Aesvic

Aesvic is the slash ship between Aesop Carl and Victor Grantz from the Identity V fandom.

Aesop's 2021 Diary
Aesop's second letter is the first to suggest Aesop's and Victor's relationship. In the letter, Aesop tell us the match would start in three days and that he's been looking for someone to embalm in the team, saying that his other teammates Ganji and Anne wouldn't fit, only a quiet person would. The search was over when Aesop finds Victor, who in his eyes has the face made for eternal slumber. Aesop mentions that Victor has a secret deep down, and that believes he's the only one to understand him and viceversa. He thinks about ways to communicate with Victor later, and says Victor's the only one who can understand how badly he needs him to become his "silent friend", and can't wait to kill him.

One Page of the Notes 2021 (Victor's second letter)
In Victor's letter, he briefly mentions Aesop while talking about his other team members. He says that Aesop was his favorite out of the others, even if they had only met twice in person. Because of Aesop's notes being long, Victor says he prefers to call his notes specifically letters, also observing that all of Aesop's writing was on past tense, making Victor wonder if he had a good education.

Aesop's Experiment File 2022
The experiment file details in a third point of vision about Aesop's relationship with his teammates and specifically Victor. It's said early on in the experiment, they were both attracted to each other and immeadiately clicked. This attraction came from Victor's obsession with letters, and Aesop's appreciation of his ideal. Once Victor suddenly disappeared, Aesop went insane and elimminated all of his other teammates, killing Ganji and Anne for his feelings about Victor.

A Page from Victor Grantz's Experiment File (2022)
Victor's experiment file reinforced what was already known by the other pieces of information. It's said that Aesop and Victor maintained a "special relationship", but Victor was unaware of Aesop's true motives for approaching him and fell on the lie of his false facade by his superior wording and lengthly letters. This file also announces Victor's presumable death, with him failing to escape the manor fire.

Aesop's Final Diary Entry (2023)
This diary entry confirms Victor's death and also Aesop's death. As described in Victor's experiment file, the manor caught on fire for unknown reasons. Aesop describes Victor as someone who has fallen asleep as an euphemism for death, and officially addresses him as "his friend", who since the start was silent as a corpse, comparing him to someone who has been preparing to die. He remarks that he admires his persistence and also feels sorry for him. While it isn't Aesop's ideal scenario of killing Victor off, since he wanted to embalm him, he seems happy to have completed his mission at all. Aesop also dies in the flames willingly. "The flames seem to be sending everything off, and my friend has fallen asleep in flames for his pursuit. I admire his persistence, but I still feel sorry for him. Mr. Jerry Carl said rebirth of the soul requires a whole body at peace. My friend has been always been silent as a corpse. It is like he has been preparing for the path of return, and not only did I bury him in a sea of flames, I didn't even see him close his eyes."

Fanon
Aesvic is a semi-popular ship in the Identity V fandom, especially because of their canon interactions and their described mutual attraction is a reason why there's a lot of shippers. The most popular interpretation Aesvic fans have is that Aesop is in romantic love with Victor, but because of his background and teachings from his mentor, he can't interpret it in a healthy way and associates love with killing, so his desire to kill Victor is nothing but an attempt to demonstrate his feelings. Most fans think that Victor would be able to break through Aesop's walls and teach him an healthy way of showing romantic love. These scenarios often have Victor and Aesop bonding over their authority figures being bad influences to them, having anxiety and over how they both see the people around them as dislikable and preferring each other's company over anything else.

The other side of the Aesvic fandom likes to explore and interpret Aesop as a yandere, since in canon he killed everyone around Victor out of resentment about his disappearance. This narrative focus less on the mutual appreciation they have, and focus on Aesop's side on what he was taught from his mentor. Some fanfics even feature Victor being killed by him, with Aesop rethinking his past and regretting what had he done, or even still treating the body as if he was still alive.

There's also some fans that prefer to view the relationship in platonic lens, interpreting Aesop wanting to kill Victor just an attempt to platonically connect. Romantic Aesvic shippers deny this narrative because they already think Aesop and Victor are friends, but Aesop wants something deeper than that, it being romantic love that would be demonstrated with Aesop wanting to embalm him.

Even with all the canon content, Aesvic is easily overshadowed by Vicdrew from Victor's side and Elisop from Aesop's side. The fact that some people think the ship is toxic brings the popularity down, because regardless of their lore, Aesop is still a murderer and is very determined to kill Victor.

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Trivia

 * Victor is 2 years older than Aesop.
 * They have the same assist role in the game.
 * Aesop and Victor were the winners of the 2018 character contest, along with the Painter.