📓 I am very curious, do you have any AUs that are, let’s say, more of a character study instead of being ship-focused, or do your thoughts often take shape in the context of a ship?
(link to the ask game here)
so the thing for me is that, I've *always* been a ship-centric person. ever since Baby Ro's attempt to fanfic back in elementary school, I've always been obsessed with fictional romance, which is probably a very weird thing to say as an aromantic person? it is really what drives me to want to create - the major reason I stayed in my previous fandom is because I was loyal to my favorite couple even after the series ended and kept making stuff about them even as people's interest waned, and the reason I got into LoZ is because I happened upon Zelgan and Ganzelink and it just altered my brain chemistry.
that is not to say that I don't enjoy media for other reasons, because I absolutely *do*! in fact, a lot of my favorite stories (hello Undertale hello Bloodborne) are not romantic in any way. that being said, for the most part I tend to fixate on relationships rather than characters - I find a dynamic that I really like, be it romantic or platonic or familial, whatever, and I become insane over it, and if I get insane enough I might even write about it! but that is *very* difficult, because my brain is very one track.
I do like character studies, but they are more or less short, self-contained things, because there is really only so many meaningful things I can say solely centered on This Character before my interest in inevitably drawn to the way they interact with people in their lives, because that is really what I am *about* - I like connection, I like exploring how people affect each other and how they change each other, and yes I happen to write a lot of romance but that's also because I enjoy smut! and ultimately, even when not about romance, my stories explore either friendships or familiar bonds, because I love writing about love.
that being said, I do have something that I've wanted to write for some time - a short, somewhat spooky tale about a Cassandra-like prophetess Zelda set in the early days of the dynasty we see in BotW. I am not sure if I would take her to the extreme that is the Zelda in Vessels, where she is stripped down of all her bells and whistles to the core of her role, but I envision her story as that of someone who was given sight into the future and driven mad by it. she was clearly unwell from a young age and no one knew what to do about it, and eventually she had to be locked away for her own good and died alone and forgotten in her little tower, with her mad ravings and prophecies carved into the walls. it's a really sad, tragic story that I've always envisioned as something between a fairytale and a cautionary tale for Hyrule's princesses.
