If You Hurt Him

do you ever think about how Michael probably hated being compared to his father, yet in both Watsonian and Doylist terms, that's all he ever was

like in watsonian ways, all the animatronics targeted him and attacked him because he looked so similar to his father that they were the same people to the children.

and in doylist ways, the only thing that defined him was his quest to defeat his father.

like, what in canon has clued us in about Mike's personality? That has nothing to do with his family or animatronics? it's that he likes a show called the immortal and the restless.

that's it.

everything else we have given him in fanon.

he spent his whole life trying to deal with his father to prove he wasn't him, yet he's entirely defined by his father.

and without him, he's barely a character.

it adds a sort of horror to his death in pizza sim. like when he attempted to lay his father to rest permanently, the universe laid him as well, because it had no purpose for him outside of his father.

it also kinda makes glammike a little fucked up if you think about it this way, even if he either moved on or his spirit lingered in the pizzeria. his father rose again and the universe either dragged him out of the afterlife or kept him in the basement because what else is he if not his father's watcher

do you ever think about that despite his best efforts to not be his father, he's entirely defined by the man

do you ever think about that

or are you normal.

The head of the healing coven has never been around Hunter for more than a few minutes at a time, mostly because Belos forbids that the two of them interact for some strange reason, but the few times they’ve gotten close to Hunter always reveals something concerning about the golden guard.

And I’m not just talking about the healing coven head noticing Hunter’s scars. I’m talking about the head of the healing coven noticing the weird quirks of Hunter’s grimwalker biology.

The first thing they notice is his fireproof skin. It’s not that weird at first glance, many demons have a slight resistance to fire, but the concerning part is just how strong that fireproof skin is. The demons that have some fireproofing built into their bodies aren’t completely immune to fire and they can still be burned with enough of it. Hunter is not only completely fireproof, but can walk through the boiling rain and swim through the boiling sea. This just shouldn’t be possible for a witch like him.

The second thing they noticed was his body temperature. It happened during a mission with Eberwolf and Hunter. They were trying to hunt down a beast that was terrorizing a local area. Eberwolf was there to track down the thing, Hunter was there to fight the thing (he had just been promoted to Golden Guard a few days ago and Belos said it would be good training for the future), and they were there to act as a healer to Eberwolf, Hunter and any civilians that were injured by the thing. Long story short Eberwolf cast a spell that let all of them see in infrared so they could track down the creature using its body heat and the healing coven head noticed that Hunter’s body was at a much higher temperature than what is normal for a witch. Constantly at temperatures that a regular witch would consider feverish. They actually mentioned this to Hunter and he just went “Oh yeah that’s perfectly normal for me. Uncle says it’s something I inherited from my family.” They spent the entire next day searching for something that could cause those unnaturally high body temperatures and be passed down genetically but they never found anything.

The third thing they noticed was his heartbeat. A slow heartbeat is normal for some witches and demons, the boiling isles are very, very diverse when it comes to biology, but the complete lack of a heartbeat definitely isn’t normal. They originally tried to justify this with the logic that Hunter’s armour must make his heartbeat harder to hear but no. Hunter just straight up has no heartbeat.

The fourth thing they noticed was on a trip to the knee. All the coven heads were travelling there for a meeting regarding the day of unity and the golden guard was there acting as a bodyguard. As they all trekked through the cold of the knee, the head of the healing coven noticed that they could see Hunter’s breath coming from the eye holes in his mask, and by playing attention to that, they noticed how slowly Hunter seems to breathe. So slowly that it’s hard to tell if he’s breathing at all at times.

But one of the strangest things they’ve seen was the golden guard running into the castle after a mission, covered in visible injuries. Hunter went straight past them and headed straight towards the throne room to speak to Belos. The healing coven head only caught a small glimpse of Hunter as he ran past, but they swear to this day that Hunter’s blood was as green as the insides of a palisman, with some actually red blood mixed in. No witch or demon on the boiling isles has blood like that.

adrien agreste & the body language of abuse

anybody who has seen even only one episode of miraculous ladybug can perfectly describe who chat noir is - he's brazen, he's fun, he's witty, he's flamboyant and overdramatic. he's the kind of hero who will preen confidently, give you a captivating wink and then he's off to save the world. but he's not chat noir all the time, or even half the time. most of the time, chat noir is adrien agreste - a quiet and exceedingly polite kid, who is likely to fade into the background despite his supermodel status. and sure, he knows how to be graceful and how to exude charisma, and he's still capable of being a drama queen (like slouching down a wall from being lovestruck).

but this post isn't about that.

because adrien is gabriel agreste's son all the time - a cold, careless, intimidating man, who will raise his voice to force others into submission, and who is depicted almost always with clenched fists.

what i've tried to do here is outline through images how gabriel's abuse has altered and influenced adrien's body language. because of tumblr's image limits (and the limits of my own patience), i have definitely missed some scenes, but i believe that i've managed to present with commentary the most important parts.

warning: image-heavy post.

chat noir is larger than life. adrien agreste tries to make himself as small as possible.

one of the biggest visual cues that the show gives us about adrien is that he has the tendency to wrap his arms around himself as a way of protection, whether because he's afraid of being vulnerable in front of others, or because he's self-soothing. he will do that even when there are other people around him that are offering comfort. adrien avoids bothering others with his feelings as much as possible, and putting his arms around his front serves as a replacement for the tender and warm touch he craves. he can also slouch, or put his knees up while sitting, creating a cocoon of sorts to feel safe. we also see him standing with his arms crossed in the rare times he tries to confront someone (his father or ladybug usually). whether he's sad, angry, guilty, disappointed, adrien will try to retreat to safety by forming a shield, so to speak.

there is an indisputable link between body and mind when it comes to trauma. adrien tries to not take much space not only with his physical presence, but by also almost never speaking up in class (unless to defend marinette), trying to be concise when communicating, and rarely making jokes. he's extremely reserved.

one of the scenes between gabriel and adrien that solidifies that adrien is terrified of his father happens in the first episode of season 2, when gabriel forbids adrien from attending school as a punishment for stealing and losing the grimoire. notice how gabriel is speaking with his back turned to his son, insinuating that adrien is not even worthy of being looked in the eyes. at one point he clenches his fist, as if to threaten his son. adrien is sitting on his computer chair with his hands in his lap, only lifting them defensively when he tries to explain himself. gabriel stands directly in front of him, as if shadowing adrien with his anger and contempt.

let's take a look at another episode - 'captain hardrock', in which gabriel and nathalie are listening to adrien play a piano piece. the screenshots in the upper half are from a moment when adrien hits a wrong note - notice the sheer fear and panic in his expression. he is immediately stopped, reprimanded for making a mistake, accused of being irresponsible and influenced by his rock band friends, and he's forbidden from attending his friends' concert. what's interesting about this moment isn't how he once again tries to make himself scarce physically - it's the terrified glance he gives his father when he plays the wrong key. you can just tell that adrien has internalized his father's reproaches and that his disapproving voice lives in his head, even when gabriel isn't there.

and can anyone judge him? take a look at these two screencaptures from 'stormy weather 2'. what happened is that adrien walked into his father's office, bright and enthusiastic, eager to tell him about the interesting idea behind his last photoshoot, and not only did he dare to interrupt gabriel's villainy, but he also accidentally called him 'dad' instead of 'father', as gabriel demands. a dirty look over the shoulder, two clenched fists, and adrien immediately apologizes and retreats.

adrien lives life on the defense. he has a naturally delicate and sensitive personality, which earns only eye rolls and accusations of put-on dramatism (there is also something to be said about how gabriel and adrien's relationship neatly corresponds to male and female gender roles, but that's yet another meta for another day).

notice the scene with ladybug in the image above - a rare time where adrien's trauma body language has bled into chat noir. he's insecure because 'nobody tells [him] how awesome [he] is', and he refuses to look ladybug or alix in the eyes while saying it. adrien is uncomfortable with looking at people during his most vulnerable moments.

'glaciator' is one of the episodes that can serve like a crash course on the way adrien carries himself under stress, this time because he's disappointed and heartbroken that the girl he loves didn't come to his surprise.

when around his father, if there's somebody else around he feels close to, adrien might lean on that other person, in order to feel stronger and braver.

now. not to be a conspiracy theorist about a cartoon or something, but. as miraculous is told from marinette's pov, we don't have a lot of episodes that focus on the agrestes, so we, the audience, often rely on guesswork and speculation. what was the relationship between emilie and gabriel? what was emilie really like? is she really as good as adrien claims, if he was strictly isolated the entire time she was alive? i do think that adrien's life has been mostly unexplored in canon (so far), and that includes his relationship with gabriel. i want to make it as clear as possible - adrien is brave to the point of stupidity, and not just as chat noir. let's not forget that he jumped from the top of a skyscraper, lead only by his faith that ladybug will save him, who, by the way, was busy being captured by gorizilla and screaming for help herself. if that's not crazy, i don't know what is.

adrien is afraid of his father. you don't get a child that so obviously displays trauma symptoms with a few cruel jabs. i very, very strongly feel that we haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to gabriel's abuse. look at the screencaptures above from the episode 'simon says'. adrien is familiar with his father's insults, very much so. who else remembers how his father was nowhere to be found when he won a fencing tournament in 'chat blanc', but the day his technique is slipping, his father is waiting at the top of the stairs of the agreste mansion, ready to reprimand adrien? and speaking of 'chat blanc'...

these two moments might be the saddest. we don't know yet if adrien knows the true identity of hawk moth in 'ephemeral'. i'm leaning towards yes, because adrien is so courageous that he had no problems fighting what he assumed to be the real hawk moth with an umbrella in 'the puppeteer 2'.

in both situations, he's being cornered. adrien's moving slowly (hell, he's crawling in 'chat blanc), his face frozen in a mask of pure fear. look at adrien in 'chat blanc' - a boy who has the power to destroy everything he touches is now trying to surrender and is begging with one palm in the air. in both cases, right before getting akumatized by his father, adrien displays the trauma stress response known as 'freeze', instead of 'fight' or 'flight'. he's immobile and passive. a classic adrien line is 'i can't stand by and do nothing!', and yet here he is, thoughts completely shut off, unable to plan a way to get to safety or fight for his self-preservation.

ladybug has said that chat noir is braver than her. he is reckless, for sure. but when it comes to gabriel, adrien retreats to an almost womb-like state physically, instead of the openness and 'world is my oyster' attitude he displays as chat noir. he mistakenly believes that the less space he takes, the less he is heard and seen, and the less he asserts himself as someone with wants and needs, the less angry and disappointed will gabriel be. and that is adrien's biggest mental fallacy, since we're talking about the man who will readily make adrien suffer, only because adrien is getting into his way.

Hunter: Yeah, I'm okay, but in like a "if someone hugged me for too long I would cry" kind of way

Amity: That hits different when you're autistic

Hunter: [nodding] I mean it in a general way AND an autistic way; which is as confusing as it sounds

Hopper accidentally becomes the biggest ally in Hawkins out of hatred for Mike Wheeler. El wants to date Max? Perfect, Mike is terrified of Max. El wants to date Max and Lucas? Even better, more people to keep Mike away. Will comes out to Joyce and Hop? Hopper is immediately studying up on gay culture and flagging so he can find him a Hop ApprovedTM boyfriend. He sees that nice boy Gareth cuff his jeans one time and starts inviting him to family dinner. Mike seems annoyed that Steve is spending more time with Munson? A pamphlet titled “Accepting your Bisexuality” finds its way into Steve’s jacket pocket. Hopper has never seen Mike as furious as the day Steve and Munson arrive at dinner holding hands. It’s a good day. Hopper isn’t sure how Nancy dating the Buckley girl will annoy Mike, but he’s willing to give it a shot.

Idk about you, that’s what I saw go down.

autistic jonathan byers. you agree. reblog

This is random but I'm genuinely curious about this If you're an Epic fan that also plays PonyTown, reply/reblog this post! I'm seen several of you fuckers on there/Affectionate

steve’s house in the show vs. steve’s house in my head