#no more heroes oc: rhys cooldown

[malewifehenrycooldown]

TW for slight mentions of henry’s emotionally abusive parents + big warnings for those with tokophobia as this post is a decently indepth discussion of fankids.

HHHHH OKAY. So. I’ve been sitting on this idea since April, and only now I’ve felt a little comfortable talking about it since I’ve mentioned it to @eris-ships. But also the developments that occur in TSA/NMH3ms narratives have def made me a bit more confident in my decision to talk about having fankids with Henry. Like look. I don’t want to have kids myself (it’s a whole can of worms that’s basically just: ‘I can barely take care of myself, how do you expect me to raise a whole human being from scratch?!’).

Anyways what kinda spurred this was from NMH3’s peculiar ending + these images [one, two and three] and the third one particularly made me want to throw my phone because it triggered my baby fever BIG TIME but also just the thought of Henry being a good dad made me so happy 😭😭

But also at the same time it’s so sad too especially With knowing the implications of his backstory and how his own childhood was taken from him, and so that’s what makes the thought of him being a dad SOO appealing to me. To me, he’d do anything to make sure his own kids don’t experience the same horrors and trauma he did as a kid. It’s like. Him making up for lost time that he never got and. GAH THAT MAKES ME SO EMOTIONAL?! [I’ve made an entire post about this here if you’re interested]

OKAY ON TO THE ACTUAL FANKIDS IN QUESTION:

Amelie (on the left) and Rhys (on the right). Before you ask, yes Amelie is named after the film ‘Amelie’ and it’s important because that film was like a special date night for Henry and Shallow.

The reason that they pop up in NMH3 is that they’ve time travelled back into Shallow’s present bc. Henry has gone on a destructive path and that if he ends up permanently dead, it would result in their own existence being erased by the universe and they don’t want that to happen.

Oh yeah, I should mention they’re on their tenth try to make sure that their parents and future selves are saved. Which is at odds of the (known) time-space rules put in place to keep abilities like this in check. If Rhys keeps resetting the timeline, the more imbalanced and fragile the fabric of space-time becomes - and that could just jeopardise the entire fabric of the universe itself. So yeah. The two are kinda at the end of their rope in regards to options, and honestly causing timeline paradoxes is the least of their worries at the moment.

Amelie is a bit of an odd one out in her family as her personality is a lot more sociable and outgoing. While she does wear a similar fashion aesthetic to her mother, but specifically takes a liking to ‘yami-kawaii’ subculture. her abilities as an assassin are more so from her father. She particularly has her own version of Henry’s ‘barrage mode’ and additionally a beam katana that’s similar to Henry’s Vosmir.

Rhys, is more so the quiet, reserved one much like her parents. They are more comfortable wearing suits, and more masculine attire, but xyr abilities are more so from their mother. Rhys is… kinda responsible for their current journey of doing time travel to secure their future existences + correcting the main course of the timeline in general. Much like their mother, they wield a dual set of beam katanas, but it should be noted that they also use military grade knives + can pack a surprising punch when in close combat.

Before anyone asks, no they’re not twins. Amelie is born first, and she’s about 2-3 years older than Rhys, who is the younger sibling - although they are both younger than Jeane Cooldown. I should stress that they aren’t assassins either but have been trained by parents, but even then their appearance in NMH3 is just two university students trying to save their parents, and this is while the fabric of space-time hangs in the balance and it’s not made any better when your dad was the one to bring aliens into the equation [which has kinda fucked with the main timeline that was put in place to begin with.]

Amelie uses she/they, Rhys uses xe/they/it pronouns.

Picrew one (LINK) and Picrew two (LINK)

[malewifehenrycooldown]

a very long post talking about how some of the mainline nmh characters interact with amelie and rhys.

Right off the bat, Jeane and Travis would both be the 'cool aunt and uncle' on opposing ends of the spectrum of 'will break more than your ankles if you hurt my niece/nephew' to 'you can stay up late past your bedtime and watch tv just don't tell your mum or dad i said that :3 '

on a more serious note, when Jeane Smackdown holds newborn Amelie (and then later Rhys) she almost cries because now she realises the future is worth fighting for and also swears to kill anyone that harms her niece/nephew. def. makes a comment about how cute they are. Absolutely the kind of person to take them to theme parks and other outings.

Travis on the other hand, who has no idea how to hold a baby is like 'Haha! A mini version of Shallow and Henry :D' (regarding both Amelie and Rhys). But then a lot later it then turns into 'oh god I'm an uncle now, oh god I need to get my shit together, I need to turn down the loud anime paraphernalia in my home, I need to keep hazardous objects away from them, oh god my nieces/nephews can be used as leverage against me and as the top number one assassin I need to keep my guard up around them.' TERRIBLE babysitter, but is a great uncle, has also cheekily let them stay up late a few times when they're older.

Bishop is sad that his older brother (who was also called Bishop) won't get to meet Amelie and Rhys, but he is also happy to be part of this circle of friends. Should be noted that much like Travis, he has NO idea how to hold a baby, so poor Shallow has to tiredly demonstrate how to hold them.

Shigeki Birkin gets slightly nostalgic, because holding Amelie/Rhys immediately reminds him of the time when he was a new dad raising Charlotte. Definitely takes Henry aside to give them as much helpful parental advice as possible.

Charlotte doesn't really pay that much attention to them, because this is bad girl we're talking about she is not the most family friendly person ever. But when Amelie and Rhys get a bit older (say 4 - 6 years old), she opts to actually teach them baseball w/ her dad. sometimes she does their hair too.

Scarlet Jacobs does have other things on her plate, especially with her dojo. Although when Amelie and Rhys are old enough she does invite them over to the dojo and they make friends with the other kids there :'). When Scarlet does hold Amelie and later Rhys for the first time, she's kinda comes to similar conclusions like Jeane Smackdown. When Amelie and Rhys get older they start to view Shinobu as a role model figure, and they do help out at the dojo when Scarlet needs extra helping hands.

Kamui and Midori do take a liking to Amelie and Rhys, esp. Midori who does have her own 'kids' (they're demon kids that are her hands, look non-nmh followers just roll with it) - so immediately she has a BIG soft spot for them. Is ABSOLUTELY the best babysitter, loves putting on shadow puppet shows for them.

Kamui on the other hand is a little more apprehensive, because I think that even with the powers he has - he might be a little scared of harming them, esp. since you know. their dad is like outright dangerous - but I do think that he'd be great in making sure that Amelie and Rhys have their powers in check. (which hey remember, shallow DID create a black hole in a room that one time as a kid so y'know. Kamui can perfectly handle such a situation.)

Dr. Naomi is just. kinda disappointed? I'm not sure how to explain this other than her asking Henry point blank "are you sure you're ready to take care of a child who might have inter-dimensional abilities?" Henry just simply says "I know what I signed up for. Don't question my capabilities." Obviously since she's a Cherry Blossom tree she can't really hold them, but I do like to think that maybe she has a branch that does turn into a swing of sorts. idk it's more of a sentimental thing because really seeing Amelie and Rhys just reminds her of the time when she was caring for Shallow when she was their age.

Dr. Juvenile is kinda melancholic in that she can't really properly interact with her grandniece/grandnephew as much as she would like. Don't get me wrong, she is really happy for her niece, and does really adore Amelie and Rhys - she feels that this is an opportunity to make up for the lost time she never really spent with Shallow when she was younger, she's not lost in her work making games or being a perfectionist anymore - she has the opportunity to make up and be the aunt she has wanted to be. It will certainly be a challenge, esp. since she primary communicates through technology, and obviously tech can't replace any of the same sensational feelings like flesh and blood provide. But Juvenile is a genius enough to probably find solutions to these issues, and perhaps may make an artificial body for her to load her consciousness in and actually be able to physically interact with Amelie and Rhys. She at the very least tries to interact with them, which honestly just doing her best is enough.

[malewifehenrycooldown]

Fankids mentioned, once again sorry not sorry <3

Before anyone asks why Rhys and Amelie have brown hair, and that’s because Shallow Candy is naturally a brunette, it’s just that she’s dyed it blue. + Henry is also a brunet despite the inconsistencies in his hairstyle throughout the series &lt;3

[malewifehenrycooldown]

Henry/Shallow + Domesticity with kids( kind of?) fluff ramblings. Semi continuation of these two posts. Tw for fankids. This is tagged as ‘tokophobia tw’ if you don’t want to see that!!!

Not thinking about. Henry holding a newborn baby Amelie in his arms and just talking to himself how he’ll make sure that she has all the freedom in the world to do what she wants, and that he would fight tooth and nail to keep her away from his adopted family.

but also more importantly he says that he will do his best to be a genuinely responsible, involved and caring father - to make sure Amelie (and later Rhys) have a good childhood, to make sure they get the chance to grow up into independent human beings with their own dreams and aspirations, without having a hierarchical body leering over them.

It’s also, understandably and a slightly selfish way of him to twist the knife deeper into the heart of the Cooldown Family’s rigid patriarchal system and culture. Yes, it’s undeniably petty to some degree but it’s fucking cathartic for them. It allows him a way to proudly proclaim to a broken system that ‘you don’t own me anymore!' but doing so in a way that has allowed him to take back power and use it to stand up for himself (and those he cares about).

In addition to this, not long after Amelie is born Totally not thinking about Henry and Shallow having a moment where he hugs her and tells her how thankful and grateful he is to not just be a father, but just that he’s genuinely grateful for Shallow’s compassion, companionship and kindness. that's she's so patient with him even with his flaws, misjudgements etc. He is grateful of this chapter in his life where he gets to start afresh (after killing the past haha), a time where he can genuinely be himself and not be defined by a profession, labels, bloodlines etc.

In his moment of genuine actual resolved catharsis, he breaks down crying in Shallow's arms, and she just listens to him pour out his emotions. When he finally calms down she cups his face and just says "You are the most beautifully flawed human being I’ve ever met, and I am so proud of how far you’ve come. No matter what path you take, I will follow you..”