#ariyah-v

the 'plugging in a cable' gesture looks real heckin' dirty out of context. now i'm imagining root just like continuously doing that as a way to bang tm. this is your fault mc.

19 - when they feel safest,

shaw - around root and reese (separately or together). she outright states that root is her safe place, and who she feels safest with overall which has a lot to do with root loving her for exactly who she is and not putting any unfair expectations on her. and reese is similar in that aspect where he figures her out early on and never judges her (except when she takes pictures of tomas’s ass) or tries to change her and is a good big bro to her. they’re her family and she feels safe with them.

root - with the machine in her ear in god mode, and, later on, in the subway car with the machine. i love the one shot of her working with TM in reassortment where TM is woven into the subway car and root is sitting in the middle of her. 

and, of course, with shaw, because shaw does the protecting (though root mostly only needs protecting from herself). i think she stayed with shaw a lot in early s4 when she couldn’t talk to TM anymore because shaw was the most stable thing in her life. while i don’t think reese made her feel safe in the same direct sense, i do think that the way their friendship developed later on helped her feel like she had somewhere she belonged which, in turn, made her feel safer.

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21 - favourite childhood memory

shaw - i tend to think it was the roadtrip she took with her father that the machine has root bring up. there was a reason TM chose that specific memory at that time, and it definitely got an unusually strong reaction out of shaw. her memories of her times with her parents are very important to her and kinda Off Limits and she hasn’t talked about them with anyone before which is why TM knows that shaw will believe who root works for.

root - one of the first few times she used a computer. when she realized that there was this entire world that she could control and that could also be used as a way to mentally escape. and because she was a genius stuck in a tiny crap town and probably bored out of her skull and there was this whole exciting new thing that let her stretch her mind.

—

2 - cooking headcanon 

shaw - i think i follow the approved fanon that shaw is an amazing cook. i think her mother taught her to cook when she was young, maybe because her mother had to work a lot as a single parent and wanted to make sure shaw could always make herself food if she was working late (her mother absolutely left food for her, but she wanted her to have the skills and option to make stuff herself). and shaw loves food so cooking would be a skill she’d see as worth her time to improve. but she also doesn’t always want to put in the effort and there’s only so much room in between all the guns and grenades in her fridge so she’s more than okay with going out for food instead of cooking some days,

root - listen…you knew what you were asking. i think we all know where i stand on the Root Cooking Discourse. TM gives her a red box anytime she gets within 5 feet of a stove. the reason i have that headcanon though is that i think root’s childhood sucked and she had to look after herself a lot, which involved a lot of microwaved dinners or stuff that didn’t need to be prepared. maybe she ate at hanna’s sometimes and had real cooked meals there and later on associated any semblance of life normality with hanna. and then she’s running all over as an assassin/hacker and doesn’t have time or interest in learning how to cook especially since she makes enough money to just buy good stuff. 

so no one cooks a meal for her (for her specifically i mean, so not like a restaurant and not something that’s part of some con or mission she’s doing) until she’s over at shaw’s one night, maybe early s4, because she got her dumb ass shot in the arm again and shaw’s patching her up but shaw is fucking starving and makes herself food but makes enough for her and just dumps it in front of her like it’s no big deal. and root is just too gay for food and kind of stares at it and has a lot of Intense Feelings and shaw is like are you gonna eat that because i’m still hungry so… and root goes all heart eyes and eats all of it.

but also, i headcanon her not cooking because it’s hilarious and the mental image of her standing over the remains of a stove with soot all over her face grinning proudly at the devastation she’s caused is priceless.

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did the last two already:

18 - favourite possession (it was cherished personal belonging but it’s the same answer)

1. When did you get into art?Probably when I was 10 or so?? But (slightly) more seriously around 16 when I started making comics.

4. What defines your artistic style?I THINK ABOUT THIS EVERY DAY TBH hahaThe only thing I realized is that I have multiple styles somehow and they keep changing so I'm honestly lost.

6. What levels of artistic education have you had?I went to art school a few years back (my major was media and advertisement design so illustration part was minimal), it was awesome! We also had drawing fundamentals but it was mostly not that exciting bc we spent weeks just drawing models, and sometimes perspective which was frustrating to me and I'm never doing that again (ON PAPER at least).

8. What is your favourite piece that you have done?Probably the last shoot comic I did. And also this gay witches pic.

“As far as I cantell, the only threat to this guy is stepping on an apple and fallingon his face.” Shaw peered through the row of trees at their number.

“I suppose a treebranch could fall on him.” Root pulled an apple from a nearby lowbranch and examined it. “Definitely not our most exciting mission.”

Though it was niceto get some fresh air for once, in Shaw’s opinion, an opinion shedidn’t think Root shared. Root had always been a bit of a city girl,but while apple picking held zero interest to Shaw, she liked gettingaway from the city for a few hours every now and then.

“Maybe we shouldknock him out and leave him in a gas station bathroom. For his ownsafety, of course.” Root was still fixated on the apple she’dpicked.

“Of course.”Not an unappealing idea though. “You gonna stare at that thing allday?”

“Hmmm?” Rootblinked and looked up. “Just thinking.”

“About apples?”

“No, aboutpeople.”

“Uh-huh.” Shawwas used to Root not making a lot of sense sometimes. Once in awhileshe pressed her for more of an explanation, but she let it go thistime. “Here.”

She held up thebasket she was carrying to hold the apples. It was almost empty sinceshe had no interest in picking apples and Root’s injury limited hermovement enough that she hadn’t really been picking many either.

Root dropped theapple in the basket and leaned around Shaw to spy on their number whowas collecting his own apples a few rows away.

She’d been a bitmopey since she’d come back from her last mission with her arm andribs badly bruised and a nasty gash across her side that Shaw hadneeded to redo the stitches on. Shaw didn’t know exactly what hadhappened, but she’d gotten the impression Root didn’t want to talkabout it.

But she knew Rootwell enough now that she had a good idea of how to cheer her up.

She scooped up anapple off the ground, aimed carefully, and sent it hurtling throughthe air. It smacked squarely into their number’s head.

“Shaw! Why didyou do that?” Root whispered in gleeful delight. Instead of waitingfor an answer she brushed by her to intercept the angry man stormingtowards them.

Shaw watched asRoot’s body language completely changed, now nervous and vulnerable,her hands twisting in front of her and her eyes downcast. The manrelaxed almost at once, the anger slowly going out of him as shestammered and batted her eyes.

Shaw couldn’t hearexactly what was said, but the man gave Root his entire basket ofapples before she came back. She looked incredibly pleased withherself and Shaw couldn’t help feeling a bit impressed with her evenif she did roll her eyes.

“Give me that.”She took the basket from her and combined it with the contents of theone she’d already had.

Root reached totake it from her, but Shaw moved it out of reach.

“You’ve only gotone good arm and you need it for your gun. We’re on a mission,remember?”

“Sofar the greatest threat to our number has been you, sweetie.”

True, but Root’sface was no longer closed off and tired; she looked lively again.

They continued ondiscreetly trailing their number in relative silence, Rootoccasionally picking apples with her good arm. Shaw didn’t know whatthe hell they were going to do with all of them. Maybe she and Reesecould use them for target practice. They’d probably explode into pulpin a satisfying way.

It was a bit boringout here, but Root perked up over the next hour, dropping some of herterrible lines and going all soft-eyed and mushy whenever she thoughtShaw wasn’t looking. (As if Shaw wasn’t always looking).

It started gettingchillier as the day wore on, and Root insisted on lending Shaw herjacket. Shaw grumbled a bit, but she hadn’t dressed warmly enough andRoot was wearing a heavy, warm-looking sweater. Also the jacket kindof smelled like her which was nice.

“She says he’ssafe now.” Root sounded puzzled.

“We didn’t doanything.” The Machine didn’t give them numbers for no reason. “Didwe intimidate the threat without noticing?”

Root shook herhead. “She’s not saying.”

It was pretty oddthough and Shaw turned it over in her mind on the drive back. Rootwas asleep in the passenger’s seat, her hurt arm cradled against herchest and the suggestion of a smile still on her lips.

Shaw had a suddensuspicion about why they’d been sent on this mission. Stupid sappyAI. She couldn’t say she wasn’t grateful for the assist though. Maybeshe could repay her by…what did AI even want? New cables? Fanciercasing for her server blades?