#the way these dynamics will forever exist in the background when i create aus that extend further than Hermitcraft | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

djinmer4 · 5 years ago

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From the Church AU, list of the 2nd generation kids in order of birth. Culturally, most children in the Church take their mother’s last name except in unusual circumstances. For the sake of keeping things straight, I am using Kurt’s age when they were born to determine their age. He’s the oldest person (besides Logan) to appear onscreen in the fic so he’s a good benchmark for how old everyone is.

1. Talia Josephine Szardos (Sister Nocturne)

Parents: Kurt Szardos (born when Kurt was 16) x Wanda Lensherr. Talia has Kurt’s last name because Wanda left the Church to marry Vision when Talia was 5, but Kurt kept full custody of Talia.

Powers: Has a carbon copy of her father’s vampire powers.

Appearance: Straight black hair, blue skin, yellow featureless eyes, fangs, pointed ears, no fur, no tail. Has Kurt’s hands and feet. Her features mostly come from Wanda though, and so does her height; she can look her father in the eye easily.

Talia is very much a Daddy’s Girl and idolizes her father. She’s the most obedient of all his children, but also very outgoing and social. She’s not very ambitious though and has no interest in rising beyond her current position in the hierarchy. Talia adores Kitty, but she’s more a friend than a step-mother and they’re all fine with that dynamic. Talia has no children, having been rendered sterile from a miscarriage during her first pregnancy.

2. Blue Kurt Keller (Prelate der Zweite)

Parents: Kurt Szardos (born when Kurt was 22) x Mara Keller

Powers: Touch psychometry

Appearance: Probably looks the most like Kurt out of all his children, except he has brown hair instead of black and needs to use glasses.

Blue was conceived during a three month period when Kurt was investigating some embezzlement at the Winzeldorf Convent. His mother Mara was obsessed with the Inquisitor and hoped that by conceiving his child she could convince him to stay in an ‘arrangement’ with her. Kurt thought of it as a fling, and while happy to provide Mara with a stipend, he didn’t even ask to see the child. Due to her obsession, Mara has done her best to turn Blue into a carbon copy of his father, giving him his name, dressing him up in similar clothing, even forcing him to join the Inquisitor branch of the Church. Unsurprisingly, this has left Blue cold, bitter and resentful of his entire family. (Had Blue his choice, he probably would have become a musician.) Since reaching the age of consent, Blue has cut off all contact with his mother but remains in the Church since frankly, he has no idea of what else he would do. He remains an inquisitor and actually rises to the rank of prelate at an abbey (not Winzeldorf). He’s met one of his half-sisters, but the meeting ended in a screaming argument and has made no further efforts to contact anyone from his father’s side of the family. He has no children by choice (pretty much scaring anyone off during the Choosenings through hostility).

3. Dwayne Martin Luther King (no alias)

Parents: Kurt Szardos (born when Kurt was 25) x Linda King

Powers: None

Appearance: And now the kid who looks least like Kurt. Dwayne strongly resembles both his paternal uncle and his paternal grandfather, being tall (almost 2 meters), with a long face and dark, almost teak-colored skin. He cuts his hair into a short afro. The only feature he inherited from Kurt, and his only mutation are his eyes, which are human-shaped, but bright gold in color with black scelera. Since he lives in Ultramar, he usually covers this up with sunglasses.

Dwayne was conceived during a one-night stand during the same trip where Kurt recruited Katie into the Church. Linda is a prominent civil rights lawyer, and she and Kurt were celebrating the repeal of a law that barred mutants (or the Blessed) from voting in Ultramarine elections. Like Mara, Linda also received a stipend during Dwayne’s childhood from the Church, unlike Mara she was fine raising Dwayne as a single parent with the help of her extended family. Upon growing up Dwayne decided to follow in her footsteps but prefers a less legal method, working with an organization that smuggles mutants and sometimes their families out of Ultramar to countries more friendly to them (either west past the Mississippi River to the Corridor or overseas to the Church). Friendly and highly charismatic, he also participates in ‘Robin Hood’ operations designed to get funding for this version of the ‘Underground Railroad’. He knows who his father is, and while he admires him, he has no desire to follow in his footsteps or contact him. He hasn’t met any of his half-siblings, but if he did, he’d probably get along best with Talia.

4. Evan Sabah Nur (Brother Messiah)

Parents: Technically none, he’s a clone of the Church’s founder, En Sabah Nur. He was created when Kurt was 28.

Powers: Many and gaining more all the time.

Appearance: Blue-grey skin, dark eyes, bald but coves it with a black wig.

Evan is essentially a ‘proof of concept’ clone, part of a project backed by Priest Szardos. After proving their Messiah could be cloned (and no one got struck by lightning for blasphemy), Evan was raised by Betsy Braddock and Jean-Philippe outside the Church, in the hopes of giving him a normal childhood and keeping him hidden from organizations hostile to the Church. Betsy and Jean had intended to tell Evan the truth of his background when he turned 18, and have him join the Church for a career then, but when Evan was 16, the Friends of Humanity (an Ultramarine political party) discovered his existence and did a bombing run of the farm where they lived in Gallicia. Betsy and Jean died, and Szardos essentially picked him up and hauled him to St. Xavier’s for his own protection. Needless to say, when last seen, Evan was not handling the change in circumstances very well, but currently has no other place to go (not that the Church would let him leave). Szardos wants to formally adopt him, but Evan wants no relationship with the man he feels has destroyed his life. (Intellectually, Evan knows it’s more the fault of the Friends of Humanity, but Kurt’s manipulative tendencies mean Evan already has to fight for what freedom he has. Adoption would just put him more under Kurt’s control.)

5. Mikhail Cameron Pryde (Father Freedom Fighter)

Parents: Piotr Rasputin x Katie Pryde. Kurt’s adopted son, born when Kurt was 30.

Powers: Melding with solid objects. With practice, he can bring other people with him.

Appearance: Completely human in appearance, with pales skin, freckles, straight dark hair, and blue eyes. He was very short and looked a lot like Katie when he was young, but a late growth spurt shot him to about 190 cm tall when he was 17.

Mikhail grew up thinking he was Katie and Kurt’s first child and was very surprised at age 12 when he learned that ‘Uncle’ Piotr was actually his biological father. Kurt had initially trained him to follow in his footsteps in the Inquisition, but a gruesome rescue mission traumatized Mikhail into not wanting anything to do to with that branch of the Church. Instead, he followed his mother’s path into IT, and eventually became the head of that department at the Sanctuary of St. Xavier’s. Mikhail had five children by the time he was 25 (only two of whom he’s met), then opted out participating in Choosenings ever again. Kurt thinks this is due to being gay, like his biological father, because Mikhail is currently in a relationship with male Acolyte. In fact, Mikhail is asexual and decided that having his ‘5 for Forever’ was the best way to never have to have sex ever again. Of his family, only his mother knows that he’s asexual.

6. Bluebell Christine Pryde (Matriarch Lorelei)

Parents: Kurt Szardos x Katie Pryde. Born when Kurt was 32.

Powers: Very, very weak receptive empathy

Appearance: Essentially the reason Mikhail didn’t know he wasn’t related to Kurt. She resembles him greatly, with curly black hair, blue eyes, pale skin and also looks completely human. She looks mostly like her mother but inherited Kurt’s cheekbones. Unlike Mikhail she never had a last-minute growth spurt and remains at 167 cm.

Bluebell has the weakest Blessing of all of Kurt’s children (except for Dwayne), and initially thought she was the ‘failure’ of the family. When it became clear that she was never going to develop another Blessing or strengthen her current one any further, Kurt took a sabbatical for a year to help her work through this issue. During that time, it was discovered she was essentially a musical prodigy, with a genius ability for singing. Using this talent, she’s rapidly risen through the ranks, becoming the Pope’s favorite vocalist and a celebrity even outside the veil. She has fraternal twin children (a boy and a girl) who she takes with her on tour.

Bluebell is the older twin by about 50 minutes.

7. Edelweiss Terry Pryde (Prelate TRON)

Parents: Kurt Szardos x Katie Pryde. Born when Kurt was 32.

Powers: Technopath

Appearance: Like her twin sister, she mostly has Kitty’s features, but with Kurt’s tail, hands, feet, blue skin, and fur. She’s the only child to inherit Katie’s brown hair and eyes. She’s also a little taller at 175 cm which she lords over her older sister as much as possible.

Initially, when they were born, Kurt wanted the older twin to be named Edelweiss and the younger one to be named Bluebell. The twins both agree that they were very lucky that Katie talked him out of it. Edelweiss is the one child who has inherited Kurt’s ambition, although she’s also proud enough to try to make her own way through the world with as little help from her father as possible. In order to facilitate this independence, she actually transferred out of Albion to become the Prelate of an abbey in Bavaria. While she lacks a genius intellect, powerful Blessing or unique talent like some of her other siblings, Edel is a very capable administrator and it is pretty much a given that’s she’ll eventually become a Matriarch, even if not as quickly as she might like. Edel is also known for having a contrary, aggressive personality. She has a long-running (friendly) argument with Mikhail over the pros and cons of free will and is the sister who had the screaming (extremely hostile) fight with Blue. No children currently, but not due to lack of trying.

Edelweiss is the younger twin by 50 minutes.

8. Damien Carmen Pryde (Commander Black Sheep)

Parents: Kurt Szardos x Katie Pryde. Born when Kurt was 36.

Powers: Pyrogenesis and pyrokinesis.

Appearance: Has Kurt’s blue skin and yellow eyes, but no fur. Also has his hands and feet, but no tail either. Features are closer to Kurt’s but somewhat softer and rounder. The same height as Kurt but noticeably more muscular.

Growing up, Damien was the child most likely to argue and fight with his father, which contributed to the fact he decided to join the military branch of the Church and moved all the way across the Mediterranean to join the Crusade against the Sub-Saharan African Confederacy. It was essentially as far as he could get from Kurt while still being in contact with the rest of the family. (Yes, he did get to pick his own code name.) And eventually, even that wasn’t enough. Damien had one daughter who died when she was six from childhood leukemia after that Damien faked his death and defected to the SSAC. Unsurprisingly, he has not been in contact with any member of his family since that point.

9. Theodore Joseph Pryde (Acolyte Firebird)

Parents: Kurt Szardos x Katie Pryde. Born when Kurt was 41.

Powers: Seer, with fire as a medium.

Appearance: Fairly short, about 150 cm. Has Kurt’s eyes and blue skin, but otherwise is mostly human (no pointed ears, tail or fangs). Still growing, but facial features resemble Kitty, albeit slightly elongated.

Theodore Joseph gets his name from Talia, who joked that she wanted at least one sibling named after herself. As this was soon after her miscarriage that rendered her sterile (and this was going to be her last child) Katie obliged, although she couldn’t think of what the male form of Talia would be, so she chose Theodore instead. Like most of his siblings and his mother, Tedd was groomed to follow his father in the Inquisition, unlike them he hasn’t been traumatized by watching Kurt torture or kill anyone, so it looks like he’s finally managed to find a successor. Tedd’s pretty on board with this plan, he likes the investigative part of it and while like the others he finds the bloodier bits unpleasant, he considers them a tolerable minor drawback, after all, it’s not like Kurt spends most of his time torturing people. His current goal is to figure out a way to use his Blessing to fly since he can’t teleport people the way his mother can with hers.

10. Dominique Nell Thurman (no alias)

Parents: Piotr Rasputin x Neena Thurman. Born when Kurt was 44.

Powers: Metal-shift skin

Appearance: Tiny. Black hair, brown eyes, pale skin, remarkably chubby for her age, but considered very cute.

Dominique was conceived as a favor to Kurt by Prelate Singularity, essentially so Piotr would have his ‘2 for Time-Off’ and Katie wouldn’t have to keep monitoring him to make sure he was fulfilling his duty to ‘multiply’. Once again, Kurt offered to adopt the girl once she was born, but Prelate Singularity prefers to keep her with her in Ultramar.

#Headcanon #procrastination #Church AU

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ryuutchi · 5 years ago

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Dearest Yulegoat [Mirrored Yuletide Letter]

[General]

To start with, if you're writing fic for me, I love you. I'm going to be happy just to be able to share my fandom love with someone. You'll notice I throw a lot of ideas out-- feel free to take one, take many, take none. I know how hard it can be to settle on an idea once the assignments come in. So I'm offering a bunch of options that I will enjoy. None of these suggestions are hard and fast requirements. They're here to give you an idea of what's going on in my head and what my preferences look like. My current blog is ryuutchi, over on Tumblr. I can't promise it will be helpful, but in the interest of helping with the stalking process, feel free to check me out over there. I like: Plot, adventures, banter and dry humor, happy endings, over the top AUs (steampunk, noir, organized crime, rum-runners, harems...), casual physical intimacy, emotional interdependency, bad decisions and poor coping mechanisms, hurt/comfort and whump-with-comfort, loyalty and morality confusion, worldbuilding, identity porn, questionable healthy attachments, seeking out physical affection, accidentally caught feelings, power-play, porn, gen, slash, femslash, het, any rating you feel comfortable with (for violence and/or sex), bittersweet things that are heavy on the sweet, Happily Ever After/Happily For Now endings I don't like: Deathfic, gratuitous angst, character-bashing, introspective character pieces, five times fics, mommy/daddy kink, A/B/O universes, contemporary social issues as the main focus/issuefic, sad or hopeless endings. (Also the standard DNWs: scat, watersports, necro, mpreg, homophobia, transphobia, etc) No Game No Life - Kamiya Yuu: Sora, Shiro The Series: They are both NEETs and Hikikomoris… but on the internet, the genius gamer siblings Sora and Shiro are known as the undefeatable “__” (blank). Sora and Shiro’s talents and skills are so abnormally good they are considered as urban legend. One day, they are challenged by the god of games to chess and are victorious. As a result, the god summons them to Disboard, a reality which revolves around games. Intent on maintaining their reputation as the undefeated gamers, Sora and Shiro plan to conquer the sixteen ruling species and to usurp the god of games... NGNL is a series of light novels, of which 6 have been translated (PDFs can be found here, or bought legally at any online bookstore). The No Game No Life anime can be found on Crunchyroll here. Request: The fact that Shiro and Sora literally cannot be separated from each other is one of the dynamics that I like about the series. I really enjoy codependent siblings as a Thing. So I would be happy if you played with that dynamic. Plotty gen for this series would be great-- it's always fun when one of them is much better than the other or they have to separate and execute plans while relying solely on the intuition of what their sibling will do. Alternately, someone kidnapping Sora and Shiro having to play a game to get him back while they both battle their inability to get anything done alone... I'd love background on them, where they tried to separate or were forced to separate and failed to function, or where one or the other tried to interact with other people (maybe a gamer who tracked them down) but were either terrible at it, the other one quietly sabotaged the budding relationship, or the third person got way too freaked out by the way Sora and Shiro act around each other. Future fic would also be great-- King/Queen Blank or even the Gods Blank, after they've beaten Tet. What does that look like? What kind of world are they making for themselves and each other? I ship them, but do not expect other people to, so if you want to write shippy fic (with aged up Shiro!!!) for them, I will be surprised but happy. I will happily admit to wanting kinky sex games. Extra Details: For reference, I've read through volume 8 of the light novel, watched the anime and the movie. I am not precious about spoilers for this series, so feel free to use later information. I know this series isn't everyone's cup of tea, with the sheer amount of fanservice and Sora's utterly otaku personality and the pseudo-incest thing with the 12 year old. Personally, as is probably obvious from the request, I'm less interested in the fanservicey characters, and much more about the dynamics of Shiro and Sora's relationship. I love the way they know exactly what the other is capable of and trust each other completely and whole-heartedly. Whether you write something small and domestic or big and plotty, for me the core of NGNL is that they love, care and respect each other in a way that is beautiful but also extremely unhealthy. If you want to go the shippy route, again, Shiro needs to be aged up appropriately-- it's always been interesting to me that Sora understands that it is inappropriate to sexualize his underage adopted sister, while Shiro goes out of her way to help sexualize other women for Sora's entertainment. There's a part of me that wonders if she's planning ahead for when she is old enough to be an "appropriate" (in age, if nothing else) sexual partner and is trying to get Sora to lose his virginity ahead of time. selector infected WIXOSS: Aoi Akira, Igarashi Rumi | UlithThe Series: WIXOSS is a popular trading card game in which players battle against each other with fighters known as LRIGs, using cards to support them. Certain LRIGs are able to communicate with their owners, and the girls chosen to wield them are known as "Selectors". Selectors are given the chance to have any wish granted by winning battles against other Selectors, but should they lose three times, their wish will be reversed into a curse instead. The main series, selector infected WIXOSS, follows a girl named Ruko Kominato, who becomes a Selector after receiving an LRIG that she names Tama. As she and various other Selectors battle it out for the sake of their wish, Ruko finds herself drawn into the dark, sinister world of WIXOSS, discovering that, win or lose, there is always a price to pay. The anime can be found on Funimation here Request: So, you know how in my "general likes" I said I don't like "gratuitous angst"? In this fandom, there is no such thing as "gratuitous". Darkfic is absolutely welcome here. The thing I am most interested in here is the manipulative, awful relationship that Akira has with Ulith-as-Iona. Like, I love them all, and for some reason in this fandom, that comes out to "please break them". Exploring their adult lives and how their relationships and the Wixoss game affected them in the future would be amazing. What else happened to them? What are their careers like? What are their home lives like? Are they... living together? Does some sort of magic continue to be a theme in their lives? Feel free to write in-universe plot or no-powers universe, or some horrible Madoka or Yurikuma Arashi or other magical girl thing, where they can all be horribly manipulative lesbians together because that's magical and wonderful. OTOH, if you want to write codependent-but-vaguely-functional adult Akira and Iona/Ulith being horrible assholes and having adventures of some sort (magic, detectives, idk) that is ALSO A+. I mean, I like happy endings, and if you can come up with something heartwarming (or "heartwarming") I'm not going to complain. Extra Details: Evil lesbians are Problematic, I know. But Akira was one of my favorite characters from the word go and (if you're paying attention to my fandoms as a whole) I really really like codependent or unhealthy relationships. I love her love/hate relationship with Iona and with Ulith, and the way those two characters sort of get mixed up for Akira specifically. If you want to play with Iona and Ulith's personalities and interactions as well, that would also be pretty fun. I'm also down for other types of AUs, like they have to get their shit together and track down someone who is killing Selectors, or they become selectors as adults and not girls. I know they're young, but given that this is a super-fucking dark canon, I am totally cool with dubiously consensual sex either on or off-screen. FANDOM: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers | Ronin Warriors (Shuu Rei Fuan | Kento Rei Fang, Mouri Shin | Cye Mouri) The Series: Ronin Warriors, known in Japan as Yoroiden Samurai Troopers (lit. "Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers"), is a Japanese anime series and manga adaptation created by Hajime Yatate. It's the story of five teenage boys, given mystical armor to protect the world from the evil Arago. 1000 years ago, Arago nearly succeeded in taking over the human world when Kaosu managed to defeat him. Although Arago's soul is banished to the demon world, his armor is left intact. Kaosu divided the armor into nine separate armor suits. Each armor will choose its bearer, and together they will fight Arago. At least that was the original intent... Although Arago manages to corrupt four sets of the armor, the last five remain safe. It's a bit like Power Rangers, only grounded in more serious traditional Japanese cultural trappings. Being created in the 80s, the art style is a little wonky, but it's an enjoyable thriller and is somewhat more focused and serious than a lot of sentai shows. The anime can be found on Crunchyroll here Request: I love Shuu/Shin with Shin being snarktastic and Shuu being smug and solid and dependable. I used to frequent the Minkland archive back when this fandom still kinda existed, and was forever disappointed that the skinny pretty boys got tons and tons of fic and Shuu was just sort of there in the background. (If you used to read Mink and Jink's fic, I will be so happy I could cry if I got that sort of cracked-out porny fic with Shuu, okay. Due to that formative influence, if you want to GO FOR THE AU, GO FOR IT WITH GUSTO. I've always wanted nanshoku/samurai AU. Or, you know, hooker fic, or dark!troopers fic, or harem fic or something like that. I also like found-family fic, gen-ish mysteries and adventures-- more fighting Massive Cosmic Evil, and curtainfic. Futurefic is also awesome, where they get on with their lives, maybe together or maybe trying to keep their friendships intact when there's no massive Cosmic Evil to keep them close. Extra Details: If you used to read Mink and Jink's fic, I will be so happy I could cry if I got that sort of cracked-out porny, possibly AU fic with Shuu, okay Fics I especially enjoyed from that archive: The Grand One The Clit Club Chronicles The Harem Vinyl Wagashi Cherry Zima Threesome Theater of Magic Due to that formative influence, if you want to GO FOR THE AU, GO FOR IT WITH GUSTO. I've always wanted nanshoku/samurai AU (see this image). Or, you know, hooker fic, or dark!troopers fic, or harem fic or something like that. My usual ships are Shin/Shuu, Shin/Ryo, Touma/Seiji and Ryo/Nasuti. But I multiship and am willing to run with anything-- I'm a Sex With All Teammates sort of person, so fivesomes and alternate pairings are not a problem for me. Dragon Prince Trilogy - Melanie Rawn: Ianthe of Princemarch, Sioned of River Run The Series: To blatantly steal someone else's review on Amazon: "Melanie Rawn created a world and a people that gives everything you could possibly want in a fantasy world. It gives love, hate, peace, war, magic, royalty, commoners, children to take over the next generation and best of all; dragons." I want to say "if this wasn't the matched fandom you should go out and read them right the fuck now', because I have read these books So Many Times. They're high fantasy novels about politics and the prince of a desert and magical people who communicate via sunlight and can conjure fire. AND DRAGONS. Also a lot of interpersonal and romantic maneuverings. It's a high fantasy politics and romance romp of somewhere ~550 pages. If that sounds interesting to you, pretty much every used bookstore I have ever been to has at least one copy of these books. I think they spawn on bookshelves or something. The books are also available in ebook form here (Kindle) and here (Nook) for 3 bucks. Please read them. (TW for rape in the first book) The Request: I love everything this series chooses to be. It's fun and cheesy and fantasy, which the best thing in the world. I've always thought that Ianthe had a serious hate-crush on Sioned and part of the reason she was so vicious and fucked up was that whole "you must marry a guy and expand the empire or your useless" thing when maybe she didn't want to do that. Ianthe's always been one of my favorite characters because she's brilliant and ruthless and clearly takes joy in clever plans that go well. Of course, being the villain in a cheesy fantasy, she got no depth whatsoever, aside from that whole sexually liberated, taking male consorts thing (which is AWESOME, okay.) Sioned is also awesome and brilliant and kick ass. Her hesitance in the first book while she decided what she really wanted to do was pretty great, as was the fact that she promptly made friends with Tobin and pretty much every character not designated "villain". It seems like up through Ianthe's death, they're playing a game of brinkmanship. (Which isn't to say I don't like Sioned and Rohan together. They're bookTP and totally awesome.) As for prompts, I normally prefer plotty fic to introspection. I feel like the whole sunrunner thing lends itself well to espionage, so political thriller, or murder mysteries or something would be great. If you want to do plot-what-plot involving these two-- either sex or just the sort of dancing around/pigtail pulling that would be great. Threesomes with Rohan-- also acceptable! Hell, if you want to do an AU where they end up together instead of Sioned marrying Rohan-- or alternately, an AU end to the trilogy, where Ianthe never died in the fire and ends up taking over as High Princess and making the Desert monarchs' lives hell and discovering her powers. Or something where she knew about her powers all along. Or Sioned, I don't know, realizing she kind of did think Ianthe was attractive. I also really enjoy Pandsala, but I didn't find her dynamic with Sioned and Rohan quite as engaging, even though she also did some bad-ass stuff in the long run. Her weird push and pull backstabby, politicized sisterly thing was interesting, though. Extra Details: Okay, like I said, I think this series is the cheesiest fantasy series in the WORLD and in a lot of ways it's one of my first nostalgia fandoms. If you haven't read them, they are kind of ridiculously long (Like, GRR Martin-long), but they're quick reads despite that and rather less depressing than a lot of high fantasy. It's silly in the way that "adult fantasy" that takes itself way too seriously can be. A lot of the main protagonists actively enjoy each others' company and that's as much integral to the book as the politics and dragon-slaying. That said, I kinda asked for a semi-serious plotty story. But if you want to run with the "it's cheesy fantasy" and want to write about Ianthe rescuing princesses or Sioned running away to be a knight and abducting Ianthe away from her toxic father, or something silly, I say get down with your nerd self and run with it. I've only read parts of the second trilogy, and the second generation aren't really very interesting to me. If you want to write future-fic, I would prefer that it continues to focus on the original generation (no matter how much I love Andry, Pol just seems like kind of a jerk).

House of M - New X-Men: Academy X: Any The Series: I'm surprised it took me so long to nominate and request this fandom. I love New X-Men and was GUTTED when Decimation forced them into killing off so many of the characters. If you've never read it, New X-Men: Academy X was an X-Man title in the mid-00's, focusing on entirely new students at Xavier's Academy, being taught by the more established characters. Some of the New X-Men have managed to escape and become general Marvel characters in their own rights (David Alleyne, for example), but for the most part, they were just teenagers at school who rarely got caught up in larger plots. 616 New X-Men were about teenagers fighting, and coming to grips with the fact that they're being raised and taught to go sacrifice themselves for a Greater Goal. They're all wonderfully, horribly traumatized teenagers with powers. The plots were fleshed out and realistic, and when they weren't they were still interesting or fun. This request isn't technically for that. It's for the House of M megacrossover from 2009. Wanda Maximoff, mutant reality shifter and sometimes-crazy-lady, decided that mutants should run the world. SO THEY DID. And suddenly the lives of our young students become very different. Half of them after still "New Mutants", working towards peace, and the others are "Hellions", SHIELD trainees in a violently anti-homo-sapien state system. I've always felt that House of M as a narrative concept has been dismissed too easily by Marvel fans, because there are so many pieces of worldbuilding left unbuilt. I'm most interested in seeing it from the eyes of younger participants who are being trained or have been trained for their places. What does that world look like? New X-Men: Academy X can be found online here: https://viewcomics.me/comic/new-x-men-2004. The House of M crossover runs for issues 16-19. The Request: There's a lot here to play with because the authors never really got to play in either the Academy X OR the House of M sandboxes long enough to do all of their ideas justice. So I'm going to lay out some of the stuff I liked most about NXM in general and HoM in particular. The nom is for HoM, but I think HoM is most interesting in conversation with the standard 616 universe, alongside having the fun YA action stuff and the complicated interpersonal relationships. For example: in 616 Josh joined the Reavers and pretended not to be a mutant until he was confronted with Laurie nearly dying. I can imagine a bunch of different scenarios for House of M that would lead to where we see Josh and Laurie in the HoM comics (Laurie undercover with the New Mutants, and Josh working as an interrogator alongside Kevin). Laurie's introversion in 616 juxtaposed against her brazen treachery and clear control over her skills in HoM. HoM shows Kevin in a full decontamination suit, but we know in 616 that his ability is blocked by wearing synthetic fibers (I imagined this to be a interrogator scare tactic, but it could be any number of other things). Kevin and Josh's relationship in 616 is fraught, especially with Josh's previous experiences with anti-mutant activists and the fact that Kevin killed his father when his powers manifested. But they seemed to work together well in HoM. And speaking of Kevin-- how did his powers manifesting actually pan out in a universe where mutants aren't seen as a threat? I have to wonder whether there's some concept of "acceptable casualties" because some peoples' powers clearly manifest first in dangerous situations. Alternatively: Fluffy Josh/Kevin with a backdrop of torture, murder and state violence. I ship mostly Josh/Kevin because rivals-to-lovers and boy-who-kills-anything-he-touches/boy-who-cannot-be-killed is Great For Me. I also love the abuse of powers and manipulation involved in being interrogators/torturers(/murderers?) for the House of Magneto. They work together, they hurt people together, but maybe they also... smooch? THAT SAID! Adding Laurie to that ship is always a great way to fuck up and destabilize them! Especially in HoM, where we know she's already keeping secrets and can and WILL use her pheromones to fuck with people. And David! OH, DAVID. The only real New Mutant in this request. Does he have previous relationships with Josh and/or Kevin? I don't mind David/Noriko, but I also ship David with Kevin and Josh, and also Tommy and Teddy from Young Avengers, if you feel like exploring other parts of the HoM world. I have never considered David/Laurie before, but if you want to give it a whirl, I'm down. As for David-- His responses to state violence (as evidenced by the Hellions and SHIELD) are clearly different from the rest of the requested characters, and it would be interesting to explore David and his experience of this universe. Are his powers still restrained the same way? I know he supposedly dies at the end of the HoM mini-arc, but we never see them die, so feel free to write David managing to crawl off and plan to take down everything and everyone. A specific DNW for this fandom is Josh/Rahne. I don't mind the relationship having existed and impacting the characters, but only as a past relationship.

Extra Details:

SENSORY DETAILS. When it comes to magic and meta powers-- especially ones that aren't battle-oriented-- is what they feel like. What does it MEAN for David to be able to know anything someone else knows? What does the emptiness and fullness of it do to him? Josh's powers are all tactile and his body actively changes after trauma (in 616, first by turning him gold, then by creating black spots on his skin after he kills someone for the first time). Does his power always alter him, but usually in unnoticeable ways? What can he know and feel from a touch? Same for Kevin-- does withering sate a hunger, or make him feel worse? What would it feel like if he touched Josh? And Laurie... I'd love both her thought-process and the sensory details of what she's doing. Can she smell her own pheromones? Do they ever affect her? What does she feel like when she's manipulating people so subtly that they barely notice a passing smell? If you want to bring in other 616 knowledge and see what it looks like in HoM, that's cool. So is bringing in other HoM storylines. There's a throw-away line in Luke Cage's HoM crossover that the Runaways are known as an organized crime group. Cage himself runs a resistence cell (and given the end of the NXM crossover, David seems like he'd be willing to throw in with that lot). Young Avengers, the other New X-Men who weren't given much screentime in the HoM crossover-- I'd love any of that. Young Justice (Comics): Match, Tim Drake

The Series: Comics are confusing! This request is for the late-90s version of Young Justice by Peter David, which consisted of Robin, Impulse, Superboy, Arrowette, Secret, and Wonder Girl, along with others. It's very much a young-heroes-trying-to-make-their-way. Unlike the newer show, this Young Justice tended to be left on their own without much of a guiding hand. It was a very 90s comic, with very 90s fashion and a lot of nod-nod-wink-wink in-jokes. I love it because it's a series that always wore its humor on its sleeve. It's an affectionate look at young superheroes, and allowed them to react to teen problems alongside the more standard superhero tropes. There's the possibility for angst and darkness (and once they graduated to Teen Titans especially, that came up more), but they were allowed to be both hurt and upset AND fun and cheerful. The comics weren't available collected until last year (it took them TWENTY YEARS JFC), and it's well-worth buying from your local retailer, but you can also find them online here. The character I'm requesting first appeared in Superboy's solo series (starting in issue #35), which can be found here and again in the first volume of Young Justice: Sins of Youth. The Request: SO! I have always loved Match in the original YJ and Superboy comics, and the writers gave him really short shrift. We have a clone of Kon, who is as smart, if not smarter, can pretend to be Kon for extended periods of time— but every time he tries, people get hurt or die. I’ve always wondered how Tim felt that he literally couldn’t tell his best friend from an imposter. And then Match went and ran off and disappeared and no one ever seemed to consider what he was doing, after thousands of his/Kon’s siblings/clones were murdered essentially in front of him and the Agenda fell apart. (I’m not entirely surprised that Kon didn’t pay attention to all of those clones of him dying, but think about it from the standpoint of someone for whom those were supposed to be an army of his siblings. What a way to get survivor’s guilt.) Did Match go to Lex? It doesn’t seem like it, but given that as Kon’s clone, he’s technically Lex’s son too, it’s a possibility. Or alternately! He got himself out of the superhero game and did something else! What was it? I’d also love for a story about him wanting to be a super and have that family that Kon and Clark have, but being shut out of that world because he’s a “villain”. Or him getting that family after so long. Or him showing up at the Kents’ place because “fuck it, if Kon can have this, so can I” and it goes… well or poorly, depending on you. Or him finding his own family in a place that is separate from the who superhero thing, and Kon or Tim or Clark stumbling on him. Or Lex trying to use him— whether or not it works is up to you, although I’d love for it to touch on Match’s need to be part of something larger— after all, he was built and trained to be the vanguard for an army that was summarily murdered in front of him. Tim's refusal to even vaguely hint about his real identity during this time is fun too-- we have two boys who are both hiding their identities in different ways. It makes me wonder if Tim COULD have figured Match out, if the Sins of the Youth plotline didn't happen or was delayed somehow, because he seems to have all of the pieces of information. Or maybe Match-as-Kon was the only person Tim revealed part of his real name too, and has to deal with the ramifications of trust. Actually, Tim and the Issues Of Trust is the YA novel that I'd love to see Tim and Match (and Kon and the rest of YJ) star in. Bring back Mr Sarcastic (PLEASE bring back Mr Sarcastic) and Alvin Draper. Bring back the way that Tim hides by burrowing under identities and performances, and collects information on everyone he knows. I love detective stories and, out of all the Bats, Tim has always struck me as one of the best actual detectives, rather than crime-fighters. So Tim getting lost in a mystery will always make me happy. There's also something interesting about a group of young teens fighting for their own autonomy and identity. At this point in Tim's story, I think he was still thinking of the Robin thing as almost an extracurricular, and probably grappling with how hard it is on him physically, as well as mentally. So, I guess struggling for a coherent snse of self and agency are really interesting touchstones in this fandom. ALSO, MY DEEPLY HELD RARE PAIR FROM THE 90s: Tim/Match! See above, re: Match being present for Identity Crisis instead of Kon. I’d love Match to be trying to follow Kon’s footsteps re: Cassie, and being way more into Tim, which leads to Tim being confused and into Kon. Also any of the above prompts can include Tim (maybe Tim tries to help cushion a meeting between Match and Kon or Clark! Or maybe he just ends up Match’s sugar daddy. I’m down.) Although this request is ripe for dubious identity weirdness with Match pretending to be Kon, I'd really prefer that you focus on Match getting to be his own person, even if there's some pretending-to-be-Kon in there. Extra Details: This has been a lowkey love of mine for literally decades. My absolute favorite gift of all time was original pages from one of the Superboy issues where Match appears for the first time. And as I've grown older, my love for this rare, obscure character has deepened. Also, as I've grown older, I've begun to want more adult!Match, or growing up!Match just because the idea of growing up in the margins of superhero culture after everything that happened to him is really interesting. He was straight-up groomed and brainwashed, and then the Agenda was gone, so how did he cope? What is he doing now? What kind of adult does he make? This request is specifically for the mid-90s comic, so feel free to stick to that. But if you read the 2010-era Teen Titans and want to explore some later story choices-- like Match becoming Bizarro-like, Slade making him part of Titans East, or his fear that Jericho would hurt the Titans in his body, or save Match from Superboy-Prime, I'm not going to complain. (Personal headcanon time: I think Slade was trying to mind control Match with the same stuff he used on Rose, and it caused the Bizarro-like symptoms). I also love Elseworlds and mirror!verse stuff too. As I've said elsewhere in the letter, I really prefer Happily Ever After/Happily For Now stuff, and I prefer my bittersweet fics heavy on the sweetness. Please give Match the love and affection he's always deserved. But also, please feel free to make both Match and Tim HURT first.

#yuletide #dear yuletide author #no game no life #selector infected wixoss #wixoss #yoroiden samurai troopers #dragon prince #young justice #new xmen

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pens-swords-stuff · 6 years ago

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Character Creation Tag [Clara]

@honiewrites tagged both my writeblr and mainblog (@undinisms) for this like forever ago! Thank you so much, I love being tagged!

For all the other people who tagged me for this... I’m making individual posts for each of them (eventually, who knows how long it’ll take) so I haven’t forgotten you!

Going to do this for Clara!

1) What was the first element of your OC that you remember considering (name, appearance, backstory, etc.?)

I think the very first thing about Clara that I came up with was that I wanted a kind of aloof, cold, academically smart girl — so the first element was an archetype, I suppose!

2) Did you design them with any other characters/OCs from their universe in mind?

I don’t think so! I think I developed Clara in a vacuum without really considering other characters. She may have been one of the first developed characters for it actually...

I know that her best friend one true love Caerwyn (by @decantae) existed in some form when she was created but I don’t think he had much impact when I was originally designing her. I can’t even remember if they were meant to be a ship at that point honestly... It’s been a while.

3) How did you choose their name?

Visuals are really important to me especially when it comes to naming. Like, the face has to fit the name, you know? Therefore, face claims are really important to me in the character creation process.

So once I settled on Aja Naomi King as her face claim, I spent a couple of minutes staring at her face before going “you know what, you look like a Clara.” It was relatively painless actually, I think the name came to me very quickly. It was simple, elegant, sophisticated, and matched Aja’s face so I was happy with it!

Originally her full name was Clara May Williams, back when she had an American background. After that iteration was scrapped and I brought her back for Morsmordre months later, I decided that Clara Williams didn’t fit her anymore. She was British now, and she needed a new surname. Choosing a new surname was also really easy, the name Wilcox just popped into my mind.

Clara Wilcox is her name now (middle name pending), and I like it a lot better than her original name! I definitely think it fits her better.

4) In developing their backstory, what elements of the world they live in played the most influential parts?

Clara is a main character of Morsmordre: a Harry Potter AU fanfiction I’m writing with @decantae. Just to give a rundown of the canon divergence: In Morsmordre, Voldemort succeeded in killing Harry Potter when he was a baby, and the first Wizarding War never ended.

Blood status is really important in the Wizarding World, and Clara is a half-blood. So due to her muggle father and pureblood mother, Clara developed a skeptic, scientific approach to magic in comparison to other wizards. This is a really important part to her character because her approach to learning magic is by dismantling and examining the theory behind it, rather than the application — it comes up a lot in Morsmordre because she’s a scholar at heart, and she’s not super great at putting things into action.

Her half-blood heritage will also begin to become more important as the war continues, and it’s not just muggleborns that are persecuted.

Houses are huge in Hogwarts, and I knew that I wanted to make a Ravenclaw character, so that definitely played a huge role in creating Clara. She had to be smart in some way, thirsty for knowledge. I always knew that she would be very book smart, but not people smart because I wanted her to be a bookish Ravenclaw who wasn’t that great at interacting with people.

5) Is there any significance behind their hair colour?

Not particularly! Her face claim’s hair is black, so...

6) Is there any significance behind their eye colour?

Not really! Her face claim’s eyes are brown so...

7) Is there any significance behind their height?

I have a really bad habit of making female characters short (I’m super short, so), so I actively made her a bit taller than I normally would in an attempt to break that habit and diversify my character heights. She’s 5′5″ or 5′7″ I think?

8) What (if anything) do you relate to within their character/story?

I can relate to Clara’s inability to open up and be vulnerable. Despite being fairly emotional as a person, she has a lot of difficulty opening up about how she really feels, or even taking an introspective look at herself to figure it out.

I seem like I’m super well-adjusted, but I internalize a lot of problems and I hate being vulnerable in front of others; I have a lot of trouble opening up, and really connecting with emotional rawness to anyone, and Clara also has difficulty with that.

9) Are they based off of you, in some way?

Nope! I’ve mentioned this before, but I purposefully avoid putting parts of me into a character because they become really bad self-inserts. Some people can make that work, and it’s a valid thing — it’s just that I personally can’t make it work.

10) Did you know what the OC’s sexuality would be at the time of their creation?

Honestly I’m still not sure about what her sexuality is, because I cannot imagine her with anyone else but Caerwyn. I straight up have mentioned that she’s just Caerwyn-sexual since she’s never really expressed any sort of interest in anyone else, regardless of gender.

That being said... All of my characters’ default sexualities are bisexual. If Caerwyn just straight up didn’t exist (as in, if @decantae never made him in the first place), I think she would definitely be attracted to girls as well as guys!

11) What have you found to be most difficult about creating art for your OC (any form of art: Writing, drawing, edits, etc.)?

Well, for one: I’m bad at art.

Two, Clara’s face claim might be Aja Naomi King, but it’s really hard to find high quality photographs of Aja that look like Clara. I mess around with photoshop and I’ve made a couple of edits for Clara, but it’s always been difficult finding images that could be Clara.

I also mess around with video editing sometimes, and I’ve actually made a crappy movie trailer for Morsmordre. Although Aja Naomi King has a lot of clips that could be Clara, she doesn’t speak in a British accent like Clara. I ignored that detail for the edit but it was always in the back of my mind.

12) How far past the canon events that take place in their world have you extended their story, if at all?

So the current draft (it’s like a second draft... except we never finished the first. We just decided to rewrite it anyway) is at the very beginning of the Morsmordre story. Similar to Harry Potter, we’re going to follow the lives of the main characters as they go through school. It starts in 4th year, then I believe that Morsmordre will end a couple years after their 7th, when they finally achieve their goals (even then, that’s suspect and not set in stone).

Me and @decantae have planned far beyond that, including headcanons for their children, what they’re going to be up to after the events of Morsmordre, possible sequels, relationships, etc.

13) If you had to narrow it down to 2 things that you MUST keep in mind while working with your OC, what would those things be?

Clara (and others) might think she’s super rational and logical because of her braininess, but she’s actually ruled by her emotions and heart. Even if Clara’s brain knows that something is completely stupid and that she shouldn’t do it under any circumstances, she’ll jump in if her feelings say yes.

She studies a lot and tries to learn everything she can so that she can prevent being caught off guard as much as possible. She likes being in control, and knowledge is one of the ways she maintains it (or at least, the illusion of being in control).

14) What is something about your OC that can make you laugh?

Her banter and relationships with her friends can be really funny at times. I love the dynamic between her and everyone else!

15) What is something about your OC can make you cry?

She’s going to go through a really rude awakening when she becomes disillusioned with the world. She’s fairly idealistic right now, and she’s going to go through a lot of painful growth when that idealism shatters.

16) Is there some element you regret adding to your OC or their story?

I’m actually really pleased with how Clara turned out, so I don’t think I have any regrets.

17) What is the most recent thing you’ve discovered about your OC?

She really likes peppermint!

18) What is your favourite fact about your OC?

She’s really extra! She’s really dramatic!

Also her family is literally the most wholesome, loving family ever and I love it.

Tagging @souliloquyyy, @kriss-the-writing-nerd @inkspilledqueen @writings-of-a-narwhal for this, feel free to do this or ignore!

If anyone else sees this and wants to do it, please go ahead and say I tagged you!

#tag games #oc #ocs #writing #clara wilcox #morsmordre #pens-swords-stuff #my ocs #my wips

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avoresmith · 7 years ago

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au where anyone other than atsushi is the main character, go

Kyouka

Kyouka is the most obvious option here, as her character arc literally follows Atsushi’s beat by beat and does it better because she gets to be seen having actual flaws and conflict while Atsushi’s point in life is just to Be Very Good.

She’s an orphan who was beat down badly by the universe and needs to make peace with her Gift and how it’s uncontrolled presence in her life has played a huge part in all of the painful garbage she’s had to deal with. She has to learn to not just value her own life (Atsushi) but learn to believe she is capable of using the same abilities she used to kill to help people and that there is value to that (Dazai). She has a connection to Akutagawa, a better one than Atsushi, who just thinks that guy is a dangerous asshole, as Akutagawa fucked her up by trying to 'help’ her the same way Dazai 'helped’ him (which echoes the fact that Dazai fucked up Akutagawa by trying to teach Akutagawa the way he was taught by Mori). This creates a way more dynamic and interesting victims vs their abusers and cycle of violence story that they were TRYING to do with Atsushi and his abuser that falls completely flat, on account of how that guy wasn’t actually a character and we are just told we’re supposed to sympathize with him because ‘life is complicated’ instead of actually shown the ways in which life is fucking complicated.

This would also allow for a narrative of victims vs their abusers where ACTUALLY HAVE, A VICTIM, CHALLENGING THEIR ABUSER AND DEMANDING THEY DO BETTER instead of what we currently have which is 1) Dazai flees Mori and hates him (legit) 2) Akutagawa seeks Dazai’s acknowledgement forever (no?? buddy) 3) Atsushi cries when his abuser died trying to maybe be nice to him for once finally =��( (ohmygod).

Also, while Dazai and Atsushi mean... something?? to each other, it’s practically only relevant in Atsushi’s arc as something to yell at Akutagawa about, and while we can Assume Dazai Has Feelings we basically never see Dazai impacted by Atsushi. However, if it was Dazai who stops Kyouka from killing herself and takes her out of the mafia we have Dazai directly engaging with his perspective on suicide, and saving someone from the mafia in a way he was never saved, and this leads into him Also Engaging With All Of That, which then could be a continuing theme within their relationship.

(And I didn’t Go In This Direction because my central argument is that Kyouka already does everything Atsushi is doing if better and if given more focus could dramatically improve the manga, but also her relationship with Kouyou could also be given more prominence, and then holy shit, we’d have two important ladies instead of just one!)

In this AU Atsushi honestly doesn’t even need to exist. Kyouka could make friends with Kenji instead, and they could have adorable hyjinks where Kenji teaches her how to be polite to people and then they both get way too extra if politeness fails.

(MORE UNDER THE CUT)

Akutagawa

This would probably have to be a darker manga, or Akutagawa would have to be less garbage, but as one of the only characters with multiple interesting relationships he is kind of a natural point to focus around. He has Gin, Higuchi, Kyouka, (thREE WOMEN) and Dazai as far as relationships that already important, and Chuuya and Mori and Kouyou are all characters that could be explored more if the manga was more mafia focused. While the mafia aren’t actually villains anyway, this change would make them more sympathetic, but Akutagawa would still be a really interesting MC, and this would fix the fact that Atsushi is only interesting around Akutagawa.

Unlike Atsushi, Akutagawa has clear wants, motivations, and character progression, so Atsushi makes a lot more sense as Akutagawa’s rival character than the reverse. Boy with garbage life collides into the boy his master replaced him with, only to constantly seethe with anger that this asshole was so fucking lucky. Eventually discovers that his rival’s life actually wasn’t that easy but still can’t comprehend why his rival doesn’t appreciate what he has enough, or why this prick is worth more to his master than he was. Cue a compelling dynamic of Akutagawa improving himself relentlessly while not fully understanding what path he is on, but desperate to get out of the trashfire of his life. He thinks this means earning Dazai’s approval but in fact it means learning he doesn’t need to be a terrible human being to survive.

This would make Dazai far LESS sympathetic, but Dazai sucks so that is only fair.

Dazai

Okay, I won’t lie, Dazai would a SUPER CHALLENGING perspective character for a manga. What makes Dazai’s writing so amazing is how deftly he handles the unreliable narrator, which is hard to do when we don’t actually see the world via the MC’s perspective. And while I am happy to rag on BSD all the live long day, I do think one if it’s strengths is that it picked up on what an interesting character Dazai-types would be viewed exclusively from the outside, and has managed to portray that sort of peculiar contradiction of personality traits quite well.

HOWEVER, despite being the most popular character, we never really get to see Dazai having a character arc. We know he has improved, we know he has wants and is actually probably working very hard to get his life in order, but we only know any of that from the end of the light novel to the start of the manga. We don’t actually get to see Dazai having conflict, confronting his fears, making hard choices, and growing as a person.

However, while we never really see it in the manga, given what we know about Dazai’s history, we can probably assume that the choices Dazai makes to help Atsushi is something that actually impacts Dazai quite a bit. The last time he put himself in this position the result was Akutagawa; a challenge which Dazai completely failed on many levels, even if the result was technically a very loyal and capable mafioso and thus something Mori would have slated as a win. Dazai engaging with what it means to teach a human without himself knowing how to be a good human, and probably in the process also learning about ‘goodness’ via someone like Atsushi who is naturally inclined toward the heroic, would actually give Atsushi an interesting place the narrative.

This would make Dazai waaaaaay more sympathetic, as we would also presumably see him struggling to adapt to ADA life, see his masks slip more often, and more signs of the fact that for real these last two years of being around decent human beings from 9 to 5 is probably the first time in his life he’s dealt with such people. We’d also get to see that he’s probably still depressed, drunk, and suicidal, but may be able to chart the ways he gradually becomes less so and what prompts those improvements.

Kenji

Kenji is also a nice boy who wants to talk it out but then will beat the shit out of you if that attempt fails. What if instead of being a 2D one time gag character he actually had a motivation and a character arc to engage with? He could more or less follow the same story beats Atsushi sets up, just done better and with less redundancy. Kenji would make an interesting foil for Akutagawa since by all appearances his life wasn’t garbage, and his ceaseless tone deaf optimism in the face of Akutagawa’s ceaseless tone deaf fury would be, if nothing else, pretty fucking entertaining.

Kunikida

wOW ANOTHER HEROIC CHARACTER WHO USES VIOLENCE TO RESOLVE CONFLICT. IT’S LIKE THERE ARE A BUNCH OF THESE. What if Kunikida being Dazai’s partner was at all narratively relevant and they had a dynamic that went deeper than Dazai aggravating Kunikida for the lulz and Kunikida being willing to trust Dazai when the chips are down.

Since Kunikida is slated to be the next leader of the ADA he makes a potentially compelling choice as a protagonist, as it would be an easy way to involve all of the (MANY) under appreciated ADA characters, by having their future boss learn what it means to actually work with and appreciate the backgrounds of his various future underlings. It wouldn’t need to be slated specifically as ‘Kunikida Is The Heir’ but given that it’s a shounen manga it could be effortlessly set up that way, and unlike Atsushi, Kunikida has a LOT of obvious flaws. He is naive, inflexible, emotionally vulnerable, distrustful, impatient, judgmental, and gullible. He also has CLEAR WANTS (Idealism) seeing him struggling for something fundementally unattainable and the ways he learns to update his ideal of idealism, in part by overcoming his individual flaws and in part by realizing that while idealism might be worth seeking it cannot be achieved. He would have a lot to learn from every member of the team, and in doing so could give them more importance to the story.

Yosano

you waNNA KNOW WHO IS GREAT AND DEEPLY UNDER APPRECIATED?? YOSANO. IT’S YOSANO. AU where actually Yosano is the main character. If you need a more compelling argument than that IDK what to say to you.

Tanizaki

What if Tankizaki had a narrative purpose other than gag and deus ex ability.

Mishima

AU where Mishima Yukio is in the manga, he’s an ex-government worker who was fired for being a bit too radical but he deeply respects and is super gay for Fukuzawa’s aesthetic and agrees to join the ADA. Rather than being Dazai’s protege he fancies himself Dazai’s rival and is intent to expose what garbage he is but the joke is on him because everyone knows that including Dazai.

None the less, Mishima also is a more callous and aloof person who wears a friendly mask and via picking at Dazai he picks at himself. The more fixated he gets on exposing Dazai, the more he has to confront the fact that the world is more complicated than he wants it to be and it frightens him to examine the degree to which he doesn’t feel he actually belongs among society and thus tries very hard to construct a place for himself in it with his radical behavior and exacting standards, whereas Dazai accepts that he just should go in the trash.

Dazai, in response, really doesn’t like being picked at effectively. Everyone else within the ADA accepts the masks he wears without question, never actually confronting his suicidal ideation or talking to him about where he comes from, even once they know about it. Mishima, in his relentless pursuit of being able to classify and deconstruct Dazai to overcome him, does just this, and frankly it sucks a lot for Dazai because Mishima would be the first person to A) learn the grueling details of his past and B) understand how fucked up that is for someone like Dazai who is only hiding his sensitivity and C) still look him in the eye and tell him to get his shit together. Mishima becomes the first person since Odasaku who actually understands Dazai but this time it is the worst because Mishima is mean.

Dazai counters by ruining Mishima’s life in the most extraordinarily petty ways as frequently as possible.

Atsushi

ALTERNATIVELY. Atsushi actually is a good protagonist.

HERE IS AN EXERCISE, WHAT DO EACH OF THESE SHOUNEN HEROES WANT AND HOW DO WE KNOW?

Edward Elric: wants the philosopher’s stone, will do basically anything for it, we find this out in chapter 1.

Gon Freaks: Wants to find his dad, chapter 1

Luffy: Wants to find his dad, chapter 1

Allen Walker: wants to save everyone from akuma because dad feels, chapter, idk, like 3

Naruto: Wants the acknowledgement of his village, works tirelessly for it. We find this out in like chapter 1. (yeah I know naruto is bad don’t @ me but look the MC had a clear motivation)

(AV have you read any shounen manga since 2001-- nO)

Atsushi: Wants... uh. To not starve??? This need is met in chapter 1. Wants to... be.. a good employee...? Wants to beat Akutagawa because... he’s bad....??? Wants to... make Dazai proud...?

It’s not impossible to write a story with a MC who isn’t clearly motivated, but it’s a fuckload harder to make it compelling and you prrrroobably need to have some other kind of clear focus to replace the fact that your MC does not. IE if you are specially exploring the story of an unmotivated hero, you frame his actions around the fact that he is really just doing things by route and how this separates him from the people around him who actually have priorities in their life.

Or, if you want to be like ‘Atsushi’s motivation is that he cares and wants to help!’ LOOK: If they are sO HEROIC that they just nEED TO BE THE HERO ALL THE TIME (Allen Walker) either because they lack self worth (Allen Walker) or are so empathetic that they can’t help but try to save everyone (Allen Walker), you narratively frame the story around them so that it highlights this as both a strength and a weakness of their character. The inability to save everyone vs feeling like your life only has value if you can save everyone is deeply fucked up and should haunt your MC.

The manga starts to slightly course correct Atsushi after waaay too many chapters, which is why he starts having an actually interesting dynamic with Akutagawa. But now he wants to ‘overcome his abuser’, and though this itself is extremely unclear as to what it means. I suspect it means ‘continue to do the exact same shit he’s being doing until he believes in himself’ whichhhhh is boring. It could work if the framing is consistent and Atsushi begins to have actual conflict with his own behavior and the way he treats his life as disposable and his suffering as unimportant.

He could also use some flaws, which, again, we only see signs off later in the game with his Akutagawa relationship. Atsushi can be forgiven for not realizing that Dazai was horrible to Akutagawa, since neither Dazai nor Akutagawa will ever explain that, but he is still pretty shitty to Akutagawa deliberately! And it’s nice seeing him be a little prick.

If everything that is happening now with Atsushi had happened from the beginning, you know how you are supposed to start a shounen manga with the protagonist actually doing anything interesting or important, the manga would be much less bad. If Atsushi had more than like 1.5 flaws and a .75 motivation now, the manga would also be a lot better.

I don’t actually like this idea as much as all of my other ones, but if he MUST be the MC, what if he was actually good at it at all.

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #op me #media musings #manga #what if this thing i loved was good #nothing aggrieves like missed potential #i didn't think about most of these #before i started ranting #but actually i like a lot of these ideas #plz put mishima in manga #kyouka not bieng the mc is the biggest betrayal #but i'd read the kunikida manga #and the kenji #maybe not the tanizaki

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