#atotmatd

Draken & Mitsuya: Actually what started this entire thing. I saw some fanart here and there of Draken as an actual dragon, which of course had me thinking that Mitsuya should get to be a dragon too (they're the twin dragons after all! come on!), and it also got me thinking about how eastern dragons are associated with water, and that morphed into them being dragon river gods. (Of course Haku from Spirited Away also came to mind there.) Additionally, while they're both dragon river gods, I wanted to show them being two different-yet-the-same kind of kami. As in, Draken's river is infamous for its violent currents and somewhat feared / at the very least treated with a lot of cautious respect, but even though ships constantly sink, barely any humans ever drown because he keeps saving their lives (probably being pretty annoyed that this keeps happening though, lol). Meanwhile, Mitsuya's river is a lot calmer, vitally important for farmers and associated with harvest, and he's often mingling with humans and handing out little gifts (food, mostly)... but humans are still cautious because he's known to not fuck around when angered. I personally just really like that kind of dichotomy. Also, since I used the concept of kami having two souls, one "gentle" and one "assertive", I wanted to actually show what that contrast looks like, and the character that first came to mind for that was Mitsuya and it's not just because he's my fave and I like it when fics show his capability for being dangerous too shh shut up

Mikey: Was the very next one I decided on. I'm a liiiittle bit obsessed with all things kitsune (if that wasn't obvious), and since they're so iconic, powerful, and often portrayed as tricksters, that role really fit Mikey the best. And since he'd of course still be everyone's leader in this AU, I soon started thinking about the concept of kitsune becoming/being gods (it helped that I was already playing around with it for my Blue Lock yōkai AU), and that then led to considering the thing about kami having two souls, Mikey being cursed like in canon, and how his and Takemichi's relationship would play out with that kind of power imbalance between them... and long story short, that's how the short story got long. *Kazutora voice* It's all Mikey's fault! Also, because it was only hinted at in the actual fic: The half of his soul that he was missing was his "gentle soul". But just like Takemichi, you were probably able to guess that yourself :D

Chifuyu: Also really easy. That he was going to be a cat yōkai was a given! At first I made him a nekomata, until I realised that a bakeneko would be more fitting since nekomata are pretty malicious in legend. Sadly, that meant I couldn't give him that iconic forked tail since that's something only nekomata have, not bakeneko :( And of course I translated his canon interest in shōjo manga to a more historically accurate interest in romance novels, hehe.

Baji: I wanted him to be some kind of canine yōkai and I thought about making him an inugami at first, but that didn't really feel right (and there's already a certain other character who fits the bill much better...), so I looked up whether there are other dog yōkai, found the okuri-inu... and further down in that same article, I encountered the okuri-ōkami; and that just fit perfectly thanks to Baji already being somewhat associated with wolves! Also, I felt like the legends about okuri-ōkami either attacking or protecting humans depending on how one behaves towards them fit Baji's infamously unpredictable nature.

Kazutora: Another one where I immediately knew in what direction I wanted to go. Obviously, he needed to be a tiger. And thanks to me being occupied with a certain yōkai-themed D&D supplement at the time that includes raijū - and has them looking tigrine - I landed on that very quickly. Raijū get represented by a multitude of different animals, but one of them is tigers, so that fit the bill perfectly (and as an aside, whenever you see a tiger-like creature with electricity powers in any kind of Japanese media, you can be sure they're inspired by raijū). Also, again, a creature that is fittingly dangerous and unpredictable. You'll probably find out why exactly he and Mikey have such a complicated relationship even in my AU in a future oneshot...

Hakkai: There's a very early version of this story where Hakkai is also a normal human who is just very (VERY) devoted to Mitsuya Ōkami. I decided not to go with that pretty quickly because I wanted Takemichi to be the only "outsider" and not have someone to bond with over being in love with and loved by a kami. Sorry, Michi, you're not getting someone to relate to yet 👀. Then I quickly landed on Hakkai being the kami of something very specific, and a seasonal wind was the first thing that came to mind (maybe because that fits the swirl design in his hair? Maybe? I mean, it somewhat does, right...?). And so he became the kami of the southwestern spring wind, while his way more mature older sister became the harsher, colder autumn east wind (I spent so much time trying to research seasonal wind directions in Japan for this...). For Taiju on the other hand, the first thing that came to mind was him being the kami of a mountain; one, because I feel like the concept of mountains being/having kami is also pretty iconic, and secondly... have you seen how that man is BUILT. It's a bit of a joke about him already being a mountain of a man, lmao. But I'll probably get into more detail about him in a future oneshot, so I'm cutting it off here. Poor Hakkai already had to share enough of his spotlight.

Smiley & Angry: An easy choice here. Do I really have to explain why I made them oni? Canon already took care of it for me 😂

Mucho: Now we're getting to the more difficult ones. I don't remember exactly how I landed on a dōsojin for him - I think I settled pretty quickly on making him some kind of guardian figure because I couldn't think of anything better and it does fit his canon role... well... at first. And I sort of alluded to the question of his allegiance by not making him a guardian of the shrine complex or Mikey's court, but specifically of pilgrims on their journeys. His actual duties and area of influence lie outside of the shrine complex... This might get brought up at some point.

Sanzu: I really didn't know what to do with him at first. I wanted him to have his iconic katana in some way or other, but other than that, I really struggled with his role. But then it suddenly occurred to me that there are so many stories about cursed/possessed swords, so he could be the katana! He's a literal sword demon - sort of like in canon, lol. Once I got it, this became one of my favourite choices for the AU. I then remembered playing Ōkamiden and that the demons in that game have veils covering their faces. So of course, I had Sanzu wear a veil in place of his mask (only that it doesn't cover his entire face like the inspiration - just the areas that would be covered by his mask). Everything came together so perfectly. I'm still really proud of this one :D

Pah-chin & Peh-yan: Another difficult choice that took me a while. I think they were the last ones I decided on. Inspired by the scene where Takemichi meets them for the first time in canon, I wanted to make them guardians of the shrine complex and Mikey's court pretty much from the start. I just couldn't settle on what kind of guardians. I briefly considered making them dōsojin before I ended up giving that role to Mucho instead. Then I considered guardian lions or komainu since they also always come in pairs (and Pah and Peh just belong to each other, let's be honest here). The vibes didn't really work, though. And finally, I landed on kado-mori-no-kami. There aren't really many sources about those, but I decided that Pah and Peh were just going to be magical statues that come alive to deal with intruders. Insert a joke about heads made of wood here, lol.

Hanma: Another one where canon already presented me with a clear choice. He's a shinigami - naturally. But when researching the actual lore about shinigami, I found out they're a relatively modern concept and they don't really have any clear-cut identity. Which was just fine by me - I took a lot of creative liberty with his powers.

Kisaki: I won't get into too much detail about him since I'm saving that for a potential future oneshot, too, but as soon as I realised my little FWP (Fluff Without Plot) oneshot did, in fact, have a plot now (and wasn't going to be all that little either), I decided that he would naturally take up the villain role as a scheming kami in Mikey's divine court. He's a kami of scholars because of the whole top-of-his-class thing and his studious nature, of course. But he's also a kami of strategy for obvious reasons deplorable little chessmaster that he is, and he's prayed to especially by scheming court nobles. He's the patron kami of political maneuvering and courtly intrigue. Or, y'know, he was. 😌

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