thecasperanfamily

[thecasperanfamily]

Just a little question: if you ever one day in the future want to play with the casperan fam au characters more (NOT trying to pressure you into it at all!!!) will you share on this blog or your main? Or are you just swearing them off for good? Just in case one day you want to dust these guys off i would like to know where to look ❤❤ thank you xo

If there comes a time when the stars align and I can return to this concept, I would re-open the asks and resume posting here on this sideblog. Keeps everything nice and organized. So as long as you can remember this url, you'll be good to go, hehe.

Thanks so much for the ask, Non! ✨

[thecasperanfamily]

Although I'm sad about the announcement that you're letting the Casperan family AU go to rest, I fully understand that after awhile a project you were developing or even worked on independently for months or even years can sometimes find a stopping point to where you don't have that spark like you had when first starting it and feel out of energy to even continue it. (Happened to me twice so far already XD)

But I also want to thank you for letting the idea of this magical, oddball of a family to life and bloom and be endured by the people of the TOA fandom to enjoy, including myself to where I found both of your blogs soon after not being attached to the franchise at all after RotT and when the fandom started to calm and quiet down, your main blog and the Casperan family helped me slowly sink back into and helped me remember how much I really loved the series rather than having my thoughts of the cinematic finale ruin it all together.

You've definitely shown that you are quite the writer with The Final Becoming and I'm so happy for you that you still love creating and thinking of new ideas and absolutely can't wait to see what comes next for you in the near future.

Best regards 💙

Hnnnnnnnnng hang on a sec, just got some feels--I mean, dust in my eyes-- 💕😭💕

Well for my part, I'm so so SO happy I got to meet you, Niya, and I hope you'll stick around the fandom for a while yet. I've always loved seeing your name pop up in my inbox or my likes. Seriously, you gave me some of my favorite submissions here on the Casperan Family sideblog! Your support and enthusiasm have just meant the world to me, and you better believe I appreciate you soooooooo much. 💖

I'll be officially closing up shop here tomorrow morning, but don't forget I'm always hanging around over at my main blog, @nikibogwater. All you lovely Casperan Fam Fans are welcome there to talk ToA any time (especially you, @niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian, hehe!).

[thecasperanfamily]

Niki, I certainly feel you for believing your attentions should be on another project as of now, I've gone through that too concerning my novels. I just wanted to let you know this blog has brought me immense joy and comfort and I will always come back to gush over the content here. -Hugs from Eldritch Queen

I don't think I can understate how massively important you were to sparking my inspiration and filling up this blog with content. It's always meant the absolute world to me that you enjoyed this project so much. I wish you all the luck in the world in your own creative endeavors, and please never forget that I'm eternally grateful to you for your support. 💖

[thecasperanfamily]

noooooo :'( im gonna miss sending silly asks :((

Aww, you can still send me all the silly asks you want over on my main blog! I just won't be doing Casperan Family stuff anymore. I'll miss it a lot, but I've really gotten to that point where I've exhausted all my creativity for the concept, and I wanted to bring it to a close before it could turn into something that stressed me out.

Thanks for letting me know how much you've enjoyed the blog, Non. It means everything to me. 💖

[thecasperanfamily]

So sad to see you step away from this blog Niki but THANK YOU SOOO MUCH for bringing these great characters to life on this blog!! I really hope you don't delete this blog because I love looking through it so much 💓 💗 💖 💛 💕 ❤ the casperan fam au is so special to me and I treasure it so much and I'm grateful to it and to you! :)

Don't worry, I'd never delete the blog--we've put way too much work into this to just trash it all like that. And anyways I like going back and looking through old posts too, hehe. I'll just be closing up the ask box in a couple of days.

It means the absolute world to me that you came along for this ride. I wouldn't have been able to come this far without you. So I'm grateful to you, Non. 💖💖💖

[thecasperanfamily]

My darling followers,

You've probably already figured out exactly what I'm about to say simply from the above address. But I'll continue anyways.

I believe the time has come for me to set the Casperan Family aside. Whether forever or just temporarily, I'm not sure yet. But for the past month or so now, I've been recognizing some signs that indicate I need to let this project go. I was extremely upset to come to this realization, as there is so much more I wanted to do with these characters and this story, and I hate the idea of letting all of you guys down. But in spite of starting the Big Fic all the way back in March, the outline is barely three pages long now, and no matter what I do to it, something about the story feels off to me. As though I'm not supposed to be working on that right now.

Meanwhile, The Final Becoming, an absolute behemoth of a fic (for someone like me, at least) the likes of which I never thought I could possibly produce, was fully completed within the span of four months, starting in July. I can't really explain it here, but when I was writing that story, I felt that it was something I was meant to do. Kinda stupid, I know, but I never could shake that feeling. It's one that has accompanied the creative process for each of my stories to some extent, and it's a feeling that is always noticeably absent for projects that I am never able to complete.

As much as it pains me to say, that feeling has been absent from the Casperan Family project. For whatever reason, I'm getting this sense that there's somewhere else I need to be, another project that needs my attention, though I don't know what it is yet. Maybe the project is simply letting myself lie fallow for a bit and recover from TFB, haha. Whatever is going on, all I know is I don't want the Casperan Family to become a project that I loathe. I don't want to drive myself to frustration with it, because I have loved this silly little idea and my silly little OCs and all of you beautiful followers so, so much.

Between this feeling, which really started months ago and has only intensified as time wore on, and the fact that the ToA fandom is much smaller and quieter than it used to be, I have come to the much-dreaded decision that it's time to put this blog up on the shelf. I'll still be hanging around the fandom with my main blog, and this one isn't going to be outright deleted, but asks will be closing here soon. I would like to hope that I might come back to this one in a few years, that maybe there will be a time when I can finish this, but I really have no idea.

For now, I just want to say thank you. Thank you @poetryinmotion-author and @dreamsarelikedragonflies for developing this idea with me. Thank you EldritchQueen over on Ao3 for being my most enthusiastic Non. Thank you Teny for being my first and most unexpected follower. And thank you to everyone else who has taken the time to share in this silly little concept of mine. My experience with this blog was so wildly fun and unexpected, and all of you really helped get me through a pretty rough year. So again, thank you. And I hope our paths cross again.

Fairy blessings for you all,

-Niki ✨

[thecasperanfamily]

How do the Casperans celebrate New Year? Thinking about Lin trying to get away with magical fireworks ala Pippin and Merry

That is extremely accurate Non, yes.

I like to think that Nari returns to the Eternal Forest at the dawn of each new year. Perhaps she performs some sort of magic revitalizing ritual, or maybe she just likes to see her old home again. Whatever the case, she's usually absent for the celebration, and depending on the year, one or more of the other Casperans might join her.

Otherwise, New Year's at the Casperans' is pretty much exactly what you'd expect. Loud music, colorful spells, explosions, Lin and Douxie both getting in trouble for said explosions. One year they accidentally set fire to Nari's personal herb garden in the back yard and had to explain everything when she got home.

Nari, vibing with Yggdrasil: *senses her herb garden burning from a hundred miles away*

Nari: . . .

Nari: I will find out later.

Meanwhile:

Douxie, frantically trying to smother the flames: No, this is fine! We can fix this! She'll never even know!

Lin, panicking: Aunt Nari knows when you sneeze from halfway across the globe, how could she not know about this?!

Douxie: Zoe, why are you just standing there?!

Zoe: I'm torn between saving the plants or letting you boys learn a valuable lesson from this experience.

Archie: Let them learn. It'll be more entertaining to watch.

Thanks so much for the ask, Non! Sorry the blog's been kinda quiet lately. I've been trying to work through some creative blocks and figure out some stuff regarding the Casperan Family project. But I always appreciate the asks! ✨

[thecasperanfamily]

Concept: One year, Julia's church was struggling to get enough kids to sign up for their annual Christmas pageant. So naturally, she roped her new best friend (and by association, his family) into helping out.

My Writing Brain is still fried from finishing up my last project, so no fic for this one, but here's a messy doodle dump I threw together whilst pondering the idea.

Archie suddenly and inexplicably decided he wished to spend Christmas Eve at his father's, so he was absent for the pageant. I'm sure it had nothing to do with Douxie kindly volunteering him to play the part of Mary's donkey.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from The Casperan Family! 🎄

[thecasperanfamily]

Merlin: So next question. You're in love with the hedgewitch.

Moppet: That's not a question.

Archie: So you agree it's a fact.

Meanwhile, in a cottage on the other side of Camelot-

Zoe's Mum: What's the name of that boy again? You know, the one you're sweet on?

Zoe, without thinking: Douxie.

Zoe's Mum: Ah yes, that's it. Thank you.

Zoe: . . . *realization hits*

Zoe: A-and I'm not sweet on him, for the record! Just wanna make that clear.

Zoe's Mum: Yes, yes, of course you aren't, dearie.

Thanks so much for the submission, Non! 🌺💕🎸

[thecasperanfamily]

I just had the most Cursed thought as I was getting ready for bed.

Douxie and Zoe are already happily on board with the Punk Rock scene. So that means Lin's first wave of Teenage Rebellion most likely involved wearing polo shirts and dress slacks and harping on about the importance of a good education and stable employment.

Lin: I'll bet you haven't given a single thought to your income tax this year.

Douxie: Why are you acting like this?!

Zoe: He's just going through a phase, Doux. All teenagers have them.

Lin: It's not just a phase! This is who I am!

[thecasperanfamily]

Douxie: *sets the kitchen on fire*

Julia, panicking: WHERE IS THE RESPONSIBLE ADULT?!

Archie: She's sleeping on the couch.

Lin: Don't worry I got this, gimme a bucket of water.

Lin, dumping the water on Zoe: MOM WAKE UP THE KITCHEN IS ON FIRE

Help me I'm wheezing so hard--

Later-

Zoe: ...And then they had the gall to ask me why I once said Nari is my favorite child.

Thank you so much for the submission, Non! 🤣

[thecasperanfamily]

Douxie: Zoe you're so mean to me.

Zoe: Baby.

Douxie: No, now is not the time for pet names.

Zoe: No, I'm calling you a baby. I'm insulting you.

Douxie: Oh, I see. Well, then you're a....a...distracting woman, that's what you are!

Zoe: ...How are we doing, Lin?

Lin, massaging his temples: I mean....I guess those were better than "Long Man" and "Sugar-Free Cupcake," but you guys really need to step up your game if you're hoping to convince a Luklidian Love-Leech that you hate each other.

Archie: Alternatively, we could recruit Ted from down the street to capture the beast with Zoe. No risk of the Leech sensing any love there.

Zoe: I'll die before I'll work with that munge-eating, joy-killing, stuck-up piece of--

Thanks so much for the submission, Non! (Now I'm tempted to try to draw what a Luklidian Love-Leech might look like...) 🌺💕🎸

[thecasperanfamily]

Archie: Don't worry. Zoe likes your butt and your fancy hair. I know. I read her diary.

Moppet: She thinks it's fancy?

AKSDFSDGF LILO AND STITCH QUOTES MY BELOVED

The above exchange comes on the heels of the following:

Zoe: Did you catch fire again?

Douxie, with a smoldering manbun: Nah, just the workshop.

Merlin, finding said workshop still on fire: HISIRDOUX!

Bless you Non, I adored this one. 😂

🌺💕🎸

[thecasperanfamily]

Douxie: Nari, do you know where Zoe is?

Nari: She is in the workshop. Why?

Douxie: Could you do me a favor and hang this up over her head?

Nari: ...This is mistletoe.

Douxie: Please, Nari? 🥺

[thecasperanfamily]

Douxie: Please, don’t make fun of me if I misuse outdated cultural references, okay? Are we cowabunga on this?

Lin, about to cry: Yeah, we’re cowabunga on this.

I made the mistake of opening this while I was drinking something and I almost spit milk all over my keyboard

Julia, trying to console him: At least he has moved on from nuclear. And anyways, it could be worse.

Lin: How? How could this possibly get any worse???

Julia: He could be saying d'oh when he wants to express delight or satisfaction.

Lin: . . .When did your mind become such a dark and twisted place?

Bless you, Non, I'm still snorting over this one. 🤣

[thecasperanfamily]

Douxie, tossing Lin a set of keys: Merry Christmas, kiddo.

Lin: Y-you got me a car?!

Douxie: What? No! Those are housekeys. You know. To replace the ones you melted during alchemy training?

Lin: ...Okay yeah, that makes more sense.

[thecasperanfamily]

They do everything they can to keep their children from seeing this movie. Unfortunately, Lin is very good at getting into things his parents want him to stay out of.

This is probably the one time he wishes he had listened to them. He couldn't look his Uncle Steve in the eye for months afterwards.

On my less charitable days, I like to think that in the aftermath of The Final Becoming, Toby and Jim are approached by Hollywood execs who want to turn their heroic exploits into a movie. The boys find the idea funny and agree to give the execs the inside scoop. Douxie advises them not to get too excited, as Hollywood isn't exactly known for historic accuracy.

Cut to a few years later and the gang is horrified to find out that the execs turned their story into a wretched little movie called Rise of the Titans.