Ace Of Heartz

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Ey, similar tastes! Love that we’re both into Scott and Zelda too; I’m trying to write a western piece of music for Gangle shooting Jax in the head (I write music for fics as a hobby) which has been fun. Broadly speaking, what I tend to do is write a theme for a character, then figure out “Okay, what is the sound world of this story and how close to the pre-established canon sound does it hew?”. But anyway, it’s always nice to find those inspirations and stuff

And YESS love that art. The immediate read I got was “Oh, this is what Gangle thinks is going to happen if she reveals her true self. Being true to who she was provides people with an opening to take a shot at her. The persona she built dies, the respect (fear) the rest of the circus has for her dies, the notion that she isn’t slipping into her worst habits to maintain absolute control dies. And deep down she knows it’s not a matter of if that happens, it’s a matter of when, because somebody had to put the effort into breaking the tragedy mask. And there’s only one program with the power to do that…

OOHH That's neat, music is fun to work on :3 Also damn she's been straight-up psycho-analyzed this entire time. I think that's a big reason why I decided to use the Dorselessness mask referenced in one of Gangle's reference images (which was a reference to a video Goose made). Who the heck knows what it means, but I ended up making up synonyms for it and it's neat how it operates for her. If she fears being too much, then she'll become nothing at all. Or better yet, feel null.

What's the most non adventure related interaction that Gangle has with the others?

In the Restrung AU, Gangle will put together occasional events, similar to holidays and birthdays. She also has made celebrations for the cast after they completed multi-day adventures. Additionally, she put together Kaufmo's funeral a few weeks into being Ringmaster since, well, it got pushed around with her becoming Ringmaster and Pomni joining the circus. Speaking of Pomni joining the circus, she also threw a celebration for her joining too! Celebrations are really the only time that the others are somewhat comfortable hanging out around her, but she can still be too much. After each event, she'll hide away for a few days then return as if nothing happened. Zooble's the only one that routinely checks up on her anymore. Ragatha stopped trying after a while, but Pomni may take charge of that in Ragatha's place.

Aw, thank you!

First — I don’t know much K-Pop or J-Pop but I am very into alt rock which ironically feels more Zooble. I think I could swing that into the part of Gangle that wants her and Zooble to connect in the way they did, but it’s like “you gotta let go of the power for that to happen”

Second — Yeah, I like digging into stories like that. As such, my headcanon here is that a separate player can take the manic mask off but can't do the same with the comedy mask; only admins get that privilege now.

I only started getting into more K-Pop and J-Pop because of the playlist funny enough :3 It all started with Palaanims' "Scott & Zelda" animation, and then I listened to most of BIBI's songs, then sort of went down a rabbit hole from there. I usually listen to alt music myself, I'm a big fan of Sunday Cruise, and Avril Lavigne's older music. Also that's a neat idea, I think a part of that could be Gangle trying to claim some autonomy over herself, but ironically it makes it worse considering she'd be masking for longer.

Glad you liked it! Out of curiosity, which songs did you choose for the Gangle playlist and why? Always intrigued to hear what resonated with people

And yeah your AU is intriguing because you’re hanging over the Ultimate Power to someone who wouldn’t shy away from it but have massive blind spots in handling it. I love that Ringmaster Gangle isn’t inherently malicious either; less that the power corrupts her, and more like some part of her regrets taking it because she unintentionally robbed herself of what connected her to the others

My Gangle playlist is for canon Gangle, so a lot of the stuff is pretty chill. I have songs I think she'd like (So a lot of K-Pop and J-Pop), but also some songs I think she'd relate to. Some of those songs are "Drinking Song For the Socially Anxious" by The Amazing Devil, "(You) On My Arm" by Leith Ross, and "A Smile and a Ribbon" by Patience & Prudence to name a few :3 I also think you're probably the most accurate interpreter of the AU so far :D A lot of people I've talked to about it have taken it at face value, but it's good to see someone seeing it as my original vision :3

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6iXYCIDhmRLiJE7KTHAeBA?si=RHJNJcXjR3KkMwpBrrh2IQ&pi=R03ZIdC9QI2vF

Also — imagining something like "Furniture Lament" (https://youtu.be/UJQvHYM_Y8w?si=DU9TmlbaU5OQthhE) as Ringmaster Gangle's version of "Today's Adventure". She wants that whimsicality but everyone just views her as eerie because they want the old her back

YEEESSSSSS OMGG Same wavelength twin I really like the idea that no matter what mask Gangle is wearing as Ringmaster, she still is uncomfortable to be around unless she has her tragedy mask. She still refuses to ever be that vulnerable- Well, unless for this one moment I'll elaborate in the comics later on... Here's a mini comic for that concept in the meantime (and a summary of one of the biggest themes of this comic):

https://youtu.be/cDCIdAGzhG0?si=l54dQ2ELxS2Rg4kB

OMG YESS!! I freaking love that idea omg.. Cool little thing I worked on with my co-writer is that we imagined the integration looking like one of those old file-transfer pop-ups, but Gangle slowly replaces Caine in the process. Rough sketch to kinda show the idea: