oc questions but it's just things i think about a lot
sometimes you throw enough of these on your blog and you say. well maybe i could make a list of these? perhaps? so here we are. have fun folks
Family: would they change their family if they could? be raised by someone else, have a different number of siblings, know someone they've never met?
Dance: do they dance, or want to dance? at parties, or with partners, or onstage? are they good or bad at it? how is their sense of their own physicality?
Kids: do they want any, or would they mind if they had to take care of one? how does their own relationship with their parents affect this?
Storytelling: do they have a favourite story or kind of story? why? are they in the habit of sharing them with others?
Change: if they could see how much they've changed over their life, coming face to face with a past or future self, how would they feel?
History: do they like studying the past? is there a particular part of the past that inspires or fascinates or scares them?
Control: what do they think of mind control? would they use it on others? do they draw lines between acceptable and unacceptable versions of it?
Body: if they were made physically unrecognisable, what would they do?
Skill: how do they deal with things they aren't good at? are they a harsh judge of their own work?
Education: how do they feel about learning? about teaching others?
Time: how do they feel about aging? do they worry about lost opportunities or miss experiences they can't go back to?
Cass is either very cool or very infuriating, depending on the day, because his story refuses to settle into just one linear route. Is he a side character? The apprentice? A deceased child who simply adds depth to Valerius that wasn’t there before?
Or he’s the character that runs through Lucio’s route. Does that happen after the merging of the realms? Or accidentally, two years before Nadia wakes up? Or secret third option, which I have yet to discover…
And then — endings. There’s the Upright Lucio ending, obviously, but maybe he undertakes the daunting task of laying the spirits of those infected by plague to rest instead. Maybe he takes over the office of consul, after Valerius gets put on house arrest. If Cass fights the devil, he’s seriously injured in a way that will stick with him the rest of his life, but how and where that shows up is nebulous at best.
The Arcana jumpscare! I'm gonna do this for Cass and Lucio (countromancer)
15- how would you describe the rhythm of their relationship
Imagine a magnet that got too close to another magnet and pulled in, slow and then faster and they collide and the collision separates them but pull together again and there are several of those, clacking together and apart but less far each time. Finally, the first magnet settles into a steady course and the second magnet ends up orbiting around it: in constant free-fall, always falling for its anchor but swinging around and around, never quite hitting it.
Countromancer is that, but both magnets are also really horny.
17- what made them choose each other and what was the decisive factor
hoo boy this is a long one. mainly because of the background lore I'm gonna have to explain first...
Cass: for a good part of their early relationship, Cass was in it entirely out of self-interest. He wanted a political bargaining chip, and then he wanted protection from a forest full of monsters, and then he wanted not to be imprisoned forever in the Devil's realm, so he threw Lucio to the metaphorical wolves and ran for his life.
Then he wandered for... a very long time... lost in the magical Realms. Unclear how long, because time works weird there. But a LONG time. Eventually he realized there wasn't any way to get out unless some entity took pity on him, or he ran into someone who could and would make a portal for him. It was completely out of his hands.
Cass's goals shifted away from escape and towards making life in the Realms bearable, for an indeterminate amount of time. He didn't need food, or water, or anything like that, because ~magic~, but he was very lonely. Of course the original plan had been to ignore that in favor of getting back as soon as possible, but now...
He decided to go try and find Lucio. This took a while, because the Realms had virtually no consistency when it came to geography, and Cass didn't have much to go on. But he did it eventually, and sprung Lucio free, and made a conscious choice to be loyal to him, at least a little bit, because he was sick of being alone.
Lucio: he was naturally pretty pissed at Cass. The last thing that happened between them was Cass letting the Devil took possession of Lucio's soul so that he could save his own hide. Still, Lucio was incredibly wary of trying to traverse the Realms alone, so for the moment he stayed.
I'm not sure I can point to any specific situation that changed Lucio's mind on that, but there were multiple times where Cass risked his own life to help Lucio when he didn't have to. The result was a certain amount of trust that built up on both sides, like a I-help-you and you-help-me kind of vibe. If I had to point to a specific point, I think it would have to be right after they finally made it back to the physical realm, and Cass's father was just. Castigating him, so hard, and Lucio defended him. There's a lot that was going on there that I don't have time to get into here, but yeah. That's like, the place where Lucio consciously chose Cass over other people/his own reputation/whatever.
29- does their dynamic emulate any other dynamic in their lives or within the story
Lucio and Cass's father had an affair a few years before the incident with the Realms. Countromancer has a similar personality dynamic to that relationship, but with a significantly lower power difference.
I don't recall if I've talked about this before but I've had a story bouncing around in my head for a while about a young woman who gets yoinked by Lucio out of South End to be the official palace artist, and she ends up pining over him for years without him even noticing. She painted the big painting in his wing for him while he was sick with the plague. Then he died, of course, and she quit her job and went back to her old life...
One idea I really hope to one day incorporate into my writing is the idea of MC getting stuck as a ghost. As in, Lucio manages to get the body back early, or for good, and MC ends up haunting the palace instead of Lucio... benevolent haunting.
the attempted sabotage of the ritual partially fails, and Lucio ends up with the new body (MC's body) and amnesia, while MC ends up stuck haunting Lucio's wing for three years. Bonus points if Asra doesn't figure out the swap until three years later, and spends three years treating amnesiac Lucio like he's actually MC
Lucio's plan in Julian's route works for good, he gets the body and then gets killed or exiled. Bittersweet ending, because MC ends up watching over their LI for the rest of their life, unable to communicate except indirectly
MC learns that they died and reacts really badly, they're emotionally not doing well, they feel like their second life is undeserved or unnatural -- so, in a moment of bad judgment, they agree to let Lucio's ghost have the body instead, since he was supposed to have it anyway and MC feels that they have failed/don't deserve it
One idea I really hope to one day incorporate into my writing is the idea of MC getting stuck as a ghost. As in, Lucio manages to get the body back early, or for good, and MC ends up haunting the palace instead of Lucio... benevolent haunting.
probably should post more on here. Participate in a fandom I love, etc etc. it does, however, get tiresome to reblog ask games that nobody uses. Perhaps the solution is to post things anyway but the motivation… is hard… especially when I know for a fact that my Lucio takes are bad……
I love the arcana fandom because someone will post something, captioning it with "I know the fandom is kinda dead" then the post will explode and reach 50 notes in two days, the reblogs plagued by the nostalgic rightfully complimenting the art/fic and sometimes hitting the "I miss my (insert blorbo's name)" on their forgotten side blog themed after the game, then disappear again
summarising: this fandom is not dead, it's just quiet
the solution is to be loud!!! post about your ocs, make bad art, write incorrect quotes, make unfunny memes, most importantly reblog. it doesn't matter what, but keep creating for this fandom if you really want to see it thriving again
May I request a hc/mini-hc with an mc who has a slow pace? As in is a slow eater, slow walker, etc. Just taking their sweet time processing and "sitting in" basically everything. :)
The Arcana Mini-HCs: When you like to take your time
Julian: everything about him moves fast - his thoughts, his mouth, his anxiety spirals, his unfairly long legs - and you are the perfect reminder to slow down. just being with you lowers his blood pressure. thank you.
Asra: adores how thoroughly you experience and process everything and happily joins you in the habit. hold their hand, they want to watch the steam rise with you. don't let go of him, it's fine if the soup burns
Nadia: you are a refreshing change of pace from her busy, busy life. please never change. would it be nice if she could get your thoughts on things immediately? yes, but that's a her problem, not a you problem
Muriel: thank goodness. you don't rush him. you sit with him. you get it. he already loves soaking in the beauty of the forest, but with someone next to him who's actually capable of relating to him fully? heaven
Portia: for the most part, it makes you come across so sensory and mysterious and magical that it just adds to your charm. she will learn quickly not to ask you to do a task that she likes to do faster, though
Lucio: you are annoying to him and good for him. never let him make you feel bad for taking your time, just please don't make him feel bad for literally running laps around you with the dogs to blow off steam
Im arcana game pilled and tomodachii life pilled rn so heres my proposal;
What if in tomodachii life you made the m6 and also a bunch of peoples apprentices to compete with each other, whoever gets to marriage with one of the m6 first wins
I have thought about many different life times some in the world and some out of it. Most are kind of AU's putting people in different universes (feeling a bit like the guy from the Twight Zone now lol). Here are just a few I have come up with in my time (one day I may write them if I ever write the whole story);
Pirate-ish AU:
In this one the Songbirds were still living in the lighthouse becoming the lighthouse keepers. In this story Julian had become a pirate doctor and would have stumbled upon the life. Asra might have stumbled on it as well having run from Vesuvia with Muriel and they all end up on an island in the middle of the sea. It may end with Sparrow becoming a pirate (she wouldn't mind it in the least).
Monster AU
So there is a world where everyone is monsters. The Songbirds are Harpies, Asra is a Naga (snake body), Julian is a Were-raven, and Muriel is a were-bear. The story in Vesuvia is similar though with less plague and more a murder mystery around a certain lord like figure (aka the goat man). Lucio would be a dragon (with goat horns) as would Nadia (she would be gold i think, regal and noble), and Portia would be a mermaid or selkie (they are a mixed family).
Modern AU
Of course there is always the modern coffee shop au. The magic shop would be the coffee shop and the songbirds would be the ones running it. Asra would be an all the time customer, flirting with Robin and doing tarot cards in the back. Julian would be the over worked doctor and Sparrow would be a nurse who assists at his clinic. Funny enough Muriel would be a hermit, hiding as a former television fighter for producer Lucio, and he would meet Lark accidentally when Lark gets lost for a gig (Lark being an inspiring guitarist).
