26, 42, 51, and 53 for any of your kids! :)
Thank you! For this round, let's talk about my man of many iterations (and whom some of you have come to know in a couple warriors rps), Aster.
Okay, so. In all of his iterations, Aster has this whole "prim and proper" kind of attitude going on-- sometimes he simply puts on a very refined air, and sometimes he gets really uptight about it. But he always tries to keep up this sort of calm, composed, elegant air.
But that doesn't mean he thinks of himself as above everything and everyone. In fact, even though he doesn't have a lot of experience with "being normal," he really enjoys breaking out of his mold.
One of the main ways he does this is by pranks. Small, simple pranks he plays on the people around him at random. Maybe he slips some salt into a coworkers coffee, maybe he slips hair dye into hos friends' shampoo when he visits them at their homes, maybe he always changes the ringtones of any phone he's able to without getting caught. There's a certain sort of pleasure in doing something like that and knowing that nobody even suspects you (except for Chad because he Knows Better), and he loves it.
Sometimes he needs to be prompted to break out of his mold, but he still ends up having fun. Some of his happiest moments have been:
-going out to a nightclub with his friends
-attending a wild frat party (where he met Chad :3c )
-competing in a Mario Party tournament
-going about his day as normal except he wore a large purple shirt with the word "FUCK" printed on it in cursive gold letters, neon pink booty shorts, and fuzzy fox slippers (look, he'd never actually say "fuck," but those were all gifts from Chad and it'd be rude if he didn't wear them... and the looks on everyone's faces that day were priceless)
-going to one of those places where you break dishes and stuff for fun
42 the dumbest thing the character has done
On a serious note, the dumbest thing he has ever done would be a tie between:
1. Thinking that Alexander could in any way be redeemed and holding back in his fight with him because he didn't want to kill the ass, even though this action almost gets himself killed (because again, Alexander is a Terrible Person)
2. Caring for Ethan even after the man was revealed to be a serial killer.
3. Being just. So oblivious and poor at communication that his relationship with Chad is such a wild ride. So many twists and turns. A large percent of which wouldn't be issues if he just fucking talked about his feelings and let himself be happy.
Other than that, I have always imagined Aster to be a pretty good cook, but a terrible baker (baking is Chad's specialty). So I imagine that he has at some point tried to bake something and probably thought "I should turn the oven temp up higher to bake this faster" but like... the man would have probably forgotten to set a timer or set the time to what it would be if he baked it at the normal temp instead of this higher temp. So. It would catch fire.
51 inspirations for the character
Inspirations for my characters are always hard to pin down because most of them don't really have singular or definable inspirations. Then mainly just spawn from my mind and absorb various traits from characters I like and people I know-- they're like these patchwork quilts of my random thoughts, my experience, and my media consumption.
So when it comes to Aster, uh...
Well, when I think of his physical appearance, he takes a lot of inspiration from Shinjuurou Yuuki from Un-Go (don't ask me anything about that anime; it's been like seven or eight years since I've seen it and I just remember seeing that dude and thinking "ah, Aster?").
Uh, Father Damien Karras from The Exorcist gives me vibes for a very specific AU incarnation of Aster?
But other than that, I'm having a hard time thinking of specific inspirations.
53 expectations vs reality
Aster has always been odd when it comes to expectations, and that has a lot to do with the ways in which his various incarnations are so different yet similar-- how malleable in some aspects his character can be and how firm he is in other aspects.
He's a character that suffers a lot of inner conflict with his morals and his faith. And the outcome of this conflict can vary wildly depending on the story he's in. I could go into a lot of detail, but because I already give these questions such long answers I'll try to be brief. In one interation, Aster's crisis of belief resolves with him abandoning his previous religion and worldview to essentially merge with a chaotic, malevolent god and become the main villain. In another iteration, when faced with the choice to abandon his morals and join the man he loves in becoming a cruel, bloodthirsty dictator, he goes back on his vow to never kill anyone and kills his love to save the world from his reign. And in a third, he steadfastly upholds his faith and morals, refusing to budge one inch on his vow to never kill even when it nearly ends in his death.
Aster has crumbled, been shaken, and remained firm in the face of his inner conflicts in various universes. And it's hard to know at first thought which way the chips would fall in any particular universe. He does tend to lean more towards being a "good man," but his level of "goodness" can vary. He can run the range of being a generally well-intentioned man who makes some seriously poor life choices to being a seemingly unwavering bastion of good and compassion, and these different reactions in the face of conflict can have such surprising and wildly different outcomes in stories!
And that's one of his most interesting traits to me-- the idea that I can yeet him into any universe with the knowledge that he WILL have inner conflict, but I WON'T immediately know the resolution or the results of that resolution!
