#also if you can sleuth out the premise of this au at this point you can have thr certified genius award

[leshyleaf]

au LORE + doodles

[the-mspfa-200-favourites-project]

NIGHTFALL

Welcome. To 2012. Homestuck has now officially arrived at MSPFA, as we will see from the glut of Homestuck AUs and continuations. There are no original webcomics that did not spawn from MSPA, and there is only one that is not related to Homestuck (it’s related to Problem Sleuth instead). Now, I hear you cry through the internet directly into my earhole, “Continuations? But by 2012, Homestuck hadn’t even finished yet!” Well, buster, that didn’t stop NIGHTFALL from getting created!

It's a unique, interesting premise, simply through its existence as being a continuation to a story that was still actively ongoing at the time of it’s release. I guess by this point people had already figured out sort of what was going to happen in the story to be confident enough to create an “epilogue” of sorts to the proceedings. Unlike our previous AU/continuation, however, NIGHTFALL is trying to DO something, as indicated by the fact that it—gasp!—DOES NOT HAVE ANY COMMANDS IN IT’S OPENING SEQUENCE! Is that even LEGAL? Also it shows Vriska getting brutally hanged by death and reveals it all to be a dream sequence of THINGS TO COME! So, yeah. It’s a pretty good indicator that the author has something in mind for this comic, even though it then devolves into a weird AU about school that doesn’t really fit the tone of the opening sequence…and then further devolves into anime? I’ll give it this: this is the author’s passion project, for sure.

In terms of pacing, there are a lot of beat panels where there’s just…nothing happening. Characters staring at things, and no prose where you would expect prose to be. It’s not something I would ordinarily mention but it kept reoccurring so I kind of had to note it down. It kind of brings me out of the action, all things considered? You can also tell that the person writing it doesn’t quite have the character’s voices down, at least in the early parts of the comic? One thing I will say is that, unlike a lot of comics around this time, it does understand that Vriska Serket had kind of a messed up childhood, and therefore treats her childhood with respect! Which is impressive. Kind of wish that wasn’t like, impressive, but what can you do. Unfortunately, Vriska kind of resolves around John in this story, which does not feel all that great from a character-writing perspective? Practically every thought Vriska has is about John.

The pacing is making me realize an important point: Commands kind of, like, can be a tool where you can compress certain actions? Like, if one were to say “Vriska: Take Computer,” you don’t have to show Vriska standing over the desk. You can show Vriska at the computer, and I’ll understand where Vriska got that computer from.

I must say, this was compelling in its own way, mainly because it’s so interesting seeing what a “homestuck continuation” would’ve been like from a 2012 fandom perspective. It’s worth taking a look into what exactly the “vibe” of the fandom would’ve been in 2012, if nothing else. But also, the Homestuck characters kind of become apart of the background in exchange for the new alien characters? So, uh, I guess. That’s Nightfall.

[autisticandroids]

Okay so this was a while back but im preety sure you had mentioned an au of yours where dean is a serial killer and cas successfully stalks him but i don't think you talked about it more than that and i just really want to hear a bit more bc that idea sounds so tastefully fucked up

okay so. weeks later i finally end up answering this ask. it inspired this post btw. anyway spn is a show that's like. all about justifications, as i said in the post inspired by this ask. it's about having no choice and doing what you have to do. and like there is the phantasy embedded in it, a phantasy that is both indulged and punished. but most importantly it's justified. the monsters are super strong to show how brave our heroes are for fighting them, the main characters let out great wails of grief every time their lady loves are violently ripped from them (even though now they are free to do whatever they want), the narrative twists to show our heroes as correct whatever they do. the fantasy (of being allowed to enact violence, of being free from feminine "control," of being right) comes first. the material construction of the universe of supernatural comes afterward. whatever the fantasy is, the universe of supernatural will provide material conditions to justify its acting-out.

and what this means is that our protagonists, dean in particular, are constantly doing just horrific things, which in any other circumstance would be unconscionable. but the universe of supernatural provides justification for these acts. the point of my serial killer au which i think about so so so much is to ask the question: what if these justifications melted out from under their feet? what if dean was left holding nothing but a lie and the weight of everything he's done?

therefore, the premise of my au is such (under the cut because this baby is long):

john and mary winchester, in the mid seventies, joined a doomsday cult known as the men of letters. the men of letters were rather unusual for a doomsday cult, in that they believed that the apocalypse could be prevented by human behavior. this started as correct living, correct worship, yadda yadda, the kind of behavior and thought control that cults are known for, but with the justification of: if you don't do this, the world will end. eventually, this escalated to human sacrifice. the men of letters managed to untraceably kill two homeless people in the late seventies. but they eventually fell apart. however, a month after john and mary left the men of letters (mostly john's choice, mary still believed), mary died in a house fire. john took it as a sign from god that actually, the men of letters were right, and the world would end unless john himself did something about it. so he took some of the (intensely numerological) theology of the men of letters. and he worked out his own formula. and he applied it to the yellow pages. and started ritualistically killed people to prevent the apocalypse, with his two sons in the back of the car.

now, obviously, this is some kind of grief induced temporary madness on john's part, shaped by the mental abuse he suffered in the men of letters. but the thing is, once you've killed a couple of people to prevent the apocalypse. well. there's this thing called the sunk costs fallacy. john wasn't gonna question his own beliefs after that.

and he raised his boys to believe it, too, or at least he raised dean to. they didn't tell sam what they did until he was twelve, and sam didn't buy it, tried to call the cops on them several times but in the end, they always prevented him. eventually sam ran off to stanford, where he now lives under a cloud of guilt that he's too loyal to his family to rat them out.

john died a few years back of a heart attack, but dean is convinced it's because he messed up a ritual two weeks before it happened, so it pushed him further into this belief system.

dean's killings (and john's before him) are ritualistic and distinctive, obviously the same killer each time. but they happen anywhere in the united states, seemingly at random, there are inconsistent amounts of time between each one (sometimes as short as days, sometimes as long as years), and there is no particular victim profile. obviously, since our killers are following an arcane mathematical formula to make their choices for them, but the police don't know that.

castiel novak is an unemployed shut-in with a small inheritance which he's living off of, a cryptography degree, and an obsession with all things morbid. he spends most of his time on the reddit true crime forums, playing amateur sleuth. by complete chance, he happens to recognize one of the symbols frequently used in corpse displays by the so-called sioux falls satanic slaughterer (so named because the first time three of his victims were in the same part of the country, it so happened that they were all in sioux falls, south dakota. this was in the late eighties.) as being mostly only used by a little known cult group called the men of letters, which dissolved in the mid eighties.

he only notices this because, as a teen, he had a special interest in cults and fringe religious groups. the men of letters weren't a particularly notable or well known phenomenon; they were small, and a lot like every other cult that formed during the seventies cult boom. (no outsider ever heard about the human sacrifice; there were rumors, of course, but they were garbled, sensationalized, and mixed up with satanic panic fodder.)

(the men of letters' two sacrifices were nothing particularly romantic or fantastical. they first lured panhandler josie sands back to their compound with promises of food and a warm bed when she admitted she couldn't get a bed at a shelter, and was thinking of getting caught shoplifting just so she could be under a roof in the county jail. the men of letters' leader, a man who took on the name alistair, forced his inner circle to dress in the ceremonial black robes he had given them when he initiated them into his nearest and dearest, and which his wife had sewn out of old bed sheets and dyed black with home made oak gall dye. these robes still left black smudges on the wearer's skin occasionally if they sweated too much. josie was laid, bound, on the altar, a slapdash thing constructed over the course of two days from scrap plywood and a couple of milk crates. a rich red tablecloth purchased at macy's for $3.99 hid its ugliness and gave it grandeur. alistair attempted to kill the struggling miss sands by bringing a sharpened kitchen knife down on her bosom and piercing her heart, but, having never killed a human or even slaughtered an animal before, was unaware of the problem presented by the human ribcage. after rather ineffectually poking at the area beneath sands' bosom with his knife while she shrieked in pain and terror for about ninety seconds, alistair tried a different tack, and slit her throat, which worked just fine, and she bled out quite nicely. the second and final victim of the men of letters was a local vagrant named larry ganem, an older gentleman who walked with a limp. he was lured back to the compound in approximately the same manner as sands, but instead of being bound, he was fed stew laced with sleeping pills. even if alistair hadn't slit his throat, he wouldn't have woken up. it's actually arguable whether he was still alive at time of sacrifice; mary winchester (eight months into her first pregnancy), who, as a member of the inner circle, was in attendance, actually tried to take ganem's pulse as he lay on the altar (now covered by a different tablecloth; the red one had turned stiff with sands' blood and been subsequently burned) and found nothing, so it is entirely possibly only sands' death can be directly laid at alistair's feet, and ganem's is the fault of mrs. ellen harvelle, who prepared the laced stew. regardless, these two deaths are lessons in the nature of human evil: it is very rarely skilled, suave, or smooth. it's often slapdash, half-hearted, and just plain incompetent. but that makes it no less grisly. alistair may have begun to drink his own kool-aid, as it were, and escalated this far out of genuine belief that the apocalypse was coming and it was up to him to stop it, but it is far more likely that he sensed the imminent collapse of his little empire, and wanted to bind his subjects to him through the horrors of shared guilt, considering two lives a small price to pay for the continued loyalty of his inner circle. and the tactic worked: the men of letters didn't start to collapse in earnest until almost four years later. perhaps if alistair had continued the killings, the men of letters could have lasted for far longer, maybe even up until the present day. but it seems that alistair, a psychiatrist by training and unused to violence, simply didn't have the stomach for it. unlike, say, john winchester, who before his time with the men of letters had done a two year tour in vietnam, during which he had killed three living, thinking human beings with the american government's go-ahead.)

anyway. castiel is the first person, ever, to make the connection between the men of letters and the sioux falls satanic slaughterer. and once that connection is made, castiel begins to research the men of letters far more in-depth. and he notices something: the theology of the men of letters was intensely numerological, filled with patterns, significant numbers, and even spiritual equations.

castiel thinks of the seemingly random selection of the slaughterer's victims, and has an epiphany.

he cracks all his fingers, and gets coding.

six months. it takes castiel six months to discover an equation that could fit the slaughterer's pattern. it's complex, but also clearly based on several of the men of letters' holy numbers, and accounts for every single one of the killings. it also suggests that there should have been two or three more deaths scattered across the years, but more than likely those did happen, it's just that they weren't reported as part of the slaughterer's portfolio.

but much more importantly, castiel's model can also make predictions. there will be two killings, fifteen days apart, in a city seven hours' drive away, six weeks from now.

so castiel waits. and he books a hotel room. and two months later, he's waiting outside 217 oak street when a shadowy figure climbs up a tree and lets itself into the upstairs window.

dean winchester is feeling particularly all alone in the world when he breaks into maisey banks' home (217 oak street). his father has been dead for half a decade, and he hasn't spoken to his baby brother for twice that. it's not like this whole grizzly saving the world business makes him a lot of friends. so once he's done killing maisey (which is easy, she was ninety three and dying of cancer anyway. she doesn't even wake up when he slits her throat) and arranging her corpse in the appropriate manner, with prayers and sigils, he turns around. and sees a man standing behind him.

smiling slightly.

as he watches dean gut this old woman.

dean freezes.

the man takes a step forward.

"you're very attractive for a serial killer who's been operating since the eighties."

dean is silent.

"family business, is it?"

silence continues.

"i'm not here to report you to police. i'm just here to see if my algorithm worked right."

and dean finally breaks his silence: "what the hell is wrong with you?"

what's fun here is that dean knows (or rather "knows") that he isn't a serial killer. so he finds what cas is doing, this amoral serial killer stormchasing, morally repugnant. because cas has no way of knowing he isn't a regular serial killer.

there's also the fact that that cas proceeds to flirt with him. aggressively. and follows him back to his motel.

but the thing is that dean is all alone in the world. and as cas continues trailing him around, he starts getting, well, flattered. and feeling a little bit less alone.

it doesn't take very long before they fall into bed. even if cas is an amoral stalker with a fetish for what dean considers a distasteful yet necessary vocation.

so. they fall into bed. they fall in love. they make a little life together, in dean's big sexy car. dean tries to explain to cas that he's saving the world. that these people's lives are a necessary price to pay. and cas seems to listen.

of course, castiel doesn't believe a word of it. but he's found that he likes dean. really likes him. and he realizes that the collapse of dean's belief system would destroy him.

so he sets about becoming as complicit in it as possible.

even to the extent where, when dean is hit by a car and ends up into the hospital a day before one killing is meant to take place, castiel agrees to take on the job. (he doesn't actually kill anyone, obviously. but he does use his extensive skill with computers to create three fake newspaper articles which make it look like he has.)

but five years later, something goes wrong. really, really wrong. dean miscalculates the formula. and by the time he checks his work, the actual date of the next kill, as demanded by the formula, has passed. in fact, so have three others. and the world didn't end.

dean collapses. he hyperventilates. all those people. all those people. for no reason. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people.

cas seems totally unfazed. dean stares at him in shock. but cas just takes dean in his arms, and whispers in his ear: "oh, dean, i never believed in the equation. i love you no matter what you've done."

and dean buries his face in cas' chest.

[vagrantblvrd]

Random FAHC scenario where Gavin and Fiona meet up in the Europes before joining the FAHC AU and it’s like.

Gavin is this Cool Hacker and Fiona’s just...Fiona? Like. Fighty, but also a horribly human being/kindred spirit with Gavin and they’re like :DDDDDDDDDDDD when they realize they’re horrible human beings?

Sniper buddies on the side, too, because of course.

And they pal around for a while until there’s this Shiny they want to steal because reasons, only it’s been confiscated as evidence or is just taking up a place of pride somewhere with ridiculous amounts of security around it and they’d need all these resources and the whatnot they don’t have access to.

But then they’re vegetating somewhere and watching tv shows and on comes some detective show with the police consultant who is Super Sleuth not unlike Sherlock Holmes and they’re rolling their eyes because wow, terrible writing and worse execution of premise and the acting.

But.

It percolates in their brains for a while until they thing about the Shiny again and one of them is like “Hey, remember that asshole from that show?”

Because police consultant and such, privy to all kinds of things other people aren’t and somehow that translates in a Brilliant Idea of them pulling a Brilliant Plan.

One in which Gavin (because British) plays the Super Sleuth with Fiona as his assistant.

(The thing where she’s younger and, you know, a woman, which hahaha, the police/authorities they’re planning to fuck with are horrible mysoginists and it works to their advantage.)

ANYWAY.

It’s a long play, this plan of theirs in which they wow the cops with Gavin’s Super Sleuth-ness, which is just him and Fiona with the computer hacking and intel gathering and also, maybe, paying off some randos to help make them look like totally legit Super Sleuth and Assistant looking to become police consultants and so on.

Gain trust and respect and all this, and working their way to getting better access to the Shiny.

Actually put some legit criminal-types behind bars, naturally making new and exciting enemies along the way. Said criminal-types were real scumbags or potential hindrances or something along those lines.

After however long they manage to steal the Shiny and the police never figure out it’s them behind it?

But England/Europe is dangerous for them with the enemies they made or maybe they’re just bored of it or there’s a new Shiny for them in America, so!

Off to America they go, leaning hard on the Super Sleuth thing they’ve got going and work their way towards Los Santos building up this reputation for themselves as they go?

Like.

Minor celebrities kind of thing while stealing all the Shiniies that catch their eye along the way.

And then Los Santos, right?

Not exactly ideal for their shenanigans in which the cops don’t want people like them sniffing out all the corruption and the whatnot, but there’s this big Thing, some special Shiny and its owner has heard ever so much about the two of them.

Wants them helping keep it secure and all that - which, okay??? - and they’re like okay???

Plan to steal the Shiny and make a run for it before anyone catches on?

But the night of the big gala/party whatever where it’s meant to be on display there are all these suspicious characters wandering around.

Gavin flirting with this one guy who waltzes up to him at the refreshment table, all southern charm and pretty blue eyes and such a gentleman?

Fiona’s off to the side like jfc, just bone already because it’s ridiculous?

And then!

The power cuts out and when the lights come back on the Shiny is missing!!1!

The owner of the Shiny lets out this shriek and ~faints and it’s up to Gavin and Fiona to Super Sleuth who the culprit is?

ALSO.

This totally takes place on a  cruise ship because of course it does and is basically Clue but on a big, big boat. (I know, I know, ship, but whatever.)

Gavin and Fiona are joined by Mystery Blonde Man (whoever could it be, I wonder???) as they Super Sleuth their way along.

Occasionally there’s a Murder (defs mysterious circumstances) and More Tension!!!1!

Paranoia as party-goers suspect the person next to them of being the murdered and petty disagreements and such coming to light (Also confessions of adultery and bribery and just waaaaay too much Drama for anyone’s comfort? AND YET.)

Gavin and Fiona are like jfc because this is NOT what they signed up for when they came up with this farce of a con way back when?

Because of course there are the moments in which Gavin is Investigating - alone, because seperated in the dark - and gets attacked and knocked unconscious and Mystery Blonde Man is the one to discover him, because of course he does.

(And of course there’s that moment of Staring Into One Antoher’s Eyes and Unguarded Thoughts and Fiona standing right the fuck there, you assholes, Christ.)

ANYWAY.

Shenanigans (and light murder) until Gavin figures it out.

Realizes Mystery Blonde Man was behind it the whole time along with his associates. The bald bastard posing as a waiter, and the crewman with the Jersey accent and the Flashback Of Realization as Mystery Blonde Man pulls a gun on Gavin and Fiona and does the rueful apology thing because he really did like Gavin, you know?

Meanwhile Gavin is holding Fiona back from going for the asshole’s throat, or really, his ankles because she’s goddamned vindictive like that, and trying to make it look like he’s not? (Because Assistant!Fiona is sweet like angel and would never, you know?)

Maybe one of the security guards runs up to stop Mystery Blonde Man from absconding with the Shiny and about to shoot him?

And Gavin, like the idiot he is, jumps in the way to take the bullet for him.

(Because kevlar vest under his tuxedo and all the way Fiona’s wearing one under her ensemble - gorgeous dress or incredible tux of her own, idk both work great for me.)

 Mystery Blond Man is like :O!!11! because he doesn’t know about the kevlar vest thing and Gavin’s not moving (because he still got shot and that hurts like a mofo and also Drama and Angst) but it’s too dangerous to stick around so he escapes along with his associates not realizing Gavin’s going to be fine?

AND THEN.

Gavin and Fiona are still in the LSPD’s good books, not to mention the city at large and don’t know what to do about it just yet?

BUT.

Gavin’s Intrigued about Mystery Blonde Man and his associates and does his hackery mcgic while Fiona goes out to gather what intel she can from their contacts.

AND THEN.

Gavin goes out to some bar somewhere one night, dressed like the horrible little hacker gremlin he is in regular street clothes and sits down at this table in a darkened corner?

“Lovely evening, isn’t it?” he asks, because someone’s been sitting at the same table for a bit now.

Big, scary looking bastard in a leather jacket and ridiculous skull mask. (This close, Gavin can make out what looks like face paint under it??? Something like that anyway.)

Ryan, because of course it’s Ryan, freezes.

About to take a drink of his diet soda and sets it down slowly because reports about what happened on the cruise ship were way confused/conflicting and he thought Gavin died, you know?

Was out of town on a job for Geoff and the crew when the corrections were made and no one thought/knew to tell him because he’s kind of dumb about that shit and just bottled everything up, insisted on working through it. (Also, he barely knew Gavin and they were on opposite sides anyway and just. A whole slew of excuses.)

Gavin of course, doesn’t know any of that, just blithely goes on and on about the weather and the shitty band playing on stages. Kids looking to make it big and desperate for it and not really good but not terrible either, just. You know how it is.

And then he switches tracks, brings up the Shiny and the cruise ship and this whole Super Sleuth deal he put together afterwards.

Hackery magic and Fiona’s intel and the two of them with a murder board figuring everything out?

“Should ahve expected the Fake AH Crew wouldn’t be able to pass it by,” he says, referring to the Shiny, while Ryan’s just !!! because what is going on right now?

Worried he might have to kill Gavin now since he knows who Ryan is and all that? (Lol, try to, or at least look like he’s trying to, because FEELS)

And then Gavin gets onto the bit where he reveals the thing where he and Fiona are totally criminals in their own right.

Big deal, that, because it could blow up in his and Fiona’s faces so badly? But Fiona was tired of him moping around because of Mystery Blonde Man/Vagabond/Ryan and was like.

“Fucking tell him, what the hell do I care?”

So Gavin seeking Ryan out and this whole Thing and Ryan being so, so confused?

Like.

Why is Gavin telling him all this? (Why did he bother to track him down and such?)

And Gavin’s just like.

Looking at Ryan’s drink where the ice is all melted with the whole exposition dump that happened taking a bit and all.

“I’d like to buy you a drink, if you don’t object?”

At which point Ryan realizes Gavin has gone super nervous and awkward and it takes him another moment or two to realize why?

Because FEELS and weird date experience? But also criminals and weird everything anyway, and he’s just.

This little smile (because awkward nerdface) and says that would be nice, but maybe not here? If Gavin’s hungry he knows a decent place not too far away and they can get something to eat, and anyway, anyway, awkward dorks and their first date???

Which of course turns into more, with Fiona giving Gavin so much shit for his smushy feelings for Ryan???

The two of them keeping their Super Sleuth and Assistant con going and stealing Shinies here and there.

And then!

Some shenanigans in which members of the crew get caught, arrested, and taken to whatever precinct Gavin and Fiona are in good with?

Gavin and Fiona being like oh, shit when they see the Vagabond and whoever paraded past them headed to the holding cells?

Realizing nothing good can come of this because of course not, and then overhear some cops talking about planning an accident to make sure the Vagabond and whoever else is in there don’t make it to the morning?

So of course they have to break them out, almost certainly burning their Super Sleuth con in the progress, but that’s not important because FEELS? Also right thing to do, so!

They finagle their way to get access to Ryan and whoever and run into this FIB agent.

Stern woman who is all HMM when she meets them and gives them ALL the shit because of course she does.

Total asshole and Gavin is like :) and trying not to snap - Fiona is weirdly quiet about it, but whatever.

The FIB agent trying get Ryan and whoever transferred to FIB custody, but pissing contest with the LSPD and Gavin and Fiona planning a jailbreak?

FIB agent and her partner/team marching the Vagabond and whoever out through the parking garage and Gavin and Fiona about to break out the jailbreak plan, only for FIB agent to be like,

“You owe me, assholes, so fucking much,” as she unlocks the cuffs on Ryan and whoever because of coruse it’s Lindsay, you know?

Either running her own long play of being an FIB agent or just this one-time production, who knows, and Gavin and Fiona are like???

Because they kind of stumble into it, all ready with guns out and the like and Lindsay is like, “Took you guys long enough,” :DDDDDDDDDDD when she sees them, and idk, I’m losing the thread here yet again.

All of them having ot escape when the cops come down to try one more round of being assholes about things? But uh, wow, ALL the criminals and just a lot of yelling and shooting and Daring Escapes.

Gavin and Fiona being like shit because they just burned the Super Sleuth con for basically nothing? (Don’t regret the intent behind it? But wow, what a waste?)

Lindsay’s just :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDD because the crew could use people like them, and what do they say to a trial run with these assholes of hers?

(Ryan is trying not to be all hearteyes over the realization of what Gavin and Fiona did for him and whoever, and failing miserably because Ryan.)

Gavin and Fiona agree to the trial run, and it’s kind of great because ALL the assholes like them and fun criminal activities?

Also, bonus for Gavin in which he makes Ryan’s life the absolute worst? (But in a loving manner, and vice versa.)

Fiona is totes hearteyes over Lindsay because why wouldn’t she be?

Michael is off to the side like , jfc, because that asshole Gavin, but also that asshole Fiona and goddammit, what is with this city?

Geoff is like oh, God, now there are more of you assholes???

And then shenanigans, I guess, idk anymore.

[yo-namine]

I know Inception AUs are so 2010, but… I have ideas for a KH/Inception AU about the Ghost Trio.

So the basic premise is that Axel, Riku, and Naminé form an Extraction Team. DiZ hires them to steal some info from Roxas via dream heist shenanigans, but every time they seem to get close to stealing the info, Xion will just pop up in Roxas’s dream like “hey ;)” and then kill/wake them up. Axel initially thinks this dream!Xion is just a projection because as far as he knows, the real Xion’s dead, but dream!Xion shows that she clearly knows things Roxas doesn’t and that she acts fully independently of him (which a projection theoretically shouldn’t be able to do). So nobody really knows just what the heck Xion is, and Roxas himself isn’t sure if she’s really his friend who’s living on in his dreams somehow or if she’s just his projection of her, but she helps him stay ahead of the trio and kick them out of his dreams, so he trusts her well enough.

Xion and Roxas are ex-Organization members, and the Org is like some mob-esque Extraction squad. Xemnas is more interested in the theory and potential of dream shenanigans than anything else, and all the heist jobs that the Org gets up to are just to fund his own research. Anyway, Xion’s a Forger, and Roxas is an Extractor. The two of them are old friends of Axel’s (also a Forger), but things ended badly when Xion decided to defect from the Org. Roxas wanted to go with her, but Axel didn’t want anyone leaving because he knew it’d end up getting them killed. And he was kind of right because the Org (supposedly) takes Xion out while Roxas survives and escapes. Axel tries to bring Roxas back into the Org later, but obviously that… doesn’t go well, and they have a pretty nasty falling out. So at the time of the story, Roxas is still on the run from the Org. Axel has also defected and is kind of at a loss of where to go or what to do next.

Naminé’s primarily a Chemist, but she’s also a skilled Architect. She worked for Marluxia and Larxene before they joined the Org, and while she was with their team, she figured out a method to permanently alter a subject’s memory via dream shenanigans. But she eventually realized that manipulating people outside the dreamscape was a step too far for her, so she cut ties with her team and split, and she took all her research with her. Her memory manipulation ability makes her unique and very valuable, though, so once Marly and Larxene join the Org, they start using their new resources to try to track her down, and Naminé’s forced to go into hiding.

Riku’s a solo Extractor for hire. He got on the Org’s bad side somehow, and now they’re out for his blood. Before that, though, Riku was able to basically live a double life that his normie bffs Sora and Kairi knew nothing about. But he became worried that his new enemies would hurt his friends to get to him, so he made himself disappear. After that, dream shenanigans became his full-time job. Anyway, Riku tracked Naminé down because he wanted her to erase him from Sora and Kairi’s memories, fearing that his friends would search for him and potentially get mixed up with the Org, too. But by the time he catches up with her, Naminé’s not about that life anymore. She still does some illegal dream shenanigans here and there just to support herself and keep herself hidden, but she’s sworn off memory mangling (especially against two unknowing people who couldn’t even consent to it). She and Riku don’t get along that well initially because of this, but they’re both trying to hide from some scary/powerful people and don’t really have anyone else to turn to at this point, so they decide to stick together anyway. Naminé actually becomes very protective of Riku because he just so happens to resemble a certain childhood friend of hers who died tragically young. She thinks that if her friend had gotten to grow up, he’d look a lot like Riku now. (It’s Repliku. Naminé’s childhood friend was Repliku.)

Sora and Kairi are just… normal people in this AU, lol. Sora’s a grade school teacher, and Kairi’s a copy-editor trying to make her way into the world of publishing. They’re engaged, they have a cozy little apartment and a giant dog named Goofy, and they’d be pretty happy with their lives if it wasn’t for the fact that their best friend went missing over a year ago. They were going to get married right around the time Riku vanished, so they’re putting the wedding off (among other things) until they find him. They do a lot of amateur sleuthing together that leads to some ridiculous/dangerous situations that a couple of 25-year-olds with bills and responsibilities have no business getting into. Kairi’s reckless af outside her day job, and Sora has never understood the concept of minding one’s own business, so they’re forever getting themselves in trouble. They really do need someone more level-headed like Riku to balance them out. Luckily for them, Riku does secretly check in on them from time to time just to make sure they’re not dead. To Sora and Kairi’s credit, though, they actually did get pretty close to finding Riku once, but he’s always a few steps ahead of them.

…I’m probably more into this Destiny Trio subplot than the main story, lol.

Anyway, DiZ manages to fish Riku, Naminé, and Axel out of their respective hiding places and tells them he can help them take out the entire Org if they can Extract a little info from Roxas for him via dream heist. He clearly has some old connections to Xemnas, but he’s not forthcoming about the details. It’s enough to make the three of them believe he really can hold his end of the bargain, though. Riku and Naminé are uneasy about working with Axel because he could very easily hand them over to the Org in exchange for his and Roxas’s lives, but the prospect of finally getting the Organization off their backs is too good to pass up. And anyway, by this point, Axel would much rather destroy the Org for revenge than use the other two to buy his way back into his old life, so he agrees to work with them.

Before all this started, DiZ actually did try approaching Roxas IRL and just asking for the info, thinking that Roxas would hate the Org enough to tell him anything he could use to take them out, but Roxas didn’t trust him (because he doesn’t really trust anyone anymore) and wouldn’t tell him jack. Plus, Roxas may already know a little about DiZ’s history with Xemnas, and that connection just makes him that much more wary of the guy. DiZ interprets Roxas’s over-caution as him trying to cover that he does know more than he’s letting on. And if he can’t get anything from Roxas IRL, then DiZ’s totally reasonable next step is to infiltrate his subconscious and take the info by force.

During practice runs, Axel has a tendency to just shoot Riku awake whenever he gets on his nerves. It gets to the point where Riku’s barely even fazed by it. Sometimes he’ll purposefully say something shitty just to see if it’ll piss Axel off enough to do it, lmao.

Naminé has a projection of Repliku that shows up in dreams occasionally, but it isn’t violent like Cobb’s projection of Mal or anything. It’s just a totally benign illusion that’ll talk to her about some of their childhood memories, and that’s about it. It’s generally only dangerous in that sometimes Naminé will get distracted by it. However, it’s still not a good variable to have to contend with during a job, so Naminé originally developed her memory erasing technique with the intent of making herself forget him altogether. But of course, she couldn’t bring herself actually to do it. Anyway, Repliku showing up sometimes throws Riku for a loop too because their resemblance is uncanny af (only Riku is 26 and Repliku is eternally 15).

Anywho, aside from Axel shooting Riku occasionally, the three of them actually work pretty well together. It kind of goes how it does in canon, where they’re together just because of their work, but beneath that, they’re just three very lonely people who are sort of using each other to fill the void where their real friends used to be. And naturally, a genuine comradery grows from that after a while.

So the trio + DiZ work together to plot everything out. Axel knows Roxas pretty well, so he can give them an idea of what to expect from his dreams and what sort of defenses he’ll have. Naminé preps the sedatives and maps out the dream levels. Riku makes a plan for every stage of the job and figures in all the contingencies in case something goes wrong. DiZ knows way more about dream shenanigans than he initially let on, and he occasionally shows the others a few shortcuts in their methods. Obviously none of them could’ve planned for Xion, though, so she really throws a wrench in everything when they finally get into Roxas’s dreams.

Everyone’s got a totem in this AU:

Roxas’s totem is a little seashell that used to belong to Xion. It has a unique sound when you put it to your ear. 

Naminé’s is the little star charm from CoM, only it’s much smaller and easier to hide. Repliku made it for her when they were kids, so it’s one of a kind. One of the star’s points has an odd notch in it that’s indiscernible unless you know to look for it.

Riku’s is a regular key-sized Braveheart, and idk, maybe the key’s dimples are different in reality and in dreams.

Axel’s is a busted lighter that sparks/lights in a unique way. He’s the only person who knows exactly how to hold it or how many times to trigger it to get it to work.

Back when he was with the Org, Axel taught Xion almost everything she knew about Forging, but she also just had a natural talent for mimicking people’s mannerisms (both IRL and in the dreamscape), so she really started to outclass him just before she died. Her skills make the trio’s job for DiZ really tricky because Xion starts mimicking them, and the longer they stay in Roxas’s dream, the better she knows them. The flip side of this though is that now that they all know Xion’s in Roxas’s dreams, Axel can mimic her right back and use Roxas’s trust in her against him.

They did bank on there being a regular projection of Axel in Roxas’s dreams, too, and they can work with that since that way, Roxas won’t be suspicious if he sees real!Axel down there. The only thing is that between real!Axel, projection!Axel, and unexpected!Xion!Axel, things get very confusing very fast.

Anyway, it turns out Roxas doesn’t even know the information DiZ wants, not even deep in his subconscious, so the job’s kind of a bust until the trio figures out that Xion does know it, and it’s what pushed her to defect from the Org in the first place before she died. And that confirms that she isn’t a projection at all, but is really Xion just trapped in the dreamscape somehow. It turns out that the Org didn’t kill her, but just put her into such a deep sleep that it threw her straight into Limbo. She managed to climb her way up to Roxas’s subconscious somehow and has been guarding his dreams from intruders ever since. And the big secret DiZ is after is how all this was accomplished. He suspected Xemnas had some method of infiltrating someone’s mind via Limbo, and Xion’s existence proves it. Only thing is that Xion can’t tell any of them how it happened because she was trapped in Limbo for ages (while it’s only been a couple of years in the real world) before managing to crawl her way up level by level, and genuinely doesn’t remember how she ended up down there in the first place. But maybe she kept a journal for all those years she was trapped in Limbo, and everyone teams up to go down there and search for it. Or something.

I dunno how I’d end this story. Uh…………………… Ideally, DiZ gets his info and uses it to neutralize the Organization (somehow). With that threat gone, Riku can finally go home to Sora and Kairi (though Naminé REALLY has to push him to do it because he feels guilty for being gone so long, especially when he learns that they put so much of their lives on hold until he could be part of it again). He tells them the truth about his double life and why he left, etc. etc. He doesn’t quit dream shenanigans for good, but he definitely takes a step back from it so he can focus on reality. Naminé works with DiZ to figure out a way to wake Xion up from the deep sleep the Organization put her under. Roxas and Axel still aren’t friends exactly, but they work together to help the other two for Xion’s sake. It takes time, but Naminé eventually develops a way to safely take Xion off the sedative and wake her up.

I can’t believe how long this post got jfkslkdklf