All My Other Ocs Are Pure Self Indulgence - Tumblr Posts

babes!!!!! need help deciding somethin abt my Rotting of the Lamb au. @puppydogwithlargeeyes specifically. (no pressure ofc) but also everyone else!!!!!

explanation under the cut bc this is abt to be a longggg post

(cw: mention of abusive character)

ok so. my original idea for The Rotting of the Lamb was that Lacey would sacrifice her time n safety n comfort to help all the bishops make up and live happy mortal lives. she'd sort of expose them to the good abt mortality and help them thru their emotions w unconditional positive regard. she also helps Camilo almost be at peace.

then one day there's a new realm where the doors to darkwood and such should be. n it's Rin, in the purgatory Camilo put her in. So they do the whole defeat-and-spare thing but Nari is adamant that they need to kill her and she's going to destroy them n Camilo is just so overwhelmed that they dip. Lacey puts Rin in jail to put off the decision until Camilo comes back.

Eventually they do, and they want Lacey's happy dream world to be realized, so they let her try to help Rin. But Rin isn't like the others. Lacey doesn't know how to begin to make her better. n later on she realizes that Rin's been hurting Camilo again and Lacey is actively enabling it by letting her be there. She has a huge fight with Rin where she does an act of divine wrath--sending Rin to a purgatory where she lives out Camilo's old life as her vessel, dying again and again and again. That's what makes her ascend. ofc there's more but that's a summary of the relevant parts.

Here's the problems with that. It feels off to have a second party be the one to 'resolve' the abusive situation between Camilo and Rin. It makes that situation into a plot device. But w Lacey's character, Rin's continued abuse toward her mirror--who she understands more than anyone n the only one who rly understands her--is the only thing that would make her have that act of wrath. Like Rin is a ticking time bomb for Lacey. Everything Lacey hates. And Camilo isn't going to resolve things w Rin themselves--they're going to keep destroying themselves until something gets in the way. Back when they killed her the first time, they hadn't seen what their life could be like. Now seeing Nari and Lacey (and the rehabilitation of the bishops) makes them hold onto hope that Rin will change.

Another problem is that her retaliation isn't rly "rotting of purity," and feels off for the name of the au. It's just retaliation against an abusive party. She does go crazy w it (finally saying she doesn't want Rin there, something she's felt but never said nor acted on, and making her 'disappear') but it still feels off bc she's just putting her feelings ahead of everyone else's for once. That could add to the unfairness of the situation (like godhood doesn't care abt cruelty vs retaliation, u ascend anyway) but idk.

BUT!!!!!!!!!

i thought of a second option. Lacey actually does sacrifice something for Camilo's happy ending. Her powers, or something like that. Maybe she sacrifices her mortalhood. But she gives something huge that she actually doesn't want to give to bring Camilo a "good end" version of Rin(?) Something like that--a good ending for Camilo. Maybe thru the mystic seller. And over time, she gets more and more resentful, but she shoves it down. Eventually she kills Rin for taking her happy ending, and that causes her ascension (if she's not ascending already.) it's still an act of divine wrath and a rotting of purity. N if she's already ascending, it's an act that officially 'rots' her. Slippery slope type deal.

The only issue is that Camilo would still have memories of Rin's abuse n it feels kinda off to resolve that thru adding in "non-abusive version of abuser." N it feels a little like Lacey just suddenly turning evil, instead of a twist of her normal psyche. BUT she would be rotting AND she would have actually sacrificed too much, instead her sacrifice being more of a metaphor.

idk. if anyone's gotten this far, lemme know what u think.