#during his and Emil's first argument I remember Angie being like 'Lucien would actually be upset at that'

[arcxnumvitae]

Advent Calendar

Day Five part 2 Electric Boogaloo: A Male Character (of someone else’s)

Lucien von Arx

If you looked up “character development” in the dictionary then I’m pretty sure you’d find a picture of none other than @shxtteredillusions​‘s very own Lucien. Like wow, what a shift. And I don’t mean this in any bad way of course because Lucien pre-chilling out was a total asshole. Very fun to watch because you never knew what was going to come out of his mouth! But also, like, my first impression of him was watching him interact with another’s muse and being like “wow, what a shockingly rude and crass thing for a person to say.”  And then I had the pleasure of interacting with him too and it continued to be “wow, what a shockingly rude and crass thing to say, how fun!”

I can’t particularly speak for Angie, since I am not her, but I know personally I wasn’t ever really like....expecting any changes in Lucien? I mean, to begin with the only muse I had that interacted with him was Katarina and that was because her job was to kill him, and also she hated him, so I wasn’t expecting much through there. And his other relationships at the time were also very much-Lucien esque relationships as in “only in it for the s.ex” (sorry, still no clue Tumblr’s nuking policy about that stuff so censored  we go). And Lucien himself was an incredibly stubborn person who was more or less indoctrinated at a young age and spent centuries living out that creed. So Like. Yeah I figured he was going to keep on keeping on how he was, which sucks too because angst-meister Angie was planning on a pretty depressing end for the big guy too. Not to mention the deal with not wanting or going to see his family got me good too and made me want to see a reconciliation so badly, it absolutely tore my heart up the knowledge that the dad he had looked up to so much passed during the time Lucien was gone and the two never got to properly make up after Lucien’s departure. I could also launch easily from this into Angie’s wolf packs and Angie’s lore building in general but my gosh this post is already going to be a doozy. Basically, amazingly creative interweaving of elements one may not have ever associated on their own (ie. Greek myths and vampire/werewolf lore) and done so enticingly and the storyline for them is so engaging it’s just mwah. And as I type this I realize I also didn’t get any into Kirei’s worldbuilding and! Shoot! Kirei’s is also just as good, they’re all so detailed and their own institutions they make are so fun, as evidenced by my kids being hunters in her Bastion clearly I had to get a piece of that action this paragraph is so long!

But back to Lucien, the point and purpose of this post. Him and Katarina started getting along more? And getting closer? And he stopped being such a rude little prick too? (Love you, Lucien, but you truly were atrocious). They started dating? And then, he meets Emil, the two instantly get along, and through that he gets introduced to Crowe and Aspis and over time they’re....friends? Lucien’s joining in on shenanigans, laughing and joking, and in general having friends and living past that doggone mission of his. Who would have thought? Great though! Love that big guy.

And of course, even past all of that what a fun muse! He switches so well between German Shepherd ready to bite the head off of anyone who pisses him off or messes with his girlfriend/friends and the guy happily joking around with said friends. I can’t say enough how just pure, unadulterated fun it is when Emil gets going on one of his little things and Lucien so seamlessly joins right in. If you told me a couple of years ago that Lucien would make a good comedic duo with Emil I would...well, be surprised. And even the not so funny bits! Like when Emil straight up hurt his feelings and the two went through a whole little thing, that was such an indicator of how far Lucien had come because the thought of Emil not being his friend was enough to make him upset and!!! do you see what I mean!!! The Lucien of the past wouldn’t have cared a whit!!!!! But here!!!!!!! The angst alone from that fueled me for like a week straight.

And of course, how so many facets of him and Katarina ended up being the most surprisingly perfect match despite how they met and how it really felt like he was just going to keep aggravating her until she finally defeated him. I’ve got to say personally it was also great on my end seeing that cute side of Katarina come out more as the two slowly began to get along better with each other

Just like Kirei with Kesil, there’s just something about how Angie writes Lucien that’s just * chef kiss * I slurp it right up. I can’t get enough of him. I need to pull him into shenanigans more too, on that thought, I could use more of the big guy.