#anyway THANK YOU FOR THE ASK!

[neversetyoufree]

Too socially anxious to interact with anyone on my actual account (it’s a problem), but I just wanted to say I love your blog! I’ve been obsessed with VNC for about a year by now, and I get really lonely sometimes cause I feel like while it’s not exactly unpopular, people tend to treat it like a “side fandom” if that makes any sense? Like, they enjoy it but don’t really engage with it past surface level. It’s especially hard as an Astolfo fan, because I think I can count the amount of people who don’t completely mischaracterize him on one hand (but I digress).

Complaining aside, it’s so refreshing to read your posts! They’re always very thoughtful and well written, and I owe a good portion of my understanding of the series to your writing. I’m not sure if you’ve posted anything about this before, but I was curious about your predictions for who will die by the end of the series. I’ve thought a lot about it because people always say Mochijun is pretty brutal, but to be honest, besides Vanitas and maybe Roland I have no idea who’s going to live or die. I’d love to hear your thoughts if you have the time! ^^

Ah, thank you so much!! It's incredibly gratifying to hear that you feel like you've gained some extra understanding of VnC by reading my posts. Don't sell your own analyses short! But this series has so much interesting stuff going on in it, and it brings me endless joy to think I've helped nudge others into appreciating all that.

As far as upcoming deaths go, having read Pandora Hearts and Crimson Shell, I'll second the take that Mochijun is pretty merciless when it comes to killing off characters. I honestly don't think anyone is safe except for Noé, and Noé is only safe since 1. he's the narrator, and 2. outliving the others is much more painful for Mr. Savior Complex than dying would be.

Vanitas is the obvious given death-wise, and I'll second you about Roland, given how things end up for his namesake in The Song of Roland. There's good odds of Olivier also dying for the same reason, since his namesake dies in The Song of Roland. I can also envision a potential plotline where, when Roland or Olivier dies, whichever one outlives the other betrays the church (esp since this was foreshadowed with that bit about Olivier threatening to leave when Roland was hurt pre-canon).

I'm also, unfortunately, not super optimistic for my girls Jeanne and Dominique. Jeanne, like Rolivier, is named after a historical figure who very famously died young. She also carries around a giant coffin wherever she goes, and that coffin contains a weapon named "Carpe Diem." The context of that name makes pretty clear that it's evoking the full version of the phrase—carpe diem quam minimum credula postero—which is a reference to living life to the fullest because you don't know if you'll live to see tomorrow. So, in the same way that Vanitas's already-run-out hourglass earring is a symbolic death flag, Carpe Diem and its case feel like potential death flags for Jeanne.

In terms of Domi, her fate is less sealed than Jeanne's, but something deep inside me is scared for her nonetheless. I think it's partially because she's featured in the "all we gained and lost" section of Noé's closing monologue from mémoire 1. She's on the "gained" panel, but still, it makes me uneasy. She's also suicidal and written as a parallel to Vanitas, which is never a good sign for the likelihood of a character's survival.

Riche is also named after a character who is very famously dead in her source material (Beatrice Portinari from the Divine Comedy). If we run with the same logic applied to Rolivier and Jeanne, that doesn't look good for her. I don't want her to die (I love her v much, and I also don't want her to be even more sidelined compared to Dante and Johann than she's been thus far), but I also feel like it's unlikely that all three dhampirs are making it out of this series unscathed.

In terms of characters I think won't die, Chloé already had her big scene of choosing to live on despite life's hardships, and I fear her imminent death would cheapen that a bit, so I think the odds for her and Jean-Jacques surviving are relatively good.

Other than that, who knows! Besides Vanitas and Noé, these are all just wild estimates. Maybe the whole cast will die except Noé, or maybe everyone but Vanitas will live. You mentioned Astolfo, and I can envision him living or dying by the end, depending on how kind Mochijun decides to be. Absolutely anything could happen.

[akanbleh]

AKANBLEH!!! GIVE ME MORE SUMMER HE-MAN AND MY LIFE, IS YOURS (I have been waiting all summer, Need more He-Man/Prince Adam)

Your wish is my command :)

[borealing]

gimme directors commentary on ur fav fic u have written

WELL it looks like i only published one fic off anon this year OOP (the pressure to write original fiction is huge) so it's this one!

head detective carlton lassiter is nothing like henry spencer

i always think i'm funnier than i am when i'm writing fic so when i get an idea where i'm like omg, i could write something funny, it's my achilies heel, i have to write it

Shawn puts his hands to his chest, offended. “I am just as delightful as both— either of your parents! I can charm anyone’s mother.” Gus gives him a deeply judgemental look. “Before or after you accuse them of a crime?”

i wrote this all in a haze so the jokes just came to me and i slammed as many in as possible in only 2.7k, it's like the spirit of the show took ahold of me

“Do you think he would treat me nicer than my dad?” Shawn asks. “That’s like asking if I think that being beaten up with a baseball bat is nicer than being shot.” Gus says. “So… yes.” “Yes, but not by much.” Gus says.

on reread all my best lines feature gus. he is truly the character of all time, unmatched

Shawn stares at him. “Have we body swapped?” Gus tsks. “Like I’d ever be caught in your pasty body.” Shawn blinks. “That’s the only reason we’ve never body swapped?”

this was so fun actually, maybe i should post more fic off anon lmao

[leg-made-a-thing]

OC-related question: is there anything in particular that Violen misses about living in the Underworld? (Or alternatively, any cool little things he likes in the normal world that can't be found in the Underworld?)

As for other questions: thoughts on freezing rain?

Mostly just the conditions there. The Underworld is located near the center of the Earth, so it’s really hot and, in some places, really dark. Places like that aren’t really that common on the surface, though, so that’s definitely something he’d miss from home.

On the other hand, because the Underworld is so hot, there’s plenty of stuff from the surface world that just can’t really exist in the harsh temperatures. For example, Violen really likes ice cream, but understandably can’t take it into the Underworld with him because it sublimates (i.e. goes straight from a solid to a gas, like dry ice) almost immediately.

And to answer your other question, I can’t stand it. Rain is already a sensory nightmare for me, but it’s like 1000x worse when it’s cold. Easily one of my top 10 least favorite things. Maybe even top 5.

[theladysherlock]

talk shop tuesday! incredible coincidence - i wanted to ask you more about your dnd OCs, and you posted a new art piece with one of them! continuing the theme: could you tell more about your dnd OCs and how they came to be?

Ohhhh you have opened Pandora's Box my friend!! I could talk about this topic all day.

Basically there's two parts to this: my approach to DnD in general, and in-depth explanations of the characters. I'm going to put this under a Read More to save everyone's Dash.

Part One: Dungeons and Dragons

So the thing I love most about DnD (and other TTRPGs) is that it's a collaborative game. I'm not responsible for the entirety of the story, I bring my character to the table and everyone else brings their characters and between us, the DM, and the dice, we figure out where the story is going. I enjoy it so much more than trying to come up with everything on my own. And I love that people can surprise me!! @mothmansbigfatass and @ahawkmet (my irl friends and in most of the campaigns I play) can attest, apparently I'm a lot of fun to watch during revelations because I always have a big reaction.

So when making a dnd character, it's important for me to know 1. What the world we'll be playing in is like, and 2. What everyone else is doing. Again, it's a collaborative game, so I want to make sure that I'm playing nice with the DM's world. AND often the setting itself will give me an idea (see Ethan: the game is set at a community college. What's a college stereotype that would be fun to play?). Ideally, the character I make would have a really hard time being plopped into a different campaign and have it still make sense. Secondly, it's more fun for me to play a class that will fill out the party. For example, if we already have a cleric, I don't also need to play a religious character. Those story beats are covered by someone else, I don't want to be competing with another person for cool moments.

Once those two things are settled, character creation is determined by what seems fun to play and what would be interesting aesthetically. I like to keep the backstory light to see what happens as we start playing, and then I can fill it in bit by bit later. Sometimes that bites me in the ass, though (see Ethan: I didn't give him birth parents and then they were incredibly important to the plot). I tend to have a general idea about who they are and what they're like, and then I always get surprised by what they actually end up acting like once we start playing. It's fun for me to figure them out along the way!

The last thing I wanna say about DnD (for now) is that I love everyone else's characters just as much. I just draw mine more because, well, they're mine. I feel weird putting their guys in situations and guessing how they'd react because they aren't my little guys. I much prefer working collaboratively with the other players (like an RP thread) to just writing a story on my own.

Part Two: Ethan

Where to even start with my boy. A bunch of my work friends got together to start a DnD game, and I hadn't played with most of them before so I wasn't sure what to expect. I also did not think the game would last very long, since most campaigns tend to fizzle out after a few sessions. So I made kind of a joke character with extremely little backstory: He's a half-orc, since I hadn't played that race before, he's a bard who is the captain of the local community college's Improv Team, he's "the kind of guy to play wonderwall at a party but you're not mad about it", and I said he's adopted by two men, neither of whom were his biological parents, and he wasn't particularly interested in tracking down his bio parents. This last point is for two reasons: one, I was trying to avoid just duplicating a Dimension 20's Gorgug, a half-orc who was adopted by gnomes and spent the whole first season trying to find his dad; and two, I was pushing an "Adopted parents are not less than biological parents" agenda.

My DM took this personally (affectionate). First session, I was given a clue about his birth parents' identities. From then on, Ethan was dragged kicking and screaming into being the unofficial main character of the campaign. His mom was one of our favorite NPCs, a kickass pirate with a truly tragic backstory who would always jump to help us out of a scrape. His biological dad was the human embodiment of Pride who had took on the form of Fantasy Harrison Ford and was an extremely famous actor in-world. Our BBEG was his uncle, the embodiment of Greed. Every plot point became very personal and it was a lot of fun. I also loved putting him through the wringer, so between me and the DM the poor guy couldn't catch a break.

Part of the dice telling the story, I rolled so bad all the time when I played Ethan. It didn't matter which dice I used, I just rolled really bad, which was not something that normally happened with me. So that was fun to incorporate into his character as we played-- he was insecure about his own abilities compared to the extremely powerful characters he was surrounded by (we had a 20 ft Earth Titan who was an extremely powerful Druid, Emeshka you will always be famous). So he became a more three-dimensional and actualized character the more we played.

He's extremely easy to put in situations and his character design is pretty solid, so I end up drawing him the most. My perfect little guy.

(Anything about him I've tagged either "Ethan" or "Big Yarr Energy" if you want to find more)

Part Three: Mina

After the campaign with Ethan wrapped up, we started a new one in a Cthulhu-inspired setting. My goal with making Mina was to do as close to a 180 as I could from Ethan. While Ethan was a friendly and charming but bad at most things, Mina is a competent and intelligent Druid who's blunt and overworked and doesn't quite know how to meaningfully engage with her party members (but she tries, bless her). Druid was one of the classes I hadn't played yet and I've been making my way through the list of available classes. The One-With-Nature stuff isn't super interesting to me as a player, but I found a homebrew subclass that was based more in Big Cities and as an Architecture Nerd that was much more my speed. Also, I hadn't played an Aasimar before, so that seemed like fun. From all that, I pulled together her whole deal: She was from a bloodline of guardian angels who were sent to protect different villages and towns, and she's gone from her mother's small town to being the guardian of a city of several million people and it's overwhelming. She's lonely and she's jaded and she's got severe Gifted Kid Syndrome and she's got her head on a swivel to make sure her party members are okay even if they don't like her very much and I love her.

I didn't give her a lot of tragic backstory because there are a lot of us playing and I wanted to have a character who could push the plot forward with her actions, instead of having a "now let's stop and talk about my life!!" moment every session that seemed to happen with Ethan. Give everyone else some time to have cool moments, you know? And by GOD are there some cool moments. My fellow players are so good at making compelling characters. Ask @mothmansbigfatass about Nelly if you get a chance.

We're still playing this campaign, although we're nearing the end of it. There's still space for some big moments for Mina in the game, though I'm hoping our DM lets me save hers for last. She's the kind of character to make sure everyone else is okay before taking care of herself, so it feels appropriate. I'm excited to see where Mina ends up. She's definitely a character I'll go back and write/draw a lot afterwards, though. Part of being in a group this size means there's a lot of stuff that just won't get covered. I'll have a lot of material to play with for my own work once we get to the next campaign.

(Anything about Mina I've tagged either "Mina" or "Cthulhu Crimes" if you want to find more)

Part Four: Jess

Jess is a character that isn't from DnD but is a TTRPG character of mine, and I like her so I'm going to talk about her too. Jess is a cautionary tale in Knowing Your Audience.

Jess is from a different group of players than Ethan and Mina. Our DM for that game is notorious for wanting to give us Big, Shonen-Style fight scenes and an insane level of power creep. Character interactions are fine, but his true passion is making us look like Goku.

Jess was... not built to look like Goku. In this world you could identify different types of magic users by their focus, and I wanted her whole schtick to be about deception. She looked like a wizard when she was actually a monk, she looked like a dumb blonde girl when she was extremely smart and good at stealing things, she's a dancer but her primary fighting style was based on capoeira, etc. Also part of why Jess sticks with me as a favorite character is the way I had her powers work was so fun and visually interesting that I haven't been able to shake it. Basically her superpower was that she could snatch bits of other people's powers and use them herself, and you could tell which ones she had because they would fill out spectral stained glass wings with specific colors.

Jess was (and still is, frankly) too complicated for the game our DM wanted to run. Immediately any hope of her being a chronic liar was dashed as her powers did not manifest in a way that could possibly pass off as being a wizard. So instead of being sneaky, Jess became very angry. She was quick to point out injustices in the world we were in. She beat up creeps, she yelled at bigots, she stole powers from macho superheroes trying to one-up her. She had to get a lot less complicated for the story we were in, but the complicated version of her still lives in my head and I like to see what she's up to from time to time.

(I don't think I have anything tagged for Jess, unfortunately)

TL; DR:

TTRPG characters are fun because they let me do my favorite thing creatively, which is bounce ideas off of other people. I typically design them based on the setting, party needs, character tropes that I think are interesting, and just general vibes. Most importantly, though, I don't have a fleshed out character without the input of the other players.

[pardonmydelays]

🎶✨when u get this, list 5 songs u like to listen to, publish. then, send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers (positivity is cool)🎶✨

pardon my delay! i know it's been in my inbox for way too long. ok, let's see:

navigating by twenty one pilots

breathe from in the heights

i miss those days by bleachers

doom days by bastille

right now by gracie abrams

[friendshipgun]

5. Is there any fic that makes you super happy to reread and remember you wrote that?

i think maybe that ff8 seifer/zell time compression one. i didn't finish it (working on that tho lol) but it's one that i'm always kind of happy to return to, in part bc i still think it's a fun idea to mess around with. (i also have a spn fic i wrote for nanowrimo back in like 2010 and that one's kind of fun to reread every few years bc i always have the same reaction that's just 'damn i certainly am still into the exact same things huh' lol)

[mothwingwritings]

I hope I’m not the only one here on your blog just for the Tokyo revengers content because I never watched Baki should i thought??

I have been very Baki focused as of late, huh? ^^; You are def not the only TokRev fan though, I assure you!  My first really sizable chunk of followers came from my Taiju fic, and though I have been slacking a bit on posting anything TokRev related, I promise you much more is planned/being written currentl. A large chunk of bigger fics I am working on are actually mostly TokRev, I just wanted a lil break and so I focused on smaller stuff for a bit, and pretty much all of that happened to be Baki.

Now, as for if you should watch Baki…

Short answer: Yes!  :D

Thoughtful answer: I think Baki is a very interesting take on the fighting genre, and I do highly recommend it. The saga of the Hanma family is as engrossing as it is entertaining, and there is a colorful cast of characters that support the series that you can’t help but love, hate, or love to hate. I have been kind of waiting for a Baki renaissance for a while now-I feel like other than in Japan, it really isn’t a super popular series and that’s a bit of a shame because it truly is an entertaining watch/read. The Netflix adaptation I think has helped the series a lot (and we are all grateful for it, to see our lovely boys animated so beautifully :)) and put it on the map for newer audiences to enjoy, but I definitely recommend the manga too. It’s a pretty fast read because a large chunk of it is action, but it’s pretty cool to see how Itagaki’s art has changed over the years and also how he has grown and changed as a story teller. Earlier Baki is much different than newer Baki, and some of the characters feel a bit foreign when you go back and reread some of the earlier stuff after being immersed in the newer content.

 Baki also has some very bizarre and downright comical aspects as well that kind of put it on par with JJBA  while making it very charming. The mangaka def adds some quirky flairs to his story telling, which while sometimes I can get a little annoyed/bored/confused with them, I feel like overall they make the experience of watching/reading the series its own unique and fun experience.

And if you love delinquents, Kaoru Hanayama is like… one of the best and coolest delinquents. If you put that man in Toman he would be running the whole gang within days and 90% of the bullshit everyone had to go through in Tokrev probs would have been resolved fairly quickly, if it even happened at all. This man would grind Kisaki to paste in the blink of an eye and I would pay to see it happen. :)

THAT ALL BEING SAID: Not everyone likes Baki, and that’s fine too. I know personally a lot of people are turned off by the art/how the characters look and honestly… That’s valid lol. I remember I once showed my friend a picture of Biscuit and her direct response was “Why does he look like he’s made out of balloons, like a clown constructed him?” LOOOL and often times if my friends mention weird body proportions in comics/manga someone inevitable asks when I am gonna chime in with a Baki manga panel. ^^;  Most of the rest of my friends don’t really have any desire to partake in it though, and a few that have just really weren’t in to it. It’s very heavy on fighting and martial arts, and though the fighting is rather fantastical in a lot of cases, it (usually) doesn’t have supernatural elements or magic involved. So if that seems kind of bleh to you, you may want to avoid it.

Horny answer: Incredibly sexy men who are at least half naked a large majority of the time beating the shit out of each other is very fun, nice, and fulfilling to watch. :)

So I say give it a try if you are interested at all. At the very least, some of the fics on here may make a little more sense.

REGARDLESS THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE!!! Please stay tuned for more TokRev in the future, I have at least one more alphabet ask that is for a Tokrev chara so that may be the first thing I post, but bigger stuff is coming soon too~ <3

[sailforvalinor]

Val! I've been playing KHD and just finished up the manga connected to it, and goodness I have thoughts. Conflicting thoughts, mostly about Roxas. So, it got me wondering what your thoughts are on Roxas, nobodies in general, and KH3. The whole storyline feels messy to me, but that probably makes it all the more compelling to me. Why do I do this to myself? Anyway, as you know I love hearing your thoughts on stuff, so I thought I'd ask. I know you're either have already started school or about to, so no pressure with answering. Take your time. I hope you're adjusting okay to your new surroundings and that you're having a lot of fun too. :)

Waugh that's so exciting! I've read the Chain of Memories novelization, but otherwise I've not actually had the chance to read any of the mangas--I'll have to keep an eye out.

As for thoughts on Nobodies, yeah, I agree the storyline does feel messy at times, yet still so so compelling! I think the guiltiest party for me in that respect is how it's revealed in KH3 that Nobodies are capable of regrowing hearts. Because that seems to contradict everything we know about Nobodies from previous games, but if you actually go back and look at those games, there are actually a lot of hints about this--Axel caring about Roxas and Xion at all, "Roxas, are you sure you don't have a heart?", Saix being capable of feeling betrayed by Axel, Vexen displaying panic and annoyance, Namine's entire character arc, Xigbar/Luxu even being capable of playing his long game at all. Some members are more emotionless than others (Xaldin and Marluxia, I'm looking at you), but why would you even want a heart if you didn't feel any emotions? Desires are driven by emotions--one can't really exist without the other.

The terrifying thing about this is that the Organization members seem to rationalize this away (Axel especially) by saying that they are remembering what it used to be like to feel emotions and trying to project that onto their present moment, an idea so specific and bizarre that I can only think it was perpetuated by Xemnas to keep them from figuring out the truth. But of course it's not true--Namine has no memories, how could she feel loneliness?

As for ideas about Roxas, by the end of 358/2 Days he is so attached to Xion, so so angry, so human, that I almost wonder if he hadn't completely grown his own heart by then. He still had to go back to Sora so he could be recompleted, but that explains why he haunts both Sora and the narrative so much, especially in DDD.

I think the same goes for Xion, but perhaps even more so, when you consider that she was never actually a Nobody--just a replica using Sora's memories of Kairi as a blueprint. I suppose that since we know she was created without a heart, she is essentially a Nobody, but I have to imagine that having Sora's memories pouring into her head all the time gave her a bit of a boost. (Wait, does this mean Replica Riku didn't have a heart either? Somehow I've never thought about that.)

I think Axel was also pretty dang close, he was just in severe denial about it, especially now that we know he was burying his grief and despair over being unable to find Subject X after sacrificing his humanity to find her. Roxas and Xion left him just like she did, and burying those emotions and having that ready and waiting excuse that you're not actually feeling them is a lot less painful than having to confront them.

358/2 Days is such a fascinating tragedy, and watching it bleed its way into DDD and KH3 because it's begging to be resolved is just absolutely beautiful. I'll admit the resolution in KH3 seemed a little quick (perhaps because the BBS storyline was also resolving in a similar fashion), but it was great all the same (especially when Sora confronts Xion, my gosh, the fact that he knows her when no one else does). And Hearts as One playing in the next battle, mixing both Roxas and Xion's theme into a joyful and glorious battle theme, makes me absolutely insane.

I know Nomura wants to move on to other things in the next game, but I really hope he doesn't drop these characters. But on the other hand, maybe he should leave them alone? They need to be happy for once.

(Also I think about the scene where Axel looks at Kairi and sees Xion for a split second daily. It *might* be my favorite scene in the entire game.)

[active-mind-15]

I love your name! is your name pronounced like daisy?

Thank you! And yes, it is. It's a nickname for my Nigerian name, Adaeze. I came about the nickname because when I was born, my older sister (who was 2 at the time) couldn't pronounce Adaeze, so she kept calling me "Daezy," and the nickname stuck. Now, most people call me Daezy, including relatives.

[masschase]

6, 14, 23, and 24 for casey for the edgy ask meme

Edgy/Misc OC ask meme (still accepting, will spread throughout the weekend)

This is a super long post due to my answer to the last one! If I tagged you in this it just means I mentioned your Boss OC somewhere in my list of universes Casey exists in, don't feel it means you have to read it! 😅

6. How easily could your OC be convinced to do something that goes against their moral compass?

Casey arguably doesn't have much of a moral compass to begin with so if something goes against it, chances are it's something she has a strong personal objection to/thinks is pure evil. On that basis I don't think it'd be that easy.

That said, if someone knew her well enough to appeal to what's important to her, to convince her that it's beneficial for her friends/the Saints as a whole, I think she could eventually be swayed.

14. How does your OC want to be seen by other characters?

Casey spends a lot of time claiming to be unapologetic about who she is, but at the same time I think deep down she does want everyone to be her friend, and I think in some convoluted way the whole "I'm an asshole, take me or leave me" thing is actually a mix of self-defence and thinking people find that attitude itself appealing. And a little bit of truth, lol.

I think the proof of this is in the fact she gets surprised when people actually like her vulnerable side. She thinks showing her vulnerability makes her unlikeable. So the fact she hides that makes it clear to me she wants to be liked. I think one of the reasons she mirrors other people's traits (sometimes consciously, other times unconsciously) is related to this too.

23. What emotion is the hardest for your OC to process? How about express?

Grief is one of the hardest for her to process, I think, it's why it invades her subconscious in dreams and such so heavily. In fact I think grief that she's not fully dealt with affects her character in a lot of ways. I don't know if forgiveness is an emotion but if so she's terrible with that too. She has a pretty good memory and she holds grudges like... forever.

In terms of express, you'd think it would be loving feelings but actually although she avoids romantic love for so long, I don't think she actually finds it hard to show love in general, she just has her own ways to express it. Like ok, she's not great at initiating physical touch as I'm sure I've said like 1000 times, so she might not hug her friends much but she'd die for them. She will occasionally express her affection for them verbally, she's a pretty good gift-giver, she's chill with a lot of things that might annoy other people.

So this ties back into the grief thing but my actual answer would be any kind of overwhelming sadness, really, because she struggles to cry so much. She has that thing I've talked about before where she finds it hard to cry about real life, but cries at movies and other media. If it's a movie where the situation is actually relateable, she practically breaks down.

Therapy does change that a little. Like if a friend were dying in her arms then yeah she'd be sobbing if she's post-therapy(whereas pre-therapy, say with Carlos she sat there staring into space for a good while). But stuff like Johnny "dying" on the plane, the earth blowing up? It's not as visceral, so she struggles to process it. And seeing as she's a very denial-based character, she spends so much longer in that first stage.

24. What is an alternative life path your OC might have gone down? How different would their life be if they'd made those decisions?

Ohhhhhhh this is so hard because thanks to AUs I have so many different iterations of this! But I'm going to look primarily at events her life and not so much at external factors like the earth exploding or not exploding, the Saints becoming vampires... etc. etc.

I play around with her age in a few AUs because I believe that has a major impact on her family life. (and ok it's partly because of the "coma years don't count" joke bc she's always 1990 if she's the Boss) Being taken care of by her sister means a larger gap actually means better care, though more isolation from her peers without Mori. It creates quite a different person.

I also play around with her level of education and whether she got anywhere with the literature degree she wanted to do. I find it funny that she often ends up like... a librarian before leaving to do something cool like be a vampire hunter or an assassin or a jewel thief. All I know is I can't just like... leave her there. I think it's funny but I don't like that for her forever. She's too good with tactics and pistols and being awesome, obviously.

But what about more specific choices/differences? (a.k.a. ooh an excuse to list some of my AUs!)

I had mentions of some choices her parents made before her birth: investing in what turned out to be amazing stocks, moving to Paris for her dad's job, naming her the other choice for her name. They could all lead to different possibilities for Casey/Sephy, but if all of these take place, she becomes Persephone Brimstone, that is the Agents Of Mayhem Universe. I actually... don't know much about AOM but I made a little throw-in mention of it so it counts as a possibility. One could argue Johnny picking the reset ending of GOOH is actually what causes this, but in-universe, that's the explanation.

Obviously the big one is whether she ends up on that street corner, like that's always the determining factor to whether she becomes Playa(whether or not she becomes "Boss" is not necessarily in line with this choice as I'll get into in two different places below). There are a few reasons that she might not be there as I've got into before.

If she's alone there, and goes through more or less all the canon events of SR1-GOOH, as well as my in-between and post-game additions, that is Casey's Main Universe.

But... what if she quite literally bumps into a boy of around the same age on that street corner right before everything goes down? That's @zoo-the-saint's Zoo! If so, chances are they go through most of the events of SR1 together, setting up some other tangents leading to multiple AUs:

-> When Julius leaves it ambiguous which of them they leave the gang to, does it end in a stalemate? That's one of the Double Boss AUs! Those two fuckers have their ups and downs friends-wise (and benefits-wise) but they always seem to do everything together, get the best of both worlds in any sort of two-way choice, and are Definitely Totally Not In Love Because They Don't Do That Sort Of Thing.

-> -> The original Canon Compliant Double Boss AU is one I wrote a long ramble for way back and might post some time, and this is the one I know for a fact ends with the Zoo/Matt/Casey triad Cazoom. It incorporates Casey and Zoo's stories with Matt in their own universes as best as I could.

-> -> There is also a situation where the two Bosses end up being idolised but later hated by Noah Johnson/The Faceless, who captures and tortures the Saints and kills many of them leaving the others devastated. That's The Cult Of Celebrity AU, and I'm mentioning this for a really important reason; this is the only AU I have that features Santo Ileso! With the remainder of the gang all pretty broken, and intent on she and Zoo retiring, Casey suggests the survivors make a fresh start there, with the Saints name being taken over by one of their most resilient lieutenants, @iamkinzie's Rose, who ends up recruiting Kevin, Neenah and Eli.

Orrrrrrr... going back to the fight in SR1, do Casey and Zoo fight until he gives her a chance to run and she takes it out of (not that she'll admit it) genuine fear for her life? That's the Sinners AU. She holds a grudge against the Saints for many years and eventually stages an attack post-SR3. A very loosely Die-Hard inspired New Year's attack 😆 I want to do some designs for all the characters outfits so badly but it's going to be a big project!

So... on the other side of things, what if Casey's not on that corner? What if she's never Playa?

Well I do have the undefined potential universe where Casey is NOT Playa but IS Boss; taking over the Saints in Saints Row 2. This was just based on the fact that I didn't try and make her when I first played SR1, I just made A Random Dude(not to be confused with Noah who is Just Some Guy). I never really sorted out what then happens to the original Playa in that situation. We'll call that the Boss Swap AU? Tbh the only time I can see using that is if someone else wants to write a story with me with their OC as Playa, because I don't have much of interest to do with my own OCs in that position yet.

There's a few scenarios where I can see Casey ending up as a lieutenant of the Saints because she joins during SR2 under an existing Boss. Depending on age, as above, this can be at 16 and she has a similar temperament to sr1, or it can be at 21 when she's had some time to develop as her own person, and I think that really impacts what sort of person she is. Anyway, without the SR1 interaction with Dex she never becomes as good a tactical planner, and she's obviously not the leader, so she's really just a skilled gunwoman and thief.

If she has no real association with the Saints, but is still very much drawn to a life of crime and longing for slightly older women, that's potentially the toXic Universe! She falls for @snail-eggs Xixi Rosario(also not a Boss in this universe though I imagine she still has ties to the Saints due to her family) and follows her around like a puppy (where's that "submissive like an attack dog is submissive" thing again?). They steal and get wasted and fuck and crash cars and confess their love while being dragged away in handcuffs. They're not good for each other but the love is there. In the long term... if they're lucky they might end up escaping to a desert island together. Or Casey ends up in a triad with Xixi's younger sister Van and her boyfriend who is definitely not Matt Miller. But most likely they die while speeding away from the cops 🥲

If she highly idolises the Saints and their pink-haired leader in her teens (again this is with her having the '95 birthdate) but gets told she's too young (by the way she has some major similarities to Noah here but her reaction is... FAR less convoluted and deranged) when she asks to join, and sets up her own gang, Negative Space... that's @whoredmode's Anteros's Main Universe. NS is not the kind of well organised, professional gang she has with the Sinners. Frankly Anteros's Saints take them out pretty easily. After that... well I would say that whole thing probably scares her back to getting her degree as mentioned before, and probably does work at Stilwater Library for a while after all. After that... well there's plenty of interesting stuff going on in Stilwater on that universe, it'd be interesting to know if she gets involved in any way. Teddy, I leave her in your capable hands; if you think of an interesting way she can be involved then I'd love to know, if not that's fine too! Either way she's your problem now 😆

And then for something different entirely, there's Saints High, which sees all the canons and all the ocs in school together and basically-

...OK just kidding. Mostly. I don't usually do those kind of "x if they were y" AUs, though I'm sure one will suddenly smack me across the face one day. I do have other AUs. It's just that they're not down to factors in Casey's life so much, more changes changes in canon characters lives or other factors.

Anyway... wasn't expecting this to end up quite this long and I'm not even sure how well it answered the question but as you can tell, I had a lot of fun with it!

[hythlodaeus-mynewoldfriend]

First impression of each other? Was it love at first sight? Your choice, whoever has the best answer!

Ahh! Thank you! I answered for well five of them……I got carried away…..But the main three are first so! Thank you for asking! We got two ancient ships below so depending how much you want to avoid spoilers of any kind please keep that in mind though there isn't anything that is spoilery.

Demos and Yugiri

Demos was quite taken with the fact that this woman traveled so far from her home in a place she was not familiar with and with people that needed refuge, he admired her for the bravery and courage. He especially did, and reminded her as such, when she mentioned how it was in the middle of battle that she and the others got out, and on the days where she felt guilty and like she could have done more. She found Demos to be so quiet and humble, and she liked how attentive he was to things when there were some people that were better suited for work outside of Mor Dhona, finding them a place within the Shroud mostly.

It wasn’t love at first sight for either of them and feelings didn’t really start to develop until HW and she’d go to check up on him since he was less likely to give any indication on how he was holding up.

Hythlodaeus and Anthea

Thea was honestly very smitten with the man and found him to be very muse/inspiration inducing (which was a scary thing since their creations had a habit of going wrong) but they found him to be very open and patient and just soft. Hyth had an idea of who Anthea was based on records before ever meeting them in person, from the records he came to a conclusion that they had a passion and must have garnered quite a few people in their circle considering how many times they were cited on other creations, but he couldn’t understand how the ratio of archived ideas to actual creations that moved past the idea stage was so skewed to being more ideas. When bumping into them in person he absolutely took notice of their soul and felt a kind of ease when seeing it.

I wouldn’t say it was a love at first sight for either of them, more of a “I want this person to stay because their presence makes me feel some extra alive”. Not complete or whole and Anthea would argue and say he did make them feel alive again but really they did that all their own he just held a hand out.

Siberite and Thancred

Oh boy these two had such vastly different first impressions of the other. To start Thancred always knew she was a high born Lady and while there was some optimism for her being capable, it was quickly squashed as he watched Sib fail over and over again. He brought up such concerns when Minfilia said that they just needed to find her and then bring her into the fold, a letter was to be sent to her mother stating that she’s alive and well but refused to go with them and ran off. Frankly he truly just was so off put by her presentation of herself (truly just like think of Elle Woods and it’s the same thing) that he just didn’t look past it even after she was able to prove herself fighting that voidsent. He just was worried they would be having to slow down their efforts because she needed to be taken care of. Sib on the other hand found him rude, uncouth, and handsome and that wasn’t fair. He was too sarcastic for her liking, gave unsolicited advice in saying she needed a better defense strategy than just “hit it until it dies” and she felt looked down upon for not fitting the mold of just what an adventurer should look like. She just also found it rude that he looked like he was about ready to leave her lying in the dirt after she passed out.

It wasn’t love at first sight for either of them. At most it was lust at first sight. They both found the other attractive but there were some bad first impressions to get past. It took a bit of time for both to start coming around to the idea of there being more between them.

Constantinos and Elidibus

Conner’s first impression of this man was someone that easy enough to talk to that he ended up accidentally ranting about Emet-Selch and working for him because it was just one of those days you know? The white robes didn’t really sink in until he had finished and felt bad because he was only supposed to be delivering some paperwork…..he also handed them off to the wrong person so frankly he was just glad to see that this man didn’t look at him with negative emotions or confusion, just simply thoughtful and attentive in hearing what Conner had to say. He was taken in by his eyes though and it was all over for him. Elidibus for his part found him interesting as Conner approached him as if he was just someone like himself and not as Elidibus, though understandable seeing as he was still new to the role. He noted that many of the complaints he had in regards to Emet weren’t based in malice as if he was a bad person but someone that was working close to someone that was similar in personality, showing that while he could get emotional it wasn’t irrational and clearly not often to come out as it did. He also apologized and humbled himself with mannerisms that made him laugh a little. And it cultivated into an attraction to Conner.

It wasn’t love at first sight and there was an avoidance between the two to start, mostly Conner because my god that was so cringe and embarrassing. While feelings on Elidibus’ end were kept at a distance including the attraction to Conner.

Carly and Zenos

These two met while a training session was happening and he was tasked with having to pick a small group of people to act as a sort of guard and those to run legions for him. She piqued his interest in how despite being good enough to have a higher military ranking she never took one on, opting to instead keep to the ground and training on her own terms, she also wasn't letting many others get past her and still going strong despite being at it for the last 5hrs. Of course he had to put this woman to the test and she impressed him despite her being beaten, she just kept coming at him and would have had Stasia not called it. Carly frankly was curious as to why one of the potential princes took an interest in her (though also why wouldn't he take an interest?) but she's got a thing for tall men and he called for a fight between them. While she was upset that she "lost", she was entranced by the spark in his eyes that came out while they were at each other's throats. She did work hard after that to win him over and become his right had until the end of her days.

This one I would more consider a love at first sight kind of deal. It was a spark or attraction that was reciprocated and the words "I love you" were never uttered between them in their time together. They just both kind of knew they were meant to be when they really got to see one another in that fight.

[kawhump]

🩸 & 🧠 ! (for the ask game)

🩸 - What's a least favorite whump trope of yours?

I can double up on this one because I love an excuse to give hot takes. whumper turned whumpee. on the same note, 'sympathetic' whumpers in general. when it's done well the weight of their sins are a little too heavy for me, and when it's done poorly it tends to stray too close to torture/abuse/rape apologism for my taste.

🧠 - What's your favorite type of whumper?

already answered here, and I honestly don't have a lot to say about whumpers, but I can say that I tend to use a lot of the ol' classic Nameless Cruel Evil Guy, in the familiar variants of Bandit, Pirate, and Guard!

[randomwords247]

11 and 12

11. favorite movie sequel?

Uhh I don't know that I have a favourite per sey but heres a few movie sequels that I love:

Shrek 2 (its a classic, who doesn't love shrek 2?) also Shrek Four-ever after. Its weirdly underrated because many people didn't give it a chance after the awfulness that was Shrek 3 but Shrek 4 is good

The Little Mermaid 2 Return to the Sea is a guilty childhood pleasure and I WILL not stop loving it I don't care how bad it is

And also for a more recent one, Sonic 2. Sonic 1 (the movie) was great don't get me wrong, but it wasn't really a Sonic movie so to speak. I liked Sonic 1. I loved Sonic 2, it was amazing, the bigger focus on a Sonic and Co related plot was absolutely needed and, fun fact: First movie I watched in theatres. Very worth it, my mum can testify I was bouncing the whole way through XD

12. favorite book sequel?

I really don't know I don't read enough books 😭😭😭I guess one of the Famous Five books by Enid Blighton (hope I spelt her name right)? I enjoyed a lot of them.

[renegadeknight]

Hii! For the writing game 4, 31 and 41 pls 💖

hiya carol! thank you for the questions!

4. what is the plot bunny you've been carrying for the longest? bonus question: do you ever wonder why you haven't written it yet and experience deep existential dread?

I think my oldest plot bunny is amnesia!joel, which I started around the same time I started SL but its been on the back burner. the main reason I haven't written it yet is just that I am slow and only have so much time in a day. and yes, I frequently experience deep existential dread that there are too many fics (to write and to read!) and too little time

31. tell us about one of your characters who's an absolute joy to write

Joel and Ellie, especially together. they are just two goofballs stuck in the sometimes terrible situation that is life but they're really full of so much love. I love being able to dive into the painful angst of their characters and then temper that with their banter, chefs kiss for me

41. what is the weirdest story idea you've ever had?

oh boy, um, have you heard about the one where they're on the roof the whole time?? lol jk (but fr that is a little weird in hindsight)

idk if this is actually weird but the one I feel most self conscious about is my anna!lives au, where Joel ends up crossing the country with her to try to catch up to Ellie who left with the fireflies a day earlier. it's a slow burn annaxjoel fic that literally no one asked for but I talked about it a little more here if you're interested

[noodles-and-tea]

JESUS I LOVE YOUR JAYVIK. I hope it brings you as much joy as it does to us, we are all collectively crying from happiness when we see your art ✨️❤️ if you ever decide to draw a quick sketch of them with an adopted puppy AAAAAAA that would be very amazing :) but honestly whatever you draw is just 10/10 I'm here for MORE I HOPE WE GET MORE HAVE A NICE DAY YOU CHAMPION AND AN AMAZING LIFE YOU DESERVE IT

They’d call it “Spanner” or something