#I REALLY WANNA WRITE THIS PIKE AND GROG DESERVE MORE CONTENT FOCUSED ON THEM!!!

[blorbologist]

I wish you would write a fic where Pike never left the Trickfoots but still ends up interacting with VM in some way

Hi anon!

I didn't want to leave this in my inbox for too long - shits just busy - but I DO have ideas for this AU 👀👀👀

The really cool thing to me is that it starts way, way, way before even pre-stream canon so there's plenty of possibilities for butterfly effects! (Which imo a huge backstory change like this should provoke)

And given Grog' backstory is so closely tied to Pike's... >:D

rough notes so far:

Pike starts out as a Divine Soul Sorcerer (Like Dariax); doesn't think much of it, just considers the magic her 'Tricks'.

Given the environment she's raised in her brash, brawdy side is more in evidence - but her kindness does shine through (though she stamps it down around the family. Her parents still left her with Johann & co.)

In VM Origins where VM would usually meet Pike while looking for Grog... they obviously don't find her lol. I can't decide if Pike pretends she is some powerful cleric and scams the shit out of them, or plays Scanlan for a fool and only scams him. Leaning towards the later because it's incredible Kaylie foreshadowing. He does Not learn his lesson, ever.

Either way, proto-VM are miffed and Pike is keen to skedaddle - except the commotion got Wilhand's attention by chance. Pike recognizes the old Trickfoot who offered her a home as a little girl and, in seeing how devastated he is when informed of Grog's condition, she decides to help. Potentially with the intent of scamming the rest of them down the line.

Speaking of Grog: Pike wasn't there to heal him after Kevdak :) and Wilhand alone is too small and not magically inclined. He did what he could, but eventually Grog woke up and just... booked it into the woods.

By the time Wilhand found him there was a... wildness to the young goliath. And without the recent experience of raising Pike, or her influence, Grog has a bit of a feral manner to him (Path of the Totem Warrior)

(This means Totem Barb!Grog absolutely gets Trinket and can ritually cast Speak with Animals. Which is meta funny. Travis loves his wife's fake pet. )

Most pre-stream events are influenced by Pike being more of a self-serving shit, Scanlan feeling really off kilter because she made a fool of him, and Grog... well Grog is still very Grog, except he's closest to Trinket, not Pike. (Vex doesn't know how to feel about that)

I want Pike to still get chopped in half. She has a huge crisis after her resurrection. Her fake preacher tricks are abandoned and she starts to take Cleric levels from here on out, and spends much of the pre-stream year break on a boat.

Grog might come with (to protect Wilhand's kin, something something pack bonding) and they might end up getting close here?

The other Trickfoots, having never lost track of Pike, likely re-enter the story not long after VM start gaining a reputation. A fair part of Pike's arc would be learning to cut off her family, probably with a few backslides accounting for some of her stream absences. 50% chance Scanlan shits in their beds.

Hearing about Vex's death in the Sunken Tomb would be another big turning point. It's bad if she dies, but her friends... she has to be able to bring them back.

Changes will likely pile up around here, depending on what resurrection spells Pike has when deaths occur and how comfortable she can be sacrificing extremely expensive diamonds for her new friends. Probably snowballs into impacting Bards Lament, the progression of other ships, and if Pike can be Sarenrae's Champion during the Vecna arc.

Also she wins the Plate of the Dawnmartyr herself <3 with some sneaky Trickfoot style <3

(I think Pike and Vax are p close in this AU, which might miff Vex. Inversely, this wilder Grog probably buddies up to Vex through Trinket, and Keyleth too. Percy is probably uncomfortable with all of this initially and Scanlan... might not know how to handle a wilder Grog and a sly, mildly self-serving Pike. Pikelan probably has a lot more of Pike pulling Scanlan's leg; she does it in canon here and there but oh boy she'd think he's the funniest, horniest person to dupe and he's smarting for a long time and trying to one-up her until he realizes he genuinely enjoys their banter once she's dead. Hence his offerings at her ritual. I think he also figures out that there was never any real malice behind anything she did, unlike his own pettiness, which causes him to pull away for a bit. Pike meanwhile has Johann and Astra as her only reference for relationships, sooooo this is gonna be fun!)

(The big challenge with this AU to me would be seeing if I could salvage that Grog-Pike bond, and if it can't become strong like canon seeing who else these AU versions of the pair could get close to in similar ways.)