Gunderkeen one-shots

A Cluster of Headcanons

A/N: Just some headcanons that have come to mind. Enjoy, and have a great day fellow fan-humans! Just a heads up a few of them night some back as actual chapters *cough*sweaters*cough*, so please don't take them.

~ Halfborn goes to a Valhalla support group.

It is for warriors of the hotel who has been there for 1,000 years or more. It is one of the few activities at the hotel that isn't to the death. Halfborn really enjoys his twice a week meetings and finds them comforting. The members take turns bringing treats and it is often traditional treats of the that person's  homeland.

~Of all the languages Halfborn has learned he chooses not to learn Celtic.

Once Magnus asked why he didn't know what Mallory was saying in her native tongue, "you know a gabillion other languages" to which Halfborn first responded with "gabillion is not a number" and that Celtic was Mallory's language, it attached her to her home. It provided her privacy, she could go off on rants and not have to be concerned that someone would understand what she was saying. Celtic was personal to her and Halfborn respects that.

~Alex wears pink and green for their meanings. Green is symbolic for safety, something that Alex didn't feel in her home. S/he started wearing it when s/he was on the streets. Alex died he/r hair that color to remind herself that s/he was safe. The pink symbolizes inner peace, it took a while for Alex  to be at peace with her gender-fluidness. The pink symbolizes symbolizes love. Now this is Alex and, she isn't into that sort of thing, at least not enough to dye her hair about (*cough* Magnus *cough*). What the pink does symbolize is love for he/rself.  Another thing that is less deep and more straight forward is that green is traditionally associated with boys and pink is associated with girls, so s/he can always feel comfortable.

~Mallory used to get anxiety acts from the sound of glass breaking.

From her dad's alcohol problem he would often break his bottle and use them as weapons, somethings against her. When she died Mallory still had her trigger for years. When something would shatter she would freeze then run. She would run someplace and hide there, not to be seen for hours or a whole day. Her hallmates were deeply confused and concerned when she sprinted out of the mess hall after someone broke their bottle as a joke. She emerged eight hours later, didn't talk to TJ and Halfborn when she passed, and went to bed. After this occurred a few times Halfborn grabbed her arm when she was making her escape when a window broke in Midgard. She had shouted and struggled until eventually breaking down in tears and explaining. It took a decade, but eventually she stopped having them. Though she still flinches from the sound.

~ TJ goes all out for 4th of July.

On July 4th TJ wears a terrible pair of white and red striped pants (that disgust Mallory for fashion reasons) , a t-shirt with Abe Lincoln's face on it in red, white, and blue and sunglasses, and his Union jacket. The American flag is painted on his face and he plays the national anthem on a bulge at sunrise and throughout the day. The bugle usually mysteriously disappears around noon, only to be returned the next July 3.

~Similar to TJ, Mallory really enjoys St. Patrick's day.

The festivals had been one of her favorite things as a kid. After she died things were different but she still honors the holiday. She wears a green t-shirt with a blue shamrock on it. A shamrock is on both her cheeks and a gold shamrock necklace is worn around her neck. For supper she eats cornbeef and cabbage, taking comfort in the meal. Even though she didn't want to go back to Ireland; she did enjoy celebrating her ancestors. Her hallmates think this is a bit amusing, not that they would say that to her face, but one year they got her a shirt that read "Kiss me I'm Irish". Mallory's face was as red as her hair, and she only wears it to bed. After Halfborn and her started dating and the shirt is worn in Halfborn's presence he enjoys obliging the shirt. That being the only reason Mallory tolerates the shirt.

~Halfborn knits sweaters for his hall mates and gives them as presents.

Halfborn learned to knit to improve his fighting skills. The task made his fingers  nimble. So for death-days, and holidays, Halfborn would leave hand-knitted gifts. Hats, sweaters, mittens, and scarves were his specialty. The gifts were really well made too. Both Mallory and TJ, and eventually Alex and Magnus have a large stash of their friend's work, and they were them often.

~When Mallory first died she was determined to learn every weapon.

After dying quickly and embarrassingly her first two days, she was determined to never be helpless in a battle. Mallory Keen would be the fierce warrior and worthy opponent to anyone. So she trained, every morning at six a.m. She got so many complaints from the noise Helgi had to threaten to give her kitchen duty alone for half a century. Mallory then moved her training sessions to when she woke up her dying from that day's battle. She would walk through her mistakes and practice techniques she had fumbled with. She would do this over, and over, and over again. Mallory taught herself to use a sword (one that was too small or too big, after she mastered a perfectly sized one); an axe; she worked with her knives and learned how to use one along with a sword; a spear; a bow; a club; even how to use a weapon three times her size (it had been a slow and painful day). Mallory, dislikes the long distance weapons. She has little patience for them, and finds it cowardly to kill someone without looking them in the eye (unless it's her friends, then lethal pranks are too good an opportunity to pass up). Halfborn secretly found her determination and dedicated practice really admirable.

~TJ is fascinated by modern technology.

Basically anything invented after he died, he loves to study. His room is filled with pieces of things he has taken apart to try and understand how it worked. He once stayed in line all night just to get an IPhone and take dissect it when he got back to the hotel. He's done this with toy cars, TVs, clocks, computers, and a bunch of other things. For his death day his hallmates would get him common twenty-first century items, and watch in amusement as TJ talked about how the object was similar or different to another item he had looked at. When anyone had an issue with technology, TJ is your guy. He learned so much about them, he usually knows how to fix it. He also bugged a kid with a talking Mickey Mouse doll. He kept asking what it ran on and other things, and the kid started crying. The whole time his hallmates were across the street recording and laughing as his mother dragged her wailing child away from a embarassed and confused TJ.

~Magnus nearly vomited when he was at Percy's house.

Annabeth had invited Magnus over for dinner at her boyfriend's house one evening. There was so much blue Magnus nearly vomited at the color. The only way he was able to make it through the night was making intense eye contact, staring at his lap, or looking at a nice beige throw pillow. Annabeth thought it was really funny, and had to explain a very confused Percy why she was laughing so hard when Magnus finally left.

~TJ had a best friend from when he was alive.

TJ met Adam during training. Though he was from the North, TJ had not been approached by a lot of his fellow soldiers. Adam had randomly sat next to him during a meal one night, TJ had been taken aback by the new boy's light skin and blonde hair. Adam's family ran a bakery in Michigan, he wanted to be a baker, but he said he had to fight for it first. They became fast friends. Adam had been right next to TJ when the man had called him up. TJ remembers his friend's cries when he charged up to face the challenge that would end in his death. TJ's first year or so, he waited for his friend to join him at Valhalla. Adam was a soldier, one of the bravest he ever knew. Years past and the Civil War ended. TJ later learned from a telegram printed in a book he read from his friend. Adam had survived, got married and had two boys, one which he named Thomas Jefferson, and opened his bakery. The telegram was Adam telling his story about losing, his brave, best friend Thomas Jefferson Jr. TJ had cried so hard, he took the book back to his room and keeps it on the shelf.

~Magnus takes floor 19 on hikes.

At first everyone was a bit skeptical, but they ended up really enjoying the hikes. Mallory, Halfborn had seen very little of Boston; even TJ had never been most of the places Magnus took them too. When Alex joined the floor s/he loved the idea of the hikes. They normally had one about twice a month as long as the weather was good.