Discover Top Posts Tagged with #oracool

A couple years ago, I came up with a Fantasy High Good Place AU (og post here), and as I've recently started rewatching The Good Place... I have decided to reboot said AU.

The broad strokes that I came up with are still relatively the same---exploring how the Bad Kids (and Ayda) would've turned out if they'd never met each other as teens and if they'd grown up in a mundane world, all of them wind up in "The Good Place" but three of them are supposedly there by mistake, and they gotta work together if they have any chance of improving. However, I've decided that I could do better with some of the characters, and I never actually expanded on the world, so... yeah!

The Bad Kids (plus Ayda and Aelwyn)

Fig: I'm keeping her mostly the same from the original concept---a failed musician turned drug dealer in her late twenties who lies to survive---but I decided that it'd fit the story better if I gave her a little more of that Eleanor Shellstrop selfishness, mainly so she has an easier flaw to overcome than "compulsive liar," which... would actually serve to protect her in the Good Place, at least at first. I've decided that a lot of her more selfish behaviors stem from the trauma of losing Gordie (Gorthalax) only a few years after she went to live with him and feeling as if she'd burned too many bridges with her mom. And, well, if Fig didn't have the safety net of her friends, I feel like she'd go down a pretty self-destructive path.

Ayda: Making her Chidi was already perfect, so I didn't really need to change any of that. She's still very much an overthinker who's strictly bound to her ethical code, she still teaches Fig ethics and learns how to be more flexible and decisive from that experience, and the two of them still form a beautiful bond that results in them becoming soulmates. Really, the one thing I added to her is the expansion on her relationship with her dad in this AU---Arthur is an eccentric old-money academic with a million degrees who researches whatever he's interested in at the moment, and while he and Ayda did have a fairly decent relationship before they died, she's always wished he would take his career more seriously, and he's always worried about her not being able to connect.

Gorgug: After some thought, I decided to switch his and Kristen's roles around from the original conceit, making it so he's the second "mistake" in the Good Place instead of her (for reasons I'll expand on in her section). He's now in the Jason role as the sweet guy who generally meant well, but due to a combination of having a rough start in life, poor impulse control, and some anger issues, he never really got further in life beyond helping out at his family's mechanics shop and doing some DJing on the side. Gorgug has supportive parents, and he did have a couple of friends in his DJ circles, but nobody outside of his immediate family ever took him seriously, and he'd kind of just accepted that he'd always be living a lackluster life before he died. And yes, he does get to dispense some Jason-type wisdom. He's a bit more quiet and shy than Jason is, though.

Kristen: Since this is meant to be a "what if the Bad Kids met as adults" fic, I realized that Kristen likely never would've had that crisis of faith that eventually led to her chaos arc if she'd never met her friends and, well, God. So, she's now a professional therapist who, despite the fact that she's had a lot of internal doubts about her faith and has been slowly taking steps towards actually coming out of the closet, has never cut her family off and has become a chronic people pleaser. Of course, since this is still Kristen we're talking about, she did go on a few guilt-fueled benders when she was alive, which... definitely didn't help with her point totals. She and Gorgug initially get paired together as platonic soulmates, and they do actually end up clicking immediately. Let's just say that it's a lot easier for Kristen to keep everyone's secrets. Patient-doctor confidentiality is a win.

Fabian: He's not all that different from his original conceit---he's still a version of Tahani who's much more self-aware and is seriously masking it---but I added in a couple of extra factors to make things a touch more interesting. First, I decided that he does have a younger half-sister, though she's not really the source of his constant need to prove himself (that would be the overwhelming legacy of his rock legend father, who died in a death-defying stunt when he was twelve). And second... he and Fig are long-lost stepsiblings. This is something that neither of them are aware of when they arrive in the Good Place, but eventually, the fact that Gilear wound up marrying Hallariel after Fig stopped talking to him comes out. Sometimes the aftermath is sweet, sometimes it's awkward, and sometimes it's tense, but the two of them eventually work their way to becoming the power duo they were always meant to be.

Riz: Again, pretty much unchanged from the original concept---a shady P.I. who worked for rich assholes, never trusted anybody, and was living off of paranoia and caffeine. Of course, I did realize that Riz, being Riz, would likely figure out the truth of what was going on way before Fig... so, I decided that the reason he doesn't is because his fear of getting found out and the potential conspiracy surrounding three people getting into the Good Place by mistake initially blinds him to the reality of the situation. Not to say Riz never figures it out in all 802 reboots---in fact, he figures it out almost as often as Fig does, it's just a matter of getting everyone to listen to him.

Adaine: She's still a Janet---or, well, an Oracle in this story---but I realized that it would be a) boring, and b) out of character for her to be completely cheery, helpful, and obedient for a good chunk of the story. So, I decided that Adaine is a defective Oracle, who, while initially seeming like the perfect chipper assistant, malfunctions when overwhelmed and goes into a state similar to a human panic attack. She also, in a lovely little nod to Sundry Sidney, has some agency in her that she buries deep down due to not wanting to get marbleized, but over the course of the reboots, she gains more feelings and emotional intelligence, gets more and more outspoken, and eventually settles into the snarky-but-caring Adaine we all know and love. I think there might be a relationship between her and Fabian eventually (because I'm getting a little too unreasonably attached to them), but it's not as central to her story as the Jason-and-Janet relationship is.

Aelwyn: She's still the perfect Micheal, she doesn't need to be changed. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

(Other characters underneath the cut)

Kalina: She's Shawn. I did debate Angwyn, just for that good old parental trauma potential, but seeing as Shawn does come around a little in the end---something that Angwyn would never do---and the role needs a villain who actually has the gravitas and charisma to be the ruler of Hell, I decided that Kalina would be the best fit. Also, she's been Aelwyn's boss in the past, so that dynamic still works perfectly well.

Penelope: She's Vicky. While I also debated her being a version of Shawn, I figured that she doesn't really have the cold confidence to pull it off... but she does have the entitled diva energy that Vicky needs. So, yeah.

Sam: She's Bad Janet---or, well, a Bad Janet, who gets to go through some actual character development after a bunch of reboots and some time spent in Adaine's void. She's got the exact right attitude, she's a magical powerhouse in canon, and she fills the DPS mage role that Adaine does for the Bad Kids, so... yeah, it was a pretty decent fit.

Ragh: He's Glenn! Just a himbo demon who's a little bit nicer than your average torturer and eventually realizes that he's a lot happier helping people than hurting people. Not much else to say about him, but he's always a good time.

Danielle: She's Doug Forcett. Honestly, there was no other character who could've predicted the entire afterlife via a drug trip, and everything about Doug's whole "living completely off the land to the point where all the water is recycled pee and being so incredibly selfless that you forget that you're a person with actual needs" thing is very, very, very Danielle. I don't think she's fully aware of how detrimental her way of living is to her own mental health, or if she even entirely cares.

Antiope: She's the Judge. I debated making the Judge one of the adult characters, but none of them really fit---except for Arthur, of course, but he's already Ayda's dad. Antiope is a lot more tired and stressed than the Judge is in canon, because even though she doesn't have very many cases, managing the afterlife system of a whole planet is still a lot of work. I might make it so she's one of many judges who run afterlife systems for other planets out there, just to keep with that "stressed-out little sister with incredibly successful family members" vibe.

Ostentasia: I don't think I could make anyone else Mindy St. Claire. Of course, she was a fashion designer on Earth and not a corporate lawyer, but she still did a bunch of cocaine and put all her life savings into starting the world's biggest nonprofit the day that she died. She's chaotic, she's horny, she's a bit of a bitch, and she's great.

K2 (aka Katie): I had to make her Derek. I know that one of her defining character traits is "being straight," so I will say that Adaine creates her not as a rebound girlfriend, but as a personal therapist---she already knows from Kristen that having a preexisting relationship with your client makes it hard to be objective, so she just made one for herself and loosely based her off of the only therapist she'd ever met. And for Ostentasia, Katie's her model for anything she feels like designing, since even in the Medium Place, Ostentasia still gets the creative itch.

Mazey: She's Simone. It was really difficult for me to figure out someone who Ayda would be interested in and who fits the "neuroscientist who has a tendency to make snap decisions about people" bill, but after a lot of back and forth, I settled on Mazey. She's a bit more arty than Simone is, of course, but I do think she fits. (Also, she and Fabian do get along really well, even if their relationship isn't romantic in this story.)

And... yeah, I think that's it for now!

#oracool

Trending Tags

Recently Viewed Tags

#oracool