Not sure if I misunderstood the "ask me about my f/o" reblog, but seeing you're the certified Nilla expert and the flagrant lack of official content, I wanted to ask about your ideas regarding his nationality, childhood, family and what led him to serve Dio?
sorry in advance for sitting on this ask for so long 🥺 i’ve been trying to figure out how much is too much to post because i have WAY too many ideas for him 👁👁 — they’re all personal headcanons obviously, and i have a few blanks to fill in yet but,, y e a h — i’ll try to keep it brief but i might make a longer post later since i have so much if anyone’s interested but,, we’ll see
⋆ i headcanon him to be egyptian-american, more specifically an american mother and an egyptian father
⋆ he’s the youngest (and tallest) of three sons - his older brothers’ names are mahmoud and zahur — his birth name is abasi kulthum (عباسي كلثوم), not vanilla ice; that name change happens later on and i have an idea for it but i need to brainstorm it a bit more
side note: kulthum comes from egyptian singer umm kulthum because i can and will assign musical references at every opportunity
⋆ he grew up in new jersey, which i picked because of the state’s significant egyptian population
⋆ because his father was from alexandria, he’s familiar with arabic but he’s nowhere near fluent; he’s better with spoken word than writing and can hold a conversation but if the conversation strays from basic words, he’s lost
⋆ he was very close to his dad growing up so it was devastating when his father suddenly passed away when vanilla was only seven — his father’s passing sent his mother into a deep, inconsolable depression which caused her to give the boys up as she could no longer care for them — and because the boys had no other family this side of the atlantic, they were separated and shuffled thru different foster homes over the years
⋆ cream manifested when he was eight years old after he came down with an intense fever nobody thought he’d survive. of course little vanilla had no concept of stands at the time and thought he was being haunted by a “demon” for several months – he later figured out that he could hide inside of him and even vaporize things so he tended to get a bit anxious that this “demon” would accidentally destroy something important.
another side note: we know that cream has a void, but i think that represents the void that was in vanilla’s heart after losing his dad and subsequently the rest of his family — cream’s void vaporizes everything except for himself because he was in dire need of a safe space away from the hell that was the foster home environment; a spot where only he could go.
⋆ as soon as he was legally able to, he dropped out of high school and moved to manhattan in a bit of a “fuck it, why not” moment, where he met an old fortune teller that practically took him in and showed him that cream wasn’t a demon, but a stand — i have a lot of brainstorming left to do in this part but basically the name change happens somewhere here, as well as him finding this lady dead one day, and this pushes him to his breaking point because he’s lost so many people he cares about in his life, so he sinks to the lowest low he’s been in yet.
⋆ as for meeting dio… there’s some kinks i have to work out here too so i’ll save that for later so i can brainstorm it a but more, but so far i have that he met dio in 1986 on one of his american escapades, and because vanilla was so despondent, his brain sees dio as some kind of “saving grace” —— i have no idea how to explain this without it being really long so i’m sorry about that 😔 but anyway because vanilla was so close to his father, he clings to every thing even remotely related to his heritage - which is why he instantly agrees and doesn’t question it when dio mentions cairo; both that and the opportunity to start over sealed the deal there —— and like, since the d’arby brothers are american, who says dio wouldn’t just,, collect a bunch of weirdos /affectionate over there to work for him?
anyway,, i think i’ve rambled enough and i hope that answers your question 🥺👉👈 again, i can make a longer post if anyone cares for one but i don’t wanna dump everything i have here,, orz
