MariClaw AUs

my questionably fatal flaw is having like 20 small scale writing ideas that aren't enough to make a fic so i mash things together and create a fic using 2-4 initially separate ideas

crack au where Kim Dokja finds an abandoned toddler/smol child by the garbage and takes her(?) in (it’s biyoo). Years later, he finds a handsome man lying passed out on top of the garbage and, against his better rationality, also brings him home (it’s Yoo Joonghyuk). yes it’s crack because while finding passed out pretty boys in sketchy areas is a very real cliche, deciding to take home a stranger is b o l d.

4.7 interlude/archon quest spoilers

no matter what, they always think of each other T-T this game for reallllllll traveller forgetting all their other questions, simply wanting to ask why they can't stay together abyss sibling, remembering what their sibling said all those years ago, perhaps wanting their sibling to see the name. not to mention, the indication they they're concerned about how the sibling perceives them (i was soooooooooooooooooooooooooo right about this in my headcanons and im so vindicated and i love them so much) caribert is probs my fav npc now ngl Q-Q he's technically very gary stu vibe but he hits all my soft spots and the part with him at the end with the twins!! i wish all of them could be happy together. all these memories....whats going to happen to them? (anyway I love the indicated dainsleif angst, theres very vague hsr vibes to it. i wonder what had happened to them, and why dain was excluded...?)

The animated short inspired me to go back to my 2022, 4k words with categories analysis on the twins that maybe one day hopefully I'll finish, but here's some of the quick-edited twins I made from cutting and pasting hangout images! Some headcanons I had that seem a bit confirmed

People are more easily drawn to Aether while Lumine pays more attention to people

Aether as talkative and sociable (why people are drawn to him) while Lumine is more quiet/reserved

but, she's really affectionate to the people she loves!!

Lumine appreciates beauty more, and points beauty out to Aether (sharing food, sharing kite, taking the time to step into a lake)

Things I didn't guess but i really love

lumine is playful!! She's actually a bit more childish than I had expected but I love how that follows the way she's the younger sister

Aether and Lumine switch off quite a lot in who's being chatty that day (among themselves). In the quest, Aether was the one excitedly chatting as they walked along the beach, here, Lumine seems more upbeat/playful.

Anyway here's the quick edits I spent WAY too much time on

A lot of these fit really well which made me happy TvT

Disclaimer that a few of these are horizontally flipped for the duo effect but since I made most of them in 2022, I'm not sure which are. These are taken from hangouts!

this this this this

i feel like their journeys and character arcs change drastically depending on who the traveller is. Lumine as a reserved girl who becomes a villain? Stereotypical. Lumine as a reserved girl who has a coming of age arc underscored by grief and loss and insecurity? amazing Also if Aether is the abyss sibling then it's like, wtf happened for the sunshine guy who cares so much about his sister to become so cold? He talked SO MUCH in that dream flashback and when he meets his sister again, he says like 2 sentences?? Maybe it's the passage of time or whatever but the extreme change in his character creates so much interest

I love Aether as the traveler and Lumine as the Abyss princess I think that makes a lot of sense and is really fitting for the story. Plus abyss Lumine is hot af 🫶

But

I much prefer Lumine as the traveler and Aether as the abyss prince. I’m probably biased as I picked Lumine but I just find it really interesting. It’s a bit generic having the sunshine boy the good guy and the cold mean girl the bad. If you reverse it and make it the sunshine boy turned bad and the cold mean girl forced to be the hero, it becomes a much more compelling story.

Just imagine, the man who’s too kind for his own good, always helping people, friendly and social, has gone through that much trauma and pain that he wants to get revenge on the very people he once stood for. On the brink of insanity from all of the hatred he feels.

Now imagine Lumine. Cold, distant, calculating. Someone who’s never been in the hero role before and has suddenly just been thrust into it out of nowhere. She’s in her brothers place. This is a scenario her brother would thrive in. Not her. To make matters worse, she still has absolutely no idea where he is. She doesn’t know what to do. She’s absolutely trapped.

She has to learn to adapt over time. Learn more empathy. Be able to make friends more. Feel like she can truly trust people. It’s a learning curve for both of them. Lumine learning that she can trust people other than her brother, Aether learning that he can trust a lot less people than he originally thought.

Though, with everyone new Lumine meets she becomes more and more agitated and even more angry over time. She wants her brother. She doesn’t want to save nations. She doesn’t want to save people.

Her and Aether are two halves of one whole. They are what the other isn’t. They can’t cope properly without each other. All she wants is him. Imagine her desperation when she learns he’s missing. Her frustration and anger as no one properly helping her or taking her seriously. Knowing he’s alive but where the hell could he be!? Her utter relief and joy when seeing him again. Thinking they are going to go back home.

Now imagine her distraught when that same brother chooses the abyss over her.

"A gun that shoots cards? What for?"

Lee Hakhyun my boi Q-Q

major spoilers for orv novel and side story 5! (760s)

I’m not fully up to date on the side stories but I’m a major chunk of the way in (the Zodiac Ball arc). Im someone who always finds myself rooting for the side/mob characters that appear for 2 chapters and never again. And Lee Hakhyun, with all his compassion, his regrets, his failures, his concerns, his insecurities, feels so uniquely human and relatable in a way that not even Kim Dokja had felt. ORV I started because of the premise and story telling and I got attached to the characters along the way. Lee Hakhyun…I got attached a few chapters in Anyway, the crazy thing is that I’m kind of mourning Lee Hakhyun more and more as the story pass. He’s still alive!!! And I’m grieving for him!!! He’s changed over time and maybe it’s character development, or confidence, but it feels more like the loss of an identity. Especially because in the current arc I’m on and the ones before it, he takes on Kim Dokja’s identity again and again, over and over and over. And at first, it’s so apparent what the differences are!! It’s really amazing, and full props to the author for being able to distinguish and write their characters so well. It’s also because of this that I feel like Lee Hakhyun is becoming Kim Dokja, and if so, that’s so…sad. Not in a bad way or anything fully negative. Change is inevitable, change happens. It’s not always bad, but thinking of what was is always…sad. (Also all of this is fully intentionally on the author’s part I believe, LOL). If it an identity change, it’s one thats almost coerced onto him, and that makes it sadder. The company calls him Kim Dokja and want him to be Kim Dokja, his current group calls him Kim Dokja because of context, his stories are telling him to be Kim Dokja. In truth, in one of the earlier chapters, I was so relieved and happy when the cast shared their true names and our MC said ‘Lee Hakhyun.” He wanted a new identity, and he got it; he has lived a whole life full of successes and failures that are entirely his own. But in the end, it’s cyclical. He was a person (kdj), but just a part, such that people appreciate but are not satisfied. He is an author compelled to write someone else’s story, such that readers admire that story but not his writing. (An author who got popular off a work that you wrote but that isnt your own, how scary is that?? As a writer, that sounds terrifying) He is himself, trying to be whole, but is made to be someone who he didn’t/doesnt want to be (49%), and the more he is made to play that role, the more his boundaries get lost. Lee Hakhyun, the more the story goes on, the more I can’t tell what actions/thoughts are yours, perhaps made with more confidence, and what actions/thoughts are Kim Dokja, whether acting as him or slowly becoming him. I want the story to have a happy ending, but is that even possible, with my perceptions of it? What would it entail? Can he be two different people at the same time? He has people around him to remind him who he is as Lee Hakhyun, but the knowledge that they’re all fragments of Kim Dokja add a level of instability and mind fuckery that makes it less reassuring than it should be. How much has he changed from the 560s to the 760s? Is it character development, or character transition? What is the core of his identity, considering everything? Lee Hakhyun of the beginning is someone I’ll remember fondly for how human he is, and I’ll have to do some rereads to define him more concretely, but I’ll miss him, if he’s not there anymore In context of this post and the whole story, honestly rip our MC for constantly being in an identity limbo and rip me because I didn’t expect the side story to include so much existential crisis. Regardless, i really truly hope he’s happy and content and confident in/by the end

Flowers in her hair

Inteyvats, a soft flower that turns to figurative stone when it’s taken away from its homeland, and can only rest once it’s returned home. 

When she returns home, will she also turn to dust? It feels…peaceful. Even the thought of it. To be with Aether again, to have her name called, to rest in familiar warmth and simply be done. Dust, turning and glowing under rays of sun. Home.

But does ‘home’ still exist? She has done so much. She has killed and massacred and tortured and played a role in the end of civilizations. Five hundred years is a long, long time. What will be at the end of the road for her? A field of blooming flowers, like the ones they have always wanted to see, and a gentle rest amidst soft petals? Or is it the feel of metal through her chest, a cold rejection and sharp shards and a brutal shattering once she can no longer hold herself together?

Some nights, she wonders where Aether is, and if he can come back to her. Some nights, she thinks of his face and can’t sleep anymore, for fear of what expression he may have. Home. Stone. Dust.

She can’t allow herself to shatter just yet, no matter how much she may want to.

Tips for writing those gala scenes, from someone who goes to them occasionally:

Generally you unbutton and re-button a suit coat when you sit down and stand up.

You’re supposed to hold wine or champagne glasses by the stem to avoid warming up the liquid inside. A character out of their depth might hold the glass around the sides instead.

When rich/important people forget your name and they’re drunk, they usually just tell you that they don’t remember or completely skip over any opportunity to use your name so they don’t look silly.

A good way to indicate you don’t want to shake someone’s hand at an event is to hold a drink in your right hand (and if you’re a woman, a purse in the other so you definitely can’t shift the glass to another hand and then shake)

Americans who still kiss cheeks as a welcome generally don’t press lips to cheeks, it’s more of a touch of cheek to cheek or even a hover (these days, mostly to avoid smudging a woman’s makeup)

The distinctions between dress codes (black tie, cocktail, etc) are very intricate but obvious to those who know how to look. If you wear a short skirt to a black tie event for example, people would clock that instantly even if the dress itself was very formal. Same thing goes for certain articles of men’s clothing.

Open bars / cash bars at events usually carry limited options. They’re meant to serve lots of people very quickly, so nobody is getting a cosmo or a Manhattan etc.

Members of the press generally aren’t allowed to freely circulate at nicer galas/events without a very good reason. When they do, they need to identify themselves before talking with someone.

I didn’t have a bingo list but all my ships being destroyed in 2024 wasn’t on it