#ted mentorship au

[thenixkat]

Just picture instead of the bullshit that was everything Rebirth did and how much it fucked up Ted's character and turned Dan into less than an afterthought:

(Using the Palmera City is also Hub City and somewhere in Texas not terribly far from El Paso for setting)

The Covenant of Ka (retconned to be a cult of assassins, mystics, and warriors that formed around the Blue Beetle that held the title before Kha-Ef-Re) tries to steal the Scarab from retired superhero Ted Kord and kidnaps him to perform a magic ritual to break his bond with Khaji Da as its host since he refuses to use it due to previous 'murderous alien parasite tried to make him and his mentor who it revived from the dead fight to the death over the title of Blue Beetle'.

Let's say they use the (considered inferior due to being made by Kha-Ef-Re, the Blue Beetle that no one liked and who broke the passing down of the true blue Scarab for 3000 yrs, who used impressive by Earth standards magic and non-consensual cloning of a chunk of Khaji Da) as part of the ritual to un-Blue Beetle Ted by forcing him to bond with the inferior Scarab via brainwashing/mind control.

(in this the Red Scarab not having a copy of Kha-Ef-Re's personality in it, is its own very very young and inexperienced but murderous, ruthless, and hedonistic personality)

Retired chubby ex-superhero turned full time CEO and researcher Ted Kord isn't a push over mind you, and puts up a good fight against Scarab. Which leads to Khaji Da being lost somewhere in Texas due to falling out of both fighters' hands during the battle. Ted does end up kidnapped. And the ritual happens to break his bond with Khaji Da as the Covenant of Ka can track down the blue Scarab's unique energy signature later.

Due to the ritual and mindcontrol, Ted Kord is overpowered by the consciousness of the red Scarab and becomes Blood Beetle. Who is then sent to retrieve the blue Scarab so the Covenant of Ka can appoint a new willing Blue Beetle.

(B/c we love face-monster turns in this house. And let's throw a dark mirror at Jaime.)

Meanwhile, Jaime finds a neat blue bug-shaped rock while walking to school with his friends one day. That fuses itself to his spine when he sleeps that night and starts giving him superpowers. And gets him mixed up with the local superpowered street gang (The Posse) and the local magic artifact-collecting crime lord (La Dama).

Meanwhile, Vic Sage/The Question starts investigating the disappearance of his friend after getting contacted by Ted's wife/confidant/assistant/copilot Traceywho's running the company in Ted's absence. Apparently, Vic can sense chi and tracks what he thinks is Ted's chi signature after examining the scenes of the fight and finds Jaime a very new meta in over his head and dealing with a lot. (The chi signature that Vic thought was Ted's was actually Khaji Da's)

The Question becomes Jaime's off-and-on mentor as he continues his search for Ted Kord.

Jaime dealing with having a Zen Buddhist, weird conspiracy theorist, faceless, somewhat able to do magic but prefers martial arts, street level detective politically focused superhero attempting to help him with magical shit, alien shit, assassins, and another bigger badder fucker in an alien magi-tech bug suit all out to get the kid. Both coaching him in how to superhero better, learn how to fight without the bug suit, and pointing him at places to try and help get the Scarab out of him and/or showing him how to help people outside of heroing if he really doesn't want to be a superhero.

I think it is very important that Jaime is presented repeatedly with options to not be a superhero if he doesn't want to be. Like shown superpowered folks who choose to live as normal people (like Mr. Calhoun and my version of Tracey who is magic b/c I think it'd be neat and also funny to have two magic Traci/Tracey's running around)

And so and so, several adventures. Eventually, folks figure out that Blood Beetle is Ted and rescue him. And congrats Jaime you have two mentors now. Tho Ted is more cynical about Khaji Da being very fucking dangerous given past experiences and the murder puppy red clone of Khaji still stuck in him just suppressed. On the plus side, Ted is more straightforward mentor and around more and a bit more personable. (Also Ted Kord's tendency to take care of people he cares about. Like that man has got the Reye's family's back financially for life.)

[asteria-argo]

5, 10, 15, 20!

Yesss love getting asks. You haven't specified any particular wip so I'm just gonna go nuts with whatever I want. All of these questions are from this ask game, for anyone who would also like to send me an ask!

5. Is there any scene you're excited about writing?

in To All The Better Places, or my teacher jamie au, there is going to be a scene where Jamie has to go into the principals office to have a meeting with Roy, Ted and Sam, because Jamie's classroom is the room that Sam has been paired with for the mentorship program.

This is the first time Jamie see's any of them in years, and also the exact moment Roy, Ted and Sam all realize that the lovely young teacher he's sure Sam will get along with swimmingly the principal has been telling them about is Jamie fucking Tartt. So I'm pretty excited for that one.

10. If unpublished, can you show a sneak peek of what you've written?

behold, the opening line of my currently untitled aro Jamie fic.

Sam was worried about Jamie. Well, maybe worried was a bit of a strong word. It wasn’t like there was anything particularly wrong with Jamie, he wasn’t quiet and drawn the way he got that one time that freaked everyone out, Sam was just… concerned for his friend.

15. Do you have any unwritten scene that you think about a lot?

YEPYEPYEP, I have several, the aforementioned scene where Jamie meets Sam, Roy and Ted again for the first time, there's a confrontation scene in the currently untilted aro Jamie fic between Jamie and the entire team that plays on repeat in my mind, there's also the hair washing fic which is basically only one scene so the whole thing is living rent free in my brain.

The big one I think about almost daily is another scene from To All The Better Places, in which the richmond players learn the absolute stupidest lie Jamie has ever told his students, which is "if I play football I'll explode because I'm allergic" which on the surface is a funny scene but there are LAYERS and I am excited for them.

20. Give a vague description of something that will happen without revealing too much

Jamie and his friends go to karaoke. the richmond team also goes to karaoke. These two events were not supposed to be related, but alas.

[yellowocaballero]

milagro!!! i LOVE GL!milagro stuff. is guy still the first GL she meets? i am v curious what his story (and john’s) ends up looking like in this au in general, but my first exposure to him was in jaime’s bb run so i’m hoping that pseudo mentorship still exists here somehow

IS!! THAT!! A GIANT!! GREEN!! FIST!!

Green Lantern Milagro is the most god-tier take and we need to return to it. My "Kyle rebuilds the GLC to be woke and Milagro is the most feral Lantern" idea is actually super old - I think it's in the Reverse Robins Universe, in some unpublished stories - but it's still good. Let the furries make the judicial system. Do it. Let them free.

Let's say:

Guy Gardner was the second Green Lantern on Earth. Everything that Hal was, Guy is not. He's a hothead, meathead, go-getting action hero wannabe who has to be the biggest, the best, and the strongest. He's abrasive, selfish, mean, and short-sighted.

Guy Gardner is exactly like Hal Jordan: an All-American hero, angry and rude in a way that his colleague John Stewart could never get away with. He's part of the NRA and thinks Trump has some points. Too wimpy to make a good President, though. Give him a President who can last five minutes in the ring with Guy Gardner!

Despite his differences with the more professional and cool-headed Hal, he was shocked and horrified at Coast City's destruction. Where other heroes expressed sympathies and turned away in discomfort with his overwhelming pain, Guy stayed with him. He doesn't like to spread it around, but he's a registered school councilor - doubled with his middle school gym teacher thing - and he stayed at Hal's side through his grief as long as Hal let him.

When Hal disappeared, Guy was the one who knew in his heart that he had killed himself. He had been expecting it.

He had not been expecting his ring to break.

Guy loses it all. His power, his respect. He can't go back to who he used to be. He's not a gym teacher or school counselor anymore. He's Guy Gardner. You can't ask Guy Gardner to be a civvie.

The only thing he keeps is his Justice League International membership. He wanted to quit, but his friends (family, but none of them would admit it) needed him to stay. They had already lost the second Blue Beetle so recently, and they can't lose anybody else. Booster Gold's grieving his husband too. In that way, in some way, Guy's still needed. Guy has to be needed. But Guy has to be a hero too, and he feels like he's dying slowly by degrees in powerlessness.

Then Booster calls the JLI, drunk as a skunk and deep in a panic, saying that there's this kid in El Paso running around with Dan Garret's scarab in his SPINE, how did this even HAPPEN, how did he get it WORKING, where the hell is TED - Ted's dead, he's still dead, what the FUCK do we do, he's a baby he's gonna DIE TOO, everyone's gonna DIE -

A gym teacher and licensed counselor knocks on he door of a house in El Paso.

Booster was right. Jaime Reyes is a snot-nosed kid who's getting his ass kicked up and down to Sunday in every fight, and either he's gonna get himself killed or he's gonna blow up the city. Nobody else but the JLI ever gave a shit about Ted, and nobody's gonna give a shit about this kid with an orphaned legacy. He needs a personal trainer and mentor and he needs one right now. Jaime Reyes needs a hero, even a washed up old asshole like Guy Gardner.

And his little sister throws a heck of a punch. Oh, Guy is keeping Milagro. She's learning boxing!

An asshole, shallow kid enters the scene. A new ring appears. The last Green Lantern disappears to find the truth. Guy leads his own life. It's not like his old one, but it's good. That kid Jaime's become a good hero, and his little sister is the coolest kid on the planet. A Trumper on the street says something shitty to Jaime and Milagro about illegals and Guy lands on him the signature Guy Gardner punch. Trump's an asshole idiot, anyway. Next time, Milagro lands the signature punch. She has learned well.

A young man returns. A truth is told. A fucked up orange ring is on Guy's finger. And now he'll have to learn how to be a hero all over again.

The orange ring isn't powered by bravery and willpower. It's powered by greed. It's a greedy, cruel ring. It's mean. But Guy's pretty greedy too. And Guy's a mean son of a bitch.

Guy Gardner is the first Orange Lantern. And he's everything Hal Jordan is not: a man with a voracious need to protect and help. A man with an endless appetite for love, and to give love. A school counselor, and a mentor to some pretty nifty kids. Guy can never get enough of being a hero. He'll never stop. And he'll always help.

Because he's Guy fucking Gardner!

[clay-cuttlefish]

continuing to think about the wrestling au instead of doing anything productive

Guy leans heavily into the ridiculous asshole characterization. He's too good at pissing off the crowd and too easily entertained by getting a reaction to give it up when the rest of the team turns face, and ends up splitting to be a full-on heel for a while.

He cuts a promo that's just this. I don't care if it fits, I thought about him saying "fuck you, Baltimore!" and now I haven't been able to get it out of my head for days, it's his now.

Barda's a lot more famous than the rest of the group, since she's an unbelievably skilled face who has an elaborate long-term rivalry with the biggest heel faction and is valued for her mentorship skills. She still shows up sometimes, but she's too busy defending the women's championship to be getting deep into League shit.

That said she teams up with the Crimson Foxes occasionally because they're able to look at least a little dignified when she chucks them at her opponents and they don't have much else going on.

Obviously Ted + Booster and Bea + Tora are tag teams, but there are a lot of ways to pair everyone up. Nate is the most conventional beefy guy, so he's used to contrast Ralph's contortionist gimmick. Ted, Nate, and Scott are a pretty consistent trio whenever they just need three guys who can work together. Rex and Guy are completely insufferable. Tora has a weird intense thing with both Kara and Helena.

Lobo is there.

Unfortunately the stupid Countdown/Generation Lost plotline is very important to me. Max is dedicated to making sure his friends get the respect they deserve and that means going evil mode so they can kick the shit out of him.

Ted is so, so bad at retiring, and the only way he's able to fully step away from the industry and not just hang around doing promos and being on podcasts and feeling sad about not doing more is if he's overcommitting to the bit of being dead. He bleaches his hair to be less recognizable and it looks like shit and he never lives it down.

[peri-hellion]

This episode did absolutely nothing to cure my desire to write a Ted Lasso & West Wing crossover/AU. To be clear, I have huge problems with Sorkin and TWW as a project, but the Ted Lasso writers are like expanding on the idealistic workplace dynamics of TWW like “What if Leo McGarry was a gorgeous divorcee whose issues were less rooted in addiction and more in deeply unhealthy relationships? What if Toby and Sam were rival athletes who were deeply flawed people trying to be better? What if Charlie’s whole mentee arc was thrown off by a perceived lack of continued mentorship and a desire to prove himself in unhealthy ways? What if CJ was short?