DreamyPoet

This AU has been in my head for a long while. Although I did not pay that much attention to my religion classes, I remember one of my teachers saying that righteous souls waited somewhere in Hell before Jesus saved humanity.

Correct me if I am wrong, since I am not that well-versed in my theology, but Hell (or, Sheol, "The Graveyard") before Jesus was divided into the following: the Place of Torment ("Gehenna") and Paradise (Abraham's Bosom). The former is for unrighteous souls, while the latter is for the righteous. There was also a section for fallen angels - Tartarus.

Anyway, going back, purgatory in Catholic doctrine has been identified as a "place of purification." One of my other former religion teachers has likened it to a "boot camp" where one had to cleanse their soul before being accepted into heaven.

So, in this AU, before Jesus's time, Charlie has been given the role as Warden in Sheol. She was both overseer of the "unrighteous" and "righteous." This also extends to Tartarus, which is how she would have met Vaggi, a fallen angel cynical with Heaven. (Vaggi here wouldn't have been created by Adam). For the most part Charlie continues being her canon-typical optimistic, energetic self. She is fascinated by how they (fallen angels and sinners) got to where they are. Cue a lot of philosophical talk between Charlie and Vaggi. Charlie has been raised in Sheol, and thus is curious with the concept of free will. Also, as a bonus, due to her parentage, she is not allowed to leave Hell. This fuels her desire to know more about Heaven and Earth.

(Side note: Charlie's role as warden is also punishment for BOTH Lucifer and Lilith, because their daughter is basically the official ruler of their prison).

By the time Hell has been more "strictly" defined as a place for sinners, she has been placed in charge of purgatory. Not as someone who would rehabilitate these people, but as someone who would keep things in check while actual, active angels did the actual rehabilitating. For this AU, it would be Sera, and her student Emily.

Still, there is a caveat to purgatory. It's for good people. Technically, these are still righteous people who still need a little bit more spiritual cleansing. The actually, permanently fucked over damned souls remain damned for eternity.

For the most part, Charlie has been following Heaven. She's doing her wardenly (or might I say, princess-y) duties for millennia. But by the time purgatory becomes official, she begins disagreeing. She starts challenging Heaven regarding how "bad" people can be redeemed. This is also in part because she started developing feelings for Vaggi and wants to help free her. But the Charlie of this AU is more bureaucratic given she's picking up the pieces of her parents' actions. (They are also absentee parents dealing with their own personal shit, which led to Charlie becoming a workaholic).

In turn, Heaven has given Charlie a challenge: turn an "unrighteous" soul into a "righteous" one. There's no deadline at all. Heaven just wants to see if Charlie could pull it off.

So Charlie tries.

For centuries.

She continues, even though each sinner fails her.

Her optimism never dies out, however. She's confident someday, someone will be redeemed. And she's confident someday, she can get Vaggi out of hell. (Charlie hasn't thought of "redeeming" Vaggi at this point, because she's more fixated on testing out her hypothesis).

This AU would be more episodic in nature. Each "episode" would be Charlie dealing with bureaucratic nightmare paper work, maintaining peace, arguing philosophy with Sera, and bonding with a sinner. There'd also be Chaggi moments, ofc! Just.....imagine Charlie speaking into a really, really deep well, leaning as much as she can forward to hear Vaggi's responses.

Essentially, this Charlie would grapple with the question, "Why even bother trying, if it won't work?" for millennia. This also includes Charlie constantly coming to terms with her own existence. Yes, there's also a bit of existentialism here, given how Charlie was a product of free will, and therefore would not have, well, existed, if Lucifer and Lilith didn't do what they did.

Out of desperation to save Qifrey, Olruggio becomes a Brimmed Cap.

Given the shit the Brimmed Caps put Qifrey through, he is NOT at all happy. This leads to a Very Messy Situationship Break-up. The break-up takes place in the Great Hall with Olruggio committing arson & Qifrey throwing hands (he forgot he can use magic).

However, throughout the years, these two gay disasters continue yearning for each other. Oftentimes, Olruggio is monologuing to himself about how he is free as a Brimmed Cap while Qifrey is still trapped by the rules of Pointed Cap society. He laments about how he wants to whisk Qifrey away from everything and start anew. Alas, that can only happen once the Silverwood is out of Qifrey. Olruggio’s Savior Complex™ is way off the charts as a Brimmed Cap. Qifrey is his damsel in distress.

Meanwhile, Qifrey is still living out a cottage core life with his apprentices. Whenever he talks about the past, the girl notices he usually mentions a mystery man whom they theorized must’ve been his boyfriend. Qifrey gets a nostalgic look in his eye and Frieren-esque music inexplicably plays in the background whenever talking about Olruggio. Olruggio is The One That Got Away™

Tetia and Coco get it in their heads to find the mystery man. Richeh just wants to see shit unfurl while Agott doesn’t want to do anything.

Somehow, the girls manage to run across Olruggio by accident. Olruggio has done his fair share of still checking over (aka: stalking) Qifrey throughout the years and knows these are his apprentices. Cue a disastrous journey bringing back the kids to the atelier.

This leads to a screaming match between Qifrey and Olruggio when Qifrey opens the door to see his apprentices accompanied by his situationship.

Thank you, Gooseworx, for this amazing show.

(Spoilers below:)

The girls have an existential crisis about it which leads to a very dramatic big-in-the-feels moment for everyone in the atelier.

(This leads to Qifrey & Olruggio finally getting their shit together and tying the knot for the sake of legalities. A small ceremony is held—after a year-long battle with Beldaruit.)

Beldaruit uses their newfound matrimony as an excuse to spend more time with his grand(kids) apprentices. Cue more battles between Orufrey and Beldaruit about visitation rights. Cue more father-son angsting between Qifrey & Beldaruit.

It would be instant game over for the Prototype.

I mean, seriously, among all the antagonists, their abilities are so OP I can’t suspend my disbelief. Like, what you mean the Prototype somehow managed to perform such a high quality experiment for Lily when the Wrongside Outimals are….barely functioning?? And, seriously, no amount of physics and chemistry mindfuckery can explain how Doey can do what he can. ESPECIALLY considering they’re three in one.

Imo, if I were the Prototype, I would definitely want Doey & Lily by my side. Technically Lily was already his ally but somehow he was unwilling to use her when he was hella okay with Sawyer. (No arguments about Ms Gracie being one of the worst humans in the game tho).

So, imagine this:

Catnap + Lily + Doey as the Prototype’s main allies.

Ngl, y’know the saying that the “eyes are windows to the soul”?

Mark may have inherited Nolan’s powers and physique, but he certainly didn’t inherit the Viltrumite spirit. Yes, he could have, as seen in his other variants, but he didn’t.

He inherited Debbie’s soul. If it weren’t for Debbie’s love and care, Mark would have been a mini Nolan all throughout.

(Minor manga spoilers:)

This is a whole different level of daddy issues that so many comic (and ao3) writers have their own take on this dysfunctional duo.

Although, imo, the most interesting take on these two is how Bruce is unable to reconcile current Jason with Jaybin. Afaik, Jaybin was the embodiment of the “perfect” Robin. Where Dick was a kiddo full of rage Jaybin was all sunshine and rainbows.

He was, as many put it, a “happy kid.” Well, he’s a traumatized kid who’s happy and RELIEVED to find a loving home, even if his big bro lowkey hates him.

Jaybin was Bruce’s perfect kid. He got a handful of Dick’s teenage angst so you betcha this emotionally constipated human is thinking to himself that Jaybin is less “high maintenance.” After all, Jaybin was a smart cookie who was interested in college. Sike, Bruce forgot to factor in completely that Jason’s life pre-Robin was FUCKED. So this emotionally constipated motherfucker didn’t sit down and reflect on Jason’s death.

Instead, he immortalized Jaybin as an ideal, albeit flawed Robin. Jaybin was perfect, his perfect little boy.

Then Jason becomes Red Hood and the illusion shatters.

He’s the anti-thesis to Bruce’s morals. So Bruce looks at the Red Hood, unwilling to acknowledge that the Red Hood IS Jason. That the Red Hood is a part of Jason probably spurred on by Jason’s disillusionment of his moral code.

Personally, I think that Bruce and Jason is the ultimate case scenario of when a child is no longer their parent’s perfect little baby.

However, I was legit stunned after Zooble exclaimed they wanted to leave their mark in the world. I wasn't stunned that Zooble wanted to leave a mark (since when did any human at any point of their life NOT have a dream where they changed the world?), I was stunned they still had hopes of making a mark despite the circumstances. That, underneath all their "fuck this shit" attitude, they still held on to a dream.

I genuinely felt emotional seeing Zooble grapple with the idea that...they had to abandon that dream. That was a personal gut punch to me. Idt I can cope with the idea of someone saying, "Sorry, you need to abandon your dream." Bc YEAH, ik being a dreamer in this economy and this geopolitical shitshow is laughable and hella difficult, but it's a whole new world of despair when you're confronted with HAVING to abandon a dream bc it's the LOGICAL and ONLY option you have.

Although I am aware of TADC's message, it never truly dawned on me until Zooble said,  "I wanted to be able to leave my mark somewhere in the world." I think most of us are okay with living in a "stagnant" world as long as we have our besties near us. I don't think a lot of us here would be okay with the idea of abandoning a dream where we made a name for ourselves. Surely that's not just an Asian thing....right??? Who here has never dreamt of being recognized for their talents? Who here has never dreamt of being remembered in history alongside (actually decent) historical figures? Who here has never felt excited when someone praised their work? Who here has NEVER felt at least a little bit of annoyance when other people don't see their hard work? Perhaps that's humanity's pride at work. The need for recognition, for titles, and for validation. The need for grandeur. And so, I was already teary when Gangle tells Zooble, "You've made a mark in my life." Zooble had always been there for Gangle, and it's so, SO bittersweet Gangle gets through to Zooble because she herself HAD to abandon her dream of becoming an artist. Still, at the end of the day, no amount of achievement would ever bring as much joy as the joy you'd get from...

...Simply being there for others. There IS beauty in the ordinary aspects of life. But, oftentimes, we are blind to such wonders around us. Ik for a fact I still have a lot to un-learn about the definition of success and living a good life. Man, this show has changed me in a lot of ways. Where other shows have pushed for epic battles and adventures, TADC invites people to sit down, breathe, and feel. To fully embrace the moment as is.

Throughout the episodes, never had anyone tried thinking about Caine’s POV. Which, again, is valid, bc to the crew Caine is their prison warden. And they did try talking to Caine a lot of times only for their concerns to be dismissed. Noticeably, Zooble only regretted saying what they said to Caine bc our wacky circus ringer crashed out. (Still, kudos to Zooble for playing as Caine’s therapist). And the crew gave up the notion of trying to get in Caine’s mindset, bc he’s an AI. They see him as an unpredictable threat.

Altho Caine pulled the BIGGEST dick move in Ep 7, it felt like a cry for help. A cry for help Caine himself felt too ashamed to say himself bc he’s “god.” So he tried pleading with the crew through Abel, with heavy emphasis as Caine being a fellow prisoner. It was really Caine coming to terms he isn’t part of the crew did he go all out as a tormentor.

And, at the end of the episode, no one really feels bad Caine died. It was an “Oh SHIT” moment—Caine’s “deletion from existence” is sidelined. It was an “Oh SHIT” moment bc the crew has to grapple with a world where the false god is gone. It was NOT in everyone’s checklist that Caine would be erased. Caine was an essential but annoying part to the Digital Circus. He wasn’t a member, sure, but he had a purpose. A purpose that was constantly called into question bc Caine himself wasn’t human.

At the end of the day, Caine never realized all the painful emotions he felt were human. He had a choice to be human by listening. But he chose to put his head in the sand like some Ostrich and continue everyone’s suffering.

Maybe, the most tragic thing here is that only we, as the audience, were able to see Caine’s humanity despite his artificial creation. Caine will forever be branded as an AI to the crew, when he could’ve been so much more.

You can definitely FEEL Harley’s daddy issues from the way he treated Quinn. Bro could’ve chosen any random orphan who passed all the tests, but no. He really had to give Quinn a pep talk so he’d be qualified to become an experiment. And from how he wanted to become “Yarnaby’s entire world,” that is so oddly specific. Cos he didn’t have to go through all that trouble conditioning yarnaby, imo. I feel like Sawyer had the discretion to do whatever scientific fuckery he could pull off, as long as it’s progressing science.

Sawyer def had that daddy issue package alongside abandonment issues from how he loved throwing the word “backstabber” around.

Writing on ao3 ✅