hi hi!! maybe these 2 are the pieces you're referencing? 🥰

• today's guideverse by [@miyuki_whitecat]
• other recent art by [@MOZHIYAN_heigou]

i am very much into guideverse!! i don't know that i see enough guideverse out in the wild to equate it with angst & blood, but i do love the energy of it sooooo very much.

1 - for the sake of convenience, i refer to it as "sentinels & guides" although i've seen some recent takes refer to sentinels as "espers" and "sentries."

2 - there is not necessarily a strictly sexual (penetration) element to sentinels & guides. it refers to their skill sets. in very loose terms, this is the way i have classically seen the setting/trope play out:

2A - you have a sci-fi setting in which there are "dungeons" to trawl, or otherwise some situation people have to fight monsters for pay. there may or may not be an organization that oversees all of the monster destroying and thus doles out the role assignments.

2B - you have sentinels who are the primary fighters. the tanks / front-liners, if you will. they can use superhuman strength and/or magic, special abilities, etc. (kind of up to the person designing the universe) BUT (and this is the major drawback) they have a format of...psychological/physiological backlash that causes their bodies to rebel against them whenever they use their powers.

2C - the sentinels are thus paired with guides, who have the ability to calm them down. i personally once read an s&g AU that really stuck with me that described guides as "detangling" the thoughts of sentinels, so this is the format of s&g i still rely on personally. basically, they can reach into a sentinel's head, connect with them emotionally (i'm paraphrasing here, and, again, it's largely up to the person writing/designing the AU how they decide to approach this element), but at the end of the day, their job is to keep the sentinels from frying their own brains.

3 - NOW, with all of the above being said — when i first saw s&g AUs start cropping up, it was pretty classical that the guide was the bottom and the sentinel was the top. something something power fantasy, the guy who goes crazy needs a leash blah blah. nowadays, it's become pretty loosey goosey.

4 - and now for the very final piece: per the art referenced above, i think till makes perfect sense as a sentinel (extremely driven, but also easy to emotionally fracture) and ivan makes sense as a guide (calm, collected, capable of administering first aid while till is thrashing and going through it.)

i'm ivtl preferential, lol, so i prefer top ivan, but the rest, of course, is up to reader discretion 🫶🏾

🌟 you can read more about s&g AU basics on fanlore wiki [here]!

thanks for asking~ 😘