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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.

Also love this cause of the pining!! I have such a soft spot for insecure characters and I’ve read way so many where the one who falls first has liked the other for AGES without expecting anything back so it’s super cute to see their affection be reciprocated, and usually so obviously! The emotional payoff is *insane*, both for the pining character to “unexpectedly” get what they’ve longed for, and on the readers part because someone wholesomely going up in flames because of their affection is incredibly fun to watch

(add in the Y always flirts but gets super flustered when X does something cute and I am figuratively dying. These roles are interchangeable tbh)

I think people misunderstand "x fell first, y fell harder " trope because it's not about like the one who fell harder loves the other person harder. It's just that the one who fell first falls in a graceful way, one step at the time, maybe gradually over a span of time. The one who fell harder smashes trough the air, there's blood everywhere, everything is fine-

TBHK Ch 114 (manga spoilers)

moving on to TBHK cause I think Aoi is a bit underrated and Teru a bit oversimplified and the new chapter is SO much fun

It’s so interesting to compare Aoi now vs then!! Based off scraps. She seems better at acting cute but also seems more jaded which I wonder is because of Teri’s influence (boy can be toxic), the engagement, or the changes of her family (lore of her father?? I can’t tell if her family has changed from past line to this line but him having two whole other daughters is insane :<< she seems a bit more unhinged (slaps him with cold eyes and then pouts a second later) and whether that’s her stronger manipulation or the effects of her mixed-message childhood, it’s interesting…

I’m also still so curious about her relationship with Akane. Has he confessed at all? Or hasn’t because she’s engaged? Does her ver of him know neither of them want it? Are they still close or are they more distant? Props to Aidairo for trying to navigate all the convolution and idk we’ll ever find because we have our Akane not hers. But it’s interesting to think about.

on the earlier topic of family, it’s really sad because this whole chapter reinforces the idea that while everyone else lives are improved, Aoi became worse, esp if she and Akane are not close. While she potentially lost her family earlier than og, has a stupid amount of expectations on her due to her status as Teru’s fiancée, and might be chronically be looked down upon by Teru (cause he can be condescending and she’s def the type he doesn’t like), Teru has..more?

He has his mother now (which OMG the Kou-mother interaction T-T and she’s bad at cooking) which potentially can be SO much to him. His father appears to be more present as well. I’m not sure if Tiara is there or not. But either way, he doesn’t have to grow up quite as quickly as he does in canon. It’s hard to say how present line him is different from our line him cause Aoi can tell that’s something is up but that might mostly be to him not acting the way we agreed on?

I’m lowk brainrotting over Aoi cause I feel SO bad for her and omg kid Teru was an unfiltered child. Amazing chapter as always from Aidairo!

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

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 has been living in my head rent free since I saw it two days ago and now I'm like Cousin AU, where Toichi still died but whatever happened between the brothers didn't happen (idk if anything actually happened, I can't watch the movie until it's off theaters TvT) so the cousins knew each other and are pretty close. Dunno why Yusaku didn't look into his death (maybe decided it'd be better for it to go unsolved/lied about, which has def happened in canon before and Shinichi did it too in the whole plastic surgery case) But young!Shinichi is like no!! i swear something is up and I will prove it + I will protect my friend/cousin >:( and they work together from the start Introducing the progressive shounen-action-ification of the DetCo series xDD first we get explosions, now we get power creeping!! Don't know if it's been confirmed or denied canonically if Snake is part of the B.O. but if he is that would honestly be hilarious. Part 1: the entirety of Magic Kaito 1412, including the multitude of other thieves. So. Many. Thieves. (not that I'm complaining) Part 2: You've defeated the theives, now you're up against Snake's organization!! Mystery focus potential, but also explosion potential Part 3: You've defeated Snake's organization, but that was merely an introduction into the Black Organization (Shinichi may or may not get shrunk, I haven't decided). Insert ominous foreshadowing and a single clue that spirals Part 4: Some level of B.O. shenanigans, and then a strange woman becomes Ran's English teacher! (Jodie) Part however-long-this-series-will-go-on: the entire world gets involved with the pair at the center of it and somehow the B.O. still hasn't been handled. Vermouth dynamics with Kaito and Shinichi would be SO much fun (would Kaito also get a nickname or would he be brushed off LOL) What's Yusaku doing in all this???? Avoiding his editors, probably. Bonus: The Kudo mansion with a secret room AND an aviary. Just make it Hogwarts at some point. Bonus 2: Agasa and Jii interactions!!! Which I swear has been hinted at in canon that Agasa is the friend and has (unknowingly) helped with KID gadgets. Bonus 3: Agasa actively working with KID on gadgetry would be off. the. rails. Chaos squared.

Okay okay I know the shippers are grieving KaiShin right now BUT

May I offer you platonic/familial KaiShin?

Just think. They may not know it in canon yet, but Shinichi is technically Kaito's only relative who hasn't fucked off and abandoned him

Like at this point Shinichi/Conan probably gives more shits about Kaito/KID than both of Kaito's parents

Imagine the fanfic potential

Them finding out they're related

Kaito half glad and half weirded out that he has another relative who's actually here

Shinichi being baffled at Kaito's fucked family situation

Maybe even Shinichi going off on his dad for seemingly letting Toichi's son believe he's dead

Maybe even Kaito going off on his dad for, well, everything at this point

The drama

Imagine

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 could see it being either way, interestingly enough! It’s either she’s become more open (which I initially thought was the case and I even wrote a study fic on it LOL) or she’s become better at acting due to higher pressures on her and higher stakes (mother mental state and the whole student body constantly keeping an eye on her). I like to think she found a friend in present timeline teru since they’ve been working together for so long, and having that sort of platonic, non idealizing friendship could do so much for anyone (as opposed to Akane, who our Aoi though idolized her too much).

personally I think our Aoi was better off because she revealed the worst sides of herself but was accepted anyway and she was finding a first/close friend in Nene. Now I don’t know if she’s friends with Nene but it’s strained cause of her complicated soon with Teru, or if it’s also close (she may not tell Nene for fear of Nene accidentally telling, or believes that Nene idealizes her).

Ch 1 Aoi versus current timeline Aoi though…. Hmm hard to say. I could list all the potential negatives and positives if you want me to (is this when I reveal that I’m a psychology major? I think you can tell LOL) but depending on how in depth you want me to be, it might take some time!

TBHK Ch 114 (manga spoilers)

moving on to TBHK cause I think Aoi is a bit underrated and Teru a bit oversimplified and the new chapter is SO much fun

It’s so interesting to compare Aoi now vs then!! Based off scraps. She seems better at acting cute but also seems more jaded which I wonder is because of Teri’s influence (boy can be toxic), the engagement, or the changes of her family (lore of her father?? I can’t tell if her family has changed from past line to this line but him having two whole other daughters is insane :<< she seems a bit more unhinged (slaps him with cold eyes and then pouts a second later) and whether that’s her stronger manipulation or the effects of her mixed-message childhood, it’s interesting…

I’m also still so curious about her relationship with Akane. Has he confessed at all? Or hasn’t because she’s engaged? Does her ver of him know neither of them want it? Are they still close or are they more distant? Props to Aidairo for trying to navigate all the convolution and idk we’ll ever find because we have our Akane not hers. But it’s interesting to think about.

on the earlier topic of family, it’s really sad because this whole chapter reinforces the idea that while everyone else lives are improved, Aoi became worse, esp if she and Akane are not close. While she potentially lost her family earlier than og, has a stupid amount of expectations on her due to her status as Teru’s fiancée, and might be chronically be looked down upon by Teru (cause he can be condescending and she’s def the type he doesn’t like), Teru has..more?

He has his mother now (which OMG the Kou-mother interaction T-T and she’s bad at cooking) which potentially can be SO much to him. His father appears to be more present as well. I’m not sure if Tiara is there or not. But either way, he doesn’t have to grow up quite as quickly as he does in canon. It’s hard to say how present line him is different from our line him cause Aoi can tell that’s something is up but that might mostly be to him not acting the way we agreed on?

I’m lowk brainrotting over Aoi cause I feel SO bad for her and omg kid Teru was an unfiltered child. Amazing chapter as always from Aidairo!

Angst and longing and sadness aside, the fact that at least 85% of my Outlander twins personality headcanons/analysis/hypotheses seem to be TRUE makes me SO HAPPY

Are you already on your way? I've come with you this far, I'm never really lost, Our paths will surely cross.

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.