#demon that maybe clash with human morality or ideals...like what if he sees human lives as generally more disposable because hes lived for

[noecoded]

If you could have any Asmo/reader fic what would be the things you would want from it? like an ideal fic would contain what tropes or AUS or situations or whatever

uhmm anything wellwritten that characterizes asmo similar to the way i do ! i rlly like character exploration , both more serious stuff & just sillycute...anything where asmo is a little cunning and toxic and also gets railed into oblivion.anything where hes a vampire. ill write a tag essay about the specifics

[historic-old-guard-lover]

The emperor has to be god-king Andy. Also like since nicky and Joe obv have to have the lovers why not have andy and quyhn kissing as the empress.

Another related ask (potentially by the same person):

Also since the fool is a journey's beginning I'd almost want to pick Nile for it. As well there are four characters who commonly have swords (or an axe but close enough) and cards have four corners. So one sword each corner, nicky, joe, andy, and quyhn.

So. Someone has good ideas. Here’s the post that prompted these asks. This made me pull out my tarot deck and go through the cards. Below the cut is a break down of the entire tarot deck. There will be an explanation of the (standard) interpretation of the cards, good then less good, and then my associated headcannon (or more than one if I couldn’t decide). The source is my experience with tarot. I’m trying to minimize repeats, but historic and modern Old Guard members are counted separately. Enjoy.

The Major Arcana (aka the cards most people have heard about)

0. The Fool - the seeker. Naivety. Courage. Living in the moment. Journey’s beginning. All paths available. Folly. Apathy.

Nile. Anon convinced me. Though Booker has got the folly, apathy, and madness down, Nile is ultimately the beginning. She’s naïve but headstrong, and quite frankly a perfect match.

I. The Magician - the trickster. Power, skill, talent. Mastery, self-control, willpower. Subtlety. Divine connection and inspiration. Self-reliant.

Modern Nicky. Definitely Nicky. Just. He’s a formerly very religious man who just says these things. Also sniper.

II. The High Priestess - the moon goddess. Intuition, wisdom, foresight, divination, prophecy. Enlightenment, understanding, intelligence, education. Pride, emotional instability, unforgiving.

Historic Quynh. Her name means “night-blooming flower”, which is very moon goddess vibes to me. Also, I’d say over 500 years in a box turns understanding and enlightenment into emotional instability and unforgiveness.

III. The Empress - the queen. Feminine power, matriarch, mother. Fertility, pleasure, beauty. Success, evolution, movement. Marriage, wealth. Overattachment, domestic upheaval, delay.

Quynh. The counterpart to Andy’s emperor card.

Nile. Let’s be honest, she’s going to take over from Andy some day.

IV. The Emperor - the king. Masculine power, patriarch, father. Authority, leadership, proficiency. Wealth, stability, effectiveness. Perseverance, logic, endurance, experience. Lack of ability, weak character, immature, rebellious.

Modern Andy. She is the leader who’s short-comings effect her entire team. And who doesn’t love a little gender bending? (and her film look is already soft butch)

V. The Hierophant - the religious leader. Tradition, convention, ritual symbolism. Ceremony, religion, morality, philosophy. Mercy, goodness, forgiveness, humility, vulnerability, Impotence, Religious tyranny.

Historic Nicky. I mean, former priest (enough said).

Historic Andy. “I was once worshipped as a god” (enough said).

VI. The Lovers - the lovers. Love, attraction. Compatibility, harmony, choice.  Triumph over trials, vacillation. Entanglement, enmeshment. Infidelity, moral lapse, vice, separation, quarrels, inadequacy, failing tests.

Andromaquynh. *peeks out from behind barricade* I know that most people would just put Kaysanova as this card, but look at all the negatives it is associated with. Sounds a lot more like our immortal wives can really cover the gamut. They have the range....I am a sucker for Kaysanova, though. Even though the beginning of their relationship is rocky, I’d like to think it’s been fairly constant over the years. But let’s reverse the uhaul lesbians and fickle gay men tropes! Sorry, Book of Nile fans. That ship just isn’t established enough for this, I’d say. Maybe one day?

VII. The Chariot - the journey. Ordeal, obstacles, competition. High stakes, ambition, discipline. Conquest, victory, greatness. Right action prevails, overwhelming odds, sudden defeat.

Merrick and/or Dr. Kozak. I mean, this is literally their characters in a nutshell. Merrick is the journey/ordeal for the old guard. He is driven by his ambition, thinks he’s won over impossible odds, and then has a sudden defeat.

VIII. Justice - the balance. Equilibrium, equality, symmetry, harmony. Integrity, honor, fairness, neutrality, moderation. Vindication, self-righteousness, bigotry, prejudice, favoritism.

Nile. This is the woman with a sword card. She brings a balance to the team, she clearly moderates conflict, and I’d love to see BLM art of her in this style. Just sayin.

IX. The Hermit - the seeker-sage. Wisdom, inspiration, contemplation, discretion, understanding. Safety, protection, spiritual quest. Seeking truth and justice. Self-denial, timidity, fear.

Historic Joe. The idealized warrior poet? Definitely just a form of the hermit. Helps explain why a Magrebhi trader/artist fought at the Siege of Jerusalem: spiritual quest. I also like the idea of Joe having a secret reserved side.

X. The Wheel of Fortune - cycles of life. Destiney, evolution and progress, advancement. Manifestation, unexpected events. Success, sudden luck. Ups and downs.

Modern Quynh. There is nothing that better encapsulates her storyline than the wheel of fortune. One day you’re roaming the world with your immortal wife. The next, you’re drowning for over 500 years. The next you’re in Booker’s shitty Paris apartment.

XI. Strength - fortitude. Resilience, courage, resolve, confidence. Integrity, moral victory, endurance. Energy, action, vitality. Power, force, violence. Abuse of power, disgrace, impotence.

Lykon. Do I love this character beyong measure and reason? Maybe so. We have so little to go on about him, however, that the only things we do know bely his strengths. Also, he becomes ultimately the weakest when he dies and encapsulates both “extremes” of the card.

XII. The Hanged Man - the tested. Delay, sacrifice, abandonment, rejection. Betrayal. Reversals, restrained or bound, limbo, trials. Falseness.

Booker. If the fact that his first death was by hanging didn’t convince you? Read that description again. His character arc is literally working through being the hanged man.

XIII. Death - the loss or parting. Alteration, transformation, transition. Boredom, depression, stagnation, failure or disaster. Bereavement, recovery, immobility.

Lykon. He literally represents the fear of death to the remaining immortals. It is HE that they invoke when they discuss it. Also, I’m still mourning my favorite underdeveloped character.

XIV. Temperance - the moderation. Self-control, economy, patience, coordination. Consolidation, harmony, friendship, recuperation. Unfulfilled desires, discord, stubbornness, hostility, clashing of interests. Time, seasons, and climate.

A Safehouse. I don’t think any of the people really capture the tempered essence of this card, the constancy throughout all seasons of life. An actual physical building that rises and falls with (regular) humanity, though, seems to do the trick.

XV. The Devil - the arcane. Magic, strange occurrences, prophecy, fate. Catastrophe, downfall, negative attitude, Temptations, sins, obsessions. Enslavement, bondage, misplaced loyalty, violence, fatality.

Honestly? I’m so torn. I feel like a major commentary of the movie is that our demons are the way people react more so than the people themselves. Maybe the armored van?

XVI. The Tower - the House of God. Disruption, expulsion from an earthly paradise, divine wrath. Punishment (of pride), loss, destructive rivalry, plans ruined. Need to start again, bankruptcy.

The Iron Coffin. While this doesn’t capture the religious undertones quite right, the coffin is the Tower for Andromaquynh, It is (divine? or very human?) wrath brought on by pride since the two probably thought that they would be fine. It is loss and painful new beginnings.

XVII. The Star - the bright promise. Hope, faith, light of the spirit. Recovery, symbols of immortality. Gifts, good prospects, new dawn, frustrated expectations.

Nile. The new immortal, enough said.

Historic Andy/Lykon. In a way, the first immortal would also be a great choice of representation.

XVIII, The Moon - the hidden forces. Twilight, illusion, deception, trickery. Dishonesty, danger, uncertainty, terror. Developments, particularly somewhat concealed. Errors, powerful feelings.

Copley. I know, I know. “He’s the moon when I’m lost in darkness” and all that jazz. But look at this card’s interpretation and notice it’s pretty negative. Copley’s entire role is to pull the strings behind the scenes. He makes headway on problems in secrets, he lies and deceives everyone in the film at some point.

XIX. The Sun - the work’s rewards. Daylight, co-creation, union “of male and female”. Peace, joy, pleasure, love, contentment. Accomplishment, achievement, success. 

Joe. Not only is he the sun, he also fits this card perfectly. He is creation and happiness. Enough said.

XX Judgement - the rebirth. Judgement, sentence. Rejuvenation, renewal, resurrection, call to the new from the old, rehabilitation. Creation, promotion.

Historic Booker. I feel like his backstory with his family helped highlight the theme of rebirth for the Old Guard. They must be willing to give up what they have left behind to move forward. Also, there’s the more literal play as well since Booker was a conscripted criminal.

XXI The World - the long journey. Perfection, completion, conclusion. Power through intelligence and wisdom. The universe and the material world.

A group photo, of course! Beyond that? Who knows.

Historic Andy? She’s seen so much of it. Like just her eyes portray the history of the world.

The Minor Arcana (aka the rest of the cards)

Since most people are only familiar with the major arcana,  I’ll just briefly explain it. The minor arcana are actually the majority of a tarot deck. There are four suits associated with the four elements. Each suit has ten number cards and four court/face cards (traditionally modelled either based on one person or different interpretations of similar costuming). Each number or face has its own meaning, each suit has its own meaning, and their combination mostly explains what the card should be interpreted as. Quite frankly, the minor arcana are vastly underrated in popular understandings of tarot.

Suit of Wands - fire. Spontaneity, action, passion, adrenaline, life force, stroke of genius.

Guns? It’d be a bit of a niche take, but I associate guns with fires.

Staffs? More traditional in shape.

Suit of Coins - earth. Solid growth, material interests, possessions, profit, business, labor, slow and considerate.

Historic currency. Enough said.

Suit of Cups - water. Heartfelt involvements, imagination, spirituality, love, friendship, family.

Fountains around the world. Enough said.

Suit of Swords - air. Worry, trouble, boundaries, objectivity, the power of truth.

Obviously, their weapons of choice. I would go into more detail about who best represents each number, but I don’t want to bore you.

Court of Kings - mature men. Leaders, authority, status-quo, taking responsibility.

Again, most tarot is very gendered. But members in tuxes?

Court of Queens - mature women. Reflective and active, concerned with security/foundations, supportive, focused.

Members in dresses/gowns/anything that glitters?

Court of Knights/Cavaliers - young men. Dynamic, adventurous, intensive, revolutionary.

Tactical gear. Or historical armor. But it’s easier to do tactical gear right than accidentally draw a 15th century helmet on a 14th century suit of armor.

Court of Knaves/Pages - younger women, teenagers, and children. Students, apprentices, trainees, messengers, new opportunities.

Casual clothes.

[queenharumiura]

The elite: Ponsol and Kyouya~

Send me a ship and I will grade it: ||Still accepting||

C: Not a bad ship

Since I already touched upon Kyouya earlier i’m going to skip ahead to this one;;;;;;;;; Since I’m typing this up, I see no need to tag myself kek

I see that their relationship would be… better off as friends, perhaps. I mean it really all depends on the verse that I’m playing, but if I go with the usual one, which is highly headcanoned (due to him only showing up for like what, 3 chapters? lol) he’s— he’s an ass. Plain, short, and simple. 

He’s an ass. 

With the way he grew up, he grew to think that he has to be better than everyone else. He’s above other people. In his mind, people have to be used or they are useless to him. Similarly, he has to be used, or be useless. 

If there isn’t a benefit involved, then there is no point to a continued relationship of any kind with him. He’s very untrusting of others outside the mindset of business. He likes to be in control and will not tolerate anyone telling him what to do. He’s stubborn and he’s very vindictive. If you get on his bad side, he’s more than willing to see to it that you rue the very day you laid eyes on him. 

Now, he is very understanding of how messed up he is. He was raised to be this way. Power is the ultimate and that’s all you need. The more powerful you are, the less likely people can rise against you. It’s that kind of mindset that he had drilled into him since young. Additionally, he was taught that he himself is nothing but a spare. 

Due to this, he has difficulties making any true bonds with people. He hardly trusts people in his own family. The only people who showed him any care are his grandmother, his mother, and his brother (in his own way). His relationship with his brother is a bit strained because of the whole ‘you are a spare’ and the whole ‘i’m partly the reason why my brother is this messed up’ thing. 

That’s just how I headcanon things because I wanted for something to explain why they turned out the way they did as humans rather than demons. Yay human AU’s. Boo given absolutely no canon information about them, so I gotta pick up the slack. 

So yeah, Ponsol doesn’t trust a lot of people and knowing how messed up he is, he can’t trust that anyone would truly like him for who he is. The only way people can like him is if there is some kind of a gain from it. Business is something he can trust. The give and take relationship. Law abiding contracts that hold people to their word. 

Ponsol isn’t a good person. Outwardly, he may smile and be polite, but he’s usually ruthlessly tearing into someone mentally. It was the way he was taught to tear into people, to see them as lesser than him, but that conflicts with the way h was taught from his mother. She taught him to not judge people and to be kind to people. 

He really loves his mother, and respects her greatly. So there is always this huge contrast between the ideals his mother taught him and the lessons he keeps getting drilled into him by the strict and cruel upbringing by his grandfather. His grandmother tried to help but she passed away while Ponsol was still young. 

From this, he turned into this person who only cares about profits, and being very vindictive in the way to give people a warning to not act against him if they know what’s good for them. If they touch anyone in the family, he has to enact vengeance because how dare they think that touching his family would keep them safe? There is no such thing as ‘if you care for their life, you will do as we say.’ABSOLUTELY NOT. Ponsol is supposed to not care. Do what you want. For every scratch you put on them, he adds another step to his ultimate evil plan to make your life a living nightmare. Your loved ones will not be spared. You thought to touch his family, so why shouldn’t he stoop that low as well? In fact, he’ll do far worse. It’s the family way to return favors double fold. 

He’s very cunning and he’ll figure a way to get away with most things. His brother is sort of the only moral backbone he has when they are near each other. Even then, we know that Shugarl himself isn’t exactly a model citizen either. They’re just asses in their own right tbh. 

So with all that, you can easily say that Ponsol is messed up. He knows this. It really affects his mentality, and it’s this clash of his emotionally and mentally that makes him such a horrible person. He’s got a horrid and angry temper from this clash, and he can lash out if you do the wrong thing in front of him. 

I don’t really see Kyouya being interested in Ponsol when he’s like this. Maybe business partners, but given how he is… I truly wonder if Kyouya would give him the chance. Kyouya is meticulous so he’d do his research. I can see him looking into some of the stuff Ponsol did and not being impressed. 

However, another part of me wonders if he’d look into the past and realize some concerning things about Ponsol’s upbringing. After all, Kyouya also had instances with his own siblings, and maybe he can relate to a certain extent, since he’s not supposed to be the heir being that he’s the younger brother of the family. 

Ponsol is also the younger brother of the family. He’s to consider himself the placeholder for whenever his brother finally ‘opens his eyes’ and decides to take over as the heir himself. Ponsol works hard because he wants acknowledgement. He’s not just a placeholder. He can do this job and do it well. He hates the fact that people think he’s just a placeholder and they look down on him or even try to undermine him. 

That goes against the idea that he shouldn’t let anyone look down on him and so it’s always a rough battle in the corporation. He always has to look strong and be strong. He has to be the best, even above his brother, but still be told that he’s nothing in comparison. So it’s this weird thing where he’s got a lot of pride, but it can so easily shatter the moment his brother comes into the picture. 

It’s this weird borderline of him being so prideful and haughty, but also having nothing. Yep. He’s fucked up. He honestly needs help, but he doesn’t ever reach out for it because that’s ‘weak’. 

Having not grown with a lot of affection, he secretly craves for it on a subconsious level, even though he doesn’t think he needs it. That’s why I write it that when he’s sick, he sort of is a bit childish. He’s weak, he can’t think properly or hold himself to his usual standard. Being cared for when he’s sick reminds him of the time when he was very sickly as a child and it’s like this subconsious plea for help that he never knew he felt. 

He thought he gave up on all of that to be frank. It is possible that perhaps Kyouya can notice all of this and think that Ponsol needs help. He may not like him, or agree with his methods, but he understands he needs help. 

Both can b of use to the other, so while they have a business relationship, Kyouya can try to unravel some of Ponsol’s deep hurt. 

It would take a lot of effort and fighting as Ponsol has his guard up, but he does crave for comfort and affection like I said. So, if done right, he would actually fold a lot easier than one would think. He’s very weak to people who are loyal and sincere. If one were to show him sincerity in some form, he would take note of that and deep down start to form a kind of trust and or affection for the other party. 

This can grow to the point that he can see them as a friend. With continued effort, it’s possible that something else can come out of that. Ponsol is a willful guy who is selfish. He thinks of himself first and foremost. He really doesn’t care much for other people. He only does for the sake of appearances. 

Still, he’s quite sensitive to emotional and mental abuses since he suffers a lot from that himself. So he is a bit sensitive to that too when he interacts with other people. He may be prone to showing a bit of kindness in a situation like that. 

So depending on how willing Kyouya is to give Ponsol a chance and to work with him, it could work out. Maybe. 

Like I said, Ponsol is a messed up piece of work. However, IF he actually manages to find somone he cares for, he will do whatever it takes to keep them safe. It’s like a greedy dragon who will protect his treasures. This treasure of his will be someone who he will be considerate to. 

Basically meaning, this will be one of the only people (aside from a few of his family members) that can tell him what to do, and he’d actually consider it. 

He doesn’t allow a lot of people into his heart, so if you managed to worm your way in, you best be grateful. 

If Kyouya somehow managed to get into Ponsol’s life in a positive manner (and not business), he’d see the deeper part of Ponsol that most people don’t get to see. It’s because you somehow managed to get past his defenses, and so he’ll let himself be open with you. 

Deep down, he wasn’t a bad kid. He can be a bit sassy and bratty, but he was caring for people. As an influence from his mother, he loves flowers. He had to grow up seeing people bash his mother for reasons, and so he’s very protective of his loved ones. He felt helpless because he couldn’t do anything about it as a child. 

Now, if anyone had something to say about his mother, he will flip shit. He still can’t say anything against his grandfather though, since he knows from experience that it has the opposite effect. 

Idk how willing Kyouya would be, but it could happen, but with a LOT of work. Ponsol would think well of Kyouya’s character, but he would also probably feel a bit… self-consious around him? He’s more upright and moral than Ponsol is, after all. 

So it would be a reminder of how shitty of a person he turned out to be and it would make him feel a bit bitter on the inside to be honest. Still, he wouldn’t hate Kyouya over it. He would just have more inner depressive escapades because of it. 

He respects Kyouya for his work ethic and his charisma. He wouldn’t think ill of Kyouya. Given that he’s from a line of doctors, which have the duty of healing people, there is a sense of care that he feels. There is respect from that, since it’s the opposite of how he sees his family. They are cold, conniving, and cruel. 

Businessmen usually don’t have a very good reputation so ahahah—

All in all, if a lot of work was put into it, I think they would be an interesting pair. They would be that power couple that no one could lay hands on. Everyone would have to tread carefully around them. I’m sure they would be able to support the other in regards to business. They would have a lot of trust in the other and I think that’s precious. Would be so difficult though and i’m honestly not sure if Kyouya would even want to put forth the effort into trying to tame this asshole lol.