Oooookay, so this is a completely disorganised (currently) stocktake of all the little thoughts and questions that re-reading DSoJ/SiO brought to mind. Notation is shorthand in most spots, feel free to poke about more details or respond etc. etc.
There's a lot to do with reincarnation, and Aoi lol.
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The perfume comment about Gin from LZ
"It was sweet and inviting, vaguely reminding her of cinnamon. The kitsune gave the air a few tentative sniffs and turned, following the trail to its source - Gin. She blinked. That smell had not been there before, had it?
"Are you wearing perfume?" She asked curiously, rocking back onto her heels. After a moment, she waved her hand dismissively and headed for the door again. "Whatever it is, you should use it more often."
Can't remember what this was about, at all lol
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Rokkoh dek ro cujk kamo U joo oei
Better not be last time I see you
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-Aurora whispered something to her after that but... don't know what it was, must've mentioned it in xat or something.
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Melli and Kenjiiiii. Vecna mentions Melli marrying the boyfriend M3 didn't like but came to accept, same guy? Hrm.
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Din and Sego - sego wanted to the first time (during the mirror), went to the second time (during RoV) but collar blocked. Free to do it now? Would be interestng to see how Din took it after everything that happened with her and Mirdala.
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Black feather that glinted gold in the sunlight - Xena found it during ITCoC, might be Shaligo's? Was right after Cen describing Shaligo to Salega so...
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Thora explaining history of the Mistresses (this bit about M4) to Htes
tried to kill her mother. When she couldn't ... She framed her mother for the death of the former King, and turned the Kingdom against her. M3 ran, and has not been seen since. Her daughter grew vain and narcotic. Crazy. But people marveled her beauty. And... After a little digging, I've... -Stops herself- No, I'll keep that to myself. [Is this a reference to Akasha?]
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Aoi's other parent - we had a plan at some point, I'm almost certain. It might have been genuine miraculous conception (it was the original idea but was never set in stone)? But I know in DA I was referring to her as a half-celestial, so maybe we'd settled on a mysterious non-angel parent? I almost want to say there was a tie-in with another character, some secret revelation but gah, memory. Ironically, given I kept her parentage a secret in FM too, could come up, hrm...
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Huh, strange thought - I don't think either of us put much plot thinking into *why* Aoi fell for the Heart of Darkness and all (plus her wings were *always* different, and are moreso even now, and having a tail because of Mirror shenanigans lol), could be plausible that his happens for one or both of two reasons;
-Reincarnation of an older soul (with prior attachments to Salega, or perhaps simply Darkness, or some other strangeness that causes the mysterious wing stuff too)
-Her missing parent has some connection; the influence on her wings, her mindset etc. might be a spiritual issue from her parentage, and would explain why her birth was uh, an oddity lol [this is of course, influenced by whatever plan we had initially - might have already addressed this with that plan, but I don't remember what it was DX]
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There was sorrow, guilt, and also... Contentment. Adoration. Things that went above and beyond a friend level that Century herself did not understand. - Salega, looking at H'tes. Because of all they've been through? Past lives? Forgotten how curious I was about how deep this ran.
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Also fuck it hurts so much knowing Salega thinks Aoi betrayed her :x
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And dang, I don't know if there are still copies anywhere now but, Aoi meeting and playing with Shaligo was really a bright moment, same as with meeting M3s family. I think we had to retcon it happening though? Since iirc, Aoi was in Lore when the portal appeared for DA. I guess it might have been elsewhere, but then the question of how she got there comes up (unless Salega took her to Alusterial and all before Aoi went off into the self-imposed exile). Although I think we also talked about Aoi ending up with M3's family and meeting Zeboim post-songbird (if/when Cen kicks her out or releases her depending on how you look at it). I know we weren't entirely sure *if* Cen would push Aoi out or not, given she's both an outlet for the negativity, and there's potential sentimentality there given what Salega meant to Aoi (and vice versa, really; she *did* try really hard to be what Salega needed after Cen left, but realised it was destructive for them both).
How much would be different if Aoi had stayed with Salega? Would she have still encountered LD in the same way (resulting in... that whole fiasco with Shera)? As much as I've mentioned self-imposed exile, iirc, bits of conversation with Salega and others (specifically I think, Shago) reminded me that it was semi-mutual in that Salega pushed her away too [Ironically meaning that Aoi actually *did* do as she promised, and stayed until Salega told her to leave, even if it still feels like she failed]. If they'd managed to stick together... mm, sorry, just made me think about how that culmination might have been different.
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Also dang, I just realised how absolutely torn up Aoi will be, even with Zeboim things. She's *really* fucked up over what happened with Salega, even though Salega did find some semblance of peace in it; she knows Salega will regret leaving people behind, especially Cen and Shaligo. And as much as she knows about the absolute havoc and tragedy the two have caused (especially Shaligo in the war just gone and all), Aoi would feel incredibly sad for both Cen and Shaligo. Yay partial stockholm I guess. Man Aoi is really messed up lol, but she started down that path reaaaal early on I guess. But yeah, just makes me think - what if she'd stayed? How different would Salega and Aoi be, would the end result (Salega's.... stasis?) still occur, just at a different point in time, as Shago hunts her down? etc.
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Notably I think there's a lot of my characters who could benefit from the reincarnation treatment; interesting ties, and would make the fact that they encountered who they encountered a little bit less of chance, a little bit more of fate lol. Also it's interestiiiiiing. =3 Notably, even if not a reincarnation of an existing canon, I know I want Zelika to be a reincarnation that's yet to even begin realising past lives - something LZ could 100% help her with. And yes, I would *love* for Zelika and LZ to be a... thing, for Zelika to somehow break down some of those barriers (even though it would cause a shitstorm lel). I did wonder... what *did* happen to Fuin? If Fuin isn't alive... could she and Zelika be tied? Reincarnations thereof, even? [Also lol, I keep forgetting how I made one of the factors for the Hunters that Din are apart of named Fuin, entirely independent of LZ's Fuin XD Yay coincidences]
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Possibility of dark fever having a cure in mirror dimension; better understandings of dark and light intermixing is a thing over there, after all. And it would be the kind of cure that normal Shadow Empire probably... wouldn't have much experience with. Gin's specialty involves poisons, acids, illnesses, and ironically exposure to short and long term darkness - if a cure *did* exist over there, may well have known. And no one would have thought to ask her, tbh [also geez, I need to integrate Gin into the ranks more, after reading through all the stuff happening amongst Knights in Graduation/DA etc. - she's *really* isolated still]. One problem with this idea is that, even if none of the AoD knew, Celeste probably would have... and ergo, probably would have had time to interfere in Shera's fate? If that's not the case then... could be a cool, subtle-but-important difference between the mirror and real world.
Also fuck me, the whole multiversal collapse-and-rebirth thing is going to fuck with Gin and Cae so hard; Gin because she was a mirror made real... and if Aoi does end up having a notable reincarnation cycle, then Gin would as well, making that doubly fucked lol. Cae.... oh gods, Cae. She's consumed so many versions of herself, visited so many places, kept the information about them in her head... she was already unstable, this might really kick that over the line. Or maybe it'd balance her out lol. I feel like something could come of this - and geez so many people would hunt her down if they knew she can travel the way she does.
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Why did Lego get banished? Always heard very general overview of what happened on the SR boards and whatnot (Madi seemed very fond and proud even), so always been sorta curious.
[Edit: 23/2/22] When Vecna 'ordered' Gin to not be present when Shago and Lego arrived, was that to protect Gin (potentially from getting deleted by being in that fight and Shago having no mercy etc. etc.)? Or to prevent her becoming a liability/bargaining chip (I feel like Shago would have no qualms using Gin for that purpose, since she'd be easier to capture - Gin's good but not 2-MSes good lol)? A bit of both maybe?
And aside from being Aoi's mirror as the reason, why did Vecna keep Gin close? We established demons were uh, pretty rare in her presence (and Gin suffered no small amount of isolation from the AoDs) but being a demon would make tailing Salega more easy and all... but Gin was fairly close with Vecna, and a lover at the very least. Just curious if perhaps there's more characterisation there that could be had.
Similarly, Gin's specialty with toxins/poisons could be something to compound on - both for reasons for Vecna keeping her around back home, and also for future shenanigans. Her body already produces unique substances and can mix and neutralise quite a few things - maybe it's a very literal, unique, specialty, bred into her or otherwise gifted? Something she could now develop and refine further - she's already helping in Quantum and something of a researcher anyways, could do more with her toxins and researching various hazardous substances. Even diseases (linking back to the earlier point about Dark Fever even!). :3 Dunno, just think it would be cool to really carve out that niche, aside from her being really in control in demon form, which is both a blessing and a curse.