The Overseer

Celia’s journey | River (she/her) | screenreader accessible

[professorlegaspi]

If you’re wondering why I’m crazy rn it’s because I’m going a full-series re-read

[professorlegaspi]

re-read currently on pause but don’t worry I’m going crazy in other ways

[professorlegaspi]

Man came this close 🤏 to saying “it’s about time”

[professorlegaspi]

Josh wouldn’t have been willing to wait for Celia if he didn’t think he had a shot

He AGONIZED over the decision of how to deal with his crush, it was a genuinely difficult choice for him to make. It may seem inevitable because we know fumbles is endgame, but he had to deal with the uncertainty. AND YET he still came to the decision that ‘yeah I think she’ll come around’

Josh’s choice to hold out on Celia for almost two full years was one of extreme confidence

[professorlegaspi]

I like to imagine Kitt was hanging over his shoulder the whole time being like “yeah man, she’s totally going to like you back. I mean it, you know I can always tell who’ll end up with who. You’re totally going all the way. Dude, keep it together, she’s gonna come around I swear. She’s gonna think you’re soooo cool and hot, I can see it in her eyes”

[professorlegaspi]

Man came this close 🤏 to saying “it’s about time”

[professorlegaspi]

Josh wouldn’t have been willing to wait for Celia if he didn’t think he had a shot

He AGONIZED over the decision of how to deal with his crush, it was a genuinely difficult choice for him to make. It may seem inevitable because we know fumbles is endgame, but he had to deal with the uncertainty. AND YET he still came to the decision that ‘yeah I think she’ll come around’

Josh’s choice to hold out on Celia for almost two full years was one of extreme confidence

[professorlegaspi]

Man came this close 🤏 to saying “it’s about time”

[electronicmail]

oh ew is that really what i sowed? eww omigod i am NOT reaping that

[pharmacommissar]

you dhould be your own person. you are so young and insecure. at this rate you will never be able to find the cup or the scepter

what

[professorlegaspi]

she didn’t; he died lore

As is immediately obvious when you read it, she didn’t; he died is a canon divergence story. But, counterintuitively, the divergence isn’t that Casimir dies. Well, I mean, it is, but I see that as a symptom of a different, smaller, divergence 

This divergence happens offscreen, before the fic begins — and its that Celia uses a sword to fight

In canon, Celia doesn’t have a single weapon during the final battle

Casimir pulls up to the party with a sword and shield and she just. fights him without one lol

So the divergence for this au is Celia manifesting a sword for herself

She does this with touch gifts, transforming one of her shoelaces into a blade. This is part of her undoing, as she later loses that shoe

This choice — which represents a subconscious willingness to trade actual violence — is the true source of the following disaster

Celia was going to win that battle no matter what happened

The very second that she chose a weapon, it was inevitable that Casimir would be hurt with it

It is only with her canonical choice to forgo a weapon (and therefore it’s implicit violence) that Casimir can be spared

So actually canon!Casimir is very lucky

Here? Not so much

You may have noticed that the fumbles getting together timeline was different here than in canon 

I had to move things around to accommodate Celia’s changed mental state during the coronation

Bestie was seriously out of it, and I didn’t think it was realistic for her to be thinking about love right after killing someone

In universe, she was also really out of it for the party afterwards, and, as a result, all her friends went back to school after the first night

That’s why, when Celia finally figures herself out, Josh is at school, rather than at Villandrie

But I would never let that separate them 🥰

[professorlegaspi]

more extraneous worldbuilding

One of the background worldbuilding aspects in this au is that the demesne is an intensely family-based culture

I’d like to clarify that I think this is true of canon as well. But I invented some cultural quirks that exist just for the purposes of this fic

The most obvious of these is the funeral conversation. The whole thing about funerals being a familial-centric institution isn’t canon, but I thought it made an interesting twist 

And it helped demonstrate how out of touch Celia is with the culture she’s in charge of

Another little tidbit from that same conversation was that Adelle called Casimir a “line-ender”

I’m not sure how clearly that came across in the fic but the idea there was that it is looked down upon, in my fictional demesne, to be the final person to hold your family name and to not then have kids 

It’s considered akin to killing off the family that came before you 

Because Casimir had no heirs and died, he ended his family line, he failed his forefathers

To be clear, Casimir also holds these beliefs. He isn’t magically exempt from cultural preconceptions because he had no offspring. He just was expecting to achieve immortality, so he didn’t bother to have sex

There’s a third, secret peice of worldbuilding that I didn’t manage to shove in to the fic but that I still like

Which is that, much like the disdain shown to “line-enders,” I imagine the demesne to be wary of, and rude towards, those who are orphans

They are seen as being less trustworthy or moral because they didn’t have a family to support and form them

This affected Celia during her early career as Princep-to-be and she wasn’t even aware of it 

People saw her as lesser-than for having no parents

The demesne citizens saw it as the natural and forgone conclusion when it turned out Celia’s parents were still alive

It would have been considered impossible, outside belief, for a Princep to have been a true orphan 

Adelle and Jacob’s reappearance would have contributed to the sudden and dramatic shift in tone the newspapers took in regards to Celia after she was coronated

[professorlegaspi]

she didn’t; he died lore

As is immediately obvious when you read it, she didn’t; he died is a canon divergence story. But, counterintuitively, the divergence isn’t that Casimir dies. Well, I mean, it is, but I see that as a symptom of a different, smaller, divergence 

This divergence happens offscreen, before the fic begins — and its that Celia uses a sword to fight

In canon, Celia doesn’t have a single weapon during the final battle

Casimir pulls up to the party with a sword and shield and she just. fights him without one lol

So the divergence for this au is Celia manifesting a sword for herself

She does this with touch gifts, transforming one of her shoelaces into a blade. This is part of her undoing, as she later loses that shoe

This choice — which represents a subconscious willingness to trade actual violence — is the true source of the following disaster

Celia was going to win that battle no matter what happened

The very second that she chose a weapon, it was inevitable that Casimir would be hurt with it

It is only with her canonical choice to forgo a weapon (and therefore it’s implicit violence) that Casimir can be spared

So actually canon!Casimir is very lucky

Here? Not so much

You may have noticed that the fumbles getting together timeline was different here than in canon 

I had to move things around to accommodate Celia’s changed mental state during the coronation

Bestie was seriously out of it, and I didn’t think it was realistic for her to be thinking about love right after killing someone

In universe, she was also really out of it for the party afterwards, and, as a result, all her friends went back to school after the first night

That’s why, when Celia finally figures herself out, Josh is at school, rather than at Villandrie

But I would never let that separate them 🥰

[professorlegaspi]

sword-bearer lore

If Josh hadn’t become Celia’s sword-bearer, it would have been Doxa

She would have been extremely dedicated and just as a sword-bearer. The position would have been in good hands

But there’s a reason it wasn’t her 

The moment right after killing Casimir was one of overwhelming vulnerability for Celia. And Josh was the only one of the two - perhaps the only person in the world - who could meet her in that moment without judgement or expectations. He understood her well enough to know she needed comfort and solidity, which he then offered 

This is why Celia felt she could unload onto him. There was no one else who could have convinced her, even subconsciously, to share the burden, because most wouldn’t have realized there was a burden to share

Also, on a different level,

For Celia, having a sword-bearer cannot act as an abdication of responsibility — she feels intimately responsible for and obligated towards everyone under her care. She doesn’t want someone to do her job for her, she wants someone to prevent her from going a bad job

That said - Doxa with a sword 👀

In the generation before Celia, Violet’s sword-bearer was Tarver Kunkel

He wore it strapped to his wheelchair and it was very badass

This did not make Mr. Shoenecker any less mad at Violet - if anything it made him more pissed

To him, the idea that she could treat Tarver so badly — the person meant to be a sovereign extension of her own will — meant she could and would hurt anyone

Higby, too, was hung up about it. He never really got over the fact that Violet chose her brother over her husband. He kept it to himself but he was a bit butthurt by this lol

This is also the reason (for this universe) why it was Adelle who took over as Princep after Violet died, and not him. The public didn’t trust Sebastian as much given that he hadn’t been given the sword 

[professorlegaspi]

I wouldn't hesitate before saying that Celia is the most important person in Josh's life - she holds an oversized role in his priorities and life path. So its even stranger that Celia knows absolutely nothing about his sister. It can only be the product of deliberate omission

[professorlegaspi]

But one of the first things his sister ever says to Celia is that she’s “heard so much about” her. Josh’s silence is a one way street — information about Renasci can make it home, but never the other way around

[professorlegaspi]

3rd chapter of he didn't; she died has now been published! Happy Easter!

[professorlegaspi]

Finished!

[professorlegaspi]

Villandry, un château en France, btw

[professorlegaspi]

she didn’t; he died lore

As is immediately obvious when you read it, she didn’t; he died is a canon divergence story. But, counterintuitively, the divergence isn’t that Casimir dies. Well, I mean, it is, but I see that as a symptom of a different, smaller, divergence 

This divergence happens offscreen, before the fic begins — and its that Celia uses a sword to fight

In canon, Celia doesn’t have a single weapon during the final battle

Casimir pulls up to the party with a sword and shield and she just. fights him without one lol

So the divergence for this au is Celia manifesting a sword for herself

She does this with touch gifts, transforming one of her shoelaces into a blade. This is part of her undoing, as she later loses that shoe

This choice — which represents a subconscious willingness to trade actual violence — is the true source of the following disaster

Celia was going to win that battle no matter what happened

The very second that she chose a weapon, it was inevitable that Casimir would be hurt with it

It is only with her canonical choice to forgo a weapon (and therefore it’s implicit violence) that Casimir can be spared

So actually canon!Casimir is very lucky

Here? Not so much

You may have noticed that the fumbles getting together timeline was different here than in canon 

I had to move things around to accommodate Celia’s changed mental state during the coronation

Bestie was seriously out of it, and I didn’t think it was realistic for her to be thinking about love right after killing someone

In universe, she was also really out of it for the party afterwards, and, as a result, all her friends went back to school after the first night

That’s why, when Celia finally figures herself out, Josh is at school, rather than at Villandrie

But I would never let that separate them 🥰

[professorlegaspi]

In may ways, Celia's desire to not be given the "royal treatment" - to not be subject to a bunch of fawning - is a mark of intense privilege

[professorlegaspi]

It's not every ruler who can forgo presenting themselves as powerful and still stay powerful. Celia's ability to "have it both ways" - to be treated as a normal teenager while retaining her unquestionable and unimpeachable power - is an unprecedented, and misleading, situation

[professorlegaspi]

do you think Josh has to wear stupid looking gloves for soccovolle

[professorlegaspi]

what i imagine his dorky ass wearing

[professorlegaspi]

I wouldn't hesitate before saying that Celia is the most important person in Josh's life - she holds an oversized role in his priorities and life path. So its even stranger that Celia knows absolutely nothing about his sister. It can only be the product of deliberate omission

[professorlegaspi]

In may ways, Celia's desire to not be given the "royal treatment" - to not be subject to a bunch of fawning - is a mark of intense privilege

[professorlegaspi]

3rd chapter of he didn't; she died has now been published! Happy Easter!