#and in the Hunchback of Notre Dame it was already obvious in the route how it fits in but Esmerelda dies at the end

[sunshineneedsaplacetokeephernsfw]

Attire mission: Purchase premium attire to get an extended romantic story!

Me: *on Liam's route* Romantic my ass! This is a tragedy

[badchoicesposts]

Costumes

Don’t Dream It’s Over

Pairing: Liam x MC (Ali Moonessar), Platonic! Drake x MC

A/N: This is a one shot that I got inspired to write by Day 28 of The Choices October challenge set up by @playchoicesficidea​. It takes place in my Don’t Dream It’s Over Universe which you can catch up with on my masterlist. It is a flashback during the time Liam and Ali were together in New York before he moved back to Cordonia. 

Masterlist

Tags: I’m tagging everyone on my Don’t Dream It’s Over tag list.

@flowerpowell​, @ao719​, @kingliam2019​, @emceesynonymroll​, @hopefulmoonobject​, @dcbbw​, @qammh-blog​, @liamxs-world​, @drakesensworld​, @i-only-signed-up-for-fanfiction​, @lauradowning29​, @texaskitten30​, @senseofduties​, @indiacater​, @alexintheskyy​, @jared2612​ 

“What about Aladdin and Jasmine,” Liam asked, knowing how much Ali liked the Disney movie. 

“There is no way I’m showing that much midriff in public. Also a blond haired, blue-eyed Aladdin might be a bit problematic,” she said turning in his arms to press a kiss to his cheek. 

September was coming to a close and Ali was more than ready for Halloween. It was her favorite holiday, and she had already begun to decorate the penthouse she shared with the Larsons with various pumpkins, cobwebs, and skeletons. Her enthusiasm had begun to spread to Liam and Drake’s apartment as well, but in efforts to keep things a bit tame since she didn’t live there, she restricted herself to only putting up the decorative fall wreath on their door and placing a few fall themed scented candles around the place.

Every year the Larson family threw a costume party on Halloween, and every year Ali went out of her way to make sure she had the perfect costume. One year she, Emma, and Cole (deciding to be a good sport and wear a dress and wig) had gone as the Sanderson sisters from Hocus Pocus. Another year, the entire family had decided to be the Addams Family. Her and Luca acting as Morticia and Gomez, while Emma and Cole decided on being Wednesday and Pugsley, and Ezra made a very convincing Cousin Itt. 

However, this year would be the first that Ali had been able to attend wearing a couples costume with her actual boyfriend. She had been leaning against Liam’s side and scrolling through ideas for costumes on Pinterest for over an hour before they finally decided on being a Disney couple. 

“We can be Hercules and Meg!” she said excitedly as the door to the apartment opened and Drake strolled in. 

He immediately rolled his eyes as he heard Spooky, Scary Skeletons playing from Ali’s laptop, but dropped down onto the couch next to them anyway. He glanced over to her laptop screen and looked over to Liam pointedly. 

“Isn’t it a bit early for Halloween?” 

“I need the time to make the costumes,” she said, continuing to scroll. 

She liked the idea of Hercules and Meg, but she wasn’t completely sold on it yet. 

“What about the music?” Drake asked, raising his eyebrows at her. 

“I’m getting myself into the spooky mood,” she said as if it were obvious.

Drake simply shook his head and grabbed the remote for the tv. 

“Do you need me to make your costume too?” she asked.

“My costume?” 

“Yeah, for the party. You have to wear a costume.”

“I haven’t worn a Halloween costume since I was a kid,” he responded. 

“Perfect reason to get back into it!” she exclaimed.

What Ali missed was the look that Liam was giving Drake over her shoulder telling him to just go along with it. 

Drake sighed but nodded along anyway.

“Yeah, sure, thanks,” he said absently, turning back to the tv.

“Do you know what you want to be?” she asked, excitedly.

“Uh, whatever. You decide,” he said. 

This time it was his turn to miss the mischievous smile that crossed her face as she turned back to her laptop, already plotting out costume ideas for him. 

*Halloween Night*

Ali adjusted the pink scarf she had fashioned into a headband for her costume and smiled at her reflection in the mirror. She turned back to look at Liam and smiled at the proud expression he wore on his face at both of their outfits. 

“Well, don’t you look handsome,” she said flirtatiously, walking into his arms and pressing a kiss to his lips.

“All thanks to you, love,” he responded, looping his finger through one of her gold hoop earrings. “I didn’t know you could sew so well.” 

“I took a costume design class in high school,” she shrugged, making her way out into the living room of the apartment. 

She crossed over to Drake’s room and knocked on his door.

“Are you ready?” she called.

The sound of his heavy footsteps filled her ears and a moment later he opened the door, an angry scowl on his face. He was only wearing a pair of boxers and clutching his costume angrily in his hands. 

“I am not wearing this!” he said, shoving it back into her hands and slamming his bedroom door shut behind him. 

Ali doubled over with laughter and turned to look at Liam who was fighting back his own smile as well. 

“Oh, come one! We’re all matching. I thought it would be a fun family costume!” she called knocking on his door again. 

He emerged from his room again, this time wearing a pair of sweatpants and a simple white t-shirt. 

“Yes, so fun,” he said sarcastically, “I’m not going.” 

“Drake, it’s Halloween. It’s a costume. No one’s going to care,” she tried to reason with him. 

“If no one’s going to care, then why do I have to wear that when you and Liam are wearing normal costumes,” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“Fine, do you want to trade? I’ll wear it and you can wear this dress,” she said seriously. 

Drake narrowed his eyes at her comment before turning his back and walking over to the couch. Ali looked over to Liam for assistance. He straightened up and fought back a smile as he approached his friend. 

During her pinterest search Ali had seen a family costume photo of a couple dressed as Esmeralda and Phoebus from Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and their young child dressed as Esmeralda’s sidekick, the goat Djali, and she immediately knew what she wanted to do for their costumes. She had set to work on her and Liam’s almost immediately, wanting to make sure she got all of the details perfect. When it came to Drake’s Djali costume, she had taken an easier route, buying an adult mountain goat costume and making a few necessary alterations. She couldn’t resist the urge she had to poke fun at one of her best friends, but she had always known there was a chance he wouldn’t agree to wear the costume.

The costume itself was very similar to a onesie. The small hood turned into the goat’s face and rested on top of the wearer’s head. She had added some grey fabric around the snout and a small gold earring to one of the floppy ears to match the appearance of the character from the movie, and it had all turned out surprisingly well. Now all they had to do was convince Drake to actually wear it. 

She forced down another laugh as she approached the couch were Liam was trying unsuccessfully to convince Drake to put on the goat costume. She dropped down next to Drake and wrapped her hands around his arm, giving him the best puppy dog eyes she could muster and jutting out her bottom lip. 

“Pretty please, will you wear it, Drake?” she asked resting her chin on his shoulder, and batting her eyelashes at him in attempts to look adorable. 

Drake was avoiding making eye contact with her, and Ali could tell that his resolve was lowering. Especially when he looked over to Liam who was mirroring Ali’s facial expression. He pushed himself off from the couch and stormed back into his room with a muttered, “You two are ridiculous.” 

Ali looked over at Liam questioningly, and he simply raised his finger in response, telling her to give it a minute. Sure enough, about five minutes later Drake emerged from his room once more. This time, however, he was wearing the goat costume with a pair of black shoes, his shoulders slumped over in disappointment. 

“Oh my god, you’re so adorable,” Ali responded excitedly, walking over to him and squishing his cheeks together. 

“Stop doing that!” he said, pushing her hands away. 

She just laughed in response and raised her hand up to “his” ear, to straighten out the gold earring. The fur was soft on her finger as she adjusted the hood for him, much to his disdain. Ali backed up and clasped her hands together, a large smile on her face as she took in his appearance. 

“Don’t smile at me like that,” he said, already making his way to the door of the apartment. 

Liam walked up behind Ali and wrapped his arms around her waist, trying to muffle his laughter in her hair. 

“Are you two coming or not!” he called back bitterly, causing the two of them to share one last smile before following him out the door.

[cedarmoons]

(In regards to that last post) one thing that has really pissed me off about this fandom is that people are complaining about how L*cio is treated. Like? He's the villain? And the rest of the cast have every right to hate him? After everything he's done? Like you're allowed to like him and everything but you have to understand that he's the villain and he's done some awful things to the others.

The thing is, from what I’ve seen, is that they do understand this. Instead, a major complaint of his fans that I’ve seen is that his fate in the 3 routes was “bad writing.” I got all Upright endings and I have no intention of playing the Reversed routes, so I’m working off what I’ve seen from the fandom. I’ll use this ask to voice my Opinions™ and then I’m not going to talk about L*cio again, because he doesn’t deserve all this energy lmao.

With Asra’s upright end, and apparently Julian’s reversed end, where L*cio is pulled down and/or eaten by the courtiers (who are demons, inhuman), the antagonist being dragged down to Hell / eaten by those he has betrayed (also figurative symbolism for being dragged down to Hell) has been a trope in fiction for literally hundreds if not thousands of years. It happens in The Lion King (Scar being eaten by the hyenas), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Frollo being dragged down to Hell by demons), and Hercules (Hades being dragged down by the souls of the dead), just off the top of my head and limiting it to Disney films. All of these films are rated G or PG-13 and marketed toward children, so I’m not persuaded by the “it’s too graphic for a PG-13 game!” complaint. It happens to Faust in Marlowe’s play, it happens in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. There’s a whole TVTropes page about it.To address another point I saw, the courtiers are not Lucio’s friends. I believe Vlastomil considers him a business partner, as in Book 7 he discusses talking to L*cio about the “deal” (probably the deal he made with him in Lucio’s tale). And L*cio certainly betrayed the demons by not fulfilling his end of the deal, so it can also be considered symbolic of an antagonist’s “just reward” for his betrayals. Whether or not you think he deserved it, this is a classic trope of literature, an exceedingly common fate among story antagonists (which L*cio is, undoubtedly). I’m not surprised that it happened to him.

As for Nadia’s reversed route, where she is “ooc” for killing L*cio: Is she? IS SHE? In her reversed route, you encourage her that only she is dependable and competent, that only she can be trusted to make the right decisions. You encourage her to stubbornly hold onto her grudge against her sisters, and to isolate herself from them, and to keep “proving” herself as a “good leader.” What Nadia considers to be a “good leader” is different depending on whether she’s on the Reversed or Upright routes. If you tell her to take the Devil’s deal in Book 15, she says she is tired of other people making her decisions for her, which is critically revealing for Reversed Nadia’s mindset.Thus, even if you tell her not to kill L*cio, she chooses to ignore you and kill him anyway, both because you 1) could again be perceived as trying to make her decisions for her; 2) have already told her over the course of 20 books that her own decisions are the only ones that matter. That’s not out of character, that’s the consequences of your choices lmfao. Using her upright characterization to classify her reversed characterization “ooc” is misguided, because they are two totally separate paths. Reversed Nadia is not an “out of character” version of Upright Nadia, she is a completely different Nadia.[[EDIT: Nadia does not cut down Lucio in cold blood, or ignore MC (who never attempts to stop her from killing him in Book XX), as fandom initially made me believe. Instead, Lucio convinces her to stop, and attempts to convince her to work with him to overthrow the Devil together. When she refuses, he attacks her, and that is when she kills him. The exchange is written as follows:Lucio: [angry sprite] “I won’t lose here! I don’t lose!”MC: Lucio lurches forward, anger flashing in his eyes. He reaches forward with a gold-gauntleted glove-MC: And stops, as blood gurgles up from his mouth, trailing down his chin.MC: Nadia’s sword is plunged deep into the center of his chest, the blade finally finding its mark.]]As for what happens to the dogs, I haven’t seen screenshots, only accounts from L*cio stans, who for obvious reasons may be biased (“some bitch holding a sword” - direct quote referring to Nadia upright personality! :) ) in how they portray this event in the book, so I cannot comment on that, or whether it’s “animal abuse” or not (I’m of the opinion it’s neglect, not abuse, but w/e that’s quibbling). But considering the dogs are symbols of and reminders of her unhappy marriage to a man she despised and just executed, I’m not surprised Reversed Nadia doesn’t care about them. Again, MC has encouraged Nadia to remain aloof and to trust herself above literally everyone else. Naturally, this attitude would extend to Lucio’s dogs.[[EDIT: The dogs appear in the Arcana realms, after Nadia and MC have left the Hierophant’s realm and are traversing between Arcana realms to deal with the Devil. They are not in “our world” when this interaction occurs. This is directly after a conversation between Nadia and MC where Nadia says the forest is an illusion and whatever appears inside it is likely a metaphor. The exchange is as such: MC: Two figures emerge from the fog, their mouth dripping red. Did [Mercedes and Melchior] follow Lucio from the other side...? Or did something else bring them here?NADIA: [annoyed/disgusted sprite] “They must have gone mad with Lucio’s death.”MC: They just haunt our steps like spectres, snarling and howling.Considering Nadia and MC are in the magical realms, and MC is the only one in their physical body, I am of the mind that these are not the actual dogs, but a metaphor for Nadia’s guilt and how far she has fallen. Thus, “Nadia is an animal abuser” is a highly dubious claim. My point about the dogs still symbolizing her negative relationship with L*cio still stands.]]

To wrap up, L*cio might be your fave, but he isn’t the central character of the story. He is the antagonist, and Asra, Nadia, Muriel, Julian and even Portia owe him nothing. They do not owe him forgiveness, or a chance at redemption. That’s what Lucio’s own route is for. To suggest otherwise, with the rallying cry of “everyone deserves redemption!” is to suggest that, because Everyone (L*cio) Deserves Redemption*, the Main 5 owe him a chance to make up for his past actions, which is absolutely not true. In the upright routes, where Lucio is banished, he is given a second chance. He is given a chance at redemption. It’s just going to happen off screen, while MC stays with their chosen LI. * I disagree with this as well. Redemption is not something that is “deserved,” it is earned. As far as I know, L*cio has only apologized in Nadia’s route, and that was when Nadia made him apologize to MC if he wanted out of the Devil’s chains, as a quid pro quo / do this and we’ll help you sort of thing. I would not necessarily consider that apology as one coming from some genuine remorse. And if he isn’t remorseful / thinks he did nothing wrong, then why would he “deserve” forgiveness?(Also addressing a comment about L*cio being a mercenary, thus he shouldn’t have run away or accepted his punishment so easily when he was banished: in Julian’s route, Nadia and Mazelinka have combat training/experience, Asra is a magician, MC is a magician with the Fool’s power, and it was in total 7 people versus 1; and in Nadia’s route, it was L*cio vs. MC, Nadia, and a recently restored Major Arcana in his full power. Those aren’t great odds for one guy who just had his magic arm and human strength.)Some fans might not be happy about Lucio’s redemption happening post-story or off-screen in the Main 3′s routes, but by all means, that’s what fanfiction and fanart and headcanons are for. Go create stories or comics about your MC going after him and leaving Vesuvia, and the two of them living happily ever after! Go create AUs where your MC redeems him! Go create your own takes on what his route should look like! I’ll be cheering you on!!