#hauntedclos3t

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

For the STS ask thing:

In a role swap, what characters would swap roles and how would it change the story?

hi!! happy sts!

Alex and James would swap roles. Not much of their backstories would change, weirdly, but it doesn't need to change that much to get them to switch. It would massively change how the plot plays out, though, even if the bones and even some of the meat of the plot stays the same.

(this got a little longer than intended, so here have a cut)

James goes from being nephew of the previous editor (he's the current editor) of the herald who got brought onboard because he was curious about writing and then gradually promoted because he turned out to be competent -> still nephew of the previous editor, but now he's the one who dropped out of art school before picking up the writing thing and became an investigative journalist because he was curious, not because its what his dad did.

he still writes the article about nathaniel's mother getting murdered and the killer getting away with it, but now its because leo (who is already friends with nathaniel in the not-swapped version) suggested the idea and james got invested, not because the same thing happened to his father when he was a kid (<- why alex became an investigative journalist)

that would change the tone, i think, because then herald stops being a story about revenge and donovan stops haunting the narrative and starts being a story about justice/closure and being in love with your best friend (james is one of two (2) major characters in the entire story in a romantic relationship. the other is his leo, his boyfriend, who almost dies).

ronald isn't as relevant to the plot in the ways he is now (in how he's basically alex's uncle) but he's more relevant in the ways that his relationship with donovan sort of mirrors james' relationship with leo (except james and leo did something about it).

Alex is still motivated by her father's death, but it shifts to a 'doing justice to the newspaper and what he loved doing', not 'making sure murderers stop getting away with things because the government is shitty'. After Donovan dies, when she's like 15 ish, she expresses some sort of interest in the newspaper and Ronald convinces the then-editor to let her onboard in a minor role.

She gets promoted over time because she's actually competent (unlike many other people), and when the time comes for the then-editor to retire he picks her to be in charge. when James drops out and comes back to writing, she's the one to make the offer to hire him. Still for the same reasons, though.

Alex is still the product of her father drawing away from what he loved because of his obsession with the truth, but that doesn't play nearly as much of a role as it does now. I don't think she would've taken her father's penname if she isn't in the amount of danger that her being an investigative journalist puts her in, so she'd probably still be Alexandrina Gates, but she might've taken it anyway, just as a nod to him (which is part of the reason she picks mclelland in the first place, but not the reason she has a penname to begin with).

Leo's role wouldn't get affected at all. Still the guy who does the politics pages, still James' partner, still a little shit but in the best way possible.

Ronald's role would be different, but the bones of it would be exactly the same. He wouldn't swap with anyone (Donovan's personality is too different from his to make the plot work if Ronald is dead and Donovan is alive. Donovan has to be dead, or else the story doesn't work. The entire point of herald at present is that Donovan is dead, and Ronald & Alex aren't.), but he would get affected by James & Alex's swap.

Currently, his role in the plot is firstly as Alex's father's best friend, and secondly as 1/2 of the parallel to James & Leo's relationship. If James becomes the protagonist and occupies the space Alex does now, those roles switch. Him being a parallel is wildly more important, and it doesn't matter that he was Alex's father's best friend. All that matters is that he was Donovan's best friend, and Donovan = Leo, in a somewhat roundabout way.

[my-mom-named-me-duck]

god people draw me cooler than how I actually look ;v;

art by @hauntedclos3t and @souhmme in that order (thank you, you guys are very cool and awesome)

[theameba1436]

Wesley art <3

@hauntedclos3t was so sweet and drew Wesley <3 they did such a good job on him and I love it so much. go check them out, but they are a minor so don't be weird and ask for anything adult.