#sr.headcanon

“Elon Musk is a very lonely and occasionally impressionable man,” Claudio answers slyly, fluffing his voluminous hair.

“can you not be a hoe for five minutes, damn,” Pierce pipes up, and Claudio gives him an excuse the hell out of me? look.

but I have come to a point where I’ve decided to stop worrying and love the aliens... in which case I’m going to ratchet the implausibility level up to eleventy

hence my new ideas for Claudio’s story, which include duelling avenging angels that have decided to work together for the sake of their common enemy (interpretation: the SR2 gangs’ arcane guiding forces leading them to an alliance that grows to include gangs from other places, which ultimately gives the whole alliance hella power both mundane and supernatural, because Zin is coming and fuck Zin) and also include some planet terraforming post-Zin battle (and MORE ALIENS!)

because why the unholy fuck not at this point

Claudio’s an avatar for the Saint of Saints, one of the multidimensional trickster beings that took an interest in Earth, particularly in its underdogs. when Zinyak came along, he only had part of the picture; he thought that Claudio and his gang-boss cohorts (Ivan Prime, Black August, Domenico “Dom Perignon” Perillo -- don’t ask -- and so on) were the pinnacle of power on Earth. (did we ever talk about how Zinyak isn’t very smart? he isn’t very smart.) so he kidnapped those guys and shoved him in his simulation for safekeeping and research.

meanwhile, the Saint of Saints, Laughing Elegba, Ioannu, and the others all got their colony fleet together and started quietly evacuating millions of people from Earth, putting them in cryosleep, right under Zinyak’s nose (doesn’t pay to be distracted by your new pets, does it, bruv).

by the time Zinyak destroys Earth, there’s still a lot of people left on it, because the population on Earth is wild as fuck, but there’s also a lot of people on the colony ships, enough to seed a new world with, definitely

See, the idea of the Saints becoming media moguls is important to me because of how central the media is to modern culture. I need the Saints to use that, not to perpetuate the same tired stereotypes that Ultor et al would want them to perpetuate in order to keep the capitalist mill turning, but to create new images, or at least to debunk the harmful ones.

I think of Claudio in antihero terms, honestly-- the small-time stock villain seeing the error of his ways and using his “badness” in the service of his community instead. Shango and his Loa Dust open Claud’s eyes, make him realise his own power, and the power of the people who would follow him. The first time he brokers an alliance with a gang instead of just raining bullets on them until they capitulate (or die), it feels empowering. The Saints grow stronger. More skills are added to the mix. Sure, personalities might clash and sometimes shit gets heated, but ultimately people learn how to work together on a common goal -- the take-back of their community.

“The community” started with Stilwater (taking it back from the corrupt government that kept the poor nonwhite demographics oppressed), but then when Claudio and the Lieutenants took Ultor, the dream got bigger. Claudio realised that part of the problem was media corporations like Ultor disseminating oppressive thoughts and images about poor nonwhites, which led to violent backlash, which led to “see? look how violent and uncultured they are!” which led to more oppression, which led to more backlash... and now it seems the only option for people like Claudio was to “sell out” and become a race traitor or... to join a gang.

So Saintscorp did use capitalism to their advantage for a while -- they sold shitty energy drinks and purple-branded everything, made movies about elaborate gang robberies and shooting people for fun, whatever. And they banked that money. They invested it. Behind the scenes, Claudio kept working his charm on gangs across the country, gaining attention in other countries thanks to the magic of the Internet. Gang leaders of a similar mind began to do the same-- investing what they robbed, using the same cunning intelligence that powered their organised crime to learn business skills, computer skills, how to navigate their local economies and governments. And on it went.

Eventually, Saintscorp stopped peddling junk to teenagers and started investing in arts funding; started buying up whole blocks of real estate to thwart developers and converting it to good low-income housing; started diverting the flow of money so dramatically that whole governments had to start paying attention. Sure, consumers are mad as hell for a while... but they can’t deny how much their communities have improved. Soon, the only people left mad are the capitalists who can’t seem to bribe, threaten, or suppress Saintscorp, no matter what they do. Because Saintscorp is smarter, and the people are rallying behind them.

“Wait... weren’t you that gang from Stilwater?” some mayor asks, sitting across the boardroom table from Claudio. He’s thinking, so why am I so afraid of you? It blows their fucking minds. But they can’t stop it.