I've been pissed at the scene near the end of bloodline where max forgets Raven's birthday because it's literally also elena's death date, which supposedly haunted him annually (it's also just a dick move to forget, but the book does say that he doesn't care about birthdays, so I'll excuse it)
I suppose it shows that he's getting over his trauma ig, which is very nice very wholesome, but I then absolutely do not like the implication that a child and/or revenge will actually help recovery- because it's not a case of time, or else the haunting would have stopped prior to Bloodline's events. Which it explicitly has not. It's also not a case of time in regards to the one year after bloodline's main events because I'm sorry you do not go from chapter one max to "ooohhh silly me I forgot the date!!!" in one year
Regarding the H.I.V.E. birthday bundle, specifically my less-than-satisfactory contribution to it:
(Under a cut because I estimate this to be about 1000 words).
The shortest way I can say this is "sorry."
In a longer form, I acquknowledge that Wing is a beloved, respected character of the H.I.V.E. series, becoming a favourite of many, and ranking highly in the minds of everyone else. If anyone deserved better treatment in this event, it was undoubtedly him, not to mention the real-life disappointed H.I.V.E. fandom.
I also acquknowledge that this was probably the largest communal event since the release of Bloodline three years ago and that the date on which it was announced was long enough ago to counter any explanation I could possibly give, especially since I, as a minor, have more time to commit to any one project than an adult burdened with full-time employment and more significant responsibilities than I. Yet I shall offer one regardless and leave the perception of my character at the mercy of your own individual judgements. It is as follows:
Some of you might remember me directing a post to an "anon" threatening me in January, which I have since deleted. This is actually not a recent or isolated issue- not even for my blog, although I doubt that anybody remembers her posting so-called "edgy" stuff on it back in like 2019. But if you do, fun fact: it was the same person. This person used to be my friend, then a "girlfriend" and is now something of an enemy. As well as threats, there has been blackmail and cases of physical violence committed against both me and my other friends. The reason I bring this up is because she followed me to the store I worked at sometime mid Feburary and provoked me there too. I was stupid, I shouted at her, and I was rightfully fired as a result. And the reason I mention this at all is because it has been hell finding a new job, eating up the time I had specifically set aside for this project.
Then, the entirety of March I more or less dedicated to finally reading bloodline (I read it twice more after my initial "live react" posts so I could actually get the juice out of it).
On the 23rd of March, my cat died, and to be brutally honest, I spent the entirety of April not doing anything that wasn't complete brainrot (hence the surge in my blog activity đź’€).
May brought with it UCAS exams (UCAS points being what you need in the UK to get into university).
June brought the results, one of which was a C in physics, a grade that my school, family, and peers viewed as an unforgivable failure. As such, I had devices as well as other "distractions," including my books, taken away until the end of July so I could focus on resitting everything. Additionally, I was forced to go to school two hours early for extra lessons, given hour long detentions until the end of the academic year and had to have random meetings during my breaks to really rub in how stupid I am (no exaggerations are being made here; my head of year managed to drag calling me the r slur into a forty minute rant on one occassion).
Then, in August, my uncle got into a car accident and requested that myself and my parents fly over into Zimbabwe to help him. Fair enough, but in the time it had taken us to get over there, the man had gone off-grid (as he has a habit of doing) and we still have no clue of his whereabouts.
I promise I will make amends, and the only path I can see heading towards this objective is completing and redoing what you have seen for this project alongside a few other elements I had planned to incorporate into it. To be more specific, I will:
- Finish the birthday bundle.
I'm sure you've noticed that the "playlist" and "prompts for you" categories are missing from my offering. This will be rectified, and I will add these to the original birthday bundle post so it can be completed. I had elected to avoid those categories as I figured that having a few tasks done to a "rushed and painfully mediocre" standard would be better than having a small amount of awful content for each element of the bundle. The reasons why those two categories were chosen to be neglected were that a) no music I know at all aligns with Wing and b) I had not noted that the "prompts for you" was an existing section and only remembered when reading through the example Otto post, meaning I had not left myself enough time to sit with and revisit ideas to see if they really were any good. Additionally, that fanfic is nowhere near finished. I do plan to edit the published chapter and then continue it, and I shall try my best to stick to frequent, regular updates of a higher quality and quantity than I have presented you with thus far.
- Improve what I have given you
I plan to drastically improve my digital art for each "mini" picture that's in my work- you can see that there's a very, very good reason why I kept them all mini. When I'm done, they will be transformed into something that can at least be posted at their full size without risking the health of your eyes.
- Add to what I've given you
I know I've done very few headcanons, so I'll be sure to focus on Wing for future ones that I'll publish on my blog. In all likelihood, the next post of mine will be a much longer list of Wing headcanons. And even if it is not next, it will still hopefully be in the near future.
My initial plan for the "Wing art" was to make a rudimentary physical model of him. I can't promise it'll be of high quality since the last time I did this, I was four years younger, working with better materials, working without keeping it a secret, and crafting the fox emoji rather than an entire person. I also can't see how the colour green, which is what I was assigned, will fit in. But I'll do it anyway.
Something that I played with a bit while waiting for the prompts to be given out was character art. Currently, I have WIPs for Shelby and Laura and have posted a Ms Leon. I want to do something for every character, and Wing will most certainly be included in that, so I promise I'll take extra care to do him justice when I get around to him. Consider it to be like a non-picrew alternative to the cover image.
I also have a physical drawing in the works, though I confess this too shall probably take a while in the interest of refining skills before applying them so I don't waste the one piece of sketch paper I bought.
Once more, I am so extremely sorry for what I have done, and I will ensure that never again shall this height of inadequacy be reached and inflicted onto people who deserve so much better.
- I am struggling with headcanons that I can deem as passable. I have set aside a couple of hours per day for this last week to reread the books and brainstorm, but I have nothing that I think is good enough to immortalise on the internet.
- I have a better art piece than what I gave 90% done. It's just that the last 10% is the face, which is going to take at least a few weeks of practise to get right.
- The fic I write will be on the longer side. As such, I'm going to upload it all in one go so I don't accidently do something stupid in an early chapter that messes up the rest of the fic. No idea how long it's going to take.
However, I figured that by now I should at least have something. So!
Exhibit a- Skinless Wing Fanchu ft my cat (and yes my bed is my workspace)
Exhibit b- prompts, which I honestly think could be a lot better
In my head NumberOne-Verlord's mindscape form is various kinds of terrifying; he's the agonized amalgamation of Otto's father and the digital parasite that destroyed him from the inside out. That should be all kinds of messed up.
Regarding the H.I.V.E. birthday bundle, specifically my less-than-satisfactory contribution to it:
(Under a cut because I estimate this to be about 1000 words).
The shortest way I can say this is "sorry."
In a longer form, I acquknowledge that Wing is a beloved, respected character of the H.I.V.E. series, becoming a favourite of many, and ranking highly in the minds of everyone else. If anyone deserved better treatment in this event, it was undoubtedly him, not to mention the real-life disappointed H.I.V.E. fandom.
I also acquknowledge that this was probably the largest communal event since the release of Bloodline three years ago and that the date on which it was announced was long enough ago to counter any explanation I could possibly give, especially since I, as a minor, have more time to commit to any one project than an adult burdened with full-time employment and more significant responsibilities than I. Yet I shall offer one regardless and leave the perception of my character at the mercy of your own individual judgements. It is as follows:
Some of you might remember me directing a post to an "anon" threatening me in January, which I have since deleted. This is actually not a recent or isolated issue- not even for my blog, although I doubt that anybody remembers her posting so-called "edgy" stuff on it back in like 2019. But if you do, fun fact: it was the same person. This person used to be my friend, then a "girlfriend" and is now something of an enemy. As well as threats, there has been blackmail and cases of physical violence committed against both me and my other friends. The reason I bring this up is because she followed me to the store I worked at sometime mid Feburary and provoked me there too. I was stupid, I shouted at her, and I was rightfully fired as a result. And the reason I mention this at all is because it has been hell finding a new job, eating up the time I had specifically set aside for this project.
Then, the entirety of March I more or less dedicated to finally reading bloodline (I read it twice more after my initial "live react" posts so I could actually get the juice out of it).
On the 23rd of March, my cat died, and to be brutally honest, I spent the entirety of April not doing anything that wasn't complete brainrot (hence the surge in my blog activity đź’€).
May brought with it UCAS exams (UCAS points being what you need in the UK to get into university).
June brought the results, one of which was a C in physics, a grade that my school, family, and peers viewed as an unforgivable failure. As such, I had devices as well as other "distractions," including my books, taken away until the end of July so I could focus on resitting everything. Additionally, I was forced to go to school two hours early for extra lessons, given hour long detentions until the end of the academic year and had to have random meetings during my breaks to really rub in how stupid I am (no exaggerations are being made here; my head of year managed to drag calling me the r slur into a forty minute rant on one occassion).
Then, in August, my uncle got into a car accident and requested that myself and my parents fly over into Zimbabwe to help him. Fair enough, but in the time it had taken us to get over there, the man had gone off-grid (as he has a habit of doing) and we still have no clue of his whereabouts.
I promise I will make amends, and the only path I can see heading towards this objective is completing and redoing what you have seen for this project alongside a few other elements I had planned to incorporate into it. To be more specific, I will:
- Finish the birthday bundle.
I'm sure you've noticed that the "playlist" and "prompts for you" categories are missing from my offering. This will be rectified, and I will add these to the original birthday bundle post so it can be completed. I had elected to avoid those categories as I figured that having a few tasks done to a "rushed and painfully mediocre" standard would be better than having a small amount of awful content for each element of the bundle. The reasons why those two categories were chosen to be neglected were that a) no music I know at all aligns with Wing and b) I had not noted that the "prompts for you" was an existing section and only remembered when reading through the example Otto post, meaning I had not left myself enough time to sit with and revisit ideas to see if they really were any good. Additionally, that fanfic is nowhere near finished. I do plan to edit the published chapter and then continue it, and I shall try my best to stick to frequent, regular updates of a higher quality and quantity than I have presented you with thus far.
- Improve what I have given you
I plan to drastically improve my digital art for each "mini" picture that's in my work- you can see that there's a very, very good reason why I kept them all mini. When I'm done, they will be transformed into something that can at least be posted at their full size without risking the health of your eyes.
- Add to what I've given you
I know I've done very few headcanons, so I'll be sure to focus on Wing for future ones that I'll publish on my blog. In all likelihood, the next post of mine will be a much longer list of Wing headcanons. And even if it is not next, it will still hopefully be in the near future.
My initial plan for the "Wing art" was to make a rudimentary physical model of him. I can't promise it'll be of high quality since the last time I did this, I was four years younger, working with better materials, working without keeping it a secret, and crafting the fox emoji rather than an entire person. I also can't see how the colour green, which is what I was assigned, will fit in. But I'll do it anyway.
Something that I played with a bit while waiting for the prompts to be given out was character art. Currently, I have WIPs for Shelby and Laura and have posted a Ms Leon. I want to do something for every character, and Wing will most certainly be included in that, so I promise I'll take extra care to do him justice when I get around to him. Consider it to be like a non-picrew alternative to the cover image.
I also have a physical drawing in the works, though I confess this too shall probably take a while in the interest of refining skills before applying them so I don't waste the one piece of sketch paper I bought.
Once more, I am so extremely sorry for what I have done, and I will ensure that never again shall this height of inadequacy be reached and inflicted onto people who deserve so much better.
In book one, Otto notices both that Wing is inexpressive and that he has a lot of scars. It is also in book one that we see the first of the whole sleeping-Wing-swats-a-hand-away-before-it-touches-him thing. In Overlord Protocol, Cypher reveals to Nero that Xiu Mei had been assassinated during a "burglary." I believe he also says that it would have been more standard for him and Wing to have been killed alongside her.
Now, Xiu Mei discovering pieces of Overlord's code is a major risk for G.L.O.V.E. Thus, I imagine that multiple operatives were sent to kill her. Equally, I imagine it would have occurred during the night to give the operatives optimum cover. Speaking of cover, they must have used knives since guns are illegal in Japan, and so using them would have brought more unwelcome inquiries regarding the break-in.
So, they enter the Fanchu household, and they split up with the intent of finding Mei. One of them stumbles across young Wing, asleep. Working on standard procedure, he goes to stab him, but he's stopped- say, for example, by one of his teammates walking past the room and reminding him that their mission is Mei alone. At some point during the incident, Wing had woken up to his stomach having a small portion of knife in it.
Following this, he struggles with sleep disturbances, and his relationships with his tutors suffer greatly for it, with him having the bare minimum energy for his studies and to be generally polite, but not enough to hide the side effects of irritability/mood swings. At the same time, his father is also becoming ever more of a recluse, making Wing ever more lonely. He's rational, yes, but anyone in this kind of situation would inevitably overthink and spiral. He becomes hyper aware of how he's expressing himself and how it seems to be driving everybody away. Therefore, he crafts himself the inexpressive mask that we all know him for. But, hey, he got his ninja reflexes in his sleep, right?
In-series (is this a term?? Well, it is now)
Wing and Nigel are the only kids in the group who have significant G.L.O.V.E. family members (sorry, Franz). Thus, when Franz begins his act of threatening kids with Nigel's father, Wing is the one to challenge Franz, whereas the others- despite feeling sorry for Nigel- primarily found it amusing. During this period, Wing ends up joining Nigel routinely in his lab, tending to something normal like peonies while Nigel invents more sinister species. Every time he does, Wing is sure to request that some nerve clusters be placed in an easily accessible location.
-
He's undisputably the best at drawing in the group (much to Shelby's dismay).
Post-series
After Otto's death, he meets someone who introduces themselves as "[surname... forename, surname]". Intrigued as it resembles his and Otto's first meeting, he asks this new person why he introduced himself as he did. The response is that he's a fan of the James Bond franchise. Assuming that Otto had once been a fan, he watches the series to commemorate his friend. When he reunites with Otto, he makes various references to James Bond, which go completely unnoticed until Shelby catches on to what he's doing. Then Otto rips Wing apart for his fan behaviour.
-
When setting up the orphanage, Wing was mildly conflicted. He could do everything the legal way: purchase materials, build everything himself, pay bills properly, etc. Or he could do it as Otto would have wanted: steal materials, convince another labourer to work for free, evade all bills, etc. In the interest of keeping the children safe and just general morals, he, of course, opted to go down the legal route, but that didn't stop him from stealing some cans of paint and a pack of screwdrivers. He denies the act to this day.
-
Initially, Wing struggled immensely with the kids. It wasn't that he disliked them or that they were poorly behaved, but when he was around them, it was like they were speaking in riddles. He felt that he was a bad role model for them in terms of surface social skills (in that he takes things literally and it's hard for them to tell when they've crossed a line because he doesn't sound mad when he speaks, but nor does he wish to shout at them, etc). He even offered to become a full-time groundskeeper rather than any form of teacher, but this never became the case.
-
Related to the above, he actively tries to become more expressive for the sake of the younger kids' development. He also makes an effort to learn various idioms and (to a far lesser extent) understand pop culture references from various different countries
-
He doubts that it would ever happen, but he knows that if he and Shelby were to be married, he would take her name and get rid of Fanchu because it was a) fake and b) his father's (and also not his mother's), and he had more of a family in Shelby than in his dad
-
However, it's not that he wants to forget his family, for he remembers fondly the time before Overlord crept back into their lives and ruined them for good. And it's not that Wing is materialistic. But when he sees a small, complete yin yang on a basic brown string, he picks it up, and it never leaves his neck.
Art
Fanfic
Rating: G, No warnings apply. However, it is very much unfinished, so this is subject to change.
From Wing's perspective, a final mission when three familiar faces pop back into his life.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/58545772
(Just know that I will be hurting him somehow further down the line).
Playlist
Link:
Plain text:
Prompts For You
Final Note
Now, I know what you're thinking. It's something along the lines of: "Hey, what the fuck? There's entire categories missing, and what I've been given has all the substance of celery soup and all the appeal of expired fish guts. Who convinced me to come to this shit-ass restaurant?"
And to that, I say yeah, you're right. There's a longer post explaining myself in the drafts that just needs to be proofread. But if you're not interested in that:
A. I am sorry
B. I will aim to get this version of it finished in the next couple of weeks (so, more headcanons (probably posted seperately), the playlist, and the "prompts for you" section). The only thing exempted from this is the fanfiction, for it cannot be completed within this timeframe, but I will try my best for longer, better, and consistant updates.
C. I will not add them to this bundle, but I did have other projects intended for this planned, discarded or in the early stages of execution. I will finish them to the best of my admittedly limited ability and post them separately. I also plan to redo each element of my art showcased here and post them once they are decent enough to show in their non-minaturised form.
In an alternate universe, Lao could have been a martial art instructor at H.I.V.E.
Xiu Mei died, a fact that Nero is well aware of. He's informed of Cyphers' little "lab accident" and with Wing at H.I.V.E., this man is now unemployed.
I'm sure Nero would have found out somehow that it was Lao to teach Wing how to fight... and, well, why not?
Actually now that I think about it, it's funnier to assume that that was some random one-off event and most of the time he's like "shoot, it's your birthday??? Here, uhhhh here take this piston. I'm not using it."
I can't imagine that Otto would want to use his ability post-bloodline unless it was really, really necessary to save the planet or to cram in every ounce of knowledge that he can about a topic Laura mentions off-handedly that she's interested in/curious about
It's rather ironic that the only time we see Wing actually want to break his mother's "never take a life" code was when he thought Nero killed her and goes on the whole "now I won't have to kill you" when he discovers otherwise.
Considering the circumstances preceding the canonical scene of how Nero/Natalya got abducted (young (and slightly more naĂŻve) Max, his entire future shattering before him not too long ago, the fact that it makes sense for him to have wanted to compose himself as much as he could before turning his attention onto his newborn, a creature he would be responsible for, and also yes he would have had some strong suspicions but I don't think he knew for sure that the Furans were behind the attack yet), I don't hate how it played out.
However, I want my beloved characters to suffer as much as is humanly possible, and thus, I propose a small tweak:
Let's say they get out of the hospital successfully, just for a short while. There'd be some things that Elena and Nero hadn't yet completely prepared for in regards to the child since technically Raven would have been born slightly prematurely- maybe after the long journey to his apartment, Nero realised that he had never finished constructing the crib, or it hits him how Elena was supposed to name the child, or maybe Elena was planning to breastfeed and thus they didn't actually have any baby formula. Basically, he's overwhelmed with grief and has just been thrown into the deep end of parenthood. Not fun.
Let's give him a week or so's grace before the Furans get the pair of them. That plays out the same way.
This way would cause anybody to question the state of their sanity after a traumatic loss. Max could have been under the impression that he had completely lost the plot for a bit as well as being sad if the Furans had waited a bit longer.
There's one reason I can't be a shitposter and that is that I think too much.
So, re: Raven's book 1 narrative segment.
The entire just-over-a-page is pure characterisation. Though later in the series, we get her past reveal, and while she does have strong character woven in the main series timeline, this is probably the largest chunk of it that she gets- especially one so caught up directly in her own head.
I imagine this was written to establish some sympathy for her so it can be extracted at her "death" by the tendrils of violet. However, her "death" is not exactly something that's played for feels; it's more to drive a sense of danger for Malpense, a feeble boy now having to fill her combat boots.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that, though yes, it has a reason to be in the book, its effect is rather minimal due to the lack of relationship our POV characters had with her at the time. Yet, as I said, it's the largest chunk of pure thoughts that we get from her.
And that's where I'm kinda sad that Mr Walden didn't quite yet have a clear idea of the whole Raven-Nero setup (not his fault, of course).
There's a bit where she does view Max as rather a dick with the whole giving the kids false hope. She dismisses it as she had learnt not to question his motives too closely. That's a kind of dynamic we've never actually seen from her. The closest we get is her (kind of) sparing Esteban and the whole almost grooming relationship she had with Anastasia- both of which are brushed off pretty quickly, and both of which involved antagonists. Besides, it would be different with Max, the first adult she could ever trust and basically her only friend, acting in ways that would draw parallels to Anastasia's way of playing god, and how she could reconcile it in an environment that's blueprint looks just a bit too similar to the Glasshouse's. I think that if Mr Walden had everything fleshed out, it could have been interesting to see the whole struggle between obedience to Max, in a sense electing to ignore his motives in order to keep a golden tint over her savoir, and what she knows to be decent. Not to mention, it would have given Wing's "obedient" comment and her choice to reject Max's call one hell of a stronger punch if we had just one example of Raven struggling with her obedience post-Furans.
