#i was struggling to figure out where and when they'd meet in canon; so it's a little generic/vague; apologies...

[strayslost]

He just needs to hold on a little longer.

Right now, Sigma is a nobody. He has no home, no family, no life - and that's given birth to a loneliness that he's sure no-one else in this world can fully understand. Even the name he gave himself still feels strange in his thoughts; on his tongue. But what does it matter? No matter where he goes, it's always the same. People use him again and again, manipulating and hurting him for their own ends, because that's the nature of this world. Use or be used.

But Fyodor has promised him a home. ...Sigma is no fool. He's sure any other ordinary person would laugh at him for believing in the words of a terrorist - but those people could never understand his desperation. Even if it's all a lie, no matter what he has to do to attain it... isn't this his only chance? Is it really too much to ask for a place to belong?

The Casino doesn't exist, not yet, so no-one on these streets recognizes Sigma. Even if his appearance makes him stand out from the crowd, no-one seems to be paying him much attention, all too busy with their own lives and worries. Instead, Sigma is the one to stop short as he notices a child standing still on the street - and what strikes him before anything else is the two contrasting tones of their hair, just like Sigma's own.

It creates a strange, uncanny sensation in him. It's not uncomfortable, but it's distracting enough that it takes him a moment to realize the more concerning absence of the child's guardian. ...It's not his problem, but they suddenly notice him staring, and so Sigma is suddenly forced to speak-

"Ah... Are you alone?"

@theircurse

[sapphickocho]

What if, instead of Amane finding Muichiro and Yuichiro, Kokushibo finds the twins first?

☾ A Tokito Traitor Au ☀

What if Kokushibo heard whispers of his descendants whereabouts and is interested to see where his family line has gone, and to see if he should end it once and for all. However when he arrives at their house, he finds Yuichiro on the brink of death and Muichiro who is holding his own against a demon. Impressed by his skills, Kokushibo effectively kills the demon and saves Yuichiro before he looses too much blood. He is very much intrigued by them, and Muichiro sees him as their savior figure which gives him an opening to properly manipulate them.

At first he want to turn them into demons immediately, since they do not seem threatened by his appearance. He even convinces them that being a demon is better then being human and that the demon that attacked them were not representative all demons and that demons like him did not eat human flesh because he was one of the chosen strong ones, uncorrupted. Yuichiro especially falls for that because therefore his arm can regenerate and he can protect his brother forever. However after Muichiro mentions Amane, and her offering them to join the demonslayer corps, Kokushibo decides to train them as slayers to infiltrate the corps as spies. By then both of the twins live with Kokushibo and see him as a second father figure, almost completely trusting him. Sadly the twins will not learn mist breathing, but instead Kokushibo trains them in moon breathing. Muichiro is able to master it, while Yuichiro struggles with only one arm, and instead creates a form known as eclipse breathing that works only for his body.

Muzan allows them to kill as many demons as they want to enter the final selection because he sees them as expendable, despite absolutely despising Kokushiobo's new set of twins. especially Muichiro, who reminds him too much of Yoriichri. Meanwhile Kokushibo is drawn to them because they subconsciously also remind him of his twin brother, even though he would never admit it. I do not think they would be able to become hashira, or at least not in less then six months like the original canon because Muichiro does not have his rage from his brother dying and Yuichiro, well, does not have his arm which is hard the adjust too, so they would be part of the kamaboko squad. Still they succeed to sabotaging many of the corps missions, causing the lives of many slayers.

Muichiro cant help but feel guilty, but he is loyal to Kokushibo (not Muzan, just him.) and the reward for trading information is that Kokushibo will give his blood so they can become demons like him. However in truth, unlike Yuichiro, he has no desire to become a demon. Soon he makes friends in the corps, with the other hashira and his fellow peers like Tanjiro and Genya. Soon, he begins to have a moral dilemma for betraying his friends. Therefore, Muichro begins to see the lies that Kokushibo has spun and is suddenly torn between two sides of people that he cares for.

I mean I just love the idea of bad guys becoming accidental parents. I think it'd be interesting to see how different they'd become due to not only being raised by a demon, but one who's morals were from 300 so years ago. old timey Tokito twins, would be kinda funny.

And imagine if they get invited to uppermoon meeting? Imagine how chaotic that would would be?

Akaza: Listen, you guys are too young for this. Kokushibo is not good with kids. Blink twice if you need help and I will get you both out of here.

Muichiro and Yuichiro: *continues to stare at him unnervingly without breaking contact*

or

Douma: Awww how cute Kokushibo I didnt know you had kids. They even have your eyes! who is the mother-

Koku: No

And

Kokushibo holding both of the twins upside down: I'm a single mother now

I just think all the uppermoons would be glorified babysitters for them and I cant help but think it would be hilarious seeing them all interact.

those two fighting some high-up demon, which obviously takes a while, only for the two to randomly stop cuz "dad said to be home by 10 or dinner will get cold". Just Kokushibo, being known as the worst father playing the role of father AGAIN.

Kokushibo to the twins: I am your great great great great great ancestor so just call me dad.

We just know the twins would talk shit about all the upper moons to there FACES and wont give two shits because that was just how they were raised. But not kokushibo-he could ground them.

(Anyway this Au has been consuming my mind lately so expect a fanfic coming out soon)

I mean Muichiro wont be the only one having a dilemma, what happens when Kokushkibos apathy starts to crack-and he begins to care for the twins?

[gerec]

any fic where they meet young (not close to 30 like in the movie) or grow up together?

Hi Anon! You'll find mostly aus on this list as I don't recall very many canon fics where they meet as kids (that isn't time travel related). Hope you enjoy!

Curve Fitting by kianspo The weird thing is, Charles always introduces Raven as his sister, but he never calls Erik his brother. Erik would be bothered, except he prefers not to think of Charles as his brother, either. He can’t figure it out for four years, and then suddenly he can.

Quiet Like a Fire by kianspo Charles has been in love with his best friend for years without realizing it. When he finally figures it out, Erik is married to a wonderful woman and has an adorable daughter, who thinks the world of Charles. Erik has the perfect life that Charles helped him build, so there is only one thing for it - get over his feelings. So what if his methods are unhealthy or if Erik has an opinion on the matter? Charles is determined to do the right thing.

To Be Alone (With You) by dizzycalm AU set in modern time. Charles and Erik meet as kids. They grow up, discover their powers together, and eventually fall in love... though one is more opposed to the idea than the other. Erik wants what he can't have and Charles is terrified of being like his mother.

Wicked Game by obstinatrix, seutedeern Erik's reputation as a defender of the weak in elementary school isn't undeserved. He wouldn't have expected a Xavier to fall into that category, but it seems that other people don't see Charles the way Erik does, as a warm, lovely person who should be protected. As the years draw on, Charles and Erik become best friends, inseparable. Everything is perfect, platonically ideal, until it isn't.

You and Me Against the World by madmalina One important thing to remember: this is a love story. Twenty years and two lifetimes later. Just two boys learning to mutant, grow up, and love each other.

A Winter in New York by nextraordinaire Charles and Erik have been childhood friends for as long as they can remember – Erik, living with his mother in Queens, and Charles in the big mansion in Westchester. For all, expect themselves, it was just natural progression that they'd end up together.

Finally Moving by zarah5 In which Erik is the son of servants, Charles is the son of aristocrats, and hedgehogs make repeated appearances. -- Modern AU that is clearly inspired by Atonement (minus most of the angst, that is).

come as you are by scarlettblush Hospital AU. The one where Charles unknowingly woos a coma patient with Pride and Prejudice. Years later, they meet again.

our hearts won't rust by orphan_account He wants to hold the face of the man whose thoughts he is even now struggling to keep separate from his own, wants to share with him the greatest truth and cruelest lie Charles knows - that he isn’t alone, that neither of them are, not if they don’t want to be. AU. Charles meets Erik during a summer abroad when he is 17.

[musicalmoritz]

hi hi mutual :D

I’m not a huge aoinene shopper (although I do ship it) but! I wanted to ask for your Aoinene hc’s since I have labeled you as the Aoinene expert in my head and I saw you reblog that post we reblogged about the ship hc’s and such!!

convince me into the aoinene lore…. /hj -Bunny

Hiiiiiii mutual!! First of all I’ve said this before but I love being known as the Aoinene Expert™️, so happy that’s my reputation lol

Headcanons are my specialty so I’m glad you asked this!! I will gladly convince you into the Aoinene lore/hj. They’ve been rotting away my brain all day so I’m gonna take this opportunity to ramble abt them and explain how I see the ship

• So as far as canon goes I wouldn’t change either of the canon pairings for them, shipping for me sort of exists in a multiversal vacuum where I can imagine alternatives for who the characters end up with and how they end up with those ppl via fan content

• I do, however, love the idea of them having mutual crushes on each other in canon. I think Nene plays hers off as just admiring Aoi but deep down she feels the same way abt her that she does Teru and Fuji (or maybe a little bit more serious since they’re best friends). And while I think Akane is Aoi’s ultimate soulmate in canon I can see her having feelings for Nene as well, though I think they’d start to fade once Nene began to pull away from her

• As for fanon tho…

• In my head there’s an alternate universe where these two end up together after everything. This usually involves lesbian Aoi bcuz I do adore that headcanon in anything that’s not the actual manga. I like to think they both developed mutual crushes on each other in middle school and Aoi was very internally angsty and aware of her’s whereas Nene was very repressed abt her feelings for girls in general

• They totally have sleepovers every week, on Fridays specifically. They do typical things like watching movies and painting each other’s nails but they’re teenage girls so they’d also probably try to summon demons. And since this is tbhk they’d probably succeed a few times (now I need an au where Nene summons Bloody Mary instead of Hanako)

• Since it’s Aoinene ofc there’s gotta be a moment when Aoi finally opens up to Nene about everything, but I don’t think that would come without difficulty. Lots of avoiding each other and being super distant bcuz neither of them want to be the first to bring it up, then maybe a dramatic fight or two before they come back together on calmer terms and have a long conversation at one of their sleepovers about everything. Whether platonic or romantic that's usually how I envision their resolution

• I think it would also have to come after Aoi's taken some time to work through her mental health problems, she's made progress but she still has a long way to go and that stuff isn't easy to talk about, especially when she knows Nene's view of her will change

• I don't think Nene ever intends to hurt Aoi though, she's more-so negligent and a bit self-centered. And she seems to know something is off with Aoi never talking abt herself but she can't take that further step into understanding WHY she acts the way that she does

• To be honest I see Nene as stressing a lot when she realizes something's going on because she doesn't want to lose their friendship, and I do think she would embrace the real Aoi with open arms if she ever were to meet her

• Then I think they'd have some struggles of adjusting to their new dynamic and figuring out how they work with Aoi being herself + Aoi would instinctively try to pull away a bit, but I think they'd find a way to make it work

• They would constantly be going on dates, wanting to try new places together. They've probably tried every cafe in their town, I could also see them being the type of couple to have each other's orders memorized

• A lot of fics tend to pull them away from their canon love interests in one way or another but not me, Hanako and Akane automatically become wingmen. Those girls are a mess and they need all the advice they can get, even if their makeshift relationship counsellors are far from qualified

• They match their outfits whenever they go out, and they're also 100% the type to do matching Halloween costumes

• Nene has a houseplant in her room that's a gift from Aoi

• Nene calls Aoi every time she has to run errands but doesn't want to do it alone. They end up at the pet store a lot

• Their moms are both convinced they're secretly dating and place bets on when they'll announce it

• They both get easily flustered around each other when they first start dating but in different ways; Nene is a very loud and dramatic type of flustered, very shoujo protagonist core. And Aoi is more the quiet, tsundere genre of flustered

• In the future I picture Nene as a successful writer and Aoi as a flower shop owner and they have a house by the beach. And a hamster, of course

• I also choose to believe they were girlfriends in the Ghost Hotel au before Aoi passed, then they got reunited when Nene arrived at the hotel

• Nene cries very easily and Aoi is a good fake-crier

• Aoi is a little spoon, pass it on

That's all I can think of rn, tysm for your ask! I am going to continue brainrotting over Aoinene for the foreseeable future lmao

[witchhazelevesque]

While I still think that Esperanza would laugh at the thought of dating a guy like Tristan... there are many ways to take a mortal step siblings Leo & Piper au....

so:

Tia Callida??

How would the addition of another seemingly unimportant demigod impact her dynamic with Leo?

She probably would have wormed her way into their new place, being like, 'damn, now I gotta gaslight TWICE as many mortals?'

Depending on where in his career Tristan was at any given point, they could hire actual babysitters and nannies, in which case, Hera would either need to lay the magic trickery on heavier or get a new disguise.

I think Piper says that his King of Sparta role was like his break out hit, even though he had success before that, and she helped him study up on Greek mythos, so she must not have been super young at that point. 

Then again, it'd been long enough that the McLean’s had fallen into a bad cycle of Piper getting into trouble for attention and Tristan not giving it to her and having Jane deal with her, not to mention the whole 'any three questions' thing.

So let's just assume that Tristan was mildly successful from when Piper was relatively young, like 6 or 7.

Anyway, yeah, so like, Piper would have a LOT of complicated feelings about her dad remarrying and having someone else take his time and attention, even though Esperanza would absolutely be loving and supportive to Piper. 

So like, part of her wants to lean into having a maternal figure, but she's GOT a mom, one that she's desperate to know more about, one that her father will never tell her about. And it feels like Tristan is just replacing this mom Piper's been yearning for, and no matter how great and kind this lady may be, she ISN'T Piper's mom. 

And then there's Leo. I don't think they'd get along at first.  Piper likely thinks he's odd and isn't interested in what he likes. At this point though, Leo doesn't go out of his way to be loud and make people laugh or hide his feelings, because he doesn't yet have anything to run or hide from. 

Leo's got a more healthy view of his birth father, because his mother has always told him that they'll meet one day and that he'll understand more when that happens. Leo sees his father less as part of his mother and he's less curious about him than Piper is about her mom. 

Leo would be pretty uninterested in Tristan as a person at first, but he'd be glad that his mom has more help and more time for herself and that she doesn't have to struggle as much. 

While Esperanza wouldn't let Tristan use his fame to get her a job, he DOES know a lot of rich and influential people who know people and basically, he creates opportunities for the right people to see how intelligent and valuable Esperanza is as an engineer, and gives her some breathing room to develop that screw design she was working on and trying to get patented when she died in canon. 

She eventually DOES get her design patented and sets Leo up for the future.

Both parents seem like they'd be generous with each other and their kids, but both have known struggle and idk, it'd probably be something they have to talk about, I'm not sure what outcome it'd be. 

Either way, they of course DO consider their step children as family and WOULD take care of them if something happened to their spouse.

Which leads us to the Gaea of it all. 

So she sets up Esperanza's death because her employee Madea got a premonition while in the Fields of Punishment that Leo was fated to cause Gaea issues. Gaea couldn't outright kill Leo, but she does say that she can make him suffer. 

Piper being in the picture could go a few ways:

Either, Madea also sees that Piper is a threat, which would be interesting since she and Piper have that whole charmspeak/ magic struggle in TLH and in TBM. 

It could be more personal for Madea that way, she might highlight Piper's role over Leo's which, if it's only one parent to die, might make it Tristan.

But considering that in canon Piper still existed at the time that Leo did, and Gaea decided to set him up to suffer and not Piper? But then that might have been because of Hera paying attention to him and training him to be a hero.

But if Hera was still around when Piper came into the picture...

Idk what Hera and Aphrodite's relationship is like. I'd like to believe that it's one of the more positive ones, since love and marriage go together (ideally) and I don't think Aphrodite ever had an affair with Zeus, so there's a point in her favor to Hera. 

It WOULD be something to have the whole lost trio be coached/ favored by Juno/Hera...

If that's the case, then yes, Piper might have been on both Madea and Gaea's radar, in which case, Gaea might have targeted both Tristan and Esperanza.

Which just leads to a whole other mess:

Things could go a lot of different ways depending on whether or not Leo and Piper considered each other siblings, or if they got along or were friends. 

As much as I like the idea of their friendship, I don't think it was really as strong in canon as it's made out to be by readers. Piper has a selfish streak, and I'm not saying that to be hateful. It's an important and interesting element of her character, and it could be really integral in this situation. 

Piper was like, the first person to have positive feelings about Leo's fire and to praise him for it in canon. 

Can you imagine the reverse of that, if Gaea manipulates him into killing both his mother and Piper's father? 

Piper MIGHT hold on to Leo because he's the only family she has left, and she's terrified to be alone. Or she might lash out and hurt him more deeply than he's ever been hurt.

That also depends on whether Hera trained Piper as well, and if Piper was jealous of the preference that the 'babysitter' showed to Leo over her. 

Also, Piper would have become attached to Esperanza eventually, even if she didn't want to admit it. And that, the loss of another mother, of never getting to show her that she did consider her a mom, that she's gone, and Piper made her think that she didn't want her, that she pushed her away and now doesn't get the chance to fix that?

And that, I think, could get Leo to fight back, because he spent the whole time watching Piper outwardly reject his mother, who he loved so much and now Piper wants to act like her death is about Piper's loss?

They could very well implode. 

And they go their separate ways, Piper to whatever guardian her father had appointed for her, and Leo running from that same guardian, because of course their parents wanted them to stay together. 

So Piper's just trying to live her life but she's always haunted by the knowledge that her brother is somewhere out there, alone and probably in danger and she has no idea what happened to him or where he is or if he's thinking about her. 

Oh, and when they meet up again for the Prophecy of Seven bullshit?? Woooooooo!!

Or maybe she runs off too, but in the opposite direction of Leo, and they go through they're own shit, learning and getting stronger and getting knocked down and getting back up again, but always seem to run into each other over and over again, and it's like, 'ugh, you again' but also 'oh thank god you're okay' but also 'get out of my face i never want to see you again' but 'if you touch my sister/ my brother again you'll be on your way to the Underworld WAY early'.

And maybe one of them gets into a scrape they can't get out of and the other HAS to help, they HAVE to, and that leads to some kind of reconciliation even though there are all these bitter feelings of grief and blame and abandonment, but beneath that, they just miss each other, god, they miss each other. 

Or, Piper might not blame Leo, whether because Hera did train her too and she knew about Leo's abilities already and knew that he wouldn't have hurt their parents and saw that Gaea was manipulating him. 

In that case, then, yay, a little runaway team of two. 

Doubtful that Gaea would let the two of them end up anywhere good, even though Tristan would have had better options for a guardian than Esperanza would have with her judgmental family. 

Or maybe they might have ended up someone fine, but they're both traumatized and terrified and grieving and can't trust anyone but themselves and run from any decent situation to make it on their own. 

And you know, maybe they end up in the Labyrinth, or the Lotus Casino, or get found by the Titan army. Maybe they stumble into the Waystation, maybe a random god takes them under wing and guides them along to camp, lots of stuff could happen. 

Because the world is terrible, they would need to develop their abilities much sooner to keep themselves safe.

They've probably killed some people.

 Like, Piper would scream in blind terror at some man following her to leave her alone and he'd walk out into traffic and calmly get hit by a truck, that kind of thing. 

Well, Piper probably kills people, accidentally and then intentionally when needed, but Leo might not be able to bring himself to repeat what he did to their parents. It's okay, though, Piper understands and takes care of that part.  

Oh, and by the time they get to the giant war, they are just so done.

[kitkatt0430]

For 5+ headcanons AU - what if Stein had been the one to die during the singularity instead of Ronnie?

Oh poor Martin, but yay! Ronnie lives. :D

Much like Martin, Ronnie would start to destabilize, so they'd still have to seek out Jax around the same time as in canon. I think Ronnie would be more proactive and opinionated about things than Martin was - though the canon episode was about Martin needing another half to Firestorm the focus was on Caitlin's grief over Ronnie when it came to choosing a 'copilot' as it were. So I think here it would focus on Ronnie's grief. He struggled to learn to get along with Martin in part because all the time spent with the merge gone wrong where Martin was directly piloting Ronnie's body, so he's understandably uncomfortable with having to let someone in.

He's definitely going to take a dislike to Hewitt upon meeting him - the guy isn't a team player and he kinda looks down on Ronnie for not having a doctorate. And maybe Ronnie absently corrects something that Hewitt has wrong in his lab when they visit him, so they're both really rubbing each other the wrong way there. Since Ronnie wouldn't want to merge with Hewitt, maybe a polite handshake is what sparks Hewitt's powers into overload.

Jax on the other hand, Ronnie takes to immediately. They get along well and Ronnie is frank about the situation he's facing. He just got legally acknowledged as alive again, is married to Caitlin (twice over since they would have had to have a second ceremony for legal purposes once they were actually able to file the paperwork), and he really does not want to die. He's as uncertain about being a hero as Jax is, but he's not asking Jax to help him save the world. Just his life. Which, as Jax points out, is arguably Caitlin's world. What they're doing will make Jax's life dependent on Ronnie's in the same way Ronnie's will become dependent on Jax's - but they can work on finding a way to stablize them both without Firestorm eventually. They're both young, they've got the time to figure things out.

Obviously Jax agrees, they merge successfully, but oh no! Hewitt is melting down and they wind up going to fight him alongside Barry.

At some point during these events, Ronnie and Caitlin would let Clarissa know what's going on and that there's a possibility that Ronnie and the as-of-yet unknown person who balances him out as Firestorm might wind up in the papers again. They want to make sure she's prepared to see that happen and isn't smacked in the face with it on the Sunday Times or whatever and left wondering if that's Martin.

Also!!! When Jax and Ronnie merge, it winds up being Ronnie riding copilot while Jax is in charge of his own body. Which puts Ronnie in what was Martin's position. And in some ways makes Ronnie feel closer to the friend and mentor he lost. But it also kind of cements that he's the advisor in the Firestorm equation now. The one who has to run the mental calculations for flying and transmutation while Jax concentrates on the actual physical actions going on. It's an adjustment for them both, but they manage to make a good team.

They still get recruited by the Legends - Firestorm would have been killed by Zoom otherwise, due to Zoom being smitten with Caitlin. Ronnie is less interested in time travel than Martin was because it would take him away from Caitlin, but Jax talks him into it (after Jax is visited by his future self in a stable time loop that doesn't involve drugging anyone to get everyone aboard the Waverider, wth Legends S1???)

Ronnie would probably make more of an effort to get to know Mick than everyone else does. He knows what it feels like to be dismissed as the 'dumb muscle' - much as he came to like Martin, it felt in some ways like Martin maybe never got over his impression that he was smarter and wiser than Ronnie was and it's gotta sting when someone that important and integral to who you are... dismisses you like that. It's probably not enough to keep Mick from blowing up at the crew because Len keeps picking them over him and even trying to erase their partnership via changing the history of Lewis Snart, but with both Ray and Ronnie being more friendly to Mick he perhaps double crosses the Time Pirates rather than sticking with them permanently. They wind up leaving Mick in 2016 as requested, only for him to wind up immediately kidnapped by Time Masters the minute the Waverider disappears.

Ronnie's survival turns out to be caused by Barry's time travel in the Flashback episode; it's not just Hartley turning over a new leaf that changed. And while Barry is glad Ronnie is alive - if gallivanting off with the Legends which includes Barry's favorite thief (crush) Leonard Snart - he's horrified to realize that Martin didn't survive in this timeline. And so Barry does not create Flashpoint because of this. He realizes that he might save his parents, sure, but who will suffer in his place? He can't do that, can't take that risk. Not even for his mom and dad.

[nageki-the-friendly-ghost]

Tell us everything

Welcome to the Hitori fucking Dies AU

Okay so I don't have pretty much anything plotted out yet but the concept is "hatoful boyfriend except hitori managed to save nageki in the fire and died in the process"

Tw for all the usual hatoful boyfriend topics (suicide, familial death and grief, medical malpractice, likeable characters making pretty awful choices)

Also spoilers for if I ever make this for real. I'd want it to be structured similarly to hatoful boyfriend where most major plot reveals happen late, so by explaining the ideas from the start of this AU I'd also kind of be spoiling every major plot twist. But I don't know how far I'll get into the project (I have had a REAL hard time focussing on writing recently) and I want to share all my ideas immediately lol

Obviously there are many logistical issues in this au that would need to be worked out- why bbl wouldn't just happen immediately if Nageki was alive, for instance. Bear with me pls

Also please note that I haven't consumed every single piece of hatoful media, mostly just the two games and sections of one of the manga. There may be some things I missed out on that.

But here are the ideas I have thus far

The first sticking point is that I think there's a high probability that if Hitori died in the fire Nageki would just attempt again because he still believes he needs to sacrifice himself and would just feel even guiltier. BUT I also think it could be equally in character for Nageki to refuse to let Hitori's sacrifice be in vain and find enough resolve to escape and keep living and find a better solution

But of course, Nageki could never have a normal life while infected with the charon virus, nor would he be content with one while he's aware of the Hawk party's plans

He'd have to go on the run, obviously. Here's where you get another interesting possible choice of Nageki somehow managing to join the Doves. But frankly I don't think an incredibly sick 15 year old with extremely limited life experience is going to be good at going on the run. I think he'd manage to stay hidden for long enough. For the purposes of this au he doesn't die from his sickness immediately but it was definitely a risk. (Let's assume that Shuu originally planned for Nageki to live much longer than he did in canon so he received some genuine medical care in between the experiments)

However. Nageki is homeless and unable to tell anyone about what was done to him or get help. He can't go to any birds because the Hawks are searching for him, and he can't warn any humans because they'd just die if he spoke to them

Surprise! This is where this also becomes a Kazuaki lives AU!

I think Nageki meets Kazuaki mostly by random chance in the street. Now, in canon I'm not sure if Kazuaki was kicked out of college at this point and that's why he was out there in the rain or if he was out there for some other reason (edit: been informed that he IS still in college when he meets Hitori in canon, which works great for me). I'm choosing to believe it's the latter for the purposes of making this au work- Kazuaki is living in a dorm at this point but is close to failing his classes and is out in the rain for some reason. Roll with me here.

Nageki stumbles across Kazuaki. He'd probably be hesitant to approach due to the aforementioned danger

But Kazuaki is obviously not in a good state, and if there's one thing Nageki hates its feeling like he can't do anything when people are struggling. And part of Nageki is purely running on What Would Hitori Do mode right now. So obviously Nageki tries to figure out what he can do to help

I think suddenly being shown kindness by some random kid who is clearly in a similarly awful state might draw Kazuaki out of his head enough that he could end up trying to help Nageki instead, out of genuine concern, a sense of understanding, and a desperate need to be important to literally anybirdie on earth

This is the first time Nageki has talked to anybirdie since Hitori's death, as well as the longest Kazuaki has talked to someone in weeks

Nageki needs a place to stay that no one would think to look for him and where he's slightly less likely to immediately die. Kazuaki needs to interact with another living being regularly, and has an empty dorm room and a meal plan he's barely been using

cue incredibly dysfunctional found family slowburn- They feel obligated to each other (which eventually becomes genuine care and protectiveness) and end up functioning better as a result

(This could possibly end up being very codependent, because what relationship in hatoful doesn't have a LITTLE unhealthy codependency. Staking the whole of your recovery on another person's wellbeing is NOT sustainable. But overall WAY healthier for both of them than Hitori and Kazuakis canon dynamic in that they both make it out alive with no deception necessary.)

Kazuaki starts attending classes again so that they can stay housed. He struggles and still can't thrive, but he just barely stays afloat with Nageki's support and renewed motivation. Nageki does what he can to make the dorm more habitable without leaving. Nageki's presence is a secret for obvious reasons, but it's a pretty easy one to keep since Kazuaki is so isolated to begin with. Nageki's trapped again in a different way, but Kazuaki's awful living space may honestly feel like a relief after the sterile lab. Months, maybe even a full year, pass

Eventually, Nageki trusts Kazuaki enough to tell him about everything- the charon virus, St. Pigeonations, Hitori's death, all of it. He tells him that one day, if he can live long enough, Nageki will find a way to expose what's going on at St. Pigeonations to the world and bring an end to it

Nageki likely tells him out of a sense of guilt- this is what he's gotten Kazuaki into, and he deserves better than all the extra trouble Nageki comes with.

But Nageki also won't be talked out of his plan, and when Kazuaki realizes this, he's not going to let Nageki be in danger by himself, not when it means Kazuaki would be left completely alone again

Kazuaki hasn't dreamed about his future in years, had no plans past college for how his life could go. What difference would it make if he started working towards becoming a teacher?

Kazuaki had no significance to the Hawks whatsoever. And teaching is completely in character for Kazuaki when he's in a slightly better mental state (see: shrine au) so no one would likely question it. No one EVER pays attention to Kazuaki or takes him seriously- which could make him a very, very good information gatherer

(And Nageki IS still sick, and maybe, just maybe Kazuaki can find out if the doctor wasn't COMPLETELY lying about doing research into curing it– if only as a contingency plan to keep his bioweapon from getting out of his control. Maybe if Kazuaki poked around enough, he could find it and hand it over to a non-evil doctor. He doesnt tell Nageki about this idea though- Nageki would refuse it outright, and Kazuaki couldnt bear the dissappintment if he told him and then failed)

Nageki... is apprehensive about this plan. But it's the only one they have, the only influence he can possibly exert to try to stop the Hawks without walking immediately into their clutches. His need to do what's right overrules his need to do what's smart.

But he begs- Kazuaki can't do too much for him, can't sacrifice his own wellbeing to keep Nageki hidden, and he can't do ANYTHING that might get him caught. If Kazuaki ever doesn't come home, Nageki is flying in right after him. Nageki has lost three families now- he WON'T lose a fourth, no matter what.

Kazuaki promises. We'll see if he's able to keep it.

WOO okay that's the main part I had planned out. But here's a little more.

I haven't thought as much about ghost!Hitori yet but. Oh man. Ghost Hitori

I think he'd be a lot less bitter than canon Hitori since he achieved what he set out to do (save nageki) but I do think he'd still have regrets enough to not be able to move on (leaving Nageki completely alone, not rescuing him earlier, knowing that there's still danger and being able to do nothing to help it)

I think he'd be less detached from the world and more driven to help others- especially the students, the kids, who were being used unawares of the horrors of the school. If only, if ONLY one of them could hear his warnings

(eventually, years later, Hiyoko can hear his warnings)

I'm also curious about how Shuu's plans would change with Nageki alive- with a burnt medical center and no liver cells to work with, he doesn't have samples of the charon virus. Would he still plan on turning Ryouta into the new carrier when the original carrier was still out there and needed to be recaptured? Lots to think about.

How I'd want to present this, ideally is as a fan game of alternate routes based on these changes

In true hatoful boyfriend fashion all of this is just the backstory to get to where all the characters are at the start of the game. The main plot is about all of the butterfly effects that occur in Hiyoko's experience due to entirely new plot threads occurring

[dracothelizard]

HAPPY OFMD BIG BANG ANNIVERSARY TO MY FIC!

Last year, I signed up for @ofmdbigbang and wrote a 60K Lovecraftian AU. @tealtumbleweed has a masterpost for their art, btw, it's great.

We got the 30th of September 2022 as a posting date, making today the one-year anniversary!

Title: Luctor et Emergo: The Call of Edthulhu (I added 'the' to Call of Edthulhu later on to make it fit better with The Vacation of Edthulhu)

Pairings: Stede/Edthulhu, background Lucius/Pete, background Jim/Oluwande

Summary: Stede pulled a face at that. “Hm, well, I don’t want to do any human sacrifices.”

“Kinda rule number one of being in a cult,” Pete scoffed.

“Ah! Not in this cult!” Stede beamed at him and looked around expectantly. “Remember? What’s our number one rule?”

Roach raised his hand. “Don’t sacrifice my chicken.”

“Not quite number one, but still high up,” Stede replied. “Swede?”

“Stick to the chore schedule?”

“Definitely in the top ten.” There were no more hands, and he sighed. “Come on! If we want to get a good result, we talk about it…”

“As a cult,” the others chorused, some more reluctant than others.

AKA the Lovecraftian AU no one asked for!

In which High Priest Stede struggles with nosy Badmintons, his cultists and the Spanish Inquisition. Meeting Edthulhu makes everything better. Now Stede just has to help the eldritch deity emerge fully into this world. It'll be fine! Probably!

And also, obviously there is tentacle sex ;)

Read on if you want a bit more background/knowledge humankind was not meant to know ooooh AKA slight spoilers for my fic

My initial big bang idea was a canon divergence for ep 8, where Stede and Oluwande would bond over being left behind and the crew would drag them on a terrible pubcrawl to cheer them up. They'd run into Ed and Jim, and obviously there'd be shenanigans. It's still in my WIPs somewhere.

But I got involved in a discussion about Stede as a Lovecraftian cultist to eldritch Ed, and I've played a lot of Call of Cthulhu, a TTRPG. So I thought, oh, maybe Stede and his crew as terrible investigators going after Edthulhu's cult led by High Priest Izzy!

But then I realised that no, the original idea was right. Stede and his crew as terrible cultists vs High Priest Izzy who is very dedicated to Edthulhu.

Outlining and plotting involved going over s1 to see which bits I wanted to take, and how to set them up properly so they'd still work.

I still wanted Stede to have similar character beats to canon, so he gets some growing confidence after besting Izzy before meeting Edthulhu, then grows overconfident when making deals at Spanish Jackie'z and requires Edthulhu to rescue him. Figuring out WTF to do with the hostage plotpoint was fun :p.

Also, spoilers, the Spanish Inquisition turns up (NOBODY EXPECTS THEM!!). But I actually kind of forgot about them while outlining. I thought, okay, I need the deal at Jackie'z to go badly. I need a group of people who can attack cultists, so there's some witchhunting/religious persecuting going on, and I'd like them to be Spanish to go with canon.

So I googled something like 'Spanish witchhunt' and my first result was Spanish Inquisition and I felt really dumb for having forgotten them.

Once Stede and Edthulhu meet, there aren't as many parallels because I had to get them to Atlantis and raise Edthulhu, but obviously Stede and Edthulhu have cute moments, Stede rescues Edthulhu, Jackstur turns up, and Mary and Doug are surprisingly okay with everything!

And then everyone gets to find happiness, including Izzy!

My main takeaway for this year's Big Bang was that I had to plan my writing better, as I was still writing close to my deadline, and that I had to aim for something shorter. And for this year, I succeeded at both those goals!

[cacio-e-peppino]

Pizza Tower Headcanons: The Noise

I think it’s about time to share more headcanons, this time looking at everyone’s favorite off brand mascot, The Noise ^^. I've been thinking about this creacher:tm: a lot recently, so I have a lot to say. Headcanons under the read more

So, this first one does have some Sugary Spire influence, but I think The Noise is genderfluid. It takes him a really long time to figure it out though. I think after seeing Peppino's top surgery scars enough or Peppino passing up on an opportunity to go toe to toe with Theo finally causes The Noise to work up the courage to ask Peppino how he knew he was trans. Since, seeing those things in the first place is what got The Noise to revaluate his identity in the first place.

Before meeting Peppino, The Noise tried really hard to suppress the feminine part of her identity. I also think this is where part of their anger towards Noisette comes from; he's jealous that Noisette gets to be unabashedly feminine while he feels like he can only be masculine because "that's how men are" (and Noise struggles with the nature of their fluidity identity and feels like a freak for wanting to be referred to in more feminine terms sometimes). Though, I think through encouragement from Noisette and Peppino, Noise starts experimenting more with her identity and starts to become more comfortable to it. Noise becoming more secure in their gender identity really patches things up in his relationship with Noisette : )

Eventually, Noise gets to the point where they'll use a colored patch to single how they want to be addressed that day- blue for he/him, pink for she/her, and orange for they/them. Despite how much Peppino wants to wring his neck, he'll always insult them respectfully and follow the patch code (once he learns it).

Noise truly does love and care for Noisette. On camera the whole "wife bad" angle is mostly played up "for laughs" and Noise doesn't really like doing those bits. Though, they both understand it's just part of the job. This isn't to say they never fight or argue, they absolutely do. Though, Noise gets a bit prickly when people start implying he doesn't care for Noisette at all

The Noise is the only one allowed to bully Peppino. He will drag Peppino through the mud and rake him over the coals. But the moment someone else bullies Peppino and The Noise isn't involved? There's gonna be problems

That being said, Noise is a born troublemaker. She loves causing chaos and mischief and problems for others on purpose and will only really apologize if someone seems legitimately offended by it. For example, he knows pretending to be dead and most explosive based pranks are off the table with Peppino since it will cause him to spiral and disassociate for the rest of the day.

I don't ship Noise and Peppino, but I do think they have a very interesting relationship in the sense that they are always at each other's throats but if someone else is threatening them, they'd go up to bat for the other. They want each other dead, but only by their hands. And, when once is legitimately having a problem, the other is there to support them through it.

While The Noise is canonically Mexican, I do think the idea of him being unable to handle spicy foods is funny. He vastly prefers sweets to savory foods, and also enjoys British food like fish n chips and tea (with extra milk and sugar). He got real sick of pizza after getting a gig marketing it, but it pays too good for him to stop. Tequila is just water to him, but he can't stand any form of dry wine and doesn't understand how Peppino or even Noisette does it.

Noise does not have a very broad palette when it comes to food and is a picky eater. This contrasts with Noisette, who has a very broad palette and will eat nearly anything once

Noise is very short, like 5'3" and that's part of what makes him such a good acrobat- low center of gravity. Peppino likes hanging out with her because it makes him (5'6") seem tall in comparison

I could easily picture The Noise having a similar personality to Scout from TF2

Like all the other Pizza Tower bosses, I think Noise was some how manipulated into working for Pizzahead. Probably promises of riches or fame or something, honestly I don't think Noise would be that difficult to manipulate. I could see him working with Pizzahead prior to the construction of the Tower though. Perhaps it was Pizzahead who gave Noise the mascot gig in the first place.

I think Noise is human, but I do love all the depictions of Rat Noise, they are fantastic

[cr1mson5returns]

Piggybacking off of yesterday's thought and I still have a lot to say about this.

I'm not really someone who makes a habit out of telling people what they can and can't write in fandom; I think it's gross, gatekeepy behavior and sort of ruins the experience for everyone. I also don't really make a habit out of bringing up canon, especially not in Batfandom, because nobody gets into fandom creative work to just rehash canon a million times. We thrive on our many and varied AUs. So with all that in mind, I'm not about to argue that there's no place in fandom for interpretations of Jack and Janet Drake as intentionally awful parents displaying calculated patterns of abuse against their son. I think those interpretations have a right to exist and absolutely should exist, because for many people that was their experience and it resonates more for them. People deserve to see themselves reflected in fan works.

I do, however, think it's crucial to also entertain the interpretation of the Drakes where maybe they're not bad people, but they're certainly bad parents. I've known people personally who weren't evil or horrible individuals; they were actually decent and even good people. But with their children, they were pretty bad parents and consistently incapable of meeting their needs and allowing them the chance to develop normally. This can happen for a lot of reasons, and we can argue about which one would be most fitting for the Drakes here.

But personally, I can definitely see it as a result of a perfect storm of factors. Jack and Janet might have both had parents who weren't super good at parenting. Their view of parenting was skewed from the start. Their marriage was starting to struggle, maybe a little or maybe a lot, and they figured that introducing the child they'd always wanted would bring them together as a real team again, a real partnership. But having a kid is hard and messy and complicated, and if Janet had any postpartum mental health problems, things could've gone downhill fast. And while there are many resources available to learn to be a good parent and to meet your child's needs consistently, it's not easy to take advantage of those resources when you're very much trying to keep up a public image and a reputation among peers. What would everyone else think of you breaking down and accepting help from a shrink to learn how to parent your own kid? This is supposed to be innate, after all.

So, yeah. I definitely feel like my personal soft spot for Jack and Janet as parents is somewhere in the complicated mess of things that makes someone not a bad person overall, but definitely a bad parent and therefore a bad person for their child.

[zip-toonz]

if u have ANYTHING to say abt trevor (either your interpretation, anyone else's, or just plain old canon trevs) id LOVE to hear abt it...i care abt him soooo much trevor fans make some noise ‼️

I HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY ABOUT TREVOR WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN!! First and Foremost I have to say I love your interpretations of the characters! I love reading your head canons and Ideas and I'm honored my stuff inspired you like your work inspires me! (Obsessed with Schrödinger's Trevor). I should draw our Trevors hanging out sometime I think that would be a fun art piece! Also the fanart you made for the PLA au still makes me go crazy /pos

ALRIGHT *cracks my knuckles so hard my bones turn to dust* Trevor time! Read more cause I never shut up about Trevor

Trevor is by far my favorite Pokémon character of all time. I use to spend hours scrounging up any fanart I could find back in like 2013-15. I'm pretty sure he did things to my gender identity. Trevor of Trans your Gender.

He reminds me a lot of one of my other big time blorbos Mary Ann

Something about kids with this hairstyle I guess haha. I think they'd get along though they have similar personalities.

My Interpretation of Trevor!!

My interpretation of Trevor is a weird amalgamation of the game, manga, and anime. And sometimes I have multiple interpretations of him depending. But the one that I have a design for is a solid mix of all. He likes photography and wants to complete the pokedex. Gets really excited seeing Pokémon even if its a Pokémon he's already seen before and yet is very shy when meeting new people. He's only really comfortable with his friends, his sister, and Sycamore (who is effectively his father figure). Very smart but kind of clumsy, he tends to get a little beat up because he focuses in on things and forgets his surroundings. He's not big on battling but he loves studying Pokémon and want's to be a professor when he's older just like Sycamore. He takes photos of pokemon and keeps them in a little scrapbook with help from Shauna. Also he thrifts all his clothes and can never find anything that fits him just right.

Canon Trevor HCs

I tend to have sadder head canons for him due to the lack of parents. I don't think he likes Celebrating his birthday because his parents are never there to celebrate it with him. He has a hard time making friends and is always silently worried his friends will leave him one day. He's scared of getting hurt and so he tends to shut himself off from others involuntarily because he's scared of being abandoned again, and most of the time he only meets new people through the others in his friend group. Sycamore is one of the few adults he trusts.

Because of the manga I like to think he has this sixth sense of snuffing out harmful or dangerous people based on their aura. Lysander makes this kid faint his vibes are so bad. But that's really just for fun rather than anything serious or concrete.

I think he's got a wet paper bag for a stomach and gets queasy very easily. Its possible his anxiety has something to contribute to his health. and he should probably be on some kind of medication to manage it.

I love love love how hes handled in the manga. He's not the coward he thinks he is. He's scared but he's willing to fight for what he believes in. He's willing to stand up for his friends even when he struggles to stand up for himself and its so nice watching him grow.

AUS!!

I have a few aus major with Trevor PLA and REVIVAL are my two major ones but there's also Paldea (a spin off following PLA) and Wondar (My fan region that features him minorly)

Despite both major ones having godly deer screwing him over in one way or another I characterized him differently

In PLA is emotionally dead. He's got no fucks left to give and handles Pokémon with his bare hands. He's exhausted and numb. I don't think I've talk a lot about him and his relationships in PLA but he practically adopted by Laventon, and ends up making good friends with Akari and Rei. When he does return home he finds himself missing them a lot. Also he never wants to see another shinx in his life hes got scars for days from shinx alone. Also theres a Yanmask with a mask of him implying he died before returning home. (Paradoxical nonsense but its meant to represent the part of him that lived in paldea and not the part of him that died if that makes any sense? its like the physical manifestation of the impact he had on the past).

In the Revival au (sometimes lovingly called Revival Rival cause its fun to say) he's physically dead. He's practically a walking corpse with a conscious. His heart barely beats, his skin is cold. A medical anomaly. Xerneas splinters a piece of its power off (so to speak) to bring him back because humans are far more complicated than foliage. Because of this he can understand Pokémon, Flowers grow in his wake, and can revive fainted Pokémon. It seems neat but to him it just further alienates him from his peers and is a responsibility he doesn't want to have to handle. Its overwhelming. He can't stray too far from Xerneas who's is practically his life support. I've jokingly compared it to a soul gem from Madoka where if he strays to far he slows down and then eventually loses consciousness/dies again. Theres a grace radius but he can't really explore places like Lumiose anymore because Xerneas can't/won't follow. Meaning he can't go home. He lingers around smaller towns and forest. When emotinally distressed he loses his ability to control these new powers.

anyway!! enough of me rambling!! if you wanna talk about him more or have follow up questions just ask!! My dms are also open!! I can keep talking about this silly lil guy for ever!

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

Your anthro Ingo where he's all thin and pale and ghostly and he looks almost feral, is. SO. FUCKING. COOL. Dude, dude. He looks so fucked up, I love him, I love him so much. I love all of the rest of them too, trust me, but oh my god. Just, the contrast between him in Hisui and him before he fell is stellar. Fantastic even. And his EARS. His haunted eyes, his canon posture that has new connotations, the way you can see his spine through his coat. The cute aggression is real, I want to shake him around like a dog with a toy and then wrap him in a blanket and cuddle him close.

Wait, no, okay, I'm going a little bit crazy over this. I haven't drawn anything in like two years because of art block, but this. You have ignited a fire with this. So. That is a thing that is currently happening. I hope you don't mind? Who knows if I'll actually finish it, but I've made quite a lot of headway.

But anyway.

I mean, I don't how many more there'd be or if it's just Adaman and Mai in the clan right now that are reptiles, but I do think that historically they produce much, much more than the Pearl Clan, and I don't think Galaxy Team is too likely to have many either. Their populations are just so sparse you probably don't get most than a handful of any given type of animal.

Actually, I wonder if Adaman or Mai would be the one to approach Ingo about it first. Adaman if Irida decided that it was worth asking for help from the Diamond Clan if it meant her friend and warden was able to function better (which I figure she would, if she realized they might know something he could benefit from), or Mai if she just noticed at a warden's meeting that Ingo was struggling, put together why, and felt compelled to offer him some advice. Not sure if Mai would be the type to offer unsolicited help, but she seems like the responsible type and might be inclined to if only because he's a fellow warden.

Oh shit, you're absolutely right. Even though it probably isn't super safe for an arctic animal to visit the mirelands or coastlands during the summer, she and the others still could pass through safely as long as they weren't like vigorously exercising and kept hydrated, and at pretty much all times of the year they'd be okay in three of the five regions. Ingo can only go to like, two safely, and even then it's probably hard for him to go up towards Snowpeak for too long. Good thing it was Melli who got Moonview Arena and not him. Even if that doesn't really feel like a punishment to Ingo, I do think you're right that it'd hurt Irida. It'd probably help that he can still go to Jubilife once he starts wanting to, since at the very least he's able to go do something he has fun doing. I bet that'd actually mean a lot to her, to know that she hasn't basically shackled him to the highlands for his own safety (the irony being what she does in OoP lmao).

Very true, a lot of it could be! That's part of what makes it so fun to think about for me lol

>:3c tysm!! i'm really happy with how that art turned out too, it was actually the last ingo i drew after doing the other sketches (& a bunch of hare studies) and i was like "hmm. this isn't weird and concerning enough. let me make it worse" and there was a point in drawing one of the faces, i don't remember which which, but i like went. ohh yeah i love this man but there is some kind of primal monkey-brain instinct to get very far away before he sees me

MIND?? DO I MIND?? of COURSE not!! i love knowing ive inspired other people! ty!

and yeah, for sure out of all the groups in hisui they would probably have the most reptiles. whereas the galaxy team has the most diverse array of species, and the pearl clan has a bias towards fluffy mammals. the ginkgo guild is probably also a pretty random assortment. (maybe ginter's another goat, though?) so adaman might not necessarily agree that reptiles in general are unlucky, but when he hears about that particular pearl clan tradition there's probably still a "hah, yeah" moment anyway.

awwww the idea of irida approaching adaman to ask for help for ingo... especially if you assume that they're still on kind of shaky ground at that point. and she doesn't necessarily like him, but she's worried enough about ingo that she's just like "screw it" anyway and sets that aside for his sake. mai might care enough to offer her help, but the other question is, would ingo even listen? i feel like it'd require hearing it from someone he really cares about/trusts, like irida, for him to even notice/acknowledge that anything's wrong. before that he'd just be like "well that's good advice to keep in mind for the future or for anyone else i come across, fortunately i'm in perfect operating condition and don't need it. thank you though" and mai's just ... :/

YEAH... i do feel like in this au, irida and ingo are considerably closer than they are in ounce of prevention (not to say they AREN'T close in OoP, just that it's Very Complicated and in this au there seems to be less clan stuff getting between them.) i feel like there's probably also something in this au that means the clan in general is a lot warmer (ha) towards ingo... in my head i've been thinking that maybe lady sneasler was unevolved/young when he arrived and he happened to find and bring her back from having run off into the snow, which is a thing i think i've seen one or two other people do and i enjoy the social implications of lol. it also means that irida and others might be more inclined to see him, maybe not literally but metaphorically, as someone who was sent to help them during this troubled time, since he literally saved one of the noble lines from destruction before they'd even met him. which would just make the fact that hisui is so Objectively Bad for him hurt even worse!

yeah lol, it's like canon-a-bit-to-the-left right now which is really fun to play with? seeing what gets exposed to investigate if that makes sense. also reminding me that i WOULD like to write more cc stuff to do character/lore exploration... hmmm

[first-frost-fallen-snow]

@not-that-dillinger here's some thoughts I came up with:

H2o AU:

Frost is a very outgoing character at the beginning of his arc, which is when this AU will take place. I think since he's not human he'd still have a very uncomfortable mermaid look, one that's uncanny and more monstrous from afar but friendly up close (foreshadowing his downfall, ofc).

Canonically, he doesn't come into contact with water often, but he does come into contact with a lot of ice and snow. So I think maybe touching snow/ice (since it melts on contact) would turn him into a mermaid, and that would prove to be quite a hassle. Especially when there aren't many bodies of water where he usually stays.

So! I will finaggle it. Frost and his story is malleable. All there has to be is a bad guy for him to fight. I wonder if perhaps he moved his residence to an island when he found out about his new ability to easily jump into water without worry.

I think it works perfectly if Ed is also secretly a mermaid. Maybe Ed went to the same island? Things happen, Ed is on the run, and Frost just so happens to be someone who can protect him, and someone who shares the Mermaid Secret! I'd love to hear your thoughts on how they'd meet!

Regular Mermaid AU:

This one I'm really hyped about. Kind of just an Atlantis thing, but something about a Mer!Ed interacting with a Mer!Frost is scritching my brain so nicely. The kingdoms thing still works. Ed can still run away from home in the vast ocean, with Mer societies it's easy to imagine underwater civilization blossoming. I don't know how Ed being an artificer would work underwater, but I'm sure there's something we could figure out.

Frost's story is not set in stone, he only has a shaky outline of what his personal arc is. He fights in a war at a young age, and gets corrupted by it. It's not a stretch to imagine him bumping into royalty- he's a known hero. Having someone that can freeze their opponents would be a huge advantage.

I can imagine Frost's optimism would maybe even be a breath of fresh air (water?) for Ed, considering how much he's been through. Maybe having someone kind and sweet like Frost as a friend would benefit him, and perhaps they'd be good friends! Which would be even more crushing if we did go through with Frost's corruption arc (Which we don't have to if you don't want to).

Or, what could even be more interesting, is if he were Hailstorm already. A bounty hunter vigilante type. What if Dillinger sent him to collect Ed? The drama! The intrigue! Hailstorm is fighting his own (internal) battle, struggling against the corruption and desperately trying to do the right thing. Though I'm not entirely sure how far an rp with this idea would go, bc I can easily imagine myself getting stuck in a writing loop lmao

Anyway uh. Sorgy for the rant

Was inspired to draw Frost as a freaky mercreature

[lnkedmyheart]

You get Peter 😭 also Andrew is the only one that actually acts and struggles like an orphan who is trying to figure out why his parents left him and who tf he is, full of angst!

I've been a Peter Parker fan since I was 8. I got this big box of spidey and Batman comics from my rich cousin brother as a kid and this guy was a FANATIC, like he had literally all the issues. Complete with binding to protect them from tearing. And I would raid these second hand shops and bookstores for spidey and Batman comics. Seriously they were both my comfort characters because people liked me okay? I was a decent kid but I wasn't popular, I didn't have friends who wanted to stay friends because I couldn't remember names or hold conversations or meet their eye despite having cool hobbies. They'd ask me to do stuff for them with big smiles and then forget I existed when I'd done it.

Seriously Pete was my comfort character because he wasn't ugly or uncool but isolated lonely and antisocial. And he was angry and hurt and had the power to take what he wanted but instead chose to be good (after some harsh life lessons).

I know it might sound stupid that I am so deeply invested in this white superhero but he's the canonical underdog, people don't expect much from him but he keeps going.

As for Andrew, yea, he's the only one actually shown struggling with the disappearance of his parents but I think all three live action Peter's focus on seperate arcs of the character (even though MCU spidey isn't actually Peter until nwh, he's basically got Miles' setup without the bi-racial struggles) but his arc is from the comics where his parents were secret agents. And yes he behaves like the most realistically unpopular character. Tom's Peter is too adorable and sweet and kind, the only person who actually dislikes him is Flash and I think MCU implied that it's because Flash is jealous plus nobody even likes Flash in canon. Tom has none of Peter's non spidey flaws as a person. He is legitimately too likeable if dorky. Tobey was my soft nerd boy and it's believable that he was bullied because he was an easy target but he also had none of Peter's anger and hurt, Andrew understands Peter, you can tell anytime he opens his mouth about him that this guy has loved the character for a really long time and has understood him.

Also

[guildwuff2]

5, 8, 9, and 24 for Mu and Zoxu! 💖

@mystery-salad

5: Favorite place!

Mu honestly loves the Shiverpeaks in general, she's pretty well-adapted to a cold climate! She probably enjoyed Snowden Drifts the most, lots of wilderness for her to run around in without getting spotted

Zoxu's pretty fond of Metrica Province, it's where they grew up! Having travelled all over central Tyria with Mu, they found themself thinking of home the most

8 (and 9): (Perceived) Strengths/weaknesses

(yes i wanna combine 'em)

Mu's strength, imo, is her ability to connect with people! Time and time again she's found some really unlikely friends, and if not friends, people she's had a surprisingly chill conversation with. Not that she's necessarily befriended anyone that wishes her or her friends harm, nor would she forgive the people who've hurt her, but more in the sense that she can easily see past an intimidating exterior to find the person beneath it. Her perceived strength is that she's smart--and she is! Not a whole lot gets past her (literally and figuratively, lmfao).

Her weakness? thus far? is that she's pretty stubborn. Like, beyond a regular kind of stubborn, she's minotaur stubborn. It's played to her favor a few times now, at least when it comes to her arguing for Zoxu's wellbeing (i.e., scoopsing them when they won't sleep, or in the past insisting they care for themself before her), but it's caused her problems before. Her perceived weakness would easily be her Rage, and she blames herself quite a bit whenever she's in a dangerous situation where she's come close to it/succumbed to it.

Zoxu's strength is their tenacity. If they put their mind to it and they're determined to see it through, they'll get it done. Hell, they spent like three years surviving in the wilderness with a giant supersoldier experiment, undetected! They don't give themself nearly enough credit for the things they've done well. Their perceived strength would be their glamour ability; they've spent so long needing glamours to hide, they've gotten remarkably good at them! (It's a bit of a running joke that they're a little Too good at them, and they'll get flirted with by accident when glamoured as a non-asura. Usually they just break the bad news that they're actually an asura or just politely decline and try to escape the situation.)

Their weakness is absolutely their lack of confidence in themself. Their tenacity only really extends to the people they care about, and they tend to neglect their own needs as a result. They struggle a lot with the more combat-oriented aspects of mesmer magic, martial training in general, and often feel extremely out of their element in an organization like the Priory, where they feel like they're surrounded by so many powerful, competent and intelligent people. The Imposter Syndrome is pretty intense, especially when they do get recognized for any achievements they do accomplish. Their perceived weakness would definitely play into this: "I'm not as smart as the rest of these people, I get injured way too much, my magic sucks, I'm clumsy and new to this shit. Also my luck is atrocious." (The last statement is correct).

24: Which canon npc would they get along with?

OH HRM....

Mu would honestly get along with most everyone? She'd be Far too shy to approach any of the more famous people, especially out of her charr glamour, but if she could comfortably disguise herself, watch out Tyria there's a new friend in town!!! (lbr she would Love Taimi with her whole heart, even if Scruffy intimidates her)

Zoxu would be the opposite! It would take Mu introducing them to people for them to want to meet anyone. They are secretly a fan of the Commander/Dragon's Watch though, they've loved stories about adventures and heroes since they were a wee li'l sprout and they'd completely trip over themself if they had a chance to meet them. They're pretty quiet about this though, shh, don't tell.

[citadelspires]

P1 - Given how great you're track record's been for doing hypothetical interactions of Amphibia kids with the Duck kids and Owl House kids, let's try doing the Duck kids meeting the Owl House kids and who they'd like the best. I'll exclude Violet for this for the sake of evenening things out 5 to 5. I'd assume Luz would get along best with Dewey (both jump into adventure), King with Louie (could see em teaming up for a scheme), Willow with Huey (eh, more leftover interaction but can work)

Screenshot of second half of the ask provided. Text: P2 Gus with Webby (would totally ask each other lots of questions about their species), and Amity with Lena (both got abusive figures they stood up to and would totally talk about their crushes on Luz and Webby LOL). Would love to see you take on Duck kids and Owl House kids interactions.

First of all I’m very pleased to hear you find my track record on these posts good, they’ve been really fun to write and it makes me really happy people like them! Second I am so sorry it’s taken so long to get to this ask, it’s a really in depth one and it took a long time to write, I hope you’ll find it was worth the wait!

Aight! Oh and one last thing real quick before I get into it. I hope you wouldn’t mind me adding Violet back in, partially due to the fact I love her, but mostly because there’s actually another owl house character I think works significantly better with Louie than anyone else and I really want the chance to talk about that. Saving that one for last hehe. This’ll be another long one, writing below the cut.

Luz and Webby So I do like a lot of the possible interactions brought up by your suggested grouping but my mind went in a few different directions. I’ll start with Luz, who would fit in best with another excitable adventuring partner, as pointed out, but I think the best fit for her in that regard would actually be Webby. While Dewey would no doubt get along great with Luz, there’s a special element to the potential relationship between Luz and Webby that really elevates the potential of their friendship to another level, that being: they both want to eat a hamburger.

An aspect of Webby I wish the later seasons of the show got into a little more, but is definitely something I would consider a core part of her character, is the fact that she got held up in the mansion her whole childhood, with no opportunities to interact with the world around her, have all the adventures she wanted, and most importantly to just be seen as the kid she wanted to be. And while Luz was technically able to go out into the world, the place she found wasn’t one that was willing to see her, or give her any of the chances she longed for. Both Webby and Luz fully understand that feeling of being trapped in your own life, of finally getting the chance to break out and just doing your best to make the most of it. I think there’s a lot the two could gain from spending some time together.

(Also, to borrow the bit about gushing about their crushes but from the other end, these two would totally get sidetracked talking about their respective crushes and also trying to play wingman for each other. It’s a massive comic disaster in both cases, but somehow both Lena and Amity manage to find it endearing).

Amity and Violet Okay wait lemme explain. While the two of them don’t have a whole lot in common at first glance, I think they would genuinely get along extremely well. While a lot of Amity’s focus on school came at the force of her parents, you cannot honestly expect me to believe that girl isn’t a studious nerd on her own anyway. Heck even outside the realm of studies she throws her full dedication into literally every single thing she does. Remind you of anyone? Beyond just being extremely intelligent Violet is clever and ready for anything. She takes everything in stride and always has a plan, she can go from “we were sleeping over and you said everybody get on the plane, so we got on the plane” to “I brought an axe” in a minute flat.

I like to think the two of them would have a mutual respect for each other based on their respective intellects upon first meeting, but as they become closer friends they find they can move from more serious respect to a casual enjoyment of each other. I would go as far as to say that both of these characters really value dependability in a friend, and that they each provide a lot of that. To wrap back around to the stuff about intelligence I think Violet could provide a lot of insight to Amity as far as showing her that pursuing studies and academic heights of her own volition can be something that she can just do because she wants to, and that’s no excuse for unhealthy parental relationships. Getting along so well with someone like Violet only to see that her parents are actually really loving and supportive, that would be really eye-opening for Amity I think. For Violet’s part she could get a lot of help from Amity as far as her pursuit of the secrets of magic goes. I suspect Amity would be much more interested in the study of her magic than Violet would be able to get Lena to tolerate lol.

Bonus Round: Amity would absolutely be a senior junior woodchuck and she would love it you cannot convince me otherwise. She starts quoting the JWGB around the owl house kids and they all look at her like she’s crazy.

Lena and Willow I feel like this one might seem a little out there at first but trust me on this one. Initially Lena doesn’t think too much of Willow, being as close as she is to Webby she knows liking flowers and cute things doesn’t mean Willow is automatically to be taken lightly but she feels like she’s got a good read on her that she generally prefers to avoid trouble and turns down opportunities for violence, which isn’t really Lena’s deal. Over time Lena figures she was right about her first impressions as Willow doesn’t seem to take many opportunities to expose some hidden power, even when Lena knows the people around her kinda deserve it.

She learns to adjust her opinion when she finally does get the chance to see Willow in action and realizes that girl is more powerful than any of the other kids she’s met in the boiling aisles bar none(yes this is my genuine opinion of willow if you don’t think she could kick your ass you’re wrong). It’s at that moment where she starts to pay more attention to Willow and notices a lot more of the strength she puts into all the little things, how much she cares for everyone and everything, and it does a great deal to show Lena that maybe having super strong magic powers isn’t mutually exclusive with being kind and gentle. And maybe gentle isn’t her thing but still, it’s nice to know.

For Willow’s part she’s just happy to make more friends. Especially if the opportunity arises, as I like to think it would, when they’re close enough friends, that Lena would start to hint around asking questions about how Willow remains so casual and nice with the ability to do so much damage, and Willow takes the chance to help Lena figure out her magic a bit more, and learn how to better appreciate it as an aspect of herself she doesn’t have to be scared of. (I mean come on Lena never really learned how to do any of it except barely kind of from Magica of all people she could really  use something like that).

Huey and Gus Now there are some certain things about Gus that would drive Huey absolutely nuts. His lack of primary and reliable sources for any of his information being a big one, but at the end of the day I think he’d enjoy Gus’ desire to learn in the first place. Gus would probably be a little dubious about Huey’s “sources” and “citations” but if it helped him get more info on the human realm he’d certainly go for it in the end. In that way the two balance each other out pretty well. Gus is studious and intelligent but he’s a little off the wall, he’s got a big creative streak, and he’s really excitable. Huey is really really good at facts and analysis but he lacks the strength in imagination that Gus has. Huey is able to take all the grandiose concepts Gus is able to think up and help make them actually happen. Gus has that specific brand of an adventurers soul matched up with the fact he’s not actually the type to get into danger and fights, meaning he’s able to drag Huey out of his comfort zone a little and help him reach new heights with his mind that his struggles with creativity prevent him from reaching, while managing to not make him feel like he’s actually in danger. I actually believe the two of them together could get some really incredible stuff done.

What I’m saying is that with Huey’s help Gus could absolutely complete his tunnels under Hexside.

Dewey and King Now this, this is the pair who would go incredibly well together, at the detriment of literally everyone around them. If there is one person King “I Will Rule Everything” Clawthorne should not be exposed to its Dewey Duck. Within minutes of meeting each other the two of them would immediately have so many bad ideas. Between Dewey’s insistence on being the best and most daring adventurer while putting his name on everything and going down in history & King’s trying to rule everything and everyone, the attempts to raise the stakes would be constant and the two would spend literal hours endlessly trying to one-up each other. All in one day they search for legendary treasure, discover an entirely new civilization, try to take over said civilization, create a new species just to name it after themselves, and build statues of themselves in the middle of Bonesbourough. And that’s all before lunch.

Louie Here it is. The one I waited till the very end for out of sheer excitement. I even kept the second name out of the heading thing. That’s how secretive I’m trying to be about this. See, there’s one character in the owl house that works so well with Louie it’s practically canon. Their interactions have so much potential, they each bring so much to the table, I just couldn’t Not talk about it. And yeah, I know this ask was specifically asking about the owl house and ducktales kids, but I just couldn’t resist talking about the relationship between Louie and Eda.

A con artist from another world who was so successful she became nationally famous? There’s no way Louie would pass up an opportunity like that. For his part I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s already managed to set up another underworld identity in the boiling aisles, or at the very least that Eda could totally have been to the ducktales realm and heard of his one there.

Either way I’m convinced the two of them would start planning a heist as soon as they figure out who each other are. Eda is a little prideful and wants to show this kid he can’t out-con her, but Louie knows what he’s doing just as much. Honestly with the two of them combined Eda wouldn’t have to worry about losing her stand for a long time. Over the course of their planning and seeing Louie in action Eda begrudgingly gains some respect for the  kid, and while Louie was definitely just using her as a learning/profit opportunity at first, he’s pretty susceptible to getting attached.

For Louie, it’s the fact that she actually respects him for being good at what he does. Even back with his family who all love and care about him and all that he still feels like most of them don’t really get what he does or see what’s special about him, so having someone who made a whole life of it be even a little proud of him feels really nice.

And of course, at the end of their heist when they finally have the money in hand, and Eda just casually hands over his half, he stares at her like she’s crazy.

“You’re just.. Giving it to me?!”

“Well, yeah. That was the deal wasn’t it kid? I mean if you really want I definitely have a few ideas for it.”

“No! Uh, no, thanks, I’ll keep it. It’s just that you really remind me of someone, I guess I was expecting something else.”