#i just like to think of aus for them because they're free-floating ocs

[semisolidmind]

i know it's all about the lion's den AU rn and as usual I am FEASTING on the content (excuse the crumbs) but there's an idea that won't leave me alone-

what if Peaches was not human, but an immortal from the beginning? How much would change? I know the whole appeal of these AUs - I mean, that's why I love them and I absolutely love this lil corner of the fandom. but I've been kinda diving into the whole immortality biz in Chinese myths for my oc, so now I'm curious.

Peaches could be someone cultivating and practicing Xian (i hope I'm using that right) for years, or consumed pills/elixir of immortality somehow, or a demon who is oddly very kind and empathetic - would the bois still love her just as much? How different is the dynamic now even if Peaches retains her core personality traits?

love your work! and hydrate before ya diedrate

ive been thinking about this, and i kinda like the idea of immortal reader being an attendant of the heavenly peach orchard.

not super high up the ladder, but not at the bottom either. her powers are limited to helping plants grow just a little bit, creating temporary barriers, and being able to float the way all celestials can. the higher-ups figure that since no one is bold or stupid enough to steal from heaven, they don’t need any extra security in the immortal peach groves.

you can take a guess as to how reader meets the monkeys.

they show up to the orchards, ready to fight their way to the peaches, but instead of some overpowered celestial soldiers guarding the orchard, it's....one immortal maiden. just the one. but she doesn't seem all that powerful, soooooo...

...maybe she'd agree to let them take a few without too much trouble?

the monkey bros go the "oh don't mind us we're just a couple of cute lil monkeys, here to cause adorable and harmless mischief" route in their approach to getting reader to let her gaurd down.

they approach her while she takes a break from pruning some dead branches. she's understandably surprised and suspicious about these two seemingly normal monkeys who've snuck in, but... they are pretty cute. and tame; they let her pet them and give them scritches. perhaps they're one of the heavenly official's pets. reader supposes that they can stay for a while.

wukong and macaque play their parts, get reader's guard down, and steal a couple dozen peaches each. reader notices, but there's not much she can do beyond shooing the monkeys out with a broom (and her soft heart barely allows her to do that). she knows that if she reports it, those cute lil monkeys will be hunted down and killed.

she supposes she could put in a request for higher walls around the grove, or more barriers (she still wonders how the boys managed to get through the first ones), but with how slowly things get done in the bureaucracy...it'd be a very, very long time until it was even brought up in court.

besides, even then....they're monkeys. animals. she won't place blame on them for being what they are. those little cuties probably had no idea that the immortal peaches were any different from the ones on earth.

she could never stay mad at their adorable lil faces anyways.

---

reader, despite what you might think, has a pretty laid back job. once all her chores for the day have been completed (those magic trees don't really need much beyond the essentials to do their thing), she has a good amount of free time to sit and, you guessed it—read.

macaque (because of course, he has to be the first one to fall in every au) decides, on a bored whim, to go visit that nice attendant they stole from not too long ago. perhaps he'll collect some intel while he's up there.

he finds her after a bit of searching. reader sits in a secluded corner of the grove, leisurely turning pages and enjoying the shade. macaque, still disguised, sidles up to her. reader notices, seeming surprised to see him before her face morphs into... a rather adorable pout. perhaps she thinks she's being intimidating.

'damn, no wonder the bureaucracy didn't think they needed any more security,' macaque thinks sarcastically. such a fearsome maiden they've chosen to guard the immortal peaches.

while reader takes a minute to admonish him about stealing, it isn't long before she sighs and gives up on her lecture in favor of scratching him gently behind his ears. he churrs low in his chest. her whole demeanor is as soft and sweet as the peaches she guards (her hands as well, he notes, pressing into them).

macaque laughs internally. a fearsome maiden, indeed.

macaque manages to wiggle his way into reader's lap, pulling her attention from her book. she knows she should be trying to scare him off, but...just—just look at him! he's so cute, and she's too pulled in by how cute he is to notice the oddly powerful aura he seems to exude (far too powerful to be a normal monkey). he enjoys her touch for a while longer before he hears the far-off call of his annoying brother, wondering where he is. he bumps his head into reader's hand by way of goodbye before running off to shadow away more secretively.

reader watches him go, sighing. she really should shoo him away next time.

---

macaque keeps coming back. and reader continues to be unable to kick him out.

with very few visitors and no one else to talk to, reader begins to tell him everything that she overhears during the day; the officials don't think anyone is listening when they air out their gossip as they walk by the orchard. she doesn’t know it, but she’s saving macaque the energy of using his powers to gather this intel on his own.

the six-eared demon makes a habit of showing up to the grove to laze around with his favorite maiden and listen to her read, using “spying” as the excuse he gives his brother for why he's been running off so often. reader seems to have accepted that he won't be leaving her alone any time soon, and he takes full advantage. macaque comes to think of reader and the secluded corner of the grove as his own little peice of heaven.

of course, sooner or later, wukong joins in. he's a bit angry that macaque didn't just say he was visiting the peach orchard and it's attendant; he wouldn't have minded, he would've come with! macaque doesn't bother trying to explain that he didn't want to share.

but share he does, seeing as wukong greedily takes all the attention from reader he can get. the monkey king finds himself enamored with the maiden who's hands and heart are as soft as the fruits she tends to. he won't admit it (it may hurt his carefully crafted "ruthless demon king" image if he did), but wukong is a cuddle bug when it comes to reader. everything about her is just so soft, and she's so kind, and she always smells like peaches—he could spend hours laying on her chest as she reads.

he just feels so...peaceful, with her.

the boys are entangled in reader's life, visiting whenever they can and butting into whatever she happens to be doing. they see her day to day happiness (brief conversations with the lower maids she's friends with), and her struggles (the two monkeys bore witness to the officials taking their anger out on reader over something trivial, their rage towards heaven growing stronger). the two grow more and more attached to her as time goes on.

and so they begin to work a small abduction into the grander scheme of their plan.

---

sooner or later, the monkey warlords properly raid heaven. they and their demon army storm the jade palace, murdering servants, footsoldiers, and as many officials as they can. the monkey king and the six-eared macaque lead a massacre so bloody it stains the palace walls red. wukong especially holds back none of his rage, getting caught up in his hatred for heaven and zealously continuing to shed as much celestial blood as he can.

during a lull in the chaos, macaque, covered in vicera, makes his way to the immortal peach grove. with the battle coming to a close and the demon forces being driven back, now is as good a time as ever to snatch up a special “peach” for himself and his brother.

he finds said peach preoccupied with a gallant attempt at protecting herself and a few lower maids from a demon soldier, using a series of barriers. the soldier breaks the barriers almost as fast as reader can make them, rapidly pushing her and her companions into a corner. reader puts up a brave fight, but she's a celestial attendant, not a celestial warrior.

macaque calls out to the soldier, halting their attack and telling them to regroup with the others and prepare to move out. the soldier complies, crassly assuring the women that they’re about to be nothing more than bloody pulp on the garden wall. no one has ever gone against the shadow general of the demon army and lived.

macaque waits until the soldier is out of sight before leisurely approaching the still quivering group of maids and their determined, but exhausted looking guard. reader tenses as he steps closer. she feels a horrible sense of dread crawl down her spine when she gets a good look at him.

the dark fur, the shape of the mask marking on his face...reader feels tears start to bead at the corners of her eyes.

this entire time, she'd been petting and coddling the six-eared macaque. the second in command of the dreaded demon army has been sitting right in front of her and she had no idea. reader can barely keep her breathing steady.

and if this is her dark-furred companion, then the lighter-furred one must be…oh stars.

…she let the monkey king in.

she practically threw open the doors for him. she didn’t report them when she should have, she knew there was something strange about them but she was so sure they were just normal animals—oh stars above, if the jade emperor ever discovered this, she’d be executed.

but…but reader steels herself. she can deal with that later. her friends are counting on her.

now, she’s certainly not expecting the blood-covered demon general across from her to be open to bargaining (he could just kill all of them now, but reader gets the feeling he wouldn't be merciful enough to end it quickly). and he knows exactly what leverage he has over her, she can see it in the smug look on his face.

but she tries anyways.

“let them go, please,” she begs breathlessly, arms shaking from the strain of maintaining her magic. the least she can do is buy her friends a moment more. “do whatever you want with me, but they are blameless.”

macaque chuckles, the sound reverberating lowly between the trees. whatever he wants, huh? oh, sweet peach. she should know better than to give him so much leeway.

“that is tempting. if that’s the case, then perhaps you’ll go with me willingly,” he muses, tail swaying slowly. his fangs glint dangerously when he smirks.

“don’t fight, and no harm will come to them. that, and your secret will be safe with me. honest."

reader doesn’t believe him. she can’t, but she and her friends are so low priority that calling for help would be useless. if the demon army has been as effective as the screaming would lead her to believe, the celestial host has much bigger problems than rescuing a gardener and some lowly maidservants. and with the chance that she’ll be seen through and blamed for every gory death that's happened beyond the walls of the peach groves...

she doesn’t have a choice.

reader slowly, cautiously lowers her barriers, despite the worried cries of the maids behind her. they cower closer together as reader takes a slow step closer to macaque.

with a flick of his wrist, reader is struck by a sleeping spell so potent she falls into macaque's waiting arms like a lead weight. the demon gathers his beloved into his hold with a gentleness that doesn't fit his gory visage.

he sinks into a shadow, leaving the maids to clutch each other and cry at the loss of reader and the near loss of their own lives.

---

reader wakes up days later in the royal bedchambers of the stone palace. she startles at seeing the monkey king and the six-eared macaque laying on either side of her, stripped to just a loose pair of pants each. she herself has been changed to a comfortable silk robe, her own clothing nowhere to be seen.

reader feels a cold sludge in her gut. she scrambles out of the pillow pit, kicking a few into the face of one of her captors as she goes. she checks herself over, looking for bite marks, claw marks, anything to indicate the two demons sharing a bed with her had violated her in any way. she looks, and breathes a heavy sigh.

she finds nothing.

"we figured we'd wait until you were awake to start marking territory," the tired, yet still somehow smug voice of the monkey king chimes from behind her. reader turns to see the demon leveling an amorous look her way. his gold and crimson eyes burn like fire in the low light.

reader ignores him in favor of falling to her knees and burying her face in her hands. now that she has a moment to think, her failure has decided to take centerstage; she was the one who let the monkey king into the jade palace, she let him steal the immortal peaches, she's the one who carelessly shared all the gossip that told them when the best time to attack would be, she's to blame for all the lives lost—

"hey. y'know we would've raided heaven even if we hadn't met you, right? it's not your fault," macaque says, propping his head in his hand to look at her. he doesn't have the decency to hide how he's sizing her up, poison purple eyes glowing whilst tracing her curves. reader shrinks into herself a bit more.

"yep. don't feel too bad, peaches. i was never gonna spare any of those bureaucrats in the first place," wukong adds. "and besides, none of those guys cared about you anyway, so why feel bad?"

reader sobs, pressing her hands to her eyes. she knows. she knows how callous the officials could be, but that doesn't mean they deserved to die. it doesn't mean the servants and foot soldiers who were only following orders deserved their fates.

she hears movement, then feels a set of strong, furred arms wrap around her. wukong rests his head on her shoulder. he nuzzles his nose against her neck. she feels his warm breath and the glance of deadly sharp fangs when he speaks.

"they didn't deserve the mercy you seem to think they did."

---

wukong places a seal on reader's powers. what little defense she had against them is gone with the placement of a brand-like marking in between her shoulder blades (and a few more along her shoulders made with his teeth).

reader can't do anything. wukong won't let her leave, and even if she could, the heavenly court will have her executed if she goes back. so, she remains on the monkey king's mountain.

she didn't think she'd share a fate with the precious fruit she'd failed to protect.

[consumeroflemoans]

Hello, it's me, one of the anons that put Vilidia scenarios into your askbox, I'm here once again, I came up with a Vilidia AU today while thinking about my own OC lore as one does

This does go back a bit because we are once again involving merfolk

So to get to the gist of it Idia is the keeper of a lightly cursed lighthouse out on the sea in a somewhat ambigious time period, the backstory I came up with for that one is that he and his brother who had spent their entire lifes in a small coastal town, gazing over the ocean together, dreaming and talking about the magical creatures and beings they had been told of in fables and read about in stories, imagening what it would be like to see the sunlight gleam off a mermaids shimmering scales, heroically resist a sirens song to stir your boat to safety or witness a sea monster winding its big body around underneath the waves

So they went out at night and untied one of the boats and tried to sail away into unexplored waters to discover things they've only fantasized of, but two children are as they find out suprisingly not enough to properly man a boat and they veer off course fast, it didn't matter if Idia had spent hours each night studying the constellations so he could navigate the two or if Ortho dedicated his free time to practicing all kinds of boating knots, they were both children and simply weren't strong enough to actually man a whole real boat on their own so they just kept drifting further out until the horizon was out of sight and all they could see anywhere was water

The next few weeks are painful as food dwindles, it keeps on raining and both their deck and they themselves get progressively more soaked, the clouds seem to swallow the sky up and they can't even tell anymore in which direction the tide is carrying them or even how long it's really been as it seems that everyday the fog gets thicker and all seems to be coated in an everpresent darkness, they brought more books than they did supplies and the absolute absence of anyone but the two is starting to gnaw at them

Eventually they get to meet one of the very myths they originally set out for, for the first time in who knows how long their boat bumps into something solid or rather something solid bumps into their boat, the water isn't clear enough to see much of anything, but when they look down eventually something breaks the surface and they see the scales of a sea monster, bigger than their entire boat, barnacles over its body and coral branches stuck in its finsIts not even the monster that really gets them, it tries, rams its head against the deck and the side of the ship and manages to damage the wood, though they're screaming and trying desperately to dodge the incoming battering they see a light in the distance, grab the steering wheel and use all their little child strength to take course, they get a fair bit closer, but eventually the monster lands good hit and the ship and it all goes sideways, they fall overboard

Idia wakes up coughing up water with someone repeatedly pushing down on his chest, when he comes to there's a stranger standing over him in a lightkeeper uniform and when he sits up the monster is slithering back down to the depths and Ortho is floating on top of the water

The lighthouse is situated in the middle of a piece of ocean where it's perpetually night and the water is haunted by creatures so thoroughly disturbing they should never ever be allowed to invade any other seas, it's pourpose is to both be a deterrent for sailors everywhere and for the keeper to keep track of everything

The position can't be kept by one person forever, but who can you pass it onto really when you're stuck in one place all alone with no one, fortunately for everyone who isn't you this place does something to the people that stay in it too long, borderline Immortality, merging with the things around you all that, you are allowed to "quit" once you have a suitable succesor and by suitable I mean anyone who's there and alive, just take the first guy you can get kinda deal

So Idia is sitting there with the a stranger who doesn't look entirely human, gets a manual thrown at him because if the keepers had anything it was time to kill, might as well do that and spare themselves the explanation, and a uniform much too big for him before he watches them walk into the ocean until they entirely dissapear

So now he's stuck in a lighthouse, he bothered to fish some of the books out of the water and dry them, some of the previous keepers left diaries and other stuff there, he's got a few of those ship in a bottle building kits which is kinda fun

And to boot the ghosts of those who did actually die there do get to stay trapped too so he's not all alone, he's got a bunch of ghosts of which most like to try clawing their way back to the mortal realm while screaming to be let out and also Orthos ghost is there too

Idia gets older, eventually the uniform starts to fit and it seems to him he looks progressively weirder each time he happens to walk past a mirrorFor all that it is supposed to be the most dangerous place in the entire sea, it's kind of calm honestly

And then someone crashes on the little island, finally Vil arrives in the story

A merman who got just a little lost to say the least

He's still an actor, just underwater and if I could have a little fun and continue the with something more appropriate to the very vague time period than movies and also tie into the whole singing thing often associated with merfolk I'd like to put him into opera

He just got out of rehearsal and god was it bad, the orchestra kept fucking up and his co-actors didn't even bother memorizing their parts and he didn't even manage to secure the role he wanted

It's one of his very favourite operas, one near and dear to his hard with almost every line memorized and it needs to be a perfect performance, but it can't be if everyone else keeps fucking it up! He might as well just do it all on his own, let him sing every role in the play, it can only get better from whatever downright insulting performance these idiots are pulling out of their asses

Undecided, but I think it could be intresting to do a mirror thing in which said opera is the tale of the lighthouse keeper in comparison to Idias myths of merfolk, even if the story is presumably highly altered, but a tale of a man who trapped the beasts of the sea and dutifully guards them to bring safety to all residents of the deep blue, engaged in a constant battle with the true leviathans of the ocean in a seemingly sisyphean attempt to beat them and be free

Truly it is incredible how he sticks to a position he derives no joy from for the good of others, never moving from his post or despairing and Vil cannot help but admire the tenacity of never stopping his fight, never giving up on the possibility of success, that he might one day be able to do what he wants if he keeps doing what he must until he succeeds, no he's not projecting, he's just right

He goes on a swim to clear his thoughts and gets caught in a stream he's pulled towards a dark part of the ocean with seemingly no ground in sight

He tried his best to fend off whatever beast tried to get to him, trying to hit them away with the fins on his tail, but the only escape he found was at the light house and now he's beachedIs Idia mildly pissed that the first person who ever survived entering during his time in as the keeper is not someone he can push into the job? Maybe

Yes, it's a bad and mean and how it happened to him still haunts him sometimes, there's a nagging guilt when the thought of quitting crosses his mind, but it's been like eight years and he feels like he's done his time and really he just wants to be over with this, is that so wrong?

But also, oh god... It's a merman, it's one of the very things he wanted to see with Ortho way back then, whose little ghost is so excited by the way, one of the myths he's been reading on repeat for years, honestly probably his favourite one

Pages upon pages describing the colorful scales of merfolk, their beautiful voices and how their hair would flow along with their movements as they swam

He had though the books grew stale after a while, but looking at Vil before him he almost feels like he could write a new one all by himself just from looking at him, an entire series, maybe a whole library

But Vil gets put into some kind of big water container, maybe in a bathtub of olden times, the classic

Things happen now, Idia gets his first face to face talk in almost a decade to the pretty, pretty merman and he sooooo nails it (lie)Vil is ever so slightly horrified at Idias somewhat neglient treatment of the position and slowly also comes to realize that having to suffer through duty isn't really something to be strived for

Normally you cannot leave the lighthouse zone once you came in and Idia may have given up trying to get out through any other way than walking into the waves, but Vil hasn't and won't, Idia is just a tad bitter that he wants to leave him alone again, maybe drags his feet on the whole escape a little, but he's been here for so long and he knows how much it sucks and he just... He can't do that to Vil, he just can't

I'm honestly very tempted to say, Vil gets out and they never see each other again and they're both so sad and melancholic and the stories in which they found comfort and inspiration take on a whole new level of meaning, a yearning and a fondness and a memory and a way to pay respect, Idia draws Vil into the pictures of his book, Vil changes the costuming of the keeper to resemble Idia and makes just ever so slight changes to the script, no one knows why he wants them to have an odd passion for little boat puzzles

And at this point I don't really have an idea, but I'll keep talking anyway because I'm not sure if full tragedy is the thing and I want to give some semblance of an alternative conclusion

There's a few attempts and a lot of planning, but Idia manages to distract and fend off some of the monsters so Vil gets to swim out, guided by the lighthouse, what they came up with were a few smaller mechanical paddle boats, from Idia, that have a liquid scent attached to them, from Vil, to simulate people in the water because it's the best I can think of right now, but if Idia thinks that's where things end oooooh, he's sorely mistaken

Though another struggle might be actually convincing Idia that he should leave at all because yeah, he doesn't like it, but what else does he have? I mean, Ortho's there too kinda and he can't just leave him and even if he could he's been gone for so long, he doesn't know where he came from anymore and he missed so much that he doesn't feel he can make up for, but doesn't mean he can't have a future and all that, Vil is going to try his absolute hardest to get him out

Also maybe, there's a little radio in the lighthouse that was constant static because it never had any kind of connection, hard to get when you're where Idia is, but with a lot of fiddling around and an actual knowledge of its existence an outside connection is established and coincidentally Vil starts broadcasting his singing after he comes back from his brief stint of being missing

Well then, goodbye

ANON.

ANON WHEN I GET YOU ANON.

AUGH THIS JUST REMINDS ME OF THE MYTH OF CALYPSO.

Where as punishment she’s trapped on the island of Ogygia with no way to really escape. And also being cursed to fall in love with anyone that washed up on her shores. Raaaah tying Greek mythology into any story with Idia my beloved.

This whole AU is honestly fascinating I want to read a 500k word fic on it this very second.

ALSO OMG VIL GETTING OUT WITH IDIA’S ASSISTANCE AND THEN JUST NEVER SEEING HIM AGAIN IS SO ODYSSEUS AND CALYPSO CODED

Someone stop me I swear

Pull me away

Aaaaaaaaaa

Also I am so fascinated by the underwater world you’re building here too. Like??? The sea monsters?? Having creatures of the depths the even the merfolk fear?? Also Vil still having an amazing singing voice and performing underwater is so iconic of him. He should have his tail draped in black pearls methinks.

ANYWAY

Them being apprehensive of each other only to eventually have to get to know one another because they’re the only real company they have. Vil can hardly stay in the dangerous waters outside, so he has to rely on his lighthouse keeper.

Also mgmmfmd my mind is going so many places but the thought that they both had idealized versions of each other in their mind. Their ideals are shattered, but they realize that they can relate to each other and even get along. They crack jokes and talk, making a short of light in this dreary place.

OMG

Idia letting Vil go and wanting him leave because he doesn’t want the new light in his life to be consumed by the darkness like he was long ago. He’s been the caretaker of this lighthouse for years. He’s faced grief and regret since he was a young child. But Vil isn’t like that. He’s a star, even underwater. He shines brightly in his performances and lights up a room with his song.

I like to think that Vil sometimes performs for Idia because he knows the lighthouse keeper truly appreciates it. Also his performances aren’t bogged down by worse performers around him.

And then Idia send him away, even though Vil doesn’t really want to leave him. He helps Vil escape so he can continue shining in the watery depths. He lets go of his only source of happiness because he feels like he doesn’t deserve it anymore. He can’t be selfish. Not when it comes to Vil.

AAAAA MY THOUGHTS ARE SUCH A MESS BUT I AM DYING

[imaginatorofthings]

For the Uncommon OC Questions game: please pick the 5 character questions and the 3 creator questions you'd most like to answer at the moment, about Whynn? 💙

Aria, you say this and think that I am not indecisive, ha ha ha!

Oh dear...

AH THIS TOOK WAY TOO LONG

Character Questions

8. What were they told to stop/start doing most often as a child

"Stop floating so much, you're going to mess (something) up! What if we loose you?"

So, damn it all if they dare tell Zephyr to stop floating. How could they let them be derived of what makes them happy?

15. How do they speak? Is what they say usually thought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it in their mind first?

They rehearse their words, but yet they stumble over their words still! Overly apologetic when they mess up, and even if they are doing perfectly well.

But around friends and family, those whom they're close with? They feel more free to express themself. A bit less apologetic, but still so.

17. Are they easily embarrassed?

Yes.

22/23. How does jealousy/envy manifest itself in them? 

These two are so intertwined for them. They know the difference between them, yet they feel so similar.

They distance themself, they overthink, and if it gets bad enough, they spiral into a panic.

Please be patient with them.

36. Do they actively seek romance, or do they wait for it to fall into their lap?

:)

Oh they imagine it so much! They're a helpless romantic, but they're also a-spec! They imagine the day when someone will come into their life and just make their heart flutter and make them yearn for this someone. But they think about it a bit more and the fleeting feeling dies. So restarts the cycle!

Oh, they wish yet do they really want it?

Creator Questions

A) Why are you excited about this character?

Because! Look at them!

They're a combination of things I really like and a sense of me trying to be free and accept being cringe, because then I'm free!

I also made them in a bad mental spiral, so they're kinda cathartic too. I still love them!

B) What inspired you to create them?

Well, listen! I made Whynn originally to be my sona, believe it or not.

I, however, am notorious for saying "Okay, but what if you were my OC instead, because you can't easily wrap your head about your sona AKA yourself being in situations?"

And they're kinda freeing like that. Because they were made to be closer to me than any of my previous OCs were.

I) Do you prefer to keep them in their canon universe?

Oh, absolutely not! If my thoughts about AUs aren't clear, then if I love throwing my OCs into situations. I've been thinking about throwing Whynn into D&D, and several Ghibli movies, including:

Kiki's Delivery Service (they are Kiki!)

Howl's Moving Castle (they are Howl!)

Ponyo (they are Sosuke's mom! And Sosuke is Zephyr, their younger relative!)

[way-too-addicted-to-anime]

46, 49, 2, 10, 20? ^^

Okay first of all hiiiiii so glad the fandom is only mostly dead (tee-hee), and thank you for coming up with this fun list! Second, I'm sorry if you've been waiting for me to respond. Tumblr is dumb and didn't tell me I had an ask in my inbox (which I don't check otherwise😅)

Anywho, here's my answers (Fair warning, I write long-winded answers for pretty much every ask I get):

2 - Fav Hetalia artists and why?

Ugh there are so many and I honestly don't remember them because it's been so long since either I or they have been active. Some of the ones I used to see on my dash were hetalia ask blogs. There was one artist in particular, though I can't remember who they were exactly, that I really enjoyed. They ran a few blogs, one of which I remember was an au where America was some kind of monster, and I think another was a Hitman Jones blog? I followed quite a few of those blogs back when I was really active in the fandom.

Many have also deleted over the years, but currently @oplusplus (I just love all of their work, and how they use a couple different styles depending on the kind of work they want to make) is my favorite. I also like much of the work they reblog from other artists, though I've been a bit slow to actually get back into following other fans and artists and consuming Hetalia content😅

10 - How long have you been in the fandom? What's your lore?

I believe I joined the fandom back in 2013-14? I was about that age as well (13-14 that is) So I've been a fan for about 9-10 years now. I was in high school when I first discovered it, and my family and friends at the time could attest to how obsessed with it I became. I still have some decent (and not so decent) fanart and fics floating around the interwebs and my sketchbooks.

Also, when I first joined Tumblr, this was originally a Hetalia OC ask/rp blog... Yeah, I made a Narnia OC, I was that person. I loved her though.

20 - Favorite relationship dynamic?

Being the oldest of three, I'm a big fan of most of the sibling dynamics (I'd say all but Russia and his sisters...), but my favorite has got to be Switzerland and Lichtenstein. It's just so pure and good and brings me such joy.

Honorary mention to the absolute chaos that is the Bad Friends Trio.

(I think this is what this question is referring to, but I'm not entirely sure, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong)

46 - Who gives the warmest hugs?

So many would give such good hugs but I think Canada, Finland, China, Spain, and Hungary would have the most comforting ones. The ones that make you feel safe. There is a possible correlation between raising another country and giving really good hugs (though naturally this isn't the sole reason).

There's a lot more I could say about the kinds of hugs the nations would give but I'll save that for a different post.

49 - Who's lactose intolerant and eats like they're not?

Purely based on the behavior of many of the people I know who are lactose intolerant: America. He just has the attitude of someone who'd be like "I know I'm gonna hate myself for this later but that's later right now I want ice cream."

[zeawesomebirdie]

Hey! I took so much time to answer I’m on holidays now :’) feels so weird to have that much free time in may… If you’ve had the appointment by now, I hope it brought good news (or, I suppose, as good as possible in this situation) and if it hasn’t happened yet, I hope it’ll go well. I wish I could help you with that, but at least I’m glad our correspondence is bringing you joy :)

Honestly, there might be a lot of them, but I don’t really do anything with my OCs, they just float in my head lol. Sometimes I draw them or I talk about them, a few have Pinterest boards for how they'd dress or toyhouse pages (I wanted to create TH pages for everyone but I don't have art of most of them so it's not happening anytime soon unfortunately) and one or two are used in other stuff like Cécilia who I used to play in a DnD campaign and is now an NPC in another campaign, but mostly they're just there for me to have silly little fantasies about. Meredith and Cécilia are for general stuff, a lot of projecting, thinking about QPRs and fun flatmate stuff; Alex, Laë and Adrien are for cute romance stuff, sometimes more spicy stuff if I'm in the mood, or soulmate AUs; Ophelia has problems with her parents and adventures with Oswald; Aster is all the dramatic stuff but also boring work things that he gets to be all 'drinking wine in your cool chair at 1am' about; Alex also gets a lot of family bonding and shenanigans since I gave him a big family (it keeps extending... I gave him one more sibling and a few cousins since last time and I'll probably keep adding to it...) The only one I really actually use is Cécilia, because while I don't play her anymore my friend started another campaign in the universe of the one where I played her in, so I’ve given them my opinion of what she would say when they’ve asked. Mostly I create them for the sake of creation, because inventing a little guy and doing whatever you want with them is like playing with dolls or petshops but you decide what they look like hehe.

The 'drawback' with making all of my OCs for daydreaming purposes is I tend to gravitate towards characters in a very - set? period? Like, you know how fandoms tend to have specific moments at which they prefer to write characters, before or after they change a lot, when they're still alive, when they're still talking to another character? Not all fics use this 'ideal state' of characters of course but like, you'll see a lot of Obikin set during the Clone Wars but Ahsoka's still there, or a lot of Johnlock before Sherlock fakes his death in S2, that kind of thing? It's like the characters have a default state? Well mine are all kind of like that, and there's not a lot of story around it. They almost all live in the same world at the same time, so at best they'll have a past where they became who they are now, but they're all a bit stuck. Meredith grew past a lot of her insecurities, Cécilia has a goal of becoming powerful and cool but it's for a very distant future, Laë Alex and Adrien are dating and they're young but they probably won't break up, Alex's sister's kid is going to be a toddler forever, etc. They're all relatively nice and doing okay, because I personally don't daydream about people being mean and suffering, but that makes them a little flat sometimes haha. A bit like we’re seeing them at a set point in the story, but never going forward, only seeing them at the beginning/middle/end of their story but not the rest. Which is why characters for a story sounds so interesting to me! If you put them in a story you need to know where they start and where they end and how they change in the middle, there's a few moments where they're at their 'ideal state' and then they keep going, and that's so cool! Though that must mean you’d be creating them very differently, less ‘what are their vibes’ and more ‘what’s their fatal flaw’

Right right right, the amatonormativity is there and I think it would be a little funny to throw poor Reil in all of that. The conflict between “Jedi don’t form attachments” so being aro is ‘useful’ because that does eliminate a type of attachments, but also still being surrounded by people who date and swoon over crushes and have romances (because personally I’m firmly team ‘attachment is when it’s too extreme, Jedi are allowed to have fun as long as it doesn’t interfere with their duties’ so I imagine romances are a thing, whether they end quickly or they manage to last.) And yesss making characters a bit like you is so so cool!! Tbh I can't believe I first thought about giving Meredith a boyfriend because she's the most self-insert of my OCs! Though even back then I knew that would just be wrong so I didn't and then I realised some stuff about myself haha. I also thought I wasn't aro because I'd like some kind of life partner and romance is fun, which wasn't helpful lol. But yeah I’ve seen the sentiment of ‘I thought being aro/ace was hating/being completely oblivious to all that stuff and I was okay with it/got it fine so that meant I couldn’t be aro/ace’ and 1) mood 2) good example of why it’s so important to talk about those definitions because, I’m so glad to see those identities talked about more.

The OC post hadn’t been written but I think you’ve seen it by now haha. I don’t post anything besides +/- finished art on my artblog, so for anything OC related it’s on my main in the ‘wow i have an ocs tag now’ tag!

The vampire OC is Meredith, she's my little self-insert <3 Technically you could argue that since both her and Cécilia are really similar to me and they're not-dating-but-also-not-not-dating it's a bit weird but hey who cares. She's 52 and a potioneer/alchemist, she has a cat called Theo, a lot of friends, long hair and skin problems, she's aroace and she owns her own shop. Since she's a vampire and she has sensitive skin most of the time the only parts of her body not covered by clothing are like, her hands/fingers and her face more or less, she wears a lot of long sleeves turtlenecks and tights/trousers. That's not actually how I wanted to dress when I was younger, I said that because she also wears relatively poofy skirts and cool gloves and ballgowns and boots and jewellery and mostly dresses in black and red and dark colours, which IS closer to what I wanted to dress like (and still do tbh. How lucky she is to have an actual adult job that gives her money to pay for cool clothing and accessories...) Most of my OCs dress in styles I love actually, whether it's the guys who are literally just a guy and dress like that (the graphic tee/hoodie + cargo pants, a singular pair of sneakers and one vest that's too light for the winter, you know the type? Literally just a guy. Love that vibe I’m obsessed with it for some reason) or the elaborate dresses or the hair colours I can't really do because I don't want to bleach mine, or the clothes sharing or the jewellery or the gay poet/pirate shirts, they're all dressing super cool and I wish that was me 😔 Sometimes I'll imagine what my OCs or my favourite characters would wear in my wardrobe and it's very fun, I keep meaning to draw that and then I never do lol

Yeah I mostly act like cringe is dead because I don't really have interactions with people who still believe in it, but I do have a few anti mutuals (though coming out as liking Snarry got one of them to unfollow me so...? That's something? Don't know if it's positive or not but it happened) I don't actually know if you're mutuals with Alex @/storm-of-feathers since I saw you reblog from them but if you are, then you too have the pleasure of having anti mutuals :D Don’t know if you’d already noticed that or not, sorry if that’s how you’re learning about it? tbh after I answered your ask about Tomarry I expected the inquisition once again but apparently either those mutuals weren't online or I was right to tag the post because nothing happened. It does get kind of taxing to avoid talking about specific things or refrain from reblogging posts I like in case the few people who wouldn't approve see it. But at the same time I really don't like change so I'm not really doing anything about it since both of them aren't bothering me about it like 99% of the time.

Yeaah the Knights are just no fun :( I’m glad fandom is there to make something with the fun material the canon writers are just leaving there unexploited, but I also wish canon was just good on its own. Though I guess that does change things in terms of the fandom… I finished watching Gravity Falls a while back and it’s a very good show, so I was a little afraid of going in the fandom, as opposed to things like Star Wars where I knew that if I got into it I wouldn’t even hesitate throwing myself in the fandom. I don’t really know how to explain that, but (and I say that without any negativity towards people who like different stuff than me, they’re doing their thing I’m doing mine y’know) when canon is good and works on its own, it’s different to apply the same ‘fandom lenses’ to it. I read things casual fans wouldn’t even think about, but when it’s for like, HP or SW, it’s whatever, because canon doesn’t really feel like it’s going to explore the stuff it sets down anyway. Whereas with things like GF, canon IS exploring what it sets down, it has a clear message it’s communicating well, and coming in with for example some completely out of left field ship feels different. Anyway :’) I guess I could start getting into stuff that’s good to avoid the problem of canon sucking, but then I’m not getting as much weird fandom stuff, and that’s full of pearls and really interesting stuff I love, so heh

You don’t sound like you’re putting down your writing! I do get what you’re describing, not on a writing level but on a general language level, and I’m glad to know I’m not the only one haha. I learnt french and english through osmosis but my grammar is really bad and as you said, I know what would sound right and what wouldn’t, but not why. I don’t really feel like working on it personally though, so props to you for that, I gotta admire the dedication to actually improving yourself through work haha. I’m sure the exercises’ll pay off and you writing will be even better! (also 15 years is a lot, that kinda hit me but whoa you’ve been writing for a whiile) (and I realise I didn’t say a lot about this, I don’t quite know how to put that in writing but you can imagine the equivalent of listening and making little noises to let you know I’m following)

The GwtW essay might or might not come, I got a 18.5/20 on the ‘exam’ I read the book for (only counted as 8% of that class’ final grade but still) and the teacher told me I should try developping my thoughts and writing the full essay I didn’t have enough time to do. I’ll have to see how motivated I get, I’ll tell you if it ends up happening! Though I was a little turned off by the vibes Rhett and Scarlett give off at the end, I love me a nice little fucked up relationship but their vibes were just hitting too close to home (derogatory). I’m also considering a thing about my absolute forever favourite fic, Pacify by chickenpets, because it’s just. It’s just good. Except it’s the one that got people to send me panicked asks about my morality so yeah :’)) (it’s like. Snarry with some underage, an interesting dynamic and BDSM, but also super well written and it hit 700k recently and every time I think about it I want to go read it again)

Also also how’s the Tomarry going hehe? Recommending you all those fics got me to reread some I hadn’t touched in a while and *dreamy sigh* Don’t think I’ll be going back to canon anytime soon though, because by that point I know it well enough to tell you all the little details even if I haven’t read it since I was like 13 :’)) Your comment about Dumbledore made me think about the morality of putting the magical baby of her sister on the doorstep of Petunia Dursley though. Personally I see him not as a good or a bad person but as someone who by the point of the wars with Voldemort just did what had to be done. He didn’t explicitly want to give Harry a shitty childhood to make him more malleable like you’ll see in certain fics, it’s just that Harry had to be protected and the blood magic was already there. Also he probably expected Petunia to have grown up a little since her childhood when she was super jealous of her sister, and tbh why wouldn’t he? Yeah giving Harry to people you know nothing about is a bad decision, but sometimes you believe in the good in people (in most cases) and – well there are times when turning a blind eye to a situation is helpful, and when you feel responsible for the wizarding world… Like he’s not really a good person, but he wasn’t doing it to be evil? He just had flaws and a past and responsabilities. But also yes Harry Potter is fucked up if you analyse it from an adult’s POV because it’s a children’s book and obviously in the children’s book it’s not fun if Harry isn’t put in situations no good guardian would make possible :’)) God Harry Potter will never leave me. Like I’ll be able to give you a little speech on Severus on autopilot at 82 in retirement home :’)) just, forever etched into my brain whether I want it or not.

ANYWAY sorry Harry Potter was my thing for so long it’s ridiculously easy to get me to monologue about it for hours. Hope you’re doing well and having fun, sending you love <3 (and if you’re not, then I’m sending you even more)

Hello hello! I hope your holidays are going well! It must be wonderful having so much free time after classes! My appointment went well, though there's still no official reason for why I can't hear as well anymore lol. Supposedly it's actually a processing disorder? But I have to be evaluated for that now, so I have to wait until I can have that evaluation before I'll know anything more substantial.

Listen, I absolutely love every aspect of these asks. It's so much fun to get to really dig into things! And your insights and thoughts are always so well put, it's genuinely a pleasure every time you're in my ask box!

Wow okay the thought you've put into your OCs! You're right, I do create my OCs from a standpoint of "how do I get this character from point A to point B," so it's so fascinating that you've got this consistent point of reference for yours. Like, with my OCs, especially the ones I make for the purpose of filling out my cast (or in the case of my original novel thing, for the purpose of being the cast), I need to think of them as these works in progress, because that's what they are, they're constantly being affected by the actions of the other characters and their surroundings and the workings of the universe I'm writing in. I can remember always struggling with certain aspects of one-shots because how does one demonstrate the way a character changes in only one scene? And then when I switched to writing longfics (and ultimately novels, now), suddenly my writing clicked.

And, your OCs all sound incredible! It must be so wonderful to have this consistent cast of characters for all your needs and purposes. If you ever do manage to make the toyhouse pages for everyone I'd love to see it! You really have a way of emphasizing who a character is at that point in time, it's absolutely amazing how you do that!

I'm also firmly on team "Jedi can have some fun but not the extreme attachments that Anakin had going on." But yeah, I also want a life partner and I agree romance is incredibly fun to do! That stuff all requires a really good conversation up front with whomever you're gonna be doing it with though (and here I am, giving life advice like I'm not only 23 lmao but) if you've got the right person (or people) it can be a wonderful arrangement. I've been with my partner for a year and a half and with my boyfriend for just about nine months, and genuinely having a relationship with people who are similarly on the aroace spectrum has been so much fun.

I was going to explain how my relationships worked and then realized that's a little weird of me, even for tumblr, so I deleted it and um you're getting this instead lol. But yeah! Qprs and "romantic" relationships where all parties understand that the romance isn't something y'all are able to feel are really fun! Highly recommend!

I saw the OC post! Your OCs are so cool, just saying, like my dude, that's so so cool!

Omg please draw your OCs or characters in general wearing outfits you have or outfits you want!!! This is just a random thing, but I swear Luke Skywalker would look incredible in one of those 1950's shirtdresses. And the just a guy aesthetic, that's how I dress rn lol! Granted, once I get top surgery I'm going to finally buy the 1950's style dresses I've always wanted to wear but didn't pass enough to, but the just a guy vibe is incredibly fun to do!

Yeah so when I went from being a Zelda blog to an obikin blog in 2021, a bunch of my anti mutuals unfollowed me (which, good for them for having the maturity to unfollow instead of me needing to block them), and those that didn't ended up getting into obikin along with me. I did notice Alex was an anti, I'm not mutuals with them though I was following them for a while. I'm not anymore, one too many vagueposts about anti rhetoric got me to unfollow them, but yeah. I'm pretty open about what problematic stuff I ship (at least, in the Star Wars fandom), so if people follow me after seeing my bio that's kinda on them, and if they start shit I just block them. I'm still unlearning the whole being hesitant to share what ships I'm currently into from the hellscape that is the main Zelda fandom (and from my 2016 experiences with anti-reylos), but I've started to get better about it finally. It really helps to have like-minded mutuals tbh.

Oh, so what you're saying with Gravity Falls reminds me of this one thing I read somewhere a while ago! Basically, you can tell how good a canon media is by how much you (/general you) want to read/write fic for it. If its good but has lots of room for improvement, you're more inclined to look for fic, but if its really good and you can't see anywhere it could be better, you won't want to look for fic because it's all right there in canon! Obv ymmv, ofc, as with all things, but I've found this to be true for a lot of my own fandom experiences. Ofc there aren't any medias I can think of for myself off the top of my head, but when I do write fic or search for fic it's because I didn't like some aspect of canon or another, and really wish it had been different in whatever way!

I'm glad what I was trying to describe about writing was making sense! Thank you for listening, I really appreciate it. And 15 years is a long time, but like, I've been writing since I was like 8, so that's how I arrived at that number lmao. I was telling stories from the time I could talk, I just didn't start writing them down until I got to be 8, and that's where it all began! Little 8 year old me didn't even know I'd be writing like this though, little 8 year old me just wanted to keep my siblings entertained for our parents :)

Oh yeah I love a good fucked up relationship omg, but I'm sorry it hit so close to home like that. Okay so Pacify sounds amazing, I'm going to give that a look, thank you for mentioning it (insert eye emoji several times I'm on desktop and have no idea how to do that from here lmao). I'm sorry that you got panicked morality asks about that, wtf, that's so fucking rude of them. I checked the tags out on the whole series, and this seems so tame considering some of the tags I've seen for other stuff? And like, maybe I'm tainted from delving into the wonderful world of dead dove as a writer plus no longer having anti mutuals, but sheesh. Antis really don't have better shit to do? I hope you can get back to the fic someday, it looks really good and you deserve to have a good time reading whatever you want!

I had to take a break from the tomarry because I ordered the 7 books (from a thrift store, obv, we do not support R*wling in this household) and it's been over a decade since the last time I read them and I needed the refresher. I've just started Goblet of Fire, and I've only had my hands on the books for 8 days, and omg. The tomarry brainrot is real. And my old drarry brainrot is back, and I have to tell you I'm down for snarry too now!

Looking back at this from an adult's perspective is pretty wild too. The first two books were marketed as children's books, but 3-7 were YA back when they were released, and my library even had book 7 alone in the YA section up until a few years ago when they finally moved it down to children's to be with the rest of the series. All this context because, I've been reading adult fiction and horror for the last decade, when I wasn't reading fanfic. And reading children's books for the first time in that long was a goddamn shock (affectionate), but it was really fun to pretend for a bit that I was just a kid on the 8 hour drive to our vacation cabin again! Once I got to Prisoner of Azkaban I felt a lot more comfy with the writing style, but YA is much closer to what I'm familiar with than outright children's, which I'm ofc grateful for. And omg, this series meant so much to kid!me, and I forgot how wonderful it was, and all the current discourse with it (while justified) has really tainted my recollections of it. Yes there's so much ableism and racism and homophobia, but that's what fandom is for, isn't it?

(I'll be honest, as someone who's still got a foot in a fandom such as Hetalia, I see no issues with being in a fandom for a problematic media; and my personal opinion is that I'm not comfortable consuming canon unless necessary for such a media, and if I must consume canon then I buy it secondhand so that the creator doesn't get my support. I have no interest in the HP movies, nor the books past Deathly Hollows; and if I ever do have a point where I'm interested in them, again, I'll just by them secondhand. And if I may add, I've recently started getting involved in professional published and to-be-published author's groups, as a means of encouraging myself to work on my original novel, and you'd (/general you) be incredibly surprised to see how they all interact with and around content that's incredibly problematic for whatever reason and how they interact about authors who are horrible people such as R*wling. It's been very interesting to see such things from a professional, irl pov instead of just fandom. But anyway, that's my views on the topic just so we're all clear fuck R*wling <333 I also hope that all made sense lmao thanks for letting me express that I've been needing to say it since getting back into the fandom)

But okay my opinions on Dumbledore. That opinion from the other week was 100% warped by the last decade in fandom without any interaction with canon on my part. Having read books 1-3, I can see a lot of my old opinions and admiration for Dumbledore still being applicable today, in fact I even suspect a lot of my opinions of death and dying could have come directly from Sorcerer's Stone where Dumbledore talks about Flammel deciding to give up his immortality. And you're right, it's hard to apply adult lenses to a children's/YA series where if the guardian figures were "adequate" for lack of a better word, we wouldn't have any story at all. So I'm kind of reading this from a, "if I were still a kid again how would I interact with this" perspective, while also maintaining my, "as an adult how would I write these characters being in their 20s (or whatever age they are when Harry, Ron and Hermione are mid-20s)" perspective. It's been helping a lot to have my reactions split like that lol. I think my current annoyance with Dumbledore is that, how dare he let Harry go back to the Dursley's now, knowing how abusive they are to him? And I understand (from memory, ofc), that there's the mother's love protection, but I suppose from an adult's perspective, particularly an adult like how I am, I can't quite get it. I do take back what I said about Dumbledore being a horrible character though. He's got his past, and his reasons, and he's been fighting this war longer than any of the characters in this series have been alive for the most part. Obviously he'll be flawed in ways I won't be able to understand, and that's how real people are, so ofc I won't always get it. It's interesting, I think, being an adult and remembering how fondly and in awe I'd look up to Dumbledore, and now as that adult wondering how he could make some of these decisions. None of this is meant like, rudely or anything btw, just v interesting and v looking forward to rereading the rest of the series and forming further analyses!! Thank you for getting me onto this <33

When I finish the last book, I would love to hear that essay about Snape please (once again insert eyes emoji)!

And yeah, Harry Potter was a big fandom for me at one point so I def get it! I've found it's the kind of fandom that almost everyone has been in at one point, and most of us always go back at certain points in our lives. I'm really lucky that I get to be rereading it now, I really needed this right now with everything going on, so thank you so much Ram <333

Everything is going much better now, thank you for all the love! And right back at you, all my love to you and may you have a lovely day when you see this <333

[mryddinwilt]

Here's an attempt: No two representations of a character will ever be exactly the same, so defining where the "in character" vs "out of character" line is will never be other than fuzzy. However, it strikes me as de facto absurd that fics can change absolutely everything about a character's history and label them as being about the same character. They might, as you note, be excellently written stories - IMO they're about an OC who happens to have the same name.

**This post is going to talk about writing and fanfic in particular critically. If that’s not something you are interested in or find distasteful feel free to unfollow, block this post, or block the tag “mryddinwilt critiques fanfic”**

I think it is important to acknowledge that in fanfic you are dealing with interpretations of a character and so there isn’t a hard and fast rule of what is in character. In fanfic I find things might get attached to a character and perpetuated across fics when I see no basis for it in canon. I like to think of this as “fanfic canon” and it’s something I will push against or get annoyed with. For instance Emma having an empty fridge seems to pop up a lot but I personally don’t think that tracks with canon. 

Most see these kind of fanfic canons as harmless and unimportant but I find myself asking “But why would Emma have no food in the house? What does that say about her as a person?” When I ask that my answer is that she wouldn’t and I think that because Jen has talked about Emma and her relationship with food being a result of time in the foster system and time living on the run. So for me Emma would have a full fridge because she wouldn’t want to ever be hungry and she would appreciate the safety and peace of mind all that food would represent. This is definitely something that is on that fuzzy line of characterization and could go either way which I think is the case with many fanfic canons.

 From my post on Milah I have learned that for most people when it comes to AU’s lots of things exist on that fuzzy line and I think that some of this is because AU’s function much more like original fiction but without the mess of creating a completely new character (but I mean “new” is subjective since everything is a remix of our life/media influences). 

But I think to point that out, even as a compliment, upsets writers because they weren’t trying to write an original character they were trying to write a fanfic about their favs. It’s like telling someone they made an excellent birdhouse when they were trying to make a model ship. And for the most part I feel like we are all looking at these vaguely shiplike birdhouses and pretending they really are ships because we have collectively decided that birdhouses are close enough to model ships and we like them so why point it out. So we enjoy them but then if we try to float that birdhouse (ie actually line it up with canon characterization) it will sink. (what even is this metaphor?)

I agree that if you change everything about a character’s history it’s a different character. However, in fanfic a lot can be changed about a character’s history without them automatically becoming an OC or OOC. I think the history can be changed and if the character is changed along with it then the writer is just playing with how circumstances or experiences would have altered the character we know and love. I think this kind of thoughtful playing with a character is fun and interesting and part of why fanfic exists. Like your story “War By Any Other Means,” Killian is still Killian despite the changes to history because of the way you have written it. 

In the CS fandom, as @belovedcreation​ pointed out on a previous post, AU versions like Lieutenant Duckling are a fandom accepted version of CS. I would argue these versions come with their own fanfic canons and that most CS fans accept them as just as valid as canon. So they definitely aren’t Emma and Killian as we see on screen but they aren’t really OC’s either. 

Sometimes I think in AU’s, certainly in ones I have written, the characters are secondary to the trope or the plot. The story isn’t necessarily character driven, or at least not driven by the characteristics that are inherent to Emma and Killian, and as a result the characters get twisted into something a bit unrecognizable if you look too closely (or try to float the birdhouse). Although as a writer I am careful to add the details that are shorthand for Killian and Emma. She has abandonment issues and rolls her eyes. He has a large vocabulary and says “bloody” or “love”. That’s all window dressing on my birdhouse (that I might insist is a model ship) that makes people say “these are my favs”. 

I don’t think this is a bad thing. If an artist hones their skill and style by drawing Captain Swan and then goes on to make original characters using that skill and style nobody would have a problem with it. And I think fanfic can be the same thing for a writer, where they practice on aspects of storytelling outside of creating characters. 

The creativity, imagination, and talent that is evident in so many fics makes me excited and while I know that not all fanfic writers want to write original fiction I think a lot of them are further along that path then they realize. 

 This got long but I am so happy you sent the ask if only because now I am adding “float the birdhouse” to my own personal lexicon.