#vanpalmerdefender

I think it's for one or two different reasons. Yellowjackets has its faults, but the emotional comlexity of the characters is its greatest strength imo and this is an example. With Travis in this moment, I think seeing Lottie is both a manifestation of his sexual trauma and his desire for faith and reassurance.

Lottie is constrastingly both his primary assaulter and the person who most comforts him spiritually. That desire for her comfort and a higher connection/faith has become intertwined with sexual desire, even if he doesn't desire Lottie herself. For a number of reasons, not least of all the trauma of doomcoming, it seems like he struggles to seperate spiritual desire from sexual desire. Which is possibly why he becomes aroused when Lottie comforts him during his panic attack. It's about what Lottie represents to him. What she can offer him that Nat can't in that moment. Lottie believes Javi is alive, and Travis wants to believe, he wants to choose faith/Lottie, even if what Nat is offering is more tangible.

(Then you have the fact this scene is intercut with Jackie's body on the pyre? The girl he lost his virginity to? The girl who died as a result of sleeping with him/a refusal of faith? That's interesting. Might have to think on that part a little more.)

Sex is a good way to make this point tbh, because its so corporeal. Which makes you think it would be at odds with the spiritual, but its kind of not? In fact, I would say it's the human experience most regulary referenced in relation to the soul and religious devotion. Travis thinks he has to choose between the two, but he doesn't, he's just conforming to an expectation. Yellowjackets is seemingly so about balance (e.g. two realities, spiritual vs scientific, nature symbolism, Tai/other Tai, Shauna being unbalanced after losing Jackie/her other half, and the concept of taking one life as payment for another). In particular, it appears to be about how we so often force ourselves to conform to one ideal or another, when our true selves would be much happier sat somewhere in the middle, balancing two or more aspects.

So I think Van is dyslexic, so I don’t think academic subjects are her strong suit (her home life doesn’t help ). That doesn’t make her stupid though. We can seen she can memories films and facts like a pro.

I feel like she’d enjoy something creative, like art or some sort of design work.

However…

;akjf;asfkd non-wfc answer:

taivan are used to be discreet so they're better at sneaking off to make nasty and like. being aware of the volume aspect when they are in the hut (which i think is a LOT easier to tune out than whatever the fuck shaunahat are up to jesus christ)

like the discretion has been a part of their dynamic since the beginning (both pre crash and wilderness) so its like idk not second nature but yeah ofc they're gonna tip toe away like cartoons to fuck about it

and i think people WANT shaunahat to move but ;aflkdas;fdk idk everyone is tiptoeing around them (shauna) cause she's having the closest thing to fun that she has in like a year and also yeah. the team doesn't NEED to hear the absolutely filthy things she's saying to melissa but someone else needs to be the one to tell them to pipe down short answer is nobody moves bc everyone's afraid to ask shauna to go be sex mean to mel somewhere else wfc answer: a little bit the same but it literally starts with taivan fucking and getting heckled so the team can go to sleep a;kfjdas; so there's a bit less discretion/more boldness from the others to start yelling from the lil hut entrances and teasing them?? but after wfc hits its stride idk that taivan are particularly disruptive but i don't know that they care about the noise in the same way now

HONESTLY i think shaunahat is more peaceful in wfcverse cause theres an outlet??? and when they do start getting too rowdy for the group's tastes outside of the pit people aren't afraid in the same way to either tell them to stuff it OR to challenge one or both of them and fuck it out

also shaunahat are more likely to fuck during the day (idk why) so it's easier to be like WELP time to go do some lake chores i guess here are my other noise hcs unrelated to the above:

robin will visit other huts on non-fuck club evenings sometimes and can be a loud crier (its not too disruptive tho cause like, just gag her?? its fine. also in general she doesn't get on peoples' nerves they're very endeared by her because i said so)

sometimes frantic chanting in spanish comes from mari's hut in the middle of the night

gen has the exact opposite tact with melissa than shauna but they're still too fucking loud about it

on the other end, it is a TREAT to hear britt dirty talk to someone as she has somehow figured out how to manipulate the english language in all the best right ways so everyone in other huts shut the fuck UP when britt gets going

u quite literally need psychological help ! @vanpalmerdefender