#heartless role swap au

[canonplag]

accidentally flustering your best employee because you have the social skills of a stick — in trying to hear him better 

[vm-haunts]

Ten Years

[a role swap au, set a few years after Little Prayers. More on the setting at the end.]

...

How much can ten years change a person, a ghost?

Ten years is enough for him to lose every shred of humanity, for him to carve his own personal hell out of Earth.

Then ten more had turned a heartless monster into- not exactly a hero, but something close enough. Something that begrudgingly relearned humanity, something that protects more than destroys.

Ten years can change everything, he knows better than anyone.

So this unfamiliar Danny, who recognized non of them, doesn't exactly surprise him.

It's more than ten years since they lost Phantom- the original one from this world. To think the kid would stay unchanged after all this time is just delusional.

Time is ruthless in it's flow, he knows that well. Ten years back he might throw a fit over the unfair amount of chances given to the kid, but now? He had learned to understand clockwork's cruel kindness much better. They are still here simply because the Realms aren't done with them.

Phantoms, the Realms' favorite chew toy.

Still... The blood on this new Danny's hands, the company he kept and the things he did- does, it feels like himself looking back from a mirror.

Huh. Maybe there is a reason the Observers are so hell bend on destroying the kid for his crimes, all those years back then. Maybe this darkness does belong more to Phantom than anyone else.

Although he has to be fair, the kid isn't nearly as far gone as he once was. Figures, that the stubborn kid managed to keep that disgusting compassion of his even in this little villain arc.

Eurgh, sentiments. He really is getting soft isn't he?

[in this AU a reformed Dan stepped up as Phantom after Danny's tragic disappearance when he's about 17, then ten years later Dan ran into amnesiac assassin Danny hanging out with the League of Assassins.

Danny's old classmates and friends would be at least 27 by this point, Dan at least 37 and is probably older than Bruce. Danny however still looks like he's 17, because magic.

Here all the DP canon ended before Batman's first appearance, much less the JL's formation. Dan's Phantom never really joined the JL, but he is there since the beginning and is considered an ally. Usually.

Danny isn't really here, but since the ending of Little Prayers and later his stay in the LoA... He is more like Dan than his old self. Our boy is Messed Up.]

[nompunhere]

YEAH IM OOMF HAI IM HAPPY UR WATCHING THE SHOW Also... biology for j0hn siIv3r.... I must know... AND THE CROSSOV3R?? You have my full interest

YIPPEEEEEE HEMLOOOOOO

oooooo yee Silver biology,,,,, hmmm (not gonna bother censoring his name for this since it's. a noun)

okay, so, he's an alien, so it should stand that he'd have interesting biology, pretty different from a human's. he does strongly resemble mammals, though, so there might be some overlap, even if it's not one-to-one. maybe like, similar overall systems, i.e. circulatory, nervous, skeletal, and what we're all here for, digestive, and some similar organs, like a heart (or hearts), lungs of some sort or another, aaaaand a stomach

or, heck, he could have multiple stomachs, maybe. he's an alien, why not? I imagine his digestive system works differently from a human's, at least in some ways, even if his mouth looks similar. slow metabolism, perhaps, to suit a somewhat more carnivorous diet? not entirely carnivorous, but more meat-heavy. and different enzymes? different fluids entirely? different organs that produce different fluids?

okay okay I can make this more interesting, lemme give it a shot

I'd like to think he has some built-in way of doing safe noms, such as a storage stomach, or a way to temporarily shut off digestion. more fun than just handwaving it to work. maybe it's a conscious decision, or maybe it's entirely subconscious, and he just has to hope that his system does what he wants it to. could make for a great trust exercise, hehehe

and one can't ignore the cybernetics. obviously we don't know, in canon (at least as far as the movie goes), how deep they go beyond the limb replacements and the prosthetic eye and ear(?), but I'm sure he could, in theory, have needed some organs replaced or like. bolstered? I'm thinking of stuff along the lines of a pacemaker, basically.

so maybe he's got some bits and bobs in there. nothing in his stomach, probably, but perhaps you could see some blinking lights through the flesh if you looked closely enough, or hear the devices running in the background, like with his prosthetics, maybe even feel them if you go poking around enough (though he probably wouldn't like you doing that very much sdgnshjfs)

this was a lot more than I anticipated having to say on the matter lmao so I'm gonna chuck the HK crossover stuff under a cut

--------------------------------------

okay ! so ! Hollow Knight/Treasure Planet crossover time! (good gog this got long too, whoopsie)

it's effectively a 1-to-1 character swap for the most part, with HK characters taking up TP roles, and not too many changes to the canon TP plot. however, there can always be little scenes of those in-between moments we don't see in the movie!

now I. don't actually have permission to talk about the version of the AU I made with my friend, so there's gonna be some improvisations here to make a version that's more my own

Oro takes John Silver's role, no question about that, he's one of my favorite bois and I think he'd do great as a space pirate with a hidden soft side. he did not take the fight with his brother well, and he ended up going down a much darker path than he'd ever anticipated, but he holds his current place in life with pride. maybe people in the past called him heartless, but you know what? fine. he can be heartless.

Ghost is the most obvious choice for Jim's role, but I also think Broken Vessel/Lost Kin would suit it pretty well. angsty adolescent vibes, y'know? plus, Oro being parental towards them and all. but Ghost is still perfectly viable as well

either way, Mato has Sarah Hawkins' role. a very loving dad to his adopted child (or children, even? possibly?), tries his best to keep on a smile, but he is so tired. and maybe he runs a training hall instead of an inn? that's what he'd want to do, at least. maybe he runs an inn at the start, but it gets rebuilt into a training hall at the end of the plot, once he gets the money to actually follow his passions

now, Quirrel seems like the most obvious fill-in for Doctor Doppler. or perhaps Lemm? maybe Lemm, actually. Quirrel's physically capable and can hold his own in a fight, whereas Doctor Doppler is not. and nor is Lemm, probably! Quirrel has more of a wanderlust and would probably be more willing to go out and search for the treasure, but Lemm would take more value in the artifacts themselves.

in the original version of the AU, Quirrel was actually Oro's first mate (so technically taking Turnbuckle's place ig? and also. Morph's, by virtue of actually being plot-relevant (unlike Turnbuckle I mean)), and was very close to him, sort of acting as the diplomatic face of the crew, smoothing out his rough edges. despite his soft and friendly appearance, though, he's perfectly capable and willing to commit crimes

I kinda wanna keep that version of him, even if it might not make the most sense..? mainly because of my. my rarepair :>

Tiso is also there, because I say so. he's a member of Oro's crew, chills in the background, along with like. phuckin, I dunno, Leg Eater. Leg Eater matches the vibes of Silver's canon crewmates perfectly lmao. maybe Little Fool-? nah the Fools are probably their own crew. ...oh rightrightright Xero's there too, he's also on Oro's crew. possibly Markoth as well, but don't ask how he ended up keeping company with pirates. it's Xero's fault. maybe another warrior dream or two? Galien? sure why not

and Scroop is Hunter >:3 I mean sure someone else could probably take that role, and not turn the Hunter into a villain, but phuck, it would be so fun

now for Captain Amelia... I guess Hornet would make sense? I think Hornet is who most people would think of. and yeah, she's strong, she's capable, she was born to lead, and she's certainly agile. I'm sure she could fill those boots. however, in the original version of the AU, we picked Dryya, and phuckin hells. she's so cool, and it makes sense for her to have experience leading others, possibly in a military capacity

also if I went with Hornet for Captain Amelia, I would probably feel compelled to have Ogrim be Mr. Arrow (this makes sense because of Certain Other Headcanons from Other Friends okay trust me), and phuck, man, I can't kill off my boi Ogrim

no, for Mr. Arrow... Hegemol. this is because of an unwritten fic I have, actually, which involves Hunter and maggot!Hegemol, which goes about as well as you'd expect, and if the events for that particular scene of this AU go anything like how they do in my fic, well... there could be a way for Hegemol to survive, while everyone else thinks he's dead, and he's still taken out of the story. won't go into any more detail than that, though ;>

I don't really have any strong ideas for B.E.N., but I had thought that Emilitia might be pretty fitting. I may not like her too much, but I think she'd fit the role. the whole "eternal" thing, outliving her peers, going more than a little crazy, holing herself up alone somewhere...

in the original version of the AU, a past iteration of Grimm was Captain Flint, with his troupe as the pirate crew. I still think that could be cool. alternatively, Soul Master could take up that role, with his soul scholars. I think either one would work

okay is that all the important characters? I think that's all the important characters

so I don't think the Captain Amelia x Doctor Doppler ship is happening in this AU but you've got whatever homoerotic nonsense Quirrel and Oro and Quirrel's Two Other Boyfriends have going on to make up for it lmao

some aspects of the plot may change plus there'd be noms because I say so but it's mostly the same. Oro and Mato will definitely have to have some sort of confrontation. Mato might even recognize his brother from the start, if he gets a good enough look. not exactly enough time to act on it right then, though. also Quirrel and Oro take turns being mentor figures, with Oro taking longer to open up, but Quirrel also takes a while for his friendliness to be genuine and not just him playing good cop.

I did make art of Quirrel and Oro's designs for this AU like a year ago in a magma session but it kinda sucks. maybe I'll redo it someday, add some of the other characters in if I feel like it

if anyone actually read all this, hope you enjoyed my ramblings lmao. time for me to disappear into the ether for like another 3 months! /j (.../hopefully j) (....../possibly srs)

[a-vampire-culturelover]

An Warrior Cats Au Idea

So I came across an au that swapped the Fire scene from Po3 with Mapleshade and a flood, and thought to myself to make my own take on that kind of au!

-Mapleshade's secret ends up coming out a moon after the kits are born, with Oakstar being the heartless prick he is and exiling her and the kits out of thunderclan. While Mapleshade somehow manages to get the kits across the river to Riverclan territory, she herself is swept up into the currents of the waters and drifted off to the barn, presumed missing/dead by the clans while she recovers.

-The kits end up in Riverclan with Reedshine, who's already bearing kits from Appledusk, and Appledusk barely knows the kits are his, only knowing one slighlty resembles him and another resembles Mapleshade, although he had ensured to himself he'd much rather keep his reputation as loyal in riverclan than ever come clean of his forbidden relationship, moving on with Reedshine. The kits can't clearly remember Mapleshade save for a few moments they cherished of when they were in the Thunderclan nursery, but get accustomed to Riverclan life. They get renamed of course since Riverclan doesn't know what they're names are;

Petalkit -> Bluebellkit, Patchkit -> Maplekit, and Larchkit - Carpkit. Maplekit was named this by Appledusk due to looking similar to his mother, although the rest of the clan see this as a coincidence. Appledusk begins to catch on and is aware by the time of their apprenticeship that they are indeed Mapleshade and his' kits, but never tells the rest of the clan. Eventually Reedshine does have her kits, which the older three treat well and care about the rest of the clan like family.

-Meanwhile, Mapleshade has been recovering in the barn, having found out her kits were alive and well but in Riverclan. Chalking it up to Appledusk caring for them, she sees nothing wrong with it, not knowing until later about Reedshine. She assumes that when the time is right she could just walk right over to Riverclan, greet her children, and nothing would be wrong would it...?

-She inevitably finds out about Appledusk moving on and starting new with Reedshine, angering Mapleshade to a boiling point. she plots her vengeance as she realizes her kits dont even remember her, treating Reedshine like their mother and Reedshine's kits like their siblings.

-Of course her kits are oblivious, and inevitably get their warrior names, save for Carppaw who became a medicine cat aprentice.

Carppaw -> Carpsnap, Maplepaw -> Mapledusk, and Bluebellpetal.

_On their first gathering, everything goes well until a flood blocks the three and Appledusks halfway into going home, Mapleshade having jumped to confront Appledusk. After some bickering Appledusk is left no choice but to tell the three that him and mapleshade are their parents, much to their own shock.Mapleshade had tried coaxing her children to her side once more, but was met with cold glares and sad looks, as she fled and eventually died before the three could see her again. Mapleshade still ends up in the Dark Forest, planning on destroying the clans for ruining her perfect life with her kits all those moons ago.

-Carpsnap, Mapledusk, and Bluebellpetal are all confused and upset, telling riverclan and being shunned for a while until eventually being forgiven, as their heritage was originally unknown and was never their fault to begin with.

-Mapleshade actually replaces Ashfur's role later on TBC as its main antagonist, possessing Mistystar to first break and dissolve Riverclan as vengeance for the clan having taking care of her kits when SHE should have, and maybe her kits come back as reccurring characters in the arc to communicate with Rootspring alongside Mistystar to stop what's going on.

Ashfur also ends up being swapped with killing similar to how Mapleshade did in canon, although he never manages to kill but one cat. Angered and displeased with how she had chosen Brambleclaw over him, he had taken advice from Mapleshade to get vegeance by killing cats close to her.

-he first had killed Sandstorm, killing her in a skirmish outside camp so that he would not be the first to come to mind. Thunderclan mourned her loss and never looked close at the grey fur left in Sandstorm's claws from struggling to fight back, something Leafpool notices.

-he then attempts to kill Brambleclaw via deathberries, knowing he would be flattened and killed in a landslide but the bigger and stronger deputy. However due to it being noticsble and treated in time, his life was saved in the medicine den much to Ashfur's disappointment and bitterness. Leafpool noted of how Brambleclaw mentioned on the side how the squirrel with the berries had been offered to him by someone..

-Finally, he attempts to kill Leafpool after failing to kill Brambleclaw, hoping to break her heart the way his was. During what would have been the fire scene, it was instead Leafpool trying to run as Ashfur attempting to push her into the fires below to burn to death, although he had been stopped by Squirrelflight and The Three. Unlike in canon, Squirrelflight tells the truth to the Three but tells them that she loves and cares for them despite not being her actual kits, and lets them know they're Leafpool's. They're still heartbroken and taken aback, but this nonetheless eases the harsh road downhill for them all later. Ashfur, a bit shocked by these relevations, decides to take his chance and attempts to kill Squirrelflight while her back is turned, but falls to the firey depths of the camp below and dies, going to the Dark Forest. While he was there, wallowing in his misery of not winning Squirrelflight's love, Mapleshade had convinced him with her plan, which would lead to very different events in TBC later on.

[mossy-doodles85]

I have been keeping this to myself for too long I HAVE KINGDOM HEARTS BRAIN ROT THAT WONT GO AWAYYYYY

The Sora you see in most of these, nicknamed Sky or Ciel, is from a Role swap AU I haven't thought much of because I like to take characters from things and add them to my Childhood Thoughts AU I made

The Role Swap has Sora Riku and Kira Swap places, so Sora falls to darkness(Sorta), Kira gets the keyblade, and Riku is a prince of light, nothing else changes tho, so Ven's heart is still in Sora's heart riku still got passed down a keyblade by terra and so on so forth

A running gag I (think I) made was Coz somehow being able to befriend just about anyone or anything, that includes the heartless, which is how Ciel is friends with the heartless in the first place

The Green Requiem is named Zo while the other heartless I made is named Ranga

Ciel has seen different AUs (this happens first when Kira went to sleep to regain her memories)

I probably wont talk or show much of this but let it be known that it TAKES OVER MY BRAIN AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ALSO I WILL LEAVE THAT LAST DOODLE UNSPOKEN :P

[catboy-joyfriend]

Hey, inspired by that anon from before, could we hear more about the roleswap au, the one with the Jury having magic and Heartless&Co being the Jury? (Did I get that right??)

OH YEAH YEAH YEAH !!!!

Soooo most of the jury's magic and heartless & co's curses are from discord vc

Um we basically went with the theory of curses coming from repressed magic and basically being the opposite of that original magic

So. Creed can boost other people's magic, Dock can heal people by taking their injuries on himself, I'm not completely sure about Lorelei but for now I have it so that she can just instantly silence people, Bandy can make things just completely immovable, Diana I wasn't completely sure of but instead of having guns with perfect aim I figured. the opposite of having perfect aim instead of having bad aim would be being able to bring stuff towards her?, Lance can like. instead of taking weapons he can like manifest and create them. so woo.

Heartless's curse, as opposed to his original magic, is just. slowly killing him. and every time he uses it the stuff around him absorbs his energy. I dont know the specifics but for it to be worth using at all it's for sure super powerful. Alchemy can transform other people, for Flint we figured the opposite of fire would be water, and for Eira I used lava as the opposite of ice, Doppel and Glass have an absorption curse as opposed to reflection magic, and River is basically an energy vampire :)

[inrainprose]

If you asked me why Kakashi is still an Anbu in Flip the Coin, I would tell you that he was retired from the position after Itachi’s flip in canon, and since nothing of the sort happened in that AU, it makes sense that he would still be in Anbu now.

And that would be complete bullshit because I just learned that information like four minutes ago on Kakashi’ wikia page, because it occurred to me at 1 a.m last night that I actually had no idea when he stopped being an Anbu in canon, and thus had written potential nonsense in the last chapter (or at least something I had not thought through at all). Fortunately for me, canon is easily folded haha. He’ll still become team 7′s teacher (although finding them another one would be funny too). I’ll figure something out.

Also it was never clear to me why he stopped being in Anbu, but I stumbled upon this bit in the process

Because of what happened with Itachi, the Third Hokage felt that individuals with kind hearts did not belong in the Anbu. He therefore thanked Kakashi for his years of service and relieved him of his duty, returning him to the standard forces.

Which didn’t help at all haha. What even.

[erratic-brainrot]

(The Soldier from TF2's voice) YOU WILL TALK ABOUT THE SIBLING SWAP AU!

Hey! Sorry this took forever! I had a busy week and I wanted to create some quick art for this! So let’s actually stop the wait and get started.

So basically, all the age gaps are swapped! As I said before. Within this many dynamics change.

All the main kids are still within their 8-10 range, meaning that all their differences are based on placement over inherent age.

With Karen taking on the more parental role of the family and trying to handle her brothers, especially Kenny who gets Kevin up to mischief a bit. However they are a bit more tamed due to Karen having a very logical head on shoulders. Like Kevin she still kinda shy and not talkative but a bit more approachable.

Ike on the other hand has a more complicated relationship with Kyle. Mostly due to Gerald. He wasn’t the biggest fan of Kyle first due to how much his parents fawned over Kyle due to him being an unlikely baby— due to some fertility issues that lead to them getting Ike… not to mention Kyle was and kinda still is a sick baby. He has a poor immunize system and was lucky to survive in the first place, so he’s spoiled rotten- and Ike really didn’t care for it at first. But he wasn’t heartless.

It took more time to warm up, and mostly through seeing Kyle kinda develop into a person and look up to him. It was very on and off early in life till Gerald started to compare them together. Especially with Ike being a gifted kid— and despite Kyle’s intelligence, not coming up to the same par. It really upset Ike and it only brought Kyle and Ike’s relationship closer. Being the male figure Kyle needed.

The main difference with Kyle himself is that he’s less emotionally repressive and open because Ike was able to provide security to protect him in a non-physical means. So it allowed him more space to feel things and not worry about a backlash or a full on physical defence. He trusts Ike a lot.

Often going to him for little problems. Though he’s still a mommas boy. It’s just different. But the main point is that Ike did have a messy relationship with being an elder brother but got better the older he got. Also being what they thought was an only child at first brought a lot of expectation. Expecting that seeded resentment that went to Kyle for a lot of his beginnings. Stan not evening liking Ike due to some of the meaner things he did.

Stans and Shelly relationship is the more normal sibling dynamic for the most part.

But in honesty? I think they’re almost healthier this way? Since Shelly’s anger is more being checked due to her being the baby regarding attention. With Stan guiding her though things a bit. Especially since Stan is a sensitive person and probably would crumble a bit when he was a dick if Shelly ever got really upset, which kids, even when their angry face tend to cry and whatever.

There was a lot of specific events too, I do remember there was one special reason Stan hated Ike, and lead to Stan being more protective over Kyle. Stuff about Ike and Karen being friends due to them meeting at a tutoring gig, maybe even babysitting stuff. And a lot regarding Kevin and kennys relationship mirroring that of Karen and Kenny. Since Kenny is a constantly compassionate person. But with Kevin his needs are def different than the likes of Karen.

Also Kevin being taught more like repression shit because he’s not allowed to hit due to Karen being strict because she’s a bit extreme in view points due to her environment!

I can update more and tell specific stories if anyone asks! I’ll try to make sure I draw more for it and that it comes out faster than this time!

[chelsfic]

Chels’s WWDITS Master Post

Yeesh, it’s a lot. I’ve included very brief warnings/tags for each fic, however once you click through to AO3 you will see the complete list of tags and warnings! Enjoy!

Dark

Guillermo the Heartless (nickname Dark Gigi)- Guillermo/Nandor, Dark Role Swap AU, non-con. COMPLETE

Your Kingdom for a Horse - Guillermo/Nandor, Historical AU, Pillager!Nandor, non-con. ONE-SHOT

Devotions - Guillermo/Nandor, Angst, Minor Character Death, Lover as Deity. Sequel to Maybe One Day, My Love. 2/2 OF COMPLETE SERIES

Adieu - Laszlo/Reader, Reader Death. ONE-SHOT

Things My Heart Used to Know - Guillermo/Nandor, Hypnosis, Brain Scramblies, dub-con/non-con. COMPLETE

Sense of Belonging - Guillermo/Nandor, Dom/Sub, Punishment. ONE-SHOT

Memo the Murderous (nickname Mapula) - Guillermo/Rapula, Dom/Sub, drug (blood) use. WIP

General Smut

I Fell into Fantasy - Guillermo/Nandor, Blood-drinking, frottage. ONE-SHOT

A Familiar’s Familiar AU Series - Guillermo/Gender Neutral Reader, Dom/Sub. Series of ONE-SHOTS.

Praise You - Guillermo/Nandor, Body Worship, Body Positivity, Forced Praise. ONE-SHOT

Do you Wanna Touch? Do Your Wanna Taste? - Guillermo/Nandor, 80s AU smut. ONE-SHOT

Let Me See You Come Undone - Guillermo/Nandor, sex toys. ONE-SHOT (companion fic to @safetyhazardfics​’s Early Bird)

A Brief History of Self Love (nickname: Memo Masturbation Montage) - Guillermo/Nandor, Masturbation. ONE-SHOT.

Volume Control - Guillermo/Nandor, Exhibitionism. ONE-SHOT

Save Room for Dessert - Guillermo/Nandor, Frottage, Blood-Drinking. ONE-SHOT

The Dangers of Laundry - Guillermo/Nandor, Near Death Experience Caused by Guillermo’s Thirst. ONE-SHOT

Bury My Love - Guillermo/Nandor, Grave-digging, Vampire Turning fic, temporary character death (Guillermo is turned into a vampire)

Fluff and Crack

Vampire Seeking Familiar - Guillermo/Nandor, First Meetings, Crack. ONE-SHOT

I Think We Could Do It if We Tried - Guillermo/Nandor, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss. ONE-SHOT

Make a Wish - Guillermo/Nandor, Fluff, Crack, Pretend Dating. ONE-SHOT

Five Times Nandor Tried and Failed to Make a New Vampire, and One Time He Succeeded - Guillermo/Nandor, Smut, Getting Together, Crack, Angst. ONE-SHOT

The Hot List, in which the NYC Familiar Discord Rank their Masters - Guillermo/Nandor, Crack, Angst. ONE-SHOT

Midnight Snack - Guillermo/Nandor, First Meetings, Angst, Comfort. ONE-SHOT

Dreamers Often Lie - Guillermo/Nandor, Fluff and Angst

You've Got Electronic Letters: The Unholy Correspondence of Nandor the Relentless, Guillermo de la Cruz and Other Miscellaneous Dark Creatures - Guillermo/Nandor, Collab with @jackiegaytona​

Santa Baby - Guillermo/Nandor, Fluff, Holiday. ONE-SHOT

Zoological Curiosity - Guillermo/Nandor, Cryptid!Nandor, fluff, emotional hurt/comfort. ONE-SHOT

Spectral Disturbance - pre-Jenna/Nadja, Jenna-centric Ghost Hunter AU. ONE-SHOT.

Frost Bite - Guillermo/Nandor, Blood-drinking. ONE-SHOT

Let’s Boogy! - Guillermo/Nandor, Ficlet, fluff. ONE-SHOT

Sugar Lumps - Guillermo/Nandor, Funeral for a Friend. Horse death. Fluff and crack. ONE-SHOT

Inoculation - Guillermo/Nandor, post-Animal Control, mention of needles. Pure fluff. ONE-SHOT

Get Well Soon - Guillermo/Nandor, alternate ending to Manhattan Night Club. Featured in WWCITS Fangzine. ONE-SHOT

Connection - Guillermo/Nandor, First Meeting, Slight Angst. ONE-SHOT

Garlic Pizza, Mint Kisses, and Hellhound Etiquette - Guillermo/Nandor, Featuring the Baron and the Hellhound! My season 3 spec ficlet.

Defy Categorization/General Angst

Not Yet - Black Peter (Human)/Lilith, Black Peter (Human)/Laszlo - Angst. ONE-SHOT

Unseemly Desire, or Nandor's Season of Self-Discovery - Guillermo/Nandor, Angst, Pining, Crack. HIATUS

Leftovers - Nandor/Reader, Angst. COMPLETE

Not Entirely Unrequited - Guillermo/Nandor, Angst, Fluff, First Kiss, Alternate Ending to Colin’s Promotion

Kiss Me to Life - Guillermo/Nandor, Light Angst, Getting Together, First Kiss, Blood Drinking. ONE-SHOT

Dark Gigi Spin-off fics

Just Like a Real Boy (nickname Darker Gigi) - Guillermo/Nandor, Dark, dark, dark, dark. Smut, dehumanization. WIP.

Compelled - Guillermo/Nandor, Phobias, Hypnosis. ONE-SHOT

It’s the Superb Owl, Guillermo the Heartless! - Guillermo/Nandor, Fluffy ONE-SHOT

Familiars Rule (WAP) - Guillermo/Nandor, Fluff. ONE-SHOT

[iamthefishandthespoonisvictory]

A tntduo au based off a book, Heartless by Marissa Meyer.

Story and characters beneath the cut.

Some trigger warnings first: Major Character Death, semi-graphic violence, blood, and fate stuff

Also techno is kind of ooc in this but he's legit just there for plot reasons

• One night he goes down to a ball, everyone stares at him and he is uncomfortable the whole evening. Suddenly the visitors from chess show up and with them is a jester.

So in this au, Wilbur would be the queen of hearts [though he's not crowned yet and when he is, hes king], karl is the mad hatter, Dream is the Cheshire cat, there is no king of hearts and the rest of the characters are basically brand new

For the new characters created by Meyer there is:

Jest, a court jester and magician. He hails from chess [white witches area] he falls in love with the queen of hearts so in this au quackity takes his role

Raven, a quiet shapeshifter who travels with jest, sapnap will be taking his role but he and Q are just friends

Peter Peter, a farmer. Techno takes his role for a very specific reason

The sisters, they are like the fates from Greek mythology and I'm thinking they're gonna be either badlands characters or like Hannah and Co

And some changes to the original story I've made,

In the original, the queen is courting the king and when she marries him thats how she gets her title. In this, Wilbur is the son of the mother of hearts, Kristen, and is heir to the throne. His mother has fallen ill and he is suddenly thrust into a situation where everyone is expecting him to become king.

A couple relationships are also swapped for familial or platonic relationships due to characters in the roles

• Wilbur is the prince of hearts. His mother has fallen ill and he now has to deal with his mom being sick and being prepared to take the throne. He doesn't like the responsibility and all he wants to do is run away with his servant Tommy [who is like a brother to him wink wink] and be a musician.

• The jester gets up and performs, it distracts Wilbur for a second but a noble pulls him aside and is very obviously trying to gain the young princes favor. Wilbur manages to escape the conversation and runs out to the garden to get some air.

• He is standing by the hedges when the jester lands next to him and asks him what hes doing. Wilbur says thst he only needed some air very angrily. The jester tilts his head and says that he understands that Wilburs life sucks right now. Wilbur didn't expect him to sympathize and becomes a lot nicer suddenly.

• Wilbur introduces himself and the jester says his name is quackity. They talk for a but, gossiping abt the nobles while walking. Then Quackity walks over to a tree in the garden and picks a white rose off it and hands it to Wilbur.

• Wilbur is about to thank him when he suddenly hears screaming. They run back to the ballroom and find out a beast had attacked the ball. Wilbur looks back for quackity but he disappeared.

• After everything settled down, Wilbur went to sleep. He dreamt of 3 voices whispering in his ear: murderer, martyr, monarch, mad

• The next day, Wilbur is strumming on his guitar when Tommy comes in and says Wil is needed downstairs

• Wilbur goes downstairs and sees karl, the hatter, standing next to quackity. Quackity has a creature on his shoulders. It has the body of a red panda but the markings of a normal panda bear. Must be a chess thing.

• Karl gives wilbur a hat that is supposed to make him seem more kingly. Wilbur doesnt want to wear it but does anyways.

• Karl, quackity, and Wilbur all hang out in the gardens. During their conversations Wilbur asks why karl is a hatter. Karl says it's a family business. He then says that every person in his family has gone mad. Wilbur asks if he's mad, and karl simply says "not yet!"

• They hear a loud noise and the creature on quackitys shoulders jumps off and turns into a man, weilding an axe. He steps in front of the other as a figure walks out of the bushes.

• Turns out it was just ranboo, the apprentice of techno and he got lost. Prolly forgot his way again. The creature puts down his axe quackity says "thank you sapnap"

• Karl and sapnap start talking and quackity walks back over to Wilbur. He asks Wil about the rose and Wilbur says he lost it when the ball was attacked. Quackity walks off and Wilbur follows him. He disappears for a second then reappears in front of wilbur, holding another rose. He asks Wilbur doesnt lose this one. Wilbur nods.

• Wilbur is then called into the palace, royal duties. He says a quick to goodbye to quackity but he's already gone.

• After an agonizing dinner, Wilbur goes to sleep. He wakes up sometime during the night to vines covering his bed and blankets. He shoves them off

• He hears a soft voice whisper and turns towards it. He sees 3 people dressed in black, red, and white. He asks who they are and the tallest one says they are the fates. Wilbur questions but they don't answer. They say in perfect unison, "murderer, martyr, monarch, mad"

• Wilbur wakes up and there are no vines on his bed. He passes it off as a weird dream and heads to do his duties. He visits his mother first though. She isn't doing well but she still speaks to him for a while.

• He heads downstairs and tommy informs him that there is a lunch party down at the docks soon. Wilbur grumbles but gets ready and goes down.

• The party is boring but then quackity walks in. Wilbur heads over to him because he's better company that 98% of the party. They talk and joke for a while, letting speakers come and go. Everytime a noble tries to suck up to Wilbur, quackity sits behind them and makes fart noises. Which is far too funny for Wilbur.

• Unfortunately by 4, they have to part ways but quackity promises to meet Wilbur in the gardens that night.

• Wilbur heads back to the castle and as he's wandering the halls, a shape appears in the corner of his eye

• He turns and sees dream, floating. Dreams mocks him for becoming attached to the jester and Wilbur glares at him. Wilbur asks why he's there, he only comes when necessary.

• Dreams mask somehow smiles wider and he says that he has an answer to a question Wilbur hasn't asked yet. He tells Wilbur who the fates are, and that the words he's been hearing are a prophecy. It makes Wilbur scared, since the words were all so awful.

• He yells at dream and continues walking. He does the rest of his work and waits in the garden for quackity.

• Soon he appears and Wilbur is relieved. Quackity takes wilburs hand and they walk through the garden. They talk about the day, but Wilbur doesnt mention the prophecy.

• When they get to the center of the garden, with the white rose tree, quackity stops and grips wilburs hand tighter. He says that he has a confession. He says that he was originally sent here to steal the rulers heart since the heart of a king or queen is incredibly powerful.

• Wilbur steps back in fear but quackity explains that now he doesn't want to do that. He walks forwards and Wilbur doesn't move. Q says he came to steal wilburs heart, but it seems that Wilbur stole his. Then they kiss.

• A couple of kisses and confessions later quackity takes wilburs arm and walks him back to the palace. Using magic, he gets them up to the balcony of wilburs room. Quackity bids him adieu and jumps off, disappearing into the night.

• Next day Wilbur wants to find quackity but can't. Figures he's busy

• He goes to Karl's shop to look for him but he's not there. Karl does mention that he has a gift for Wilbur.

• He gets a guitar from chess from karl, it is beautiful and perfectly tuned already. He takes it back to the palace, where he strums and messes with it

• He practices it the rest of that day, loving the sweet melody.

• But he had to go. That night there is a smaller gathering of citizens, including techno, ranboo, fundy, niki, eret, and others.

• Quackity is there but Wilbur is too busy to talk to him as much as he wants to.

• Fundy notices the new guitar and asks Wilbur to play, so he does.

• It's beautiful, the guitar probably magically adding to it. Wilbur sings along as well.

• Fundy claps and so do others standing farther afway. But then suddenly fundy starts growling and looses control. He becomes a full rabid fox, transforming from a hybrid.

• He attacks Wilbur but Sapnap comes out and kills fundy just before he rips out wilburs throat.

• People scream murderer but Wilbur aquits sapnap because he saved the prince. He mourns fundy and gives gifts to his family

• Wilbur is slightly hurt from the attack and quackity quickly takes him to a well.

• The well heals Wilbur and quackity explains that they need the heart of a royal to save the country. Wilbur says he will let himself be crowned and give his heart to quackity. Quackity agrees to give his heart too.

• Quackify explains that the well is a portal to his realm. Wilbur says he'll go with. Sapnap, karl, Wilbur, and quackity all enter the well and meet the fates. They say they will let the others through as long as no one goes through a door. If they do, their prophecy will come true.

• They go through a maze, trying tk find their way to chess. The doors are all around, leading to a multitude of places around the kingdom of hearts. Wilbur ignores them

• Until, they pass by a door that leads to technos farm. Inside the cabin Wilbur sees tommy waving frantically. Wilbur gets immediately concerned for him and begs the others to help him save tommy

• Quackity reminds that they can't go through without risking the prophecy and Wilbur says he can't leave tommy. Quackity is conflicted but follows Wilbur through the portal.

• They break into the cabin and tommy runs for wilbur. He says that the creature that had been attacking things was ranboo, that he transformed for some reason. Tommy attempted to tell others but techno trapped him out of fear for ranboo.

• They run out but techno cuts them off near the fence. He is pissed. Tommy yells at him for trying to save ranboo even though he's killing other people.

• Techno says he couldn't let him die. He blames karl because it all started after karl gave ranboo something from chess and it got worse after Wilbur sang his song on the guitar from chess.

• Suddenly the creature, or ranboo, comes barreling and attacks Wilbur. Quackity and sapnap start fighting techno while karl stands to the side. Wilbur pulls out a dagger. It pains him to do so but he kills ranboo

• Sapnap is on the ground, hit his head. Techno is fighting quackity and sees Wilbur kill ranboo. He lets quackity go as he runs towards ranboom. Wilbur heads to sapnap and stands him up.

• Techno growls and turns around in anger. He looks at Wilbur, and says that he killed someone he loves. He stands up, picks up a hoe from the field and swings it. Wilbur flinches but nothing comes. When he opens his eyes, quackity has a thick sheet of metal through his face and techno is covered in blood

• Techno realizes what he did and runs into the forest. Sapnap chases after him.

• Wilbur runs to quackitys side and cries. Tommy and karl have to pull him off of quackitys body.

• They return him to the palace and for several days he refuses to leave. He is informed that his mother only has a few hours left and he goes to say his goodbyes. She passes away while holding his hand and he doesn't cry, he was all out of tears.

• He returns to his room and goes to bed. He dreams of the fates yet again. Bad comes up to him and says that the prophecy came true. Sapnap was a murderer, and now quackity was a martyr. Karl was bound to go mad anytime. All that was left was monarch.

• Wilbur growls at them and says he's not going to be king. He doesnt care, he wants techno dead.

• The fates laugh and antfrost says that they can help with that. All they need is his heart, the heart of a king is powerful after all.

• He says that he will go to coronation and he will become king, then he will give them his heart. Only, if they bring him techno. They agree and the deal is set.

• When Wilbur wakes up, sapnap is waiting by the window. Wilbur walks over and they hug. Sapnap lost someone close to him too.

• Wilbur quickly gets ready. He heads downstairs and tells the nobles that he is going to be coronated today. They rush to get everything ready while Wilbur stands in the hall

• Suddenly he sees a smirk, and dream materializes in front of him. He says he has no time for dreams shit tonight, and dream simply says that he wanted to offer his condolences. And his told you so's. Wilbur glares at him and tells him to get out of his kingdom or he'll kill dream. Dream disappears and heads out.

• Then comes the coronation. Sapnap sits on wilburs shoulders the whole time. Then Wilbur becomes king and sits on his new throne. Suddenly, there is a loud bang and the throne rooms doors are thrown open

• Enter the badland fates. They drag techno with them. They say that they have held up their end of the deal and now it is wilburs turn. Everyone is in shock but Wilbur walks towards them regardless

• Bad holds a hand up and plunges it into wilburs chest. He pulls it out, holding a red and cracked heart. There is no scar on wilburs chest, nor a hole in his shirt. But there is a weight lifted, he no longer aches for quackity. All he has left is his anger.

• He walks back up to his throne. His advisor asks what they are to do with techno. Wilbur says a trial.

• So they put techno on trial for murder. Techno explains his situation and how Wilbur killed ranboo. Wilbur explains that ranboo was the creature.

• The jury returns with a not guilty verdict but Wilbur rejects it. He yells that he doesn't care and that techno was a murderer. He turns to sapnap and tells him to stand. He was the white kings executioner and now he will be wilburs.

• Sapnap wields his axe, standing over a kneeling techno. The court room is dead silent.

• Wilbur sits up on his throne

• "Off with his head"

[thebadchoicemachine]

SBI HadesTown AU That Lives In My head Rent Free

(in fact I probably pay it to live there)

Links at the end under the cut.

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Starring:

• Dream, George, and Sapnap as The Fates  • Philza as Hermes • Wilbur as Persephone  • Technoblade as Hades • Tommy as Eurydice

and

• Tubbo as Orpheus

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Changes to the story - 

Instead of spouses, Wilbur and Techno are estranged brothers.

Instead of lovers, Tommy and Tubbo are best friends.

The focus is still on restoring balance to the world but through familiar and platonic love instead of romantic. Also, the reason the world is so bad is a more social crisis (some people work too much while others can’t work at all) instead of a natural one (the seasons being wack.) 

It takes place during a seething summer drought rather than a frozen cropless winter but its still the same tune of spring/fall disappearing because the the world being out of tune. 

Character Changes -

+ Philza is an old god. He’s not weaker nor stronger than Wilbur/Techno, just fills up a very different role. He’s god of history, of legends, of simple stories and narration. He’s very human compared to most gods, some theorize perhaps he straight up IS human in some way shape or form. He lives a human life to meet people and collect their lives and stories and appreciate them. He can’t really interfere as more than a mortal man but still just tries to give as many happy endings as he can.

+ Tommy’s a scrappy lost child. His problem is similar to Eurydice but a little inverted. Rather than learning to trust people he needs to learn to value them. He’s no issue with interacting with people and enjoying their help/company but he’s a tendency to use them. He doesn’t believe they’ll stick around so he doesn’t bother caring about them.

+ Tubbo is also an abandoned child. Unlike Tommy he grew up in one spot, although still homeless. Philza found him camping in a crate box behind his station and gave him a job and a bed. He’s pretty much exactly like Orpheus, optimistic, sees the world for what it could be instead of what it is, but maybe spends a little too much time looking forward and not around.

+ Technoblade is basically the god of work and motivation. His problem is generally the same as Hades’ in that he misses his family and is too busy working and building security for what he wants to get what he wants. He misses his brother so much he’s hardend himself to the reasons they’re apart so much in the first place.

+ Wilbur is basically the god of play and rest. In this AU, instead of Hades, Persephone’s role is the biggest reason the world is out of wack. His problem is that he doesn’t face his problems. As the god of such frivolous things as music, games, rest, etc. he is (feels) weak and useless. He’s jealous of Techno and how needed he is so Wilbur retreats away to somewhere he feels needed and wanted, entertaining miserable people. He’s stayed away for longer and longer amounts of time, not realizing his distracting them from their troubles (inadvertently preventing them from fixing them) is a reason they’re so miserable in the first place. All he can do is have a good time so he’s begun forcing it every second of every day and ignoring his brother in the meantime. He needs to learn that he CAN do good, people NEED breaks and fun, but recklessly enforcing it only enforces what he fears, that he’s a liability. 

So, the main problem is a cycle the brothers have spiraled into:

Techno does obviously important things (stirring progress and improvement) and Wilbur feels bad, unimportant, and like a burden.

Wilbur leaves Techno to go distract himself/play with the humans.

Wilbur becomes useless and detrimental without Technoblade there to balance him out.

Techno works even harder, becoming empty and cold without Wilbur there to balance him out, trying to get enough work done so Wilbur won’t have to worry and will come back.

Wilbur sees Techno working so hard and shies away even more so as not to disturb his brother’s important work.

Technoblade has to basically force Wilbur to stay with him now, making it more work.

Wilbur sees Technoblade as both too important for him and now generally unappealing as unnecessary effort. Besides, he’d probably just get in the way.

Technoblade now sees Wilbur as just another part of his endless job. Keep people working, keep things improving, keep the numbers going up, try to keep Wilbur here. Its become work for the sake of work instead of work to the sake of rest.

So even when they’re together neither is relaxed enough to balance the other, both are distant.

Wilbur’s become too carefree, he ignores Technoblade and drops anything that seems challenging, including reconciliation and self-examination. He’s still just playing, even when with Technoblade.

Technoblade’s become too obsessed, focusing more on how to get and keep his brother with him than on being with his brother. The work has become meaningless without the end goal that Wilbur provides. A self sustaining cycle of labor for more labor’s sake.

Now the humans are suffering because they find themselves trapped in an unbalanced cycle of being either incapable of work or incapable of play.

Thematic notes:

- The dancers in the station during the first half are Skeppy, Antfrost, Bad, Eret, and Puffy. 

- The workers (the dancers in the second half) consist of Niki, Fundy, Quackity, Ranboo, and Awsam.

- Tommy is implied to vaguely know/be brotherly to Techno and Wilbur, this is partially how Techno convinces him to leave and go work for him. 

- Likewise, Philza has a few lines about feeling sorry about how Techno and WIlbur have ended up (implying he took some part in raising them) and already knows Tommy when he enters (implying he’s been a dad to helped Tommy out before.

- Technoblade is less malicious than Hades, more just cold and apathetic. In a way, he thinks he’s helping by pulling Tommy away from Tubbo. He, like Wilbur, believes that work is good so more work must be better, even if you’ve nothing to really work towards. At the end he listens to the fates because needs to figure out how to let Tommy go without undoing either all of Wilbur’s power or all of his. 

- Tubbo’s song has a bigger impact on fauna than floral, specifically insects. His first song brings out bees, butterflies, and moths that Tommy goes all star eyed for because pretty bugs but more importantly, living things that don’t want to hurt him!

- Instead of a flower Tommy gets a big beautiful orange moth (named Clementine) that hides in the back of his coat neck whenever Technoblade is near. He remembers in ‘Flowers’ when he goes to wipe some sweat from his neck but its Clementine and she flies around him while he sings. (I thought that’d be much prettier than him just holding her like Eurydice holds the flower.) 

- During ‘Living it Up On Top’ Wilbur dances specifically with Philza (who greets him very much like a father might greet a son who’s been away for a long time) and Tommy (who he teases and ruffles his hair a lot).

- Wilbur does drugs instead of alcohol. He... he makes a lot of drugs so I thought this would be an appropriate swap. Also it’s really funny to me that he sings Our Lady Of The Underground (or, Brother To The Underground) just completely stoned; handing out weed and shit to the workers.

- Instead of a mine Hadestown (Technotown? Technoville?) is a farm in a giant glass case built way up high. Instead of going through the dark that challenge is Tubbo has to climb up its side to avoid the train. Its an unnatural and unwelcoming greenhouse. Everything grows in lines but they’re mismatched and overrun with thorny weeds. Everything is grey and tough and flavorless. There’s so much dust and dirt being kicked up it’s hard to breathe and see. The workers are using various gardening tools during the beats instead of swinging a pickaxe. Half will sharpen while the other half swings (tilling the ground/cutting weeds), it makes a real nice schwing/thunk mix sound. 

- During ‘Word To The Wise’ George sings (“if you tell them no you’re a heartless man”) Sapnap sings (“if you let ‘em go you’re a spineless king”) and Dream sings (”here’s a little tip”) and (“men are fools, men are frail”)

- Tubbo still looks back during ‘Doubt Comes In’ because he's scared of Techno and feels bad about himself (“Who am I? Who am I to think that he would follow me into the blazing heat again”). Techno, Wilbur, and Philza try their best to take care of them but it’s still a tragic ending. 

- Tommy and Tubbo may or may not become (very sad and minor) gods. Unofficially and not in the story, but still... maybe. If they WERE, hypothetically,  they’d be a very tragic pair. Tubbo would help mend relationships and guid people towards good advice while Tommy would help catch/ignore/cut out bad ones. Always working together, never together. 

Lyrical Changes 

> Pronouns are changed, obviously.

> Techno and Wilbur sing “brother” instead of “lover.”

> During ‘The Wedding Song’ (The Friendship Song, I do not care if it’s childish, Wedding is replaced with Friendship) They sing each other’s names instead of “lover.” (Tubbo, tell me if you can...////Tommy, when I sing my song...)

> Anytime they’re complaining about the cold winter replace it with a hot summer

> Tommy’s lines are much sharper. He never loses his edge with Tubbo. Instead of him remembering him and going “my best friend, Tubbo” he remembers and says something more along the lines of “that fucking idiot, Tubbo” but he’s say it with a quivering smile and bittersweet tears in his eyes. Harsh in words not in tone. 

> Wilbur still pours a glass for a toast during ‘Living It Up On Top’ but the rest of the time he’s smoking something instead of drinking. (Who gives breaks when the work is hard?//That's right, Wilbur Soot!//Who makes the music? Who’s your bard?//(Wilbur Soot!)//Thank you//Who makes a rough life fun again, in spite of a pig//(You do!)//Who’s the most awaited gig? Eh? Wilbur Soot, that’s who!)

> When Wilbur shows up during ‘Chant’ he complains about how cold and dark it is. (Colder than a tundra) Techno explains it away as having set up shades/coolers to counter the glare from the sun through greenhouse glass and how he did it to protect/comfort Wilbur. (Brother when you feel that chill, it’s my protection from the kill, its my protection that i’ve built for you.)

> In the Chant Reprise the workers are singing about why they’re working if they can never enjoy the security and safety they keep making. Technoblade, instead of telling him to buy Tommy’s love, tells him to make himself needed. He, instead of warning Tubbo about Tommy leaving, scolds Tubbo for being too light and fluffy and spinelessly letting Tommy go. He scolds him for trying to take Tommy away, back into uselessness and empty fluff, when he’s found a good purpose because clearly Tubbo wasn’t point enough. 

> Philza’s still the narrator, but diegetically his lyrics show more clearly that he knows everyone in the story already. I really like the idea of him giving Tubbo advice on making friends that gets shown in ‘Come Home With Me’

> When Tubbo sings about Techno, instead of singing about minework, he’ll sing things like ((from the second stanza of Epic II) “Technoblade, king//of power and pain//of a hard days work//that never ends//and for half of the year when Wilbur’s away//the strain and the stress just won’t give way//he thinks of his brother, light and carefree//and is taken in a rage of obligation and need//to ensure wants are met and safe//so there will be time for play//so his bother//his brother comes home) 

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This post all started because I was thinking of Tubbo singing the “La lala laaa” that was originally Wilbur’s song. 

Also, I realize this entire AU is just one big punch in the gut to Philza, like, “HEY, ALL YOUR SONS ARE SCREWED UP, NOW SING ABOUT IT.”

[moved-to-void-kissed]

"Swap" for Aqua and Aria? (candyforthebrain)

Sure thing, @candyforthebrain​! Thank you very much for this!!~

(question source: “Okay Hear Me Out, Ask Game” by dragonsmooch)

Swap: Your S/I and your F/O(s) exchange roles for a day, willingly or begrudgingly, casually or through supernatural circumstances. How well (or terribly) does it go? Alternatively, how would things be different if the roles had always been swapped? - well, after KH3 is over, their roles are somewhat similar in that they’re linked together - Aqua becomes the successor to the Land of Departure and starts to search for apprentice Keyblade wielders to train, while Aria supports Aqua’s teaching by allowing her apprentices to experience darkness in a completely controlled manner, yet also retains her own aspirations of reaching the world where her counterpart yet lies.

So, I suppose, in a scenario where Aria has to be the teacher.. yeah, that’s not going to go too well. Actually, that’s a lie - if Aqua’s apprentices were a long way into their training, perhaps on the older side and nearing their Mark of Mastery exams, then Aria would be fine because she could actually train on more equal footing with them and there wouldn’t be much for them to actually learn, just practise. But, when it comes to having to dumb things down for a beginner? Yeah, she can’t do that or deal with their lack of knowledge. Aqua is most likely hovering in the background desperately wanting to sort her out but she’s not supposed to.

And then, if we had always swapped places.. Mmm, this post is getting long, let’s put that under a readmore so I can ramble.

(Edit after finishing the post: I rambled a lot.)

Aqua would have been an exemplary Lux collector for her Union, a perfect model of a diligent and kind Keyblade wielder. This makes it even more unfortunate that she of all wielders would be cast into the realm of darkness, which is about the only thing that could have worn away at one with such a strong light as her, and so she begins the process of turning into a Darkling like so many others. (In other words, she’s already Anti-Aqua when Aria meets her, which will be interesting to explore.)

As for Aria.. If all that’s different to start with is that she replaces Aqua as a Wayfinder and apprentice to Eraqus, then she could still retain her true nature in terms of what she actually is - a Heartless in possession of a dormant human vessel. But Eraqus would never have taken her as an apprentice if she held so much evident darkness, Keyblade or otherwise. Unless, perhaps, that was the point - maybe she and Terra came to him together, and were already very close friends (as close as Aria and Liviana are in the normal way of events?), to the point that they refused to be separated. So Eraqus, unwilling to lose as worthy a potential apprentice as Terra, decides he must take up the challenge of purifying such a lost soul, proving that any darkness can be overcome by light. (It wouldn’t have been his first time trying; maybe this time he himself can make it work.)

Aria grows up unaware of her true capabilities, with false light purging her memories - always trying to wield a power that does not suit her, since she never learned that she had other options open to her. Maybe she is still made the Master of the pair, but it’s her own darkness that leaks out to disrupt the exam, and clouds Eraqus’ judgment. Xehanort would have been watching intently, likely aware of her true potential, but maybe he sees this as an opportunity to start targeting Terra instead, and that’s how the story gets to where it is.

Maybe, to make it even more of a swap AU, I could make this an AU for my selfship with Anti-Aqua - since when Aria gives up her armour and her glider to save Terra, who didn’t deserve to be taken over, she doesn’t quite fall as fly into the realm of darkness, and is finally made aware of her own dark potential. So then, when she comes across an ancient vestige of light from the age of fairytales, already in the process of becoming corrupted - well, it’s only the natural course of events that they both embrace darkness together, right?

I hope all this was alright - I kind of want to make this a thing now, haha ^-^

Thank you so much again for sending this in!!

[sovonight]

a little au breakdown

--

atton exile role swap au: cela’s the scoundrel with a dark past, atton’s the jedi exile

branching point: malachor v

atton feels the deaths of hundreds of jedi through the force, goes back to the council hoping they'll kill him, can't bear to stay with the order any longer anyway, accepts his exile with defiance, and gets as far away from who he used to be as he can. at the start of k2, atton doesn't know who he is anymore, not truly

cela has never truly known death, stands at the end of malachor v certain that she was right to fight, and holds all jedi who chose to stay out of the war accountable for the heavy losses. sith teachings spread through the ranks, her compassion turns to passion turns to strength, and she follows revan until her heart is wrung dry. at the start of k2, she's come to distrust her own heart, and buries emotions she no longer knows how to distinguish under a careful mask of self control

atton's still very empathetic, and it's what leads him to form force bonds with others easily

cela still tends to connect easily with/inspire trust in others, and it's what led her to be so good at manipulation in her time as sith

--

vampire exile au: cela’s a vampire, atton’s a vampire hunter

canon to au translation:

jedi/hunter tension → vampire/hunter tension

atton hates jedi hypocrisy → atton hates vampire heartlessness/feigned empathy

cela is "dead"/should have died, can only access the force through others, looks the same as she did 10 years ago → cela's undead, can only live through draining others, looks the same as she did 10 years ago

atton understands that cela can’t help but read minds → atton understands that cela can’t help but be influenced by her hunger/instincts

differences:

there is no equivalent to malachor tying them together, they’re only together because they’re tracking down the same vampire

there’s less neutrality here, Vampires Are Bad and while cela’s now more comfortable with what she is, it’s more of a “i need to be okay with what i am to survive” thing than a “there shouldn’t be anything wrong with what i am” thing. funnily enough atton’s “of course you do, it’s in your nature” attitude towards her instincts/urges helps her feel better about them

the focus in this one is really more on how their identities oppose each other, and how they navigate that to find common ground

--

celestial exile au: cela’s a fallen angel, atton��s a demon

canon to au translation:

cela’s 10 year exile → it’s been 10 years since cela’s fall

difficult call on malachor v → difficult call with killing kreia

atton leaves the sith → atton becomes an outcast of hell

atton hides his dark past → atton hides that he's a demon and that he’s here to capture cela

similarities:

atton falls in love at first sight and flirts for a line before realizing who cela is, then continues flirting anyway

cela deals with her exile by not really dealing with it and repressing her emotions/retreating inward over the course of her time alone

it’s a short list for an au i’ve put so much time into, but the focus in this one is on how, despite how their identities differ on the surface, their situations are similar and they can relate to what the other has been through-- and when they’re together, their differences are what helps them grow

[spam-monster]

Okay, I wanted to do Helsaween properly this year and write some drabbles, but I’ve been so dang busy the last week that I haven’t had time and I probably won’t have time the next three days because I’m going to be at Disney.

So for the first three prompts I’m just going to summarize the stories, because they’re ones I’ve been thinking on for a while anyway, and try to actually write them up at a later date.

So anyway here’s the story for Day 1 - Reverse.

Basically Hans, through some kind of malevolent magical being, wishes that he could be the rightful ruler of Arendelle. Magic mist surrounds him, and he wakes up in an unfamiliar bed. Anna runs into the room and jumps on the bed, yelling at her big brother to get up - he doesn’t want to be late for his own coronation! She excitedly runs back out, and the being appears and explains to Hans that it has changed history so that Hans was born as the eldest child to the rulers of Arendelle instead of Elsa. If he wants things to stay this way, he must kill Anna and Elsa in three days time. 

Hans is confused, and realizes he now has memories of being Agnarr and Iduna’s son and Anna’s brother, and of being in a warm and loving family instead of an abusive one. He gets ready for his coronation (Agnarr and Iduna also died in this timeline), enjoying all the attention and deciding not to worry about the sisters for today. Everything seems to go well. The coronation goes off without a hitch and he’s sworn in as king. But then later, at the ball, Anna drags him over to meet her new friend - “It was sooo crazy, Hans, it’s like we just clicked right away!” - and she introduces him to Princess Elsa of the Southern Isles.

Hans realizes right away that there’s something off about Elsa now; she’s acting the way he did, charming and calculating. If Elsa had to endure his role as the youngest in a family of heartless bullies while having her powers (Hans didn’t get them: he checked), there’s no telling how dangerous she might be. But he needs to get rid of her to secure his position, so he decides to play along with her for now and spend some time with her - it seems she’s after the same thing he was; escaping the Southern Isles by marrying the new ruler of Arendelle.

(Insert sassy Helsa flirting montage with lots of clever dialogue and double meanings and subtle danger and Hans pretending not to notice Elsa’s powers leaking out when she gets nervous.)

But then! A commotion at the party! Some princes from the Southern Isles have burst in with guards, demanding to know where their sister is! “She’s dangerous!” they say. “She escaped from us and ran here to try and hide! She’s a monster! Don’t trust her!” Elsa panics and runs, again plunging Arendelle into endless winter. Anna volunteers to help go after her, thinking she can talk her down - “There’s that grumpy ice harvester in the marketplace that’s always hanging around talking to his reindeer, I’ll go ask him for help.”

Anyway…stuff happens, things get worse, Hans realizes he kind of likes having a sister like Anna, Anna and Elsa seem weirdly invested in each other almost like they subconsciously remember that they’re supposed to be sisters, Hans’ not-brothers are still dicks, etc.

Eventually Hans Anna and Kristoff are having a stand-off with Elsa on the frozen lake. Elsa is almost out of control from all the pent up pain and anger in her heart - which Hans recognizes as the same as his own feelings he had back then. In a last-ditch attempt to talk her down (he doesn’t know why, he should just be trying to kill her, it would be so much easier), he offers to marry her if she stops attacking them and brings back summer. The armies behind him are aghast at such a proposition. Elsa wants to believe him but she’s too hurt and scared - she lashes out violently with her powers. Hans is in danger but Anna pushes him away and gets hit instead, freezing her heart. Elsa panics, realizing she lashed out at the few people who have ever been kind to her.

The fog rolls in.

The magic being that granted Hans’ wish appears to him, telling him to strike now. He can cut down Elsa, and Anna will die of her frozen heart, fulfilling the deal and letting Hans stay as king of Arendelle forever..as long as he listens to what it says.

Hans grabs his sword. He considers. He doesn’t know why he’s holding back. Maybe it’s guilt. Maybe it’s because he now understands what it means to have a loving family. Maybe because he doesn’t like the idea of Elsa going through everything he did and worse. Maybe he’s grown attached to thinking of Anna as a sister and Elsa as someone he could have romantic feelings for.

The being panics and starts yelling at him. Elsa Anna and Kristoff look confused. The third day is ending, and the illusion is starting to break.

Hans just smiles, and apologizes, and thanks them, and says it was nice to have this, even for a little while.

The fog overtakes them. Hans ends up back in the clearing with the strange being. It rants and raves at him, before getting comically stuck in a log and giving him a chance to jump on Sitron and ride away.

A few days later, in the palace, a servant runs in and announces that the Queen and Princess of Arendelle have suddently arrived. Anna bursts in followed by Elsa and Kristoff (and Sven and Olaf?), marches up to Hans, and demands to know “WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT ALL ABOUT!?”

***

Anyway, there it is. The story of How Hans Accidentally A Roleswap AU.

Also, have this pic I made in Azalea’s frozen dollmaker thing of Hans and Elsa’s swapped outfits.

[linskywords]

Why Hockey RPF?

Hey friends! This is a question I've been thinking about for a while, and I finally put together a list of my answers. Caveat that this is me attempting to analyze my own psychology and so may be very incomplete and/or wrong. :)

First, the general "why slash?" bits. These apply across fandoms (though I think some are extra strong in hockey, as I'll get to below).

One. Going against the script. I cannot stress enough how important this is to me in a romance. You know that thing where a man and a woman are in the same room together in a movie, so you know they're the love interests and they will kiss at the end? I hate that. It makes me feel like their love is probably fake. If they feel like they're supposed to be attracted to each other, and then they are attracted to each other, it probably isn't real attraction at all. Says my brain, anyway. If they feel like this person is not at all someone they could EVER be attracted to, and they're attracted anyway...it is instantly, like, fifty thousand times hotter to me. Works way better with gender for me than with other stuff that's traditionally been used in romance, like social class.

Two. Freedom from typical romantic gender roles. This has been said a lot, but: gender roles in romance SUCK. (They suck in most places. But romance really has a lot of them.) It's hard to grow up in a Western culture and not have an extremely conflicted relationship with them: you've been trained to find certain behaviors romantic, but you've also learned enough about feminism to question whether all of them are healthy or smart, and it's hard to write a satisfying romance when you're caught in the tangle of being drawn to the thing but also wondering if maybe you shouldn't be. It's so much easier for me to indulge my idtastic desires when I don't even have to think about whether I should be having the woman be the one taken care of, or if that makes her weak, so I should swap their roles, but then if she takes care of the guy does that mean she's doing all the work in the relationship and he's a giant man-baby...you see how that would bog you down. If both characters are men -- or women, or nonbinary -- it's easier to give them whatever roles I want without having to think about whether I'm furthering my own oppression.

Three. Getting to live in bodies that aren't our own. The previous point about gender roles can apply to femslash, too, and as a bi woman, I can get into that -- but sometimes it's better not to have to think about my own gender in the equation at all. There's so much crap associated with being a woman in our world, especially when it comes to sexuality. It can be liberating to write sex scenes when no bodies like mine are part of it even a little and you just don't have to negotiate the crap at all. This isn't an absolute for me -- I do write and enjoy femslash -- but I write way more slash than femslash, and I think this is part of it.

Four. Humanizing men. This is a big thing in a society (such as mine) where the best men are supposedly the ones who most embody a toxic masculinity where they don't experience normal human vulnerability or feelings. We're supposed to admire these men, and fall in love with them, and raise children with them (some of us), and it's so easy to resent and fear them instead. It is both satisfying and healing to portray men who are full of need and hurt and longing and love. Like, you know, humans are.

Five. Giving our desires power. In my culture, and in many others, men are the ones whose desires have power. A man wants a woman who doesn't want him back? He just needs to pursue her harder; she'll come around in the end, and if she doesn't, she's a heartless bitch. A woman wants a man who doesn't want her back? She's pathetic. Her desire makes her ridiculous. If you're a women who desires men, or who desires anyone at all, it's so humiliating to see your own desires minimalized and stripped of power like that. So if we want to write about our desires -- our desires for men, in particular -- it can be very satisfying to give those desires to another man. Those desires have POWER, then. They're legitimized. They have agency. We can revel in them without doubting our own right to have them.

So that's slash in general. Wow, there was a lot in there about cutting through the tangle of internalized patriarchy, wasn't there? Funny, that.

Hockey, though. Why hockey, amidst the many possible slash fandoms? Why did I start reading hockey RPF without ever having seen a game and fall for it so hard?

Six. The heteronormativity. And to take it a step further: the pressure in general to present yourself to the world as a certain type of person. I've written before about how a huge part of the appeal of the hockey world to me is the immense pressure it puts on its players -- which plays into the thing above about going against scripts, because the heteronormative script is extra in effect when it comes to professional sports, but it's not just that. These guys are under such a spotlight, and in exchange for their privilege and wealth they not only have to keep performing at an elite level that's hard to maintain, but they also have to force themselves into such a narrow, publicly acceptable mold. I'm not an athlete, so I can't relate to that specific set of pressures, but that makes them even more satisfying to write about. I can write about my feelings about the pressures that are on me -- the unwritten societal expectation to be important, successful, happy in easily recognized ways -- without having to think about those specific pressures, because I can substitute these ones instead.

Seven. Validation. I wrote above about giving our desires to men so that the desires have more power. In this case, it's giving the desires to successful, competent, famous people so that the desires have validity -- because the people who hold them have validity. Hockey players have the kind of prestigious, easily-recognized-at-cocktail-parties-and-high-school-reunions type of success that so many of us feel on one level or another than we should have, and they have it so unquestionably. When someone like that experiences a type of neediness I might feel -- the desperate longing for another person to notice them, the extreme obsession that comes with a crush, the miserable sureness that the person they want won't want them back -- that feeling is automatically valid, because THEY are valid. As someone who has felt a lot of longing in my life, I really enjoy exploring it in characters who have an automatic get-out-of-worthlessness free card.

So those are the navel-gazing ones, where hockey does the same kind of thing your average slash fandom does, but sometimes to a greater degree. Then there are the amazing storytelling benefits of the setting:

Eight. Team. Oh, team. Friends to lovers is my jam. I love writing characters who've spent so much time with someone, they don't even realize when their feelings for the other person cross the line from friendship to something else. This must be what friendship is, because it's what I feel for X person, who is my friend! And then the joy, of course, of having to see that person every day once you realize it isn't just friendship, and you're being tortured by knowing they'll never want you back (or so you think). Add in the thing where you and this person are fighting for something together every other day, where your successes bolster each other's, where your chemistry can mean the success of the team, and if you have a falling out (say, over someone's inappropriate crush) it could ruin your careers and the team's success...I mean, how do you resist a setup like that?

Nine. The flexibility of the setting. One of the wonderful things about hockey is that there's so much of it. If you want to set a story during a homestand, you can. If you want a road trip, you can find one. The season is seven months long, plus playoffs, and during those months you can set a story anytime and know that your characters will be seeing each other every day, creating lots of opportunities for interactions and relationship progress. And the hockey games themselves can feature -- but they don't have to. They can be just as important or unimportant as you need them to be for story purposes. Need your character to be down about something? Throw in a loss. Anxious about something? Mention a point drought. Sharing a happy moment with their person? Give them a win. If you're strictly following game schedules -- which I try to for the most part -- you might not be able to put those things exactly where you want them, but you can usually find a way to make your timeline match up with actual events. Unlike so many canons where there are specific, exciting adventures that have to be accounted for or worked around, hockey is years and years of fertile ground for whatever you want to put there.

(Corollary to the last one: this is a big part of why I find it so much easier and more fun to write fic than original fiction. When you write a novel, you usually need to create an actual plot, where external events impact each other and build to a conclusion. You can include a romance, but it has to be woven into these other events, and that gets complicated. Need a bonding moment? You'd better hope you designed your external plot to give them one. On the other hand, when you write fic, especially hockey fic, the hockey season can just march on merrily in the background, impacting your story only as much as you want it to, and you can pick and choose the parts of it that most strongly shape your romance. SO much easier to build and maintain a line of romantic tension that way.)

So those are my reasons. Put them all together, and they go a long way toward explaining why I write so much hockey -- and not just stories that borrow hockey players as characters, but stories set in the actual hockey world, with maybe an AU element, but hockey definitely present. There's just so much that the setting does for me and for my ability to write the stories that matter to me.

How about all of you?

[catboy-joyfriend]

roleswap dock has like, bandaids with silly prints on them

Dock, giving Lance a hello kitty bandaid: