The family tends to favor French food, partially because Viola's a ouiaboo and it's some of the rare rich food she'll allow herself. They get it cooked at home often. However, Alec specifically has a lot of nostalgia for Indonesian food from his time in Bali, and will go out of his way to try new Indonesian restaurants.

Assuming we're talking cis swaps here, there's actually a pretty drastic difference between a swap for just Alec and Viola vs a swap for the whole family! But I'll talk whole family.

Alec...honestly almost makes more sense as a cis woman. The favoritism shown to Bertrand, the religious abuse, the emphasis on the need to control her emotions and present a perfect facade to the world....all of these things would have a more gendered tint. As a result, Alec would be a very femme woman who takes pains to present as humble, self-effacing, compassionate, and charitable while internally still being the rampant egotist and unrepentant sadist we know and love. Also, like canon Alec, she would enjoy crossdressing and would probably be something of a leather daddy. The main difference here is in how she presents herself to the world.

Viola, meanwhile, would lack the unshakeable confidence of his canon counterpart. He would be angrier and more frustrated by his insecurities around his masculinity. His wife is older, more powerful, and physically larger, and babytrapped him when he was eighteen; Viola walks around with a chip on his shoulder feeling like people see him as less of a man than he'd like. Like canon Viola, he copes with both control and the loss thereof—he runs a tight ship professionally and in the household, and is a more involved parent, but also indulges in substance abuse. He finds both shame and pleasure in how Alec dominates him.

Now if we're talking Isabelle also being a boy, the family dynamic is very different. Alec projects her dead twin Bertrand onto him (assuming Bertrand wasn't also swapped) and Viola projects himself onto him, so both parents are very strict and maintain high standards for their son. Viola would be more involved and would prioritize academic success. Alec would be less indulgent than in canon, although no less affectionate, and would prioritize public image and perfect obedience.

Isabelle himself would still be nonbinary, I think? Just AMAB and more male-leaning. He would be better at blending in socially but paradoxically feel more alien, since he can tell he's faking. To try and escape this he would spend a lot of time by himself, and would usually be found in his room composing. Both inflicting and withstanding pain would help him feel relief, and he would embrace his sadism more. He would feel less guilt about Alec's sexual abuse of him and I think would have a deep rooted belief that, if he gets a sibling-child from her, he'll finally feel less alone. Her age doesn't deter him.

This conversation takes place after Isabelle has already left the household, so she wasn't going to get anything anyway. Viola would probably make a provision for some inheritance if Isabelle actually shows up to claim it, though.

Viola has always had a very clear sense of her own capability. She's hardworking and can get a lot done if she puts her mind to it, and that determination and pride has been part of her her whole life. Very independent, very ambitious. She's also always been a cynic, and when she was growing up, the only people she really respected were artists, especially in the field of ballet: dancers, musicians, ballet masters, and so on. At school she wasn't popular, but she never minded. Self-doubt was foreign to her until she was a teenager and was pulled out of ballet.

I fucking wish man T-T lmao more seriously it's out of character for Viola! Viola's not the type to cross the incest taboo herself, even if she does put up with Alec doing it.

Viola genuinely respects Isabelle as a musician and it's one of the vanishingly rare areas she won't criticize Isabelle at all. As a result, when they bond it usually has to do with that. Viola's offered guidance with Isabelle's musical development over the years and has acknowledged how talented she is. However, of course, it's not enough to build a relationship on.

I'm unsure if you mean "kinks they have" or "kinks they're meant to appeal to" so I'll answer the former! If you mean the latter, please ask again, because that's a whole different can of worms that requires a longer response.

Alec's core kinks are sadism (both physical and psychological), corruption/manipulation, and dubcon/noncon. He's also extremely into blood, gore, and death. Viola is dom4dom with Alec, the defining sexual relationship of her life, and likes co-dominating with him. She's also a raging hybristophile (fetish for crimes committed by her partner) and a sadomasochist. Isabelle is an extreme submissive, masochist with a dash of sadist, and a rope bunny. She's also got a major thing for guns and weaponry.

So funny you should ask! I've written that for RPs before. Alec would kill Viola and make it look like a suicide, and then we'd get the usual intense search for her. He would miss Viola, but never regret it for even a second. His loathing would be strong enough to override whatever you want to call his previous feelings for her.

Less than you'd expect! There are tumultuous periods, but Viola is only somewhat more tolerant of Alec's bullshit towards her than she ever was, so it doesn't devolve into domestic abuse or anything. She's actually more of a source of stability and comfort for him, and they grow closer without Isabelle as a thorn in their relationship, even if some things will never be fully forgiven or forgotten.

Top five Alecbelle songs, in no particular order, and yes I have many more than that:

-Change (Deftones)

-Possession (Sarah McLachlan)

-Happiness is a Warm Gun (The Beatles)

-Funnel of Love (Madeline Folin, Only Lovers Left Alive OST)

-Ptolomea (Ethel Cain)

Top five Violec songs, same deal: -Million Dollar Man (Lana Del Rey) -Villainous Thing (Shayfer James) -Love is Blindness (Jack White) -My Love Is Sick (Madds Buckley) -Where Evil Grows (The Poppy Family)

So much more stable it's not even funny. Alec and Viola would have married when she was in her early twenties instead of her late teens, and they would have gotten off to a much better start without the rift of Isabelle between them. Alec would still take subtle opportunities to corrupt Viola, and eventually would choose some other woman to bear a child they would pass off as Viola's. They would still be an evil power couple, but much more uncomplicated and more lovey dovey. Their major conflicts would be more moral and less personal, and Viola's morality is never as strong as her personal interests.

Viola wishes she had tried to secure an abortion by herself, rather than relying on Alec and letting him prevent her from getting one. That was why they got married at the time, but Viola thinks they would have gotten married anyway, and then she wouldn't have had to undergo a traumatic pregnancy and to watch her husband groom their child.

Alec was thirty; Viola was eighteen but turned nineteen the next month. ("What do you want for your birthday?" "A hysterectomy and stocks.")

Oh, Isabelle would be terrified if Alec killed Viola, intentionally or unintentionally. She may not like her mother, but especially as she gets older she comes to understand the importance of Viola's role in the family. Alec killing her would indicate a level of danger she hadn't expected...kinda like Viola feels about it if Isabelle dies, actually, except less morally horrified. Isabelle might try to console herself by saying at least she won't have to deal with Viola's abuse anymore, and try to romanticize what it means for her and Alec. She'd also almost certainly get off on it. But in the end, she'd ultimately see it as a dire negative.

For some more on "How would Isabelle take Viola's death?" try reading my good friend Ira's ( https://x.com/underground_ira ) fic on the subject, Family Portrait, linked at the end of this ask! It's not canon and was written by someone other than me, of course, but it's a remarkably good portrayal of the familial dynamics that would be involved in Viola's death and how Isabelle would feel threatened by that. The running current they wrote through the whole thing of Isabelle fearing that she'll be next is spot-on.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/56464024

Viola would probably leave Alec over it. I think it would slam a lot of things into perspective for her on how destructive and evil he actually is...Not that she doesn't know, of course, but because she never would have expected this particular outcome. Both the destruction of what Viola knows deep down is an innocent life and the terror of realizing she can't really predict him would drive her away from him.

Alec, meanwhile, would be broken. He is in any AU where Isabelle dies before he does. He would withdraw from social interaction and seek self harm in a variety of ways, and maybe eventually he'd be functional again, but he would never get anything close to over it. I think his public persona would completely shut down and the only thing he'd ever put energy that is his criminal dealings, but even that would be ill-fated with how destructive he'd become. Essentially, he'd spin out and it would probably be the end of him.

Viola and Alec met when she was thirteen and he was twenty-five, when she was the golden child of an old and fading crime family and he was the up-and-coming right hand man of one of the most prominent crime lords in England. He caught her eavesdropping on a meeting, and although they both initially pissed each other off and each thought the other was full of themself, Alec found Viola entertaining and a kindred spirit in a few ways and Viola felt taken seriously by Alec and came to respect him in turn. Of course, he was absolutely grooming her. Their sexual relationship started when she was fourteen, and the more she fell in love with him and spurned other people, the more this formative dynamic got its hooks in her.

Viola sort of always knew that Alec was a bad person because of his job, because of his sexual interest in teenagers (like her), because of his open and unabashed sadism, among other things. Still, a few early moments helped her realize how twisted he is, such as watching him work, an incident wherein he had Viola assist him in raping another teenage girl, and his killing of his own brother. She has a love-hate relationship with his evil, but mostly it's love. She's a romantic that way.

If you're talking about in the Nullverse, very much not. That's how Isabelle escapes. Alec tells Viola that he wants her to act publicly as the mother of the child Isabelle is carrying to avoid scandal, and she decides she's had enough and gets the fuck out of there with Isabelle. Then they go to the US, which is where Isabelle enrolls in college and meets Cy.

He didn't, and it almost became a domestic violence situation, but Alec realized as he was about to hit Viola that escalating it like that right on the heels of Viola having learned that he sexually abused their daughter was a Very Bad Idea so he didn't follow through. He took out most of his anger on Isabelle instead because, of course, she's the one less likely to make him suffer consequences.

No worries! Yes, their relationship improves, but doesn't start seeing major progress until Isabelle is somewhere in her thirties; Yes! Viola gets THERAPY, even. What a concept! She comes to realize that Alec was nothing but an abusive manipulator, and how very badly she fucked up with Isabelle; Isabelle was in agreement that she needed to leave, because she knew that there was no end to the ways Alec would subject her body to his whims and that he would inevitably end up abusing any child she had with him as well. She grieved it and remains fucked up about losing him for a very long time, but gradually comes to understand how deeply wrong their dynamic was. Thank you very much for the questions!

Isabelle got pregnant with Alec's child, and Alec decided he wanted her to carry the baby to term and that they would raise it as if it was Viola's. This was too far for Viola, both because it was close to home with her own pregnancy trauma and because of how directly it involved her and how much it would demand her covering for Alec, so Viola took her money and Isabelle and dipped for the US, where she got Isabelle an abortion and some temporary housing. From there she got her into the uni where Cy teaches, and here we are!

Pretty OOC I'm afraid! Viola simply isn't the kind to go for incest; she tends to take those taboos fairly seriously, or at least seriously enough not to transgress them herself. However, if you wanted to think up a fanon scenario, I'd recommend two factors: intoxication, and Alec manipulation. Alec has treated grooming Viola into a threeway with Isabelle as a long-term project for years, even if he doesn't canonically succeed.

Oh, things would be very different if Isabelle was assigned male at birth. Isabelle was born in the midst of Alec's turmoil over his twin brother, Bertrand, and Alec projected a lot of those feelings onto her even with her being seen as a girl. If she'd been a cis boy instead, Alec probably would've been even more repressive, fearing that Isabelle would ultimately kill him the way he killed Bertrand when she was a few months old. I'm genuinely not sure that Isabelle would've survived as a cis boy.

The good news is that if boy!Isabelle did live, Viola wouldn't be so harsh or cruel to him, because he would trigger her trauma less. She would probably still be very distant, but not as hostile. Still, though, overall I think Isabelle would be worse off as Alec's son. As it stands her being genderfluid adds enough complications.

Viola spends years in denial of the fact that Alec is grooming their daughter until Isabelle, age fourteen, tells her about the first rape—after which she knows but blames Isabelle for what's happening.

That's very interesting! It wasn't intentional; I named Viola that because of the symbolism of the violet flower. It works tho!

Sure is!

Viola didn't want to have Isabelle in the first place, and would have preferred an abortion. Alec talked her out of it pretty easily, but months later when Viola developed pretty severe eclampsia (featuring hallucinations and seizures) during the pregnancy, his methods of denying her an abortion became more coercive. This culminated in Viola giving birth in critical condition, and Alec took newborn Isabelle and left Viola to recover without so much as a visit.

Viola absolutely resents Alec for this, but she also sees Isabelle as "that thing that took my husband's attention and love away from me when I needed it most." Not to mention that Isabelle is at the center of Viola's most traumatic experiences. Alec uses this as a means to drive a wedge further and further between them over the years to enable his abuse of Isabelle. Jealousy is his favored tactic, as well as strategically activating Viola's trauma to make her want Isabelle as far from her as possible.