Yet Another Banger from Cigs' Sidestep Question of the Month
yes I’m doing these way out of order but shh
this was on @cigarettesandinevitablebetrayal’s question list (let me know if you don’t wanna be tagged in these! I can just link back to the original question instead) but I didn’t find it as a standalone post and I wouldn’t dare steal Rashad’s thunder so I’m just gonna make it into a separate post thank you Cigs for the prompts as always.. here it goes
How does your Sidestep dress? Has that changed between their days as Sidestep and now? Do their specific villain careers affect their wardrobes?
(I WILL answer this for Tiff soon because I had an absolute vision as I was pondering this question but it’s Amor’s turn first. as always)
this has gotten unexpectedly long wow I did not think I had that many thoughts on this but here we are
starting with the in-game description to have a point of reference I’m not sure I ever picked the same combo between each run but I think Amor’s style is best described as casual and grungy, and for piercings they have several in their ears and one in their tongue
now as for what that ‘casual grungy’ means in practice… their style does border on punk but veeery low effort because they have zero energy to spare on anything other than bearing the crushing weight of existence and also REVENGE so DIY and accessories have tragically fallen to the wayside… the extent of their wardrobe is just clothes that they vibe with thrown together to form something that has taken less than two minutes of active brain power to put together
the most distinctive elements of their look if you can even call it that are textureeeee and colour, they like knit and corduroy especially which are thick and not very suited for CA but it’s a worthy sacrifice :pensive: dress for the season you want not for the season you’re in (<- bro is 5 seconds away from passing out from heat stroke) their colour scheme is green brown and gray, the occasional white/beige, muted shades on the lighter side
I have willingly subjected myself to the design restriction of not giving Amor ANY black clothes and it pains me greatly because truly Steps are the most worthy characters to wear all black but alas… I have gotten used to it and I kind of love how these colours work with their hair and eyes (my main vibe for their design has always been like. a poster with the colours faded after sitting in the sun for too long and I stand by it)
as for what kind of clothes they wear exactly.. to nobody’s surprise it’s full length tops and pants all the way, a lot of turtlenecks and cardigans and jackets that they somehow make look not entirely like they robbed someone’s grandpa for this lmao I think mostly because there’s a lot of texture but no patterns in the clothes
the one recognisable part of all their outfits is their fingerless gloves that they started to wear post nanosurge after the vores flayed the back of his hand and theeen they got a burn mark at the farm on the other hand he had a little tattoo there that was… removed, neither of which they particularly like to show off or look at so gloves it is
they’re also known to lug an MP3 player around that they’ve been tinkering with to get it back in working order and cram as much memory as physically possible in that thing, as well as the wired headphones that go with it of course
another stupid thing they do is that they don’t wear belts which means that #yup all their pants are adjusted with safety pins or took DAYS of trial and error searching for a pair that fits right because there’s no way they’re trying these on in store
(on the topic of bottoms they also own one(1) maxi skirt. make of that information what you will)
then come the shoes… Amor will NOT wear anything but running shoes that ruin the vibe of the rest of the clothes just a little bit but they just can’t resist a good pair of sneakers that ensures they can sprint away at the first sign of trouble, now I wouldn’t say that being a villain or the career they chose directly impacted the way they dress but I can tell you that they are unfortunately a sneakerhead now and their shoes are the most expensive part of their wardrobe BY FAR
Amor’s style hasn’t really changed much from their sidestep days mostly because that’s when he last bothered to actually do anything about it LOL, just a slight change in silhouette because clothing back then was. sleeker? if that makes sense?? arm and leg warmers, long hoodies, CHUNKY STRIPES because these were everywhere, overall I think the biggest difference would be that now there’s noticeably more texture and less thrifted band shirts
he only ever bought clothes from thrift stores before because he was broke but he also liked the idea that they connected him with other people somehow, now they doesn’t really care where they shop
he liked scene outfits but never really went all out with the colourful clothes and accessories save for the rare occasions when Themmy dressed him up which is a very important hc to me fdjfhv
in terms of hair they’ve messed with it very little style wise over the years, cutting it was the first change he made after escaping the first time, as well as just letting it do its thing because its texture is somewhere in between wavy and straight so it would inevitably either get straightened or curled into oblivion to make it stand out less and they enjoy having it just be, he would dye it random colours now and then for the hell of it but that’s about it
in rebirth the fact that they stopped caring about. basically anything is pretty obvious because they don’t bother taking care of their hair at ALL, they have not cut it since they made it out after having it shorn off for so long and their washing schedule is inconsistent at best so it would just kinda hang in their face and not much else.. they give it a bit of a trim in retrib and are better about maintaining it but it’s still low effort, they tie it back every now and then but it’s quite short so it tends to get loose pretty fast
the one self care thing they WILL do religiously is shave because while they enjoy being perceived as a Man growing facial hair is. no <3
finally moving on to piercings.. ever since running away the first time Amor has not put ANYTHING in the lobe piercings, he prefers playing with the other ear piercings they have instead (I’m still not sure of the exact combo ngl) back in sidestep times he also had a septum piercing which he unfortunately had to take out after Owl broke his nose :sob: a large part of the piercings he had were also courtesy of Themmy because I can see them living vicariously through Amor since they can’t get pierced themselves and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had most of the same ones done again in retrib to have something to remember them by
when meeting Hollow Ground in person, they decided to go along with the invitation and dress up. nicely. as you can imagine their definition of that is very loose so they did end up wearing a suit but they rolled up the sleeves and didn’t button the shirt all the way (they had a turtleneck underneath of course) no tie but they did put on a silver chain and honestly? the best one can hope for at this point. they even did a very smudged eyeliner and everything they’re doing their best okay
one question I think about sometimes is how/if a step’s style would change if they didn’t have to cover up All The Time and in his case it wouldn’t be much of a difference except they’d LOVE to wear ripped jeans they were born for it I just know and they’d still layer long sleeves but sometimes it would just be a mesh shirt or one that shows off a lil midriff
Psyche bonus round because I think it’s fun to see how Amor’s tastes affect what she chooses to wear she is very much a casual/corporate goth girlie so she basically only wears black clothes that show a fair amount of skin because they’ve never been able to do that before, little black slips and baby tees and a whole STACK of necklaces but it all gives off a bit of a… performative quality? like she’s not really committed to it and is wearing it more like a tiktok trend
she only wears thick platforms or heels on any given occasion which is kind of funny because she’s already so tall but I guess if you give a short guy a taller body they will NEVER be satisfied
Psyche also never wears normal earrings and she only has two helix piercings in one ear from before Amor found her, she does wear a lot of dark grungy makeup and the black lipstick is legally mandated actually
WHEW this took me three days, for some actual examples I will leave Amor and Psyche’s picture tags, I haven’t drawn them a lot but hopefully it helps illustrate my point
