#Sampo works with any character dynamic-wise

[sorrinslays]

Is there any character you'd want Sampo to interact with? I think he should meet every star rail character at least once as a treat

100% agree with you anon. Sampo is a pretty versatile character so you can just plop him anywhere with anyone and it's guaranteed to be entertaining.

As for who I personally want to see him interact with...

Gallagher is the first that comes to mind. I'm not sure what possessed me to form this thought but something about how different they are is very entertaining to me. I imagine they would be very chill with each other, just drinking buddies. I'm mostly interested in the two of them talking about their ideologies and worldviews. But then again, I'm a sucker for chill conversations between different characters.

I know technically we've seen Sampo with Black Swan, but I'd like to see more of the two, without Sparkle's interference. I imagine it would be like Acheron 2.0 for Black Swan. Maybe she decides to poke her nose where she shouldn't again and instead of inner Acheron, it's Aha's insanity that greets her or something. Either way it'd be interesting to see their interactions if Black Swan acknowledges how different Sampo is from your usual Masked Fool.

For the more comedic side of things having Sampo interact with "the ghost busters" would be very fun. Guinaifen would help him set up a channel where he would either teach people how to lock pick or to scam people. I'm not sure how Sushang would interact with him but I'm guessing she would be overly suspicious of him. Oh, but he would definitely bicker with Mr Tail, Huohuo would try to stop them.

I'd love to see a canon interaction between Gepard and Sampo as well as Luka and Sampo. I'm very curious about their canon dynamic and if we (the fanbase) got it right.

I know technically he and Bronya had been in the same scene but they never talked to one another so I don't count it.

An interaction between him and the other Astral Express members would be very nice too. I wonder how someone like Welt and Himeko would approach him. Obviously they probably heard about him, the question is, did they manage to figure out that he was basically the one pulling the strings during the Belobog arc? I have a feeling they would.

Honestly, seeing him talk to people like Aventurine, Dr Ratio, Boothill, Argenti and Sunday would be interesting. They all are pretty different, but seeing them together would be rather entertaining, either one on one or in a group setting.

Lastly, I'd love to see his canon dynamic with Serval. We know they were friends at some point, and I've seen people headcanon that she holds a bit of hostility towards Sampo, so I wanna see if it's true or not.

[walleeli]

Matchup Exchange with @frostfall-matches (2/2)

I match you with… Sampo Koski

Hear me out! (my reasoning)

we'll get the obvious out of the way, you align yourself with the Masked Fools, you get the fool himself LMAOOO 

No, I'm having involved and elaborate ideas of plots and circumstances as per usual, don't worry. (Or worry a lot <3)

I'm going to be real with you. There is a distinct-and perhaps thematically appropriate?-lack of reasoning for this match on my end. I'm seeing tail ends of frayed threads instead of any spooled source BUT THERE IS A VISION!! 

To avoid sounding… entirely delusional I will provide what little I've got connecting the dots wise.

It's an unstoppable force (Sampo) vs immovable object (you) dynamic with this one. It's about the space created between the similarities and the differences in your character. Meeting on a crossroads of unknowns and the aspects of yourselves that are reflected in the other. 

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. 

Your senses of humor, quick wit, teasing and mischievous natures, and inclination towards self service is shared. Along with your luck when it comes to finding or in your counterpart's case, creating trouble and ability to keep it cool under pressure and light in general. 

Blase. Is a word that comes to mind. Devil-may-care, for an idiom, if that suits you. 

As viewers our knowledge of Sampo is pretty limited, to say the least, but there are things that can be gathered from the persona he puts on and the little bits we HAVE gotten.

I think it is safe to say that he does not share your introversion. And the ways in which he is logical, unsentimental, and apathetic strike me as more performative than anything. (But that is obviously just speculation on my part.) He also does not share your comfort with confrontation and blatant challenging of authority, and would much prefer to avoid it all together. You couldn't get him to be straight with you with a gun to his head and he is, generally, much more interested in acquainting himself with others than you are. I'm choosing to believe it is equally because of the nature of his work and his own general disposition (again, we're just gonna have to roll with my theories, as hsr's writers have decided it is not for us to know at present.) He's a risk taker, like you, but much more calculated in comparison to your lean toward impulsivity.

I am… not inclined to call what the two of you have "balanced" or "imbalanced". You aren't two sides of the same coin or two opposites attracting. It's some secret third thing. (Where's that one post that's like "are they lovers?" "worse." Basically that.) Your relationship is the truth beneath the joke. The familiar thing that brings the laughter out. 

"I don't have a lot of reasoning!" she says. 450 words later… I think I just love to lie. GJKFSJFSDJJFDFJSJF ANYWAYS.

Headcanons - How It Starts

You meet Sampo twice before you meet him. I mean that exactly how it sounds.

You are on an assignment, and shifting between disguises, less out of necessity and more for a general love of the game. (Getting into character really helps you settle into the right headspace for these sorts of things.) Sampo is also on an assignment. You will later find out that the assignment he's on just so happens to be yours. 

Three times your paths cross, and three times your attempts to complete your work are thwarted. 

The first encounter has you making an exchange with a woman you were told would be. a lot shorter and a lot less broad than she appears before you. This is fine, relatively speaking, and not an uncommon occurrence given the company you keep. This should be fine. (You leave the exchange with an almost-what-you-came-for item. At least at first glance. Later, upon closer inspection, you will find that it is a shoddily constructed imitation of an imitation. And you are a little insulted, honestly, and perhaps a little irritated you didn't catch on sooner.)

On the second, you arrive at the described meeting location, at the decided time… only for your contacts to never show. Odd, incredibly so, but people are fickle… THEY surely understand that much. (And are honestly probably enjoying the show.) You laugh it off and get on your way. Your determination to succeed in the next step of your mission makes the guy you see climbing out of a garbage can, looking entirely like a deer caught in the headlights when your eyes briefly meet, register as mere static. 

To put it delicately. Nothing about your mission goes well. At any point of the operation. You come back empty handed and with no intel. Your performance reduced to an idiot plot. Thankfully, in the service of The Elation this matters very little. So long as someone is amused. 

You aren't there yet. Honestly, you're pretty irritated about the whole ordeal. You're playing every misstep back in your head, looking for any connecting thread as you go to report to your employer that the mission was a bust… only to find them in conversation with someone you don't know but feel a sense of… vague familiarity toward? Something about the hair or the posture or-

A piece in a puzzle you didn't know you were solving clicks into place. The full picture is made clear to you. The woman at the exchange… the guy in the trash can… 

Every step of the way the same shadow has followed you. And here he stands, jovially conversing with your employer, taking all of the credit for your work. 

To make matters worse (for just himself really) after closing the deal with YOUR employer he immediately turns around and tries to sell you something. Like you didn't just see what happened here. Like you aren't smart enough to have put two and two together.

Oh. Ok. 

You're going to end this clown's whole career.

If it helps (it doesn't) it really, truly, was nothing personal. It's just that his most recent assignment sucked and didn't serve him in any way so he, entrepreneur that he is, decided that it makes much more sense to… step into another fool's limelight, as it were. To demonstrate where his skills are best used and perhaps, avoid receiving such tedious requests in the future. (Is he in any way swayed by the substantial payout for the mission you're running? Well, it isn't exactly polite to discuss money in such blunt terms, but he wouldn't say it's a deterrent.)

To be frank, you are one of very few Masked Fools he hasn't already pissed off. And from what little he's been able to gather about you you seem slow to anger. Besides, he's always subscribed to the "better to ask for forgiveness than permission" mentality. He just hopes you aren't someone who holds a grudge. 

In this case you decide to just let it go, he apologized, explained a version of the situation to you from his side (Do you believe him? No. Not really, but you also don't see a point in picking a fight beyond the initial confrontation. What else could you expect from a Masked Fool?) He swears to make it up to you and you wave him off. Rightly deducing that anything he'll do will be more trouble than it's worth, and that he probably has some sort of ulterior motive. What that motive is exactly, you may never know.

The fact of the matter is, Sampo sees you as an opportunity to expand his business. You walk the world so differently from him and he sees your differences in personality as a great asset! …If he can get on good enough terms with you to get you on board, that is. Ideally without you asking about your profit share.

This is the start of your troubles. His efforts to "make it up to you" see him not leaving your orbit for quite some time. It doesn't take you long to sort out his modus operandi. 

Sampo is a notorious button pusher and you are not exempt from his behaviors. In fact, with your general laxness and ability to keep so level headed he finds himself much more inclined to poke at you in particular. He sees understanding what makes a person tick as an essential step in the process of getting to know someone. In the early days of knowing each other, while you are still irked at his usurpation of your work, this habit drives a huge wedge between you two.

He's just such a hassle to be around! And somehow he always seems to be around like some sort of wretched leech. 

In one of many attempts to shake him you find yourself running into trouble-your bad luck of course choosing to strike at the most inopportune moment-you've become an accidental witness to a very under the table IPC deal. The kind of thing that would stain their public image if it got out and if the guns trained on you are anything to go by they don't seem willing to talk it out. 

Thankfully (unfortunately?), you know a guy who happens to know a thing or two about smoke bombs, and he happens to be right behind you. 

That incident is the start of something beautiful. As you run from the IPC grunts-yourself, tripping, and Sampo, squealing-you realize you are… somehow… despite yourself and against ALL odds… having… fun?

Absolute worst case scenario: Your living nightmare is actually kind of entertaining.

Any relationship with Sampo is going to start on the wrong foot, what with his favorite hobby, intentional or otherwise, being to step on toes. And it will take quite a bit of unraveling to get to the center of this particular ball of yarn. By the time you find yourself completely entangled it will be too late to do anything about it.

Headcanons - Assorted

Your relationship sustains itself on you mutually finding amusement in each other's habits, behaviors, successes, and missteps. Sampo's company, especially early on, is not always welcome, but your heart does always kick up when he's around. (It's not even based on affection. It's literally your body preparing to run. Pavlovian response. Sampo = trouble. with haste.) You'd be lying if you said the adrenaline junkie in you didn't get a sick sort of thrill from it. You find yourself increasingly quick to encourage his bad ideas, if only because you want to see the inevitable fall out. 

Sampo is always bringing you gifts gained from unscrupulous dealings. Originally in the service of his vain attempts to "apologize" and gain your favor, but it grows into a sort of ritual. Some people give their partner flowers every week, yours gives you an unending list of troubles. And trust that there are always troubles. Generally many more than the gift itself is worth. There have been some really great hits though, the out of print limited edition color-shifting holographic cover of a favorite manga series of yours still sits proudly on a shelf in your room. You really don't want to know what he did to get a hold of that. 

Sampo is a very casually touchy person. It's wildly annoying when you are first getting to know each other, you reserve physical affection for the people you are closest to. The casual way he will throw an arm over your shoulders or pat at your head does make you twitch a bit. To his credit, he does back off if you vocalize any discomfort, it isn't something he's really putting conscious thought into. But when he starts to grow on you it is something you find largely comforting.

It would make sense to me for Sampo to also have studied multiple languages. It's just good business. The two of you can practice on and with each other and often find yourself using other languages to talk in the relative secrecy your work often demands in public places. Eventually the two of you will use your collective knowledge of languages and their structure to make a language of your own. A spoken code known only by the pair of you. 

You help each other pick out, prep, and get into disguises for missions. Often coming up with and explaining the unnecessarily intricate lore you've crafted for whatever one night character you are about to play. Whoever comes up with the most insane, but plausible backstory gets to take the 60 of your 60/40 cut for the job. Competition is fierce.

The two of you trade gossip like a knitting circle. And you do that thing where you will exchange a specific, quick look when you are together and someone says something you plan to debrief on later. Sampo is messy and ALWAYS has something he's absolutely desperate to pass on to you. He is forever saying "you didn't hear this from me but-" and "don't look now-" and "you aren't going to believe what I just heard… you have to guess!"

You subject his stupid hip windows to your freezing hands constantly and completely unprovoked. If he didn't want to get sneak attacked he wouldn't make himself such an easy and exploitable target. You can hardly take the blame for this. And in fact you adamantly refuse to. 

You will never feel limited or restricted by Sampo, your independence is always respected and encouraged. The nature of your work and pursuits means you frequently spend time apart. You are both comfortable and content when left to your own devices. But you never struggle to fall back into step with each other. Which step exactly is always a mystery until you are already locked into the dance. But that is the fun of your dynamic, with the two of you absolutely anything can happen.

Headcanons - How It's Going

There is a lot of back and forth. Both in the literal, bantering sense and the more abstract emotional sense. You're never bored and what more can two people in pursuit of elation ask for, really?

You spend a lot of time together and a lot of time apart. You have yet to learn all of the other's secrets, all of your history, but you've come to cherish the relationship for what it is. More firework than slow burn. More kaleidoscope than still image. Everything about your dynamic is subject to change and as it stands you would not have it another way. Perhaps there is a hypothetical future where things settle down for the both of you, perhaps not. Either way it's not a thought you feel the need to entertain at present. There's laughter to be had, a universe to explore, and trouble to be caused and/or tripped into.

Playlist - Fool Proof

Hellbent by Mystery Skulls

High Hopes in Velvet by The Cab

Anybody Else by Dom Fera

Fear & Delight by The Correspondents

From The Gallows by I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

I have once again written way too much in the how you meet section. Brevity mission failed. (This is AFTER I wrote and deleted a different set of like 800 words because I realized I was not writing a matchup but a fanfiction. I am TERRIBLE at this lmaooooo) HOWEVER COMMA  I had a blast and went way over word count even worse than last time! Classic shwoopsie scenario. I'm insane. I hope you enjoy reading and that Sampo isn't a hard miss of a character pick. I feel like he is one that is… difficult to have a neutral stance on? So if you can't stand his vibe I am so so sorry and will find some way to make up for my treachery. <3 (also this wasn't proofread I have to get to bed for work tomorrow fjjkgfjgjskfjdfsjkf so hopefully there's nothing egregious.)