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theidioteveryonedenies · 11 days ago

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If We Were Villains But Oliver is a diff type of Artist

I'm not really sure how alive the "If We Were Villains" fandom is but I have ✨IDEAS✨ and i must share.

There are a few fics were Oliver is some other variation of artist rather than the theater nerd that he is and I just cannot stop thinking about it.

It would change the direction of the story (obviously lmao) most prominently he would not be distracted by Meredith as canon played out. DO NOT GET ME WRONG. he still finds Meredith attractive of course (we love a bisexual king) but because he doesn't live at the castle in this au he doesn't know her as well and out of the entire group he would be closest to James.

I love the idea of James making friends with him secretly. Oh, he never meant for it to start as a secret but once he meets Oliver in all his quiet but steady and loyal glory and is treated to his full and undivided attention he can't help but want to hoard Oliver for himself. he avoids running into his when he's out with the others.

At first Oliver is hurt by this and it leads to some miscommunication where Oliver assumes it's because he's embarrassed by Oliver because all his other friends are so cool and confident. It leads to a somewhat anticlimactic confrontation where James has to awkwardly (painfully) explain how: no he's not ashamed of Oliver he just doesn't want Oliver to like his other friends better than him. Which leads to Oliver having to awkwardly (painfully- holy god) explain that James is fucking amazing in his eyes and he can barely look away from him for anything. ('Oh', you say, 'so they basically confess their feelings' to which I say: 'no you stupid fuck that was of course a completely platonic thing to say and was not even remotely homosexual in any way'....... basically they're still oblivious morons)

Anyways, Oliver eventually does see the rest of the cast (whether in a hilarious accident or introduced by his boyfriend- I mean- by James is up to you) and James starts bringing him to parties and some more casual hang outs with the cast. Oliver immediately wins then over with his adorable humble and honest charm (can you tell I fucking love Oliver?????) he clicks immediately with Filippa, is quick to get Wren to laugh, is bashful but honest and respectful with Meredith, is happy to light a blunt with Alexander and get on board with his dark humor, and is wary but fond of Richard (until things go south of course). Also I think Meredith is initially very intrigued by Oliver especially how he doesn't see her as an object (like she says in canon) but is early on put of (and slightly amused) by how entranced he and James are, so they don't really get involved like they do in canon. (I do think she would flirt with Oliver when James is being bitchy though and poor Oliver is like: bro please leave me out of this)

All in all, James is nervous about Oliver not being as "enamored" the first few weeks and is pretty snappy as a result but he eventually settles as Oliver remains very firmly in his corner and continues to watch him with starry eyes. (The entire group is very amused by how the two of them circle each other and they heckled James mercilessly when they found out how long he kept Oliver a secret from them)

Imagine the first meeting between them, Oliver admiring James from the first time he sees him on stage (because despite not pursuing theater I still believe that he would love Shakespeare and the theatrics of the stage in any universe) and some how managing to catch James' attention in his own right. That all depends on what he's studying of course and I do have a few bite sized ideas for some of them so......

Dancer!Oliver:

I think in this au they would meet as like a group project between the dancers and theater groups. they have to work on ballroom dance cartography or something for a play and James wants extra practice so he stays in the studio to go over the steps and happens to run into Oliver who's putting in some late hours practice

He walks into James practicing alone and is like "you know you're not supposed to practice alone? you could get hurt" and James is like "well what are you doing here alone" "......well you got me there" and Oliver ends up helping him work out the foot work, probably the female role to a ballroom scene if we're being honest so we have a "no put your hand on my waist- MY WAIST-" scene

In this au I believe Oliver does a lot of lifting work (pardon the terminology I know nothing about dancing) meaning he does those very impressive lift moves (this is most because I want to stick to the part of his character where he makes others look good like James says in canon). Because of this he's way more in shape in this au so James is dancing with him and kind of marveling at how elegant and in control he is of every movement his body makes. ("It's unfair how you move that way." "I have to have some reward for spending 8 hours plus in the studio almost everyday. You get public speaking skills, I get to bed like a fucking pretzel")

After that they start to see each other around school and eventually just give in to the draw between them spending as much time as their schedules will allow in each other's presence.

The dancers get used to seeing Oliver Marks stretching at the bars while simultaneously reading lines for James, literally putting his foot behind his head while holding "The Merchant of Venice" open with one hand and speaking for Shylock or some other character they don't know the names of while his weird theater friend paces and rants in character. ( "To you, Antonio, I owe the most in money and in love, and from your love I have a warranty to unburden all my plots and purposes how to get clear of all the debts I owe! .... Oliver that's your line." "hold on I gotta stretch out my hamstring"(this is during free hours of course not during class))

I think this would change the halloween scene as well behave he would be so much stronger. Richard is still bigger than him but not by as much and he just fucking jumps in for James, practically carrying James out of the water as soon as they get Richard off and holding him while he recovers. In general he would pose more of a problem for Richard

Visual Arts!Oliver:

They meet somewhat similarly, a joined project between the two factions. Oliver is painting a backdrop or something and he happens to hear James practicing. He seems frustrated and Oliver realizes that he can't see Oliver where he is working in the semi darkness and he speaks up before he sees something he isn't supposed to. He tells him he's really good and when James looks skeptical he explains his own smaller but still significant love for Shakespeare and how he would have loved to do theater but he was a pretty mediocre actor and his love for painting and drawing over took that path. James is kind of touched by this random art student's moment of vulnerability and asks him to help him practice. And thus the birth of a beautiful friendship.

James spends hours in Oliver's space at the art studio whether it be just to read without the suffocating presence of his fellow theater majors, to bitch to him about Richard or Meredith ("-and then Meredick-!" "Mere-what-now?"), or just to watch him paint his feelings on a canvas

James picks up a lot about art that he didn't know before, he loves listening to Oliver explain the different mediums and techniques. he developed a bit of a fixation on Olivers hands noticing when he hasn't washed them throughly enough to get all the paint off his palms or the charcoal staining his finger tips or even how they dry out when he works with clay and forgets to use hand lotion after. He only starts to freak out about this when this attention starts to extend outside of when Oliver is drawing/painting/working. Oliver will just point something out for James and his brain will just go: ✨ h a n d s ✨

Oliver: *using his hands to talk as he explains a project to Filippa* James: *drooling* Alexander: *half laughing* dude-

James has a bad day (Richard being dick or just a rough brain day) and Oliver paints pretty swirls on his skin in vibrant colors to make him feel better. (Oliver: *paints little pink hearts on James' ankle* James: *through tears* you're such a fucking dork)

Oliver painting on James becomes kind of a normal thing when one of them is having a rough day and needs to relax (James once paints on Oliver). Richard makes a really fucked up comment about James or Oliver or both of them (its up to you which one) and James is on a rampage about it when he goes to see Oliver and just explodes. Oliver listens and is furious for him and ends up painting these huge and kind of badass phoenix wings on James' back. they cover his entire shoulder blades and extend to parts of his arm. James struts around the Castle shirtless and absolutely seamless for as long as the paint lasts.

Oliver: I can never get the color of your eyes right James: *distracted* mhm...... wait what-? Oliver: what

when they do end up together (because they do, I don't care about canon) they definitely have at least one make out session in the studio with Oliver's hands covered in paint and they both end up covered in streaks of paint and colorful handprints

Musician!Oliver:

Again, partner project, music students act as orchestra for the theater's performance. Violinist Oliver has a solo.

Similar to hw they meet in the artist au Oliver catches him going over lines and reveals his own interest in Shakespeare.

James spends afternoons spacing out or reading to Oliver playing his violin. They often go out just to enjoy the quiet of other parts of campus as Oliver, being a music student, is constantly surrounded by noice and all James' friends are loud

I imagine in this au he's a little shier, a little more nervous to meet the rest of the cast but still the brave and loyal man he has to be in canon

He teaches James how to play a few songs on the violin but he's pretty terrible at it so its mostly them just giggling like school children and James reveling in being able to be bad at something without harsh criticism

Violinist Oliver threatening to break his violin over Richard's head lmao. I don't know how it would happen but just imagine it. Fucking glorious.

Anyways that was a lot for what I'm pretty sure is a barely alive fandom but for those doomed to think about this series forever here you go lmao

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