#mirtala also has to deal with it but dion's the one who gets the most damsel in distress moments

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Man imagine while Gisu and Morris are out on a future Mission Dion gets a head injury and gets Amnesia. Then when they get back their like 😓 (prob future Au)

Mmm. It's a neat idea but I have. No thoughts for it.

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Psychonauts Masterlist

It's about time I made another one of these. The AU name is also a link to that AU's tag!

Pooter Pile AU - Raz gets cloned. One of those clones replaces him at the end of RoR. ...this won't end well.

Rapids AU - Raz gets the membership card from Compton only to fall in the river. He lives, but now he has no idea who he even is. Loboto escapes early and stumbles across him; shenanigans ensue.

The River Runs Deep, My Dear - Ford's suggestions don't hold all the way, leaving Augustus and Lucrecia to pick up the pieces. The Aquatos fear Deluginists and Psychonauts in near equal measure—which is a problem when their second son wants to be a Psychonaut more than anything else.

The Lion - Dion and Mirtala's adventures in the fighting rings of Ouroboros.

Buried Beneath - Archelaos has evaded death for more than 2,000 years—and he's not intent on stopping that now. This becomes a Problem when his newest host is a young acrobat. Classic possession story, but with a psychic twist!

Dion Sees Dead People - (title subject to change when/if I think of a better one). Dion Aquato is not, and has never been, psychic. He will never be able to throw rocks with his mind or turn invisible. What he can do, though, is talk to the dead.

Undead Acrobat - Dion dies. Gisu & Morris half-accidentally fuck around/find out and bring him back. Now they've gotta deal with the consequences.

Sit Still, Look Pretty - Doll whump. Mind the warnings on this one, because it goes harder than my usual stuff!

Symbiosis AU - Another possession AU but it's different I swear. Sentient bundle of psychic energy gains sapience and snatches a body out of a desire to not be alone. The Aquatos notice that something is up with Dion...

That Terraria AU - Morris and Dion wake up on an island modeled after the game Terraria, and slowly get joined by the other interns and Frazie. Shenanigans (and violence) ensue. Name subject to change when/if I think of something better.

Psynautica - Psychonauts/Subnautica fusion. Dion takes the place of Ryley on the Aurora. It goes about as well as one could expect.

Acrobat and the Spider - Beauty and the Beast AU; When a young acrobat climbs over her mansion gate to find his missing brother, Gisu spies an opportunity.

Rewired AU - The Psychonauts start to encounter a new weapon being used to target prominent psychics. Things get complicated when it's revealed that that weapon has a very familiar face.

Raz Gets a Nap - You know how Raz has to do most of the heavy lifting in the games? Yeah, that's not happening here. Everyone else ends up filling the protagonist role, for better and worse.

Pearl & Seaglass - Little Mermaid AU, with a twist! Raz goes up to the surface with help from a sea witch; Dion and Gisu go up after him. Only Gisu has ever been on the surface before. Shenanigans ensue.

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Dion HC's?

Some of my headcanons and interpretations vary from AU to AU, but here's a few of the more consistent ones!

this got,,,, so very long so i'm slapping it under a cut

He can't aim to save his life. Oh, he can try, but he will miss the target and that is a promise. Frazie teases him for it constantly.

He was a very fussy baby. Loudest crier if even the slightest thing was wrong. Calmed down around the time he started walking, and got a lot less fussy when Raz was born. So far only Queepie's managed to be a fussier infant.

The kind of guy who complains to complain. Will gripe and groan under his breath over his chores as he does them, makes a huge production out of not being able to find his hair tie/grease/brush; that sort of thing. When things get serious, though, or when he's really, truly upset, he talks a lot less, and his responses get noticeably curt and short. He does not deal well with excessive stress.

Has let Mirtala braid his hair before. Will do it again.

Loves his family so much. Respects his parents and Nona a lot, worries over his little siblings—he might not admit it aloud, but Dion strikes me as a character whose family is his whole world. He's so very loyal, and there's not a lot he wouldn't do for them.

...and yet somehow he's still a massive jerk. It's not often that he's directly mean to his little siblings, but when he is he has a tendency to snap out the words that'll hurt the most. He apologizes later, but that doesn't take away the hurt (and some part of him knows it).

Has done night feedings for Mirtala and Queepie. It wasn't every night—but if he was already awake then he'd try to handle it before either of his parents woke up. When Queepie was born, Augustus and Donatella would do their best to wake up first because "son we love you and we appreciate that you're trying to help but this isn't your job." Dion and Donatella used to joke about it being a race to see who'd respond to the baby first.

Dumbass. Though to be more specific, he's not so much unintelligent as he is Not Great at processing his emotions just yet. Quick to believe people that he trusts would know more than him (his parents, Queepie, Gisu, Frazie only sometimes because she's pulled the gullible/similar tricks on him too many times to count, Raz about psychic stuff later in life), making him pretty gullible when he's not outright distrusting of someone. Otherwise, he's a kinetic learner, and knows a lot about health, acrobatics, physics, cooking, and basic needlework—but he's terrible at explaining any of it; he struggles to put his knowledge into words. Smart in that he can grasp stuff pretty quickly, not great at explaining it to others.

Tried very hard to be as Grownup and Responsible as he could when he was ten to twelve. He's still sort of in that phase, but he's also in a teenage puberty "everything is stressful and I would like a break" phase and it does not mix well with his desire to be more grown up than he actually is.

Puffs up like a peacock when it comes to acrobatics/his physical ability in general. Not the quickest to show off, but definitely craves praise far more than he'll ever admit. Quickest way to get him to do something is to imply he can't do it, and chances are he'll go and do it just to show off that he can.

Hoards criticism just as much as he hoards praise. Sometimes challenging him to do something on the basis that he can't do it works well, sometimes it just makes him pull back and less willing to try it. It usually depends on who he's around—people are pretty multifaceted, after all.

Doesn't think much of himself when it comes to more academic fields—he doesn't really realize how much intuitive knowledge he actually has, and he's self-conscious about his seeming inability to explain anything on a technical level.

Is the most prone to fumbling when he's at his cockiest. Frazie and Raz call it karma, Dion picks himself up and acts like He Totally Meant To Do That, Guys, Can't Let You Two Feel Too Bad About Being Inferior. This act fools absolutely no one.

Tends to follow his father's example in speaking through actions rather than words. But, just like how Augustus' bottled love line expresses fear over how being so reserved can undercut his relationship with his children, Dion's tendency to express his feelings through quiet little actions instead of outright saying them doesn't do him a whole lot of favors in the "not looking like a massive jerk" department.

Enjoys cooking, especially with Lucrecia. He's not a master chef by any standards, but he's generally good enough that whatever he cooks is bound to be delicious. Brings Raz homecooked food a few days after the events of PN2 as a way of apologizing.

Has a little poetry journal that he hides more fervently than Raz hides his comic books. I know I said he's bad at words but it's my headcanons and I make the rules. Also I see Dion as more bad at academic words; he's perfectly capable of rambling out things that make sense to nobody but himself. The poetry journal's mostly just a little place for him to word vomit his feelings in the least coherent manner; he doesn't use it as much in the months leading up to the events of the games, to his own detriment.

Competent at needlework and patching up torn clothes and tents and blankets. Absolutely hates it. Least favorite chore.

Has experimented with makeup before. He doesn't always wear it, but sometimes it's nice to feel just that extra bit prettier. Got most of his (admittedly still pretty limited, but he's getting better and better at it as time goes on) understanding of how to apply makeup from his mother.

Incredibly good at rambling so as to dig himself deeper when he's under pressure. Incredibly bad at getting out of trouble when he's caught doing Stupid Shit.

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from the little i know. Dion acts all tough and mighty but deep down he does the things he does out of fear.

is this true? also can you do a character study/deep analysis of his character for funsies because i find those so interesting

I've sort of laid out my thoughts on Dion through a lot of other posts, but if I had to boil it all down into one take, my thesis (if we allow for open interpretation of what canon gives us, alongside my own headcanons) is thus:

Dion is a character who, most of all, desires stability. His family is important to him; he knows where he stands in it and what to expect. He listens to his parents and tries to follow their examples, while impressing on his siblings to do the same. He sticks to what he knows and avoids the truths that don't fit his worldview.

Dion knows where he stands; he's the eldest, it falls to him to look after his siblings, and it's likely he expects to take over the circus when his parents finally pass it down. He knows his duties and chores, he knows what his parents expect of him. Dion knows where he stands in his family, and uses that to frame his understanding of where he stands in the world at large; he's an Aquato.

Dion knows what to expect; he knows his Nona and his parents and his siblings. He knows that his family is cursed. He knows his Nona has decades of experience, and can be very silly when she wants to. He knows his mother has high expectations of her children because she truly believes in them. He knows his father does what he does to keep the family safe. He knows his sister will always have his back, and he'll have hers. He knows Raz is obsessed with his nerd books and is treading towards a dangerous path, but he's still his little brother. He knows Mirtala is full of optimism, but won't blindly go along with things she doesn't like. He knows Queepie is smarter than most kids his age. Dion knows his family, he knows what to expect from them.

He listens to his parents, he tries to follow their examples. These are the people who raised him, he trusts them to know what's right or wrong and he follows their expectations to the letter. He's at the age where he knows that they can make mistakes, but he still trusts them because they're his parents. Because if he can't trust them to do their jobs as parents, then what can he trust?

Dion sticks to what he knows and avoids the truths that don't fit his worldview. The Aquatos are cursed. Psychics are tricksters and monsters. Whether he knows Frazie is psychic or not prior to the events of the game is up to interpretation (it tends to vary from AU to AU for me, based on what works best)—he's either actively ignoring a truth that doesn't fit his worldview, or he's utterly blind to it. He doesn't go in the water. Even when he finds out his father is psychic, and Raz points that fact out to him? "It's just a phase." He is outright dismissing something that doesn't line up with his pre-established worldview.

So when Raz runs away and Dion's world gets turned upside down in a matter of days? When his father turns out to be psychic and his Nona turns out to be his great aunt instead of his grandmother? When the most important tenets of his life are challenged?

Dion clings to what he knows and challenges Raz' actions. He snaps out the worst words he can without thinking about the hurt they'll cause, because he is frustrated and angry and terrified. He's losing what stability he has when he's already got a lot to deal with—and he's just a teenager, besides; he's not equipped to deal with his stress in an emotionally intelligent manner.

Dion knows that things aren't exactly easy for the family. He might not know all the finer details of the budgeting, but he's old enough to clue into the fact that the Aquatos are not exactly well off. But that's a familiar struggle, one he knows and knows how to deal with. Having his world shaken up in the way that the games shake it up isn't something he's familiar with—it's a different kind of struggle, where Dion doesn't know what the expect anymore or where he stands. He's just lost most of the stability he's used to, and he's not coping with it well at all.

tl;dr Dion desires stability, and does not cope well with losing that stability.