Well, my favourite book ever is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, which is a classic book, so there ye go. :)

I love it because it was the perfect reading experience and I enjoy rereading it, which is strangely not something I do with most books (besides fanfiction of course). And when I say perfect, I mean it. I’m not saying it’s a perfect novel—far, far from it; I was cringing at Rochester’s ✨emotional manipulation✨ and the portrayal of mental illness even during my first read-through—but the experience of reading it? Unparalleled.

Since I feel like this answer is almost a cop-out, I’ll add that my favourite classic book before I read Jane Eyre was The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. I’m not actually sure if that counts as a classic LOL, but it is a Great American Novel so whatevs. Plus like, I think you should look into Carson McCullers, El. I believe you might like her. ;P

I read it in tenth grade, which was probably the most extended low point in my mental health, and it was exactly what I needed to read at exactly the right time TBH. I don’t really know how to explain it further, but it has a special place in my heart because of it.

Aaaaa, thank you so much!! Sorry this took so long to answer, school just started so I've been busy and I didn't want to give a chopped answer, cause I love Allison and Ben with all my heart :')

Anyway, here are some headcanons for Ben and Allison's friendship!

- They weren't the closest, but they always had this mutual understanding.

- Hanging out with each other was kind of like a break from the rest of the world. They never really talked about their problems, but they were always there for each other.

- When Allison didn't really feel like talking, she'd find Ben and they'd sit together in silence.

- And when Ben needed to calm down after a long day, he'd go to Allison's room and listen to her ramble for hours on end while she did her makeup.

- They studied together a lot.

- Ben would usually go to Vanya or Five to read in his free time, but he always studied with Allison.

- They were both great at linguistics, and they'd definitely help each other out (but both of them preferred working alone most of the times, cause they had different writing styles and approaches. They still studied together though. It helped them think, and they also checked each other's answers/revised together afterwards!)

- They did read together outside of homework sometimes, because Ben always seemed to know the right books to recommend!

- Allison would read out loud and reenact the scenes. It was around then that she started considering acting as a career option.

- (maybe Ben wrote her a scene once, and maybe he didn't tell her it was he who wrote it—Allison just so happened to be perfect for it.)

- But no for real, Allison running lines with Ben? Definitely happened.

- On another note, Allison would beg Ben over and over again to let her style his hair, or dress him up. Ben always complained, but he secretly enjoyed it!

- (Allison was the one who got him into leather jackets :D)

- One thing they have in common is that they're both extremely stubborn. It was hell when they had opposite opinions, but when they teamed up, it was over for everyone else.

- Another thing they had in common: sweet tooth.

- Like I'm sorry but their names are literally Allison 'chocolate! covered! raisins!' Hargreeves and Ben '*nods dramatically with his hood up when his sibling brings up waffles as a dinner option*' Hargreeves.

- Allison had a secret stash of candy and chocolate bars in her room, and Ben was the only one who knew about it.

- They're masters at secretly slipping into the kitchen to steal more sweets at 3am (Five joined in on that one too, when they were younger).

- While Allison was born to sing, Ben's singing is awful (he has tempo, but no pitch) so when they broke into songs the results were... interesting.

- They'd play 'finish the lyrics' and 'guess the song' a lot!

- also FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS. They're both horrible at crafts but it was definitely their thing.

- In the end, they didn't really know each other but that's exactly why they knew each other. Does that make sense?

- oh and also... you know how Ben reprogrammed Alison's teddy bear to say 'Luther sniffs dad's underwear?'

- yeah they had prank wars (ft. Diego).

It is most definitely not too much to ask. >:P

To spread them out a bit though I’ll answer one every day or something. Hope you don’t mind! :)

Are we Encanto pen pals now? Love that for us.

Rules: post your top five comfort characters, then tag some people to do the same

Melinda May (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) / Hoshi Sato (Star Trek: Enterprise)

Olivia Dunham (Fringe) / Kathryn Janeway (Star Trek: Voyager)

Andy Herrera (Station 19)

Liz Keen (The Blacklist) (regarding this, haha no I am not okay)

Dusty Crophopper (Disney’s Planes) (don’t judge D:<)

I’m sorry for cheating a wee, little, tiny bit. 😔

Honourary mention to Emma Swan because she almost made the list and was, like, the first comfort character I can remember having.

My least favourite major Encanto character is Isa. I love her, just to be clear, but she would end up at the bottom of my rankings hdjshfjkd.

I was actually crossing my fingers and hoping I had misunderstood and she was really the middle child and Luisa was the eldest, but nope. I related a lot to Luisa and was disappointed I couldn’t have that one extra thing in common with her.

Taking that one step further though, it kinda vexed me that Isa was the eldest child—twenty-two years old! Seven years Mirabel’s senior!—yet treating her youngest sister the way she did. Like. My sister could become the family outcast of family outcasts and my Eldest instinct would still be to take that upon myself rather than leave her open to a single extra burden. Of course, not every family and sibling dynamic is the same, but that “eldest daughters are a third parent” thing runs deep. 😅