#Not even MJ though he'll at least experiment more now that he's out in the world with more to experiment with

[snatched-by-ahit]

AU thoughts - Time

One thing about AU is that “Borrowed Time” is that it’s both literal in how this idea started (Moonjumper borrows one of Hat Kid’s Time Pieces without permission and ultimately allows himself to leave and interact with the world as often as he wants.)

But also the biggest thing behind this AU is that Moonjumper is the Prince’s body that’s been reanimated by time. I’m going to make full use of the giant broken hourglass for this AU because that’s my reasoning for why Moonjumper can exist, and it’s going to affect some details about him. But the greater premise would also be that the time shifting power of the Time Pieces isn’t unlimited. If it were, Hat Kid wouldn’t have to worry about how many she needs to have to get home. Sure, she’s using them to travel through time and space, while MJ is just existing, but Snatcher as a ghost actually does have ‘an eternity’, while MJ has a limit. The ideas are there, even if the end of his personal time isn’t going to be relevant for plot ideas. (Though, I also know how his time could be shortened and extended, among the ideas that aren’t a part of the main plan.)

But the fact that he’s Time powered changes how his strings work, a little. His strings are a mild manipulation of time, though he’s mostly going to be using them for the usual memory altering or puppeteering, or just general string tool use because that’s what he’s familiar with. He’ll also really want to keep the Time Piece he found for himself. From his perspective, the horizon may have felt like a prison sometimes, but it’s still his home, his own place in the world even when separated from it. From a larger perspective, it keeps him filled with Time energy. (As a half Time being, he can overextend his magic use, get physically damaged, and generally go through some bad experiences and make full recoveries without necessarily needing to get charged by the horizon, but it’d be a difference of one or two day recovery there, month long recovery otherwise.)

No one in the AU will quite understand the full extent of Subcon, the Horizon, and the Moonjumper with the effects from the broken hourglass. Though, of the cast, Hat Kid (or Bow Kid, if I decide if she should show up) being the most familiar with Time Pieces in general can make the most connections. Snatcher understands who MJ is, even if he doesn’t know the ‘how’, so he’ll be a little ahead of the others until Hat Kid finds out Subcon’s story from the giant Time Piece’s new rift and puts a few more pieces of the puzzle with it.