Inspector Barnes: Anthony Lockwood, Lucy Carlyle, George Cubbins/George Karim, Holly Munro, Quill Kipps
August: Hisoka Mikage, Chikage Utsuki
Who’s your favorite serial adopter?
Inspector Barnes
August
Voting ended onApr 15, 2024
Propaganda under the cut!
Inspector Barnes:
1. “Mustn't be easy keeping those three (Lockwood, George, Lucy) alive”
2. “Serial adopter of waifs and strays, carefully hidden behind the guise of strict enforcer. He's a softie and we all know it.”
3. “Even though he'd never admit this be of his grumpy character Barnes really became a father for all members of Lockwood & Co. He was the only adult who cared about their lives and he tried to keep them safe and sound, but like all teenagers they didn't listen to him. But they always knew that if they had some prolems (which they actually often had) they could always ask Barnes for help, advice or support”
4. “Barnes adopted a smiling giraffe with a death wish and a blinding smile, a 5 foot Northern bitch who can and will fight god on a Tuesday, a researcher who likes sticking his nose where he shouldn’t and three people max, and a secretary who shot at least a dozen people and is way more badass than she seems”
August:
1. “august is the adoptive older brother of hisoka mikage and chikage utsuki. for context, these characters are all spies, and were invited into the organisation by august. (also known as misha sometimes). hisoka is december, and chikage is april! their collective group name in fanon is "gekkagumi."
the first interaction we see of him in game is him adopting hisoka off the street. he was a dying homeless child, and august invited him to join the organisation. at first he declined, but august kept coming back to him until he followed (despite chikage's protests about it) he fed fed hisoka gingerbread, and declared "we're a family now."
chikage was adopted before hisoka, but we only learned more about it later in the story. chikage was living in a "facility" when he runs into august who lives in the organisation.
despite their very harsh life, august really did everything he could to give hisoka and chikage the best life he could. he loved the idea of family, and always encouraged them to celebrate christmas and birthdays, and play games!
august had a cover job where he owned a candy store. despite it just being a cover, august loved it and had a genuine care for the children. he used to give away free sweets to the point his shop was actively going out of business, and whenever he saw a sad kid he'd try his best to cheer them up. people around the town came in just to talk to him, to the point where hisoka said when he was covering the shop for him, the first thing people would ask was "where's misha?"
in his shop, he also used to have a myth that if you wrote a wish on a certain brand of cookie's wrapper, the wish would come true. august spoke excitedly of the wishes kids would wish for.
events in the story lead up to august's untimely death. years later, hisoka runs into a kid who used to go to his shop. this child had wished to be a painter, and was now painting. he actually ended up in possession of a wrapper august wrote on which said ""a happy family."" however, the boy couldn't read japanese and didn't know what it said. despite that, he held onto the wrapper for years after august's disappearance. he also manages to draw a picture of him from memory. :((“
2. “he's so . gwahh he just wants to give them a nice family”
3. “please vote for august!! he is such a kind soul who shows so much generosity and selflessness despite the cruel circumstances he was stuck in.”
HIII IT'S THE EXCITED ANON AGAIN (will be referring to myself as 🌸 from now on)
AAAAAA THANK YOU FOR ANSWERING I'M SO 👁👁 AT THE AU!! i'm even more curious about the 30 year olds (lmao oldasses) bc they didn't really have a concrete life plan in canon!! i also saw that izumi, azuma, chikage, and hisoka are the same age so im super intrigued!! did yukio just leave, why izumi became the autumn leader, do they go to the same school, and where is august in this au are the questions floating around in my brain!! AND DAD ENERGY SAKUYA SO TRUE he practically adopted izumi, azuma, chikage, and hisoka bc of their similar family circumstances (probs??? not to impose on your ideas though!!) and the lone wolves link skill became a 5-person one now lol I LOVE THIS AU SO MUCH AAAAAAA
a*sneefles* 🌸 ANON I OWE YOU MY LIFE!!
Just like last time, this got long, so under the cut - for context on what this is about you can look at the mAnkAi swAp tag on my blog! tl;dr: ages of the cast get shuffled around. changes result in much to think about!
first of all. YES. they are very much oldheads. I've literally realized just now in writing this response that Azami should... technically be 31? Because my original methodology was to swap from the two extremes (14 year old become 30, 30 year old become 14, and so on). And while I ended up doing much more tweaking for the high schoolers ages to make it Make more sense, the older crowd remained the same. But um, I forgot that Azami is actually 1 year younger then Yuki and Muku. Oops!
You're absolutely right in that it's hard bc they dont have life plans in canon, which means It's Free Real Estate.
Azami Izumida - Azami, you really got the short end of the stick in this AU, I'm going to be painfully honest. In this verse, his father died when he was about 20 - and without Mankai and Sakyo around to encourage him to find his own path in life, he ended up taking up the family business and becoming the head of the Ginsenkai. He runs the organization with diligence, although deep down he knows its not what he wants to be doing with his life.
He's known Juza ever since he joined the yakuza (at age 17), and holds him in high respect. He appreciates that Juza isn't cruel, but also isn't fake with Azami, and is willing to be honest with him even when that honesty is blunt.
Recently, a young Sakyo Furuichi approached him and asked to join the yakuza in hopes of making money for his family. However, Azami rejected him - not seeing the yakuza as a place for a promising young man such as him.
Muku Sakisaka - Despite his unassuming demeanor, thirty-year-old Muku is actually quite the celebrity - being a renowned shoujo mangaka. Which, funnily enough, makes him kind of parallel to Homare? Famous artist who you wouldn’t expect to be one based on their personality.
Since he didn't have the theater to turn to after he had his injury, in this verse he instead decided to work on his artistic skills. And like...
This is his practice doodle, and I think it's pretty cute! So I don't think it's out of the question to assert that with more time, Muku would be somebody quite capable of producing some good shoujo classics.
He joined Mankai due to a bout of artists block, and hoped the environment would provide him with new inspiration.
Yuki Rurikawa - A well-known fashion designer. Yuki... actually doesn't change that much in this AU? He's definitely more genuinely confident in himself in this verse, which means he isn't always as acidic - he doesn't need to put up a bravado of confidence anymore. But otherwise, same old Yuki, great new package.
and now for the 16 year olds (abandonment issues crew) lets make some NOISE. please dont feel bad for suggesting sakuya adopts them because he ABSOLUTELY DOES. like, obviously all of the adults in the company are parents now :tm:, but sakuya is number 1 dad. masumi also, because he's now realized how fucked up his dad was and he's trying to become a better role model then he was. i have made a meme to illustrate the vibes
So, first of all, let me talk to you about my darling daughter:
Izumi Tachibana - Imagine: it has been one year since your father disappeared. For the most part, things have returned back to normal - or as normal as things will ever be, now that he’s gone.
Then you see a flyer on the street. For the goddamn Mankai Company.
Would you react well? Because um. Izumi didn’t! Understandably!
She was pissed, assuming that her father was back and didn’t even bother to say hi to her and mom - mirroring her longstanding issue of her father valuing the theater over her. So maybe she didn’t think logically. Maybe she just went over to the Mankai theater as fast as she could, and angrily demanded that she speak to the director.
The first person she met was one Yuki Rurikawa. And well - he could tell this kid was upset, for some reason. But also Banri had denied him the budget increase he so clearly deserved, so Yuki was feeling petty and decided not to clarify anything. He just told her that “he’s right over there.”
So she just goes up to the figure and punches him, because she’s 16 and she’s angry and honestly, have you met an angry 16 year old whose angry at her father? I was one. It’s intense. And then he turns around, and it’s not her father at all, but it’s Banri.
She immediately apologizes, but Banri honestly isn’t even that mad. He’s just kind of impressed. #Girlboss! She explains her situation, and Banri invites her to audition for the autumn troupe.
You may ask: wait isn’t mankai a men only theater. and my response is ya but idk <3 #girlboss
As for Izumi being a bad actress, I posit that so were Sakuya and Juza. I forget where I saw it, but I remember seeing some fic or meta say that the only problem is that Izumi never had her own Izumi, somebody to nurture her talent and make her bloom. But in this AU, she does.
She’s the leader because honestly? She volunteered first. Sakyo was considering volunteering, but when Izumi volunteered, he yielded to her. Her style as a similar is pretty similar to her style as a director, except y’know she’s a teenager.
Azuma Yukishiro - ohhh azuma poor little meow meow.
He’s more fresh off of his familys death in this verse, which does make him a bit squishier. However, he’s also less emotionally distant, because he hasn’t had all of the years to try and convince himself he’s #coping. He’s actually honest enough to admit that he doesn’t want to have his own room in this verse - so he ends up rooming with Tsumugi and Tasuku is the solo room.
(my friends joked that because Tasuku and Tsumugi aren’t ‘divorced’ in this verse, Banri decided to divorce them by making them not be in the same room. this does actually make their problem of exerting themselves too hard for the others sake worsen, bc they can stay up late studying without the other noticing.)
Chikage Utsuki and Hisoka Mikage and also August - y’know, for somebody who constantly reblogs gekkagumi content and is constantly thinking about gekkabros, it is actually kind of hilarious that i have no fucking clue what they’re up to in this AU.
It’s something I’ve been rotating and trying to think about! Theoretically, most of their arc could remain the same, because I do think that Chikage and Hisoka entered the Organization at around age 12. But my friends and I still haven’t decided if we want to keep it the same, or have it changed up somehow? The main issue I personally keep running into is justifying the year where Hisoka joins the company but Chikage doesn’t, since if they aren’t split up by potion of erase your memory, I don’t see why they’d go their seperate ways. And then there’s August to think about... I don’t know!!
I definitely think there’s something fun and unique that could be gotten from their dynamic in this AU, but it hasn’t been cracked quite yet. But also imagining August as a really overdramatic theater parent is everything I need in my life. In my moms home videos of my own community theater productions, you can literally hear my father distinctly whistling during all of the sections where everybody is clapping. This is Augustcore.
One thing to note tho is that if the Chikage arc goes the same way, there is definitely going to be like. a Moment where Banri realizes he got kidnapped by a 17 year old and he’s like “goddamn it this is kinda cringe isn’t it. anyway this kind of overdramatic response is exactly what i would have done if i was a kid lmao lets get you to bed.”
As for the schools... that’s a great question omg. We haven’t decided where Izumi goes to school! But there’s so much potential for interesting dynamics there. And depending on how we end up handling Chikage and Hisoka in this AU, it’s possible they aren’t even going to be going to a regular high school because y’know, Spy Kids. Which brings about a really funny scene in my head where Hisoka isn’t going to school and Banri asks him if he has enough absence days stored up, and then Banri comes to the realization that he literally does not go to school.
And for Yukio, yup, he still left! It’s just that he only left 1 year prior to the story starting.
AGAIN, ANON, THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!! onto your next ask these are a joy and also really good for developing some stuff abt this AU
so when august realized this, he immediately went, "we should have a karaoke night!"
december, without missing a beat, responded with, "you're tone deaf?"
august smiled anyway, probably saying something like, "come on, it's just for fun! plus we don't get to hang out like this often–families hang out too, you know?"
april, being the hot-headed spicy food eating agent he is went, "december's probably going to sleep through the whole thing."
"will not." december says.
the two starts arguing, you know? like the usual.
august just sighed.
the door opened, you finally arrived from your mission!
the hope that august lost immediately came back to him.
"[codename]! you're here! let's have a karaoke night!"
"august… sure? i'm tired though…"
"then you can sleep on my shoulder on the way to the karaoke, april will drive."
"oi! i didn't agree on go-"
"pffft-"
"stop laughing december!"
you just sighed.
when the four of you got to the karaoke place, december immediately fell asleep on one of the couches
at this point it felt like you and august were taking care of actual children.
april was talking his head off, grumbling like someone stole his candy spices.
august browsed the catalog and picked a song.
the suspense was unbearable. what is he going to sing?
suddenly you found the microphone shoved in your hand.
august was cheering you on with a devilishly sly grin.
"go [codename]!"
"shut the fuck u– It's britney, bitch. ♪"
when your song was over, you chose the next song and shoved the mic to april.
"i'm not doing this. this is bullshit."
"shut up or i'm cancelling your monthly subscription to spices-dot-com."
"hey, you two, stop arg-" august tried to intervene.
"the fuck are you talking about?"
"...too noisy…"
"there, there, december. here's a marshmallow." august said as he gave december another marshmallow.
"why you–"
then a familiar drumroll resonated through out the room.
next thing april saw was rick astley.
in your opinion, april deserved the rick roll.
"no. i am not doing this."
"remember your spices, april."
"[codename], you're cruel– never gonna give you up–♪"
while april was going through his personal hell, the rest of you– basically you, august, and a sleeping december– decided to order food and drinks.
once april was done, he chose a song and passed it to december.
"somebody once told… me… zzz…"
"...he didn't even get five words in…"
"i told you he's gonna sleep through this."
"well that just means you're gonna carry him to the car."
your statement made april aggravated.
"well, well, it's my turn now!" august said as he picked another song.
"august… did you really choose to sing happy birthday?"
"that's the only song i know how to sing!"
okay…? you let him be, at least he's enjoying himself right?
"HappY BirtHdaY tO yOU~"
the first line was… it was something that couldn't be explained in words…
well, at least he sounds decent for a drunk person.
"hAaaPpY bIIIIRTHDay, dEaR–"
"okay, august, dear, that's enough. you've had too many drinks."
Simon Petrikov: Marceline Abadeer, Finn the Human, Fionna the Human, Jay Mertens
Who’s your favorite serial adopter?
August
Simon Petrikov
Voting ended onJun 24, 2024
Propaganda under the cut!
August:
1. “august is the adoptive older brother of hisoka mikage and chikage utsuki. for context, these characters are all spies, and were invited into the organisation by august. (also known as misha sometimes). hisoka is december, and chikage is april! their collective group name in fanon is "gekkagumi."
the first interaction we see of him in game is him adopting hisoka off the street. he was a dying homeless child, and august invited him to join the organisation. at first he declined, but august kept coming back to him until he followed (despite chikage's protests about it) he fed fed hisoka gingerbread, and declared "we're a family now."
chikage was adopted before hisoka, but we only learned more about it later in the story. chikage was living in a "facility" when he runs into august who lives in the organisation.
despite their very harsh life, august really did everything he could to give hisoka and chikage the best life he could. he loved the idea of family, and always encouraged them to celebrate christmas and birthdays, and play games!
august had a cover job where he owned a candy store. despite it just being a cover, august loved it and had a genuine care for the children. he used to give away free sweets to the point his shop was actively going out of business, and whenever he saw a sad kid he'd try his best to cheer them up. people around the town came in just to talk to him, to the point where hisoka said when he was covering the shop for him, the first thing people would ask was "where's misha?"
in his shop, he also used to have a myth that if you wrote a wish on a certain brand of cookie's wrapper, the wish would come true. august spoke excitedly of the wishes kids would wish for.
events in the story lead up to august's untimely death. years later, hisoka runs into a kid who used to go to his shop. this child had wished to be a painter, and was now painting. he actually ended up in possession of a wrapper august wrote on which said "a happy family." however, the boy couldn't read japanese and didn't know what it said. despite that, he held onto the wrapper for years after august's disappearance. he also manages to draw a picture of him from memory. :((”
2. “he's so . gwahh he just wants to give them a nice family”
3. “please vote for august!! he is such a kind soul who shows so much generosity and selflessness despite the cruel circumstances he was stuck in.”
Simon Petrikov:
1. “My guy saw a child (or young adult) in trouble and said is anybody gonna be a supportive figure in their life?' and didn't wait for an answer”
2. “cant stop won't stop adopting kids. constantly implied that he's wanted to be a dad forever (Marcy, him being so upset about making a little girl cry, calling out the Vampire King on being a bad father, etc) and the realest real to ever real. you agree.”
3. “SIMON SWEEP PLEASE man has not gone through 1000+ years of Ice King Shenanigans to not be voted the best father”
