#I don’t wanna main tag this at all since this is so stupidly au centric lmao

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I I about to fucking loose my shit you have no idea how perfectly WTSS lines up with Epic The Musical of my fucking god. ET's Coffee Shop (the OC project based off of WTSS) is better (similar theme of what it means to be human and the moral consequences of casting that humanity aside) but WTSS still works perfectly because all the characters are the same. Iam loosing my mind. Holy fuck. Anyways can I hear your thoughts on Epic and the Masked Epic AU

Okie dokie! Sounds good! My thoughts on Epic, eh?

Ugh. Ogh. Oh my goodness. I ADORE Epic. More than you can comprehend. I’m no music scientist, but I can tell that so much incredible work and thought is being put into every track- and I cannot even comprehend how you can find people with voices THAT incredible. I think I have gender envy for Athena’s voice. And don’t get me STARTED on the clip for Antinous. Oughhhhhhh.

As for the theming, I am utterly FASCINATED by the subversion of themes you’d normally find in a story like this. Epic starts out with what would seem like Odysseus’s hero’s journey- the end of the Trojan War and the start of his journey home. But what we find as the story unfolds is not that he is proving himself a hero, he is proving himself a monster.

Epic has this really interesting focus on humanity being equated to powerlessness. It is always “I’m/You’re just a man.” You could be so much more, but you’re held back by your humanity. Sparing someone isn’t mercy upon them, ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves. You are not a hero for letting someone else live, you are a hero for fighting to get what you want and protecting others, no matter the cruelty. Everything about Epic is about power and protection and the consequences of failure, and how a man has to change to a monster in order to get what he wants.

And it makes me FUCKING INSANE.

Btw, some of my top favorite songs are Just A Man, My Goodbye, Ruthlessness, and No Longer You. (I’m sure there’s a pattern in there somewhere.) My favorite saga is the Cyclops saga- four straight bangers one after the other. Exquisite.

As for my Epic Masked au, that will require a longer explanation, and I’ve already rambled a decent amount, so I’ve placed all my thoughts under the cut!

The story of the au just follows Epic, to be honest; I’m just inserting Masked characters into the roles they best fit in. Unfortunately, some of these characters are spoilers to Masked lore… so whenever I discuss a role that would have a spoiler character, I’ll talk about something else instead.

That something else will be the production of The Odyssey that my theater group put on in the Fall of 2023, since it’s a different adaptation of the same story as Epic. Yes, I’m still obsessed with my own damn play, but it was AWESOME. I played Tiresias and I SLAYED SO HARD. I could ramble about it forever and I wish I could show the amazing pictures of it, but… sigh. Giving some light details about it are all I can supply you with, unfortunately.

Anyway! This is the au’s cast:

-Odysseus: Our first spoiler character. I wish I didn’t have to redact who the main guy would be, but he’s a walking disruption to my plans. Anyway! In my play’s production of the Odyssey, Odysseus was so so good. Unfortunately, even as the main guy, his character didn’t stick out to me as much as the others… BUT it was excellent. He got this really cool cape that unfortunately got messed up the day we did our photoshoot and eventually fell off his back at the end of the play, but the cape was fine for the rest of the shows!

Penelope: Our second spoiler! How tragic. Oh well. As much as I’d like to credit Odysseus as the star of the show, our production was rewritten to give Penelope a major focus as well. I adore her character for our play- she was a boundlessly patient and wise woman, endlessly strong for upholding her family even in the face of Antinous and her abuse. I’m unable to think of Penelope as a character without thinking of her opening lines in the play. “Patiently I wait, with my eyes ever fixed to the violet seas for my one true love’s dark sails to brighten Ithaca’s shores once again.” So melancholy…

Telemachus: …ah, also a spoiler. Ahem. Thanks to this rewritten version of the Odyssey focusing more on what was happening in Ithaca, we get to see more of Telemachus as a character, too. Telemachus holds a special place in my heart, since I was cast as his understudy! I never went on as him, thank goodness, I could not memorize all those lines… my overstudy was so so talented… anyway, Telemachus’s costume made him look like Jesus.

Athena: THANK GOD. I can tell you this one! The Twilight Goat plays the role of Athena. I see the Twilight Goat as a very wise, almost sage-like character, so she was suitable to be Athena. Thanks to Epic’s interesting interpretation, Epic!TwiGoat has a different personality than in Masked, but who knows if I’ll ever get the chance to show off either…

Polites: Hm. The guy who eats the lotus flowers, falls under their spell, and then later  dies prematurely and haunts the narrative? Of COURSE it has to be Karmin. On the bright side, this is finally a Karmin that has no malicious intentions! Tragic that she’s doomed by all of the narratives forever. Womp womp </3

Eurylochus: Timmy. Spoilers for the Odyssey, but considering that he gets struck down by Zeus after eating Helios’s cows… and that’s the closest I can get to recreating death via electrical fire… yeah, it works.

Polyphemus: This might seem like an odd choice, but I have Ichor as Polyphemus. If you asked Ichor, they would wholeheartedly agree that living in a cave with a bunch of fluffy sheep is a quite lovely way to live. Just don’t tell them the fact that they will be reduced to one eye… and then zero… poor Ichor.

Aeolus: Again, an odd choice, but I have Outlander as Aeolus. My reasoning is that they have the same little guy energy. Sure, the argument could’ve been made that Ichor and Outlander could switch roles and it’d be the same, but I argue differently! Outlander as Polyphemus wouldn’t work no matter how badly I want to gouge his eye out of his socket, because Outlander is too proud to ever ask someone else to get his revenge for him.

Poseidon: Ohoho! I love this choice because it is simultaneously so obvious and so contradictory. Of course I had to have Shapeshifter as Poseidon. Having Shapeshifter be an antagonist and cause boundless destruction is such a fun concept! This choice is heavily inspired by the nature of Poseidon in AnniFlamma’s Ruthlessness animatic- I ADORE the way Poseidon morphs throughout it. Go watch it. It’s so good. Besides, Shapeshifter could ROCK the amalgam sea creature look.

Circe: Florist. Lol. For the flower association. There’s clearly not a huge amount of thought put behind this one, but florist should count her lucky stars she’s getting a role in an au of mine. (Okay, that’s a lie, she has a major role in my Masked Pursuit au. Whatever.)

Hermes: This one will require some explanation. I have Devi as Hermes. Devi is a character that exists in the gray area of being an OC and not being one, since I am essentially reusing the design from the image lovingly dubbed by very normal AHiT fans as “Fox MJ”. Long story. Anyway, Devi and Hermes have the same vibes. I can completely picture Devi doing Hermes’s silly little giggle.

Tiresias: The Tiresias for this au is Partycrasher! Partycrasher is a VERY obscure cut character, but all you need to know is that it has connections to the afterlife in Masked, so it made sense to have it be the spooky dead prophet.

Calypso: Ah, we run into another spoiler. Damn, and I was being so good at avoiding those! Oh well, back to yapping about my play! The costume for Calypso was so pretty. SO DAMN PRETTY. Actually, all the goddesses in the play (Athena, Circe, Calypso) had THE most STUNNING dresses and crowns/halos ever. Ohhhh my god. I wish everyone in the world could’ve seen this play. Wait not everyone in the world actually I take that back. Never mind I’m embarrassed now. Moving on.

Antinous: My funniest character choice for this au… which I cannot tell you because they are a spoiler. Ugh. So anyway, having Ithaca being a central focus for the play really gave Antinous a lot of time to shine as an antagonist. He was ruthless and abusive, and a complete and utter monster. Which might’ve been chill for him in Epic, but in our production, he was brought to swift justice. Hooray!

Hephaestus: Thor. Since they’re both inventors, y’know. I’ll be real, I’m pretty sure Hephaestus will play a minimal role in Epic, so I don’t think I need to say much.

Unfortunately, those are all the characters I have figured out. I know there are more that need to be filled in- such as Anticleia and Laertes, Eurycleia, the rest of the goddamn pantheon, Scylla and Charybdis, and likely others that I cannot think of right now. I’ve only been using characters from Alpine and Subcon lore, cut characters, and OCs, but if worst comes to worst, I might have to use… (shudder…) characters from base AHiT…

…or I could get my friends’ permission to insert their OCs into Masked Epic au. Which would be really funny. Whatever. Maybe I won’t even finish with all the characters until after Epic is fully released! That’ll likely be what happens.

Those are my thoughts on the characters, and since it follows the same story, you can discern how all their arcs will go. But if you want some visual representation of them, luckily I’ve drafted a few designs!

This first one is for Odysseus- ah, wait. Wait. I can’t show that one. Hm. Well, then, (sound of rustling papers) Oh! I know! I can show you this comic of my designs for Penelope and Telemachus, using dialogue from my production of the Odyssey- oh, wait. I can’t show you that one either. Phooey. What else do I have?

Oh! OH! I know! I can show you the really cool designs I made for the gods! I drafted some really neat designs for TwiGoat, Devi, and Shapeshifter! I’m pretty proud of these, actually- I like how I merged their anthro aspects with the gods’ designs-

-um. Uh-oh. I lost the paper. Oh… man :( I’m genuinely really bummed out about that one. I wish I could find it… if I ever do, I will post those designs! This friggen’ sucks, though.

Luckily, though, I have other designs saved. Here’s a very rough draft of Partycrasher/Tiresias. I’m awful at coming up with outfits on my own, so the costume is heavily inspired by the costume I wore as Tiresias. In my defense, HEY, the costume ROCKED. The toga was the same design as all the others, just black, but I got extra accessories: crow feathers around my shoulders, and gauze to drape over my face and arms. It was AWESOME. Of COURSE I have to give that to Partycrasher too!

I also have a design for Karmin :) This doodle of her is when she is currently lotused. But look at her. Full of whimsy. Full of lotus. Nothing but flower petals in her brain. I adore her. I miss her. I need to draw Karmin more often, man. I love women.

Unfortunately, those are the only designs that survived… I still feel bad about the ones I lost. In compensation for that, here are some other drawings that aren’t necessarily related to Masked or the Odyssey, but are related to Epic.

Wait, compensation? What am I talking about? No. You should be grateful to ME that I am showing you these drawings! I am SO LOVINGLY BESTOWING these upon you! Look! Do you think I show my unfinished scribbles all willy-nilly? THOU SHALT GAZE UPON MY OCS, BOY, AND OBSERVE MINE DEMIGOD DUMBASSES.

Okay that’s it :) Thanks for letting me ramble :) Epic is good but combining it with OCs is better :)