Obsession x Professor Layton (and my love for crossovers)

Love cannot be meaningful if it isn't fully chosen

I finally watched Obsession last month (very late, I know), and I really enjoyed it. Which is surprising, honestly, especially considering the fact that I don't even like horror movies most of the time. 

This isn't a unique take by any means, but the One Wish Willow mechanic really stuck out to me. And what makes it such a compelling device isn't just that it's a magical wish-granter. There are a lot of those in fiction. It's that the rule is specific. It literally allows its user to alter reality itself in pursuit of something they desperately want; which, in turn, reveals the darkest parts of their character psychology. 

Which is why I figured an Obsession AU would be perfect for any doomed, angsty ship that exists in the world. Randall and Layton, for one, are already driven by by longing, regret, and repression, so I thought the Willow mechanic would be incredibly fitting in their case.

So I did brainstorm some ideas. I wanted to make the big bad wish that drives the plot forward different than just "I wish X loved me more than anything else in the world", mostly because I wanted to avoid simply shoving Ranlay into the film and calling it a day. I thought of things like, "I wish things could stay the same forever" or "I wish I could never lose him". Which aren't necessarily bad ideas at all. 

But when I thought about it some more, I realised they just... didn't resonate with me as much as the original wish did. And I think the reason for that is its simplicity. 

"I wish X loved me more than anything else in the world."

It sounds innocent at a first glance, but it's vague enough for the Willow to interpret it in horrifying ways. And the real tragedy lies in the fact that it's such a human thing to wish for (not in Bear's case, of course. "What's so bad about being with me?" Be so fr). 

Which led me to this as the final wish for my AU: "I wish Hershel Layton loved me more than anything else in the world."

I won't spoil much of the plot since I'll be posting it to ao3 when I'm done, but I can ask this.

What happens when someone loves a person so much that they begin valuing the relationship more than the person's individuality?

Obsession AU Randall (and any other person who loves someone) never consciously wants their crush to stop having a hobby. They never consciously want the person they love to stop arguing, to stop having opinions. 

What people do tend to want, however, is unconditional love.

And unconditional love just happens to be incompatible with a human being.

So a wish as innocent as "I wish Hershel Layton loved me more than anything else in the world" becomes a tragedy because real people have boundaries. Real people disagree. Real people value other things over the person that loves them, even if they just so happen to love them back. So the wish grants that desire to be loved in the most literal way possible and, in doing so, destroys the very qualities that made someone loveable in the first place.

Anyhow, the AU is currently in progress and will end up as a oneshot soon enough. I decided on the title Scutalus (and who you once were), because Scutalus is a species of snail, and snails have shells. The wish turns the victim into a shell of who (they) once were. Genius, I know. 

This probably won't be read by anyone, but it felt really nice to get all that off my chest. This is my debut blog entry, so expect more mini-essays like this in the future...

+ here are some Obsession Ranlay AU pieces I've made. Because why not.