#title lore

[astral-corner]

I know the AvA/M fandom is going insane over Green shenanigans atm, but I think y'all would also like the way too complicated headcanons Astro and I have been cooking up for... god has it maybe been a year at this point?

We call it ✨Title Lore✨

In the most basic of explanations; created sticks can be given titles instead of names, and those titles can grant them powers. Titles also have influence on their personalities, but doesn't force a stick to act a certain way. (Unless they're under the effects of a title wave, but that's a whole other can of worms.)

I just mention this because I want to ramble about two of our ocs who were made based on it. (Tho I'm down to elaborate on Title Lore if people wanna know more, this is just really spur of the moment rambling) One is another stick with The Dark Lord title.~ The other titled The Hero, rather than them being another Chosen One and Dark Lord pairing.

Hero is just Babey. Just a lil guy. Actual genuine twig (oh god, does the AvA/M community call stick kids twigs, because y'all are missing out on stick specific terms if you don't)

Look at them! \o/

And then this is Lord, who's called that rather than something else, because... Dark kinda already exists...

They get all the demon/vampire vibes and they're a therapist for other titled sticks. (Especially Dark Lords) :3

The two left their computer together, and Lord is Hero's legal guardian in the Outernet. Hero has not started school yet because they're learning to catch up on everything twigs their age should know. Everyone should fear the day they start school though. That child has the power of God and anime friendship (literally), and they're going to become unstoppable.

[beastenraged]

Red threaded noose Au.

How would Imu's cuteness aggression attack over Dragon even look?

can I ask the meaning of the names of the au's Back to Garden and Older than Despair?

Well, someone needs to repair those clawmarks in the walls and furniture. Imu is simply too dignified to let that show visibly otherwise.

Title Origin for Back to the Garden:

Well, I admit to listening to "the fruits" by Paris Paloma at the time, which is a very Dragon x Imu coded song for me. Lot of Christian religious imagery in it, and in that mythology, the Garden of Eden is seen as a place of innocence.

And aren't younger people usually seen as more innocent than their elders? Couldn't deaging be a way to become more innocent, or to, ahem, go back to the Garden of Eden?

Title Origin for Older than Despair:

Fuck Gaiman and all that, but the imagery of the 'oldest game' that Dream plays in The Sandman comic series has stuck with me alongside the imagery of Pandora's Box overall.

That what wins the game isn't despair, what's at the bottom of Pandora's Box isn't the world's evils. It's hope.

Whatever Ginny and Dragon go through, whatever terrible things await them, the root of this AU is HOPE.

Because just this once, Ginny gets to live and have a happy life after this.

[beastenraged]

So if you guys are interested in the meanings behind titles I choose, for fics and for ficlets and for chapters, I'm willing to have my inbox open for more in-depth explanation (because I am Overthinker of Lore).

Everything answered will be tagged under: title lore.

[beastenraged]

name origin for "tell me verse" or "seeing eyes fare in the dark"? :D?

Title Origin for Tell Me verse:

Focused on the title of the first fic, "Tell Me that I'm Real."

That title comes from the lyrics of 'I've been looking for somebody/to tell me that I'm real' from the song "Wanted" by OneRepublic, which came out as a song when I was first writing Tell Me and really inspired me for what I wanted the fic to be about.

Which is, a Self-Insert that was deeply connected to the characters of the story of Kingdom Hearts, whose existence would by nature change that story.

Because Ruse is a Riku Replica, and Riku Replica is always struggling with being considered real by everyone else around them. Ruse wants to be real, but at the same time struggles with that for herself because she knows she doesn't fit, doesn't belong to this story.

The music video of "Wanted," the strings variation on it, also inspired me to make Ruse more music and dance focused when it came to her fighting. Mostly because that video has ballet dancers in it and there's some meta out there about how Riku fights kind of like a ballet dancer and how Aqua definitely takes after one in her movement.

"Tell Me that I'm Real" was the first actually cohesive Self-Insert I really wrote, and I'd like to think I did a pretty good job with it.

Title Origin for 'seeing eyes fare in the dark':

Okay, this one is also a lyric riff, off of 'see the eyes fare in the dark/as they glow' from "White Nights" by Oh Land.

Music video is very trippy, the song very much seems to be about dreams, both of those suit Radiant Nightmare who is of Dreams and lives in them.

I focused on the mention of 'eyes in the dark' because I knew I wanted it be to focused on Sylver's Fear of being trapped in Pontos' Abyss, as a mechanism for another Nightmare (in the shape of Radiant Nightmare) to slip through.

Also to make RN's interactions with Sylver a mess from the start, because I love having actually understandable miscommunication when it comes to first meetings between characters.

[astral-corner]

YOUR HONOR. Hero surely has compulsions too, right? What sort, and how do they get in the way?

Title effects are kinda like compulsions, huh? I didn't think about it like that...

Anyways yeah! Hero has them too! The Hero is a title just like The Dark Lord is :)

In our title lore, those are both part of a power scale of sorts. A handful of titles that have similar traits, but with varying levels of strength and slightly different effects. The Hero is the level under The Chosen One on one side of the scale. The equivalent under The Dark Lord would be The Villain!

The scale is sorta based on traits, tropes and stereotypes typical of those titles in media. Heroes and Chosen Ones, along with Protagonists (the lowest level of the scale as of right now), generally speaking, tend to be heroic types that oppose injustice and protect other stick figures. They have a strong sense of morality, and are usually very self assured and determined to achieve their goals.

Hero themselves is effected by their title a lot more than Lord is, for a few different reasons. One reason being that they're much physically younger and less experienced. Their title is kinda all they have to inform their personality and worldview, whereas Lord, being a full grown adult, has more (simulated) life experience to draw from.

As of now though, they've got some vibes of a little kid's cartoon hero more than anything. They've got the sense of justice, but they can't practically apply it all that much as of now. They're probably prone to bringing home injured animals they found outside and begging Lord to let them keep them and take care of them. If they saw another kid being bullied, they'd come to their aid, even if they had no chance against the bully in question. Things like that.

When they get older, they'll probably clash with Lord a lot more, given that their titles oppose each other quite a bit. They'll probably have a 'rebellious' streak of sorts in their teen years, sneaking out of the house and basically becoming a vigilante.