photography, follow @samishome on Instagram.

“My job is to tell stories of people through objects,” says Chicago-born prop stylist Samantha Wong (@samishome), who currently lives in Hong Kong. Her job, along with her passion for traveling, connecting with people and living a creative lifestyle, are the things that inspire her photography — and food often plays a big role in those moments. “I’m totally a social eater, as I tend to ‘splurge’ more when it’s a shared experience,” says Samantha, who started to include stylistic elements into her meals with friends and share those occasions through her photos.

“Food is very much a platform for social engagement and interaction: My photos capture that community as much as they tell about the ‘deliciousness’ of the food itself,” explains Samantha. Her biggest trick to creating a sense of interaction on the table is to incorporate people’s hands into the image. “Their anonymity allows a viewer to imagine themselves at the table, engaging in the spreads themselves,” she says. When Samantha encounters the right lighting, interiors and composition during her snacks and meals with her peers, there’s a good chance she’ll take out her smartphone for a photo shoot. “I always ask friends to have their nails painted, wear small pieces of jewelry or dress in clothes with interesting texture to add a stylistic angle and reflect the attitude of our destination,” she reveals. “My friends have become expert hand models as a result of this!”

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How bad've any of you ever been messed up from a clap? Seen anyone ghosted? -SE

“the emotional fallout is always greater than any stitches we ever got from a clap”

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Poison is a very smart dude, but he sucks at learning languages. He grew up speaking Japanese almost exclusively, even though his mother’s first language is English, and the only English he knew was from school lessons. When he got a job at the salon his mom worked at he thought he was fluent enough to get by but... nope. His first year there was hell– his English was by no means bad, but was nowhere near the conversational level needed to be a hair dresser. 

Now he’s really grateful that he was forced to become fully fluent though, because it’s usually not smart to speak Japanese in the zones (especially if you’re a killjoy). 

Honestly though he’s always been a little resentful that Kobra was able to pick up English so easily.

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Battery City Teenage Culture

-Teenagers have a LOT of their time dictated by expected city activities. This includes scouting, church meetings, community service, and extracurricular clubs. The city has more influence over teenagers than any other group. In some ways this isn’t bad– most teenagers are polite, helpful, and studious– but it still is propaganda, and it keeps people in check with the city’s morals during their most influential years.

- Almost all kids are in boy scouts or girl scouts from ages 5 to 18. There are aspects of traditional scouting, such as building skills and doing community service, as well as elements that are more in line with propaganda, such as teaching kids the morals of the city and making it clear that they are the only acceptable way to live. For the most part kids do like scouting, though, and it’s generally an enjoyable, positive experience. College students often are troupe leaders (Party Poison was one, he was super into boy scouts in the city). 

- Teenagers basically dress like adults do. Modesty is regarded as very important, and you’ll rarely even see someone with revealed shoulders. Girls can wear pants, skirts, or dresses (as long as they’re not above the knee), and boys usually wear button up or collared shirts and nice pants. It’s unusual for teens to wear blue jeans, but not unheard of and not necessarily looked down on. Girls wear a lot of pastels and some brighter pinks and yellows, while boys usually wear a lot of black, grey, and white. Boys usually wear ties to church, and they often can get away with bright colours for that. In general, bright colours are much more acceptable on teenagers than they are on adults, especially for girls. School uniforms are the same for everyone (except that girls have a skirt option), so there really isn’t that much time when teenagers get to dress themselves anyway.  

- Girls usually start wearing makeup in high school, but mostly in subdued, natural shades. Bright pink and purple lipstick has gotten trendy in recent years, but it’s not allowed in schools. 

- Dating is seen as okay for high schoolers, but they usually go on dates in groups rather than alone to prevent “immoral actions”. The city has nothing against masturbation, but is generally big on chastity, so teenagers get it drilled into their heads that their significant other shouldn’t see or touch anything anyone else wouldn’t see until they’re married. In the city that basically means anything between the shoulders and lower thigh, but there is, of course, a level of rebellion. Still, you’d be hard pressed to find parents who let their kids go on a date alone. Teens usually go on dates to restaurants, parks, or movie theatres. Picnics are extremely popular. 

- Because apartments are so small, teens only hang out at someone’s home if they’re a very small group. Otherwise, ice cream shops, cafes, and parks are common places to find teenagers. Battery City teens are shockingly well behaved as a whole, and aren’t known for causing disturbances. They mostly just hang out in groups and talk. When not on planned dates, they tend to hang out exclusively with people of the same gender– it’s pretty rare to see groups of boys and girls together who aren’t flirting. 

- Most teenagers are fairly focused on school work. Even though going into a trade rather than going to university is seen as a completely valid option, there’s immense pressure to do well in school regardless of your plans. Not doing well academically really hurts your reputation. 

- Teens also usually participate in one or two extracurricular sports. Swimming and volleyball are common picks for girls, while boys generally choose soccer or baseball. That said, there’s no hard lines to this, and anyone is welcome in any sport. Honestly though sports aren’t really a huge deal in terms of the larger community like they are in the current day US; they’re just played for enjoyment and exercise. 

- The internet is moderately regulated, but there’s no real censorship of individuals. Teens use social media platforms (most focus on picture sharing rather that text), but there really isn’t a huge emphasis on it. Most teenagers would rather be outside than inside on the computer, and there is a lot of importance placed on hanging out in person.

- Teenagers are pretty much subjected to the same gender norms that adults are. Groups of girls are expected to gossip and socialize over books, movies, or crafts, while groups of boys are expected to exercise and discuss girls etc. Everyone is expected to do weekly volunteer work (usually as part of their church groups), but that’s gendered too. There is an expectation for girls to go out in groups and do more personal work, such as bringing food to people in need, helping out with kids, or making things for people, while boys are expected to go out individually and do more manual labour such as painting city buildings and maintaining city grounds. Again though, these are just societally enforced. No one would get angry at a teenage boy for knitting an elderly lady a sweater as his community service, but his peers might think he was strange. 

-Knitting and scrapbooking are very popular with teenage girls. With scrapbooking in particular, there seems to be a strong trend of preserving your youth to bring with you throughout life. Girls sometimes have scrapbooking tea parties with their friends.

-Slang is also very common amongst teenagers, although theres a general understanding that its not appropriate to use slang when talking to adults. Most teenagers stop using slang after their first year of university (or once they enter the workforce, if they go directly from high school). Using slang once you’re “in the adult world” is seen as very childish at best and rude at worst. 

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but with teenagers: what would teenage rebels look like? what are the punishments for skipping school? is it your average detention, or is it more creative punishments? if so, would they involve physical pain?

Hmmm... I don’t think there really are too many rebels. The punishment is mostly just social isolation, and that deters a lot of people. Teenagers in the city can be pretty unforgiving to people who don’t act like the city teaches, and it only takes a small mistake to be ostracized. 

If someone did those things, I think they would usually be given detention and their parents would be contacted. Common home consequences would be grounding, limiting computer or tv time, typical stuff really. Repeated offences would be rare, but would definitely result in reeducation and community service (the ‘bad kind’ where its enforced and its cleaning parks and stuff). 

Keep in mind that this is just for the inner city though. In the part of the lobby where Ghoul grew up it was rare for teens to show up for school, and when they did it was only because the school always had working electricity. 

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in church, who would they worship? is it monotheistic or polytheistic? i like to think its a warped version of christianity, but more commercialized, and made into consumerism. like they worship jesus and sales

Yep, I agree with you! I basically see it as “Christianity lite”, where they have the holidays but no spiritual connection. I don’t even think they really refer to the bible much, they just have talks about morals and city stuff in church. I see the city as a largely atheist society, so I think the church is really more of a “church”, in that it’s basically just about community. People are very involved in it, and its basically the only way to make friends once you’re out of school, but its not really about religion at all. 

Ok some background, I hc Jet as coming from a quite conservative Christian neutral town, and while she had a bit of a faith crisis at one point due to her faith’s beliefs about lgbt people, she still does very much believe in God and Jesus, just in a much more loving and forgiving way. Anyway, I always have this thought that she was talking to Poison one day and he was talking about how he would still consider himself Christian and how he was very active in his church growing up. And then Jet finds out that he barely even knows who Jesus was. Like he knows the name, but knows absolutely nothing about what role he has or what he did or anything. And she doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry, because it’s just so unbelievable to her that someone could call themselves an active, good Christian and not even know about Jesus Christ. 

But yeah if I rambled and got lost there, basically I think the city calls it’s religion a religion, and it calls it Christianity, but it has nothing to do with God or Jesus.