#theninth09asks

I like to imagine that sometims when theres a break or intermission after/during a meeting or get together one of the pack will be like, “where’s Liam/or Theo?” And the other will know the exact location just immediately before any other supernatural has picked up the other’s scent or hearing. There are also totally times where someone will ask them both a question or for their opinion and Thiams eyes will just meet and everyone else watches as the two have a whole conversation without any direct communication. You could argue others in the pack can also do this like Stiles and Scott or Derek and Stiles or even Mason and Corey. BUT Liam and Theo are on a whole other level. What’s the best about this concept though is the absolutely hilarious faces the pack makes when they do anything like this in front of them-Liam the angry beta and Theo the chimera of death are so universally understood by one another that no words are needed between the two, and that is just shocking to everyone else. Both boys have so much trouble verbally communicating how they’re feeling/thinking with everyone, and so for both of them to find someone that can literally just tell with a look is so meaningful.

No one even knows how to describe the two of them separately anymore, including each other, because they are just so unanimously ONE. One soul, one brain, one heart. They love each other but it’s also just SO MUCH MORE than that!

oh absolutely and as you said, i love that this is canon. there's so many instances of this in s6 and while liam constantly tries to deny it, hes always looking for theo. and its so lovely how they just get each other. even in s6a when theo hasnt been back yet for long, they effortlessly fight next to each other. obviously s6ep20 is an even better example of this because they're so in tune, they easily work off of each other cues, and they even get so physical with it??? they stay right by each others side, liam literally rolls himself over theos back and theo gives him a little boost to further his momentum. like its actually so cute of them how well they understand each other.

and that's not even getting into their whole eye contact thing... them wordlessly communicating during the confrontation with gabe in the locker room and liam turning to look at theo when peter complains about his car getting destroyed are two moments that immediately come to mind for me. also, theo turning to look at liam after they leave the police station, when the pack fakes leaving beacon hills. they have so many moments where they look at each other and literally just. stare. they dont say anything, the pack doesnt fucking address this either??? its just them looking into each other's eyes and it makes me crazy. like that scene in s6ep16 where mason asks liam "should i come with you guys?" and instead of answering, liam looks to theo. theo looks back at liam and THEN answers mason. like. ok. just liam expecting his bf to answer his best friend and said boyfriend immediately reacting. whatever.

scott, at least, actually canonically sometimes looks at them a bit suspiciously (heres a lovely compilation of that by my dear oomf on twt) and its absolutely hilarious to me. i dont doubt that the pack would side-eye them occasionally but i feel like they'd accept thiam being thiam relatively quick, because they're already so used to their gay antics in canon. like when theo dragged liam into the bathroom at the police station in front of the entire pack?? and no one stopped him? liam didnt try to fight back either??? like, alright. their surprise wouldnt stay for long because even before they're in an actual relationship, they already act that way with each other.

going away from canon, i totally agree with them knowing where the other one is. i think they become obsessed with keeping track of each other's scent and heartbeat, but in a very sweet way. they find it calming and reassuring. theo unconsciously listening to liams heartbeat as a background noise. just in the back of his mind, because it makes him feel more comfortable. and being able to pick out liams scent literally always bc hes spent so much time looking out for it. i feel like for theo its more of a soft indulgence. he loves liam and automatically does these things. it makes him happy, even if he wouldnt admit it.

for liam, it stems more from insecurity and fear. liams abandonment issues ("hayden left me. scott's leaving, too." his reaction when he hears that morey are planning to go to the same college (possibly "leaving liam behind") and as a hc: his bio dad leaving him and his mom) and the way theo throws himself into danger for liam. liam would keep track of theos scent and heartbeat to make sure that he's still around, that he's still alive. liam feeling relieved everytime he has proof that theo hasnt left. that theo hasnt gotten himself killed. as you said, they kinda suck at verbally communicating so liam wouldnt be able to articulate this to theo. that liam has this anxiety of theo leaving, in whatever way, like everybody else. thankfully, theos actions would be enough to calm liam. he himself would never think this of himself, but hes incredibly reliable when it comes to liam.

i love this concept of them going from being liam and theo to liam and theo. in s6ep16 there's two scenes where characters refer to them as a pair (nolan talking to the hunters about them and scott mentioning them to malia, lydia & argent) and its something so simple but it makes me so giddy. they're a pair. they belong to each other. they're liam and theo. and they fit each other so well. they mirror each other in a lot of things, but they also complete each other. theo is the calm to liams anger and vice-versa. they make each other angry, they make each other happy, they suck at verbally communicating but they effortlessly understand each other. they each think of themselves as a monster and help each other learn that thats not the case. they're liam and theo and im insane about them.

I bet Liam hates flying and planes because of his thing with hanging off the building. So whenever he and Theo are going on trips or something. Liam is very ritualistic, like he has to not be by the window, not just cuz of seeing how high you are through the window but also so if he gets nervous, he can get up and go to the bathroom. And he has to be comfortable in sweats and he has to have his headphones. He definitely takes his shoes off so he can go into a little crouch on the seat if he’s scared.

Theo knows this and usually takes the window seat and takes care of the airport stuff like the boarding pass and passports and going through all that crap so Liam can prepare for the flight and get in the zone and whatever. He always uses the same airline as well.

that makes so much sense, yeah!! liam doesnt usually have trouble admitting when hes scared of something or if hes not good at something, hes quite open about stuff like that. he tells both theo and hayden that he doesnt actually know how to ride a horse instead of pretending that he knows what hes doing, he screams and tells stiles that the fire extinguisher stuff hitting his skin doesnt feel good, he hesitates and admits to scott that hes unsure about being able to face the anuk-ite, etc.

but, he never asks for help. in s4 when hes struggling with adjusting to being a werewolf, he isolates himself: he doesnt talk to mason and he doesnt open up to scott either. when hes having the hallucinations of the berserkers and is afraid to be alone, he cant get himself to outright ask mason for help and instead deals with it on his own. hes constantly running off on his own in s6 and never asking anyone for help, expect theo (i briefly talked about that in this post)

so he probably wouldnt admit to theo just how uncomfortable he is. maybe he'd allude to not really liking it, but he wouldn't outright say anything, i dont think. everytime a fear of his is connected to some trauma of his, he keeps quiet about it. if its something relatively trivial, he doesnt mind, but if its something serious? he never talks about those issues (his IED, his shame and guilt, the berserkers, what brett did to him at the zoo, etc)

good thing is, liam wouldnt have to tell theo about it in order for theo to understand. when liam gets triggered at the zoo, theo literally correctly guesses what his problem is. he doesnt just think that liam is overreacting or anything, theo is genuinely concerned and wants to understand whats triggering liam so badly. he even asks him "scared of heights? dont like cages?" in this case, it was more the cages since the incident with brett is what liams issue was, but i like that the show included the tidbit about heights. i definitely think that liam is scared of heights (talked about that a bit here too) so him having trouble being in planes makes a lot of sense to me!

and theos intuition when it comes to liam is so good that hed immediately notice and do things to help him without even saying anything. they constantly communicate without talking anyway, so theo would probably take one look at liam and his "must protect" sensors would go off. since theo is liams anchor, i like to think that he'd wear theos clothes during a flight (even though theo is literally sitting right next to him lmao) because he finds his scent calming. and theo quite literally anchors him down while they're in the air. and the headphones!!! absolutely! i love the hc that music is a huge hobby of liams, i mean. he literally tries using music as his anchor at the beginning of s5. it must be something he finds very calming yk.

hi yeah, that theo is Jewish is a headcanon. im pretty sure that its theoceanismyinkwell (they're under the same username on tumblr too!) who came up with that since most of the fics under that tag are by them! i dont know much about this headcanon, but theoceanismyinkwell is actually Jewish themselves, so if you have more questions about that, maybe try sending them an ask instead :)

in canon we dont really get to know much about theo's religion or ethnicity. theo just gets read as a white guy, which, well, he is. cody christian, his actor, is actually indigenous (his mother is penobscot) but teen wolf in general likes to cast actors that are racially ambiguous. froy gutierrez, nolan's actor, is of caxcan (indigenous to mexico) and mexican descent. victoria molores, hayden's actress, is of mexican descent as well. kelsey chow, tracy's actress, is chinese (im ignoring her claiming she's native american bc that's a whole controversy and im white european myself so its Definitely not my place to comment on that.)

my point is, all the characters ive listed can get read as white if you really want to. they're just racially ambiguous enough that you can ignore any non-white features they may have. and with the way teen wolf likes to be racist in general (the way they treat literally all of their Black characters, the way they treat kira and the incredibly poor way they handle their inspirations of asian and native american mythology) this feels... interesting to me. its definitely a choice they made.

sorry, i got of track. the racism in teen wolf makes me incredibly angry. canonically, theo mentions once that he's an atheist in s6ep9 when the sheriff threatens to shoot him "until god won't even recognize him" to which theo says "im an atheist. fire at will." if hes just always been an atheist or if his time underground possibly made him stop believing in higher beings- who knows. i think its a very fun tidbit of information about him since his name, theodore, means "gift of god." how ironic. (heres a post where i briefly talk about that btw)

I hate some fanfics where Brett lives and still treats Liam horrible. Especially because they like to make Theo and Brett bffs, like I’m sorry this man smashed a man’s head to a mirror and snapped a ghost riders head for threatening Liam and you expect me to think Theo would be friends to someone with that same history who STILL treats Liam like dirt. HONESTLY WE SHOULD THANK JEFF THAT HE KILLED BRETT BECAUSE IF THEO IN CANON WOULD HAVE EVER MET BRETT AFTER LEARNING WHAT HE DID TO LIAM THEY WOULD NEVER HAVE FOUND THE BODY!!!

The fact that Liam could even attempt to make peace with him in season 5&6b makes him a fricken saint, because while being teased sucks it’s another thing to be physically assaulted by someone twice your size and strength. And Liam still helps him and considers him a friend only to still be treated shitty by Brett, especially because as far as we know Liam never did anything directly to Brett himself only the schools coach. Like I’m sorry that you are on a thin scholarship that is for both you and your sister but that doesn’t excuse you from attacking a 15 year old boy cause he doesn’t match YOUR standards on YOUR team. Because that’s what he and his teammates did, they kidnapped and beat Liam as he was still human. While the others don’t know about the supernatural, Brett does, and would be significantly stronger than the others when hurling literal sports balls at a defenceless teenager in a cage. He could have been arrested if Liam pressed charges.

And the people who like to say it was a hallucination caused by guilt are ridiculous. Why would Liam hallucinate something so specific if he was feeling guilty about Brett’s death. If that was the case instead he should have seen Brett dying over and over or Brett telling him- “it’s your fault me and Lori died!” Not “we lost, and it’s your fault!” Like I’m sorry lacrosse is important to Liam but it’s NOT THAT important. Liam very obviously is triggered in an episode called triggers, if the episode was guilt it would have been called something according to that. Like that kid must have some serious PTSD and half of it isn’t even from all the supernatural shit he’s seen, which is heartbreaking and makes me want to hug him so tight that he never feels pain again.

I’m sorry I ranted…

i think bretts and liams friendship fits into the pattern that liam has with all his other friends. except for mason, basically all of his relationships start of extremely rocky. scott and stiles, hayden, corey, theo, nolan... all of these people he didnt particularly like. he fights with them (physically), they put him into dangerous situations/threaten him (scott, theo, nolan) and he has to learn to trust them. brett fits right into that, technically.

the detail that stands out is that brett is literally just a bully. all the other characters i listed, they had reasons for why they treated liam the way they did. like. theo and nolan were both about to kill liam, but that was because of their circumstances. they didnt have something specifically against liam.

brett, on the other hand, is just mean to him? i already talked about that i think the flashback liam has is definitely a real memory and as you said, liam wasnt a werewolf back then and nothing about that scene indicates that liams own behavior was reason for brett to go to such extreme measures. and i understand that brett has reason to be pissed off at liam for what he did to their coach's car, but the way he continously makes fun of liams disorder and is so rude to him, literally up until his death?

like... i love asshole characters (obviously, i love theo) but even theo has his soft moments. theo shows again and again in s6 that he cares about liam. we never see anything like that from brett. he cares about his sister, wow, but thats one line right before they both die. doesnt exactly give them much depth or makes me care about them.

and yeah i agree. im not a fan of people including brett (and sometimes lori) in fics, idk. i get that fanfiction is there to have fun and it doesnt need to make sense in canon. people bring back allison, erica, boyd, etc all the time in fanfiction and thats cool. you do you. but i personally dont understand why people are so obsessed with brett. its not like he was a fascinating character or anything and as someone who prefers canon-compliant fics, making him still be alive erases so much of liams development and even thiams dynamic. if you want more members for the puppy pack, nolan, alec, hayden and gwen are right there.

and god yeah no i dont like this idea of theo and brett being friends at all. i guess you could argue they have slightly similar personalities bc of their abrasive attitude, but thats just not enough to convince me that theyd get along. and yeah, theo has the biggest fucking soft spot for liam. obviously he knows that liam can handle himself, but i dont think that hed be completely unbothered by what brett did.

if you want to give theo new friends other than liam, so many other characters make more sense in my opinion. let him reconnect with scott. let him bond with corey or hayden because they were part of the chimera pack. let him bond with nolan as they were both antagonists in liams life and have to earn his trust. let him bond with alec who we basically know nothing about anyway so its easy to make him into someone that theo could get to know.

i introduced my mum to teen wolf and she’s been watching for the past few months. we just finished s5 and you need to hear this.

basically, i asked her off hand do you like liam and theo? and she was like yeh i really like liam and gave all her reasoning. she said she didn’t like theo. and she hasn’t seen s6 yet so i was like okay valid.

but even so, i asked her why. and her response is something else. she went on a whole spiel. these were her exact words (p.s. she’s a bit of a character):

“the guy has three metal doctors who are like supernatural encyclopaedias and an entire lab of a chemicals and gadgets and materials and information and chimeras and all that jazz. and he chooses to become an free escort and learn how to fake cry to make his ends meet? like you have all of that and you couldn’t think of anything else? crying and acting like an escort is what people in the 1700s are on the streets did to make a living because they had no other option. he has all of this and he couldn’t think of anything else? …”

she said some other stuff that i don’t remember but i remembered this word for word because its so funny.

hi emily!! first of all, thank you! this is seriously so sweet, i loved getting this message :( i was like "wow. someone watched tw with their mom and had the thought 'tumblr user theninth09 needs to hear about this.'" im honored, like actually!

and thank you again for sharing this with me, because this is hilarious. actually laughed at your mom calling theo a 1700s escort like nsiebwjs omg??? he really is, i fucking can't 😭 because im me, ill briefly rant about the reasons why theo acts like that instead of trying to find a different solution. this is absolutely nothing against your lovely mom, i think shes hilarious and i 100% get why people dont like theo in s5!! gladly let me know if she changes her opinion about him as you watch s6 and i hope she has fun watching <3

funnily enough, i actually think she answered her question with her own words. "crying and acting [...] because [he] had no other option." theo grew up with the dread doctors, they groomed him into the person that he is. he must've learned how to act like that over the years, they must've trained him into doing whatever they want. so its not really him "choosing" to act like that, but rather that hes 1. so used to it that he doesnt even consider there being another option and 2. the doctors Expect from him that he does that. i know that theo seems like this guy that just does whatever he wants, especially in s5b. but the doctors hold a lot of power over him and hes absolutely not unaffected by that. hes actively scared of them and listens to everything they say.

when theo speaks with donovan (the guy that stiles later accidentally kills) he says that the doctors dont usually let him speak to other experiments. meaning that this time, they did allow him. he doesnt ignore their orders: if hes forbidden from doing something, he doesnt do it. he only talks to donovan because he got the doctors approval for that. when he tells the doctors that he needs hayden alive, that he needs more time (he also literally says I did everything you wanted in this same scene) just the doctors turning to look at him is enough to scare him. he takes a step back, it almost looks like there are tears in his eyes, he doesnt try to argue again even though hes obviously not happy.

when him, scott and liam find mason attached to the doctors tube-thing (or whatever that thing was) theo says that he doesnt know either what that is: the doctors dont tell him everything, perhaps forbid him from touching certain things, keep him in the dark about stuff they consider too important. theo and the dread doctors aren't allies, theo isn't with the doctors. theo is like their pet, their minion. they use him and tell him what to do and only as long as he doesn't interfere with their work, they tolerate him trying to reach his own goal. they classify him as a failure despite him not having bled mercury and theos voice shakes, hes terrified as he says "im not a failure."

yes, theo talks back and hes arrogant and impulsive. but hes also a traumatized child that more or less got raised by the dread doctors. he doesnt try to figure out a different way to reach his goal, because he doesnt even consider it a possibility. hes scared of the repercussions. and also: lets say none of what i just said is relevant (or true, im aware that some of this goes into subtext/headcanon territory.) then there'd actually still be a reason why he doesn't use the dread doctors stuff: he doesn't want to.

his main goal, his desire is to become a real werewolf. that's what's most important to him. after he gets the chimera pack, he says to the doctors, frustrated, that hes still not an actual alpha, that his eyes are still golden. when he kills scott, he asks "because im not a real werewolf?" with his insecurity regarding that obviously shining through. he calls chimeras "cheap knock-off versions." cody has talked about theo's inferiority complex in interviews, too. tinkering with the dread doctors stuff and whatever information they may have wouldn't help him. he wants to be a real werewolf. and if the doctors themselves couldnt even manage to have him be the successful chimera to turn into the beast, hes probably long abandoned any ideas about a way to do it himself. trying to steal someone else's powers is, in theo's mind, his only option.

Yeeee I feel so proud to have changed your mind on Liams being a secret fashion icon more than Theo.

He defo is a fashion icon without trying. Like a natural eye yk.

I honestly see as a preppy icon. Like Ralph Lauren vibes with the rugby shirts and the chinos or even the polo shirts and sweaters and varsity jackets. I think because he’s into history he prefers the older more preppy fashion you know what I’m saying

hey jeanette!! i love the idea of liam almost accidentally always dressing really well. itd be absolutely infuriating for theo, too, as hes someone who probably always thought really carefully about what to dress himself like.

clothing impacts your perception of a person, so he probably always chose his outfits accordingly to his current mission. something tight or revealing when hes seducing someone, something soft and light when he needs to appear innocent, studying what people associate with certain colors, etc. we even see glimpses of that in the show, kinda, since he undresses in front of malia. and his outfits change from s5 to s6, almost as if he allowed himself to finally dress himself what hes really like since he doesnt have to manipulate anyone anymore.

(though it may be possible that hes just choosing whatever he could afford or possibly steal, since hes homeless. i kinda love the idea of slightly fashion forward liam helping theo find his style and figure out what he actually likes.)

personally, im absolutely clueless about fashion, so im embarrassed to admit that i actually looked up what you were talking about to be 100% sure that i see the vision. after investigating, i do the see vision though! i definitely see him dressing that way and theo being equal parts annoyed by it and attracted to it.

Okay so basically I always assumed liam would win most of the games because he learned how to ride a horse in like two seconds so i thought he had a skill of learning how to do things on the spot. and he has the hand eye coordination and reaction times and all the other skills that have made him so good at lacrosse for so long so surely he’d be the one winning.

Also, surely Liam would win the dress to impress more than any of them - The pink button up with the ripped jeans, the iconic red jacket with the chinos and many others - like come on now….

What do you think,

i agree! in both scenes where we see liam and mason play video games, hes the one winning. first in s4 when mason asks him how he suddenly got so good and liam awkwardly says that he just practiced a lot (when it was really his werewolf reflexes) and then in s6 where mason asks him if he cheated and liam laughs and swears that he didnt. so yeah, liam probably wins a lot!

theos also supernatural though and i personally think hes quite good at learning things quickly and adapting as well due to his time with the dread doctors and how they possibly trained him. so they'd be pretty evenly matched when playing against each other. plus, they're still human in other ways. sometimes they are distracted, or the game is based on luck, or they're not using their supernatural abilities bc they just want to have fun, etc.

for example when i said that theo would carry liam in elden ring and solo the hardest boss for him, thats not necessarily because i think that liam isnt capable of doing it himself. hes just less interested in that game than theo and theo has played it so much that hes automatically better at it than liam.

waitttt this is so cute omg. i love this hc and i feel like it makes a lot of sense for their characters too!! liam and mason absolutely have this kind of friendship where they constantly make bets and lovingly laugh at and tease each other. and oh god, now im just thinking about how in s4 when the supernatural shit starts happening how liam distances himself from mason... and how both liam himself and mason watch liams roots grow out, measuring the amount of time they havent properly talked to each other... this fun thing that was done out of friendly spite and a testament of their friendship's dynamic turning into the physical proof of how they havent spent time with each other :(

and them in s5 dying liams hair together when they're talking again... as this ritual for them that they finally figured it out/that mason now knows about liam being a werewolf. they're such cuties to me i love miam friendship so much. also, i know that mason's hair is really short and they dont do much with it anyway (which is very annoying to me, how come most of the male characters get an updated haircut but mason doesnt??? i would've loved to see him with a different Black hairstyle in s5 or 6) but! maybe mason teaching liam how to take care of his hair too, teaching him how to braid it? perhaps when they were younger? sleepovers where they'd have movie marathons and paint each others fingernails and do each others hair... Anyway!

i totally see liam slowly growing his hair out and not dying his roots anymore because it just became too stressful with everything that was happening. like the way its styled sometimes in s6b... he does not look like he knows how to handle that length. its just??? the way it curls at his neck in certain scenes is so silly to me, im sorry. he definitely didnt plan growing it out, that just happened and hes trying to wing it.

and yesss theo secretly enjoying it. i have this hc of my own that he used to braid tara's hair and sometimes takes the longer strands of liam's hair and braids them, almost absentmindedly :') and liam quietly asking him where he learned how to do that. so if liam's hair became even longer, theo could Actually braid it.

also, consider: liam with a man-bun. i feel like he could pull it off. and theo would absolutely never admit it, but he enjoys anything liam does with his hair, because of course he does. even when liam looks ridiculous, he's into that because theo is just that much of a down bad gay loser. he keeps hair ties on his wrist for liam all the time, too.