JosCarl

JosCarl is the slash ship between Joseph Desaulniers and Aesop Carl from the Identity V fandom.

Game
Both do not share interactions in the canon. It's an official art of the Aesop trying to embalm while Joseph lurks in the background. Both are handsome and have white hair and seem to share a similar trait in preserving people. Joseph imprisons people in the photographic world for the duration of his human life, preserving their states until their disappearance, while Embalmer was taught by a serial killer and is implied that he captured part of his master's fascination with preserving the dead in mostly primitive states.

Stage Play
Aesop and Joseph are the protagonists from episode one. Aesop receives an invitation to his first match, and it is against Joseph, whom the other survivors describe as a particularly fearsome hunter. During the game, Aesop asks Joseph to kill him, and Joseph does so, not to do him a favor, but because it is his duty."So this is what death is..."

- Aesop after being stabbed by Joseph's sword.

Safely returning to the mansion after he died, Aesop becomes obsessed with dying in matches, as only then can he feel what his customers have felt. This annoys the survivors and hunters also find his attitude strange. It is particularly irritating for Joseph, who writes a letter to the manor to change the rules of the game, and make those who die in the games die for real, with no possibility of returning. Aesop, Eli and Lucky guy are the first to know about it, because Joseph himself tells them. They tell the other survivors. In a twist, Joseph lets Aesop go with Eli.

AKumaFest 2020
At AKumaFest 2020, there was a performance in which Aesop enters a room and starts handling a corpse that was there, but Joseph enters there making Aesop go into hiding. Joseph approaches Aesop and Aesop walks away, then starts playing the Billie Eilish song Copycat in the trance that the song says "Sorry, sorry, I'm sorry..." as if Aesop is apologizing to Joseph. Then Aesop gets on his knees on the floor and they start doing a kind of dance, where there is a scene where Joseph takes Aesop's arm and passes his face through it in a way that can be interpreted as erotic and then holds him with a arm.

Fanon
JosCarl is one of the most, if not the most popular ship in Idenitity V fandom, and the most popular for Joseph and Aesop. On social media, there are few posts on tumblr, but there are 5000+ publications on instagram on the JosCarl tag and 800+ stories on the A03. The ship left for several reasons, such as the art of the Exorcist (one of Aesop's transformations) with Moonlight Gentleman (one of Joseph's transformations) in the background, the Stage Play where they share various interactions and especially their performance at the AKumaFest 2020. Some people believe that Joseph would be possessive of Aesop, similar to the Yandere trope.

Although the two have some similarities, they are also very different, Joseph is described as a fearsome hunter, he appears to have a confident posture, while Aesop seems to be more closed and in his own way. In some fanfics they write as allies. Despite being one of the most popular ships, it is widely criticized by fandom, many people do not like it for being a hunter x survivor ship and find it problematic for it, while others do not like it simply because they prefer Aesop's ship with Eli. People who like the ship defend it saying that their enmity is because of the game, and that if it weren't for it, they believe that both would get along well.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

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Trivia

 * Both appear alongside each other in all three episodes of the Japanese-produced theatrical series.
 * Their alternate costumes (Moonlight Gentleman for Joseph and Exorcist for Aesop appear) in the comedy specials for all episodes.
 * Aesop is 21 years old, while Joseph has no confirmed age.

Variations

 * JosElisop refers to the ship between the two and Eli Clark.