ROBIN BUCKLEY For Birdie !

🪐 — ROBIN BUCKLEY  for  birdie !

       She always did a good job of pretending; to her mom, that academic attainment and securing a future miles away from Hawkins was more important than friends; to her fellow band nerds, that it didn’t matter that they’d never be cool enough to sit with the cheerleaders and the jocks, that it was way more interesting to talk about the nuances in playing forte as opposed to fortissimo than it was to talk about who’d been caught making out behind the bleachers this week, anyway. That second statement was admittedly true. But Robin knew for a fact that her life would be easier if she was sat at that table. If talking so passionately about musical theory got her social respect instead of social ridicule.

        “ Oh, I know that. There are so many people here in Hawkins whose opinions should not be allowed to exist, let alone listened to. ” Robin spared Miss Birdie a quick glance as she spoke, but something about her art teacher always put her ease when it came to expressing her opinions, no matter how much they went against the status quo. Whether it was her eccentricities or just her sense of style, there was something very un-Hawkins about her. It was what had drawn her to this classroom during her lunch breaks on multiple occasions now. Here, she could be more herself. At this point, her fork was all but playing with her food, as opposed to helping her eat it. “ But it’s just… frustrating, you know? That those people don’t realise how small-minded they’re being — or worse, that they realise it and don’t care. ”

     HARSH THOUGH THEY MAY BE,   robin’s words still bring a subtle smile to her lips.  so many people whose opinions should not be allowed to exist.  though it had been a long time since she had fled her own tiny hometown, birdie could still remember the feeling of suffocating, the insufferable itch to escape the life that you had been given  &  make one of your own, no matter what it may cost.  towns like hawkins wanted its children to think such freedoms were impossible, but birdie knew better.  &  it seemed robin did too  —  without even needing to be told, she seemed to carry the awareness that there was so much more out there for her than could possibly be found within the hawkins town limits.                       ❝ small towns tend to breed small minds.  especially since most of the people who live here have never known anything else. still, that doesn’t make it any easier for those who might see things a little bit differently. ❞  a frizzy lock falls from the messy pile atop her head, precariously held in place with two pencils pushed through the twist,  &  birdie sweeps it absently behind her ear.  ❝ but i know it’s still hard.  try not to listen to those people, if you can hep it.  &  keep a look out for ways to make where you are now just a little bit better. ❞  even the hawkins art room itself had been small  &  unbearably empty when she had first taken the job over, but by now it was crowded with birdie’s own personal touches.  the brick has all been papered over with all manner of paintings  &  prints,  a series sun-catchers made of dyed shards of glass hang in a row from the ceiling, sending specks of light spinning around the walls,  &  the windows are covered in an abstract tissue-paper pattern that turns the light filtering in from outside into kaleidoscopic pools of color.  from such a bland little room, birdie thinks she’s managed to make a rather beautiful little space. ❝ &  remember, you don’t have to stay here forever, if you don’t want to.  have you given any thought to what you might want to do after you graduate ? ❞

🪐 — @hargrovetm​​  sent   a hc meme :                          HC  +  gio !

    ●  giovanni’s maternal grandparents were anti-fascists who participated in direct coordinated actions against benito mussolini in the early 1940s, involving sabotaging supply lines  &  helping to print  &  distribute anti-fascist press. when he was a child, it was his grandfather who introduced gio to radical politics,  &  imbued him with his strong values of justice, equality,  &  freedom.  other than his guitar, the stack of old pamphlets  &  resistance fliers that his grandfather gave him are gio’s most treasured possessions.   ●  in large part because of his strong values, gio hates bullies.  at 6′5, gio is almost always the tallest person in the room,  &  while he doesn’t like to fight,  he is not above using his size to frighten bullies into leaving more vulnerable people alone.  his close friendship with brian walker is a classic example of this.    ●  gio’s family couldn’t afford to travel back  &  forth between italy  &  the united states very often, but they did save up enough to take one trip to visit his familial home when he was thirteen years old  &  his younger brother, damiano, was seven. they got to meet the extended di carlo family,  &  this trip is one of the best memories of gio’s life.    ●  gio is an incredibly hard worker  &  surprisingly good at saving up money for things he really wants.  he worked three jobs at a time when he was fifteen years old  &  trying to save up for a guitar. his first guitar was a secondhand lime green kramer focus. his second guitar was a white fender super strat. his dream guitar is a cherry red les paul.   ●  gio’s Type is goths. the more goth the better.  &  this isn’t to say that he’s not capable of finding people of other styles attractive, because he definitely is,  &  he can also sometimes be surprised at who he’s attracted to. but as a rule, he tends to gravitate toward goths. he thinks the fact that they’re different  &  a little freaky is just the hottest thing.

🪐 —  IZZY HANDS   for  stede !

Hold your tongue now. Oh the reaction that got out of Hands. There were no doubt people who probably wondered that why, at his age, he hadn’t made the move to captain his own ship entirely. Not just the times Edward had turned things over to him but full on leave the nest. Sure there was his immense loyalty to Edward and the fact he didn’t quite feel like his own person without the man (another discussion entirely) but he also craved that commanding presence towards himself as well. At the end of the day, Israel Hands enjoyed being told what to do. Generally by men who had earned it, ie. Edward Teach and not many others. But in that moment, taking that tone with him and having him quite literally pinned to the wall with his weight, Stede Bonnet might have been giving off what Izzy needed for a moment.

Izzy grunted softly as Bonnet leaned his weight into him harder and he caught himself starting to smile at it before he cut that shit out to grit his teeth behind closed lips. Jaw rippled at the exertion to not let out some soft exclamation or even a weird sound. But god was this getting to him. but i’m the captain that you’ve got and the subtle added weight to those words he felt pressed to his chest earned a slipped out whimper from the first mate but not another word. He felt so tense he might as well have become part of the wall he was pressed against.

In fact, Hands didn’t utter a single word of argument while Bonnet spoke to him. He listened to him. Let the words sink it. Didn’t even think about trying to free his arms enough to retrieve his weapon. 

I will have your respect, or I will order the men to throw you overboard.

Israel inhaled sharply, his gaze that had been transfixed on Bonnet’s faltered and some of the tension in his body dropped. It reminded him of Ed in his earlier days of his captaincy. When he had to vocalize such threats. These days, the fear of Blackbeard was enough for anyone to not want to disappoint the man. Only Izzy responded to such things in such a weird way. For one, it might look like he was frightened by Stede’s threat at first. His chest rising and falling a bit heavier, his lips parted and his gaze momentarily averted from Bonnet’s. There was no doubt that Stede would be able to feel how rapid and strong Israel’s heart was thumping in his chest. Especially when his eyes lifted from the man’s mouth back to hold his gaze firmly just before Stede released him. 

Do I make myself quite clear ?

It was at the point that Izzy realized how much of his weight he’d let Bonnet hold up. His knees startled to buckle and he had to quickly tense back up again, knees aching a bit as he partially hyperextended them to straighten back up. He looked distracted a moment, embarassed as well when he realized how much he’d enjoyed Stede of all people being this close to him. Don’t let go – what the fuck? Izzy’s grin had started to poke out just a bit and it faltered some by his realization. God he wanted to kiss this man for that. 

Hands swallowed thickly and nodded slowly. “Yes. Crys–crystal clear.” He felt dizzy by his realization and he was looking up at Bonnet so strangely. The man probably expected anger not – near awe. Not an actual answer that wasn’t spitting in the man’s face and telling him to fuck off. Christ. Was he attracted to this man? Like actually? He wanted Stede to look at him like he used to look at Edward and not just how he was looking at him now. He wanted both. He wanted Stede to look at him like he wanted him. God he felt so stupid. And they were so close. He could still feel the heat from Stede’s hands on him, or maybe it was just his own chest feeling warm. He shouldn’t want any of that. It felt like claws in his chest were trying to dig a hole there to push those feelings back in. The tension was back in his shoulders and he was trying to get his anger back. Trying to blame Stede for this. Witchcraft. Trickery. Something. Anything to cover up the shame he felt. The ache he felt because – yeah – he was attracted to Stede in the way he knew he was supposed to be attracted to a woman. Fuck me. This was not supposed to happen.

“Can I – Can I go now? Or do you need anything, Captain?”

      THE LACK OF STRUGGLE  surprises stede, as does the flicker at the corner of izzy’s lips that appears more smile than sneer.  &  his head reels with it, the fact that edward’s first mate appears to actually be obeying to him.  &  more than that, izzy appears to truly be soaking up his words, really listening.  he does not miss how his eyes meets stede’s for a moment, his shoulders heaving beneath his hands, before flickering down to his mouth.  &  then they come back to connect with his again, holding fast to his gaze.  his hands remain still, no movement made for his blade, though surely he could run stede through now just as easily as he had before.  instead izzy allows himself to be held, to be reprimanded,  &  then allows stede to release him unscathed.                                   &  there is a modicum of thrill that runs through stede that he cannot ignore at being able to impress his will over a man as difficult  &  formidable as izzy hands.  for so long he had been laughed at when he tried to make himself known, mocked  &  ridiculed for his very existence.  but the way izzy is looking at him now  —  his gaze wide  &  his stance uncharacteristically unsteady as he finds his own feet again  —  stede feels rather formidable himself.  perhaps even powerful.  he may still be no blackbeard, but maybe he was learning at last.             ❝ there’s a good man, ❞  stede says with a nod, his tone softening noticeably with approval when izzy speaks his acquiescence aloud.  a hand frees itself from where it has been folded together defensively in front of his abdomen  &  runs itself through his hair, smoothing the blonde waves back into place.  after all, it would not do for him to appear ruffled after their little altercation.  it was a captain’s duty to remain in control of all the members of his crew at all times,  &  stede was certain that edward would want izzy to still be here when he returned.  &  the blatantly obvious truth was that neither of them could do anything that might disappoint edward.  so that now included izzy, for better or worse.                                                               he notices too that there is a strange uncertainty to the other man’s tone when he speaks again,  voice wavering slightly in a way that stede has rarely heard it do.  &  then izzy calls him captain,  &  that same thrill runs through him again, pride flaring warm in his chest.  &  it makes it easier for stede to pull himself up to his full height, hands folding again behind his back this time.  no longer defensive, instead he now seems a picture of confidence, sunlight gleaming off of his white silk.  ❝ no, actually you may not.  i don’t believe i’ve dismissed you yet, mr. hands. ❞  &  then he turns his back to izzy, looking out over the crew instead.  he is no longer afraid that the other man will reach for his sword.  izzy hands would never pull a blade on his captain.            &  though he doesn’t turn to look back, stede is all but certain that izzy will fall into line beside him.  at last.  ❝ as i was saying before i was interrupted, most of my men prefer positive reinforcement.  praise for things done well.  honest compliments alongside the criticisms.  if they must be corrected, a subtle nudge in the right direction can be surprisingly effective.  you may be used to leading by force, but my crew responds better to a gentler hand. ❞  a pause, his eyes flickering to the side at last to ensure he is being heard. ❝ am i understood ? ❞ 

🪐 — @synchronzed​​  sent   a long-lost meme   for  giovanni !                      ❛   i  wish  people  liked  me  more .  ❜

        ❝ PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS. ❞  he says it with a shrug, like it’s obvious, like it goes without saying.  ❝ you can’t let yourself care about whether these high school losers like you or not, man.  they’ve all got terrible taste.  shit music, shit friends, shit opinions.  if they don’t like you, you should take it as a compliment. ❞  giovanni has never really much cared what other people thought of him.  but then, he wasn’t exactly the kind of person that would be clocked as an easy target.  jason was different  —  smaller, softer, stranger.  giovanni knew too well how people who craved a bit power would use all the things that made him stand out against him, would make his life a living hell  &  smile about it.  but that wouldn’t be happening to him anymore; not so long as gio was around.                                                gio tilts his head back, letting it fall against the wall of his van, a gentle smile splitting the narrow section of his face that is visible through the curtain of wild curls. at least in here, jason doesn’t have to worry about that kind of shit.  at least in here, gio knows he’s safe.  &  his tone softens consciously as he looks at the other boy, a cloud of smoke hanging thick in the air between them.  ❝ besides, i like you.  ❞

🪐 — HEADCANON :  sarah  +  witchcraft

   i literally don’t have any info up for her yet but this is my most important hc for her :  sarah is a witch. but witchcraft doesn’t work like the people in union thinks it does. the intensely christian people of union believe that witches are servants of satan,  &  that therefore all witches were devil worshippers.  but witchcraft  &  satanism are not the same thing.  witchcraft doesn’t actually really have anything to do with the christian devil.  which is why the widow —  who is a green witch —  warned sarah against reading the devil’s book when she stumbled upon it.  it’s clear to me that the widow did not actually use that book, but rather was keeping the dark power it held away from the people of union.  &  rightly so, as we saw what happened when someone else actually did want to use the power of the devil for themself.     however, sarah is not aware that she is a witch.  she like her mother before her is what is known as a  hedge witch.  hedge witches are born rather than made.  they work mostly with direct life energy, rather than trigger objects.  they often have intrinsic gifts, though they are nothing that could easily be perceived from the outside.  sarah’s powers appear in extremely subtle ways.  hedge witches tend to have gifts along the lines of intuition, healing,  &  protecting life.  their words can also be turned into spells simply by speaking them with strong intention.  hedge witches are unique because their magic does not come from a sustained practice of a craft or participation in a rite, but from something inherent within themselves.                        film evidence for sarah  &  her mother being hedge witches :   ●  though we don’t see sarah’s mother in the film, her father says that it was sarah’s mother who chose that her family would settle on the land that later became union, because she could sense something different about the wind in the trees there.  this type of intuition is  classic  hedge witch behavior.  in my hc, sarah’s mother did know she was a hedge witch, but that she died when sarah was still too young for her to share this awareness with her.  ●  sarah’s arc opens on her assisting a pig to give birth. one of the piglets has gotten stuck,  &  her brother henry warns sarah that they are going to lose both mother  &  piglet.  but sarah confidently says  no we’re not.  the words coupled with the intention behind them is a textbook example of a hedge witch speaking a spell into the world without even realizing it.  &  of course, sarah miraculously succeeds in saving all the pigs, to which her father even remarks aloud that she has a gift.  of course, neither of them know that he is actually profoundly correct.  ●  most of the adults in town thinks that sarah is weird.  this is not only because she is queer, but also because she has an inherent connection with the world at large that threatens their religious worldview.  mad thomas  &  hannah’s mother  —  two of the most bigoted members of the town  —  both go a step farther  &  tell sarah that they see darkness in her, showing that they fear her differences.  sarah’s own father even tells her that there has always been a strangeness in her.  i find it particularly telling that he also says that he believes it might have been “something a mother could have rooted out,”  &  blames the absence of sarah’s mother for her differences, when in reality sarah’s mother was a witch herself  &  likely would have only honed the parts of sarah that made union so uncomfortable.   ●  when the town turns against her  &  hannah, sarah says ‘ if they want a witch, i will give them a witch, ‘  revealing that she finally has the conscious desire to connect to powers beyond the mortal.  however, with no awareness of how witchcraft actually works, she intends to go to the widow’s house  &  use the devil’s book against the town.  &  while she doesn’t end up getting or using the devil’s book, this line coincides with sarah’s stepping into her power  &  using it more consciously  &  in service of a distinct purpose :  to protect hannah.  &  she does, even willing to die to protect hannah in the end.  ●  finally, sarah’s final act is to cast a spell  —  a curse  —  not on the town, but on solomon goode  &  his family.  she promises him that she will follow him forever, that with everyone he harms, he will feel the grip of her hand,  &  that she will never let him go.  &  this spell comes true in the end when it is actually sarah whose spirit returns through her connection with deena to drive a knive through sheriff nick goode’s eye.  &  it is this act that finally completes the curse, expels the devil from shadyside,  &  sets her spirit to rest.  the witch forever lives !

‘Cause I knew you Steppin’ on the last train Marked me like a bloodstain, I I knew you Tried to change the ending Peter losing Wendy, I I knew you