#go out and try some shezan mango juice

[stormflower8]

we're back with more south asian!ballister headcanons

part one is here

I did not expect such a positive reaction to part one, so here are some more that I wrote down while going about my day today!

starting with building on what I was doing in part one, relating to the transition to primarily speaking urdu to always speaking english

sometimes ballister forgets english words for things

now, there are two routes you can go with this

either, A, he does that thing where he snaps his fingers a few times to remember

eg, "And then I picked up that," Ballister trailed off, snapping his fingers a few times in frustration. "What's it called? Unda..." he furrowed his brow. Ambrosius tilted his head, "Unda?" he echoed. Ballister waved a hand. "That's the Urdu word for it..." he snapped his fingers definitively, face brightening. "Egg! It's an egg."

or, option B, he just makes crap up

think those videos by Dez the Lez on youtube where she talks about her mother making up random phrases in english to describe words that she forgot (eg. "horse tornado" for carousel)

for example, "Where's my hydration unit?" Ballister asked, opening a cabinet, closing it, then opening another. Nimona stared at him. "Hydration unit?" "You know, the thing," Ballister clicked his tongue as he spoke, as if he was making even a lick of sense. "The hydration capsule." Ambrosius looked up from the book he was reading. "Do you mean a water bottle?" "Water bottle, right!" Ballister laughed, as if it was totally normal to call a water bottle a hydration unit. "Where is it?" "You left it in our room," Ambrosius said offhandedly. Ballister sighed. "Thanks," he said, then left to go find it. Nimona gaped at Ambrosius. "How?" she breathed. "How the hell did you get 'water bottle' from 'hydration unit'??" Ambrosius shrugged. "You get used to it."

both are great options

while option B is way funnier and opens up more opportunities for fics, I think option A might be a little more in character

or he just alternates between the two. that is absolutely an option.

uh, fun fact, I myself have actually called a water bottle a hydration unit before, but I think that's more of me being a dumbass than anything because english is my first language LMAO

chai. ballister LOVES chai.

he is more devoted to chai than he is to ambrosius (/J /J /THAT WAS A JOKE)

if he sees starbucks "chai tea latte" or whatever they call it in his house he is KICKING YOU OUT

ambrosius's favorite hobby is to hug ballister from behind while he's stirring the chai pot and it's a very warm and cozy moment that smells like chai and it is one of their favorite things to do, both during their institute days and post-canon

there was also this one time ambrosius and ballister were kissing (actually, they were probably making out) and the chai boiled over because they were too distracted to tend to it, but the two of them try not to bring that incident up

at first, nimona made fun of ballister for his mildly obsessive chai drinking ("tea?? you're drinking tea?? my god, how old are you? just hop in the senior center now")

then, he finally just forced her to try some, and suddenly he was making three cups instead of just two

and on the topic of drinks,

ballister also really loves mangos, and has fond memories of climbing huge mango trees as a kid and picking them (this memory is stolen from my pakistani dad, shoutout to him akjdhaskj)

this has led to a love of mango juice

he knows ALL the brands. ALL OF THEM.

his favorite is Shezan, because let's be real, Shezan is the best mango juice and I CAN AND WILL throw hands on this

I can vividly imagine ambrosius and ballister grocery shopping and ballister asks ambrosius to go grab some mango juice and ambrosius returns with like the first thing he saw on the shelf and Ballister took the bottle from Ambrosius and examined it. "This one?" he asked skeptically. "Uh, yes?" Ambrosius chuckled. "It was the first one I saw." "This one has a strange aftertaste," Ballister said idly, putting it back on the shelf. Instead, he selected a pack of juice boxes. "These are the best." He then started to ramble about other brands and their pros and cons, but Ambrosius barely heard him. He was fairly certain that, if he were a cartoon character, he'd be making heart eyes at Ballister. Ballister noticed, trailing off when he caught Ambrosius's gaze. He tilted his head to the side. "What?" Ambrosius felt an uncontrollable smile spreading across his face. "Nothing." Ballister watched Ambrosius for another second before snorting out a small laugh and ducking his head to break eye contact. They moved on after that, but Ambrosius made sure to commit the brand name of that mango juice to memory after that.

mango juice is important, alright? bad mango juice is a crime.

this is already super long, but here's one more I sometimes see people talking about

kajul. kohl. whatever you want to call it, ballister uses it.

okay, let me get something straight. sometimes I see fics where one character puts kohl on another, and I just wanna say I could NEVER

for those of you who think kohl is like an eyeliner, it's not. not really.

grab a mirror, and pull your bottom eyelid down. the lower eyelid that connects to your bottom lashes? THAT'S where the kohl goes.

my sister is the one who introduced kohl to me, and she was like "okay storm, you can use mine, but I can't put it on you" to which I responded "wait, why not?" and she showed me where it goes and let me tell you I GASPED in that public bathroom

needless to say I chickened out and did not end up wearing kohl that evening

but enough about me

ballister boldheart is a braver man than me

kohl is cool because it's a culturally, historically, completely inarguably gender-neutral makeup product which is so awesome tbh

anyways he wears it fairly often and it really brings out his stupid gigantic sad wet kitten eyes

ambrosius adores it

nimona wants to try putting it on but ballister is paranoid she'll stab herself in the eye, despite her complaints that she can just "form a new one"

this was, again, so much longer than I expected, but I still have more headcanons! I'll probably make a part three soonish, but until then, enjoy these!

-Storm

#nimona 2023 #nimona #ballister boldheart #riz ahmed #ambrosius goldenloin #ballister x ambrosius #south asian #desi #go out and try some shezan mango juice #you won't regret it #god this started as a single Thought and now it is Many Thoughts #not that I'm complaining